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. Lucid enters new market: a wider focus: first products in C, C++ language. (product announcement) Lucid Inc unveils the first in a line of C and C++ language products and development tools. Lucid is a well-established player in the LISP programming arena and it is counting on the success of its C product line on the release of an integrated C and C++ development environment. Lucid C ($495) is priced well below the usual $895 to $2,000 price on comparable products, according to company officials. The new environment, now available in beta format, will include an object-oriented database which serves as a repository, a C++ kernel to provide data integration and control, a user interface and programming tools. Ingram Micro lands its first Apple contract. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Ingram Micro and Apple Computer have devised a special 90-day bundled offering, known as the Macintosh Communications Kit, featuring several communications products for Apple-authorized resellers. The promotion, which targets recent or new Apple Macintosh Classic, LC or IIsi users, will be handled by Ingram's MAC D division and include the Apple Data Modem 2400, a CompuServe membership kit and an optional MicroPhone II from Software Ventures Inc. The promotion is the first time Ingram has carried a product manufactured by Apple and represents an opportunity for Ingram to show Apple its strong points. Ingram officials say it will exhibit their company's ability as a time and place reseller for Apple and its dealers. Apple officials see the promotion as an opportunity to test the success of achieving incremental sales and deny any prediction that this promotion would lead to the availability of Apple CPUs from Ingram or other distributors. Apple's education plan takes hold: districts left with half of all AESCs. (Apple Educational Sales Consultants) Apple moves into the next phase of its bold educational market strategy, as school districts start to assess the vendor's new plan, which went into effect on Apr 15, 1991. As many as half of the 800 AESCs have been cut and the remaining ones are being compelled to cease selling computing CPUs into the K-12 market. Dealers who were strongly opposed to the forced segmentation voiced some complaints over the fee structure in the new contracts. The new program, which primarily affects K-12 schools, also includes the Apple HEP II program for colleges and universities. Many of the AESCs participate in both markets. The setup, training and orientation (STO) fees for HEP II, under the new contract, have been reduced from ten to nine percent, the same as in K-12 schools. Oracle Server helps boost image of Macintosh as a viable platform. (product announcement) Oracle begins shipping Oracle Server for Macintosh ($3,699), which promotes client/server computing and supports the Macintosh as a database server platform. The introduction sends a message to corporate MIS and network administrators and those involved in application development that Macs are a viable platform and as good or better than any other technology. A number of Apple users utilize Oracle, according to Oracle officials. The new applications was first introduced at the Macworld trade show in Aug 1990 in Boston and will be marketed through the company's reseller and telemarketing distribution channels. Analysts feel the product will have more of an impact on MIS managers rather than the overall Macintosh productivity market. Reynolds offers tune-up seminars: VAR hopes to earn revenue to offset lagging new-car sales. (Reynolds and Reynolds, value-added The Computer Systems Division of automobile VAR Reynolds and Reynolds has introduced a number of services to aid users of its Unix-based ERA in-house computer system enhance their investment. The new ERA Professional Services offer customers advanced and executive seminars and an Advanced Optimization Service in which a VAR representative spends as much as one week at the dealer site to evaluate system use. Reynolds officials say the refresher courses and on-site visits are needed as clients cannot retain the huge amounts of information dispensed during the installation process. Documentation provides an awareness of how to get started but users usually achieve only a certain level of use one installation is completed. Econo-Med adds update: management software targets medical insurance industry.(Econo-Med Systems Inc.) Econo-Med Systems introduces Medicom/DB ($20,000 to $50,000), a new version of its medical office-management software designed to aid doctors with changes occurring in the medical insurance industry. The new program, which is designed to allow users the option of utilizing a variety of hardware platforms, is based on the Oracle platform. Medicom/DB runs on the Novell NetWare operating system and includes clinic and Independent Practice Association management modules. The primary focus is physicians who provide health care at reduced cost to health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations. Econo-Med officials point out that costs have to be lower to meet the requirements of insurers who have become more discriminating about the claims they will reimburse. The earlier version of the program was DOS-based Medicom. Segmentation: a short-term strategy. (The Pipeline) (column) Hald, Alan. Computer dealers and vendors are discovering new ways to segment marketing activities. Superdealers are doing $10 million to $50 million per year by dedicating support and sales organizations to the development of wide-ranging commercial market segments. The segments, which are driven by opportunity and vendor incentives, are generally unrelated. This creates a variety of clients to be managed and serviced. Significant costs are incurred in keeping up with clients' changing needs. These costs often rise faster than revenue when dealers find themselves working with many unrelated niche markets. This is difficult to sustain without some kind of common support patterns coming out. There will be new ways to organize support services in the 1990s. Clients will be seeking to realize organizational productivity increases. The industry will have to work hard to keep up with demands. Network push is on: Computer Bay recruits high-end VARs. (value-added reseller) Computer Bay instigates an aggressive plan to sign network resellers as part of the current strategy to increase its franchisee base from 190 to 300 by the end of 1991. Officials say the company is targeting high-end networking dealers and enticing new franchisees with Compaq and AT and T authorizations. Computer Bay is one of the few resellers to have AT and T authorization. Networking resellers are enticed by AT and T's high-end Unix products and Computer Bay's $20 million discount-level pricing. The franchisor has been able to sign a number of VARs by assisting them in gaining Compaq authorization. This gives networking specialists access to Compaq's Systempro server and X-terminal products. Computer Bay's Compaq sales are expected to reach $78 million in 1991. Expansion plans have been hampered by the reluctance of IBM and Apple to grant authorizations. Computer Bay has franchisees in 44 states and Canada and is planning to expand to France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and India. OmniVAR looks to the west: east coast plans on hold. Sweeney, Jack. Computer reseller OmniVAR has shelved its east coast expansion plans in favor of concentrating on fewer vendors and doing more business on the west coast. The company's management considered several possible mid-Atlantic reseller acquisitions but could not find a correct fit. The Atlanta location was closed in 1989. OmniVAR is concentrating on doing more value-added billing and charging more for after-sales support and training. Revenue has been stable for the company but profitability has risen. Gross profits are now approximately 1.5 points over 1990. Targeted 1991 revenue is approximately $55 million. Revenue for 1990 was about $45 million. Software business totals approximately 52 percent of the reseller's revenue. Rise in workstation partnerships: pacts underline need for alternate channel of distribution. Workstation vendors and distributors are working on one-on-one partnerships. This strategy is contrary to the traditional business plans of distributors. Cal-Abco has signed with Solbourne Computer and Hall-Mark Electronics has signed with Hewlett-Packard. Cal-Abco will distribute Solbourne's low-end scalable processor architecture (SPARC) workstations. Hall-Mark will distribute HP's HP 9000 Series 800 multiuser computer systems. The decline in list price of lower-end, higher-performance workstations and the importance of the growing value-added reseller segment has created a need for alternate distribution channels, according to Solbourne officials. A vendor can have better access to the value-added reseller (VAR) channel by using the services of a distributor. Merisel signs four new vendors: borrowing violations waived. Merisel Inc announces the signing of four new vendors, including Federal Technologies, STB Systems, Magee Enterprises and Mathematica. The company intends to create a product portfolio with the best brands and the most innovative technology, according to officials. The agreement with Federal Technologies covers both Germany and North America. Merisel will market the full EXOS intelligent controller series and the high-performance Ethernet front-end processors for networking VMEbus, Multibus, Q-bus, Unibus, PC and Micro Channel bus systems. Federal Technologies will be allowed to enhance its offerings in the transmission control protocol/internet protocol integration market. The company also announced separately that its senior and subordinated lender will waive the borrowing agreement violations that put the company in technical default as of Dec 31, 1990. Five distributors sign with Mouse: Little Mouse/PC promotion. (Mouse Systems Corp.) Five national computer product distributors are taking part in a promotion sponsored by Mouse Systems Corp, Fremont, CA. The distributors include Ingram Micro, Gates/FA Distributing, Merisel, Tech Data and Entertainment Marketing. The promotion, co-sponsored by Paradise Adventures, is an effort to enhance sales of the Little Mouse/PC, the smallest and lightest mouse for the IBM PC. Users can win certificates to use toward trips to Mexico, Hawaii, Mexico, California or Florida for buying the Little Mouse/PC. The promotion will be expanded to include the majority of the company's product line. Mouse Systems has developed point-of-purchase displays for dealers, distributors and value-added resellers backing the promotion. Windows on the rise: confab stresses corporate OS/2 development. Calderbank, Alison. There were over 600 MIS directors, programmers and managers in attendance at the Microsoft 1991 Corporate Developer Tools Conference and Exposition in New York City. The conference, which was focused on the growing list of companies turning to customized OS/2 and Windows development, included a series of case studies as well as vendor demonstrations and presentations. A similar conference will be held in San Jose, CA on Apr 30 and May 1, 1991. Windows 3.0 has had an obvious impact on the corporate world. Some 90 percent of those in attendance were current Windows users and about 50 percent also use OS/2, according to an informal survey. Microsoft officials say that graphical user interfaces (GUI) allow users to use microcomputers for more common office tasks. The aim is to turn the microcomputer into a simple device that anyone can use to manage information, essentially the electronic filing cabinet. The company plans to make OS/2 a better operating system. Word processing yields heavy phone support. Calderbank, Alison. Users of word processing software call customer support services more often than users of other applications, according to a study of microcomputer users. The survey, conducted by Answers Research, revealed that 61 percent of word processing software users telephoned the vendor for support while only 28 percent of spreadsheet users called the vendor. The figure was 34 percent for graphics software users. One third of those who called for word processing support called over three times in 30 days. The frequency and number of calls may not be due to problems with the word processing software but by the fact that users were more likely to push their applications to extremes. Corporations may actually save money by having a centralized mechanism for calling technical support lines such as having one person make the call rather than having several people on hold for support. Electronic imaging cuts publication's costs. Boyd, Wallace. Color prepress electronic imaging systems have given a Connecticut company freedom from the investment of time and money needed to assemble in-house color publications. The art director at USI Inc uses a prepress electronic imaging system to cut in half both the time and the money needed to produce a color catalog. Officials of CyberChrome Inc, a color prepress production value-added reseller (VAR) claim that electronic prepress color imaging cuts labor and cost in half. Two VARs in the US, Lewis Printing Co and Wintech Inc, and two in Europe, Tint Publishing AB and BlackBit DTP Studio, have already signed agreements to carry the CyberChrome products. CyberChrome is hoping to sign 20 new VARs during 1991. Prepress technology advancements give users the capability to transmit a publication to a printing house electronically, according to CyberChrome officials. TransNet backs user group: local reseller's clout helps. (MacNJ) Calderbank, Alison. A New Jersey reseller instantly supported the MacNJ user organization when it was founded in 1986. Officials of Round Valley Computer Center used their mailing list to send information to all who had recently purchased a Macintosh from the reseller. The group now has approximately 100 members and 30 to 50 percent of those attend the monthly meetings. TransNet Corp acquired Round Valley in Aug 1990 and became a Connecting Point of America franchise. TransNet/Round Valley has continued to be a heavy supporter of the business user group. The support is very helpful when it comes to having speaker do demonstrations for the group. TransNet is an instant reference. Sun won't spark trend: few vendors to push for exclusives. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sun Microsystems demand for exclusivity by its value-added resellers in the scalable processor architecture (SPARC) market could instigate similar arrangements by other SPARC vendors. The trend is not likely to move to other platforms. Expectation that Sun's move may lead to copycat deals throughout the industry has been cooled by dealers and vendors who say they see no signs that single-vendor distribution will be a trend. SPARC vendors who are getting ready to invest millions to create a distribution channel for their machines may attempt to lock out the competition by demanding exclusive arrangements. Industry consultants say it is possible that some will try to make exclusive arrangements with resellers, similar to Sun's deal. Industry observers say that vendors attempting such a move would only be hurting themselves. Japan: Apple's testing ground: considers licensing Mac technology. Hubbard, Holly. Apple Computer Inc is planning to use the Japanese market to test a number of products and distribution strategies. The experiment is being spearheaded by Apple Japan Pres Shigechika Takeuchi. It will rely on alliances the company is creating with Japanese computer hardware manufacturers. The vendor plans to create relationships with Japanese vendors by licensing the Macintosh technology to them. The plan, if instigated, would mark a dramatic shift in Apple's policy against licensing. Apple Japan, according to local dealers and analysts, is negotiating with Sony Corp and Fujitsu Ltd. Officials for both companies refused to comment. Takeuchi says the company is seeking to combine its software strength with the complementary hardware strength of Japanese vendors. A distinct possibility would involve Apple Integrating its multimedia technology with the palm-top or pen-based technology of a Japanese vendor. Optimism on Wall Street: technology earnings reports help boost Dow Jones. (Dow Jones Industrial Average) Positive outlooks for a recovering economy and enhanced earnings reports abounded as the Dow Jones industrial average broke the 3,000 barriers. The Dow closed at a record 3,004.46 on Apr 17, 1991, up 17.58 points for the day and a gain of 27 percent from Oct 1990's low of 2,365.10. The NASDAQ broke the 500 barriers a short time earlier, marking a 57 percent rise from its low in Oct 1990. Analysts attribute the surge to a number of encouraging economic reports, including cuts in interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board and slower that expected growth in the inflation and unemployment reports. Microsoft posted a 65 percent rise in net income for the 3rd qtr to $123.8 million, 98 cents per share. Apple Computer reported a decrease in net income to $131.1 million for the 2nd qtr, ending Mar 31, 1991. AST Research reported a net income of $16.7 million, 55 cents per share. Midrange heads for mainframe turf; IBM boosts AS/400 with performance increases, new communications capabilities. (IBM IBM introduces new AS/400 minicomputers with enhanced performance and a new version of its OS/400 operating system. The new AS/400s, which range from $15,000 to $500,000, include the dual processor AS/400 9406 D80 that features 384Mbytes of main memory. Some AS/400 models include a 2.3Gbyte 8-mm tape drive, a rack-mounted direct access storage device (DASD) with 124.6Gbytes of mirrored storage and a WORM drive. IBM's new OS/400 2.1 features symmetric multiprocessing for the AS/400 9406 D80 and is compatible with other new D series minicomputers. IBM is charging a tiered licensing fee depending on the performance category to which the operating system is applied. The new version is also compatible with 9406 B computers. IBM plans a new AS/400 Repository written in the C language that will later be ported to the OS/2, VM and AIX operating systems. Also planned are the addition of an ISDN Basic Rate Interface board and an application programming interface (API) for the OSI standard. IBM answers with OS/2 2.0 (microcomputer operating system) (Top of the Week) (product announcement) IBM announces its $200 OS/2 2.0 operating system that features 32-bit multitasking and support for DOS, Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface and 16-bit OS/2 applications. IBM also announces plans to unbundle OS/2 Extended Edition modules, including the data base manager, communication manager and part of LAN Server. The price for OS/2 1.3 Standard Edition (SE) is reduced to $150. Users of OS/2 1.3 SE can upgrade to OS/2 2.0 for free when it is available. IBM's work with Micrographix Inc will result in a new version of Presentation Manager that runs 16-bit and 32-bit OS/2 applications, Windows 2.0 and 3.0 applications and both character- and graphics-based DOS applications. IBM's joint venture Patriot Partners also provides drag-and-drop capabilities for the OS/2 interface. IBM is also working with Microsoft Corp on the New Technology kernel that may become available on future versions of OS/2. All together now. (cooperative processing techniques) (Technology) Xenakis, John J. Cooperative processing involves one computer running a program that resides on another in order to increase efficiency. Several methods exist for implementing cooperative processing. Remote procedure calls (RPCs) can connect microcomputers with mainframes and workstations so that a job is performed by the computer best suited to that program. IBM computers use a method based on 3270-to-mainframe communication technology. Information packets are sent and received between the terminal and mainframe according to LU 2 specifications outlined by SNA. Digital Communications Associates Inc's IRMA board allows microcomputers to access mainframes without a 3270 terminal. Program development software products such as Nantucket Corp's Clipper and Multi Soft Inc's Infront help users create cooperative processing applications. Andersen Consulting's Foundation is a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool that generates code for microcomputers and mainframes. The Open Software foundation supports HP's Network Control System (NSC) RPC as part of its distributed computing environment (DCE). The promise of software reengineering: MIS confronts the crippling problems of backlog and maintenance. (includes related article on Software reengineering offers MIS departments opportunities to extend existing systems by making programming code more manageable at the source code level. Reengineering restructures and re-documents the source code and recovers original program and system-level designs. The saved designs are then placed in a corporate repository so that they may be used when rebuilding or migrating to a new technology. Advantages to reengineering include a reduction of software maintenance costs, preservation of code investments, systems maintenance productivity increases, system conversion and migration facilitation and the recycling of existing system components. With the dearth of standard systems development life-cycle methodologies incorporating reengineering, companies must design custom methods in order to assemble a toolset of reengineering solutions. Cleaning up old software: two picture perfect case studies in reengineering. (Special Report) Pacific Bell and Reynolds Metals Co both implement reengineering efforts to upgrade ailing and outdated systems. Pacific Bell's method involves gradually reworking existing programs, while Reynolds Metals entirely replaces its older data base system with a new IBM DB2 system. Pacific Bell's Systems Development and Maintenance Environment (SDME) group handles the company's system technology and participates in forming development methodologies, acquiring computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools and helps with quality assurance. The group also performs reengineering and reverse engineering functions for Pacific Bell. The SDME group helps analyze application portfolios to find those that are best suited for reengineering. SDME also follows up by training users how to reengineer future programs. Reynolds Metals converts to IBM's DB2 from Cincom Systems Inc's Total data base system by redesigning the Total system to conform to DB2 and then restructuring the code to fit that framework. A methodology to the madness: quantifying IS problems and the reengineering solution. (information systems) (Special Report ) MIS departments reengineering systems in order to update them need to follow development methodologies before implementing changes. Development methodologies include rules, guidelines and procedures that guide the production of high-level user needs into operable systems. Reengineering should consider the common goals of the MIS organization and the use of software reengineering technology in an integrated solution. Price Waterhouse's RE/Center Program's Software Recycling Process provides forward engineering support for reengineering processes. The Recycling Process contains programs that are supported by reengineering activities and provides planning and assessment services during the reengineering process. Other companies offer packaged methodologies for reengineering including Ernst and Young's Navigator System computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software. Can SPAC provide security? As pressures mount, Security Pacific leverages technology more than ever. (Security Pacific Automation Security Pacific Corp's Security Pacific Automation Corp (SPAC) information systems subsidiary offers data processing services for its parent company and outside firms on a contractural basis. SPAC is working on an imaging system that handles check processing automatically. SPAC also works on branch systems and communications and has installed microcomputer-based branch automation systems that have reduced staff sizes and increased efficiency. SPAC is working on an on-line transaction processing system that will process account updates in real time. SPAC's plans include outsourcing services and the marketing of its computer-aided software engineering (CASE) methodology. SPAC is one tool in Security Pacific's plan to become a global force in banking. Telecom, IS wed: Northern Telecom exec says MIS is planing a greater role in telecom. (Northern Telecom Ltd.'s Northern Telecom Northern Telecom Ltd's Northern Telecom US Pres Roy Merrills believes MIS management and personnel are taking a greater role in telecommunications operations. More telecommunications responsibility is organized under MIS executives or chief information officers. MIS personnel are becoming more knowledgeable about telecommunications technology and especially the networking connectivity issues. The fact that Northern Telecom's computer personnel are more involved in telecommunications issues does not mean that the company is becoming an integrated company. The relationship between the two technologies focuses on networking connectivity issues. IBM expands its NetView; strikes deals with HP, AT&T to extend systems reach. (NetView network software) (Network Computing) IBM licenses the network node manager and network management server from HP's OpenView computer network software for use in its NetView product. The network node manager enables users to develop a network running the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) using a single IBM RS/6000 workstation. The network management server expands the node's capabilities by using application programming interfaces based on the Open Systems Interconnection Common Management Information protocol. IBM's efforts to support multivendor systems include the HP cooperative agreement and a previously announced contract to co-develop software interfaces that will link AT&T's Accumaster Integrator network software with IBM's NetView. IBM also plans to develop NetView support for AIX and Unix-based operating environments. Chrysler steers CASE initiative: KnowledgeWare tools used in service and parts applications. (computer-aided software Chrysler Corp's service and parts operation's MIS department uses computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software to develop 250 workstation modules each year. The system engineering technology group produces applications that improve the quality and productivity of its systems development activities. Chrysler uses KnowledgeWare Inc's software development products because of KnowledgeWare's product quality products and service. KnowledgeWare introduces its Application Development Workbench/RAD (ADW/RAD) and Application Development Workbench (ADW/DOC) program development software packages each costing $1,250, or $2,000 for both. ADW/RAD is a rapid application development tool, and ADW/DOC lets developers produce and manage requirements, design and system-level documentation based on ADW encyclopedia-based information. When systems staff cede control: Why should MIS be judged any differently from the rest of the corporation? (Final Word) MIS departments should be run as any other unit within a corporation that has a business priority. Systems support personnel should be part of business units, and systems design and development should be handled by management and not MIS technical staff. Systems equipment, standards and language standards decisions can be handled by regular corporate purchasing, auditing and standards committees. Managers can make decisions about new technologies just as they currently do with standard office equipment. MIS departments ultimately ought to be run as businesses. Purchasing agents can initiate changes in the microcomputer industry by requesting specifications on equipment ordered. The new technology can be properly integrated by applying administration rules used throughout a business. IBM unbundles OS/2 EE, adds Windows support. (Microsoft Windows 3.0)(includes related article on relationship between IBM and IBM announces that it will 'unbundle' its OS/2 Extended Edition operating system, separating IBM-specific and standard features to allow the program to run on competing platforms. The computer giant has also enhanced OS/2 to support Microsoft Windows but has made clear that its will be independent of Microsoft in attaining its long-term goals for the operating system. IBM officials say that they do not want to be dependent on Microsoft even though the two companies are cooperating on the upcoming OS/2 NT kernel. Observers say that IBM's announcements indicate its firm commitment to OS/2. Price cuts are another aspect of IBM's new aggressive OS/2 promotion strategy. IBM has reduced the price of OS/2 Standard Edition 1.3 from $340 to $150 and Extended Edition 1.3 from $830 to $690. It plans to make the Database and Communications Managers currently included in Extended Edition into separate modules and to make the LAN Requester module part of its LAN Server network operating system. Symantec takes automation route with OnTarget project management. (Software Review) (Symantec Corp. OnTarget project planning OnTarget, Symantec Corp's new Windows-based project management software, uses a less formal approach than sophisticated project managers such as Scitor's Project Scheduler 5 and Symantec's own TimeLine. The concepts of project management are complex and usually require considerable training even with a graphical interface. OnTarget is positioned between formal project managers and personal information managers. It uses a 'Time Table' with a spreadsheet-like layout and 'task bar' that indicates tasks. The user begins by entering task names down the first table column and outlining subtasks. A 'Schedule Assistant' feature lets users automatically start tasks when the previous task is completed or link tasks with a connecting icon. Typing a name into a Task Info Box lets users assign responsibility for each task, and a Work Flow window displays the relationship between various tasks. OnTarget supplies a simple spreadsheet for tracking resources. OnTarget sells for $399 plus $349 per additional module for LAN users. Apple ropes Windows 3.0 into lawsuit against HP, Microsoft. (graphical user interface copyright lawsuit) Apple expands its long-standing copyright battle against Microsoft Corp and HP to include Windows 3.0, the current version of Microsoft's graphical user interface. Apple claims that Windows violates its copyright on the Macintosh interface and has formally amended its three-year-old lawsuit, which cites Windows 2.03 and all derivative works. A federal court judge in Mar 1991 denied motions by the defendants that elements of Apple's operating system were not original, a decision which strengthened Apple's case. Apple's claim now focuses on 10 elements in Windows and in HP's Windows-based NewWave graphical interface that it considers in violation of the Mac copyrights. These include overlapping windows, windows that appear partly on and off the screen, resizable and movable windows and 'buried' windows that are brought to the top when the user clicks the mouse. Analysts say that specifically naming Windows 3.0 in the lawsuit may strengthen Apple's position. Autodesk preps Windows AutoCAD, Animator Pro. (Autodesk Inc. to announce new products at National Computer Graphics Association Autodesk Inc is expected to announce Animator Pro, a high-end animation program supporting resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels, at the 1991 National Computer Graphics Association conference. Animator Pro will sell for $795 and includes enhanced animation and editing features, better font support and a stand-alone runtime module for playing back animations. The package requires an 80386 or 80486 processor and has drivers that let users change video modes on the fly. Autodesk also plans to ship a Windows version of its popular AutoCAD 11.0 by the end of 1991. Industry leaders navigate stormy first quarter. (microcomputer industry leaders doing well despite recession) Leading microcomputer and software firms did well overall during the first quarter of 1991 despite the poor state of the US economy as a whole. Apple, Borland International Inc, Microsoft Corp and Ashton-Tate all posted good results; Borland saw its profits double in the past year due largely to the introduction of several new products. Microsoft reported a 57 percent jump in revenues over the same quarter in 1990. Software Publishing Corp suffered marginal results, reporting only break-even earnings which it blames on customer uncertainty and the fact that many buyers are waiting for it to introduce new products. Lotus Development Corp reported net income of only $6.6 million, a 71 percent decline from last year's results. Most of its difficulties reflect costs involved in its $25 million acquisition of cc:Mail. Compaq cuts prices to stifle competition. (Compaq Computer Corp. slashes suggested retail price of most systems 8 to 34 percent) Compaq has cut prices on virtually its entire product line by 8 to 34 percent in an effort to compete more effectively with rivals such as Dell Computer Corp and other second-tier vendors. Dealers and analysts note that Dell has used its price advantage effectively in advertising, boosting its own sales largely at Compaq's expense. Compaq officials say that more users will be able to afford its machines with its new pricing structure. Some of the largest price cuts are on low-end models and laptops. The LTE 386s/20 laptop has been cut from $6,499 to $4,399; a comparable Dell system costs $3,399. The Deskpro 386N Model 40 is now $1,999, down from $2,799; the Deskpro 386s/20 80386SX-based desktop unit now sells for $3,299, a $1,000 cut. Excel 3.0 beats 1-2-3 to Mac market. (Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces Excel 3.0 for the Macintosh, a new version of its flagship Mac spreadsheet. Excel accounts for 80 percent of the Mac spreadsheet market, and the new version includes many of the features found in DOS applications. Excel 3.0 includes a Solver function, better outlining capabilities and enhanced graphics. The shipment of Excel 3.0 boosts Microsoft's competitive position against Lotus Development Corp, which is preparing to begin alpha testing a Mac version of its Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus dominates the DOS spreadsheet arena but has had little success in the Macintosh market. Database publishing tools link to layout utilities. (PageAhead Software Corp, Elseware Corp introduce enhancements for desktop Several vendors are introducing database publishing utilities that link popular page layout programs to databases and provide sophisticated formatting capabilities. PageAhead Software Corp's PageAhead lets users import Oracle RDBMS, dBASE III and IV and ASCII files into Aldus Corp's PageMaker desktop publishing program via a query-by-example interface. Elseware Corp's DataShaper PC is a simpler program that links PageMaker for Windows to most databases while reading ASCII files and leaving data manipulation to the application itself. Users see the PageMaker interface and rely on the layout program's features for formatting. DataShaper installs itself in PageMaker and appears in a dialog box when the user places database information onto a page. Vendors say they develop add-in utilities for PageMaker because of the Aldus program's ease of use, but Ventura Software defends the style sheets and built-in database publishing capabilities of its Ventura Publisher. Symantec unveils its first Windows apps: midrange word processor supports DDE. (applications; Dynamic Data Exchange) (Symantec Symantec Corp introduces three new software applications for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. JustWrite is a $199 midrange word processor that offers intelligent mail merge, an integrated outliner and support for the Windows Dynamic Data Exchange protocol. On Target is a $399 project management program that uses a 'plain English' interface instead of such terms as 'Gantt chart.' Norton BackUp for Windows is a $149 Windows version of the popular backup and restore utility. It is designed to complete regularly scheduled unattended foreground or background backups and can back up 3.5Mbytes of data per minute. The program lets users restore data from damaged disks and detect corrupted files or bad diskettes. JPEG specification gets support from video companies. (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Several vendors of multimedia equipment plan to introduce video compression boards incorporating the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) specification at the 1991 National Computer Graphics Association trade show, but others are developing compression boards that also support non-JPEG coprocessors. Fluent Machines Inc, a Dallas startup, has reportedly developed a video compression board based on the Intel 80960 reduced instruction set computing processor. The board will sell for $4,000 and is 'coprocessor independent,' using a Motorola 56000 digital signal processor and C-Cube Microsystems' JPEG-compliant CL-550 chip in addition to the 80960. Lead Technologies Inc will demonstrate several prototypes at the show. Its Lead 100T, 255T, 255T Plus and 255V boards will support both the JPEG standard and Truevision Inc's Targa board. Avid Technology Inc has introduced seven boards for professional digital video editing. Northgate challenges Compaq's market. (introduces OmniSystem file server) (product announcement) Northgate Computer Systems introduces OmniSystem, a high-speed 80486-based file server with an optional disk array similar to that found in the Compaq SystemPro. The OmniSystem combines the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus and a proprietary I/O bus that can transfer 100Mbytes of data per second. It features a 500-watt power supply, 8Mbytes of RAM, a Phoenix ROM BIOS, a monochrome VGA monitor and a modem. The base configuration will cost $13,995 and will use a single 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor; Northgate will also configure systems for a wide variety of networks, including Token-Ring, Arcnet and Ethernet. The optional SCSI-based Intelligent Disk Subsystem allows disk mirroring and duplexing and offers faster throughput. Its dual-channel design supports up to seven SCSI devices per channel and is priced from $7,600 for an 800Mbyte version to $22,000 for a 4.8Gbyte version. AT&T puts connectivity at top of 'Safari' list. (AT&T 20-MHz 80386SX notebook computer) (product announcement) AT&T Computer Systems introduces the Safari, a 20-MHz 80386SX-based notebook computer that emphasizes connectivity options. It uses an enhanced laptop BIOS custom-designed by Phoenix Technologies and comes equipped with a 2,400-bps modem and Windows version of Access, AT&T's front end to its AT&T Mail/EasyLink electronic messaging system. The Safari will work with a packet radio transceiver that AT&T plans to introduce in 1992. The device will connect to the back of the Safari or a second notebook machine the company is developing to send and receive EasyLink messages in real time. The 7.3-pound Safari costs $5,399 and includes 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk drive, Microsoft Windows 3.0, DOS 4.01 and a mouse. Graphics boards using Edsun's CEG chip begin shipping. (Edsun CEG anti-aliasing chip) (product announcement) Several vendors introduce new Super VGA graphics boards incorporating Edsun's new CEG anti-aliasing chip. Genoa Systems is now shipping the 6400VC, a $242 Super VGA board that yields true resolutions of 640 x 480 and 800 x 400 pixels and uses the anti-aliasing technique to smooth jagged lines by blending colors. Definicon International Corp has introduced its $495 RACE VGA board, which also uses the CEG chip and incorporates a Windows driver. Monolithic Systems Corp offers the MicroVGA 452, a $395 card that supports 800 x 600 and 640 x 480-pixel resolutions and includes the CEG chip. All the boards offer a palette of approximately 750,000 colors. Some industry observers expect IBM's new XGA standard to replace Super VGA, but the first XGA boards are not expected until late 1992. ACE met by skepticism, concern, and rejoicing. (Advanced Computing Environment initiative) Workstation vendors express a variety of reactions to the announcement of the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) initiative, a project spearheaded by a consortium of 21 vendors including Compaq and Microsoft Corp. Some analysts say that the OS/2 3.0 operating system ACE will use is unlikely to appear before late 1992, but note that the new OS/2 will also be compatible with the popular Windows graphical user interface. Some competitors see the ACE effort as a breakup of Intel Corp's domination of the microcomputer industry despite ACE's promise to continue supporting Intel microprocessors. ACE computers will use Mips Computer Systems' upcoming R4000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) CPU and are expected to offer performance in the 70 to 80 MIPS range. Many observers note that the workstation market may change drastically before any ACE machines are actually available. HP line of RISC-based X terminals uses i960. (Intel 80960 reduced instruction set computing processor) (product announcement) HP introduces the 700/RX, a new line of X Windows terminals based on the Intel 80960 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The Model 19Ca and Model 16Ca use a 22.7-MHz 80860CA chip and offer 8-bit color with a 24-bit palette, while the Model 19Mi and 16Ci use a 20-MHz version of the processor. All four offer built-in Ethernet 101-key microcomputer-style keyboards, a mouse and two SIMM slots for user memory expansion. Prices range from $2,995 for the Model 19Mi, a monochrome unit that generates 60,000 Xstones of performance, to $5,995 for the high-end 19Ca. Search for efficient data compression omits impractical 'Pi.' (Tech Talk) (column) Data compression techniques operate on the principle that user data is non-random and contains redundant information. A hypothetical 'Pi compressor,' which would work by locating instances of text in an input file with the never-repeating expression of an irrational number, could theoretically yield 1,000-to-1 compression ratios but is impractical because of the complexity of computing Pi and because finding an exact match to a text string within Pi is extremely unlikely. Each location in Pi would have one chance in 10 to the 1,500th power of matching a target paragraph. Huffman and run-length encoding, two common compression techniques, are 'lossless' technologies that lose no information during the compression/decompression cycle. 'Lossey' technologies are used where extremely high compression ratios are more important than accuracy and approximate data instead of representing it exactly. FDDI chip-set market expands, prices drop. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) chip sets are dropping in price with the rapid expansion of the FDDI market and promise to make fiber optic connections affordable on the desktop. Market research firm Forrester Research reported in 1989 that FDDI will not be widely accepted by desktop users until the cost of connecting a microcomputer to a 100M-bps network drops below 10 percent of the cost of the machine itself. Current prices are still far above this mark but are falling rapidly. Advanced Micro Devices' five-chip Supernet 1 FDDI implementation originally sold for $595 in quantities of 1,000, but now sells for $295; competitors have introduced chip sets at even lower prices. AMD now offers the Supernet 2, a four-chip version. Tighter integration is making the chip sets more compact and less expensive, and new FDDI chips draw less power than earlier versions. Have GUI, will travel reads the card of the enterprise person. (graphical user interface)(Enterprise Strategies) (column) Graphical user interfaces are an important component of today's enterprise-wide computing projects. Few companies have all of the skilled personnel they need in order to link their machines together, and standardized software is important. Most firms nevertheless eventually need to hire a free-lance specialist in networking or systems development, but these personnel have different skills and different personalities from those needed for system maintenance. Most corporations are familiar with the peculiarities of contract employees, but those working in hot new technologies such as object-oriented programming cannot expect to remain with the company for long. System 7.0 readies Mac to fight off Windows 3.0. (System 7.0 system software for Apple Macintosh) (product announcement) Apple announces that its long-awaited System 7.0 operating system for Macintosh computers will be available May 13, 1991. The new software incorporates many radical new features, including Interapplication Communication (IAC) for linking data sources and Publish and Subscribe hot linking for work groups. System 7.0 will let users integrate information from different sources quickly and easily, letting separate applications effectively act as integrated software. Desktop publishing is one area expected to benefit heavily from IAC and other new technologies in System 7.0; Mac-based desktop publishing has suffered because it has not evolved into a workgroup application, according to observers. Many developers nevertheless will continue to build elaborate solutions into their own applications because they are reluctant to share information with competing vendors. IBM revenue dip tied to PC market share loss. (IBM attributes first-ever quarterly drop in revenue to loss of microcomputer IBM posted its first-ever drop in revenues for the quarter ended Mar 31, 1991. Company officials blame the decline on the general state of the US economy and poor sales of host computers but concede that IBM has lost some of its share of the microcomputer market. Some of IBM's difficulties may be due to its lack of a competitive laptop machine, a problem the firm hopes it has remedied with the introduction of its PS/2 Laptop 40SX. IBM's overall market share was relatively flat in 1990, but its retail sales dropped from 31.6 percent in Dec 1990 to 28.6 percent in Feb 1991. Silicon Graphics looks to licensing to maintain growth. (workstation vendor Silicon Graphics Inc.) Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI), the leading vendor of three-dimensional graphics workstations, hopes to maintain its 50 percent annual growth rate through a series of licensing agreements with major systems vendors. SGI dominated the 3D workstation market throughout the 1980s, but competitors such as HP, Sun and IBM have introduced 3-D graphics add-on boards for their own workstations and present a serious challenge to SGI's low-end and midrange products. It introduced its low-end Personal Iris line and IrisVision microcomputer boards in 1989 in an unsuccessful attempt to slow the major competition. SGI is now licensing its Iris GL graphics library to Microsoft Corp and has sold 13 percent of itself to Compaq, with whom it will codesign a MIPS reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation that will run Microsoft's OS/2 3.0 operating system. The company promised binary compatibility with Compaq and graphics compatibility with IBM. MIPS group tries to catch up with RISC leaders Sun, IBM. (reduced instruction set computing) (Advanced Computing Environment The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) initiative, spearheaded by a consortium involving MIPS Computer Systems Inc, Compaq, Microsoft Corp and others, is working to give software developers access to the high performance of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor architectures. Applications will run 10 times faster than on the current RISC hardware base while continuing to support the Intel 80x86 architecture. ACE machines will run both Microsoft's OS/2 3.0 and Santa Cruz Operation's Open Desktop Unix operating systems. A major factor motivating ACE vendors is the need to catch up with IBM and Sun Microsystems, the current RISC market leaders. Microsoft wants to move to a larger, more robust operating system, and the hardware vendors are betting on MIPS in the highly competitive workstation market. ACE was not formed in an effort to increase standardization but as a reaction to the pressures of competition. Meeting halfway. (integrating IBM PC, Macintosh computers) Mardesich, Jodi. Today's microcomputer managers generally choose equipment for practical reasons rather than out of dedication to any single vendor or operating system, a stance that frequently results in the proliferation of disparate platforms within an organization. Interconnecting IBM-compatible and Apple Macintosh machines on networks shows the complexity of dealing with this situation. Colgate Technology Center, operated by Colgate Palmolive Corp, uses both Macs and PCs on its 3Com Corp 3+ Share-based network for designing household products. Its 70 PCs are on an Ethernet backbone, but most of its 500 Macs are on LocalTalk. Network management is difficult; the company now relies on AG Group's EtherPeek. FMC Corp uses DEC's Pathworks software to integrate its 1,200 PCs and 225 Macs; some of the Macs run AppleTalk Phase 1, while others run AppleTalk Phase II, and upgrading is difficult. Seybold Seminars relies on an old version of 3+ Share for its Mac/PC network. Rice University in Houston has varying Mac and PC configurations in its different departments, running Sitka TOPS, Novell NetWare and Apple AppleShare networks. High-end CAD. (Software Review) (overview of four evaluations of high-end computer aided design software)(includes related summary Four high-end computer-aided design (CAD) packages are reviewed. Autodesk Inc's AutoCAD 11.0, CADkey Inc's CADkey 4.0, Intergraph's Microstation PC and Computervision's VersaCAD 6.0a offer associative dimensioning, multiple selection options, sophisticated drawing tools and placement functions. All four programs are designed for 80386- and 80486-based machines and have a steep learning curve. The packages each cost approximately $3,500, and all are strong contenders in the high-end marketplace. AutoCAD earns the highest overall score of the four products, with its improved user interface, three-dimensional functionality and C-language programming interface. How we test high-end CAD software. (procedures used to evaluate and compare four high-end computer aided design programs) Procedures used to test and compare four high-end computer-aided design packages are discussed. Performance categories include drawing, editing and placement tools; programmability; input/output capabilities; speed, 3-D features; network capability; and attribute capabilities. A product must support basic graphics primitives and text handling to earn a satisfactory score for drawing tools and standard trim, extend, fillet and chamfer features to earn a satisfactory score for editing tools. Enhancements and flexibility can boost both scores. Placement tools must at least allow placement by cursor, x-y coordinate or relative coordinate and snap to grid capability. Programmability means that a package includes some level of programming language, and a product with satisfactory I/O capabilities must support commonly used mice, digitizers, printers and plotters. Products that create a sample drawing fast and can create, redraw, print and plot an array quickly earn better speed scores. Attribute capabilities must be versatile for a satisfactory score; report generators and bill of materials modules raise scores. Support categories include support policies and technical support, based on anonymous calls to the vendor or a dealer. Value scores reflect price/performance ratios. AutoCAD Version 11. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of high-end computer-aided design packages in 'High-end CAD.') Autodesk Inc's $3,500 AutoCAD 11.0 CAD software has a powerful open architecture and supports many third-party add-ons, including Autodesk's own $495 Advanced Modeling Extension (AME). The program supports all basic drawing tools as well as linear, angular, radius, diameter and ordinate dimensions. Its editing tools include automatic symbol updating, a 'paper space' mode for creating and plotting multiple views and reference file capability. Both drawing and editing tools earn very good scores. Placement tools are excellent, with extensive snap and grid features, and programmability is excellent because of AutoCAD's open architecture. Input/output capabilities and 3-D features are very good. Speed earns a good score; the program does well in most benchmark tests. Network capability is only satisfactory. Attribute capabilities earn a good score, while documentation is satisfactory. Ease of learning is satisfactory; ease of use is good. Autodesk's support policies earn a satisfactory score, while the support itself is good. AutoCAD 11.0 is rated a very good value. CADkey 386. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of high-end computer-aided design packages in 'High-end CAD.') (evaluation) CADKey Inc's CADKey 386 4.0 CAD software lets users create and view drawings as normal 3-D models and change the viewing angle to obtain a full 3-D model. Drawing and editing tools are both very good, with support for parametric curves and the ability to nest pans and zooms included. Placement tools are very good, and programmability is excellent. The program includes flexible macro and programming languages and offers powerful snap-to-grid features. Input/output capabilities are good; CADKey supports most mouse, digitizer, plotter, printer and graphics board products. Speed earns a satisfactory rating, and 3-D features are good. The program does not differentiate between 2-D and 3-D drafting. Network capability is good; the program lets users view, print and plot other users' files. Attribute capabilities are poor, and documentation is only satisfactory. Ease of learning is good; ease of use is satisfactory. CADKey has poor support policies; it will answer questions over CompuServe but charges $695 for an annual maintenance contract. The support it offers through local 'master' dealers is very good. CADKey is rated a good value for its $3,495 price. Microstation PC version 4.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of high-end computer-aided design packages in Intergraph Corp's Microstation PC 4.0 offers a slick graphical user interface with 'tear-off' tool palettes and hot links to dBASE and Oracle. Drawing and editing tools are both excellent; the program offers associative dimensioning and numerous trim, extend, fillet and chamfer options. Placement tools are also excellent, as is programmability. Users can customize the program by modifying menus and function key assignments and creating new commands. I/O capabilities are satisfactory; users cannot plot within a drawing. Network capability is good, and attribute capabilities are very good. Documentation earns a good score. Ease of learning is good; installation is fairly easy but customization takes some time to learn. Ease of use is very good. Intergraph's support policies are poor, consisting only of a private bulletin board and telephone support for very large accounts that make direct purchases. Technical support is satisfactory. The program sells for $3,450 and is rated an excellent value despite its shortcomings. VersaCAD/386. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of high-end computer-aided design packages in 'High-end CAD.') Computervision's $3,495 VersaCAD 386 6.0 is a powerful high-end CAD program that suits most user needs and includes all basic drawing and editing tools. The drawing tools earn a good rating, while the editing tools are very good. Placement tools are excellent and include user-selectable grids and snapping modes, 10 types of drawing units and two types of construction aids. Programmability is excellent, and I/O capabilities are good. Speed is satisfactory. VersaCAD implements three-dimensional features in a separate surface modeling program that earns a good rating. There are no network-specific features. Attribute capabilities are satisfactory. Documentation earns a very good score; it consists of a quick-start manual and two large binders. Ease of learning is only satisfactory, but ease of use is very good. Computervision's support policies are poor; users can get support only from dealers or by purchasing a $595 support plan that includes automatic updates and a toll-free support line. The support dealers provide is satisfactory. VersaCAD appears dated compared with competing products and earns a 'good' score for overall value. ThreadZ file manager rescues frustrated Windows users. (Software Review) (ThreadZ Software Design Group Inc.) (evaluation) ThreadZ Software Design Group Inc's ThreadZ File F/X is a replacement for the File Manager utility built into Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. It presents users with a directory tree on the left and a view of files within a particular directory on the right. Users can filter the views by file extension and sort them by extension, name, date or size. File F/X can launch applications, rename files and duplicate or delete files and directories. Performance is adequate, but the process of logging a drive and loading its directory structure takes some time. File F/X also has no split-screen capability and lacks the ability to select files in multiple directories. The ThreadZ Task Manager emulates the Windows Task Manager while providing enhanced functionality. File F/X is one of the better Windows-specific file managers available. It is well designed, easy to use and costs $129.95. Magnavox HeadStart 500's bundled software distinguishes this machine from standard PCs. (Hardware Review) (Magnavox Philips Consumer Electronic's Magnavox HeadStart 500 CD microcomputer combines an IBM-compatible desktop machine with a built-in CD ROM player and a wide variety of bundled software. The machine uses an 80386SX microprocessor and comes with Borland International Inc's Quattro, Symantec's Q&A, Publish-It desktop publishing software and a startup kit for the Prodigy on-line service. It includes an 80Mbyte hard drive, SuperVGA adapter and 2,400-bps modem. The HeadStart's CD-ROM player includes headphones and has standard stereo jacks and a volume control. A few pop-up utilities are included, but there is no program for changing audio CDs without exiting the current application. The HeadStart lists for $2,999 and is an exceptional value when the bundled software is added in. Project Workbench 3.1 eases planner's job, but resource capacity could be improved. (Software Review) (Project Workbench) Applied Business Technology Corp's $1,275 Project Workbench 3.1 project-management software has features that make it especially useful for engineering firms, software developers and professional service organizations. It includes a clean character-based interface with a Gantt time line display and resource utilization spreadsheet. The program offers five types of resource assignments and uses layered forms for rapid data entry. Project Workbench has simple displays of partially-completed tasks and an undo baseline feature that simplifies tracking. A new Project Analyzer feature provides 35 predefined reports and includes a sophisticated report generator. Cost controls are limited, and the program's character-based graphics make its network diagrams less useful. It also supports a maximum of 200 resources per project. Mannesmann Tally portable printer outputs on the go. (Hardware Review) (Mannesmann Tally MT735 portable printer) (evaluation) Mannesmann Tally's $1,295 MT735 portable printer fits into most briefcases and uses thermal-transfer technology to produce laser-quality 300-dpi text and graphics output. It prints up to 6 pages per minute and has a unique copy feature that stores the last printed page in memory. The MT735 supports both portrait and landscape printing modes and has four standard emulations: HP LaserJet II, HP DeskJet, IBM Proprinter X24 and Epson LQ-850. It includes a rechargeable battery that lasts for 150 letter-size pages per charge. American Power Systems Smart-UPS 400 provides clean break from wall socket. (Hardware Review) (uninterruptible power supply) American Power Conversion's Smart-UPS 400 uninterruptible power supply is small in size and weighs only 17 pounds. It works with APC's PowerDoctor and PowerChute software to provide comprehensive protection for microcomputer systems in the event of a power failure. PowerDoctor includes a variety of diagnostic features, such as UPS-link, which provides bar graphs of load, line voltage and battery voltage; a TSR reporting program; and programs that keep track of internal temperature, line minimum and line maximum in volts AC. A batch-file mode lets users set up custom configurations and is accessed from a menu that also includes test procedures and an unattended operation mode. The Smart-UPS offers full-time surge suppression, EMI and RFI filters, an overvoltage condition indicator and a 'replace battery' indicator. It can have accessory outlets turned on when the device in the master outlet is turned on via auto-load sensing. PowerChute is a version of PowerDoctor for network environments. The Smart-UPS 400 costs $499; PowerDoctor and PowerChute are sold as a package for $99. Freehand 3.0 improves upon already superior package. (Software Review) (Aldus FreeHand 3.0 drawing package) (evaluation) Aldus Corp's $595 FreeHand 3.0 graphics package is a major upgrade of an already powerful Macintosh program that offers an improved user interface and better text-handling capabilities as well as greater precision and flexibility with grouped elements and additional import, export and printing options. FreeHand 3.0 now has on-screen color, style and layer palettes that can be moved, resized or closed. There are no new tools, but the existing tools now have better precision and let users place objects to within one ten-thousandths of a PostScript point. FreeHand 3.0 can create compound paths and has improved text capabilities for converting Adobe Type 1 and Fontographer fonts into editable outlines. Drawing/editing tools are rated very good; tracing is satisfactory, and import/export is now very good. The program can import files saved in paint, TIFF, PICT and EPS formats and can directly open PICT, Adobe Illustrator 1.1 and Adobe Streamline formats. Speed is satisfactory, and output quality is very good. Documentation, ease of use and learning, error handling and technical support policies all rate as good. Check It 3.0 tests, diagnoses, reports on computer hardware. (Software Review) (TouchStone Software Corp. Check It Touchstone Software Corp's $149 CheckIt 3.0 diagnostic package includes modules for determining system configuration, testing and mapping memory and scanning for viruses. The SysInfo performance category presents information on the type of system processor, DOS version, BIOS manufacturer and release date, extended or expanded memory and memory in use or available. A memory map displays the first megabyte of system RAM and shows how its address space is allocated. The Tools category lets users locate and point to a memory chip that is causing problems. Diagnostic performance is strong both under normal conditions and in some emergency situations, although there is some incompatibility with Intel's Above Board memory board. Performance earns a rating of very good. Documentation is rated good; it is informative and well-structured overall. Ease of learning is rated excellent, and ease of use is very good. Error handling is satisfactory. TouchStone's support policies earn a good score, and technical support itself is satisfactory. The package earns a score of very good in overall value. Why have the Japanese caught the notebook PC fever? (popularity of notebook computers in Japan)(Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Notebook computers are extremely popular in Japan, where they are often a user's only machine and are not distinguished from desktop machines. The Japanese define a notebook computer more in terms of price than size; 'notebooks' in Japan cost the equivalent of $3,000 or less and do not have hard disks or backlit screens. Americans emphasize performance and features; the minimum configuration in the US market is a 20-MHz 80386SX with 2Mbytes of RAM, a backlit supertwist screen and a price of $4,000 to $6,500. US users think of notebooks as an adjunct to full-scale desktop machines and want a computer with the same power, paying very high prices for a second machine. The Japanese are slow to adopt desktop microcomputers because they see them as akin to mainframes and irrelevant to their individual experiences. Most desktops in Japan are small and crowded, and a small computer is attractive because it is easy to store and does not take up much space. The first Japanese notebook computer was the Toshiba Dynabook. A.T.&T. raises bid for NCR; computer maker will study offer of $110 a share in stock. AT and T renews its bid for NCR Corp with an offer of $110 a share. The AT and T offer does not involve cash but stock from the telecommunications company. NCR officials indicated that they will consider the deal but expressed skepticism over the ability of the stock to maintain its value during the closing days of the deal. AT and T's stock closed at $37.375 a share on Apr 19, 1991. AT and T's offer includes an amendment guaranteeing that NCR stockholders will receive $110 a share as long as AT and T's stock remains above $35.50 a share. The deal would be only worth $104.60 a share if AT and T's stock drops to its early Apr 1991 value of $33.75 a share. AT and T's current offer replaces its previous offer of $90 a share. Compaq slashes prices to fend off clone contenders. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp announces price reductions ranging from 8 percent to 34 percent on its microcomputers and up to 68 percent on peripherals. The company hopes that the price cuts will bring back customers and neutralize increased competition from second-tier clone makers. Analysts contend that Compaq is expected to hold its market share at approximately eight percent, but major clone companies will most likely increase the collective market from 17.1 percent in 1991 to 19.6 percent in 1993. Compaq's domestic sales grew by only 5 percent in 1990, while almost all other clone makers grew faster. The company also realizes that it cannot count on its quality image to keep sales up in a recession economy. Microcomputer customers are increasingly savvy and do not want to pay more for systems that essentially possess very similar components. Dual-CPU model to highlight new IBM AS/400s. (IBM AS/400 D series minicomputers) (product announcement) IBM plans to introduce 11 new models in its AS/400 series that will sport faster CPU technology. The new 'D' models will replace the 10 current AS/400 B and C models. The new high-end AS/400 Model D80 is reportedly 2.5 times faster than the existing B70 high-end model. The D4, the new low-end model, is approximately 1.5 times faster than the current low-end B model. IBM will also release Version 2 of its OS/400 operating system, which will support a new OSI communications subsystem as well as OSI file transfer and X.400 electronic mail programs. The company is also expected to release an enhanced version of the PC Support Program for better microcomputer-to-AS/400 communications. The new version takes less memory than its predecessor and will allow microcomputers to share file and print services on an AS/400. IBM lays out desktop plan for OS/2 2.0: DOS and Windows integration is key. IBM officials announce the company's plans for OS/2 2.0 as a strategic desktop solution that will be a platform for integrating DOS, Windows and OS/2 applications. Analysts contend that if IBM comes through with its promises, OS/2 can gain a respectable market share, although it is not expected to outsell Windows. Microsoft Corp officials note that IBM is making it clear that the two companies have different views on OS/2. Microsoft believes that OS/2 should be a server offering that promotes Windows for the desktop. IBM contends that OS/2 2.0 will have the ability to run multiple DOS applications simultaneously and will provide each with up to 620Kbytes of memory. The company will build Windows 3.0 directly into OS/2 2.0, allowing Windows applications to run in standard mode with access to protected memory. Gartner Group predicts that OS/2 will have a 21 percent share of the desktop operating system market by 1995, with Windows will at 41 percent and the Apple Macintosh 20 percent. AT&T's 386SX notebook: classy, speedy and pricey. (AT&T Computer Systems' Safari NSX/20 portable computer) (Hardware Review) (First AT and T Computer Systems' $5,399 NSX/20 80386SX-based notebook computer offers good performance but is priced very high. The notebook weighs 7.5 pounds and comes with 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 6Mbytes, a fast 40Mbyte hard disk, a built-in 2,400-bps modem, a 3-1/2-inch floppy drive and a mouse. AT and T also includes pre-installed MS-DOS 4.01 and Windows 3.0a software. Compaq Computer Corp's LTE 386s/20 sells for about $400 less less and Dell Computer Corp's System 320N for approximately $1,200 less than the AT and T offering. Performance tests show the Safari NSX/20 to rate well against both the Dell and Compaq machines, falling behind the Compaq in CPU speed and behind Dell in video performance but beating both machines on disk tests. The Safari has the look and feel of a high-priced machine, with a crisp, easy-to-read VGA LCD screen and solid 82-key keyboard. Early testers praise Windows 3.1. Sherer, Paul M. Sources report that Microsoft Corp is releasing 60 pre-beta copies of Microsoft Windows 3.1. Some testers report that the new graphical user interface offers faster performance and a redesigned File Manager. Other users contend that the software seems sluggish when using the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. Windows 3.1 includes some of Microsoft's TrueType fonts; tests show a wide variety of fonts and sizes appearing clear and sharp on the screen. The software also includes improvements in error reporting as well as a database of PIF files to set up DOS applications. Users will also be able to install Windows 3.1 in ROM for laptop and pen-based systems. Microsoft is also releasing Tool Helper, a dynamic link library that will allow developers to access the internal code of Windows and is designed to be built into third-party tools such as profilers and debuggers. On Target hits mark for beginners. (Symantec Corp.'s On Target project-management software) (Software Review) (First Look) Symantec Corp's $399 On Target project management software is recommended for users who want to track simple projects and do not need all the features of a full-fledged project management program. Experienced users, however, may be frustrated by the lack of such features as time-scaled PERT charts, flexible time spans and backward scheduling. On Target is easy to use due to its fine use of the Windows interface and will take a beginner only about an hour to learn. Users enter task information on a WYSIWYG display, and the Schedule Assistant pop-up dialog box automatically prompts users regarding the relationship between tasks. Users do not have to memorize rules and regulations of project management. A software development project plan can be created in less than 15 minutes. On Target allows cutting and pasting but does not support Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange. A small irritation is the program's use of European-style dates. Price cuts expected for 386 systems. (80386-based microcomputers) McCarthy, Vance. Microcomputer industry analysts and vendors contend that, with the latest price cuts by Compaq Computer Corp and the increasing number of affordable 80386 and 80486 processors and lower-priced chip set technologies, at least 40 percent of all 80386-based systems will cost less at the end of 1991 than they did at the beginning of the year. Some analysts expect vendors to offer prices of $2,000 or less for 80386-based microcomputers and $1,000 or less for 80386SX-based machines. Prices for the 80386 are declining because of the slow economy, lower-priced 80486 processors and the expected advent of non-Intel 386 processors. Analysts also feel that 80386-compatible processors will further reduce microcomputer prices; microcomputer manufacturers are also expected to enter the processor clone market. Sources report that Compaq is currently working with NexGen Microsystems Inc on a new 80486-compatible processor. IBM details multimedia strategy featuring five PC configurations: first up: PS/1 geared for information delivery. IBM is developing five integrated multimedia microcomputers as part of its new multimedia strategy. A PS/1 with the same features as those proposed by Microsoft Corp's Multimedia PC (MPC) trademark specification will be shipped by Britannica Software in May 1991. IBM adds 2Mbytes of memory and a CD ROM drive to the PS/1 for less than $1,000 and includes Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia for Windows 3.0 as well as 15 additional applications. The PS/1 will not carry the MPC trademark because the company is waiting for an open forum of standardization such as the Interactive Multimedia Association specification. IBM will integrate voice, images, graphics, full-motion video and text into the five new microcomputers. The machines will be geared toward different applications, including desktop marketing, training, desktop presentation, kiosk merchandising and information delivery. Users laud Symantec's JustWrite. (new Symantec Corp. word processor) (product announcement) Symantec Corp's $199 JustWrite is a Windows-based word processing package with a Mail Merge feature that allows users to sort and query dBASE and Q&A files from inside the program. An Automatic File Conversion feature converts files from other word processing packages to JustWrite format without the need for filter conversion. Beta users contend that the package has the same look and feel as Word for Windows but is easier to learn than Word and other packages such as Lotus Development Corp's Ami Professional. Users also report that JustWrite is faster than these two packages. JustWrite also boasts a full-time WYSIWYG display so users do not have to switch back and forth between preview and draft mode as is the case in many other word processors. JustWrite offers a built-in outliner, but users are hoping that future versions will feature commands identical to those in Symantec's GrandView outlining program. JustWrite is scheduled for release by the end of April 1991. Claris boosts MacDraw Pro with new drawing tools. (Claris Corp.'s MacDraw Pro 1.0) (product announcement) Claris Corp's $399 MacDraw Pro upgrade receives praise from beta testers for its sophisticated drawing tools and enhanced color capabilities. The program will be released in Jun 1991 and will offer the ability to wrap text around graphical objects as well as word processing commands for text block formatting. MacDraw Pro also adds the ability to exchange files with other programs through Claris' XTND architecture. The package allows users to create on-screen presentations and reorder slides by dragging thumbnail sketches. MacDraw Pro can also display over 16 million colors by taking advantage of Apple's 32-bit QuickDraw. Some users feel that Claris still needs to add the data-handling capabilities offered by competing packages such as Aldus Corp's Persuasion and Microsoft Corp's PowerPoint. CA to roll out accounting tool for Windows. (Computer Associates International Inc.'s ACCPAC Simply Accounting for Windows) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) announces its $199 Windows-based ACCPAC Simply Accounting for Windows software, which offers general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, inventory control and job control modules integrated into one package. The product combines the core accounting functions of CA's ACCPAC Bedford for PC DOS and Macintosh. ACCPAC Simply Accounting for Windows expands the Macintosh program's data capacity by allowing users to hold 5,000 general ledger accounts and information on 32,000 customers, employees, vendors, inventory items and projects. The package offers drop-down menus, the ability to call up different functions and modules simultaneously and the launching of modules by clicking on icons but does not support Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange. It also includes communications features for file transfer. ACCPAC Simply Accounting for Windows is scheduled for release in the 2nd qtr of 1991. SPC's Harvard GeoGraphics 1.0 is a powerful tool for presentations. (Software Publishing Corp.'s Harvard GeoGraphics Software Publishing Corp's Harvard GeoGraphics lets users easily create demographic presentations and create images using predefined maps. The program's strong point is a large geographic database that is easy to use and lets users bring detailed maps to the screen in any combination. Harvard GeoGraphics offers data on 193 countries, all US states and their 3,140 counties and over 63,000 domestic and 3,000 international cities with various regions demographic, political and physical features described. On the downside, Software Publishing duplicates the look and feel of its Harvard Graphics interface which, although will be familiar to Harvard Graphics users, can be awkward. The software offers no drawing tools, has only one screen font and offers only limited titling capability. Scroll bar and dialog box design are also non-standard. High price outweighs features in Windows utility. (hDC Computer Corp.'s File Apps utility program) (Software Review) (First Look) hDC Computer Corp's $129.95 File Apps utility program for Microsoft Windows is easy to use and offers some features not available in the Windows File Manager, but these features will not be worth the high price for most users. File Apps contains a set of five utilities that users can access from the Windows Program Manager Control menu box. These include Disk Viewer, File Enhancer Plus, File Secure, File Search and Disk Share. File Enhancer Plus offers users an undelete feature that restores deleted files. Disk Share lets users transfer files to and from other microcomputers by way of a serial or parallel cable. Disk Viewer lets users see a graphical view of their disk and offers file management capabilities. File Search lets users look for files by name with search strings or wild cards. File Secure offers password protection, encryption and decryption capabilities. File Apps can work across a network, but search functions can be slow on large volumes. IBM product blitz boosts 390 server role. (IBM System/390 micro-to-mainframe connectivity products) IBM announces that three-quarters of its System/390 mainframe hardware and software are now shipping for use with the machine as a server for enterprise networks seven months after the September 1990 announcement of 140 products. Officials contend that the Token-Ring hardware, 8230 intelligent wiring concentrator, 8209 Ethernet bridge and Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON) serial architecture contribute to the machine's position as an enterprise server. New software includes mainframe operating system enhancements that support cooperative or client/server processing. Despite the general growth of client/server products in the computer industry, only two of 12 SystemView-compliant products for the company's information management strategy are available. These products include the Workstation Data Save Facility for VM and the NetView Graphics Monitor Facility. IBM plans to add support for Sun Microsystems Inc workstations and Apple Macintosh microcomputers. Third-party tools to accompany VINES upgrade. (Trellis Software Inc.'s Expose Network Manager, Hansen Associates' File Service Several vendors are using new application programming interfaces (APIs) to develop various tools for Banyan Systems' VINES 4.10 network operating system. Trellis Software Inc will release Expose Network Manager in tandem with VINES 4.10. The company claims Expose is the first graphical tool for VINES network diagnostics and tracking. Expose Network Manager runs on any 80386-based microcomputer running Windows 3.0 with at least 4Mbytes of memory and automatically charts VINES network topology. The product's price has yet to be set. NetPro Computing will release six new VINES network-management and messaging utility programs, including the WAN Application Messaging System, a store and forward system that will allow users to create VINES WAN applications. The end-user version will cost approximately $1,500. Hansen Associates plans a Jun 1991 release of its $495-per-server File Service Analyzer that logs user file activity and disk space as well as listing all file services. Microsoft puts new spin on CSI's Network Courier; ships Microsoft Mail for PC networks. (Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail for PC Microsoft Corp announces its Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 electronic mail system. The product is based on Network Courier from Consumers Software Inc (CSI), a company Microsoft recently acquired. Microsoft Mail for PC Networks is a local area network package that runs on Windows and DOS workstations. Microsoft will sell the gateways CSI developed for Network Courier to provide users of Microsoft Mail with gateway access to other mail systems. An MHS gateway will be priced at $495 and a PROFS gateway will cost $14,995. Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1 costs $695 per server plus the cost of the workstation software, which is sold separately. Prices range from $395 for a five-user package to $22,500 for a 500-user package. The server software is available separately to allow users to substitute another mail application or interface without completely changing mail systems. Banish gateway PCs to Twilight Zone. (PC Week Labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. Users should consolidate microcomputers that are dedicated to LAN service into a smaller number of servers. These DOS-based 'gateway' machines should be running network operating systems that can run many different service programs simultaneously. This approach makes for better network management with fewer machines to manage. When users stop dedicating many microcomputers to network tasks they are available for other uses. Gateway software developers do not have to contend with DOS memory limitations if they move to servers running multitasking operating systems. The biggest risks of putting all programs onto one server is the possibility of a crash or system overload. Users can minimize these risks by employing disk mirroring or by simply buying another, backup server. Although it can be costly to purchase an additional server and another copy of the server's operating system, savings from reducing the need for multiple gateway microcomputers can help make a server more affordable. IMRS program appends Notes to EIS. (IMRS Inc.'s Executive Forum add-on software to Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes office IMRS Inc introduces Executive Forum, co-developed with Lotus Development Corp, a link to Lotus' Notes office automation program which allows users to expand the information available on IMRS' OnTrack executive information system (EIS) software. Executive Forum is scheduled for release in the summer of 1991 and is expected to list for $25,000 for 10 users including 10 copies of Lotus Notes. Users who already have Notes can purchase Executive Forum at a lower price. Executive Forum allows users to continually add new information to sets of data on the OnTrack system by using Notes' messaging capabilities. Users click on a sequence of icons and receive access to large volumes of information. They also can add their own comments to Notes messages, making them available to all OnTrack users on the network. Clipper 5.01 keeps vows made in previous version. (Nantucket Corp.'s Clipper 5.01 program development software)(First Look) Nantucket Corp's $795 Clipper 5.01 program development software product improves memory management, offers a new debugger and fixes the bugs in the initial 5.0 release. The package also includes better, customizable screen handling. Nantucket claims that version 5.01 fixes all bugs in 5.0 and a spot-check test shows that major bugs are fixed. Clipper 5.01 gives developers the option of trapping errors caused by low-memory conditions, an improvement over version 5.0 which would often terminate the application and bring users back to DOS after running out of memory. Clipper 5.01 also lets users vary colors field by field and gives developers more input-object classes to help in customizing screen-handling procedures. The new debugger's interface is more Common User Access-compliant and offers more flexibility in configuring for user preference. The new version also has revised on-line documentation. Bedrock speeds Symantec's cross-platform development. Pompili, Tony. Symantec Corp is using a technology called Bedrock in its cross-platform strategy that gives the company a common code base for graphical applications running on OS/2, Windows and Macintosh. Programmers need to make only minor modifications for each platform, streamlining the code production process since basic application code is written only once. Developers fine-tune an application to run on the Bedrock system which then generates the actual code for the particular platform. Symantec expects Bedrock to help the company reduce development cycles by as much as 70 to 80 percent. Symantec also plans to use Bedrock to share code between applications that perform comparable functions such as scrolling text routines in dialog boxes for both Windows and Macintosh applications. The company should also save application testing time since reused code on Bedrock goes through several debugging stages. Easel touches up Workbench with new drawing tools. (Easel Corp.'s Easel Workbench program development software) (product Easel Corp introduces its $11,900 Easel Workbench that gives developers a complete environment for building cooperative- and transaction-processing applications for OS/2. Earlier versions of the product allowed only for creation of interfaces complying with IBM's Systems Application Architecture's Common User Access rules. Beta testers contend that the new editing and drawing tools, with their ability to let programmers put together applications with icons and graphics, make the development platform far more effective than the earlier versions. Easel Corp also has an incremental compiler in Easel Workbench; it lets developers quickly test and debug portions of an application. An Attribute Editor permits definition of interface component functions and a Menu Editor allows for quick creation of pull-down menus and action bars. Easel Corp plans to market Easel Workbench jointly with IBM in Jun 1991. Comdex/Spring takes jack-of-all-trades approach. (Up Front) (column) The Interface Group's Comdex/Spring 1991, to be held May 20 to 23 in Atlanta GA is scheduled to include the Windows World show as well and is likely to be an oddly confused trade show. The Interface Group does not want to repeat what happened in 1990 when many key exhibitors skipped Comdex/Spring in Atlanta and instead focused on PC Expo in New York. Comdex/Spring 1991 will have three keynote speakers: Novell Inc's Pres Ray Noorda, Microsoft Corp's Chmn Bill Gates and IBM Vice President for Multimedia, Michael Braun. It is not a coincidence that all three keynote speakers are from companies that did not attend Comdex/Spring 1990. The Interface Group is also banking on the idea that many corporate executives will attend the show to explore the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, outnumbering Comdex's traditional target audience of resellers and refocusing the meetings. Blaming software sins on hardware vendors. (The Corporate Micro) (column) Some hardware designers and vendors feel that, although they try to assure that their products are compatible with the 'IBM PC Standard,' ill-behaved software programs from software vendors trying to cut corners cause users and the computer press to blame what are software problems on hardware design. They also contend that technical support staff at software companies, when providing solutions for problems, blame the trouble on the hardware vendor. Software vendors are indeed convinced that they, in turn, get the blame for problems that are really caused by hardware. Software gives users an early warning system on the compatibility of hardware and hardware should face the more stringent tests created by users running real programs. Hardware provides the user environment and must represent the standard. Fixing hardware problems also does not lend itself to incremental fixes over the product's lifetime as is the case with software. Hardware problems are also much more difficult to isolate and fix, putting more responsibility on the hardware vendors to get it right initially. Taking the slow road to fixing the fax problem. (Risky Business) (column) Sending and receiving facsimiles is an adequate communication method in certain situations but companies need to be aware that fax abuse can be expensive, a threat to security and an detriment to productivity. Companies can move toward stopping fax abuse by setting up a friendly electronic-mail system and trying to incorporate links to consultants, suppliers and customers. E-mail gateways are helpful in hooking up different mail systems and third party services such as MCI Mail can act as a transfer agent for mail. Companies can shorten fax lines by hooking up fax servers to the company LAN so users can type their fax messages and send them through the network. Companies that have E-mail systems in place should ensure that the system still fits the company and is flexible and easy to use. Firms may also want to dispatch trainers or other enthusiasts to the fax machine area to see if certain messages could be sent more easily by E-mail. Resource centers could be the NYNEX payback. (Changing Channels) (column) ComputerLand's planned purchase of NYNEX Business Centers Inc is a big coup for the computer retailer's Pres Ed Anderson. Computerland plans to pay $150 million for the chain that, despite an estimated 1990 revenue of $650 million, has been losing money for years. The full potential of the acquisition will be contingent on what Anderson does with the 77 NYNEX Business Centers. NYNEX's penetration of Fortune accounts and its staff technical know-how can help ComputerLand reduce costs and achieve uniformity. ComputerLand should retain the NYNEX Business Centers as corporate-owned resource centers that can provide value-added services to ComputerLand's franchisees. Services can include centralized sales, installation, integration and support to franchisees who would fund the services. ComputerLand needs to convince franchisees that the resource centers are services and not competition. This strategy can change the structure of royalty-based franchising and would be a landmark transition for the channel. Languages offer a grip on Windows; four widely different script languages offer low-cost development of utilities. (Microsoft Four program development software packages designed for use with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are evaluated: Matesys Corp's $150 ObjectScript, Publishing Technologies Inc's $99.95 PubTech Batchworks 1.03, the $179 Bridge Batch 3.0 from Softbridge Inc and Wilson WindowWare's $69.95 WinBatch. These programs provide script and batch languages for Windows, facilitating the development of utility programs for the popular microcomputer interface. They can also be used to create menus for starting application software, for developing Windows-based interfaces for DOS utility programs, and for controlling other Windows-based software packages. Softbridge's Bridge Batch 3.0 is the outstanding choice both for building stand-alone applications and automating other Windows-compatible programs. It is rated highly for its ability to record and play back keystrokes and for the quality of its dialog editors. Matesys Corp.: ObjectScript 1.0. (Software Review) (one of four program development software packages evaluated in 'Languages Matesys Corp's $150 ObjectScript program development product for use with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is an economically priced, easy to use software package that can be used for developing rather sophisticated stand-alone Windows utilities. ObjectScript features strong processing capabilities: it supports user-defined functions and incorporates financial and string-manipulation capabilities in addition to a comprehensive array of program-control structures. Scripts developed in ObjectScript can be moved to more powerful Matesys programs, such as ObjectScript Professional and Object View, for enhancement. The product is not as capable as other low-cost scripting languages in the area of controlling other applications written for Windows, for it lacks the ability to assign hot keys to those programs. ObjectScript's font and interface objects is weak. Scripting languages help users navigate through Windows. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface) Program development software known as scripting languages can be helpful for users of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Such products can enhance Windows applications, integrate various utility programs and create new Windows utilities. Wilson WindowWare's WinBatch 3.0 is one such package that is well-suited for controlling the user's progress through the Windows interface by way of dialog boxes. Softbridge Inc's Bridge Batch 3.0 program development software helps users move within Windows quickly, controlling the launching of several different applications. Other popular scripting languages for Windows include Publishing Technologies Inc's PubTech Batchworks 1.03, which is useful for programmers writing applications that call for a macro language. Publishing Technologies Inc.: PubTech Batchworks 1.03; Wilson WindowWare: WinBatch 3.0a. (Software Review) (two of four program Two program development software packages for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface environment are evaluated: Publishing Technologies Inc's $99.95 PubTech Batchworks 1.03 and Wilson WindowWare's $69.95 WinBatch 3.0a. Since the products are both versions of the same code written by Morrie Wilson, it is not surprising that both are rated highly in the areas of ability to control other Windows applications, ability to record and play back keystrokes and general flexibility of the language. Unfortunately, the WinBatch shareware version and Batchworks retail version score poorly in the area of overall program quality as well as quality of dialog editors. Because these programs lack formal support for arrays, and since they perform slowly on complicated tasks, they are best-suited for developing menus, small utility programs, and hot keys. SoftBridge Inc.: Bridge Batch 3.0. (Software Review) (one of four program development software packages evaluated in 'Languages Bridge Batch 3.0 from SoftBridge Inc is an impressive program development software package for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment. Bridge Batch, priced at $179, is more expensive than other programs evaluated, but is likewise more highly rated overall, with extensive functionality for enhancing existing Windows utilities. The software features excellent dialog and program editors and has notable substitution capabilities. Bridge Batch includes a mouse recorder and keystroke recorder enabling the user to paste recorded keystrokes into a batch file. While the package is not appropriate for creating stand-alone applications, it is ideal for making menus for starting programs, creating interfaces for DOS applications, and developing hot keys. UPSs provide consistent power output; trio's power-management programs enhance NetWare warning features. (uninterruptible power Three uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) and accompanying software programs are evaluated: American Power Conversion Corp's Smart-UPS 900, priced at $999 for hardware and $99 for PowerChute software; Elgar Corp's s $899 IPS/A.I. 800 and LanSafe A.I.+ software priced between $99 and $135; and Para Systems Inc's Minuteman AT800, priced at $879 and $109 Network Manager software. These groupings of equipment are designed for use with Novell Corp's NetWare 2.15 and 3.1 network operating systems, which are programmed to shut file servers down in the event of a power failure. The UPSs and software cooperate with the NetWare software to minimize unnecessary shut-downs of the network in the event of inconclusive electrical power problems. All three product combinations enable network managers to specify the point in a power failure at which they want their networks closed. All three are easy to install and provide status reports. Network UPS trio, monitor tools earn buyers' confidence. (uninterruptible power supply equipment from American Power Users have found they can protect their NetWare 2.15 and 3.1-based networks with uninterruptible power supplies and accompanying software from American Power Conversion Corp, Elgar Corp, and Para Systems Inc. These products compensate for an undependable power supply by providing the capability to run the network on battery for as long as 30 minutes, giving network managers a chance to locate the source of a network failure. Some users rely on American Power's Smart-UPS 900 and PowerChute software to save labor costs by managing some support functions previously handled by staff. Elgar's LanSafe A.I. software can help warn managers of unauthorized users on the network. The Para Systems Minuteman AT900 affords other users time to save the material they are working on before a total system failure. American Power Conversion Corp.: Smart-UPS 900. (Hardware Review) (one of three uninterruptible power supply evaluations in 'UPSs American Power Conversion Corp's Smart-UPS 900 uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and its accompanying PowerChute software provide capable back-up power for systems running Novell Corp's NetWare 2.15 or 3.1 network operating systems.The NetWare systems conventionally turn off file servers in the event of an electrical failure, which sometimes results in unnecessary closure of networks during very short power brown- or blackouts. With the Smart-UPS and its software, users can program their networks to shut down only during certain circumstances. The easy to install UPS costs $999, while PowerChute is priced at $99. Most effective of the systems evaluated, the American Power equipment is also able to support the longest battery life. The Smart-UPS outlasted other power supplies by at least five minutes. The UPS has easily readable warning features and its software takes into account 19 different types of power occurrences. Elgar Corp.: IPS/A.I. 800. (Hardware Review) (one of three uninterruptible power supply evaluations in 'UPSs provide Elgar Corp's $899 IPS/A.I. 800 uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and its LanSafe A.I. software, priced at $99 for use with Novell Corp's NetWare 2.15 network operating system and at $135 for use with NetWare 3.1, are valuable products for helping network administrators manage the threat of power outages. The IPS system can program a NetWare file server to continue to run during short power failures. Elgar's software is full of useful features, including those that manage log view and the NetWare send command. The software is somewhat difficult to install, but worth the effort. The IPS power supply can run a file server on battery for about half an hour, but it runs on battery at 120.2 volts, which is higher than the voltage required for competitor Smart-UPS 900 from American Power Conversion. Para Systems Inc.: Minuteman AT800. (Hardware Review) (one of three uninterruptible power supply evaluations in 'UPSs provide Para Systems Inc's Minuteman AT800 uninterruptible power supply (UPS), priced at $879, is designed for use in networks running Novell Corp's NetWare 3.1 or 2.15 network operating systems. The Minuteman works in conjunction with Network Manager software priced at $109. Para Systems' equipment backs up file server activities during a power failure, keeping the NetWare operating system from shutting down the network as it ordinarily would. The Minuteman can run for a satisfactory length of time on battery, but its features and those of the Network Manager software, are less extensive than those of competitors. Only four AC outlets are supplied, and the battery-status lights offer only two indications. The Minuteman hardware is well-designed however, and has a power switch in front and back. In addition, Para Systems' UPS is less expensive than its two evaluated competitors. Crosstalk, Smartcom Exec outrun field; NASI programs vary regarding quality of network support and ease of use. (Digital Six communications software packages are evaluated, all of which can be used to transform a microcomputer on a local area network into a dedicated asynchronous communications server that supports Novell Corp's NASI interface (Novell Asynchronous Services Interface). The NASI software gives the LAN node the ability to run a modem pool that other network users can use for modem access, thereby avoiding the expense of providing a modem for every user on the network. The software is installed with a modem board supporting between 4 and 16 modems. The evaluated products include Digital Communications Associates Inc's Crosstalk Communications Div's Crosstalk Mk.4 2.0; Datastorm Technologies Inc's Procomm Plus Network; Dynamic Microprocessor Associates Inc's Ascom IV Network 1.42; Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc's Smartcom Exec 2.0; Microcom Inc's Relay Gold 4.0; and SoftKlone Distributing Corp's Mirror III LAN 2.0. The most highly rated are Crosstalk Mk.4 2.0 and Smartcom Exec 2.0. Buyers say ease of use, scripting are key NASI purchasing points. (communications software supports Novell Asynchronous Services Several communications software packages are available that cooperate with the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI), and can thus be used on NetWare networks to connect users to a dedicated node serving as a modem pool. Some South Carolina schools use Microcom Inc's Relay Gold to connect to the state's Department of Education facilities, where information on textbook orders is accessed. Users are reported pleased by the software's ease of use. Other products deployed by users for the same purpose include Ascom IV Network from Dynamic Microprocessor Assc Inc, Smartcom Exec from Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc, Datastorm Technologies Inc's Procomm Plus Network, SoftKlone Distributing Corp's Mirror III LAN, and Digital Communications Assc Inc's Crosstalk Mk.4. Crosstalk Communications/DCA: Crosstalk Mk.4 2.0. (Digital Communications Associates Inc. Crosstalk Communications Div.) Digital Communications Associates Inc Crosstalk Communications Div's Crosstalk Mk.4 2.0 communications software package, priced at $245, is a valuable product that can make network users more efficient by enabling them to access a modem pool on a dedicated network node. Crosstalk Mk.4 supports the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI) and is easy to install. Sporting the best interface among the six evaluated products, Crosstalk is a wise choice for network administrators seeking to minimize the time they spend supporting users without sacrificing quality. The software includes scripts for logging onto online services. Documentation is thorough, and uploading and file transfer processes are simple due to the menu-driven file selection and status screen features. This communications package is well worth its relatively high price. Datastorm Technologies Inc.: Procomm Plus Network 1.0. (Software Review) (one of six communications software evaluations from Datastorm Technologies Inc's easy-to-install Procomm Plus Network communications software, priced at $595, has an enormous user base because it was formerly a shareware program. The still reasonable price includes five licenses and five sets of documentation. In need of updating, this package for NetWare-based networks has an unusually difficult interface. Procomm supports the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface and can thus be used to establish a modem pool on a dedicated network node. Several small problems may irritate users, including the software's inability to access local serial ports and its rather ambiguous error messages. Procomm requires users to select a modem when the program is started. This can lead to a waste of modem resources, since users can keep Procomm running even when off-line, monopolizing a modem that other network workers might use. Dynamic Microprocessor Associates Inc.: Ascom IV Network 1.42. (Software Review) (one of six communications software evaluations Dynamic Microprocessor Associates Inc's Ascom IV Network 1.42 communications software, priced at $395, is compatible with the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI), making the Ascom appropriate for accessing a modem pool on a dedicated network node. The Ascom software is well documented and includes a terminal emulation for Dynamic's pcAnywhere IV/LAN remote-access software, but it is not as powerful as several of its competitors. The interface needs updating, and support for the NASI interface is not as thorough as in the other evaluated communications products. Installation must be performed by the NetWare User Supervisor who knows the Supervisor password. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.: Smartcom Exec 2.0. (Software Review) (one of six communications software evaluations from Smartcom Exec 2.0, a $129 communications software package from Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc, is intended for NetWare networks. Compatible with the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI), Smartcom enables users to connect to a dedicated network node that houses a modem pool. The product is an excellent value and includes informative documentation. Tests reveal some problems in connecting with various online services, and some compatibility problems exist between the product and the US Robotics Courier HST modem and NASI 2.07 software. Overall network support, however, is exceptionally strong. Smartcom can help the user find an alternative modem or null-modem service when the desired one is inaccessible. Users can connect each dialing directory entry with a combination of general service name, specific service name or communication server name. Microcom Inc.: Relay Gold 4.0. (Software Review) (one of six communications software evaluations from 'Crosstalk, Smartcom Exec Microcom Inc's Relay Gold 4.0 communications software, priced at $825 for a five-user license, is intended for NetWare network users seeking to connect to a modem pool established on a dedicated node. The product is difficult to install and has an unsatisfying interface. The disk-based tutorial is a useful feature, but network support in general is not impressive. Given the high price of its licenses, this NASI-compatible (Novell Asynchronous Services Interface) software does not compare well to its competitors. The software requires two environmental variables to be established, one for a user's personal files and one to record the user's name, and 16 virtual ports. SoftKlone Distributing Corp.: Mirror III LAN 2.0. (Software Review) (one of six communications software evaluations from SoftKlone Distributing Corp's $595 Mirror III LAN 2.0 communications software for NetWare networks is used to connect nodes to a modem pool. An easy-to-use and comprehensive program, Mirror is also simple to install. It is unfortunately unable to handle busy network ports gracefully, and includes several features that are not usable in the Novell Asynchronous Services Interface (NASI) mode, including support for the MNP Class 5, ACT CommPressor and Zmodem protocols and the ability to run in background. Mirror's status box appears in file downloads and is quite helpful. One of the most economical products in its field, Mirror is marred by a bug that occurs when requested network services are busy. SoftKlone officials are offering a patch to fix the bug. DDE features assist Windows tools; DDE packages allow data sharing, ease automatic data transfers. (Dynamic Data Exchange) Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a function of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface that allows applications to request and exchange data automatically. DDE works like the Windows Clipboard feature but goes one step further by creating a link between the data and the receiver. Applications development programming tool kits such as KnowledgePro Windows can let users link Microsoft Word for Windows documents and Excel spreadsheets through KnowledgePro's DDE feature, which feeds requested numbers into Excel for calculation and then on to Word for document creation. KnowledgePro for Windows offers a customizable DDE script and can integrate hypertext and multimedia technology with an object-oriented language. SmallTalk/V Windows also offers three specific possibilities available for application development with DDE. Microsoft is expected to release Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) as a next step for system integration with Windows by spring 1992. OLE sits on top of DDE and is embedded data that can take the whole object and make it part of a document. DDE eases migration from Clipper to Windows. (Dynamic Data Exchange) (Nantucket Corp.'s Clipper program development software; Consultants find that Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support in programming tools is significant in the implementation of a large Microsoft Windows installation for Revenue Canada, the Canadian government's customs and excise department. The department is migrating from a Clipper 5 environment on a mainframe computer to 2,000 workstations running the Windows graphical user interface. Users feel that DDE is helpful in Windows' multitasking environment by allowing them to compress tasks and do multiple things. The department is standardized on Microsoft Corp's SQL Server and uses DDE in SQL Soft Inc's Softlink programming tool. Softlink lets the dBFast for Windows 1.5 programming tool talk to the SQL Server database engine that runs on OS/2. It translates the tool's high-level object-oriented language to the C language in the database engine's database library. DBfast uses English-like commands, which makes it more intuitive than other programming tools. ValCom, Inacomp to merge: agreement creates billion-dollar force. (ValCom Inc. and Inacomp Computer Centers Inc.) ValCom Inc and Inacomp Computer Centers Inc announce the signing of an agreement to merge the two companies into a new company called InaCom Corp. Analysts contend that InaCom Corp will be an almost billion dollar force that will rank in sales only slightly behind Businessland Inc and Intelligent Electronics Inc. Inacomp is currently in a joint venture with Centel Corp to provide nationwide technical support for computer networks and ValCom offers a highly regarded networking laboratory. Valcom Inc and Inacomp will have together a network of 685 franchise branches, company-owned stores and affiliated dealers throughout the nation. The merger will place Inacomp's Troy, MI headquarters as the center of company-owned operations and service business while ValCom's Omaha, NE main office will handle franchisee organization and distribution. Microsoft makes aggressive moves to improve developer relations. (Microsoft Corp.) Microsoft Corp announces plans to increase the size of its software developer relations group from 16 to over 40 in an attempt to improve the company's strained relations with developers. The group serves as a channel for information regarding Microsoft's operating systems and seeks opinions from independent software vendors (ISV) about product improvements. Many third-party developers have long thought that Microsoft's applications group receives detailed operating systems plan information earlier than they do. The ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation of Microsoft Corp for anti-competitive practices puts increased pressure on the company. The developer group manager says, however, that the decision to expand the group has nothing to do with the investigation and that Microsoft's desire to push Windows into market dominance has dictated the expansion of the group. Lotus, Software Publishing hit snag while rivals roll on. (Lotus Development Corp., Software Publishing Corp.) Lotus Development Corp posts only a five percent increase in revenues and a 71 percent drop in net income for its 1st qtr ended March 31, 1991. Analysts contend that a lack of new products hurt Lotus but the company is expected to ship Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 in May 1991. Software Publishing Corp broke even for its 2nd qtr in its fiscal year as of Mar 31, 1991. Analysts believe Software Publishing was hurt by customers waiting for its Harvard Graphics 3.0 which is due in the 3rd qtr. Borland International Inc posts the strongest gains with revenue increasing 103 percent and net income 102 percent for the company's 4th qtr ended Mar 31, 1991. Microsoft Corp shows a 65 percent gain in net income and a 57 percent increase in revenues for its 3rd qtr. Apple Computer Inc reports revenue increase of only 19 percent and a slight drop in net income for its 2nd qtr ended Mar 29, 1991. Intel hopes to popularize 486 with SX chip; microprocessor is at the heart of Intel campaign to increase 486 sales. (Intel Corp.) Intel Corp introduces its 80486SX chip that the company hopes will increase sales of the 80486 microprocessor. The 80486SX chip is a 20-MHz version of the 80486 without the math coprocessor that will sell for approximately $250 in quantities of 1,000. The original 25-MHz 80486 chip is priced at $445 per 1,000. Intel shipped 3.3 million 80386 microprocessors in 1990 but only shipped 148,000 of the 80486 chips. 80486 systems have been priced from $5,000 to $10,000 but systems with the new 80486SX microprocessor are likely to be sold from between $2,500 and $5,000. Industry analysts contend that the new chip is likely to have a major impact on the market but feel it could take about one to two years due to the cautious marketplace. Everex Systems Inc is planning to ship two new 80486SX-based systems in late Apr 1991. Sun's SPARC dominance casts long shadow over marketplace; Compaq avoids the crowd with MIPS choice. (Sun Microsystems Inc., Compaq Industry analysts are wondering if vendors other than Sun Microsystems Inc can make a profit selling systems based on Sun's SPARC reduced-instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors in the wake of Compaq Computer Corp's decision to develop workstations with RISC processors from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. Compaq considered using the SPARC microprocessor but decided against it because of the dominance of Sun in the SPARC marketplace; the company sold 95 percent of all SPARC systems in 1990. Sun officials point out, as a sign of diversity, that at least 34 companies are building SPARC systems. Industry observers believe, however, that many of these companies will not make a profit and will eventually drop out of the market. Officials of companies who sell SPARC-based systems say they can survive only if they find a market niche where Sun does not compete. Micrografx straddles both sides of the Windows-OS/2 fence. (Looking Forward) (column) Software company Micrografx is responsible for making both IBM and Microsoft Corp's parallel yet competing strategies for porting Windows to OS/2 possible. Micrografx, with Microsoft's support, started development of a system called Mirrors for porting Windows applications to OS/2. Microsoft added to Mirrors and announced its Porthole technology that allowed Windows applications to run under OS/2 2.0. Microsoft, however, dropped the Porthole project and instead announced Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO), a Mirrors-derivative technology that lets programmers modify applications for use with OS/2 2.0. Micrografx continued its work on the Mirrors product despite part of it having been licensed for use by Microsoft. IBM approached Micrografx when it began to enter the Windows market and adopted an advanced version of Mirrors for the company's OS/2 2.0 that has become the recently announced High Performance Windows Porting Layer (HPWPL). IBM plans to include HPWPL in its OS/2 software development kit. AT&T lifts bid for NCR to $110 a share but in stock; telecommunications giant's offer is for $7.48 billion; computer AT and T renews its bid for NCR Corp by offering $110 a share, or $7.48 million, for the computer manufacturer. The offer involves AT and T stock rather than cash, which causes NCR to reject the offer in consideration of stock price volatility. AT and T's stock closed at $37.375 a share on Apr 19, 1991; the telecommunication company's stock has been rising since Jan 1991 when it was worth $29.25 a share. NCR stock holders would get a maximum of 3,099 AT and T shares and a minimum of 2,803 shares under the AT and T proposal. The final price per share for NCR stockholders will vary between $108.465 a share and $112.12 a share, depending on the price of AT and T stock. AT and T has given NCR a 24-hour period to accept the new proposal. The offer expires on Apr 22, 1991 at 5 p.m. At Fujitsu, notebook PCs lighten up. (Fujitsu Ltd.'s FMR Card PC notebook computer) (product announcement) Fujitsu Ltd's FMC Card PC notebook computer takes on a new approach to portable computing by using small semiconductor memory cards instead of hard disks, plastic floppy disks and bulky disk drives. The new notebook computer weighs only two pounds and is capable of running for as long as eight hours on two AA batteries. Industry analysts and computer company officials indicate that the new product is likely to revolutionize the notebook computer market. The initial problem with the FMC Card PC is that there are not many buyers because of a lack of software for the machine. Some industry observers are suspicious of the new notebook computer and go so far as to indicate that Fujitsu is simply creating a technology for the sake of creating something new. They believe that the long-term potential of the product is open to question. Intel to unveil cheaper version of its 486 chip. (Intel Corp.'s 486SX microprocessor) Intel Corp plans to introduce the 486SX microprocessor with a price tag half that of its popular 80486 microprocessor. Industry observers believe that the new member of its 486 family of microprocessors will be the processor of choice because of its low price and high performance. Analysts note that Intel hopes to maintain a dominant market share in the semiconductor industry with the 20 MHz 486SX. Recent competition from Advanced Micro Devices Inc's 80386 clone threatens Intel's market share; Intel hopes to woo users away from the 80386 line of microprocessors completely with the new chip. The 486SX does not offer any new technology but is being marketed as a strategic product. IBM again revamps European sector; it seeks to find proper mix as market grows tougher. IBM seeks to reorganize its European operations so that it can flourish in a computer market that is growing more competitive as the advent of the Single European Market nears. The computer maker reports a slowing down in sales growth for the 1st qtr of 1991. Some industry observers blame lagging sales on the general economic climate in Europe and to the rising value of the US dollar against foreign currencies after the end of the Persian Gulf war. The results are distressing to IBM nonetheless and pressure is mounting for the company to more successfully implement its decentralization strategy, which began poorly in 1990. IBM will focus on reorganization as a gradual process so as not to lose control of the large European market. Dutch computer rogues tap U.S. systems with impunity. (computer hacking) Dutch computer hackers have been tapping into American computer networks, intruding into systems that deal with military, space and intelligence matters. The hackers, who have been active since late 1990, have not penetrated into the most secure systems, nor have they done any serious damage, but US authorities have been tracking the intrusions and are concerned. So far, no arrests have been made because unauthorized computer access is not against the law in the Netherlands. Thus, the hackers are operating beyond the reach of American law there. Gail Thackeray, a former Arizona attorney general who has prosecuted computer crimes, compares the situation to the protection of financial privacy by certain countries. Some countries, she says, are now protecting intellectual property violations. Air controllers say computers show false images. Air traffic controllers complain that false images of other planes sometimes appear on airliner cockpit computers. An example of such an occurrence involving a United Airlines flight approaching O'Hare International Airport is described. The incident started when the airplane's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (T-CAS) reported another airplane nearby. Consequently, the United flight tried to avoid a plane that was not actually there. US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials believe that a software problem might be the cause of this and similar occurrences and the agency is working to resolve these problems. The FAA says that safety is not affected. Representatives of the controllers' union are not as confident. Sematech starts to make progress; but overall mission is unaccomplished. (U.S. semiconductor consortium) Sematech, a consortium of US semiconductor and computer companies, is an experiment in government-industry cooperation that aims to improve the competitiveness of the US semiconductor industry. Sematech was started in 1987. Now, after three years characterized by turmoil, as well as changes in both management and direction, Sematech can boast of some victories and accomplishments, but so far, the organization has not succeeded in accomplishing its main goal of bringing US semiconductor companies to parity with their Japanese counterparts. The consortium spends about $200 million a year and has a staff of 700. Half the money comes from 14 corporate members, and the other half comes from the Federal Government. Currently, Sematech's board is considering plans for Sematech II, a modified continuation of the consortium. Sematech CEO William J. Spencer indicates that Sematech II will be more streamlined and less centralized. There will be more emphasis on work done at companies, universities and national laboratories. 3 of 4 Bell companies post drop in earnings. (telephone companies) (Company earnings) Four regional telephone companies - Nynex Corp, Bell Atlantic Corp, BellSouth Corp and US West - report 1st qtr earnings for 1991 and the results suggest that the recession has had a significant effect. Nynex reports that net income is down 7.5 percent. Net income for the company fell to $269.5 million ($1.34 a share) from $291.4 million ($1.46 a share) in the comparable period a year preceding. Bell Atlantic reports net income of $353.6 million, which is slightly less than the $355.3 million that the company reported last year. BellSouth says net income is down 4.9 percent to $402.3 million (83 cents a share) from $423.2 million (88 cents a share) a year ago. US West says net income is up 5.1 percent, to $285.9 million from $271.9 million. These results tend to confirm a trend established by reports that came out earlier in the week. Loss of millions seen in U.S. phone contract. (FTS 2000 telephone network) Members of the US Congress are criticizing the US General Services Administration's (GSA's) management of a $25 billion contract for the Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000 computer network. The government arranged for AT and T to receive 60 percent of the revenue and for US Sprint Communications Co to receive 40 percent of the revenue; AT and T is to receive more because its rates are 30 percent lower than US Sprint's rates. US Sprint has actually received more than AT and T for the first two years of the contract and will report revenue of $273 million through the end of the 1990-1991 fiscal year while AT and T will receive only $229 million for that same period. The US General Accounting Office charges that the GSA allowed overcharging by US Sprint. Phone case arguments are heard. (restrictions that bar regional Bell holding companies from owning information services) Federal District Court Judge Harold Greene will rule on whether restrictions should be lifted that bar the regional Bell holding companies (RBHCs) from offering information services. Greene did not give any indication that he would defer the decision to the US Department of Justice, which is siding with the RBHCs. Greene has consistently resisted giving up control over issues that revolve around the consent decree that broke up AT and T in 1984 and barred the RBHCs from the information services industry. Many in the information services industry, including newspapers and television broadcasters, believe that the RBHCs will have an opportunity to compete unfairly if they are given the chance to enter the market. Four Baby Bells report net was generally flat; results indicate recession has reduced businesses' use of telephone service. US West Inc, Bell Atlantic Corp, BellSouth Corp and NYNEX Corp all report flat earnings for the 1st qtr of 1991. Industry observers blame the US recession and the decline of business use for the poor quarterly showing of the four regional Bell holding companies (RBHCs). US West weathered the recession the best and reported earnings of 73 cents a share; revenue for the RBHC rose by one percent when compared to the same period in 1990. Revenue for Bell Atlantic during the 1st qtr of 1991 declined to $3 billion from $3.02 billion during the 1st qtr of 1990. BellSouth experienced a slight growth in revenue, from $3.52 billion in the 1st qtr of 1990 to $3.54 billion in the current period, but also experienced a 2.7 percent rise in operating expenses. NYNEX reports flat revenue for the 1st qtr of 1991. Slow growth spurs shake-up in PCs; Apple surges, IBM stumbles as prices slide. IBM loses its control over the microcomputer industry to Apple Computer Inc and Compaq Computer Corp in early 1991. IBM reports that it experienced a 15 percent drop in microcomputer sales for the 1st qtr of 1991. Apple reports a 20 percent gain in revenue and an 85 percent increase in Apple Macintosh microcomputer shipments; computer industry analysts expect that Compaq will report revenue gains for the 1st qtr of 1991 as well. Industry observers note that IBM has lost its control over the microcomputer industry because of its insistence on offering products that the market is not willing to buy. This and other serious tactical errors, coupled with price cutting at other companies, is causing IBM's trouble. IBM plans revamps, hints at price cuts. Hooper, Laurence. IBM concedes that it has lost market share in the 1st qtr of 1991 and indicates that it will consider price cutting and other actions as a means of regaining that market share. The number-one computer maker admits that its microcomputer sales for the 1st qtr of 1991 fell 15 percent when compared to sales in the same period in 1990; the company blames the recession and problems in distribution for the large fall in sales. IBM also notes that its late entry into the laptop computer market has hurt it substantially. Industry observers note that IBM is revamping its microcomputer line and is planning the introduction of a microcomputer based on the Intel Corp 486SX microprocessor. The new microcomputer will put it on the leading edge of microcomputer technology. A.T.&T. net rises; GTE's declines. Feder, Barnaby J. The telecommunication industry reports mixed results for the 1st qtr of 1991 with AT and T reporting an increase in net income and GTE Corp reporting a decrease in earnings. AT and T had earnings of $712 million, or 65 cents a share, for the 1st qtr of 1991, a 6.5 percent increase from the $668 million, or 62 cents a share, it reported for the same period in 1990. Revenue was up 3.2 percent for the period with a total of $9.19 billion as compared with $8.90 billion for the same period in 1990. GTE reported a decrease in net income of $200 million, or 22 cents a share, for the 1st qtr of 1991; the decrease is over a 50 percent drop from its net income of $407 million, or 46 cents a share, for the same period in 1990. Electronic ads offered by USA Today, Prodigy. (USA Today newspaper and Prodigy Services Co.) Prodigy Services Co and the USA Today newspaper begin an electronic advertising service in 1991 that will reach nearly one million people. Newspapers have attempted to break into electronic advertising since 1979 but have been largely unsuccessful because there were not enough households with microcomputers connected to modems. USA Today and Prodigy's efforts are being watched closely by other newspapers; Prodigy's one million subscriber base offers new potential. Advertisers will pay $120 a year to join the Prodigy network and $60 a week to run their ads. Advertisers will receive responses via electronic mail. AT&T earnings increased 6.6% in first quarter; net would have been flat without gain from sale of equity in Unix unit. AT and T reports a 6.6 percent rise in net income for the 1st qtr of 1991 on a 3.2 percent increase in revenue. The telecommunications company reported a net income of $712 million, or 65 cents a share, which is up from the $668 million, or 62 cents a share, it reported for the 1st qtr of 1990. Industry analysts note that AT and T earned about three cents a share on its sale of equity in Unix Systems Laboratories. The company expects earnings to be stronger in the 2nd qtr of 1991 if the economy rebounds from its recent recession. AT and T's operating profit rose by four percent for the period, up to $1.23 billion from $1.18 billion for the same period in 1990. IBM is said to be ready to announce new line of AS/400 minicomputers. The new line of AS/400 minicomputers that IBM plans to announce in Apr 1991 will have central processors that are 50 percent faster than the processors used in earlier models. IBM executives also noted that prices for the line of AS/400 minicomputers will be cut by as much as a third, which will increase the price/performance ratio of the machines by as much as 55 percent. Industry analysts note that sales of the AS/400 minicomputer have slowed considerably in the 1st qtr of 1991; a strategy to increase sales is very important to the number one computer maker since the sale of the AS/400 accounts for 20 percent of IBM's revenue. Phones getting smarter with built-in computer: for banking and paying bills, simply push a button. AT&T and Northern Telecom Ltd are among companies that are developing telephone equipment that incorporates computer chips, modems and display screens. Such features are not new in themselves, but they signify an advance in the direction of new telecommunications technologies that can take advantage of new kinds of information services. AT&T will introduce its 'Smart Phone' sometime in the next year. The product reportedly will have a built-in computer allowing programming of features, and there will be a modem and a 4-by-6.5-inch display screen, which is similar to screens used on automatic teller machines (ATMs). The Smart Phone's price is expected to be $150 to $200. The reasoning behind this kind of a product is that consumers will want services that they can obtain from their homes. According to Michael Grisham, a manager of strategic planning at AT&T: 'We really regard this as the next-generation telephone.' Compaq trims prices and sues Dell on ads. (Compaq Computer Corp.) (Business Technology) Compaq Computer Corp cuts prices on its microcomputers, responding to low pricing by competing manufacturers. Compaq also files suit in Federal District Court, complaining of unfair and deceptive advertising practices by one of Compaq's competitors, Dell Computer Corp. Dell declares that it will fight back, saying that Compaq is trying to intimidate a smaller company. Industry observers call Compaq's price reductions an acknowledgement of a highly competitive market. Compaq's shares close at $62, up 62.5 cents. Dell's shares close at $27.125, down $1.50. Microsoft shows gains despite industry slump. Fisher, Lawrence M. Microsoft reports a 65 percent profit gain on a 57 percent revenue increase in the 3rd qtr ended Mar 31, 1991. Microsoft's net income is $123.8 million (98 cents a share), up from $75.2 million (62 cents a share) for the same period in the preceding year. Sales are increased to $486.9 million, from $310.9 million in the preceding year. Per share figures are up, reflecting a 4 percent rise in shares outstanding, to $126.3 million. Microsoft's dominance in certain parts of the software market, notably in operating systems for microcomputers, is cited as a reason for the company's success and growth. Net in 1st period is lackluster for 3 Baby Bells; Sprint parent's profit falls; slow growth in hookups of phone lines is cited. Three Baby Bell companies - Southwestern Bell Corp, Ameritech and Pacific Telesis Group - and US Sprint's parent United Telecommunications report poor earnings in the 1st qtr of 1991. Slow growth in customer telephone hookups is blamed for the lackluster earnings. Southwestern Bell's profit is down 9.6 percent, Ameritech's is down 6.8 percent and Pacific Telesis Group's is up only 1.5 percent. An industry observer characterizes these results as 'fairly indicative' of regional Bell companies. Southwestern Bell's earnings were affected by rate reductions imposed by a Texas regulatory plan. United Telecom's 39 percent decrease in operating profit from the 1st qtr of 1990 is blamed on continued poor performance by its US Sprint subsidiary. Microsoft profit jumped by 65% in third period. (ended March 31, 1991) Microsoft Corp reports a 65 percent increase in earnings for the 3rd qtr ended Mar 31, 1991. Net earnings for the quarter total $123.8 million (98 cents a share), which compares with $75.2 million (62 cents a share) in the same period a year ago. Revenue increased 57 percent to $486.9 million from $310.9 million. These results signify a growing penetration in the market for software applications and growing interest in Microsoft's Windows graphical user interface. In other news, Microsoft says that Apple Computer Inc intends to expand its copyright lawsuit against Microsoft. Apple had alleged copyright violations involving Microsoft's Windows 2.03. Apple apparently intends to include claims against Microsoft's Windows 3.0. Compaq reduces prices up to 34% and sues Dell, alleging unfair ads. (Compaq Computer Corp.; Dell Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp cuts its prices by as much as 34 percent in a move to make its products more competitive. Compaq's customers, who are choosing similar but less costly products from Compaq's competitors, apparently do not believe Compaq's sales pitches, which have stressed the notion that a superior product is worth a premium price. Compaq admits that the price cuts aim to win back sales. Compaq holds about 3.5 percent of the world's microcomputer market, which is estimated to be worth $36.7 billion. Compaq is suing a competitor - Dell Computer Corp of Austin, TX - which has run ads comparing its prices with Compaq's prices. Compaq claims that Dell's ads are unfair and accuses Dell of false advertising. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO at Dell, says his company will profit from the publicity generated by the law suit. System 7.0: what works? Compatibility issues loom as 'final candidate' emerges. Not all third-party software applications will be compatible with the new System 7.0 operating system for the Macintosh when the system-software upgrade is released May 13, 1991. Apple engineers are now testing the second 'final candidate' version of System 7.0, and many third-party vendors are rushing to deliver System 7.0-compatible upgrades of their products. The company offers a free 'Compatibility Checker' HyperCard stack on the AppleLink on-line service and will include the stack in the System 7.0 package. Compatibility Checker examines the user's hard disk and reports on the compatibility of the software installed. Recent releases of most major applications are defined as 'fully compatible,' but some older programs are incompatible. Many shareware and lesser-known programs are not included in the stack's internal database. Compatibility problems may deter some users from upgrading to System 7.0 until they are resolved. Controversy over Claris role still simmers after spin-in. (relationship between Apple Computer Inc and Claris Corp) Some third-party developers complain that Claris Corp is taking advantage of its 'spun in' position as a wholly-owned Apple subsidiary to gain an unfair edge in sales and product development and that Apple ignores their protests. T/Maker Co claims that Claris is 'dumping' products into reseller channels, and some companies say that the subsidiary firm gains 'inside information' and earlier access to new technology than competitors. Apple says it runs Claris like any other software firm, but many developers are skeptical; some say that Apple should report on Claris' financial performance in order to allay fears that Claris is being 'subsidized.' File-share vendors enter new era. (third parties fear competition from file-sharing capabilities built into System 7.0) Apple's upcoming System 7.0 operating system will offer built-in file sharing capability in its first release and will reportedly include electronic mail and network analysis in future versions. The improved functionality has raised concern among third-party developers of Macintosh file sharing products about competition. Third-party vendors are not yet sure how the operating system upgrade will affect their sales; some say that Apple's offering of built-in functions will drive them out of business, while others argue that it will open up the market and lead to products that add additional functionality. Sitka Corp, whose TOPS product has much of its functionality built into System 7.0, remains optimistic, noting that sites seeking cross-platform connectivity will remain a major market and stating that System 7.0 'validates' the peer-to-peer networking concept. New toys for control freaks. (new 'control class' of applications to follow release of System 7.0) Many Macintosh third-party vendors are rushing to develop new 'control center' applications that take advantage of the Interapplication Communication (IAC) technology built into Apple's upcoming System 7.0 operating system. Claris Corp's HyperCard 2.1, which will be included in the System 7.0 upgrade package, will support the sending and receiving of 'AppleEvents.' UserLand Software Inc already offers the UserLand IAC developer tool for interprocess communication under both System 6.x and System 7.0 and will reportedly announce a new control environment in May 1991. Tactic Software Inc will offer a new program called Traffic Controller, and CE Software Inc is developing a package of externals that will let users control AppleEvents through its QuicKeys macro program. Remote Control fleshes out tracking, database options in TeleMagic 10.6. (Remote Control International introduces TeleMagic 10.6 Remote Control International introduces TeleMagic 10.6, an interim upgrade of its sales and marketing database application that offers enhanced options for tracking customers and business contacts. TeleMagic is based on Fox Software Inc's FoxBase+/Mac and helps users integrate vital contact statistics via an auto-dialer as well as recording and recalling information. The program can generate reports and create form letters. TeleMagic 10.6 costs $495 for a single-user version and $1,995 for a multi-user version; a new QuickMagic desk accessory version sells for $99. A new order-entry feature supports two types of invoices, and users can export telephone usage reports to a word processor, client billing or spreadsheet application. GAIA helps Mac manipulate satellite images of the earth. (Geographic Access Information and Analysis)(includes related Geographic Access Information and Analysis (GAIA) is a geographic information system developed by the Island Institute in Maine to help support the careful use of the state's 3,000 islands. GAIA uses digital data from satellite services and displays digitized images on an Apple Macintosh in 'false' colors that highlight distinctions. Up to 64 layers of vector drawings can be placed atop the bit-mapped images to show topographical features. GAIA can export images in PICT format for further analysis and will run on any Mac with 8-bit color. Users range from elementary school students to doctoral candidates, scientists and researchers. Apple helped fund the GAIA project and will soon name a distributor to market the product. It will sell for $500 to $1,500. Oracle Card eases client development; power may pose problems for MIS. (database programming tool) Oracle Corp is developing Oracle Card 2.0, a new version of its HyperCard work-alike database development tool, scheduled for release in the summer of 1991. Oracle Card 2.0 is based on Plus 2.0, a HyperCard-compatible program created by Format GmBH of Germany and marketed by Spinnaker Software Corp. Oracle Card 2.0 will support both Microsoft Windows and the Mac and will include two scripting languages as well as several sample stacks. Oracle Script is a clone of HyperTalk and essentially the same language used in Plus to develop front-end applications. Oracle Access is a platform-independent application programming interface for Oracle's SQL*Net protocol. Oracle Card creates new applications by intercepting Oracle Script messages and prompting the user for information on where to link a new object in the database. Users can create custom applications without writing code. Maintaining data integrity and efficiency are major challenges which Oracle Card essentially fails to address. Kodak turns to the Mac and Omnis 5 to keep up with fast-rising executives. (Eastman Kodak Corp.) (personnel management) Personnel managers at Eastman Kodak Corp use Blyth Software's Omnis 5 database running on the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows to track key prospects among the firm's managers and note their progress; charting potential career paths and identifying potential replacements when a vacancy occurs. The multiplatform front-end Executive Development Program (EDP) software presents a graphical front end to information stored in Kodak's enormous mainframe-based personnel database; managers dial into the mainframe from their microcomputers, download files and import them into the Omnis front end. Seventeen Kodak business units are now using the system to each track up to 100 top-level executives. The in-house developers who wrote EDP say that it essentially involved developing two different applications because porting directly from the Mac to Windows proved infeasible. User lockout stirs uproar on GEnie: supporter accounts made read-only. (GE Information Services Co.'s online service allegedly GEnie has reportedly revoked the accounts of some customers who publicly disagreed with its management, locking them out of on-line forums and discontinuing accounts because of 'personality conflicts.' A few users claim that some account holders are bound by secret agreements with GEnie forbidding them from criticizing the service in exchange for free accounts designed to bring in more users. Several paying members say they had accounts cancelled merely for mentioning the name of the customer involved in the dispute in their postings. GEnie is an on-line information service owned by GE Information Services Co. Cayman updates GatorBox router to store software in flash EPROM. (Cayman Systems Inc.'s GatorBox CS, GatorBox MIM CS, TCP/IP Cayman Systems introduces the $2,795 GatorBox CS and GatorBox MIM CS, new versions of its popular GatorBox AppleTalk-to-Ethernet router that are designed to fix problems with the original design and to integrate the GatorBox with corporate wiring closets. Both new models include 1Mbyte of flash EPROM on the gateway itself for storing software and configurations; the original GatorBox required a remote machine for this purpose and forced administrators to configure and download software manually after a network failure. The GatorBox MIM CS relies on Cabletron's MultiMedia Access Center multiprotocol hub for power and works in conjunction with other Cabletron devices, supporting the Simple Network Management Protocol. Cayman has also updated its Gator Share TCP/IP add-on software to work with the new routers. GatorShare CS costs $1,995 and lets Mac users transparently access Unix servers. NAB show to star Mac video tools: editing systems for the desktop. (National Association of Broadcasters) (product announcement) Several vendors will display new Macintosh video products at the 1991 National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas. NewTek Inc will announce a stand-alone version of its Commodore Amiga-based Video Toaster that can directly read Macintosh files. Users will no longer have to buy an entire Amiga to work with the $3,695 Toaster, while will read PICT, PostScript and 3DGF files from Mac disks. Truevision Inc plans to introduce VideoScript, a $495 point-and-click presentation editor. The software works with Truevision's NuVista and NuVista Plus boards and lets users create presentations by linking 'scenes' that contain video images and transitions. CV Technologies will announce Edit Master Mac, a Mac-based version of its popular video editing system. Infini-D delivers modeling, rendering, animation in 3-D. (Specular International Ltd.'s three-dimensional graphics software) (product Specular International Ltd introduces Infini-D, a three-dimensional graphics program for the Macintosh that combines modeling, rendering and animation features. It offers a variety of basic graphics primitives and an 'Orthogonal Editor' for creating lathed, extruded and custom objects. The rendering portion of the package offers several options for producing photo-realistic images, including ray tracing, wireframe, flat, Gourand and Phong shading. Its animation features are based on a time approach; the 'Sequencer' module displays a time line on which users place objects rather than using keyframes. Object morphing, another unique feature of the program, lets users easily transform 3-D objects and their surfaces from one shape to another. Infini-D sells for $895. Data Shaper and xdata bridge gap between data management, design: automated formats speed importing. (DataShaper 1.2; xdata add-ins Elsewhere Corp's DataShaper 1.2 import filter for PageMaker and Em Software Inc's xdata for QuarkXPress are desktop publishing software add-ins provide powerful data management features and save users time. The packages bridge the gap between traditional database managers, which let users manipulate, sort and summarize data but do not offer design features, and page-layout programs, which are better suited to designing pages but do not manage data. DataShaper and xpress let users import database data into PageMaker or Xpress and automatically format it. xdata is accessed through the Quark Xpress menu and requires users to create a 'prototype' document with variable names as place holders. DataShaper automatically assigns styles to imported data. Pre-press defines itself at Seybold Seminars '91: pricing, technology links highlighted. (includes related article on new Major topics and issues discussed at the 1991 Seybold Seminars desktop publishing trade show included the merger between Linotype and Hell, competition in the scanner market and new calibration and color-space models. Major vendors agreed that the problem of narrowing the selection of color spaces is impeding consistent color on different platforms and output devices. Both Apple and Adobe Systems Inc want to remain neutral in the color-space debate, but plan to support PostScript Level 2's tagging scheme. Linotype-Hell has made agreements with Adobe and Optronics to cross-license halftone screening patents and provide screen angles that allow crisper images without moire patterns. Scanner vendors stated that high-quality desktop scanning is one of the most significant new developments. Pre-Press Technologies Inc introduced a new version of its SpectraPrint Pro color separation software. Getting shut out of multimedia. (Microsoft International Multimedia and CD-ROM Conference)(New Media) (column) Compatibility is a major problem in Macintosh-based multimedia today, with CD-ROM titles proliferating but with few available in a form that the Mac can read. Many CD-ROMs are designed for DOS-based systems and cannot be read even on a Mac running a DOS emulator. This problem would be fairly easy to solve if discs were formatted in the generic ISO 9660 standard, which the Mac can already read. The special access software used with many discs is generally written for MS-DOS; vendors need to create Macintosh equivalents. Apple could join with Sony Corp to promote machine-independent access software. A complete platform-independent standard would allow hot links between CD-ROMs and applications. Macs well-connected at top commercial, government sites. (MacWeek 200) The 200 largest commercial, government and educational sites using Apple Macintosh computers are listed and discussed in detail. Most of the commercial and government sites use multi-platform systems and have more DOS-based machines than Macs, but the ratio of Macs to employees within many sites is growing significantly. Purchase plans indicate that the Mac's share of workstations and microcomputers will continue to grow; the top 200 sites expect Macs to represent 47 percent of their microcomputer purchases in the next 12 months. Connectivity is important to most users. An average 71 percent of on-site Macs are connected to location-wide networks; 38 percent of these are in Mac-only networks, 10 percent in networks combining Macs and IBM PCs and 22 percent in networks that include PCs, Macs and Unix workstations. Six percent are in networks of Macs and Unix workstations. Mac purchases on the upswing. (trends at large sites)(includes related article on survey methodology) A survey of the 200 largest Macintosh sites worldwide indicates that Mac purchases will make up 47 percent of all microcomputer purchases in 1991 at commercial sites and 56 percent of all purchases at educational sites. Macintosh manager Tim Yancy of Southern California Edison Co says that the bulk of the company's Mac purchases will be 68030-based models, especially the IIci and IIsi. Most Mac managers report a clear preference for the Mac II family, but many users are also interested in reducing costs. The Mac installed base is expected to grow in all areas. Closing our personal data to the open market. (Commentary) (column) The storm of protest over Lotus Development Corp's MarketPlace database, which was essentially a new compilation of data that had long been available, may have been excessive but reflects deep concerns about the impact of microcomputers on privacy in general. The CD-ROM format may be ushering in a 'desktop marketing' revolution in which greater numbers of those wishing to sell products and services can obtain data previously only available to large corporations. Individuals do not always invest the time and effort necessary to educate themselves on privacy issues, preferring to delegate the job to elected representatives. The National Security Agency, which maintains a frightening amount of information on individuals, is the subject of very little public discussion. Does the Mac promote pricey software? (Apple Macintosh software prices)(The Mac Manager) (column) Many people accuse the Macintosh of promoting overpriced software because the hardware is very costly, with multimedia, pre-press, high-end desktop publishing and animation software coming under particular attack. Some of these programs are undeniably expensive items. A major reason for the high cost of Mac software is that much of it is aimed at small market niches where costs cannot be made up in volume. Software programs that are now commonplace and inexpensive, such as word processors and spreadsheets, used to cost thousands of dollars before the advent of microcomputers. Heavy user demand, a trend expected to continue in the future, is likely to drive down prices. The introduction of System 7.0 will make software more costly for some time because of the development effort required to make programs fully compatible with the new operating system. License servers keep it legal; KeyServer, Quota control app launches. (Sassafras Software's KeyServer 2.3.7 and Proteus Proteus Technology's $695 Quota 2.0 and Sassafras Software's $470 KeyServer 2.3.7 are two programs for Macintosh networks designed to help network managers ensure that their sites comply with software license agreements which limit the number of simultaneous users who can access a program. The 'license server' programs control the number of copies of an application in use on the network at any given time. There is no practical way to stop all software copying, a license server tracks and limits it to the number of copies a user has licensed from the vendor. KeyServer is a Startup document (INIT) that lets users 'queue up' for applications if all copies are in use and reserve copies for up to five minutes. It modifies applications to be controlled and is server-driven; modified programs cannot launch if they lose contact with KeyServer, a situation which can occur if there is a network failure or broken connection. A KeySentry INIT warns users when this occurs. Quota is descended from the shareware DoppleMaker utility and is much simpler than KeyServer. It is client-driven, with each application checking a local INIT when launched and writing user information to a status database on the server. The program is easy to use, stable and works well. Both programs are adequate for basic functions and come with good documentation and technical support. SoftPC Classic emulates PC on cheapest Macs: but performance is disappointing. (Software Review) (SoftPC DOS emulator for Insignia Solutions' SoftPC Classic emulation program extends the MS-DOS emulation capabilities of the original DOS PC to low-end 68000-based Macs. It emulates an 80286-based IBM PC AT but does not support any kind of extended memory, math coprocessor or high-end graphics. The program requires 2Mbytes of RAM in the Mac and sells for $199, far less than the $598 SoftPC with EGA Option Module for 68020- and 68030-based Macs. It feels very slow on a 2Mbyte Mac Classic, and launching an application takes several seconds; spreadsheets recalculate extremely slowly. The product may be usable on a Mac LC, but its performance is unacceptable on 68000-based Macs. Hardware boards for PC emulation are now available for as little as $500. WalkThrough takes step up: previews CAD ideas in movable 3-D. (WalkThrough 1.03 architectural computer-aided design software) Virtus Corp's $895 WalkThrough 1.03 is a CAD program designed specifically for architectural design that lets users build both exteriors and interiors quickly on an Apple Macintosh screen. The program creates a changing, shaded perspective view of any model and lets the user steer through its window with a mouse. Users edit a surface displayed realistically in a scaled window. WalkThrough is intended for early design stages rather than for detailing; there are no text or dimensioning tools. The user begins a design by combining 3-D objects in a tool palette and creating spheres and domes. Colors and shapes of opaque objects can be specified; every object has an interior because WalkThrough is essentially a surface-modeling program. WalkThrough unfortunately suffers from slow performance and limited printer support. Its innovative interface nevertheless makes it useful for architects. Utilities put DOS files within reach; AccessPC edges past DOS Mounter. (Software Review) (Dayna Communications Inc. DOS Monster, Dayna Communications Inc's DOS Mounter 2.0 and Insignia Solutions Inc's AccessPC 1.1 are file-conversion utilities that let users share files between IBM-compatible PCs and the Macintosh. Both are Control Panel Devices (cdevs) that let Mac users see and manipulate files on DOS-formatted floppy disks and other removable media. The two products are more intuitive than Apple's bundled Apple File Exchange utility; both programs interpret the contents of a DOS disk as soon as the user inserts it and displays file and directory icons on the standard Mac desktop. Both can equate any DOS file extension to a Mac file type, but this process can be awkward. DOS Mounter can read 88Mbyte SyQuest removable cartridges in addition to locked and unlocked 720Kbyte and 1.4Mbyte DOS floppies; both programs operate with a variety of external floppy drives and with Apple's SuperDrive. DOS Mounter 2.0 is faster than earlier versions of the program, but AccessPC still offers slightly better performance. EndNote Plus speeds research tasks. (Software Review) (Niles and Associates Inc. EndNote Plus)(includes related article on product Niles and Associates Inc's EndNote Plus citation program is designed to simplify the research chore of inserting citations and end-notes. The program is built around an excellent database engine specially tailored for storing and retrieving reference information. It can recognize a name if it is entered with either the last name or first name first. EndNote Plus is less convenient than dedicated databases when looking up stored information; users can browse database contents only by opening a new window for each entry. The best feature of EndNote Plus is its ability to format references automatically, placing correct citations into the final document. Users can select references from the database window and copy them to a document with all formatting intact. EndNote Plus works flawlessly and produces superb results in the finished document. Low-end animation programs get moving. (Motion Works Inc.'s ADDmotion and Gold Disk Inc.'s Animation Works) (Software Review) Gold Disk Inc's Animation Works and Motion Works' ADDmotion, two low-end animation programs for the Apple Macintosh, are reviewed and compared. The packages take similar approaches to creating 2-D animation, both relying on path-based architectures, but ADDmotion is an add-on for HyperCard 2.0 consisting of a set of external commands for creating 24-bit color graphics and saving them as resources in stacks. Installation is fairly easy but is more complicated than that of Animation Works, which requires users only to drag the program and its files into a folder and double-click after opening the folder. Both programs make it simple to create animations. ADDmotion has a Build mode for creating and controlling graphics, a Media Controller for selecting objects and drawing paths and for placing 'actors' and 'props' on-screen. A time Lines window provides a graphical overview of the animation. Animation Works includes a 'Movie Editor' for similar tasks. The package offers flexible settings for gravity, acceleration, deceleration and resilience. Little Mouse: optical mouse beats out Apple's mechanical offering. (Software Review) (Mouse Systems Corp.)(In Brief) (evaluation) Mouse Systems Corp's Little Mouse is a second-generation optical mouse for the Apple Macintosh that takes up 22 percent less space and offers 50 percent greater resolution than the average Mac mouse. It moves more smoothly across its small pad than Mouse Systems' A+ Optical Mouse and is very easy to use. The mouse comes bundled with an INIT document that lets users set cursor speed and a desk accessory version of Good Software Corp's NuPaint paint program. The NuPaint desk accessory program is basic but adequate, lacking the features that make the application version outstanding. Work smarter on mainframes; Mac front ends aid productivity. (guide to Macintosh front ends for mainframe computers)(includes Many emulation packages and development tools are available that provide or let users create Macintosh-based front ends to mainframe applications. Oracle Corp's Oracle Card uses HyperCard to provide an interface to Oracle databases. Mitem Corp's MitemView is another product that takes advantage of the programming features of HyperCard and of Silicon Beach Software's SuperCard. Connectivite Corp's Connectivite 3270 automatically captures raw 3270 mainframe screens as they enter a Mac emulation window and provides a point-and-click editing tool for correlating them with Mac interface features. Simware Inc's SimMac is a set of tools for developing front ends and for asynchronous Mac-to-mainframe communications. Telepartner International North America's Packet/3270 Mac is an asynchronous terminal emulator. OnTrack tools up Mac for video production. (Software Review) (HyperCard tool kit for controlling video devices ) (evaluation) Abbate Video Consultant's OnTrack is a HyperCard 2.0-based toolkit for developing multimedia applications that includes a special cable for using the Mac's serial port to control video equipment. It includes external commands for low-level device control, letting HyperCard developers start, stop, record, pause, rewind and set the counter to zero under script control. The program supports the Panasonic Control-M protocol used with some popular Panasonic VCRs and the Control-L, Control-S and Control-P protocols right out of the box. CueTrack, a complete HyperCard application for editing videotape, is included with OnTrack. Abbate sells OnTrack directly to customers. Users can obtain a special NTSC cable from RasterOps Corp. Windows market surges past Mac; application sales abroad spur growth. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 growth outpacing that of Apple A recent market survey by the Software Publishers Association shows that the market share of Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is growing much faster than that of the Macintosh, with sales of Windows applications growing 157 percent compared with a 16.6 percent increase in Mac software sales. Windows continues to lag behind the Mac in overall market share in North America, but has surpassed Mac sales in the worldwide market. Analysts say that Windows is bound to grow because it has the momentum of the huge DOS installed base behind it and because major products such as Lotus 1-2-3 will arrive for Windows soon. The growth in Windows software is not at the expense of Macintosh software, with one analyst describing Windows as a 'Macintosh clone.' Microsoft itself controls the largest share of Windows application sales, but other developers have capitalized on it quickly. Many Windows developers have run into problems because the Microsoft interface suffers from such idiosyncrasies as poor network support. System 7 could present developers with sticky logistical problems. (Apple System 7.0 operating system) Third-party system developers face significant obstacles before they can create programs that take full advantage of Apple's System 7.0 operating system. Many customers are skeptical about Apple's announced release date of May 13 for System 7.0, noting the fact that the operating system has been delayed for more than a year. Some are postponing software purchases until after the release of System 7.0. Older software applications are likely to crash under System 7.0, and even careful programmers may run into incompatibilities because Apple is constantly changing its guidelines. Programs that are compatible with System 7.0 will have to be upgraded to exploit its new features, a process that will take developer time away from enhancing application-specific functionality. Modem deal gives Ingram Micro authorization to resell Apple product. (Ingram Micro D) Apple has given Ingram Micro Inc permission to distribute its Apple Data Modem 2400 to authorized dealers. The product, the first Apple-labeled item to be sold through two-tier distribution, will be bundled with cables and either the CompuServe Membership Kit or MicroPhone II 3.0 from Software Venture Corp and would retail for approximately $700. Apple is moving toward authorizing 'superstores' to sell its low-end products, according to some reports, and the Ingram Micro deal may be a step toward dealing with the logistics of supporting a broader channel. Apple nevertheless denies that the promotion, which is for a limited time, has any such significance. Macs still scarce at federal sites: cost, compliance, connectivity in way. (few government sites using Apple Macintosh) Apple is becoming more popular with government contractors than in the past, but a recent survey by Computer Intelligence Inc shows that the Macintosh has only a 5 percent share of the federal market. IBM Corp holds a 24 percent share, while Zenith Data Systems has a 39 percent share. Officials at many agencies say they have long purchased IBM-compatible microcomputers because they are cheaper than Macs, and the attractively-priced Mac Classic is not powerful enough to be an option for many government users. Apple's A/UX version of Unix is one reason why more federal agencies are beginning to accept the Mac because the ability to use Unix, a powerful multitasking operating system, on the Mac lends it credibility and helps it comply with federal standards. Connectivity is another reason that Apple is slowly gaining more federal market share. Macintoshes can be quickly plugged into each other and networked with DOS machines using third-party products, a major selling point. Version 4.0 is a better Pagemaker. (Software Review) (Personal Computers)(Column) (evaluation) Aldus Corp's $795 Pagemaker 4.0 for Windows, which runs under Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI), is a greatly improved product that can meet the demands of a wide variety of users. Pagemaker 4.0 for Windows allows users to do very basic tasks like attach a word-processing document to an electronic pasteboard and then add headlines, surround them with art and trim off the edges for a professional look. It is also a useful program for more advanced users; Pagemaker 4.0 provides sophisticated features such as text rotation, automatic letter-spacing, the ability to user color files, table-of-contents and indexing generation, vertical justification, and the ability to retrieve files from spreadsheets. The secretary's away? (Systems Compatibility Corp's The Complete Writer's Toolkit)(Peripherals) Systems Compatibility Corp's $129 Complete Writer's Toolkit program is a spelling checker and grammar checker that includes six tools that help the user process an accurate document. The program, which runs on MS-DOS 2 or later, includes: the Roget's II Electronic Thesaurus with 500,000 synonyms; the American Heritage Electronic Dictionary with 115,000 words; the Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations with 6,000 entries; the Written Word II grammar and style reference; the Abbreviations Expander; and the Houghton Mifflin CorrecText grammar correction facility. The Complete Writer's Toolkit works with most word processors. NCR's profit dips 12%; A.T.&T. gets just 4 seats. (Company Earnings) (column) NCR Corp reports earnings for the 1st qtr of 1991 fell 12 percent due to charges associated with fending off a hostile takeover attempt by AT and T. The net income for the period was on the high side of analysts' expectations and came it at $46 million, or 70 cents a share. Revenue for the 1st qtr of 1991 was a record-setting $1.37 billion, which is an eight percent increase over the $1.27 billion the computer maker made in the same period in 1990. NCR took a $7 million charge for the period for costs associated with fighting AT and T over control of the board; AT and T obtained four seats on NCR's 12-member board of directors. Apple Computer profits off; cheaper machines lift sales. (Apple Computer Inc.)(Company Earnings) (column) Apple Computer Inc reports increased revenue, but a decline in profit for the 2nd fiscal qtr in 1991. Analysts claim that the computer maker's strategy of obtaining a greater market share with low-cost microcomputers accounted for the earnings for the period, which was $131.1 million, or $1.07 a share, as compared with $131.8 million, or $1.04 a share, for the same period in 1990. Investors were concerned about the lower-than-expected results and sent the stock down $9.50 a share, to close at $64.50 a share on Apr 15, 1991. Apple reported a 18.6 percent rise in sales for the 2nd fiscal qtr in 1991, up to $1.59 billion from $1.34 billion during the same period in 1990. 17-ppm, networked HP LJ IIISi: fast, loaded with options. (Hardware Review) (LaserJet IIISi printer)(includes related HP's new LaserJet IIISi is a 17-page-per-minute machine designed for heavy-duty network use. It sells for $5,495, slightly more than twice the price of a LaserJet III. Two 500-sheet paper trays are provided, and the machine can automatically switch paper when one tray runs out. The printer uses 'micro-fine' toner cartridges rated for 8,000 pages, and the toner and drum come in a single cartridge. Users can select paper output modes via software commands and offset print jobs by one inch to separate them. The IIIsi comes with Courier and Line Printer bitmapped fonts plus five scalable font outlines. It uses the PCL 5 page description language and can convert files to HPGL plotter format. An $895 Adobe PostScript option includes the full set of 35 Adobe Type 1 fonts. Performance is excellent, and the machine uses HP's new Resolution Enhancement Technology to produce crisp, clear text. Graphics printing is almost twice as fast as that of the LaserJet III or IIID. NEC and Panasonic 286s challenge Zeos notebook. (Hardware Review) (NEC UltraLite 286F, Panasonic CF-270 notebook computers) NEC's $2,999 Ultralite 286F and Panasonic's $3,199 CF-270 Business Partner are 80286-based notebook computers weighing under 7 pounds that are intended to compete with Zeos' Notebook 286. The UltraLite 286F uses a 1.1-pound removable battery pack that lasts for 3 hours and 51 minutes and is much better constructed than the original UltraLite, with a well-designed sculptured keyboard. The film-compensated LCD display offers double-scanning CGA resolution; it cannot display VGA graphics, but its backlighting and VGA text font provide excellent text screens. The CF-270 Business Partner is not as well designed overall as the 286F but has some significant advantages. It uses a 16-MHz processor and has a VGA display; graphics quality is excellent, but the screen font is crude. The CF-270's battery lasts for 2 hours and 9 minutes in tests. Panasonic's hard disk is faster than NEC's, but its shutdown procedure is slower. The NEC is recommended for those who use primarily text-based applications; the Panasonic is attractive for its graphics but does not compete well with 80386SX-based machines. Mannesmann Tally portable "LaserJet" redefines printing on the road. (Hardware Review) (Mannesmann Tally MT 735 thermal printer) Mannesmann Tally's $1,295 MT 735 portable page printer is a LaserJet-compatible thermal-transfer printer that provides output quality nearly equaling that of a true laser printer and weighs only 8.6 pounds. It offers a built-in 80-sheet cut-sheet paper feeder and a non-removable 18-volt rechargeable battery pack that lasts for 2 hours of continuous use. Recharging the battery requires 8 hours. Mannesmann Tally optimizes its technology by using special coated paper, a significant additional expense. The printer is more expensive than other portable printers both in terms of initial cost and cost of consumables, but its output quality is superior. It prints 6.3 text pages and 1.4 graphics pages per minute, and it provides full LaserJet Series II emulation. Sidekick 2.0 takes a pivotal info management system. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc desktop organizer)(includes Sidekick 2.0, the long-awaited update of Borland International Inc's memory-resident desktop organizer, incorporates technology used in Borland's Paradox database to integrate its time planner, address book and communications modules. The $99.95 program reads and writes standard Paradox files and can theoretically import and use a wide variety of database information. Individual Sidekick utilities now offer more functionality and sophistication but are basically familiar. The user interface now includes full mouse-support and pull-down menus but remains character-based. Sidekick 2.0 still does not offer all of the features of full-scale personal information managers. It lacks a global search function, a significant limitation that may be addressed in a future release. ATI 8514/ULTRA: anti-aliased fonts for Windows. (Software Review) (ATI Technologies Inc. video board) (evaluation) ATI Technologies' 8514/ULTRA graphics board supplements but does not replace a user's existing VGA board and provides the first anti-aliased display fonts for Microsoft Windows 3.0. It is extremely fast and provides 1,024 x 768-pixel graphics for any software that supports the IBM 8514/A standard. The board ships with on-the-fly scalable screen fonts that can be sized from 1 to 1,024 points and automatically replace existing screen fonts with the same name. The 'Crystal' fonts offer superb quality and can coexist with Adobe Type Manager or FaceLift fonts. Each requires 25 to 50Kbytes of disk space. ATI ships 13 Bitstream screen fonts; a $199 supplement adding the remaining 22 PostScript fonts plus scalable LaserJet III fonts will be available in the spring of 1991. The 8514/ULTRA hardware is superb, but software glitches make installation difficult. Prices for the 8514/ULTRA range from $599 for a board with 512Kbytes of memory to $799 for a board with 1Mbyte. Sagacity automates resource assignments. (Software Review) (Erudite Corp. Sagacity resource management software) (evaluation) Erudite Corp's $1,595 Sagacity resource-management software automates the process of assigning both human and physical resources to a project by letting managers rank criteria such as time, money and priority according to importance. Sagacity includes an artificial-intelligence engine which applies built-in rules to allocate tasks and resources. Tasks are ranked in importance based on priority, 'criticality' or the amount of effort required, and skill scarcity. Users can list and rank up to ten required skills per task; program rules tell Sagacity in which order to consider factors of time, cost and degree to which a resource is busy. Sagacity can generate resource assignments in a matter of seconds once the rules are set. It focuses entirely on resource assignment and does not use the critical path method found in full-scale project management programs. Users can also only enter as much data as will fit in system memory along with the associated rules. AT&T's TOPAS animation package moves to VGA. (Software Review) (AT&T TOPAS/VGA animation software) (evaluation) AT&T's $2,250 TOPAS/VGA animation package is a new VGA-compatible version of the company's TOPAS three-dimensional modeling, rendering and animation package. TOPAS/VGA is nearly identical to the original TOPAS, which costs $7,995 an works only with Targa and Vista graphics boards. Users can apply high-end graphics functions to wireframe modules, manipulating true 3-D geometry and building keyframe animation routines. The program renders animations at 320 x 200 pixels in 256 colors. TOPAS/VGA include a Texture menu that creates sophisticated special effects; users can also add depth cues, bitmapped backgrounds and shading attributes. There is support for anti-aliasing. TOPAS/VGA trades some functionality for ease of use; it cannot create the complex objects produced by products like Autodesk's 3D Studio, and it cannot build bump maps or opacity maps. Users cannot determine the number of frames used to render an animation sequence. Distributing run-time animations on disk to other users is easy because the program is restricted to VGA resolution, but the user must export files in .DXF or .IGES format to gain access to high-resolution images. Two internal power supplies add safety measures for system power failures. (Hardware Review) (Powercard Supply LC Powercard IPS; Powercard Supply LC's $299 Powercard IPS and Elgar Systems Division's $249 Elgar IPS Card are internal power-supply boards that keep microcomputer systems running in the event of a power failure and automatically save the contents of memory. Each is connected to its own battery and sits on the microcomputer expansion bus between the computer power supply and the motherboard. The Powercard IPS is a full-length 8-bit ISA card that occupies two expansion slots and requires users to affix its battery to the outside of the machine; the Elgar IPS Card is a half-length 8-bit card with the battery mounted on it. Installation can be awkward; many users will have to buy a special cord to successfully connect the IPS card to their particular machine, but both vendors can supply various non-standard cords. Both cards come bundled with automatic save and restore functions and require sufficient hard disk space to accommodate the image file written when power fails. Both cards suffer from compatibility problems with the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Desktop TV: Ready for prime time? (Hardware Review) (Aview Technology Desktop TV board) (evaluation) Aview Technology's $399 Desktop TV is an expansion board that lets users switch EGA or VGA monitors between computer output and a standard NTSC video signal. It includes a TV tuner, audio jack and interface chips for connecting the tuner to the computer's expansion bus. Image quality is good but not flawless unless the user employs a well-shielded coaxial lead-in. The Desktop TV currently runs at 15-kHz; Aview promises 30-kHz speeds in a later version for better image quality. Aview's memory-resident software is not compatible with some applications, and their is no application programming interface for scripting multimedia programs to switch to TV mode automatically. Gain control over COM3 and 4 with COMM+232. (Hardware Review) (configuring microcomputers for serial communications) Sealevel Systems Inc's COMM+ 232 Dual Serial Card is a $169 board that provides a standard configuration for COM1 through COM4 ports on ISA-based microcomputers. The half-size 8-bit card includes two DB-9 serial ports and two sets of DIP switches that control I/O addresses. Users select interrupt settings via jumpers. Sealevel provides software utilities that control the ports and ensure that applications such as Windows will recognize COM3 and COM4. Users must nevertheless edit the Windows SYSTEM.INI file extensively, and installing the card often requires trial-and-error testing. Using the card under Microsoft Windows tends to cause random problems such as mouse incompatibility. $695 Maple V addresses graphics and interface. (Software Review) (Waterloo Maple Software Maple V mathematical program) Waterloo Maple Software's $695 Maple V symbolic mathematics program is an update of an already powerful package that addresses the user interface problems and graphics limitations of previous versions. It provides exact rational and integer calculations, support for arbitrary precision reals, and the ability to perform algebra and calculus. The new version adds the Airy and Reimann zeta functions along with 12 new built-in packages of procedures. Maple now remembers t he last 1,000 lines of output to prevent results from being lost when they scroll off the screen. A new file editor lets users edit external files as well as expressions and procedures. Maple V now offers a three-dimensional graphics module that supports surfaces and wireframes. It now places the 2,500 external functions in a single file, saving several megabytes of disk space. Maple also provides improved printer support. Power-ON wakes up remote PCs. (remote control) (evaluation) Barr, Christopher. Server Technology Inc's $219.95 Power-ON lets users access a remote microcomputer via modem even if the remote machine has not been turned on. It is a telephone-activated power supply that lets a modem call turn on a four-outlet AC power supply and power up the distant computer. Power-ON requires a dedicated phone line because it is not a modem line director. It has two RJ-11C telephone jacks in addition to its four outlets and is bundled with a special version of EasyLAN communications software that is automatically loaded from a batch file when the unit detects an incoming call. The software's shortcomings make it suitable only for rudimentary tasks such as simple file transfer and running character-based application. Its installation procedure is also crude. Power-ON is a clever device, but users will want to buy a better communications package. Network printers: Do we get what we want? (HP LaserJet IIISi)(Jim Seymour) (column) HP has never designed its LaserJet series of printers for network use; the printers are too slow, do not have enough paper trays and lack duplex printing capability. Users have nevertheless connected millions of LaserJets to local area networks, where they work well. LaserJets have become so inexpensive that users can afford to buy several printers, wear them out and replace them. HP has introduced the LaserJet IIISi, which answers all of the drawbacks of earlier LaserJets in networked settings: it prints 17 pages per minute, has a reliable internal auto-duplexing option and costs only $5,495 plus $695 for duplexing and $1,034 for PostScript and a memory upgrade. Many network users will still nevertheless prefer to have multiple LaserJet IIIs so that they do not have to walk down a hall to pick up their output. Who controls PC acquisitions? (corporate computer buying)(William F. Zachmann) (column) The issue of who controls microcomputer acquisition in corporations confuses users, managers and industry experts. Microcomputer coordinators and centralized MIS organizations often fight over who should assert authority, and vendors take a keen interest in these battles because such battles affect marketing strategies. Industry publications often run contradictory stories about trends in microcomputer acquisition; some claim to discern a trend toward decentralization, while others point to renewed centralization. Those magazines and newsletters with a background in traditional data processing tend to be biased toward the latter view, while publications aimed at individual users favor the former. No one really knows who actually controls microcomputer management because the realities of running a large business are very complex and because it is nearly impossible for outsiders to determine exactly what is happening within most organizations. Many systems bypass the formal acquisition process even in authoritarian companies, and different policies may be followed by different divisions within the same organization. Lotus 1-2-3 add-ins: building the perfect spreadsheet. (overview of four sections of evaluations of Lotus 1-2-3 add-in software) Twenty-one add-in programs for the Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 spreadsheet are reviewed. The products are divided into four categories: 'shortcut' packages for complex problems such as financial analysis; business forecasting programs, which help users assess risks; optimizers; and utilities tools. The popularity of add-ins is due to the fact that many corporations have standardized on 1-2-3 and do not want to abandon their investment in favor of programs which may integrate some of the features available in 1-2-3 add-ins. Add-ins let users enhance 1-2-3 in exclusive and specific ways, building on existing investments. Buying add-ins ad an alternative to migrating to a more powerful package also saves on hardware upgrade costs. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 can run with most add-ins on low-end microcomputers with 640Kbytes of RAM. Many add-ins are designed to perform very specific functions and are aimed at vertical markets. The real add-in story: making 1-2-3 more vertical. (market for add-in software for Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet) The market for add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 has changed since 1988, when products were designed to let business users perform many functions without ever leaving 1-2-3. Lotus 1-2-3 is used today more as part of a suite of applications and less by itself. Today's add-ins are generally special-purpose programs that turn 1-2-3 into a vertical market product. Lotus has yet to product a broader version of 1-2-3 itself, although it has acquired the Allways and Impress formatting add-ins to gain horizontal functionality. This situation should allow for a strong market for add-ins to future Lotus versions. A tour of the Lotus add-in toolkit. (Software Review) (Lotus Development Corp. Add-In-Toolkit for 1-2-3 Release 3.0; Add-In Lotus Development Corp's new Add-In Toolkit for Lotus 1-2-3 3.0 is a complete programming environment that lets users build customized 'at' functions, macro commands, data entry forms or entire applications in a plain-English programming language. Program development for 1-2-3 remains a complex tasks; Lotus describes the product as being intended for application developers and 'advanced macro writers.' The Toolkit consists of the Lotus Programming Language (LPL), subroutine and data structure libraries, an editor, a compiler and a debugger. Lotus promises that LPL add-ins should run on other 1-2-3 platforms, including Unix and OS/2, without modification. A wealth of spreadsheet shortcuts. (Software Review) (one of four sections of evaluations of 1-2-3 add-in software)(overview of six Six add-in programs that strengthen the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet are reviewed. The programs are all designed for different purposes and cannot be effectively compared feature-by-feature; they are rated for how well they execute tasks and how useful they are for the average 1-2-3 user. Several of the programs at more 'at' functions to 1-2-3 to simplify complicated tasks; others help users spot financial trends. Tech Hackers' Financial atnalist and Intex Solutions' Financial Toolkit are rated Editor's Choices; either package can save the user considerable time in performing elaborate calculations and in analyzing financial tasks. The atLibrary General Applications. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A GreyMatter International's $79.95 atLibrary General Applications add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 offers 48 general-purpose 'at' functions for the popular spreadsheet. Forty of the programs perform statistical, string, and date calculations and vector algebra. Installation is easy; users can choose to install the entire 35Kbyte atLibrary as a single file or as one to four separate files, each of which holds a group of related functions. Convenient shortcuts in atLibrary for financial calculations include atCINT and atPRIN, which calculate the interest and principal accumulated up to a certain period; atFINT and atFPRIN, which calculate the interest and principal portion of one payment in a single period; and atEFF and atNOM, which return the effective and nominal interest rates for a given period. atLibrary can help users produce better forecasts, but financial functions are not the strongest feature of the package. The Budget Express. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A wealth of Symantec Corp's $149 Budget Express 1.1 add-in for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet speeds financial analysis and offers a powerful outlining feature for summarizing complex spreadsheets. Users can install The Budget Express either with a set-up program or by copying it to the 1-2-3 directory. It uses 64Kbytes of conventional memory and can use up to 256Kbytes of expanded memory when available. Documentation is very good, and the program anticipates the user's next move to automate indentation and generation of row labels. A Hide option reduces a range of rows to a single row; the Analysis option lets The Budget Express calculate the change between months to help users note trends and build forecasts. The program can also build consolidated spreadsheets from several files, a feature that is less useful today because 1-2-3 2.2 offers worksheet linking. F9. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A wealth of spreadsheet shortcuts.') Synex Systems Corp's $599 F9 is a powerful add-in program for Lotus 1-2-3 that lets users import data directly from popular general ledger accounting programs directly into 1-2-3. Installation is straightforward and automated; those whose accounting systems are based on the Novell Btrieve database must load the Btrieve manager into memory before accessing 1-2-3. F9 provides new Setup and Chart menu options and eight 'at' functions that import specific information and let users modify it. Users can specify arguments with wild cards. The program is recommended for all 1-2-3 users who need to import accounting data. Financial atnalyst. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A wealth of Tech Hackers Inc's $195 Financial atnalyst add in for Lotus 1-2-3 is a powerful package designed for serious investors. Its 42 financial functions address many investment scenarios and are contained in six add-on modules; users can select only the ones they need in order to save memory. Financial atnalyst takes up a total of 117Kbytes of RAM. Five cash-flow analysis functions are provided. An amortization module can perform mortgage loan and other annuity calculations and accepts such input as balloon payment, advance payment and partial first-month payment data. Another module performs date functions, while yet another can calculate business days. The other two modules contain math-oriented functions; one converts decimal numbers to fractional numbers, and the other provides advanced algebraic calculations. Financial atnalyst is rated an Editor's Choice. Financial Toolkit. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A wealth of Intex Solutions' $199.95 Financial Toolkit is a powerful add-in package for Lotus 1-2-3 that provides 20 'at' functions for handling virtually any amortization situation or other problem that involves interest. Installation is easy, and the program's functions have a format similar to that of the financial functions built into 1-2-3. Several functions mirror their counterparts in 1-2-3 but add flexibility because they accept more arguments. Financial Toolkit can handle partial interest payments due at the start of a loan. It requires a good grasp of both 1-2-3 itself and the theory of loan calculations for effective use. Instant Analyst. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of financial add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'A wealth of Personics Corp's $69.95 Instant Analyst is an easy-to-use add-in tool for Lotus 1-2-3 that assists users in analyzing trends and relationships between data. An automatic installation routine configures 1-2-3 to load Instant Analyst at startup. Users can highlight areas of a spreadsheet in green or red according to whether the data displayed is within budget or meets a selected rate of return. Instant Analyst also performs ratio analysis easily, although experienced 1-2-3 users may find it slower than the functions built into the spreadsheet. It is a useful product for some novice users, although it is not particularly powerful. Forecasting add-ins: garbage in, Gospel out. (Software Review) (one of four sections of evaluations of add-in software for Lotus Four forecasting add-in programs for the Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 spreadsheet are reviewed. Three of the programs are designed for time-series forecasts; Business Forecast Systems' ForeCalc, Isogon Corp's Tomorrow and Concentric Data Systems' TrendSetter Expert all produce forecasts that are essentially extensions of past data and are suited to many basic business needs. The fourth product, Palisade Corp's atRISK, is a statistical program that uses probabilities rather than past history to forecast events. atRISK is the most complex of the four programs and the least suited to novice users. ForeCalc is rated an Editor's Choice. atRISK. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of forecasting add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Forecasting add-ins: garbage Palisade Corp's $395 atRISK add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 uses probability-based algorithms to generate business forecasts. It is a powerful program designed for advanced users, who must be able to both generate templates and interpret the results. Users let atRISK determine the value for a cell with one of several probability distribution functions and can run as many as 25 simulations of up to 32,767 iterations each. atRISK does not use 1-2-3's graphics capabilities, running its own RGRAPH program instead. It is essentially a modeling language and is ideal for those who want to build models from scratch. ForeCalc. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of forecasting add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Forecasting Business Forecast Systems' $149 ForeCalc 1.03 forecasting software is an add-in program for Lotus 1-2-3 that produces impressive time-series forecasts based on user-defined profiles. It supports such standard techniques as one-, two- and three-parameter exponential smoothing and lets the user define up to six custom methods by selecting trend and season treatments. ForeCalc uses formulas ad data for generating forecasts on summary data; users must interpolate values for any missing data points. The program writes graphing values to ranges and generates macro code to produce graphs of forecasts. ForeCalc is an excellent package for both novice and experienced users and is rated an Editor's Choice. Tomorrow. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of forecasting add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Forecasting Isogon Corp's $129.95 Tomorrow forecasting add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 is easy to use but not as reliable as some competing programs because it hides its underlying mathematics from the user. Users simply enter historical data and let the program generate a forecast based on time-series techniques. Tomorrow uses an optimized combination of linear regression and exponential smoothing but only shows users the output, which can be a drawback if a forecast must be defended. It neither explains forecasts nor provides suggestions for improvement. This lack of control makes the program simple to use but inflexible. Predicting the future without an understanding of statistics is not a good idea, but Tomorrow may nevertheless be a good value for some small business owners. TrendSetter Expert. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of forecasting add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Forecasting Concentric Data Systems' $149 TrendSetter Expert is an add-in package for Lotus 1-2-3 that is designed to perform time-series forecasts. It offers no control over forecasting techniques but does produce reports containing statistical information for backing up and refining forecasts. It comes with two memory-resident configuration modules that use forms to set up a forecast. The program uses proprietary expert-systems techniques to perform its forecasts; data can include formulas, but TrendSetter Expert does not generate new formulas. TrendSetter Expert does not always produce results close to those obtained manually with unusual data series because it identifies seasonality automatically. It does have the unique ability to generate a seasonal 'index' for each period in the forecast. Optimizing add-ins; the educated guess. (Software Review) (one of four sections of evaluations of add-in programs for Lotus Three optimizing add-ins which give Lotus 1-2-3 2.x some of the 'what-if' analytical capabilities of the OS/2-based 1-2-3/G are reviewed. The programs use either linear or nonlinear programming techniques and nonlinear-equation solving methods. Goal-seeking add-ins let users minimize or maximize nonlinear functions with constraints and optimize linear objective functions subject to many linear constraints. Optimizing software is extremely complex, and users can easily create difficult problems that cause the software to produce incorrect results. Frontline Systems Inc's What-If Solver is rated an Editor's Choice. What-If Analyst. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of goal-seeking add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Optimizing Frontline Systems' $49.95 What-If Analyst is an add-in package for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x and 3.0 that helps minimize errors when finding the root of a single nonlinear equation. Many real-world problems can be formulated as nonlinear equations, and the What-If Analyst user interface is simple. What-If Analyst is limited to one equation with one 'what-if' cell and one 'result' cell, but a Premium Edition that supports up to 10 equations with 10 unknowns is available for $99.95. The algorithms in the Premium Edition are not more sophisticated than those in the basic program and do not justify the package's additional cost. What'sBest! (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of goal-seeking add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Optimizing Lindo Systems Inc's $149 What'sBest! optimization add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 handles up to 400 variables and can work with large models by swapping 1-2-3 in and out of memory. The program is easy to set up and use and lets users declare 40 binary variables for integer situations. It is designed for large linear problems rather than for nonlinear optimization. What'sBest! is an excellent tool for linear programming and has no ambitions to perform other types of functions. It may be a good value for those users whose work lends itself to formulation as a linear problem. Utility add-ins: something for everyone. (Software Review) (one of four sections of evaluations of add-in programs for Lotus Eight add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 are reviewed. The products are not compared to each other because each is designed for a different function. Some recover damaged worksheets, while others expand memory or provide macro debugging and improved screen viewing. Many of the products can automate tedious tasks and prevent user headaches. Users should select a package that best fits their needs. Lotus itself offers a variety of add-ins through its enhancements catalog and is bundling the popular publishing add-ins Allways and Impress with its various products. Beyond 640. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: something Intex Solutions Inc's $95 Beyond 640 is an add-in utility that lets Lotus 1-2-3 2.x store its memory-hungry cell address records in expanded memory. It can use up to 4Mbytes of memory to store cell pointers that require memory above a pre-set threshold in conventional RAM. Users who work with memory-resident programs or other Lotus 1-2-3 add-ins will need to set the threshold fairly high. Beyond 640 solves the problem of 'out of memory' messages appearing in large spreadsheets and lets users manage other utility programs more effectively. Guardian. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: something Intex Solutions Inc's $95 Guardian is an add-in program for Lotus 1-2-3 that automatically backs up spreadsheets to protect vital data from power losses, equipment failure and accidental deletion. Users can save multiple versions of spreadsheets and archive files. The Auto Save feature performs a save command at user-specified intervals. Version control is another powerful capability in Guardian. The user can save up to 50 successive versions of the current worksheet. Guardian is packaged with the public-domain Lharc archiving program, which compresses data files 50 percent to save disk space. Look & Link. (Software Review ) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: Personics Corp's $99.95 Look & Link is an add-in program for Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 that expands on the spreadsheet's built-in cell-linking capability. It simplifies worksheet viewing, cutting and pasting, as well as consolidating and linking. The Look module displays any requested file in a window at the bottom of the screen; users can swap between this 'browsed' worksheet and the active 1-2-3 worksheet. Combining information across the two worksheets is easy. The Link module lets one spreadsheet 'grab' the contents of a range of cells in another and includes a dependency-tree menu for defining, clearing, saving, importing exporting and listing relationships between worksheets. Look & Link calculates a spreadsheet hierarchy from the bottom up. Loading worksheets into conventional o LIM expanded memory is one way to speed Link's operation. Look & Link is one of the best values available in a spreadsheet utility. Macro Editor/Debugger. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: Personics Corp's $199.95 Macro Editor/Debugger add-in utility for Lotus 1-2-3 brings Lotus macro developers the powerful programming utilities C, Pascal and assembler programmers enjoy. Users can invoke it either in the conventional add-in manner or by invoking 1-2-3's Step mode. The debugging window appears over the lower half of the screen when a macro is run. Pressing the F2 key switches between the debugging window and the editing window, which is divided by default into panes for routine and variable labels, macro code and comments. Users cannot select macro commands from menus, but unique conveniences include the ability to automatically convert text entered in a column into a range name for an adjacent code cell and the ability to incorporate cell or range addresses when the user points to them. The debugging window has two panes, one of which displays the current code cell and six lines of context while the other shows the current values of up to four watchpoint variables and the name of the current routine. Macro Editor and Debugger can store up to nine execution, update or conditional breakpoints and is an excellent product with good documentation. P.D. Queue. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: something Funk Software Inc's $89.95 P.D. Queue is an add-in utility for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x that provides background printing capability. It intercepts jobs on their way to any printer and turns them into disk-based spool files, unobtrusively feeding data to the appropriate printer and giving users control of the computer much sooner. P.D. Queue can spool output from 1-2-3 itself or from the Allways and Impress worksheet-publishing add-ins. Users can redirect output to a different printer after the spool file is created but cannot redirect it to a file. One problem with the program is error handling. There is no automatic notification if the printer is off-line or out of paper. Spreadsheet file recovery: Norton Utilities vs. Rescue Plus. (Software Review) (comparison of general-purpose file-recovery Symantec Corp's Norton Utilities 5.0 is well-known for its powerful file-recovery capabilities, which include the ability to repair corrupted or even severely fragmented Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE and Symphony files. Norton's File Fix utility is nevertheless not always adequate. Intex Corp's $129.95 Rescue Plus 1.3 is a file-recovery utility specifically designed for 1-2-3 files that consistently outperforms Norton Utilities in tests. Its flagship Rescue program is the best way to restore damaged files if the disk and file allocation table are intact; the other utilities are designed to recover files from crashed disks. ResQDisk lets users search a disk for 1-2-3 files and generates reports on which cluster ranges contain spreadsheet data. ResQView lets the user view clusters to search for the lost data, and ResQFile allows the building and editing of a chain of clusters. Rescue Plus is not perfect; it blanks out cells containing certain functions. Its unerase utility is better than that in Norton but still cannot restore an entire file. 3-2-1 Gosub. (Software Review ) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility add-ins: Frontline Systems' 3-2-1 Gosub is an add-in development utility for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x that lets users extend the built-in function library. The $99.95 Standard Edition reinterprets custom functions each time they are called; the $249.95 Developer Edition includes a compiler that essentially turns custom functions into add-ons in their own right. Custom functions offer the same benefits as built-in functions, allowing the user to encapsulate complex calculations in simple statements. There are 11 'function-building' functions in 3-2-1 Gosub. 3-2-1 Gosub lets users customize 1-2-3 extensively to add powerful mathematical functions. Worksheet Archive System. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility TRM Computers' $79.95 Worksheet Archive System is relatively expensive for a program that performs only archiving function, but it offers several unique features. The program stores a history of changes made to a worksheet along with comments and the dates changes were made. It uses its history transcript to recreate a particular version on request and offers a convenient Compare command that presents a cell-by-cell listing of the differences between any two worksheet iterations. Worksheet Archive System is exceptionally efficient in its use of memory and disk space, but is not as powerful overall as Funk Software's The Worksheet Utilities, its main competitor. The Worksheet Utilities. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of add-in utility programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Utility Funk Software's $99.95 Worksheet Utilities is a comprehensive package of add-ins for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x that lets users attach and detach separate functions to save memory and disk space. The CellWorks add-in has Search and Replace and Range Column Width components that are useful in 1-2-3 2.01 but are essentially equivalent to features added in 1-2-3 2.2. An AutoSave component automatically saves worksheets at user-defined intervals to guard against errors and power outages. 'PrintSet' adds important features to Lotus' print settings-sheet; it lets users create a library of setup strings for different printers and can save named combinations of print settings. There is also a superb Formula Editor in CellWorks. The FileWorks add-in is a DOS shell for copying, moving, renaming, creating and deleting files and directories; it shows only 1-2-3 files by default, but users can remove the filter. Other features in FileWorks include data compression and decompression for archiving. The Worksheet Utilities is an excellent value for nearly all 1-2-3 users. Typefaces unlimited: 5 font managers for Windows 3.0. (Software Review) (overview of five evaluations of font programs for Five font-management packages for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are reviewed. Adobe Systems' Adobe Type Manager, Bitstream's FaceLift, Micro-Logic's MoreFonts, Zenographics' SuperPrint and Atech Software's Publisher's Powerpak generate scalable screen and printer fonts on the fly. The five programs differ enormously in the variety of font outlines they support and in the quality of their typefaces. All support 'hinted' fonts Adobe offers the largest library of outlines in its PostScript Type 1 fonts, and its fonts are used by service bureaus and on the Macintosh. Bitstream's proprietary Speedo format is becoming more widely supported and can be used with non-Windows programs printing to non-PostScript printers. Other scalable font formats are more limited and tend to suffer from poor quality. Font managers slow screen redrawing noticeably and slow down most printing jobs. Windows applications have not yet caught up with the sophistication of font managers. Adobe Type Manager is rated an Editor's Choice. Adobe Type Manager. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of font manager programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 'Typefaces Adobe Systems Inc's Adobe Type Manager (ATM) for Windows is a font manager that offers impressive on-the-fly scaling of screen and printer fonts and is very easy to use. The $99 program comes with 13 font outlines and uses Type 1 PostScript outlines, supporting hundreds of fonts and a wide variety of output devices. A $198 Plus Pack includes 22 additional fonts to round out the 35 fonts built into most PostScript printers. Installation is very easy, and the Control Panel lets users change the size of the RAM-based font cache. Line breaks on-screen are very reliable, although ATM suffers from the screen flicker found in most other font managers. ATM requires more RAM than other Windows font managers, but offers by far the best functionality; it is rated an Editor's Choice. FaceLift. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of font manager programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 'Typefaces Bitstream Inc's $99 FaceLift font manager for Microsoft Windows provides on-the-fly scaling of high-quality typefaces on both screen and printer. The Bitstream type library is one of the best available for IBM-compatible microcomputers. FaceLift uses Speedo, a new proprietary typeface format which an increasing number of DOS applications now support. The package comes with 13 typefaces, only 8 of which match standard PostScript faces. A $199 Value Companion Pack provides 24 additional fonts. Speedo is not compatible with Bitstream's classic Fontware program because it uses Bezier curves. One drawback is the fact that FaceLift does not let Windows applications use the kerning data built into Speedo outlines. Installation is easy. The default 64Kbyte font cache may be somewhat small, but it can be easily increased to speed performance. Speedo fonts can also provide high-quality scalable LaserJet fonts for WordPerfect and some other DOS applications, a significant advantage. MoreFonts. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of font manager programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 'Typefaces MicroLogic Software's $149.95 MoreFonts font management package for Microsoft Windows offers 14 typefaces out of the box and more than 100 additional styles in its proprietary format. It also offers a variety of special effects, including stripes, shadows, stars, sunsets and grid fills. The program can generate scalable LaserJet III fonts, but only in standard black type. MoreFonts' typefaces are of much poorer quality than Adobe's or Bitstream's; its imitations of Times and Helvetica are crude. MicroLogic sells 20 packages containing four styles each of a traditional typeface family and six packages of decorative 'display' typefaces. MoreFonts works very quickly and can resize its font cache dynamically in response to the number of fonts installed. MoreFonts will not let Windows create an oblique version of a font if there is no italic counterpart, and its on-screen 'pseudo-bold' font does not print. MoreFonts' chief value lies in its special effects. Publisher's Powerpak. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of font manager programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 'Typefaces Atech Software's $79.95 Publisher's Powerpak font management program for Microsoft Windows offers a large number of fonts at a low price. It claims to provide 30 typeface outlines, but these come from only three families and include Times, Helvetica and Courier equivalents. The program does not offer true italic or bold styles and prints lines of text excessively close together. Users must purchase Monotype Font Packs at $79.95 each for true italic and bold outlines. Powerpak offers a variety of scalable foreign alphabets for Windows; these will make it indispensable for many users. Powerpak and Adobe Type Manager can run in the same system, and users can convert PostScript Type 1 and Type 3 outlines into Powerpak format. Converted PostScript fonts tend to suffer from exaggerated serifs and varying line thicknesses. Installing Powerpak involves running a batch file from the DOS prompt and configuring the Powerpak printer driver from Windows' control menu. Output with dot matrix printers is very smooth. SuperPrint. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of font manager programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 'Typefaces Zenographics Inc's $195 SuperPrint 1.1 font manager lets Microsoft Windows 3.0 users work with a wide variety of outline font formats, scaling both screen and printer fonts on the fly. It can use PostScript Type 1, Bitstream Speedo and Fontware and AGFA Intellifont outlines simultaneously, and it does not suffer from annoying screen flicker. It rasterizes an entire page, including graphics, before sending it to the printer; this technique improves graphics printing speed but makes text speed considerably slower. SuperPrint includes LaserJet, DeskJet, PaintJet, Canon LBP and dot-matrix printer drivers. The package includes 22 fonts, 13 of which are from Nimbus-Q and correspond to the 13 basic PostScript fonts. The other fonts include four styles of Century Schoolbook, four styles of Future from AGFA and a converted version of Bitstream's Charter font. The font quality varies according to the vendor and format but tends to be visibly inferior to that of Adobe Type Manager of Bitstream FaceLift. The Nimbus Q fonts supplied are poorly shaped and have rough edges. The program is complex to install and manipulate; creating and modifying new fonts can be a daunting process. Unleashing EISA's power. (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) (Hardware Review) (overview of 22 evaluations of 33-MHz Twenty-two high-end microcomputers using the 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) 32-bit bus design are reviewed. New high-performance peripherals allow today's systems to take advantage of the better throughput possible with a 32-bit bus. Most of the systems offer disk caching and coprocessor-based SCSI disk controllers, making performance on disk benchmarks twice as fast, or faster, compared with an AT-bus machine. The price differential between AT-bus and EISA machines, once as high as $2,000, is disappearing rapidly. More EISA expansion boards are available now than in the past. New EISA-based machines still cost $500 to $1,000 more than their nearest ISA-based equivalents, but much of the price difference results from the cost of caching disk controllers. The Compaq 486/33L, Tangent Model 433e and Zeos 486-33 EISA are rated Editor's Choices. External processor RAM cache: how much is enough? (design of 80486-based microcomputers) Most 80486-based microcomputers are designed as high-end products that include large amounts of external SRAM cache memory, a tradition largely carried over from the 80386. The 80486 contains 8Kbytes of internal cache; designers debate how much external cache is really needed. Static RAM chips cost $20 to $40 each, adding 2 to 8 percent to the cost of a machine. Intel uses a 'four-way set associative' caching scheme in the 80486, with the internal cache divided into four blocks of 2Kbytes each. The company claims that this technique makes the 8Kbytes of internal cache as effective as 32Kbytes of external cache. Processors that perform extremely fast to begin with, as 33-MHz 80486s do, are less dependent on cache effectiveness. ACMA Computers Inc.: ACMA 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Standard ACMA Computers Inc's 486/33 EISA 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) microcomputer is a tower machine that comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 360Mbyte ESDI hard disk, UltraStor H22C caching disk controller and Super VGA display subsystem for $7,995. It offers impressive performance as well as a hefty 450-watt power supply and many expansion slots. Users can expand the disk controller's cache level to 4Mbytes. ACMA uses industry-standard components and produces a highly competitive machine for $1,000 to $1,500 less than some other 486-based EISA computers. Advanced Logic Research Inc.: ALR PowerCache 33/4e. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Advanced Logic Research Inc's ALR PowerCache 33/4e is a high-performance 80486-based EISA file server that offers a capacity of up to 128Mbytes of RAM, four half-height drive bays and a full-height device bracket on a cross support. THe ALR motherboard uses the Phoenix ROM BIOS, ALR memory management circuitry and a 128Kbyte RAM cache. Eight megabytes of RAM are standard, along with a 330Mbyte Seagate hard disk, UltraStor EISA controller and Super VGA display subsystem. This configuration sells for $15,562, but discounts should be available. It is suited to high-end CAD applications. Performance on processor benchmarks is above average, but the video subsystem is not as good as those in many competing machines. All memory fits on a proprietary memory board that plugs into the system board. Amax Engineering Corp.: Amax 486/33e. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture Amax Engineering Corp's Amax 486/33e 80486-based EISA microcomputer sells for $9,300 when equipped with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 346Mbyte hard disk and Super VGA video subsystem. The tower case has six half-height drive bays, a 250-watt power supply and a Free Technology motherboard. Amax provides two 16-bit ISA expansion slots and six 32-bit EISA slots. Documentation is exceptionally good, but Amax' dealer-only support policy is somewhat restrictive. The Amax 486/33e is a competitive machine that offers typical performance for its class on all benchmarks. Bus Computer Systems Inc.: Bus 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Bus Computer Systems' $6,849 486/33 EISA is a desktop machine that offers reasonable performance and is built with solid components. It does well on processor and memory benchmarks, but its disk benchmarks are only average. The machine comes with a 300Mbyte hard disk, 8Mbytes of RAM, two floppy disk drives and a DTC ESDI controller with 1Mbyte of cache. It also includes a Super VGA video subsystem. There are five drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. Bus backs up its one-year parts-and-labor warranty with on-site service from GE. The Bus is a well-designed system, but some competing products offer better value. C2 Micro Systems Inc.: C2 Saber 486 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Standard C2 Micro Systems Inc's C2 Saber 486 EISA microcomputer costs $8,100 equipped with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 339Mbyte ESDI Maxtor hard disk, cached EISA controller, one floppy drive and Super VGA video subsystem. The machine offers average performance on processor and memory benchmarks, but its Trident Microsystems 1,024 x 768-pixel video board does poorly on video benchmarks. The tower case has room for seven half-height drives, two 16-bit ISA slots and six 32-bit EISA slots. Only one of the ISA and three of the EISA slots are free on a fully configured system. The motherboard holds up to 64Mbytes of RAM. C2's machine is typical of 80486-based EISA machines today but is not the best buy available. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq 486/33L. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Compaq Computer Corp's 486/33L microcomputer offers excellent memory expansion, sturdy construction and excellent performance at a very high price. It costs $19,846 configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 320Mbyte Seagate ESDI hard disk, one floppy disk drive and VGA circuitry on the motherboard. The compact desktop case has room for five half-height drives and includes a 300-watt power supply. The machine has seven 32-bit EISA slots that also handle 8- or 16-bit ISA cards. Memory can be expanded to 100Mbytes via a special proprietary expansion board. Compaq relies entirely on its dealers for service and support. The 486/33L is rated an Editor's Choice despite its high price. Dataworld Data 486i EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based Dataworld Inc's Data 486i EISA microcomputer is a powerful, 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture machine that comes with 8Mbytes of RAM expandable to 64Mbytes on the motherboard, a 322Mbyte ESDI hard disk and Super VGA display subsystem, for $11,367. The machine suffers from several significant shortcomings, one of which is a heat sink that creates more heat than it dissipates. Dataworld is also having some quality control problems. Processor speed is good, but disk speed is only average; performance on video benchmarks is slightly better than average. The Dataworld has eight free expansion slots when fully configured and room for up to seven half-height storage devices. Dataworld offers on-site service provided by TRW. Dyna Micro Inc.: Dyna Work Master 486 33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture Dyna Micro Inc's Dyna Work Master 486 33 EISA offers distinctive styling but no outstanding features and only average performance. It offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 320Mbyte hard disk, two floppy drives and a Super VGA subsystem, for $9,999. The machine has an 18-millisecond hard disk and an UltraStor EISA controller with 512Kbytes of RAM cache that performs a disk seek. The Advanced Integration Research motherboard is slightly slow, and video performance is not outstanding despite the well-known Orchid ProDesigner II Super VGA card. The Work Master is a usable network server or graphics workstation; it has five 32-bit slots free and room for six half-height drives even with the hard disk and two floppies installed. Fortron/Source Corp.: Fortron NetSet 486-33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Fortron Corp's $7,950 NetSet 486-33 EISA microcomputer is designed for use as a file server but suffers from several significant drawbacks. It comes with 8Mbytes of on-board RAM, a 330Mbyte SCSI hard disk with a 512Kbyte disk cache, two floppy drives, a Super VGA display subsystem and Logitech serial mouse. Hard disk performance is poor, and the 14-inch monitor is too small for serious CAD work. Video performance is also relatively poor. The Fortron shows excellent performance on processor benchmarks. Expandability is very good; there are five free expansion slots in a fully configured system and six half-height drive bays in addition to those used by the hard disk and two floppy drives. The Fortron suffers from some apparent quality control problems. The disk controller card was not set properly in its bracket, and the keyboard connection was slightly offset in its case. HiQuality Systems Inc. : Hi-Q 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture HiQuality Systems Inc's Hi-Q 486/33 EISA microcomputer is a desktop machine that offers remarkably good performance at a very low price. A unit configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 347Mbyte hard disk, and Super VGA graphics subsystem costs only $5,999. Hi-Q's 'no frills' design takes advantage of the native capabilities of the 486; it uses a Free Technology motherboard, Intel chip set and Award BIOS. The motherboard holds up to 64Mbytes of RAM, and there are two 16-bit and three 32-bit slots free in a fully configured machine. There is room for six half-height drives. Performance on benchmark tests is average. International Instrumentation Inc: Blue Max Monolith 486E/330CD. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry International Instrumentation Inc's $7,997 Monolith 486E/330CD microcomputer sells for $7,997 equipped with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 300Mbyte hard disk, 512Kbyte caching disk controller, one floppy disk drive and Super VGA video. It is built with premium-quality components, including an AMI Enterprise motherboard and EISA BIOS and Intel chip set. There are only five half-height drive bays, and the 300Mbyte hard disk uses two of them. Performance on processor benchmarks is slightly below average; video performance is better than average. There are only four 32-bit slots available in a fully configured machine. The Blue Max is best suited for use as a CAD or desktop publishing workstation. Matrix Digital Products Inc.: Matrix 486-33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Matrix Digital Products Inc's Matrix 486-33 EISA microcomputer is a solid machine but does not offer exceptional price/performance. It comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte external RAM cache, 330Mbyte ESDI hard disk, one floppy disk drive, Orchid ProDesigner II Super VGA board, Relisys VGA monitor and DOS 4.01 for $8,199. It has room for one full-height, two half-height and two 3.5-inch storage devices, enough for most networks. The motherboard holds up to 64Mbytes of memory, and the Micronics motherboard has one 16-bit and seven 32-bit slots. A fully configured system has four 32-bit slots available. Video performance is excellent. The Matrix is a good choice for a reliable file server or CAD workstation. National Micro Systems Inc.: Flash 486-33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture National Micro Systems Inc's Flash 486-33 EISA microcomputer comes in a sturdy tower case and includes 8Mbytes of RAM, 256Kbytes of RAM cache, a 338Mbyte ESDI hard disk, 512Kbyte UltraStor U22C EISA controller, one floppy disk drive and Super VGA video, for only $6,983. The machine has room for eight half-height drives and 64Mbytes of RAM, making it well-suited to use as a file server. National Micro Systems sells via mail order and includes a 15-month warranty on parts and a two-year warranty on labor, but there is no provision for on-site service. Netis Technology Inc.: Netis 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture Netis Technology's Netis 486/33 EISA microcomputer offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, two high-density floppy drives, Super VGA video and DOS 4.01 for only $5,939. It uses a Free Technology motherboard and offers average processor benchmark performance, but the disk drive is smaller and much slower than its competition because it lacks caching or buffering capabilities. The DOS software disk-caching driver nevertheless improves performance; the memory it requires makes the Netis less suitable for use as a network server than as a high-end workstation. The display subsystem is disappointingly slow, and Netis' documentation is poor. Netis has nevertheless provided an excellent machine for the price. Panther Systems: Panther 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based Panther Systems' $7,699 486/33 EISA microcomputer includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 329Mbyte hard disk, two floppy drives and an ATI Super VGA video board. The system includes an AMI Enterprise motherboard and EISA BIOS along with a 128Kbyte external RAM cache. The motherboard supports up to 32Mbytes of RAM, but users can add an additional 64Mbytes on a $300 proprietary expansion card for a total system capacity of 96Mbytes. Five of the seven 32-bit slots are available in a fully configured machine, and there is room for three additional half-height drives. Panther's service policies are excellent: the company offers a three-year parts-and-labor warranty and optional on-site service. The Panther is an excellent buy in a high-end 80486-based system. PC Pros/Touche Micro Technologies Touche 5550T/486 EISA-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry PC Pros/Touche Micro Technologies' Touche 5550T/486 EISA-33 microcomputer offers good memory expansion and excellent service and support policies for a very low price. It comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 347Mbyte Maxtor hard disk rated at 15 milliseconds, UltraStor EISA controller with 512Kbyte hardware cache, Orchid ProDesigner II Super VGA video card, 14-inch Sony monitor and two floppy disk drives, for only $6,299. Its sturdy case helps earn it an FCC Class B rating, and the AMI motherboard has an AMI ROM BIOS and discrete-logic circuitry. The motherboard holds up to 32Mbytes of RAM; a proprietary $275 expansion board holds additional memory for a total system capacity of 96Mbytes. Benchmark scores are average, but all 80486-based EISA systems are fast. PC Pros offers a one-year parts and labor warranty and a choice of telephone or on-site service. Users can decide which service plan to use. Proteus Technology Corp. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based Proteus Technology Corp's Proteus 486/33A EISA microcomputer offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 200Mbyte hard disk, two floppy disk drives, 1,280 x 1,024-pixel Super VGA video, DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 in a compact case, for only $5,695. The machine is designed for use as a CAD or desktop publishing workstation; it has only one half-height drive bay free after one hard and two floppy disk drives are installed, but there are five free 32-bit expansion slots. The video board is powerful, but Proteus offers only a 14-inch NEC monitor. Serious CAD users will want an optional 20-inch Mitsubishi or Nanao monitor. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc.: SAI 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's SAI 486/33 EISA microcomputer offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 150Mbyte ESDI hard disk, 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, and powerful Super VGA video subsystem for only $6,316. The SAI offers very good performance on benchmark tests. A 300Mbyte disk drive is available as an option; it would bring the price up to $6,895. Processor benchmark performance is average or below, and the machine is housed in an AT-style desktop case with six free expansion slots but only five half-height drive bays. The SAI is best suited for use as a CAD workstation because its video system is impressive. Tandon Corp.: Tandon 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based Tandon Corp's 486/33 EISA microcomputer is designed from the ground up to use the 80486 processor and has been optimized for use as a file server or CAD workstation. It costs $10,047 when configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 330Mbyte Seagate SCSI hard disk and Super VGA display subsystem. Tandon makes its own motherboard, BIOS and floppy disk drives. The 486/33 EISA has an external 64Kbyte memory cache and has a ruggedly-constructed chassis with generous expansion capabilities. Performance on disk benchmarks is excellent, but video performance is somewhat weak. The Tandon can hold up to 64Mbytes of RAM with a proprietary expansion board. Tangent Computer Inc.: Tangent Model 433e. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture Tangent Computer's $9,690 Model 433e 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) microcomputer is a powerful machine that offers excellent performance and value. It comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 329Mbyte hard disk, Super VGA display subsystem and DOS 4.01 and has six half-height drive bays and a 300-watt power supply. There are eight 32-bit EISA slots, but the motherboard has only eight SIMM memory sockets; users can place 32Mbytes on the motherboard using 4Mbyte SIMMs, but these are expensive. Users should plan their initial configuration decisions carefully. Tangent offers an excellent service policy with on-site service performed by TRW. The Tangent 433e is rated an Editor's Choice. Wedge Technology Inc.: Wedge 486/33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture Wedge Technology Inc's 80486-based 486/33 EISA Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) microcomputer offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 128Kbyte processor RAM cache, Super VGA monitor and DOS 3.3 or 4.01, for a reasonable price of $6,675, but it is not as well-engineered as it could be. Wedge uses its own motherboard with an Award BIOS but no Weitek coprocessor socket. There is room for up to 64Mbytes of memory on the motherboard using 4Mbyte SIMMs. There are not enough drive bays in the Wedge to make it really useful as a file server, and the lack of Weitek support may deter some potential CAD users. Zeos International: Zeos 486-33 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 22 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based Zeos International Inc's Zeos 486-33 EISA microcomputer offers outstanding performance at a price of $9,245 for a unit configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 327Mbyte hard disk, caching disk controller, Super VGA display subsystem and DOS 4.01. Zeos bundles Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a mouse with the higher-end configurations of the machine, along with a hefty 450-watt power supply. The tower case has six half-height and two 3.5-inch drive bays, and it has dual exhaust fans for cooling. Zeos uses a Mylex motherboard with Phoenix and Mylex peripheral controller and BIOS chips. There are eight 32-bit EISA slots but only eight SIMM slots; replacing the 1Mbyte SIMMs with 4Mbyte SIMMS for 32Mbytes of motherboard memory could cost as much as $3,000. Users can add carded RAM but at the cost of some loss in performance. The Zeos 486-33 EISA is rated an Editor's Choice. Endurance tests: graphics hardware. (Hardware Review) (overview of seven long-term evaluations of digitizing tablets, video cards and Seven graphics hardware products, including three digitizing tablets, two high-resolution monitors and two VGA-to-NTSC boards, are reviewed based on the results of a long-term evaluation. Digitizing tablet technology is older than the microcomputer, while 1,024 x 768-pixel non-interlaced monitors are a newer technology. NTSC-to-VGA cards are very new products geared to the emerging multimedia field. The Kurta and Wacom digitizers and Nanao monitor earn the best overall scores; both VGA-to-NTSC boards have some drawbacks, and the US Video board is unreliable. Kurta Corp.: Kurta IS/ONE Digitizer. (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware in 'Endurance Kurta Corp's IS/ONE graphics tablet, rated an Editor's Choice in Nov 1989, earns good scores in long-term testing for reliability, compatibility and performance. Its three-switch pen and four-button cursor are easy to use, although the cursor needs a firm grip to operate. Switching between the cordless cursor and pen involves only picking up the device to use; there is no need to reset DIP switches. The Windows portion of the IS/ONE's device driver initially fails to work in 386 enhanced mode, but loading a Microsoft-compatible mouse driver solves this problem . The IS/ONE includes a lifetime warranty and generally works consistently and well. Summagraphics Corp.: SummaSketch II Professional. (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware Summagraphics Corp's SummaSketch II Professional is reliable, easy to use and very responsive to free-hand movement, but some drawbacks reveal themselves in long-term use. The pen is easier to use than a mouse in paint programs and is especially convenient for left-handed users. One problem is the short cable, a significant annoyance. The power supply is also bulky. The SummaSketch II does not let users regulate its half-inch sensitivity range; the range allows for tracing of very thick material but tends to record unintended movements. Wacom Co. Ltd.: Wacom Model SD421E. (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware in 'Endurance Wacom Co Ltd's Model SD421E digitizing tablet is a cordless device that is very light because it uses a give-and-receive magnetic resonance system instead of batteries. Software can use the pressure-sensitive pens to control the width of drawn lines or simulated brushstrokes. Unfortunately, very few DOS-based packages that take advantage of this capability are available. Watcom offers a driver for Windows 3.0. The four-button cursor is preferable to the pen in most Windows applications other than painting programs. The SD421E is somewhat heavy but very sturdy. It earns good scores for reliability, compatibility and performance. Nanao USA Corp.: Nanao 9400. (high-resolution monitor) (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware Nanao USA Corp's Nanao 9400 1,024-x-768-pixel monitor offers reasonable reliability, and compatibility is not an issue; it handles a wide variety of graphics adapters at many different resolutions. Adjustments of the controls at the bottom front is exceptionally easy, and there is a manual degaussing button for dissipating magnetic fields which can interfere with color. The 9400 has dynamic beam focusing, but some users complain that images at VGA and Super VGA resolutions are not as sharp as they could have been. The monitor was rated an Editor's Choice in Apr 1990. NEC MultiSync 4D. (high-resolution monitor) (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware in 'Endurance NEC Technologies Inc's $1,499 MultiSync 4D, an Editor's Choice in Apr 1990, offers very good compatibility and performance but has a few reliability problems. Two units delivered were defective; NEC's Graphics Engine video board can be heat sensitive and should be placed in the lowest slot in a tower microcomputer. The front panel controls are convenient, but the panel that covers them is flimsy. It also has a very short cable that limits where users can locate it on the desktop. Magni Systems Inc.: VGA Producer. (VGA-to-NTSC board) (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware Magni Systems Inc's $1,695 VGA Producer VGA-to-NTSC video board offers good reliability, but its success in video output depends on the application in use. It was very difficult to create a videotape of a Windows application running in VGA mode due to discrepancies between the VGA and NTSC standards. Overscanning is a problem, and there is significant flicker which can be ameliorated to reconfiguring Windows to display only solid colors. Magni's new $495 daughterboard improves performance by averaging intensity levels to eliminate much of the flicker. Recording VGA graphics to a standard VCR is easy, but it is nearly impossible to run video source tapes from a consumer-grade VCR. USVideo Inc.: USVideo TVGA. (VGA-to-NTSC board) (Hardware Review) (one of seven long-term evaluations of graphics hardware in USVideo Inc's USVideo TVGA VGA-to-NTSC graphics board, rated an Editor's Choice in Jul 1990, is easy to install and use but suffers from some reliability and performance problem. The supplied software utilities let users save different configurations into .COM files and simplify the specification of key colors for genlocking. The TVGA performs adequately as a VGA adapter and automatically emulates the MDA, HGC, CGA, EGA and VGA standards. USVideo does not offer an upgrade to 512Kbytes of video RAM even though there is room for additional memory on the board. Performance in NTSC mode is not as good as in VGA mode; the picture jitters frequently. The TVGA's rough edges show the immaturity of multimedia technology. Automate your program operations with ENCORE.COM. (includes related article on changing hotkeys)(Utilities) (tutorial) ENCORE.COM, a utility that automates repetitive tasks by letting users record and play back keystrokes, is presented. Entering ENCORE at the DOS prompt causes the program to load itself as a small terminate-and-stay resident (TSR) file taking up 1Kbyte; its internal buffer holds up to 100 keystrokes. Several parameters are available which save recorded keystrokes to .ENC files, load sequences back into the buffer for replaying and let the user modify configuration when the program is initially loaded. Users can adjust a 'boost' threshold to determine how long a pause will be recorded between keystrokes. Placing ENCORE in a subdirectory on the path in use is recommended. ENCORE does not work in all situations; it works by reading calls to BIOS interrupt 9, but some programs do not wait for this interrupt to make sense of all keystrokes. A detailed technical description of ENCORE's operation is presented. Palette animation techniques under Windows 3.0. (Environments) (tutorial) Palette animation is a special type of animation possible under Microsoft Windows 3.0 that draws images into video memory and manipulates the Windows palette manager table to change the appearance of an image. It is very fast because the changes do not involve screen redrawing. A sample program, FADER, which displays a text string in white against a white background and gradually changes the color to blue before 'fading' to white again is presented. FADER uses the 'WndProc' windows procedure to check for palette support and calls GetDeviceCaps with a RASTERCAPS parameter. A special variable controls the incrementing and decrementing of red, green and blue color values. Text fading is most appropriate for presentation, training or entertainment software; PIPES, an engineering application which simulates the flow of a fluid through a pipe using palette animation, is briefly discussed. An introduction to Dynamic Data Exchange in Windows 3.0. (Power Programming) (tutorial) A programmer's guide to the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol in Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is presented. Windows' DDE facility is not nearly as strong as that of OS/2 and indicates the glaring weaknesses of the DOS-based graphical interface. Most programmers found Windows DDE obscure until recently; the DDE implementation in Microsoft's Excel became a standard for many developers. Today's Windows programming manuals discuss DDE much more fully than in the past. A 'conversation' between two Windows applications relies on the Windows message mechanism. DDE conversations include an application name, usually the program name of the server; a topic name, typically a filename identifying the data set to be operated on; and items, or chunks of information exchanged between the client and the server. Windows itself is not actively involved in DDE; applications implement the protocol via global memory blocks, global atoms and nine DDE-specific messages. A simple example of a DDE transaction is presented. The asynchronous, multistep nature of Windows DDE presents many potential problems. What-If Solver. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of goal-seeking add-in programs for Lotus 1-2-3 in 'Optimizing Frontline Systems Inc's $199.95 What-If Solver is one of the most flexible optimization add-ins available for Lotus 1-2-3. The program can help maximize such goals as interest income or minimize costs. It is useful for choosing investment portfolios and for many other real-world problems. What-If Solver solves linear-programming problems effectively, although it occasionally produces mysterious error messages in macro calculations. Execution speed is good. There are no diagnostic functions for identifying nonlinear optimization tasks. What-If Solver is overall a very effective and useful product for solving modest-sized optimization problems with fewer than 25 variables. It is rated and Editor's Choice. Apple's stock plunges 13% on profit news; new product mix is noted as the company posts unexpectedly low net. (Apple Computer Inc.) Apple Computer Inc's stock plunged 13 percent in Apr 1991 after the computer maker reported that earnings fell in the 2nd qtr in 1991. Apple Computer's sales increased for the quarter by 19 percent when compared to the same period in 1990, but the company's new low-profit-margin strategy, which is aimed at obtaining greater market share, resulted in a loss in earnings. The gross profit margin for the company sank to 48.8 percent of sales, compared with 54.7 percent for the same period in 1990. Apple indicates that it is pleased with its 2nd qtr 1991 results; the company is increasing its market share and reaching new users with its low-priced microcomputers. Apple reports that operating expenses have fallen to a two-year low. International sales have reached a high, accounting for 52 percent of revenue for the period. NCR's earnings exceed expectations, shoring up its position against AT&T. NCR Corp's earnings and revenue for the 1st qtr of 1991 exceeded expectations causing industry observers to believe that the computer company will have a stronger position in holding off AT and T's hostile takeover attempt. NCR reported a net income of $46 million, or 70 cents a share, for the period, which includes a $7 million charge associated with defending against AT and T's takeover bid. NCR had net income of $52 million, or 73 cents a share, for the same period in 1990. Revenue for the period rose by eight percent to $1.37 billion. NCR's financial report lends credibility to its contention that its stock is worth more than the $100 a share AT and T is offering. NCR stock closed at $96.625 a share on Apr 15, 1991. IBM strives for a single image in Europe. (Advertising) (column) Hudson, Richard L. IBM begins an advertising campaign in Europe that focuses on creating a single image of the computer maker across the entire continent. The number-one computer maker believes the 1992 Single European Market will make it important to have consistent offerings; confusion and a loss of sales will result if different countries have different images of IBM. IBM's Pan-European marketing strategy has been a gradual one: it began with creating a single corporate image in the late 1980s and involves using consistent advertisements across the continent in early 1991. Industry observers note that IBM's global marketing strategy is indicative of a trend in the computer industry as a whole. Why 'The Legion of Doom' has little fear of the feds: nailing computer hackers is proving harder than prosecutors imagined. Some 150 armed Secret Service agents raided suspected computer hackers in 14 states for evidence of high-tech wrongdoing in May 1990. Agents seized dozens of computer systems and thousands of diskettes. The hacker bust was meant to convey a message to any computer user whose interest exceeds legal and ethical bounds. However, Operation Sundevil has produced only one indictment and chances are that most cases will be quietly dropped. Obstacles vary. Computer crimes often cross jurisdictions and call for the coordination of various law-enforcement agencies. Officials must be careful not to infringe on personal freedoms, and they often lack the technical expertise necessary. Uncovering evidence for successful prosecutions is quite time-consuming. A nationwide hacker network called the Legion of Doom was the target of the operation; with members suspected of trading stolen credit card numbers and long-distance phone cards and sharing information on how to access corporate computer systems. Congratulations, It's a clone: how AMD copied Intel's 386 chip after two years of hard labor. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel AMD insiders have know for some time that Intel's monopoly on 80386 chips was over. The break came on Aug 10, 1990 when AMD's super-secret design team announced results. The competing chip, called the AM386, was formally introduced in late Mar 1991. Only the leader of the design team, A. Benjamin Oliver, thought results were possible. AMD officials say the clone chip, which is faster and consumes less power, will bring in revenues of over $100 million during its first full year, which should help return the company to profitability after losses in four of the last six years. The story begins in 1982 when AMD was licensed as a second source of Intel processors; however, Intel then decided not to license the 386 design and AMD sued to force Intel to reconsider. The legal battle is continuing. The company decided to develop a clone as a hedge against losing the court battle. AMD was able to risk reverse-engineering because of a 1976 cross licensing agreement with Intel. Where Sun means to be a bigger fireball: it's selling workstations to business now - but it faces tough rivals. (Sun Microsystems Northwest Airlines' (NWA) acquisition of Republic Airlines brought the carrier a giant data processing headache. NWA could not afford new mainframes to track revenue from tickets. The company decided on a network of 600 workstations from Sun Microsystems. This allowed the airline to analyze every ticket for proper pricing automatically, instead of checking just ten percent as before. Other businesses are also finding that they can do more for less with workstation networks instead of mainframe systems. Workstation market growth has slowed to 21 percent in 1991, from 38 percent in 1990, due to the sluggish economy. Sun Microsystems has the most to gain from market expansion. The company has grown to $2.5 billion in annual revenues in just nine years. Moving to the commercial marketplace pits Sun against IBM and Compaq Computer. Information processing: bits and bytes. (Industrial technology edition) US West Communications has selected Jane Evans as vice president and general manager of its Home and Personal Services unit. Evans' previous experience has been in the retail clothing arena. Sega of America is planning to introduce Game Gear, a color, hand-held game machine to compete against Nintendo's Game Boy. Competition will be intense as Atari has just slashed the price of its Lynx portable. Dun and Bradstreet's Murray Hill (NJ) unit is now offering smaller companies some access to its databases without the bother of expensive contracts. Three types of D and B reports are available on a pay-as-you-go basis via NewsNet. Alps Electric, Japan, recently displayed a prototype of a fixed flexible disk drive, which stores portable computer data on a flexible medium rather than a hard platter. United Parcel has launched a $350 million program to equip its drivers with handheld computers. The Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), which plans drivers' routes and almost completely eliminates paperwork, was developed by two wholly-owned UPS subsidiaries. How tiny Quark became a media star: its XPress software is the darling of ad agencies and magazines. (Industrial Technology Quark Inc Pres Fred Ebrahimi was only eight when he learned about the power of the press in his native Iran and says he has a hang-up about it to this day. Quark Xpress, a desktop publishing package, is enhancing the production of publications from Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly to The San Francisco Examiner. Its latest version XPress 3.0 ($795) can accomplish many things Aldus' PageMaker cannot. Quark's package can manipulate precisely full-color photographs, graphics and text. Officials at J. Walter Thompson say it is the only program that will afford them their needed control. Sales for privately-held Quark will rise from $30 million in 1990 to $50 million in 1991 and possibly $100 million in 1992. The company, in order to stay ahead of competition is preparing to market an IBM PC-based version of XPress, its first non-Macintosh product. Segmentation: the race for specialization is on: vendors' investments entice resellers into vertical markets. Computer industry vendors are extending vast amounts marketing funds to key resellers, including taking equity positions in high-end dealers as a means of focusing on specific vertical markets, and this is increasing the segmentation of the reseller channel. The importance of a more specific market focus is highlighted as new products appear and new vendors continue to enter the market. Launching a new brand of hardware requires a capital investment in the range of $1 million to $1.5 million, and it is imperative that vendors invest that money wisely, particularly in a climate where the major chains are know to play one vendor off against another. A knowledge of channel dynamics is essential to insure the best return on such an investment. Industry poised for channel realignment: segmentation: the race for specialization is on. A major realignment of the reseller industry could result from the reevaluation that has been triggered by spreading polarization in the microcomputer reseller market. A volatile debate involving analysts, value-added resellers (VARs), dealers and executives centers on the causes and effects of the continuing sectorization of both the hardware and software markets. There is a consensus that new profit opportunities are arising, calling for new strategies and displacing previously held beliefs about the place of computer dealers in the market. the emergence of a home-business computer market, the increasing strength of the VAR channel, and the fragmenting of national reseller chains are all seen as contributing to the volatility of the market. Resellers pick their markets carefully: spanning the spectrum from superstores to high-end network sales. The computer industry's top dealers are working to find their niche in a rapidly changing environment driven by marketplace dynamics that have forced the segmentation of the traditional channel. Reseller executives say there is no longer a place for the traditional chain that tries to be all things to all customers. A gap now exists in the channel, with mass merchandising and retail superstores on one side and true value-added resellers (VARs) on the other. Industry officials say that unless resellers take the risk and segment the entire channel will pay the price in continually declining profitability. Keeping current and taking risks are imperative in the volatile climate of today's market. VARs hit with support fees: Merisel follows competitors. (Value-added resellers) Merisel Inc plans to restructure its 20,000 VAR customers into categories and to start charging most of them for different levels and support they had been receiving for free. The new VAR program, called ProVAR, addresses the rising cost of technical support and is similar to those of Ingram Micro and Tech Data. The Merisel program includes a list of free subscription and fee-based services together with a new technical support vehicle called Tech Connection. Company officials say the company views the program as a better way to service VARs without losing a strict cost structure and alienating large customers. Solbourne signs Cal-Abco: looking for volume: VARs get the call. (Solbourne Computer Inc., value-added resellers) Solbourne Computer Inc has signed Cal-Abco to an exclusive distribution agreement in an attempt to shift sales of low-end Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC) workstations into the value-added reseller channel. The agreement follows other contracts between national distributors and workstation vendors like Merisel Inc and Digital Equipment (DEC). Cal-Abco will distribute Solbourne's low-end workstation, the S4000, to VARs who are authorized by a dedicated Cal-Abco group called the Solbourne/SPARC Workstation Division. Cal-Abco and Solbourne have both declined to provide specific revenue figures. Cal-Abco will manage 10 to 15 percent of the vendor's worldwide unit volume in 1991. The installed user base for scalable processor architecture (SPARC) systems hit 285,000 in the 1st qtr of 1991. Novell raises resellers' ire: unveils direct sales of utilities. Hwang, Diana. Novell is expected to introduce a pilot marketing program through its After Markets Products group to market third-party NetWare utilities to users. The program has drawn a wave of criticism from dealers and developers even before its official debut. Reseller officials claim the new program will put them in competition with Novell and resellers do not want to compete with a major vendor. Novell says the program is designed to enhance users' awareness of products that can add value to the NetWare environment. Novell officials say the products may not have an established dealer channel or may be running into difficulties in penetrating the market without help from Novell. The vendor will move on and market other offerings once there is enough demand for the products. Resellers and some vendors are unconvinced saying the program could be bad for users as the vendor is not in a position to inform the user about the products. Government probe of Microsoft widens; focus turns to antitrust issues. Microsoft has revealed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has broadened their investigation to determine whether the software developer has attempted to monopolize the software market. The company has received a letter from an agency attorney saying that the FTC will investigate third-party allegations that Microsoft has tried to monopolize the software market for operating systems, operating environments, computer software and peripherals for microcomputers. The source of the allegations has not been specified. Industry analysts say the investigation underscores the resentment among many developers toward Microsoft's influence in the industry. Sun: latest to take reseller hard line: ultimatum: drop SPARC clones or else. (Sun Microsystems, scalable processor Sun Microsystems becomes the second vendor to demand that its dealers cease selling SPARC-compatible hardware systems or lose their Sun authorizations. The move is very much like Apple Computer's recent ultimatum that its education resellers cease the sales of competing products into the K-12 market arena. Sun officials have confirmed that the company has begun to notify its value-added resellers (VARs), value-added distributors (VADs) and distributors at summit meetings and via electronic mail that if they carry a competing SPARC computer they will no longer carry Sun machines. Resellers have 90 days to cease sales of compatible machines or lose their Sun medallion. The directive is limited to machines in the SPARC environment. IBM laptop constraint gets drastic: resellers receive tiny fraction of orders placed. Dealers are reporting that the new IBM PS/2 L40SX laptop computer is experiencing severe shortages. Some chains say that the vendor can fulfill only two to three percent of their orders. Many reseller executives did not expect the shortage to be this severe even though the product was expected to be back-ordered immediately due to a shortage of component parts, especially the 60M-byte hard drives from Conner Peripherals. IBM, moreover, has not given chains any indication of when the product will be readily available, according to dealers. Reseller executives report that the vendor does not have an immediate fix for the problem. Some chains report that they do not have enough of the product to allocate one per storefront. RISC vendors unite: Compaq, 20 others to battle Sun, HP, IBM. (reduced instruction set computing, Compaq Computers, Sun A consortium of 21 hardware and software vendors unveiled an agreement to develop what they hope will be a new standard for RISC-based workstations and high-end microcomputers, triggering a major battle in the computer industry. The standard, called Advanced Computing Environment (ACE), is predicated on a future dominated by two hardware platforms and two operating systems. The two platforms defined in the standard include the Intel 80X86 microprocessor series and a RISC processor developed by Mips Computer Systems. Users, developers and resellers will be able to choose between Microsoft OS/2 3.0 and The Santa Cruz Operation's (SCO) Open Desktop Unix implementation. The companies involved will have development tools available later in 1991 with the first RISC-based systems ready for the market by the second half of 1992. IE joins hunt for VARs: chains butt heads. (Intelligent Electronics, value-added resellers) Intelligent Electronics (IE) has enhanced its recruitment of VARs to address a shortage of independent dealers in previously untouched geographic markets. The 975-dealer chain, which has recruited 50 vertically-oriented VARs since Dec 1990, says it plans to recruit an additional 150 resellers by the end of 1991. IE, by targeting those interested in selling IBM and Compaq computer systems, is competing directly with Inacomp Computer Centers, MicroAge Inc and ValCom Inc, all of which have been talking to VARs with aggregator programs and technical training. The chain is still recruiting 10 independent dealers per month but has found it needs to be more careful about adding new dealers in locations where the company already has a presence. MicroAge to offer 'help desk' to major accounts. Hedlund, Kristen. MicroAge is ready to introduce a technical support help desk directly available to major account customers. The service will be marketed by the retailer's franchisees. The company has been pilot testing the program with five to ten major accounts for nearly a year on a limited basis, according to company officials. The program was kept under wraps initially so that the chain's competitors would not find out about it. The help desk features a toll-free telephone line but customers are charged for calls on a pay-per-incident basis, buying blocks of calls for a set fee. Officials declined to specify the fee structure or rates. The program is being developed to meet the needs of major accounts in mission-critical areas like sales force automation, image processing, automated costing/proposal preparation and worldwide real-time information sharing. Connecting Point opens 'window' for Andersen. (Connecting Point of America) A small Connecting Point reseller has been awarded a contract from Andersen Corp that could result in the sale of over 400 Macintosh IIfx computers together with a selection of multimedia equipment to the window and door manufacturer in 1991. The contract spotlights the increasing use of multimedia products for the consumer market. Neither party would comment on the terms of the agreement. The project, called Andersen Window of Knowledge, includes a Macintosh IIfx, a Pioneer Communications of America video laser-disc player, remote speaker, 33M byte hard drive, laser printer, 9,600 bps modem and custom software. The SuperCard-based multimedia software was developed by Santa Fe Interactive and includes animation and high-resolution graphics. Windows accounting arena heats up. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) (product announcement) Computer Associates International (CAI) plans to unveil AccPac Simply Accounting for Windows ($199), its entry into the Windows 3.0 accounting marketplace, a market segment attracting more and more attention. The new package, based on an existing Macintosh program, is expected to ship in May 1991. The company will join four others who are focusing on this emerging market segment. Peachtree Software and Brown-Wagh Publishing entered the market by making deals to acquire existing technology. Peachtree's Crystal Accounting ($495) was marketed originally by Accounting by Design. Brown-Wagh's Sybiz ($495) was created by Sybiz Software Ltd in Australia. Teleware Inc will ship a $249 Macintosh-based package later in Apr 1991. Random Access' net income surges 560% in 2Q. (second quarter) Markowitz, Elliot. Random Access Inc has bucked the current economic trend by posting an incredible 560 percent increase in net income and a 129 percent increase in revenue for the 2nd qtr, ending Feb 28. The Denver-based reseller posted earnings of $471,362, or eight cents per share on revenues of $16.9 million. These figures compare with a net income of $71,451, or two cents per share on sales of $7.4 million for the corresponding qtr in 1990. Company officials attribute the reseller's strong showing to increased sales to US West and rebounding of the Colorado economy. The Bell Regional Holding Company had named Random Access as its primary provider early in 1990. US West accounted for about 45 percent of the reseller's revenue for the qtr. PC distribution: a case study. (market segmentation as it affects a fictional company) (panel discussion) A number of computer industry officials were brought together to discuss market segmentation as it affects a fictional computer company. Those expressing opinions on segmentation include Leading Technology Pres Pat Terrel, Merrin Information Services Pres Sy Merrin, Cuestra Associates Pres Elliot Dahan and Consumer Product Marketing Group Pres Ron Eisner. The fictional microcomputer vendor will not jeopardize its existing dealer base by going retail. Some will defect but their loyalty would be questionable anyhow. It is important to ensure both channels know what the company would do for them. The company has to be able of funding very large receivables and would also need to have financing available for very large inventories. Micro One drops out of USConnect. Grace, Tim. Local area network (LAN) reseller Micro One has dropped out of the USConnect national networking consortium. The dealer, the group's largest member, plans to focus on providing systems and value-added reseller (VAR) services to the legal industry. Officials have downplayed the significance of the Micro One decision. Several Micro One competitors and other consortium members consider Micro One one of the strongest VAR organizations within the group. One member official said that they were not receiving many referrals from fellow members of the consortium after the first year and that Micro One, by its sheer size was best able to provide those referrals. Multilocation customers, under the USConnect service, would sign a contract with one consortium member, which would then enlist the help of other members in other cities to perform LAN and wide area network (WAN) services locally. Apple a favorite despite reseller woes. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Per-share stock prices for several microcomputer companies, including Apple Computer, AST Research, Compaq Computer, Dell Computer and Tandy, have risen a hefty 41 percent since the beginning of 1991 and an incredible 193 percent since Jan 1990. The comparison is more impressive when put next to the Standard and Poor 500's 15 percent appreciation so far in 1991 and its miniscule four percent increase since Jan 1990. There are many reasons for the excellent showing of these companies including above average sales and earnings momentum, multiple expansion, and continuing expectations for earnings acceleration. The profit growth is strong, even with the product transition difficulties Apple incurred during 1990. Apple continues, in spite of its difficult relations with the reseller channel, to be a favorite microcomputer stock considering its expanding profitability and market share. Tight margins for reseller: computer chains find it harder than ever to show profits. Computer resellers are finding turning a profit to be very difficult in spite of cost-cutting measures. Increased pricing pressure is continuing to hamper gross margins, according to analysts. Businessland's gross margins, for its 2nd qtr ending Dec 31, 1990, dropped to 19.8 percent. Inacomp Computer Centers' margins fell to 14.9 percent in its 2nd qtr, ending Jan 31, 1991. Industry officials say they have not seen the marketplace more competitive in 15 years. Intelligent Electronics reported that its gross margins fell to 7.9 percent for the 1st qtr ending Jan 31, 1991. MicroAge margins fell to 7.7 percent for the period ending Dec 31 1990. Industry analysts report that aggressive pricing has plagued resellers since 1989. The only way to increase market share is to maintain aggressive pricing. Oracle's net down: action: company to restate past quarters. Markowitz, Elliot. Financial complications are continuing at Oracle Corp. The software publisher reported lower-than-expected earnings for the 3rd qtr ending Feb 28, 1990. Company officials have revealed plans to restate previous quarterly financial results because of errors in accounting. The company revealed errors in processing including inadvertent duplicate billings and unrecorded customer returns. The company posted a 9.7 percent increase in revenue, to $269.5 million in the 3rd qtr from $245.6 million in the same quarter in 1990. Net income, however, dropped almost 60 percent to $12.1 million, or nine cents per share, from $29.8 million, or 22 center per share, for the 3rd qtr in 1990. Oracle stock has dropped 25 cents to $8.88 per share on a volume of 5.3 million shares. DEC serves as consultant: new Global Assistance Program. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC has introduced the Global Assistance Program, a formal consulting service designed to aid US-based value-added resellers (VARs) and dealers in international marketing efforts. The microcomputer vendor's recent success in working with SmartStar Corp, a California-based VAR, helped to spur the program. SmartStar officials had already tried to take the VAR international but were having trouble succeeding. They decided to contact old resources at DEC and got more than advice in return. The company found itself as part of a pilot program designed to help US VARs resellers and systems integrators become established in foreign markets. SmartStar had a wholly-owned subsidiary in Vienna, Austria and a trans-European distribution network within six months of working with the vendor. DEC wants to help other US companies attain the same success, not as a vendor but as a consultant. Palindrome officials react: dealer criticism of The Network Archivist addressed. Resellers dissatisfied with Palindrome Corp's The Network Archivist (TNA) network backup and storage management solution will no longer recommend it to their customers. Complaints center on about lengthy backup and restore times and data loss. Company officials say the difficulties are not entirely due to imperfect technology and that user errors are also to blame. Some resellers who first viewed The Network Archivist as a product with seductive features that competed easily with other products feel let down. The Network Archivist, which was built on a relational database expert system, is often slowed by its own intelligent logic. Restores are driven by a library database, which slows down the process. Efficient network scouts: Triticom's LANVision: 'sniffs' like expensive network monitors. (product announcement) Triticom has announced upgrades to its LANVision line of network traffic monitors. ArcVision 2.0 ($295), EtherVision 2.0 ($395) and TokenVision 2.0 ($495) now can create hard-copy reports summarizing monitored sessions. They will also support Micro Channel LAN adapters in the network station monitor. TokenVision 2.0 can now monitor 16M-bit token-ring networks and 4M-bit environments. Registered LANVision owners can obtain free upgrades to 2.0. Triticom markets products directly and through a group of 80 to 90 dealers, including resellers in Australia and Sweden. Dealer's recommend LANVision as much for its features and user-friendliness as its cost. Mac clones: too little, too late? (The Platform) (column) Goldberg, Aaron. Apple Computer, which has relentlessly pursued compatible hardware vendors in the past, is adopting a gentler course. The company has begun to license system ROMs to other manufacturers, which could result in a Mac-compatible market. The vendor has realized that one company cannot create a volume hardware platform. The move may come too late. The vendor has brought out a competitive low-end product line and garnered a share of the market for aggressively-priced Macs. The situation is about the same in the portable computer market. Mac-compatible vendors had many possibilities in 1988 and 1989 and needed Apple's cooperation. These companies are less inclined to pay the license fees with a more competitive marketplace, due to Windows' popularity. Mips expands lines: vendor adds two servers, workstation. (product announcement) Mips Computer Systems is enhancing its workstation product line with the introduction of three reduced-instruction-computing (RISC) systems. Prices have been lowered on several others. The new products include the Magnum 3000/33 desktop system ($10,990) and the RC3330 RISComputer ($11,990) and RC3350 RISComputer ($36,500) server systems, all based on the 33MHz R3000A RISC processor. Industry analysts say the Magnum 3000/33 is important as it helps the vendor expand its single user product line with a faster, more powerful system. It is targeted at those workstation buyers who are developing software and office and technical engineering professionals. The vendor has lowered the list price on its Magnum 30000/25 workstation to $7,990. Analysts point out that, even with the price reduction, Mips systems do not compete with low-cost workstations from Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. Laptop market takes off: study reveals uptick in sales of portables through 1995. Notebook and laptop computers are popular because they are expanding in memory capability and speed while becoming lighter, more compact and user-friendly. Industry analysts expect user spending to shift from desktop systems to portables within the next five years. The study has discovered an installed base of 39 million desktop systems in the US. Thirty-four million were desktop microcomputers. Four million of those are portable systems. Workstations comprise three percent of those systems. The installed base of desktop systems is expected to reach 44 million by the end of 1991. Six million of those will be portables and nearly two million will be workstations. Some 36 million will be desktop microcomputers. Panasonic unveils slew of laptops: notebooks: a hot market gets even hotter. (Panasonic Communications and Systems) (product Panasonic Communications and Systems has unveiled four new notebook computers. They include the 16MHz 80286-based CF-270 Business Partner ($3,199), the 10MHz V20 CF-170 Business Partner ($2,399), the CF-150BPKG ($1,149) and the CF-370H6 ($4,999). The CF-270 and CF-170 weigh 6.9 pounds and 6.1 pounds respectively, featuring a small footprint measuring approximately 12.2 x 1.7 x 10 inches and should fit easily into a briefcase. Each is equipped with a 3.5-inch, 1.44M-byte floppy-disk drive and a 20M-byte hard-disk drive. The CF-270 is a 16MHz 80286-based microcomputer that boasts rapid data computation. The CF-150BPKG features a backlit screen and weighs 6.2 pounds. The battery can be recharged by plugging into any standard electrical outlet. The CF-370H6 weighs 6.8 pounds and also features a small footprint that fits most briefcases. Notebook vendors find power in chips. Nunoo, Mildred. The features of laptop and notebook computers that appeal to users include convenience, weight and price as well as the processors and modems. ACC Microelectronics makes the single-chip AT controller called the ACC-2036, which is designed specifically for manufacturers of notebook-sized 80286- and 80386-based AT standard computers and integrates the logic and performance of an 80286 or 80386SX AT system. Company officials point out that it is important to have a compact-sized circuit board and minimal power consumption when building a notebook computer. The technology for laptop/notebook computers is headed for higher integration levels. Small makers tout powerful, lightweight portables. Nunoo, Mildred. Some smaller vendors are offering powerful and lightweight laptop computers to compete with products from Compaq, Toshiba and IBM. Poqet Computer recently introduced the Poqet PC ($1,450), its most portable, IBM-standard, MS-DOS laptop computer. Features include a full 80-character x 25-line display and a 77-key keyboard. It fits inside a purse, briefcase or jacket pocket. It runs up to 100 hours on two standard AA-size batteries. Applications are available on 'credit-card-sized' disks called Poqet PC cards. RDI Computer has introduced a laptop computer called BriteLite ($10,800), which weighs 13 pounds and runs on Sun Microsystems' IPC board (motherboard). Fora Inc's market entry is the NBS-386S ($2,995), which weighs 6.4 pounds. The dilemma for small publishers: compete with giants or sell out. (Soft Focus) (column) A recent Software Publishers Association (SPA) symposium gave industry observers the chance to gauge the health of the software industry. Conference attendees indicate their interest in particular topics by attending or not attending particular sessions. Publishers are not very interested in platform wars. The most popular sessions centered on distribution, especially the shrinking shelf space in retail outlets. A common concern is the inability to control or influence the reseller channel. Smaller publishers are aware that many medium-sized companies have decided to sell out rather than slugging it out in the market. CC:Mail, Samna and Consumer Software have become divisions of larger companies, sending an ominous message to other firms with annual sales between $3 million and $15 million. Success in the software business is not in building a company but in realizing the highest acquisition price. Focus: rejuvenation: Are low-end databases really easy to use? Gross, June. Database companies focusing on the low-end market say they are ready to enhance the category, where sales growth continues to lag in the aftermath of Ashton-Tate's premature delivery of dBase IV in 1988. The first release of dBase IV was a convenient focus for user frustration with database products in general and industry observers know that users' confusion and lack of confidence have not eased. Some are concerned that dealers and vendors marketing user-friendly databases are glossing over the complexities involved in the development and use of these products. Users are frustrated with products currently on the market, according to industry analysts. Can you beat a product that's free? ATM does with better performance and greater versatility. (Adobe Type Manager) Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is faster than Apple's TrueType outline font technology and provides comparable output. But, can that make up for the fact that TrueType (TT) is free to many users? Adobe's release of ATM is an attempt to offer much of what Apple claimed TrueType would: high-quality fonts for display and low-priced printers. Apple has now released its product. The threat represented to Adobe PostScript is real but not as complete as was thought. TrueType and ATM will both do the job. The two programs printed at comparable speeds in simple font tests. ATM print speeds were as much as 28 percent faster when printing complex pages and those using large fonts. TrueType is free to purchasers of one of Apple new printers or owners of an earlier QuickDraw-based printer. ATM is 'channel-perfect.' (Adobe Type Manager) Graziose, Michelle. Adobe Systems' Type Manager (ATM) is a product that will sell perfectly through the reseller channel. Such products are low cost, earn a good margin and are available off the shelf. Such channel-perfect products move in quantity and are developed by a vendor offering extensive support. ATM has to compete with Apple Computer's TrueType, available free with Apple's low-end printers or as an add-on to System 6.0.7 and will be a part of System 7.0. Adobe Type Manager sells well and dealers are making an average of 15 to 20 points on it. Some reseller officials think TrueType poses more of a threat to PostScript than to ATM. Most say ATM is one of their best selling products. Avcom merges with software firm: VAR's move opens door to electrical engineering market. (Avcom Systems Inc., value-added Avcom Systems Inc has moved to enhance its growth by merging with Elcor Associates Inc. Avcom is a $9.5 million VAR providing networked computer-aided design systems to the architectural, civil engineering and corporate publishing markets while Elcor is a software firm. The agreement terms were not disclosed. The merger extends Avcom's reach to the electronic design automation (EDA) marketplace. Elcor will become Avcom's EDA Division in Jan 1992 and has been a major dealer of OrCAD software and EDA packages from seven other software developers. The merger also represents Avcom's latest move to cement its position as one of the most rapidly growing VARs in the computer-aided design marketplace. Strategic Mapping's plan targets vertical VARs. (value-added reseller) Increasing segmentation among VARs has caused Strategic Mapping to modify its VAR program to penetrate vertical markets. The firm hopes to sign an additional 50 or 60 VARs in 1991. Strategic Mapping is targeting VARs that provide systems to the sales and marketing management arena, financial arena, health care market, insurance market and the public sector after over a year of signing resellers to market its Atlas GIS mapping software without regard to vertical expertise. The company's goal is to double its VAR-generated revenue, according to company officials. VARs account for 20 percent of the company's sales with its direct-sales organization generating the balance. Officials expect that half of Strategic Mapping's revenue will be VAR-generated by the end of 1991. ClareTech makes first move: Software City franchisees buy from VAR franchisor. (ClareTech Business Centers, value-added reseller) Software City franchisees have begun purchasing microcomputers from VAR franchisor ClareTech Business Centers as the new ClareTech management team makes an innovative move to expand market share. ClareTech, formerly Claren Inc, has gone where few franchisors have gone before by supplying various products to the franchisees of another chain. ClareTech began supplying products to Software City in late Mar 1991 under an affiliate aggregator agreement. The company now plans to offer the chain a variety of microcomputer products. Software City officials call the agreement a strategic alliance. Software City franchisees purchase products as if they were ClareTech locations. ClareTech was chosen after discussions with a number of large industry aggregators. A day in court: 1st round: judge finds for Apple. Zarley, Craig. Apple Computer has won the first round in a legal challenge to its new K-12 educational marketing plan. The company still faces a jury trial in a suit to block that program. The ruling came as a result of a preliminary injunction hearing in US District Court in Madison, WI resulting from a lawsuit filed against the vendor by reseller Team Electronics/ Connecting Point. The store was dropped from the roster of Apple Educational Sales Consultants in Jan 1991 and filed suit in a Wisconsin state circuit court seeking a permanent injunction staying the dismissal as well as monetary damages. The vendor won the right to have the case heard in federal court. Judge John C. Shabaz set Sep 9, 1991 as the day to begin jury selection for the trial. Team Electronics built its case around the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law that says it is to 'protect the interests of the dealer, whose economic livelihood may be imperiled by the dealership grantor.' Lex Electronics launches national leasing program. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. The Systems Division of Lex Electronics, a business group within the electronics and component distributorship, announces a national leasing program for resellers. The company organized the Lex Assisted Leasing program in conjunction with Dana Commercial Credit Corp of Troy, MI. Company officials indicate that the tight economy made the time right for reinforcing reseller commitment through the development of a national leasing program. Leasing can increase profits by making it easier to close a sale and offers customers the option of covering all costs, including the costs of software, installation and service. Most companies considering leasing are smaller ones needing to closely watch capital expenditures. Ingram Micro inks exclusive pact with Microtech. (Microtech International Inc.) Microtech International and Ingram Micro have signed a three-month exclusive agreement whereby Ingram Micro will distribute the entire Microtech line of Macintosh peripherals and other products. Ingram's Macintosh and Apple Division and Mass Storage Division each signed the contract and will each take part in marketing the Microtech line. Microtech officials say this is the first distribution agreement for the vendor, which has changed its organization and support structure to facilitate reseller channel distribution. The vendor signed a one-year contract, with an exclusive first three months, as a test. Company officials say that a six- or 12-month exclusive agreement would not provide enough freedom and flexibility. There are no plans currently to add other distributors at the end of the three months. CAD distributors expand lines. (computer-aided design) Two distributors specializing in the CAD market arena, TriTech Graphics Inc and NIDI Northwest Inc, have signed distribution agreements to significantly expand product offerings. NIDI Northwest, Bellevue, WA, has signed an agreement with Houston Instruments to distribute the vendor's full line of scanners and plotters. NIDI will also carry Houston's SCAN-CAD Plotter Accessory, which allows a plotter to function as a wide-format scanner producing 400-dots-per-inch resolution, with as many as 16 gray levels. It is the SCAN-CAD, according to NIDI officials, that makes the Houston Instrument line a significant addition. TriTech Graphics has signed a distribution agreement with Nanao USA to distribute Nanao's line of monitors. The vendor builds monitors from 14 to 21 inches in size and specializes in high-resolution, auto-scanning monitors for computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE), desktop publishing and work processing. One attractive feature of most Nanao monitors is low magnetic radiation, resulting from a specially designed deflection yoke. TransNet hosts show: seminar explores Mac as a research tool. (Apple Macintosh) Reseller TransNet Corp's sixth annual 'Macintosh as a Research Tool' seminar in Apr 1991 attracted over 500 researchers, scientists, professors and MIS managers. Also in attendance were more than 40 manufacturers and vendors displaying products ranging from the highly technical to business applications. TransNet, a franchisee of Connecting Point, may host a similar show in the fall of 1991 focusing on MS-DOS solutions. Connecting Point officials agreed that the turnout was impressive. Industry analyst Douglas Cayne gave the keynote address, which focused on Apple Computer's future and the general direction of the microcomputer industry. Part of that direction includes moving toward a multiplatform, multivendor environment. Connectivity will be increasingly important as companies move away from one-shop solutions. Nursing facilities try PCs: machines help to meet U.S. regulations for record keeping. New regulations for Health Care Financing Administration are compelling the most computer-phobic nursing facilities to abandon manual record keeping in favor of computer technology. The new regulations are the result of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, passed in 1987. The goal is to develop comprehensive medical record-keeping systems for the 19,000 nursing facilities across the country. Congress hopes that the regulations will enhance patient care at nursing facilities, according to officials of Interactive Health Systems. Computer technology can, for example, ensure regulatory and legal compliance by letting nurses maintain up-to-date records cross-referencing items like documentation of the social worker to patients' bath schedules. The new regulations will let the government make Medicaid and Medicare payments based on the severity of the illness rather than a per-bed basis. The minimum data set (MDS) form, which must be completed upon both admission and dismissal of patients, has more than tripled in size. Association targets microcomputer security: group boasts increasing membership. (The National Computer Security Corporations and users are turning to the National Computer Security Association (NCSA) to learn more about computer security and ways to improve it. The association, which was founded in Oct 1989, boasts 1,000 members and expects that number to double by the end of 1991. Much of the growth has been through word-of-mouth. The group recently struck an agreement with an international mail-order house to sell NCSA memberships, which costs $45, through its catalog. NCSA has also deal with the reseller channel on a limited basis. NCSA has developed methods to aid users and possibly resellers in learning more about computer viruses and security. Members receive a bimonthly newsletter and the Virus Self-Defense Kit, which contains a manual and a 360K floppy disk of anti-virus software. A series of electronic bulletin boards is also available. Aid for LAN users: Noorda: multivendor group needed. (Novell president Ray Noorda, local area network) Novell is trying to form a consortium of vendors to offer support and service to solve the difficulties businesses run into using microcomputer LANs. Novell Pres and CEO Ray Noorda says the Technical Support Alliance would provide rapid service and support in a one-call, one-stop vendor service. Noorda hopes that Microsoft and other industry leaders will become part of the alliance. Noorda says the program addresses the difficulty of supporting networks. Novell is spearheading the project and there will be no charge for other vendors who wish to join. Company officials could not provide specific details about the alliance but the idea is to solve the continuing problem of how to support users encountering problems with applications running on a Novell LAN. Segmentation: industry chases the mass market: PC business the latest to become splintered. Computer resellers with experience in other industries will have a strong sense of deja vu in the 1990s. The microcomputer business is splitting between specialized dealers and mass merchants as it matures. The same thing happened in the 1930s with supermarkets and in the 1980s with athletic footwear. The percentage of microcomputers marketed by traditional resellers declined in 1990, to the benefit of the consumer and value-added reseller (VAR) channels. This middle ground is not expected to disappear overnight. Traditional dealers are expected to still hold a 52.1 percent market share in 1994. More and more hardware vendors and software publishers are recognizing a more clearly defined market and are creating business units and products to address specific markets. Vendors develop product lines, business units to drive consumer sales: segmentation: industry chases the mass market. Major computer vendors are working hard to access the high-volume microcomputer retail market without endangering existing sales through value-added resellers and traditional dealers. Microcomputer sales through mass merchants are expected to top $3.5 billion in 1991. Many vendors, especially Apple Computer and Acer America, have organized independent units or new product lines to generate sales in the mass merchant marketplace. Apple has already announced its plans and Acer is expected to release its first consumer-oriented product in Jun 1991 under a different logo. These are just the latest examples of vendors seeking to separate their product lines. Apple, as part of a companywide reorganization, has created a consumer division, headed by Apple Chmn John Sculley, whose purpose is to focus on creating lower-priced, high-volume products for the consumer market. Computers Etc: how one dealer became a retailer to remain competitive. The reality of segmentation is frightening computer resellers across the country. Dealers in many markets are rewriting their business plans to either prepare for the superstore explosion or promote a technical or niche expertise. Computers Etc is a perfect example of the retail direction. Howard Gelpey opened the doors of a 1,200 square foot store in 1983 and now has a 24,000 square foot facility. Being in the middle of the channel is difficult at best as a business cannot juggle two different pricing structures. Discounting and value-added services do not mix as volume purchasers expect services for free. Computer buyers in search of the best price will find the product for less from a store that needs to enhance cash flow. Resellers must adjust in order to compete. Comp USA to mail 20 million catalogs: named changed from Soft Warehouse. Comp USA, formerly Soft Warehouse, is preparing to launch a consumer catalog program, signalling a shift in the chain's advertising expenditures. The company will mail 20 million catalogs in 1991. CompuAdd Corp, the self-proclaimed second biggest catalog house worldwide, mails about 25 million catalogs annually. Comp USA is cutting its newspaper advertising costs by 30 to 40 percent to offset expenses of the catalog program. The catalogs will also be partially financed by vendors' market development funds and co-op money. The company has made a three-year commitment to the catalog program. Some 18 different types of catalogs will be printed, ranging in sizes from 16 to 128 pages. They will include a toll-free number for ordering merchandise over the phone. The chief goal is to draw customers into the chain's superstores. Different catalogs will be sent to different types of customers, such as large corporations, small businesses and home users. CDTV player hits retail stores. (compact disc television, CDTV Interactive Multimedia player from Commodore Business Machines) Commodore Business Machines introduces its CDTV Interactive Multimedia player ($999), which will be marketed through consumer electronics chains, department stores and software specialty stores. The new device will be sold through seven locations of RH Macy, 10 locations of Software Etc, two locations of Waldensoftware and three locations of Hammacher Schlemmer. The second stage of the retailer rollout will be in May 1991 and will include such retailers as Montgomery Wards. The new product will also be introduced to retailers in Minneapolis, New York, Dallas, Atlanta and Denver. Nationwide distribution will be a reality by Sep 1991. The initial rollout is in California because the appeal of new technology is stronger there. CompuAdd 20MHz 80386-based multimedia PC expected by June: company also plans to carry broader array of office products. CompuAdd plans to make important additions to its mix of 2,100 hardware products, including its own multimedia microcomputers and third-party office products. The microcomputer vendor and reseller expects to begin producing a 20MHz 80386-based multimedia system by Jun 1991. Full production should be possible by the end of the summer. Its 10MHz 80286-based development multimedia microcomputer will be delivered to software developers in May 1991. Company officials expect a convergence of the consumer electronics and computer businesses. They see companies such as Office Depot and BizMart moving into the computer business and feel that their company's technological expertise will allow them to expand in the other direction. Buyer aware. (column) Buyer, Liz. IBM's long-delayed re-entrance into the portable computing market arena has been effected by the introduction of the PS/2 L40 SX, a 7.7-pound laptop microcomputer. Will IBM technology and marketing strength make competitors' products obsolete or will it be another ill-fated venture into a niche of the microcomputer business? Neither is expected to happen. The PS/2 L40 SX offers several features not available on competing machines. Details like a slanted keyboard may seem unimportant but can make a difference to the user. The 60M byte hard drive is bigger than the 40M-byte drive on most notebook systems. The suspend/resume feature allows users to replace a battery or close the machine without going through a tedious shutdown operation. Selling confidence: retailers work hard to gain trust. Williams, Tom. It is not easy for retailers to get customers to trust them. Appearing too rich may brand a reseller as a swindler and looking too shabby may brand it as undependable. This situation is more complicated when high-tech products are marketed as a part of a broad product selection. It takes some convincing for potential buyers to believe they can go to one store for monitors and microwaves. How much effort is necessary? Different retailers have different answers. Micro Center budgets five hours of every sales person's work week for additional training. Radio Shack has representatives take a 30-day class. Sears Roebuck Office Centers require five weeks of training. Fred Schmid Appliance and Electronics and Dillard Department Stores require eight-hour courses in computer products. Sears Brand Central stores are given only general training before they hit the floor. Attention Apple shoppers. (Shop Talk) (column) Orbach, Bobby. The software industry gathers at the Software Publishers Association meetings to discuss issues that concern software developers. News heard in the hallways is usually more interesting than prepared statements delivered from the podium. The success of the Macintosh Classic has spawned the development of some new printers priced at $599 and $1,299. The vendor advertised in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The asterisks next to the prices referred to a statement at the bottom that read, 'Prices shown are suggested retail, but who pays retail anymore?' Dealers were furious, accusing Apple of damaging dealer margins. Apple should be praised for their candid approach in a market where consumers have a 'Never Pay Retail' mentality. Dealers need to recognize that the real money is to be made in selling printer supplies, such as toner and ribbons, and in repeat business engendered by the sense of having gotten a bargain. Apple should follow its candor by placing the Mac Classic in those shops that follow the same philosophy. Compaq, DEC lead bid to trump Sun with ACE. (Advanced Computing Environment promotes standard for reduced instruction set Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) is a consortium of 21 firms including DEC, Compaq Computer Corp and Mips Computer Systems Inc that is developing dual standards for microcomputers and reduced instruction set computer (RISC) systems. ACE plans to make shrink-wrapped, off-the-shelf Unix and OS/2 software available commercially in order to increase competitive pressure on Sun Microsystems Inc's Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC), and to claim a portion of the RISC market. Microsoft Corp will provide ACE with OS/2 3.0, which is portable to RISC platforms, and The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) will integrate DEC's Ultrix and the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1 operating systems with its Unix-based Open Desktop software. ACE intends to offer a RISC platform that can coexist on an Intel-based network and run nearly identical versions of software under either Unix or OS/2 3.0. Microsoft probe broadens. (US Federal Trade Commission to investigate complaints that Microsoft Corp. competes unfairly) Microsoft Corp has disclosed that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is broadening its investigation into the software company's business practices in response to complaints from competitors and developers. The FTC plans to examine allegations that Microsoft has tried to monopolize the market for operating systems, operating environments, software and peripherals for microcomputers. The FTC originally limited its investigation to a 1989 agreement between Microsoft and IBM to cooperate on developments involving OS/2 and Windows. The FTC has authority to institute a cease-and-desist order for business practices it deems unfair. The agency generally tries to negotiate toward a consent decree when it uncovers a legal violation. The FTC will attempt to clarify for the software community whether Microsoft uses its dominance in the software industry to gain market leverage. PC lineup set for 486 'SX.' (Intel Corp.'s 80486SX microprocessor spurs vendors to develop desktop models) Intel Corp introduces its 20MHz low-end 80486SX microprocessor, which is intended to encourage more users to develop 486SX-based systems designed for the desktop. The 486 is generally used as a server and many corporations are hard-pressed to cost-justify its use for the desktop. Yet new applications for graphics, imaging and multimedia require a system more powerful than those based on Intel's 80386. Companies including AST Research Inc, Everex Systems Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Advanced Logic Research and IBM are expected to announce 486SX-based systems shortly after Intel markets its chip. Pricing for the microcomputers will range from $3,500 at the low-end and $13,000 at the high end. AST and Everex are rumored to be marketing their products as desktop models on the AT bus. IBM Credit's giant chills foes. (IBM Credit Corp. dominates third-party market)(includes related articles on ICC's law suits IBM Credit Corp (ICC) is a powerful financing subsidiary of IBM that has launched lawsuits against members of the third-party subleasing market for allegedly stripping IBM equipment and reselling the parts. ICC has acquired an asset base of $11 billion by providing financial options for firms that purchase expensive IBM mainframes. The company is growing rapidly, and it claims 67 percent of all new equipment leasing contracts as of 1989. Technology Investment Strategies Corp estimates that 50 percent of IBM mainframe users lease rather than buy their machines. ICC's 1990 revenue reached $1.4 billion as a result of 70,000 IBM clients that have accumulated 700,000 separate IBM assets, leases or loans from ICC. ICC is able to offer attractive deals to users because it can obtain low-cost financing through IBM. Encryption pact in works: six vendors to standardize on common scheme. (RSA Data Security Inc.'s public-key encryption system) Six computer vendors plan to endorse RSA Data Security Inc's public-key encryption system as a standard that would allow multiple platforms to interoperate. Novell Inc, Lotus Development Corp and DEC have already signed licensing agreements with RSA to use its encryption technology; Sun Microsystems Inc, Apple and Microsoft Corp will also adopt RSA's system. The proposed encryption standard would enable a user on an Apple Macintosh to encrypt a word processing file, transfer it over a network to a DEC workstation and have the file decrypted. The industry must wait until the US government adopts a standard before it can officially endorse RSA's system. The company's encryption system was invented by three MIT mathematicians and is considered the best technology available because the algorithm that relates the public and private keys is so advanced it is essentially indecipherable. HP unveils modular New Wave Office 3.0. (office automation software) (product announcement) HP introduces New Wave 3.0, its office automation package that works with Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface. Beta testers claim HP's upgrade is an effective package to use for building executive information systems (EIS) in a modular and low-cost way. New Wave Office 3.0 supports Microsoft's LAN Manager, Novell Inc's NetWare and has incorporated Windows' memory manager. The product features New Wave Access for image or SQL databases, which extracts data and enters it into microcomputer application formats such as Lotus Development Corp spreadsheets. The office modules are priced at $200 for network services, and $56,000 for HP Deskmanager. HP did not release a version 2.0 of New Wave Office in order to coincide with the release of Windows 3.0. Paradox demo puts Borland right in Windows limelight. (Borland International Inc.'s Paradox for Windows relational data base) Borland International Inc demonstrates Paradox for Windows, offering users a glimpse of the relational database at the International Paradox User's Conference. Borland did not disclose a shipping date or price for the product, but highlighted some of its features. Paradox for Windows, code-named 'Tsunami' will include a database engine architecture that enables applications to share data by residing in a common 'object layer.' The new design will permit users to access SQL Link, a product that works with Paradox 3.5 to allow users to access remote SQL data without a background in SQL programming. Borland intends to target the Microsoft Corp Windows database market with Paradox for Windows, and its only competitor is Precision Software Inc. Microsoft and Ashton-Tate plan to release their own Windows-based databases. Outsiders don't fear ACE. (Advanced Computing Environment endorses Mips Computer Systems Inc.'s RISC chip) The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) consortia's plan to endorse Mips Computer Systems Inc's reduced instruction set computing (RISC) chip as the standard architecture for open computing has had no apparent affect on non-participating workstation vendors. Intel Corp claims to support ACE's software announcements that apply to Intel's architecture. Compaq Computer Corp will continue to provide Intel's microcomputer architecture though it joined DEC, Microsoft Corp and others in endorsing Mips' RISC chip. Intel contends that the computer industry is in need of a 32-bit OS/2 that supports microprocessing. Companies considered at risk from the ACE coalition include HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. However, the HP-, IBM- and DEC-founded Open Software Foundation (OSF) and Unix International, which is affiliated with Sun, were associated with the ACE announcement. Window in Unisys' CASE plan. (Unisys Corp.'s Advanced Solution Development framework for computer aided software engineering) Unisys Corp announces plans to develop a repository-based scheme similar to IBM's AD/Cycle for computer aided software engineering (CASE) that involves products and strategic alliances with third-party vendors. The Advanced Solution Development (ASD) framework will provide users with the ability to update Unisys' applications with graphical user interfaces and will offer enhanced versions of Unisys' Ally, Mapper and Linc program development tools. ASD will eventually require an object-oriented repository capable of residing on a workstation, server or mainframe, but able to operate independently of the mainframe. Unisys' repository will interoperate with IBM's and DEC's repositories by 1995. Unisys' first implementation of its object-oriented repository is a microcomputer-based tool called Designer Workbench to be available in Aug 1991. DEC airs low-end LAN connector. (DEChub 90, DECbridge 90 and DECserver 90L) (product announcement) DEC introduces a product line that interconnects and centrally manages Ethernet local area networks (LANs). DEC is targeting its hub, terminal server, bridge and repeater modules toward firms seeking simple LAN connectivity with network management functionality. The products provide an alternative to investing in smart hubs that support other LANs and functions. DEC's hub backplane can be installed in about 30 seconds. Modules that plug into the DEChub include the $1,450 eight-port DECserver, the $2,890 DECbridge and two $1,590 repeaters for operation over unshielded twisted-pair or thin coaxial wiring. DEC's terminal server only supports DEC's proprietary Local-Area Transport (LAT) protocol. DEC is licensing LAT to approximately 40 other vendors, but many terminal server users require Telnet, a utility program for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. Wang reinforces VS operating system: offers additional storage, connection enhancements to proprietary line. (Wang Laboratories Wang Laboratories Inc introduces VS 7.30.04, Extended Serial Device Support and the VS Mass Storage I/O Subsystem. The upgraded VS operating system allows up to 998 workstation devices to be connected to the VS 8000 and 10000 product lines. VS 7.30.04 supports as many as 512 active workstations on a high-end VS. Wang officials say the new products are a response to customer requests. The Extended Serial Device Support network software allows twice the amount of physical and logical devices that can be configured on serial I/O controllers in high-end VS environments. The VS Mass Storage Subsystem features two I/O controllers, two small computer systems interface (SCSI) tape drives and four SCSI disk drives. Who is liable? Just ask the experts: damage caused by knowledge-based systems could lead to lawsuits that target Incidents of knowledge-based or expert systems that fail in some way and cause personal or economic injury to an individual or organization are susceptible to being contested in the courts. While no cases have yet been tried in court, the legal community is trying to determine who would be the target of such a liability law suit. The developer who created the system's shell, the user who expected too much from the system's output and the expert who supplied the system's knowledge base are all likely candidates to be sued in a case of injury caused by the system. Designers are responsible for identifying how the knowledge system is put together if it will be used for an application that has substantial exposure to damage or loss. Liabilities will vary depending on whether the court defines a knowledge-based application as a good, a service or a combination of the two. Carrier device makes for supercool conductivity. (Carrier Corp.'s cryocooler) (Advanced Technology) Carrier Corp introduces its cryogenic cooler, which maintains the temperature of semiconductor devices at 321 degrees Farenheit. The cryocooler allows computers, communications equipment ad manufacturers to use advanced electronics and superconductive devices in a wide range of applications. Superconductivity occurs in many electric conductors when they are chilled to very low temperatures. One of the effects of superconductivity is that the electrons transform and the resistance to the flow of electric current disappears. The cryocooler may be used to cool complementary metal-oxide semiconductor chips in minicomputers; cooled chips perform faster and more reliably. Researchers are working to develop computers with circuits based on superconductivity and the Josephson effect. Both technologies could potentially increase the operating cycle times of high-performance computers. Where the public draws the line. (privacy law emerges as key factor in information services market) (Viewpoint) (column) Many corporate marketing activities are not regulated by privacy law, and personal information is often obtained for one transaction then sold to gain a second profit without the person's knowledge or consent. Databases carry an unlimited amount of information about consumers that is bought, sold and exchanged by the private sector and the government; consumers are beginning to object to these practices and are insisting on the option of prohibiting secondary disclosures. Privacy is becoming an important factor that can dictate the success or failure of certain information products and services. Equifax and Lotus Development Corp discontinued its Lotus Marketplace database in response to the public's opposition to the product. The database would have contained names, addresses, buying habits and income levels of 80 million households. Caller ID is another product that has spurred public response. Mainframe programmers and the V-8 mentality. (microcomputers may be better for mainframe application development) (Viewpoint) Microcomputers have become increasingly powerful and there exist a wide range of program development tools that enable microcomputers to build full-scale mainframe applications. Cobol compilers, CICS emulator debuggers, compression utilities, screen editors and programming shells help microcomputers to do a better job developing applications than mainframes themselves. Mainframe computers are being used more as information repositories and large-scale batch processors. Some mainframe programmers object to the use of microcomputers for software development, and claim that the smaller machines lack the power and sophistication necessary for mainframe programming. Programmers can use separate, less expensive microcomputers to perform the same job that otherwise would require a substantial percentage of mainframe resources. IBM satisfied with ES/9000 progress. (mainframe meets user group requirements; related products under development) (Systems & IBM meets 70 percent of user group requirements with its Enterprise System/9000 mainframe computer and related products. IBM continues to position mainframes as corporate servers and markets the ES/9000 for functions including enterprise data management, networking, systems management and security. The ES/9000 is also suitable for network hub roles involving applications development, transaction processing and technical computing. IBM's strategy for enterprisewide systems management is still under development, and IBM intends to release documentation on the Systemview data model during 1991. Systemview is a Systems Application Architecture (SAA) initiative, however, the majority of Systemview-compliant products are not yet shipping. Publisher uses software to improve distribution. (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Pansophic Systems Inc.'s Warehouse Boss 2.0 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co uses Pansophic Systems Inc's Warehouse Boss 2.0 order/inventory/purchasing software to manage its newly-expanded national distribution center. Addison-Wesley runs the software on an IBM AS/400 B45 minicomputer, which manages distribution processes. Order-processing software is run on an IBM 3090 mainframe that processes orders. The publishing company hopes to reduce its in-house cycle time by 50 percent and increase productivity by 25 percent. Warehouse Boss 2.0's functions include order pool management, inventory control and management, receiving, locating with confirmation, pick planning and confirmation, packing, shipping and replenishment. The software does lack a returns module, however, and this function is custom-designed by an outside vendor. Optical library in IBM plans. (plans to develop write-once, read-many optical jukebox system) IBM develops a jukebox WORM drive library storage system for use on all of its hardware systems. The WORM device is controlled by a PS/2 microcomputer, and is capable of containing hundreds of gigabytes of information. The system uses 14-inch removable optical discs that each carry over 6Gbytes of data. The WORM drive is designed for IBM's personal computer local area network, AS/400 minicomputers and S/370 and S/390 mainframe computers. Access times for the devices are around the 50-msec range and disc changes average less than 10 seconds. Various models have different numbers of optical discs and disc drives. WORM drives cost more than tape storage devices and are not expected to infringe upon IBM's 3390 tape systems. Automated garage set to deliver. (Camunsa Manutencion S.A.'s automobile storage system) Camunsa Manutencion S.A. develops a $25 million intelligent automobile garage using Gensym Corp's G2 expert software, Allen-Bradley Company Inc programmable logic controllers and DEC Vaxstation 3100 workstations. The parking garage, in Barcelona, Spain, is a 10-story building capable of holding 800 automobiles in a space that normally would store 300 cars. The G2 software runs on the Vaxstations and directs the Allen-Bradley controllers, which operate the building's elevators. The software tracks where cars are kept and where arriving cars should be stored. The G2 bridge code, written in C language, connects information collected by the controllers and sends it to the knowledge base. G2 runs on DEC VAX, Unix, IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems Inc systems. It is supports the X Window System, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and DECnet computer networks. IAAI winners reflective of mainstream trend. (Innovative Applications in Artificial Intelligence conference winners) The Innovative Applications in Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) Conference meets to award 21 artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The conference features AI programs that are business-oriented. Practical applications of AI programs that are easier to use are opening up the market. Winners include the California State Health and Welfare Agency's expert system that processes travel expense reports. Nynex Corp's expert system that diagnoses customer-related telephone problems also is noted by the IAAI Conference. Another AI-system recognized by the IAAI Conference is American Airlines Inc's system that analyses changing flight schedules to increase maintenance scheduling efficiency. 80286 laptops go obsolete - almost. (Intel Corp 80286 microprocessor-based portable microcomputers) Laptop microcomputers using Intel Corp's 80286 microprocessor are better suited to character-based applications than graphic-based ones, and their lower price, compared to 80386- and 80386SX-based computers, yet make them viable market contenders. 386-based laptop and notebook computers dominate the market, but 286 products are still being purchased by companies that do not require processor-intensive applications such as Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface. A shortage in the supply of 386SX-based products is also driving the 286 market. Companies running simple programs are still buying 286-based computers, but others require the processing power of the 386 chip. The trend for many firms is to purchase 386-based computers as the need arises. Turner rebuilds on PCs. (Turner Corp. downsizes using microcomputers) Turner Corp, a $3.25 billion construction company, downsizes from IBM Series 1 minicomputers and IBM 4341 mainframes to microcomputers running IRMS Inc's financial reporting software Micro Control. Previously, vice president and chief financial officer Anthony Breu had to wait three weeks for monthly general ledger reports, but with the new microcomputer networks running Compaq servers reports are compiled within five days. Efficiency gains allow the company to save 50 percent on its information systems budget and cut that staff size in half also. The new system took six weeks to install. Turner buys off-the-shelf software packages rather than have custom-made applications created. As a result, the company finds it difficult to find software packages that can handle large business transactions that typically run from $50,000 to $200 million. Database aids identification process. (Cogent Systems Inc.'s Live-ID data base for fingerprint storage)(includes related Software published by Cogent Systems Inc called Live-ID running on desktop workstations stores and matches fingerprints for law-enforcement and welfare agency use. Live-ID differs from other fingerprint identification data base applications in that it runs on a workstation, which adds flexibility to the applied systems. Fingerprint file sizes can be expanded by merely adding hard drives to the system being used. The Department of Public Social Services in Los Angeles County, CA, uses Cogent Systems' software to keep track of individuals applying for welfare benefits. The Sunnyvale Police Department also uses Live-ID. Both agencies run Live-ID on HP 9000 workstations. The police agency uses an Identix Inc's print scanner that records prints, identifies distinguishing features and compresses the data to save memory space. Foxpro: packs power, lacks built-in query. (Fox Software Inc.'s FoxPro 1.02 data base management system) (Software Review) Fox Software Inc's $795 FoxPro 1.02 data base management system features pull-down menus in a windowing environment that makes the program easy to use. Most commands can be executed using the mouse-based interface. The package lacks a built-in query engine, thus users must use browse windows and filter expressions to execute file queries. Command-driven modules include the screen generator and editor. FoxPro 1.02 suffers from poor data integrity features. File- and record-locking features are not automatic. The program also lacks field-level security features in a multiuser environment and does not support transaction logging and rollbacks. FoxPro 1.02 works well in a multiuser environment with little effect on performance. Individual users can customize the colors, menus and macros of the FoxPro environment. The program runs the fastest of microcomputer data base management systems. Roadshow puts deliveries on track. (Routing Technology Software Inc.'s computer program) Routing Technology Software Inc's Roadshow geographic information system is a combination of software and a microcomputer that the company assembles. The software analyzes delivery routes and computes the least costly route for a vehicle to take. Factors such as vehicle cost per mile, vehicle cost per hour and driver cost per hour are computed. It also considers distance, travel time, and on-site delivery time in addition to traffic patterns and road construction delays. The Roadshow software is unique in that it uses full-color images of commercial maps. Routes and stops are marked by bright colors. Mileage, costs, delivery schedules and other data are listed on a nearby screen. Routing Technology Software's microcomputer, in base configuration, uses an Intel Corp 80386 microprocessor and 8Mbytes of memory. Additional equipment includes a 100Mbyte hard disk drive, color monitor, 60Mbyte tape backup device and a laser video disc. The hardware packages cost from $9,6300 to $12,190, and the software starts at $50,000. Tandy shows multimedia gear. (Tandy Corp.'s pen-based products, multimedia microcomputers, and educational system) Tandy Corp plans to enhance its Z000RL microcomputer by replacing the Intel Corp 80860 microprocessor with a 10-MHz 80286 chip and adding VGA support. Tandy is also enhancing its Deskmate Home Organizer personal information management system by adding voice recording and playback capabilities. User can also control household appliances by clicking icons on a household blueprint program. The company is also developing a multimedia-based microcomputer. Tandy's $1,500 Schoolmate Plus local area network for classroom locations is upgraded to support multiple servers and remote printing. Tandy's Grid Systems Corp subsidiary develops its Gridpad portable, pen-based microcomputers to support Go Corp and Microsoft Corp's operating systems. Grid Systems is working with Conner Peripherals Inc and Prairietek Corp to develop a hard disk drive for its portable computers. Distributed computing arises. (corporate use of distributed processing) Distributed processing is used more and more in business environments as the once exotic technology gains popularity and credibility through standards organizations such as the Open Software Foundation (OSF). Distributed processing uses object-oriented technology allowing individual subtasks to be allocated to various systems that can best perform that task. The complex programming involved requires the outsourcing of specialized programmers to develop customized applications. Companies are recognizing advantages to distributed processing, however and the OSF's Distributed Computing Environment is prompting developers to create a range of standardized applications. Cable channel discovers wonders of PC networks. (Cable Educational Network Inc.'s Discovery Channel uses microcomputer network) The Discovery Channel, Cable Educational Network Inc, uses microcomputers networked by Novell Inc's Netware network operating system to keep track of and manage its growth. The fastest-growing cable station, Discovery Channel uses networked microcomputers instead of minicomputers or mainframes in order to take advantage of easier maintenance and upgrading capabilities and office automation features. NetWare runs the shielded twisted-pair Token Ring network with Proteon Inc Pronet-10 Token Ring interfaces. Discovery's various nationwide offices are connected via Proteon routers and T1 communication links. The cable television station uses five servers that run Novell's NetWare 3.1 and two that run NetWare 2.15. CA takes steps to embrace DEC's Polycenter. (Computer Associates International Inc., DEC's multivendor systems management platform) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) announces plans to develop systems management products that support DEC's Polycenter architecture. Polycenter is a multivendor systems management platform. CA develops the programs using DEC's Network Application Support (NAS) protocols and application programming interfaces. CA also plans to develop systems management applications that run on both DEC and IBM systems including IBM's SystemView operating system enhancement platform. CA offers its own multivendor systems integration product line in addition to products supporting DEC and IBM environments. CA also develops HP HPUX systems management software. CA DEC VMS products support the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Motif graphical user interface and structured-query language (SQL)-based querying. Applied Information Systems Inc and Raxco Software Inc are also developing products supporting DEC's Polycenter. UIS Inc plans to support NAS and Ultrix with its products. Third-party software helps maximize RS/6000 power. (Computer Microsystems Inc.'s MLINK APPC Communications System Desjardins du Quebec, a computer services company, uses Computer Microsystems Inc's MLINK Advanced Program-to-Program Communications System (MLINK APPC) software to handle Unix-based IBM RS/6000 connectivity with the company's multiple IBM 3090 mainframes. Payroll deposits are processed using the workstations running at 27.5 million instructions per second (MIPS). The software allows for speedy, unattended bidirectional file transfers between the two different computer systems. The RS/6000 workstations receive electronic file transfers via Digital Pathways Inc's Defender communications controller, which manages the system's modems. The Defender unit then analyzes a data base residing on the RS/6000 and calls the customer back. Communications start when the callback is completed. The system tracks and logs file transfers at each juncture. An offer they couldn't refuse. (Leon County, FL, contracts Centel Corp. to install Fiber Distributed Data Interface standard-based Leon County, FL, contracts with Centel Corp to install a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard network to serve government offices. The FDDI network supports transmission speeds up to 100M-bps and carries a geographic information system developed by GeoVision Inc. Centel uses converter equipment to transform the city and county governments' multimode signals into single-mode so that single-mode fiber optic lines can be utilized. Single-mode fibers can be stretched much farther than multimode lines. Centel implemented a counter-rotating, self-healing FDDI rings that can reroute data flows automatically in the event of a cable failure. Theses rings are bridged to backbone rings that have hubs located at Centel offices. Average installation costs run $1,057 with a monthly FDDI maintenance fee of $368. Homequity puts users in control. (PHH Corp.'s Homequity Inc. decentralizes its information systems operation) Homequity Inc, a real estate management company, installs a microcomputer-based Novell Inc NetWare Token Ring local area network (LAN) to help provide customers with information about their property. Homequity replaces a Wang Laboratories Inc VS reporting system that does not have the required flexible data structures and reporting tools. The new system decentralizes the central data base and moves more power from information systems operations to the end users. The new system, which supports customized reporting, helps to generate reports five to six times faster than the Wang VS system. Homequity's LAN is updated daily, as opposed to the Wang system's weekly schedule, and it features ad hoc querying tools. Sales are up 20 percent for units using the system despite the fact users have to learn a new way to enter reports and use microcomputer programs such as Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 spreadsheet and Borland International Inc's Paradox data base management system. Getting the job done right. (information systems management issues) (column) Information systems (IS) managers need to address issues involved with departmental computing to ensure that processing functions are executed effectively. Department managers must have a working knowledge of computing technology to make business decisions rather than become over-dependent on the technology itself. Employees should be directed towards using the technology to solve the business problems and not spend resources merely acquiring the latest equipment. Effective IS management also entails developing methodologies, agendas, security policies and outlining project justifications. Training is essential for proper IS management; employees should know how to use the tools an IS department has. Computing resources require the same amount of consideration from management as other material and equipment needed by a company. End-user training: needs improvement. (companies implementing employee training)(includes related article on trainer education) Information systems (IS) departments of many companies are initiating in-house computer training programs for corporate end users. Colgate-Palmolive Co's Hill's Pet Products offer both internal and external training programs and courses for uses at all levels of employment. It even offers business management courses. Steelcase Inc reduces training costs from $200 to $20 with its multi-media-based learning center. Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corp and TRW Inc rely on outsourcing for training programs. TRW also has an end-user liaison program that links end-user experts with IS staff. Mining company Rogers Group Inc has an in-house training program that uses employees at field sites who work with their colleagues. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis also depends on in-house personnel for training. Teachers are sought from the IS department to set up courses and instruct fellow employees. The trouble with technology training. (issues plaguing information systems training efforts) Information systems (IS) centers offering in-house employee computer training face several issues that may hamper effective education. IS workers and end users must bridge differences in work styles. End users need to have a broad understanding of systems, and IS personnel must provide that training without injecting so much technical information that will discourage or disinterest end users. Training is only effective if IS personnel doing the teaching has teaching skills. Also, IS trainers should have an understanding of end user needs. Another problem that IS center training faces is the over-dependence on outside organizations for training services. The company should provide much input so that the training focuses on the business issues. Training should be part of the original systems design process rather than an after-effect of computing. Chase lets computers do the teaching. (Chase Manhattan Bank N.A.) Fritz, Mark. Chase Manhattan Bank NA uses a computer program developed in-house in a course it offers for managers to help them improve staff mobility and efficiency. The computer-based course resides on a single high-density disk. The bank sends the course to its data centers around the world for staff training in a standardized format. The program is limited to simple graphics supporting IBM's CGA standard because compatibility throughout the firm is a major issue. The course covers administration, customer service, quality and operations. Its main purpose is to provide for standard procedures for customer service, management and contingency plans. Computer-based training saves the banking firm the cost of bringing employees to a central training center or sending trainers out to various sites. Expanded training role crucial for IS groups. (information systems) The future of employee training involves further integration of information systems (IS) personnel and end user efforts. IS departments need to work with human resource departments and training programs to design applications and systems that address the employee's level of computer experience. Operations managers and IS personnel should analyze the effects of technology on workers' productivity and quality and look for job simplification. IS development staffs and education department personnel should work together to demonstrate advantages that technology offers to employees. New technological devices also offer opportunities for enhanced user education. Microcomputers and videodiscs can be used in multimedia architectures to provide interactive educational support. Measure for measure. (use of business outcomes measurement of information systems) (includes related articles on use of business Measurement of information systems (IS) performance involves analyzing business outcomes. Data concerning IS investments in tools, techniques, personnel and the workplace needs to be reconciled against figures representing business performance. Business figures include quality measurements, cycle times, shareholder value and customer satisfaction among other features. Business-oriented metrics involve three measurement stages. The IS department creates a measurement strategy based on a technical aspect with operational definitions for IS development at organizational, application and project level. Next, the IS department assesses its performance in business terms. Finally, the IS department makes assertions regarding changes in its performance and how those changes affect business. 'IBM compatibles' step out of the clone zone. (microcomputers)(includes related article on competing Microcomputer manufacturers that once looked to IBM for the direction of the industry's standards are now diverging from the giant firm's attempts to force standards with its Micro Channel Architecture and OS/2 operating system. Compaq and other IBM-compatible microcomputer manufacturers are planning to build a reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based workstation formed around a standard called the Advanced Computing Environment. Clone makers have also broken with IBM with the formation of a bus that differs from IBM's MCA. The Extended Industry Standard Architecture remains compatible with original IBM AT microcomputers unlike IBM's MCA. IBM attempts to establish the OS/2 operating system as an industry standard, but sales have been slow. IBM plans to bundle OS/2 with sales of its microcomputers in an effort to further promote the operating system. Microsoft plans Hong Kong strategy. (Microsoft Corp. plans office opening and adds ACA Pacific as second distributor) Microsoft Corp plans to open an office in Hong Kong eventually, but for now has added an additional distributor of its Windows graphical user interface and LAN Manager network management software. ACA Pacific joins Gilman Business Systems as Microsoft's second distributor in Hong Kong. Microsoft is depending on the two firms to work out distribution conflicts by themselves. Hong Kong is vital to Microsoft because of its expanding information technology market and its location in the Asian region. The software publisher is apprehensive to open an office in Hong Kong because other companies have failed in their move to the territory. Officials are confident that the local market can support the move, but as yet plans do not involve an immediate move. Program kicked off in Japan. (Commerce Department's market penetration plan) The Department of Commerce selects 20 US companies to participate in a program aimed to increase US competition in Japan. Compaq, Oracle Systems Corp, Electronic Data Systems Corp and Masstor Systems Corp are among the selected companies. The Japan Corporate Program requires participating companies to spend at least five years in Japan, send senior executives on regular visits, set up service units and modify their products for Japanese consumers. The Department of Commerce in turn provides market data, marketing and distribution advice and acts as a contact to Japanese buyers. CASE 'change agents' to light path for others. (Computer-aided Software Engineering) (including related article on a peek at the Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) advocates are recruiting marketers to sell this new technology. Known as 'change agents' these CASE workers must have strong marketing skills, be people oriented and do not have to be a computer science graduate. The CASE agent will work with the senior IS director or the chief information officer and must be business-minded and marketing oriented. The agent must also reassure developers that the tools are productivity enhancers which free developers from dull maintenance tasks. Although the technology has made inroads into certain industries, the growth has been gradual. CASE is being used within only 15 percent of US organizations, mostly Fortune 100 financial service and insurance firms. Do-it-yourself repairs cut costs, IS execs say. (Information Systems) (computer equipment repair) Information Systems (IS) managers are stocking parts and doing their own in-house equipment repairs to reduce spending. IS managers are finding repair contracts with outside firms expensive and not always timely. Some firms are handling smaller repairs while relegating the most complex ones to outside firms. Winchester Hospital evaluates the cost of each repair situation before getting outside help. The IS manager compares the time it takes to make a system function with the cost of maintaining spare parts. In-house repairs are not always feasible for there are times when a firm lacks the staff to cover all the various technologies. Some firms are going by a case by case basis in determining what equipment requires in-house repairs. Old lessons learned in a new land. (use of computers in education in Saudi Arabia) (Head of the Class) (column) Building conceptual models from the top down in teaching computer subjects simplifies a large number of details. Whether its a technological concept or computing skills, taking a basic whole-to-parts approach is the most effective approach. An instructor teaching a programming language begins the top-down approach with a small but complete program. The bottom-up approach method requires weeks of studying syntax and programming language rules. The parts to whole approach is more confusing and tends to stifle motivation. One of the ways of overcoming language barrier is to used the combination of words and pictures. This approach is used in instructing professional teachers in the use of pointers during classroom presentations. Learning tends to drop off whenever the pointer points out of place. IRS in need of technology help: GAO report claims computers could help track billions of tax dollars. (Internal Revenue Service) A study from the General Accounting Office (GAO) claims that high-income non-filers are not penalized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because of an unreliable computer system. Non-filers are determined when W-2 or 1099 forms do not find a corresponding tax return in a computer match and notices to the non-filer fail to receive a response. The agency uses another computer system for lower-income non-filers to calculate a substitute tax return and send notices with the purported taxes, penalties and interest due. High-income non-filers are not penalized because the IRS claims that a substitute tax return would underestimate taxes owed. The IRS uses either telephone or mail to elicit collection from those that are delinquent. There are non-filer cases that date to 1980, the study claims. NCR tone softening as AT&T hangs on. (National Cash Register Corp.) National Cash Register Corp (NCR Corp) and AT&T officials have yet to reach an agreement in AT&T's proposed takeover of NCR, but there are indications that NCR Chairman Charles Exley may want to engage in further negotiations. Exley hopes that the stalemate between the two firms can be resolved and has reversed his previous position of cutting off AT&T products such as the 3B2 line of minicomputers. Exley is still rejecting AT&T's offer of $90 per share opting instead for $7 billion or $110 per share. The NCR chairman claims that the merger would be a success if an NCR management team controls both firms. Robert Kavner, AT&T's group executive for Data Systems/Federal Systems says his firm expected negotiations to resume following statements made by the NCR chairman. Industry analysts are optimistic that NCR may be able to stall AT&T's takeover bid for about a year. Intel riding high horse-for now. (Intel Corp.) Hildebrand, Carol. Intel Corp posts a record $1.13 billion for the first quarter, a 27 percent increase over the same period in 1990 despite lower forecasts by analysts. The firm's Intel 80386DX, 80386SX and I486 microprocessors shipped in record volumes during this quarter. Analysts predicted that the firm would be impacted by competition from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the new reduced-instruction-set consortium led by Mips Computer Systems Inc and Microsoft Corp. An analyst at Kidder, Peabody forecasts that Intel will keep turning profit within the next quarter or two, but will experience a drop in revenue within the second half of the year. AMD also showed strong first quarter sales of $274 million. NetView in the open era. (IBM's work management system) (includes related article on NetView's connection with local area networks) IBM's new version of its NetView network management system was released in Jan 1991. The original, which fell short of expectations, still exceeded sales of similar products from AT&T and DEC. NetView, intended as a cornerstone of the company's Open Communications Architecture and a means of managing a multivendor environment, is primarily used to control networks running under IBM's SNA. In what is considered to be just the first step in NetView's revamping, the new version, priced between $3,030 and $15,290 depending on the central system, extends the software's proprietary core to include more tools for managing non-SNA networks. Additions include NetView Graphic Monitor Facility, to graphically monitor resources; and the NetView Bridge function, providing an interface to write applications. NetView 2 offers IS departments centralized automation facilities; the ability to manage SNA and non-SNA voice and data devices; support for non-SNA standards, including Open Systems Interconnection and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; and improved connection with SAA Delivery Manager. Budget growth skids to 3.4%; recession, continued decentralization and skepticism over information technology's payoff have slowed Information executives surveyed say that their overall budgets will grow by only 3.4 percent over 1990 levels, the smallest rate of increase since the survey began in 1985. Many respondents say that the low growth rate is temporary, caused by uncertainty over the recession and the Persian Gulf war. Of the existing budget, personnel claims the biggest piece of the pie, with just over 36 percent; followed by hardware with 23 percent and software with 13.7 percent. Personnel costs will grow only slightly in 1991 as the number of MIS employees increases by an average of less than 1 percent. Networking will see the largest increase, with 48 percent of those surveyed saying that they will increase their purchases of LAN hardware and 43 percent increasing LAN software purchases over 1990 levels. MIS executives are losing interest in such technologies as speech recognition, artificial intelligence and X terminals. OS/2's second coming. (32-bit version of IBM's and Microsoft Corp.'s operating system) (includes related article on OS/2's The new 32-bit version of the OS/2 operating system from IBM and Microsoft Corp is due by summer 1991. While not expected to be as popular as Microsoft's MS-DOS, OS/2 should please corporate developers of mission-critical applications and network managers who need extra speed to power up file servers. Release 2.0 of the operating system is expected to feature full compatibility with 16-bit OS/2 applications; enhanced performance and speed; a 32-bit memory addressing method, enabling the creating of large applications and easing the porting of mainframe and minicomputer software; a more user-friendly programming environment; and multitasking capabilities. IBM admits that its joint product will not set the PC world afire, but instead expects it to succeed with large networked accounts. Potential users asking whether OS/2 2.0 will work with Windows 3.0 software should look to Microsoft's Windows Libraries for OS/2 to convert Windows applications. GE spreads EDI gospel. (General Electric Co. GE Information Services, electronic data interchange) (includes related articles General Electric Co's GE Information Services (GEIS), the most popular provider of the value-added network, is encouraging the use of electronic data interchange services for its 8,600 EDI*Express customers. Customers make the initial contact with potential trading partners, but GEIS takes it from there. GEIS customer JC Penney Company Inc is looking to increase its number of trading partners from 300 to 5,000. JC Penney chose GEIS because of its record of implementing EDI with smaller firms, and the network's ability to transmit universal product codes. Through GEIS's VAN, Penney will be able to use transaction records in a database for analysis of purchasing patterns to determine how seasonal and other variations affect business. VANs are available for a variety of industries, including publishing, pharmaceuticals, food and transportation. Enterprise networks: one step at a time. Schlack, Mark. Although the 1990s will not be the decade of the Network Revolution, as previously thought, it will be one of tremendous change on the part of enterprise networking. Instead, the decade's key words will be evolution and integration. IS professionals are planning to install increasing numbers of local area networks, coupled with hardware and software needed to connect the LANS to existing backbone networks. Proprietary protocols, including SNA and DECnet, will be popular, working with Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and, eventually, Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). The latter protocol could become the foundation of enterprise networks by 1993, say 40 percent of surveyed IS managers. Improvements to the network will be paid for by data-center consolidation: about 80 percent of IS managers intend to connect large numbers of field offices. Tools to automate quality production. (includes related article on integrating statistical process control data, quality The first level of improvement in a manufacturing plant's search for quality should be in the automation and integration of information about the quality of production on the factory floor. Although US industry is finally realizing that a quality product pays much higher returns than it costs to manufacture, few companies have taken the first step toward the implementation of a quality manufacturing program, which is statistical process control (SPC) reporting and analysis. Automated SPC allows managers and workers to respond to quality production information in close to real time. SPC, when linked to other production process control and analysis applications, could even help find the cause of some general manufacturing quality problems more quickly than any current means. The scarcity of high-function SPC software for networked microcomputers is the biggest reason for the lack of SPC applications. Battling uncommon user access. (inconsistency with output from multivendor shops) (includes related article on Common User Access Some type of consistency between terminals is needed to prevent problems inherent in the multivendor environment. Support and training problems, not to mention inconsistencies between keyboard types and variations in key functions, trouble both users and support people. A partial solution to these problems is IBM's Common User Access (CUA), specifying how a standard user interface to systems should be constructed under the company's SAA. Under CUA, PF keys will be more standardized, as will the keyboard. CUA is actually a set of rules that must be followed by any developer designing an SAA-compliant application The standard is not quite ready for market. Meanwhile, a vendor says, 'The only place you'll find a consistency of terminals and workstations is at IBM itself.' Until the standard is accepted, generic instruction is the answer for off-site trainers and authors of documentation and computer-based training. Software that makes your work flow. (helps automate image routing and application, database access)(includes related article on Workflow software, which brings the principles of computer-integrated manufacturing to the office, is gaining in popularity as success stories mount. US Sprint Communications Co needed a means of handling its incoming mail, ranging from 80,000 to 100,000 pieces each month. The company uses a $1.5 million imaging system from FileNet Corp that digitizes and stores the mail on optical discs. A custom workflow application costing $200,000 manages queues of pending documents, automatically balances workloads by forwarding mail to service representatives, and automatically accesses mainframe databases that store customer account information. For routine responses, the software can even place the right information in a form letter with no operator intervention at all. Sprint expects to recover the cost of its system within 18 months of use. The object of Borland's vision. (ObjectVision from Borland International Inc.) (Datamation's Product Guide) (product Borland International Inc's ObjectVision, an application development tool for building data entry applications to run under Microsoft Windows 3.0, is said by early users to be excellent. The program is not very complex: it can be used by anyone technically adept enough to build spreadsheet macros. Features of the $495 program include support for Windows Dynamic Data Exchange and the capability to read and write data from Paradox, dBASE and BTrieve sources as well as ASCII files. The program, which uses object-oriented techniques, consists of a Forms too for screen designing, a Tree tool for defining how the program calculates and manipulates values, a Link tool and a Stack tool for connecting individual forms for complex applications. ObjectVision requires Microsoft Windows 3.0 or later and at least 1.5 Mbytes on a hard disk. Good buys abound in RISC workstations. (reduced-instruction set computing) (Datamation's Market Review) (buyers guide) Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) workstations performing at between 15 and 25 million instructions per second can be found for less than $15,000 apiece. Some of the workstations even offer color. Low-cost RISC workstations appeal to MIS professionals because of the good price/performance ratio and because most RISC workstations are based on Unix, their preferred operating system. Major producers of workstations include DEC, HP, IBM, Intergraph Corp, Mips Computer Systems Inc, Silicon Graphics Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc. A chart is included that lists features and prices of models from 19 companies, including those mentioned above. The chart comprises more than 80 percent of the low-end RISC workstation market. Although all workstations are base-priced at less than $15,000, working configurations for some models exceed that figure. Users bring imaging into fast focus. (Market Insights) Childs, Warren. The popularity of imaging applications should continue to propel the industry to strong returns in the future. Almost 25 percent of Datamation panel members say their companies have already implemented imaging applications and 22 percent plan to implement applications before the end of 1993. Almost 30 percent are studying the prospect of implementing the technology. Imaging systems store documents directly as image data instead of as text. The technology enables the corporate user to reduce the time, space and cost required to file and retrieve documents. Documents are scanned from paper or keyed at a workstation and then stored on CD-ROM at the network server. Imaging technology also is increasingly being used for multimedia applications. Users can access data from reference documents that include sound, animation, text and images. USL to ship Mips-based ABI for Unix System V.4. (Unix Systems Laboratory's application binary interface) Unix Systems Laboratory has announced an application binary interface (ABI) for its Unix System V release 4.0 operating system running on reduced instruction-set computer (RISC) architecture from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. The company maintains that any vendor following the new interface specifications will be able to offer shrink-wrapped applications for different Unix System V 4.0 systems that use the MIPS microprocessors. The new specification consists of an interface to the central processor unit (CPU) architecture that handles registers and interrupts, and a separate generic interface to applications. As vendors adopt new CPU architectures, they will only have to swap the portion of the interface that is machine-specific, according to the company. DEC outsources Unix development to SCO. (Santa Cruz Operation) Vizard, Michael. DEC has abandoned its plans to develop its own OSF/1-based Unix operating system, and has provided all of its source code to The Santa Cruz Operation. The company also announced that in the future it will license an OSF/1 operating system from SCO, to help create an alternative standard to Sparc-based Unix systems. DEC is currently working with SCO to develop an Advanced Computing Environment-compliant Unix operating system. The operating system being developed by SCO will be based on an OSF/1 kernel and will provide many of the features found on the company's Open Desktop operating system, which itself is based on AT&T's Unix System V. Ethernet hub leads DEC desktop net push. (DEChub 90, DECserver 90L, DECbridge 90, DECrepeater 90C, and DECrepeater 90T) (product DEC has introduced a number of new low-end networking peripherals. The $890 DEChub 90 mounts in a standard 19-inch equipment rack, and includes eight slots to accommodate one bridge and any combination of repeaters and terminal servers. The $1,450 DECserver 90L is an eight-port terminal server that operates at speeds ranging from 1.2K-bps to 38.4K-bps. The server can also cache 16 node names locally to allow access to specific nodes on the network. The $2,890 DECbridge 90C filters protocols at 29,694 packets per second, and forwards frames at 14,847 packets per second. The DECrepeater 90C offers six ThinWire coaxial ports, and the DECrepeater 90T offers eight 10Base-T twisted-pair ports. Both repeaters are priced at $1,590 each. Unipress, Sun agree to port Net License software to DEC, IBM, HP Unix systems. (Unipress Software Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sun Microsystems Inc and Unipress Software Inc have reached an agreement under which Sun's Net License network management software will be ported to DEC's DECstation 3100, IBM's RISC System/6000, and Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 Series 300 and 400 Unix systems. Net License limits the number of simultaneous users which protects Unix application software from unlicensed use. Net License consists of a Client Library, a Server Platform, and a Developer's License Production kit. It is based on a client/server topology. A $12,000 license fee includes software for Sun Microsystems' Sun-3 and Sun-4 workstations. Raytheon packs VAX power into cubic foot. (Starlight) (product announcement) Raytheon has introduced a compact VAX-based ruggedized system called the Starlight. The system combines a single-instruction, multiple-datastream massively parallel processor with a VAX 6000-200-class central processing unit (CPU) into a one-cubic-foot box. The system utilizes a Distributed Array of Processors (DAP) from Active Memory Technology. The DAP has 4,096 single-bit proprietary processors that operate in parallel, in a 64-by-64-processor array. The machine is targeted at military application, weighs 83 pounds, and uses 380 watts of power. The Starlight is priced at about $500,000 and has a rating of 1.1Gflops per second. Dilog releases hierarchical storage management tools. (Distributed Logic's Sparcus) (product announcement) Distributed Logic Corp has introduced a set of hierarchical storage utilities for Sparc-based systems. Sparcus automatically moves files to various storage media depending on how frequently the file is accessed. The basic software also includes staging and backup programs. The base program is designed for Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) peripherals and S bus systems on Ethernet networks. The software supports 16Mbytes to 64Mbytes of memory and manages a 6Gbyte erasable optical disk jukebox, a 1.2Gbyte magnetic disk, and a 10Gbyte digital audiotape stacker. The basic version of Sparcus starts at $20,000. DEC, Allen-Bradley beef up modules for Pyramid Integrator. (MicroVax Information Processor EP, MicroVAX Information Processor Allen-Bradley has announced the $21,900 MicroVAX Information Processor EP with 16Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), and the $25,400 MicroVAX Information Processor EE with 32Mbytes of RAM. The modules are based on the VAXstation 3100 Model 38 and Motorola 68020 processors. The VAX processors run at 4.94 MicroVAX II units of processing compared with 1.17 for the predecessors. The modules are designed to make information sharing easier between the shop floor and other applications by combining the processors on the same backplane, which resides on Ethernet as a DECnet node. The 68020 processor is designed to access data over the backplane of the data acquisition system. VAX gateway lets terminal users on Unisys mainframes access VAX/VMS applications. (Applied Information Systems' Burcom VT Applied Information Systems has introduced the Burcom VT Emulator, a software gateway that allows Unisys mainframes to access VAX/VMS resources via Unisys terminals. The software provides VT102 emulation, printer emulation, file transfer, program-to-program communications, and network file management, while residing on Unisys A-series mainframes. The Burcom VT Emulator is intended as an add-on to the company's VAX-to-Unisys gateway product, called Burcom, which allows VAX users to access Unisys A-series, V-series, and B1000 mainframes. Burcom and Burcom VT Emulator are both priced at between $7,200 and $96,000 depending on the central processing unit (CPU). Driver set brings NetWare to DEC PC adapters. (Interconnections) Briggs, George. Interconnections has introduced a set of network management software drivers for use with DEC PC adapters. The drivers work with DEC's EtherWork interface adapter cards that are used by microcomputers running NetWare. The drivers themselves are available with Novell's NetWare and are also included in Novell's Supplement Driver Kit at no charge. The drivers are certified by Novell, and are fully warranted by Interconnections. THe new drivers were necessary to complement DEC's NetWare strategy which called for microcomputers to run both Pathworks and NetWare drivers at the same time to connect to NetWare and VAX servers. Ethernet terminal servers support multiple protocols; connect VAX, Unix hosts. (Emulex's Performance 2500, Equinox Systems' ELS-48) Emulex and Equinox Systems have both introduced multiprotocol Ethernet terminal servers that are intended to connect Unix and VAX resources. Emulex's Performance 2500 terminal server costs $1,850 for the four-port version, and $1,995 for the eight-port version. Both versions support DEC's Local Area Transport protocol, along with TCP/IP. The Performance 2500 offers serial-line speeds as high as 38.4K-bps, a standard Ethernet interface, multiple-host printer queuing, and regular Ethernet and unshielded twisted-pair adapters as options. Equinox System's ELS-48 costs $4,200 for the 24 port version, and $6,300 for the 48 port version. Throughput on all ports simultaneously can reach 38.4K-bps, and the server provides outbound communications queuing and host-initiated printing. Software links RDBMS with object-oriented programs. (relational data base management system) (KG Software's Guru 3.0) (product Micro Data Base Systems Inc.'s KG Software has introduced the Guru 3.0 version of its program development software that includes a decision-support language, a relational database, a fourth-generation language, a report writer, and an inference engine. Guru 3.0 allows for the inclusion of object-oriented programming elements into the relational architecture of the expert-system development software. A command interface is included which allows for the individual customization of the system interface. Guru 3.0 for MS-DOS and OS/2 starts at $7,000 per central processing unit (CPU). The version for VAX/VMS and SunOS is priced at $9,900. System monitor uses DECtalk to create staff 'lights out' environment. (Data Center Software offers Lights Out unattended Data Center Software has introduced the Lights Out remote monitoring option for its Monitor/Plus VAX/VMS performance monitoring software. The option uses the DECtalk voice synthesis system from DEC to automatically telephone system personnel when certain pre-defined conditions are exceeded. The Lights Out option is compatible with Monitor/Plus's system utility, which tracks disk space, I/O and central processor unit (CPU) levels, terminal server activity, DECnet node availability, queue status, process conditions, and page and swap allocation. Lights Out is priced at between $995 and $4,995. Monitor/Plus is priced at $8,830 for the system kernel and $730 for individual system modules. IBM clustering fails to match VAXclusters. Jenkins, Avery L. IBM's clustering system has failed to gain much market support in the six months since its introduction. Many analysts see the clustering scheme is being inferior to DEC's VAXclusters because it lacks many of the software facilities. IBM's cluster consists of the Sysplex Timer, which coordinates the processors, and the Enterprise System Connection, which is a 10M-bps fiber-optic channel. Many analysts see IBM's client/server capabilities as limiting, because they are not based on a remote procedure call. IBM has plans to address the shortcomings by including part of the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment, which allows the conversion of complex data structures, in future developments. Image analyzer gains support for X windows interface. (Paragon Imaging Inc.'s Electronic Light Table/2 image analysis system) Paragon Imaging has introduced the $2,995 Electronic Light Table/2 imaging analysis system that runs on DECstations, Sun Microsystems' Sparcstations and IBM's RISC System/6000 workstations. With the system, which is built on X windows, users can extend and customize their imaging systems. The system allows frequently used sequences to be accessed as macros. Using the program development tools that are included, new imaging algorithms and documentation can be created and installed into the image processing algorithm library. The system supports the National Image Transmission Format standard, as well as PostScript. Digital update: messaging...it's more than just mail. (building a corporate-wide electronic messaging system) Electronic messaging systems are one of the best ways for companies to link different groups of employees. Some analysts believe the key to successful corporate-wide messaging is adherence to non-proprietary open system standards. Additionally, the X.400 protocol provides a standard interface for messaging. Most major messaging vendors are now developing products for X.400, which offers interoperability and a predefined set of services. The messaging directory should allow authorized users and applications to access devices and information from local networks. Also, a messaging system should be flexible enough to allow for different levels of management. Finally, a good system should offer menus, management reporting tools, help screens, and configuration tools. Storage bytes. (storage products and solutions) DEC has a number of tape drives and subsystems that facilitate the automation of back up procedures. The new SF200 storage arrays and TF857 tape subsystems, according to the company, provide high-performance disk storage and unattended backup for VAX 6000 systems. The company also reports enhanced I/O rates, low access times, and a low price-per-megabyte ratio for the products. Prices for the SF200 range from $33,000 to $317,000. The SF72 storage array building block fits within the SF200 storage array subsystem, providing 2Gbytes to 4Gbytes of disk capacity each. The SF72 storage array is priced from $28,000 to $52,000. Bridging the PC/workstation gap. (Hardware Review) (Sun Microsystems' Sparcstation IPC) (evaluation) Sun Microsystems' $20,990 Sparcstation IPC is a low-end workstation that includes 24Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 16-inch color monitor, an internal floppy disk drive, an internal 207Mbyte Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disk, an external 669Mbyte SCSI disk, an external QIC-150 tape drive, and an external CD-ROM player. The system also runs the SunOS 4.1.1, and comes with an optional $3,000 optional GX graphics accelerator that speeds up graphics applications. The system is relatively inexpensive when viewed against comparable systems, and comes with an internal expansion bus for graphics options, although the central processor unit (CPU) power is somewhat lacking for the price. Fax servers: the next step in office automation. (includes related articles on the limited success of fax servers and the economics The facsimile machine has gradually established itself as an indispensable tool in the office workplace. The facsimile server can provide even greater savings than those provided by a stand-alone facsimile machine. Facsimile servers are used to automate the process of routing, queuing and transmission of documents over regular phone lines. One of the biggest benefits of a facsimile server is that users do not need to print documents and manually feed them into the machine. Facsimile servers provide a number of advanced and attractive features for corporations including the ability to prioritize faxes and place low-priority faxes in a separate queue to be transmitted during low-cost phone times. Additionally, the machine can include a routing list, to allow for the sending of one fax to different locations. Intergraph wins $362M Navy pact. (Intergraph Corp. wins computer-aided design contract) Intergraph Inc wins a $362 million contract with the US Navy to provide equipment and support for the CAD-2 computer-aided design and manufacturing system. The 12-year contract requires the company to install up to 450 file servers, 2,820 workstations and 11,000 mass storage devices, which includes 150 WORM optical drives, 1,000 eight millimeter tape drives, 2,000 1Gbyte Winchester drives, 3,000 670Mbyte Winchester drives and 3,200 200Mbyte Winchester drives. Industry observers note the government contract will further strengthen Intergraph's government business, which accounts for about 20 percent of the company's $1 billion a year in sales. Parts snag delays IBM disk array. (IBM's 9336 mid-range disk arrays) IBM experiences another product delay with its mid-range 9336 disk array. The computer maker is now facing even larger back orders for the disk array and officials are saying that it will take up to six months for new orders to be filled. IBM confirmed that production was halted between Feb 12, 1991 and Mar 14, 1991 because of problems associated with components sourced from outside vendors. Limited production has resumed in Apr 1991 but the company indicates that full-scale production will not resume until May 1991. The IBM 9336 hard disk drive is a 857Mbyte, 5.25-inch drive that has a base price starting around $22,000. TI, HP, Canon set $330M Singapore DRAM front-end. (Texas Instruments Inc., Hewlett Packard Co. and Canon) Texas Instruments Inc, Hewlett Packard Co, Canon Inc and the Singapore Economic Development Board all plan to construct a 300,000 square foot facility capable of manufacturing eight-inch wafers. The $330 million facility will be in Singapore and will be a front-end in the production of dynamic RAMs (DRAMs). Market demands will dictate what the facility will produce first; initial production will focus on 4Mbyte and 16Mbyte DRAMs. Texas Instruments and the Singapore Economic Development Board will each hold a 26 percent interest in the facility while Hewlett Packard and Canon will each hold a 24 percent interest. Texas Instruments will sell all the products that are manufactured at the facility. Leaded caps succumbing to growth in chip sales. Levine, Bernard. Major growth in the 1991 semiconductor industry causes makers of leaded capacitors to begin planning the construction of new facilities for surface mount chip manufacture. US semiconductor companies are creating large capital outlays for chip production, laser marking, tape and reeling, and plating apparatus to support surface mount capacitor production. Much of the capital outlays are being marked for custom-designed equipment, which ranges from tantalum pellets to machines to high-volume molding, testing and packaging equipment. Industry observers note that leaded production is expected to decline as more and more users turn to surface mounting. MIPS licensees form group: two-platform party. (Advanced Computing Environment consortium) A computer industry consortium made up of computer manufacturers and software publishers focus on the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) and the MIPS Computer Systems Inc R4000 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The consortium also indicates that it plans on using the Intel Corp x86 family of microprocessors because of the very large installed base that microprocessor has. Industry observers note that the focus on the MIPS Computer Systems RISC microprocessor is an effort by some member companies, including Compaq Computer Corp and MIPS, to slow the momentum that Sun Microsystems Inc has developed with its Sun Sparc microprocessor. Some other member companies include DEC, Microsoft Corp and the Santa Cruz Operation. Execs of McDonnell, GD defend DOD deferral in collecting $1.35B. (McDonnell Douglas Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.) Officials from McDonnell Douglas Corp and General Dynamics Corp defend the US Department of Defense's (DOD's) decision to defer the collection of $1.35 billion in disputed overpayments for work done on the controversial A-12 Navy attack bomber. The defense industry companies indicate that the deferral has kept them out of a very serious financial situation. The government spent $2.67 billion on the A-12, a stealth-like replacement for the A-6E Avenger, before Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cancelled the contract on Jan 7, 1991. Officials from the defense companies also noted that the deferment was valid on the basis that there is still an ongoing litigation over whether or not the companies overcharged the government. Urges capital gains tax cut: Mentor chairman. (Mentor Graphics Inc.'s Chmn Thomas H. Bruggere) Mentor Graphics Inc's Chmn Thomas H. Bruggere urged the government to issue a capital gains tax cut to insure that US companies will be able and willing to invest their dollars in high-risk, long-term research and development activities. Bruggere spoke in front of a government tax planning committee, which is considering improving government tax rules so that companies can maintain their investments in research and development. One plan that is being considered involves the indexing of capital gains and venture capital exclusions. Bruggere states that such a plan is important because of the dwindling venture capital resources available. Unix horse race. (Government closeup) (column) Robertson, Jack. The Japanese computer industry has vested interests in the US computer software industry's struggle for a standard version of the UNIX operating system. The UNIX operating system has long been touted as the open architecture standard but there are several competing versions in the market in 1991: the Japanese have placed their bets on every version to ensure that they are properly positioned once the race for a single UNIX operating system is complete. The reason that the Japanese computer industry has such a diversified strategy for investing in UNIX is clear; it will allow them to create software, which has been their largest obstacle in attaining complete superiority in the global computer industry. House unit adopts supercomputing plan. (U.S. Congress House subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness) The US Congress House subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness adopts a five-year, multimillion-dollar government strategy that provides for the supercomputing needs of the government. Industry observers note that the supercomputing plan, named the 'High-Performance Computing Act of 1991,' will generate more than $10 billion in revenue for the US supercomputer industry between 1991 and 2001; other segments of the computer industry, including software, networking systems and workstations, will also benefit. Analysts also note that the government supercomputing plan will improve US competitiveness in other industries such as semiconductor design, weather prediction and combustion efficiency. Wang to gauge new VS sales before deciding line's future. (Wang Laboratories Inc.'s VS minicomputer line) Wang Laboratories Inc will wait-and-see before it commits itself to developing new processors for its VS minicomputer line. The computer maker is moving towards developing UNIX systems but has not yet abandoned its proprietary VS line. Wang officials believe that the product line will continue its decline as the industry moves towards the open systems environment of UNIX. The company acknowledges that its VS customers will demand more power to support their installed minicomputers and states that processors it is developing will last at least until 1993. Wang officials express skepticism over whether they will be able to justify the development of VS minicomputers after 1993 because of the diminishing market. NEC, Cray: which CPU is faster? (controversial test report from the Los Alamos National Laboratory) The Los Alamos National Laboratory releases a controversial supercomputer testing report that states the Cray Research Inc Y-MP/16 supercomputer is the fastest machine in the world. The single-processor Cray supercomputer prototype was compared to NEC Corp's SX-3 supercomputer and Fujitsu Ltd's VP2600 supercomputer. Officials at NEC complained that the US research laboratory test report was unfair since it tested a Cray prototype against a NEC supercomputer that has already been on the market for one year. The computer maker stated that its next-generation supercomputer will be on the market before the Cray Y-MP/16 and will be faster under the same benchmark testing. TIE to trade $35M in debt for 75% of its common stock. (TIE/Communications Inc.) TIE/Communications Inc will refinance $35 million of its debt for 75 percent of its stock with HCR Partners Inc. HCR Partners, which is TIE/Communications' largest creditor, is helping the company reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The maker of telephone apparatus has net liabilities of $96 million and assets of $136 million in 1991. HCR also agreed to provide $5 million in interim financing until the reorganization plan is approved. TIE/Communications reported a loss of $2.9 million on revenue of $33.7 million for the 3rd qtr of 1990; the company plans to release its 1990 results on Apr 15, 1991. BT, NTT, Bundespost eye data/com joint venture. (British Telecommunications PLC, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone of Japan Nippon Telegraph and Telephone of Japan (NTT), British Telecommunications PLC and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom consider a joint venture that would provide multinational corporations with international data and communications services. The joint venture, known as Pathfinder, will provide multinational companies with one-stop shopping for a dedicated voice and data communications network around the world. Industry analysts note that British Telecommunications would probably have the largest stake in Pathfinder with 48 percent; NTT and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom would each have a 26 percent stake in the joint venture. Vendors wield dielectrics in market struggle. (capacitor suppliers increase their level of competition in a down market) A down market in the semiconductor industry causes capacitor suppliers to increase their efforts in swaying vendors towards their area of specialty. Design engineers must choose between ceramics, tantalum, aluminum and film. Industry observers note that ceramics will continue to erode the low-end of the tantalum market and tantalum will continue to erode the lower end of the aluminum market. The lack of a viable surface mounting device for aluminum leads analysts to believe that tantalum will have an advantage in the competitive market. The popularity of surface mount ceramics is giving ceramics suppliers some of the business from the film market. Teradyne to shut 6 days, delays raises. (Teradyne Inc.) Teradyne Inc will freeze pay raises and will shut down its operations for an extra six and one half days in 1991 as part of a cost reduction effort. The company, which has reported five consecutive quarters of losses, expects the cost reduction effort to save it $10 million a year. The pay raise freeze will be effective until Jan 1992 for most employees; senior managers' raises will be frozen until Jul 1992. The extra plant shutdown dates will take place during the Jul 4th weekend and the Christmas week. Capital spending and travel budgets will be trimmed across the board as well. The company indicates that layoffs will happen only as a last resort. Name special master in Syn suit on Sematech over UV litho data. (Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Scott named special Syn Labs Inc and Sematech elect Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Scott as a special master over a lawsuit between the photo resist supplier and the semiconductor industry consortium. Syn Labs claims that the Sematech consortium breeched a 1988 contract by giving out confidential information about a deep ultra-violet lithography project proposal. Sematech is calling the suit both groundless and a waste of time and money. Syn Labs first filed the case in Nov 1989; the company added charges of constructive trust and bad-faith denial of contract after it discovered that Sematech withheld important documents relevant to the case. Call Japan wafter gear's biggest market. (Dataquest Inc. survey shows that Japan accounts for more than half of the global demand A survey by Dataquest Inc in 1990 indicates that the Japanese semiconductor industry accounts for 50.6 percent of the global market for wafer fabrication equipment. The Japanese demand has been increasing since 1985, when it accounted for 42.4 percent of the market for wafer fabrication equipment. Dataquest also notes that the US market for wafer fabrication equipment in 1990 was only 27 percent, a dramatic drop from its 1985 level of 37 percent. The global market for wafer fabrication equipment was $5.8 billion in 1990, a 3.1 percent drop from its 1989 level of $6.0 billion. Dataquest forecasts the global market to grow between 10 percent and 12 percent in 1991. Westinghouse, Intel in CPU spotlight: with JIAWG win. (Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Intel Corp.'s Military Intel Corp's Military Semiconductor division and Westinghouse Electric Corp win a Joint Integrated Avionics Working Group (JIAWG) standard processor award. The award give Westinghouse a jump over its rivals IBM, Control Data Corp, Texas Instruments Inc, Hughes Aircraft Co and Unisys Corp. Intel, whose microprocessor Westinghouse chose, beat out its rival MIPS Computer Systems Inc. Intel and Westinghouse are expected to benefit in the long-term from the LH Helicopter program, which is expected to reach $34 billion. The Westinghouse JIAWG processor will be used in the LH Helicopter's night-vision targeting system and with the central mission computer of the LH Helicopter, which will coordinate and process avionic functions. Industrials, suppliers debate limited versus all-sites pacts. (all-sites authorizations) Suppliers are increasing their use of all-sites authorization for their major industrials to boost sales. Proponents of limited-site franchise note that their method ensures control over market saturation and increases their performance in markets where distributors are performing poorly. All-sites authorization offers cost and marketing advantages. Different conditions in various markets allow vendors to cut and add smaller industrials depending on the existing market conditions. Limited-site franchises do not make as much money as the all-sites authorization strategy. Motorola quarter profit off 9%. (Motorola Inc.'s profit for 1st qtr of 1991) Motorola Inc reports its 1st qtr 1991 profit fell nine percent when compared to earnings for the same period in 1990. The semiconductor company's report was actually higher than analysts expected with a profit of $116 million, or 88 cents a share, compared with profits of $127 million, or 97 cents a share, for the same period in 1990. Sales for the 1st qtr of 1991 increased by eight percent up to $2.74 billion. Motorola indicated that heavy investments in digital technology accounted for the lower operating earnings for the period. The company stated that it is ensuring the long-term growth of the company and is exercising control over its costs. Intergraph shares ride 'buy' advice, Navy pact. (Intergraph Corp.; What They're Saying) (column) Intergraph Corp's stocks have been climbing in Apr 1991 largely because it won a government contract with the US Navy that may contribute between $10 million and $15 million in sales during 1991 and between $30 million and $50 million in 1992. Intergraph beat out Sun Microsystems Inc, PRC Corp and Computervision Corp for the contract. Some industry analysts are increasing their earnings per share forecast up to between $1.40 and $1.79 per share in 1991 and $2.15 a share in 1992. The computer company began the 1st qtr of 1991 with a strong balance sheet: essentially no long-term debt, $90 million in cash and investments, and a current ratio of 3.3 to one. The great leap forward. (Taiwan's Microelectronic Technology Inc., Acer Inc.) (Computers/Communications ) (company profile) Microelectronics Technology Inc and Acer Inc are firms that are moving Taiwan into the world of innovation and shedding the country's copy cat image. Microelectronics is famous for its portable satellite phone which was used by CNN's Peter Arnett to file his reports to the US from Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. The company, which is 66 percent owned by its US subsidiary, Mobile Telesystems Inc, now holds 60 percent of the world's market for portable satellite phones. Company president Chi Hsieh claims that his equipment has proven its worth during crisis situations. Acer Inc is the world's fourth largest producer of Intel 80386-based microcomputers. The company's unique marketing strategy of selling under its own name is a break with traditional Taiwanese clone makers. The company invests heavily in research and development and has started a $350 million joint venture with Texas Instruments to produce 4M-bit memory chips in Taiwan. The Trojan horse approach. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) (Computers/Communications) (company profile) Sun Microsystems is persuading banks and the airline industry to replace their mainframes with Sun's workstations. The company, which saw a jump in revenue from $8.5 million in 1983 to $2.5 billion in the fiscal year ended June 1990, is already getting a third of its revenues from Northwest Airlines, Federal Express and Swiss banks. The workstation market that was once dominated by Sun is seeing growing competition from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, which recently bought Apollo Computer. The Hewlett-Packard merger sells two-thirds as many workstations as Sun Microsystems. The latest offering from Hewlett-Packard is a workstation that delivers 57 MIPS for only $12,000. Sun is not asking firms to dispose of their mainframes for clusters of workstations, but the company is hoping that these firms use workstations to tackle new problems. Users hail proposed RISC standard. (Advanced Computing Environment initiative) (includes related article on impact on developers) The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) initiative, a joint effort by 21 leading hardware and software vendors to create a new standardized reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, wins the praise of users who hope that it will bridge the gap between microcomputers and workstations. Users and analysts warn that it will be at least one year before a complete system is available, and there may be a longer wait for applications. The ACE system would run both Microsoft's portable OS/2 3.0 and the Santa Cruz Operation's Unix Open Desktop operating systems. It will be based on the Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) specification, which should be completed within 90 days, but manufacturers will be able to differentiate their own systems. ARC includes a set of I/O application programming interfaces and two optional bus architectures, TurboChannel from DEC and the Extended Industry Standard Architecture. IBM readies faster VGA chip to bridge gap in graphics line. (IBM XGA graphics board) IBM is developing a new VGA chip to bridge the gap between its $1,095 XGA graphics board and its standard VGA design, which many users complain is too slow. The new chip will reportedly offer 800 x 600-pixel graphics resolution and will be built into low-end PS/2 microcomputers, but IBM officials deny the reports and say the company is entirely committed to the new XGA standard and 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution. Analysts say that XGA is expensive and that the high cost of video RAM and chip packaging limit the potential for low-cost versions. Compatibles manufacturers, some of whom have invested heavily in the moribund 8514/A chip design, are wary of XGA. XGA is also designed exclusively for Micro Channel Architecture machines, a fact which severely limits the market for it. Intel revs up 25-MHz 486 to 50-MHz internal rate. (Intel Corp. 80486 microprocessor) Intel Corp reportedly plans to offer an enhanced version of its 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor with a 50-MHz internal clock rate. The chip would be easy for systems vendors to design microcomputers around because it would interact with existing 25-MHz motherboards, communicating with the computer at the slower speed. Manufacturers may be able to create new designs without needing to get FCC approval. Industry analysts see the move as part of Intel's effort to promote the 80486 as a standard for all system designs. The 50-MHz chip would cost an estimated $1,200 and would be aimed at the high-end market. IBM's Hollywood blends Persuasion and PowerPoint. (Software Review) (new IBM presentation graphics program) (evaluation) IBM's new $495 Windows-based Hollywood presentation graphics program lets users build presentations with pre-designed templates, by importing text from word processors and spreadsheets or via a built-in outliner. The outliner is fast and lets users create up to six types of word charts. It offers a large symbol library and the ability to import files directly. A 'Data Manager' module handles data-driven graphs and charts and resembles a small spreadsheet. Users can import data from Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 files into Data Manager or enter it directly. The pre-designed templates are optimized for specific output devices, and there is a chart gallery with many chart types. The user can place a chart on any page within the presentation by selecting and pasting it. Hollywood incorporates Bitstream Inc's Speedo on-the-fly font-scaling technology and has powerful text-manipulation features. A floating toolbox contains the most common tools. Hollywood has a somewhat steep learning curve, but is an excellent value for its price. IBM to crown big OS/2 promotion with price cut. (OS/2 operating system) IBM plans to cut the price of its OS/2 Standard Edition operating system as part of its massive promotion effort, which aims to establish OS/2 as a standard. The promotion will include seminars in New York and demonstrations of the upcoming OS/2 2.0. OS/2 Standard Edition may be priced as low as $150, but IBM reportedly is afraid that excessive price cuts will be perceived as a 'fire sale.' The company is also expected to discontinue OS/2 Extended Edition, marketing the Database and Communications Manager features separately as 'Special Services.' Several large corporate accounts, such as Frito Lay Inc, will show off how they use OS/2 for mission-critical applications at the IBM seminars. Microsoft seeks to link PC E-mail with Mac E-mail. (electronic mail systems) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces Microsoft Mail Connection, a gateway that bridges the IBM-compatible and Macintosh versions of its Microsoft Mail electronic mail software. Microsoft Mail Connection, which will sell for $295, lets users transfer messages between Macintosh and PC-based networks. The company also plans to ship Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, which incorporates technology Microsoft acquired through its purchase of Consumers Software Inc. Microsoft Mail for PC Networks is based on the Consumers' Network Courier program and combines several elements the smaller company sold separately. It supports DOS and Windows clients, with OS/2 and Mac user interface versions expected to follow. The package includes the External transfer agent program, Modem Mail Gateway and gateways for Novell's MHS, fax machines, IBM PROFS, MCI Mail, and the X.400, SMTP and SNADS protocols. Microsoft Mail for PC Networks costs $695 for one server; client licenses range in price from $395 for five users to $22,500 for 500 users. IBM customizes PS/2 for elite accounts. (IBM shipping customized 20-MHz 80386SX-based PS/2 microcomputers to major corporate IBM is reportedly shipping customized PS/2 microcomputers to a few large corporate accounts. The machines allegedly use a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor with the modular internal architecture of the high-end PS/2 Models 90 and 95 and may be samples of machines the company plans to market in the future. IBM is expected to begin introducing modular 80386SX-based computers in Jun 1991. New features will include the ability to add more memory to the motherboard and install XGA-compatible graphics. The computer giant is known for making unannounced systems available to its largest corporate customers, such as Frito Lay Inc and The Royal Bank of Canada. IBM hopes to reduce the number of form factor designs it uses in the Micro Channel-based PS/2 line. Quattro Pro 3.0 stalls on WYSIWYG. (Borland International Inc. Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet) Some early users of Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet complain about the poor performance of the program's WYSIWYG features, and a few claim they prefer Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 2.2 with the Impress add-in for WYSIWYG use. The two main user concerns about Quattro Pro are its hard-to-read screen fonts and slow redraw rates. Borland officials claim that spreadsheet output is both easier and faster with Quattro Pro because it uses integral menus in both character and graphics modes. One beta tester says that 1-2-3 2.2 with Impress takes less than one-third of a second to redraw a screen, while Quattro Pro takes 1.2 seconds. Another users cites performance problems when importing large worksheets. These complaints could hurt the Borland product in the market. Pen-based systems may help generate PIM sales. (personal information managers) Some developers expect the introduction of pen-based portable computers from Go Corp and others to boost sales of personal information management (PIM) software, which are currently slow. Lotus Development Corp marketing director Paul Paget, who oversees the company's Agenda PIM product, states that notebook computers are the primary hardware platform for PIMs and are not yet available in quantity and at the price point users desire. International Data Corp analyst Nancy McSharry estimates that 380,000 PIMs were sold in 1988 and 430,000 in 1990, arguing that the slow market growth is due to the fact that PIMs are not appropriate for the desktop where they do not increase productivity. McSharry expects PIM sales to take off when pen-based computers become common. Printer, four scanners added to Fujitsu's lineup. (Fujitsu America Inc. introduces M3096E+, M3096G, M3296A, M3296B scanners, VM2200 Fujitsu America Inc introduces four new scanners and a new laser printer to round out its line of sophisticated imaging products. The M3096E+ scanner, an upgrade of the top-selling M3096, can handle 11.5 x 17-inch paper and scans up to 20 letter-size pages per minute at 200 dpi. It sells for $6,720 and can be configured with a multilevel interface, single-connector interface or image-processing circuit. The new $6,900 M3096G is a similar product designed for workstation platforms. The M3296 is a color scanner for the Apple Macintosh that offers a variety of configurations; the $6,995 M3296A is a flatbed scanner, while the higher-end M3296B includes an automatic document feeder. The M3098 scanner is designed for engineering use and will ship in 4th qtr 1991. Fujitsu has also introduced the VM2200, a $9,995 laser printer that prints up to 22 pages per minute and accommodates 11 x 17-inch paper. Faster printer speeds bring new problems. (shared-environment printers) Several printer manufacturers have introduced new 'shared environment' laser printers designed for network use that offer print speeds of 15 to 20 pages per minute, automatic or remote emulation switching, job catching for repeat printing, off-set printing for each job and sophisticated jam recovery schemes. These products highlight the inherent shortcomings of using printers on a network, and some users are skeptical of their benefits and say that connecting additional slower printers supporting fewer users each could actually avoid bottlenecks. A single job consisting of a long document can tie up a high-end networked printer for long periods. Four- and eight-page-per-minute personal laser printers contain features that support this argument, such as QMS Inc's emulation sensing processor (ESP) technology. Fast network printers often do not offer error-handling messages for completed jobs, paper jams and font substitutions. Redundancy of information foils pattern data compression. (Tech Talk) (column) Pattern-based data compression depends on the inherently non-random nature of most information. Non-random data can be analyzed, encoded and compressed in size using a variety of algorithms. These schemes reduce file size by eliminating excessive redundancy, but a major problem is the fact that redundancy is essential to minimize loss of information in the event of errors. A single bit lost from a compressed file can cause a disastrous loss of information. Redundant files sometimes store less than one logical bit worth of data per physical bit. Compression strategies can yield files that store several logical bits per physical bit. Apple's DAL lets Macs mix it up, share data. (Data Access Language) Apple's recently enhanced Data Access Language (DAL) query processing language allows Macintosh computers to access database servers on a variety of platforms but is not a panacea for database problems. DAL uses SQL commands taken from database engines to build a single generic language; developers can create Mac clients that use DAL to address several different servers. DAL servers are currently available for several IBM, DEC, Informix, Sybase and Ingres SQL databases. DAL clients can retrieve data from any of these platforms. DAL does not use the native language of any SQL server, a fact which many cause problems for those who want to use the extensions found in particular 'flavors' of SQL. Oracle Corp's Oracle database supports DAL only from the client end; users can purchase a separate client product or use Oracle's SQL-Net tools to develop Macintosh connectivity programs. Sybase offers client application programming interfaces in its SQL Server product. Macs awash in 040 accelerators. (vendors introduce 68040-based accelerator cards for Macintosh) (product announcement) Fusion Data Systems prepares to introduce new accelerator boards for the Apple Macintosh that make use of Motorola's new 68040 microprocessor. The company claims its TokaMac LC, which fits in the new Macintosh LC model, runs 2.5 times faster than a 40-MHz Macintosh IIfx. The TokaMac LC will be available in Apr 1991. Fusion Data will introduce the TokaMac SX, a 68040-based accelerator that fits into the Processor Direct Slot (PDS) in the Mac SE/30 and IIsi, in May 1991. Several other vendors are offering or developing 68040-based Mac accelerators, but some have opted out of the market because of possible incompatibilities between the microprocessor code in the 68030 and the 68040. Fusion Data nevertheless says it chose to create an accelerator for the Mac LC because the LC's low price makes it attractive to technical users. The virtual memory in System 7.0 will not work with 68040 accelerator cards. Memorex Telex expands its WAN connectivity. (strategic relationships with Novell Inc, Banyan Systems Inc, Synoptics Memorex Telex Corp has entered into a series of strategic alliances in an effort to expand its wide area network (WAN) connectivity services. The company offers mainframe-based products and targets large customers, deriving much of its revenue from sales of 3270 terminals, printers and controllers. Its move toward multiple-LAN connectivity, which involves relationships with Novell Inc, Banyan Systems Inc, Proteon Inc and Synoptics Communications Inc, is a natural outgrowth of this business, according to Memorex Telex officials. Memorex Telex offers WAN connectivity services for both new and existing installations either on-site and off-site. It claims four-hour response times for service calls and 90 percent first-call availability of replacement parts. Compaq's MIPS consortium could be its ACE in the hole. (Advanced Computing Environment initiative) (State of the Industry) (column) Compaq Computer Corp's participation in the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) consortium will strengthen its market position by enabling it to help define rather than follow a standard, but will not result in any overnight change in users' microcomputing habits. Compaq has always been known as an excellent imitator of IBM technology; ACE, which will be based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's upcoming R4000 processor, will increase its credibility by letting it cast aside its 'value-added clone' image. The first ACE microcomputers will nevertheless not appear until at least 1992, because MIPS is not expected to officially announce the R4000 until later in 1991 and because Microsoft's OS/2 NT operating system kernel is not ready yet. FDDI is now the desktop communications medium of choice. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) technology is rapidly becoming the most popular data communications medium for microcomputers because prices are decreasing rapidly and vendors are resolving technical conflicts. A DEC FDDI concentrator sold for $15,000 in Jul 1990, but several vendors now offer similar products for less than $10,000. The average price of an FDDI adapter is expected to drop to $2,800 by the end of 1992. FDDI bridges are being modified to allow 'transparent translation' of proprietary encapsulation techniques, and FDDI chip sets are becoming more of a commodity item. Vendors are also cooperating on standardization of FDDI technology. These developments will result in rapid growth of the FDDI market and its adoption by such trend-setting organizations as government agencies. Checking under the hood. (evaluating potential microcomputer purchases)(includes related article on loaning of evaluation Microcomputer managers take a variety of approaches toward evaluating the potential purchase of new machines, with some relying on in-house or outside laboratories while others rely on industry publications or use loaner machines. Some large companies have established formal microcomputer laboratories to perform elaborate compatibility tests, ensuring that a particular product will work with existing hardware and software environments. Getting advance versions of upcoming products and testing them quickly is essential, according to lab managers. Other managers say that dedicated, centralized microcomputer laboratories tend not to be close enough to end users and that machines should be evaluated within the departments where they will be actually used. Published benchmarks, performance comparisons and magazine reviews are additional evaluation resources. Some companies 'crash test' products by placing them in a real-world computing situation immediately. Many managers believe that end users are the best judge of whether a new machine will work in their systems environments. Benchmarking and technical evaluation are virtually nonexistent for some firms, who prefer to investigate the reputation and financial security of the vendor instead. There is a trend in many companies toward decentralized microcomputer purchasing and departmental testing. Fax, PC collision will be a boon for the office of the future. (column) The trend toward integration of facsimile and microcomputer technology is an outgrowth of the fact that microcomputers and fax machines tend to be incompatible rather than compatible. The computer is a processing and data manipulation device that is weak in its communications capabilities; file transfers are awkward because of the complexity of modem standards. Dedicated fax machines allow superior communications but very little manipulation capability. The two worlds are colliding with the introduction of fax modems, microcomputer fax boards and software designed to integrate fax capabilities into the microcomputer, but this process has barely begun. Developers must take drastic steps to bridge computers and fax machines; one example is the fact that the current Group 3 fax standard offers 200-dpi resolution, but most laser printers print at 300 dpi. A future fax standard may allow higher resolution, and a color standard is being developed. Portable computers are the area in which the convergence of fax and computing is most exciting. Future pen-based machines will offer wireless modems for sending and receiving faxes that will let them act as remote printers. Super VGA boards. (Hardware Review) (evaluation of eight Super VGA graphics boards)(includes related article on test results) Eight Super VGA graphics boards are reviewed. Super VGA technology is driven by chip makers, with Tseng Laboratories' ET-4000 leading the market; Boca Research's SuperVGA, Diamond Technologies' SpeedStar VGA and several other boards using this circuit. Screen refresh is the rate at which the monitor image is updated and can vary from 40 to 72 Hz; the lower the refresh rate, the more annoying 'flicker' users see. Hardware and software compatibility are also major issues; any Super VGA the user buys should have software drivers for all packages it must support, and the card must work in the user's system with all existing add-in boards. Both hardware factors and the quality of software drivers affect performance. Higher resolutions may slow performance. The STB Powergraph ERGO-VGA is rated the best value of the boards tested, with the Everex Viewpoint VRAM a close second. Super VGA boards. (criteria used to evaluate eight Super VGA graphics boards)(includes related article on anti-aliasing) Procedures used to test and compare eight Super VGA graphics boards are described. Performance criteria include speed, driver support, resolution and display quality. AutoCAD scripts, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint and Lotus 1-2-3 macros were used for speed tests, and a product rated 'satisfactory' must offer driver support for AutoCAD Versions 9 and 10, WordPerfect 5.0 and Windows 3.0. Resolution is scored on a strict scale, and a display had to be flicker-free at both 800 x 600 and 1,024 x 768 pixels to earn an 'excellent' rating. Setup considerations include compatibility with monitors, ease of installation and ease of configuration. Documentation, support, workmanship and value are scored according to criteria used in the past. Micro Express 20-MHz 386 notebook swaps flash for price. (Hardware Review) (Micro Express NB5620 notebook computer)(Column) Micro Express' new NB5620 notebook computer is not flashy but offers a solid combination of features for an attractive price. It includes a 20-MHz 80386 processor, VGA backlit display, 1Mbyte of RAM, 20Mbyte internal hard disk and 1.4Mbyte floppy drive for $1,999, approximately $1,000 less than a similarly-configured AST Premium Exec and $4,500 less than a Compaq LTE 386s/20. The basic unit includes 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 5Mbytes and has a socket for a 387 math coprocessor and connections for an external monitor, keyboard and floppy disk drive. The NB5620 is generally well built, but its internal LCD suffers from some shadows in graphics mode. It is nevertheless readable and adequate for most uses. The system comes with several software utilities for shadowing system and video BIOS, switching between regular and inverse video and setting the time before the backlighting is turned off to save battery power. IBM's 386SX laptop doesn't compromise but digs deep into users' pocketbooks. (Hardware Review) (IBM PS/2 L40 SX) (evaluation) IBM's $5,995 PS/2 L40 SX laptop computer offers many sophisticated and impressive features that may justify its high price for some users. It is pleasant to use when traveling, weighing 7 pounds and offering superior ergonomics. The keyboard has a good feel and is tilted upward 5 degrees; the keys are full-size, and the cursor keys are in an inverted-T arrangement. IBM offers an optional $159 Trackpoint pointing device that can be used as either a mouse or a trackball, and a row of system status icons below the display indicates disk usage and the amount of battery power remaining, as well as ambient temperature and humidity. Two megabytes of memory are standard; memory capacity is a whopping 18 megabytes. The large 10-inch screen is a plus, although it is neither the best nor the worst display on the market. Battery life falls short of the claimed three hours, and the power supply and $129 extra battery options are recommended. Personal RBase offers rich, lucid personal database. (Software Review) (Microrim Personal RBase data base management system) Microrim Inc's $199.95 Personal R:base is a nonprogrammable single-user version of the company's flagship R:base 3.1 data base management system. It uses the same relational model as its full-featured sibling and offers an application generator based on an ANSI SQL Level 2 engine but is completely menu-driven. Users create and save tables from the Create/Modify option on the Database menus and exit to a menu system that allows auto-numbering and the assigning of rules to columns. Data validation rules are selectable from menus. Data entry and reporting are both rated very good, and querying is rated excellent. Import and export capabilities are very good; functions are good. Speed is rated only satisfactory, and the most severe drawback is unacceptable error handling. Personal R:base can easily lose data if a file being written to disk loses the available disk space. Documentation is good. Ease of learning is excellent, and ease of use is very good. Microrim's support policies are good, but the actual technical support is poor; the company's technicians are too difficult to reach. Personal R:base offers functionality approaching that of products costing three times as much, but its reliability problems make it a poor value. Toshiba T2000SX is speedy, lightweight. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's T2000SX notebook computer uses a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 9Mbytes. Speed on CPU-intensive applications is rated very good; disk-intensive speed is rated excellent, as is software compatibility. The product earns good scores for size and weight and for battery life; the machine uses a nickel hydride battery to achieve a battery life of 3 hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds in tests. Storage capacity is very good. Readability of the backlit Supertwist LCD VGA screen is good. The keyboard earns a good rating. Documentation is very good. Ease of use earns a good rating. The system is well designed, and Toshiba offers outstanding support policies; technical support is excellent. The T2000SX earns a very good rating in overall value for its price of $4,999 configured with a 20Mbyte hard disk and $5,499 with a 40Mbyte hard disk. Why go client/server when you can network peer-to-peer? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Many network managers are beginning to re-evaluate peer-to-peer networking as a lower-cost alternative to currently fashionable client/server architectures. IBM's recent announcement of its APPN (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) strategy has boosted the argument for peer-to-peer networking. Other vendors promoting the virtues of peer-to-peer network architectures include Apple, Artisoft and Farallon Computing Inc. Client/server applications reside on a centralized file server that is shared by several network nodes, while peer-to-peer systems are not centralized and allow any microcomputer or workstation to act as either a client or a server. Reliability is a key reason for choosing the peer-to-peer model; a less-centralized system is less vulnerable to a failure and theoretically lets users position data symmetrically, with every networked machine mirroring every other. Peer-to-peer networking is also more flexible than client/server networking and gives individual users more control over their data. Virus breaks out on 3Com's campus net: prompt response lets vendor contain outbreak, purge infected files and minimize data loss. Network vendor 3Com Corp was forced to shut down portions of its 5,000-node campus network in Santa Clara, CA due to a computer virus. Portions of the network were down for an entire day while staff LAN administrators isolated infected workstations and deleted infected files. Users first noticed the virus when workstations started locking up and unusual pictures appeared on screens. Network administrators, upon realizing that a virus was infecting the network, shut down individual LANs in phases so that the network was never fully down. 3 Com already had a plan in place which had been rehearsed periodically and led to the prompt response and minimal data loss. Officials are unsure as to how the virus entered the network but emphasize that no engineering or code-production networks were infected. Characteristics of the virus match those associated with the Jerusalem virus which is programmed to replicate itself and attach to executable files. Networking project to aid IRS in snaring tax evaders. (Internal Revenue Service) The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Integrated Collection System (ICS) will outfit IRS offices with LAN-based workstations and portable computers that will allow revenue agents to access common data bases of information on delinquent tax payers. ICS will automate many manual operations and the IRS estimates it will help them bring in an additional $2.5 billion in delinquent taxes over the next seven years. The agency will install IBM 3090 mainframe computers at each service center that will maintain information on collection efforts in IBM DB/2 data bases. Hosts will be connected to service center LANs that support IBM Personal System/2 workstations. Revenue agents at district offices and call sites will be able to access the data bases from their workstations which will be on gateway-equipped Ethernet LANs. The LANs will communicate with the service centers through the Treasury Department's X.25 packet-switched network, the Consolidated Data Network. IBM fleshes out plans for SystemView. Miller, Edwin. IBM clarifies some details in the ongoing development of its SystemView network and systems management architecture. SystemView will let customers manage heterogeneous, enterprise-wide information system networks. NetView, the company's host-based Systems Network Architecture network management system, will be an essential part of SystemView. Company officials contend that SystemView will not achieve critical mass of all necessary components until 1994 or 1995. The message traffic on SystemView will be in the form of data units that will be in compliance with the OSI Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). This is in contrast to NetView's proprietary message formats. SystemView management information will be in the form of several hundred objects, most of which will be specified by IBM, and another departure from NetView. Users have many questions regarding a migration path from current NetView management requirements since the object- and OSI-based nature of SystemView is a radical shift from the current NetView- and SNA-based environments. AT&T resets SDN, SDDN rates, speeds. (Software-Defined Network, Software-Defined Data Network) AT and T announces it will raise rates approximately 5 percent for its Software-Defined Network (SDN) users with switched access. The carrier will also raise rates for calls made during off-peak times. SDN calls using dedicated access will be reduced between 1 and 2 percent. The company contends that the cumulative effect of the changes will be to reduce SDN prices by approximately $1.2 million. AT and T is also restructuring its volume discount plan for Network Remote Access and is increasing rates for its off-network Software-Defined Data Network (SDDN). This will raise SDN revenue by approximately $1.1 million. A new SDDN rate feature will allow users to transmit video or data at 384K-bits per second. Analysts contend that the carrier's rate changes are meant to take resellers off SDN and on to its new Distributed Network Service, a service specially for resellers. AT and T denies this but says that SDN is targeted for business customers and the carrier wants to keep it that way. The network manager's compendium of standards. (includes related articles on forthcoming modem standards and other new standards A wide variety of network-related standards have been developed in the past 15 months. The Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) often cooperate on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards. ISO 9595/CCITT X.710 lays out the Common Management Information Service (CMIS) standard. ISO 9596/CCITT X.711 details the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) standard. Both the CMIS and CMIP define the bulk of the OSI network management protocol. Among important OSI de facto standards that are developed by major vendors or user groups are IBM's Systems Network Architecture and the Internet Activities Board's Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has developed Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) which is one of the latest TCP/IP developments. Standards that govern future fiber-optic transmission such as the Synchronous Optical network (SONET) will have a far-reaching effect on networking throughout the 1990's. Further details are presented. Teleport-Chicago says its net is first based on SONET: fifteen-mile fiber net links major carrier POPs with 20 area Teleport Communications-Chicago announces what the company claims to be the first telecommunications network based on Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), a high-speed, circuit-switched technology that supports transmission rates from 51.84M-bits to 13.22G-bps over fiber-optic networks. The backbone network will allow Teleport Chicago to provide end-user data transmission speeds from 56K-bits to 2.488G-bps. The carrier says that advanced network monitoring and high-speed bandwidth on demand services will be introduced soon. The network's AT and T DDM-1000 multiplexers will soon be upgraded to AT and T's DDM-2000 multiplexers which are SONET-capable. Teleport says it will work with users in developing services that will take advantage of SONET's technology. Analysts contend that the carrier's support of SONET will pressure its competitors to do the same. Securities firm's T-1 net to reduce transaction costs: lower prices mean more services for customers. (Garban Securities Inc.) Garban Securities Inc, along with sister companies Titus and Donnelly Inc and Garvin GuyButler Corp, has nearly completed work on a T-1 backbone network that will significantly reduce key trading application transaction costs. Twenty T-1 circuits will link New York offices to nodes in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago and will carry data and voice traffic supporting government securities trading and other financial instruments. The network will allow the securities firm to offer lower transaction costs than the competition and will be able to provide more services to users. The company also plans to sell dedicated and switched network services to its trading customers. Garban will use the network to support government trades between primary dealers. Securities pricing data will be routed to the primary dealers from Garban's minicomputer over the network. FTS 2000 carriers called on to provide digital access. (Federal Telecommunications System 2000) Government agency network managers say that they are having trouble accessing local digital access facilities under the Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000. Managers claim that AT and T and US Sprint Communications Co are not providing end-to-end digital links. The FTS 2000 contract specifies that the carriers must deal with local exchange carriers in obtaining local access for federal agencies. The General Services Administration (GSA) says it will soon announce an agreement with US Sprint and AT and T that will offer a clear statement of policy as to how the carriers will provide local digital access facilities. Some government agencies complain that they must settle for 9.6K-bps analog local access in place of 56K-bps links. AT and T officials contend that obtaining digital access facilities can be difficult in remote areas of the US and that the carrier must depend on local access providers for a complete delivery of the network links. Unisys unveils long-awaited distributed OLTP software. (on-line transaction processing)(Unisys Corp.'s Open/OLTP)(includes related Unisys Corp introduces its Unix-based Open/OLTP on-line transaction processing software which allows client workstations to update or extract data on multiple servers. Open/OLTP is based on AT and T's Tuxedo Transaction Manager 4.1 and runs on Unisys' U 6000 processors. The client uses AT and T's Unix Transport Layer Interface to pass information to the U 6000 processor over Ethernet, X.25, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, IBM Systems Network Architecture or Open System Interconnection networks. Currently, Informix Software Inc's DTP-compliant OnLine is the only data base management system outfitted to work with Open/OLTP but the software will work with other packages as vendors develop other DTP-compliant data base management systems. Open/OLTP is priced from $1,725 to $38,640, depending on the processor. The product is scheduled to ship in late April 1991. DA probes BBS practices at Prodigy. (bulletin board system) Crockett, Barton. Prodigy Services Co is being investigated by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office for possible criminal or civil violations regarding the company's bulletin board editing policies and electronic mail pricing. District Attorney office officials say they are investigating complaints about Prodigy's charging of 25 cents for every E-mail message after the first 30 sent in a month. The company had previously charged a flat-rate monthly fee for services. Customers have also complained about the company practice of editing or deleting controversial or obscene postings from the service's bulletin boards. Officials say that charges against Prodigy could include deceptive advertising or unfair business practices. Prodigy officials contend that the pricing policy for E-mail is justified to prevent customers from using the services for mass mailings. They claim that editing policies for bulletin boards are justified since the bulletin boards can be compared to a newspaper which has the right to not print letters to the editor. Microsoft to unveil E-mail for DOS, OS/2 computers. (Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces its Microsoft Mail for PC Networks 2.1, the company's first electronic mail package for DOS- and OS/2-based microcomputers. The product is a repackaged version of Consumer Software Inc's Network Courier and is a result of Microsoft's recent purchase of Consumer Software. The package includes an electronic post office, message router and Modem Mail feature that gives remote users dial-in access to the E-mail server. Microsoft officials claim that the package gives users more flexibility over previous versions of Network Courier. Unlike Network Courier, Microsoft Mail for PC Networks' server software only needs to be installed once and users add user support by adding client modules. Server software is priced at $695. Workstation software is priced at $395, $1,349, $5,500 and $22,500 for five- 20-, 100- and 500-user configurations respectively. Novell buys into AT&T unit to gain Unix net know-how: seeks expertise to integrate Unix, NetWare nets. (Novell Inc.) Novell Inc purchases a 4.6 percent equity stake in AT and T subsidiary Unix System Laboratories Inc. (USL), making Novell the single largest outside shareholder in the $80 million company. Novell will assist USL in the integration of Unix and NetWare local area networks. Novell expects Unix to be a strategic operating system supported on enterprise networks. USL produces and markets the Unix System V operating system and related products. A key reason for the investment is that Novell will also have the opportunity to work with USL partners such as Sun Microsystems Inc. AT and T has sold off 20 to 30 percent of USL shares to other investors in order to build support for Unix as an open system standard. Investors include Fujitsu Ltd, Amdahl Corp, Sun Microsystems Inc, NEC Corp, OKI Electric Industry Company Ltd and Motorola Inc. VSAT firms shrink gear to cut net costs: compact hubs, dishes let users extend nets to low-volume sites, may lure terrestrial Compact, low-cost very small aperture terminal (VSAT) dishes and hubs from vendors such as GTE Spacenet Corp, Hughes Network Systems Inc and Scientific-Atlanta Inc are providing users an alternative to switched services for sites generating network traffic at low volumes. These new products may also convince some terrestrial service users to move to VSAT because of the lower costs. GTE Spacenet Corp plans a release of a new low-cost VSAT dish with a sub-meter antenna in the third quarter of 1991. Low-end VSATs let users reduce the cost of linking each site into a VSAT network and enable users to extend their VSAT nets to low-traffic sites. Users can also install the low-cost VSAT's in existing networks of larger VSATs and create hybrid networks. Most analysts applaud efforts to lower VSAT network costs but caution that the low-end products provide lower levels of performance than full-sized VSATs. First phase of N.Y. ISDN trial completed with ease: carriers, switch makers link switches via SS7. (Signaling System 7) A group of New York carriers and switch makers complete the first phase of an ISDN trial to link the switches used by multiple carriers by way of Signaling System 7. The trial was ordered by the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) in 1989 and is intended to encourage carriers to participate together to provide ISDN and other services supported by an integrated, multicarrier SS7 network. Phase 2 will have the carriers providing Primary Rate Interface and Basic Rate Interface services to customers of separate Northern Telecom- and AT and T-based networks. The third and last phase will demonstrate interoperability between the two networks. Officials contend that the end of the trial will demonstrate a framework from which carrier negotiations can occur. Companies participating in the testing of ISDN through the trial will be able to measure ISDN practicality. FCC leaves LEC price cap plan unscathed: agency answers request to review effect of price caps on users by making only small The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) upholds all major provisions of price cap regulation for local exchange carriers. FCC officials contend that price cap regulation is expected to result in customer savings of $356 million during the first year of the price cap plan, which takes effect on July 1, 1991. The FCC did order some minor modifications in the way some economic variables are handled in the price cap formula in answer to a challenge of the its initial decision to implement the price caps. Many user groups contend that the FCC's regulatory plan will give local exchange carriers too much flexibility and may result in a reduction of both user savings and quality of service. The plan regulates rates the carriers can charge for services instead of the profit level they can achieve. Services affected by the price caps include carrier and residential line charges, switched and special access services and operator services. Octel introduces adjunct unit for voice processing. (Octel Communications Corp.'s 500D Data Module, Octel TransAct, Octel Octel Communications Corp introduces its $15,000 500D Data Module, a specially configured 80386-based microcomputer that acts as a voice response adjunct processor that lets callers use their phone keypads as if they were terminals for interaction with computers. Users can link the 500D Data Module to any of Octel's Aspen line of voice processing systems that run the company's new Software Release 1. Octel also introduces four new applications for the Data Module. The $30,000 Octel TransAct is an interactive voice response package that lets users access host computers using telephones as terminals. Octel FaxCall, $15,000, allows users to store information on the data module and then use a push-button telephone to request a fax of the information. The $20,000 Octel InfoTex lets users load information from information services onto their voice processing systems. Octel InterMail, $15,000, lets users with IBM's Professional Office System (PROFS) E-mail system to have a two-way message notification with the Octel voice application. Software allows Wellfleet routers to link to SMDS net: pack lets routers pass packets to DSU/CSU. (Wellfleet Communications Inc., Wellfleet Communications Inc announces its Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) Software, which allows the company's local-area network routers to connect with the Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) network. The software hands them off to Digital Link Inc Corp's DL200 data service unit/channel service unit (DSU/CSU), which formats the packets to ship them over a T-1 line. Wellfleet and Digital Link have made their specifications for the SMDS Data Exchange interface public and have submitted them to the SMDS Interest Group for consideration as a standard. The SMDS Software is expected to be released in the second half of 1991 on new routers. The package will also be offered as an upgrade to existing Wellfleet routers for approximately $1,500. The DL200 from Digital Link Corp is expected to be released in the second quarter of 1991 and will be priced between $5,000 and $6,000. User dumps remote FEPs for LAN setup: Colonial Penn axes remote FEPs from net in favor of bridged token rings, improved response Colonial Penn Group Inc is phasing out front-end processors with the installation of a nationwide network of interconnected token-ring local area networks. The new system will provide microcomputer users with peer links to one another as well as improve response time. The company is moving from its traditional IBM Systems Network Architecture network where remote front-end processors pass terminal traffic to the company's host processors in its data center. The new network architecture will allow Colonial Penn to devise strategic LAN-based applications including processing images of paper claim forms as well as gain centralized control over the management of remote LANs. The company expects the LAN internetwork to support a response time of just over one second during peak traffic periods. The current setup supports terminal response time of just under three seconds under peak loads. Mich. state net to boost child support collections. (Michigan) Molloy, Maureen. The Michigan Supreme Court is installing the Child Support Enforcement System, a statewide network that will allow child welfare agents to track down 85 percent of parents who fail to make child support payments. The network will link various child welfare offices throughout the state and will provide child welfare agents with access to networks run by the Internal Revenue Service, the Departments of Social Service and Social Security and the state police in order to locate parents who default on support payments. The Supreme Court is installing DECnet local area networks in the state's 55 Friend of the Court (FOC) offices with attached workstations that can access a centralized data base containing information on all of Michigan's child support cases. Officials contend that the large number of overdue child support cases can be linked to the lack of computerization and networks in FOC offices. DCA introduces token-ring interface for Macintoshes: card works with IBM mainframe link products. (Digital Communications Digital Communications Associates Inc (DCA) introduces its $795 MacIRMAtrac Token-ring card that allows Apple Macintosh II microcomputers to access IBM mainframes over a local-area network. The card links the Macintoshes into a 4M-bit per second token ring LAN that supports AppleTalk networking protocols or uses an operating system that supports protocols such as Novell Inc's NetWare. Macintoshes equipped with the board and DCA client software can access a mainframe through a LAN-attached microcomputer equipped with a gateway. The MacIRMAtrac card supports 4M-bit per second transmission over both shielded and unshielded twisted-pair cabling but users can replace the Remote Interface Module (RIM) to upgrade to higher speeds or fiber-optic cabling. The card supports 128Kbytes of RAM and is expandable to 2Mbytes. The MacIRMAtrac card is expected to be released in late April 1991. Imaging net helps insurer cut red tape: Lincoln National's new image processing system has enabled it to boost productivity, save Lincoln National Corp installs a LAN-based image processing system in its Employee Benefits Processing division that has saved the company more than $1.3 million in 1990. The system has allowed for increased claims agent productivity by 20 percent and has helped the insurance firm to cut back on complaints by improving customer service. Lincoln National will have invested $5.2 million in image processing by mid 1991 and says the network has brought the company into the arena of paperless claims processing. The system allows agents to answer claims while the customer is on the phone and has resulted in the reduction of the number of customers who have taken their business to competitors. Claims files are filed on optical disks. Claims examiners at imaging workstations can key in a caller's group identification number and social security number and receive an image copy of the claims file all while the customer is on the phone. National Fuel Gas migrates SCADA net to LAN platform: new net will offer more functionality than minis. (Supervisory Control and Data National Fuel Gas Supply Corp's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition network is based on local-area networks linked via T-1 lines and replaces the company's minicomputer systems. The LANs offer National Fuel Gas easy expansion, greater functionality and the ability to incorporate new technology. The SCADA network, which collects pipeline operations data via satellite, lets the company monitor and control distribution, storage and transportation of gas throughout Pennsylvania and New York. The company expects to save $200,000 to $300,000 annually by replacing multidrop private lines used to deliver pipeline data to the minicomputers and by replacing leased lines that run from field monitoring devices with satellite links to very small aperture terminals. National Fuel Gas has yet to dismantle the old system and runs it in tandem for redundancy purposes. Construction firm moves applications to remote PCs: saves money, reduces mainframe dependency. (Rogers Group Inc.) Highway construction and supply company Rogers Group Inc reduces its information systems budget by over $1 million in less than two years by shifting from proprietary mainframe computer-based applications to Unix-based multiuser microcomputers in remote field sites. Company officials contend that the migration allows applications that took five hours to create on the mainframe can now be developed on microcomputers in about one hour. The company's business systems committee originally planned to expand the mainframe but were convinced by managers that the distributed system would produce more strategic benefits. The company has now moved payroll, point of sale and a truck scale application to Unix multiuser microcomputers which have been installed at 32 field sites. The systems are built around a simple data communications network which has allowed the company's IS department to save $75,000 by removing leased lines. GE's X.500 directory boosts E-mail access: GEMS System helps users gather addresses, other data on users of disparate E-mail General Electric Co's GEM System 2000 X.500 directory service allows the company's 75,000 electronic mail users to communicate with co-workers on different E-mail systems as well as access E-mail addresses and telephone and facsimile numbers. The directory resides on a Unix-based HP minicomputer and consists of a data base of names and addressing information as well as message routing tables. Users have real-time access to the data base across GE's network by using specially designed workstation software that allows them to search the data base for names and addresses by last name, first name, company and location. Users can request additional information once a name is selected including free-form information that the person has selected to include in a directory profile. The GEM System 2000 is currently for internal use only but the company hopes to make it available in the near future to outside parties to facilitate intercompany messaging. Comdisco plans to support hot sites via int'l network: net to offer critical redundancy for multiple users. (Comdisco Disaster Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services Inc plans the construction of an international network that will support multiple users during regional disasters that affect multiple data centers outside the US. The company will open new disaster recovery hot sites in Malaysia, Japan, Germany and Australia and link them in a high-speed digital network to existing hot sites in the US, Singapore and France. Links will provide access to any of Comdisco's computer recovery centers from any other location. The disaster recovery network will consist of broadband digital satellite links between hot sites in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Australia. Comdisco will build foreign hot sites in joint ventures with local firms in which the company has equity investments. Comdisco has no competition in building its global disaster recovery network but firms such as IBM and SunGard Recovery Services Inc are expected to get into the business if Comdisco's network is successful. Rapid growth spurs Conner's global net: disk drive maker's network grows quickly to meet firm's burgeoning communications needs. Conner Peripherals' international network is expanding to keep up with the company's rapid growth, having become a $1.4 billion company in only four years. The network started as a single X.25 connection to the company's Singapore manufacturing plant and has grown to a 128K-bps dedicated link carrying data and voice to Conner's more recently built factories in Scotland, Malaysia, Japan and Italy. The global network's dedicated lines link HP 3000 minicomputers to HP 3000s at the company's San Jose,, CA headquarters. Microcomputer users on Ethernet local-area networks running Banyan Systems Inc's VINES access business applications run on the minicomputers. Conner's international network supports inventory data, order processing information, exchange of electronic mail and financial information. The firm has recently installed 56K-bps dedicated lines to link its headquarters to new sales offices in Los Angeles, Boston and Dallas. Firms construct T-3 conference net: Sony and WilTel units pool resources to create ViaTV, a broadcast-quality and portable Sony Corp of America's Satellite Systems Division and WilTel subsidiaries Vyvx National Video Network (NVN) and Vyvx RSI announce ViaTV, a portable videoconferencing turnkey system that includes T-3 transmission services. ViaTV is competitively priced with T-1 and lower bandwidth circuit systems but provides broadcast-quality video and audio. The videoconferencing equipment, which will vary according to user requirements, consists of cameras, monitors, audio components and other equipment integrated into a single, portable cabinet. Prices for ViaTV equipment range from $73,000 to $130,000. Service costs $600 per hour for two-way transmission. Users can also pay for service at a price of $200 for each 15-minute increment. A TV-1 link analog circuit runs from the customer site to the closest Vyvx NVN switching center. It connects to Vyvx's NVN's T-3 network where the signal is converted to a digital T-3 signal. The signal is then transmitted to the remote Vyvx NVN switching center where it is converted back to analog and transmitted on to the remote site. Should communications consultants be licensed? Pro. Schwartz, Perry. Non-regulated, unlicensed communications consultants cannot bring the knowledge needed in dealing with the complexity of current communications networks and systems. Consultants who are not engineers do not have the expertise to explain and convince vendor engineers of the particular capabilities of a technology. Licensed professional engineers specializing in communications have the experience and training to integrate total communications network projects and are prepared to deal with federal, state and local codes. Engineers also have a code of ethics that prohibit them from aligning themselves with particular equipment and network vendors and cannot represent both a user and a vendor on the same project simultaneously. The engineering license protects the public interest and provides users with confidence in the engineer's technical level of training ad responsibility. Should communications consultants be licensed? Con. Horrell, Edward. Several states are considering issuing licenses to consultants who operate within their state. Licensing of communications consultants is not necessary. Businesses should be allowed to decide where they can go to get information and sources should not be restricted. Consultants are paid to give advice and users should be allowed to pay for that information as part of the essence of free enterprise. Consultants are selling their experience and not a knowledge of a history of facts as in licensed fields such as law or medicine. Companies are capable of choosing their consultants without interference from regulation by state governments. They can choose their consultants based on demonstrable evidence of experience as well as through an investigation of the consultant's references. The communications industry does not need more regulation and should not restrict who can advise users who need on this already restricted technology. A 10-year alliance fades as I.B.M. tackles Microsoft. (computer software industry rivalry) IBM begins competing with its former partner, Microsoft Corp, with an aggressive marketing campaign for its own version of Microsoft's OS/2 3.0 operating system. The company declares that the new OS/2 will have all the capabilities of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface plus the ability to multitask or run several DOS programs simultaneously. Further, IBM's OS/2 will be available by the end of 1991, one year before Microsoft ships OS/2 3.0. Microsoft incited the ire of IBM by marketing its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface at the expense of developing OS/2. IBM will have to convince users that its new version of OS/2 is worth getting the expense of more powerful hardware. It will also need to convince vendors to endorse the product and develop applications for it. Low-cost Dell Drive Array rivals Systempro's speed. (Hardware Review) ($1,999 disk controller from Dell Computer Corp) Dell Computer Corp's $1,999 Dell Drive Array disk controller, available for both new and existing Dell System 425TE and 433TE file servers, provides performance nearly equaling that of the Compaq Systempro. A $16,000 Dell server equipped with the Dell Drive Array performs nearly as well as a Systempro configuration costing nearly $32,000. The Systempro and Dell System 433TE offer nearly identical performance when tested to simulate a network of eight to 160 users, but the Dell offers only two-thirds the performance of the Systempro on a simulated network of 120 to 320 users. Buyers can configure the Dell Drive Array with two to 10 200Mbyte disks for a maximum capacity of 2Gbytes and can use either 'data striping' or 'simultaneous seek' read/write techniques. The Dell Drive Array has its own Intel 80960 reduced instruction set computing processor and 256Kbytes of static RAM. Dell offers a lower cost alternative to the Systempro for many network users. Microsoft under fire as FTC expands probe. Microsoft Corp has come under increased scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over alleged monopolistic practices because it makes both operating system and application software. Third-party software developers say that Microsoft will have to separate the two groups in order to avoid having an unfair advantage in applications development, noting that smaller vendors rely on Microsoft for crucial operating systems information even while building applications that compete with other Microsoft products. The FTC probe of Microsoft was originally focused on a 1989 joint software-strategy announcement made by Microsoft and IBM, but has expanded to involve allegations that the software giant has 'monopolized' the software market. Analysts and competitors say the Microsoft has a tendency to freeze the market, making it difficult for competing firms to generate revenue. Allegations of monopolistic practices nevertheless remain extremely difficult to prove, and corporate users say the FTC investigation will not affect their buying plans. Banyan adding some shine to tarnished marketing image. (Banyan Systems Inc. introduces VINES 4.10, discusses new marketing Banyan Systems Inc introduced its VINES 4.10 network operating system at the Association of Banyan Users meeting in Montreal and openly admitted its past technical and marketing mistakes, presenting attendees with a new, more focused strategy for the 1990s. The company has a reputation for offering excellent technology but having no marketing clout and hopes to increase the VINES market share, which currently hovers between 5 and 10 percent. VINES 4.10 offers Windows and OS/2 support and includes a new developers' tool kit; 42 third-party vendors pledged products for the new network operating system at the conference. Users note that Banyan is now more responsive to their needs than in the past and is becoming more customer-oriented. The company is reportedly considering licensing its StreetTalk directory service, long synonymous with VINES, for other platforms. Startup readies snap-on package to E-mail systems. (Reach Software Corp. MailMan) Startup Reach Software Corp announces MailMan, a Windows-based electronic mail application which will 'snap on' to existing mail systems and provide users with a full-featured front end for a variety of network operating systems. Its interface will include many features for sending, manipulating and filing messages. Observers say the program foreshadows the next generation of 'modular' E-mail products, which will break down messaging systems into interchangeable parts. Additional software that will let users automate the process of generating electronic forms under MailMan will be available by the end of 1991. MailMan features include the ability to automatically launch Windows applications, the ability to highlight and manipulate groups of messages and the ability to cut and paste message segments. MailMan will initially be available for Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system at $995 for a 20-user license and $1,995 for unlimited users. Reach is also readying versions of MailMan for use with Novell Inc's Message Handling Service and DEC's DECMail. Autodesk sketches out AutoCAD Windows plan. (Autodesk Inc. AutoCAD for Windows graphics package) Autodesk Inc plans to demonstrate AutoCAD for Windows, a version of its AutoCAD 11.0 computer-aided design software that runs under Microsoft Windows and takes advantage of Windows' powerful Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol, at the Descon Architectural/Engineering/Construction trade show in May 1991. AutoCAD for Windows will offer all of the features of its DOS counterpart, including file locking, multiple views, command aliasing and the AutoCAD Development System. It will run slower than the DOS version, and the company is considering packaging the DOS and Windows programs together to give users access to both. Analysts say that Windows is becoming a more attractive environment for powerful, hardware-intensive applications such as AutoCAD. The Windows version will be best suited for those who currently run the DOS version under Windows, but power users will probably prefer the faster DOS version, according to analysts. Borland shows Windows version of Paradox. (Borland International Inc. Paradox database management system) Borland International Inc is developing a Windows version of its Paradox database management system and plans to link the flagship database product with its business applications and programming languages. The company demonstrated an alpha version of Paradox for Windows with an object-oriented point-and-click interface at the International Paradox User Conference in Phoenix. Borland's plan to integrate its software programs involves separating the Paradox database engine from the user interface in order to let the Quattro Pro spreadsheet and ObjectVision programming tool work with Paradox. End users would then be able to run Paradox with a wide variety of database front ends. The Object Layer application programming interface is designed to facilitate transparent access between the Paradox engine, SQL databases and various front ends. HP, Lotus to unveil feature-rich palmtop. (hand-held computer) (product announcement) HP and Lotus Development Corp jointly announce the HP 95LX, an XT-compatible hand-held microcomputer that weighs only 10 ounces. The 1 x 3.38 x 6.25-inch machine will use special function keys to load software from a 1Mbyte ROM chip and will include a wide variety of bundled programs, including a full-fledged version of Lotus 1-2-3 2.2. Other software for the 95LX will include file management, communications, memo-writer and personal information management programs. Lotus designed the entire software suite and customized it for the tiny machine; all the programs use a common interface and permit cutting and pasting of information among the desktop-management programs. The 95LX includes an 8088-compatible V20 processor, QWERTY keyboard, easy-to-read lCD display and 512Kbytes of RAM. It also has a slot for industry-standard ROM and RAM cards that will let user store data or install additional software. Market researchers say the 95LX could lead to palmtop machines being taken seriously for the first time. Zenith likely to lead 386SL-based notebook flood. (Zenith Data Systems Inc. developing new laptop computers based on Intel Several manufacturers will introduce notebook computers based on the new Intel 80386SL integrated chip set in mid-1991. Zenith Data Systems is expected to be one of the first to offer an SL-based machine and is reportedly planning to announce a 6-pound machine at Comdex/Spring in May 1991. The new laptop will be aggressively priced at approximately $3,000. The 386SL processor offers better power management than the current 80386SX, extending battery life and enabling vendors to build smaller, lighter machines. Observers say that 10 laptop manufacturers have been working with Phoenix Technologies Inc to develop a BIOS for the 386SL. Some warn that the new machines may take some time to actually become available, noting that the hard drive and display shortages currently holding up 80386SX-based laptop shipments are likely to continue. TrueLaser belies TrueImage flaws. (Hardware Review) (Microtek Lab Inc. TrueLaser printer) (evaluation) Microtek Lab Inc's TrueLaser laser printer is one of the first products to incorporate Microsoft Corp's TrueImage page description language, and it offers good performance despite some inherent flaws in the current TrueImage implementation. TrueImage is unstable and immature; its scalable fonts cannot be downloaded and must be rendered on the host computer before printing. The 35 resident fonts should nevertheless meet the majority of office needs. MicroTek provides an AMD reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor to interpret PostScript code; the printer CPU often pushes the 6-page-per-minute print engine to its limit. The printer has difficulty with some complex PostScript files and generates PostScript error messages. The TrueLaser printer is nevertheless a well-designed and highly functional unit, despite the flaws in its software. Many are skeptical of ACE claims. (Advanced Computing Environment consortia) The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) consortium is promising to develop reduced instruction set (RISC) computers that are compatible with the 80386 architecture and can run DOS and OS/2 applications, but many developers and observers are skeptical about the portability of software. Microsoft Corp, which is leading the software portion of the ACE effort, will use an Intel 'emulation layer' to accomplish compatibility, an approach developers say will degrade performance and require a 32-bit port to give users access to RISC processor speeds. Others note that the cost of releasing a product for the new machine will remain high even if ACE does achieve full source-code compatibility because quality assurance, documentation and support are major expenses. The ACE plan should nevertheless make it easy for developers to port Windows applications to RISC machines. Expo showcases Windows, OS/2 tools. (Corporate Developer Tools Conference and Exposition) (product announcement) Many vendors introduced new Windows and OS/2 development tools at Microsoft Corp's Corporate Developer Tools Conference and Exposition trade show in Apr 1991. The products included SQLWindows for SQL Server, a $1,995 development package from Gupta Technologies Inc that includes SQLWindows bundled with five run-time versions and five SQL Routers for SQL Server for linking SQLWindows applications to the SQL Server database. Raima Corp introduced dBVista III 3.20, a new version of its $695 database that offers new dynamic link libraries for tighter Windows 3.0 integration. Softbridge Inc announced Automated Test Facility, a program that runs under DOS, Windows and OS/2 and tests the performance of networked client/server applications. Prices range from $19,000 to $150,000 depending on the size of the network. Other vendors introducing new products at the conference included GUIdance Technologies Inc, Asymetrix Corp and The Software Organization Inc. ACE unveils RISC plans; no products due soon. (Advanced Computing Environment consortium) The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) consortium, a massive initiative involving Microsoft Corp, Compaq and 19 other hardware and software vendors, has announced an ambitious plan to design a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture for the mainstream microcomputer market. Skeptical observers say no real products are likely to come out of the effort until at least 1993. Under the plan, the ACE vendors will develop systems based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC processors that will run Microsoft's upcoming OS/2 3.0 or a new version of Unix being developed by The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. The machines will run existing DOS, Unix and OS/2 software with little or no modification. Most observers do not expect the consortium to dramatically change corporate computing in the foreseeable future; the complex operating system alone will take at least two years to complete, and users will have to wait even longer for actual hardware based on the ACE specification. Compaq says it is developing MIPS-based systems because UNIX users identify UNIX with reduced instruction set computers and because it wants to meet customer demand for 'multiple choices.' DEC rolls out low-end family of hub-based Ethernet products. (DEC Desktop Interconnect Family: DEChub 90, DECserver 90L) (product DEC announces the Desktop Interconnect Family, a new line of hub-based Ethernet connectivity products that includes an Ethernet hub, repeater modules, a terminal server and bridge. All the new products can be plugged into a DEChub 90 backplane, which has eight slots that accept any combination of terminal servers and repeaters for up to 64 thick- and thin-wire connections. It sells for $890. The DECbridge 90 is a $2,890 LAN bridge that supports up to 200 users per sub-network and can forward over 14,000 packets per second. The DECserver 90L costs $1,450 and is sa terminal server that supports DEC's Local Area Transport terminal protocol. STF, Alien combine on Mac, Windows fax programs. (STF Technologies Inc., FaxWorks Inc) (product announcement) FaxWorks Inc, a joint venture between STF Technologies Inc and Alien Computing Inc, announces FaxIt Personal Edition facsimile software for the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. Both programs will provide a standard fax platform for mixed installations and will support Rockwell International Corp, Sierra Semiconductor Corp and Exar Corp fax chip sets. Other features will include background send/receive and broadcasting. The products will be available for $199 for a single-user version and $995 for a network version later in 1991. Microformatic's Gpf allows easy layout of OS/2 programs. (Software Review) (Microformatic U.S.A.) (evaluation) Microformatic USA's Gpf programming tool lets developers lay out and test OS/2 Presentation Manager applications quickly and easily. Gpf generates well-documented and readable ANSI C code that does not require any special run-time modules or licenses. It is a highly professional product that emphasizes database access, providing a convenient interface to IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition Database Manager and Structured Query Language. Users accomplish interface design through dialog boxes and menus and can easily toggle between 'design' and 'test' modes. Gpf includes a 'User Function Objects' facility for adding external code to the interface. User Function Objects cause Gpf to insert developer code during code generation. It is a compact tool that requires only 1.4Mbytes of disk space and is very well documented. Gpf sells for $3,500 per copy; volume discounts are available. 286, 386SX notebooks to make spring debut. (GRiD Systems Inc, Panasonic to introduce new notebook computers) (product GRiD Systems Corp and Panasonic Communications and Systems Co are preparing to introduce new 20-MHz 80386SX-based notebook computers. The unnamed GRiD machine will weigh 6.7 pounds and will feature a 60Mbyte hard drive, 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 5Mbytes, an 84-key keyboard and a 10-inch VGA screen. It will reportedly be available in May or Jun 1991 for approximately $5,000. Panasonic is expected to announce a similar system, the CF-170 H6 Business Partner, in Apr 1991. The CF-170 will weigh 6.8 pounds and will have a 60Mbyte hard disk, 1.44Mbyte floppy disk, 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 5Mbytes and a VGA-compatible LCD screen that can display 32 shades of gray. Other vendors announcing new 286- and 386SX-based notebooks include Librex Computer Systems Inc, Philips Consumer Electronics Co and Quill Corp. Six-processor system due. (Arche Technologies Inc. readying 486-based multiprocessing machine) Arche Technologies Inc is developing an 80486-based server that will support up to six microprocessors and 300 simultaneous users at a price of under $50,000. The base configuration will include a single 33-MHz 80486 processor, 16Mbytes of RAM expandable to 1Gbyte, 1Mbyte of processor static RAM cache, a 32-bit EISA bus and a 128-bit system bus to allow extremely fast data throughput. The company has not yet set an introduction date for the new machine but plans to demonstrate it at PC Expo in New York in Jun 1991. Proposed API to facilitate access to imaging devices. (application programming interface) A group of hardware and software vendors are working on a new specification for an application programming interface (API) that would allow a single device driver to work with multiple imaging applications. The Direct Connect API will enable users to access a wide variety of graphics peripherals, including image-capture boards and scanners, from within applications. Seven companies are participating in the Direct Connect group, including Aldus Corp, Logitech Inc, HP, Eastman Kodak and Caere Corp. Direct Connect will increase compatibility between hardware and software. It is centered around Data Source Manager (DSM), a program implemented as a CODE resource on the Macintosh and a Data Link Library under Microsoft Windows. DSM will be accessible by any Direct Connect-compatible application and keeps track of devices, passing information between hardware and the application. Beta testers give IBM's Hollywood rave reviews. (new Windows-based presentation graphics program) (product announcement) IBM announces Hollywood, a new Windows-based presentation package that offers sophisticated drawing tools, powerful font-handling capabilities and an easy-to-use interface. Beta users praise Hollywood for its rich feature set, which includes PostScript support, text rotation, master pages and impressive templates that provide automatic layout, color selection and object placement. 'Screen show' effects let users build slide presentations, and the program has many charting and painting tools. It uses Bitstream Inc's Speedo font-scaling technology to scale fonts on the fly and can rotate, mirror, curve or stretch text. Hollywood will be available May 31, 1990 for $495. IBM is developing run-time versions for displaying Hollywood presentations on a variety of platforms and is also working on an OS/2 Presentation Manager version of Hollywood. ABM plans to add Windows support to accounting tool. (Advanced Business Microsystems Inc. introduces AXS accounting program) Advanced Business Microsystems Inc (ABM) plans to develop a Windows version of AXS, the DOS-based accounting software package it acquired when it purchased Computer Trends Inc of Ann Arbor, MI. The company will continue to sell the $249 DOS program under the name Access to Platinum, and the company will retain the original AXS accounting functions in Access to Platinum for Windows while adding Windows code it has developed. AXS comprises general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, job costing, inventory, payroll, checkbook, time billing and import and export modules. The package is designed from the ground up as an entry-level program and is not a stripped-down version of an MIS-oriented product, according to ABM officials. Access to Platinum, in both its DOS and upcoming Windows versions, is aimed at small businesses. deskMinder's real desktop makes Windows friendlier. (Software Review) (TechSoft Systems Inc's deskMinder for Microsoft Windows) TechSoft Systems Inc's $199 deskMinder utility for Microsoft Windows provides users with an interface that closely resembles an office desk. It increases the friendliness of Windows for novice users, but experienced users may find it awkward because it can be an extra step in opening applications. deskMinder presents the user with familiar office icons, including a desk, clipboard, clock, calculator, pencil holder and notepad. Selecting an icon launches its associated function or program. There are four 'bookshelves,' each of which can hold up to four Windows or non-Windows applications. A deskMinder Lock function provides security; the middle 'desk drawer' is the 'key' and can be password-protected. Expert tool appraises business strategies. (Business Insight) (product announcement) Business Resource Software introduces Business Insight, a $495 expert-system program designed to help users assess and formulate strategies for common business projects. The program is DOS-based and uses a menu-driven interface with dialog boxes and pull-down menus. An 'interview' process compares user-given answers to basic business rules, providing a 'checklist' for a project. Data can be entered as text, numbers in a spreadsheet or by moving the cursor along a sliding scale to answer non-numeric issues. An 'Observation' section provides feedback on the user's answers, pointing out inconsistencies or weaknesses in plans. Microsoft Mail 3.0 bulks up as Mac E-mail heavyweight. (Software Review) (Macintosh electronic mail software) (evaluation) Microsoft Mail 3.0 for the Macintosh offers new administration functions and a variety of features that fill 'gaps' in earlier versions. The program includes a personal address book that gives users control over their mailboxes and can set up personal distribution lists. There is a primitive sorting capability in Microsoft Mail 3.0, but Microsoft still does not offer sophisticated search capabilities. The most important new feature in Microsoft Mail 3.0 is the Mail Network Administrator component. Mail Network Administrator can manage an entire network from a single workstation and lets administrators view management statistics on all servers. Administrators can back up the current mail database, limit the number of files sent and automatically delete old messages to save server disk space. Configuring large networks is now easy, and any server can be designated as a 'bridge server' for routing mail between sites. Microsoft Mail 3.0 costs $395 per server and $395 per five-pack for workstations. WordPerfect to ship WP Office upgrades. (WordPerfect Office 3.0 for Macintosh Networks office automation software) (product WordPerfect Corp announces the long-overdue WordPerfect Office 3.0 for Macintosh Networks, a new release of its office automation software that will let Macintosh users access the powerful messaging and group scheduling features of WordPerfect on IBM PC-based networks. WordPerfect Office is closely linked with the WordPerfect word processor, which has a more than 60 percent share of the DOS word-processing market. It will offer remote messaging capability; users will be able to dial into WordPerfect Office from remote workstations, a feature long awaited by users. Another important new feature is automatic fax capability. The Macintosh workstation program is designed for users in mixed environments; the WordPerfect Office server software runs on IBM-compatible machines. WordPerfect Office 3.0 for Macintosh Networks will cost $495 per five-user license. Unix and VMS versions will also be available. NonStop updates fault-tolerant network software. (Nonstop Networks Ltd. introduces Nonstop Network 2.0 server mirroring software) Nonstop Networks Ltd introduces Nonstop Network 2.0, a new version of its server-mirroring software that reduces workstation overhead and is twice as fast as earlier versions. Nonstop Network 2.0 is positioned as an alternative to Novell's upcoming System Fault Tolerance Level III and is not tied to any specific hardware or software platform. It runs as a small terminate and stay resident (TSR) program on a DOS workstation and duplicates all of a user's writes to a second server; users are warned by a pop-up message if the primary server fails, but the workstation continues to function normally. Nonstop Network 2.0 includes utilities for re-synchronizing the servers when the primary server is brought back on line, but the second server must be brought down briefly during this process. SFT III, which performs mirroring from server to server, requires identical servers with a high-speed link; Nonstop can be implemented on a simpler network, but cannot mirror server applications or databases. It sells for $1,290 for five workstations and $25 each for the next 20 workstations. Revamped BindView+ spells NetWare relief. (The LAN Support Group Inc. introduces BindView+ 3.0) (product announcement) The LAN Support Group Inc introduces BindView+ 3.0, a completely revamped version of its network management software that offers NetWare system managers a wide variety of auditing and reporting options. Earlier versions offered only a predefined reporting structure, but BindView+ 3.0 is highly flexible, providing user-configured reports on virtually every aspect of NetWare. Users can create filters to extract specific information, uncover security weaknesses such as uses without passwords or monitor network activity levels. Early users praise the new software, which is now available at $395 for one file server and $195 per additional server. 3Com rolls out 32-bit Ethernet MCA card. (Micro Channel Architecture) 3Com Corp introduces the EtherLink/MC 32, a new Ethernet adapter for the Micro Channel Architecture that supports bus-mastering technology and offers a 32-bit interface. It is targeted at server applications and offloads processing of data transfers from the CPU. Analysts say the new product will strengthen 3Com's position in the Ethernet market. The EtherLink/MC 32 is priced at $895. 3Com has also released software upgrades for its NetBuilder line of bridge and router products. Brouter Software 3.0 costs $750 and includes Point-to-Point (PPP) and Open Shortest Path First protocols for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol networks. Bridging Software 4.0 sells for $250 and adds PPP support for bridged networks and new security features. Bigger, faster drives aren't enough. (PC Week Labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. Recent improvements in hard disk technology have centered largely on speed and storage capacity, but what users need most is reliability and fault tolerance. Even the most reliable drives occasionally fail, and disk crashes can be very costly when a server is running a mission-critical application. Techniques such as disk mirroring and disk duplexing use multiple drives to keep the server running when a single disk fails. A disk-mirroring system uses duplicate disks with a controller that keeps their contents identical; the controller routes all requests to the mirrored drive if the primary drive fails. Disk duplexing uses multiple controllers as well as multiple disks. The system can automatically switch to a duplicate drive if the original controller fails. Both of these approaches are expensive because users must buy two of everything. Other fault-tolerant options include drive arrays that let one drive act as a 'parity' drive for the others. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) technology is used in Compaq's Intelligent Drive Array and Dell's new Dell Drive Array to ensure reliability. Objectworks/Smalltalk gives 32-bit bang to Windows 3.0. (Software Review) (application development system) (evaluation) ParcPlace Systems' Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 development system for Microsoft Windows 3.0 expands on the versatility of the original Smalltalk-80 programming language and offers full 32-bit capability. It features more than 350 class types and 7,400 methods; all code is self-documenting. Host window coupling has been improved, and multiple tools now run in cooperating but separate native windows. Objectworks/Smalltalk is faster than competing products on floating-point and RAM-intensive benchmarks and has better tools for managing large projects. Users can conveniently group methods into named categories. Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 costs $3,495 and is less integrated with Windows than Digitalk Inc's Smalltalk V/Windows. It is nevertheless a superior product in many ways. DPMI faces barriers to acceptance. (DOS Protected Mode Interface) Sherer, Paul M. The pending DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) memory-management specification faces major barriers both in the technical and marketing areas before it can be accepted by developers. DPMI is backed by a 12-member consortium that includes Intel Corp, IBM and Microsoft Corp. It lets multiple DOS programs run in protected-mode memory without conflicting, but Microsoft Windows 3.0 employs the early 0.9 version of DPMI, a situation which may cause some compatibility problems. Neither Microsoft nor IBM plans to implement the finalized DPMI 1.0 specification in the next version of its graphical interface products, a fact which disappoints DPMI advocates. Microsoft Windows 3.1 and OS/2 2.0 will implement an enhanced version of the 0.9 specification instead. Developers say this will cause problems if and when DPMI 1.0 is adopted. Microsoft wins 'Icky' for role in 'Blind Ambition.' (company's lead role in Advanced Computing Environment initiative)(Up Front) Microsoft Corp's effort to develop new software for the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) initiative is based on excessive ambition and is unlikely to create a new standard. ACE hopes to replace current Intel-based microcomputers with new machines built around MIPS Computer Systems' reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors running Microsoft's OS/2 3.0 operating system. If this were successful, no single hardware vendor would have more than a 15 percent market share; Microsoft would be able to control them all. The other participants in ACE have simpler motives than Microsoft; MIPS only wants to sell more of its existing products, while DEC wants a larger share of the technical workstation marketplace. dB-Quick pops up dBASE data quickly and easily. (Software Review) (The Corporate Micro)(column) (evaluation) Alpha Software's $99 DB-Quick is an excellent utility program that lets users browse through any dBASE-compatible .DBF file in a pop-up window from within other applications. It lets users work with query-by-example specifications and offers Boolean AND searches and wild-card searching. The program generates a Paradox-like data table on-screen and lets users tag selected fields to write to a data file or printer or copy into the underlying application. This 'stuffing' feature is excellent for pasting names and addresses into letters. DB-Quick also includes an auto-dialer and requires only 18Kbytes of RAM. It is one of the best utility values available. Faxing can save time, but inhibit productivity. (microcomputer-based facsimile)(Risky Business) (column) Facsimile transmission is faster and more convenient than alternative methods of communication and sometimes costs less, but its abuse can lead to a decline in productivity. Preparing information to fax and processing it when received entails costs of its own, and fax output can be misdirected. Many firms re-key all incoming faxes, a time-consuming and costly process. Installing the right number of fax machines can be difficult as well; some companies have too few machines and force employees to stand in line, while others have too many machines that sit idle all day. Security is also a problem. It is very easy to fax confidential documents unless a full-time guard is placed on a machine. Fax use can e addictive, and telephone charges can be high when long documents are sent for long distances. IBM steps up program for education dealers. (Changing Channels) (column) IBM has responded to Apple Computer's ultimatum that its Apple Education Sales Consultants must drop competing products or lose their authorization by revamping its own Certified Education Specialist program. IBM education dealers are now paid setup, training and orientation fees at the time of order rather than after services are completed, and new 'Minimum Renewal Criteria' require dealers to sell a certain amount of product to retain authorization. The company is using its direct sales force aggressively, working closely with education resellers. These moves place resellers in the difficult position of choosing whether to commit themselves totally to Apple or IBM. Apple still commands a 50 percent share of the installed education base, but IBM has built a strong presence since 1989 and is eroding Apple's strength. Improv spreadsheet takes NeXT step. (Software Review) (Lotus Improv spreadsheet for NeXT workstations)(includes related Lotus Development Corp's $695 Improv is a spreadsheet package for NeXT workstations that incorporates powerful data-analysis capabilities. It is based on a paradigm that automatically propagates pertinent formulas as new items are added to spreadsheet cells, saving time and reducing errors. Improv takes full advantage of the NeXT platform and NeXTStep graphical interface, including the high-resolution 17-inch monitor, Display PostScript and fast 15-mips CPU. It doffers true multidimensional capability: the user can see and manipulate all data dimensions simultaneously and need not link multiple 2-D worksheets by hand. Improv still lacks a few crucial features; there is no Undo command or macro facility. Files in Improv are called 'models' and can each contain 100 related worksheets and accompanying presentation graphics. Performance is excellent, reflecting the power of the NeXT platform. Users can dynamically change the organization of data in order to perform complex analysis. A Presentation Builder component automatically generates graphs from worksheet data, and Improv can import Lotus 1-2-3 files and ASCII files. Retraining is vital in migration to Lotus' Improv. (survey of buyers of Lotus Improv spreadsheet) Buyers of Lotus Development Corp's Improv spreadsheet package for the NeXT workstation praise the software's sophisticated data analysis capabilities but warn that migrating to the program requires a substantial investment in both hardware and user retraining. Improv uses a completely different approach from traditional spreadsheets and demands a major change in users' way of thinking. Users must learn the concepts of 'categories' instead of the simple row-and-column paradigm used by such packages a Lotus 1-2-3. One user says the product has helped him get much more value out of his NeXT workstations and that it is 'nicer' to work with. Another says he had to 'unlearn' ideas he had gotten used to through his 1-2-3 background. Buyers also say that printing capabilities and on-screen fonts give Improv powerful presentation facilities. Software scarce for display adapters. (Hardware Review) (overview of four evaluations of high-resolution graphics adapters)(includes Four low-cost, high-resolution display adapters are reviewed. All are designed to support the heavy demands color graphics applications make on video hardware. The boards support 16- to 24-bit pixel depth for a wider variety of colors and offer resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels, or in the case of the Everex Systems Viewpoint TC, 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. Relatively few software applications can yet take advantage of all these capabilities. The Viewpoint TC comes with drivers for Autodesk's 3D Studio and AutoShade/RenderMan; Time Arts' Lumena 24-bit paint package is available for the card. The Hercules Computer Technology Graphics Station Card and the Viewpoint TC use Brooktree RAM digital to analog converter chips; Hercules also supports Texas Instruments' TIGA standard. Diamond Computer Systems Inc's SpeedStar CEG supports up to 796,096 colors, offers extremely fast performance and costs only $545. IBM's XGA Display Adapter currently lacks software support. Low-cost, high-resolution display adapters receive mixed grades. (survey of buyers of high-resolution graphics boards) A survey of buyers of high-resolution, low-cost graphics adapters reveals that most users are pleased with their 24-bit hardware capability and cost-effectiveness but unhappy with the current lack of software support. One user of Hercules Computer Technology Inc's Graphics Station Card says it allows additional cost savings because it supports display on standard VGA monitors. Another buyer, who also uses Everex Systems Inc's Viewpoint TC adapter, says it provides a PC-based alternative to a costly Macintosh video systems. Some complain about the initial lack of support for 24-bit color in Microsoft Windows 3.0, although drivers are now available. Diamond Computer Systems Inc.: Speedstar CEG. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of high-resolution graphics adapters in Diamond Computer Systems' SpeedStar CEG high-resolution graphics board is a bargain at $525, offering a highly accurate appearance for fonts and drawing primitives for sophisticated WYSIWYG applications. The board uses Edsun's anti-aliasing RAM digital to analog converter (RAMDAC) and supports resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels. It is slightly slower than standard VGA when using anti-aliasing fonts, but few users will notice the difference. Drivers are provided for AutoCAD and Windows, although there are none for other applications. Everex Systems Inc.: Viewpoint TC. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of high-resolution graphics adapters in 'Software Everex Systems Inc's $795 Viewpoint TC high-resolution graphics card is based on a standard VGA implementation but offers 24-bit true color pixel depth and an excellent price/performance ratio. It supports resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels and offers more software drivers than some competing products, working with Time Arts' Lumena, Mathematica Inc's Tempra and Autodesk Inc's 3D Studio in addition to Windows 3.0 and AutoCAD. Performance in straight VGA mode is excellent, and the extensive deep-color implementation makes the Viewpoint TC a good investment for serious graphic designers. Hercules Computer Technology Inc.: Graphics Station Card. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of high-resolution Hercules Computer Technology Inc's $1,495 Graphics Station Card is a high-resolution 24-bit video board that comes with 3Mbytes of RAM and provides high-performance AutoCAD and Windows software drivers. It includes an on-board Texas Instruments 34010 graphics coprocessor, but software drivers must be specially programmed to take advantage of the TIGA interface. The board has only 8-bit VGA circuitry, making its performance sluggish. Hercules provides drivers for AutoShade/RenderMan, FastCAD/RenderMan and 3D Studio, but there is a general lack of software support for the 16-bit color, 640 x 480-pixel resolution mode. IBM: XGA Display Adapter/A. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of high-resolution graphics adapters in 'Software IBM's $1,095 XGA Adapter/A offers resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 pixels and is optimized for use in windowing environments, but it currently lacks software support. XGA is extremely fast, outperforming the Texas Instruments 34010-based Hercules Graphics Station Card and many competing architectures. IBM is attempting to promote XGA as a standard, so the lack of software support may be remedied in the future. The card works only with 80386- and 80486-based Micro Channel Architecture machines and is ideal for Windows 3.0 and OS/2 Presentation Manager. REXX, BASIC vie for macro standard: WordBASIC eases macro creation, Personal REXX shines at string handling. (Software Mansfield Software Group Inc's Personal REXX 2.0 and Microsoft Corp's WordBASIC, two easy-to-use embedded programming languages, are reviewed and compared. BASIC includes a 'Shell' command for passing commands to DOS for execution, while REXX offers high-level interaction with the operating system. WordBASIC is the macro language in Microsoft Word for Windows; programs in WordBASIC are created by recording keystrokes and mouse clicks. Users program in Personal REXX by writing code with Mansfield's KEDIT text editor. Personal REXX is noticeably faster than WordBASIC and offers more powerful string-handling capabilities; WordBASIC suffers from inherent limitations of the BASIC language. WordBASIC is more tightly integrated with Word for Windows. Mansfield Software Group Inc.: Personal REXX 2.0. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of embedded languages in 'REXX, Mansfield Software Group Inc's $150 Personal REXX compiler is an implementation of the REXX embedded programming language that can create powerful macros for a variety of applications. It provides the variable processing and flow control features of a high-level language and a variety of batch commands. REXX is a good first language for non-programmers, although in many ways it is the opposite of the widely used BASIC language. BASIC forces developers to work through string manipulation manually, while REXX simplifies string manipulation with a Parse command. Personal REXX can compare strings in many ways and efficiently passes non-REXX commands to the host application. The language requires KEDIT, Mansfield's $150 programming editor, and supports debugging with the REXX Trace facility. Developers take sides in the continuing battle of REXX vs. BASIC. (survey of users of Personal REXX, Microsoft WordBASIC) A survey of users of Mansfield Software Group Inc's Personal REXX 2.0 and the WordBASIC macro language built into Microsoft Corp's Word for Windows indicates that developers remain divided over whether REXX or BASIC is the best easy-to-use embedded language. One users notes that REXX is more powerful than the DOS batch language and is an 'integration tool,' while another says that it should have been included with PC DOS. REXX is easy to use, according to buyers. Some nevertheless prefer BASIC over REXX despite the fact that REXX has more powerful string-handling features. One Word for Windows buyer says that WordBASIC is 'the most powerful macro language available.' Microsoft Corp.: WordBASIC. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of embedded languages in 'REXX, BASIC vie for macro Microsoft Corp's WordBASIC is the macro language built into Microsoft Word for Windows and is an implementation of the familiar BASIC programming language, retaining BASIC's English-like syntax and subroutine structure but suffering from the same awkward string-handling limitations as standard BASIC. It substitutes its own search-and-replace function for expanding abbreviations into full words and adds 500 Word for Windows-specific commands to its 65 BASIC commands. WordBASIC is tightly integrated with Word, offering Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support. THe subroutines are function-like and use parameters as in many modern BASIC implementations. Bytex Corp.: Ringout. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest LAN scanners dominate Bytex Corp's $1,495 RingOut hand-held cable scanner is designed for use on token-ring networks only. It cannot determine cable lengths and is not a full-fledged time-domain reflectometer, but has many specific capabilities that may make it desirable to those who install and maintain Token-Ring LANs. The device comes as a complete kit and needs no additional components. There is a bundled line continuity tester that displays a light for each wire as the RingOut places a signal on it. Users can thus test network reliability at the protocol level, isolating beaconing stations and testing wires one at a time. LAN cable scanners offer accurate information. (survey of buyers of hand-held LAN cable scanners) A survey of buyers of six hand-held LAN cable scanners reveals that the devices greatly simplify continuity testing and are effective alternatives to expensive time-domain reflectometers and protocol analyzers. One user of Microtest Inc's Quick Scanner uses the device to measure cable lengths on a thin Ethernet LAN because the cable in such a network cannot go over 100 meters. He also uses it for troubleshooting and for detecting shorts and opens. Another user says that the Microtest Pair Scanner has saved him enormous time in locating network problems. Users of Bytex Corp's RingOut CableTester and 3Com Corp's LanScanner are also pleased with the accurate results these products provide. Microtest LAN scanners dominate field. (Hardware Review) (overview of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanning devices)(includes Six hand-held electronic cable scanners for local area networks (LANs) are reviewed. Three of the devices are made by Microtest Inc; they, along with 3Com Corp's LanScanner, can scan coaxial, twisted-pair and other cable types to determine cable length and detect faults and can monitor network activity on Ethernet LANs. The other two products, RingOut from Bytex Corp and Token-Ring Tester from RAD Data Communications Inc, are designed for use on Token-Ring LANs only. The Microtest Cable Scanner provides far more features than the LanScanner, while the Quick Scanner is a simplified version with only three buttons and two switches and the Pair Scanner a sophisticated, high-end product. All the devices are effective alternatives to costly time-domain reflectometers and network analyzers. Microtest Inc.: Cable Scanner. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest LAN scanners Microtest Inc's $1,495 Cable Scanner hand-held LAN cable-testing device offers a wide array of testing and troubleshooting features for Ethernet LANs. It supports printer and oscilloscope interfaces, but lacks the 10BaseT functions of its newer Quick Scanner and Pair Scanner siblings. Microcomputer-based software for communicating with the Cable Scanner in the base system is included. All of Microtest's user manuals are clearly written and include excellent instructions. The cable characteristics of several cable types are pre-programmed into its memory, and it is bundled with a tracer for finding the location of cables inside walls. Microtest Inc.: Quick Scanner. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest LAN scanners Microtest Inc's $995 Quick Scanner is a simple, low-end hand-held network testing device with only three buttons and two switches. One of the switches selects coaxial or twisted-pair cabling. The Quick Scanner offers much of the functionality of Microtest's more expensive Cable Scanner and Pair Scanner. Its three buttons let users scroll up and down through its LCD menu display, and there are built-in connectors for both RJ-45 twisted-pair and BNC-terminated coaxial cables. A bundled test adapter lets operators test the cable that comes with the QuickScanner for improper wiring. The Quick Scanner is an excellent value because it can detect most common cabling problems. RAD Data Communications Inc.: Token-Ring Tester. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest RAD Data Communications Inc's $1,200 Token-Ring Tester (TRT) is a hand-held LAN cable testing device designed for use only on Token-Ring LANs. It checks for cable continuity and short circuits through DC tests and simulates an active token-ring adapter during AC tests. The TRT includes a telephone headset that allows two technicians to talk to each other, a feature that could be useful to installers and those working on large installations with multiple wiring closets. It is an installation aid at best because it can perform a complete test on any MAU and test the overall integrity of an entire network. 3Com Corp.: LanScanner. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest LAN scanners dominate 3Com Corp's $1,495 LanScanner was the first hand-held LAN cable testing device on the market but does not offer the powerful features of competing products from Microtest Inc. The device does not deliver as many menu functions as the Microtest Quick Scanner, but it can test for line resistance and noise as well as for wire faults. It is not 10BaseT compatible out of the box; users must build their own RJ-45 adapters if they are testing twisted-pair installations. The LanScanner has become dated and needs to be upgraded to remain a competitive product. V/32/42bis modems making their mark. (high-speed modems) (buyers guide) High-speed modems incorporating the V.32 and V.42bis standards for data compression and error correction are rapidly gaining market share as prices drop and users' data transfer needs increase. V.42 is a CCITT standard for error correction that improves data transmissions by maintaining connections even if a line is faulty; V.42bis offers a 4-to-1 data-compression ratio to further increase throughput. The V.32 standard lets modems send data over full-duplex, public switched telephone network lines at 9,600 bps. High-speed modems offer quicker response time than slower products, increasing user productivity and decreasing communications costs. Compatibility is another key advantage of V.32/V.42bis modems. Standardized modems can communicate with each other regardless of who manufactured them. Buyers should carefully consider vendor reliability before making a purchase decision because standards implementations can vary, causing incompatibilities. Disadvantages of upgrading from lower-speed modems to 9,600-bps units include high initial cost and the need for greater bandwidth. V.32bis standard increases modem speeds. (newest modem standard) (buyers guide) The new V.32bis modem standard offers faster data transfer rates than the current V.32 standard, allowing modems to operate at up to 14,400 bps instead of the 9,600 bps V.32 provides. V.32bis substitutes a 'fastrain' procedure for the 'retrain' provision used in V.32 modems. Retrain temporarily stops data transfer if noise occurs; fastrain lets a V.32bis modem simply fall back and forward in speed. Vendors claim that a V.32bis modem can transmit compressed software 50 percent faster than a V.42bis modem, a major advantage for users who regularly transmit pre-compressed binary files. Each vendor determines the modems' actual speed-switching rate, and four companies are now shipping V.32bis products. PC makers balk at RISC-y options. (vendor reaction to Advanced Computing Environment proposal) Most microcomputer vendors are not enthusiastic about the prospect of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) product development, despite the highly publicized Advanced Computing Environment initiative led by MIPS Computer Systems Inc and Compaq. Neither Sun Microsystems' SPARC architecture or the ACE plan holds immediate interest for most vendors, who claim that the RISC market is still in its infancy and are still evaluating possible plans for RISC development. Officials of Arche Technologies Inc say they are not yet committed to a RISC architecture but are leaning toward the MIPS/ACE plan. Hertz Computer Corp and Everex Systems are entirely committed to Intel-based machines, while many other vendors are taking a 'wait and see' approach. CompuAdd Corp is shipping a SPARC-compatible workstation in Apr 1991, but does not expect the new machine to generate more than 5 percent of its revenues for the year. Exports to Europe bolster U.S. electronics industry. Brennan, Laura. The US electronics industry posted a positive trade balance with the European market for the 10th consecutive year in 1990, due largely to a $2 billion increase in exports to Europe. Its trade with Japan and other countries is less positive; continuing barriers to the Japanese market have kept the electronics industry from posting a positive worldwide trade balance since 1983, although the world trade deficit decreased 80 percent in 1990. The industry nevertheless still lost $2.7 billion on the trade deficit, although it made 'some modest progress' in selling to the Japanese. Representatives from the Computer Systems Policy Project and Semiconductor Industry Association traveled to Washington in early 1991 to lobby for greater access to the Japanese market. Both organizations say they are committed to open global markets. Patent holder does battle with PC software companies. (FileCard technology) Entrepreneur Paul Heckel is pressuring several major software firms for royalties on a patent he licensed to Apple for an undisclosed sum in 1988. The patent involves FileCard, a software card-and-stack technology used in Apple's HyperCard; Heckel expected to earn considerable income from the Apple deal as IBM PC-compatible software vendors introduced their own implementation of 'stackware' technology. Officials of Asymetrix Corp, Spinnaker Software and others whom Heckel is challenging call his claims 'ridiculous' and say that their lawyers have told them the Heckel patents can be invalidated in court because they involve 'substantial prior art.' Heckel has asked the Patent Office to re-examine his initial patent, which was filed in Oct 1982 and issued in Dec 1984, in hopes of strengthening his claim. AMD 386 chips make it to market despite Intel impediments. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)(Looking Forward) (column) Advanced Micro Devices has succeeded in bringing its Am386 clone of the Intel 80386 microprocessor despite Intel's attempts to thwart it in court and elsewhere. Intel and AMD had a harmonious relationship in the early 1980s, renewing a second-source agreement in 1982 that allowed Intel to supply CPUs for the growing IBM-compatible microcomputer market. Intel reneged on the agreement in 1985, however, when it failed to deliver plans for the 8087 math coprocessor, and has had a largely adversarial relationship with AMD since. AMD eventually filed for arbitration of the broken contract, fighting a four-year legal battle while working on its own reverse-engineered 80386 design. The courts ruled that AMD could not present the Am386 as 100 percent Intel-compatible because it was reverse-engineered. AMD was ironically able to improve on Intel's product because Intel forced it to do its own development work rather than simply becoming a second-source licensee. Microtest Inc.: Pair Scanner. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations of hand-held LAN scanners in 'Microtest LAN scanners Microtest Inc's $2,495 Pair Scanner is a top-of-the-line product that can examine decibel loss and test 10BaseT network in addition to testing the length and continuity of coaxial and twisted-pair cables. 10BaseT-specific functions include the ability to emulate a workstation and to activate a hub port; users can also use the Pair Scanner to check for crosstalk between the transmit and receive wiring pairs. The Pair Scanner can aid in identifying unlabeled or poorly labeled cable via an optional Smart-T plug. It can identify the Smart-T from a patch panel and can be set up to continuously check for specific LAN error conditions. Other features include RS-232C testing of handshake and rate detection at up to 38.4K-bps and measurement of decibel loss in twisted pair cable. many technicians may find the Pair Scanner's array of features overwhelming; it is a costly, complex product aimed at those with extensive needs, such as field service personnel and network installers. Taxing disparity: IRS excels at tracking the average earner, but not the wealthy; its computers can't evaluate complex affairs of The IRS is coming under increasing criticism concerning its ability to keep up with the tracking of tax returns from large corporations and high-income earners. For the average wage-earner, the IRS's computers are so sophisticated that the failure to pay, even part of the amount due, is likely to be discovered. For high earners though, the only real way to track increasingly complex tax returns is to audit. Unfortunately, successive staff reductions have failed to keep up with the rise in returns and unpaid taxes. The consequences are that there is not enough staff to carry out the required checks, and audits are declining. IBM has loss, drop is sales of hardware. Hooper, Laurence. IBM's operating profit was down for the 1st qtr of 1991, along with a 17 percent reduction in hardware sales. The company posted a loss of $1.73 billion, or $3.03 a share for the quarter, as compared to a profit of $1.04 billion for the same period last year. The results included an expected after-tax charge of $2.26 billion, which was related to the company's new post-retirement health benefits accounting rule. Revenue for the same period was down 4.5 percent to $13.55 billion from $14.19 billion. Many analysts are concerned that the company may perform badly until its new mainframe computer product line begins to show signs of sales, expected in late 1991. N.V. Philips executives are optimistic on outlook for personal computer unit. (Robert Hamersma, Leigh Robinson) NV Philips has posted a loss of $2.3 billion for 1990, which includes large restructuring costs designed to reduce the company's payroll by about 20 percent. Company executives Robert Hamersma and Leigh Robinson, who head a microcomputer unit undergoing reorganization, have announced that the company expects to post better revenues for 1991 and also plans to manufacture its own notebook computer in Taiwan by 1992. The company has been caught with a large inventory of obsolete computers, and only commands a meager two percent of the European microcomputer market. The executives said that the company expects to sell 400,000 microcomputers in 1991, 60 percent in Europe and 40 percent in North America. Redistricting draws business to small firms. Carlson, Eugene. Small software consulting firms are taking advantage of the realignment of new electoral districts by providing computer services and expertise. The districts are changed once every ten years to conform to population shifts that have occurred in the past decade. The old days of redrawing districts on maps with pencils have given way to computerized graphics, where entire blocks of the population can be moved from one district to the next and the results totalled as requested. The redistricting has created considerable opportunity for software companies versed in the art of geographic information systems (GISs), or computer mapping with integrated with data. Sales of actual GIS software are also up, as companies with vested interests in this realignment of voting districts are willing to expend considerable money for in-house expertise. Microsoft confirms that FTC probe into its business has been expanded. (Federal Trade Commission) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expanded its investigation of Microsoft Corp's competitive practises. The original investigation was reported to have focused on an agreement between IBM and Microsoft, signed in 1989. The new investigation centers on allegations that the company has monopolized or attempted to monopolize the market for operating systems and software for microcomputers. Microsoft's stock has fallen as a result of the investigation and currently rests at $107.25. Microsoft has been at the focus of much dissent in the software industry because of the company's unique position of publisher of both market leading operating systems and applications. The company has experienced enormous growth in the past five years, with earnings growing seven-fold to $279.2 million, and revenues six-fold to $1.18 billion in the last fiscal year. IBM bends its rules to make a laptop; new process slashes development time. IBM has announced that the company has already received orders for 80 percent of the laptop computers it had intended to produce in 1991. The laptop, released in Mar 1991, finally filled a noticeable gap in the company's product line. Analysts are now pointing to the product, and the way it was conceived, as an indication of IBM's commitment to turn around its disappointing last quarter earnings. The company had to realign much of its product development process to even get the machine to market. IBM development has long been plagued by endless meetings and counter-decisions. The product's full-size keyboard is thought to an indication of the company's switch to consumer participation in the development process, as company surveys showed users wanted a normal keyboard on a laptop instead of the customary reduced-sized keyboard. Borland is making the most of old technology; the Quattro Pro spreadsheet proves there is still plenty of life left in DOS. Borland International Inc's $495 MS-DOS-based Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet provides users with WYSIWYG graphics and commands that rival the Microsoft's Windows graphical user interface. The product illustrates that the MS-DOS operating system is still a useful technology. Unlike Windows and Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program, Quattro Pro 3.0 can work with an Intel Corp 8088 microprocessor and only 512Kbytes of memory; an EGA or VGA monitor is required to take advantage of the WYSIWYG feature. The spreadsheet's interface may rival the Windows 3.0 interface, but its lack of memory management and the ability to work on screen while the user works on another application is a drawback. Embedding and object-linking technology is also lacking in the Quattro Pro 3.0 program. The man with all the numbers. (James Bryant, co-chairman of Phone Disc USA Corp.) Phone Disc USA Corp's co-chairman James Bryant plans to put US telephone directories on CD-ROM after the US Supreme Court ruled that those directories are not protected by Federal copyright laws. Bryant believes that the traditional form of publishing telephone directories is wasteful; it takes one tree to publish 100 phone books. Phone Disc USA believes that its products, which have hitherto been limited because of litigation surrounding telephone directory copyright, will become widely accepted. Phone Disc USA's CD-ROM discs allow users to access telephone numbers via their microcomputers. The CD-ROM sells for $1,850 for two disks that contain about 90 million names nationwide; $995 each for names east of Mississippi and west of Mississippi. Bringing a 3-D spin to a computer consortium. (Silicon Graphics Inc.) Silicon Graphics Inc will provide the three-dimensional graphics technology for a new 21-member workstation consortium that includes Compaq Computer Corp and Microsoft Corp. The new consortium hopes to provide technology that is more advanced than that currently available on microcomputers and focuses its efforts on developing the Advanced Computing Environment for workstations. Compaq insured Silicon Graphics' participation in the consortium by acquiring a 13 percent stake in the computer software company. Silicon Graphics was founded in 1982 by James Clark, who is a former Stanford University engineering professor. When executives should just say no; fax, computer and Fedex set a blistering pace. Too blistering. (technology and the office) High technology has transformed the modern office and has had adverse effects on how people do business and conduct their lives. The modern conveniences of facsimile machines, computers and overnight mail delivery have enslaved the modern office; executives who have the power to make decisions should know when to control the technology and make the best use of their personnel. High technology has its uses and advantages: when deadlines need to be met and every second counts. There are also times when it does not have to be used. High technology should be used when it is advantageous but should not be allowed to use the people who have it. Earnings plunge at I.B.M.; quarterly sales fall across almost all of hardware line. IBM announces a decline of 48.7 percent for its operating earnings in the 1st qtr of 1991. Revenues also fell 4.5 percent over the same quarter in 1990. The company's stock was at $127.875 before the expected earnings were announced in Mar 1991. The price fell $12.75 that day, and fell another $2.125 when the results were announced officially, to settle at $108.50. Some analysts believe the company has made a significant error in minimizing the difficulty it would entail in shifting to a new generation of mainframe computers. Revenues for the 1st qtr of 1991 stood at $13.5 billion, down 4.5 percent from the previous year's $14.2 billion. Net earnings were $532 million for the quarter, compared with $1.04 billion in 1990. Microsoft says F.T.C. has expanded inquiry. (Federal Trade Commission) The Federal Trade Commission has expanded its investigation of Microsoft Corp's competitive practises. The investigation is now believed to be focusing on allegations that Microsoft has monopolized or has attempted to monopolize the market for operating systems and software for microcomputers. The investigation originally just focused on whether an agreement between IBM and Microsoft had limited the competitiveness of Microsoft Windows 3.0 to encourage acceptance of the OS/2 operating system. Analysts believe that many software developers are jealous of Microsoft's market dominance and welcome the investigation. A standoff with Brazil on computer. (US sale of IBM mainframe to Brazil delayed for fear the technology will be used for military The US delays shipping an IBM mainframe computer to Brazil while waiting for the Brazilian government to provide guarantees that the technology will not be used for military purposes or be transferred to other countries. Pres George Bush approved the sale of an IBM 3090 to Embraer S.A. in 1990, and the Brazilian company contends that the mainframe will be used for aircraft design only. Embraer develops missiles and participated in a consortium in 1988 to aid Iraq with its space technology. Government agencies including the Pentagon, the Energy Department and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency oppose the deal, claiming that the sale could encourage use of missiles and nuclear weapons in third world countries. The Commerce and State Departments endorse the deal because it stands to strengthen US competitiveness and increase exports. Negotiations of conditions of the sale are in progress. PC makers defy the downturn hurting mainframe, minicomputer companies. (microcomputers and workstations more successful during Microcomputer and workstation manufacturers experience a profitable Mar 1991 quarter as more computer buyers reduce mainframe and minicomputer purchases. Analysts expect IBM to report a 50 percent decline in net income since revenue from its RS/6000 workstations did not compensate for depressed sales of its mainframes and minicomputers. Analysts predict Amdahl Corp's earnings to drop 70 percent for the quarter ended Mar 31, 1991 and NCR Corp's earnings to drop 24 percent; both companies announced mainframes and minicomputers in 1990 that will not be shipped until the end of 1991. Sun Microsystems Inc is expected to see an increase in sales from $632.2 million in 1990 to $825 million in 1991 due to successfully shifting its product line to corporate computer rooms and desktops. Microcomputer makers Apple, AST Research Inc and Dell Computer Corp are all expected to report increased net incomes. Convex plots frontal attack against Cray. (Convex Computer Corp.'s C3 line of supercomputers to compete with Cray Research Inc.'s Convex Computer Corp prepares to market its first supercomputer and intends to compete with supercomputer market-leader Cray Research Inc. While the Convex computer cannot rival the power and speed of Cray's $25 million products, Cray has announced a midrange supercomputer, the $5 million Y-MP4E, that will compete directly with Convex's new C3 machine. Cray's computers can calculate 200 million to 2.7 billion math operations per second; Convex's computers can calculate 10 million to 200 million math operations per second. Convex's C3 line of supercomputers will sell for $2 million to $8 million and will operate over 1,000 software applications used by Convex's older computers. Cray offers 600 applications for its machines. Cray claims half of the $1.1 billion per year high-end supercomputer market. Convex claims 40 percent of the $500 million per year minisupercomputer market. Scopes pluck waveforms from the signal swamps. (sensitive scope measurements) (tutorial) Engineers can now make many sensitive measurements by backing up a digital oscilloscope with digital signal processing. Designers should be familiar with their particular oscilloscope's input impedance, probe compensation, noise performance, rise times, ac coupling, overdrive recovery and channel-to-channel feedthrough. They need to know their scope's limitations so as not to unwittingly measure the scope's performance instead of circuit performance. Probes are either transformer types or Hall-effect types. Transformer types are fast and have less delay than Hall types. Hall types respond at dc and low frequencies. Engineers should study their probes' impedances and delay times and should note that the greatest source of error in probing is grounding. Digital post-processing of captured accurate signals allows engineers to transform their oscilloscope into a sensitive instrument. Digital scopes let users try several different digital filters on captured signals in order to determine the best results. Further details are presented. Devices survive harsh environments. (fiber-optic presence sensors)(includes related article on fiber-optic sensing modes) Fiber optic sensors are more flexible and reliable than copper-wire sensors. They can withstand hostile environments and have no moving parts which can wear out. Fiber-optic sensors can also function in all configurations of photoelectric sensing. The lower signal attenuation in an optical fiber increases the distortion-free transmission distance for an optical-based sensing system. Users do not have to worry about sparking since fibers do not transmit electrical signals. Photoelectric sensors with analog outlets are useful in process control. Aromat Corp's MQ-F fiber optic sensors are able to detect targets as small as 0.0020 inches and can function in light- or dark-detection modes, serving as either absence or presence sensors. The MQ-F has three fibers with one operating as a transmitter and the other two functioning as receivers. The receiver fibers capture light reflecting from the target to the sensor. Synthesis tools speed PLD design efforts. (programmable logic device)(includes related article on PLD synthesis) Programmable Logic Device (PLD) design tools are increasingly offering design synthesis capabilities and are encompassing field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and other gate arrays. PLD synthesis tools allow designers to choose the best parts for their application after their design is complete, thereby avoiding to guess what is best before beginning. Designers first describe their design using such representations as Boolean equations, schematics and hardware description languages. The tools then allow users to verify design functions as expected. After confirming a functionally correct design, users can use the tools to automatically perform a series of operations such as eliminating redundant terms in each output signal or expanding negated compound equations into simple terms suing DeMorgan's rules. Minc Inc's PLDesigner offers automatic partitioning, fitting the design into all combinations of allowed parts. Other programs such as Data I/O's Abel-4 take a different approach and offer interactive tools. Without GaAs, RISC workstation family breaks 55-MIPS speed limit. (reduced instruction set computer)(million instructions per HP/Apollo introduces its Precision-RISC-based 9000 Series 700 workstations including the $11,990 Model 720, the $19,990 Model 730 and the $43,190 Model 750. All three models come standard with 16Mbytes of RAM and in the two lower-end machines RAM is expandable to 64Mbytes. The Model 720 is diskless but users can add up to 840Mbytes of internal storage or up to 10Gbytes of external disk capacity. The machine has a 50-MHz Precision CPU. An EISA slot is optional. The Model 730 offers a 66-MHz CPU and has a 200Mbyte hard disk. The Model 750 comes with a 660Mbyte hard disk. Users can add up to 192Mbytes of 2-way interleaved RAM. The machine has four EISA slots. All three workstations feature RS-232C, Centronics, Ethernet and HP-HIL ports. All of the units offer optional 4-mm digital audio-tape and CD-ROM capabilities. The machines use the HP Vue user interface, based on the OSF/Motif graphical user interface. Low cost ac instruments offer high accuracy. (Keithley Instruments Inc.'s 3321 and 3322 LCZ meters and 3930A, 3930 and 3910 Keithley Instruments Inc introduces two LCZ meters and three multifunction synthesizers. The $3,490 Model 3321 and $3,990 Model 3222 LCZ meters offer 0.1 percent accuracy for capacitance, inductance and impedance measurements and are 4-1/2 digit, IEEE-compatible. Users connect the device they are testing and take a reading. Both models automatically identify circuit type and display applicable outputs. The $3,590 Model 3930A, $5,390 Model 3930 and $1,695 Model 3910 multifunction synthesizers all use Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS), ensuring phase-continuous waveforms. Model 3930A offers 11-digit output resolution, a 30V p-p ouput voltage and a range of 0 Hz to 1.2 MHz with 0.1-mHz resolution. Model 3930 offers 12-digit output, a 20V p-p ouput and a range of 0 Hz to 20 MHz and has burst capability over its range. The lower-priced Model 3910 offers accuracy to 30 ppm over a range of 0 Hz to 1 MHz. Power-factor-corrected switching power supplies. (technical) Strassberg, Dan. The increased use of switching power supplies in electronic equipment is placing more importance on power factor. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is now drafting the IEC 555-2 power-factor correction (PFC) standard. IEC 555-2 is applicable to electronic equipment that operates from 220V nominal ac lines. Passive PFC is the correction of an off-line switching supply's power factor with use of inductors in the input filter. PFC methods using active circuits overcome a number of drawbacks of passive PFC. Many vendors are simplifying the incorporation of PFC in power supplies by offering integrated circuits that make possible power factors very close to 1. The basic technique is to precede the supply with a high-frequency switching pre-regulator which uses inductors to store energy. The inductors can be lighter, smaller and less costly than magnetic components. Extensive details are presented. Electro/International. (electronic trade show)(includes related article on transportation to the show) (directory) The Electro/International, the East Coast's largest electronic trade show, will take place from April 16-18, 1991. Over 450 companies will exhibit electronic products and the trade show will offer 43 technical sessions and 11 short courses covering current trends in electronic manufacturing and design. Several sessions will be concerned with competition in the current tight global economy and professionals from all over the world will discuss global marketing and communications techniques. Electro/International will also offer discussions on the latest electronic technologies including VLSI sensors for HDTV, lightwave technology, high-speed cache design and direct digital synthesizers. Other sessions will cover the use of neural networks models in the areas of fuzzy logic, speech recognition and image processing. Servo analysis gets a boost from parametric models; EDN designer's guide to servo simulation using PSpice part 2. (tutorial) Designers can simplify the analysis of electromechanical servo systems with modeling and interconnection of important subsystems. Electromechanical system designers can use PSpice sub-circuit models for mechanical subsystems including rotational loads, gear trains and dc motors. The PSpice model for rotational load includes elements for viscous damping, moment of inertia, shaft stiffness, coulomb friction and mass unbalance. The gear train is analogous to an electrical transformer and the output torque is equal to the input torque times the gear ratio. The output power should ideally equal the input power. Backlash is an important parameter in some gear trains and occurs when the input and output gears do not mesh. The servo system can oscillate if the amount of backlash is too large. PSpice is also especially useful for ac analysis. Extensive details are presented. Subranging ADCs operate at high speed with high resolution; EDN designers' guide to subranging ADCs part 1. (analog-to-digital Subranging analog-to-digital converters (ADC) offer higher conversion speed and resolution over successive-approximation or flash converters and are increasingly used in digital signal processing which demands this type of performance. The three types of subranging-ADC architectures are conventional, pipelined and intermeshed and all contain at minimum a sample-and-hold (S/H) circuit, a D/A converter, a scaling network and timing and digital-correction logic. Conventional subranging architecture is a 2-stage A/D converter and uses a flash converter, S/H circuit and a D/A converter. The pipelined subranging ADC architecture uses two S/H circuits, two flash converters and a D/A converter and offers a faster throughput rate. The intermeshed architecture uses separate flash converters for LSBs and MSBs. Designers will find the most crucial design decision for subranging ADCs is in choosing the flash converter. Designers also need to consider the design or selection of the S/H circuit. Extensive details are presented. There's a lot more to being an editor than editing. (EDN editors) Fraser, Jay. All EDN technical editors have engineering degrees and hands-on experience as engineers. They receive information for their articles from a variety of sources including press releases, marketing and public relations people, company visits, conferences and exhibitions as well as books, newspapers and magazines. EDN editors also pass information among themselves, with six regional editors in the US and one in Europe. In August and February of every year EDN editors compile a list of topics for articles for the coming year. When topics are approved, editors send out editorial call letters to firms that manufacture products that articles will discuss. Editors will telephone industry contacts to acquire more information. EDN Editors also deal with the hundreds of manuscripts and proposals that the magazine receives. Each issue of EDN is read by approximately 160,000 working engineers and the magazine is published 26 times per year. Selling now in Tokyo: tiniest I.B.M. portable. (IBM PS/55 Note) Sanger, David E. Super-lightweight notebook-sized microcomputers from IBM - not yet available in the US - are already on sale in Japan. This is because of competitive pressure from Japanese companies such as NEC and Toshiba. IBM's product, the IBM PS/55 Note, which weighs about five pounds, costs between $1,680 and $2,550, depending on features. The IBM PS/55 is said to signify a new IBM strategy: IBM intends to test many products in Japan, where the prevailing culture of consumer electronics is expected to revitalize Big Blue. According to Nobuo Mii, who represents IBM Japan, the best place to test much new electronic technology is in Japan and against Japanese manufacturers. U.S. supercomputer plan to spur G.N.P., study says. (a report prepared by the Gartner Group for the Department of Energy) A report prepared for the Department of Energy by the Gartner Group, a market research firm, indicates that a proposed $1.9 billion Federal program to develop supercomputer technologies would produce more than $10 billion for the US computer industry by the end of the 1990s. The economic impact of the program would cause an increase in the US' gross national product (GNP) by six-tenths of a percent to 1.7 percent in the year 2000. According to the report, supercomputers currently represent the 'leading edge' of information technology, influencing competitiveness in other industries. Congress is considering increased funding for supercomputers over a five-year period starting in 1992. Part of the funding would create a 'national data highway' linking the nation's supercomputers at speeds in excess of one billion bits of data per second. Digital Equipment to enter emerging technology field. (software for massive parallel computing) Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) and MasPar Computer Corp, Sunnyvale, CA, will jointly sell software developed by DEC to run on MasPar parallel microprocessors. DEC is the first major computer company to enter the 'massively parallel' market. Massively parallel machines are superfast, high-end computers that use at least 128 microprocessors running in parallel. Maspar's product line includes massively parallel computers using between 1,000 and 14,000 processors and costing between $200,000 and $1 million. Such machines, which have become available in the past five years, are classed as supercomputers. The massively parallel market was estimated at $183 million in 1990, but DEC believes that massive parallelism will become a multibillion-dollar business. DEC hopes to encourage a 'common programming environment' for massively parallel computing. Pushing ahead: Compaq plots strategy to widen its horizons beyond a niche in PCs; within new industry group, it hopes to set a Compaq Computer Corp invests $135 million for a 13 percent stake in Silicon Graphics Inc, adding another $50 million for access to Silicon Graphics' high-end graphics technology. Compaq also joins the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE), a 21-company alliance that aims to establish a standard for computers based on Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) technology from Mips Computer Systems Inc. What does it all mean? Compaq apparently plans to market ACE computers, starting in 1992. Compaq envisions ACE products that will be microcomputer-sized systems with capabilities that compare with today's mainframes. Compaq hopes to create products that compare favorably with today's scientific and engineering workstations, which will be assembled from off-the-shelf parts rather than depending on proprietary technology. An insider predicts that Compaq's annual sales will increase from today's $3.6 billion to $15 billion by the year 2000. FCC adopts rules to prevent abuses by phone services. (Federal Communications Commission) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopts rules aimed to establish controls over excessive charges for long-distance calls placed through alternative services, which have been a source of consumers' complaints for years. The FCC's rules accord with legislation that was passed in 1990. The purpose of the legislation was to prevent companies from charging high rates - charges were sometimes two or three times as high as those of established carriers - and to prevent companies from placing calls through companies chosen by them. The FCC's rules apply to hotels, airports, pay-phone owners and others who control telephones that are used by the public. The rules require operator services to identify themselves, and information about rates and policies must be disclosed. The FCC also requires that the name and address of its enforcement division be posted on or near a phone. Claris ready to roll with 7.0: latest MacWrite adds page layout, AppleEvents hooks. (product announcement) Claris Corp will announce its $249 MacWrite Pro word processing software at Apple's System 7.0 release on May 13, 1991. The package offers over 130 new features and greater functionality over its predecessor, MacWrite II. Page layout features include the ability to place text, graphics, chart and tables into boxes that users can drag anywhere within a document. Users will also be able to wrap text around boxes or irregularly shaped objects. Users will also have the capability of installing modules, called Click-Ins, into the software's tool palette. MacWrite Pro will also support System 7.0's publish-and-subscribe features, allowing groups of users to create compound documents. The software will not offer table-of-contents generation, indexing or outlining. MacWrite Pro is scheduled to be released by the end of the summer of 1991, but a formal date is yet to be announced. 'Wicked-fast' Mac IIfx hits design roadblocks. Cohen, Raines. Developers contend that, although the Apple Macintosh IIfx is the best performing of Apple's microcomputers, the system's design suffers from some bottlenecks that limit its performance, expandability and compatibility. The Mac IIfx uses a custom chip that provides direct memory access (DMA). Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) data has transfer rates of up to 3Mbytes per second but only A/UX supports DMA currently. Drive makers claim that the IIfx delivers slower performance on System 6 and 7 than the Mac IIci. Some high-end products that worked directly with serial ports have difficulty working with the IIfx's interface that uses two sub-processors to monitor serial I/O instead of the CPU. Apple's Control Panel device (cdev) helps with some, but not all, of the incompatibilities. The Mac IIfx, unlike other Mac II machines, addresses only six NuBus cards and this adversely affects many scientific and engineering applications that require more expansibility. The NuBus also runs at 10MHz, the same as the four-year-old Mac II. Fortune 500 pick Mac IIsi for desk duty. Pfister, Sean. A survey of Fortune 500 corporate purchasing standards of expandability, speed and multi-platform network ability show that the 68030-based Macintosh IIsi is the only one of the new low-cost Macintosh microcomputers being selected for use by corporations. Some corporations have already standardized on the 68030 processor which will prove even more vital with the virtual memory built into System 7. The 68020-based Macintosh LC is not often a corporate purchasing choice but some companies feel the machine may be appropriate for the administrative and secretarial end when the token-ring card becomes available. Other analysts say they are waiting for the LC's paged memory management unit (PMMU) and accelerator add-ons. Dealers contend that the 68000-based Macintosh Classic, which lacks an expansion slot, is mainly being sold to the home market except for the occasional small to medium-size account. November debut for notebook trio. (Apple notebook computers) Cohen, Raines. Apple Computer Inc is planning a November 1991 release for three notebook computers. The lowest-cost notebook is being manufactured by Sony Corp and will run on a 16-MHz 68000 processor with about two times the performance of the Macintosh Classic. The machine will weigh 5.25 pounds and will offer a supertwist backlit LCD display. The notebook will not have a floppy drive and the base model with 2Mbytes of RAM and a 20Mbyte hard disk is expected to be priced at less than $2,500. The mid-priced machine will run on a 16-MHz 68030 processor and will weigh 6.5 pounds. A unit with 2Mbytes of RAM, a 20Mbyte internal hard disk and a SuperDrive is expected to cost approximately $3,200. The premium model will weigh about 7 pounds and will run on a 25-MHz 68030 processor. The notebook will offer an active matrix backlit LCD screen. The price of the unit with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk and a SuperDrive is expected to be less than $5,000. NetWare for Mac 3.0 finally ships to customers. (product announcement) Novell Inc releases its $1,995 NetWare for Mac 3.0 that allows up to 100 Macs to share the file services, print services and security of the NetWare v3.11 network operating system. The major advantage of the NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) is that it allows for connection to the higher-powered NetWare v3.x and lets users avoid bridging through a v2.x server running NetWare for Mac Value-Added Process (VAP) to get to the v3.x servers. The NetWare v3.x server handles more disk space and more users than its predecessor and also offers more sophisticated security. Netware for Mac 3.0 improves access and installation times and offers new management features that allow Mac users to view print queues and create and modify users and groups. The NLM requires NetWare v3.11 which is priced from $3,495 for 20 users to $12,495 for 250 users. Repent and be cloned! (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. There are some critics who contend that Apple's low 10 percent market share is not enough for its survival in the long term. The low percentage may eventually cause developers to move away from the Apple platform and the loss of innovative third-party products could be disastrous. These critics feel that the only way for a company like Apple to be saved is to turn to the licensing of systems software. It is quite possible that in this type of scenario, one in which competition forced prices 20 percent lower, Apple's revenues would actually decrease. Some of the more efficient IBM microcomputer clone makers have margins of 10 percentage points lower or worse. It would be difficult for Apple to get the Mac niche to experience dramatic growth and be able to retain control by driving the platform standard and receiving the major share of the profits and revenues. How important is 32-bit cleanliness? (The Mac Manager) (column) Crabb, Don. Many major Macintosh applications have not been rewritten to work with 32-bit memory address. This type of memory address will help define the way System 7.0 uses memory and already defines memory usage in A/UX 2.0. Users who try to use an unclean 32-bit application under System 7.0's 32-bit-address-mode will find that their Macintosh will either crash or will not boot. Users need 32-bit-clean ROMs in order to use System 7.0's 32-bit-address mode. The only current machines that offer this are the Macintosh IIsi, IIci, IIfx and the LC. Users can run their Macs with the 32-bit addressing turned off and ensure compatibility by using the Mac's 24-bit addressing mode. Some users may want to hold off on installation of System 7.0. Users who want to test now for 32-bit application compatibilities can test their software on a Mac running A/UX 2.0. They can also buy Connectix Corp's Optima/32 or Optima/128 memory-extension software packages to test their systems. Video F/X: easy all-in-one system: video production on a $30K desktop. (Digital F/X Inc.)(includes related article on frame Digital F/X Inc's $9,995 Video F/X is an extremely easy-to-use integrated desktop video package that includes hardware control of two videotape machines, image capture, video overlay and video-editing software for much less than the cost of traditional components. Beginning users and occasional editors will have an easy time with the editing process but experienced editors can perform sequential assembly requiring minor trimming more quickly on a traditional system. Users need a Mac II-family microcomputer and at least 8Mbytes of RAM. The Video F/X software is for logging and editing source tapes and users will need a frame-accurate video player with standard Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) time code. Users will also need a frame-accurate video recorder, a good video monitor and sound system. Video F/X does not have a practical way of importing scripts and logs and an outline view would be an improvement. Overall value is rated as very good. Personal LaserWriter LS a desktop workhorse. (Apple Computer Inc.)(includes related product summary article) (Hardware Review) Apple's $1,299 Personal LaserWriter LS is a low-cost laser printer with good performance and is recommended for corporate users needing a medium-volume printer on the desktop. The printer comes with 512Kbytes of RAM installed and there is no provision for adding memory. Apple claims, however, that the unit's proprietary data-compression and decompression technology allows the LaserWriter LS to print as though it has an installation of 2.5Mbytes of RAM. In testing the LS is quick and outperforms a GCC Technologies Inc PLP II with 1Mbyte of additional memory installed. Users can expect 1 to 1.5 pages per minute when the printer is connected to slower Macintoshes and 2 to 3 pages per minute for quicker 68030-based Macs. The Personal LaserWriter LS does not have PostScript expansion capabilities and does not include any large-capacity paper trays. The printer, however, is competitive for its price. Network SuperVisor takes step up in administration: being built on 4D may do more harm than good. (includes related article on CSG Technologies' Network SuperVisor, built on ACIUS Inc's 4th Dimension, combines a database component with real-time network scanning and gives network administrators more control over Macintosh network clients than other network inventory packages. The program supports AppleTalk Phases 1 and 2 but some of Network SuperVisor's security features are available only on Phase 2 networks. The program's scan gains information of both hardware and software and information is saved in one of nine tables in the database. The scanning process can gather a large amount of information but some aspects of the scanning interface are confusing. The SuperVisor is the only package that lets network managers edit collected data. The product's reliance on the 4D database adds functionality but also inherits some of the shortcomings of the database. Some users will find the program difficult to use and speed is sometimes slow. The program still rates an overall value of good with its useful mix of real-time and database features. 1 Shot Worksheet: desk accessory lets users create calculating forms. (Baseline Publishing Inc.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Baseline Publishing Inc.'s $99.95 1 Shot Worksheet desk accessory is an impressive package that offers users the ability to create on-screen forms with embedded mathematical formulas. Users also have the ability to create non-mathematical forms but tools for this are more limited than in a full-fledged forms program. 1 Shot Worksheet also provides tools to build custom spreadsheets. Users can choose more than 130 mathematical functions which range from basic adding and subtracting to more complex operations. Users create data fields and then access the equation editor, a dialog box containing a formula box, calculator, a pop-up menu of user-created fields and a scrollable list of functions. 1 Shot Worksheet provides mathematical functions that full-fledged forms applications lack and has graphics capabilities including fonts and drawing tools that no scientific calculator offers. American Heritage Electronic Dictionary: office-edition desk accessory offers 116,000 entries. (Houghton Mifflin Co., Software Houghton Mifflin Co, Software Division's $89.95 American Heritage Electronic Dictionary (AHED) is an easy-to-use on-line reference that combines a desk accessory and dictionary with 116,000 entries and occupies only 3Mbytes of disk space. Houghton Mifflin's compression technology makes the disk file decompress as users search it. AHED does not function as a spell checker for documents but offers a SearchText feature that helps users find dictionary entries when they only know the definition of a word. Users can use Boolean operators to find text and the program also offers etymology and a pronunciation guide for each dictionary entry. On the downside, definitions seem weak when compared to similar products and the user interface is not readily understandable. The software opens in the DA handler under MultiFinder which makes it less convenient than programs that attach to word processing application menu bars. Ready for takeoff: '040 boards: accelerator manufacturers are about to release '040 accelerators two to three times faster than Apple Computer Inc is expected to release a microcomputer based on the new Motorola 68040 chip in the fall of 1991 The company claims that the new machine will reach speeds of two to three times those powered by the 68030 processor. Users now, however, can upgrade their current systems with 68040-based accelerator boards from several manufacturers. Novy Systems Inc's Quik40 is one of the few boards actually shipping now, though supplies are very limited. IIR Inc is expected to release its Performance/040 for the Mac II family on May 1, 1991. The Magellan 040 from Total Systems Inc is scheduled for release on May 1, 1991 as well. Analysts contend that the 68040 boards are not for the typical end user since many popular Mac applications will not benefit from 68040 performance. Much of the speed gains will benefit high-end programs that make use of floating-point operations. The 68040 includes 4Kbytes of on-board cache as opposed to 256 bytes on the 68030 processor and also handles some instructions more efficiently than the 68030. Compression boards put the speed on squeeze: Sigma's DoubleUp and Pinnacle Micro's Gold Card being near-instantaneous compression to Sigma Designs Inc's DoubleUpand Pinnacle Micro Inc's Gold Card file compression boards provide compression without data loss, avoiding speed problems found in boards that employ loss-prone compression. These boards have fast enough compression and decompression speeds that users can keep most of their files in a compressed format. Sigma claims that its DoubleUp works eight times faster than software-only compression and offers an average ratio of 2-to-1. The board comes with DiskDoubler software that lets users select and compress a hard disk from the desktop. Pinnacle Micro Inc contends that its Gold Card can expand disk capacity by two to seven times. The product compresses and decompresses 20 times faster than software-only compression. Both cards run on Mac II-family microcomputers. DoubleUp is currently available and Gold Card is expected to ship in late April 1991. Developers could learn from kids' software. (Broderbund Software Inc.'s KidPix and MECC's Number Munchers) (Software Review) Two well-executed and designed software packages for children are powerful and easy to use. Broderbund Software Inc's $49.95 KidPix is a paint program that gives children an interesting variety of tools to use. The program succeeds in keeping children, with their short attention spans, in front of the Macintosh for hours laughing at KidPix's sights and sounds. The program runs on any Mac and works in color or black and white. MECC's $49.95 Number Munchers is a mathematical game for children aged 8 to 14 that teaches number types and relationships. Parents or teachers can use the password-protected management mode to customize the program with particular setups. The design of the software makes the program much better than similar children's packages. Number Munchers can be used on a network and will run on any Mac in either black and white or color. Copyright ruling may hit databases. Said, Carolyn. The March 1991 US Supreme Court decision ruling that the white pages of the phone book are not entitled to copyright protection may have an affect on publishers of computerized data bases. The Supreme Court contends that the white pages are devoid of even minimal creativity. Copyright experts say that the court has rejected the doctrine that holds that effort and expense of production entitles copyright protection. The court opinion says that most compilations can still receive copyright protection if they have a basis in original arrangement or selection. Lawyers contend that with this opinion many database publishers will be able to protect their work and can satisfy the requirement of originality and creativity. Databases at risk are those that are fact-based and offer only lists of information. Experts feel that the ruling will heighten competition among these types of data bases. ComputerLand to buy Nynex centers: will give reseller uniform sales outlets. ComputerLand Corp announces it will acquire Nynex Corp's Nynex Business Centers which includes Nynex's 77 company-owned locations. The acquisition will strengthen ComputerLand's opportunities in complex network-integration sales, which require a network of centrally run stores. ComputerLand will use support and expertise it acquires from Nynex to become both a retail-franchise network and a quasi-systems integrator with national representation. ComputerLand will take over local Nynex stores' customer base in exchange for taking on their employees. ComputerLand franchises will not compete with Nynex stores in the same area. Published reports contend that Nynex Corp will receive stock and cash valued at $150 million for its business centers. ComputerLand's acquisition is scheduled to be completed by June 1, 1991. VDT-miscarriage study criticized. (U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's "Video Display Terminals and the Wellware Corp, a distributor of a Swiss radiation-mitigation technology, is criticizing the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's report on "Video Display Terminals and the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion" which finds no association between use of video display terminals (VDT) and spontaneous abortion. According to Wellware, the report has two shortcomings. The study excludes miscarriages occurring in the first 14 days of pregnancy. Wellware contends that this is when 60 percent of spontaneous abortions occur and when animal research shows that women are the most vulnerable. Wellware also claims that the there was no true control group and no means to compare extremely low-frequency (ELF) exposure between the groups used which were VDT operators compared to flat-screen operators. Wellware contends that this comparison is meaningless in regards to VDT safety. Claris ready to roll with 7.0: cornerstone apps getting overhaul to support IAC. (interapplication communication) Claris Corp will offer several products that take advantage of Apple's new System 7.0 systems software. Claris plans introduction of MacWrite Pro word processing software, Claris Resolve spreadsheet software, MacProject II 2.5 and HyperCard 2.1. All of the packages will take advantage of interapplication communications (IAC) which gives users tighter program integration. Claris Resolve and MacWrite Pro will support publish and subscribe, letting each program act as a central location for combining information coming from different files into compound documents. Users can also update the compound document as original data is modified. Both programs will also support core AppleEvents to allow for connection to and control by other applications through dynamic links. Claris Resolve is expected to have a price of less than $400 while MacProject II 2.5's expected cost is $499. Enlarging hard disks. (Vertisoft Systems Inc.'s Doubledisk data compression software) (Software Review) (Peripherals) (evaluation) Doubledisk, a $99.95 software package available from Vertisoft Systems Inc of San Francisco, can double the capacity of a hard disk drive. Doubledisk works by creating a new 'logical drive,' which is physically a part of an existing drive but is treated as if it is a separate device. Doubledisk routines compress files when storing them on the logical drive, decompressing them when they are accessed. The efficiency of the compression technique depends on the kind of data being compressed, but in some circumstances, Doubledisk can double the amount of data stored in a given space. Data files compress best; the program is not as efficient working with program files. Doubledisk is memory resident, requiring about 40Kbytes of RAM. The program runs on IBM PC-compatible or IBM PS/2 microcomputers. Making a Mac more like a work station. (Rocket, a co-processor board from Radius Inc.) (Hardware Review) (Personal Computers) Radius Inc offers a plug-in card called the Rocket ($3,495) that can increase a Macintosh II microcomputer's performance to the level of a high-performance workstation. The Radius Rocket coprocessor board, which adds a 25-MHz Motorola 68040 microprocessor to a Mac, will be especially appealing to users who work with large color images or other complex graphics. Plugging a Radius Rocket into a Mac II, IIx or IIcx yields a computer that outperforms an Apple Mac IIfx, which is Apple's top-of-the-line machine. An Apple Mac IIfx uses the older Motorola 68030 chip. According to Radius, the Rocket will increase performance of a Mac II to a sustained rate of 20 million instructions per second (MIPS), which compares with computer systems that cost 10 times as much. Mac II owners may find the Radius Rocket upgrade to be an attractive alternative to Apple's own 68040-based 'tower configuration,' expected later in 1991. Improving mainframes at I.B.M.: chips being utilized as way to counter desktop competition. Nicholas M. Donofrio, president of IBM's mainframe computer division says that IBM is working to improve its products with technologies that have led to the popularity of workstations and microcomputers. IBM is redesigning its large systems to take advantage of inexpensive, powerful microprocessors. According to Donofrio, IBM's most significant competition is coming from desktop machines. Previously, mainframe computers have been based on expensive, custom-designed, high-speed chips, but now, both IBM and IBM's large-system competitors are exploring microprocessor-based alternatives. Donofrio believes that the semiconductor manufacturing process called C-MOS (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) will have an increasing impact on the design of mainframe computers, but he also sees a continued role for a competing technology called bipolar. Why systems integration sounds like poetry to IBM. (Information Processing) IBM plans to move into the commercial systems-integration and outsourcing business in the wake of IBM's declining hardware sales. The company hopes to generate 50 percent of its income from selling software and services by the year 2000. IBM has already formed a joint venture with Cooper & Lybrand, a notable accounting and systems integration firm. The two firms' Metrius Consulting Services will provide management consulting to selected industries. IBM has also forged an alliance with AT&T to improve the performance of both companies' mainframes and network management systems. Both firms hope that the alliance would help attract outsourcing deals. IBM's entry into services has its critics, who claim that the move is unlawful. Affiliated Computer Systems Inc, an outsourcing firm, has complained to the Justice Department. The company cites a 1956 consent decree which calls for IBM to offer such services under a subsidiary. Waging long-distance wars from the back office: advanced automation has MCI racing ahead with new services. (MCI MCI Communication's $300 million investment on a new computer system provides the firm with innovative services. One of the services being provided by MCI is the Friends & Family service, which gives residential customers a 20 percent discount on calls to pre-selected parties that are MCI customers. The service is partly aimed at providing incentive to customers to recruit new subscribers. Friends & Family comes at a time when phone companies are employing innovative techniques to stay competitive due to increased demands from customers for better services. Customers are demanding four-digit speed-dialing for intracompany long-distance calls, a technology that was once relegated to private networks. A carrier lacking such features could lose business. The yearlong trek to AT&T's safari: will smart design crack a market of look-alike laptops? (Design ) (product announcement) AT&T introduces Safari, a $5,400 80386 notebook computer which features built-in 2400-baud modem and a 40Mbyte hard disk drive. The Safari features a ribbed bumper for shock protection and strength. The Safari also features a large 10-inch screen crisp enough for pre-loaded windows software. AT&T's marketing strategy was to create a notebook computer with unique and prominent designs so as to have a machine that would sell on the merits of performance and appearance. Safari features a second small liquid-crystal display window on the keyboard. The window, which is unique among 386 laptop microcomputers, gives feedback on the functions of the computer. AT&T claims the window will provide customers with more cordless computing time. Another unique feature is the owl icon in which the laptop goes into a 'sleep mode' when sending files to a printer or to another computer. Bits & bytes. (Industrial Technology Edition) (Information Processing) The Internal Revenue Service is making its toll-free telephone answering service more efficient through the use of the Taxpayer Service Expert Assistant System. The system uses intelligent software based on Information Builders Inc's Level 55 expert system. Tests of a prototype system in Boston produced a 79 percent accuracy rate. France Telecom is to help in the restructuring of computer maker Groupe Bull following Bull losses of $1.2 billion on revenue of $6.3 billion. France Telecom will not provide cash during the restructuring. Prodigy has added Custom Choices to its list of services. Investor's Daily offers information on 4,800 stocks and 2,500 mutual funds. Baseball Manager lets users play an electronic version of 'rotisserie baseball. Custom Choices is available for an additional $15. Smith Corona is introducing a line of microcomputers aimed at the home, student and home-office markets. Priced from $1,000 to $1,900, the microcomputers will be Intel 80286 and 80386-based. AT&T is developing Distributed Switching with Centralized Optics (DISCO). DISCO switches, states AT and T, could take eight incoming fibers and patch them through to any one of eight outgoing fibers. Laptop market heats up with new machines in 2Q. (second quarter) Wrona, Tom; Rohm, Wendy Goldman. The already hot laptop market will be even hotter during the 2nd qtr of 1991, with scheduled price cuts and new product introductions from Compaq Computer, NEC Technologies, AT and T and IBM. Dealers say the market is ripe for treachery as well as opportunity, considering the increasing number of players and products. One reseller official likened it to the night club scene, adding that he did not want to hold onto inventory as the market was extremely volatile. Compaq is soon expected to reduce prices by 15 to 20 percent across its laptop line in anticipation of the introduction of a high-end 80386DX-based notebook computer and a super-lightweight 80286-based notebook computer, both of which are expected by the fourth quarter. The vendor is also expected to cut prices on the Deskpro line. AT and T wants the market to move to its soon-to-be-introduced Safari machine. VARs cash in on Windows: difficult sales become easy. (value-added resellers) VARs specializing in vertical markets like law, chemistry and health care are garnering new accounts with Microsoft Windows 3.0. Some resellers, since migrating to the graphical user environment say that sales are up and customer resistance down. TTG Inc made few sales, for example, with a DOS-based sales-territory mapping program. But sales jumped tenfold when it was ported to Windows. Company officials report that software sales account for some fifty percent of revenue, thanks to Windows 3.0. Those resellers who used earlier versions of Windows report significant increases in sales with Windows 3.0. Officials say that prior to version 3.0 half a sales pitch had to be devoted to selling Windows. Customers are now already sold on Windows 3.0. Data security pays premiums: insurance underwriters: now they help reseller sales. The increased use of microcomputers and computer networks for mission-critical tasks has enhanced the lucrative market for data security and anti-virus devices. Vendors and resellers have overlooked a driving force behind the implementation of such devices. Insurance underwriters are now covering the loss of data. Users following certain guidelines can help guard their data as well as reduce insurance costs. Insurance industry officials acknowledge that most insurance companies are now insuring computers and some form of data. Studies show that those companies will require the installation of secure systems to protect data and will hold corporate officials and boards of directors liable for losses and mistakes attributable to a lack of security. Personal Computer Peripherals is looking into ways to combine their software with insurance coverage. CAD/CAM VARs find safe haven in Unix: Survey: Shunning DOS platform, some resellers migrate to more profitable environments. Many VARs who specialize in the engineering and design markets are discovering that Unix is a safe haven from the price cutting and overdistribution that are impacting profits in the DOS-based CAD/CAM market, according to results from a preliminary study conducted by Daratech Inc. The study concludes that Unix VARs in the CAD/CAM and computer-aided engineering (CAE) markets are making a killing on Unix hardware. Several dozen top nationwide VARs were surveyed. Only about 10 percent of all CAD/CAM VARs have migrated to Unix. Migration to Unix is being driven by resellers who want to avoid the discounting and overdistribution plaguing sales in the DOS-based CAD market. Many VARs are discovering that sales and support of Unix-based products is worth the investment. Compaq strives to galvanize U.S. sales. (Compaq Computer) Hubbard, Holly; Senia, Al. Compaq Computer Corp has a new strategy to defend its market share and bolster sluggish North American sales. The strategy is a response to months of criticism from competitors and users about pricing and distribution strategies. As part of the plan, Compaq will introduce a new user advertising campaign that will feature a new, more aggressive presentation. That new look will include additional price cuts and new product introductions. Officials hinted that the new message will be stronger and more aggressive. More emphasis will be placed on the vendor's various dealer authorization programs and its own recently expanded customer support services such as a telephone support line and a direct service warranty. Industry observers point out that the vendor's prices have been way out of line compared to comparable systems from some of the second-tier vendors. Ingram Micro buys U.K. distributor. (United Kingdom) (acquisition of Software Limited and Winprime Group) Ingram Micro Inc has completed its plans to acquire UK distributor Software Limited and its parent firm, Winprime Group. Company officials say a $10 million investment will be made in the London-based distributor, which will be called Ingram Micro U.K. The investment will be used in part to broaden the company's existing product range, which includes mostly printers and software. The intent is that the company operate as a full assortment distributor within three years. Company officials expect to make a major thrust to broaden its product assortment. The total 1990 sales for Software Ltd. were approximately $68 million. The company reportedly posted a $1.4 million loss in 1989 on sales of $40.2 million. The company apparently never quite recovered financially. Microsoft, Compaq sign alliances with Silicon Graphics. (Compaq Computer) Microsoft and Compaq Computer have signed strategic agreements with Silicon Graphics Inc that should greatly alter the role of all three corporations in the workstation marketplace. The agreements should result in Silicon Graphics' expansion in the reseller market. They will also result in joint product development between Silicon Graphics and Compaq and give Microsoft access to Silicon Graphics 3-D Graphics Library (GL). Compaq has purchased a 13 percent stake in Silicon Graphics for $135 million. Compaq will also give Silicon Graphics an additional $50 million for research and development. It will also include technology exchange and joint development of future products. Microsoft will use Silicon Graphics' advanced desktop computing technology. The agreement include Silicon graphics' IRIS Graphic Library (GL) technology in future products. Next refits channel strategy: vendor seeks 100 VARs who will buy at least $250K each. (value-added reseller) Next Inc. wants to sign up 100 new VARs as well as about 100 dealers by the end of 1991 as part of an aggressive multichannel distribution strategy. The vendor is focusing on vertical VARs with a metropolitan presence, especially those selling into the publishing market, according to company officials. Next has delineated a set of criteria that a VAR has to meet in order to get authorization. The vendor is seeking VARs who are familiar with Unix, develop their own proprietary solutions and sell to end users rather than other VARs. The total solution marketed by the VAR has to be 30 percent to 50 percent higher than the hardware alone. The VAR has to be able to provide technical support to its customers or through Motorola, the Next third-party service provider. The reseller must commit to $250,000 annually in purchases. Court action fails to stall Apple's education plan: many dealers accede to demand. Apple scores a victory in the first round of a legal challenge to its new education market strategy, with a federal judge denying a motion that would have stalled the company's plans to force dealers to drop competitors in the K-12 market. Apple admitted in legal documents that an adverse ruling would disrupt its national marketing program, which it believes essential to retaining its market share in the education marketplace. A Sep 9, 1991 trial date has been set. The case involves a suit filed by Team Electronics/Connecting Point, Janesville, WI, to block the education marketing plan. Apple appears to be outmaneuvering IBM by keeping most of its larger education partners on the roster. The vendor has dropped the Connecting Point dealer as an Apple Education Sales Consultant (AESC). The injunction was an attempt to stay that action. Computerland franchisees split over merits of purchase. Hedlund, Kristen. The reaction of franchisees to the news that ComputerLand will acquire Nynex Business Centers varied from quite concerned to enthusiastic as early integration plans seemed focused on the need to retain Nynex's Fortune 500 customers. The reseller is still working out plans to integrate the 77 Nynex centers into its 400-plus franchise network, which is largely located in the same markets. ComputerLand is concentrating on retaining the Nynex employees and customer contacts. Nynex locations in territories with no current ComputerLand locations will be purchased by the franchisor. Two such markets are Milwaukee and Syracuse, NY. Other Nynex locations will be either company-owned stores or become franchisees. ComputerLand locations in some markets where a Nynex center is located may be bought by the company later on. Laptops that use 386SL chip could reshape market. (Intel 80386SL) Spiegelman, Lisa L. A new generation of laptop computer systems built on the Intel 80386SL microprocessor are expected to capture market share from 80386SX-based notebook machines late in the summer of 1991, when the chips are expected to be debugged and incorporated into notebook computers from several vendors. The 386SL front has been very quiet since Intel unveiled the new chip set in Oct 1990. No vendor to date has announced a system using the 386SL. The reason is that persistent bugs and problems in implementing the power features have slowed product development. Once 386SL-based systems hit the market, vendors and resellers are expected to witness excess inventory and price-slashing on 80386SX-based laptops as the 386SL-based units replace them. Taiwanese firms get help penetrating U.S. market. Pang, Albert. A group of resellers and vendors has formed a trade group to enhance the ability of companies in Taiwan to compete in the US market. The non-profit United Computer Council Organization (UCCO) is comprised of approximately 500 resellers, vendors and distributors, all of whom deal extensively with suppliers and vendors in Taiwan. Those companies in the past were affiliated with many regional groups in the US such as National Business Information Center, Southern California Chinese Computer Association and Computer Association of North America. All are now under the UCCO auspices. UCCO is expected, in Jun 1991, to strike an alliance with the Taipei Computer Association, whose members include 4,000 Taiwanese computer companies. IBM debuts consulting service for IRs. (Industry Remarketers) Hedlund, Kristen. IBM introduces Remarketer Business Consulting Services, a consulting service for its Industry Remarketers and dealers that is designed to evaluate their core and service businesses and suggest methods for enhancing profits. Information detailing the program was distributed to resellers and IRs recently. The program offers VARs and dealers consultation services, including an assessment of business operations, and makes recommendations on how to enhance efficiency and productivity in order to enhance profits. Officials of the vendor's National Distribution Division say that pilot programs have proved the consulting service is addressing a real need. VARs enter booming voice-recognition market. (Value-added reseller) VARs have discovered a new and growing market in the voice-recognition industry. Adaptive Communication Systems, CompuAbility and Kurzweil Applied Intelligence are among the VARs who have realized the flourishing market in voice recognition. The market is expanding at such a rapid rate, according to industry observers, that sales are expected to grow at a projected rate of 50 percent over the next three years. Reported sales of all voice-recognition system in 1989 totaled $81 million. Sales in 1990 reached $107 million and are expected to grow to $161 million in 1991. Voice recognition technology is especially popular in the medical transcription arena, as an aid for the disabled and for Fortune 500 companies. 1Q: hit hard by recession, war. (first quarter) (computer industry market analysis) Americans seemed more interested in armament technology during the 1st qtr of 1991 than in the clock speed of the newest notebook computer system. Attention turned to problems at hand with the end of the Gulf war. Microcomputer purchases were obviously slowing and all in the industry were working hard to cut costs and enhance support and services. Vendors began to seek ways to better support and win over value-added resellers while maintaining volume through the superstore channel. IBM amazed the industry with the news that its 1st qtr profits would be less than expected. News of layoffs at IBM was delayed until Mar 28, 1991, the last day of the quarter. Everex-Web bundle: a no-frills LAN with big-deal features. (Everex Systems, WebCorp, local-area-network) Everex has announced the bundling of its 8-bit Ethernet adapters with Web, WebCorp's peer-to-peer network operating system. The partnership is one of efficiency and economics. The two vendors have teamed to offer the Everex-Web bundle at a per-node list price of $249. Users are pleased with the price and say that installation is easier than cooking a microwave meal. One user says he installed a 15-node LAN in less than one hour, comparing this to the two weeks it took to install another vendor's 15-node LAN. He claims that the Web network saved over $8,000 in out-of-pocket costs. The Web network software can be purchased without the adapters and use it with any NetWare-compatible circuit boards. The bundled product is available to dealers, until Jun 15, 1991, for $125, $25 off the normal dealer cost. A 'Wave' of training leads to strategic alignments. (Sears' Business Center network training via Wave Technologies Training Sears Business Centers, since Aug 1990, has been marketing network training to customers via Wave Technologies Training Inc. The strategic alignment has instigated a formal partnership program now offered to other resellers by Wave. Dealers involved in the marketing of Wave training say there is more than profit to be had. Sears officials say it enhances the company's reputation and brings some very experienced trainers into the market. The founders of Wave are former Novell and Microsoft executives who reportedly run a professional and technically astute operation. Network integrator Bay LAN Communications Inc has signed on as a Wave Business partner. Company officials said it made more sense to offer training from Wave rather than provide an in-house program. Getting a PC to act as a mainframe: connectivity: micro-to-host products seeing greater demand. A micro-to-host connectivity product, in layman's terms, is a program that lets a microcomputer operate interchangeably as both a microcomputer and a terminal. Users are finding the features that the technology offers useful, as is apparent from the more-frequent purchases of micro-to-host products. Sales figures for total micro-to-host connectivity bases totaled 1.9 million units in 1990. Predictions are for new shipments of 29,000 units in 1991 and 43,000 units in 1994. Market researchers estimated the installed base for the 3270 gateway connectivity market at 86,740 in 1990 and expect the market to grow at a compounded annual rate of 8.4 percent through 1994. Industry leaders in the market include Attachmate, ICOT, Novell, Rabbit Software and Systems Center Inc. Buzzwords are fun, but selling concepts won't pay the rent. (The Platform) (column) One nice thing about retailing is that it is impervious to buzzwords. Resellers do not market client/server architecture, they sell microcomputers. They do not sell workgroup computing solutions, they market local area networks (LANs). The entire culture of retailing revolves around, "What does it do?" and "What does it cost?" That kind of thinking should be preserved, though there are some major adaptation problems ahead. But, now even retailing is beginning to join the buzzword movement. This year's hot ones seem to be enterprise information systems and object-oriented architecture. Many buzzwords hang around for about two years. There is a lag between when users become interested in an idea and when they actually try to do it. Amkly debuts modular PC: computers upgraded with add-on card. (Amkly Systems Inc.) (product announcement) Amkly Systems introduces three microcomputers that are designed to be user-upgradable with the installation of a circuit board with a new CPU. Industry analysts point out that several companies have attempted this approach but Amkly is the first to succeed. The three are the 25MHz 80286-based Amkly 386/25 ($3,995), the 33MHz 80386-based Amkly 386/33E ($4,995) and the 25MHz 80486-based Amkly 486/25 ($5,995). All are scheduled to ship by the end of Apr 1991. Company president Albert Wong said the vendor wanted the new computers to be easy to use, easy to upgrade and easy to service. Amkly has made the basic box very modular in order to achieve this goal. The floppy and hard disk drives and the power supply are on one unit which can be removed as one piece. The computer's split motherboard is its heart. It features VGA support, ROM BIOS and extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus support along with parallel and serial ports on one board. Sony creates unit for optical media. (Sony Magnetics Products Group of America forms Optical Media Division) Sony's Magnetics Products Group of America has created its Optical Media Division to market and support optical mass-storage media. Company officials say the goal is to increase the public's perception of what optical media is, not just increase the company's market share. Sony VP of optical storage media and data storage products Art Rancis has been appointed to head the new division. Two lines of media will be offered initially--5.25-inch and 3.5-inch rewritable drives. Company focus will be on distribution, support and sales and marketing. Support will not be just for Sony Optical media. Support will be at three levels: the first will be at three regional offices in Atlanta, Parke Ridge, NJ and Cypress, CA; the second at the Sony research lab in Boulder, CO and the third in Japan. We still need project management 'for the rest of us.' (Soft Focus) (column) Almost all managers need to plan and manage projects involving people, tasks and other resources. An annual survey of software usage by product type conducted by InfoCorp shows project management bringing up the rear. Managers will admit they could use some help juggling things in order to meet deadlines. But there is a gap between the current selection of project management programs and the needs of most users. developers are missing a big opportunity. All of the current products seem to require that the manager plan the project completely before they can be used. What is needed is a program to help first with the initial planning then with the management. There is also a steep learning curve for current packages. The jargon is familiar to someone familiar with large-scale project management but a major problem for the average manager. Sinking software pirates: major vendors support trade group's crackdown. Nearly a dozen companies in the microcomputer software industry are in favor of the campaign by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) to reduce the rate of software piracy among corporate users. SPA estimates that about $2 billion in applications sales are lost annually in the US because of piracy. SPA officials say that software is the only industry that allows a user to be a manufacturing subsidiary, referring to the ease with which disks can be copied. Smaller developers with less than $5 million in revenue are most affected. Piracy deprives them of funds that would be allocated to further research and development. The most commonly pirated programs are Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Peter Norton Utilities. The SPA campaign is focused largely on education though money from a multimember Copyright Protection Fund is being used to bring legal action against companies engaged in more flagrant pirating. Corel adopts platforms: CorelDraw supports Unix, OSF/Motif, Open Look. (Corel Systems Corp.) Corel Systems announces that its CorelDraw applications will be available on several Unix platforms. Industry analysts say that CorelDraw is the leading high-end drawing application under Windows 3.0 and also speculated that Sun Microsystems, which is courting strategic Software developers from the Intel-based world, may have influenced the decision with marketing or technical support for the porting process. New environments to be supported by CorelDraw include two Unix iterations--Open Software Foundation/Motif and Open Look--along with a version designed specifically for Unisys workstations. Corel also plans to make the Windows version of its program available on CD-ROM by the end of Mar 1991. An upgrade of its OS/2 Presentation Manager application by Jun 1991. 'Word' maintains lead as no. 1 Mac government title. (Microsoft Word, Apple Macintosh) Microsoft Word is the best-selling software package for the Macintosh in the federal government marketplace, according to resellers. Word moved from the number two position in Dec 1990 to number one in Jan 1991, remaining there for Feb 1991. Microsoft Office, a combination of four Microsoft applications, powerPoint, Excel, Word and Mail, now holds the number two position. The number two position for Office is significant as it is a strategic product for Microsoft. It also allows users more exposure to electronic mail. WordPerfect for the Mac ranked number 10. Resellers spot System 7 opportunities: chance to help users make transition, recommend new applications. Resellers are expecting Apple's new System 7.0 operating system to instigate ripple-effect business opportunities beyond its expected $100 list price. Two strong selling points will be the system's virtual memory capabilities, allowing users to run larger applications, and interapplication communications, allowing applications to exchange instructions and data. Resellers are putting themselves in position to take advantage of the increased service and support required to aid users in managing the migration to the new operating system. Dealers are expecting an increase in demand for new hardware and software products to take advantage of the operating system's enhanced capabilities. The first substantial upgrade in the Mac's history will give resellers the chance to charge for support and service that was previously free. Some dealers feel that System 7.0 is not for everyone. Macs woo DOS distributors: Windows 3.0: stirs graphical-user-interface demand.(Apple Macintosh) The Mac environment is gaining credibility among DOS distributors as they discover rising demand for graphical-user-interface programs since the introduction of Windows 3.0. Software Resource Inc, after being prodded into the market by vendors and dealers, is enhancing its efforts to gain market share. The company, like many other distributors, found itself in the Macintosh market as traditional DOS vendors and dealers began supporting the DOS platform. Both wanted additional distribution to accommodate their new focus. The distributor's Macintosh business is growing each quarter, according to company officials. Software Resource distributes 200 Mac products from 100 vendors. Farallon targets DOS market: talking to Apples: will non-Mac users connect? (Farallon Computing Inc.) (product announcement) Farallon Computing is beginning to see results from a technology agreement with Apple Computer and is beginning to ship products that allow DOS-based computers to connect with Macintoshes over AppleTalk networks. Farallon is following through on its promise to deliver PhoneNet Talk Software ($195) and PhoneNet Card PC for LocalTalk ($295) during the 1st qtr of 1991. The new products will give dealers a foothold in new accounts and let microcomputer users like those who use portable and laptop computers, to connect easily to a LocalTalk network. Resellers seemed skeptical that the new products would aid in winning new accounts, though they would be helpful with current accounts. Master VAR clubhouse: Workgroup Technologies signs five regional agreements. (value-added reseller) Workgroup Technologies Corp gained master VAR status with the signing of five regional VARs to market its proprietary CMS and DCS network document and drawing management software applications. The $9.5 million computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) VAR, with 40 employees, is putting the finishing touches on the first part of a three-phase CAD network for the Esab Group, Florence, SC. The company is the American group of Swedish Esab AB, a large manufacturer of cutting and welding systems. The new five-VAR network will add nearly $1 million in sales for the company. Those signed as VARs include Avcom Systems, Mincad Systems, TPSI, Personal Workstations Inc and Vantage Group. Each of them, like Workgroup Technologies, is a Sun Microsystems VAR and will sell the software on Sun SPARCstations. SPARC clones can suffer from the Tribbles dilemma. (scalable processor architecture) (Tribbles are rapidly-multiplying, but Vendors in the computer industry develop technologies and products that proliferate rapidly but cannot find a sustainable market niche. SPARC-compatible workstations may very well be in that position. The present demand for SPARC-based systems seems reasonably well-satisfied. Dealers do not feel any shortages of SPARC-based products. Vendors have assumed the challenge of creating a new market for their products. Two strategies are apparent: offer a high-performance, high-end version with many features or a low-end commodity products. Vendors are also working to build a distribution channel since the existing one is reasonably satisfied with Sun Microsystems products. CompuCom's Factory plans: merger aimed at blending retail, corporate sales strategies. (Computer Factory, CompuCom Systems) CompuCom Systems says that after five months of negotiations the completion of its merger with The Computer Factory is at hand. This allows the reseller to focus on the challenge of mixing retail and corporate sales strategies. The lower part of the marketplace will be addressed by a separate subsidiary under the Computer Factory name, which will have its own president and management team. CompuCom VP of government sales John Grambo has been recruited to head the new organization. Grambo has helped to calm the apprehensions of the chain's employees and vendors since his arrival at Computer Factory in Nov 1990. Management for the two companies has been working to determine what part of Factory's business lies in certain markets and what would be the best match of resources to address those markets. Channel awaits IBM laptop: PS/2 L40 SX: pricing set at analysts' 'high end'; dealer enthusiasm wanes. Reseller enthusiasm that greeted the IBM PS/2 L40 SX laptop computer has fallen somewhat as channel executives express disappointment with the steep price of the machine and as product shortages seem to be a possibility. The new portable computer is priced at $5,995, at the high range of analysts' estimates, configured with 2M bytes of memory and a 60M byte hard drive. Officials at Intelligent Electronics were hoping to see more aggressive pricing. They added that initials order would however be strong, in spite of the pricing. Others were less worried about price and more concerned with product shortages. Distributors see new profits: high-end drives: national firms step up data-storage sales efforts. Large-capacity, high-performance data-storage equipment has entered the distribution channel, bringing with it life-giving profit margins. Distributors have, within the past six months, have stepped up the addition of storage products as a result of the products' decreasing list prices. Cal-Abco Inc specializes in storage products and has organized a separate Optical Products Division, which is dedicated to the sales and marketing of optical drives. Company officials say the distributor has witnessed increased demand for higher-end storage products. There is a need for greater storage capacity as more resellers sell, install and use more and more complex applications. The technical character of the products still exists, though prices have dropped, making service and support a necessary part of the sale. Laptop companies begin to address machine shortcomings. (Corporate Closeup) (column) The screen of a laptop computer is always at its highest resolution. An LCD screen cannot switch video modes like a regular monitor, which can make it difficult to see. The text display mode does not use the full resolution of the screen, resulting in a blank area at the top and/or bottom of the display. The Ultravision screen by Personics is a noticeable improvement. The screen technology has been improved with a 20 percent increase of the active screen display area as well as replacing the system font with a choice of more than 20 eye-pleasing shapes and elimination of screen dead space. A graphics mode helps to achieve full resolution and a color control palette allows the user to map colors at will. The new screen only works with VGA and EGA machines. CGA screens do not provide the needed resolution. Microsoft moves to generate small-business demand. Boyd, Wallace. The Entry Business Unit (EBU) of Microsoft is enhancing its small business marketing program in order to enhance sales of Microsoft Works to small businesses. Company officials said that when Works was introduced in 1987 it was considered a product for the whole market but the company has realized that they needed to focus the program and determine where the trends are. Those trends include the growing number of small-business owners who could use a computer to automate their businesses. The EBU staff has, over the past few years, built a more consistent approach to marketing to the small-business arena. Microsoft announced the organization of the Microsoft Small Business Center on Apr 1, 1991. The Center was organized in tandem with the Association of Small Business Development Center and Quantum Computer Services and is designed to teach business owners how to use a computer to manage their businesses. NASA picks 486s for speed, power. (Intel 80486, National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Computer dealers and analysts agree that 1991 is the year of the 80386 but some users are starting to buy 80486-based microcomputers. Some reasons for purchasing the higher-speed systems include price cuts, more demanding users and performance improvements. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is using 486-based systems because of the processing power. The pace center attempts to keep its computing technology as high-end as possible. Agency officials say that their computers have an average four-year lifetime. Every year they try to have 25 percent on the new hardware. NASA also relies on microcomputer networks for management information systems, technical information systems and generation of reports. Speed is a definite asset. IBM trade show targets POS retail marketplace. (point-of-sale) Calderbank, Alison. About 200 retailers from businesses ranging from large department stores to neighborhood bars attended the IBM Retail Solutions '91 show in Mar 1991. The show features point-of-sale solutions created and supported by 10 IBM business partners, as well as IBM's own products. The show is a part of an IBM effort to address specific market niches within vertical markets, according to company officials. The vendor may sponsor similar shows for users in the manufacturing, property management and construction trade as well as another retail show. More restaurants and stores are adopting computer-based POS systems to cut inventory overhead, increase productivity and lessen shrinkage. Many large retail chains want a computerized retail control system. Competition is an additional driving force. Providing solutions for the home-office buyer. (Inacomp Computer Centers) Inacomp Computer Centers realized that users in the home-based office market would require a different approach than other clients when the reseller decided to expand its focus to include that burgeoning market. Many current computer buyers are not fans of sophisticated technology, unlike computer purchasers of the 1980s.They also do not want to spend time shopping for separate circuit boards and peripherals to build a system. They want to obtain a complete system for a reasonable price that will let them enhance productivity. The 1990s market, according to company president Rick Inatome, will be sold on solutions and productivity. Home-office users will soon benefit from a training program recently introduced by the reseller. It will focus on solutions rather than technology. Inacomp has begun to market US Integrated Technologies' Home Office ($1,995), an all-in-one system for the home office. Vendor security chiefs cite LAN, laptop threat. Alexander, Michael. Information systems (IS) managers discuss their security problems at the eighth annual Information Systems Security Association conference. Attendees from major computer firms such as DEC, Apple, IBM and HP agree that the biggest security risks are centered around the newest technologies: local area networks, laptop computers and networked microcomputers. One IS professional claims the most serious security threat is the physical theft of a laptop or microcomputer, not so much for the loss of the hardware, but for the proprietary information that might be on the hard disk. Laptops also pose a threat because they can remotely tap into corporate databases, and they can be used to siphon information off of a network via a desktop computer's serial port. Local area networks are another natural weak spot in a companies' security system and IS managers must work diligently to maintain access controls. Pan Am to go outsourcing route. (Pan American World Airways Inc.'s information systems) In what would rank as one of the largest outsourcing contracts ever closed, Pan American World Airways Inc is looking to award a contract worth $500 million over the next five years. Electronic Data Systems Corp, IBM, Andersen Consulting, AT&T and SITI, a French airline association, are all in the running for the contract. The deal comes as Pan Am faces a financial crisis that includes bankruptcy proceedings, the sale of several routes to United Airlines, and a court order to pay $33 million owed on leased aircraft. Analysts say the outsourcing arrangement could easily cover the $33 million. The scheme would have Pan Am contracting its information services and future development from the contract winner; with the winning company maintaining operations at Pan Am's current site. Pan Am also hopes to glean some additional revenue by selling its proprietary software to second- and third-tier airlines. Firestone, Oracle trade contract suits; tire maker charges missed deliveries scuttled national on-line system. A $2.05 million contract between Oracle Corp and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc has gone awry, ending in lawsuits launched by both sides. The problems center around Firestone's allegations that Oracle failed to deliver its SQL*Forms 3.0 and RDBMS 6.0 software packages either on time or with the required features. The software was to be used in the ill-fated Mastercare Systems Project that would have connected all 1,600 of Firestone's service facilities with on-line access to customer and parts databases. Firestone is seeking $40 million in damages from Oracle, claiming breach of contract along with negligent misrepresentation on the part of Oracle for claiming its products would be ready in time and compatible with the system. Oracle, for its part, is seeking $1.358 million, the balance of the contract; the firm claims it is not at fault and the real blame should be placed on the program's systems integrator Chicago-based TSC. IBM plans OS/2 revival. (marketing moves) Keefe, Patricia. In a move designed to bolster corporate interest in OS/2, IBM will present its strategy for the operating system to a meeting of 200 consultants, accountants, analysts and members of the press. At the meeting IBM is expected to reveal development plans and clue attendees in as to how OS/2 will tie into future PS/2, multimedia and network architecture plans. IBM feels it is at a critical juncture with the operating system, believing it must clear up much of the confusion that has descended following its rift with development partner Microsoft. Among the specifics that could emerge from the meeting are a definite third-quarter release date for OS/2 2.0, and the so-called Extended Services Program that will give customers their choice of unbundled Database Manager and Communications Manager options. DEC hatches alternative to Systemview. (DEC's Polycenter integrated systems management plan) DEC, just seven months behind IBM, announces its own integrated systems management scheme called Polycenter. Like IBM's Systemview, Polycenter is only a blueprint of a plan that will be implemented over the next several years with new products and services working toward the goal of a fully integrated, multivendor, lights-out systems management program. Both IBM and DEC have identified this as a growth market as corporations are eager to centralize and automate systems management over distributed networks. DEC does have several portions of the plan ready to be implemented including its DEC Management Control Center (DECmcc), and its Network Applications Support architecture, which provides common protocols for integrating third party systems. Analysts say the plan should enable DEC to win corporate integration contracts even if the client does not rely on DEC hardware. Banyan opening up with Vines; firm reacts to market, user demands to support OS/2, additional APIs. (Banyan Systems Inc.'s Vines Banyan Systems Inc debuts version 4.10 of its VINES network operating system, featuring OS/2 support, enhanced Windows 3.0 support and additional application programming interfaces (API). VINES 4.10 will be free to users of version 4.0, and will retail for between $2,495 and $13,995 depending on configuration. Banyan claims the new version is more 'open', with OS/2 and Microsoft's MS-DOS/Windows 3.0 being added as clients. Users of the beta version say the level of Windows integration is much improved, but that Banyan still needs to add Windows utilities for some network management functions. The new APIs, including Named Pipes and Mail Slots, should help convince third party developers to create software for VINES; currently many developers shy away from VINES development because Banyan controls only a small portion of the market. Compaq buys into Silicon Graphics. Savage, J.A. Compaq Computer Corp acquires a 13 percent equity stake in Silicon Graphics Inc (SG), a leading maker of high-performance graphics workstations. Compaq is investing $145 million in Silicon Graphics and will also invest an additional $50 million in joint product development projects. Compaq will incorporate some of SG's graphics technology into its Intel-based microcomputers according to analysts who predict Compaq will offer its high-end Systempro file server/microcomputer with SG's three-dimensional add-in board as an option. SG uses Mips Computer Systems' reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) microprocessors in its graphics workstations, and analysts question whether Compaq's Intel-based machines have the processing power to make a three-dimensional graphics board feasible. However, it is rumored that Compaq will expand its product line to include machines based on Mips' processors in the near future. IBM boosts high-end ES/9000 lineup. (ES/9000 Model 860) (product announcement) IBM announces a new high-end member of its Enterprise System/9000 product line, the $19.3 million ES/9000 860 with a five-way processor. The five-way model will be available in the 2nd qtr of 1992, with four-way and six-way models being available by the end of 1991. Analysts view the announcement as significant because it fills an important gap in the product line. In conjunction with the 860 announcement, IBM also offers new upgrade options that enable users of the Model 720 to move up to either the 900, the 820 or the 860. Upgrade options for the company's smallest mainframes, the 9370s, are being extended to include the entire 9370 line. The upgrade paths are a strategic move that will remove obstacles to users wanting to upgrade to ES/9000 levels. In a separate announcement, IBM has added Easel Corp as the latest member of the AD/Cycle development initiative. Consortium unveils document standard. (Open Document Architecture Consortium) IBM and DEC, along with Groupe Bull, Siemens Nixdorf Informationsysteme AG, Unisys Corp and ICL, form a group known as the Open Document Architecture Consortium, which has recently endorsed an International Standards Organization document interchange standard. The Open Document Architecture (ODA) standard is intended to standardize encoding and decoding of documents to facilitate exchange between multivendor systems. The goal of the standard is to have a document, complete with text, graphics and voice, emerge from the computer of the recipient exactly the same as it was transmitted. The consortium will develop and license a software toolkit that will allow third party software venders to create applications to ODA specifications. AT&T's Unix sell-off won't sway OSF. (Open Software Foundation) Ambrosio, Johanna. AT and T's selling off of 22 percent of its Unix System Laboratories to a group of computer companies does not convince members of the rival Open Software Foundation (OSF) that AT and T no longer controls the company. AT and T retains approximately 60 percent ownership of Unix System Laboratories, which controls legal rights to the Unix System V operating system and other products such as C++. Members of the OSF claim the move by AT and T is too little, too late; the OSF was formed by computer companies concerned that AT and T exercised too much control over the Unix operating system. AT and T defends the deal as one of good faith, stating that it intends to make Unix System Laboratories completely public within three years. USL has some 500 employees and estimated 1992 revenue of $100 million. Fed's document loss prompts security upgrade. (classified documents vanish at Department of Energy site) The revelation that some 12,000 classified documents located at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could not be accounted for has caused the DOE to plan for a centralized, automated document tracking system. A spokesperson at the Livermore Laboratory called the situation serious, but not critical, because there is no evidence that any of the documents have actually left the premises. According to Malene Wagner, project manager of classified document control and Lawrence Livermore, the lab is in the midst of establishing a system based on an HP 3000 minicomputer using bar codes on all existing documents to track their whereabouts. Wagner claims the 12,000 documents represent just one percent of the total volume of classified papers at the lab. Mapmaker takes high-tech road; newly developed software brings better visual graphics and greater accuracy to maps. (Hammond Sophisticated computer software is enabling mapmakers to more create and modify maps much more efficiently than was previously possible. Hammond Inc, a maker of atlases, uses one piece of proprietary software to smooth data when maps are scaled down, and another program is specially designed for map typesetting. The programs take into account the distortion that often occurs when creating flat maps, and makes the necessary alterations. Another cartographer, Jim Mower, has developed a program that locates labels for place names in a systematic manner that is rule driven. Often mapmakers find locations needing names are so closely packed together that labels run together. Mower's program solves these problems by following rules as to which place names take precedence. What you don't see can hurt you; changes in the telecommunications sector may catch computer vendors off guard. (column) The computer industry should not ignore or passively await the coming metamorphosis of the telecommunications industry. The monopoly enjoyed by the local telephone companies is on the verge of collapsing, and this, coupled with the coming end of the AT and T consent decree barring regional Bell holding companies from entering other markets, means the telecommunications industry is looking at a revolution of sorts. Computer companies should take heed of the message sent by AT and T's pursual of NCR and be aware that they will be fair game for regional telephone companies once deregulation is complete. On the more positive side, the end of local service monopolies will provide an explosion of opportunities for computer firms, particularly in the area of the service-enabling local networks. Japan's software threat: a U.S.-made paper tiger. (column) Lecht, Charles P. Michael A. Cusumano, a researcher dedicated to studying computer programmer productivity levels, claims that Japanese programmers are significantly more efficient than their American counterparts. According to Cusumano, Japanese programmers are between 50- to 75 percent more productive than Americans, and their work is from 33- to 50 percent more error free. Studies such as these suggest that Japan is about to take over the American software market. The fact is that there is still not one significant Japanese-created software package on the market in the US, while US software is extremely prevalent in Japan. Ideas such as Japan's moving into the American software market are generally espoused by people who then want to spend taxpayers money on initiatives to reclaim US markets, but in this case there is no danger to worry about. Prime unveils Information SQL interface. (designed as a bridge between vendor's proprietary and Unix-based systems) (Prime Prime Computer Inc introduces a new product designed for use with the companies Prime Information and Prime Information Plus database management systems. Information SQL, priced at $125 to $1,500, is a query and update interface that acts as a bridge between Prime's proprietary 50 series minicomputers and its Unix-based EXL systems. Observers say users working in organizations that have both types of architectures running will be most likely to be drawn to Information SQL. The software can also be used to link microcomputers to Prime minicomputers on a network as was done at several beta test sites. Beta testers say the reporting features of the program are very effective, as are the data retrieval functions. Information SQL features the four basic SQL operations: Select, Insert, Update and Delete. FPS unveils triple-architecture computer. (FPS Computing Inc.'s FPS 500 supercomputer) (product announcement) FPS Computing Inc (Floating Point Systems Inc) introduces a new series of supercomputers based on Sun Microsystem's Scalable Processor Architecture (Sparc) design, which feature three different types of specialized processors. Ranging in price from $450,000 to $4 million, the FPS 500 series are the first supercomputers to include three heterogeneous architectures specialized to handle scalar, vector and parallel-processing computations. The three processors that compose the FPS 500 are a 64-bit emitter coupled logic Sparc scalar processor from Sun, FPS's own vector coprocessor and up to 168 Intel i860 chips as matrix coprocessors. Analysts say the switch away from proprietary architecture to the Sparc design should help FPS, particularly because it makes the supercomputers compatible with the 2,800 existing Sparc applications. VAX system helps HMO improve patient care. (health maintenance organization, Pacificare Health Systems Inc., DEC VAX 9000) Pacificare Health Systems Inc is a nearly $1 billion health maintenance organization that relies on DEC's VAX computers and Rdb relational data base management system to handle patient profiles and billing. Pacificare's information systems philosophy is to force as much performance as possible out of their equipment. The main database, currently 6.3Gbytes, is growing at a rate of one percent a week, and Pacificare demands response times of three seconds or less. Pacificare's information center is based around a VAX cluster with a top-of-the-line VAX 9000 420, two VAX 6540s and a VAX 6430. Pacificare's IS department has assigned different tasks to each of the four computers, with the Rdb data base residing entirely on the VAX 9000, so users need only log onto one computer and any intra-node communications that take place are transparent to the user. Microsoft defends pen computer record. (Pen Windows operating system) Jeff Raikes, vice president of office systems at Microsoft Corp, claims his firm has been working on developing pen-based computer software for nearly a decade. Raikes dismisses the notion that Microsoft's Pen Windows operating system for pen-based computing is just a belated reaction to tiny Go Corp's PenPoint operating system. Many in the computer industry have criticised Microsoft for what they see as its efforts to squash Go Corp and maintain its dominant position in the operating system market. Raikes claims Microsoft does in fact have a product in Pen Windows that is nearing completion and could be delivered to hardware vendors by the end of 1991. He says Microsoft has distributed over 200 developers kits based on Pen Windows and has the support of 21 OEMs. Bank takes its philosophy to heart; PCs join integrity, service and teamwork in contributing to bottom line. (On Site, Michigan Charles Kight, executive vice president of consumer banking and information technology at Michigan National Corp, says the philosophy of his information system department is to prioritize speedy and accurate customer service. Michigan National Corp is one of the largest banks in the state, with 188 branches and $11 billion in net worth. The focus of Kight's department is on reducing the time it takes for a teller or customer service person to handle a customer's query. Towards this end, the bank is installing IBM PS/2 55SXs in its administrative offices and at all its branches. The microcomputers allow employees easy access to the company's main data base, and by using IBM's Callpathing software, customer information can be transferred from one terminal to another as the telephone call is being transferred. The bank also uses microcomputers and multimedia software to create full motion videos for training and promotion. Computer-aided design frees engineers' creativity. (On Site, David Kelley Design) David Kelley Design (DKD), one of the nation's most successful design houses, uses computer-aided design software running on workstations, but has found that the cost of providing all its engineers with workstations is prohibitive. Currently the firm has 18 workstations from Hewlett-Packard's Apollo division ranging from the 319s series to the 425s series for use by 30 engineers. The firm supplies all its engineers with Apple Macintoshes, but says they all want the speed of the workstations. DKD uses HP ME 10 two-dimensional and ME 30 three-dimensional CAD software to create its successful designs such as NeXT Inc's workstations and Apple Computer's mouse. The firm claims CAD systems reduce the time to market drastically and often make it easier for suppliers and manufacturers to finish their portions of the product. Mips fills out low-end processor line. (Mips Computer Systems Inc.'s Magnum 3000/33, RC3330, RC3350) (product announcement) Mips Computer Systems Inc introduces a new workstation and two new file servers based on its 33-MHz R3000 reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The workstation is the Magnum 3000/33, rated at 25.1 Specmarks of processing power and coming with memory options from 8Mbytes to 128Mbytes and optional disk space to 6Gbytes, with prices starting at $10,990. The two servers are low-end additions to Mips product line designed for small workgroups. The RC3330 is priced at $11,990; it delivers 25.1 Specmarks of processing power and comes with the same memory and disk options as the workstation. At $36,500 the RC3350 is for larger workgroups and is rated at 26.5 Specmarks. Analysts say the new machines are not terribly exciting; nice additions to the product line, but nothing to write home about. Advice for GUI projects. (graphical user interface) (column) Comaford, Christine. Software developers considering porting existing MS-DOS applications to the Windows environment should consider all aspects of the problem before proceeding. There is no doubt that Windows is the environment of the moment and there is a significant amount of pressure to make applications available with a graphical user interface (GUI). However, corporate developers should consider whether Windows is really the best solution. For example, it is well known that Windows is not the environment of choice for applications requiring complex graphics rendering. Likewise, organizations with older hardware that would need to make major upgrade investments to run Windows might choose to wait. There is also the cost of porting the application and retraining users to be considered. And finally, developing for Windows is not easy, and experienced programmers are needed to make a project work. Paradox 3.5: more than meets the eye. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc., includes a related article on Borland's Borland International Inc's $795 Paradox 3.5 data base management system is the subject of a compilation of evaluations from magazines, end users and analysts. Reviewers say version 3.5 adds two significant improvements: SQL Link, a software adjunct that allows Paradox to act as a front end for SQL databases, and significant speed improvements from Borland's proprietary virtual real-time object-oriented memory manager (VROOMM). According to one test VROOMM gives version 3.5 a 77 percent performance improvement. Paradox remains intuitive and easy-to-use, according to the panel who also agree it has generally good security features such as passwords, encryption and automatic screen updating. Borland may need to put more emphasis on its customer support, however, with many reviewers reporting a long wait on problem calls. Mellon Bank revives ISDN plan. (Integrated Services Digital Network) Mellon Bank Corp, once a leading proponent of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology who stopped implementing the network for a period of time, is once again enthusiastic about its possibilities. Patricia Graham, vice president of voice and data communications at the bank, says they became disenchanted with ISDN because viable products for the network just never appeared. It also could not get a firm price from ISDN provider Bell Atlantic as to how much it would cost for installation or any tariff rates. Another stumbling block was a court battle over the legality of automatic number identification, a key technology Mellon wanted to use to call up customer files. Graham says Mellon changed its mind about ISDN when Bell Atlantic promised that ISDN tariffs were on their way and several new products may actually reach the market soon. 'Hippi' means speed for lab users. (On Site, High-Performance Parallel Interface, Los Alamos National Laboratory) Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of a handful of sites across the country that would need network bandwidth of 800M-bps so it proposed such a channel to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for acceptance as a standard. Initially ANSI would not even consider something with such limited appeal as a standard, but Los Alamos was able to bring enough pressure from interested computer firms, and ANSI appears ready to issue certification. The supercomputing channel standard is called High-Performance Parallel Interface (Hippi) and is a point-to-point high-speed channel that can deliver 800M-bps over a single copper wire and 1,600M-bps with two cables. The channel runs on shielded twisted-pair cabling and has a maximum distance of 25 meters. Los Alamos uses Hippi in a network of crossbar switches that can be made arbitrarily large. Europe yet to offer all U.S. telecom comforts. Wexler, Joanie M. As 1992, the year of European unification, approaches, one aspect of the economic horizon that may hold back growth is the retarded nature of the continent's communications infrastructure. Many telecommunications services that add efficiencies to the US economy are not yet in place in Europe. The European Postal Telephone and Telegraph (PTT) authorities are an overweight, unresponsive group with many of the inefficiencies found in the US prior to the breakup of AT and T. There are no provisions for standardized communications policies within countries, and it is unclear who will regulate communications and billing between countries. Businesses in Europe find restrictions against connecting private networks to public networks to be loathsome; as are restrictions against integrating voice and data communications over the public network. Sniffer takes on distributed network analysis. (Network General Corp.'s Distributed Sniffer) (product announcement) Network General Corp announces its Distributed Sniffer, a hardware independent network analyzer and monitor for distributed networks. Distributed Sniffer is made up of a server version, priced at $4,995 to $10,995 depending upon configuration, one of which is required at each segment of the network; and a central microcomputer console, priced at $7,995, which compiles the analysis performed by the servers. Distributed Sniffer analyzes network activity from the physical layer to the applications layer using 120 protocols. The product brings together features from Network General's Sniffer analyzer product and Watchdog monitor along with distributed wide-area network capabilities. Early users of the product say it is a money saver, but would like to see certain console features transferable to local workstations. Catch a ride on the fax wave. (computer-based fax services ) ( includes a related article on interactive fax service) At most corporations, the facsimile machine comes under the control of whomever handles the copying machine, but with the advent of facsimile cards that attach to computers, information systems managers are starting to pay attention. Many managers who have started monitoring facsimile use find that it can be a major company expense and something that needs to be regulated. Computer facsimile boards are also a growing trend as more and more companies find ways to save labor costs by having a computer control the transmission of facsimile messages. One such case is a company that sends out 250 facsimiles of price quote sheets to different clients and had a well paid salesperson feed the copies into the machine for several hours a week. Now the computer handles the entire process. Sales force automation: metamorphosis of the salesperson; current offerings run the gamut from efficiency improvers to job changers. Sales personnel are flocking to computer-based automation systems because they know that the less time they spend with paper work or on the phone with the main office, the more time they can spend covering ground and making sales. For many sales people, automation means a laptop computer and communications software allowing a connection to a data base in the main office. Sales professionals say that a representative appears infinitely more efficient if he or she has all the sales information necessary within a few keystrokes, rather than having to fumble through a briefcase or call the main office. Sales automation packages can include off-the-shelf personal information managers and sales lead-generation software on the low-end, or custom designed vertical market software that covers lead generation, accounting, order entry, report generation and electronic data interchange. Hardware, from lap-size to hand-size. (sales force automation product spotlight) While the majority of computer hardware used by field sales personnel is of the laptop computer variety, there are also several other options for sales people. Electronic organizers such as the Wizard from Sharp Electronics, fit into a jacket pocket, accept read-only memory cards and act as personal information managers with small data bases. Handheld transaction computers are special purpose units that accept data entry and include custom software. They are often used by sales people doing inventory replenishment, and can be plugged into a printer unit to generate invoice copies. The most talked about new technology is pen-based computers, which can accept input from a pen-like stylus, turning handwriting into machine readable nomenclature. Palmtop computers from makers such as Poqet and Atari are also an alternative, but currently there are no sales related software applications for them. Why remodeling often beats building. (sales force automation product spotlight, includes a related article on vertical market Many companies that go searching for a sales management software package find that there is rarely an ideal package on the market that meets their needs exactly. However, it may still not be wise to spend the time and effort to create an in-house sales system. Several firms who have developed an in-house system report that they have gone back to prepackaged software because they found that once they spent the effort to create a system they were stuck with it. They report that while a custom system may add another two or three percent of efficiency gains, it is not worth the cost of development. In large corporations, different sales divisions may have different needs and off-the-shelf software provides flexibility while eliminating development time. GTE, Contel get it together; with merger finalized, GTE's task is to consolidate and integrate data centers. (In Depth, includes a Information systems professionals at GTE Corp and Contel Corp have their work cut out for them as they attempt to reorganize and centralize the two companies' data centers in the wake of the $6.6 billion merger finalized on Mar 14, 1991. The main thrust of the planned reorganization is to migrate Contel's information systems over to GTE's systems and do the processing there. However, it will not be as easy as that and the information systems divisions will be working on the project for at least two years. One of the biggest problems those working on the merger face is the migration of Contel's Honeywell-based systems over to GTE's IBM-based centers. Those planning the merger do not know what they will do with the old Honeywell systems, but for now they will remain idle at Contel's computer centers while the jobs they performed are migrated to GTE's systems. GTE to save $149 million. (data center consolidation, includes related summary of the master plan) GTE Corp estimates it will save $149 million in labor and overhead by 1992 through its data center consolidation plan. The plan calls for moving tons of hardware and tape files over hundreds of miles and consolidating the company's nine regional data centers into four centers located in Sacramento, CA; Temple Terrace, FL; Fort Wayne, IN; and San Angelo, TX. The project has been underway for nearly two years and is only weeks from being completed, four months ahead of schedule and below budget. The consolidation will reduce the number of data center employees by 300, or 25 percent, and will eliminate 87,316 square feet of unnecessary floor space. The newly reorganized data centers will also reduce the amount of duplicate effort, enhance information systems management and reduce the cost per billable CPU unit by 51 percent. Moving experience: capsule summaries of GTE's efforts. (GTE data center consolidation) Details of GTE Corp's data center consolidation effort, which consisted of merging the efforts of nine regional data centers into four, are provided. GTE initiated the project by splitting up its largest on-line systems in Erie, PA, and moving part of them to Fort Wayne, IN, and part to Temple Terrace, FL. The move meant shutting down operations over a weekend, loading databases onto tape and flying the tapes to the new locations where they were uploaded on waiting IBM 3090-600s. GTE also moved its Durham, NC billing and payroll facility to Temple Terrace over a Labor Day weekend, setting up mirrored hardware in the new facility and moving data tapes. To consolidate West coast operations, data centers from Everett, WA and Marina Del Ray, CA were merged into operations at the Sacramento, CA center. Finally Tampa, Fl operations were moved to Temple Terrace to finish the process. A leaner Control Data ready to play ball. (includes a related article on CDC moving towards open systems) (company profile) Control Data Corp, once one of the industry's most prominent companies, hopes its recent reorganization efforts will prepare it for the coming decade. The main thrust of the reorganization effort was to concentrate on two main markets: manufacturing and technical/engineering information management. Towards this goal the firm has shed several units, including some profitable ones such as Imprimis Technology Inc, sold to Seagate Technology Inc; and some unprofitable ones such as its ETA Systems supercomputing unit. Because of the streamlining, the firm saw revenues shrink to $1.7 billion in 1990 compared with $3.5 billion in 1985. CDC also reduced its workforce from 10,000 in 1987 to the 1991 level of 4,700. CDC plans to concentrate on open systems and one analyst predicts earnings will climb from 74 cents a share in 1990 to $1 a share in 1991 and $1.50 by 1992. Efficiency not weapons provides defense jobs. (computer careers) Casatelli, Christine. While Operation Desert Storm may have temporarily raised the profile of the military and defense contractors, the overall trend is still towards a downsized military. This means that computer professionals seeking employment in defense-related industries will have a better opportunity with firms that make products geared toward helping the Department of Defense become more efficient than with weapons systems contractors. The Department of Defense has expressed a desire to improve its efficiency by becoming more like a Fortune 500 company. Towards this end, the department is spending $9 million each year on information systems that will help it reduce duplicated efforts. Companies that can translate business applications into a form useful to the department will be the big winners in this new era. Don't get caught holding the bag. (Legal Eye ) (column) Savage, Eric A. Taking some seemingly fundamental legal advice before hiring a consultant can save information systems managers and companies trouble down the road. The first, and most basic piece of advice is to put all contracts between companies and consultants in writing. While this may seem absurdly obvious, many parties have come to regret just such an oversight. Also, information professional must be sure to define all key terms of the contract such as delivery date and system specifications. Copyright questions must also be addressed in the contract, defining who owns any software that might be created as a result of the partnership. Other factors to be considered include linking payment to completion of services, determining consultant accountability for later problems, and making provision to obtain source code for applications should the consultant go out of business. Managers roll up their sleeves, get involved. (second of a two-part series, education and training) Many managers of corporate information systems (IS) divisions are looking for qualifications in recent college graduates beyond simple technical expertise. While all managers are searching for employees that embody technical excellence, business skills, motivation and interpersonal communications skills, some are serving on college advisory boards to ensure that students attend the proper mix of classes. Information systems managers say they are looking for graduates who have taken a range of IS classes rather than having focused on pure computer science. Managers also feel it is important that students be taught about traditional IS functions that still predominate in the business community. Likewise, a broader business background and the ability to communicate and work in groups is highly valued. Wang to focus on work groups. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Cusack, Sally. Wang Laboratories Inc issues a broad outline strategy it calls Office 2000, which the company hopes will guide it to profitability in the changing computer market. At the heart of the announcement is a move away from enterprise-wide computing and toward a focus on targeting work groups in defined markets such as financial services, healthcare, legal and professional services, manufacturing and the government. Office 2000 will rely on open systems strategies rather than on Wang's longtime proprietary VS system. Wang users applaud the announcement, but say they would like to see some more specifics before they get too excited. Analysts say the plan shows that Wang is conceding the enterprise-wide market to IBM and DEC, and is taking a more realistic approach with open systems and open architectures. Military sees problems, promise in viral strikes. (computer viruses) The increasing reliance on computer systems in battle has led the Department of Defense to begin researching methods of both creating virus proof software code and investigating the use of computer viruses as an offensive weapon. Experts say viruses could pose a significant threat in future military encounters where armies will rely on battlefield management, target acquisition and computer network software. The military as a whole admits that relatively benign viruses such as Jerusalem-B and Stoned are prevalent in its computer systems, and it is working on methods to eradicate them. On the offensive front, the Army has awarded two $50,000 research projects to Sparta Inc to determine the feasibility of developing a virus that can be transmitted into an enemies systems via radio frequencies. Consortium seeks to extinguish Sparc. (rival consortium to Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Sparc chip) DEC, Microsoft, Compaq and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) are among the members of a consortium slated to announce specifications for the Advanced RISC (reduced instruction set computing) Computing Architecture (ARCA), which will directly rival Sun Microsystems Inc's Sparc chip. ARCA will establish new standards for computers based on Intel Corp microprocessors and Mips Computer Systems R3000 and R4000 RISC processors. ARCA will also offer hooks for multiprocessing and 64-bit processing with the goal in mind of setting a standard for software packages. SCO will work with DEC to develop a Unix-like operating system based on DEC's OSF/1 implementation. The new operating system will comply with the consortium's specifications for application binary and application programming interfaces (APIs). Microsoft will develop an OS/2-based operating system for the Mips processors. DEC plans five-year effort on system management. (Polycenter plan to integrate system management with network management) DEC debuts a five-year plan to integrate its system-management and network-management products. DEC's Polycenter family of systems management software packages will run under DECmcc network management software and DEC's Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). Computer Associates International, UIS and Raxco Software will also develop Polycenter software. Key EMA elements are the DECmcc Developer's Toolkit and DECmcc Director for VMS and Ultrix. Third-party developers of system management software can comply with DEC's EMA strategy by using the DECmcc Developer's Toolkit as well as Polycenter programming interfaces. DEC also debuts Remote System Manager 2.3 layered software, base priced at $535, and the VAX Disk Striping Driver 2.0, base priced at $475. Both products include Polycenter support. Other new Polycenter-supporting products are discussed. Emulex challenges DEC, Exsys, others for DSSI supremacy. (enters market of DSSI-compatible storage peripherals) (debuts DM/3000 and Costa Mesa, CA-based Emulex Corp becomes the third third-party vendor to enter the market for DSSI-compatible storage products. Emulex's DM/3000 and DM/4000 disk drive subsystems are outfitted with DSSI-to-SCSI interface boards and can be mounted in the 5.25-inch drive bays of DEC MicroVAX 3000 and VAX 4000 computers, respectively. The DM/3000 and DM/4000 come with a choice of Seagate Technology drives ranging in size from 760Mbytes to 1.6Gbytes. The DM/3000, priced from $6,795 to $8,895, is slated for May 1991 delivery. The DM/3000 is slated for June 1991 shipment and will list for $7,095 to $9,195. Emulex also rolls out a DH01 DSSI host controller for Q-bus MicroVAXes without DSSI ports. The DH01 outperforms the $3,570 DEC KFQSA controller by at least 25 percent, Emulex officials claim. Availability of the DH01, priced from $2,295 to $2,495, is expected for Jul 1991. DEC signs pact to market Qstar storage subsystems for Ultrix-based systems. (Qstar Technologies) DEC signs a contract with Bethesda, MD-based Qstar Technologies and will market Qstar's write-once, read-many (WORM) optical storage subsystems for VAX-based and reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) systems running Ultrix. The Qstar WORM systems come with Qstar's Optical File System (OFS) software, which resides in the Ultrix kernel and is compatible with both DECnet and NFS. DEC's prices will range from $7,896 for a 5.25-inch standalone drive to $225,000 for a 12-inch jukebox system. The jukebox systems will come with Qstar's ViewStore software. AT&T loosens grip on USL; sells shares to 11 investors worldwide. (Unix Systems Laboratory) AT and T takes the first steps toward spinning off its Unix Systems Laboratory (USL) with the private sale of shares in the subsidiary to 11 organizations worldwide. AT and T retains a majority share of the 500-employee subsidiary. The divestment aims to make USL more market driven; until now, its primary business has been the licensing of AT and T Unix System V 4.0. The 11 investors are Motorola, Toshiba, Oki Electric Industry, the Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industry, NEC, Fujitsu, Olivetti, ICL, Novell, Amdahl and Sun Microsystems. AT and T may publicly offer USL stock in 1993 or 1994. Package turns Windows 3.0 into VMS console. (ViewPoint from Datametrics Systems Corp.) (product announcement) Datametrics Systems of Burke, VA, debuts the ViewPoint family of systems management software, which allows microcomputers running Microsoft Windows 3.0 to monitor the performance of multiple DEC VAX minicomputers. ViewPoint, comprising both microcomputer and host modules, monitors CPU and memory use, disk operation count, DECnet traffic, file procedures, MSCP traffic, disk space and I/O, disk operation count, Sysgen parameters, queue length and response times as well as processing data. System status data is collected on the VAX computer and then relayed over asynchronous or Ethernet connections to microcomputers. The minimum recommended configuration for a management console is an Intel 80286-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of RAM. Prices for ViewPoint range from $2,000 to $72,000. Wangtek 4mm DAT drive uses 3.5-inch form factor; tapes hold as much as 8GB. (Wangtek 7200 and 6000DL Autoloader digital audio Wangtek Inc of Simi Valley, CA, debuts the Model 7200 3.5-inch digital audio tape (DAT) drive that uses 90-meter-long 4-millimeter-wide 2Gbyte cartridges. Data compression can boost storage capacity to 4Gbytes or 8Gbytes. Without data compression, the data transfer rate is 183Kbps; at 2:1 compression, the data transfer rate is 366Kbps; and at 4:1 compression, the data transfer rate is 732Kbps. Data compression is based on the HP Data Compression Chip. Wangtek also rolls out the 6000DL Autoloader, which supports eight DAT cassettes. The 7200 starts at $1,200 in volume purchases by OEMs, while the Autoloader costs $2,695. Silicon Graphics adds to workstation line; inks development deals with Compaq, Microsoft. (introduces Iris 4D/420, 440 and 480 Silicon Graphics of Mountain View, CA, debuts the Iris 4D/400 line of multiprocessing supercomputing workstations. The two-processor 4D/420 begins at $64,900 without graphics capabilities; its performance is rated at 42 MFLOPS and 50 Specmarks. The four-processor 4D/440, rated at 42MFLOPS and 94 Specmarks, is priced at $94,900 without graphics. The eight-processor 4D/480, with a rating of 159 Specmarks, is priced at $164,900 without graphics. Server versions of the 4D/420 and 4D/480 are available at the same prices as the graphics-less workstations. In an unrelated move, Silicon Graphics signs agreements with Compaq and Microsoft for linking Silicon Graphics' Iris Graphics Library technology with future software from Compaq and Microsoft, thus bringing 3-D capabilities to microcomputer users. Pick subsidiary to sell VMS, Ultrix versions of database. (Picktel Inc. to port Advanced Pick to VMS and Ultrix) Picktel Inc, an Irvine, CA-based affiliate of Pick Systems created in May 1990, has been licensed to sell its Advanced Pick relational database management system to the DEC market. Picktel officials say a VMS version of Advanced Pick should be ready by Sep 1991. An Ultrix port is also planned. Marketing arrangements and pricing have yet to be finalized. DEC will help with both the VMS and Ultrix ports. Advanced Pick's variable-length fields and records have made it popular among commercial users. Advanced Pick is currently available for versions of Unix running on Data General Aviion computers, AT and T's Starserver E and 3B2 computers and Intel 80286, 386 and 486 microcomputers. MS-DOS emulation of Unix comes of age. (low-cost Unix workstations with MSDOS emulation capabilities appear) Computer managers are seeking to cut costs by purchasing Unix-based workstations that can run MS-DOS emulation software. HP's recently debuted HP 9000 720 is among the first affordable Unix workstations that can attain Intel 80386-like performance while running MS-DOS emulation software. High Wycombe, England-based Insignia Solutions plans to port its Soft-PC 3.0 MSDOS emulation software to HP workstations in the fall of 1991. The license fee of $700 included MS-DOS 4.01 and the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface. IBM is expected to launch a low-cost AIX workstation with MSDOS emulation capability in 3rd or 4th qtr 1991, and DEC is expected to debut a 50-MHz DECstation in 1992. DEC's Basestar 3.0 positions Rdb as manufacturing hub. (relational database management system) (product announcement) DEC unveils the Basestar 3.0 relational database management system (DBMS). In an attempt to make Basestar a key software package for use at manufacturing sights, the upgrade supports the integration of applications with data generated by manufacturing equipment. DEC also announces connections between Basestar and applications from such vendors as SL Corp, V.I. Corp, Effective Management Systems, Gensym, Consilium and Salerno Industries. Basestar is a component of DEC's Network Application Support Environment for Manufacturing. DEC is publishing specifications for the Basestar interface so that users can develop their own links to other DBMSs. Basestar costs $3,000 for a run-time license and $6,000 for a developer's license. Sniffer device monitors SNMP networks. (Distributed Sniffer System from Network General) (product announcement) Network General of Menlo Park, CA, rolls out the Distributed Sniffer System, an SNMP-compatible monitoring and analysis system for token ring and Ethernet local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Individual Intel 80386SX-based Sniffer Servers on key network segments capture and decode packets and collect information on bandwidth use and network traffic. The servers then generate summaries and send them to a central SniffMaster Console. The basic Sniffer Server comes with 1Mbyte of RAM and a 40Mbyte hard disk. Network General recommends that an Intel 80386-based or more powerful microcomputer be used for the Sniffer Console. Slated for June 1991 shipment, a starter Distributed Sniffer System consisting of two servers with monitoring and analysis software and one SniffMaster Console Kit will cost $19,995 for an Ethernet version and $21,995 for a token ring version. Single Sniffer Servers will range in price from $4,995 to $10,995, while the SniffMaster Console Kit will cost $7,995. Software gateway connects Oracle to object-oriented database system. (Versant Star search software for Verstant Object Versant Object Technology of Menlo Park, CA, debuts Versant Star gateway software that lets users of the Versant object database management system (DBMS) retrieve data stored on Oracle relational databases by using standard structured query language (SQL) statements. Versant Star supports Smalltalk V/PM, C++ and Objectworks. The Versant DBMS and Versant Star run on a wide variety of platforms, including HP-UX, SunOS, Ultrix and Silicon Graphic's Irix. Versant Object Technology is developing gateways to Ingres, Sybase and DB2 relational DBMSs. Versant Star for Oracle SQL costs $3,000 and is available now. Mips unwraps R3000A-based workstation, servers; reduces price of Magnum 3000/25. (Mips Computer Systems debuts Magnum 3000/33 Mips Computer System Inc of Sunnyvale, CA, debuts the Magnum 3000/33 workstation and the RC3330 and RC3350 servers. All are based on the 33-MHz Mips R3000A chip. The Magnum 3000/33, base-priced at $10,990, is rated at 25.1 Specmarks. It comes with 8Mbytes of expandable RAM and 600Mbytes of disk capacity. The RC3330 costs $11,990 for a base unit that includes 8Mbytes of expandable RAM and 6GBytes of disk capacity. It has a Specmark rating of 25.1. The RC3350, rated at 25.6 Specmarks, comes with 128Mbytes of main memory and 12Gbytes of disk capacity. Prices begin at $36,500. Both servers come with a Mips R3010A floating-point unit. Mips also cuts the price of its Magnum 3000/25 from $8,990 to $7,990 and boosts the 25-MHz device's performance from 17.9 Specmarks to 18.6 Specmarks. Oasys enhances C++ compiler, signs pact with DEC. (Green Hills C++ compiler) Oasys of Lexington, MA, debuts a version of its Green Hills C++ Compiler that is compatible with source-code specifications for AT and T's C++ cfront 2.1. Green Hills C++ Compiler already supports C++ code written for AT and T releases 1.2 and 2.0. The AT and T specification is the de facto standard. Prices begin at $1,000 and vary according to CPU. Oasys boasts that use of Green Hills C++ can boost application performance by as much as 30 percent. Oasys also announces a marketing agreement under which DEC will recommend Oasys' C, C++, Pascal and Fortran compilers and Cross Development Tool Kits for embedded development. The marketing agreement also calls for Oasys and DEC to jointly market Oasys' Universal Debugger and Cross Assembler/Linker Systems. QMS deploys PostScript printer for DECnet, TCP/IP. (QMS-PS 2000) (product announcement) QMS Inc of Mobile, AL, debuts the QMS-PS 2000, the firm's first PostScript laser printer that supports TCP/IP and DECnet networks. The 20-pages-per-minute (ppm) printer is aimed at networks of 20 to 50 users. The QMS-PS 2000 comes with proprietary Emulation Sensing Processor (ESP) software, 45 resident PostScript typefaces and a plug-in Motorola 68020-based Ethernet card. Centronics, AppleTalk and RS-232-C interfaces are also provided. The internal controller centers on a 25-MHz Mips R3000 reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) microprocessor and has 8Mbytes of RAM and 2Mbytes of ROM. Options include a 40Mbyte or 120Mbyte internal hard drive and a 20Mbyte or 45Mbyte SCSI external hard drive. A 1.44Mbyte, 3.5-inch floppy drive is included. Prices start at $15,995. A DECnet or TCP/IP interface costs an extra $1,995. A duplexing option costs $3,495. Availability is slated for May 1991. Getting VMS and Unix to talk backup. (Software Review) (Boston Business Computing Ltd.'s Vbackup, a Unix implementation of VMS Vbackup, from Boston Business Computing Inc of Andover, MA, is essentially a command-line Unix implementation of the VMS Backup utility. Overall, it worked very well. Vbackup primarily aims at systems backup and archiving, but it is also capable of exchanging data between Unix and VMS systems. Vbackup will read and write save sets on tape or disk; these save sets are compatible with those generated by VMS Backup. Vbackup also saves and restores files in variable-sized blocks. Vbackup could be a big help for DEC sites with growing numbers of Unix workstations that demand file transfer with VMS. Price is $1,995. Document image processing cleans up the paper chase. Patch, Kimberly. MIS departments are increasingly turning to a new generation of document-management programs in an effort to control paperwork and cut costs. Scanning and electronically storing paper documents are just the first steps in implementing a full document image processing system. Tools are also needed that can add numerical, textual and other elements to electronically stored documents and manipulate and manage documents created enterprise-wide. For many organizations, full implementation of a document image processing system will comprise both image-based applications and a database for managing text and image storage. Work-flow software is another key to a successful document image processing system. MIPS allies set standard; software umbrella extends to cover Intel architecture. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.; reduced instruction set Software standards are being developed by an alliance of over 20 companies dedicated to giving the MIPS reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture multi-vendor capability. Compaq Computer, DEC, Microsoft, MIPS Computer Systems and The Santa Cruz Operation are among the group planning to promote binary compatibility and source-code compatibility with the Intel-based microcomputer environment. The plan is to entice software developers into the MIPS area, thus providing critical mass. The initial emphasis is on putting the software environment in place, rather than on MIPS-based hardware. The new architecture is based on the MIPS R4000 RISC processor. There will be two operating systems to form a bridge between microcomputers running MS-DOS, OS/2 and Windows applications, and workstations running Unix. Rockwell positions GPS for the masses. (Rockwell Communications - Global Positioning System)(includes related article on marketing Rockwell Communications has a miniaturized playing-card-sized RF module in production for its Global Positioning System (GPS) that is based on gallium-arsenide technology. NavCore V receiver modules may be sold to OEMs for $450 in small quantities by the end of 1991. NavCore V has the power of a five-channel GPS receiver on a 2.5 x 4-inch board. The GPS is being aimed at the compact mapping systems market in the private sector (automotive, truck, hiker, cyclist). Rockwell hopes to branch out from military satellite navigation technology into other markets. Possible applications for the new product include automotive and marine navigation, truck-fleet and rail system management, and personal systems for tourists and hikers. Components of the 1.6-GHz receiver include low-noise amplifier, mixer, phase detector, and various buffers, for a total 1,300 components and 42,000 gates. Taiwan submicron plan stalls; chip makers reluctant to make commitment. (half-micron semiconductor process Taiwan's submicron project, run by the Electronics Research and Service Organization (ERSO), is a five-year endeavor with approximately $7 billion Taiwan dollars budgeted by the Taiwan national government. Manufacturers in the country are stalling the project with concerns about finance and competition with their own products. Companies with no plans to send personnel or money to the project include Hualon Microelectronics, Vitelic, Macronix and TI-Acer. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), partly owned by the Taiwan government, is committed to sending process engineers and several million dollars to the project. Phase-shift technology is being developed with the Taiwan Mask Corp. Intel, NMB deal altered in a 'flash'. (NMB Semiconductor Inc.) Thompson, John. Intel Corp and NMB Semiconductor Inc have entered into a new supply pact written as a conventional foundry deal; NMB plans to build an architecture of Intel's design exclusively for Intel. The agreement stipulates NMB has no rights to the products. The new deal replaces a contract in which Intel and NMB ran into problems with a DRAM manufacturing agreement. Negotiations resulted in the attainment of a positive relationship between the two companies. The latest contract stipulates NMB will build the Intel flash ETOX process 8M-bit memories and serve as a foundry for the high-density flash-memory cards. Intel plans to add another foundry arrangement over the next six months to a year, perhaps in Taiwan, Korea, Japan or the US. MITI: agreement by July; hopes to settle chip accord before old one runs out. (Japanese Ministry of International Trade and US and Japanese negotiators have until mid-Jul 1991 to iron out the renewed US-Japan semiconductor agreement. The present agreement expires at that time, and Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) officials hope the issue will be settled before that time. MITI historically has demanded the US lift sanctions on Japanese products. A second issue revolves around the previous agreement, interpreted by the US as giving the US a 20 percent market share of foreign semiconductors in Japan. MITI states it cannot guarantee any market share figure because to do so is a violation of free trade. Presently the MITI market access expansion program gives US semiconductor manufacturers various kinds of support. Tandy tips tech to come. (product development at Tandy Corp.) Doherty, Richard. Tandy Corp plans to release several new products by the summer of 1992. New lines are based on digital recording, multimedia systems, pen-based computing, and EISA workstations. Tandy may be selling digital compact cassette decks by the summer of 1992. The units will be available in a portable design slightly larger than the Sony Walkman. Company executives expect digital cassettes to replace analog cassettes. Prices for Tandy's new digital cassettes will range from $500 to $700. Tandy has a half-height CD-ROM drive for multimedia computing that will be priced at $399. Fort Worth, TX, is the site of Tandy's multimedia center scheduled to open in the summer of 1992. The multimedia center offers multimedia training and a place to prepare multimedia presentations for retailers, software developers and multimedia systems integrators. Compaq takes a piece of Silicon Graphics; PC maker finds strong attraction in SGI's graphics and multiprocessing technology. Compaq and Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) enter into a deal under which Compaq will provide SGI with $50 million in capital plus a $135 million equity investment in order to combine high-end SGI systems, multiprocessing and graphics expertise with Compaq's volume manufacturing and marketing skills. With this combination, Compaq hopes to compete with IBM for large corporate accounts that tie together a broad line of computers. SGI and Compaq each have full rights to sell products developed through the agreement under their own labels. Compaq may become, in addition to a quality microcomputer manufacturer, a broadline system supplier. ASIC repair a reality. (application specific integrated circuits) (technical) Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) may be repaired with a variety of tools, including ultrasonics and focused ion beams. The repair involves cutting and reconnecting runs on, or within, non-encapsulated dice. Philip Henderson is a consultant in Ramona, CA, who charges about $300 per hour; rerouting one run can take about one hour. Seiko Semiconductor Equipment Group provides rewiring services for approximately $1,000 per hour on the Seiko focused ion beam (FIB) system. FIB uses the ion beam to sputter-etch through passivation and internal layers on a die. Tungsten-bearing gas is injected near the focus of the beam, and metal is deposited directly into holes, thus forming new interconnects. The FIB system is also an excellent process control tool. FCC chief pushes HDTV. (US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Al Sikes; high-definition television) US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chmn Al Sikes warns that the high-definition television (HDTV) standards process must show some results. At a meeting with the FCC Advanced Television Advisory Committee in Alexandria, VA, Sikes emphasized the importance of staying on schedule with the formulation of a US terrestrial HDTV-broadcast standard. The standard is expected to be announced in the spring of 1993. The committee is overseeing tests of six possible systems, the basis of which will determine the FCC's HDTV standard. Systems tests are scheduled to begin in the middle of Jul 1991. Each system will be tested for six weeks for broadcast use, and for one week for cable transmission. Potential problems lie in delays caused by equipment and software glitches. JTAG logic pinout controversy heats up. (Joint Test Action Group)(IEEE 1149.1 boundary-scan/test-access standard) (technical) Texas Instruments (TI) and National Semiconductor Corp may be the first firms involved in a controversy over standard-logic ICs that conform to the IEEE 1149.1 boundary-scan/test-access standard. The controversy involves the position of four test access pinouts chosen for the 16/18-bit bus interface ICs. The ICs will be on the market in the 3rd qtr of 1991. TI's product is an upgrade of its Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) logic line and includes new 16- and 18-bit transceivers. National is using standard transceiving buffers, latches and registers in an 18-bit configuration as an entry into the JTAG-logic market. TI and National did not discuss their designs with one another in the advanced development stages. The designs are not compatible, and it may be the customers and the firm that gets its 16/18-bit products to the market first that decide the outcome. Nonetheless, TI is happy to see another logic supplier address testability problems. DAC shifts its course to attract users. (Design Automation Conference in San Francisco, June 17-21, 1991) The Design Automation Conference (DAC), scheduled to be held in San Francisco, CA, Jun 17-21, 1991, is undergoing changes from previously held shows in order to attract more EDA users and managers to the 28th annual gathering. Changes were spurred by the Electronics Design Automation Companies (EDAC) trade organization, formed in part by discontent with the DAC. DAC is a premier technical conference for the EDA community sponsored by the IEEE and by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). A primary focus on academics has led several EDA vendors to suggest more emphasis on user attendance at exhibits. The return on investments by vendors was not sufficient, according to some. Changes include location in San Francisco, free passes for the first day for exhibits, and extensive publicity. Registration for free passes must be received by May 17, 1991. Two U.S. groups talk trade in Asia. (South Korea and Japan discussed by Commerce Dept and the American Electronics A group of CEOs led by US Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, representing mid-sized US companies, respond to Japanese criticism that they are not trying hard enough in the Japanese electronics market. A program has been developed whereby the US Dept of Commerce will assist US companies in Japan, and will consult the Japanese government on market-access problems. Several mid-sized US companies promise to stay in Japan for as long as it takes to enter the market there. In Seoul, South Korea, a delegation of 10 executives from the American Electronics Association (AEA) discuss the issue of intellectual property. Presently there is legislation before the South Korean parliament to protect semiconductor mask works. In Mar 1991 the South Korean government proposed a technology-development plan to provide $2.13 billion by 1995, financed by the government and the private sector. RadiSys finds new niche. (shipment of PC-compatible controller for the VMEbus) (product announcement) RadiSys Corp plans to begin shipping the EPC-6 controller in Apr 1991. The new controller is a PC-compatible device for the VMEbus; it represents the manufacturer's attempt to expand into a new market segment in the mainstream machine control business, with larger volume opportunities. Multiprocessing is where RadiSys has a lot of conceptual positioning. The EPC-6 is designed for applications that require no front end, or that already have one. The new board will compete against more expensive controller boards based on Motorola 680X0 processors, and against PLCs. PC-compatibility offers market potential with the PC-literate computing culture. RadiSys is attempting to bring low-cost PC hardware, software and tools into the industrial arena. NHK sticks with analog scheme: Narrow Muse: the only all-analog HDTV approach sent to FCC. (Digital HDTV: fifth in a series) Japan's NHK Narrow Multiple Sub-Band Encoding (MUSE) analog high-definition television (HDTV) system is in competition with four digital systems and one partially digital system. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), during the next 16 months, is testing six advanced TV systems, one of which will become the US standard. The NHK system has been in commercial use in Japan and is compatible with the majority of the world's existing HDTV cameras, tape recorders and video-production systems. The analog video compression system introduces a minimum of visual artifacts in the megapixel video information stream; a letter-sized document, sporting 0.1-inch text characters, is directly readable on the screen. Motion-compensation technology and a video frame store offset image deterioration. Debugging 32-bit embedded code; software tools are getting easier to find - finally. Thirty-two-bit embedded software development is an especially difficult task; software developed on a host must run on the target system. When the program is designed and coded on a workstation platform and then downloaded to the target system for test, the debugging process poses a special situation. Remote debuggers, target monitors, networking links, in-circuit-emulators (ICEs) and logic analyzers are necessary to help debug target code. Finding hardware and software bugs at the bus-cycle and external hardware signal level can cause program delays. Logic analyzers are used by some developers, rather than ICEs, for time-critical problems. The logic analyzers monitor large numbers of digital signals at very high sampling rates; they are non-invasive and can passively monitor processor bus signals. Also, some chip vendors add on-chip ICE-like features to help the debugging process. Will the in-circuit emulator survive? Weiss, Ray. In-circuit emulators (ICEs) offer three major benefits for debugging embedded software: controlled execution, bus traces and memory emulation. Controlled execution involves substitution of the target processor with a processor that can be controlled and monitored. Bus cycle traces are buffered for post-execution analysis. Memory emulation is the substitution of the target PROM with RAM. This eliminates the need to reburn PROMs continually during debugging. Stripped-down 386 ICEs are manufactured by SoftAid and AMC; these ICEs enable engineers to track execution at high clock rates. Alternatives to ICEs include logic analyzers that can be used for hardware and software test, on-chip debug hardware, and ROM monitors. In the future, ICEs may have to be tied to source-level debuggers and development environments. Intel neural tools debut. (Intel neural network training system) (product announcement) Intel Corp introduces the neural network training system (iNNTS), priced at $11,800. The cost includes two 80170 chips; additional 80170s are $940 each. The new iNNTS is a development environment for the 80170 electrically trainable artificial neural network (ETANN) chip. Applications for the system include pattern, character, speech, radar and sonar recognition, image and signal processing, fault-pattern diagnostics, process-control optimization, and robotics. Intel is marketing the first development system for neural network chips. The 80170 mimics continuously variable properties of the human brain with over 8,048 E2PROM-controlled synaptic weights. Two chips, a programming pod, a PC/AT compatible interface board, two software simulation systems, diagnostic software and a programmer's interface are included with the iNNTS. Quantic unbundles Greenfield tools. (Quantic Laboratories Inc.) Goering, Richard. Quantic Laboratories takes a full spectrum approach to high-speed transmission-line simulation. The firm has unbundled the tools that make up its Greenfield product line; the BoardScan screening product line has been expanded. The BoardScan cross-talk analysis tool version 2.0 includes calculations for time delays, overshoots, undershoots, settling times, noise margins and functional violations. Version 2.0 also has an interactive data base facility to allow users to add, delete, substitute and browse through the component library within the interface. There are over 4,000 components in the library; it includes technologies such as FAST, HCT and F100K. Running a full electromagnetic field analysis provides more accuracy, however the tradeoff is slower performance than rules-based screening products. ICs aim at optical drives. (Cirrus Logic sampling optical disk drive controller) Cirrus Logic Inc offers an optical disk drive controller, the CL-SM330/331, in sample quantities of 100-pin quad flat packs at $85 each. Volume production is scheduled for the 1st qtr 1992; volume pricing will be announced at that time. The new device integrates data handling functions of the primary optical formats into two chips. Design for the new CL-SM331 SCSI optical disk controller is based on the Cirrus 350 SCSI controller for magnetic drives. The new Cirrus two-chip product is compatible with standard Intel or Motorola microcontrollers and interfaces via a multiplexed address and data path. Support is available for the ANSI and ISO optical disk formats using the Continuous Composite Servo standard for both 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch drives. DSP boards find uses. (digital signal processors) Lieberman, David. Digital signal processors (DSPs) are arriving on the market in new designs. Heightened activity in DSPs, operating software and development tools, and an explosion in DSP design activity add to the demand for new DSPs. General-purpose microprocessors and boards still have a strong market share. DSP offers high performance and cost effectiveness to traditional and emerging signal processing applications. WinSystems, Signal Processing Inc, Spectrum Signal Processing Inc, and Sky Computers offer new DSP products. Pentek Inc has new Multibus II boards. A PC bus product is sold by Communication Automation and Control Inc of Allentown, PA. DSP is moving into the mainstream of electronic products with DSP-based math accelerators, applications with VCRs and CDs, and DSP-controlled laser printers and modems. New termination approach: IBM technique deliberately mismatches impedances. IBM uses a technique designed to simplify termination of data transmission lines. The task is increasingly difficult with faster transmission rates that require more precise impedance matching. IBM's technique, Forced Perfect Termination (FPT), attempts to establish perfect termination impedance by creating mismatches between the line and the terminator. Typically, line termination is handled by matching impedances. FPT also restores signal loss, which enables data transmissions to be sent further distances without repeaters. FPT may be applied to networking and other data transmission applications. DataQ gets controller patent. (programmable video graphics controller) (product announcement) DataQ Instruments Inc has a US patent for a controller embodied in the DataQ AT/MCA computer-based oscillograph and acquisition system (Codas). The programmable video graphics controller speeds the display and avoids the jerky motion of most data acquisition systems based on bit-mapped approaches. Codas consists of a data-acquisition board and software; the device slips into an AT or Micro Channel PC and collects data at 50,000 samples/sec over a total of 16 channels. Codas display subsystem pans with a memory that is larger than the video memory to avoid video refresh whenever possible during data updating. Current Codas owners can obtain version 5.3 free; the price for new customers is $2,790. The newest version features a triggered-sweep, oscilloscope-like display mode to the smooth-scroll and freeze modes. Signal generators get a new look. (Update/Signal Generators) Runyon, Stan. Signal generators today have many new capabilities, added since the first single-purpose devices that were used to test communications receivers. New signal generators provide a continuously variable modulation source or they may contain an internal arbitrary-function generator as the modulation source. Some new designs feature digitally encoded modulation schemes. Communications services are moving to between 1 GHz and 2 GHz, with signal processors keeping pace, sometimes to 3 GHz. In 1990 HP introduced the 8664A and 8665B with frequency coverage to 3 GHz and 6 GHz, respectively. The 8664A has one phase-locked loop and one voltage-controlled oscillator to reduce noise. Analog units are not expected to become obsolete, as new applications for traditional signal generators are found continually. No OT pay for CPU EEs: contract engineers upset with the ruling. (overtime pay eliminated for computer systems specialists) US Department of Labor legislation eliminates overtime pay for computer programmers, systems analysts and software engineers who are paid hourly. Contract engineers plan to contest the ruling, public law 101-583, which became effective Feb 15, 1991. The law grants professional status, thus stating that if such employees are paid hourly, and earn over six-and-a-half times the minimum wage ($25 per hour), they are not eligible for overtime wages. The initial proponent of the law was the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, a 100-member association of computer and engineering consulting firms. The computer software and services industry association (ADAPSO) is also pleased with the ruling. The American Engineering Association plans to ask for a hearing, and is concerned the law may eventually affect all contract workers. Recession? What recession? (career opportunities in semiconductors) Semiconductor companies are hiring, and this is an indication of economic recovery in the electronics industry. GEC Plessey Semiconductors of Scotts Valley, CA, plans to increase its staff of 45 or 50 engineers. Parent company General Electric Co. plc (London) sees the US market growing, and plans to add 25 BSEEs and MSEEs. Circuit design engineers with three or more years of experience in ASICs, standard digital and analog ICs, mixed signal ICs, computer peripherals and CAD are sought. Brooktree Corp of San Diego, CA, is looking for 30 engineers with three or more years of experience. Salaries range from $40,000 to $70,000. Motorola Inc's Semiconductor Sector in Austin, TX, is looking for women and minorities, and is accepting new graduates in EE. The company prefers experienced engineers, however. TI tech shines in solar cell. (Texas Instruments) (technical) Santo, Brian. Texas Instruments (TI) has developed a Spheral Solar cell that features 17,000 spheres of low-purity metallurgical-grade silicon bonded to a 100 x 100 mm square of aluminum foil. The new solar cell technology could be the breakthrough that makes solar energy practical for utility applications. If any sphere on the cell fails, the output diminishes by 1/17,000th. Over 40 TI patents related to the process are issued or are pending issue. The technology is not planned for licensing. Low-purity silicon used in the cells costs approximately $1 per pound, compared to semiconductor silicon that costs 10 times that amount. The new cells are more flexible than previous solar cells, and thus more resistant to damage. TI forms RF identification tag group. (Texas Instruments' Registration and Identification System for radio-frequency Texas Instruments (TI) has a new product, the Registration and Identification System (TIRIS), in production since Jan 1991. TIRIS is based on a 3.6 x 31 mm battery-free transponder incorporated into objects. The radio-frequency identification tag systems market is a new one for TI. The transponder is powered by RF energy emitted from a hand-held reading unit. A unique code is created during manufacture to meet customer specifications. TI expects annual growth rates from 35 percent to 40 percent for the RF ID-tag market; presently the market fluctuates between $250 million and $500 million. TI may have a competitor soon, Hughes Microelectronics Europa Ltd. Applications include livestock tracking (transponders attached to animals), security systems, freight management, and manufacturing control. Zycad accelerates gate-level simulation. (Zycad Protocol Division's Model Bank service) Zycad Corp introduces the Model Bank service, offering accelerated simulation for gate-level microprocessor models. Zycad has agreements with MIPS Computer Systems, LSI Logic Corp and Integrated Device Technology to market models for members of the R3000 and R4000 families. In 1992 the models will be available to customers in encrypted form; presently they are accessible over dial-up lines. Zycad's accelerated gate-level models complement hardware modeling and behavioral-software models available from Logic Automation Inc of Beaverton, OR. Beta test availability is in the 3rd qtr of 1991; model subscription prices start at $5,000. Future plans include support for Sparc-based processors. Presently the MIPS R3000, R3010 and R4000 are modeled. Also LSI Logic's LR33000 and the IDT R3001 and R3051/52. IBM, DEC lead 6-firm consortium. (members agree to make products complying with Open Document Architecture standard for exchanging Six leading proprietary computer suppliers form a consortium to back the Open Document Architecture (ODA) for exchanging office documents with text and graphics among their various systems. The companies include IBM, Digital Equipment Corp, ICL, Siemens Nixdorf Informationsysteme AG, Groupe Bull and Unisys. Member companies have agreed to produce computers that are compatible with the ODA standard. The consortium is an attempt to combat Unix system suppliers. The companies will contribute staff and funding for the Brussels-based consortium. IBM will handle project management and testing. The group plans to develop a software toolkit for moving programs to ODA. AT&T sells 20% of its Unix lab. (Unix Laboratories Inc. becomes subsidiary) AT&T spun out Unix Laboratories Inc and sold an equity stake of over 20 percent to a group that includes several major Japanese companies. Companies with a direct investment in the new Unix Laboratories Inc include Sun Microsystems, Motorola, C. Olivetti, NEC, Oki, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Novell and the Institute for Information Industry. AT&T holds the clear majority and dominates the board, but does not plan to take an active role in managing the company. The investing group's shares are broken down to a 50-50 split between Pacific Rim firms and US and European firms. The group's immediate plans include repackaging the core System V Release 4 in a modular form to make it easier for customers to use in their own products. Compaq to buy 13% of SGI. (Compaq Computer Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc.) Compaq Computer Corp is purchasing a 13 percent equity stake in Silicon Graphics (SGI). The $135 million deal will provide Compaq with three-dimensional graphics technologies used in the Personal Iris. Compaq will pay $50 million for joint research and development; it will get marketing rights for an entry-level line of desktop workstations based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's R3000A. Compaq plans to incorporate SGI's graphics technology into a line of computers based on the R4000, and will use SGI's symmetric multiprocessing capabilities in its 80486-based SystemPro family. The Iris Graphics Library will be a key feature in future Compaq workstations. Compaq will provide SGI with its Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus structure. TI, Anthem pact sparks competitors' chagrin. (Texas Instruments, Anthem Electronics) Texas Instruments (TI) signed a distribution agreement with Anthem Electronics, distressing some of the other semiconductor industry companies holding contracts with TI. TI's distributors now include Arrow, Hall-Mark, Lex Electronics, Marshall and Wyle, Zeus Components and Alliance Electronics. Competitors are upset by the pact because they claim the new agreement diminishes the value of their own contracts. The move is part of TI's long-term strategy to increase its market penetration. TI points out that other major semiconductor suppliers have larger distribution rosters. Battle lines shaping in $30B OLTP market. (on-line transaction processing) A battle for the $30 billion-per-year on-line transaction processing (OLTP) market is shaping up between Unix-based computer makers and proprietary systems manufacturers. The market has been dominated by IBM, Unisys, DEC and others. Unix-based workstations promise OLTP at hardware prices that are a fraction of the cost of medium- and large-scale systems. The distributed computing environment will see the greatest growth in the OLTP market. Faster processors, multiprocessing client-server architectures, and high-speed networking are behind the Unix entry into the OLTP market. NCR wins June hearing on ESOP rights. (NCR employee stock option plan) (includes a related article on the price of AT&T's takeover NCR Corp is battling to remain independent, or at least obtain a higher price from AT&T in its takeover bid. A Jun 10, 1991 trial will decide the validity of an NCR shareholder rights plan, a key defense against the hostile takeover bid. The move deters AT&T from purchasing tendered shares in NCR for at least two months. AT&T's hostile tender offer is $6.12 billion, or $90 per share. Sources suggest that AT&T failed to gain its predicted 60 percent share of votes at the last general NCR shareholders' meeting, in which AT&T attempted to take over the NCR board. However, AT&T is likely to have received the majority needed to place four of its nominees on the 12-member board. The remaining eight 'friendly' board members are expected to increase the board's size to as many as 20 members, reinstating the departing board members, who include NCR Chairman Charles E. Exley Jr. TI chairman: seeking critical mass in Japan. (Texas Instruments chmn Jerry Junkins) Texas Instruments (TI) increased its share of the Japanese semiconductor market in 1990 for the first time in many years. The increase entailed heavy investments to build capacity. TI is unsure whether the slight market upturn justifies the investment, but large expenditures are required now in order to build capacity, in hopes that the Japanese market will reach higher foreign market share levels. If US firms are to reach the goal of a 20 percent share of the Japanese market, Japanese firms must use custom-made US semiconductors in their products, thereby assuring continued buying relationships. TI's current Japanese market share is believed to be around 4 percent of the published 13 percent foreign market share. TI is seeking assurance that its investments in Japan will get a return with increased foreign market share. Rodime ends talks on drives with JVC. (Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. and disk drive manufacturer Rodime PLC) Rodime PLC broke off talks with Victor Co of Japan (JVC) concerning JVC's production of Rodime's one-inch high 120Mbyte drive. Disagreement centered on price and payment terms. Rodime is now talking with potential joint manufacturing partners in the Far East concerning production of the drive and, possibly, all of Rodime's production. The formation of a joint production venture would eliminate Rodime's problems with production inefficiencies and reduce the burden of maintaining its own manufacturing facility. Rodime has reported losses, based on product cost overruns and price erosion from competition. The losses are forcing restructuring. Rodime currently has no net worth on its balance sheet. Head of the class. (plan to install 100 million instructions per second workstations in US secondary school classrooms) (Government The US needs to create mass markets for workstations. The director of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Manufacturing branch, Michael Kelly, recommends a national project to install advanced 100 million instructions per second workstations in all US secondary classrooms in order to broaden the market. Workstations are currently tied to the engineering, financial and military markets; a mass market will provide industrial and economic spinoffs. The US currently maintains a lead in the workstation field, but if it fails to create mass markets for the machines, Japan will provide the markets instead. The 45 million students in US secondary schools hold vast market potential, but the education market is poorly funded. Graduating student bodies skilled in workstation use could revolutionize US industry. Mass production and lower costs for workstations are needed. Apple shifts desk/PC chief in product, R&D realignment. (Edward W. Birss) Apple Computer Inc is decentralizing its product and R&D operations in order to shorten time to market. The company split hardware, software and R&D activities into seven divisions, each with its own manager. Edward W. Birss, former head of Macintosh, Apple II, systems software, networking and RISC platforms, will head the Object-Based Systems division. Randall S. Battat, formerly VP of product marketing, will be in charge of portable computers. His marketing position has been eliminated. Problems in delivering the hot-selling low-end Macintoshes and in delivering portable and notebook PCs are said to be behind the moves. IBM adds water-cooled ES/9000 CPU. (ES/9000 Model 860 mainframe computer) (product announcement) IBM introduces a five-processor water-cooled model of its ES/9000 mainframe computer. The Model 860 will fill the gap between the four-way Model 820 and the top of the line Model 900. Performance specifications have not been released, but the unit is expected to increase internal throughput by 1.4 to 1.6 times over the Model 720 water-cooled machine. The price is $19,315,000. The Model 860 will ship in the second quarter of 1992. IBM has introduced new upgrade paths from ES/9370 machines, added fault-tolerant features to its water-cooled units and unveiled a hardware-and-services package for its high-speed, fiber-optic Enterprise System Connection Architecture (Escon). DEC forms marketing umbrella unit. (DEC to add multivendor system and network management capabilities) Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) will add fully-automated multivendor system and network management capabilities in an effort to market existing management software against IBM's SystemView and NetView technologies. The company formed a new umbrella marketing program for its system management portfolio and hopes to leverage its computer sales through automated software. Its management software will run on machines using the OSF/1 or Unix System V operating systems. The management software will be capable of controlling IBM and Unisys mainframe networks within five years, due to deals with third-party vendors. New applications packages are also envisioned. DEC expects to provide full self-management capabilities for multivendor networks, incorporating both distributed and hierarchical management formats by 1996. Wang moves to niche marketing. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Stedman, Craig. Wang Laboratories Inc is abandoning marketing efforts aimed at large corporation computing contracts, and plans to concentrate on smaller departmental deals instead. The company is targeting vertical markets with specialized applications, such as document processing and image management. The new strategy follows two years of problems and losses by the company. A much smaller company may result if Wang does not quickly find new business to offset its declining minicomputer sales. Wang signed an OEM deal with MIPS Computers Systems for RISC/Unix systems. The company plans to de-emphasize basic hardware research and development, but will add a high-end VS minicomputer later in 1991. TI licenses Matsushita, NEC; pacts seen earning it $250M. (Texas Instruments) Texas Instruments (TI) signed patent cross-license agreements with NEC and Matsushita that are expected to earn the company over $250 million over five years. The agreements are similar to previous pacts that expired at the end of 1990, yet are said to be more lucrative for TI. The deals involve the Kilby patent, which covers basic semiconductor technology. The Matsushita deal is subject to Japanese government approval. Specific terms of the agreements were not announced. TI characteristically fares well in cross-license negotiations due to the fundamental nature of its patents on dynamic RAM technology. California Micro, Xerox settle suit. (California Micro Devices, Xerox Financial Services Inc. settle suit over attempt to acquire California Micro Devices (CMD) settled its suit against Xerox Financial Services Inc and Van Kampen Merritt (VKM), another subsidiary of Xerox Corp. The suit reportedly asked for $80 million in damages related to CMD's aborted attempt to acquire Gould's American Microsystems Inc (AMI) subsidiary. CMD charged fraud and breach of contract for Xerox's and VKM's failure to provide necessary financing to complete a planned purchase of AMI for around $70 million in 1988. VKM promised better financing terms than CMD had arranged with First Texas and First Interstate Bank. VKM's negotiations with Citicorp led to problems and a demand that CMD indemnify VKM and Xerox for any claims related to the purchase of AMI. Terms of the settlement were not announced, but CMD representatives claim it 'significantly strengthens' the company's finances. Atmel sues to void fine of $2.6M levied by ITC. (International Trade Commission) Atmel Corp is challenging a $2.6 million fine levied by the International Trade Commission. Atmel claims the fine, assigned for violation of an ITC cease-and-desist order regarding the US sale of EpROMs, is invalid and the case must be retried in Federal District Court. Atmel was fined $930,000 in the summer of 1990 for selling two types of EpROMs it was prohibited from marketing in the US. The fine was raised to $2.6 million after the ITC recalculated the company's sales of the products. The problems began in 1989 when the importation of EpROMs manufactured by Hyundai and Sanyo were banned in the US because of patent infringements. The military claimed itself exempt from this order and Atmel continued selling the EpROMs overseas. The latest suit claims these products were within the scope of a Mar 1989 ITC order, and challenges the ITC's authority to issue a fine. HP skeds mixed-signal VLSI testers. (Hewlett-Packard schedules very-large-scale integration products for release) (product Hewlett-Packard Co plans to introduce a new family of mixed-signal very large scale integration (VLSI) testers at the Semicon West trade show in May 1991. The 9490 series of machines will have increased digital capabilities. Target markets include LAN devices, ISDN chips and other advanced digital circuits. Two models are designed for high-end engineering or for production-line work. Shipment dates were not announced. The 9490 line was designed by HP's Japanese joint venture with Yokogawa Electric, YHP Hachioji, and will be produced in Japan. Shrinking linewidths spur metrology. (semiconductor firms place new emphasis on metrology and inspection systems) Advanced optical lithography equipment is reducing the size of circuit linewidths and placing new emphasis on metrology and inspection systems in fabrication lines. High-throughput inspection systems on the fab floor are replacing slower off-line analytical systems. Several companies are planning to add metrology modules to their cluster tools, which combine several fabrication processes onto a single platform featuring a central robot handler. More advanced inspection equipment is needed because defects can be one-tenth the size of linewidths, which continue to shrink. The metrology business is currently showing 17 percent annual growth. U.S. agents seize Lasarray files. (Lasarray Corp investigation by Department of Commerce over application specific integrated The US Department of Commerce seized Lasarray Corp's files during investigation of the sale of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturing equipment to the Soviet Union by Lasarray Holdings SA, a subsidiary of Lasarray Holdings AG, in 1989. The company sold another machine to a Polish company in 1990. Observers believe the investigation centers on delivery of integrated circuit prototyping machines. The Department of Commerce would not comment on the investigation. The versions shipped to the Soviet Union were reportedly downgraded to handle wet etching instead of the higher-performance plasma etching in order to meet restrictions on sale of sensitive technology to Soviet bloc nations. Grumman unit working on synchrotron. (Grumman Corp.'s Electronics Systems division) Grumman Corp's Electronics Systems division is contributing to the development of a compact superconducting synchrotron that may be available for purchase by 1994. The synchrotron would supply X-ray radiation for numerous wafer steppers in a semiconductor fabrication facility. Grumman's research is funded by the DARPA defense agency group, and is being conducted in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory. Grumman will fund more development of the synchrotron for commercial use, since that product will need to be more reliable and safe than the first compact synchrotron currently being developed. Litton to buy GI defense group. (Litton Industries, General Instrument Corp.'s Defense Systems group) Litton Industries will buy General Instrument Corp's Defense Systems group for an undisclosed sum. Observers estimate the price of the three-company group at $85 million. The acquisition is expected to add $200 million in annual revenues to Litton's Electronic Warfare Systems business. The deal does not include Undersea Systems, which was sold separately in Mar 1991. Litton is emphasizing its tactical electronic equipment for regional military conflicts over large-scale strategic military systems. The acquisition is also expected to strengthen Litton's position in the international retrofit market. Companion PC prices mixed: MS-DOS low, storage high. (the US Navy Standard Desktop Companion contract) (Analysis) The initial peripheral and software prices offered by Government Technology Services Inc (GTSI) on the US Navy Standard Desktop Companion contract show that considerable disparity exists between prices for similar items in the three PC contracts now available to Defense users. The Companion prices for many important components on the GTSI price tables are higher than prices for similar products on Unisys Corp's Desktop III and Electronic Data Systems Corp's Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) contract. Navy sources indicate that GTSI's final prices may be lower than were shown on the price tables that are now being circulated in Navy contract shops; the contract is an upgrade to the 400,000 Zenith Data Systems Z-248 PCs now in use by the Defense Department. Comparisons are provided for several specific products, including printers, memory, terminal emulators, VGA cards and monitors, and scanners. GSA insists NASA speed move to FTS. (the US General Services Administration pressures NASA to migrate from its Program Support The US General Services Administration (GSA) pressures NASA to migrate from its Program Support Communications Network (PSCN) private network to the FTS 2000 contract. PSCN supports long-distance communications between NASA centers and contractors; the GSA wants NASA to move all PSCN voice and data traffic and much of its services to FTS 2000 by Sep 30, 1991, which is two years earlier than NASA had planned. GSA Assistant Commissioner for Federal Information Resources Management Frank McDonough claims in a letter sent to NASA Associate Administrator for Management Howard Robbins that NASA is dragging its feet on migration to FTS 2000; the letter calls for NASA to develop and receive GSA approval within 120 days for a plan to move from PSCN to FTS 2000. There has been increasing pressure from Capital Hill on how FTS 2000 is being administered by the GSA. Senate calls Treasury to tax task. (the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will as the Treasury Department to account for The US Senate Governmental Affairs Committee plans a hearing on problems encountered with the IRS Tax Systems Modernization (TSM), although sources indicate committee chairman John Glenn will use the hearing to discourage Treasury Department officials from implementing a government-wide buying reform program. Glenn is concerned about efforts by the Treasury Department and the IRS to avoid federal regulations in running TSM and about the Treasury Department's apparent attempts to weaken the regulations. TSM is expected to cost between $6 billion and $10 billion through 2001; it calls for replacing older equipment and adding new applications to provide faster service to taxpayers. Treasury Department officials were accused by the committee earlier in 1991 of trying to sidestep procurement regulations and amend federal procurement procedures. Desktop III to SMC: Navy, Army may jump ship. (the US Navy and Army negotiate with Electronic Data Systems to move their PC The US Navy and Army open talks with Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) to move their microcomputer business from the Desktop III contract held by Unisys Corp to the Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) contract held by EDS. Desktop III has been plagued by backlogs and slow delivery; the Navy and Army are discussing a deal calling for orders for at least 100,000 Intel 80386-based micros to be switched from Unisys to EDS through 1994. The services want EDS to negotiate a lower price for the micros s made by Everex Systems Inc that it sells through the SMC contract in exchange. The Naval Computer and Telecommunications Command (NCTC) is leading the negotiations on behalf of the Navy and Army; the Desktop III contract is managed by the Air Force. Sources indicate that EDS plans to cut prices for its 20-MHz micro sold through SMC from 20 to 40 percent in the second year of the contract, which puts it near the price of a Unisys Desktop III PC. Silicon Graphics claims fastest RISC workstation. (the Iris 4D/400) (product announcement) Silicon Graphics Inc introduces the Iris 4D/400 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) workstation based on a MIPS Computer Systems Inc R3000A microprocessor. The Iris 4D/400 reportedly runs at 286 million instructions per second (MIPS) and 70 million floating-point operations per second; it has a clock speed of 40 MHz, which the company claims is faster than any other RISC system now sold. The new machine replaces the 4D/380 at the company's high end; it is available in two, four or eight CPU configurations and comes with two levels of graphics performance. Prices range from $64,900 to $224,900; it is expected to compete with systems from Convex Computer Corp, FPS Computing and Solbourne Computer Inc. Silicon Graphics does about 30 percent of its business with federal government agencies; agencies expected to upgrade to the 4D/400 include the Energy Department's Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory and NASA's Ames Research Center. NCI reopens super upgrade after protests. (the US National Cancer Institute terminates a contract with Lockheed Corp. to upgrade its The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancels a $39 million contract with Lockheed Corp for upgrading its supercomputer center and reopens negotiations with all five bidders following the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals' (GSBCA) decision to uphold three protests against the award made in Mar 1991. Three of the four losing bidders protested the award to Lockheed immediately after it was announced on Dec 31, 1990, claiming that Lockheed's solution was non-compliant and also the most expensive. Lockheed chose the Convex 220 as the mid-level processor and file server for the supercomputer networks; the $1.5 million systems do not meet NCI's needs for processing and storing data at 100 million floating-point operations per second, however. The protesters also claim NCI did not properly evaluate the second round of best-and-final offers and did not negotiate properly with the other bidders. GSA tests first ISDN for FTS 2000. (the US General Services Administration) The US General Services Administration (GSA) begins testing the first ISDN applications for FTS 2000. The GSA intends to develop a single ISDN interface for FTS 2000 services from AT&T and US Sprint to allow users to access ISDN services regardless of their switching device or network. GSA Telecommunications Customer Requirement Office Dir Henry Lai says the agency hopes that requiring AT&T and US Sprint to serve both AT&T and Northern Telecom switches will get the two companies to come to a single interface specification. The program is also intended to help the GSA establish automatic number identification (ANI) service to let the agency send detailed bills to agencies that show which users made calls. Phase One of the program, which began in Oct 1990, called for both AT&T and US Sprint to install primary rate interfaces (PRI) between a PBX and a switching system; Phase Two calls for each to run a PRI over each other's switches. Mini-supercomputer adds Sparc to FPS Computing's federal business. (FPS Computing Inc.'s upgrade for the Model 500 minisupercomputer) FPS Computing Inc introduces a Sparc-based upgrade for its Model 500 minisupercomputer. The Model 500 was introduced in 1988; it is a hybrid system that lets users custom configure scalar, vector and parallel processors in a single computer. The Sparc enhancement is Sun Microsystems' implementation of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology. FPS Computing VP of Marketing Stephen Campbell says the 500 Series Sparc provides supercomputer users with sustained Gflops (billion floating-point operations per second), performance and full compliance with key industry standards for the first time. The company uses Sparc microprocessors from Bit Co that use 15-nanosecond, 64-bit ECL technology; five models of the 500 Series Sparc will be offered priced from $450,000 to $4 million. Among government users of the Model 500 are the intelligence community and the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory. VA realignment nears Congressional OK. (the US Department of Beterans Affairs' information resources management reorganization) The US House of Representatives has approved the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) information resources management (IRM) reorganization proposal, and the Senate is expected to approve the plan in early Apr 1991. The House Government Operations Committee has asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to investigate the reorganization, focusing on the agency's handling of the Paperwork Reduction Act and the role of VA Assistant Secretary for IRM Edward Lewis in IRM planning, budgeting and acquisition. The agency has reorganized IRM twice since 1989, and while the second has not yet been officially approved, the VA has already moved responsibility for managing its four data processing centers from Lewis's office to the Veterans Benefits Administration, the Office of Finance and Planning and the Office of Human Resources and Administration. Report urges better use of drug-trafficking resources. (a report by the Office of National Drug Control Policy) (Agency Systems) A report from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) claims poor coordination among law-enforcement agencies hurts the Bush administration's efforts to control organized drug trafficking despite increased use of computers and border surveillance technology. The report, titled National Drug Control Strategy 1991, says the government must make maximum use of limited enforcement resources through the application of sophisticated computer technology for storing and processing sensitive data. Among current agency computer projects are the Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation's analytical support systems, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Director of Central Intelligence's Counter Narcotics Center. A companion report recommends that the Defense Department be given the lead role in border command, control and communications (C3) operations. HHS' e-mail system breaks capacity record. (the US Department of Health and Human Services' electronic mail system) (Federal The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) electronic mail system will add 80,000 users from the Social Security Administration, bringing the total number of users on the network to 120,000, the most on any single integrated e-mail system. The Electronic Mail and Message Attachment (EMMA) network is designed to let users on various e-mail systems used in the HHS to exchange messages; the Park Lawn Computer Center, which manages the network, uses software from Soft-Switch Inc to route and direct thousands of messages among HHS operating divisions daily. The software can reformat documents and translate machine characters; it also supports all levels of communications transparently, including the exchange of research documents as well as standard mail exchange and administrative paperwork transmission. Soft-Switch's Central software runs on IBM 3090 mainframes to provide EMMA's backbone connectivity. IBM's RS/6000 used as router for NSFnet. (the National Science Foundation's NSFnet) (Federal Networks) IBM adapts its RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) workstation to serve router-like functions for the US National Science Foundation's NSFnet; the product was introduced by IBM at the Navy League convention in Apr 1991. IBM is working with MCI Communications Corp and Merit Network Inc to upgrade eight nodes of NSFnet to T-3 speeds of 45M-bps. Among the circuit boards displayed by IBM at the Navy League convention were a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) card and a T-3 card; all the boards fit into the RS/6000. The boards and proprietary software for NSFnet were developed by IBM's Federal Div in Manassas, VA; while the company would not call the NSFnet product a router, it did say it performed router-like functions, although the company prefers to call it the backbone. Analysts claim there is a market for such a board in federal agencies for connecting LANs to FTS 2000, among other applications. EDI in government comes to fruition. (electronic data interchange) (Comment) (column) Electronic data interchange (EDI) has been available for several years, but it has been used primarily for purchase orders and tracking inventory to date. Government agencies face a challenge in combining electronic mail and EDI into an integrated message-handling system. EDI does not require large hardware and software investments, but it is used in government agencies primarily because it reduces the amount of paper generated in offices, allows for faster turnaround in ordering and payment, and reduces transaction costs tremendously. The US Treasury Department's Financial Management Service uses Vendor Express to pay government vendors and is pushing them to adopt an EDI format to guarantee future business with the government. Among the other government agencies planning EDI implementations are the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mead charges FERC buy gives too much leeway. (Mead Data Central protests the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's automatic Mead Data Central files a protest with the US General Accounting Office (GAO) over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) solicitation for an automatic electronic publishing system to prepare federal energy guidelines. The system is called a database management system in the RFP; the vendor selected will provide editorial preparation, data capture, file creation and other publishing services, according to the GAO decision that dismissed the protest as untimely. Mead Data Central claims the plan would let a government contractor interpret legal issues when publishing federal energy guidelines; the company is not a bidder, but it has a vested interest in the data because one of its largest operations is publishing government data in value-added form. The protest was filed initially with the Government Printing Office, which is running the procurement. Bill lets agencies gain software copyrights. (a bill pending in Congress would let federal agencies and laboratories obtain A bill pending in the US Congress would allow federal agencies and laboratories to obtain copyrights for computer software developed cooperatively with industry and would let federal employees receive royalties for licensed software. The bill is the first step in loosening federal laws dating back to 1895 that prevent government agencies or employees from receiving copyright protection for their work. The Bush administration supports the bill, which was introduced in Jan 1991 by Constance Morella; the concept of granting copyrights for federal software is included in the National Energy Strategy submitted to the Senate on Mar 6, 1991. The bill is the latest attempt by Congress to improve US industrial competitiveness through the federal laboratory system; other laws intended to encourage commercialization of government-funded research are described. OFPP finishes small business regs for feds. (the US Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy gives The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) gives the Small Business Administration (SBA) authority to pressure federal agencies to award contracts to small businesses. The OFPP recently completed government-wide goals that agencies must meet each year, including 20 percent of all prime contracts to small businesses and five percent of prime and subcontracts to small, disadvantaged businesses. The SBA is charged with determining the low-end goals for government agencies for including small business contractors based on the size of the agency and the volume of contracting. SBA Associate Administrator for Procurement Assistance Robert Moffitt says it was imperative to get the Department of Defense (DOD) to participate because it represents 70 percent of procurement dollars; 98 percent of all small-business buys are awarded by 17 agencies, topped by the Agriculture Department, the General Services Administration and the DOD. Multimedia: More than just training and education? (Tech Briefing) Danca, Richard A. Multimedia is described by Information Strategies Group Dir of Future Technology Robin Rather as any combination of voice, video, data and graphics in storable format that can be accessed and manipulated like any other computer-generated file. Rather claims that most multimedia systems now available are too expensive and lack standardization, although prices are dropping and discussions on multimedia standards have begun. The technologies multimedia requires, such as high-bandwidth networks, are expected to be available soon as well, raising hopes that new multimedia applications will soon be offered apart from the training and education tools that have long been multimedia's primary role. The US Defense Department spends more than $1 billion on audiovisual hardware and software; the agency uses from 15,000 to 18,000 interactive videodisc systems. The outlook for increased use of multimedia in government agencies and multimedia applications in development are described. NIST releases draft Open Systems Environment architecture. (the US National Institute of Standards and Technology's architecture for The US National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Systems and Software Technology Div releases the first version of a proposed Open System Environment architecture for computer-based multimedia systems. An examples document showing how existing platforms and software fit into the architecture is included in the draft, and a migration strategy document is provided that demonstrates how to move existing systems to the multimedia architecture. Organizations contributing to the architecture include the Open Software Foundation, American Systems Corp, DEC and the Interactive Multimedia Association; a workshop will be held by the NIST on the architecture before the end of Apr 1991. Government agencies are among the largest users of multimedia technology: the departments of Labor and Education are developing multimedia systems for schools and for training federal employees, and the Department of Defense has long used interactive computer-based training. MIPS beefs up Magnum line with servers, workstation. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s Magnum RC3330 and RC3350 servers and MIPS Computer Systems Inc introduces the Magnum 3000/33 workstation and Magnum RC3330 and RC3350 servers. The Magnum 3000/33 runs at 25.1 SPECmarks and has a clock speed of 33 MHz; prices start at $10,990. The RC3330 is the server version of the new workstation; it costs from $11,990. The RC3350 runs at 25.6 SPECmarks and costs from $36,500; it includes VME expansion capability for use in multiuser and client/server applications for mid-sized workgroups. Market research firm Computer Intelligence estimates MIPS' share of the federal workstation market at less than one percent, but the company hopes to increase its market share by selling the new products through its growing network of resellers, including Control Data Corp, Wang Laboratories Inc and Prime Computer Inc. MIPS has reduced the base price of the 3000/25 workstation to $7,990 and the RC3230 server to $8,990. New products position Alliant for growth. (Alliant Computer Systems Corp.'s FX/2800 hardware and software enhancements) Alliant Computer Systems Corp introduces hardware and software enhancements for its FX/2800 minisupercomputer series, including some applications intended specifically for the federal government market. Analysts claim Alliant must make more sales to government agencies in the areas of signal and image processing and archival mass storage to succeed in the long run; the company has experienced financial difficulties and management changes in the recent past. The problems began when Alliant began to migrate from its proprietary FX/Series to the FX/2800 based on Intel's i860 chips; the new system uses from eight to 28 processors and costs from $500,000 to $2 million. Among the FX/2800 enhancements to ship by the end of summer 1991 are support for the High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI) and the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standards, and increases in main memory to 4Gbytes and mass storage to 500Gbytes. Navy sub buy attracts big computer fish. (the US Navy's Surveillance Detection System contract bid on by AT&T, IBM and The US Navy's Surveillance Detection System (SDS) program intended to manipulate a datastream running as high as 36G-bits per hour from various undersea and surface sensor systems has attracted bids from industry teams led by AT&T, IBM and Lockheed Corp, and sources indicate that Hughes Aerospace Corp may also submit a bid. The first phase of the SDS contract is valued at $45 million; it calls for an advanced development model of the anti-submarine warfare command and control centers to be developed. As many as eight SDS command and control centers will be deployed by the Navy, four each in the Atlantic and Pacific. The first phase is expected to entail primarily software development; it may require about 750,000 lines of new code to handle SDS fusion functions, according to a Lockheed spokesman. The Navy will use the Desktop Tactical Computer II, which is essentially a Sun Microsystems workstation, as the SDS hardware platform. Raxco merger to target DEC market. (Raxco Software and Clyde Digital merge to create Raxco Inc. an supplier of systems software Raxco Software and Clyde Digital merge to form Raxco Inc, a supplier of systems software for DEC computers. Raxco Software had tried to merge with British firm UIS Ltd in the spring of 1990, but legal and accounting problems caused the companies to end the attempt amicably. Raxco Software provided software for VAX VMS automated operations, performance enhancement and resources management; Clyde Digital sold VAX VMS security and user support products. The new Raxco Inc claims to be the largest provider of systems management solutions for DEC VAX VMS computers; Raxco Software Sr VP Joe Loughry says that unlike the UIS Ltd merger attempt, Raxco and Clyde have very little product overlap. Raxco Inc will sell a total of 30 products used by more than 10,000 customers worldwide, about 25 percent of whom are in the federal government. Coakley tends fed paperwork garden. (Business Council for the Reduction of Paperwork Exec Dir Robert E. Coakley) Robert E. Coakley served as a Senate Government Affairs staff member when Congress established the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (PRA), and he now serves as executive director of the Business Council for the Reduction of Paperwork (BCORP), where he promotes the concepts outlined in the PRA. BCORP was founded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early 1940s as a presidential committee, but it has evolved since then into a private association intended to involve its members in the federal paperwork and regulatory process. Among its members are private corporations, state and local governments, and university research associations. Formulation of the PRA required bipartisan support to change the way government agencies handled information resources management; Coakley says the law helps government use the information age to make it easier for the public to meet regulatory needs. Workstation consortium set to rock: major vendors' Gibraltar venture will push desktop platform. (Advanced Computing A consortium of vendors, code named Gibraltar, is trying to establish a new desktop platform. The group, formally known as the Advanced Computing Environment, is seeking to compete with workstation leaders Sun Microsystems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM. Heading the consortium are Mips Computer Systems Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, Microsoft Corp, DEC and the Santa Cruz Operation Inc (SCO). Licensees and OEMs of Mips' reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) chip architecture are also members. Gibraltar is considering a platform combining Mips' new R4000 RISC chip, Microsoft's New Technology (OS/2 3.0) operating system and SCO's implementation of OSF/1, along with application software from Microsoft and SCO, a version of Compaq's Extended Industry standard Architecture bus and maybe DEC's Turbo Channel bus. Salomon CIO jumps ship. (Salomon Brothers Inc.'s Chief Information Officer Francis Dramis Jr.) Francis Dramis Jr, chief information officer of investment banker Salomon Brothers Inc, resigns to accept the position of president and chief executive officer of Network Management Inc (NMI), a systems integrator in Fairfax, VA. Dramis joined Salomon in 1989 as a managing director and president of its technology services division. He managed an information systems (IS) staff of 1,000 and most of an IS budget that in 1990 surpassed $280 million, almost 10 percent of Salomon's revenue for the year. While at Salomon, Dramis outsourced its mainframe operations to Arthur Andersen and Co. He also convinced top management that IS should be run as a separate company, and helped form Salomon Technology Services Inc. Wingz lands on Unix. (Informix Software Inc.'s Wingz for OSF/Motif spreadsheet software) (product announcement) Informix Software Inc introduces Wingz for OSF/Motif, spreadsheet software targetted for the growing Unix spreadsheet market. The $699 new Wingz version runs on workstations that feature Motif, such as the IBM RS/6000, the HP 9000 series, DEC's DECstation 2300, 3100 and 5000. Motif is the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) graphical user interface. With Wingz for OSF/Motif, Informix maintains its reputation for porting Wingz quickly to new, marketable platforms. Wingz's main attraction is HyperScript, a built-in, graphical fourth-generation language for program development. Its limitation is that it only works with Informix databases, unlike Access Technology's 20/20, which can access various distributed databases, and work on dozens of Unix platforms including those without a graphical user interface. The search for the missing link: Mac connectivity is much approved...but still not easy. (Apple Macintosh) Faced with increasing user demands for linking Macintoshes to local- and wide area networks, Apple Computer Inc tries to increase the number of platforms that can be accessed through its Data Access Language (DAL) connectivity technology, introduces Ethernet adapters for the Macintosh and signs partnerships with network software publishers. About 10 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies use Macintoshes and are seeking connectivity products, particularly device drivers, to connect their Macs into a mixed environment. Without the necessary drivers to link Macs to networks such as IBM Token-Ring-based networks, incorporating in-house application development tools is more difficult. Apple has announced its intention to use the Ethernet interface into future offerings. It has also licensed AppleTalk to Novell for integration into NetWare 3.0 for Macintosh, to Go Corp for its pen-based computing products, and to DEC for the VAX VMS operating system. AT&T Computer Systems will build application programming interfaces for AppleTalk in Unix System V 4.0 while Farallon Computing Inc will develop AppleTalk products for the MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows 3.0 markets. The IRS's $8 billion systems overhaul. (the Internal Revenue Service seeks to improve efficiency and popularity) (Cover Story) IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg has been given congressional approval to overhaul the IRS' inefficient information systems because the limitations and flaws of the tax collection system are more apparent than ever. Goldberg and his CIO Henry H. Philcox must implement this massive modernization overhaul that will ultimately cost between $6 and $8 billion while still collecting revenue. Goldberg also believes this overhaul should be a radical shift, not a gradual process, because only then will its goals of revising the tax system be accomplished. The Tax Systems Modernization (TSM) project forms the core of the comprehensive update of the agency's current paper-based system into an advanced, integrated architecture. The goal is the storage, receipt and remittances of tax returns in electronic form. Its nationwide implementation will require integrated computer systems, databases, on-line access to taxpayer information and unified tracking and control of continuing case information. Opening the gate to Japan: a U.S. marketer scores big with packaged software. (Bill Totten, founder of Ashisuto Inc., markets Bill Totten, one of the founders of Ashisuto Inc, was one of the initial distributors of prepackaged software for the Japanese market. The concept of prepackaged software was unheard of in Japan in the early 1970s because Japanese companies did not like the idea of buying someone else's code. Instead, these companies would have software customized for them. Totten helped break the cultural trade barrier within the Japanese market, and in 1990, the common resistance to prepackaged software by Japan's MIS gave way to a $70 spreadsheet program called AshisutoCalc. The software package has since become Japan's best-selling microcomputer program and has increased Ashisuto's revenue to more than $100 million, from $65 million in 1989. Ashisuto officials see Japan as the world's largest growing market for software packages. NetWare's new wares: Novell to add network management, TCP/IP support. (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) Novell Inc is planning improved network management and directory services capabilities, along with stronger TCP/IP support. The company intends to provide developers with application programming interfaces (APIs) for network management by Jul 1991. The APIs will allow developers to write local area network management applications that will be easily incorporated into Novell's changing network management architecture. Numerous network protocols, including IBM's NetView, Simple Network Management Protocol and the Common Management Information Protocol standard supported by the OSI standards board, should be able to be supported by this architecture. Novell's plans for strengthening TCP/IP support is hailed both by users and developers. The company is also completing a directory services product based on OSI's X.500 standard. DEC enters smart hub market. (DEChub 90, DECserver 90L, DECrepeater 90C, DECrepeater 90T and DECbridge 90 network hubs) DEC introduces a line of low-end smart hub products called the Desktop Interconnect Family. Included in the package is the DEChub 90, DECserver 90L, DECrepeater 90C and 90T, and the DECbridge 90 that will connect two Ethernet networks. DEC touts the new low cost products as entry-level connectivity modules that are at least one-tenth the size of other offerings. Smart hubs are intelligent wiring concentrators that connect and help manage Ethernet, token-ring and FDDI local area network (LAN) nodes or complete LANs under one system. They understand the data and can reconstruct incomplete packets or close down a network node if it is simply sending information that is not understandable to the network. Statistics on the data can also be collected by smart hubs, which then pass along the information to the network's management system. More on the floppy: perpendicular recording gives the disk more byte. (Technology) Interest in perpendicular recording technology is fueled by stories that IBM plans to introduce in Jun 1991 new PS/2 models with floppy disk drives that use the technology. Perpendicular recording is a new magnetic recording technology that allows twice the amount of information to be stored on each disk. Toshiba Corp has patented and licensed the technique. The technology uses small hexagonal platelets of barium ferrite as the recording medium. These platelets are able to be packed together uniformly on the surface of the diskette, providing a denser and more uniform recording surface. This, in turn, allows for a smaller surface area to be used to record each bit, allowing the magnetic signal to be applied perpendicularly to a point on the disk's surface, instead of as a line parallel to the disk's surface. IBM's new PS/2 models 40 and 55 are said to have disk drives capable of storing up to 2.88Mbytes of data on a 3.5-inch extra-high density floppy diskette using barium ferrite. The number of recording tracks will not change since both perpendicular and parallel recording can be accommodated by the same read/write head. The size of the head on the PS/2 can therefore remain the same. Drawing partners closer: with Repository Manager, IBM integrates tools from Business Partners. IBM, in trying to eliminate the idea that its applications development methodology is little more than a series of fragmented computer-aided software engineering tools, announces the availability of Repository/MVS 2.0 on the 3rd qtr of 1991. The product will allow dissimilar tools from its AD/Cycle Business Partners to share information. Other Business Partners announcements include: Bachman Information Systems Inc's Bachman/Database Administrator 3.1 for DB/2 running under OS/2 and Bachman/Designer for CSP, a design tool for IBM's Cross Systems Product; and Knowledgeware Inc's Applications Development Workbench/MVS and the Applications Development Workbench Repository Enablement Facility. IBM also introduced Easel Corp and Intersolv Inc as new AD/Cycle Business Partners. Easel Corp's Easel Workbench, an OS/2-based development environment is now available. Intersolv Inc, a new company that combines AD/Cycle Business Partner Index Technology Corp and Sage Software Inc, will market Sage's Polytron Version Control System, a tool that is noted for its ability to track software through the development process. From measurement to improvement. (the need to increase the business value of information technology) (Final Word) (column) Information systems (IS) management is making an attempt to recentralize certain functions of information technology (IT), after the last decade saw it go through a widespread decentralization. There are, however, few remaining avenues for influence or control. By 1995, senior IS executives will have lost control over the three main components of IT effectiveness: architecture, organizational structure and the planning process. They will be allowed to set the course, but will not be able to control the process. At issue will be the need for ensuring that the architecture be consistent with the business units' needs. In measuring IT's value to the business, Paul Strassman suggests the return on management (ROM) measure, which recognizes that IT is a management tool that can be used in the production of business value. The ROM measure, however, requires a large collection of data and expensive analyses. Currently needed is a way to explain in quantifiable terms to senior management the contribution of IT to the business, and a way to recognize the relationship between the contribution and the three remaining areas of influence: organization, architecture and the planning process. Many 386SX notebooks fail to make the weight. (notebook computers become heavier between announcement and shipment) Several 80386SX-based notebook computers ended up being heavier when they finally shipped than they were when first introduced at the Comdex trade show, with the weight gain varying from 5 ounces to more than a pound. Compaq's expensive LTE 386S/20 remains very light, but Altima's NSX is 14 ounces heavier than the pre-production model and will have to compete in the laptop rather than in the notebook class. A test using a postal scale reveals that Everex's Tempo LX and Samsung's Notemaster SX weigh in at their published weights, but the Compaq is 5 ounces heavier and AST's Premium Exec 386SX/20 is 13 ounces heavier. Vendors have varying reasons for the heavier weights. AST says the case of the model it originally showed was not strong enough, forcing it to up the weight from 6 pounds 8 ounces to 7 pounds 5 ounces. Basic for Windows set for May release. (Microsoft Corp. to introduce long-awaited Basic programming language for Windows Microsoft Corp reportedly plans to introduce its BASIC development system for the Windows graphical user interface at the Windows World Conference in Atlanta in May 1991. Beta testers say that the product lets them create Windows programs in as little as 30 minutes by constructing software from "modules". The system is code-named "Thunder", although Microsoft may be considering calling it "Visual Basic". Thunder consists of a toolbox of drawing tools for constructing completely functional Windows interfaces quickly by simply painting the screen, an event-driven language based on QuickBasic and a set of editing and debugging tools. The programming language lets users write code that adds functionality to the interface components. Thunder applications are called "projects" and consist of "forms", which are visual elements such as dialog boxes and windows, and "modules", which are code libraries that can be called by forms or by other modules. Programmers can assign any standard system event to a mouse click to create applications without writing code. Recent developments point toward new odd couple - IBM and Apple. (Apple Computer Inc, IBM Corp. looking for areas where their IBM and Apple, longtime rivals in the microcomputer market, are seeking areas where their interests are similar, especially when competing with Microsoft Corp. Apple may license the Go Corp PenPoint technology for a future Mac-based operating system; IBM has already licensed the technology. Apple also supports IBM's Advanced Peer-To-Peer Networking strategy and has joined IBM in supporting Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript technology. The relationship between IBM and Microsoft has deteriorated since 1989, and Apple is meanwhile considering making its operating system hardware independent to allow itself to directly compete with Microsoft. An internal IBM document allegedly describes the computer giant's desire to bring the OS/2 and Mac operating systems closer together. Analysts say that Apple could benefit greatly by licensing the Mac operating system to IBM but admit that such a move is unlikely. Silicon Graphics carries 3-D banner into RISC consortium announcement. (reduced instruction set computing) Silicon Graphics Inc has licensed its Graphics Library To Microsoft Corp and sold a 13 percent interest to Compaq for $135 million in a move to become the standards bearer for the newly formed Applications Computing Environment (ACE) consortium. ACE seeks to develop a standard reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's processors and will also focus heavily on software in an effort led by Microsoft. ACE is likely to include support for three-dimensional graphics in its software via the Silicon Graphics application programming interface. The Silicon Graphics Iris technology may appear in future Microsoft applications, add-ons and operating environments. Silicon Graphics will also play an important part in defining the Advanced RISC Computing Architecture (ARCA) hardware architecture. AT&T notebook taps EasyLink network. (AT&T developing Safari notebook computer that can use cellular radio links) AT&T is reportedly developing a notebook computer that will come with a wide variety of connectivity options, including the ability to tap the company's EasyLink electronic-mail paging system and cellular radio for real-time dial-up access. The machine, to be introduced Apr 22, 1991, will also offer the LAN-to-LAN communications found in current AT&T machines. None of the services it uses will be proprietary; users of other vendors' hardware will be able to access EasyLink through serial ports. The new machine, code-named 'Safari,' is being positioned primarily as a 'delivery vehicle' for the new communications services. Lotus to 'sell' cross-platform path. (Lotus Development Corp.) Darrow, Barbara. Lotus Development Corp plans to emphasize cross-platform integration in its strategy to sell such products as the Notes work group system to corporate accounts. Notes will be integrated with cc:Mail, a popular electronic mail system from the namesake firm Lotus acquired recently. A weak link in Lotus' multiplatform approach is Macintosh support. Lotus is working on a Mac version of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet and plans to incorporate the Mac desktop in a future version of Notes. The company can leverage cc:Mail and its 850,000-user installed base to build more accounts, analysts say. Windows applications will nevertheless be more important for Lotus in the near term. Novell to offer 'big picture' network view. (Novell Inc. developing centralized network management system to give managers Novell Inc is developing a new centralized management system for its NetWare network operating system that will manage third-party NetWare Loadable modules and use OS/2 Presentation Manager to provide a graphical network map. The job of managing NetWare LANs has become more and more difficult as the networks have grown, and many managers describe their job as 'crisis management' rather than as preventative maintenance. A Windows version of the NetWare console is under development, and Novell will make new application programming interfaces available to developers to let them monitor their NLMs using the network management system. Quattro Pro 3.0 boasts a powerful WYSIWYG mode. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc. Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet ) Borland International Inc's new Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet shows how DOS-based spreadsheets today can readily display fonts and graphics even if they do not use standard graphical interfaces such as Windows 3.0. Quattro Pro 3.0 offers a new WYSIWYG display mode that uses Bitstream fonts and works as a menu selection. Users can embed multiple graphics in a worksheet and annotate graphics with built-in drawing tools. The new version offers shadow text, new grids and an Align Objects command for creating better-looking presentation graphs. Quattro Pro 3.0 also has many new printing enhancements. A 'print to fit' feature reduces a spreadsheet or range to fit on a single page, and users can print spreadsheets lengthwise across several continuous pages and control the amount of shading on LaserJet printers. One disadvantage is the fact that the fonts are bitmapped rather than outline. Quattro Pro 3.0 costs $495; upgrades are $49.95 from Version 2.0, $99.95 from Version 1.0 and $129.95 from competing products. DPMI 1.0 ships for DOS application developers. (DOS Protected Mode Interface) The DPMI Committee, a consortium of major software vendors, introduces DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI), an new specification for allowing multiple applications to run on the same virtual machine. The newest version offers better memory management capabilities that take advantage of the paging and protection features of the Intel 80386 and 80486 processors. It also supports shared memory among DPMI-compliant applications and protected-mode terminate and stay resident (TSR) programs. Version 1.0 of DPMI is completely backward-compatible with version 0.9, which Microsoft incorporated in its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Consortium members say that DPMI is important in making protected-mode applications portable across multiple operating environments. IBM hopes to broaden OS/2's scope with 2.0. (IBM developing new version of OS/2 operating system) IBM plans to integrate a wide variety of technologies in is upcoming OS/2 2.0 operating system, allowing the program to transparently run Microsoft's Windows 3.0 and multitask Windows applications with its own 16- and 32-bit applications. The program will also serve as the key microcomputer platform for new client/server applications designed for IBM's largest corporate accounts. It will offer high reliability in massive corporate networks and pre-emptive scheduling capabilities. Marketing the product will nevertheless be a significant challenge because IBM has never marketed a microcomputer-based operating system in the past; Microsoft created DOS, and IBM relied on the software giant and the strength of its own additions to sell PC-DOS. IBM plans to change its strategy through a series of conferences for users, developers, and the computer press, demonstrating what OS/2 can do through third-party applications and corporate developers. VRAM solved DRAM's problems, has its own. (video RAM, dynamic RAM) Krohn, Nico. Video RAM (VRAM) chips were originally designed to eliminate the conflict between the needs of memory to refresh the frame on a monitor and of the CPU to update the same RAM to the next frame. VRAM chips today can cost two to three times as much as DRAM chips, but memory chip manufacturers are expected to introduce simpler, less costly VRAMs in 1990. Standard DRAM attempts to handle both monitor refreshing and graphics updating simultaneously, causing performance bottlenecks. VRAM separates the two functions to improve graphics speed. Making memory chips 'wider' helps speed the refreshing of today's high-resolution monitors by compensating for the increased 'depth' of the memory chips. A VRAM chip includes a 'shift register' which handles monitor refreshing independently. 486SX will 'cannibalize' 386 sales, leave 386SX market strong. (80386SX, 80486SX microprocessors) Intel Corp's upcoming 80486SX microprocessor, a stripped-down version of the high-end 80486, is likely to cut into sales of the 80386 but will leave the 80386SX as an entry-level market, according to industry analysts. The 80486SX processor will offer a price/performance ratio between that of the 80386 and 80486. Systems based on the 80486SX are expected to be priced at around $5,000, between those of the 386SX and the 486. Observers believe that the 80386SX market will remain strong, and some even expect the 386SX to 'migrate down' to the consumer market. MIPS releases 33-MHz R3000A workstations. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc. introduces new Magnum 3000/33 workstation, RC3330 RISComputer MIPS Computer Systems introduces the Magnum 3000/33, a new workstation the company claims offers slightly better price-performance ratios than Sun Microsystems' Sparcstation 2, and the RC3330 and RC3350 RISComputers, two new file servers. The Magnum 3000/33 costs $18,990 in a typical configuration with 16Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard drive and 8-bit color display. It performs 25.1 SPECmarks and 41 Dhrystone MIPS; a base configuration with 8Mbytes of RAM is only $10,990. The RC3350 RISComputer has two asynchronous serial ports, two triple-height VMEbus slots and room for up to 128Mbytes of Error Correcting Code system memory. It costs $36,500 configured with 16Mbytes of RAM and a 328Mbyte hard drive with a 150Mbyte tape drive. The RC3330 is an entry-level server available in an 8Mbyte configuration with the same hard disk for $11,990. Sun Partner lets Macs, Sparcstations swap files. (Sun Microsystems Inc. SPARCstations) (product announcement) Information Presentation Technologies Inc announces Sun Partner, a program that provides a bidirectional peer-to-peer link between Sun and Macintosh workstations connected to Ethernet via LocalTalk. Users can transparently place Macintosh drives on the Sun Open Look desktop and open them by double-clicking to display a window showing icons of the Mac folders and files they contain. Sun Partner costs $695 and will ship in Jun 1991. It allows Macs to access Sun's Newsprint network printing functions and save data in either Macintosh or SunOS format; file conversion utilities for Informix Wingz, WordPerfect and FrameMaker are provided. Run length encoding boosts effective data compression. (Tech Talk)(column) (column) Run-length encoding is a powerful technique for data compression that differs from the widely-used Huffman encoding scheme in that it simply replaces repeating characters in the original file with one instance of that character followed by a count of those characters. It can achieve very high compression ratios if there are only a few repeating characters in a file, a situation that occurs in some specialized file types in which Huffman encoding is not yet able to achieve maximum compression ratios. All data can be compressed to some degree because it contains some repetition and can be analyzed for non-random characteristics. OS/2, Windows clients tap into Vines 4.10: upgrade still lacks Macintosh, Unix support. (OS/2, Microsoft Windows) Banyan Systems Inc introduces Vines 4.10, an upgrade of its Vines network operating system which supports OS/2 and Microsoft Windows clients but still lacks support for Unix and the Apple Macintosh. Vines 4.10 supports desktops running Windows 3.0 and versions 1.2 and 1.3 of OS/2. Observers had criticized Banyan for its lack of OS/2 client support in earlier Vines versions, although there was some support for Windows clients in Vines 4.0. Banyan officials say the product has evolved significantly as a result of increased demand for Windows. Analysts say that Banyan has a 'limited window of opportunity' in which to fill such gaps as the lack of Macintosh and Unix support; otherwise it is likely to remain a 'niche player.' Vines is known for its elegant technology, which includes the StreetTalk directory services and powerful WAN support. Vines 4.10 will ship in Jun 1991 at a base price of $2,495 for a 10-user version and $7,495 for an unlimited user version that runs on the 80386 and 80486 processors. Vines SMP for symmetric multiprocessing systems will sell for $13,995. Developers address environmental issues. (microcomputer industry) Picarille, Lisa; Coale, Kristi. Computer-industry firms are beginning to recognize the importance of environmental protection and have formed a handful of organizations to further their cause. The Software Manufacturers Association, led by Dave Kinser, is focusing on the need for more environmentally conscious software packaging and hopes to work with vendors that supply 'environmentally safe raw materials' that are suitable alternatives to foam and plastic packaging. Waste generated by laser printers is one of the biggest environmental issues in the computer community, and many users are beginning to recycle cartridges and printing drums instead of consigning them to landfills. Printer manufacturers are also investigating alternative inks that cause less pollution. Multiprotocol routers facilitate LAN-to-WAN connections. (Tech Street) (column) Internetwork traffic is likely to increase by at least 50 times before 1993, and studies show that 88 percent of all sites with off-LAN traffic believe they need to connect LANs to a wide area network (WAN) based on IBM's Systems Network Architecture. Terminal emulation is the traditional way of bringing off-LAN traffic into the SNA network, but this method is very inefficient. New multiprotocol routers let companies displace the SNA backbone while connecting remote networks using DECnet, TCP/IP or a variety of other protocols. Few managers will replace their current investment in leased-line backbone networks with multiprotocol router networks, but many are likely to merge SNA networks with multiple LANs using routers. Dangerous liaisons? (what partnering with Microsoft Corp means to third-party developers) Many third-party vendors want to align themselves with Microsoft Corp to gain access to the software giant's enormous resources and influence, but many such relationships eventually sour or are only partially successful. Most 'strategic partnerships' between small software vendors and Microsoft have led to a period of harmony and significantly increased profits for the third-party vendor followed by significant disagreements and sometimes by a severing of the relationship. 3Com Corp once held 60 percent of the LAN Manager market, but has turned over its network operating systems business entirely to Microsoft. It officially states that the relationship was 'very successful,' but privately claims Microsoft took advantage of the smaller company's naive viewpoint. Ashton-Tate, HP and others have also had significant difficulties cooperating with Microsoft, and Apple's alignment with Microsoft was primarily a competitive move against IBM. Even the long-time relationship between Microsoft and IBM itself is showing signs of strain. Microsoft is not afraid of abrupt changes in tactics, and these moves sometimes alienate its strategic partners. C compilers. (Software Review) (overview of six evaluations of C language development systems)(includes related summary article) Six C-language program development systems are reviewed. C is unique for its powerful high-level systems building capability. It combines the low-level execution efficiency of assembly language with the vocabulary of a high-level language and is more versatile than languages such as COBOL and FORTRAN. Today's C compilers include complete sets of programming utilities, integrated environments and add-on libraries. Borland and Zortech both offer object-oriented programming capabilities in their implementations of C++, a superset of C. Borland's C++ 2.0 development system is rated the best of the six products overall. C compilers differ in debugging and language extension offerings. (how six C compilers were evaluated) Methods used to test and compare six C-language compilers are discussed. Performance categories include the programming environment, language extensions and debugging. A smooth, integrated programming environment earns a better grade than one with rough edges. Language extensions include object libraries and supporting functions as well as the extensions provided with the compiler. Documentation earns a better score if it is especially helpful and thorough. The average user must be able to learn the program for it to earn a satisfactory score in ease of use. Error handling reflects a program's ability to catch standard syntax errors and clearly explain the source of the problem. Support is divided into vendor support policies and the quality of support service. Value scores reflect price/performance ratios. Borland C++ Version 2.0. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') (evaluation) Borland International Inc's $495 C++ 2.0 C compiler is an extremely powerful product that supports object-oriented programming (OOP) as well as standard C. It offers an excellent programming environment that seamlessly integrates the compiler with an editor, linker and other tools. Users can buy it with a 'Resource Toolkit' that can substitute for Microsoft's Software Development Kit (SDK) in Windows development, but there are minor restrictions on which Windows modes can be used. Borland's language extensions are also excellent and include Dynamic Link Library support. Debugging, documentation and ease of use all earn excellent ratings; installation is foolproof, and there is an integrated source-level debugger. Error handling is very good, as are Borland's support policies. Getting through to Borland's technical support has become difficult in recent months. Borland C++ 2.0 is an excellent value. Lattice C Version 6.05. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') (evaluation) Lattice Inc's $250 Lattice C 6.05 C compiler is available for both DOS and OS/2, and gives users tools to develop for both real-mode DOS applications and protected-mode OS/2 applications. The package offers a full range of development tools, including an ANSI-compatible compiler, assembler, full-screen editor, source-level debugger, linker, librarian, libraries and Make utility. The programming environment earns only a satisfactory score. Users can keep four files in memory and edit two simultaneously, and there is no integrated development environment. The language extensions earn a very good score. Debugging is very good, as is documentation. Ease of use is only satisfactory; the user must learn to work with each component of Lattice C separately. Error handling is only satisfactory; careless users can lose work in the screen editor. Lattice's support policies are good, and technical support is satisfactory. Lattice C is rated a good value. MetaWare High C Version 1.61. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') MetaWare Inc's High C 1.61 C compiler, which sells for $495, lacks the functionality of competing products. Its development environment is poor; the tool set is incomplete and is not integrated. The implementation of 'near' and 'far' C keywords is not always compatible with Microsoft C, and there is only rudimentary support for Microsoft Windows; language extensions earn a 'good' score. There is no debugger in High C. Documentation is satisfactory, and ease of use is also only satisfactory. Error handling earns a good score; support policies are very good, and technical support is satisfactory. The product earns a 'poor' score for value because it costs as much as far better programs and more than some that offer more functionality. Microsoft C 6.0a. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's C 6.0a compiler is a de facto standard for microcomputer-compatible C and includes a powerful, fully-integrated 'Programmer's Workbench' development environment. The WorkBench earns an excellent score; it uses a pull-down menu interface and has good code optimization features. Language extensions earn a very good score. Debugging is very good; Microsoft has redesigned the CodeView debugger for the new WorkBench interface. Documentation is only satisfactory, but ease of use is good. Error handling earns a 'good' score. Microsoft's support policies are very good, as is its technical support. Microsoft C 6.0a earns a 'very good' score for overall value at a price of $495. Watcom C 8.0. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') (evaluation) Watcom Corp's Watcom C 8.0 C language compiler offers support for Microsoft Windows and OS/2, the ability to compile protected-mode code and a slick new 'execution profiler' optimizing tool. Express C has a fairly sophisticated integrated environment that earns a 'good' score. The language extensions are very good; Watcom C can access PC-specific functions such as BIOS operations and DOS calls. Debugging is very good, and the documentation is also very good. Ease of use earns a 'good' score; the program is not for novices, but is fairly easy to use. Error handling is satisfactory; compile-time errors are displayed on the screen but scroll away. Watcom's support policies and technical support are very good. Watcom C 8.0 is rated a 'very good' value for its $495 price. Zortech C++ 2.18. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of C language development systems in 'C compilers.') (evaluation) Zortech Inc's $450 C++ compiler supports DOS, extended DOS and Windows 3.0 application development and includes powerful object-oriented programming extensions. The development environment earns an excellent score; compilation, linking, testing and debugging are completely integrated. Zortech's language extensions are very good and include all functions needed to use Intel processors and the PC BIOS. Debugging is very good; Zortech C++ comes with four debugger versions. Documentation is very good, as is ease of use. Error handling earns a 'very good' score. Zortech's support policies are very good, and technical support is satisfactory. The program earns a 'good' score for overall value. Mind's Eye ties various objects, images to a tree structure. (Software Review) (Mind's Eye Inc. project modeling Mind's Eye Inc's Mind's Eye software package is unusual and difficult to categorize; it is essentially an image database with hypertext and object-oriented programming features connected to a tree structure. The user begins by creating a project model with an outline-style tree and assigning various attributes to each object. The user can display graphics, attributes or text with mouse clicks. Users can define classes of objects or individual objects and total the results of all items within a class. Combining these elements lets the user create a wide variety of applications without actual coding, but the program is very difficult to learn and inadequately documented. It sells for $695 and requires at least an 80286 machine. A professional, networkable version of Mind's Eye costs $2,995. Fifth Generation's Mace Express Collection cuts Mace Utilities down to bite-size pieces. (Fifth Generation Systems Inc's Mace Fifth Generation Systems' Mace Express Collection is a 'downsized' version of the company's popular Mace Utilities package that separates Mace Utilities into four separate products. Mace Prevention includes the Power Out Protection (POP), RxBak and Unformat utilities; Mace Format combines Unformat and Rxbak with the Format and Undelete programs. Mace Recovery revolves around the Emergency Room automatic disk-recovery utility, and Mace Performance 'tunes' hard disks and floppies. Each packages costs $69. Ventura for Windows utilities bring back features found under GEM. (Software Review) (Ventura Publisher add-ins) (evaluation) Edco Services offers three add-in utilities for the Windows version of Ventura Publisher that were found in the early GEM version but are missing from the current Windows implementation. The Edco Dictionary offers better hyphenation control than the Houghton-Mifflin dictionary that comes with the Windows and Macintosh versions of Ventura. LetrTuck lets users edit the Ventura font tables, which Windows normally locks users out. It also includes a non-WYSIWYG kerning editor. Each of the three products sells for $99. GeoWorks brings windowing environment to IBM XTs, ATs. (Software Review) (GeoWorks Ensemble) (evaluation) GeoWorks Inc's GeoWorks Ensemble is a graphical user interface that can run on low-end 8088- and 80286-based microcomputers. It offers three distinct work modes: Appliances, Professional and DOS Programs. Appliance mode displays a window designed for novice users; its format is extremely simple and includes such easy-to-use desktop tools as a planner, address book, calculator and notepad. The Professional window does real work and has such GUI features as multitasking capabilities, tear-off menus and hierarchical 'cascading' menus. GeoManager is the default start-up application; it manages a variety of DOS programs and functions much like Windows' File an Program Managers. The suite of bundled applications includes GeoWrite, a capable word processor; GeoDraw, which is similar to MacDraw and CorelDraw; GeoPlanner, a personal scheduler; GeoDex, an electronic card file; and GeoComm, a simple communications program. Performance earns a 'good' rating. Documentation, ease of learning and ease of use are very good, although the inability to multitask DOS applications is a serious weakness. GeoWorks has good support policies and provides very good technical support. The Ensemble lists for $199.99 and is a very good value. Crosstalk Communicator is easy on the pocketbook. (Software Review) (Digital Communications Associates Inc's downsized Digital Communications Associates' $99 Crosstalk Communicator is a downsized version of the company's popular Crosstalk communications package that incorporates most of the best features of its high-end sibling and supports eight communications protocols, including Zmodem. It is very easy to use and features 13 terminal emulations. Performance earns a 'very good' rating, and documentation is good. The package uses a subset of the powerful CASL script language found in the top-of-the-line Crosstalk Mk.4 and includes a built-in text editor, script compiler and Learn mode; the documentation does not thoroughly cover CASL. Ease of learning and ease of use are both very good. Error handling earns a very good rating. DCA has very good support policies, and its support also earns a very good rating. Crosstalk Communicator is rated an excellent value. Reports of Next's demise have been greatly exaggerated. (Software Review) (Next Inc.)(Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) Many computer industry insiders believe that NeXT Inc has been a failure because it has not obtained a significant share of the workstation market since Steve Jobs founded it in 1985. NeXT has failed to gain enough industry attention to truly launch a new platform and has only sold 8,000 units of its original Nextcube machine. The company is nevertheless now working hard to persuade the computer industry that it is not about to die. It has sold 9,500 of its two newest NextStation machines in four months, a figure exceeding DEC's unit shipments. IBM sold 12,000 of its RS/6000 workstations in the same period, but many of these were 'placed' as evaluation units. No new platform has ever become successful on the basis of support from a vendor consortium, and NeXT is aware of the steps it must take to make a system a standard. A machine that will sell well must have real value for customers, and problems with it must be fixed as rapidly as possible. A company creating a new platform must also raise large amounts of capital. NeXT initially failed to take these steps, but has done so with the introduction of its NeXTstation line. WANs: Are they to big and too slow to play with your LANs? (Enterprise Computing - monthly supplement)(wide area networks) Many LAN managers find dealing with wide area networks (WANs) a shocking experience because such WANs as IBM's SNA are old, large and slow, from a LAN perspective. Performance bottlenecks caused by bridges and other devices can be resolved, but compatibility tends to be a problem. Client/server architectures and open systems are not a panacea for in-house application development problems, and LAN/WAN connectivity is inherently difficult. Many experts point to network management as the greatest single hurdle in managing enterprise networking. Security is also a thorny issue in WAN environments. Frame relay, which combines the X.25 packet switching standard with time division multiplex (TDM) circuit switching, is an emerging technology that promises to solve many WAN performance and management problems. Managers struggle to connect disparate E-mail systems. (Enterprise Computing - monthly supplement)(network managers) More and more companies are installing LAN-based electronic mail systems to handle their office communication needs, but a corporation can quickly find itself with a variety of disparate and incompatible systems that leave network managers struggling to provide connectivity between departments and workgroups. The X.400 standard, a set of E-mail standards agreed upon by the Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) of the International Standards Organization (ISO), is the most widely used standard for linking divergent messaging systems. Many microcomputer-based E-mail vendors provide X.400 gateways, but most use proprietary protocols that prevent managers from making X.400 into an 'absolute' standard. Client/server-based E-mail uses a three-layer model in which the application resides on top of a messaging engine or 'mail transport' function and a set of gateways to connect the E-mail application to other software. Connectivity aspects are often the most important element in a company's selection of an E-mail program, but some firms that have not yet faced the difficulties of linking different E-mail systems can choose on the basis of what features they need. System managers agree that microcomputer-based E-mail is here to stay. T1 links help manage voice conversations and data. (Enterprise Computing - monthly supplement)(T1 communications) Users who have difficulty transferring valuable data between sites on dial-up modems or who are annoyed by the costs of standard telephone connections may want to consider leasing a dedicated T1 line to handle both voice and digital data communications. T1 lines originated as voice lines but can carry data easily because they are already digital. A T1 line is a private, point-to-point pipeline for digital transmission and is designed for one-way communications. It is suitable for long distances and offers moderate speed of 1.544M-bps. T1 can handle voice and data simultaneously because it consists of 24 'channels,' each of which transports 64K-bps. Each channel can handle one high-quality voice conversation or one 64K-bps data link. Users must connect each end of a T1 line to a 'multiplexer' or 'channel bank,' which is usually built into an equipment rack. Not all businesses need the full capacity of a T1 channel. 'Fractional T1' service splits the bandwidth of a single T1 line among several customers. Controlling protocol confusion. (local area network protocol buyer's guide) (buyers guide) Companies need to select a common transport protocol structure that supports the various data traffic and different applications that run on the wide variety of local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Many multiprotocol software products exist on the market that enable network managers to interconnect different networks supporting various protocols. The several network- and transport-layer protocols run on the physical and data-link layers of Ethernet and token-ring LANs. Most protocols in use are of an open nature, and the proprietary products, such as Apple's LocalTalk, are being used less and less. Limitations to internetworking of different protocols is limited by media access control-layer differences including maximum frame size and source routing. These limitations are overcome by careful protocol- and bridge-layer operations tuning. LAN-minded user bidding adieu to host. (Turner Corp. switches to local-area networks and parallel computing) Turner Corp switches from using an IBM 4341 mainframe computer and Series 1 minicomputers to a company-wide local area network (LAN) based on parallel computing and network-based applications running in tandem. The downsizing effort has been proceeding since 1985. The LAN allows users to access applications more easily and lets them use microcomputer-based programs. Turner uses Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system and high-speed dial-up modems for access to the the host computer. There are 1,500 microcomputers operating on 40 interconnected Ethernet LANs with file servers that run VINES. Turner used to use IBM Series 1 minicomputers supporting terminal access on leased lines. Many applications now used are off-the-shelf products, but those that are unique to Turner are developed using Revelation Technologies Inc's Revelation data base management system. User does the 'impossible' in solving the LAN bridge woes. (Washington Square Capitol Inc. implements a local area network Washington Square Capital Inc links two Novell Inc NetWare local area networks (LANs) that support different routing protocols by using a bridge that translates packets sent between the networks. The investment firm develops with Novell a method of communicating with its parent company that utilizes three token-ring networks. The company's departmental LANs run Advanced NetWare and its workstations support Novell's Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) protocol. Washington Square Capital Inc itself has a token-ring backbone that connects eight Advanced NetWare LANs, but requires packet translation because the parent company employs source routing techniques. Novell supplied IBM Token-Ring W/AT II 2.5 drivers and IBM Token-Ring cards, which act as the protocol translators. One card is configured for IPX/SPX with source routing and the other is set up only for IPX/SPX. DEC, Novell plot new management courses; DEC to bring system management functions under EMA umbrella. (DEC's Enterprise DEC announces it is combining system management features into its Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). DEC's DECmcc Director network management software product will now contain system management functions enabling DECmcc Director users to manage VAX and other processor platforms, applications, data bases and storage media from a central site. DEC plans to develop expert systems that can load and unload new software, backup files or restart failed systems automatically. DECmcc Director gathers management information from devices on a network, and DEC plans to expand this capability to gathering data from computing systems. DECmcc Director is also capable of determining whether alarm conditions exist or if processing performances are faulty by processing incoming data. DECmcc Director exists in VMS versions, and DEC plans to release Ultrix versions later. Novell said to be at work on systems and network control architecture: DEC, Novell plot new management courses. Novell Inc plans the development of a new network management architecture that supports central management of NetWare local area networks (LANs) and other LANs throughout a business. Novell and third-party vendors plan to offer a central-site integrated manager in addition to NetWare Loadable Modules. The new architecture supports connectivity with other network management systems including IBM's NetView and it supports protocols such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). Development of the architecture involves Novell releasing a set of application program interfaces and management product development tools, then later helping developers port those applications to the central management system. Novell also introduces plans to develop an X.500 protocol-based naming service. Continental Grain redraws its global network map. Crockett, Barton. Continental Grain Co switches to a private international data and voice communications network that saves the company enough on operating costs to pay for itself in just over one year. The company is implementing a combined compressed voice and data network on a digital backbone that ties together its foreign offices. A 128K-bps fiber connects Continental Grain's New York headquarters to a hub in Geneva, Switzerland. From the European hub, 64K-bps lines branch out to other European cities. The new network replaces a combination of international switched voice and public electronic mail systems. The network employs Republic Telecom Systems Corp multiplexors that handle voice compression. The data channels are handled by Banyan Systems Inc's local area networks (LANs). TI irons out wrinkles in its worldwide EDI system: pilot test shows net not yet completely fail-safe. (Texas Instruments Inc., Texas Instruments Inc's electronic data interchange (EDI) network, employing the X.400 protocol, proves to be a satisfactory system for the company's electronic mail needs. The network provides users with global accessibility and the ability to transmit compound documents over a single channel. The company experiences a few problems with the network including addressing difficulties and linking obstacles with value-added networks (VANs). Trading partners that Texas Instruments communicates with have not settled on a standard addressing scheme. VANs are necessary when sending X.400 messages to non-X.400 compliant systems; the problem for Texas Instruments arises from the fact that many VANs are not interconnected. Another problem Texas Instruments faces is the lack of trading partners that have X.400 systems implemented. The new technology is expensive and is considered to be a pioneer technology. Feds serve up GOSIP 2.0 mandating use of ISDN, VT. (Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile, Integrated Services Digital The government releases the second version of the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) network protocol. Under terms of GOSIP 2.0, federal network managers must purchase equipment that supports the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards for Virtual Terminal and End System-to-Intermediate System (ES-IS) routing protocols. Virtual Terminal support allows workstations in multivendor networks to connect with several hosts. The ES-IS routing protocol eliminates the need for static ES-IS routing tables normally required when computers on a network, end systems or intermediate systems need to locate each other. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is the main creator of the GOSIP requirements. DEC to enter hub market with Ethernet concentrator. (DEC's DEChub 90 network hub) (product announcement) DEC introduces its $890 DEChub 90 network hub. The smart hub measures 12 by 17.5 by 6.5 inches including fitted modules. The modules are the size of elongated videocassettes. DEChub 90's port modules can be used separately from the hub when used with their own power supplies. The modules can be taken out of and inserted into the hub without disturbing the network's function. The modules are linked by a serial network management bus. Two hubs may be daisy-chained in order to share network management. DEC's DECrepeater 90T, a 10BaseT Ethernet interface, and DECrepeater 90C, supporting up to six thin-wire coaxial connections, are available for the DEChub 90 device. DEChub 90 does not feature specific hub management software nor does it have port locking or eavesdrop-blocking security features. Users criticize LECs' first rate reductions under price cap plan. (local exchange carriers) Interstate access charge reductions totalling $177 million made by the Bell regional holding companies and five independent local carriers do not satisfy customers and long-distance carriers. The FCC sets price caps for the Bell holding companies rather than limiting the profits made by the telephone companies, but the regulation also sets a ceiling on profits. The carriers meanwhile are seeking increases in charges for services including special access to leased lines. Theses charges account for up to 50 percent of long-distance telephone calls. Future price caps are determined by a variety of economic variables included in a complicated pricing formula. Vendors join to build standard RISC architecture. (reduced instruction set computer) A consortium comprising Compaq Computer Corp, Digital Equipment Corp, Microsoft Corp, MIPS Computer Systems Inc, Santa Cruz Operation Inc, Banyan Systems Inc and nearly 35 additional vendors plan to develop a reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based workstation architecture. The new architecture, based on MIPS' R4000 microprocessors, is aimed at competing with workstations produced by Sun Microsystems Inc and IBM. The development of a standard operating system and workstation architecture is expected to stimulate the production of off-the-shelf workstation applications. Banyan's contribution is seen as important because of the need to develop local area network (LAN) support for the workstations. Novell Inc is expect to join the consortium eventually. Du Pont to insist vendors support ODA specification: will eliminate need for gateways, translators. (E.I. du Pont de Nemours EI du Pont de Nemours and Company Inc switches from a proprietary data transmission system to the Open Document Architecture (ODA) standard developed by an OSI consortium. ODA enables du Pont to send and receive compound documents across different systems faster and for less than its previous proprietary system. DEC, IBM, Unisys Corp, ICL Inc, Compagnie des Machines Bull, and Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG compose the OSI consortium. The consortium is expected to produce a toolkit to help developers create applications that support the ODA standard. DEC is to provide technology from its Compound Document Architecture for the toolkit, which is due to be released in 1993. Intergraph offers PC CAD users NetWare, DB2 link. (personal computer, computer aided design, IBM DB-2 data base management Intergraph Corp introduces its $2,000 to $6,000 Intergraph NetWare network operating system that is a version of Novell Inc's similar product NetWare. Intergraph NetWare allows Intergraph Unix-based InterPro workstations or InterServe servers to be used as CAD/CAM file and print servers for microcomputers on a NetWare local area network (LAN). Intergraph also introduces its $50,000 to $225,000 RISDIL data base management system. RISDIL enables users of Intergraph workstations or servers to access data on remote IBM DB-2 data bases residing on IBM System 370 or System 390 mainframe computers. Western Digital plans to sell LAN business to SMC: SMC to get token-ring adapter card technology. (Standard Microsystems Corp.) Standard Microsystems Corp (SMC) plans to buy Western Digital Corp's (WD) local-area network business for $33 million. The buy-out gives the firm WD's adapter board business and technology for its token-ring adapter card products. WD is to also produce LAN boards for SMC for a year. The move enables WD to focus on operations such as its semiconductor and disk drive manufacturing. Both companies are to work on developing next-generation Large-Scale Integration (LSI) chips for LAN adapter boards. SMC, a newcomer to the Ethernet adapter card market, sees the acquisition as expediting its entry into the LAN market. IDCMA reverses its Tariff 12 opposition. (Independent Data Communications Manufacturers Association Inc.) The Independent Data Communications Manufacturers Association (IDCMA) wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to offer Tariff 12 deals to independent equipment manufacturers and Systems integrators. IDCMA, which was once a critic of Tariff 12, wants systems integrators and independent equipment manufacturers to compete in crafting Tariff 12 network deals. The group wants the FCC to require AT&T to inform customers that Tariff 12 offers are not a condition for purchase of AT&T equipment. IDCMA wants AT&T to set up a group to work with vendors and systems integrators in putting together Tariff 12 deals. The group had previously criticized Tariff 12 as a bulk discount offering which was geared towards selective customers. Telecom to play vital part in U.S. role in world mart: study says technology is key to future success. (Council on Competitiveness A report from the Council on Competitiveness claims that a setback of US firms is their failure to transform generic technologies into salable products. The report suggests that the US government, corporations and universities cooperate to stifle this backslide. The study urges a new national telecommunications strategy that ensures that an infrastructure will be created to support advanced technologies that are of significance to US Commerce. The study emphasizes the significance of wireless technology, not only for its commercial potential, but its productivity improvement and cost reduction. The study urges the Federal Government to prioritize technology by increasing federal funding of research and development in generic technologies. Dissatisfied users looking beyond Bells. (Bell Operating Companies) Large telecom users are switching traffic from Bell operating companies to alternative access carriers. Users claim the alternative carriers offer cheaper and more reliable access service and solve problems faster than the Bell operating companies. Some users switched to the alternative carriers solely for diverse routing while others use the carriers for disaster recovery and improved responsiveness. An industry analyst in Chicago claims that he received nine times as many trouble tickets on Illinois Bell provided local access than on Metropolitan Fiber Systems. Illinois Bell is organizing its accounts representatives into Quality Service Teams to improve the firm's services to users. Big long-distance carriers moving to postalized rates. Briere, Daniel. Long distance pricing standards are being changed by carriers from mileage-based to fixed rates. The fixed or postalized rate is a single rate to a foreign country regardless of the origin of the call. Long distance carriers previously charged customers different rates for coast to coast calls. The advantages of a flat rate pricing is that it is easy to bill, maintain, evaluate and program around. MCI Communications and AT&T are among the large carriers that are introducing fixed rates for services. MCI's Preferred services charge a flat 22 cents a minute for daytime long distance calls from anywhere in the US. Some carriers are also providing regionalized international calls. US Sprint Communications Co has introduced the Sprint World offering, a 59 cent flat rate effective during economy period. The offering is good for calls to 23 European countries. DECmcc Director Version 1.1 expected this month: release follows two-month development delay. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (product Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) introduces the DEC Management Control Center (DECmcc) an integrated network management software which features notification functions that enable software to deliver an electronic mail message to network operators. The VMS-based Version 1.1 is the hub of DEC's Enterprise Management Architecture. Version 1.1 features a graphical user interface which complements the command-line user interface. The software package includes a feature which enables a user to split a network into many management domains, each having network elements such as multiplexers and modems. Tariff 12 savings let firm upgrade its net. (Litton Industries Inc.) Litton Industries uses the savings from a Tariff 12 contract to upgrade its network from a 56K-bit per second backbone to a nationwide T-1 network. The company, which operates two data centers, had a cost savings of 30 to 35 percent from Tariff 12 services. The data centers are outfitted with IBM and IBM compatible mainframes which support Systems Network Architecture (SNA) 3270-based applications for Litton Industries and 500 customers. The T-1 network provides a bandwidth for imaging applications used by Litton engineers for engineering drawing. The company will use local network interconnection, another bandwidth-intensive application, for Litton users and its outsourcing business. DG, Action Tech to port MHS to DG's Aviion line. (Data General Corp., Action Technologies) (NetWare-based Message Handling Action Technologies and Data General Corp (DG) are to port Novell Inc's NetWare-based Message Handling Service (MHS) to DG's Aviion Unix-based workstations. DG will port MHS to its Aviion line of Unix systems and Action Technologies will use the resulting code to port MHS to other Unix systems. MHS for Unix systems provides users with a single messaging system that covers Unix and DOS environments. The port also provides messaging compatibility in a mixed Unix/DOS environment. Although Action Technologies sold control of MHS to Novell, the company has the right to port MHS to other platforms. Version 4.10 of VINES will support OS/2 and Windows. (Banyan VINES 4.10) (product announcement) Banyan Systems Inc introduces VINES 4.10, a network operating software package which features support for client systems running Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 and OS/2. Vines 4.10 marks the first time that Windows 3.0 will interact with VINES. VINES 4.10 features a VINES driver for Windows 3.0. Banyan hopes to provide VINES interoperability with Novell Inc's NetWare, IBM's LAN Server and Microsoft's LAN Manager. The 4.10 supports both IBM OS/2 and Microsoft OS/2 Extended Edition clients. Banyan is also increasing interoperability of VINES with other systems by expanding its developer tool kit. This enables developers to build applications that can be shared by disparate networks. Apple licenses DAL language to 5 firms. (Apple Computer Inc.) (Data Access Language) Apple Computer Inc is to broaden Macintosh connectivity by licensing its Data Access Language (DAL) to five companies. The licensing gives users access to a plethora of data base management systems running on mainframes, minicomputers and local-area network servers. The companies that have licensing from Apple include Novell Inc, Data General Corp and Tandem Computers Inc. Others are Blythe Software Inc and Pacer Software. Apple's new DAL server for A/UX gives clients access to data base information on A/UX servers. Apple's DAL server for IBM's MVS/VTAM version supports IBM's CICS and Advanced Program-to-Program Communications. The latter version provides Macintosh users access to IBM's mainframe data bases. Tribe net hub for the Mac boasts high throughput. (Tribe Computer Works LocalSwitch) (product announcement) Tribe Computer Works introduces the LocalSwitch, a $3,495 16-port hub for Apple Macintosh networks which maximizes up to 16 times the throughput of Macintosh networks. LocalSwitch directs traffic between points on an Apple LocalTalk network instead of broadcasting it throughout the network. The point to point connections prevent information from passing on to an unintended station. Apple LocalTalk networks feature a star topology which operates at 230K-bit per second. LocalSwitch may replace traditional hubs such as Farallon Computing' s StarController. CrossComm enhances ILAN routing and management. (CrossComm Corp.) CrossComm Corp adds support for its IEEE 802.5 Source Routing Transparent standard to its ILAN bridge/router unit. The enhancements enable users to link token-ring local-area-networks (LANs) supporting IBM's source routing protocol or to establish a link between networks supporting the SRT protocol from a single ILAN unit. The enhancements allow users with both IBM Token-Rings and non-source routing equipment from other vendors to share the same enterprise network. CrossComm's ILAN has also been enhanced to support IBM's LAN Manager network software. The company's ILAN software has been enhanced to support 4M-bits and 16M-bit per second token-ring networks in any combination. Netware utility gathers data about node configurations. (Magee Enterprises Inc.'s Network HQ) (product announcement) Magee Enterprises Inc introduces Network HQ, a $395 per server utility program for Novell Inc's network. The software package provides network managers with configuration, inventory and node information for each workstation. Network HQ which is resident on a Netware file server compiles data about each workstation as it is logged onto the network. The software package spares network managers the trouble of checking each workstation to find information. It also allows the manager to look into a file on the server to ascertain the machine type, user name, manufacturer, processor, base and extended memory, installed device drivers and physical connection. User enlists help of AT&T in readying EDI partners: one-stop shopping service speeds EDI growth. (Electronic Data Interchange) Pratt & Whitney (P&W) is using AT&T's EDI Enterprise Program to off-load the sale and implementation of services to trading partners. AT&T establishes the end-to-end EDI link with new business partners and then turn them over to P&W. The agreement allows P&W to better run and manage the firm's internal EDI program. P&W, which is the jet engine division of United Technologies, is using the EDI program to minimize the time between order and delivery of a jet engine and to whittle down the massive amount of documents sent annually to suppliers. The agreement allows for an AT&T program manager to coordinate the customer's EDI project and help the customer design a plan for making EDI connections. Firms measure value of IS/net investment. (Information Systems) Eckerson, Wayne. US firms are evaluating the effects of their Information Systems (IS) investments. The firms are using end-user surveys and audits to ascertain the contribution of IS in achieving business strategy. Sea-Land Service set up a system review team to make the rounds of corporate sites globally on a rotational basis to ascertain if IS firms are getting full value for their investments. The team observes the organizational structures, business practices, systems and use of systems during two weeks of review. Hanover Corp evaluates its business systems through a 30-day assessment method known as 'Quick Strike'. Quick Strike is a thorough assessment of IS performance within a business unit or division. Satellite firm IDB plans to offer int'l switched voice: carrier to utilize U.S., foreign public net switches. (international; IDB IDB Communications Group Inc plans to offer international public switched voice services in 1991. The firm will use its satellite facilities to send and terminate switched traffic through US and foreign carrier public network switches. IDB, which provides international network services through the International Business Services (IBS) facilities, is facing a restriction in providing private nets to nations lacking fiber optic facilities. The restriction bars satellite service providers from using IBS facilities to offer switched services or to off-load IBS traffic onto the public network. IDB hopes to petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to offer public switched services to some countries. The firm plans to offer public switched services to Eastern Europe and Russia via Intersputnik facilities. Although there is a restriction on using Intersputnik facilities, the restriction is soon to be removed by the FCC and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. Firm uses fractional T-1 to tie int'l sites. (international; LSI Logic Corp.) LSI Logic Corp replaces its 9.6K-bit per second backbone network with a fractional T-1 net to speed the design process and shorten time to market for its prototype chip designs. The network will be replaced with 128K-bit per second fractional T-1 lines to link the California-based firm with sites in Europe and Canada. Traffic between LSI's Milpitas headquarters and branches of the company is growing at a rate of 100Mbytes a month and the old network lacked the capacity. A company spokesman adds that the old network could not keep pace with the firm's recent migration from a mainframe to a workstation environment. Shipper plans international net to support OLTP-based applications. (International Shipper Distribution Services Ltd.) International shipper Distribution Services Ltd (DSL) plans to install a global network to support Online Transaction Processing-based applications. The first phase of the network goes on-line in Jul 1991. DSL plans to cut over the dedicated 56K-bit per second links between the company's South Gate, California headquarters and branches in Taiwan, Taipei and Hong Kong. The firm's increasing mound of paper work from the Far East will now be handled electronically. The new network will also enhance DSL's bar code-based package tracking and electronic data interchange applications (EDI) to operate in real time. DSL hopes to support 70 percent of its business transactions through EDI and is introducing a new bar-coding application that relies on radio-based, hand-held bar code scanners to communicate data to host computers. Apollo workstations double as servers. (Hewlett-Packard's Apollo Systems Division) (Series 720, 730, and 750) (product Hewlett Packard's Apollo division introduces the HP Apollo 9000 Series of workstations featuring HP's reduced instruction-set computing technology. The 720 server costs $15,990 while the 730 and 750 costs $23,990 and $39,690 respectively. The workstations come bundled with a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol software package and an Ethernet adapter board. The software package and board combination enable the workstations to act as file or computer servers for Unix-based workstations. The model 720 and 730 feature an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA). The 720 performs 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) and features an internal 400Mbytes disk which is expandable to 840Mbytes. Both the 720 and 730 support up to 10Gbytes of external storage. The 750 server features 660Mbyte of internal disk expandable to 2.6Gbytes and features 76 MIPS. Firm touts front end for SQL server. (Systems Union Inc.) (Structured Query Language) Systems Union Inc is to introduce a new version of its Sun Systems financial management software package. Sun Systems serves as a front end for Microsoft Corp's structured query language (SQL) server relational data base. Users can store accounting data in the SQL data base format making access possible by other SQL-compliant tools such as spreadsheets. Sun Systems provide client/server architecture to multinational corporations that are downsizing to OS/2 LAN-based financial systems. Sun Systems is grouped into two modules, the Sun Account module and the SunBusiness module. The SunAccount features accounts payable, general ledger, accounts receivable, costs projects and clients. The business module handles single or multicurrency invoicing, sales order processing and inventory control. Sun Systems adhere to international accounting standards. Licenses for SunAccount and SunBusiness range from $7,000 to $25,000 depending on the operating system, number of users and CPU size. Davox beefs up predictive dialing system features. (Davox Corp.) Messmer, Ellen. Davox Corp is adding features to its line of intelligent workstations and predictive dialing systems. The offerings include Data Manager II, a system software package which provides power and ease of use to the transfer of Computerized Autodial System (CAS) 500. The Data Manager II also supports a new Alternate Agent Position feature. The Alternate Agent Position (AAP) costs $500 per agent position and enables agents connected to the system to surpass the number of active agents. The CAS Remote Agent software feature enables customers to position agents off-premises with the functions and features available to local agents. The CAS Remote Agent ranges from $350 to $800 per agent. Future networks will take a big RISC. (Reduced-instruction-set computers) Future networks will be based largely on the high performance Reduced-Instruction-Set Computer (RISC) technology. RISC chips are becoming cheaper and are powering workstations under $10,000. Industry trends show that RISC-based workstations will be as low as $5,000. The technology is also being applied to communications processors and laser printers. Proteon Inc's RISC-based CNX 500 router offers 25K packet per second of routing performance. Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet IIIsi features the powerful AMD 29000 processor which enables the printer to process 17 pages per second. Adobe Systems Inc's Postscript capability enables the LaserJet IIIsi to print 15 PostScript pages per second. Industry analysts predict that the LAN of the future will be powered by RISC-based workstations, printers and peripherals. New alliance in computer chips. Markoff, John. The US computer industry builds alliances by supporting particular microprocessor architectures. Microprocessor architectures are a rapidly changing technology in 1991, and computer makers are scrambling to support a particular style of computing. The MIPS Computer Systems R4000 microprocessor gains considerable attention; DEC, Microsoft Corp and Compaq Computer Corp are expected to announce their support for the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor on Apr 9, 1991. Industry observers believe the consortium, called the Advanced Computing Environment, which is building around the MIPS microprocessor will suffer from internal divisions. Computers based on the chip will not be available in quantity until the mid-1990s. PC industry giants banking on RISC; key players enlist Silicon Graphics. Silicon Graphics Inc makes agreements with a new computer alliance, hoping to influence the style of computing in the 1990s. Industry observers believe the software publisher's graphics technology may become a widely accepted standard. Compaq Computer Corp, a member of the new alliance, will purchase 13 percent of Silicon Graphics for $135 million; the computer maker is also expected to announce that it will pay Silicon Graphics $50 million for a joint development and exchange agreement. Analysts believe the new financial arrangements for Silicon Graphics will help it accelerate the development of a graphics technology that has failed to become a widely accepted standard. Group to ensure Intel compatibility. (PC industry giants banking on RISC) The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) consortium, a computer industry alliance that is committed to the MIPS Computer Systems Inc reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor, is expected to indicate that it will encourage compatibility with Intel Corp microprocessors. Microsoft Corp's participation in this alliance is essential, and industry observers believe that Microsoft's future NT OS/2 high-end operating system will make the compatibility between the MIPS microprocessors and the Intel architecture possible. ACE indicates that its aim is to provide seamless migration between chip architectures; it plans to give details on its aims and objectives on Apr 9, 1991. Symantec trio signals major push into Windows. (Symantec's JustWrite, On Target and Norton Backup programs) Symantec Corp plans three new products that utilize the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The products are: the Norton Backup utility program; the On Target project management system; and the JustWrite word processing program. The $199 JustWrite program is expected to include high-end features such as automatic table-of-contents generation, WYSIWYG, and other functions that allow users to create larger and more complicated documents. On Target is an entry-level program that does not require technical expertise; Symantec hopes the product will create a new market. The Norton Backup program will provide unattended and automatic backups of hard-disk files onto rewritable optical disks and floppy disks. NewWave Office upgrade sports work-flow agent. (Hewlett-Packard Co's NewWave Office 3.0) Hewlett Packard Co's NewWave Office 3.0 is expected to have new work flow automation capabilities, compatibility with HP's Portable NetWare implementations and almost a dozen new third-party applications. The upgraded office automation software package will give users a more modular suite of applications and will wean them away from reliance on HP's proprietary server platforms. The new work-flow automation capability is known as Process Automation and links NewWave agents, which are capable of recording and repeating steps in routine computing tasks, to NewWave Mail electronic mail software. IS sounds cautionary note on end-user programming. (information-system departments) Program development software becomes increasingly more available to end users, but the information systems (IS) departments of corporations are reluctant to relinquish control over program development. New point-and-click graphical programming tools, including products from Borland International Inc, Oracle Corp and Software Publishing Inc, are getting much attention; rave reviews are tempting end users to create their own software and promising IS departments a solution to their backlog of applications. Some argue that the new program development software is a natural and useful development in the industry while others argue that the new software still requires too much training. Toshiba masters color in pricey portable. (Hardware Review) (Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s T3200SXC portable Toshiba America Systems Inc's $8,999 T3200SXC portable computer is capable of producing a color display as crisp as a desktop machine. The 17-pound portable is based on the Intel Corp 20 MHz 80386SX microprocessor and is the first portable computer to rival the quality of most cathode-ray tubes (CRTs). The machine has a active-matrix, thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (LCD) that creates a bright and clear screen. The screen provides wide angles of view but does not have the full palette of VGA colors. Another disadvantage to the portable computer is that it requires an AC power supply and cannot run on batteries. The T3200SXC performed on par with typical 80386SX-based portable computers. IBM plans tool kit to port Windows apps to OS/2 2.0. Sherer, Paul M. IBM plans a program development software program that will port Windows 3.0 graphical user interface-based applications to the OS/2 2.0 operating system. IBM announces that the software will be based on Micrografx Inc's Mirrors program development software and will port Windows applications to run only under OS/2 2.0. The company also plans to bundle a set of low-end applications with the new software including paint, communications and other utilities. Micrografx was the first software company to develop the porting technology but its product was overshadowed by Microsoft Corp's Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO). IBM indicates the new porting software it is developing will have performance advantages over Microsoft's WLO. IBM fortifies PC component of AD/Cycle CASE strategy. Pallatto, John. IBM adds program development tools to its Application Development (AD)/Cycle computer aided software engineering (CASE) strategy. The company also re-energized its business relationships with its AD/Cycle partners who have introduced 10 new products including graphical user interface (GUI) and data base design tools; the new products strengthen the IBM PC as an AD/Cycle platform. Industry observers note that IBM has realized it cannot force users to migrate to new environments but must rely on its business partners to provide users with the latest in application development technology. Users still express the need to run DOS and Windows on their client workstations, and the new PC applications are welcome. Borland, Novell strike software accord. (Borland International Inc. and Novell Inc.) Novell Inc and Borland International Inc strike up an alliance with plans for joint marketing, sales and development. The computer software companies will focus their cooperation on Borland's ObjectVision program development software, Borland's Paradox structured query language (SQL) Link module for Novell's NetWare SQL data base engine and an object layer that will allow Borland's Quattro spreadsheet program to access Novell Btrieve data. Novell, a $500 million company, wants to take advantage of Borland's growing popularity in the applications market and Borland, a $200 million software publisher, hopes to take advantage of Novell's huge installed base of NetWare local area networks (LANs). Micro Focus weds COBOL, Windows; tool kit parlays COBOL code into Windows applications. (Micro Focus Inc.'s Windows Enabling Kit ) Micro Focus Inc's Windows Enabling Kit will be a program development software package that will allow programmers to create Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface applications in the COBOL programming language. The new program development software, which is expected to debut at the 1991 Corporate Developers Tools Conference and Trade Show, is the first that allows users to take advantage of COBOL in a Windows environment; the Micro Focus COBOL/2 2.4 and COBOL 4.0 can be used to write graphical applications using the Microsoft Windows Software Developers Kit (SDK) and the standard Windows application programming interface (API). Novell will roll out upgrade to NetWare 3.11; release designed to streamline transmissions, bolster data integrity. (includes Novell Inc announces its plans to upgrade its NetWare 3.11 network operating system with features that will enhance the programs performance. The upgrade will not include any new applications but will feature 'packet burst extensions,' which allow multiple data packets to be transmitted between the server and workstations prior to the acknowledgement. The enhancement is based on a time-out and re-send paradigm; when workstations do not receive the end of a file they pause and then request the missing portion to be resent. Analysts note that the upgrade to the network operating system will not only increase performance, but will provide an extra measure of data integrity and security. NetWare 2.2 offers a safe bet for users seeking security. (Software Review) (Novell Inc.'s NetWare 2.2 network operating Novell Inc's new NetWare 286 2.2 network operating system offers new data security features and streamlined installation procedures that makes the low-end program a cost-effective alternative to the NetWare 386 for security-conscious users. The upgrade price, which ranges from $350 to $4,995, is not that substantial for users who cannot justify moving to the hardware and software requirements of NetWare 386, but who need the added security and management features. Users also benefit from a workstation shell generation utility that makes building shells far easier. Nantucket to launch bug remedy for Clipper 5.0; 5.01 update delivers improved performance. Nantucket Inc's planned Clipper 5.01 program development software package is expected to provide a remedy for bugs in Clipper 5.0's Virtual Memory Management System. One bug - a constant source of frustration for programmers - causes the system to quickly run out of memory or crash to DOS. The update is expected to handle memory allocation better, provide advanced warning when a system is ready to run out of memory and execute disk swapping more efficiently. The new version of the program development software is expected to also provide increased performance and a few minor enhancements. IBM's first notebook flaunts timely features. (Hardware Review) (IBM L40 SX notebook computer) (evaluation) IBM's new $5,995 L40 SX notebook computer is IBM's first entry into the market and is evidence that the number one computer maker is no longer willing to follow industry leaders. The L40 SX is not the lightest, smallest or fastest notebook computer on the market, but it does have the speed and capacity to compete with competitive products. The L40 SX has a full keyboard, which accounts for the slightly large 10.7 inch by 12.8 inch size of the machine, and there are two climate control indicators that warn the user of a potentially damaging environment. The liquid crystal display (LCD) leaves something to be desired since it exhibits noticeable ghosting and shadowing. Kodak system stores photos on CD ROMs. (Eastman Kodak Co.'s Photo CD) Eastman Kodak Co's Photo CD imaging processing equipment is expected to be released in the 4th qtr of 1991 and industry observers believe it will change the way people view photography. The image processing equipment is capable of storing 35 mm photographs onto a compact disc. As many as 100 digitized images will be able to fit onto a 600Mbyte disk. Kodak indicates that its system is the only one available that can store high-quality 35 mm photos, although Kodak admits that digitized photography is not a new technology. Image retrieval software is expected to allow users to sort, change colors and zoom in on details on the Photo CD machine. Great Plains readies version 6. (Great Plains Software Inc.'s Accounting 6.0 financial software) Great Plains Software Inc develops its Accounting 6.0 financial software package that will feature faster performance for network users and enhanced graphics and reporting features. The financial software package, which is expected to be released in May 1991, allows users to customize their interface with a macro-keystroke recorder and menu-customization features. Industry observers note that competition in the high-end financial software market is heating up but Great Plains seems to be able to maintain its leadership by boosting performance and adding reporting capabilities. The new software will have support for Novell Inc's NetWare 386 Network Loadable Module enhanced data processing. T/Maker spreadsheet boasts simple calculation process. (T/Maker Research Co.'s I Hate Algebra spreadsheet software) (product T/Maker Research Co's $79.95 I Hate Algebra (IHA) spreadsheet software package is a low-cost Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface program that is useful for users who find writing formulas out a chore. The new spreadsheet software allows users to enter a mathematical symbol next to numbers within a cell; the company indicates that the program is marketed for users who do problems arithmetically and not for economists who create market models. IHA offers a full complement of sorting, spreadsheet-auditing and graphing capabilities. It features a mouse- and menu-driven graphical user interface and allows users to create worksheets up to 500 rows by 30 columns with only 270Kbytes of memory. WordPerfect warns users on licenses. (WordPerfect Corp. protects its local area network and Windows products) WordPerfect Corp warns its users against improper installation of its word processing software. The computer software company is particularly concerned with its Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface products and its local area network (LAN) products. The company reminds its customers that one copy of a program on a hard disk or in memory equals one license regardless whether its on a stand-alone hard disk or a disk on a LAN file server. The licensing policy requires that companies buy 30 concurrent licenses for one copy of WordPerfect on a 100-user LAN that is being used by 30 users at a time. Industry observers and users agree with WordPerfect's licensing policy. 'Graphical' forms tool weds power, simplicity. (Software Review) (FormGen Corp.'s FormGen 5.5 forms generation software) FormGen Corp's $279 FormGen 5.5 forms generation software package includes scalable fonts, a 40-piece clip art library, a useful spell checker, sophisticated data base capabilities, search and retrieval features, mouse support and a WYSIWYG previewer. The character-based program suffers from an awkward mouse and from a keyboard interface that differs from a conventional one. One of the most frustrating parts of the program is the inability of the user to view the character behind the cursor while using either the mouse or the keyboard. The minor shortcomings of the interface are overshadowed by the programs ease-to-use functionality, attractive pop-up and pull-down menus and an excellent tutorial. VINES upgrade set to debut this week. (Banyan Systems Inc.'s VINES 4.10 network operating system) Banyan Systems Inc's VINES 4.10 network operating system for local area networks (LANs) will have a tight integration with Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and will allow users to implement OS/2 application servers. The network operating system, which is scheduled to be released in Jun 1991, is a long-overdue release that will feature a new program development tool kit and enhancements for DOS users. OS/2 compatibility is not complete; users of OS/2 that want to share files with DOS users need to conform to the DOS naming conventions. The VINES 4.10 program is expected to be offered in three configurations that range in price from $2,495 to $13,995. Hilgraeve to ship tardy upgrade of HyperAccess/5. (Hilgraeve Inc.'s HyperAccess/5 communications software for DOS and OS/2 Hilgraeve Inc's $199 HyperAccess/5 2.0 communications software package is designed for DOS and OS/2 users and features new remote-management capabilities and extra modem support. The software publisher has not provided lower memory requirements for the program, as was expected; company officials indicated that they spent time trying to lower the 360Kbyte memory requirement but discovered it was not possible without a sacrifice in performance. A version that requires only 300Kbytes is available but it runs slowly. The remote control feature of the new version allows users to dial into their microcomputers to transfer files and perform remote-management tasks. Gateway to ship 2 add-ons; boards turn PC into Ethernet hub. (Gateway Communications Inc.'s G/EtherTwist AT Hub Adapter and Gateway Communications Inc's G/EtherTwist AT Hub Adapter and G/EtherTwist AT Hub Expander are two new communications boards that Gateway hopes to release in Apr 1991. The boards are designed to turn an IBM AT into a 10BaseT-compliant network hub with as many as 13 nodes. Industry observers note that the products, which will be priced between $400 and $800, will provide users with an inexpensive means of creating a star-wired network. The G/EtherTwist AT Hub Adapter combines all the functions of an internal Ethernet communications card with transceiver and repeater capabilities required to link four external nodes. The G/EtherTwist AT Hub Expander also provides four additional external ports by using only one slot. Ethernet bid from SMC; analysts praise agreement with WD. (Standard Microsystems Corp.'s bid for Western Digital Corp.'s Standard Microsystems Corp's bid for Western Digital Corp's local area network (LAN) business is a strategic move to become an important player in the Ethernet and Token Ring adapter market. Standard Microsystems plans to purchase Western Digital's $115-million-a-year LAN business for $33 million; the agreement is expected to be finalized near Jul 1991. Industry analysts say the purchase represents a coup for Standard Microsystems because Western Digital's 10 Ethernet adapters control 22.9 percent of the worldwide Ethernet adapter market. Standard Microsystems currently holds 30 percent of the ARCnet market and has no Token Ring products. CrossComm's enhanced ILAN bridge connects IBM, non-IBM networks. (CrossComm Corp.'s Token Ring internetworking products) CrossComm Corp's new enhancements to its Integrated Local Area Network (ILAN) multiport bridge includes better network management features and new connectivity capabilities. New software for the ILAN will permit users to adhere to the IEEE 802.5 Source Routing Transparent standard and to work with both 4M-bps and 16M-bps Token Ring networks. The support for Token Ring networks brings IBM and non-IBM networking protocols into a single device. ILAN interconnects Starlan, Ethernet, twisted-pair and fiber optic LANs locally over a variety of remote communications links including T-1, fractional T-1, 56K-bps and 64K-bps lines. Server question is multiple choice. (PC Week labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. IBM's single processor PS/2 95 file server and Compaq Computer Corp's multiprocessor Systempro file server both provide maximum performance for the types of computing they were designed for. There is some confusion among buyers on whether multiprocessing provides better performance. Multiprocessing does not necessarily provide better performance because it has more microprocessors; its usefulness is for applications that can run in parallel. Multiprocessing exacts a loss of power for managing and coordinating parallel computing but the system's overall performance can be increased if users can find applications that work well when spread across two microprocessors. PDL is powerful tool for HP-48 calculators. (Software Review) (Hewlett Packard Co.'s Program Development Link) (evaluation) Hewlett Packard Co's $120 Program Development Link (PDL) is a program development tool for the company's HP-48 calculators. The program, which includes a text-mode Common User Access interface, provides the same responsiveness developers have come to expect from programming languages such as BASIC, Pascal and C. Automatic aids for typing special symbols and full-featured editing windows make up the guts of the product; developers can build applications quickly with the mouse- and menu-based commands. The useful and easy-to-use program can be used by point-and-click novices and skilled touch-typist programmers alike. R:base played key role in Desert Storm raids. (Microrim Inc.'s R:base data base) Microrim Inc's R:base relational DBMS was used in Operation Desert Storm by the US military to keep track of air raids. The relational DMBS was ideal for military intelligence, who needed to cross-reference target data with daily reports of damage done by the bombing raids. The US military developed the Battle Target Status application, known as Tarstat, with R:base and the R:base compiler. Tarstat was divided into several sections including a maintenance process for defining a targets history, a mission-report process for entering information about a target after an attack and a nomination process for listing possible targets. Alpha RPL to refurbish outmoded applications; new language is similar to Pascal. (Alpha Software Corp.'s Alpha Resident Alpha Software Corp's $595 Alpha Resident Programming Language (RPL) program development software is expected to be available in Apr 1991 and will allow developers to revitalize their out-dated applications. The program development software can be used to integrate multiple DOS applications and create memory resident programs; it can also spruce up old applications with a modernized interface and automate tasks on microcomputers and mainframe computers. The program generates codes similar to the Pascal programming language where code resides between the screen and keyboard, and the old application. The memory-resident development environment features a debugger, a library that manages functions and an editor. Why ISDN 'is still doing nothing' much for us. (integrated services digital network) (Up Front) (column) Integrated services digital network (ISDN) promised the integration of voice and data communication in the 1970s, but the technology still has not lived up to expectations because it does not offer substantial advantages over current technology. The cost and difficulty of implementing ISDN has been underestimated, and analysts believe that an all-digital telephone system in the US will never happen. Digital transmission does not include low-cost, high-speed data communications with digital voice capability, like many assumed it would, and it also does not offer practical advantages over current technology for its price. The US telephone system will offer greater bandwidth in the future, but it will not provide all users with ISDN. HP's IIISi is meant to be used, not abused. (The Corporate Micro; Hewlett Packard Co.'s Laserjet IIISi printer) (column) Hewlett Packard Co's Laserjet IIISi laser printer is three times faster than the average local area network (LAN) printer, but that does not mean network managers can expect to put three times as many users on it. The HP Laserjet IIISi printer, which prints 17 pages per minute (ppm), should be placed where users perform paper-intensive tasks. The specifications of the Laserjet IIISi make it a good replacement for three slower printers: it is the fastest PostScript printer available, sells for around $5,000 and provides a 600-by-600 dots per inch (dpi) look. Network planners should not undervalue the need for convenience in a LAN; using the HP Laserjet IIISi to replace one printer instead of three is a better idea. IS departments getting that old-time religion. (Risky Business) (column) Corporate information systems (IS) departments are split between mainframe computing and workstation computing and are drawing their battle lines. One camp touts the advantages of centralized computing, including data security, standards and tight control. The other extols the virtues of end-user empowerment, networks and distributed systems. Both camps are focusing too much on the computing environment and too little time on the business needs of the corporation. IS departments need to emphasize the procedures and controls of whatever style of computing is chosen and point out how information can benefit corporate goals. DEC dangles bottom-line carrot for VARs. (Changing Channels) (column) DEC attempts to lure value-added resellers (VARs) by offering them the advantages of their $13 billion purchasing power, including rates on airlines, hotel charges and car rentals. DEC's unusual approach is aimed at the VAR's bottom-line and industry observers believe the savings could mean as much as 15 percent of a VARs costs. VARs also get a commission for selling DEC services, such as the fix-and-repair contracts. The number-two computer maker is also creating a 400-member field group that will assist VARs in making sales calls and participating in local trade shows. Analysts point out that DEC's strategy revolves around getting VARs who emphasize service and support. Putting Windows tools to a real-world test; Smalltalk/V wins battle of programming styles and GUI techniques. (Software Review) A PC Week labs shoot-out of six program development packages that use the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface finds that Digitalk Inc's $499.95 Smalltalk/V for Windows is the top performer in real world situations. The Digitalk program won by a thin margin over Matesys Corp's $899 ObjectView program; both programs finished in first and second place in the eight categories tested. The Smalltalk/V for Windows was superior in ease of use, graphics and keyboard interface design, and in the handling of user errors; it scored a high 3.5 out of a possible five. The program features object-oriented tools and has the capability to produce a sealed off EXE application. Users seek help in designing programs; in-house application developers believe Windows is the way to go. (PC Week labs Users express the need for program development tools that allow them to work with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Industry observers note that corporations are moving to Windows 3.0 at a fast pace and program developers need to keep pace with the trend. Several program development software packages that work with Windows 3.0 are available in the market in Apr 1991; users find these products provide useful functions, such as Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), and are easy to use. Users indicate that they look for compatibility and portability in choosing a program development software package. SCSI controllers difficult to configure; Mylex SCSI caching adapter taps EISA bus; ISA cards perform less spectacularly. PC Week labs evaluates seven small computer system interface (SCSI) caching disk controllers and determines that they can improve the performance of Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) and Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) microcomputers but are very difficult to install. SCSI caching disk controllers reduce the amount of time it takes for a software program to receive data that is stored on a disk. The testing of SCSI controllers discovers that the improved performance is more pronounced on older applications and less beneficial for the larger block sizes characteristic of new applications. The SCSI controllers evaluated range in price from $695 to $1,195. Hardware, OS compatibility are concerns for buyers. (Small Computer System Interface caching disk controllers) Buyers of Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) cache disk controllers indicate that compatibility between operating systems and hardware is crucial to making a buying decision. SCSI disk controllers speed data throughput in data-intensive applications and increase worker productivity. Some buyers note that there are not many SCSI disk controllers that support the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), and that causes them to stay with the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) machines. Some users of SCSI disk controllers note that they have experienced as much as a 30 percent improvement in speed. American Megatrends Inc. EISA Caching SCSI Adapter. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI American Megatrends Inc's $780 EISA Caching SCSI adapter is a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) cache disk controller that provides a very good throughput when reading and mixed results when writing. The SCSI controller is powered by the Intel Corp 16 MHz 80386SX microprocessor and has room for four single in-line memory modules (SIMMs). The EISA Caching SCSI adapter was difficult to install on some microcomputers, but the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) setup file proved to be excellent; it provides the user with all the choices of all the significant parameters for controller setup, which is especially important when installing controllers on an EISA machine. Axes Technologies Inc. SOFI-16. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers difficult Axes Technologies Inc's $695 SOFI-16 Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) cache disk controller that features both external and internal SCSI drive connectors. The SCSI controller is powered by the Intel Corp 12 MHz 80186 microprocessor, which controls from 512Kbytes to 4Mbytes of cache memory in ZIP packaging. Installation of the SOFI-16 varies from the conventional procedure of SCSI installation and the documentation provided is unclear on the subject. The controller features a hard-disk anti-corruption function: when users do a soft boot, the SCSI controller takes over control of the system and cleans out all the dirty buffers before the reboot can continue. CompuAdd Corp. HardCache/SCSI card. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers CompuAdd Corp's $695 HardCache/SCSI card is a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk cache controller that provides an external 50-pin D-shell connector and an internal connector for SCSI devices. CompuAdd provides the user with a complete installation package, which includes an SCSI cable, floppy drive cable and a tool for removing SIMMs. The SCSI controller provides eight SIMM sockets for either a 256Kbyte size or a 1Mbyte size and a cycle of 80 nanoseconds or less. The HardCache/SCSI is powered by an Intel Corp 16 MHz 80C188 on-board processor that permits no more than two disks to be connected. The SCSI controller emulates a Western Digital WD1003 AT-command set so it does not need drivers for non-DOS operating systems, like OS/2 and NetWare. Lomas Data Products Inc. LDP Cache II. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers Lomas Data Products Inc's $795 Cache II is a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) cache disk controller that is difficult to install. The Cache II, which is powered by Intel Corp's 12 MHz 80C188 processor, uses socket cache memory that is organized into four banks that can be occupied by 1Mbyte or 4Mbyte 100 nanosecond chips. The valid memory configurations, which cannot be mixed, include 1Mbyte, 2Mbytes, 3Mbytes, 4Mbytes, 8Mbytes, 12Mbytes or 16Mbytes. The controller features two modes of operation, including its native mode and Western Digital WD1003 emulation mode. Installation of the controller requires more than the usual physical force; its design does not allow it to sit properly in an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) machine. Mylex Corp. DCE376. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers difficult to Mylex Corp's $1,135 DEC376 Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk caching controller is powered by the Intel Corp 16 MHz 80376 processor, which manages all the data transfers to and from disk, and all caching of data. The DEC376 provides a 1Mbyte, 4Mbyte and 8Mbyte memory option. It has sockets for four commodity SIMMs but does not provide any external connectors for SCSI devices. The SCSI controller boots from the hard disk by using the disk BIOS built into the microcomputer when the microcomputer is turned on. The result is that it does not identify itself or the connected drives during the system boot. Documentation for the DEC376 is both clear and solid. Perceptive Solutions Inc. hyperSTORE-1600. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers Perceptive Solutions Inc's $900 hyperSTORE-1600 is a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk cache controller that uses the Zilog Z280 microprocessor to control cache memory. The cache memory for the hyperSTORE-1600 can be installed as either two or four 80 nanosecond SIMMs; the SIMMs can have either 256Kbytes or 1Mbyte of memory and the possible memory configurations for the controller are 512Kbytes, 1Mbyte, 2Mbytes, 2.5Mbytes and 4Mbytes. The SCSI controller includes media adapters on the basic controller card that match all the common hard-disk types including SCSI, RLL, ESDI, IDE and MFM. HyperSTORE-1600 supports up to eight disk drives in 28 partitions in sizes up to 512Mbytes. Specialty Development Corp. Series 400. (Hardware Review) (one of seven SCSI controller board evaluations in 'SCSI controllers Specialty Development Corp's $845 Series 400 is a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk cache controller that shares many of the same features as the Perceptive Solutions Inc hyperSTORE-1600, including the Zilog Z280 microprocessor. The SCSI controller also features SIMMs for cache memory and firmware and software utilities that can be downloaded. The Series 400 is a single-board controller that can handle as many as seven SCSI drives when it is running in its Western Digital WD1003 emulation mode. Specialty Development provides clear and well-written documentation for the Series 400. EISA shows considerable promise, but remains far from 'plug and play.' (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) The Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) caching disk controllers perform better than their 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) counterparts, but the EISA standard is plagued by compatibility problems. EISA bus microcomputers have been on the market for 18 months in Apr 1991 and the problems with compatibility lie in the fact that different computer peripheral manufacturers have interpreted the EISA specification differently. Buyers should remain cautious in investing in EISA machines and cards until the industry can arrive at a consistent interpretation of the EISA specifications. Compatibility should be ensured before a buyer makes a purchase. Ease of use, pricing distinguish tools; Mac-to-SQL database query products offer only limited reporting capabilities. (Software PC Week labs evaluates three search software packages that allow users to retrieve data from Structured Query Language (SQL) data bases on Apple Macintosh microcomputers. The Apple Macintosh platform is ideal data base servers in a client/server model because of its superior graphical user interface and ease of use. The front-end query tools that are evaluated use lists, icons and graphical representations to allow Apple Macintosh users to point-and-click their way into a complex SQL data base without having to learn any SQL commands. The products evaluated range in price from the Brio Technology Inc $345 DataPrism 1.1 to the Andyne Computing Ltd $2,290 GQL 2.1. Andyne Computing Ltd. GQL/Admin 2.1, GQL/User 2.1. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of search software packages) Andyne Computing Ltd's Graphical Query Language (GQL) 2.1 search software package is made up of the $1,995 GQL/Admin and the $295 GQL/User. The search software package, which is the most expensive one evaluated, is a complex and powerful tool that systems developers and systems administrators will find useful in creating graphical representations of data bases and their relationships. GQL/User allows the user to execute data base queries but requires that a data model be created first by the GQL/Admin; predefined data base queries can be created also be created by GQL/Admin. Documentation for the search software is well-written and clearly illustrated. Tools differ in display, scripting, reporting abilities. (Structured Query Language data bases) The search software packages on the market in 1991 help users to retrieve data from Structured Query Language (SQL)-based data bases. The task of retrieving data from SQL data bases is often a complex one and these search software packages make the job easier by modifying SQL commands. Users find that the packages differ in their scripting, reporting and display capabilities. Brio Technology Inc's DataPrism 1.1 search software package provides users with an impressive graphic display when compared to Andyne Computing Ltd's Graphical Query Language (GQL) 2.1 search software, where iconic representation is dismal. Brio Technology Inc. DataPrism 1.1. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of search software packages) (evaluation) Brio Technology Inc's $345 DataPrism 1.1 search software package allows users to quickly develop accurate queries into Structured Query Language (SQL) data bases. The search software's powerful constraints contribute to the ease of use; users enter information restraints against the creator's name, specified user name or table name. Filtering the list of table names can prove to be particularly useful for companies that use many tables. DataPrism also allows users to view and edit the SQL code as it is being generated, but SQL code entered by users is not checked for correct syntax. Brio Technology provides two slim volumes for documentation, which are both well-illustrated and clearly-written. Fairfield Software Inc. ClearAccess 1.2. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of search software packages) (evaluation) Fairfield Software Inc's $460 ClearAccess 1.2 search software can be used from any application because it is designed as a desk accessory. The search software allows users to query into Structured Query Language (SQL) data bases on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer without having to learn SQL commands. The results from a query is returned in a scrollable window on the Macintosh clipboard. ClearAccess 1.2 is easy to use because of a well-designed interface though it does not visually represent the relationships between files nor a table's structure like the other search software packages evaluated. Documentation for the program is text-based, well-written and comes complete with screen shots. Buyers find helpful surprises in disk utility packages. (survey of buyers of four disk utility programs) Buyers of data disk utility packages say that many features in the integrated utility programs on the market in Apr 1991 offer them useful surprises. The integrated utility programs offer a wide range of features, but users find that the best combination is afforded when they use several of these packages; a feasible strategy given their level of compatibility. Some of the features that buyers look for are sophistication, reliability and ease of use. Symantec Corp's The Norton Utilities 5.0 utility program is a favorite for sophistication and intuitive use, but its $179.00 price tag is on the high end of the market. Prime Solutions' tool automates disk-drive upkeep. (Prime Solution Inc.'s Disk Technician Gold utility program) (product Prime Solutions Inc's $149.95 Disk Technician Gold utility program is expected to be released in Apr 1991 and will run from a DOS device driver that takes up only 10Kbytes of memory. Disk Technician Gold tests the data disk drive every time the computer is turned on and continues running in the background while users work with other programs. The utility program will feature several testing and performance enhancements including virus prevention, hardware failure prediction, file defragmentation and automatic data recovery and reconstruction. The program will also be capable of performing non-destructive low-level formatting and interleave testing and resetting. Four utilities boast potent disk tools; Norton Utilities, PC Tools Deluxe lead integrated disk utilities in power, features. Four hard disk utility programs that increase security and provide users with faster access to information are reviewed. The utility packages are integrated programs that provide the user with a variety of compatible utilities; their common interface and command structure simplifies the task of managing disk problems. The four utility programs are evaluated on file and drive recovery, prevention of data loss due to faulty disk space and hard disk drive performance enhancement. Each utility software package includes the basic programs for file defragmenting, file recovery and disk testing. Fifth Generation Systems Inc's Mace Utilities 1990 and Symantec Corp's NOrton Utilities 5.0 earn high ratings in all categories. Central Point Software Inc.: PC Tools Deluxe 6.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of utility programs in 'Four Central Point Software Inc's $149 PC Tools Deluxe 6.0 disk utility program is a powerful product that can recover damaged files and disks, and 'defragment' disk drives. The utility program suffers from a variety of inconsistent user interfaces for its many components. The PC Backup and PC Shell components can be configured to a variety of user levels, but each has its own menu style. The 'DiskFix' program successfully corrects bad disk blocks and prevents them from being written to in the future; there are also a variety of performance enhancement utilities. The PC-Shell and Desktop programs can each be run either in the foreground or as memory-resident programs. Users should first run the Mirror file program when the computer is turned on in order for the Unformat and Undelete utilities to be successful. Fifth Generation Systems Inc. Mace Utilities 1990. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of utility programs in 'Four Fifth Generation Systems Inc's $149 Mace Utilities 1990 disk utility program offers accurate performance-enhancement, disk-recovery and file maintenance tools but is slower than competing products. The product's RXBak program keeps copies of the boot sector, file allocation table and root directory information in backup files to simplify undeletion and recovery from accidental disk formats. Mace Utilities 1990 includes a disk defragmenting utility, which significantly improves performance, and a virus-protection utility, which can prevent specified file types from being written to disk and can check files for tampering. The well-designed product has various security features including file and disk overwriting and password protection. Nordra Technologies Inc.: Take Charge 1.30. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of utility programs in 'Four utilities boast Nordra Technologies Inc's $99.95 Take Charge 1.30 disk utility program has disk-protection and performance-enhancement features that are not as powerful as those found in competing utility programs. The terminate-and-stay resident utility is priced lower than other products and takes up only 10Kbytes of RAM. Take Charge 1.30 is unable to rebuild a corrupted drive-boot sector. The program recovers files with data on bad sectors by splicing the surrounding sectors together; the technique is helpful if a backup is not available but is also potentially disastrous. Take Charge 1.30 does not offer password protection or file encryption but does include various extras such as a notepad, alarm clock, calculator, telecommunications module and appointment calendar. Symantec Corp.: The Norton Utilities 5.0. (Software Review) (one of four utility program evaluations) (evaluation) Symantec Corp's $179 The Norton Utilities 5.0 disk utility software program is the most expensive utility program of four products tested but also offers superior drive protection and enhancement. The program contains more than disk utilities; system configuration and control features and disk management tools are included. The Norton Utilities 5.0 program's Speed Disk drive optimizer is a useful feature that defragments files on the disk drive and allows the user to choose which file extensions or files to place at the beginning of the drive to improve performance. The list of data security functions, including password protection, keyboard lock, file encryption and virus protection, is the most complete set of security features available in a general-purpose utility package. Language extensions, documentation add value to compilers. (Pascal compilers) Pascal compilers with language extensions offer users smooth integration into the UNIX operating system by providing a flexible and powerful development environment. Users indicate that it is an essential part of program development to be able to easily integrate into an operating system; interfacing with operating systems allows developers to provide better memory management. Buyers of Pascal compilers note that the products available on the market in Apr 1991 offer thoughtful, consistent and logical extensions; some say that MetaWare Inc's Professional Pascal 3.0 offers greater versatility and a more professional feel than other packages available. Pascal tools offer smooth path to Unix; although Oregon's Pascal-2 is fast, MetaWare's compiler shines with enhancements. (Software PC Week Labs evaluates four Pascal compilers for the UNIX operating system that prove that writing applications in the Pascal programming language can be a successful alternative to writing applications in the C programming language. Pascal offers several advantages over the C and Ada programming languages because of its data-abstraction features; Pascal compilers are also not as complex as Ada compilers, and Pascal programs are more readable than C programs. The four Pascal compilers evaluated all start with the Pascal base and feature extensions that make it convenient to access the UNIX operating environment. The products range in price from $795 to $1,195. Language Processors Inc.: LPI-Pascal 2.3. (Software Review) (one of four Pascal compiler evaluations in 'Pascal tools offer smooth Language Processors Inc's $995 LPI-Pascal 2.3 compiler is the least impressive of four compilers evaluated because of its poor performance on benchmark tests and its lack of flexibility. The Pascal compiler was unable to create a correct object module for the UNIX system linker during one benchmark test and generated code that caused a program dump of the UNIX system linker. Some of the extensions provided by the LPI-Pascal 2.3 compiler do not work; one extension permits external files to be used without declaring them in the program heading, and another extension relaxes the Pascal declaration order of labels, constants, types, variables and subprograms. The documentation provided is adequate in describing the given extensions. MetaWare Inc.: Professional Pascal 3.0. (Software Review) (one of four Pascal compiler evaluations in 'Pascal tools offer smooth MetaWare Inc's $895 Professional Pascal 3.0 functions as a Pascal compiler that provides UNIX programmers with everything they need to write applications except a source-level debugger. The program has the best feature set of all the compilers evaluated and includes optimized I/O and heap packages. Professional Pascal 3.0 is in a class by itself because of its plethora of features that include the ability to convert from Pascal to C strings, call-chain stack dumping, heap management, standard I/O, a Pascal interface to the C I/O library, operating system services, traps and memory dumps. The documentation for the program was decidedly the best of all the programs evaluated. MicroWay Inc.: NDP Pascal-486 release 3.1A. (Software Review) (one of four Pascal compiler evaluations in 'Pascal tools offer smooth MicroWay Inc's $1,195 NDP Pascal-486 3.1a Pascal compiler has sensible extensions that allow it to enter the UNIX operating system environment. The extensions are not directly added to the language but exist as separately compiled subprograms. An external directive for subprograms and variables and the static directive for variables allow the compilation of separate source files. One of the compiler's faults is that it follows the C programming language too closely in its string-handling functions; each string argument must be preceded by the '&' address operator. The documentation provides the user with a good description of the extensions. Oregon Software Inc.: Pascal-2 Version 2.2B. (Software Review) (one of four Pascal compiler evaluations in 'Pascal tools offer Oregon Software Inc's $795 Pascal-2 2.2b Pascal compiler turned in the best performance of four compilers evaluated on benchmark tests but earns a second-best overall rating because it does not offer as many extensions as MetaWare's Professional Pascal 3.0. The compiler does include a reliable source-level debugger, which Professional Pascal 3.0 does not. An important aspect of the compiler is that it includes a source-code formatter and cross-reference utilities that user can get in both source and executable form. Users can adjust the programs to fit their needs with this source code and can also compile separate source code files. The documentation for the compiler is the only one evaluated that is in need of reorganization. CASE tools on LANs ease development: tools improve communication among analysts, offer shared repository. (computer-aided software Local area network (LAN)-based computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools can facilitate communication between programmers working on large software-development projects. LAN-based CASE tools allow analysts to share data easily. Deloitte & Touche used Index Technology's CASE tools to produce its own CASE tool, 4FRONT, which both companies market. Deloitte & Touche partner Mike Farrell claims that by developing on a LAN, programmers save substantial amount of time during the merging process. An increasing number of development firms are downloading data from mainframes to microcomputer LANs to reap the benefits of LAN-based CASE development. Firms such as American Management Systems Inc report significant increases in programmer productivity since downsizing. Many users may work off the same repository in projects that are LAN-based. A list of CASE tool suppliers is included. AT&T close to snagging at least 4 NCR board seats. (AT&T wins 60 percent vote at NCR Corp. shareholder meeting) AT&T is expected to obtain one-third of the seats on NCR Corp's 12-member board after winning a 60 percent vote at a shareholder meeting in Mar 1991. An 80 percent vote is required in order to replace all of NCR's directors, but AT&T expects to replace four NCR directors if the preliminary vote count is accurate. Charles Exley, Gilbert Williamson, Cathleen Morawetz and William Bowen will be replaced with former AT&T executives Edward Block, William Ellinghaus, William Keefauver and Don Procknow. AT&T plans to use its allies on the board to negotiate a friendly merger between the two companies. NCR appears willing to accept AT&T's $90-per-share offer since 66 percent of NCR shareholders tendered their share to AT&T as of Feb 15, 1991. AT&T has requested that NCR discontinue its shareholder rights plan and refrain from seeking protection under the Maryland Business Combination Act. IBM sees an open 'window' of opportunity with OS/2 2.0. (OS/2 2.0 to be Windows-compatible; Microsoft Corp to develop OS/2 3.0) IBM has announced that the upcoming OS/2 2.0 operating system will be compatible with Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface. Microsoft announced in Feb 1991 that it would develop and market OS/2 3.0 by 1992-93 and that the upgraded operating system will be Windows-compatible and available for platforms other than Intel. IBM rejected Microsoft's plan to allow Windows applications to run under OS/2 2.0 in 1990 because Microsoft ran into difficulties with the Binary Compatibility Layer OS/2-to-Windows software conversion process. Microsoft advises users waiting for OS/2 3.0 to use its Software Development Kit and the Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO) to convert their Windows applications to OS/2. Most companies, however, are not prepared for a platform-change operation. IBM will integrate some Windows-related code into OS/2 2.0 with its dynamic link libraries (DLLs). Changing game: Intel faces challenge to its dominance in microprocessors; its main chip gets cloned, and an industry Intel Corp faces an uncertain future. On Apr 9, 1991, two of its former allies, Microsoft Corp and Compaq, will join 20 other companies planning software that will run on computers using chips designed by Mips Computer Systems as well as systems using Intel chips. Only a month previously, Advanced Micro Devices Inc began shipping clones of Intel's 80386 microprocessor. To complicate matters, both Intel's competitors and customers are complaining about what they see as Intel's exploitation of a monopoly, accusing Intel of price gouging and unfair competition. One analyst says that animosity among Intel's customers could be Intel's most important risk. Intel is responding to all of this with an investment strategy: up to $1 billion will be spent on plants and equipment to slash production costs and improve products; $600 million will go for research and development. Intel hopes to cut by half the three and a half years that is currently needed to design a new chip. Intel is also refocusing its design strategy on its popular 80x86 line of microprocessors. NCR to seek talks between advisers on AT&T merger. Smith, Randall; Wilke, John R. NCR Chmn Charles Exley Jr will initiate new talks between advisers to his company and AT&T. This announcement follows an exchange of 'testy statements' between Exley and AT&T Chmn Robert Allen. Exley confirms that NCR's asking price of $110 a share ($7.48 million) is 'nonnegotiable.' AT&T has offered $100 a share (about $6.8 billion) if NCR agrees to a friendly merger. Increasing bitterness between the two chairmen underscores a lack of any progress toward an understanding. In the week of Apr 1, 1991, NCR's stock fell $2.875 a share to $96.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, reflecting the public's disappointment over the pace of negotiations. Computer industry group appears set to unveil advanced standards. (ACE, advanced computer environment) (Technology and Science) Twenty computer companies band together to form the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) group, which aims to create a new standard for advanced computers. Members of ACE all pledge to support microprocessors manufactured by Mips Computer Systems Inc. Members will either write software or build computers around the reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) processors that Mips makes. ACE, which includes such heavyweight companies as DEC Microsoft Corp and Compaq, will reveal details of its plans on Apr 9, 1991. There is apparently some question about the depth of Ace members' commitments. Microsoft, for example, will will support chips from Mips, but Microsoft also promises support for chips made by Intel. Compaq will develop software that will run on both Mips-based and Intel-based computers. An executive with ACE says that Microsoft and Compaq have made concessions to Intel because neither company is certain about the future of a market for Mips' chips. Intel, NMB amend pact on chip supply. (NMB Semiconductor Co.) (Technology & Science) Intel Corp and Japan's NMB Semiconductor Co agree to amend their alliance to increase sales of Intel-designed products in Japan. Similar agreements are expected between other US and Japanese semiconductor companies in coming weeks. In negotiations with the US, the Japanese seem more willing than they had been to meet demands for a 20 percent US market share in Japan, though Japanese negotiators continue to publicly reject the idea of a market share figure. Bush administration representatives also seem more flexible, apparently being willing to view a 20 percent figure as one measure of compliance rather than the only measure. The new Intel-NMB agreement itself specifies that NMB will no longer supply Intel with memory chips. Instead, NMB will make 'memory cards' that will be sold under Intel's name. NCR talks said to be at impasse. (negotiations for AT&T's takeover of NCR Corp.) Negotiations between NCR Corp and AT&T concerning AT&T's attempted takeover are at a standstill because neither side is willing to compromise on the amount it believes NCR is worth. There is bitterness between the companies, with NCR accusing AT&T of violating an agreement between NCR Chmn Charles E. Exley and AT&T Chmn Robert E. Allen not to talk about negotiations in public and AT&T responding that no such agreement exists. No new meetings are currently scheduled. NCR's stock price fell $1 a share on Apr 5, 1991, closing at $96.75. AT&T's stock was down 50 cents, closing at $34. Next posts gain in computer sales. (Next Inc.) (Company News) Pollack, Andrew. Next Inc reports sales of 8,000 workstations in the 1st qtr of 1991. The company hopes to sell 50,000 computers for the year. Next sells microcomputers combining engineering workstation power with desktop microcomputer ease of use. Next's first line of products, introduced in 1988, had high prices and offered unsatisfactory performance. New Next computers are more powerful and lower-priced, although they are still proprietary systems. Next has changed its marketing strategy from exclusive sales through Businessland retail stores to marketing through 25 other computer stores, direct sales and distribution via value-added resellers. The company reports that 60 percent of its sales are to corporations while the balance is made up by academia. Three giant phone firms plan venture to offer joint service to multinationals. (British Telecommunications PLC, Nippon Denshin British Telecommunications PLC, Nippon Denshin Denwa KK and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom plan to offer world-wide telecommunication services to multinational companies. The group intends to compete directly with AT&T. General deregulation around the world is pressuring the each of the three companies to compete with newer, smaller telephone companies in their home countries. The market for servicing multinationals' communications needs is large. Multinationals often depend on their own communications personnel to maintain international telephone line links, computers and software. The market in the US alone is estimated at $5 billion and grows at 15 percent each year. IBM is one company the consortium has approached with an offer to manage its international communications needs. Rumors indicate that IBM could participate in the group. No assent on analog HDL path. (hardware description language) Ohr, Stephan. The VHDL Users Group conference, to be held the week of Apr 8, 1991, will be the site for continued discussion of the feasibility of developing analog extensions to the essentially digital VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL). Researchers from the Univ of Cincinnati will report the successful porting of Spice simulations into VHDL at a significant performance penalty. In addition, the Department of Defense has commissioned development of a microwave frequency HDL, to be called MHDL, and it appears that, for the foreseeable future, development of an analog HDL (AHDL) will accompany that of VHDL and MHDL. One school of thought holds that VHDL is unsuited for the addition of analog constructs and maintains that attempting to do so will inevitably delay the revalidation of the standard by the IEEE, due in 1992. QIC tape-drive makers shooting for 6 Gbytes. (quarter-inch cartridge) (technical) Vendors of QIC tape drives are under increasing pressure from digital audio tape (DAT) technology, and the pace of QIC development has quickened accordingly. While DAT capacities are already rivaling that of QIC drives, there are still a number of areas in which QIC has a comfortable lead. Backup/restore time for 1Gbyte of data on a typical QIC drive with a 300K-bps transfer rate is less than 60 minutes; the same amount of data on a DAT drive takes 1 hour and 40 minutes, at a rate of 178K-bps. QIC also has an advantage in terms of overall areal density. The most recent increases in QIC capacity have been driven by the development of 900-Oe high-coercivity media at 3M Corp. Future increases are expected to result from the use of data compression, closed loop servo systems, and an eventual move to barium ferrite media, as well as more effective use of encoding methods. Star Wars scales back; refocused SDI could jumpstart hiring at defense contractors. (Strategic Defense Initiative) A proposal that is part of the 1992 federal budget calls for paring down the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the 'Star Wars' space-based antimissile defense system first proposed by then-President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Under the new proposal the impenetrable 'umbrella' called for by the original SDI plan would become instead a more flexible, mobile, less costly system designed to protect against strikes by a limited number of missiles. To be called the Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS), the new system is the result of a reassessment of dangers to US defense, now seen to be more from the unauthorized or accidental launch of missiles. Defense contractors will not speculate on how GPALS will influence the need for engineers, but there is a general consensus that the scaled-down proposal stands a better chance of congressional approval than the original SDI. Useable gate counts hit 200,000; ultimate success will also depend on power consumption, pin counts, and memory. (product LSI Logic introduces the LCA220K, a gate array that boasts a raw gate count of 307,000. More impressive is the chip's usable gate count of 200,000. Gate count alone will not be the sole criteria to determine the success or failure of large gate arrays; factors including power consumption, pin counts and memory capabilities will also carry significant weight. Large gate arrays offer designers the option of mixing I/O pin connections and the ability to run multiple clock frequencies for better system timing. Arrays with usable gate counts in the 100,000+ category are becoming more common, although some vendors still favor full custom designs over the high-density arrays. Submicron geometries and improvements in routing software and metallization and interconnection techniques all contribute to the increase in usable gate counts. The LCA200K carries nonrecurring engineering charges (NREs) that start at $75,000; per unit price could be as low as $55 in quantities of 10,000. The TGB1000 chip family from Texas Instruments, with a usable gate count of 112,000, has NREs beginning at around $50,000. New f/o connectors cut termination costs; non-epoxy, crimp-on devices are now reliable, say vendors. (fiber-optics; includes a Fiber-optic connector makers are beginning to introduce alternatives to traditional, heat-cured epoxy termination methods that have hampered the spread of fiber in computer networks because of cost and time constraints. 3M Corp has introduced the 6100 Hot Melt Fiber Optic Connector, which uses proprietary hot melt glue in a zirconia ceramic straight-through-keyed bayonet-type (ST) connector. Devices prices start at $9.10 in low quantities. Siecor's CamLite is a crimp-on, pre-epoxied ST-type connector with an in-line splice. Low-quantity unit price is $20. AMP and OFTI both offer epoxy-free, crimp-on connectors that use a split-and-polish method. OFTI offers both single-mode and multimode connectors. Thermal stability problems with the XTC have been resolved, and OFTI is offering evaluation kits priced at $440 for multimode and $520 for single mode. Individual connectors are priced at $13 for single and $9 for multimode. AMP's LightCrimp, which features a dual clamping mechanism, will not be available in quantities till Jun 1991; prices have not been set, but the company has a target of under $7. Japanese giants bring R&D to US; Japan's emphasis on customer input means jobs for EEs. (research and development; electronic A growing trend among Japanese electronics firms toward opening research and development facilities in the US is resulting in increased employment opportunities for US electronic engineers (EEs). The US R&D facilities are being opened to help the Japanese firms customize their products for the US market, integrating customer input into the design process without the feedback becoming diluted by repeated iterations that occur when information must be relayed to Japan. Ramping up design is also easier in the US, where there is a larger pool of engineers, both veteran and recently qualified, to draw from. US engineers who have taken positions with firms such as Sharp cite commitment and job stability as two of the attractions offered by such jobs. Not all engineers are as satisfied with the experience. One engineer reports he was frustrated by tight deadlines and a lack of familiarity with software engineering on the part of Japan-based engineers. Despite this, the engineer would consider working for a Japanese firm again if the US subsidiary had sufficient autonomy. Down market puts auto hiring on the skids; staffing and recruitment spending are lean. The increasing level of electronics in automobiles has not triggered a corresponding increase in automotive industry job opportunities for electronic engineers (EEs). Automobile manufacturers, caught between the need to conform to federal standards for fuel economy and emissions control and an equal need to control expenses in the face of dropping sales have imposed strict cost/benefit requirements on those engineers already working in automotive electronics. As electronics become more and more integral to the functioning of automobiles, engineers seeking employment in the automotive industry will find certain skills crucial. Computer-aided engineering and simulation tool experience are already highly valued by auto makers, and optimization skills are becoming increasingly sought after. The burgeoning cellular phone market, as well as upcoming intelligent highways and interactive navigation systems, demand a level of knowledge once the sole province of telecommunications firms. Beyond these technical skills, the need for good communications skills becomes paramount as responding to customer input becomes a vital competitive edge. Quantum plays a winning hand in disk drive game; booming sales prompt hiring drive. (company profile) Quantum Corp, a Milpitas, CA-based disk drive design and development firm founded in 1980, chose the optimum moment to enter the 3.5-inch disk drive market in 1987. The 'bet-the-company' decision has resulted in explosive sales, leading to a veritable hiring bonanza. Sales that doubled from FY 1989 to FY 1990 have been reflected in a staff that has doubled from 1990 to 1991, and there are currently 32 engineering positions open in servo design, high-speed digital design, software test, firmware, ASIC design, mechanical design, read/write and printed circuit boards. Candidates need a minimum of a B.S. in electrical engineering; an M.S. is preferable, and five to 10 years hard disk experience is sought. Because engineers remain with a team throughout the product development cycle, interpersonal communication skills are at a premium, as is previous experience in guiding a product from design to production. Compaq agrees to invest $185 million in Silicon Graphics; the alliance may tilt the computer industry's balance of power. Compaq Computer Corp agrees to pay $135 million in cash for a 13 percent stake in Silicon Graphics Inc, and Compaq will also donate $50 million over a three-year period to help Silicon Graphics' research and development. This agreement is seen as part of a strategic alliance that could upset the balance of power in the computer industry. The agreement could open a way for Compaq Computer to move into the market for workstations and could also provide a broader market for Silicon Graphics' high-end graphics products. And the agreement is tied to a broader agreement, with Digital Equipment Corp and other companies, that seeks to define a new standard for computers based on a reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) microprocessor developed by MIPS Computer Systems. Silicon Graphics has also announced that it will license its graphics software to Microsoft Corp. Compaq Computer to acquire 13% of Silicon Graphics for $135 million. (Technology) Compaq Computer Corp will buy a 13 percent stake in Silicon Graphics Inc for $135 million, with an agreement to pay $50 million more for a license for technology. The purchase will position Compaq for a move into the workstations market. The agreement will provide Compaq with expertise involving high-end software that displays full-motion graphics in three dimensions and could enable Compaq to compete with such established workstation manufacturers as Sun Microsystems Inc, HP and IBM. When the agreement was announced, Compaq's stock rose $1.375, closing at $64.375 on Apr 3, 1991, on the New York Stock Exchange. Silicon Graphics' stock, however, fell $4.50, closing at $38 a share, apparently because Silicon Graphics has announced that revenue for the company's 3rd qtr, ended Mar 31, is likely to be below revenue reported in the 2nd qtr, which was $136 million. Soon: faster and wiser networks. (fast, intelligent computer office networks) (Business Technology) (column) Researchers at companies such as Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) and Silicon Graphics Inc, and at universities such as Carnegie-Mellon, are developing faster, smarter computer office networks. According to DEC's Robert Taylor, fast computer workstations running new graphical and video applications are already reaching the limits of the capabilities of today's local area networks (LANs). Very-high-speed computer networks are needed, and new designs that can manage new varieties of computing such as multimedia are also needed. A new style of network, called a 'virtual switched network,' typically consists of many fast switches, each of which can route data to many computers. Each computer connects to a separate switch, so there is no possibility of a single point of failure. Switches are connected by high-capacity fiber optic cabling, so that information can be transmitted at speeds as high as 100M-bps. Inquiry starts on chip patent dispute. Andrews, Edmund L. The Patent and Trademark Office will re-examine a disputed claim involving a patent issued in Jul 1990, to Gilbert P. Hyatt. According to Hyatt, his patent applies to a broad range of processors that are now used in everything from calculators to microcomputers. Such a patent could force companies to pay Hyatt millions of dollars in royalties. Texas Instruments (TI), for example, could be a big loser. TI contends that one of its own researchers, Gary W. Boone, was the first to invent the single-chip microcomputer. The Patent Office has informed TI that the agency will weigh Hyatt's claims against those of Boone. Hyatt's patent covers a chip design that includes a fixed memory for holding instructions, an alterable memory for holding data and a microprocessor for carrying out computations. Soviet, U.S. physicists unveil X-ray lens that may have computer, medical uses. (Technology ) Soviet and American physicists announce a new lens for X-rays that could be used to etch semiconductors, to improve medical diagnosis or to treat of some kinds of tumors. The lens creates an intense, focused source of X-ray radiation. Other scientists agree that the work is valid, but some researchers caution that more work is needed before commercial viability is established. The new lens may provide a way to etch semiconductor devices with circuits that are smaller and more dense than current methods can produce. According to Walter Gibson, a physicist at the State University of New York, X-ray lithography for chip making will now be available even for small manufacturers who could not afford such expensive equipment as synchrotrons, which can cost as much as $50 million. AT&T expects spinoff of Unix within 2 years. (Technology) Keller, John J. American Telephone & Telegraph Co (AT&T) will sell part of its Unix software subsidiary within two years, according to AT&T's Data Systems Group chief Robert M. Kavner, given that market conditions and the economy are favorable. Kavner will outline AT&T's intentions for AT&T's Unix Systems Laboratories subsidiary at a press conference on Apr 3, 1991. Industry experts are skeptical that the move will improve the market position of AT&T's version of Unix, which competes with a version backed the Open Software Foundation, which is led by IBM and DEC. According to Kavner, the creation of an independent software company with autonomous control was already his intention. Kavner maintains that the sale of Unix Systems Laboratories is not a response to activities of IBM and DEC. Silicon Graphics sets licensing pact with Microsoft. (computer graphics technology) (Technology) Silicon Graphics Inc agrees to license computer graphics technology to Microsoft Corp. The deal is seen as especially beneficial for Silicon Graphics, which has developed superior graphics software but has not been able to expand its market beyond a niche of scientific and technical customers. Microsoft will also benefit, gaining a new weapon in its battle against Unix software, which dominates the workstation market. A spokesman for Silicon Graphics says he expects Microsoft to incorporate Silicon Graphics' software into Microsoft's Windows and into an operating system that Microsoft says will run on various processors. Silicon Graphics had previously licensed software to IBM. Silicon Graphics is expected to announce a licensing agreement with Compaq, an IBM rival. Will DAL bring Macs into IS mainstream? (Apple shows its Data Access Language at the DB/Expo 91 show) Apple showed its Data Access Language (DAL) at the DB/Expo 91 trade show in San Francisco in late Mar 1991 in an attempt to present the Macintosh as a credible platform for corporate database applications. Apple also began an extensive marketing campaign intended to promote the Macintosh for client/server applications among corporate buyers. Apple USA VP Keith Fox says that while 74 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies have Macs installed, few IS managers are aware of the machine's ability to connect to anything other than other Macs. Apple will present DAL as an industry standard for connecting to diverse databases on various platforms; the company announced licensing agreements allowing DAL to work with the Mac, DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX and several different mainframes. Analysts point out that convincing IS managers of the efficacy of connecting with DAL will not be easy. IAC command center in cards; HyperCard update will control 7.0 apps. (Claris Corp.'s HyperCard 2.1) (Interapplication Claris Corp will unveil version 2.1 of HyperCard along with System 7.0 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, CA, in May 1991. The new version adds many features along with its compatibility with System 7.0, one of which is the ability to send AppleEvents to allow stacks to control System 7.0 applications. Several other developers are expected to announce versions of their applications that support Interapplication Communications (IAC) in that they can receive core events to let other programs control them; 7.0-compatible applications able to send AppleEvents will be required to use these new functions, however. Most initial 7.0-compatible applications will only be able to handle a core set of events and will not support function-by-function control. The new HyperCard version will also support the Data Access Language (DAL), but it will not support the Edition Manager (Publish and Subscribe), according to sources. Apple offers new in-house support plan. (two new in-house development programs: Software Development Support and Tech Apple begins two new in-house development programs for corporate software developers and technical support staff: the Software Development Support Service and a tech coordinator support service. Both will initially be offered in the Ohio River Valley, the Carolinas, California and New York; they will be available nationwide upon the introduction of System 7.0 on May 13, 1991. Software Development Support provides developers with monthly support mailings and the right to attend Apple's Developer University for hands-on training; they also receive on-line access to reference tools supporting in-house development, all for $1,000 a year. Two corporate developers can also receive unlimited access to an Apple development-support engineer for $6,000; six calls cost $2,000. A one-year subscription to the tech coordinator support service costs $2,000, and a six-call package costs $500; it is provided for free to subscribers to the full-blown Software Development Support program. Oracle Server: easy SQL for Mac nets. (Oracle Corp.'s Macintosh releases of Oracle Server and Oracle Card) (product announcement) Oracle Corp is developing Macintosh versions of its Oracle Server and Oracle Card client/server database tools, which, along with other products from the company for HyperCard and Windows 3.0, provide environments for users, developers and administrators of networked database management systems. Oracle Server ($2,999) is a port of version 6.0 of the company's SQL database server; it combines with front-end development tools from Oracle to provide an alternative to ACIUS Inc's 4th Dimension, Odesta Corp's Double Helix and Blyth Software Inc's Omnis for high-end Macintosh database development. The program includes many mainframe on-line transaction processing features, such as user authentication, row-level security, relational record locking and deadlock resolution. The design and use of the program on the Macintosh is described, as is the Server Manager utility. WOPODA swaps text, saves format. (Apple shows the Word Processor/Office Document Architecture developer toolkit at the Apple researchers showed the Word Processor/Office Document Architecture (WOPODA) developer toolkit at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany, in Mar 1991. WOPODA will let Macintosh users exchange documents with any other application adhering to the Office Document Architecture (ODA) protocol without losing formatting. WOPODA is not yet commercially available; it is a portable ODA word processor interface written in C++ and is intended to be used with Macintosh word processing applications running under System 6.0.2 or higher. WOPODA creates a bidirectional converter able to generate an ODA document from a Macintosh document and convert an incoming ODA document into Macintosh format. The Q112 Document Application Profiles are used to define the number of columns per page, proportional fonts, headers and footers, text and raster and geometric graphics, and other document attributes. MacToolkit helps screenwriters with Final Draft; new word processor automates formats. (MacToolkit's Final Draft word MacToolkit introduces the Final Draft screenwriting word processing software package with style commands that facilitate application of appropriate formatting to each script element. The $349 program includes preconfigured styles for slug lines, action or scene descriptions, character names, parenthetical material, dialogue and transitions that match industry standards but that can be customized for such uses as double-spacing for TV scripts. A Command-key equivalent is included with each style, and a sequence of styles can be created and applied automatically whenever the Return key is struck. Repetitive keystroking can be reduced by the program by entering character names automatically as the first letter or letters of the name are entered. Information needed for production scheduling can be extracted, and data can be exported in ASCII format with special commands embedded. Apple moves DAL across platforms; NetWare, Tandem, Unix servers due. (Data Access Language client software for database access for Apple announces several licensing agreements at DB/Expo 91 in late Mar 1991 that will provide Data Access Language (DAL) client software for DOS and Windows as well as DAL servers to UNIX, NetWare, Data General and Tandem systems. Apple's DAL server will be licensed by Pacer Software Inc and will be ported to the Sun Microsystems SPARCstation, HP 9000, IBM RS/6000, DEC RISC Ultrix and other UNIX platforms; Pacer will provide database adapters for Ingres, Informix, Oracle and Sybase databases on each platform. Novell has licensed Apple's DAL server for its NetWare network operating system and will integrate the code into its NetWare SQL database; the server could be implemented as a NetWare Loadable Module. Data General will develop a DAL server for its Eclipse MV series and UNIX-based AViiON systems, and Tandem will create a Macintosh interface for its NonStop SQL. New standard could encourage faster adoption of ISDN in U.S.; Mac applications will debut in May. (the Corporation for Open Systems' The Corporation for Open Systems (COS) introduced the National ISDN 1 common protocols for implementing ISDN in the US in Feb 1991. COS claims the new protocols will let most users send data, voice and video over a digital network by the end of 1992. Apple ISDN Product Mgr Susan Shuman says Apple is shipping an ISDN NuBus card to developers; she says applications will be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, CA, in May 1991. ISDN adoption in the US has been limited to date by contradictory protocols and other problems; the high cost of installing digital lines and service charges has also limited ISDN implementation. A point of contention is whether low-cost ISDN will be subsidized by increased basic telephone rates. Interest in the technology is expected to skyrocket upon availability of broadband ISDN, expected in the mid-1990s. Subscriber lawsuit hits Prodigy advertising. (Prodigy Services Co. hit by class-action suit of bait-and-switch advertising) Prodigy Services Co, along with its parent companies IBM and Sears Roebuck and Co, is hit with a class-action suit charging bait-and-switch advertising. The suit alleges that Prodigy advertised a flat-rate service to attract subscribers and restructured its electronic-mail fees to charge 25 cents for each message sent by subscribers above the 30-per-month allotment; the basic rate was also increased by $3 to $12.95 a month. Greenfield & Chimicles attorney Richard D. Greenfield, who represents Alan McAleer, who filed the class-action suit, says Prodigy is guilty of breach of contract fraud. Prodigy told members in Sep 1990, when the service went national, that e-mail charges would increase as of Jan 1, 1991, but the suit alleges that a series of mass direct-mail advertisements sent by the company in the last half of 1990 made no mention of the increase or made misleading statements about it. C-Cube chip to decompress video; processor based on MPEG standard. (C-Cube Microsystems Inc.'s Moving Pictures Experts Group-standard C-Cube Microsystems Inc demonstrates a single-chip processor able to decompress 24-bit color video in real time (30 frames per second) based on the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) standard for digital video and audio compression. MPEG, which is being developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO), uses interframe coding to remove redundancies between frames. C-Cube's MPEG processor compresses video by using software and a video digitizing board; it supports both MPEG and JVC Extended mode, the former allowing video compression ratios of up to 200-to-1 and at resolutions as high as 704 by 576 pixels, and the latter providing compression ratios of 50-to-1. MPEG decompresses video at 1.2M-bps to 1.5M-bps, which is suitable for VHS or Super VHS video, while JVC decompresses at 6M-bps, which is suitable for video broadcasting. PACo plays animation from disk, CD-ROM. (the Company of Science & Art's PICS Animation Compiler) (product announcement) The Company of Science & Art (CoSA) introduces the PICS Animation Compiler (PACo) that lets digitized video and animation from a hard disk or CD-ROM be played using a minimum amount of RAM. The animation and digital video engine software provides compression and real-time decompression, fully synchronized sound and the ability to play back sound and video stored in PICS format from disk. The program will be available in the summer of 1991; CoSA has pressed a 134Mbyte demonstration disc with a digitized version of the music video "Give Peace a Chance" that requires 14.4Mbytes of disk space but that can be played in only 60Kbytes of RAM. PACo works with a program that produces PICT frames or PICS sequences, including Director and HyperCard; it imports frames, synchronizes them with audio and compresses them at a ratio optimized for speed rather than storage, according to the company. In pursuit of the holy parallel grail. (the unfulfilled promise of parallel computers) (Commentary) (column) Parallel computers are generally announced with great fanfare and promises of many MIPS, only to find limited use in real-world computing environments. It would seem to make sense to combine many high-powered and relatively low-cost microprocessors with fixed-cost components, such as memory and hard disks. Many computations rely on the result of previous calculations, however, which requires that many alternative computations be done ahead of time; the branch with the correct answer is kept and the others discarded. This ties up many processors for only one computation and requires that complex software be written to allocate and de-allocate processors. The communications required between processors is another stumbling block to successful implementation of parallel technology. Future microcomputer enhancements will be based on higher performance in dedicated processors and general-purpose I/O chips. Computer Science 101: What is reality? (misconceptions about the Macintosh) (The Mac Manager) (column) It is expected that readers sometimes respond to a column with a moderate amount of contention on some point or other, but often their response shows a basic misunderstanding about the Macintosh. Three of these misconceptions are addressed. Many claim the Macintosh is not a database computer, but the machine provides all the features such a computer requires: the ability to display complex graphical application interfaces, multipurpose networking connections, floating-point calculations, fast data I/O paths and high-speed processors. Multifinder does not provide multitasking, although it does provide clever context switching and background processing, sometimes called cooperative processing. HyperCard is a real programming system, although it was not always as robust and complete as developers and casual users would have liked; the new version offers the enhancements programmers require. Aldus quietly fills out FreeHand; font conversion, palettes new in 3.0. (Aldus Corp.'s FreeHand version 3.0 desktop publishing Aldus Corp's FreeHand version 3.0 drawing program maintains the feature parity of earlier versions with Adobe Systems Inc's Illustrator 3.0 but distinguishes itself through its drawing interfaces. The $595 program lets artists work in a full-color preview mode, while Illustrator keeps users in a wireframe mode. The latest release adds an improved layer-management system and functions for converting PostScript Type 1 and Type 3 fonts into editable outlines, selecting individual elements from within a group, importing 24-bit TIFF images and creating compound objects with transparent 'holes.' Other enhancements are improved screen-redraw speed, context-sensitive help, an increase in drawing precision from 0.1-point to 0.0001-point accuracy, and the ability to save screen specifications as a style. The new features in FreeHand 3.0 will please users of earlier versions and may even win over some users of other drawing programs. Oasis: the right touch for Wacom input tablets; program exploits pressure sensitivity. (Time Arts Inc.'s 24-bit color paint program Time Arts Inc's Oasis 24-bit color paint program for pressure-sensitive tablets from Wacom Inc promises to deliver the benefits of the tablets to Macintosh users. Time Arts makes the Lumena paint and video graphics program for DOS-based computers; Oasis is intended for the same market among Macintosh users. The program responds to marks made on a pad by a pressure-sensitive pen to adjust the size, density and color of brush strokes; it can be used with a standard pointing device, but many of its special features are difficult or impossible to use in this way. Oasis supports TIFF, PICT and Targa files, whether compressed or uncompressed, but it cannot open large files in low-memory situations. Several problems were encountered in using the program, which is normal for a first-generation Macintosh product, but its support for pressure-sensitive input is the best of any such Macintosh program ever tested. Digital Darkroom best bet for grays; v.2 adds features, rounds rough edges. (Silicon Beach Software's gray-scale image processing Silicon Beach Software's Digital Darkroom version 2.0 gray-scale image processing software package adds several new features and colorization capabilities for enhancing images with washes and areas of color. The $395 program provides several palettes with image processing controls, among which are brightness and contrast, cursor coordinates and a histogram for inspecting the distribution of gray values within an image. The many palettes available make it easy to clutter up the screen when working with more than the basic interface, and the program cannot open a second window on a single file, a feature of Adobe Systems Inc's Photoshop and other image processors. Among the features in the program are cropping, scaling, rotating and flipping with optional numeric precision; the new version provides rulers and a new Perspective command for distorting an image and changing the viewpoint. Virex 3.1 fights viruses with the best of them. (Microcom Inc.'s Virex 3.1 computer virus protection utility) (includes a related Microcom Inc's Virex version 3.1 computer virus prevention software package features a startup document (INIT) that is much more configurable than earlier versions and that can remove viruses as they are detected, whereas previous versions required that the application be launched to remove a virus once it was found. The $99.95 utility added many important features in version 3.0 to put it on par with such virus detectors as Symantec Corp's SAM, Microseeds Publishing Inc's Rival and the freeware Disinfectant. The program's interface is easier to use, and the Define Virus command lets users change the application to check for new viruses, although it cannot remove them. The program's Record/Scan feature looks for changes in applications that may have been caused by viral infections. Virex is much improved, but the INIT can still be difficult to use. Mac accounting: options multiply: multi-user abilities moving to midrange. (accounting software packages for the Macintosh) Most large businesses continue to rely on minicomputers and mainframes for their accounting needs, but many small businesses and departments within corporations are using Macintosh-based accounting packages. High-end Macintosh accounting packages are generally sold through resellers and qualified installers only, and most support multiple users, but their complexity usually requires much training and they are generally used full time by at least one person. The best-selling high-end accounting package for the Macintosh is the Great Plains Accounting Series, although most of its sales are for DOS-based systems, and the program does not make much use of the Macintosh interface. The Insight Expert Accounting Series has a Maclike interface; the program's original publisher, Layered Inc, has gone out of business, but it is now sold by Peachtree Software Inc. Several other Mac accounting packages are described. BMUG books tackle ResEdit, HyperTalk 2.0. (BMUG Inc.'s Zen and the Art of Resource Editing and HyperTalk 2.0 New Features books) BMUG Inc has gone beyond publishing its popular newsletter to release two books: Zen and the Art of Resource Editing, a collection of articles on Apple's ResEdit program, and HyperTalk 2.0 New Features, a reference work on additions and changes to HyperTalk in the program's new release. The first book is edited by Derrick Schneider; it discusses resources, dialogs, fonts, and customizing the Finder, menus, keyboard map and icons. The book comes with a disk holding version 2.1 of ResEdit, a keyboard-mapping Contrl Panel device, a Startup document for displaying color icons and other utilities. The second book is written by Ted Jones and has a dictionary-style format that lists new HyperTalk commands, properties and functions alphabetically. Also discussed are the book Desktop Publishing Success by Felix Kramer and Maggie Lovaas, and a fix for a bug in the Mac IIci Cache Card. Connecting Point plans SuperStores; franchiser to back giant new outlets. (company profile) Connecting Point plans to enter the franchise SuperStore market, showing that bankruptcy need not be the end for large resellers. The company was founded in 1982 as Connecting Point of America Inc, a chain of retail stores selling cable TV subscriptions that eventually spread into televisions, VCRs and computers. The company eventually became the largest Macintosh reseller in North America, but it grew too fast and had to file for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 in 1985. Connecting Point developed the concept of conversion franchising, under which resellers already in business are convinced to buy through the company rather than through the vendor or another franchise. The company is now part of the franchise division of Intelligent Electronics Inc (IE); it plans to leverage the success of its Cost Plus franchising as it enters the mass merchandised computer market. Apple takes aim at anti-Mac myths, targets IS with marketing campaign. Apple plans a marketing campaign intended to quell misconceptions about the Macintosh among information systems managers. Apple USA VP for Business Markets Keith Fox says four specific myths have held up Macintosh sales in corporate IS departments: Macintoshes are not affordable; they are not compatible with other personal computer platforms; they cannot connect with microcomputers, minicomputers and mainframes made by other vendors; and there is a lack of Macintosh software to meet MIS needs. Apple USA Mgr of IS Marketing Ed Forman told a press and analyst briefing at DB/Expo 91 that the company will step up its efforts to debunk these myths through 1991, beginning with a series of free videotapes called The Apple Seminar for One. The company also plans a new print ad campaign aimed at MIS, and its field sales force will be armed with marketing aids specifically for IS managers. Study finds Mac still seen as a toy by many IS execs. (Aberdeen Group Inc. conducts a study on MIS perceptions on the Macintosh) Apple contracts with technology market research firm the Aberdeen Group Inc for research and advice on how to increase Macintosh sales to corporate MIS departments. The Aberdeen Group conducted in-depth interviews with top IS executives at 12 Fortune 100 companies between Sep and Dec 1990 and found what it calls an appalling ignorance about the Macintosh's ability to function in a heterogeneous environment. Aberdeen Group VP Peter S. Kastner says many of the executives interviewed consider the Macintosh a toy; he says many formed their opinions on the machine when it was a relatively immature product and have refused to modify their initial judgments. The research shows that the Macintosh has only an 8 percent share of the IS applications market. Kastner says many of the executives, when told of the Macintosh's abilities, were angry that Apple had not let them know what the machine could do. How to avoid burn-in. (Software Review) (Berkeley Systems' After Dark for Windows screen saver utility) (evaluation) Berkeley Systems' $49.95 After Dark for Windows is a screen-saver program for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers that prevents the phosphor burn-in effect from occurring on the machine's display screen. The program blanks out the screen after the computer has not been used for about five minutes. The screen reappears after any key is touched on the keyboard, or the mouse is moved. To prevent the phosphors burning an image on the screen, After Dark replaces the last-used screen with a moving animated image. It offers 30 such images ranging from an aquarium to a night view of a city skyline. Also included in the package are two levels of security password protection. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co offers a $19.95 book and disk combination with 17 trick programs, ranging from a program that returns sarcastic remarks to commands typed at the DOS prompt to a virus-scanning program parody. A keyboard squeeze finds room for mouse. (Hardware Review) (Datalux Corp.'s Microtype Space-Saver Keyboard) (evaluation) Datalux's $124.50 Microtype Space-Saver Keyboard is a computer keyboard specifically designed for users who need to maximize the amount of space available on their desktop. It is smaller than the normal 18-inches-wide by 6-inches-deep keyboard, measuring only 11 inches wide and about 6 inches deep. The extra few inches may not sound much, but they can be critical for having enough space to use a mouse properly. The keys on the Microtype are closer together than normal and have been arranged in clusters to preserve valuable space. The keyboard may be a little too small for users who type all day, but for the occasional user, or those that utilize a graphical user interface and mouse, this could prove a valuable tool. Datalux also offers a $1,175 liquid crystal display called the Datalux Model MKL. A $1,750 electroluminescent version is also available. Both displays are 10 inches diagonally. Wang seeks new strategy for business; company plans to shift to industry standard and imaging market. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Wang Laboratories is planning to redirect its efforts towards the electronic-imaging market and to move its customer base to a new industry-standard computing environment. Richard W. Miller, the company's chief executive, says that Wang will no longer attempt to compete for market share on the companywide computer network or large corporate computer systems level. Instead, the company plans to concentrate on the departmental and small work-group niche. The company has already announced that it plans to develop products using an open system design based on the Unix operating system and is planning to license a computer design from MIPS Computer. Wang's success had hinged upon its calculator, word processor and minicomputer products, but the advent of the microcomputer has decimated the market for all three products. Motorola taps Lockheed as partner to make phone system satellites. Wartzman, Rick; Rose, Robert L. Lockheed Corp has been selected by Motorola Inc as a major partner in its planned Iridium satellite cellular phone system. The partnership calls for the two companies to build 77 satellites in a deal that could mean hundreds of millions of dollars for Lockheed. The contract, which is Lockheed's first major non-defense satellite agreement, could be a vital move into the commercial satellite business. The satellite network is estimated to cost about $2.1 billion dollars to complete and would allow cellular phone users anywhere in the world to communicate. Lockheed has revenues of $10 billion, so analysts see the contract as being more strategically than financially useful to the company. AT&T is said to have sold 20% Unix stake. Keller, John J. AT&T has sold 20 percent of its Unix business to a group of eleven companies in an attempt to make good on its promise to dilute its control over the Unix operating system it developed. The companies include four from Japan, two from Europe, and four from the United States. AT&T has given the new company, called Unix System Laboratories Inc, a value of about $325 million, making the value of the divested portion about $65 million. The move is seen as another step in the ever-increasing battle for Unix market dominance between AT&T and the IBM-led Open Software Foundation. Both groups have competing Unix operating systems on the open market. AT&T plans to sell another 10 percent of the company to its employees and keep a 60 to 70 percent stake. Suddenly, IBM can hardly find a patch of blue. (poor sales for the company's products) There are a number of reasons attributed to IBM's poor showing in the first quarter of 1991. The company maintains that an unexpectedly soft worldwide economy and the consequences of the war in the Middle East have accounted for the reduction in estimated earnings, and IBM maintains that it has little to do with IBM's product lines. However, mainframe sales, which account for 50 to 60 percent of IBM's profit, have been threatened by competitive products and the rise in popularity of distributed computing and networking. The company's mainframe high-capacity 3390 drives, for a long time the dominant market product, are now facing competition from Hitachi Ltd and Amdahl Corp. Additionally, customer's data processing budgets rose only two percent last year, the smallest rise since 1982. IBM continues to restructure and reorganize, cutting jobs and reducing capital spending in an effort to reverse its declining fortunes. NCR's 'Nancy Reagan defense' may not work much longer. (against a takeover by AT&T) AT&T's efforts to takeover NCR Corp continue in the face of a spirited defense by the NCR board of directors. Many analysts though, believe that sooner or later it is inevitable that AT&T will win. The recent ruling by a federal judge that NCR's new employee stock ownership plan was illegal and only there to entrench the current board of directors has contributed to the feeling of inevitability in the industry. That same day AT&T raised its cash tender to $100 per share, from $90. Even at the $90 per share price, 70 percent of NCR stockholders had accepted the offer. AT&T needs only 80 percent support to oust the current NCR board at the special shareholders meeting scheduled for March 28. Even if AT&T cannot get that percentage, it will be able to get four directors elected to NCR's board of 12. Analysts believe this will be enough to establish a foothold. Observers believe AT&T will then simply wait for another year when more directors positions will be up for re-election. Hewlett-Packard rethinks itself. Buell, Barbara; Hof, Robert D.; McWilliams, Gary. Hewlett-Packard's declining market share in the late 1980's could be directly related to its in-house bureaucracy involving no less than 38 committees. Development of new products was being slowed down by the committees while costs were beginning to sour. John A. Young, HP's chief executive officer, confronted the problem by using the companies own laser-printer division as a corporate-wide model. The operation had maintained a 60 percent market share even in the face of serious competition. He reduced the committee structure to just three, and in the meantime flattened out the organization, dividing it into two distinct groups: one to handle microcomputers, printers and other peripherals; the other to oversee the sale of workstations and minicomputers. Additionally, the traditional HP single-sales force strategy of the past was eliminated in favor of each group having its own marketing team. HP is now placing much of its future on the introduction of a new Snakes line of fast workstations that it hopes will wrest market share from Sun Microsystems. HP's printer unit: from rule-breaker to role model. Buell, Barbara. Hewlett-Packard Co's Boise, Idaho-based laser printer division serves as an organizational and management model for the the rest of the corporation. A number of reasons exist for its immense efficiency and the market leadership of the HP laser printers. In the first place, the division was not restricted in bureaucracy like the rest of the HP organization which was bogged down with a multitude of decision-making committees. Additionally, because the laser printer was a stand-alone product it could operate outside of corporate guidelines. Unlike the rest of HP's product line, the printer 'engine' used was actually manufactured by Canon Inc. The decision to market the products towards the entire microcomputer arena was also an important factor, along with the signing of hundreds of computer dealers to sell the printers. To maintain its market lead, the division has kept cutting costs with manufacturing innovations, and has continued to keep costs under control even in the face of a 40 percent annual revenue growth rate. Japan's HDTV: What's wrong with this picture? (high-definition television) The future of high-definition television could well rest with the applications that can be found for the technology in industry. The high cost of HDTV television sets in Japan - around $15,000 - the lack of hardware and VCR standards, and the lack of HDTV broadcasts have relegated the technology to nothing more than an expensive toy. Additionally, the Japanese dependence on analog technology is almost certainly going to be made obsolete by US-backed research into an all-digital system. HDTV does have an increasing future in industry-related applications however. The technology is being favored over workstations for scientific and engineering uses in which they are used to translate immense amounts of computer data into images. Additionally, workstations cannot project images onto large screens without loss of resolution, unless the image is converted into 35mm film. HDTV cannot only project an image, it can also manipulate it with the computer. HDTV may have a future after all, but it may rest with industry addressing specific applications and not with the home consumer market. Multimedia. Nelson, John. The design of digital multimedia hardware systems requires thorough evaluation of all aspects of the powerful and dedicated very-large-scale integration (VLSI) devices necessary to implementing such multimedia capabilities as high-quality real-time, full-motion digital video. Designers face a wide array of choices of single and multiple integrated circuit and board-level products for incorporating digital motion video. Factors to consider in the selection of such devices to develop quality multimedia hardware include adherence to nonproprietary open standards (developed by the CCITT H.261 group, Joint Photographic Expert Group and Moving Picture Expert Group), current high costs, VLSI device capabilities and design requirements. A list of questions that designers should ask in developing multimedia hardware is provided. Compression and decompression of video plus Intel Corp's Digital Video Interactive and Philips-Sony's Compact Disk Interactive technical approaches to multimedia are discussed. Data management tools tie frameworks to concurrent engineering. Donlin, Mike. Data management tools are vital for the effective use of computer-aided design (CAD) frameworks. Open CAD frameworks enabling the use of multivendor software tools and hardware platforms have become popular, but they must also include mechanisms that manage design data as it passes between development stages and between design tools. Such CAD management tools may provide project tracking, workgroup control, configuration management for automated tracking and control of design versions and releases, automated management of libraries of reusable parts and components and an underlying data base or data bases. The relative value of single or multiple design management data bases and the difference between dynamic and static configuration management are discussed. The Design Manager package that Valid Logic Systems (San Jose, CA) uses to provide design management in its ValidFrame CAD framework provides an example of design management software. Multibus II looks to secure its future. (includes related article comparing bus delays and transfer rates for several buses) The Multibus II specification is under review to ensure that the architecture will supply customers' needs in the coming years, but the enhancements under consideration are not expected to take a large number of customers away from the VMEbus. The Multibus Manufacturers Group (MMG), Siemens AG, Bull SA and the Intel Industrial Computer Div are among the organizations reviewing the architecture. The major Multibus II enhancements being considered are a 'hot swap' physical hardware removal and insertion facility, extending the backplane beyond its current 21-slot limit, increasing the data transfer rate to 84Mbytes/sec and adding an Intel 80960-based Transport Processor Module to reduce the overhead on the host Message-Passing Coprocessor. Intel Industrial Computer Div product marketing manager Mike Richmond and MMG Exec Dir Len Schulwitz discuss these enhancements. Trusted Unix version points way to secure embedded systems. (Trusted Information Systems' Trusted Xenix offers high level of Trusted Information Systems' (Glenwood, MD) Trusted Xenix is the first operating system that offers National Computer Security Center (NCSC)-certified B2-level security for Intel microprocessor-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. The operating system is a version of Microsoft's Xenix implementation of UNIX. B2, the NCSC's third-highest confidence level, implements a 'structured protection' security technology that audits and controls the access to several levels of information by persons in six privilege classes. 'Labels' specify the kinds of access privileges between particular users and user programs and a system's named data objects or software and hardware resources. Categories of information can be established to further limit access by users within one privilege class. Transputer attracts support for Ada and real-time Unix developers. Williams, Tom. Ada- and UNIX-based software packages are appearing that take advantage of the multiprocessing-oriented transputer microprocessor architecture to implement real-time applications. The transputer was created by Inmos, now a division of SGS-Thomson (Colorado Springs, CO). The microprocessor is optimized for multiprocessing, with each unit able to run local code in local memory while communications between transputers are separately managed via the four serial links in each device. The technology simplifies the building of a wide variety of multiprocessor system topologies. Alsys (Burlington, MA) ported its Ada compilation system to the transputer. The software absorbs the transputer's real-time executive functions into the application, eliminating a separate kernel between the program and the processor. Chorus Systems (Paris, France) will port its Chorus microkernel-based operating system to Inmos' new H1 transputer. The intertask communications software, microkernel and process manager reside on each transputer. Details of and criteria for selection of the two software packages are discussed. High-level synthesis unlocks potential of FPGAs. (three new field programmable gate array libraries for Synopsys' Design Compiler Three new FPGA libraries for the new version 2.0 of Synopsys' (Mountain View, CA) Design Compiler facilitate high-level FPGA synthesis. FPGAs offer fast, low-risk and -cost circuit design implementation with easy migration to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) but no nonrecurring engineering costs. Actel (Sunnyvale, CA), Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) and AT&T Microlectronics/ASICs (Allentown, PA) offer the new libraries of FPGA primitives. Design Compiler will enable designers to enter a design description using Verilog, VHDL, state tables, equations or netlists; synthesize the design to an FPGA in one of the libraries; use the Electronic Data Interchange Format to transmit the FPGA netlist to the vendor for routing and placement; and retarget the design to an ASIC. AT&T's five-year agreement with Xilinx (San Jose, CA) to produce Xilinx 3000 and 4000 series Logic Cell Arrays and support them on the Synopsys Design Compiler is discussed. Data pump chips away at 9,600 bits/s. (new AT&T V.32 modem chip set, the DSP16A-V32, used in a Vocal Technologies modem data pump) AT&T Microelectronics (Berkeley Heights, NJ) announces a low-power V.32-standard modem data pump chip set, the three-chip DSP16A-V32, that Vocal Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) has already used to implement a data pump in a portable V.32 modem. The V.32 protocol for 9,600-bps modem transmissions is expected to overtake the current 2,400-bps V.22bis modem market, but this will require a decline in the price and size of V.32 modem chip sets. The new three-chip AT&T V.32 data pump chip set consists of an interface controller, linear coder/decoder and 16-bit fixed-point digital signal processor. It enables the design of a modem data pump unit in less than two square inches. The entire Vocal Technologies' V.32 modem occupies only two cubic inches and includes the DSP16A-V32 chip set, an 8-bit microcontroller, some RAM and ROM chips and the data access arrangement circuitry. High-density ASICs force focus on testability; getting an ASIC of 20,000-plus gates to market on time means building testability ASIC developers have several choices for adding testability to their ASIC designs. Conventional 'ad hoc' testing of high-density ASICs with 20,000 or more gates may take as much as 40 percent of the design cycle and 50 percent of the cost. New testing technologies that can be mixed to facilitate and speed large ASIC testing include test development software, built-in self test (BIST) compilers and scan cells and automatic test-pattern-generation (ATPG) tools. Examples include the comprehensive set of hardware/software products from CrossCheck Technology (San Jose, CA), the Test Compiler from Synopsys (Mountain View, CA), the Intelligen sequential ATPG tool and SilcSyn test synthesis software from Racal-Redac (Westford, MA), Test Design Expert software from ExperTest (Mountain View, CA), HiDesignA logic and test synthesis software from GenRad, AT&T Microelectronics/ASICs (Allentown, PA) Macrocell Layout Generator to add BIST capabilities to ASICs and design-for-testability software tools included in the products of several electronic-design software vendors. Communications standards pit convenience against speed in standard buses. (tutorial) Achieving cost-effective communications on standard buses (such as VMEbus, Futurebus+ and Multibus) is complicated by the variety of communications technologies and their tradeoffs in speed, media, cost and degree of standardization. This is further complicated by the growing need to support standard wide-area communications systems as well as local area networks (LANs) and point-to-point communications, all with diverse requirements and data transfer rates. Some board vendors expect Ethernet LANs to continue to be the market leader for some time. Others believe that Fiber Distributed Data Interface will be a major force in future communications. Unfortunately, the performance of both technologies can be inhibited by the overhead imposed by some standard communications protocols. Solutions include the use of greater host processor bandwidth or special hardware that optimizes protocol execution. Emerging standards such as Hippi and Fiber Channel and proprietary communications technologies are discussed. Single-attach FDDI links workstations. (Fiber-Distributed Data Interface) The single-attach/concentrator approach to implementing FDDI local-area network (LAN) communications is a cost-effective strategy for workstations that is growing in popularity. The common method of directly attaching a workstation to the dual counter-rotating rings of an FDDI LAN requires expensive ($12,000 to $15,000) dual-attach interface cards. The single-attach/concentrator approach connects several single-attach workstations via $4,500 to $8,900 adapter cards to a concentrator that has a dual-attach interface to the FDDI LAN. Advantages of the new method include automatic reconfiguration of a concentrator's workstation connections without performance loss when the fiber breaks or a workstation turns off, elimination of LAN reconfiguration problems when many dual-attached workstations are present and the ability to upgrade a wide-area network server link on an FDDI backbone to 45M-bit/sec T3. Designers discover new tools to overcome PCB layout hazards. (printed-circuit board) New generations of computer-aided engineering software tools enable the more rapid layout and development of PCB designs at lower cost. Ever more complex and dense very-large-scale-integration PCBs, ever faster components, increasing thermal and signal parasitics problems, the need to minimize prototype iterations and shrinking time-to-market demands are complicating the design and layout of PCBs. Consequently, successful PCB routing and component placement more-and-more require layout tools that can address design, test, timing, analog and thermal effects, signal distortion and integrity and manufacturability. The new generation of design tools that are emerging connect the entire process from logical design to physical implementation. Such sophisticated layout tools are now available for microcomputers as well as expensive workstations, and several are discussed. Thermal considerations can no longer be ignored. (printed circuit board design) Thermal imaging systems and thermal modeling systems are being used more and more to ensure the proper thermal design of printed circuit boards (PCBs). There is a continuous demand for faster, more reliable and less costly electronic equipment. This is requiring faster, denser PCBs, which result in more heat generation and reduced reliability. Effective thermal layout strategies may not decrease the total heat generated but can lower the peak temperatures of specific components. This is particularly important to such sensitive devices as active integrated circuits, switches and relays. Computerized thermal modeling systems facilitate prediction of thermal effects of a PCB design to enable resolution or correction early in the design process. Computerized thermal imaging systems employ infrared scanning to generate temperature maps of operating PCBs, enabling designers to detect any thermal defects. Adapt your engineering process. (improving printed circuit board design and manufacture) Suitable internal communications, expertise and tools matched to company needs are vital to the efficient and cost-effective design and manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Most PCB design and manufacture is accomplished by groups working relatively independently of each other. The problems that this can create are demonstrated by three examples. A viable PCB design strategy requires that all participants work together as a single team. This means that all relevant groups in a company adhere to a single set of design rules, cooperate in training on new tools and always keep communication lines open. Successful PCB design may also require a rearrangement of the groups and individuals involved in the process. Specifically, PCB design must be 'tightly coupled' into the engineering operation. Trends in analog design tools. Tasker, Shiv C. Several improvements in analog printed circuit board (PCB) design tools are necessary to facilitate the fast and cost-effective design of PCBs. Analog PCB design is the 'toughest challenge' because of the need to handle such factors as placement and complex spacing rules, curved lines, arbitrary copper shapes, multiple spacings between nets, parasitic effects, heat dissipation and testing, packaging and manufacturing requirements. Current computer-aided design systems for PCB design just address the physical aspects of a design, resulting in an extended hardware prototype cycle to resolve the other impacting factors. Suggested improvements include layout rules that prioritize component placement to improve signal-to-noise ratios, the use of stress analysis to perform thermal analysis and simulation techniques to resolve parasitics. 256-kbit SRAMs provide many choices, while 1-Mbit chips gain speed. (static random-access memory integrated circuits ) (buyers Trends in and example SRAM integrated circuits are discussed. Both the ever more popular reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) processors and new generations of high-performance microprocessors with clock speeds of 33 MHz and higher and cycle times of 30ns or faster require zero-wait-state cache memories to ensure top performance. SRAM's fast access times have made them the best technology to implement such memories. 256K-bit SRAMs currently offer the best combination of speed, density and choice of configurations; but designers must continuously respond to demands for ever higher speed and density. Most SRAMs are fabricated as complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) because the process technology enables low-cost, high-volume and easily reproducible production. BiCMOS is expected to become the 'mandatory' process technology for high-speed SRAMs. Cache memory design, impacts of cell size and exemplifying SRAM devices are discussed. Toolset offers embedded object-oriented development based on Smalltalk. (Object Technology International's Envy/Developer) Object Technology International (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) offers a Smalltalk/V-based object-oriented team programming environment and configuration management system, Envy/Developer, for the development of embedded software systems in heterogeneous networked computing environments. The software provides configuration, library and version control in conjunction with the Digitalk development environment and Smalltalk/V programming language. The entire software life cycle is supported, including prototyping, performance analysis, maintenance and debugging. Envy/Developer tools and Smalltalk/V run on Motorola 680X0-based embedded target systems while the software's windowing graphical user interface runs on Apollo or Sun-3 workstations or microcomputers. The embedded Smalltalk/V applications can work with commercial real-time executives. The software supports Novell Netware, TCP/IP, Banyan VINES, LAN Manager, Digital PCSA and Sun PC-NFS. Envy/Developer is priced at $4,000 per user, though volume purchases can drop the price as low as $500 per user. Programming environment improves reengineering and code maintenance. (ProCase's Smartsystem) ProCase (Santa Clara, CA) introduces the $8,750 Smartsystem modular, extensible programming environment for understanding, maintaining and reengineering existing C programming language applications. Existing programs may be difficult to understand and maintain because of poor documentation and unavailability of the original programmers. Consequently, such programs demand the majority of programming time. Smartsystem provides view, graph, store, check and make/debug tool modules to facilitate the analysis, maintenance and improvement of C programs. The tools are structured around a C++ object-oriented data base that provides each user with a consistent view of the program data while controlling the access of multiple users to common data. Tool features and functions are discussed. Integrated environment targets analog PCB design problems. (Valid Logic Systems' Analog Systems Lab facilitates analog Valid Logic Systems introduces a comprehensive, integrated software package for analog PCB design, the $45,000 Analog Systems Lab (A/S Lab). A/S Lab's capabilities include any-angle placement, creation and display of split power or ground planes, use of curved traces and shapes with curved boundaries, on-line access to symbols of various packaging technologies, improved design rule checking that checks for physical packaging limits, automatic line fattening and rules-driven single- and dual-layer automatic routing. Rules-driven routing enables the inclusion of various performance criteria (such as matching delays and controlling parasitics, capacitance or inductance) before the physical design process. A/S Lab works within the ValidFrame computer-aided design framework, which also includes the firm's Analog Workbench II and Allegro PCB engineering system. The Analog Workbench's Smoke Alarm module can be used to perform thermal analysis and component power dissipation. A/S Lab ships May 1991 and runs on IBM, Sun and DEC workstations. Design environment supports FPGA architectures. (Data I/O introduces Abel-FPGA software package for field programmable gate Data I/O (Redmond, WA) introduces Abel-FPGA, a comprehensive software package for the design, optimization, device fitting and logic synthesis of FPGAs. The software features constraints-generation for FPGA placement and routing, MS-DOS extended parser and reducer for implementing the larger modules of FPGAs, optimization features such as device fitters and new criteria for netlist generation and interactive menu-driven user interface to facilitate the FPGA design process. Abel-FPGA accepts state machine, high-level equations, truth tables and other forms of behavioral design entry. Designs can be entered and simulated before a target device is selected, with output viewable in multiple formats such as vendor-specific netlists and constraint files. The $7,995 package runs under MS-DOS on IBM XT, AT, PS/2 Models 70/80 and compatible systems. PLD for state-machine designs features low-power operation. (National Semiconductor introduces MAPL128 Multiple-Array National Semiconductor Corp (Santa Clara, CA) introduces the low-power MAPL128 Multiple-Array Programmable Logic device (PLD) targeted at the implementation of state machines. The 28-pin PLCC package features a paged active partitioning architecture, dynamic allocation of user-defined product and sum terms, maximum power demand of 140mA and eight independent programmable logic array planes. Each plane is configured 58-by-16-by-54, consisting of programmable and electrically erasable AND and OR arrays. The AND array has 58 true and complementary inputs, while the OR array has 54 OR terms. 16 product terms provide input from the AND array into any of the OR terms. Output macro cells can be programmed to act as either J-K flip-flops or D-type flip-flops with clock enable. The MAPL128 is $21.80 each in 100-unit lots. HP prepares to add VARs, distributors: workstations: new series reshapes market. (Hewlett-Packard, value-added distributors) Hewlett-Packard is preparing to establish a larger presence in the VAR channel via a revamped distribution strategy scheduled for the Summer of 1991. The move closely follows the introduction of the HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 workstations, surpass competitors in the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation market by offering computing power beginning at 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) for prices beginning under $12,000. Industry analysts were impressed, saying that many who bought IBM bought on price/performance. The new HP line far exceeds IBM and HP is expected to maintain an outright price performance lead until Apr 1992. HP wants to expand workstation distribution, including the new Models 720, 730 and 750, by increasing the number of distributors handling its workstations and by enhancing the VAR base. Novell extends fault tolerance: Public's first look at SFT III. (System Fault Tolerance level III) (product development of NetWare Novell has introduced its long-expected plan to include System Fault Tolerance level III (SFT III) in future versions of its NetWare network operating system. System fault tolerance is a network's ability to keep running in spite of hardware failures. It is currently available only on minicomputers and mainframes. The revelation was made at the company's seventh Developers' and Consultants' Conference, which marked the first demonstration of the technology, which was some five years in creation, outside of closed-door meetings. The decision comes less than one year after the developer abandoned the idea of bringing high-level fault tolerance to Compaq's Systempro computer line. The significant improvement of SFT III over SFT II is that the entire server is mirrored. ComputerLand to buy Nynex's 77 centers: agreement pegged at $150 million. (Nynex Business Centers) ComputerLand has signed a letter of intent to buy Nynex's 77 Business Center and distribution facilities for $150 million, half in cash and half in stock. The figure is significantly higher than was expected by Wall Street and reseller officials. The deal is scheduled for completion by Jun 1, 1991. ComputerLand officials declined to comment on the acquisition price but said the cash would come from three sources: its own business; majority shareholder Warburg, Pincus Capital Co. L.P, and outside credit lines. The company should be able to finance much of the acquisition with inventory liquidation and accounts receivables. The price was more than analysts expected Nynex to receive. A key point in the negotiations was that the acquiring company would retain the Nynex employees. ComputerLand will receive an instant volume boost through the acquisition of between $625 million and $700 million. Use of laptop computers to soar at Fortune sites. (Fortune 1000) Caginalp, Elizabeth G. Some 83 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies and 56 percent of small to midsize businesses will be using notebook or laptop computers by 1993, according to a recent Gallup Organization survey, which also found that businesses with the highest annual sales among small to midsize companies are most likely to use the smaller machines. Industry analysts say the poll supports their feeling that notebooks and laptops are turning into an important part of microcomputing strategies for many businesses. Vendors report that many of their customers use notebooks and laptops as full-time computers. Users are beginning to believe that portables can do the same things that desktop systems can do. Analysts say it is possible that total microcomputer purchases may be 50 percent portable systems and 50 percent desktop machines. The EISA gang is at it again: long-range: members look to bolster specs. (extended industry standard architecture) Members of the EISA consortium are working on development of an enhanced version of the EISA specification and creating a marketing campaign to match IBM's promotion of its Micro Channel Architecture. The campaign will offer a road map for the EISA architecture through 1995, according to consortium executives, who indicated the need for a long-range plan. A number of the original consortium members are reviewing the new specification, including Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Olivetti Office USA, AST Research and Wyse Technology. A list of eight to 10 enhancements is being evaluated. Increasing the burst-mode operation from 33M bits per seconds (BPS) to 66Mbps is the most obvious improvement. Another is a 32-bit protected-mode implementation to enable standardized software application and driver development. Legal VARs forced to adapt: changing vertical market sees a rise in consolidations. (Value-added resellers) The maturing of the legal market niche is causing VARs to alter the manner in which they prospect and grow existing business. Many are being forced to develop and acquire additional products and support capabilities as a way of serving a more savvy customer base. Law firms are becoming more and more tenacious in their channel demands. VARs have responded by expanding their support services, software functionality and presence. Industry officials say that times are tough for legal VARs. The recession has permanently altered the manner in which the legal industry works. Software and services drive the market, now; not hardware. The consolidation among law firms is the main force driving the trend in the value-added channel. Spreadsheet prices fall: Computer Associates fights for share. (Computer Associates International) Computer Associates' (CAI) decision in Mar 1991 to drop the price of its SuperCalc spreadsheet from $495 to $149 has caused some dealers to feel that developers are engaged in a battle to dominate the low-end market. Reseller officials say spreadsheet vendors are asking themselves what has to be done to preserve market share. They feel that CAI considers both Borland International and Lotus Development are competitors. CAI's decision to drop the price on SuperCalc follows the success of Borland's ongoing upgrade promotion, which offers Lotus 1-2-3 users an upgrade to its Quattro Pro software for only $99. Borland saw its unit sales soar because of that promotion from 200,000 in 1989 to 700,000 in late 1990. Resellers are complaining that margins are being affected because of CAI's move. Compaq to boost network training. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Senia, Al; Hubbard, Holly. Compaq Computer plans to significantly enhance its existing integration agreements with four key software vendors to include training courses open to all 1,750 authorized resellers by the second half of 1991. Compaq officials say plans call for the introduction of four separate, two-tier dealer training courses that are targeted on products from Microsoft, Novell, Banyan Systems and The Santa Cruz Operation. Integration agreements were signed with the four vendors in 1990 to enhance high-end Systempro sales. Two training classes will be offered for each vendor. The first is a basic course for any Compaq dealer on the integration of hardware platforms with the software system. The second is for accredited systems engineers for high-end specialized dealers. The courses will explain how to integrate these standardized platforms and are designed to supplement specific training by the four key software vendors. DOS 5 debuts in June: beta testing for product nearly complete. (MS/DOS 5.0) Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 beta testers report that the product is clean and almost ready for production, as the Jun 1991 delivery data comes closer. Sources familiar with Microsoft's marketing strategy confirm that the upgrade product will be marketed with a list price of less than $100. A Microsoft insider has previously described the rollout as second only to Windows 3.0 in terms of complexity. The beta-test program was the largest in history for a piece of software. The few problems that remain have been traced to other vendors' software or misunderstandings by beta testers regarding configuration parameters. The installation procedure is still the subject of heated debate. A conscious decision was made to automate the process, making it easier for even novice users. DEC helps VARs capture Europe. (Digital Equipment Corp., value-added resellers) DEC is making plans to introduce a new program to assist its VAR and reseller partners in the establishment of distribution channels in the overseas markets in Jul 1991. Those resellers are normally isolated in the US. DEC plans to provide a variety of international services under the program, including formalized business planning, distribution, joint-venture partnerships, pricing and technical support. The program has existed as a pilot effort, called the Complementary Solutions Organization, since Jan 1991. The original intent was to confine it to 16 of the vendor's high-end integrators. There are no plans at present to provide resellers or VARs any financial assistance. The perception, according to company officials, is that the vendor's niche-market VARs cannot go out of their local geographic boundaries, which is not true. Western Digital to sell unit to SMC. (Standard Microsystems Corp.) Hwang, Diana. Standard Microsystems (SMC) has entered the Ethernet and Token-Ring network adapter business by agreeing to acquire Western Digital's local area network (LAN) business for $33 million in cash. Sales of Ethernet and Token Ring adapter boards totaled $115 million in 1990, approximately 11 percent of Western Digital's revenue. The deal will be completed by Jul 1, 1991. Western Digital will manufacture LAN boards for one year until SMC ramps up its own manufacturing resources. The SMC logo will replace the Western Digital name on the LAN products. The deal will not affect the channel heavily as both vendors rely on distributors. Distributor officials see the acquisition as a positive move as it lets SMC into the Ethernet marketplace in a big way. Analysts say SMC will have to change its views regarding marketing and enhance distribution as they will be handling much larger volumes. DEC will unveil low-cost networking products. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (product announcement) DEC plans to introduce a new line of low-cost work-group local area network (LAN) products, such as a wiring hub and bridge that boast a plug-and-play ease of use. The new products include the DEChub 90 Backplane Ethernet hub ($890), DECbridge 90 Network Bridge ($2,840), DECserver 90L Terminal Server ($1,450), and the DECrepeater 90T and 90C Ethernet Repeaters ($1,540). Industry observers say the products will appeal to existing customers but are cautious about the vendor's chances of attracting new customers. Company officials say DEC is trying to generate increased presence in the reseller market with the new products. and is using a current nationwide roadshow to promote the products and build value-added reseller (VAR) interest. Current PC-market slowdown not yet over. (SCI Systems Inc.) Pang, Albert. SCI Systems, Huntsville, AL, announces that its March Quarter revenues will 15 to 20 percent below analysts' estimates as its customers, such as IBM, have postponed purchases. The company provides motherboards, disk drives and VGA color cards to important microcomputer manufacturers. One reason for the postponement of purchases is that SCI customers are ailing as well. The announcement comes as yet another blow to the financially troubled microcomputer industry. IBM has already announced that its 1st qtr earnings would be 50 percent below the expectations of analysts. The sluggish economy has already slowed the industry. Vendors and suppliers are stuck with too much inventory. SCI expects sales to IBM, one of its most important customers, will drop to as low as $250 million for the fiscal year ending Jun 30, 1991, compared with $318 million in 1990. Apple licenses third-party developers for DAL. (Data Access Language) Apple has licensed its Data Access Language (DAL) to third-party developers and introduced two DAL servers in order to enhance the ability of the Macintosh to access information on a variety of platforms and operating systems. Company officials say the goal is to bring the Mac into the mainstream business marketplace as the best-connected microcomputer. Software developers working with DAL include Blyth Software Inc, which is developing DAL toolkits that will let developers write desktop applications for MS/DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Unix computers; Pacer Software, which is licensing DAL to develop Unix-based DAL servers for a variety of hardware platforms; Novell, developing for NetWare SQL; Data General, developing for InfoDBMS; and Tandem Computer, developing for NonStop SQL. Oracle upgrades development tools. (product announcement) Hwang, Diana. Oracle has upgraded the Oracle Tools and Database for MS-DOS and OS/2 systems, including a new menu interface and improved capabilities. The developer also plans to include a windowing applications programming interface (API) library with the tools later. The new release of the development tools now includes version 6.0 of the Oracle relational database management system and an improved toolset. The package lets developers create applications on the microcomputer then run them on different platforms. The target of client/server systems has generally been on connectivity and servers. Development attention is now moving toward end-user tools. New tools include SQL*Forms 3.0 and SQL*Menu 5.0 Micrografx's humble beginnings. (company profile) Markowitz, Elliot. Brothers George and Paul Grayson started Micrografx in May 1982 with a $5,000 loan from Paul's Citibank Visa credit card. A long road of personal sacrifice and commitment has made Micrografx the $20 million+ company it is today. Both men have sacrificed much, including marriages, to ensure that the dream of building a software development firm together would come true. There is a level of dedication that supersedes everything else when starting up a company, according to George Grayson. The brothers have also stuck by each other in spite of strains at various times but both are strong-minded and the relationship is as strong as ever. Paul quit his job as a project development manager and programmer, where he was making $40,000 per year. George left a position as a systems analysts for the Federal Reserve Bank, where he earned $33,000 annually. Inacomp: pulling it together again. (Window on Wall Street) (column) The stock for Inacomp Computer Centers has sunk slowly since its peak in 1989, after shares fell from almost $650 in late 1988 to almost $12 in Sep 1989. The shares have been trading around $7.50 per share recently. The run-up in 1989 was supported by revenue growth of 46 percent and an earnings-per-share increase of 40 percent in fiscal 1989. Revenue grew 42 percent in fiscal 1990 to $500 million though earnings slowed sharply to nine percent. Annual revenue growth dropped to 14 percent in the Oct 1990 qtr. Understanding all of this can be helped by an understanding of Inacomp's 'base-satellite' approach, supporting over 125 franchised locations and 55 company-owned centers accounting for 75 percent of revenue. The emerging profitability of its superstore joint venture with Mitsubishi might help the annual earnings comparisons by the Jul 1991 qtr. IPOs: signs of faith? Some firms capitalize on receptive market. (initial public offerings) Atmel, Zilog and Simtek Corp have all recently held initial public offerings (IPOs) to raise more than $95 million combined. Zilog Inc, Campbell, CA, offered 2.3 million shares for $11 per share, and grossed $25.3 million. The stock is now trading at $13 per share. Initial plans were for the company to go public in Jul 1990 but market conditions were not conducive at that time. The market was not receptive to IPOs following the invasion of Kuwait. Investors have regained confidence and the stock market has turned around since then. Soft Warehouse and Banyan Systems have both been preparing to go public for some time. Banyan officials refused to elaborate about when the company would make its move. Soft Warehouse will file its IPO sometime during 1991. Tech Data, Robec post strong 4Q, fiscal earnings. (fourth quarter) Markowitz, Elliot. Robec Inc and Tech Data Corp have both posted strong earnings for the 4th qtr and fiscal year, partly because of new product lines filling a void left by Toshiba America Information Systems. Tech Data posted a net income of $2.2 million on sales of $122.1 million for the 4th qtr, compared with a loss of nearly $2 million, 32 cents per share, on revenue of $100.9 million in 1990. Earnings more than doubled for fiscal 1991 to $6.6 million or $1.07 per share, compared to $3.1 million, 49 cents per share in fiscal 1990. The company filled the gap left by Toshiba by signing agreements with AST Research, Advanced Logic Research and Texas Instruments. Robec's sales rose to $49.1 million for the 4th qtr ending Dec 31, 1990 from $46 million in 1989. Revenue for the fiscal year increased to $190.9 million from sales of $168.6 million in fiscal 1989. Net income for the 4th qtr was $942,000, 30 cents per share, down from $1.4 million, 21 cents per share in 1989. Year-end earnings fell to $4 million, 87 center per share, compared to $4.7 million, $1.32 per share for the previous year. Cultural differences will remain despite single European market in '92. (Eurovision) (column) Most European countries have agreed to eliminate trade barriers and establish the European Economic Community in 1992 but they have not agreed to part with cultural barriers. Therefore, Pan-European marketing strategies are not advisable. It is virtually impossible to design an advertisement to fit the mentalities of all potential customers in Europe. A play on words in one language could constitute a brush with death for a corporate image in another. Most vendors cannot afford an ad agency in every country. Delegating the responsibility for national advertising to a local partner who is aware of local cultural idiosyncrasies is a viable option. Mexico's door is open: Commerce Dept. rolls out red carpet for new market. (United States Department of Commerce) A MicroAge executive on a trip to Mexico City was surprised to find over 13 pages of listings for local microcomputer dealers in the local Yellow Pages. MicroAge and others are discovering that Mexico has a fledgling reseller channel as well as the backing of some top-ranked US software and hardware vendors and the US Commerce Dept. Mexico could give US resellers an opportunity for foreign expansion that could cost far less than any European or Asian strategy and is much closer. Purchases in Mexico can be made with hard convertible currency or US credit cards. The channel is not as developed as that of Western Europe but it is no worse than any emerging foreign market, according to WordPerfect executives. ComputerLand and MicroAge agree. US computer companies will not have to invest in Mexico in order to enjoy tariff-free trade if the Commerce Dept succeeds in establishing a free trade agreement with Mexico similar to the one with Canada. Microsoft takes 3Com baton: coming: XNS support in first LAN Manager upgrade toolkit. (Microsoft LAN Manager, XNS protocol) Microsoft, in keeping with the intention to ease 3Com out of workgroup computing, has revealed XNS protocol support in its first 3Com-to-LAN Manager 2.0 upgrade toolkit, which is expected to ship by Jun 1991. The developer has, at the same time, reaffirmed its commitment to support all 3Com customers directly, during as well as after their upgrades to LAN Manager 2.0, due out in Apr, 1991. Microsoft is just looking to cover costs on the toolkit and has yet to put a price on it. It is available to 3Com customers operating 3+Open or 3+Share. LAN Manager 2.0 will have 30 days of free support, beginning at installation, not purchase. Focus on fax machines: prices of high-end models come down to earth. List prices on fax machines and fax boards have come down and more sophisticated technology lets users become more and more efficient with both products. Top fax board vendors include Hayes Microcomputer, Intel, Complete PC, Adtech Microsystems and GammaLink Graphics Communications. Top fax machine vendors are Sharp Electronics, Panasonic Communications and Systems, Mirada, Ricoh and Canon. The installed base for fax boards was nearly 250,000 in 1990 while the installed base for fax machines was approximately 4.6 million. The number is expected to rise to 6.2 million in 1991. Stand-alone fax boards have continued to drop in price and now sell for about $100. An inexpensive fax machine sells for $300 to $400. High-end fax machines cost about $1,500. LAN users say fax capability is a plus. (Local area network, facsimile) Changes are occurring rapidly in the LAN fax server marketplace. Analysts say current trends include a combination of network and cost efficiency; printer and electronic mail development; multifunctions; integrations; and value-added features. Industry leaders include Open Software, GammaLink, OAZ Communications, Castelle Corp and Alcom Corp. GammaNet ($1,295) from GammaLink is a network fax server operating at a speed of one page per 30 seconds. Facsys 3.20 ($995) from Optus Software has an operating speed of one page per five seconds. OAZ Communications' NETfax manager 3.05 ($1,995) runs at one page per 40 seconds. Castelle's Faxpress LAN fax server ($4,395) runs at one page per 15 to 30 seconds. Alcom's LanFax redirector for Windows ($995) can transmit at a speed of 100 pages per hour. Nuts to UNIX: it's being falsely touted as a standard. (The Platform) (column) Nowadays either a marketing type is preaching about Unix as the ultimate computing environment or someone else is claiming the announcement of Unix 5.4 will unite the Unix world and harmony will ensue. Those proclaiming Unix as the end-all of software development do not impress. Claims by developers and software engineers are important but biased as their reality is based on the the creation of applications, not the use of them. The most irritating part of the argument is that Unix code can be ported easily to different versions of Unix. That may be but standards are determined by users. Few users in the desktop market are interested in recompiling source code. Unix will be considered something of a standard when the same diskette can be run on a SPARCstation, HP/UX-based system or a VAXstation. RS/6000's first year: IBM shows impressive sales, but faces long battle ahead. IBM has released impressive first-year sales figures for the RS/6000 workstation. The company still needs to fight a long battle to make the RS/6000 the top workstation in the industry. The workstation division has had a very successful year with $1 billion in sales in 1990. Some 25,000 units were shipped worldwide with 10,000-plus being shipped in Dec 1990 alone. Industry officials are encouraged by 1991. Software developers point out that Fortune 300 corporations use Sun Microsystems products. IBM is not a player of note as yet but nobody is underestimating the vendor. Analysts expect Fortune 500 firms to consider the RS/6000 but point out that they may find it a bit expensive as a replacement for the IBM RT. Company officials feel that analysts' predictions of a $3 billion year in 1991 for the RS/6000 are too high and do not consider the backlog the vendor was filling in the latter portion of 1990. The vendor calculates its unit market share for 1990 at six to seven percent. Color-market diversity: new, low-cost NEC printer targets less-sophisticated users. The color output marketplace is being separated into two distinct groups--the general business user and the graphic-arts user. NEC Technologies (NECT) plans to introduce a new, low-cost color thermal-transfer printer with a subset of features that will appeal to business users. The ColorMate PS 40 ($6,995) has been made more affordable by cutting the amount of memory and the number of PostScript typefaces in half. The original ColorMate PS 80 printer listed for $8,995. The Model 40 comes with 4M bytes of memory and 17 PostScript typefaces and is targeted at corporations seeking a printer for desktop presentations. The controller board of the new printer has been redesigned to allow for field upgrade via daughtercards, which would bring it to full Model 80 performance capability. The vendor has offered each reseller site a demonstration unit for 55 percent off list price, which the proviso that it remain as a demo unit for six months. Small software companies have a purpose. (Soft focus) (column) Wasch, Ken. A recent study by the Software Publishers Association confirms that larger software companies have a definite advantage over smaller competitors. The 12 largest software companies accounted for an impressive 77 percent of all software sales in 1990. Larger vendors are more able to economize on research and development as well as general and administrative expenses. Money earmarked for these expenses decreases proportionately as a revenue function as the company grows, a significant benefit to operating income. The average cost of goods sold and typical sales and marketing costs are about even at small and large companies: 25 and 31 percent respectively. Larger companies use employees more efficiently. One customer-support worker is hired at smaller companies for each $1.3 million in revenue. The figure jumps to $2.5 million for medium-sized companies and $2.6 million for larger ones. Smaller companies post the highest sales growth for the industry, 103.4 percent in 1990. Smaller companies also bring ingenuity and diversity to the industry. Lotus adds support options: voice-response system to fall in 'paid' category. An increasing number of software developers are offering free support but Lotus Development continues to resist the trend and builds new options into its fee-based support network. Company officials say the customer sees it as a value structure and will pay to get good service in a timely manner. Many of the larger developers are balancing a mixture of free and paid support. Microsoft and Ashton-Tate added free support options in 1990 while WordPerfect has had a costly free-support component for some time. Word-Perfect and Ashton-Tate also offer priority support for a fee. Lotus offers toll-free Prompt support around the clock for all IBM-PC versions of 1-2-3 and will support other products 12 hours per day, five days per week at a yearly fee of $99. Applause II upgraded: Ashton-Tate software offers LAN support. (local area network) (product announcement) Ashton-Tate has revised its Applause II presentation graphics software in a move to extend its fame beyond its database roots. Applause II 1.5 ($495) was due to ship the end of Mar 1991 and will, for a limited time, include a free serial mouse from Microsoft in retail versions sold by authorized dealers in the US and Canada. Current Applause II users will be able to upgrade for $50. Users of older Ashton-Tate graphics products will be able to update for $75. Applications account currently for about 25 percent of Ashton-Tate's yearly sales, according to company officials. New features include 300 additional clip-art images, a spell checker, network support and a DOS shell to allow users to access as many as 12 other user-chosen applications without leaving the graphics program. The program is certified to run under Windows 3.0 though it was not optimized for the graphical environment. The real work begins. (marketing of notebook computers) Graziose, Michelle. Vendors of notebook computers will have to be more attentive to supporting and promoting their products in the reseller channel as constraints on supply of many models ease up and prices drop. Those vendors still creating demand or those that have begun to ship are realizing their programs must be competitively attractive. These offerings, until now, just about sold themselves. Back orders were the norm as there was not enough product. Reseller officials report that notebook computers are selling faster than they can be obtained. They report that Compaq has been able to retain prices higher than other vendors because of name appeal and corporate image. Features and performance are the top reasons for users to choose notebooks. Every 'notebook' is a compromise. (notebook computer) Rose, Phil. All portable computers sold in the future will be the size of notebooks, or close to it, with the appropriate technology readily available and inexpensive. The limits of true notebooks are worth questioning. Common understanding is that a notebook computer is 8.5 x 11 inches. A typical three-ring binder is two inches thick. Include the third dimension in the equation and all products tested except the one from Texas Instruments exceeds those limits. All the systems performed in a similar manner as they are based on the same processor, although the caching in Compaq's system gave it an edge. The main factor in deciding between those systems is now the designers have solved or not solved the format limits. The keyboard is the primary challenge to the true notebook goal. A full-size keyboard is wider than notebook width. IBM provided a full-size keyboard that would be comfortable for touch typists. Compaq faces strong competitor: IBM's new PS/2 L40 SX portable system is a 'winner.' (Hardware Review) (evaluation) IBM's PS/2 L40 SX ($5,995) is one of the most innovative products the company has ever entered into the microcomputer market. The new product is intelligently designed from keyboard to screen. The 20MHz 386SX-based laptop computer is a definite threat to the well-established Compaq LTE ($6,495) and Texas Instruments TravelMate 3000 ($5,495) notebooks. Technically the new IBM laptop is not a notebook. The main reason for the vendor's initial refusal to go the route of the 'real' notebook is the keyboard. Keyboards are headaches for designers and users alike. Company officials say the company plans to release a true notebook in the future. IBM chose not to compromise, citing research that proved a significant buying group willing to accept the extra width to gain a full-sized keyboard. Users who want a more compact computer will have to go to one of the true notebook machines. Vendor plots low-end plan: DEC's German deal: what will it mean to its existing VARs? (Digital Equipment Corp., value-added reseller) VARs and analysts are reflecting on the potential impact of an agreement between Mannesmann AG and DEC to establish a joint venture, Digital Kienzle, which will act as a master VAR for the vendor's Central and Eastern European markets. DEC, as part of the venture, will own 65 percent of the new company, which was formed from several branches of Mannesmann Kienzle Computer Systems Division, PRO-CAD GmbH and OCS GmbH. Mannesmann AG will own the other 35 percent of the venture. Hans Wolfgang Dirkman, former DEC vice president for customer service in Europe, was appointed general manager and chairman of the board of management for the Villingen, Germany-based company. The appointment comes after the European Community's recent approval of the new venture, announced at the end of Dec 1990. The Mannesmann deal is not the first time DEC has acquired an equity interest in a VAR as a method of boosting its market position. Feds demand data: GSA to award supply schedules for 1991. (General Services Administration) The United States General Services Administration (GSA) is expected to award the majority of its 1991 supply schedules in Apr 1, 1991, offering federal buyers top discounts on their computer purchases now that they have collected discount data from hundreds of computer and software vendors. The 1991 GSA schedule awards should be a marked improvement over the 1990 contracts, which underwent delays due in part to the GSA's greater pricing data request. The GSA wanted to be ahead of the game and the vendors, knowing what the information demands are, appeared to be quicker in getting the information, according to officials of Bohdan Associates Inc. Bohdan received its 1990 contract in June, two months after the start of the contract year. Officials at Government Technology Services object to the paperwork burden of dealing with the federal government. People and money are necessary to respond to information requests. The GSA has considered allowing the electronic submission of data. Sales-channel growth remains respectable, despite 1Q showing. (first quarter) (Taking Stock) (column) The results of a survey of leading microcomputer distributors and resellers highlighted a sharp deceleration of growth for distributors, a segment that has outpaced the microcomputer industry for years. A slowing of growth for major resellers was also noted. Industry observers estimate that leading wholesale distributors will post a 14 percent revenue growth during the 1st qtr of 1991. This represents halving of the growth rate of 1990 and is quite a bit slower than that of the 4th qtr of 1990, 22 percent. First quarter results for resellers will be easier to interpret, as reported revenue and same-store sales converge. The slowdown is attributable to the Gulf War, continued shortages of product and worldwide economic sluggishness. Pumping up laptop lines: Andatco, Parity add RDI's BriteLite to offerings. (Andatco Computer Peripherals, Parity Systems, RDI Two distributors specializing in the Unix market, Andatco Computer Peripherals and Parity Systems, have signed agreements with RDI Computer Corp to market what RDI claims is the first laptop computer based on the Sun Microsystems SPARCstation, called BriteLite. Both distributors want to capitalize on the demand BriteLite has already generated. The vendor reports an order backlog that totals more than $40 million. Andatco officials say BriteLite is one of the most exciting products for a Unix reseller, which will be well-received by the Andatco customer base. The computer, called a breakthrough in laptop design, is a smaller version of the SPARCstation IPC and the only laptop computer that actually uses Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation IPC board, which uses the SPARC (scalable processor architecture) microprocessor to give BriteLite the ability of running software compatible with the three leading operating environments: SunOS (UNIX), Macintosh and MS/DOS. RDI will open nine field offices in the next few months to provide sales assistance to its key distributors worldwide. DistribuPro adds Microrim databases. DistribuPro, specializing in accounting software, has signed an agreement with Microrim Inc. DistribuPro, under terms of the agreement, will distribute and market Microrim's two relational database management systems (RDBMS), R:Base 3.1 and Personal R:Base, to resellers. R:Base is an important addition to the company's product line. Microrim's high- and low-end database solutions fit perfectly into the accounting marketplace. DistribuPro can offer these products to thousands of resellers offering accounting-based solutions. It is important that the distributor add key products to enhance its product lines for resellers which will aid their business strategies as resellers in the accounting marketplace do not purchase only accounting products. The distributor will launch a mailing to 2,000 of its top dealers to kick off the agreement and a second mailing to 10,000 dealers. Mapping software: not just for cartographers anymore. Calderbank, Alison. Companies have for years collected and stored data on microcomputers and manipulated it to determine market share, profit and customer feedback. More and more businesses in today's visually intensive world are using mapping software to supplement databases and spreadsheets. Manufacturers and Traders Trust uses mapping software from Strategic Mapping Inc to determine what to do with the branches and customers of a recently-acquired savings-and-loan institution. The bank says that using mapping software can help it determine which branches are used most frequently, where existing automatic-teller machines compete with newly-acquired ones and which services are used most regularly. It is used for any activity requiring geographic or spatial analysis. Comdisco Disaster Recovery Service uses mapping software to decide when and where to open new centers. The company can map their entire customer base by type of processor they run on and market penetration. Hospitals' PC use growing: giving health care a booster shot. Calderbank, Alison. Hospitals plan to increase information systems spending but are looking for ways to utilize their computer systems more effectively, according to a survey sponsored jointly by Hewlett-Packard and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Health-care organizations are trying to enhance efficiency and profitability by streamlining operations and computers are one way to accomplish that goal. Some 75 percent of respondents said information systems had improved the financial health of their hospitals. Eighty-three percent of the respondents said hospitals are behind other businesses in terms of computer use. Of those, 43 percent said hospitals are somewhat behind other businesses while some 40 percent say that hospitals are significantly behind. Just six percent said hospitals were ahead. Hospitals are unlike any other kind of organizations. They are a large, multi-system type of organization. Improving the efficiency for doctors and nurses with the adoption of technology can result in the improvement of patient care and operations. Target: 'gray market:' Microsoft, SeniorNet push PC literacy. Computer resellers and software developers have largely ignored the market created by the graying of the US. SeniorNet, a non-profit group that teaches computer skills to older adults, has received 100 donated copies of Microsoft Works to be distributed to the group's 42 training centers across the country. SeniorNet officials point out that there are about 35 million senior citizens in the US and the number continues to grow. The software industry has served the business and home markets but not the senior market. Microsoft is working with SeniorNet to create a customized Microsoft Works training package, called SeniorWorks, to be released in summer 1991. The strategy of SeniorNet is to work hand-in-hand with groups that share their values. Microsoft, as one of the first to realize the importance of the senior market, has offered its support in many areas. SeniorNet, with about 4,000 members, has also worked with Apple Computer and Intuit. The reseller channel has yet to work with the group, which is hoping to find a retailer that will honor the group membership card. Smaller firms lead in telecommuting. Calderbank, Alison. Those companies that are less encumbered by long-term real-estate contracts and corporate management tiers are leading the telecommuting movement. Telecommuting is a technique that allows employees to work either full or part time at home. Pilot programs have been instituted by Sears Roebuck, Travelers Corp, JC Penney, Chase Manhattan and Levi Strauss. The smaller companies are the primary beneficiaries. Officials of Link Resources Corp say that their data have shown the most common participant is an employee of a small business. Telecommuting often causes problems for big businesses but those same factors are seen as advantages by small businesses. Licensing gripes: software firms address confusion. Doyle, T.C. Software publishers are altering the manner in which they package and license applications programs as sales to network customers increase. Packaging and licensing changes, like those proposed by WordPerfect and Software Publishing, will resolve some of those issues. Resellers are worried they may come up short if vendor programs do not address their concerns. Most resellers are seeking some consistency from software developers. Packaging changes have been made but standards are still needed for site licensing and volume agreements. Customers across the country are buying more products in network bundles, which means steep discounts and simplified licensing. This has meant an increase in unit sales but not in revenue. Several developers are toying with the mix in order to achieve a balance between customer demands and business needs. Centel in Inacomp strategy. Markowitz, Elliot. The recent acquisition of a portion of Centel Corp by Inacomp Computer Centers is part of the reseller's overall plan to be a provider of solutions and enhance revenue. Inacomp now owns 20 percent of Centel's Information Systems division with a maximum of three years to buy the rest, according to Inacomp officials, who refused to elaborate on the deal. The Centel division, under the agreement, will offer nationwide technical support around the clock for Inacomp customers. The deal also gives the reseller entry into some Fortune 500 firms such as Chrysler Corp. Inacomp officials say the main objective is to create a nationwide service network that can provide support in a mission-critical environment. Inacomp officials see the 1990s as a different environment from the 1980s, feeling a reseller has to be both both a cost-effective distributor and a solutions provider. Alan Shugart & Seagate: industry leaders drive the data storage market. (Cover Story) Alan Shugart, Chmn and CEO of Seagate Technology, recalls that the company's first product, a 5-Mbyte drive, sold originally for $1,500. The company quickly dropped the price to $1,100. Officials at Tandy said that if the price got down to $500 they would buy all Seagate could produce. An 80-Mbyte 3.5-inch SCSI drive lists for $695 today. Resellers expect to see a 100-Mbyte drive for less than $100 and are reasonably sure that the price drop will be initiated by Seagate. Seagate also leads the industry in setting standards. The company's revenues are also much higher than their competitors. The company is thriving, due to a comprehensive product mix. Spies linked to software scam. (former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane implicated) Small software developer Inslaw Inc has been fighting since 1983 to prove that the US Department of Justice misappropriated its product, but the case has taken a new twist with the revelation that former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane might be linked to case-tracking software allegedly fraudulently obtained from Inslaw. A former Israeli intelligence officer has alleged in a sworn statement filed in the US Bankruptcy Court that McFarlane gave the software to the Israeli government. Inslaw claims officials of the Justice Department and their friends stole its Promis law-enforcement case-tracking software for use in a complex series of business arrangements. Federal bankruptcy judge George Bason Jr ruled in favor of Inslaw in 1987, but the Justice Department has filed a series of appeals in the intervening years. NCR softens resistance to buyout. (NCR Corp. may allow AT&T to acquire it) NCR Corp may soon allow itself to be acquired by AT&T, according to reports that indicate NCR shareholders have softened their resistance to the takeover. The shareholders held a long-awaited vote on Mar 28, 1991, but the final tally will not be available until after April 7. AT&T is not expected to gain the 80 percent vote it needs to oust the entire NCR board but is likely to get more than 60 percent of the vote and thus be able to replace NCR board members already up for reelection. NCR is moving away from the $125 per share its has claimed should be a starting point for negotiations and is anticipating further discussions with AT&T, indicating that it may accept $110 per share. AT&T initially offered $90 per share, increasing this to $100 if it got the 80 percent vote. Observers cite $112 per share as a best-case scenario for NCR. Rival data, voice nets to hook up. (IBM and AT and T) Horwitt, Elisabeth. IBM and AT&T announce plans to integrate their rival NetView and Accumaster network management platforms so that users in multivendor environments will have a 'single view of voice and data operations.' IBM will develop software under an agreement with AT&T that will allow Netview to act as an enterprise network management system, with Netview hosts performing 'element manager' functions and feeding network data into other vendors' systems. Both companies are designing their products along the guidelines of the OSI Network Management Forum's peer-to-peer network management architecture. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association recently announced plans to implement a high-speed corporate-wide network that will connect IBM SNA hosts over AT&T lines. Novell application manager shown behind closed doors. (Novell Inc. demonstrates new object-oriented software management application Novell Inc has reportedly demonstrated a new object-oriented application management program to developers and consultants at a closed-door presentation. The product, which does not yet have a name, will use a 'management services protocol' to monitor, diagnose and control applications running under Novell's NetWare network operating system. Sources say that the new program was initially designed to manage Novell's own software on servers but will work with any application written to link with new Novell application program interfaces. It will let network administrators program management agents to collect object-oriented information. AT&T to cede more control over Unix V. (AT&T Unix System V) Ambrosio, Johanna. AT&T is expected to announce the sale of a minority stake of its Unix System Laboratories (USL) Inc to at least 11 computer vendors the week of Apr 1, 1991. The vendors will hold individual stakes adding up to approximately 25 percent of USL and include Sun Microsystems Inc, Novell Inc, Amdahl Corp and others. They will name three USL board members while AT&T names six, but AT&T will not have control because a 70 percent 'super majority' will be needed to approve any major changes in the USL charter. Industry observers say users will benefit in the short term even if USL does not become allied with the Open Software Foundation, because the AT&T subsidiary will become more market-driven. HP/Apollo leaps RISC market. (reduced instruction set computers) (product announcement) HP/Apollo introduces a new line of high-performance reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstations and servers that will sell for an average of $5,000 less than competing products. The new HP/Apollo 9000 Series 700 series starts at $11,990 for a diskless entry-level system with 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) performance and 16Mbytes of memory. Members of the series include the low-cost Model 720 and the 76-MIPS Model 730 and 750. The 730 will be priced from $19,990, while the 750 will cost $43,190. Analysts say that the new machines will improve HP/Apollo's position in the highly competitive workstation market. Feds to break reservation lock. (computerized flight-reservation systems) THe US Department of Transportation has proposed regulation to break major airlines' monopolistic control of the computerized reservation systems used by travel agents. The proposal is designed to ensure that travel agents can use third-party hardware and software to enhance the services provided by the four largest systems vendors. Agents subscribing to one system do not always get timely or reliable information about flights on competing systems; American Airlines' Sabre does not always present full information on United Airlines flights, and agents would like to be able to use microcomputers to switch to United's Apollo system. Each system has an 'architectural bias' that makes it easier for travel agents to book the vendor's flights than to book flights on other airlines. Apple offerings link Mac to database servers. (Apple announces new Data Access Language products) Apple Computer introduces new products based on its Data Access Language (DAL) extension of SQL that will allow Macintosh clients to engage in cooperative processing with IBM mainframes. DAL allows interactive data access to multiple servers; part of it resides on the client, while the remainder resides on the server. Analysts are skeptical about the impact of the new products, noting that the Mac operating system is too confined to be effective in a client/server environment. Seafirst Bank, one of the largest Mac sites, is nevertheless very interested in using DAL to link its 3,800 Macintoshes to its IBM 3090 production mainframe. IBM laptop faces tough market. (IBM PS/2 laptop computer)(includes related article on design of casing and keyboard) (product IBM has introduced the PS/2 L40SX, its first laptop computer, but some analysts doubt that the machine will win significant market share outside of the strict IBM 'loyalist' shops. 'True-Blue' customers may prefer the machine over Compaq, Toshiba and other top-tier laptops, and the L40SX is also expected to appeal to those buyers who prefer the security of a well-established brand name. The computer is nevertheless expensive at $5,995, a fact that may hinder its acceptance in the mass market. Some corporate buyers have already standardized on other vendors and do not want to switch. IBM also suffers from a poor history in the portable market. The Portable PC and PC Convertible did not offer the price/performance ratios of other contemporary machines, but the L40SX is generally considered the technological equivalent of other laptops. It has a 20-MHz 80386SX processor, 60Mbyte hard disk and side-lit VGA display. Top-dollar Compaq LTE has carved out loyal user base. (Compaq LTE 386S/20 laptop computer) Compaq's LTE 386S/20 laptop computer has a loyal user following despite its $7,000 list price. Compaq states that competing systems from Dell Computer Corp, Tandon Corp and others selling for $4,000 and less often lack the high-end features of the LTE, which includes a built-in 60Mbyte hard disk, cache controller and such options as an expansion chassis. Users are pleased with Compaq's docking station and say that the LTE offers quality that justifies its premium price. Some complain about the design of the LTE keyboard, which rearranges the cursor-control keys into a non-standard arrangement and uses small nonalphanumeric keys. Quattro Pro 3.0 rushes out. (Borland International Inc introduces Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet) (product announcement) Borland International Inc introduces Quattro Pro 3.0, an upgrade of its popular spreadsheet program that offers more extensive graphics provided via the company's object-oriented design approach. Analysts say that Borland's aggressive approach is improving its market share, which doubled to 24 percent in 1990. Borland is also working on a version of Quattro Pro optimized for use with Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Quattro Pro 3.0 offers WYSIWYG zoom, full mouse support and pull-down menus. Early users say the WYSIWYG capabilities save time and reduce the need for guesswork. Quattro Pro 3.0 costs $495; upgrades are $99.95 for users of Quattro Pro 1.0 and $49.95 for Quattro Pro 2.0. Borland has also introduced Preview Power Pack, a set of graphics enhancements for Quattro Pro 2.0 users. The company also introduced Paradox SQL Link 1.1, which connects microcomputers with data residing on mainframes. Scientists put their feet on the GaAs. (gallium arsenide semiconductors - faster alternative to silicon CPUs) New methods of gallium-arsenide-based process manufacturing, including photo lithography and the triply-layer metal method, have increased interest in gallium arsenide as a replacement for silicon CPUs, especially in powerful supercomputers. It has long been difficult to put large numbers of transistors on a GaAs chip because the high transfer rate of the electrons causes excessive crossover between the CPu and the primary cache. Vietesse Semiconductor Corp has nevertheless been able to place 1 million transistors on a GaAs chip. Switching from gold to aluminum in the gate structure of transistor interconnects helps open a former speed bottleneck. Vitesse updates the manufacturing process from wet etching to a dry etching technique. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is working on a GaAs CPU, combining the hit rate and cycle time successfully. Leaving the Computer Stone Age. (computer industry) (column) Coates, Joseph F. Many computer users are only interested in the short term and are failing to perceive the need for innovation in the long term. Computers in most large organizations have stalled at the first or second phase of their implementation, and are used to optimize old functions rather than create new ones. The computer did not become an effective tool in the practice of medicine until almost 20 years after it was introduced in hospitals. Government agencies are another key example of the phenomenon of technological stagnation. Many agencies are efficient at record keeping but little else. Why take the RISC? We're all wondering. (reduced instruction set computers) Compaq, DEC, Microsoft and MIPS Computer Systems' strategic alliance to develop a standard reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation architecture is intended to produce a new generation of desktop computing devices, but the failure of OS/2 indicates that microcomputer users are not in a hurry to make any 'generational' leap in technology. The companies are already involved in the Open Software Foundation, which is promoting its OSF/1 platform as a standard; the alliance may be a competitive move to counter Sun Microsystems' popular SPARC architecture. Stratus compiler spells migration boost. (Stratus Computer Inc. uses new type of compiler to switch to RISC processors in its Stratus Computer Inc's new XA/R Model 20 is the first in a new generation of reduced instruction set computing (RISC)-based fault-tolerant machines. Users can choose between Stratus' proprietary Virtual Operating System (VOS) or the Unix-based FTX to bring their old applications to the new platform via new compilers. Stratus' compiler technology separates code generation and optimization from the compiler itself, letting the firm switch from Motorola 68000 microprocessors to the Intel 80860 RISC chip fairly easily. The new compilers can produce object code for a variety of hardware, and Stratus used them effectively to develop the XA/R line. Making U.S. intelligence more intelligent. (computers in US Department of Defense) McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Co is installing an Automated Message Handling System (AMHS) for US military intelligence agencies under a five-year, $40 million contract. The system will be installed at 50 sites worldwide and will feed message traffic from the Defense Department's current Autodin message-switching network to give analysts a real-time picture of military and political trends around the world. Each of the 50 AMHS data centers will have two to four DEC DS 5000/200 servers routing information to as many as 500 intelligence analysts on a local-area network and running Verity Inc's Topic Real-Time Ultrix-based software. Topic holds user-specified profiles that define subjects and weighs them in order of importance. AMHS will replace a 15-year-old system based on DEC PDP-11 minicomputers and dumb terminals. RJR keeps tabs on parts with imaging system: inventory cuts, more uptime may lower costs. (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco CO.) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co's three major US plants now manufacture 190 billion cigarettes per year with the aid of a new image-processing system used to better track spare parts inventory and catalog the voluminous instructions found in maintenance manuals. The firm's plants are divided into approximately 140 production units, each with nine integrated cigarette-making machines. RJR Tobacco uses a Wang Laboratories Inc imaging system and a suite of integrated software packages developed in-house using Software AG's Natural fourth-generation language and Adabas database. The company had standardized on the Software AG software when it first began to use IBM mainframes and DEC systems throughout its organization. Neither IBM nor DEC offered corporate-wide imaging systems at the time RJR Tobacco began to investigate the technology, so the firm decided to use the Wang Integrated Imaging System software and VS 5000 minicomputer. Staffs prepare for GTE/Contel merger. (GTE COrp. acquisition of Contel COrp.) GTE Corp's $6.6 billion acquisition of Contel Corp has been legally finalized, but the two firms have not yet developed a complete strategy to integrate their businesses. Consolidating the information systems departments of the two firms will be a major challenge; the IS departments for the telephone operations have a total of 6,300 employees and are 'very systems-oriented,' according to VTE VP of information technology. 'Merger teams' from both companies have been appointed to help in the consolidation. Contel's customer database is based on a Bull HN Information Systems computer but will be converted to the COBOL-based MVS format used on GTE's IBM and Amdahl mainframes. Oracle addresses users' questions, complaints. (Oracle Corp. focusing on quality) Oracle Corp has begun several programs to improve the overall quality of its software releases in response to user criticism and industry analysts' skepticism about its products. The Oracle 6.0 database management system underwent 27 maintenance changes before it was considered stable, and top executives at Oracle have defined a new goal of designing software with no flaws. Analysts note that users of DEC VAXclusters had to wait 18 months for a usable product and say that Oracle will have difficulty proving itself. Oracle 6.2, the new VAXcluster release, appears to have satisfied users when reviewed during the development and testing phase. IBM sticks to its guns on OS/2. (IBM OS/2 development) Keefe, Patricia. IBM states that it has no intention of abandoning OS/2 or letting Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 take over the desktop market. Company officials say that IBM will not sit back and allow Microsoft to develop its own vision of Portable OS/2 and that it will withdraw from its joint efforts with Microsoft if Microsoft deviates from the mutually agreed-on path for OS/2 3.0. IBM acknowledges it will need to overcome 'user nervousness' stimulated by Microsoft's perceived lack of fidelity to OS/2. OS/2 2.0 will let users bring together OS/2, DOS and Microsoft Windows on the desktop and is designed for customers needing reliability, multitasking and security. The company plans 'aggressive enhancements' to OS/2 2.0 and the release of new client/server products. Apple's future may rest in relying on its strengths. (includes related article on the future of microcomputers) Apple's attempts to counter the market onslaught of Microsoft Windows 3.0 are attracting increased attention with the anticipated release of the System 7.0 operating system and the introduction of lower-cost Macintoshes. Observers say that System 7.0 and the low-cost architectures will give Apple leverage against Windows-based microcomputers in the graphics and multimedia arenas, but say that Apple needs to stress its graphical interface and operating system strengths and shift hardware and peripheral development to third parties. System 7.0 will make it easier for Apple to cite its operating system as a strength, because many new features will make it easier to develop Mac software. File sharing is an especially important new capability in System 7.0, but messaging capabilities remain somewhat weak and basic print functions should be updated. End users complain that the Mac continues to fall short in its mainframe-access capabilities. Multimedia is one field with major growth potential for both the Mac and Windows. Pay-up time for shareware. (Shareware Pay-Up Day) Keefe, Patricia. Shareware user Paul Pease organized 'Shareware Pay-Up Day' (SPUD) on Mar 17, 1991, in an effort to encourage users to send in fees for unregistered copies of shareware programs. Shareware fees range from $10 to $200, and a shareware author can earn significant income if enough satisfied users register their programs. Early reports do not indicate that SPUD was particularly successful, but the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) could capitalize on 'guilt' over unregistered shareware in the long term. ASP president Paul Mayer says he has made enough money from shareware to quit his day job and buy a large house in Florida. Only one to 10 percent of users nevertheless bother to register their programs; users of business packages are the most likely to pay. The ASP has rules against 'nagware,' which pops up on screens every few minutes demanding payment. Clone makers search for racer's edge in hardware. (Amkly Systems Peripheral Platform) (product announcement) Amkly Systems Inc introduces the Peripheral Platform, a metal frame that contains the power supply and four drive bays for a microcomputer and makes it easy for users to swap in a spare drive if one should fail. Amkly is offering three microcomputers built around the Peripheral Platform and the Intel 80386 and 80486 microprocessors. The company will sell the systems through dealer and systems integrators at prices ranging from $3,995 to $10,595. All the machines use the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus. Other microcomputer clone vendors introducing innovative new hardware include Wyse Technology, whose new Decision PC has BIOS capability to define system drive types, and Epson America Inc, which distinguishes itself with Edsun Laboratories Inc's Continuous Edge Graphics support. Multimedia in vendor sights. (vendors seek to fill needs in the area of multimedia) Several vendors plan to introduce new multimedia products at Microsoft's 1991 International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM. JVC Ltd and C-Cube Microsystems Inc announce they have defined a high-resolution extension of the Moving Pictures Experts Group video compression algorithm. Philips Computer Electronics Co has demonstrated a new Compact Disc-Interactive hardware/software combination aimed at the consumer and educational markets. Intel Corp has released Version 2.13 of its Digital Video Interactive system software. Macintosh power takes off with Rocket. (Apple Macintosh Rocket CPU accelerator card) (product announcement) Radius Inc introduces the Rocket, a high-end CPU accelerator card for the Apple Macintosh II that uses the Motorola 68040 microprocessor to speed application processing and can create a multitasking environment that splits up the work to maximize system resources. Its design splits up the work to maximize system resources and lets the Mac CPU handle certain low-level tasks while the Rocket processes higher-level tasks such as multimedia video display. Other new Radius products include the 15-inch Color Pivot display monitor, which users can rotate to display documents in either portrait or landscape mode, and new Impressit software for compressing, storing and decompressing still images. Dbase IV: feature-rich, slower than others. (Software Review) (dBASE IV 1.1)(includes related article on vendor response) Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV 1.1 data base management system is powerful, flexible and has many features but is slower than competing programs. The program includes record locking, multiuser password security and other features designed to ensure data integrity, but many reviewers say these features can be awkward to use. Multiuser support is good in dBASE IV 1.1, but performance is only moderate at best. Built-in tools for tweaking performance include the ability to partition memory for application space and for overlay swapping. Dbase's strongest area is its applications development environment. Most reviewers argue that dBASE IV 1.1 is the product that should have been released in 1988. It costs $795 for the standard edition and $1,295 for the Developer's Edition. User work bears fruit on Vines. (Banyan VINES network operating system) The Network Applications Consortium is working to spur commercial applications development for enterprisewide networks by testing a new version of Lotus Development Corp's Notes 2.0 specifically developed for Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system. Lotus developed the product at the urging of Pacific Gas and Electric Co, a large Notes and VINES user. Other firms on the Notes-for-Vines steering committee include MIC Telecommunications Corp, Pennsylvania Blue Shield and The Turner Corp. All firms in the Network Applications Consortium currently run VINES networks to address corporate-wide networking, and all 40 companies involved run Notes, a sophisticated application that integrates databases, electronic mail, file transfer and communication functions into a single environment. The human side of E-mail. (electronic mail) Sanders, Bruce. The role of E-mail in corporate environments is changing as work groups increasingly use it to collaborate across distance and time. All successful collaboration involves persuasion and the exertion of influence as problems facing a team are defined and solved. People are more willing to take risks when a significant level of trust has been built up; those wishing to be successful at influencing a team need to construct a climate of trust. A problem with electronic mail is that most people are accustomed to building trust through personal contact, and electronic mail deprives users of the psychological benefit of face-to-face meetings. Most people are nevertheless overly cautious in their E-mail correspondence, fearing that they will be held more accountable for comments made over a computer than in person. It is important to state requests clearly, seek out motivations and look for patterns in messages. 3Com presents 16-bit 10Baset-T card. (3Com Corp. introduces Etherlink 16 TP adapter card) (product announcement) 3Com Corp introduces the EtherLink 16 TP, a 16-bit Ethernet adapter card designed to work with the 10BaseT standard for unshielded twisted-pair wiring. The company already offers Ethernet cards for thin and thick coaxial cable, but the Etherlink 16 TP is aimed at transaction processing firms and other organizations that need to acquire data-transmission capabilities without investing in expensive coaxial cabling. Each card costs $479, with five selling for $2,195. The EtherLink 16 TP includes zero-wait-state RAM to cut access time, and early users say it boosts performance. Network managers who want to retain their investment in existing 10BaseT equipment or who favor the flexible star topology offered by twisted pair are fueling the market for 10BaseT, according to analysts. The road to lower fuel costs. (use of information systems in transportation fields)(includes related article on fuel The trucking industry increasingly uses computers in its ongoing efforts to reduce fuel costs, which typically represent 18 to 35 percent of operating expenses. Information systems can streamline fuel purchases, control vehicle refueling and cut down on waste caused by poor driver or truck performance. J.B. Hunt Inc. has several IBM PCs linked to the fuel commodity markets and monitors these markets on a minute-by-minute basis to hold costs down. Roadway Express Inc supplies its own pumps at more than 650 facilities nationwide and uses computers to obtain the lowest bids. J.B. Hunt also manages fuel economy at the driver level, with on-board electronic monitors determining the percentage of time drivers spend idling, speeding or engaging in other fuel-wasting activities. CIO careers more lucrative, but risky. (chief information officers) Chief information officers (CIOs) earn more money than most other information-systems personnel, but the CIO career path is inherently risky. Many organizations have rapidly elevated the information systems function, making the profession both more volatile and more lucrative. Salaries for top IS executives may triple in the 1990s, according to some observers. Executives may have to switch companies to attract top pay; many prominent IS executives have moved between companies and industries in recent months. Rotating through non-IS functions is an important path to the CIO position, because a CIO must understand both business and technology throughly. Weather Service systems get mixed reviews. (National Weather Service forecasting systems) A National Research Council committee has stated it is favorably impressed with a prototype of the National Weather Service's Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) but expresses concern about the fact that AWIPS is behind schedule. AWIPS represents a massive overhaul of the nation's weather-forecasting system, and the agency hopes that it will reduce the need for night-shift staffing at forecast centers. Elbert W. Friday, Weather Service director, agrees that this concept still needs to be tested. Supercomputers are better at processing vast amounts of data than humans, but humans do a better job at short-term predictions. Officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that the prospects for the Next Generation Weather Radar (Nexrad) used in AWIPS appear excellent but claim that there are substantial deficiencies in the software. Linking LANs: payoffs, pitfalls, pathways. (local area networks) King, Julia. Interconnecting local area network (LANs) at a large corporation is a daunting task but can have considerable payoffs. Pennsylvania Blue Shield has moved to distributed data processing over a LAN instead of adding more memory for its mainframes, saving on hardware costs. Problems involved in network integration include selecting a LAN operating system and ensuring compatibility. Most firms engaged in LAN interconnection encounter one or more pitfalls. Achieving seamless integration is difficult because there is no unified architecture for multivendor enterprise-wide networks. Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp has linked multiple Ethernet LANs and IBM mainframe computers into a corporate token-ring network, eliminating the need for costly front-end controllers and cutting overall network response time considerably. Transferring applications and development tools from central IS departments to end users is also essential in network integration. Integrating networks allows work groups geographic freedom. Crucible forges strong links: LAN-to-WAN connection keeps steel moving and users smiling. (Crucible Service Centers) Specialty steel distributor Crucible Service Centers relies on strong LAN and WAN connections to save on data communications costs. The firm will finish installing a new multivendor network in late Apr 1991 at all of its 18 US sales and distribution sites. Officials note that the portions of the network already in place have showed significant gains in speed and efficiency. The distribution centers can quickly share sales history, inventory and order-entry applications as well as access the firm's existing IBM SNA wide-area network for host access. Crucible Service Centers currently share an IBM 4361 host with its Specialty Metals Division, and users in the past sometimes had to wait up to 40 seconds for their system to handle a transaction. Crucible consulted with systems integrator ERI Inc to handle the new system design and constructed a web of microcomputer-based LANs to handle independent processing at remote locations. One of Crucible's key goals was to install and integrate the new system incrementally. One microcomputer in each location handles communications, while the 8100 handles batch processing. Links: trickier than you think. (pitfalls of LAN software) King, Julia. Integrating local area networks can be a major strategic advantage for large organizations, but there are many pitfalls. One major problem is the immaturity of LAN software, the technology of which has not moved along to support certain LAN applications over a wide-area network. Lack of standardized mainframe gateways is another problem; how well a LAN supports a mainframe or fails to do so dictates the kinds of applications users can put on the network. Most users remain wary of placing traditional mainframe-generated applications on LANs because of security fears. Another major problem is the lack of network management tools. Do it yourself or order out? (LAN integration pathways) King, Julia. A major decision faced by those implementing integrated local area network (LAN) systems is what type of supplier to obtain service from. A company may decide to tackle the problem of network integration itself or hire an outside firm such as a value-added reseller, local reseller partnership or systems vendor. The choice of where to buy hardware and software from often depends on the size of the organization; large companies with disparate locations usually buy from suppliers with national presence, while smaller firms often prefer the personal service offered by a local supplier. Large commercial integrators are less closely wedded to any one product than large systems vendors, although many have strong vendor alliances. Network Management Inc in Fairfax, VA and Evernet Systems Inc in Los Angeles specialize in LANs and in integrating LANs with wide-area networks. National retailers offer high-volume discounts, but generally have little networking experience. LANs help Allen-Bradley beat the clock. (local area networks) (company profile) Allen-Bradley Co uses aggressive integration of disparate work-group LANs to improve time-to-market on its electronics products. The company has linked heterogeneous LANs to a mainframe to create an extensive computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) system. Allen-Bradley's Industrial Computer and Communications Group (ICCG) developed a network encompassing DEC VMS, Unix and DOS systems as well as Apple Macintoshes. The mainframe is an IBM Enterprise System/9000, and its primary integration services are DEC's Network Applications Support software and IBM Systems Network Architecture. Allen-Bradley has about 1,100 users on its network in engineering, manufacturing and information-systems groups at five locations; another 200 users connect directly through the mainframe. Engineering and manufacturing rather than IS were the driving forces behind the CIM project. Japan slow to follow path to promised LAN. (local area network) Japan is not yet a large market for local area networks, but LAN integration is a particularly active area because the microcomputers and software used there very so widely. Most information systems departments in Japan buy from vendors with complete product lines and pay particular attention to connectivity tools. They also purchase equipment from systems integrators rather than directly from vendors. This attitude contrasts with that of their US counterparts, which often choose, integrate and implement LANs on their own. Multivendor connectivity is more difficult in Japan than in the US because different protocols and machine codes require special software and there is a shortage of programmers. Observers say that distributed processing and end-user electronic communication will nevertheless eventually spread in Japan. Buyer beware. (Tying it Together)(network integration products) (column) Hardware and software vendors of computer communications equipment view network integration products as a major new source of revenue because they need to supplement and stabilize shrinking profit margins. Network integration services are 'value add' features designed to encourage customer loyalty and generate incremental service revenue as well as create opportunities for increased traditional product sales. Few vendors can actually provide complete connectivity services because they lack the resources and expertise necessary to function as full-scale network integrators. Few vendors offer enough products to support complex requirements, and even fewer have project management and vertical market skills for creating business integration solutions. Most vendors also focus their strategies on short-term sales and are biased toward their own products, the best of which are often proprietary. Teamwork takes work. (self-directed IS groups)(includes related articles on measuring satisfaction, self-directed leadership) Many firms are reorganizing their management structure to allow for self-directed information systems groups. This philosophy must encourage risk-taking and empower individuals. Self-directed IS groups give individuals the skills to handle changes and make business and technology decisions on their own. These groups can improve IS effectiveness by collapsing excess management layers. Programmers and systems analysts learn such skills as negotiation and conflict resolution. Work group structures can also shorten the learning curve for company policy and new technology because mentors can guide new staff members through the complexities of the organization. Broadening the responsibilities of an IS individual fulfills his or her need for achievement as well. Twenty-five percent of pilot self-directed IS groups fail because they lack vision, planning or staff buy-in. Top management, employee support and business unit acceptance are all vital. Some staff members also have difficulty getting used to the dynamics of an unstructured organization. Organizations implementing self-directed IS work groups also need to be certain they have a clear career path in place for professionals. Breaking appraisal tradition. (approach to performance reviews in self-directed work groups) Self-directed information systems (IS) work groups must handle individual performance appraisals themselves. The performance appraisals indicate the scope of skills each group member acquires. The traditional review involves a once-per-year meeting with a superior. Self-directed work groups take a committee approach that relies on self-appraisal and peer ratings. Team members may feel uncomfortable writing such appraisals, and the process is time-consuming. Poorly trained teams can experience severe peer disputes and competition, but the benefits of the team approach outweigh the drawbacks. A performance appraisal from people who have worked closely with the individual is a more accurate indicator of strengths and weaknesses than the traditional performance review. Firms save every drop of water - or else. (impact of drought on high technology industry in Silicon Valley) The California drought has forced local computer and semiconductor firms to seriously investigate water-conservation alternatives and modify everything from janitorial procedures to manufacturing processes. Semiconductor makers who have replaced chemical-based cleansers with water-based alternatives to save the environment are ironically experiencing the most difficulty. Some companies are re-using purified production water in the cooling towers of their heating and air-conditioning systems. HP teams up janitors to save 1,000 gallons of water per week when mopping floors and has modified its faucets and toilets. Sony Engineering and Manufacturing Company of America hopes to recycle 10 to 25 percent of the 800,000 gallons it uses each day at its picture-tube manufacturing plant. It has even appointed a 'water czar' in charge of helping the firm meet local rationing requirements. Unisys Corp in San Diego is reclaiming 34 million gallon of water per year through cooling towers, curbing overall water consumption by 45 percent. Beta site trade-offs: there' no free lunch. (beta testing) Depompa, Barbara. Many organizations are enticed by the 'free' software they can obtain by becoming a beta-test site, but beta testing can entail serious pitfalls. Beta testers contract with a vendor to use a pre-production version of a product either free of charge or at a discount and provide feedback; the vendor may implement suggested changes and send them back for repeated review by the tester. This type of contract can build a good relationship between vendors and users and improve service and support, but can also be frustrating and time-consuming. The test site may need to run duplicate systems because problems with a product can cause failures; non-disclosure agreements also impose strict confidentiality orders on testers. Acting as a beta test site can be a morale booster, but it can be difficult to get out of an agreement once the site signs on. Software glitches are a potentially severe problem; two ways of preventing havoc are to save data to older program versions or to test the product on duplicate systems. This kind of testing makes it expensive to be a beta-test site. Maintaining confidentiality can also be awkward. Graduates say IS programs need to get down and dirty: first part of a two-part series. (information systems programs in graduate Most graduates of reputable information-systems programs at major universities say they were well prepared for their jobs in corporate IS departments, but many say that more contact with the business world would have made their education more valuable. Graduates indicate that IS programs could be improved by offering more hands-on jobs or internships, providing more technical training on a diverse range of hardware and software and by teaching how IS can solve business problems. Some say that their technical education is too difficult a hurdle to clear during a few years in school and that they had to learn advanced coding on the job. Graduates also note that business savvy cannot be stressed enough in IS programs. Oracle rewrites financial plan. (Oracle Corp.) Bozman, Jean S. Oracle Corp has appointed Jeffrey Henley as chief financial officer and is tackling the challenges of increased bad debt reserve, violated loan covenants and the restating of previous financial reports. Analysts are not convinced the company has succeeded in turning itself around. Oracle's financial downturn began in the fall of 1990, when the firm posted a $36 million loss. Its bad debt reserve has grown by $42 million, and 13 international banks that extended Oracle a $250 million line of credit in the summer of 1990 are demanding monetary penalties. Oracle has also decided to restate previous financial reports in accordance with new revenue-recognition guidelines. Observers are skeptical about the company's ability to recover. Oracle blames its flawed accounts receivable bookings on duplicate billing and other data processing errors. Henley was CFO at Saga Corp and at Pacific Holding Company before joining Oracle. Constitutional scholar calls for 'high-tech' amendment. (Laurence Tribe) Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, a leading constitutional scholar, has called for a 27th Amendment to the Constitution that would ensure individual privacy rights in the computer age. It would allow computer users to communicate freely and would extend the freedom of expression rights enjoyed by the print and broadcast media to the digital community. Electronic mail and bulletin boards are two developments that have focused attention on the need to strike a balance between civil rights and computer security. Industry specialists in computer security maintain that the amendment is not necessary and that legislation to serve computer users' needs already exists. Amdahl forges plan to take on AD/Cycle. (Amdahl Corp. introduces 6390 disk drive, announces Huron mainframe-based development Amdahl Corp announces that it is developing its own application programming strategy that will provide a new approach to development as well as new technologies designed to compete directly with IBM's AD/Cycle environment. The Huron development platform includes its own repository, relational database management system, language and code generator; licenses cost $525,000 to $1.4 million. Analysts raise two major concerns about Huron: some customers may be reluctant to invest huge sums in a 'full-blown' solution from one vendor, and those committed to the IBM world may be unhappy that Amdahl has positioned Huron as distinctly different from AD/Cycle. Amdahl has also introduced the 6390 disk drive, a higher-capacity replacement for the IBM 3390 that offers a smaller footprint and improved performance. The 6390 sells for $744,350 for a 60Gbyte model. Justice Dept. neglects security. (US Department of Justice lacks security in disposing of used computer gear) An investigation by the federal General Accounting Office reveals sloppy disposal of used computer equipment by the US Department of Justice may have compromised the secrecy of crime investigations and endangered the lives of agents and witnesses. Experts in computer security said in a GAO report that computers were disposed of without first erasing software and data from magnetic media. A US Attorney's Office allegedly sold used hardware and magnetic tapes to a Kentucky broker for $45, later discovering that the equipment contained improperly erased data on criminal investigations, material sealed by court order and secret informants. GAO officials reported similar incidents in testimony before a congressional committee. Sybase's Big Blue connection. (using Sybase Inc. software to set up client/server networks around IBM mainframes) (Cover Story) Open Server for CICS, NetGateway and Open Gateway for DB2 from Emeryville, CA-based Sybase Inc allow IBM mainframes with all of their dumb terminals, databases and applications to hook into the flexible, workstation-based client/server world. The Sybase products act as programmable interfaces between MVS databases and applications, on the one hand, and local-area-network- (LAN) based applications, on the other. The three products require that each workstation run Sybase's Open Client application. All three products require an IBM S/390-type mainframe running MVS/ESA or MVS/XA. Open Server for CICS and Open Gateway for DB2 require CICS 2.X or 3.X. NetGateway requires Sun Microsystems Inc SPARC-based systems running Sun OS 4.0.3 or later, IBM RS/6000 workstations running AIX 3.1 or later, or IBM RT PCs running AIX 2.2.1 or later. Open Server for CICS costs $75,000 to $155,000; Open Gateway for DB2 costs $100,000 to $210,000, and NetGateway costs $1,650 to $15,900. Providence, RI-based Textron Financial Corp's experience in setting up a Sybase system is discussed in detail. Motorola's future at RISC: the 88000. (reduced-instruction-set computers) (includes related article on multiprocessing computers Despite Motorola Inc's power, its costly and long-delayed 88000 reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) chip lags badly in the 32-bit RISC microprocessor market, behind Sun Microsystems Inc's SPARC and Mips Computer Systems Inc's R2000 and R3000. Currently, only six US manufacturers are building general-purpose computers around the 88000; even Motorola concedes that 1990 shipments, estimated at 50,000 to 62,000 units, were a disappointment. Motorola is concerned because virtually every industry observer predicts that sales of RISC chips will surpass those of complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) chips in the 1990s. The 88000 has some advantages, though. Hardware conforming to standards of the 88Open consortium will run 2,000 existing applications, compared to only 2,500 applications for the SPARC. The tightly integrated 88000 is also as powerful as its competitors, with a basic architecture that promises room to grow. What's wrong with Windows? (Microsoft Windows 3.0) Moad, Jeff. Microsoft Corp has shipped more than 2 million copies of its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface since debuting the product in mid-1990. Users are now discovering flaws in the highly popular product, including a variety of basic design and compatibility problems that Microsoft has had to patch up. Still, most users express satisfaction with the product. Among the more serious compatibility problems have been conflicts between Windows 3.0's disk-caching function and third-party disk partitioning software, leading to a loss of data in some cases. Microsoft fixed that problem in late 1990, along with inconsistencies in the way Windows handled the translation between real mode and standard mode memory. Users also sight two basic design flaws: documentation and the setup program are confusing, making it difficult for inexperienced users to tune Windows; and the file manager is said to be integrated and difficult to use. NetFrame serves storage, I/O niche. (NetFrame Systems Inc.'s file servers) A new type of computer, the network server, has emerged. These servers use multiprocessing, large storage capacity and fast I/O buses to enhance the productivity and efficiency of local area networks (LANs). NetFrame Systems Inc of Sunnyvale, CA, is a new start-up focusing directly on the network-server market. Founded by such mainframe veterans as Carl Amdahl, NetFrame Systems servers use many mainframe-like features. NetFrame Systems builds its NF 100, 200, 300 and 400 servers around Intel 80386 and 486 chips, using a proprietary bus and add-in boards. The servers can have as much as 64Mbytes of RAM, 6.2Gbytes of internal storage and 42.6Gbytes of external storage. Prices range from $22,500 to $45,000. MIS managers are considering moving mission-critical applications to network servers from mainframes and minicomputers. Global downsizes financial software. (Global Software Inc. gives its Harmonix software cooperative-processing capabilities) Global Software Inc of Raleigh, NC, is widely considered to be ahead of the competition in giving its mainframe-based financial software cooperative-processing capabilities. In early 1991, Global began a complete cooperative-processing rewrite of its mid-1970s-vintage Harmonix integrated financial management suite of applications. The budgeting module is already shipping and has received kudos from early users. Prices vary according to configuration. Generally, Global charges $15,000 to $25,000 for cooperative-processing upgrades. UNIX waits for a commercial break. (includes related article on Wellmark Inc.'s move to UNIX) (the slow movement of UNIX onto The response of mainframe managers has been less than thunderous to the rollouts of Unix versions of best-selling, mission-critical applications. While Unix is making significant inroads into the high-end corporate minicomputer market, mainframe managers criticize Unix's limited database management and systems management powers. Mainframe managers' interest in Unix is picking up, however. Because most mainframes are purchased to replace current systems, rather than to start new ones, the movement of Unix onto mainframes will take time. Managers stuck with antiquated master/slave systems built around IBM 3270 dumb terminals are the most likely to switch to Unix. There is life after outsourcing. (interview with Legent MIS VP Mario Morino) (interview) Mario Morino, Legent Corp executive vice president of information systems management, discusses outsourcing. It is important to have an outside consultant come in and get a third view of what MIS in an organization is really doing for the end users. End users and MIS management often have radically differing views of how MIS is doing its job. A good MIS manager will outsource only his or her weaknesses while keeping strengths in house. In negotiating an outsourcing pact, detailed knowledge of workloads is critical. One common mistake companies make in negotiating outsourcing contracts is failing to stipulate that they have access to information needed to formulate their next outsourcing bid. MIS managers should get their own house in order before turning to an outsourcer. Breaking barriers to EDI. (electronic data interchange standards needed for import-export trade) (includes related article on what Import-export businesses lament that true international electronic data (EDI)interchange is almost impossible to achieve. Problems include vendors selling piecemeal solutions and the lack of a standard computer syntax for sending and receiving EDI documents. Software such as IMC Plus from Waltham, MA-based IMC Systems Group Inc help automate the import cycle; still, these packages require standardized EDI software. Many US importers find that their overseas sources are not set up to work with international EDI. What's more, international EDI is chiefly based on proprietary systems. Recently, many users have been promoting the United Nations-backed EDI for Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) specification. EDIFACT is viewed as an Esperanto of the import-export trade. Soviet systems: much need, but few rubles. (includes related article on Russian software) The USSR needs computers and software, but faces many barriers in acquiring them. In 1990 the nation had no more than half a million computers in all; the government predicts that the push to modernize the economy will require 20 million new computers in the 1990s alone. The chief barrier to high-tech imports is the lack of convertible currency. Western manufacturers, lured by the potentially huge market, are taking such arcane tacks as bartering and establishing Soviet-based factories. In Sep 1990, Aquarius Systems Integral set up a factory 250 kilometers from Moscow to make IBM PC AT clones, while San Jose, CA-based Chips and Technologies Inc is negotiating with Soviet partners to set up a PC-clone factory in Minsk. Most Western computer firms, such as Apple, HP and Tandem Corp, sell their foreign-made machines through Soviet dealers. Living lab lights up the phone lines.(US West Communications Inc. experiment in Bellingham, WA) (includes related article on US West Communications Inc has wired Bellingham, WA, as an on-line transaction processing (OLTP) environment in which users can connect, disconnect or alter their phone service in near-real time with little or no company assistance. US West Communications is a test site for Unisys Corp's Network Applications Platform, a plan to integrate digital telecommunications switches with database processors resident on Unisys's A-series of mainframes. US West Communications reports that nine-tenths of all service orders in Bellingham are now completed within four hours. The college town, with a population of 49,000, makes an ideal test site, as a highly transient student population attending Western Washington University places high demands on telephone service. How imaging can change your business. (first in a series of case studies of organizations using imaging technology)(includes The Delaware secretary of state's office automated its corporate record-keeping with a document-imaging system. Each corporate file is scanned into a $2 million, Wang imaging system that features an IBM mainframe, 80 workstations, optical disk jukeboxes and optical character recogntion equipment. Thanks to the Wang imaging system, Delaware is able to quickly provide corporate information; these added services generate $2.5 million in annual revenue. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is experimenting with imaging technology as a way to reduce the time-consuming approval process for new drugs. Imaging systems can generate quite a bit of income, but setting one up will cost at least $20,000 per workstation. Bull's DOS/UNIX recipe. (Bull HN Information Systems Inc.'s DPX/ProStation 25e and 25i workstations) (product announcement) Billerica, MA-based Bull HN Information Systems Inc has debuted two Intel 80486-based workstations that simultaneously run DOS and Unix applications in different windows on the same screen. The DPX/ProStations run the Santa Cruz Operation Inc's SCO Unix System V 3.2. SCO Unix is the Unix version of choice for microcomputers based on Intel 80386 or 486 microprocessors. Bull has modified the Santa Cruz Operation's Open Desktop graphical user interface to run on the workstations. The 25i workstation is based on Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) and comes with one expansion slot. It costs $12,995. The $13,495 25e is based on Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and comes with two expansion slots. A guide to fiber-optic modems. (buyers guide) Bernacki, Walt. Fiber optic modems convert incoming digital signals into optical signals and transmit them through a plastic or glass fiber; when receiving optical signals, they reverse the process. Compared to conventional copper telephone wiring, fiber optics offer superior data security, greater bandwidth, improved noise protection and can transmit over greater distances. In choosing a fiber optic modem, features to consider include the fiber type (single-mode or multimode), the interface to copper wire and transmission speed. Fiber optic modem transmission speeds range from 19.2K-bps to 125M-bps. A list of fiber optic modems is provided. It provides the manufacturer, price, type, transmission speed and interface type for each modem. DSSI subsystem stores 18GB on half-inch metal cartridges. (new DEC tape drive) DEC introduces the TF857 tape magazine storage subsystem, a new drive which relies on metal media to provide a capacity of 2.6Gbytes. The magazine has a total capacity of 18.2Gbytes. The company has also repackaged its IBM 3480-compatible TA90E subsystem to provide a smaller footprint. The new magazine subsystem is a streaming linear tape recording device with an automatic cartridge loader and DSSI interface. It has 48 tracks per tape and writes in a multitrack serial-serpentine method, providing high capacity at moderate throughput rates. The new TA91 drive has a 27 percent smaller footprint and a lower price than the original TA90. The TA90E sells for $146,400 for a dual-drive version; the TF857 costs $29,000 and up and uses the DSSI bus. Network management deal between IBM, AT&T could have negative impact on DEC. (IBM, DEC) IBM and AT&T have agreed to integrate their respective NetView and Accumaster network-management architectures in a move that could lead to competitive difficulties for DEC. The two companies expect to evaluate products that link AT&T and IBM equipment at some customer sites by late 1991, according to officials at both firms. Each firm will market the necessary software and hardware for its own systems. Analysts say DEC faces an uphill battle in competing with the two giants because it is already behind in network management with its own Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA) products. DEC should emphasize EMA connectivity to NetView and Unified Network Management Architecture, the AT&T equivalent of EMA. Trade-in program for HP workstations may haunt DEC, IBM, Sun. (HP releases 9000 Series 700 HP-UX workstations) HP announces its new HP 9000 Series 700 workstations and servers, which offer price/performance ratios nearly double those available from DEC, Sun, IBM and others. The 9000 Series 700 workstations should give HP a strategic advantage over its competitors, according to analysts. HP has also announced an aggressive marketing program which includes a trade-in policy under which the vendor will credit the value of existing IBM, DEC and Sun equipment toward the purchase of a Series 700. The Series 700 design uses two high-density CMOS CPU chips with more than 1 million transistors each and relies on high levels of cache memory. Uniface tool regulates database access via administrator module. (Uniface introduces A La Carte at DB/Expo trade show) Uniface Corp. introduces A La Carte, a new report-generation tool for regulating access to multiple databases that provides a point-and-click interface linked to the company's fourth-generation software development systems. A La Carte includes an Information Manager module that lets database administrators readily set up user access to data and offers an interface to the Uniface development system, which supports 20 relational database managers. A La Carte supports a variety of graphical user interfaces, including the Open Software Foundation's Motif and Sun Microsystems' Open Look. A La Carte is integrated into Uniface and has all of the characteristics of the fourth-generation language. It is priced at $800 for a single user, and it runs on a wide variety of platforms. Resource accounting package incorporates capacity planning. (computer information systems) Computer Information Systems (CIS) introduces RoboCharge, an aggressively priced resource accounting and chargeback program for DEC VAX and VMS systems, which combines resource and project accounting with capacity planning. It supports a variety of VAXes, including stand-alone machines, clusters and VAX systems linked over the CECnet protocol. Most resources accounting packages do not include capacity planning, but CIS decided that the capacity planning and chargeback planning 'go hand in hand.' RoboCharge requires approximately 2,000 disk blocks, far less than competing products. The program collects elapsed time, CPU time, vector CPU time, direct I/O and other resource-usage information and can maintain this information at a user-specified level of detail. It will sell for $500 to $6,000 depending on the CPU type. Ashton-Tate acquires all remaining Interbase assets; plans object link to dBASE IV. Ashton-Tate has purchased all the assets of Interbase Software and plans to develop a tool kit that will unite the microcomputer-based dBASE with databases running on Unix and VMS platforms. The company will make Interbase a wholly owned subsidiary and will create object-oriented dBASE front ends to Interbase's relational DBMS products, which run on IBM, DEC and HP workstations and on a variety of minicomputers. Interbase will continue its own development on Basic Large Objects, a data type for storing complex multimedia images. No layoffs are planned, according to company officials. Megatape packages 5GB Exabyte drives for BI, Unibus, Q-bus. (tape drives) Megatape has announced that it will repackage Exabyte's 5Gbyte EXB-8500 tape drive for Unibus, Q-bus and VAXBI systems. Users can daisy-chain up to seven drive and a 5Gbyte cartridge using Megatape's MBI-102 tape coupler. The company will also offer a data compression option using a Stac Electronics coprocessor to triple the data capacity of a single cartridge and increase the data transfer to as much as 1Mbyte per second. Stac's Limpel-Ziv algorithm uses a 'sliding window' to compare data in the tape drive's look-ahead buffer with all possible string combination. The Unibus version of the EXB-8500 costs $8,895; the complete BI subsystem is priced at $17,550. Winchester bundles sector-caching software with Hitachi drives in RISC-based subsystem. (Winchester disk) Winchester Systems is preparing to ship the FlashDisk, a disk subsystem for Q-bus systems that combines a reduced instruction-set computing based controller with caching software and includes 4Mbytes to 16Mbytes of on-board RAM. The RISC processor searches through the cache memory first to see if the information needed by the CPU is there. Winchester claims that the FlashDisk provides up to 250 I/Os per second and can be nearly as fast as a costly pure-RAM disk. It is available for most MicroVAX as well as VAX systems. Prices start at $7,495 for a unit configured with 4Mbytes of cache and 780Mbytes of storage. Clyde, Raxco merge to target DEC system software arena. (merger of Clyde Data, Raxco Software) Clyde Digital and Raxco Software announce that they have merged to form the largest independent systems software supplier for DEC VAX systems. Clyde Digital's Clyde Sentry software packages provide security assessment, access control and encryption; Raxco's PerfectCache caching and virtual disk system maximizes I/O throughput by placing files or applications on main memory. Raxco had attempted to merge with Great Britain's UIS in 1990, but the deal fell through because of accounting and legal difficulties. The companies expect most of their revenue in the foreseeable future to come from DEC sites, but Raxco has additional plans to develop systems software for SunOS and possibly HP-UX and IBM AIX operating systems. Net monitor to 'learn' thresholds via expert techniques. (Network-I shipping production copies of Network Security Monitor) Network-I introduces the Network Security Monitor (NSM), a software product designed to monitor the current status of both Token-Ring and Ethernet LANs. The program runs under VMS and monitors networks in real time, setting off alarms if certain thresholds are exceeded. An upcoming version of NSM uses expert system techniques to 'learn' what network conditions are 'normal.' Conditions the program can monitor for include virus activity, breaches of pre-set parameters, and improper node connections. NSM also checks itself for viruses at start-up. It comes in four modules: NSM-Server, NSM-Sifter, NSM-Rpt and the user interface program. The package sells for $895 to $15,000 depending on the hardware platform. Stardent supercomputer uses Mips R3000 chip. (Stardent Computer introduces Titan Series graphics supercomputer) (product Stardent Computer introduces the Titan Series graphics supercomputer, a system based on MIPS Computer Systems' RS3000 reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) chip and Stardent's own 64-bit vector processor. The new machine is available in single and dual-processor configurations, and it is designed for use by customers who use visualization applications but do not need the full expandability offered by high-end systems. It is essentially a small version of the Stardent 3000 series and is priced at $83,200 for a one-processor unit with a VX graphics subsystem, 32Mbytes of memory, a l760Mbyte disk drive, a 19-inch color monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. Apple plans RISC-based entry in technical arena. (Apple Computer considering new reduced instruction-set computing systems that run Apple is reportedly considering building workstations based on MIPS Computer Systems' R4000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor that would run the Macintosh operating system. Apple hopes to enter the technical computing and file-server markets. A RISC-based Macintosh would be best as a servers for 10 to 20 desktop Macs, according to observers. It would be similar to Compaq's SystemPro file server for IBM-compatible machines and would be ideal for medium-sized Mac shops. Analysts say that Apple will have difficulty making the transition from a microcomputer maker to a workstation and server provider. Updated CDC information management software runs Unix. (Control Data Corp.) (product announcement) Control Data Corp introduces EDL 5.0, a new version of its information management software for Unix-based systems. The program runs on Control Data's Cyber 910 and 920 machines and on the CDC 4000 series but does not support VMS. It consists of three modules: a user module which builds a database with a data directory and lets users locate, retrieve, track and use data across a network of dissimilar machines; a management module; and an administration module. The latter two modules are created via the data directory in the user module. EDL 5.0 will be available in May 1991 at prices beginning at $3,000 per user. AI too builds business databases; supports VMS, Ultrix. (artificial intelligence) (product announcement) Inference introduces Case Based Reasoning, a new artificial-intelligence tool that will ship with the next release of its Automated Reasoning Tool for Information Management (ART-IM), an expert systems shell that runs under the VMS and Ultrix operating systems. The new program is an architecture for building business databases on which applications base their reasoning. The ART-IM update will bring CBR to the VMS and Ultrix platforms and will support DECwindows and the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical interface. The new version of ART-IM will cost $12,500 to $70,000 depending on the hardware platform. Century enhances terminal emulation software. (Century Software introduces Term for MS-DOS, MS Windows and X Windows) Century Software Inc has enhanced its Term terminal-emulation software to offer a wider variety of emulations and the ability to link more disparate multiuser systems. Term currently supports the VT220, VT100, VT102, VT52 and ANSI 3.64 terminals, while Version 6.2 adds Wyse 60, Televideo 650 and Wang 2110 emulations. The Mscreen function in SCO UNIX is now accessible through the Wyse 60. A microcomputer running Term 6.2 can simultaneously emulate several different host machines. Other features in Term 6.2 include 132-column display capability, double-height and double-width characters an a scroll-back buffer. The base configuration of Term supports only asynchronous connections, but the separate Term Network Option provides Term 6.2 with support for Xerox Network Systems, TCP/IP and Ungermann-Bass products. The company has also introduced a scaled-down version of Term called TinyTerm that runs under MS-DOS. Term 6.2 costs $195 per DOS user and $495 to $2,695 per Unix user; Tiny Term costs $295 for an asynchronous version and $395 for a network version. HP extends LaserJet series; unwraps interface cards. (HP LaserJet IIISi printer) (product announcement) HP introduces the LaserJet IIISi, a 17-page per minute laser printer designed for network use. It is more than twice as fast as the LaserJet IIID and can handle output of 50,000 pages per month. Standard equipment includes two 500-sheet paper trays and 'microfine' toner that improves print quality; each toner cartridge costs $169 and is good for up to 8,000 pages. The LaserJet IIISi includes 1Mbyte of memory and four SIMM slots that let users add up to 16Mbytes. It comes with CG Times, Univers Condensed and Zapf Dingbats resident scalable fonts, using HP's new PCL 5 printer language. HP offers a PostScript option with support for Adobe fonts. The company has also introduced new interface cards that process inbound data at more than 100,000 bytes per second. The LaserJet IIISi sells for $6,595 with factory-installed PostScript and 2Mbytes of memory. The need to keep it simple. (Bill Hancock) (column) Hancock, Bill. Many information systems professionals never learn effective techniques for managing systems and networks because they spend too much of their time engaged in political arguments about technology 'usability' or solving short-term problems rather than attending to long-term needs. Vendors often mistakenly believe that having the proper title in a company reflects a person's true knowledge of the concepts that underlie their products. Software and hardware vendors need to design better, more simple user interfaces that allow IS personnel to devote less of their time to studying manuals. Waiting for the mailman. (UNIX Views) Reisler, Kurt. The powerful electronic mail capabilities of the Unix operating system allow a community of users to interact on a worldwide basis. Many mail interface programs are available, and some are distributed with the operating system itself. The UUCP program is the basic Unix file-transfer protocol. Unix has always offered a 'mail' program, and newer versions have gradually strengthening its capabilities. The Berkeley version of 'mail' let users configure it through a special file, and 'mh,' a program from Rand Corp, was a collection of programs that allowed message filing and forwarding. Another Unix E-mail program is 'elm,' which offers an interface to the Usenet bulletin board. 'Mush' is another Usenet shell, but 'elm' is easier to customize. Several mail interfaces that make use of the X Windows graphical desktop are also available. Scaling new heights. (Hardware Review) (HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 RISC workstations) (evaluation) HP Apollo's new 9000 Series 700 workstations and servers are likely to have much the same market impact as that of IBM's introduction of the RISC System/6000. The Series 700 is based on HP's Precision Architecture (PA) RISC processor design and uses sophisticated compiler technology that adds three instructions to the floating-point unit. An HP Apollo 9000 Model 720 workstation, representing the low end of the Series 700 line, is reviewed. It is available with gray-scale, color 2-D, solids rendering or high-end rendering graphics options. The gray-scale option is called 'GRX.' The model 720 has one Extended Industry Standard Architecture expansion slot. Performance is excellent; the machine turns in 55.51 MicroVAX units of processing. Graphics performance is also superb in machines equipped with the 'CRX' color option. HP puts its chips on 3-part CPU architecture. (processor design in HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 workstations) A technical description of the CPU architecture in HP's 900 Series 700 workstations is presented. The workstations use HP's Precision Architecture reduced instruction set computing (RISC) design, version 1.1. PA-RISC 1.1 allows an instruction cache between 4Kbytes and 1Mbyte in size and a data cache of between 4Kbytes and 2Mbytes. The CPU is implemented in complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor technology. It has 577,000 transistors in a package measuring 1.4 x 1.4 centimeters. There are interfaces to the instruction and data caches and the floating-point unit (FPU). A custom VLSI chip is used as a memory controller; it handles all main-memory access and I/O to the system buses. The memory controller has an 18-bit address/control path and a 72-bit data path, and the FPU is connected directly to the instruction and data caches. File servers wring out top networked I/O performance. (next generation of file servers)(includes related article on fine art Today's powerful networked file servers concentrate more on multiplatform I/O throughput more than CPU power and are increasingly designed to meet the needs of distributed client/server computing. Most file servers now in use are converted microcomputers, but machines designed specifically as servers are proliferating. There is a growing need for servers that can link computers based on different operating systems. File servers are essentially central storage and backup facilities for client machines; special software must be developed to allow them to take advantage of client/server application scenarios. The microcomputer file server market is currently dominated by IBM and Compaq. New file servers often use separate I/O processors to maximize throughput. Tricord Systems and NetFrame Systems follow this design philosophy. DEC, IBM and Sun Microsystems also offer servers, but aim their products at different needs. Constructing future business with file servers. (two case studies of file server use) Pacific Gas and Electric's Encon division has eight DECsystem file servers that are changing the way it does business as well as serving its data processing needs. Encon uses a multi-tiered client/server configuration under which one DECsystem acts as a back-end server for all data and main application software. It supports approximately 200 concurrent users and minimizes the use of expensive wide-area network time. Users can obtain information more quickly, and each manager can better oversee resources and decide how they are used. Adobe Systems Inc uses an Auspex NS 5000 file server in its engineering department that supports Sun Microsystems workstations and servers. The NS 5000 was serving a large number of clients within weeks after it was installed, quickly demonstrating its abilities. National joins JTAG IC market. (National Semiconductor Corp., Joint Test Action Group, integrated circuit) Texas Instruments Inc (TI) is going to be competing for market share when National Semiconductor Corp begins shipping standard-logic integrated circuits (ICs) with embedded circuitry for board-level testing. Until now, TI has been the only supplier of standard logic that conformed to the IEEE 1149.1 boundary-scan and test-access standard established by the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG). National will be offering its first products - transceiving buffers, latches and registers - in a wide 18-bit configuration in order to differ itself from TI. National is using its 56-pin, 25-mil-pitch shrink small-outline package (SSOP) technology its forthcoming devices, while TI will be using 48- or 56-pin SSOPs for its new devices. TI, who had only offered 8-bit configuration bus-interface logic ICs, is now offering an 18-bit architecture. The TI upgrades will have both 16- and 18-bit configurations. National has placed JTAG pins for Test Mode Select and Test Data In at the top of the package, while the test clock and Test Data Out pins are at the bottom of the package. T1 has placed all four pins at the bottom of the package to offer the customer a fairly low-risk JTAG solution. Plus Logic reveals complex PLD plans. (Programmable Logic Device) Baker, Stan. Plus Logic Inc has announced a new architectural strategy for the early 1990s. The company will integrate predefined memory and datapath modules along with logic modules on its programmable chips, rather than following the trend toward increasingly dense gate-array-like or PAL-like devices. Plus Logic is also going to delete the FPGA prefix from its part numbers, and replacing it with H, for Hierarchically Interconnected Programmable Efficient Resources (HIPER). The Plus Logic HIPER architecture consists of four to 16 similarly sized resource blocks - including data-storage, data-path or control-logic types - linked by programmable interconnect. The H-series blocks also encompass data-path and memory functions not previously a part of earlier Plus Logic parts. Plus Logic also uses its Universal Interconnect Matrix, which is basically a fully populated crossbar switch, to wire between the blocks. HDTV testing faces delays. (High Definition TV) Robinson, Brian; Doherty, Richard. A holdup in the delivery of key test hardware, plus changes caused by new all-digital proposals, is going to delay the start of important systems tests by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) Advanced TV Advisory Committee on high definition TV (HDTV) standards. The delay is blamed on doubt over the exact delivery date of a digital picture-format converter, which creates the HDTV video signals for the tests. The unit is supposed to be delivered to the FCC's Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC) in Alexandria, VA, by its builder, Tektronix Inc. Committee officials say that the delay will be for several weeks, while other sources say the lack of essential hardware could delay the start of actual systems tests to June or July 1991. This delay certainly casts doubt on the probability of announcing a US terrestrial-broadcast HDTV standard by the spring of 1993. OEMs terminate SCSI woes. (Original Equipment Manufacturer, Small Computer System Interface)(includes related information on cable Major OEM's have spent a year observing what they say are the chief contributing factors in small computer system interface (SCSI) performance limitations: connectors, terminators and cables. Members of the SCSI technical committees have solved most connector and cable issues after numerous independent studies. They are now focusing on termination techniques that eliminate impedance problems. Connectors, terminators and cables have been difficult to configure in the market-leading single-ended SCSI subsystems. A lack of information about these components limited the distance that designers could place peripherals could be from the host, forcing the use of extra controller boards or chips and causing errors in high-speed transmissions. System designers and integrators who have not experienced the problems that large OEMs claim to have solved may encounter them soon, because interconnections become very important as speeds increase. Passive terminators that have been shipping for several years are expected to be replaced by active terminators because passive terminators use about three dozen 220- and 320-Ohm thick-film resistors. Mentor's Falcon in flight at last. (Mentor Graphics Corp introduction of its long-awaited Release 8.0 Concurrent Design Mentor Graphics Corp has finally begun shipping the initial elements of Release 8.0 of its Concurrent Design Environment. The release schedule is still not definite because certain elements of Release 8.0 that are still in alpha test. Mentor said that Release 8.0 will support Hewlett-Packard's new Model 700 Unix workstation. Mentor will support both of that workstation's operating environments, HP/UX and the OSF/1 version of Unix. Phase 1 of Release 8.0, which will only run on the older HP/Apollo Domain 400 workstations, includes the Falcon Framework and Mentor's Board Station printed-circuit board design-application programs. The BOLD and INFORM on-line documentation features are also being shipped. Ports to Sun Microsystems Inc workstations are expected by mid-1991. IBM returns to laptop. (IBM PS/2 L40 SX) (product announcement) Doherty, Richard. IBM introduces the PS/2 L40 SX, its first laptop computer in five years. The L40 SX weighs 7.7 pounds and measures 2.1 inches high, 12.8 inches wide and 10.7 inches deep. Most of the components and technology for the Intel 80386SX-based L40 laptop came from Toshiba Corp and Western Digital Corp. Toshiba supplies the 10-inch supertwist LCD display and system RAM, while Conner Peripherals Inc contributes the machine's disk drive. Western Digital supplies the core-logic chip set and VGA graphics controller. as well as the electronics and head disk assembly for the Conner drive. IBM conducted an 18-month survey which showed that people want full desktop functionality in a portable computer. The L40 SX is priced at $5,995. It comes equipped with 2Mbytes of expandable RAM and a 60Mbyte, 2.5-inch Winchester drive. Instruments are based on high-Tc superconductors. (instrumentation to incorporate high-temperature superconductor circuitry) Due to significant improvements in producing superconductor films made by scientists at Sunnyvale, CA-based Conductus Inc, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) and the University of California, Berkeley, instrumentation incorporating high-temperature superconductor circuitry could be available as early as 1992. These instruments could be the first based on the high-Tc superconductors to enter the commercial market. LBL and UC-Berkeley have put together four magnetometers out of the yttrium-barium-copper-oxide (YBaCuO) superconductors, which operate at 77 K, the freezing point of liquid nitrogen. The detectors are each able to sense magnetic currents as small as 0.3 picoteslas. The magnetometers are now being made by combining two separate chips. Conductus is making the superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which are magnetic detectors, and LBL and UC-Berkeley are making the flux transformers, which multiply the sensitivity of SQUIDs. LBL and UC-Berkeley are also putting together the SQUIDs and flux transformers. Big blue notebook. (IBM Japan Ltd. introduces the PS/55note, its first notebook-size personal computer) (product announcement) IBM Japan Ltd introduced the PS/55note, its first notebook-size microcomputer. IBM's Japan partner Ricoh Corp will manufacture the system. Ricoh also took part in the design of the computer and will help sell the systems through its nationwide sales force in Tokyo. The IBM notebook appears to be aimed to compete directly at Toshiba's Dynabook series. The IBM system incorporates a monochrome VGA-class flat panel made by Toshiba Corp and includes an LCD control chip made by Western Digital Corp. The notebook is designed specifically for the Japanese market and is powered by a 12-MHz Intel 80386SX and has 2 Mbytes of standard memory; a 2.5 inch, 40-Mbyte hard disk drive and a 9.5 inch VGA LCD, all included in a compact 5.5 pound body. The system sells for $2,550. HP power shifts its way to RISC lead. (reduced-instruction-set computer, HP Power Shift 720 and 730) (product announcement) Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) introduces its Power Shift series of reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) workstations. Based on HP's Precision Architecture, the new machines top the commercial workstation market with clock speeds of 66 MHz. They also have the largest caches at 384Kbytes and 512Kbytes, and the highest SPECmark rating, currently at 56.3. That rating is expected to increase up to 72.2 when a new compiler is introduced in Jun 1991. The HP workstations also have built-in graphics. These are also the first major RISC machines to use the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus. The Model 720 is priced at $34,490 with a 400Mbyte disk or $11,990 for the diskless version. It sports a SPECmark of 43.5. The Model 730 sells for $19,990 for a gray-scale configuration with a 210Mbyte disk, and has a 56.3 SPECmark. HP optimizes performance at the system level using large off-chip caches, rather than trying to do a single RISC microprocessor implementation. SGS targets RF/microwave markets. (SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, radio frequency) SGS-Thomson Microelectronics is attempting to fulfill its goal of becoming the top supplier of RF and microwave transistors and modules for power applications. To achieve this goal, SGS-Thomson has chosen specific sections of the RF/microwave component market, intending to sell modules and transistors only for transmission, and to target only those applications that have greater than 1-watt power outputs. The company's products will all be silicon-based. Although this restricts the SGS-Thomson offerings to applications operating at frequencies under 3.5 GHz, it still leaves four key markets to go after: radar, mobile equipment for cellular telephone networks, cellular base stations and satellite communications. SGS-Thomson is interested in RF products because they come at the junction of two areas in which it is already established: telecom-dedicated products and power discretes. FPS betting on Sparc. (FPS Computing; new 500 supercomputer) (product announcement) With reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) technology licensed from Sun Microsystems, FPS Computing of Beaverton, OR, will introduce the 500 supercomputing system, which combines both vector processors and a parallel processing matrix function. FPS' strategy seems well-defined, with the system's matrix processor addressing the growing demand for parallel processing, while the vector system retains ties with current technology. The new product is the first departmental supercomputer based on non-proprietary integrated circuits. The expandable system ranges from the basic six-processor systems running at 480 MFLOPS to 84-processor configurations running at 6.7 GFLOPS. Many companies in the crowded departmental supercomputing market have folded, while 21-year-old FPS has persisted. The new 500 could determine whether or not FPS survives. Notebook PC's rf modem puts data on the airwaves. (NEC Corp.'s RC-9801 portable computer)(radio frequency) (product announcement) NEC Corp has developed a new portable microcomputer with a built-in modem for radio telecommunications. The RC-9801 can connect through radio transmissions to a telecommunications service that Japan City Media Inc inaugurated in Dec 1989. Japan City Media has a central switching center connected to 14 teleterminal stations throughout central Tokyo. The RC-9801 is equipped with a 32-bit CPU. It features a compact radio-telecommunications unit that can send or receive data and messages through the teleterminal stations. The RC-9801 can achieve 9,600-baud rates with an error-correction function. Because the radio-telecommunications unit has a buffer memory with a maximum capacity of 12Kbytes, it can receive and save data transmitted even when the power supply is turned off. The RC-9801 is priced at $3,970. It weighs about 6.6 pounds. Ibis seeks simox partners. (Ibis Technology Corp., separation by implementation of oxygen) Zurich-based Ibis Technology Corp is searching for manufacturing partners in Japan and Europe for simox (separation by implementation by oxygen) wafers. Its goal is to establish three separate world sources for the wafers. The partners will receive models of the advanced 60-kW oxygen ion implanter that Ibis is currently developing. Simox is a cutting-edge silicon-on-insulator technology that offers improved radiation hardness and heat resistance and faster speed compared to bulk silicon. However, circuits designed for bulk silicon may be transferred directly onto simox using available mask sets and can also be constructed on existing fab lines. The 60-kW implanter now under development will be able to process wafers as many as 12 inches in diameter, and the ultimate production capacity will be about 100,000 wafers a year. Ibis has identified three application areas for simox wafers: very high-density, high-speed circuits; radiation hardening; and for circuits that need to operate above 180 degrees celsius. When Ibis's new machine begins operating, Ibis expects 4-inch simox wafer prices to fall below $100. MCMs make it to market. (multichip-module technology) Bindra, Ashok. Multichip-module (MCM) technology is about to reach the merchant market. Industry analysts agree that competition among manufacturers, higher yields and increased performance will encourage commercial acceptance of the technology. Control Data Corp of Minneapolis has just announced plans to serve outside customers; Advanced Packaging Systems of San Jose, CA, is already producing a few designs in low-volume production and nCHIP Inc, which entered the MCM market late in 1990, is negotiating to supply MCM substrates to a variety of large semiconductor companies. Polycon Corp is planning to achieve mass production at its pilot production plant in Tempe, AZ, by the summer of 1991; AT&T Microelectronics has applied its polymer hybrid integrated circuit technology to MCM applications and Pacific Microelectronics Centre of Burnaby, British Columbia, is moving initial designs into production with plans to double MCM capacity by early 1992. It is targeting the broadband communications market. Banana computer. (The Business of Technology)(outlook for Apple) (column) Although Apple computers still lead the industry in ease of use, graphics power and simple system integration, they are losing market share to the superior hardware of DOS and Unix machines. It is questionable as to whether or not Apple will be able to maintain its piece of the microcomputer market in the face of shrinking product differentiation. While Microsoft now has a strong influence on hardware research and development, thanks to $40 billion in DOS/hardware sales, Apple has to propel its market with research and development funds out of its own $4 billion in sales. Apple's market share is still small because its computers have been expensive and limited in options compared to DOS machines, which have benefited from aggressive market competition. Maxim thinks business is fab-ulous. (Maxim Integrated Products Inc.) Purchasing a fab from the former Saratoga Semiconductor Corp has turned out to be a very good move for analog-circuits firm Maxim Integrated Products Inc. Maxim is now able to manufacture 65 percent of their own wafers for their CMOS products in-house. Maxfab, as the facility is known, has been producing products in mass quantities since Aug 1990. Before purchasing the $5.5 million fab, Maxim was completely dependent on outside sources. At Maxfab, C class 10 facility capable of 1.2-micron geometries in BiCMOS and CMOS, analog circuits are produced wholly on stepper aligners. Maxfab can produce a run of wafers in three weeks. Maxfab is also military-qualified. Nycor turns up the heat. (Nycor's hostile takeover attempt of Zenith Electronics Corp) Nycor Inc is beginning its hostile takeover attempt of Zenith Electronics Corp by winning board seats and sending shareholders proxy information that say Nycor would sell some of Zenith's operations and boost research and development spending on high definition TV (HDTV). Nycor claims that Zenith's continuing operations have lost $125 million since 1985 as its stock prices and market share have fallen. Nycor is the largest Zenith shareholder with 7.6 percent of the stock and it hopes to win at least three of Zenith's 10 board seats. Nycor says Zenith has spent only $10 million on HDTV development out of $507 million total research expenditures since 1984. Nycor also contends that Zenith's marketing strategy is antiquated. Air Force high on MCMs. (multichip modules) Robinson, Brian. The Wright Laboratories Electronic Technology Directorate at the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, OH, is one of the Department of Defense's (DOD) top electronics-research establishments. The DOD is broadening its program for creating rapid prototyping design tools to include tools for future multichip modules and packaging technologies. Wright Labs is beginning the Electronic Packaging and Interconnect Initiative, a two-part program with a goal of increasing the performance and dependability of electronic systems used in military devices while also searching for a reduction in design time, volume, weight and cost. Wright seeks proposals for software tools to be used in designing high-performance processors. Feds face big 'super' role. (responsibilities associated with High Performance Computing and Communication program) Congress' Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), reports that the government will have to take on extra responsibilities associated with its plan to build a nationwide high-performance computing network according to the High Performance Computing and Communication program. George Bush has given his support to the program for the first time and has called for more than $650 million in funding for the program in his 1992 budget proposal. Bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate that would fund a $1.7 billion program that would have a high-speed National Research and Education Network (NREN) as its central feature, based on the National Science Foundation's NSFnet. The OTA said a federal management system responsible for policy oversight and operation of the network might be needed to deter a variety of problems. Video encoding heart of GI scheme. (fourth in a series on high definition TV schemes)(General Instrument Corp.) General Instrument Corp's (GI) DigiCipher, the first all-digital high definition TV (HDTV) architecture, is one of the most ambitious of the video data-reduction schemes competing for sanctioning by the FCC as the HDTV broadcast standard. If its proposal is not chosen, GI can still use its encryption technology in its cable and satellite broadcasting systems. GI's strategic partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, another FCC standards candidate, certainly increases its chances of being chosen for sanctioning. With DigiCipher, incoming red-green-blue (RGB) video components are transformed into their chrominance-under-luminance standards equivalents. The GI system uses a 24-bit frame sync word that enables the receiver to replenish its data pool quickly, so that an entire video image can be quickly constructed from scratch. FPGA designers impatiently await improved design tools. (field-programmable gate arrays) Design tools for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and complex programmable logic devices (PLD) are undergoing a revolution. The migration path to gate arrays will be simplified by very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHDL) synthesis; general-purpose design-entry tools will allow silicon-specific 'fitters' to become available; and system-level simulation involving FPGAs and PLDs will be supported by electronic design automation (EDA) workstation vendors. Designers, who must currently deal with disconnected sets of third-party and silicon-specific tools, are looking forward to these changes. Different vendors follow different strategies, leading to what has become a complex tool situation. Systems get modular, go portable. (design engineering microcomputers offer modularity) Makers of microcomputers for design engineering are increasingly offering portability and modularity that are proving to be very cost-effective compared to past systems. Surveys show that engineering microcomputers are mainly being used for documentation and design work. Once in a while they are also used as the host platforms for departmental or production-test computing. Portable computers are increasingly being used in design engineering as more engineers take their computing on the road. Recent advances in RAM cards, flat-panel displays and low-power microprocessors has resulted in more affordable portables. The data bandwidth and throughput of RAM cache, disk I/O and graphics-display subsystems are being boosted by enhancements to standards-based peripherals. MS441 cuts cache misses. (Mosel MS441 SimulCache) (product announcement) Specialty memory maker Mosel Corp has significantly improved hit rates and decreased miss costs without creating large caches, by analyzing the source of cache misses. By employing dual-ported SRAMS in a unique, dual-bus architecture, the new Mosel MS441 five-chip set successfully isolates the CPU local bus from the microcomputer chip set, memory and I/O systems. The MS441 consists of a cache controller and a set of application-specific dual-port SRAMS that work together to implement a five-chip, 64-kbyte two-way set-associative write-back cache subsystem. The design can either be used as the principal cache on an Intel 80386-based system or as a secondary cache on 486 systems as fast as 33 MHz. Mosel says that simulations predict a 96 percent read hit rate and a 99.8 percent write hit rate. The MS441 will cost between $65 and $114, while the MS443 SRAM, a specially created dual-port burst memory, of which four are needed for a cache subsystem, will cost $9 each. Both prices are for quantities of 10,000. Aesthetics meets functionality. (electronics cooling systems) Miya, Jack; Norton, Fran. Today's densely packaged electronic systems require quiet, efficient and reliable methods of forced air cooling because the circuit technology requires high reliability, redundancy, operation at utmost efficiency and noise reduction. Designers' ability to fill circuit boards with heat-generating units has been abetted by the use of current computer-aided design methods. The use of temperature-sensitive parts in hot environments has created a new interest in cooling. Providing enough cooling space and appropriate air-circulation paths have become primary design considerations. Several current trends affecting the way cabinets and enclosures will be made are: improved equipment cooling systems; the use of closed refrigeration and heat dissipation systems on the factory floor; a growing emphasis on portability of complex systems; and an increasing need for electromagnetic shielding. LMSI launches high/low strategy. (Logic Modeling Systems Inc.) (product announcement) Logic Modeling Systems Inc (LMSI), the leading vendor of hardware modelers, has introduced new entry-level and high-end systems. Hardware modelers are a critical tool for system-level simulation because they enable designers to simulate real chips in place of often unavailable software models. The LM-500 sells for $35,000, while the LM-1200 sells for $87,000, and increases performance over the current LM-1000, which will be phased out. The LM-500, LM-1000 and LM-1200 all share similar features. They can be shared over a network by a dozen or more users and all work with more than a dozen commercial logic and fault simulators. The LM-500 supports six devices per modeler, while the the LM-1000 and LM-1200 each support 32. The LM-1200 achieves faster response time by incorporating a Motorola 68040 CPU, improved network server and new algorithms that allow faster invocation of the modeler. LM-1000 users will be able to convert their units to LM-1200s using a $19,000 upgrade kit. All new products will be available in June 1991. The LM-500 is not upgradeable. Western Digital's strategy bears fruit. (buying companies for their technology is paying off) IBM's new laptop computer designed by Western Digital (WD) is verification that WD's strategy of buying companies for their technologies is definitely worthwhile. The IBM PS/2 Model L40 SX consists of WD engineered core logic, VGA graphics controller and power supply; and its 2.5 inch, 60 Mbyte Winchester drive made by Conner Peripherals Inc contains electronics and a head-disk assembly contributed by WD. Technologies initially developed by companies like Paradise Systems, Faraday Electronics and Tandon Corp are represented in those components. WD has consistently attempted to take disparate offerings and engineer them to operate in one system architecture. Building a system architecture out of silicon is not a new concept, but WD confuses people with its strategy because after buying companies they turn around and sell them after acquiring the necessary technology. WD's main challenge is to improve the quality of its architecture in order to improve upon that of other companies. U.S., Asian firms scale back Europe '92 plans; recession, political flux in former East Bloc cool ardor. The threat of recession and uncertainty over the situation in Eastern Europe are leading US and Far East electronics companies to cut back on plans to establish manufacturing sites in Europe prior to the 1992 market unification. Harris Corp is postponing its plans for a $225 million semiconductor plan in Plymouth, England. Storage Technology Corp shelved plans to open a plant in Eastern Europe. The lack of an experienced workforce is frequently cited as a reason for not entering Eastern Europe. The UK and Ireland offer better options in the minds of many industry executives. AT&T fails to oust NCR board; talks due as asking price is cut. Zipper, Stuart. AT&T is opening talks with NCR Corp concerning a friendly takeover of that company following the failure of an attempt to oust its board. The move follows NCR's lowering of its asking price to $7.48 billion, or $110 per share. NCR is continuing its antitrust lawsuit against AT&T in hopes that will stop the takeover attempt. AT&T wants a ruling concerning a 'poison pill' shareholders' rights anti-takeover plan implemented by the company. AT&T's offer is officially $90 per share, but it had pledged to pay $100 if it were successful in ousting the board. USTR: Japan CPU buys too low. (U.S. Trade Representative) (includes a related article on the push for a 20 percent share of The US is negotiating a new semiconductor trade agreement with Japan to address market access and dumping issues. A US Trade Representative (USTR) report notes the level of sales in the Japanese market is still below what US industry feels they should be able to achieve and Japanese purchases of US computers are unacceptably low. Foreign computer purchases are estimated to be about 10 percent of the Japanese government purchases; the private sector purchased about 36.8 percent of their computers from foreign companies. The report blamed several factors for the low US computer share in Japanese government purchases and charged that government with failing to provide an independent bid protest procedure and recourse for unfair treatment. Previous complaints on Japanese trade barriers centered on supercomputer purchases. Judge won't block deal for Semi-Gas. (Nippon Sanso of Japan acquires Semi-Gas Systems) A Justice Department petition for a preliminary antitrust injunction to block the acquisition of Semi-Gas Systems by Nippon Sanso of Japan was denied by Federal Judge Clifford Green. The decision opens the way for Hercules Inc, Semi-Gas's parent company, to complete the $23 million sale of its subsidiary. A hearing for a permanent injunction is set for Jun 1991, although it will be very difficult to undo the deal if the acquisition is completed by then. The Justice Department has not decided if it will appeal the decision on a preliminary injunction. IBM to cut workforce by 14,000 in 1991; completes sale of unit. (peripherals operation in Lexington, KY) IBM is reducing its worldwide workforce by 10,000 workers in 1991 and completed the divestment of its peripherals operation in Lexington, KY, that will remove another 4,000 workers from its payroll. The move followed the announcement that the company expects current quarter earnings to be roughly half last year's level, although IBM claims the move is merely part of a long-term restructuring effort to improve efficiencies. IBM stock prices dropped dramatically following the announcement. The company does not plan any layoffs, counting on voluntary incentive programs and attrition to accomplish the reductions. IBM had about 374,000 worldwide employees at the end of 1990. JESSI drops ICL from most R&D; over Japanese ownership. (Joint European Submicron Silicon Initiative, International Computers International Computers Ltd (ICL) was expelled from most of the Joint European Submicron Silicon Initiative's (JESSI) research projects because it is now 80 percent owned by Fujitsu of Japan. JESSI's board ruled that ICL can not participate in three of the five projects for which it was originally accepted. JESSI executives stated that US and Japanese companies can participate in the initiative on a guest status if they have significant research and manufacturing operations in Europe. The projects ICL was to be involved with are related to computer-aided design (CAD). AT&T weighs next FTS move. (government FTS-2000 telecommunications network contracts) The General Services Administration (GSA) denied AT&T's protest over the assigning of the Navy and Marine Corps to US Sprint's portion of the government's multi-billion dollar FTS-2000 telecommunications network. The board ruled the protest was a contract administration matter and not within the board's jurisdiction. AT&T is considering its options in pursuing the matter. AT&T charged the GSA with conducting secret negotiations with US Sprint after it agreed to award the company significant new business under the FTS-2000 contract in exchange for price reductions. The company also charged that awarding the Navy and Marine contracts to US Sprint aggravated the ability to achieve the 60-40 allocation of work it sees as mandatory under the FTS-2000 contract. Apple objects to spectrum auction. (reallocation of a portion of the federal radio spectrum through competitive bidding) Apple Computer Inc is protesting a Bush Administration proposal to reallocate a portion of the federal radio spectrum through competitive bidding. The proposal would reallocate 30MHz of spectrum currently controlled by the government to private industry through Federal Communications Commission auctions between 1994 and 1996. Revenues from the auctions would go to the US Treasury. Apple wants 40MHz to be allocated for its Data-PCS radio-based personal computer service. The proposal is receiving cold treatment from lawmakers who are pursuing their own plans for spectrum reallocation. Leaders' group sees U.S. losing tech race; circuits, PCBs, LCDs. (U.S. Council on Competitiveness) The US Council on Competitiveness sees the US as weak or losing badly in over thirty-three percent of 94 critical technologies. The council claims US public policy does not support American leadership in critical technologies and this is contributing to a general erosion of the US position. The government, academia, and industry need to actively promote the development of generic industrial technologies. The council's report, 'Gaining New Ground: Technology Priorities for America's Future', recommends that the government place a permanent moratorium on Treasury Regulation 1.861-8, which prevents US companies with excess foreign tax credits on overseas operations from deducting domestic R&D expenditures. It also recommends that the Justice Department work with industry and professional groups to remove barriers to cooperation on generic technology issues. Easterly trade winds. (software piracy threatens Eastern European market) The lack of software protection in much of Eastern Europe is a bigger threat to trade than the shortage of hard currency, CoCom export controls, and traditional bureaucratic strangleholds. Most of the new Eastern European governments have not yet adopted laws to safeguard intellectual property; companies delivering software with their computer systems would have no recourse. IBM may have the biggest software problem in Eastern Europe; Communist Bloc members copied the IBM 370 mainframe architecture and lifted software wherever it could be found. The company is addressing the problem by forming tightly controlled joint ventures to migrate the installed base of Communist-built computers over to IBM systems. Hewlett-Packard debuts line of high-end RISC stations. (reduced-instruction set computers) (HP Apollo Series 700) Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Apollo Series 720 RISC workstations boast a 55.5SPECmark performance rating that approaches IBM's top line RS/6000 Model 550. Prices for the unit start at $11,990, compared with the RS/6000's $136,000 price tag. The 700 family includes the 57Mips 50MHz Model 720 and the 66MHz Model 730 desktop machines and the high-end Model 750. All three models are available in server configurations. The line lacks a low-end model, HP officials have not announced such a machine. IBM targets laptop at high end of field. (includes a related article on the laptop market) (PS/2 L40 SX) (product announcement) IBM introduces its PS/2 L40 SX laptop computer. The machine runs on an Intel 20MHz 386SX microprocessor and features a 2.5-inch, 60Mbyte hard disk, 2Mbytes of RAM (expandable to 18Mbytes), a 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch drive and an adapter. The machine weighs 7.7 pounds. Batteries will last up to three hours. Users can close the machine's cover without storing files or turning off the system, returning later to the identical display simply by lifting the cover. An optional modem accepts fax transmissions. The $5,995 list price raised many eyebrows, but the company justifies the price through the machine's functionality. Amdahl offers 3390-like DASD. (direct access storage device) (Model 6390) (product announcement) Amdahl Corp's model 6390 direct access storage device (DASD) includes two 30Gbyte storage cabinets for a total storage capacity of 60Gbytes. The 3390-compatible storage machines are not expected to ship until the third quarter of 1991 and face strong competition from IBM. The 6390 takes half the power of older generation 6380K devices and is 29 percent smaller. It operates at a 4.5Mbyte per second data transfer rate with an average seek time of 10.7ms. Prices range from $128,700 to $363,800. Davin offering tech license. (core technology for 64-bit parallel-processing computer) Davin Computer is offering a license for the core technology of its 64-bit parallel-processing computer. The company's inability to sell a single unit after a year of trying underscores the pitfalls of proprietary architectures in a market where customers are wary of non-Unix solutions from unfamiliar vendors. Davin promises Unix compatibility within five months. The BAT 6420 64-bit parallel-processing computer uses off-the-shelf components, processes data eight bytes at a time, and performs at 32Mips running a proprietary operating system. The unit is priced under $15,000. IDCMA asks FCC to reimpose RBOC 'structural separation'. (Independent Data Communications Manufacturers Association, The IDCMA files a petition with the FCC asking for reinstatement of rules requiring Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to separate enhanced services from their mainstream telephone business. The group cites a growing record of misconduct by the RBOC's and a lack of enforcement by the FCC. The rules require the RBOCs to set up separate subsidiaries for unregulated enhanced services in order to prevent anticompetitive activities like cross-subsidization and discrimination. The group did not detail abuses. Siemens sets sights eastward. (plans to install 200,000 lines in East Germany) Siemens AG plans to install 200,000 lines in what was East Germany and grab a large share of the $4.4 billion Deutsche Bundespost program for upgrading the former Communist state's telecommunications system. There is no guarantee that Siemens will get the business, although the company shares a language with East Germans and certainly has the edge. Some analysts are criticizing Siemens government backing for investments; the German government now plans tax breaks to companies investing in manufacturing operations in East Germany. AT&T is complaining about unfair business practices, but has made minor efforts in the area. WD to sell LAN board unit to Standard Micro for $33M. (Western Digital) Western Digital (WD) is selling its LAN board business to Standard Microsystems Corp for a reported $33 million in cash. The divestment is part of WD's reorganization and an emphasis on the design and development of integrated circuits (ICs) and disk drives for large OEM customers. WD believes that board-level communication functions will be reduced to the circuit level. The deal is awaiting final approval by directors and shareholders of both companies. Japanese firms stress gear's 'local content'. Inaba, Minoru. Japanese electronics manufacturers are countering an increasingly protectionist market by investing in overseas operations. The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) claims the percentage of sales from overseas production will increase from 2 percent to 15 percent in computers, from 5 percent to 20 percent in telecommunications, from 5 percent to 15 percent in semiconductors and from 20 percent to 40 percent in other components during the 1990s. NEC Corp plans an increase in overseas production from $2.3 billion in 1989 to $5.7 billion in 1994. Fujitsu overseas semiconductor production accounts for 20 percents of its overseas sales and is increasing rapidly. Toshiba is planning an increase of 40 percent in the local content of its laptops. Local origin is not considered as serious in the US market. Exar to buy back shares from Rohm. Exar Corp agreed to repurchase its preferred shares and a warrant from Rohm for $20 million in cash and stock. The deal covers all outstanding shares of Exar's Series A preferred stock and a warrant exercisable for 1.5 million shares of Exar common stock. The terms include $12 million cash and $8 million in redeemable, nonvoting, nonconvertible and nondividend paying preferred stock. The stock must be redeemed by Exar in four annual payments of $2 million each, starting on Jun 1, 1994. Rohm will now hold about 34 percent of Exar's outstanding common stock. New Tek president starts shake-up; seeks T&M exec. (Tektronix Inc, test and measurement) (Jerome J. Meyer) Tektronix Inc Pres Jerome J. Meyer is shaking up the company's product line responsibilities and looking for a new head for its Test & Measurement group. He is dismantling the Communications group and parceling its units into three main product groups. The company is decentralizing its domestic sales and services. Meyer will head the T&M group until he finds a new manager. Tek's profitability has improved under the new president, reporting a net of $13.2 million for its third quarter ending Mar 2, 1991. Mentor, Cadence set packs for HP 700. Dorsch, Jeff. Several electronic design automation (EDA) software vendors are porting their programs to the Hewlett-Packard/Apollo 9000 Series 700 workstations. The machine is based on the PA-RISC architecture. Mentor Graphics Corp plans a second half of 1991 release for a Series 700 version of its EDA software. Cadence Design Systems Inc is nearly finished porting its programs. Mechanical design software vendors support the Series 700 include Schlumberger Technologies, Parametric Technology Corp, Hewlett-Packard, Gerber systems Technology and Rasna, Mechanica. See X-ray projection advancing. (AT&T Bell Labs X-ray projection technology) New AT&T Bell Laboratories X-ray projection technology allows X-ray microlithographers to work with masks several times larger than the circuits they print. The process is similar to the way optical wafer steppers use reduction techniques. The reduction system makes mask fabrication and inspection much easier. Bell Labs researchers are working on a projection electron-beam technology for sub-quarter-micron lithography. Sandia National Laboratory researchers extended the Bell Labs X-ray work with a similar optical system illuminated by a laser-plasma X-ray source. A laser-plasma provides an economic alternative to superconducting compact synchrotrons. More government funding is expected later in 1991. Sun signs Arrow as master VAR. Grund, Howard. Sun Microsystems Corp signs a franchise agreement with Arrow Electronics as a Master VAR that calls for the distributer to assist resellers in porting Unix applications to Sun's operating system and graphical user interface (GUI). Arrow's Commercial Systems Group will establish porting centers in Boston, Columbus, OH, and Hayward, CA. Resellers that complete the porting of their applications will be authorized to sell Sun's desktop systems. The agreement does not involve existing Sun VARs. U.S. distributors don't see windfall from elimination of FMV price floor. (foreign market value) The elimination of foreign market value (FMV) floor pricing on Japanese DRAMs and EPROMs appears imminent, but US distributors of Japanese memories are not expecting a huge increase in market demand. Worldwide DRAM and EPROM production is currently in line with demand. The biggest return from the dismantling of the FMV framework would be the elimination of the paperwork for periodic inventory returns. FMV pricing was dictated by the terms of the 1986 US-Japan Semiconductor Arrangement, which expires in Jul 1991. Silicon Graphics retains 'buy' status as price rises. Kreck, Dolores. Silicon Graphics Inc's (SGI) stock jumped almost 60 percent in recent weeks, its P/E ratio moved from 13 to 21. The stock is still highly recommended as every major workstation company and workstation divisions of the major computer companies are reporting better than expected revenue growth. SGI stock is trading around $40 per share in early Apr 1991, with a return of over 30 percent. MIPS software group seen taking two paths. (Apache and Gibraltar groups) A software alliance based on the MIPS chip will be unveiled in mid-Apr 1991, but two groups are taking separate routes toward allowing microcomputers and RISC workstations to run the same software. The Apache group, headed by Compaq Computer, will use Unix V.4 to run common programs, The Gibraltar group, headed by Digital Equipment Corp, plans to use DEC's Ultrix OS. Both groups are developing new Application Programming Interface (API) standards. Can anyone stop Bill Gates? (Microsoft Corp.'s chief executive officer) (company profile) Microsoft Corp, founded in 1975 by William H Gates, is the market leader in the microcomputer software industry. The software publisher is worth an estimated $12 billion and is twice as large as its nearest competitor. Microsoft is the largest producer of operating system programs for microcomputers; its MS-DOS package, standard for any IBM-compatible microcomputer, is the most popular operating system. Microsoft introduces a new product or an upgrade to an existing package on average of once every month. The company has a 24 percent after-tax profit margin and has no debt. Microsoft also offers the enhancement program Windows, which is a graphical user interface designed to make microcomputer use easier. IBM and Microsoft experience a rift as IBM pursues its OS/2 product, which it sees as essential for linking microcomputers to mainframes. Microsoft sees a different use for microcomputers and is focusing on Windows development. Fail-safe. (fault-tolerant computer systems) Churbuck, David. Fault-tolerant computers continue to operate in the event of disaster. Fault-tolerant computers are essential for on-line transaction processing applications used by banks and airlines. Tandem Computers Inc and Stratus Computer Inc are leaders in the fault-tolerant market. Stratus develops minicomputers, and Tandem focuses on mainframes. The companies differ also on their approach to solving fault-tolerance problems. Tandem uses a system called Guardian that manages two computers that are linked together. The two computers work on different problems, but if one computer fails, Guardian switches the processing to the operating computer. Stratus splits a processing request between two independent microprocessors that compare their results against each other when done. If the results differ, the computer uses another pair of processors to recalculate the problem. Other companies are offering 'highly available' computers that cost less than fault-tolerant computers but are not fully guaranteed to work. Microsoft's spreadsheet, on its third try, excels. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software) (Random Access ) (column) Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software for the Windows graphical user interface environment offers features very similar to artificial intelligence. The software operates in a function of a specific application and anticipates the possible commands a user might make. Columns are automatically resized by the program if they are too small, for example. The program's Autosum on the Toolbar feature guesses what range to sum. Excel 3.0 can make distinctions between subtotals and totals, and months from quarters and years. The software can match columns and rows from different spreadsheets and merge the information. Excel 3.0 also converts Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 commands that a user may enter and shows the Excel equivalent onscreen. It's for real. (computer stock cycle analysis) (column) Gianturco, Michael. The technology business cycle comes around and is witnessed by the recent increase in semiconductor and computer stocks. The end of the recession is marked by stock increases in these markets followed by software industry gains. Recessions are marked by investors focusing less on the computer and software industry and buying into biotechnology and health care stocks. The pharmaceuticals industry benefits from a soft overseas dollar because it is a major exporter. With the strengthening of the dollar, computer manufacturers whose products are assembled mostly overseas stand to gain. IRS wants electronic payments. Seaborn, Margaret M. The Internal Revenue Service is in the midst of a huge modernization program, part of which involves the development of a system that can accept returns and payments automatically, without the need for data entry. One of the main problems with the new Tax System Modernization program, according to the General Accounting Office, is that taxpayers are reluctant to file electronically because paying with a paper check affords them a few extra days to collect interest as the check clears the bank. An electronic payment would be deducted from an account immediately. Of the $1 trillion in tax payments the IRS received in 1989, 80 percent could have been filed electronically. Overruns surface in NOAA project. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contract with Unisys Corp. for advanced The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Unisys Corp are locked in a dispute that could eventually result in the computer company being in default on a $700 million contract for an advanced weather radar system. The final completion of the Next Generation Weather Radar project, or NEXRAD, could eventually overrun initial costs by an extra $250 million, and maybe even $500 million. Officials at the NOAA's parent agency, the Commerce Department, believe that mismanagement at the NOAA is partly responsible for the escalating costs. If the NOAA does decide to terminate the contract with Unisys, analysts believe the most likely company to pick up the ball would be Raytheon Co, which lost out to Unisys in a run-off on the original contract. Feds have big plans for CD-ROM. (compact disk read-only memory) Vizachero, Rick. Federal agencies are expected to publish more than 500 new CD-ROM titles in 1991. The number is more than three times the total for 1990. This figure does not include the Defense Department, which is planning the release of at least 800 new titles. The federal agency output in the coming year will single-handedly increase the total number of CD-ROM English-language titles published worldwide by half. Scientific CD-ROMs from federal agencies will quadruple in 1991 compared to 1990. Scientific titles have doubled in each of the last four years. According to the CD-ROM Directory in London, the total number of English language titles at the end of 1990 was 870, while CD-ROM titles for all languages totalled 1,500. Justice chooses Cooper as its first IRM chief. (Department of Justice's Roger M. Cooper, information resources management) The Department of Justice has appointed Roger M. Cooper the new deputy assistant attorney general for information resources management (IRM). The position was created as the result of the Justice Department's reorganization of IRM in Oct 1990. Cooper comes to the new position from the post of deputy administrator for management at the Farmers Home Administration. Prior to that, he was deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for information systems. Cooper will oversee the Justice Department's computer services, telecommunications services, legal and information systems, and systems policy staff. Cooper comes to the department at a time of stress following a General Accounting Office report requiring it to strengthen its IRM structure following computer security problems. GTSI may get go-ahead to fill Companion orders. (Government Technology Services Inc., Desktop Companion contract) Government Technology Services Inc (GTSI) has received high marks on product acceptance tests and may now be clear to accept Desktop Companion contract orders from the Navy in May 1991. Test results are not available to the public before the release of an official test report in April. The report has taken three years to compile. The $650 million procurement has been plagued by problems since the Navy released the initial request for proposals in July 1988. The contract was originally awarded to Zenith Data Systems, but that decision was overturned after GTSI protested to the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals. Sen. Glenn threatens to bring OIRA controversy to a head. (reauthorization of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) Senator John Glenn plans to file a new Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reauthorization bill if the White House does not revive the agreement made last year concerning the agency's future. The OIRA approves all federal IRM regulations and sets all agency policy. It has been without reauthorization for more than two years. The original agreement called for a four-year reauthorization and a new executive order establishing the office's rule-making power. While the Office of Management and Budget has not commented on the proposed resurrection of the original agreement, it has gone ahead with work on a revision of OMB Circular A-130, the main federal IRM policy guidance. Army names Lakey as SBIS program manager. (Sustaining Base Information Services' Jean Lakey) The Army has appointed Jean Lakey program manager of the Sustaining Base Information Service (SBIS) program. The position will entail overseeing the development of a computer system that could serve as the foundation for open systems computing at the Defense Department. Lakey was the former program manager for the Logistics Systems Modernization Program at the Defense Logistics Agency and brought that project from a grand blueprint to fruition in a series of modular upgrades. Some analysts believe that same tactic will be used with the SBIS program. Lakey is said to favor the SBIS program because of its emphasis on software applications over hardware. GSA, AT&T spar over FTS 2000 costs. (General Services Administration telecommunications contract) AT&T's dispute with the General Service Administration over how much of the federal FTS 2000 telecommunications contract it was actually guaranteed has continued with GSA's Administrator Richard G. Austin's appearance before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Austin claimed that the GSA did not guarantee AT&T 60 percent of the government long distance telecommunications business. Instead, the GSA only stipulated a minimum dollar amount on the FTS 2000 contract, and that itself was not a guarantee, but a guideline. Missed opportunities and AT&T's delay in implementing FTS services have contributed to its less-than-half share, he said. The larger portion is being handled by US Sprint Communications, which was originally allocated just 40 percent of the business. Bids on disk help GSA smooth out schedule awards. (General Services Administration) Officials for the General Services Administration insist the decision to accept bids for microcomputer schedule contracts on MS-DOS floppy disks has simplified negotiations for new contracts. Contracts for Multiple Award Schedule 70 B and C microcomputer hardware and software products are open for bids until March 31, 1992. Two large vendors, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, have declined to participate and are scaling back their respective microcomputer schedule sales. GSA's information resources management officials believe 1991 contract talks have been proceeding better than talks in 1990, due to a better understanding of the pricing and discount information requirements. In addition, less paperwork is required for the floppy disk ruling. IMA issues media portability standard. (Interactive Multimedia Association) The Defense Department has adopted the Interactive Multimedia Association's document 'Recommended Practices for Multimedia Portability' as a required standard that will allow all interactive training programs to work on any brand of video training hardware. The standard was incorporated into the Military Standard 1379, Appendix D, in November. The standard allows for the unrestricted portability of CD-ROM disks and their interactive courses between systems of different vendors if the disks are the same size. Microsoft has also recently announced a multimedia standard called Multimedia PC, which is essentially an extension of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and MS-DOS. GAO says justice leaked sensitive computer data. (General Accounting Office, Department of Justice) The General Accounting Office has accused the Justice Department of allowing a US attorney's office to leak some very sensitive computer data that could compromise the safety of undercover agents and witnesses. GAO's Information and Technology Division's Howard G. Rhile told the Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Information, Justice and Agriculture that Justice Department officials had acknowledged the breach in Feb 1991. The main reasons for the Justice Department's security problems stemmed from insufficient security training for its employees, he said. Another incident occurred in a US attorney's office in 1990, when sensitive data was not removed when the office sold some excess hard drives. All attorney's offices have now been ordered to remove hard drives and other magnetic media from equipment before it is sold, and to melt them down. DEC offers 4 fault-tolerant VAXft models. ( DEC VAXft 110, 410, 610, 612 minicomputers) (product announcement) DEC has introduced four new models in its VAXft fault-tolerant line of minicomputers. The model 110 begins at $46,000 and supports up to 4Gbytes of disk storage and 96Mbytes of internal memory. The machine offers a processing speed of six transactions per second (TPS), which is 2.4 times the power of a VAX 11/780. The model 410, which starts at $145,077, offers 16-tps and delivers six times the processing power of an 11/780. The model offers up to 12Gbytes of disk storage and 128Mbytes of internal memory. Multiuser systems begin at $550,000. The model 610 supports up to 24Gbytes of disk storage, delivers 16-tps, and comes in 60-inch high cabinets. Prices for the 610 range from $164,875 to $750,000. The model 612 incorporates two model 610 units into a Digital Storage Systems Interconnect VAXcluster system, and offers 25-tps. The model 612 ranges from $275,567 to $1 million. CIM strategist shoulders responsibility for DOD IRM. (Corporate Information Management) (Department of Defense's Cynthia Kendall) Cynthia Kendall's new position as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for information systems will involve overseeing issues of automated data processing in the Corporate Information Management (CIM) program. Kendall feels that agencies are unaware of how much information resources cost the government. She considers the Department of Defense's plans to begin charging other agencies for information resource services in a fee-for-service program a good idea. Kendall notes that the military services have been very receptive to CIM from its initial inception 18 months ago, and that any dissension that has occurred is in reaction to specific details and does not indicate a rejection of the overall policy. WP Office users laud its ease of use. (WordPerfect Corp.'s office automation software) (Government Computer News survey) In a recent Government Computer News user survey of office automation software for local area networks, WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect Office beat out the competition and received the top rating in every category. The package was compared to Enable Software's Enable OA, Enable Software's Higgins, and Wang Laboratories' LAN Office. The problems with Wordperfect Office included its significant learning curve, probably due in part to its complicated use of function keys and combined keystrokes. Enable drew some praise for its transferability and low training cost, but some criticism for being too hard for the average user. Higgins was praised for its integrated approach and for being compatible with a variety of computers. The main problem for Wang Laboratories' LAN Office was its dependence on proprietary hardware, which caused considerable compatibility problems. VA's GIS analyzes future health facility options. (Veterans Affairs Department, Strategic Mapping Inc.'s Atlas Gis geographic The Veterans Affairs Department has been using a geographic information system called Atlas GIS from Strategic Mapping Inc to help decide where to build new health facilities and cemeteries and plan how to best use its resources. The software is used on Intel 80386-based microcomputers with color plotters from Advanced Logic Research Inc. Population density patterns are analyzed and maps created that indicate where facilities will be needed. The agency determines which areas have significant veteran populations and how close the area's existing health facilities are to capacity. Data compression utilities add some elbow room to hard disk. (Power User) (column) Data compression utility programs are an easy, efficient way to manage a hard drive and increase capacity at the same time. Spreadsheet files can be compressed into about one-quarter of their original size because they consist mostly blank of spaces. Text files too can be reduced by nearly as much, and data base files can be compressed by about 80 percent. Hardware coprocessor boards that act as data compression utilities, such as Stac Electronics' Stacker, can be faster than software equivalents but can be nearly as expensive as adding a second 40Mbyte hard drive. Also, hardware solutions to the compression issue can bring with them compatibility problems not found in software utilities. A backup utility will likely do a fine job of compressing files for archival purposes without the need for extra software. Premium Exec notebook grabs deserved attention. (AST Research Inc.'s Premium Exec 386SX/20) (evaluation) AST Research's impressive $2,995 Premium Exec 386SX/20 is an Intel 80386SX-based notebook computer that runs at 20 MHz and includes 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 20Mbyte hard drive, DOS 3.3, spooling and memory utilities, and Battery Watch and LapLink III software. A 2,400-bps internal modem can be added for $249, or a combination modem and 9,600-bps fax card is priced at $349. The machine weighs in at seven pounds and also comes with a high quality monochrome VGA liquid crystal display that offers 32 shades. A full-sized keyboard is also included. A 12-MHz Intel 80286-based model with a 20Mbyte hard drive costs $2,495. MPort 386 is power laptop with screen problems. (Hardware Review) (from Micronics Computer Systems Inc.) (evaluation) Micronics Computers Inc's $6,299 Mport 386 is an appealing Intel 80386-based portable computer that includes a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 40Mbyte hard drive, 4Mbytes of 32-bit random access memory (RAM), 32Kbytes of cache memory, MS-DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The machine runs at 25 MHz and also comes with a half-size card slot, a full-sized keyboard, and a VGA paper-white display. The Mport weighs in at 15 pounds but does not include a battery. The 32-shade gray-scale monitor was disappointing because of alternating light and dark bands obscuring the view, yet this is a powerful machine with many features common to high-end laptop products. Companies are vying for position, racing toward universal e-mail. (electronic mail) (Data Lines) (column) The current economic climate may be helping the electronic mail industry, as cost-cutting communications managers seek alternative low-cost networking strategies. Additionally, software publishers are realigning their interests within the market and acquiring companies that specialize in e-mail. Lotus Development Corp's recent acquisition of cc:Mail is one such example. The purchase was particularly newsworthy because cc:Mail held 30 percent of the e-mail market. Lotus is believed to have seized on the opportunity to acquire the company in an attempt to connect large user sites using their Notes communications package with a more generic e-mail system. Recession not bad for e-mail sales, survey says. (electronic mail) (SoftSwitch Inc. survey) A survey of electronic mail users conducted by SoftSwitch suggests the 1991 recession is having little effect on the sale of e-mail products. The company markets products that link incompatible e-mail services, and expects sales of its X.400 and Unix products to sell well in the coming year. The survey also found that about half of those who use SoftSwitch products have installed an X.400 gateway on their backbone network. Of the remaining customers, 75 percent intend to install one in the coming year. The company has around 30 large civilian and Defense Department customers. The company believes there is a misconception about the abilities of the X.400 protocol. While X.400 is an important communications protocol, it cannot do everything, such as network management, logging and accounting, and directory synchronization. The protocol is useful as a connection between public-mail and private-mail networks. CMW, Project Max join for B2 systems security. (SecureWare's CMW+ workstation has B2 security rating, Project Max consortium for SecureWare's B2 security-rated CMW+ microcomputer is just one in a series of security advancements the company hopes to offer during the 1990s. The company has also joined a consortium, called Project Max, to develop secure network systems. The project was originally called the Trusted Systems Interoperability Group, and began two years ago as a standards body. Project Max consortium members include SecureWare, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, the Santa Cruz Operation, and a number of others. The consortium is reportedly far advanced in its research. At a recent meeting, the first implementation of a trusted networking technology running between several platforms was demonstrated. A rare Joy pays a visit to Washington. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Bill Joy, vice president of research and development) Sun Microsystems is forming two new companies, SunTech Enterprises Inc and SunSoft Inc, to develop and market its Unix system software and value-added products. The companies will begin operations on July 1, 1991 and are seen as an attempt to establish Sun's Sparc microprocessor and Unix products in the marketplace. SunTech will offer applications and products for Sparc-compatible systems, including development tools, printing technology, and microcomputer communications software. The company's product line will include the SunLink and PC-NFS connectivity gateways to multi-vendor systems. SunSoft's product line will include the SunOS operating system, the X11/NeWS windowing system, and the Open Windows environment, including the Open Look graphical user interface. Army's new shipping model may save $1B. (billion) (the Objective Supply Capability transaction processing system) The Army has taken delivery of a prototype transaction processing system from Innovative Technology that some analysts believe may end up saving it $1 billion. The Objective Supply Capability automated logistics system is designed to reduce the time between entering a request and taking delivery of the repaired part in the US, and eventually worldwide. Every day of ordering and shipping costs the Army about $30 million. OSC equipment has reduced the turnaround time to between three and five days from the 12 to 25 days required before the new system was deployed. Innovative Technology won the $8 million contract to develop the prototype in 1988. New combination database offers more flexibility. (combination of relational and navigational data base techniques) (Computer Computer Associates International Inc's Dominique Laborde believes that effective database management requires a combination of relational and navigational techniques within a single database engine. He also maintains that relational data bases are just another step on the evolutionary chain of data bases, merely the third generation in their development. While there is nothing wrong with using just relational techniques, combining techniques can save on costs because it negates the need to convert all existing applications to support relational techniques. Laborde also believes that object orientation is likely to be incorporated in data base management in the future. Sparc to run Air Force mission planning system. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Unix-like Sparc workstations are basis of Tactical Air Sun Microsystems has won the $47.9 million Tactical Air Force Workstation contract to supply the Air Force with high-speed Unix-based Sparc workstations. Among the uses for the new machines will be an automated Advanced Planning System that will allow for the delivering of aircraft sortie plans to air squadron leaders in two hours. Mission critical planning is accomplished using a variety of systems, but the final creation of aircraft tasking orders is done manually. Under the contracts, Sun will provide as many as 4,000 workstations, some of which will be Sparc systems capable of 30 million instructions per second. GAO upbraids MAISRC for ADP spending. (General Accounting Office) (Major Automated Information Systems Review Council, automated The General Accounting Office has criticized the Department of Defense's oversight committee for allowing the services to purchase computer systems that do not meet mandatory government purchasing requirements. The congressional agency maintained that the Major Automated Information Systems Review Council allocated funds for three major purchases knowing the systems had not met standards. The MAISRC has since become a committee of the Defense Acquisition Board, which is seen as an attempt to ensure that the services practice better life cycle management. Even though the MAISRC claims it had to continue spending on at least one of the projects to ensure there were no costly renegotiations, the GAO maintained it could find no evidence that costs would increase. MS-DOS interfaces. (buyers guide) Mileikowsky, Ron. MS-DOS interfaces are credited with much of the continued popularity of the operating system. They have given new life to its cryptic, non-multitasking nature and its limited 640Kbyte ransom access memory (RAM). MS-DOS shells like Microsoft Windows 3.0 have proved the operating system's flexibility, and DOS extenders have overcome the RAM limit. Although some analysts would argue that Windows improves productivity, many would argue the complete opposite. Using pull-down menus inhibits productivity in that multiple steps are needed, where one character-based DOS command can accomplish the same operation. Many analysts argue that DOS-users want an interface that is character-based and supports Windows, pull-down menus and a mouse, but is not a graphical user interface. Microsoft's new MS-DOS 5.0 is reported to do just that, and should ensure the longevity of DOS for some time to come. Electronic mail. Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. The complexity of electronic mail systems appears to be one of the main reasons why the communications medium has not be even more successful in its penetration of the office workplace. It is certainly more difficult to use than a facsimile machine or interoffice mail, some analysts argue. Another problem is the lack of a full-screen editor on many e-mail systems. The question of privacy in e-mails, and who has the right to read messages, is developing into a controversial issue. The rise of distributed mail and increased network connectivity have made it even more difficult to guarantee privacy of electronic mail, which is a major consideration for government defense agencies. One of the simplest ways to prevent unauthorized access of individual e-mail is to implement password security. High energy propels analysts's vision for connectivity. (Department of Transport's Paula Ewen) Paula Ewen is not only the automation program manager in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, but is also the head of the Information Technology Council of the interagency Information Resources Advisory Committee. In her dual positions she works to solve connectivity problems between agencies, and believes that electronic mail systems not only cut copying costs, but also increase productivity. She also maintains that an efficient government-run electronic mail system for the public would improve the government's image. The main downside to e-mail, she believes, is that it removes the face-to-face aspects of communication with people. System upgrades give CDC e-mail users an edge. (Centers for Disease Control, electronic mail) The Division of Immunization at the Centers for Disease Control plans to port its software environment first to a Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and then to the OS/2 operating system. Electronic-mail users can swap documents with the assistance of two e-mail packages from Consumers Software Inc. In late 1990, the division migrated from Wang Laboratories Inc's Office e-mail and word processing to an IBM Token-Ring network of Intel 80386-based microcomputers. Users can toggle between packages under both MS-DOS or Windows 3.0 and send e-mail to 5,000 CDC employees on a wide area network. A gateway is also being planned to connect with CDC's parent department, Health and Human Services. A modest proposal for mandatory protests.(IRM Notebook) (General Services Administration plans regulations) (column) The General Services Administration is planning to implement mandatory post-award protests on all data processing purchases of more than $1 million. Some analysts see this as a move to augment the agency's scarce oversight resources by using vendors' legal staffs. Other analysts contend that if the agencies know there will be a post-award protest, they will be more thorough in their documentation and procedures. Protests have been coming from Congressional circles for some time, complaining about the way the GSA oversees its procurement process. GSA contends that it lacks the resources to watch over the procurement process with much detail, and in many cases the vendors themselves are more technically knowledgeable of a specific acquisition than the agency issuing the request. Some IS vendors caught the wave and rode it well. (information systems market) (From the Crow's Nest) (column) The information systems world is experiencing new freedoms associated with the breaking of the hold proprietary systems once had on the market. Technological advances in such areas as parallel processing, networking, Integrated Services Digital Network-enabled applications and image processing, client/server architecture, and the spread of Unix and open systems, have all combined to create a new climate of innovation and experimentation. Users are faced with an increasingly competitive marketplace where lower prices are being offered by vendors marketing non-proprietary standards-compliant products which promise increasing connectivity. The big losers in this shift towards distributed computing are the established mainframe computer manufacturers who, in some cases, have been slow to transfer their resources to take advantage of the current trends. TQM can save U.S. software development. (DP Issues, total quality management) (Massachusetts Institute of Technology's report on A new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicates that the US dominance of the software developing world is disappearing rapidly. The report highlighted a number of startling statistics in the area of productivity. The average US programmer creates 7,290 lines of debugged source code per year, compared to 12,447 for Japanese programmers. Additionally, there are fewer technical failures per 1,000 lines of code for the Japanese. In the United States, the average number of defects per 1,000 lines of code was 4.44, while in Japan it was just 1.96. While the Japanese may have the edge in terms of productivity, critics point out that they have yet to produce an original software package that is as popular as Microsoft Windows 3.0 or Lotus 1-2-3. Yet some analysts believe that the Japanese emphasis on total quality management and the observance of rigid standards in software development will make Japanese programmers major market players in the future. Top feds debate whether out-sourcing's worth it. (federal officials) Mixed feelings exist in the federal government concerning the merits of placing large-scale data processing operations in the hands of outside contractors. Those who like outsourcing cite a number of reasons in its favor. They suggest that contractors can often perform tasks at lower prices than the agency itself can. In addition, outsourcing frees agency employees to perform more strategic work. An outside contractor usually has more flexibility to respond to organizational changes. Those critical of outsourcing believe it may not help all government agencies. Some federal officials believe outside contractors cannot offer the level of service and support an inside agency can. Others argue that once an agency's data processing needs exceed 150 million instructions per second, cost savings from outsourcing begin to decline. Cost loses heavyweight status in decisions. (Federal Contract Law) (federal agency procurements) (column) Federal data processing contracts are often awarded to the lowest bidder. Some industry analysts claim that this means there is a danger that the company winning the contract will be unable to perform. Some analysts argue that agencies are not necessarily obliged to accept the lowest bidder. A higher-priced offerer can show that the extra price includes a margin of technical superiority. Legislation requires the solicitation to state the main evaluation factor and sub-factors, and their relative importance. There is no firm policy, however, as to what factors should be emphasized in which kind of procurements. In the event that a lower-cost proposal is compared to a more technically accomplished, higher-priced one, the crucial question is whether the extra technical ability is worth the extra money. Pricing strategies for service bids pose a challenge. (FedWatch) (column) Current government regulations concerning service procurements are causing concern within the industry. The present administration's emphasis on quality performance in the selection process means vendors must be prepared to offer highly technical staff on demand. Critics have claimed that government procurements have emphasized quality over quantity, only to have the contract go to the lowest bidder with few technical qualities. The main problem for vendors is to find the balance between offering technical staff and keeping the costs low enough to win the procurement. Integrity act boosted ethics awareness: GAO poll. (General Accounting Office) A survey of the government's top 17 agencies and six federal contractors by the General Accounting Office has revealed an added awareness of ethics considerations due to the new procurement integrity act. The same agencies claimed no reported violations of the act, although the survey did show that many regard it as cumbersome and overly complicated. The departments of Agriculture and Interior, and the Army, Navy, and Air Force departments did cite 11 possible violations in the first four and a half months of operation. Many regarded the details as being too vague. Some of the law's provisions are believed to overlap existing statutes. Proponents of the law point to increased ethics awareness as being reason alone to support the legislation. This argument is compounded by the fact that both agencies and vendors have established new integrity training programs. Sears takes DMAC case to appeals court. (Sears Business Systems, Department of Treasury's Departmental Microcomputer Acquisition Sears Business Systems has taken its case to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an attempt to win back the Treasury Department's huge microcomputer contract. Sears alleges that the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals exceeded its authority in considering the Departmental Microcomputer Acquisition Contract (DMAC II) that was awarded to the company. The win was rejected by the board for not being technically compliant. Sears is asking the court to reinstate the contract that it won in May 1990. After the original rejection, the Treasury Department amended the contract requirements and called for a new round of best-and-final offers. TIPS gives mining office the tools to dig deeper. (Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's Technical Information The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's Technical Information Processing System (TIPS) is an automated set of analytical tools that are used in overseeing mining projects. The system is intended to offer technical software support to specialists engaged in a range of engineering and scientific activities required in issuing mine permits and overseeing abandoned mining projects. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act requires that the agency monitor the nation's mining projects. The agency advises government and industry on the effects of coal mining and has the authority to fine companies for mining violations. The $5.7 million system is used to set bond levels for mine projects based on re-vegetation and construction costs. SEC looking to award tracking system contract. (Securities and Exchange Commission) The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to award a contract by May 1, to a vendor to operate a system that tracks $16 billion worth of lost, stolen and counterfeit securities. The original request for proposal (RFP) was retracted and re-written to include an amendment that enhanced the electronic reporting requirements. The contract now requires the winning vendor to process inquiries by computer-to-computer transmissions. Also, the storage requirements were revised and now the winning bidder must provide 1.3Gbytes of on-line storage. The contractor chosen will have two months to transfer data from the existing system to the new one before a July 1 start date. Commerce orders NOAA to restructure its IRM. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) The Department of Commerce has sent officials to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reorganize its IRM structure. A more centralized approach has been demanded to improve systems development and acquisition, and to contain escalating costs in its weather system modernization project. The reorganization attempt is the result of an independent review that concluded the NOAA's IRM authority is dispersed across too many offices. It is intended for the reorganization to consolidate components currently located among the National Weather Service, the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, and the Commerce Major Systems Procurement Division. Pull-down menus bog down good software. Vizachero, Rick. Publishers of new versions of existing software often advertise the addition of new pull-down menus as a major incentive to prospective users. Some analysts feel however, that the addition of these aids actually make it more inconvenient and less productive for existing users who are familiar with the older function-key approach. Some analysts also argue that pull-down menus take up more disk space and therefore slowdown down the operations of the software. Although many of the older single function-key commands have been replaced by multiple-step pull-down menus in popular packages, software publishers are offering the option of keeping the older style functionality when they offer the newer versions. Sears cuts to the paper chase. (Sears Roebuck and Co. tells all suppliers to electronic data interchange) (Cover Story) Sears Roebuck and Co is moving aggressively to electronic data interchange as it seeks to cut costs and is working to replace its 20-year-old proprietary EDI formats with standards-based EDI. Some suppliers drag their feet, while others appear unwilling to move to EDI at all. Sears is nevertheless warning suppliers that they may jeopardize their business relationships with the retailer if they continue to insist on paper-based communications. It announced a three-year plan in the summer of 1989 to have all of its suppliers on EDI by the end of 1992. The first phase of the plan converted 350 catalog suppliers to EDI; the second phase will involve convincing the remaining 5,000 suppliers to do electronic ordering and invoicing. Sears is optimistic about its efforts, but some analysts are skeptical. Other firms with significant EDI programs underway include Wal-Mart, K-mart, JC Penney Co Inc and Levi Strauss. Oracle struggles to fix finances. (Oracle Corp.) Soat, John; Nee, Eric. Oracle Corp is attempting to turn around its financial situation with the appointment of a new chief financial officer and plans to restate prior quarterly results. The company has attempted to get its creditor banks to waive its loan obligations. It reports record third-quarter revenues of $269 million but net income of only $12 million. Oracle found 'processing errors' during a review of its credit after its banking syndicate suspended its credit line in 4th qtr 1990. The errors included duplicate billings and 'uncollectable' accounts. The firm has agreed to abide by the recommendations of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for revenue recognition in the software industry. New chief financial officer Jeffrey Henley is optimistic, although the adjustments and restatements will initially prevent Oracle from renegotiating its credit. AT&T closes in on NCR. (AT&T moves closer to acquiring NCR COrp.) Leibs, Scott. AT&T moves closer to acquiring NCR Corp as NCR holds its annual shareholder meeting the week of Mar 25, 1991. NCR has lowered its asking price from $125 per share to $110, and AT&T is expected to get enough votes to place four of its candidates on the NCR board, although results of the meeting will not be released until the week of Apr 8, 1991. AT&T officials say they will be 'delicate' in their approach to pursuing NCR, but the acquisition now appears an eventual certainty. NCR Chmn Charles Exley has repeatedly stated that he will not stay on if AT&T takes over NCR. Both sides continue to push ahead with legal maneuvers against the proposed merger. Trouble tracking: Mellon is counting on MIS to keep tabs on troubled loans. (Mellon Bank) Mellon Bank Corp is relying heavily on information systems (IS) to help it identify all commercial dealings with a given corporate client and eliminate problems associated with non-performing assets. Non-performing assets hit a peak of 8 percent of Mellon's total assets in 1987, but the bank has since succeeded in avoiding the commercial real estate market, repositioning itself in the marketplace and eliminating most of its bad debt. Its MIS uses a common commercial loan system with customer identifiers, but management wants all customer relations to be identified by a single code. The bank has about 40 different computer systems serving its credit and service operations, needing special software to 'scrub' the data and allow consistent matching of corporate names and addresses. IBM, AT&T link up: vendors develop software interfaces to link network management systems IBM and AT&T announce plans to link their 'enterprisewide' network management systems via software interfaces. AT&T's Accumaster Integrator and IBM's NetView will be connected by interfaces that will be available in the first half of 1991. The vendors note that interoperability is important because they share many large customers who use both systems. NetView is designed to manage IBM SNA environments, while Accumaster manages voice and communications facilities. Competitor Systems Center Inc of Reston, VA has offered its Net/Master users the capability to link to Accumaster since 1988 and offers interfaces to other management systems. Open-minded on open systems. Kellner, Mark A. More and more organizations are investing in open-systems architectures despite the pressures of the recession, which urge them to keep costs down. Information systems managers acknowledge the tight economy but say they are actively pursuing open computer systems. Users note that purchasing decisions are simplified when the buyer realizes that open systems are a technology rather than a product. Leading economic indicators also suggest that open systems could actually benefit from a recession because they are less costly in the long run than proprietary systems. Obstacles to the implementation of open systems in large organizations nevertheless remain. Situations where end users need authority blunt attempts to shift to open platforms, but many computer industry observers now expect open systems to emerge victorious. Cutting the ties that bind. (wireless networks) Thyfault, Mary E.; Medina, Diane. The market for wireless local area networks (LANs) is growing rapidly as firms seek to cut cabling costs. Ericsson Business Communications Inc and Northern Telecom US are both testing wireless PBX systems, and Toshiba Corp plans to unveil a portable computer with a built-in cellular modem in Jun 1991. Nearly every major laptop vendor is considering integrating cellular modems in future products. The new technology has only recently become available to the public; Motorola Inc and IBM brought up their Ardis wide area network as a joint venture in 1989. RAM Mobile Data and Fleet Call Inc entered the wide area market on Feb 13, 1991. New wireless LAN products include BICC Communications' InfraLAN, which consists of a base unit with six terminal ports and incoming and outgoing optical nodes and sells for about $500 to $750 per node, and NCR's WaveLAN, which offers a longer reach for a price of about $1,400 per node. Motorola's Altair is a wireless Ethernet LAN that operates at 10M-bps. It consists of a user module into which the user plugs his or her microcomputer and a control module that communicates with the user module across 18GHz of spectrum. Closer OS/2 ties in Banyan Vines. (OS/2) (product announcement) McPartlin, John P. Banyan Systems Inc plans to introduce VINES 4.1, a new version of its powerful network operating system, at the 1991 meeting of the Association of Banyan Users International in Montreal. The new version will include increased support for both OS/2 application servers and Microsoft's Windows 3.0. Banyan had unofficially promised that Vines 4.1 would be available before the end of 1990, but the product was delayed by development difficulties. The recently formed Network Applications Consortium, a group of VINES users interested in accelerating the development of network applications, was instrumental in suggesting that the new product include increased OS/2 support. Users hope that VINES 4.1 will encourage OS/2 developers to make their applications interoperable with VINES, and some feel that the new support will make VINES a stronger contender in the operating systems market. Token-ring's tight circle. (IEEE 802.5 token-ring standards committee meeting) The IEEE 802.5 standards committee for token-ring networking has reaffirmed that the key responsibility for ensuring interoperability and reliability in token-ring products lies with each equipment vendor, and vendors are now hoping that more rigorous testing and greater cooperation will help them retain user loyalty. The use of unshielded twisted-pair wiring is a particularly controversial issue in token-ring networking. IBM has a 79 percent share of the token-ring market, according to Dataquest Inc, and says it will not support the use of unshielded twisted-pair wiring for high-speed transmission rates until more testing is done. Some smaller vendors agree that cooperation is the best way to improve the Token-Ring standard. Strong CASE for new merger. (Sage/Index combination ) Soat, John. Intersolv Inc, the company formed as a result of the merger of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) vendors Index Technology Corp and Sage Software Inc, is emerging as a leader in the CASE market through two interrelated products: the Excelerator analysis and design tool developed by Index and the APS code generator developed by Sage. The products are essentially 'upper CASE' and 'lower CASE' technologies respectively, and they work together with a configuration management system and a reengineering tool to provide support for the entire CASE life-cycle. Intersolv's products will directly compete with those from Knowledgeware Inc and Texas Instruments Inc. Intersolv has an impressive pedigree: it was one of the original business partners in IBM's AD/Cycle CASE strategy and helped develop the Information Model for the computer giant's Repository/MVS meta dictionary system. Del Monte Foods revamps its IT. (information technology) DePompa, Barbara. Del Monte Foods has teamed with systems integrator EDS Corp to revamp its manufacturing systems in a two-year, nationwide, multimillion-dollar effort that includes the addition of 24 IBM AS/400 minicomputers, new packaged applications from System Software Associates and a large SNA-based network for connecting manufacturing operations with the company's corporate data center. Del Monte Foods originally collected plant floor data on Series/1 minicomputers, but lacked an effective means of communication between plants and headquarters. It will now have integrated mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers at a variety of facilities, including canning plants and distribution centers. Six high-end AS/400 minicomputers will act as hubs on which applications software will reside. UPS delivers with Stylus. ($250 million project to develop pen-based system) United Parcel Service has developed is own stylus-based portable computing system at a cost of $350 million. The company maintains that it now has a lead of several years over its competitors in its efforts to fully automate parcel tracking and remove paper documents from the delivery process. Speedier service has become UPS' primary objective. The Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD) pen-based system is an 11-by-14-inch waterproof computer with a nylon pen stylus for capturing electronic signatures and includes a built-in scanner from Symbol Technologies Inc for reading bar-code labels. DIADs will be used by the company's 65,000 drivers to track packages. Each unit has enough battery power to store input until the end of the day and then transfer it to host computers at the company's Information Services Data Center in Paramus, NJ. Big Blue's potent portables. (IBM introduces PS/2 L40 SX) (product announcement) IBM introduces the PS/2 L40 SX, its first laptop computer, in addition to faster processor upgrade boards for the PS/2 Models 90 and 95. The company expects to announce new 80386- and 80486-based products that use the Micro Channel Architecture bus as well as an 80386SX-based desktop unit with an AT bus. The new L40 SX is a full-featured machine with a large keyboard, optional built-in fax modem, 10-inch VGA display, and 60Mbyte hard drive housed in a notebook-like case. It represents IBM's fourth effort to penetrate the portable computer market, which has grown to $5.6 billion. The L40 SX will sell for $5,995. Experts say that IBM must take additional steps to simulate new software designs that catch errors before testing begins. This step, along with the use of backplane technology, should reduce time-to-market, which many critics cite as IBM's greatest weakness in the microcomputer market. Productivity at the right price. (pay-for-performance techniques) Longnecker, Brent. The technique of basing employee compensation on performance can be applied effectively to MIS, with the function being managed like any other corporate department with the right organizational infrastructure. Salaries for information systems managers and database and telecommunications specialists are rising rapidly. A pay-for-performance strategy can be built into a reward system via formalized incentive compensation programs. Employees at all levels of the organization should be eligible, and target awards range from 5 to 20 percent of base pay. New performance criteria include quality, individual contributions, successful project completions and cost control. Most employees react very positively to incentive programs. NetWare future includes faster speeds for WANs. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare network operating system, wide area networks) Novell plans enhancements to its NetWare Core Protocol (NCP), called 'packet burst' or 'burst mode', that will enable its Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol to handle multiple requests at much higher speeds. The IPX is a fast protocol for local area networks and the enhancements allow it to handle larger packets. The packet burst mode NCP is integrated in the upcoming upgrade to NetWare 3.11 as a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM). The protocol requires new workstation shells but works with established versions of the NCP. Novell also announces applications programming interfaces (APIs) for network management that will be released in two phases. Phase I is a software development kit costing $5,000 that handles data acquisition and presentation from Novell servers and third-party applications. The Phase II APIs address application development for network managers to manipulate collected information. Novell releases preliminary specifications for a directory services product based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) X.500 standard. 486SX systems ready, waiting for Intel's cue. (Intel Corp.'s 80486SX microprocessor) Several microcomputer manufacturers, including IBM, AST Research Inc, Advanced Logic Research Inc, Amkly Systems Inc, Twinhead and Arche Technologies, are awaiting Intel Corp's official introduction of its 80486SX microprocessor so they can, in turn, announce new product designs based on the powerful chip. The 80486SX, scheduled for announcement on Apr 22, 1991, no longer has the 80486's floating-point coprocessor unit. Some manufacturers say it is a faster and better chip that Advanced Micro Devices Inc's AM386 40-MHz microprocessor clone of Intel's 80386. IBM and the other companies plan to introduce microcomputers using the 486SX. The forthcoming products include AST's $3,500 Premium II PC and a $4,000 to $5,000 workstation with 64Mbytes of memory. The companies are just waiting for Intel's announcement of the availability of the 80486SX chip in production volumes. Computers based on the 486SX can ship as soon as Intel delivers the chips because no major redesign of the systems is required. Apple looks to Go's PenPoint to avoid Microsoft's long shadow. (Go Corp.'s PenPoint operating system) Apple Computer considers endorsing Go Corp's PenPoint pen-based operating system in an effort to stand up against Microsoft Corp's Pen Windows, a similar offering. Apple has already developed a pen-based operating system for its Macintosh system, but sees an alliance with Go as strategic to compete with the microcomputer operating system giant. IBM already licenses PenPoint from Go, but does not support Microsoft's Pen Windows. NCR Corp and Grid Systems Corp support both operating systems. Borland International Inc, Lotus Development Corp and WordPerfect Corp are developing applications for PenPoint. Twenty one companies have licensed Pen Windows, which is based on Microsoft Windows 3.0. Borland, Novell plan 1-2 client/server punch: companies codevelop SQL Link successor. (Borland International Inc.'s Windows Dynamic Novell Inc and Borland International Inc announce that they have a cooperative agreement to produce client/server computing development tools for Novell's NetWare network operating system. The two companies are training each other's sales forces, system engineers and technical support staffs to support client/server computing. Borland will release a Windows Dynamic Link Library with an object-oriented programming layer supporting Novell's Btrieve, NetWare and Message Handling Service applications programming interface. The programming layer also enables Borland's Windows applications, such as Paradox, Quattro Pro, ObjectVision, Sidekick and the Turbo languages, to act as front ends to services running under NetWare. Borland also announces enhancements to SQL Link that will allow the linking interface between Paradox and data base servers to support NetWare SQL. The company additionally will introduce a C++ interface to Novell's Btrieve record manager. Vendors prepare to stoke presentation graphics fire. Picarille, Lisa. Several companies announce plans to release presentation software products that support the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment. Ashton-Tate develops its Applause for Windows that features an interface consistent with the DOS version and has Object Linking and Embedding and Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support. Applause for Windows supports IBM's Common User Access Interface and also has a slide sorter, light table, MasterPage templates and drawing tools. Software Publishing Corp develops its Harvard Graphics for Windows that also supports DDE and features pull-down menus and Message Handling Service (MHS) electronic mail capabilities. Lotus Development Corp's Lotus Freelance Graphics is based on the OS/2 version offered by Lotus. IBM has a Windows 3.0 presentation software product called Hollywood that features freehand drawing, slide-show management facilities, DDE support and an outliner. Aldus Corp works on a Windows version of its Apple Macintosh-based Persuasion program. AT&T loosens its grip on Unix, sells part of USL. (Unix Software Laboratories) AT&T sells from 20- to 30 percent of its interest in Unix Software Laboratories (USL) to ten companies from the US, Europe and Japan. The company retains 60- to 70 percent ownership, while 10 percent of the shares will be owned by employees. Novell Inc, Amdahl Corp, Sun Microsystems Inc and Motorola Inc are the US companies involved. ICL and Ing. C. Olivetti e Compagnia SpA from Europe, and NEC Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, OKI America Inc Okidata Group and Fuji Xerox Company Ltd are the Japanese investors involved. Each of the companies invested between $6 million to $10 million to acquire part of USL. No company other than AT&T is allowed to own more than 4.8 percent. AT&T is expected to reduce its ownership in the future to around 40 percent. AT&T is expected to offer more investment opportunities in USL soon. Big Blue reneges on plan to sell XGA chips: intends to license XGA technology instead. (IBM's extended graphics array technology) IBM decides not to sell XGA chips, but instead chooses to license the graphics board technology to chip manufacturers. The decision surprises graphics board manufacturers who believed that they would be supplied with the XGA chips by IBM. The decision is expected to delay offerings of low-cost XGA graphics boards that would compete with IBM's $1,095 XGA boards for PS/2 microcomputers. IBM expects cash or patent rights from companies licensing the technology. XGA licensees stand to gain as much as a 15-month lead on companies that do not get licenses and attempt to develop their own versions. Clones may not appear on the market as soon as they might otherwise have had if IBM manufactured the chip, but it is expected that XGA will become an industry standard anyway because of IBM's licensing plans. IBM finally gets into SX laptop market. (IBM's PS/2 L40SX notebook computer) (product announcement) IBM introduces its $5,995 PS/2 L40SX laptop computer using the Intel Corp 80386SX microprocessor. The 7.7 pound portable measures 10.7 by 12.8 by 2.1 inches. The base version has 2Mbytes of memory that is expandable to 18Mbytes, a 3.5 inch 60Mbyte hard disk drive, a 10-inch VGA LCD screen and a 101-key keyboard that has a numeric pad. Options include a $659 internal data/fax modem, a trackball/mouse called Trackpoint costing $159, and a $149 serial adapter for secondary serial device connectivity. Memory modules cost $899 for the 2Mbyte module, $1,995 for the 4Mbyte module and $3,595 for the 8Mbyte module. The high cost of the modules is accounted for by the 80-nanosecond chips designed specially for the system to extend battery life. The portable contains a monitoring system that displays battery life and other important functions as a series of icons. HP workstations offer high-power graphics, speed. (HP's 9000 700 series workstations) (product announcement) HP introduces the high-speed HP 9000 700 series workstations that offer notable graphics capabilities for $11,990 to $43,190. The workstations are based on HP's Precision Architecture reduced instruction set computing chip. All three models, the HP 9000 720, 730 and 750, support the Extended Industry Standard Architecture and have ECC memory. The workstations have Ethernet and Small Computer System Interface ports. Processing speeds range from 57-million-instructions-per-second (MIPS) for the HP 9000 720 to 76 MIPS for the HP 9000 750. Each features more than one million three-dimensional vectors per second graphics capabilities and up to 195,000 quads per second of three-dimensional solids performance on the Turbo VRX graphics option. The workstations also feature a separate floating-point coprocessor that was codeveloped with Texas Instruments Inc. Multimedia cropping up in business applications: mainstream acceptance is coming slowly. Multimedia gains ground in the corporate microcomputer market. Analysts predict that features such as voice messaging and cheaper video production capabilities are catching the attention of the corporate market. Multimedia electronic mail systems may not be immediately implemented because only the newer computers have audio capabilities. Corporate computer training departments are expected to implement the technology first. Computer hardware and software developers such as Microsoft Corp, IBM and Sony Corporation of America already have CD-ROM publishing divisions with multimedia titles planned. Microsoft is signing contracts with book publishers to put books onto CD-ROM. Vendor group tries to steer growth of OOP: Object Management Group to set standards. (object oriented programming) The Object Management Group (OMG) proposes setting standards for object-oriented programming. OMG comprises over 120 companies including DEC, HP, Sun Microsystems Inc, Apple, Texas Instruments Inc, Microsoft Corp, AT&T, Canon USA Inc and Compagnie des Machines Bull. The organization intends to set standards for object-oriented programming so that the technology will not split into divergent directions. One area the group is working on is the creation of a standard called Object Request Broker, which includes an applications programming interface and serves to ease interoperability between microcomputer applications. The group is also working on a class library that contains windowing interface components, communications protocols, tools and additional object classes. Amkly unveils modular 386, 486 EISA systems. (Amkly Systems Inc.'s microcomputers based on Intel Corp.'s 80386 and 80486 Amkly Systems Inc introduces the Amkly 386/25E microcomputer along with a 33-MHz version, both of which utilize Intel Corp's 80386 microprocessor. A 25-MHz 80486-based microcomputer is also introduced. The line of EISA-bus systems have modular power supplies and disk drives. The computers also contain password protection features and the ability to upgrade the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) from a floppy disk. The computers' system cache is user programmable. The basic version of the Amkly Systems 386/25E with 2Mbytes of memory and 16K of cache costs $3,995. It ships with two serial ports and one parallel port and a 3.5- or 5 1/4-inch floppy drive. A 120Mbyte hard disk drive version costs $4,995, and a 340Mbyte hard drive, Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) version costs $8,495. A Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) version with the 340Mbyte drive costs $8,595. A 33-MHz 386 computer costs from $4,995 to $9,595. The Amkly Systems' 80486-based 25-MHz microcomputer with 4Mbytes of RAM and 8Kbytes of cache costs from $5,995 to $10,595. QMS to offer 20-PPM workgroup printer. (QMS Inc.'s PS 2000 printer) (product announcement) QMS Inc introduces its $15,995 PS 2000 laser printer with 20 page-per-minute capabilities. The QMS PS 2000 is designed for use on local area networks (LANs)/departmental file server/workgroup arena. The laser printer ships with 40- or 120Mbyte internal hard disk drives and 20- or 45Mbyte external hard drives. It is based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's R3000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor and features QMS' Emulation Sensing Processor (ESP). ESP enables the printer to switch emulations from Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript, HP's Printer Control Language (PCL), HP-GL and LN03+. Its simultaneous active ports have interfaces for RS-232C serial, Centronics or DataProducts Parallel and AppleTalk support. Optional Ethernet interfaces are offered by QMS for DECnet and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) support. Edsun breathes life into standard VGA. (Edsun Laboratories Inc.'s Continuous Edge Graphics graphics board, video graphics array) Northgate Computer Systems Inc, Epson America Inc and ViewSonic all use Edsun Laboratories Inc's Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG) analog-to-digital converter in their Video Graphics Array monitors that replace the standard RAM-Digital Analog Converter (DAC). The technology yields higher resolution for the VGA graphics standard monitors by using anti-aliasing techniques to smooth rough or jagged edges. ViewSonic's $699 ViewSonic 6 delivers 1,024-by-768-dot-per-inch resolution on a 14-inch screen. ViewSonic 6 supports ultra-VGA, 8514/A Super VGA, VGA and Apple Macintosh graphics resolutions. Epson America uses Edsun Laboratories' technology in its 386/SX20 Plus microcomputers. Northgate Computer Systems plans to implement the CEG unit on its computers that use Advanced Micro Devices Inc's 386 microprocessor. Huffman encoding contributes to data storage inefficiency. (Tech Talk) (column) Standard data storage utilizes 8-bit textual organization that causes inefficient use of storage media. The 8-bit byte is used whenever a character is used. The inefficiency occurs as a result of some characters being used more frequently than others. The Huffman code attempts to re-scale the sizes of characters to achieve data compression. Characters occurring more often are smaller-sized bit strings, and infrequently occurring characters are represented by the longer bit strings. The problem with Huffman code data compression is that only an 8-to-one compression ratio is achieved at best. Also, an input document or file must be processed as a whole in order to calculate the compressed character encoding. SFT III technology wows developers: demo of NetWare fault-tolerance implementation packs punch. (Novell Inc.'s network Novell Inc demonstrates a technology it developed with Compaq Computer that utilizes the NetWare network operating system as a fault-tolerant, server-mirroring system. SFT III switches network operation to a second server within 15 seconds of the original's failure. SFT III only works when one server fails. It cannot operate the system if two servers fail at the same time or if the system crashes due to a software bug. The SFT III version of NetWare comprises an operating system and input/output engine running as separate modules on the network. The Ethernet connection is seen as a negative feature of the technology as it causes bottlenecks between the servers. Novell and Compaq are working on a 32-bit Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) connector-based version that should cut synchronization delay down to two seconds. Hayes introduces pocket modem for laptop computers. (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.'s Pocket Edition 2400 modem) (product Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc introduces its $179 Pocket Edition 2400 modem for laptop computers. The miniature modem measures three inches in length and weighs three ounces. Pocket Edition 2400 ships with Hayes Microcomputer Products' Smartcom EZ communications software that is a simplified version of the company's Smartcom Exec software. The modem offers 1,200-bit-per-second (bps) and 2,400-bps speeds, but does not support the Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP)5 or V.42bis protocols that increase transmission speeds. The unit also does not offer fax capabilities as a result of its small size. Pocket Edition 2400 receives its power from the telephone line and the microcomputer to which it attaches. The modem ships with a cable and a nine-pin serial connector. Hayes is marketing the modem with value-added networks, including MCI Mail, AT&T Mail and CompuServe, so that electronic messages messages can be delivered to fax machines. CatBase functions as stand-alone database. (BBF Publishing Corp.'s CatBase document processing system) (product announcement) BBF Publishing Corp introduces CatBase, a document processing system software package that acts like a relational data base. The software costs $995 for a single user version and $1,500 for a multiuser version supporting up to five users. Single-user additions cost $200. The program is written in Acius Inc's 4th Dimension data base management system environment and runs on Quark Inc's QuarkXPress and Aldus Corp's PageMaker desktop publishing software products. CatBase ships with style sheets that let the user format data to be exported to a page layout application. Source code for CatBase costs $2,500. IBM's marketing of OS/2 may have stunted its growth. (State of the Industry) (column) Dubious sales of IBM's OS/2 operating system may be due to the company's marketing strategy. Only 300,000 copies of OS/2 have been shipped since 1987. IBM tried to emulate its earlier success with DOS running on its PC microcomputer family, but DOS was accepted by an industry eager to see what IBM was going to do. IBM has been successful in setting de facto standards and letting everyone else follow. Had OS/2 been marketed as a proprietary operating system, software developers would have rushed to offer OS/2 compatibility. Not as easy as 1-2-3. (examples of failed products)(Perspectives) Krohn, Nico. The microcomputer industry has weathered many product failures and marketing disasters. Even industry leaders such as IBM and Apple suffered backfires in product introductions. IBM's PCjr was inexpensive but was slow, has little memory and a poor keyboard. IBM's Topview character-based windowing environment was introduced when graphics-based programs were gaining popularity. Apple's Apple III suffered from poor workmanship. Data General's Data General/One, an early laptop microcomputer, suffered from a poor LCD screen. NEC Technologies Inc's UltraLite laptop was light but lacked a floppy or hard disk drive. Microsoft Corp had poor sales with its Windows 1.0 as a result of the program's demand for memory and its slow speed on Intel Corp 8088-based computers. IBM's OS/2 is still suffering from slow acceptance, and Lotus Development Corp's Agenda personal information management system is not yet declared a success. Will computer use result in the 'deskilling' of professions? (Future Tense) (column) White-collar workers fearing that computers may replace even their jobs cite desktop publishing products, spreadsheets and on-line data bases as examples of technologies that give more power to customers. Some jobs may be lost to increased computer use, but technology is changing fundamental work environments and opportunities. Librarians now aid users searching through data bases rather than spend their time typing out card catalogues. Accountants versed in computer use now offer computer consultancy services. Designers use the new computer products for their work and gain additional employment advising their clients how to use the same products. The new technologies require professionals to continuously learn new skills and adapt to changing work environments. 25-MHz 386 workhorse PCs. (ten microcomputers based on Intel Corp.'s 80386 microprocessor)(includes related articles on ranking Microcomputers based on Intel Corp's 25-MHz 80386 microprocessor feature good processing speeds, attractive prices and a large offering of applications. While there are faster and less expensive Intel microprocessors in the market, a cursory survey reveals that many users plan to purchase 25-MHz 386s within a year than any other type of microcomputer. They can be used as standalone workstations or as small LAN file servers. Many products offer high-speed RAM cache. Microcomputers evaluated include Acer America Corp's Acer 1100/25, Advanced Logic Research Inc's ALR FlexCache II 25386DT, Compaq's Deskpro 386/25e, Dell Computer Corp's Dell System 325D, Everex Systems Inc's Everex Step 386-25, Gateway 2000 Inc's Gateway 2000 386/25, HP's Vectra 386/25 PC, IBM's PS/2 70 386 A-21, NEC Technologies Inc's NEC PowerMate 386/25S and Northgate Computer Systems Inc's Northgate Elegance 386/25. Dell's System 325D was deemed the best because of its notable speed, compatibility, expandability, documentation, design and support. The microcomputer is sold through direct sales at $3,300. WYSIWYG Freelance for DOS adds presentation features. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Freelance Graphics for DOS 4.0 presentation Lotus Development Corp's $495 Freelance Graphics for DOS 4.0 presentation software combines Lotus 1-2-3-like commands with Microsoft Windows-like commands on its interface. The horizontal menu bar appears at the top of the screen, but the program supports Windows-like commands with the use of a mouse. Freelance Graphics for DOS also offers a WYSIWYG mode option that lets the user work with chosen fonts and colors on-screen. Users can list charts and drawings using the program's Portfolio feature. Enhancements to previous versions of the presentation software include three-dimensional bar charts, and a library of 55 pre-designed charts. There are now 1,000 symbols and a command line switch that enables the program to free up more memory for complex drawings. The interface may cause confusion for users as it is similar to 1-2-3 and Windows. Another drawback is the inadequate help system. Oasis, Wacom can team up to offer powerful drawing tools on the Mac. (Time Arts Inc.'s Oasis computer graphics software, Apple Time Arts Inc's $795 Oasis computer graphics software is a noteworthy painting tool for Apple Macintosh microcomputers. Designed for use with Wacom Inc's pressure-sensitive stylus and tablet, the program enables the user to apply 60 levels of pressure with the drawing tools. Oasis features watercolor, pastel, oil or acrylic paint, charcoal, color pencil, pencil and pen and ink look and feel. It also contains a basic tool menu with brush, eraser, airbrush, paint bucket, line and shapes. Wacom's stylus and tablet can register 60 different levels of pressure. Drawbacks include lack of a ruler or grid with which to gauge an image size. Oasis also lacks a zoom function. When using the airbrush, colors may separate from the spray's center. Oasis requires 5Mbytes of RAM, Apple Macintosh System 6.05, 32-bit QuickDraw and a 640-by-480-resolution monitor running on a Macintosh LC, II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx or IIsi. PageMaker 4.0 for the PC rivals Ventura Publisher. (Aldus Corp.'s desktop publishing software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Aldus Corp's $795 PageMaker 4.0 desktop publishing software contains several enhancements over previous versions including color, typographic control, file management, long-document, editing and layout capability expansions. PageMaker retains the familiar pasteboard layout that professional publishers recognize. PageMaker 4.0 also contains Adobe Type Manager that enables the user to do WYSIWYG on-the-fly font scaling. The software package supports Panton Matching System (PMS) colors. Layout, text handling, output, documentation, error handling and overall value are very good. The software's import/export capabilities are excellent. PageMaker 4.0's typography features, graphics creation and manipulation, speed, ease of learning, support policies and technical support are good. PageMaker 4.0 rates comparably with Ventura Associates Inc's Ventura Publisher desktop publishing software. SPSS/PC+ 4.0 lops prices, adds some enhancements. (SPSS Inc.'s statistical software) (Software Review) (evaluation) SPSS Inc's $195 SPSS-PC+ 4.0 statistical software is a less expensive edition of previous versions due to the fact that the base system is simpler and the add-on modules' prices are reduced. The new option Statistics contains many of the procedures that used to reside on the base program such as variance and regression analysis functions. The base program and Statistics make a reasonably priced statistical software bundling. A new statistical option called Trends is a complete time-series analysis procedure. Trends offers auto- and cross-correlation, partial auto-correlation, auto-regressive integrated moving average modeling and full univariate and bivariate spectral analysis. The SPSS-PC+ 4.0's data management and documentation capabilities are excellent. Speed, graphics handling and analytic capability are very good. The package's ease of learning, ease of use and error handling are good. Technical support is satisfactory with unlimited telephone and fax support. The package has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Would the real definition of a database please stand up? (various forms of data base products on the market)(Q&A: Quindlen and There is no longer only one type of data base software product on the market. In addition to Ashton-Tate's dBase, there are roughly 15 competing producers of data bases and several take different approaches to data management. Lotus Development Corp's Notes computer network software is actually a form of a data base. Notes allows users to send files and data base views to each other via electronic mail. Borland International Inc's Paradox also acts as an electronic mail system. Gupta Technologies Inc's SQL Windows program development software, a network loadable module (NLM) for Novell Corp's NetWare operating system, appears to be a data base that is an extension of a network. SQL Windows runs with Novell's Btrieve as a distributed data base. Other products are tools that have the appearance of being data bases including Channel Computing Inc's Forest & Trees executive information system and Software Publishing Corp's InfoAlliance program development software. Netware SQL captures market; database server quietly moves in to win developers' hearts. (includes a related article on Novell's Novell's Netware SQL is emerging as the database server of choice for client/server Netware LANs. Novell's special promotion, which runs through May 4, 1991, has raised the installed base to around 3,000 copies and front-end development tool vendors are reporting increased interest in their products. Netware SQL lacks some of the features of bigger name products and is not upwardly compatible with existing engines that run on minicomputers or mainframes, but it is tightly integrated with the Netware operating system and is much easier to install and to use on a Netware LAN. The 32-bit product is faster than current 16-bit OS/2-based database servers. Hewlett-Packard's new IIISi: the definitive network printer. (HP Laserjet IIISi) (product announcement) Hewlett-Packard's (HP) Laserjet IIISi is the definitive network laser printer. It contains 5Mbytes of internal RAM and a controller based on the AMD 29000 processor that allows production of 17 pages per minute with extremely high quality. There are two operating modes for a Netware network: Remote Printer mode and Queue Server mode. There are two paper trays, each capable of holding a ream of paper, and it prints on both sides of the paper when an optional duplexing unit is installed. This is an intelligent network device that recovers from network errors fairly well. The price is $5,495. Economy, war -- not PC LANs -- to blame for IBM's bad quarter. Didio, Laura. IBM blames a worldwide economic slowdown, reticence following the Persian Gulf War, and a dramatic slowdown in European sales for first quarter 1991 earnings that are less than half of what was expected. There is no evidence that IBM is losing market share or customers, but the company is experiencing soft sales in all product lines. IBM is the world's largest computer vendor, accounting for 25 percent of all computer revenues and up to one-third of the profits generated by the industry. An industry-wide trend to downsizing away from mainframe computers is not responsible for the decline. Other computer industry companies are expected to report similar results. Normal buying patterns are expected to resume when the economy turns around toward the end of the year. Multiprocessing: Is it a need or a notion? (networking vendors vary approaches to technology) Some observers herald multiprocessing as an exciting networking advancement, others feel the technology is before its time. Multiprocessing allows the operating system to fully utilize the power of the hardware to significantly increase speed and performance. It allows the efficient implementation of sophisticated services, such as database servers, host gateways and global naming. There are currently only a few network operating systems with the capability of a multiprocessor system; even fewer have symmetrical capability. Symmetrical operating systems distribute tasks on a first-come, first-served basis to spread the workload evenly and minimize processor inactivity. Symmetric multiprocessing is preferred by engineers and computer scientists. High-end companies developing global networks are the main multiprocessing customers. IBM publishes specs to help remote LAN communication. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) IBM is publishing the specifications for an 'end node' in its Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) extension of the Systems Network Architecture (SNA). The extension provides dynamic routing for sending data over enterprisewide networks. IBM is publishing the specifications to allow third-party systems to communicate with SNA backbones without using an IBM mainframe. The APPN scheme uses workstation-based software that turns the machines into network nodes. IBM is not currently publishing the specifications for a network node. Several major companies are already building APPN end-node support into their future products. Novell unifies line, offers Netware 2.2; consolidation turns four products into one, adds better bridging capabilities. Novell has combined its ELS, Advanced, and SFT Netware products into a single package and is marketing the consolidated package as Netware 2.2. The move simplifies stock-keeping for Novell's distribution and also makes it easier for new users, who will now be able to increase the size of their network simply by buying a bigger license. Netware 2.2 is the first upgrade of Netware 286 since the Aug 1989 release of Netware 386, and Novell hopes to allay fears that the 2.x product was being abandoned. The new version has been improved with a simplified installation procedure, better documentation, and relief for file server process limitations. A five-user license is priced at $895; a ten-user license sells for $1,995. The 50-user and 100-user packages are priced at $3,495 and $5,495, respectively, while a 20-user license for Netware 3.11, the renamed Netware 386, is priced at $3,495, so Novell appears to be nudging high-end users toward the 3.11 package. Cisco unit combines routing, bridging, protocol translation; company also announces support for OSPF, SNA. (Open Shortest Path Cisco Systems Inc is shipping its low-end Integrated Gateway Server (IGS) and a software option that provides protocol translation. The company claims its product is the first to combine internetwork routing, bridging and protocol translation in a single unit. IGS, with the software option, can link multiple local area networks (LANs) into wide area networks (WANs) through an X.25, frame relay, T1, and/or serial lines. Sixteen supported protocols can be routed; unroutable Local Area Transport (LAT) traffic is translated into TCP/IP or X.25 before routing. The IGS supports 32 concurrent translation sessions when the routing, bridging and protocol translation functions are all activated. The IGS unit lists for $5,595, the optional software costs $900. Preferred Systems repositions Origen; product will be retooled for more technically sophisticated users, resellers. Preferred Systems Inc is repositioning and retooling its Origen software and cutting the end user price in response to feedback from beta test users. The beta testers are enthusiastic about the software's capabilities, but feel the installation procedures are too difficult for average end users. Preferred Systems will position the software for use by value-added resellers, LAN systems integrators and large corporate end users with sophisticated network administrators. Origen is a software configuration tool that automates the setup and configuration of Novell Netware 2.1x and 3.11 servers. The price will now be $695 for distributors, VARs and system integrators. End user licenses are $195 per server. New CD-ROM support is coming to Netware servers. (product announcement) Several products for sharing CD-ROM databases located at a file server instead of a dedicated microcomputer server will soon be available. Micro Design International is ready to ship a Netware Loadable Module (NLM) that provides Netware 3.11 disk access to SCSI CD-ROM drives. Online Products Inc is beta testing a Value-Added Process (VAP) that supports CD-ROM drives on Netware 2.x servers. The US installed base of CD-ROM drives is estimated at 1.29 million. Hacking your way through the API jungle; Programmer's Guide to Netware helps developers write applications. The Programmer's Guide to Netware is the latest publication in the LAN TIMES Book Series. This is a comprehensive guide to Novell's Application Programming Interface (API). A collection of techniques, tips, and examples is provided to help avoid the pitfalls of Netware programming. The guide is targeted for developers with a solid background in writing standalone applications. Practice exercises are provided at the end of each chapter. The book is published by McGraw-Hill Inc. The list price is $49.95. Netware's Name Service simplifies net management. (product update) (product announcement) Novell's Netware Name Service (NNS) is a set of naming utilities for simplifying management of larger Netware local-area network (LAN) environments. NNS allows managers to define users in groups and manage them without replicating information. Managers can update users' access rights, concurrently create and delete user accounts on multiple servers, and control network security from one location. NNS is built on the Netware Bindery, the object-oriented database in all versions of Netware. NNS is available for both Netware 2.x and 3.x. It is priced at $1,995. Netware 386's Monitor utility connection. (tutorial) Liebing, Edward. Novell's Netware 386 Monitor Netware Loadable Module (NLM) is a utility that provides information on how the server is using its memory. The Connection Information option provides a list of connections, usually workstations, that are currently using the file server. The top half of the screen will show information specific to the connection, the bottom half of the screen shows which files the connection has open. Information provided includes the number of requests the workstation has made to the server, the kilobytes read, kilobytes written, the status of the connection, how the connection is using semaphores, and the logical record locks. Take a look inside the Macintosh resource forks; and find ways to change menus and dialog boxes. (Apple Talk) (technical) All Macintosh files include a resource fork. The role that resources play for applications files is explained and instructions for changing those resources are provided. The use of Resedit, a system utility for adding, deleting, or changing a Macintosh file's resource fork, is discussed. The more significant file-attribute bits are explained, including Locked, Bundle, Invisible, On Desk, Bozo, Changed, Shared, Inited, and File Busy. Use the NET STRING command to manage your networks; net string configures connections by user needs. (Hands on Lantastic ) Lantastic networks often begin simply; as server and workstation nodes are added the management of the network becomes more complicated and handling simple batch files becomes cumbersome. The use of the Lantastic NET STRING command to allow each computer's network connections to be configured by the user is described. The NET STRING command assigns a string of characters to an environmental variable that is entered by the user or extracted from a special Lantastic string. These strings are useful for prompting users to enter their passwords, user names or any other information. Oracle's NLM changes LAN-database server model. (Netware Loadable Module) (LAN Primer) (column) Database engines running large applications often suffer degradation from operating systems that interrupt or preempt transaction processing. Oracle Corp's Netware Loadable Module (NLM) forces the database engine to run on the file server, but Novell claims the 32-bit architecture and non-preemptive nature of the operating system prevent and degradation in performance. New superservers from Compaq, Netframe and Tricord are built for intensive CPU and input/output operations, and contain enough RAM, fast storage and multiple processors. Xircom turns one parallel port into two; lets PC users connect to local area networks and to local printers. (Xircom Parallel Port Xircom Inc's Parallel Port Multiplexor turns a laptop computer's printer port into two ports, allowing both a printer and a pocket local-area network (LAN) adapter on the same port. Two drivers are included, a device driver for use in a CONFIG.SYS file and a TSR file for loading the adapter for specific applications. The device also supports two printers simultaneously. The list price for the device is $95. Get the right network interface cards; consider the protocol, topology, and media when choosing NICs. (tutorial) Choosing the right Network Interface Card (NIC) for a network is important. The NIC and its drivers direct the flow of traffic throughout a network; a poor NIC can impede proper traffic flow. Three things should be considered in selecting a NIC: the network's traffic pattern, topology, and the type of media to be used. The type of performance needed should also be considered. System memory requirements of the driver and its use of this memory should be considered. Examine the packet sizes the driver supports; what affect does increased packet size have on memory requirements? Bus mastering provides improved performance by control the computer's bus. Other factors that affect NIC purchase decisions include cost, ease of installation, configuration flexibility, documentation, warranties, and support. Fortron debuts a definitive mid-range file server; provides good performance at a reasonable price. (Fortron Source 486 file The Fortron Source 486 is a mid-range file server that is remarkably similar to the Network Connection TNX Triumph file server. This machine provides excellent quality in a user-friendly and secure design. Performance bench tests rival those of high-end servers. There is room for up to 10 half-height devices, six of which are accessible with the front panel open. The list price is $6,900. Megahertz debuts the Easytalk C224M modem; follows the Microcom Networking Protocol. (product announcement) Megahertz Corp's C224M modem for the Compaq SLT/286 portable computer is easy to install and provides excellent performance. The internal modem uses the Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) level 5 for increased data integrity. Data compression allows an effective transmission speed of up to 4,800 baud. The modem works with Carbon Copy or any Hayes-compatible communications program. Procomm communications software is included. The modem is priced at $279. Shakeout in E-mail industry: back ends still proprietary? Breidenbach, Susan. Back-end transports in the top electronic-mail products are mostly proprietary. Each vendor is promoting its own set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party developers. Many E-mail vendors are using a modular architecture that separates the user agent from the transport engine. Including the transport engine at the system software level would lower the price of E-mail systems. Many of the key companies in the E-mail business are forming alliances with big software houses. Novell vows to standardize Netware on Net MHS 1.5. (product announcement) Novell announced NetWare MHS 1.5 in Feb 1991 and will develop and support all future versions of the product, following an agreement with Action Technologies, MHS's original developer. Novell now owns the source code for the Netware MHS messaging engine and will control the evolution of the Netware Message Handling Service (MHS) standard. MHS is the foundation for over 80 electronic mail, database, fax, voice mail and imaging products from more than 20 vendors. Action Technologies retains the right to develop MHS engines and products for other operating systems; the company is currently developing product deals with other LAN companies. Application testing improves on networks; proves to be considerably more complex than testing in standalone mode. Local-area Networks (LANs) provide an ideal environment for testing all kinds of software. Networks are centralized, distributed, and heterogeneous. Software test teams commonly generate more source code while testing a program than its development team. A wide variety of software testing tools are now available, but they are generally useless in testing network software and they seldom allow testing at the application programming interface (API) level. Network test tools are beginning to appear, this market should see rapid growth over the next few years. LAN technology is influencing the way software is tested, as well as the way networks are tested. Get database publishing with extra power; Db Publisher can do just about anything, but be prepared to climb a learning curve. Db Publisher Professional Plus, from Digital Composition Systems Inc, is a database publishing program that handily beats the competition. Db Publisher combines spreadsheet and database programs with a desktop publishing package to generate high-quality reports, price lists, catalogs, directories, mailing lists, and bar code labels. The program also solves many special publishing problems that need to draw from spreadsheets or databases on a network. The program works with most major microcomputer database management products, and almost all popular word processors. The program's proprietary graphical user interface is poorly organized and difficult to master. A Windows version of the product is under development. Telemagic sales software is still improving; program sorts and tracks data with ease, but still doesn't correct your spelling. Release 11 of the Telemagic sales software program from Remote Control International is fairly complete and easy to use, but still needs improvements in its word processor and user interface. The program should also allow for user customization. The program is easy to install and to use for data entry of contacts, sorting and tracking. Customers can be called from the screen, which also provides customized sales scripts. A calculator and pop up calendar with alarms are also provided. The editing features are intolerable. This product can stand alone or run on networks. Separate versions are priced at $495 and $1,995 respectively. The migration to Windows will be worth the pain. (Network Environments) (column) The difficulties in implementing Windows on a network are the result of compromises necessary for running both Windows and DOS applications concurrently. The lack of DOS standards is a true obstacle to networking, due to the hard-coated way that current software controls a microcomputer's screen, serial ports and other resources. Windows 3.0 provided a migration path from DOS to the future. It will lead to client-server computing, data independence, and truly network-aware applications. Use Softbench to pretest your new LAN; program also analyzes existing LANs, helps plan future installations. (Software Review) Softbench, from Internetix, is a local-area network (LAN) testing program that saves time, money and frustration in selecting system components. A network model is simulated and Softbench will spot design flaws. The program meets a large percentage of network modeling needs for intermediate size networks. Softbench is ideal for performing 'what if' analysis of existing LANs. The program's list price is $995. Conquer Lan Manager implementation challenges. (tutorial) Ferris, David. Many companies are planning to implement large production systems using Microsoft's LAN Manager or versions of it in systems with up to 20,000 workstations. These companies anticipate long-term payoffs in better applications, ease of use and support, extended system life cycles, and cost savings, but face substantial installation problems. There is currently a lack of experienced LAN Manager users, finding one in-house will be difficult and good contractors are hard to find. Microsoft will provide a list of integrators that have been through their training program. A project team with solid data-communications skills is required to connect different sites. Remote administration will be more difficult and time-consuming. Formation of an effective project team is critical for troubleshooting. Integration problems will make upgrading time consuming. Improvements in LAN Manager and third-party utilities will soon make the process easier. Cabletron, Cayman team on products; lines will incorporate Gatorbox into concentrator, management platform. Cabletron Systems Inc and Cayman Systems Inc signed a joint technology agreement to incorporate Cayman's Appletalk Gatorbox gateway into Cabletron's MMAC wiring concentrator and new Spectrum-Unix network management platform. The resulting products will allow networked Macintosh users to exchange files and E-mail with NetWare, LAN Manager and Vines users on Ethernet, token-ring or TCP/IP-based LANs attached to corporate backbone wide area networks. The single, intelligent plug-and-play solution eliminates the need for installing a myriad of network management tools and gateway software for networked clients and servers. Link Macstuff to Ethernet with Ether*Route gateways; product solves long-distance networking troubles. (Hardware Review) Compatible Systems's Ether*Route gateway/router for Netware for Macintosh that translates and routes packets between two or three networks. The box is the size of a floppy disk case, two localtalk networks and a thick or thin Ethernet connection can plug in at the same time. The software configures the Ether*Route when it powers up, scans the network traffic and builds a router table. Ether*Route is an attractive solution to distance problems with file servers or laser printers. The list price for Ether*Route is $1,495. Ether*Route TCP costs $1,895. The more things change, the more users wonder. (Beyond the Server) (column) Novell is focusing its development efforts on Netware 3.11 and Netware 2.2. The company is simplifying its complicated family of products and plans to price its new products competitively and fairly. Novell's approach to internetworking through layers of translation on top of their network operating system may cause performance problems with MS-DOS 5.0. Novell is losing its market share to open systems as it sticks to a proprietary system and achieves connectivity through translation. Many companies are switching to Unix systems because of their internetworking and wide area networking capabilities. Attachmate buys 3Com's SNA groups; newly created CSI division will increase focus on network integration. (Systems Networking Attachmate Corp, of Bellevue, WA, is purchasing 3Com Corp's Systems Networking Architecture (SNA) workgroup connectivity businesses. The businesses include the 3Com Maxess SNA Gateway product line, the SNA Perspective newsletter and the IBM Connectivity seminar series. 3Com Corp is focusing its efforts on global area networking. Attachmate supplies products that connect microcomputers to IBM mainframes. The company will operate the former 3Com businesses under the name of Communications Solutions and Information (CSI). Now I'm coveting the value-subtracted channel. (The Channel Eye) (column) The high margins and full list prices of value-added resellers (VARs) assume service and support are included in the cost. Distributors and manufacturers are starting to charge separately for service and support. Many users now prefer paying rock-bottom prices for products and paying for support when they need it. Service and support can come from many sectors. Understanding the needs of both low- and high-end resellers can help manufacturers and distributors provide useful service and support services. The licensing game; How can you play by the rules when there are so many different ones? Software licensing is not standardized, there are three basic methods: licensing by the individual, by the machine, or by the concurrent user. Many network administrators refuse individual licensing because of questions concerning which machine is used, home use and the result of the individual changing departments or leaving the company. Concurrent user licensing limits the number of users that can employ a program at a given time. Software vendors can make licensing compliance easier by including LAN application management tools and hooks in their programs. Vendors should standardize on one method of network licensing. Enforcing the rules; how to ensure that your network - and your users - are law-abiding. There are three aspects to controlling the applications used on a network: keeping users from copying software, preventing users from adding software to the LAN, and monitoring how many users simultaneously access applications. Network versions of software are modified to count and limit the number of users accessing the program. Unauthorized programs can create virus problems as well as raising legal issues, but banning personal-use software will alienate some of a company's most able and innovative users. It is often prohibitively expensive to obtain enough software to maintain a 'legal' LAN. There are many LAN security aids; the first step is controlling file and directory rights. User groups can control access to applications. There are several commercial software packages available for keeping track of the software on a LAN. Apple's Unix: a solid technical marvel. (A/UX is versatile, full-featured) (Software Review) (evaluation) Apple's A/UX 2.0 Unix operating system for the Macintosh is one of the best software packages ever made. A/UX 2.0 is built around a System V release 2 kernel, but uses the Berkeley sockets networking interface and ships with virtually all Berkeley utilities. The product includes shells, C development tools, text processing tools, and TCP/IP networking. Extras include a Fortran compiler, a 68000 assembler, the X Window system 'C' shell job control and advanced internetworking capabilities. A/UX 2.0 meshes three ingredients to achieve integration with the Macintosh environment: a Unix interface to the Macintosh ROM toolbox, a Unix version of the Mac Multifinder, and a smart file system that handles several different file formats. A/UX 2.0 is easy to work with and an excellent product. It lists for $2,395 on an 80Mbyte SCSI drive, $795 on CD-ROM, and $995 on floppy or tape. TCNS offers alternative to expensive FDDI networks; Thomas-Conrad is forerunner in expanding market. (Fiber Distributed Data TCNS, from Thomas-Conrad, is a viable workgroup solution for networks with I/O intensive network applications or that move large amounts of data in packets. There are 8-bit and 16-bit board versions, as well as 32-bit EISA boards. TCNS uses fiber-optic duplex cabling and works with any environment that supports Arcnet. Documentation and support are excellent. TCNS eliminates bottlenecks on networks and provides increased speed for CAD/CAM and large I/O applications. The TC3042 TCNS Adaptor/XT costs $995.00, the TC3045 TCNS Adaptor/AT lists for $1,495.00, the TC3047 TCNS Adaptor/EISA costs $1,795.00 and the TC3050 8-port fiber optic Smart Hub goes for $2,295.00. Superbase 4 is DBMS, form designer, app developer; product is much more than a database manager. (Software Review) (evaluation) Superbase 4 for Windows 1.2, from Precision Software, provides an excellent range of features that make it an excellent database management system (DBMS) for networks that require power and flexibility. The package provides a comprehensive set of tools geared for several levels of expertise and a network security scheme with multilevel passwords, access modes, and file/record locking. The documentation is excellent. This is an excellent program at its $995 list price for a five-user package. Dataclub provides easy file sharing for Macintosh users; all Macs on the network can store and process files. (Software Review) The Dataclub network operating system, from International Business Software Inc (IBSS), provides effective file and processor sharing on a Macintosh network. At $295 for a 3-user version and $795 for 10 users, Dataclub is less expensive than server-based systems and performs better than most peer-too-peer systems. The system treats the Macintoshes on the network as resources for storing files and processing data; together these workstations become a single virtual file server. The user saves money on hardware because there is no need for a file server or attached hard disks. The program is easy to use and requires minimal training. Network management is somewhat sacrificed for this ease of use. Dataclub lists for $295 for a 3-user version, $795 for 10 users. Daceasy tracks business capital and resources. (Software Review) (evaluation) Daceasy Network Accounting System 4.1 is Daceasy Inc's network version of their popular standalone accounting package. The inexpensive system is easy to use and includes graph functions as well as a flexible report generator. Seven modules include General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Cash Management, Billing, Purchasing, and Inventory Control. Data is entered once, the program disperses it to the appropriate accounts. The security system needs more flexibility. The program is targeted for small to mid-sized businesses. Daceasy is considered a very good value at its $499.95 list price. FTP Software gives DOS users TCP/IP capability; toolkit helps build sophisticated internetworks. (Software Review) (FTP PC/TCP PC/TCP 2.05, from FTP Software Inc, provides many of the same services as a network operating system. This collection of programs provides specific and specialized network services for a wide variety of users. PC/TCP is a toolkit for building sophisticated internetworks. It is based on the TCP/IP communication standard for data sharing and provides DOS-based microcomputers with the features of mainframes, minicomputers and workstations. Installation is difficult, but FTP Software's technical support is excellent. This is an excellent program; its list price is $400, 20-user site license are $175. WilTel first to deliver on frame relay. (Williams Telecommunications Group Inc.) Williams Telecommunications Group Inc (WilTel) becomes the first carrier to offer a public frame relay service with the announcement of its WilPak service. The service is based on StrataCom Inc's IPX 32 fast packet multiplexers. Frame relay services will provide more efficient support of wide-area data communications, including linkage of geographically dispersed LANs as well as videoconferencing. The carrier will support multiple access speeds, but the physical connection will be made through a T-1 line. The service will support only permanent virtual circuits. WilTel will deliver initial service from IPX 32s in eight cities on its network and will pay the charge of backhauling user traffic over dedicated links from any of its other points of presence to the eight IPX 32s. WilTel has yet to disclose pricing for WilPak but says users will pay a flat monthly rate for the service. Wilpak will not carry a usage element. Iowa T-3 net is a political hot potato. Brown, Bob. The Iowa Senate votes to postpone construction of the $112 million, T-3 Iowa Communications Network until at least January 1992. The network is one of the largest state networks ever proposed and would carry data, voice and full-motion video traffic. Since 1987, when the network was first proposed, the plan has gone through many modifications and two unsuccessful bids. The state currently is under pressure by local telephone companies to review both the bidding process and the design of the network. Opponents of the network question the fairness of making Iowa taxpayers pay for a state-owned network. Local telephone companies contend that high-speed links proposed for some rural areas would be overkill. They also feel that existing compressed video services are less costly and are more suitable than the planned full-motion video. System One finds freedom in cooperative processing; pioneering LAN user is building for the future. (System One Corp.) System One Corp finds that running its reservations-related applications on a microcomputer-based LAN with a cooperative processing platform allows the company to increase computing power as needed and simplifies application development and testing processes. System One applications, such as the Fare Assurance pricing system, run on a 4M-bps IBM Token-Ring Network with approximately 15 Personal System/2 microcomputers running the OS/2 LAN Manager network operating system. The company can reduce application development time by using many functions that are already developed and, therefore, do not need to be tested or duplicated. Future growth of the network is unlimited since the network architecture uses standard networking mechanisms such as SQL and Named Pipes. System One can easily add more or larger machines if the need arises. IBM, AT&T join hands in net management: giant rivals agree to develop software linking NetView and Accumaster Integrator IBM and AT and T announce they will jointly develop software that will link IBM's NetView and AT and T's Accumaster Integrator products in order to meet the needs of mutual customers. The software will allow users to more easily control one system from the other and to swap configuration data and alerts between the two products. The companies plan to base initial links on existing protocols but will eventually use Open Systems Interconnection protocols. AT and T and IBM will provide four types of links between NetView and the Integrator. The links will support the flow of Systems Network Architecture (SNA) status data to the Integrator and Integrator alerts to NetView, exchange of configuration data, and it will provide a remote command facility that will allow NetView users to issue commands to the Integrator. EDI: bottom-line booster or budget-breaker? (Electronic Data Interchange)(includes related articles on legal advice for EDI Network managers looking to implement electronic data interchange (EDI) should be aware of its potential benefits and challenges. EDI can increase efficiency of interorganizational shipments as well as decrease the number of times documents are processed by human operators. The standard, however, can be very expensive and significant savings on the cost of data entry staff has yet to be seen. The biggest cost that managers must factor into a conversion to EDI comes when integrating an application into an EDI system. Another expense is in installing controls over EDI applications, such as checking authorization and messages for errors. The network manager must also decide which EDI format to use. The dominant standard in North America is ANSI X12 but globally the EDIFACT standard is gaining increasing support. Some analysts contend that EDIFACT will eventually become the global standard. Further details are presented. Vendors rallying to push open document standard. (Office Document Architecture) A consortium is being formed consisting of a group of the world's largest computer companies to promote the development of products that support the Office Document Architecture (ODA) standard. The consortium plans to agree on a uniform implementation of the ODA standard. The group will also provide software developers with a tool kit in order to encourage application development as well as establish an ODA user advisory group that will provide suggestions for features in ODA products. Other plans include the completion of work on an international ODA profile based on the International Standards Organization's ODA standard. ODA has existed as an international standard since 1989 but vendors have been unable to agree on a common profile. Analysts contend that a major problem with ODA is its complexity, thereby making implementation agreements mandatory. Firms bypass Internet ban on nonresearch traffic: net operators link up independently of Internet. Three networks interconnected via the Internet network and operated by General Atomics, Performance Systems International Inc (PSI) and UUNET Technologies Inc will become independent of Internet so that commercial users will be able to freely exchange non-research data. Internet is a group of regional networks linked by the National Science Foundation Network backbone that is mainly funded by the government. Internet rules prohibit private companies from exchanging non-research data over the network. General Atomics' California Education and Research Federation Network (CERFnet), UUNET's ALterNet and PSI's PSInet support almost 100 percent of the commercial Open Systems Interconnection and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol internetworking services in the nation. The three networks are scheduled to be linked in San Francisco, CA, by routers and T-1 circuits by June 1991. Price cuts level playing field for Europe net hubs. Crockett, Barton. National carriers in many European countries are reducing prices on international private-line services to the US. Some analysts contend that narrowing price differences are making prices irrelevant to users in deciding where they should establish network hubs in Europe. Belgium's national carrier, Regie des Telegraphes et Telephones (RTT), has announced price reductions averaging about 20 percent, which will make it one of the least expensive European international carriers. Carrier officials contend that more expensive European carriers are reducing tariffs to avoid losing network hub business to other companies. Many carriers use network hubs as distribution and traffic concentration points within Europe, instead of each country having private lines from the US. The lessening of prices will make users look at carrier abilities to offer custom network deals for user hubbing strategies. DEC and IBM cutting deals with leading router firms: respond to user push for multiprotocol networks. IBM and DEC form alliances with leading router manufacturers to satisfy demand for equipment needed for building multiprotocol networks. Insiders contend that IBM is in the process of forming an agreement with Wellfleet Communications Inc for IBM to use Wellfleet's routing software on its Reduced-Instruction Set Computer (RISC)/6000 platform. The deal is yet to be completed. IBM also signed an agreement with Network Systems Corp for a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) for the RISC System/6000 platform. The interface is expected to have a frame relay interface as well. DEC's Network Integration Services group has signed an agreement with Cisco Systems Inc whereby DEC will resell Cisco routers, providing a way for DEC to meet user needs for multiprotocol routing. It is not clear whether Cisco products will be sold by DEC sales representatives or if they will only be sold by DEC as part of systems integration contracts. Sniffer gains distributed management capabilities; Network General unveils Sniffer Server unit to add distributed LAN monitoring and Network General announces its Distributed Sniffer System, which includes the Sniffer Server network analysis device and the $7,995 SniffMaster Console microcomputer network interface board and software. The Sniffer Server, which ranges in price from $4,995 to $10,995 depending on applications, is an unattended 80386-based device that resides on a LAN segment. The Sniffer Server collects and processes network management data from local devices and lets users monitor LAN activity at remote sites without the need of a network manager being present to inspect the LAN segment in question. The Server communicates with SniffMaster Consoles by way of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or IBM's NETBIOS Extended User Interface protocol. The Distributed Sniffer System provides seven-layer protocol analysis and can monitor traffic on token-ring, Ethernet and wide-area networks. Users, vendors critique Apple wireless LAN offer: protest designation of 40 MHz of radio spectrum. (includes related article Apple Computer Inc's petition to the FCC, requesting that 40 MHz of radio spectrum be put aside for exclusive use for wireless local-area networks, is generating much opposition. Apple wants the FCC to allocate bandwidth between 1,850 and 1,990 MHz for the company's Data-Personal Communications Services (PCS). The FCC has pushed the deadline for initial comments back to April 10, 1991 to accommodate companies, including NCR Corp and IBM, which need more time to formulate their remarks. Opponents contend that users with microwave networks are likely to be displaced if the FCC grants Apple's petition and establishes a band exclusively for wireless LANs. Apple feels that LAN personal communications network service development should not be tied to requirements to use spread spectrum. Critics say Apple's service should share frequencies with private microwave users. American Airlines, SABRE pan plans to level CRS field; Department of Transportation proposals would eradicate edge gained by older The Department of Transportation proposes to strengthen and extend existing regulations for airline reservation networks to ensure that participation in computerized reservation systems (CRS) is open to all carriers equally and that flight information is organized in an unbiased manner. American Airlines and its SABRE reservation service contend that this penalizes successful CRS vendors and eliminates the competitive edge they have gained by entering the market first and investing heavily in their networks. CRSs with smaller market shares, including WorldSpan and System One Corp, feel the proposal is a pro-competitive move that will benefit travel agencies and the public by offering more choices. Some analysts, however, feel regulation would hurt travel agents by taking away CRS's incentive to provide computer equipment to agents at discount prices. IBM fiscal woes could be harbinger for net vendors; vendor says weak economy will affect others, too. IBM announces revenue for the first quarter is expected to be flat at best and that earnings will fall 50 percent as a result of the economic slowdown and events in the Persian Gulf. Industry analysts are concerned that IBM's problems are signalling hard times for network equipment companies as well. Some companies are seeing a slowdown in business and are responding with greater sales efforts. Extreme price cuts are not likely but some companies may be more willing to offer flexible payment plans. IBM has also announced disappointing overseas sales, leading observers to surmise that Europe is also in a recession. The weakening European economy and the rising dollar can spell trouble for multiplexer vendors who have turned to Europe and other overseas markets to find new sources of revenue. Analysts agree that vendors in the fast-growing markets of hub and local area networks do not need to worry in the short run. NATA group to form PBX-to-host specs: task force will try to agree on baseline standards for linking different computers, telephone The North American Telecommunication Association's (NATA) Computer-Telephone Interface Task Force will attempt to create a standard that software developers can use to link various vendors' computers and telephone systems. This standard will be used until official standards emerge. The task force mainly represents private branch exchange (PBX) and telephone equipment makers but will also bring together software developers, computer manufacturers and representatives from Bell Communications Research. The task force will devise baseline specifications and then present them to standards bodies for inclusion in official standards. Software developers currently creating computer-to-telephone applications must custom design the programs for each environment, resulting in a lack of software that takes advantage of computer-to-telephone system links. GSA tries to justify handling of FTS 2000: carriers criticize management of huge government network, but officials publicly General Services Administration (GSA) officials appear before the Board of Contract Appeals and Congress to defend their handling of the Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000 multibillion-dollar contract. Industry analysts, AT and T, rival carriers and some members of Congress question whether the contract is truly benefiting federal government users. The GSA Board of Contract Appeals has restricted the GSA's ability to make future decisions regarding federal users of network facilities. This may be a result of AT and T's protest against US Sprint Communications Co alleging that GSA improperly assigned users to the US Sprint network. A congressional hearing held partly as a result of the AT and T protest required GSA officials to testify regarding the criteria the agency uses to assign government agencies to the two carrier networks as well as its billing and pricing policies. VSAT net helps Pay'N Pak retail stores save'n serve: network will cut costs while improving operations. Pay'N Pak Stores Inc is migrating most of its retail stores to a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network that the company expects will reduce the cost of obtaining credit card transaction approval and manually moving data between stores. The VSAT network will also improve customer service by increasing the speed of credit authorization by using on-line links instead of time-consuming dial-up processes. Pay'n Pak previously handled business data and sales by mailing diskettes between locations and sending faxes. The company chose the VSAT network over a terrestrial network to allow for central management control and the locking in of a fixed price for the network. Pay'n Pak expects the VSAT network to link its data center to at least 60 of the company's 102 stores by the end of April 1991. The network also supports broadcast video applications, which allows the company to broadcast speeches by top executives to remote sites. X.25 packet switch offers advanced data recovery. (TeleFile Inc.'s Tele-Switch Plus) (product announcement) Telefile Inc announces its Tele-Switch Plus X.25 packet switch that provides advanced data recovery by using the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layer 4, Transport Class 3 protocol. The Class 3 protocol requires less overhead in an X.25 packet and results in faster network transit time. Tele-Switch Plus includes integral routers that support Arcnet or Ethernet networks and can also support the Internet Protocol or Novell Inc's Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocols. The product is available in 10-, 20- and 36-port models and each port supports either trunk or trail circuits. The Tele-Switch Plus 36-port model offers daisy-chaining which can create nodes supporting up to 44 ports. The packet switch is based on Motorola Inc microprocessors, including the 68040, which can handle switching speeds of 7.5K packet/second. Prices for the Tele-Switch Plus start at $10,400. Stratus to position minis as gateways: new strategy key to company's plan to offer customers distributed OLTP monitoring Stratus Computer Inc announces plans to offer its fault-tolerant minicomputers to provide gateway communications for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) networks and to offer users distributed OLTP monitoring software. Users will be able to build client/server applications whereby a Stratus processor accepts user data requests and then extracts information from multiple data base management systems on different vendors' servers. Stratus expects to release the software in 1992 and is currently reselling Scientific Software Inc's Network Express software. Stratus plans to offer a distributed OLTP monitor that will allow clients to issue single requests for data that may reside on several hosts. Analysts contend that the company's strategy to provide interoperability fits well with user efforts in building multi-vendor OLTP networks. 3Com intros high-power adapter for unshielded nets: 16-bit card tops 3Com EtherLink 16 product line. (3Com Corp.'s EtherLink 16 3Com Corp announces its $479 EtherLink 16 TP 16-bit Ethernet adapter for 10BaseT twisted-pair networks. 3Com claims that studies conducted by LanQuest Labs show that the EtherLink 16 family outperforms 16-bit adapters from rival companies with their higher throughput. The product also outperforms the company's existing 16-bit adapters due to its 16-bit shared memory bus and its Intel Corp 82586 chip for data-link control. The EtherLink 16 TP cards are also more flexible than those of competitors since they can communicate with pre-standard hubs as well as standard 10BaseT networks. Jumpers that come with cards can be configured to accept signals from pre-standard products, allowing users to employ 3Com adapters with existing hubs. 3Com is targeting the cards at users with 80386- and 80486-based microcomputers. Users wary of moving applications to LANs; some managers express concerns about benefits, risks involved in downsizing from larger Managers and corporate executives in many companies are wary about moving crucial business applications to local-area networks from larger systems due to concern about maintaining control and security in the LAN environment. Some managers also feel that there there is a lack of adequate LAN management tools. The growing popularity of LANs can threaten existing organizational structures and operations that MIS departments may have been automating for decades. Change can be difficult since downsizing often forces managers and executives to re-examine the way they do business. Some users feel that management is not willing to take a big risk. Others say managers are concerned with the reliability of data on a LAN because, in some cases, data can be better organized and controlled on a mainframe. Some managers develop a two-tiered approach, with existing applications remaining on mainframes and larger systems and new applications targeted to LANs. Report: health care firms slow to apply technology: IS execs say hospitals lag behind other businesses. A survey sponsored by HP and the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society reports that 85 percent of surveyed information system (IS) managers say their medical institutions are behind other businesses in the deployment of information technology. The survey also finds that the biggest challenges facing hospital IS managers are increasing the acceptance and use of information technology by medical personnel and integrating existing department systems. Hospitals will invest most of their IS resources in development of patient care and bedside systems, according to the survey. Findings also show that hospitals do not fully understand the potential benefits of open computing standards in their industry and are blaming vendors for inadequate explanations of these standards. The survey indicates that decision support and medical record systems will offer the greatest potential in improving hospital services. Companies strive to consolidate EDI nets: firms look to cut costs, offer better service via centralized operations, standardized Many firms are using minicomputers and mainframes running communications software as centralized gateways to consolidate dissimilar Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems, thereby reducing costs and offering improved customer service. Large trading partners often must spend thousands of dollars to customize EDI systems as a result of companies using multiple, independent EDI systems. Centralized gateways can support data bases of trading partner transaction records and profiles as well as translation and mapping software. Companies use translation software to convert EDI data streams into computer-readable formats. Mapping software distributes the translated data to records and fields within user applications. Consolidation of parallel EDI programs allows some companies to eliminate redundant efforts and decrease the cost of using EDI. Further details are provided. U.K. competition leads BT to explore foreign markets: British Telecom aims to be more customer-driven. (United Kingdom) British Telecommunications PLC will explore overseas markets as a result of the UK government's approval of full competition in the British telecommunications market. Company reorganization is also gearing the carrier toward a new emphasis of focusing on customers and the discarding of its image as a bureaucratic monopoly. Company officials also confirm that British Telecom will sign an agreement with several international partners that will allow the carrier to meet global outsourcing needs of multi-national customers. Further details on the agreement are currently unavailable. British Telecom has also merged its British Telecom Inc and BT Tymnet subsidiaries into a single unit, called BT North America Inc, that the carrier hopes will simplify contacts with customers. The company has already consolidated the subsidiaries' sales forces into one, giving US network managers a single point of contact for British Telecom services and products. QMS offers new multinet group printer. (QMS Inc.'s PS 2000) (product announcement) QMS Inc introduces its 20-page-per-minute, $15,995 QMS-PS 2000, a reduced instruction set computer-based laser printer that provides support for 20 to 50 departmental users in multinetwork environments. The printer can support up to four interfaces used simultaneously, including a parallel interface, an RS-232 serial port, an AppleTalk interface for Apple LANs and an Ethernet interface. Users can also combine hard disk storage with random-access memory into one pool of accessible memory to provide print spooling. The PS-2000's Emulation Sensing Processor allows the printer to determine the page description language of data files and adjust automatically. The machine also comes with two 250-sheet adjustable-size paper input cassettes and a 100-sheet output tray and second 1,500-sheet output stacker. QMS is scheduled to release the PS-2000 in May 1991. Oracle boosts DBMS' OLTP capabilities: parallel server ups processing time for clusters, retools Oracle 6.0 to run on DOS, Oracle announces its Oracle Parallel Server module, which gives the on-line transaction processing power of mainframe systems to clusters of networked computers. Oracle Parallel Server distributes data base work loads to each computer using a technique called cache management. This technique ensures integrity of data and transactions, coordinates messaging and minimizes bottlenecks. The product will run on DEC VAX and MicroVAX minicomputers in VAXcluster environments, with pricing based on hardware configurations. Oracle also introduces its $1,499 Oracle Tools and Database for MS-DOS and OS/2 Version 6.0 with a scheduled May 1991 release. The package includes data base management system (DBMS) application development tools along with Oracle's data base software. The version, running on DOS and OS/2 devices, allows users to downsize applications to run on both platforms. Are consortia-driven 'standards' good or bad? (De Facto Standards) (column) Many vendors and users, frustrated by slow-moving national and international standards organizations, are banding together to create de facto industry standards to increase the speed in which new technologies are implemented and marketed. The National ISDN 1 program, sponsored by the Corporation for Open Systems International (COS), is striving to quickly bring a limited set of vendor implementations into compliance by the end of 1992. A consortium on frame relay established by DEC, Cisco Systems Inc and others is attempting to guarantee interoperability among customer premises equipment vendors, regional Bell holding companies and interexchange carriers. Users need to carefully examine these proposed standards before making a commitment. They should question how well they will dovetail with international services, whether support is forthcoming from vendors not involved in the consortia and whether the standards are reasonable enough that they will receive support from major vendors. Novell prototypes sharpen focus on management. (Novell Inc. demonstrates network management technology; releases Novell Inc demonstrates prototype network management technology and announces specifications for its upcoming directory service at its seventh annual Developers' Conference. Novell previewed an application of OS/2 Presentation Manager that monitors a network in real time.The OS/2 workstation console software is based on Novell's Btrieve database, and provides a graphical map of a network in which nodes change color to indicate their status. Novell officials disclosed that the technology may be modified when it is released as a commercial product by the end of 1991. The architecture will support such standards as the Simple Network Management Protocol, IBM NetView protocols and a new NetWare management services protocol. Novell intends to link the new management architecture into its X.500-based global naming service, which lets users access network resources without knowing their location. Novell officials stressed that the naming services' specs only represent a model, not a product design. Slick graphics, sound make Quattro Pro sizzle. (Borland International Inc.'s Quattro Pro 3.0 spreadsheet software) Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro 3.0 is a $495 MS-DOS-based spreadsheet software application that offers users optional access to graphics display modes during layout, data entry and editing. PC Week Labs tested the character-mode spreadsheet on a PS/2 Model 70-E61 under the standard and 386 Enhanced modes of Windows 3.0 and under DOS 3.3 without Windows. Quattro Pro performed well on global and incremental recalculations and demonstrated an improved floating-point accuracy. Product enhancements include two dozen visual effects for presentations and sound reproduction. Sound effects prevent Quattro Pro from working properly with Windows' 386 Enhanced mode, but the program also crashed several times in Windows without sound. Quattro Pro's user interface falls short of Windows in terms of its pull-down menus. Quattro Pro does not 'gray out' unavailable options leading to error messages. The spreadsheet lacks the efficient object linking and embedding technology of Excel 3.0 A-T readying Windows dBase, interim updates. (Ashton-Tate previews dbase IV for Windows, additional dBase products) Ashton-Tate previews a prototype of dBase IV for Windows and a series of additional dbase products at several closed-door briefings. dBase IV for Windows features such Microsoft Corp Windows 3.0 characteristics as icons, scroll bars, resizable windows, input and output windows, and full mouse support as well as including standard dBase IV functions such as the Control Center interface and dBase command language. dBase IV for Windows has not yet entered beta test, but when released, it will allow developers to write Windows applications that run under DOS without the Windows interface. Ashton-Tate also demonstrated dBase IV 1.2, its pre-beta test upgrade product. The company is preparing for the release of dBase IV Run-Time Plus for Macintosh, dBase IV Server Edition, dBase IV Extended Edition and dBase Professional Compiler. PC vendors gear up for 50MHz 486 debut. (Intel Corp.'s 80486 microprocessor) Intel Corp begins shipping production-quality versions of its 50MHz 80486 microprocessor, and industry analysts predict a number of 50MHz 486-based microcomputers will reach the market in time for Comdex/Fall 1991. Companies including IBM, AST Research Inc, Compaq Computer Corp and Everex Systems Inc are said to be developing machines based on Intel's chip, and the company will offer computer-makers a choice of raw 50MHz 486 chips or pre-assembled modules. The integrated circuit could cost as much as $1,000, making the base price of 50MHz 486 systems $10,000. Intel's newly designed module will feature the 50MHz 486 chip, cache random access memory (RAM), cache controller, memory mapping and floating-point unit. Intel will also market individual components of the 50MHz 486's architecture to chip-set or board manufacturers. Upgrades, repackaging lead new 1-2-3 charge. (Lotus Development Corp. enhances Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 and 3.1+; prepares to release 1-2-3 Lotus Development Corp will announce enhancements to MS-DOS versions 2.3 and 3.1+ of its Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software application in May 1991, and intends to unveil Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows in Jun 1991. The additions to the 1-2-3 product line give Lotus the opportunity to initiate a marketing and packaging effort that will help users to distinguish between the different versions of 1-2-3. The upgraded DOS packages, 1-2-3 2.3 and 1-2-3 3.1+, will feature add-in capabilities that allow users to preview, retrieve and link files via a subset of Lotus Magellan viewer technology. Users will also be able to link cells in worksheets by pointing and clicking rather than by writing formulas. The new versions will include spreadsheet auditing capabilities, and 3.1+ features the solver capability, which lets users solve multivariable problems. Adobe utility to break data-exchange barriers. (Adobe Systems Inc. develops product to facilitate document interchange) Adobe Systems Inc develops a technology that allows users to exchange documents without forfeiting fonts, graphics and complex formatting. Adobe based the technology on its PostScript page description language and seeks to make PostScript the lowest common denominator in document interchange within different platforms instead of ASCII. Adobe expects to release the technology by the end of 1991 in the form of a utility program. The software will let users in MS-DOS, MS Windows, OS/2, Apple Macintosh and Unix environments to capture a document in one environment and then send it to a user working in another environment. Both parties are required to install the utility on their machines in order to capture, view and print the document. The utility will include a special driver which will enable a file image of the data to be sent to the printer. Aldus bridges platforms: Freehand due in June. (Aldus Freehand for Windows; Aldus Persuasion) Aldus Corp plans to release Freehand for Windows in Jun 1991, which makes Aldus the first developer to provide design and publishing tools across Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Corp Windows platforms. Freehand for Windows will feature on-screen palettes for choosing colors, styles and layers, complex text handling, and 99 levels of undo and redo. The program's text-handling features will include the capability to convert Adobe Type 1 fonts to editable outlines. Users will be able to modify the kerning and leading of text, as well as wrap text along any curved or straight line, and add a 3-D effect to headings and captions. Aldus will ship its presentation graphics program for Windows, Persuasion in Apr 1991. Aldus and Microsoft represent the only companies that market a range of applications for both platforms. Freehand will face stiff competition from other Windows illustration products. GeoWorks expected to complete ensemble puzzle with graphical spreadsheet. (GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 being developed; application GeoWorks Inc plans to release an enhanced version of its graphical user interface, GeoWorks Ensemble by the fall of 1991, and hopes to obtain additional application support for its operating system PC GEOS. GeoWorks Ensemble 2.0 will feature a graphical spreadsheet that includes some database capabilities and strong charting options. The company will first release a interim 1.1 upgrade of the application in spring 1991, which will include a spell checker and a PostScript printer driver. GeoWorks Ensemble was first introduced in 1990, and features a set of seven applications including a word processor and a graphics program. The product runs under PC GEOS, a graphical, multitasking operating system designed for Intel 8086-based microcomputers. PC GEOS has a limited number of applications and no computer vendors have bundled it on their machines. Novell polishing NLMs for E-mail integration on NetWare. (NetWare Loadable Modules unite four messaging standards in 386 server) Novell Inc prepares to offer NetWare 386 users a series of new applications that unite four key messaging standards in a NetWare server and provide a high level of E-mail integration. Novell has developed NetWare Loadable Modules (NLM) for X.400, Novell's Message Handling Service (MHS), the Unix-based Simple Mail-Transfer Protocol and IBM's Systems Network Architecture Distribution Services (SNADS), but must resolve problems in managing and interconnecting the protocols before seamless integration is available. The applications eliminate the need to access slower, external gateways because they run in the NetWare server itself. The modules may be released by summer 1991, and Novell is also developing a common means of managing the protocols. Novell must add synchronization facilities that will enable the directories in each module to update one another automatically. Novell opens IPX/SPX protocols; licensing to hasten product development. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare Transports Licensing Program) Novell Inc provides its IPX/SPX communications protocols to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) through the NetWare Transports Licensing Program, eliminating the need to reverse-engineer protocols. Vendors including Oracle Corp, HP and Madge Networks Inc have licensed the protocols to help reduce incompatibilities among different vendors' implementations, which occur when protocols are reverse-engineered. The licensing program will also encourage developers to create NetWare-compatible products since they will no longer need to accommodate Novell modifications. Novell has rewritten its processor-independent transport protocols in C language; every object-code or source-code license includes automatic receipt of future revisions and complete documentation. Apple's low-cost printers shine. (StyleWriter and Personal LaserWriter LS) (Hardware Review) (PC Week Labs First Look) Apple's $699 StyleWriter ink-jet printer and $1,299 Personal LaserWriter LS laser printer are inexpensive and produce high-quality printing. The 360 dot-per-inch StyleWriter replaces Apple's ImageWriter II, and produces output indistinguishable from a laser printer. StyleWriter works with TrueType to create text and graphics documents that only very expensive printers could produce in the past. The printer takes over a minute to print a full text page in draft mode. Users who require a fast printer may want to invest in Personal LaserWriter LS, which features page compression and decompression technology, and a 4-page-per-minute Canon LBP-LX print engine for three times the speed of StyleWriter. PC Week Labs finds both printers on par with HP's LaserJet III with Enhanced Resolution, but StyleWriter tends to lose clarity of detailed type elements. Both printers include TrueType fonts, Helvetica, Times, Courier and Symbol TrueType. Apple, Adobe renew relationship. (Apple and Adobe Systems Inc. plan to jointly develop products) (Software) Apple and Adobe Systems Inc will cooperatively produce high-end type products and printers for Macintosh users. Apple chairman and CEO John Sculley addressed the Software Publishers Association, describing Apple's plan to use its new font format TrueType for low-end systems and Adobe's PostScript page description language for the high end. Apple previously promoted TrueType as a solution for all spectrums of printing. The relationship between Apple and Adobe began eroding in Aug 1989 when Apple sold about $90 million of Adobe stock. Apple consequently teamed up with Microsoft Corp in Oct 1989 to create TrueType fonts and the TrueImage page description language to rival Adobe's Type 1 fonts and PostScript. The companies' reconciliation is rumored to reflect Apple's new 'openness' policy. Officials from neither firm would disclose specific forthcoming products. SBT readies high-end LAN accounting series. (SBT Database Accounting Library Professional Series for local area networks) SBT Corp introduces SBT Database Accounting Library Professional Series, a seven-module accounting software series that features an advanced database, customization capabilities and a proprietary windowing interface. The product is based on Fox Software Inc's FoxPro database, which gives it a graphical look and permits more flexible configuration on local area networks (LANs) than the previous release, Database Accounting Library Series Six. SBT is targeting Professional Series toward firms that are downsizing from minicomputers or mainframes. SBT has annotated the FoxPro source code to guide programmers, and it allows flexibility in the way data-entry screens and menu options are displayed. The product's user interface includes drop-down menus and pop-up windows that allow users to query specific parts of the system. SBT Professional Series costs $1,295 per module. Beta testers cite gains in Excel 3.0 for the Mac. (Microsoft Corp.'s spreadsheet software for Apple Macintosh) (product Microsoft Corp introduces Excel for Macintosh 3.0, a $495 spreadsheet software application that beta testers say represents an improvement in performance and business-presentation capabilities. Excel 3.0 for the Mac allows users to place charts, graphical objects, macro buttons and text boxes in worksheets. Version 3.0 deviates from earlier versions with a tool bar located below the menu bar. The new feature offers users immediate access to frequently used functions such as summing cells, graphing and changing text fonts. Excel 3.0 includes an outliner that hides certain rows and columns to make it easier to view different levels of data; the function displays hidden data when needed. The program's feature-set is identical across platforms which allows users to move from one platform to another without retraining. Applause eases graphing for non-artists. (Ashton-Tate's Applause II presentation software) (Software Review) (PC Week Labs First Ashton-Tate's Applause II 1.5 is a $495 presentation software application that includes NetBIOS-compatible network support, new clip art and a series of pre-designed charts. The product includes a RunTime screen show, which provides basic animation of images created with other graphics programs as well as Applause II. The stand-alone RunTime player program supports 25 transition effects between slides. Applause II supports graphics files such as TIFF, and it has the capability to create a wide range of charts. The program accepts data in over 15 formats allowing it to generate organizational charts and text-oriented slides. Applause II features 46 sample charts that can be customized, a 700-item clip-art library and modem support. The product's proprietary graphical user interface is not as effective as Microsoft Windows 3.0 and may confuse Windows users. Vendors eye market with raft of new utilities. (Symantec Corp., Fifth Generation Systems Inc. and Central Point Software Inc. Symantec Corp, Fifth Generation Systems Inc and Central Point Software Inc compete in the $528 million software-utility market with new products. Central Point is targeting the Microsoft Windows market with components of its PC Tools Deluxe for Windows. The company has shipped the Launch and Undelete components to beta testers, and expects to release new utilities in Jun 1991. The Launch function allows users to launch a DOS or Windows program from any Windows application; the Undelete function provides information about a deleted Windows file before the undelete operation is executed. Symantec also plans to release a Windows utility in Jun 1991; a version of The Norton Backup, known as Horizon, will support multiple hard-disk backup operations to floppy disks and rewritable optical devices. Fifth Generation Systems will release version 3.0 of its Fastback Plus in Apr 1991. Microsoft, Lotus set sights on strategic office systems. (Microsoft Corp.'s 'Information at Your Fingertips' and Lotus Microsoft Corp and Lotus Development Corp will develop software applications that offer users the functionality of strategic office automation programs. Microsoft's 'Information at your Fingertips' and Lotus' 'Working Together' are not complete, but are attracting the attention of corporate users who want to integrate a custom applications suite. Both companies have purchased network E-mail systems, adopted the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) standard for application integration, and created consulting services for large accounts in preparation for their strategic office system products. The moves enable Microsoft and Lotus to rival the functionality of products including AT&T's Rhapsody, HP's New Wave, NCR Corp's Cooperation and IBM's OfficeVision. Consulting firms modernize aging database systems. (Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse use computer-aided software engineering to Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse employ computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology to modernize outdated corporate information systems. Both firms offer software re-engineering services including converting outdated non-relational databases to more modernized relational systems. Analysts predict that the CASE market will reach $14.6 billion by 1995; yearly market growth is expected to increase at an average of 22 percent per year. The growth is largely due to organizations that must replace antiquated, 20-year-old mainframe hierarchical and network database systems. CASE consulting firms are in demand because the majority of companies have neither the time nor the resources to implement major re-engineering projects. Ernst and Young will provide services such as converting a firm's existing applications to a modern database and optimizing old applications to run in existing or new computing environments. Price Waterhouse will focus more on third-party CASE tools than on its own software design methods, using a strategy called RE/Center. IBM, Microsoft eye Windows path for OS/2. (companies plan interoperability between Windows applications and OS/2 2.0) IBM and Microsoft Corp each pursue strategies that will allow Windows applications to run under OS/2 2.0. IBM intends to build Windows directly into its operating system with the use of a virtual DOS machine (VDM). Windows applications will appear to run under Presentation Manager (PM), but will actually be running in the DVM, OS/2's equivalent to a DOS box. Users will have access to Windows applications that run transparently with DOS and PM programs, but they will not see the Windows desktop. Microsoft's strategy is to enable the Windows environment to run within a DOS box. Users will launch Windows applications from the Windows desktop rather than via the PM interface. Microsoft will improve Windows' compliance with DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI), a standard programming interface that allows multiple protected-mode DOS applications run simultaneously. Brief programming editor boosts interface features. (Solution Systems Inc.'s Brief 3.1 program development software) (Software Solution Systems Inc's Brief 3.1 is a $249 program development software application that provides mouse support and a character-mode environment. New features of the upgrade include dialog-box capability in the macro language and a redo command, which are both integrated into the existing command structure. Select activities such as controlling windows, scrolling, text marking and cut-and-paste are mouse-operated; the majority of the product's command structure remains key-driven. Users may open and close windows, select the active window and resize and zoom windows to fill the screen with mouse control. Brief includes horizontal and vertical scroll bars and close and zoom icons on the screen to incorporate mouse control. Mouse support is also available in the Brief macro language. The product features a Redo command, which complements the Undo command. MetaWare offers Pascal upgrade in two flavors. (Pascal Professional Compiler for MS-DOS 2.8 and Pascal Professional MetaWare Inc introduces the $495 Pascal Professional Compiler for MS-DOS 2.8 and the $795 Pascal Professional Compiler for Extended-DOS 386/486 2.8, which both feature C language extensions, compiler controls for maximum customization and sophisticated arrays. The products both provide a complete development environment, which includes an editor, a series of Unix-like utilities for DOS and additional utilities for disk caching, keyboard customization and video acceleration. The 386/486 upgrade allows developers to run the Pascal optimizing compiler in protected-mode memory; the DOS-based Pascal upgrade runs in either real- or protected-mode memory. MetaWare Pascal Professional compilers are also available for Sun-OS, OS/2 and Unix System V 3.2 for 386/486. The compilers allow developers to recompile code for alternate platforms. Connectivity follies go beyond April Fools' day. (Up Front) (column) Networking and connectivity are important technologies, but achieving connectivity is less important than knowing what to do with it. Networking and connectivity are really just a subset of systems problems; organizations need to ask themselves what systems they need, not what networks they need. It is useless for experts to try solving connectivity problems without first considering connectivity in terms of what system the organization requires. Other connectivity-related technologies, such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), X/Windows (and X/Terminals with it) and cellular radio data communications, offer much more than they are capable of delivering. Telephone company central office switches in the US cannot accommodate ISDN's 2B+D requirements. X-Windows foolishly divides the processing task at the wrong interface. Cellular radio data communications lacks speed. Ballpoint mouse inspires love/hate relationship. (Microsoft Corp.'s cursor control device) (The Corporate Micro) (column) Microsoft Corp's Ballpoint mouse for portable microcomputers is a hybrid of mouse and trackball that can be difficult for users to manipulate. The ball is very small and the positioning of the unit makes it awkward to use the device as a trackball. The unit works too unevenly for users to operate it as a desktop trackball. Users must operate the Ballpoint as a kind of upside-down mouse by reaching under the device, cupping it in one hand and rolling the thumb up over the ball. The need to reach under and around the Ballpoint makes it slower and more cumbersome to use than regular-size trackballs and mice, although the user does adjust in time. More effective pointing devices for portable computers include touch panels and Isopoints. Touch panels are miniature digitizing tablets that allow users to use the top of their finger as the pointing device. The Isopoint is a built-in sliding, rolling cylinder at the front edge of the keyboard by the space bar. Users will have a bumpy ride on the road to GUI. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows graphical user interface) (Risky Business) Managers installing Microsoft Windows graphical user interface (GUI) should understand the challenges involved in implementing a GUI and seek outside help when necessary. Some of Windows' best features are also the most difficult to understand. Users may switch over to Windows gradually and retain many of the MS-DOS applications they are used to, but the transition to Windows is not easy. Developers often have problems writing PIF files, which are the interface files that are supposed to make DOS applications work well with Windows. Memory greedy DOS applications can create additional problems. Managers having problems migrating to Windows can get help from a variety of sources including CompuServe forums where experts to share their knowledge, and outside consultants. Special-interest newsletters and special-interest groups offer supplementary materials to help managers. Windows applications vendors also offer user support services. Market centers are no real threat to resellers. (Changing Channels) (column) The computer industry's creation of market centers in 1985 has failed to pose any substantial threat to resellers in 1991. The initial reaction of resellers to the industry's development of market centers was fear that the deals vendors were making with customers were going to put them out of business. The centers have instead created a positive role in the distribution channel; they have given vendors leverage to make deals with resellers in creating solutions for a market filled with multiplatform environments. The imagined threat that market centers and vendor-specific hubs posed in the past has failed to materialize, and the result is a healthier distribution channel. Ventura Publisher wins in close contest; unexpected technical snafus give teams real-world headaches. (Ventura Software Inc.'s PC Week Labs finds that Ventura Software Inc's $795 Ventura Publisher for Windows 3.0 outperforms Archetype Inc's $995 Archetype Designer and Aldus Corp's $795 PageMaker 4.0 for Windows 3.0. PageMaker came in second while Designer finished third. All three desktop publishing programs utilize the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Ventura Publisher for Windows 3.0 won on its ability to create large documents quickly, provide powerful text-processing tools and link text with graphics in complicated layouts. The winning desktop publishing software provides more enhanced features than its competitors and has improved graphics handling. The three software publishers competed at the 1991 Windows and OS/2 Conference by creating an 8-page newsletter promoting PC Week Labs on an Intel 80486-based microcomputer in seven hours in a 'real-world' situation. Different strokes for different folks: PageMaker preferred for short documents, Ventura Publisher for longer ones. (PC Week Labs Desktop publishing software users find that Ventura Software Inc's Ventura Publisher for Windows 3.0 allows them to create large documents while Aldus Corp's PageMaker 4.0 for Windows 3.0 has the flexibility needed for creating short documents. Users such as PIP Printing Inc appreciate the new features of PageMaker 4.0 for Windows 3.0 including the better type-handling and the more precise kerning and tracking. New templates for larger documents make the new version of the software better suited for those uses. Ventura Publisher for Windows 3.0 is the choice of users who have to deal with large amounts of data, including data base generated lists, and present them as a publishable product. AST's 386SX notebook PC leads pack; of five low-cost, lightweight units, AST system is price/performance leader. (AST Research PC Week labs evaluates five low-cost notebook computers that range in price from Zeos International Ltd's $2,795 Notebook 386 to the $3,999 Samsung Information Systems America Inc NoteMaster 386S/16. All the notebook computers evaluated are based on the Intel Corp 80386SX microprocessor and are battery-powered. The analysts choose AST Research Inc's $3,795 Premium Exec 386SX/20 as the best performer for the price. The new notebook computers, which weigh about seven pounds each, offer travelers a low-cost solution to 386-based computing but suffer in design: keyboards are crowded and the computers are bulkier than their 80286-based cousins. Each does include a monochrome VGA screen, a 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive, three ports and at least a 20Mbyte hard drive. Buyers praise lightweight notebooks' punch. (notebook computers) Mann, Mary. Users find that Intel 80386SX-based notebook computers offer convenience and the right price/performance levels they need. Several new notebook computers on the market that start around $3,000 and weigh about seven pounds provide consumers with a good alternative to heavier and costlier Intel 80286-based portables. Users realize the importance of using an 80386SX processor over the 80286; the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and OS/2 2.0 applications place too much demand on the 80286-based machines. Users experience minor inconveniences with the industry's new offering of low-cost 80386SX-based notebook computers such as poorly placed screen adjustment knobs and small hard disks. AST Research Inc.: Premium Exec 386SX/20. (Hardware Review) (one of five notebook computer evaluations in 'AST's 386SX notebook PC AST Research Inc's $3,795 Premium Exec 386SX/20 notebook computer is the analyst's choice for the top performer out of five notebook computers evaluated. The notebook computer, which is based on the Intel Corp 20 MHz 80386SX microprocessor, measures nine inches by 11.4 inches by 2.25 inches and weighs seven pounds. The Premium Exec's crisp and easy to read display, which includes 32 levels of gray, gives the graphical environment of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface more enhanced detail. Power-saving features allow the battery to support the machine's fast speed for three hours on one charge. The Premium Exec was the best performer on the basis that it was the only notebook computer to use the faster 20-MHz 80386SX; all other notebooks tested use the 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. Everex Systems Inc. Tempo LX. (Hardware Review) (one of five notebook computer evaluations in 'AST's 386SX notebook PC leads Everex Systems Inc's $2,995 Tempo LX notebook computer features a thoughtful design but measures on the large side, 10 inches by 12 inches, when compared to the other four notebook computers tested. The Tempo LX's VGA screen provides an easy-to-read and sharp display except when it comes to color display applications. It is limited to eight shades of gray and users should always select the monochrome option because some colors become invisible or difficult to read. The keyboard layout is well-designed and resembles the standard IBM enhanced layout, but the other controls such as the screen adjustment knobs are too exposed. The notebook computer's NiCad battery comes in a convenient external battery pack. The Tempo LX is based on the Intel Corp 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. Kris Technologies: Kris Master. (Hardware Review) (one of five notebook computer evaluations in 'AST's 386SX notebook PC leads Kris Technologies' $3,286 Kris Master notebook computer suffers from a display screen that shows varying degrees of brightness, acceptable for text display but especially problematic when working with graphics. The notebook computer has a thoughtfully designed exterior surface, which makes it easy to hold and carry, and includes ribbing on both sides. The machine's keyboard layout provides users with long key travel, which is rare for notebook computers, and 12 function keys, which are located on the top row. The Kris Master's battery performance was short and lasted only two hours under testing. The portable computer is based on the Intel Corp 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. Samsung Information Systems America Inc.: Notemaster 386S/16. (Hardware Review) (one of five notebook computer evaluations in Samsung Information Systems America Inc's $3,999 Notemaster 386S/16 notebook computer is based on the Intel Corp 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and delivers an impressive 2.5 hours of battery life under testing. The machine measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches and weighs only seven pounds. The keyboard has a good feel to it but the layout is a cause of some frustration. Keys are placed in unusual places and arrow keys do not come in the standard inverted-T configuration. During testing, a glitch in the keyboard made the function keys operate oddly. The liquid crystal display for the Notemaster 386S/16 is easy to read for the most part but some ghosting does occur. The notebook computer is easy to carry and features ribbing and rounded hinges. Zeos International Ltd.: Notebook 386. (Hardware Review) (one of five notebook computer evaluations in 'AST's 386SX notebook PC Zeos International Ltd's $2,295 Notebook 386 notebook computer provides an easy-to-read VGA display screen and a keyboard with 12 function keys of regular size. The keyboard layout of the Notebook 386 requires users to execute a two-key sequence to use the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys, which is poor planning when considering how often those keys are used. The display is limited to eight shades of gray, which gives it less resolution for certain applications. The notebook computer features an externally mounted battery pack, which is convenient to use. It is based on the Intel Corp 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and is similar in design to the Everex Systems Tempo LX, which was also developed with Sanyo Corp's help. LAN operation boosts project managers; networking allows multiple managers to coordinate large, complex projects. (Software Review) PC Weeks Labs evaluates four high-end local area network (LAN) project management software packages that support NetBIOS and are designed to handle large projects in a networked environment. The software packages range in price from Poc-It Management Services Inc's $2,895 MicroMan II to the Metier Management Systems Inc $4,995 Prestige; prices are for individual users. Project management software keeps project completion dates, costs and goals current by monitoring changes on the network. The software is useful in that it allows managers to become active participants in the project planning process by letting them update the project data base; upper management is provided with with real-time feedback. Meanwhile, data integrity on a network is maintained and users can simultaneously access the same schedules and other project information. Despite power, multiuser project managers need work. (project management software) Users of local area network (LAN) project management software find that the market in 1991 offers good programs but with deficiencies in several areas including file import and export capabilities, editing features, and interface sophistication. The ability to import and export files is sometimes limited to ASCII files only, which constrains a user's options, and the process is not one that is easy to learn. Users also suggest that the ability to change reports would provide greater convenience; new algorithms would eliminate some of the current limitations. The interfaces offered on project management software packages is outdated and a Microsoft Windows 3.0 format would make things easier. Some of the packages run rather slowly. Metier Management Systems Inc.: Prestige 4.1. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of project management software in 'LAN Metier Management Systems Inc's Prestige 4.1 project management software for local area networks (LANs) provides enhanced security over previous versions by featuring a utility that allows administrators to restrict the use of the software by user name. The software does not have a graphical user interface but provides the user with a series of text-based data screens that are accessed via pop-up menus and function keys. Prestige 4.1 permits project updating only on a task-by-task basis and can handle up to 100 versions of a project at one time. New versions of the schedule are generated only when all the data is entered and the user requesting the revised schedule has exclusive use of the project data base. The software costs $4,995 for one user, $60,295 for 15 users and $125,000 for 50 users. Poc-It Management Services Inc.: Microman II 1.3. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of project management software in Poc-It Management Services Inc's MicroMan II 1.3 is a project management software package for local area networks (LANs) that effectively manages large information systems (IS) departments. The software, which can be adapted to manage an department, not just MIS, that deals with resource-constrained scheduling, assumes all users to be resources and uses them within the system. MicroMan II is the only project management software program tested that is proprietary; linking of files requires that the user to write file-import and file-export procedures. Data security is built-in because MicroMan II is designed specifically for LANs; MicroMan also has an exceptional time accounting function. The chart display can be changed on the fly and the display is updated automatically and immediately as data is entered via the text-based, menu-driven system. The software costs $2,895 for one user, $21,395 for 15 users and $45,000 for 50 users. Primavera Systems Inc.: Primavera Project Planner 4.1. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of project management software in Primavera Systems Inc's Primavera Project Planner 4.1 is a project management software program for local area networks (LANs) that maintains all activities in memory. Conventional DOS memory limits the program to 5,000 tasks but the use of 16Mbytes of extended memory allows it to handle as many as 100,000 activities. Holding tasks in memory makes Primavera's product considerably faster than the others reviewed. Project Planner 4.1 recognizes three types of users: project owners, regular users and administrators. Project owners are given the ability to assign which users have access to their particular project but the administrators can override project owners. Project Planner 4.1 has the only graphical user interface of the four products evaluated. It costs $4,000 for one user, $40,000 for 15 users and $100,000 for 50 users. Strategic Software Planning Corp.: PromisLAN 3.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of project management software in Strategic Software Planning Corp's PromisLAN 3.0 is a project management software package for local area networks (LANs) that is maintained on a dedicated file server as one large DOS file. Accessing the project data for use with other programs is difficult because all the data, such as information on resource lists, calendars, projects, activity data and actual costs, is stored in one DOS file, and user access is more restricted than with the other products reviewed. The data base file, however, is maintained at a fixed size to compensate for performance. All data entry is text-based on PromisLAN 3.0 but the program provides graphs for several of the functions including Gantt charts, cash-flow profiles and precedence networks. The software costs $2,995 for one user and $25,000 for 15 users. The price for 50 users is negotiable. Megahertz adapter shines on Toshiba; smaller Accton and Xircom external LAN adapters prove more portable. (includes related PC Week Labs evaluates three local area network (LAN) adapters that connect laptop computers to a LAN. The external, portable adapters range in price from Accton Technology Corp's $469 EtherPocket CX to the Megahertz Corp $599 External Ethernet Adapter. Xircom Inc's Pocket Ethernet Adapter is just slightly less, at $595. All three adapters provide connectivity to LANs that operate Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager network software. Testing was done with thin-cable (BNC) Ethernet wiring. The three LAN adapters fall into two groups: the Accton Technology EtherPocket CX and Xircom's Pocket Ethernet Adapter are small units that screw to the parallel port; the Megahertz External Ethernet Adapter is a larger unit that has a connector on the side of the flexible cable, but provides much faster performance. Accton Technology Corp.: Etherpocket-CX. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of local area network communication cards in Accton Technology Corp's $469 Ethernet Pocket-CX adapter is a small local area network (LAN) connectivity device that links laptop computers to LANs. The adapter has a 5-volt AC power supply that automatically compensates for input voltages ranging from 90 to 260 volts and frequencies from 47Hz to 63Hz. Accton Technology provides a plug adapter for European-style outlets and software that supports various operating systems including Novell Inc's NetWare, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager, NetBIOS, PC-NFS and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). It comes, however, with a configuration file only for 3Com's LAN Manager; the user needs to create one for the Microsoft version. The adapter performed on par with Xircom Inc's Pocket Ethernet Adapter when tested on a Toshiba T1000LE laptop computer but performed 40 percent faster when an IBM PS/2 microcomputer was used. Adapters' easy installation, configuration are key issues. (local area network adapters) Users of local area network (LAN) adapter cards indicate that ease of installation and use are the main considerations for prospective buyers. External LAN adapter cards allow laptop computer users to connect their systems to a LAN and transport their data into the network easily and quickly. The performance of an external LAN adapter card is not an important issue among users and they often choose an adapter on its ability to withstand the rigors of travel over its performance level. Compatibility is also an issue for users who travel a great deal and plug into various offsite locations. Users note that the industry's offerings of LAN adapter cards are reasonably priced, ranging in price from around $450 to $600. Megahertz Corp.: External Ethernet Adapter. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of local area network communication cards in Megahertz Corp's $599 External Ethernet Adapter is a local area network (LAN) connectivity device that gives laptop computers access to LANs. It provides bus-speed performance but sacrifices total compatibility; it works only with Toshiba systems. The device, the largest of three LAN adapters tested, provides both thick and thin Ethernet cabling connectors on the back panel; users need to open the box and set the jumpers to switch between the two options. The adapter performed very well under testing and gave a 100 percent faster performance over the other two adapters tested when a Toshiba T1000LE laptop computer was used. The External Ethernet Adapter is easy to install, configure and use, although attaching it is a little difficult. Xircom Inc.: Pocket Ethernet Adapter. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of local area network communication cards in Xircom Inc's $595 Pocket Ethernet Adapter is a local area network (LAN) connectivity device that allows laptop computers to gain access to LANs. The parallel-port LAN adapter's power supply is designed only for 110 volts and 50 Hz-60Hz; it is not compatible with foreign power supply configurations. Attaching the adapter to the back of a laptop computer is made a simple process with excellent documentation and accessible mounting screws. Writing the necessary configuration file (none are provided) is easy because of the clear instructions. The performance of the Xircom Pocket Ethernet Adapter was virtually identical to the Accton Technology Ethernet Pocket-CX when testing was done on a Toshiba laptop computer, but the Xircom adapter performed 30 percent slower when tested on an IBM PS/2 microcomputer. LISP tools refresh GUI development; Apple's common Lisp sets performance standard; Gold Hill accesses Windows 3.0. (Software PC Week Labs evaluates two LISP program development software packages: Apple Computer Inc's $495 Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp 1.3.2 and the Gold Hill Inc $1,995 GCLisp Developer 4.0 with Gold Hill Windows. The LISP programming language provides software developers with a convenient environment for developing graphical user interface (GUI) applications because of its incremental compiling. LISP's flexibility and its list-oriented facilities make it simple for developers to track complex work through interdependent files. The Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp 1.3.2 works within the Apple Macintosh interface while GCLisp Developer 4.0 works within the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. LISP offers powerful, flexible means to create specialized GUI applications. (LISP programming language, graphical user The LISP programming language offers developers of graphical user interfaces (GUI) and GUI-based applications an interactive environment that outperforms the environments that other programming languages offer. Developers use LISP because of the total control it gives them over their applications and because it allows them to make incremental changes in an application without shutting the whole program down. Developing GUI applications in LISP is especially functional because the language allows total visibility of the programming process and the small amount of code necessary to manage complex processes. The LISP program development software in the 1991 market allows developers to work on Intel 80386-based machines without sacrificing the robust performance of higher-level, more expensive workstations. Apple Computer Inc.: Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp 1.3.2. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of language development Apple Computer Inc's $495 Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp 1.3.2 program development software is designed to help developers create graphical user interface (GUI) applications with the LISP programming language. The LISP programming language offers developers a unique environment for creating GUI applications because it allows users to track complex work. The Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp 1.3.2 program performed well under testing; it provides users with power and ease of use while dissolving the background complexity normally associated with program development with its fully interactive functionality. Developers will find it easy to do experimental and complex data manipulations because the program does not recognize whether text was originally keyboard input or system response. The documentation is good assuming the user is experienced with the Macintosh but not with programming for it. Gold Hill Inc.: GCLisp Developer 4.0. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of language development tools in 'LISP tools Gold Hill Inc's $1,995 GCLisp Developer 4.0 is a program development software package that allows programmers to develop graphical user interface (GUI) applications with the LISP programming language. The program comes with Gold Hill Windows, which allows developers to use the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The program development software faces the constraints of 640Kbytes of real-mode DOS memory and the memory fragmentation of Windows, creating particular problem for LISP programming, which uses long, multi-branched chains of values and dynamic data structures. It also interferes with Windows' multitasking features and is less flexible than Macintosh Common Lisp. The documentation is fragmented and some problems exist in creating elegant GUI designs, but overall the software is a useful tool for developing Windows applications. MacWrite II features fall short on the high end. (Claris Corp's MacWrite II word processing software) (buyers guide) Many users find Claris Corp's MacWrite II word processing software to be sufficient for in-house desktop publishing but lacking when it comes to meeting high-end publishing needs. MacWrite II, like most word processing software programs on the market in 1991, lacks the precise graphics placement and typographic control that desktop publishing programs provide for professional-quality documents. Some users enter the text into their word processing package and then export the document to a desktop publishing application for the final touches. Industry observers believe that desktop publishing software has to move up to the higher end of the publishing process as word processing programs become more sophisticated and incorporate several low-end desktop publishing features. Word processors allow simple publishing; packages still lack high-end text, graphics manipulation features. (buyers guide) Buyers need to consider their desktop publishing needs when choosing a word processing software package over a desktop publishing program. The distinction between word processing software and desktop publishing software is blurring but word processing programs still lack high-end text formatting and graphics capabilities. The advantage that word processing programs have over desktop publishing software is the ease with which they can handle text. They lack the ability to kern, track and lead text but most users do not demand those high-end publishing features. Many word processing programs incorporate the basics of desktop publishing graphics including graphics handling, column layout and the availability of drawing tools. Those users who find sufficient functionality in either type of package save the several hundred dollars it costs to buy both. Oracle reveals discrepancy of $95 million in revenues. (Oracle Corp's revenues between 1977 and 1990) Oracle Corp announces that its revenue reporting between 1977 and 1990 was inflated by $95 million. The third-largest software publisher blames the error on new accounting procedures and processing errors. Fraudulent billing by Oracle salespeople, including duplicate billing and unaccounted returns, is also confirmed as a cause for the inflated reports. The errors force the company to restate its financial performance for its entire history; it will also put the company in technical violation of its banking agreements. Oracle announced the revenue errors at the same time it reported its 3rd fiscal qtr for 1990-1991 results, which includes a net income of $12.1 million on revenue of $269 million. Novell resellers courted in IBM's connectivity drive. Burke, Steven. IBM's new connectivity strategy includes the courting of small systems integrators and Novell Inc's top resellers. The new strategy to push its local area network (LAN) connectivity products deeper into the channel is seen by industry observers as a departure from its previously aloof attitude. IBM has also given the Management Systems Group (MSG) the right to sell its LAN products. MSG, which is the first distributor to gain the right to sell IBM LAN products, has signed 50 independent resellers to market the IBM connectivity products. IBM's market share of the LAN connectivity products industry was only two percent in 1990. Sage joins forces with Index, founds new firm; Intersolv merger targets CASE dominance. (Intesolv Inc. created from Index Sage Software Inc and Index Technology Corp merge to form Intersolv Inc. The new software publisher targets its products at the fragmented and lucrative Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) software market. The merger was finalized on Mar 19, 1991 but the two companies now face the massive task of integrating the product lines. The main concerns of Intersolv will be to control costs as soon as possible and reverse the losses that Index Technology has recently suffered. Industry observers estimate that Intersolv has a combined revenue of $74 million a year and a customer base of 100,000. It will be competing in a $1 billion-a-year CASE market. Telecommuting aids economy, ecology, firm and employee. (Looking Forward) (column) Telecommuting provides benefits to all areas of society including the ecology, the economy and the quality of life of the worker. Employers, who have been skeptical about telecommuting from the start, can benefit from increased worker productivity; they also have the ability to enhance their ability to attract and retain talented individuals. Many companies and government agencies have developed effective telecommuting programs and surveys have indicated a 20 percent jump in productivity; companies also save in other ways including reduced office space, lower need for parking space and less strain on mainframes and local area networks (LANs) during peak times. The ecological benefits of telecommuting is that less traffic on the highways means less air pollution in the skies. New SMDS applications bloom in Nynex Boston trial. (switched multimegabit data service) Nynex Corp, along with New England Telephone, Massachusetts General Hospital, New England Medical Center, Faulkner Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Christian Science Publishing Society, has finished developing innovative applications for switched multimegabit data service and has begun to implement wide area networking (WAN) applications. A health maintenance organization in Burlington, MA, is sending images of x-rays to Massachusetts General Hospital over a T3 link that uses routers. WANs are being tested at several locations, and three local area network (LAN) applications have also been implemented. The WANs at New England Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital have point-to-point links only, while Massachusetts General Hospital uses a proprietary fiber LAN with Ethernet. Regulators slam telcos over CATV. (cable television) Mason, Charles. Federal and state regulators believe that many problems will occur if local exchange carriers are allowed to provide complete cable television (CATV) service. Telephone companies believe that eliminating the cable-telephone company cross-ownership ban is the only way to achieve rapid deployment of fiber and advanced services. The Federal Communications Commission believes that it would not be able to control cross-subsidies, and the telephone companies probably would not be satisfied with the proposals of US senators to restrict telephone companies' control over cable programming. In addition, the differences in the culture of the telecommunications industry and that of the entertainment industry may make it difficult for telephone companies to offer full CATV service. NTT, KDD see growth in 1992. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Kokusai Denshin Denwa Company Ltd.) Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) and Kokusai Denshin Denwa Company Ltd (KDD) are expecting their reveneus to increase in 1992. NTT expects revenues to increase 5.4 percent to $45.7 million for FY 1992, while KDD expects pre-tax profits to reach 27 billion yen. NTT plans to offer more sophisticated services by digitalizing 50 percent of the subscriber exchanges by Mar 1992, compared to 39 percent in 1991. Some 550 billion yen will be allocated to the digitalization program. KDD pplans to increase profits by offering such sophisticated services as international ISDN services, and by decreasing costs and investment. KDD plans to reduce capital expenditures from 75.2 billion yen to 72.1 billion yen, and R&D expenditures will be reduced by 30 percent. Europe 1992 - emerging opportunities. (telecommunications industry) Telecommunications executives believe that the single European market will provide the telecommunications industry with opportunities, but the opportunities will emerge slowly. Marketing Technology Partnering Pres Joel D. Ash believes that telecommunications deregulation goals may not be attained until 1995. The goals of the European Commission include separating regulation from operation, making equipment supply non-exclusive, and creating a free market for telecommunications products and services. MCI International Pres and CEO Seth D. Blumenfeld believes that telephone companies should have established an alliance in Europe in 1988 or 1989 to take advantage of the opportunities there, but they can still enter the market by targeting a niche market. The revival of Northern Ireland. (telecommunications infrastructure) One of the most advanced telecommunications projects in the UK is the Northern Ireland initiative contained in the special telecommunications action for regional development (STAR) initiative. The European Regional Development Fund is investing 780 million European currency units (ECU), and Northern Ireland will receive ECU 12 million. Economic and social development will be promoted by investments in advanced communications infrastructure and services, which will be necessary before Northern Ireland can become a fully participating member of the single European market. British Telecom has been selected to provide Northern Ireland with an advanced telecommunications infrastructure that will include a fiber optic-based communications network based on Sub-Duct Monobore 3A. The network will be completed in Apr 1991, and Ireland has already begun to receive benefits in the form of relocation of back-office operations to the region. The crisis in Africa. (telecommunications infrastructure) (Cover Story) Africa has a poor telecommunications infrastructure, and some regions have even experienced negative growth in telecommunications since the mid-1980s. Some 12 percent of the world's population resides in Africa, but the country has only 1.4 percent of the world's telephone lines. The average telephone penetration is .7 lines per 100 people, compared to 50 to 80 lines per 100 people in developed countries. The poor infrastructure increases the inequalities in opportunity, increases risk, and negatively affects economic activity. The reasons for the lack of a basic telecommunications infrastructure include the government's lack of attention to telecommunications, and the lack of local participation in the design and manufacture of telecommunications equipment. Privatization, deregulation, and liberalization of telecommunications have not received much support from the public, but the improvement in Africa's telecommunications infrastructure is essential for the survival of the country. Mercury doubles trunk capacity with FO couplers. (Mercury Communications, fiber-optic couplers) Mercury Communications has been able to double its trunk capacity by using achromatic fiber-optic (FO) couplers. Mercury discovered that its trunk system needed upgrading after experiencing an unprecedented increase in traffic. The options considered by Mercury included overlaying its trunk system with new cable, increasing the transmission rate to 1.2G-bps, and using wavelength division multiplexers. Mercury finally decided to establish bidirectional traffic on the majority of its trunk system fibers by using achromatic FO 1 X 2 tree couplers. The couplers, which are are capable of uniform power splitting, are characterized by high performance, mechanical integrity, and long-range reliability. There was only a small interruption in traffic during installation, allowing Mercury to provide voice, data, and video communications services to a variety of customers, including large corporations and residential subscribers. Profit at IBM's Japanese unit fell 21% in 1990; analysts say sharp decline shows computer maker losing ground to rivals. IBM Japan Ltd reports a 21 percent drop in earnings for FY 1990. Industry analysts say the deterioration of IBM's most important overseas market is part of an overall slowing of the Japanese mainframe computer market. The loss in earnings is the second consecutive loss for IBM and the largest the computer maker has ever suffered. IBM Japan's pretax profit for 1990 was 154.38 billion yen ($1.1 billion), which is down from earnings of 194.88 billion yen for 1989. Revenue for 1990 was 1.326 trillion yen, up slightly from revenues of 1.312 billion yen in 1989. The company's net income after taxes was 82.82 billion yen in 1990, down 19 percent from the 1989 net income after taxes of 102.03 billion yen. Japanese companies report financial earnings once a year. Ada and embedded AI. (artificial intelligence) (AI Insider) (column) Sophisticated real-time systems often require the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as embedded systems. AI-for-embedded-systems programmers should consider using the Ada programming language. Ada is versatile and programmers can apply it in many AI areas. Ada is also object-oriented and supports portability, reusability, numeric processing and concurrency via tasks. Programmers are using Ada in combination with languages such as LISP, Prolog and COBOL. Parts of COBOL programs that are used as subprograms and embedded components for real-time tasks are sometimes rewritten in Ada for improved timing considerations and usage of Ada libraries. Programmers also use AI with Ada to help translate programs and programming languages. Many users mistakenly think that Ada compilers are difficult to find or are highly expensive. These compilers are available for many different platforms and cost the same as other professional compilers. Building a smarter interface. (AI Apprentice) (tutorial) Minasi, Mark. Programmers developing command-line interface programs can make them more user friendly and give the operating system some judgment by using the Easyio.pas front-end program. This program takes a set of legal commands and behaves as a filter between users and the application. Easyio checks to see if user commands match its legal commands. If there is a match, Easyio will pass the command to the target program. If there is no match, Easyio uses pattern recognition strategies to match misspelled commands and those that have transposed characters. Easyio also provides a telescoping feature that allows a system to determine abbreviations for commands that can still be distinguishable from other commands. Easyio looks at all possible commands and determines the minimum length of characters users must enter to distinguish the commands from the others. After this analysis users can save time by entering the telescoped version of a command. Extensive details and examples of Easyio are presented. An initialization protocol. (CLOS) (Expert's Toolbox) (tutorial) Bourbaki, Nick. Programmers who need to understand the metaobject protocol of the implementation of CLOS as a CLOS program should first examine the CLOS initialization protocol. CLOS requires initialization in redefining a class, re-initialization and changing the class of an instance. These activities share parts of the initialization protocol. The initialization protocol is one of the most difficult areas of CLOS and users need to know the model of the inner workings of CLOS for a thorough understanding. Programmers can add methods to generic functions defined by CLOS in order to extend CLOS behavior and to write customizable systems. Generic functions include initialize-instance, re-initialize-instance, update-instance-for-redefined-class, update-instance-for-different-class and shared-initialize. Extensive details and examples are presented. AI on a chip. (artificial intelligence) Keyes, Jessica. Developers can improve the speed of their artificial intelligence (AI) applications by embedding them in a chip instead of encoding them in software. Researchers are currently using hardware-based AI in a variety of applications including neural networks. The various functions of a neural network are performed with physical resistors in a hardware setting. Designers are also using AI chips in areas of completely embedded applications. Some analysts do not see the generic chip as a solution and are reluctant to use the technology because it has not solved the practical algorithm problem. An alternative to chip-based neural networks are neural-network coprocessors. Some researchers believe that neural networks need coprocessors for their speed and memory advantages. Doing neural network computing without a coprocessor means losing time for real-time applications. Embedded neural networks. (includes related article on downloading weight sets) Researchers are looking at neural networks as an embedded systems solution and many semiconductor manufacturers are making significant efforts to produce neural network chips. There are several design choices. Some designers prefer to use analog chips for neural networks because the brain is analog and because of their potential to be faster than digital chips. Analog chips, however, are generally not as high-precision as digital chips and there are problems with speed in adjusting weights. Analog chip technology is also relatively immature in comparison with that of digital chips. Pulse-train architecture is another design for neural networks; it uses a representation of activity that mimics biological neuron operations. Fully digital neural-network chips usually resemble other computer chips but lack a central processing unit and provide a high degree of parallelism. Optical computers, although still on the cutting edge of research, may make large-scale neural networks feasible. Physical bulkiness of lasers and lenses and the fragility of the systems are possible problems. Interpreting neural-network connection weights. (tutorial) Garson, G. David. Neural networks, unlike expert systems, do not provide an audit trail that explains how the system arrived at its results and are not designed for exploiting existing expertise. Neural networks are taught based on intensive computations. Users can make judgments about the input or causal variables in a model by partitioning the relative share of the output prediction associated with each input variable. Users employ connection weights from the input layer to the hidden nodes to the output layer for partitioning. Using a simple four-variable model of luck, economy and income as an index that ranges from 0 to 100 and vote which varies from zero to one, users can see that backpropagation neural networks can be as effective as other procedures in correctly classifying dependents and that causal inference using neural-network connection weight partitions is a viable alternative. Extensive details are presented. NeuroBoard: new neural-network accelerator. (from Ward Systems Group) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Ward System Group's NeuroBoard is a solid, high-performing accelerator board used for speeding up neural-network prototyping as well as stock predictions or similar applications where neural networks must be retrained on new data. NeuroBoard comes in 64Kbyte, 256Kbyte, 512Kbyte and 1Mbyte memory configurations and requires MS-DOS. The board speeds the training of neural networks, but it will not accelerate the neural net and cannot be used for other computing tasks. The board works only with the included NeuroShell neural-network simulator. In tests, the board provides dramatic drops in training speed when compared with using the NeuroShell software alone on a 12-MHz 80286-based microcomputer without a math coprocessor. A neural network that took seven minutes to train data takes less than one second after installation of NeuroBoard. A consortium story. (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.) Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp (MCC) was originally formed in 1983 to head off Japanese competition in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Since the Japanese have not come close to the US AI market, MCC, with some new officials and member companies, is focusing its attention in other areas. The most visible of MCC's programs is Cyc, which is what the consortium hopes will be the ultimate expert system. The goal of Cyc is to place the collective knowledge of humankind into a single knowledge base that would comprise millions of facts, belief systems, perceptions, methods of deduction and induction and so forth. Apple, Bellcore, DEC, Eastman Kodak, Harris and NCR are all contributing half a million dollars per year for funding of the project. MCC hopes Cyc's knowledge base will become a machine that will know enough about its environment that it can start learning from it. Carol Bartz. (Sun Microsystems Inc. vice president) (Twenty-five Executives to Watch) Sun Microsystems VP Carol Bartz, who has held the second-highest position in the company since 1990, is a decisionmaker whose management is credited with much of Sun's recent sales success. After she took charge of the Federal Systems Div in 1987, divisional sales tripled, reaching $124 million. Bartz used her position as marketing vice-president to push the successful 'Open systems for open minds' ad campaign. Sun's 2nd qtr results ended Dec 28, 1990, revenues increased 27 percent, to $753 million. Bartz is an intense and determined executive whose current challenge is competing with new equipment from IBM, HP and DEC while overcoming the economic slowdown. Bartz is married to a Sun purchasing executive and has a two-year-old daughter. James Cannavino. (vice-president and general manager of IBM's microcomputer and workstation businesses) (Twenty-five Executives IBM VP James A Cannavino, who heads the computer giant's microcomputer and workstations businesses, is successful because of his understanding for his customers. Cannavino has worked his way up IBM's corporate ladder from a keypunch servicer position, gaining control of the microcomputer unit in 1988 and the workstation unit in 1990. Cannavino regularly orders IBM and competitive products to compare available equipment. Cannavino's current challenge is to help IBM recover from its 50 percent fall-off in 1st qtr profits while fending off competition from Compaq in the workstation market and from low-priced IBM-compatible equipment in the microcomputer market. Another challenge is directing IBM through its split with Microsoft Corp and convincing customers to follow IBM's vision for OS/2. Cannavino is credited with IBM's RS/6000 workstation success and its 41 percent market share of Intel 80386SX-based microcomputers. Sandra Kurtzig. (CEO of ASK Computer Systems Inc.) (Twenty-five Executives to Watch) Ask Computer Systems CEO Sandra L. Kurtzig faces new challenges in restoring her company to its previous success. Kurtzig, who started ASK in her home and developed it into a major software firm, left the company in 1985 to raise her children and returned in 1989 to salvage the firm from a slump. Kurtzig acquired $112 million data base software vendor Ingres Corp, spurring a proxy battle. Kurtzig won the proxy challenge, but she still must reconcile Ingres and ASK, return Ingres to profitability and improve demand for ASK's software in a slumping market. ASK is expected to earn only 15 to 20 cents per share on revenue of $330 million in FY 1991, after earning 37 cents per share in 1990. Kurtzig has eliminated Ingres' top management and laid off 12 percent of the combined workforce. She must take advantage of new relationships with HP and GM's Electronic Data Systems and develop nonproprietary versions of ASK software. Michael Schulhof. (president of Sony Software Corp.) (Twenty-five Executives to Watch) Sony Software Pres Michael P Schulhof, who has spent most of his 18-year career at Sony Corp in consumer and professional electronics positions, now heads Sony's US-based entertainment company and serves as vice-chairman of Sony USA Inc. Schulhof is working to restore Columbia Pictures Entertainment to its former glory. Sony paid $5 billion for Columbia and is paying an additional $700 million to attract producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters and buy out their Warner Brothers contract. Other costs already exceed $840 million. As chairman of Sony Music Entertainment, Schulhof has direct responsibility for improving domestic sales, which have declined since 1985. The new Sony Electronic Publishing business needs to stir demand for computer games and software on CD-ROM. Schulhof is searching for ways of integrating Sony's ventures and making use of overlapping areas. Robert Allen. (chairman of AT&T) (Twenty-five Executives to Watch) Coy, Peter. AT&T Chmn Robert E. Allen is an aggressive businessman devoted to his company's welfare. Under Allen's command, AT&T has launched a successful entry into the credit card market, attempted a $6.1 billion hostile takeover of computer-maker NCR Corp and stabilized AT&T's market share in the long-distance telephone business. Allen faces the challenge of effecting the NCR takeover without ruining NCR in the process. He also must be careful that regulators do not see AT&T's expanded ventures as an opening for imposing new restrictions. Allen's bold moves have not dramatically increased earnings. Earnings per share grew only 0.4 percent in 1990, and revenue increased by only 3.1 percent. OS shuffle has developers dizzy. (Microsoft's and IBM's OS/2 operating system and related product development activities) Microsoft Corp's development of the OS/2 3.0 and MS-DOS operating systems and the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and IBM's development of OS/2 2.0 are clarified. Microsoft says it will continue to work on on a portable version of OS/2 3.0 that will not ship until 1992 and on OS/2 applications and a 32-bit version of Windows. The Windows 3.0 application programming interface (API) is being upgraded to a 32-bit 'Win32' API to enable 32-bit Windows programs to run under OS/2 3.0. Microsoft is also including the Presentation Manager API under OS/2 3.0. IBM says that it is determining the position of Windows in the firm's operating system (OS) strategy. Applications developers contend that the different OS strategies of Microsoft and IBM are impeding software development and marketing. Microsoft manager of developer relations Cam Myhrvold says Windows is the best environment for graphical desktop applications, while OS/2 is the best environment for applications targeted at servers. FoxPro 2.0 engages the warp engines; a technology called Rushmore boosts FoxPro's performance by orders of magnitude. (Software The excellent new version 2.0 of the FoxPro relational data base management system (RDBMS) from Fox Software (Perrysburg, OH) features a proprietary 'Rushmore' technology which boosts some data retrieval operations by as much as two orders of magnitude. Improvements in the new version include a bundled 32-bit extended-MS-DOS version, Structured Query Language query functionality, interactive menu and screen generators, a project manager, C and assembly language application programming interface libraries, new user-interface programming objects and a variety of new commands, including some for importing from and exporting to other data base and spreadsheet formats, evaluating functions and expressions and managing data tables. Drawbacks include some unhelpful error messages, a need for 'smarter' diagnostics and the inability to provide common applications to both Macintosh and IBM PC-compatible client systems on a local area network. A lean, mean SCSI-2 machine: Hewlett-Packard's Vectra 486/33T file server tames the temperamental SCSI. (Hardware Review) Hewlett-Packard Co (Palo Alto, CA) offers a 33-MHz Intel 80486-based file server, the Vectra 486/33T, that offers the speed and hard disk capacities needed for demanding multiuser, multitasking applications along with a SCSI-2 interface. The 60-pound tower system features eight EISA 32-bit slots, optional Adaptec bus-mastering controller, a fast HP Super VGA graphics board, 128Kbytes of external cache memory, 4Mbytes of zero-wait-state random-access memory expandable to 64Mbytes, processor and related circuitry on a daughterboard for easy upgrading and built in math processing. HP claims that the system can easily handle 200 LAN users or 100 UNIX users. Preliminary benchmarking shows that the 486/33T is the fastest Intel 80486-based system that BYTE Laboratories has tested. A base system without hard disk drive or controller costs $9,499, while a SCSI-2 system with 440MByte hard disk and controller sells for $14,449. The LaserJet IIISi: Hewlett-Packard's flagship printer. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The 'marvelous' $3,495 LaserJet IIISi from Hewlett-Packard Co (Cupertino, CA) is a 17-page-per-minute laser printer laser printer designed for use on corporate local area networks (LANs). The IIIsi features an Advanced Micro Devices 29000 controller, 5Mbytes of random-access memory, HP's resolution-enhancement technology, new 'microfine' toner, a parallel interface, two 500-sheet paper trays and a means to stagger output to ease separation of print jobs. Options include a $695 two-sided-printing feature, an $895 PostScript add-in component and token-ring and Ethernet network interface cards. Unfortunately, UNIX-based workstations cannot link to the IIISi when the Ethernet card is resident. The first "what you see is all you get" notebook. (Hardware Review) (Twinhead Corp's Supernote 386SX notebook computer) Twinhead Corp (Milpitas, CA) offers a well-made $3,495 notebook computer, the 16-MHz Supernote 386SX. The computer features Twinhead's own TH4100 and TH4009 chips, which emulate an Intel 80386SX microprocessor. Other features include 2Mbytes of random-access memory, a 40Mbyte hard disk drive, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, sidelit electroluminescent VGA liquid-crystal display supporting 32 shades of gray, one parallel and two serial ports, a 15-pin port to drive an external VGA monitor and a socket for an 80C387SX math coprocessor. This is all contained in a 6.5-pound, 11-by-8.625-by-2-inch chassis. Software includes MS-DOS 4.01, utilities and driver applications. Twinhead claims between 2.5 and 3 hours of battery life. The main disadvantages of the Supernote 386SX are the inability to expand the system at all and a glitch in the power management system that was being fixed. Pointing to a portable future. (Hardware Review) (brief review of three miniature trackballs for laptop and notebook computers) A brief review and comparison of three miniature trackball controllers targeted at laptop and notebook computers concludes that the choice of one will be 'highly personal.' The $175 BallPoint from Microsoft Corp (Redmond, WA) is a comparatively large and easy-to-control trackball that includes several adapters for attaching it to the side of almost any laptop or notebook computer and software for setting the sensitivity and orientation of the ball. It is adjustable to 0-, 30-, 60- or 90-degree angle from the plane. The $99 Thumbelina from Appoint (Paso Robles, CA) is a tiny unit with a 5/8-inch trackball which features good control and a case top that presses down for switching actions. Components on the $149 TrackMan Portable trackball unit from Logitech Inc (Fremont, CA) can be switched for either right- or left-handed use. The ball can be used one-handed, but is much easier to use when rested on a surface. A high-resolution duo for eye relief. (Hardware Review) (brief review of ATI Technologies' 8514/Ultra graphics board and Nanao The $599 8514/Ultra high-resolution graphics board from ATI Technologies Inc (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada) and compatible $1929 FlexScan 9080i color monitor from Nanao USA Corp (Torrance, CA) provide a high level of visual comfort and greater utility for many applications. The 8514/Ultra board features support for non-interlaced resolutions up to an IBM 8514/A-compatible 1024 by 768-pixels. It uses ATI's proprietary graphics processor and offers 512Kbytes of random-access memory, a maximum 70-MHz refresh rate and dual connectors for either an ISA or PS/2 Micro Channel Architecture bus. Software includes Crystal Font for real-time font-scaling under Windows 3.0 and utilities that automate installation. The 16-inch Nanao FlexScan 9080i features resolutions to the 8514/A standard, compliance with Swedish VLF (very low frequency) emission regulations, the ability to connect to two computers and toggling between color, amber and white-on-black screen displays. Windows and the business workstation: GUI's such as Windows 3.0 complicate PC purchase decisions. (graphical user Several challenges must be resolved for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) to be used effectively on IBM PC-compatible microcomputers, especially when the user wants to employ the software's multitasking abilities. An initial and major challenge is the fact that Windows 3.0 will not work on some PCs, no matter what fix is tried, and is difficult to get running on some other machines. Successfully employing Windows 3.0's multitasking capabilities requires a minimum of an Intel 80386SX microprocessor; an 80386 and a large amount of RAM are needed for intensive multitasking. Windows 3.0 applications may require substantially more hard disk storage than DOS programs. Some applications will not work when Windows 3.0 is installed, while others are difficult to install. Networking problems with Windows 3.0 are discussed. Whither innovation? ( innovation in the computer industry today) (panel discussion) A panel of experts concludes that innovation is still possible in the personal computer industry, but innovative products must also exist and solve problems in the real world and be usable by 'real people.' Innovative products are constrained by the need to protect capital investments, to be marketable and to provide customers with cost-effective solutions in tight economic times. Innovation can still succeed in almost any environment, but most arises at the individual level or in small groups or organizations. Limits on innovation occur in large companies where refinement of concepts predominate, where compatibility or standards are preeminent and where government regulation dominates. Computing in the USSR. (includes related articles detailing an editor's and programmer's views about computing in the USSR) The retarded state of computer science in the USSR is due to 40 years of government politics and policies that constrained hardware and software development. There is little reason to be optimistic about Soviet computer science in the near future, and its potential demise may hasten the disintegration of the country's economy. Soviet computing was initially concerned with military and related technological concerns. Computers were designed domestically, but conservative politics curtained development and subsequent computer and software technologies were copies of Western models. Software engineering attempted to compensate for dated hardware technologies, but the country now lags behind even its former Eastern European allies by two to three years. The microcomputer revolution, for example, completely bypassed the USSR. The potential of economic self-regulation, programming and 'mediator' cooperatives and information technology groups for improving Soviet computing technology are discussed. A talk with Intel: designers of Intel's 386, i486, and future microprocessors talk about what lies ahead in CPU design. Three top Intel Corp microprocessor (MPU) engineers discuss the future of the Intel 80x86 family of MPUs. The engineers are chief 80386, i486 and i586 architect John Crawford; 80386SL design team leader Dave Vineer; and director of the Intel Platform Architecture Center Bill Rash. Basic trends in MPU evolution include a doubling in component density every two years, continuous increases in frequency and number of pins and a doubling in performance approximately every 18 months. The Intel Micro 2000 project is developing 250-MHz MPUs composed of 50 million to 100 million transistors, with six separate execution units on a single die and 1000-Mips performance. Specific topics discussed include methods of creating ever more integrated devices, increases in multiprocessing capabilities, frustrations in hardware design and locating bugs in new MPU designs. High-speed safety: there are limits to standard PC serial communications caused by limitations of the port, the CPU and the There are both general and proprietary methods of ensuring data integrity and throughput when modems are being used to communicate digital data between IBM PC-compatible microcomputers at high speeds. Digital data communications services that can provide transmission speeds of 56,000-bps and above combined with data compression technologies in communications hardware are being utilized for the transfer of data-intensive applications. Unfortunately, the bus clock rate, cache memory organization data compression functionality, microprocessor employed and serial data rate can all adversely affect data integrity and rate of transfer. The Communications Test Program from R. Scott Assoc (Raleigh, NC) is a viable tool for determining actual data throughput. Software and hardware-bound methods for ensuring data integrity are discussed. The paperless office. (State of the Art)(overview of five articles on various aspects of document imaging systems) An overview of several articles discussing how document imaging systems can reduce office paperwork is presented. Computers have effectively increased rather than decreased the amount of paper offices put out. New technology has radically changed the concept of a document, a fact discussed in Gerald p. Michalski's 'The World of Documents.' 'Catch the Wave of DIP' presents a close look at the specific technologies used to build an imaging system. David A. Harvey and Bob Ryan present several case studies of companies that use document imaging in 'Practically Paperless.' 'The Dark Side of DIP' by Christopher Locke discusses the problems associated with indexing and managing vast quantities of archived material. David P. Wright's and Christopher L. Scofield's 'Divide and Conquer' deals with an optical character recognition system based on neural network technology. A guide to products available is also included. The world of documents. (intelligent document management technologies) (tutorial) Intelligent document management (IDM) combines two or more of several related technologies to optimize the usefulness of computerized document processing for business applications. A central goal of document processing is to get the maximum value out of the document through refinement of information from input to interpretation. IDM systems can facilitate this, but the greater the 'understanding' of the document required, the higher the computational demand on IDM systems. The core technology of IDM is electronic document image processing (DIP). DIP may be used with hypertext systems, groupware, forms processing, text management, networks, information refining, multimedia data bases and complex documents. The integration of each of these technologies with DIP is described. Tips for planning and selecting an IDM system and current trends are discussed. Moving data using EDI. (Electronic Data Interchange protocol) Fisher, Sharon. The ANSI-standard X.12 protocol for electronic data interchange (EDI) lets most offices significantly reduce paperwork. The protocol currently enables about 18,100 organizations to exchange data in a standard format, obviating the need for many standard hardcopy forms and the re-entry of data from such forms into a computer. EDI is actually a set of standards for electronically transmitted forms, with 32 forms available in 1989 and almost 100 more approved for development. The protocol specifies the format in which data is to be transmitted and includes four major elements: the data-element dictionary, interchange control structures, application control structures and a segment dictionary. Other components of an EDI transmission are the actual data itself (the transmission set), related transaction sets called the functional group, headers and trailers. EDI network services, EDI software and implementing EDI are discussed. Warm for forms. (computers can eliminate much of the paper forms employed in offies) Forms-processing software is a cost-effective technology that simplifies and speeds up the generation, filling, processing and distribution of forms electronically. Forms constitute a large part of paperwork in the office; the annual cost of processing, distributing and storing forms by US businesses is estimated at $94 billion to $120 billion. The annual sales of preprinted forms alone are over $6 billion, $2 billion of which are wasted. Use of forms-processing software to create and handle electronic forms offers substantial economic and ecological savings. The software typically consists of forms design and filling components. The features and functionality of each are discussed. The growth in the forms-processing software market is being driven by the standardization of corporate computing on certain graphical user interface, communications and data base technologies and the increased use of such new technologies as pen-based computers. Catch the wave of DIP. (document image processing) Harvey, David A. Document image processing (DIP) can significantly reduce the amount of paper that needs to be handled in a business. It is estimated that US business alone produces one trillion pages of documents each year. A four-door file cabinet of documents costs about $25,000 to fill and $2,160 annually to maintain, with document loss and recovery adding more overhead. DIP systems can reduce these costs and provide better access to documents through the use of scanners with optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities, data compression and storage on optical disks, retrieval with microcomputers, and output on displays, printers, facsimile systems or across networks. The main problem in achieving fully automated DIP systems is the less-than-100-percent accuracy of OCR systems. Functions of each of the technologies used in DIP and proprietary DIP products are discussed. A marriage of convenience: CD-WORM. (new technology combines CD-ROM and write-once, read-many optical storage in one chassis) A new optical storage technology, CD-WORM (write-once, read-many), combines CD-ROM and WORM functionality in a single chassis. The systems will read both High Sierra-standard and ISO-9660 CD-ROMS and write CD-ROM and CD-WORM disks. A superset of the current standards for WORM and CD-ROM technologies is being developed for CD-WORM. CD-WORM systems will write data to disk one packet at a time, with packets varying from one sector to all the sectors on a disk. The CD-WORM disks will store about 640Mbytes of data (current WORM disks store about 200Mbytes) and eventually cost about $10 per disk because of a shared technology with audio CDs. The projected price of CD-WORM drives due to arrive in about 18 months is $2,000. Practically paperless. (case studies in document image processing) Harvey, David A.; Ryan, Bob. Case studies in the application of document image processing (DIP) technology demonstrate its advantages. DIP is making the concept of a paperless office a reality for some businesses. Alitalia employs LaserData's LaserView Document Image Management System to store and retrieve 30,000 yearly purchase orders and each of the ten legally required supporting documents. Northwest Airlines uses Metafile's Metaview DIP system at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport to store and access maintenance manuals and parts catalogs on optical disk systems linked to a local area network (LAN). CompuLink developed a networked DIP system for the lawyers at Executive Life (Los Angeles, CA) that consists of a NetWare LAN and LaserFiche LAN document-imaging software. The system enables lawyers to retrieve information by both content and context. San Antonio, TX, insurance firm USAA employs the largest DIP system in the world, the prototype for IBM's ImagePlus MVS/EVA system. It is expected to reach 250 million documents with over 1.5 billion pages by 1995. The evolution of DIP. (document image processing) Silver, David. Microcomputer-based document image processing (DIP) systems are becoming an essential technology for managing large numbers of documents. Early document image management systems based on microfilm technologies emerged in the 1970s. Computerized DIP systems arrived in the early 1980s as a result of advances in computers and peripherals. The early DIP systems were typically minicomputer-based and expensive. The advent of low-cost microcomputers, declines in the price of optical storage, the arrival of off-the-shelf add-in boards with specialized DIP functionality and improvements in scanners, laser printers, displays, networks and data base management systems have made DIP much cheaper, more useful and generally available. Forthcoming improvements in DIP are also discussed. The dark side of DIP. (indexing files produced by document image processing)(includes related article on investigating indexing) Indexing addresses a central and complex problem in document image processing (DIP) and the storage of documents in digital form: the retrieval of data relevant to a particular query. DIP systems may be able to convert hardcopy to ASCII or other formats suitable for digital storage, but data storage and retrieval systems typically do not contain any implicit mechanism for knowing what the stored text contains. The inability to rapidly determine the availability of and retrieve relevant information from text can be very costly to an organization. Subject indexing of text to facilitate retrieval can be implemented by such tools as the Library of Congress Subject Headings or the CDMARC Subject CD-ROM, which provides controlled vocabularies consisting of keywords and broader, narrower and related terms. Shortcomings of fixed-field data base fields, abstracting, DIP of mixed graphics-text documents and epistemology are also discussed. Divide and conquer: neural networks take a novel approach to the problems of automatic handwriting recognition. (Nestor Applied Nestor Applied Systems has developed a combined software and neural-network- based multiprocessor add-in board, NestorReader, that can be trained in real time to read handprinted characters in English and Japanese. Forms are a major means of communication in our society, but automated recognition of handwritten characters on forms is a complex problem. NestorReader employs an Inmos Transputer-based neural network that can be trained by example to extract a set of feature vectors from each character and compare these to a previously trained and standardized set of characters. Details of the functioning of the handprinted character recognition technology are described. The NestorReader board in an IBM AT-compatible microcomputer recognizes about ten characters per second per transputer module, with recognition speed increasing linearly as new modules are added. The software includes a Microsoft Windows-based user interface. Tame the paper tiger: with OCR, you can enter text into your PC or Mac faster than is humanly possible. (Software Review) (optical A review and comparison of 11 optical character recognition (OCR) software packages concludes that the $19,950-plus Kurzweil K5200 dedicated OCR hardware/software system is the best choice overall. OCR technology theoretically saves time and effort in the input of large amounts of information. Unfortunately, no OCR system achieves 100 percent recognition accuracy, thus requiring manual correction in at least one out of every 100 characters. OCR software also requires substantial processing power, with at least an Intel 80386-based IBM PC or compatible or Macintosh II and lots of memory recommended. Most OCR programs claim to be 'omnifont,' recognizing most nonstylized fonts without maintaining large font dictionaries or training. Other typical or desirable features of OCR packages are discussed. Recommended OCR packages include Calera's WordScan Plus for IBM PC compatibles and OmniPage Mac for the Macintosh. Voices of experience. (five examples of the successful use of optical character recognition) Five examples of the successful use of optical character recognition (OCR) are briefly discussed. OCR systems are being employed to same time and money in such applications as document storage, data entry, desktop publishing and business correspondence. Reader's Digest Association (Pleasantville, NY) uses Calera's WordScan Plus to convert manuscripts and mailing lists into ASCII. The Delaware Public Advocate's office is pleased with how WordScan Plus saves time and effort in porting documents into Microsoft Word for Windows. Rockwell International's North American Aircraft Div (El Segundo, CA) uses an OCR system networked to Macintoshes or a Kurzweil K5200 scanner to input and convert documents relating to the B1 bomber to the ASCII or Interleaf word processor format. TravelSouth USA (Atlanta, GA) employs Xerox's AccuText 1.1 on a Mac IIcx to create a 500-page directory for an annual travel agent and tour operator trade show. Law firm Berenbaum & Weinshienk, PC, uses Caere's OmniPage 386 to speed and simplify the input of documents from varied sources. Script languages: the BASIC of the 1990s? (Software Review) (evaluation) Several new object-oriented programming tools enable users to develop small applications to be developed graphically through the use of 'fields' or 'buttons' that represent a program written in a script language. Such scripting facilities are easier to use than BASIC, although the finished applications are many times slower than BASIC equivalents. The $299 SuperCard from Silicon Beach Software (San Diego, CA) provides more programming tools for the Macintosh than the bundled HyperCard, while the latter is more useful for running programs. The powerful file-handing, import, dBase file handling, dynamic link library and Windows Dynamic Data Exchange capabilities of the $395 ToolBook from Asymetrix Corp (Bellevue, WA) may make it the standard for Microsoft Windows. Spinnaker Software (Cambridge, MA) offers versions of its Spinnaker Plus for both Macintosh and IBM PC-compatible environments. The $149.99 HyperPad from Brightbill-Roberts & Co Ltd (Syracuse, NY) is also discussed. Atlantix, Altos fill DOS-to-UNIX connectivity gaps. (Software Review) (Atlantix Corp's Axcess and Altos Computer Systems' The $4,595 Axcess from Atlantix Corp (Boca Raton, FL) and the $3,150-plus NetWare for Altos Unix from Altos Computer Systems (San Jose, CA) are useful and effective software packages that enable UNIX-based host computers to provide a variety of services to client microcomputers running MS-DOS. Axcess enables an Intel 80386- or 80486-based host system running SCO Unix V 3.2.2 or SCO Open Desktop to act as an SMB/NetBIOS server, offering print and file services to MS-DOS clients and providing terminal emulation for access to UNIX applications and services. NetWare for Altos Unix is an implementation of Portable NetWare that runs on top of Altos Unix System Von Altos Series 5000 System 400 or 700 computers. The software enables the Altos host to provide print and file services and UNIX terminal emulation to NetWare clients running MS-DOS. Features and functions of both software packages are discussed. Low-cost 3-D animation materializes for PC users. (Software Review) (Autodesk's 3D Studio; includes related article on the The $2,995 3D Studio from Autodesk (Sausalito, CA) is a complete professional three-dimensional modeling and animation software package useful for a wide range of design, animation and multimedia applications. The software includes five integrated modules: 2-D shaper, 3-D extruder, 3-D editor, materials editor and keyframer. Functions available in each of these modules are discussed. Other examples of 3D Studio's numerous features include pull-down and side menus accessed by mouse or digitizer tablet, import and export of DXF wire-frame models, tree-based command structure, hierarchical animation capabilities and good tutorial and 'massive' documentation. The minimum host system required is an Intel 80386- or 80486-based IBM PC or compatible with a math coprocessor, 3Mbytes of random-access memory, 20Mbytes of free hard disk space, compatible 80386 BIOS and VGA display. The fastest portable: IBM's P75 road warrior. (Hardware Review) (IBM's PS/2 Model P75 portable microcomputer) (evaluation) The 33-MHz Intel 80486-based IBM PS/2 Model P75 486 is the most powerful portable computer available, but the lunchbox package weighs 22 pounds and has a base price of $15,990. The $19,502 configuration tested included 8Mbytes of SIMM random-access memory with a 36-bit-wide data path, 400Mbyte SCSI hard disk drive, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, 10-inch 640-by-480-pixel gas-plasma display with 16-level gray scale, two 16-bit half-size and two 32-bit full-length Micro Channel Architecture slots, enhanced 101-key keyboard, internal 2400-bps modem, video port supporting an external XGA display, SCSI controller, external floppy and SCSI connectors, 120-watt power supply and serial, parallel and mouse ports. The P75 486 is the fastest portable that the BYTE laboratories have tested, but most comparable desktop systems tested are faster. Details of the design and functioning of the P75 486 are discussed. Access Extended Edition and dBase data with InfoAlliance. (Software Review) (Sofware Publishing Corp's data integrator and InfoAlliance (IA) from Software Publishing Corp (Mountain View, CA) is a useful tool for integrating data from such data sources as .DBF files from dBase and compatible data base management system (DBMS) products, IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition (EE) Database Manager and IA's resident DBMS into OS/2 Presentation Manager applications built with the EE Database Manager or with IA. IA will transfer the data across a local area network to OS/2 clients running IA. Versions forthcoming in mid-1991 will support Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language) Server and IBM's DB2, which also supports SQL, and Windows clients. The quality of the IA interface, its display of data bases and how well IA functions with EE are demonstrated in a detailed test of the software on server and client platforms. Its major drawback is an inability to use EE's query language. A graphical environment that runs where Windows can't. (Software Review) (GeoWorks Ensemble) (evaluation) The $199.95 GeoWorks Ensemble from GeoWorks Inc (Berkeley, CA) consists of a multitasking graphical user interface (GUI) and several basic end-user applications, all of which can effectively run on any IBM PC-compatible microcomputer that has at least 512Kbytes of random-access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, MS-DOS 2.0 or later and a CGA or better display. The software is based on the PC/GEOS operating-system layer, which supports dynamic memory and object management, preemptive multitasking and interprocess communications. The GUI itself resembles the UNIX-based Motif GUI. Bundled applications include a fast, intuitive and easy-to-use file manager; GeoWrite, a basic graphical word processor; GeoDraw, a basic drawing program; the GeoDex Rolodex program; GeoPlanner, a planning application; the GeoComm telecommunications program; and scrapbook, notepad and calculator utilities. The lack of third-party applications and programming tools is a significant disadvantage. ALR's multiprocessing monster uses six i486 processors. (Hardware Review) (the Advanced Logic Research MultiAcess Series 3000 UNIX The impressive symmetric multiprocessing MultiAccess Series 3000 (Model 20 was reviewed) file server from Advanced Logic Research of Irvine, CA can host as many as six 25-MHz or 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessors (MPUs) to provide over 150,000 Dhrystones/sec performance serving up to 160 networked users. The $50,064 system tested (prices begin at $15,999) included four 25-MHz MPU modules with a 256Kbyte cache on each, a SCSI controller with a 33-MHz Intel 80386, 650Mbyte SCSI hard disk drive, 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, 150Mbyte DC-600 cartridge tape drive; 16Mbytes of random-access memory, 800-by-600 ALR VGA adapter, ALR FlexView 2X Super VGA monitor, one parallel and two serial ports, thick/thin Ethernet port, 13 dual C-bus/ISA expansion slots and 12 serial I/O ports for connection to terminal concentrator boxes that support up to eight users. The MultiAccess Series 3000 is well-suited to applications where many users do MPU-intensive analyses on large sets of shared data. SX upgrade boards: not for the fainthearted. (Hardware Review) (brief reviews of the Cumulus 386SX and MicroWay FastCache-SX Intel 80386SX-based add-in processor boards are a costly way of upgrading an Intel 80286-based IBM AT-compatible microcomputer and are very likely to cause compatibility problems. A review and comparison of two such 16-MHz boards, the $590 Cumulus 386SX from Cumulus Corp (Cleveland, OH) and the $590 FastCache-SX from MicroWay Inc (Kingston, MA), recommends the former as the better choice if the user is not adept with hardware. A new 80386SX motherboard would be a better choice, though. A 16-MHz brand-name 80386SX motherboard with 1Mbyte of random-access memory, for example, can be bought for under $400 from a mail-order retailer. The Cumulus 386SX is a tiny daughterboard that plugs into the host system's microprocessor socket and includes a socket for an 80386SX math coprocessor. The FastCache-SX is a 3/4-length 16-bit board that is faster than the Cumulus in part due to a 25-nanosecond SRAM cache memory. The design and functionality of the boards are detailed. Corel Draw ups the ante in Windows-based graphics. (Software Review) (evaluation) Version 2.0 of the $695 Corel Draw drawing software package from Corel Systems (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) for Windows 3.0 is still easy to use but offers important enhancements, including the ability to create three-dimensional images and text and to draw in Bezier mode. Users have greater control over fills and the ability to extend the process and spot color palettes with CMYK, RGB or HSF color models. A new Effects menu adds vanishing-points perspective, blending of two objects, 3D-extrusion and enveloping facilities. New text management features include the ability to design custom Adobe Type 1 fonts, extracting and merging of text blocks and print merges. New Tools facilities include improved graphics export and import functions, better positioning control, full-screen preview and interruptible redraws. The major drawbacks are slow redrawing of complex filled objects and a bug in the drawing rescaling facility. SPARC revealed: a close look at Sun's increasingly popular architecture for high-performance workstations. (includes related Sun Microsystems' SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) architecture has become a family of standards on which a growing number of RISC processor, workstation, peripheral hardware and software manufacturers are basing products. These standards are defined in large part by SPARC International's 'SPARC Compliance Definition 2.0' and other documents which specify such aspects of the technology as the configuration of SPARC processor architectures, hardware and software standards that SPARC-compliant systems must meet, MBus central-processing unit pinout and the SBus peripheral interface bus. Details of the SPARC instruction set, register windowing, branching instruction handling, and the evolution of the architecture are discussed. Macintosh video revealed: a journey to the center of the Mac reveals an elegant design for device-independent graphics. Routines are developed for determining an Apple Macintosh screen's pixel depth, the graphics mode currently being supported, displaying the information on a particular screen and changing the mode. The Color QuickDraw graphics facility included in the Mac Toolbox collection of ROM services provides device-independent graphics support, including 1-to-32-bit pixel depth, handling of color in internal color space, gigantic potential screen size, graphics forms and styled text. Color QuickDraw employs GDevice (graphic device) logical data structures for each monitor. The GDevices are used by simple routines to determine the pixel depth. A collection of Slot Manager routines enables the location of, extraction of information from and configuration of graphics boards. Board pixel depth data can be obtained that enables users to easily change the mode of a display. A fast, easy sort: a few simple modifications to a bubble sort greatly speed up this classic routine. (includes related article A simple generalization of a bubble sort, the Combsort, is developed that offers superior sorting speed for all types of lists plus ease of coding. Bubble sort routines are easy to write and debug, intuitive and require little memory, but are extremely slow because the routines involve the comparison of one list element to the next, with the lowest value 'bubbling' ahead in the list. Bubble sorting is slowed even more when a relatively low value is near the end of a list to be sorted, requiring many comparisons for the element (nicknamed a 'turtle') to slowly move up to its appropriate position in the sorted list. Combsort eliminates turtles by allowing the distance between elements to be compared be greater than one up to the list length divided by 1.3. This enables turtles to make large jumps. The distance is successively reduced as more and more elements near their final positions. Roger and me: the quest for compatibility. (solving compatibility problems on a Macintosh SE computer) The Macintosh computer's promise that third-party hardware and software for the system would work 'right out of the box' is sometimes impeded by violations of Apple's System resource guidelines. This is exemplified by the failure of a Macintosh SE (owned by movie reviewer Roger Ebert) to boot up with a DataDesk Mac-101 keyboard attached. The problem only arose when the the System operating system was upgraded from 6.0.2 to 6.0.6 (later 6.0.7). It turns out that there is a software incompatibility in the DataDesk System resource software that is added to the System Folder. Apple engineers and DataDesk both confirmed that the latter had violated the Apple System guidelines. Fixes did not solve the problem, although the keyboard can be plugged in after the computer is booted. Hopefully, Apple will exert much more 'clout' with vendors with the advent of System 7.0 in 1991. Lost in the woods. (managing UNIX system defaults for effective end-user use)(The UNIX/bin column) (tutorial) System administrators should audit and document UNIX operating system defaults, including start-up defaults for individual users, in order to save system management time, ensure security and satisfy the needs of the users. The growing complexity of UNIX provides new levels of functionality but also requires more attention to learning to use and at times 'work around' that functionality. This impacts both current and new users, in that user log-in environments must reflect both the user's wishes and consistency with the current installation of UNIX programs. Consequently, the system administrator must audit user log-in files to ensure that they achieve both goals. This is exemplified by the addition of a new user to a UNIX system. Getting around impediments to the solution of specific user requirements is demonstrated by the creation of a user account requiring a four-character password. Windows 3.0 and networks. (rules for the use of Windows 3.0 on local area networks) (tutorial) Eight important rules for installing and running the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) on a local area network (LAN) are discussed. The GUI was designed from the start to run on LANs, but many problems can occur. Users should always install the network operating software before installing Windows 3.0, install as much of Windows as possible on the workstation, ensure that Windows-compatible network drivers are resident, not run Windows on a non-dedicated network server, load the network drivers into extended or expanded memory if possible not access the same file from two MS-DOS sessions if possible and watch out for memory, interrupt and and port-address conflicts. The final rule is to consider soliciting help from LAN and Windows forums on on-line services when unable to solve a problem. A smaller, faster OS/2: OS/2 1.3 is a technical success but a marketing flop. The new, relatively compact version 1.3 of IBM's OS/2 operating system may be a technologically superior product to MS-DOS and the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI), but IBM's poor marketing of the product will not attract many of the 50 million MS-DOS users to OS/2's capabilities. OS/2 1.3 offers true multitasking, faster File Manager functionality, virtual memory, and an improved scripting language, but the included Presentation Manager GUI is not as sophisticated or flexible as that in Windows 3.0. Printing capabilities have finally been incorporated. Unfortunately, IBM has done little aggressive marketing of OS/2 1.3, is selling it for $350 and provides no upgrade path to attract MS-DOS users. Conversely, Microsoft's advertising and $50 upgrade to Windows 3.0 attracted a huge number of computer users. Let my PCs go. (ensure that networking does not constrain the creativity of individual personal computer users) The goal of the microcomputer revolution was to provide users with functional and creative freedom that would translate into cost-effective and timely development of applications in house and more effective individual productivity. Unfortunately, an insidious counterrevolution by corporate management information systems (MIS) operations has gradually regained control over microcomputers in many organizations. The growth of local area networks required some kind of central arbiter on the hardware, communications protocols and procedures and media. Subsequently, MIS assumed responsibility for the standardization of microcomputers and software. Control over the latter was facilitated by the advent of viruses. The desire for reliable and easy-to-use hardware and software also contributes to the constraint of creative control over individual microcomputers. Personal computers as research tools. (SIGCHI and CSCW conferences, 1990) The 1990 SIGCHI and CSCW conferences demonstrated that researchers can successfully use microcomputers as research tools in computer science research. At SIGCHI, one researcher used an Apple Macintosh to illustrate Fitts's Law, having it run typical Fitts experiments. LC Technologies Inc showed their development system for eye-position input that uses an IBM-compatible microcomputer and a video camera with a mounted LED that tracks eye movement. At the CSCW conference, the development tool Object Lens was used in the graphical Issue Based Information System (IBIS), which establishes a framework for design issues. Some in the research community feel the programming language for the project should be HyperCard. A tool such as Object Lens can either demonstrate vital elements of existing systems or be used to evaluate and prototype new systems. Standards and the emergence of digital multimedia systems. (includes glossary of terms) Standards will have far-reaching effects on the multimedia technology industry. The scope of computers and communications will expand into the areas of television and publishing. Integrated digital archives will store video, audio, and images, as well as data and text now recorded. Hypertext will develop into hypermedia and will be vital in document processing. Every branch of computer science will have a role in this growing field and will contribute to the development of digital multimedia systems. Interactive digital multimedia applications will change the way people learn and will have the potential to motivate them to learn and discover more. Research involving analog videodiscs will lead to more effective digital versions. The JPEG still picture compression standard. (Joint Photographic Experts Group) (technical) The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is developing a general purpose compression standard that will be applicable to almost any continuous-tone still-image applications. The proposed standard contains four modes of operation, including sequential encoding, progressive encoding, lossless encoding and hierarchical encoding. The Discrete Cosine Transform-based (DCT) modes of operation consider compression as a stream of 8 by 8 blocks of gray-scale image samples, with color image compression regarded as compression of multiple grayscale images. These images are compressed one at a time or are compressed alternately by interleaving 8 by 8 sample blocks from each. The lossless mode of operation uses a predictive method which is independent of DCT processing. Hierarchical encoding is best used in applications where a high resolution image needs to be accessed by a lower-resolution device that lacks the buffer capacity for image reconstruction or scale-down for the lower-resolution display. Extensive details are presented. NEXTstep: putting JPEG to multiple uses. (Joint Photographic Experts Group draft image compression standard) (technical) NeXT Inc is using the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) draft image compression standard in several of its products. NeXTstep is the standard operating environment on NeXT computers and uses Tag Image File Format (TIFF) as its standard image format. NeXTstep supports TIFF file use through the NXImage class. Version 2.0 of the operating system offers JPEG standard support to all TIFF reading and writing facilities. All applications using the NXImage class can now read JPEG-compressed TIFF files, which are read transparently to applications. The company also introduces hardware JPEG processing on its NeXTdimension graphics board, letting standard-resolution video be compressed or decompressed at real-time rates. Video frames can be compressed and transferred to hard disks at a rate of 30 frames per second. Playback can also be read from the disk and decompressed. Users can then display the playback in a subwindow of a megapixel display or direct it to a video output jack. MPEG: a video compression standard for multimedia applications. (Moving Picture Experts Group) (technical) The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standard addresses compression of video signals at approximately 1.5M-bits. MPEG is a generic standard and is independent of any particular applications. Applications of compressed video on digital storage media include asymmetric applications such as electronic publishing, games and entertainment. Symmetric applications of digital video include video mail, video conferencing, videotelephone and production of electronic publishing. Design of the MPEG algorithm presents a difficult challenge since quality requirements demand high compression that cannot be achieved with only intraframe coding. The algorithm's random access requirement, however, is best satisfied with pure intraframe coding. MPEG uses predictive and interpolative coding techniques to answer this challenge. Extensive details are presented. Overview of the px64 kbit/s video coding standard. (technical) Liou, Ming. The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) Study Group XV Recommendation H.261 Video Codec for Audiovisual Services at p x 64K-bit/s international standard is for videophone and videoconferencing services that can be used on the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). The CCITT has also adopted visual telephony video formats, including the Common Intermediate Format (CIF) and the Quarter-CIF (QCIF). The use of CIF is optional, but all codecs must be able to operate with QCIF. The maximum picture rate for both QCIF and CIF is 30000/1001 frames per second, which is approximately 29.97 frames per second. Users choose CIF or QCIF depending on the availability of ISDN channel capacity. The CCITT's video coding algorithm has the CIF and QCIF divided into a hierarchical block structure that consists of Pictures, Groups of Blocks, Macro Blocks and Blocks. Extensive details are presented. The i750 video processor: a total multimedia solution. (includes related article on implementation, performance and system cost of Intel's i750 video processor is a low-cost very large scale integration (VLSI) solution for delivery of full multimedia capabilities to personal microcomputers and workstations. The video processor's significant increase in multimedia performance is a result of new video-rate digital signal processing (DSP) architecture that is matched to video-oriented processing requirements. The i750 is comprised of the 82750PB (PB) pixel processor and the 82750DB (DB) display processor. The PB is responsible for most of the data processing and control functions in a Digital Video Interactive (DVI) subsystem. The DB performs real-time display functions and provides outputs supporting video synchronization and image capture. Microcode level programmability allows application developers and hardware original equipment manufacturers (OEM) flexibility in providing end-user requirements without compromising performance or system cost. Extensive details are presented. CD-I full-motion video encoding on a parallel computer. (includes related articles on the Parallel Object-Oriented Machine and the Video sequences need to be coded for production of compact disc-interactive (CD-I) discs that have full-motion video. CD-I players must be equipped with full-motion video decoding hardware. A full-motion video coding algorithm is implemented on the Parallel Object-Oriented Machine (POOMA) experimental parallel computer system. This allows for a fast encoder in experiments with image quality and production. Parallelism is introduced on POOMA by processing several frames simultaneously in the motion estimation phase and then by the processing several frame parts in parallel during the video compression phase. Parallel encoding on the POOMA reaches an almost linear speedup for up to 100 processors and returns encoding time for long video sequences to workable proportions. Extensive details are presented. Feature sets for interactive images. Lippman, Andrew. Digital video is distinguished from other representations through several aspects of digital representation, including standard independence, variable resolution, transmission options, quality options, intraframe interactions and resource allocation. Video representation for multimedia or interactive use should offer the basis of a merger before the screen of the video with other data types. The parameters of display should be determined at viewing time instead of at the time of encoding. This separation is called scalability and allows for the allocation of screen space, receiver resources, bandwidth and image quality. Scalability is important to include in a standard since its variability in higher bandwidth applications is both effective and important. A model combining the efficiency of predictive coders and the multiscale attributes of pyramids should be investigated. Toward an open environment for digital video. (technical) Liebhold, Michael; Hoffert, Eric M. Several communications and data exchange issues must be considered in moving toward an open environment for digital video. Digital representation of video allows integration of video as a data type along with other computer-stored digital data and the capability of being duplicated with no quality loss from one storage media to another. A universal video descriptor is a high-level wrapper that would let any video stream be interpreted on any type of device and independent of embedded underlying data in the descriptor. It is essential that conversion of data from one digital compression format to another must be easy for users and must result in only minimal image quality loss in an open environment. Cross-conversions are also necessary due to the number of different video formats that could require transcoding. Issues must also be considered regarding open digital video communications on both local- and wide-area networks and their different topologies. Extensive details are presented. The digital news system at Educom: a convergence of interactive computing, newspapers, television and high-speed networks. A research system that combines television, newspapers and the interactivity of microcomputers is presented at the EDUCOM conference. The system lets users drive the news by proceeding directly to items of interest and bypassing stories of lesser interest. It is capable of giving users access to additional information on a particular news topic. Cable News Network (CNN) provides a direct microwave video link and incoming video is copied to a writable optical videodisk. Video clips and still images are digitized and compressed in software for playback on Macintosh computers. Graphical images and newswire text are received electronically. Digital news content is distributed from the production studio by way of a hybrid network consisting of two Ethernet LANs. Users can browse through the news interactively at news stations equipped with a Macintosh IIci that offers video clips with sound, still images, text and graphics. Video-based context-sensitive help is also provided. Multimedia electronic mail: will the dream become a reality? Borenstein, Nathaniel S. Multimedia electronic mail systems would allow for users to exchange formatted text, animation, pictures, video and so on. Users of products such as Microsoft Mail and NeXT's mail system can currently create and read bitmap pictures, but cannot exchange them, due to incompatible formats. A large number of proposed standards, as well as technical uncertainty about format requirements, has delayed the development of multimedia mail. An e-mail exchange standard is critical in the multimedia world since without a standard users can never be sure that their multimedia messages are readable by recipients. Bottom up media mail offers an approach that can at least temporarily obviate the need of an exchange standard. This method allows user agents to notice when a piece of mail is unreadable and then call to an external program that tells how to translate and display various data formats. The user agent then runs appropriate local software to display the message to the user. Font follies. (Programming on Purpose) (column) Plauger, P. J. A discussion of the problems inherent in formatting and computer printing includes a review of several formatting and font packages, including the nroff/troff package that comes with UNIX. This package greatly extended formatting capabilities, but debugging page layout was extremely difficult, due in part to the formatting, or markup, characters used. Ventura Publisher is a significant improvement; markup characters may still be used, but Ventura handles all formatting, saving the file with markup codes. Fonts are necessary to reproduce the different typefaces seen in typeset documents. These fonts also need to be scaled appropriately. Type management packages discussed include Bitstream's Fontware and Facelift packages, and Adobe's Type Manager. Some problems encountered trying to work with Ventura Publisher in various combinations with other packages are detailed. Exploring ERD tools. (entity-relationship diagram; includes a related article on books and software tools) (Tools of the Trade) The third in a series on structured analysis methods focuses on the use of entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs), using the public health system, in particular a restaurant inspection system, to illustrate some of the concepts of and difficulties inherent in attempting to model data. Creating an ERD is the second step in applying structured methods to analyzing and defining the domain of a project. The particular approach to ERDs used is the method propounded by Sally Shlaer and Steven Mellor, which shows attributes as a list within an object class. The relative merits and debits of this approach are highlighted. Since most computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools do not support lists within an object class symbol, using a child drawing linked to the object class is suggested as a means of showing attributes. The ERD is carried through four iterations, each slightly more complex than the preceding one. In praise of 1990's best. (the winners of the 1990 Computer Language Productivity Awards; includes a related article on Jolt The 1990 Computer Language Productivity Award winners are presented. The products are those which most impressed the staff during the past year. Awards were presented in the following categories: compilers and interpreters, libraries, tools, CASE tools, environments, books, and special awards. Several of the products merited a special award due to their overwhelming impact on the programming industry. This special award was cosponsored by Jolt Cola, an extremely popular drink among hackers and programmers, and is designated the Jolt Cola Product Excellence Award. Jolt awards were presented to Borland's Turbo C++ Professional and Watcom Systems' Watcom C 8.0 in the compiler and interpreter category; Zinc Software's Zinc Interface Library, Base Two Development's Spontaneous Assembly 2.0, and TurboPower Software's Object Professional in the libraries category; Nu-Mega Technologies' Bounds Checker 1.11 in the tools category; Cadre Technologies' TeamWork 3.1 among the CASE tools; NeXT Computer's NeXTstep Extended Edition 2.0 in the environment category; Ellis and Stroutrup's Annotated C in the book category; and Microsoft Windows 3.0 in the special category. Testing, testing...; how to establish software testing as a part of your development cycle. (tutorial) Programmers often ignore software testing because of the enormity of the process. Given the right approach, the task can be reduced to a manageable size. A test plan must be developed that shows what will be tested, how it will be tested, and who will do the testing. Every feature of a package should be tested for response to normal, boundary and invalid conditions. Determining the parameters that establish whether a condition is normal, boundary or invalid can be done from specifications, known as black box testing, or by testing the code itself, known as white box testing. Testing should be a matter of comparing what the computer or the package does to what it should do. Testing should be performed by someone other than the person who wrote the code. Beta testing can provide helpful input, but a package should be fairly thoroughly tested before it is released for beta test. It is vital not to allow market pressures to force the release of an insufficiently tested product. Lotus Add-In Toolkit 3.1. (includes a related article on the Lotus Programming Language) (Software Review) (evaluation) The Lotus Add-In Toolkit for 1-2-3 3.1 from Lotus Development Corp incorporates the Lotus Programming Language (LPL) compiler, a DOS-only debugger for LPL files, a pure ASCII text editor and Rational Systems' Instant-D debugger for applications running under DOS/16M. The Toolkit is intended to simplify portability and accessibility issues for nonprofessional programmers. Documentation is well-written, but not well-organized. Installation is automatic, and the distribution of files, while satisfactory for those using the LPL compiler, is less than optimum for those working in C. The Toolkit is vital for programmers seeking to create add-ins for 1-2-3 3.x, and offers significantly more built-in functionality than Lotus' Developer Tools. Add-In Toolkit 3.1 is priced at $395; upgrades from 1.0 purchased on or after Sep 1, 1990, are free; otherwise, upgrades cost $89.95. Microsoft Video Course. Cutrona, Louis J., Jr. Microsoft Corp has produced a video course designed to help experienced software developers become familiar with the nuances of developing for the Windows environment. Course materials consist of five VHS video cassettes, a 162-page student workbook and a 232-page lab exercise book, and four 5.25-inch diskettes with hands-on exercises, sample code, errata, and answers to the problem sets; 3.5-inch diskettes are available on request. The video itself is some 4.5 hours long, but the lab exercises will occupy from 30 to 35 hours. The exercises are well-thought-out, but they contain a fair amount of errors and omissions, not all of which are called out in the errata. The quality of the video presentation leaves much to be desired. Worst of all, it is not really set up for use by more than one student at a time. This is particularly frustrating for those who need to train a number of programmers. All in all, at a price of $2,995, with a charge of $249 plus $25 shipping and handling for additional student materials, this is not a good value. STSC APL*Plus PC v.10. (Software Review) (evaluation) Hardell, Wes. STSC's APL*Plus PC 10 is a $695 interpreter for APL, a descriptive notation that defines algorithms for data structure manipulation and other programming processes. The software comes on eight 5.25-inch diskettes; 3.5-inch floppies are also available. Installation is a breeze. Documentation is thorough and clear; it includes a set of keyboard symbol decals and a keyboard reference card. Three different interpreters are included; two standard APL interpreters and an extended-system interpreter. Enhancements provided by STSC include the ability to customize help screens, error and exception handling, I/O to arbitrary devices, and the use of English keywords in place of APL operators. Ninety days free telephone support is provided. STSC APL*Plus PC 10 is everything one could ask for in an APL interpreter and more. Infinitesimals and derivatives. (applying numerical analysis to software development) (Building Blocks) (tutorial) The application of methods used in numerical analysis courses to increasing software reliability is considered. Among the methods examined are several for numerical differentiation, a technique used almost universally in numerical analysis. These methods include finding a forward difference, a backward difference, and a central difference. A program is provided that generates a series of values. Several points should be borne in mind when using these techniques. Differences are not differentials. Arithmetic errors will produce erroneous derivatives. Taylor's series is the approximation method of choice. Points are rarely made effectively with computers. Point-of-care revolution. (analysis of the growth in the demand for point-of-care systems in hospitals) A 1990 survey of 80 hospitals in the US by Computers in Healthcare demonstrates that the interest in bedside information systems is increasing. Results indicate almost one in 10 responding hospitals have implemented systems. While market penetration is less than two percent because of cost justification concerns, the survey reveals that 41 percent of responding hospitals are interested in the systems to support more nursing productivity. Other reasons to implement a point-of-care system include: enhancing care quality, reducing medical errors and improving data quality. Patient care systems: Do they meet the needs of nursing? (comparison of the IBM Patient Care System and TDS hospital A survey of nursing administrators at 24 hospitals in the US was conducted by CMB Consulting to analyze whether patient care systems are meeting the automation needs of nursing staffs. Survey results reveal that there are lower satisfaction rates for hospitals using the IBM Patient Care System (PCS) as compared to those hospitals using the TDS patient care system. Specifically, nursing staffs are unhappy with the slow completion rate for the IBM PCS, which has resulted in lost staff hours. In contrast, TDS users are happy with their ability to access almost all patient care functions and they are looking into using the system for more advanced activities such as forecasting. Survey results also indicate that, overall, both patient care systems provide important benefits related to time savings, quick information access and improved data recording accuracy. VA develops integrated text and image data system. (Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center) The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. has created a hospital information system (HIS) which combines text and image data. The new system allows physicians from a full range of clinical specialties to look at patients' complete records in an efficient manner. The HIS runs on inexpensive 80386-based microcomputers and its imaging component uses a Truevision VISTA imaging circuit board for real-color image digitization displayed on an analog RGB monitor. The system can gather video images from a variety of sources including digital file transfer, video cameras and scanning digitizers. Currently, both text and image communications are based on Ethernet. Rightsizing. (Microsoft Corp.'s approach to downsizing) (Editor on the Go) (editorial) Microsoft Corp has a new term, 'rightsizing,' coined to describe its approach to the future of operating systems. Rightsizing is defined as picking the optimum combination of technologies for a given situation. In the stratified market envisioned by Microsoft, each of its offerings has a specific place. Microsoft's ultimate goal is a package it designates OS/2 3.0, but which is actually an operating system kernel called New Technology (NT), on top of which OS/2, DOS, Windows, POSIX, and possibly Unix can all run as subsystems. IBM, which has access to all Microsoft developments, could throw a monkeywrench into Microsoft's plans, which depend on Microsoft having sole control of MS-DOS and OS/2. Should IBM choose to release non-conforming versions of the two systems, it will be interesting to see which camp other industry firms choose to join. Serving up graphics in Windows applications. (Pinnacle Publishing's Graphics Server SDK) (Software Review) (Fast Takes) Graphics Server SDK is a $495 add-on software package designed to simplify graphics programming in the Microsoft Windows environment. Graphics Server SDK offers an excellent range of features and functions that handle many of the time-consuming details of such operations as creating a pie chart, bar chart, or other graph. The documentation that accompanies the package has some serious deficits, some of which can be attributed to the fact that Graphics Server is currently in transition from support of Windows 2.x to 3.0. Fortunately, technical support is excellent, and easily accessible. Even with the support, those new to Windows programming may find Graphics Server SDK on the mystifying side. Applications using Graphics Server may be distributed royalty-free. Version 1.1 of Graphics Server SDK is available now for an upgrade cost of $49; it includes a new demo program and full support for Windows 3.0. Writing code, SBT-style. (Developers' Platform from SBT Corp.) (Fast Takes) (evaluation) SBT Corp has long been a producer of X-Base source code accounting software. Now the firm has released Developers' Platform, a $295 package designed to help programmers modify applications based on SBT's software. Developers' Platform comprises a manual and several disk-based files that focus on system design and documentation. The package is essentially a course in how SBT programmers create applications. More than half the Developers' Platform focuses on documentation, including manual organization. The creation of limited-function trial programs is also supported. A $35 royalty fee applies to modified applications. This excellent package is essential for SBT developers. Coding magic with Multi-Edit. (American Cybernetics, Inc.'s program editor) (Software Review) (Fast Takes) (evaluation) Multi-Edit 5.0, from American Cybernetics, is an extremely flexible, highly functional program editor that supports simultaneous editing of up to 100 files. Each file is displayed in its own window, which can be linked to other windows, allowing related changes to be easily made in various sections of a long file. Expanded memory and disk space are used to allow Multi-Edit to edit large files of up to two billion lines. Other nice touches are the ability to recognize file extensions, and a a time-saving function called 'Template Editing' that can be customized to fit the programmer's needs. On-line, context-sensitive help provides all the assistance needed; documentation is essentially a hardcopy of the on-line help. Technical support is easily accessible, responsive and accurate. Multi-Edit is available in two versions: the Professional version is priced at $179; the standard version sells for $99. COOLed off. (COOL 2.0, from Paul D. Sheriff and Associates) (Software Review) (Fast Takes) (evaluation) COOL is an acronym for Clipper Object Oriented Library. Devoting a section of the manual to object-oriented techniques does not an object-oriented package make, however, and that's as close as this $199.95 package ever gets. The documentation is badly in need of a rewrite. Installation is problematic, and code quality is average. COOL might be best described as a collection of function and system development tools that might offer faster development than starting from square one. The package might be appealing to some programmers fascinated with source code, and with all the work that went into this package the individual programmer may find something worthwhile. COOL 2.0 is a good idea that misses the mark; perhaps the next version will be on target. Produce pop-up menus. (Mac Rubel's Power Tools)(technical column) (tutorial) A technique for creating pop-up menus from a single line of code is presented. The technique discussed creates a generic pop-up and can be used to create not only the sample menu presented but also any other menu. The underlying window must be the same size as the pop-up; this is best accomplished by working backward; that is, define the menu first, thus creating an appropriately-sized window. A type-in program called POPMENU is presented which has been optimized for speed, not length of programming code. The number of choices in the illustrated menu has been limited to five, but the limits can be expanded as needed, although it should be remembered that the size of the program increases with the number of options. Controlling key violations. (includes a related article on Paradox's three editing modes) (Paradox Programmer)(technical Paradox programming requires that each record have a unique key, usually a field or a combination of fields in a table. These unique keys allow records in related tables to be linked unambiguously, and simplify many other relational processing aspects. Attempting to introduce a non-unique key into a table triggers a key violation. Anticipating and dealing with such key violations can be difficult, particularly in PAL programs, that are designed for data entry. The use of the WAIT TABLE and WAIT RECORD commands is described and illustrated with a series of examples, progressing through several levels of complexity. A seven-step WAIT RECORD prototype is provided, along with a sample script. Duplicate keys should always be considered when testing a program. WAIT RECORD programs should be based on a clearly organized model. Upgrading to Paradox 3.5 provides access to the RECORDSTATUS() function, a useful tool for identifying and fixing key violations. The secrets of array handling, part 2. (Hardcore Clipper)(technical column) (tutorial) The second article in a series on Clipper 5.0's array handling capabilities focuses on the implementation of Clipper objects as arrays. These arrays can be used as a general-purpose data structuring tool. Code blocks, which can parameterize the logic of a routine, can be used to process arrays of any structure. The ASCAN() and ASORT() functions of Clipper 5.0 are explored in some detail, with particular attention given to the way code blocks work within them. Differences between Clipper Summer '87 and 5.0 are highlighted. Multi-dimensional and nested arrays are explored. Finally, an extendible pull-down menu declaration is presented. You too can succeed. (at downsizing) (Downsizing Solutions) Tandowski, Ben. Downsizing is a computer industry buzzword that can refer to moving mainframe applications to minicomputers or to microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs). It can also refer to developing LAN versions of applications usually run on mainframes. Downsizing cuts across all levels of business. Before starting a downsizing project a clear vision statement, implementation strategy and plan should be written. The vision statement must present the goals of the project and their justifications. The strategy sets out the logistics of achieving the goals established in the vision statement, and includes a list of the technologies involved, a method for handling problems that may arise, what kind of internal and/or external help is needed, and staffing requirements. The written plan establishes phases, milestones, responsibilities and funding levels for each year of the project. Four rules for downsizing databases. (Downsizing Solutions) Finkelstein, Rich. Downsizing offers economic benefits arising from lower hardware and software costs, reduced maintenance expenses, shortened development cycles, and greater flexibility. Downsizing is not free, however, and has some associated risks. These risks can be avoided by following certain guidelines. Do not attempt to downsize an entire operation at once. Instead, start with a simple project such as a departmental decision-support application or a user ad hoc query system, which are easier to work with than transaction processing tools. Begin the downsizing process before it becomes a matter of life or death. Stay with mainstream products that have been proven to work together. Consider all possible solutions. Be prepared for the unexpected and be ready to change direction at a moment's notice. The MARINER project. (Mobil Oil's satellite communications network; includes a related article on a new approach to systems Mobil Oil is in the process of converting all its marine transport activities to the microcomputer-based MARINER system, designed originally to support allocation, dispatch and vessel reporting for its deep sea ships. System hardware consists of standalone micros on the ships and two Token-Ring IBM PS/2 local area networks, located in London, England and Fairfax, VA. Software includes FoxPro, FoxPro/LAN 1.02, Novell Netware 386, and Quarterdeck's QEMM memory management software. Ship-to-shore communications are handled by Marinet. A microcomputer-based environment was selected as being more flexible than the mainframe/minicomputer environment currently in use. FoxPro software was selected on the basis of Fox Software's policies, strategic plans and stability. Micro Endeavors Inc, which specializes in FoxPro training, was hired as consultant. The operation of the network is described in some detail. Making the move to database servers. (includes glossary) (Downsizing Solutions) (tutorial) The philosophy behind database servers is to reduce processing bottlenecks without producing a flood of information by dividing the workload and spreading it evenly among all available processors. Guidelines are presented for selecting a database server. Things to consider include what operating systems and environments, including local area network operating systems, will be used, and whether a SQL or non-SQL data base management system should be selected. Features to look for include support for Binary Large Objects, support for distributed data and distributed processing, front-end tools, scalability and portability, connectivity, data and referential integrity, transaction integrity, and vendor support. The applications involved determine the relative importance of these features, so a needs assessment should be done when establishing selection criteria. Finally, political and financial realities must also be considered. You take the high road and I'll.... (adding query optimization to a data base management system) (Database Developer)(technical The addition of query optimization to a database management system (DBMS) offers a number of advantages, including performance improvement, reduction in the required level of procedural coding, reduced maintenance overhead, efficient and accurate execution of queries and reports outside of applications, and the ability to offer fuller support to basic features of the relational data model. Relational DBMSs that use the Structured Query Language (SQL) generally include some form of query optimizer, but vary widely in how well the optimizer works. Query optimizers work in an ordered manner: reduce the query provided to a form more easily handled by the optimizer; create a set of alternate access plans; determine relative costs for each access plan; select and perform the most cost-efficient access plan. An example is presented to illustrate the process. Laying the foundation. (using Clipper 5.0's arrays and code blocks) (Clipper Developer)(technical column) (tutorial) New features found in version 5.0 of Clipper are examined. These features, which include arrays, code blocks and objects, are used to construct user-defined objects (UDOs), covered in a forthcoming series of articles. The arrays in Clipper 5.0 are a true data type, allowing them to be RETURNed from a user-defined function. Because a 5.0 array is merely a reference to a memory location, a single array may be assigned to two variables. Both arrays and code blocks exist only while they are assigned to a variable. A code block is a compiled piece of code assigned to a variable. Code blocks are much more efficient than macros, but should only be used in Clipper functions that require one as a parameter, or when there is no other solution to the problem. A 5.0 object is an instance of a 5.0 class, which assumes the attributes and methods of the class. Objects exist only while referenced. Instance variables are used by an object to hold data. The send operator is used to manipulate objects. Flex reports, part 2. (Hands-On FoxPro)(technical column) (tutorial) Techniques are presented for 'snaking' information across columns using FoxPro's Report Writer function. User-defined functions (UDFs) are the key to solving the three problems presented, which involve records listed consecutively across a page, records 'snaked' down the page and up to the next column, and records 'snaked' by groups. In addition to UDFs, macro expressions, arrays, the IIF() function, and (at;) formatting are used, along with moving the record pointer and using FoxPro's low-level file functions. The advantage to using these methods, as opposed to hard-coding the report, is that they leave the user free to concentrate on report design. A type-in program for the three approaches is provided. When a database manager hides behind Windows. (Superbase 4 Windows 1.2 from Precision Software Ltd.; includes related article on the Superbase 4 Windows 1.2 is a $695 database management system (DBMS) from Precision Software Ltd that was originally developed for the GEM environment and ported to Windows before the release of Microsoft Windows 3.0. Although Superbase makes use of Windows' graphical user interface (GUI), it still relies on the same general design as most X-Base languages. The best use of the Windows GUI is in the Form Designer, a separate program that can be run from the main program window. Superbase 4's program and text editors leave much to be desired, and the documentation is spotty. Unique features of Superbase 4 include a built-in communications package that supports several file transfer protocols. Superbase 4 is more command-oriented than visually-oriented, so it fails to make the best possible use of the Windows GUI. In balance, it is a powerful, easy-to-use package that offers equal or better functionality than other Windows databases, and should be considered by those who need to develop a database in Windows or create a database that has graphical images. Memory hog. (efficient memory use with FoxPro)(includes related article on specific set-up recommendations) (FoxPro The beneficial effects of increased memory on application runtimes are not infinite. Having so much available memory that both programs and databases are accessed entirely from memory is a waste of money and can become inefficient. Tips for making the most of available memory, particularly with regard to FoxPro databases, include moving data temporarily to disk when not in use, rewriting programs to use less memory, changing the computing environment to make more memory available, or waiting for the 386 version of FoxPro, which is said to use all types of memory for all purposes. On a stand-alone machine, all memory should be given directly to FoxPro as expanded memory. For a diskless workstation with no more than 640Kbytes, consider adding more memory. Workstations with a fast hard disk should have all memory allocated to FoxPro as expanded memory, but temporary data and overlays should go on the local hard disk. Workstations with a slow hard disk and more than 1Mbyte of expanded memory should allocate 1Mbyte to a RAM disk for PROGWORK and overlays, leaving the balance for FoxPro. Ten ways to survive the recession. (Opinions) Irwin, David. The government has finally acknowledged that the US economy is in a recession. Steps to take to ensure business and personal economic survival include paying close attention to what opportunities exist and acting on them promptly; maintaining advertising levels; cutting costs and expenses; improving customer service; developing new products; forming strategic alliances; staying with one's current job, rather than trying to explore new avenues; having an alternate plan; keeping work and personal life separate; and not letting bad news cause discouragement. The recession is expected to be short and mild, but that should not be taken for granted. ... Went to the well but the water was dry....(surveying the data base management system arena) (Opinions) Sequiter Software is a bright spot in the bleak data base management software picture. Sequiter's Code Base library simplifies the move to the C programming language. The majority of the JPLDIS family commands that X-Base users are familiar with have been written as C functions, freeing the user from concern with low-level routines and allowing the user to write essentially the same way as always. Code Base runs well under a C++ version such as Borland International Inc's C++ Professional. Since C code runs in C++, the user can write in basic C. Translating a system to C can shrink it nearly 60 percent and gives a threefold runtime improvement. The benefits of learning yet another programming language go far beyond the trouble it takes to learn one, particularly with a tool like Sequiter Software's Code Base. Software patents and Rushmore technology. (possible effects of patent protection) (Opinions) Fox Software is seeking patent protection for its new query technology, dubbed Rushmore, a central component of version 2.0 of its FoxPro data base management system. Questions are already being raised about Rushmore's originality, and thereby its right to a patent. Proponents of software patents maintain that patents encourage innovation by rewarding inventors with exclusive control over their creations for a period of time. In point of fact, software patents have just the opposite effect, creating a climate in which innovation is stifled for fear of violating some other company's or individual's patent, opening the door to a costly lawsuit. The League for Programming Freedom has taken a stand that calls for the rescission of all current software patents. California dreamin'. (profile of Borland International Inc.; includes related articles on the Paradox data base management Borland International, founded by Philippe Kahn, first gained notice in 1983 with the release of Turbo Pascal. This was quickly followed in 1984 with the introduction of Sidekick, which popularized the idea of terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. In 1991, Borland is a leader in the microcomputer software industry, with packages that include Paradox, Quattro Pro, Turbo C and Turbo C++. Many of these products came to Borland through strategic acquisitions of other companies. Many of the firm's senior executives came from other companies as well, attracted by the atmosphere at Borland, which reflects the founder's philosophy of 'original things done with a fresh frame of mind.' Execs at Borland are expected to be doers, not just thinkers. The firm's strategic focus is on core technologies, but a strong emphasis is being placed on gearing up for entry into the Windows market, where plans are to simultaneously support and compete with Microsoft. Borland's new vision: ObjectVision. (Borland International Inc.) (Special Report) ObjectVision is Borland International's first entry into the Microsoft Windows-based software market. Described by Borland as an application development environment, ObjectVision is hard to classify. It features form design and management capabilities, spreadsheet capabilities, and the ability to read and write data in several formats, making ObjectVision a workable bridge between applications. Borland has noted three kinds of usage at its ObjectVision beta test sites. The package has been used for building applications as from a database; to design templates for distribution; and to control spreadsheets, word processing and databases. Borland's target market for ObjectVision are users with no programming knowledge. Make your code database-independent. (Hands-On Clipper)(technical column) (tutorial) The release of Clipper 5.0's Replaceable Database Drivers (RDDs) will change the way in which Clipper applications are written. The second in a series of articles dealing with the potential changes is a tutorial on preparing for those changes by writing database-independent code. The first step in constructing such code is to select the type of database driver to be used. There are two methods of using alternate drivers, the embedded method currently in use and the seamless method represented by RDDs; both methods are explored. Other topics covered include establishing a baseline for a given RDD; setting an environment status that identifies the user, access rights level, and the location of the database/tables to be used; and designing a system of basic data I/O functions. The selection of method is more a matter of when an application is to be built, with embedded the method for the immediate present and seamless the choice for those who can afford to wait awhile. Build strong relationships. (Clipper Developer) (technical column) (tutorial) A tutorial is presented on building database files using Clipper 5.0. Files can be constructed from outside an application or from within it. Creating a database outside an application can be done using an interpreter or a utility program; source code comes with the package and needs only to be compiled and linked. One way of constructing a database from within an application is to use the CREATE command to build a STRUCTURE EXTENDED database, which is a separate database with four fields, FIELD_NAME, FIELD_TYPE, FIELD_LEN, and FIELD_DEC. The USE command or the CLOSE DATABASES command is invoked to close the STRUCTURE EXTENDED database, and complete the process. Use your time wisely. (TAPCIS moves thought time off-line)(includes information on obtaining TAPCIS) (DB Much of the cost of using an on-line service such as CompuServe can be charged to 'think time,' the time spent answering interactive system prompts. TAPCIS is a downloadable program that can automate such responses, saving as much as 75 percent of a user's interactive access time. The package can be downloaded from the TAPCIS Forum for a 21-day free trial, after which it can be registered for $79. TAPCIS visits each forum on a user-specified list, which may be modified as needed, and retrieves a list of message sections and library names. TAPCIS can be set to retrieve only the subject headers of new messages, to retrieve the text of all new messages, or to retrieve only those messages addressed specifically to the user. Other TAPCIS capabilities include automated library file downloading and electronic mail management. The File of the Month for April is MSIGDS.ZIP, a shareware Norton Guide Database Reader program from Microsystems Software. Introducing the routeway! (new devices with features of Layer 3 routers as well as gateways) (Infinite Bandwidth) (column) A new type of network device has appeared, a device that, besides having all the features of a Layer 3 router, also converts and enhances protocols with the intelligence normally associated with gateways and the upper layers. Linking local-area networks (LANs) with non-routable and otherwise problematic protocols into enterprise-wide networks can cause crippling problems. The new 'routeways' from such vendors as Wellfleet, Proteon, CrossComm and Cisco compensate for anomalies caused by deficient protocols such as AppleTalk, IPX/SPX, Netbios, LAT and SNA. Most vendors agree that LAN protocols need enhancing if they are to work efficiently in the arena of wide-area networks. APPN: the networking cornerstone that isn't. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking from IBM) (Open Networking Views) (column) IBM wants to play a big role in the rapidly changing arena of network topologies; to this end, it has proposed Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN). IBM has convinced itself and much of the trade press that APPN will be a key routing technology for the 1990s and beyond. But APPN is already obsolete. Multiprotocol routers currently available deliver on APPN's promises and for much less money. APPN is useless for almost all current Systems Network Architecture (SNA) applications. APPN is a strong improvement over IBM's Network Control Program, whose static routing technology dates back to the 1970s. APPN works with SNA's interprocess protocol, Logical Unit 6.2, which debuted in 1982. LU 6.2 allows for peer-to-peer rather than master-slave communications. Unfortunately, APPN will not work with earlier versions of LU; because of this deficiency, APPN cannot be used for such SNA sessions as remote job entry and 3270. Better marketing or better products? Don't count on it. (finding about data communications services and prices from regional Bell Bell regional holding companies (BRHCs) offer some excellent data communications services and prices, but their marketing practices are abysmal. Packet-switching services and 'hubless DDS' local access services are just some of the useful but almost unknown offerings of the BRHCs. One problem is that the BRHCs are still virtual monopolies whose account executives are not used to selling. Another reason is that BRHCs have plenty of business in their own areas and see little reason to market their services and products outside their areas. Lastly, BRHCs are reluctant to compete with each other. Until the BRHCs improve their data-communications marketing practices, it will be up to the customer to dig up information. Hot times in the internetworking market. (industry analysis) (Internetworking Views) (column) The market for local-area-network (LAN) internetworking products is white hot and getting hotter. Vendors are rapidly developing bridges and low-end routers to meet demand that is more than doubling every year. In a move slightly at odds with the prevailing trend toward low-cost devices, successful vendors Wellfleet, Proteon and Cisco have been working on the Internet Nodal Processor (INP), a high-end device that combines multiprotocol routing and bridging at high data rates for both LANs and wide area networks (WANs). Competitive products are almost certainly on the horizon. Fremont, CA-based Vitalink Communications Corp has recently undergone difficult organizational changes and now focuses on alliances. Minneapolis-based Network Systems Corp, with $160 million in 1990 revenues, concentrates mostly on high-performance networking. Marlborough, MA-based CrossComm Corp, with $14 million in 1990 revenues, concentrates on token ring LAN interconnection; it also supports Ethernet. Open SNA's untimely, unnecessary demise. (Systems Network Architecture) (LAN Views) (column) The computer industry is moving toward open systems, but IBM's APPN announcements of March 5, 1991, herald the end of Systems Network Architecture's (SNA's) once-open architecture. APPN is a peer-to-peer, host-independent networking scheme that has been around since 1986 for S/36s. APPN is a melding of two SNA architectures: Type 2.1 and LU Type 6.2. According to its March announcement, IBM will only publish specifications for APPN end nodes; specifications for APPN network nodes will be kept secret. Third-party vendors can now only exist at the periphery of the SNA environment, as end nodes. The effect on multiprotocol router vendors and the fledgling internetworking industry may be disastrous. The trade press fell for IBM's pledge to support open communications. DSU clocking: don't fall into the gap. (digital service unit) ('gapped clocking' in data communications) (technical) Many network managers have not heard of 'gapped clocking,' which first appears when two communications devices that should work together do not. The problem could be gapped clocking at the interface between the T1 or fractional T1 digital service unit (DSU) and the data terminal equipment (DTE). Basically, because the DSU's clock is not smooth (continuous), the DTE fails to pick up a data clock. There are three types of gapped clocks: smooth gapped clocks, bursty gapped clocks and irregular gapped clocks. Most DSUs use a smooth clock. For most applications, a gapped clock is acceptable. An attraction of gapped clocks is that they are often cheaper and easier to build. DTEs that cannot handle gapped clocks include those that have a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit. Improved routing for SNA nets. (Systems Network Architecture) (includes related article on how open IBM is) (technical) IBM has vowed to keep enhancing its popular Systems Network Architecture (SNA), but SNA-based networks continue to suffer from a lack of multiprotocol support, a lack of dynamic routing and a demanding configuration process. IBM made some headway toward solving these problems with its Mar 1991 announcement that it would add Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) routing support to its PS/2s and 3174 cluster controllers. Slated for Jun 1991 delivery, SAA Network Services/2 (NS/2) is software that runs on PCs supporting OS/2 Extended Edition. APPN, a dynamic routing schemed IBM debuted in 1986, aims to allow small sites to build practical minicomputer networks without the administrative overhead of large, mainframe-based SNA networks. Customer reaction to IBM's March announcement has been mixed. The biggest concern is that APPN provides data routing only to LU 6.2-based cooperative processing applications. Smart hubs put Macs on the backbone. (modules under development that support LocalTalk-Ethernet internetworking) (technical) The Apple Macintosh's integration into enterprise-wide networks will be smoothed through 1991 as smart-hub vendors debut modules that link LocalTalk clusters to Ethernet backbones. Santa Clara, CA-based Ungermann-Bass Inc has already rolled out MaxTalk, a LocalTalk routing module for its Access/One smart hub. In April 1991, Rochester, NH-based Cabletron Systems Inc is expected to ship GatorMIM/CS, a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet version of Cambridge, MA-based Cayman Systems Inc's GatorBox LocalTalk gateway. Cambridge-based Shiva Corp, Huntington Beach, CA-based Lannet Data Communications Inc and Santa Clara, CA-based SynOptics Communications Inc are all working on LocalTalk-supporting modules that also support AppleTalk Phase 2. The new products will turn daisy-chained LocalTalk local area networks (LANs) into networked workgroups. Global X.400: the case of the missing links. (forging global X.400 links) Much work needs to be done before users see a worldwide X.400 network. In Europe, network operators have to forge links between the many national X.400 networks. For example, France's Atlas 400 service is not fully linked with British Telecommunications PLC's Gold 400 service. Users in Europe and the US also want the ability to switch freely between public networks without today's logistical nightmares. Many corporate users are not simply waiting for worldwide X.400 services. Instead, they are linking otherwise incompatible electronic-mail systems by using private X.400 networks. Written for a world in which each nation had a single service provider, X.400 has proven troublesome in a world in which nations have multiple providers. The new SNA: IBM radically reformulates SNA. (Systems Network Architecture) (Cover Story) Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is a major technology in the data-communications arena, with more than 40,000 registered networks worldwide. Even though continued use of SNA seems certain, SNA's roots in the centralized, batch-processing early 1970s is giving it trouble in meeting the demands of 1991's decentralized, microcomputer-dominated networks. IBM has labored mightily for several years to bring SNA up to date, but with little fanfare; there is no one road map for the overall direction of SNA developments. Many changes have taken place on two fronts: architectural extensions to the 1978 SNA-4 specification and six releases of ACF/VTAM, the S/3X0 telecommunications access method supporting SNA. The 1980s saw 10 significant SNA extensions, including Logical Unit 6.2, Type 2.1 nodes, SNA Network Interconnection (SNI) and SNA Distributed Services (SNADS). The end for IBM's FEP? (The new SNA) (front-end processor) (Systems Network Architecture) (Cover Story) Divining the future of Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is difficult. At the upper levels of the architecture, one of the best peer-to-peer interfaces available can be found in SNA's distributed processing scheme, as implemented by LU 6.2 and Node Type 2.1. But at the bottom of SNA, notably the front-end processor (FEP) and synchronous data link control (SDLC), SNA's popularity is waning. Rapid changes in networking technologies have presented the 1970s-vintage FEP with challenges it was never designed to meet. FEP will continue to enjoy popularity in the 21st century, but it is seeing its last days as the dominant corporate communications controller. Details are given of the evolution of the FEP, its role within SNA, and IBM's development plans for SNA. The minicomputer tries a comeback. (developing file servers) Hindin, Eric M. Minicomputer vendors are retooling and repositioning their machines as high-performance servers for microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs). The vendors hope that as LANs grow and interconnect into enterprise-wide networks, users will need the power and enhanced connectivity of minis. The move of such vendors as DEC and HP into the LAN server market has been abetted by the debut of mini variants of the popular NetWare and LAN Manager LAN operating systems, called Portable NetWare and LAN Manager for Unix, respectively. IBM is the only mini vendor not using either of these operating systems. Mini vendors say their servers offer more power and connectivity and can handle multiprocessing. The big advantage of microcomputer servers is price. The strategies of mini vendors DEC, Data General Corp, HP, IBM, Prime Computer Inc, NCR Corp, Unisys Corp and Wang are discussed. SMDS: the beginning of WAN superhighways. (Switched Multimegabit Data Service, wide area networks) (includes related article on Managers of wide-area networks (WANs) need data links that equal or surpass local area network (LAN) speeds. Those data links will come in several stages, beginning with local carriers' offering of Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS), developed by Bell Communications Research. At first, SMDS will enable managers to use fewer circuits in building T1 and T3 WANs. By the mid-1990s, SMDS will give users access to the very high speeds promised by Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) technology. Some local carriers have successfully tested SMDS and hope to roll out the service by late 1991. Tariffs are likely to be similar to those of private lines. Availability of links between SMDS switches from different carriers is not expected before 1992. These links will enable network managers to erect national or even international high-speed data networks. LAN-to-LAN links in Europe: the price isn't right - yet. (local area networks) European network managers seeking to link local area networks (LANs) into wide area networks (WANs) face a severe constraint: the high cost of leased lines, averaging eight times that of US lines. Prices are high within countries and are especially steep for international links. Many national PTTs keep prices of leased circuits high in order to encourage use of highly profitable X.25 services; however, X.25 suffers from slow speeds. The prices of leased circuits are certain to fall as PTTs lose their monopolies. Rates for digital leased lines vary widely, with Luxembourg, Denmark, Great Britain and Ireland having relatively low tariffs. Europe's lowest rate for a 250-kilometer 64K-bps circuit is $591 from Mercury Communications Ltd of London, compared to $267.50 per month for a comparable link from US-based MCI Communications Corp. In contrast, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom charges $4,904 for a 100-kilometer 64K-bps circuit. Videoconferencing clean and simple; PictureTel's System 4000 delivers better transmissions at a lower cost. (Models 200, 400, PictureTel Corp of Peabody, MA, debuts the System 4000 line of videoconferencing products. The easy-to-set-up equipment has a base price of $39,500, compared to $100,000 for similar equipment in 1989. System 4000 reduces to four the number of cables found in earlier PictureTel systems. System 4000's heart is an electronics module comprising a video switcher, codec, audio mixer, network terminal adapter and audio/video interface; the system also includes a monitor, video camera and keypad. There are four System 4000 models. The Model 200 Office System comes with a 20-inch monitor and costs $39,500; the $42,500 Model 400 Cart System comes with a 27-inch monitor; the $47,500 Model 600 Executive System with a 25-inch monitor; and the $52,500 Model 800 Boardroom System with a 35-inch monitor. A protocol analyzer with a mind of its own. (HP's Network Advisor) (product announcement) With the aid of an expert system, the new Network Advisor from HP's Colorado Telecommunications Division aspires to be a protocol analyzer that thinks for itself and transmits its thoughts to the network manager. The Network Advisor's Fault Finder correlates test results, reaches conclusions, and relays its findings in complete sentences and lucid graphics. The Network Advisor connects directly with the Ethernet or Token-Ring network under test and can operate as either an active or passive workstation. Test programs included with Network Advisor include TCP/IP protocol interpreters; frame counters; the Traffic Generator, which simulates Ethernet and Token Ring packets; a set of standard protocol decodes; and various programs that measure packet sizes, bytes and packets passed, response times and the number of hosts and nodes on the network. The Network Advisor comes housed in a portable Intel 80386SX- or RISC-based computer. Cost is $19,500 for the Ethernet or Token-Ring version; a model equipped to handle both topologies is priced at $25,500. NetWare moves toward enterprise computing. (Version 3.11 from Novell Inc.) (product announcement) Novell Inc debuts NetWare 3.11, which includes server and client support for TCP/IP, the basic Unix networking protocol, as well as server support for Sun Microsystems Inc's Network File System. Version 3.11 thus takes a big step toward integrating Novell into Unix-based enterprise-wide networks. Novell calls its new internetworking strategy the Integrated Computing Architecture (ICA), comprising data, connection, reliability, management and security features. ICA is a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) that can fit into the NetWare kernel. Prices for Version 3.11 are $3,495 for a 20-user version, $6,995 for a 100-user version and $12,495 for a 250-user version. Until Sep 30, 1991, users of Version 3.0 may upgrade at no additional cost. Coping with catastrophe. (Synchronous Optical Network should be deployed quickly)(EOT) (column) A series of communications disasters reveals the true vulnerability of the US's communications infrastructure. Although fires, cable cuts and power outages have all downed networks, few organizations, including telephone companies, have significantly planned for the huge problems associated with failed networks. One solution lies in a sped-up deployment of Synchronous Optical Network (Sonet), which overcomes the vulnerabilities associated with massively centralized communications systems. Sonet can enhance disaster survivability when it is configured as a dual ring, thanks to the use of an add-drop multiplexor (ADM), which supports traffic in opposite directions. Local exchange carriers and interexchange carriers should stop delaying the deployment of Sonet. Breaking bottlenecks: strategies for overcoming performance problems. (Mission critical view) (column) Most database performance difficulties can be resolved easily by either tuning the database or upgrading the hardware. Both may require unwelcome effort or expense but they can be accomplished. Some performance problems cannot be resolved quite so easily. All systems reach a bottleneck and begin suffering serious degradation as transactions increase. The bottleneck arises at the 'knee' of the performance curve and queuing starts to happen. Each additional user, at this point, causes a disproportionate increase in response time for all. Queuing occurs, generally, when approximately 80 percent of a resource is utilized and additional activity is needed to manage the queue. Inexperienced database users often feel that the software is so sophisticated that performance is not a concern. The choice of a database product for large systems is important. Design effort is always needed to ensure adequate performance. 1-2-3 to a server. (Lotus 1-2-3) (On the front end) (column) Bolt, Robert C. Spreadsheets are often seen as isolated information 'islands' and more data entry errors are made when re-keying data into multiple spreadsheets than any other type of data repository. Database servers are being touted as a method to eliminate these 'islands.' Putting a spreadsheet and a database server together offers a great method for more timely and accurate analysis of data. Lotus 1-2-3 is available in several versions, including OS/2, DOS, Sun, DEC and IBM mainframe implementations. The discussion is limited to the OS/2 and DOS versions and the wide variety of combinations of those spreadsheets and database servers. The following interfaces are discussed: Oracle for 1-2-3 DataLens, Oracle Database Add-in for Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus (at)SQL (add-in for Microsoft SQL server), Lotus DataLens Driver for Microsoft SQL Server, and SQL Vision (an SQLBase add-in, from Henley Business Software). Using PL/SQL. (structured query language) (Desktop Oracle) (column) SQL is a non-procedural database access language. PL/SQL extended SQL with the addition of procedural programming language features like constants, variables, assignment statements and conditional statements. Oracle recommends familiarity with a third-generation language (3GL) like C, Ada, Cobol, Fortran, Pascal or PL/1 before using PL/SQL. PL/SQL is based on Ada and is not intended for database novices or end users. PL/SQL's most obvious extension to SQL is its ability to declare variables in pretty much the same way as a 3GL. Each variable must be declared with a data type. It is not yet possible to use PL/SQL in DOS but it is possible in other environments, especially Unix. The Paradox paradigm: before programming in PAL, you need to understand to Paradox model. (Paradox Application Language) Paradox is the largest selling microcomputer relational database among major corporations with over 44 percent market share, compared to dBase III and IV with 35 percent. Borland has momentum with an elegant client-server SQL option, a new version of the Paradox Engine, and close connections with spreadsheet Quattro Pro 2.0. Paradox is still a mystery to many, they do not clearly comprehend the model and style. It has the undeserved reputation of being a lightweight tool suitable for end users, but is actually a full-featured development environment with extensive form and report generation capabilities. Newcomers often find it hard to catch their balance as Paradox is different from traditional database environments. QBE, Reports from Xbase, Lotus. (query by example, dQuery 4.03 from Quadbase Systems Inc.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Quadbase Systems dQuery 4.03 ($195) is a powerful reporting and query tool for Lotus and dBase files. The program offers structured query language (SQL) capabilities, QBE, a report writer and a menu builder for connecting queries and reports and provides a large selection of non-SQL programming commands like many dBase-like commands and functions. dQuery is capable of reading Symphony and Lotus files but cannot update them. Files from the following programs can be read and updated through standard SQL update commands: dBase III/III+/IV, FoxBase+, FoxPro, and Clipper. dQuery users can be limited to read-only capabilities with the modification of a required DOS environment setting to include a NOUPDATE clause. The report writer allows the user to format the output of any query. Documentation is comprehensive but it lacks clarity and is not well organized. Macintosh DBMS upgrade. (database management system, FileMaker Pro from Claris) (Software Review) (evaluation) FileMaker Pro ($299) from Claris offers a substantial upgrade to FileMaker II, a favorite in the low-end Macintosh database market arena. Over 100 new features enhance layout and database management functionality without giving up the intuitive Macintosh graphical user interface. The new program is well-suited for novices and more advanced database designers. Standard users include mailing lists, prototyping, catalogs, lead tracking systems and order and inventory systems. The application's new functions give designers more to work with, such as greatly enhanced drawing tools, color support, alignment functionality and a pop-up menu providing access to all layouts in the database. Help for damaged data. (dSalvage Professional 3.0 from Comtech Publishing Ltd.) (Software Review) (evaluation) dSalvage Professional ($199.95) from Comtech Publishing is an essential repair utility for anyone with .dbf files. These files often fall victim to operating system problems. One of the most obvious symptoms is shifted data record contents. The program is reasonably easy to run, with its two-level menu system. Menu options are selected using function keys. The user is greeted with a listing of .dbf files upon entering the file selection menu. Other file extensions can be specified. There is no selection cursor. The user presses F2 to reveal a highlight bar to make the selection and confirm it by pressing the 'enter' key. Escape returns the user to the main menu. A command line interface, which is new to this version, allows the user to run diagnostics from within batch files. Sharp DBMS reports. (dbPublisher Pro+ from Digital Composition Systems) (Software Review) (evaluation) dbPublisher Pro+ ($695) from Digital Composition Systems creates documents from spreadsheet and database packages with proportional fonts, bar codes and graphic images. The program is capable of reading .dbf, R:Base, Paradox, Btrieve, Lotus and other files and allows the user to perform joins among the formats. The process is transparent as data is not imported. The user specifies selection criteria and grouping with an SQL-like language. Designing a format is like using popular drawing packages. The new version provides native support to Quattro and Excel. Speed is not a strong suit for dbPublisher Pro+. Technical support is expert and helpful. The program does require considerable disk space during processing. ScriptView documents PAL applications. (from FarPoint Systems Corp., Paradox application language) (Software Review) ScriptView ($149.95) from Farpoint Systems Corp is a program analyzer and documenter for PAL scripts. This is an excellent package that should be in the library of every Paradox programmer who needs to document applications. The program produces publication-ready documentation for a single script file or multiple-script project. The user can produce formatted script listings, program logic flow charts, action diagrams, tree diagrams, call reports and variable cross-reference listings. Everything is accomplished with Paradox-style light bar menus. Installation is extremely easy. Documentation is a helpful, indexed 74-page manual. Technical support is available free by telephone or on CompuServe. 386 box speeds Oracle on VAX: Charles River's 386 box with a disk array and specialized OS. (Intel 80386, Charles River Data, Craig Lund is director of strategic planning for Charles River Data, the company that markets the Intel 80386-based Relational Accelerator, which enhances Oracle performance for all MicroVAX and most VAX 6000 and 8000 systems and can offer very cost-effective offloading of database processing on larger VAX systems. One Accelerator can serve as many as four VAX systems at the same time, which is especially useful in VAXcluster environments, which Oracle 6.0 does not support. Lund says that the company did not start out trying to create an Oracle accelerator. Company officials first considered designing an accelerator for Digital Equipment's flat file system RMS. Hardware wars: OS/2 vs. Unix: you can double the performance. Strehlo, Kevin; Butler, Brian. Trying to measure the speed and processing throughput of a Structured Query Language (SQL)-based client/server database applications is complicated. DBMS Labs has spent several years on such an effort and is close to publishing a comparison of database server software performance. An SQL database server benchmark can also be used to measure other factors in client/server database performance, such as network hardware configuration, the speed of the server's processor, the amount of RAM, the throughput and design of the server's machine bus, the capabilities of the disk subsystem and the device driver running it, and the physical arrangement of the database files on multiple disk drives. Time again for R&R? R&R Report Writer version 4 sports enhanced output. (includes related articles on database publishing and this R&R Report Writer for dBase systems from Concentric Data Systems offers developers good ways to add value to their applications. The user interface of R and R 4.0 is pretty much indistinguishable from the previous version but does include some significant enhancements. The most notable enhancement is the new support for proportional fonts. Concentric's latest version by providing widow and orphan control, comes to the doorstep of database publishing. The software has definite appeal if the user is working in a mixed-dialect environment. Users report that the program's user-friendliness is what sold them on R&R. The program makes setting relations very easy. The vendor has created a fairly painless way to identify the relationships that connect various data files into a broader database. Using a Foxprofiler: this execution profiles pinpoints the speed bumps in FoxPro applications. (includes related article on rules FoxPro users whose diagnostics consist entirely of static benchmarks and conventional performance wisdom may need to find a better way to diagnose performance problems. The code for FoxProfiler is included. The three-line statement, when placed in the FoxPro DEBUG Window, writes a string to an existing text file that includes the program name, line number, and time of execution for every statement executed. The data, once it is collected, can be graphed to profile the time spent executing each statement of the program. Those who use the skeleton code provided to actually start profiling code will be on their way to altering their coding style and improving the systems they write. SQL for database administrators; what every DBA needs to know about SQL. (structured query language) (part 3 of a series of Several topics of interest to database administrators as well as advanced SQL programmers are discussed. These include systems tables, data independence, data security, data integrity, performance and shared databases. Data independence is a measurement of the cost of altering the database structure physically and logically. Most implementations of SQL include special system tables used to store information about all the tables, indexes, columns and other database attributes. Neither the American National Standards Institute standard nor the IBM Systems Application Architecture standard have these tables. Two types of data integrity are discussed: referential and value. Provisions for integrity are critical when users share databases. Code blocks: tips on writing and using code blocks and the functions that make use of them. (Best of Clipper Aquarium) Code blocks are a new type of Clipper data that include compiled code from version 5.0. They can be compiled at the usual compile time with the rest of the Clipper code or at run time. Code blocks appear similar to Clipper 5.0 arrays. Both are enclosed with curly braces but code blocks include two pipe characters directly after the opening brace. An argument list can also be included between the pipe characters which would be passed to the code block upon evaluation. Code blocks may be written so they are compiled at compile time or run time. Evaluation is the only operation performed on code blocks. This is analogous to calling a function and returning a value from it. The user can harness more code block power when he begins passing parameters, as with functions. dBase telecomm: getting your data from here to there without leaving your application. (telecommunications) (Set Expert On ) Many current database applications require the ability to import and export data through the serial port of the computer. Users who wish to access a modem from any dBase product will find that the most straightforward way is to use one of the many public domain assembly routines compiled into .bin routines or.obj files. This kind of routine is included in Russ Freeland's DIALER10.ZIP file, which includes programs for all dBase incarnations. Many current applications call for data exportation through either telecommunications or some other means. Data transfer can be handled through electronic mail. Sometimes the dBase application needs to handle telecommunications directly. Windows programmers have broad selection: this first comprehensive buyers guide to programming tools for Windows 3.0. (buyers guide) The buyers guide includes over 140 programming tools for Windows 3.0, effectively highlighting the extent of product development accomplished under Windows. Windows is the most popular computing environment, with over two million copies in use and a faster growth rate than any other program. Microsoft's recent directions statement for future operating puts Windows square in the middle. A full 32-bit system called Win32 will run over ever-faster Intel processors and will be scaled up to 32-bit and 64-bit reduced instruction set computing processors, too. The encouraging thing about this directory for the professional developer is the wide variety of available tools. Choosing a production database: the first step on the road to integration of your enterprise is finding the right database. MIS managers and developers are going to relational database management systems (DBMS) to implement mission-critical production systems, those systems that run critical business applications, especially where data is a valuable asset. Important considerations include performance, high availability, data integrity and security, data connectivity in a multivendor environment, adherence to standards, selection of applications and tools, technical support. VAX Rdb/VMS is designed to offer the high levels of data integrity, security and availability required by these applications. A production system cannot fail unexpectedly, even if a hardware component goes down. One reason over 60 percent of all new VAX systems are sold as part of a VAXcluster is because of the high availability offered by that kind of configuration. True 2PC. (two phase commit) DEC realizes that many computer users are turning toward an environment where data is dispersed across multiple machines. Companies generally want to keep data close to where it is most often used, which is okay, except that it complicates logical transactions involving several physically dispersed databases. Extra protection is necessary to ensure that the data in the distributed system as a whole remains consistent in such a case. The two phase commit (2PC) capability offered by DEC Distributed Transaction Manager (DTM) is necessary to ensure this transaction integrity when data is dispersed. 2PC can involve any Digital data management system as DECdtm is a VMS operating system service. How to become a high-performance expert: here's a look at Rdb's high-performance features. (includes related articles on The advantages of Digital Equipment Corp's (DEC) Rdb's high-performance engine are delineated by getting into Rdb's approach to locking, I/O optimization and CPU efficiency, as is the program's vast array of physical structuring options from hash keys to clustered indexes to disk page and buffer sizes. Also included is a close examination of what is required of a database administrator (DBA) who wants to make optimum use of these options. DEC's RdbExpert software can teach a DBA the ins and outs of high-performance tuning. It helps even experienced DBAs coax even higher performance in the typically complicated scenario in real-world production applications. Digital's close-knit data management family: powerful products built on an open foundation. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (includes DEC's information management strategy is simple, providing a complete set of products that work in tandem to integrate the information and processes isolated in various parts of organizations. DEC can help the user build the foundation for information management with Rdb/VMS and its product family, whether interactive database inquiries, end-user graphics, report writing or complex multilanguage application development tools are required. The products need to be closely knit to deliver on the promise of DEC's Information Network. The vendor is making Network Application Support (NAS) services available to VAX and non-VAX users and offering a data warehouse facility for users of many different systems by integrated throughout the network into a single logical data source. Where objects begin and relational DBMS leaves off: Digital offers three solutions for handling the complex data of the 1990s. There is some confusion regarding objects, object-oriented programming and the impact they will have on database management. It is easy to confuse efforts to extend the relational model with efforts to ease complex programming tasks with object orientation. Both of these ideas are entangled with the notion of an object-oriented DBMS. DEC has three solutions for managing the complex data of the 1990s. The vendor is extending the relational model with each release of Rdb to improve data management. The recently released Trellis is an object-oriented programming environment that connects to relational data. DEC's Objectivity/DB is a complete object-oriented database management system. The benefits of the various object-oriented approaches are also discussed. Digital's database direction: Digital extends the horizon of information management solutions. The original VAX Rdb/VMS was most adept at ad hoc, query-intensive applications. This strength launched Rdb on its way to over 16,999 development licenses sold, the largest installed base of any VAX relational database management system (RDBMS). The vendor did not rest on its laurels. DEC made a concerted effort to improve Rdb through the 1980s and into 1990. The program gained impressive on-line transaction processing (OLTP) performance, flexible tuning options, expert-system assistance for efficient physical design, system-enforced integrity, increased security, distributed data access and an application development environment cohesively integrated by the CDD/Repository. Driving data management. (System Industries) (product announcement) System Industries announces a number of data management products and enhancements for DEC systems. The new eaSIshadow software release is compatible with VMS Version 5.x. Features of eaSIshadow include permitting data to be written simultaneously to a pair of MSCP disk drives. It costs from $3,500 for a MicroVAX to $50,000 for an unlimited VAX 9000 license. VerSItower is a complete subsystem that can be tailored with a 5.25-inch disk and 8mm tape options; a 4Gbyte VerSItower is $25,000. Desktop Tower includes the VerSItower options and two 5.25-inch storage devices in a space-saving vertical chassis; it costs $9,900. The SI2480B is a high-speed 3480-compatible 18-track cartridge tape drive; prices start at $51,800. The SI59B is an 8mm subsystem; it costs $22,400. Quick Release Systems is a high-capacity security product available in 5.25 and 3.5-inch packages. Prices start at $2,500 for the 5.25-inch unit and #3,750 for the 3.5-inch unit. The RxSeries Relational Accelerator is designed to solve Oracle response time problems under VMS; the base system starts at $93,525. Dissolving bottlenecks. (International Digital Scientific Inc.) (product announcement) International Digital Scientific Inc introduces RMS Expert, a set of sophisticated, easy-to-use utilities designed to eliminate performance problems caused by inefficient RMS indexed files. Company officials say the time required for a standard batch job can be reduced from 15 hours to 2 hours using RMS Expert; posting time can be reduced from over 2 hours to about 20 minutes. There are three components in RMS Expert: Optimize, Organize, and Review. These components are implemented by DCL commands. Prices start at $600 for a single-user workstation and go up to $8,000 for a VAX 9000-class computer. Wyshful word processing. (Microsystems Engineering) (product announcement) Microsystems Engineering Corp introduces WysiWord, a work-group publishing program that combines WYSIWYG word processing, interactive drawing, and plotting. WysiWord works on a variety of computers and operating systems, and the file structure is identical for all platforms to ensure interoperability among workgroups. Each platform's graphical graphical user interface and unique keyboard are used by WysiWord, which costs $1,395 on a VAXstation. The company also announces the CALS Submission System, a 'hot link' compound document architecture product that lets VAX users submit Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS)-compliant documents to the Department of Defense. Sharing multimedia information. (BBN Software Products BBN/Slate 1.2) (product announcement) BBN Software Products announces BBN/Slate Release 1.2, a software package designed for use in situations where multimedia information must be shared quickly among workgroups. The program allows workgroups at networked UNIX workstations to create and share information. Enhancements to this release include color geometric and business graphics with an extensive palette of shades, textures, and shapes, permitting users to create detailed and vivid presentations and documents. Text, spreadsheets, business and geometric graphics, images, data files, voice annotations, electronic mail, electronic publishing, and real-time conferencing can be integrated seamlessly by BBN/Slate. It costs $995 per license. More VAX memory. (Dataram Corp. ) (product announcement) O'Connell, Brian. Dataram Corp announces the DR-400 and DR-600 memory array boards. Users of a Digital Equipment Corp VAXserver 4000 Model 300 or a VAX 6000 who need more power should consider these boards. The DR-400, a memory upgrade package, is available in 332- and 128Mbyte versions. It has Access and Power LED indicators. The DR-600 is the company's memory upgrade package for the VAX 6000. It is available in 32-, 64-, and 128-MB boards which are offered as replacements for DEC's MS62A-AB memory board. These boards come with lifetime guarantees, express spares, and reimbursement for service call expenses. The DR-400 is $15,500 for the 32-MB version and $59,000 for the 128-MB version. The DR-600 is 422,000 for the 32-MB version, $43,000 for the 64-MB version, and $85,000 for the 128-MB version. Advancing image processing. (Advanced IDAS Inc.) (product announcement) Advanced IDAS announces the Image Data Authoring System (IDAS), an imaging system that permits users to add document imaging to a standard 640KBbyte DOS microcomputer. The imaging software can be executed without requiring new hardware; a standalone microcomputer needs only the IDAS software. Imaging can be integrated with a variety of office packages such as word processing and spreadsheets. The program runs under DOS or UNIX environments. Users at multiple document scanning and retrieval stations can view images and data simultaneously. A standalone system costs less than $2,000. The network version, Network IDAS Authoring System, costs less than $10,000. DECnet security. (includes related article about DEC's Integrated Security Program) Users who are part of a larger community should not give up on security. The reference monitor is the fundamental mechanism used to control access within a system. DECnet places a considerable amount of reliance on individual host systems, so the user needs sound security on the host system to achieve acceptable DECnet security. Controlling which nodes connect to the user's system and how they connect is the first step in restricting access. Bridges and filters can be used to partition the network into different areas, and access to these areas can be restricted or disabled. Detecting security problems is also part of DECnet security, primarily through the use of the VAX/VMS audit trail. All network login attempts should be recorded and all network file accesses should be audited. DECnet security should be an integral part of a company's overall security plan. System resilience. (system availability in the OLTP environment) Bynon, David W.; Willis, John M. More and more Digital Equipment Corp VAX systems are being used for high-volume distributed on-line transaction processing (OLTP), making reliability a more important concern. A high-reliability system can recover from hardware or operations failure in minutes or seconds and has three main points of concern: user access to applications, data integrity, and job recovery. DEC uses a system of interconnects to bind its high-availability OLTP capability. The interconnects, which pass data between cluster and network nodes and storage devices, are the Application Control and Management System (ACMS) and Rdb. Rdb is DEC's relational data base and supports the ACMS transaction processing monitor, which provides a robust environment. The underlying goal of a high-availability OLTP system is system resilience. Redundant hardware in the proper configuration is the foundation of a high-availability VAX system. Protecting your power. (includes related article on recognizing power problems) The US electricity supply is at a critical crossroads and it is quite probable that the ability of the electric utilities to meet future power demands will fall far short. Power problems can damage computer systems and related equipment and can significantly increase the mean time between failure. Users should protect their companies and their computing equipment against power problems. The first step is to know what kinds of problems must be defended against, and the second step is to know about site issues such as how long emergency power will be required. Uninterruptible power supplies are the most popular power-protection devices. Some companies may want to choose isolated redundancy where the site is divided into multiple, separate power sections and a UPS feeds each isolated load. Application integration. (tutorial) Cizek, Stan. Business application software is not currently suitable for seamless application integration, a new concept developed for multivendor financial applications in a decentralized environment. The best way to handle the application integration issues is to develop and implement the concept of company-wide external reference files. The first step is to remove all application-internal master files at different sites and make them available to the user in different forms as reference data files. The application retains the program shell and transaction file. External reference files permit controlled and timely access to all reference data in master files, no matter what the location or application. External reference files enhance data integrity. X-ray control. (University of Tennessee X-ray Imaging Laboratory) Wagenaar, Douglas Jay. The University of Tennessee, Memphis, uses a VAXstation II/GPX in its X-Ray Imaging Laboratory as a dedicated data acquisition and control computer. The VAXstation is used to control the operation of the kinestatic charge detector, a prototype digital radiographic imager. The VAXstation controls the drive motor, which triggers X-ray exposure during the scan. It is also ultimately responsible for image processing and display. It also improves the stationary detector experiments by controlling X-ray exposure and oscilloscope triggering. The next step, now that the image acquisition task is completed, is to put more equipment under computer control and expand the list of experimental monitors that the VAXstation II/GPX monitors. From All-in-1 to LaserJet. (tutorial) Poland, Jim. DEC's All-in-1 office automation software can function with HP LaserJet printers. The first step is to know what the LaserJet should support in terms of fonts, page orientation, and base characters per inch. The next step is to create a Printer Attributes Table. using the Printer Table Utility in All-in-1. The Printer Attributes Table controls the printer's noncharacter functions, such as underlining, spacing, and symbol sets. Some settings, such as shadow printing, are not possible on the LaserJet printer and some need complicated workarounds. The Display Functions escape code is an important tool in determining which codes are correct. The next major task is the Printer Character Table. A test document should be created that includes the most important features and characters. Turbo-charged. (Hardware Review) (Visual Technology's X-19 Turbo X Terminal) (evaluation) The X-19 Turbo X Windows terminal from Visual Technology Inc is an impressive product based on a 20-MHz Motorola 68020 processor. It has a 19-inch monochrome monitor, a VT-style keyboard, and an optional mouse. There are video, keyboard, and mouse jacks; ThickWire and ThinWire Ethernet ports; and a DB-25 serial port. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) is supported and DECnet is an option. Setup is easy and is menu-driven. Windows open and close instantly; moving and resizing windows is accomplished without a time lag. The X-19 Turbo costs $2,695 for the network download version and $2,845 for a standalone version with server and PROM. Wired for service. (Hardware Review) (Equinox Systems' ELS-48) (evaluation) The ELS-48 Ethernet LAN Server from Equinox Systems has an extensive selection of wiring accessories which give it the flexibility to meet the requirements of any type of wiring. This DEC LAT terminal server is the easiest and most fool-proof terminal server ever tested. Installation is simple and service is easy. The brain of the ELS-48 is an Ethernet control board; the heart is an Intel 80186 microprocessor that controls an Advanced Micro Devices Lance 7990 Ethernet control processor. It has a LOCK command for security purposes. The performance is impressive; it responds to the first keystroke after the physical connection is finished. It appears that engineers who know communication wiring designed the ELS-48. Prices start at $3,900 for a 24-port version with modem controls. Command center. (Software Review) (W. Quinn Associates Q*file management system) (evaluation) Q*file from W. Quinn Associates is a file management system that helps users get the most from their disks. It helps manage files and tame disks in general. Users, programmers, and system managers can use Q*file, which can be custom-tailored and follows full VMS file access protection for security. Q*file needs only a VT-class terminal; installation is easy. Almost any disk resource management need can be met by the hundreds of options available. Prices range from $495 for the VAXstation to $9,595 for the VAX 9000. Sassing it up. (Software Review) (SAS Institute's SAS/Assist) (evaluation) The SAS System Release 6.06 from SAS Institute continues the evolution of SAS in the VMS environment. Release 6.06 provides DECwindows support; using this requires VSM Version 5.1 or later. SAS/Assist, a menu-driven user interface to the entire system, is new in Release 6.06. It is useful for entering small amounts of data and for quick prototyping. It is also useful for users who prefer not to remember SAS language syntax or handle existing accumulations of data in an RMS file. The documentation helps users understand the capabilities and flexibility of the SAS System, but can be intimidating. PC memory workshop. (Workstations)(column) (tutorial) Bynon, David W. PCSA Version 3.0, now called Pathworks, does not always work with Microsoft Windows 3.0. The Microsoft LAN Manager features in Windows 3.0 cause most of the problems. There are differences between extended memory and expanded memory; any add-on memory supported by a memory manager that can be mapped into a page frame in the first 1Mbyte address space is expanded memory. Extended memory is memory addressed above the first 1Mbyte. Rules to follow fo r ensuring success with the PCSA installation program include knowing what hardware is installed, configuring and testing PCSA 3.0 prior to other system hardware, optimizing memory, reconfiguring CONFIG.SYS to load LADDRV.SYS and other drivers into high memory and reconfiguring PCSA 3.0 so it uses expanded or extended memory. Users should also evaluate how DOS uses conventional memory. A good expanded memory manager can be of very useful. Standard I/O, part 2. (Let's C Now)(column ) (tutorial) Jaeschke, Rex. The record format cannot be ignored when processing an arbitrary sequential file. Text and binary open modes act differently for record-oriented formats. Programmers can achieve predictable results by always processing sequential text files sequentially. There may be problems if binary mode and record-oriented formats and random positioning are used. The variable-length record format supported by VAX FORTRAN is called variable-length with FORTRAN carriage control. Caught in the cross fire. (Digital Watch; includes related articles about DEC and IBM and Japan and new low-end server from Digital Equipment Corp is causing concern among users and third-party resellers by enforcing the company's Software Licensing Policy option to charge users who buy machine upgrades from third-party resellers. This could make upgrades for VAX machines cost $50,000 to $70,000 if the CPU boards are purchased from a third-party reseller. The option, which previously was not enforced, permits DEC to charge customers for the full value of a VMS operating system license if the user purchased 'in-cabinet, in-tier' upgrade boards from a company other than DEC. Some users see this as the beginning of the formulation of a user-based software licensing philosophy. Company officials maintain DEC is responding to customer requests for a revised software licensing format. ULTRIX security. (ULTRIX) (column) Bourne, Philip E.; Weiss, Janie. ULTRIX administrators and users should take steps to safeguard their systems and data. These steps include becoming educated about security, keeping checklists of precautions suitable for each user's site, monitoring the ULTRIX system to ensure that precautions are in place and looking for possible intrusion. Administrators and users may want to consult the Rainbow series, a series of colored books maintained by the National Security Agency. These books are a standard of computer system security. A checklist of items ULTRIX administrators should consider is given. Is it real, or is it DCL? (issues of whether DCL is actually a programming language)(DCL Dialogue) (column) Programmers constantly debate whether Digital Command Language (DCL) is a real programming language; the issue is largely a matter of perspective. DCL is indeed a programming language from a strictly lexicographic point of view; users can program in it. The DCL command procedure is a program in the context of running under the control of the command interpreter, but not in the sense of a program being an executable image under VMS. The main issue is actually the proper use of DCL. A number of people use DCL in ways never intended by the DCL designers, but sometimes ease of maintenance and consistency of execution make it feasible to perform some operations within DCL command files. OSIing with DECnet Phase V. (Networking) (column) Harrison, Bradford T. The OSI standard has arrived, and specifications that address all layers of the ISO Reference Model are available. DECnet Phase V, which is definitely OSI, is being introduced in phases by DEC. The process will take until at least late 1992 and possibly longer. Key changes in Phase V include addressing and naming mechanisms. Phase V is the foundation for future networking and users should implement it as soon as possible, even on small networks. There are a number of enhancements to accommodate large networks, including improved routing. Naming is another good reason to move to Phase V. Client machines always use logical names and never deal directly with the physical address. Neural nets tell why; a technique for explaining a neural network's decision-making process. Neural networks offer users sensitivity analysis in determining what impact a particular input will have on the final output. 'Sensitivity analysis' takes into account that a small change in one variable input can have a dramatic effect on the resulting output. The process consists of adding small changes in particular inputs and then recomputing the outputs. The difference between the two outputs is then calculated to determine how significant a role a particular input plays. It is important to consider that the way a particular input affects an output is dependent on the input's current value; changing that affects the output, and the decision, in a variety of ways. Genetic algorithms; a new class of searching algorithms. Morrow, Mike. Genetic algorithms use machine-learning techniques that are similar to certain processes found in biological genes. Genetic algorithms are concerned with finding a good solution to a problem; it determines such a solution after processing feedback that it derives from repeated attempts at a solution. An objective function judges what solutions a genetic algorithm arrives at and informs the algorithm that it is arriving at a better solution. The genetic algorithm's attempts at a solution, known as a gene, consists of a sequence of information that can yield a possible solution. Genetic algorithm genes, much like biological genes, are representations of possible solutions in a competitive environment. Porting UNIX to the 386; language tools cross support; developing the initial utilities. (includes related article on copyrights) A standalone system based on the Intel Corp 80386 microprocessor requires a variety of cross-tools to port 386BSD. The cross-tools that are needed include the linker-loader, a C compiler, a 386 protected-mode assembler, a protected-mode loader, communications and file transfer, an object library, ancillary tools and a complete set of include files. These cross-support tools allow the programmer to create a self-supporting kernel by allowing the necessary 250,000 lines of C code to be written. BSD is a UNIX system that needs to be in its native environment for developing. What is BioComputing? Biologically-inspired approaches to creating software. BioComputing is an approach to creating software that is biologically-inspired and holds much promise for programmers in finding solutions to such problems as pattern recognition. The size and complexity of computer programs increased dramatically in the 1980s with the introduction of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), distributed applications and real-time networks. The need for BioComputing arises when current software technology can no longer support existing software. Biocomputing technologies include parallel distributed processing, neural networks, genetic algorithms, fractal systems, fuzzy logic, simulated annealing, chaotic dynamics and cellular automata. Understanding the GPIB; the general-purpose instrumentation bus has a wide range of applications. (includes related article on the The IEEE 488 Bus, also know as the general purpose interface bus (GPIB), was designed to provide users with a common interface for mechanical, electrical and functional requirements in limited distance applications. The GPIB was also implemented to allow direct connection between devices, to permit simultaneous connection of instrumentation from a wide variety of capabilities, to permit asynchronous communications and to require a minimum of restrictions on a device's performance characteristics. GPIB is a useful interface that is not difficult to use once the protocol is understood; it offers designers of systems and instrumentation a wide range of choices. Cooperative multitasking in C++; when resources are scarce, this is the way to go. Developing applications in embedded systems is best done with cooperative multitasking objects for C++. Object-oriented C++ preemptive multitasking has several disadvantages. It requires operating system support, makes resource sharing a complex task and executes context switches slowly. Preemptive multitasking also features an interrupt timer that periodically executes an executive program and requires the system to save and restore the entire state of the processor. Cooperative multitasking does not rely on interrupts and does not have the overhead found in preemptive multitasking; these advantages give developers more freedom in developing applications in embedded systems. Examining the Microsoft Mail SDK; mail APIs can hide the complexity of network programming. (Examining Room)(Microsoft Microsoft Corp's Mail SDK for Macintosh offers a mail applications programming interface (API) that is designed for program developers who have little experience with network programming. The mail API can be used for a variety of things that have nothing to do with mail including building an almost unlimited number of client-server and peer-to-peer network applications. Programmers need to realize that they need to be able to accept the security, architecture, transport mechanisms and fault tolerance of any particular mail API; the Microsoft Mail API requires that data move between one point and another via the store-and-forward scheme. Programmers also need to use a communications API if they wish to maintain a high degree of control over routing, data formatting, performance and network addressing. Fractals in the real world; a general-purpose interactive drawing and modeling tool. (Programmer's workbench) (column) Program developers can create fractal images by using an ordinary microcomputer and a general drawing tool known as a 'fractal template.' Fractals, which are shapes with infinite detail, are useful to programmers when they need to model unconventional geometric shapes, such as splashing water or other natural forms. Fractals derive their infinite detail from a process known as successive approximation; fractal templates use this process by defining seeds and then using transformations that point toward an infinite progression. Programmers discover an entirely different array of symmetries and structures when drawing with fractals; it provides graphics that can never be duplicated with conventional approaches. Building Xanadu. (Programming paradigms; Ted Nelson's Xanadu project) (column) Industry observers note that Autodesk Inc's Xanadu/Server, which is expected to be released towards the end of 1991, will bring Ted Nelson's Xanadu Project one step closer to reality. The official release of the project is expected to receive a lot of publicity given the 30-year history of the Xanadu Project and the popularity of Ted Nelson. Autodesk is not building the entire Xanadu Project, which is a grand-scale dream of universal hypertext, but only one component of it. The software company only bought the Xanadu server; Ted Nelson still maintains control over the global publishing repository, which makes up the largest part of the Xanadu Project. Terminate and stay resident programs and a new project. (C programming) (column) Command-line programs written in the C programming language can be turned into terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. TSR programs are needed for the MS-DOS operating system because the system is not designed to accommodate simple task-switching tasks between resident programs. TSR programs are run from the DOS command line and attaches itself to some intercept vectors and then utilizes a unique DOS call to terminate while retaining the memory space it occupies. TSR programs must have indicators that communicate when it wants to pop up and when the DOS operating system will allow it to do so. A program cannot be interrupted while it is in the middle of a DOS call because DOS is not a reentrant operating system. You can't go home again. (Structured programming; Pascal programming language) (column) Portability in Pascal is not a feasible possibility given the changes that have been made since the pristine Pascal Standard. Realizing portability involves standard semantics across platforms and standard syntax across language implementations. The designers of computer programming languages are the largest obstacle to a standard syntax; if programmers would take the extra step to define the specifications for a library, standard syntax would not be such a large hurdle. Standard semantics are much harder to define that standard syntax; semantics deals with a programming language's description of what a particular language statement means in the context of a particular machine. The virtues of inexpensive approximation: the Edsun Continuous Edge Graphics DAC. (Hardware Review) (Graphics Programming; Edsun Edsun Laboratories Inc's Continuous Edge Graphics Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) features support for 8 bits-per-pixel (bpp) per color gun, compatibility with standard VGA DACs, capability to specify a pixel's color and capability for information to be embedded in the bitmap. The Continuous Edge Graphics DAC is complex to program and does not give users complete control over color, but its attributes are very substantial to any graphics programmer. The combination of the DAC with the VGA standard is likely to create its own high-end standard for computer graphics. The only problem with implementing the high-end graphics will be software support. Literacy and IBM. (IBM's Writing to Read and Writing to Write educational program; includes a related article on OTA examining IBM introduces Writing to Write, a sequel to its popular Writing to Read computer-based literacy program. Writing to Read uses a lab-based approach to reading and writing for K-1 students; Writing to Write (WTW) is a classroom-based, year-long curriculum for the second grade that introduces students to skills using workstations and classic children's literature. In a study conducted by the Educational Testing Service, students who used WTW scored higher in writing skills than non-WTW students. However, the high-price tag, approximately $15,000 for a 25-student lab may deter some educators. The hardware industry: MS-DOS makes big strides. (includes a related article on Tandy and one on Commodore Business Machines Dissatisfaction with the high cost of Apple Macintoshes has led many educators to purchase MS-DOS-based microcomputers, particularly IBM products. Although Apple has introduced less expensive Macs, IBM has become a major rival to Apple in the education market. IBM's annual shipment of computers to educators has grown each year since 1984, according to research firm Link Resources. Apple has responded to sagging sales by listening closely to what educators want in a Mac and responding with a new product line. New Macintoshes introduced in Oct 1990 include the Mac Classic and Mac LC microcomputers. Educators are attracted to IBM computers because of lower pricing and the fact that IBM is gearing products to the educational market. The school of tomorrow - today. Pearlman, Robert. The Saturn School of Tomorrow in St. Paul, MN was inspired by Albert Shanker, president of American Federation of Teachers, who motivated others to build new models of education as innovative as General Motors' Saturn automobile project. Not one room in the school looks like a traditional classroom. Most rooms are designed for a specific function such as writing, music or science. The media center is a large co-operative workroom; the school is a learner-centered environment where students work with teachers and parents to build personal growth plans. Students use technology tools, open spaces and different types of furniture; the overall environment resembles offices more than classrooms. Fast modems: 2400-bps modems can speed your computer data around the world. (includes a related article on double-duty modems) Differences exist between types of modems, although most external ones look alike. Users should consider price, security features and transmission speeds before making a buying decision. Modems with speeds of 2,400 and 4,800 bps are currently available. The faster the modem works, the less money is paid in phone charges. Slower transmission speeds are still necessary for communication with some on-line services and are available on most 2400-bps modems. Most modems can be used with different computers, but buyers should ask the manufacturer about compatibility. Each speed of a modem has its own modulation standard developed by the Consultative Committee on International Telegraph and Telephone (CCITT), a European standards group. Education buyers can usually obtain discounts on modems. Emerging Literacy: a new early learning curriculum from Learningways. (Learningways' Emerging Literacy, distributed by Emerging Literacy, developed by Learningways and published by Jostens Learning Corp of San Diego, CA, is a new early learning curriculum. This multimedia K-2 package is designed to cover all aspects of a child's early learning development, from language skills to early math, gross and fine motor skills and fine arts. The I Am a Reader and Writer component of the program addresses language acquisition, and the I Am a Solver focuses on early mathematical skills. The program should be loaded onto a network because of the number of disks involved. The product is one of the most comprehensive packages on the market and uses the computer in an exploring, creative way. It is designed for Apple II and MS-DOS networks. Prices begin at $2,000 per classroom set. Curriculum reformers: Learningways' Henry Olds and Art Bardige. (interview) Art Bardige and Henry Olds from Learningways have produced such innovative educational programs as the Explore-a-Story series from W.K. Bradford, the Learn About series from Sunburst and the Emerging Literacy curriculum from Jostens Learning Co. Both designers have similar ideas about how children learn. Children need to be creative and active, and technology enables them to be that way. Learningways' programs involve both storytelling and visualization. The mouse is an important tool in their program designs, and the software is 'child-centered' so that it can speak directly to the student without involving the teacher. Textbooks will be replaced by computers in the future, according to these software designers. Concrete math: new software to help students understand money, time, measurement. (Scott, Foresman's Money and Time Workshop and Scott, Foresman has introduced an exciting math software package for K- through 3rd grade curriculum called Money and Time Workshop, priced at $89.95 for the Apple II and $99.95 for MS-DOS. Students can manipulate data and explore concepts in an open-ended way. The teacher's guide is one of the product's strengths and includes a comprehensive manual. IBM Educational Systems' Exploring Measurement, Time and Money offers three levels geared for grades 1-6. Students manipulate coins and data in realistic situations. The software has amazing graphics and offers a wide range of activities. It runs on IBM workstations and gives students many opportunities to explore concepts in money, time and measurement. Exploring Measurement, Time and Money is the best math program on the market for K-6 instruction. Social simulations: real-world problems encourage critical thinking and decision making. (middle school; Students in middle school can learn how to think and make intelligent decisions about their own lives and the world about them using Macmillan-McGraw-Hill's What If? and Tom Snyder Productions' Decisions, Decisions: The Environment. What If provides 20 different simulations on different levels for discussion and analysis. Scenarios such as analyzing the country's overcrowded jail situation, third world debt, and minimum wage are included. Each problem is explained, then four or five possible solutions are offered. Students listen to different viewpoints from people involved. Decisions, Decisions focuses on just one issue, the pollution of a lake in the community of Alpine, a medium-sized mountain town. As mayor of the town, students must find a solution to handle waste disposal. In both programs tested, the students and their ideas remained the focus of every discussion, while the software and technology assisted them in the background. Teaching about AIDS: two videodiscs to help teach a difficult subject. (Britannica's Choices: Learning About AIDS and ABC News AIDS is a difficult subject to teach in high schools, but two videodiscs designed to help teachers talk to their students about this disease help the situation. Britannica's Choices: Learning About AIDS could be used at the junior high level as well. The language of the movie included is appropriate for this age. Main issues are dealt with fairly and competently, although specific facts about AIDS are not discussed in depth. There is humor in the film, and the characters in the story are believable. ABC News Interactive's videodisc Health: AIDS is a stunning program that could be used with students as young as fourth or fifth grade. The videodisc is fully controllable and supplemented with computer software. The product is organized in logical and easily accessible sections. It gains great impact from the inclusion of interviews with people with AIDS. A family of high-performance synthesized sweepers. (Hewlett-Packard's HP 8360 family; includes related articles on Hewlett-Packard's HP 8360 family of high-end microwave synthesized sweep oscillators consists of 11 models that cover the 10-MHz to 110-GHz frequency range. The new generation of sweepers offers higher power, broader frequency range and lower harmonics than previous HP products while being able to add optional features without compromising other performance or functional capabilities. HP 8360 systems consist of seven major functional blocks: synthesizer, microwave components, user interface, microprocessor, frequency standard, power supply and modulation, sweep control and microcircuit control circuitry. Each of these components is described. The HP 8360 utilizes the tree-structured SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) programming language, which complies with the IEEE 488.2 communication protocol for the IEEE 488.1 HP-IB instrument interface. The major features of the language are discussed. Designing for low cost of ownership. (designing the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave test equipment) The design goals for microwave test equipment must include low cost of ownership, as the subsequent maintenance, repair and lost productivity costs can otherwise far exceed the original purchase price. Consequently, concern for high reliability must be an implicit component of the entire design cycle from the beginning. Ensuring reliability also requires active looking for failures or problems while they can still be corrected. The design team for the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators included a reliability and service engineer early in the design process to ensure that team members focused on reliability and service issues. These included adherence to HP guidelines for component selection and derating, peer design reviews, reliability testing at assembly and instrument levels, calibration and ensuring serviceability. Built-in synthesized sweeper self-test and adjustments. (features of the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 microwave synthesized sweep Extensive self-testing capabilities were designed into the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators. The projected low-cost of ownership of the units is in large part due to the early integration of testing and service features to simplify calibration, failure diagnosis and repair. The HP 8360 self-test circuitry and firmware can perform over 900 digital, analog and radio-frequency measurements in about 45 seconds. Over 90 percent of failures are automatically detected and diagnosed in the testing process. Built-in firmware enables adjustments to be made to resolve many problems without recourse to external equipment. These testing and servicing features were designed into the HP 8360 early in the design process with the participation of the full design team. Details of the self-test capabilities are discussed. A high-performance sweeper output power leveling system: a feedforward ALC design gives HP 8360 sweepeers improved flatness, The feedforward automatic level control (ALC) system of the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators provides improved power flatness, leveling accuracy and AM bandwidth and dynamic range compared to previous product generations plus outside user-controlled flatness correction and self-calibration. This ensures a greater than 99 percent confidence that the error in any power measurement is extremely small over a range of environmental temperatures. The feedforward ALC employs a loop that feeds a source pulse directly to a modulator and to a summing node in the feedback loop. This creates a AM bandwidth up to 500 KHz with a low 10-KHz or 100-KHz loop bandwidth. Digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters have been added to a ramp generator to provide 1,601 accurate ALC reference voltages to ensure flat, accurate power output. User flatness correction, power calibration techniques and error analysis are also discussed. A 0.01-to-40-GHz switched frequency doubler. (design of the Hewlett-Packard microcircuit) The Hewlett-Packard switched doubler microcircuit, now incorporated into the HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators, enables a doubling of the frequency range of 0.01-to-20-GHz microwave signal sources to 40 GHz. The doubler has a passthrough mode when operating in the lower range. Operation in the higher range requires the input signal to be routed through an integrated diode switch to a preamplifier, power amplifier and full-wave frequency doubler. Details of the design and functioning of the doubler, particularly its slotline propagator, are discussed. A slotline-to-microstrip transition couples the doubler output back to the main output line. Switched stub filters in the slotline filter out spurious high-frequency signals. The entire assembly was integrated into a single microcircuit package based on a sapphire substrate. A high-speed microwave pulse modulator. (design of the optional circuit for Hewlett-Packard's HP 8360 family of microwave A new high-speed, wide-band microwave pulse modulator was designed as an option (Option 006) for the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators. The new modulator includes an additional pulse modulator after the YIG multiplier to provide a broad 2.0-GHz to 20-GHz bandwidth with rise and fall times typically less than 2ns. HP monolithic microwave integrated circuit traveling wave amplifiers are included at the input and output of the modulator to provide power, gain and high reverse isolation functionality. An electronic switch at the output enables the selection of 10-MHz-to-2.35-GHz or 2.35-GHz-to-20-GHz frequency ranges. Details of the modulator's design and functioning are discussed. New technology in synthesized sweeper microcircuits. (devices used in Hewlett-Packard's HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep Several innovative technologies were developed to implement two new microcircuits for the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators. The new devices are a low-band microcircuit that generates a 10-MHz-to-2.3-GHz frequency band from a modsplitter (modulator/splitter) that routes a YIG-tuned oscillator output to several other circuits in the HP 8360. A new thick-film hybrid packaging technology employing integral contacts enables the two devices to replace what were previously nine separate microcircuits. Other advances incorporated in the low-band circuit include the use of conductive elastomers to provide adequate insulation between mixer and oscillator, reverse isolated monolithic RF amplifier, LO amplifier circuit to provide flatness control, triple-balanced mixer and quasi-elliptic low-pass filters. A new screw-body dc feed provided better superior RFI grounding, microwave rejection and a 0.050-inch-diameter pin for the integral contact in both devices. Design of the modsplitter is also discussed. DC-to-50-GHz programmable step attenuators. (devices used in the Hewlett-Packard HP 8360 microwave synthesized sweep oscillators) Hewlett-Packard Co developed new dc-to-50-GHz coaxial programmable step attenuators for the firm's HP 8360 family of microwave synthesized sweep oscillators. The need for broadband measurements and test sets requiring stepped level control drove the development of the new attenuators. The new devices are based on the HP's edgeline cascaded technology. Details of the physical architecture are discussed. The attenuators provide 90 dB attenuation in 10-dB steps, 2.3 dB residual loss at 50 GHz, plus/minus two percent attenuation accuracy, 0.01 dB repeatability and minimum five million cycle lifetime. The new devices are also separately available as HP 33324, 33326 and 33327 programmable step attenuators. 50-to-110-GHz high-performance millimeter-wave source modules. (Hewlett-Packard's HP 83557A and HP 83558A; includes related Several new microcircuits were developed to implement the new Hewlett-Packard HP 83557A and HP 83558A millimeter-wave source modules. The new modules provide millimeter frequency output that covers, respectively, the V-band range from 50 GHz to 75 GHz and the W-band range of 75 GHz to 110 GHz. The 30-to-300-GHz millimeter-wave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is employed for radar, communications and spectroscopic observation. Sources of millimeter frequency signals are used in the development of such millimeter-wave-based systems and for extending the range of microwave-based systems. The new HP modules, for example, can multiply 12.5-to-18.75-GHz microwave signals into the millimeter range. The new circuits that were developed for the modules include a W-band amplifier tripler, V-band amplifier doubler, R-band amplifier doubler and coupler detector. Design and functioning of each device are discussed. An instrument for testing North American digital cellular radios. (Hewlett-Packard's HP 11846A; includes related article on HP Hewlett-Packard's HP 11846A pi/4 DQPSK I-Q generator and HP 11847A pi/4 DQPSK modulation measurement software enable the testing of the digital mode of a new generation of dual-mode digital/analog cellular radios. The Telecommunications Industry Assn's TR 45.3 committee issued specifications for a new digital cellular system, North American Dual-Mode Cellular System (NADMCS), that increases the spectrum efficiency of cellular radios to allow more units to share the saturated analog frequency bands. NADMCS's pi/4 DQPSK time-division multiple-access modulation format enables up to six radios to share a single frequency. The HP 11846A pi/4 DQPSK modulates and filters I and Q baseband signals from such devices as the HP 8780A vector signal generator to produce accurate pi/4 DQPSK signals in the modulation format required by NADMCS for verifying the performance of NADMCS cellular phones. The HP 11847A pi/4 DQPSK software verifies the compliance of dual-mode cellular transmitter performance to NADMCS specifications. Measuring the modulation accuracy of pi/4 DQPSK signals for digital cellular transmitters. (using Hewlett-Packard's HP 11847A Hewlett-Packard's HP 11847A pi/4 DQPSK modulation measurement software employs digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to accurately verify how well the radio-frequency (RF) performance of digital cellular transmitters complies with the North American Dual-Mode Cellular System (NADMCS) standard developed by the TR 45.3 subcommittee of the Electronic Industries Assn and Telecommunications Industries Assn. NADCMS specifies such performance factors as allowable modulation phase and amplitude error, carrier frequency error and error vector magnitude. HP 11847A pi/4 DQPSK measures each of these characteristics plus time-division multiple-access amplitude and fast Fourier transform measurements of error vector data. Output graphs include I-Q broadband diagrams, error vector magnitude, phase and amplitude graphs and phase- and amplitude-error graphs. Details of the measurement techniques and host system hardware are discussed. A test verification tool for C and C++ programs. (Hewlett-Packard's HP Branch Validator) Hewlett-Packard's HP Branch Validator software execution and test verification package validates which branches of a C language program have executed in a software testing process. Executable module-based tests written concurrently with program code tend to be more complete and can reduce undetected faults and side effects in subsequent code revisions. Unfortunately, the tests are difficult to write and measure for effectiveness. HP Branch Validator facilitates the analysis and improvement of such tests by adding code that enables the Validator to verify the thoroughness of testing as well as branches of code that are not executed in the testing. The software features window and command-line interfaces and standalone and embedded versions (the latter in the HP SoftBench development environment), both of which run on HP 9000 Series 300, 400 and 800 computers. The standalone version supports HP-UX C and C++, while the SoftBench version supports AxLS C. HP Validator's preprocessor, report generator and SoftBench interface components are discussed at length. Who's ahead in hi-tech? Responses to Gallup survey by US engineers. (includes related article noting responses by some Some 65.3 percent of 50 government, 50 industry and 50 academic Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) members surveyed by the Gallup Organization Inc (Princeton, NJ) believe that the US is technologically ahead in the members' particular fields, while 19.3 percent believe Japan is ahead in their respective fields. The random telephone survey of American IEEE Spectrum subscribers was sponsored by Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily. The US was rated ahead in such fields as semiconductor microprocessors, software, personal computers, workstations, supercomputers, space and aviation, new industrial materials, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Japan was rated ahead in consumer electronics, semiconductor memory and fifth-generation computers. Where the US should place its technological priorities, what fields the US will continue to lead in the 21th century, the differing perspective of the US Department of Commerce, the impact of military budget cuts and Japan's 'easy ride' are discussed. The challenges of digital HDTV: complex compression coding and motion compensation algorithms are key techniques used by system Four all-digital candidates for the future US high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasting standard will be tested by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in early 1992. The FCC is requiring candidate systems to simulcast both the current National Television System Committee (NTSC) signal and the HDTV signal. Advantages of all digital HDTV over analog or hybrid systems include pictures free from atmospheric noise and other interference, superior resolution and more flexible channel use. Drawbacks include abrupt degradation with distance, more limited coverage area, wider broadcast band width required and the need to resist high-power NTSC signals on adjacent NTSC 'taboo' broadcast bands. All four systems propose to use the bands, video bandwidth compression and error correction. The systems are General Instrument's (GI's) DigiCipher, Zenith-AT&T Digital-Compatible HDTV System, Advanced Television Research Consortium's Advanced Digital Television and the American Television Alliance's (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and GI) ATVA-Progressive System. Tips on setting up your workstation. (tutorial) Strategies are developed for the physical layout of computer workstations and the workspaces they occupy to ensure the optimal health and productivity of the users. The specific goals are to minimize eye and muscle fatigue and reduce the potential impacts of extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic emissions from workstation monitors. There is a lot of controversy as to whether ELF fields generated by monitor vertical deflection systems adversely affect the health of nearby users. Some countries, though, have already implemented standards of magnetic field flux densities below 1.0 microtesla 30 cm from the display screen, with other work in Scandinavia suggesting that ELF levels should be below 0.2 microtesla. Workspaces should be set up so no person in an adjoining cubicle is closer than 122 cm to the back of any other worker's monitor. Strategies to reduce eye and muscle fatigue include a large enough monitor to make data easy to read, placement of the monitor 10-to-20 degrees below the line of sight, placement of lights to eliminate glare on monitor, sufficient leg room and a chair with good back support. Using workstations efficiently: distributing computing power with workstations paves the way for concurrent engineering with high Grumman Aerospace Corp's Aircraft Systems Div is developing a distributed, data-driven computing environment, the Grumman Computer/Information Integrated Enterprise (CIE), that facilitates use of concurrent engineering for more rapid system development with higher product quality. The division had to integrate several design operations running different computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and related software tools on a wide range of hardware from a Cray supercomputer to microcomputers, all with different operating systems. Grumman is basing CIE on an Ethernet- and TCP/IP protocol-based local area network that integrates previous computing resources and newly acquired IBM RS6000 workstations. The new workstations host such CAE and CAD/CAM packages as Cadam and Catia in the shared-data distributed environment. Advantages of the workstation strategy include more resources per user, greater reliability, cost-effect security, development of larger models without affecting other users and easier redistribution of resources as needed. Add-ons for your workstation. (buyers guide) A wide variety of third-party add-in boards and subsystems are available to enhance workstation performance and functionality. These include hardware accelerators and coprocessors; network, interface and graphics adapter boards; magnetic disk, tape and optical storage and backup systems; data input devices such as mice, digitizer tablets and track balls; and output systems such as monitors, plotters, graphics printers and scan converters. More such products are available for IBM PC and compatible microcomputers than for any other architecture, but third-party vendors are expanding the hardware options for other workstation environments. The requirements for, usefulness of and applications of the various types of add-on products are briefly discussed. How ICs impact workstations. (integrated circuits) Horning, Robert J.; Forsyth, Mark; Yetter, Jeff; Thayer, Larry J. The design of a high-performance, low-cost Hewlett-Packard workstation provides a case study in how performance, design and delivery goals impact the selection of ICs for the system. The company wanted to implement its Precision-Architecture, Reduced-Instruction-Set Computer (PA-RISC) system in a single-user workstation that would provide a high level of performance for graphics and other applications while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PA-RISC systems. The workstation design team had the 'flexibility, resources and expertise' to select what they needed from full-custom, application-specific, commodity and standard logic ICs to implement the system. Criteria for and selection of the processor architecture, floating-point coprocessor, SRAMs and custom memory-input/output interface controller are discussed. A critique of purely digital HDTV. (high-definition television) Schreiber, William F. Digital high-definition television (HDTV) technology may be feasible in the future, but the currently proposed digital HDTV transmission systems have very poor spectrum efficiency and need to demonstrate sufficient reliability. There is a 'stampede' in the direction of digital terrestrial HDTV broadcasting, and vital decisions are being made about it 'without adequate thought' or determination of the viability of proposed all-digital technologies. Several assertions about digital transmission are shown or claimed to be wrong, including the beliefs that digital modulation is the most efficient transmission method, digital systems are less susceptible to interference and more immune to noise than analog systems, digital transmission automatically removes ghosts and interoperability with nonbroadcast applications is simpler. The compression technologies that the proposed digital HDTV systems will use are all based on subband coding or the discrete Fourier transform, neither of which provide any advantages to digital transmission. Editing made easy. (Microsoft Corp adds object linking and embedding capabilities to Windows) The object linking and embedding (OLE) capabilities that Microsoft Corp is adding to its Windows graphical user interface (GUI) will make it much easier to edit and revise documents. OLE enables segments of documents to be treated as objects. This includes creating a pictorial description of the segment in the device-independent Metafile format and employing extended Windows dynamic-link library functions to enable applications to utilize objects at a high level. Other capabilities of OLE-based Windows include faster scrolling and the ability to select, edit and save graphical or spreadsheet segments in their native format from within a document. Blanche -- an experiment in guidance and navigation of an autonomous robot vehicle. (technical) The principal components and capabilities of Blanche, an autonomous robot vehicle are described. The robot is designed for structured office or factory use, rather than unstructured natural environments. The vehicle contains two sensors: an optical rangefinder and odometry. An off-line path planner guides the vehicle's movements. The cart controller controls the front steering and drive velocity through conventional feedback compensation. Position estimation is a primary problem for autonomous vehicles working in structured environments. Blanche's position estimation system consists of an a priori map of its environment, a matching algorithm that registers the range data with the map and provides the vehicle's position. The vehicle is self-contained. Kinetic limitations on the use of redundancy in robotic manipulators. (technical) The kinetic behavior of the homogeneous solution component in the kinematic specification of motion for redundant manipulators is analyzed to specify realistic limitation on the use of redundancy. The equations governing these limitations are related to the conditions for guaranteeing stability of the local torque minimization formulation. The specification relies on a formulation that decomposes joint velocity solutions into a pseudoinverse and homogeneous solution components. Representations of mechanical assembly sequences. (technical) Homem de Mello, Luiz S.; Sanderson, Arthur C. Five representations of assembly sequences are presented. They are based on directed graphs, AND/OR graphs, establishment conditions and precedence relationships. There are two types of precedence relationships; those between the establishment of one connection between parts and the establishment of another connection, and those between the establishment of one connection and states of the assembly process. The relation of each representation to the others is discussed. The results are used in the proof of correctness and completeness of algorithms for the generation of mechanical assembly sequences. A correct and complete algorithm for the generation of mechanical assembly sequences. (technical) An algorithm for generating all of the mechanical assembly sequences for a product are presented. A relational model of assemblies is employed. The model includes the geometry of the assembly and a representation of the attachments that bind one part to another. The assembly sequences are transformed into disassembly sequences in the inverse of feasible assembly tasks, leading to a decomposition approach in which disassembling one assembly is decomposed into distinct subproblems. The subproblems each disassemble one subassembly. The algorithm returns the AND/OR graph representation of assembly sequences. Bounds for the amount of computation involved are presented. Dynamic motion planning of autonomous vehicles. (technical) Shiller, Zvi; Gwo, Yu-Rwei. A method for planning the motions of autonomous vehicles moving on general terrains is presented. The method considers vehicle dynamics, terrain topography, obstacles, and surface mobility to obtain geometric path and vehicle speeds that minimize motion time. Time optimal motions are computed by obtaining the best obstacle-free path from all paths represented by a uniform grid. Local optimization further optimizes the path. Examples demonstrate the method for a simple dynamic model of a vehicle moving on mountainous terrain. A versatile PC-based range finding system. (technical) Saint-Marc, P.; Jezouin, L; Medioni, G. An active triangulation-based range finding system is presented. It is composed of an independent laser system that generates a sheet of light projected on the object to be measured, which is placed upon a linear or a rotary table driven by a microcomputer. The computer contains a video digitizer board connected to two cameras that observe the scene from both sides of the sheet of light. This low-cost system provides several advantages over similar existing systems. The application of the techniques are illustrated. IBM to sell Novell NetWare; client-server computing drives IBM and Novell pact. (Broadcast) IBM announces an agreement with Novell by which IBM will market, service and support that firm's NetWare network operating system (NOS) while continuing to offer its own OS/2 LAN Server and PC LAN Program NOSs. Novell will provide IBM with versions of NetWare that run on OS/2 and IBM's RS/6000 AIX platform. These will be available in 1992 as part of NetWare 3.2. Client-server computing is the driving force behind the agreement. With the new agreement in place, IBM will be able to connect NetWare users within an IBM shop. Novell's reasoning behind the agreement is similar to IBM's: Novell will now be able to serve a wide range of IBM customers. The two firms will work together to extend connectivity at the high end and mid-range. Among other items, IBM will provide support for Novell's IPX/SPX protocols on its 8209 LAN Bridge, allowing NetWare servers to communicate with clients in a mixed Token Ring/Ethernet network. Novell releases new NetWare: enterprise computing. (NetWare 3.11, others) (Broadcast) (product announcement) Novell introduces version 3.11 of its NetWare network operating system, dropping the '386' from the product name to emphasize its independence from the Intel 80386 processor. Several other operating system-level products are announced, including NetWare for Macintosh 3.0 and NetWare for NFS, and support for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard. The firm also introduces 20-, 100-, and 250-user licenses to its pricing structure. NetWare 3.11 features Novell's new Integrated Computing Architecture (ICA), which provides support for a wide range of desktop operating systems, as well as IBM, DEC, Unix and other services. It is priced at $3,495, $6,995, and $12,495 for 20-, 100-, and 250-user licenses, respectively. NetWare for Macintosh 3.0 gives Mac users full participation in the NetWare environment and is priced at $895 per server for the 20-user version and $1,995 per server for the 100-user package. NetWare for NFS provides Unix users with native file and print services, and is priced at $4,995. MCC taps network computational power using object-oriented software: parallel, distributed computing. (Microelectronics and Researchers at Microelectronics and Computer Corp (MCC) have developed object-oriented software that allows networked computers using distributed processing to challenge supercomputer computational ability by taking advantage of the unused computational power of workstations, providing this power at a tenth or less of the cost of a supercomputer. An Object Manager was developed as part of MCC's Extensible Software Platform (ESP), which provides object-oriented, distributed computing to networks composed of workstations and microcomputers. The Object Manager provides the necessary functions that allow software objects to run in parallel. Development of the software began in 1987; it is now installed at some 20 sites, largely on Ethernet networks using Sun workstations. MCC is an information technology research and development consortium funded by 22 shareholder companies, 35 associate member companies, and government sources. The guide to hardware configurations. (Patches and Fixes) (tutorial) Configuring new hardware for a system presents a number of challenges. Different pieces of hardware have different address requirements, and recalling specifics for a given piece can provide a real test of a system administrator's memory. Software packages such as Symantec's Norton Utilities or Ashton-Tate's Control Room can reveal some information about installed boards with unrecorded configurations, but such information as RAM base addresses and I/O addresses should be kept on a label in an easily accessible part of the component. Techniques for determining the source of conflicts when installing a new piece of hardware are provided. Certain types of devices have fairly predictable resource requirements. Charts are provided that list some of the most common RAM base addresses, I/O addresses, Interrupt Request Lines (IRQs), DMA channels, hard disk controller cabling requirements, and monitor scan rates. Paul Severino: president, CEO and founder of Wellfleet Communications. (interview) Paul Severino is president, CEO and founder of Wellfleet Communications. Before founding Wellfleet, a vendor of market-leading bridges and routers, Severino founded Interlan and was involved in the start-up of Data Translation. He also served as vice president of engineering at Prime Computer. Severino is not a fan of mergers, due in large part to his experiences with Interlan, first bought out by Micom in 1985, then later sold to British firm Racal. Severino responds to questions regarding Wellfleet's current market position; the firm's strategy for dealing with competitors, such as cisco Systems; the relative merits of an Initial Public Offering versus a 'white knight' merger; the likelihood of a shakeout in the internetworking products market; and developing market trends and standards, including enterprise networking, the Open Systems Interconnection standard, and the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol. No downturn here: the LAN 100. (includes related articles on necessary qualifications for LAN 100 membership and on the The results of LAN MAgazine's fifth annual LAN 100 Network Integrators survey show no downturn in the market for independent network systems integrators and local-area network (LAN)-specific value-added resellers. Sales in 1990 increased by 44 percent over 1989. Four of the top ten companies are relative newcomers. AmeriData, ranked seventh in 1990, placed 31st in 1989, and fourth-ranked ERI was not part of the 1989 survey. Top-ranked ComputerLand placed second in 1989, behind 1990's third-placed Businessland. Rounding out the top ten are JWP Information Systems (second), Nynex Business Centers (fifth), Syntrex (sixth), USConnect Partners (eighth), Data Systems Network (ninth), and Entre Computer Center/DCT Systems. While larger VARs rely on large, experienced sales forces to create business, smaller VARs depend on technical expertise and word-of-mouth to sustain and grow sales. The relative market perspectives of large and small VARs are explored. Guarded optimism. (the LAN 100 looks at 1991) (part of a special section on the top 100 local area network integrators) (Cover The top 100 local area network (LAN) integrators detail the effects of the recession on their manner of doing business and offer their views on what 1991 holds for the market. Cost-justification has become a critical factor in customers' decision-making process. Down-sizing and outsourcing are dramatically affecting corporate MIS departments, and those effects are mirrored in the network integration market. Integrators are placing a greater emphasis on selling service and support as the demand for commodities lessens. Increasing numbers of integrators are focusing on specific market niches, while others are forming strategic alliances with hardware dealers. The impact of the recession on integrators varies according to the geographic region as well; southern and Midwestern integrators report growth, while New England-based integrators report a more pessimistic outlook. Overall, integrators are taking a more proactive approach to dealing with the recession, tightening credit or imposing closer inventory control. Increased marketing is the method of choice for others. Peer to peer. (increasing sophistication among network administrators calls for new approaches from network value-added Network administrators now have a better understanding of the fine points of network integration. This increased knowledge is seen as both a blessing and a curse by the top 100 local area network (LAN) integrators. While integrators are now free to spend the bulk of their time on such activities as system design and installation, they have also had to alter sales and support structures to meet the higher expectations of more sophisticated customers. Some LAN integrators have lost business when customers brought integration services in-house. Responding to the changing nature of the network administrator has meant that integrators have had to increase technical support staff levels, provide better education for sales staff, and move from a client-installer relationship to one that more closely reflects a business partnership. Ten trends in the network industry. (part of a special section on the LAN Magazine LAN 100) (Cover Story) Ten trends in the network industry, as identified by the LAN 100 Network Integrators, are detailed. The distinctions between local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) are fading as global networking becomes the rule. Interoperability and open systems are also increasing in demand, and mission-critical applications continue to be migrated to LANs. Demand for database servers and superservers is also increasing, driven by the trend to downsizing, as is the need for more sophisticated network management capabilities. Consolidations and strategic alliances will become more common as the market shakes out. Integrators will face customer demands for more sophisticated services, and upper management will become more involved in network purchasing decisions, necessitating a better understanding on the part of the integrator of his client's core business. Finally, the 1990's are seen as the decade of the international marketplace. Users' wish list: what end users ask for. (part of a special section on the LAN Magazine LAN 100) (Cover Story) A list of the top ten customer requests as compiled by the top 100 local area network (LAN) integrators is presented. Topping the list is seamless integration of applications into the business environment, followed by better network management hardware and software, particularly with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support. A broader range of support services ranks third, followed by the ability to internetwork with other networks and host computers. Fifth on the list is more training for both end users and administrators, with a preference for on-site training. Client-server applications and facsimile servers rank sixth and seventh, respectively. Fault tolerance and optical storage occupy eighth and ninth place, and the list is rounded out by a desire for improved cabling, cabling diagnostics, and cabling design software. Survival in the 1990's: channel complexity is here to stay. How will you cope? (includes a related article suggesting approaches Network resellers come in many flavors, and the maturing of the networking market is unlikely to make significant changes in the level of channel complexity. While new technologies are usually sold by a manufacturer's direct sales force, specialty resellers handle more mature technologies, while broad-line channels handle standardized technologies. The networking market, because it is composed of multiple technologies, magnifies this complexity level. Positioning is critical to channel survival; once a vendor or channel remarketer has identified its target market, it must make full use of the range of positioning tools to enable customers to determine which channel provides which services. To resolve channel conflicts, vendors and channel marketers must agree on which market segments each will serve. Since channel marketers tend to have significantly more power in the network market, vendors must take appropriate steps to balance that power. Mixed messages. (the evolution of electronic mail) Dougherty, Elizabeth. Electronic mail systems are steadily progressing toward the same sort of client-server architecture popular for databases. This evolution, which involves splitting the front-end and back-end portions of e-mail systems, allows e-mail vendors to focus on their particular area of expertise, and fosters the development of more sophisticated options. A client-server architecture also offers easier integration, greater messaging capabilities, and improved mail management. The complexity of e-mail and a lack of standards complicates the development of client-server applications, however. Proprietary e-mail firms are separating front and back ends to allow for the client-server model, but this increases the importance of compatibility and support issues. End users will be able to pick and choose the individual components that best suit their needs, but components from different vendors will need to be combined with care. The most critical issue facing e-mail vendors is determining which functions should be assigned to the client portion and which to the server. Rebuilding e-mail: changing the way mail works. Electronic mail systems are moving toward a client-server architecture. E-mail vendors are using different approaches to accomplishing the shift with their products. cc:Mail, currently being acquired by Lotus Development Corp, is modularizing its code into pieces that include user agents, directory services, transport services and applications, and is developing a mail engine. Da Vinci Systems has completely rewritten version 2.0 of its eMail package. The front and back ends have been separated and the entire database made replaceable with SQL, Btrieve, or any of a number of options. Consumers Software opened the architecture of its Network Courier package to allow customers and third-party vendors to build mail-enabled applications, and has issued Applications Programming Interfaces (APIs). Gateway glue. (building a seamless messaging system) (tutorial) Burns, Nina. Gateways provide one solution to the problem of building a seamlessly integrated, reliable, transparent messaging system that can provide users with a single, familiar interface across the range of disparate electronic mail systems already in use. Selecting the correct gateway solution requires first determining the architecture appropriate to the user's computing and messaging strategy, then implementing the solutions that support that strategy with room for growth. Architecture choice is a function of overall mail strategy, network complexity, and standards requirements, among other factors. Choice of gateway solution is equally dependent on size and complexity of the network and mail systems. Point-to-point solutions are most effective in relatively uncomplicated networks. Backbone solutions are preferable for complex, large systems. In all cases, gateways should be part of an overall architectural design, not merely a 'band-aid' solution. A gateway should be able to grow with the network, provide expected cost savings, and fit the user's operational profile. Germ warfare. (combatting computer viruses) (tutorial) Kazem-Zadeh, Fardad 'Don'. A tutorial on dealing with computer viruses focuses equally on prevention and recovery. Protecting a standalone microcomputer from infection is fairly straightforward; protecting networked computers is more complex, and any strategy must give full consideration to the organization's culture and business. Preventive measures can include any or all of the following: user education; the making of regular backups; control of supervisory-level access to servers and networks; control of user rights; regular or random scanning of network disks to search for known viruses; installation of some type of preventive tool on workstations; and monitoring of installation of new software, even shrink-wrapped commercial packages. A seven-stage response to a virus outbreak involves assembly of a response team, declaration of a breakout, damage assessment, notification of all affected users, isolation of affected networks and servers, sanitizing of workstations, and finally the reconnection of the sanitized servers and workstations. Untethering the cable-bound. (wireless networks have finally arrived) Wireless networking solutions have been available for a number of years, but the technology is only now reaching performance levels suitable for the broader range of users. New products are appearing, existing products are being upgraded, and the IEEE has established a standards committee. Wireless networks offer an alternative to the cabling that has often proved a major source of networking problems; they have been tagged as critical to portable distributed computing. Wireless transmission, accomplished by either infrared light or by radio waves, is regarded skeptically as a data transmission technology by some, but poses no real security problem as vendors either provide encryption or pass encrypted data. Drawbacks to wireless transmission center more around effective throughput speeds, which can be a fraction of those available through cabled local area networks (LANs). Several currently available products, based on proprietary technologies, are highlighted. Networld Boston: major announcements and technical adventures at Networld Boston. The 1991 edition of Networld Boston, unlike many recent years, saw a number of major vendor alliance announcements and the debut of many innovative products. The agreement between IBM and Novell that will see NetWare remarketed and repackaged in IBM blue boxes was easily the biggest announcement of the show, but other significant announcements included support for NetWare through Digital Equipment Corp's PathWorks and the acquisition of cc:Mail by Lotus. Wireless networking was the technology star of the show, with product announcements coming from Motorola and BICC Communications. Other hardware debuts included 10BaseT products from SynOptics, Federal Technology and D-Link Systems, and Token-Ring products from Madge Networks and Microtest. On the software side, Preferred Systems introduced packages that ease the management of NetWare networks, while Insight Development introduced the Mosaic print server, also for NetWare. Significant alliances included an agreement between Banyan Systems and AT&T Computer Systems to jointly develop and market products for the integration of large-scale networks, and a service and support agreement between Bell Atlantic and USConnect. Airborne LAN. (the U.S. Air Force's broadband network) Reddy, Shyamala. The world's largest broadband network operates at the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC), headquartered in Dayton, OH, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB). Five Air Logistics Centers located nationally and the Aerospace Guidance and Metrology Center, located at Newark AFB in Ohio, also share in the network. The AFLC has responsibility for servicing and maintaining all Air Force planes, a task which requires massive amounts of data to be stored online. The network supports close to 35,000 users. Broadband was selected as the medium of choice because of its ability to support the full range of connections needed, including host-to-host, terminal-to-host, and the two-way, full-motion video used by the AFLC for training and teleconferencing between sites. Specific channels are assigned to specific applications, allowing the bandwidth to be balanced among applications as needed. Currently only custom applications are supported, but future plans call for support of off-the-shelf packages to accommodate a broader range of users. Square pegs in round holes. (Hughes LAN Systems' ProLinc 1.0; includes a related article on version 2.0, due for release by May ProLinc 1.0, from Hughes LAN Systems, is an internetworking solution for DOS workstations. Because the package is workstation-oriented, its price of $595 per workstation may become too costly for larger networks. Installation is problematic. The licensing agreement requires ProLinc to be installed separately on each workstation on the network. Documentation is poor; there is too much technical information, too little task-oriented information, and some information is either misleading or actually incorrect. Maintenance of ProLinc is minimal, and the package offers sufficient flexibility for all levels of network experience. The package tested well for robustness, but is not recognized by some applications. Memory consumption may be excessive, especially if multiple protocols are to be loaded. This is a reasonably good package, but users might find it worthwhile to wait for a later version. Windows dressing. (Automated Design Systems' Windows Workstation) (Software Review) (evaluation) Windows Workstation, from Automated Design Systems, is a collection of utilities that smooths the connection of Windows 3.0 to NetWare or LAN Manager networks. Installation and set-up are easy; customization, while not vital to the package's usefulness, is suggested as an installation step. Documentation is minimal; basic features are adequately explained, but additional examples would be helpful. Ease of use is good and customization becomes easier through experimentation. Print Manager is the package's strongest utility; other outstanding utilities are Menu, which supports the creation of customized menus for groups and users, and Secure Station, which includes encryption and decryption and automatically logs off an inactive workstation after a preset interval has elapsed. This is a valuable package for Windows 3.0 users on NetWare and LAN Manager networks. A 10-user version of Windows Workstation is priced at $695; an unlimited user version costs $1,995 per file server. 1-2-3 for Windows expected soon; users rate 1-2-3 compatibility the most important feature. (software from Lotus Development Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows, which is nearly ready to ship, will be better than Microsoft's Excel, says Jeffrey Beir, director of product marketing at Lotus Development Corp. Microsoft Excel appeared in 1987, and the program has had almost no competition in the Windows-based spreadsheet market. But Lotus officials say that Excel's features are not new to spreadsheets, and Beir says that Lotus's new program will have 'a combination of features we've provided in other versions and some new, unique things.' Beir adds that 1-2-3 for Windows will take full advantage of the Windows interface. According to Beir, 1-2-3 for Windows will be totally compatible in files, styles, keystrokes and macros. Training and support have become important issues for companies, and in fact, training and support may now be so important that compatibility is the most important consideration governing purchase. Is it too late for the Mac? Time may be running out for Apple to play a major role in corporate offices. (Apple Computer Inc.) Apple Computer will have to work hard to capture a significant market share in the corporate computing environment. The size of the installed MS-DOS customer base combined with the impact of Microsoft Windows 3.0 signify an enormous obstacle that Apple must overcome. Apple counterattacked in fall 1990 with a price-cutting campaign, selling Macintosh Classics in great numbers, many of them to corporate customers. Surveys indicate that compatibility with Windows is a compelling selling point, but Apple can be expected to expand and intensify its battle for the market. New products are under development, and there even is talk of licensing proprietary Mac hardware to clone makers. Even so, some analysts say it is too late. Apple, they say, has missed its opportunity to establish the Mac as the generally accepted microcomputer platform. 1-2-3 for Macintosh: a new bag of tricks. (computer software under development at Lotus Development Corp.) The problem confronting the Lotus Development Corp team designing 1-2-3 for Macintosh was to build a pure Macintosh product that was also fully 1-2-3 compatible. The result of the team's efforts, to be released later in 1991, will meet these requirements, says Jeffrey Beir, director of product marketing at Lotus. Compatibility is attained, and 1-2-3 Macintosh files will work with 1-2-3 files under all platforms, including DOS, Windows 3.0, UNIX, VAX, or IBM mainframes. The program's interface is flexible: 1-2-3 users can feel at home with a DOS-like environment; and Mac users can work with a graphical mode. Some analysts believe that the new Lotus product, arriving so late in a market that has been dominated by Microsoft's Excel, will be a difficult sell, but others cheer Lotus's Mac product, saying that competition will make both products better. Of mice and mousetraps: fresh design approaches may bring home the cheese. The current generation of mice, though clearly superior to a keyboard for manipulating a graphical interface, still have drawbacks: mice take up desktop space; mice cords tangle and twist; and operating a mouse requires manual dexterity. Various manufacturers are working on improved designs, and some mouse alternatives already are available. Logitech and Zeny Computer Systems, for example, offer cordless mice - the $199 Logitech MouseMan and the $129 Zeny Zen Mouse. Appoint sells a product - the $109 MousePen Professional - that looks like a large pen. The $99.95 Icontroller from Suncom Technologies, which is a wedge-shaped unit with a joystick and three buttons, conserves space. For laptop computers, Microsoft Corp offers the $175 BallPoint, which is a trackball-like device that clamps to a laptop's keyboard. And Grid Systems offers a built-in device on its 1550 SX laptop. Starting over: this primer teaches the 1-2-3 novice how to create print, and save a simple worksheet. (tutorial) The main function of the primer is teaching beginners how to use Lotus 1-2-3, explaining the procedures for the creation, printing, and saving of simple worksheets. Lotus 1-2-3 is described as a powerful tool that can solve real-world problems in business, science, personal finance, engineering, and almost any other concern that involves numbers. Directions are provided for building a small worksheet that demonstrates the 1-2-3 program's fundamental capabilities and characteristics. This discussion is to be continued in the May issue of LOTUS: menu commands will be used to retrieve a worksheet, and how to manipulate and modify data will be explained. Menu mania: use a macro to fill your screen with dozens of menu choices. (1-2-3 Macros)(Column) (tutorial) It is sometimes desirable to create a menu system that presents a large number of choices. A macro-driven order-entry system, for example, might require dozens of product options. The 1-2-3 Macros column for Oct 1989 explained how to increase menu choices by using the 'vertical light-bar menu' technique. This month's column explains how to create menus that fill very large ranges. A menu is presented which offers 60 different selections, each of which calls a macro routine derived from a table. The tutorial explains how to create and utilize such a table with minimum difficulty. Talk is cheap: with today's inexpensive voice-recognition products, you can finally tell your spreadsheet where to go. Voice-recognition products, in the forms of boards and software, are becoming a reality for Lotus 1-2-3 users. Such products can be especially useful for applications in which keyboards are difficult to use or in situations in which attention is divided among tasks. Voice recognition products are selling at prices of less than $1,000 per microcomputer, and applications are evolving in both industry and in the office. Most commercial systems, so far, are 'speaker-dependent': such systems have to be trained to recognize particular voices, with their peculiarities of accent and inflection; and such systems respond only to discrete utterances, not to continuous speech. Keeping such a system running can be difficult: once a system is trained, it will not automatically adapt to changes in a voice caused by fatigue or illness. A list of companies which make voice products that work with 1-2-3 is presented. Take the challenge: solve these five brain teasers. Learn to use seven amazing atfunctions. (atFunction Techniques) (tutorial) Five problems illustrate seven atfunctions for Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet users. The problems involve: using Data Sort (in Symphony, Record Sort) to sort dates that have been entered as labels, with atDATEVALUE; sorting names alphabetically by last name when titles, first names, and last names are entered into single cells, using atFIND and atMID; creating a pricing spreadsheet that calculates the amount to charge for an order, given that minimum quantities of five or more are sold and prices per unit decrease for each additional five items that are bought, with atHLOOKUP and atVLOOKUP; using a formula that rounds to the nearest nickel as it prices products, using atROUND; and figuring the comparative benefits of two repayment plans, using atNPV. Detailed solutions are presented. A short course in linear programming: XY graphs offer a visual introduction to optimization. (Applications)(includes related Linear programming is used for various business optimization problems, but because linear programming is a sophisticated mathematical technique, it is not always immediately clear how to use it. A model is presented that uses the XY graphs in Lotus 1-2-3 Releases 2.x and 3.x and in Symphony Release 2.x, showing how to use linear programming. This model can be adapted to solve any linear programming problem with two variables and two constraints. The method presented here is not 'the fastest or the cleanest linear programming method available,' but it will suffice to solve simple problems quickly, and no expensive add-ins are required. Will it fly? Calculate the net present value to determine the real worth of a new venture. (includes related article about the design The Ford Motor Company needed to decide whether to introduce a new line of vehicles. The decision was a complex one, with billions depending on its outcome. Ford financial analysis supervisor Mike Rajkovic, working together with product planners, consultants, and financial analysts, used spreadsheet products including Lotus 1-2-3 to construct a decision model. According to Rajkovic, who presented Ford's decision process at the Jun 1989 meetings of the American Marketing Association, one right answer emerged from a multitude of possibilities. Ford's work is still proprietary, but similar problems occur all the time and in all varieties of businesses. Here, a simple decision-modeling template that can be used to evaluate the possibilities of a new product is presented and described. A follow-up article, which is promised for the May 1991 issue of LOTUS, will demonstrate a test of this model. Tomorrow's spreadsheet today. (Improv, computer software from Lotus Development Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) With Improv, its new software product, Lotus Development Corp claims to have 'reinvented the spreadsheet' for the Unix-based Nextstation computer from Next Inc. A skeptical reviewer tries Improv on a Nextstation, attempting to debunk Lotus's assertions. The program presents itself in a surprising way: unlike traditional spreadsheets, no row-and-column borders appear. In fact, Improv imposes discipline by forcing a user to define vertical and horizontal ranges of data. Such definitions generate 'items,' which are ranges of data with descriptive names - for example, Sales, Income, or First Quarter. Items are gathered into 'Groups,' and a powerful structure emerges as a spreadsheet is expanded. A higher level of structure is called a 'Category.' The reviewer concludes that Improv does some things better than other programs do them, but Improv does not do everything that 1-2-3 can do. Improv, he notes, is still young, and so is its Nextstation platform: both will no doubt improve. Graphs to the future: the Mobley Matrix analyzes the past to help plot the future. (financial-analysis software, from Mobley Matrix The Mobley Matrix, Version 2.0, from Mobley Matrix International Inc, is a financial-analysis software package that requires, like a good flight simulator, focus, quick reflexes and an ability to make mid-course corrections. These qualities, which are the same ones needed to run a company, are appropriate in a package for finance professionals. The Mobley Matrix, which was originally created by the late Louis R. Mobley of IBM's Executive School, assumes that return on investment is the direct result of two components: profitability and marketing leverage. The best strategy will balance both components. For an example, a higher sales target might always seem like a good idea, but such an aim, used blindly, might run a company out of cash. Avoiding such a problem is what The Mobley Matrix is designed to do. It does so 'with panache.' Intel's fax board: take two. (SatisFAXtion, a facsimile board from Intel Corp.) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Intel Corp drew attention in 1988 for its Connection CoProcessor, a product characterized by stable background operation and straightforward software. The Connection CoProcessor had a high price - about $1,000 with its optional 2,400-bit-per-second (bps) modem. Now, Intel introduces SatisFAXtion, a product that incorporates the strengths of the Connection CoProcessor and adds new features, selling for half the price of its predecessor, at $499. SatisFAXtion comes as a full-length card that includes a 9,600-bps fax modem and a 2,400-bps Hayes-compatible data modem. Installing SatisFAXtion is easy, and in most cases, standard hardware and software settings suffice. There are two versions: the Micro Channel version ($549); and the $499 Industry Standard model, which has a 16-bit extension but will also plug into an 8-bit slot. A significant feature is Faxpop, a software module that allows a user to intercept a print job from almost any program and send it as a fax. SatisFaxtion operates reliably, and Intel's support is good. The product comes with a five-year warranty. Get organized: a helpful guide to the best project-management packages. (computer software) (includes related article about Project-management programs are useful in situations that require organization that is dependent on time and resources. Project managers break large tasks into smaller ones, helping to schedule events and to allocate resources. Various programs are mentioned and briefly described, including the following: Microsoft Project for Windows ($695), from Microsoft Corp; Time Line 4.0 ($695), from Symantec Corp; Project Scheduler 4 ($685), from Scitor Corp; Micro Planner for Windows ($595), Micro Planning International; InstaPlan 5000 ($549), from Micro Planning International; and Harvard Project Manager ($695), from Software Publishing Corp. Microsoft Project for Windows, a flexible Windows-based program, has received particularly good reviews. It is called 'a stunning product' in the Jul 1 issue of PC Magazine. ProWrite Plus: a first-rate word processor for Windows. (computer software from Software Publishing Corp.) (Software Review) (New ProWrite Plus ($249), from Software Publishing Corp, is a Windows-based word processor that is full featured and reasonably priced. The program not only accomplishes such routine tasks as memo, letter and report writing in a powerful and easy-to-use way, but ProWrite Plus also adds various advanced features such as page previewing; image handling; and an integrated spell checker, thesaurus and grammar checker. ProWrite Plus makes good use of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, and this makes it easy to manage graphics, combining various fonts or styles, and seeing the results on screen. ProWrite Plus can import or export many graphics or text file formats, and it has a powerful E-mail component. Using a mouse for word processing might be a new experience for some users, but most users will agree that a mouse simplifies many procedures. ProWrite Plus is 'a bargain.' Death and taxes. (software packages for estate planning and taxes) (column) There are a number of software packages available for making the filing of income tax forms easier. Software is also available for estate planning and writing a will. SoftView's $99 MacInTax, and ChipSoft's $89 TurboTax are the two main tax preparation packages for the Macintosh. Both offer a considerable variety of forms and schedules, and can print good copies of tax forms on high-resolution printers. A spreadsheet program can be used for income tax filing, but this requires more work on the part of the user. Tax-preparation packages can also be used as tax planners. SoftView's $79 if:X Personal Tax Analysts and $99 MacInUse are two competent planning packages. Nolo Press' $69.95 WillMaker 4.0 is a comprehensive package for constructing a legal will. FilmMaker. (Software Review) (Paracomp Inc.) (evaluation) Camenga, Bill. Paracomp Inc's $695 FilmMaker is a animation software package that actually consists of five separate application modules. Although it is an advanced animation package, it does not include any graphics software for creating images from scratch. Pictures are instead created as paintings or in a three-dimensional graphics program and then imported into FilmMaker. The package does not allow precise registration of individual frames and is not for those who need frame-by-frame animation. FilmMaker does allow the user to perform complex motion studies, make minute adjustments to the motion quickly and accurately and manage several different graphics color palettes in an eight-bit environment. While FilmMaker does not do everything, it does some things very well and is intended for professional animators. MacInTax and Turbo Tax. (Software Review) (Softview Inc., ChipSoft Inc.)(includes related article on tips for last-minute filers) Softview Inc's $99 MacInTax 1990 and ChipSoft Inc's TurboTax are tax preparation software packages that assist in the filling out of income tax forms. ChipSoft's first attempt to port TurboTax from the MS-DOS environment to the Macintosh does a creditable job. Users enter personal data into the Personal Information Worksheet. There is a hypertext-like help facility called Consult TurboTax. TurboTax is a good package for 1991 tax planning as well. MacInTax remains the top Macintosh tax preparation package. Data can be entered directly into WYSIWYG forms that can be printed completely filled out. The package also has an extensive on-line help facility. MiniCad+ 3.0. (Software Review) (Graphsoft Inc's computer-aided design package) (evaluation) Graphsoft Inc's $795 MiniCad+ 3.0 is a computer-aided design package that retains the extensive features of previous versions but adds improved power and ease of use. Drawing and placement operations have been speeded up considerably by the Smart Cursor with Screen Hints feature, which automatically highlights and identifies relevant drawing snaps, tangents, intersections, and other constraint criteria. To facilitate macro programming, a series of dialog boxes has been added to expedite the creative process. The Data Palette Relational Database feature links typed-in data to drawn elements and provides different ways to view and analyze graphic objects. MiniCad+ 3.0 offers considerable enhancements over the previous version, and the new features do no hinder performance or make the program any more difficult to use. M.Y.O.B. (Software Review) (Teleware Inc's budget accounting software) (evaluation) Teleware Inc's $249 M.Y.O.B. 2.0 is a double-entry accounting package for small businesses that combines the ease of use novices require with the functionality experienced accountants expect. It consists of fully integrated accounts-payable, accounts-receivable, inventory and general-ledger modules. Unfortunately, it does not include an integrated payroll system or the ability to handle multiple companies or departments. It does include a unique Rolodex-like filing feature called Card File for storing important business information. High-end features include accounts-receivable credit warnings, partial payments, automatic late charges and discounts and past-present yearly budget comparisons. Enhancements include custom form printing, an expanded to-do list, an auto-build inventory and an improved command center. Intouch. (Software Review) (Advanced Software's personal information manager) (evaluation) Advanced Software's $79.95 Intouch is a personal information management system that offers ease of use and excellent power. Intouch is simple to use, having only a name-and-address field and a notebook field for each record. The notebook field allows users to store up to 32Kbytes of data, including phone numbers. Data is entered into the two fields separately. The entire first field is used for printing envelopes and labels exactly as typed-in. The search-for box is always available and numerous printing abilities are built-in. Printing can be in any typeface or size that fits, and the program interface is intuitive and attractive. While the import options are limited to either QuickDex or tab-delimited ASCII-text files, export options include 19 built-in file formats. Three archiving packages. (Software Review ) (Salient Software's DiskDoubler 3.0.1, Bill Goodman's Compactor 1.21, Sextant Corp's Salient Software's $79 DiskDoubler 3.0.1, Sextant Corp's $75 Diamond 5.3, and Bill Goodman's $25 shareware program Compactor 1.21 are all data-compression and archiving utilities. DiskDoubler compresses document files to 50 percent of their normal size and can combine multiple files into a single archive, although it cannot decompress individual files. Compactor is a shareware application that is gaining popularity especially among on-line users. Its archive window and operation are simple to use. The program's real strength lies in its optional ability to create self-extracting files. Diamond contains a simple interface with only four commands: Pack and Unpack, Extract, and Preferences. DiskDoubler has the simplest interface of the three programs, is fast, and makes very small files. Compactor is the best value and offers fast operation. Diamond has very little to recommend it. Planisoft. (Software Review) (asd Software's Planisoft 1.1 personal information manager) (evaluation) asd Software's $349 Planisoft 1.1 is a personal information management system that is easy to use and well-integrated. The package offers multiple schedules and can be used in single-user mode or in a network mode with its appointment files merged. Users can assign four appointment codes to each new appointment; the calendar uses these to display a schedule in more than one dimension. Schedules can be set for days and even years in advance. The package also has the ability to integrate priorities, to-do lists, and deadlines. These functions are not linked to appointments and act only as simple reminders. A Windows version of Planisoft is also available that can share files with the Mac version. Now Utilities. (Software Review) (Now Software's Now Utilities 2.0) (evaluation) Now Software's $129 Now Utilities 2.0 is an operating system enhancement that is a substantial improvement over the previous version. The main new feature of the package is a utility called Super Boomerang that adds a menu bar to the standard boxes used to open and save files. It automatically remembers up to 30 files that have been opened or opened and saved, listing them in its File and Folder menu. The set of utilities now features an enhanced version of Now Menus which displays a hierarchical version of the menu bar and MultiMaster, which displays a menu listing of installed applications. Other new utilities include WYSIWYG Menus, which not only lists every typeface in a Font menu but also combines font family names. Now Utilities 2.0 is excellent value and is useful for both experienced and novice users alike. FileGuard and MaccessCard REader. (Software Review) (ASD Software) (evaluation) ASD Software's $249 FileGuard 2.5 is a first-rate security software package that supports ASD Software's $349 MaccessCard Reader magnetic-card reader. The package offers a solid proprietary encryption scheme that can protect access to both folders and hard disk partitions. FileGuard can also create demo versions of software as well as prevent the copying of applications on an individual-user basis. One of the new features allows the creation of groups of users with similar access privileges. FileGuard is the only security software package to support card readers such as Maccess Reader, a plug-and-play box that is attached to an ADB port or in between the keyboard and the mouse. MaccessCard Reader allows a second level of security with very little user inconvenience. File Director. (Software Review) (Fifth Generation Systems File Director utility software) (evaluation) Fifth Generation Systems' $129.95 File Director data base management system is a collection of utilities for manipulating files and storing personal information. Its Disk Tools program replaces the Finder for performing basic actions such as application and document launching. Calendar is a desk accessory that lets users attach notes to any day of a basic monthly calendar. A Phone Pad desk accessory includes a notepad and index, and two powerful calculator desk accessories are provided. Disk Tools is an excellent program, and File Director can save a great deal of time for those whose files are complex. Building a better network with EtherTalk-to-LocalTalk routers. (includes related articles on EtherTalk's Phase 2 protocol, TCP/IP Routers can break up large corporate local area networks into smaller, more efficient networks. Users can speed up network performance by connecting LocalTalk networks to an Ethernet backbone running AppleTalk protocols, thus creating an EtherTalk network. Performance is increased because Ethernet transmits data much faster than LocalTalk. Linking the two different networks is possible with a pair of EtherTalk-to-LocalTalk routers. One router allows access to the EtherTalk network, and the other allows exiting. An EtherTalk-to-LocalTalk router acts either as an accelerator, speeding up the slower LocalTalk transmission before linking it to EtherTalk, or as a decelerator, slowing down the speedier EtherTalk to allow it to run at LocalTalk speed. Specific of EtherTalk-to-LocalTalk routers are discussed along with benchmark results and 'best buy' choices. Mac to mailbox. (automating mailing tasks) (includes related articles on how to address mail, envelope-design programs) The Apple Macintosh can automate virtually all mailing tasks, from mass production of direct-marketing materials to the occasional personal correspondence. Keeping an electronic-based mailing list data base eliminates the need to re-type addresses for each mailing. Automating the mailing process can cut costs in a number of ways. The increased address accuracy can reduce the amount of undelivered mail. Automated systems also let users take advantage of the large postal discounts that can be obtained by pre-sorting and bar-coding mail. Finally, replacing a hand-written envelope with one with a printed address increases the letter's professional appearance. SIMMple pleasures. (using Single In-line Memory Modules to increase the random access memory in the Apple Macintosh) All Apple Macintoshes can have their random-access memory (RAM) upgraded by means of Single In-line Memory Modules (SIMMs), but there are a number of important points to remember when buying additional memory. Both high- and low-profile SIMMs available; low-profile boards are generally the better buy as they are smaller and take up less space. Speed is also a major factor. The slower Mac Plus uses 150-nanosecond SIMMs while the IIfx uses 80-nanosecond. Using faster SIMMs in a Mac Plus will not harm the system, but it will not speed it up either. A good rule to remember is that because SIMMs are very much a commodity item and prices vary according to market demand, the published price in magazines is usually negotiable. Most vendors offer money-back guarantees, warranties, and replacement policies. With the exception of the Portable and Classic, installation of SIMMs is usually easy. easy. Separating UCR and GCR. (color-separation techniques) (undercolor removal, gray-component replacement) (tutorial) Undercolor removal (UCR), gray-component replacement (GCR), and dot gain are all prepress desktop publishing techniques for adjusting the color density on ink plates to compensate for variations in papers, inks, and printing presses. All printed pages containing continuous-tone color art are printed with the 'four color process'; the colors on each page are separated into plates for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. The inks are then printed one on top of the other using different patterns of half-tone dots which create an illusion of a full-color image. To prevent ink build-up, UCR and GCR techniques are used to reduce the total ink density of a color separation. How much each dot of ink spreads before it dries is called 'dot gain'. The final size depends on such factors as temperature, ink viscosity, humidity, and paper type. In general, the final size of the dots will be larger than those on the plates. Accordingly, the original dots are reduced slightly to compensate, preventing dot gain from darkening images and over-saturating colors. Shading with MacDraw. (tutorial) PostScript illustration programs are not unique in their ability to generate graduated fills that enhance flat art with the illusion of shadow, light, and volume. Non-PostScript programs such as MacDraw, SuperPaint and Canvas can also produce images with realistic shading. MacDraw cannot automatically generate a graduated fill; curved surfaces must be modeled by building up stacks of overlapping shapes, each filled with a different shade of gray. Various stages of image shading composition from drawing the basic shapes to adding flat color, defining background shapes, building a highlight, adding three-dimensional effects and converting MacDraw files to PostScript are detailed. Painless Ethernet printing. (Dayna Communications' EtherPrint) (Hardware Review) (includes related article on how it works) Dayna Communications' $499 EtherPrint contains an Ethernet port and a LocalTalk port and allows a LaserWriter printer on LocalTalk to appear as a node on an Ethernet network. EtherPrint is not a router because it does not maintain tables of information about AppleTalk network ID numbers or Chooser zone names. Installation is easy; the user need only attach the computer to the Ethernet port and a printer to the LocalTalk port. EtherPrint then displays the printer in the Chooser as an Ethernet network node when turned on. Users should remember that EtherPrint must be turned on before the printer. There is a slight delay in printing, but EtherPrint is a reliable and cost-effective way of allowing a printer like the LaserWriter to be accessed on an Ethernet network. Isolating network problems. VanderSluis, Kurt. Apple's Inter Poll can be used to perform a progressive echo test and locate defects that cause slow network response time. The Macintosh running the Inter Poll test transmits a series of packets to the network server being tested, which then echoes them back. Inter Poll counts the number of packets returned and the number lost as well as the average round-trip time. The procedure is repeated to a number of locations along the network. Results can be graphed and any trends in the data logged. The server can be slow responding to the test even if it is not busy if many users are logged on. The server must exchange a brief 'hello' with all Macs that are logged onto the network. Users should be logged onto the server only when they are using it. 12 FileMaker Pro tips. (Power Tools) (tutorial) Danuloff, Craig. FileMaker Pro, a recent upgrade of Apple's popular FileMaker data base management system, introduced several new capabilities. Workarounds and techniques to assist the user are discussed. FileMaker II files should not be opened in FileMaker Pro because a bug in the older program may create structural problems in its files. Users must export data in tab-delimited rather than SYLK format for use in a spreadsheet. It is necessary to concatenate fields to ensure correct 'slide up' and 'slide left' operation. and is a good idea to perform the Find command in a different layout from the one where data is being viewed. Users should take advantage of the Replace command and use Page Setup to adjust the Layout marker. Customizing the position of part boundaries can be accomplished by holding down the Option key. The user should ensure that FileMaker Por has enough memory. Lighting the way. Swaine, Michael. Microsoft Corp's Bill Gates believes that the operating system of the future will allow access to all stored data in a simple and intuitive way. This type of system software will require some new features, including embedding and linking and publish-and-subscribe capabilities. The new software will allow applications to share capabilities such as the ability to attach a voice annotation to a document being worked on regardless of whether or not the original application included voice-recognition features. System software vendors will need to publish and support standard protocols for communication between applications as well as create new system-level tools to allow Microsoft's vision to become reality. Increased connectivity will need to be implemented at the system level. 7.0-friendly persuasion. (Apple's new System 7.0) (Power Programming) Apple's new System 7.0 operating system includes two unique features, outline fonts and high-level events. The Font Manager produces outline fonts using the maximum available resolution of the output device. Outline fonts can be displayed at any point size without the jagged edges typical of bit-mapped fonts. Applications can take advantage of outline fonts without modification because System 7.0 implements outline font-support at the File Manager level. Another change in System 7.0 concerns the event-processing subsection. The Event Manager is being enhanced to accommodate interapplication communication. Apple plans to publish details of high-level events called AppleEvents in the upcoming book Inside Macintosh Volume VI. Developers can plan to support interapplication communication by factoring code. Factoring isolates lines of code that manage the user interface isolated from those that perform an action. Life begins at 40 megabytes: small hard drives. (includes related stories on how a hard disk works, other storage options, a Small Hard disks are necessary for storing files and folders used in every day computing, and for speeding up access to the data. Thirty-two small disk drives are evaluated and compared. All the hard disks simply plug into the Small Computer System Interface port at the rear of the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. Even if an internal or external drive is already connected to a Macintosh, a second hard disk drive can be used for backup or totable storage. Virtually any hard drive can be plugged into any Macintosh model, because all machines have the same external SCSI hard-drive link. Speed is only one factor when buying a hard drive. Buyers should also consider how well the drive suits the needs of the user. All hard drives come with driver software that must match the disk format of the Macintosh it is being used with. Vendor support services should also be considered before buying a hard drive. Surviving the crash: hard disk recovery. (disaster recovery utility programs) (includes related articles on how hard-disk data Users should install a disaster recovery utility on every hard drive to safeguard against data loss. The defense against a system crash is regular backup of data, but there will always come a time when lost data will need to be recovered. A number of disaster recovery utilities are available for the Macintosh. Tests conducted on five such utility programs including Symantec's Norton Utilities for the Mac and SUM II, Central Point Software's MacTools Deluxe, Microcom's 911 Utilities and Apple's Disk First Aid are discussed. Recovery packages come in two parts. The first part is the program that is run after the hard disk has crashed, and the second is an INIT that stores copies of the important information used to track files and folders. Disk recovery software should be pre-installed to increase the chances of a fast and complete recovery. Macworld Expo '91: world's largest computer flea market. (Commentary) (column) The 1991 MacWorld Expo trade show in San Francisco drew a record attendance and featured many software bargains for attendees as well as major vendor product announcements. SuperMac showed its SuperSqueeze video compression system, while RasterOps displayed a wall of monitors organized to act as a single giant screen. A wide variety of vertical market products were in evidence, and many vendors offered Ethernet connections to AppleTalk. Total Systems, Radius and Quantum Leap Systems showed 68040-based accelerators. Input and color output devices were also shown. Several vendors raced to introduce image compression products. Aldus Corp introduced Silicon Beach Software's Personal Press package. WordPerfect introduced the WordPerfect for the Macintosh 2.0 word processor. Art beat. Abes, Cathy. Hardware and software tools used to produce graphic images for the Apr 1991 issue of Macworld are discussed. Scott Baldwin used a Mac IIcx with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 105Mbyte Cirrus hard drive, 24-bit SuperMac video card, Kurta graphics tablet and Jasmine Removable 45 drive to run Swivel 3D Professional, Adobe Photoshop and PixelPaint Professional software. Swivel offers an Extruded Object tool and the ability to embed objects within each other. The Swivel program provides four graphics perspectives: a wire frame representation, a top section, a cross section and a side section. Photoshop and PixelPaint were used for editing colors and backgrounds. Jasmine one year later. (Jasmine Technologies)(Conspicuous Consumer - includes related article on 'Service Hero' ) Jasmine Technologies Inc has succeeded in its bankruptcy reorganization and claims to be profitable again, but customer complaints about lack of support continue. The firm moved its offices after reorganizing and began to concentrate on getting new business rather than supporting longtime customers. Jasmine refuses to honor warranties on its old 20Mbyte drives; it relied on the manufacturer's warranty from MiniScribe, but MiniScribe itself has gone into bankruptcy proceedings. The company says its move from San Francisco to Sunnyvale created a technical-support backlog and has begun returning telephone calls. Technical support is less broad; the company will only answer questions about its own products. Other issues discussed include problems with drive manufacturers Ehman Engineering and Crate Technology and landmark legislation in San Francisco to provide more ergonomic work environments from VDT operators. Meta-mail. (Microsoft Mail 3.0)(Macworld News) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp and cc:Mail introduce new electronic mail systems designed to act as network backbone applications or document transport mechanisms. Microsoft Mail 3.0 uses an open architecture and includes such capabilities as support for multiple attachments, user-definable address books, aliases and batch printing support. cc:Mail 1.2 comes with Mac-based network administration tools and advanced compound document features. This capability will first be implemented in the Windows version of the product, but cc:Mail says that its E-mail system will eventually have identical features across the DOS, Mac, Windows, OS/2 and Unix environments. Prices for the packages vary depending on the size of the network. Send in the clones. (NuTek announces technology that would allow development of Macintosh-compatible microcomputers)(includes Two-year-old startup firm NuTek Computers claims to have developed a chip set, operating system and user interface software that will allow microcomputer vendors to legally produce Apple Macintosh clones. The company expects OEMs to offer the first Mac clones by the end of 1991, but faces daunting technical and legal problems. It is in the process of testing for software and hardware compatibility and takes tight precautions to guarantee that its new operating system code will be different from Apple's. NuTek says its three chips provide virtually all logic necessary to create a Mac-compatible computer. Rewards for NuTek could be enormous, but depend on OEMs' willingness to license its technology. Hardware OEMs must be very confident in the NuTek technology and its ability to keep pace with Apple developments as well as its ability to fight possible litigation by Apple. Many software publishers are also skeptical that NuTek-based machines can be fully compatible. Software applications that do not address hardware directly will not run on the NuTek chip set. Apple is likely to eventually license its operating system but could use a new system to chill competition. The secrets of the SuperStacks. (HyperCard stack design contest)(includes related article on winners, acknowledgements) Winners of a 'SuperStacks' contest for the best HyperCard stacks of 1990 are discussed. The award for Best Educational Entry K-12 goes to Earthquake Preparedness Stack by Kelly O'Brien, an interactive guide to earthquake preparation and survival. Chapters include home and office preparedness, scientific measurement and earthquake geology. Motion Works' Outdoor and Vacation Adventure Guide wins two awards. It is designed for novice users and features an animated character called 'Eddie' who discusses travel options. Other winning stacks include The Lazy Eye: A Primer of Neuroopthalmology, developed for medical students by two physicians; Kids Can Save the Earth, compiled by Karen Rall and Amanda Goodenough; and a multimedia simulation of a heart attack created by a team at the Medical College of Ohio. Going the Ethernet route. (Ethernet local area network routers) (buyers guide) A guide to Ethernet routers for the Apple Macintosh is presented. Options for Mac Ethernet connectivity include add-in boards providing cabling interfaces and Ethernet 'backbones' which allow Macs in one network to access resources on another. Cabling options include thick-wire coaxial cable, thin-wire coaxial cable and unshielded twisted-pair or 10BaseT cable. Thick-wire cable is unwieldy and is most useful for backbones. Many Macs with direct connections cannot keep up with the 10M-bps Ethernet data transfer rate. Routers pass network data between LocalTalk and Ethernet LANs. A router may be hardware or software; hardware routers contain a dedicated microprocessor that processes network traffic, while software routers let users transform a Mac server into a router. Good routers offer powerful configuration and management features and automatic restarting after a power loss. AppleTalk support, TCP/IP support, and serial support also vary. The desk potato's guide to macros. (macro recorder, editor tools) (buyers guide) A guide to macro programs for the Apple Macintosh are presented. Macros can enhance productivity and efficiency by automating repetitive tasks. A macro program may be a simple keystroke recorder like MacroMaker, which is bundled with System 6.05 or later, or a sophisticated programming tool like Tempo III Plus. Users can assign keystrokes to menu items with no keyboard equivalents, such as Empty Trash in the Finder. Some products can record the entire drag track of a mouse; MacroMaker and MasterStrokes define mouse movements only by the starting and ending points. QuicKeys includes several predefined window manipulation macros. Tempo II Plus is designed for looping; other programs require the user to record one macro which invokes another in order to repeat operations. The electronic palette: 11 color paint and 2 photo-editing programs cross brushes. (includes related articles on comparison A guide to color painting and image-editing programs is presented. True-color 24-bit systems are expensive but indispensable for serious graphic artists. Only Electronic Arts' Studio/32 implements virtual memory to let users edit images larger in size than the available RAM, making large amounts of memory a necessity. Studio/32, Delta Two Software's Color MacCheese and DeskPaint from Zedcor let users access 24-bit color with an 8-bit system via automatic dithering simulations. Color paint programs generally print only bit-mapped text, but Adobe Type Manager and 'antialiasing' features built into some packages can product very readable large type. Many packages provide unique tools for special effects. Color MacCheese and Easy Color Paint are exceptional deals for the casual user; Studio/32 and PixelPaint Professional are good choices among high-end packages. Studio/32 1.0. (Software Review) (24-bit color painting program) (evaluation) Electronic Arts' Studio/32 graphics package is a professional 24-bit color painting program that is both sophisticated and easy to use. It offers such powerful features as masking, transformation effects and color control while retaining the same basic interface of the earlier Studio/8 i-bit color painting program. An antialias modifier smooths the outlines of bit-mapped text, and almost all tools are accessible from the keyboard. Studio/32 takes advantage of high-end hardware while providing features that overcome system limitations. The program allocates portions of a painting that will not fit into RAM to unused hard disk space and displays only the portion that fits into RAM in the document window. Users can open 16- and 24-bit images on an 8-bit video system, dithering those colors it cannot display on-screen. Studio/32's printing capabilities are disappointing; it supports the 747-color Pantone Matching System but has no color-separation capabilities. Studio/32 is an excellent program but is not worth its $695 price. Deck 1.03. (Software Review) (sound recording and playback software) (evaluation) Digidesign's Deck 1.03 sound recording and playback software lets users create multitrack recordings of digital sound via a Macintosh hard drive and offers CD audio quality. It requires Digidesign's $995 Audiomedia expansion board to translate audio signals to digital form. Deck recordings take up 20Mbytes of hard disk space per minute, making a very large drive a necessity. Deck exploits the Audiomedia board's digital signal processing features to let users edit the sound of a track during playback. The program can import and play back MIDI compositions and provides automated mix-down. Deck's user interface resembles a multitrack cassette deck. Users cannot adjust input level during recording, and Deck does not coexist well with network or electronic mail Startup documents. A hard drive with a 28-millisecond access time is required. Deck is an excellent program. Earthquest 1.0. (Software Review) (educational HyperCard stack) (evaluation) Earthquest Inc's $79.95 Earthquest is an educational HyperCard stack designed to give students age 10 and up a global perspective on history, ecology, sociology and geopolitics. Earthquest's main menu screen is an 'Explore' card with icons that take users to a variety of cards showing relationships between events and problems. Interesting buttons play short animated sequences created with MacroMind Director, but these 'movies' are overly simplistic and the stack's musical sequences are overly short. The program is overly ambitious and is too large for many Macs; the vendor recommends at least 2Mbytes of RAM. Earthquest has tremendous potential as a classroom teaching tool. WealthBuilder by Money Magazine 1.0. (Software Review) (personal financial planning software) (evaluation) Reality Technologies' $249.95 WealthBuilder by Money Magazine personal financial planning software helps users formalize the planning process and determine real objectives. It forces the user to set goals for budgeting, saving and investing and includes a database of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The user enters basic information and sets up a monthly budget with typical expenses and income, providing all information necessary to calculate net worth. Formulating objectives such as financing a child's college education or retirement planning is the next step. Users can build a portfolio and set an 'Investment Philosophy' that the program uses to allocate percentages of equities, bonds, metals and cash. The database is limited, with only 500 entries each for stocks, bonds and mutual funds. WealthBuilder suffers from a confusing user interface, but is useful in educating users in investment basics. Elite Professional Flight Simulator. (Software Review) (flight simulation software) (evaluation) AzureSoft's ELITE Professional Flight simulator is the first Macintosh-based flight simulator designed for professional use. Licensed instrument-rated pilots can use the program to satisfy most FAA requirements for six-month recurrency training. The $749 package simulates a simple IFR-equipped single-engine airplane and includes a 'Universal Controls Interface' box for connecting the Mac to separately purchased flight controls. ELITE Professional requires a Mac II with 2Mbytes of RAM and an 8-bit color display. A 'demo' mode lets the user experiment with controls and do some limited flying, but a yoke and rubber pedals are needed to really operate the product. ELITE is easy for even those pilots completely unfamiliar with the Mac to operate. It provides a moving map display and a variety of environmental settings. The navigation database is excellent, as is the cockpit imagery. One problem with ELITE is the lack of documentation. La Cie Tsunami 80-Q; Liberty 80. (Hardware Review) (80Mbyte portable hard disk drives) (evaluation) La Cie's La Cie Tsunami 80Q and Liberty Systems' Liberty 80 are two medium-capacity portable hard disk drives that offer good performance but suffer from a lack of documentation. Both drives are easily transportable, offer auto-parking heads and use Quantum mechanisms; performance is nearly identical. The Liberty unit is difficult to daisy-chain because it uses a larger Centronics jack rather than Apple SCSI. The Tsunami comes with a variety of value-added software ,including both Norton Utilities for Macintosh and Symantec Utilities for Macintosh and a variety of shareware and public-domain programs. Both drives are excellent investments overall. The Tsunami costs $799; the Liberty 80 sells for $899. Software Bridge Macintosh 1.0. (Software Review) (file-translation software) (evaluation) Systems Compatibility Corp's Software Bridge Macintosh works with the Apple File Exchange (AFE) utility Apple bundles with the Mac systems software to convert a variety of Macintosh data formats to IBM PC equivalents. It supports Microsoft Word 4.0, MacWrite II, WordPerfect, ASCII, DCA/RFT and Microsoft RTF as well as 24 microcomputer word processing formats. Users copy Software Bridge Installer into the Apple File Exchange folder and install individual translators for use in AFE. The translators themselves work very well, converting documents in one step and retaining all formatting, but only current versions of word processors are supported. Graphics files can also be converted from one Mac format to another but not into PC formats. MacGraphX 1.0. (Software Review) (charting program) (evaluation) Seiter, Charles. Bravo Technologies' $199 MacGraphX business and scientific charting program distinguishes itself in a crowded market by providing a superior user interface and offering excellent speed. The program offers scatter, line, area, bar, stacked bar and pie charts along with a transpose function for transforming bar charts into column charts. Users can overlay multiple graph types; the charts are basic but exceptionally convenient. The user enters or imports data to create a chart and selects X and Y axis data sets. All operations are intuitive, and the program has very good features for tailoring laser-printed graphics for publication. MacGraphX also produces very good graduated color fills and offers letterhead and layout features. Window shopping. (Software Review) (guide to tutorial, utility software) (evaluation) Eight new Macintosh programs are briefly reviewed. Algebra I Homework Tutor 1.9.4 is a $99.95 mathematical tutorial program that includes an editor for entering algebraic notations and requires users to type the steps leading to a solution, automatically evaluating each step. Davidson and Associates' $59.95 Alge-Blaster Plus is effectively an on-line textbook that presents a series of lessons teaching basic to intermediate algebra concepts. Its $59.95 Your Personal Trainer for the SAT helps students prepare for the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Individual Software's Professor Mac 1.7 is a tutorial in using the Mac itself. Intellimation's $49.95 MusiCard Maker helps users produce musical notation in HyperCard stacks. Synex' MacPhone Book 3.0 is a $49.95 database for storing telephone directories, and JAM Software's $79 MacLIst is a flat-file database with a telephone dialer. SNA's $79.95 Offline 1.01 catalogs floppy disks. Vertical Solutions' $10 Disk Accessory Plus prints labels for floppies. Getting started with hardware upgrades. (How To)(includes related article on System 7.0 and upgrades) (tutorial) Strategies and specific products for upgrading obsolete Macintoshes are discussed. Apple introduced four new Macs and discontinued four others in 1990, and the upcoming System 7.0 software will force many users to upgrade their hardware. Adding additional memory makes programs run faster, lets MultiFinder run more of them at once and lets users create larger documents with programs that keep entire documents in RAM. Mac memory comes on single in-line memory modules (SIMMs.) External hard disk drives start at approximately $500. Accelerator boards and CPU upgrades replace the Mac's CPU chip with a faster one. A dealer can install a logic board upgrade to step the user up to a module that comes in the same basic case. Logic board upgrades have the advantage of including new ROM chips. Video cards, coprocessors and sound-recording hardware are discussed along with upgrade strategies for specific Macs. Insights on MacInTax. (Macintosh tax-preparation software) (tutorial) Tips for using Softview's MacInTax tax-preparation software effectively are presented. MacInTax keeps track of errors and missing fields but also lets users inspect forms manually. Double-clicking on the text for any line in a form gives the user a small window displaying the IRS instructions pertaining to that part of the form. Users should lock all form files to prevent them from being corrupted as the result of a system crash. Those with complex returns should begin entering data at the worksheet level and let the program fill in the actual schedules. MacInTax will not let users discard a form or worksheet if something else is linked to it. The fonts shipped with the program are fine-tuned for ideal output. Tax software simplifies planning ahead as well as filling out forms for the current year. MacInTax's itemization and linking capabilities are discussed. The first steps to imaging. (includes related articles on announced guidelines for imaging requests for proposals, survey The Nolan Norton Institute (Lexington, MA) has predicted that the benefits gained by users of imaging technology will surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars by the year 2000. However, a study by the Institute of more than 1,000 firms indicates that implementing imaging technology can take up to six years.Subsequently, successful companies in the 1990s will need to make the transition in less time. Senior managers can encourage this process in their firms by focusing on three significant steps: becoming aware of imaging technology; selling the idea to decision-makers; and developing imaging prototypes. Unified telecommunications pay big dividends. (PaineWebber uses AT&T telecommunication systems to standardize operations in branch PaineWebber instigated a five-year plan in 1989 to modernize and standardize the telecommunication systems in its 260 branch offices by installing AT&T's DEFINITY Communications Systems. The systems will save approximately $2 million in costs related to technology and maintenance, as well as offer increased reliability and control. Long-distance costs are expected to fall because PaineWebber is establishing a specialized network in an environment that is completely digital using the AT&T platform. DEFINITY Communications Systems ensure reliability because every system includes two central processors which can individually keep systems functioning. In addition, the systems use remote diagnostics to monitor themselves on an on-going basis. You can benefit from computer support furniture. Fernberg, Patricia M. Experts in the field of office ergonomics and product development believe that businesses need to make the purchasing of ergonomically sound computer support furniture a priority because worker discomfort can result in decreases in profits. Research by University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) professor Phillip L. Witt indicates that the main reason people miss work is because of lower back pain which translates into $15 billion in business losses for US firms. Other common complaints include repetitive strain injuries. Adjustable computer support furniture that can be used by a variety of people may enable workers to reduce error rates and increase productivity because less time will be spent moving around due to discomfort. Deciding how to share your printer. (guidelines on what options to choose to connect computers and printers) Numerous printer sharing options are available to users depending on the requirements of specific applications and future expansion plans. One option is to use automatic switchboxes such as Datacom Technologies Inc's MetroSwitch line. The switches can efficiently connect numerous microcomputers to a printer, but do not provide flexibility for future expansion. Another option is to use automatic switches with spooling software such as Western Telematic's Qwikshare. Users can send work to be printed without having to wait until printing is completed to continue working. A more advanced printing solution is to use intelligent printer sharing devices (PSDs), such as Buffalo Products' HWP, which use either serial or parallel ports to connect printers to microcomputers and are controlled by software codes. PSDs allow for more flexibility because they enable several microcomputers to be connected to a variety of printers. Microsoft's portable pointer. (Hardware Review) (Ballpoint)(Forum) (evaluation) Microsoft's $175 Ballpoint is a trackball device that attaches to the side or front of a portable computer in order to bring ease-of-use to Microsoft Windows 3.0 users on the road. The device uses a different hand action than a mouse, but once the user gets over the initial learning curve, it becomes easy to use. Although this is the first of its kind, other competitors are likely to release similar products in the near future. The device itself resembles an upside-down trackball, with the screen cursor controlled by rolling the ball with the thumb. Microsoft is marketing the Ballpoint towards portable computer users, but because it takes up less room than a mouse, it may also find a market niche with space-hungry desktop users. PC Sources Lexicon. (Forum) (glossary) Rowell, Dave. Autoparking is a feature found on many newer hard disk drives, where the read/write heads are locked at rest on non-critical data when the machine is turned off. If the hard disk is jolted or moved there is little data of any danger loss. Very Large Scale Integration refers to the large, complicated integrated circuit microprocessors that help make circuit boards smaller. Throughput refers to the ability of a computer or component to transmit or process data, often measured in kilobytes per second or megabytes per second. Database managers that can store and compare data in several different files are referred to as relational database managers, as compared to flat file managers. Floppies of the near future. (floppy disk storage) Rowell, Dave. Floppy disk drives are linked to the user's need to interchange data. Any change in the standard floppy format leads to major conflict for the consumer. While the storage capacity of hard disks generally keeps pace with the increasing size of files, floppy disk drives do not. Not only users but also software developers must cope with the varying formats, by marketing their products in at least two, and sometimes three, different formats. While 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte disks can usually manage most file sizes, advancements in graphics and desktop publishing require greater capacities. A number of new technologies are currently being developed, including a 3.5-inch 2.88Mbyte floppy drive format from Toshiba, and two 20Mbyte designs that turn at 720 rpm from Brier Technology and Insite Peripherals. The shareware plan. (shipping mail-order computer systems with shareware installed) The problem of a mail-order computer system being shipped without any bundled software is a considerable one for users who want to use the computer as soon as it arrives. Software needs to be purchased and installed, often leading to a delay of several days before the system can actually be used, as well as additional costs. One solution to this problem is to ship systems with multiple shareware applications already installed on the hard drive. This would benefit not only the shareware authors, who would gain instant access to a large base of microcomputer users, but could also be used as a marketing tool by mail-order vendors. Not least of all, it would also help the consumer, enabling users to simply plug in the newly purchased system and begin using it, instead of having to wait to purchase and install basic applications. Token Ring LANs. (local area networks) (a key technology for the future) Token Ring local area network topology is becoming increasingly popular every year, despite problems associated with the new 16M-bps technology such as faulty chip sets, product shortages and patent infringement lawsuits. Analysts expect the installed base of Token Ring networks to grow every year and reach an estimated 40 percent market share by 1994, up from the current 24 percent. That would come close to the Ethernet installed base, which is projected at 45 percent, and overshadowing totally the ARCnet share of 7.1 percent. Token Ring hardware products are currently very slow movers in the mail-order market, often resulting in companies not even listing them in advertisements. Despite these problems, and significant product overpricing, 16M-bps technology is reliable and has rapid throughput capacity, making it increasingly popular, especially for very large networks with heavy traffic requirements. Answering the $5,000 question. (setting up a credit line with a vendor card) Few people have the means to pay cash for large computer system purchases from mail-order companies or have high enough limits on their credit cards to charge systems. There are a number of ways to pay for the purchases without resorting to cash. Leasing has always been a primary option, but once all the relevant fees, monthly payments and end-of-lease payments are considered, it usually ends up more expensive than a line of credit from the vendor. The line of credit can be either in the form of a single-vendor credit card, or a vendor-sponsored bank card. A single-vendor credit card is actually a line of credit with an external finance company, that actually becomes a loan once equipment is purchased. There is usually no annual fee, and it costs the consumer nothing to have the line of credit available. A vendor-sponsored credit card works like a normal credit card but, in addition, the consumer earns credit towards vendor equipment each time the card is used. Screen plays: how to read a monitor mail-order ad. (includes related articles on how to look at a monitor's display quality and Monitors are probably the most important part of a purchased computer system for most consumers because it is the actual interface between the user and machine. The most cost-effective way to purchase one is through mail-order, but even then, monitors can be expensive. An important point for all prospective buyers to remember is that going above the standard VGA, 16 colors and 640 by 480 resolution requires the use of the driver programs that come with a video board in order to support specific applications. Detailed are the different steps required to purchase a monitor and what to look out for including choosing a graphics standard, high-resolution color, interlacing, monitor size, dot pitch, special features, and service and support. Second-tier software. (includes related articles on bundling second-tier software and shareware - the third tier) For every best-selling application on the market there are dozens of similar lesser-known packages that are just as good. There are advantages to staying with best-sellers including availability, performance, good technical support, competitive pricing, guaranteed updates, third-party instructional seminars, third-party add-on packages, and data formats that often are de facto industry standards. But there is a second-tier of software products that sit just below the best-sellers in terms of acceptance and acceptability. Often these lesser-known packages offer better features, better support, cost significantly less, have more frequent and better updates, and come with other advantages not included in their better-known competitors. Second-tier software should be selected carefully, however, since information and training may not be available and it may use non-standard data formats. Boost the basics: upgrade your floppy disk drive. (includes related article on IBM's use of different floppy disk IBM has used no fewer than five different floppy disk drive formats in the past 10 years. This can lead to frustration for the consumer if, for example, an application turns up on a 3.5-inch disk and all the user has is a 5.25-inch floppy drive in the microcomputer. Although floppy disks are not necessarily compatible with different drives, most floppy drives are compatible with most microcomputers. Detailed are the procedures for installing different types of floppy drives, both external and internal. Also covered are necessary hardware upgrades if a microcomputer does not directly support the addition of another floppy drive. HP's swift sophisticate. (Hardware Review) (Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet IIISi laser printer) (evaluation) Hewlett-Packard's $5,495 LaserJet IIISi laser printer includes 1Mbyte of random access memory (RAM), 300 dots-per-inch resolution, two font card slots, and tow 500-sheet paper trays. The printer also offers a number of new features such as a Canon 17 page-per-minute engine, and support for 13 proportionally spaced scalable fonts, as well as 14 bitmapped fixed-pitch fonts. Additionally, the IISi includes support for Hewlett-Packard's PCL 5 printer language and Resolution Enhancement Technology. Set up and installation is extremely easy, taking only five minutes. The LaserJet IIISi is a sophisticated and powerful laser printer that would be well suited for networking. It has one parallel and one serial port, comes with a one-year on-site parts and labor warranty and manuals that range from good to excellent. A desktop EISA ace. (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) (Hardware Review) (Acma Computers' 486/33 EISA Engineering Acma Computers' $3,475 486/33 EISA Engineering Workstation is a 33-MHz Intel 80486-based desktop machine that includes an Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus, 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 256Kbyte RAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard drive and a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive. The machine, which lists for $6,195, has eight EISA slots on the motherboard, which also accommodates 16 Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM) sockets providing a maximum of 64Mbytes of RAM. The 486/33 weighs 37 pounds and includes one parallel, two serial, and one game port. It performs well as a personal workstation in tests and is generally well-built with quality components and good documentation. The company offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, and a one-year parts and two-year labor warranty. There is also a toll-free support number for assistance. A fine performance. (Hardware Review) (JCC Systems' Olympic 486 EISA workstation) (evaluation) JCC Systems' $6,945 Olympic 486 EISA is a 25-MHz Intel 80486-based workstation that includes an Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, an 8Kbyte internal cache, a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte and a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 230-watt Olympic power supply, and a 101-key keyboard with a hinged cover. The motherboard can hold up to 32Mbytes of RAM and also has a socket for a Weitek 4167 math coprocessor. The system, available via mail order for about $3,800, comes with two serial, one parallel, one game and eight expansion ports. The display resolution and colors are excellent and the image is steady in any one mode, although it bounces when moving between modes. There are a few design quirks, with the board brackets, for example, and the documentation is rudimentary. Weighing 37 pounds, the system comes with a two-year parts and labor warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. More for less. (Hardware Review) (Tri-Star Computer Corp.'s Flash Cache 486/25 EISA workstation) (evaluation) Tri-Star Computer's $6,395 Flash Cache 486/25 EISA is a 25-MHz Intel 80486-based workstation that includes a 10-MHz Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus, 8Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 330Mbyte ESDI hard drive, an EISA cache controller with 4Mbytes of RAM, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte and 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drives, a 1,024 by 768 Super VGA graphics adapter with 1Mbyte of DRAM, and a 14-inch non-interlaced monitor. Six 32-bit EISA expansion slots are included, along with two 16-bit ISA slots, one parallel, one game and two serial ports. It is bundled with Microsoft's DOS 4.01 and Windows 3.0 software and a mouse for an additional $175. Technical support is excellent but the documentation is only adequate. The 46-pound system is a well-designed, good-looking and competitively-priced tower arrangement with considerable power and expansion room. Tri-Star Computer provides a two-year parts and labor warranty, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. A low-cost Smart choice. (Hardware Review) (Micro Smart's Smart Micro 486 Pro workstation) (evaluation) Micro Smart's $4,257 Smart Micro 486 Pro is a 33-MHz Intel 80486-based tower-style workstation that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, 1Mbyte of random access memory (RAM), a 64Kbyte RAM cache, and 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives. The system also includes eight 16-bit ISA slots, and one parallel and two serial ports. The motherboard expands to 16Mbytes of RAM using standard single in-line memory modules (SIMMs). The 486 Pro, the low-end version of which is available by mail order for $3,199, is a low-cost and powerful machine, designed for use as a file server, that compares favorably to 80386-based machines that cost as much. The company offers a two-year parts warranty, a lifetime labor warranty, and a 45-day money-back guarantee. Living up to the 486 chip. (Hardware Review) (Eltech Research's 4250 workstation) (evaluation) Eltech Research's $3,499 4250 is a 25-MHz Intel 80486-based workstation that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), an ESDI drive controller with a 32Kbyte cache, a 150Mbyte hard drive, one 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, one 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 1,024 by 768 VGA board with 512K, a Mag Computronic Super VGA monitor, a serial mouse, MS-DOS 4.01, and Microsoft Windows 3.0. The system also includes one 8-bit, one 32-bit and six 16-bit expansion slots and one parallel, one game, and two serial ports. The machine weighs a hefty 63 pounds, and has a motherboard that contains 16 single in-line memory module sockets, which can expand RAM to 16Mbytes. The VGA controller is especially fast and the drive and its controller are average for 80486-based systems. The company provides a one-year parts and labor warranty and a 60-day money-back guarantee. A standalone workhorse. (Hardware Review ) (Reason Technology's Square 4 microcomputer) (evaluation) Reason Technology's $3,695 Square 4 is a 25-MHz Intel 80386-based microcomputer that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 105Mbyte IDE hard drive, 1.2 Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives, a Super VGA video system, and MS-DOS 4.01. The 35-pound system comes with one 32-bit and eight 16-bit ISA expansion slots, and one parallel, one game, and two serial ports. The motherboard can be upgraded to bring system memory up to 8Mbytes, but another 32-bit expansion card with another 8Mbytes of RAM is required to reach the maximum 16Mbytes. The Square 4 combines low-cost with high performance and speed in a well-built system that comes with a one-year parts and labor warranty, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Potential stays, price drops. (Hardware Review) (SAI Systems Laboratories' 486/33 EISA workstation) (evaluation) SAI Systems Laboratories $4,600 486/33 EISA is a 33-MHz Intel 80486-based workstation suitable for office use that includes an 8-MHz to 19-MHz Extended Standard Industry Architecture bus, an 80Mbyte IDE hard drive, 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte and a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a monochrome graphics display system, MS-DOS 4.01 and a mouse. The system also has eight 32-bit EISA expansion slots, along with one parallel and two serial ports. The machine weighs 41 pounds, and comes with a one-year parts, two-year labor, and two-year ADI monitor warranties. The company also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee on what is a low-cost, high-performance machine with well-written documentation and no evidence of cutting corners to keep the list price down to $6,094. Solid system support. (Hardware Review) (Blue Star Computers' 386SX Cache microcomputer) (evaluation) Blue Star Computers' $1,239 mail-order, $2,399 list 386SX Cache is a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM Cache, one 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte and one 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, and several software packages such as PC-Write, Qubicalc, the Wampum database, and MS-DOS 3.0 or DOS 4.0. The system also comes with one 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion slots, along with one parallel, one game, and two serial ports. The design leaves room for expansion and the display is crisp. Although the documentation is lacking, the system includes leading-edge technology and comes with impressive technical support. The company provides a one-year parts and labor warranty, and a five-year warranty for the parts on the motherboard as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. Entry-level excellence. (Hardware Review ) (EPS Technologies' EPS SX/20MHz microcomputer) (evaluation) EPS Technologies' SX/20MHz is a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a 40Mbyte Maxtor IDE hard drive, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, an Orchid ProDesigner II Super VGA card with 1Mbyte of video RAM, an EPS Super VGA 14-inch color monitor, MS-DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0, and a Logitech serial port mouse. The system, available via mail order for $1,795, comes with six 16-bit and two 8-bit expansion slots, along with one parallel, one game and two serial ports. The SX/20MHz is built of quality components in an AT-style case that leaves plenty of room for expansion and the system is much faster than any 80286-based machine. It lacks RAM cache memory, included in competitors' machines. The SX/20MHz is a good value as a low-cost entry-level machine with a one-year parts and labor warranty, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Same price, less filling. (Hardware Review) (SAI Systems Laboratories Peewee 286 microcomputer) (evaluation) SAI Systems Laboratories' $970 Peewee 286 is a 12-MHz Intel 80286-based microcomputer that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture bus, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a monochrome graphics adapter on the motherboard, and MS-DOS 4.01. No monitor or keyboard is included at the price. The addition of a monochrome monitor and a keyboard raises the price to $1,095. A model with a VGA card, a color VGA monitor and a keyboard costs $1,340. Although the system comes with one parallel and two serial ports, it has no expansion slots. Performance is adequate and the Peewee is well-built, but does lack some features for its class. The Peewee 286 weighs only 4.9 pounds and has a small footprint but has limited appeal because of the absence of expansion slots. SAI provides a one-year parts, and a three-year labor warranty, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Full-powered portability. (Hardware Review) (Texas Instruments' TravelMate 3000 notebook computer) (evaluation) Texas Instruments' $5,499 TravelMate 3000 is a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX-based notebook computer that includes an 8-MHz Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard drive, a 10-inch VGA liquid crystal display (LCD), a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, one nickel cadmium battery pack with a three-hour use life, an AC adapter, MS-DOS 4.01, LapLink III, and software utilities. Available via mail order for between $3,600 and $4,124, the TravelMate 3000 has modem and RAM upgrade expansion slots, and a number of ports. Performance is good with this solidly built machine, with an LCD clear even for graphics and the hard drive is respectably fast. Although the TravelMate 3000 is not cheap, it does combine power and versatility in a attractive form. The system weighs 5.7 pounds and comes with a one year parts and labor warranty, linked to Texas Instruments' global service network. Jet-propelled printing. (Hardware Review ) (Canon U.S.A.'s BJ-330 ink-jet printer) (evaluation) Canon's $949 BJ-330 is a wide-carriage ink-jet printer that includes a 30Kbyte print buffer, 360 by 360 dots-per-inch graphics, and two proprietary font card slots. In addition to a parallel interface, it offers IBM Proprinter XL24E and Epson LQ-1050 emulations. It can print Gothic, Courier, and Prestige typefaces at 10, 12, 15, 17, or 20 characters per inch or with proportional spacing on transparencies, envelopes or paper up to 11 by 17 inches. Options for the BJ-330 include a 128Kbyte expansion card, one or two automatic 100-sheet feeder bins, a serial interface, and font cards for the two proprietary slots. Although the printer itself is a good value available for between $595 and $696 by mail order, and output is of a high, crisp quality, the $28 cost of each ink cartridge can add noticeably to operating costs, as they only last about 350 pages. A fax/modem to remember. (Hardware Review) (Everex Systems' Carrier 24/96e) (evaluation) Everex Systems' $399 Carrier 24/96e is an external facsimile modem for laptop computers that requires 512Kbytes of RAM, MS-DOS 2.0 or later, and a hard drive. Available for $309-$320 via mail order, the unit comes with a 9-pin male D-connector interface, a 9-pin to 25-pin convertor, and a RJ-11 phone jack. The Carrier 24/96e is about the size of a small paperback book and utilizes either a single alkaline nine-volt battery or AC power. This is a versatile and inexpensive product that provides 2,400-bps speed for the modem and 9,600-bps for the facsimile. The price is about average, setup and use are easy and the documentation and technical support are excellent. The product comes with bundled facsimile software and a number of useful utilities. Everex also provides a two-year parts and labor warranty. Rapid transit. (Hardware Review) (U.S. Robotics' Courier V.32 Bis modem) (evaluation) US Robotics' $995 Courier V.32 Bis is the first V.32 bis modem on the market. It offers file-transfer speeds based on a 14,400 bits-per-second data engine and compatibility with all the major protocols. The unit comes with a 25-pin male D-connector, and line and phone jacks. The V.32 standard allows for on-line speed switching to ensure maximum throughput. Even with all the new technology involved in the Courier V.32 Bis, US Robotics keeps it easy to set up and use and provides a clear, detailed manual. The company offers a two-year parts and labor warranty, with an extended warranty available at an additional $25 per year. The Courier V.32 Bis modem is a good value and compares favorably to the slower 9,600-bps speed modems currently available.It is available by mail order for between $665 and $745. A paper-white wonder. (Hardware Review) (Mirror Technologies' PixelView PC/II GS gray-scale monitor) (evaluation) Mirror Technologies' $1,797 PixelView PC/II GS is a two-page 20-inch gray-scale monitor that offers high 1,280 by 960 resolution, and a virtual desktop display of 2,048 by 1,024. The unit offers 16-shade capability at 91 dots-per-inch, and comes with a full-length 16-bit 1Mbyte VRAM interface board with VGA emulation. An Award VGA BIOS and a Cirrus logic VGA chip set is included in the interface to provide VGA-level text and graphics. A number of drivers come bundled with the PixelView and the quality provided is superb. The monitor can be installed quite easily, a complete manual is provided and the technical support is very knowledgeable. The company provides a one year parts and labor warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Versatile video. (Hardware Review) (Princeton Graphic Systems' Ultra 1400 color monitor) (evaluation) Princeton Graphic Systems' $899 Ultra 1400 is a 14-inch multiscanning color monitor that comes complete with an interface cable. The 1400 has a resolution of 1,024 by 768 interlaced and 800 by 600 non-interlaced, and has CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA, XGA, 8514/A, PS/2, and Mac II capabilities. The product's thumbwheel controls, for brightness and contrast for example, are positioned at the front of the monitor for easy access. Also at the front are the on/off buttons and the push buttons for controlling under- and over-scan, and text color. It has a horizontal frequency range of 15 to 36 KHz and a vertical frequency range of 45 to 120 Hz. The Ultra 1400 offers considerable flexibility and a good quality display but is a little overpriced. A sterling spreadsheet. (Software Review ) (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0) (evaluation) Microsoft's $495 Excel 3.0 is a graphics-based spreadsheet program that requires an Intel 80286-based IBM-compatible microcomputer, 1Mbyte of RAM, MS-DOS 2.0 or later, Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI), a hard drive with at least 3Mbytes of free space (5.5Mbytes if all add-ins and the tutorial are installed), EGA or better display capabilities, and a mouse. Two of the new features that make Excel 3.0 such good value for money are outlining, where source data is hidden under the results that appear in the spreadsheet, and object linking and embedding, which allows graphical linking between applications. Excel does an excellent job of taking advantage of the Window GUI features with a tool bar and the remarkable pop-up charting module. The package comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. A dynamic database. (Software Review) (Precision Software's Superbase 2 1.2) (evaluation) Precision Software's $345 Superbase 2 Windows 1.2 is a data base management system that takes full advantage of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The package requires an Intel 80286-based IBM or compatible microcomputer, at least 640Kbytes of RAM although 1Mbyte is recommended, MS-DOS 3.0 or later, a hard drive, and Windows 2.1 or later although Windows 3.0 is recommended. Although this data base management system is not relational like its big brother Superbase 4, it can illustrate relationships between fields in several different databases and display them simultaneously onscreen. The product is good value for money, providing access to a quality database in a multitasking environment and excellent forms processing at the same time. Top management. (Software Review) (Scitor Corp.'s Project Scheduler 5 project management software) (evaluation) Scitor Corp's $685 Project Scheduler 5 utilizes a well-designed graphics interface to simplify the task of project management. The package, available for between $429 and $485 by mail, requires 512Kbytes of RAM, MS-DOS 2.0 or higher, a hard driver, a graphics adapter and monitor; a mouse is recommended. This a graphics-based tool for assisting in the planning and management of complex projects. Up to 2,000 jobs can be included in each project, and each job can have as many as 500 different resources. Five zoom levels enable the user to review the project from different viewpoints, printer support is enhanced and graphics and data are integrated automatically. . This powerful and flexible software package comes with quantities of assistance for the user: three levels of context-sensitive help, a complete on-line manual containing 377 screens of information, printed documentation, telephone support and a bulletin board. Project Scheduler 5 is a significant improvement over previous versions. Managing with graphics. (Software Review ) (Computer Associates' CA-SuperProject 2.0 project management software) (evaluation) Computer Associates' $895 CA-SuperProject 2.0 is a graphics-based project management package that offers good value. It requires 512Kbytes of RAM although 640Kbytes is recommended, MS-DOS 2.1 or later, and a hard drive. An EGA or VGA monitor is recommended for full graphics capabilities. CA-SuperProject 2.0 offers some considerable enhancements over previous versions such as a new graphics interface and extended memory management, solving the two major drawbacks in earlier releases. CA-SuperProject 2.0 can handle full Gantt charting, film recorders and more cost tracking. The package also features extensive on-line tutorials, context-sensitive help and good documentation. The new version is available free as an upgrade to owners of any SuperProject product. The company offers a 30-day return policy for defective manuals or disks. Back-to-basics communicating. (Software Review) (DataStorm Technologies' Procomm Plus 2.0 communications software) DataStorm Technologies' $119 Procomm Plus 2.0 asynchronous communications package offers an easy-to-use interface and a low price. It requires 192Kbytes of RAM although 300Kbytes is recommended, and MS-DOS 2.0 or later. The package offers a number of new features over the previous version: additional file transfer protocols, more terminal emulations, increased parameter setting flexibility, 132-column support in EGA and VGA mode, a clipboard for storing filenames for uploading and downloading, new commands for the Aspect script language, and mouse support. Clear, complete manuals are included as is context-sensitive help; technical assistance is available by telephone, bulletin board and a CompuServe forum. There are many better-featured communications packages on the market, but few offer the simplicity of use and low price of Procomm Plus 2.0. Total remote control. (Software Review) (Triton Technologies' CO/Session 5.0 remote access software) (evaluation) Triton Technologies' $195 CO/Session 5.0 is an easy-to-use remote control software package that allows off-site access to a remote microcomputer. The product requires 50Kbytes of RAM on the host microcomputer, or preferably 100Kbytes for graphics support, 125Kbytes of RAM on the remote machine, MS-DOS 2.0 or later, and a modem. CO/Session is memory-resident, which means it sits in RAM and is activated with a 'hot-key' combination. The Host program can also be loaded into expanded memory, using only 5Kbytes of conventional RAM. The package is low-cost and compares favorably to other such remote control products on the market. CO/Session 5.0 is easy to set up and use, with intuitive commands although it does not have on-line help files. Available by mail order for between $120 and $145, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Dealing with dollars. (Software Review) (MECA Software's Managing Your Money 7.0 financial software) (evaluation) MECA Software's $219.98 Managing Your Money 7.0 is a financial software package that requires 512Kbytes of RAM and MS-DOS 2.0 or later; a hard disk is recommended. The package allows for personal finance organization and analysis, and offers a visually impressive design and an excellent user interface. The program is broken down into six major financial areas: Money, Tax, Insure, Analyze, Portfolio, and Net Worth. Hot-key combinations provide quick access to the Card File, Reminder Pad, a small word processing program, and a calculator. Managing Your Money produces graphs and reports easily, consistent with the ease of use of the entire package. It costs $49.95 as an upgrade and is available for between $115 and $135 by mail. The company's return policy offers the replacement of damaged disks within 90 days. A top-drawer desktop. (Software Review) (Okna Corp.'s The DeskTop Set 3.0D personal information management system) (evaluation) Okna Corp's $89 DeskTop Set 3.0D is a personal information management system that requires 640Kbytes of RAM (1Mbyte is recommended), MS-DOS 3.0 or higher, Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, an EGA or higher graphics system, a hard disk with at least 1.2Mbytes of free space and a mouse. The package features a number of enhancements over the previous version including prioritized to-do lists, a graphics calendar display of time usage, and automatically repeating appointments. The structure of the 'to do' lists is less efficient than other parts of the system and Desktop Set's printed and on-line documentation leaves something to be desired. Otherwise, DeskTop Set 3.0D is an excellent, well-integrated package with many features in a narrow base consisting of calendar, telephone book and calculator. The package also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. CompuAdd 386/25: solid system. (Hardware Review) (CompuAdd Corp.'s microcomputer)(Durability Test) (evaluation) CompuAdd's $1,695 386/25 is a well-built, 25-MHz, Intel 80386-based microcomputer that comes with 1Mbyte of RAM, either a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte or a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a drive controller, Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, MS-DOS 4.01, and a serial mouse. It also features one 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion slots, and one proprietary 32-bit slot specifically for a memory card. The system weighs 34 pounds and includes two serial and one parallel ports. The CompuAdd 386/25 arrives as a true play-and-play machine, with the hard disk formatted and MS-DOS installed. The manuals are well-done and complete. The components are all high-quality although the keyboard is less sharp than some, with crowded keys. Performance is basically good but mixed; technical support is excellent. CompuAdd provides a one-year parts and labor warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Here's to affordable networking. (includes related articles on wireless LANs, sub-LANs, proprietary adapters, backing up the Corporate microcomputer users seeking local area network connectivity for resource sharing have an alternative to the high expense of a customized network. The many off-the-shelf LAN packages currently available on the market are aimed at smaller cost-conscious departments or companies seeking to minimize installation problems. Although the number of users that can be added to these networks is limited, these small but true LANs are gaining in popularity because of increasing LAN demand and the high prices of full-features products. Detailed are the things to consider when buying such a LAN package including variations of a LAN, the hardware side of networking, adapters, selecting the correct cable, LAN software, security, creating a network, and features and performance. Point/counterpoint: are DOS LANs kludges? (Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) Low-cost DOS-based local area networks are attractive from a cost point of view, but offer few of the advantages of fuller-featured LANs, some analysts believe. They argue that, although DOS-based LANs do not require an expensive file server, they are little more than an effort to transform what is essentially a single-user operating system into a multi-user operating system. Other analysts argue that the money saved on extensive consulting and engineering technicians simply to install a full-size LAN is a huge benefit. Additionally, the vendors marketing low-cost LANs are more willing to offer extensive advice. LAN users tend to fall into two distinct groups. The first is the large corporation that needs to establish an efficient platform, and therefore needs an elaborate, extensive LAN. The second is the small group of users that just need to access one or two shared peripherals, for which the low-cost off-the-shelf LAN packages are designed. Toward greater productivity: everyday use. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) A local area network, no matter how simple, increases the complexity of operations compared to standalone computing. The installation of a LAN effects every aspect of a user's productivity, from printing to using application programs. It is important to consider certain things when buying a LAN. In terms of documentation, too much information is almost as bad as too little. The information must be concise and informative, but not overwhelming, and not making too many assumptions about the expertise of the user. Support from the vendor or software publisher should be accessible without complications, and the best type of LAN is one that can have the menus customized to reflect a personalized user environment, and which includes both command-driven and menu-driven user interfaces. On-line help should be context sensitive and continually available. Up and running in a flash: installation and set up. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) The main attraction of low-cost LANs (local area networks) is that they can be installed and operated with relative ease. An essential part of the installation process is a working knowledge of DOS in order to cope with the basics of environment variables, search paths, file attributes, interrupt assignment, I/O addresses and CONFIG.SYS statements. After loading the software and network interface adapters into each microcomputer on the network, a workable directory and security strategy has to be set up, along with the sharing of printers and disk drives. Performance optimization must be balanced between the shared items and the local users. The ability of a LAN to be customized is an important consideration in selecting a package. Usually, the less powerful the LAN the easier it is to set up and customize, with those discussed requiring about 30 minutes per station. Send me some e-mail. (electronic mail) (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) For many corporations, electronic mail capabilities are the major reason for selecting a local area network (LAN) in the first place. This is particularly true for such specific collaborative environments as project management and publishing. Buying a LAN with built-in e-mail does not necessarily mean the immediate automation of communications. LANs can also be purchased without e-mail built in; it can be added later without much difficulty. The most effective e-mail systems support security, file attachments, and the ability to develop templates for such things as telephone messages. More powerful e-mails will also include distribution lists for messages to multiple nodes, and remote links to public services such as MCI Mail. Any e-mail system or module should be accessible from any point or application; memory-resident programs can be especially attractive. From print queue to paper: network printing. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) Redirecting the printer output from a machine's local printer ports to network printers or spool queues allows for printing from any application as if the network printer were connected directly to the port. A number of factors affect this form of network printing, including print queue management, embedded printer setup codes, and the ability to locate shared printers. Prospective local area network (LAN) buyers should look for products that allow for the setting of individual print definitions if multiple application printing is required. Some LANs also allow for flexible queue management, permitting the redistribution of print jobs if one queue gets overloaded. If printing is likely to be heavy, LANs that support proprietary printer ports capable of fast transfer rates are advisable. Out of harm's way: security. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) Local area networks are designed to be accessed by multiple users. Consequently, the need for adequate security to safeguard individual user data and the network operating system is even more important than for standalone systems. Prospective LAN buyers who value secure systems should look for features that provide adequate passwords and password protection to control access to files and shared directories, access-rights settings to manage user rights, and group-based security measures for assigning access rights to groups of users. Another important consideration is to ensure the security data is stored in encrypted files or subdirectories and that network security information can be centrally maintained. Housekeeping on the LAN: maintenance and administration. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) The better the local area network software is at maintenance and administration the easier the job of the LAN administrator. The administration of a LAN involves adding and removing node and user log-in information, tracking network usage and errors, changing passwords and user access rights, and monitoring shared peripheral devices such as printers and hard disk drives. Prospective buyers should look for menu-driven utilities for handling basic maintenance, LANs that allocate all security files to a single security server, and those that support routine and/or automatic back up. Centrally-based server LANs are the easiest to administer. Next easiest are peer-to-peer networks that allow one microcomputer to be designated as the resource server. LANs that allow an administrator to view the configuration and status of any node from a microcomputer are probably the most flexible. Getting the help you need: service and support. (Applications Focus)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable alternative) (buyers guide) Local area network (LAN) manufacturers offer varying degrees of support services including direct technical support via telephone, facsimile hot lines, bulletin board systems, and resellers and consultants. A prospective LAN buyer should evaluate in-house company resources to find out how much expertise is available. If there is not enough technical ability, then an outside consultant should be considered to assist in the LAN installation. The support policies of both the LAN manufacturer and mail-order supplier should be investigated prior to purchase. Apart from providing access to the manufacturers' own technical experts, bulletin boards provide access to other users who may also be able to offer assistance. Low-cost LANs in action. (Hardware Review) (overview of 13 evaluations of local area networks)(Low-cost LANs: the affordable This is an overview of 13 evaluations of low-cost local area network packages. The criteria in evaluating the packages are that they are inexpensive, capable of file sharing, connected via cable to adapter cards in microcomputer expansion slots, and able to run in either peer-to-peer or non-dedicated server mode. Some of the LAN products are available in kit form, offering software, cable, connectors, and adapter cards in one package. Other products only include the software, leaving the user to purchase the extra equipment required. If a manufacturer offers proprietary network adapter cards, they are usually cheaper than Ethernet cards. LANtastic AE-2 Ethernet. (Artisoft) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Artisoft's LANtastic AE-2 Ethernet is one of the most widely available local area networks available through mail-order. The list price for two users is $699 and includes LANtastic network operating system software for up to 300 users, two Ethernet interface adapter cards, 25 feet of coaxial cable, two T-connectors, two terminators, and detailed, well-illustrated documentation. On-line help is available in both menu-driven operations, and command-line utilities. Basic installation is simple but can get complex for inexperienced users. LANtastic AE-2 Ethernet is a peer-to-peer network that supports group-based security and offers complete electronic mail, print spooler, network diagnostic and security utilities. ReadyLink. (from Compex) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Action')(Low-cost LANs: Compex's ReadyLink is a peer-to-peer MS-DOS-based local area network that supports most Novell-compatible network adapters. The list price for two users is $699 for a package that includes the ReadyLink network operating system software for up to 254 nodes, two Ethernet interface adapter cards, 30 feet of coaxial cable, two T-connectors, and two terminators. Standard command-line utilities and a simple menuing system are included for disk and printer sharing. The electronic mail system is really a basic electronic messaging feature. To protect disk directories, ReadyLink uses device-level password protection and access rights. Initial installation and setup is automated and menu-driven. The manual offers fairly comprehensive advice, but is poorly organized and does not have an index. The software alone has a one-time $299 licensing fee, so as a hardware-independent product, ReadyLink has a very low cost per node. LANsmart network OS. (operating system from D-Link Systems) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in D-Link System's LANsmart is a peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that is compatible with Novell NetWare. The list price for two users for the starter kit is $650; this includes the LANsmart network operating system software for unlimited users, two Ethernet interface adapter cards, coaxial cable, and two Ethernet terminators. LANsmart's menus can remain in terminate and stay resident (TSR) mode or be loaded on demand, and provide easy access to all networking functions including print queue management, and disk and printer sharing. The easy-to-setup and use package also comes with a high-quality chat feature whereby users can communicate with other nodes in real-time. The company provides unlimited and free technical support for registered users, and a technical support bulletin board system (BBS). 10NET Plus LAN OS. (from Digital Communications Associates) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in Digital Communications Associates' 10NET Plus is a peer-to-peer local area network operating system that supports file and printer sharing, comprehensive electronic mail capabilities, central security administration, and a set of configuration parameters and command-line programs. The list price for three users is $498 and encompasses $149 for the base pack plus $349 for a three-user license kit. The price includes the 10NET Plus network operating system software, a six-user electronic mail feature, and software reference and 10Windows manuals. Security is one of the package's strengths, and features a combination of 256 file and directory access levels, 10 file-sharing attributes, and eight user groups. 10NET Plus, alone among those reviewed, offers TCP/IP support and includes an interface specifically designed for Microsoft Windows 3.0. DNA Networks' MegaNet. (Hardware Review) (one of 13 local area networks evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Action')(Low-cost LANs: DNA Networks' MegaNet local area network not only includes file and printer sharing capabilities, but also integrated office automation and productivity modules such as electronic mail, address Rolodex, notebook, group scheduling and pop-up calculator. The list price for two users is $595, which includes the MegaNet software for up to 256 users, two interface adapter cards, 20 feet of shielded twisted-pair cable, and two terminators. The package utilizes a central, non-dedicated DOS-based file server with proprietary interface cards. Menus are easily customized as long as the user is knowledgeable in MS-DOS. Although the manuals are well-organized, they assume a technical expertise that inexperienced users may lack. EasyNetwork. (from EasyNetwork) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in Low-cost LANs in Action')(Low-cost EasyNetwork's EasyNetwork local area network is very basic and is therefore best for network situations in which ease of installation and operation are of vital importance. The list price for two users is $149 for the standard LAN, $399 for the ARCnet version, and $599 for the Ethernet version. The price includes the EasyNetwork software for unlimited users, two interface adapter cards, 20 feet of twisted-pair or coaxial cable depending on the version ordered, two T-connectors, and two terminators. The package lacks security features, has limited printing capabilities, and only 11 pages of documentation. If more than one printer needs to be shared, or there is reasonably heavy activity on the single shared printer, this is probably not the LAN of choice. GV LAN/OS. (from Grapevine LAN Products Inc.) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Grapevine LAN Products' GV LAN/OS is a menu-driven peer-to-peer local area network that offers a complete electronic mail system, easy-to-use printing services and particularly easy installation. The list price for three users is $395 and includes the GV LAN/OS software for up to five users. Batch files cannot be used to set or modify network commands, because the package does not have command-line utilities. Terminate and stay resident (TSR) pull-down menus are used to select printer and disk resources. The electronic mail feature supports standard send-and-receive functions, file attachments, e-mail form definition, e-mail groups, and the printing and filing of messages and files. The package uses a proprietary network protocol and is therefore not compatible with either SMB or NetWare LANs. Thirty-day free technical support is included and annual support costs $150. Invisible Network Model 200. (from Invisible Software Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in Invisible Software's Invisible Network 200 is a peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that offers file and printer sharing, utilities for expanded and shadow memory management, and disk caching. The list price for two users is $430 and includes software for unlimited users, two interface cards, 30 feet of twisted-pair cable, two T-connectors, and two terminators. The installation is automated and simple, and network operation can be run with command-line utilities or through menus. Invisible Network 200 supports both user- and group-based security profiles, and comes with comprehensive documentation. The electronic mail feature only allows for the sending of one-line messages; it is really just electronic messaging. Only Invisible Software's Ethernet or proprietary interface adapters are supported, although all the company's adapters are compatible with Novell NetWare. ChosenLAN. (from Moses Computers Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Moses Computers' ChosenLAN is a peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that lists for $350 for a two users, including the ChosenNOS software and and two proprietary interface adapter cards. This is a basic package that does not offer electronic mail, messaging, group-based, or encrypted password security. Installation is easy and automated, and documentation is comprehensive and informative, especially for beginning users. Three printers are allowed per server or peer and print spooling is provided at the printer server There is also a management utility for viewing and deleting print jobs in the print queue. Thirty users can be supported overall on this Microsoft Windows-compatible LAN. Moses Computers provides end-user technical support via telephone or toll-free facsimile line to a bulletin board system. Northnet Connect. (from Northnet Research) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Northnet Connect is a peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that lists for $289 for three users for the Connect software. It is the only one of the low-cost LANs reviewed that supports password-protected directories through encryption. A high-speed parallel printer port coprocessor called JETstream is bundled with Northnet to provide output to printers at up to 100,000 characters per second. A complete set of NET command-line operations is included for functions such as accessing and sharing network disks and printers. The poorly-rated documentation, although inclusive of the basic information needed for installation, lacks an index and chapter headings. Connect attaches to Novell NetWare and SMB-compatible LANs, and works with Windows, DESQview, and CD-ROM drives. The company provides free telephone and bulletin board technical support. ELS NetWare I. (from Novell) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Action')(Low-cost Novell's ELS NetWare I is not a peer-to-peer local area network, but utilizes a central file server approach instead, so only disk and printers actually attached to the printer can be shared. The list price for four users is $795 for the ELS NetWare software and documentation. The LAN is based on a proprietary operating system, and offers good security and performance. Unfortunately, it is an expensive option and is particularly complex. The package supports both MS-DOS- and OS/2-based workstations, and includes router software for connecting two remote NetWare LANs via RS-232 ports on the server. Menu-driven utilities set up shared printers and print queues, security functions, and a customized user environment. The company provides 24-hour direct technical support, priced at $100 per incident, a bulletin board on Compuserve, and referrals to certified NetWare engineers. PowerLAN. (from Performance Technology Inc.) (Software Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in Performance Technology Development's PowerLAN 1.3 is a high-powered peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that offers central network security administration and extensive performance tuning. The list price for five users is $795 for a package that includes the PowerLAN software, an ARCnet NetBIOS and an Ethernet NetBIOS, a menu-driven utility called Navigate for locating network resources, the cc:Mail electronic mail software, and a PC caching utility. PowerLAN's User Registration System centrally controls user- and workstation-based security. User and resource passwords are stored in an encrypted file. The documentation includes a helpful planning guide and a troubleshooting manual. The package offers impressive tuning options through a menu-driven server setup program that can adjust such things as the NetBIOS group data grams. MainLan Ethernet. (from US Sage) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 local area network evaluations in 'Low-cost LANs in US Sage's MainLAN Ethernet is a peer-to-peer DOS-based local area network that comes with standard features such as electronic mail and disk and printer sharing. The list price for two users is $499 and includes the MainLAN software, two Ethernet adapter cards, 50 feet of coaxial cable, one T-connector, and two terminators. The LAN is almost entirely menu-driven as is therefore easy to use, even offering menu versions of DOS commands such as COPY. The package also supports modular loading and unloading of network resources to conserve random access memory (RAM) overhead. Only one shared printer is supported per server though, and the LAN does not support embedded printer setup strings nor diskless workstations. MainLAN's main strength is its simplicity, emphasized by the inclusion of a 221-page comprehensive manual that is written with the novice in mind. Graphics power for your business. (includes related article on 35mm color slides, enhancing graphics with clip art, screen show Business presentation software now allows for the displaying of information in graphs and charts that use different fonts, color, symbols, clip art, maps and photos. A number of viewing formats are available including 35mm slides, microcomputer screen display, overhead projectors, report charts and handouts. Many packages include such features as importing data from spreadsheets and databases, using style sheets and templates to design graphs, adding pre-drawn symbols and clip art, building frame on frame and incorporating three-dimensional graphics. Detailed are specific aspects the prospective buyer should consider: packages with character- versus graphically-based interface, the actual presentation of graphics, charting, importing and entering data, color issues, ease of use, and service and support. Point/counterpoint: standalone graphics vs. spreadsheet graphics. (Business graphics: presentations with clout ) (buyers guide) Spreadsheet programs today have many more presentation features than they once had. The leading packages, such as Microsoft's Excel 3.0 and Informix Software's Wingz, have the capabilities to create a wide range of charts, even three-dimensional graphics, while assigning colors and patterns and modifying titles. Some analysts argue though that one of the main advantages of dedicated presentation graphics programs is that they can produce the output needed for any display environment. Spreadsheets, although capable of printing to a laser printer, limit the output to little more than transparencies. To produce the same result in two different formats with spreadsheets requires the re-designing of the same data. With presentation graphics packages the same data can be presented in multiple formats. Features for easier, faster graphics: program design. (Applications Focus)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) A number of features can be included in graphics packages to automate design and output. While some of them, such as menu structure, are strictly a matter of choice, others that the user needs may have to be included at the expense of alternatives. Automated installation, the amount of disk space used, and manipulation of the user interface and menu structure are all common optional features. Also, most packages offer differing degrees of on-line help, and various macro or batch file creation features to automate repetitive tasks. Additionally, aids such as style sheets and templates can also be included and most, but not all, products discussed support mice. Getting the graphics you need: charts and graphs. (Applications Focus)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) (buyers guide) Charting programs often come with the tools to create personalized charts, but few users have the time or technical ability to compose them. For non-technical buyers of chart programs, it is important to make sure the package includes a variety of pre-designed charts and any specific types that are likely to be used. Three-dimensional charts cannot be created by all packages, although many do use a shadowing technique that gives the appearance of three dimensions. More than two charts on a page can appear confusing to the reader, so it is worth remembering not to exclude packages solely on the grounds that they only offer the ability to create two charts. Most regular graphics packages include a number of basic chart types. For more complex or varied charting, a true business presentation software may be needed. Making connections: importing files. (Applications Focus)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) (buyers guide) All graphics programs can import some graphics and text files from other programs. When buying a graphics package it is important to note how many file formats the product can import and also how easy it is to bring in the data. Ideally, the buyer should ensure that all file formats likely to be used are supported by the graphics package. This is only possible if the data comes from major applications such as Lotus 1-2-3 or Ashton-Tate's dBASE. Otherwise, file conversion capabilities are necessary. It is also important to ensure direct links can be established to spreadsheet or database files, and that the intended program offers good menu-driven or fill-in-the-blanks methods of data retrieval. Professional-looking results: customizing capabilities. (Applications Focus)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) Professional-looking results can be achieved with most graphics programs by their ability to customize output. These customizing capabilities come in the form of a multitude of fonts, colors, fill patterns, drawing tools, clip-art libraries, and scaling and rotation features. A prospective buyer should look for programs with the most comprehensive set of chart-design and image-editing features for the most affordable price. A good graphics package allows the user to select typefaces from a wide variety of fonts. If color is used unwisely, it can reflect badly on the finished graphic. A prospective buyer should look for a package that provides a wide variety of fonts suitable to the type of charts being created and comes with preconfigured palettes of colors that go well together. Putting it in print and film: output. (Applications Focus)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) (buyers guide) When purchasing graphics software it is important to ensure that results can be output to standard drivers for laser printers, dot-matrix printers, film recorders and plotters. Ideally, the best type of device drivers would list the specific printer that is going to be used rather than a generic driver that works with that printer. The prospective purchaser should make sure the printer can print the graphics created. It is worth remembering that color printing does not adhere to standard emulations as does black-and-white printing, so special attention must be paid to whether the program works with specific color printers. If a slide service is going to be used to make 35mm slides from graphics files, the program must save files in a format commonly used by the major film service bureaus. Graphics snapshots. (Software Review) (overview of 12 evaluations of business graphics packages)(Business graphics: presentations Business graphics presentation packages vary a great deal in terms of both quality and features offered. For the prospective buyer, extra features are not really much good if they are not going to be used. A thorough evaluation of potential uses is essential before any graphics package is considered for a business. Detailed is an overview of 12 software packages reviewed. Each review covers use of the package from installation to output, and includes information on the publisher, the software's price, and its strengths and weaknesses. The 12 packages reviewed are Ashton-Tate's Applause II, Computer Associate's CA-Cricket Graph, Micrographx's Charisma, WordPerfect's DrawPerfect, Lotus Development's Freelance Plus, New England Software's Graph-in-a-Box Executive, Software Publishing's Harvard Graphics, Computer Support's Picture Perfect, Spinnaker Software's Pinstripe Presenter, Microsoft's PowerPoint for Windows, Digital Research's Presentation Team and Paperback Software's VP-Graphics. Applause II 1.0. (from Ashton-Tate Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in 'Graphics Ashton-Tate's $495 Applause II is a presentation software package that uses a proprietary Windows-like graphical user interface. It is particularly good at slide-show presentations, functioning well on systems with as few as 512Kbytes of random access memory (RAM). Seven basic chart types can be combined and customized into a total of 37 types. The package imports and exports all major data and graphics formats, and although it does lack freehand drawing capabilities, it offers a near-complete set of drawing tools, has 400 clip art items and supports mouse use. Eleven 16-color palettes are included, producing up to 5,000 available chart colors. Applause II does not have object-scaling or macro support, but does include object rotation. It is easy to use and capable of serving most presentation needs. CA-Cricket Graph 1.3. (from Computer Associates International) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package Computer Associates International's $195 CA-Cricket Graph 1.3 is a low-priced business graphics presentation package that offers value for money if advanced features such as slide shows and hot links to databases and spreadsheets are not required. It is a Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface package that offers good chart creation and customization capabilities. Twelve basic chart types are offered, and three-dimensional features can also be added. The creation of mixed-type charts is simple, although only two can be on the same page at one time. One chart can contain up to 5,000 of the 16 million possible colors, and the 12 font styles can be used in any point size the output device supports. This is a low-cost package that offers ease of use and some excellent features. Charisma 2.01. (from Micrographx Inc.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in 'Graphics Micrographx, Inc's $495 Charisma 2.01 is a high-powered business graphics presentation software package that runs under the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, and comes with 2,200 clip art symbols. The package includes a special-effects slide show utility, style sheets for graphs and word charts, DDE support, support for importing multiple graphics formats, full-featured drawing functions, batch printing, and two built-in communications to two slide production service bureaus. Eight basic chart types are offered, customizable in many ways. There are over 16 million possible chart colors, and 42 fonts are offered in 72 sizes. Charisma 2.01 is the current market leader in presentation software packages and offers many features for designing and creating graphics functions, including any easy to use menu system and interface. DrawPerfect 1.1. (from WordPerfect Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in 'Graphics WordPerfect's $495 DrawPerfect 1.1 is a presentation software package that offers eight basic data chart types, and three-dimensional effects that can be used on bar and pie charts. Also included are a palette of 256 colors, 30 fonts of unlimited size, 64 fill patterns, and 16 line types with 16 different widths. Twelve types of graphics format files can be imported, along with ASCII, Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect data files. The package offers good slide-show capabilities, along with device drivers for over 600 dot-matrix and laser printers. The only disadvantage is an interface that is a bit awkward for beginners to use. DrawPerfect 1.1 is particularly good for WordPerfect users but other word processor users will also like the features offered and the company's good technical support record. Freelance Plus 3.01. (from Lotus Development Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Lotus Development Corp's $495 Freelance Plus 3.01 is a comprehensive business graphics package, although it does have an awkward text-based interface. The package includes 14 chart and graph types, 11 standard fonts available in 1mm to 100mm sizes, and support for printer fonts. Colors are limited to 15 per graph, although eight line styles in five widths and 15 fill patterns are also standard. Imported data files can be in Lotus 1-2-3, SLK, or ASCII formats, and graphics files can be in PIC and TIF. The package's drawing capabilities are good, and the slide-show feature has special effects to animate presentations. The main problem with the product is its lack of a full-featured graphical user interface. Graph-in-the-Box Executive 1.14. (from New England Software Inc.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package New England Software's $300 Graph-in-the-Box Executive 1.14 is a presentation graphics package that, because it is a terminate and stay resident (TSR) program, can import data from the screen while the user is working in another application. The program can pop up at any time with a hot key combination, and offers mathematical and statistical functions for the analysis and manipulation of data. The package offers a functional menu structure and user interface, importing data files in ASCII and DIF formats, and exporting graphics files in CGM, EPS, HPGL, PCX and PIC formats. The package includes 15 graph and chart types, and a three-dimensional effect is available in all but text charts. Charts can be customized using nine fonts in unlimited sizes, nine fill patterns, 15 colors, and variable-width lines. Drawbacks to Graph-in-the-Box include an interface that is not the best and lack of mouse support. Harvard Graphics 2.3. (from Software Publishing Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Software Publishing's $495 Harvard Graphics 2.3 is a powerful business presentation graphics package that includes a 500-image clip-art library, a large collection of predefined chart style sheets, excellent charting and drawing modules, and a slide-show feature that offers animation and flexible sequencing. The graphics interface and menu structure lack an intuitive feel and are somewhat limiting. The package imports data files in ASCII, Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 formats, and graphics files in CGM, PCX, and PIC formats. It exports files in CGM, HPGL, EPS, PIC, and SCD formats. Harvard Graphics offers 16 basic chart types, seven fonts in 100 sizes, 100 line widths, and 12 fill patterns. In addition to powerful charting, drawing, and graphing tools, Harvard Graphics also includes a spell-checker, a DOS shell, and mathematical and statistical functions for data analysis. Picture Perfect 4.1. (from Computer Support Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Computer Support's $295 Picture Perfect 4.1 is a text-based business graphics package that appears limited in this age of graphical user interfaces because of its function-key-based interface. The program offers few advanced features and only imports data files in ASCII, delimited ASCII, and DIF formats. Exporting graphics files is limited to PIC format only. Five basic graphs can be created, which can be customized into 12 distinct graph types, all in two dimensions only. Text charts cannot be created either. The package also includes 13 fonts available in any size, and palettes of 16 colors, with a maximum of nine to be used in any one chart. It does offer 200-plus fill patterns and nine line styles in four widths however, but it is still limited in its features and capabilities. Pinstripe Presenter 1.0. (from Spinnaker Software) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Spinnaker Software's $200 Pinstripe Presenter is a good value presentation software package for creating slide-shows and simple charts. The business graphics package offers an easy-to-use icon-based graphical user interface, eight basic chart types, and three-dimensional effects for pie, line, and bar charts. There are 13 predefined style sheets for each chart type, with the number and size of fonts dependent on the output device used. The package also offers a 56-color palette of colors that allows for a maximum of seven colors per chart. It only offers limited drawing tools and no clip-art library, although images created in the draw screen can be used. Pinstripe Presenter is lacking in some areas, but offers a solid, easy-to-use package at a reasonable price. PowerPoint for Windows 2.0. (from Microsoft Corp.) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Microsoft's $495 PowerPoint 2.0, now enhanced for Microsoft's Windows graphical user interface, is a presentation software package that includes many features and capabilities. Its strengths lie in its style sheets, clip-art library, chart creation features, slide-show capabilities, and import and export options. The package also includes rarer features such as a built-in spell-checker, word processor and interface to a film service bureau. PowerPoint has 45 chart types, with three-dimensional effects possible in all pie, column, bar and area charts. Three bitstream fonts are standard in sizes up to 250 points, and a large font library allows for more. In one chart, 256 colors out of a possible 16.8 million can be used, along with 22 fill patterns and five line styles. PowerPoint for Windows is easy-to-use and full of powerful features. Presentation Team 2.0. (from Digital Research) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in 'Graphics Digital Research's $395 Presentation Team 2.0 is a business graphics software package that comes complete with its own user-friendly, attractive GEM graphical interface that takes up just 640Kbytes of random access memory (RAM). The package is full-featured, especially good at slide-show presentations, and offers a menu system that can be used both with and without a mouse. It can import and export all the major graphics formats including CGM, PCX, PIC, TIF, and WMF. It can import ASCII delimited, DIF, Lotus 1-2-3, and PRN data file formats. Fifteen chart types can be created from ten basic styles, and special effects include master visual backgrounds and color fountains. The package also offers nine Bitstream fonts in six different sizes as standard, with colors limited to 16 per chart. Nine line styles and 36 fill patterns are also included, along with a 300-image clip-art library. VP-Graphics 1.1. (from Paperback Software International) (Software Review) (one of 12 presentation software package evaluations in Paperback Software International's $125 VP-Graphics 1.1 is a low-priced presentation software package that offers functional charting via a simple interface and menu structure. The package lacks many of the features found on other more expensive packages, although it does accomplish some basic operations well. File imports are limited to ASCII, DIF, and PIC formats, and although VP-Graphics does not include a clip-art library, it does offer 32 standard symbols for spicing up charts. Five basic charts are offered, and by customization, 16 different chart types can be created. Six fonts are available in seven sizes, and a palette of 64 colors offers a maximum of eight colors per chart. Also offered are eight fill patterns and four line types in three widths. VP-Graphics only provides a few features, although it does these well, at a low price. Across-the-board comparisons. (Features Chart)(Business graphics: presentations with clout) (buyers guide) The number of file formats that can imported with a business graphics package can severely effect the flexibility enjoyed by the user. Additionally, the support and service offered, either direct from the manufacturer or through the vendor, should be a consideration when buying a package. Detailed is a listing and comparison of available dedicated presentation graphics packages for those who want more features than are available in spreadsheet or data base management software products. Such features as list price, the amount of file formats imported and exported, the number of chart types included, the number of colors and symbols available, the number of peripheral devices supported, and the availability of fonts, are also included. Printer sharing made simple. (Hands-on) (tutorial) Rosch, Winn L. A printer sharing system allows for the sharing of a single printer by a number of microcomputers. Installing such a system is reasonably easy in theory, although incompatibility problems may occur once the installation process is under way. Initially, cables are run from the microcomputers to the sharing device. Then a cable is run from the sharing device to the single printer. Details of the installation procedure are presented, along with various incompatibility problems that could occur and suggested solutions. A number of suggested hardware devices are listed along with various DOS commands that would be needed to complete the installation process. Where's Big Blue's Big Mo? (IBM's lack of commitment to personal computing threatens its leadership position) IBM is in danger of losing its position as the guiding force in microcomputer development. Analysts believe the problem stems from an attempt on the firm's part to force the rest of the industry to conform to its view of personal computing, which is as an adjunct to mainframe computing, rather than as a distinct market. There are several steps IBM can take to reinstate its dominance. First, it must reverse its own strategy to make the microcomputer, rather than the mainframe, the linchpin of its computing strategy. Putting OS/2 in the PS/2's ROM and licensing the technology to other systems makers would quickly establish OS/2 as the dominant operating system. Making networking and multimedia capabilities standard on the PS/2 would make the machine the darling of software developers. Finally, IBM should stop adding graphical user interfaces to the list of those it supports. IBM already has all the tools it needs to reestablish itself as a market leader; what it needs is a new focus that reflects a microcomputer mindset. Manager's file #1: taking the pain out of pc use. The recent landmark legislation passed by the San Francisco (CA) Board of Supervisors regarding use of VDTs may be only the first such law to be enacted requiring employers to take all necessary steps to alleviate health risks associated with computer use. These risks, which are no longer merely employee or management issues, include eyestrain, headaches, joint and muscle pain and carpal tunnel syndrome, and threaten not only workers in data entry positions but anyone whose job involves heavy use of computers. Many of these problems can be reduced or eliminated through adjustment of work habits and installation of equipment designed for computing-intensive jobs. Before purchasing such equipment, which includes anti-glare screens and special workstation furniture, anyone charged with making such decisions should thoroughly investigate the available literature and arrange to try out the equipment on site. Microsoft sets stage for Windows reign: rift with IBM over system software steadily deepens; OS/2 relegated to "high end." Microsoft officials, acknowledging both the failure of OS/2 to capture the market share predicted for it and the astounding success of Windows 3.0, announce plans to position DOS and Windows as the mainstream desktop operating system, with OS/2 restricted to such high-end uses as network server applications and workstation-level programs. Windows will be enhanced with many of the most significant features of OS/2. Version 3.1, to be released in mid-1991, will add performance and cosmetic improvements, including built-in scalable fonts. DOS 5.0, due out about the same time, will add memory-management features that will improve Windows performance on Intel 80286 and '386-based machines. A 32-bit version of Windows will be available to developers in second half 1991, and to users probably in early 1992. While Microsoft appears to be announcing the death of OS/2, IBM believes that report, like that of Mark Twain's, to be somewhat exaggerated, pointing out that the features promised for the 1992 version of Windows will appear in OS/2 2.0 in 1991. IBM has its own agenda for OS/2. Electronic mail grows more flexible: Microsoft, Lotus, WordPerfect enter exploding market. The electronic-mail (e-mail) marketplace is on the verge of a major shake-up. What has been the province of relatively small vendors is beginning to be exploited by such giants as Microsoft, soon to release a PC equivalent for its Microsoft Mail Macintosh package, Lotus Development Corp, and WordPerfect Corp. E-mail systems consist of a front-end application, a mail-transport engine, and a connectivity layer. While these layers now are typically purchased as a package from a single vendor, a trend is developing toward modular e-mail that will allow users to customize the overall system. One major obstacle is the lack of a single standard mail-transport device. There is much backing for the Message Handling System (MHS) in Novell's NetWare, but the CCITT is developing the X.400 specification for writing mail transports, and it is believed that MHS will eventually be supported by those specifications. BeyondMail, from Beyond, allows the user to manage e-mail according to user-defined rules, and is often cited as an example of what modular e-mail may look like. The e-mail word processor. (Software Publishing's Profession Write Plus for Windows) (Software Review) (evaluation) Professional Write Plus for Windows, available from Software Publishing Corp (SPC) for $249, or as a $50 upgrade from Professional Write or Office Writer, is a word processing package that owes more to Ami Professional than to its namesake, Professional Write. SPC licensed the Ami Professional code from Samna before Samna's acquisition by Lotus, and stripped some features, including macros, kerning, outlining, redlining and charting capabilities. Despite this pruning, the package is far more powerful than either of its ancestors, and adds some nice touches, including a wealth of file conversion routines and an integrated version of the Grammatik grammar checker. Additionally, this is the first word processor to include a full-featured e-mail front end. Professional Write Plus also offers better ease of use than Word for Windows. This is a good choice for sites low on microcomputer power, those who want to easily add e-mail to Novell sites, or those who want an extra level of integration. HP's net-worthy improvement. (the LaserJet IIISi printer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet IIISi, the latest addition to its LaserJet family of printers, is designed with the heavy workloads associated with local area networks (LANs) in mind. The printer features a 17-pages-per-minute, 330-dots-per-inch Canon engine, along with a high-speed RISC processor and a parallel interface that accepts data at nearly twice the rate of standard parallel ports, allowing complex graphs and fonts to be produced at nearly the full rated engine speed. Paper handling is quite sophisticated, with two 500-sheet trays standard, as are advanced collating features and an output-tray-full sensor. The IIISi is priced at an outstanding $5,495; for $6,595, it comes with PostScript installed. The only drawback is a lack of ability to automatically switch between PostScript and PCL 5. Get faster printing and a copier too. (Kodak Ektaplus 7016 printer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Kodak's 16-page-per-minute (ppm) Ektaplus 7016 printer offers a full range of the most useful work-group features and adds something that distinguishes it from the herd of 16-ppm printers suddenly appearing - a 6-ppm copier. Kodak has designated this feature a 'convenience copier', meaning it is intended to supplement, not replace, a full-scale copier. The copier shares the printer's film belt, toner and developer, but not its controller or LED printing element, minimizing interruption of the printer's workflow. The Ektaplus 7016 can hook into any node, and features two 250-sheet cassette trays. The printer is rated at a conservative 15,000-pages-per-month duty cycle. The base model is priced at $5,495, and includes 30 resident fonts. A PostScript-equipped version is priced at $6,995. Cost per page for consumables is rated at 3.5 cents. ZDS aims at top, bottom of Windows workstation market. (Zenith Data Systems Z-486/25E, Z-386 SX/20 workstations) (Hardware Zenith Data Systems offers two new workstations to help users make the most of Windows 3.0-based applications. The Z-486/25E offers high-end users a compact EISA system for server CAD or desktop publishing applications. An integrated controller manages a standard 3.5-inch, 1.44Mbyte floppy, an optional floppy and one of two hard drives; one parallel and two serial ports and support for a Weitek 4167 coprocessor are also standard. The Model 80, priced at $8,599, includes a 640 x 480 VGA card and a 19ms 80Mbyte hard disk; the $9,999 Model 170 features a 1,024 x 768 Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture Card and a 170Mbyte hard disk. For those with less demanding applications or a smaller budget, the Z-386 SX/20 provides the same drive offerings as the 486, at a cost of $3,499 for the Model 40, which features a 28ms 40Mbyte hard drive, or $3,999 for the Model 80, with a 19ms 80Mbyte hard disk. New work-group, viewing capabilities featured. (Project Scheduler 5) (Software Review) (evaluation) Project Scheduler 5 adds expanded project viewing and multiple-report printing capabilities, along with easier consolidation of independent schedules, to Scitor Corp's project management package. Multiple milestones and activities can be shown on the same line of a standard Gantt chart, allowing a whole project to be shown on a single page. A new batch reporting function allows different views or slices of a project to be stored and printed in independent reports. A 'tree' chart called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) allows the time dependency among tasks to be eliminated so that tasks can be gotten into the system and later linked logically in the critical path method. Other new additions include the ability to add text around the bars in a Gantt chart and to update activity status by dragging the bars with a mouse, rather than by keying in numbers. Project Scheduler 5 is priced at $685; registered owners of Project Scheduler 4 can upgrade for $150 until Apr 30, 1991. Smooth boards. (ATI Technologies 8514/Ultra, Icon Technologies Icon Photo Board graphics boards) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Two new graphics boards from ATI Technologies and Icon Technologies offer anti-aliasing methods that handle the 'jaggies' of curved and diagonal lines, clean up print previews and improve type legibility, even at the 6-point level. ATI's 8514/Ultra board uses software fonts for smoothing; it can anti-alias text under Windows 3.0, but not for DOS applications. A proprietary Mach 8 graphics coprocessor is featured that ATI claims can increase the speed of Windows 3.0, desktop publishing and CAD applications by a factor of 10. With 512Kbytes, the 8514/Ultra is priced at $599; with 1Mbyte, it is priced at $799. Adding a special VGA adapter boosts the price by $100. Icon Technologies' Icon Photo Board uses a special chip from Edsun Labs to eliminate jaggies. Priced at $475 with 1Mbyte of memory, the Photo Board offers greater legibility and a wider range of colors than the Ultra, making it the better choice for CAD or DTP applications; if speed is the essence, the Ultra is the better selection. 33-MHz 386s: survival of the fastest. (evaluation and comparison of nine file-servers; includes a related article on purchasing Nine 33-MHz, Intel 80386-based file servers are evaluated. The standard system configuration used in the test included 4Mbytes RAM, 100Mbyte to 150Mbyte hard disk, VGA graphics, color monitor, mouse, and the latest available version of DOS. The units were evaluated in terms of standard features, fast RAM capacity, expandability, design and construction, and service and support. Of the nine units evaluated, both the Arche Legacy 386-33 and the AST Premium 386/33 were rated Best Buys. The Legacy was the fastest machine in the group and offers a two-year warranty; its average street price is $5,612 with a 104Mbyte hard disk. The Premium 386/33TE offers excellent expandability and RAM capacity, and its average street price of $6,218, which includes a 330Mbyte SCSI drive. This is the lowest price for a tower unit. Other evaluated units include the ALR Business VEISA 386/33, AT&T 6386E/33 WGS, Compaq Deskpro 386/33L, Dell System 333D, NEC PowerMate 386/33E, Tandy 4033 LX, and Zenith Data Systems Z386/33E. More profits from personal finance. (evaluations of four personal financial management software packages; includes a related article Four personal financial management packages are evaluated. All of the packages support such functions as checkbook balancing, check printing, budget creation and income and expense tracking. Most also support estimation of annual income taxes and the import of data into tax preparation packages. Some also provide a means of tracking investments, managing loans and assets, and paying bills by modem. Of the evaluated packages, Quicken 4.0, $60 from Intuit, is a bargain for managing checkbook transactions and investments. But the Best Buy designation is awarded to Andrew Tobias' Managing Your money 7.0, a $220 package from MECA that addresses all personal financial management needs. Also evaluated are Cheque-It-Out 1.1, $49.95 from Hooper International, and MoneyCounts 6.5, $35 from Parsons Technology. Is CheckFree hassle free? (CheckFree 2.0, from CheckFree Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) CheckFree, an electronic checking program built in to Quicken 4.0 and Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money 7.0, is also available as a standalone package from CheckFree Corp for $29.95, plus a $9 monthly fee that covers up to 20 transactions; additional transactions are charged at a rate of $3 per 10 transactions. This works out to about 45 cents per check, about the same amount as bank charges and stamps, and the figure goes down the more checks that are written. Using CheckFree is a matter of filling in the amount, date and payee on a check-like screen and 'mailing' the payment by modem to a local number. Payments are automatically recorded in a register by CheckFree, which transfers funds through the Federal Reserve System. Tech support is good, and the package shines at handling recurring payments. The user must remember to post on-line any paper checks written, and bank statements should be examined to confirm timely posting of payments, but CheckFree can simplify the painful process of paying bills. Easier tools for the on-line world. (evaluations of 14 communications packages; includes a related article on selection Communications software combined with a modem opens up a wealth of information to the computer user. Thirteen packages from 11 vendors and one shareware package are evaluated in terms of ease of use, messaging, multitasking, file transfer capabilities, session automation, terminal emulation, remote mode and overall value. The packages evaluated range in price from a low of $40 to a high of $299. Four of the 14 packages earned Best Buy status: Crosstalk Mk.4 for high-end users, Crosstalk Communicator for novices, and HyperAccess/5 and Procomm Plus for those in between. These are priced at $245, $99, $99.95 and $119, respectively. Rounding out the evaluated packages are Crosstalk for Windows 1.1, DynaComm 3.0a, MicroPhone II 1.0, Mirror III 2.0, Qmodem SST 4.2, Relay Gold 4.0, Smartcom III 1.2a, Smartcom Exec 1.0a, Telemate 2.11, and Unicom 2.0c. Know your market! (the microcomputer as market research tool; includes a related article highlighting potential use of market Market research is crucial to the success of existing businesses and critical to the survival of new businesses. Yet many small businesses are unaware of the invaluable market research tool they already have on hand in their microcomputer. Accessing commercially available data bases through the use of a microcomputer and either a modem or a CD-ROM drive can put practically all the essential market research necessary for a successful product launch at the user's fingertips. Small companies now have access to the same data that large corporations have been basing decisions on for years. Accessing the information is not the only step. Information must be sifted and evaluated to determine trends, and multiple sources should be consulted. The same information should be confirmed by two or three independent sources before it is acted on. Those companies who still feel unable or unwilling to do the research themselves can engage the services of an information broker, at a cost of $150 to $350 for a typical project. Strategic data sources. (buyers guide) Lusty, Susan; Walkenbach, John. A buyer's guide to strategic data sources is presented. The sources listed are targeted toward the general business user and include full-text data bases of business publications, business directories, demographic data, and statistical information for and about companies. Update frequency for the data bases varies from daily to semiannually. CD ROM-based data bases tend to be more expensive, and are best suited to those whose information needs have a narrow range and occur regularly. For those needing a broader range of information, or less regular access, a dial-up service, while sometimes more difficult to use, is a more economical alternative. Some 22 data bases are briefly highlighted, and information is provided on contacting the on-line services mentioned. CD ROM drives. (includes a related article on the next generation of CD ROM drives, multimedia CD ROM drives) (buyers guide) A buyer's guide to compact disk read-only memory (CD ROM) drives includes some tips on selecting the right drive. Standardization is the rule among CD ROM drives, so manufacturers differentiate their units through speed, price and sophisticated features. Performance is measured in terms of average access time, throughput and buffer size. The general rule is the faster the drive, the better. A CD ROM disk can theoretically hold up to 680MBytes of data; while most current disks do not go beyond 600Mbytes, future developments make it wise to get a drive that can access as much data as possible. Expandability can be accomplished through daisy-chaining, adapters, or with a device like Pioneer's DRM-600 CD ROM Changer. Compatibility issues center around operating system support and the Macintosh vs the PC environment. A table presents information on 37 devices from 18 vendors, including price and operating systems supported. Quick results with Word for Windows. (tutorial) Campbell, George. Tips to ease the transition from Microsoft Word to Microsoft Word for Windows (WinWord) are presented. WinWord retains the 'select, then format' approach of Word, but has a new set of commands. Ribbon and Ruler are two new features that allow common formatting tasks to be accomplished simply by clicking on a button. Ribbon controls basic text formatting; Ruler controls paragraph formatting and access to styles. The Format menu is essentially obsolete for all but the most complex formatting changes. Word macros do not survive the switch to WinWord; however, creating macros in WinWord is extremely simple and an improved macro language supports the creation of more complex macros, which can be attached to keystrokes or placed on any WinWord menu. Converting Word files to WinWord files requires merely loading the document with File Open and clicking on Word for DOS in the conversation dialog box. Both the user manual and the on-line Help Tutorial command offer further assistance. Words into print. (tutorial) Campbell, George. Spreadsheet data can add weight to a sales letter, an annual report, or a memo. Many word processing packages make importing such data easy, but each handles the process a little differently. WordPerfect 5.1 supports the import of data from Lotus 1-2-3, Excel 2.x, and PlanPerfect 3.0 through 5.0. 1-2-3 release 3 spreadsheets must be saved in WK1 format. Directions are presented for creating an updatable link in WordPerfect 5.1. When updating automatically, the figures should be checked to be sure text references to them also stay up-to-date. Microsoft Word 5.0 can handle spreadsheets from Excel and Multiplan, and can handle both WKS and WK1 1-2-3 files. The process for establishing a link is similar to that used for WordPerfect 5.1, but automatic updating is not available under Word 5.0. Manual updates are a matter of a few keystrokes. All linked data is re-imported, so the text must be reformatted. Spreadsheets (A..Z). (printing spreadsheets; includes a related article on WAS:The Worksheet Archive System, and a related article Techniques for printing spreadsheets are presented. Printing a Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet is a simple matter if the worksheet fits within the screen width of 56 rows long and 72 characters wide. For printing spreadsheets that are more than 72 characters wide, there are several options. Using a wide-carriage printer allows the use of 14-inch wide paper, which can hold up to 140 characters across a page. Setting margins at 4 and 134 will allow printing a range up to 128 characters wide. Print compression is another alternative. Given a compressed mode of 17 characters per inch and a maximum line length of 137 characters, setting margins of 10 and 134 would allow printing a line up to 124 characters long. For multiple-page reports, the Borders command can be used to duplicate the labels in designated rows and columns at the top and left of each page of the report. Data basics. (structuring an efficient mailing list; includes a related article on the FieldSqueeze option of Paradox, and a Proper design of a mailing list data base allows mailings to be targeted to specific groups of people, based on such information as income level and previous purchase patterns. Creating separate fields for the first and last name allows the list to be sorted by last name. Last name fields should be 25 characters long, first name fields 15 characters, and the title field four characters long. Forty-character fields should be provided for the recipient's formal (professional) title and company, university or other affiliation. Street addresses require more than one field, in order to allow for building numbers, department names, or other such data; generally two 40-character fields will do for home addresses, while business addresses often need three. Separate fields should be provided for city, state and ZIP code, with the city field being 25 characters long. Other useful fields are a comment fields, telephone number fields, and fields for demographic data. The art of persuasion. (using pictorial graphics to enhance documents) (includes related articles on extending PageMaker One picture is worth a thousand words. The correct placement of that picture on a page can augment the effectiveness of both the picture and the document. The nature of the document places certain restrictions on graphics placement; formal documents require conservative placement, while informal documents allow for more creative arrangements. Extended or tilted images can add a dramatic effect, but these effects may require manual paste-up. Picture width should correspond to column width in multicolumn documents. Asymmetrical arrangements are better than symmetrical ones, and the most important image should be the largest on the page, except in the case of photos of individuals of equal status. Crop pictures to emphasize their most important details, and let content determine location on a page. Wide (horizontal) images should go at the top or bottom of a single column document, while tall (vertical) ones should be set flush with the left or right margin. The information edge. (the Usenet and Telescan networks) (includes a related article on compressed files and modems with built-in Usenet is an international network that began in the 1980s as a forum for academic UNIX hackers. It then developed into a more general conferencing system, and is estimated to have 33,000 nodes and more than 6 million users. Computers are still the primary focus, with science the next biggest draw. Usenet itself has no e-mail service, but many nodes offer links to Internet. There are some 100 public-access Usenet systems across the US. Telescan is a financial information network that provides market averages and on-line prices for stocks, options, mutual funds and futures contracts, as well as access to 850 business-related data bases. Accessing Telescan requires a copy of The Analyzer, a combination of communications and charting software priced at $99.95. Downloading a single chart of information costs about $3; the annual fee is $25, and $45 per month gives the user unlimited evening access making Telescan a bargain compared to other financial news sources. Taking it home: the practical guide to home/office computing. (prevention and remedies for power outage problems) A sudden power fluctuation can erase all the vital information held in CMOS memory. Replacing that information can take days, but the process can be reduced to about half an hour if a rescue disk is created. The disk should be bootable. Use the Norton Utilities' Disk Tools to copy the values of the CMOS table to a file on the disk. The rescue floppy should also contain useful tools and device drivers for peripherals. Another safeguard against power related problems is remembering to change at regular intervals the batteries that power the CMOS chip's volatile memory. Since an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, consider installing an uninterruptible power supply. An inexpensive UPS is good enough for home use; office situations may require a more heavy-duty unit. TI's tiny TravelMate 3000 is the consummate Windows notebook. (Texas Instruments) (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of Texas Instruments Inc's TravelMate 3000 lets users take Microsoft Windows on the road with the availability of a 60Mbyte hard drive and its 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 5Mbytes. The machine also supports access of up to three serial devices simultaneously as well as a hardware switch that lets users reverse the video at any time. The TravelMate 3000 has an excellent 32-gray scale screen and a crisp display. On the downside, the machine provides only one RJ-11 port on the internal modem so users may need to use a one-into-two RJ-11 adapter. The keyboard could be better designed; users must use a shifting key for Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, Num Lock, F11 and F12. The Delete and Insert keys are not placed for easy reach as well. The TravelMate 3000 costs $5,499 with a 20Mbyte hard drive. A 40Mbyte drive costs $500 more and the price is $1,000 more for the 60Mbyte drive. Everex delivers best value in new breed of SX notebooks. (Everex Systems Inc.'s Tempo LX) (Hardware Review) (one of seven Everex Systems Inc's $2,999 Tempo LX notebook computer offers very good value for an Intel 80386SX-based notebook computer, with its sensible keyboard layout and hard-corner case design. Standard configuration includes 1Mbyte of standard memory, upgradable to 5Mbytes, a 20Mbyte hard drive and 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 256Kbytes of video RAM that supports 640-by-480-pixel VGA in 16 shades of gray or 320-by-200 resolution in 32 gray scales on a backlit LCD screen, a math coprocessor socket, one parallel and one serial port and an external video port. The unit weighs 7 pounds and measures 10-by-12-by-2-inches. On the downside, the tested machine shows uneven backlighting that is difficult to correct. Lines, boxes and other hard graphics images bleed to the edges and display ghosting. Users may want to use the supplied video utility to reverse the standard display mode to improve the screen image. Finally, Microsoft's tiny trackball gives Windows a ticket to fly. (Microsoft Corp.'s Ballpoint) (Hardware Review) (one of seven Microsoft Corp's $175 BallPoint miniature trackball for notebook and laptop computers is the best portable pointing device with a design that makes it superior to full-sized trackballs. Users grasp the BallPoint like a baseball, and the size and shape give it a natural feel for hands of all dimensions. The Ballpoint's mount can position the device horizontally or can tilt it up at 30, 60 or 90 degrees to adjust to user hand position. Users can also use the TrackBall in a handheld position without the mount. The BallPoint uses the same drive as Microsoft's desktop mouse. On the downside, the device's case mount is big and somewhat awkward. Users cannot close a laptop's lid with the mount installed so users must screw it into place each time the Ballpoint will be used. The cost of the device is slightly over-priced and, in tests, some of the devices were less than smooth. BeckerTools 2.0 one-ups Windows' own File Manager. (Abacus' BeckerTools 2.0) (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Abacus Inc's $129.95 BeckerTools 2.0 is a Microsoft Windows file manager that offers customizable application launching. It is the first utility program for Windows power users. Abacus offers many improvements over version 1.0. The program features several editors including a hexidecimal editor for editing .COM, .EXE and other binary files as well as an .INI editor for editing Windows' application configuration options files. BeckerTools can also give users access to sectors, file allocation tables and the ability to reconfigure applications. Users can also replace their Program Manager with BeckerTools to act as a Windows shell. On the downside, the program has a slightly awkward interface with 45 tiny icons that are difficult to see as well as understand. A status line at the bottom of the screen, however, explains the icons. The MT735 printer proves that Mom was right about small packages. (Mannesman Tally's MT735) (column) Mannesman Tally's $1,295 MT735 portable printer offers LaserJet Series II emulation, 1Mbyte of RAM, can do full-page graphics at 300 dots per inch and handles downloaded fonts. Printer speed and quality is comparable to a much bigger and heavier printer. On the downside, material costs for the printer are high. WordPerfect Corp announces an interim release of its LetterPerfect word processing software that now allows users to record macros. QMS is now bundling a terminate-and-stay resident emulation-switching utility with all of its large-paper capacity PostScript printers including the 810/820 and 2210/2220 series. Software Publishing Corp's $395 Harvard GeoGraphics presentation software is for users who want to place geographically-based data into charts. Traveling Software introduces its $99 WinConnect, a Microsoft Windows-based utility program that lets users connect a portable computer to a desktop microcomputer to share the portable's drives. Professional Write Plus delivers no-nonsense word processing. (Software Publishing Corp.) (Software Review) (one of seven Software Publishing Corp's $249 Professional Write Plus is a Windows-based word processing software that is based on Lotus Development Corp's $199 Samna Ami yet offers many additional features for only $50 more. The program is simple to use and is easily the best word processor on the market for its price. The program includes spelling and grammar checking and ships with Grammatik Windows. Graphics capabilities are good but the program does not offer any sophisticated desktop publishing features. Users can configure command icons as well as use traditional Windows pull-down menus. Professional Write Plus uses 24 templates that let users set default spacing, fonts and page layout. On the downside, the program is slow in layout mode and has the same unusual word spacing as in Ami. The program also can open only two documents at a time and there is no 'close' option. New linking technology lets different data formats commingle. (object linking and embedding) Microsoft Windows developers introduce Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology that will let users launch one application from within another as well as create compound documents that comprise data originating in more than one application. OLE is a basic form of object orientation that brings object linking and object embedding to Windows. Object linking allows, for example, a spreadsheet file to be copied to a word processing document. Any changes made to the original file will automatically be updated in the data that was copied to the word processing document. Object embedding results in the original copy of the spreadsheet file being located in the word processing document. Therefore, users can edit the worksheet area in the word processing document without having to leave the word processing file. Most major Windows applications will support OLE by the end of 1991. Smart 'Drafting Assistant' makes Vellum the Windows CAD champ. (Ashlar Inc.'s Vellum CAD)(computer-aided design) (Software Ashlar Inc now offers its Vellum CAD software in a $1,995 Microsoft Windows-based package that serves as both a general purpose and an engineering-only two-dimensional drafting program. The Windows version adds two features that allow users to measure dimensions in fractions or in decimals and create architectural crosshatch patterns as well. The Drafting Assistant is the program's drawing guide that allows beginning drafters to easily see relationships of objects to one another and lets experienced users eliminate calculations and guesswork. The program's Integrated Parametrics dimensioning feature and its strict adherence to the Windows user interface make it the easiest-to-use two-dimensional drafting package. Vellum also offers automated circular and rectangular arrays and automatically drawn walls that offer automatically attached end-caps when required. Isn't it time we get serious about laptop pointing devices? (column) Microsoft Windows-capable notebook computers need effective pointing devices that can be integrated with the notebook environment. The newest pointing devices such as Microsoft's BallPoint and Logitech's Phaser trackballs, are add-ons and not built-in devices. They are too large to be integrated unobtrusively into current notebook computers. Users must contend with dangling cords off the edge of the keyboard. Users also cannot close the case on the notebook with the trackballs attached. A better idea is to have the trackball mounted or accessible on the side of the notebook's case but this requires a built-in trackball. Laptop vendors are reluctant to build in these devices since there is not enough room on the keyboard. They also are unsure whether trackballs are the correct pointing solution. Engineers need to make these trackballs smaller and less expensive so they can be added on to notebooks without interfering with their small keyboards and without raising notebook prices. 386Max, BlueMax: top-flight Windows memory managers. (Qualitas Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of Windows Qualitas Inc's $130 386Max Microsoft Windows 3.0-compatible memory manager provides an automated optimizer utility and lets users load device drivers and resident programs in the high RAM area between 640Kbytes and 1Mbyte. 386Max also has an instancing feature that duplicates the DOS environment in each virtual 8086 session and makes resident utilities think they have the entire microcomputer to themselves for multitasking purposes. In tests, 386Max was more difficult to get to work with Windows than its main competitor, Quarterdeck's QEMM 5.1. 386Max does not access Windows 3.0's Standard mode in order to avoid sacrificing compatibility with future versions of Windows. The product's automated optimization facility, Maximize, is not compatible with certain resident utilities such as network shells and mouse drivers. Qualitas also offers its $155 BlueMax 5.1 for 80386-based IBM PS/2 machines that customizes a RAM copy of the machine's BIOS to increase the amount of memory available. HP's slick 17-page-per-minute laser revs up network printing. (HP's LaserJet IIISI) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) HP's $5,495 LaserJet IIISI laser printer offers fast page speed and a wide variety of network-supporting convenience features at a low price. The IIISI generates pages that are comparable to 600-dot-per-inch resolution printers at a speed of 17 pages-per-minute (ppm). The printer also has an optional interface card for either Ethernet or Token-Ring that provides a direct connection to networks, eliminating the need for a print server. The IIISI offers excellent paper capacity and handling with two 500-sheet paper trays. On the downside, the printer does not meet its 17-ppm speed in tests. The machine rates 14.5 ppm when connected directly to a microcomputer and 10.5 ppm when connected to a parallel port of a Novell network print server. These are still impressive speeds, however. The printer also comes with only 1Mbyte of RAM which is not practical for network use but RAM is expandable to 17Mbytes. Just what is this multimedia thing good for, anyway? (Dvorak vs. Seymour) (column) Some industry analysts contend that multimedia systems, which involves the interconnection of microcomputers and audio/video equipment, lack substance and are nothing more than an industry buzzword. Average users cannot afford equipment such as videodiscs and cameras that go along with multimedia and many simply do not need or want these capabilities. Simple multimedia setups are also costly as well as the workstations and software - multimedia authoring systems - that are used to create output. The systems are also difficult to use and offer limited tools and choices. Multimedia only offers promise in the areas of corporate and industrial training and these are probably the only areas that can afford the cost of current systems. Multimedia is also a potentially valuable tool in elementary and secondary school classrooms. San Francisco PC safety law raises more questions than it answers. Smith, Gina. San Francisco is the first city in the United States to pass legislation that regulates VDT safety in the workplace. The law requires businesses with 15 or more employees to provide adjustable video monitors and chairs, detachable keyboards and 15-minute breaks for every two hours spent in front of microcomputers. Businesses have four years to comply with the ordinance. The law's intent is to prevent vision damage and repetitive-motion disorders such as carpal-tunnel syndrome. Many San Francisco businesses complain that it will cost up to $100 million for equipment upgrades and feel that they can impose their own standards without a city mandate. Union leaders feel the law should address radiation dangers, a provision business leaders succeeded in removing from the bill. Some doctors applaud the new law while others feel that computer-induced health problems are in the minority. Pacioli beats DacEasy interface, but isn't as rich in features. (M-USA Business Systems' accounting software)(DacEasy Accounting) M-USA Business Systems' $49.95 Pacioli 2000 is a flexible, inexpensive accounting software package that is loosely based on the $149.95 DacEasy Accounting program. Pacioli includes general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, purchasing, multi-company capability, billing and network support, all for $49.95. M-USA offers a payroll module for $7.50 as well as a training video for the same price. Pacioli's interface is easier to use than DacEasy's and its help screens are better designed. Pacioli's method of accounting, however, is slightly more complicated than DacEasy and Pacioli can only generate reports for the general ledger function. Pacioli also lacks back-order reporting and assembly transaction functions. Users looking for the most power they can get for a low price should choose DacEasy. Users who do not need as many features should find Pacioli 2000 quite suitable for their needs. dBASE copyright falls, spurring database market free-for-all. Brennan, Laura. A decision from the US District Court of California in Los Angeles invalidates Ashton-Tate's dBASE II copyright, freeing dBASE developers from having to pay royalties to the company for programs based on dBASE. Database users will benefit from the decision since many database functions are now likely to be standardized. The dBASE category of software may also change its name to something more generic such as X-Base or *BASE. Analysts contend that Fox Software, the company Ashton-Tate sued for violation of its copyright, will gain the most from the decision. The company's competing FoxPro database product is no less expensive than Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV but is considered by many to be faster and more flexible. The court decision now places Fox Software as a competitor instead of a mere imitator and will allow other companies to standardize on FoxPro. Fox's sales are also expected to rise 20 to 30 percent. IBM Model 90: high performance, high resolution, and high price. (IBM's PS/2 Model 90 XP) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) IBM's PS/2 90 XP 80486-based microcomputer is a solid machine with improved performance over slower 80386-based machines, but its high price may send some users to other company offerings that provide a better price/performance ratio. The Model 90 with an 80Mbyte hard drive and a 25-MHz 80486 is priced at $12,495. A machine with a 160Mbyte hard drive is $13,095 and a 33-MHz version with a 320Mbyte hard drive costs $16,695. In tests, the Model 90 gives a comparable performance to other 25-MHz 80486-based computers. The Model 90, although powerful enough to be used as a network file server, has only three free slots. The unit, however, comes with 4Mbytes of RAM expandable to 32Mbytes on the system board. The machine features built-in XGA video capabilities and IBM claims that the XGA adapter running Microsoft Windows 3.0 performs up to 50 percent faster than machines with IBM's standard VGA system. No, Virginia, there's no such thing as total electronic privacy. (column) Users should be aware that their messages are not necessarily private on electronic mail systems. Senders of faxes are beginning to realize that, since envelopes are non-existent, faxes cannot be private. Passwords can be considered as envelopes for electronic mail. Many people, however, store their passwords in places or files that are easy for others to retrieve. Even secure passwords do not ensure privacy and security. Some E-mail systems encrypt mail so that only its password will make it legible. Other systems store passwords in an encrypted form. These precautions still do not guarantee full privacy since system administrators can simply change user passwords if they do not know them and can have full access to user mailboxes. Public E-mail services generally store messages as plain text since they must allow access to users with any type of terminal. Offline decryption will not work in these cases and the only way to truly ensure privacy on these systems is for users to encrypt their messages before sending them. How to run Windows on a 286. (tutorial) Van Kirk, Doug. Users with existing 80286-based microcomputers can enhance their systems to run some Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications as well as 80386-based machines. Some users may find that for Windows-based spreadsheets, word processing and simple desktop publishing all they need is a 12-MHz 80286-based machine. Adding memory to an 80286-based machine will make a big difference in Windows performance, especially when users go from 640Kbytes to 1Mbyte or more. Windows does not actually multitask on an 80286-based machine but it can keep two or more programs in memory simultaneously. Users must also set up the correct-sized disk cache for their applications. They should allot no more than one-third of their memory as cache but need to maintain a minimum of 1.5Mbytes for Windows and Windows applications. Windows also works best with fast hard disks. Users should look for disk drives with low average seek times of 20ms or less. Further details are presented. Excel 3.0: spreadsheet breakthrough. (Microsoft Corp.) (Software Review) (includes related article on the development of a Windows Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 is highly recommended as either an upgrade or as a switch from another spreadsheet product. Version 3.0 is the first significant upgrade of Excel since its 1987 debut and the company has added many new features while maintaining the look and feel of the old version. One of the most significant new feature is its support of outlining. Users can design worksheet models to either hide or show underlying details depending on emphasis. Excel 3.0 also offers new presentation features including the capability of placing text boxes anywhere on the worksheet. The program also offers style sheets where users can assign various attributes to a named style. Users can also place lines, arrows and boxes directly on the worksheet and and create three-dimensional graphs. Excel 3.0 adds a mathematical analysis Solver tool and is currently the only Windows-based spreadsheet with the features of Lotus 1-2-3's Solver. Do-it-yourself Windows programming. (using Spinnaker Software's Plus development environment) (tutorial) An online employee phone book and office locater are developed using Plus, a Hyper-Card-like, Windows-based program development tool from Spinnaker Software. Plus is an object-oriented environment that combines data, interface and code, allowing any number of code segments to be initiated by a certain action. Plus' drawing tools allow developers to draw a floor plan. The Plus programming language (PPL) scripts are built around handlers, many of which are related to mouse actions. A script is written that tells the program to display a personnel card when users click on an office or cubicle on the floor plan. The developers add several buttons represented by icons that help users search through the text. An organization chart is created with Plus' drawing tools. The floor plan's background script is pasted into the organization chart's background, creating links between boxes on the organization chart and personnel data sheet. This eliminates the need for new script code. Further details are presented. PC Computing goes online. (PC/Contact) Lewallen, Dale. PC/Computing magazine offers a new online service, PC/Contact, that allows users to contact editors and writers as well as access all tips and programs. Users can submit feedback on stories and issues and alert PC/Computing staff and other users about interesting products. Users access PC/Contact through CompuServe's network. Users need only a modem and telecommunications software. Rates for CompuServe are $6 per hour for 300-bps access and $12.50 per hour for 1,200- and 2,400-bps access. PC/Contact offers a message area for interactive communication as well as data libraries that store program listings and DEBUG scripts. Other users will be able to read user comments and post replies in the message area that includes sections on New!, Consumer's Edge, Prime Time, Features and Help. Data libraries are organized according to the type of programs they contain. What's in there already? (PC/Computing's PC/Contact online service)(includes related article on how to log on to PC/Contact) There are several data libraries on PC/Computing PC/Contact online service with files that users can download. The Features area offers envelope-printing macros, winners of PC/Computing's DOS Prompt Contest, the C-language source code and/or executable program of 'The Cradle of Artificial Life,' a Windows-based Notepad program and various public domain and shareware files showcased in PC/Computing. The Help area's data libraries contain every batch file, DEBUG listing and macro from all previous PC/Computing Help sections. The Prime Time area contains personal finance templates for users to run with spreadsheet programs including a compound interest calculator, a loan amortization calculator, an investment tracker, an IRA analyzer and a home loan qualifier. Revenge of the killer network. (surviving the 10 most common local area network disasters) (tutorial) Users can use their troubleshooting skills to resolve certain local area network problems. Users should first check the print queue if their print job seems to vanish. If the job does not appear on any of the print queues, they should check for possible loose or faulty printer network cables at the printer or workstation and then put the job through again. If a print job generates lines of symbols, users should check that the application they are printing from has the correct print driver installed. A network refusing to store a file may indicate that users have used up all the space they have been allocated for the network. Users should delete files they no longer need on their hard disk. Users who receive a message that their password is not accepted should make sure they are logging on to the correct file server. Users can modify their login batch file to include a line that specifies the server they need to access. Other examples are presented. Better file opener in Windows Word. (macro for Word for Windows)(Help) (tutorial) Users can use the ChooseDirectory macro in place of Word for Windows' File Open selection to choose the extension and directory they need to quickly load their documents for better file management. Users create the macro in the Macro Edit area of the main Word for Windows menu. The ChooseDirectory macro uses keywords in the WIN.INI file to store alternate directories, paths and file extensions. When users run the macro for the first time, they will be prompted for the extensions they wish to display as choices. The macro allows users to tie an extension to a path. Users can install a document name or description and path by double clicking on the Choice button. The macro also lets users configure it to meet their needs by clicking on the Configure button and using Edit Description, Alternate Extensions, Change Size of List or Create New File, depending on the modification. Serve up better-looking, more useful batch files. (DOS) (tutorial) DeVoney, Chris. Carefully designed batch files can be even more useful if their information is attractively displayed in an orderly fashion. DOS' ANSI.SYS device driver is loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file and can improve onscreen messages with its cursor-positioning and color capabilities. The FORANSI.COM program makes the ANSI.SYS's awkward command structure easier to use. FORANSI.COM allows users to avoid creation of awkward ECHO statements, Escape lead-in commands and escape sequences in batch files with ANSI sequences. Users create FORANSI.COM by first entering the program lines into a text editor that can create ASCII files. After producing FORANSI.COM, users should move the file to a directory included in the PATH statement so they can execute it from any directory. An example of a batch file using FORANSI to place a message in the middle of the screen is presented. Multiply printer power from a single port. (Windows) (tutorial) Stinson, Craig. Microsoft Windows 3.0 users can install multiple printer drivers on a single printer port. Users with two printers but with only one free port can run one cable from the printer port to an A-B switch device which connects cables to each printer. Users tell Windows which printer to use and then set the A-B switch to the appropriate printer. Users can also attach two printer drivers to the same port for using emulation modes by telling Windows there are two printers, even though there is only one. Users can add a driver by opening the Control Panel and selecting Add Printer. After Windows retrieves the driver, users must configure it and attach it to LPT1. By configuring the printer in the Configure dialog box, users can activate or reactive the two emulations in the Status area of the Printers dialog box depending on which emulation they want to use. Detailed instructions are provided. Stung by bum software? Consider legal action. (Consumer's Edge) (guidelines for avoiding flawed products) (tutorial) The best way for users to avoid mishaps with defective software is to avoid buying unreliable programs. Users considering buying certain software packages should first check with local user groups and forums on computer bulletin boards. Users should also avoid buying a package as soon as it is introduced. When users purchase the software, they should put it through rigorous tests, using the 90-day return policy time. They should test how the program handles errors and make sure the program does not destroy data without offering an option to back out of the decision. If users or companies suffer serious losses due to software defects they can sue the software company. No court case thus far, however, has created a precedent for commercial software that is defective. Many experts contend, however, that software company disclaimers and warranties will not hold up in court. Terrific laptop bargains lurk in the unlikeliest of settings. (Consumer's Edge)(Phantom Shopper) Laptop computer specialty stores are becoming more prevalent. The Laptop Shop in New York City is a well-equipped store that also sells printers, software, expansion cards and printer paper. All of the laptop machines are running and available for customer use. Customers looking for a laptop that can run Microsoft Windows will find that the sales staff first questions how they plan to use the machine and then will recommend the lowest-priced, best-suited unit for the job. The Lap-Top Superstore in Natick (a suburb of Boston) is disappointing. None of the laptops on display run any applications other than factory demos. Prices are high and selection is small. Connecting Point in Palo Alto, CA has a qualified staff that knows which systems are best for running Windows. Customers can try out Windows on all displayed machines and prices run approximately 30 percent off list prices. Housebreaking a LAN? Eliminate the wiring. (local area network) (Hardware Review) (Prime Time) (evaluation) Wireless local area networks provide a less expensive and less time-consuming alternative to regular local area networks for home-based businesses. O'Neill Communications Inc's local area wireless network (LAWN) is a very easy-to-install wireless network. LAWN units are $298 and connect to the serial port of each microcomputer and printer on the network. The LAWN's driver is a 24Kbyte terminate-and-stay-resident program that provides electronic mail, file transfers and printer sharing. LAWN's transmission rate is 10.2K-bps, an acceptable speed for sharing files but too slow for sharing applications. Verran's DataLink is a $345 unit that can be used for either file transfers or printer sharing, but not both. The DataLink system is all hardware and, therefore, must be controlled by configuring 20 dip switches on the unit. The products rate the same on compatibility and data speed is about the same. THe Datalink can use either the serial or parallel port of the microcomputer and does not take up any system memory. This communications duo won't weigh you down. (Everex Systems Inc's Everex Carrier 24/96, Practical Peripherals' The Practical Two small modems make it easy to stay in touch with a home office. Everex Systems Inc's $495 Everex Carrier 24/96 is a pocket-sized device that combines a 2,400-bps MNP 5 modem and a 9,600-bps fax machine. The Everex Carrier plugs into a microcomputer serial port, weighs less than a pound and is smaller than a paperback book. The device's fax software is easy to use but takes up 95Kbytes and does not really run in the background. Each fax waiting to be sent requires 50Kbytes. The software lacks a text or graphics editor. Practical Peripherals' $159 Practical Pocket Modem is recommended as an external modem for use in both a laptop and home microcomputer. The device requires no batteries and attaches directly into a microcomputer serial port, running of the machine's battery or AC power. The Pocket Modem weighs 4 ounces and is the size of a credit card. The product is compatible with Hayes' 2400 Smartmodem and supports 300-, 1,200 and 2,400-bps transmission rates. Invoke multiple compression utilities from a single menu. (Shez, ArcMaster, Arc Plus, WinNAV and PKZMenu) (Prime Time) Users of PKzip, LHARC and ARC data compression utility programs should be aware of a variety of shareware programs that let them bring all three utilities under a single shell and uniform menu. Users can find these programs on most any medium-sized computer bulletin board. The $25 Shez and $35 ArcMaster are similar products that let users convert from one compression format to another. For users of Windows, the $49.50 WinNAV offers file management features that improve on Windows Program Manager. The software also lets users customize the shell to suit their needs. The $89.95 ARC Plus will compress and decompress ARC-format files as well as provide file management functions. The $36 PKZMenu offers menu-driven decompression of ZIP files. Users should note that this package is useful only if they download ZIP files; they will need to use the command line to compress a file. Weather the recession with WealthStarter. (Reality Technologies) (Software Review) (Prime Time) (evaluation) Users who are serious about developing a personal financial plan should consider Reality Technologies $59.99 WealthStarter to help them track their financial activity. The program can especially help users who are exploring their options before deciding to invest. WealthStarter has users input about three months' worth of data including how much is spent on clothing, housing, taxes and transportation. The program offers a Reality Timeline feature, a chart that takes the data and shows how much money must be saved to reach a Safety Net goal. Users can define other goals such as purchasing a home, establishing a retirement income or saving for education. For every goal defined, users can call up the program's in-depth financial mini-tutorials which include stocks, precious metals, limited partnerships and mutual funds. WealthStarter also lets users generate seven types of reports, including budget tips and a financial report card that charts user progress. Use this template and your PC to calculate your net worth. (tutorial) The Net Worth Worksheet template for Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel can help users calculate their net worth and to forecast how much it will grow or diminish over time. Users enter the current value of their home, the appreciation rate, the total amount of money borrowed to purchase the home and the annual interest rate of the loan. They then enter the total monthly payment, principal and interest. Other inputs relate to investments and savings. Users also enter their forecasting horizon which is the number of years in the future for which they wish to estimate their net worth. Output includes how much the home will be worth in one year as well as the remaining mortgage balance at the end of the forecasting horizon. Further details are provided. Windows watch. (Microsoft's Pen Windows, new Windows programs and a list of Windows data base management programs) Microsoft Corp layered pen extensions on top of the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) to create Pen Windows. The new software enables the use of a stylus to draw freehand on a screen, enter hand-written text, select actions with point-and-click input, link data and/or text and access the MS-DOS command line. Gesture commands enable text to be edited, cut or pasted. Available data base management systems (DBMSs) and related utilities for the Windows 3.0 GUI are listed and very briefly described. These include dBase-compatible DBMSs, Structured Query Language utilities, development environments and image DBMSs. Several new 'unreported' Windows applications are noted. DOS vs UNIX workstations: sometimes DOS is the better solution, even in a workstation world. There are several advantages to powerful MS-DOS-based IBM-compatible microcomputers with Intel 80386 or 80486 microprocessors over comparably performing UNIX-based workstations. The major advantages of MS-DOS over UNIX include far lower cost, relatively faster performance of MS-DOS systems on similar applications because of the large size of the UNIX operating system, easier manipulation of files, lack of copy protection, better text editors, availability of Fortran-callable graphics libraries and greater availability, variety and lower cost of MS-DOS applications. Methods of providing MS-DOS machines with workstation performance are discussed. For example, UNIX generally offers superior math-processing performance, but versions of FORTRAN that use MS-DOS extenders provide fast number-crunching. One such package is the NDP version of FORTRAN from MicroWay (Kingston, MA), which includes 80386 protected-mode graphics functions. The use of peer-to-peer networks, such as Lantastic from Artisoft Inc (Tucson, AZ), enables MS-DOS hardware to perform effective multitasking. An information management strategy isn't enough; Are smart machines replacing smart people in business? Computer hardware and software designers must recognize that the systems they develop should enhance the initiative and creativity of employees rather than just provide greater ease-of-use. The 'economic and creative' strength of any organization is predicated on the knowledge, initiative, creativity and skills of the employees. Making computers easier to use is a continuous goal of systems designers, but all-encompassing 'black box' automation can be detrimental to the employee and the organization. The potential drawbacks include limits on the user's ability to create new value because of constraints imposed by the system itself, the system's assumption of substantial analytical and decision-making authority formerly the aegis of 'skilled professionals,' the shift of an organization's knowledge from people to machines, loss of critical worker skills and consequent demotivation of the workers. XGA: evolutionary graphics from IBM: does XGA boost IBM compatibles into workstation territory? (eXtended Graphics Array) IBM's new graphics display architecture, the eXtended Graphics Array (XGA), may become the next industry standard and is a step towards the 'mega-pixel' resolutions of high-end workstations. XGA consolidates VGA graphics, IBM's 8514/A graphics coprocessor and other features. The technology offers three modes: 640-by-480-pixel 16-color VGA, 132-column text mode for 3270 emulation on IBM PS/2 microcomputers and the extended graphics mode. The latter mode supports resolutions to 1,024-by-768 pixels with up to 256 colors or 65,536 colors in a special 16-bit/pixel 640-by-480 mode. XGA's extended graphics mode also supports memory-mapped graphics primitives and arbitrary screen clipping. Other XGA features include a hardware cursor or 'sprite' and bus mastering. XGA capabilities are built into new IBM PS/2 models P75, 90 and 95 or available as a two-chip (display controller and graphics coprocessor) set or in a $1,095 stand-alone board. IBM's publishing of the XGA technical specifications, its support of XGA end users, comparison to the 8514/A standard, inclusion of drivers and XGA cloning difficulties are discussed. HP spells high performance: the Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 700. (Hardware Review) (three new reduced-instruction-set HP's new HP 9000 Series 700 family of three reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) processor-based workstations may offer the 'best raw power we've seen' and 'highest performance in its class,' though its versatility is limited by a current lack of support for some standard disk and tape media. The systems feature HP's proprietary PA-RISC architecture, which consists of a 50-MHz or 66-MHz integer processor tightly coupled via 32-bit instruction and 64-bit data paths (both with cache memory) to a floating-point processor plus a memory and I/O controller. The Series 700 chassis has four removable modules: hard disk drive tray that holds two drives and includes a SCSI-2 interface, system board module, graphics card and power supply. Other features include one EISA slot, GRX gray-scale subsystem, 310W power supply and Centronics, Ethernet, mouse, keyboard and two serial ports. The systems run the HP/UX operating system and the HP VUE 2.01 graphical user interface. The Series 700 is backward compatible with HP's Series 800. A base $11,990 Model 720 includes 16Mbytes of RAM, 19-inch gray-scale monitor but no hard disk. When is a workstation not a personal workstation? Real PW computing on an Intel processor isn't quite here yet. (Hardware Both the Dell Station from Dell Computer Corp (Austin, TX) and DPX/ProStation from Bull HN Information Systems Inc (Billerica, MA) 'fall short' as viable UNIX-based personal workstations. A powerful personal workstation could be based on the 32-bit Intel 80486 microprocessor (MPU) combined with the multitasking UNIX operating system, excellent graphics and well-integrated applications. Both the Dell Station and DPX/ProStation employ a 25MHz 80486 and include several business productivity programs and utilities targeted at personal workstation users. The Dell Station includes versions of Interactive System UNIX and IXI's X.desktop graphical user interface (GUI) plus the Uniplex set of applications. The DPX/ProStation includes SCO's UNIX System V.3 and Open Desktop GUI and several applications from different vendors. Performance of both systems is comparable to typical UNIX workstations in most ways except for floating point operations. Details of the hardware and software of both systems are discussed. Unfortunately, neither implements the full range of sophisticated capabilities of the 80486 MPU. Data compression: making space for today's applications. (includes related article on lossless versus lossy compression) (tutorial) A variety of data compression solutions are available, but it will take some time to resolve the often conflicting standards. The need for data compression is a result of the growing memory demands of operating systems and many applications, particularly graphical user interfaces and multimedia software. There are both software and hardware data compression methods. Several of the early and current MS-DOS data compression techniques are readily available shareware products, but most software-based methods are not adequate for real-time applications. Some hardware vendors, such as Stac (Carlsbad, CA) and InfoChip Systems (Santa Clara, CA), have developed data compression chips and/or boards that speed data compression. Graphics data compression techniques for the Apple Macintosh are exemplified by the Joint Photographic Expert Group algorithms, which are discussed at length. Intel Corp's Digital Video Interactive standard for Intel microprocessor-based microcomputers running MS-DOS is possibly the best current solution for end users. The MIPS Magnum 3000: MIPS's RISC workstation offers top-of-the-line performance. (Hardware Review) The impressive MIPS Magnum 3000 from MIPS Computer Systems Inc (Sunnyvale, CA) is a powerful and physically well-designed UNIX-based RISC workstation whose price begins at $8,990 for a diskless unit with 17-inch monochrome monitor. The Magnum 3000 features a 25-MHz MIPS R3000 RISC processor, R3010 RISC floating-point coprocessor, 8Mbytes to 128Mbytes of RAM, support for up to 1,152-by-900-pixel monochrome graphics on the system board, 32Kbytes each of data and instruction cache RAM, keyboard, mouse, space for three half-height peripherals, and serial, SCSI and thick-wire Ethernet ports, all in a shoebox-type cabinet. Numerous options are available, including color boards, monitors, hard disks, tape drives and additional memory. Software includes MIPS' RISC/os version of UNIX, X Window System and Motif window manager. Benchmarking shows the Magnum 3000 performance approaches that of other 'top high-performance' workstations. With good reason: Reason Technology's Square 4/2V 486/25 tower system. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The 25-MHz Intel 80486-based Square 4/2V from Reason Technology Inc (Minneapolis, MN) is a low-priced tower-chassis microcomputer with good performance but best suited as an MS-DOS system running Windows 3.0. A $4,195 base system features 4Mbytes of 80ns RAM expandable to 16Mbytes, 105Mbyte IDE hard disk drive, InformTech IDE interface card, eight 16-bit slots (six available), AMI 486 BIOS, 200W power supply and one parallel and two serial ports. Reason Technology bundles MS-DOS 4.01 with the system. Benchmarking of the Square 4/2V under MS-DOS 4.01, OS/2 1.2 and SCO UNIX 3.2.0 operating systems revealed the system performed near the top of comparable 25-MHz Intel 80486-based microcomputers. The Square 4/2V is best used as an MS-DOS system because the IDE drive is most effective for single-tasking and the computer's Super VGA video subsystem 'closely supports' the Windows graphical user interface. Will Wang win with a micro? (Hardware Review) (brief review of Wang Laboratories' PC350/33C microcomputer) (evaluation) The 33-MHz Intel 80386-based Wang PC350/33C microcomputer from Wang Laboratories (Lowell, MA) is an expensive small-footprint system with only average performance for its class. The $8,880 tested system features an A80386DX-33 floating-point coprocessor, 64Kbytes of 20ns cache memory, 4Mbytes of 80ns RAM expandable to 16Mbytes, Phoenix 386 ROM BIOS PLUS, seven 16-bit expansion bus slots and one 32-bit memory bus slot, Video Seven VGA 16E 16-bit video card, Western Digital WDAT-440 IDE drive interface card, Wang 1413 VGA monitor, 100Mbyte Conner Peripherals CP3104 IDE hard disk drive, 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, and one parallel and two serial ports. Advantages include attractive and practical physical design, good construction, easy removal of floppy disk drives and easy access to microprocessor and coprocessor. Major drawbacks are the high price and only moderate performance because of use of older technologies. Great performance from both RISC and CISC. (best performing reduced- and complex-instruction-set computer systems) The performance of several microcomputers or workstations reviewed is compared to other systems in their respective classes. The trend in RISC and CISC desktop systems is to offer more performance at a lower price. The benchmarked performance of several top RISC and CISC systems under MS-DOS extenders and OS/2 and UNIX operating systems is charted. The RISC-based MIPS Computer Systems Magnum 3000 is ranked second in $10,000-$20,000 UNIX workstations behind the best performing IBM POWERstation 320. The 33-MHz Intel 80486-based Reason Technology Square 4/2V ranks fourth among 19 under-$5,000 microcomputers in floating-point with MS-DOS extender performance and fifth of 16 systems in performance under OS/2. The 33-MHz Intel 80386-based Wang Laboratories PC350/33C ranks fourth of over $5,000 microcomputers in performance under OS/2. The new RISC-based Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 700 provides outstanding performance, exceeding all previous personal workstations. Windows memory management: Windows 3.0 - band-aid or cure-all? (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface software) Proactive management of memory under the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) requires assessment and control of memory used by applications and an understanding and control of the three Windows modes of operation. Windows automatically recognizes and uses all available memory and selects the operation mode on installation. The GUI runs in as little as 1Mbyte of RAM but 2Mbytes or more RAM are needed to run multiple concurrent applications. Windows 3.0 can address up to 16Mbytes of RAM and 64Mbytes of virtual memory on hard disk. A third-party memory gauge, such as hDC's FirstApps, is useful to determine how much memory is available or being used by applications. Optimizing memory use requires conserving it by removing seldom-used programs and icons. The three Windows 3.0 modes of operation are real, standard and enhanced. The latter requires at least an Intel 80386SX host microprocessor but enables the use of virtual memory. Virtual memory is of greatest benefit in a mixed MS-DOS and Windows environment, though Quarterdeck's DESQview provides better control of such a combination. Lotus 1-2-3/G vs Excel for PM: who's the best spreadsheet winner under OS/2? (Software Review) (evaluation) A comparison of two spreadsheet software packages for the OS/2 operating system, Lotus 1-2-3/G from Lotus Development Corp (Cambridge, MA) and Microsoft Excel for OS/2 3.0 from Microsoft Corp (Redmond, WA), concludes that both have substantial power but Lotus 1-2-3/G is easier to use. The programs are evaluated in the creation of a financial model. Major advantages of Lotus 1-2-3/G are a more attractive user interface, easier to understand and use menu structure and operations, 'what if' analysis capabilities and easier generation of a 3D spreadsheet from data in one file. Major drawbacks are high memory demand, slower performance, no import or conversion capabilities and an inconvenient default cell strategy. Major advantages of Excel for OS/2 are a smaller RAM requirement, faster booting, extensive on-line help, ability to use and convert Lotus 1-2-3 and Multiplan files and many more macros and (at) functions. Major drawbacks are the difficulty in learning Excel's more complex operations and no linking between spreadsheets to create multi-dimensional spreadsheets SunOS in the SPARC system market. (Sun Microsystems' UNIX-based operating system is being bundled with systems from Sun's SPARC The growing number of workstations based on Sun Microsystems' SPARC reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor and licensed clones is complemented by increasing use of Sun's SunOS version of the UNIX operating system. The SunOS operating system is often bundled with clone SPARC workstations. Systems integrators and end users often select Sun SPARC workstation-compatible systems because of improved price/performance ratios and functionality not available on Sun products. This is exemplified by the symmetric multiprocessor SPARC-based servers and workstations from Solbourne Computer (Longmont, CO). Standards are important to ensure that applications run on all SPARC-based workstations. Consequently, the SPARC International organization developed a standard SPARC Compliance Definition (SCD) to ensure binary compatibility and interoperability between systems. SCD and the small variations of SunOS on the different systems enable applications to run on virtually any SCD-compliant SPARC machine. HP's new LaserJet has the edge on network printing. (LaserJet IIISi) (product announcement) HP introduces the LaserJet IIISi, designed for use on a computer network. Features include a 17-ppm print engine, high-speed Reduced Instruction Set Computer processor, optional Token Ring and Ethernet local area network interface cards, optional PostScript upgrade kit ($895 and requires 2Mbytes printer memory), optional duplex printing ($695), and optional total memory capacity of 17Mbytes. The LaserJet IIISi is priced at $5,495 with 1Mbyte memory standard. The two 500-sheet paper input trays is make the printer advantageous for network use. The IIISi toner cartridge uses fine toner particles for finer gradations in printer dot size; the cartridge is good for about 8,000 pages and costs $169 to replace. The price, including all the options with 5Mbytes memory, duplex printing, one network interface, PostScript, and the envelope feeder adds up to $8,700. Make numbers count. (printing numbers using desktop publishing) (By Design) (column) The forms of numbers in a printed text communicate to the reader as well as their arrangement: whether plain or stylized, large or small, muted or obvious. The combination of shape and meaning can provide a hook for editorial and design ideas. Several examples are provided of the strategic use of numbers in published documents: a recruitment brochure for a small community college, the employee and customer magazine for a financial management firm, and a HeartCorps magazine story. Also provided are examples of several forms of numbers: Eurostile Bold Extended, Bodoni Poster, American Typewriter Bold, Adobe Garamond, Viking Gothic, Broadway, Clarendon Bold, Stencil, Avant Garde Book and ITC Machine. Standing at the fork in the road. (national information networks - planning and control)(The Virtual Edge) (column) National high-speed networks, 'super-highways of the mind', that run on ultra high capacity fiber optic cables can conceivable connect the US. These networks could come under the jurisdiction of the federal government, or they could be controlled by private enterprise. Backers of the National Research and Education Network (NREN), pushed by Senator Albert Gore, see the information infrastructure as the proper project for federal funding and administration. Backers of the Advanced Network Services (IBM, MCI and Merit of Michigan) propose a not-for-profit joint-venture to finance, construct and operate a private network for the future. The private-enterprise version was proposed in Sep 1990 by ANS. Congress is not likely to make a definitive move on the issue unless citizens demand it. In-house color printing: inexpensive desktop printers bring color into the office. (includes related articles on paper selection and Low-cost color printers available for less than $10,000 are useful for ad agencies, designers, corporate communication departments and service bureaus that do not want to hire professional printers. The advantage to owning a color printer is the ability to get printing on demand and have greater control over the work. Designing can be an immediate and interactive experience for preparing client comps before getting output on high-end printing systems. Having a color printer in-house is useful for final stage jobs: report illustrations and overhead presentations. This guide lists color printers from over 12 manufacturers, and includes price, platform, interface, resolution and printable area. Extra, extra! Macs and PCs enter the traditional world of newspaper publishing. Newspaper automation began significantly in the 1970s when Atex Publishing Systems, now a subsidiary of Kodak, began with clients such as U.S. News & World Report, and the Boston Globe. Atex designed systems based on the DEC PDP-11-series minicomputers for professional publishing. Atex now has the largest number of installed newspaper and magazine systems in the world. Two other companies, System Integrators Inc and DuPont/Camex, joined Atex in building their own terminals, writing software for word processing, classified ad compilation, and wire collection, and created front-end systems that handled editorial and classified sections. The back-end systems handled typesetting and pasteup. In the early 1980s these publishing systems were priced at approximately $2 million for a front-end system with enough compute power for a medium-sized newspaper. Many of these systems could only output galley type. In 1991 microcomputers are encroaching into the world of daily newspapering, after the lead taken by Jonathan Seybold in 1988. The Vincennes Sun-Commercial. (one of three case studies of microcomputer-based newspaper publishing in Extra, Extra!) Vincennes Sun-Commercial, a small daily newspaper in Vincennes, IN, is published on a Macintosh-based system. The paginated newspaper is produced with a network of Macintoshes, PostScript imagesetters and an electronic darkroom. This set-up cost half the price of a proprietary system. Under the direction of Bill Brooks, the Sun-Commercial was one of the first papers in Indiana to run color in 1967. By 1984 Brooks was looking to upgrade the system but was unwilling to pay a lot of money for a proprietary system. In 1987 he purchased a package of five Macintosh Pluses, proprietary ad composition software, and two partial-page Lasercomp Blaser typesetters. ReadySetGo was purchased with the staff in mind; it is easier to learn than PageMaker. The laser typesetters turned out not to be the greatest machines; in 1989 they were traded in for 1,000-dpi Lasercomp PostScript Express imagesetters that printed full broadsheet newspaper width. LeDroit. (one of three case studies of microcomputer-based newspaper publishing in Extra, Extra!) LeDroit, a French-language 70-page tabloid published in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) is produced with an innovative multi-platform electronic system from SHL Systemhouse Inc. The $1.7 million Canadian (about $1.5 million US) system began operation in Dec 1989. Classifieds are compiled with SCS-Classified Ad on eight dumb terminals hooked up to a Compaq 386. The editorial process is done on microcomputers. Twenty-four dumb terminals connected to four 386 Compaqs are available for reporters. Financial problems and the automated system led to the layoff of about half of the staff of 250. Many of the workers found other positions at LeDroit's parent company; others are working for other newspapers. The people with the most problem finding new employment were those who worked in the composing room; that trade is going electronic. LeDroit's new hardware includes the Compaq Deskpro 386/33, Apple Macintosh SE, SE/30, IIcx, IIci, LaserWriter NTX, and Apple CD SC player. The National. (one of three articles on microcomputer-based newspaper publishing in Extra, Extra!) The National, a 40-page tabloid published in New York City, is a sports newspaper distributed Monday through Friday nationwide. The paper is assembled in New York and printed overnight at 14 sites in the US. The complicated solution to this publishing situation is based on a mix of 100 Macintosh, PC, Sun and proprietary Cybergraphic terminals that run a form of UNIX. Other equipment includes Scitex Visionary, two DEC MicroVAX 3900 minicomputers, 85 Compaq LTE laptops, scanners, plotters, network servers, imagesetters, and satellite links. The whole scheme is connected via an Ethernet network. Each night 100 pages are produced for the daily four editions, and up to 20 pages are closed per hour. Photos are scanned and retrieved electronically with AP/Leaf Picture Desk workstations. The paper plans to break even in about three years, and become profitable in five years. Picturing the news: how Pulitzer Prize-winning teams compile informational graphics. (James McFarlane: The Seattle Times; Kevin Two newspaper graphics artists, James McFarlane of The Seattle Times, and Kevin Boyd of The San Jose Mercury News, are profiled. McFarlane uses a Macintosh IIcx with a Radius 19-inch monitor and likes MacDraw II for quick printing applications and faster, simpler line-art work, quick redraw and easy revisions. Aldus FreeHand offers superior control for handling screens, color and typography. Kevin Boyd uses a Macintosh IIcx with SuperMac Technology 19-inch monitor and creates graphics with Claris MacDraw II. When Boyd can print his final art directly from the Mac, he prefers FreeHand. Usually color graphics are passed to the scanning department at the Mercury News. The two artists look forward to the release of MacDraw Pro for better text handling than MacDraw II. Interactive learning: integrated media moves to the head of the class. (ABC News Interactive, DynEd International and Magnus Schools may become the proving ground for interactive technologies that may begin to encroach on the $5-billion-per year textbook business. Companies that do not get involved in multimedia educational tools may be left behind. Critics see no substitute for learning to read, good teachers and stimulating curricula. Proponents see multimedia learning as computer-coordinated multi-sensory learning. Multimedia learning involves several of the senses, and can make learning faster and easier to remember. ABC News Interactive, DynEd International, and Magnus Communications are three companies that have creative approaches to the interactive learning process. Magnus is having success with learning through story telling. DynEd International of Portola Valley, CA, uses intelligent interactive courseware to teach English to Japanese, Korean and European executives. ABC News Interactive has several laserdisc products. Alternatives for a healthier planet: how to be an environmentally correct publisher. (includes related articles on ecology at Esprit Environmentally sound production and printing procedures require few changes in the way publishers work. Several actions can be performed daily: use recycled paper, buy recycled paper from mills that recycle their own waste products, reduce the amount of paper used, use both sides of each sheet of paper, recycle laser printer toner cartridges, purchase from mail-order companies that use recycled packing material, do business with a commercial printer that handles hazardous chemicals safely, keep the laser printer in a well-ventilated area to protect yourself from ozone, laser light, electric charges and plastic toner powder; refrain from using spray glue. Save this article and show it to coworkers so they too may be environmentally conscious. Spotlight on PC optical character recognition. (quick-hit reviews of optical character recognition software for IBM PCs and Descriptions and a comparison of six PC optical character recognition software packages are given. Also included is a directory of CAD software for both the Macintosh and PC, font tools, forms, graphical word processing programs, Macintosh animation, Macintosh color image editing, PC drawing tools, PC screen capture, relational data bases, workgroup data handlers, 386/33-MHz PC compatibles, laserjets and related products, Macintosh videographics boards, and PostScript printers. Detailed comparison and descriptions are provided for OmniPage/386 2.11 (top rating), WordScan Plus, Recognize 2.0, Perceive 1.1, ReadRight 2.01, and TextPert for Windows 1.17. Riding the fourth wave. (desktop technologies evolve into Macintosh-based publishing systems)(Endpaper) (column) Microcomputer-based publishing systems, what Jonathan Seybold calls the third wave, produce typography that is inferior to older systems such as Atex. PostScript imagesetters are too slow for many time-critical areas of newspaper production. Desktop publishing is driven primarily by the concept of freedom, the availability of many software applications for graphics and layout. The Fourth Wave is led by Macintosh computers due to easy installation and maintenance. The newest revolution in publishing results from mass-market computer compatibility, reasonable graphics-operating systems and PostScript printers. High-end functions may never be part of this, however, because software must have a low price and mass market appeal. Some manufacturers address this situation by offering off-the-shelf products that meet high-end needs and by building products that allow small companies to add their own functions to programs. Think Like Integrators. (information systems organizations must adopt role of enterprise systems integrator) (Open Files) (column) Information system (IS) organizations must act as 'enterprise systems integrators' (ESI) to facilitate balance between functionality for end users and the enterprise need of centralized network and resource management. An ESI must run the IS operation as a business to service customers and to compete and collaborate with commercial systems integrators. Those organizations that fail to implement an ESI strategy risk losing cohesiveness with other organizational functions. The success of an ESI depends on its serving as a liaison between end users and suppliers of solutions, and on its ability to connect different technologies and offer transparent access to enterprise data, applications and resources. IS managers should focus on several factors when they initiate the shift to a ESI role such as defining IS objectives, assessing staff skills and developing a cooperative processing architecture. Survival lesson. (IBM's SystemView helps progress of mainframe system management) (Open Files) (column) Proprietary system management products lack standards and mainframe system users are in search of a strategic approach to system management. Specific architectures were introduced as IBM's mainframe system management standards, DOS/360 and OS/360 improved and increased in number, and independent software vendors developed proprietary add-on components to enhance functionality. IBM failed to initiate standards until Sep 1990 when it announced SystemView, a system management tool for mainframe data processing. If IBM successfully establishes standards for managing and assimilating disparate architectures with SystemView, the company will be contributing to a consortium of customers, software suppliers and systems that will be global both in scope and reach. Client/server pricing at issue: lack of model forcing vendors to create schemes. (Pricing) Vendors that sell applications for computing environments such as client/server computing, distributed processing and networked computing must develop a pricing strategy that addresses issues of fairness and profitability. Large corporations including Oracle Corp, Microsoft Corp, Novell Inc and Sybase Inc offer client/server or distributed processing products, but have not initiated a pricing standard. Cooperative Solutions Inc is a new company slated to begin shipping its first product line in Jul 1991. The firm's offerings feature the Ellipse online transaction processing development and user environment and include tools for writing client/server software. Pricing becomes an issue as the client/server model expands. Other firms developing products for mainframe, minicomputer and microcomputer platforms are exploring pricing schemes such as per-site, per-user, per-groups of users and combinations of schemes. Legent Corp is unsure how it will price its NetSpy network management system. Case groups to confer: agree to join in effort to create new standards. (computer-aided software engineering standardization) The CASE International Standards Coordination group, the US Department of Defense Stars software engineering environments program and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Integrated Software Engineering Environments (ISEE) Workshop will meet to discuss integrated computer-aided software engineering (CASE) standards issues Jun 4-8, 1991. The groups agreed to coordinate a large meeting after individual group meetings take place in acknowledgment that their goals and objectives complement each other. The NIST ISEE Workshop will conduct task group meetings to reiterate the general characteristics of special-purpose software development tools. NIST engineers will focus on creating a CASE standard that consolidates areas of functionality provided by different vendors' environments. The European Computer Manufacturers Association (Ecma) has developed a Reference Model for CASE Environment Frameworks, which serves as the basis for NIST's integrated standard. Help desk interest rising. (MIS departments provide support services to end users; software solutions being developed) MIS departments investigate help desk software to offer improved support services to their customers. A help desk is typically staffed with a technician who answers customer inquiries and solves the problems of a corporation's computer users. The expertise of help desk staff varies, and some help desk employees are required to research support publications on the spot while others have access to complex diagnostic tools. Corporate interest in help desks is growing because end user computing has increased dramatically and service fees for help desk facilities are causing users to demand higher levels of service. Data centers have traditionally included help desk functions and are now becoming formalized, but the role of the help desk is still evolving. Several companies such as Candle Corp and AICorp specialize in performance tools and help desk software solutions. MIS covets open systems. (Sentry Market Research survey reveals strong interest in open systems architectures and Unix) (Research) Sentry Publishing Co's Sentry Market Research surveys users at IBM mainframe and DEC VAX minicomputer sites and finds that corporate MIS departments are moving toward open systems and Unix. Almost 1,400 information system (IS) professionals were surveyed and the response rate was approximately 14 percent. The average site surveyed had five mainframes, 10 minicomputers and 340 microcomputers. A substantial number of MIS officials expressed interest in the open system software architectures of major hardware and software vendors. Such architectures include IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA), DEC's Network Application Support (NAS), Computer Associates International Inc's CA-90s and Sun Microsystems Inc's Sun Open Systems. The survey found that 53 percent of IBM mainframe sites intend to implement SAA in the future. Survey respondents at 30 percent of mainframe sites and at 43 percent of VAX sites said they planned to install a Unix-based system before the end of 1991. UniForum leads charge: user group rides crest of open systems wave. (Open Systems) Uniforum is a 10-year-old user group that has achieved a high level of influence in the Unix and open systems worlds. UniForum became known after it helped create the Portable Operating System Interface for Unix (POSIX) standards with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The increase in the number of users and vendors that endorse the Unix operating system has also contributed to UniForum's success. A UniForum-funded study reveals that 24 percent of processing installations utilize Unix, and it is more pervasive than DEC's proprietary operating system VAX/VMS. Competing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) include Microsoft Corp's Windows, the Open Software Foundation's Motif and Sun Microsystems Inc's Open Look. While users can implement multiple system versions of Unix, they can only use one GUI. The role of standards organizations is to provide interoperability without confining vendor creativity and innovation. A new focus for D&B: Landry oversees move to client/server. (interview) John Landry has been involved in the software industry for many years, and has been recently named vice president and chief technology officer for Dun and Bradstreet Software (D&B). Landry accepted the job at D&B because he recognizes that new technology should be produced from software companies. Landry is planning to gradually migrate D&Bs applications towards a client/server architecture. He says one of D&Bs biggest challenges is to retrain their people in user interface technology. The other important element in their design is object orientation because it allows reusability. Landry does not think that the Case tools currently available support this type of architecture. D&B is researching a second generation of Case tools and will probably build any tools that they cannot find to adequately satisfy their requirements. Hammering out 'Magna Carta': standards groups outline software portability path. The Joint Technical Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have sponsored an outline for a comprehensive approach for moving software between dissimilar computer systems. Information technology standards experts from Europe, Asia and the US have concluded a four-year series of studies and meetings to complete the master plan. The plan is said to be the first in-depth analysis of the technical issues involved in the transfer of applications between heterogeneous computer systems, and across varying cultures and native languages. Groups of complementary standards would be chosen and then the specifics of how they are to work together as an integrated unit would be explained. Applications designed and programmed according to the integrated set of standards ought to be able to be moved within profile platforms of the same category without major reprogramming. However, many vendors are concerned about Japanese dominance and have repeatedly rejected Japanese proposed projects to standardize a comprehensive system software interface. Prototyping helps users get design satisfaction: 4GL tools are useful for the task, but structured methods needed for programs to Prototyping performed with fourth-generation language (4GL) tools is an effective way to complete the design phase of end-user programming projects. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is increasing in the development environment and influencing the complexity of new prototyping tools. CompuServe Data Technologies defines prototyping as a skeleton of a software program or application in progress. A prototype can be used to demonstrate the application before it is complete so that users can provide feedback regarding its usability and capabilities. Prototypes can be discarded after use, or they may be modified and revised into a finished product. A prototype is especially useful for establishing precisely what is to be developed for a user. Prototyping supplements, but does not replace planning and rational database administration. Compuserve's System 1032 Application Facility, SmartStar Corp's SmartStar, Cognos Corp's PowerHouse 4GL and others are discussed. A list of 4GL product vendors is included. Tool helps build applications, a career: Savannah Electric used Linc to build Purchase Order System. (Charlotte Rogers oversees Savannah Electric & Power Co MIS manager Charlotte Rogers achieved her title after successfully overseeing a project to prototype and build a customized Purchase Order System application for Savannah Electric. Rogers first began the project in 1988 with accounting, purchasing and plant personnel. The group selected Unisys Corp's Linc II fourth-generation language (4GL) tool because it allowed Rogers to combine responsibilities amongst database administrators, technical systems staff and applications programmers who were all involved in the project. The Purchase Order System was installed in 1989 for a total cost of $305,000. A post-implementation study is ongoing. The new system reduces the amount of paper work completed each month, and it replaces applications written in Cobol that require the use of Unisys' DMSII relational database management system. Linc II generates its own Cobol code and DMSII database. Tools, teamwork defuse politics of performance. (goals of software performance engineering) (Data Center and Systems Support: Software performance engineering (SPE) is an area of MIS that hones application development projects in order to meet both functional and performance requirements. The effectiveness of SPE depends on communication and cooperation between the application development group and other groups with a vested interest in performance. To achieve collective staff support, management must commit to improving communication, outline a common goal of software development and implement performance analysis tools to identify system problems without accusing individuals. Companies that employ high-performance software gain the benefits of user satisfaction and increased productivity, information systems (IS) costs that are under control as well as decreased software maintenance costs. SPE's first goal is to provide functionality, and performance needs to be considered an integral part of functionality. A long and rocky road to happiness with DB2: coexistence wins out over conversions for many; tools can be a help; CA offers DB2 DB2 is accepted as a standard in MVS-based environments, and corporations are no longer making the decision of whether to convert databases to DB2, but are determining which conversion approach will be most efficient. Companies recognize that DB2 has improved and become stronger with each subsequent release, yet are reluctant to initiate large-scale conversions because of the complex process involved. Lack of training and education of corporate personnel also prevents firms from migrating to DB2. Conversion tools that are available typically capture and clean up data; tools for converting process code and business rules are in high demand. Converting to DB2 requires one of several problematic strategies: new development, rewrite, reengineering or coexistence with current databases. A list of DB2 conversion tool suppliers is included. GUI tools still far from picture perfect. (program development software for use with graphical user interfaces in demand) Corporations have a difficult time building applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) due to a lack of programming tools. Graphics programs are more difficult to develop than character-based applications, and the programming software that exists for GUIs is often criticized for operating too slowly. Software companies such as Easel Corp, Caseworks Inc, Asymetrix Corp and Intelligent Environments Inc are creating program development tools in response to programmer's needs. Easel's Easel software program has emerged as a market best-seller; the product consists of a series of programs that run under MS-DOS, MS Windows and OS/2. Caseworks is another company that has targeted the graphic tool market with Case:W and Case:PM. Asymetrix offers a set of programming tools called Toolbook. Intelligent Environments' Applications Manager emerged from the development tool Crystal. A table of GUI development tool suppliers is included. Revised charter moves beyond operating system. (Unix International's Open Systems Architecture seen as Open Software Unix International (UI) is the multivendor consortium chartered to guide the future course of AT&T's Unix System V, an open systems operating system. UI builds on Unix System V release 4 from AT&T, bringing together the three major versions of Unix: AT&T System V, Berkeley's 4.xBSD and the Santa Cruz Operation Inc's (SCO) SCO Xenix and SCO Unix. UI also differs greatly from Open Software Foundation (OSF), its rival for leadership in the open systems marketplace. UI really defines requirements for System V, even though those requirements are given to Unix System Laboratories Inc (USL), the semi-autonomous Unix development group that AT&T plans to branch off as an independent company in 1991. USL gives meaning to the definitions and requirements, creating or buying code or products. The revised charter also calls on UI, working with USL, to develop and publish a series of Open Systems Architecture for other open systems standards for networking and interoperability, user interfaces, transaction processing and system management in order to stimulate competition and innovation in the open systems industry. Team technologies target the PC office community; a huge software inventory is poised for turnover as new-generation applications Businesses are turning to networked office automation software in order to get more power from their microcomputers while also increasing the potential for teamwork. This technology will help develop a coordinated infrastructure of the way people work, and promises to assist users in ridding themselves of all the piles of work on their desks. All their work will be organized on their desktops by priority, which enables them to work on the most important projects first. Coordination Technology Inc has developed a groupware product called Together, which is based on a client/server architecture and operates under OS/2 with Presentation Manager. It runs on several network operating systems and has an object-oriented graphical user interface. The Human Interface Group, which began alpha test with Together in September 1990, is also a Lotus Alliance Partner for Notes, a groupware product from Lotus Development Corp. Notes allows work products to be distributed after being created using Together, because Together is mainly for captive workgroups. Relational DBMS server leaves room for growth: London firm moved to client/server with Oracle; sees options to grow business, Oracle Corp is offering client/servers for a variety of operating systems, including OS/2 from IBM, several versions of Unix and proprietary software from DEC. The demand for client/server systems crosses the globe as shown by the growth in sales of the server software at Oracle UK. Express Computer Maintenance Ltd, a London-based firm that services IBM and Compaq microcomputers and peripheral products, installed the Oracle Server for OS/2 more than a year ago as a beta test site. Express client/server system has enabled the company to grow faster than would have been possible under their old system. Express Computer is also planning to extend the client/server operation to its five branch offices after it installs the Oracle Server for NetWare 386 offering. The Oracle Server products are based on V6.0 of the Oracle relational data base management system (DBMS) and are multiuser, multi-process relational DBMSs. Roundup at Unix corral. (Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s System V/386 3.2 2.0; Mark Williams Company's Coherent 3.1) (Pick of the Month Proponents of Unix expect Unix and Xenix to replace MS-DOS networks. The Santa Cruz Operation Inc (SCO) has announced Unix System V/386 3.2 2.0, and the Mark Williams Company has announced a Unix-like operating system called Coherent 3.1. Unix, Xenix and Unix-like operating systems with DOS emulators permit transparent, speedy communication between networked Intel 80386- and 80486-based desktop systems, minicomputers and mainframes. Unix-like systems require less hardware and provide excellent multiuser, multitasking features at a significantly lower price than DOS systems. SCO's System V/386 adhere's to AT&T's System V specifications and takes advantage of the 3/486 chip's demand paging, 32-bit computing power and virtual memory. Hardware and software costs are high for SCO's system, but there are over 3,500 applications for it. Mark Williams Company's $99 Coherent 3.1 is a less expensive system that runs on a 80286 machine. Relearning to relate. (software industry shifting from modern to traditional paradigm) During its first 25 years, the computer industry used mainly the Modern Paradigm to do its work. There have been three changes in software recently that are contributing to a change from the Modern to the Traditional Paradigm. The three changes are relational databases, cooperative processing and object-oriented programming. Relational theory says relationships between data, rather than the actual data itself should be the main focus. Cooperative processing tries to create a cooperative relationship between workstations and mainframes, where protocols guide the forming of the relationship. Object-oriented programming is based on the principle that a program should be composed of parts that work cooperatively, after there is a global understanding of the data and the separate program parts. The shift from the Modern to the Traditional Paradigm emphasizes the relationships between data, routines and machines as being of primary importance. There is, however, a substantial resistance in implementing this shift, mainly because our society is so accustomed to seeing things as central and primary through the Modern Paradigm. Walker's universally compatible handset. (Walker Equipment Corp.'s W6-UNI) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Walker Equipment Corp's W6-UNI amplified handset is compatible with most business telephones. The W6-UNI helps users hear conversations better by amplifying incoming volume more than three times higher than normal volume levels. The price is low, and the payback is very fast. The cost of the W6-UNI is $69 if it is purchased with NoiseCensor, a noise-cancelling microphone, and $55 if it is purchased without NoiseCensor. Data Voice Synergy II. (Data Voice Systems' interactive voice response system) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Data Voice Systems' Synergy II interactive voice response system is able to provide callers with specific information based on the information given to the system by callers. The system consists of several application modules running on a DEC minicomputer platform, and users select applications based on their needs. In addition to voice recognition capabilities, Synergy II has digitized voice and synthesized voice capabilities. The system also allows sales representatives to monitor stock levels and customers to enter new orders quickly. The system states the firm's name and the item's description when an order is placed, and it answers and routes calls to service representatives. Switch-to-host integration. (automatic call distributors)(includes related articles on standalone ACDs, ACD customization, PBX/ACDs, The dominant trend in the automatic call distributor (ACD) market is switch-to-host integration, particularly Open Application Interface (OAI) applications built around automatic number identification (ANI) and dialed number identification services (DNIS). The ACD-specific OAI trends of the 1990s include ANI/DNIS-based routing, call routing systems that transfer calls to the collections department if the caller has a past-due account, predictive dialing, order entry systems that allow information to be logged in telephone keypads and registered on liquid crystal displays, agent-less data base inquiries, and low-end OAI-based ACD. Directories of standalone ACD manufacturers, PBX-ACD manufacturers, and sequencer manufacturers are provided. The art of messaging. (voice mail)(includes related articles on voice processing, expert systems, voice mail systems, a voice Organizations can take steps to communicate more effectively over their voice mail systems. It is important for employees to remember that what they say and the way in which they say it will affect the effectiveness of communication with customers. One step to take in improving communication is to design the message on the voice mail system to tell callers where the recipient of the call is. Employees should compliment their co-workers when they hear an effective message so that repeat behavior will be encouraged. Voice-mail communication can also be improved by combining voice-mail systems with facsimile transmission equipment. Callers should speak slowly and clearly when leaving messages, and they should leave messages that avoid small talk. A directory of voice-mail system manufacturers is provided. Trends. (Centrex customer premises equipment)(includes related article on benefits and directory of vendors) (directory) Centrex customer premises equipment is increasing in popularity, and this trend is expected to continue. Centrex revenue was nearly $2 billion in 1989, and revenue is expected to be close to $5 billion in 1994. Manufacturers of Centrex equipment are beginning to offer a fuller line of equipment. NEC Technologies, for instance, is offering large Centrex users the Astra Phacs system, an integrated telemanagement system that offers such features as network information tracking, order processing, and timely information. Firms with more than 1,000 employees are using Centrex, probably because of the increasing use of ISDN. There is a trend toward the deregulation of Centrex, either through complete regulation or more flexible tariffing. STC's Prostar. (Prostar 816 small key system) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) STC's Prostar 816 small key telephone system has a wide variety of standard features and some interesting single-line capabilities. The start-up system includes four lines and eight stations, and three kinds of expansion cards are available to enhance the system. Prostar complies with nearly every regulation regarding small-business telephony, including the second edition of National Electrical Code regulation 1459, and the Federal Trade Commission's anti-dumping regulations. The features of Prostar include 16 dual-color DSS/BLF keys, eight central office line buttons, a 16-character liquid crystal display (LCD), group listening capabilities, LCD messaging capabilities, and recorded songs for callers who are put on hold. Overall, Prostar is a user-friendly system with impressive features. The cost is $2,581 for an 8-by-16 system. The Humor Processor. (Responsive Software's software package for jokes) (Software Review) (evaluation) Responsive Software's The Humor Processor software package provides users with a data base of approximately 500 jokes. Users can sort through the jokes by number, category, occasion, or key words. Users can also edit and add jokes to the data base. The Humor Processor can help users develop their own jokes, but it cannot write original punchlines. Instead, the program helps users brainstorm through various joke images within 11 pre-determined joke formulas. The joke-creating feature is relatively weak. The joke formats tend to be traditional one-liners, and users who are able to create a joke from the pre-determined formats could probably create their own jokes without using the software. In fact, the joke-creating feature may even hinder the joke-making process. The cost of the software package is $49.95. Unix on the small screen. (Image Concepts' C-Quest ESP)(includes related article on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s VideoPix system) Image Concepts' C-Quest Electronic Slide Paging (ESP) is a software package of hierarchically-indexed video still- and full-motion-image records that users can search for keywords. The product comes with an extensive thesaurus that users can extend or replace and thereby customize for their own application or industry. C-Quest ESP comes in a single-user DOS version which accounts for 75 percent of the company's sales. Image Concepts develops the program on 80386-based microcomputers using the C programming language, making it easy to recompile the code when users want to move on to the networkable UNIX version. The product is available on many UNIX platforms including workstations from DEC, Sun Microsystems Inc and IBM. The company provides clients with total solutions and often bundles high-resolution video I/O boards from Parallax Inc with the software. Portable Posix in real time. Gallmeister, Bill. The approval of the POSIX.4 real-time standard will allow for development of portable real-time applications that have the capability of running on multi-vendor systems. Using POSIX standards over proprietary kernels offers many advantages including vendor independence, availability of off-the-shelf applications and protection from technological obsolescence. UNIX has been the model for the POSIX standards groups due to its open, multitasking features and the fact that it can be ported to many CPU architectures. The real-time extensions if POSIX.4 are grouped into 10 facilities. Binary semaphores give the system efficient synchronization of multiple processes that work on a single function. Process memory locking lets a process keep the virtual memory system from paging a process' time-critical sections. Other facilities include shared memory, priority scheduling facilities, asynchronous event notification, timers, interprocess communications message passing, asynchronous I/O, synchronized I/O and real-time files. One step at a time. (object-oriented programming) (tutorial) Heinze, William J. Developers using C++, the version of C programming language with classes, inheritance and virtual functions added, can implement a new style of programming by using object-oriented techniques. Developers may not find it necessary to port all C applications to C++ but when an application is to be ported, they should consider whether the original application was written in C or ANSI C and whether they will port to C++ version 1.2 or 2.0. Porting requires more effort when using a non-ANSI version of C. Header files are present in ANSI C but not in non-ANSI C. Developers must make sure that none of the identifiers used in the code are C++ keywords. They should also note that C++ offers stronger type checking than either ANSI C or non-ANSI C. Developers should use a three-stage approach in porting their applications. They should first use the C extension features of C++ and get the program to compile and execute with the minor changes. They should then move on and use the data-abstraction features of the language and lastly use the object-oriented features. Further details are presented. Tested mettle: four inexpensive workstations. (comparing Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Sun SLC, DEC's DECstation 2100, HP's HP DN2500 Four workstations priced under $5,000 are evaluated. In performance tests for measuring CPU performance, Sun Microsystems' SLC and the DECstation 2100 have similar scores. An 80486-based generic clone machine is faster and HP's DN2500's score shows approximately 1/3 of the performance of the DEC and Sun machines. Floating point performance tests show the DECstation 2100 to be the fastest, followed by the 80486 clone and the Sun machines. The latter are three or more times faster than the scores for the HP DN2500. The Sun SLC receives an overall good rating with high scores in price/performance and for its operating system. The Sun is very effective for many types of user jobs. DEC's machine receives similar scores except for an average rating for documentation and receives an average rating overall. The 80486 system also receives an average score overall, with its major problems being support and network and graphics integration. The HP DN2500 rates fair overall and is weak in the areas of performance, operation and installation. Off the shelf: an objective look at C++ programming environments. (ParcPlace Systems' Objectworks/C++ and Saber Software's ParcPlace Systems Inc's $3,000 Objectworks/C++ (OWC) and Saber Software Inc's $3,995 Saber-C++ C++ programming environment packages are evaluated. Both products have notable differences with Saber-C++ working with AT and T C++ 2.0 and OWC based on AT and T C++ 2.1. Both products include a standalone C++ translator. Saber can interpret both C++ and ANSI or K&R C source but OWC can only debug C++ code utilizing a dbx-like debugger. OWC provides only a graphical user interface (GUI) and lacks a command-line interface. The products implement browsers differently. Saber uses three different browsers for viewing project contents, cross-referencing of function calls and class-inheritance hierarchy. OWC uses a source browser for all of these functions as well as others. Saber C++ offers more features than OWC but is weak in performance and stability. OWC, while not as feature-rich, has an excellent source code browser and does a fine job at implementing the features it offers. C advisor: for members only. (tutorial) Dlugosz, John. The C++ language supports encapsulation with classes. Classes are like C language structs, or user-defined data types, but class members are private by default. Public members are listed after private members and are identified by the keyword 'public.' Private means that no one outside the class can access the data. Nonmember functions can access private members but must have permits to do so. These functions are known as friends of the class and can be ordinary global functions or members of another class. The protected keyword makes protected members private to outsiders but public to derived classes. Protected is applicable only to the members inherited into derived classes. Users do not manipulate data directly, with data being made private and interface functions made public. Developers should go through proper channels and minimize coupling between modules, thereby creating more modular and maintainable code. Cross thoughts: journeys suck -- we want our rewards now! (X Windows Release 5) Several changes to X Windows with its X11 Release 5 (R5) are presented at the X Technical Conference. R5 is expected to include a font server which will provide fonts to the X server and eliminate the association between files and fonts. The X server will ask the font server for the fonts instead of going to disk and will use whatever mechanism it wants to get the font. The font server is expected to make font support much easier without the problems of different font formats and various protocols. The new release will implement changes in the X library and Xt toolkit intrinsics to allow for internationalizing of X clients. Developers will be able to write for multiple foreign languages and have these different languages use the same binary executable. Other expected changes in R5 are drag-and-drop capabilities such as those in Open Look and a proposed resource editor called Editres. Other trends seen at the X Technical conference are discussed. Daemons and dragons: how many administrators is enough? Verber, Mark. System administrators perform a variety of tasks at all levels and different circumstances require different numbers of administrators per site. In deciding how many administrators a site needs, managers must determine the importance of several tasks. Some sites require system administrators to perform even the most simple of user tasks, while other sites have users who are more self-sufficient. Some administrators are expected to maintain software, create software for users, undertake site planning and administration overhead as well as perform hardware and network maintenance. Managers should note that sites should always have more than one system administrator if possible. They should also realize that the number of different platforms that must be supported increases the complexity of support tasks. System administrators should build tools to help them with tasks and should try and automate everything. They should encapsulate locations and minimize non-standard pieces in installations and need to standardize environments and configurations in order to save time. Problem diagnosis by Remote Control. (Software Review) (Product of the Month - column) (evaluation) Maximum Computer Technologies' Remote Control lets UNIX system administrators perform terminal diagnostics from a remote location and can improve productivity by saving time for management personnel. The manager can manipulate the user's cursor from a remote keyboard and try troubleshooting techniques without the user's input. Remote Control can be used on an internal system or over local and wide-area networks. A 'terminal mapping' feature lets a system administrator tap into a different type of terminal with a minimum loss of functionality. The user who enters the distant terminal retains priority over the screen, locking out the second user. Special Monitor and Training modules let Remote Control record activity on a terminal when the user is not around and set up many-to-many communications scenarios. Impressive new product from OSF. (Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment)(The Serlin Report) (column) The Open Software Foundation's new Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is a collection of software packages and protocols that create a standardized environment for development and execution of multiple graphical computer applications. The 'DCE Executive' includes key elements of the system; DCE Services are optional, but each system within a DCE network must run at least one DCE Executive. DCE Executive is based on remote procedure calls, a special Interface Definition Language compiler and message-passing techniques. Transarc Corp, an IBM-backed startup, is building its on-line transaction processing system on top of DCE. It has contributed a 'transactional remote procedure call' to augment the standard DCE run-time package and ise expected to release products on HP, Sun, Ultrix and HP-UX systems in 1991. DCE's Distributed File System (DFS) accounts for much of its appeal. The DFS maintains a write-ahead log, provides for a uniform name space across networks and uses a system of 'tokens' to solve cache coherence problems. Great Dane. (profile of C++ inventor Bjarne Stroustrup) Poole, Gary Andrew. Bjarne Stroustrup, the Danish inventor of the C++ object-oriented programming language, is profiled. Stroustrup grew up in a working-class family in Denmark and was introduced to mathematics by an exceptional grade-school teacher. The young man went to London to do graduate work at Cambridge University after attending the University of Arcturus. He joined AT&T's Bell Laboratories in 1979 and began developing the C++ language, which supports data abstraction, inheritance and encapsulation. C++ began as Stroustrup's own project but grew through brainstorming sessions with other programmers. It was time-consuming to develop. C was chosen as the base language for C++ because of its low-level nature and versatility. Colleagues say that Stroustrup is heavily focused on his work, often spending the wee hours of the morning logged onto Bell Labs' computer system. Why can't Unix be presentable? (Unix presentation software)(includes related articles on major presentation graphics Many excellent desktop-publishing, word processing and spreadsheet programs are now available for the Unix operating system, but the best DOS and Apple Macintosh presentation-graphics packages have not yet been ported to Unix. Vendors say that the lack of a substantial user audience is the greatest hindrance to the development of UNIX presentation software; Aldus Corp notes that no single Unix platform or interface has enough presentation-graphics users to justify marketing a $500 product. Those DOS and Macintosh vendors who do consider Unix are only interested in graphical platforms because most interest in presentation programs involves bit-mapped graphics. Top presentation-graphics software vendors are generally more interested in OS/2 than Unix. Pricing and distribution structures are also legitimate vendor concerns. There is currently no dealer-friendly channel for Unix products, although this situation is slowly changing. Cobol bridges the mainframe gap: new reasons to run applications written in Cobol on UNIX systems. Many UNIX systems managers find themselves needing to migrate mainframe applications written in Cobol to UNIX because of their vast investment in custom-built Cobol applications. Cobol is the standard language for commercial mainframe-based applications; there are three million Cobol programmers worldwide, and 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies use the language. Applications written in Cobol account for 56 percent of all applications in use. Most barriers between UNIX and Cobol are cultural rather than technical. Several independent software vendors offer Cobol compilers for UNIX, but users will need to carefully choose exactly how to integrate Cobol and UNIX. Many Cobol applications depend on an internal database. Adding UNIX workstations to a mainframe shop eases the demand for mainframe processing power and gives Cobol programmers access to the powerful UNIX development environment. UNIX may also wean away other mainframe users by providing superior distributed database and transaction management capability. Porting applications to UNIX can be difficult, although central Cobol code is highly portable. New applications for X in the office. (standalone, integrated, workgroup desktop applications for X Windows) The X Windows standard is growing in importance for Unix-based office-automation applications; currently 12 percent of X applications are business programs, but a study by market research firm Dataquest predicts that this figure will grow to 42 percent by 1994. Desktop management packages for X Windows are designed to place a Macintosh-like graphical user interface on Unix workstations. These include Visix's Looking Glass, IXI Ltd's X.desktop and Quest Systems' XDesk. IXI's X.deskterm also lets developers create X Windows-based interfaces to character-based software. Some X Windows-based applications available are highly integrated, while others are stand-alone products. Lotus Development Corp, Ashton-Tate and WordPerfect are all developing X Windows versions of their flagship products. Many X Windows-based work group and publishing programs are also available. Choosing a board for speedy graphics. (graphics control boards) Baldwin, Howard. A guide to choosing graphics control boards for Unix-based microcomputer systems is presented. Hardware compatibility issues include the system bus and microprocessor; many board-level products are compatible with either the AT-bus specification or the VMEbus used in many workstations. Other concerns include the resolution of the monitor, the on-board processor and the amount of video RAM. Software issues include whether standard toolkit libraries are available from the manufacturer and the amount of color capability supported. Boards should be tested under real-world conditions if possible, and results may vary. Speed is important in X Windows functions, and the transition of video onto workstations is a key element in many purchasing decisions. The development of Texas Instruments' 340x0 coprocessor standards may affect buyers' choices: the newer TI 34020 is faster than the 34010 but is not as mature. Data General's UNIX prayer. (Hardware Review) (Data General Aviion 402 Workstation) (evaluation) Data General's Aviion 402 UNIX workstation is a souped-up version of its entry-level Aviion 400 that offers dual processors for under $20,000 but is not powerful enough for science and engineering environments. Data General's prices are influenced by its proprietary systems business and do not tend to attract users from outside Data General shops. A fully-configured Aviion 402 with two Motorola 88100 processors, 8Mbytes of memory, a 662Mbyte hard disk, a 150Mbyte tape drive, 8-bit color frame buffer and an additional 16Mbytes of memory sells for $38,795. Performance falls short of that available in the IBM RS/6000 POWERstation 320 and other products. DG's UNIX kernel is designed from scratch and differs substantially from the new AT&T System V Release 4 standard. The Aviion 402 includes the VMEbus and two other internal buses: a Motorola Mbus for 32-bit internal throughput, and an Sbus system bus. The price/performance ratio of the Aviion 402 is questionable. Painting in UNIX. (Software Review) (comparison of UNIX and Macintosh paint software) (evaluation) Media Logic's Artisan painting program for Unix workstations is a full-featured package that runs on Sun Microsystems platforms. It is not as powerful or as easy to use as Macintosh-based programs, and the color version is very expensive at $3,250 for SunView and $5,250 for X Windows. Monochrome and gray-scale versions for SunView are $495 and $995 respectively. Artisan includes a few unusual drawing tools, including the ability to draw anti-aliased lines and text. Its color and pattern palettes are fairly standard. The program requires a lot of memory; Media Logic recommends at least 16Mbytes plus a generous swap partition on the hard disk. Media Logic offers a 'trial' use policy under which users can obtain a free copy of Artisan on tape with the save option disabled; paying the full price gets the user a password that enables the save option. Dbase comes to UNIX. (Software Review) (Ashton-Tate dBASE IV for UNIX) (evaluation) Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV for UNIX offers context-sensitive help, a sophisticated user interface and compatibility with the DOS version but suffers from a restrictive single-table approach to forms design and does not integrate Structured Query Language well. SQL commands can only be used on a database created with SQL, although many excellent dBASE features can also be accessed in SQL mode. dBASE IV has a screen painter, report generator, label maker and menu generator for building fourth-generation language applications. Users can make ad hoc queries easily, and the system supports rapid prototyping for ease of development. Prices range from $995 for a single user to $2,995 for each four additional users; runtime licenses cost $395 and $995 respectively. An accessible bulletin board. (Software Review) (Z/Max XChange bulletin board software) (evaluation) Z/Max Computer Solutions' XChange 2.1 is an advanced bulletin board system program that is essentially a work-group program designed for conferencing. Its operating system shell lets users launch applications, run UNIX mail and participate in conferences. The user can log in from any network, via a modem or on a multiuser system running the host software. XChange provides pull-down menus and a graphical directory tree, although the user interface is character-based The program supports any terminal or emulation software with full-screen mapping features and has its own log-on and password prompts. It unfortunately lacks hooks to system administration tools, although the administrator's job is relatively straightforward. The tangled web of U.S. Government standardization. (Standards) (column) The US government is not officially represented in international standards activities and tends to create standards on its own, often 'jumping the gun' because federal users must purchase computers by specification. The National Institute for Standards and Technology is the main federal standardization arm, specifying standards for a wide variety of government-related computer systems and other items. NIST issues Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) to simplify the process of buying equipment. CD-ROMs are a good example of the lack of a necessary standard. The ISO 9660 or 'High Sierra' format allows exchange of almost all CD-ROM disks between systems, but only specifies the physical format and the file and directory storage for CD-ROMs. The CIA is working with several other agencies to make its proposed CD-ROM standard widely available. The National Security Agency plays a key role in standardizing computer security systems. X display management. (X terminals)(includes related articles on X display management evolution, additional reading) (tutorial) Techniques for setting up and managing networked X terminals are presented, along with a technical description of how X display management works. X terminals call out to 'xdm' display managers after powering on in an action called a 'query.' 'Broadcast queries' are used when configuring a list of hosts is less desirable than simply blasting the request to the entire network; 'indirect query' is used to ask a host to relay the query to a second set of hosts. Packets may be 'willing' or 'unwilling.' Display access control involves the generation of a 'magic cookie' random number generated by 'xdm' while accepting the connection. One day, laptops could rule the world. (The Executive Computer) Lewis, Peter H. Laptop computers are becoming so technologically advanced that analysts foresee the day when they will replace desktop models as the premier machines in the office environment. The newest portable machines on the market highlight the diminishing gap regarding power and features, as compared to full-size desktop microcomputers, although some important differences remain. Desktop models are still considerably less expensive than laptop machines, however, and come with larger, more manageable keyboards. This last difference may change with IBM's recently announced PS/2 LA40SX portable. Additionally, color displays on portable machines are not only very large but also extremely expensive, although this may change rapidly once color displays are manufactured in higher quantities. Expansion slots, not found on laptop models, are an important selling point and allow for the customization and enhancement of desktop machines. Some analysts believe that, with advancements in technology and the reduction in costs, portable computers could account for 50 percent of the market by 1995. Remember Big Brother? Now he's a company man. (Ideas and Trends) Markoff, John. The computer surveillance of individuals, both in and out of the workplace, is reaching such a saturation level that many analysts are calling for new laws to safeguard privacy. The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts government collection and dissemination of information on individuals and allows citizens access to their files. But the legislation does not apply to businesses. Many analysts now feel that pooled business information data bases pose more of threat to the privacy of individuals than does the government. At a conference held recently by the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, attendees proposed solutions to the problem that ranged from constitutional amendments to a belief in the mechanisms of the marketplace for preserving privacy. Some analysts maintain that different technologies have different levels of standards, and that a uniform code would not be feasible. The failures of AT&T strategies. Noll, A. Michael. In the light of AT&T's continuing struggles to acquire NCR Corp, many analysts ask if the telecommunications company has lost its way. Even as the trend in the high technology industries is away from the manufacturing of hardware products towards the offering of services, AT&T is willing to pay over $6 billion for a computer manufacturer. The company's own computer manufacturing division has failed to make any inroads into the market, and has actually posted huge losses as a consequence. AT&T divested the wrong businesses at the outset, selling off the Bell regional telephone companies and keeping the long distance and product manufacturing units. The Bell companies had a combined net income of $8.5 billion last year, while AT&T's was $2.7 billion. Some industry analysts believe AT&T should retract the bid for NCR, divest the product manufacturing units, and concentrate on proving quality international telecommunications services at a reasonable price. An issue of consumer privacy.... (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus MarketPlace: Households data base) Lotus Development's intended release of the Lotus MarketPlace: Households product and the ensuing public uproar highlight a growing concern for the individual's right to privacy. The subsequent discontinuation of the proposed product by Lotus shows, among other things, the power of a popular response. A number of lessons can be learned from the controversy. In the first place, consumers want control over who has access to personal data. Second, the general public does not understand the mailing list business and how easy it is to sell and exchange information. Finally, the response to the intended product shows the growing rise of an electronic grassroots lobbying group. Much of the opposition to the MarketPlace product was coordinated via bulletin board systems, private and public computer networks, and conferences. ....And corporate retreat. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus MarketPlace: Households data base) Some analysts believe that the safety measures built in to Lotus Development's Lotus MarketPlace: Households data base were enough to safeguard the privacy of the individual's information. These safeguards included the ability of the individual to remove his or her name from the data base. Equifax executives also feel that given an educated choice, research reveals that consumers favor such consumer data bases two-to-one, if the product is to be used by direct marketers to target product information. Some analysts also feel the privacy issue should not be used to uniformly condemn all such personal information products. Any decision concerning the feasibility of a product should consider the impact of the information contained in the data base, along with the sensitivity of the information itself, and the issues of social responsibility. A better way to track your assets. (the Yasuda Fire and Marine Company uses financial software designed by the Frank Russell The Frank Russell Company has designed a new financial software system for the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The new asset-allocation model is reported to be much faster and more powerful than other such systems used on Wall Street. These systems rely on computer-generated models to guide corporate investments. The new package comes at a time when much of the market has lost faith in the ability of asset-allocation systems to function properly in the marketplace. Some analysts feel though that systems based on this new offering, structured to reflect the strategic investment goals of the individual institutions and capable of analyzing thousands of variables across several time periods, could have a sweeping effect on the market. A justified ban on 'Baby Bells.' (telephone companies) (editorial) The Senate Commerce Committee's decision to approve a bill to overturn the regulatory manufacturing ban on the seven regional Bell telephone companies meets with considerable opposition from some quarters. Some observers argue that, while more competition is generally better for the consumer, this does not apply when an entrant into the market is a regulated monopolist. The main danger is that the local phone companies will overcharge local rate payers and use the money to subsidize sales of their own communications equipment. They also argue that, because there are so many companies already competing for market share, the introduction of seven more will not hold any particular benefit for the overall market. Coping with power surges: Turn it off or leave it on? A personal computer can be damaged either way There are various schools of thought as to whether it is a good idea to turn off a desktop computer when it is not in use. Some analysts believe not turning a machine off will save the wear-and-tear on vital components due to the expansion and consequent shrinking of parts as they heat up and cool down. Another view is to just turn off the monitor and leave the central processing unit on, which would safeguard against the lettering on the screen burning its image onto the display. Others maintain that if a machine is never turned off, there is a danger that the fan will burn out, which would lead to the machine overheating and possibly even catching fire. Additionally, each time a machine is turned on it performs its own diagnostic tests to make sure everything is functioning correctly. If a machine was never turned off, the tests would never ne performed. IBM taking big charge and cutting jobs. Bradsher, Keith. IBM has announced it will absorb a $2.6 billion charge to pay for retirement benefits of current employees. The charge will probably result in a large quarterly loss, although IBM will save $300 million in taxes on the deal. The action is the consequence of a new rule initiated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The rule requires companies to designate money for each of its employee's eventual retirement benefits. IBM is said to be the first company in the nation implement the rule, which does not become mandatory until 1993. IBM earned $6.02 billion on sales of $69.02 billion in 1990. The company also announces it intends to reduce its world-wide workforce by as many as 14,000 employees. Previous job reductions were concentrated on US operations. Harmony in AT&T-NCR tune. Shapiro, Eben. AT&T and NCR reportedly are carefully considering a negotiated settlement of the telecommunication company's four-month-old takeover attempt of the computer manufacturer. The news followed the NCR special shareholder's meeting in which insiders say AT&T failed to produce the 80 percent vote required to oust the current NCR board of directors. AT&T should gain four seats on the board once all the votes have been counted in ten days. AT&T's current offer of $90 was to have been raised to $100 if the required vote had been received. Just prior to the meeting NCR lowered the price it was demanding to $110, putting a friendly merger within reach. AT&T gets lower-than-expected vote in proxy fight over hostile bid for NCR. AT&T receives less support than expected from NCR shareholders at the special meeting called for a vote on AT&T's takeover offer. Only 60 percent of stockholders support the bid, which stands at $90 per share. The price would have become $100 per share if AT&T had received 80 percent support, which was the figure required to oust the entire NCR board of directors. AT&T can still replace four directors, including NCR chairman Charles E. Exley Jr. NCR reduced their $125 price demand to $110 just prior to the meeting, but executives at AT&T maintain that is still too high. Indications are that both companies are now more willing to negotiate a friendly merger rather than a hostile takeover, as this would benefit AT&T greatly in terms of year-end accounting options and allow the company to increase its offer to NCR. IBM to record large charge for new rule. Hooper, Laurence; Berton, Lee. IBM adopts a new accounting rule that will lead to a first-quarter charge of $2.3 billion, or $4 a share. The charge, which is associated with IBM employee post-retirement health benefits, comes at a time when the company is cutting world-wide employment by 10,000. Previous work force reductions had focused only on US operations. Although the accounting rule will not effect the company's operating results, it will lead to IBM's first quarterly loss. Analysts dismiss the loss as meaningless because the new rule, initiated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in December of 1990, will eventually have to also be implemented by every company. The work force reduction will be accomplished by product-line divestment, early retirement schemes, and incentives to non-retirement age employees to leave. Software firms are expected to report mixed results for the March quarter. Microsoft Corp and many mid-sized software publishers continue to post increased earnings for the quarter ending March 31, 1991. Analysts say companies offering updated versions of established products are doing particularly well. Microsoft is expected to become the first software firm to reach $500 million in earnings for a quarter, an increase of 60 percent from $310.9 million in the same quarter of 1990. Net income will increase 57 percent to $118 million or 95 cents per share. Lotus Development meanwhile, is expected to post a sharp earnings decline, but still a profit. Analysts expect the company to announce net income to have fallen to $6.5 million from $22.8 million. Lotus' revenue is expected to have risen slightly, up to $170 million from $165.5 million for the same period in 1990. Turnover high among IS executives. (management information systems professionals) (Special Report) A recent survey by Deloitte and Touche Information Technology Consulting Services shows that turnover is high among MIS professionals, with Chief Information Officer remaining a perilous executive position. The survey, entitled "Human Resource Challenges in Information Services People-Service-Value," is based on a 25 percent response rate on 2,500 instruments sent to private IS organizations. Among the key findings are that distribution companies have a 60 percent turnover rate. Cited as the four leading pressures on CIOs were general management, users, emerging new technologies and ongoing application maintenance. The latter was named as the most expensive part of the software life cycle, currently consuming as much as 60 to 80 percent of development budgets. The most common reason for a CIO leaving a position was a higher offer from another company. DG server aimed at high-end. (Data General expands its Aviion workstation line with the AV 7000 and AV 8000 models) (product Data General is targeting the on-line transaction processing market with the introduction of two powerful models of its Aviion line of Unix servers. The Aviion 7000 and Aviion 8000 workstations, which range from $133,000 to $274,000 depending on configuration, are based on Motorola 88100 reduced instruction set computing processors. A maximum configuration in the AV 8000 can provide users with up to 117 MIPS, supporting eight local area networks and 1,275 asynchronous terminals. The systems run on the DG/UX 5.4 version of AT&T's Unix System V. Data General is touting the Aviion line as a reliable Unix platform for independent software developers, one which is capable of running 16 different databases, including Sybase, Informix and Oracle. Stock deal to help ailing Westbridge. (merger will create new service bureau from Westbridge Computer Corp. and STM Systems Westbridge Computer Corp and STM Systems Corp will merge to create the largest computer service bureau in Canada. The terms of the letter of intent to merge are that IBM Canada, Saskatchewan Telecommunications (current owner of 59 percent of Westbridge) and International Semi-Tech Microelectronics (parent company of STM Systems) will each assume a 27 percent ownership of the merger company. In turn, Westbridge Computer will acquire outstanding shares of STM Systems. The deal, now subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, prompted a one-dollar-per-share rise in the value of Westbridge stock, 52,000 shares of which were traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Westbridge suffered losses of $7.1 million during FY 1990. Microsoft acquires CSI. (Consumers Software Inc.) (electronic mail products to be bundled into Microsoft Mail) Microsoft Corp moves to expand its presence in the communications and networking arenas by acquiring the assets of Consumers Software Inc (CSI) of Vancouver, BC. CSI, a small firm with 70 employees, specializes in electronic mail systems. The chief result of the deal will be the eventual bundling of CSI's Network Courier E-Mail product line into Microsoft Mail for microcomputer networks. CSI's product line includes systems for microcomputer-based local area networks, as well as client and server software for a range of platforms including MS-DOS, OS/2, Apple Macintosh, Presentation Manager and Microsoft Windows. Consumers Software will be renamed Microsoft Vancouver. New HP workstation tops 76 MIPS mark. (HP Apollo 9000 700 line of workstations)(million instructions per second) (product HP introduces the HP Apollo 9000 700 line of Unix workstations. The line includes four workstations, the 700, 720, 730 and 750, ranging from $15,260 to $54,900. The new line of workstations features more than twice the performance levels of HP's closest competitors. The workstations can deliver up to 76 MIPS at 72.2 SPECmarks. They are based on the proprietary Precision Architecture Reduced Instruction Set Computing (PA-RISC) architecture and HP's Prism processor architecture. The HP Apollo 9000 700 series, according to company representatives, will offer users from two to seven times the graphics performance of any of its competitors. The machines support the HP implementation of Unix, HP-UX, and are also compatible with all of its PA-RISC workstations, servers and business systems. Canadian high-tech firms need strategic partners. (Ernst and Young study shows Canadian research and development efforts falling A recent study conducted by Ernst and Young finds that Canada is falling behind the international community in strategic partnerships, technology investment and research and development. In 1989, a comparison of Canadian and US investment patterns found that 73 percent of American high-technology firms were involved in strategic partnerships, compared with only 42 percent of Canadian companies. Also indicative of the trend were 1987 figures showing that Canadian investment in research and development amounted to less than half that of competitors in Germany, Japan and the US. By 1989, six percent of revenue dollars were channeled into research and development in Canada, while American competitors spent nearly ten percent. The report recommends a strategy whereby large Canadian multinational corporations will increase their investments in mid-sized Canadian high technology enterprises. Bill Gates. (CEO, Chairman of Microsoft Corp.) (In Conversation; includes related articles on Gates and Microsoft Corp. ) Bill Gates, chmn, CEO and co-founder of Microsoft Corp, discusses the role of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface in the development of multimedia technology. His goal is to install Windows in 100 percent of DOS systems. He describes why Windows is a more reliable platform for software development than DOS. Gates expresses confidence in the legal strategy Microsoft is adopting in its copyright defense against Apple. The key weakness in the Apple strategy, he opines, is Apple's assumption that it invented and holds copyrights to the basic technology of overlapping windows. Gates points to the complementary relationship between Windows and the OS/2 operating system, which will, he believes, become Microsoft's high-end system. NEC's newest ergonomic monitor reduces VDT emissions. (NEC Multisync 3DS color monitor) (product announcement) NEC Canada Inc introduces the NEC Multisync 3DS, a 14-inch color monitor which provides lower electromagnetic emissions than competing products. The 3DS, which costs $1,469, lowers emissions in both the very low frequency (VLF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) fields. Like its sister product, the best-selling NEC 3D, the monitor is compatible with video graphics adapters ranging from VGA, VESA, 8514/A, EGA and CGA to MDA, Hercules, MDA, PGC, Apple Macintosh II and IBM's XGA. The 3DS incorporates such emission-reduction features as magnetic field cancellation wires, extra cabinet shielding and a low-emission yoke. Among its ergonomic features are 0.28mm dot pitch, digital controls for 10 preset frequencies and a glare-reducing screen. Wordperfect clears licensing position. Frangini, Monica. Wordperfect Corp, in an effort to solidify its network licensing platform, has ascribed sole distributorship of its Wordperfect family of word processing products to its dealer and reseller channel. As of Apr 1 1991, packages of Wordperfect 5.1 will be sold as a multi-pack that may be used either as a standalone or within a network system. The multi-packs, intended to bolster the competitiveness of the firm's 1,800 Canadian dealers, are available in five and twenty license configurations. The move is in response to the rapid growth of network configurations during the past eight years. Wordperfect estimates that by 1995 as much as 70 percent of purchases of the word processing software will be intended for network use. Federal government uses 4GL to prosecute bid riggers. (4th Dimension relational data base system in fourth generation Canada's Consumer and Corporate Affairs Canada agency teams up with Macsys Inc to utilize a customized relational database management system using fourth generation language technology. Macsys developed a customized system, based on the 4th Dimension data base package, that can coordinate and track vast amounts of evidence in bid rigging cases. A typical case can involve the seizure of up to 100,000 documents of a diverse nature, ranging from tender documents and invoices to handwritten notes. The 4th Dimension system enables department investigators to perform data analysis functions, probing for relationships that constitute inferential evidence indicating collusion to fix prices on government contracts. Resellers challenge carriers. (cellular communications industry) (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) Resellers are making their presence felt in the 500,000-user Canadian cellular communications market. Currently, the market is dominated by Cantel and the CellNet confederation of regional carriers. Geographically-distant businesses in such diverse sectors as communications (31.6%), transportation (21.3%), wholesale trade (12.0%), real estate (8.9%) and business services (8.4%) are linked by mobile communications systems. Recently, cellular services such as Cantel's Mobitex, and Mobidata, a joint venture of BCE Corp and Motorola, have been drawing business away from the market leaders by reselling air time to smaller customers for less than tariffed rates. Bell Cellular is establishing a special facsimile and data rate on its cellular network. PCNs likely to change 'that long distance feeling.' (personal communications networks) (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular The advent of personal communications networks and mobile telephones is expected to change the nature of telecommunications services. An inexpensive alternative technology to cellular telephony, PCNs work in concert with a fixed station, key system or private branch exchange. Although no decision on standards has yet been reached, the implementation of CT3 standards for sending and receiving calls in a wide area is likely to be approved. This will facilitate the rollout of PCN services by Bell Canada and its competitors. Current development at Bell Canada envisions PCNs for closed user groups such as company or campus networks as well as the residential market. Currently two types of PCN, public and private, are envisioned. Analyze your options before going remote. (adopting portable computers for business purposes) (Feature Report: Portable and Portable computers and data capture tools are beginning to be widely utilized in transportation, sales and other areas where the processing of information is a crucial exigency. While the initial use of this technology tended to be in the retail environment, the evolution of powerful and lightweight systems is creating new patterns of usage. For corporations with sales personnel on the road, the rapid collection and processing of orders and information is a competitive advantage. The technology also enables transportation companies to improve their ability to track and manage shipments. In adopting this technology, however, it is crucial to make certain that the system is compatible with in-use technology, that it meets the user's needs and that it is user-friendly enough to offer a short learning curve. No longer a toy, cellular is starting to change the way business is done. (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) The initial focus of cellular radio technology was the provision of mobile voice communication. But as availability and technology have increased, so have the options for using cellular communication as a flexible conduit for a variety of people-to-people and machine-to-machine tasks. Many companies are now engaged in exploring the applications made possible by this emerging technology. Process control mainframes can query remote sites for information, emergency conditions can be registered in a timely fashion. As these new applications are brought on line, existing systems are often modified to take advantage of the potential of cellular technology. Cellular industry faces struggle as it prepares to go digital. (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) Rapid growth in the Canadian cellular industry is propelling the adoption of an all-digital cellular network. Current projections anticipate growth from 1991's half million cellular subscribers to one million by 1993. The switch to digital communications will triple the capacity of the network and at the same time facilitate high speed data transmission. The digital network is expected to be rolled out in two phases, with initial technology trials taking place in 1992 and the eventual introduction of new features and services as the capacity of the network increases. The formation of standards remains a final impediment to the adoption and implementation of a digital cellular network. RF technology promises to add portability to office LANs. (radio frequency; local area networks) (Feature Report: Portable and Radio frequency technology presents an opportunity for the development of bandwidth-saving local area network (LAN) and portable telecommunications services. The transition to digital cellular technology is a way of enabling more users to share increasingly crowded spectrum. RF LAN technology allows microcomputers to be outfitted with data links to local area networks. It also means that a profusion of microcellular systems can be installed in homes, schools and office buildings. International Data Corp projects the number of such LAN nodes in Canada to be growing at a rate that will surpass 28 million by 1992. Implementing VSAT adds portability to corporate network. (very small aperture terminals) (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Satellite transmission technology is providing an efficient, flexible and low-cost means of establishing corporate communications networks. Using VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) systems, a company can connect its data processing center to remote sites and branch offices, providing integrated voice, data and video transmission. Using a small earth station outfitted with digital interfaces and applications programs, a satellite network can be configured as a dedicated private network. Because no long-haul circuits are required, the cost of communications can be kept to a minimum. Other advantages to VSAT technology are the ease with which locations can be added to the network and the high degree of bandwidth available. MSAT promises to offer variety of mobile data services. (mobile satellite) (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) The MSAT (Mobile Satellite) program, a development of Telesat Mobile Inc and American Mobile Satellite Corp, will bring integrated voice and data services to the market by mid-1994. The network moves data 46,000 miles through a distribution network of earth stations and mobile terminals. The two companies will develop arrangements with long distance service providers to provide interfaces to switched public network services. The prospect of economical and reliable two-way voice and data service is being developed with three potential markets in mind. In the transportation industry, the system could provide improved dispatcher contact and dynamic routing. In the maritime and data-gathering industries, collection and control of information can be made in a more timely manner using the Power Matrix technique for dynamic power sharing. DOC grapples with cordless telephone frequency allocations. (Department of Communications, Canada) (Feature Report: Portable An Industry Advisory Committee is formed under the auspices of the Canadian Department of Communications to consolidate the completed work of three subcommittees with regard to the development of personal communications networks. Since a significant potential for new modes of wireless communication exists, the hope is that radio frequency standards can be resolved, along with spectrum and regulatory issues and service descriptions. Three radio technologies are competing for the designation. The CT2Plus cordless telephone frequency is supported by Northern Telecom and other service providers. Ericsson Radio Systems supports CT3 products, and several vendors support CDMA (code division multiple access). Canada currently leads the US in the deployment of wireless networks, and hopes to resolve the standards issue within the next few months. Mobile satellite links benefit transportation industry. (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) Mobile satellite communications services present the Canadian transportation industry with economical, real-time information transmission alternatives. Services such as Satlink/Mobile, an interactive data communications service offered by the Cancom/Satlink division of Canadian Satellite Communications Inc, are transforming the trucking, rail, marine and air transportation sectors. Both messages and position information can be transferred from a Network Management Centre to scattered dispatch locations throughout the North American continent. A number of technologies can be employed to transfer voice and data communications from the NMC to the user's computer system. These include dial-up and leased line services and VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) connections. Mobitex provides data communications network alternative. (Cantel Mobitex) (Feature Report: Portable and Cellular Communications) Cantel Mobitex, a pioneering public access data communications network offered by Cantel Industries, is enabling a number of companies to offer state-of-the-art customer service and communications. Chief among the firms utilizing the Mobitex system are those involved in mobile sales and services, trucking, and emergency vehicular services. The network provides users with both data and text transmitted between vehicles and a central corporate location. Vehicles need to be equipped with an on-board computer terminal that communicates with the home base through radio signal. An advantage of the system is that it runs on an open protocol system of published specifications, which assures users an expanding list of hardware and software platforms and programs. Clearpoint gets into internetworking. (Clearpoint Research Corp.) (Communications) (product announcement) Clearpoint Research Corp sets its sights on expansion into the internetworking arena with the introduction of the first in its Constellation Series of internetworking products. The Little Dipper, which costs from $10,803 to $23,379 depending on configuration, is a reduced instruction set computing multi-port platform designed to increase throughput and reduce bottlenecks in an Ethernet local area network. It features eight high-speed communications slots capable of data transmission at 10M-bps and two low-speed, 128K-bps slots. Its filtering rate is 90,000 packets per second. A successful manufacturer of add-in memory boards, Clearpoint sees the move from storage to internetworking as a logical progression which involves a reapplication of the company's knowledge in a different market area. Motorola offers fractional T1 gateway to services. (Motorola Inc.'s 1564 Fractional T1 Gateway) (Communications) (product Motorola Information Services of Brampton, Ontario introduces fractional T1 communications with its Motorola 1564 Fractional T1 Gateway. The communications device offers both multiplex and digital cross connect capabilities, and will enable customers to access fractional T1 services. It will also have network diagnosis and network restoration features. According to Motorola representatives, the device will enable an economical connection to a high-speed data transmission channel through any T1 facility. In cases where fractional T1 is already installed, the unit's three built-in digital cross connects can be inserted into the existing configuration. The 1564 is designed for users with requirements of at least 56K-bps but less than the full T1 channel. Network fax servers found to increase LAN productivity. (local area network) (Communications) Facsimile machines configured as servers to local area networks are an increasingly evident trend in the corporate arena. LAN fax server technology enables users to transmit documents from the desktop, increasing productivity and facilitating communication between offices, customers and manufacturers. The recent development of fax server software based on an open systems platform is also propelling the fax server trend, providing support for a wide range of products including those of Novell, Banyan, IBM and 3Com. A typical configuration runs the LAN fax server software on a dedicated microcomputer with a 20Mbyte hard drive and 640Kbytes of RAM. A gateway utilizes the firm's electronic mail system as a user interface, enabling facsimile messages, ASCII text and graphics files to be sent to anyone with a facsimile or telex machine. Telecom Canada celebrates 60 years of bringing telephone services to Canadians. (Communications) Telecom Canada, the Canadian association of telephone companies, celebrates a sixty year record of building and expanding Canada's communications network. The association began in 1931 with an agreement among regional communications service providers to provide Canada with a coast-to-coast telephone system. In sixty years, the system has evolved from a copper wire network to one based on terrestrial microwave to a system that incorporates integrated services digital network services, and fiber optics. In 1990, the last link was completed in the $500 million lightguide network, a 7,000 kilometer fiber optic system that can transmit voice, data and video at 500M-bps. Remote data monitoring, radio links control forest fires. (Forest Technology Systems Ltd. set to expand profile in U.S. market) Forestry Technology Systems Ltd, which has sold its remote sensing and radio-based monitoring system in nearly every Canadian province, is expanding its marketing efforts in the US. The WR62 system consists of a battery-powered weather sensor and a host microcomputer powered at a minimum by an Intel 80286 processor and outfitted with a VGA or EGA color monitor. The sensor gathers on-site information pertaining to rainfall, humidity and other factors relevant to the prediction of forest fires. This data is then transmitted via modem and telephone lines or terrestrial radio link to the microcomputer at the base station. The monitoring system has a proprietary communications protocol that enables forestry personnel to double-check the transmitted data. Costs for the system run from $7,500 for the telephone-based system and $10,000 for the radio link system. Network vendor aggressively pursues Canadian market. (Atlantix Corp.) (Communications) Atlantix Corp of Boca Raton, Fl is establishing a value-added reseller program in order to expand sales of its network software in the Canadian marketplace. The company's main product is Axcess, an interoperability software introduced in Jan 1991. Axcess provides transparent access to both data files and applications in a range of networks. When loaded on a Unix server, it can access OS/2, Novell NetWare, NetBIOS and LAN Manager, effectively integrating MSDOS, Unix, OS/2, Xenix and Macintosh. The product also supports a variety of network topologies, including Ethernet, Token-Ring, Arcnet and StarLAN. Atlantix recently introduced a computer terminal emulation software, WindowView, which is based on the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and allows simultaneous sessions in Unix and MS-DOS. Banyan, AT&T Computer Systems form strategic relationship. (Communications) Banyan Systems Inc and AT&T Computer Systems announce a strategic and marketing relationship through which they will develop integrated network management software for the corporate marketplace. A chief goal of the program will be to develop interoperability between the products of the respective companies. In addition to these cooperative software engineering efforts, the two firms will also coordinate their respective channels of distribution and support. Banyan is interested in developing network software that unifies and better utilizes the computing potential of mainframe computers, minicomputers and microcomputers. The two companies are intent upon constructing a network architecture for global networks. An initial move will be the certification of Banyan Vines and Vines SMP network software for use on AT&T's Starlan 10 network boards, Starserver E microcomputers and the Starserver E Symmetric Multiprocessor systems. Digital provides path to NetWare and TCP/IP environments. (Digital Equipment Corp. enhances its Pathworks line of network DEC announces enhancements in its Pathworks communications software at the NetWorld '91 trade show in Boston, MA. The enhancements are aimed at users of Novell NetWare as well as users of the TCP/IP environment. The announcement includes network operating system releases, transparent access to NetWare and TCP/IP and a series of database applications aimed at the corporate market. Using the Pathworks and NetWare internetworking package, users will be able to run LAN Manager-based client services concurrently on microcomputers utilizing the MS-DOS operating system. DEC also introduces DECquery for Windows, a search software based on the Structured Query Language, that provides client-server functionality for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Processing power comes in small packages (STD Bus CPU boards) Titus, Jon. Currently, STD Bus manufacturers can compress a whole 32-bit computer on one board. This trend has been encouraged by the development of surface-mount technology, standard chip sets and highly integrated control chips. Of specific interest are the CPU boards that utilize Intel's 80X86 and those that utilize Motorola's 680X0. Manufacturers note that many more highly integrated memories and control circuits are being included on a single CPU board. The new boards provide enhanced reliability. In addition, including memory chips, input/output I/O ports and controllers on the CPU board place the elements closer to the microprocessor. This puts less demands on the bus and makes the bus more efficient using peripheral functions and I/O boards. Also, separating CPU operations and routine memory from the bus enables users to spend less time testing and simulating bus operations. Coupled tools deliver optimized flexibility. (mixed-signal simulators) (includes related article on mixed-signal simulators) Many engineers investigating circuit simulation need to be aware that the optimal choice for mixed-level simulation, which handles both digital and analog circuit models, is to select the tools which give users the most flexibility. One option is a native mixed-signal simulator. Such products include Microelectronic's ContecSpice and Meta-Software's HSpice. A second option is to select 'glued' simulators which combine two or more simulators and attempt to optimize the simulators depending on a particular type of model. Sample glued simulators include Lsim/HSpice and Anacad Computer Systems' Fideldo. Native mixed-signal simulators offer neatness to users, but glued simulators offer flexibility and also enhanced performance compared to the native mixed-signal simulator models. Revamp Unix code by wrapping it in graphics. (X-window system development software) (includes related article on graphical user Programmers who use X-Window System development software to change Fortran- and C-based Unix programs can use various graphical application programming interface (API) development tools which automate coding and design tasks. One available API development tool is Expert Object Corp's API builders which develop native-toolkit source codes that enable programmers to change an interface without cancelling application code or handwritten callback routines. Applications which require dynamic graphical representations of real world circumstances can utilize SL Corp's SL-GMS 4.0. Another option is to use Integrated Computer Solutions' Builder Xcessory which has been designed for programmers who need an easy and quick API building tool and who may not have intimate knowledge of the X-Window System to develop interfaces. Electro/International. (preview of the Electro International electronics show April 16-18, 1991) Electronic Conventions Management is producing the Electro/International convention to take place in New York City April 16-18, 1991. Production, design and test managers and engineers will be able to attend the convention to take part in classes, seminars and tutorials relating to the electronics industry. Planned seminar topics include high-definition television, cache memory and speech recognition. In addition, firms will be showing their newest innovations and products on the exhibition floor between courses. Software synthesizes architecture-specific logic. (Data I/O's Abel-FPGA) Data I/O's Abel-FPGA is a new logic-synthesis tool which provides information about whether a particular architecture and design are compatible. The software costs $7995 and runs under MS-DOS. Abel-FPGA changes truth-table-, state-machine- and Boolean-equation-based circuit descriptions into logic circuits that implement complicated programmable logic devices (PLDs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Abel-FPGA optimizes the logic for specific device architectures, whereas other synthesis tools do not. Program outputs for the Abel-FPGA range from constraint or JEDEC files to device-specific net lists. Programmers who can access more than one FPGA architecture can use the product to migrate designs between multiple architectures. In addition, Abel-FPGA provides individual device fitters for complex PLD and specific FPGA families such as Altera Max and the Xilinx 2000 and 3000 series. SCSI ICs. (Small Computer Systems Interface) (Integrated Circuits) (includes related article on a summarization of SCSI The latest SCSI ICs have many enhancements compared to past generations. They contain more on-chip intelligence and do not depend as much on a controlling microprocessor to handle bus sequences. In addition, they can generate wide and fast data transfers. Users considering adding a SCSI port to new system designs may find SCSI ICs a necessity because the SCSI bus is so flexible and because SCSI peripherals have high industry-wide popularity. SCSI I/O channels are contained on nearly every computer system except for IBM-compatible microcomputers. In 1991 vendors have started to develop ICs for IBM PCs and compatibles which directly linky to the IBM PC/AT bus. This enables users to use ICs on mother boards However, to be successful vendors must address a variety of compatibility issues. Electrical models of mechanical units widen simulator's scope. (EDN Designers' Guide to servo simulation using PSpice, part 1 of Programmers who use Spice-based electrical subcircuit models for mechanical components may find that the programs make it easier to design and simulate electromechanical servo systems. The Spice-based programs, such as Microsim Corp's PSpice, are able to describe circuit topology by using terms of general components or subcircuits and revealing how they are interconnected. Next, the programs automatically write the nonlinear differential equations and develop matrix solutions. PSpice and other Spice programs that have been enhanced to have graphical output and behavioral modeling abilities which enable the programs to deal with nonlinear mechanical systems. In addition, the programs contain table and parameter features. Several basic electrical circuit models are presented which illustrate the action of mechanical components such as stiffness, friction, and moment of inertia. The models are all based on PSpice. Apply square waves to simplify measuring frequency response. (a simple method is presented to measure frequency response) It is possible in a laboratory setting to measure the frequency response to determine the dynamic performance of analog circuits without using a network analyzer. Instead, a simple measurement method can be used to produce point measurements and Bode plots. The method utilizes a digital storage oscilloscope, a computer and a square wave, and is based on the basic duality of the frequency-domain-frequency response and the time-domain impulse response. An application of the method is presented. A pictorial guide to embedded DOS. (disk operating system) (includes related article on embedded microcomputers) (EDN Special Many software engineers are implementing DOS into embedded systems even though it is not the ideal operating system for embedded applications. However, DOS is being used because inexpensive DOS-compatible software is available, because many software engineers understand DOS and because inexpensive microcomputer chip sets enable engineers to use inexpensive embedded microcomputers. Engineers building a DOS-based embedded system need to consider the types of applications they want to run because the applications will determine how DOS-compatible an embedded system needs to be. Typically, applications fall into three types: applications that need all DOS services and must run microcomputer software, minimal ROMed applications that need no DOS services other than startup and program loading and applications that need common DOS services. Simple, but powerful, tracing techniques help debug C code. Warner, William C. Programmers who want to debug C programs usually want to use symbolic debuggers, but when a bug being tracked does not reveal itself, a trace technique may generate better results. To use tracing statements, programmers must embed unique statements in code. Then, the trace statements compose messages to a file or a computer screen, and the messages trace the flow of a program. Trace messages are able to reveal any fact about a running program which a programmer has designated as helpful. In general, effective tracing messages contain many details and have features that enable them to be easy to use and control, powerful and informative. Good tracing schemes include the ability to send trace messages to different locales, the ability to trace at various levels of logic within a program and the ability to be disabled and enabled without removing the statements from source codes. Ada compiler designs digital filters. Jones, Do-While. Programmers interested in designing filters can use an Ada compiler. The goal is for programmers to develop various software components using generics and derived types, which are reusable. Programmers can then change the components to do precisely what they want them to do. It is possible to invoke the components, designate the needed parameters and allow the Ada compiler to generate the precise program code. Using this technique will enable programmers to reduce their coding duties. Procedures for writing a signal-processing algorithm are presented to illustrate how the Ada compiler functions. MOV model spoofs Spice. (metal-oxide varistors) Honea, Jim. Programmers normally model nonlinear components in Spice utilizing its facility for polynomial-approximation. Sometimes it is necessary to model MOVs that require very small exponents which can be difficult to generate in Spice programs. Simulating MOVs using Spice is a good choice because testing real devices necessitates high voltages. It is possible for programmers to force Spice to model MOVs by cascading two controlled sources. An equation is presented to illustrate how to determine the values for the Spice program. Putting a new spin on an old approach. (software design project management at OrCAD Systems) OrCAD Systems CEO John Durbetaki, whose company produces computer-aided-engineering software, believes much of the firm's success is due to his project management style. Durbetaki supports assigning only one person to every important piece of software, which counters the software industry trend to promote large programming teams. Currently, OrCAD's research and development department consists of two teams made up of two persons, and a fifth member who focuses on product enhancements. OrCAD's success is based in part on its schematic design package for the PC called OrCAD/SDT. The company believes in providing excellent software support and has developed a 24-hour electronic bulletin board along with a toll-free support number. Current firm goals include porting OrCAD/SDT's original code into Modula 2 and making product enhancements. Pinless land-grid-array socket houses Intel's 80386SL microprocessor. The Rogers Corp announces a socket that can handle Intel's 80386SL. The Rogers socket, which is based on its Isocon technology, has grid pitches between 0.100 inch and 0.050 inch. It also has a variable conductor location within a grid. Making a solid connection with the 80386SL chip's contacts takes a compression force of approximately 15 pounds, which is very low. The matrix has slots cut into it with a laser. The slots are used to place the conductors within the microcellular silicone matrix. The socket had only very small increases in total interconnection resistance after long-term testing. The price ranges from $0.15 to $0.20 per pin in production volumes. Superconducting thin films boost microwave resonator Qs up to 40 times. Siemens AG researchers used zero-resistance high-temperature superconductors for planar thin-film structures to develop laboratory-type microwave resonators. These resonators have an improved quality factor Q over resonators made from copper. The improved Q values were seen at various temperatures and frequencies. The resonator, which is made by laser deposition of yttrium-barium-copper-oxide on a lanthanum-aluminum substrate that can be used for high frequencies, is made up of a coplanar line where a standing electromagnetic wave can be established by reflection at the short-circuit ends. Using zero-resistance high-temperature superconductors that are cooled cheaply and efficiently by liquid nitrogen solves the problem of integrating passive components. Software aids propel development of 8088/86-based PC in a PGA package. Hexatron Ltd designers have developed Micro-PC, an 8088/86-based PC-compatible computer that fits into a 60-by-55-mm (2.1-by-1.9-in.) 128-pin pin-grid-array package. A software development kit, Appcom, enhances the computer. High-level languages such as C, Pascal, or Ada can be used to program. Appcom interacts with the specially written operating system that is embedded in Micro-PC. Micro PC is a diskless machine that has all the elements of a fully functional PC. It does not need any external components. Chips render workstation graphics inexpensively. (Cover Story) Bursky, Dave. Yamaha's Electronic Systems Div fills the need for an off-the-shelf graphics solution that acts like custom chips at a fraction of the cost with its new multi-chip set. The set has five integrated circuits in the initial set: the GC1201 bit-block transfer unit and three-dimensional vector processor; the CT1202 frame-buffer controller; the CG1203 video controller; the CG1204 depth buffer with shading processor; and the CG1205 pixel accelerator. The component cost for the high-end workstation graphics delivered by the chip set is $1,000 to $3,500 (evaluation-quantity pricing), not including display memory. System scaling is an important factor in the chip architectures. The chips are designed to operate together so they require only a minimal amount of glue logic to tie them together in a host system. Fax modem chips bring datacom to laptops. (includes related articles on fax protocols and standards, and controlling data The focus for data/facsimile (fax) is changing from desktop microcomputers to portable computers. There are a number of technical and marketing decisions that must be made. These decisions include deciding which compression and error-correction scheme to support, what to do about standards, what will be the biggest application, what type of fax modems will be used, what type of computers and services will use the fax modems. An immediate concern is whether or not microcomputer users need to both send and receive capability or just send capability. Screen resolution is another issue. Data flow control is a major issue since data rates above 19K-bps start presenting problems for fax transmission. Another issue is the quality of telephone transmission lines. Vendors are already thinking about the next generation and see no reason why voice capability should not be included in future microcomputers. Architectural models are key to system-level design. Jain, Prem P. Concurrent engineering and a top-down approach to design are two ideas reshaping how engineers handle increasingly complex electronic designs. The market research firm Dataquest says the majority of electronic design engineers will use top-down methodology by 1995. A critical factor in evaluating designs before they are implemented are architectural models, which support component sharing. The four main properties of architectural models are accurately capturing functionality of hardware and software components, abstracting implementation technology in the form of timing parameters, including arbitration schemes for multiple functions to share components, and models that are parameterized, typed and reusable. In concurrent engineering, from the beginning of the project, design engineers consider all aspects of the product life-cycle. Concurrent engineering's main goal is to execute various design tasks in parallel, reducing design iterations. Top-down methodology permits engineers to evaluate different design alternatives. Developing a system architecture that meets functional, performance, and cost goals is the main task in electronic-system design. Suppress EMI/RFI from the ground up. (electromagnetic or radio-frequency interference) Government requirements and the industry's technological and commercial evolution must be taken into account when suppressing high-frequency radiation, also called electromagnetic or radio-frequency interference. The best time to address cost-effective suppression of interference is in the initial design of the board. There are several things designers can do for low electromagnetic interference design: choose the slowest, least powerful logic for the task; avoid contention, think about clock alternatives, use integral oscillators whenever possible, use ground planes or grids, separate high-frequency devices and associated circuitry, use bypass capacitors on all sending and receiving devices, use raised-bus power distribution on double-layer boards, in a multi-layer board, use the middle layer for power distribution and the top and bottom layers for signal traces, use a ground plane over the top layer; include shielding canisters over high-frequency devices. How to recognize a good conductor crimp. Kempf, Randy J. The two primary factors in how well a connector performs in an application are choosing the right connector for the application and assuring the best possible terminal-to-wire bond, or crimp. A good crimp's terminations meet a specified pull force, the force that the wire-to-terminal interface withstands when a straight axial load is applied, and have wire strands that are deformed without fracturing. There should be a slight flare at the rear of the conductor-crimp section on a properly crimped terminal. Straightness is another indicator of a properly crimped terminal. The crimp height should be within the manufacturer's specifications. Connectors. (buyers guide) A listing of over 200 connector and packaging manufacturers is given. Each listing includes company name, address and telephone number. Also included are brief descriptions of over 30 connector, packaging, power, passive and switch products. These descriptions include product features, physical description, price, and, for some products, delivery information. Spice2 models BJT breakdown. (bipolar junction transistors) Herbert, Donald B. A Spice2 implementation can extend the multiplication factor (M) used to formulate the increase in collector current at or near avalanche breakdown phenomena in bipolar junction transistors. This permits transistor operation in the area of avalanche breakdown to be studied in various circuit configurations. An equivalent circuit can be used to implement the augmented transistor model in Spice2. A subscircuit model for a 2N2222A transistor that uses typical data supplies the Spice2 coding for the augmented transistor mode. Capacitor permits higher slew rates. Graeme, Jerald. Amplifier phase compensation requirements limit the slew rate for the integrator circuit. Op amps that are phase compensated for higher gains produce much greater slew rates. A feedback-factor reduction can be used to build integrators around these higher slew-rate devices. The feedback-factor reduction reduces amplifier phase-compensation requirements. Adding a capacitor results in the integrator feedback factor staying below unity but does not alter the circuit's basic integrator response. RISC platforms iron out price/performance kinks. (reduced-instruction-set computers from Hewlett-Packard) (product Hewlett-Packard's 9000 Series 700 family of workstations have a RISC architecture that company officials say excels at computational power, graphics, and networking at a cost-effective price. The Series 700 platforms use an RISC architecture called PA-RISC, for precision architecture. Three factors contribute to the high performance of PA-RISC: a sophisticated and scalable architecture; state-of-the-art submicron CMOS manufacturing process; and a leading-edge compiler technology. The chips' manufacturing process received considerable emphasis. Design of the workstations focused on improving floating-point and graphics performance and tightly integrated floating-point and integer-processing units. The integrated modular package design of the systems makes it easy to interchange subsystems. Framework aids concurrent engineering with configuration management. (product announcement) Design Manager is the third of four components in Valid Logic's Valid-Frame framework. Concurrent engineering is administered by Design Manager. The program administers all design phases and manages the interrelationships between the phases. It sets organizational structure for personnel, synchronizes personnel and department activities, distributes the management of design data over a network, administers and controls parts libraries, queries and reports on data, and assembles and releases correct data and documentation for accurate manufacturing. One of the main features if library management, especially controlled use of part libraries; designers can be restricted to certain libraries. Standard packages cost $3,500. A package that has system administration and query and report capabilities is $10,000. Cross assembler optimizes 8051 designs. (Archimedes Software Inc.) (product announcement) Archimedes Software's C-8051 Version 4.0 cross compiler works with the Intel 8051 microcontroller family. There are six different memory models, including true single-chip designs and large bank-switched applications. With C-8051, memory can be reused by other parameters or variables when the program no longer needs a certain location. This means that C programs can be run without stack operations or using unnecessary RAM. Because of the static scheme to allocate variables, function calls are fast and do not need extra overhead. The cost for the PC version with the compiler, a macro-assembler, a linker, a librarian and documentation is $1295. Powerful spreadsheet eases what-if analysis. (Microsoft Corp.) Bursky, Dave. Microsoft Corp's Excel Version 3.0 can be used by engineers to solve a wide range of engineering what-if analysis. Version 3.0 is a major upgrade and has over 100 new features, including features that make it easier to analyze data. Lotus 1-2-3 users will find an improved help capability that makes it easy for them to migrate to Excel 3.0. Excel Solver, developed by Frontline Systems Inc, is part of the package. Excel Solver does multivariable goal-seeking linear and nonlinear optimization with up to 200 variables and 100 constraint formulas. The price for versions of Excel 3.0 is $495. AT&T loss in NCR vote is expected. Shapiro, Eben. AT&T is expected to fall short of the 80 percent shareholder support vote it needs to oust the current board of directors at the special NCR stockholder meeting on March 28. AT&T's original offer of $90 per share has been raised to $100 per share providing the company gets the 80 percent vote. Currently, 70 percent of shareholders have tendered their shares for the original offer. AT&T stands to gain four seats on the 12-man NCR board even if it does not get the vote. NCR stock fell to $97.125 per share in market trading. Should the board-room coup fail, AT&T plans to take legal action, seeking to have NCR's anti-takeover defenses deemed unlawful. Nynex, Computerland said to discuss a sale. Bradsher, Keith. Computerland Corp is reportedly negotiating the acquisition of Nynex Corp's computer retailing operations. Nynex announced on January 25 that is is actively seeking a business partner for its Nynex Business Centers unit, which sells office computers. IBM sold the 77-store chain to Nynex in 1986 for an estimated $200 million. The move was seen by Nynex as a chance to diversify away from telecommunications, but the project ended up losing the company hundreds of millions of dollars a year as it sought to compete with small stores and independent sales people. Computerland earned $6.3 million on sales and franchise royalties of $424.2 million in 1990. Maker of PC graphics names new president. (Radius Inc.'s Barry James Folsom) Barry James Folsom is appointed the new president and chief executive officer for Radius Inc, replacing founder Michael D. Boich, who will continue as chairman. Radius, a manufacturer of high-quality monitors and personal computer graphics products, recently reported sales for the first quarter are down from a year ago, and that it may report a loss as a consequence. Boich says Radius plans to produce more equipment for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers to diversify its product line. Current Radius products are mostly used with Apple microcomputers. Folsom was previously president, chairman and CEO of an image processing software development company called Focus Systems, and has also held executive positions at Sun Microsystems and DEC. IBM is expected to unveil a new job-reduction plan; some 10,000 could be cut; industry executives see company acting today. IBM intends to reduce its work force by as many as 10,000 employees. The move coincides with a move to divest the company's laser printer, typewriter, and office products business. The plan is designed for employees who wish to take early retirement, and also provides incentives for those of non-retirement age who wish to resign. Unlike previous IBM work force reduction schemes that were limited to the US, this one is intended to include world-wide operations. IBM has already reduced its work force from 404,000 in 1986 to 374,000 at the end of 1990. Four thousand of the reductions will come from the sale of the product lines. NCR, facing proxy vote, cuts price it seeks from AT&T to $110 a share. NCR Corp has lowered its asking price for an AT&T takeover to $110 per share. Analysts see the move as a last-minute attempt to avert a proxy battle at the company's planned shareholder meeting in which AT&T will endeavor to gain 80 percent of the stockholder vote and oust the entire 12-man NCR board. Even if AT&T only succeeds in gaining an anticipated 70 percent vote it will be able to replace four existing directors, including NCR chairman Charles Exley Jr, with its own executives. The telecommunications giant has increased its original $90 per share offer it made in December to $100 per share providing it gets 80 percent of the vote at the meeting. West barely dents Soviet's phone woes; Comstar venture persists; so do wrong numbers. The Soviet Union's telecommunications network is still plagued by problems, three years after the formation of a joint venture that many hoped would solve the inadequacies. Comstar, a venture between GEC Plessey Telecommunications and the Moscow Telephone Network, is profitable mainly because of an international pay telephone market. The monopoly partnership has been severely limited because it only markets its services to the small portion of the population that can pay in hard currency, mainly foreign businesses and diplomatic concerns. Soviet government bureaucracy often leads to delays of as long as three years for new business lines. The Soviet Union does not have the hard currency required to import satellite systems and fiber optic cables, and cannot produce them itself until the military telecommunications-equipment factories are converted over to manufacture them. Phone listings can be copied, justices decide. Wermiel, Stephen; Carnevale, Mary Lu. The Supreme Court has ruled that the white-pages listing of names, addresses and phone numbers in a telephone directory is not protected by federal copyright law. The decision is expected to have considerable repercussions in the direct-marketing and information services industries, and to make it considerably easier for marketing companies to access personal consumer information. The companies that will benefit most from the decision are independent directory publishers and those involved in direct mail and marketing, who often draw their mailing lists from telephone company books. The ruling excludes telephone book yellow page advertisements, which are considered to involve creativity and originality. NCR's talks with AT&T break down. Shapiro, Eben. Talks between NCR Corp and AT&T have broken down. There is still no resolution concerning the attempted takeover by the telecommunications giant. After five hours of meetings the negotiations ended with AT&T saying it will continue to plan an attempt to oust the current NCR board of directors at a special shareholder meeting on Mar 28, 1991. AT&T will pay $100 per share for NCR stock if 80 percent of NCR stockholders vote to replace the current board with a board sanctioned by AT&T. French computer maker sees $1 billion deficit. (Compagnie des Machines Bull) Compagnie des Machines Bull, France's largest computer maker, is expected to announce losses for 1990 of more than $1 billion. The company, Europe's second largest computer manufacturer and the ninth-largest in the world, will report an operating deficit of about $600 million and a restructuring charge of $450 million. Analysts say that the company has failed to keep up with the computer market, and the company did not react quickly enough to the shift from mainframe-based computing environments to low-cost microcomputer-based systems. The restructuring charge stems from the company's plans to close seven of its 13 factories and to reduce a 44,000 employee work force by over 5,000. Analysts say the company's problems involve overhead and a need to reorganize production. Computer deals pen another setback. (United Parcels Service equips drivers with handheld computers that have electronic pens for United Parcels Service of America has equipped its delivery drivers with handheld computers that use electronic styluses for inputting data. Customers sign for their deliveries by using the pen-shaped nylon stylus to inscribe their name onto a sensitive membrane embedded in a computer. An electronic image of the signature is created, and the image of the signature accompanies information about the delivery, which is recorded by the driver using the computer's keyboard or bar code scanner. The entire package of information is then transmitted to a central data center. Each computer costs around $1,300. UPS has invested $350 million in the new system, which will begin operation in 1992. Looking for some support. (defective software) (column) Connolly, Alison. The usual rules of replacing defective products do not apply to software vendors whose packages contain bugs or are defective. In the case of Multisoft's General Ledger software, which would not accept any input with the date 1992 in it, users without a maintenance agreement were forced to purchase the package again with the fix in place. Maintenance contracts are user's only insurance against defective software and they do not come cheaply. Many dealers encourage the current system of maintenance contracts because they are a value-added service with which both dealers and software developers can generate extra revenue. The current system is far from fair for end users. Laptops grow up. (column) Boxer, Steve. Laptop computers and the technology surrounding them are finally maturing, making the field one of the most dynamic in the industry. Three new technologies, Intel's 80386SL chip set, Go Corp's PenPoint operating system and flash memory cards, are helping to make laptops more than just small desktop computers. Intel's 80386SL chip set, also called Genesis, is designed specifically for laptops and has reduced the entire motherboard to just three chips: a microprocessor with bus and cache controllers, an 82360SL input/output chip and an 82760SL VGA graphics chip. More than just saving space, the chip set also includes power management software that will greatly increase battery life. Go Corp's PenPoint software recognizes handwritten input and companies such as Lotus, Borland and Wordperfect are writing software for the operating system. Flash memory cards can access information in 250ns compared with 20ms for hard disks, they weigh 28g versus 150g for a hard disk, they save power and they are more reliable than hard disks. Interview. (Brian Conte head of hDC Corp.) (interview) Brian Conte, once part of the original Windows development team at Microsoft, has gone on to head hDC Corp, one of the most successful companies attempting to make a living selling Windows 3.0 add-on utility programs. Conte says Microsoft has never been particularly adept at creating user interfaces, and hDC's FileApps software is a package designed to make Windows 3.0 more user friendly. Conte feels Microsoft will enhance the File Manager portion of Windows in edition 3.1; as well as updating the Program Manager to make it more hierarchical in design. Conte also addresses the OS/2 versus Windows controversy, saying Microsoft is not abusing its power as a near monopolist and it did nearly everything possible to promote OS/2 as a product. Five of the best. (Hardware Review) (an overview of five evaluations of laptop computers, includes a related article on Comdex Fall 1990 indicates 1991 will be the year of the notebook computer. Some 100 vendors previewed notebooks at the trade show and five of those are evaluated here: Toshiba's T3200SXC, Dell Computer's 320N notebook, AST Research's AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 notebook, Sanyo's 18NB, and Commodore's C386sx-LT. As with other microcomputer markets, the twin driving forces in the laptop/notebook market are enhanced performance and features at costs that continue to decline. Laptops and notebooks are getting to the point of becoming the feature and function equivalents of desktop systems. Current systems feature Intel 80386SX microprocessors, but in the near future Advanced Micro Devices will sell a 40-MHz 80386 chip set for portables and before the end of 1991 80Mbyte and 100Mbyte hard disks will be available. Laptop evolution. Jackson, Peter. Laptop computers have evolved significantly since Epson's first attempt at marketing such a machine, the HX-20. The HX-20 was not really a microcomputer, but rather a point-of-sale terminal; however it did have a full-sized keyboard, ran on standard batteries and could be connected to other computers. Tandy and NEC provided the next generation device, the Tandy 100 with a display of eight-lines of 40 characters, a built in modem and ROM-based software for text editing, communications and database work. The next step was to create truly PC-compatible laptops, but this meant creating better displays, smaller floppy drives, and less power hungry circuitry, all at an affordable cost. Today's laptops feature high-contrast backlit displays with EGA or VGA graphics and power efficient Intel 80386 microprocessors. Toshiba T3200SXC. (one of five evaluations of laptop computers) (evaluation) Toshiba's T3200SXC is an upgraded version of the firm's T3200SX laptop computer, with a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX microprocessor replacing the 16-MHz version and the dazzling addition of a beautiful thin film transistor color VGA display. The machine comes with an optional 80387 math coprocessor, standard memory of 1Mbyte expandible to 13Mbytes, full-length 16-bit and half-length 8-bit expansion ports, a 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and a standard 120Mbyte hard disk drive. The characteristics and performance of the T3200SXC are both rated as good, while the documentation, engineering and ease-of-use are rated excellent. The T3200SXC is larger than the other notebook computers evaluated, but for portable color graphics it is outstanding. AST Premium Exec 386SX/20. (one of five evaluations of laptop computers) (evaluation) AST Research's AST Premium Exec 386SX/20 is an impressive notebook computer that weighs under seven pounds and features a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX microprocessor. The Premium Exec is noteworthy because it is priced at the same level AST's comparable desktop computer. Features on the machine include an 8.5-inch diagonal backlit VGA LCD display, a 20Mbyte hard disk with options for 40Mbytes and 60Mbytes, 2Mbytes of memory is standard, expandible to 8Mbytes, and a 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy disk drive is also included. Two utility programs come bundled with the Premium Exec, Laplink III as communications software and Battery Watch to conserve power. The Premium Exec is classified as good in characteristics, ease of use and documentation, and excellent in engineering and performance. Dell 320N (one of five evaluations of laptop computers) (evaluation) Dell Computer's Dell 320N is an outstanding notebook computer that comes with a plethora of features and weighs in at under 6.5 pounds. The 320N is a very attractive notebook, with a charcoal-colored finish to resist dirt and a well designed carrying case with comfortable shoulder strap. It is built around Intel's 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, and comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandible to 5Mbytes, a 30Mbyte hard disk with a 60Mbyte option, as well as options for a math coprocessor and an internal modem. The 320N's display is an 8.5-inch black-on-white backlit VGA screen that works well. The computer also features memory management software that slows operations down to 2MHz in standby mode. The Dell 320N is given a rating of excellent in all five categories: characteristics, ease of use, documentation, engineering, and performance. Sanyo 18NB notebook. (one of five evaluations of laptop computers) (evaluation) Sanyo's 18NB laptop computer is competitively priced and offers good performance. The 18NB comes in a well-designed case with a nice handle and an 83-key keyboard that is easy to use. It is based on Intel's 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and weighs in at around seven pounds. Sanyo provides good power management utilities that enable users to deactivate the hard disk, backlight or modem in order to conserve battery life. The batteries recharges in just a single hour. The NB18 comes equipped with 1Mbyte of RAM expandible to 5Mbytes, a 20Mbyte hard disk and an optional math coprocessor. The NB18 receives a rating of excellent for its ease of use and ratings of good for its documentation, engineering, characteristics and performance. The price is 1,795 pounds sterling with 1Mbyte of RAM and a 20Mbyte hard disk. Commodore C386SX-LT. (one of five evaluations of laptop computers) (evaluation) Commodore's C386SX-LT is a repackaged version of Sanyo's 18NB laptop computer, with all of the same features but a price that is 300 pounds sterling more than Sanyo's. Like Sanyo's the C386SX-LT comes with one serial, one parallel and one VGA port, a 20Mbyte hard disk and an Intel 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. The computer comes with 640Kbytes of memory with and additional 2048Kbytes configured as extended memory. Memory upgrades are available in 2Mbyte increments up to 5Mbytes and a math coprocessor can be added. The C386SX-LT's strong points are quickly rechargeable batteries, comfortable keyboard and a nice backlit VGA display. Commodore's version of the machine receives a rating of moderate for its documentation and engineering, its characteristics and performance are called good and its ease of use is rated excellent. Ship building. (Pilot Executive Software's LightShip 2.0) (evaluation) Pilot Executive Software's 795 pounds sterling LightShip 2.0 is a Microsoft Windows 3.0-based development package designed to create front-end applications. LightShip receives an excellent rating for its characteristics, its ease of use and its engineering, good marks for documentation and displays moderate performance. LightShip uses object-oriented programming techniques along with Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange feature to combine data from a variety of sources on screen in a variety of formats. It can create front-ends that act like database front-ends but without query functions, and then analyze the data in a manner similar to data analysis tools. It makes use of Dynamic Data Exchange to continuously update and modify data as external data changes. Memory aids. (Software Paradise's Above Disk, International Data Security's QEMM/386, 386MAX) (evaluation) Microcomputers generally come with more memory than MS-DOS can access, but memory management software packages such as Above Disk from Software Paradise, QEMM/386 and 386Max from International Data Security enable applications to break the 640Kbyte barrier. Above Disk is priced at 72 pounds Sterling and receives ratings of good for its characteristics, ease of use, engineering, and performance, only its documentation is regarded as moderate. QEMM/386 is the best of the memory managers for Intel 80386-based microcomputers, it is classified as excellent for its characteristics, documentation, engineering and performance, while its ease of use is called good. 386Max is the sibling of QEMM/386, but it does not feature DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) compliance; nevertheless it receives ratings of good for its characteristics, ease of use and documentation, with its engineering and performance called excellent. Finding your form. (Delrina's PerFORM Pro) (evaluation) Dallas, Karl. Delrina Technology's PerFORM Pro is an outstanding forms generation/data entry package that retails for 399 pounds Sterling. Using PerFORM Pro it is possible to create and fill-out a complex form without ever having it in hardcopy. The Pro version has been upgraded to include network support, the ability to read and write dBase files, the ability to handle multi-paged forms and it now functions with Microsoft's Windows 3.0. The package contains a powerful data base feature that includes math functions, IF...THEN statements, entry validation and other functions. PerFORM handles data security by enabling users to lock certain fields or entire documents, and by providing password access to certain fields. The package handles graphics as well as text and prints the forms quite quickly considering their complexity. Style merchant. (Amstrad's PC 4386sx) (evaluation) Lavin, Paul. Amstrad's PC 4386sx is targeted at the non-computer literate of the world and as a result it is a very stylish microcomputer with a remarkably small footprint. The computer itself is based on Intel's 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor packed into a box that measures 10x10x3 inches. It features a tiny 10-inch Sony Trinitron VGA monitor that is comfortable to use despite its small size. The PC 4386sx comes with 4Mbytes of memory expandible to 16Mbytes, a single 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, an 80Mbyte hard disk drive and room for an additional math coprocessor. The computer has a nicer feeling keyboard than are usually found on Amstrad machines. The PC 4386sx is priced at 1,699 pounds sterling with a color monitor. Its ease of use, engineering and performance are excellent, characteristics and documentation are considered good. Scope opera. (ADI Software's Scope) (evaluation) Moss, David. ADI Software's 99 pounds Sterling Scope file management software package does an excellent job of making up for the limitations of Microsoft's Windows' File Manager. Scope's documentation is an odd translation from German, the program's characteristics and ease of use are good and its performance and engineering are excellent. Performance is Scope's most remarkable characteristic; in a test run it was able to search a 32Mbyte hard disk and sort all the files by extension in 21 seconds without creating an index upon installation. It was further able to search for one word, finding it in 200 assorted files including subdirectories in 33 seconds all while the computer ran five background applications. Scope is also quite versatile, allowing searches to be sorted by date, directories, filenames or extensions. Designs on CD-ROM. (designing a CD-ROM system for archiving data) (tutorial) CD-ROMs provide storage capacities of up to 650Mbytes per disk, but how they are used for archival storage depends on the types of data involved and how the data needs to be manipulated. CD-ROMs can be used as if they were a large hard disk. This would be a useful method if many files must be accessed with the files stored as standard directories on the CD-ROM disk. This is perhaps the simplest method requiring no additional software other than a device driver. CD-ROMs can also be used as on-line books, in place of manuals and other documentation. On-line books can be efficiently searched for information by word or phrase. The IBM BookManager line of products can be useful in creating on-line documentation. Another method of retrieving information is using BlueFish software from Lotus, which adds the use of standard Boolean operators to search methods. Amitel 3.33. (Robert Fox and Associates' Amitel 3.33 communications software) (evaluation) Robert Fox and Associates' 150 pounds Sterling Amitel 3.33 is a communications software package designed for non-technical users, but its high price and paucity of features make it a poor choice. The only aspect of Amitel 3.33 that is exceptionally easy-to-use is its auto-logon file generator, which also happens to leave a users password in a text file that can be easily accessed by the curious. Amitel does provide terminal emulation for business users who want access to Viewdata, TTY, VT100 and Minitel. Amitel 3.33 receives only a moderate rating for its characteristics and engineering, but good scores for its ease of use, performance and documentation. Kyocera F-800T. (8ppm laser printer) (evaluation) Green, Terence. Kyocera Corp's 1,399 pounds Sterling F-800T laser printer is an attractive small-footprint device that performs competently but has plenty of competition with similar features at a lesser price. The F-800T is rated at 8 pages-per-minute, but a test on a long text file showed actual printing speed of 6.7 ppm. Kyocera's printer can act as a LaserJet printer with LaserJet II default emulation, but it also features the Prescribe printer control language. Prescribe is useful for custom commands that can be inserted as strings in software or sent from batch files to access three scalable fonts, 79 resident bitmap fonts and 39 resident barcode fonts. The F-800T receives ratings of good for all reviewed categories: performance, ease of use, documentation, engineering and characteristics. Business Analyser. (MBA Management Consultants's ratio analysis software) (evaluation) MBA Management Consultants' 50 pounds Sterling Business Analyser is a rather primitive software package designed to analyze a firm's balance sheet for the previous five years and calculate whether that firm is well managed. Business Analyser receives moderate scores for its characteristics, ease of use, documentation and engineering: performance is rated as good. The software is disappointing graphically despite being in color; it can only represent a few of its conclusions in a graphic manner. The package analyzes a company by comparing it to successful criteria such as sales growth exceeding inflation; profit margin greater than five percent; and return on capital greater than 10 percent. However, the package can plot only return on capital as a graph. Oce G1052. (Oce Graphics' desktop color plotter) (evaluation) Grey, Nigel. Oce Graphics' 1,500 pounds Sterling Oce G1052 color desktop plotter is a decent value for the money, but it is not without its problems. The plotter is targeted at low-volume users who will connect it to a Macintosh or microcomputer running computer-aided design software. The plotter receives marks of good for its characteristics, ease of use and performance, while achieving only moderate scores for its documentation and engineering. The G1052 can accept up to eight different pens on a carousel system that also features a self-capping function that did not work terribly well. The plotter is relatively fast and its print quality was generally quite good, but it is a noisy machine. During testing the G1052 did experience some bugs, including a paper jam and problems with the carousel getting out of alignment. Ensemble. (Software Review) (Software Paradise's Windows-like multitasking environment) (evaluation) Software Paradise's 149 pounds Sterling Ensemble is a very elegant graphical user interface along the lines of Windows or Motif, that works well on Intel 80286- or 80386SX-based computers with very little memory. The only drawback to this multitasking environment is that as yet there are no third party applications for it so users must be content with its built in word processor, communications software, calculator, paint program and address book/dialer. Ensemble works in much the same way as other graphical environments and looks very much like Motif. It handles fonts very well, with nine installed fonts that can be scaled from 4pt all the way to 792pt. Ensemble receives scores of excellent for its characteristics and engineering, while its ease of use, documentation and performance are called good. PC-File 5.0. (Software Review) (shareware from ButtonWare/OpenSoft, relational database) (evaluation) PC-File 5.0, a shareware flat-file relational database management system from ButtonWare/OpenSoft is a highly recommended package at 99 pounds Sterling for the single user version and 199 pounds Sterling for the network version. PC-File 5.0 receives scores of excellent for its characteristics, ease of use and engineering, and good for its documentation and performance. PC-File's database files are compatible with dBase files and the software supports data import from WordPerfect, Lotus and Mail Merge. Searching files in PC-File is easy with flexible search commands such as 'sounds like', 'begins with', 'scan across' and 'global'. The software also supports a wide range of report printing options and it can provide graphic analysis of data. Buyer's guide: 386 machines (microcomputers) (buyers guide) Moss, David. Microcomputers based on Intel Corp's 80386 microprocessor are no longer suited just for the power user; they are a price-effective entry-level architecture that takes advantage of sophisticated software. Court rulings mean that Intel will no longer hold a monopoly on the 80386 microprocessor and Advanced Micro Devices' own line of compatible processors will bring the price down further and add features such as the energy saving sleep mode. Buyers looking into 80386-based computers must choose from three prevalent bus standards: Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), its forward compatible relative Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), and IBM's Micro Channel Architecture (MCA). Buyers must also choose between four hard disk interface standards, and whether to add options such as a math coprocessor and enhanced graphics boards. Professor DOS. (Software Review) (Training, Microcomputer Unit's Professor DOS) (evaluation) Professor DOS, a 65 pounds Sterling program from Microcomputer Unit, is a highly recommended package designed to lead beginners through the use of MS-DOS. While the package is aimed at beginners and is thus extremely user friendly, it has seven different modules, including an expert section that even the most experienced DOS users will find interesting. The tutorial covers all facets of DOS and separates them into seven sections: startup, commands, hard disk, shell, batch, expert and tools. Professor DOS is an interactive program that asks questions following each section and provides practice tests and encouragement galore. The package is also self paced and easily navigable, allowing users to exit and digest all that they have learned. AT&T, NCR merger talks are derailed. Smith, Randall. Talks between AT&T and NCR executives have broken down, leaving little room for a negotiated merger of the two companies before a special NCR stockholders meeting on Mar 28, 1991. At that meeting, if AT&T receives an 80 percent backing from shareholders, it will replace the entire NCR board with a board of its own choosing. AT&T has gradually raised its original offer of $90 per share in Dec 1990, and is now offering $100 per share providing it gets the 80 percent vote. Data Access Language to move beyond the Mac: Pacer, Blyth aiding Unix, DOS effort. (Pacer Software Inc., Blyth Software Inc.) Apple plans to announce licensing agreements that will help its Data Access Language (DAL), a superset of Structured Query Language (SQL), become an industry standard with extension of the technology to DOS and Unix. Apple will license Pacer Software Inc to port DAL server code to IBM's RS/6000 and Sun Microsystems Inc's Sun OS. The agreement will also give Pacer non-exclusive rights to port the server to DEC's Ultrix and will create database-specific drivers for Informix Software Inc's Informix, Ingres Corp's Ingres, Sybase Corp's Sybase and Oracle Corp's Oracle databases. Blyth Software Inc will develop the DOS and Windows client tool kit which will allow developers of those environments to build DAL support into their applications. Apple officials contend that DAL, although no more flexible than SQL, is easier to use across multiple platforms since it deals with dialects of SQL. Sculley plots '90's strategy: CEO promises 'kinder, gentler Apple'. (John Sculley) Apple CEO John Sculley, in a keynote presentation to the Software Publishers Associations Spring Symposium, announces new business plans that include moves towards open systems and collaboration with strategic partners. Sculley announces Apple's current development of a portable operating system, based on object-oriented programming but not tied to a specific microprocessor architecture. He also contends that all of the company's products will eventually use reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors. Sculley feels that alliances with Japan will help with Apple's innovations in the 1990s and will be a major factor in the company's survival. Apple, with its Japanese partners, plans production of a new class of products that will combine consumer electronics and microcomputer technology. Analysts contend that Sculley's address shows that Apple is more open to doing business in different ways. Gates open to multimedia. (Microsoft Corp. Chmn Bill Gates) (includes related article on new Apple Macintosh CD-ROM products) Microsoft Corp Chmn Bill Gates announces a new trademark at the Sixth International Conference & Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM. The Multimedia PC (MPC) trademark will appear on IBM microcomputers and clones as well as software compliant with the new Windows 3.0-based microcomputer multimedia standards. Microcomputers meeting MPC specifications are expected to ship in the summer of 1991. MPC software applications are not expected to ship for months. Developers contend that creating multimedia applications with character-based microcomputer tools presents several challenges. The Voyager Co, which is developing MPC-compatible applications, claims that the company has spent four times as much as expected and still has no finished products. The company says that Microsoft's multimedia authoring program, Asymetrix Corp's Toolbook, is oversold as a full-formed solution. Apple eyes consumer market: miniature, mobile devices in works. Farber, Daniel; Gore, Andrew. Apple CEO John Sculley, speaking at the Software Publishers Association Spring Symposium, announces Apple's product development plans for a series of consumer-oriented products that will be miniature, mobile and affordable. The main component of the new devices will be interactive media controlled by non-linear information manipulation programs like HyperCard. Apple is currently developing small, stripped down Macintosh microcomputers with software video compression, CD-ROM drives and a high-speed serial interface. The machines could help increase sales of Apple's multimedia products. Start-up company General Magic is helping Apple's development and is designing software and specifications for notebook and hand-held computers with a HyperCard-like interface and pen-based input. Apple is expected to rely on hardware manufacturers in Japan which have expertise in miniaturization to build the hand-held computers. StyleWriter: strong on style, weak in performance. (Apple's StyleWriter printer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Apple's $599 StyleWriter printer is less expensive than the HP DeskWriter or GCC Technologies' PLP II but its poor performance should make buyers with moderate printing needs and a limited budget look carefully at the other options. The StyleWriter, with its 360 dots-per-inch (dpi) output, TrueType outline fonts and quiet operation nicely replaces Apple's ImageWriter II. The printer's type output is excellent but in tests with 68000-based Macintosh computers, the StyleWriter is extremely slow, with only bearable speed on faster Macintoshes. Set-up is easy and the printer is simple to use. Documentation is clear but there is no direct technical support. In tests, the StyleWriter prints labels and envelopes easily. The printer's price, ease of use and output quality make it a good printer but buyers should be aware that for a few hundred dollars more they can get two times the speed and about the same quality with HP's DeskWriter. Radius launches '040-based Rocket: claims performance flies past Mac IIfx. (accelerator board) (product announcement) Radius Inc announces its $3,495 Radius Rocket, a NuBus-based accelerator board that uses the Motorola 68040 processor, and is geared as an alternative to Apple's Mac IIfx upgrade. The Rocket, unlike other accelerators, does not disable the original processor. The board turns the Macintosh into a multiprocessor system, with the original logic board working on various tasks while primary processing takes place on the card. The Rocket has Radius' QuickColor Graphics Engine and QuickCAD display-list processor built in and also allows users to install standard single in-line memory modules (SIMM). Rocket will work with most Macintosh applications but users have the option of bypassing it during start-up. The Rocket can hold up to 128Mbytes of RAM and offers support for high-speed block-mode transfers to and from Small Computer Systems Interface-2 controllers and other NuBus add-ons. New HOOPS eases porting of graphics apps. (Ithaca Software's HOOPS for the Mac 2.21) (product announcement) Ithaca Software Inc announces its HOOPS for the Mac 2.21, priced at $2,100 per development license, which is now written in the MacApp object-oriented environment. The package allows developers to more easily port graphics applications. The HOOPS System provides a custom database, input manager and graphics engine that applications can call using over 150 routines. The software provides an object-oriented database of two- and three-dimensional views and graphic elements that can be rendered on any platform even if the features are not supported in the platform's own graphical library. The package can also mix raster and vector graphics and offers shaded rendering as well as orthographic, asymmetric and perspective lens types for views. Future versions of the product will support TrueType fonts and the core set of Apple Events and will be System 7.0-compatible. GeneWorks offers multiple views of DNA and protein sequences. (IntelliGenetics Inc.'s GeneWorks 1.02 medical/health software) IntelliGenetics Inc introduces GeneWorks 1.02, an update of its protein-sequence- and DNA-analysis software that allows biomedical researchers to compare their DNA and protein module sequences with thousands stored in government-sponsored data banks. Users can analyze genetic sequences by enzyme cut sites, composition, gene locations and other sequence patterns. Users can analyze proteins by molecular structure, enzyme cut sites and likely interior and exterior regions. The program supplies functions from which researchers can construct their own analytical algorithms. Drawing and editing tools let users format color output for onscreen presentation or publishing. GeneWorks can import and export PICT formats and import text formats. The software is available to commercial customers for $3,300 and is priced at $2,350 for academic users. Ethernet: faster, stronger, cheaper: Sonic board sets tone for new competition. (Sonic Systems Inc.'s Mac Ethernet cards) Competition among manufacturers of Ethernet cards for Apple Macintosh microcomputers is causing prices to drop. Sonic Systems Inc is introducing a full line of Macintosh Ethernet cards priced at a new low of $199 each. MacProducts USA is introducing two NuBus cards priced at $249 each. Similar products just one year ago cost about $500 per card. Analysts contend that Apple's System 7.0, with its personal file sharing, is helping to increase the demand for Ethernet in the Macintosh market, with users likely to run out of bandwidth using LocalTalk. Some established vendors are also starting to cut prices but not to the point of the aggressive pricing of newer vendors. Some analysts feel that prices are crucial to survival in the Ethernet card market since, except for slight differences in design and performance, all Ethernet cards are basically the same. Developers jump on XPress wagon: new modules boost XPress feature set. (QuarkXPress extension modules) (product announcement) Several QuarkXTension modules are available for the QuarkXPress desktop publishing package. K. Erf Associates introduces Autopage which controls placement of footnotes and controls batch-page break decisions in long documents. The core application is $5,000, with the link to QuarkXPress priced at $100. John Julian Computer Services Co's Blue Skii Express allows QuarkXPress users to import stories from the Tandem System/55 front-end systems, a system used at many newspapers. The product is scheduled for release in Jun 1991 and will cost $4,000 for the first user and $2,000 for additional users. DK&A's $1,750 InPosition eliminates the need for manual stripping of QuarkXPress documents by placing them in signature page order and rotation. The product is due in Jun 1991. North Atlantic Publishing Systems Inc's $495 CopyFlow Geometry can take an ASCII file of page geometry and automatically create a QuarkXPress layout with art and text boxes in position. Pioneers blaze the high-end color trail. (PostScript color service bureaus) A small group of PostScript color service bureaus are using imagesetters, scanners and workstations to produce continuous-tone color images. Most service bureaus agree that, while hardware is important, color expertise is the key element in high-end color production. These bureaus are using color-capable imagesetters which require a combination of testing of film and chemistry, system calibration and constant maintenance. Adaptability, spot sizes and half-toning are important capabilities. Some bureaus are using mid-range scanners in the $40,000 to $80,000 range that offer a combination of high quality and ease-of-use features used in desktop computing. Recent advances in Apple Macintosh memory caching, acceleration and storage capacity have made the microcomputers powerful tools for these color service bureaus that often use programs such as Adobe Photoshop for scan retouching and color correction. Your neighborhood CD-ROM shop. (New Media) (column) Rosenthal, Steve. Compact disc (CD) development systems and write-once CD technology reaching the desktop are two factors contributing to developers considering the set-up of CD service bureaus that will create CD-ROM disks for customers in about an hour for less than $100. This type of business is quite feasible since a CD Publisher system with a write-once recorder from Meridian Data Inc costs approximately $35,000. Young Minds Inc is currently developing a Sun Microsystems-based system in Apple Macintosh form for about the same price. Both systems will produce ISO 9660 discs that can be read on Macintosh, Sun and IBM microcomputer machines, so a bureau will not be limited to a particular market. The only consumables cost is the CD-ROM disc which, at retail, ranges from $35 to $50. Labor costs should be relatively inexpensive since both companies contend their systems can be learned by anyone with basic computer skills in less than a day. ARDAT 3.5-inch DAT drives promise boost in performance and capacity. (ARDAT Python drives)(digital audio tape) (product ARDAT, the digital audio tape (DAT) subsidiary of Archive Corp, is delivering a new series of 3.5-inch DAT drives with on-board compression capabilities to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers. The company claims its Python drives can compress data at ratios of up to 4-to-1. Typical, real-life situations will give users a 2-to-1 compression which will yield capacities of approximately 2Gbytes on standard tape and 4Gbytes on extended-length tapes. Typical data rates will be approximately 22Mbytes per minute and use the Digital Data Standard (DDS). The new drives will also be capable of exchanging tapes with drives from many other manufacturers since the DDS Data Compression (DDS-DC) has been endorsed by the DDS committee and is supported by original DDS standard developers Sony Corp and HP. Small magneto-opticals trickle out: floppy-size disks hold 128 Mbytes. Several magneto-optical drive manufacturers are releasing or are about to release storage devices that hold 128Mbytes of data on a 3.5-inch disk. Pinnacle Micro Inc is selling its REO-130 for $2,995 which includes a Macintosh interface kit and one disk. Units are scarce, however, and the company has a six-month backlog. Mass Optical Storage Technologies Inc (MOST), the supplier of the drive mechanism, is expected to deliver 500 of the optical disk drives in May 1991 and increase production thereafter. OCEAN Microsystems Inc is scheduled to release its $3,195 Vista 130 in Apr 1991, including its Compass utility software and a copy of Central Point Software Inc's MacTools Deluxe. OCEAN and Pinnacle both charge $129 each for additional disks. The price per megabyte for these 3.5-inch disks is higher than most 5.25-inch systems but company officials contend that vendors and buyers are willing to pay higher prices for the 3.5-inch units' superior performance and convenience. Multifunction WORM/rewriteable opticals due. (write-once-read-many) Corel Systems Corp, Panasonic Communications & Systems Co and Reflections Systems Inc plan the release of a new type of Panasonic-based Small Computer Systems Interface- (SCSI) 2 optical drive that is compatible with both erasable and write-once-read-many (WORM) media. The drives can be used with the 940Mbyte disks used in Panasonic's 5010 WORM drives and can also be used with a new type of erasable disk that can hold up to 1Gbyte of data. The new drives rely on a technology called phase-change which allows the drives to directly overwrite data on erasable disks in one pass instead of the three passes required in magneto-optical drives. The phase-change drives can write to disk at twice the speed of magneto-optical drives and have data transfer rates approximately 50 percent higher at 10.3M-bps. Panasonic's LM-7010 for the Macintosh will cost $3,995. Reflection's RF-7010 and Corel's Kurata are also priced at $3,995. Long-delayed 20MB flopticals expected in volume by summer. (Insite Peripherals Inc.) Insite Peripherals Inc announces that its 20Mbyte floptical disks will reach the market through OEMs in several months. The company expects to begin volume production in early summer 1991, which is almost three years after the first announcement of the new technology. Insite delayed production in 1989 and redesigned the drive to make it capable of reading and writing standard floppies, reduced the height of the unit and reduced its power requirements. Floptical disks can pack 1,250 tracks per inch onto the disk because their barium-ferrite magnetic media is stamped with optical servo data. The floptical drive's rewrite head, therefore, can position itself more accurately than the read-write head on a standard floppy drive. Standard floppy disks have only 135 tracks per inch on disk. Insite says OEM prices of the drive will be $295 initially but will become lower as production increases. Floptical disks will be priced at approximately $20 each for retail but are expected to drop to about $10. Can new SCSI adapters clear your bottleneck? (Small Computer Systems Interface) (includes related article on SCSI-2) Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) host adapters and new drive technologies can help throughput in the Macintosh but they cannot help in every type of application. New adapters that improve SCSI throughput can help Macintosh usage in markets such as animation and color pre-press but these products do not address the needs of general Macintosh users. Bus master cards can offload input/output (I/O) processing from the Macintosh's central processing unit (CPU) to the NuBus card's separate CPU. Analysts hope that software developers will allow their applications to fully utilize adapter enhanced I/O capacities. Bottlenecks, however, will continue to hamper Macintosh I/O performance. The NuBus implementation allows data transfer rates of only about 4.4Mbytes per second and does not support block transfers to the logical board. Only Macintosh applications that deal well with large amounts of data will benefit from the host adapter cards. DAT holds promise for net backup. (digital audio tape) (includes related article on DAT technology and multimedia applications) The 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) drive is increasingly being accepted in the Apple Macintosh network-backup market. The DAT drives offer strong performance in a small size with a standard 1.3Gbytes of storage capacity, with the potential of expanded volume in the near future. Several vendors are already offering DAT drives for Macintosh networks, with more planning to enter the market soon. The Digital Data Storage (DDS) DAT format is the standard supported by most DAT tape drive vendors. DAT prices are coming down with increased competition and technological advances. Analysts expect a 20 percent reduction in prices per year and many vendors are currently cutting prices as warranted by the market. The 3.5-inch form-factor drives that some vendors are shipping will lower drive prices and will improve their reliability by cutting the chip count. DAT vs. 8mm tape: a head-to-head look at the technologies. (digital audio tape) Two high-capacity data-storage backup systems, the 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) and 8mm tape, are increasingly being used in the Macintosh network market. Both technologies offer at least 1.3Gbytes of storage and are helical-scan recording devices. These methods do differ in other ways. Exabyte Corp is the only manufacturer of 8mm tape yet several manufacturers offer DAT drives, resulting in competitive pricing. An 8mm system can range in price from $5,000 to $8,000. DAT drives cost as little as $1,700, and prices are continuing to drop. DAT drives offer only 1.3Gbytes of capacity, while 8mm drives offer 2.2Gbytes. Both technologies, however, are working on expanding their storage capacity. The Exabyte 8mm drives provide a faster transfer rate than the DAT drives but 4mm DAT is faster in file-search capability. Some analysts contend that the low prices in the DAT market will adversely affect Exabyte. Data jukeboxes playing big storage-capacity numbers. Stevens, Lawrence. Jukebox storage systems are now available that give users on-line access to multiple gigabytes of data for users of write-once-read-many (WORM) or magneto-optical cartridges. These data jukeboxes typically have one drive plus a number of slots that handle either magneto-optical or WORM cartridges or a combination of the two. Jukeboxes can handle from six to 56 cartridges. A robotic arm swaps the cartridges when a user requests a file that is not located on the cartridge in the drive. Manufacturers aiming toward the Apple Macintosh market include software with a familiar Macintosh user interface. Users can click on a cartridge-disk icon on the Macintosh desktop and view the cartridge's contents. Optical Access International recently released its Access JB 9000, a 10-cartridge multifunction jukebox that provides up to 6Gbytes of storage capacity. World hungers for database info to go. (Commentary) (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. Telephone companies are anxious to sell more bandwidth to the home market, while on-line database providers want their services to become more popular with the general public. These two industries can combine their services and gain mutual benefits. On-line data bases need to become easier for users to find. They provide valuable tools that would benefit far more users if they were more easily accessible. These services, however, are too complex to use and too expensive. Telephone companies can use Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) to set up calls within 1.2 seconds but users need a single access point, directory and access-by-name capabilities. Telephone companies can create user confidence in easier access to the on-line databases and database service prices could be lowered by the resulting competition among service providers. The phone companies will benefit from the higher telephone traffic and the on-line databases will attract more users. Can file serving really be a no-brainer? (International Business Software's DataClub)(The Mac Manager) International Business Software Inc's (IBS) DataClub is an AppleShare-compatible dynamic distributed network file server that automatically reconfigures its distribution over the network every time new users are added. Many other products claim this capability, but DataClub actually delivers it. DataClub creates a virtual server for the network. The product places bits of shared data on the network and also uses parallel-processing techniques to access the data, improving data reliability and access speed. Users can access files simultaneously without serious degradation to the network. The network is a transparent backdrop to users who do not have to know where their data is stored. DataClub uses what IBS calls fuzzy consistency to reconfigure and optimize itself whenever a new Macintosh, gateway, bridge or printer is hooked up to the network. The product does have incompatibilities with some popular INITs and users will have to wait and see if it will take advantage of System 7.0's built-in File Sharing facilities. MediaMaker makes Mac move: MacroMind's presentation program has brought Mac multimedia within reach of the average user. MacroMind Inc's $695 MediaMaker is an impressive multimedia software package geared towards the mainstream market that integrates video with computers. Users can combine digitized sound, animation, Macintosh graphics and video clips to create presentations that can be recorded to videotape or viewed interactively. MediaMaker supports consumer-level video equipment such as camcorders through XObjects - software modules comparable to external commands in HyperCard - as well as special cables that connect to the Macintosh's serial ports. Users should be aware that the product is only as good as the XObjects for the equipment it uses and should make sure the devices they use are supported by MediaMaker. The program is easy to use, offers good documentation and effective performance, making it an excellent value. MediaMaker can potentially do for video what Aldus PageMaker did for publishing. Packet analyzers tell the whole network story. (Neon Software Inc.'s NetMinder LocalTalk and The AG Group's LocalPeek) (Software Neon Software Inc's $395 NetMinder LocalTalk and The AG Group's $495 LocalPeek packet analyzers are both easy to use and are good at what they do, but NetMinder has a more consistent interface and superior filtering capabilities and protocol set. LocalPeek, however, with its colorful live traffic charts and many easy-to-use enhancements makes it suitable for less technical users. Users must note, however, that no matter how easy the products are to use, technical sophistication is needed to understand the information the packages provide. There are no tools currently available that are intelligent enough to understand and trace network packet transactions and interpret them for average users to understand. Both NetMinder LocalTalk and LocalPeek need improvement in their data import and export capabilities to common formats and in offering examples and explanations of debugging problems. Keeping your images in check: three approaches to image management. (Symmetry Software Corp.'s Mariah 1.0.4, Multi-Ad Three image management programs that organize libraries of images are evaluated. Symmetry Software Corp's $149 Mariah 1.04 is the best choice overall of the three packages and is recommended for users needing to organize medium-size libraries that include multimedia objects such as animation and sound-file formats. The product is designed more as a scrapbook manager than a database which allows for ease of use. Mariah, unlike the other two reviewed products, stores a complete copy of the original file instead of only a thumbnail image. This method uses up disk space quickly. Multi-Ad Services Inc's $199 Multi-Ad Search is recommended for production and art workgroups since it is a multi-user package that can control files on a server. It offers quick scanning performance and is the only product that automatically indexes whole folders and volumes. Barneyscan Corp's $695 CIS Gallery 1.0.3 is built on ACIUS' 4th Dimension database. Users must manually create each data record and link it to a file, making for an extremely slow process. CIS supports only PICT images and lacks several standard features offered in the other programs. Schedulers now span network. (schedule-management software) Adams, Eric J. Schedule management programs that offer multi-user capabilities across networks are seeing increased use with Apple Macintosh users. Multi-user schedulers can help users track schedules of many people, block out time for groups of users, check for meeting conflicts and remind users of upcoming meetings. ASD Software Inc's Planisoft is the only program currently available that runs interactively across both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Users like the program's multilevel password security and ease of use. JAM Software USA's Multi-User Appointment Diary keeps data files on the server and users can view several schedules at once. The program has no security features and does not allow for simultaneous changes. Peachtree Software Inc's offers daily and weekly views as well as specific appointment searching. The program is aimed toward small professional and service-oriented offices. ON Technology's Meeting Meeting Maker is limited to Macintosh-only networks. The program offers multiple-server configurations and a variety of agenda-scheduling features. Tune up presentations with music - legally. (Creative Impressions Inc.'s Desk Top Music)(MacInTouch) (column) Creative Impressions Inc introduces Desk Top Music, a set of HyperCard stacks on a CD-ROM produced in conjunction with Capitol Production Music. The product consists of over 200 digitized audio clips that users can employ in any in-house, non-theatrical presentations for a $392 annual license fee. Desk Top Music is a Mac volume and not an audio CD-ROM. The clips are comprised of production music designed to be used as background music and users can easily manipulate them with standard Macintosh and HyperCard utilities. Apple releases updated 6.1 versions of all printer drivers for compatibility with TrueType. Drivers are available from dealers, on-line services and user groups. The Boston Computer Society's Macintosh bulletin board reports that the TrueType Startup document (INIT) will run with System 6.05. Now Utilities' MultiMaster file-launching INIT can now automatically add new applications to its programs while they are launched. Troubling thoughts about HyperCard 2. (StackWEEK) (column) Michel, Steve. Developers using some of HyperCard 2's capabilities, including universally available globals and a customizable message-passing hierarchy, need to be aware that these elements can affect multiple stacks. The message hierarchy is limited to 10 stacks in use but other stacks opened by the user can also send and intercept any message. This can create problems with stacks sending messages to other stacks not intended for them. Developing complex tools in HyperCard 2 is more difficult than before and some developers are suggesting that Claris Corp turn HyperCard into a tool for creating stand-alone applications. This would make HyperCard a higher-level MacApp. Users who create stacks or work with the program daily would find this beneficial but Claris needs to make HyperCard safer and easier to use for other types of users. HyperCard with compiling capabilities could make for more problems but developers would have more control over how their stacks would operate. It would be an easy way to avoid errant message passing and could make HyperCard easier for everyone in the long run. Venture capitalists put their money where voice-recognition tech is: Apple said to back Articulate funding. (Articulate Systems Articulate Systems Inc, a developer of voice recognition products since 1986, has benefited from venture capital in its development and release of its Voice Navigator, VoiceLink and Voice Navigator II products. The company reports that sales have increased 350 percent since September 1990. The company recently received $4 million in venture capital from various investors. Articulate plans to use these funds for research and development. Sources contend that Apple's European Investment group was a silent contributor to the recent funding. Apple is also reportedly planning to license proprietary algorithms and software that Articulate is developing. Articulate is considering development of a software-only version of its speaker-dependent recognition voice technology for Apple Macintosh computers. Company representatives contend, however, that there are several elements in today's Macintoshes that prevent a software-only Navigator. SPA steps up anti-piracy campaign. (Software Publishers Association) The Software Publishers Association (SPA), in its increasing efforts to fight software piracy, has filed over 70 lawsuits against accused pirates. The organization has also carried out audits in lieu of investigations at over 50 sites. The SPA operates a toll-free piracy hot line that receives 10 serious calls per day mainly from disgruntled employees reporting on their former or current employers. Officials contend that the software industry loses $2 billion per year in the United States alone and $6 billion to $7 billion worldwide as a result of software piracy. The SPA reports that for every copy of software sold in the US, there is at least one illegal copy, with most violations occurring in companies with between 50 and 200 computers. The SPA plans to increase its educational efforts through a speaker's bureau, a national advertising campaign and a new video called 'It's Just Not Worth the Risk.' I.B.M., after two ripples, hopes to make a splash. (PS/2 L40SX laptop computer) (Personal Computers) (product announcement) IBM introduces the PS/2 L40SX laptop computer, which is the company's third attempt to develop a successful machine for the market. The 20MHz Intel 386SX-based L40SX weighs seven pounds and sells for $5,995. The laptop features 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a 60Mbyte hard disk and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. The L40SX is 12.8 inches wide, 10.7 inches deep and 2 inches tall, allowing IBM to equip it with a full-size keyboard. The computer also has a separate keypad for numbers that plugs into a port on the back of the machine. On many other laptops the number keys share space with the alphabet keys. The L40SX includes a liquid-crystal display control panel and a display gauge that indicates how much battery life is left before users must recharge. The L40SX's large-capacity hard drive makes it attractive, but it more expensive than laptop units from AST Research Inc or Texas Instruments Inc. Giving machines voices: you say what you want. (First Byte Inc.'s Monologue 2.0 natural language interface) (Peripherals) First Byte Inc's Monologue 2.0 is a $149 natural language interface that generates speech on any computer running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. Monologue can either store the text version of words with its corresponding sound version, like a dictionary, or it can pronounce each word it encounters according to a set of predetermined rules. The first technique requires a lot of memory, but provides clearer pronunciation; the second technique results in mispronunciations due to the irregularities in English. Monologue is memory-resident, so users load it at the beginning of a session and simply call it up via two key presses when necessary. Monologue works with several speech accessories including Covox Inc's Speech Thing, a $79.95 attachment that enhances the computer's voice. Users can modify the voice's volume, speed, pitch, tone and gender. A.T.& T. and NCR hold talks: no accord announced; no further meetings are said to be planned. (NCR Corp. agrees to negotiate a The chairmen of AT&T and NCR Corp meet to negotiate a resolution to AT&T's hostile takeover attempt of NCR, but reach no accord on price and schedule no further talks. NCR's share price increased $1.375 to $99.625 on the New York Stock Exchange, and the computer maker said it will share confidential business information with AT&T to persuade the company to raise its $100-a-share bid, worth $6.77 billion. AT&T canceled a two-day meeting of 50 company managers in order to consider NCR's offer. Analysts speculate that a deal between the two companies is imminent as a result of NCR's willingness to negotiate. If AT&T wins control over NCR's board at a special shareholder's meeting, it has agreed to reduce its $100-a-share bid to the original $90 a share, or $6.09 billion. AT&T could significantly expand its equipment businesses with the acquisition of NCR. Kodak's $5,500 hydra combines workgroup printing and convenience copying. (Hardware Review) (Kodak Ektaplus 7016PS) (evaluation) Eastman Kodak Co's $5,495 Ektaplus 7016 combines a high-speed work-group laser printer with a 6-page-per minute photocopier in a single unit. The machine prints 16 pages of computer output per minute and is also available in a $6,995 PostScript version, the 7016PS. Performance is excellent, and the printer offers very flexible paper-handling features. There are two 250-sheet paper trays; the printer automatically switches trays when one is empty. The 7016 has parallel and serial interface ports standard and room for two additional ports, all of which are active simultaneously. Users can set time-out intervals for each port and can assign a name for each. Standard emulations include HP LaserJet II, IBM Proprinter 9-pin, Epson FX-80, HPGL and Diablo 630; the 7016PS has Adobe PostScript and a dedicated 68020 processor with 4Mbytes of RAM. Users can make copies even when the machine is printing a job, although the copying features are somewhat limited; the unit cannot handle sheets larger than letter size. Drawbacks include the fact that the print engine uses separate toner and drum components; the toner is expensive, and the 'drum' is a plastic film belt which is easily damaged. The HP PCL emulation also suffers from some glitches, and the documentation could be improved. The Ektaplus is nevertheless a very good value. Clipboard, meta keys, compiled scripts - ProComm Plus continues to please. (Software Review) (ProComm Plus 2.0 communications ProComm Plus 2.0, the first major upgrade of the popular communications program since 1988, offers improved performance and ease of use while retaining its familiar interface. The product now supports a mouse and can customize and sort its dialing directory. Three new commands let users add new entries, sort entries and attach notes. A new filename clipboard automates the selection and transfer of files from remote systems. ProComm's PCEDIT text editor has also been upgraded and can be toggled between word processor and program editing modes. The Aspect scripting language has a new ASPCOMP compiler that speeds script execution and dramatically saves disk space. It also features a new syntax and many new commands. ProComm Plus is currently available for $119; upgrades are $39 for registered users and include documentation. High speed redefined: two V.32bis modems. (Hardware Review) (includes related article on V.32bis standard) (evaluation) Forval America's $1,045 IM14400 and US Robotics' $999 Courier V.32bis are both sophisticated modems implementing the emerging V.32bis CCITT standard for data transmission speeds. Both are fully compatible with earlier standards and use MNP and V.42 error correction protocols. Each modem is based on the Texas Instruments TMS320C25 chip, and both can operate in full- and half-duplex modes synchronously as well as asynchronously. Both support the Hayes AT command set. The Forval comes bundled with a licensed OEM version of Digital Communications Associates' Communications by Crosstalk communications software, while the US Robotics unit has 12 LED indicators on its front panel and is well documented. HP unveils SCSI-2 disk system in 486 file server. (HP Vectra 486/33T) (Hardware Review) (Small Computer Systems HP's high-end Vectra 486/33T file server uses the Small Computer Systems Interface-2 (SCSI-2) bus design in its hard disk system and can handle up to 200 network nodes or 100 Unix terminals. The sturdy tower chassis is made of plastic-clad steel and costs $9,499 with 4Mbytes of RAM and no hard drives; fully-configured units with 440Mbyte disk drives cost $14,499. The Vectra's CPU performance is average for its class, and the SCSI-2 system is disappointing in disk-intensive benchmarks. DOS does not test the multitasking power of SCSI-2, and the machine fails to tap its potential fully. Video performance is excellent; the Vectra comes with a Headland Technology 16-bit Super VGA card. The Vectra 486/33T has eight 32-bit EISA expansion slots and six half-height drive bays. Santa Fe Media Manager transforms your database into a multimedia experience. (Software Review) (HSC Software Santa Fe Media HSC Software's $595 Santa Fe Media Manager multimedia software is a flat-file database that integrates graphics and text data with audio playback. Users can associate a graphic and a sound file with each database record, playing the sound and displaying the image when the record is displayed on-screen. Users can assemble catalogs of information using Santa Fe Media Manager. There are some restrictions on how data is displayed and manipulated; new records are always appended to the end of the table with no sorting mechanism. Users can control the record order in presentations by assigning numbers to slides. Santa Fe Media Manager requires no ultra-sophisticated hardware; it runs on any 80286-based microcomputer with a Super VGA video card, 512Kbytes of video RAM and 320Kbytes of expanded memory. Adding a sound board is recommended, and extra memory and a fast hard disk will enhance performance. Canon's low-cost still video imaging kit suits DTP needs. (Canon Still Video Computer Imaging Kit) (Hardware Review) (desktop Canon USA Inc's $899 Still Video Computer Imaging Kit includes a Xap Shot video camera and Digital Vision's ComputerEyes digitizing board along with image control and file formatting software. The Canon Xap Shot camera is a fixed lens still video camera that records images onto a special magnetic floppy disk. It performs well, automatically metering ambient light and compensating for dark shooting conditions via its built-in flash. The ComputerEyes board is an 8-bit digitizer that fits into any available expansion slot and comes with EYES imaging software. It requires only 640Kbytes of RAM and a graphics display. The Still Video Computer Imaging Kit does not offer the highest performance available but is a good value for its price. CA-SuperProject: new DOS version goes graphical. (Software Review) (Computer Associates International Inc SuperProject) (evaluation) Computer Associates International Inc's $895 CA-SuperProject 2.0 project management software package remains DOS-based but includes a graphical user interface with many Windows-like features. It replaces both SuperProject Plus and SuperProject Expert but is more expensive than either. The new interface includes a white screen background color, bars and boxes that can be interactively manipulated, WYSIWYG printing, pull-down menus and mouse support. CA-SuperProject 2.0 opens with a blank Gantt chart which users can customize extensively. Users can plan projects by month and year or by the minute. Eight earned value fields support government contract reports, and the package includes resource leveling with and without overtime. It has a resource efficiency field and can alter resources over time. Performance is very good, and the software has both a novice mode of operation and several levels of 'expert' mode. ObjectScript opens windows for BASIC and C developers. (Software Review) (program development tool for Microsoft Windows ) Matesys Corp's $495 ObjectScript development system for Microsoft Windows simplifies the development of Microsoft Windows applications in C and BASIC and contains 50 built-in commands for creating an application directly. ObjectScript commands can display and hide objects, open and close windows, run programs from disk, display messages and load data from a file into an object. The ObjectScript language is a superset of BASIC and is compatible with Microsoft QuickBASIC. It includes an editor and a compiler and lets users associate commands or scripts with an object. The package does not support customized messages or message handlers as do some competing systems, and it suffers from poor documentation and missing sample files. It is nevertheless an excellent value. Who-What-When Enterprise monitors group happenings. (Software Review) (Chronos Software Who-What-When Enterprise networked Chronos Software's $695 Who-What-When Enterprise is a work-group version of the company's popular personal information management system that lets individual users maintain personal calendars, phone books, card files and to-do lists while reconciling individual information with group schedules across a network. The program is designed for project tracking, shared resource management and functions such as scheduling meetings. Who-What-When Enterprise is based on the Btrieve database engine from Novell Inc and runs on any microcomputer with at least 396Kbytes of RAM. The shared calendar provides an immediate overview of group schedules, and a 'meeting maker' function resolves conflicts. The program has a messaging facility for creating group mailboxes and a Reports menu for printing personal information. ForComment: electronic editing by committee. (Software Review) (Access Technology Inc.) (evaluation) Access Technology's ForComment 2.0 is a work-group text editing package that lets users import a WordPerfect, Microsoft Word or ASCII file, create a distribution list and allow multiple users to edit and annotate the document. ForComment is especially easy to use in a network environment; the program notifies reviewers using the MHS mail service in Novell NetWare and uses Lotus-like menus in its character-based user interface. Users can mark up documents by attaching comments to a specific line, suggesting a revision for multiple lines or add overall comments about the document to a 'notepad.' All changes are saved to a copy of the text, keeping the original text intact. ForComment is not suitable for routine copy editing chores; users must revise an entire line to insert a missing comma, and there is little support for cutting and pasting. The screen windows are also small, making it difficult to get an overview of all comments and changes. Monologue reads text through your PC's speaker or speech accessory. (Software Review) (voice synthesis software from First First Byte's Monologue is a $149 utility that lets microcomputers read text from the screen and play it through the computer's built-in loudspeaker or through a speech-generation accessory. Monologue is especially useful for the disabled, and its voice is realistic enough to communicate effectively. It includes a configuration program that lets users build an exception dictionary for words its algorithm cannot handle. The user can change program parameters on the fly, and a separate utility reads ASCII text files from the disk. An optional device driver lets users create voice annotations in spreadsheets via macros. Monologue is a useful program that opens up many possibilities for interaction with a computer. Back to BASICs. (Bill Machrone) (column) Machrone, Bill. Writing small utility programs can be rewarding for many users and helps them develop and maintain coding skills. PC Magazine offers utilities in downloadable form on the PC MagNet on-line service and includes source code, which lets users determine exactly what the program does and make their own modifications when necessary. The authors of the software are also accessible on the PC MagNet Programming Forum, letting end users participate in what is essentially a class in program design and economical coding. Building the right PC for tomorrow. (room for improvement in microcomputer design)(Jim Seymour) (column) The computer industry needs to consider ergonomics when designing microcomputers and improve several key areas that affect user comfort and convenience. High-resolution video displays increasingly suffer from screen flicker; even IBM's new XGA standard supports only interlaced video. Eliminating glare is another important goal that could be accomplished by making the screen flatter, and better LCD panels are under development as well. Noise reduction is an important problem in system design. Today's microcomputers tend to be noisier than their predecessors because they include two fans. Ergo's Brick computer uses a flat thermal-gel pouch in contact with the case and motherboard instead of a fan for cooling and offers a very sophisticated LCD. New keyboard designs could reduce repetitive-strain injuries among computer users. So-called 'hydra' units that combine fax machines, scanners, copiers and printers can reduce office clutter. Easier to use? (William F. Zachmann) (column) Zachmann, William F. The computer industry is working to develop software systems that are easier to use than those of the past, but so-called 'ease of use' is often more of a marketing tool than a reality. Artificial intelligence and natural language interfaces were highly touted in the mid-1980s but have fallen out of favor; current ease-of-use 'solutions' include multimedia, pen-based systems and graphical user interfaces. Well designed graphical interfaces are desirable, but the 'religion' which claims an easy-to-use computer will bring computers into every home is false. Microsoft Windows 3.0 is not as easy to use as the Mac and is more complex than DOS in many respects. Software is not becoming easier to use; the true definition of technological advance is the empowerment of users to do more complex and useful things with their machines. 16-inch monitors sized for Super VGA. (Hardware Review) (overview of eight evaluations of large Super VGA monitors)(includes related Ten leading 16-inch Super VGA monitors from eight vendors are reviewed. Higher-resolution displays let Microsoft Windows display more characters per screen, and larger screens make the resulting denser text readable. All the tested monitors offer very similar performance. Factors to consider when selecting a monitor include resolutions supported, frequencies handled and screen refresh rates.'Auto-sizing' lets a monitor automatically maintain a constant image size across multiple modes. Flexible connectors and flat screens are also advantageous. The Idek MF-5117 and NEC MultiSync 4D monitors are rated Editor's Choices for overall quality and value. Dell Computer Corp.: Dell Graphics Performance Display 16C. (Software Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors Dell Computer Corp's $1,099 Graphics Performance Display 16C high-resolution monitor is bundled with the company's high-end microcomputers and is an OEM version of the Nanao 9070S unit. It lets users choose between analog and digital input modes and is attractively priced. The monitor supports vertical scanning frequencies ranging from 50 to 80 Hz and has very well-designed controls. The GPD-16C performs most video mode interpretations automatically; users cannot program the monitor to work with special modes. Dell is a mail-order vendor with an extremely solid reputation for service and support. Hewlett-Packard Co.: HP D1188A. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors in '16-inch monitors sized for HP's $2,795 D1188A 16-inch high-resolution monitor is an OEM version of Mitsubishi's Diamond Scan 16L monitor but includes some extra features added by HP. The improvements include a better user manual and a focusing enhancement that is intended to eliminate fuzziness at the edge of the screen. The 'dynamic beam focusing system' causes horizontal and vertical pincushioning in VGA and Super VGA modes respectively. The HP monitor's picture controls are mounted on the front and use a 'menu select' mode to provide feedback. It can save up to 18 additional settings. A major advantage of the D1188A is HP's renowned service and support. Idek MF-5117. (Hardware Review ) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors in '16-inch monitors sized for Super VGA.') Idek North America's MF-5117 16-inch high-resolution monitor offers the ability to handle either digital or analog signals, a bright picture, enough inputs and scan frequencies to handle most graphics cards and flexible controls at a bargain price of $1,795. Image quality is generally good, although there is some slight S-shape line deviation. The MF-5117 is especially good at reproducing subtle color shadings. Idek offers a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. THe MF-5117 is rated an Editor's Choice for overall quality. Noninterlaced resolution is 1,024 by 768. IOcomm ThinkSync 17 CM-7126. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors in '16-inch monitors sized for IOComm International Technology's ThinkSync 17 CM-7126 high-resolution monitor sells for $2,295 and automatically responds to signals from a wide variety of graphics boards. The monitor uses a Toshiba CRT and has a horizontal scanning frequency range of 30 to 75 kHz. Brightness and contrast controls can be locked to the user's preferences. The ThinkSync produces clear, accurate images with near-perfect line-width ratios, although there is some flicker and jitter at the edges that is especially noticeable when running Microsoft Windows in Super VGA mode. Convergence is excellent; the monitor produces solid 1-pixel-wide lines with no blurring. The ThinkSync 17 is a solid, capable monitor despite its shortcomings. Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc.: Mitsubishi Diamond Scan 16L, Mitsubishi HL6615 (TK). (Hardware Review) (one of eight Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc's $2,030 Diamond Scan 16L and $2,150 HL6615TK monitors are essentially similar, but the TK unit offers higher resolution and a wider bandwidth. Both are relatively inexpensive analog-only units that can handle resolutions ranging from 640 x 480 pixels to 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. The monitors automatically compare frequencies they sense with preprogrammed timings and use the closest one. Users can program the monitors via a complex proprietary method. The Diamond Scan unit performs better in tests than the TK, which has some swim problems. Both monitors are nevertheless solid and dependable choices for power users. Nanao USA Corp.: Nanao FlexScan 9070U, Nanao FlexScan 9080i. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors Nanao USA Corp's $1,779 FlexScan 9070U and $1,999 9080i 16-inch high-resolution monitors offer above-average performance and powerful capabilities. The 9080i has FCC Class A certification; the 9070U is certified Class B. The 9070U can handle both analog and digital signals and has rear-mounted thumbwheel controls for brightness, contrast, vertical and horizontal size and position. Both display high-quality video; the 9080i is an analog-only unit that supports intelligent microprocessor control of most settings. Either monitor is an excellent solution for a high-end graphics system, but the 9080i is the better choice for those who do not need digital capability. NEC Technologies Inc.: NEC MultiSync 4D. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors in '16-inch monitors sized NEC Technologies Inc's $1,499 MultiSync 4D is a powerful, sophisticated 16-inch high-resolution monitor that offers strong compatibility with a variety of display adapters and convenient controls. It automatically determines display ode based on the input frequency and works with MCGA, VGA, Super VGA and 1,024 x 768-pixel resolutions or with the Macintosh II. Front-mounted controls include knobs for size and position adjustment and an input voltage switch. Another switch lets the user switch between D-sub and BNC connectors, while a mode switch moves the monitor between factory default settings. Users can connect two machines to the 4D simultaneously. Performance is acceptable, and street prices should be under $900. The MultiSync 4D is rated an Editor's Choice for overall value. Philips Consumer Electronics Co.: Philips FC17AS. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of Super VGA monitors in Philips Consumer Electronics' FC17AS 17-inch high-resolution color monitor offers only average performance and is somewhat overpriced at $2,695. The unit supports vertical scanning frequencies ranging from 50 to 140 Hz and horizontal scanning frequencies ranging from 30 to 66 kHz. Its controls for vertical and horizontal position are awkwardly located on the back, and the FC17AS cannot automatically keep the image the same size across modes. The monitor can be rotated 360 degrees if enough desk space is available. The FC17AS suffers from cumulative line drift, swim and jitter, but these problems are not generally visible to the naked eye. Graphics tended to look more dull the FC17AS than on competing products. The FC17AS does not have any truly severe problems, but it is not a good value. 12 technical graphics packages. (Software Review) (overview of 12 evaluations of 2-D and 3-D graphics software)(includes related Twelve technical graphing packages designed for scientists and engineers are reviewed. Technical users need to be able to plot large numbers of data points and illustrate the data itself rather than 'trends' which the numbers may indicate. Spreadsheet programs generally lack this sophistication, and some presentation graphics programs focus more on pie charts and special effects than on actual data handling. Three packages specialize in 2-D technical graphs, while Cricket Graph and SlideWrite Plus add business-type charting functions. ProPlot and EasyPlot have some minimal 3-D capability; SDS and Surfer are primarily 3-D plotting programs. Key concerns when selecting a technical graphics package include the ability to import and edit files, fit curves to data and use data transformation functions. Technical graphics programs have more line and data marker symbols available than those intended for business. Graftool and Axum are rated Editor's Choices. Axum. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') (evaluation) TriMetrix Inc's $495 Axum technical graphics program is a sophisticated product that produces a full range of 2-D and 3-D graphs and can handle a variety of curve fits. Graph types include scatter plots, surface plots, contours and filled contours. Axum can handle as many data points as the user has enough memory and disk space for, and can use the hard disk for storage if a machine has relatively little RAM. Axum can be run as a multiuser application on a network, where each user has a separate Project directory. Performance is generally excellent, but creating stacked bar charts is somewhat difficult because the instructions in the manual are incorrect. Users can manipulate graphs in a wide variety of ways, controlling line thickness, tic marks and axis specifications and positioning arrows, legends and other objects interactively. The program also has very strong font support. Axum is rated an Editor's Choice. Cricket Graph. (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') Computer Associates International Inc's $129 Cricket Graph 1.3 is a simple and inexpensive technical-charting package that runs under the Microsoft Windows graphical interface and can produce a wide range of two-dimensional charts. It supports double y-axes, univariate curve fitting, calculated error bars and a wide array of scaling options. The program supports up to 108,000 data points and lets users import data from tab-delimited ASCII and four spreadsheet an database formats. Cricket Graph recognizes only columns of data but allows fairly extensive manipulation of the columns. Users can rename columns to serve as titles for data underneath them. Cricket Graph offers templates for producing high-quality output, and its drawing tools are extremely intuitive. The program's flaws are few but irritating: changing output devices after creating a graph is difficult, and colors are not mapped to black and white well. The mathematical alternative. (Software Review) (technical graphing capabilities of mathematical software packages) The technical graphing capabilities of six popular mathematical software packages from five vendors are reviewed. Wolfram Research Inc's Mathematica has very strong graphics, offering three-dimensional plots that let users adjust the view for a wide variety of effects. Waterloo Maple Software's Maple has weak graphics in its current version, but the vendor is readying a new version that will support two- and three-dimensional plots and allow considerable customization. Gauss 2.0 and Gauss-386 from Aptech Systems offer both 'quick' and publication-quality graphing modes. Gauss lets users create two- and three-dimensional plots, bar graphs, histograms, polar plots and contour plots. Mathsoft's MathCAD has an easy-to-use 'scratchpad,' but the output quality is low. Soft Warehouse's Derive 2.0 is an exceptionally good buy at $250 and has powerful graphics supporting its symbolic manipulation and rational arithmetic capabilities, but the program lacks direct printer support. EasyPlot. (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') Spiral Software's $349 EasyPlot 2.0 technical graphics package is fast and has a fairly good range of mathematical capabilities. It is easy to set up and automatically imports data from ASCII or .WK1 files, graphing it according to defaults or a user-specified equation. The program has a proprietary graphical interface that is somewhat non-standard. Chart types are scattered across several menus, and opening files requires the user to select the Graph or Curve option. EasyPlot supports both two-dimensional graphics and a three-dimensional wire-frame mode. Annotation features are good, and there are many flexible options for manipulating data. Some of EasyPlot's bugs are serious; the program has a tendency to crash, and tick labels can disappear for no apparent reason. EasyPlot is not recommended until it is a significantly more mature program. GraFit. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) Erithacus Software's $430 GraFit runs under the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface and concentrates entirely on showing best-fit curves. The program does not support pie charts, bar charts or histograms but has a wide variety of general least-squares non-linear regressions for virtually any mathematical function. The user imports data into a spreadsheet-like table. GraFit supports tab-delimited ASCII, .DIF and .BSF and PECSS files from technical instruments. It does not support Lotus 1-2-3 files, a serious omission. The program supports 8,000 rows and an unlimited number of columns. Users can obtain excellent printed output because GraFit relies on Windows' font handling features. GraFit suffers from a number of bugs; text is sometimes clipped when printing, and the Save As command does not work with graphs. Graftool. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) 3-D Visions' $495 Graftool 3.3 technical graphing package is extremely powerful and can create and analyze a wide variety of two- and three-dimensional graphs. It supports virtually all common graph types, and graphs can be customized. Users can import data from ASCII or .WK1 files or enter it directly in a 4,096 x 4,096-cell 'worksheet' table that can swap, move, copy or delete rows and columns and compute mean and standard deviation for a specified range. Plots can be overlaid on one another, separated, rotated, positioned or resized. Graftool also includes powerful data tools, including six kinds of regression curves. Printing is slow; redraw times on complex 3-D graphs can take several minutes. Graftool is nevertheless rated an Editor's Choice for its power and versatility. Grapher. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) Golden Software's $199 Grapher is an inexpensive and dependable but limited technical graphing package that supports only two-dimensional graphs. Grapher imports space-delimited, comma-delimited and tab-delimited ASCII files but not .WK1 or XLS files and has no internal data transformation functions. It creates scatter plots, x-y graphs and a variety of line plots. High-low-open-close bars are the only error bars allowed. Curve-fitting functions include linear, cubic spline, exponential, logarithmic, power and polynomial. Graphs are very easy to manipulate; the user can control the axis, labels and symbols used. The user interface is not intuitive, but the documentation is fairly good and include an excellent tutorial. ProPlot. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) Cogent Software's $169 ProPlot is a basic two-dimensional graphing package designed for technical users that can produce publication-quality output on PostScript printers. The user interface is plain and character-based, but the program's command language is easy to learn. ProPlot offers a good range of plotting options and technical scaling capabilities. Users can put multiple plots on one page, overlay graphs and fit graphs into windows within one another. Annotating and resizing graphs, controlling tic marks and re-scaling coordinates is easy. ProPlot can generate PostScript files for rendering on laser printers or PostScript typesetters. The program is both simple and flexible and is a good value for those who do not need three-dimensional capabilities or an elaborate user interface. SDS. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') (evaluation) Datanalysis' $450 SDS is a sophisticated three-dimensional technical graphics package that quickly converts raw data into contour maps, filled contour maps and wireframes. The program has no 2-D capabilities and requires the user to specify all values with short assignment statements; its interface is not particularly intuitive, and there is no command recall system. Installation is awkward, and users can import data only from ASCII files; there is no way to key in information directly or support for .WK1 files. SDS has many features for transforming Z-values and changing viewing perspectives, but there are few cosmetic features for presentations. The program is not a good value. SigmaPlot. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) Jandel Scientific's $495 SigmaPlot 4.0 is a powerful two-dimensional technical graphing package that is an excellent tool for analyzing experimental and theoretical data. Its transformation and curve-fitting functions are exceptionally powerful, and the program includes some statistical analysis capabilities. SigmaPlot supports both regression-based and nonlinear curve fitting and can automatically graph curves. Transformations are accomplished via an extremely powerful command language that can use entire columns of data as mathematical arguments. Statistical comparison of data sets is also easy. The user interface is not elegant; it can be cumbersome to use. SigmaPlot's text-labeling capabilities are excellent, but the limited font selection is a significant problem. Jandel Scientific expects to have an upgrade with improved font support available by Feb 1991. SlideWrite Plus. (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.' ) (evaluation) Advanced Graphics Software's $445 SlideWrite Plus 4.0 is a two-dimensional technical graphing package that excels in creating presentation-quality output. The program includes scalable fonts, robust drawing and annotation tools and support for a wide variety of printers, plotters and slide makers. The program uses pull-down menus but does not behave like Windows; users cannot highlight data in pop-up windows or open multiple MDI-compliant windows. SlideWrite imports Lotus .WK1 spreadsheet files but requires users to define the data within named ranges. It cannot use extended or expanded memory, a serious limitation. Drawing tools are integrated into the package, and there are seven main graph types. SlideWrite Plus has batch printing capabilities and lets users transmit data directly to service bureaus via modem. Surfer. (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') Golden Software Inc's $499 Surfer is a three-dimensional technical graphing package of modest capabilities that products surface and contour plots easily. Surfer will work on low-end hardware but suffers from an awkward user interface with a shell program managing 11 executable files. A GRID module prepares proprietary binary files for the user of other modules and can import ASCII or .WK1 files. Data manipulation tools include functional transformations and column move. The SURF module lets users display a base with or without mesh lines, switch between orthographic and perspective views and move titles and legends while viewing a surface. Surfer performs the tasks it is designed to do well but is somewhat overpriced and difficult to use. Tech*Graph*Pad. (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of technical software programs in '12 technical graphics packages.') Binary Engineering's $395 Tech*Graph*Pad 4.0 is a simple and easy-to-use two-dimensional technical graphing package with a good selection of basic features. Its installation program supports up to three output device drivers, including two printers and one plotter. The user interface is convenient, with hierarchical pop-up menus that 'stack' across the screen. The program reads virtually all ASCII files as well as Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro spreadsheet files, although users may need to modify the spreadsheet files with an ASCII editor. Users can create, alter or merge data files from the file editing menu. Tech*Graph*Pad supports both US and European letter-size paper and both A- an B-size plotter sheets for output. Formatting commands in Tech*Graph*Pad are impressive. The user can place up to ten symbols in one graph and overlay ten data sets on the same graph. Tech*Graph*Pad has all basic features scientists and engineers need for 2-D graphing and is a good value. 2,400-bps modems: affordable access. (Hardware Review) (overview of 14 evaluations of modems)(includes related articles on Editor's Fourteen 2,400-bps modems are reviewed. Modems using the V.22bis standard for 2,400-bps transmission are now widely available for under $300, and a few vendors even offer MNP 5 data compression and the emerging V.42bis compression standard for these low prices. Some modems have RJ-11 telephone jacks wired straight through, while others have dual jacks or designate which jack is which and allow switching between them. Setup usually involves determining what commands the user must embed in a setup string and send to the modem. V.42 and MNP both segment data into 'packets' that contain redundancy checks for error correction. Data compression lets users save money on telephone charges during large file transfers. 2,400-bps modems are an excellent choice for those users whose main reason for buying a modem is to use popular on-line services. The Zoom/Modem V.42bis is rated an Editor's Choice. Accton Technology Corp.: Accton 2400MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Accton Technology Corp's $299 Accton 2400MNP modem is a feature-rich unit that supports full MNP 1 to 5 capabilities at 2,400 bps and has both synchronous and asynchronous capabilities. The default setup is for non-MNP operations; users must alter the factory defaults with command-set instructions to initialize MNP. Accton does not bundle a communications program with its unit. The modem uses a Rockwell/Toshiba chip set and has a well-labeled plastic case with eight LED indicators and three switches on the front panel. Operation is problem-free, and the Accton 2400MNP is a good buy. MNP Class 5: encoding tricks move data quickly. (data compression protocol) Microcom's MNP Class 5 data compression protocol, now available in many low-cost 2,400-bps modems, uses two types of compression algorithms to nearly double the speed of some file transfers. The Huffman encoding algorithm sends the most frequently used ASCII characters in 4-bit groups while encoding less frequently used characters by up to 11 bits. Run length encoding takes advantage of the ease of identifying repetitive strings. MNP 5 uses run length encoding whenever it sees at least three of the same characters in a row. The MNP 5 protocol should be disabled when downloading files that are already compressed because it actually slows throughput. Microcom recently introduced MNP 7, a new compression technique which uses the frequency of character pairs to encode characters. Anchor Automation Inc.: Anchor Modem 24E5. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Anchor Automation Inc's $299 Anchor Modem 24E5 2,400-bps modem uses a CMOS chip to reduce power consumption and heat emissions. It comes with an RJ-11 cable and power adapter but has no bundled communications software. Documentation is through, and the modem offers average performance for its class. A drawback is the modems' FCC Class A rating. The Anchor's plastic case is sturdy but not as rugged as the metal cases in competing modems. The Anchor is relatively expensive for the features it offers, but the CMOS chip is a significant advantage. ATI Technologies Inc.: ATI 2400etc/e. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') ATI Technologies' $299 2400/etc/e modem is a well-designed V.22bis unit operating at 2,400 bps that offers MNP 5 and V.42 error-control protocols and V.42bis data compression. It uses a proprietary chip set and has 12 LED indicators on its front panel. Users can easily adjust the speaker volume with a slide switch. Front panel switches let users control some modem functions manually, and there is a self-test switch. Three different factory configuration options allow basic asynchronous communication, MNP 5 operation and V.42bis operation. Performance is excellent, although a few glitches surface with file transfers. Best Data Products Inc.: Smart One 2400XMNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Best Data Products Inc's $249 Smart One 2400XMNP modem operates at 2,400 bps and includes support for MNP 1 to 5 data compression and error correction. It comes configured for MNP operation out of the box and includes a copy of Smith Microsoftware's QuickLink II communications program. There is no hardware volume control, but documentation is excellent. The heavy plastic case is sturdy and has eight front-panel indicator lights. Users can store configuration settings in non-volatile memory. The Smart One is a solid, sleek and moderately-priced modem that is worth users' consideration. Cardinal Technologies Inc.: Cardinal 2400MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Cardinal Technologies Inc's $299 Cardinal 2400MNP modem offers MNP 1 to 4 error control and data compression protocols and 2,400-bps operation. It is well made but poorly documented, offering a sparse manual that contains only basic instructions and is not well organized. The unit has two RJ-11 jacks on its rear panel and eight LED indicators on its front panel, but there are no LEDs to indicate MNP operation; the modem is configured through software only. Cardinal offers only a one-year warranty but provides unlimited free technical support through a toll-free number. Computer Friends Inc.: LightSpeed 2400LE. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Computer Friends Inc's LightSpeed 2400LE modem costs only $199 and includes an RS-232 cable, which most modems require users to purchase separately. The unit includes the QuickLink II communications program and all cables needed to begin using it out of the box. There are two RJ-11 jacks on the rear panel as well as an on/off switch. The LightSpeed works in synchronous and asynchronous modes and uses an EXAR chip set. It is solid and reliable; the documentation is clear and concise. Performance is very good. The LightSpeed 2400LE is a basic 2,400-bps unit that is an excellent buy for 'no nonsense' modem users. Computer Peripherals Inc.: ViVa 24m. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') Computer Peripherals Inc's $299 ViVa 24m 2,400-bps modem is stylishly designed and has an excellent feature set. The unit has a Sierra chip set and supports both synchronous and asynchronous communication. It uses a natural convection cooling system and has thoughtfully-designed front panel icons. The power switch on the back allows for quick disconnection, and there are two RJ-11 jacks. Users can treat the ViVa as a Hayes-compatible modem for setup. The modem is relatively slow, especially with compressed data files. Computer Peripherals provides technical support via a toll-free number. Everex Systems Inc.: Evercom 24E Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Everex Systems Inc's $299 Evercom 24E Plus 2,400-bps modem offers interchangeable voice and data communications and offers solid performance. It uses an SSI chip set and can store up to four telephone numbers in hardware memory. The eleven tiny LED lights on the front panel are difficult to see, but there is a convenient mute button on the front panel and a speaker on/off switch. Everex provides two RJ-11 phone jacks and a power on/off switch on the rear panel. The Evercom's voice capability is very useful for those with only one telephone line but is compatible with only three other modems. Setup is easy, and the unit automatically defaults to MNP 5 operation when possible. Galaxy Networks Inc.: Pioneer V.22bis/V.42bis. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Galaxy Networks Inc's $299 Pioneer V.22bis/V.42bis modem is a full-featured 2,400-baud unit that comes configured for MNP 5 and V.42 error control right out of the box. It is extremely reliable and offers good to excellent throughput performance. The modem uses a Rockwell chip set and comes in a lightweight molded plastic case; the front panel has eight LED status indicators. The rear panel has two phone jacks, a power on/off switch and a female DB-25 connector. Galaxy says the modem is fully compatible with the Hayes Standard AT Command Set in MNP mode. It should work with any program that supports Hayes-compatible modems, and the documentation clearly explains any adjustments that may be necessary. Galaxy provides a two-year warranty and unlimited technical support through a toll number. GVC Technologies Inc.: GVC SM-24MV. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') GVC Technologies Inc's SM-24MV 2,400-bps modem sells for $299 and includes MNP 2 to 4 error-correction protocols, MNP 5 data compression and V.42 but not V.42bis protocol support. Its performance is slow, although its feature set is robust and includes support for V.42 in factory-default mode. The modem uses an EXAR chip set and offers less throughput than many competing modems. GVC provides good documentation, offers a five-year warranty and unlimited free technical support through a toll number. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.: V-series Smartmodem 2400 V.42/X.25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in Hayes Microcomputer Products' V-series Smartmodem 2400 V.42/X.25 2,400-bps modem has all of the features of the company's 9,600-bps modems, including MNP 5, V.42, V.42bis and X.25 support. It is extremely costly at $649 but is the standard against which other modems are often measured. The V-series uses a sturdy metal and black plastic case and has eight LED indicators on its front panel, with a power switch on the back panel. Performance is excellent, and the phone and data line jacks are clearly marked. Hayes provides many features aimed at corporate users, including PBX interfaces for connection to leased lines and an 'Autostream' feature that allows four virtual connections with other computers. The V-series Smartmodem is nevertheless missing a few features, such as a hardware speaker volume control. Hayes warrants the modem for two years and provides free technical support via a toll number. Incomm Data Systems Inc. Midget 48E. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') Incomm Data Systems' $299 Midget 48E modem is extremely small and light but supports the MNP 5 error correction protocol and is a fairly full-featured device. It has seven LED indicators on its front panel and two clearly market RJ-11 jacks on the rear panel. The modem can operate in command mode or Hayes-compatible mode. It also works in Microcom mode with many communications packages. The Midget does not support synchronous protocols, and it is too small to sit underneath a standard desk telephone. Its documentation is also sparse, and the modem suffers from some reliability problems and runs hot. The Midget 48E is not recommended. Intel Corp.: Intel 2400EX MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') Intel Corp's $349 2400EX MNP 2,400-bps modem is a good value despite its high list price, often selling for less than $250 on the street. The modem uses an Intel chip set and comes with a five-year warranty. It supports MNP 4 and 5, asynchronous operation and many international standards. The sturdy aluminum case is small and has eight LED status indicators on the front panel. There is no indicator for when error correction and data compression are operating. Intel provides factory defaults for Hayes-compatible connections; MNP operations require reconfiguration, but the steps necessary are clearly outlined in the documentation. Unusual features include a built-in diagnostics program. The modem comes bundled with MagicSoft's MTEX communications software. Performance is average for a 2,400-bps modem. Intel provides excellent technical support. Longshine Technology Inc.: Longshine LCS-8824 MNP 5. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: Longshine Technology Inc's $259 LCS-8824 MNP 5 2,400-bps modem uses an EXAR chip set inside a sleek metallic case and has eight easy-to-see LED indicator lights on the front panel. Users must open the modem's case to adjust the volume, but this unusual arrangement nevertheless allows finer adjustments than software-only volume controls. The configuration is factory-preset to MNP 5, allowing data compression right out of the box. The LCS-8824 does not support synchronous operation, and it has only an FCC Class A rating, which detracts from its appeal for home users. Microcom Inc.: Microcom QX/2400t. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') Microcom Inc's $699 QX/2400T 2,400-bps modem provides full support for all MNP protocols and a superset of existing modem standards that allows for line speeds of up to 4,000 bps. The front panel has seven LED status indicators. The unit has several high-end features aimed at corporate users, including password protection, remote reconfiguration and support for the enhanced MNP 7 data compression and MNP 10 error correction standards. MNP 5 is automatically enabled out of the box. Performance is above average, but not as good as that of modems using the international V.42bis standard. Microcom provides free technical support via a toll number, above-average documentation and a one-year limited warranty. Micro Integrated Communications Corp.: MiCC 4824/SA. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: Micro Integrated Communications Corp's $295 MiCC 4824/SA 2,400-bps modem offers support for the MNP 1 to 5 data compression protocols and V.42 error correction. It is reliable, although it is not the fastest modem available. MiCC uses an EXAR chip set enclosed in a beige aluminum case with eight LED status indicators; there is no indicator to inform the user when error correcting is enabled and no manual volume control. The rear panel has two clearly labeled RJ-11 jacks. Users can control a variety of states manually via an eight-position DIP switch on the bottom of the modem. Documentation is somewhat inadequate, but MiCC offers free technical support via a toll number and a two-year parts-and-labor warranty. The 4824/SA is an adequate but not outstanding value. Practical Peripherals Inc.: Practical Modem 2400SA MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: Practical Peripherals Inc's $299 Practical Modem 2400SA MNP offers average performance and excellent reliability at a reasonable price. It supports the MNP 1 to 5 data compression and error correction protocols and has seven LED status indicators on the front panel. A high-speed light indicates connection speed by color coding, and the receive data indicator flashes green when the MNP circuits detect and correct an error. The two RJ-11 jacks on the rear panel are interchangeable. Practical Peripherals' documentation is exceptional, and the unit claims 100 percent Hayes compatibility by using the same Rockwell chip set. The modem comes with a five-year warranty and free technical support via a toll number. Prometheus Products Inc.: ProModem 2400 Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Prometheus Products Inc's $299 ProModem 2400 Plus is a mid-range unit with many good features but nothing to make it stand out from competing units. It comes with a telephone cord, power adapter and two-year warranty. The case is made of high-impact plastic with a tinted plexiglass cover over the front panel, which has eight LED status indicators. The rear panel has two clearly marked RJ-11 jacks and a volume control. Setup is easy, and the unit automatically defaults to MNP 5 data compression. The ProModem offers average performance and good technical support. Supra Corp.: SupraModem 2400MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable access.') Supra Corp's $199.95 2,400-bps SupraModem 2400MNP offers a variety of good features at a very low price. Its case is too small to fit under a standard telephone but takes up little desk space. There are two adequately marked RJ-11 jacks on the rear panel and eight LED indicators on the front panel. The modem defaults to a 'smart' mode for receiving common AT commands and features an Intel chip set. It supports the MNP 2 to 5 error correction protocols; Supra offers a $40 upgrade to V.42bis capability. Supra provides a five-year warranty and free technical support via a toll number. Performance is average for the modem's class. U.S. Robotics Inc.: Sportster 2400 MNP. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable U.S. Robotics' $299 Sportster 2400 MNP modem offers interesting styling and reliability but few extra features to justify its price. It works only in asynchronous mode and has MNP 2 to 5 error correction circuitry. The modem requires US Robotics rather than Hayes-compatible software because it uses a different MNP 5 setup string than Hayes. US Robotics bundles DCA's Crosstalk Communicator with the $239 internal version of the modem. Documentation is thorough, and performance is adequate. The Sportster is very dependable, connecting at midrange speed with all other modems. US Robotics provides a two-year warranty and free technical support on a toll-free line. Zoom Telephonics Inc.: Zoom/Modem V.42bis. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of modems in '2,400-bps modems: affordable Zoom Telephonics Zoom/Modem V.42bis offers advanced error control and data compression protocols at an attractive price of $299. It supports MNP 2 to 5, V.42, and V.42bis standards and uses a very sturdy metal case designed to hold a large multiline desk phone. The two RJ-11 jacks on the back panel are interchangeable, and the front panel has easy-to-see red indicator lights. Users can store four telephone numbers of up to 36 digits in non-volatile memory. The communications software must support flow control in order to take advantage of the V.42bis and MNP 5 features; only a few programs yet list the Zoom/Modem in their menu selections. Zoom provides BBS support and free technical support on a toll line as well as a two-year warranty. The Zoom/Modem is rated an Editor's Choice. System setup: the inside story. (Software Review) (overview of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities)(includes related Eleven utility programs that offer system setup and configuration reporting are reviewed. Setup utilities focus primarily on determining what is installed in the user's machine and giving advice about optimum configurations rather than determining what has gone wrong. The packages are generally designed for expert users, and some technical knowledge is often necessary to effectively use the information they provide. Even the best packages sometimes misidentify processors and coprocessors and overlook I/O ports. Some query memory rather than hardware directly. Buyers should choose a package that offers accurate reporting in the areas the system administrator most needs information about. Manifest and InfoSpotter are rated Editor's Choices. ASQ. (version 1.1 from Qualitas Inc.) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of configuration reporting utilities in 'System setup: Qualitas Inc's ASQ 1.1, available as freeware through on-line services and user groups, is a competitive system-reporting program that contains advertisements for other Qualitas products but is not limited or crippled in any way. The Memory Analysis report covers all aspects of system memory, while Configuration Analysis displays the contents of the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Hardware Analysis summarizes the CPU type, DOS version, coprocessor, bus type, CPU speed, system BIOS information, ports and video summaries. An 'advice' section includes useful information that can help users optimize the system. ASQ supports a mouse and has comprehensive context-sensitive help. CheckIt. (CheckIt 3.0 from TouchStone Software) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in 'System TouchStone Software's $149 CheckIt 3.0 reporting and diagnostic utility offers solid configuration reports and a variety of diagnostic and benchmark tests, but its user interface is bleak in appearance. The main menu has options for Configuration, Interrupts, Memory Map, CMOS Table and Device Drivers. The Configuration screen is a summary of DOS and EMS versions, BIOS manufacturer and date, microprocessor and coprocessor, installed memory, memory configuration, active video adapter, disk drives, I/O addresses and mouse and joystick status. It lacks information for a second monitor but does change the equipment byte the BIOS keeps to indicate a math coprocessor in a system that does not have one. The CheckIt Interrupt report describes IRQ and direct memory access usage, but misses DMA assignment by an inactive tape backup drive. CheckIt is a strong diagnostic and benchmark program, but its setup and reporting facilities are not outstanding. Control Room. (from Ashton-Tate) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in 'System setup: the Ashton-Tate's $129 Control Room is a limited system setup and reporting utility that examines a variety of system configuration aspects but lacks some key features. It examines total and available conventional, extended and expanded memory as well as CPU cache and wait states but does not list interrupts, information on UMBs, ROM other than system ROM or DOS file handles and buffers. The hardware reporting features are also weak: there is no information on bus type, IRQs, or game ports. Control Room's best features are its ability to work on a network and its thorough context-sensitive help. InfoSpotter. (version 2.5 from Merrill and Bryan) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in Merrill and Bryan's InfoSpotter 2.5 system setup and reporting utility is an ambitious $79.95 package that retrieves more information than most competing packages and gives users advice about how to optimize their systems. It can run as a standalone application or as a terminate and stay resident program. The program gives extensive details about CMOS, BIOS, I/O and video port status; thorough information on hardware and software interrupts; and the ability to display the contents of anything in memory. It can also work with any memory manager. InfoSpotter does not identify SCSI or ESDI hard disks and does not show the processor speed of the CPU, and it failed a test for mismatching hardware and software information about the presence or absence of a math coprocessor. The program is rated an Editor's Choice for overall quality and value. The Mace Utilities. (version 1990 from Mace Utilities) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in Fifth Generation Systems' $149 Mace Utilities 1990 is a powerful general-purpose utility package, but its system setup and reporting features are weak. It offers only a single screen that tells what type of machine the user has, the number of disk drives and ports and brief memory information. It describes even 80386-based PC clones as IBM ATs and can be tricked into stating that the machine has a math coprocessor when it does not. Users can obtain full disk statistics through the MUSE sector editor in Mace, but there is no information about the partition table or whether the disks installed are MFM, ESDI or SCSI drives. The System Statistics program lacks a help screen. Manifest. (version 1.01 from Quarterdeck Office Systems) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in Quarterdeck Office Systems' Manifest is one of the most intelligently designed system setup and reporting utilities available. It is available separately for $59.95 or bundled with the company's QRAM, QEMM-386 and DESQview products. Manifest can be loaded as a memory-resident program but requires 120Kbytes of RAM. The user interface is exceptionally convenient, and the program provides in-depth information. Its main 'overview' screen reports the CPU type, math coprocessor, video adapter, BIOS maker and date, serial and parallel ports, enhanced keyboard BIOS and total and available conventional, extended and expanded memory. An 'Adapter' subtopic reports on video adapters, disks and I/O port parameters. Other subtopics deal with memory handles, and a 'Hints' section advises the user on how to optimize the machine. Manifest is rated an Editor's Choice. The Norton Utilities. (version 5.0 from Symantec) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in Symantec Corp's $179 Norton Utilities 5.0 includes a SysInfo utility that is the best setup and reporting program available in a general-purpose utility package, although it is not as good as specialized programs. SysInfo is not always accurate in displaying hardware interrupts and I/O port information, but its disk information is thorough. It does not identify advanced ESDI and SCSI adapters, but Norton Utilities comes with a Calibrate program that does. SysInfo is a basic but usable configuration package that is good for 'quick looks' but not sophisticated enough to resolve difficult software and hardware problems. PC Tools Deluxe. (version 6.0 from Central Point Software) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting Central Point Software's $149 PC Tools Deluxe 6.0 is a feature-packed general-purpose utility program with many powerful capabilities, but its system setup and reporting features are extremely limited. The single System Information screen is available from the main PC Shell menu and indicates the processor type, number of serial and parallel ports, whether a math coprocessor is installed and the amount of memory available and in use. It can identify a second monitor and ROM BIOS extensions in upper memory, but the information is inadequate for avoiding conflicts. PC Tools does not distinguish between physical and logical disk drives. Its information is accurate despite its limitations; those who buy PC Tools for its other features may find the system information useful, but systems managers will need a more powerful package to resolve problems. QAPlus. (version 4.52 from DiaSoft) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in 'System setup: the DiagSoft's $159.95 QAPlus diagnostic utility package provides a variety of system setup and configuration information. It correctly locates game ports, but can misidentify a math coprocessor because it does not query the hardware directly. The program displays a list of memory blocks in conventional but not upper memory. It offers interactive tests of mouse, joystick and keyboard configuration and has an exceptional interrupt request display. QAPlus can display t he DOS device drive chain and contents of the current environment. There is no information on non-system ROM, EMS blocks, DOS file handles or buffers and no display of software interrupts. QAPlus is not recommended for serious system managers who need to resolve conflicts. System Sleuth Analyzer. (version 2.2 from Dariana Technology Group) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system Dariana Technology Group's $79.95 System Sleuth Analyzer system setup and reporting software gives crucial I/O port information not offered by its competitors, but it is weak in other areas. The program can report on the processor I/O ports used by many hard disks, add-in boards and video cards. System Sleuth checks to see if a device is present in order to prevent conflicts between expansion cards. Other reporting features in System Sleuth are not ambitious. The program provides a graphical representation of memory as a 'slide rule' and displays the contents of each memory segment as the user moves the slide. Users should be cautious with System Sleuth Analyzer; it does not report the content of EMS memory blocks, bus type, processor speed or COM port parameters, and it can mistake a memory-resident program in high memory for the system BIOS. WinSleuth. (from Dariana Technology Group) (Software Review) (one of 11 evaluations of system reporting utilities in 'System setup: Dariana Technology Group's WinSleuth is a Microsoft Windows 3.0 configuration reporting utility that offers an elegant interface but does not provide in-depth information. The $149 program displays tasks running under Windows by name, the amount of memory available to Windows and other information that is interesting but of no practical use. It shows the capabilities of printers and video drivers, but these are not easy for users to change. WinSleuth takes little advantage of the Windows graphical environment, and its disk icons do not give users an idea of disk capacity. Most of the information it provides is available in lower-priced Windows utilities. Customizing macros, menus and templates in Word for Windows. (Lab Notes) (tutorial) A guide to creating customized menus, templates and macro instructions in Microsoft Corp's Word for Windows word processor is presented. Word for Windows has a BASIC-like macro language that is only superficially covered in Microsoft's documentation. Users must attach a template to every new document file; the default template is NORMAL.DOT. Templates are model text files that Word for Windows recognizes by their filename extension. The user does not need to copy a Windows Word template manually or read it into a new file every time it is used. A Word for Windows template can include a complete set of macros in addition to boilerplate text and formatting settings. Macros may be either keyboard macros, which consist of keystrokes and mouse clicks that are recorded and played back, or programmed macros, which may include keystrokes but also add programming logic. Word for Windows' macro language is a modified subset of BASIC. Microsoft records macros as absolute commands rather than as keystrokes, letting users customize the menu structure and key assignments. Technical details of macro programming are discussed. Create and customize your own icons for Windows 3.0. (Utilities) (tutorial) IKE, an icon editor utility that lets Microsoft Windows 3.0 users create new icons and modify existing ones, is presented. The program cannot edit the specific icons Windows 3.0 itself supplies, but can build new icons from scratch for the Program Manager to use to represent programs. Users can download IKE from the PC MagNet on-line service. IKE must be able to both load and write files in the format detailed in the Windows Software Development Kit documentation. It takes advantage of device independent bitmaps and renders icons directly on a wide variety of display hardware. The program works by intercepting and processing certain Windows messages. It supports owner-drawn controls and creates buttons for each icon. IKE can be expanded to create and edit Windows cursors. An introduction to palette animation under Windows 3.0. (Environments) (tutorial) Techniques for creating palette animations under the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are presented. Palette animation differs from bitmap animation in that it does not require the machine to actually redraw images, relying instead on manipulation of the video board palette to change the colors or objects and render some images invisible against the screen background. Programmers can smooth the animation by overlapping more images in different color shades under the Windows Graphics Device Interface. Detailed instructions are given, and a sample program, BOUNCE, which moves a bouncing ball across the Windows screen is presented. Actor: a development environment for Windows applications. (Power Programming) (tutorial) Techniques for working with The Whitewater Group's Actor, a true object-oriented programming (OOP) environment for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface, are discussed. Actor programmers use a variety of special-purpose windows; the Display window is a default output frame for Actor's advisory and error messages, while the Workspace window is used to enter source code and the Browser window is a specialized class definition editor. The File Editor window is an ASCII text editor, and the Debugger window is used for debugging. Actor's programming language is a combination of Smalltalk, C Pascal, FORTH and QuickBASIC. It comes with an elaborate class library for creating user interface elements, but its class hierarchy bears little resemblance to those of other object-oriented programming tools. Advantages and disadvantages of Actor are discussed. NCR and AT&T chairmen hold talks; little progress toward merger is seen. NCR Corp's Charles Exley Jr.'s and AT&T's Robert Allen's five hour meeting discussing the attempted takeover by the telecommunications giant revealed little headway towards a settlement, according to analysts. The meeting was held just three days before the special shareholder meeting where AT&T will attempt to oust the current NCR board of directors. AT&T needs 80 percent of the vote to remove the board and replace it with one of its own choosing. Analysts believe Exley spent much of the time praising his company's new computer product line in an attempt to convince AT&T that NCR is worth more than the $100 per share currently being offered. U.S. proposes rules on computerized airline bookings. (Transportation Department) The Department of Transportation plans to implement new rules governing the flow of flight information in reservation systems. The move is planned to foster more competition in the market and to allow travel agents to switch from one system to another. Computerized reservation systems have become the norm for travel agents booking travellers and checking flight information. The move would also cut the reservation system manufacturer monopoly on the software used in such systems, allowing third parties to develop packages. Additionally, the proposed rule changes would allow any travel agent to access any ticket information from any carrier, not just the the airline that supplies the terminal. IBM sets accord with AT&T, and will re-enter laptop market. Carroll, Paul B. IBM and AT&T have announced an agreement to cooperate in the area of network management. Many analysts believe the trend towards larger and more complex networks, and the use of computers to manage them, is behind the agreement. IBM is also expected to announce its re-entry into the world of laptop computers. While the market for network management is certainly not huge, those companies competing for market share do so with a view to future additions should they gain control of the core networks. Many analysts believe that a consequence of an IBM-AT&T accord would be the virtual standardization of much of the network management market, because both companies are leaders in the field. The Silicon Valley orchestra is playing in tune; incredibly, over 40 companies may share designs and standards. (Top of the News - A consortium of computer manufacturers and software publishers led by MIPS Computer Systems Inc plans to announce specifications for standardizing reduced instruction-set computing (RISC)-based computers at an Apr 9, 1991 meeting in New York City. DEC, Compaq, Microsoft Corp, Santa Cruz Operation Inc and other companies form the nearly 50-member coalition that intends to compete against Sun Microsystems Inc's market dominance. Sun's SPARC chips are by far the biggest-selling in the $4.2 billion market. IBM also is a big seller, having sold $1 billion worth of RISC-based computers in 1990. In 1990, 31,460 computers using MIPS' chip were sold. Many of the coalition members support the Open Software Foundation's version of the Unix operating system, while other companies considering a move to join, such as Sony Corp and NEC Corp, presently back AT&T's version. The baby Bells learn a nasty new word: competition; breaking up local phone monopolies - via new technologies - looks to be the Regional Bell holding companies face increasing competition from start-up companies providing microwave, fiber-optic and personal communications network services. Long-distance carriers and cable-TV carriers are also making inroads into the $90 billion local communications market. Analysts predict that increased competition will do for local communications what the 1984 breakup of AT&T's monopoly did for long-distance service. Competition may provide for increased telephone use, better efficiency and lower costs. The new companies are using novel technologies and lower prices to coax business away from the local phone giants. Fiber-optic lines allow for installation of multiple carriers into the same site, which traditional copper line cannot do. Computerized networks allow customers to retain their phone numbers whenever they move. Future phone? The PCN is a wireless to watch. (personal communications network) (Information Processing - Wireless communications services pose competitive threats to the local telephone service monopolies. Personal communications networks (PCNs) are one type of wireless service gathering momentum in the challenge to traditional wire-based systems. The US Federal Communications Commission has not committed itself yet on regulation regarding the use of the public airways. Some PCN startups are exploring the use of microwave communication bandwidths to overcome conflict with established airwave use. Technical and financial problems stem from the need to construct several antennas to service a single area. An alternative method involves using cable-TV networks. PCNs face immediate competition from the established cellular telephone market also, but PCN promises to be a cheaper service. Will fast and cheap be Data General's salvation? Ronald Skates's high-risk gambit: slash R&D and build hot boxes. (Data Genera Corp Data General Corp, under the leadership of Ronald L. Skates, has cut its research and development expenditures to nearly 8 percent of its annual sales in an effort to focus on producing fast and inexpensive workstations. Data General's Aviion workstation sales were worth about $120 million in 1990, and the computer manufacturer is counting on them to fill the gap left by sagging Eclipse minicomputer sales. Data General has spun off its Japanese subsidiary, Nippon Data General, to Omron Corp for $46 million, and has cancelled joint product development projects with other companies. The Motorola 88000 microprocessor-based Aviion workstations compete directly with products manufactured by Sun Microsystems Inc, IBM and DEC. A newer version of the Aviion workstation is three times as fast as DEC's VAX 9000 mainframe and costs one-third as much. Prices for the workstation start at $100,000. Bits & Bytes. (Information Processing) (product announcement) Eng, Paul M. Microsoft Corp introduces its $175 BallPoint trackball mouse for use with the Windows graphical user interface on portable computers. The device is pocket sized and eliminates the need for a flat surface. Sierra On-Line Inc and Broderbund Software Inc are merging in a stock exchange worth $88 million. The software developers are merging to combat slow microcomputer game market growth. Inference Corp's latest version of its ART-IM program development software uses case-based reasoning to make expert decisions. ART-IM 3.0 searches thousands of entered cases to match best with a particular case in order to propose a solution. Oracle Corp's Oracle Parallel Server computer network software synchronizes many several computers performing parallel processing functions. The software keeps the computers informed when each calls up data and speeds the combined processing performance of the computers. Unisys Corp is developing its A19 mainframe computer with super-scalar computing techniques, allowing the computer to overlap up to 140 operations. The product is aimed at Unisys' former Burroughs Corp customers. US West launches Compass. (US West Communications Group Inc.'s Communications Programs for Advanced Switched Services) US West Communications Group Inc has begun a three-year trial program called Communications Programs for Advanced Switched Services (Compass). Compass will involve six users: Health One Inc, the Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Northwest Airlines Inc, Moore Data Services, the University of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota. The users will develop computer-, voice-, and image-networking applications. Compass should help develop a framework for interswitch connectivity in an asynchronous transfer mode environment. It is expected to strengthen its initial users' competitive position. The RS/6000: a router future? (router based on IBM's RISC System/6000 computer) IBM's introduction of a multiprotocol router based on its RISC System/6000 workstation is expected to fill a gap in the firm's networking strategy. IBM needs to supply routers in response to users' implementation of distributed computing systems. Routers are an important link for local and wide area data networks because they allow users to connect disparate LANs, including those from different manufacturers. The software will be supplied by a third-party vendor, but the name of the supplier is unclear and IBM has not announced a product introduction date. New net mgm't role for RS/6000. (IBM's RISC System/6000 computer) Bonafield, Christine. IBM is planning to make application programming interfaces (APIs) for its OS/2 LAN Manager network operating system available to developers and to offer network management software for its the RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) workstations and AIX operating system. operating system-based management applications. The new product strategies are part of a plan to open network management to other vendors while assuring users that IBM will help them distribute and improve network management across their enterprises. IBM is also planning to diversify its non-mainframe-based network management platforms to take advantage of the capabilities of the RS/6000 workstation and server. Novell ships new, improved NetWare. (NetWare 2.2) (product announcement) Novell Inc has introduced NetWare 2.2, which combines the features of four previous versions of the NetWare network operating system. NetWare 2.2 provides easier installation at a lower cost than the other versions. Installation of even complex configurations can be completed in less than one hour. The introduction of NetWare 2.2 demonstrates Novell's commitment to work-group computing. Enhancements over previous versions include improved management of server memory, better performance and more flexible support for of network printers. The price of the package is based on the number of users. A five-user version of NetWare 2.2 sells for $895, while a 50-user version costs $3,495. The future may be made in Japan. (telecommunications)(last part of an ongoing series) (Network Infrastructure) A new communications network that NTT America Inc plans to develop in Japan is expected to be superior to the US telecommunications infrastructure. Japan, unlike the US, has a formal government plan to develop a broadband network. NTT, with over $43 billion in 1990 revenue, plans to install an all-digital network by late 1997 and optical fiber connections by 2015. NTT's motivation for network modernization came from customer needs, tax incentives and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' guidelines. Services that NTT plans to offer between 1991 and 2006 include high-definition image transmission, intelligent data services and mobile communications. Some US experts believe that Japan's network will lure US businesses to Japan, while others do not believe that the network will be a serious threat to the US. A frame-relay first. (WilTel's frame-relay service)(includes related article on Convex Computer Corp.) WilTel has begun selling WilPak, the first public frame-relay service. WilTel is several months ahead of US Sprint Communications Co, British Telecom PLC, and CompuServe Inc, which all have announced plans to introduce frame-relay services. WilPak, which uses T1 access speeds, will provide the fastest access speed of any of the services proposed by the long-distance carriers. Users are able to set minimum and maximum transmission speeds and can turn into public providers without investing in hardware. WilTel will not charge for usage, but it will charge a fixed monthly fee based on the transmission maximum and bandwidth needed for each port. New router-bridge. (Timeplex Inc.'s Time/LAN 100 Router*Bridge) (product announcement) Timeplex Inc is planning to introduce the Time/LAN 100 Router*Bridge high-end internetworking device in Apr 1991. The product is capable of supporting Ethernet, token-ring, and Fiber Distributed Data Interface local area network (LAN) connections, as well as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Timeplex is the first major manufacturer of T1 multiplexers to develop a high-end internetworking product. Experts believe that the integration of LAN internetworking products and backbone networking products under a single network management system will be critical to Timeplex's strategy. IBM profit forecast reflects shift. (poor earnings forecast reflects computer industry's increasing focus on smaller, IBM has blamed its poor earnings forecast on economic conditions, but industry experts feel that poor earnings are the result of IBM's failure to shift its emphasis from mainframes to smaller, network-oriented computers. IBM predicts that 1st qtr 1991 earnings will be 90 cents per share instead of the $1.95 per share predicted by Wall Street. Experts believe that IBM should have been able to predict the decrease in sales sooner. Some 60 percent of the decrease in sales can be blamed on the weak economy in Europe, while 40 percent can be blamed on IBM's inability to take a leadership role in distributed systems. Internet gets X.400. Jackson, Kelly. Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have allowed Internet network users to use the X.400 Message Handling System (MHS) pilot service, which will allow Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) electronic mail on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network. The pilot system, which connects seven sites and a few users, has been operating since Sep 1990. Not all Internet users are ready to exchange their TCP/IP services for OSI, but many organizations have signed up for the service. The Internet Pilot X.400 Service lets users exchange mail with other X.400 users around the world or with Internet electronic mail users. Stratus targets telcos. (Stratus Computer Inc.'s XA/R 20 RISC-based fault-tolerant system and Stratus Intelligent Network Stratus Computer Inc has introduced the XA/R 20 RISC-based fault-tolerant system and the Stratus Intelligent Network Applications Platform software package for telecommunications providers. The XA/R 20 is based on the Intel 80860 RISC chip, costs $247,000 when bundled with the FTX Unix-like operating system and $275,000 when bundled with the VOS operating system. The Stratus Intelligent Network Applications Platform, which provides such services as 800 numbers and automatic call distribution, costs $85,000. Bellcore decision. (Bell Communications Research Inc.'s decision not to pursue further development of frame-relay services) Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore) has decided to stop pursuing the development of frame-relay services. Bellcore responded to the increased interest in frame-relay services by organizing a meeting with interested Bell regional holding companies to decide whether the research company should conduct further technical development of frame-relay service specifications. Some of the Bell companies are interested in conducting trials, but they are not sure whether the trials will be profitable. The Frame Relay Forum has also voted to officially incorporate and has elected a board of directors. Why NCR uses Ardis' packet-radio network. Levine, Judith. NCR Corp's service personnel are using Ardis Co's two-way packet radio network to contact their home offices because the radio service is more efficient and reliable than other systems. NCR and Ardis signed a three-year, $15-million contract for the service in Feb 1991. Field engineers are able to answer users' calls more quickly. The engineers obtain information about service calls by using a hand-held terminal containing a radio modem, and Ardis' national packet-radio network transmits the information. The advantages of the service include lower costs and the ability to contact engineers directly. The ties that bind: HP exec sees Unix as key. (HP's Bernard Guidon) HP General Systems Group general manager Bernard Guidon argues that the conventional belief that Unix has little to do with corporate networking is wrong and that the Unix and network markets are closely tied together. Users are expected to spend $2.4 billion on RISC-based Unix systems in 1991, and HP is expected to have the largest share of the market for any single vendor. Guidon states that corporate networking is evolving into tiers of desktop, departmental and backbone network users and that Unix is becoming the environment of choice for the backbone level. HP's product line includes minicomputers and workstations that run the company's version of Unix and a variety of internetworking devices. Analysts say that new Unix standards will strengthen its position in the marketplace. HP has formed a strategic alliance with database vendor Informix Software Inc for joint development work. Are cellular modems good for anything? (new communications technology) Cellular modems promise users the ability to reliably transfer data over long distances without access to high-quality telephone lines, but whether users will embrace the new technology remains unclear. Microcom Inc, Milidyne Inc and Telebit Corp are developing cellular modems, but the technology is still relatively new and the few products on the market are costly. Most users are not yet convinced that cellular modems can be of strategic importance in meeting their needs. Another danger is that cellular data technology will become obsolete rapidly because cellular radio is migrating from analog to digital signaling. Microcom is developing the MNP 10 cellular-modem standard, which it says will be aimed more at use with poor-quality land lines than for actual cellular transmissions. Looking for ISDN expertise. (Integrated Services Digital Network) Semilof, Margie. An increasing number of small and medium-sized firms are expressing an interest in ISDN, but they have few sources to contact when looking for professionals who can help them implement the technology. The primary reason for small businesses' ignorance about ISDN is that telephone companies have not educated their small-business account representatives about ISDN. Some telephone companies such as Illinois Bell Telephone Co provide ISDN information through seminars and training programs. Most ISDN seminars are targeted toward vendors. ISDN has to overcome several obstacles before it will be widely accepted, including the lack of user applications, incompatible vendor specifications and slow deployment by telephone companies. In the meantime,small and medium-sized firms will have to settle for developing in-house expertise and using outside sources for research. A network revolution breeds the superserver. (includes related articles on NetWare, applications, and multiprocessing) The market for superservers has emerged, and reliable network superservers are being developed by several computer manufacturers. Superservers combine the fastest microprocessors, large memories and large disk storage capacities. The attractiveness of superservers is partly due to their backward compatibility. The new generation of servers can also be configured with several CPUs. Servers should be able to store at least 16 megabytes of error-checking and error-correcting RAM, and most devices are capable of even greater storage capacities. Superserver costs are comparable to minicomputer costs, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000. The components used in superserver design include intelligent disk shadowing and uninterruptible power supplies. Superservers are ideal for users who have implemented more servers as LAN usage has increased. Where it began: the Systempro. (Compaq Computer Corp.'s superserver) (Interoperability Guide) Compaq Computer Corp's Systempro superserver initiated a new standard for performance and reliability when it was introduced in late 1989. The Systempro, the first true superserver, contributed considerably to the popularity of client-server computing. It can handle up to 128Mbytes of RAM, and extra 2Mbyte, 8Mbyte, and 32Mbyte memory modules are available. Performance problems related to high disk drive speed are minimized by using bus master devices with their own processing power. Disk mirroring and disk guarding protect against loss of data. There is a lack of software support for multiprocessing, a factor users apparently are willing to overlook. The Systempro is fast, reliable, and scalable. It costs $26,999 for a system with 8Mbytes of RAM. Options include a $6,999 additional 486 processor and tape backup drives ranging in price from $1,999 to $5,999. NetFrame NF200: not what it seems. (NetFrame Systems Inc.'s superserver) (Interoperability Guide) NetFrame Systems Inc's NF200 has a design similar to that of a mainframe, but it is actually a powerful network superserver. The design is the result of NetFrame's goal of using mainframe features to serve a network. The NF200 does not contain an operator terminal, a keyboard or a floppy-disk drive. It has a memory capacity of 32Mbytes and comes with a 380Mbyte, 5.25-inch hard-disk drive. A total of 3Gbytes of internal storage can be obtained by adding hard drives, and 16Gbytes of internal storage can be obtained by adding external cabinets. The design of the NF200 provides the advantages of multiprocessing while allowing network operating systems to run without modification. The design also lends itself to new server-based applications. The Server Activated Maintenance diagnostic and maintenance interface can be programmed to report system malfunctions or crashes. The cost of the NF200 is $26,500. Is the PS/2 95 a superserver? (IBM Corp.'s Personal System/2 95) (Hardware Review) (Interoperability Guide) IBM's Personal System/2 95 (PS/2 95), which is marketed as a local area network (LAN) server, may be considered a superserver. The machine has a sleek, modular design and an easily upgradeable central processing unit. The PS/2 95 can store up to 32Mbytes of RAM and includes such storage options as a CD-ROM drive and a high-capacity tape drive. One possible problem for network managers is that IBM does not market a 32-bit Ethernet LAN adapter for the PS/2 95, but it does sell a 32-bit token-ring network adapter. There is also a lack of support for multiprocessing. The cost of the PS/2 95 is $17,745. DEC's MicroVAX: the minicomputer as network server. (MicroVAX 3900) (Interoperability Guide) DEC's MicroVAX 3900 minicomputer can function as a network server. The MicroVAX achieved high price/performance levels when it was introduced in 1985, and both processing speed and memory and disk storage have increased drastically since then. DEC strongly emphasizes connectivity, and the MicroVAX comes with 32Mbytes of error-checking and error-correcting memory. Its RA90 disk drive is capable of storing 1.2Gbytes of data. DEC offers users several service options, including telephone support and on-site service, but the service contracts are expensive. Novell's NetWare for VMS allows a VAX to emulate a Novell server. The package does have some limitations, such as the difficulty of incorporating a VMS server onto a microcomputer-based NetWare local area network. Combining the software with the MicroVAX 3900 can provide a reliable alternative to conventional microcomputer-based servers can be obtained. VARs face competition from aggressive users: resellers shift strategy to keep pace. (value-added resellers) Time Inc joined the ranks of technology-consumers-turned-solutions-providers when it announced it would enter the electronic-publishing-solutions market. A number of companies have decided to market internally developed solutions to consumers in order to recover research and development costs. Some of these end-user-VARs have been given official status by vendors. This promises to alter an already competitive VAR channel. Resellers in many diverse niche markets are seeing cases where users convert from technology consumers to solutions marketers. The list includes Westinghouse, General Electric and Mellon Bank. The trend is common enough that many resellers are taking particular notice. They find comfort in the fact that not all such conversions are successful. It does force resellers to reevaluate their businesses. They complain when vendors award reseller authorizations to users but the complaints have not slowed the trend. War's end changes users' game plans. (Persian Gulf War) Caginalp, Elizabeth G. The end of the Persian Gulf War is forcing Fortune 1000 companies to reconsider 1991 business plans. Many are expecting a fast end to the recession and are planning to increase microcomputer spending, according to a recent Gallup Organization poll. Only 30 percent feel that the recession will last until Sep 1991. The previous poll, conducted during the war, found 54 percent preparing for recessionary constraints. Some 68 percent, now that the war is over, expect business improvements and 11 percent will increase microcomputer spending. The average Fortune 1000 corporation plans to spend $196,000 on microcomputer hardware and software, up from $148,000 in Feb 1991. The figure could go higher. Fewer companies forecasted a spending decrease. Lotus to unveil 1-2-3 upgrades: OS/2 functionality for DOS. (Lotus Development) Lotus Development plans to introduce major upgrades of its two current DOS spreadsheets in spring 1991, according to company sources. The company is still preparing Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows for beta testing, which was scheduled to begin in Mar 1991, and has been delayed. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 will include all of the features of 1-2-3/g, the OS/2-based spreadsheets. The solver, an advanced feature providing optimal solutions to problems with many variables, is most in demand. The solver will be implemented as a foreground function under single-threaded DOS. This means that because of DOS' limitations no other work can be done, explaining one advantage of OS/2 over DOS. Some other features will include pull-down menus, multiple windows and dialog boxes. Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 for XT-class systems will incorporate Impress, the same WYSIWYG display technology used in 1-2-3 3.1. Impress facilitates complete editing in WYSIWYG mode and will replace Allways, which was bundled with 1-2-3 2.2. The Big Blue empire strikes back: Apple education edit: IBM responds. IBM issues a reply in the battle over the education market by revealing improvements to its Certified Education Specialists (CES) policy. The announcement comes three weeks before Apple Computer's edict, insisting that its K-12 resellers drop other vendors or lose authorization, goes into effect. Program enhancements include payment of setup, training and orientation fees when an order is placed rather than after service is rendered, the ability use education sales toward minimum renewal criteria and a tangible commitment to cooperation between dealers and the vendor's direct-sales force. Education dealers were basically in the installation and support business and will now be involved in lead generation and marketing to schools. Dealers will be able to utilize marketing resources like training, direct mailing and the chance to hold executive briefings. Dealer representatives will also be paid bonuses for sales into the education market. Resellers say the Apple policy has forced some positive changes at IBM. 1Q sales look mixed: VARs seem to buck trend felt by others. (first quarter, value-added resellers) Major dealers and reseller chains expect to post lower revenue and sales in the 1st qtr of 1991 as users cut back on spending plans. The VAR channel, however, seems pretty much unaffected. IBM's stock experienced a $12.75 drop in price on the day the vendor reported flat earnings for Mar 1991. Industry analysts say this is symptomatic of an industrywide problem. Sales have also softened for Compaq Computer, NEC Technologies, ValCom and Inacomp Computer Centers. VARs, however, report that Jan 1991 and Feb 1991 were record months. Evernet's business, excluding sales figures from its acquisitions of LAN Solutions and Acer Technologies training centers in 1990, rose 25 percent in the 1st qtr of 1991. GNP Computers is experiencing a banner year, regardless of the unsteady economic times. MicroAge reported weak sales through Feb 1991. Leasing revenue for Microcomputer Center/Connecting Point are up 50 percent. New NetWare boasts fault tolerance: Novell claims ease of installation; VARs express caution. (value-added reseller) Novell Inc consolidates its four workgroup NetWare network operating systems into one product, called NetWare 2.2, which brings fault-tolerance to even small local area networks (LANs). Company officials admitted that the move was partly a response to Microsoft's LAN Manager strategy. IBM will market NetWare 2.2, although it will have different licensing and warranty requirements. The most distinctive feature of the new package is a menu-driven installation process to replace the unwieldy NetGen. It can be installed in under 30 minutes. Documentation has been entirely revised and reduced to three paper-bound manuals, replacing half a dozen three-ring binders. Revised documentation has greatly reduced the vendor's cost of goods sold. List prices, which depend on the system. range from $895 to $5,495. Sculley maps out future: Apple to become player in notebooks, RISC. (Apple Computer, reduced-instruction-set-computing, John Apple Computer Chmn John Sculley outlines the far-reaching nature of the vendor's product strategy, which includes new directions for hardware and a shift in philosophy that could mean a licensing of the Macintosh operating system to other vendors. The plans are part of a move to change the vendor into a market-driven company that will work with other vendors. Industry officials and analysts reacted to Sculley's announcements, which were made at a Software Publishing Association meeting with guarded optimism. They pointed out that new strategies outlined by top management are generally difficult to sell to frontline middle managers. Analysts did point out that Sculley's message was in line with one given in Nov 1990 and that if messages remain consistent over a quarter employees will begin to take the company's top managers seriously. Short term priorities include May 1991 shipment of Mac System 7 machines based on the Motorola 68040 chip series and at least two notebook-computer projects to be completed in 1991. Sculley pointed out that while Apple missed the laptop market it would not miss the notebook market. Arrow to offer Sun products. (Arrow Electronics, Sun Microsystems) Gillooly, Brian. Sun Microsystems is expected to sign a distribution contract with Arrow Electronics Commercial Systems Group to sign Unix value-added resellers (VARs) to market Sun hardware with their applications. Access Graphics Technology Inc, Boulder, CO, will be authorized to support 75 to 100 commercial-market VARs who do not buy directly from the vendor. Sun is also recruiting an executive to head up and expand its SunExpress 24-hour product distribution program. SunExpress will let VARs and users obtain certain peripheral products and some software by phoning a toll-free number. Arrow, as part of the new agreement, will create three porting centers: San Francisco Bay Area; Cincinnati, OH; and the East Coast. The centers will be used to help VARs with Unix applications non-scalable processor architecture (SPARC) platforms their products to the SunOS operating system and Open Windows graphical user interface. Access Graphics will add more technical-support and account-management people to handle the increased business. Compaq takes a hard look at VAR channel expansion. (value-added reseller, Compaq Computer) Compaq Computer is ramping up VAR recruitment in some vertical market niches like imaging and computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) as well as certain geographic areas where the vendor is seeking a larger market share. VARs will not necessarily receive specialized dealer authorization. Company officials have traditionally shied away from categorizing any of the vendors resellers as anything but dealers and have limited VARs to the dealer associate VAR program. The vendor now admits to taking a hard look at the VAR channel for networking, integration and specialized applications expertise. Company officials say the recruitment of VARs is integral to high-end strategy. One disadvantage is that some vendors offer more discount for more value. NexGen RISC chip will debut in June: Connection: upcoming Compaq workstations could use F86 processor. (NexGen Microsystems Inc., The arrival of NexGen Microsystems' high-performance processors and bus architecture products is expected soon. Company sources say software compatibility testing for NexGen's F86 RISC processor is almost finished and small quantities of the processor will chip in Jun 1991. Industry analysts have been speculating on Compaq Computer's product development plans in conjunction with NexGen since Compaq made an $8 million investment in NexGen in 1990. Those in the know say the F86 processor would be a natural fit as a processor solution for future business systems running DOS, OS/2 and Unix software. It would complement a high-end workstation strategy from Compaq and other vendors. Compaq has declined comment. The first silicon of the F86 processor was finished in Dec 1990. One additional iteration is needed prior to external sampling in Jun, 1991 with volumes to begin in the 3rd quarter. Supply of IBM laptop to be tight? Zarley, Craig; Hedlund, Kristen. Analysts and dealers are afraid that supplies of IBM's PS/2 L40SX laptop computer that could be limited for three to six months because of pent-up demand for the product and a shortage of hard disk drives used in the system. Concerns heightened when some dealers were informed by IBM that it would not quick-ship the new laptop. The vendor's quick-ship program is designed to put demonstration units of new products into dealers' hands on or before a product's unveiling. The lack of a quick ship on the new laptop, according to industry sources, may be an indication that the vendor is holding back units to fill initial orders and that it would be placed on allocation immediately upon introduction. An inadequate supply of the 60Mbyte hard drive from Conner Peripherals could impact availability. Compaq fights back with spiffs. (Compaq Computer) Gillooly, Brian. Compaq Computer, in response to aggressive pricing from competitors, has begun a two-month-long promotion to reward dealers sales representatives and store managers with spiffs for sales of particular machines. Sales representatives, since Mar 1, 1991, have been getting from $45 to $180 in cash from the vendor for sales of 10 different models while sales managers have received $5 to $20 for each sale. Dealer response is mixed. The program covers systems at all processor levels, including a $180 cash payout to representatives and $20 to sales managers for each Deskpro 486/33L sold. The promotion reflects the pressure Compaq has been feeling from competitors that have been cutting prices sufficiently to attract the attention of recession-weary customers. HP offers VARs tech support for Series 9000 line. (Hewlett-Packard, value-added reseller) Hewlett-Packard, in conjunction with the introduction of its new HP Series 9000 workstation, plans to announce the launch of a support program to help VARs bring software for the platform to market. The Diamond Edge program is targeted on providing technical and marketing assistance to the vendor's value-added business partners, including VARs, OEMs and independent software vendors. It's aim will be to enhance the process of getting software compatible with HP workstations to users. The program stands behind the HP Series 9000 models 720, 730 and 750 workstations, which will be introduced in Mar 1990. The new workstations offer processing power beginning at 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) in a base configuration, beginning at a list price of $12,000. HP is offering the same training classes its own engineers take to learn about new platforms or software environments. DCA bundles memory-management software. (Digital Communications Associates Inc.) DCA has begun to market a bundled package to meet a growing demand for memory management products. The package includes DCA's 10Net and Helix Software's NetRoom, a memory management application. DCA purchased a 20 percent share in Helix in 1990. The popularity of Windows and increasing sophistication of users and applications has forced MIS managers to reassess the memory and management functionalities of their existing microcomputers. DCA has found that after buying local area network (LAN) adapters and LAN operating system software users usually purchased LAN memory-management software. Users will free up to 580K of memory in an 80286-based microcomputer. Soft sales, investments squeeze MicroAge net. Hedlund, Kristen. Analysts expect MicroAge to show a year-over-year decline in revenue for the quarter ending in Mar 1991. The reason is an unexpected sales slump during a period in which the dealer is making substantial infrastructure investments. Company officials do not rule out the possibility of a loss for the current quarter. The company experienced a noticeable, unexpected sales drop during the Persian Gulf War. The drop came in tandem with a revenue shift toward lower-margin products, which came at a time when the reseller has spent funds to automate and expand its capacity will be enough to lower income. The dealer chain budgeted expenses for about a 40 percent revenue growth and actual growth came in at about 30 percent. Investment in the national accounts group has doubled the company's business in the area already Hoffstein discovers new challenges. (Gordon Hoffstein, president and CEO of Edsun Laboratories Inc.) (interview) Gordon Hoffstein never dreamed that he might one day walk away from a half-billion-dollar corporation partly because he was not enjoying his work. His position as president and CEO of Microamerica had become very routine and repetitive. He accepted the position of president and CEO of Edsun Laboratories after 10 months. He want to work for a small to mid-size company beyond the start-up stage but under $40 million. He was looking for a company that would show strong growth in the 1990s. Hoffstein finds the decision-making process at a small company exciting. Edsun has created the Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG)/digital-to-analog converter chip, which gives low-cost microcomputers increased graphics and color capabilities. The processor is used by such vendors as Epson and Northgate Computer Systems. Apple positioned to gain market share. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Apple Computer CEO John Sculley gave the keynote speech at the recent Software Publishers Association conference and outlined his company's vision of the industry in the 1990s, including its strategy for being a major player. The company's financial growth prospects remain in question. Apple is likely to reach a market share ceiling in an industry where users are moving to adopt standards. The key to the vendor's long-term financial growth is opening the architecture and creating new markets. Apple, according to Sculley, will be making significant announcements along these lines in the near future. The vendor is expected to exceed earnings estimates of $4.75 per share for fiscal 1991 and could top $6 per share. The stock could trade for as much as $90 per share, which makes it a very positive investment opportunity. Top execs prioritize: study shows the customer comes first. Markowitz, Elliot. CEOs of high-tech companies see customer satisfaction as a high priority and important for the success of their companies in battling foreign competition, according to a survey by Ernst and Young. Some 98 percent of respondents claimed customer satisfaction was one of their most important issues. Number two was ensuring commitment to quality with a priority rating of 92 percent. Ernst and Young officials say the importance of technology is decreasing and the improvement of customer service, quality and organizational excellence is increasing. CEOs are seeing enhanced competition from foreign vendors as US computer companies have enjoyed an edge in technological development for so long. Over 50 percent of respondents feel US firm as quite strong in technological innovation but that stronghold is expected to slip annually. Only 32 percent of those responding believe the US will still be in the lead in 1995. Data General posts its first profit in 5 quarters. Markowitz, Elliot. Data General (DG) returns to profitability after reporting losses for five consecutive quarters and five fiscal years with the aid of a successful new product line and deep cuts in costs. The vendor, for the 1st qtr of fiscal 1991, which ended Dec 29, 1990, surprised Wall Street by reporting a net income of $12.4 million, 41 cents per share, on revenue of $311.7 million. This compares with a loss of $20.5 million, 69 cents per share, on sales of $290.7 million for the 1st qtr of fiscal 1990. Industry analysts were surprised by the report. They had expected DG stock to lose about 39 cents per share but the stock rocketed up $4 to $8.25 a share on the day of the announcement from a closing of $4.25 the previous day. Analysts expect DG to earn about 16 cents per share for the 2nd qtr, which will end in Mar 1991. CA to relocate headquarters to house growth. (Computer Associates International) Computer Associates International (CAI) is making plans to move its headquarters into a new facility early in 1992 in order to clear up internal communication confusion and to house a growing staff. The consolidation into the 675,000, $190 million facility will be beneficial for the company, according to industry analysts. CAI encountered problems accommodating personnel at its current location because of the $1 billion acquisition of Cullinet Software in 1989 and an average annual growth rate of 35 percent through 1989. Management had been forced to lease at least three additional buildings at the current location to accommodate the growing staff. Internal communications were no easy matter because of at least one-half mile between buildings. Employees were often forced to drive to meetings. The new facility will house general offices, a computer facility, warehouse and a recreational area for employees. IBM U.K.'s woes: a sign of things to come for the rest of the industry. (Eurovision) (column) IBM UK has frozen all staff salaries until at least the end of Jul 1991. Company officials admit that the decision would be likely to have repercussions on morale but that there were no other choices. The business environment in the United Kingdom is continuing in a depressed state and many businesses are drastically cutting costs. The decision of IBM UK customers to curtail technological investment decision has impacted the company's sales performance. IBM is not the only company in the UK facing austerity. Feb 1991 sales are being described as some of the worst in history. Recession concerns have enhanced doubts about the advisability of the revised terms Computerland has offered European franchisees. There is some doubt that the franchisees will use funds saved from royalty payment reductions to purchase support services from Computerland Support Europe. Breaking the stalemate in the desktop SQL database market. (structured query language) (On The Horizon) (column) A large network operating system vendor that takes pleasure in going after certain market segments needs to deflate the expensive market-segment balloons so that more funds are available to purchase that company's product. The idea is to allow corporate America a painless migration to microcomputer-based network platforms with That vendor's network operating system at the center. Novell deflated the price of Ethernet cards in a very clever move. The aggressive pricing of the NE1000 and NE2000 Ethernet cards, cut the price of PC Ethernet in half in just six months. Western Digital and 3Com were forced to follow suit. The price of NetWare, on the other hand, went up. Shiva updates gateway: Compatible Systems ships enhanced Ether Route TCP. (transmission control protocol) (gateway/router Shiva Corp and Compatible Systems announce the availability of its enhanced LocalTalk-to-Ethernet connectivity product lines. Compatible, Boulder, CO, has begun shipping a gateway/router called Ether Route/TCP ($1,895), a follow-on to the existing Ether Route router unveiled in Summer 1990. The new product lets Macintosh users on an AppleTalk network connect to a large Unix environment via support of transmission control protocol/internet protocol. It includes two ports for LocalTalk connections and one Ethernet port. The ports operate independently, allowing user configuration. Shiva has upgraded its EtherGate ($1,899) gateway with enhanced software and a $500 price cut for the hardware. Company officials say that EtherGate 1.6 enhances hardware performance and speed. Current users of EtherGate can download the new software via the Shiva Internet Manager, Shipments will begin in the 2nd qtr of 1991. Client/server confusion? Buzzwords: businesses baffled by lingo. Peterson, Tami D. A recent study by International Data Corp discovered that although network-product vendors can define client/server computing, businesses generally cannot. Client/server is not easily defined. Most users have a broad definition. Most think that anytime a microcomputer or workstation asks service in a network and receives it transparently client/server computing is in action. Technically, part of the application must operate on the client and part on the server. Many applications, to add to the confusion, do not offer shared processing. It is not required by every application. Word processing, for example, is a low-disk-intensive applications requiring little more than opening and saving files. Most network versions of work processing software are simply multiuser versions of the single-user predecessors. Gupta, Novell ship SQL Windows for Btrieve. (Gupta Technologies) (product announcement) The first result of the product development partnership between Novell and Gupta Technologies, SQLWindows for Btrieve ($1,595), has been introduced. Run-time versions are available. It will ultimately become part of NetWare SQL. Novell will make the toolkit available over its NetWire information service. Gupta Technologies plans to release its SQLBase Server for NetWare 386 and will eventually offer its entire series of database gateways as NetWare Loadable Modules. Users expect to be able to build attractive front ends for business applications with SQLWindows for Btrieve. Novell officials say the company's goal is to ensure NetWare is a solution for distributed applications. The company will court their Platinum dealers with a seven-city tour targeted toward key value-added-reseller (VAR) partners. There is overlap between VARs for the two companies but there are no plans for joint certification. Data compression emerges: Stac Electronics, others provide greater storage capacities. Data compression has begun appearing in end-user products. Some companies with hard-disk compression offerings are competing for dealer display space and user loyalty. Hard-disk compression offerings such as those with the ability to compress or reduce the amount of space data require on a hard drive promise users a definite increase in storage capacities without the expense or inconvenience of an additional hard disk. Stac Electronics, with existing compression technology for another medium, has developed a compression product for microcomputer hard drives. The vendor has started to ship the Stacker, a data compression product for microcomputers. The Stacker, which is available as either software ($149) or hardware ($229), compresses data by replacing redundant words and phrases. Data can be restored later to its original format. Apple's segmentation plan. (Apple Computer) Zarley, Craig. Apple Computer plans to combine enhanced market research data with more tightly focused business plans for dealers in order to steer the channel toward greater segmentation. The company's plan to segment the channel on a voluntary rather than a contractual basis came out when the vendor announced changes to its annual dealer contract to go into effect Apr 1, 1991. Vendor officials carefully emphasized that the business plan and not the contract would be the vehicle for market segmentation. Resellers will list the top three market segments they plan to address during the year as a part of the business plans that will go with the new dealer contracts. They will also fill out a business plan survey, essentially a fill-in-the-blank summary of the business plan. The company want to know how many dealers are focused on which segments in which markets and align channel focus and capability against opportunity. The data will be used to tailor marketing campaigns to aid dealers in specific geographic areas and to highlight underserved market segments. Symantec's SAM gets a face-lift: version 3.0 of anti-virus program for Macintosh ships. (Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh) (product Symantec is shipping Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh (SAM) 3.0 ($99). The upgrade includes a modified user interface for System 7.0. The program is acknowledged as the best-selling anti-virus program for the Mac, according to industry analysts. SAM, according to vendor information, has accounted for 79 percent of combined sell-through for Ingram Micro and Kenfil Distribution. Several key changes are included in the new release, such as a separate virus-definition file that allows users to update the program taking newly-discovered viruses into account as well as System 7.0 support. Definition file updates would be posted on the developers bulletin board system. They can be downloaded into the Mac system folder whenever necessary. Thee program will take advantage of several System 7.0 features when System 7.0 is released. Specular to unveil 3-D program. (Specular International, Infini-D) (product announcement) Infini-D ($895) from Specular Software, a three-dimensional rendering, modeling and animation program, is expected to be released in Mar 1991. The new package will be available directly from the company until a distributor is picked. Minimum requirements are an Apple Macintosh II with 4M of RAM and a hard disk, Apple System 6.04 and 32-bit QuickDraw. The vendor suggests a 32-bit color card but it is not required. Features include the ability to render to a user-selectable color depth independent of the video board's bit depth, which facilitates photorealistic rendering with a monochrome video system. Free direct customer support will be available. Beta testers were impressed with the program's ability to layer different surfaces onto a single object. PC GUIs are nice, but true GUI apps are still forth coming. (graphical user interface, applications) (Soft Focus) (column) The IBM-compatible computing arena is moving toward graphical user interfaces (GUIs) with the help of Microsoft Windows. The interface is nice but the payoff is in the plethora of graphical applications to follow. This is very apparent in non-technical graphics applications. Some 85 percent of all respondents to a survey by InfoCorp use one or more of these programs on the Macintosh. Only 37 percent use them on the IBM-PC and compatibles. Vendors are strong believers in GUIs. Microsoft has ported PowerPoint from the Macintosh and Aldus has made similar plans for Persuasion. Software Publishing will bring Harvard Graphics to Windows by the end of 1991 and Lotus will adapt Freelance to Windows. Enthusiasm must be tempered by reality. Windows does not need to be a full time environment. A large selection of DOS applications are still not available under Windows. Low-cost alternative: developers forced to produce on CD-ROM. Gross, June. Widespread distribution of software via CD-ROM is not expected soon on the IBM-PC platform but cost considerations in the workstation market seem to argue for full-scale adoption over the next few years. Interactive Systems Corp's migration to Unix System V 4.0 on Intel microprocessor platforms may come bundled with a free CD-ROM player. Oracle is thinking of porting its Unix database products to CD-ROM and including a CD-ROM player. Oracle and Interactive are so anxious to reduce costs that putting the operating system and all of the documentation on one CD-ROM disk and including the player may be less expensive than tape, disk and hard-copy documentation distribution. Software publishers are hoping hardware vendors will move toward widespread bundling of CD-ROM players with workstation operating systems. There are now 20,000 to 30,000 CD-ROM drives installed in the workstation arena, which can be accessed by as many as 700,000 users. Sun Microsystems is including drives with workstation servers. SunOS updates will be distributed only on CD-ROM. The trend toward CD-ROM will come from larger innovative companies. Fighting the competition: promises, promises: vendors' selling tactics leave resellers confused. Competition for corporate accounts is leading software developers to accept almost any style of software distribution a customer wants. It is not likely that one standard will emerge in the near future. The willingness of vendors to accommodate major accounts is causing increasing confusion and frustration among dealers who have to make sense of and manage various plans. Officials of Alpha Software say they are willing to do many things to keep a customer happy. The exception is the company with very rigid rules. Key accounting software for Ernst and Whinney is purchased under a site license. Ernst and Whinney officials say vendors are willing to accommodate them. MicroAge officials see the entire software distribution scene as a headache. A single solution is unlikely to surface soon. Mercury ships fax software for group transmissions. (Mercury Software Systems, facsimile) (de/Fax communications software) Mercury Software Systems ships its de/Fax facsimile software ($395), which is designed to accomplish group transmissions from a microcomputer and record fax activity into a database. The program does not currently facilitate the reception of facsimile transmissions directly into a microcomputer. Company officials say the vendor is testing SQL technology that would facilitate the transmission of faxes to network servers. The program is compatible with circuit boards compliant with the DCA/Intel CASM standard, which was developed originally to work with DataEase International's DataEase 4.2. Industry analysts say that the capability to send faxes through microcomputers is more and more important and will eventually be a part of motherboards. The recent hardware technology explosion should influence software sales, especially among workgroups. Windows steals show: OS/2 camp overshadowed at trade expo. Clancy, Heather; Shore, Joel. Windows developers dominated a recent Windows and OS/2 exposition in San Jose, CA in spite of a token showing by IBM and OS/2 supporters. The show was designed to exhibit the benefits of graphical user interface operating environments. It was not surprising, given the scarcity of mainstream Windows applications, that Windows Development and programming tools were very visible at the show in March 1991. The products were focused on a broad user base, ranging from corporations to programmers. Many vendors that had originally targeted OS/2 Presentation Manager development tools presented products for the Windows environment. These included Digitalk, Easel Corp, GUIdance Technologies and MDBS Inc. Knowledge Garden Inc introduced a performance upgrade to its object-oriented development tool.Tigre Object Systems announce the availability in May 1991 of the Windows version of its Tigre Programming Environment. Brock gains IR status. (Brock Control Systems, IBM Independent Remarketer) Brock Control Systems, just months after porting its Activity Manager Series software to the IBM RS/6000, attains value-added reseller or Industry Remarketer status with the vendor to include its proprietary package with RS/6000 workstation systems. The program provides closed-loop management capabilities for database marketing, telemarketing, account management and field sales automation, order processing and customer sales and support. The reseller's product is being marketed as a vertical telemarketing solution for IBM. Company officials say the IBM name is a major benefit of the agreement. It carries a great deal of influence with users. The relationship represents the reseller's second agreement with a vendor of reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) systems. Brock signed a complementary software house agreement in 1990 to offer the Unix-based Activity Manager on Digital Equipment Corp RISC systems. Great Plains offers affiliate program (Great Plains Software) Boyd, Wallace. Great Plains Software instigates an affiliate program partnering software resellers with value-added resellers (VARs) in an effort to leverage its technical expertise outside the accounting vertical market. The Great Plains Affiliate Program, according to company officials, is meant to give the developer's own resellers access to specific vertical markets through VARs, many of whom do not have experience in the accounting area. VARs without high-end accounting solutions, as Great Plains affiliates, can pass accounting sales leads to authorized Great Plains dealers, many of whom are accounting consultants. They will then help the VARs analyze a user's accounting needs and implement a highly specific solution. The VARs will receive referral fees and a 78 percent discount on its Great Plains Complete Accounting Series software for in-house use. Each series module lists for $795. Industry underworld: Apple, Compaq and psychopaths. (Apple Computer, Compaq Computer) (The Pipeline) (column) The computer retailing industry is becoming extremely intense and competitive. Among the factors in this are: the recession, tightening of credit, vendors pushing increased volumes and vendor-forced selectivity along with a renewed push for required authentications such as IBM Advanced Connectivity and Compaq's Multiple Advanced Specialities. All of these factors are tending to create a structure of advanced support, pressuring dealers toward their psychological and financial edge. Service dealers are being segregated by vendors. Okidata plans to toll out an Elite Dealer program in April or May 1991 which will include training and spare-parts kit requirements. AST's Advanced Service Center program costs $19,000. Resellers lack unlimited financial resources. Sun, nervous about alternative clones, is trying to control exclusivity. And Apple is trying to dictate who sells to whom in the education market. Add new vendor training requirements and enough is enough! A 'uniform' approach: franchisors purchasing franchised stores. (computer retailing) Computer retailing franchisors are discovering that the purchase of franchised locations in major markets may be a necessary evil as they seek to establish a presence in the most competitive markets. Major market presence is a basic requirement for those dealers who want to present a uniform approach to the servicing of national accounts. MicroAge officials say the company has always had a philosophy that company-owned stores should be in the major markets. The company goal is 12 to 15 company-owned stores in the major markets, but the figure now lies at seven. The purchase and sale of franchisees has remained a timing issue relative to coverage opportunities. Other franchisees are emphatic about how store ownership in major markets can help correct problems. ComputerLand officials call the purchase of franchise stores a trend in certain markets where the image is not right or where some key ingredient is lacking. AESCs saying no to Apple: some place bets on IBM. (Apple Education Sales Consultants, Apple Computer) Some Apple Education Sales Consultants (AESC) are refusing to follow the vendor's new K-12 education marketing program and are going to IBM instead. Officials of Intelligent Electronics franchise Office Technology Inc (OTI) say the company's size and longevity allowed officials to make a principled rather than a business-oriented choice. OTI has been in operation for 28 years and posts an annual revenue of $20 million. Approximately 70 percent of the company's education revenue can from Apple prior to the decision to choose IBM over Apple. The company's IBM education business has grown to 30 percent in two years, a much faster growth rate than Apple. Once OTI decided to drop Apple IBM asked them to increase their involvement in their education program. 'Keying in' information: order entry: online systems gain popularity. The on-line order-entry systems for national computer distributors, which were created in a move to facilitate easier business transactions with the reseller base and to leverage a low-cost operational advantage, have gained a bigger audience with resellers and distributors. The first entries into the market were Merisel's Dial-Up SalesNet and Ingram Micro's Computer-Assisted Purchasing System (CAPS). Both distributors plan to unveil system upgrade before the end of 1991. Tech Data has introduced its Tech Data On-Line, which, according to company officials, is a competitive move. The on-line services are most critical for national accounts and larger corporate resellers purchasing commodity products. It is attractive for commodity items that do not require consultation with a sales person.The on-line order-entry systems provide dealers with access to the distributors overall computer system, which offers a comprehensive list of informational materials on accounts and products. The Tech Data and Merisel services are available 24-hours per day. Ingram plans to expand service to 24 hours. Networking for profit: technical know-how crucial for success. (computer networking distributors) Computer distributors nationwide are realizing that networking has become an essential market for success in 1991. Large and small distributors are counting on the highly technical nature of networking and connectivity to create a better profit margin for themselves and the dealer customers. There is a new angle to the success picture: the combining of two once separate markets; networking operating systems and multiuser systems, especially UNIX. Industry analysts report that regardless of product focus the successful network distributor will serve its customers: value-added resellers (VARs) who need support and service from qualified technicians. The commonality in business will be what they need to be to get the business. The product mix of networking and multiuser products and offerings will decide the business winners. Officials of PC Distributing point out that the key to networking market success will depend on training as part of the value-add a distributors can provide. Network training gets ramped up: support: distributors focus on training. Several networking products distributors have enhanced their service portfolios to include extensive training services, considered a must for building a following among network dealers. The trend is best exemplified by PC Distributing's acquisition of Telematic Inc, a distributor specializing in network training, to enhance its service capabilities. Micro Wholesalers Inc continues to enhance its training service portfolio to remain up-to-date with industry developments. Micro Wholesalers and PC Distributing will gain from their moves into network training services as dealer demand increases. Demand on resellers has never been so great now that more users are putting mission-critical applications on local area networks. The market for serving these resellers is wide open. The length of this trend is difficult to predict. Ingram Micro has provided network training services to dealers such as those required to become authorized to resell products from The Santa Cruz Operation and Novell. Other services have been added to enhance competitiveness. Anixter: no aberration of offerings. (Anixter Bros.) Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Anixter Bros, a distributor of networking products like cable and wiring, is experiencing pressure from customers and vendors to expand into networking computer systems. The company is an authorized network distributor for Digital Equipment (DEC) and a distributor of IBM and AT and T networking products. Products distribution include video, voice, dat and power products from wiring cable for mining and submarines, for instance, to data communications and fiber optics. Company officials are resistant to any changes away from basic distribution of these product types. They do not want to be involved with installation, system design, maintenance, system sales or certification. Officials say they do not know the first thing about systems and are not interested in learning. Easing move to Windows: Corporate Software plan helps firms manage migration. Reseller Corporate Software Inc is working together with Microsoft to develop the Corporate Software GUI (graphical user interface) Pilot Program, which is designed to ease user migration to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The move to Windows requires the consideration of many factors. Some of these include: should the entire organization migrate or just individual groups, how to begin, what does the internal support organization need to handle the migration, which are the best applications and what is the necessary hardware configuration. A qualified partner can better leverage a user's internal resources during the migration. Improved productivity is one big reason for migrating to GUIs. Pilot participants have rated GUI applications higher than character user interface applications for letting users produce reduce faster and more accurately. IBM, Microsoft: small-business planning center. Boyd, Wallace. IBM and Microsoft have introduced a computer-based business planning center together with the western Washington division of the US Small Business Administration (SBA) in order to aid small businesses in the development of business plans and enhance their microcomputer knowledge. The Business Information Center, based in Seattle, features four IBM Model 60s, CD-ROM technology and Microsoft software, along with volunteer counselors from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). Every computer station in the center is equipped with Microsoft Works. The center will also show small business owners and managers what microcomputers can do for their businesses. Participants, although they have heard that computers can help them manage their businesses, have little knowledge of microcomputers. IBM officials say these programs are critical for educating small-business people about computers and showing them how computers are important to retaining the competitive edge in the 1990s. A survey by Microsoft of companies with less than 50 employees showed that fewer than 20 percent used computers. CAD/CAM operator group establishes standards. (Computer-aided design/manufacturing, National Association of CAD/CAM Operators) The microcomputer has redefined some job roles, which means that different experience is needed from company to company. This diversity was part of the reason that the National Association of CAD/CAM Operators (NACO) was organized. NACO is a non-profit organization, based in Houston, and designed to enhance the professional recognition of CAD/CAM operators, sponsor advanced training and offer information for prospective employees and employers. Many employers, according to NACO officials, have expressed the need for standards to measure the capabilities of a CAD/CAM operator. Computer operators apply for positions that call for CAD/CAM knowledge. Prospective employers often take several days to wade through the resumes of unqualified applicants. A ranking system could allow them to advertise for an operator with a certain level of expertise and thus save time. A seven-level certification program has been developed, which includes work experience verification, training verification and testing. Desktops & laptops. (Benchmarks computer industry research report) (includes related article on Gallup methodology) A survey by the Gallup Organization shows that both large and small businesses are purchasing more microcomputer brands than ever before. The evidence is clearest in the desktop computing market where the number of leading brands in use totals 13, up from seven in 1990. AST Research is one of the most notable arrivals, soaring to fourth place on the Gallup roster. One in five Fortune 1000 companies and one in 10 smaller firms use AST systems. The addition of CompuAdd and Wyse Technology shows that businesses are purchasing brands they would not have even considered a few years ago. Laptop and notebook systems are another story. Only six brands made the top-brands list: the same six that were listed in the Gallup laptop poll in May 1990. Some secondary vendors are expected to make the list in 1992. But there will be no new environments in the laptop market in the near future. What's in a supplier: large and small companies have the same answer. (Benchmarks computer industry report on Desktops and MIS managers at larger or smaller companies both know that anything a microcomputer can do for a big business it can do for a smaller one. This is why they think alike when it comes to choosing microcomputer suppliers. A poll by the Gallup Organization shows that MIS managers seek the same qualities in suppliers and flock to and from those suppliers at the same time. Service tops the list of desirable characteristics. Similar emphasis is placed on price, reputation, support and training, and proximity to company headquarters. However, product availability/delivery time, central purchasing agreements and availability of different brands matter more to larger companies than smaller ones. The road to locating acceptable service, for some MIS managers, has been difficult. This is especially true of those who began with minicomputers and depended on the vendors to maintain their systems. Riding out the recession: so far, spending is stronger than expected. (Benchmarks computer industry research report on A poll by the Gallup Organization says that US businesses will purchase at least as many microcomputers in 1991 as they did in 1990, if not more. Fortune 1000 firms have the most ambitious plans. The average company plans to buy nearly twice as many laptop/notebook computers and 26 percent more desktop system as it did in 1990. Smaller companies plan to purchase at least as many laptop and notebook computers as well as desktop computers as they did in 1990. The survey results belie industry concerns that 1991 bring cause cutbacks in computer purchasing. Concerns about the desktop market sector becoming saturated are falling victim to the realization that even those businesses with large microcomputer installations will have to upgrade their equipment.Productivity gains that come along with each microcomputer purchase are so good that they are not likely to be cut from budgets, even during the leanest times. Lands of opportunity: which vendors and resellers can make it big in Europe? (Benchmarks computer industry research report) The European Economic Community is a dream come true for US computer vendors and resellers. Europeans together comprise the world's largest single market. It is, with an estimated population of 323 million, 25 percent larger than the U.S. and 60 percent larger than Japan. Double-digit microcomputer sales growth is still a reality in Europe. Overall microcomputer growth grew 17 percent in 1990, according to industry analysts. Europeans at present do not have as many microcomputers as Americans do. Now is the time for US computer manufacturers and resellers to stake their claim to the European marketplace, according to European trade specialists. The sluggish economy and the slowdown in market growth means that now is the time for US vendors to expand outside the country for growth. Compaq and AST Research are doing well in the European market. ComputerLand's European operations are more profitable than those in the US. And MicroAge has joined with three European firms to enlist established dealers, create marketing programs and unify distribution management. FTC probe won't tame Microsoft: execs pledge to remain 'aggressive' in market.(Federal Trade Commission) Competitors expecting a 'kinder, gentler' Microsoft to emerge from a government antitrust investigation will be very disappointed, according to company officials. The company confirmed that the FTC is looking into a Nov 1989 press release from IBM and Microsoft in which both vendors defined what Windows would and would not do. Microsoft will not back down from its commitment to the industry or from being a very aggressive company. Microsoft will concentrate on creating innovation and standards, which is the correct definition of market leadership. Company officials agreed that the developer needs to continue with and enhance a long-standing policy of maintaining a broad dialogue with those who have problems wither with what the company does or how it is done. Given the intensity of criticisms the company is taking part in more dialogue than usual. Outlook turns bleak as IBM profits slip. Margolis, Nell. Analysts agree that IBM's announcement of poor profit prospects for 1991 means bad new for other firms in the computer industry. The company's 1st qtr profits will likely come in 50% below analysts' expectations. Revenue is likely to remain flat throughout the year. Profits will most likely decline. The fall will be felt across all product lines and in all geographic areas. Company officials blamed the poor profit picture on the reluctance of customers to spend money during a recession or the Persian Gulf War. Analysts seemed to accept that explanation. The analysts revealed that the investment community expected that the vendor would be able to marshal its technological, financial and corporate resources to combat worldwide economic problems. News of IBM's poor profit potential contributed to a 60-point drop in the Dow Jones average as investors apparently took IBM's news as a warning that the computer industry is in for bad economic times. One reason: IS budgets feeling pinch. (information systems) Wilder, Clinton. Corning Inc renewed its lease on its IBM 3084 mainframe computer at a lower rate instead of upgrading. The move was in accordance with its three-year corporate policy of holding information systems spending flat. Corning is typical of many large US corporations whose information systems department are downsizing applications to smaller platforms and doing more with less. IBM's lower revised earnings forecasts that the industry bottom line is feeling the squeeze of tighter information systems budgets. The vendor is counting on US corporations buying new mainframes and they are not doing it. Some officials feel that the economy and the ward has less to do with the company's financial results than the press would indicate. Banyan set to ensnare OS/2 in Vines. (Banyan Systems Inc.) Wexler, Joanie. Banyan Systems says that a version of the Virtual Networking System (Vines) network operating system to support OS/2 users is imminent. Analysts predict that Vines 4.1, which is currently in beta test, will be introduced at the Association of Banyan Users International conference in Toronto. OS/2 will join Windows and MS-DOS in their ability to be added or deleted anywhere across multiple interconnected Vines networks without requiring manual updates to network file servers. Systems running OS/2 will take part in Banyan's Streettalk global naming service, allowing a user anywhere on the network to communicate with other computers without having to know their location or to specify access routes. Vines 4.1 beta-testers say that while bring OS/2 to the client fold is a major step there will be limited application programming interface support initially. Amdahl eyes AD/Cycle turf. (applications development) Hamilton, Rosemary. Longtime IBM mainframe competitor Amdahl Corp is preparing to enter the applications development arena and compete with IBM on another front. Industry analysts expect Amdahl to introduce a highly-automated mainframe development platform that will include a high-level language, code generator and a database management system. Company officials said that a major software announcement is expected but would not elaborate. The announcement of a long-expected IBM 3390-compatible disk drive is also expected. Hitachi Data Systems has had its 3390-compatible disk drive on the market for several months. The Bank of Montreal did test an Amdahl systems development facility code-named Huron in 1989 but discontinued its use as officials did not feel the vendor was serious enough about the software. They will reconsider the decision now that Amdahl is preparing to market the software. Allies to produce RISC low end: Gibraltar Group consortium may try hand at laptops, data centers next. (reduced instruction set The Unix desktop market will have more competition when an industry coalition known as the Gibraltar Group unveils plans early in Apr 1991 to produce a low-end RISC-based workstation. Members of the new coalition include Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer, Mips Computer Systems, Microsoft and The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO). The potential market includes the user base for all of the member companies. The group is apparently not seeking to establish any new standards, only platform specifications. The reference platform will be a set of software and hardware specifications that will comply with de facto or established industry standards. The new workstation will include an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, DEC's Turbo Channel bus and eventually Future Bus Plus. SCO and Microsoft will provide the software. SCO will distribute the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) OSF/1 though Microsoft's New Technology or Portable OS/2 will also be offered. The new workstation will be based on the Mips RISC processor. SPA fights ignorance of software piracy laws. (The Software Publishers Association) The Software Publishers Association (SPA) is enhancing its efforts to fight illegal software copying with a public awareness campaign meant to end rampant software piracy. The problem, according to the SPA, costs the software industry as much as $7 billion annually. Association executives say that many users are not even aware that copying software is illegal. They add that the computer software industry is the only one that empowers every users to be a manufacturing subsidiary. An early objective of the campaign is to make users aware of the many types of piracy, such as unauthorized duplication, downloading copyrighted programs from bulletin boards, dealers who load software onto hard disks to enhance a sale and counterfeiting. The group estimated that almost half of the software running on microcomputers in the US is pirated. The figures jumps to 80 percent in Germany and an incredible 98 percent in South Korea. The Copyright Protection Fund will be used to educate users about the legalities of copying software and to finance legal action. U.S. losing high-technology edge: report says government, business must devote more money to research. A group of industry, labor and university leaders believes the US must alter its priorities to stop the loss of leadership in such areas as information processing, electronics, materials and manufacturing. The Council on Competitiveness ended a two-year study with a report stating that the US position in many critical technologies is slipping and has been, in some cases, lost. The US is leading even with competing countries in 61 areas, like computers, software, communications and biotechnology. The country is has lost the race in 33 technologies, like computer displays, memory chips and several manufacturing facets. The report included 11 pages of recommendations, including the President should direct government agencies to increase the percentage of government research and development funds allocated to critical technologies; Congress must accelerate the depreciation of manufacturing equipment, make the R&D tax credit permanent and consider relaxing antitrust laws; Consortia must share information and cost and development risks of generic technologies; Universities must work more closely with industry. Parallel computer wins FLOPS race: multiprocessing supercomputer judged to be far faster than sequential machines. (floating point University of Tennessee researchers have found a parallel computer system built by Thinking Machines Corp to be the world's fastest. The computer registered an incredible 5.2 billion FLOPS. The test confirmed what advocates of parallel processing have said for a long time: Nothing is better than a parallel computer for raw power. Top computer scientists tend to agree. Officials of Thinking Machines Corp say that conventional supercomputers will be obsolete by the mid-1990s. The vendor and a group of 15 universities are working together on a parallel system that can execute one trillion FLOPS. Completion is expected by 1993. University computer scientists say that parallel computers are the wave of the future as designers are starting to bump up against the limits of single processor computers. Supercomputers handle problems on a sequential basis. Massively parallel computers split up a problem among several processors. Parallel computer applications are executed as much as 100 times faster than those on serial computers. Science and IS drift together: IS looks to high-performance computing for resource-saving strategies. (information systems) Stronger connections are being created between the business-oriented information systems world and the divisions of technical and scientific users. That trend is slowly raising the importance of high-performance computing in the corporate view. Scientific computing, according to industry officials is an important way to enhance corporate resources. The complicated nature of networking and maintaining overall control is bringing a return of MIS involvement to technical and scientific computing. More reliance on scientific computing offsets laboratory testing costs and in turn cut costs of waste disposal and safety regulation compliance. Others users are calling for networking that work and cheaper supercomputing, as well as an increasing need for microcomputers to access mainframes. More than an operating system, it's a cult classic. (Pick Systems) (includes related article on running Pick on a microcomputer) Pick Systems is trying to repackage its Pick operating system/database and turn it into a hit, much the same way Microsoft handled Windows. The Pick operating system has been a classic for over 20 years. The company says Pick is licensed on 270,000 multiuser midrange and workstation systems and 110,000 single-user microcomputers. Industry observers put the Pick installed base at 260,000, not counting microcomputers. Pick's enthusiastic following has been enticed by its multiuser capabilities and easy ways. Company officials say that although users consider Pick an operating system, it is more of a multiuser database applications environment. They emphasize Unix for the operating system function. The company sees it as a relational-like database similar to Oracle, Ingres or Informix, which run on several operating systems, including Unix. User reaction to Advanced Pick is mixed. Some are enthusiastic while others are dubious. Others like it for its portability and flexibility. Computer watchdog tracks hazards: Federal crackdown on hazardous materials tracking spurs utility to automate manual system. The federal government's crackdown on tracking procedures for hazardous materials handling was an important factor in the decision of Louisville Gas and Electric (LGE) to convert its manual tracking system to an automated, mainframe-based system. That system, which is now two years old, has saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, mostly through the elimination of the expense of outside contractors and by enhancing the government inspection process. Hazardous materials rules come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Utility officials state that the Hazardous Materials System (Hazmat) is connected to the utility's Materials Management Information System (MMIS). Hazmat can be accessed by users working with the MMIS through IBM 3270-type terminals. The applications are on an IBM 3090 200J mainframe computer. Communications are via IBM's Systems Network Architecture and several media types like microwave and fiber-optic cabling, depending on site location. Hazmat is programmed in Cobol Truetype troubles slow Windows upgrade: integration of scalable fonts into the popular graphical interface lengthen update Microsoft cannot deliver its Windows 3.0 upgrade before Oct, 1991 due to difficulties with the incorporation of the new Truetype outline font technology into the core of the new release. Windows 3.1 was originally scheduled to ship in mid-1991 but the arrival date is uncertain now. Beta test versions are slowly coming out just now. Truetype will be widely available as a part of Apple Computer's System 7 Macintosh operating system. Company sources say the delays are directly related to Truetype, which was jointly developed by Apple and Microsoft in competition with Adobe systems. Others say there are still some problems in the shell and drive letter difficulties have yet to be solved. The Truetype technology lets users scale, rotate and otherwise manipulate type faces. Windows 3.0 had long complained that the bit-mapped fonts could not be scaled. Truetype will be included in the Windows Graphics Device Interface so it is available for all applications. Thirteen standard Truetype fonts will be included. NBC airs 'Desktop Challenge'; executive may need Solomon's wisdom and a gypsy's crystal ball to decide. (adoption of standardized Joe C. Harris Jr, director of information technology at NBC TV Stations is wrestling with user-friendliness vs. communications. He has the task of equipping network-owned TV stations and sales offices, some 1,200 users, with intelligent microcomputers and a standardized application suite. The problem is choosing between IBM's OS/2 and Apple's Macintosh. Windows 3.0 was considered but discarded. OS/2 outclassed it in several ways, including communications and memory management. The sites are running financial and traffic systems on IBM AS/400s. A sales information system runs on an IBM 3090. A consistent, multitasking desktop is the key to cutting costs and making it easy for customers to do business. Networking is also important. Harris' ideal desktop has to be cost- and system-efficient, easy to use and manage and capable of providing a consistent interface. The most important factor is being something people would use. He had IBM, Apple and Microsoft build prototypes then tested them for user-friendliness. Harris is leaning toward Macintosh while his two assistants favor OS/2. Outsourcing may be only answer to many. Anthes, Gary H. Corporate computer networks are growing and becoming more complex and costly. Networking experts are expensive, difficult to find and difficult to retain. New vendors are appearing and users are clamoring for more and better services while corporate executives are demanding reduced costs. The market for network outsourcing services is expected to rise from $1.5 billion in 1989 to $5.6 billion in 1994, according to industry analysts. Only four percent of network users are outsourcing any part of their operations currently but that number is expected to rise to 15 to 20 percent by 1995. The prevailing view is that it is possible to save money and headaches by allowing someone else to manage the network. Popular reasoning says that vendors should not be allowed to handle mission-critical areas. Others say that this is nonsense; that anything can be outsources as long as users are careful. A prudent corporation will weigh all of its network outsourcing options. Fast-packet capability a concern for T1 users. (includes related article on multivendor T1) Companies who have a great deal invested in T1 along with burgeoning data networking applications have to consider whether their vendors are offering a plausible migration path to fast-packet technology. Fast packet is the latest generation of wide area switching targeted at supporting local area network interconnection, videoconferencing and imaging. It includes the transmission of variable-length and fixed-length packets and blends the best characteristics of its circuit-switching and X.25 packet-switching predecessors. Most vendors of T1 multiplexors say they will move their customers into the fast-packet arena by upgrading their existing circuit-switching T1 equipment. Choices are fast-packets boards connected to the multiplexer's bus and creation of a separate fast-packet devices that connects to existing multiplexors. Some users with the funds to build networks from scratch are using switches designed specifically to support fast packet. Some are getting ready for growing network traffic by investing in multiple vendors' equipment to handle different applications. VXM finds way to Balans multivendor tasks: offers software first to provide load balancing across distributed networks. (VXM Balans, VXM Technologies' new software package, which is due in the 3rd qtr of 1991, offers a method for allocating and load balancing tasks across a multivendor distributed computing network, across a variety of distributed computing platforms. These include Sun Microsystems' Open Network Computing (ONC), Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and Hewlett-Packard's Network Computing System (NCS). DCE and NCS are equivalent since OSF has adopted NCS as the basis for its distributed computing environment. The new program works with naming and mapping services like Sun's Network Information Service and HP's Task Broker. Applications supporting Balans can initiate tasks transparently on various network servers without having to specify the server's location or being concerned if the server supports DCE, NCS or ONC. Balans will also support Sun's Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC) and Digital Equipment Ultrix workstations. The software will also be ported to DEC's VMS systems by the 4th qtr of 1991 and to IBM VMS by the 1st qtr of 1992. Casual clothes, serious systems: Wrangler CEO Mackey McDonald has weighty things to say about IS in his business. (chief executive Wrangler CEO Mackey J. McDonald is serious about the important role of information systems in the apparel business. Wrangler, a division of VF Corp, represents a microcosm of changes that have hit many US manufacturing industries. Wrangler finds it must cope with fickle consumer needs and competition for shelf space where it once thrived on efficient manufacturing of commodity goods for mass markets. McDonald, who joined Wrangler in 1986, feels that the retail and apparel industries are no where near where they should be in utilizing technology benefits. McDonald became aware of information systems' value through not having enough information and making big mistakes as a result. Wrangler IS personnel have been one of the big reasons the company has moved as fast as it has. They see their job as understanding what the business needs and providing ways to address those needs. Outsourcing at Southland: best of times, worst of times. Ambrosio, Johanna. The good news about outsourcing at Southland Corp is that Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) is providing the company with good services at a savings. There are still some problems, such as disaster recovery and billing. Southland MIS manager Elliot McNeill shared his experiences at a forum hosted by Deloitte and Touche. Southland began its 10-year outsourcing contract with ACS on Jan 1, 1989. The company essentially gave its data center to ACS in exchange for the low prices, giving the vendor the capacity to sell services to other customers. Billing difficulties remain. The same job with the same input can be run at two different times and the company can get two different charges. Disaster recovery should be addressed in Apr 1991. Software maintenance: don't chase problems; control them. Barnes, Geoffrey; Decherd, Bill. Information systems groups would be happy to get beyond the frantic nature of finding bugs, updating applications and repairing systems failures to make long-term changes to the systems that could give them greater control over the more reactive tasks. The problem is that the daily problems are so consuming that it is difficult to deal with the larger picture. There are tools available to aid in automating both reactive and active maintenance. Staff is responding to a problem with reactive maintenance. Debuggers and testers can help. Active maintenance is controlled. Staff members analyze and update applications in response to changing user needs. Static complexity analysis tools are used to analyze programs in batch mode without interacting or intervening with the source code. Restructuring tools include Language Technology's Recoder, Computer Data Systems Superstructure and XA Systems' Retrofit. Estimating maintenance costs. (software maintenance) (includes related article on cost-estimating theories) Software maintenance is a necessary expense. A number of companies are trying to cut these costs through re-engineering and computer-aided software engineering (CASE), but identifying and managing those maintenance costs is a constant concern. Cost-estimating tools can help. Cost-estimating tools are generally modules within modeling software packages that deal with the many phases of system development, including maintenance. A variety of factors can be input, including development schedules, tasks required to develop the application, risk involved and function points. The tool can then construct the budget, provide staffing profiles, consolidate projects and isolate the cost of a particular phase. Tools vary widely in functionality and price, from $500 to over $20,000. Some popular tools include Computer Associates CA-Estimacs and CA-Planmacs and Quantitative Software Management's Slim-Control. Look who's in the IS business: user companies are turning their in-house software and services expertise into commercial market Most information systems (IS) managers who have been through the experience of turning an in-house service or system into a commercial offering say it can bring prestige, new markets and revenue sources for a firm by entering the IS market. The move does require critical decisions about what to sell, how to organize, who to staff and where the money goes. There are no simple answers to those questions. Managers must realize that it takes different skills to be a service or software company than to be a manufacturing company. Managers and consultants recommend entering the software or service business with eyes wide open. One needs to be aware of the competition and their pricing structure as well as the unique features of your product. Evaluation studies should be used. Group tries taming the 'electronic frontier.' (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) (includes related Easy accessibility of microcomputers, telephones, modems and dial-up services has resulted in an ambiguous electronic landscape that is turning into the next proving ground for legal and personal freedoms. The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Palo Alto, CA, plans to begin working on the problem with the first annual Conference on Computers, Privacy and Freedom, during which computer hackers, scholars and police offers will meet to try and determine how free speech can be expressed in bits and bytes. Fundamental directions could be determined in areas like balancing security with the free flow of information and maintaining one's right to privacy in the face of instant recall technology. Officials of the Center for Telecommunications and Information Studies at Columbia University say that the difficulties involved with increased computerization are like those that occurred with the advent of the automobile. The car was a great idea until we had pollution. Sun branches out, spins off pair of subsidiaries. (Sun Microsystems) Sun Microsystems plans to have two new subsidiaries in operation by Jul 1991: Sunsoft Inc and Suntech Enterprises Inc. Sunsoft was organized to market system software for third-party licensing, rather than keeping it within the Sun organization as a way of adding value to Sun hardware. Suntech's goal is to see that all non-workstation areas, like printers, compilers and multimedia, are profitable or at least pay for themselves in the long run. The product line for Sunsoft, according to Sunsoft officials, is similar to the foundation and framework for a house. Suntech's product line is equal to the color of paint and type of furniture for the house. Sun will maintain responsibility for workstation hardware; tape, disk and add-in memory; and applications. The intent for Sunsoft is the proliferation of the operating system and the facilitation of licensing for compatible vendors. The Suntech product line will be marketed by a dedicated marketing and sales force, making it easier to get to the bottom line. German DP trade deficit rises: computer industry urged to 'regain its export potential.' (data processing) The foreign trade deficit of the German data processing industry has risen to a new high of approximately $45 billion in 1990 and the trend is forecasted to continue. The figure could reach $5.7 billion in 1991, according to the German Federal Association of Office and Information Systems (BVB). BVB officials are urging the German computer industry to enhance efforts to make the country internationally competitive if its is to remain a key player in the world computer market. Germany must regain its export potential so that it does not fall further behind competition from Europe, the Far East and the US. Germany has already fallen behind because of high salaries and short work hours. The year 1990 was a good one for the German office, information and communications industries aside from the disparate relationship between imports and exports. The sector grew ten percent in 1990, reaching $50 million for the first time. Production value increased 6.2 percent. Want overseas work? Better be flexible. (computer careers) Nash, Kim S. Workers involved with businesses organizing divisions or setting up alliances in foreign countries must have a degree of cultural flexibility. Those in the know say that international know-how is a big career asset with the advent of the European Economic Community in 1992 and Asia's emergence as a business hub. There has been a large increase in the number of requests for information systems professionals with overseas experience since 1988. Resumes that indicate experience in another country are put on top of the pile and those people demand the higher salaries. Most foreign assignments do call for flexibility, patience and an appreciation of the local point of view. The laws that govern business and technology are different abroad and other countries rarely utilize technology in the same way that Americans do. Jobs abroad come looking for those with foreign experience. But, experience in Europe, for instance, does not prepare one for working in Asia. The Japanese have an inclination for nationalism and privacy and will not generally hire US transfers. Protect the source code of software investments. (Legal Eye) (column) The financial stability of software vendors is never absolutely certain. There is a legal mechanism available for protecting users and their companies from the fallout of a vendor's financial failure. It is called a source-code escrow agreement and provides a way for a software purchaser to get a copy of program source code if a software publisher goes out of business. Source code is the program prior to compilation into a machine-understandable language. It is necessary to repair bugs, modify the program or write upgrades to improve functionality or efficiency. The escrows works in this manner. Buyers who sign license agreements place the source code in escrow at the same time. The user can, should the vendor file for bankruptcy, write to the bankruptcy trustee asking to have the source code taken out of escrow. The code is then returned to the purchaser. Escrow agreements should be in writing. The code should also be verified and provisions made for regular updating. The escrow agent must be carefully selected. How to tempt resistant execs to use computers: for starters, keep your training short and sweet. Teaching high-level executives to use technological tools requires a different strategy than that employed with average staffers. Executives come into training sessions with preconceived notions that can lead to a number of problems. Many are afraid of wasting time or failing in front of peers. The trainer must keep several things in mind. The sessions must be kept short and flexible and training must be suited to the individual. Sessions should be no more than half a day in length. Training should be conducted off-site. The trainer should employ hands-on exercises directly related to the user's job. It is also essential to convince executives right away that technology will be of direct benefit to them as many equate it with something used by subordinates. DEC pumps up fault-tolerant challenge. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (product announcement) DEC unveils four new fault-tolerant VAX computer systems ranging in price from $46,950 to $1 million, preparing the vendor for a market share showdown with Tandem Computers and Stratus Computer. Tandem's high-end users have the greatest attraction for DEC. Industry analysts expect DEC to gain a 20 percent share of the fault-tolerant market by 1995. The market will grow because of DEC's participation as many would not have purchased Tandem or Stratus in the first place. The vendor is marketing its VAXft systems as front-end processors for Vaxclusters to bulletproof reliability and enable the processing of 500 to 1,000 transactions per second once connections are made. TCP/IP sellers join to develop ONC/NFS environment. (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Open A consortium of TCP/IP vendors - TGV Inc, Interlink Computer Sciences Inc, Beame and Whiteside Software, InterCon Systems Inc and FTP Software Inc - support development of network-based applications for an environment based on Sun Microsystems Inc's ONC/NFS, which competes with the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (OSF/NFS) that is based on HP's Apollo division's Network Computing System (NCS) remote procedure call. Sun Microsystems is not a member nor does it endorse the consortium. The group's first product is an electronic mail application. Software specifications are a part of the public domain, and the applications will run under the TCP/IP protocols. DEC adopts softer position on value of installed VMS licenses. Ballou, Melinda-Carol. DEC reconsiders its VMS and DECnet upgrade licensing policy after continued conflict with users and Digital Dealer Association (DDA) officials. DEC recently started charging users for full licenses when upgrading to newer systems. Previously users paid the difference between the new license and old one. The latest policy considered by DEC is to return to the practice of giving users credit for VMS licenses they already hold. DEC plans to release new price structures for other system upgrades in the near future. DEC continues to depreciate values for older VMS systems, but not so much as will harm third-party used-equipment vendors. Network tool gives PC users Windows 3.0 on Unix systems. (Unipress Software Inc.'s PC-Connect 6.01 communications software; Microsoft Unipress Software Inc introduces its $1,140 PC-Connect 6.01 communications software for DEC's Ultrix system. The price is for a two-user license. PC-Connect 6.01 is based on Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and enables microcomputer users to access Unix applications using icons. The software lets users create a custom desktop manager; Windows 3.0 users can make a split desktop screen that can contain 20 icons for networked Unix systems in the top half and place up to 64 icons for local and host-based applications in the bottom half. PC-Connect also enables users to connect non-Unix hosts with PC-Connect hosts and features cut-and-paste abilities to and from DOS. PC-Connect 6.01 supports 12 European languages, Unix security techniques, remote host modem connection and terminal emulation modes. The software has an optional structured-query language (SQL) link that updates DOS applications automatically. Fault-tolerant VAX family grows by four members. (DEC introduces its VAXft 110, 410, 610 and 612 minicomputers) (product DEC introduces four fault-tolerant minicomputers costing from under $50,000 to $1 million. The DEC VAXft 110 with 4Gbytes of disk storage costs $46,950 to $69,950. The DEC VAXft 410 costs $145,077 including 32Mbytes of duplex memory, 380Mbyte disks, a two-user license, DECnet, VMS and volume shadowing. A DEC VAXft 610 in its minimum configuration costs $164,875 and runs $750,000 for a fully configured multiuser system. The minimum server version and configured multiuser system version of the DEC VAXft 612 costs $275,567 and $1 million respectively. The fault-tolerant computers made by DEC run VMS and support Unix System V. Design features for the minicomputers include duplicate CPUs, disks, memory and power supply equipment. The pairs of components are split among zones in the computer. Users are able to shut one zone down while the other continues to operate. Neuron Data presents peaceful alternative with platform-independent GUI development. (Neuron Data Inc.'s Open Neuron Data Inc's Open Interface program development software is a graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit that enables users to create a GUI that can be ported to any microcomputer or workstation platform. The software, written in standard C code, is and object-oriented superset of widgets and functions of all major windowing environments. Open Interface contains a tool called Open Editor that has a WYSIWYG interface builder that allows the user to paint an interface rather than resort to programming. Open Interface runs under DEC's VMS, Ultrix and other Unix versions, DOS, OS/2 and Apple's Macintosh System. The product also supports the look-and-feel of Motif, Open Look, Presentation Manager and Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0. Single run-time licenses for Open Interface are $250 for DOS and Macintosh platforms, $350 for OS/2 and $500 for VMS and Unix. Development licenses cost $7,000 for DOS and Macintosh, $9,000 for OS/2, and $12,000 for VMS and Unix environments. Analysts: Dip in IBM earnings could signal tougher times for DEC. Donohue, James F. IBM's recent earnings report signals a slowdown in the computer industry that analysts say will hurt DEC's earnings as well. DEC's 3rd qtr profit for 1990 was $24.9 million, but its 4th qtr suffered a loss of $256.7 million. Analysts are revising earnings estimates for DEC as a result of IBM's report of a 50 percent drop in per share earnings. Industry analysts also report a slowdown in computer purchasing because computer budgets are increasing only 4.7 percent as opposed to normal 5 to 7 percent increases. Corporations are taking longer to decide to purchase large computer systems and are taking longer to install those systems. Sparc International unwraps Sparc CPU standard; group to manage Sun's M bus link. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sparc International introduces a standard for the Sun Microsystems Inc Sparc reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) architecture. The consortium's memory model standard simplifies the porting of applications from uniprocessor to multiprocessor environments. It also clears designers' confusion regarding how the memory system should operate. The standard announced by Sparc International is the eighth version of Sun Microsystems' Sparc RISC architecture. Sparc International and Sun Microsystems announce that Sparc International is managing the definition, evolution and distribution of Sun Microsystems' M bus specification. Sun Microsystems' M bus is a multiple-chip module interface that features a cache, memory and input/output interconnect standard for various Sparc processors. X.desktop, 24 other Ultrix applications run on DEC's OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit. (IXI Ltd.'s X.desktop utility) DEC demonstrates that its Ultrix-based applications running under its Advanced Development Kit for OSF/1 can be ported to Open Software Foundation's OSF/1 operating system. DEC claims that IXI Ltd's X.desktop, which is a Motif-compliant desktop manager, can be ported to Ultrix as well as OSF/1 when running under the OSF/1 Advanced Development Kit. DEC has shown 24 other Ultrix-based applications ported to OSF/1. OSF/1 complies with the X/Open consortium's XPG3 specifications. Products tested on Advanced Development Kit for OSF/1 include Visix Software Inc's Looking Glass, Informix Corp's Wingz, Uniplex Integration Systems Inc's applications, Insignia Solutions Inc's SoftPC and Boston Business Computing Ltd's EDT-Plus. Adapter links printer to six different operating environments. (Imageworks' Image Director peripheral sharing device) (product Imageworks introduces its $2,495 Image Director peripheral sharing device that works as a universal adapter simultaneously connecting printers to as many as six different computer platforms. A $695 version supports the connection of PostScript, HP LaserJet and DEC's LN03 environments. Image Director is an intelligent network adapter that lets a printer to automatically switch to the print mode of the source application. An 8-bit microprocessor running customized code checks the input stream for values that identify a specific application's print mode. Image Director supports HP's Series II and 25GX, LN03, and IBM and Wang proprietary protocols on HP and Dataproducts Corp printers. Standards sought for computerized quality control. (American Society of Quality Control, Computer Applications Committee of the The American Society of Quality Control (ASQC) solicits plans for establishing guidelines that will aid companies implementing computerized quality information systems as part of a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) program. The organization hopes to establish guidelines that will address how computers test materials used in manufacturing, maintain equipment inventories, inspect completed products, store statistics and create charts, and compile failure and returned goods costs. Comments submitted by manufacturers and other organizations concerned with computerized quality control will be compiled by ASQC to be published and released for the ASQC annual meeting in 1992. Cognos power play: Windows 3.0 support. (Cognos Inc.'s PowerPlay 2.0 executive information system; Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 Cognos Inc's $850 PowerPlay 2.0 executive information system runs on DOS microcomputer platforms and operates only on HP-XL or DEC VAX/VMS as a back-end host. PowerPlay 2.0 supports Microsoft's Windows 3.0 and HP's NewWave. PowerPlay extracts information from data bases, spreadsheets and other data sources and presents that information in graphical form. PowerPlay 2.0 can show pie chart slice values in either percentage or number form. The Reporter function enables users to sort information borrows and columns. Users can resize and reposition information legends using PowerPlay's Move and Resize function. PowerPlay supports a greater range of information retrieval besides template reports and this makes it a more powerful package that most executive information systems. Cognos plans to release a version supporting RISC/Ultrix systems. Cisco bridge/routers link LANs with SMDS WANs. (Cisco Systems Inc.; local area network; AT&T's Switched Multimegabit Data Cisco Systems Inc introduces its $6,500 SMDS DSU/CSU computer communications device. The product enables Cisco Systems bridge/routers act as interfaces for LANs into WANs that support AT&T's Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS) telecommunication system. Cisco Systems' new product is part SMDS software the resides in the programmable ROM of a Cisco bridge/router and part data service unit/channel service unit (DSU/CSU). The SMDS DSU/CSU device is roughly the size of a modem. It allows Cisco Systems bridge/routers to support SMDS and frame-relay technologies. The software costs $900 for Cisco Systems's IGS bridge/router chassis, $2,100 for the MGS chassis and $3,200 for AGS and AGS+ chassis configurations. Comshare to acquire DSS/EIS competitor Execucom. (Comshare Inc.; decision support system/executive information system; Execucom Comshare Inc announces plan to acquire Execucom Systems Corp in a $12 million deal including $5 million cash and debt assumption comprising the balance. Both companies produce decision support system/executive information system (DSS/EIS) software for DEC and IBM computers. Comshare and Executive Systems also each have marketing relationships with DEC. Comshare features its Commander EIS, and Execucom sells Executive Edge EIS. Execucom also produces the Paradigm interactive planning system for DEC VMS and Ultrix workstations. Comshare plans to enter Unix platforms made by DEC (Ultrix), HP, Unisys, Sequent Computer Systems Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc. Comshare plans also to target IBM's RISC System/6000. SQL Solutions ports SQL programming aid to Informix. (SQL Solutions Inc.'s SQL Advantage program development software, SQL Solutions Inc supplies Informix Software Inc with its SQL Advantage program development software for Informix Software's relational data base management system (RDBMS). The program development software is offered under Informix's Insync program for third-party software developers. SQL Advantage makes easier the writing and debugging of structure-query language (SQL) programming code. SQL Advantage is the first of several tools that SQL Solutions will offer to Informix that are part of SQL Solutions' SQL Programming Environment (SPE). Tools running under SPE support RDBMSes from Oracle Corp and Sybase Inc. The program development software is now available for Informix data bases running under Sun Microsystems Inc's SunOS operating system, and SQL Solutions plans to make versions for DEC's Ultrix, AT&T's 3b2, HP Unix systems and IBM's RISC System/6000 series. SQL Advantage costs from $7,500 to $35,000. The politics of network protocols. (column) Hancock, Bill. Network managers need to configure the hardware of their networks to accept all protocol suites. This reduces the amount of re-configuration required later when a decision may be made to switch to another protocol. No one protocol solves all network problems. All share four main features including file transfer, electronic mail, virtual terminal and program-to-program features. These features satisfy the minimum requirements of network users. Also, nearly 60 to 75 percent of network experience is universal to all protocol suites with the remainder concerned with specific protocols. The decision to choose a protocol is usually made by upper management personnel who may not know what particular suites do. Network managers should then learn all protocols to prepare for multiple protocol network configurations. Clocking SCSI against DSSI. (Small Computer Systems Interface; Digital Storage System Interconnect; Trimarchi Inc.'s Q-Buster and DEC's SHAC/RF31 supports the Digital Storage System Interconnect (DSSI) protocol and Trimarchi Inc's Q-Buster communications board supports the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) protocol. The Trimarchi Q-Buster costs $1,495, whereas no cost is directly associated with the DEC SHAC/RF31, which is implemented in the DEC VAX 4000 CPU. DEC's adapter is based on its embedded single host-adapter chip (SHAC) on the VAX 4000 series. Both adapters use an 8-bit-wide bus and support the connection of eight devices to their buses. The transfer rates are similar for the two devices. Synchronous SCSI's bandwidth is around 5M-bps and DSSI's is nearly 4M-bps. The SCSI protocol is open, and the DSSI protocol is proprietary. DSSI does offer command queuing, seek-ordering optimization, error checking and correction and rotational optimization, but SCSI 2 offers improvements including 20M-bps and higher bandwidths, shadowing and seek optimization. The Trimarchi Q-Buster supports the SCSI 2 protocol. Trimarchi Q-Buster installs easily and does not require configuration information to be supplies as it automatically senses disk drive presence and size. Desktop managers take GUIs to their golden age. (graphical user interface)(includes related article on data transportation across Desktop managers add extra features to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that increase ease of use and productivity for users. Desktop managers enable a user to create, copy and delete files, and a user can navigate through directories with the use of a mouse and icons. The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Motif along with AT&T and Sun Microsystems Inc's Open Look are two Unix-based GUIs that benefit from desktop managers as users of these systems demand the ease of use features that Apple's Macintosh offers. Desktop managers accelerate the growing use of GUIs. Analysts predict that by 1995, 31 percent of Intel Corp-based microcomputers and 25 percent of Unix workstations will run GUIs compared with 1990's statistics of seven percent for microcomputers and four percent for Unix workstations. Desktop managers also aid users in customizing their displays. Drawbacks include increased memory demands and performance degradations. Space shots, Sun spots. (companies using Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface) The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) uses the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface (GUI) with IXI Ltd's desktop manager X.desktop. The JPL runs these programs on Sun Microsystems Inc Sun-4 workstations. The system offers Unix power and flexibility, and the GUI with the desktop manager releases users from Unix's cryptic command interface. Users can point-and-click their commands. The windowing environment allows for several applications to be processing at the same time. Although the GUI increases processing time, the JPL waits long periods of time for information to be sent from spacecraft anyway. The X.desktop utility does not add to processing demands as it is run as another Motif application. Bellcore uses Motif and Visix Software Inc's Looking Glass desktop manager as an interface for its development work. Stratus fault-tolerant RISC machine to run Unix. (Stratus Computer Inc.'s XA/R 20 minicomputer; reduced instruction set computers) Stratus Computer Inc introduces the first fault-tolerant reduced instruction set computing (RISC) computer that runs Unix. The Stratus XA/R 20 runs both Stratus' proprietary VOS operating system and the company's Unix System V version called FTX 2. The VOS version costs $275,000, and the FTX 2 model costs $247,000. The Stratus XA/R 20 features hardware-based self-checking, fault isolation and duplexed components. Stratus announces that FTX 2 supports the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment. Stratus also introduces two more Motorola Inc 68030-based minicomputers. The Stratus XA2000 270 costs $1.3 million and the Stratus XA2000 280 costs $1.4 million. Fujitsu graphics chip targets X Window. (MB86990 Graphics System Processor) (product announcement) Fujitsu's MB86990 Graphics System Processor (GSP) chip offers workstation and X-terminal developers higher performance than that of a dumb frame buffer at a much lower price that existing graphics accelerators. The product matches a growing need for economical 2-D and 3-D X Window graphic applications. The GSP's initial implementation will be in a Fujitsu submicron CG21 CMOS gate array with about 50,000 gates. Samples should be ready in Apr 1991, with shipments expected around the third quarter. AMD launches speedy clone; for the AM386, life begins at 40 (MHz). (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s AM386DX microprocessor) (product Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) launches its Am386DX microprocessor, exploiting the speed distribution of a 33-MHz design target. Lingering legal issues and concern by core-logic chip vendors over the system implications of the high clock speed cloud the chip's future. Vendors are also cautious about approaching 40-MHz system designs with the 386 clock. A low-speed version will be available later in the spring of 1991. The 40-MHz processor is priced at $306 in 100-unit volumes. Report rakes U.S. for technology lag. (Council on Competitiveness report 'Gaining New Ground: Technology Priorities for America's A report by the Council on Competitiveness finds the US lagging behind international competition in key technologies. The two-year study recommends a concerted effort by industry and government officials to form policies on the development, use and commercialization of technologies. The report will probably be compared with the Bush administration's report on critical technologies, which is due soon. The report contends that the US' long-standing leadership status in basic science has lead to complacency while other countries have systematically pursued the leadership in developing critical technologies. US industries have lost market share in many technology-intensive areas. Whole industries, such as consumer electronics, have disappeared. The council recommends the creation of a climate more conducive to the development of new technologies. Two take on Tandem; fault-tolerant arena heats up. (DEC and Stratus Computer Inc. announce fault-tolerant computers) (product DEC and Stratus Computer Inc are bidding for an increased share of the growing fault-tolerant (FT) computer market with the announcement of new products. DEC fills out its FT family with the low-end 2.4-VAX units of performance (VUPS), 6-transactions per second (tps) Model 110 VAXft. This entry-level machine is base-priced at $46,000. The high end 6-VUPS, 16-tps Model 410 ranges in price from $145,000 to $550,000. Stratus announces its first reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) and adds seven- and eight-processor models to its complex-instruction-set computing (CISC) symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) line, and announced an FT version of Unix V.4. The XA/R 20 RISC will be available in the third quarter of 1991 for $247,000. The seven- and eight-processor machines will be available at the same time for prices starting at $1.27 million and $1.41 million. Intel plans June debut for new 860. Lieberman, David; Wilson, Ron. Intel Corp plans to introduce new members of the 860 chip family before the end of Jun 1991. The broad line will include high-end chips for supercomputing or intensive graphics and low-end chips for cost-sensitive microcomputer graphics applications. The high-end, code-named N11, which is expected to have more than 2 million transistors, will deal with bottlenecks and coherency issues as well as provide improvements in on-chip caching, floating-point and integer performance. MPEG-level video chips arrive. (Motion Picture Expert Group) (Sony, JVC, and C-Cube Microsystems introduce products) (product The International Standards Organization's (ISO) Motion Picture Expert Group's (MPEG) digital video-compression proposal is still in predraft form, but several companies are already demonstrating new chips that can perform MPEG-level video processing. Sony Corp demonstrated video compression and reconstruction with a seven-chip set at the Microsoft International Conference on Multimedia and CD-ROM in mid-Mar 1991. JVC and C-Cube showed a megatransistor IC that reconstitutes VHS-quality images at CD-ROM platter data transfer speed. Intel confirms that MPEG algorithms are likely to be the primary alternative to its Digital Video Interactive approach. Intel is almost ready to make it proprietary Production Level Video (PLV) algorithms available to third parties. Chips and Tech banks on 8514. (Chips and Technologies Inc.) (8514/A display standard) (82C480 controller) (product A few chip vendors are positioning products as stepping stones to the Extended Graphics Adapter (XGA) standard announced by IBM at Comdex/Fall 1990. Chips and Technologies Inc introduced several products in mid-Mar 1991, including the 82C480 controller, which features the 8514/A display standard. It provides 1,280 x 1,024 pixel resolution with 256 colors, offering the resolution of XGA long before the graphics adapter reaches the market. Chips and Technologies also introduced the 82C453 Ultra VGA controller and the 82C457 color flat-panel VGA controller. Sierra Semiconductor Corp is also positioning its product line to offer XGA color capabilities today. Sun gives Sparc Int'l MBus rights. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Wirbel, Loring. Sun Microsystems Inc moved control of its 64-bit MBus to Sparc International (SI), the independent licensee organization set up to promote the Sparc reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) architecture. MBus is an interface specification for the connection of processor modules to physical memory modules and I/O modules in the Sparc architecture. The move includes the rights for both the Level 1 (uniprocessor implementations) and Level 2 (multiprocessors) specifications. The opening of the MBus is expected to play an important role in superscalar Sparc implementations. Test players CrossCheck'd; firm hopes to dominate with software, on-chip structures. (CrossCheck Technology Inc. introduces CX-Test CrossCheck Technology Inc introduces CX-Test, test software for its on-chip matrix test structure. The product will be available at the design centers of LSI Logic and other ASIC partners initially, and marketed directly to designers in the second half of 1991. CX-Test simulates and analyzes faults, automatically generates test vectors, diagnoses fault coverage and compiles the final test patterns into a compact format. LSI plunges into the submicron pool. (LSI Logic Corp.) (LCA200K array family) (product announcement) LSI Logic Corp is targeting its new LCA200K array family at system-on-a-chip applications. The company is introducing new libraries, innovative proprietary tools, new packaging options and unique power management alternatives to support the products. The company uses a new 0.7-micron drawn pure CMOS process to produce arrays with from 20,000 to 200,000 raw gates. Gate utilization is as high as 70 percent and the process offers two-layer or three-layer metal. Packaging options include TAB, plastic and ceramic; pinouts range from 218 to 620. Samples are available, with production scheduled for the end of May 1991. Apple plants Macintosh in Colorado; to make systems in former Data General site. Apple Computer Inc plans to acquire the 322,000-square-foot former Data General Corp plant in Fountain, CO, to produce a range of Macintosh models. The company is encouraging component and board-level suppliers to establish facilities near the site, turning the area into a Macintosh support base. Apple was caught short by the high customer demand for its lower-end Macintosh products and still faces backlogs for the Macintosh Classic. Fremont, CA, will remain the primary prototyping site for new Apple products. The Colorado site will lack a dedicated marketing and administrative staff. Apple hopes to begin shipping products from the new plant by the end of 1991. Japan is DRAM cautious amidst trade talks. Lammers, David. Japan is moving cautiously in the DRAM field as prices of 4M-bit DRAMS are dropping and production volumes are steadily increasing. The small device is expected to reach price parity with the 1M-bit DRAM in late summer 1991. Japanese companies have been cutting 1M-bit DRAM production, causing spot shortages and stopping the decline in the device's prices, since Dec 1990. If 1M-bit prices drop too far while the US and Japan are negotiating a new semiconductor agreement, US semiconductor companies would have a difficult time turning a profit. Digital is latest to take parallel path: software the focus in massively parallel processing market. (DEC) (includes a related DEC plans to enter the massively parallel processing market in 1991. The company will focus on software problems that are currently plaguing this market. DEC's move highlights a shift to parallel systems that includes such major vendors as Cray Research Inc and IBM. The US is leading Japanese suppliers in massively parallel systems, which link 100 or more processors to perform a single task, although Japan holds an edge in single-processor supercomputers. Several companies, including United Technologies Research Center and Intel Supercomputer Systems Division, are developing software. Some companies are positioning compilers that help develop programs; the next generation of code is expected to come from the workstation level, not the supercomputer. Motherboard elite. (Elitegroup Computer Systems) (Yakitori column) (company profile) Elitegroup Computer Systems of Taiwan sold $135 million worth of motherboards in 1990 and expects to double its sales to 800,000 units in 1991. Revenues should be in the $180 million to $200 million range. The company claims to be the largest manufacturer dedicated exclusively to motherboards. Taiwan-based producers made about 66 percent of the world's motherboards in 1990, worth about $420 million. Elitegroup may be the world's largest Chips and Technologies chip-set customer. The company uses top-quality connectors and other parts. A shortage of Intel 80386 chips threatens the Taiwan industry, but Intel has a history of supporting its top-tier systems companies. Lasarray pushes capability; direct-write laser can fab up to 250,000 gates. The Lasarray group, Biel, Switzerland, extended its direct-write laser capabilities to manufacture gate arrays and sea-of-gates ASICs with up to 250,000 gates. The group's new DWL 2.0 standalone unit allow prototypes or small volumes of integrated circuits (ICs) to be produced from almost all basic gate-array wafers. High-volume production uses the same set of data to produce masks or reticles. The system allows small volume production of ICs within 24 hours. The DWL 2.0 can be used to replace steppers or mask aligners in a standard fab line. The DWL 2.0 unit is priced under $1.5 million. IC-monitoring method proposed. (integrated circuit) (Japan-US trade negotiations) The US proposed a simpler method of monitoring against semiconductor dumping during a Tokyo meeting with around 20 top Japanese officials. Japanese companies would gather and keep their own data on production, sales and exports of semiconductors under the proposal. The company would be required to quickly produce its own data in the case of a dumping complaint. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) currently monitors the data collection process and stores the records. The US and Japanese delegations differed on the share of the Japanese market sought by the US; a 20 percent share was proposed, but Japan does not want this in the agreement. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics figures put the current Japanese market share held by foreigners at about 13.2 percent. Vitelic agrees to a merger with HMC. (Hualon Microelectronics Corp.) Hualon Microelectronics Corp (HMC) is merging with Vitelic Corp; the new company will probably retain the Vitelic name. The merger combines the financial strength of Hualon with the DRAM-design skills of Vitelic and should produce a strong contender in the DRAM market. Vitel showed revenues of $70 million in 1990, while HMC had sales of $4 million worth of semiconductors. HMC's founder You-ming Oung is currently embroiled in legal problems, whether his situation will affect the merger remains an open question. Vitelic founder and Pres Alex Au will probably head the merged company. SPAG promotes open systems code. (SPAG S.A.) The European body for open systems, SPAG S.A., is ready to promote a multivendor quality code of conduct leading to open systems communications products that achieve interoperability by design, instead of chance. The SPAG Process to Support Interoperability (PSI) is intended to build user confidence in open systems and stimulate product development in global networking. SPAG's members include some of the most prestigious international companies in the computer industry. PSI is a set of rules, or procedures, that enable vendors to develop products that work in a multivendor network environment. It will also help users specify and integrate a wider selection of interoperable products to meet specific business needs. PSI is currently in the pilot stage for X.400 message-handling systems. CAD, CAE boom seen. (computer-aided design and engineering) Wittenberg, Roland C. The leaders of the design automation market see a bull market for CAD/CAM and CAE products in the 1990s. IBM and Cadence Design Systems Inc are two of the prominent projected leaders in the market for the decade; Cadence is expected to post the highest growth rate through 1996. The electronic design automation (EDA) market currently represents 23 percent of the total design-automation market. The top executives of industry leaders met at Daratech Inc's annual CAD/CAM, CAE Strategy Workshop in Cambridge, MA, in Mar 1991. Toshiba buying Vertex. (Vertex Semiconductor Corp.) Thompson, John. Toshiba is buying Vertex Semiconductor Corp of San Jose, CA, as part of its plan to assemble a top-down application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design offering with the applications expertise and design tools systems required to support Toshiba's dense process geometries. The price is approximately $20 million. Vertex will operate as a Toshiba subsidiary. The acquisition should be complete in Apr 1991. Cadence, NEC codeveloping ASIC EDA; working on environment for gate array, standard cell design. (application-specific integrated NEC Electronics Inc and Cadence Design Systems Inc are codeveloping an ASIC electronic design automation (EDA) environment. The non-proprietary software will support NEC's high-level gate array and standard cell system-design capabilities and include tools from other software vendors as well as support other foundries besides NEC's. A beta release of the EDA technology is expected in the third quarter of 1991. The EDA tools will implement top-down and timing-driven methodologies and support simulation, placement-and-routing and physical-design verification. MITI promotes use of foreign chips. (Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry) The Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) is promoting the use of foreign semiconductors by Japanese users, even after the ending of the US-Japanese semiconductor trade agreement in Jul 1991. Several MITI officials announced their plans for fiscal 1991 during a 'Joint Meeting for Expansion of Foreign Semiconductors' Market Access in Tokyo. There was no opportunity for questions from the floor. The highly disputed 20 percent share of the Japanese market, which many foreign makers expected to have by now under terms of a 1986 US-Japanese agreement, was not mentioned. Philips adapts MPEG. (Motion Picture Experts Group) (third in a series on the technical aspects of advanced TV systems) Philips' all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) broadcast-video scheme is the first to conform to the MPEG. The MPEG, an International Standards Organization (ISO) committee, has yet to draft a digital compression of audio and video encoding at below-normal TV quality. Philips' MPEG++ will burden the transmitter with the complex digital video-compression circuitry, rather than the receiver; hardware and software adjustments can be made at the TV station. continual improvements in MPEG++ would improve the quality of the final image. Phillips is collaborating on the development of its HDTV scheme with David Sarnoff Research Labs; Sarnoff has also paired up with NBC and Thomson on the Advanced Television Research Consortium's (ATRC) separate HDTV proposal. The Philips MPEG++ system obtains very high resolution from the original MPEG specification. Where's the true voice of EE? (electronic engineering) ( Speakout) (column) Technical societies have failed to protect the professional status of electronic engineers (EE) combating oppressive management that takes short-cuts in engineering, quality and safety in favor of schedules and short-term profits. The EE community lacks a unified voice and the proliferation of separate engineering societies illustrates the demise of engineering as a true profession. US industries and government have purposely conspired on employment practices and manipulated laws to maintain engineers as a renewable resource, instead of a precious resource. Engineers with over 20 years experience suffer salary compression and a subtle increase in mistreatment as retirement age approaches. Virtual reality lab is a HIT. (Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington) Virtual realities will eventually replace television, telephones and print media, revolutionize education and expand the capabilities of the disabled. The University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) has established a knowledge base on the subject of virtual reality and is sponsoring workshops and symposiums, publishing a newsletter, and conducting extensive research. Virtual worlds are created through input/output devices that create the perception of another existence, complete with three-dimensional backgrounds, structures and objects. Among the lab's discoveries are the fact that sounds can be accurately localized in three-dimensional space, making audio graphics possible; and the brain absorbs information fastest when it has parallel input of video, audio, tactile and other related information. Taking a peek at the 'Body Electric'. Wirbel, Loring. VPL Research Inc's Body Electric virtual programming language may change the way people program in real-time environments. VPL, which stands for visual programming language, began programming two-dimensional icons in 1984 and has moved to three-dimensional polygon structures. The company produces Swivel, a special Macintosh front-end development program for defining the shapes and dynamical constraints of objects that exist in an artificial world. Swivel 3D is a graphical manipulation tool can be used for general-purpose design, RB2 Swivel is designed for developing virtual reality programs. The company is developing methods for linking human sensors to object interaction; visual sensor information is currently the most developed, sound is quickly following. VPL uses EyePhone goggles and a DataGlove to simulate three-dimensional realities. Object Manager used for parallel code. Wirbel, Loring. National laboratories and private industry are using Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp's (MCC) C++ Object Manager process-allocator to parallelize applications in heterogeneous computing environments. Object Manager is the basis of MCC's Extensible Software Program (ESP). The program was used in a joint-development effort by MCC, the University of Texas/Austin's Institute for Advanced Technology and Sandia National Laboratories to parallelize a hydrocode used for simulating high-speed projectile behavior. The Sandia/IAT hydrocode is used in Strategic Defense Initiative simulations for determining the effects of high-speed projectiles cooling with solids for missile defense applications. Motorola Inc is using the program in a multiprocessing 88000-based Delta board to develop an automated test-pattern generator for fault-grading complex chips. Implementing SCSI-2: It's not as easy as it looks; hardware, software must keep up with performance. (includes a related The complexity of the emerging SCSI-2 interface presents several problems for disk and tape drive developers. Hardware designers must avoid system bottlenecks that degrade performance, software challenges range from implementing queueing to efficient use of commands. SCSI-2 establishes a true standard command set, but users must combine hosts or host bus adapters (initiators) with SCSI-2 peripherals to obtain its real benefits. Designers must choose the fast or wide data transfer options, or be aggressive and use both; another choice is the use of single-ended or differential terminations. Boundary-scan testing: design for testability series, part 5. (tutorial) Applying a scan path at the boundary of integrated circuit (IC) designs provides embedded testing capabilities to overcome test-access problems predicted for future board designs. A boundary-scan path is positioned between the logic and the input and output buffers to provide control and observability access through scan operations. The path is a series of boundary-scan cells (BSCs) with one BSC per input and output pin. The BSCs connect to form a scan path between the IC's test-data input (TDI) and test-data output (TDO) pins; serial data is shifted through the boundary-scan path from TDI to TDO in testing. In a boundary-test mode, the BSCs are configured to allow test stimuli to be shifted in and applied from each BSC output. PC components: an F in continuity. (quick obsolescence in the IBM PC compatible market) (Bus Stop) (column) The PC architecture provides low-cost, high-volume hardware and a well-supported software environment, but suppliers make their products obsolete too quickly. Products purchased today may not be available a year later, and support vanishes with them. The industry is technology driven and pressures to keep costs down mean new chips are immediately rushed into products, making older products obsolete. Care is not taken to keep products consistent across revisions. The PC market is also strongly driven by volume; when hot products cool off, vendors discontinue them. HP takes RISC to end users. (reduced instruction set computing chips in LaserJet IIISi printer) Advances in low-cost reduced instruction set computing (RISC) controllers will change desktop peripherals, such as printers and scanners, but it took the introduction of Hewlett-Packard's 29000-based LaserJet IIISi printer in early Mar 1991 to show end users what RISC means outside the CPU. The LaserJet IIISi prints 17 pages per minute. It is based on HP's PCL 5 language, but handles PostScript. The current price of the printer is $5,495, but prices are expected to eventually drop to $4,000. Slimmer drives on tap; thin heads cut size, boost performance. Costlow, Terry. Thin-film heads and mounting assemblies that are half the size of current units but feature increased performance should be available by the end of 1991. The devices will make it easier to make slimmer disk drives or add capacity to full-size products. A new mechanism that reduces the space between disk platters by up to 50 percent should be available about the same time from Hutchinson Technology Inc. Heads, or microsliders, that are 70 percent of the size of traditional heads have been shipping for over a year. A new generation of nanosliders will be 50 percent the size of standard heads. Current drives top out at 80Mbytes, but observers expect drives with several hundred megabyte capacities before 1995. IBM and the art of power. (innovations in power supply for PS/1) (Power Technologies) (column) IBM's power supply for its PS/1 home computer is a successful implementation of distributed power architecture in a low-end system that will have a dramatic impact on future power supply design. Design complications and price have held back development of low-end power systems until now, but IBM contends that cost-effectiveness lies in long-term reliability. The system's dc/dc converter was developed with an intelligent power ASIC. Its commercial success lies in the packaging. IBM's adoption of a distributed power architecture in a mass-produced product may indicate a trend toward captive manufacturing, which could lead to severe consequences for the power supply industry. Get your free PLD software here. (programmable logic device) (Desktop Engineering) (column) Several free PLD software-design programs are now available. Intel's PLDshell provides a graphical shell for integrating editors, compilers and programmer software. It is a single-window environment with no multitasking capabilities. The program is free until the end of 1991. Signetis is ready to announce Slice, which has more capabilities than the company's Amaze program. Slice features a built-in Boolean extractor. Both Slice and Amaze are free. National Semiconductor's Opal Jr. supports design entry with equations; it provides a graphical shell environment, automatic pin-list generation, a set of library device files, and a set of examples. International CMOS Technology's APEEL is not new, but is still free. These programs lack the universality or capability of commercial tools, but are a good, economical, starting point. Synopsys upgrades tools; synthesis package adds Motif interface, other features. (Design Compiler 2.0 computer aided engineering Synopsys Inc added a Motif-based user interface, improved timing optimization and resource allocation to a new release of its Design Compiler 2.0. All of Synopsys's logic-synthesis tools are linked through Design Analyzer, a redesigned graphical user interface (GUI) running under X Window. The GUI features pull-down menus for viewing schematics, rearranging design hierarchies and setting constraints in interactive environments. Network licensing is now available for all Synopsys products. Prices for Design Compiler 2.0 start at $35,000. CLSI spinoff targets VHDL end users. (CAD Language Systems Inc. sets up Open Solutions Inc. to market VHDL tools and services) CAD Language Systems Inc. (CLSI) of Rockville, MD, is spinning off a marketing company, Open Solutions Inc, to market its VHDL tools and services directly to end users. The first product is the VHDLearning Kit, a VHDL simulator that is used as an education tool. It includes a simulator based on the VTIP kernel that CLSI provides for its OEMs and the full VTIP VHDL analyzer. The package costs $1,495. The new company also hopes to sell through OEMs. Alliances could be risky. (questions to ask when considering a merger or alliance of analog or mixed analog/digital The number of alliances among analog or mixed analog/digital circuit companies is rising, but these partnerships do not always turn out as expected. Question to consider when contemplating a merger or acquisition include examining the cultures and attitudes of the two companies. How up-to-date is the process technology involved in the alliance? Do both partners stand to gain from the alliance? Large companies seeking new technologies often partner with smaller firms seeking recognition and financing. Siliconix opens CAN; has media-interface device for control-area network. (CAN networking standard for automotive applications) Siliconix Inc's Si9200 is a media-interface device for the emerging CAN networking standard for automotive applications. It works with the 82526 CAN controller now shipping on 1991-model automobiles. The Siliconix Si9200 replaces up to 20 discrete components previously used to construct an interface and protects the 82526 from electrical faults on the network. The device features noise immunity and error correction. The Si9200 is currently sampling and should ship in Oct 1991. It is priced at $1.22 in an eight-pin SOIC. Assembling the 10 Base T puzzle; chip makers eye growing net market. Nearly a dozen developers are designing chips for the 10 Base T market that will accommodate the transceiver, Manchester encoder/decoder and Ethernet controller functions required by the Ethernet 10 Base T standard. 10 Base T has made IEEE 802.3, the Ethernet standard, more cost-effective and easier to manage. Companies developing 10 Base T products include National Semiconductor Corp, Intel, Level One Communications Inc, Seeq Technology Inc, and NCR Corp. AT&T and Intel formed a marketing agreement that gave Intel access to AT&T's T7220 transceiver and AT&T rights to Intel's 82586 8/16-bit Ethernet controller. Entrepreneurship: Once is not enough; Edmund Sun and Alexandre Balkansi, founders of C-Cube Microsystems. The backgrounds of the founders of C-Cube Microsystems, Edmund Sun and Alexandre Balkanski, are described. Both have been entrepreneurs before. Balkanski, a physicist from France, founded Diamond Devices, a small firm. Sun helped launch Weitek in 1981. Focusing is considered a key element for entrepreneurial success. A third founder, Japanese inventor Tai Sato, has provided C-Cube Microsystems with that focus. Incorporated Aug 8, 1988, C-Cube is developing original algorithms and architectures that implement international image-compression standards. Details of raising capital and management of the new company are discussed. A letter to the president. (contribution of electronic engineers in the Persian Gulf War) (Professional Pipeline) (column) A letter from IEEE US Activities Board Chmn Michael J. Whitelaw to President George Bush is reprinted. The letter praises the contributions of electronic engineers in the Persian Gulf War. The technologies developed by these electrical, electronics, computer and communications engineers saved lives and brought the war to a rapid conclusion. The IEEE is proud of the role its members played and feels that US technology excels and its young people can be technologically literate. The moral aspects of engineering should also be considered. Valley adds a 'Garage'. (Technology Center of Silicon Valley) Bellinger, Robert. The 'Garage' is the first step in the final development of the Technology Center of Silicon Valley. The 17,000-square foot technology museum features displays on microelectronics, including a nine-foot model of an Intel 80486 and a clean room, as well as displays on bicycles, space, power technology, robotics and materials. The hands-on exhibits are designed to entertain as well as inform. The museum has been under development since the mid-1980s; the 77,000-square foot, $90 million permanent center is scheduled for completion in 1995. Poll: HDTV in 20 years. (high-definition television) Bellinger, Robert. A Gallup poll presents the prevalent beliefs of IEEE engineers concerning the technologies that will be available 20 years from now. Most of them believe worldwide compatible high-definition television (HDTV) will finally be a reality by then, as will simultaneous translation of human speech from one language to another. Over 95 percent of the pollees feel that engineering and technology will have a positive effect on the global environment, and almost as many seek a more assertive role for engineers in ensuring constructive application of technologies. Opinions vary widely concerning practical applications of superconductivity in the year 2011. The holistic engineering manager; managing: building a bridge to other departments. A holistic engineering manager is whole-company oriented. Holistic engineering managers are better able to establish priorities, recognize problems before they surface, gain valuable information informally, negotiate deadlines, understand how to couch requests, and to explain situations to staff. They are known as team players, brought into higher level decision making, and given opportunities to explain methods and constraints under which electrical engineers must operate. Electronic engineering managers should demonstrate that engineers can be intuitive, have big-picture skills, and communicate with people to make the organization work. After the layoff, some find help; aerospace firms set up outplacement centers. Layoffs in the aerospace industries are growing. Many companies are holding job fairs, teaching job-search skills, posting job listings and offering career counseling. McDonnell Douglas Corp terminated 14,000 jobs in Aug 1990 and an additional 5,000 eight months later. The company has two outplacement centers operating in St. Louis. General Electric Aerospace established the Outlook Program, an outplacement consulting setup for its 350 terminated white-collar workers. Both companies have hosted job fairs. Broadcast offers tips on career success. (NTU Technical Professional Development Series) Three NTU Technical Professional Development Series broadcasts in Mar 1991 focused on the general characteristics displayed by people with successful careers. A career insurance policy is presented, including a checklist. Engineers need a customer focus in addition to their technical skills. Continuous learning, curiosity, and the ability to share learning are also key factors in ensuring career security. Mental attitude towards performance and job success are important, as is the ability to recognize unique personal qualities. Satellite hiring in high orbit: career opportunities in satellite communication. Many satellite and satellite-communications companies are hiring. Comsat, the grandfather of the satellite business, is looking for 41 people, 30 of whom will be technical people, such as computer-science engineers, systems engineers, firmware, and digital and analog hardware designers. Group Technologies Corp, of Tampa, FL, needs 20 to 25 hardware and software engineers. Trimbull Navigation of Sunnyvale, CA, is adding 25 engineers a month. Lockheed Technical Operations Co, at Onizuka Air Force Base in Sunnyvale, CA, is hiring a few engineers with satellite-operations experience. FCC rejects NCR plea to interfere: 'AT&T won't use regulated income.' The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has warned AT&T that it must not raise telephone rates or divert funds from its long-distance communications business in order to finance its attempted takeover of NCR Corp. NCR had urged the FCC to intervene against AT&T to halt the bid entirely, but the commission dismissed the case, arguing that it believed AT&T could finance the deal on its own and noting that the telephone company is subject to price caps. AT&T's government-regulated long-distance telephone business accounts for approximately two-thirds of its annual revenue of $37 billion. Congressmen supporting NCR had requested that the FCC review AT&T's plans. RBOC bill moves to full Senate. (bill to allow seven Bell regional operating companies to manufacture telephone equipment) The Senate Commerce Committee has passed a bill that would allow the seven regional Bell telephone companies to manufacture equipment by a vote of 18-1. The bill will now move to the Senate floor, and two similar bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives. Sen Ernest Hollings (D, SC) sponsored the Senate bill, which could nevertheless be blocked in an eleventh-hour move by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House bills were sponsored by Rep Jim Slattery (D, KS) and Billy Tauzin (D,LA). Officials of the Telecommunications Industry Association expresses disappointment that the bill reported out of the Senate committee does not address such concerns as unfair competition. The association had proposed a compromise under which the RBOCs would be able to engage in some basic research but not actually manufacture equipment. In notebooks: push for desktop densities. (design of computer keyboards)(includes related article on switch sealants) Keyboard suppliers are experiencing new revenue growth as a result of the boom in notebook computers, but manufacturers must spend extra dollars on design as customers demand the same functionality in their notebook keyboards that they find in their desktop machines. OEMs want the size and weight of notebooks to be kept to a minimum, and suppliers find it difficult to do this with more than 80 keys. Most new notebook keyboards today are using membrane-switching technology because it is compact, inexpensive and has an acceptable 'feel' for most users. Industry officials point to IBM's ill-fated PCjr as an example of a failed attempt at keyboard design; buyers rejected its toy-like 'Chiclet' keyboard. AST Research says that the keyboard and the screen are the two most important factors in users' buying decisions, but keyboard maker NMB Technologies notes that 'there is no agreement' on how keys should be laid out. Zenith Data Systems states that the 8.5 x 11-inch form factor for laptops effectively limits keyboards to 82 keys. Reducing the size of top-row function keys is one way to make room for additional keys; another approach is to assign double functions to some keys. 20% Japan market share 'essential': TI chief. (Jerry Junkins, chairman of Texas Instruments) (20 percent foreign share of US and other foreign firms need to capture a 20 percent share of the Japanese semiconductor market in order to achieve 'critical mass' in that country and prevent 'backsliding' after the present US-Japan Semiconductor Arrangement expires in Jul 1991, according to Chmn Jerry Junkins. The current agreement calls for a 20 percent foreign market share, but the US electronics industry has proposed extending this term for another 18 months. Junkins states that Japan can only achieve the target market level by designing many US custom semiconductors into its mainline products. He made his statements before a Senate Finance International Trade subcommittee hearing. Other speakers at the hearing included Compaq president Rod Canion, who urged that present progress n the Japanese market be allowed to continue, and reiterated proposals for a 'fast track' anti-dumping price monitoring process. U S West begins trial of advanced digital switch tech. (U S West) Zipper, Stuart. US West has begun a trial of new advanced digital telecommunication switching technologies in order to bolster its market position. The firm has chosen AT&T, Fujitsu and Siemens-Stromberg Carlson to provide the hardware it needs for a three-year on-line test of broadband, wideband and narrow-band switched services. Bellcore is also participating in order to use the US West trial as part of its Broadband Information Networking Architectural Project to set standards for broadband communications. Test sites for the US West 'Compass' program will include Northwest Airlines and the Minnesota Supercomputer Center. Ada adage. (Government Closeup) (column) Robertson, Jack. The Ada programming language is maturing at the Defense Department but has yet to gain ascendancy in the commercial market, with only a few non-military users moving to the language. Commercial users have huge investments in C, Fortran, Cobol and other languages and do not want to sacrifice these in favor of Ada. Ada vendors nevertheless need to be more aggressive in seeking commercial accounts. Some of the largest migrations to Ada involve foreign telecommunications firms such as Japan's NTT and Sweden's Swedish Telecom. Motorola is he one domestic communications equipment supplier to move to Ada; it uses Ada software to run its M5000 cellular phone tester. Two major developments that could boost Ada include the Department of Defense community's upgrading of the language in the Ada 9X process and the growth of open systems. Unisys taps exec VP as operating chief. (Unisys Corp. names Reto Braun executive vice president) Unisys Corp names the company's executive vice president for marketing, Reto Braun, to the position of president and chief operating officer, a position vacant since Mar 1989 when James A. Unruh became CEO. Braun now has direct authority over Unisys' computer product development, manufacturing and marketing operations worldwide but is expected to have slightly narrower responsibilities than Unruh did when he held the same two posts. Unruh will retain responsibility for Unisys Defense Systems Inc, Unisys Government Systems Inc, the Communications and Networks Group and corporate staff functions. Braun has worked for IBM and for Memorex in a variety of European posts. He will oversee such developments at Unisys as the strengthening of the A line of mainframes and the marketing of low-end, open-architecture workstations. Disk lag hits Conner sales. (Conner Peripherals) Deagon, Brian. Disk drive manufacturer Conner Peripherals Inc warns investors that it may post a sales decline for the 1st qtr ending Mar 31, 1991, its first lag in three years. The company continues to dominate the OEM market for the high-performance, small-form-factor drives used in laptop computers and 80386-based microcomputers but is constrained by a shortage of thin-film heads and disks. Conner is also suffering from a price war with competing Seagate Technology and has exited from several markets in low-performance 3.5-inch drives. Analysts had expected Conner to earn over $2 billion in 1991, but many have reduced their estimates slightly. Conner Chmn and CEO Finis Conner acknowledges that the company's strategy of positioning itself at the technological 'leading edge' causes some difficulties but tends to be beneficial in the long run. Observers say Conner avoids competing in commodity markets and is therefore vulnerable to not being able to ramp up new products fast enough. Conner sued Seagate in Apr 1990 to ensure itself a steady supply of thin-film heads under a contract it had with Imprimis Technology before the latter company was acquired by Seagate. Digital Equipment, Stratus add fault-tolerant computers. (DEC, Stratus Computer Inc.) (product announcement) DEC and Stratus Computer Inc have introduced new fault-tolerant minicomputers, with DEC introducing four new models in its VAXft line and Stratus announcing its first reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chip. The new VAXft 110 is an entry-level machine rated for 2.4 million instructions per second (mips) and 6 transactions per second (tps). It is priced at $46,000 and up. Other new VAXft units include the Models 410 and 610, which each offer 6 mips and 16 tps; and the Model 612, a clustered system consisting of two 610s. The 410 is priced from $145,077 and the 610 from $164,875. Stratus now offers the XA/R Model 20, a single-processor machine rated at 40 mips that uses an Intl 80860 RISC processor. The XA/R is priced from $247,000. Toshiba to buy Vertex Semicon. (Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.) Toshiba America Electronic Components has agreed to acquire Vertex Semiconductor, a cash-strapped supplier of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), as a subsidiary in a deal expected to be completed in early Apr 1991. Toshiba already owned a 14 percent stake in Vertex under a three-year agreement signed in Dec 1989 to jointly develop gate arrays and system-oriented design tools. Vertex will gain much-needed financial stability through the acquisition. It first approached Toshiba in mid-1990 about obtaining cash, and its customers express relief about the ASIC maker's long-term viability. Brooktree seeks additional foundry. (Brooktree Corp. searching for additional foundry source) Brooktree Corp, hurt by a wafer supply snafu that reduced its sales for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990, is seeking an additional foundry source to maintain its parts supply. It notes that increased sales to graphics customers and its winning of a patent injunction against Advanced Micro Devices helped offset the parts problem and states in its prospectus that major customers include Apple, Compaq, AST Research, DEC, HP and IBM. Brooktree also recently advanced $300,000 to 'a development stage company.' Its gross margin declined slightly in 1990 due to 'capacity constraints.' ASM debuts sub-0.5-micron steppers. (ASM Lithography) (product announcement) ASM Lithography Inc introduces the PAS 5500 series, a new line of wafer steppers designed to print sub-half-micron features on application-specific integrated circuits and memories. The PAS 5500 uses a modular design; users can upgrade the lenses, reticle handlers, illuminators and wafer transporters. Standard throughput can handle up to 88 150mm wafers or 64 200mm wafers per hour. The device bathes the entire wafer transport area in highly purified air and reduces the need for environmental chambers. Prices range from $1.8 million to $2.3 million depending on the model. HP receives $63M Ford pact. (HP receives $63 million order form Ford Motor Co to deliver 2,000 automotive diagnostic systems over HP has received a $63 million order from Ford Motor Co for Service Bay Diagnostic Systems electrical and electronics test units. The devices will be installed at Ford dealerships throughout the US. HP has worked with Ford's Parts and Service division over the past five years to develop the custom-built SBDS, which employs an HP Vectra microcomputer as its main processor and includes a portable vehicle analyzer. Technicians can use the analyzer while driving a vehicle to identify problems that only occur under actual road conditions. GenRad Inc is developing a less-broad diagnostic system for Ford's European dealers. Motorola, Unitrode in direct bond pact. (Motorola Inc., Unitrode Corp. working together on development of direct wfer bonding.) Motorola Inc and Unitrode Corp announce that they have agreed to cooperate on the development of the new direct wafer bonding materials technology, which could cut prices and improve functionality for a wide variety of integrated circuits. The companies are both providing engineers and capital investment for work being done at Motorola's materials operation in Phoenix. Direct wafer bonding uses a 1,200-degree C oven to join wafers at the atomic level. The silicon layers bond directly to one another with no need for adhesive. Major applications may include power integrated circuits, high-frequency devices, discrete semiconductors and sensors. A process for bonding silicon to gallium arsenide, which would allow designers to take advantage of the characteristics of both materials on the same circuit, is being developed but is not included in the Motorola-Unitrode agreement. Motorola bids cellular net for Canadian battlefield pact. (Canadian defense contracts) Motorola Inc is bidding a military version of its cellular radio terminals for a major Canadian defense contract. The Iris battlefield communications network is being developed by prime contractor Control Data Corp, but Motorola's entry could create competition for GTE Government Systems, which is installing a cellular radio network for the US Army. Canada will soon announce a winner for the Single Channel Radio Access terminal contract. Control Data will produce up to 10,000 VHF radios for other portions of the Canadian tactical system under license from Racal. Industrials fault federal agencies for buying at unqualified sources. (US officials charge manufacturers, distributors with not Military industrials blame the sale of substandard and undocumented electronic parts to the federal government on agencies' purchasing from unscrupulous or unqualified sources. Federal officials say that many products are being sold to distributors along with blank certificates of compliance instead of manufacturer-completed certificates or actual test data. Many agencies purchase components from lowest bidders regardless of the vendor's experience or track record. Substandard and inadequately documented pats may also come from non-franchised distributors. The industrials urge agencies to buy only from large, reputable distributors and check out vendors before making a purchase. Holographic memory could revolutionize info storage. (Analysis) Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. Holographic memory stores information as a three-dimensional, laser-generated image, or hologram, on one or more small, photorefractive crystals. Computers with such storage systems are able to store at least 10 times as much data as conventional memory systems and retrieve it at speeds about 1,000 times faster than the fastest current computers. Bellcore researchers announced in Nov 1990 that they had developed a holographic system that retrieved the equivalent of a standard page of text in under one nanosecond. The US Commerce Department has chosen a holographic mass-storage subsystem developed by Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp for a five-year, multimillion-dollar grant; the program is one of 11 promising technologies funded under the department's Advanced Technology Program. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is among the government agencies interested in the technology. Most firms to have schedules by April 1. (the new US General Services Administration schedule contracts for microcomputer US General Services Administration (GSA) officials say more than 200 vendors will have schedule contracts when the agency's schedule year for microcomputer products and services begins on Apr 1, 1991. GSA Information Resources Management Service Schedules Div Dir Roy B. Chisholm says that the agency expects to have several major awards by the end of Mar 1991 in addition to the over-130 awarded by Mar 21. IBM Federal Sector Div Exec Mark Root says that the company will offer only PS/2 maintenance through the GSA Schedule B/C starting Apr 1 and will no longer offer PS/2 hardware and software through a GSA schedule. Root says the policy change is in line with IBM's strategy of selling PS/2s only through the dealer channel, although he says the company will actively seek a contract for larger-system products and services. PS/2s will be available on a GSA schedule only through Government Technologies Services Inc. GSA proposes FTS mandatory-use loophole; legislation would let agencies bypass network for lower prices. (the US General Services The US General Services Administration (GSA) drafts proposed legislation to let government agencies bypass the FTS 2000 network if they can find a better deal for long-distance telephone service from another source. The proposal was disclosed at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on FTS 2000; it marks the first acknowledgement by the GSA that it may be forced to loosen the monopoly terms of the FTS 2000 contract to bring prices in line with the market. GSA Assistant Commissioner for Telecommunications Michael Corrigan told the committee that another regulatory mechanism or competition mechanism is required to work with contract winners AT&T and US Sprint. MCI Communications Corp has said it can undercut FTS prices by as much as 40 percent. AT&T claims the GSA entered into secret negotiations intended to award US Sprint business originally assigned to AT&T in exchange for Sprint price cuts. GSA pushes big comm buys; Decco to run buy for international services. (the US General Services Administration's policy on The US General Services Administration (GSA) may initiate up to six government-wide procurements for services not included in the FTS 2000 telecommunications contract. The GSA is expected to issue a request for bids on the first of these, an international switched-voice service award, in Apr 1991. Working groups have been established by the agency to consider contracts for international data, encryption, compressed video and mobile cellular service, according to GSA Office of Telecommunications Customer Requirements official Tom Wagner, who chairs the international switched-voice working group. Wagner says the GSA is asking for spending authority of $14 million to $90 million annually for an international switched-voice contract able to support up to three million minutes of international traffic a month. The Defense Communications Agency's Defense Commercial Communications Office (Decco) will run the procurement for the GSA. NASA holds Freedom's reins on new design. (the redesign of the space station Freedom) The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) receives a mixed reaction to its redesign of the space station Freedom. The new design is smaller and more modular, but it will take longer to build and will use fewer computers. The project is expected to cost $30 billion, down from the initial estimate of $38.5 billion; first-element launch is projected for early 1996, nine months later than the original estimate. NASA hopes to have Freedom staffed permanently by 2000, two years later than originally thought. The new design was criticized by a National Research Council panel, which called it a cost-ineffective environment for conducting space research, but the White House reacted favorably to the changes. The Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a report suggesting that NASA focus on long-term human stays in space. The number of computers in Freedom has been reduced from seven active and seven backup to two active, two backups and two for emergencies. CFO act grants line responsibility. (the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act) A US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum on implementation of the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act states that new CFOs are granted line responsibility for agency information resources management by the act. Many CFOs are worried that their authority will be diminished by the act, which is intended to strengthen the management authority of the OMB. The memo from OMB Exec Associate Dir Frank Hodsoll says the broad scope of the CFO's authority and responsibility for the financial management systems and the mandate to integrate budget, financial and programmatic data gives CFOs line responsibility. Hodsoll had stated earlier that the legislation gives the OMB more authority on the part of the financial area to change policy, although legal analysts claim this may conflict with existing laws, such as the Paperwork Reduction Act, which gives IRM policy authority to agency IRM officials. Energy buys to provide PCs, laptops to headquarter's staff. (the US Department of Energy's series of procurements to replace its The US Department of Energy (DOE) initiates a series of procurements for PCs and laptop computers for its employees in Washington, DC, and Gaithersburg, MD, to replace its Automated Office Support System (AOSS) contract awarded to IBM in Sep 1986. AOSS expires on Sep 9, 1991; it provided laptops, PCs, minicomputers, mainframes, software and support services in an indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery contract worth approximately $44.7 million, according to DOE contracting officer David Tyma. The agency wants to buy up to 5,000 IBM-compatible PCs under a three-year contract expected to be awarded in the summer of 1991; the machines will be based on Intel's 80386 and 80486 microprocessors, will have clock speeds of at least 25 MHz and will have total memory capacities of at least 16Mbytes. A separate procurement will cover acquisition of as many as 600 laptops. A third acquisition in 1991 for as many as 1,000 notebook computers is reportedly being considered. NSF injects funds for cooperative computer graphics research. (the US National Science Foundation's Science and Technology Center for The US National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the establishment of the Science and Technology Center for Computer Graphics and Scientific Visualization, a $40 million program intended to develop graphics tools to help interpret, store and analyze data produced by high-powered computers. NSF Dir Donald Greenburg says the center's research will benefit diverse science disciplines, all of which are coming to rely more heavily on computer graphics. The NSF and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are partially funding the center, but most of its funding will come from IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard Co and Silicon Graphics Inc. NSF will provide $1.6 million in the center's first year, DARPA will provide $1 million and the four corporate sponsors will provide a total of $5 million. Funding from each will increase slightly through 1995. DOD to build mother of all networks; net contemplates full interoperability, protocol independence. (the US Department of The US Department of Defense (DOD) plans to replace its many diverse voice, data and video networks with the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), a seamless network intended to allow anyone to pass any kind of message to anyone else, according to Defense Communications System Organization (DCSO) Dir Dennis Beasley. The DCSO's mega-network will integrate switched-voice, high-speed data, cellular, ISDN technology and video over local- and wide area networks, according to Beasley. The network shows the changes underway in the Defense Communications Agency, which will transform the agency from one dealing strictly with communications to one handling DOD information systems. The DCSO will activate the DOD-wide Pilot Internet in Mar 1991 to link 10 sites throughout the continental US and absorb traffic now handled by AFnet, Navnet and Milnet, according to DCSO official Stephen Thacher. NASA earth sciences data systems get under way. (the Earth Observing System satellites) The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has begun work on two computer systems intended to support the data handling of its Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. The EOS Data Information System (EOSDIS) Core System (ECS) request for proposals is expected in the summer of 1991, and the award is expected to be made in late 1992. ECS will collect data from space-based instruments and process the data into forms that researchers can analyze, distribute and archive. EOSDIS version 0, on which NASA scientists have already begun work, will process and distribute scientific data sets from the agency's existing space platforms and will eventually act as a working prototype for future EOS information systems. The initial version will use existing scientific networks to connect research sites throughout the US; users will be provided with a unified interface to various databases. DOE plans computer upgrades at uranium facilities. (the US Department of Energy's modernization of computer and The US Department of Energy (DOE) requests $42 million through 1995 to modernize the computer and telecommunications systems at its uranium enrichment facilities in Paducah, KY, and Portsmouth, OH. Gaseous diffusion plants at the facilities process uranium from its raw form for use in commercial nuclear power reactors in the US and overseas; the DOE meets just under half of the world's demand for uranium enrichment services, which cuts the US trade deficit by $500 million annually. The computer system upgrades will support all business applications at the plants and will serve hundreds of users; at least three separate procurements will cover new software and hardware as well as improved telecommunications. The computer procurement will be handled by the DOE's Oak Ridge operations office, which is managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inc. HHS' child support network bedeviled by tech problems. (the US Department of Health and Human Services' CSEnet) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Family Support Administration (FSA) has extended indefinitely its deadline for vendors' proposals for its $20 million CSEnet network intended to provide state and regional child support enforcement agencies with a national pipeline as a result of lingering technical problems. CSEnet would increase interstate child support collections by as much as $25 billion, according to FSA officials; the latest change marks the third schedule revision in a year. Among the problems plaguing the network, according to prospective vendors and state child support enforcement officials, are integrating the FTS 2000 network, which was recently made a requirement, and maintaining data security; there have also been complaints about a general lack of specificity in HHS's technical scheme for the network. INS seeks funding for upgrade to Border Patrol system. (the US Immigration and Naturalization Service's upgrade for the Computer The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) asks for $12 million to upgrade its Computer Dispatch and Reporting Enhancement (Cadre) II system for processing data from sensors buried along the US-Mexican and Canadian borders. Cadre II is used to detect illegal immigration; the upgrade would provide workstations, better radio connections between US Border Patrol headquarters and the sensors, and improvements to the tracking features of Cadre software. INS Dir of Electronics and Communications says Cadre II was tested successfully at El Paso, TX, and is now fully operational there; the INS plans to expand it to 18 new border patrol sectors. Cadre II uses thousands of cone-shaped sensors wired to small processors buried along side them; the sensors detect movement and send a signal to workstations at the headquarters. The INS also plans to acquire other high-tech equipment in its attempts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. DOD financial unification sets example for civilian agencies. (US Department of Defense) (Comment) The new Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), which consolidates all US Department of Defense finance centers, is an example for civilian government agencies. Twelve entities are combined under DFAS, including the six facilities accounting for most of the financial processing of the Navy, Air Force, Marines and Defense Logistics Agency. The reorganization places DOD financial systems under a single manager responsible for ensuring that all financial information systems are compatible, that information can be transmitted electronically between systems and vendors, and that the systems conform to government-wide policies of the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury Department and Comptroller General. DFAS could serve as a test for measuring the impact of electronic data interchange (EDI) and other technologies throughout the military; the impact on civilian agencies is discussed. DOD rule fuels foreign vs. domestic parts dilemma. (US Department of Defense procurement rules on foreign content of equipment) The computer industry is ready to mount another challenge to US Department of Defense (DOD) rules on foreign content of equipment that puts US firms using foreign parts at a disadvantage in government procurement competitions. In 1990 IBM successfully protested foreign-content rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulation at the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals as part of a mainframe solicitation, arguing that Japanese companies were able to sell computers manufactured with less expensive parts from third countries while IBM could not. An interim DOD rule uses the source components as a tie-breaker in close procurement contests among domestic manufacturers; it follows GSA and Office of Federal Procurement Policy rules and was issued as part of updates to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. Sysorex claims DEC server fails to meet PC LAN specs. (Sysorex Information Systems Inc. protests the award of the Navy PC LAN Sysorex Information Systems Inc protests the $54 million Navy PC LAN contract award to DEC with the US General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, claiming DEC's file server does not meet specifications. Sysorex also alleges that neither Oracle's database management system nor Novell's network operating system offered by DEC meet contract specifications. Sysorex Pres Robert Foley claims to have proof that some of the products offered by DEC were not available for shipment at the time of the contract award on Mar 6, 1991; he says his company's bid was lowest in cost and low in risk, claiming Sysorex's bid was lowest in a range from $47 million to $100 million. The contract calls for up to 8,000 local area networks in the Defense Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation; 3,600 file servers will be delivered, half with 100Mbyte hard drives and half with 300Mbyte hard drives. Two vendors assail Fedlog procurement; charge buy competes with private sector. (National Standards Association and Information The National Standards Association (NSA) and Information Handling Services Inc (IHS) protest the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Federal Catalog System (Fedlog) procurement program, claiming it violates laws against the government performing tasks that compete with the private sector. Fedlog calls for government-furnished logistics data to be put on CD-ROMs to be used by 30,000 Department of Defense users; the procurement is being run by the Government Printing Office (GPO), which expects to make an award in Apr 1991. The General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals has suspended the delegation of procurement authority pending the outcome of the protests; IHS claims the DLA failed to address the issue of Fedlog competing with systems now available from five commercial services, including IHS. The protests were lodged by NSA and IHS after the GPO eliminated them from the bidding. Changing face of input technologies; pen-based and speech-recognition systems expand federal users' options. (Tech Pen-based systems and speech-recognition systems provide federal government computer users with input options other than keyboards and mice. Pen-based systems require the ability to recognize cursive writing and overlapping letters. Grid Systems Corp's $3,000 GridPad is a lightweight clipboard-type computer based on an Intel 8086 chip and running MS-DOS; it recognizes printed uppercase letters and can store signatures and graphics. Go Corp and Microsoft are developing operating systems for pen-based systems: Go's PenPoint is a 32-bit operating system intended for pen interfaces to computer systems, while Microsoft's Pen Windows will extend the company's Windows graphical user interface to provide users with the ability to use a stylus for input. Equipment that recognizes spoken words within a predefined vocabulary are available from several firms, but the systems cannot yet recognize any speaker's voice, accept a large vocabulary or handle continuous speech. Milazzo directs teleprocessing at HUD; two upcoming contracts will revamp HUD nets. (US Housing and Urban Development Teleprocessing US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Teleprocessing Management Div Acting Dir Mike Milazzo is focusing on the HUD Integrated Information Processing System (HIIPS) outsourcing contract awarded in Nov 1990 to Martin Marietta. HIIPS will upgrade and combine the HUDnet and Computerized Homes Underwriting Management System (CHUMS) wide area networks. HUDnet and CHUMS connect HUD headquarters with more than 80 field offices. Milazzo will work closely with Martin Marietta during implementation of HIIPS to maintain the current networks and migrate to the new network in a way that is as transparent to users as possible. The resulting HUD Information Network will use multifunction workstations in place of the terminals now used; Milazzo says the agency will explore use of more file servers and LANs. The increasing use of LANs by the agency is Milazzo's other primary concern. Vendors expand fault-tolerant offerings. (new fault-tolerant computers from Stratus Computer Inc. and DEC) (product Stratus Computer Inc and DEC introduce new fault-tolerant computers: Stratus's XA2000 Continuous Processing Systems models 270 and 280, and DEC's VAXft Models 410 and 610. Stratus and DEC are two of the three major players in the fault-tolerant computer market, along with Tandem Computers Inc. Stratus is targeting high-end users in telecommunications and applications such as command, control, communications and intelligence, according to Infocorp/Gartner Group VP Sandra Gant, while analysts claim DEC is counting on aggressive pricing to allow federal government agencies at all levels to consider fault tolerance. Stratus hopes to use UNIX and compliance with standards to attract federal users; the 270 will cost $1.27 million and the 280 will cost $1.41 million. DEC's VAXft 410 will cost $145,077 for a server configuration and $550,000 for a multiuser system, while the 610 costs from $165,000 to $1 million. CA lands Customs support contract. (Computer Associates International Inc. wins a US Customs Service software services Computer Associates International Inc (CA) wins a software services support contract with the US Customs Service with a potential value of $27 million over five years. CA Federal Div Sr VP Bob Dinkel says the company is taking a strong stance toward service markets, especially in the federal sector; the contract is one of CA's largest services awards. CA does not intend to become a systems integrator but will pursue services as a complement to its product line, according to Dinkel. Dinkel says Customs is a very large CA-Datacom/DB client, which makes it somewhat of a showcase data center for CA because of its volumes and efficiencies. Customs Service Office of Automated Systems Operations Systems Engineering Div Dir Gary Cantrell says the agency pumps more than three million transactions per day on the enforcement side and more than two million per day on the commercial side. Competition in workstation market heats up. Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. Aggressive pricing and new products from IBM, Data General Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co in Mar 1991 have heated up competition in the workstation market. The increased competition is expected to benefit federal government users by providing lower prices and profit margins on impending government bids, according to analysts. Market research firm Input estimates that the federal workstation market will be worth $250 million in 1991, compared to $200 million in 1990. Key applications for federal users are the same as those for users in the private sector: networking, software development, computer-aided design, technical publishing and geographic information systems. Sun Microsystems Inc held 29.1 percent of the worldwide workstation market in 1990, according to Dataquest, which estimates the total market value at $7.4 billion in the year. The impact of new offerings from Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Data General is discussed. Major firms support pen-based systems; IBM, Microsoft, Apple follow Grid into emerging pen-based computer market. (companies Among the companies discussing their support for pen-based systems at the recent Platforms for Computing Forum sponsored by EDVentures Holdings Inc were IBM, Microsoft and Apple, showing the promising future for the technology. IBM is endorsing Go Corp's PenPoint operating system; Go Chmn Jerry Kaplan says pen-based computers have a different market than desktop computers, and he expects the market to split into desktop and portable sectors. IBM calls the systems tablets; Entry Systems Div VP Kathy Vieth says pen-based systems are more suitable for people who do not yet have a computer. Microsoft will base its pen-based system on its Windows graphical user interface; its Pen Windows is expected to be available to hardware manufacturers by the end of 1991 and will be built on the next release of Windows, version 3.1, according to Microsoft Office Systems VP Jeff Raikes. Apple VP David Nagel says the company is not yet ready to announce its pen-based strategy; the company is a leader in mouse-based computing. HP poised for a comeback; unveils powerful new series of RISC workstations. (Hewlett-Packard Co, reduced instruction set Hewlett-Packard has a new line of engineering workstations on the market. The new reduced instruction set computers (RISC) offer increases in performance that make them leaders in the market. The low-end HP 9000 720 is a $12,000 machine that generates 57 million instructions per second (MIPS). The new 9000 730 offers 76 MIPS for a price of approximately $20,000; a server version, the 9000 750 is priced at $30,000 on the low end. All three models are based on the HP Precision RISC architecture and run the HP version of Unix, HP-UX. Migration paths are offered for Apollo users. For binary compatibility with the DomainOS and HP-UX applications the HP 9000 400 series is available; this is a Motorola-based line introduced in Fall 1990. The HP RISC systems are expected to be the first HP systems to support OSF/1; they will be followed by Motorola-based platforms. Is IBM's outsourcing legal? (Affiliated Computer Systems Inc.) Caldwell, Bruce. Affiliated Computer Systems Inc, of Dallas, TX, tries to convince the US Department of Justice that IBM's foray into the outsourcing business is illegal, a violation of a 1956 consent decree. IBM is restricted, according to Affiliated Computer, by the decree issued by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, from offering remote DP services because it could monopolize the business. Darwin Deason, chairman of Affiliated, meets with other service vendors to prepare a request for action by Adapso, a computer industry trade group. A request for help in pressing an investigation may be made on Apr 21, 1991, to Adapso by Deason and at least five firms, including Sungard Computer Services Inc and Systematics Inc. Against the tide: data center software streamlines operations. Wood, Lamont. Data center automation software offers an environment of 'lights-out' operations that can go on without human intervention. Large mainframes capable of generating 60 messages per second can bewilder human operators. Console automation software is designed to weed out innocuous messages from those messages that truly require human intervention. Making improvements in service levels is more important than adding automation software that eliminates jobs and saves money on personnel costs. The prime objective is to smooth operations, rather than to eliminate jobs, although computer operator jobs are cut significantly by automation software. One danger is to rely on the software to overcome inadequacies, rather than searching for the source of problems. Building a better mousetrap: What role to MIS executives play in business reengineering projects? (includes a related article on Business reengineering is the process of redesigning internal work processes in order to boost productivity and competitiveness. Ford Motor, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance, AT and T and DEC report increases in productivity and a decrease in staff by about 80 percent after business reengineering. At DEC, under the leadership of Bruce Ryan (VP and corporate controller), 20 incompatible accounts-payable systems were converted to a VAX standard and 55 accounting groups were consolidated to five; 450 jobs were eliminated. National productivity figures have not improved since 1973, even though many corporations have made massive investments in information technology. Statistics indicate that as spending on IT increases, productivity decreases. Typically, after business reengineering, IS executives are called in to provide enabling systems. Fine wine on line: at Moet & Chandon, tradition and technology make a good blend. (nestled in Epernay, in the heart of France's Moet and Chandon, a wine company founded in 1743 in Epernay of the Champagne region of France, stays on the cutting-edge of operations in sales, marketing, office systems and currency trading. At the same time the firm holds on to its hand-made champagne production methods. Moet bought its first computer in 1938 and planned to use the machine to keep track of the horses that hauled grapes from the vineyard to the wine-press. Unfortunately, delivery was delayed by World War II, and when the machine finally arrived, there were no more horses left. Presently the company has several aging IBM 3278s. There is also an IBM 3090 and several peripheral systems in an off-site building configured with a back-up generator, cooling systems, remote cameras and double-wired communications. A peripheral currency program is used to keep track of sales that come from outside France; this is over 80 percent of Moet's business. Microsoft turns off the meter: crackdown on networked applications irks users. Microsoft Corp, in the past year, has taken a stand against concurrent application use and the practice of metering. Metering is the practice of keeping a copy of an application at the server and monitoring usage, instead of giving each user their own copy of the program. Microsoft customers are now required to purchase a disk for each network user engaging in the Microsoft applications, or purchase a license pack that allows one copy be made for a price 20 percent less than the cost of the original package. Corporate network managers dissatisfied with the Microsoft licensing policy look to third-party solutions. Delta Air Lines recently purchased a Windows Workstation package from Automated Design Systems of Atlanta. The package provides Windows access to the network and has metering capabilities. Making up for wasted space: Candle sheds light on DASD reallocation for DB2. (Candle Corp.; direct access storage device) Candle Corp plans to isolate inefficient use of direct access storage device (DASD) in DB2 environments. The company offers a customized piece of the DB2-DASD product, for free, to analyze the DB2 disk usage and summarize results in estimated cost. Over 300 copies of the free program have been distributed by Candle; so far approximately 30 detailed responses have been returned. Reporting companies indicate (on average) 40 percent of DASD space allocated to DB2 is unused; the cost of wasted DASD is from $40,000 to $500,000 annually. The virus vaccine. (new and complex viruses surfacing daily, according to Certus International) Certus International Inc, of Cleveland, OH, asserts new and complex computer viruses surface daily. The maker of anti-virus software warns existing viruses multiply rapidly over networks and via shared software. Over 300 known viruses are at large. New vaccine software is sophisticated enough to handle most common viruses. Scanner programs search for known viruses and kill them automatically when they are located. Summing (noticing) systems tell the user when the program has changed; this flags the problem. McAfee Associates of Santa Clara, CA, offers vaccine software (Viruscan, Clean-Up and Netscan) and also infection prevention (V-shield) that checks all software being loaded. The best way to keep a system free of viruses is to educate users about what to look for and how to use vaccine software. Microsoft talks multimedia standards. Todd, Daniel. Microsoft Corp announces the Multimedia PC (MPC) trademark for microcomputers that meet certain minimum standards for audio, video display, processing power, RAM size and CD-ROM drives. The MPC trademark will be administered by a trade group that is yet to be named. The branding responsibility may be administered by the Interactive Multimedia Association or perhaps the Software Publishers Association. The Interactive Multimedia Association is the leading candidate, a non-profit trade group with 170 members including IBM, Apple, Sony, Intel and NV Philips. IBM has a contract with Britannica Software that may bring the PS/1 close to the MPC specifications. TIRS, not; tears, at Alamo; IBM's expert system tool helps car-rental firm set rates. (Alamo Rent-A-Car Inc.'s use of The Alamo Rent-A-Car Inc used The Integrated Reasoning Shell (TIRS) to develop the RATE expert system application for making pricing recommendations. Alamo VP of computer and communications services Thomas Loane says the rule-based system was developed by putting the sales and pricing people who previously set rates in a room until they agreed on rules rather than on prices; Loane says this made the people think longer about the process. There are about 75 rules in the final expert system, which was completed by a single programmer in about four months. The program is set up to allow a human pricing specialist to approve all recommendations made by the expert system before it becomes available to field locations. Loane is hesitant to make any changes to rules, relying instead on a pricing specialist to handle exceptions. TIRS lacks many features found in competing packages; several of these are described. DEC, Stratus cover up faults: strengthen fault-tolerant computer product lines. (product announcement) DEC and Stratus Computer offer new models in the fault-tolerant computer market. There is a 20 percent growth rate in this area of the computer market, and each manufacturer is attempting to gain a greater market share. DEC offers the VAXft 110 priced at $46,950. At the high end of DEC's new models is the VAXft 612 (25 transactions per second) for a price of $1 million for a fully configured system. Stratus offers the XA2000 line with the high-end 270 and 280 models priced from $1.3 million to $1.4 million. A new line of Stratus machines will eventually phase out the XA2000 line; the new models will be based on the Intel 80680 RISC CPU chip. The first model offered by the firm, the XA/R 20 is priced from $247,000. Availability is scheduled for 3rd qtr 1991. Be your own consultant: outsourcing isn't always the answer; insourcing sometimes is. (Final Word) (column) MIS support personnel lost their usefulness to end users when the microcomputer began to appear on just about everyone's desk. The MIS and data processing department must change to meet new needs of business users. End users need assistance in technical issues. Outsourcing is the solution used by many companies to handle jobs that cannot be easily taken care of in the office. MIS staff can, however, learn to act as consultants for their own company. They can be a source of 'insourcing' and eliminate the need to outsource. Consultants seldom spend enough time with any one company to become expert at what that particular company does. A company employee, however, can become proficient in proprietary problems and be on the lookout for solutions that fit the needs of that one company. The Help Desk/Information Center must be a company consultancy with expertise of the operation, on how the company works and how technology can aid that process. Novell cuts NetWare cost with run-time version. (NetWare operating system) Novell is developing a run-time version of NetWare that will allow users to offload their NetWare Loadable lModule (NLM) applications onto separate servers. The stripped-down version does not contain file and print services, but supports such applications as database servers, message server, backup server or print server NLM. Running an NLM on a separate server would take the load off the file server and provide security and maintenance options. The run-time version of NetWare is part of Novell's Communications Services product line. The product will cost end-users about $1,000. No word on when the product will become available. IBM takes own road to multimedia PCs; 5-level hardware specs include video discs. IBM outlined its multimedia plans by describing five microcomputers aimed at different segments of the market. These include 386SX-, 386-, and 486-based PS/2s and a 80286-based PS/1. Some will operate under Microsoft's multimedia Windows, others will run OS/2 with multimedia extensions. Most models are targeted for business, government, and education markets. Some of the designs include a CD ROM drive, others have laser disc players or read/write optical drives. IBM and Microsoft have adopted different approaches to multimedia, IBM is taking a dim view of Microsoft's attempts to make its multimedia spec into a standard. Borland revs up Quattro Pro upgrade. (includes a related article on Borland's acceleration of its development cycle) Borland is expected to announce a follow-on product to its Quattro Pro 2.0 spreadsheet in Apr 1991, hoping to beat Lotus Development Corp's announcement of Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.3 in early May. Borland's upgrade will feature improved WYSIWYG features and the ability to fine-tune printing of very large spreadsheets on continuous-feed printers without page breaks. The product finished beta testing. The company's object-oriented approach is credited with the increased speed of its product development cycle. AMD speeds ahead of Intel with 40-MHz clone of Intel's 80386DX. (Advanced Micro Devices) Advanced Micro Devices unveiled its 80386DX clone Mar 25, 1991, and a host of third-party developers and second-tier manufacturers are ready to announce their support for the processor. Approximately 20 companies have ordered the 40-MHz Am386, and 40 companies are developing products designed for the higher clock speed of the new chips. AMD will introduce a 25-MHz SX version of the 386 within three months. Compatibility of the faster AMD products remains a question, AMD has assured manufacturers and analysts that its 386 products will be compatible with Intel's. RISC alliance reflects new Compaq strategy; will establish new marketing channels. (reduced instruction set computers) (reduced Compaq Computer Corp plans to use RISC systems to establish new direct sales and high-end VAR channels without undercutting its current dealers. Its dealers are currently losing market share in the 386/486 market. The RISC machine market promises more profitability and will not compromise the dealer channels. The ARCA consortium, due to be announced in Apr 1991, will focus efforts on Microsoft's 'New Technology' operating environment implemented on MIPS Computer System's R4000 RISC processor and packaged into systems by Compaq and other manufacturers. Compaq refused comment on the ARCA consortium, but intends to maintain a bridge between MS-DOS and any future operating systems. Apple to license MAC OS to OEMs to expand share. (Apple Macintosh operating system, original equipment manufacturers) Apple Computer intends to license its Macintosh operating system for porting to other hardware platforms in an attempt to become an industry standard. The open system will not penalize the user in terms of hardware. Apple also plans development of a RISC-based Macintosh, two notebook computers, and consumer electronics-oriented machines. Apple CEO John Sculley would not comment on plans to develop a MAC operating system that would run on Intel microprocessors, a move some analysts feel is inevitable. IBM blames economy for earnings drop; Big Blue plans to announce its long-overdue PS/2 L40SX laptop. IBM experienced earnings 50 percent below predictions for the first quarter of 1991. The company will announce its long-awaited PS/2 L40SX laptop at the CeBit Faire in Hannover, Germany, during the last week of March. A new model 55SX microcomputer boasts a 20-MHz version of the 80386SX, 2Mbytes of RAM, 60Mbyte hard disk, VGA monitor and a new motherboard. A new PC AT bus machine, code-named Dry Tortuga and most likely to be the 40SX, will also have 2Mbytes of RAM, an optional 110Mbyte hard disk, VGA monitor, and 2.88Mbyte floppy disks. New models of the PS/2 90 and 95 are expected in April. IBM missed the boat on 386SX-based machines, notebooks, laptops and multiprocessing servers, part of the cause for its poor earnings. The company is blaming the economy. Prerelease FoxPro 2.0 gets thumbs up in demos. Brownstein, Mark. Fox Software's FoxPro, Version 2.0, is still in beta testing, but it has been shown to the public and will be seen at the DB/Expo show in San Francisco the last week of Mar 1991. Consultants are demonstrating the data base management system during the show's sessions. Fox plans to release the program in the second quarter in both network and standard versions. The list price for the standard version will be $795. A Distribution Toolkit for applications development will be priced at $500. Applications will include specially developed libraries. Tandy shows sub-$400 CD ROM disc drive. (Tandy CDR-1000 CD ROM) (product announcement) Tandy Corp released the CDR-1000 CD ROM drive, the first available for under $400. The product includes an interface adapter and driver software. The internal drive has a data access time of 800 milliseconds and supports the specifications for multimedia Windows. NEC also released the Intersect CDR-36 portable CD ROM reader. It weighs 2.2 pounds and works with DOS machines as well as Macintoshes. It will be available in May 1991 for $599. Sun passes M-bus spec to Sparc International. (Version 8 of Sun Microsystems' Sparc architecture definition announced) (product Sun Microsystems transferred ownership of the Sparc architecture to Sparc International in mid-Mar 1991. Sparc International announced Version 8 of the architecture definition for Sun's high-speed M-bus at the same time. The M-bus specification will ensure pin-out and electrical compatibility among future Sparc processor chips. This compatibility will encourage competition among chip makers for Sparc systems vendors' business. Version 8 fixes upon a single multiprocessing memory model, allowing vendors to write a single version of an application that takes advantage of multiprocessing and runs on all Sparc-compatible multiprocessing machines. Microsoft's hardware innovations spur software's utility. (Tech Talk) (column) Microsoft Corp has created hardware innovations throughout its history that set standards and contributed to the growth of the industry. The introduction of its new Microsoft Ballpoint Mouse will be the standard among laptop users. The device is actually a small, flat-sided puck with a miniature trackball and buttons that are manipulated by the thumb and fingers. Most keyboards will accept the device. The accompanying software allows the X-Y coordinate system to be rotated to any angle in order to achieve the most natural feel. Technical jargon poses problem for modem buyers; evolving beyond the Hayes Smartmodem. The need for modem standards prompted the International Consultative Committee for Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT) to develop worldwide standards, but created a confusing set of technical designations. Modem transmission speed standards include Bell 103, Bell 212A, V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32 and V.32bis. The 'bis' extension means the standard is an extension of another standard. Modem error correction and compression standards include V.43, Trelliscoded modulation (TCM), V.42bis and MNP 5. CCITT's Group III is a set of standards for 9,600-bps facsimile. Modems operate only at the highest level supported at both ends, explaining why some will not use data compression and some new machines have problems connecting to older devices. Users remain loyal to Novell NetWare 2.2. (network operating system) The advanced features of NetWare 3.11 outweigh its high price for many users, others are staying with NetWare 2.2, the latest upgrade to the 80286-based product line. Many companies are citing the high cost, investment in hardware and difficulty of upgrading as reasons for not upgrading. Switching over will take a long time. NetWare 2.2 includes utilities designed to save time and the program is simpler to install. Novell plans to continue to enhance NetWare 2.2, but it will not include some of 3.11's features. Aldus studies PrePrint, preps midyear upgrade: update to separate some PostScript files. Aldus Corp is adding capabilities to its PrePrint 1.0 image processing software and an upgrade is expected around mid-1991. Version 1.5 will directly open and separate color-conforming PostScript files. It will provide publishers with more control of color level separations and let users manipulate saturations and hues. An intelligent resampling mechanism for scanned images that experienced a loss of data during scanning is included. Aldus intends to release PageMaker 4.01, which will take advantage of PrePrint 1.5's arbitrary page selection capability. Windows primes software sales; sales are fueling expansion of the graphical user interface market. The success of Microsoft Windows 3.0 fueled a 26.2 percent increase in software sales in 1990. This compares with a 11.9 percent growth in the previous year. Fourth quarter sales surpassed Macintosh sales in the fourth quarter, for the first time. Desktop publishing sales rose 36.5 percent, word processing software showed an increase of 33.7 percent, graphics were up 33.2 percent. Word processing programs for the Mac and DOS formats posted the largest sales. Desktop publishing led the overall growth in the fourth quarter with 68.2 percent, although word processors were the fastest growing category. International sales have increased by 59 percent. Unix and OS/2 sales continue to increase, but do not have much impact on the market. History suggests FTC antitrust case vs. Microsoft will flop. (Tech Street) (column) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating possible violations of antitrust laws by Microsoft because the company sells the most popular microcomputer operating system and also sells applications that run on it. IBM was investigated for several antitrust infringements, including the charge that it had a monopoly on peripherals that were sold for its own computers. The growth of the computer industry and the number of new companies entering the market belied the theory that monopolies inhibit the marketplace. Long, drawn-out cases tend to be difficult; the market changes, memories dim, documents become hard to find and victims go on to other pursuits. The government has limited resources and cannot afford to combat the legal armies big businesses can field. The Republican administration will not support charges against big business. The US trial of IBM generated over 30 million pieces of paper. End of the paper chase?; A society of paper pushers may soon find relief with the emergence of document processing technology. Emerging document processing technology faces several technological, and political, hurdles in streamlining the cumbersome tasks in communicating information. The lack of standards, an insufficient number of commercial applications, and the current state of optical character recognition (OCR) remain obstacles to this growing arena. Legal issues may mean the amount of paper will not be significantly reduced. Even small companies can benefit from the communications and data sharing offered by document processing systems. Information scanned into the computer and stored as bit-mapped files do not allow full-text searches or data manipulation because they are not in ASCII format. Microsoft Corp is attempting to establish OS/2 and Windows as the standards for creating and managing documents. Front ends; InfoWorld test-drives four software programs for tapping into database servers. (includes an executive summary and The functionality of four front ends for database servers are evaluated and compared. Paradox SQL Link, used with Paradox 3.5, provides traditional database functionality: data entry, tabular reports and extensive ad hoc query capabilities. Lotus 1-2-3 releases 2.2 and 3.1 allow queries, create and delete tables, and add, update, or delete data residing on a database server. Forest & Trees provides the best analysis tools of the group, although it will not update data. Paradox SQL link: Version 1.0. (Software Review) (one of four database front end evaluations in Front Ends) (evaluation) Paradox SQL Link is the interface between Paradox 3.5 and database servers. The program requires no knowledge of SQL for immediate access to remote server data. Configuration requirements, restrictions and potential data integrity problems make the program less than ideal for interactive users. There are restrictions on Paradox's functionality when accessing remote data. Careless users can overwrite other users' changes at the SQL server. The program is expensive; the list price is $495, $395 for DEC's VAX RDB/VMS. Lotus 1-2-3: Release 2.2. (Software Review) (one of four database front end evaluations in Front Ends) (evaluation) Two different interfaces are required to run Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.2 with SQL Server or Oracle Server. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 with SQL Server, from Lotus Development Corp, imitates standard Lotus operations and provides an update scheme that is efficient while preserving data integrity. 1-2-3 users can bring data into their spreadsheets from a remote database server for analysis and updates. The package only costs $75. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 with Oracle Server, from Oracle Corp, provides the same advantages, but is considerably more expensive at $299 per copy. Lotus 1-2-3: Release 3.1. (Software Review) (one of four database front end evaluations in Front Ends) (evaluation) Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1 with SQL Server integrates server access into standard 1-2-3 operations in a uniform manner. It provides the latest in advanced spreadsheet features with the advanced processing of a database server. The program lacks the ability to send SQL commands directly. Complex queries are possible through nesting of advanced 'at' functions in the query criteria range. The program is considered a good value at its $75 purchase price. Forest & Trees for Windows: version 1.0A. (Software Review) (one of four database front end evaluations in Front Ends) (evaluation) Forest & Trees for Windows Version 1.0A, from Channel Computing Inc, provides outstanding organizational structure that allows queries and reports to be arranged so that the most important indicators are tacked in real time. It lets the user stay on top of critical information in a concise and automated fashion. Data can be queried and summarized from a wide variety of sources on a microcomputer and local-area network. The program is easy to use, but the user must know server-specific SQL dialect. The list price is $495. Borland's Turbo Pascal for Windows is a must-have for Pascal programmers. (Borland International) (product announcement) Pascal programmers who use Windows will need to get a copy of Borland's new Turbo Pascal for Windows. The interactive development environment (IDE) runs as a Windows application, not as a DOS program running in a window; development is simpler and faster. Turbo Debugger for Windows and the Whitewater Resource Toolkit are included. Object-oriented programming features are included; the ObjectWindows class library helps reduce Windows programming to a minimum of code. There are two keyboard configurations; one is Windows-oriented, the other lets you use keystrokes peculiar to the Borland languages. The program lists for $249.95. Current owners can upgrade for $99.95. Update of Sidekick beefs up address book, scheduling; adds features. (Software Review) (Sidekick 2.0 from Borland Borland's Sidekick 2.0 overhauled several of the program's original features and added a few, such as integration with laptops and organizers. The program can run as a stand-alone or terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program. Version 2.0 uses less memory, only 35Kbytes, and features a new, improved interface. It supports local-area networks (LANs) and has connectivity links to organizational products. Printed output is of very high quality. The program is easy to learn and to use, the documentation is excellent, and support policies are very good. This program is considered an excellent value at its $99.95 purchase price. Ventura Publisher brings typographic capabilities to the Mac. (lacks WYSIWYG, limited graphics handling features) (Software Ventura Publisher: Macintosh Edition Version 3.0 is suited for documentation, book, and catalog publishing, but it lacks WYSIWYG layout and has limited graphics handling capabilities. It also lacks Pantone and color-separation support. The program, from Ventura Software Inc, requires 2Mbytes of RAM. It is roughly comparable to PageMaker and Xpress for common layout needs but contains sophisticated typographic control and the ability to anchor graphics to text. The program is fairly easy to use and technical support is rated as satisfactory. This is a good value at the $895 list price. Are we entering a new phase of innovation in the PC industry? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) There are several indications that the microcomputer industry is entering a new phase of development that will produce exciting new computers and revolutionary software. Apple Computer CEO John Sculley plans to build a larger company in which the Macintosh will only be one of the products. He is targeting enterprise systems and 'miniaturization and mobility.' Wireless, hand-held, consumer-styled technologies present the greatest opportunity. CD ROM technology and systems based on Go's Pen-Point operating system will experience an increasing market. Smaller, portable, object-oriented systems seem to be the future for this industry. Novell offers hybrid of NetWare 286. (NetWare 2.2) (product announcement) Novell introduces NetWare 2.2 ($895, five user version), which combines the functions of the vendor's four existing versions of NetWare 286 into a single package. The new package is much easier to install and will probably do away with the confusion customers have had about which version of NetWare to use for small businesses or department work groups. Users have been clamoring for an easier installation process. The new product includes the ease-of-use characteristics of NetWare ELS I and II and the advanced services and features of Advanced NetWare and SFT NetWare. Also included are a few enhancements to extend the product life of the network operating system for users of SFT NetWare and Advanced NetWare not planning to upgrade to NetWare 386. Pricing has also been reworked. Novell will charge for the software on the basis of number of users supported, rather than the functions inherent in the different versions. NetWare 2.2 costs $1,995 for a 10 user version, $3,495 for a 50 user version and $5,495 for a 100 user version. MCI plans trials of long-distance SMDS; plots interexchange tests of emerging high-speed switched data service with Nynex, Bell MCI Communications Corp. plans to launch long-distance trials of Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS) in 1991. SMDS is a switched high-speed digital data service that can support transmission speeds between 1.54M- and 155M-bit/second. It promises to be more cost-effective for such applications as local area network interconnection. MCI is reportedly negotiating with Bell Atlantic and Nynex Corp for local connections. MCI could be the first long-distance carrier to test the high-speed switched digital service. AT and T is taking part in a multivendor trial of broadband transmission technologies, but will wait until 1992 before beginning the SMDS portion of the trial. US Sprint Communications Co has no announced plans for an SMDS test. Users say that SMDS will not be valuable unless it is national in scope. AT&T service for resellers may be boon for SDN users. (Software-Defined Network) AT and T has filed a tariff for a service that is meant to attract long-distance service resellers away from its Software-Defined Network (SDN) service. Distributed Network Service (DNS) gives resellers as much as 43 percent off AT and T's basic domestic long-distance rates and as much as 15 percent off international Pro WATS rates. Service resellers moved to SDN because the virtual network service offered larger discounts and greater profits than the WATS services previously resold. The debut of SDN switched access in 1988 attracted many service resellers into the arena, overtaxing the infrastructure AT and T constructed to support it. Moving resellers to DNS may ease restrictions for actual end users and result in faster service provisioning. DNS resellers must pay a $50,000 flat fee plus $10 for each site added to the network. In return, AT and T will provide resellers a flat rate 22 percent below basic long-distance rates. Universal mailbox is E-mail goal. (electronic mail) (includes related articles on major providers' E-mail strategies) (buyers Electronic messaging has grown considerably since the introduction of on-line, computer-to-computer electronic messaging in the early 1980s. Goaded by competition, E-mail providers offer much more powerful services, such as file transfer, facsimile, electronic data interchange and voice messaging support. Basic E-mail service was available only through some value-added networks when US Sprint Communications Co introduced its Telemail service in 1980. AT and T, MCI Communications Corp, IBM and other had entered the market by 1986. Vendors are currently looking for one gateway to all electronic messaging services. Service vendors began installation of X.400-based interconnections a few years ago. Most major vendors are connected directly to each other. Most services are meant to be used by a variety of computer systems. Some can be accessed through any computer connected to a public X.25 network. A list of E-mail software and service providers is included. Firms empower business managers to fill CIO role; inability to pair company business goals with network services is holding IS Some corporations are appointing nontechnical executives to the post of chief information officer (CIO) in an effort to more effectively combine technology and business strategy. The ideal CIO has strong business, management and technology skills but it is usually hard to find all of those qualities in one executive. Some firms, as a result, are giving the CIO position to managers heavier on business rather than technology expertise because of some concern about the ability of IS managers to translating computing and network assets into corporate advantage. Others have chosen a two-tiered hierarchy wherein a business-oriented CIO is supported by an experienced IS manager. Technical experts, to a great degree, have been unable to communicate effectively to senior management on business matters. Kodak ports two strategic applications to run on LAN; downsizing effort eases access, saves money. (local area network) Eastman Kodak has ported two strategic applications from mainframes to an OS/2-based local area network (LAN), allowing customers to submit orders via electronic data interchange (EDI) and to access information on any of Kodak's parts and products. The new LAN setup allows simplified access to product data and a 20 percent improvement in response time while cutting costs. Corporate data processing is moving to affordable platforms as the company is moving to multiple business units. The OS/2-based IBM Token-Ring Network at corporate headquarters features 12 IBM PS/2 80 servers running IBM's LAN Server network operating system. Firms unite to form plan for broadband offerings. (AT and T Network Systems Group, Fujitsu Network Switching of America Inc., Three switch vendors and a local telecommunications carrier have banded together to draw up deployment plans for broadband digital services in an effort to avoid interoperability problems and other problems that have stood in the way of the acceptance of integrated services digital network (ISDN). The AT and T Network Systems Group, Fujitsu Network Systems Group of America, Siemens Stromberg-Carlson and US West say they will conduct a three-year trial targeted on the use of high-bandwidth technologies like Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS), the Asynchronous Transfer Mode and switched T1 to support five business applications. Bell Communications Research will coordinate the project, which is called Communications Programs for Advanced Switched Services (COMPASS). The four companies say multivendor participation is a key to the success of the project. Several RBHCs announce progress on SMDS devices. (regional Bell holding companies, Switched Multimegabit Data Service) Several regional Bell holding companies (RBHCs) have laid out plans to offer Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) by Sep 1992. SMDS is a Bell Communications Research standard for switched digital services from 1.544M- to 155M-bit/sec and is designed to offer users a less expensive alternative to leased lines for high-bandwidth applications like local area network (LAN) interconnection, videoconferencing and bulk file transfer. BellSouth Corp, Nynex and Southwestern Bell are among the RBHCs conducting internal SMDS trials and planning customer field trials and tariffed SMDS services. Users have expressed interest in SMDS and other high-speed data services. FMC Corp officials are considering SMDS and frame relay technology, saying that both may play a role in the future in the corporate network. Nynex officials feel frame relay will satisfy some network interconnection needs so they can focus SMDS on users with applications requiring higher bandwidth levels. Sikes urges RBHCs to invest in developing domestic nets: presents message at Supercomm '91 conference. (Alfred Sikes, regional Bell Federal Communications Commission Chmn Alfred Sikes says that the regional Bell holding companies are investing too slowly in new networking technologies. Sikes challenges them to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to meet user needs. Sikes cautioned the RBHCs about investing funds overseas that could be spent on domestic network projects. Sikes says there are wide gaps in the level of carriers' network investments, although some carriers, especially BellSouth and Bell Atlantic, have moved aggressively to deploy new technologies such as Signaling System 7 (SS7). The chairman also warns that failure to modernize could leave carriers vulnerable to competition. AT&T releases line of AIN telco devices; products are among first to support standards published by Bell Communications Research. AT and T Network Systems Group introduces four new products, called A-I-Net Products, that telephone companies may use to create customized calling services. They are some of the first products to meet specifications delineated in Bell Communications Research's emerging Advanced Information Network (AIN) standard. AIN's goal is the creation of standards to allow phone companies to use a variety of switching and information processing equipment to offer advanced services instead of buying into proprietary offerings of central office switch vendors. A portion of the AIN initiative calls for moving some network intelligence from central office switches to special adjunct processors. Three of the products are software packages that may be used to configure Unix-based minicomputers as service circuit nodes, service control processors or service management systems. Codex boosts 6500 Series packet-switching products; adds support for multiple protocols on single line. Codex Corp has revealed enhancements to its 6500 Series packet-switching equipment, such as support for redundant processors and multiple protocols on one multidrop line. The vendor announced Release 2.0 and 2.1 of its 6500 Series software for the 6525 Packet Switch/PAD, the 6507 PAD and the 6505 Asynchronous PAD. Release 2.0 includes support for IBM's Synchronous Data Link Control protocol for the 6525 and 6507 as well as support for as many as 16 drops off a single multipoint line from a 6525 switch, according to company officials. Apple praises SMDS results in PacBell test: Switched Multimegabit Data Service scores file transfer between LANs at rates up to 800K Apple Computer is coming to the end of a six-month trial of a Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) from Pacific Bell and claims the service has surpassed expectations. SMDS is a high-speed switched data service from local communications carriers that will give users an alternative to leased lines. Apple, as part of the trial, is connecting Ethernet LANs at two locations in the same local access and transport area via SMDS service. Apple officials say the service has achieved file-transfer rates between LANs as fast as 800K-bit/sec. Firm upgrades workstation mgmt. tool with data base; new version also supports remote control of PCs. (Triticom's Argus/n LAN Triticom introduces Argus/n LAN Workstation Monitor 1.3 ($245), which facilitates the storage of workstation configuration data gathered by polling. Company officials state the inventory database in the program is used together with tracking capabilities to allow administrators to reach down to workstations and retrieve data about the hardware and software in place. The new release will allow the administrator to query a database to build reports detailing machine types and capabilities. A remote control function allows administrators to take control of a user's workstation, which facilitates troubleshooting. Beta testers seemed pleased that all of the program's features are available in one package. A larger version of the program, called Argus/n Internetwork, lists for $645. Attorney discusses how to avoid E-mail privacy woes; employers should be up-front about office policy. (Noel Shipman on Lawsuits about electronic mail privacy should be a thing of the past, according to Noel Shipman, an attorney who represented employees in two recent landmark E-mail privacy cases, involving the Infiniti Division of Nissan Motor Corp and Epson America Inc. Shipman, who was speaking at the EDI and the Law '91 conference, stated that firms can avoid lawsuits by creating E-mail privacy policies and informing employees about them. Companies must make it clear that everything on the computer system will be read. Shipman does not feel that companies should be reading electronic documents and messages but says that they have to maintain that right to legally protect themselves. Such a policy will curtail the use of E-mail. Officials of Eastman Kodak say the company will only read electronic messages under special circumstances: if someone is leaving the company, if a technical problem needs to be solved or if a person is a known system abuser. Exec promotes IS, worker alignments; Ernst & Young partner suggests downsizing from mainframes to workstations, forming staff Bernard Mathaisel, partner at Ernst and Young and former chief information officer (CIO) at The Walt Disney Co, says the key to leveraging information technology for business advantage is the democratization of computing. Democratization calls for downsizing from mainframes to workstation platforms and forming teams of users and information systems (IS) professionals to look at business processes and the potential uses of technology. Mathaisel was recruited by Ernst and Young to manage its Center for Information Technology and Strategy, a Boston-based consulting think-tank focused on the exploration of the relationship between business and technology strategies. Business process redesign, according to Mathaisel, is the same as change management, which has been stressed by consultants and IS managers since 1971. Information technology is receiving more emphasis today. He says that some companies have succeeded at aligning technology and business objectives where others have not. He sees democratization of computing as the key to achieving this goal. INTELSAT opens door for international service rivals; group OKs switched service competition. (International Telecommunications INTELSAT has approved two petitions to private satellite companies to offer limited switched services in competition with INTELSAT members. The board of governors approved requests by Alpha Lyracom Pan American Satellite Corp (PANAMSAT) and Australian Satellite, Pty, Ltd. This is the first implementation of a new policy for INTELSAT that lets private satellite companies offer as many as 100 international switched voice circuits. INTELSAT previously had a monopoly for providing all international switched telephone services via satellite. User groups, such as the International Telecommunications Users Group, argued that the monopoly should be abolished as increased competition would results in lower prices and improved services. US Sprint to offer new global services; carrier plans to extend private lines to Asia, Mexico, South America, offer new discount US Sprint is preparing for a major expansion of its international private-line services, including extending services to Asia, Mexico and South America, along with a new volume discount plan. These service enhancements will improve the carrier's ability to offer users global private networks and will let the carrier compete more effectively against MCI Communications Corp, TRT/FTC Communications Inc AT and T and World Communications Inc, all of which offer international private-line services to more countries than Sprint. US Sprint currently only offers international private-line services to Western Europe and Canada. Sprint officials say the company will use the capacity it has on the North Pacific Cable to offer digital private-line service to Japan and other larger Pacific Rim countries. Groupware: in search of a new metaphor. (column) Kobielus, James. Vendors of groupware products are having some difficulties explaining to users the purpose their products serve and how they are different from other network applications. The notion of groupware is still to obscure to incite the imagination. The most appropriate analogy is probably that with human work groups and concurrent processing. Groups can complete a task in less time that one person can by putting many resources to the task. Concurrent processing by many nodes can definitely reduce the execution time on big jobs. Human productivity in a groupware environment depends on how well the interprocessor coordination and communications are addressed by applications developers. A half decade of growth, controversy and confusion; What happened to the issues, technologies and pundits that shared the spotlight A review of stories that have appeared since Network World's inception in 1986 reveal an industry that is fraught with controversy, technical revolutions and misguided predictions that have forced networking in directions no one expected. One of the larger controversies concerned the positioning of PBXs as intra-building voice/data hubs that can meet users' local data communications needs. Most users did not favor the voice/data PBX concept and opted instead for local area networks (LANs). Arcnet and Ethernet ruled in 1986 with the LAN market still in its infancy. Stories of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) were plentiful in 1986. Editorials argued about how it would alter networking. Leading-edge users of the past revisited. (includes related article listing some outstanding stories from 1986) At its inception in 1986, Network World magazine began to chronicle pioneering uses of emerging networking technologies like very small aperture terminals (VSAT) and broadband local area networks. Users are now living with the network decisions made in 1986, some of which have met expectations and some of which have not. K-Mart's venture into VSAT technology was declared successful. The move by Financial Information Trust to VSAT did not meet expectations. K-Mart's plan to connect 2,200 stores to a Troy, MI, data center was seen as a bold initiative. The VSAT network replaced dial-up and leased lines and made it easier for the retailer to process credit card authorizations on-line, reducing losses from stolen credit cards. When protocol flavors don't mix; internetworking with different protocol versions can land you in the soup. (Alligators in the The use of different network elements that use different protocols could set the scene for disaster. Ashton-Tate bought three HP 3000 minicomputers in Nov 1990 for installation in offices in Dublin, Ireland; Torrance, CA; and Singapore. Officials believed that the HP 3000s would be the best for supporting the corporate general ledger, sales consolidation and ordering and manufacturing applications they wanted to use. Ashton-Tate's various networks support 1,500 users and are built largely on Banyan VINES. Difficulties in installing the HP 3000s and handling varying communications protocols are discussed in detail. NCR says it will talk to A.T.&T.; with shareholders due to meet soon, a deal seems likely. (takeover bid) Analysts say NCR's decision to enter into negotiations with AT and T over the two companies' long standing takeover feud indicates that a settlement of some sort is imminent. The move by NCR, which has long avoided negotiations, comes just four days before the company's special shareholder meeting to consider AT and T's takeover offer. AT and T has recently raised its acquisition offer to $100 a share if the stockholders vote out NCR's board with an 80 percent vote at the meeting; if the vote is less than 80 percent AT and T will revert to its $90 a share offer. Total cost of the acquisition would be $6.77 billion at the higher offer and $6.09 billion at the lower price. NCR has long contended that the $90 a share bid is far to low, citing instead the figure of $125 a share. Analysts believe that should the deal be finalized the price will be in the $105 to $110 a share range. IBM maps plan to run Windows under OS/2 2.0 (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface under the OS/2 operating system ) IBM plans to run the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface under the long-awaited OS/2 2.0 operating system. IBM hopes that the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 operating system, which is scheduled for release in fall 1991, will attract otherwise disinterested users by virtue of being able to run Windows applications without modification. Some beta testers believe that the OS/2 2.0 provides a better platform than Windows 3.0 and the DOS compatibility of the new operating system provides more stability than Windows 3.0. Industry observers note that IBM began an aggressive compatibility campaign after Microsoft Corp wavered in its commitment to make OS/2 2.0 run unmodified Windows 3.0 applications. Micrografx, WordPerfect gird for battle in graphics arena. (Micrografx Inc's Designer and WordPerfect Corp's DrawPerfect) Micrografx Inc's Designer 3.1 and WordPerfect Corp's DrawPerfect 2.0 are two computer graphics programs that are being readied for entrance into an already crowded graphics software market. Micrografx's Designer 3.1 program, which the company plans to release in May 1991, offers improved text-handling capabilities and faster performance over previous versions; the software is also expected to feature support for 24-bit color bit-map and 256-color monitors. WordPerfect's DrawPerfect 2.0, which is planned for release in the 4th qtr of 1991, is expected to support various platforms including DOS, Windows, NeXT and Macintosh. The program will feature true three-dimensional charts and improved presentation management features such as templates, outlines and the ability to view several slides at once. Oracle to bundle database NLM with NetWare. (Oracle Corp's NetWare Loadable Module and Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system) Oracle Corp's Server NetWare Loading Module (NLM) software program combines the Oracle Server with a scaled-down version of Novell Inc's NetWare 386 network operating system and streamlines the process of installing a dedicated data base server. The bundled software, which will only be sold by Oracle systems integrators, delivers a ready-to-go system to users and eliminates the need to load NetWare and Oracle Server NLM separately. The package is priced according to the number of users and is set for release in the 2nd qtr of 1991. Oracle indicates that it is more committed to the NetWare environment than any other data base vendor. Models 90, 95 at heart of IBM PS/2 migration. Boudette, Neal; Dodge, John. IBM plans on making the product life-cycle of its PS/2 90 and PS/2 95 microcomputers between five and seven years by providing replaceable, modular processor complexes. The number-one computer maker expects that the PS/2 will last through the next two generations of Intel Corp microprocessors, including the 80486 and the 80586. The processor complex will house the microprocessor, memory controller, cache memory and system memory; users will be able to plug the module into the PS/2's 32-bit Micro Channel bus. Industry observers see IBM's upgrading strategy as accommodating to the needs of its corporate users and as an answer to competition from Compaq Computer Corp's Systempro file server. Work-flow systems struggle onward; year-old U.S. push yields few sales. Corporate America has yet to embrace the concept of work-flow automation, and software publishers must address the objections of bottom-line implementation costs and corporate cultural issues to succeed in opening up the market. The work-flow automation concept deals with the automation of the daily tasks of network users and has received a positive response from corporations in word only. Vendors are discovering that those corporations remain cautious when it comes to actually purchasing work-flow automation systems because US corporate culture is less procedural than the technology; the technology has yet to be accepted and the market has yet to be created in the US. European corporate culture appears to be more receptive to the concept and some US vendors decide their marketing efforts are better spent abroad. Costly Rhapsody weds power, simplicity. (Software Review) (Work-Flow Systems Struggle Onward; AT and T's Rhapsody office AT and T's Rhapsody office automation software is an easy-to-use and powerful tool that goes beyond mere application integration, lending substance to the concept of 'groupware.' The software, which integrates applications such as spreadsheet analysis, electronic mail and data base management, provides effective automation of office procedures that have hitherto fallen outside the realm of computer systems. Rhapsody uses the Hewlett Packard Co NewWave graphical user interface to create a paradigm of how information is created, collected, distributed and used. Simple and powerful programming tools, and integrated project-tracking and reporting features make Rhapsody a useful program, but overcoming US corporate culture is still an obstacle. US corporate culture is less distributed and less procedural than corporate culture in Europe, where interest in Rhapsody is said to be greater. The program costs $4,490 per user. AMD to challenge Intel with 386 chips. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc's Am386DX and Am386DXL microprocessors) Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc's new Am386DX and Am386DXL microprocessors will challenge Intel Corp's hold on the $1 billion-a-year 386 microprocessor market. Both of the new AMD chips run at 40 MHz, which makes them the fastest 386 chips on the market. The chips are selling for $306 each in volumes of 100. Industry analysts say that AMD will not be competing on prices anytime soon but will hope to capture market share on the basis of performance. The new AMD chips feature a true static design, which dramatically reduces power consumption, and they are at least 20 percent faster than Intel's 386 offering. AMD officials confirm that more than 20,000 chips have been shipped to microcomputer manufacturers. DEC to extend LAN reach with Pathworks 4.1 for DOS. Musich, Paula. DEC's Pathworks for DOS 4.1 network software will be available in the summer of 1991 and will include support for Token Ring local area networks (LANs). Pathworks 4.1 will allow users to run two sets of communication protocols concurrently and will provide DOS workstations access to VAX resources. DEC officials indicate that the software will also provide greater integration between disparate LANs; add-on programs will be available for NetWare and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connectivity. DEC does not provide the physical connection necessary for network connectivity but states that Pathworks 4.1 provides the base for such connectivity. Pricing for the software is not available. Banyan readies delayed VINES 4.10. (Banyan Systems Inc.) Morrissey, Jane. Banyan Systems Inc's VINES 4.10 network operating system is scheduled for release in May 1991 and will allow OS/2 workstations access to the network environment. The network operating system will also support the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and provide a tighter integration of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI). Beta testers, who were pleased with the product, report that it also more fully exploits a larger number of Systems Network Architecture (SNA) sessions and Microsoft's Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS). VINES 4.10 also has the ability to configure disk swap space. Sculley specifies Apple plan for escaping niche market. (Apple Computer Inc's CEO John Sculley) Apple Computer Inc CEO John Sculley indicates that the computer maker will attempt to escape from its niche market and expand into other sectors of the computer industry, including reduced instruction set computer (RISC) technology. Sculley says that Apple views desktop publishing and miniaturization as strategic sectors; Apple has missed the laptop market, but Sculley says that the same will not hold true for the notebook computer market. Industry analysts suspect that Apple is working on a pen-based computer for introduction in early 1992; other rumors indicate that Apple has a mandate to ship 75,000 notebook computers by the end of 1991. Apple considering non-Macintosh OS; future server line may include MIPS' RISC processor. (non-Macintosh operating system and reduced Apple Computer Inc plans two important and strategic moves: the adoption of a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) chip from MIPS Computer Systems Inc; and the development of a new operating system that will include the company's version of Portable OS/2. Apple's CEO John Sculley indicates that the company will eventually use RISC technology on all its systems; he also did not snuff out rumors about the new operating system, known as System 8.0. Industry analysts believe the new operating system will allow the company to move the popular base of Macintosh applications to RISC microprocessors. RISC microprocessors offer better performance than the traditional Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) microprocessors. IBM sets U.S. debut of 386SX notebook, preps MCA laptops. Boudette, Neal. IBM plans to debut its new L40SX notebook computer in the US during the end of Mar 1991. The notebook computer is based on the Intel Corp 80386SX microprocessor and is expected to sell around $6,000. The L40SX includes 2Mbytes of system memory, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 60Mbyte hard drive and a sidelit VGA screen. The notebook computer weighs only seven pounds and has dimension of 12.8 inches by 10.7 inches by 2 inches. Industry analysts indicate that IBM is also working on making its Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) available on its 80386- and 80486-based laptop computers; users and dealers of laptop computers indicate that they do not see the demand for MCA. Microsoft, Lotus will emphasize integration in spreadsheet battle. Ferranti, Marc. Microsoft Corp and Lotus Development Corp both compete for the spreadsheet market by emphasizing product integration. Microsoft plans to release its Excel 3.0 for the Apple Macintosh soon; the product will include macro, file and feature compatibility with its recent Excel 3.0 for Windows and the upcoming Excel 3.0 for OS/2. Lotus is working on its own integration strategy that facilitates the sharing of files, data and applications. Both software companies are including the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) specification, which allows for interoperability. Industry analysts emphasize that interoperability will influence purchase decisions in the future and both software publishers take steps to provide for that need. HP's Precision Architecture to power three workstations; trio is key in HP image-boosting campaign. (Hewlett Packard Co plans to Hewlett Packard Co's (HP's) Apollo System division plans to announce three new workstations that offer unprecedented price/performance. The new workstations, which round out the HP 9000 workstation family, use HP's Precision Architecture (PA) reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor. The $12,000 HP 9000 720 workstation establishes a new low-end price for its class; it runs at 50 MHz and executes 57 million instructions per second (mips). The $20,000 HP 9000 730 and $43,000 HP 9000 750 both run at 66 MHz and compute at 76 mips. The new workstations will initially run an HP variation of UNIX, but the company indicates that its systems will run under the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1 version of UNIX by Jul 1991. WordPerfect for Windows' delay sends some companies shopping elsewhere. WordPerfect Corp's delay in getting out its WordPerfect for Windows word processing software is sending some potential customers away. Users indicate the immediate need to have a word processing program that utilizes the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, but WordPerfect cannot get their product out until the 2nd qtr of 1991. WordPerfect word processing programs can currently run under Windows, but the company has yet to provide full Windows 3.0 functionality. Companies are questioning the idea of standardization on WordPerfect and are looking to Windows-based products that are currently available including Microsoft's Word for Windows. FGIC gets more bang for the buck by downsizing; builds a better system, saves $4 million a year. (Financial Guaranty Insurance Financial Guaranty Insurance Co (FGIC) finds that downsizing to local area networks (LANs) from mainframe computers is saving them $4 million a year. Economic benefits are not the only advantage: the company finds that enhancing applications on a LAN is an efficient way to eliminate the time gap between applications and business processes. FGIC runs its applications on a Compaq Computer Corp Systempro 486/33 with Novell Inc's NetWare 386 token ring LAN; four other servers provide backup for the company, which boasts annual sales of around $140 million. Application enhancement costs for the LAN is $2.5 million a year, which is considerably less expensive than the $6 million a year it cost to use the less-efficient IBM mainframes. System offers mainframe security at LAN cost. (FGIC gets more bang for the buck by downsizing; Financial Guaranty Insurance Co) The Financial Guaranty Insurance Co's (FGIC's) information resources management group installs a long-term security systems on its local area network (LAN). The insurance company wanted long-term security on its LAN that is worthy of a mainframe security system; such a security system includes fault tolerance, backup and disaster control, and change control and testing. The fault tolerance on FGIC's LAN includes data guarding and disk duplexing. Backup and disaster control is effected with a 2.2Gbyte tape that backs up the company's five file servers every night. Change control and testing is done in a more formal way than in the past; installation of software on the network now must follow an in-house approval system that makes auditing a less daunting task. Meager battery hampers Epson 386 notebook. (Hardware Review) (Epson America NB3s notebook computer) (evaluation) Epson America Inc's $3,999 NB3s notebook computer is based on the Intel Corp 80386SX microprocessor and weighs only 5.8 pounds. Unfortunately, it is hampered by meager battery performance. The notebook computer, which measures 8.5 inches by 11.8 inches by 1.7 inches, weighs about a pound lighter than competitive 386SX notebook computers, but the small size and weight is achieved at the expense of the battery life. The average battery life of the NB3s is only one hour and four minutes; the testing was done under standard PC Week Labs battery testing procedures, which includes a disabling of all power-saving features. Competitive 386SX notebook computers have a battery life of 2.5 hours to 3 hours. Bitstream Type City cartridge offers endless font choices. (Software Review) (Bitstream Inc's Type City font) (evaluation) Bitstream Inc's $379 Type City computer font is fast, efficient and infinitely expandable. Type City's has only a few drawbacks including some peculiarities with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) and a lack of support for many software packages. The font provides software drivers for Windows 2.x and 3.0, Word 5.0 and 5.5, WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1, and LetterPerfect. The cartridge fits neatly into Hewlett Packard Co LaserJet Series II and Series III laser printers and works with 100 percent compatible printers. Five typefaces are included in Type City and the company provides the option for customizable logos and room for four expansion cards. Bitstream is constantly offering new font choices. Tiny Tilcon to challenge graphics giant. (Tilcon Software Ltd's Graphicway 3.0) Tilcon's Software Ltd's $495 Graphicway 3.0 presentation software will offer considerable competition to Microsoft Corp's PowerPoint and Micrografx Inc's Charisma because it offers text, graphing and drawing capabilities all in one package. Graphicway 3.0 will offer more than 100 fully scalable outline fonts and will provide users with the ability to import several file formats as well as fit text to any curved or circular path. Industry observers note that marketing the product may be difficult even though its ease of use is a big advantage over competing presentation software packages. The program is expected to be released by Apr 30, 1991 and a Windows 3.0 version is expected to be released on May 20, 1991. Cognos boosts PowerPlay performance. (Cognos Inc's PowerPlay 2.0) (product announcement) Cognos Inc's $850 PowerPlay 2.0 executive information system software package offers increased performance, features more flexible display capabilities and supports the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The new program, which imports data in ASCII, allows users to view data in graph format and then generate other graphs from the graphs provided. PowerPlay 2.0 offers an advantage over other low-cost executive information systems by allowing users to view data in graph format without pre-defining those formats. PowerPlay 2.0 also features correlation graphs, which is a display definition window that relates how computations are made in each cell. Microsoft 'authors' tool for multimedia ranks. (Microsoft Corp's WinDoc multimedia tool) Microsoft Corp's WinDoc is an authoring tool that the software publisher is designing for the growing multimedia market. WinDoc is primarily a text-handling tool that is expected to reach beta-testing in the Summer of 1991. Microsoft officials indicate that the program will allow users who deal with large amounts of text to integrate the text with sound, animation and graphics. Industry observers see Microsoft's development of WinDoc as a strategic move aimed at undercutting vendors who are already established in the multimedia industry but multimedia developers do not see it as a direct threat. Macola to update accounting kit's 9 core modules. (Macola Inc's Macola Accounting Software 5.0) Macola Inc's Macola 5.0 financial software will include updates to all nine modules and will feature a new interface. The accounting software will also include new graph and user-definable functions. The new, major reversion of the software offers users a completely new look and feel; graphics-oriented interfaces include menu bars, pop-up windows and pull-down menus. The revision goes beyond a flashy and colorful interface to include a regrouping of screens and menus that makes it easier to do inquiries. The program is priced at $795 per module and is marketed as a high-end accounting solution for medium- and large-sized companies. D&B software fixes its sights on information-filtering product. (Dun & Bradstreet Software Services Inc) Dun and Bradstreet Software Services Inc plans to buy electronic mail (E-mail) filtering technology from Agility Systems Inc. Agility Systems' Wijit message filtering utility program will allow users to map out a system that will automatically filter out network data and messages. The program is based on experimental technology called rules-based messaging. Rules-based messaging allows users to set up various scenarios and instruct the system on how to respond to these various scenarios. The Agility Systems program is designed to go through information that comes from public E-mail systems and news data bases. Both companies declined to comment on the pending agreement. Novell ships simplified NetWare 286 upgrade. (Novell Inc's NetWare 2.2 network operating system) Novell Inc's NetWare 2.2 network operating system is a streamlined version of the company's NetWare 286 network operating system and includes updated Macintosh connectivity software as well as improved handling of server memory. NetWare 2.2 also sports an easier installation process by making the documentation more straightforward and by reducing the number of disks to 13 from 39. The installation process includes four options: basic, advanced, maintenance and upgrade. The basic option asks three questions and automatically loads file and print services. The advanced option moves beyond those services and prompts users. Maintenance modifies the existing network, and upgrades provide for migration from earlier NetWare 286 versions. The new version of the network operating system accommodates a 5-, 10-, 50- and 100-user network. Industry should rally around the OMG. (Object Management Group) (column) The Object Management Group (OMG) is a non-profit organization that focuses on solutions to multi-vendor data management problems. The organization is actively working on developing standards that will allow systems to work together on several data objects. OMG does not intend to build or sell software and has the needed support it must have to develop standards; over 100 companies are part of the group, including Microsoft Corp. OMG focuses on creating application programming interfaces (APIs) for managing objects in a distributed computing environment. APIs allow data from several connected systems to be used on any one of those systems. Novell releases $95 client/server starter package. (Novell Inc's Client/Server Starter Kit) Novell Inc and Vinzant Inc offer the $99 Client/Server Starter Kit as a promotion through May 4, 1991. The starter kit includes Novell's NetWare SQL data base management system and Vinzant's SQLFile front-end query system, a package that costs about $2,000 when purchased separately. The low-priced package will give NetWare users a useful introduction into the client/server data base and NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) technology. Novell officials believe that NetWare users lack experience in implementing client/server architectures. The companies indicate that the promotion is aimed at serving an educational function and building the market for the long-term. Grasp makes animation power affordable. (Software Review) (Paul Mace Software Inc's Grasp 4.0 multimedia software; First Look) Paul Mace Software Inc's $349 Grasp 4.0 multimedia software integrates a variety of graphical tools and delivers excellent multimedia presentations on a wide range of hardware platforms. The program is a good choice for disk-based advertising and tutorials because of its low-cost and easy distribution. Grasp 4.0 incorporates a royalty-free runtime module, enhanced animation, sound and compatibility with graphics standards back to CGA. Efficient utilities, which allow users to condense successive screens and store only frame-by-frame changes, come with the well-designed package; well-organized documentation is provided. OS/2 developers laud IBM offensive; aggressive push could put tool makers back on track. IBM's recent aggressive marketing push of the OS/2 operating system is met with expectation by developers of OS/2 who have recently been dismayed by the popularity of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. IBM's strategy includes developing new partnerships and letting Windows applications run on OS/2. Industry observers note that IBM needs to get the delayed OS/2 2.0 out as soon as possible and promote the product aggressively if it hopes to contain the Windows 3.0 menace. Analysts note that IBM was left to develop OS/2 on its own after Microsoft began to trumpet its new Windows 3.0 product; the conflict between the two companies has caused confusion in the marketplace. FTC probe carries lesson in humility for Microsoft. (Up Front; the U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation into Microsoft Corp) The US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) investigation into Microsoft Corp becomes an event for the computer software industry to vent its frustration with Microsoft's business practices. Industry analysts observe that both competitors and ordinary users are not showing any sympathy towards Microsoft. This widespread resentment against the company will have significant marketplace implications, regardless whether the FTC finds Microsoft guilty of breaking antitrust laws. Microsoft's brazen attitude of wanting to control 100 percent of the computer software market and its practice of preempting innovative products will reap negative results for the company and the industry as a whole. Bad timing to ignite notebooks' price nosedive. (The Corporate Micro) (column) The notebook computer market will experience dropping prices in 1991, and users can expect a no-floppy 80286-based machine to cost between $1,000 and $1,200, and an 80386SX-based machine to cost around $2,000 by the fall of 1991. The dropping prices will be the result of product delays and a flooded marketplace. The low prices will be bad for computer vendors since they will be forced to keep sales volume high for a long period. The inability of vendors to maintain a long product life-cycle will result in product dumping; pricing pressure will increase as vendors move to avoid dead inventory. The bad timing of the computer industry and its problems with product delays will be good news for users, who will get notebook computers at a bargain price. 'NATO' won't help companies shrink mainframes. (Risky Business) (column) Companies that realize the benefits of downsizing should eliminate the no-action, talk-only attitude and follow a ten-step plan to implementation. The first three steps include securing top management support, obtaining a willing chief information officer and selectively choosing a talented group of volunteers. The next four steps of the implementation plan include building a strong local area network (LAN) platform, assessing the desktop environment, choosing a strong client/server back-end database and obtaining the correct front-end development tools. The final three steps are picking a down-sizable pilot application, considering the outsourcing of the mainframe and reorganizing the management information systems (MIS) department. IBM seeks higher payback from dealer channel. (Changing Channels) (column) IBM begins to put pressure on its resellers and authorized dealers by requiring higher yearly quotas for 1991. Industry observers note that IBM's higher quotas, as high as 150 percent a year for some dealers, are aimed at pressuring those dealers to sell IBM products at the expense of competitors' products. IBM will also change its Minimum Renewal Commitments (MRC) policy; dealers will no longer be able to discount the unsold IBM products they have in their inventory but will have to base their quotas on the actual number of IBM products sold. The switch to sell-through over buy-in in IBM's MRC policy is expected to put pressure on small dealers, but it will also relieve the industry of channel stuffing. Microsoft Excel 3.0 captivates judges; 1-2-3/G and Wingz, nevertheless, have many commendable features. (Software Review) PC Week Labs compares three graphical spreadsheets, including Microsoft Corp's $495 Excel 3.0, Lotus Development Corp's $695 1-2-3/G and Informix Software Inc's $499 Wingz for Windows. The judges, a seven-panel body of corporate users, determines that Excel 3.0 bests the competition on the basis of its ease of use, its Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility, and its ability to generate tables and graphic charts. Lotus 1-2-3/G and Wingz for Windows did not win the shootout, but both spreadsheets have unique features that make them useful in particular corporate situations. Wingz for Windows got high points for its ability to create high-quality tables and charts for display and printing. Lotus 1-2-3/G got high marks for its context-sensitive help and its 20 levels of undo operations. Feature-packed products make buying decisions tough. (The eyes have it in GUI spreadsheet competition; three graphical Spreadsheet software packages that use the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are finding a market in the corporate world but corporate users still must decide what features they need most. Current offerings include Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0, Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3/G and Informix Software Inc's Wingz for Windows. Some spreadsheets, such as Wingz for Windows, offer superior graphics capabilities, which is important to some users but less important to other users where spreadsheet performance is on the top of the list. Some corporate users are finding the move to Excel 3.0 is fairly easy because of its similarity and compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3; the move to Excel 3.0 can also be part of a wider corporate move towards Windows 3.0. Contestants show graphical prowess as new user tool. (The eyes have it in GUI spreadsheet competition; three graphical The recent use of Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface in spreadsheet software and the new graphics possibilities yield mixed results when it comes to designing spreadsheet reports. The plethora of graphics options is placing the medium in front of the message; it is easier to generate high-quality reports and presentation graphics but sometimes the message becomes buried in a blizzard of font sizes and types. Users can avoid the problem of over-designing a spreadsheet report if they stay with the same typeface throughout the graphic, leave room at the borders, center titles in large type, avoid three-dimensional graphs and make sure a new typeface adds value before using it. Developers find Microsoft's tools are complete, complex. (tools for creating Windows 3.0 and OS/2 applications) Program developers find that the Microsoft Corp Software Development Kits (SDKs) for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) and the OS/2 operating system are as complex as they are complete. The SDKs do not make things easy for non-GUI programmers to migrate; one developer mentions that it would take a competent C programmer between three and six months to become proficient in Windows or OS/2. Third-party vendors offer program development software that is less comprehensive but many programmers find themselves going back to the Microsoft SDKs because are the only ones available in 1991 that allow programmers to take full advantage of OS/2 and Windows. SDKs trade power for learning ease; tools for Windows and OS/2 are robust, but OS/2 SDK's documentation falls short. (Software PC Week Labs evaluates two software development kits (SDKs) from Microsoft Corp and finds that they offer a robust environment for developing OS/2 and Windows 3.0 applications. Both programs offer comprehensive tools for the programmer, something not available elsewhere in the marketplace. The $2,600 Microsoft OS/2 Software Development Kit 2.2 program development software and the $500 Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit 3.0 cannot be directly compared to one another, but the same set of criteria can be used in determining their effectiveness. The OS/2 SDK does not provide sufficient documentation for programmers to effectively build OS/2 applications, while the Windows SDK provides well-written and full documentation. Microsoft Corp. OS/2 Software Development Kit, Version 2.0, Prerelease 2. (Software Review) (one of two software development Microsoft Corp's $2,600 OS/2 Software Development Kit (SDK) 2.2 is a program development software package that offers programmers all the tools users need to develop OS/2 applications, but it does not make the task easy. Programmers can draw from a variety of tools to develop both PM and 32-bit applications, but they must sift through written and on-line documentation to discover what all those tools are. The package includes 19 sample applications that come complete with source code. Programmers can use the sample applications, which offer different facets of OS/2 programming, as templates for their own applications. The sample applications were found to be useful during testing. Microsoft Corp. Windows Software Development Kit 3.0. (Software Review) (one of two software development kit evaluations in 'SDKs Microsoft Corp's $500 Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.0 program development software package provides programmers with a variety of tools needed to create, debug and optimize code for applications based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The software provides programmers with useful sample applications that they can use as templates for their own applications. The program performed well under testing when programmers developed each component of an application; putting the components together to create a single application was more difficult. The documentation guides programmers systematically through the process of developing Windows-based applications. No one Mac Paint package does it all: choices exist between painting capabilities and potent image manipulation. (overview of PC Week Labs examines five 24-bit paint programs that produce realistic and photographic illustrations. Delta Tao Software Inc's Color MacCheese, Electronic Arts' Studio/32, Time Arts Inc's Oasis, Adobe Systems Inc's Photoshop, and Letraset Graphic Design Software's ColorStudio with Shapes, all include such core paint tools as paintbrush, pencil, spray can and paint bucket. Basic drawing functions of all the programs except Photoshop include straight line, oval, rectangle and polygon, and lasso and marquee-selection tools. Oasis' strength is its easy operation and sophisticated paint tools. Used with a digitizing tablet and wireless stylus, Oasis can emulate the brush strokes of acrylic oils and watercolors. Studio/32 offers excellent control over gradient fills, but produces computerized-looking images. Photoshop and Colorstudio are well suited for image manipulation and color separation. Color MacCheese is unique for its low price of $99, but lacks the features of some other programs. Paint programs satisfy buyers: combinations of packages offer needed features.(graphics software for Apple Macintosh) Buyers meet their computer graphics needs by using combinations of 24-bit Macintosh paint programs. Electric Paint Inc managing director Tony Redhead supplements Letraset Graphic Design Software's ColorStudio with Adobe Systems Inc's Photoshop to achieve the results he needs. While ColorStudio is a very sophisticated paint program, buyers agree that the application is also very difficult to learn and use. Animatrix's senior art director, Joe Lin, says the product's interface is powerful, but not very intuitive. Lin employs Photoshop for its image manipulation capabilities and supplements it with Time Arts Inc's Oasis. Lin appreciates ColorStudio for its PostScript shapes and advanced masking features. Oasis includes an easy-to-use interface that is compatible with Wacom Inc's pressure-sensitive pen and tablet. Many buyers note Oasis' brushing features, which are fast and efficient. Electronic Arts' Studio/32 and Delta Tao Software Inc's Color MacCheese are discussed. Adobe Systems Inc.: Photoshop 1.0.7. (one of five evaluations in 'No one Mac paint package does it all') (evaluation) Adobe Systems Inc's $895 Photoshop 1.0.7 is a 24-bit color paint program with strong image-editing and retouching capabilities. The program lacks object-oriented drawing tools, but supports a wide range of image formats. Photoshop's paint tools include an editable paintbrush, airbrush, paint bucket and straight-line drawing tool that can also add arrow heads for pointers. The package includes an eraser, lasso, oval and magic wand; other features include a smudger for mixing two colors that meet at an edge, a waterdrop for softening sharp edges and a sharpening tool for enhancing select areas of an image. Photoshop includes extensive built-in image filters and supports plug-in filters from third-party companies. Users choose filters from a pull-down menu and the effect takes place immediately. Photoshop's 32-bit capability allows its alpha channel to hold text separately from images or contain special attributes. Delta Tao Software Inc.: Color MacCheese 2.0.1. (one of five evaluations in 'No one Mac paint package does it all') Delta Tao Software Inc's $99 Color MacCheese 2.0.1 is an inexpensive paint program that offers 24-bit color capability. MacCheese's paint tools include the standard brush, pencil, spray can, paint bucket and eraser as well as a rake tool and transmogrifier. The rake tool allows users to mix two colors along their edges by scattering pixels; the transmogrifier adds texture to even areas of color by spraying various shades of similar color into the area. The program's transparent patterns allow background color to show through, and adjustable translucency makes drawings appear somewhat transparent. MacCheese is not ideal for use with digitizer support, color separation and extensive masking capabilities, but it makes effective use of its 24-bit color capability. The paint bucket is the only tool needed to create gradient effects. The program's manual is easy to read, but lacks attention to detail. Electronic Arts: Studio/32 1.1. (one of five evaluations in 'No one Mac paint package does it all') (evaluation) Electronic Arts' Studio/32 1.1 is a $695 painting and drawing program that emphasizes drawing capabilities and does not include a color separation function. The program includes lasso, and there are rectangular selection tools that expand or shrink so that specified colors can be included or excluded precisely. Select areas can be filled with flat or gradient colors and shadows, and Studio/32 has an embossing technique that gives type a 3-D appearance. The program features a Bezier tool for drawing complex and precise curved objects as well as standard line, rectangle and ellipse tools. Studio/32 offers excellent perspective control; users can change the perspective of an image by adjusting the x-, y- and z-axis settings in the dialog box. Users can use Studio/32's quick perspective feature to manipulate selected shapes. Studio/32 also lets users make non-spherical shapes spherical. Letraset Graphic Design Software: ColorStudio With Shapes 1.11. (one of five evaluations in 'No one Mac paint package does it Letraset Graphic Design Software's Colorstudio with Shapes 1.11 is a $995 paint program with image-editing ability and object-oriented drawing capability. Colorstudio creates images that are made up of a color layer and a mask layer; both layers can be viewed and edited separately or simultaneously. The monochrome mask layer functions as a stencil to protect the color layer, which is where all drawing, retouching and image enhancement takes place. Users can use Colorstudio in conjunction with Wacom's digitizing tablet and wireless stylus to paint with solid or transparent colors with varying degrees of pressure. The Shapes add-on module enhances Colorstudio with PostScript drawing capabilities. Users must load an Adobe Type 1 or Letraset outline font into Colorstudio to work with PostScript text in order for each character typed to be treated as a distinct object. Time Arts Inc.: Oasis 1.0. (one of five evaluations in 'No one Mac paint package does it all') (evaluation) Time Arts Inc's Oasis is a $795 paint program that uses Wacom's pressure-sensitive tablet to emulate an artist's media of watercolors, acrylics, chalk and charcoal. The program's adjustable brushes are sensitive to pressure such as size, density, wetness and dryout speed. Oasis' user interface includes well-designed tool and paint palettes that provide an intuitive environment, eliminating the need to repeatedly access pull-down menus. The program's color palette features an area for mixing shades of color, and on-screen sliders control the percentages of color in a mixture. Oasis has a masking-feature that protects images from drawing operations with a ruby-colored overlay; users cannot easily magnify images, which limits the program's retouching capabilities. Oasis' lightbox command enables users to trace images by placing a translucent window over a document. Prices, report options distinguish tools: NetWare Bindery utilities generally allow limited report customization. (includes Blue Lance Software Inc's LT Stat Plus 2.1, Cheyenne Software Inc's Cheyenne Utilities for NetWare, Fresh Technology Group's Fresh Utilities for NetWare 2.3, J.A. Lomax Utilities 3.0 and The LAN Support Group Inc's BindView+ 2.13 are utility programs for Novell Inc NetWare networks. These programs are capable of producing reports based on data from the NetWare Bindery. Network managers often need to access information from the database of users and network resources on each server, but standard NetWare utilities such as SYSCON can only display Bindery data instead of generating reports. All five products allow managers to produce a variety of reports including data on users, groups, print queues and directory trustee assignments. Reports can be displayed on screen, stored in files or printed. None of the programs lets a manager change Bindery information, and their prices vary widely. Bindery utilities meet requirements of diverse users. (utility programs for Novell Inc. NetWare networks) Buyers choose a Bindery utility program for their Novell Inc NetWare networks based on their particular reporting needs and budgetary constraints. One network administrator - who has tested products including Cheyenne Software Inc's Cheyenne Utilities for NetWare, Blue Lance Software Inc's LT Stat Plus, Fresh Technology Group's Fresh Utilities for NetWare and The LAN Support Group Inc's BindView+ - prefers J.A. Lomax Associates' Lomax Utilities. The administrator chose Lomax because it can run reports from the DOS command line, it produces reports that show trustee rights as well as file- and disk-space-usage reports. The administrator claims that Lomax Utilities and BindView+ have the most extensive reporting abilities. The administrator finds Cheyenne Utilities' NetBack file-backup utility useful, but notes that it cannot be run from a command line. Fresh Utilities is also discussed. Blue Lance Software Inc.: LT Stat Plus 2.1. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of NetWare Bindery utility programs in Blue Lance Software Inc's LT Stat Plus 2.1 is a $295 NetWare Bindery utility program that offers 36 built-in reports on server topics including disk utilization, configuration and security, accounting, performance statistics, and other various items such as errors and NetWare messages. The program's built-in reports cover information in addition to Bindery data. Non-Bindery reports provide directory- and volume-utilization data, duplicate file names and names of recently updated files. LT Stat also reports on such server performance statistics as disk, cache and LAN I/O performance. Version 2.1 does not offer performance reports for NetWare 386 servers, but Blue Lance will release Version 3.0 in Apr 1991, and officials claim the upgrade will improve the product's overall NetWare 386 support. LT Stat does not provide many options for customizing its built-in reports, and its main manual needs revision. Cheyenne Software Inc.: Cheyenne Utilities for Netware 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of NetWare Bindery Cheyenne Software Inc's Cheyenne Utilities for NetWare 1.0 is a $395 utility program that offers Bindery reporting and a series of file manipulation and backup utilities. The program's Bindery reports cover topics including file server, user, group, security equivalences, directory trustee assignments, disk usage, log-in scripts, accounting information and salvageable files for NetWare 386 users. Cheyenne Utilities also provides some non-Bindery reports such as server performance statistics. The package contains additional programs including NetBack, for file backup; VaultFile, which lets managers save and rebuild Bindery data; and additional file utilities that help managers archive and migrate files, pack/unpack files, and convert between IBM PC and Apple Macintosh files. Cheyenne Utilities offers few report-customization options, and its manual lacks an index. Fresh Technology Group Inc.: Fresh Utilities for NetWare 2.3. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of NetWare Bindery Fresh Technology Group Inc's Fresh Utilities for NetWare 2.3 is a $179 utility program that offers Bindery reporting features and additional utilities. The program's built-in reports cover users, groups, server and queues. Reports can be printed or stored in files. Non-Bindery reports cover server data on open files, active users and performance statistics. Fresh Utilities' reports are all available for both NetWare 286 and NetWare 386 servers. The program's command-line utilities include a Bindery reporting tool that allows managers to access data on any named Bindery object. Another program lets managers copy files and retain the attributes of the copied files. The program includes a series of terminate-and-stay-resident programs, and utilities that show the space a directory consumes. The program's report-customization options are extremely limited, and its manual offers only adequate support. J.A. Lomax Associates: Lomax Utilities 3.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of NetWare Bindery utility programs in J.A. Lomax Associates' Lomax Utilities 3.0 is a $379 utility program that offers a variety of built-in reports and the ability to export report data to files. The program's 22 standard reports cover data on server users, groups, volume utilization, user disk-space usage, security, accounting and performance statistics. Some reports work on Bindery data and others use alternate types of server information. Lomax Utilities works with both NetWare 286 and NetWare 386 servers, but is unable to report performance statistics for NetWare 386. The program's report-customization options are limited; managers can specify items they want the report to address such as a user, volume or directory, and they can specify the sort field. Lomax Utilities offers an export option that lets managers save the data from any report in a comma-delimited ASCII file. The LAN Support Group Inc.: BindView+ 2.13. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of NetWare Bindery utility programs in The LAN Support Group Inc's BindView+ 2.13 is a $149 utility program that offers extensive Bindery reporting options and report-customization options. Network managers can create reports on major Bindery objects such as users, groups and servers. All reports are available on NetWare 286 and NetWare 386 servers. BindView+ works via menus or through report command files. The menu system operates in much the same way as SYSCON and other standard NetWare utilities. The report command files essentially replace dialogue with ASCII text that conveys the same data. The program provides efficient customization features for managers to create their own reports rather than offering many built-in reports. Customization features allow managers to control formatting options such as titles, margins and page length. BindView+'s manual lacks an index and is difficult to use. An improved version 3.0 is due in Apr 1991. 'Super' floppies push beyond 2.88M bytes. (companies ship 20Mbyte floppy disk drives) (buyers guide) Companies, which include Brier Technology Inc, Insite Peripherals, Quadram Corp (Q/Cor), Citizen America Corp and NEC Technologies Inc, extend the capacity of 3.5-inch floppy-disk drives from 2.88Mbytes to 20Mbytes. Brier's 21.4Mbyte Flextra floppy disk drive is the only 'super' floppy shipping within the market, but Insite plans to ship its 21.4Mbyte 1325 VM floptical disk drive in Jul 1991. The 1325 VM will be priced from $450 to $750. Users of Brier's Flextra 3020 use the floppy drives for backup, hard-disk supplement and removable media applications. Eastman Kodak Co employs the Flextra to store programs and data files that are not used frequently. Q/Cor distributes the Flextra 3020 under the name QuadFlextra for $895 for the internal version and $995 for the external version. Citizen America will sell its 20Mbyte IFDD II to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for $200. NEC Technologies manufactures its 10Mbyte FD 1335 in a test kit that includes software and an adapter. High-capacity floppy drives emerge: market waiting for IBM approval of de facto 2.88M-byte standard. (buyers guide) Vendors of 3.5-inch floppy-disk drives anticipate a 2.88Mbyte standard to emerge, and they expect IBM to endorse it by Jun 1991. IBM is expected to announce two Intel 80386-based PS/2s equipped with 2.88Mbyte floppy-disk drives, and the company's DOS 5.0 is rumored to list 2.88Mbytes as a supported disk capacity for formatting. The 2.88Mbyte floppy is attractive to users because it supports both 1.44Mbyte and 720Kbyte capacities. The disks are used to store data before it is transferred to a hard drive and for backing up files. High-capacity drives cost about three times as much per megabyte as $70 1.44Mbyte drives. Microsolutions Computer Products' $425 BackPack 1.02 and $395 Megamate 2.8 support formatting options with DOS 3.2 or above, with a Background Format form Microsolutions or with a memory-resident program. Pacific Rim Systems Inc's $399 Universal Drive U4 and $429 Parallel Line P4 allow users to format with standard DOS formatting commands with a device driver. Tension mounts between NCR, AT&T; judge calls NCR stock distribution plan 'mockery of election.' (AT and T attempts a Tensions mount as the NCR Corp shareholder meeting draws near to determine whether AT and T will be successful in its hostile takeover attempt of the computer maker. A US District Court judge recently rejected an attempt by NCR to spread eight percent of the company's stock among its 24,000 eligible employees. The judge, Walter Rice, declared that the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is 'a mockery' and violates the 'principles of corporate democracy.' AT and T's Robert Kavner indicated that he never expected AT and T to wage a hostile takeover battle. NCR CEO Charles E Exley, Jr said that AT and T has approached NCR three times since 1988 and has been rebuffed every time. Compaq, DEC lead industry coalition to establish MIPS R4000 standard. (reduced instruction set computer microprocessor from DEC and Compaq Computer Corp lead a coalition that is attempting to make the MIPS Computer Systems R4000 microprocessor a standard for reduced instruction set computer (RISC) workstations. The computer industry coalition, which consists mostly of companies that have endorsed the MIPS R4000 architecture, also agrees to adopt the OSF/1-based operating system being developed by The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. One main goal of the coalition is to block the competition created by Sun Microsystems Inc's SPARC RISC architecture; the Sun architecture has more than 3,000 applications while the MIPS architecture has only 1,100. Microsoft Group targets large customer sites. (Microsoft Corp's Corporate Marketing Group) Microsoft Corp's new Corporate Marketing Group will handle the company's large account customer service and marketing programs, and will be responsible for developing long-term strategies for the large accounts. The new group will be marketing client/server computing platforms, which includes a wide range of office automation applications, to Fortune 2000 companies. Microsoft also expects the group to implement customer-oriented programs: the group will provide customers with technical information, on-site training and copies Microsoft products' evaluations. Industry observers hope the new group will be able to clear up some of the confusion surrounding Microsoft's support of OS/2 development. Desktop video is likely to be the next desktop publishing. (innovations in video systems) (Looking Forward) (column) Desktop video combines a microcomputer and a television to produce videos that can be presented on a computer screen or on television. Desktop video is an emerging technology, and users have several approaches from which to choose. RCA Corp's digital video interactive (DVI) technology is a method of storing video and audio sequences on a CD-ROM, hard disk or other media. RCA sold the technology to Intel Corp, and IBM has shown interest in DVI. Intel plans to combine DVI with PictureTel's HVQ and SG3 products to develop microcomputer-based video-conferencing. DVI relies on extreme data compression and users must obtain Intel's i750 chip in order to display DVI on their computers. Desktop video uses the microcomputer to create the graphics that are combined and overlaid onto video, and to assist in editing videos. Avid Technology manufactures a desktop video editing system. Northern calls on industry to raise public awareness. (Northern Telecom, telecommunications infrastructure) Northern Telecom believes that local exchange carriers should launch a multimillion-dollar public awareness campaign to inform their customers about the need to improve the US telecommunications infrastructure. The company plans to contribute $100,000 for a survey of public attitudes toward telecommunications. Northern Telecom Exec VP of Marketing and Sales Gerry Butters believes that an informed public will welcome regulatory and public policy changes. The public is aware of the benefits of information technology, but it does not have a clear understanding of the role that local telephone companies play in promoting the widespread use of information technology. Wireless technologies draw interest. Mason, Charles. Wireless communications systems are expected to have a great effect on the public switched telecommunications network. The biggest effect will be on toll revenues because callers will use the most convenient telephone, which will be the wireless, portable telephone that is a part of personal communication network (PCN) technology. The effect on local exchange carriers' profitability will depend on how big a role they play in the new business. Total PCN revenues are predicted to be $30 billion by the year 2010, but radio spectrum must be increased before PCN will become widely used. Cordless technologies such as CT2 are expected to develop more quickly than PCN technology because they do not require as much spectrum. New Germany influences CeBIT. (trade show) Purton, Peter. The reunification of Germany had an influence on the participants at the 1991 CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. Deutsche Bundespost Telekom introduced a new image, which included the elimination of Deutsche Bundespost from the company's name and the use of magenta and gray as the corporate colors instead of yellow. The Zentralverband der Elektrotechnischen Industrie announced that the improvement of the former East Germany's telephone system was ahead of schedule. Bosch Telecom was experiencing a slowdown in sales of public telecommunications equipment as a result of the change-over between technologies, but it expected sales to improve after the introduction of synchronous digital hierarchy transmission. Unisys boosts NAP messaging system. (Unisys Corp.'s NAP16 and NAP19 voice messaging equipment) (Network Applications Platform) Unisys Corp announces the NAP16 and NAP19, voice messaging equipment that expands its Network Applications Platform to a 'true messaging hub.' Based on the Unisys A16 and A19 mainframes, the platform can provide multiple messaging applications, such as voice, facsimile and data, to as many as 1.7 million voice mailboxes and 11,700 central office switch lines. A major advantage is that the system can connect to other vendors' voice mail systems and can therefore provide small businesses and residences the versatility of voice messaging. By using the system, telephone companies can ensure that all calls are completed and billed. Among the features offered by the Unisys system are: voice options, such as password security and entry, voice messaging broadcast, 'urgent' and 'private' message designations and paging service; and fax options, such as fax broadcast and fax mailbox. 900 legislation steamrolling in. (900-number services) Lindstrom, Ann H. Congress has begun to introduce legislation that will regulate the use of 900 numbers. Telecommunications policy and legislation will be influenced by the recommendations of the FCC and a task force of the National Assn of Attorneys General (NAAG). The FCC is recommending the use of an oral warning at the beginning of telephone calls to notify consumers of charges and to allow them to hang up without being charged a fee. The NAAG task force is recommending that carriers liberally adjust customers' bills if 900 providers provide fraudulent services, bill customers for unauthorized telephone calls, or fail to provide proper notification of prices. AT&T, US Sprint, and MCI all have rules similar to the FCC's recommendations, and they support a national policy that discourages fraudulent practices. Putting the synchronous network to the test. (test equipment for the synchronous optical network) Test equipment manufacturers are not rushing to develop maintenance equipment for the synchronous optical network (SONET), which is an indication of the low degree of SONET acceptance. Test equipment manufacturer Teradyne Inc is entering the SONET market slowly because it is attempting to understand SONET standards, as well as how manufacturers of the network element will handle SONET. Vendors expect SONET standards to undergo a long evolutionary process. There are four types of test equipment: equipment for testing at the chip level, the integration level, the system level, and the network level. Some SONET test equipment is available, but most of the equipment is for use in laboratories. Several vendors have developed equipment at the chip and integration levels, but there has been little development at the system level. Doing the right thing. (Centel Corp. Chmn and CEO John Frazee) (interview) Centel Corp Chmn and CEO John Frazee is enthusiastic about the future of local telephone service. Frazee believes that service providers that are independent, non-Bell regional holding companies (RHC) are free to focus on many activities that RHCs are not able to pursue. Centel is focusing on the local exchange telephone, personal communications, and cellular communications businesses. The firm has become competitive by divesting its cable television businesses and electric properties, keeping only a small portion of its information services and communications systems businesses. Unlike the RHCs, Centel has realized the value of local exchange assets. Centel has a great deal of local exchange areas in rural communities because they have more modern communications systems than many urban areas. Centel has a much higher penetration of modern technology, even though it has a higher percentage of rural customers than the RHCs. The biggest change that Centel has made in becoming market oriented is the implementation of a quality control process. NCR board, facing hard proxy fight, agrees to talks on AT&T merger offer. NCR Corp's board of directors, facing what could be an embarrassing vote against it at the company's annual shareholder meeting, announces it will meet with AT and T to discuss the telephone company's $6.8 billion takeover offer. NCR's turnaround comes just four days before its shareholder meeting, and in the wake of AT and T's offer to increase its bid from $90 a share to $100 a share should the stockholders turn in the 80 percent vote necessary to oust NCR's entire board. Additional pressure has been placed on the board by a federal court ruling invalidating its defensive employee stock ownership plan. Observers say it is not clear whether NCR is sincere in negotiating or whether it hopes the announcement will prevent AT and T from getting the 80 percent vote it needs. Analysts doubt AT and T can get the 80 percent majority, but say NCR is feeling stockholder pressure and may settle for between $105 and $110 a share. Advanced Micro begins shipping its Am386 chip. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Am386 microprocessor) (product announcement) Advanced Micro Devices Inc will begin shipping the Am386 microprocessor, a clone of Intel Corp's 80386 microprocessor. Intel has enjoyed a five-year monopoly on the chip and has attempted to block AMD from manufacturing and selling the chip with numerous legal actions. Analysts believe AMD will capture 10 percent of the $1 billion-a-year market for the 80386 chip within a year, but they see little reason for Intel to worry because there is still more demand for the chip than Intel can meet. Intel likewise plays down AMD's announcement, claiming AMD is six years and two generations behind in microprocessor development. AMD's AM386 is will operate a 40 MHz, faster than the 80386's 33 MHz, and AMD will offer a version with low power consumption for portable computers. Optical fiber (almost) at home. Feder, Barnaby J. Fiber optic cabling has almost replaced conventional copper wire for long distance communications, but its high installation costs may still prevent it from reaching the home for some time. Replacing copper wire in the domestic market is worth $6 billion annually and $9 billion overseas. The high costs are because of the need for a separate box of optical and electronic devices that would be required for each domestic residence, in order to turn light signals into electric impulses necessary to be seen as data on a computer screen, or a voice on a phone. The local companies maintain that to subsidize the expense they will need permission from regulators to market more than just standard telecommunication services to the domestic market. Opponents of the idea argue that the local companies could monopolize the market too easily if that happened. A number of major companies are competing for this developing fiber optics market, including AT&T, Raynet, Alcatel of France, and Fujitsu of Japan. A clip-on mouse for users on the road. (Microsoft Corp.'s Ballpoint Mouse) (product announcement) Microsoft's $175 Ballpoint Mouse is a palm-sized trackball device that attaches to the side of most laptop or notebook computers and is about the size of a large marble. The device addresses the increasing popularity of two distinct areas of technology: the laptop computer market, which is the fastest growing niche in the computer industry; and the phenomenal rise of Microsoft's own Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) software. Advancing technology has enabled laptop computers to support the GUI because of increased processing power, improved hard disk space and management of random access memory (RAM), better quality of high-resolution screens, and improved battery power consumption. Microsoft is reported to be in negotiation with a number of hardware manufacturers to incorporate a Ballpoint socket for the device into future laptop models. Advanced Micro set to send out new chip. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Am386 microprocessor) (product announcement) Advanced Micro Devices announces it will begin shipping its Am386 microprocessor in large volumes. The Am386 is a clone of Intel's 80386 microprocessor, which is currently the microprocessor architecture used in a majority of the world's microcomputers. Intel has long held a monopoly on sales of the chip, but through key legal victories Advanced Micro Devices has won the right to manufacture and sell the chip. Intel continues to fight AMD in court, claiming that AMD has infringed on copyrights for the chip's microcode; AMD is confident it will clear the remaining legal hurdles erected by Intel. Analysts had assumed AMD would compete with Intel by offering a lower priced chip, but instead the company will enter the market with a faster version of the chip that requires less power to operate. AMD is likely to find most of its customers in Asia where supplies of Intel's chip often run short. Wiring the computer network. (includes a related article on cabling standards and a cabling terms glossary) The average computer network is out of service six percent of its yearly operating time, or about 124.8 service hours, and 75 percent of network computer problems are caused by cables and cable connectors, according to TRW Customer Service Div Product Planning Mgr George Schenack. Schenack says too many end users believe all cable is equal, which leads them to try to cut costs by choosing the least expensive cable for their networks. Cable choice influences overall system performance, future network growth, length of cable run, number of workstations on the network, data transmission speed, data security, electromagnetic interference and other factors. The three types of cables used in networks are twisted pair, coaxial and fiber optic; each is described, as are impedance, attenuation, bit rate, interference and distortion, existing wiring and cable implementations. Selecting technical managers. Beal, Diane L. The evolution of most businesses entails selection of supervisors from within the organization for the most part, which engenders employee satisfaction, growth aspirations and high morale. Most businesses lack a formal structure for promoting internal supervisor candidates, and some small firms will not even publicize an open supervisor position outside the specific area. Too often the internal candidate selected will get little or no management training to help make the transition, and it is dangerous to base the promotion decision solely on technical expertise or good relations with upper management. A four-step plan is described for selecting managers from within an organization: assess and develop existing management staff; create competency models for each level of supervision; identify high potential candidates; and select the best candidate. An overview of optical memory cards. Madan, M.S.; Reid, M.A. Optical memory cards (OMC) are described in the DELA standard as cards that let digital data be written to and/or read from them optically, and that can be used as data storage devices in information processing systems and for data interchange between similar systems. The two types of optical-based products now in use are read-only memory (ROM) and write-once read-many-times (WORM); the former category includes video disc, compact audio disc and CD-ROM, while a typical WORM product is the optical memory card. OMCs are designed much like CD-ROMs in that both are based on the creation of pits on the card surface using a silver layer within the surface and a laser beam to encode it. It is much simpler to fabricate an OMC than a CD-ROM. Drexel Technology Corp patented the first OMC in 1981 and now makes cards under the LaserCard trademark; the potential for OMCs and OMC standards are discussed. Decision support delivers bottom line results. (IBM's Data Interpretation System) (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) IBM's Data Interpretation System (DIS) is intended to let business professionals access data directly, transform it into decision supporting information and share it on-line with others in the work group. Applications can be created by end users for measuring the business activities of the organization and comparing them with those of competitors as market conditions change. Trends can be spotted earlier using DIS, and responses to market shifts can be faster and more creative. DIS runs on Token-Ring or Ethernet local area networks; it requires a dedicated Intel 80386-based PS/2 file server and a 386 or 386SX PS/2 to run the software. DIS is intended to access data in DB2, SQL/DS, OS/2 DBM, Oracle, Sybase, Teradata, Ingres or Rdb relational databases; OS/2 Extended Edition is required for the database server and communications server. The DIS toolset and application development are described. The seven lessons of EIS. (executive information systems) (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Use of executive information systems (EIS) has grown considerably since the early 1980s, and seven of the lessons that have been learned are examined as users and vendors prepare for the second generation of EIS. EIS is not a fixed application that can be totally pre-planned. The EIS structure is determined in large part by the organization structure, management ethos and work style of the user as by the technology itself. A graphical user interface (GUI) allows non-technical users to access more computing power, but an EIS is much more than simply a GUI. The 'briefing book' preformatted reports used in the early 1980s cannot meet the needs of users in the 1990s. EIS changes the way the organization perceives end-user computing. The EIS must function as more than simply a report generator or data sharing device to meet the needs of end users. The EIS application must be independent of any specific hardware platform. Decision support in the executive suite. (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Many executives perceive executive information systems (EIS) as simply a way to access data, but such a narrow definition limits the ways in which executive decision making can be supported. A broader definition of an EIS is an application of a computer or communication tool that lets the executive participate directly in the selection of the problem and the selection, design or use of the tool. The executive team of an organization can be considered the brains of the outfit: decision making requires that executives filter the massive amounts of information they receive to find the information that will let them make the best decisions. Information systems create new channels of information, help executives adjust filters, build new channels outward to improve amplification of decisions and expand the ability of the organization to handle complex issues. Measuring the bottom line impact of decision support systems. (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Decision support systems (DSS) have been credited with improving the decision-making effectiveness of knowledge workers in organizations, leading to increased sales and profitability. Units within an organization are composed of value chains of such functions as design, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, sales and service, all of which can be generalized into three basic value-added functions: product development, product delivery and customer service and management. Knowledge workers can be characterized by the efficiency of their specialty; the efficiency can be defined as the worker's output divided by effort. The efficiency rating is a function of being on schedule and concentrating on priorities; efficiency can be enhanced by automating time-intensive tasks or reducing time to output. How to design a DSS to increase knowledge worker efficiency is described. Building the perfect beast. (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Analytical processing based on the 'data warehouse', sometimes called the 'atomic data base', will form the foundation of computer use in the 1990s. The data warehouse supports decision support system (DSS) processing and provides a foundation for artificial intelligence and executive information system (EIS) processing. Analytical processing data is viewed collectively rather than as a series of individual records and is seen over time rather than on a current value basis. The data warehouse differs from traditional DSS in that it is integrated across all applications on a subject-by-subject basis, supports several perspectives of data and is comprised of archival, time variant data rather than current value data. Data warehouse use and warehouse building are described. Certainty factors in expert systems. (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Certainty factors (CF) determine the eventual usefulness of an expert system, and the intricacies of CFs must be understood to make effective use of expert system shells. CFs are used very differently in various expert system shells, which makes them an important aspect when selecting a shell. Experts use degrees of certainty implicitly to solve certain problem classes, and solutions to some problems cannot be found with complete certainty. Whereas users of applications such as spreadsheets and databases expect the same result of calculations regardless of the package used, different expert systems will provide different degrees of certainty to the same problem, leaving it up to users to interpret the results. The use of CFs in various expert systems is discussed, as are CF assignment in rule's premise and compound premises, parameters versus variables and certainty ranges. DSS software evaluation and selection. (Decision Support Systems) (Cover Story) Decision support system (DSS) software handles much of the data analysis, information recall and inductive and deductive reasoning in the decision-making process, allowing managers to come to the best conclusion more quickly. An organization requires decision support in three areas: operations management, resources management and financial management; all three areas can benefit by the use of DSS software. A DSS provides modeling, forecasting, planning, project management, communications, database management, graphics, operations research, word processing, spreadsheet, workstation management, goal seeking, financial calculations and statistical calculations. A statistical analysis of 48 DSS programs from 45 vendors is provided, and a product name and vendor address list is provided. The productivity puzzle: Is there a simple solution? (why US productivity is not increasing) Productivity in the US has stagnated despite the advent of computers and the recent spate of downsizing and restructuring. More than 25 million PCs have been installed in the US since the early 1980s, and a recent Gallup survey found that 44 percent of workers in Fortune 1000 firms use some kind of PC software. US productivity growth has averaged 1.6 percent annually since the early 1980s, and in 1989 non-farm productivity declined 0.7 percent; in the same period productivity in Germany grew at twice the US rate, and the rate of increase in Japan was almost four times that of the US. The frenzied pace of mergers and acquisitions in the US in the 1980s was expected to benefit business, but the downsizing may have caused more harm than good by leading to the exit of some of the most productive workers in organizations. We must rethink our approach to computers and change the way we do business. The work attitudes of MIS personnel: a survey of DPMA members. (Data Processing Management Association) A survey was conducted among members of seven Mid-Atlantic chapters of the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) of work-related attitudes and beliefs. Of the 1,121 surveys delivered, 414 were returned, or 36.9 percent; eliminating surveys with missing data left 328 respondents. The survey measured two types of role stressors: role ambiguity and role conflict; other areas studied were perceived job characteristics, boundary spanning activities, job involvement, professionalism, career satisfaction, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intention to stay and promotability. The survey found that the average level of job satisfaction was 3.7 out of a possible score of 5.0, which is much higher than the statistical midpoint of the scale, 3.0. It was also found that satisfied employees were most likely to experience low role conflict and role ambiguity. From computer literacy to end-user self-sufficiency. (tutorial) Koong, Kai S.; Liu, Lai C. US businesses and industries spend up to $210 billion annually on training and educating their human resources, but it can be difficult and frustrating to fit training programs to job needs. Sometimes the training received is rarely used on the job and the knowledge attained is quickly forgotten. The fast pace of change in today's workplace demands constant retraining for many employees within an organization. Computer-based training systems must focus on the mission of the corporation and the needs of the end user. Developing an end-user training program requires that the mission of the corporation be examined, and the program be tailored to meet specific corporate objectives. Next, specific end-user training goals are set, the ultimate goal being the production of self-sufficient end users. This can only be attained when end users acquire the technical skills required to solve workgroup and corporate problems. On the frequency and scope of backups. (tutorial) Kabak, Irwin W.; Beam, Thomas J. Data backups are seen by most managers as a single issue: they must simply assure that the backup has occurred. However, it is also important to assure that the backup has been done properly and in a timely manner. Managers must determine the scope and frequency of backups required to protect data; a sample analysis to make such a determination is provided. It is assumed that all files are important and would be restored and that users maintain hardcopy backups. Calculating the cost of backup entails the fixed cost of backup equipment, software and training, and the semi-variable costs related to setups and processing for operator time, power, number of disks or tapes and other operations. Other aspects to consider include the scope of the backup and sensitivity analysis. NCR accounting tactic could hurt any merger. (with AT&T) AT&T's attempted takeover of NCR continues to be thwarted by the NCR board of director's tactics. A move that was instigated by the board early in the battle may actually now backfire, and prevent the computer manufacturer from getting a top offer for its shares. If AT&T could negotiate a friendly acquisition rather than a hostile takeover, it could avoid a 'good will' payment to the tune of $4.3 billion. Good will is the difference between the market value of the company being acquired, and the company's tangible assets at the time of the deal. To qualify for the more favorable accounting measure, called 'pooling', AT&T would have to satisfy the Securities and Exchange Commission on a number of issues. Many analysts feel that early anti-takeover measures by the NCR board may have already done the damage to prevent a friendly takeover occurring. ARMs for semiflexible, low-cost automation. (adjustable robot mechanisms) (technical) Seeking to meet flexibility demands, manufacturers are increasingly turning from conventional hard automation to multi-axis robots. However, making the best use of the more expensive multi-axis robots is difficult. A middle ground could come in the form of adjustable robot mechanisms (ARMs), which are suitable for such mechanized continuous trajectories as welding and painting. ARMs are based on a simple planar mechanism, such as four- or five-bar linkage. Link lengths are adjustable. ARMs can be used on different applications; this is a highly valuable attribute, because manufacturers make similar products on a number of production lines. ARMs can be redeployed to various production lines more quickly than conventional robots. Compared to conventional robots, task-oriented ARMs are faster, lighter, more accurate, can be reprogrammed more quickly, need less complex controls, have fewer actuators, and have modular construction. Robots on the move; three traversing robots are the key to a $20+ million manufacturing system's flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The design and installation of an automated manufacturing system is discussed in detail. Careful study of the client's needs led to the selection of a turnkey manufacturing system based on jointed-arm electric robots. The system comprises one assembly cell and three machining cells linked via an automatic storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). The assembly cell handles materials with a conveyor belt. Each machining cell performs different chores. Robots mounted on transporters in each machining cell change tools and handle materials. Machining cells process parts in series and by batch. Only nine workers are needed to run the turnkey system on each of three shifts, for a total of 27. A DEC MicroVAX II computer monitors and controls the processing activities. The microcomputers in each cell are ruggedized and linked to the MicroVAX via an Ethernet line using DECnet. AT&T could save big, accountants say, by avoiding 'good will' in bid for NCR. Some analysts believe that AT&T could save hundreds of millions of dollars in reported profits by avoiding an accounting item called 'good will' if it changed the $6.12 billion cash-only takeover offer for NCR to a friendly stock swap. The good will item, which is the amount an acquisition's price exceeds the book value of the acquired assets, will also lead to NCR shareholders immediately paying income tax on the deal. With a friendly acquisition, stockholders merely exchange existing stock for stock in the new company, and do not pay tax until they sell the new stock. The difference between the book value of NCR, which is around $1.8 billion, and the cash offer from AT&T, is $4.35 billion. This amount would have to be written off over a period of years and would reflect as a liability, cutting into AT&T's overall annual profits. AT&T team invents optical microscope that should aid in study of living cells. AT&T Bell Laboratories reports that it has invented a new optical microscope that can view living cells. Up until now electron microscopes have not been used for observing living cells because living matter could not survive the powerful beams. The microscope uses a laser and optical fiber to create an image only 12 nanometers in diameter. Optical microscopes have been around for 300 years, and work by shining a light upwards through an object. The object appears as a shadow to the viewing microscope. Electron microscopes can pick up far tinier objects than conventional optical microscopes, and operates as a scanner, converting the light received from the specimen into data that is processed by a computer and assembled into an image on a video screen. The main problem to be overcome is the microscopes' slow scanning abilities. It can currently only scan two frames a second compared to television's thirty. IBM's fall pulls stocks down again; recovery in question as profits slip; bonds rise, dollar eases. IBM stock prices have continued their downward spiral, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 16.58 to 2855.45. IBM fell two-and-a-quarter points to 111-and-seven-eights, and has fallen 12-and-a-half percent since its announcement a few days ago of less than expected earnings. Many analysts believe that IBM's continued decline is eroding confidence in the market, and in the notion that an economic upswing is near. Investors generally are worried that IBM's decreasing earnings will be reflected industry-wide as the economy remains in a recession. Lower corporate profits continue to dog market; stocks end mixed. (Abreast of the Market) Confidence in the stock market has continued to decline in the light of weak corporate profits for the first quarter of 1991. A two and a quarter point drop by IBM led to a four point drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. IBM ended the day at 111 and seven-eights. AT&T's recent contract with Spain's Telefonica to build a $500 million undersea cable in 1994 helped it in the light of the difficulties it is encountering in its takeover bid for NCR. AT&T dropped one quarter of a point to 33 and three-quarters. NCR, meanwhile, rose a quarter of a point to 98 and a quarter. Telecommunication company Nynex followed the general downslide for technology stocks and dropped one and one-eighth of a point to 73 and five-eights. Internetworking data from a single source. (Ungermann-Bass Inc's NetDirector) Local area network (LAN) managers can control and monitor every LAN resource, as well as all linked LANs, from any OS/2 workstation in a network using Ungermann-Bass Inc's NetDirector. The product is both versatile and powerful because it utilizes the client-server computer architecture. NetDirector runs as an application utilizing Ungermann-Bass' OEM version of Microsoft's LAN Manager and it is based on Microsoft Corp's SQL Server. Currently, NetDirector only functions with internetworking devices from Ungermann-Bass, but by the end of 1991 the package will support both the common information management protocol from the International Organization for Standardization and the simple network management protocol. Applications included in NetDirector range from Network Resource Monitor to Fault Monitoring Service. Future product releases scheduled for the first part of 1991 will include powerful tools such as Topological Network Mapping. Encryption schemes put safety first. (analysis of the Kerberos and RSA Cryptosystem encryption schemes) Two authentication and encryption schemes have been created to meet the needs of users who want to make sure information transferred on networks remains secure. The Kerberos method utilizes a private key system in which only receivers and senders have private keys used to encrypt and decrypt information. The scheme has been adopted by the Open Software Foundation and is being marketed by DEC, IBM and HP along with their versions of Unix. RSA Cryptosystem, owned by RSA Data Security Inc, uses a key with two parts. A sender uses a public key to encode a message which is decrypted by a receiver using a private key. RSA functions well in big internetworks, while Kerberos works well with single-domain networks. Currently, the two systems are not compatible, but research is being conducted toward that goal. Integrated NIC makes printer a full partner on the LAN. (network interface card) (local area network) (HP's new LaserJet IIISi HP announces its new $6,595 LaserJet IIISi, which is the only desktop printer that can be directly connected to a LAN using an internal NIC, enabling the LaserJet IIISi to download information at a rate that is 10 times faster than parallel and serial ports. The printer also has the ability to print a full raster page in 6.6 seconds and uses an Advanced Micro Devices Inc 29000 RISC processor to process all work at full speed. Additionally, because the LaserJet IIISi is connected to the LAN, the printer does not have to be placed next to a file server, and print sharing software and print servers are no longer necessary. Distributed applications: Can LAN Manager take the puzzle out of building them? (includes related article on guarding against LAN Manager 2.0 plays an important role in helping US firms harness the power of local area networks (LANs) using distributed applications because LAN Manager has an application program interface (API) which connects network services and distributed applications. Currently, the API is supported by a variety of products including IBM's MVS, DEC's VMS operating system and AT&T's StarServer. A typical LAN Manager network is made up of minis and mainframes that support the LAN Manager API, clients with their own user interfaces and servers using LAN Manager. There are six of LAN Managers's components which are significant for distributed applications including: The System Dynamic Link Libraries, System RPC and the Interprocess Communication services. FDDI killer: multiple backbones and fiber to the desktop. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface standard) (includes related articles on Convex Computer Corp needed more speed than is currently available with the FDDI for the design of supercomputers, so the firm has developed and implemented a 2,700-node integrated local area network/wide area network (LAN/WAN). The LAN/WAN was built using available fiber optic hubs and routers and provides high-performance, transparent, worldwide access among supercomputers. Using four backbone channels linked by hubs instead of using one router port has enabled Convex to allocate paths on a per-packet basis and to balance the traffic load. The multiple backbones also have provided advantages over FDDI including: enhanced reliability, lower costs, FDDI bandwidth without using FDDI hardware and scalability. The great cabling treasure hunt. (cable management systems help reduce costs) (includes related article on the roots of cable Local area network (LAN) managers can save thousands of dollars annually in LAN wiring costs by using cable management systems to maintain and gain control of cabling resources. The systems fall within three categories: graphics packages, database packages, and database-plus-graphics packages. Vendors of database packages believe the database/graphics packages are too expensive and too complicated because they require users to learn general computer-aided design concepts. However, sellers of the database/graphics packages believe database-only packages are limited because the packages only generate abstract representations of plants' layouts. Firms selling database-only packages include Comcorps Inc and Quintrel Corp. Graphics-only vendors include Cable Technology Group Inc and Geonex Corp. Graphics-plus-database package vendors include Comserv Inc and ISICAD Inc. From a distance: dial-in comm servers look smarter than ever. (communication) (includes communication server product table) Local area network (LAN) managers who have many microcomputer users at remote locations can achieve benefits by investing in remote dial-in communication servers. The newest communication servers can give microcomputer users faster access to corporate LANs with better performance and lower prices. One low-end product option lets users access microcomputers on a LAN. These products require a serial card slotted into a LAN-connected microcomputer that supports four modems. Other options available are hardware-oriented dial-in servers or software-oriented servers which both provide virtual machines for every user. The servers connect to the processor running an application which controls traffic on the network. A third option is to establish virtual machines using an 80386 chip and an 8086 addressing scheme. The scheme assigns a 1Mbyte section for each machine. A LAN dial-in history. (local area network) Toney, John. LAN managers interested in extending LAN functionality to microcomputers located off-site can use a software bridge and modem over telephone lines to communicate with remote users. Remote microcomputers function as if they were attached to a LAN directly and communicate through modems instead of LAN adapters. However, this method does not provide some users with the speed they require. Another option which does provide speed is to install remote-control software packages. The packages contain a software component running on a network microcomputer outfitted with a modem, as well as another component on a remote microcomputer. The software connects the two computers. Remote control software packages now available include: Norton-Lambert Corp's Close-Up; Meridian Technology Inc's Carbon Copy; and Dynamic Microprocessor Associates Inc's Anywhere. An Ethernet software bridge that works. White, David W. Persoft Inc's Intersect is a software-based bridge package which is faster, more reliable and cheaper than other Ethernet-based bridges, according to users. Intersect, which sells for $1,495, is comprised of two 8-bit Ethernet adapters usable in any IBM PC or clone, as well as bridging software. Persoft believes the product can fulfill three LAN connectivity functions. Intersect can provide a direct connection between a pair of Ethernet LAN segments. Also, if a primary bridge fails, the product can act as a low-cost backup to a high-performance bridge. Additionally, when a primary path fails, Intersect can act as a secondary bridge path that is automatically activated. RAD delivers on IBM's promises. (RAD Network Devices Inc) (bridges linking IBM and non-IBM token ring local area networks) RAD Network Devices Inc's Local Token Bridge (LTB) product is one of the initial bridges to provide interoperability because it connects IBM and non-IBM token ring local area networks (LANs). IBM has developed a source routing transparent (SRT) specification which can handle both transparent bridging and source routing. The product fits into a 19-inch rack, works with both 16M-bps and 4M-bps token ring LANs and it functions under nearly all LAN operating systems. In addition to its versatility, the LTB is fast. Informal test findings which examined forwarding rates and server utilization indicate that the LTB forwards packets nearly as rapidly as direct workstation-to-workstation linkages. Expect more programmable architectures. (gate array vendors to release flood of new products) Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and complex programmable logic devices (PLDs) are attracting more attention from both design engineers and chip vendors, with the result that a wealth of new architectures are expected to debut during 1991. National Semiconductor introduced its Multiple Array Programmable Logic (MAPL) complex PLD architecture in Mar 1991. QuickLogic and Crosspoint Solutions are expected to launch new FPGA architectures during the year. Industry officials are predicting a diversity of designs to meet equally diverse needs, and a trend to generic tools that will eliminate the need for different tools for each device. Gate-array makers are also focusing on efforts to ease the migration of designs. A number of strategic partnerships dedicated to this end have been announced. One industry observer predicts PLDs will be the technology of choice for devices in the 2,000- to 3,000-useable gate range, while FPGAs will dominate the 50,000- to 100,000-gate level. Framework makers dispute data models. (for electronic design automation) Computer-aided engineering (CAE) software makers are divided on whether a framework for electronic design automation should be based on a unified data model or on linked multiple data models. For the most part, those most concerned with integrated circuit (IC) construction tend to favor a single data model, while those most involved with system-level CAE back multiple, linked data models. Frameworks, or enabling software that supports communication and interaction among applications, must be mounted on a software backbone. The software backbone is analogous to the hardware backplane; where the backplane facilitates board swapping, the backbone facilitates the exchange of software tools. IC makers favor the single data model because semiconductor layout is frequently timing-driven and a function of simulation results. Supporters of the linked multiple model format liken it to a decision support system, allowing data from both design and manufacturing to be integrated. Even where there is agreement on what data structure should be used, there is none on the type of database with which to implement the structure. Multimedia start-up taps i960: DOS/Windows work supersedes OS/2 effort -- for now. (Fluent Machines Inc. bases subsystem on Fluent Machines Inc plans to announce a hardware implementation of its Video System Architecture (VSA) for controlling multiple video and audio data streams. Although a previously revealed prototype was based on the OS/2 operating system, Fluent will concentrate on MS-DOS with the Windows 3.0 interface for some time to come. A pure software solution is the firm's ultimate goal, but the current hardware subsystem, deemed more viable than a full-fledged workstation in light of the current recession, offers state-of-the-art components. Intel's 80960CA processor controls both a Motorola 56000 digital signal processor and a C-Cube Microsystems' CL550 video compression/decompression chip, as well as 4 Mbytes of RAM. The subsystem is expected to be officially announced in the third quarter, at a price of around $4,000. Southeast dodges recession; local firms sit tight, hire cautiously. Cautious optimism characterizes the hiring outlook for the electronics industry in the southeastern US. Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina have been spared the decimating layoffs that darkened the picture in the Northeast and Southern California, but those firms that are recruiting are seeking individuals with very specific skills packages. Defense electronics positions make up a significant portion of the available openings in Alabama, although CAD/CAM software developer Intergraph will add some 400 jobs at its Huntsville facility, 95 percent of them technical openings. Software provides a bright spot in an otherwise bleak picture in Georgia, with Peachtree Software expecting to double its staff, and both Lotus and Matsushita looking to expand. North Carolina benefits from the diversity of industries in its Research Triangle Park area. Foreign firms, including Ericsson, Fujitsu and Alcatel, are actively seeking engineers. Crosspoint switches seek bandwidth; many aimed at video and high-speed networking applications. (includes a related article Crosspoint, or crossbar, switches connect inputs to outputs, forming high-speed switching matrices. Vendors of crosspoint-switching integrated circuits are turning to larger, slower complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) designs, multiprocessor support, and higher bandwidth in an effort to extend the use of crosspoint switches to non-telephone applications. Gigabit Logic's 10G051 chip is aimed at high bandwidth applications, and can handle data rates up to 2.6 Gbps. The 16-input by 16-output GaAs chip is priced at $175.60 each in quantities of 1,000. LSI Logic's L64270 is a 64 X 64 CMOS switch that operates in either pipelined or flow-through mode. Input data rate in pipelined mode is some 40 MHz. In quantities of 1,000 price is $70 for 30-MHz parts, $91 for 40-MHz parts. Siliconix offers the DG884, a bidirectional analog and digital device that targets professional video-switching systems and is priced at $24 each in quantities of 1,000. High-density IC packages square off. (International Solid State Circuits Conference debates ultra-large scale integration and A panel discussion at the International Solid State Circuits Conference debated the relative merits and debits of multichip modules (MCMs) and ultra-large scale integration (ULSI). Multichip modules, which combine several integrated circuits (ICs) in one package, offer shorter development cycles, high interconnect density, 3D structure capability, and low prototyping costs. Cost per unit may be unacceptable in high volumes. ULSI chips, sometimes referred to as mega-chips, offer better performance and better cost-effectiveness for high-end systems, but have less favorable electrical characteristics and more complex connectors. One panelist argues that multichip modems are preferable for low volumes, custom ICs for high volumes. While cost-effectiveness was central to the discussion, product definition also has a bearing on the selection of MCM or ULSI technology. Design-process framework uses OODBMS; approach separates application data from administrative data. (Valid's Design Manager Valid introduces Design Manager, a new component of the ValidFrame design-process framework. Design Manager comprises three modules, all invoked through an icon-based toolbox. The modules include: the Base System, which functions as the users' window into design workspaces; the System Administrator, which provides menus and forms that delineate workspaces and set the workspace hierarchy; and the Query Manager/Report Generator, constituting a forms interface with logical operators that offers a variety of methods for defining searches and making reports. The heart of Design Manager is a commercially available OODBMS from Objectivity, used to store administrative data. This separation of administrative and application data eliminates the performance tradeoffs often imposed by single database approaches. Design Manager will begin shipping in fourth quarter 1991, at a cost of $3,500 for the Base System module alone. The three-module package, recommended for every five to 10 licenses, will be priced at $10,000. EISA demands keen debugging skills; vendors are still interpreting specification differently. (Extended Industry Standard A minor recruiting surge is on among makers of network servers seeking design engineers to support work with the EISA standard. Extensive debugging skills, the ability to design in reliability, and a thorough knowledge of how hardware interacts with both operating systems and applications software are among the qualifications being sought. Specific experience with EISA is a plus, although most recruiters acknowledge it may be hard to come by because EISA is relatively new. A minimum of two to five years experience with microcomputer systems is the basic requirement sought by most recruiters. EISA designers must also contend with the lack of a standard interpretation of the published EISA specification; individual interpretation of those specifications often calls for a certain amount of detective work in order to determine just how a given component is really intended to function. Behind the teasing by Hewlett. (Hewlett-Packard's new HP 9000 workstation products) Hewlett-Packard is set to release three additions to its HP 9000 workstation product line. The new Model 720 machine is reportedly capable of executing 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) and is priced at around $12,000. HP has been advertising the new products in national newspapers in a effort to initiate interest. Industry observers see the intense marketing of the products as an indication of the importance with which HP is treating the introduction. If substantiated, the workstations would run twice as fast, and in some cases, three times as fast, as comparably priced products from competing companies, such as Sun Microsystems. The workstation market accounted for $7.4 billion in revenues in 1990. HP is also reported to be developing a workstation for less than $10,000, which would be the company's first offering in the most lucrative segment of the workstation market. IBM faces a harsher world in 90's. Markoff, John. IBM is attempting to reorganize itself to take advantage of new trends in the computer industry. Observers believe that executives at the manufacturing giant are becoming increasingly concerned that the company is moving too slowly in its efforts to become a pared-down entity capable of competing in the global marketplace. The company has recently announced lower-than-expected revenues for the first quarter of 1991. The results shocked the computer industry, which had anticipated considerable IBM profits. Even as IBM has reduced staff by tens of thousands, it has found itself stretched to provide the kind of services and expertise on which it became such a market leader. The trend towards open systems, and away from proprietary mainframes, has hurt IBM the most. The company is now struggling to adapt products to support open systems in an effort to regain market share. Founder of Airfone wins big settlement with GTE. (John D. Goeken) Bradsher, Keith. The GTE Corp has settled its court case with John D. Geoken, who was the designer of the first air-to-ground telephone service. Geoken's company, Airfone Inc, was sold to GTE in 1986. The original sale agreement included a clause that prevented Geoken from competing with the Airfone in the same market. The final settlement for Geoken is reported to amount to $15.5 million. The settlement follows many months of damaging testimony by Geoken in the court case in which he suggested GTE had misled the FCC into thinking the market for such communications services was small to prevent the agency issuing more licenses to competitors. As part of the settlement Geoken will now remove his petition to the FCC not to grant GTE a permanent license to offer air-to-ground services. Market place: a turning point for chip makers. Sanger, David E. The semiconductor trade agreement between the United States and Japan is set to expire in the near future. Negotiations are under way to renew the agreement under which, the Japanese conceded up to 20 percent of their domestic market to United States manufacturers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices. The agreement, which was intended to curb the spiralling success of the Japanese industry, ended up bringing it enormous profits. The newly developed 4Mbyte DRAM microprocessors were set to replace the older 1Mbyte products but have failed to do so for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the extremely low price that the old microprocessors now sell for, as low as $4 or so depending on volume. The industry is reluctant to migrate to a newer computer-brain, when it can reap so much profit from the older not-yet-outdated technology. While many Japanese companies openly condemn any new trade agreement, many privately say they would like to see it reestablished in order to maintain the large profit margins already established. I.B.M. sees sharp drop in earnings; stock declines 10% amd helps to send Wall St. tumbling. IBM has announced that first quarter profits would be down 50 percent from the same quarter last year. The news took the stock market by surprise and led to a 10 percent reduction in IBM stock price. IBM stock ended the day at $115.125, which was a drop of $12.75. Some analysts are fearing that the decline is an indication of worse things to come for the US economy on a national level because IBM is seen as the main indicator of technology stocks. Some analysts maintain that the figures suggest a slow product transition by the company to its new family of mainframe computers. IBM denies the claim, maintaining that all its products, with the exception of the RS/6000 workstation line, software and services have been equally affected. Price data, IBM drop Dow by 62.13. (stock prices) Hurtado, Robert. Stocks have fallen dramatically following lower than expected earnings from IBM and the report on consumer prices for Feb 1991. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 61.13 points to 2,867.82, and volume trading was only 177.1 million shares, up from 163.1 million the previous day. The Labor Department's report that the Consumer Price Index rose seven-tenths of one percent dashed hopes that the Federal Reserve would ease short term rates, and led to plunging stock prices. IBM reported lower than expected earnings for its first quarter which contributed to the fall. Profits for the company are now expected to be only half of what they were for the same quarter last year. AT&T to lift bid if NCR board is purged. (attempted takeover) Shapiro, Eben. AT&T, in its ongoing attempt to acquire computer manufacturer NCR Corp, has announced it will raise its offer to $100 per share if the shareholders vote to remove the NCR board of directors at the upcoming special shareholder meeting. The fresh offer follows the ruling of a Federal judge that the new NCR employee stock ownership plan is invalid. The plan was initiated by the NCR board in an indirect attempt to block the takeover of the company. The stock price rise is seen as another effort to lure stockholders into accepting the offer. AT&T needs an 80 percent vote at the special meeting to oust the board and therefore pave the way for the acquisition of NCR. Baby Bells backed by Senate panel. (Commerce Committee votes to allow seven regional Bell companies to manufacture telephone The Committee on Energy and Commerce has voted to allow the seven regional Bell operating companies to manufacture and market telephones and other communications equipment. Analysts believe the decision could transform the current $120 billion market. The seven companies have combined revenues totalling more than $80 billion. The decision continues the recent trend of Congress to rest control of the deregulation of AT&T from Judge Harold H. Greene, who oversaw the original breakup in 1982 along with the creation of the Baby Bells. The proposed legislation also includes the controversial clause that demands 60 percent of the manufactured equipment be made in the US in the first year of the new law. Subsequent domestic content percentages would be set by the Federal Communications Commission. Big Blues: IBM earnings shock raises new concerns on economic rebound; makers of large computers face growing pressure, though IBM indicates that earnings for the 1st qtr of 1991 will plunge by 50 percent. Analysts, who had expected flat earnings, are stunned. Most of IBM's product lines are involved. Only software, services and workstations seem unaffected. IBM suggests that things are even worse than they appear: the problem, according to IBM, is not a loss of business to competitors, but rather that customers have stopped buying, which means that other companies besides 'Big Blue' might also report bad results. Economists say that weakness in the computer industry will have important repercussions for the entire economy, but opinions differ about what, specifically, will happen. IBM's stock fell $12.75 on Mar 19, to $115.125 a share. Takeover bid for NCR gets boost in court; judge rejects ESOP plan, giving AT&T a chance to replace firm's board. (employee stock AT&T is strengthened in its attempt to acquire NCR Corp by a court's decision to reject an NCR plan to issue 8 percent of the company's stock to employees. The decision means that AT&T has a better chance to replace NCR's board in a proxy fight at an annual meeting to be held on Mar 28, 1991. AT&T needs an 80 percent vote, which probably would not have been possible if employees held 8 percent of NCR's stock. AT&T will increase its $90-a-share offer ($6.12 billion) to $100 a share ($6.8 billion). In related news, IBM has reported that 1st qtr earnings will be lower than expected. This is bad news for NCR's defense because NCR has been arguing that its stock price could outrun AT&T's offer. It now appears that NCR's new generation of computers will be marketed in an environment that will be more difficult than had been foreseen. Bill easing curb on Baby Bells clears a hurdle. (telephone companies will be allowed to manufacture telecommunications The Senate Commerce Committee approves legislation that would allow Bell telephone companies to manufacture telecommunications equipment. Manufacturing has been ruled out since the Bell system's breakup. The committee's vote is criticized by consumer groups and by AT&T. Opponents say that Bell companies might compete unfairly, which could result in higher phone rates. The committee's chairman, Ernest F. Hollings (D, SC), argues that lifting restrictions on Bell companies will encourage them to invest in US manufacturing at a time when the domestic telecommunications equipment industry is threatened by global competition. Representative Edward Markey (D, MA), chairman of the House Telecommunications and Finance subcommittee, wants a broader proposal that would impose safeguards on the Bell companies, to prevent anti-competitive behavior, if even more restrictions are removed. TrueType fulfills promise, offers ATM alternative. (Apple's TrueType printer software rivals Adobe Systems Inc.'s Type Apple's TrueType printer software rivals Adobe Systems Inc Type Manager, and comes bundled with Apple's StyleWriter and Personal LaserWriter LS printers. TrueType is compatible with Apple's System 6.0.7, and the soon-to-be-released System 7.0. TrueType is shipped in the form of a startup document known as an INIT. Users copy the INIT onto their System folder, install the TrueType fonts in their System file with Apple's Font/DA Mover and restart the Font/DA Mover Mac version 4.1 included in the TrueType package to use the program. TrueType's core fonts include Times, Helvetica, Courier and Symbol. Several font companies have released fonts in the TrueType format, and two companies have utilities that transpose type from Adobe's Type 1 font format to TrueType and vice versa. TrueType's marketing strength is measured against Adobe's $99 Type Manager, which represents a substantial advance in type technology. AppleShare upgrade geared to System 7.0. (AppleShare 3.0 server software and System 7.0 enhance computer networks) Apple upgrades its network file server application, AppleShare 3.0, as it prepares to release its System 7.0 operating system. AppleShare 3.0 will work with System 7 to provide network enhancements such as remote booting, improved security features, better performance, an increased number of network users and InterApplication Communications (IAC) compatibility. AppleShare 3.0 can run simultaneously with additional applications under System 7's Multitasking Finder, and third-party software developers can add on features such as high-level security and backup independently. Use of the software will permit Diskless Macintosh IIfx, LC and IIsi units to boot from image files stored on the server. Network managers can configure the network server to accept as many as 200 users if there is sufficient memory. Apple may add application programming interfaces to future versions of AppleShare so that third parties can add their own features in the network server. Top of line priced to sell. (Apple cuts prices on several Macintosh microcomputers) Apple cut the prices of several of its Motorola 68030-based Macintosh microcomputers to improve their price/performance ratio and to reserve space in its product line for future high-end machines. Apple lowered the price of its Macintosh IIfx by $2,300 to $8,669. The unit features 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM) and a 160Mbyte hard disk. The Macintosh IIci is $700 less and includes an extra Mbyte of RAM. A machine with 5Mbytes of RAM and an 80Mbyte hard drive costs $5,969. The price of a Macintosh SE/30 with a 4/80 configuration dropped by as much as $1,700. Apple upgraded the Macintosh IIsi configuration with an additional Mbyte of RAM. Analysts claim Apple's pricing strategy brings the entire product line up to date with the company's Oct 1990 policy of providing the best performance for the price, and makes room for Apple's Motorola 68040-based tower Macs. Quantum leap in drive performance. (Quantum Corp. enhances ProDrive hard disks with WriteCache feature) Quantum Corp announces the WriteCache feature for its 3.5-inch disk drives, which improves sustained transfer rates 30 to 200 percent during data-writing operations. Quantum has added WriteCache to its ProDrive 210 hard drive, and the feature will be included with the future ProDrive 425 drive. The high-capacity drives feature a 42Kbyte buffer, which the WriteCache technology employs to increase throughput. Without WriteCache, data is first sent from the host computer to the buffer where it waits idle for several seconds of seeking and rotational latency before the drive writes the data to disk and returns a Command Complete message to the host. WriteCache allows the disk to send a Command Complete message as soon as a block of data is received in the buffer. The host is able to send additional data into the cache during the seeking, latency and writing phases. Mac SE/30 not yet out to pasture. (Apple cuts price of Macintosh SE/30 microcomputer) (News Analysis) Apple reduces the price of its Macintosh SE/30 microcomputer, making it an attractive machine to potential users. When the SE/30 was first introduced in 1980, it's $4,369 price included 1Mbyte of random access memory (RAM) and a 40Mbyte hard drive; the 40/80 configuration was priced at $6,569, and operated four times faster than the SE/30. The base price remained unchanged for the SE/30 until Mar 1991, when Apple reduced the 1Mbyte of RAM with 400Mbyte Hard drive configuration by $1,000 to $3,369. The 4/80 configuration costs $3,869, which is a $1,700 reduction. The SE/30 is an appealing machine because some of its operations outrun most modular Mac II models. The SE/30 also offers users upgrading options. The microcomputer's single in-line memory module (SIMM) sockets and read only memory (ROM) can accommodate 8Mbytes of on-board RAM. Connected does books for 255 users: accounting package boasts low price tag. (EveryWare Development Corp.'s Connected - Accounting EveryWare Development Corp introduces Connected - Accounting and Connected - Inventory Management, multi-user accounting packages that could cost large sites as little as $5 per user. All Connected modules are compiled in Omnis 5, and a Microsoft Windows 3.0 version will be available in the 3rd qtr FY 1991. Connected - Accounting costs $1,249 and features financial reporting for as many as 18 open periods. The module also supports income statements by profit center or department, comparative balance sheets, and recurring and reversing journal entries. The software package offers invoicing, receipts and open-item accounting. Connected - Inventory Management is also priced at $1,249 and provides bill of materials, movement history and five price tiers by five quantity breaks. The package features a purchase-order module and a sales-order module. Connected - Inventory Management will ship one month after Connected - Accounting. Apple Developer University puts training courses on CD. (Apple Programmer's and Developers Association, CD-ROM) The Apple Programmers and Developers Association offers program development training courses for the Apple Macintosh environment. Macintosh Programming Fundamentals course is a $595 CD-ROM package that includes a reference and tutorial binder and laboratory exercises. The course covers memory management, QuickDraw, resources, event loops, menus, scroll bars, windows, printing and file input/output. This course joins the previously released Mac User-Centered Design, a $195 course covering general interface-design principles and Macintosh interface guidelines. Also planned for introduction is a $295 course called Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming that will also be CD-ROM-based. Apple is offering a bundling of all three courses for $555. Tribe's LocalSwitch speeds LocalTalk: splits network load into eight channels. (Tribe Computer Works Inc.'s network hub) (product Tribe Computer Works Inc's $3,495 LocalSwitch network hub is designed to increase the bandwidth of Apple's LocalTalk local area networks (LANs) providing a 230K-bps path for each of the 16 ports. The hub does not support LocalTalk cables as it requires twisted-pair phone wiring. LocalSwitch ships with an application that enables network managers to control each port and view network traffic on the devices connected to that chosen port. The application also allows the user to prevent a port's traffic from getting on the network. LocalSwitch costs 3.5 times as much as Farallon Computing Inc's StarController, but costs considerably less than investing in Ethernet equipment. Adobe masters art of outline fonts. (introduces new Multiple Master font technology at Seybold Seminars 91) Adobe Systems Inc announced its new Multiple Master outline font technology at the 1991 Seybold Seminars trade show in Boston. The new technology lets a single font include up to four outlines; type vendors will be able to alter typeface weight, width, style and scaling parameters. Multiple Master interpolates between two or more 'master' outlines to obtain different font styles while maintaining the design integrity of the original font. Adobe will initially bundle a memory-resident program with each Multiple Master font that will give users font-editing tools. The utility will contain sliders, numeric boxes and a sample-type box for adjusting parameters in a dialog box. Multiple Master is based on capabilities already found in Adobe's PostScript page-description language; all existing PostScript printers will be able to handle Multiple Master fonts. The new fonts are not expected to affect performance but will be two and a half to three times the file size of normal single-outline fonts. As Apple unveils low-cost printers, font vendors take to TrueType. (new TrueType font technology) Many font vendors have announced typeface outlines designed for Apple's new TrueType font technology to complement Apple's introduction of two new low-cost printers with built-in TrueType capability. Apple provides an INIT with its new StyleWriter and LaserWriter LS that will let them print TrueType fonts under System 6.07. Bitstream is offering two Font Packs for TrueType at $89 each; each pack contains one text typeface in four styles and three decorative faces. Linotype-Hell Co's Desktop Selection will be available in Apr 1991 for $185. The package will contain seven TrueType fonts. Monotype Typography Inc's Monotype Imprints will cost $29.99 per typeface style. Agfa Compugraphic, Kingsley/ATF and others are also developing TrueType products. Quoin tosses tight controls to DTP. (Quoin Publishing Systems) (product announcement) Quoin Publishing Systems Inc introduces Quoin, a new $4,950 Macintosh desktop-publishing package developed by British typesetter manufacturer Interset PLC. The program combines the Mac's ease of use with the layout and typographic power of dedicated code-driven machines, according to the company. It offers snap-to-grids for accurate positioning of page items; automatic tabulation for calculating column widths; and sophisticated kerning and tracking controls. It currently only handles gray-scale and spot color images, but a version that supports process color will be available in mid-1991. Document managers vie for control. (new products introduced at 1991 Seybold Seminars trade show) (product announcement) Several vendors introduced new document management and processing systems at the 1991 Seybold Seminars desktop publishing conference in Boston. North Atlantic Publishing Systems Inc's Editorial Copy Management System (ECMS) is a copy-management front end to the XyWriter word processing program and will be available in May 1991 for $650 per server and $250 per node. Digital Technology International's Editorial Database, scheduled for release in the summer of 1991, uses a Sybase SQL engine to manage text files. P.INK Press is a German-developed document manager based on a Mac SQL database server. Other vendors offering new document management products include Linotype-Hell Co and Van Gennep. The medium was the message. (New Media) (column) Rosenthal, Steve. Lotus' abrupt withdrawal of its MarketPlace mailing-list CD-ROM indicates that the media used to disseminate information can be as important as product content in causing political problems. MarketPlace was an ambitious attempt to provide access to information on millions of households using an Apple Macintosh, but the product caused an uproar among individuals and consumer groups concerned about possible loss of privacy. The disc actually did not contain any information that was not already available to large mailers and mailing-list brokers via mainframes. People did correctly perceive that the accessibility and portability of the CD-ROM media changed the nature of data; those who accepted that large companies might have considerable information about their spending habits were uncomfortable with the idea of any microcomputer user having access to it. Databases don't deliver for average users. (Commentary) (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. Microcomputer user suffer from the lack of a corporate database because there is currently not unified way for them to access corporate data. Today's databases are a digest of corporate data and contain navigation tools designed for the questions IS organizations and users can anticipate. Structured Query Language is complex and difficult to learn, and the various 'dialects' of SQL are often incompatible. A unified SQL would guarantee a programming standard for application developers, but there are two major obstacles to overcome: providing a flexible and understandable menu for the 'data restaurant' and bridging the gap between everyday human mental activity and rigorous binary data organization. Data Access Language's failed promise. (Apple version of Structured Query Language)(The Mac Manager) (column) Apple's Data Access Language query-processing software promised to provide a smooth Structured Query Language (SQL) interface between Apple Macintoshes and larger systems, but the software it generates is almost unworkable in the majority of cases. It does an excellent job of helping end users create SQL font ends, but its reporting capabilities are weak. Application developers need more than DAL's basic user-oriented capabilities. Apple should create a more sophisticated developer's version of DAL, possibly including its Client-Server Application Development Enhancement Toolkit (CADET) technology. New optical drives break molds. (Hardware Review) (magneto-optical disk drives) (evaluation) Three non-standard magneto-optical disk drives are reviewed, along with Pinnacle's standard Sony-based REO-650 mechanism. The drives all offer similar performance in both real-world and benchmark tests; the Mass Microsystems DataPak MO is faster than the others by a slight margin. All provide an installer program for formatting cartridges as well as a System-level driver that lets users mount a cartridge on the desktop if it was not in the drive at startup time. Pinnacle provides Apple's Desktop Manager program with the REO-650. The Pinnacle REO-130 does not operate well as a startup disk. MicroNet's CMO-1 and the DataPak do not suffer from this compatibility problem. The REO-130 is the least expensive of the three drives at $2,995, but the media cost is higher because there is no second source. The DataPak MO costs $4,349, while the CMO-1 is $4,295. Mobius breathes new life into SE. (Hardware Review) (large-screen monitor and card display system) (evaluation) Mobius Technologies Inc's 030 One Page Display System is a large-screen upgrade system for the Macintosh SE that provides a 78-dpi full-page display and 25 MHz 68000-based graphics accelerator card, for only $995. The system includes an attractive monitor with a sturdy tilt-and-swivel stand. Operations for the accelerator and the cdev are each controlled by Control Panel devices. Installation is fairly easy, and Mobius provides a toolkit for opening the SE. Operation is simple, and most of the Mobius' system's limitations result from those of the SE itself. The card can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM, but users can only configure this as a RAM disk because the SE ROMs cannot address more than 4Mbytes. A faster hard disk than the one supplied with stock SEs is recommended for ideal performance. Thunder 7. (Software Review) (interactive spelling checker for Macintosh) (evaluation) Baseline Publishing Inc's Thunder 7 spelling checker for the Apple Macintosh is a program with a long history of upgrades, offering excellent functionality for the very low price of $99.95. Thunder 7 includes all of the basic features of the earlier Thunder II; it is still a Control Panel device, but it now offers a 1.4-million word thesaurus and the ability to select groups of dictionaries to open when launching specific applications. Its glossary feature is powerful and intuitive, and the program can load and unload groups of dictionaries with great flexibility. Thunder 7 is highly recommended. Evolver 1.1. (Software Review) (add-on to Informix Software's Wingz spreadsheet) (evaluation) Axcelis Inc's Evolver 1.1 is a $345 add-on to Informix Software's Wingz spreadsheet that helps users analyze and optimize assumptions in 'what-if' scenarios. Evolver requires users to first design a spreadsheet modeling the system of equations that need to be solved and designate an output variable to maximize or minimize. Evolver then uses non-linear solving methods to determine the optimum solution. Evolver 1.1 requires Wingz 1.1a or later. Evolver can be difficult to install. The user must insert several lines of HyperScript into a Wingz start-up file, a complex procedure that the Evolver manual does not explain adequately. FlexiTrace. (graphing utility) (evaluation) Waring, Becky. Tree Star Inc's $249 FlexiTrace is a new program that converts graphs into numbers. It can process line, area, bar and scatter charts from either PICT or MacPaint files and either searches for either local minima and maxima or performs periodic sampling along the X-axis. FlexiTrace includes a set of drawing tools and filters for removing extraneous information and 'noise' pixels from scanned graphs. It nevertheless produces best results with scans made from high-quality sources. The program shows the results of a tracing as a series of numerical coordinates in its Measurements window. The user interface is simple, although it can be confusing at first. V.32bis speeds modem standard. (guide to modems) (buyers guide) Hollis, Robert. More and more modems today incorporate the V.32bis transmission standard, which is replacing V.32 as the fastest non-proprietary modem standard now available. A V.32bis modem offers a top transmission rate of 14,400 bps when communicating with a similar unit. Many new V.32bis modems offer the tp speed in a synchronous transmission mode for communicating with mainframes. V.32bis also defines two intermediate speeds: 7,200 bps and 12,000 bps. The modem automatically drops its speed to match the highest rate supported by the other modem, a feature especially useful for bulletin board operators. Prometheus offers a V.32bis modem that gives Mac users plug-and-play capabilities. A guide to modem features is included. Seybold Seminars casts new light on publishing. (Quark vs. Aldus; TrueType; Adobe Multiple Master fonts highlight trade show) The 1991 Seybold Seminars desktop publishing trade show in Boston was highlighted by the introduction of Adobe's Multiple Master font technology and by the competition between Aldus Corp and Quark Inc in the page layout arena. Quark has captured much of Aldus' market share because Aldus' image is beginning to waver; Quark is moving aggressively to capture the high-end publishing market and has been much quicker to announce add-on products. The Multiple Master fonts are compatible with existing PostScript printers and are part of the open Type 1 font standard, but Multiple Master does not lend itself easily to conversion; Adobe's existing type library will not be made available in Multiple Master format. Apple's press kit suffered from poor word spacing and jagged bit-mapped fonts. Dealers up in arms over Apple joke. (footnote in advertisement for new printers) Apple has angered many of its dealers by running a printed advertisement for its new StyleWriter and Personal LaserWriter LS printers that contained a footnote reading, 'Prices are suggested retail. But who pays retail anymore?' Dealers complained that this 'joke' indicated irresponsibility on Apple's part because their margins are extremely narrow and they are struggling; the ad showed insensitivity. Discounting is reportedly 'running rampant' on the new low-cost Macs such as the Classic, LC and IIsi. Apple has apologized for the ad, but maintains that it is the channel's responsibility to see that prices are set high enough to ensure dealers a profit. Is the Mac losing market-share war? Doubling unit sales may not be enough. (projections for 1990s) Apple's efforts to double unit sales on its Macintosh line may be inadequate as other graphical operating systems, particularly Microsoft Windows, gain ascendancy. Dataquest Inc predicts that Apple will double its Macintosh unit ship rate by 1995, but notes that Microsoft Windows will quadruple its 1990 ship rate in the same period. Windows is likely to control more than half the overall microcomputer market by 1995. Apple may be forced to authorize Mac clones, a move it has reportedly considered in the past but rejected as too risky. Door opens for Apple to take Windows case to trial. (Apple lawsuit against Microsoft COrp.) US District Court Judge Vaughn B. Walker has struck down defense motions filed by Microsoft and HP in Apple's copyright-infringement lawsuit against the two firms, opening the way for Apple to take the Windows case to trial. Walker ruled that the Mac interface is an original work and is subject to copyright protection, making the distinction between visual displays generated by Microsoft and the Mac system software. He has not ruled on whether the Apple copyright claims are valid. Ten key interface elements remain disputed: overlapping windows, windows that appear partly on and off screen, windows that are brought to the top when selected, active top windows, gray outlines of windows dragged along with the cursor, the redrawing of windows in new positions, newly exposed areas on the screen displayed when a windows is moved, movable icons, icons behind open windows and icon titles. Microsoft falls under FTC scrutiny. Said, Carolyn. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating alleged unfair competitive practices by Microsoft Corp in a move some observers say could have implications for Apple. Microsoft allegedly takes unfair advantage of its position as developer of both system and application software; many competitors would be pleased to see this situation investigated, but analysts say Microsoft has little to fear. Apple also makes both system and application software, and some fear it could become the target of similar scrutiny. Physicists close in on world's fastest supercomputer; facing daunting calculations on subatomic particles, scientists build Researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are testing a module that will be a building block of the world's fastest supercomputer. The device, which is known as the Advanced Computer Program Multiple Array Processor System (MAPS), is composed of 600 microprocessors. MAPS belongs to a technology called 'massively parallel computing.' Specifically, physicists need such a computer to continue a search for an elementary particle known as a 'top quark.' This and other problems of contemporary physics require tremendous computing power, and because today's commercial supercomputers are not fast enough, physicists have increasingly begun designing and building their own machines. One group - a consortium of 15 universities - working with Thinking Machines Inc of Cambridge, MA, is building the first 'teraflop supercomputer,' a machine that will perform one trillion operations per second. The teraflop machine is scheduled to be ready in 1993. Type without tears. (Truetype, from Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corp.) (Personal Computers) (column) Truetype, a new technology from Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp, improves the look of text on computer screens and on printouts. Truetype allows a user to size type, in any increment, and the technology gets rid of jagged lines and broken curves. Truetype - which will be included in the Macintosh's system software, version 7.0, scheduled for release in May 1991, and which will be released in a version that works with Microsoft's Windows on IBM-and-compatible machines later in the year - can already be obtained by Macintosh owners by retrieving a Truetype program from a user group or from an on-line information service such as CompuServe. Truetype will give Macintosh and Windows users a built-in type technology that was previously available only through Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and Adobe's Type 1 outline fonts. History in review. (Review Bank, educational software from Technical Educational Consultants) (Software Review) Review Bank, from Technical Educational Consultants of Hicksville, NY, consists of two volumes of computer programs. Review Bank I covers American History I, Period of Exploration to Reconstruction; and Review Bank II covers American History II, Post-Civil War America to present. Each program includes more than 750 multiple-choice questions ranging from three centuries before George Washington to the Bush Administration. Some features go beyond reviewing, such as brief background lessons if a student is not clear on a period, or glossaries of historical terms. Scores can be kept; missed questions can be reviewed. An optional editing program allows a teacher or a parent to create more questions. Versions for both Apple II and MS-DOS microcomputers are available. The programs cost $39.95 each, and $8 for postage and handling. The package that includes the editing program costs $89.95. Another program, a program generator called QuickPro+ III ($59), from ICR Futuresoft of Orange Park, FL, is mentioned. QuickPro+ III is described as useful for a home office or a small business, where simple Basic language programs need to be written. Apple may widen sale of operating systems. (Apple Computer Inc.) Pollack, Andrew. Apple Computer Inc will expand its activities as a vendor of operating systems. Apple Chmn and CEO John Sculley suggests that Apple is developing a new operating system capable of running on various microprocessors and types of computers. Such a move would be a dramatic break with Apple's traditions: the company has always treated its operating systems software as proprietary. It means that Apple recognizes that the industry is moving toward standards. The company can no longer thrive as 'an island unto itself.' Microsoft Corp, too, is moving toward standardization. Microsoft is developing an operating system called OS/2 Version 3, which will run on a variety of microprocessors. IBM's top 5 officials got '90 pay raises of at least 33%, outpacing its earnings. IBM's proxy statement reveals that the computer company's top five executives received pay increases of 33 percent or more in 1990, while its 1990 per-share earnings rose 16 percent. IBM Chmn John F. Akers received $2.6 million in cash and stock in 1990, 35 percent more than he received in 1989. IBM Pres Jack Kuehler received $1.6 million, 36 percent more than in 1989, while IBM Sr VP Frank Metz received $1.2 million, a 43 percent increase. C. Michael Armstrong and Terry Lautenbach, who are also senior VPs, gained 33 percent raises to $1.2 million. The executives also received restricted stock awards ranging from $2 million for Akers to $725,000 for Armstrong and Lautenbach. In other company business, IBM announced that Frank T. Cary will not run for re-election as director of the board. A group of 500 former IBM employees has filed a class action suit claiming that they were mislead into accepting an early retirement offer. Does that computer have something on its mind? (measuring computer thought) (Leisure & Arts) The pinnacle of artificial intelligence achievement is passing the Turing Test, which proposes that a true 'thinking machine' should be able to fool a human questioner into believing the computer is a human being. The Turing Test is named for its inventor, Alan Turing, one of the fathers of the computer age. On Nov 8, 1991, a competition sponsored by Crown Industries Pres Hugh Loebner offers $100,000 for the first computer to pass the test. Artificial intelligence experts are developing the contest rules and addressing issues such as preventing communications links that would allow cheating and what types of questions are appropriate. The first round of the contest takes place at the Boston Computer Museum. More than 100 requests for contest information have already been received. Until a machine passes the test, prices starting at $1,500 are to be presented to the best entries in each contest. SmartPhone has milestone: first customer. (AT&T's advanced telephones) (Telecommunications) Huntington Bancshares Inc is the first business to acquire AT&T SmartPhones to distribute to users of its home banking service. Huntington is expected to lease the telephones, which include 4-by-6.5-inch touch-screen displays and built-in modems, to customers for $6-$10 per month. The phones are backed up by network computer systems that allow users to select service options and read telephone listings from on-screen menus. AT&T hopes to continue its lead in the consumer telephone market with the SmartPhones, but it has had difficulty finding users for the product. Huntington plans to offer its home-banking services to all its 800,000 customers, but previous home-banking schemes have failed. Huntington officials say the SmartPhone makes a significant difference between its service and the other home-banking services currently available. Digital says it will enter a new market. (Digital Equipment Corp to make massively parallel computers) (Technology) DEC announces that it will enter the massively parallel computer market by 1992. Massively parallel architecture links large numbers of small processors to function as a single unit. DEC is researching massively parallel architectures for scientific and technical computers. Company officials say DEC's efforts are concentrating on software development because lack of software is perceived as the greatest barrier to the use of massively parallel systems in business. DEC may participate in a joint venture with MasPar Computer Corp. A massively parallel computer from Thinking Machines Corp has won an independent test for computing speed, performing 5.2 billion floating-point operations per second. Apple Computer's John Sculley discloses plans for new portables, other products. (Technology) Apple CEO John Sculley says Apple plans to tighten its relationship with Adobe Systems Inc, loosen its ties with Motorola Inc and develop products for the growing notebook computer market. Apple currently uses Motorola microprocessors exclusively, but Sculley notes that Apple will eventually use reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, which are not Motorola's strength. Sculley also says that Apple plans to rely more heavily on Adobe software for its sophisticated computer printers despite using rival software developed with Microsoft Corp on its low-priced printers. Sculley plans to avoid repeating Apple's disastrous entry into the portable computer market in 1989 by developing competitive notebook computers. Sculley would not confirm that Apple will license its system software to clone makers, but did say that modifications to the Macintosh operating system are underway. Can General Signal escape its high-tech hell? Diversifying into glamour industries has cost it plenty. (The Corporation: General Signal Corp is attempting to recover from a failed attempt at diversification by returning to its core industrial and electrical control business. General Signal CEO Edmund M. Carpenter eliminated $202 million in assets and reduced the work force by 20 percent after he took control in 1988, but the company still lost $32.9 million in 1990 on flat $1.7 billion sales. The company has $395 million in debt from a 1988 stock buyback. Carpenter would like to sell more of the company's peripheral businesses, but acquisition financing is difficult to find, and the businesses themselves are not attractive to buyers. Even the core control business had a 33 percent decline in earnings in the 4th qtr of 1990, and most of its expected 3 percent growth in 1991 will come from price increases. Laptops take off: the machines are tiny, the potential is huge, but the market is already crowded. (laptop computers) (Cover Laptop computer sales are increasing dramatically as laptop technology improves, microcomputer sales stagnate and users recognize the advantages of portable computing. Sales of laptop computers are expected to triple by 1993, when laptops may account for 35 percent of all computer sales. Apple, IBM and many smaller companies are moving to meet the increasing market demand. Current laptop computers offer performance similar to many desktop computers, but consumers prefer the smaller machines, particularly since laptop prices have started to decline. Japanese firms already hold about half the laptop market share, and Japanese companies produce many critical laptop components, including liquid crystal displays and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). US firms hold an edge in hard disk technology, microprocessors and marketing. The computer for people who are scared of keyboards. (pen-based I/O) Computer and software vendors are scrambling to develop products incorporating pen-based I/O. The vendors believe they can access a burgeoning market of users who dislike keyboards and may never have used a computer. Pen-based systems can recognize hand-printed letters and transform the printing into letters on the screen. The systems are expected to be particularly popular with users who fill out forms, including insurance adjustors, police officers and nurses. Systems available by 1992 are expected to weigh about 4.5 pounds, use 80386 microprocessors and sell for about $5,000. As the tablets grow smaller, they could be used by white-collar workers for contract editing and other tasks. Go Corp's PenPoint operating system uses a book metaphor, listing files in a table of contents. PenPoint is already available, while Microsoft Corp's competing operating system is still under development. Who needs a desk when you've got a lap? (laptop computers replace offices) AT&T's Business Network Sales Div frees 500 salespeople from their offices by equipping them with notebook computers, modems and portable printers. A test group of long-distance service sales personnel equipped with the computers report productivity gains of 5 to 45 percent. AT&T plans to equip 5,000 other sales personnel with the systems by Oct 1990, and another 5,000 by 1993. AT&T's office-leasing costs can be reduced 50 percent because the salespeople can use temporary cubicles when they come to the office. Psychologists from Indiana University are monitoring the workers' response to the program. Some employees miss the social relationships fostered by the office environment and fear that lack of contact with bosses could inhibit promotions. Bits & Bytes. (Information Processing) Eng, Paul M. SkyMall Inc's airplane telephone shopping service allows airline travelers to purchase goods in flight. SkyMall's service is available on Trans World Airlines Inc (TWA) flights. IBM has an exclusive marketing license for XyQuest Inc's XyWrite IV word processing software. XyQuest and IBM can both market the product, to be renamed Signature, for one year after its release before IBM gains exclusive rights. Unisys Corp's computer systems group head Cyril Yansouni resigns to become CEO at Read-Rite Corp. Yansouni says he prefers running a growing company to running a firm requiring further cost-cutting. Neuron Data Inc is developing the Open Interface graphical user interface (GUI) package that allows users of five different computer systems to employ another system's GUI. Communications equipment vendors are belatedly developing an ISDN standard, but the format cannot be used to carry local area network data, so the standard is not likely to see much use. Getting concurrent no simple task. (implementing concurrent engineering techniques) Concurrent engineering techniques offer great benefits to the product development cycle, but while the methodologies involved are fairly easy to understand, they can be difficult to implement. Typical obstacles include resistance from engineers who feel their creativity will be stifled, outdated methods of measuring productivity, reluctance on the part of managers to make the necessary up-front investment in time and money, a lack of the sophisticated hardware and software tools needed for concurrent engineering, and a resistance to changes in management structure. Overcoming these obstacles requires acquiring full support from top management, assembling at a single location a team composed of representatives of all the disciplines involved in product development, finding an optimum mix of both manual and automated tools, creating milestones for reviewing progress, and rewarding team effort, measuring that effort in terms of quality, schedule, and cost, in that order. Team managers more coaches than bosses. (for multidisciplinary teams) Managers of multidisciplinary teams have different responsibilities than managers within a more traditional organizational structure. Where traditional managers are responsible for such tasks as scheduling work and appraising individuals, team managers function more as coordinators and facilitators. Team leaders need a broad background, and optimally will have some experience in each of the fields represented on a multidisciplinary team: marketing, customer relations, design, test, and manufacturing. Good planning skills and the ability to be able to delegate are essential. A good team manager involves the team in the decision-making process, making arbitrary decisions only when forced to by time pressures. Restructuring the team to eliminate excessive levels of management can be beneficial in increasing the team's decision-making powers. Design snags foil best-laid plans. (Ernst and Young survey records time-to-market hazards) A survey by management consulting firm Ernst & Young conducted among CEOs in the US electronics market reveals that design-centered problems are by a wide margin the most significant barrier to reducing time-to-market cycles. Among those design-related problems cited, poor design for manufacturability was listed first. The increasingly global nature of the electronics market is forcing firms to try to balance quality concerns with speed by applying concurrent engineering techniques in their management approach. These techniques include integrated teamwork, simultaneous tasks and streamlined communications. Larger companies so far have been more successful in the actual application of these techniques, in part because smaller firms, most often founded by engineers, tend to be guided by the technology, rather than the management, sector. Time-based management will continue to increase in importance throughout the sector as firms continue their efforts to become more customer-driven. TI, Mentor take DFM to the system level. (design for manufacture) Mayer, John H. Texas Instruments and Mentor Graphics have reached a multiyear agreement that will see design-for-manufacture (DFM) software developed by TI's Information Technology Group into Mentor Graphics' Falcon Framework, resulting in the first software to integrate device and board-level DFM concerns at system level. The package is derived from software developed at TI for in-house use. Among the benefits ascribed to the technology are speedier development and a simplified system assembly process. A commonality of rule sets across board and packaging technologies must be developed before the technology can become commercially available, and neither TI nor Mentor officials would state a date for that availability. It was revealed that Mentor will handle all marketing, sales and support for the new technology. Vendors clear path for FPGA-to-gate array migration. (field programmable gate array) AT&T Microelectronics, Actel, and Texas Instruments, three of the leading vendors of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), have announced library support for Synopsys' Design Compiler, paving the way for more widespread use of the devices which offer fast turnaround times. Library support will allow designers to use VHDL or Verilog hardware description languages (HDLs) for speedy optimization and synthesis of designs. Designers will have an easy migration path from FPGAs to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), allowing them to prototype using FPGAs then move to ASICs to realize significant cost savings, without having to repeat the entire design process, by making functionality changes in the HDL. Fate of semiconductor trade in feds' hands.(government must address managed trade issue) The federal government, far more than any new semiconductor trade agreement with Japan, will determine whether the US semiconductor industry will survive. This is the view of a number of industry advocates and observers. While many see a new trade agreement as the chief means of resolution to the balance of trade problem, others warn that domestic policy support, including accelerated depreciation for investment, is essential for the health of the industry. The Japanese government, which has a philosophy of managed trade, has identified the semiconductor industry as being of national significance; the US government, which finds the idea of managed trade abhorrent, has ironically opened the way for the Japanese or others to manipulate the US market to their own advantage. As one observer put it, the question is not whether the US will have managed trade, but who will manage it. California drought challenges semi makers. (conservation, lobbying aimed at surviving crisis) US semiconductor makers, already battling stiff competition from the Japanese for global and domestic market share, are now facing a new battle arising out of the continuing drought in California, where the majority of fabrication facilities are located. Their competitors in the fight for an adequate share of dwindling water resources are the state's farmers, who are sold water at what amounts to bargain prices when compared to the rates charged to the chip makers. Chip makers are reacting to the problem on two fronts. Conservation efforts have shifted into overdrive at factories; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), for example, has reduced its water consumption by 50 percent over a three-year period. And firms are actively lobbying state and local governments for redress of the inequities in the state's water allocation system. AMD has so far had some success in making its case to local authorities, but whether the industry can successfully bring changes in the state's highly political water distribution system remains to be seen. IC makers hope for renewed export restrictions negotiations. (integrated circuit) Semiconductor vendors are hoping for more significant progress in the talks aimed at relaxing restrictions on East-West technology trade, now that the end of the Persian Gulf conflict has freed the Bush administration to focus more intently on the issues involved. A high-level meeting of the multinational Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (Cocom), scheduled for the last week of Feb 1991, was canceled, and no new date was set, although April was considered possible. Lower-level negotiations being held in the meantime have become mired in disagreement over key telecommunications and computer technology restrictions, with European allies regarding the US position as overly conservative. The climate in Congress appears to be growing even more conservative, aggravated by the situation in the Soviet Union's Baltic republics. Members of the industry group Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) are hoping that the more liberal factions of the Bush administration will apply their influence to the issue. High-density EEPROMs lose ground to flash. Thryft, Ann R. Designers working on commercial, nonmilitary applications are turning to flash memory instead of EEPROMs for cost savings. Despite significant drops in the prices of full-featured parallel EEPROMs, a 256K-bit EEPROM is still priced at about four times what is charged for an equivalent flash memory. Sales of 256K-bit EEPROMs are expected to increase almost five times by 1993, but sales of 256K-bit flash memories are expected to increase 16 times in the same period, leading some EEPROM manufactures to opt to manufacture flash, rather than EEPROM, at densities over 256K-bits. EEPROM price decreases have occurred across both the military and commercial sectors, but prices for military EEPROMs have declined more drastically. Demand also increased significantly. Nevertheless, some military applications may be better served by flash memory, considered preferable for storing program memory. EEPROMs are considered better for data that is changed one byte or more at a time. Vendors rally around Sonet standard. (Synchronous Optical Network) Mayer, John H. AT&T Microelectronics, BT&D Technologies, Hitachi, and Fujitsu Microelectronics have reached an agreement to build compatible fiber optic transmitter and receiver modules that support the Synchronous Optical Network (Sonet) industry standard and the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), the European counterpart to Sonet. The agreement, which will allow manufacturers to in turn build compatible board-level products using components available from multiple sources, should accelerate the acceptance of the two standards. Rather than sharing technologies, the participating suppliers will build parts to common specifications, producing transmitters and receivers that are pin-compatible with the Sonet OC-1, OC-3 and OC-12 transmission rates, and their equivalent SDH STM-1 and STM-4 rates. AT&T led the work toward the agreement, which has been in process since 1989. The agreement is expected to be only the first of many such cooperative efforts. Concurrent approach wins for S-MOS. (S-MOS Systems relies on concurrent engineering) The management of contract manufacturing firm S-MOS Systems whose design philosophy is based on recognition of the value of closely integrating the design and manufacturing. Concurrent engineering is central to the process whereby a customer's design concept is transformed into a product. At the company's board-level manufacturing division, design of the customer's board and any necessary integrated circuits is combined with packaging, subsystem manufacturing, test and assembly processes, resulting in faster time-to-market for the finished product. Once a senior engineer has a firm grasp of the customer's design concept, a design team is assembled, drawing whatever expertise is necessary, both from the Raleigh, NC, facility and from the facilities of parent company Seiko Epson. The first goal of the team is to produce an accurate design and an estimate of production costs in as short a time as possible. One industry analyst predicts that the level of design-to-manufacture integration already practiced at S-MOS will become commonplace during the 1990s. SPC streamlines manufacturing with pinpoint precision.(Statistical process control; includes a related article on selecting an SPC Statistical process control (SPC), once confined to mere factory floor data collection, has been shown to improve productivity, make possible closer integration of design and manufacturing, and reduce time-to-market by up to 20 percent. SPC software has evolved to the point where it can not merely collect data but can also provide analytical feedback to operators. Control charting is a particularly strong area for SPC software. Done manually, this is a time-consuming process that often drew operator attention away from the process itself. Now trends in machine operation can be closely scrutinized, and early warning can be given of a process that is exceeding normal parameters. A related technology growing out of SPC is experimental design, in which those inputs that have the most impact on a process are clearly identified. For SPC to be fully effective, the process it is applied to must be geared to quality. Team puts trust in vendor relationships. (profiling the time-to-market team of LeCroy's Signal Sources Division) Instrumentation maker LeCroy Corp formed the Signal Sources Div to adapt its test and measurement systems for use in the electronics industry. The division's first product was an arbitrary function generator. When a performance pulse generator needed to test the function generator could not be obtained for under $25,000, and given the consideration that the pulse generator also fit the product line being developed, a project was launched to build one. In addition to assembling a multidisciplinary team from within company ranks, management also turned to vendors who offered both needed expertise and a commitment to building low-cost, high-quality products that matched the commitment at LeCroy. An industrial design consultant helped design the case for the system, while a contract manufacture produced the mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) needed. The time-to-market team learned a number of lessons from the project, including the importance of market research and the need to get test staff involved in any project at the early stages. Purchasing take a front-row seat in development efforts. (includes a related article on determining when purchasing departments Early involvement of the purchasing department in the product development cycle holds a number of potential benefits. Purchasing personnel are more conscious of the availability of alternative, often less-costly components, and are more likely to push for leveraging in-house components and facilities, rather than relying on external vendors for custom parts. Purchasing's involvement can also insure that design decisions take into account the possible impact on lead times, engineering change orders and obsolescence. In addition to helping control product cost, purchasing representatives can also help ensure time-to-market windows are met. Concurrent engineering techniques require that purchasing agents develop a new skill set. Among the prerequisites are leadership skills, the ability to communicate effectively in a technical environment, awareness of technology trends, and continuing improvement of business skills. NMB culls specialists to sell DRAM line. (NMB Technologies establishes specialized sales teams) Marketing is the final aspect of any time-to-market scenario, and can easily make as naught the time savings accrued in the design and manufacturing process if the marketing process in place is not a good match for the new product. NMB Technologies, a component maker, responded to this challenge by devising a specialized sales team (SST), or a dedicated sales force whose sole function was to educate NMB's customer base about the firm's new generation of DRAM chips. NMB carefully considered the pros and cons of such an approach before launching the SST, and found that it constituted the best method for both long- and short-term goals. The team was assembled from both internal and external candidates, with sufficient applicable experience the single most important criteria. NMB has been very successful with the approach, but those considering the approach should be aware of the potential drawbacks, which include possible double-teaming of customers and the risk of excess head-count during slack periods. Siemens' quality program pays off.(Siemens Components) Thryft, Ann R. An ongoing quality improvement program at the Semiconductor Group of Siemens Components is beginning to show tangible benefits. The Quality Systems program known as SQS, is of more than five years standing, and has recently garnered Q1 preferred supplier awards from Ford Motor Co for the Integrated Circuits Division's discrete semiconductor and IC product lines and the Special Products Division's MKT metalized plastic film capacitors. Siemens is one of a number of firms that shifted the perspective of their quality programs from that of the supplier to that of the customer. The SQS program depends on regular customer feedback on the quality of both service and products. Many of the criteria used to quantify this feedback are they same as those used by Ford in determining the recipients of its Q1 awards. The two Siemens divisions already awarded the Q1 award are now aiming for Ford's Total Quality Excellence designation, for which all plants must maintain Q1 status for two years while also maintaining a high customer satisfaction rating. Switchers become an integral part of system design. (switching power supplies) Selecting a switching power supply is now part of a comprehensive system design. The availability of an increasing number of standard switchers, many optimized for specific peripherals and bus architectures has led time-to-market teams to use fewer custom supplies than was previously the case. Prices are down anywhere from 11 to 58 percent, depending on wattage, while overall size has been reduced some 2 1/2 times. At the same time, reliability and efficiency have increased. Among those applications for which specialized supplies are still used are disk and tape drives, which have high peak current requirements. Another category is bus-specific supplies, which come in the form of plug-in bus cards or in traditional form factors that mount next to the card cage, transferring power through a wiring harness. New resonant and quasi-resonant technologies offer alternatives to the traditional pulse-width modulation (PWM) type supply. Beantown EEs not down and out. (employment outlook for Boston) Rankin, Ken; Driscoll, Gwen. The Boston area's tight job market may yet be vulnerable to penetration by electronic engineers (EEs) with the right mix of job skills and relevant experience. Clearpoint Research, located in Hopkinton, currently has 15 open positions for EEs. Clearpoint specializes in software with subsystems and peripherals. Sudbury-based DSD Laboratories, a systems engineering firm, plans to add 12 new employees in 1991. Software expertise is at a premium for many of the firms that plan to be hiring. Prime Computer in Framingham is seeking Unix engineers; MAS New Hampshire, a recruiter, is looking for Unix, Windows and Open Look experience, along with other specialties. On-the-job experience is also highly valued, although EE students can crack the job market through cooperative internship programs like those at Boston's Northeastern University. On the financial side, starting salaries are a cut above the national average, but so is the cost of living. In balance, the Boston area offers many attractions in terms of cultural, historical and recreational activities. Multipronged approach cracks tight job market. Stein, Elizabeth A. Engineers seeking employment in the current job market are well-advised to make selective use of the range of job-search strategies and career-counseling facilities available. An unemployed engineer, or one who is dissatisfied with his current area of specialization would do well to talk to a career counselor; an engineer who is simply looking for a more challenging position in her current area of expertise might do well to include a recruiter's offices in her job search strategy. Resumes are a critical tool for any job search, and should be tailored to reflect the responsibilities of the positions held, not the functions of products worked on; the resume should also be to the point, and not more than two pages long. Finally, the job-seeker should not neglect the network of personal professional contacts built up during the course of a career. Apple ads are no laughing matter. (Apple Computer Inc.) Zarley, Craig. Apple Computer's unveiling of its StyleWriter and Personal LaserWriter LS printers is replete with the message 'Let the reseller beware,' because of tight supply and dealer confusion over an ad campaign. The vendor has heralded the arrival of the two new printers in advertisements in daily newspapers and business journals but a random survey of 12 Apple resellers across the country found that the products were virtually unavailable in stores. The vendor has admitted that the demand for the StyleWriter has far outstripped supply and that the product would be on allocation for four to six months. The advertisements listed prices as $599 for the StyleWriter and $1,299 for the Personal LaserWriter. An asterisk following the StyleWriter price directed the reader's attention to fine print at the bottom of the page, where they were informed that prices shown are suggested retail. The phrase, 'But who pays retail any more' followed. The implication was that dealers would be willing to negotiate discounts. That was news to the dealers, who are furious. The whole thing was blamed on a terrible mistake. Birth of new Mips platform: DEC, Compaq, others swap technology. Rohm, Wendy Goldman. A group led by Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), Compaq Computer and The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) will, on Apr 9, 1991, introduce a new standard for reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstations. The new standard will utilize the Mips R4000 microprocessor, a new OSF/1-based operating system from SCO and a high-performance architecture that combines DEC's Turbochannel bus with extended industry standard architecture (EISA). Binary compatibility will be ensured by the group's decision to standardize on DEC's method of byte ordering across products based on the new specifications. The byte ordering for the standard is 'little endian,' providing data compatibility with the installed base in anticipation of the eventual availability of a compliant version of Windows and New Technology OS, also known as OS/2 3.0. The ability of developers looking for data compatibility from the Intel and RISC worlds is simplified. Industry analysts expect by 1993 to see highly integrated R4000 products on desktop systems at a cost equal to current high-end complex instruction computing (CISC)-based microcomputers. Japanese firm invests in CAD Solutions: VAR attracts foreign cash. (C. Itoh, Computer-aided design, value-added reseller) Value-added reseller (VAR) CAD Solutions Inc signs an agreement with Japanese electronics conglomerate C. Itoh, who joins three existing investors in providing a second round of venture capital to finance the VAR's continuing acquisition activities. It represents the first time a US VAR has gained investment capital from Japan, according to industry observers and dealers. The investment amounts to about $2 million. Mitsubishi has invested in Inacomp and Kyocera has invested in Businessland but this is the first investment in a VAR. Both CAD Solutions and C. Itoh will co-market each other's products. Summit Partners, Battery Ventures and Crosspoint Ventures have invested $4 million in CAD Solutions. CAD Solutions, since implementing its acquisition plan in May 1990, has acquired the Electronic Design Group of Advanced Micro Consultants, CAD Southwest and Focus Inc. Dealers rate vendors' image. DeMarzo, Robert C. Microcomputer vendors are discovering that it takes more than leading-edge products to build a solid reputation in the industry. JD Power and Associates has found, in a survey of 800 computer stores and value-added resellers (VARs), that few manufacturers have an excellent reputation in the channel. A vendor's reputation and image in an important part of reseller satisfaction. JD Power plans to release findings details on Mar 18, 1991. Resellers gave top honors to Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer, regardless of whether or not they handled the vendor's goods. IBM placed a distant third followed by Okidata, Apple Computer and NEC Technologies. Philips Corp and Hyundai Electronics America finished on the bottom of the list. Franchisor shifts strategy: ComputerLand buys stores. Sweeney, Jack. ComputerLand is doing away with the royalty fees of some franchisees in some of its larger markets in an efforts to post additional revenue by converting dealerships to company-owned locations. The chain's market-development group, just two months after signing a purchase contract with Dataphaz Inc, a $75 million franchisee, has expanded the chain's company-owned operations to 11 stores in nine major market areas. Indianapolis and Seattle dealerships were purchased in Feb 1991 and Atlanta and Memphis were added in Mar 1991. Company officials state that the business model is the same for both company-owned stores and franchisees. Both types of stores operate on the same system so there is no company-owned vs. franchise issue. The reseller has minimized the possibility of any conflict between its locations by purchasing franchisees in markets where only one franchise group had operated. The new company-owned stores will not bear the expense of royalties and will probably enjoy the chain's greater credit facilities. Telecommuting boosts sales: opportunities: new work habits open doors. Corporations and dealers across the country have a chance to benefit from an emerging workplace trend: telecommuting. Some 4.3 million company employees are presently working from home. Environmental concerns, long commutes and government initiatives have prompted many US workers to work at home, relying on high-tech gadgetry to recreate an office environment. Many home-based workers need computers, which gives dealers a pivotal role in the emerging trend. They will be enlisted to provide equipment and value-added services to many employees working at home. Telecommuters will be more likely to purchase equipment from dealers, either through employee purchase programs or through master contracts between dealers and employers. Some employers will purchase equipment for their telecommuters. Resellers will be able to attract telecommuters away from more traditional home microcomputer suppliers like mail order businesses and superstores because of a higher support level. Now is the time for computer dealers to realize that their telecommuting customers need more than a modem and communications package. Apple set for two new Macs: high-end boxes debut in fall. (Apple Macintosh) Apple Computer is getting ready to release two new high-end Macintosh computer systems based on the 25MHz Motorola 68040 microprocessor. The vendor is also preparing to reorganize its research and development and product marketing organizations. The two hardware systems are a two-slot desktop model and a five-slot tower model. Both will be targeted at the workstation market. Company officials have declined comment. The new systems will be priced to compete with 80486-based workstations. Estimates range from $7,500 for the desktop model to the mid-$10,000 range for the tower system. The new systems will have an enhanced ability to communicate with other workstations as well as minicomputers and mainframes, complete with standard Ethernet. A variety of networking protocols will be supported including Systems Network Architecture (SNA) from IBM, Digital Equipment's DECNet and transmission control protocol/internet protocol. Data General shopping competition for VARs. (value-added resellers) Data General (DG) is courting Hewlett-Packard (HP), NCR and Digital Equipment (DEC) value-added resellers (VARs) with its selection of AViiON reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC)-based computer systems. Half of DG's revenue is generated through about 1,000 VARs worldwide, according to company officials. Recruitment efforts focus on VARs who already have solutions on Unix systems as they comprehend open systems and price performance. DG wants to recruit 100 new quality VARs to provide a fine leverage point to enhance the run rate of the AViiON line. The product line has already contributed approximately $100 million in sales to DG's fiscal 1990 year. That number is expected to double to $200 million by fiscal 1991 ending in Sep 1991. Novell prepares run-time NetWare. (NetWare 2.2 under development) Hwang, Diana; Shore, Joel. Novell plans to unveil a run-time version of NetWare 3.x in Apr 1991 that will offload NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) from the file server and run them in dedicated application servers, according to multiple sources. The vendor claims that no immediate plans exist for unveiling such a product but did not rule it out for the future. The company, according to sources, will introduce the run-time NetWare ($1,500) at Oracle's Developers Conference on Apr 22, 1991. Oracle will use the conference to announce the availability of its Oracle Server NLM, which is expected to ship a week before the conference. The Oracle NLM includes some one million lines of code and would benefit greatly from a dedicated server. Novell does plan to introduce NetWare 2.2, a new product line combining the Entry Level System, Advanced and System Fault Tolerant products. Sitting in the hot seat: FTC targets Microsoft, IBM cooperating. (Federal Trade Commission) IBM and Microsoft have acknowledged that they are cooperating with an FTC investigation regarding the strategic direction of Windows and OS/2 since Jun 1990. The exact focus of the inquiry is unclear and FTC officials have declined to confirm its existence. Industry observers say that Microsoft is the only focus of the investigation but they doubt that it will result in legal action against the vendor. The agency is studying a press release issued jointly by IBM and Microsoft in Nov 1989 in which both tout OS/2 as the platform for the 1990s and claim that more development work would be for that platform, rather than Windows. The FTC wants to determine if Microsoft restricted Windows' functionality to boost OS/2. IBM officials acknowledged the investigation saying that the FTC had requested information and received the company's full cooperation. Industry officials seemed puzzled by the probe, pointing to the subsequent dissolution of the pact and the success of Windows 3.0. Merisel in search of VARs: distributor recruits resellers to sell DEC workstations. (Value-added reseller, Digital Equipment Corp.) Merisel Inc is ramping up VAR recruitment for its workstation division with the signing of new contracts, hiring of additional sales personnel and introduction of new VAR services. The move comes together with the beginning of shipments of DEC's Intel-based Applications DEC 433MP Multiprocessing hardware platform and highlights increased efforts by the vendor to move towards indirect sales channels by using distributors to recruit and support VARs with small- and medium-business expertise. Merisel officials say that over 100 VARs have already been signed, many of whom have Pick operating system and computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) expertise. Over 100 additional VARs will be recruited by Sep 1991. Many VARs prefer doing business with Merisel because the distributor is offering very aggressive prices, technical support and 48-hour delivery. Software firms, dealers join to win large accounts. Doyle, T.C. The time is right, with so many users getting ready to upgrade key software components, for software publishers to gain entry into accounts dominated by competitors. Gaining converts will not be easy so consulting teams are now seeking reseller support to help them win and maintain account control. Several vendor consulting divisions have aligned themselves with dealers. Microsoft and Corporate Software have completed the first phase of a pilot project to assist corporate customers in migrating to Windows en masse. Ashton-Tate will announce several programs in the near future. Ashton-Tate officials point out that their consulting division has worked without reseller assistance in the past but a growing need is apparent for their future involvement. Dealers will be asked to provide a number of services, such as planning, application development and installation. The Corporate Software pilot project boasted several of the largest users in the country, including Chase Manhattan Bank, EI du Pont and Rockwell International. The increased business helped Corporate Software but will benefit Microsoft even more as the vendor retains account control. Eilers' reign begins at Claris, service a priority. (Daniel Eilers) The appointment of Apple Computer VP Daniel Eilers to head up Claris Corp is seen by some as the vendor's attempt to tighten its hold on the software publisher. Analysts applaud the move, citing Eilers' experience with small software developers and a low-key management style that differs considerably from his predecessor, Bill Campbell. Eilers' tenure as president and CEO begins on Mar 18, 1991. Campbell departed in late Jan 1991 to head Go Corp. His resignation came six months after Apple decided not to spin off Claris as planned. Industry analysts cite Eilers' management of Apple's relationships with developers as giving him a good sense of the industry's direction. Eilers also wrote the original Claris business plan. Observers expect him to revamp the company's management style. Eilers would not elaborate on his plans, but did say that he wanted to expand on several current project, especially in the service area. SPC's goals for Windows version of InfoAlliance. (Software Publishing Corp.) SPC expects the roster of value-added resellers (VARs) in its six-month-old program to increase substantially with the release of the Windows version of its InfoAlliance program development software and support for Microsoft's SQL Server on its InfoAlliance data-access software in the summer of 1991. InfoAlliance now includes an OS/2 Presentation Manager client and a server supporting Ashton-Tate's dBase and IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition Database Manager. Company officials expect the company's exposure to increase considerably with the upcoming releases but declined to estimate how many VARs would be added. The vendor's Authorized Solutions Provider Program was initiated in Sep 1990 with the shipment of InfoAlliance. VARs Shepherd Systems, DataWiz International and Valinor Inc were recruited at that time. Five more OS/2 VARs have been recruited but officials say representation will be tight until the vendor gains familiarity with the channel. SPC and its VARs plan to target customer sites capable of yielding $25,000 to $100,000 in initial product sales. Georgia-Pacific opts for originals. (computer systems) Boyd, Wallace. Wood products manufacturer Georgia-Pacific (GP) remains fiercely loyal to time-tested computer system standards in spite of a growing number of users purchasing lower-priced compatible hardware. IBM and Compaq have been the hardware platforms of choice since GP first started buying microcomputers. Officials expect that recessionary pressures and near-saturation will trim the company's purchasing plans to 200 systems in 1991 but GP will continue to purchase Intel 80386-based 16MHz systems from IBM or Compaq in spite of the higher prices. Reasoning lies in the lower administrative costs for supporting fewer vendors. The headquarter locations buys systems from Inacomp Computer Centers while each of the 500 divisions works with local resellers. Preserving standards to control costs involves software selection also, as the company moves closer to a Windows 3.0-based distributed computing environment. Apple reins in Solution Center name. Markowitz, Elliot; Zarley, Craig. Random Access has eliminated the 'Apple Solution Center' name from its business center in response to a request from Apple Computer. The decision silences a rumor that Apple plans to expand its European store concept in the US. Random Access had opened the Apple Solution Center in Aug 1990 near its Denver headquarters. The vendor had authorized the Intelligent Electronics franchisee to establish a non-storefront, Apple-only outbound-sales and service center as a part of an addendum to its dealer contract. The 1990 Annual Report for Random Access says the Apple Solution Center is based on a concept that has worked well in Europe but is in its infancy in the US. The channel has expected Apple to push its European model in the US, especially after Michael Spindler, who had previously manager Apple's European operations, became chief operating officer in 1990. Random Access officials say that the Apple Solution Center enhanced Macintosh sales for the chain. Margins, slower growth squeeze MicroAge. (Window on Wall Street) (column) MicroAge, following an annual revenue growth rate of over 55 percent in 1989 and 1990, is expected to post growth of about half that rate in 1991. The reduced pace is obvious in moderating outlet growth and slowing same-store sales. Location growth for the chain has been assisted by the conversion in 1989 from a royalty-based approach to a cost-plus format. The company added 319 locations in 1989 and 258 locations in 1990, bringing the chain to 798 outlets. Fewer than 100 locations are expected to be added in 1991. Same-store sales growth has decreased from 18 percent in the Dec 1989 quarter to 15 percent in 1990. Revenue softness has been attributed to weakening microcomputer demand, competitive pressures, problems with a warehouse expansion which worsened product shortages and price competition from microcomputer superstores. Management has responded to shrinking margins by reducing expenses through headcount attrition, redeploying employees to focus on revenue-generating rather than administrative functions and improving the gross margins through richer product mix. Inacomp's key move: firms Mitsubishi ties, gets access to capital. Markowitz, Elliot. The latest alliance between Inacomp Computer Centers and Mitsubishi is an important move for the dealer to ensure future growth and compete aggressively in the superstore arena, according to industry analysts. Mitsubishi decided to purchase 231,884 shares of Inacomp preferred stock at $8.62 per share., which will be converted to 173,913 shares of Inacomp's common stock at $11.50 per share, subject to the approval of the boards of directors of both firms. The deal would allocate Mitsubishi a two percent ownership in the reseller and give Inacomp $2 million worth of capital. The most important factors in the transaction are the strengthening relationship between the two companies and the access it gives Inacomp to potential capital. Capital, according to analysts, is a major growth constraint in the reseller business. The investment provides enough capital for Inacomp to open another superstore and compete with Soft Warehouse. It's time to educate the European channel about multimedia. Mueller, Mathias. What do European computer users and resellers see when they hear or read about multimedia as an emerging technology? They hear about a lot of unjustified cost for a technology lacking a defined practical use. Computer-based training is doubtlessly a useful application but the development costs are considered substantial. The largest European distributors are reluctant to sign on multimedia products for fear they will not sell. These products probably stand the best being marketed through specialized European resellers and value-added resellers (VARs) with the resources and time to spend selling as a part of a total solution. Now is time for vendors like Microsoft and IBM to make an effort to educate the European channel as to the benefits of multimedia and its profit potential. Rise to the top with service. Hubbard, Holly. Results of a recent survey of computer resellers in the United Kingdom proves that those dealers with heavy emphasis on value-added service will be the most successful. British researcher Romtec plc, in a study of 250 top British resellers, discovered that a minimum of 60 percent could be classified as value-added resellers as they earned more than 20 percent of their 4th qtr revenue from value-added services and support. Romtec officials noticed a continued shift toward value-added services such as maintenance and training. This change in the sales philosophy has aided profit margins. Many also reported an increase in margins as a result of selling more multiuser systems. The survey found that, by the end of Jan 1991, a minimum of 75 percent of the top 250 resellers were selling multiuser systems with 43.8 percent offering Unix software and hardware. Network specialists cash in. Peterson, Tami D. The message that was apparent at the Directions '91 conference sponsored by International Data Corp (IDC) was that there will be plenty of networking opportunities to go around by 1994. IDC expects worldwide income derived from network integration, applications, management and internetworking to reach $12.1 billion by 1994, marking a 191 percent increase over 1989 income of $4.2 billion. IDC emphasized that service is, and will continue to be critical. There will be no middle ground when it comes to service by 1994, according to IDC. Customers will give their business to a channel offering just two extremes: low or high value-added service. The alternative channel is expected to proliferate. Value-added resellers (VARs) that enhance service revenues with technical expertise, are expected to do quite well. Company opens SNA arms to PS/2s: IBM rolls out new hardware, software. (Systems Network Architecture) (product announcement) IBM introduces new software and hardware intended to bring OS/2 Extended Editor PS/2 workstation to the SNA environment. The new products will support Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN), an extension of SNA, which sends data over networks. They include the Systems Application Architecture (SAA) Networking Services/2, the IBM 3174 Establishment Controller and NetView Distribution Manager/2. All will be marketed through the company's existing channel beginning on Mar 29, 1991. The main benefit provided by SAA is a consistent interface for applications on different platforms. SAA Networking Services/2 facilitates easier assimilation of OS/2 EE 1.2 or 1.3 users onto an SNA network. Existing investment in SNA are protected with the offering of a growth path. Microsoft adds e-mail firm Consumers Software. (electronic mail) Hwang, Diana. Microsoft acquires Consumers Software Inc, based in Vancouver, BC. The company's Network Courier electronic-mail product line will be integrated into the Microsoft product mix. Network Courier is designed for multiple operating environments like OS/2 and Presentation Manager, Windows and Macintosh along with local area networks (LANs), related gateway products and technology. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of Mar 1991. Consumers will function as a product development center for Microsoft and all 70 employees will be offered positions with Microsoft. Founder and president Jack Grushcow plans to leave the company after the deal is finalized. Both firms deny that the acquisition was in response to the merger of cc:Mail and Lotus Development. Industry analysts see the acquisition as good for both companies as Microsoft needs electronic mail technology and Consumers needs marketing assistance. Distributors are also enthusiastic. Deja vu: DRAMs in short supply, prices on the rise. (The Platform) (column) The vendor consortium controlling the DRAM market arena is predicting shortages and prices of 256K and 1Mbyte products have already begun to climb from a low of $65 per megabyte. The puzzle is why the shortage is occurring in such a coordinated manner. Many manufacturing lines are moving from 1Mbyte to 4Mbyte products, which will cause some problems. But, is it necessary for all suppliers to do this at once? DRAM producers could run extra production lines during the transition. This latest shortage comes at a bad time. Users need more and more memory in their systems. This need can exacerbate the shortage as heftier configurations further strain the limited supply. The cost difference between bus-master and slave peripheral devices could widen beyond the point that users will reject the newer technology if DRAM prices significantly rise. Penning information: Microsoft, Go debut new operating systems. (includes related article listing 21 hardware vendors who have Microsoft doubles the number of operating systems for the newly developing pen-based computer system market with the introduction of its Pen Windows operating system. Go Corp introduced its PenPoint operating system in Jan 1991. The two developers are approaching the market from different angles. Go is lining up an array of software developers and Microsoft is going after vendors of pen-based notebook computers. The new pen-based notebook computers are an emerging computing method utilizing an electronic pen as primary data input method. The operating system has a handwriting-recognition ability that lets users write in data. Expected vertical markets include insurance adjustment, shipping invoices, the legal market and any document- or form-intensive field. Both companies' approaches to market development differ considerably. Go has enlisted 40 software companies but just three hardware companies are declaring support for its operating system. Microsoft has enlisted 20 hardware companies and no software companies. Three of them are peripherals manufacturers. Radius to ship accelerator for Mac II. (Apple Macintosh II) (product announcement) Radius Inc has moved to the next level of Mac CPU acceleration with the debut of the Radius Rocket ($3,495), an accelerator board for the Mac II product line. The board is a 25MHz 68040-based NuBus card, which results in a multiprocessing Macintosh. The original CPU will run start-up and all I/O devices and the Rocket performs most real processing, according to Radius officials. The Rocket boasts a RAM capacity of 128Mbytes with 2Mbytes as a minimum and can use either 80-, 100-, or 120-nanosecond RAMs. The vendor will be marketing the card in direct competition with Apple's Macintosh IIfx upgrade kit and other third-party CPU accelerator boards. Officials see the new product as a solution for users who want a more powerful Mac without purchasing an entirely new one. Catch a rising star: how promising developers can land a role in the channel. (software developers) (includes related articles on The odds are against a small software developer who wants to break into the channel. Industry analysts say there is little room on dealers' shelves as 90 percent of reseller stock consists of the most popular software brands. Anyone in the industry will confirm that they want to be the one who discovers the industry's next best-seller. Industry officials say the most important new products will come from newer developers, but they do need to be merchandised. All channel newcomers must meet some basic ground rules before resellers will place orders. A clearly defined set of objectives as to where the company sees itself two years down the line is needed before a developer brings a product to market. Planning translates into having a strategy for handling upgrades, porting customers to newer products and knowing how to merchandise. Distributor officials are reluctant to discourage developers from submitting products as they never know when a hot new product will be discovered. Trying to blend a new niche. (includes related article on portable desktop systems) Most users who want portable systems want them for easy transportability, not to use on the road. Several vendors are mixing the portability of a laptop and functionality of a desktop unit to create a significant market segment. How compelling the needs for this new market niche remains unclear. There are several options for users who either take work home or work at clients' sites. The most straightforward choice is to equip such workers with similarly-equipped microcomputers at both ends but this introduces compatibility and software installation difficulties. Portable systems are an obvious choice but this is still more expensive if the user is not interested in the built-in display and battery. A new category of system is entering the market: the portable desktop computer, spearheaded by the Ergo Brick. These are notebook-size rugged computer systems that can be attached to full-size monitors and keyboards on the desktop. The Ergo Brick ($4,136) and the PeeWee from SAI Systems Laboratories have this in common but the two are far apart in features, power and price. Focus is verticals and 'sizzle-buyers.' (for vendors of portable desktop systems) Vendors of portable desktop computer systems are working hard to find their place in the reseller channel. Distributors are waiting for laptop customers to discover these new products before making any commitments but enthusiastic resellers are marketing them into certain vertical markets, hoping that more small-business users discover the versatility of the new products. Ergo Computing and SAI Systems Laboratories have identified two customer types for their products: users transporting proprietary data from site to site and those for whom form factor, size and looks are important. The latter is described as the 'Sharper Image' buyer. Most of Ergo's product is being marketed through its own catalog, the company's primary focus. The 30 percent of SAI's products marketed directly from the company's headquarters are sold to defense and other government users. SAI is talking to one national distributor who is interested in marketing the line to value-added resellers (VARs). Unix aids public safety: Infocel offers Motorola systems to police, fire depts. Value-added reseller (VAR) Infocel Inc provides proprietary computer-aided dispatch and records management systems to police departments and 911 emergency response units and has signed an agreement to market systems based on Motorola's Delta Series 8000 reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) systems. The agreement, for Motorola, is part of the company's plan to establish relationships with VARs in strong vertical markets. The VAR had previously installed its GovernmentPlus series software exclusively on Prime Computer's proprietary 50 Series operating system. The software has been sold to 400 customers across the country. The company has realized a growing demand in the public safety arena for the Unix platform. Motorola also boasts strong name recognition in public safety because of its two-way radio products. Infocel plans to market the Motorola-based systems to prospective customers who have expressed a preference for Unix. Sales-quota quandary: rising requirements impact small dealers. Zarley, Craig. Smaller resellers appear to be the losers in an ever-escalating numbers game as computer vendors continue to raise dealers' minimum sales requirements. The combined effect of the increased sales minimums on small dealers with multivendor authorizations means that they may be forced to a commit to a single vendor or expand their business beyond projected growth rates for the industry. Quotas are an industry-wide problem, according to channel officials. There is some concern that vendors have forgotten about the secondary market. Both Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard have, in recent weeks, included minimum sales quotas in their new contracts. Apple first began enforcing volume requirements in some of its regions in the summer of 1990 and cut its reseller ranks by close to 125 by the end of the year. Apple now requires $350,000 annually for big city dealers and $200,000 for rural dealers or those dealing in a specific vertical market. HP's $150,000 minimum must be reached in an 18-month period. Next targets regional small businesses. (NeXT Inc. authorizes Random Access Inc.) Random Access Inc, Denver, CO, has been authorized by Next to carry the vendor's complete line as part of a pilot program to help Next enter the small- and medium-size business market in certain areas. Random Access is the largest franchise of Connecting point, with a revenue for fiscal 1990 of $35.7 million. Businessland markets Next products to the Fortune 1000 market. Computer Attic, Palo Alto, CA, is the only other dealer marketing Next systems. Regional dealers are being enlisted as the vendor's exclusive arrangement with Businessland fell short of expectations. Company officials say Next is concentrating on dealers who will add value to the product. Random Access provides solutions to the small- and medium-size business market. Reseller officials, who had considered other workstation lines, have high hopes for the Next line and expect to add as much as $2.5 million in revenue within a year. Random Access will also market the line to corporate accounts. Avnet debuts VAR program: push to gain visibility, build relationships. (Avnet Computer, value-added reseller) Avnet Computer has instigated its Avnet Value-Added Reseller (AVAR) program in a move to enhance VAR relationships and visibility in the distribution arena. The program, which enlists help from 39 Avnet sales offices nationwide, will include a selection of services such as sales and marketing support, vendor programs, technical services and financing options. The program is an adjunct to existing VAR programs sponsored by key vendors such as Apple, Computer, Digital Equipment, AT and T, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and Intel. High-end, solutions-focused resellers are being targeted specifically. The company is especially interested in enlisting those VARs who are active in the Unix arena. That market is, however, already crowded with distributors who have been trying to create a similar VAR network for some time. These attempts are meeting with some VAR channel resistance, especially from those resellers providing their own service. Some question the effectiveness of such programs. Avnet sales personnel offer sales and marketing help, act as vendor liaison, coordinate training and help with product literature and business plans. Distributors write policy for POS reporting. (point of sale) Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Members of The Association of Microcomputer Distributors have created a recommended policy for POS reporting to vendors. The policy is designed to encourage an environment of partnership between microcomputer vendors and their distributors. Association officials report that the policy, after some editing, will become official by May 1, 1991. The following data is recommended as standard for a POS report: distributor name; vendor name; month and year of sale; customer number, state and zip code; product code and description; unit price; quantity shipped; and extended price.The policy recommended that the industry adopt the use of POS reporting systems from the distributor to the reseller, which should provide the basis for a vendor's commissions to its sales representatives. POS systems enhance product movement through the entire channel. 'Permanent wave' for PCs: beauty salons: software offerings, streamlining spur automation. Beauty salons are adopting microcomputer technology. Enhanced awareness of its benefits, a growing force of software providers and additional focus on management skills are factors in this trend. The marketplace, according to industry officials, is primed for computerization. More chains are turning to computers and the small salon owner is running to management seminars to learn better management techniques. This means computerization. The more successful salons have to act in a more businesslike manner. The technology is being used to track customers, to determine employee productivity, for market research and promotion and for inventory control, accounting and point-of-sale data. Industry officials say that only a small percentage of the 200,000 to 350,000 salons nationwide are candidates for computerization. Many are too small for computerization to be effective. Maine budget-cut slashes reseller contract in half. (Harper/Connecting Point) Cuts in the Maine state budget have resulted in cuts for a microcomputer purchase contract Harper/Connecting Point signed with the state in Jun 1990. The terms of the one-year, $1.25 million contract stated that Harper would supply 15 department of the state government with IBM PS/2 systems based on the Intel 80286 and 80386 microprocessors, as well as DOS training. The state has actually purchased only $600,000 in products and services in the eight months since the contract was signed. Harper officials say it has moved from being a nice source of income to not such a great thing to have. The state discovered in Nov 1990 that it was $180 million in debt and order spending cuts of 3.5 to 5 percent. The first area targeted was capital expenditures. The spending cuts have forced the reseller's staff to work double time to turn over leads on the contract. Management has focused its attention on enhancing the commercial sales and networking side of the business to make up for lost revenue. The dealer is, however, anxious to renew the contract, which expires in May 1991. Nynex in discussions with suitors: channel speculates on potential partners. Nynex management is talking to channel players about entering a strategic partnership with its reselling business. Nynex officials refused to comment on these talks as the discussions are being held in confidence. A deal can be done fairly quickly as the uncertain future of the company is starting to hurt its business. One reseller official questioned who would sign a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract with a company that is essentially for sale. The company's announcement of plans to enter an alliance has caused speculation about which dealers would make a good, strategic fit. Only a few, most believe, could benefit from purchasing the 77 Nynex centers. The company-owned strategy eliminates most of the larger franchise chains. The strong presence in the Northeast and the South might mean too much geographic overlap for other firms. Industry officials estimate the Business Centers' annual sales at between $500 and $750 million annually. The company has consistently lost money. Potential buyers could include ComputerLand, Intelligent Electronics and Inacomp Computer Centers. IBM expected to make changes on the home front: PS/1 386SX seen as critical to capture larger share of growing soho market. The IBM PS/1 and its home and home-office computing strategy is left in a tenuous position with sales of Intel 80386-based microcomputers quickly overtaking 80286-based systems in the retail channel. The choices seem simple: Create a 386-based system and allow for some overlap with the PS/2 product line or continue to sell a system lacking the power of most popular business computers, effectively taking it off the home-office market and leaving it as simply a home computer. The decision is not straightforward. The technology difficulty has become a channel-management issue requiring IBM to determine how to balance its expanding reseller base with its powerful base of specialty resellers. Company sources say a 386SX-based desktop version of the PS/1 architecture is being developed. Several sources say the new system will have to be out by late summer 1991 to capitalize on demand. Company officials declined comment. Recent promotional efforts have focused on higher-end PS/1 configurations. Consumer electronics chain Circuit City near accord with vendor: IBM expected to make changes on the home front. IBM is expected to enhance its PS/1 distribution plan by adding marketing powerhouse Circuit City to its expanding list of resellers, according to company officials. Announcement of the agreement is expected in Apr 1991 to be followed by a limited geographic rollout in May 1991 and a national rollout in Jun 1991. The consumer electronics channel is a significant new path for IBM. The distribution expansion is a move by IBM to get its products in front of an aggressive shopper used to spending over $1,000 on brand-name merchandise. Circuit City is thought to be the fourth largest electronics retailer behind Tandy/Radio Shack; Sears Roebuck Brand Central; and K Mart. The chain is serious about its computer retail strategy, currently marketing systems from Emerson, Epson America, Packard Bell Electronics and Philips Consumers Electronics, ranging in price from $900 to $2,000. Circuit City will not compete directly with either the department store chains or the computer-specialty resellers. Corporate users look to retail: Gallup: 40% of small, midsize firms shop superstores. Retailers and mass merchants have long been the favorites for home computer shoppers. They also have a strong following with small- to medium-sized firms, according to a survey by the Gallup Organization. The survey consisted of telephone interviews with 250 MIS managers at small- and medium-sized companies with annual sales of at least $5 million and employee bases of 100 to 1,000. Almost 40 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses surveyed say they have purchased microcomputers from superstores while 19 percent say they have purchased systems from discount retailers. Some 11 percent purchase computer systems from office product superstores. Warehouse clubs and department stores each garnered a six percent market share. Over one third of those responsible for purchasing corporate computers also bought a home computer from a retailer. Microsoft, Lotus test rackjobber: Lieberman leads developers into broader market. (Lieberman Enterprises) Microsoft and Lotus Development have begun separate pilot programs with Lieberman Enterprises in order to distribute their low-end products to consumer-electronics stores, office-product superstores and department stores. The Lotus program is the result of the company's Greenhouse research and development team. It was instigated earlier in 1991 to determine consumer demand for Lotus products at alternate retailers and those dealers ability to market such products. Department store chains targeted in Lotus' program include Sears Roebuck Brand Central, Dayton Hudson and Dillard Department Stores. Consumer electronics stores targeted include Highland Super Stores and Best Buy while Office Max and Office depot are also targeted. Microsoft signed an agreement with Lieberman in Nov 1990. Typical products handled under both programs, such as LotusWorks and Microsoft Windows 3.0, are priced below $150. Prodigy attracting seasoned PC users. Ferguson, Kevin. A random survey of Prodigy users conducted by Computer Retail Week has discovered that two-thirds of them have at least three years of microcomputer usage experience and 56 percent have had a computer at home for the same length of time. Some 27 percent of respondents boast more than seven years of microcomputer experience, while 29 percent have five to seven years of experience. Ten percent have between three and five years and 29 percent between one and three years. Five percent are novice users of less than one year. The desire to upgrade was obvious among some of those users. Twenty percent stated they have had a microcomputer in their homes for over seven years and 22 percent have had one for five to seven years. Some 14 percent have had a home computer for three to five years. The media age of Prodigy users is 43 and the median annual income $73,000. Some 25 percent earn $100,000 or more annually. Buying groups gain leverage in PC area: but 1st-tier vendors still show reluctance. (includes related article on Nationwide Computer Multibillion dollar buying groups have long dominated domestic distribution of consumer electronics and appliances and are now having some influence in the microcomputer industry. They are, however, meeting some resistance from top vendors. The reason is that manufacturers have chosen to create distribution strategies based on the marketed technology instead of consumer buying behavior. The NATM Buying Corp represents 15 retail chains and a total of over 300 storefronts and $2 billion in annual sales. The group markets a broad range of consumer electronics, appliance and furniture. Group officials point out that microcomputers could jump to 20 percent of sales if vendors could handle their phobias. Nationwide, the largest consumer-electronics buying group in the country, says it is succeeding with microcomputers. The group has established a computer-sales branch called Nationwide Computer Home Office (NACHO). Top games of '91: simulation, strategy: slick 16-bit cartridges threaten DOS games. (includes related article listing top 25 Leading retailers are predicting that the most successful entertainment software categories will be action-simulation games like LHX Attack Chopper from Electronic Arts and Tetris from Spectrum HoloByte. Predictions resulted from a nationwide survey conducted in Feb 1991 with higher-level retail executives. Respondents were asked to forecast which kinds of entertainment software would be best-sellers in the industry in 1991 and which factors would put computer-software sales at risk. Respondents were given six categories to rank the success of entertainment software categories. These included fantasy role playing, arcade/action games, graphic adventures, simulation and strategy. Simulation games were predicted to sell the best followed in order by strategy, sports, graphic adventures, arcade games and fantasy role playing. Several potential threats were listed, including: the popularity of Nintendo, the negative effects of a recession and the lack of effective product promotion. Entertainment Arts tops charts: question and answer: Lawrence Probst. (interview) Entertainment software from Electronic Arts is carried in approximately 10,000 stores nationwide. Outlets include superstores, warehouse clubs, software specialty stores, department and discount stores and more. Over 80 percent of Electronic Arts products are shipped directly to resellers. The remainder is distributed through rackjobbers and distributors. The vendor focuses product development efforts on platforms with a significant installed base. The plan to introduce 15 to 20 new titles on the IBM PC platform and two or three on the Macintosh platform. There is no significant concern with Windows. Plans are in place for the development of multimedia products but no decision has been made about what specific standards to support. The development focus for 1991 is on 16-bit platforms, like IBM, Genesis and Amiga. The plan is also to increase market presence in the international arena and post stronger revenues for the MS-DOS platform. The sound of software a key element for kids: retailers hope it will spark sales of educational titles. Software developers like Walt Disney Computer Software Inc, Broderbund Software and others are including speech, music and sound effects in their children's software programs. Others like The Learning Company have added sound to Macintosh-based packages for a few years. Sound is becoming increasingly important, especially for titles developed for the MS-DOS platform. Sound makes learning fun for children. Retailers hope that it will also entice their parents to spend. Disney Company officials say that The Sound Source ($34.95, $59.95 bundled with Disney software) was developed as a complete experience. The package includes an external 3-inch speaker that plugs into the parallel printer port of IBM-compatible computers. Officials for The Learning Company states that sound will continue to be important, citing the need to compete against Super Mario Brothers. Mac LC software goes to school: educational-software developers renew interest in Apple's platform. (Apple Macintosh) The top educational software publishers in the country are optimistic that Apple Computer's Macintosh LC will be adopted by educators as enthusiastically as the Apple II was. Numerous program titles will be released on that platform. The vendors include The Learning Company, Scholastic Software, Broderbund Software and Davidson and Associates. Other vendors, like Sierra On-Line, who have focused previously on entertainment software, plan to produce educational packages for the Mac platform. Sierra On-Line has had some success in the Mac arena already. Its Mixed-up Mother Goose, available on several platforms, including the Mac, is a nominee for the Best Early Education program in the Software Publishers Association awards ceremony. Walt Disney Computer Software has released nine MS-DOS titles since entering the market in Oct 1990 and will also release Macintosh titles, according to software producers. The Learning Company is developing Mac conversions of two of its titles. Davidson and Associates is preparing two Macintosh releases for late spring 1991. Panasonic adds 24-pin printers. (Panasonic Communications and Systems Co. Office Automation Group) (product announcement) The Office Automation Group for Panasonic Communications and Systems Co is trying to increase market share for the 24-pin dot matrix printer market by introducing two 24-pin printer models: the KX-P1124i ($499.95), which is intended to replace the KX-P1124, and the KX-P1123 ($399), an entry-level model. The two printers are targeted at the home office/small business environments. The vendor hopes to capture a chunk of the 24-pin marketplace. Analysts estimate that 2.1 million 234-pin printers will be sold domestically in 1991. The vendor feels that the overall dot matrix-printer market is receding at a 12 percent annual rate but it still sees the category as a market opportunity. However, within the arena, 24-pin printers are gaining market share while 9-pin printers are declining. PS/1 enhancements see lack of demand: IBM cites standard features as culprit. Resellers of the IBM PS/1 have found the peripheral market place has proven to be less than lucrative. There were more than 100,000 units sold worldwide in 1990. Sales of third-party enhancement products have not materialized. IBM officials say that less than 10 percent of PS/1 purchasers are buying the vendor's available adapter cards and fewer than five percent are purchasing the expansion chassis. The vendor is not worried about the situation and attributes the lack of demand to the number of features available standard on the PS/1. Reseller officials place the attach ratio for PS/1 enhancement products at about 10 percent. Few peripherals beyond the IBM 5.25-inch external floppy drive and its audio card, are being sold with the PS/1. Users who do want to expand the capabilities of their systems are installing their own third-party expansion cards without the addition of the expansion chassis. Epson enhances models, adds dot matrix unit. (Epson America Inc.) (ActionPrinter 3000, ActionPrinter 4000, ActionPrinter 4500 and Epson America is enhancing its retail product line with the addition of a dot matrix printer, the ActionPrinter 3000 ($399.99), and improved models of its ActionPrinter 4000 ($499.99), ActionPrinter 4500 ($699.99) and ActionLaser Plus ($1,399.99) products. Company officials say the printers are being targeted at customers of mass retail outlets, who are becoming more demanding in their choice of peripherals. Retailers like Sam's Wholesale Club plan to carry the new printer. The vendor, by offering a new, lower cost dot matrix printer along with enhanced version of popular models, is giving these users a broad selection of peripherals at competitive prices. Workplace tests new retail tactics. Trespasz, Nancy. Regional nine-store office products reseller Workplace Inc has started testing punchboard displays and clamshell packaging to cut down on theft while increasing the number of software titles on display. The new merchandising methods are just one element of the reseller's plan to increase its list of software titles to 500. The six-foot high punchboards display only the front and back covers in clear, laminated sheets and accommodate 16 titles per four-foot section. Titles are organized by product category. Prospective users can read product information by flipping up the sheet. The test has produced some mixed results. Some impact is lost but all needed information is still available. The punchboards also prevent customers from picking up a sample package, browsing the store with it and possibly misplacing it. That problem can take up to 24 hours to be rectified. Once a customer decides to buy a package, however, a clerk must leave the floor to get one from inventory. The reseller is also considering using clamshell packaging from Kenfil, similar to those used to display cassettes and CDs in music stores. Vendors question IBM tactics: one competitor urges fed probe of IBM outsourcing. (includes related article listing IBM's recent The recent success of IBM in outsourcing has caused competitors to ask if the company is violating a Consent Decree that is decades old or if it is engaging in other forms of unfair competition. Systems integrators Andersen Consulting, Computer Sciences Corp and at least 13 others plan to attend a meeting on Mar 25, 1991 in Dallas to discuss what action to take. Affiliated Computer Systems, Dallas, is spearheading the effort and has already filed complaints with the Justice Department alleging that IBM is violating the 1956 Consent Decree, which permanently bars its participation in the marketing of remote data processing services. IBM officials call the assertion 'absolutely incorrect.' The Consent Decree states that IBM can only sell data processing services through a separate subsidiary not using the IBM name. IBM then formed Service Bureau Corp, which was sold to Control Data amid an antitrust suit. Observers feel market conditions may have changed enough in 35 years to invalidate the decree. RISC team nears debut: Gibraltar group to reveal plans in April for low-end workstation. (reduced instruction set computing) The name Gibraltar signifies a solid strategy to gain workstation market share from Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Members of the consortium include DEC, Microsoft, Compaq, Mips Computer Systems and The Santa Cruz Operation. The group will announce plans to create a RISC-based workstation targeted at the low end of the market. The new workstation will be designed to fit the needs of the customer base of the member companies. Availability is expected by mid-1993. The design will include an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus for Compaq users and a TurboChannel for DECstation users. The new system will also be compatible with DEC's FutureBus + plans. The consortium's primary goal is to give customers more for their money by building a workstation that is equally compatible with Unix and with Microsoft's Windows and OS/2 3.0. Costs will be kept at a minimum by standardizing on the Mips RISC processor and by doing much or all of the manufacturing outside the US. Intel turning network services into products: sees support role for integrators. Intel is drawing on its traditional OEM position to begin marketing internally developed network services to systems integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) in late 1991. The strategy, which is still being created, calls for the vendor's Networks and Services division to convert some of its service offerings into products capable of helping third parties establish and manage computer networks. The company's goal is to assist VARs and integrators in leveraging their resources. The same engineer, according to company officials, can integrate twice as many networks with the right tools. Intel's focus is on network monitors and diagnostic tools, many of which it already uses to control networks from remote locations. Other tools currently being developed could enhance planning and automate administration, according to company officials. The vendor is also considering buying products or licensing technologies from other companies to support the effort. Open systems users: going it alone. Greenbaum, Joshua. Computer systems users are considering independent implementation of open systems because they are wary of vendor motivation and unsure of the expertise of large systems integrators. Users seem more comfortable doing the work themselves as many open systems projects are small in scale. Some are looking to smaller integrators to connect open systems to existing applications. They assert that larger systems integrators are wedded to their own methods and more at home with larger projects. These integrators have little or no role in the early plans of many users, according to User Alliance for Open Systems members. Users say they do not want to turn the open systems movement in the direction of a particular vendor. Apple eyes integrators: plans to recruit network specialists and may use Peat Marwick Speed Start program as model. (Apple Apple Computer is redefining its distribution plan to create a program to attract network integrators. Officials say new technological developments call for integrators' skills to handle the needs of users with enterprise-wide projects. Relationships with network integrators will have to be formalized as networking issues become more important. Officials declined to say when the program would be launched, saying the vendor would be redefining its goals during 1991. The Speed Start program was cited as a possible model. The Speed Start program handles software development through Executive Integration Services (EXIS), the vendor's joint venture with Peat Marwick. EXIS creates front-end programs that allow Macintosh users to access mainframe applications. The necessary hardware comes from an Apple dealer. Integrators under a similar program would supply network design and development services, obtaining products from Apple Dealers. Reaction was mixed. Officials of NMI say that they would look at the program carefully before becoming involved. Evernet Systems officials say they are open to looking at new programs. CA nabs Customs contract: $27M deal could boost young services business. (U.S. Customs Service) Computer Associates International (CA) has signed a five-year, $27 million software support contract with the US Customs Service. The vendor hopes the deal will enhances its services business. The arrangement is a reflection of the growing importance of software vendors in professional services. The trend is expected to continue as vendors look for new sources of revenue. Software firms have traditionally given away consulting services in order to sell their products, and these services are now being packaged for sale to customers. Lotus Development and Dun and Bradstreet Software Services are just two who have recently expanded their service offerings. CA's Federal Systems Division, under the contract, will offer support services to the Customs Service Data Center. CA personnel will augment the Custom Service's data processing staff, offering assistance in the areas of database administration, performance management and resource management. Siemens to back IBM-HP new management scheme. (Hewlett-Packard, network management) The joint proposal by IBM and HP to the Open Software Foundation (OSF) for systems and network management will get an endorsement from another OSF member. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG plans to support the IBM-HP submission for a Distributed Management Environment (DME), a unified system, network and applications management architecture. Groupe Bull announced its participation in the proposal at Uniform in Jan 1991. The endorsement enhances the IBM-HP proposal, which is competing against a joint submission from DEC, Microsoft and BBN Communications as OSF's solution for systems and network management. Industry observers expect the IBM-HP submission to win. A decision is expected by Fall 1991. The purpose of the OSF DME is providing an open vendor-independent structure for distributed network, applications and system management. The model combines de facto and international standards-based technology. IBM boosts RS/6000 line: marketing emphasis on resellers, integrators. (includes related article detailing RS/6000 upgrades) IBM has announced its marketing plan for its RS/6000 Unix server and workstation products. The plan details how the vendor will compete in an arena where multivendor connectivity is critical. The plan relies heavily on indirect channels, which accounted for 27 percent of all RS/6000s sold in 1990. Company officials expect the percentage to increase to 30 percent in 1991 as more sales are made into new accounts rather than the company's installed base. The company is actively recruiting industry remarketers. A portion of that effort will be targeted on network integrators, who will be needed to market the machines in multivendor environments. Company officials notice a change of focus for the vendor from being the solution to being part of a larger solution. IBM will market a Network Systems Corp router which can connect the RS/6000 to large-scale systems created by vendors like Cray Research and Digital Equipment. Company officials say the vendor is more interested in being part of systems integration. PRC wins image pact: four-year, $166M award is follow-on to earlier PRC job. (for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) PRC Inc beat out Computer Sciences Corp for a four-year, $166 million contract with the US Patent and Trademark Office to finish the design and implementation of its huge distributed image document system. The Automated Patent System, which is based on open systems architecture, was created under a $289 million contract awarded to PRC in 1984. The extension includes a wide selection of integration services such as procurement of all needed software, hardware and networking. The company is also looking at architecture for a Commerce Department procurement. It calls for over 1,000 Unix-based workstations for client/server environments, search and retrieval software and systems software that will support a conversion from the IBM MVS mainframe to AT and T Unix System V. Government agencies are separating contracts into identifiable portions to provide more flexibility and easier technological adjustment. IBM-EDS runoff on Continental deal. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Continental Airlines Holdings Inc.) A Bankruptcy Court judge has laid out ground rules for Electronic Data Systems' (EDS)' competition with IBM for the coveted Continental Airlines Holdings Inc facilities management contract. IBM and EDS have been given until Apr 9, 1991 to submit revised proposals and a final ruling has been postponed until Apr 19, 1991. The door has been closed to other potential bidders after Continental rejected overtures from Andersen Consulting, Computer Sciences Corp and Affiliated Computer Systems Inc. A runoff has been set up between EDS and IBM that Continental and its creditors hope will lower the price Continental will pay for data processing. Creditors such as IBM and Unisys have objected to the proposed EDS deal. Sources have indicated that EDS will lower its $2.1 billion bid to counter the IBM offer. The IBM proposal would reportedly generate greater savings for Continental and its System One Corp subsidiary. The size of the eventual contract could also be affected by the company's efforts to sell all or part of System One. Client/server schemes ignited: Cooperative Solutions adds OLTP development tools. (product announcement) Cooperative Solutions Inc (CSI), a CA-based software start-up company, introduces Ellipse, software for developing transaction-oriented client/server applications. Ellipse includes a development tool set and a production environment. The Ellipse Development Environment is priced at $65,000 and the Ellipse Production Systems is priced at $3,495. CSI was founded in 1989 by former executives of Tandem Computers Inc. The company's goal is to create tools for development of transaction processing software capable of running on networked workstations rather than mainframe systems. Users are exhibiting a growing interest in this type of environment but applications development tools have been limited in scope so far. The client/server transaction processing applications market is growing rapidly. Analysts predict that 75 percent of the $23 billion spent on hardware and software worldwide for transaction processing applications will be for distributed systems and standards-based platforms by 1994. Evernet acquires LAN Manager skills: latest move brings total purchases to 12. (acquisition of LAN Solutions Inc) Evernet Systems is working to fill gaps in its networking expertise with the recent acquisition of LAN Solutions Inc (LSI). LSI is a specialist in the LAN Manager network operating system business, based in Atlanta, GA. The acquisition is Evernet's 12th in the last 20 months. Company officials say the network integrator has, through this series of small acquisitions, fulfilled its goal of enhancing critical mass, adding technological skills and achieving greater geographical reach. One of the reasons for the most recent acquisition was its location as Atlanta is a regional distribution hub in the Southeast. LSI's customer base includes the Internal Revenue Service, Nissan Motors and the University of Alabama. Evernet hopes LSI's LAN Manager expertise will complement its strength in the Novell NetWare environment. Additional acquisitions will be made on a selective basis. GE wins EuroQuote pact. (General Electric Information Services) (first pan-European stock exchange network.) The Federation of European Stock Exchanges has awarded General Electric Information Services (GEIS) a contract to create the first pan-European stock exchange network. The federation created EuroQuote S.A. in 1990 to select a contractor for the network and handle other administrative matters. The system, called EuroQuote, will be built by GE with the assistance of a team of subcontractors including Hughes Network Systems, the Midwest Stock Exchange and PA Consulting Ltd. GE won the contract over Citicorp's Quotron subsidiary. The value of the contract could be as high as $100 million over its three-year life. The project's scope could extend beyond the European Economic Community as members of a Scandinavian stock exchange network may connect to EuroQuote. Contract terms are being finalized, and a formal announcement is expected in Apr 1991. Andersen executives in demand. (Andersen Consulting) (competitive hiring) Executives of Andersen Consulting are the prized catches in a recent spate of competitive hirings. Joel Garlot, a former partner in the Andersen Paris office and president and director general of Andersen's French integration unit, has joined Price Waterhouse as the director of Price's French consulting practice. Luis Recio, Andersen's former managing partner in charge of Spanish operations, is considering joining Electronic Data Systems Corp. Coopers and Lybrand has hired former Andersen executives John Dilley and J. Robert Spurgeon. Dilley is now national sales director for Coopers and Lybrand's Summit methodology. Spurgeon has been appointed methodology director for Coopers Midwest region. The company's executives have long been coveted for their disciplined approach to integration methodology and project management. Old-line law firm's wide-area practice. (Kemp, Smith, Duncan and Hammond, El Paso TX) Kemp, Smith, Duncan and Hammond is the oldest law firm in El Paso, TX but is determined not to have the oldest computer network in El Paso. The firm contracted network integrator Micro One to design, install and integrate a 260-node wide-area network (WAN) connecting four of its offices. Micro One beat out Informatics Legal Systems Inc and CMS-Data Corp for the $1.5 million contract. Firm officials were convinced that their practice had to be automated in order to remain competitive. The network will connect the El Paso home office with offices in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM and Midland, TX. It will integrate two Novell NetWare 386 3.1 servers running on AST Research's Tower 486/25 hardware in El Paso with small AST 80386-based servers in Midland and Albuquerque. The servers and the Ethernet local area networks (LANs) will be connected to a Hewlett-Packard 3000 minicomputer host running accounting software. Integrator pursues small-user niche: sells packaged solution for commercial nets of five to 10 nodes. (Federal Technology Corp.) Federal Technology Corp plans to enhance its effort to corner the low-end commercial local area network (LAN) marketplace with the introduction of a packaged networking solution for small businesses. Federal Technology, like many systems integrators in the federal arena, is trying to broaden its customer base by moving into the commercial marketplace. Federal, unlike the others, will focus on a market segment most integrators do not address, network of five to 10 nodes. Company officials point out that smaller users have no choice but to go to retail computer stores. Federal's do-it-yourself package will come with warranty and non-warranty service, to be handled by Federal. The initial package will include instructions, interface boards, operating system drives, network operating system software, 10BaseT concentrators and precut coaxial cable. Federal, with the leveraging of its unusual combination of businesses, is trying to turn this market segment into an opportunity. Integrators bow to client's needs: graphical user interfaces. Lazar, Jerry. The contest among graphical user interface (GUI) standards is often hard fought for both hardware and software standards. The choice for systems integrators is pragmatic. Officials of TSC Inc say they look for the best overall environment and note that the GUI is secondary. A GUI provides a comfortable and convenient environment for many end users. Integrators have other things in mind when designing a desktop solution. Officials of Andersen Consulting state that GUIs are set by decisions about the operating system. This usually means that Windows 3.0 or Presentation Manager for DOS environments or Motif or Open Look for Unix. Officials of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) feel there is little difference among the various GUIs. The installed base is a determining factor in choosing an interface. DG extends Aviion upward: multiprocessors offer 117-MIPS performance. (Data General) (product announcement) Data General (DG) has enhanced its line of reduced instruction set computing (RISC)-based Aviion computer systems with the unveiling of high-end models with symmetric multiprocessing. The Aviion 7000 ($96,000) deskside and 8000 rack-mount quad-processor systems include Motorola's 25-MHz 32-bit 88100 RISC processors and operate under DG/UX 5.4, a new implementation of AT and T Unix System V.4 supporting symmetrical multiprocessing. Company officials say the new systems offer mainframe performance for much less money. The AV 8000 includes DG's High Availability Disk Array (HADA) subsystem, which offers as much as 24Gbytes of storage on 5.25-inch hard disk drives. The AV 8000 supports as many as two HADA systems simultaneously, providing as much as 48 Gbytes of storage capacity per server. RAD Data unveils hub for Token-Ring nets. (RAD Data Communications Inc.) (product announcement) RAD Data Communications has enhanced its selection of token-ring network products with the unveiling of a managed wiring concentrator and six other devices. The RADring provides token-ring access at four- and 16M-bps over shielded and unshielded twisted-pair and fiber optic media. It is most practical for token-ring transmissions over unshielded twisted pair wiring. The $1,000 RADnet management system manages the RADring and provides physical layer management of all of the company's intelligent access units and repeaters, transmitting management data outside of the main transmission ring. It runs on all DOS-based systems under Microsoft Windows 3.0. RADnet interfaces to NetView and LAN Network Manager management systems. The Smart Trunk Access Unit ($595) is an intelligent access unit providing physical electrical connection between workstations and token-ring networks. The Fiber Trunk Access Unit ($4,000) is an intelligent fiber-optic access unit supporting 4 Mbps and 16 Mbps. IBM notebook on Harvard MBA track. (IBM L40SX portable computer) (product announcement) IBM's new L40SX laptop computer is scheduled for market release at the end of Mar 1991. The Intel 20 MHz 80386-based notebook-sized unit is being used by over 700 Harvard Business School students, who generally praised the new machines. L40SX features a 60Mbyte hard disk, 2Mbytes to 18Mbytes memory, floppy disk drive and a modem that can send and receive data to and from facsimile machines. The price is set at $6,000. The new IBM unit is larger than other notebook machines (10.7 x 12.8 x 2.1 inches), weighing in at 7.6 pounds. The keyboard is nearly full-sized, with 84 full-size standard-spaced keys arrayed in a five-degree slope that matches the PS/2 key layout. IBM's Video Graphics Array LCD side-lit screen is standard. Some of the Harvard students found the screen hard to read. Oracle for Vaxcluster, take 2: performance boost ends 18-month rewrite effort. (Oracle Systems Corp. relational data base Oracle Systems Corp provides a fix for a flawed version of the Oracle relational database management system, Oracle 6.0. The fix is designed to make Oracle 6.0 work well in Vaxclusters. Version 6.2 offers new life to hundreds of sites that run Oracle 5.0 or 6.0 on single VAX machines that are waiting to be clustered. DEC may sell additional hardware now to customers wanting to cluster machines. The previous solution was to run Oracle 5.1 in a Vaxcluster mode with each machine updating a single copy of Oracle, or to use SQL*Net to connect VAXs; each VAX would run a separate copy of Oracle 6.0. Microsoft feels heat of FTC investigation: angst of rivals, antitrust issues boil to surface. (Federal Trade Commission) Microsoft Corp confirms a report by Goldman, Sachs and Company analyst Rick Sherlund regarding a Federal Trade Commission investigation into possible antitrust activities on the part of Microsoft. A press release in Nov 1989 outlining the future of Windows and OS/2 triggered the probe. IBM is also cooperating with requests for information. The controversy is over the positioning of OS/2 as the platform of choice, with Windows taking a position in the market as a low-end graphical system. The investigation, on-going for over a year, is being given a lot of attention by leading software developers who have in the past railed against Microsoft controlling the microcomputer software industry. Few flaws in postwar weapons check. (Persian Gulf military operation, 1991)(includes related article on the Howitzer hang-up) Battlefield technology showed its limitations, as indicated by military analysts after the Persian Gulf war of 1991. There is room for improvement in Satellite missile warnings that first come to the US and then are routed to the battle zone, casualties resulting from allies shooting at their own forces because they are unable to tell friend from foe, cloud cover that hampers bomb targeting and damage assessment, satellite cameras that cannot see behind camouflage, tunnels or ditches; and the Howitzer artillery guns dependent on computers that are not user friendly, making it necessary to perform firing calculations manually as a backup. Software upgrades necessary to help make the Patriot missiles useful as Scud blasters were flown from the US to the war zone and distributed to Patriot batteries in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. ICL pioneers ISDN for Windows 3.0 environment. (product announcement) ICL's North American Division introduces ICL I3 Desktop Conference Package, an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) desktop conferencing system for Microsoft Windows 3.0. The package was originally designed for Microsoft OS/2-based systems. Presently there are several third-party vendors writing Windows applications for Teleos Communications Inc ISDN adapters and servers. This development will rival ISDN products released by ICL. The ICL Desktop Conferencing Package for Windows 3.0 requires I3 ISDN software and hardware. The price is $2,195 and includes a Windows-based file folder and phone book applications. There is system support for IBM/AT, EISA and Micro Channel Architecture buses. Availability is scheduled for May 1991. Groupe Bull unveils OSF/DCE framework. (Distributed Computing Model) Groupe Bull introduces the Distributed Computing Model framework based on the Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment (OSF/DCE) standards. The combination of products includes the Affinity line of microcomputer-to-mainframe links, the Open 8 scheduled for release in the 2nd qtr 1991, which offers interoperability between GCOS 7, GCOS 8 and Unix environments; Bull DPX/Prostation Unix based workstation, and the Open Team server environment for running the Microsoft LAN Manager in a Unix environment. Affinity integration products are designed for links between Windows-based microcomputers and Bull GCOS 6, 7 and 8 operating environments formerly available in Europe and now offered in the US. Morris contemplates Supreme Court option. (Robert T. Morris, computer programmer on trial) Robert T. Morris, the computer programmer convicted of creating a worm program that replicated uncontrollably and caused an estimated 6,200 computers on the Internet network to shut down after its release on Nov 2, 1988, has been denied an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Attorney Thomas Guidoboni, representing Morris, indicated three judges unanimously upheld Morris' conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1988. The 12-page decision released in Mar 1991 agrees with the trial court finding that the government is not required to prove Morris intended to cause harm, and that he lacked the authorization to access the Internet computers invaded by his worm. Morris can return to the US Court of Appeals within one week for case reconsideration, or he can petition the Supreme Court within 90 days to hear the case. Morris may have spent in excess of $150,000 so far on legal costs. IBM extends RS/6000 reach. (workstation performance improvement) (product announcement) IBM introduces the Powerstation/Powerserver 320H, the Powerserver 950 and the Xstation 130 additions to the RISC System/6000 family of workstations. The 320H is a more powerful version of the RS/6000 low-end 320. The newer model has a faster processor clock rate of 25 MHz, 16Mbytes memory and 160Mbytes fixed disk storage, with prices starting at $20,501. Powerserver 950 is a rack configured version of the Powerserver 550, and will be base priced at $164,335; availability is Jun 1991. Xstation 130 has a higher performance graphics terminal, and I/O processors with more memory options than the Xstation 120. The entry-level monochrome system has a 12-inch display, 2.4Mbytes memory and 1Mbyte video memory with a price of $3,325; shipping begins April 26, 1991. Daimler-Benz races fast-packet loop. (14 fast-packet multiplexers planned for installation) (company profile) Daimler-Benz, the largest industrial firm in Europe, plans to install 14 fast-packet IPX T1 multiplexers from Stratacom Inc. The European company expects to save money in bandwidth conservation by using the fast-packet. The technology is expected to reduce bandwidth needed for existing applications by up to 40 percent. This latest generation of packet switches makes efficient use of bandwidth by eliminating network overhead for error detection and error correction on every network node, through the implementation of reliable digital communication lines. Daimler-Benz expects full network implementation of the new configuration by midsummer 1991. One goal is to merge separate networks into a new corporate network in which the Stratacom multiplexing equipment will be the common denominator. GTE Directories looks to outsourcing; phone book producer cuts 35 IS staff members, prepares to farm out much of its work. GTE Directories Corp is reorganizing with plans to rely more on outsourcing in the future. Thirty-five employees in the data base administration group have been fired, out of a systems development staff of 183. Project teams have been formed, changing the previous arrangement where the IS staff was aligned around the user organization and took direction in an unscheduled manner. No further IS personnel cutbacks are planned by the firm. GTE does not plan to be a company that builds applications; they will purchase packaged software, customize it and integrate it into the overall systems plan. GTE is considering replacement of the present directory publishing system that makes use of homegrown software for page layout and other functions. The system under consideration, from Amdocs, runs on DEC machines. Bellcore database could make phone numbers last a lifetime. Anthes, Gary H. Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore) is the research arm of the regional Bell holding companies. The Datacycle is a new data base architecture developed by Bellcore that could make it possible for telephone number subscribers to have the same telephone number for a lifetime. Lifetime identifiers could be assigned to each subscriber; they could be assigned to a telephone number, or to a vanity number, such as 'Best CPA In Town'. The data base can be application independent and there is read-only access by any number of processors without interference among them. The system uses custom-built data filters, VLSI circuits that apply Boolean selection logic to as many as 28 data fields at once. RS/6000 grabs attention of S/36 users. Johnson, Maryfran. Users of the IBM System/36 often move to the Unix-based RISC System/6000 when making system changes, instead of to the AS/400 platform. Single application industries such as health care, retail, professional services or manufacturing find the move attractive. The Marriott Corp hotel chain has moved RS/6000 into the accounting department to replace their System/36. Performance gains seven to 10 times greater are expected by the firm; a move to the AS/400 would have doubled performance and cost more than the RS/6000. Unibol/RPG-II from Software Ireland Ltd in Belfast was used as a bridge language compiler to move the application from the System/36 to the RS/6000. Many companies with System/36s installed could run manufacturing applications with the RS/6000s as engineering workstations. Houston switches from IBM: Amdahl replaces Big Blue as main hardware vendor in city's IS group. The city of Houston, TX now has an Amdahl Corp 5995 Model 350 mainframe computer that replaces an IBM 3090 Model 180 the city has outgrown. One element of the $3 million deal with Amdahl was an IBM 3090 180E as a trade-in item. The IBM bid was substantially more expensive, according to Houston Information Services Division head and assistant director of the General Services Department, Zanna Stepanek. The Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio are also Amdahl shops. The city's 14-member city council approved the Amdahl bid, despite an appeal from IBM. The decision to go with the Amdahl machine was based on price and performance. Houston has a variety of aging systems, including a DPS 6 used by the fire department, a DPS 8 at the Amdahl site, and a Unisys Corp 1100 mainframe used by the police department. D&B's Viewbuilder satisfies beta-test user. (Dun and Bradstreet Software) Dun and Bradstreet Software's IBM workstation-based development tool, Frontline Viewbuilder, is used by a real estate syndicator, JMB, for the creation of 10 applications. The product is a microcomputer-based tool designed for creation of stand-alone or cooperative processing applications. Frontline can communicate with any host hardware using a 3270 communications environment, or with DEC VAX machines. At JMB Frontline is used for development of a conversational security application under the IBM VM operating system. Frontline is also used at JMB to downsize the mainframe property management application to run in a microcomputer stand-alone environment. The user-friendly Frontline can be learned effectively by a programmer or analyst within one week. Oracle users consider SQL*Forms alternatives. (East Coast Oracle Users Group) The East Coast Oracle Users Group touts a number of SQL*Forms alternatives for database query report generation. Products demonstrated at the Group meeting in Mar 1991 include the Oracle Oraclecard interface for Macintosh and IBM PC's and compatibles, Paradox SQL Link from Borland International, JAM development system from JYACC Inc, and SQL*Windows from Gupta Technologies. Conversion programs to translate SQL*Forms Version 2.3 code into the SQL*Forms 3.0 format include ACE*Converter from Performance Technologies, and Window*Port from LAN Design. Window*Port moves SQL*Forms Version 2.3 programs into the Gupta SQL*Windows interface. Lotus adds features, price cuts for Freelance. (Freelance Graphics DOS Version 4.0) (product announcement) Lotus Development Corp introduces Freelance Graphics for DOS 4.0, promising speed, ease of use and increased automation. Users of existing Freelance and Graphwriter II receive Freelance Graphics for $99 through Sep 30, 1991. After that time the upgrade price will be $119. Freelance Graphics retails for $495 and includes a new graphical environment with WYSIWYG colors and fonts. The new release offers support for Bitstream Speedo technology, is Microsoft Windows 3.0 compliant, and will soon be available in Server and Node editions and in an MS Windows version later in 1991. Server editions are $695; the Node edition will be $395. A customized version of the Symantec Grandview LT program has been added to Freelance Graphics, which provides outlining, a spell checker, and automatic text charts. Desktop capacities packed into laptop disks: portable personal computer users finally see signs of storage demands being met. Users are anxious to receive 2.5", 60Mbyte hard disk drives. The high-capacity small form-factor drives have begun shipment, and are expected to almost triple from 789,000 shipped in 1990 to almost 2.3 million in 1991. Intel Corp and Compaq Computer Corp have shipped a few to date. Vendors such as Conner Peripherals and Prairietek have had problems with the small drives. The trend toward more powerful drives has been growing during recent years, even though the installed base of portable computers relies mainly on 40Mbyte hard disk drives. The development is encouraging for end users who need high-capacity portables. Areal Technology Inc plans to have 2.5" 120Mbyte drives by May 1991, and Maxtor Corp also has plans for a similar product. Complexity lurks for Windows programmers. (column) Daly, James. Computer programmers warn there is a need to properly employ Windows 3.0. The strengths of the interface can also be its weaknesses. In the beginning there is a learning curve, and a mental shifting of gears must take place in order to get one's bearings in the environment. Not all hardware interfaces work with Windows 3.0, and incompatible motherboards, cards and peripherals are a fact of life. These products occupy shelf space in large distribution houses and will be around for some time. The Windows environment also uses up a great deal of memory, thus causing memory management issues to surface. Users developing in-house applications must deal with memory constraints. A cost-effective method must be found to de-bug Windows applications and to deal with Windows 3.0 real-time management of memory. Oxygen brings DOS up for air. (Rational Systems Inc utility program) (product announcement) Rational Systems Inc introduces Oxygen, a $199 utility program to link an MS-DOS extender technology to Microsoft C compilers and linker Versions 5.1 and 6.0. Use of Oxygen allows programmers to compile large applications from within Windows, an editor or the Programmers Workbench, taking up less than 50Kbytes of the 640Kbyte DOS memory barrier. Another capability offered by Oxygen is reduction of time-intensive disk accesses and linking of large files in up to half the time otherwise necessary. The product jumps over the memory barrier, providing up to 16Mbytes of added memory. Restaurant chain cooks up time-saving IS strategy. (information systems management) Au Bon Pain is a 100-site chain of cafes and fast food stands with a new information system in the works. The new system is being implemented in order to have each business site manager spending more time on analysis of data and less time creating paperwork. A core back-office system (software provided by Management Information Support Inc) consists of Intel 80386SX-based NCR PCs. Sales information from six to 15 NCR cash registers in each store feed information into the core system. Nine laptop computers used by district managers are also managed by the back-office system. Plans are to put in place a relational database management system and either an Intel 80486 or 80386 server in the future. Applications made easier. (Objectvision from Borland International) (column) The Objectvision application development system from Borland International for Windows 3.0 is a useful and intuitive product for microcomputer users. Forms creation is easy, with lists of commands, field types and fields available from a mouse interface; multiple forms can be linked together in any application. There are standard forms plus fonts, clip art and shaded boxes that can be added for visual appearance. Users are advised to think through the decision process before implementing the decision tree after the forms have been designed. The forms can be tested without linking to a data base, thus allowing debugging before the data base links are created. An integrated debugging program would be helpful in Objectvision. IBM expands European telecom line. (Callpath Services Architecture) Callpath Services Architecture has extended support from IBM in an effort to build on an interface of the Systems Network Architecture (SNA) environment. Support has been extended to telephone switches based on European standards. Support will include the Siemens Stromberg-Carlson Hicom 300 and IBM Com300. Callpath capability has been added by IBM to 370- and 390-class mainframes in Europe. The ISDN adapter cards will be sold overseas also. Callpath software is designed for business applications that need coordinated voice and data; the software links computer databases and telephone systems. Additionally, in Jan 1991 IBM announced ISDN basic-rate adapter cards for the MicroChannel Architecture models of the PS/2 and the 3174 Establishment Controller. Satellites help trucking firm keep tabs on fleet. (North American Van Lines) North American Van Lines Inc makes use of a new satellite system installed on 200 trucks. Plans for the future include installation of the system on the entire fleet of 3,700 trucks by sometime in 1992. A $12 million contract has been signed with Qualcomm Inc to supply Omnitracs, a two-way communication system. The present system consists of approximately 15 microcomputers that track the North American trucks, at a lag time of three minutes for the operator request to obtain the position of a vehicle. The Qualcomm system has maps of 10,000 cities; however, North American has opted for directional and distance data available from an Amdahl mainframe. The satellite system provides a communications path between the home office and the mobile unit. Each cab will be configured with a keyboard and an LED display. Setting ground rules for privacy. (Feature: electronic mail)(includes related article on Hallmark's e-mail policy) Electronic mail (E-mail) has the potential for employer/employee conflict when policies are not clearly established that both parties can understand and adhere to. Interpretations of E-mail policies can differ widely, and in extreme cases can result in a lawsuit. The issue is more pressing as the technology becomes more widely used. At the present time there are over 12 million employees in the US who routinely send messages back and forth electronically. With the potential for workplace monitoring, E-mail can stir up debate on how technology is used to manage employees. Lawsuits have been filed against Nissan Motor Corp and Epson by employees who questioned the violation of their right to privacy. Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union expect the courts, Congress, and institutions developing a culture around the technology, to sort out the complex privacy and property issues. Victim of success? (inertia of IBM's huge installed base in Fortune 500 companies) (column) IBM customers, those myriad fortune 500 companies, have the host-to-dumb terminal and the host-to-IBM PC strategy installed. These users may have difficulty migrating to distributed peer-to-peer networks that are evolving into the next phase of business computing. IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is being revamped to support peer-to-peer computing. The latest effort is the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking for OS/2. Netview is also being enhanced to manage distributed peer-to-peer networks; a Netview Distribution Manager product was announced in Mar 1991. The only problem is that IBM's peer-to-peer strategy is based on OS/2 and LU6.2; these are two products that have not become popular with users. IBM also supports the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) standard. Customers are in the position of having to decide which IBM-backed standard to build their networks on. The company does not provide a full-function platform to support either SNA or OSI. Acquisitions bring promise of E-mail integration. Nash, Jim. Mergers and acquisitions in the software industry may bring more integrated and compatible electronic mail (E-mail) systems in the near future. Network managers who have become frustrated with non-standard and disparate E-mail products can look forward to better systems integration in the future. Two network software vendors, Microsoft and Lotus, have purchased smaller E-mail companies and plan to do some product integration. Microsoft has an agreement to purchase Consumers Software of Vancouver, BC; Consumers makes the Network Courier E-mail software and several gateways. This contract gives Microsoft its first PC E-mail package. Novell owns part of the E-mail firm Da Vinci Systems Corp. Lotus Development has purchased CC:Mail Inc. CC:Mail is the chief E-Mail competitor of Consumers Software. These business deals point to the realization on the part of large software companies that E-mail is essential. UK telecom duopoly loosening, U.S. gains. (Great Britain) Horwitt, Elisabeth. The national government of Great Britain has policy changes that affect the telecommunications industry in a way that benefits the US. British Telecom PLC and Mercury Communications, the UK telecommunications duopoly, have been loosened up by the new government policy. The changes are expected to bring more competition to the area and pave the way for US companies to use the UK as a hub for their international networks. Britain is a leader in denationalization and deregulation of the telecommunications market, ahead of the US and Europe. The increased market competition is expected to bring down prices in the UK and internationally. Recasting IS for the 1990s: consultants preach technology/business linkage, but are executives ready to listen? (includes related The Ernst and Young Center for Information Technology and Strategy is a consulting firm, an arm of the Ernst and Young consulting and accounting corporation. The aim of the new center is to aid nationwide colleagues with high-level multidisciplinary strategizing in information systems (IS). The 40-person staff at the center includes technology consultants, software engineers and former Chief Information Officers. Several barriers face the fledgling organization: IS personnel may not be ready for a complete change and they may have a narrow view of their responsibilities, it is a bumpy ride from status quo to status desired, there is a tendency for technical personnel to balk at business, and some technical personnel balk at new technology. It is difficult to knock down the cultural walls between business personnel and technical personnel. Survey: medical IS lags behind other industries. (information systems) Hewlett-Packard Co and the Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) have results of a survey they conducted on the use of information systems (IS) in the medical industry. Survey results indicate the driving factor behind use of computers in 43 percent of hospitals surveyed is the improvement of operational efficiency rather than improvement in patient care. Improvement of patient care was a second at 23 percent. Over 400 IS executives at the HIMSS conference in Feb 1991 were polled on their general opinion of the state of technology in the health care industry. HIMSS members expect on-line medical records for patients to have great potential. They indicate that a friendlier user interface could advance the use of computers in hospitals. Microwave management. (good bread baking requires all day attention, and so does good leadership) (column) Microwave bread is not the same as what Mom used to make on the farm in Wisconsin. Information System (IS) managers who look for shortcuts and quick fixes (one-minute management, quality circles, management by objective, entrepreneurial circles) are not as effective as they might be. Companies need full-time managers who work with individual contributors to increase motivation, productivity, service and quality. Goals need to be set that are challenging yet attainable, and feedback is necessary in regard to goal attainment. Jobs and personnel must be matched as well as possible. A culture must be created in which people contribute their best effort because they believe the system of rewards is fair. Proper management of IS and human resources results in a strategic competitive advantage. The needing edge. (Executive Report: evaluating advanced technologies) Information technology is being addressed by advanced technology groups in record numbers. The Gartner Group Inc's Advanced Technology Group findings indicate start-ups of advanced technology groups are widespread and growing in numbers, despite economic downturns. Many organizations take the position that technology changes are so quick, the changes must be tracked in order to maintain the competitive edge. A diverse set of strategies is being followed by US corporations. Texaco Inc sponsors seminars for business units and publishes a newsletter. National Linen Service in Atlanta, GA uses a no-cost high tech center for research. Northern Telecom has a sophisticated multimedia system they developed on their own. The two dangers to the development of advanced technology are overemphasis of short-term goals, and ignoring practical business applications. USAA builds in advanced technology. (United Services Automobile Association) United Services Automobile Association (USAA) has a long-range strategic systems plan that has become a corporate way of life since the beginning of the plan in 1980. Attention to emerging technology is part of the corporate organizational structure. A special advanced technology group was formed two years after the strategic systems plan was drafted at USAA. A research and development review committee monitors the activities of the technology group. One outcome of the endeavor is an image processing system implemented after six years of research and prototyping by the insurance company. Customer relations, productivity and management support have improved. The firm has eliminated 39,000 square feet of office space previously needed to support claims and correspondence. About 160 file managers and delivery clerks were fired as a result of the reorganization. National Linen lets vendors do legwork. (request for proposals) LaPlante, Alice. National Linen Service, a division of National Service Industries Inc, has awarded a contract to build 110 multimedia systems for the company. The management of National Linen first went to Inforum with technical requirements, and let Inforum do the product and vendor search. Inforum sent out a request for proposal to 30 vendors, 18 of which replied. Four companies were chosen by National Linen and asked to provide demonstrations. Inforum was paid by the participating vendors, so the project was accomplished at minimal cost to National Linen. The four vendor finalists provided National with prototype systems developed on their own time and at their own expense. The whole process saved National a lot of money on their own research and development project. Now is the time for a new kind of group. (Evaluating Advanced Technologies: executive report) Advanced technology groups should be internal groups that help companies make the most of business opportunities, whether or not those solutions involve state-of-the-art systems. Problems with advanced technology groups include unnecessary demonstrations that illustrate the potential of technologies that may be of no use to the business at hand, finding problems that match predetermined solutions, technical staffing unschooled in business matters, fixations on new or unproven technologies, and the reluctance to make the most of systems already in place. A better approach is the systems opportunities group, which differs from advanced technology in the focus of the operation. The focus would be on strategic mission critical business concerns. Raymond Kurzweil. (In Depth: interview.)(includes related articles on Kurzweil companies and profit, and on computer science in the Raymond Kurzweil is the founder of Kurzweil Music Systems and Kurzweil Applied Intelligence. The music firm manufactures the Kurzweil 250 digital synthesizer. In the summer of 1990 Kurzweil Music was sold to a Korean firm. The Applied Intelligence firm holds 75 percent of the speech recognition market, according to Kurzweil himself. The entrepreneur and computer genius has always expected, since he wrote his first software program at age 12, that digital information could encompass many types of phenomena. In artificial intelligence he sees systems that can emulate human intelligence within a narrow domain. When different systems are combined, such as speech recognition and natural language understanding, users may be able to interact verbally with the computer, within an expert domain. German Railways: may the best firm win. (Europewide cooperative transportation management system in the plans) German Railways is receiving bids for building a pan-European cooperative transportation management system. Several very different data processing approaches are being presented to the Railways' transportation management. There are extensive logistical railway problems that need to be solved. The railways, including those in East Germany, need to integrate heterogeneous hardware and software system environments. Other means of transportation also need to be considered in the all-encompassing German railway architecture. Workstations will be standardized. Unix is expected to take an important role in unifying different architectures. Volunteer group offers IS benefits. (information systems) Ambrosio, Johanna. Non-Profit Computing, based in New York, helps nonprofit organizations by giving them advice on what information systems to purchase, and by providing custom programming services. The NPC group has affiliates internationally. Clients include the St. Aloysius Education Clinic, which has an after school program to help children with their homework. NPC is located in Berkeley, CA; Houston, TX; Middletown, CN; Toronto, London, and Berlin. There are a total of 17 NPC groups worldwide. The organization was founded in 1984 as part of the New York Personal Computer Users' Group. Nonprofit body allows options for disabled. (National Cristina Foundation)(includes related article on computer industry National Cristina Foundation (NCF), officially founded in 1985, began when D. Bruce McMahan donated a microcomputer to Cristina McMahan's special education class at Yonkers Public School in New York in 1981. The nonprofit organization now works internationally to provide computers and related technology to people with special needs. Over 5,000 microcomputers and peripheral equipment has been distributed by the organization to help train people with differing abilities. Presently the NCF serves almost 40,000 people in 400 locations in five countries. Companies that contribute include Apple Computer, IBM, and the Trace Research and Development Center in Madison, WI. Multiple-choice predictions. (computer leasing industry forecasts for 1991) (column) Forecasts for growth in the computer leasing industry for 1991 lead to some confusion due to their large disparity. The Gartner Group predicts 1991 growth for that sector of the industry at approximately 15 percent. Technology Investment Strategies Corp predicts a growth rate of approximately 6 percent. Information from both forecasts indicates the leasing industry has a diverse makeup, is in a reactive state, and is attempting to diversify leasing portfolios, being affected by the same macroeconomic conditions that apply to the US computer industry in general. The third party market could be depressed into a negative growth situation by the end of 1992, depending on other events in the computer industry as a whole. Room for IS creativity in mail-order firms. (catalog companies) Kay, Sheryl. The mail order industry is a good place for information systems professionals to seek work, especially in times of high unemployment. Information systems (IS) are being used increasingly by mail order companies in order to create innovative marketing and inventory applications. Today's consumers have limited shopping time, and there is increased competition among businesses. During the busy periods such as the Christmas holidays, IS professionals may be under a lot of pressure and they may be asked to do a variety of tasks. Because mail order companies are scattered throughout the US, a relocation may be necessary. A combination of business and technical skills is in greatest demand. U.S. details price of business with Iraq. (computer equipment and other high tech gear) Iraq purchased over $500 million worth of US computer equipment and high-tech gear in the years between 1985 and 1990. The US Department of Commerce, in a 110-page report released in Mar 1991, discloses $2.8 million dollars in equipment was shipped to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. Many of the sales went to military sites which were subsequently bombed. Two sales of $8.7 million each were licensed for use by the Iraqi Ministry for a personnel data base that may have been used for internal security purposes to keep track of people. The US is presently planning to ship Brazil an IBM vector-processor add-on to an IBM mainframe, thus boosting the machine to a supercomputer class configuration. This is happening even though Brazil meets only one of six nuclear nonproliferation credentials required for import of US high-performance computers. The computer will be used by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, Embraer. Embraer reportedly supplies technical services to Iraq. Health board rebuts VDT miscarriage link. (video display terminal) Hildebrand, Carol. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that pregnant women who spend a lot of time using VDTs do not have a higher risk of miscarriage. VDT health activists do not agree with the NIOSH assessment. Several issues are not properly addressed by the report. In the study of 882 pregnancies, the first used VDTs, and the control group used LED equipment. Both of these types of equipment emit extremely low-frequency electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions at 45 to 60 Hz, and very low-frequency (VLF) emissions at 15 KHz. Thus the question becomes, 'At a higher risk than who'? The report did not look at early fetal loss, did not consider questions of stress associated with VDT health problems, and used only two VDT models. Tandy CD-ROM set to shatter high-price barrier. (product announcement) Tandy Corp introduces the CDR-1000 compact disc/read-only memory (CD-ROM) internal drive with a retail price of $399.95. Access time for the CDR-1000 is clocked at approximately 900 msec, slightly slower than other drives on the market. The price is expected to make the new Tandy product competitive nonetheless. Prices for other CD-ROM drives range from $599 to $1,200. CDR-1000 offers a 150Kbyte/sec data transfer rate, which is minimum standard for multimedia microcomputer systems. Next release of Ultrix due in May; to feature added Ingres support. (Ingres relational database) (product announcement) DEC announces Ultrix 4.2, a new version of its UNIX implementation that supports a wider variety of hardware platforms and offers better relational database support. Ultrix 4.2 will be available in May 1991 and will include a new version of Ultrix/SQL, an Ingres-based relational DBMS, with on-line backup, fast commit and multilingual collating functions. The new operating system will run on the VAX 9000 series mainframe computers as well as other DEC systems. It will include a full implementation of the X Window System Version 11, Release 4 and multiscreen support as well as a graphical user-account manager and support for Adobe Type 1 fonts on workstations. DDA cites VMS relicensing process as major bottleneck in used-equipment transactions. (Digital Dealers Association) The Digital Dealers Association (DDA) claims that DEC's relicensing policies for the VMS operating system make it difficult for used-equipment dealers to operate because obtaining a new license is a slow and complex process. Delays result from the company's switch to centralized relicensing management and changes in documentation requirements for obtaining a new license. The DDA does note that the process has been streamlined somewhat and takes only two days for those customers who submit a software relicensing form to DEC along with its associated Product Authorization Keys. Not all dealers have enough resources to support this process. Some DDA member companies report delays of three to five months in getting licenses for VMS on used systems, forcing customers to wait before they can use their systems. DEC officials say the problems occur because license applicants do not have enough documentation. DEC cuts into Unix workstation prices. (price cuts, improved compilers) DEC has reduced prices and introduced compiler enhancements on its workstations in an effort to compete more effectively against Sun Microsystems. Company officials say DEC workstations now perform faster than Sun's SPARCstations on standard benchmarks and offer better price/performance ratios. The DECstation 5000 Model 200 uses faster Fortran and C compilers than previous units, and the company has reduced the price of its entry-level DECstation 3100 from $6,995 to $4,995. This makes the DECstation 3100 an effective replacement for the DECstation 2100 in DEC's product line. DEC has also reduced prices on all models of the DECstation 5000 workstation line by $1,500 and announced high-resolution 16-inch Sony Trinitron monitors for all graphics configurations. The price of the DECstation 5000 Model 200XPG graphics workstation has been dropped from $27,000 to $23,500. Oracle, DEC trade punches over capabilities of DLM. (Distributed Lock Manager) (product announcement) Oracle Corp announces Oracle 6.2 with the Oracle Parallel Server, a new version of the company's relational DBMS that operates reliably on VAXclusters. Earlier Oracle versions did not work with VAXclusters because they used DEC's Distributed Lock Manager (DLM) synchronization software excessively; the new product minimizes the number of times it accesses DLM via a parallel cache management server. The new technology allows linear performance gains as users add CPUs to massively parallel or loosely coupled computer environments. DEC counters with claims that its own Rdb database management system does not suffer from bottlenecks when running with DLM and that Rdb does have row-level locking and group commits, contrary to Oracle claims. Officials at DEC say that RDBMS benchmarks are easily manipulated and that Oracle's claims of better performance for Oracle 6.2 are difficult to substantiate. IBM upgrades high-end RISC server line with 25MHz boxes. (IBM RS/6000 computers) (product announcement) IBM introduces the Powerstation 320H and Powerserver 320H, enhanced versions of the 320 models in its RISC System/6000 workstation line. The new products offer 25-MHz CPUs and additional memory; the base configuration of the 320H is equipped with 16Mbytes of RAM. IBM has also released the Powerserver 950, a new high-end rack-mounted server that uses the same CPU as the current Powerserver 550 but adds additional disk storage space and a 2.3Gbyte CD-ROM drive. The PowerGraphics GTO add-on graphics device lets users add the Powerstation 720's graphics capabilities to any Powerstation via a Micro Channel adapter. Analysts say the new machines still do not fill a gap at the low end of IBM's line; the company has not yet introduced a low-cost RISC workstation to compete with those from Sun Microsystems and others. IBM says it is working on such a machine and hopes to dominate the RISC market by 1993. Load-balancing software for SunOS, RISC/Ultrix systems targets distributed computing. (VXM Technologies' Balans) (product VXM Technologies announces Balans, a new load-balancing software package for Sun Microsystems' SunOS and DEC's Ultrix operating systems that supports distributed computing based on either Sun or HP network environments. The software lets network managers automatically allocate idle CPU resources in a heterogeneous network to specific tasks and is aimed at TCP/IP networks. Balans includes a C-language application programming interface and an internal remote procedure call designed to let users connect to distributed applications. It operates as a Unix 'daemon' process running on each machine in the network and determines the actual allocation of network resources, arbitrating contention for jobs from various network nodes. Balans is priced at $6,000 to $35,000, depending on the number of network nodes. KiNet update to combine batch processing on Unix via NQS with load-balancing capabilities. (Ki Research updates KiNet network Ki Research Inc is developing a new version of its KiNet emulation software that will provide VAX users with links to Ki's Network Queuing Software for sending batch jobs to UNIX CPUs. The new 'Network Object' layered software will accept VAX DCL commands while residing on UNIX systems and is based on a specification of the Posix standard written by Sterling Software of Palo Alto, CA, for NASA. Ki's Network Computing Executive load-balancing software, developed by startup The Cummings Group, will communicate directly with the new KiNet version. Ki Research officials say the new product will be released in May 1991 and will be offered as a maintenance update to current customers. Ross scheduled to release Rdb version of Renaissance accounting system in June. (Ross Systems to offer version of Renaissance Ross Systems plans to release a new version of its Renaissance accounting software that runs on top of DEC's Rdb relational database in Jun 1991. The new software will let users take advantage of relational database technology to simplify financial research. The city of Torrance, CA, a beta site for the new software, is running it on a VAXcluster consisting of two PDP-11/780s, one VAX 8350, three VAX 8350s and one VAX 8650. City officials say they spent approximately $120,000 for Renaissance and have already purchased Rdb for another project. 8mm tape library from Lago uses 54-cartridge carousel; provides as much as 270GB of backup for VAXclusters. (Lago Systems' LS/300L Lago Systems introduces the LS/300L 8mm tape-cartridge library that provides up to 270Gbytes of on-line backup storage for VAXclusters. The new library has a 24-cartridge carousel with two 8mm tape transports and a Standard Tape Interface adapter that provides a 512Kbyte buffer. Each cartridge stores 2.5- to 5Gbytes of information; average access time is 1.75 seconds, according to the company. The LS/390L is available in two versions: the $75,000 Model 1 uses 2.5Gbyte Exabyte cartridges and has a sustained data transfer rate of 246Kbytes per second, while the $85,000 Model 2 drive stores 5Gbytes per cartridge and has a data transfer rate of 500Kbytes per second. Apple slices IIfx, IIci, SE/30 prices in desktop system bid. (Apple cuts prices on high-end desktop models) Apple has cut prices on several of its Macintosh models in an effort to improve its market share. The company now offers the Macintosh IIfx with one floppy drive and 4Mbytes of RAM for $7,369 and with an 80Mbyte hard disk for $8,069, a decrease of 18 percent from previous prices. A IIfx with 4Mbytes of RAM and a 160Mbyte disk is now $8,699, a drop of 21 percent from $10,969. Apple has reduced the price of two IIci configurations 10 percent, to $5,969 for the 5Mbyte floppy disk version and $6,660 with an 80Mbyte hard disk. It has cut prices on the SE/30 by 23 to 31 percent, from $4,369 to $3,369 for a model with a 40Mbyte disk and 1Mbyte of RAM and from $5,569 to $3,869 for the version with an 80Mbyte hard disk and 4Mbytes of RAM. The IIsi is now offered with 3Mbytes of RAM at $3,769. Sybase to acquire Deft; move paves way for port of CASE vendor's tools to Unix, VMS. Sybase Corp is purchasing computer-aided-software-engineering tool vendor Deft for an undisclosed amount and may port Deft's products to the Unix and VMS platforms. Deft's software currently runs on the Macintosh and is used for relational database application development; applications run on DEC environments under Sybase 3.2 and 3.0, Rdb 3.0, Oracle 6.0, Informix and IBM's DB2. The program is based on a client/server architecture and includes four Mac-based dictionary-driven editors that let developers use the Mac graphical interface to design and document RDBMS applications. Gateways upload design objects to the host computer and automatically generate schema and form definitions. Data General's high-end Aviion line to pack more power. (Data General Aviion RISC-based computers for symmetric multiprocessing) Data General Corp introduces two new workstations in its Aviion line: the Aviion AV 7000 and Aviion AV 8000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) machines, both high-end symmetric multiprocessing computers. The AV 8000 is a rack-mounted system with 128Mbytes of RAM expandable to 768Mbytes, both VME and Mbus buses and the ability to support up to eight Ethernet ports and 1,275 asynchronous terminals. The AV 7000 is a desk-side unit that holds up to 512Mbytes of memory. Both new machines are rated at 117 MIPS and are built around a system board with four tightly coupled 25-MHz Motorola 88100 RISC processors. Prices for the AV 7000 start at $162,950; the AV 8000 is priced at $249,520 and up. Steady adoption of object-oriented systems seen. (market for object oriented programming and database tools expected to Analysts expect the market for object-oriented programming tools and database management systems to grow significantly in the 1990s, but opinions on the potential of the technologies to expand beyond scientific and technical environments vary widely. Some observers say that an 'explosion' in the market is unlikely, saying that the object model is a 'fashionable' but largely unproven technology. Developers have realized that object-oriented databases will not replace relational and hierarchical databases but must coexist with them and offer integration tools. Other analysts are more optimistic, predicting 'moderate' growth tempered by traditional resistance to change in the DBMS market but fueled by developers' realization of the advantages of object-oriented programming. Real-time Motorola CIM machines offer DECnet links. (the DeltaRt series) (computer-integrated manufacturing) (product announcement) Motorola introduces the DeltaRt family of real-time workstations based on its 68030 microprocessor and 68882 floating-point unit. The DeltaRt models provide 8- to 32Mbytes of memory and four to six serial ports as well as one Centronics and one Ethernet port. The computers offer links to DECnet for use in VAX and DECstation environments, a feature Motorola says was customer-driven; most potential users expressed a desire to plug real-time systems into existing DECnet architectures. The DeltaRt 3200, Rt 3500, Rt 3600 and Rt 3800 are designed for industrial automation and are priced at $8,000 to $25,000. The applicationDEC 433MP system. (DEC's applicationDEC 433MP Intel-based SCO Unix system)(Digital Update: A Special Advertising New products and support services offered by Digital Equipment Corp are discussed. DEC's applicationDEC 433MP system is an industry-standard multiprocessing workstation that provides an open system platform for running sophisticated business software and is effective in client/server environments. The company offers 'FASTship' service for its desktop systems, including most prepackaged VAXstation workstations, many PC integration products and terminals such as the VT420. Its recently-announced InfoServer 100 is a dedicated CD-ROM-based server that provides direct data access to LAN clients. New Network Application Support (NAS) extensions for distributed processing applications are discussed. The importance of product support. (column) Hancock, Bill. Users who have gone beyond the most basic functions of any computer product will always need technical support, and no amount of technology can replace a skilled support technician. The best support personnel unfortunately tend to be quickly promoted out of their positions and into management, losing their technical skills in the face of the new business abilities they have to learn. Support is more important than features in a high-technology product, a fact many companies forget. Customers should assert their right to obtain escalation for problems in a support contract. The customer should call the vendor support manager and find out what background and experience the support personnel have. Every customer has a right to the good support they are paying for. SQL and client/server computing. (Structured Query Language)(Development Views) (column) Structured Query Language vendors usually implement such SQL extensions as string, mathematical and statistical functions in a non-standard way and try to optimize their systems for particular market needs. This situation makes it both more difficult and more important for a buyer to choose SQL vendors carefully. Referential integrity is one area in which there is almost no standardization. Some systems have no referential integrity at all and leave it entirely up to the user or programmer to ensure that data is entered into two linked tables. ANSI is drafting a new standard for referential integrity in the SQL 2 specification, but SQL 2 still does not cover some important client/server computing issues. Remote procedure call technologies often rely on Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN) to handle format differences, but SQL database vendors dislike ASN because of its server overhead. UNIX: one small step for the Mac...a giant leap for Mac kind. (Software Review) (Apple's A/UX) (evaluation) Apple's A/UX 2.0 operating system is a full UNIX implementation for the Macintosh that provides far more extensive connectivity options than are available under the Mac's native operating system. The Macintosh System is single-user oriented and has no inherent means of automating repetitive actions. A/UX uses the MultiFinder, Apple's system for moving applications into the background. Its graphical user interface is nearly identical to that of the Macintosh System, and users can switch between A/UX and standard MultiFinder. A/UX unfortunately cannot access all UNIX file systems; unlike Ultrix or SunOS, it must contend with two operating systems simultaneously. Installation requires disk partitioning, a procedure familiar to most UNIX administrators but not to most Mac users. Users log onto A/UX by entering a user name and password but can then turn the Mac off and reboot it to the System interface, a severe security flaw. A/UX is a product with limited appeal; it is not powerful enough for most current Mac users, but it is a good product for those who need UNIX now but want to take advantage of the Mac operating system and interface. Power to the Macs. (Hardware Review) (Yarc Systems MacRageous/30 reduced instruction set computing coprocessor for Apple's Yarc Systems' MacRageous/30 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) coprocessor for Apple Macintosh II microcomputers provides Mac users with a lower-cost alternative to migrating to Unix workstations. It resides on a long NuBus card and is easy to install. The card houses 256Kbytes to 2Mbytes of static instruction RAM, 2- to 32Mbytes of data RAM and a 20-MHz or 30-MHz 29000 CPU from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Applications run under the normal Mac operating system, and Yarc's compilers support parallel operation via bus mastering commands. The MacRageous/30 board can access and control the Nubus when operating in parallel with another MacRageous/30. A Yarc Systems tool called the 29K Executor provides access to the board for programs compiled with Yarc's TopExpress compilers but that do not contain explicit calls. The weakest feature in the development kit is its clumsy script file method. Coprocessor boards for the Mac may eventually grow in popularity enough to benefit end users as well as developers because shrink-wrapped applications will take advantage of them. Massively parallel systems harness power of CPUs. (Planning Technology Decisions) (includes related articles on the US Massively parallel computing architectures, which let multiple processors work in tandem, lend themselves to solving complex problems such as weather and climate prediction and the effort to decode the human gene sequence. These problems, determined 'Grand Challenges' by the US government's Federal High Performance Computing Initiative, have hampered even supercomputers for many years. Massively parallel computers are ideal for 'Monte Carlo' solutions, under which the computer calculates multiple scenario results from varying assumptions, because they can run far more solutions simultaneously. The machines cost $250,000 to $7 million and may contain thousands of processors. Users of massively parallel supercomputers must divide problems into smaller tasks, a major programming problem. The amount of the problem that must be solved serially is the fundamental limitation to performance gains in parallel processing. A lack of supporting software, especially compilers, limits the size of the massively parallel computing market. Pioneer vendors of massively parallel systems such as Convex Computer have attracted approximately 1,000 customers, and other vendors are expressing interest. Intel is working on massively parallel development products. Diseases succumb to massively parallel probing. (use of massively parallel computers at the US National Institutes of Health) The US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, are using a massively parallel computer to decode virus structures. The Intel Ipsc860 machine has 64 processors, 640Mbytes of RAM and 10Gbytes of storage space. It is used for image processing work in generating 3-D models of viruses. Scientists obtain 2-D cross sections of viruses through electron microscopy and compile them to create 3-D images. Another application for the massively parallel computer is speeding the process of determining how specific protein strings function in humans. The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center uses massively parallel computers for the study of subatomic particles. Tech reps to the rescue in the Gulf War. Burrows, Peter. The Gulf War used the expertise of the technical representatives, or civilian employees of defense contractors and other suppliers, that offered support for weapons products in the fields. The representative would typically travel with the army wherever high technology was in use, to maintain the fighter aircraft, missiles, radar systems, night-vision devices, reconnaissance planes and other equipment that needed maintenance. These representatives often faced the same risks as the Allied troops did. Companies that sent representatives abroad kept a low profile to avoid being targets of terrorism. The representatives were motivated by their professionalism, as well as by the extra income for going overseas (amounting from 20 percent to 50 percent more pay). Home-office buyers moving to mail order. Parker, John. More home-office workers are buying their home office equipment via mail-order. Mail-order companies and warehouse clubs report growth of 56 percent and 143 percent respectively, since 1988. Home-office workers are typically sophisticated shoppers who know their technology. Service contracts differ little from the retailer to the mail-order house, and mail-order customers have the same OEM warranty coverage as retail customers. Some mail-order houses even have telephone support services. Mail-order companies offer lower prices since their overhead is lower. Hello Direct, a San Jose-based vendor of business telephone accessories doubled its revenue from 1989 to 1990. Who's in the driver's seat? Fastie, Will. IBM PCs today are not really different from the earliest ones, except that they are faster. Only the IBM's PS/2 is different architecturally, and the compatibles that use the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA). IBM was panned for abandoning the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) to move to MCA, but it is now positioned to take advantage of important software advances. The hardware and software in an ISA machine cannot cooperate, since it is not an integrated design. MCA machines setup is easier, and its operating system has many options in dealing with the hardware. OS/2 will eventually exploit the MCA-based machine's capabilities, whereas the ISA-based machine will not fare very well. Writing an agenda for the 1990s. (overview article to a series of five articles in The CEO Agenda) CEOs in the electronics industry are facing new challenges during the 1990s. Companies are responding to such issues as competing in the increasingly competitive marketplace, redesigning the organization for the 1990s and maintaining a technological edge. Technological innovation is the key to maintaining a competitive edge, according to most CEOs, but technology is not the only way to win a customer. The Japanese are hard to compete against in regards to technology and cost, and most companies see a US decline in these areas. Big US companies find it difficult to move ahead from their own bureaucracy. CEOs also admit that they are slow to define what the customer needs, giving another advantage to their nimble competitors. A blueprint for competition. (one of a series of articles on CEOs in The CEO Agenda; includes related articles on reliability, and CEOs are concerned that foreign competitors will take their market share away, winning them over in terms of customer satisfaction and quality. Most companies have begun to cut costs and improve product quality. Other concerns include keeping abreast of product innovation, capital availability and foreign markets. Top planning includes fine-tuning core competencies and teaming up with customers and suppliers. GenRad Inc, a manufacturer of test equipment, is focusing on test-equipment solutions. Manufacturing agreements will grow rapidly during the first half of the 1990s. US companies will join forces with foreign competition. The rising price of technological leadership. (one of a series of articles on CEOs in The CEO Agenda) The key to maintaining a competitive advantage is technological innovation, according to the results of a CEO survey. Forty-one percent of the CEOs surveyed believed that US technological edge was declining, and would continue to decline over the first half of the 1990s. Basic research spending is also in decline, furthering the loss of technology. The CEOs surveyed believed closer contact with customers was key to defining changing market needs and shorten product development time. In addition, networking will place a further demand on US companies, as they respond to the need to develop new expertise. The changing face of the organization. (one of a series of articles on CEOs in The CEO Agenda; includes related articles on An Electronic Business-Ernst & Young survey of CEOs reveals corporate management agrees that customer satisfaction and product quality are important keys to maintaining a competitive stance in the marketplace during the 1990s. However, less than one-third surveyed reported that these factors were an important part of their company's strategy. Invariably, CEOs do not have reliable tools for measuring the effects of quality programs. Most CEOs surveyed believed that a motivated well-trained work force was critical for US competitiveness. Personal style becomes an important factor in motivating one's employees, according to the survey. Taking the pulse of the electronics industry. (one of a series of articles on CEOs in The CEO Agenda) In a survey of CEOs in the electronic industry prepared by Electronic Business-Ernst & Young Co, executives revealed that they had cut back employment and payroll, due to weak revenue growth in 1990. Only voice communications and software companies increased employment by 28 percent and 21 percent respectively. Smaller companies are more vulnerable to economic turndowns, and the survey showed that these companies are under extreme pressure. Large company revenue rose 10 percent, while midsize companies rose 21 percent. Despite gloomy trends, CEOs reported with much optimism about the future and their companies' future outlook. Eurocrats to reshape Europe's electronics industry. (includes a related article on European electronics producers) Many issues are being reexamined to help Europe regain competitiveness in the electronics industry. The European Commission (EC) is researching the problem and is expected to publish a major policy paper in Mar 1990. Michel Carpentier, head of DG XIII for telecommunications, information industries and innovation, is a key figure in implementing a European strategy in telecommunications and information technology. Carpentier sees the problems of the electronics industry as a world-wide problem, rather than just European. He believes that the Commission will promote cooperation between the dominant US businesses and Europe, rather than call for protectionist measures. Downturn slows computer business down under. (Australia's computer industry) Australia's computer industry stopped growing in 1990, for the first time in many years. Employment fell by nearly one percentage point. Some of the larger companies ran into problems during the year. Micro Byte Systems Co and Labtam Ltd had severe financial problems and went bankrupt. The country's computer industry downturn has not helped Australia's trade deficit. However, business was better for large international companies such as IBM Australia Ltd, the biggest computer manufacturer in the country. NCR will build workstations in the country, according to company sources. Boosting exports and reducing Australia's import levels is a major goal throughout the decade. Autos and office products drive high-end market. (includes a related article on the embedded chip market) Manufacturers of 32-bit RISC products are being motivated to produce, due to the need for higher-powered modems, faxes and networking products. Intel Corp and its ADC 196 chip and Motorola, with its 68000 derivatives, are both capitalizing on this demand. In addition, prices of RISC chips have declined, and the printer market is demanding more complex printing capabilities. RISC's performance is four to five times quicker than CISC embedded microprocessors, and the price-performance is attractive. However, many vendors have entered the market, according to analysts, and a fallout is inevitable. Companies who will survive are those that make long-term investments in leading-edge 32-bit technology. AT&T, Xilinx split over FPGA design. (field-programmable gate array) AT&T and Xilinx Inc are developing separate architectures for their next-generation field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Currently, the two firms are partners whose products lead the FPGA market. AT&T decided to develop its own FPGA architecture because the company was concerned about the ability of the current Xilinx FPGA architecture to evolve to higher-level products, particularly AT&T's standard-cell technology. Xilinx, though, is also developing an upwardly migratable FPGA technology that will enable customers to move to a mask gate array. Another factor possibly propelling the divergent product development paths is the aggressive marketing of the current Xilinx FPGAs by AT&T as a second source vendor. Both Xilinx and AT&T announce availability of 125-MHz versions of the XC3000 familiy of FPGAs. Difficulties in migrating FPGAs to full gate arrays are discussed. HP bolts into RISC lead: Precision Architecture workstations redefine the market. (Hewlett-Packard's new workstation line Hewlett-Packard Co (Chelmsford, MA) debuts its HP 9000 Series 700 family of Precision Architecture reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor (MPU)-based workstations on Mar 26, 1991. The new workstations employ either a 50-MHz or 66-MHz version of the Precision Architecture RISC MPU, the fastest yet RISC MPU on the market. The overall Specmark and floating-point benchmarks for the 50-MHz version are, respectively, 42.8 and 46.2, and 55.3 and 60.1 for the 66-MHz version. No other workstation offers comparable performance for the prices HP has announced: less than $12,000 for the basic 50-MHz version and about $20,000 for the 66-MHz version. HP expects about 2,000 programs to be available soon for the HP 9000 Series 700 machines. The emphasis will be on graphics applications. Competing products are briefly discussed. Gazelle's GaAs tanks need fill-up. (Gazelle Microcircuits Inc. seeks additional capital) Gazelle Microcircuits Inc (Santa Clara, CA) seeks additional capital, as the almost $4 million in funding the firm received from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has almost run out. The company's 1990 revenues are four times 1989 revenues, and similar growth is expected in 1991. Gazelle, though, needs to reduce the cost and increase the throughput for its products. This requires both operating capital and capital investment in ac-testing equipment for the firm's gallium-arsenide semiconductor products. These products include programmable array logic devices, clock-distribution chips and the Hot Rod 1G-bit/sec serial interface chip. DARPA invested in Gazelle because the defense agency considers the latter product a strategic technology. Gazelle's chief investor is the firm's foundry, TriQuint Semiconductor Inc (Beaverton, OR), with which Gazelle is negotiating a merger. AMD looks to Asia: big chance for Am386 seen in shortages. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s' new Intel 80386-compatible Am386 Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD, Cupertino, CA) will focus on the Asian microcomputer manufacturing market for the firm's new Am386 series of Intel 80386-compatible microprocessors (MPUs). Second- and third-level Asian makers of IBM PC-compatibles have been unable to get all of the Intel 80386 MPUs (particularly the 80386SX) they needed to satisfy their customers. Consequently, AMD is targeting its new Am386 products at PC vendors in such places as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. The success of the new AMD MPUs will also be driven by the growth of the battery-powered laptop and notebook PC market, as AMD claims that its the Am386SXL uses less than half the power of the comparable Intel 80386SX MPU. Intel is responding with a forthcoming two-chip Intel 80386SL MPU, which AMD claims is full of bugs. The Taiwan and Hong Kong market for Intel 80386 devices and AMD/Intel competition and courtroom activities are discussed. Valid framework runs on commercial database. (Valid Logic Systems Inc. introduces Design Manager) (product announcement) Valid Logic Systems Inc (San Jose, CA) introduces Design Manager, a modular software framework for Valid's electronic design automation software. The $3,500 data base management system (DBMS) component of the framework is based on Objectivity Inc's Storage Manager object-oriented DBMS (OODBMS). The other modules are the $10,000 Query Manager and $10,000 System Administrator. The software is part of Valid's goal of providing integrated computer-aided design (CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE) tools. Design Manager's OODBMS and administration features include the ability to update, store and share sets of design releases; distributed data management over heterogeneous local area networks; and design library management with numerous ways of accessing designs based on many different attributes. Competing products are briefly discussed. Design Manager runs on IBM, Digital Equipment Corp and Sun Microsystems workstations. NCR unveils first disk-array silicon. (NCR debuts two SCSI-2 chip sets targeted at low- and high-end disk arrays) NCR Corp (Wichita, KS) introduces two chip sets for implementing SCSI-2 disk arrays of up to five disk drives. The chip sets are offered in high- and low-end versions, but both support both the fast and wide versions of the SCSI-2 peripheral interface architecture. The low-end version employs two integrated circuits (ICs) and transfers data in 16-bit words at 20Mbytes/sec. The high-end version uses 17 CMOS ICs and transfers data in 32-bit words (wide SCSI-2) at 10Mbytes/sec or in 16-bit words at 40Mbytes/sec (fast version). The chip set includes seven 53C916 fast and wide SCSI-2 controller ICs, bus extender, data multiplexer, array data activity manager chip, two general-purpose ICs for bus mapping and three Reed-Solomon redundancy chips for error-checking. A five-disk array is implemented as four storage disks and one retaining parity data to restore data if a storage disk dies. JVC, C-Cube team for high-quality MPEG extension. (Japan Victor Company Ltd. and C-Cube Microsystems will announce extension of Japan Victor Co Ltd (JVC) and C-Cube Microsystems are expected to announce joint development of a 'high-quality' extension, JVC-Extended, to the MPEG motion picture compression algorithm at the Microsoft International Conference on Multimedia and CD-ROM in San Jose, CA. The firms have already developed a prototype chip set to implement the algorithm. The new extension will improve the data transfer rates for multimedia, as MPEG is too slow for such applications. JVC claims that the JVC-Extended algorithm will handle broadcast-level video image resolution at 5-to-6Mbytes/sec. The chip set will provide support for MPEG, JVC-Extended and JPEG algorithms. An industry source claims that C-Cube had developed a prototype system capable of processing broadcast quality digital video at 4-to-6Mbytes/sec. Developments in MPEG and JPEG standards are discussed. Hitachi shows high-res color TFT LCD. (thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display) Hitachi Ltd shows a prototype of the firm's thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid-crystal display (LCD). The new 10.3-inch display features 873,600 pixels, 512 colors, 100-to-1 contrast ratio, 100 candelas/square meter brightness and 50 millisecond (ms) response time. The firm expects a commercial version to debut within three years. Hitachi will introduce an Intel 80386SX-based lap-top by the end of 1991 that features a 64-color backlit TFT-LCD. Oki Electric Industry Co Ltd plans to introduce a 10-inch plasma flat panel display spring of 1991 which can be operated by an external 12-volt power supply. Fujitsu is already marketing a 22-inch, red-green-yellow plasma display for such applications as stock price boards. Mentor moves into mechanical CAD. (Mentor Graphics resells Aries Technology Inc.'s Concept-Station software and an interface to Mentor Graphics (Wilsonville, OR) begins to resell Aries Technology Inc's (Lowell, MA) ConceptStation mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) software and announces an interface to Structural Dynamics Research Corp (Milford, OH) I-DEAS mechanical CAD system. The moves are part of Mentor's strategy of providing mechanical CAD capabilities to its customers through third-party developers and most likely a way of fending off major mechanical CAD vendor Intergraph Corp. Both ConceptStation and I-DEAS offer 'full-fledged,' highly integrated sets of mechanical CAD tools with a wide range of design capabilities. The $8,075 to $31,000 ConceptStation primarily handles front-end design and includes such features as interactive 3D modeling, on-line analysis, equation solver and mass and section properties. I-DEAS is a 'full-function' mechanical CAD system with design, analysis, testing and manufacturing functionality. Microsoft joins Object Management Group. Weiss, Ray. Microsoft Corp becomes a corporate member of the Object Management Group (OMG), which is attempting to establish an industry standard for object-oriented, distributed systems. The Microsoft action helps ensure that the IBM PC-compatible computing environment is involved in the OMG effort. Microsoft chose to participate because it believes that the next generation of computing technology will focus on object-oriented, heterogeneous platform, application-to-application integration and that multi-platform connectivity is needed at the object level. The OMG goals were also furthered by Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard's joint submission of a proposal for an OMB Object Request Broker (ORB), the core of OMB's Object Management Architecture. The ORB proposal consolidates Sun's Open Network Computing and HP's Network Computing System distributed computing architectures. PLD conference panel calls for benchmarks. (programmable logic devices) (panel at PLD Design Conference & Exhibit in San Jose, A panel at the EE Times PLD Design Conference & Exhibit in San Jose, CA, asserts a need and provides general guidelines for a benchmarking program for programmable logic devices (PLDs). The panel included Advanced Micro Devices' Bryon Moyer, Xilinx's Peter Alfke and Wes Patterson, Altera's Stan Kopec, Actel's Dennis McCarty and Plus Logic's Phil Kuekes. There was general agreement that the benchmarking methodology should incorporate small circuit elements in large PLDs to enable the estimation of the internal speed of the chips, that users would provide the most meaningful benchmarks and that a neutral third party should oversee the development of the benchmarking technology. There were many differences about specific benchmarking techniques to be employed. Germans expand mobile radio. (Ministry for Post & Telecommunications opens several areas in eastern part of the Germany's Ministry for Post & Telecommunications (MPT) opened the cities of Chemnitz, Leipzig and Berlin in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) plus the Frankfurt/Main area to private mobile radio networks. MPT's primary goal is to improve telecommunications in the eastern part of the country. Proposals to operate the public access mobile radio (PAMR) networks were accepted to the end of Jan 1991 and license awards will be made in Apr 1991. Ten companies and consortia made 26 proposals for the five regions. Deutsche Bundespost Telekom already introduced PAMR services in the five regions, but the applicants feel that there is room for competition. The functionality and success of PAMR in other countries and the companies and consortia applying for the licenses are briefly discussed. NASA budget under fire. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) NASA Assoc Administrator William Lenoir experiences a tough grilling on the agency's proposed $15.5 billion FY 1992 budget in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Science, Space and Technology. Committee members focused on the $5.5. billion to be spent on space transportation, expressing unhappiness with the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars spent on studies for a high-lift-capacity launch vehicle to succeed the shuttle had little to show for it. Congress is apparently willing to fund the development of such a vehicle but only if it is efficient and less susceptible to the disasters that affected the space program the last ten years. NASA has four alternatives: return to the powerful and reliable Saturn V booster rocket, the Alternative Launch System, the unmanned Shuttle C or the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle. Lenoir was unable to satisfy the subcommittee on many of the development, funding and time-line issues involved. The means aren't the end. (The Business of Technology) (there is no viable reason to protect the US liquid-crystal display There is not viable reason to protect the US liquid-crystal display (LCD) industry from unfair pricing (dumping) of LCD screens by foreign vendors. The US LCD industry is small and strategically insignificant. Conversely, US electronics vendors will benefit by a competitive LCD market that is rapidly moving to low-cost, commodity products. Electronics suppliers should focus on implementing systems that have high end-user utility and value and, consequently, can demand premium price. Two examples are pen-pad computer and operating system vendor Go Corp and operating system and application software giant Microsoft Corp. Both firms are aware that the electronics components of computer systems are merely enabling technologies and that the real value lies in the management and display of the data to appear on the screen. WD reverses strategy. (Wester Digital Corp. puts local area network business up for sale; includes related article on WD's Western Digital (WD, Irvine, CA) retreats from its goal of being a one-stop source for all major subsystem components of IBM PC-compatible computers. WD had a $98.5 million loss on $230 million 4th qtr 1990 revenues. Failure of the one-stop strategy, fierce price competition on smaller hard disk drives, market movement to intelligent SCSI disk drives and declining peripheral-controller revenues are major factors underlying the decline in WD sales and profits. Consequently, WD is restructuring and consolidating its operations. This includes writing down $66 million in the 4th qtr 1990 by eliminating older disk drive and video product inventory and most of the disk controller business, closing a Puerto Rico surface-mount board plant, laying off 900 employees and putting up the local area network operation for sale. A new distribution system may have added another $50 million to the 4th qtr losses. Restructuring advantages, new products and WD's hidden strengths are discussed. Semi-gear makers find partners. (semiconductor production equipment vendors) Strategic partnerships between manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment and materials are a growing trend. Several such partnerships are discussed or announced at the Semicon/Europa 91 conference and exhibition in Zurich, Switzerland. These include the new OCG Microelectronic Materials Inc joint venture, which combines the photoresist operations of Olin Corp (Stamford, CT) and Ciba-Geigy AG (Basel, Switzerland) and the polyimide operations of the latter. The GTE Emissive Products (Exeter, NH) operation of GTE Corp's Precision Materials Unit has agreed to supply Saint-Gobain's (France) TSL Group plc (UK) subsidiary and other European semiconductors with quartz tubing. Applied Materials Inc (Santa Clara, CA) and the Centre National d'Etudes des Telecommunications (CNET, France) announce a joint venture developing 'highly advanced tungsten deposition.' MIT sends FCC all-digital HDTV. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology research program files high-definition television The Advanced Television Research Program (ATRP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, MA) submitted an all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) architecture in the program's Advanced TV Test application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The ATVA Progressive technology generates a non-interlaced 1,280-by-780-pixel images every one-sixtieth of a second. The technology uses advanced video-detection and -compensation image-processing algorithms to combine motion vector data, selected image coefficients, forward error correction, four channels of CD-quality digital audio and auxiliary data in a 19.43M-bit/sec data stream which is subsequently digitally modulated to enable the transmission of the HDTV signal within the 6-MHz bandwidth allowed by the FCC. Details of the technology are discussed. 64-Mbit DRAMs come out fast. (new dynamic random-access memory chips offer access times as fast as 33 nanoseconds) Several Japanese semiconductor manufacturers have fast 64M-bit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips in the experimental stage of development. Toshiba Corp employs SRAM-type analog differential sense amplifiers requiring only 0.2V to operate in order to reduce the claimed access time for their new 64M-bit DRAM to 33 nanoseconds (ns). The analog amplifier enables rapid transport of a charge to the device to the outside of the large chip. Hitachi Ltd employs a current=sensing circuit in its 64M-bit DRAM to achieve faster access times. Fujitsu Ltd separated column select lines for reading and writing to speed the access times of its 64M-bit DRAM to a typical 40 ns. None of the DRAMs are full working devices, and several obstacles to their realization have to be solved. These include decrease of cost-per-bit, reduction of the large die and consequent package size, incorporation of on-chip test circuitry and laser repair of defective circuits. Tool integration poses challenge for designers; but standard frameworks will simplify the task. There is a drive towards standard electronic design automation (EDA) frameworks to facilitate the integration of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools. Unfortunately, EDA vendors are not far along in providing individual frameworks with mechanisms for tool integration. The vendors generally do offer 'partnership programs' too help individual tool developers to integrate their design tools into the proprietary frameworks. A variety of techniques are available to CAD/CAE system designers for integrating tools from heterogeneous vendors. CAD Framework Initiative (CFI) consortium offers a possible universal solution in the standards it is developing for integration mechanisms. The first set of CFI guidelines will not debut until Nov, 1991, but CFI has already formed an EDA Users' Group to help convince EDA vendors to adopt the CFI standards. Other issues in tool integration are discussed. Decoder PAL fights rising clock rates. (Cypress Semiconductor introduces four programmable array logic devices that work with Cypress Semiconductor (San Jose, CA) introduces fast address decoder programmable logic devices (PLDs) that are designed to handle the high execution speed of reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) or top-end complex-instruction-set computer (CISC) microprocessors (MPUs). The speed of the latest generations of RISC and CISC MPUs are causing the emergence of new critical paths that require, among other functions, excellent address decoder setup and delay times. The two versions of the new PLD address decoders each consist of two chips. One version combines the CY7C336 and latched CY6C338 PLDs to provide eight outputs and two P-terms per output managing 6-nanosecond (ns) propagation delays. The second version consists of the CY7C337 and latched CY7C339 PLDs, offering four P-terms per output and managing 7 ns delays. The PLDs are primarily ECL with CMOS pin electronics, are sampling now and range from $14.30 to $16.35 each in quantities of 100. MOS gate drivers offer current protection: IR's 8-pin DIPs offer high voltages, current sensing on single chip. (International International Rectifier Corp (IR, El Segundo, CA) introduces two current-limiting MOS gate drivers, the IR2125 and the IR2121. The two power integrated circuits (ICs) combine higher voltage-handling capability and current sensing on the same 8-pin molded DIP package. Both devices are fabricated with IR's high-voltage BCDMOS process technology and feature 9V undervoltage and 20V overvoltage lockout, CMOS- and LSTTL-compatible inputs and outputs, protection against current surges, 43-nanosecond (ns) turn-switching time, 27ns turn-off time into a 330pf load, 140ns propagation delay time, -40 to +150 degrees C operating range, and the ability to drive an N-channel MOSFET, Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor or multiple parallel transistors. The 500V IR2125 is available for $4.80 each in lots of 1,000, while the $20V IR2121 is $2.48 each in 1,000-unit lots. Scope spans two worlds. (Hewlett-Packard Co. introduces the 54600A and 54601A portable digital oscilloscopes) (product announcement) Hewlett-Packard Co (Colorado Spring, CO) introduces the $3,000 two-channel 54600A and $3,500 four-channel 54601A portable digital oscilloscopes. The new oscilloscopes provide near-real-time display of complex and/or modulated waveforms similar to fast analog units. Specific features include a Motorola 68000 microprocessor (MPU); two dedicated acquisition and display custom MPUs; dual trace memories; a front panel with an analog look-and-feel; 100-MHz bandwidth and 8-bit converters for each channel; 16 single-keystroke automatic setup memories; edge, line and TV triggering; dual cursors; and 12 automatic voltage, time or frequency measurements. Performance data includes a 20Msample/sec sampling rate, 2-MHz single-shot bandwidth and vertical sensitivity of 2mV/div to 5V/div. Any designing left to do? (Source Code) (the future of central processing unit and operating system design opportunities) There will continue to be opportunities for central processing unit (CPU) and operating system (OS) designers, but these will be constrained by the ongoing winnowing down of CPU and OS designs to a few standards. Computer hardware and software development costs have decreased as designers select to implement new systems on a smaller number of familiar, standardized microprocessors and microcontrollers and related OSes. There are, though, many opportunities for CPU and OS designers to create proprietary implementations based on the standard CPUs and OSes. A hardware example of this strategy is the multiple implementations of Sun Microsystems' SPARC reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) processor, all employing common instruction set architectures and application programming interfaces (API). The two major UNIX OS standards, System V.4 and OSF/1, share a common API but implementations are being tailored to specific hardware and software environments. X.25 WAN board for SBus. (Themis Computer Inc. introduces the SXCM X.25 wide-area network controller) (product announcement) Themis Computer Inc (Pleasanton, CA) introduces the $1,800-plus SXCM X.25 wide area network (WAN) controller board for the SBus. The board features a 20-MHz Motorola 68302 multiprotocol processor, SCC2691 UART supporting an RS-232-C port for debugging, LSI Logic L64853 SBus interface chip, 512Kbytes or 2Mbytes of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and 40-pin socket for a 1M-bit model 27C210 EPROM. The 68302 includes three full-duplex serial channels, a controller to handle serial and DMA transfers, and 1,152 bytes of local dual-port static RAM. The SXCM supports both 1.544M-bit/sec T1 and 2.048M-bit/sec CEPT communications and such protocols as X.25, OSI, TCP/IP over SNA, SNA server, Sun NetMan, Internet point-to-point and the IBM 3700. Sammi software simplifies windows. (Kinesix introduces the Sammi II tool for developing graphical user interfaces) (product Kinesix (Houston, TX) introduces the Sammi II graphical user interface (GUI) development software package for Digital Equipment Corp, Hewlett-Packard/Apollo, Sun Microsystems and IBM UNIX-based workstations. Sammi II provides a table-driven software layer than enables the graphical definition of an application interface, then linking the interface to an application or server code without compilation. The software consists of three major parts: a run-time environment, format editor and client/server and peer-to-peer application programming interfaces. The software adds only three to eight percent execution overhead to an application and only requires about 500Kbytes of random-access memory. The software runs with both X servers and clients. Development copies are available for $12,500 and more. Aldec adds VHDL, Xilinx support to Susie. (ICMaker modeler and XNF/VT Xilinx cell library available for Susie simulator) (product Aldec Corp (Newbury Park, CA) introduces the $995 ICMaker VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) model generator and an enhanced $1,995 XNF/VT Xilinx cell library for the firm's $1,995 Susie 6.0 MS-DOS-based simulator. ICMaker enables Susie users to create new VHDL models by modifying one of the 3,000-plus models provided with Susie. The improved XNF/VT cell library contains all series 2000, 3000 and 4000 Xilinx devices. The cell library features a new way of handling buses, concurrent display of cells from multiple devices while showing their interactive changes in real time and pre-route functional and post-route simulations with timing constraints. The use of XNF/VT, other libraries supported and Aldec's new EDIF 2.0 interface between Susie 6.0 and Mentor Graphics schematic environment are discussed. Cross debugger supports 80X86 line; Concurrent Sciences' package includes software monitor. (Soft-Scope III/CSiMON is introduced) Concurrent Sciences (Moscow, ID) introduces the $1,500 Soft-Scope III/CSiMON cross debugger software package. The software can debug either real or protected mode applications for the entire Intel 80x86 line of microprocessors (MPUs) without the need for a hardware in-circuit emulator. Features include full access and control of application execution, access and viewing of the internal memory-protect registers of the Intel MPUs, and use of the CSiMON monitor to set breakpoints on execution traces and data read/write operations. CSiMON requires less than 16Kbytes. Supported development tools include Intel PL/M, ASM, Phar Lap LinkLoc, and Microsoft C and MetaWare High C 8086/80386 compilers. Minimum host required is an IBM AT or compatible microcomputer with 640Kbytes of random-access memory and serial port. What does six-sigma really mean? (Surface Mount) (using statistical process control to achieve six-sigma defect levels in The important use of statistical process control (SPC) to achieve 'six-sigma' levels of defects (less than 3.4 parts per million), such as in surface-mount technology (SMT) manufacturing processes, is to prevent problems in the continuing pursuit of process improvement. A six-sigma level of defects is a measurable and realizable measure of performance, unlike the goal of 'zero defects.' The application of SPC consists of a thorough assessment of weaknesses or problems in products, determination of the causes for those problems, elimination or reduction of the causal factors and continuous use of SPC to analyze and improve production processes to prevent future defects. The major problems in SMT devices are open solder joints in reflow-soldered SMT chips and solder bridging and shorting in assemblies employing fine-pitch SMT devices. Measuring, analyzing and improving the soldering processes are discussed. MCMs face challenges: tech problems impede multichip modules' success. An number of companies are attempting to overcome the technological impediments to the implementation of commercially viable multichip modules (MCMs). The major problems are a shortage of MCM-specific computer-aided design and engineering (CAD, CAE) tools, assembly facilities, test capabilities, and fully tested component 'dice' and standard packages; problems in reworking MCM designs; a lack of standards; the need for better heat management; low yields; and current high price. Many systems manufacturers are developing proprietary CAD and CAE tools, while some tool vendors have introduced commercial MCM CAD/CAE tools. Several examples are briefly discussed. Efforts to standardize MCM packaging are noted. Gbyte drives await media. (tape-media vendors are beginning to ship higher density data cartridge and digital audio tape products Manufacturers digital audio tape (DAT) cassettes are beginning to ship 1Gbyte-plus-capacity products for the new generation of 1Gbyte-plus DAT drives, white data-cartridge suppliers are beginning production of similar capacity cartridges for 1Gbyte-plus-capacity tape cartridge drives. General availability of such media is deemed vital for the high-capacity tape drives to achieve a broad market. 3M Co (St. Paul, MN) begins shipping 900-Oe media data cartridges which offer 1.35Gbyte capacity. Startup Gigatek Memory Systems (La Costa, CA) gains a new patent (4,989,806) on a cartridge technology that may offer multi-Gbyte capacity. The company plans to introduce a 1.35Gbyte cartridge employing the technology. Ardat Inc (Costa Mesa, CA) is shipping a 90-meter, 2Gbyte DAT cassette for $22 (original equipment manufacturer pricing). Polylithics had multiple dreams. (includes related article on Polylithics' interconnection technology) (company profile) Start-up developer of a proprietary copper-polyimide interconnect for multichip modules Polylithics Inc (Sunnyvale, CA) merges with one of its major investors, memory-module maker Implex (Newcastle, England, UK). Polylithics' technology enables over 2,000 input/output connections on pads as small as 15-by-15 microns between integrated circuits spaced as close as 0.02-inches apart. The interconnection technology would provide greater chip density, reliability and a 'next-generation' performance improvement without advances in semiconductor processes. Initial products were tiny memory cards for portable computers and cameras. Polylithics began shipping prototypes but was having trouble raising the next round of financing and was always three or four months from running out of money. The merger into Implex was a practical way of gaining the needed money. Implex acquired all Polylithics patents and technology and some equipment. RF, microwave: weak signals. (bleak outlook for engineers in radio-frequency and microwave fields) The employment outlook for radio-frequency and microwave engineers is bad, as is shown by the lack of opportunities at several example companies. Companies that are hiring include Mini-Circuits Laboratories (Brooklyn, NY), which is seeking three or four engineers; Systron Donner's Microwave Products Divisions (Sylmar, CA), one; and Watkins-Johnson Co (Palo Alto), ten to 15. Most opens are for experienced engineers. Firms lacking any opportunity at all include EIP Microwave (Milpitas, CA), American Microwave Corp (Frederick, MD), Anaren Microwave Inc (Syracuse, NY), Micronics Technology Inc (Glen Cove, NY), Loral Corp's Narda Microwave Div (Hauppauge, NY) and General Microwave Corp (Amityville, NY). High-end Aviion servers unveiled by Data General: RISC-based systems' quad processor puts out 117-Mips. (Aviion AV 7000 and Data General Corp (DG) introduces the high-end AV 7000 desk-side and AV 8000 rack-mount symmetric multiprocessing server models of the firm's Aviion family of reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) systems. Both systems feature a quad processor board boasting four 25-MHz Motorola 88100 RISC microprocessors providing up to 117-MIPS performance, eight Motorola 88204 cache/memory management chips providing a total of 512,000 characters of cache memory, 16Mbytes of main memory, 662Mbytes of hard disk storage and 525Mbytes of QIC tape backup for $96,000-plus. The computers can employ either a two-hard-disk Combined Storage Subsystem array with 4Gbytes to 12 Gbytes capacity or fault-tolerant High Availability Disk Array subsystem that can be expanded to 24Gbytes. Both models employ DG's DG/UX version of AT&T's UNIX System V.4. Dataquest Inc (San Jose, CA) analyst Robert Kidd questions whether the new DG systems will succeed against competition. Cache sockets buoy fast statics, but margins? (SRAM price war leaves slim profit margins) Profit margins for SRAM chips, which are in high demand for use in cache memory, remain small because nearly 24 chip vendors are vying for market share by reducing prices. Competing vendors say the market has long-term revenue potential because cache use is increasing, but the vendors disagree on whether to use complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or BiCMOS technology. CMOS is generally seen as faster and easier to develop, but most vendors believe BiCMOS is the technology of the future. Vendors also disagree about the pinout standard to be used in new 1M-bit SRAM chips. The new pinout format places the power ground pins in the center of the package. Many industry observers believe a shakeout of smaller competitors is approaching. AT&T tells court: ESOP could kill bid to oust NCR board. (employee stock option) AT&T says it cannot take over NCR Corp if NCR's employee stock option (ESOP) plan is not rejected in court. AT&T needs an 80 percent proxy vote to oust NCR's entire board of directors, but eight percent of the vote could be held by NCR management under the terms of the ESOP. A confidential NCR report estimates that AT&T could win up to 72 percent of the vote. AT&T claims that the ESOP is intended to prevent the hostile takeover, while NCR contends the plan is intended to benefit NCR employees. AT&T wants to oust the board to complete its $90 per share, $6.12 billion tender offer. NCR stock is currently trading at $97 per share in heavy volume, but stockholders who purchased stock after Mar 1, 1991 do not have voting rights for the shareholders meeting. DEC to OEM Intel systems? (microcomputers) Lapedus, Mark. Intel Corp is building a special line of microcomputers for DEC on an OEM basis. The computers, which reportedly include a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM expandable to 64Mbytes, a hard disk, a floppy drive, a keyboard and a VGA board and monitor. The systems can run Unix, MS-DOS and OS/2 software to appeal to a wide range of users. The Intel project differs from its previous OEM strategy because the systems are complete and developed to meet vendor specifications. Intel expects differentiation in its product line to improve its market share. DEC claims that it has no plan to sever its ties with Tandy Corp, which has been building 80386- and 80486-based systems for Intel. DG agrees to sell Japan unit for $46m. (Data General Corp.) Data General Corp (DG) is selling its Nippon Data General subsidiary to Omron Tateisi Electronics Co for about $46 million in cash. DG says the subsidiary is profitable, but it has sales volume of only $80 million per year. Nippon DG retains its name, but it is expected to concentrate on distributing DG's Aviion file servers rather than workstations and DG's Eclipse computers. The sale includes a 170,000-square-foot facility that includes Nippon DG's research and development operations. All of Nippon DG's 550 employees are expected to remain with the company. DG plans to use the $30 million net proceeds from the sale to pay off debt, and the company will record a $13 million earning gain when the transaction is complete. HP, Sequoia alter terms of OEM, license deals. (Sequoia Systems Inc.) HP and Sequoia Systems Inc alter their OEM and technology licensing agreements. Sequoia agrees to cease direct sales in the worldwide telecommunications market in exchange for a double-digit increase in its fault-tolerant computer purchase commitment with Sequoia. The agreement commits HP to purchase nearly 30 machines, worth about $7.8 million. HP reportedly has no plan to develop its own fault-tolerant systems. The agreement provides that Sequoia cannot sell its systems directly to telecommunications accounts, but it can work with resellers who target such accounts. HP also extends its rights to license Sequoia's multiprocessing technology until 1994. The extension cost HP less than $1 million in fees, but the price of the license increased by 70 percent over the original agreement. Data General offers 4-CPU RISC systems. (reduced instruction-set computing) (product announcement) Data General Corp introduces two four-processor reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) systems in its Aviion line. The $162,950 deskside Aviion AV 7000 includes four 25-MHz Motorola 88100 microprocessors, 512Kbytes of cache RAM, 64Mbytes of RAM, a 4Gbyte disk array, a 525Mbyte tape drive and a universal power supply. The $162,950, rack-mounted Aviion AV 8000 is similar to the 7000 but has 128Mbytes of RAM and a second 2Gbyte tape drive. The $96,050 quad processor Aviion AV 5240 includes 16Mbytes of RAM, a 662Mbytes disk drive and a 525Mbyte tape drive. The $112,500 quad-processor Aviion AV 6240 includes 32Mbytes of RAM but lacks disk storage. The AV 5240 and AV 7000 can hold 512Mbytes of RAM and 15Gbytes of disk storage and support 1,020 users, while the AV 6240 and AV 8000 can use up to 768Mbytes of RAM and support 1,275 users. The AV 6240 can hold 113Gbytes of disk storage and the AV 8000 can hold 161Gbytes. IBM debuts high-end rack server. (RS/6000 PowerServer 950) (product announcement) IBM introduces the rack-mounted RS/6000 PowerServer 950 file server and high-performance versions of its RS/6000 PowerServer 320 file server and RS/6000 PowerStation 320 workstation. The $151,382 PowerServer 950 can support 250 users and includes 32Mbytes of RAM and 857Mbytes of disk storage. The 950 uses a 41.6 MHz clock speed and IBM claims the system achieves 25.2 MFlops performance. The PowerStation 320H and PowerServer 320H have 25 MHz clock speeds and provide 11.7 MFlops of performance. The PowerStation 320H costs $17,972 in basic configuration with 16Mbytes of RAM and 160Mbytes of disk storage. The PowerServer 320H includes 16Mbytes of RAM and 320Mbytes of disk storage for $20,572. The systems include new graphics-enhancing subsystems called PowerGraphics GTO, which offers 990,000 three-dimensional vectors per second graphics performance. Standard configurations of 320 models are available at lower prices. Siemens seeks switch scheme tie. (Siemens Stromberg-Carlson to integrate switch architectures) Siemens Stromberg-Carlson plans to integrate its two distinct switch architectures and establish a greater market presence by developing a wide range of products including fiber optic interfaces, personal communications products, metropolitan area networks (MANs), packet-switching broadband transmission and custom local area switching systems. An group processor add-in board being developed allows Stromberg-Carlson's DCO and Siemens' EWSD switches to share software. The company and its partners are spending between $1 billion and $2 billion to develop its new switch architecture, but it plans to support both DCO and EWSD formats for some time because the two switches will never be compatible. DCO typically supports about 4,000 lines and is often used in rural markets. EWSD usually supports under 40,000 lines. NATA to FCC: improve access to CO firms' data. (North American Telecommunications Association wants the Federal Communications The North American Telecommunications Association (NATA) asks the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve access to the standards information and testing procedures used by central office switch vendors in their interfaces. NATA claims that the lack of interface standards prohibits vendors from making products that take advantage of advanced network services including digital Centrex and ISDN basic rate services. NATA also requests that the ISDN standard be clarified to eliminate incompatibilities in ISDN-standard equipment. The appeal is attached to a petition from the Coalition of Open Network Architecture Parties (CONAP), which is asking the FCC to investigate the intelligent network architecture Bellcore Bell Communications Research Inc is developing for the regional Bell operating companies. Seagate debuts over-2GB 5.25-inch drive. (Seagate Technology Inc.'s Elite 2 hard disk stores 2.1Gbytes) (product announcement) Seagate Technology Inc upgrades seven hard disk drives and releases the Elite 2 drive, which has 2.1Gbytes of storage space when formatted. The new drive contains 11 disks and reaches rotation speeds of 5,400 rpm to produce data transfer rates of 7.5M-bps. The Elite 2 is available with a Fast SCSI-II interface or an IPI-2 interface, but the IPI-2 version stores only 1.8Mbytes, although it offers dual ports so two computers can share the drive. The Elite 2 is priced at $3,450 in OEM quantities. Most of the upgraded drives include Seagate's Zone Bit Recording technique to increase storage density. The $495 (in OEM quantity) ST3144 drive now has a 130Mbyte capacity. The new Wren 9 drive costs $2,750 in OEM quantity, has a 3,600 rpm rotational speed and stores 1.8Gbytes of data when formatted. Vendors boost frame relay as customers remain leery. Collier, Andrew. Frame relay is not finding widespread use despite enthusiastic promotion by communications product vendors. The vendors say that frame relay allows large bursts of data to be inexpensively transmitted between local area networks (LANs). Although most users agree that obtaining bandwidth on demand is a problem, many believe they can save on bandwidth through alternate methods until a new technology is developed. Frame relay is related to packet switching, but it removes unnecessary protocols from packets and can use faster and cleaner communications lines. The technology is poorly suited to voice because of delays between packets. More than 24 vendors have agreed to a common frame relay specification, and British Telecommunications PLC estimates an $800 million market for frame relay by 1995. Emulex decentralizes, two officers leave. Deagon, Brian. Emulex Corp is decentralizing its operations to stop the decline in sales of its data storage systems. Emulex is breaking up its operations into Storage Products, Micro Devices and Connectivity units. Each unit has a general manager and separate profit-and-loss responsibility. The Micro Devices unit includes Emulex's Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) chip-set operations, while local-area network server production is included in the Connectivity group. Emulex Sr VP of Business Development Sol Zechter is retiring as part of the reorganization, and Emulex Sr VP of Engineering and Development Jay O'Donald has resigned. Emulex Pres Robert Stephens is the acting general manager of the Storage Products unit, while Mel Gable and Michael Smith are heading the Micro Devices and Connectivity groups. Emulex lost $1 million in 1990, but it earned $1.9 million in the 1st qtr 1991. Fujitsu to re-aim switch against AT&T's Class 5. (Fujitsu Network Switching of America Inc. to remarket Fetex-150 switch) Fujitsu Network Switching of America Inc. is re-marketing its Fetex-150 switch to compete with AT&T's Class 5 switch. Fujitsu has been unsuccessful in marketing the product solely for broadband transmission. The new strategy adds more standard network functions, including slower speeds and improved traffic routing, to the switch. Fujitsu hopes to sell the switch to the regional Bell operating companies for broadband use, but it does not expect to make a profit until 1994 because AT&T and Northern Telecom Inc products dominate the market. Fujitsu says the Fetex-150 economically supports 200 to 70,000 lines and has been installed or shipped to support 9 million lines worldwide. Sharp hike in orders sends February book-to-bill to 1.09. (February 1991 book-to-bill ratio) The Semiconductor Industry Association reports that the US semiconductor industry's book-to-bill ratio increased to 1.09 in Feb 1991, driven by a dramatic increase in orders. The Jan 1991 book-to-bill ratio was 0.96. Feb orders total $1,271,900,000, a 14.9 percent increase over Jan 1991 figures and a 4.4 percent increase from Feb 1990. Billings for Feb 1991 total $1,171,900,000, a 1.1 percent increase over Jan 1991 figures and a 3.7 percent increase over Feb 1990 figures. Industry participants say the improved figures stem from a RAM chip shortage rather than from end-market turnarounds or the early resolution of the Persian Gulf conflict. Another cause for the increase is inventory adjustment. Samsung seen no. 1 in 1m DRAM output. (1M-bit DRAMs) Robertson, Jack. Samsung Electronics Company Ltd has become the largest producer of 1M-bit DRAMs in the world. Samsung has an estimated output of 9 million units per month, while former market leader Toshiba Corp has reduced its output to 8 million 1M-bit units per month. Samsung plans to achieve higher sales in other semiconductor areas by dominating the DRAM market. Japanese firms complained in 1990 that Korean firms had cut prices to gain market share, but the Korean firms charged that the Japanese had contributed to the price decrease by increasing production capacity. Toshiba VP Hideharu Egawa expects 1M-bit DRAM prices to rise to $4.80 or $5.00 per unit after dropping to less than $4 each in 1990. Increasing long-term orders and sales of chips for laptop computers and workstations have raised the prices. IBM sets up EDA consulting unit. (electronic design automation) Dunn, Peter. IBM establishes a group to provide design management consulting services for electronic design automation (EDA) customers. IBM is moving to improve its software quality because it would like to profit by selling electronic design software tools. IBM has been slow to penetrate this market, partly because of the failure of its RT Unix workstation, but believes it can be successful by porting the software to the RS/6000. IBM reports more than $1 billion in RS/6000 product sales since its introduction in 1990. IBM is also tapping its experience in electronic and mechanical product design to advance the management consulting group. Phase-shifting seen aid to Micrascan. (SVG Lithography Systems Inc.'s Micrascan lithography tool) Sematech semiconductor production tests show good results for SVG Lithography Systems Inc's Micrascan semiconductor production tool. The deep-ultraviolet lithography equipment, which was originally developed by Perkin-Elmer Corp, is already in limited use by IBM. Sematech reports that the Micrascan has printed 0.5-micron features with a focus depth of plus or minus 1 micron and 0.4-micron features plus or minus 0.5 micron. The Micrascan has overlay accuracy of 0.12 micron and stage positioning accuracy of 0.04 to 0.06 micron. Sematech produced 40 150-mm wafer levels per hour, but testers expect an upcoming software upgrade to yield a 50 percent performance improvement. The Micrascan incorporates a broadband lamp-based illumination system that reduces the effects of reflection to increase process latitude. Phase-shifting masks can be used with the Micrascan to extend its function to sub-0.2-micron use. Commerce awards $9m for advanced tech. (the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program) The US Department of Commerce awards over $9 million in grants under its Advanced Technology Program for research and development of X-ray lithography, computer memory storage and flat panel displays. The grants require matching funds equal to the Commerce Department award. $2.4 million is granted to the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences Inc. to improve printed wiring board materials and fine-line imaging. The Advanced Display Manufacturers of America consortium receives $1.25 million for low-cost flat panel display manufacturing technologies. AT&T Bell Laboratories is granted $955,000 to develop projection X-ray lithography for circuit development. A Hampshire Instruments Inc and McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Co joint venture receives about $1 million to develop solid-state lasers for point-source X-ray lithography. Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp gains $823,000 for holographic mass memory. Charges distributors, makers fail to ensure military specs. (NASA inspector general Bill Colvin makes charges) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Inspector General Bill Colvin claims that manufacturers and distributors of electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) parts are not ensuring that parts sold to the government meet military specifications. Colvin says distributors do not always have traceable test data for EEE parts, which are often accompanied by blank certificates of compliance. Colvin says that the problem, which prevents government agencies from determining whether their parts meet performance requirements, it not limited to NASA. The Department of Defense Inspector General reports similar problems with components for military use. Colvin notes that non-compliant parts have been purchased by agencies, although he did not claim extensive problems with inferior products. Equipment manufacturers shifting board stuffing work to industrials. (turnkey system contract manufacture) Equipment manufacturers are turning to contract manufacturing to conserve capital. Distributors are providing the turnkey board-stuffing services to improve revenue in the weak market. Turnkey operations generate up to 10 percent of sales for some distributors. Turnkey manufacturing can be risky because distributors have no return privileges and such operations can detract from other services. OEMs usually find contractors to do off-site assembly jobs, but distributors are increasingly taking the role of prime contractors. The move to turnkey manufacturing has been accelerated by the advent of surface-mount technologies has led OEMs that lack the funding or inclination to invest in new assembly equipment. The market for contract work is increasingly competitive, but some analysts say most customers who try turnkey manufacturing switch back to producing their equipment themselves. $21m restructuring credit: National nets $5m in third quarter. (National Semiconductor Corp.) National Semiconductor Corp announces a net profit for the 3rd qtr in its FY 1991. National's $5 million earnings include a $21.1 million restructuring credit from the sale of its Puyallup-WA manufacturing complex. National would have had a $16 million deficit of $16 before interest earnings and taxes has the credit not been counted. The company had a $10.2 million net loss in the 3rd qtr 1990. Product sales in the 3rd qtr of FY 1991 drop 4 percent, to $386.8 million. National posts a $157 million net loss in the first nine months of FY 1991, including a $120.1 million restructuring charge. The 3rd qtr restructuring includes expenses that exceed anticipated costs from the 1st qtr. Sales in the first nine months of FY 1991 total $1.257 billion, up 3 percent from the same period in 1990. National ends the quarter with less debt and over double the cash of the 2nd qtr. Dell holding its own against IBM, Compaq. (Dell Computer Corp.) (What They're Saying) (column) Dell Computer Corp is succeeding in the computer market despite competition from such industry giants as IBM and Compaq. Dell's stock has been trading above $26 per share, and a secondary offering of 3.5 million shares quickly sold out. Dell is the largest direct-marketing computer company, and its 33.3 percent gross profit margins are lower than many competitors. Dell offers five 80486-based microcomputers and derives about 10 percent of its revenues from the systems. Dell's revenues in the 4th qtr of FY 1991 are 52 percent higher than 4th qtr revenues in 1990. Annual revenues for FY 1991 increase 20 percent to $358.9 million. Dell's international success has also bolstered its good image among investors. Earnings increase 800 percent in the 4th qtr of FY 1991, to 42 center per share, or $8.6 million. DEC plans RISC MPU wafer fab. (reduced instruction-set computing microprocessor fabrication facility) DEC plans a new semiconductor wafer fabrication plant to produce reduced instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessors. The fab is planned for Hudson or Andover, MA, where DEC already has facilities, but no timetable or cost estimate for the project has been disclosed. DEC has contacted wafer stepper vendors to begin evaluating equipment for the facility. DEC's $165 million South Queensferry, Scotland, fab is taking over production most of the company's peripheral control devices and complex instruction-set computer (CISC) microprocessors. The Scotland fab, which handles 6-inch wafers and 0.7-micron chips, is not equipped to produce the RISC chips needed for the next generation of DEC products because other vendors are moving to 8-inch wafers and sub-0.7-micron chips. DEC also announces the appointment of ED Caldwell as its semiconductor operations vice president. Allen to Exley: 'Read it in the papers.' (AT&T's Robert E. Allen negotiates with NCR Corp.'s Charles E. Exley, Jr.) AT&T Chmn Robert E. Allen and NCR Corp.'s Charles E. Exley, Jr speak out regarding AT&T's attempted takeover of NCR. When NCR representatives decline AT&T's offer to negotiate an acquisition based on a price increase from $90 to $100, Allen telephones Exley to make sure he has heard the offer. When Exley tells Allen to submit the proposal to NCR's investment firm, Morgan Stanley, Allen reportedly responds by saying Exley would read about the offer in the newspaper. Many investors believe AT&T intends to increase its offer, although Allen has claimed that AT&T will not raise the price. NCR reveals the details of its $125 estimate as the starting point for negotiations. NCR quotes a Goldman Sachs report that estimates NCR stock will increase by 40 percent in 1992 and 25 percent more in 1993. Divestiture revisited. (telephone utilities competition) Slutsker, Gary. The seven Bell regional telephone companies and other local telephone carriers, which have benefited from monopoly status, are experiencing increasing competition. Telecommunications regulators impose about $14 billion in usage fees on long-distance phone companies each year. The fees are distributed to the local phone companies to maintain artificially low local call rates. Long-distance companies and users are working to bypass the fees by using cellular radio and other satellite communications, and large long-distance companies are requesting that the fees be reduced. Cable television companies are installing fiber-optic lines capable of being used for telephone services, and telephone companies are competing among themselves for business. The monopoly phone companies could lose $5 billion from competition by 2000, and increased bypassing may require a rate realignment. Optical illusions. (electron-beam chipmaking) Wiegner, Kathleen. Electron beam (E-beam) silicon etching allows smaller pattern etching than optical methods, but optical equipment is capable of producing current chips, so integrated circuit manufacturers are loathe to invest in the new technology. Optical etching currently draws 0.8-micron lines on silicon wafers, but the process is limited by light's 0.4-micron wavelength. Martin Lepselter, founder of Lepton Inc, has produced E-beam etching equipment that can produce lines as small as 0.04 microns and does not use the stencil, reducing lens or photosensitive film required by optical etching. Lepselter has found little support from the US semiconductor industry because the electron-beam equipment processes 5 wafers per hour, only one-twelfth the output of optical systems. The semiconductor industry does not want to invest in the technology until current methods cannot produce the latest generation of chips. Is Lotus a buy? (Lotus Development Corp.'s stock value) (column) Shaffer, Richard A. Lotus Development Corp's stock value has decreased 34 percent since Mar 1990, while the average value of software company stock has increased 33 percent, but Lotus could be on its way to recovery. Lotus has $684 million in sales and the majority spreadsheet software market share, but its profit margin has decreased to 3.4 percent and it faces more competition than ever from Quattro Pro and Microsoft Excel. Lotus has lost its technical and marketing advantages, and its market share may continue to decline, but Lotus sales are increasing at a steady rate of 20 percent per year. Lotus has an advantage with its Notes network software and its consulting division, but it shows the greatest potential for future products in word processing and presentation graphics. The company can succeed if it returns to its original innovation and produces compelling new software packages. An electronic market for art? (Centrox on-line image data base) Brown, Christie. Centrox is an on-line art database that stores images and sales information for all major paintings and sculptures sold at 172 auction houses since 1989. Users pay $9,000 for the base system, which includes a microcomputer with an 80386 microprocessor and 80Mbytes of storage, as well as $75 per month and $1.12 for each minute spent on-line. Scanning equipment for entering art images into the system costs $15,000 extra. The system continuously updates market value information and will include a stolen artwork registry. Centrox will also allow sales listings. Art dealers say the mass availability of market value information helps purchasers determine the relative merit of an art piece's asking price. The Artfact art database includes over 50,000 auction records and art images on compact disks that are updated quarterly. Artfact charges $4,500 for the first year and about $2,200 for each subsequent year. The joys of remote control. (using cellular telephones)(includes related article on selecting a cellular phone) Cellular telephone users employ their mobile phones in many ways. Art dealer Richard Feigen bought Vasari's 'Adoration of the Magi' at a Sotheby's auction while delayed in traffic. Agent Swifty Lazar uses his car phone to make international deals. Agent Lionel Larner uses his cellular phone while performing everyday tasks. ConAgra Chmn Mike Harper uses his car phone for non-sensitive issues because of security concerns. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason does business on his portable phone while on the road. Sports agent David Falk communicates with clients, team representatives and advertising agents. Some businesspeople, such as restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, prefer the privacy of life without cellular telephones. CFOs may have IRM role; IRM executives question OMB's memo. (chief financial officer, information resources management, Office of Information resource management (IRM) managers are concerned about the wording of a draft memo that delineates new responsibilities for chief financial officers (CFO) under the CFO Act. The memo to government agency heads was from Frank Hodsoll, the Office of Management and Budget's executive associate director, stating that agency CFOs must be given authority to oversee agency IRM expenditures. Some IRM managers claim the language could be construed to mean that agency CFOs are to have authority over all IRM programs and expenditures; others read the memo as conferring authority to CFOs only over financial systems and related information systems. The memo does state that CFOs should have the power to control the design and budget of all financial systems within the agency. The CFO Act was passed by Congress to make agencies upgrade financial and management controls. Sleepy analyst clears Desert Storm network. (data bottleneck cleared by Robert F. Weissert) Chief Warrant Officer Robert F. Weissert, manager of the Army's 45,000-mile Operation Desert Storm computer network, was awakened from his sleep back home in Arizona on the night the ground war began and told that the network was jammed and data was at a standstill. Weissert logged onto the network in Saudi Arabia through a microcomputer in his home and saw immediately that data was stopped because the routing databases on computers in the US were overloaded. Weissert solved the problem by downloading routes onto gateways in Saudi Arabia. The backup was completely cleared within 16 hours. Weissert claims that except for this problem, the Army Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol network operated perfectly during the war, connecting 12 different proprietary systems. CSC, IBM join for CORN bid. (Computer Sciences Corp., Federal Aviation Administration's Computer Resources Nucleus project) IBM and Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) announce they will work together to place a competitive bid with the Federal Aviation Administration for that agency's $1.5 billion Computer Resources Nucleus (CORN) project. The announcement of cooperation between the two companies comes amidst rumors that IBM and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) have had a falling out. IBM and EDS were partners in the original CORN contract that was revoked due to lack of competition in the bidding process. In addition to the IBM/CSC combined bid, Data General Corp and DEC are also rumoured to be preparing bids, and EDS claims it is still working with IBM on a bid. The CORN contract is a 10-year, fixed-price project to integrate the FAA's 12 administrative systems into a single-site system. AT&T protest alleges GSA made FTS 2000 deals. (General Services Administration, FTS 2000 network) AT and T files a protest with the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals claiming that the General Services Administration (GSA) conducted secret negotiations with US Sprint concerning the FTS 2000 contract. AT and T alleges that in those negotiations US Sprint offered to reduce its FTS 2000 prices if the GSA would shift a portion of the contract to the Network B contractor, US Sprint. AT and T, the Network A contractor, has been upset about the original award for some time due to the fact that it received 43 percent of the contract while US Sprint received 57 percent, and it claims the GSA transferred the Navy and Marine Corps portions of the contract to US Sprint without giving AT and T a chance to bid on those contracts. AT and T's allegations come as the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on the FTS 2000 program. Unisys: Desktop demand slows deliveries. (demand for Desktop III microcomputers outstrips supply) Unisys Corp promises it will comply with the minimum delivery requirements found in its Desktop III contract with the United States Air Force, claiming that demand for the 80386-based microcomputers has outstripped supply. The contract requires Unisys to deliver 6,000 computers each month. This should not be a problem for Unisys, which told the Air Force its factory could produce 10,000 computers per eight-hour shift per month. Unisys has come under criticism for falling behind in its deliveries. Through Feb 1991 it should have shipped 46,000 microcomputers, but had only shipped 41,000. Unisys claims it will be fully caught up in its shipments by the end of March. Observers say the contract as a whole has been problematic for Unisys, which could be losing as much as $100 per computer it delivers to the Air Force. 'Honey-Mac' buy for WIS project gets green light. (General Accounting Office approves contract with HFSI, Worldwide Military A contract awarded to HFSI by the Air Force has withstood its second vendor protest and received the go ahead from the General Accounting Office (GAO). The $117.4 million contract, which could be worth as much as $600 million with options, is part of the Worldwide Military Command and Control System (WWMCCS) Information System project. The contract was first awarded in Aug 1989, but Martin Marietta Corp protested that HFSI's multitasking software did not meet requirements. The GAO agreed with that protest and called for new bids; after HFSI won the second round, C3 Inc protested that Air Force evaluators treated bidders unequally. The GAO dismissed C3's protest stating that HFSI demonstrated clear technical superiority. HFSI's bid features Apple Macintosh IIcx microcomputers running the Posix-compliant A/UX operating system. Sun unveils GOSIP-compliant products. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s SunNet OSI 7.0, SunNet X.25, SunNet MHS, Government Open Systems Sun Microsystems Inc introduces several new network software packages that meet the application-layer specifications of the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP). SunNet OSI 7.0 is a $2,800 communications software product complies with federal standards for file transfer, access and management. SunNet MHS, a $6,000 package, also complies with OSI standards and acts as a gateway on networks because it can translate between X.400 electronic mail on OSI networks and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol mail packets on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. SunNet X.25 is a $2,800 communications software product that assists in the transition from TCP/IP to OSI networks because it can route both TCP/IP and OSI packets over X.25 connections. If used together, the packages enable network managers to employ dual stacking and protocol gateway techniques to transfer from TCP/IP to OSI. EDS exec says federal out-sourcing to gain speed. (Electronic Data Systems Corp.'s Robert McCashin, includes a related article on Robert McCashin, group executive of Electronic Data Systems Corp's (EDS) Federal Government Group, discusses trends in outsourcing and his company's efforts to win government outsourcing contracts. McCashin says that while outsourcing is not overly popular with the government, it could be in the future. He projects that the government outsourcing market will grow at 13 percent a year in the future. McCashin says that EDS is still very much involved in attempting to win the Federal Aviation Administration's Computer Resources Nucleus project, which at $1.5 billion is one of the largest outsourcing contracts ever. McCashin says that EDS will continue to focus on the federal government as a key market, concentrating particularly on civilian agencies that deal with energy and the environment. McCashin says he would like to see the federal procurement process emphasize quality and service over the lowest bid. Versatile Magellan sails by survey rivals: text retrieval software. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Magellan 2.0 wins out over A Government Computer News user survey reveals that the 263 respondents to a questionnaire concerning search software rate Lotus Development Corp's Magellan 2.0 the best package available. Magellan 2.0 receives an overall weighted average score of 77, compared with a score of 74 for Microlytics Inc's Gofer text retrieval software and 73 for Lotus Development's Agenda 2.0 package. Among the features the respondents cited as being most important are ease of use, file format flexibility, user interface, speed and documentation. Magellan scored particularly well in categories such as file formats, speed, printer support and software hooks. Both of the Lotus products, Magellan and Agenda, can do much more than simple text retrieval, sporting functions such as project management, time management and system file navigation. Docket system brings mainframe down to PC at ITC. (Advanced Information Network Systems Inc.'s Docket Database System for the The International Trade Commission (ITC) has downsized its docket management system from an IBM 4331 mainframe to a microcomputer-based system thanks to help from Advanced Information Network Systems Inc (AINS) of Rockville Md. AINS used its Integrated Development and Run-Time Environment to develop the Docket Database System, which manages all the dockets involved in ITC investigations and legal actions. The ITC decided to make the switch away from the IBM mainframe because the 4331-based system was aging, slow, and not terribly user-friendly. The new system resides on a Zenith Data Systems Z-386/25 with 300Mbytes of hard disk space. The Docket Database System makes use of a windowed front end that can work with several different data base management systems. Talking computers are starting to speak the speech trippingly. (Power User) (column) The quality of voice synthesis programs has greatly improved in recent years, particularly in the case of programs that turn text into speech. Such programs have obvious applications for vision- and speech-impaired users who cannot communicate effectively without them. The programs can also come in handy for users who just want the luxury and convenience of having electronic mail read aloud to them while they perform other tasks. Speech generating programs are of two types: table-based systems, which operate by matching words with a table of pronunciations provided by the program; and rule-based systems, which use English phonetic rules to analyze the pronunciation of each word. Table-based systems are limited by the scope of words entered in the table, while rule-based systems are handicapped by the vagaries of English pronunciation. First Byte Inc's Monologue package is an excellent rule-based package that allows users to fine tune the pronunciation of words and to change the tone and speed of synthesized speech. Icontroller helps to fill laptop mouse gap. (Hardware Review) (Suncom Technologies' Icontroller) (evaluation) Suncom Technologies' $99.95 Icontroller is a miniaturized joystick that serves the same function as a mouse and is perfect for laptops and other portable computers. The Icontroller is a great solution for users who travel extensively yet do not want to bring their mouse, mouse pad and cable along for the ride. The Icontroller is physically attached to the computer by an adhesive patch and can be connected to the computer through a serial port with any Mouse Systems or Microsoft Mouse-compatible program. The joystick takes a little getting used to for people accustomed to a mouse, but functionally there is only a small difference between the two technologies. The only drawbacks of the device are the poor documentation and installation software; both are confusing and riddled with errors. Getting SatisFaxtion from a desktop modem. (Hardware Review) (Intel Corp.'s SatisFaxtion facsimile modem) (evaluation) Intel Corp's SatisFaxtion facsimile modem is an outstanding product combining strong modem performance with facsimile capabilities. SatisFaxtion, priced at $549 for the Micro Channel version and $495 for the ISA version, contains a 2,400-bit per second modem with MNP 5 error correction and compression protocol, and a 9,600-bit per second fax modem. Installation of SatisFaxtion is simple and the operating software requires only 13Kbytes of memory while running in the background collecting incoming facsimile messages. An informal test of the modem over a noisy line produced error-free transmission at 2,400-bps using the MNP 5 protocol. The facsimile portion of the product works equally well, particularly when faxing files to another machine or computer. However, when receiving files from a stand-alone machine, quality does suffer somewhat. TIC unsnarls Navy systems traffic, saves money. (Votek Systems Ltd.'s The Intelligent Console automated information center The United States Naval Supply Center in San Diego reports impressive performance improvements as well as cost savings since it implemented Votek Systems Ltd's The Intelligent Console (TIC) to automate its data center management functions. Greg Allen, computer operations manager at the center, claims the system has increased system and terminal availability and has also reduced help desk inquiries and console message traffic. Specifically, Allen claims TIC has reduced console traffic from 30,000 messages a day to just 400, has reduced the average time suspended terminals are hung from 46 minutes to just four minutes, and has saved the center $75,000 in labor costs in under a year. TIC is an outboard system that runs on a microcomputer, monitoring all major software and hardware components of the center's mainframe computers. FEDSIM leader pondering automation. (John R. Ortego of General Services Administration's Federal Systems Integration and John R. Ortega, head of the General Services Administration's Federal Systems Integration and Management Center, warns other government agencies to take a slow, evolutionary approach to automating their data centers. Ortega claims it is a mistake to view automated operation as a goal that can be achieved overnight. Instead, data center managers should gradually convert their systems to lights-out operation. A gradual conversion can include steps such as acquiring new equipment that is compatible with automation, writing new code in a manner that is conducive to automation and upgrading systems to suppress console messages. Ortega also warns of pitfalls to be found in such an automation move, such as difficulties in billing clients and morale problems with operations staff who are concerned about changing roles. NWS system shows rain and river data graphically. (National Weather Service uses Dataviews from V.I. Corp.) The United States National Weather Service, as part of its Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, is using V.I. Corp's Dataviews program development software to create graphs that represent precipitation and river volume data. The prototype system currently resides on an IBM RS/6000 workstation connected to a Prime Computer Inc minicomputer, which houses the prototype data. Among the functions forecasters hope the system will handle include flash flood warnings, information for hydroelectric sites, monitoring of recreational water sites, and even determining how big a load river vessels can carrying without running aground. The Dataviews development tools use object oriented programming methods to graphically represent, track, and analyze real-time rain and river data. RAMP to help Navy replace weapons parts faster. (Rapid Acquisition of Manufactured Parts program) The United States Navy has begun a $93 million project to improve the manner in which its Naval Aviation Depot produces the small parts needed to maintain sophisticated weapons systems. The project has been contracted out to Grumman Data Systems, with the goal of reducing the Navy parts replacement cycle from around 300 days to 30 days. The project, part of the Navy's Rapid Acquisition of Manufactured Parts (RAMP) program, will use computer integrated manufacturing techniques to reduce the 120 hours it takes an engineer to create an average part manually to around 30 minutes using the computer-aided techniques. Grumman will create the system using some proprietary code as well as off-the-shelf software from Consilium Inc, Parametric Technology Corp, Fastech Inc, Computervision Corp, MMS International, Oracle Corp and ICAD Inc. Design personnel systems for war, general says. (Army Brig. General Jack Pellicci) In the wake of Operation Desert Storm, United States Army Brig Gen Jack Pellicci, head of the Army's Personnel Information Systems Command, says the most valuable lesson he learned from the conflict is that systems must be designed for wartime and modified for peace, rather that the other way around. Pellicci claims it took many hours of modification in order to get the system operating properly under full load in the Persian Gulf. Problems for the system started when reserve units were deployed to the region, some of whom had never been trained on the Army's Tactical Army Combat Service Support Computer System. Pellicci says the system was brought up to speed by sending training teams over to the theater and by having contract personnel from Electronic Data Systems and NCR Corp perform modifications in the Persian Gulf and at regional data centers in the US. Air Force to downscale AFCC, trim staff. (Air Force Communications Command) The United States Air Force will reorganize its Air Force Communications Command (AFCC) into a new agency known as the Air Force Communications Agency (AFCA), as part of an overall downsizing plan ordered by Air Force Secretary Donald Rice. The reorganization is part of a broad Department of Defense downsizing plan and will include the loss of about 220 AFCC staff positions. In addition to the staff cutbacks, some 40,000 individuals who report jointly to the AFCC and regional commands will be assigned permanently to the regional commands. Maj Gen John S. Fairfield will continue at the head of the AFCA, but he will report to former AFCC commander Lt Gen Robert H. Ludwig, who will become the Air Force's Pentagon-based deputy chief of staff for command, control, communications and computers. Servers: more LANs mean big demand for micro servers. (local area networks) (buyers guide) This buyers guide provides specifications and prices on over 53 file servers based on Intel Corp's 80386 or 80486 microprocessors. With the growing popularity of local area networks, microcomputer-based file servers provide an economical method of serving networks as large as 200 users. There are many factors to be considered before settling on a file server. Buyers should calculate how large their network is, as well as how likely it is to grow. They should examine whether they need file serving, graphics transfer, database exchange or a combination thereof. They should ask whether the system's memory is expandable, whether it comes with memory caching, what type of warranty does it have, what operating systems and software will it support, is it fault tolerant, how many serial and parallel ports does it have, and can extra CPUs be added for multiprocessing. Justice IRM gaining its own identity: confusion, criticism lead to 'model' reorganization. (Justice Department, information resource The United States Justice Department, stung by criticism from the General Accounting Office and congressional oversight committees, has reorganized its information resource management (IRM) division, giving it administrative independence. Prior to the reorganization, the IRM department was part of administrative services, where it often did not receive the proper management direction. The new deputy assistant attorney general for IRM, yet to be named, is expected to push IRM to develop new case management software and systems as well as office automation systems based on the Project Eagle model. The inadequacies of the current case management system became apparent during the influx of cases stemming from the savings and loan disaster. At that time, Attorney General Dick Thornburgh ordered the agency to create a system that would accurately track the deluge of cases. Getting a good return on ADP investments: an interview with Harry H. Flickinger. (automated data processing) (assistant attorney Harry H. Flickinger, assistant attorney general for administration, discusses his role as the senior information resource management (IRM) official in the Justice Department. Flickinger is in charge of a department that has grown in the past 10 years from an IRM budget of $150 million a year to approximately $600 million in 1991. He discusses his search for a new deputy assistant attorney general for IRM to work beneath him and take charge of case management and office automation systems. Flickinger's philosophy on IRM is one of tight integration throughout the department. He wants to centralize office automation, case management and data center functions for the entire department in one location. He also addresses concerns about computer security at the department, saying reports of the problems have been overstated. User-funded data centers try to keep the customers satisfied. (Department of Justice data centers) The United States Department of Justice runs one of the largest time-sharing computer operations in the country from two locations in Rockville Md and Dallas Tx. The two centers are user-funded, so according to Frank A. Guglielmo, director of the Justice Computer Services Staff, operators have an incentive to maintain good customer relations by avoiding downtime. Guglielmo claims the centers are up more the 99 percent of the time. The failures that do occur are attributable to power failures at the Rockville site, which lacks a backup generating system. Customers of the two centers include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Prisons, and Interpol. Guglielmo says the department plans to replace its Amdahl 5870 mainframe computers with machines that are IBM Extended Systems Architecture compliant. The department will also upgrade its direct-access storage devices. Justice's Project Eagle setting systems standard. (Department of Justice's office automation system) The United States Justice Department's Project Eagle is a wide ranging office automation program that will provide a coherent office environment to the department's litigation offices. The total project will cost $180 million. Although restricted to the litigation office, all other segments of the department must make sure new equipment is Eagle compatible for future integration. The Eagle contract allows the department to purchase 12,000 Intel 80386 and 80386SX-based microcomputers from Wyse Technology, the bulk of which will be used by the 9,000 employees of US attorneys' district offices. The microcomputers will be linked via TCP/IP to Data General Corp MV/15000 minicomputers running WordPerfect Office, Oracle Corp's relational data base system and Williams Automated Management Systems Inc's DMCS text retrieval system. Industry information officers find doors open at top. (chief information officers enter highest executive ranks)(Headlines and A survey of chief information officers (CIOs) conducted by Coopers and Lybrand for CIO magazine reveals that many CIOs in the private sector have significant input in general business decisions. This contrasts starkly with government officials, who generally operate under the title of information resource management and who rarely have much input in overall agency operations. CIOs in private industry report that 85 percent of them report to someone in the upper echelon of the company, while 33 percent report to the CEO of the company. This can be compared with government agencies, where IRM heads rarely if ever meet with the department secretary, let alone report to them. CIOs in private industry are also more comprehensively educated than most people would think, with only 11 percent coming from purely technical backgrounds. In end, Stoll book is about problem solving. (Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg, IRM Notebook) (column) Clifford Stoll's book The Cuckoo's Egg is a cleverly written book with many important lessons to teach computer network users about security issues. The book raises interesting questions about the security of the Internet network, or any network that is built to be easily accessed by academic users from around the world. The main lesson of the book is that any open network is subject to abuse. Users on such networks must take precautions to protect passwords and electronic mail, and adopt measures that ensure individual accountability and provide clear audit trails. Throughout The Cuckoo's Egg, Stoll makes it clear that users who took the time to establish reasonable security measures were relatively immune to unwanted intrusion. Value of subscription services deserves scrutiny. (From the Crow's Nest) (column) In this era of tight budgets, government procurement officers should reexamine their use of subscription services designed to provide information on products and markets. The main problem with most market research subscription services that provide product analysis and technology assessment is that they are targeted towards the private sector and fail to take into account the different goals of public sector information centers. The private sector is most concerned with asset management and gaining a competitive advantage, whereas in the public sector, cost is the primary consideration, along with compatibility and product life. A type of service subscription that can be extremely useful to the government buyer is offered by the companies that provide information and seminars guiding procurement officers through the maze of government procurement procedures and policies in an efficient manner. Eliminating the help desk should be a goal. (DP Issues) (column) Perry, William E. Information resource managers should realize that while the help desk is a necessary and efficient way to deal with users' problems, the very fact that such a help desk in needed signifies that the system is not operating optimally. In a perfect world, there would be no help desk because training would be effective, manuals would be well-written and easy to use, and the system would be user-friendly. A manager can monitor the types of complaints and problems a help desk deals with on a regular basis and then address the causes of those problems, thus working toward the goal of eliminating the help desk altogether. By following this philosophy, managers can eliminate problems before they occur, making the entire system more efficient for end users. GAO's new protest rules include hearings. (General Accounting Office) The United States General Accounting Office will adopt new rules on handling government contract protests. The new procedures will take effect on Apr 1, 1991 and will establish a process of formal hearings and protective orders for competing bidders. The new protective orders are meant to safeguard trade secrets, financial information, and other confidential information that is often required in government bids. Observers of the government protest system say the new GAO rules may give cause for certain protesters to file complaints with the GAO rather than with the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals. The new procedures may promote greater discovery, thereby making the GAO a more efficient forum for getting at certain facts and issues in a case. Use up contract money, or you will lose it. (Section 8080 of 1991 Defense Appropriations Act) (Procurement HotLines) (column) Section 8080 of the 1991 Defense Appropriations Act will do away with so-called M accounts and will make the government procurement processes more businesslike. M accounts are those in which all obligated but unexpended balances from contract appropriations are transferred two years after they expire. The money would remain available in these accounts indefinitely. The new regulations require that all unexpended appropriations balances be cancelled five years after they have expired, regardless of whether they are obligated or not. Under the new regulations, any contracts that expired prior to 1983 will have to be closed by May 4, 1991, or else paid out of current year appropriations. Agriculture's GRIN boosts genetic diversity in plants. (Germplasm Resources Information System, Department of Agriculture) The United States Department of Agriculture maintains a data base of information on germplasm supplies that the department holds at various repositories across the country. The repositories are part of the National Plant Germplasm System, which was established to maintain genetic diversity among plants that have had their genetic diversity eroded by cross breeding for certain traits. The department maintains the Germplasm Resources Information System (GRIN) data base to provide access to information concerning the 400,000 samples held by the project. GRIN provides researchers with information on the location of samples and on new additions to the gene banks. It also tracks requests for samples by researchers. GRIN resides on a Prime Computer Inc 9955 Mod II minicomputer located at the National Agriculture Library. NASA bulk-buy contracts speed upgrade. (NASA plans to upgrade mainframe computers at the Johnson Space Center) NASA will drastically reduce the time it takes to procure mainframe computers by awarding two indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts. These bulk-buy contracts will reduce the average 18-month procurement cycle and will combine a number of buys into a single contract. NASA will spend $590 million on the two contracts, which will include hardware maintenance for five years after an eight year purchase and delivery period. The mainframes must run Unix and Ada and comply with Posix and Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile protocols. The contract winner must provide four different classes of mainframes, ranging in power from 5 million instructions per second to 80 million instructions per second. The Johnson Space Center could buy up to 50 computers through the contract, with other NASA centers buying an unspecified number of machines. Administration again trying for new ethics rules. (Bush administration-supported bill seeks to weaken existing procurement Senator William V. Roth of Delaware has introduced the Procurement Ethics Reform Act, a bill intended to rescind federal contracting regulations that currently prohibit 'revolving door' employment practices. Opponents of the Bush administration-supported Roth bill caution that Congress must avoid further burdening agencies with new regulations, and they claim the new bill would strip away many of the key procurement ethics provisions. Under current laws, government employees are banned from accepting gratuities from contractors. Moreover, during the first two years after leaving government service, they are precluded from accepting job offers from civilian businesses with which they worked on government contracts. The new proposal would eliminate both restrictions, in addition to eliminating revolving door provisions that apply to defense and energy department employees. The Roth bill also greatly reduces the fines and penalties that can currently be assigned to businesses and individuals in case of ethics violations. Treasury's Broadbent urges GSA to loosen reins. (information resources official Stephen W. Broadbent, General Services Stephen W. Broadbent, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for information systems, calls on the General Services Administration to remove many of the pointless regulations that burden federal government procurement efforts. Broadbent wants to the GSA to eliminate any regulations that do not have real value in the procurement process. Among his specific proposals are that the GSA's IRM Service should raise the threshold at which procurements are allowed without IRMS approval from $2.5 million to a higher figure. Such a move would allow the IRMS to concentrate on larger, more complicated procurements. Broadbent would also like to see the GSA penalize vendors who delay procurements by filing frivolous protests with the GSA Board of Contract Appeals. 3Com's leaving customers high and dry. (3 Com Corp discontinues products, Technoviews) (column) 3Com Corp has alienated many federal government customers with its decision to discontinue local area network operating system products in favor of concentrating on hardware. 3Com presumably considers that the move, which cuts away its less profitable software operations, will not affect its sales of Ethernet cards and other internetworking products. On this point the company may be miscalculating, since a good deal of its hardware sales have been related to business generated by its 3+Share and 3+Open network operating systems. In addition, 3Com will lose its customer loyalty, and users will look to other, cheaper alternatives for internetworking hardware. The company should not count on customers to remain loyal to its hardware after it has severed its software commitment. Underdeveloped assets: MIS scrambles as banks find they lack the systems needed to monitor risky loans. (includes related article Banks across the country are finally looking to technology to assess commercial risk exposure, an area far behind the technological sophistication demonstrated by banks in other areas. A new system designed to manage risky loans came too late to save the Bank of New England (BNE). The failure of BNE comes at a time when bank failures have increased to over 200 annually, most triggered by bad commercial real estate loans. Bank MIS departments find themselves without the systems necessary to manage the commercial credit crisis. Congress is discussing sweeping regulatory reforms. Industry analysts report that commercial loan-tracking is a big headache in the banking industry. What the banks lack is time data on the financial status of the borrower. Computer industry officials say that relational databases are the only way to determine the success of a loan. Syntelligence Corp is one vendor with viable solutions but it has gone bankrupt. Creditor/customers are hoping for a financially sound buyer for the company. DBS lays off 300 staffers. (Dun & Bradstreet Software Services) Todd, Daniel. Dun and Bradstreet Software Services (DBS) has laid off 300 employees, mostly from the mainframe sales and marketing departments. The layoffs, according to company officials, are part of a move to refocus financial investments in strategic areas and away from arenas that are not growing as they did in 1986; specifically, mainframe platforms. Industry analysts say they are also a result of the company's merger of the McCormack and Dodge subsidiary with Management Sciences America, which was acquired in the fall of 1989. Time was necessary to determine strategic direction. The layoffs do not seem permanent as the company plans to add more staff during 1991. DBS is investing in a product focus shift by developing cooperative processing applications. Microsoft faces FTC probe. (Federal Trade Commission) Soat, John. Microsoft acknowledges it is the focus of a non-public investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) begun in Jun 1990. The vendor says the investigation is narrow in scope and that users are still expressing faith in the company. Industry analysts and lawyers are concerned that the investigation will broaden and about possible effects it might have on the software industry in general. The probe was instigated by a press release issued by Microsoft in tandem with IBM at the Fall Comdex show in Nov 1989. The release detailed enhancements planned for its Windows graphical user interface and OS/2, its operating system developed in conjunction with IBM, which is not considered a focus of the investigation. The FTC is concerned whether the agreement is anticompetitive. Legal experts are concerned whether this investigation is a sign of things to come. DG unveils Unix servers. (Data General) (Aviion AV 7000 and Aviion AV 8000) (product announcement) Data General introduces two new Unix servers, the Aviion AV 7000 and Aviion AV 8000, in an attempt to attract users with a series of economical Unix-based servers. Both systems run at speeds of 117 million instructions per second (MIPS). Prices range from $96,000 to $250,000. The two new computers are based on four Motorola 8810 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors on one board and can be upgraded from the AV 5000 and AV 6000 servers. They run DG/UX 5.4, Data General's version of Unix, which is based on AT and T's System V.4 and features RAID (redundant arrays of inexpensive disks) storage technology. One system supports 48 Gbytes of storage. Users will run applications requiring mainframe performance on microprocessor-based open systems at much, much less. IS units burn rubber: Bridgestone, Firestone IS shops racing in different directions? (Information systems) One reason Tokyo-based conglomerate Bridgestone Corp acquired Firestone Tire and Rubber in Mar 1988 was that the company coveted the MIS group of its American rival. Bridgestone had already spun off its own MIS unit, Bridgestone Software, as an independent subsidiary, in 1985, and Firestone was close to doing the same thing, but matters became complicated. Bridgestone Software posted revenues of $100 million in 1990. Bridgestone's US operations did not follow suit and retained control of its IS center. Bridgestone Software established a US unit in Los Angeles at the time of the acquisition. Firestone's unit was providing remote computer and consulting services and signed seven facilities management contracts. The interest of Bridgestone Software in the Bridgestone/Firestone IS unit has been enhanced. The company is keeping close tabs on the unit, which is well into the first phase of a reorganization and downsizing. IBM pursues RS/6000 goals: but says it is moving more cautiously in upgrade program for AIX. IBM is in the process of an aggressive upgrade program for all products in its one-year-old RS/6000 workstation line. The vendor is being more careful about how and when it modifies AIX, its Unix-like operating system. The firm, in the interest of stability, may take some time to migrate all of OSF/1 to AIX, according to company officials. IBM executives have claimed reluctance to modify the basis of the successful workstation line, which posted $1 billion is sales in 1990 and is expected to go over $2 billion. The company still lacks a diskless system in the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation market as well as a low-end model with a price low enough to compete with current products from Sun Microsystems and soon-to-be announced systems from Hewlett-Packard. Users say an inexpensive diskless workstation is high on their wish lists. A diskless system could reach the marketplace by late summer or early fall 1991. AT & T claims patent. (X Window graphical user environment) Xenakis, John J. AT and T is causing some problems in the X windows market by attempting to stop free distribution and use of X Windows software containing a technique that is commonly used in graphical user interfaces. The move may result in higher prices. X Windows applications are a favorite with MIS departments because they offer cost-effective graphical windowing systems for office automation and technical applications. The vendor claims the technique is covered by a 1985 AT and T patent. The technique in question, backing store, was included in X Windows in 1989 to enhance performance in multitasking environments in which one overlapping window can be temporarily covered by another. A bit map copy is maintained in memory and is modified when a task changes the covered window. The bit map is used to display the window when it is exposed. AT and T legal officials claim that academics can use a patented technique for pure research but need a license when any resulting application comes to the commercial market. Software is available for cost from the X Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Philips eyes anti-virus hardware. (Philips NV) Xenakis, John J. Philips NV is discarding all of its software anti-virus applications and installing anti-virus circuit boards because the company is fed up with computer viruses repeatedly invading its microcomputers. The hardware solution is the Thunderbyte board, available in the US from Systems Peripherals Inc, Peabody, MS. Officials have concluded an extensive evaluation of the board, used with IBM PC AT compatible systems, and plans to spend approximately $200,000 to install the boards in about 2,000 of its 14,000 microcomputers. The targeted computers are those that are vital to their business and those that frequently use electronic bulletin boards. The Thunderbyte uses extra cable and resides between the disk controller and the hard disk, examining every disk write. Officials of Esass BV, the board's developer in The Netherlands, claim that viruses can be designed to bypass anti-virus software but they cannot get by the Thunderbyte board. MIS offensive: data center shield: how are IS execs protecting their organizations against the possibility of attack? Some interesting responses to a survey regarding data center security offer some insight into the ways executives think about their information resources. One respondent revealed that his building was across the street from a Federal Court House, prompting concern that it may be used as a sniping location. Users are being involved in security planning and companies are storing backups at other sites. Others have enhanced perimeter security and conducted employee awareness programs. Data Center facility signs have been removed from building directories. The recession and budgetary constraints have taken care of personnel and travel policies. Ensuring data security means, to various respondents, winning the war, not opening offices abroad, creating off-site backups, formulating contingency plans. Also important are vigilance and being discrete about talking about computer facilities with outsiders. A whopper of a POS: Burger King uses technology to beef up the menu. (point of sale) (includes related article on point-of-sale An overcrowded market is just one of the problems that Burger King, the number two fast-food retailer, has faced in the past few years in an attempt to compete with McDonald's. The company has also had to deal with a shrinking labor pool, some shaky management moves prior to the 1988 buyout and constantly changing advertising campaigns. The company has undertaken an extensive POS automation project to aid in streamlining operations, improving profitability and letting restaurant managers offer improved customer service. The company sees information systems as a critical part of service delivery. The new generation of POS hardware manufactured by IBM and NCR connect cash registers with managers' workstations, offering a platform for installing many software add-ons and automating an increasing number of restaurant functions. The company hopes in the near future to leverage its technology investment by adopting other automation projects. Esoteric technologies such as touch-screens for customer orders, hand-held computers for in-store use, drive-thru video ordering and credit card/smart card payment are being tested. A fuzzy picture comes into focus: Imprecise Reasoning gives applications a sharper image. (Fuzzy Logic) (includes related Most information systems professionals do not understand what fuzzy logic, also known as imprecise reasoning, is all about. Fuzzy logic was first developed by University of Southern California professor Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1965 and has become an accepted technology in Japan and Europe. The US is only now becoming acquainted with the idea. Government agencies like NASA have discovered the value of fuzzy logic. It is possible to use fuzzy logic to open up new approaches to application development for expert systems. It gives the computer the capability to 'think' in ways that people can understand as it is based on possibilities, not probabilities, which facilitates enhancement of the scope of conventional expert systems by letting them emulate the manner in which people actually make decisions. Applications can actually be built that match any level of expertise. It will result in applications that look more like assistants than slaves. ISDN: Still a leap of faith? Vendors promise support, but will they deliver? (integrated service digital network) ISDN, the much-sought-after but never realized technology, seemed to be at hand when a group of major telecommunications vendors and some of their biggest customers agreed on a way to implement a common set of ISDN standards in Feb 1991. The agreement by central office switch vendors AT and T, Northern Telecom and Siemens Stromberg-Carlson to adhere to Bellcore's National ISDN-1 specifications for central office interfaces requires a great leap of faith that the move will result in high-volume demand for ISDN-based services, according to Northern Telecom officials. AT and T officials say it will make ISDN the next telephone service standard in the US. Users are awaiting assurances that a variety of ISDN equipment will be on the market at competitive prices. Users have been hesitant, until now, to make a commitment to ISDN as no one else has made a commitment. The agreement to adhere to a common standard set is a positive sign but not the end result. In pursuit of pirates: the SPA is putting out the word: illegal software copying will bring trouble. (Software Publishers Keeping illegal copies of microcomputer software in the office is turning into a risky proposition, thanks to the undying efforts of the Software Publishers Association (SPA). The SPA, at a San Francisco press conference, will detail the specifics of the latest settlements reached with corporations who have been using illegal software copies. SPA raids, which occur with the assistance of the US Marshal Service, are taking place at a phenomenal rate. The SPA raided Engineering Development Group, New Orleans, and reached a $225,000 settlement. A $300,000 settlement was reached with Davy-McKee, Chicago. The raid on Parametrix, Seattle, resulted in a $200,000 settlement. SPA's auditing kit, SPAudit, is free and a new version is being released that will let users print the directory of a single user's hard disk. Companies are using them to avoid a software liability lawsuit. Object of Microsoft's desire. (object management) Todd, Daniel. Microsoft has announced that it will give full support to the Object Management Group (OMG). The announcement came three weeks after Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard said they would submit technology jointly to the group for consideration as a standard in the new field of object-oriented technology. The OMG was organized in Apr 1989 as a standards organization. Microsoft officials say the company is excited about working with others on extending application integration across multiple platforms. The vendor has been working to create object-oriented methods for managing data transfer between complex Windows applications and will now apply that to OS/2 and the Macintosh environment. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is the first result of that project. OLE is meant to offer a consistent way of ensuring the integrity of applications that are both servers and targets of shared objects. The Sun/HP technology is being touted as a method to control the location of shared objects in a distributed environment. IBM, HP team up: will users' desire for a truly open network management solution be realized? (Hewlett-Packard) The integrated network management scheme developed by Hewlett-Packard and IBM is a finalist to become the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Management Environment (DME). The technology is also being supported by Siemens/Nixdorf Information Systems AG and Groupe Bull and is heavily based on HP's OpenView network management server software environment and IBM's AIX. IBM's other contributions include a text-based user interface, fault-tolerant, object-oriented database and several systems management applications. HP and Groupe Bull have developed a consolidated application programming interface (API) based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and X/Open standards that should facilitate easy development of management applications for DME. Siemens and HP are working to include OSI upper layer communication protocols into the DME. HP officials state that the submission's openness is a key factor and that the endorsement of the two European companies lends credibility. The submission is in competition with others from companies like Digital Equipment and Microsoft. UPS keeps an eye on e-mail: firm is one of many to monitor employee electronic mail. (United Parcel Service) The electronic mail (e-mail) system at UPS automatically informs employees that the company reserves the right to monitor e-mail messages. The shipping company decided to add the warning to discourage employees from using e-mail, which it considers an internal computer facility like any other, for personal business and to protect it from potential employee complaints that they were not aware of the policy, according to company officials. The company is following the guidelines of the Electronic Mail Association (EMA), which advises that companies need to create a policy to protect the privacy of employees and inform them of that policy. The EMA says, in its White Paper entitled 'Formulating A Company Policy on Access to and Use and Disclosure of Electronic Mail on Company Computer Systems, the policy should deal with all media communication and not just e-mail as a unique privacy threat. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 protects the privacy of electronic messages sent of public networks but there are few guidelines for internal corporate e-mail systems. Tariff 12 users: I want my AT&T. Thyfault, Mary E. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is being urged by nearly 50 users of AT and T's Tariff 12 to leave the custom network service offering intact. Users claim to have invested millions of dollars and huge amounts of time and effort to restructuring their networks around Tariff 12. Users have been in trouble since Oct 1990 when a federal appeals court claimed the customer network service offering was not built on sound legal reasoning. The court, without calling the current offerings illegal, instructed the FCC to repair its legal logic. The FCC requested user comments in Feb 1991. Tariff 12 offers larger users custom network packages of AT and T services for less money than separately purchased services. The question is whether the package services are 'like' the separate services. Users claim their packages provide more value than separately purchased services. Humanizing synthetic speech. (Centigram Communications Corp.'s TruVoice) (product announcement) Centigram Communications Corp introduces TruVoice, a product the company claims will significantly humanize synthetic speech and create broader acceptance of computerized test-to-speech applications. The product is based on a patented process that changes ASCII text to synthetic speech. Company officials say that current voice synthesis systems have their limitations and that users have been unwilling to accept test-to-speech systems as they sound unnatural. TruVoice is a fully synthetic voice which means that no recorded human voice serves as its basis. The company says the sounds are more natural than digitized speech.TruVoice operates on the Voice Gateway System (VGS), an audio information processor sitting between a PBX and a host computer. The text-to-speech segment of the voice processing market was at $992 million in 1990. Revenue is expected to increase to $1.3 billion in 1991 and $1.6 billion in 1992. Sysplex means major changes: IBM users look forward to huge CPU configurations. (IBM's mainframe connectivity technology) The added sophistication of Sysplex means that large MIS departments are looking forward to the creation of huge CPU configurations to automate many currently manual processes. These shops also want software policies from IBM and independent software vendors that will reflect the new image. Sysplex, at present, is a set of IBM processors capable of communicating through fiber-optic channels across IBM's Enterprise Connectivity Architecture (Escon) and operating as a loose network. User officials say they want to license products for use at locations of their choosing as the Sysplex environment lends itself to installation of the software at the most convenient location. Sysplex software licensing will probably be offered late in 1991 or early in 1992. The environment, according to industry consultants, will mean some different licensing schemes, perhaps a variation of the site license based on the number of millions of instructions per second (MIPS) run by an organization. Leading the technology drive. (John N. Stearns of American Automobile Association) The career of John N. Stearns, recently named managing director of research, development and emerging technology at the American Automobile Association (AAA), has taken a very unusual path. He started at AAA as manager of public affairs for the New Hampshire office in 1972 and finds himself in charge of several ambitious technology projects at the headquarters in Heathrow, FL, after holding several positions from Florida to Hawaii. He admits to having to bone up on technology issues but says he is comfortable with the concepts. His line-management experience has given him a good background for his current position as information technology has so many implications for AAA's goals. Calling all outsourcers. (International Telecharge Inc, telephone outsourcer) International Telecharge Inc (ITI) director of information services Lawrence V. Schundler has found himself dealing with outsourcing, but his involvement is a bit different. ITI offers telephone outsourcing as one of the largest suppliers of alternate operator services. Companies with a large amount of in-bound 800-number activity turn to ITI to handle calls, take orders or provide information. Schundler manages ITI's internal MIS needs and much of the technology involved with the company's external business. The company's core business is offering operator services for public and private pay phones, hotels, hospitals and other such businesses. Schundler's mandate is to expand ITI's presence in in-bound 800 and 900 services. Smaller catalog firms are turning to outsourcing more often. The company hopes to tap 900 numbers as an emerging market. Copyrights: you abuse, you lose. (Final Word) (column) Gruenfeld, Lee. Recent court decisions include important lessons for software publishers along with some opportunities for copyright infringers. The Ashton-Tate case is the more publicized one and it has already been grossly misunderstood. The case was a victory for Fox but the ruling had nothing to do with the infringement issue. The court decided that Ashton-Tate had purposely misled the US Copyright Office about the idea that dBase grew out of a public domain program. Punishment entailed the loss of copyright protection. The notion that Fox copied dBase was a non-issue. The second case deals with the program 'Interact' by Lasercomb America. Interact was licensed to Holiday Steel Rule Die, which defeated the copyright protection, modified the output and marketed it as a competing package under its own label. Lasercomb sued and Holiday was found guilty of copyright infringement. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals examined the licensing agreement, which prohibits the licensee from developing competing products. The court called this misuse of copyright protections, finding in the defendant's favor. Lotus readies suite of Windows apps using OLE. (Lotus Development Corp., applications, Object Linking and Embedding technology) Lotus Development Corp is developing Windows software products using the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology that it has used in its Notes 2.0 product. OLE allows users to send objects attached to worksheets shared among users. Objects may be voice or text notes or graphics. Users can attach objects that are built using other applications and initiate object-based messages by clicking on corresponding icons. The software products are meant to emulate a workgroup environment. OLE appears in Lotus' Ami Professional word processing software and its upcoming 1-2-4/W product. Lotus software made using the OLE specifications are able to share data with other non-Lotus Windows applications. Feds probe Microsoft's OS conduct: adherence to 'Chinese Wall' segregation of business questioned. (Federal Trade Commission, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigates Microsoft Corp product development practices, claiming the software publisher has misused its position as both an applications developer and creator of operating systems. The FTC claims that Microsoft has unfair advantage with its advanced knowledge of products such as its OS/2 operating system. Microsoft has utilized its advance knowledge to take advantage of its competition before, claim independent software vendors citing Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. Reports also claim that IBM has been contacted by the FTC. IBM opens OS/2 to third-party platforms. (IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition operating system) IBM plans to make its OS/2 Extended Edition operating system available to the hardware platforms of third party vendors. OS/2 version 2.0 will have an Extended Edition service pack that will allow it to be run on competing hardware systems such as those made by Compaq Computer Corp. IBM plans to make sure that the operating system will run DOS and Windows-based applications in either active or background windows. IBM also plans to market OS/2 Extended Edition 2.0 via other hardware manufacturers as well as its own direct sales force and dealers. OS/2 Extended Edition 2.0 is currently being beta-tested at 50 sites, and IBM will increase the number to 1,000. Patriot Partners appeals to industry to support new OS. (IBM and Metaphor Computer Systems' Patriot Partners venture, Constellation IBM and Metaphor Computer Systems' Patriot Partners joint venture announces a new object-oriented operating system software called the Constellation Project. The software supports OS/2 and IBM's Unix version AIX. Patriot Partners plans to create versions supporting Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft Corp's Windows. The operating system's specifications allows for the creation of applications that span system software, specific application and hardware platform differences. IBM is implementing Constellation on its products, and Metaphor is approaching software vendors and non-IBM hardware manufacturers. Patriot Partners plans to change its name to Constellation. Novell unlocks source code for IPX/SPX transport protocols. (Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange protocol Novell Inc licenses source code for its Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX) transport protocol stack for use in DOS- and OS/2-based programs. Novell also licenses object modules for client/server Unix application development. Developers previously resorted to reverse engineering in order to incorporate the IPX/SPX stack into their products. When Novell made changes to the protocol, the developers had to find the changes and re-engineer IPX. Companies are already licensing IPX/SPX and Novell's NetBIOS protocols including Madge Networks Inc, which had previously relied on reverse engineering to implement IPX/SPX into its products. Apple's System 7 bulks up yet maintains ease of use. (Apple's integrated software) (Software Review) (First Look) (evaluation) Apple's System 7 operating system for its Macintosh microcomputers offers several enhancements of previous versions including the Interapplication Communication (IAC) feature. Applications written to the IAC toolkit can share information with other applications more easily. Information that is change on a spreadsheet is automatically updated on an existing graph for instance. Users can control which applications get the updated information with IAC. System 7 also contains 32-bit color extensions and Apple's TrueType font manager. Items such as Apple's Data Access Language (DAL) tools or network extensions can easily be implemented or deleted with System 7. Color icons, scroll bars, close boxes and an additional menu on the right side of the screen are additional enhancements to the operating system. Test versions of the product have compatibility problems with some existing Macintosh programs, and the operating system is not a full multi-tasking product. IBM PS/2s to use stripped-down 486: 'entry-level' models will incorporate 486 sans math coprocessor. (IBM's microcomputer, Intel IBM announces plans to introduce low-end versions of its PS/2 90 and 95 microcomputers using Intel Corp's stripped-down 20MHz 80486SX microprocessor. The new computers are based on existing models and only differ with respect to the processor used and the reduced price. The PS/2 90 and 95 sell for between $12,000 and $18,000. IBM simply replaces the microprocessor card without having to redesign the microcomputers. Intel's new chip has the math coprocessor blocked out and is priced at $350, or half of what the 80486 costs. Intel's marketing strategy is a response to new competition from Advanced Micro Devices Inc's 80386 microprocessor clone. Apple aims higher with 040 tower: 25-MHz 68040-based workstation, server will include Ethernet. (Motorola Inc's 68040 Apple plans to introduce a tower and workstation based on Motorola Inc's 25MHz 68040 microprocessor. The products have a 32-bit Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design with Ethernet built in. Each have four memory bays with 1M-, 4M- and 16M-bit Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) capability that will give the systems up to 64Mbytes of memory. The devices can accept previous NuBus boards running at 20MHz, but boards built for the 68040 computers will not run on older machines. The tower model, priced at under $15,000, can support eight external and five internal Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) devices. The workstation model is set to replace Apple's Macintosh IIfx microcomputer and is priced under $10,000. Motorola's chip runs at 20 million instructions per second (MIPS). Symantec nears completion of Q&A 4.0. (Symantec Corp.'s Q and A data base management system) Symantec Corp develops its Q and A 4.0 data base management system that features development environment improvements and file management upgrades. The package now includes a virtual memory manager. Its query process is improved with a larger vocabulary and a guide that facilitates query design. Cross-tab reports are created with a report generator. Q and A 4.0 accepts dBase files and has linkage capabilities with Gupta Technologies Inc's SQLBase server and Oracle Server 6.0. The word processor of Q and A 4.0 supports a WYSIWYG display, scalable fonts, and import and export filters for use with other word processors. The product must pass Symantec's quality tests before being shipped. IBM cranks up speed on RS/6000 system: unveils fast X Window graphics terminal. (workstations) (product announcement) IBM introduces its $17,970 POWERstation 320H workstation, $151,380 top-end POWERServer 950 file server, $3,325 Xstation 130 terminal and the $19,500 to $29,500 PowerGraphics GTO graphics subsystem. The POWERstation 320H is a 25MHz version of the POWERstation 320 and has increased memory with 8 to 16Mbytes. The basic configuration has a 160Mbyte hard drive but can be upgraded to have 800Mbytes. The workstation includes a 19-inch monochrome monitor and built-in Ethernet. The POWERserver 950 features 32Mbytes of main memory that is expandable to 512Mbytes and a 857Mbyte hard disk expandable to 11.9 gigabytes. The file server has a 41.6MHz processor. The Xstation 130 features 2.5Mbytes of memory and 1Mbyte of video memory. Both the color and monochrome versions are expandable ot 16.5Mbytes of RAM with 2Mbytes of video memory and have an optional 30Mbyte hard disk for storing images locally. The PowerGraphics GTO subsystem features almost one million three-dimensional vectors per second. the lower-end model has 8-bit color, and the high-end model features 24-bit color graphics. Chock-full DTP programs now touting adaptability: developers, users welcome customization. (desktop publishing) (Software - Desktop publishing software manufacturers are implementing features into their products that allow users to add extra capabilities via scripting languages. Scripting languages let users write scripts that run repetitive tasks including reformatting documents and handling text overflows at the end of pages. Aldus Corp implements its English-based scripting language called Additions in the Windows and Apple Macintosh versions of its PageMaker 4.0 package. Additions has menu commands from PageMaker that allow users to develop additional features to the base software. Aldus' new command query engine code allows PageMaker to read those enhancements made by users with Additions. 'Relate' creates links without programming. (ObjectSoft Corp.'s Relate search software) (product announcement) ObjectSoft Corp introduces its $149 Relate search software package that runs in the Windows environment. Relate lets users create links between applications, files, documents, images and cells in a spreadsheet without having to use a programming language. Relate is created in Asymetrix Corp's ToolBook program development software. Relate has three components, including applications, handlers and engines. The applications allow users to create, retrieve, index and manipulate objects. The handlers act on objects for viewing or printing. Relate's Object Management System (OMS) is an engine that handles an application's request to manage or manipulate relationships. Relationships are represented by icons, which when click on run the specific application automatically. Interleaf introduces Developer's Toolkit. (Interleaf Inc.'s program development software) (product announcement) Interleaf Inc introduces a program development software called Developer's Toolkit for its Interleaf 5 structured document publishing application. Developer's Toolkit uses Interleaf's Active Document Technology that allows Interleave to drive other applications to update and get information for a document. Active Document Technology is a system of live links that is platform-independent. Developer's Toolkit is an extension of Interleaf's extension language Interleaf Lisp. Developer's Toolkit lets users create pop-ups, stick-up windows and dialog boxes. The program is available for Interleaf workstation versions. It is included in the $24,000 Developer version and is a $10,000 option on the Production/Academic version that sells for $15,000. Open Interface grants programmers' wishes: gives look of major windowing environments. (Neuron Data Inc.'s program development Neuron Data Inc introduces its Open Interface program development software. Open Interface is an object-oriented toolkit that allows users to create graphical user interfaces under DOS, Apple Macintosh, Unix, OS/2 and VMS environments. The toolkit maintains the look and feel of Microsoft Corp's Windows, Apple's Macintosh interface, Presentation Manager, and Open Look. Users create interfaces by drawing them with Open Interface's WYSIWYG interface builder Open Editor. Open Interface has libraries pertaining to the major windowing environments, and theses libraries are linked when the developer's code is compiled. Open Interface costs $7,000 for DOS and Macintosh, $9,000 for OS/2 and $12,000 for Unix and VMS. SoundByte adds sound without an add-in card. (Meridian Data Inc.'s data acquisition device) (Hardware) (product announcement) Meridian Data Inc introduces its $249.95 SoundByte voice input-output device. SoundByte adds sound capabilities to microcomputers without the use of an add-in card or CD-ROM drive. The product runs under DOS and Windows, and supports Microsoft Corp's multimedia enhancements to Windows. SoundByte plugs into the microcomputer's parallel port and can receive input from a microphone or high-fidelity equipment. The unit uses a chip to digitize and compress sound signals and stores the files on the microcomputer's hard disk. SoundByte saves storage space by using 16-bit adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) compression. This enables the unit to save half as much space as 16-bit linear pulse code modulation (PCM) devices. Tape drive vendors accused of wild claims: streaming tape drives use same algorithm. (Hardware - Market Analysis) Nearly all streaming tape drives use Stac Electronics Inc's data compression algorithm called QIC-122. All drives adhering to the protocol have the same compression ratios for the same set of files being backed up. Compression ratios vary only according to different files. Vendors claiming to have products that compress better than others do so incorrectly. Drives that feature a compression chip may give better data compression results and faster speeds, but they adhere to the same algorithm. Backup software products adhering to the algorithm differ in performance as a result of floppy disk drive slowness and options that the software products may have. Streaming tape drives can gain compression ratios up to six to one, but ratios of two to one are normal. Current frenzy over pen-based computers misses the point. (Tech Talk) (column) Pen-based computers better serve users if they are the gesture-recognition type rather than mere input devices. Development capital going towards pen-based computers should go towards continuing Windows or OS/2 updates and refinements. Pen-based computers can only develop a small market niche and will not serve the general computing population. Gesture-recognition systems provide for natural means of inputting information. A question mark written on a menu item would signify a help command. Gesture recognition might involve mouse position history, which involves a visible trail left by the mouse cursor as it is moved from one position to another. Trail shapes are then learned by the computer and stored as vocabularies. LAN management tools pose their own problems: users need training to effectively use tools. (Networking - Market Update) Network managers having difficulty using protocol analyzers and other network management tools require extra training to understand and better use the products that spot network problems. The statistics that these tools generate are difficult to decipher for the network manager who does not fully understand how to use the product. The answer lies in training the users how to solve problems by troubleshooting. Tool manufacturers such as Novell Inc and Network General Corp offer classes for their customers. Network General's classes focus on the sources of network problems. Novell is integrating troubleshooting training into its network management systems in addition to general product information. Soft market moves Apple to cut Mac, printer prices. (Macintosh microcomputer) Apple Computer Inc reduces the prices on its high-end microcomputers and three of its printers. The Apple Macintosh IIfx with 4Mbytes of RAM and a 160Mbyte hard disk now costs $8,669. A 4Mbyte, 80Mbyte hard disk model costs $8,069, and a model lacking the hard disk costs $7,369. Apple's Macintosh IIci comes in two versions: the 5Mbyte RAM model with an 80Mbyte hard disk costs $5,969, and the model without the hard disk costs $5,269. The Macintosh SE/30 with 4Mbyte RAM and 80Mbyte hard disk now costs $3,869, and a 40Mbyte hard disk, 1Mbyte RAM version costs $3,369. The Personal LaserWriter NT now costs $2,599, and the LaserWriter IINT costs $3,999. A LaserWriter IINTX now costs $4,999. A sluggish high-end microcomputer market is driving the trend of cost reductions. High-tech industry fears competition from abroad: U.S., Japan to battle for Europe's business. Ernst and Young releases results of a survey of 561 high-technology industry chief executive officers in the US regarding their opinions about foreign competition. 16 percent of the executives say that foreign companies pose a serious competitive threat to US interests, and 42 percent expect greater foreign competition by 1995. Foreign competition from Japan and Europe is changing the character of the US high-tech industry in that many companies are forming marketing agreements, pursuing mergers and stressing customer satisfaction and quality improvement. Over 80 percent of those surveyed report having marketing alliances, and 50 percent have technology licensing agreements. Forty-five percent of the executives expect to acquire another company by 1995; thirty percent expect to be acquired by then. Japanese companies are major competitors, 11 percent feel, and 32 percent expect more competition by 1995. Three percent feel that Europe is a major competitor now with 10 percent foreseeing increased European competition by 1995. Informix suffers heavy losses for fiscal 1990: results reflect recent accounting policy. Informix Corp reports fiscal-year 1990 losses at $46.4 million. 1990 revenues totalling $146.1 million compare with the previous year's $145 million. The losses are blamed on the software publisher's new accounting procedures, of which a revised revenue recognition policy is part. That new policy accounts for $23 million of the company's losses. The company also took a one-time restructuring charge of $6 million that includes severance benefits, write-offs and similar expenditures. Other reasons for the losses include the sluggish economy and increased competition in the software automation market. Microsoft Corp and Borland International Inc are Informix's main competitors. Software automation accounts for 15 to 20 percent of Informix's business. Data management products require a corporate reappraisal. (State of the Industry) (column) New management techniques and business practices require the dispersal and sharing of information so that all members of a company can work together efficiently. The complex world economies and increased international competition require middle management to access the same information available to high-level executives. Office automation software products promise to fulfill the needs of modern business. The products allow for documentation of all pieces of information, not just finished products or text created with the software. The products are able to satisfy this challenge of changing business practices and management techniques, but software publishers need to promote the products as viable solutions for corporations. Novell deal marks IBM's new plan: keep customers happy. (IBM to sell Novell Inc.'s NetWare, Novell to make NetWare compatible with IBM's marketing agreement to market Novell Inc's NetWare local area network (LAN) operating system is part of IBM's recent practice of forming business partnerships with software vendors and developers. Under terms of the agreement, IBM markets NetWare and Novell develops the operating system so that it will run with OS/2 and IBM's version of Unix, AIX. The marketing agreement may appear to conflict with IBM's relationship with Microsoft Corp and the co-developed LAN Server product. The success of NetWare, holding 53 to 70 percent of the LAN operating system, forces IBM to address the needs of its customers through the agreement. IBM is bringing NetWare into SAA, and the NetView network management system will support NetWare LANs. The training gap. (employee microcomputer training trends)(includes related article on American Express Co.'s Training employees to use microcomputers benefits corporations because the effort results in increased production. Training is directed at employees who may not be computer literate, but it is also helpful for users who want to take full advantage of the power of their computers. Budgets for employee microcomputer training are increasing. Small companies typically spend more per employee than do large companies. Companies with over 1,000 workers spend an average of $310 per employee each year, and companies with less than 1,000 spend nearly $1,400 per employee per year. Companies with less than 100 employees give training to 82 percent of their workers. Firms with more than 100 employees train 63 to 65 percent of their workforce to use microcomputers. Software products such as graphical user interfaces like Microsoft Corp's Windows environment ease microcomputer use and are seen as aids to increasing worker productivity and facilitate the use of other applications. Surprises are developing in the world of digital photography. (Eastman Kodak Co.'s Photo CD image processing device) (Future Eastman Kodak Co's Photo CD digitizes and stores 35 mm photographic slides onto optical discs. The system requires users to take their slides to a local site where the slides are transferred onto a writable compact disc (CD). Each disc holds up to 100 images. The images are then viewed on the user's television set via a photo/audio CD player that is being co-developed by electronics firm Philips. Photo CD discs cost $20 per disc. The system handles image data efficiently, reducing an image to take up six megabytes of storage space. The discs can be played on compact disc interactive (CD-I) and CD ROM XA drives. Color VGA monitors: InfoWorld examines the many faces of 14 color monitors. (includes related articles on summary of evaluations and Purchasing a VGA color monitor involves determining resolution, dot pitch, and price requirements. Sony Corporation of America, Computer Peripheral Products Company's Sony CPD 1304 and Seiko Instruments USA Inc's CM 1450 both feature a Trinitron tube that has a single electron gun. One gun eliminates the chances that jarring will cause focus. Monitors feature either laced or interlaced screens. Interlaced screens tend to flicker more, but are cheaper to build and the graphics boards cost less also. Products reviewed include Wyse Technology Inc's Amdek AM/738+, Compaq's Compaq Video Graphics Color Monitor, Dell Computer Corp's Dell Super VGA Color Monitor, GoldStar Technology Inc's GoldStar 1460 Plus, IBM's 8515, IOcomm International Technology's IOcomm CM 4210, Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc's Diamond Scan 14LP, Nanao USA Corp's Nanao Flexscan 9060S, NEC Technologies Inc's NEC Multisync 3D/S, Panasonic Communications and Systems Co's PanaSync C1381, ViewSonic's ViewSonic 4, and Zenith Data Systems' ZCM-1492. AST 386SX notebook upgradability puts it above the crowd. (AST Research Inc.'s Premium Exec 386SX/20 portable computer) (product AST Research Inc's new Premium Exec 386SX/20 portable computer weighs seven pounds, features a VGA screen, has an upgradable CPU and ships with Microsoft Corp's MS-DOS 3.3. The portable's memory is expandable from 2Mbytes to 8Mbytes via user-accessible SIMM panels. Premium Exec 386SX/20 also features a 3.5-inch, 1.4Mbyte disk drive, one serial port, one parallel port and support for a math coprocessor. The 12MHz 80286 version with a 20Mbyte hard disk starts at $2,495. An 80386SX model with a 20Mbyte hard disk costs $2,995, and 40Mbyte model runs $3,395. The 80386SX version with a 60Mbyte hard disk costs $3,795. Premium Exec 386SX/20's nickel cadmium battery lasts three to four hours, and it features Traveling Software Inc's Battery Watch utility that shows how much battery life remains. The user can switch between 20MHz and 8MHz in order to save battery life. Options include an internal 2400bps data modem that features MNP5 compression, and a 9600bps fax-send capable fax modem. Psion 400 portable swaps DOS compatibility for speed, light weight, proprietary software. (Psion Inc.'s portable computer) The $1,795 Psion 400 portable computer runs on its own proprietary software and transfer utilities and is not DOS compatible. Psion Inc's computer weighs 5.7 pounds with eight AA batteries. The portable has a 16-bit 80C86 microprocessor with a clock speed of 7.68MHz. Storage is handled by 256Kbyte flash erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) cards. The computer ships with 256K of RAM and has two extra slots for EPROM or RAM cards. EPROM cards cost $150 for a 128Kbytes card, $250 or 256K, $400 for 521K and $600 for a 1Mbyte card. RAM cards cost $130 for a 64K card, 128K cards cost $200, and a 521K card runs $650. Psion 400's screen is good in well-lit areas, but is very difficult to see in poorly-lit areas. The keyboard is very sensitive. Files transfer quickly to Apple Macintosh computers. Psion 400 has an integrated software package including a text processor, diary and time manager, scientific calculator and a flat-file data base for telephone lists. It also has a file transfer utility for microcomputer-to-Psion transfer capabilities. The difference between expanded and extended memory. (Answer Line) (column) Expanded memory is a technique that provides additional memory capabilities for the Intel Corp 8088 microprocessor. The technique uses bank switching, an operation where strips of the processor's addresses are replaced by additional RAM chips that occupy the original address locations to provide nearly infinite memory capabilities. Lotus Development Corp, Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp published the Extended Memory Specification (EMS) in 1985. Extended memory is the extra memory that Intel 80286, -386 and -486 microprocessors contain. The 80286 microprocessor has up to 16Mbytes of memory instead of the 8088's 1Mbyte. New programs overcome initial difficulties experienced with extended memory, including the protected mode feature, but now work better with extended memory to expanded memory. Memory managers available now make extended memory look like expanded memory for programs originally developed to EMS. Borland C++ 2.0 combines powerful tools, ease of use. (Borland International Inc.'s compiler) (Software Review) (Reviews) Borland International Inc's excellent $495.95 Borland C++ 2.0 program development system ships with two compilers supporting AT&T's C++ 2.0 and ANSI-C. Borland C++ 2.0 is a great development environment for creating applications for Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0. It is not a Windows application itself, but runs under Windows in a DOS box. The product includes Whitewater Resource Toolkit that allows the user to interactively build and modify Windows applications resources. Borland C++ 2.0 also includes protected-mode versions of the command line compiler Programmer's Platform, Borland's integrated development environment (IDE), and the Turbo Assembler. The Programmer's Platform offers excellent integration of such tools as editor, compiler, linker and debugger. The linker has a problem that prevents the creation of real-mode Windows applications, however, the Windows must be in standard mode when running the IDE in a DOS box. Borland C++ 2.0 ships with a well-organized manuel with excellent documentation. FilmMaker turns color images into high-quality animation. (Paracomp Inc.'s FilmMaker 2.1 multimedia software) (Software Paracomp Inc's $695 FilmMaker 2.0 multimedia software produces professional-quality animation and interactive multimedia presentations on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. The has five production modules: Animate, Color, Sound, Mark and Present. The Animate module enables users to specify external graphic objects and define the movement and interrelations of those objects. Animate also allows the user to work with 24- or 32-bit images and can add up to two levels of anti-aliasing. Compiled or rendered animation sequences can be reused for the creation of animation clip libraries. Animation capabilities are very good, as are the import/export capabilities and the program's ease of use. The sound effects, ease of learning and documentation are satisfactory. Technical support for FilmMaker is good. Vellum for Windows adds architectural design features. (Ashlar Inc.'s Vellum 1.0 computer-aided design software) (Software Ashlar Inc's $1,995 Vellum 1.0 computer-aided design (CAD) software package for the Microsoft Corp Windows environment offers architectural design features in addition to mechanical engineering design capabilities. The package lacks programmability and does not have third-party support or three-dimensional capabilities. Vellum for Windows does have expert system tools that help with architectural drafting and supports the Initial Graphics Exchange Standard (IGES) drawing format. Its Integrated Parametrics feature enables the user to sketch a shape then apply dimensions to the drawing afterward. The program then automatically updates the drawing according to the input values. Vellum also links detail drawings to the main drawings so that updates on a detail are reflected on the main drawing. The drawing tools and processing speed are good. The documentation, error handling and technical support are very good. Ease of learning and ease of use are excellent, as are input/output capabilities and the placement tools. Will real-world or object-oriented computing be the future? (column) Representatives of the computer industry agree that innovation and usage of computer products are stagnated as a result of the variety of hardware platforms and the difficulties users face with computer systems. Supporters of object-oriented programming claim that a new environment based on the technique offers users the ability to access data sources across environments and create customized applications. Developers can reuse new object-oriented tools or models and increase programming time. Others claim that solutions are to be found in existing technologies to enable users to generate electronic documents and transmit them across different hardware platforms. LAN overboard? Help is coming; outside service providers rescue frustrated network managers. (includes a related article on the The most frequent and difficult problems plaguing network administrators include primitive centralized network management, a lack of client/server SQL database capable of handling files with over one million records, print spooling, implementing network upgrades and remote printing problems. NetWare problems account for the majority of complaints, due to an installed base of over 60 percent of the market. New service organizations and telephone hotlines are dedicated to solving NetWare-specific problems. The client/server environment is the source of the majority of complaints. Novell's Noorda and Miller speak out on LAN industry. (executives Ray Noorda and Darrell Miller) (interview) Novell Pres and CEO Ray Noorda and Darrell Miller, the company's senior vice president of marketing and services, discuss Novell's recent licensing agreement with IBM, the local area network (LAN) industry's future and Microsoft's position in the computer market. Novell has worked with IBM in the educational market; a deal for IBM to resell NetWare is an extension of that relationship. Novell's mission is to concentrate on the LAN market. The 1990s is the era for networking; following this will be a period of super-networking resulting from technological changes during this decade. HP Network Adviser combines protocol analysis, expert system. (Model 4980A, 4981A and 4982A network analyzers) (product Hewlett-Packard Corp's HP Network Advisor network analyzer combines a sophisticated protocol analyzer with an intelligent system that spots network problems and offers solutions. The Fault Finder expert system software allows users to concentrate on symptoms of network problems, rather than interpretations of protocol traffic. It runs simultaneous measurements on the network and displays test results and interpretations in windows. The product is primarily geared for network management of LANs and WANs, but is also useful to service organizations. Communication software is included, along with access to HP's Network Advisory Board bulletin board system. Network Advisor is available in the configurations: Model HP 4980A costs $25,000, while the HP 4981A and HP 4982A single-interface units each list for $19,500. Gupta's SQL Windows works with Btrieve; tool lets programmers port Netware applications to Widows 3.0. (from Gupta Technologies Inc.) Gupta Technologies Inc's SQL Windows for Btrieve is a graphical development tool for creating client/server applications. It will allow registered Btrieve programmers to port character-based applications to the Windows 3.0 environment. Such applications are usually created in Pascal, Cobol, or C. Novell hopes the easy-to-use tool will encourage more programmers to use the Btrieve record manager as a platform for building client/server applications. The product is the result of a development alliance that resulted from Novell's purchase of a 19 percent interest in Gupta Technologies in 1990. The product can be purchased as part of the SQL Windows Development System for $1,595. Existing SQL Windows users can purchase Btrieve libraries separately for $495. Mixing it up: multiprotocol help is on the way; new stacks broaden login capabilities; fiber mixes LAN, terminal traffic. Network managers handling multiple protocols can look forward to help from several new drivers, bridges and a mixed-mode fiber hub. Cogent Data Technologies' Open Windows lets microcomputer users switch network protocols from DOS or Windows 3.0. Several other companies demonstrated equivalent capabilities during the Networld trade show. The Concurrent driver from Spry Inc allows NetWare users to log into several networks without rebooting. Persoft Inc's Passage bridge software provides simultaneous access to DEC, LAT and other Unix TCP/IP hosts without terminal servers or serial lines. Luxcom Inc's Universal Smart Hub supports both Ethernet and token-ring network protocols, along with wide area and terminal networks, simultaneously over a fiber-optic backbone. Program monitors Netware 286 file servers; Net Alarm TSR logs critical errors; automatically reports FCONSOLE statistics. Net Alarm, from Meyer & Associates Inc of San Ramon, CA, is a terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program that monitors Netware 286 file servers and spots anomalies that could lead to network degradation or a server crash. It operates in the background on a network node that can be used for other purposes. It logs and reports critical errors and configuration thresholds that are exceeded. The program accesses the same statistics as the Netware file server for viewing under FCONSOLE, but FCONSOLE does not provide the alarms. Site licenses are $195. Novell, Cheyenne team on backup device line. (Cheyenne Software Inc.) Novell will join Cheyenne Software Inc of Roslyn, NY, in developing several backup devices, including a device interface for Netware 3.11. The companies have cooperated closely in the past; Cheyenne's Arcserve Netware Loadable Module (NLM) is Novell certified. Novell will include B/R Device Interface in the Netware 3.11 network operating system. Novell is also licensing optional client agents from Cheyenne that allow SBACKUP to archive information residing on DOS, Windows, OS/2, and Unix. The Netware B/R Driver Kit is available through Novell resellers for $250 per server. Netware B/R Client Services costs $595 per server. Netware servers can be routers; built-in routing services are hidden behind other OS functions. (operating systems) (technical) NetWare includes an internal routing module so that it will work with more than one server. The IPX protocol is an implementation of the Xerox Network System (XNS), while the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a sub protocol part of the XNS protocol. RIP is used for building, maintaining, and using internetwork routing tables. A node that supports XNS or IPX can be a router. Netware servers can also be routers. Integrated routing, like NetWare's, is an advantage for small, multiserver networks because it does not require a dedicated machine for routing. Connect PCs, Macintoshes. (networking with Tops software) (Hands on Sitka) (tutorial) The Sitka Tops network makes it possible to link DOS-, Unix-based and Macintosh computers on a single network. The network software translates file system calls between the different operating systems, with the translation being completely transparent to the user. A software module, the redirector, intercepts calls to the local file system; it handles multiple operating systems, filters calls to the file system and translates the file system call into TFP before sending it to the proper server. Macintosh users need only to supply a Localtalk connector between the network and their machine's printer port. The hows and whys of Vines applications. (tutorial) Penzias, Bonnie. Banyan System Inc's Vines Applications Toolkit provides the programming environment and application programming interfaces (APIs) for building Vines applications. Creating Vines applications is easy; the Toolkit is not even needed. Banyan is making a great effort to get third parties to develop Vines applications. Almost any DOS application will run on a Vines network. Use of the APIs in the toolkit can fully integrate applications with Vines. The network-integration process begins with StreetTalk and STDA, Vines' global naming services. Details for designing Vines applications are provided. Select defaults during install. (installing OS/2 and LAN Manager) (Hands on LAN Manager) (tutorial) Basic instructions are provided for installing OS/2 and LAN Manager. The procedures for choosing the defaults are presented. The procedures include installing Compaq's OS/2 1.21 and Microsoft's LAN Manager 2.0. Make working copies of OS/2 and LAN Manager diskettes before starting the actual installation. LAN Manager is installed after OS/2. The installation process is fairly easy. Once LAN Manager is installed, go to the directory and run install to tweak the system to suit particular needs. Novell now goes the extra mile for network printing. (LAN Primer) (column) Novell's NetWare 3.x offers a complete printing services package. PSERVER.EXE, PSERVER.VAP, and RPRINTER.EXE provide printing capabilities for all configurations. Printers used by up to eight servers can be connected to the server, the print server workstation or an end-user's workstation. Netware 3.x printing utilities are available free of charge to NetWare 2.1x users who need to upgrade their printing facilities. Systempro gains SCSI array, DAT options; Compaq boosts system's storage capacity, slashes base prices. (Small Computer Systems Compaq Computer Corp increased Systempro capacity to almost 20Gbytes with (Small Computer Systems Interface) SCSI-based options. All Intel 80386-based Systempro models now contain 8Mbytes of RAM, the same as the 486-based models. The company dropped prices on the systems from 4 percent to 10 percent. The prices of CPU-upgradeable Deskpro/L models dropped 13 percent to 21 percent. Compaq expects its promised Intelligent Array Expansion System to ease network and Unix managers' concerns about Systempro flexibility and capacity. The unit is scheduled to ship in Mar 1991. Kodak moves into network printer market; new Ektaplus laser printer features built-in optical photocopier. (model 7016) Eastman Kodak Co Printer Products Division's new Ektaplus 7016 high-speed laser printer includes a regular optical photocopier on the top of the machine. The printer produces 16 pages per minute with remarkable resolution. 2Mbytes of RAM are included, expandable to 4Mbytes and the device supports five standard printer emulations. The Ektaplus 7016 can be attached to a PC node through a parallel or serial port, or directly to an Appletalk network. It can be configured with up to four ports, including any combination of serial, parallel or Localtalk. The printer lists for $5,495. An optional Postscript board costs $1,500. Remote software struggles to do Windows; developers scurry to come up with products to support interface. Several developers are readying programs for remotely controlling, monitoring and diagnosing Windows-based LAN stations. Avalan Technology Inc's Remotely Possible 2.1 provides Netbios and Netware IPX/SPX support for LAN-linked microcomputers operating on Windows 3.0. Ocean Isle Software will ship its Reach-Out package in Jun 1991. Brightwork's Netremote+ in in beta test and scheduled for a June release. LAN Systems shipped Lansight 2.0. Fresh Technology Group's LAN Assist Plus Windows version is also scheduled for a June release. D-Link Systems is ready to beta test a new version of Screen Monitor for LANs. Standard protocols will take networking world by storm. (tutorial) Ferris, David. Standard protocols for networks allow a choice in the way information is transferred between different locations and departments. These inter-site connection methods are known as 'transport' and 'network' protocols. Novell's SPX/IPX, Xerox' XNS, IBM's Netbeui, TCP/IP and ISO are examples of these protocols. Standardization allows different devices to share a common local area network (LAN), cutting costs and making technical support simpler. The two main tasks in sending information over an internetwork between LANs are ensuring that information is delivered accurately and selecting an optimal transmission path. The scientific and engineering community will continue in the TCP/IP direction, while commercial customers will probably tend toward ISO. By 1995 standard protocols will take over. Digital Products enters LAN print enhancement arena; Lansprint boosts graphics printing up to 100 times. (local area Watertown, MA-based Digital Products' Lansprint printer sharer increases the maximum speed a workstation or file server can print graphics data and download fonts. This is the first of a series of print sharing products from the company. Lansprint is a cost-effective product that improves productivity and requires fewer printers per workgroup. Lansprint can be installed anywhere on a network; on a file server or workstation. It is completely transparent to the user. The current version is compatible with NetWare 2.15, a version that works with NetWare 3.0 and other network operating systems will be ready soon. A single-port version of Lansprint costs $495, a dual-port version goes for $695. Debunking the myth of a coming 'Windows backlash'. (Network Environments) (column) Several industry analysts predict a 'Windows backlash', a disillusionment and rejection of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Windows is a standard that will promote vendor and network-independence, much like OS/2 was supposed to be. The program works best with Windows-specific applications, although most early users are still treating it a a graphical task-switcher for traditional DOS applications. Many companies plan to switch to Windows as a standard, but are waiting for Windows-based versions of their favorite applications. It is more likely the 'backlash' will be against the antique DOS. Product update: network interoperability; solutions for interconnecting Unix to PC LANs gain importance. (local area Network operating system interoperability has recently centered on Unix/LAN connectivity tools. These tools will increase in importance as Unix gains a larger market share in the business world. Novell introduced Netware NFS on Feb 11, 1991. This new Netware 3.11 service provides transparent integration for Unix users with Netware file systems and resources. The product is a set of Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs) that provide native file and print services for Unix clients and allow them to share Netware files and resources with DOS, Macintosh, OS/2 and Windows clients. 3Com announced expanded interoperability for 3Com TCP with Demand Protocol Architecture (DPA) 1.2 and 3Com TCP Netbios. The company's new TCP Netbios lets network administrators define remote Netbios names and their corresponding IP addresses to provide workstations with access to remote TCP/IP network resources. Communications servers. (Tech Tutor) (tutorial) Clegg, Peter. The word 'server' is overused in the local area network (LAN) industry. There are file servers, print servers, network servers, fax servers, and others. Complete communications servers would provide and manage external connections to a network, but a 'complete' server is not available; users must choose the best tools for the job and hope they can mix and match as needs increase. There are many dial-out and dial-in services currently available. Multitasking and multiple processors will provide a better solution as demand for remote connections increase. Synchronous connections to other LANs, host computers, X.25 networks and other services require high-speed adapters. Several products are described. Standardize the process of standardizing standards. (Beyond the Server) (column) Network standards are still lacking in the LAN industry. Ethernet, Arcnet and Token Ring are current de facto standards, but they promote connectivity problems. The network of the 1990s is not a LAN, but an enterprise. The ability to control homogenous networks may depend on how they are implemented, but enterprises are not standardized enough to allow for consistent network management tools. There are several answers to the problem: users should demand real standards, organizations can develop standards based on what users need, and users need to be aware of how marketeers have mandated standards that ensure an installed base will be forced to continue buying from the same vendor. Open systems are needed. USConnect and Bell Atlantic provide a one-stop shop. (data and telecommunications network integration) USConnect and Bell Atlantic Corp are joining forces to provide data and telecommunications network integration and installation services. USConnect, a nationwide consortium of 16 local area network (LAN) system integrators, will provide expertise in service and support for corporate-wide LANs and wide area networks (WANs). The participants will be able to offer end-users a wide choice of LANs and telecommunication services. Each of the LAN system integrators has extensive experience in supplying Fortune 500 accounts with LAN equipment, software and hardware. Bell Atlantic will offer experience in wide area networking, inside wiring, and computer maintenance as well as providing a full-service account/sales team to leverage its extensive customer base. Other regional Bell holding companies are seeking partnerships with LAN VARs. The red and white box changes to big and blue. (Novell, IBM cooperate on development of LAN Server) (The Channel Eye) (column) Many industry analysts predicted gloom for IBM's LAN Server after Microsoft drew back from supporting OS/2. IBM answered by forming an alliance with Novell, firmly supporting NetWare as a true industry standard. Most local area network (LAN) resellers will not benefit markedly from the alliance as they are not authorized to sell IBM connectivity, hardware or software products. The move is expected to drive development of IBM connectivity distribution programs. IBM's networking sales and marketing experience and Novell can deliver unprecedented service and support for its entire product line. Wanted: LAN personnel. (local area networks) (part of a special report on LAN personnel) Local area network (LAN) experts are experiencing a high degree of demand for their services. Salaries are rising and are expected to increase 13 percent in 1991. Junior microcomputer support technician salaries start around $25,000; a LAN support person can expect $30,000. Network/LAN analysts start between $30,000 and $38,000. Data processing managers on network platforms can command up to $45,000. Programmer/analyst/developers reach $40,000 and more. Information center managers get up to $50,000 and are in great demand. Project managers, business analysts, applications developers, and people with LAN/WAN connectivity experience are also in high demand. Herman Post. (three network managers relate their experiences in running a LAN)(local area network) (part of a special report on Salt Lake City, UT-based Wasatch Education's platform development manager Herman Post describes his experiences in running local area networks (LANs) from early days when the system would crash every time a bus went by to the current NetWare 386 implementation with IBM PC compatibles and four development file servers and administration files servers bridged onto a large network running a mixture of Corvus and Arcnet. Post prefers application development and is looking to get out of LAN management. Neal Gaugler.(three network managers relate their experiences in running a LAN)(local area network) (part of a special report on Great Plains Software's local area network (LAN) manager, Neal Gaugler, has managed the company's corporate network for five years. He is currently migrating his servers from Netware 2.15 to Netware 3.1. He enjoys keeping abreast of LAN technology in an industry that moves very quickly. He finds it most frustrating when two products the vendors claim will work together will not. He enjoys the challenge of building and upgrading LANs and working to make them more reliable and cost-efficient. Ruth Ann Hines.(three network managers relate their experiences in running a LAN)(local area network) (part of a special report on Ruth Ann Hines, production analyst supervisor for Citation Oil and Gas Corp, has an education degree, is a self-taught computer user who had local area network (LAN) management thrust upon her. She was the most experienced DOS user in the department when the company decided to install a 3Com LAN. She worked with a vendor for eleven months in setting up a LAN and never got the system running properly until they switched vendors and got somebody that could provide the needed expertise. She enjoyed learning the technology, but now enjoys her job most when the system is running smoothly. Faxing straight from your desktop; LANs come through again as enabling technology. (includes an executive summary and a related New local area network (LAN) fax server programs allow users to share a fax machine, no matter where they are in a building. The software is usually located on the file server, the workstation, and a dedicated fax server workstation. Fax jobs are initiated by printing from an ordinary application. Softnet's Xchange Sharefax 2.1 is a low-end program with several high-end features. Gammalink's Gammanet 1.1 accompanies the company's fax board. Castelle's Faxpress 2.1 is a separate unit that acts as a print server and a semi-intelligent fax server. Comwave's Faxnet 3.0 is a NetWare product, but works with LAN Manager and other Netbios-based networks. Rightfax 1.31, from Cracchiolo and Feder, accompanies a board from Brooktrout. Castelle's Faxpress offers laser-quality capabilities; powerful alternative to a dedicated workstation. (Hardware Review) (one of Castelle's $4,995 Faxpress 2.1 is a self-contained unit that plugs into a NetWare, LAN Manager, or IBM LAN Server local-area network (LAN). It does not require a dedicated workstation, the kit contains both hardware and the software. Faxpress can fax any documented created in HP Laserjet or Postscript format. Faxes are sent by using the command line function, a pop-up utility, a menu-driven interface, or an optional MHS-compatible E-mail gateway software package. The unit also functions as a print server. Comwave adds Netfaxing to Netware; menu-driven product has a variety of features, fits well into Netware LAN. (local area Comwave's Faxnet works with other local-area networks, but is targeted for NetWare. The program requires a dedicated fax server, the evaluation unit accompanied a fax board. Faxnet offers a variety of user interfaces and requires a shared directory structure on a network drive. A terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) interface is under development, but not currently available. The product produces fair performance with outbound faxes and good performance for inbound faxes. Price for hardware with bundled software is $3,185. Gammanet 1.1 makes good showing; complex faxing system offers seamless operation, variety of valuable utilities. (Software Gammalink's $1,195 Gammanet 1.1 local-area network (LAN) facsimile server software is currently in beta testing. This is a combination of several processes and utility programs. The program relies on the software provided with the company's microcomputer fax board, Gammafax. Gammanet adds to the features of the utility software by providing several add-on features. Windows users can fax from within any Windows application. Fax documents must be formatted for the HP Laserjet. The terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program requires 38Kbytes of memory. Rightfax supports both DOS and OS/2; new program capitalizes on similar features in Netware and LAN Manager. (from Cracchiolo and Tucson, AZ-based Cracchiolo and Feder Inc's Rightfax 1.31 network facsimile server software runs on both LAN Manager 2.0 and Netware 3.1. The program allows users to send and receive fax transmission from the desktop. Rightfax takes advantage of the programming capabilities of LAN Manager. The user can overlay a graphical image of their personal signature on each fax that is transmitted. Response time is excellent. The program's recovery from a system crash is excellent. Price is $3,995 for hardware with bundled software. Sofnet's Xchange Sharefax extends PC-FFax to Net-FAx; Sharefax is easy to install and simple to operate. (Software Review) (one of Marietta, GA-based Sofnet's $795 Xchange Sharefax 2.1 fax server software extends a fax board's capabilities so that it can serve an entire network. The program works with both Hayes and Intel microcomputer fax boards. There are two parts to the program; a driver that is loaded onto the fax server, and software for the network nodes. Users can send faxes through a choice of three user interfaces. The program provides adequate performance for sending faxes, but will not receive them. It will only send text files or PCX files. The program is easy to install, and simple to operate. Close-up LAN delivers remote access; product can achieve external connectivity to and remote operation of any workstation on the Close-Up LAN 2.50, from Norton-Lambert of Santa Barbara, CA, allows a workstation to directly view the activity on another workstation on a network. The viewer can interact with the host workstation, allowing network managers to provide training or coaching for new users. A chat mode can be established by opening a special window. Up to 16 viewers can watch a single host. The product can also provide external connectivity and remote operation of any workstation on the LAN, allowing companies to provide remote technical support to customer networks. The product is priced at $395 for a two-user configuration; up to $1,995 for 64 simultaneous users. Call a meeting? Not today. Forcomment gets better results. (multiuser text editor from Access Technology) (Software Review) Natick, MA-based Access Technology's Forcomment multiuser text editor can reduce the frequency of business meetings concerning documents. Forcomment allows LAN users to open files, review the material, read other's comments and suggestions, and add their own. The original document remains unaltered. The product runs on Novell networks or can function as a standalone program. It can also work with an MHS-based electronic mail system. The product lists for $1,295 for a 10-user version; additional users cost $100 each. Sidekick 2.0 has exciting features, some shortcomings; product has good graphics, group scheduling. (Software Review) (evaluation) The Sidekick 2.0 personal information management software package, from Borland International, has a new windowing display, but lacks group scheduling and appointment reconciliation features that would make it adequate as a network organizer. It does provide an organizational system that reconciles schedule conflicts. The program will dial a pocket pager and send a message and it prints out daily schedules. The product is promoted for use with palmtop organizers, such as Sharp's Wizard, but there is no way to import files from the Wizard to a microcomputer. The price is $99.95. Software piracy now costs industry billions; but software authentication devices can protect your investment from thieves. Software piracy costs the software industry between $1.5 billion and $2 billion annually in the US. Worldwide estimates range from $4 billion to $5 billion. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) estimates that there is one illegal copy for every legal software package. Reducing this trend could mean lower software prices or increased profits for the software publishers. Adding a hardware security key to the package is one solution; the program will not work without the key in place in a parallel port on the microcomputer. Other possible ways to discourage software piracy are discussed. Netsentinel makes software pirates go after easier prey; product can be a key to safeguarding programs. (from Rainbow Technologies) The Netsentinel Software Security System, from Rainbow Technologies of Irvine, CA, is specifically tailored to protect local area network (LAN)-based software. The hardware key is placed in a microcomputer on the LAN, dedicated as a security server and running a terminate and stay resident (TSR) server application. The system offers single-point protection for the network and transparently checks all of the software run on the LAN; if the values in the software match the key, the execution proceeds normally. The Netsentinel Monitor program reports hardware key access and statistics. A developer's evaluation kit allows network evaluation without funding a full development cycle. A Time-out feature controls the number of users. The price depends upon site-license and quantity. Ten units with five site licenses cost $99. Triumph offers powerful software security; program stores files in encrypted form, can arbitrate all file-access requests. (Software The Triumph! Secure Workstation Management Software package from Micronyx Inc, includes software, a user guide, several quick reference cards, and a hardware key. A separate audit analysis program (Browser) works with the system. A key reader consists of two boxes connected by telephone cord; the device attaches to a parallel port in a microcomputer. The key is placed in one of its five sockets. Each key contains storage, processing and power systems, using a battery to power a memory chip; expected battery life is ten years. The device is compatible with Identix's Touchsafe fingerprint reader. Triumph! lists for $195, the Token Reader costs $100. Browser lists for $200. California acts to spur LAN usage. (California revamps Local Area Network purchase policy) Government departments in California are to buy their own LAN hardware and software through an open-ended contract with Businessland Inc. The Businessland contract seeks a rise in the use of LANs in government offices as a means of increasing productivity and reducing expenditures. The Office of Information Technology (OIT), which is introducing the new policy, previously restricted LANs into state agencies for fear that users would undertake costly installation without concerns for planning. The OIT does not have a specific list for network purchases, but is considering Banyan Systems Inc's VINES for large networks and Novell Inc's Netware for smaller systems. The policy enables agencies to cut the cost of LAN purchases within a year through information systems savings and productivity gains. GSA executive discusses FTS 2000 issues, concerns. (General Service's Administration's Mike Corrigan) (Federal The General Services Administration's (GSA) Mike Corrigan has told Network World that the federal government spends about $350 million annually on FTS 2000, but saves about $200 million a year on its voice services. Corrigan, an assistant commissioner for telecommunications, says agencies using the service are also saving up to 14 cents a minute on calls made through the network. FTS 2000 is a telecommunications service provided to the federal government by AT&T and US Sprint. Corrigan who is in charge of FTS 2000 disclosed that the agency will have its first integrated services digital network (ISDN) sites in operation by April 1991 at GSA switch locations in Boston, Auburn, WA and Kansas City Mo. American Airlines plots OSI migration. (Open Systems Interconnection) American Airlines plans to migrate its SABRE reservations systems to an open systems interconnection (OSI) based network and is working with other carriers to draft an OSI profile. The company's OSI strategy includes migrating its IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network to an X.25-based backbone that will serve as a network utility. The company hopes that airlines within the industry will create an Aeronautical OSI Protocol (AOSIP) similar to the federal government's GOSIP profile. The AOSIP would provide an industry communications standard that would enable airlines to share flight data. The Architectural Strategy Group, a working group within the International Air Transportation Association, is drafting the standard. The group consists of major airlines and communications suppliers. Tariff info providers track rates for users. (includes related article on where to find tariff information) (directory) Tariff information services provide help to those monitoring the various elements of a network. The firms provide consumers with information about the access and long-haul rates, options, service areas and availability and the charges involved. Firms providing these services also offer cross-referencing on local, long-distance and international calls. Larger firms use the service for information on major contracts within the industry such as AT&T Tariff 12 deals. Tariff information firms are divided into two tiers depending on the services they provide. The top tier companies provide intra- and interstate tariffs and, at times, international tariff information. They also provide Federal Communications Commission transmittals, filings, releases and relevant court documents. Second tier companies provide paper-based copies of tariffs and research services. Consumers shopping for tariff information services should know what services are available and identify their needs. A user who is searching on-line and knows what his needs are will incur less expense. User Alliance develops plan to promote open systems. (User Alliance for Open Systems) The User Alliance for Open Systems met in Dallas, TX to develop strategies for open systems promotion. The alliance, for the purpose of formulating positions about OSI products and requirements, was split into several working groups. Some of the outcome of these group session were proposals for building an information data base on open systems accessible by electronic mail. Another group proposed a process to help firms identify their computing needs and prepare a cost analysis of open systems and options. The alliance members debated the need for the group to press vendors for interchangeable products which can be changed and replaced with little tuning. Some members claim that interchangeable products would stifle vendor creativity while others said that object-oriented software development has paved the way for interchangeability. Tool aids in building OLTP client/server applications. (On-line transaction processing) (Cooperative Solutions Inc.'s Ellipse/DE, Cooperative Solutions Inc introduces Ellipse, an application development systems which helps users deal with the downsizing of applications from mainframe or minicomputer environments to local area networks. Ellipse is seen as an ideal tool for building next-generation business applications, especially for companies that devote enormous programming talent to developing client/server or distributed processing applications. Ellipse features two components, the Ellipse Development Environment (Ellipse/ DE) and the Ellipse Production System (Ellipse/PS). Ellipse/PS supports applications developed using Ellipse/DE. Ellipse/DE, priced at $65,000 is designed for five-developer project teams. Ellipse/PS, licensed on a per server basis supports about 10 users and costs $3,495. Licenses for unlimited users cost $9,995. A $30,000 implementation program accompanies the initial purchase of Ellipse/DE and supports design, developer training and project planning. The Ellipse systems and applications run on Intel Corp's 80386-based microcomputers with OS/2 Presentation Manager and 386 or 486 servers running OS/2 with LAN Manager or LAN server. Open systems play role in U.S. victory against Saddam; sprawling Desert Force net helps forces win war. The US Army's open systems network in Saudi Arabia contributed to the defeat of the Iraqis during Operation Desert Storm. The network featured an array of computers from multiple vendors including IBM mainframes and AT&T Unix minicomputers. The army used Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to link the different systems into a single network. The TCP/IP-based network enabled soldiers in Saudi Arabia to plug their truck-borne computers into the network and have the internet manager, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Weissert access and configure the system from the Army's Information Systems Command headquarters in Arizona. The internet manager assigned each system a network designation to ensure access to the roving computers. The network carried unclassified traffic including medical, supply payroll, and personnel information. Weissert used a Unix-based expert system called Global Internet Information System which monitors and controls the Army's 1,500 computers and 56 networks world-wide. Banking on networks for electronic check payments: concept growing, speeds payment, cuts cost. (includes related article on a Check truncation enables a bank to use a network to electronically speed check payments from other banks. The process allows a bank to capture information from the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line along the bottom of checks passing through a reader/sorter. A bank with check truncation cuts out the clearinghouse process and passes a check through a reader sorter and keeps the paper on file for up to 90 days. A microfilm copy is generated and the check is thrown away. Banks usually send cashed checks to a clearing house and then pass it on to the bank holding the account. Examining the customer's account number and imprinting a special code along the MICR line when the check is printed are ways of identifying a check that can be truncated. Bush to veto bills that don't back spectrum auctioning. Messmer, Ellen. Pres Bush may veto legislation against the sale of radio bandwidth. The veto threat comes in the wake of Democrats' criticism of spectrum auctioning. The rift between the Democrats and Republicans threatens the proposed legislation in the House and Senate that would reallocate 200 MHz of government spectrum to the private sector, opening up bandwidth for incoming wireless technologies. HR 531, introduced by Rep Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep John Dingell (D-MI), seeks to relieve spectrum crowding for commercial users by making 200-MHz frequencies available from the government's spectrum allocation. The bill's critics claim that the government should earn monetary benefits from spectrum through auctioning. Aspect net mgmt. system offers remote ACD control. (automated call directing) (Aspect Telecommunications Corp. ) (product Aspect telecommunications introduces Aspect Systems Management Center, a network management system that enables users to centrally manage remote automatic call distributors (ACD). A system configured to handle three networked CallCenter ACDs costs $70,000. The system enables users to monitor alarms from up to 16 remote ACDs attached via 9.6K-bits per second analog modem links. The Systems Management Center allows a user to also monitor system performance, alarm conditions and call center traffic. A user can activate trunks, change agent group sizes and modify the ACD's call routing tables. The system features five screens which perform a number of functions. The status screen lists each application on the CallCenter ACD, while the agent daily summary gives name, extension and logon time. The agent line status screen and the trunk utilization screen lists the name and extension of each agent and the number of inbound and outbound calls respectively. A voice system screen contains the voice messages left by callers. Sporadic Infonet E-mail outages pester some users. (Infonet Services Corp.) Intermittent outages of Infonet's E-mail offerings have interrupted services for about 50 companies during the past two weeks. Problems with the company's mainframe and front-end processor which support Infonet's Notice messaging service forced the company to shut it down for about eight hours. A network manager whose company was affected claims that communications were disrupted for about 400 to 500 of his firm's employees. He adds that the outages may upset plans by his company to use Infonet for its international communications services. An Infonet spokesman placed the blame on three problem cards in the Unisys front end that failed and had to be replaced. The replacement led to 11 service interruptions between March 4 and 10. AT&T cries foul over US Sprint award for FTS 2000: claims secret talks lured away Navy and Marines. (AT&T Corp., U.S. Sprint AT&T is protesting the reassignment of a portion of a Federal Telecommunications Systems 2000 (FTS) award won by AT&T. The telephone company claims that the reassignment, which places both the Navy and Marine Corps on US Sprint's portion of the network, was won through secret negotiations. The protest to the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals charges that the reassignment undermines the 60-40 revenue split provision of the FTS 2000 contract. The contract was originally intended to be awarded to a single vendor but Congress split the contract to foster competition. A US Sprint statement claims that the 60-40 split was a goal of the GSA and not a mandate. GOSIP 2 may drive vendors to back ODA. (Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile) (Office Document Architecture) The US Government plans to introduce the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) Version 2 along with a provision to support the Office Document Architecture (ODA) standard. The provision allows vendors to devise a plan for supporting ODA in open systems interconnection (OSI) networks. ODA eases the exchange of graphic, text and image documents among disparate systems despite inconsistencies in proprietary document formats. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under GOSIP, wants ODA communications features in X.400 electronic messaging and File Transfer, Access and Management (FTAM) products in users' OSI networks. Unisys is one of the few vendors to have brought ODA-based products to market. Some vendors are unclear about the business prospects of ODA in the US. They cite the lack of customer demand and the limited capabilities of ODA. PictureTel will use dealers to key in on smaller business market. (PictureTel Corp.'s System 4000 videoconferencing unit) PictureTel Corp plans to use independent dealers to sell its videoconferencing systems to small and midsize businesses. PictureTel hopes the strategy attracts smaller firms to its videoconferencing systems and increase sales to companies below Fortune 500. The firm is to set up the dealer system with Kansas-based North Supply Co, which buys telecommunications and security equipment from manufacturers and resells to independent dealers. PictureTel hopes to select up to 20 independent dealers nationally in 1992 to sell its System 4000 videoconferencing unit. Officials of the company claim the dealer arrangement is possible due to a high profit margin on its System 4000. LECs must improve service to compete in middle mart: dissatisfied users consider alternative carriers. (Local Exchange Carriers) A survey of 200 midsize businesses shows that local exchange carriers must improve service quality if they are to ward off alternative competition. Sixty percent of those surveyed want competition between local and alternative carriers within two years. The majority surveyed rated local exchange carriers' pricing and transmission quality on a par with alternative carriers. The survey showed that customers of alternative carriers gave their representatives high marks on price and service. Industry analysts believe local exchange carriers can fend off the competition by addressing customer needs such as sensitivity to outages and provision of adequate repair services. High-end middle market companies are most prone to fall to the competition, because they have the means to demand service similar to those in the large business market. DEC extends print services under DECprint strategy: non-DEC computers can use printers on DECnet. (DEC's DECprint Printing DEC introduces two printer software packages, the $1,300 DECprint Printing Services for VMS and the $420 per concurrent user DECfonts Typeface Collection, a software that resides on a VMS-or Ultrix-based VAX and enables users to print documents featuring a wide-range of fonts. The DECprint Printing Services for VMS converts print files to support DEC printing protocols and enables users of non-DEC computers to use DEC printers. Features of the software package include a Vax-based client software which runs under DEC's PathWorks for VMS software. DEC's PathWorks for VMS links IBM microcomputers and Apple Macintoshes to a DECnet network. DECfonts Typeface Collection enables workstation-based electronic publishing applications to request a specific font to be downloaded to a workstation from the VAX. DEC and Adobe Systems worked on building the various fonts for this release. The DECprint Printing Services for VMS can also be loaded on DEC printers with prices ranging from $3,049 to $5,849. APPN for OS/2 not yet an SNA panacea. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) (Systems Network Architecture) IBM's APPN support for OS/2 features constraints that may hinder users from adopting it. The required use of LU 6.2 Advanced Program-to-Program Communications (APPC) protocol is an obstacle, because its memory requirements prohibit use on DOS workstations. The required use of LU 6.2 could also slow migration for IBM 3270 users. IBM is cooperating with firms such as Novell Inc to produce some APPN-compliant products that will provide a migration path from today's networks to distributed APPN-based networks. Critics of APPN claim that one APPN drawback is that it works only with LU 6.2. Supporters claim that APPN will aid the growth of LU 6.2 because programming interfaces that come with Systems Architecture Application Networking Services/2 will facilitate developing applications using LU 6.2. Wiring hub ties Ethernet, token-ring over FDDI net. (Fiber Distributed Data Interchange) (product announcement) Luxcom Inc introduces the LC100 Series 2000, an intelligent wiring hub which enables users to connect Ethernet and token-ring-attached workstations and IBM terminals over an FDDI backbone. The base LC100 Series 2000 unit costs $4,995 while the LC100 network manager costs $795. A user can piggyback IBM 3270-type terminal traffic over a 100M-bits per second backbone that supports Ethernet and token-ring local-area network data. The LC100 Series 2000, which is a wall-mounted device, features central control module and slots for up to eight access modules that support connections to cluster controllers and Ethernet, token-ring and wide area networks. The access modules are linked through a universal bus without separate buses for Ethernet, token-ring and FDDI data interface. The company is to offer a $2,495, 12-port 10BaseT module which allows users to support as many as 96 10BaseT Ethernet connections per hub. Security lapses pose risk to LAN internets. Gillooly, Caryn. A study by Business Research Group (BRG) shows that network security tops the list of network management features. The study of some 200 MIS professionals states that 40 percent of the respondents were using network management and 80 percent of these users employ security features. Industry analysts claim that as more nodes and LANs are interconnected users are unable to provide adequate safeguards. Internetworking is one of the major causes of security/data disasters due to users mistakenly deleting files or changing numbers in the data base or spreadsheets. These disasters are also due to sabotage by angry users. Some analysts claim that network managers expose their networks to these security breaches by allowing more access to the network. They believe that the remedy lies with strict administration policies, such as avoiding network connections to widely interconnected networks and screening floppy disks to ensure they are virus-free. Voice response simplifies Cal. State class registration; new system save time, money and headaches. (California State California State University at Long Beach (CSULB) introduces a voice response system that simplifies student registration by enabling the university's 35,000 students to enter course selections through a telephone. The Voice Response Registration (VRR) system also minimizes the costs that the university accrues during registration from hiring seasonal help and paying staff overtime. The system will also provide student and faculty with on-line information on program status, course evaluations, grades and financial aid. The VRR system features Information Inc software on two 32-port Perception Technology Corp COCOM 1 and one 32-port VOCOM 30 voice processing systems linked to an IBM 3090-180. Students are assigned an initial time to call into the system and two call-back dates. Users need to adopt telecommuting plans. (includes related article on the impact of telecommuting on Pacific Bell.) Network managers are devising a new telecommuting strategy for firms with formal telecommuting programs. The scheme will provide the nation's 4.4 million telecommuters with the tools and services needed to support their communications and information needs. The managers are aware of the inconveniences those that work at home face, such as charging voice calls to their credit cards. A tool such as AT&T's Home Agent software enables companies to route incoming calls and data to customer service agents working at home. Other companies are providing switched access services to their virtual network access services. Transpacific cable to provide lower rates. Crockett, Barton. Users of the new North Pacific Cable (NPC) which opens in April will see a drop in cost and improved disaster recovery capabilities. Some carriers using the connection will charge less because the system's capacity is cheaper. NPC also costs less to install and supports more traffic than its rival, Hawaii-4/ Trans-Pacific Cable-3. World Communications Inc, a New York-based international carrier will charge from 15 to 25 percent less for private lines on NPC than for the same service on Hawaii-4. NPC cost about $200 million less than Hawaii-4 to construct, but offers a cheaper bandwidth than its rival. NPC is owned by the US-based Pacific Telecom Cable, Japan's International Digital Communications Inc and London-based Cable & Wireless PLC. Telesat Canada to launch satellite to bolster service: will give users greater access to sites in U.S. Telesat Canada is to launch the Anik E class satellite in April as part of a move to expand its services to the US. The satellite, the first of two Anik E satellites to be launched, will provide Canadians with direct communications coverage in 48 states within the US. The satellite features transmission speed ranging from 9.6 Kbytes per second to T-1 levels and will provide C-band uplink/ downlink transmissions at 4 GHZ and 6 GHZ. The Anik E will offer the same capacity as the five C and D satellites that are now in orbit. Telesat will use five older Anik satellites as back-up. A Telesat spokesman said that due to its direct coverage of the US users will see some savings in rates. ODS hubs manage Ethernet, token ring simultaneously. (Optical Data Systems Inc.'s ODS 295, 292, 296) (product announcement) Optical Data Systems Inc introduces the ODS 295, ODS 296 and ODS 292, three chassis-based hubs which support Ethernet and token-ring and allow users to manage their choice of local-area network from a single workstation. The ODS 292 sells for $2,650 and the ODS 295 cost $3,350. The three products feature independent backplane buses for Ethernet and token-ring modules that slide from the front. The ODS 295 has one of each type of backplane and 12 slots, while the ODS 296, which is also 12-slot, has three Ethernet backplanes and one token-ring bus. The bottom-end ODS 292 features one of each type of bus and four slots. Both ODS 295 and ODS 296 feature the same token-ring, but the 296 has the advantage of three Ethernet backplanes that allow customers to create similar subnets in the Ethernet environment. The management product supports the Simple network management protocol for Ethernet. This feature enables users to set alarm thresholds and check for flaws such as errors per port. CrossCom adds SNA support to ILAN. (CrossCom Inc., Systems Network Architecture) CrossCom Corp introduces Systems Network Architecture (SNA) support for its ILAN routing bridges. The SNA option costs $2,000 per ILAN for CrossCom customer and enables CrossCom bridges to route IBM Systems Network Architecture traffic over token-ring local-area networks or wide-area links. The SNA protocols enable users to support multiprotocol backbones and merge SNA data onto existing token-rings or wide-area network backbones. IBM Synchronous Data Link Control and High-level Data Link Control can now be routed by ILAN units. The ILAN packetizes the traffic in IEEE 802.2 Logical Link Control packets for transmission across token-ring networks and supports up to five Synchronous Data Link Control connections. FCC threatens foreign administrators on users' behalf. (Federal Communications Commission) (column) The FCC has launched an inquiry into complaints of foreign firms indulging in price gouging and profiteering. The commission claims that these firms are deliberately charging US customers to cross-subsidize other activities. The disparity has resulted in an annual US deficit of $2 billion. An overpayment by US consumers has been estimated at $1 billion. The commission threatened action against these firms if the price gouging and profiteering are not put in check. The so-called 'foreign administrations' include state-owned telecommunications firms and privatized companies such as British Telecom and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. Protesting the FCC threats, the firms claim that the agency lacks the authority to take unilateral action against them. British Telecom, Germany's Deutsche Bundepost Telekom, France Telecom and Japan's Kokusai Denshin Denwa Ltd have all reduced or announced plans to reduce their international rates due to the FCC pressure. Broadband ISDN: a standards update. Stallings, William. Broadband ISDN is the next era of integrated services digital network (ISDN). The Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) classifies the services that broadband will support as interactive and distribution services. Interactive services feature a two-way exchange of information which occurs between two subscribers or a subscriber and a service provider. Interactive services, according to the CCITT, are conversational, messaging and retrieval. The broadband distribution services are classified as either with or without user presentation control. Distribution services without user control are also called broadcast services. They feature a flow of information that is distributed from a central source to authorized receivers connected to the network. The CCITT recommends that although broadband ISDN packet-switches it will also support circuit-mode applications. applications. FCC poses rules to regulate provision of 900 services. (Federal Communications Commission) The FCC introduces a new set of rules regulating the provision of 900 services. The rules include having interexchange carriers providing 900 services ensure that each subscriber clearly disclose the price of their service and a description of the service or product being offered. The rule also allows a customer to hang up without incurring any charges. Another rule enables customers to request that their local exchange carrier provide a 900 call-blocking feature free of charge. The FCC adds that customers might have to pay a token fee for adding or removing blocking after that. The third proposal seeks to stop a local exchange company from disconnecting a customer's basic telephone service for not paying 900 charges. The FCC received over 2,000 complaints in 1991 concerning unscrupulous 900 service providers. The complaints range from service providers conning consumers through misleading advertising and gimmicks. Users voice concern about Computer III. (Regional Bell Holding Companies) The FCC is being criticized for trying to reintroduce the Computer III inquiry which allows RBHCs to provide enhanced services through their telephone units. RBHCs at present provide such services through their business units. The criticism comes from users who fear that reviving the inquiry will allow the RBHCs to engage in anti-competitive behavior and cross-subsidies. The Computer Inquiry III proceeding came to an end in 1986 when the commission stopped its rules requiring RBHCs to offer enhanced services through separate subsidiaries. Although the Computer III proceeding was appealed, a federal court later overturned the decision. The FCC has since opened a proceeding to reintroduce the inquiry. The International Communications Association (ICA) and the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee told the FCC that although there are clear advantages in maintaining separate units, the merit of eliminating separate business units for enhanced and regulated telephone services is questionable. Evaluating ISDN options. (Integrated Services Digital Network) (includes related articles on ISDN features and price savings) Users once critical of ISDN are now taking a closer look at the technology due to its availability and affordability. Although some firms are careful about full deployment, there are yet firms that have nation-wide ISDN services available. Factors being considered are the drop in the prices of customer premises equipment and the provision of more infrastructure by the public carriers. Criticisms of ISDN included the steep price and the lack of ISDN customer premises equipment that was transportable to other ISDN services. The PRI-based call management services is an aspect of ISDN that is popular because it provides answers to users demands. Other features such as non-Centrex BRI local exchange carrier services due to limited availability lacks support in the marketplace. MCI plan on often-called numbers. (MCI Communications Corp.) Shapiro, Eben. MCI Communications Corp plans a service that offers discounts to residential long-distance customers for frequently called numbers. The 'Friends and Family' plan is to be announced at a news conference at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on Mar 18, 1991. Analysts say that customers can receive a discount on frequently called numbers that the customers list with MCI. Additional discounts may be offered to customers who persuade family members or friends to use MCI's long-distance services. The 'Friends and Family' plan is likely to benefit MCI by increasing the company's market share and providing marketing data on potential customers. According to one industry observer, the plan is 'a good customer acquisition tool.' AMD chip debut poses little threat to Intel. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc's 386 microprocessor) Advanced Micro Devices Inc's (AMD's) AM386 microprocessor debut will have little effect on Intel Corp's control of the microprocessor market. Most microcomputer manufacturers are concerned about the legal issues and compatibility problems associated with AMD's new microprocessor, which is an untested version of the Intel Corp 80386 microprocessor. Industry analysts also say that Intel's allocation strategy discourages defection; shipments are based on a customer's previous order levels and companies could lose their place in the line for emerging technology if they order from AMD. Intel can also offer stiff competition for AMD with its 80486 microprocessor. The 80486 offers twice the computing power of the 80386, and Intel could lower prices on its 80486 to be competitive with the AM386. FTC probe incites Microsoft criticism; inquiry keys on IBM partnership. (Federal Trade Commission inquiry) The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation of Microsoft Corp's and IBM's dual software strategy could lead to wider criticism of Microsoft's control over the microcomputer software industry. The agreement between Microsoft and IBM is that the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface will be used for low-end operating system functions while OS/2 will be reserved for high-end functions, including multiple threads. Industry analysts say the FTC is investigating the potentially anti-competitive nature of the pact and also Microsoft's backing away from the OS/2 commitment to aggressively promote its Windows 3.0. The FTC will not comment on the investigation. WordPerfect 6.0 to sport improved user interface; WYSIWYG editing, added color due. WordPerfect Corp is planning to introduce the Text User Interface (TUI) in its WordPerfect 6.0 word processing software package. The new graphical user interface for MS-DOS is a proprietary system that the company says will improve networked users' ability to deal with document-management problems; users will be able to locate and share files and limit access to documents on the network. WordPerfect 6.0 is expected to provide high-end word processing for a DOS market that is moving towards the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface in the 1990s. The word processing software, which is not expected to be available until the 2nd qtr of 1992, will feature WYSIWYG editing functions. 386SX notebook propels Dell to head of class. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Dell Computer Corp's $3,548 320N 80386SX notebook computer offers a superb blend of price and performance when compared with the Compaq's market-leading $6,499 LTE 386s/20. The 6.4-pound Dell machine features a 30Mbyte hard drive, 2Mbytes of RAM, a strong battery, a sturdy keyboard and a fast, high-quality display. The 320N features a NiCad battery and useful battery-saving functions. The NiCad lasts three-hours with all the battery-saving features disabled and the screen, CPU and hard disk constantly running. The computer also has a standby feature which allows users to preserve RAM information for two minutes while switching batteries. IBM shows off stylus system at German Expo. (CeBIT 1991) Brennan, Laura. IBM has quelled industry doubts about its commitment to laptop computers by bringing out prototype pen-based technology at the CeBIT 1991 trade show in Germany. The number one computer maker showed its Paper-Like Interface (PLI), which it plans to integrate with the PenPoint operating system currently being codeveloped with Go Corp. PLI is a handwriting recognition system that IBM conceived independently at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The system features an OSF/Motif window manager running on top of the X Windows graphical environment. IBM also demonstrated prototype hardware, which will be commercially released as an 8.5 inch by 11 inch by 1.5 inch machine, and prototype applications. First TrueType release is no match for ATM. (Software Review) (Apple Computer Inc's new font software vs. Adobe Type Manager) Apple Computer Inc's new TrueType computer font software offers no significant advantage over Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript Type 1 font technology. The new Apple fonts come with Apple's new Personal LaserWriter LS and StyleWriter printers, while the Adobe Type Manager (ATM) package costs $99. The Apple font software produces marginally better quality screen fonts and printed type, but the Adobe software offers better speed and application compatibility. The greatest drawback of the new Apple font software is its incompatibility with applications written to use the PostScript Type 1 format. The new printers offer the first implementation of the TrueType software which Apple plans to build into its forthcoming Macintosh System 7.0 operating system. New 486SX-based PS/2s will feature 64M bytes of RAM. (IBM's product development plans) IBM plans to base its new PS/2 90 and PS/2 95 microcomputers on the new Intel Corp 80486SX microprocessor. The new microcomputers will come with 8Mbyte memory modules, which can boost the total RAM to 64Mbytes. The new Intel chip features a math coprocessor, 8Mbytes of cache memory and a 32-bit path. The new 80486SX-based machines will be marketed as a low-cost file server toward those who want the 80486 technology but cannot afford it. The PS/2 90 features a desktop design and three 32-bit Micro Channel slots, while the PS/2 95 features a tower design and six 32-bit slots. Industry observers expect the new machines to be aggressively priced. Patriot Partners to outline strategy. (IBM, Metaphor Computer) Sherer, Paul M. The IBM and Metaphor Computer Systems joint venture known as Patriot Partners is ready to unveil its plans to integrate the computer industry. The plan, code named the Constellation Project, involves a 32-bit application environment that works with a wide variety of hardware, networks and operating systems, including UNIX, OS/2 and the Macintosh operating system. The environment will also feature a three-dimensional interface that includes multimedia and other sophisticated interface concepts. Patriot Partners, which has no employees, is compromised of 75 people assigned from IBM and Metaphor Computer Systems. The joint venture is located in Mountain View, CA. Apple seeks to extend its database language. (Data Access Language) Apple Computer Inc will announce at DB Expo 1991 that it plans to make its Data Access Language (DAL) programming language a standard in the software industry for multiplatform database connectivity. The accessibility, which is expected to help third party vendors, will extend to DOS and UNIX users. DAL is also expected to be part of the long-awaited Macintosh System 7.0 operating system. The convenience of DAL is that it allows Macintosh users to query DEC and IBM data bases without having to learn complex Structured Query Language (SQL) commands. Industry observers note that the improvements to DAL allow UNIX and DOS users to access DAL. Apple is actively seeking third party vendors to support and distribute the new technology. Oracle version to operate over VAX/VMS networks; VAX link overcomes glaring deficiency in release 6.0, users say. (Oracle Oracle Corp's Oracle 6.2 data base management system (DBMS), called Parallel Server, costs between $5,000 and $200,000 and runs on networks of VAX/VMS minicomputers. The new DBMS allows several DEC VAX minicomputers to obtain rapid, accurate response and maintain data integrity while accessing a single Oracle data base. Industry observers note that VAX customers have been waiting for some time for the new version, which solves the glaring deficiencies of Oracle 6.0. Some analysts say that the new version do more than facilitate networked VAXes; it may prove an ideal database solution for massively parallel computers and multiprocessor UNIX systems. Insurance firm takes out a new downsizing policy; Northwestern Mutual eases software distribution. (includes related article on The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co's computer downsizing policy includes the use of a comprehensive software-distribution system, known as PC-Suds or Software Universal Distribution System. The insurance company intends to automate the updating of mission-critical business applications used by 400 people on a Novell Inc local area network (LAN). PC-Suds hopes to move applications and processing away from mainframes to the microcomputer-based LAN. The electronic updating system will replace the previous time-consuming method that required each machine to be manually updated. Northwestern Mutual Life's downsizing policy is part of a trend among Fortune 1000 companies that are looking for ways to improve upgrading procedures in a LAN environment. Turbo Pascal eases Windows development. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc's Turbo Pascal for Windows) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's $249.95 Turbo Pascal for Windows program development software package brings Pascal programming to the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The new software package features a debugger, assembler and the The Whitewater Group's Resource Toolkit for WYSIWYG development of Windows applications. Turbo Pascal for Windows supports flexible use of character strings and efficient handling of Windows message in a Windows-based development environment. The program uses an enhanced version of Pascal and comes with 1,900 pages of documentation. It can be upgraded from previous versions for $99.95. Vendors working to put 386SL CPU into notebook PCs. (Intel Corp's 386SL processor) Manufacturers of notebook computers are looking at the possibility of using the Intel Corp 386SL microprocessor because it offers the potential for more distinct and brighter LCDs, larger hard drives, and longer battery life. Intel officials indicate that over 20 computer manufacturers are developing notebook computers based on the 386SL microprocessor. Analysts predict that smaller firms will be the first to unveil 386SL-based notebook computers and also say that users can expect to see a 50 percent improvement in overall performance and an extra 30 to 45 minutes of battery time. The new microprocessor offers a fully static design that allows it to shut down a system to virtually zero power. Microsoft's BallPoint mouse makes a handy laptop choice. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's $175 Ballpoint trackball device is expensive and takes time getting used to but is a sturdy and easy-to-use product. The ball on the Ballpoint is designed to be operated with a thumb instead of being rolled on a surface; the Ballpoint measures 2.5 inches wide on its flat end and can fit into the user's hand or become attached to the end of a keyboard. Its design makes it a natural pointing device for laptop computers, but desktop users may find that it does not offer the pointing control of a traditional mouse. The Ballpoint has four buttons and is electronically connected via a nine-pin serial connector. New drives dominate CD ROM show. (Sixth International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD ROM) The 1991 International Conference and Exposition on Multimedia and CD-ROM is expected to yield new products in CD-ROM technology including CD-ROM development software and write-once, read-many-times (WORM) drives that read CD-ROM disks. Industry observers believe that several companies will come out with products based on the Orange Book standard, a standard that will allow users to create a CD with a WORM drive and play existing CDs by defining a way for WORM drives to write to CD format. Sony Corp, Phillips Corp, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc and JVC Information Products Company of America are all expected to introduce new CD-ROM drives at the trade show; analysts predict that JVC's product will sell for under $1,000 through OEMs. Portable printers differ in price, performance: MT735 offers high-quality text. (Hardware Review) (Mannesmann Tally Corp's Mannesmann Tally Corp's $1,295 MT735 portable printer provides quality and speed that justifies its high-end price. The compact, battery-powered printer features high-quality text and graphics printing with text printing rivaling the quality of laser printers. Thermal-transfer technology allows the printer to print a whole page at a time at a rate of six pages per minute (ppm) for text and four ppm for graphics. The printer performs very well with text but suffers from uneven performance when it comes to graphics: characters in bar and pie graphs look as though they were printed with a dot-matrix printer. Four fonts come with the printer, including equivalents for Helvetica, Times Roman, Courier and Mathematical, a spreadsheet font. The MT735 weighs 8.3 pounds and comes with 1Mbyte of RAM. LT-20 provides low-cost solution. (Hardware Review) (Portable printers differ in price, performance)(Seikosha America Inc's Seikosha America Inc's $499 LT-20 portable printer provides near-letter quality printing at a low cost. The LT-20, which weighs 6.5 pounds, has the ability to print multipart forms and may prove a useful tool for a delivery service or mobile travel force. The portable printer does have limitations: it operates only with standard AC power, offers only the print quality of 24-pin dot-matrix printers and cannot print through the third and fourth page of a four-part form legibly. The LT-20 features a 50-page tray for letter-sized paper and can be manually fed with sheets that are less than 8.5 inches in width. ReadRight for Windows weds power, low price. (Software Review) (OCR Systems Inc.'s ReadRight for Windows) (evaluation) OCR Systems Inc's ReadRight for Windows scanning software package is an easy to use and accurate program that costs about half what comparable programs costs. The a low-cost software has slow performance, which makes either a 80386- or 80486-based machine advisable. It took two minutes to scan and process a full page of text with three fonts: thirty seconds to scan and one minute and thirty seconds for the character-recognition process. ReadRight for Windows speeds the scanning of multipage documents by scanning a page to disk and performing the character-recognition process unattended. The program also allows users to define scanning templates, which allow specific regions of a page to be scanned and processed in a particular order. TrueType debut sparks 3rd-party rush to market. (Apple Computer Inc.'s TrueType font) Apple Computer Inc's new TrueType font software sparks interest and support from the computer software industry. TrueType works with Apple's new printers, the LaserWriter LS and StyleWriter, and will be included in the Macintosh System 7.0 operating system and the Microsoft Windows 3.1 graphical user interface. Industry analysts note that the new computer font software will be useful for low-end Macintosh microcomputers and eventually for IBM-compatible microcomputers. Bitstream Inc has already released software that supports TrueType. Several other software publishers, including Linotype-Hell Co, Monotype Typography Inc and Letraset USA, indicate that they will support the new font. Forms programs pump up; data-flow control is new domain. Sullivan, Eamonn. Forms software packages are providing users with more uses than filling out preprinted form documents. Forms software uses the form metaphor to help users process similar information quickly but it can also be used to help automate information flow within an organization in other ways, making workers and departments more efficient. Data entry tasks are streamlined with forms software and redundant information entry is eliminated; the process give workers more time to deal with information by freeing them of redundant tasks. Many organizations find that forms software can be a simple way to streamline operations, but the programs are not limited to simple procedures: high-volume and complex jobs can find benefit from forms software packages. Luxcom hub integrates LAN, terminal traffic. (Luxcom Inc's LC100 Series 2000 Universal Smart Hub) (product announcement) Luxcom Inc's LC100 Series 2000 Universal Smart Hub communications board is designed to help network managers connect local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) of terminals and workstations. The intelligent hub supports 100Mbps data transmissions and is based on the company's Universal Premises Network architecture, which is a proprietary fiber backbone. The Universal Smart Hub supports 10BaseT Ethernet networks and Token Ring networks; connection modules range from $995 for a single-port 10Base5 Ethernet Access Module to $2,495 for a 12-port 10BaseT Ethernet Access Module. Industry observers note that Luxcom is following an industry trend toward integrating terminal and LAN traffic through intelligent hubs. Program gives remote access to LAN Manager. (shareware program not supported by Microsoft Corp.) The S12918.ARC file under the Microsoft Forum on the CompuServe videotex service is a shareware program that allows users limited remote access to Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager network management software. Microsoft does not support the program. The shareware program provides users with dial-in access to LAN Manager and is being labeled as a remote Structured Query Language (SQL) Server tool. It suffers from asynchronous connections, which makes it an unlikely candidate for heavy processing loads, but users may find it effective for remote queries where processing is done on a back-end engine. Users can save administrative work by using the program to remotely manage a LAN Manager network. Chameleon links Windows users to TCP/IP hosts. (NetManage Inc.'s Chameleon communication software) (product announcement) NetManage Inc's $400 Chameleon communications software package supports Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and fully exploits the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Networked Windows 3.0 users can log on to TCP/IP hosts and run as many as 16 file transfer and terminal-emulation sessions. The communications software also supports the Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS), which allows it to operate with any Token Ring or Ethernet adapter that complies with NDIS. The company indicates that Chameleon is the first true dynamic link library application program on the market; other available programs have serious performance limitations. cc:Mail's Mac package is no longer weaker sibling. (Software Review) (cc:Mail Inc.'s cc:Mail LAN package for the Macintosh 1.2) cc:Mail Inc's $595 cc:Mail 1.2 electronic mail (E-mail) system software package for the Apple Macintosh is a much improved program that taps the graphics capabilities of the Macintosh and supports larger networks more comfortably. The new version of the e-mail software, which now includes Direct Server Access (DSA) that allows more users to share a single cc:Mail file server, is no longer inferior to the DOS version of the program. Sending messages between Macintoshes and IBM machines is just as easy and quick as sending messages between Macintoshes, and the program is easier to set up than the DOS version. It's time for E-mail to reach stardom. (PC Week Labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. Electronic mail (E-mail) systems are beginning to reach the status of an essential computer network function and with the help of software publishers, will become as important as file and print sharing. E-mail systems have three major components that need polishing: the user interface, the delivery mechanism and the message-management component. The user interface needs to be consistent across platforms and must obey the standards of the host platform. The delivery system, though in most cases a fairly simple task, can become complicated and standards, including X.400 and MHS, must be utilized. Message-management become more complicated as an E-mail system becomes more sophisticated, and the system should include message sorting and querying facilities. E-mail systems also need object-oriented interfaces that will allow them to work well with other applications on a network. C-Worthy 2.0 adds raft of interface tools; new message editor eases screen design. (Software Review) (evaluation) Solution Systems' $449 C-Worthy 2.0 utility program helps developers maintain an edge in the highly competitive applications market with its screen-design tool and interface features. The software's interface prototype library and its tool set for creating windows, screens, menus and system messages provides an impressive head start for developers creating the user-interface part of their applications. C-Worthy 2.0 also includes a message editor that helps users easily design error messages and dialog boxes. The utility program also features the capability of complying with IBM's Common User Access (CUA) guidelines. Users can purchase the package with source code for $649. C-Worthy: a good tool made even better. (Software Review) (C-Worthy 2.0 adds raft of interface tools) (evaluation) Solution Systems Inc's C-Worthy 2.0 utility program offers dramatic improvements over an already good program. C-Worthy 2.0 consists of two major components: a library of functions that implement the interface in a program and cwArchitect, which is an interactive screen-painting tool. The new version of the software allows users to make changes to the interface without the developer having to recompile the underlying program because its interface components are stored in external resource files. Users can also operate in graphic video mode, create menus within the interactive screen-layout tool and make programs that interact with many types of menu structures. Pair of expert-system tools debut. (Inference Corp.'s Xi Plus and Case Based Reasoning Express program development software Inference Corp's $995 Xi Plus and $10,000 Case Based Reasoning (CBR) Express program development software packages cater to the low-end and high-end program development markets respectively. Xi Plus is an easy-to-use DOS-based program that leads beginners step-by-step through the process of designing their first expert system application. The program uses a menu-driven development shell and a rule language that supports both backward and forward chaining. The CBR Express software package is based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and serves the high-end needs of developers and end-users that build expert systems based on historical business data. Microformatic's GPF for OS/2 eases design of PM screens. (Microformatic U.S.A. Inc.'s GUI Programming Facility graphical Microformatic USA Inc's $3,500 Graphical User Interface (GUI) Programming Facility, or GPF, is a program development software package that serves as a GUI design tool for OS/2 Presentation Manager (PM). The new software helps program developers design PM screens with a palette of graphical objects and point-and-click mouse operations. Microformatic was able to tailor the program to users' needs after an extensive beta-testing session; the software publisher tweaked the product with several user-requested features. All user-requested enhancements and modifications were made on the beta version by using the GPF program itself. Latest Apple ruling muddies already murky water. (Up Front) (column) US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's Mar 6, 1991 pretrial ruling about the lawsuit between Apple Computer Inc and both Hewlett Packard Co and Microsoft Corp further complicates the future of intellectual property-rights lawsuits. Walker indicates in his ruling that Apple made commercial breakthroughs with its Macintosh user interface and clearly indicates that his sympathies lie with Apple. Walker does not have a good grasp on the computer industry, and the market would be better served if the so-called intellectual property of Apple were more narrowly defined. Walker is obfuscating the issue even though he did not rule in favor of one party or the other. Hardcard eases upgrade pain for Windows users. (The Corporate Micro) (column) Users who find that Microsoft Windows leaves them with inadequate hard disk space should consider buying a Plus Development Hardcard. The Hardcard offers an extremely low failure rate combined with Plus Development's excellent support. Buyers of new machines can usually get an 80M- to 100Mbyte conventional drive installed for less than the price of a Hardcard. However, Hardcards are highly recommended for users who need to add a second hard disk in an existing machine. Adding a second hard disk can be a formidable task, but installing a Hardcard is a simple procedure. After installation, all users need to do is add a device driver to the CONFIG.SYS file and add a line to the 386ENH group in the Windows SYSTEM.INI file if necessary. The 105Mbyte Hardcard sells for approximately $700. Training won't cure a case of bad technology. (Risky Business) (column) Company managers who feel the need to implement mandatory training programs to combat computer illiteracy should look at the need for training as a possible symptom of another problem. The first step managers should take is to rethink their software standards. In many cases it is a waste of money to retrain workers on software that is too difficult for them to learn due to outdated technology. Instead of retraining, managers should get rid of old technology and bring in something new such as a Windows-based platform. The training investment is small, and many users find they understand and enjoy the Windows environment. Computer illiteracy and training problems are much easier to deal with when the underlying platform is an efficient and solid one that can meet the needs of the company. Is the channel's mating ritual a fatal attraction? (Changing Channels) (column) Hardware vendors are serving as brokers to the pairing up of dealers with networking value-added resellers (VARs) and computer systems integrators to deliver solutions to customers and end users. Hardware vendors are realizing that client/server systems need technical expertise that is difficult to find in the traditional channel. Dealers are providing access to high-end microcomputer platforms at competitive prices in their role as aggregators supplying hardware and networking products. The systems integrators and VARs provide high-end multivendor networking expertise. They also sometimes provide software. Aggregator plans bring only a limited number of margin points. An important question is whether the dealer or integrator becomes the point of interaction with the customer. The survivor will be the one the customer chooses for maintenance and training contracts. Color printers provide quality output; five A-size PostScript printers differ in design quality and ease of maintenance. Five low-cost, thermal-wax color printers that are PostScript-compatible and range in price from the $6,999 to $8,995 are evaluated. The most balanced combination of features is found to the Oce Graphics $8,990 OceColor G5241-PS and the Seiko Instruments ColorPoint PS 4. The Tektronix Inc $7,995 Phaser II PX color printer had the poorest quality of design and manufacture and the weakest software utilities and documentation. All the printers evaluated supports serial, parallel and Appletalk interfaces. PostScript printers save time, reduce costs, say buyers. (color printers) PostScript-compatible thermal wax printers that provide color-output quality are a cost-effective alternative to out-of-house image production, according to buyers. Organizations begin to realize that out-of-house production is a slow and expensive way of getting their color transparencies produced; rush orders can skyrocket these already high costs by 200 percent. Buyers find that the price of a thermal-wax color printer reflects the quality of the output. The Tektronix Inc $7,995 Phaser II PX color printer has a high price tag on other color printers when it comes to buying supplies, but one user says that the quality of the printed product outweighs the cost; the first page looks as good as the 100th page. NEC Technologies Inc. Colormate PS. (Hardware Review) (one of five color printer evaluations in 'Color Printers Provide Quality NEC Technologies Inc's $8,995 Colormate PS is a thoughtfully-designed color printer that is slightly overpriced for the quality of its output. The color printer's standard features include a Motorola 68020 microprocessor, true Adobe PostScript emulation, front-panel LCD controls and menu, and support for an external SCSI hard-disk drive. It differentiates itself from the crowd on the basis of its high-quality design. The Colormate PS is one of the fastest printers evaluated, but its tendency to to show dither patterns is a major drawback. The documentation provided is very good and includes an excellent user's guide. Oce Graphics: Ocecolor Model G5241-PS. (Hardware Review) (one of five color printer evaluations in 'Color Printers Provide Quality Oce Graphics' $8,990 Ocecolor G5241-PS color printer is one of the most expensive printers evaluated, but its quality of output, small size and true PostScript emulation make it worth the price. The printer's output ranks among the best in testing, and it is able to keep dithering and banding to a minimum even when producing large and dark print. Overall maintenance of the Ocecolor printer is satisfactory, although loading the ink roll is not the easiest task. The sparse documentation is good and includes many illustrations as well as text that explains color theory and how the printer works. QMS Inc. Colorscript 100 model 10. (Hardware Review) (one of five color printer evaluations in 'Color Printers Provide Quality QMS Inc's $8,995 Colorscript 100 10 color printer falls right in the middle of the pack of low-cost, thermal-wax printers. The Colorscript 100 10 features true Adobe PostScript emulation and also has a special function that allows users to print color separations with the flip of a switch. The color printer performs in an average manner during testing; dithering and banding were apparent when compared to other printers tested, and the Colorscript 100 10 produces output with muted colors. The printer also was the only printer to have an ink-roll jam occur several times during testing. Documentation and utilities provided are above average. Seiko Instruments USA Inc. Graphic Devices and Systems Division. (Hardware Review) (one of five color printer evaluations in 'Color The Seiko Instruments USA Inc Graphic Devices and Systems Division's $6,999 Colorpoint PS 4 color printer proved to have one of the best combination of features for color thermal-wax printers evaluated. The Colorpoint PS 4 is the least-expensive of the printers evaluated as well as the smallest and lightest. The printer is the only one evaluated capable of printing a full 8.5 inch by 11 inch image. Upgrading the printer memory is also an inexpensive venture; industry-standard single in-line memory modules make it possible to upgrade to 34Mbytes, the largest amount of memory for the printers evaluated. The printer's output quality is extraordinary. Tektronix Inc. Phaser II PX. (Hardware Review) (one of five color printer evaluations in 'Color Printers Provide Quality Output') Tektronix Inc's $7,995 Phaser II PX color printer produces above-average output quality for a low-cost thermal-wax printers. The Phaser II PX shows some of the best resistance to moire patterns and banding, but its slow speed and average design keep it from ranking among the best. The printer is larger than average in size and has a total absence of front panel controls. Maintenance for the Phaser II PX is fairly easy; the ink roll is loaded into a plastic carrier and dropped into the printer. Documentation, which consists of two thin manuals, was among the poorest for the printers evaluated. Tektronix is able to offer such a low price because it uses its own version of the PostScript page description language. Windows adds WYSIWYG to form design: PerForm Pro's data security sets it apart from other forms-software packages. Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 improves forms design software packages and makes them easier to use. Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro, FormWorx Corp's Form Publisher 2.0, JetForm Corp's JetForm Design 2.2 and Ventura Software's FormBase 1.1 all operate in the Windows 3.0 environment and use an object-oriented approach to designing and managing forms. This approach gives users a high level of control and flexibility but designing a sophisticated form is still difficult as well as time-consuming. FormBase 1.1 focuses on the database that contains the information, which gives it a different feel from the other packages. The program is not appropriate for solely designing forms and for data entry. Form Publisher 2.0, PerForm Pro and JetForm Design 2.2 all have a separate program for data input and are much better suited for designing forms. Forms software's object orientation earns buyer praise. (Delrina Technology Inc.'s PerForm Pro 1.0, FormWorx Corp.'s Form Publisher Users of Microsoft Windows 3.0-based forms design software packages find different products fill different needs. Some users like the database features and font selection flexibility of Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro. Others choose Ventura Software Inc's FormBase 1.1 over PerForm Pro because of the product's capability of handling a large number of fields as well as its improved screen display and page preview feature. Some buyers, however, find FormBase difficult to learn. JetForm Corp's JetForm Design has a communication link with the network version of the package which allows for easy design form changes through automatic downloading from a mainframe. Users who need to change forms often find this handy and cost-effective. Users of Form Publisher 2.0 from FormWorx Corp like the program's object-oriented approach which makes the package easy to learn and use. Delrina Technology Inc.: PerForm Pro 1.0. (Software Review) (first of four forms design software evaluations in "Windows adds WYSIWYG Delrina Technology Inc's $495 PerForm Pro 1.0 is the only package of the evaluated products that installs itself with an automatic configuration in the Windows environment. PerForm Pro is easy to use for experienced Windows users, with its pull-down menus and pop-up dialog boxes. The package consists of three separate programs including Form Designer, which is used to create forms and the $199 Form Filler which is used for data input. The third program handles security administration and user passwords. Users can set file attributes and develop a set of data relationships to work with a company's policies. Users can print completed forms as a new page but a faster way is to create a macro of the form and download it into the printer's memory. Delrina includes 128 forms with the package and these can be used as is or users can customize them for more specific needs. FormWorx Corp.: Form Publisher 2.0 with Fill & File. (Software Review) (second of four forms design software evaluations in FormWorx Corp's $195 Form Publisher 2.0 with Fill & File is the newest product of the four evaluated forms design programs. The product's object-oriented approach minimizes the amount of information users need to define a form and also reduces the size of the program code. The wide range of objects, however, can make the program intimidating to new users. Fill & File, which can be purchased separately for $95, is a comprehensive data manager that lets users examine and manipulate form data structures. The filing system is based on the dBASE format so all files created when entering data with Fill & File follow the standard DBF structure. The standard package includes Forms on Demand (FOND) which is a collection of over 600 forms for immediate use including standard government forms as well as generic business, office and medical forms. JetForm Corp.: JetForm Design 2.2. (Software Review) (third of four forms design software evaluations in "Windows adds WYSIWYG to JetForm Corp's $495 JetForm offers four programs and one optional package that feature a range of design and printing options. JetForm Design 2.2 allows users to design forms and is the most sophisticated of the package's components. JetForm Design uses objects to build forms and each object contains data labels that accept data from directly in the Print program or from an external file. The product's handling of printer fonts and use of compiled fonts differentiate it from the other reviewed packages. JetForm Design keeps track of what fonts the printer can produce and offers users the existing choices when selecting attributes for a form's objects. Tests show that to use JetForm with other Windows programs, the Print Manager must be disabled to avoid problems with interruption of printing of documents in the Print Manager queue. The package is the only one to maintain two versions of a form; one that is edited in Design and one in a compiled form used for printing. Ventura Software Inc.: FormBase 1.1. (Software Review) (fourth of four forms design software evaluations in "Windows adds WYSIWYG to Ventura Software Inc's $495 FormBase 1.1 differs from the three other reviewed forms generation products in its design as a database first and a forms publisher second. Users design databases, shape them into forms and can then edit and update them. The program's screen is divided into several functional areas and users must master functions that use both mouse buttons. Which button is pushed depends on the area of the screen which is indicated. Although this is difficult at first, users will find that the increased complexity allows for fast operation. Users define objects with combinations of keyboard and mouse commands and then arrange them in one or more views. FormBase does not have a separate program to fill in and print forms but offers a drawing mode to create databases, objects and views and a typing mode for data entry. Printing is slow due to the package's inability to send macros to the printer. 8mm tape drives back up reliably: Helical-Scan, NetWare 386-compatible drives differ in price and software. (Emerald The large storage capacity of 8mm tape drives makes them well-suited for backing up servers equipped with high-capacity hard drives. Of five evaluated 8mm helical-scan tape drives, Irwin Magnetics Systems Inc's 9231 Se, Tecmar Inc's ProLine 2200 and Tense Lectronix Corp's Legacy 2000s are excellent choices. The three subsystems are essentially identical and use Cheyenne Software Inc's ARCserve backup software NLM, an Exabyte Corp drive and a 154-B Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) controller card. These drives give the best overall performance and feature impressive backup options. Microsoft Corp Windows users may prefer Emerald Systems Corp's RapidRecover 2.2 GB but its performance and tape-handling characteristics do not measure up to the choice three. Sysgen Inc's MaxiBack 2500 is deficient in server controls and its software capabilities cannot compete with the other unit packages. 8mm tape drives succeed at solving some backup problems, buyers say. (Irwin Magnetics Systems Inc.'s 9231Se, Tecmar Inc.'s ProLine Users of 8mm tape drives find the devices to be useful for backing up data. Some Irwin Magnetics Systems Inc's 9231Se users find that the speed-entry method of programming the unit's software helps in retrieving backed-up data. Buyers choose the tape drive because of Irwin's excellent technical support and the drive's reasonable $8,095 price. Users of Tecmar Inc's Proline 2200 like its storage capacity which allows them to back up data on one tape instead of multiple tapes. Backup speed and restoration are fast and backing up 1.5Gbytes of data takes approximately five hours. Some users feel that Emerald Systems Corp's RapidRecover 2.2GB, with its Microsoft Windows support, is good for single file-based backup. Tecmar's Novell menu-based interface is more suited for a large staff. Some users questions 8mm drive software reliability and advise that restoration should always be done from the tape. Emerald Systems Corp.: RapidRecover 2.2 GB. (includes related article on testing methodology) (Hardware Review) (one of five Emerald Systems Corp's $8,490 RapidRecover 2.2 GB's EmQ backup software is a true Microsoft Windows application that makes full use of the Windows interface. Users who run the program under Windows 3.0, however, need to load Windows in real mode, which is slow. Selecting files for backup and restoration is easy and volumes and directories are clearly displayed. Restore performance of RapidRecover tests slightly faster than the other tested units with an average of two minutes and 18 seconds. EmQ lacks the ability to queue jobs up to the server which makes it difficult for multiple users competing for the same tape drive. The file server also does not transfer its files directly from its hard drive to the tape under EmQ. The software instead sends each file over the LAN to the station performing the backup. The file is not written to tape until it is returned to the server. Tests show RapidRecover taking an average of 12 minutes and 20 seconds to perform a backup, more than twice the time of the Irwin Magnetics, Tecmar Inc and Tense Lectronix units. Sysgen Inc.: MaxiBack TS2500. (Hardware Review) (two of five evaluations in "8mm tape drives back up reliably") (evaluation) Sysgen Inc's $6,795 MaxiBack TS2500's software is a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) written by Sysgen contained in the MXB.NLM. The program allows only three commands to be issued from the server and the server controls and display of status information are inadequate. The MaxiBack program MXB.EXE, which runs on the workstation, is not up to the standards of the software of the other reviewed products. The interface is easy to master but has several quirks including automatically dropping users out of the program as soon as a job is submitted to the server. The MaxiBack TS2500 shows a backup of time of seven minutes and 31 seconds in testing, which is slightly behind the Irwin Magnetic Systems, Tecmar Inc and Tense Lectronix Corp products. The drive's restore performance is two minutes and 20 seconds in tests and is essentially identical to the other evaluated drives' restoration performances. Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc. 9231, Tecmar Inc. ProLine 2200, Tense Lectronix Corp. Legacy 2000S. (Hardware Review ) (third through Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc's $8,095 9231 Se, Tecmar Inc's $8,295 ProLine 2200 and Tense Lectronix Corp's $7,399 Legacy 2000S are all powerful subsystems offering a combination of an Exabyte drive, an Adaptec 1540B Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) controller and Cheyenne's ARCserve Netware Loadable Module (NLM) software. The three subsystems give their software different names but they are identical and based on ARCserve version 3.0a. The software is easy to use and users familiar with NetWare utilities will learn quickly. The main operations fall under one of the two menu options, Scheduling Unattended Jobs or Attended Operations. A 14Kbyte RAM-resident program called DOSAGENT.EXE passes files to the backup server. The three drives' backup times all test identically at six minutes and two seconds. Restore times are also identical, showing two minutes and 21 seconds. Idea generators spark new solutions: IdeaFisher takes top honors with linked-idea database that fosters free association. (Fisher Four decision support software packages are all easy to learn but take different approaches to stimulate user thinking. Each package requires that users adapt their work styles to fit the program's philosophy of the process of idea generation. Fisher Idea Systems Inc's IdeaFisher, which is the Analyst's Choice winner, aids users in developing new ideas with its unique linked-idea database that promotes free association. Experience in Software Inc's Idea Generator offers a more linear, analytical approach and has users complete a detailed problem analysis at the beginning of the program. Idea Tree 2.0 from Mountain House Publishing Inc uses a graphical tree design which can be helpful for project planning but awkward to use for brainstorming. Mustang Software Inc's Brainstorm 2.0 supports group discussions on electronic mail but does not actively aid users in evaluating new ideas. Packages stimulate creative process, buyers say. (Experience in Software Inc.'s Idea Generator Plus 3.1, Fisher Idea Systems Decision support software packages can help users think more creatively and generate new solutions. Users of Experience in Software Inc's Idea Generator Plus 3.1 find that the program helps them sort through decision options by analyzing their importance. Users feel the most valuable feature of Idea Generator Plus is its ability to let them define and clarify problems and then come up with alternate solutions. IdeaFisher 3.1 from Fisher Idea Systems Inc helps users get away from cyclical thinking patterns in order to generate different solutions. Some users find IdeaFisher's question banks to be useful for developing strategy statements. Users like the flexibility of Idea Tree 2.0 from Mountain House Publishing Inc and the way they can transfer concepts from one strategy plan to another to solve similar problems. Other users find that idea processors help in generating advertising copy. Experience in Software Inc.: Idea Generator Plus 3.1. (Software Review) (first of four evaluations of decision support software in Experience in Software Inc's $195 Idea Generator Plus 3.1 decision support software offers a logical three-step approach to problem solving. Users answer several sets of analytical questions in order to evaluate and prioritize ideas based on the original goals. The questions are logical but are time-consuming to answer. The package is better suited for analyzing problems that can be solved through highly structured reasoning. Questions can be difficult to answer and all questions may not be applicable to all problems. It is easy to answer Idea Generator's questions based on past assumptions or ideas so the package cannot particularly help users break out of their original thinking patterns. Users can generate a summary report that includes a description of the situation as well as ratings of goals in order of appearance. The Idea Screen feature includes a text editor that allows users to track their train of thought. Fisher Idea Systems Inc.: IdeaFisher 3.1. (Software Review) (second of four evaluations of decision support software packages Fisher Idea Systems Inc's $595 IdeaFisher 3.1 is a fun-to-use decision support program that combines brainstorming with free association and analogical and metaphorical reasoning. IdeaFisher wins the PC Week Labs Analyst Choice award. The software offers two databases. The QBank database is a repository of over 3,000 questions that can help users clarify objectives and problems. The powerful IdeaBank database offers 28 major categories and 387 topical categories. The topical categories provide more than 61,000 words and phrases with over 7000,000 pre-defined associative links. The program's cross- referenced links help remind users of feelings, images, thoughts and facts that can generate new ideas. An Idea Notepad feature automatically records associations and gives users a text processor to record their train of thought. Mountain House Publishing Inc.: Idea Tree 2.0. (Software Review) (third of four evaluations of decision support software packages Mountain House Publishing Inc claims its $99 Idea Tree 2.0 can help users develop ideas visually, the way they think. Tests, however, show that the program's design of plugging ideas into boxes distracts the tester from free association. The software appends the boxes to a root idea that forms an idea tree. Users can connect idea boxes to form components of the tree's branches. Users may find it frustrating to move the idea boxes around since ideas are thought of faster than the time it takes to create, edit and organize the idea boxes. Users may find it all but impossible to arrange thoughts into the program's tree structure in a way that makes sense. Users can view an entire tree by scrolling the program's display right, left up and down. Large trees make it difficult to view ideas and their attached notes since they are not always visible on the computer's display. Mustang Software Inc.: Brainstorm 2.0. (includes related article on testing methodology) (Software Review) (fourth of four Mustang Software Inc's Brainstorm 2.0 lacks features such as sequences of analytical questions or idea-linked databases as displayed in other evaluated packages, but is recommended as a way for LAN-based problem-solving groups that cannot meet face-to-face to communicate and develop new ideas. Brainstorm 2.0 costs $349 per server for up to 25 users. A user first sends an invitation over electronic mail for others to join a discussion on a particular topic and networked users are automatically routed to the topic. The program's Topic features three types of communication to control group member access to the discussion. Brainstorm 2.0 is easy to install and configure. Electronic mail services work perfectly in testing. On the downside, there is only one level of password protection, which may be of concern to some companies. SCSI drives net peripheral connections; devices speed access times, improve network performance, reliability. (small computer Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drives, with their fast access times and large memory capacity, are recommended for users with file servers and applications that use disks heavily. SCSI drives are also good for users with a variety of peripherals but who still need good network performance. A SCSI controller takes up only one slot in the microcomputer but can enable the connection of up to seven peripherals. It also allows for on-line access and storage of large amounts of information. SCSI drives have the ability of queuing multiple-disk operations due to their individual controller logic. Users should consider compatibility, reliability and supported networking operating systems when looking to purchase SCSI drives. Buyers should investigate whether the drive is upward-compatible with SCSI-2. SCSI drive arrays improve network reliability since they allow copies of a single file to be located on several hard disks., providing built-in fault tolerance. Modem pooling yields net savings: benefits of LAN-based async software outweighs compatibility glitches. (local area Network administrators can use LAN-based asynchronous communications modem-pooling access software to give users access to modems as a LAN resource. They then are able to avoid the expense of high-speed modems installed at individual workstations. LAN-based asynchronous communications software does, however, have some drawbacks. Installed servers and software can vary. Sharing by way of an asynchronous communications server necessitates various application programming interfaces and protocols and, therefore, compatibility problems between the servers and software can arise. Many buyers, however, feel that the money saved using modem pooling outweigh compatibility problems with the communications software. Cost savings also allow many managers to justify the purchase of a few high-quality modems. Several examples of manager usage of modem pooling are presented. Compatibility is critical for async packages. (asynchronous) Curry, Jennifer. Users looking to buy LAN-based asynchronous communications software packages need to make sure the packages they select are compatible with their current network, as well as with software and hardware they intend to use in the future. Many users will also have compatibility problems between their modems and the communications software. Incorrectly configured settings on the modems can cause these problems. Users with modems that do not have fixed DIP switches need to check the 'character check' and 'data terminal ready' hardware settings. If users do not correctly configure the settings, the software will indicate that there is no connection. Another aspect users need to be aware of is memory consideration. Users running a network with a gateway and an application need to be aware of how much memory the program is using. NeXT casts bid in German workstation arena. (NeXT Computer Inc.) Brennan, Laura. NeXT Computer Inc announces a Munich, Germany-based subsidiary that will allow the company to enter the Unix workstation market. NeXT hopes to gain a 20 percent share of the market by the end of 1991 which would mean shipping 5,000 machines. The company announces the signing of distribution agreements with four German resellers that will distribute products at sales offices called NeXT Centers. NeXT is going after the high-end market vacated by Apple Computer Inc when it introduced its less expensive Macintosh computers. Analysts contend that NeXT has a good opportunity to break into the professional workstation market since Sun Microsystems is concentrating mainly on its strength in the technical market. Germany's more image-conscious and less price-sensitive environment may help give NeXT the eventual 50 percent of the European market it hopes to acquire by 1992. Fax board maker regroups in wake of data/fax modem onslaught. (Fremont Communications Inc.) Fax board manufacturer Fremont Communications Inc announces disappointing sales of $1.1 million per quarter for its $199 stand-alone fax boards. The company had expected to earn $2 million per month in sales for the last fiscal year. Analysts contend that the increasing popularity of integrated data/fax modems as well as declining fax-board prices have contributed to the drop in sales. Fremont Communications, however, is going ahead with the product development of a Class II-compatible fax board and a Microsoft Windows-compatible communications software package. The communications software program's development budget is $2 million, funded by venture capital. The company may also offer a data/fax modem of its own sometime in the future. Analysts feel that the shift from fax to combined data/fax will result in many fax companies being unable to compete. DEC woos VARs for Unix workstations, PCs. (value-added resellers) Fisher, Susan E. DEC is recruiting value-added resellers (VAR) to market its Unix-based microcomputers and workstations to small- and medium-sized businesses. Analysts contend that DEC is ready to now use indirect channels it has avoided in the past since this is traditionally how most workstations are sold. They also feel that the company is wooing VARs in an attempt to firmly position themselves in the open systems desktop market due to the company's decreasing minicomputer sales. The company has so far signed approximately 40 companies as VARs. These VARs will be able to sell any DEC product as long as the product fits the market served by the particular VAR. DEC's direct-sales force is being steered away from markets served by the VARs but will be given credit if a reseller sells to a direct sales account. In certain areas DEC is establishing centers that will help VARs in porting software to DEC platforms. Trade shows compete for dwindling budgets: vendors must choose among too many shows. Industry analysts contend that there are too many trade shows competing for a share of vendors' tight marketing budgets. Vendor participation in trade shows takes up time and money and vendors find that they are having to make difficult decisions about which trade shows are the most beneficial to attend. Vendor trade show budgets are also not increasing at the same fast rate in which trade shows are expanding. Trade shows are not only becoming more prevalent, they are also expanding their focus. Comdex/Spring, always regarded as a reseller show, will be targeting corporate users as well for the 1991 show. Windows shows are also on the rise as show organizers try to cash in on the booming Microsoft Windows market. The profit margin for show sponsors is approximately 40 cents on every dollar. Competition in the trade show business is also making organizers more responsive to vendor needs. In the PC vs. Mac debate there is no clear performance winner. (Looking Forward) (column) In comparing performance of Apple Macintosh microcomputers with DOS-based systems, each one has its strengths and weaknesses. However, there are several things to be said in favor of the Macintosh. The Macintosh operating system uses a 32-bit structure, while DOS-based microcomputers are still based on 16 bits, giving the Macintosh the edge on speed in many cases. The Macintosh filing system has provided long file names for seven years, while DOS and Windows platforms have yet to implement this. For most users, 1Mbyte of RAM on a Macintosh will give more performance capability than from any machine running Microsoft Windows. The most important performance factor, however, is the user. Performance should be measured on how long it takes a user to complete a task, instead of the time it takes for an application to perform an operation. This area is where the Macintosh definitely beats the competition. Boston to go under the knife. (telecommunications infrastructure) Lindstrom, Ann H. New England Telephone is planning to keep an important part of the Boston, MA, underground telecommunications infrastructure intact while the elevated Central Artery is being moved underground. A large network of underground utilities that is contained under the elevated structure serves all of the waterfront buildings, and at least 16 possible instances of damage to the network have been averted so far. New England Telephone is removing or protecting facilities near buildings that are being demolished to prepare for the new road. The utility is planning to move major circuits and interoffice network traffic onto a fiber loop to be located 12 miles outside of Boston. Customers have been reassured that high-quality service will continue throughout the construction period. Mississippi 2000 links schools. (interactive fiber optic-based distance learning network) Mississippi 2000, an interactive fiber optic-based distance learning network, is connecting Mississippi high school classrooms with teaching facilities by using the public switched network. The network was introduced by a telecommunications industry coalition led by South Central Bell and Northern Telecom. High schools in Clarksdale, Corinth, Philadelphia, and West Point are using the network, which increases flexibility and reduces costs. The network consists of an MCS 3800 broadband switch, fiber lightwave terminals, digital video codecs, IBM computers linked by local area networks, and Apple Macintosh workstations. The lessons learned from Mississippi 2000 will be applied to business education and training. Interest mounting in frame relay. Emigh, Jacqueline. The Bell regional holding companies are expanding both their frame relay trials and their use of ISDN in response to users' demand for increased networking options. Nynex will begin its frame rely trial in summer 1991, and it plans to offer customers with 9.6K-bps lines frame relay for local area network (LAN)-to-LAN and branching applications. Bell Atlantic, which markets frame relay products for private lines, is planning to introduce a product with LAN-to-LAN bridging capabilities. Some users and vendors, however, are worried about frame relay products' lack of interoperability. Frame relay standardization is being driven by corporate demand for LAN-to-LAN connectivity, as well as the increasing number of vendors joining the Frame Relay Implementers' Forum, but it is progressing less rapidly than other standardization attempts. Optical fiber amplifiers: everybody wants one. Warr, Michael. The characteristics of erbium-doped fiber make it ideal for optical amplifiers, and optical fiber amplifiers are becoming the technology of the future. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) are designed for long-haul telecommunications and cable television applications requiring long-distance signal integrity, and fiber-to-the curb applications are anticipated. EDFAs offer such capabilities as high gain and efficiency, low noise, and multichannel operation with low crosstalk. The use of optical amplifiers in long-haul configurations involves power amplifiers, in-line optical amplifiers, and distributed amplifiers. In addition to erbium, soliton systems are being proposed for long-distance transmissions. ACD: a three-way race. (automatic call distribution, stand-alone vendors, PBX manufacturers, telephone companies) Stand-alone vendors, PBX vendors, and local exchange carriers (LEC) are all becoming involved in the automatic call distribution (ACD) market. The market for ACD systems was $756 million in 1990, and it is expected to increase to $1.34 billion by 1995. Users install ACD to increase customer satisfaction, organize call center staff, and save money. Stand-alone vendors should differentiate themselves by developing better marketing strategies and providing improved hardware and software interfaces, training, and support. PBX vendors, who have less experience with ACD technology than stand-alone vendors, should conduct research to discover advanced technical features and establish a dedicated sales force for interconnect support and direct sales. LECs, which have just begun to enter the ACD market, should allocate marketing personnel and resources to ACD to ensure proper selling techniques. Taking enhanced services to the drawing board. Jones, Scott; Wurzburg, Ted. Providers of network-based enhanced services must choose deployment options carefully. The obstacles facing providers of voice-based enhanced services include considering the effect of deploying multiple services running on different platforms, and ensuring that their solutions to immediate marketing needs are appropriate. Service providers can offer seamless integration by developing a cost-effective framework based on current and evolving industry standards. System designers must consider the debate involving monolithic and distributed architectures. The architecture for both voice and data traffic can be optimized by combining digital switching and local area network technologies in a distributed system. Designers can also consider Unix, which has become more viable for use in high-performance applications. ONA: the independent telco response. (open network architecture)(includes related article) Most independent telephone companies are uncertain about their response to open network architecture (ONA). Independent telephone companies are free from federal ONA regulations, and there is no indication that the FCC is considering ONA regulations for independents. The FCC conceptualizes ONA as the design of a carrier's network that allows all users to interconnect to particular networks on an unbundled and 'equal access' basis. The independents' perspective of the FCC's definition has several implications, including that ONA applications are not limited to the Bell regional holding companies, the scope of ONA is not limited, and carriers are required to treat all competitors equally. The implication is that independents can discriminate against competitors, but they are required by law to avoid discrimination. The best strategy for independents is to become aware of ONA developments. The RHCs lend a helping hand. (Bell regional holding companies)(community improvement activities) CEOs of the Bell regional holding companies are becoming involved in community improvement activities, with an emphasis on improving public education. CEOs believe that community involvement assures personal rewards, as well as benefits for their companies. U S West CEO Jack MacAllister created the Osage Initiatives project, which helps homeless and disadvantaged people through five non-profit organizations, a cafeteria, a day care center, job training, and job placement. BellSouth CEO John L. Clendenin created the BellSouth Foundation, which finances education in nine southeastern states. Bell Atlantic CEO Ray Smith focuses on several educational programs, including the Bell Atlantic Charitable Foundation, which has created several original educational projects, and the Family Literacy Project, which was created to improve parents' and children's reading skills. The urban challenge. (telecommunications services) (Special Report: Approaching the 21st century.) The telecommunications infrastructure is undergoing changes, and the changes will be most crucial in urban areas. Most cities are still characterized by older telecommunications systems that are undergoing greater growth and usage. The Bell regional holding companies (RHC) have begun an information campaign to promote telecommunications services to all citizens. The RHCs' main priorities include eliminating the Modified Final Judgment (MFJ) restrictions, and replacing rate-of-return regulation with state-level incentive regulation. Some RHCs have been facing urban challenges despite MFJ regulation. New York Telephone, for example, invested $110 million in new construction in 1990, and it plans to budget $130 million for 1991. The RHCs' desire to eliminate line-of-business restrictions and obtain greater pricing flexibility may jeopardize the local exchange carriers' universal service obligations. The rural challenge. (telecommunications services) (Special Report: Approaching the 21st century.) Telecommunications may become the key to economic development in rural areas, if telephone companies can overcome regulatory and financial barriers. Many rural areas have not been able to attract new business because of a poor telecommunications infrastructure, and several rural communities are using telecommunications to revive their economies. The telecommunications systems that will link rural areas to other areas will be digital, broadband, fiber-optic communications networks supported by such technologies as satellite communications, cellular radio, and cable television. However, communications service suppliers feel that rural areas are too small to be profitable, and local telephone companies are faced with financial and regulatory barriers when modernizing their networks. Developing a modern telecommunications infrastructure in a rural area depends on several factors, including the existence of a local individual with a commitment to community development, and state and local policies that support the deployment of modern telecommunications systems. The year 2000: an information society at work. (Special Report: Approaching the 21st century.) Local telephone companies should play an important part in creating an information society during the 21st century. Over 70% of the GNP is expected to be based on service industries by 2000, and a communications infrastructure will provide applications for the new economy. Telephone companies can help develop the communications infrastructure into an information network by creating an environment in which software and systems integration provides innovative services. This type of environment would allow work to be distributed to smaller regions, services to be created locally, and locally developed information products to be distributed. Obstacles to developing the communications infrastructure include local telephone companies' internal structures, regulation, and antitrust laws. Telephone companies can be given an incentive to develop universal information networks by changing the laws pertaining to basic and enhanced services. Riding the data boom. (switched multimegabit data service)(includes related article on frame relay) The demand that corporate data networking has placed on the public telecommunications network has resulted in a favorable market for switched multimegabit data service (SMDS). SMDS can meet the data communications requirements of the future, which include higher speeds, increased bandwidth, reliability, and economy. The Bell regional holding companies (RHC) are viewing SMDS as a new source of revenue. All of the RHCs either have implemented or are implementing marketing and support organizations for dedicated data networking, and they have allocated a significant amount of money to extensive training. The RHCs are working closely with vendors and customers to develop services that match data networking requirements, and feedback from users will help them make any necessary modifications to the SMDS architecture and technology. AM/FM needs of the '90s. (automated mapping and facility management) Automated mapping and facility management (AM/FM) systems can effectively manage corporate information. AM/FM systems, which typically result from a client joint-development project or consultation, are designed by combining commercial software and custom programming. The capabilities of commercially available telecommunications AM/FM systems include cable throw and loop make-up for copper cable systems. The latest innovations include the capability of performing area transfers and reconfigurations, the ability to integrate and overly vector and raster graphical information, and the ability to create three-dimensional terrain models. The system enhancements required by the telecommunications industry in the 1990s include the ability to manage emergency medical system dispatching, the ability to manage on-line repair dispatching, and the ability to model manhole connectivity. Rechargeable battery advances spark innovations. Jeter, Jeff. Much of the growth in such portable products as battery-powered notebook computers and portable cellular telephones has come from improvements in rechargeable battery technology. Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries may be able to meet the need for high-power portable communications systems. Metal hydride technology is based on the ability of particular metal alloys to absorb smaller hydrogen atoms in the spaces between larger metal atoms. The performance and service life of NiMH cells are similar to those of traditional nickel-cadmium (NiCad) cells, and the volumetric energy density of NiMH cells is from 25 percent to 30 percent better than that of high-performance NiCad cells. Making waves with portable units. (communications systems) Lee, William C.Y. Cellular communications systems are operating in complex mobile radio environments. Reception depends on the natural terrain, as well as man-made structures, and a system that operates well in one environment can fail in another. Therefore, designers should consider the radio characteristics of the environment when developing portable-unit communications systems. Man-made structures cause a multipath radio phenomenon to exist, instead of having radio waves follow a direct route between two points. In addition, there is no average signal strength. A signal is strong if the system's location is outside of the fade of the signal strength and weak if the location is within the fade of the signal strength. Signal fading can be reduced by using a diversity scheme, which adds two fading signals received from two antennas separated by half a wavelength. Account management key to growing Centrex base. (Managing Centrex Accounts) Telephone companies are developing new account management techniques to target smaller markets of Centrex users. Local exchange carriers (LEC) cannot spend large sums of money on smaller customers, but they are finding more cost-effective ways to identify and attract smaller accounts. The first step in account management is to identify customers' needs. LECs should take a long-term perspective instead of using payment plans that focus on meeting annual sales objectives. Providing personal contacts for small businesses may be expensive for LECs, but the benefit lies in obtaining more business in the future. LECs' success should be measured in terms of customer satisfaction, not sales figures. Making the sales engine hum. (Managing Centrex Accounts) Titch, Steven. A well-trained account management team is essential for the effective marketing of Centrex services by telephone companies. Most of the Bell regional holding companies (RHC) are training salespeople in the wide variety of Centrex services and applications. The RHCs are also training account executives to market customer-specific solutions and to negotiate properly. Account executives are being given more decision-making authority when dealing with customers, but the long tradition of conservatism by RHCs is inhibiting their aggressiveness and creativity in marketing. RHCs are making an active effort to become better marketers, however. U S West is one of the RHCs with a high priority on training. The training program, which involves as many as 50 or 60 days per year in classes and role playing exercises, teaches account managers to listen to and understand customers. Centrex becomes incumbent in Missouri state network. (Managing Centrex Accounts) Missouri is planning to convert all of its government agencies to Centrex. Access lines are being converted to Centrex whenever a change-out point on a PBX system is reached. Agencies with PBXs are not asked to remove them, but the PBXs are being replaced as they age. The advantages of Centrex include cost-effectiveness, protection from obsolescence, and flexibility, and the features offered to users include call forwarding, conferencing capabilities, and speed dialing. The latest Centrex procurement, in Oct 1990, was completed with Southwestern Bell for three new nodes. As a result, Southwestern Bell's marketing efforts have improved. A few agencies have started to use Centrex for data applications, but usage is low because data transmission is still in the development stages. Centrex drives Motown newspapers into the future. (Managing Centrex Accounts) The Detroit Newspaper Agency (DNA) successfully implemented Centrex service in summer 1990. Centrex is appropriate for the DNA's campus environment, which includes a warehouse and distribution building within 10 miles of downtown Detroit, a printing plant 23 miles from downtown, and small editorial bureaus and garages throughout the Detroit metropolitan area. PBXs would not have been viable because too many lines would be tied up, and voice quality would be diminished. The reasons for selecting Centrex included its potential for growth and its reliability. The features of the Centrex system include the ability to charge back departments for calls, the ability to make changes in features on telephones, and automatic call distribution. Sales job: Businessland founder struggles to pull firm out of a deep slide; PC retailer David Norman is up against nimble rivals Businessland CEO David A. Norman is faced with bringing the largest computer retailer in the U.S. out of a financial nose-dive. Businessland faces tough financial times in Mar 1991 after reporting five consecutive quarters of losses and sagging sales. Businessland stock has declined from about $11.50 per share in Mar 1990 to $2.75 on Mar 15, 1991. The large retailer is having problems typical of the computer retailing industry, where profit margins are shrinking and retailers are forced to create rapid turnover and trim overhead costs. Norman is cutting costs and streamlining operations, but critics say the emergency measures come too late. Norman has offended some of his suppliers, including Compaq and Apple, and some industry observers believe he has lost his credibility. The company's history is detailed. Competition pushes computer rivals to form unlikely, uneasy alliances. Increased competition in the computer and computer software industries forces some companies to form alliances with their competitors. The trend to form alliances revolves around industry attempts to standardize product lines in what some industry observers believe is a peaked personal computing market. Analysts are particularly amazed at the recent alliance between HP and Sun Microsystems Inc, competing makers of workstations that are still codeveloping standards. Apple, which is usually an isolationist company, hints that it may allow some Japanese companies to make clones of its computers. Industry observers note that as the market saturates, companies will need to make products that are compatible with their competitors' machines. Cooperation between vendors should benefit users by improving data sharing between various software packages and hardware platforms. Digital Equipment today will unveil new computer line. Wilke, John R. DEC plans to announce a new line of fault-tolerant computers that industry analysts say will place the number two computer maker into direct competition with market leader Tandem Computers Inc. The market for fault-tolerant systems, which are designed to keep working if a part fails, is growing rapidly. DEC plans to market its machines for use in applications such as branch banking and off-track betting, while Tandem markets its fault-tolerant systems for high-volume processing applications including stock trading and airline reservation systems. Observers note that the new DEC line will be aggressively-priced and will sell to new customers as well as existing ones. DEC is also planning to announce new microcomputers, workstations, a notebook computer and new VAX minicomputers. IBM, Apple join Microsoft rivals over standards. (multimedia standards) Apple and IBM plan to announce their support for the efforts of the Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) to standardize multimedia technology. Industry observers see the move by the computer makers as a defiant gesture against Microsoft Corp, a the software giant attempting to take charge of the emerging multimedia market. IMA, which was founded in 1988, is a non-profit organization that has over 170 members. Microsoft, which has already introduced its own set of multimedia standards, indicates that it will join the IMA and denies that any hostilities exists between it and the rest of the computer industry. IMA plans to develop multimedia specifications for various combinations of hardware. Compaq's chief, certain executives sell some shares. Bartimo, Jim; Peers, Alexandra. Compaq Computer Corp's CEO Rod Canion sells about 82 percent of his shares in the company for $9.8 million. Canion says he sold the shares in the computer maker for personal financial reasons. He sold 140,000 shares in the open market for between $69.63 and $70.75 per share. Canion still holds 31,600 shares in his portfolio and has the option to purchase 750,000 more shares of Compaq stock. Several other Compaq executives have sold stock with a total value of about $7.6 million. Industry observers say the stock sales result from the surge in the company's stock during the better-than-expected 4th qtr of 1990 and the beginning of 1991. Compaq stock closed at $64.125 a share on Mar 15, 1991, down 75 cents for the day. Positioning the electronic stylus: a race is on to refine the sensors required by pen-based computers. (Technology) The technique by which a hand-held computer determines the position of a pen in a pen-based input-output system is a critical part of the new pen-based computer technology. This technology allows a user to input data by writing on a liquid-crystal screen with an electronic stylus. A race is currently in progress as companies compete to refine this 'sensing' technology. To succeed, sensing technology must be packaged in a lightweight and durable form. Such a product should consume little electric power, and it should withstand electronic interference emanating from other parts of the computer while maintaining high accuracy. Companies currently working on pen-sensing technologies include Grid Systems Corp, Go Corp and Scriptel Corp, developing resistive coating, electromagnetic and electrostatic schemes, respectively. Can Atex keep its proprietary place in the newsroom? A favorite is being superceded by desk-top software. (Atex Inc. manufactures Atex Inc, which manufactures editorial and advertising production systems for the newspaper publishing industry, is under pressure because new technologies are rendering the company's products obsolete. According to observers, Atex does not have a competitive product and is late in modernizing. Management is dependent on minicomputer technology and proprietary systems and slow to recognize the importance of microcomputers for desktop publishing. Some executives and analysts wonder if the company can survive. In Jan 1991, Atex selected Brian Lacey as the company's new president and embarked on a new strategy, shifting to a 'modular' approach, implementing layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, and planning a dozen new products for release before the end of 1991. Even though Atex has a loyal customer base, some observers say it might already be too late for the company to catch up with companies offering sophisticated applications that run on inexpensive microcomputers. In the latest type technology, an echo of Gutenberg: Adobe's new software allows unlimited varieties of weights, widths and styles. Adobe Systems Inc demonstrated its new Multiple Master type technology at the Seybold electronic publishing conference in Boston, MA, in Mar 1991. Adobe's new product allows a user to create an almost unlimited selection of type font weights, widths and styles. Adobe is alone in offering a product that can manipulate all the attributes of a type font, though several companies offer products that can manipulate type size. Industry analysts expect this technology to have significant impact on book publishing, graphic arts and other arenas in which both the aesthetics and practical consequences of different types are important. Companies that produce Truetype fonts, the format created by Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp, believe it is possible to develop Multiple Master-like features for Truetype, but it is not certain when this might happen. Prices for Multiple Master fonts are not yet set. What hath he wrought?(interview with J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of first electronic digital computer) (interview) J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of the world's first electronic digital computer, says the chief benefit of computing has been to fight bigness and promote individuality. Ideally, an individual should be able to spend a few thousand dollars and get the computing power necessary to compete with big businesses. Most inventions and developments come out of small businesses. Eckert sees the growing concern of corporate computer managers for security as a good sign: individuals can now take their ideas out of the corporation. Monopolization of ideas by big businesses leads to a police state. A big role of computers has been to stem the rising tide of paperwork in the United States. Eckert sees the supercomputer as the future for the mainframe. A supercomputer makes it easier to handle immense chores such as weather forecasting. Commercial applications of the mainframe will wither away. 40 years on the frontier. (history of computing) (includes chronology of computing 1951-1991 and related articles on UNIVAC Driven by rapidly improving price/performance ratios, computing has blossomed into a $256 billion worldwide industry since 1951. The chief impetus for the invention of computing technology in the late 1940s, however, came from activist New Deal policies, which led to a sharp rise in the federal government's labor costs and paperwork. In 1943 J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly invented the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), the world's first electronic digital computer, to help calculate ballistic firing tables. The commercial computing era began in 1951 when the Bureau of the Census took delivery of the first UNIVAC I from Remington Rand Inc. Research needs at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California galvanized much early computer development. IBM and Los Alamos engineers designed the STRETCH computer in the early 1960s for nuclear weapons design; many of STRETCH's features were included in the IBM System/360, a longtime linchpin of commercial computing. In the 1950s, the Department of Defense took an immense role in determining the development of computers. The secret of IBM's success. (interview with Tom Watson Jr.) (interview) Thomas J. Watson Jr., whose father founded IBM, served as the corporation's president from 1952 to 1961, as CEO from 1956 to 1971 and as chairman from 1961 to 1971. Since 1981 he has been chairman emeritus. IBM's chief competitor in the early years of computing was Remington Rand. IBM concentrated on computing, while Remington Rand was in a variety of businesses; also, IBM kept its best engineers by paying them 25 percent of their salaries while they were in the military. IBM's salesmen were reluctant to accept the notion of electronic computing; after all, the corporation's bread-and-butter had been punch cards. IBM's development efforts were also spurred by the competition of General Electric, which delivered the ERMA banking computer to the Bank of America. Productivity and society. (interview with former IBM CEO John R. Opel) (interview) John R. Opel, who served as IBM chief executive officer from 1980 to 1986 and is currently chairman of IBM's executive committee, sees computing's impact on society as basically beneficial. Industrial societies need information; the creation and circulation of information tends to override superficial boundaries, such as those separating nations, as well as facilitate change. All aspects of society have been touched very positively by computing. Computers strive to eliminate white-collar workers, a group in which Opel includes clerical workers. White collar work is by definition nonproductive, Opel says. Miles to go. (future of computing) Moad, Jeff. Technological innovations in computing will occur more often and affect greater numbers of people and organizations in the 1990s than they have in the past. Advances in semiconductor, packaging and optical technologies will allow manufacturers to put greater power and memory capacity in ever-shrinking spaces. New network-management tools will emerge. I/O technology will change: users will be able to use voice and visual input, while computers will be able to display full-motion holographs. Software productivity will improve dramatically as tools move beyond the object-oriented paradigm. Executives from Apple, IBM, Xerox Corp's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all give their views on future computing trends. DEC's ambitious software strategy. (includes related article on DEC executive David L. Stone's criteria for software engineers) DEC's reorganization includes staff cuts and retraining of sales staff; it also means a new software strategy. DEC is concentrating on 'middleware,' or software such as graphical user interfaces and database tools that lie atop operating systems. DEC hopes to become the top supplier of tools for building open systems. DEC's new software strategy is under the aegis of David L. Stone and his Software Products Group, created in 1990. The group has 3,000 of DEC's 12,000 engineers. The group is working to make DEC's Network Application Support services (NAS) work across many hardware platforms and operating systems. DEC defines NAS as an architecture comprising application programming interfaces (APIs), integration software and tool kits. Stone hopes to simplify DEC's complex pricing scheme for software licensing. DEC's plans for the VMS and Ultrix operating systems are also discussed. A 12-month checkup: IBM's RS/6000.(first in a series of articles on RISC platforms) (includes related article on the COMMON user Twelve months after its Apr 1990 debut, the IBM RS/6000 workstation appears to be doing well in the technical workstation market and holding its own in the commercial market. Los Altos, CA-based market research firm International Technology Group estimates that IBM sold an impressive 22,000 RS/6000s through December 1990. Dataquest Inc, a market research firm based in San Jose, CA, estimates that RS/6000 sales may now be evenly split between the technical and commercial sectors. Problems with the RS/6000 include early reports of defects in its AIX operating system and questions about forthcoming AIX/Systems Application Architecture (SAA) compatibility. The RS/6000 may also be biting into sales of IBM's own minicomputers and mainframes. Users are generally pleased with IBM's foray into open systems. Competition is heating up in the workstation arena, especially with Sun Microsystems Inc debuting more powerful SPARCstations and others rolling out low-cost SPARC clones. A Novell use for minis. (using Portable NetWare on minicomputers) Francis, Bob. Portable NetWare from Novell Inc allows network managers to link microcomputer-based NetWare local area networks (LANs) to minicomputers. Portable NetWare, a C version of the basic NetWare kernel, sits atop such minicomputer operating systems as UNIX, Wang's VS, HP's MPE and Data General's AOS/VS and gives IBM PC and Apple Macintosh users access to the minicomputer. Twelve computer vendors, including Wang, HP, Prime Computer Inc, Mips Computer Systems Inc and Data General Corp, port NetWare to their systems; Novell then certifies the port. Portable NetWare is a direct competitor with Banyan Systems Inc's VINES, a Unix-based network operating system. Sales have been sluggish; market research firm International Data Corp estimates that there have been less than a thousand licenses to date. Observers say Portable NetWare is best thought of as an interim solution. Sony's Unix to go. (Sony Microsystems Inc.'s NEWS 3250 laptop workstation) (product announcement) Sony Microsystems Inc of San Jose, CA, debuts the NEWS 3250 reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) portable workstation. Based on a 20-MHz Mips Computer Systems Inc R3000 processor, the NEWS 3250 also comes with a R3010 coprocessor capable of 1.8 MFLOPS. The NEWS 3250 weighs 18 pounds and comes with 8Mbytes of expandable RAM; a 1.44Mbyte, 3.5-inch floppy drive; a 1,120-by-780-pixel, 11-inch monochrome LCD screen; one parallel and one serial port; one small computer systems interface (SCSI) port; an Ethernet port; one expansion slot; audio input and output capability; Unix System V 4.0; X Windows; Open Software Foundation's Motif and Network File System software. The NEWS 3250 cannot be powered by a battery. Price with 240Mbyte hard disk is $9,900 and with 406Mbyte hard disk is $11,900. CASE cracks applications backlog. (computer-aides software engineering gaining popularity) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are gaining popularity with IS departments after a period marked by media hype and slow acceptance. The situation has changed dramatically since 1988, when one survey showed that fewer than one in 10 North American mainframe sites were using CASE. A Datamation magazine reader survey reveals that 34 percent have adopted CASE and 54 percent are considering adopting CASE. CASE tools promise to reduce development time and improve application quality. A big boost for CASE came when IBM tacitly endorsed the technology with its Sep 1989 debut of AD/Cycle. More and more software publishers are bringing CASE tools to market. Japan asks aid on next computers; invitations are sent to U.S. and Europe. (Business Day) Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry is at the forefront of an effort to bring in US and European technology corporations and research institutions to work on a ten-year research project to develop advanced computers. Analysts believe the invitation is rooted as much in trade politics and Japan's technological gaps as anything else. The government agency, however, maintains that the computer problems that the research project addresses are of such complexity that only international cooperation can solve them. The initiative, called the Sixth Generation project, poses a problem for US companies. The choice is either to join the Japanese effort, and gain access to the millions of dollars in funds for research involved and to its results, or to concentrate on research that excludes the foreign competition. Competitors question Microsoft's tactics. (Business Day) Pollack, Andrew. Many software publishers are concerned about Microsoft's industry dominance, in terms of unfair competition as well as market share. Companies like Go Corp have experienced first-hand the conflict of interests some say exists within the software giant between its system software and applications groups. Go Corp approached Microsoft and others in 1988 in the hope they would develop applications packages such as spreadsheets and word processors for Go's pen-based operating system that was in development. Microsoft says it did not agree, but now, just prior to Go's release of its operating system in 1991, Microsoft has announced the development of its own pen-based operating system led by the chief engineer who saw the early Go proposals. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Microsoft's practises with IBM stemming from a 1989 agreement, but some analysts believe the agency's investigative focus may, in fact, be broader. Hackers open voice-mail door to others' phone lines. Keller, John J. The current trend among computer hackers is to access corporate electronic mail systems and use the office phones to make long distance telephone calls. This illegal practise is under investigation by both the Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Current voice-mail systems have relatively simple access codes which are easy to crack. Some hackers have even changed the corporate passwords, rendering the e-mail system useless to company employees trying to access their messages. The long distance companies' clamp down on their own system abuses has led hackers to this new field of opportunity. Analysts believe that the only way for a corporation to avoid the abuse is to improve phone system security. Apple's Sculley looks for a breakthrough. (Apple CEO John Sculley pushes innovation) Apple Computer Inc's John Sculley decides to relinquish some of his authority over the company's product development projects to devote more time to a few new technological research projects. The company's research and development activities is being reorganized in the process. Sculley intends to retain his title of chief technical officer and continues to have the final word concerning product decisions and technical relations with other companies. Michael Spindler, Apple's chief operating officer, takes over the day-to-day operation of existing product lines. Spindler has been credited with much of the upturn in fortunes for Apple and its recent increased market share in the personal microcomputer market. Analysts believe that one of the technological projects Sculley is concentrating on is the development of a notebook sized computer that recognizes handwriting. UK's dud disc drives plague AS400 users. (IBM's UK-manufactured AS400 9335 disc drives) IBM's UK-manufactured AS/400 9335 disc drives are crashing under extensive use. The failures are caused by vibrations in the disk head assembly. Use of the drives in the AS/400 minicomputer complicates the situation, as the AS/400's OS/400 operating system requires that every attached disk work. A viable, but expensive solution is the use of disk mirroring. A forthcoming multiprocessor version of the OS/400 operating system will provide more cost-effective disk mirroring and improved system availability. Several UK firms that experienced failures of their 9335 disk drives and IBM's response to their problems are briefly discussed. Firms warn against Gulf bravado. (software vendors at Defense Oceanology Conference in Brighton, UK, warn against overconfidence Delegates attending the Brighton, UK, Defense Oceanology Conference discussed overconfidence on future defense spending following the Persian Gulf war, the need for greater computing power for global-warming modeling and restriction and regulation of the export of military technology. Software and electronics vendors told attendees that such successful military technologies as the Patriot missile had not been fully tested against advanced, intelligent missiles. Attendees should also not expect any 'major' changes in military spending subsequent to the war. Better prediction of such climate phenomena as the impact of small currents on large-scale ocean circulation requires more powerful computing systems then the current Cray supercomputers. Arab delegates to the conference noted that it is easier to obtain military technology because of a change in export regulations. DEC loses 1 million pounds sterling battle to HP for Boots system. (Hewlett-Packard will provide HP 9000-865 to pharmaceutical Hewlett-Packard (HP) wins a 1 million pound sterling contract to provide the pharmaceuticals division of the UK's Boots Co plc (Nottingham, England) with a UNIX-based HP 9000-865 distributed computer system. Digital Equipment Corp was the other current Boots supplier that was invited to bid on the contract. DEC believes that one reason it did not receive the contract because it was unable to provide a 'fully working UNIX' environment for the Oracle Financials used by the Boots division. The new HP system will run the firm's HP/UX version of UNIX and the Oracle financial software to handle general ledger, product buying and accounting for the pharmaceutical division. White paper paves the way for radical change. (UK government paper proposes wide range of changes to UK telecommunications) UK Trade Secretary Peter Lilley submits a white paper to Parliament, 'Competition and Choice: Telecommunications Policy for the 1990s,' which makes a number of radical changes to government policy and regulations on UK telecommunications. The new government policy is expected to have a major impact on the UK business telecommunications industry over the next ten years. A central component is the termination of the British Telecom (BT) and Mercury Communications duopoly on national telecommunications services. Other cable, network and mobile service vendors will be able to provide alternative telecommunications services of their own or resell BT and Mercury services. Other elements of the white paper include opening up of the very small aperture satellite terminal network market and streamlined connections between disparate networks. The end result of the new policies should be more alternative telecommunications choices for end users, the report claims. A route in the maze of business orientation: many ideas emerge at the Computer Weekly Management Conference. Attendees at the Computer Weekly Management Conference on Creating a Business Oriented IT (information technology) Department addressed the growing need for IT departments to be oriented towards a business's operation and not be a cost center. One solution is to embrace a market-oriented strategy in which IT only provides those services that users pay for. This can improve delivery of results and cut out unnecessary services, but long-term investments in IT can suffer, and the IT department may be driven mainly by the need to make money. This latter situation would be more evident when an external computer services company is used. Other aspects discussed include the ideas of end users assuming responsibility for IT, the need for integrating IT with the business for 'true' flexibility, charging IT services to other operations and changing people's attitudes towards IT. It's not granny's fault that she can't drive. (an easy-to-use, consistent and common user interface is needed to make computers a An easy-to-use, consistent and universal interface is vital to making the microcomputer a tool as easy to use as the automobile is for the average person (the technologically unsophisticated 'granny,' for example). The fact that many people have an aversion to or find difficulty in learning to use microcomputers is not their fault but the fault of the system designers and an industry that does not agree to unitary standards for basic microcomputer architectures, physical designs, processes and procedures. Consequently, there are millions of display and keyboard combinations, 'probably billions of hours' are wasted learning to use excessively complex systems, and the hours spent in learning one system may not be directly transferable to use of a new system. A viable, easy-to-use mass-market microcomputer environment should be hierarchically based on a common language underlying word processing as a core application. The united way to better management. (Action Technologies' business process management software is based on work of former Action Technologies Inc's BPM (business process management) software facilitates the analysis and management of the interactive dynamics of an office and its business processes to improve collective creativity and decision making. The software is based on the work of Fernando Flores, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former Chilean finance minister, who implemented his work practice and linguistic theories in software. The premise of the technology is that an organization is a network of interactions embodied in language and consisting of offers, counter-offers and acceptances between people. BPM enables the analysis of business processes and interactions, determination of optimal ways to manage and re-engineer the processes and monitoring and automation of the processes. The initial software release will be for MS-DOS-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. How to work together creatively in spite of the office barriers. (groupware software) Groupware is a broad class of software that can facilitate interactions by a distributed group of people to accomplish a task. The variety of groupware products support many kinds of processes and applications, including text editing, communications management, group decision support, strategic options development, text retrieval, hypertext systems and multimedia. The success of a groupware application is predicated on its use by all relevant personnel, no matter their physical or hierarchical position in an organization. Few complete groupware systems have been successfully implemented in the UK, in large part because the software has been mostly technology-driven without sufficient attention to the complex behaviors of group dynamics. Electronic mail implementations and new groupware approaches are also discussed. Finding a link with a promising future. (the modem market continues to expand despite the advent of integrated services Modem manufacturers are responding to a changing market with products that meet new market requirements. Consequently, the modem market is growing despite the belief that integrated services digital network (ISDN) technology will eventually replace it. Major trends in the modem market include increased use of dial-up modems compared to modems for analog leased lines; development of standards for ever-higher transmission speeds, error correction and data compression; development of surface-mount IBM PC-compatible half-card modems for small portable microcomputers; and gradual price declines. The CCITT V32 specification for data transmission provides the current fastest transmission standard, 9600-bps, over two-wire circuits. The CCITT V42 protocol and Microcom's MNP4 protocol provide the most common standards for error correction. The CCITT V42bis and MNP5 protocols are the common standards for data compression. Logica shrugs off 1990 Yankee blues. (company profile) Flood, Gary. UK systems vendor Logica had financial problems in the UK, a two million pounds sterling loss on 187.5 million pounds sterling revenues in the US in 1990, and closed a problem management consultancy venture and the firm's Danish arm. Total employees declined 145 persons to 3,650. CEO David Mann, though, believes the firm's 'survival is assured.' He feels that Logica Data Architects, the US financial software subsidiary, is healthy and can be returned to profitability and that Logica is committed to remaining in the US. The operations of the Logica Consultancy have been distributed to other business units, as 25 percent of Logica's operations are still of the consultancy type. Mann also contends that the firm makes money on fixed-price contracts, though the firm may have had to write off as much as $1 million when it was expelled from the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit project. Trainers show some winning ways. (computer training accomplishments of the winners of Computer Weekly 1990 Training The Lloyds Bank's Distance Learning Centre (DLC) and the information technology training group at Boots Co plc (Nottingham, England) win Computer Weekly Training Awards for 1990. The DLC staff were cited for training 35,000 clerical and management employees at 1,500 branches on a new customer data base used for 'high street retail banking.' The new system was based on the individual customer rather than on accounts, requiring a substantial change in the tasks involved and substantial retraining. The LDC devised a three part course largely implemented as computer-based training. The Boots information technology training group devised a program that tailored training to each new trainee and provided relevant work experience early in that training. This was necessary to remedy the low motivation and productivity and need for additional training consequent to the previous generalized training program. Unix gets the big push from Amdahl. Enticknap, Nicholas. Amdahl Corp is the only mainframe vendor that provides a UNIX-based operating system, UTS, as a native environment and is actively promoting UNIX-based products. Ten to 15 percent of Amdahl revenues since 1987 are derived from UTS-based systems, with much of that due to major customer AT&T. There was also a 60 percent growth in UK UTS licenses in 1990. Amdahl UK managing Dir Doug Smith believes growing interest in UNIX on mainframes reflects frustration with major price hikes in proprietary mainframe operating systems and related software (a poke at IBM) and the fact that many long-time mainframe systems users are ready for a change. Amdahl is capitalizing on the situation by offering new version 2.1 of UTS which enables UTS applications to connect to MVS ones and includes new security features and by forming partnerships with third-party vendors to offer new applications for UTS. Amdahl's Fujitsu-based 7300 line of UNIX-only servers is also discussed. How do different boxes measure up? (Hardware Review) (brief review and comparison of seven IBM PC-compatible microcomputers) Brief reviews and comparison of four Intel 80386SX-, two 80386- and three 80486-based IBM PC-compatible desktop microcomputers concludes that the Hewlett-Packard Vectra 486 is the 'overall outstanding system,' but the Comart 486 Tower would function well as a graphics workstation, and the Brother BC3386SX offers outstanding price/performance. The other systems reviewed are HM Systems' Minstrel Workstation, NCR's EL386SX, Research Machines RM Nimbus PC-386, Olivetti M386/25, Philips P3360 and Tandon 486 SL. The microcomputers were subjected to 30 different benchmark routines, of which four (transactions per minute, screen painting speed, floating point calculations per minute and disk input/output speed) are discussed. Each computer's hardware configuration and performance on the benchmarks are discussed. Plug user group inspires move into the Pop world. (the Poplog and Pop Languages User Group) The Poplog and Pop Languages User Group (PLUG) will become a British Computer Society (BCS, London, UK) specialist group as the Pop programming language grows in popularity and is introduced to new hardware platforms. Pop (Package for Online Programming) is a highly interactive language similar to Lisp which easily links to programs written in C, Fortran and Pascal. There are an estimated 2,000 users spread through 25 countries. The language is finding commercial applications in the solution of complex business problems, particularly strategic business simulations. Plug is working with the British Standards Institution to develop a Pop standard. The language is being extended from minicomputers and workstation implementations to versions that run under UNIX on IBM PC-compatible microcomputers and on Apple Macintoshes running Aux. Bull loses at Liverpool over X.25. (Liverpool, UK, city council cancels order for seven Bull DPX2 minicomputers in favor of ICL The Liverpool, England, city council cancelled an order for seven Bull DPX2 minicomputers, buying seven ICL DRS6000 computers instead. The reasons for the switch were software problems and Bull's difficulty in linking their minicomputers to the city's packet-switched communications network, which employs the X.25 protocol and links to the city's ICL Series 39 mainframe. The city council did not pay any money to Bull for the hardware but was also unhappy with delays in delivery dates, little support, and the fact that the promise of a viable open system was not met. An ICL DRS6000 was successfully connected to the network while Bull personnel were experiencing problems in connecting the DRS6000s. Bull also lost a contract with Uttlesford district council for the firm's poll tax package in Feb 1991. Mips offers 64-bit chip as RISC battle looms. (Mips Computer Systems Inc.; reduced instruction set computing) Mips Computer Systems Inc's 64-bit Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor is positioning the company to challenge Intel and Motorola in the microprocessor market and Sun Microsystems Inc in the workstation market. The company's 64-bit RISC chip is the industry's first. Support from Compaq Computer Inc is regarded as a crucial factor in Mips' attempts to make its RISC architecture an industry standard; such an agreement has not been announced but is reportedly imminent. Mips sells its chips through five semiconductor partners: NEC, Siemens A.G., LSI Logic, Integrated Device Technology and Performance Semiconductor. NEC and Sony Corp are licensed to produce ECL RISC components. Gates commits Microsoft Corp. to OS/2's cause. Barker, Paul. Microsoft Corp will focus its efforts on Windows, multimedia and OS/2 during the next decade. Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates announced his company's plans at the opening of Microsoft Canada's new headquarters. He states that OS/2 remains the highest priority in the company, in response to reports that Microsoft was considering abandoning the unsuccessful operating system. His company's success with Windows 3.0 has made it easier to focus on OS/2 and maintain its commitment to IBM. Gates believes consumer applications will make the greatest impact on the multimedia market. DECUS shedding old ways. (24th DECUS Canada Symposium discusses information flow) (DEC user group) Attendees at the 24th DECUS Canada Symposium in Ottawa, Canada, focused on information flow. Users not only need accessible data, they want it available in different forms for different users. Several companies, including DEC and Hewlett-Packard, are working on creating a common database with customized information available to several constituencies that need different data with varied vocabularies. Members discussed such issues as DEC's VMS licensing policy; sessions included techniques for managing difficult people. HP, Sun join forces in open software effort. (submit a specification for the Object Management Group) Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Sun Microsystems Inc signed a joint software agreement to develop a standard that will allow easy application interoperability between computers with different operating systems. The two companies submitted a jointly developed object-management specification to the Object Management Group (OMG), an international organization of information system vendors and users. The distributed Object Management Facility (OMF) defines an advanced method for information sharing on multivendor network computers. OMF is the only specification submitted to OMG that supports more than one networking service; it uses an object management facility derived from HP NewWave. The two companies are working on this unified software environment for Unix and other operating systems. Is pen-based computing a natural? Daniel, Dianne. Go Corp is shipping the developer release of PenPoint, its operating system for pen-based mobile computers. Microsoft plans to release a software development kit for its PenWindows pen-based environment later in 1991, creating yet another battle for standards. Pen-based palm- or notebook-sized computers will allow people to use computers in a more natural way and break down certain social barriers created by keyboard-oriented computers, such as the noise current laptop computers make during a meeting. Go's PenPoint is a 32-bit object-oriented operating system written in C for mobile, lightweight pen-based computers. Over 40 companies have committed to the PenPoint operating system since its introduction in Jan 1991, including Apple, Borland, Lotus, Novell, WordPerfect and IBM. Standards will be necessary for the pen-based market to get established. Backpocket PC with 1000 MIPS punch possible by decade-end. (IBM Canada Laboratory Exec John Schwarz at the Third Annual Research A 1,000-MIPS microcomputer that fits in a pocket may be possible by the turn of the century, according to IBM Canada Laboratory Exec John Schwarz speaking at the Third Annual Research Review in Toronto. Some 100 MIPS chips already exist at the research level. Linking these chips together on a single board through parallel processing could possibly provide 2,000 MIPS processing in a single workstation. Research and development funding will provide the catalyst for future computers. Canadian information technology companies spent $1.67 billion on research in 1988, 43 percent of which was focused on telecommunications. R&D expenditures in 1990 were up 15 percent from 1988. In conversation. (Don Fetherstonhaugh of Westbridge Computer Corp.) (interview) Westbridge Computer Corp's central region VP Don Fetherstonhaugh describes his company's approach to outsourcing, organization and the MIS department's role in business. Westbridge is a services company specializing in facilities management, outsourcing, consulting, project management, systems design and management. Pyramid's OLTP strategy pays off with OEMs and Unix users. (on-line transaction processing) Pyramid Technology Canada Corp is addressing the on-line transaction processing market (OLTP) with its MIServer Reliant Series. The company is projecting revenues of $5.5 million in Canada in 1991. The company focuses on the commercial Unix market and mission critical environments. The Reliant Series is capable of processing hundreds of transactions per second and supports up to 2,000 concurrent users. Prices range from $350,000 to $400,000. Canada Games tied together by system. (CADI computer system used at Canada Games 1991) (Canadian Athletes Development Information The Canadian Athletes Development Information sports databank (CADI) reported athletes' scores and standings at Canada Games 1991. CADI is a Unix application run on a Unisys 6000/70 minicomputer. The application was developed in Mapper, a fourth generation Unix language. CADI provided individual scores and team standings on 30 terminals. It also tracked individual sports and athletes, provided scheduling, and handled the detailed results from each Games site. When the CIO is parachuted in.... (chief information officer) McKague, Anne. Management generalists are taking over chief information officer (CIO) roles, reflecting a distrust by top management of information service (IS) managers who have come up through the IS ranks. Most chief executive officers (CEOs) want a close relationship with the CIO and they feel uncomfortable with techies. The trend raises questions as to whether non-technical people can manage an IS organization and how technical managers feel about reporting to them. A new director's learning curve can be inhibited by lack of communication with resentful employees. Personnel changes may result, leading to an extended period of adjustment. Tydac expands after IBM, Intera take over. (IBM and Intera Information Technologies Corp. form Intera Tydac Technologies Intera Tydac Technologies Inc is targeting the geographic information system (GIS) market. The company, a joint effort between IBM and Intera Information Technologies Corp, has taken over the assets of Tydac Technologies Inc. Its niche of the GIS market is analysis modeling and data integration. Tydac's SPatial ANalysis System (SPANS) GIS software is installed at over 900 sites worldwide. The company is focusing on environmental analysis and entomology modeling applications. Soma driver eases Vax access; 1-2-3 users gain Digital network capabilities. (Soma Inc.'s DataLens Driver for Digital Networks) Soma Inc's DataLens Driver for DEC VAX networks lets Lotus 1-2-3 users query and analyse information on VAX networks. The driver uses familiar 1-2-3 commands and avoids tedious manual re-entering of corporate data into spreadsheets. Network security is achieved through VAX/VMS network access control and CDD/Repository mechanisms. Soma Inc introduced the driver at Boston's NetWorld '91. It is currently available in groups of 50, 100 or 200 users; prices range from $7,500 to $14,000. Northern Telecom solves backup nightmare. (In Focus) Diamond, Sam. A data backup and recovery system must work quickly and provide efficient restoration of data. No company that has ever experienced a data outage will dispute expenditures for computer resources, media and storage, operator intervention and time. Northern Telecom Canada is using the Syncsort/Backup (Syback) software from Syncsort Inc for backup and data restoration. The system actually paid for itself in less than one day and currently yields weekly savings of $7,000. A 66 percent reduction in elapsed time saves the company in operator expenses and a 20 percent cut in CPU time also saves money. Other cost reductions are experienced in media costs, off-site storage fees and tape handling charges. Softmation's WordGenie creates 'magic' with text; compound-document processor combines work processing and DTP. WordGenie from Softmation Inc is an easy-to-use, context-sensitive, compound-document processor. It combines the most important features of word processing and desktop publishing. WordGenie uses one set of menus and commands to manipulate both text and graphics. The program's compound document approach separates the contents of a document and the page formatting information. The program lists for $995; street prices are under $600. Pen-based computing lures B.C firm into action; two industry veterans form new venture called PenMagic. Go Corp demonstrated the first pen-based computer using its PenPoint operating system in Jan 1991. Many companies are scrambling to develop products for this new medium. Norm Francis and Keith Wales founded PenMagic, a company currently developing two applications for PenPoint. The executives believe the pen-based notebook computer will prove to be one of the most significant advances in computing. The PenPoint object is an object-oriented system with true preemptive multitasking capabilities. The product is powerful, the equivalent of most laptops, yet as simple to use as an ordinary notebook. Penstrokes are recorded as you make them, printed letters can be changed to any typeface selected, and the program understands old-fashioned editing marks. The Go prototype has a nine-by-11-inch flat screen about an inch thick; it weighs about four pounds. Commercial versions should be available by the end of 1991. The price will be in the $4,000-to-$5,000 range. Leaner Cincom riding out effects of the recession; drastic steps launched two years ago appear to be working. (Cincom Systems Inc.) Cincom Systems Inc planned for the current market downturn and recession when it restructured in 1989. The restructuring eliminated 10 percent of the employees, included the sale of the Net/Master network management system, and formed three new business units to combine development, product planning, sales and support. The company plans to operate on a zero-debt basis through the recession and plans on a slower growth rate than it has been averaging. Cincom reported revenues of $166 million in 1990. Make the right software choice. (Asset Management) Irwin, Sherry. Defining the requirements of a business plan are important in selecting information technology software. Requirements should include these basic categories: technical, functional (business), training, support, contractual, financial and vendor viability. Company departments must identify and detail their requirements and be responsible for evaluating products. Review the identified requirements periodically after installation. Selling management on Unix. Fitzmaurice, Shev. Some tips are presented for information managers that are introducing Unix into their companies. The quality of advance preparation and groundwork will influence the success of the project. Address any concerns of top management; make sure they are completely committed. Prepare both financial and operational justification for the move to open systems. Spend a sufficient amount of time on the prototype phase; do not rush the installation. Choose the right application, one that will not affect daily operations and can stand alone. Test the hardware and software in the prototype phase. Do not forget training and education. The best way to sell open systems is to demonstrate the economical aspects of bringing together diverse information. Digital atlas has world view. (Digital Chart of the World project) Forrest, David. The Digital Chart of the World (DCW) project is an international research and development initiative to develop a digital database of the world and software that will run on Intel 80286-based microcomputers. The project will establish standards for the content, structure and exchange of digital geographic data. The geographic database will be accessible by a wide community of users. The charts will provide standard topographic information; software will allow users to import, overlay, attribute and store geo-referenced data. The new standard is partly based on the Digital Geographic Exchange Standard (DIGEST) developed for data exchange by NATO countries on magnetic tape. The information is recorded on CD-ROMs. DCW will provide geographic data for regional, continental and global analysis for military, scientific and educational applications. What to ask before you buy. (choosing the right imaging system) (tutorial) The benefits of an imaging system include near-instant access to documents, elimination of document processing bottlenecks, productivity increases, reductions in document management costs, reduced storage requirements, better document security, and increased document integrity and life span. Features to consider in selecting an imaging system include full-text searching and retrieval, image compression, microform scanning, openness, and the application program interface (API). The return on investment can vary from a few months to several years. Time to return to basics. (selling fourth-generation languages) (Support and Services) The fourth generation languages of the early 1980s were intended to help MIS departments provide easy, ad hoc reporting capabilities. They were reportedly easy to learn, and a strong demand for daily reports prompted installment of these systems despite their expense and training and conversion costs. Navigation through a database proved more difficult than first assumed, and support costs ran higher than expected. Market acceptance was hampered by the success of DB2, relational databases and Structured Query Language (SQL), and the introduction of the microcomputer. Users face excess of software choices for accounting/finance. Hubbard, Craig. Financial and accounting programs constitute a large share of the software market, but an overabundance of these packages makes selection difficult. Buyers should consider the vendor's reliability, longevity and level of support in addition to the program's features. Many of these programs are designed for minicomputer systems, but larger corporations are finding these systems too limited and mainframes too unwieldy, which causes them to switch to a distributed processing approach with mainframes and microcomputers. The experiences of several companies in selecting financial and accounting packages are detailed. Brokers get on-line access. (the Retail Information System used by brokerage firm Nesbitt Thomson) Nesbitt Thomson's new Retail Information System (RIS) provides brokers with up-to-date reports on their holdings, along with client records and information on client investment objectives and interests. Nesbitt Thomson investment advisors now have details on all activities that affect their clients' accounts. The system automatically maintains average costs for each security position, considering account splits, back-dated trades, cancellations and stock dividends. Daily financial information on trades, cash and security movements, security prices and account balances is entered into RIS overnight. The company built the system from scratch, choosing Oracle as the database and using an HP 9000 series computer. Great Plains builds a name for itself in accounting software. (Great Plains Software) (company profile) Great Plains Software, Fargo, ND, has a solid position in the accounting software market. The award-winning company marketed its first product in 1981 and claims tens of thousands of US installations. Its product operates on DOS, Macintosh and Unix platforms. The program contains these modules: General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Order Entry, Purchase Order, Payroll, Job Cost, Printers Inc, Property Management, Cash Management, Executive Advisor and a Report Writer. The software is fully integrated and uses batch processing. The average price per Great Plains module is $795. From clay tokens to computers: a historical perspective. (accounting software) A brief history of the accounting profession is presented, beginning with clay tokens used for keeping business records as far back as 8000 BC. Computers are changing the familiar formats of accounting. Data input and processing is faster, and automated reporting capabilities are a great help to management. There are many accounting software packages available; the basic design is just about the same in all of them. The evolution of the accounting business under the influence of the computer will prove interesting to observe. Gandalf unveils gov't LAN strategy. (Gandalf Technologies Inc.) (company profile) Gandalf Technologies Inc is targeting the government market with its 10Base-T connectivity product line. The Access Hub 12, 48 and 132 are designed for linking local-area network (LAN) node devices. The Access Hub series coexists with the 10Base-T-compliant mini MAU (media access unit) transceiver and the LANLine/AT network interface card. The company is readying an Ethernet LAN wide- and local-area networking bridge, multiprotocol wide-area router and SNMP/OSI network management product for a May 1991 release. Gandalf predicts it will grow to a $2 billion company by 1993. Novell, IBM link up on network. (a product licensing agreement) Ward, David. IBM will sell, service and support Novell Inc's Netware 2.X and NetWare 3.11 under a licensing agreement. The deal expands IBM's network offerings significantly; NetWare joins the OS/2-based LAN Server and IBM PC LAN program. The move is part of IBM's plan to become a single source for LANs, service and support. Both companies are committed to developing products that enhance interoperability between Novell and IBM network environments. Motorola network uses 18 GHz radio signals to link PCs. (product announcement) Motorola Inc introduced the Altair wireless network at Boston's Networld '91 trade show in February. The Altair is a high-speed Ethernet solution for existing or standalone networks based on Motorola's wireless in-building network (WIN) technology. A monolithic microwave integrated circuit radio is the heart of the product. The concept is similar to the technology used in cellular radios, but on a smaller scale. Low-powered 18-GHz radio signals replace traditional 'hard' wire and cables. The control module costs $3,995; the user module goes for $3,495. It is unclear when the product will become available. Gandalf and Siemens team up in joint PBX marketing agreement. Fuochi, Andre. Gandalf Technologies Inc signed an international agreement with Siemens PN Private Communications Systems to develop, market and service PBX-supported data communications and network management systems. The products will be targeted for customers with wide-area networking (WAN) and ISDN requirements. The PBX and Computer Teaming (PaCT) solution will provide links through Siemens' Hicom PBX and Gandalf's Starmaster communications server. Europe will be the focus of marketing efforts, due to its advanced implementation of ISDN. B.C. company responsible for cellular network in China. (MTC Electronic Technologies Ltd. of British Columbia) MTC Electronic Technologies Ltd formed a joint venture with the People's Republic of China to supply a cellular telephone network for that country. The network will cover a 3,120-square-mile area with a population of about 27 million. The network will be implemented over five years and will generate $120 million in revenues. MTC's share of the revenues will amount to approximately $30 million, based on 28 percent ownership of the joint venture. The venture is expected to lose $2 million in its first year, but should break even in its second year before reaching a peak of 100,000 subscribers in 1996. The deal gives MTC exclusive cellular telephone rights in China. CRTC makes flurry of decisions. (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is holding regional hearings to get user input concerning the introduction of long-distance voice service competition. The commission recently granted Unitel permission to indirectly connect its Broadband Exchange Service (BES) to the public switched telephone network. Direct connection is still prohibited; call forwarding or conferencing can now provide the connection. The commission's Telecom Decision CRTC 91-1 denied an application from the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) to stay six proceedings concerning resellers regulation. The CRTC also denied a request to provide police with technical information from Bell Canada. Protocols keep data consistent; cache-coherency protocols. Gallant, John. Well-defined cache-coherency protocols can help maintain data consistency in numerous cache random access memories operating on a shared-memory bus. A write-through cache-coherency protocol is only effective when a few medium-performance central processing units are included on a wide-bandwidth bus, however it is easy to implement. The MOESI protocol ensures data consistency in systems with a copy-back policy, and requires much silicon to implement. The MESI protocol is growing in popularity among designers of shared memory systems. The protocol allows a cache controller to utilize a transaction to allocate space in its cache random access memory to service cache misses. Fluids vanquish intermittent contacts; contact-enhancing chemicals. Designers can make improvements in reliability and performance with the use of chemicals that improve connector performance. The metallic surfaces of connectors are not smooth. They have microscopic peaks and valleys on their metallic surfaces. Cramolin and other cleaners and lubricants enable connectors to perform more efficiently. D W Electrochemicals markets Stabilant 22, a concentrated liquid polymer that fills gaps between mated contacts and conducts current under an applied electric field. However, there is little quantitative information about the effectiveness of these chemicals. Useful information about there effectiveness comes only from qualitative anecdotal evidence. Low-drift op amps incorporate switching input stage and DAC-controlled autozero loop. (Editor's Choice) Maxim Integrated Products' Max 425 and Max426 CMOS op amps incorporate a unique internal architecture that gives them equal or better low-drift performance characteristics than found in bipolar and chopper-input solutions. These products enable the designer to tailor low-drift performance to a variety of applications, such as thermocouple-sensor and strain-gauge-bridge amplifiers, or high-impedance circuits. Both amps incorporate switching input stage and DAC-controlled autozero loop. The autozero loop can be programmed to operate on command or automatically. One time per minute. Amps come in 8-pin plastic DIPs and are prices at $9.50 in units of 100. Repeater IC offers 12 10Base-T ports with network management capability. (integrated circuit) (product announcement) National Semiconductor's DP83950 repeater interface controller (RIC) combines both repeater circuits and logic for gathering network-management data in a single integrated circuit, making the design of managed Ethernet hubs easier. The product also includes transceivers, PLL-based Manchester encoding and decoding circuits, plus an elasticity buffer for receiving and regenerating data packets. The DP83950 contains 13 Ethernet ports, one with an attachment unit interface. As many as 54 devices can be cascaded. The RIC's operation is controlled with an 8-bit microprocessor interface port. Price is $145 in lots of 100; sample quantities are available. Simulator analyzes and optimizes high-frequency circuits. (EEsof Inc.'s jOmega computer-aided engineering) (product announcement) EEsof Inc's jOmega computer-aided engineering package simulates circuits that operate at 30 to 3000 MHz, analyzing and optimizing operating character such as power saturation, intermodulation distortion and power-added efficiency. Two optimization routines are offered with the package. The first enables a user to simulate and tune circuits that have tight performance specifications. The other routine performs yield optimization. In addition, the product includes a schematic editor and a library of approximately 50 RF, package-level circuit models and standard bipolar junction transistor models that can be customized. The package operates on IBMs with OS/2, on Sun, HP-Apollo and IBM workstations. Availability is 2nd qtr 1991; price is $24,500. Monolithic instrumentation amplifiers. (includes a related article on putting guards to work.) Monolithic instrumentation amplifiers are becoming more popular for high-accuracy circuit applications. They offer benefits over do-it-yourself amplifiers, such as improved drift specifications. These amplifiers typically amplify low-level signals. Instrumentation amplifiers often have separate input and output offset-voltage specifications. Manufacturers often provide application information that includes a way to manually trim the de offset. For audio applications, there are instrumentation amplifiers designed specifically for audio frequencies, these products characterized for specs such as total harmonic distortion. Create signals having optimum resolution, response, and noise. McCune, Earl, Jr. Direct digital synthesis (DDS), known as a numeric technique, is a new tool that engineers use to develop hardware for generating waveforms and signals. Also known as direct digital frequency synthesis, DDS calculates the signal directly. Others view DDS as an extension of digital signal processing. A major reason for the development of DDS was to achieve high accuracy at a moderate cost. To implement DDS, use general-purpose microprocessors. Dedicated DDS devices are optimized for signal synthesis, with inputs as the signal parameters and out-puts the desired signal. By nature, a DDS uses digital circuits to perform analog functions. Choose PC software or scientific calculators to tame tough math. (Software Review) (Hewlett-Packard HP 48SX, the Texas Instruments A comparison between the calculators and mathematical software reveals both types of products include a range of capabilities such as data storage and recall, complex mathematics, programming features, unit conversions, statistical mathematics and vector mathematics. The documentation of a product does not necessarily clearly indicate which are included. Capabilities vary widely between products. Graphing user-defined functions is possible with both calculators and programs. Most calculators include interfaces to microcomputers, mass storage and hard-copy devices. Specifications for eight products are given. One coax cable carries video and power. (Design Ideas) Kirsten, Jeff; Allen, Charlie. A video system is designed with one coaxial cable that carries power to a remote location to pick out one among eight video channels, then returns the selected signal. In addition, the system can choose among different remote surveillance-camera signals, displaying the picture on a monitor. The supply current runs from the interface box to the remote multiplexer box, and the coax via C1 as illustrated. The circuit is described in detail and is illustrated revealing the multiplexer box with an 8-channel multiplexer and an amplifier. Any channel can be selected in less than one second, due to the short time constant associated with coupling video to the cable. U.S. - Japan developments enhance DRAM performance and packaging. Bursky, Dave; Maliniak, David. Two joint US-Japan developments are expected to improve dynamic-RAM (DRAM) density and performance as well as revolutionize chip design. United Memories Ltd and NMB Semiconductor Ltd developed a new field-shield-capacitor cell structure that improves the densities and speeds of DRAMS as well as simplifying their structures. Texas Instruments and Hitachi America Ltd developed lead-on-chip with center bond, a packaging technique that permits DRAM designers to put more silicon in the same package size while minimizing on-chip noise and improving DRAM lead electrical uniformity. Build SCSI Raid systems to boost data availability. (includes related article on Raid levels) (Cover Story) Designers are looking again at subsystems so they can eliminate I/O bottlenecks. Redundant arrays of inexpensive disks, known as Raid architectures, is one solution; they can be used for the storage subsystem. Raid systems can be combined with fast- and wide-SCSI controllers to provide higher I/O throughputs that can keep up with fast processors. NCR has developed a solution to the biggest problem in implementing a Raid subsystem, that of designing and programming the storage controller that manages the array of drives. NCR's solution is two-pronged: one prong is the first commercial chip sets to build small and large Raid systems that can be configured for Raid level 0, 1, 3, and 5; the second prong is a control program, running on an Intel 68020 controller, that implements Raid levels 0, 1, 3, and 5. NCR offers two separate chip approaches: one for small arrays that consist of two new chips, the 53C916 wide-SCSI-2 controller and the 53C920 SCSI data-path manager; one for larger drive-array systems that uses five more custom-developed chips to supplement the 53C916. High-density programmable logic takes on gate arrays. (includes related articles on software tools and complex-architecture Large field-programmable chips give designers the ability to create a functional prototype almost instantly. A large field-programmable gate array (FPGA) has a higher per-unit cost than a mass-produced gate array, but the non-recurring-engineering costs are much lower so the FPGA is suitable for small to moderate production runs. Challenges facing FPGAs include reducing on-ship signal-propagation delays, improving circuit implementation flexibility, and increasing the gate count. As densities increase, the trend is an almost complete shift away from bipolar technology. Designers are relying more and more on good software tools that hide architectures from systems designers and permit them to work at the macrocell level. UV EPROM-based programmable logic chips are competing with the RAM and anti-fuse arrays. Field-programmable chips are starting to replace masked gate arrays. Easily upgrade a 68030-based system with a clever cache design. Mekhiel, Nagi. A 68030-based system using dynamic RAM and running at 3 clock cycles/access in asynchronous mode does not take advantage of the processor's synchronous operation. An easy way to upgrade this system is to built a cache on a daughterboard that plugs into the processor socket that already exists in the system. This permits designers to upgrade an outdated microprocessor-based system without making changes to the system's architecture. The cache system, a small subsystem that uses fast SRAM and cache technology, can upgrade an application's speed by up to 30 percent. A simple direct-mapped cache made from 64Kbytes of fast static memory is used for the daughterboard. Eight 15-ns, 16Kbyte-by-4-bit Motorola MC6290 SRAM chips make up the cache. Two Texas Instruments ACT2163 16k-by-5-bit, 20-ns tag comparators are used by the design. Simple upgrade lets 80386 systems use i486. (Designing for PC Systems) Substituting the i486 processor for the 80386 processor can result in a performance improvement of up to 290 percent. It is not necessary to redesign the entire system motherboard. Adding approximately 7 active components to accept the i486 processor and run in the non-burst mode will make the necessary modifications to the i386-based system. The upgrade will cost about $30, not including the new CPU's cost. The architectural improvements in the i486 account for the performance improvement; the main two improvements are the internal, high-speed cache memory and the on-board floating point unit. The most impact on performance comes from the built-in 8Kbyte cache. The processor must resolve some hardware issues and incompatibilities, including clock generation and phasing and dealing with the Byte Enable signal. Raise disk performance using fewer chips. (Cirrus logic Inc.) (product announcement) Cirrus logic Inc introduces two new Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk controllers. The SH370, which sells for $22 in quantities of 100, has most of the hardware required to build a complete SCSI Winchester disk-drive controller subsystem. The SH370 is suitable for 3.5- and 2.5-inch drives. The SH351, which sells for $20 in quantities of 100, is a socket- and firmware-compatible upgrade of Cirrus Logic's SH3350 controller. The SH351 is suitable for workstations and minicomputers. Housing for both controllers is 100-lead quad flat packs. Frequency divider is programmable. (Ideas for Design) (tutorial) Blackwell, Steven R. Frequency-divider circuits, which are used in a variety of devices, often require programmable frequency dividers to enable the frequency-divider circuits to operate in multiple modes. A circuit is presented for a simple, inexpensive divider. The divider, which can be programmed to divide by any integer from 2 to 65, uses a variable-length shift register, a D-type flip-flop, and an inverter. No external resetting is needed because the circuit is self-starting. It does not have any undefined hang-up states. The range of programmability can be expanded by adding a second shift register. Repeater interface IC takes on Ethernet media. (National Semiconductor Cor5p.) (product announcement) National Semiconductor Corp announces the DP83950 repeater interface controller (RIC). The DP83950 is designed to handle multimedia Ethernet local area networks (LANs). The RIC is a multiport repeater that regenerates incoming signals, allowing a network to use a mix of media. The repeater can be the core of a hub when it has an interface to a CPU, network management hardware, and error-display devices on a circuit board. Company officials say the DP83950 is the only networking integrated circuit that integrates on one mixed-signal chip 10Base-T transceivers, a transceiver interface, a Manchester encoder/decoder, a system interface, and digital logic. The DP83950 RIC costs $145 each in sample quantities of up to 100 units. Scopes offer digital power in a cozy setting. (Hewlett-Packard) Novellino, John. Hewlett-Packard emphasizes user feedback in the design of the company's two new portable digital oscilloscopes, the HP 54600A and HP 54601A. The company wants to convince analog scope users that they can use the many advantages of digital instruments and not lose the look and feel of analog instruments. The 54600A is a 2-channel version and the 54601A is a 4-channel version. One design feature based on user feedback is the front panel, which looks very similar to the front panel of an analog scope. Advantages of digital scopes include ability to perform 12 automatic measurements on frequency, time, and voltage. The 54600A costs $2,395; the 54601A costs $2,895. Spreadsheet-like VHDL tool alleviates programming hassles. (Lewis Systems Inc.) (product announcement) Lewis Systems Inc's Hum design system is for engineers who want to design with VHDL but who do not want to deal with the programming process. The Hum design system is composed of modules and users can move back and forth between modules while designing. The Humtable is a spreadsheet-like table used to create VHDL modules. Different Humtables can be created for the same process and the resulting VHDL models will be compatible. Logic equations may be entered in the Humtable. Other modules include the Humsym and Humgraph which supply visual feedback of the design process as it happens in the Humtable. The software initially is designed to run on Sun workstations; it costs $24,000. Debug tools for 4-bit CPUs run with Windows. (NEC Electronics Inc.) NEC Electronics Inc's Simplehost is a software debugging tool that runs under the Microsoft Windows shell. Simplehost eliminates a tedious step in the design process since it automatically assembles the source code for the designer. It reduces the time needed to test program fixes because it permits the debugger to transfer only changed lines of code to a target system. It runs on any PC platform that uses Windows 3.0 and is employed with the IE-17K hardware emulator. Simplehost has a programmable pulse generator that functions as a pattern generator; this allows the designer to create signal patterns graphically. Simplehost starts at $4,000 for the emulator and software combination. A user who already owns an IE-17K emulator can get the Simplehost software at no charge. Study backs safety of video terminals. (National Pages) Stevens, William K. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports the results of its six-year study on the effects of video display terminals (VDTs) on pregnant women's health and well-being. The government-sponsored research determines that their use poses no increased risk for miscarriage. The sample consists of 730 telephone operators who have been pregnant at least once between 1983 and 1986. The operators were divided into two groups: those who extensively used VDTs and those who did not. Those who used VDTs experienced a 14.8 percent rate of spontaneous abortion and those who did not use VDTs experienced a rate of 15.9 percent of spontaneous abortion, showing no significant relationship. Future government studies will focus on the effects VDTs may have on birth defects, premature birth and low birth weight. Hot lists; data mills delve deep to find information about U.S. consumers; folks inadvertently supply it by buying cars, mailing Personal information on US consumers is collected by data base providers for advertising purposes in ways about which consumers are unaware, raising a new social issue. Data bases that provide personal information about consumers are a billion dollar industry; they supply the information advertisers need to do direct marketing campaigns like junk mail and junk telephone calls. The ways this information is obtained is raising some concern revolving around privacy. One survey indicates that 80 percent of Americans are distressed over having personal information widely available to advertisers. The US Congress plans to hold hearings on the subject. Advertisers leave their less-effective mass-marketing agenda behind only when they know enough about the consumer to make the direct marketing effort. VDTs are said not to increase miscarriage risk. (Health) (column) Waldholz, Michael. The US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health reports that working long hours in front of a video display terminal (VDT) does not increase the risk of miscarriage for pregnant women. The research group compared the miscarriage rates of two groups: telephone operators using VDTs and those not using VDTs. The miscarriage rate in the first three months was 15 percent for VDT users and 16 percent for non-VDT users, a statistically insignificant difference. The study was based on 882 pregnancies. The research group attributes higher miscarriage rates to smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day or consuming more than eight alcoholic beverages a month. Microsoft in inquiry by F.T.C.: investigation's scope remains uncertain. (Federal Trade Commission investigates competitive The Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into the competitive practices of software publisher Microsoft Corp. The investigation is thought to be centered on whether Microsoft has used its dominant operating system position as publisher of MS-DOS and Windows to inhibit competition in other application software areas. Some industry observers are concerned that the company makes operating system enhancements available to its application developers earlier than to other developers. Microsoft disputes the accusation, maintaining there is a distinct differentiation between its systems group and its applications group. Industry executives hope the investigation's focus will be broadened to include Microsoft's competitive practices in general. I.B.M. makes changes in workstation line. Markoff, John. IBM introduces two new versions of its workstations and lowers the prices on memory and disk drives in the RS/6000 workstation line. The new products are seen as the company's attempt to capture more of the mid-range workstation market, while steering clear of the low-end market. Unlike market leader Sun Microsystems, IBM is taking pains to keep the desktop personal computer and workstation markets separate, continuing to market their products towards scientists and engineers in an attempt to protect its lucrative market dominance in microcomputers. IBM has also increased the performance of its RS/6000 320 workstation by 25 percent. Promotion campaigns are being planned with the hope of convincing customers to upgrade to more powerful computers. Technology issues falter; Dow off 16.84. (High-technology industry stocks)(Dow Jones industrial average) IBM's recent drop in share price has led some stock market observers to believe that a market slide is imminent. For the fourth day in a row, technology stocks fell, leading to a drop in the Pacific Stock Exchange's high technology index by 2.3 percent. The index, which contains such companies as IBM, Microsoft, DEC, Chips and Technologies, and Motorola, fell 2.3 percent the day before as well. Analysts maintain that the loss of market momentum is causing investors to sell their shares before any further drop occurs, in an attempt to cash in on the profits already accrued. Having a bug fight. (PC User News Analysis, software bugs) Pancucci, Dom. Market research shows that the users are becoming less tolerant of defective or bug-ridden software. Well-publicized product problems such as Ashton-Tate's dBase IV, and Multisoft's accounting software have brought light on a problem that is costing industry millions every year. In order to differentiate their products as quality software, many companies are seeking certification from the British Standards Institute under its BS 5750 standard. Companies seek the certification for several reasons including reaffirmation of internal quality control programs as well as the marketing bonus that can accompany the certificate. Company officials say quality control can be the difference between keeping and loosing customers. High street high noon. (computer retailing, PC User News Analysis) Zuin, Daniela. Computer manufacturers in the United Kingdom are coming to realize that mass merchandise retail stores are a significant market for their wares. Computers are becoming more of a commodity, particularly with the popularity of laptop computers that require no set up. Mass merchandise stores can sell computers effectively only when users decide that price is more important than support. Laptops, low-end computers and peripherals all bring low margins to computer retailers, but those same low margins are acceptable to the average mass merchandiser. With laptop and other portable computers leading the way, computer vendors are promoting products in ways that are innovative for the computer industry. Bundling of basic software packages, peripherals and deep discount prices are helping to bring computers into the commodity market. Selling the goods. (PC User News Analysis, IBM and the portable computer market) While IBM has experienced some of its most embarrassing product failures in the portable computer market, Compaq Computer Corp and Toshiba have produced quality products that between the two of them claim 87 percent of the UK portable computer market. IBM has a new notebook computer ready to be introduced, but questions linger about whether it will be impressive enough to gain back any of the market share it has spotted to Compaq and Toshiba. Compaq says the success of its portables are due to its marketing and development efforts, which focus on producing what users want in a short development cycle. Compaq is also quite proud of the performance of its portables, believing users should not have to sacrifice power for portability. Toshiba emphasizes the functionality and ergonomics of its line of portables. Interview. (Fred Gibbons head of Software Publishing Corp.) (interview) Fred Gibbons, head of Software Publishing Corp, discusses the state of the software industry and the future of SPC's products. Gibbons explains the difference between Samna Corp's Ami word processing software and SPC's own Professional Write Plus package, which is based on the same engine. Gibbons explains that while the heart of Professional Write Plus is licensed from Samna, it contains features such as an electronic mail function and grammar checker that make it more suitable for corporate use. Gibbons says the company is not late in entering the Windows market with Professional Write Plus, claiming that it is a more streamlined, efficient package than its bloated competitors, WordPerfect and Word for Windows. Gibbons also discusses competition between software companies, in the future it will be very difficult for a company to be successful in more than one market. Picture this. (IBM's Extended Graphics Array standard) (Cover Story) IBM's VGA graphics standard is one of the most widely adopted industry standards in all of computing, but with the popularity of graphical user interfaces, customers are demanding better resolution and faster performance than VGA can provide. To accommodate such users, IBM has launched its Extended Graphics Array (XGA) architecture as a potential industry standard. XGA supports a maximum resolution of 1024x768 with up to 256 colors. IBM already has a graphics standard, 8514/A, that supports 1024/768, but unlike XGA it is not backwards compatible with existing VGA applications. With the XGA standard users will be able to choose between three operating modes, VGA-compatible, 132-column extended VGA-compatible and XGA. Even in VGA mode, the new XGA standard with its internal caching will improve graphic performance by a factor of two with normal applications. Graphics artists. (Hardware Review) (an overview of four evaluations of graphics card and monitor combinations that achieve The appearance of graphical user interfaces such as Microsoft Windows 3.0 can be greatly enhanced with the use graphics boards and monitors that provide resolution of 1024x768. Four such graphics board and monitor combinations are evaluated: Citizen's ProCard 816 VGA-compatible ISA graphics adapter and ProCM 14i 14-inch multiscan VGA monitor; Taxan's 590+/PC graphics adapter and Multivision 795 14-inch autoscanning monitor; Western Digital's Paradise 8514/A Plus Combo Card and Hitachi's Hi-Scan 20 - 20-inch multiscan monitor; and IBM's PS/2 XGA Display Adaptor/A graphics adaptor and PS/2 Color Display 8515 14-inch multiscan monitor. The evaluations show that the ideal set-up would be a 20-inch monitor with an 8514/A or XGA graphics board rather than dumb VGA card. However, given the price of 20-inch monitors a 16-inch version might be a good compromise. Citizen ProCM 14i monitor and Citizen ProCard 816 VGA display adaptor. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of graphics Citizen's ProCard 816 is a 379 pounds Sterling VGA-compatible ISA graphics adapter capable of 1024 x 768 resolution while displaying 16 or 256 simultaneous colors. The card is compatible with VGA and EGA standards and comes with software drivers for Windows 3.0, GEM, AutoCAD, Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Ventura. ProCard 816 supports either interlaced or non-interlaced 1024x768 resolution. It receives mards of good for its characteristics, documentation, engineering and performance, with its ease of use called excellent. Citizen's compatible ProCM 14i is a 525 pounds Sterling 14-inch mulitscan VGA monitor with a .26 dot pitch Sony Trintron tube. The monitor has an unacceptable amount of flicker between closely spaced lines. It receives marks of good for its characteristics, ease of use, documentation, and engineering, with its performance seen as moderate. Taxan 590+/PC 8514/A-compatible graphics adaptor and Taxan Multivision 795 Monitor (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations Taxan's 749 pounds Sterling Taxan 590+/PC is an 8514/A graphics adaptor card based on Western Digital's Paradise 8514/A clone. Iits engineering and performance are excellent, characteristics, ease of use and documentation rated as good. The board features 1Mbyte of RAM, resolution of 1024 x 768 and the ability to display 256 simultaneous colors. It is completely compatible with IBM's 8514/A interface and therefore is compliant with Windows, Presentation Manager and hundreds of applications. Taxan's 699 pounds Sterling Multivision 795 monitor is a 14-inch autoscanning display based on a Sony Trintron tube with .26mm dot pitch. The monitor scores marks of excellent for its characteristics and ease of use, while its documentation, performance and engineering are deemed good. Paradise 8514/A Plus Combo Card and Hitachi Hi-Scan 20 monitor. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of graphics card and Western Digital's 589 pounds Sterling Paradise 8514/A Plus Combo is an 8514/A and VGA graphics board that is fully compatible with IBM's 8514/A hardware registers. The card contains both an 8514/A board and VGA 1024/768, allowing it to handle dual displays with VGA on one and 8514/A on the other. The Paradise board is given the best rating of the boards evaluated, with excellent marks in characteristics, engineering and performance and good marks in ease of use and documentation. Hitachi's 1,995 pounds Sterling 20-inch Hi-Scan monitor is dazzling despite its relatively coarse .31 dot pitch. It is easily readable from at least five feet away and has the same clarity as most 14-inch monitors. The Hi-Scan 20 receives scores of good for its characteristics, ease of use, documentation and engineering, with its performance rated excellent. IBM PS/2 XGA Display Adaptor/A and IBM PS/2 Color Display 8515. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of graphics card and IBM's PS/2 XGA Display Adaptor/A is a 948 pounds Sterling graphics board that extends IBM's graphics hardware standard to 1024 x 768 resolution and 256 simultaneous colors. Unlike its previous 1024 x 768 standard, the 8514/A, IBM has published the XGA hardware interface standards in full and clearly hopes to make XGA an industry standard for high-resolution graphics. XGA Display Adaptor/A is backwards compatible with both VGA and 8514/A and will run all applications designed for those standards. The XGA card will only operate on computers with an 80386SX or better processor. The graphics card receives ratings of excellent for its characteristics, performance and engineering, while its ease of use is called good. The monitor, a 661 pounds Sterling PS/2 Color Display 8515, is not specifically designed for XGA and received scores of good for its characteristics and engineering, with its ease of use and performance deemed moderate. Mastering CD-ROM. (production of CD-ROMs) (tutorial) Price, Mike. The romantic vision of CD-ROM products bringing full-motion video and multimedia technology to computers is still in the future, but CD-ROMs have practical applications that provide advantages for many organizations. Many small- to medium-sized companies are finding that mastering data to CD-ROM is neither expensive nor overly complicated. Nearly all CD-ROM products comply to the International Standards Organizations' 9660 standard defining which tracks store which data and in what size chunks the data is stored. CD-ROMs can hold more than 600Mbytes of data in blocks of 2Kbytes, and can retrieve that data at a rate of 75 blocks a second. CD-ROMs are ideal for archival storage and can appear to a computer as a large disk drive. The steps involved in mastering a disk include indexing the data, transferring it to nine-track tape, formatting the data, sending it to a mastering plant, checking for errors and finally producing the disks. Coming to a big screen near you. (Hardware Review) (Sharp's PC-8501 color portable, includes a related article on thin film Sharp's 6,995 pounds Sterling PC-8501 is an amazing laptop computer that includes a color liquid crystal display that is as good as most desktop CRT monitors. At first glance the PC-8501's display appears to be a CRT screen, but minus the bulk, heat and flowing beta particles. The screen is the first commercial implementation of thin film transistor technology pioneered by Sharp. The computer is based on Intel's 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, contains 2Mbytes of RAM expandible to 10Mbytes, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and a 110Mbyte hard disk. The 79-key keyboard is poor. The PC-8501 receives excellent marks for its documentation and engineering, while its ease of use, performance and characteristics are called good. Big Blue mover. (IBM's PS/2 L40SX laptop computer) Lavin, Paul. When IBM demonstrated its new laptop computer at a British trade show it was very careful to call it a technology demonstration and not the promotion of a new product. There was no name attached and no price, but American sources are calling the laptop the PS/2 L40SX. The L40SX is larger than a standard notebook computer in size, and a bit heavier at 7.75 pounds, meaning it must be carried in a briefcase because it has no handle. It is built around Intel's 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor with 2Mbytes of RAM expandible to 18Mbytes, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and a 60Mbyte hard disk. The computer's battery life is a respectable 3 hours, but it takes 10 hours to recharge. The keyboard is one of the best yet found on a laptop and it is coupled with a black-on-white VGA LCD display that is larger than usual but not of outstanding quality. Object lesson. (Software Review) (Borland International's ObjectVision) (evaluation) Borland International's ObjectVision software package, available for an introductory price of 99.95 pounds Sterling, is an object-oriented programming package designed for users not familiar with traditional programming methods. ObjectVision has no reporting capabilities or query functions, but it can create forms on-screen, fill the forms and store the data in a database table. It is an intelligent system for data input that enables forms to be triggered so that when a user reaches or exits a given form they can be prompted to do something or a calculation can be performed on the data. ObjectVision is made up of a forms designer, a decision tree creator and a linking engine. The software is rated as good in all five categories: characteristics, ease of use, documentation, engineering and performance. Mobile mouse. (Hardware Review) (Microsoft's BallPoint Trackball device) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's 125 pounds Sterling BallPoint Mouse is actually a trackball device, but it works on the same principle as the famous Microsoft Mouse. The BallPoint is designed to be used on laptop and other portable computers where it is not feasible to drag along a mouse and pad. The BallPoint rests in a cradle that attaches to the edge of the computer's keyboard and is fastened with two finger screws. While the device attached firmly to the three computers on which it was tested it could conceivably have problems with some machines. The trackball itself sits inside the cradle, running on two steel rollers. This 400dpi unit can be adjusted to a variety of angles, but does not have particularly smooth action. It also is less effective on an LCD screen because the cursor keeps disappearing. The BallPoint is rated moderately for its characteristics and ease of use, good for its documentation and performance, and excellent for its engineering. Staying power. (Hardware Review) (Toshiba Information Systems' T2000SX notebook computer) (evaluation) Toshiba is the clear market leader in the notebook computer arena. The 3,395 pounds Sterling T2000SX, its latest entry in the field, is a safe and predictable product with the usual excellent features and fine engineering. The T2000SX is built around Intel's 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor; it weighs 6.9 pounds including batteries, which run for nearly three hours. Two questionable aspects of the machine are its inclusion of just 1Mbyte of RAM, which can be upgraded to 9Mbytes, but only at Toshiba's exorbitant prices; and the limited number of hard disk options: 20Mbyte and 40Mbyte. The T2000SX is an impressive machine with a nice 88-key keyboard and a clear, crisp grey scale VGA display. The notebook is deemed excellent for its ease of use and engineering, and good for its documentation, characteristics and performance. A fast drive home. (Hardware Review) (Hitachi's CDR-1700S CD-ROM drive) (evaluation) Hitachi claims its 515 pounds Sterling CDR-1700S is the fastest CD-ROM drive in the world, with an average access time of 340 ms compared with times of 400 to 450 ms for most other models. The external model comes in a box that is 9 x 13 x 3 inches and features double doors over the drive to protect against dust. The overall impression of the drive's speed is that it is closer to a slow hard disk than it is to an average CD-ROM drive. The CDR-1700S comes in two versions; one with a 50-pin SCSI interface that allows up to seven drives to be connected, and the other is a Hitachi bus that allows eight drives to be daisy chained. The drive receives marks of excellent for its characteristics, ease of use and engineering, and moderate grades for its performance and documentation. Unisys Dyna-mics. (Hardware Review) (Unisys Corp.'s PowerPort PP386-SX1) (evaluation) Unisys Corp has struggled through some tough times, but its latest entry into the laptop computer market is a very impressive machine at a competitive price. The PowerPort PP386-SX1 is priced at 3,950 pounds Sterling, and receives scores of excellent for it engineering and performance, with its characteristics, ease of use and documentation rated as good. It is slightly bigger than true notebook computers and weighs nine pounds. With the extra size, however, comes a spacious, excellent keyboard and a very high quality electroluminescent LCD VGA display that, at 11-inches diagonally, is one of the largest on any portable. The PowerPort is built around Intel's 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, with 2Mbytes of RAM expandible to 8Mbytes, a 60Mbyte hard disk and two to three hours of battery life. Upwardly mobile professional. (Software Review) (Software Publishing Corp.'s Professional Write Plus, includes a related Software Publishing Corp decided it needed to enter the Windows market with a word processor and, rather than create one from scratch, they purchased the source code for Samna's Ami word processor, improved the program and added a graphical user interface. The results are very impressive. At 249 pounds sterling, Professional Write Plus could be the best entry-level Windows word processor available. Professional Write Plus receives marks of excellent for its ease of use, engineering and performance, while its characteristics are called good and its documentation poor. The new graphical user interface includes more logically placed menus, and more versatility when it comes to program appearance and default settings. Other major additions include electronic mail compatibility with Novell/Action Technologies servers and a loosely integrated version of Reference Software's Grammatik grammar checker. Victor V386PX. (Hardware Review) (Victor Technologies' battery powered portable) (evaluation) Victor Technologies' 2,639 pounds Sterling V386PX is an outright clone of Compaq's SLT line, but at half the price. The V386PX receives marks of good for its characteristics, ease of use, engineering and performance, while its documentation falls into the moderate category. The laptop machine weighs in at 5.8 pounds including an Intel 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 40Mbyte hard disk, 4Mbytes of RAM and batteries that offer better than two hours of computing. The V386PX offers better performance than Compaq's LTE 386s/20 or Dell's 316LT. It also has perhaps the best keyboard in its class, and an LCD VGA display that is quite adequate. Expandability is perhaps the V386PX's only weak spot, accommodating a math coprocessor, but not additional RAM or a larger hard disk. Packard Bell 80386SX. (Hardware Review ) (microcomputer) (evaluation) Packard Bell's 80386SX microcomputer has little to differentiate it from the hundreds of other similar computers. Potential buyers will find no outstanding features, buying decisions will have to be made on price and brand name. The computer receives scores of good for its ease of use and documentation and only moderate marks for its characteristics, engineering and performance. It is slightly larger than many machines its class, giving it room for what may be overkill in seven expansion slots. The 80386SX does have the memory and VGA graphics to do a good job of running Microsoft's Windows 3.0. IBM Model 55 SX. (Hardware Review) (PS/2 microcomputer) (evaluation) IBM's 3,200 pounds Sterling PS/2 55 SX is an unremarkable machine that combines IBM's high quality with its usual average performance and high price. The model receives scores of good for its characteristics and ease of use, its engineering is called excellent and its performance deemed moderate. The PS/2 55 SX is differentiated from its peers by IBM's use of the MCA bus coupled with Intel's 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. Features on the machine include a 60Mbyte hard disk or optional 30Mbyte, 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 12Mbytes with a card, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and three excess expansion slots. The compact design features IBM's fine quality keyboard and a variety of VGA monitor options. Opus PCSX. (Hardware Review) (Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer) (evaluation) Opus Technology's 1,299 pounds Sterling Opus PCSX is a standard AT style microcomputer with better than average performance at a competitive price. The computer is actually on the large size, but it uses the extra space to accommodate up to three 3.5-inch floppy disk drives and three 5.25-inch drives as well as having room for six 16-bit slots and two 8-bit slots. The PCSX is built around Intel's 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and features a 40Mbyte hard disk, memory expandable to 8Mbytes and a super VGA graphics adaptor that can handle resolutions up to 1024x768. It comes with an Ultra VGA 14-inch monitor that performs well with no flicker at a 28mm dot pitch. The machine is rated as good in all categories: characteristics, ease of use, documentation, performance and engineering. ICL DRS M55. (Hardware Review) (80386SX-based microcomputer) (evaluation) ICL's 1,190 pounds Sterling DRS M55 is yet another unremarkable microcomputer built around Intel's 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor. The computer has few faults and few clear advantages, but its price is competitive and it seems well built. It receives marks of good in all reviewed categories: characteristics, ease of use, documentation, engineering and performance. Two small problems with the machine are its clumsy and ugly monitor and an annoying high-pitched whine it emits when the power is turned on. The DRS M55 comes with a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy drive with room for a 5.25-inch drive, and one 8-bit and three 16-bit expansion slots. The performance of the DRS M55 is about average for its class and it sports a well designed keyboard. JetSetter 5.1. (Software Review) (Garbo Systems' word processing package) (evaluation) Garbo Systems' 295 pounds Sterling JetSetter 5.1 desktop publishing software will appeal to the casual user. Garbo is not attempting to compete with the likes of PageMaker, but is going after the user who occasionally needs desktop publishing power. Even at the relatively low price JetSetter is still packed with many powerful features. It receives overall marks of good for its characteristics and documentation, while its ease of use, performance and engineering are deemed just moderate. The package is relatively easy to install and once the basic commands have been mastered it is an easy package to use. JetSetter requires 640Kbytes of memory, 1Mbyte of hard disk space and EGA or better graphics. Security software. (Buyer's guide) (buyers guide) Annesley, Angela. Many organizations are now storing vital information on electronic media and data security has become of paramount importance. Security software falls into four main categories: encryption, access control, anti-virus and secure erasure. Among the variables to be considered when purchasing security software are the value of the data to be protected and the level of the threat to the data. Encryption software scrambles data in such a way that it is unreadable to anyone without a solution. Access control software relies on passwords to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access. Secure erasure software actually erases the entire file from the disk rather than just deleting the file name. Anti-virus software guards not against human snooping, but rather against data loss due to computer viruses that may have infected the data. Microsoft says FTC inquiry is limited to Windows program; stock falls $3.50. (US Federal Trade Commission) (Microsoft Windows 3.0 Microsoft Corp Chmn William Gates III says that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is only investigating the software publisher on its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Investors reacted to the news of the FTC investigation by sending the stock price down $3.50 a share to close at $95.75 a share on Mar 12, 1991. Industry observers see the reason of the government probe as Microsoft's dominance in the computer software industry, especially in systems software. Microsoft claims that the inquiry, which began in Jun 1990, stems from a joint announcement it made with IBM about their mutual software development plans. Analysts say that Microsoft's shifting posture about Windows 3.0 is what concerns the FTC, indicating a possible problem with Microsoft's competitive position. Adobe's font technology steals TrueType's thunder. (Adobe Systems Inc.) Adobe Systems Inc introduces its Multiple Master outline-font technology. The new system lets users easily modify typeface weight, visual scale, width and style. Multiple Master also allows for the condensation of type on a page with maintenance of the integrity of the typeface's design. Adobe plans to release two typefaces in the summer of 1991 which will be compatible with all existing Adobe PostScript devices. One of the most significant features of Multiple Master fonts is their capability to mimic spacing and formatting of other fonts. Users will be able to print and view electronically transmitted documents without owning the document's original fonts. The technology will also allow for word processing, page-layout and spreadsheet software packages to have automatic Fit To Page commands. Adobe is making the Multiple Master technology available to other companies for font manufacture. New inkjet: high style, low price. (Apple Computer Inc.'s StyleWriter inkjet printer and LaserWriter LS laser printer) Apple Computer Inc introduces its $599 StyleWriter inkjet printer with 360 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution. The printer's paper tray is detachable and can hold up to 50 sheets of letter- or legal-sized paper. The StyleWriter can print one page every two minutes in 360-dpi mode and one page per minute in 180-dpi draft mode. The printer weighs 7.5 pounds and could be considered portable except for an AC adapter being its only power source. Apple also introduces its $1,299 Personal LaserWriter LS 300-dpi laser printer. The printer requires only 512Kbytes of RAM but operates as if it has up to 2.5Mbytes of RAM as a result of data-compression technology. The printer has a 50-sheet paper tray that can handle letter- and legal-sized paper as well as labels, envelopes and transparencies. Apple will bundle both printers with 13 of its new TrueType fonts. Seybold promises progress toward consistent color. (Seybold Seminars '91) Topics at the Seybold Seminars '91 included the agreement by major companies on the underlying structure used in computers to describe color. Firms such as Apple Computer Inc and Adobe Systems Inc are agreeing to narrow the selection of color spaces and to rely on the CIE XYZ model as the standard on which to measure transformations between models. They also agree on the standardization of the PostScript Level 2 color-space descriptors as a tagging scheme. Analysts predict that consistent, device-independent color will become a reality in 1991. Macintosh printing performance is another topic: industry representatives claim that slow printing of large PostScript files is caused by internal restrictions in the microcomputer's printing architecture. Apple says it is addressing the problem but the company feels that current performance is adequate for 95 percent of users. Mac managers to get SNMP after all. (Simple Network Management Protocol) Apple Computer Inc announces its decision to build on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) industry standard instead of the proprietary AppleTalk Management Protocol (AMP) for its AppleTalk network control software. SNMP will generate less network traffic and integrate Macintoshes into management programs on other platforms. Using SNMP will also facilitate development of agents by network hardware manufacturers since many currently support SNMP. Insiders contend that first Apple must build a Macintosh SNMP agent that runs on AppleTalk which will eventually replace Apple's Responder Startup document (INIT). The company must then implement specific Macintosh capabilities planned for AMP as extensions to SNMP and then create an SNMP monitor to control network devices and gather statistics. Analysts predict, however, that the decision to switch to SNMP will further delay Apple's network management tools that have been promised for two years. AccessPC 1.1 adds caching, support for removables. (product announcement) Insignia Solutions Inc introduces version 1.1 of its $99.95 AccessPC Startup document (INIT) that allows users to view and manipulate MS-DOS files in standard Finder windows with no need to go through the Apple File Exchange utility. The new version adds support for many popular removable media technologies. AccessPC 1.1 also includes the MultiDriver Startup document (INIT) and Control Panel device (cdev) which offers varied caching options that improve performance on specially formatted disks. The program includes a formatting utility that allows users to set up Macintosh drives to use with the cache. MultiDriver allows AccessPC 1.1 to recognize removable cartridges formatted with standard DOS storage system software. The program can recognize any true Macintosh or DOS-based microcomputer partition. Aldus promises PageMaker Additions and more flexibility for PrePrint 1.5; command language to simplify add-ins. (Aldus Corp.) Aldus Corp plans to offer Additions, a new technology that will let PageMaker users write scripts to automatically place text or format a database for desktop publishing. The company expects developers to use Additions to create add-on PageMaker products as well as easy-to-use front ends for the new technology. The company is also developing PrePrint 1.5, an update to its separation program that will let users print by page range and will offer the ability to print documents in page-by-page instead of color-by-color sequence. The new version will also recognize the Desktop Color Separation (DCS) format. Preprint 1.5 is scheduled to be released in mid-1991. Aldus announces its first third-party developer conference set for April 3-5, 1991, in Seattle. The company announces as well that it will work with Scitex America Corp to integrate desktop and high-end color publishing. Cachet: color editing for the masses; EFI program gives 'reference pictures'. (Electronic for Imaging Inc.'s Cachet)(includes related Electronics for Imaging Inc (EFI) announces Cachet, a color-editing program that is the first package to use the company's Eport color portability technology, allowing for printouts that are automatically adjusted to different output device characteristics. The product is scheduled to be released in the 3rd qtr of 1991 at a price of less than $1,000. Users can select the best image in a series of reference pictures and the program will then generate a new set of variations based on the image. Users can select different criteria for the variations for the software to create such as contrast, brightness, shadows and highlights. Advanced features include the ability to directly adjust colors and color values. Cachet will also include a book tutorial that will address various color issues. FOSE crowds see IIsi run A/UX, Apple tout multiplatform links. (Federal Office Systems Expo '91) Apple Computer Inc demonstrated its upcoming A/UX 2.01 Unix-like operating system on the Macintosh IIsi at the Federal Office Systems Expo (FOSE) '91. Apple is hoping that this multiplatform connectivity will become a selling point in the government market. Among the vendors demonstrating Macintosh products was Blueridge Technologies Inc, whose $695 Optix software for scanning, retrieving and storing documents offers a full raster editor and CCITT Group IV image compression. Wang Laboratories Inc's MacVS Image Workstation Mac-to-VS communications package can open up to four VS-emulation windows on a Macintosh; it is scheduled to be released by the summer of 1991. FedSoft Corp's FedForms government paperwork forms generator costs $379 for the Navy, Army and Air Force versions, and $329 for the civilian version. E-mail privacy not guaranteed: some systems still unprotected legally. The Electronic Mail Association (EMA) releases a guide to interpretation of federal laws pertaining to electronic communication. 'Protecting Electronic Messaging: A Guide to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986' clarifies federal government policy on electronic communications privacy. The $195 guide comes at a time when corporate lawsuits dealing with worker privacy and use of E-mail are increasing. The ECPA contends that electronic mail messages are considered private if the E-mail system allows access from outside the company. Messages are not considered private if the system is for internal use only and, therefore, may be read by the company. E-mail messages on internal electronic mail systems that also allow access from outside the company can be read only if the receiver or sender gives permission. Violation of user privacy on public E-mail systems is a felony. Michael can draw in 32-bit color; low-priced program packs a few surprises. (Event One's Michael's Draw) Event One is currently readying its Michael's Draw object-oriented drawing program that offers 32-bit color capabilities. Michael's Draw is expected to cost under $150 but pricing is yet to be finalized. The drawing program allows users to save multiple documents as well as save and name up to 8,000 views of a document. The program's drawing tools include Line, Oval, Rectangle, Arc, Regular Polygon, Irregular Polygon and Freehand. The software supports both caption and paragraph text. The Copy tool, Replace tool and Grab Attributes let users grab objects or attributes from non-active windows. Users can specify horizontal and vertical offset, scaling percentage, degree of rotation and number of copies. The program supports PostScript and QuickDraw printers and the maximum drawing size is 14 feet by 14 feet. Some color operations need 2Mbytes of RAM but the program will run on any 1Mbyte Macintosh. Macs swell for European weekly. (The European) Lewis, Chris. The European, a weekly newspaper based in the United Kingdom with a European circulation of about 225,000, uses 120 to 130 Apple Macintosh microcomputers to create infographics, page design and display ads. The newspaper runs its Macintoshes using Scitex America Corp's Visionary software, a modified version of QuarkXPress with a direct link to the Scitex Response color pre-press system. The European has selected the Macintosh because of its ease of use as well as its ability to run Visionary and QuarkXPress. The newspaper uses the two programs to make up all pages and to integrate artwork. Photographs are edited in the Scitex system and low-resolution files are then sent to the Macintoshes for sizing, placement and cropping. The total cost of the system is approximately $4 million, with $2.6 million spent on the color processing equipment and the remainder spent on the Macintoshes. Seeking programming sans programming. (Commentary) (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. An ideal goal in the computing world is to make programming so simple that all users can effectively use and control the power of microcomputers. Although this may not be seen until the distant future, progress is being made. The Macintosh System 7 will give users improved macro and scripting tools. Developers will be able to create applications that have AppleEvent wires that can carry information and control signals. Users can write a program that takes AppleEvents information into or out of an application. They can give it a transmission format to send to another independent AppleEvent, display the information and conditionally act upon it. This would be a more refined, in-depth macro facility than what current Macintosh applications allow and will make computers more useful for users. The time has come for a sequel to SQL. (The Mac Manager) (column) Crabb, Don. A recent article stated that Apple Computer Inc's internal MIS group, Information Systems & Technology, is using an internally-developed programming aid, the Client-Server Application Development Enhancement Toolkit (CADET), to integrate front-end applications written under 4th Dimension using Apple's Data Access Language (DAL). DAL is an application programming interface (API) for Structured Query Language (SQL). The Apple group has discovered that to make up for inadequacies in SQL, they need to use CADET. SQL is not the cure-all in database access, as it has been portrayed. Many database vendors use APIs to provide functionality that is lacking in SQL and to make SQL connections complete. SQL certainly needs its power to be extended and its multiplatform availability improved. It is also possible that SQL simply needs to be totally replaced. Personal Press: simply good DTP; Autocreate, proxies innovative features. (Silicon Beach Software's Personal Press page layout Silicon Beach Software Inc's $299 Personal Press is the most innovative low-end desktop publishing package currently available. The package focuses on ease of use instead of advanced features but offers two unusual features: proxies and AutoCreate. Proxies let users preview images that show the result of an action before it is taken, and AutoCreate is an extremely intuitive feature that lets users take advantage of the program's 32 templates and automates much of the tedious placement of text and graphics. The number of pages of a document is limited by available memory, and maximum page size is 22 inches square. Personal Press's text formatting is basic, with style sheets controlling only font, style and size. The text tool works only in actual-size view, and the screen display is not always accurate for making kerning decisions. The ease of use and extensive on-line help of Personal Press make up for the minor shortcomings. GraceLAN: real time means real net benefits; collects info from both Macs and PCs. (Technology Works Inc.'s GraceLAN network Technology Works Inc's GraceLAN 1.1.1 is a solid network information browser and administration tool that operates in real time. GraceLAN lets network managers query information from any node on AppleTalk networks. The product offers no database component but users can easily export the data to a separate database. GraceLAN is the only product currently available that can gather information from both Macintoshes and IBM microcomputers and compatibles. Tests on a LocalTalk and Ethernet network of requesting information from 16 to 40 nodes across one to two routers took 20 to 50 seconds. The speed depends on the number of active stations as well as network traffic but is fast enough for interactive use. Users can also draw a graphical, logical representation of their network and copy it to any application supporting PICT files. The manual is well written but concentrates more on entry-level instruction than strategies for network administration. Four packages dedicated to forms. (Power Up Software Corp.'s Fast Forms Filer, Claris Corp.'s SmartForm series, Softview Inc.'s if:X Four forms generating programs that let users design forms are reviewed. Power Up Software Corp's Fast Forms 2.0, with its data entry module, Fast Forms Filler, is an adequate program but does not offer enough significant features to recommend it over a database or spreadsheet program. The program's tools also lack the flexibility and precision of the other packages. Claris Corp's SmartForm series is easy to use and has good features in the Designer module. The product, however, only ranks second best because of several limitations. Softview Inc's if:X Forms Designer 1.1 revises forms more easily and quickly than the other packages but lacks a facility for filling out forms on-screen. The program can be innovative but can also be difficult to use. Shana Corp's The Informed series, which consists of the Designer, Manager and Autoform modules, receives the best rating and is clearly the top forms program for the Macintosh. The series offers more tools than the other reviewed packages and offers excellent performance and graphics capabilities. Grand upgrade of Ashlar's Vellum not in software; higher price, but little new in 2.0. (Ashlar Inc.'s Vellum computer-aided design Ashlar Inc's $1,995 Vellum 2.0 computer-aided design (CAD) software offers a few new features as well as added speed,, ut most users will find the product's price to be the main difference from Vellum 1.0. Ashlar adds Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) import and export capabilities, letting Vellum export PICT, Encapsulated PostScript, DXF, DXB, IGES and plain text files. The new package offers more templates, sample files and symbols. Vellum 2.0's Selection Mask window lets users specify drawing elements that can and cannot be selected. The Sheets features lets users create several windows for each drawing. The product's redrawing, opening and zooming performance are about 50 percent faster than in Version 1.0. The product retains some flaws present in Version 1.0. Vellum 2.0 still lacks macros or a programming language, and it has no 3-D capabilities and no way of assigning text attributes to drawing objects for export to databases. Correct Grammar 2.0: Lifetree upgrade to writing aid retains several limitations. (Lifetree Software Inc.) (Software Review) Lifetree Software Inc adds some enhancements to Correct Grammar 2.0 but the program still has some limitations. The program checks documents paragraph by paragraph and flags errors in four rule classes: Usage, Grammar, Spelling and Format, and Sentence. Users can either correct or ignore a flagged item, turn off a rule, and look up or add unfamiliar words to the spelling dictionary. The program's Style Guides implement different combinations of rules and include Academic, Business, Legal, Fiction and Technical. Users can also create their own style guides. These categories are too broad and lack flexibility. The program offers no global search-and-replace feature, making correction of repeated errors a slow task. There is also no way to teach the program new phrases since the program lacks a phrase dictionary. In-house scanners becoming routine. (color and gray-scale scanners sell for comparable prices) (Product Watch) (buyers guide) Prices for color scanners are dropping to match those of high-priced eight-bit gray-scale units. Artists, designers and publishers use both types of scanners to scan artwork and photographs. Color and gray-scale scanners are usually flatbed units with letter- or legal-size scan areas and resolutions of up to 300 dots per inch (dpi). Scanners that include a range of bundled software packages are available for Apple Macintoshes, IBM microcomputers and compatibles. Microtek Lab Inc's MSF-400GS gray-scale scanner reaches 400 dpi and black-and-white scanning of line art reaches 2,400 dpi. Color scanners range in price from $1,999 to $2,695 for basic capabilities; color scans are created by scanning the image three times for red, green, blue (RGB) computer images. Gray-scale units cost between $1,795 and $1,990. Overhead scanners, priced at $695 and $895, are less costly alternatives to flatbed units. Juggling features and options in retrospect. (Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect backup and archival software) (MacInTouch: Bugs Dantz Development Corp's Retrospect backup and archival software supports a variety of storage devices and offers reliable operation. Retrospect features encryption, network support and the ability to retain multiple versions of a file. Retrospect's interface and operation can be complicated for users to learn, particularly creating selection scripts or backing up multiple volumes to a target archive. Users should be aware that Retrospect's backup and archiving operations are distinct: only backup offers the option of saving a 'snapshot' of a disk for quick restoration, and only archiving offers the feature of deleting files automatically after saving to another storage device. Users must secure their Retro.Prep file to secure their archives because anyone who has access to the Macintosh also has access to those encrypted files via passwords saved using the Prep File option. User groups become businesses as services, membership change. (changing structure of Macintosh user groups) Macintosh user groups now offer book, shareware and public domain publishing as an increasing number of business users turn to them for information. User groups are emerging as integral to the Apple Macintosh community's support system, and they distribute information through a range of channels, including print and electronic publishing. Some user groups generate up to 45 percent of their revenues from product sales. Large groups such as Berkeley Mac-Users' Group (BMUG) Inc and New York Mac-Users' Group (NYMUG) Inc are tax-exempt non-profit corporations that must reinvest any profit from product sales back into the organization. BMUG publishes books and offers its software library on CD-ROM, which keeps costs and membership dues low. BMUG's membership is over 8,500; the group has had to adopt a formal business structure to accommodate the needs of its members. Lack of low-end displays hits Radius; high-end strategy spells Q2 red ink. (Radius Inc. to post second quarter losses; lack of Radius Inc expects to post losses for 2nd qtr FY 1991, which can be attributed primarily to a lack of Radius products compatible with Apple's new Macintosh microcomputers. Radius does not expect to reach the $26.7 million in revenue it recorded in the comparable qtr of FY 1990, which may cause a net loss for the 2nd qtr ending Mar 31, 1991. Radius officials claim the company has not changed its product line to reflect Apple's new product mix since Oct 1990, but it is developing a new line of products that will address the deficiency. Analysts believe Radius's situation reflects a faulty company strategy in which it has spent more money on high-end technology than on its mass-market products. Radius plans to increase its sales efforts and prudence in expenditures as well as lay off a portion of its staff to correct its revenue shortfall. Math problem, long baffling, slowly yields; the traveling salesman problem still isn't solved, but computers can now get most The traveling salesman problem is a complex mathematics problem that computers are beginning to find solutions for, albeit imperfect solutions. The problem asks for the shortest route between a number of cities or points, and has a wide variety of applications in telecommunications, computer chip manufacture and factory work order management. Computers have not found the solution to the problem, which still evades mathematicians, but they are providing reasonable solutions by doing brute number crunching. Although it is impossible to enumerate all possible tours for even a small number of cities, for example 100, reasonably close answers can be approximated. The solution of a 2,392-city problem is the greatest achievement to date, but a 3,038-city problem is being attempted in early 1991. Printers catching up. (Apple Personal Laserwriter LS and Apple Stylewriter) (Personal Computers)(column) (product announcement) Apple Computers Inc's $1,299 Personal Laserwriter LS and $599 Stylewriter are two low-cost computer printers that work with Apple's low-end Macintosh computers. The Laserwriter LS is built around the Canon LBP-LX print engine, which is the one used in HP's Laserjet IIP, and can print four pages per minute. It comes with 512Kbytes of memory, which Apple maintains is sufficient, and a standard 50-page paper tray; a 250-page paper tray is optional. The Laserwriter LS is designed for individual use and cannot be shared by other computers on the network. The Stylewriter is an inkjet printer that is not much larger than a notebook computer. It weighs only 3.5 pounds but prints at the slow rate of a page every minute or two. Apple also introduced its Trutype font technology which is included in System 6.0.7. Truetype enables users to view and print high-quality type in various sizes from any Macintosh computer and Apple printer. Making MacMusic. (Opcode Systems Inc.'s The Book of MIDI hypertext software) (Peripherals)(column) (product announcement) Opcode Systems' is marketing The Book of MIDI HyperCard stack, designed by Steven Rappaport. The Book of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) runs on Apple Macintosh microcomputers and is targeted at both the novice and experienced electronic musician. The software defines itself as a computer protocol that describes communication between microcomputers, synthesizers and electronic instruments. The program allows users to click on boldfaced words to get more in-depth information. The stacks consist of five chapters and three appendices. The Book of MIDI also uses sound and animation to better illustrate certain concepts. The software requires a Macintosh Plus with 1Mbyte of memory, 2Mbytes of free space on the hard disk and HyperCard 1.2. Also discussed are two computer aided dieting software packages that can be obtained for less than $50 each. Dr. W's (La Mesa, CA) Fit by Bit and Training Table Table Systems' Dieter's Edge have databases of various foods and their nutritional value. Personal data is entered into each of these programs which then analyze the data and chart the progress of the user's diet. I.B.M. forms alliance against NEC in Japan. Sanger, David E. IBM forms alliances with 11 Japanese computer manufacturers in an effort to challenge NEC Corp's dominance in the Japanese computer industry. NEC controls about 50 percent of the Japanese computer market, which is otherwise fragmented with manufacturers unable to agree on an alternative to NEC. IBM is embarking on a new strategy for Japan and is allowing compatibility with its Japanese machines for the first time. The number one US computer maker is taking a risky path in forming the alliances since one of its major selling points has always been that it can exploit the worldwide software applications for IBM computers. IBM's market share has been stuck at around 10 percent in the Japanese computer market for some time and the company decided the risk was necessary. Excel 3.0's toolbar and outlining: a new face for spreadsheets. (Microsoft Corp.'s spreadsheet software)(includes related articles Microsoft Corp's $495 Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software is a complete overhaul of the package that includes three-dimensional graphing, outlining, interactive help and additional formatting options. The help function can provide the Excel equivalent of any Lotus command. Excel 3.0 includes an optimization utility, a goal seeking command and a parallel worksheet feature for workgroups. Drawing tools are included, and data and graphs can be displayed side-by-side. The package offers many attractive features from other spreadsheet programs and from other Microsoft packages. It uses a tool bar similar to the ribbon and ruler in Microsoft Word for Windows. It also includes a more powerful form of the Data Consolidate command from the OS/2 version of the software. Excel 3.0 recalculated worksheets 27 percent faster than Excel 2.1 in benchmark tests. An upgrade costs $129. Freelance goes GUI: OS/2 version introduces smart approach to presentations. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Freelance Graphics for Lotus Development Corp's $400 Freelance Graphics for OS/2 presentation software is a graphical user interface-based package that quickly creates attractive presentations and integrates well with Lotus 1-2-3/G. The software includes families of presentation templates called SmartMasters. Users merely fill in boxes with text and graphics. This system is simple and quick, but it can be constraining. The text editing features include five text styles and a rotation feature. Freelance Graphics for OS/2 recognizes only .WK3 spreadsheet files and reads and writes Freelance .DRW files. All OS/2 Presentation Manager typefaces are supported. Freelance Graphics also includes eight drawing tools. The package can share a graphing module with Lotus 1-2-3/G, but running the programs together significantly slows performance, and Lotus recommends 5Mbytes of RAM in this situation. Managing Your Money improves its looks. (Meca Software Inc.'s Managing Your Money 7.0 financial software) (Software Review) Meca Software Inc's $219.98 Managing Your Money 7.0 financial software includes a graphical user interface and provides features similar to previous versions, but in a structure that is easier to use and runs faster. The program uses a main menu bar and common keyboard command conventions. The core accounts module tracks cash flow and includes features for budgeting, forecasting and report generation. The investment portfolio management features are comprehensive and effective. Tax strategy features are also included, as are the 1990 and 1991 tax codes. The check-writing and printing features are adequate but inferior to Intuit's Quicken software. Other features include an asset analyzer, retirement and tuition-planning tools and a desktop organizer. The program requires 2.5Mbytes of disk space to use all the features. 386MAX makes peace with Windows. (Qualitas Inc.'s 386MAX 5.1 operating system enhancement) (Software Review) (First Looks) Qualitas Inc's $130 386MAX 5.1 memory management software allows Microsoft Windows 3.0 users to free low DOS memory for applications. Version 5.1 loads memory-resident software and device drivers into high memory. 386MAX is easily installed and can optimize the configuration of programs in high memory. The program includes a feature called instancing, which provides copies of necessary drivers and memory-resident programs for each DOS session under Windows. Instancing allows multiple programs to use different ANSI.SYS files or other device drivers. Qualitas includes a list of software that requires instancing, and 386MAX automatically instances the programs on the list. 386MAX also supports ROM shadowing. Stacker Coprocessor offers real-time file compression/decompression without sacrificing DOS compatibility. Stac Electronics' $229 Stacker Coprocessor is an add-in board that automatically compresses and decompresses files as they are written to and read from a hard disk drive. The board operates with disk utilities and includes software. The Stacker is a half-sized 8-bit card that functions with all types of Winchester disks and runs under MS-DOS 3.x and 4.x. Some file compression utilities require the user to run the program each time a file must be compressed or decompressed, but the Stacker provides transparent, fast real-time compression without changing or deleting data. The board provides an average of 1.8 to 1 compression for all types of files. The device driver uses 30Kbytes of RAM and the coprocessor requires 16Kbytes of high memory. The coprocessor adds a small disk cache to make up disk speed. The software alone can compress and decompress files in case of hardware failure. MainLan: low priced Ethernet starter pack. (US Sage Inc.'s local area network) (Hardware Review) (First Looks) (evaluation) US Sage Inc's $499 Ethernet Starter Pack includes two cards, cables, network drivers and network operating system software for US Sage's MainLan local area network (LAN). MainLan Ethernet adapters are available for IBM PC-compatible, Micro Channel Architecture and IBM PS/1 microcomputers. Installation and configuration are simple; the documentation is clear, and a tutorial is included. Fully configuring a server requires 55Kbytes of RAM, but expanded memory can be used for some memory-resident modules, and unused modules do not need to be loaded. MainLan's menu system provides file management options, and disk sharing is supported. Print and mail utilities are also included, but the lack of a disk cache utility reduces performance significantly. LANtastic with its disk cache installed runs three times faster than MainLan. Even without LANtastic's disk cache, it was 2.5 times faster than MainLan. Protolyzer: network analysis for modern times, at modern prices. (ProTools Inc.'s network analysis software for OS/2) (Software ProTools Inc's $14,995 Protolyzer network analyzer is a software-only package that provides easy-to-use network analysis under OS/2. The program requires 8Mbytes of RAM, a 25-MHz 80386-based or faster microcomputer and an 100Mbyte hard disk. Protolyzer operates on Ethernet and 4M-bps- and 16M-bps Token-Ring networks. The software does not support as many protocols as Sniffer, but it is easier to use and provides information in more useful forms. Protolyzer can maintain records of normal network activity and allows extensive data manipulation. The program also includes graphical data representation, a collection of display tools, filter and triggering options and multitasking. The software binds itself to the network card in the machine, so moving the analyzer within the network is difficult, and only the NE2000 Ethernet and Proteon Token-Ring cards are supported. Extensive user support is included. Hayes's SmartCom Exec: adds networking, preserves low cost. (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.'s SmartCom Exec 2.0 communications Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc's $129 SmartCom Exec 2.0 communications software is powerful, yet it offers ease of use and a reasonable price. SmartCom Exec also provides network support, TTY, VT 102 and ANSI.SYS terminal emulation, Kermit, Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem file-transfer support, keyboard macros and the Simple Communications Programming Environment (SCOPE) script language. The software uses the phone book metaphor and an interface of menus, tables and dialog boxes. SmartCom Exec allows interrupt sharing and fully supports the Hayes Enhanced Serial Interface to provide high-speed data transmission. A text editor and an ASCII capture buffer are also included. CompuServe B file-transfer support and sample scripts for accessing electronic services can be added by downloading scripts from the Hayes Online computer bulletin board. Upgrades to registered owners are free. Documentation is well-organized if not exceptionally detailed. OmniPage OCR goes pro, adds 32-bit capabilities. (Caere Corp.'s OmniPage Professional optical character recognition software) Caere Corp.'s $995 OmniPage Professional optical character recognition (OCR) software offers accuracy and features not available in other OCR packages. OmniPage Professional runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and can use the 32-bit protected mode while remaining enhanced mode-compatible. The software includes a 'zones' feature that allows definition of custom character sets and identification of a page for recognition and specify the types of data included in the zones. Dot-matrix recognition and spell-checking features are included, and the Verification feature allows errors to be corrected in context. Another new feature allows bitmaps of unknown characters to be identified and allows aliases to be entered for characters without keyboard equivalents. The software requires a permanent Windows swapfile, lacks a preview mode and cannot automatically save graphics to separate files. PC-Kwik PowerPak version 2.0 offers improved memory management. (Multisoft Corp.'s utility program) (Software Review) (First Multisoft Corp's $129.95 PC-Kwik PowerPak 2.0 utility program offers excellent memory management, a disk cache and performance enhancement features. The disk cache can perform background disk writes, which provide higher performance and safer functioning than delayed writes. The cache can lend memory to Microsoft Windows, utility components or other programs. A screen utility with scrollback buffer and a screen-blanking function is included, and the keyboard speedup utility includes a ReDOS command history function for listing recent DOS commands. The utility modules can use high memory established by 80386 memory management programs without using the loadhi feature. Presentation Team matures into integrated environment. (Digital Research Inc.'s Presentation Team 2.0 presentation software) Digital Research Inc's $395 Presentation Team 2.0 is a GEM-based presentation software package that offers good drawing and word-charting features but has weak data charting and output capabilities. Files related to a presentation are stored in a common subdirectory for easy access, and images are easily borrowed, selected or reordered. The word-charting features make design simple, and many word-chart templates are included. Presentation Team only imports .GEM and .IMG graphics files, but a customized version of the Hijaak conversion software is included. The data charting module is inflexible, so creating data charts is time-consuming. Manipulating portions of the charts requires converting the graph into a picture, separating it from its source data. No draft mode print option is included, and installing the included Bitstream font outlines is more difficult than it should be. V-ATE board offers Rx for ailing motherboards. (Vista Microsystems Inc.'s V-ATE motherboard diagnostics cards) (Hardware Review) Vista Microsystems Inc's $995 V-ATE 1000 Field Service/Inspection System, $1,495 V-ATE 2000 Manufacturing Test System and $1,995 V-ATE 4000 Advanced Manufacturing Test System are 16-bit add-in boards that provide full motherboard diagnostics at low prices. All three boards test bus voltage levels using an Intel 8051 processor and can emulate hardware interrupts, bus mastering, 0 wait state operation, keyboard operation and DMA channels 0 through 7. The built-in tests can be supplemented with user-designed test code. The V-ATE 2000 and 4000 include logic analyzers with several triggering and display options. The V-ATE displays errors on screen or on the unit's own LED display. The included V-CON software, which runs on a remote computer, selects tests and functions. AccuDraw: a $150 WP partner. (Athena Technologies Inc.'s AccuDraw 2.0 for WordPerfect computer graphics software) (Software Review) Athena Technologies Inc's $149.95 AccuDraw 2.0 for WordPerfect is an affordable and powerful add-in drawing program for the popular word processing software. AccuDraw creates or touches up .WPG graphics, but it does not include presentation features or printer support. The program uses pull-down windows, although it does not use WordPerfect's Alt key interface. AccuDraw includes typical graphics functions and even allows Bezier curves to be stored in .WPG format as line segments. The package offers several object-placement features, including rotation and customizable rulers. Only Courier, Times Roman and Helvetica fonts are supported, but they can be used in point sizes from 1 to 200. More than 400 color clip-art images are included, and more images can be added. Using the package from WordPerfect is simple, and printing can be performed within the word processing package. Au revoir, OS/2. (failure of the OS/2 operating system) (column) Machrone, Bill. Microsoft Windows 3.0 becomes the popular choice for microcomputer operating environments because OS/2 is poorly designed and marketed. OS/2 is failing despite its advantages over Windows, including interprocess communications, its graphics program interface, multithreading and its file system. OS/2's quick production prevents it from being as good as it could be, and its unique name distinguishes it from the succession of DOS operating systems, which offer plenty of supporting software at much lower prices. OS/2 has design problems because it is based upon the flawed 80286 microprocessor rather than the 80386. IBM's effort to link its PS/2 microcomputers with the operating system has confused many buyers, and the OS/2 software developer's kit is too expensive. Microsoft does not produce OS/2 software to attract users. If Microsoft unites Windows and OS/2, a worthy system could be resuscitated. What's the right PC for today? (choosing a microcomputer) (column) Seymour, Jim. Microcomputers based on Intel 80386SX microprocessors are recommended for most computer buyers. SX computers are not suitable for desktop publishing or computer-aided design (CAD) work, but they provide reasonable performance for most tasks, especially for those not using Microsoft's Windows most of the time. Small-footprint microcomputer cases are advantageous because they occupy less desktop space than conventional cases. Low-profile cases are attractive, but they force undesirable compromises in the computer's design. Moving the microcomputer off the desktop is the best way to achieve aesthetics and functionality. Trackballs also save desk space, and they are more accurate and easier to use than mice. Small keyboards save desk space, and a sturdy product that allows the keyboard to be stored under the monitor when not in use would be helpful. A case of computer design. (column) Zachmann, William F. Small microcomputer cases are in style, but large cases have not lost their usefulness. The large metal cases of early IBM PC-compatible microcomputers are being replaced by small-footprint and portable computers. Supporters of the smaller size say that large cases are not necessary except for specialized usage as high-end systems or network servers. Supporters also say small boxes occupy less desk space and use integrated components, which cost less than discrete components. Large systems can save desk space if they are properly configured, and they offer the potential for expansion, so they may be less expensive to maintain over the long term. Large cases are a better investment value for most users. Portable PCs: an era of change. (includes related articles on the reviewers' favorite portable computers and nickel metal-hydride The latest portable computers are divided into several groups. One group includes notebook computers that are battery-operated, weigh less than eight pounds and offer 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessors, VGA graphics and hard disks. Inexpensive portable computers based on the 80286 and 8086 microprocessors are also available, as are larger 80486-based portables. The advances in the portable computer industry are rapid, so some machines considered small in 1990 are already looking large in 1991. Portable computers should include VGA displays with 16 or 32 shades of gray. Color displays are available, but they are $1,000 to $3,000 more expensive than monochrome displays. Most portables suffer from inadequate hard disk space because 2.5-inch hard disks typically store only 20Mbytes. Battery life is another problem for many portables, but it is increasing with each generation of machines. Battery-powered 386SXs and 386DXs. (portable computers using Intel's 80386SX and 80386DX microprocessors)(includes related Three portable computers based on the 80386 microprocessor, 11 based on the 16-MHz 80386SX processor and nine based on the 20-MHz 80386SX processor are reviewed. The systems are offered by Acer America Inc, BitWise Designs Inc, Bus Computer Systems Inc, Commax Technologies Inc, Compaq, CompuAdd Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Fora Inc, GRiD Systems Corp, Hyundai Electronics America, NEC Technologies Inc, Network PC, Peregrine Computers, Sharp Electronics Corp, Tangent Computer Inc, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc, Twinhead Corp, Dataworld Inc and Veridata Research Inc. Seven of the systems are manufactured by Yokohama-based Sotec and sold with different labels, components and support policies. The portables reviewed range in weight from 7.5 pounds to nearly 15 pounds and their prices average between $3,000 and $5,000. Taking charge: battery technology is improving, but only you can make your nickel cadmium last. (tutorial) Proper usage of laptop computer batteries can lengthen their useful lifespan. Most laptop computers use nickel cadmium batteries, which can be recharged up to 1,000 times. Laptop battery warning systems measure the voltage drop to determine when battery is about to be exhausted. The battery may be 'trained' to required recharging earlier than normal if the voltage sensor's accuracy varies. This effect can be avoided by allowing the machine to run down the batteries completely once every three charges. Recharging by 'trickle charge' takes longer than fast charging, but it is better for the battery. Fast charging overheats the batteries, reducing their lifespan. Peak-detect and negative-voltage-change chargers convert to trickle charging once the battery is fully charged. Using three battery packs can be useful because batteries should not be used immediately after being recharged or charged immediately after use. Acer America Corp.: Acer AnyWare 1100LX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Acer America Inc's Acer AnyWare 1100LX portable computer offers a good display and keyboard, several expansion ports and long battery life at a moderate price. The $4,215 test configuration weighs 13.7 pounds with the battery pack and includes 3Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 16-shade VGA display, an 82-key keyboard, a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and a 2,400-bps modem. The 6-by-8-inch display uses backlit triple supertwist nematic technology. The 4.1-by-14-by-8.5-inch computer holds numerous ports: one parallel, one serial port, one PS/2 mouse, one PS/2 external keyboard, one external VGA, one external floppy drive and one expansion chassis. The battery's tested lifespan was two hours and 23 minutes. The AnyWare 1100LX's performance was inconsistent during tests. It is available from dealers and value-added resellers. The one-year warranty on parts and labor is backed by service at Acer service centers and toll-free telephone support. Bitwise Designs Inc.: Bitwise SportSX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Bitwise Designs Inc's Bitwise SportSX portable computer is one of several systems designed by Sotec, but it uses a Conner hard disk and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and a loaner computer while the machine is being serviced. The $2,995 test configuration includes 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and a 16-shade gray-scale backlit double supertwist VGA display. Parallel and serial ports are included, as are an external floppy drive port, an external analog VGA port and an external keyboard port. The 85-key keyboard has a good feel but inconvenient cursor key placement. The battery pack lasts two hours and 10 minutes on one charge and can be recharged in eight hours with the system on and three hours with the system off. Bitwise offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Bus Computer Systems Inc.: Bus LT-386sx. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Bus Computer Systems Inc's Bus LT-386sx laptop computer is one of several Sotec-designed systems. It offers few options, a fair display, a slightly awkward keyboard and two-hour battery life. The $3,094 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 2,400-bps facsimile modem card, an extra battery and a supertwist backlit VGA display with 16 gray shades. The system also includes parallel, serial, expansion, external monitor and external drive ports. The 11-pound laptop measures 2.5 by 11 by 12 inches. Memory can be expanded to 6Mbytes. The LT-386sx has poor video performance, mediocre hard disk performance and battery life of only 2 hours and 2 minutes. The 85-key keyboard lines up the cursor keys in a row rather than using the 'inverted T' layout, but an external keyboard can be attached. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq LTE 386s/20 Model 30. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in Compaq's LTE 386s/20 30 notebook computer offers expandability, performance and superior construction at a high price. The $8,796 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, a 4Kbyte RAM cache, an 80387SX math coprocessor, 3Mbytes of RAM, a 30Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 2,400-bps modem and a side-lit supertwist nematic VGA display with 16 gray shades. Parallel, serial and mouse ports are included, as are connectors for an external monitor, an external keypad and a docking station. Additional RAM can be added via memory cards that cost $549 for 1Mbyte. The system offers excellent overall performance and leads the test group in several benchmarks, making it one of the 'Editors' Choices.' The 7.8-pound system measures 1.3 by 2.9 by 5.8 inches. The 81-key keyboard is properly spaced, and all the keys are full-sized. Commax Technologies Inc.: Excell LT-386SX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Commax Technologies Inc's Excell LT-386SX portable computer offers brand-name components, affordable add-on products and an acceptable price for a machine that performs well. The $3,290 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a side-lit cold-cathode fluorescent-tube VGA display with 32 gray shades. The 12-pound machine accepts up to 4Mbytes of RAM on the motherboard. The Excell supports an external analog Super VGA monitor. The 82-key keyboard has a 24-inch cable, 10 function keys and eight cursor keys. The system operates for 2 hours and 4 minutes with its hard disk power-down feature disabled. A $249 external 1.2Mbyte floppy drive is available, and the $410 expansion chassis holds a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and one 16-bit expansion slot. Commax offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq SLT 386s/20 Model 60; Compaq SLT 386s/20 Model 120. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of Compaq's SLT 386s/20 60 and SLT 386s/20 120 portable computers are well-designed and offer long battery life, although their keyboards are not ideal and their screens are slightly hazy. The $6,919 SLT 386s/20 60 includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, a 4Kbyte RAM cache, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 60Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit VGA display. The $7,649 SLT 386s/20 120 offers similar features, but adds an 80387SX math coprocessor and includes 4Mbytes of RAM and 120Mbytes of hard disk space. The systems provide almost 2.5 hours of use on one battery charge, and alarms and lights indicate when the battery is running down. Compaq offers a $999 self-configuring base that provides two 16-bit expansion slots. The SLT 386s/20 systems offer the performance of microcomputers in laptop systems, but at a high price. CompuAdd Corp.: CompuAdd 316SL. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs and CompuAdd Corp's 316SL portable computer is one of several Sotec-designed laptop machines, and it is distinguished from the other systems mostly by its association with CompuAdd, a large and respected mail-order vendor. The $2,895 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a side-lit double supertwist VGA display with 16 gray shades. The 11.5-pound laptop measures 2.5 by 12.5 by 12.3 inches. The batteries should last about two hours, like those in the other Sotec systems. Up to 6Mbytes of RAM and an 80387SX math coprocessor can be installed on the motherboard. A better screen would be a good addition for running graphics applications, and the 85-key keyboard is acceptable, but its cursor key location is difficult to get used to. CompuAdd provides toll-free technical support, a one-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Dell Computer Corp.: Dell 316LT; Dell 320LT. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered Dell Computer Corp's Dell 316LT and Dell 320LT offer excellent performance, a firm keyboard, fast screen, good battery design and superb power management. The $4,176 316LT includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, an 80387SX math coprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk, a facsimile modem and backlit supertwist VGA display. The $4,697 320LT includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and 80387 math coprocessor, but its other features are identical to the 316LT's. The systems weigh 15 pounds without spare batteries or AC adapters, and they measure 3.5 by 12.8 by 14.3 inches. External VGA or Super VGA monitors are supported. The systems include a half-length expansion slot for an 8-bit board. Excellent power management features are included, and the 316LT runs 2 hours and 11 minutes on a single battery charge, while the 320LT runs 2 hours and 21 minutes. Fora Inc.: Fora LP386SX Model 70/20. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs and Fora Inc's Fora LP386SX 70/20 portable computer offers a good screen and keyboard, but its price is too high, its battery life is too short and its weight is too great for what is an average machine. The $4,699 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit, readable VGA display. The 70/20 also includes room for two half-length, 16-bit expansion boards. The system weighs 14.5 pounds and measures 3.3 by 12.8 by 16.3 inches.It comes with 1Mbyte of RAM in its basic configuration, and an additional 1Mbyte or 4Mbytes of memory can be added via a RAM card. The battery operates for just over an hour, and the AC adapter adds 2.5 pounds to the system's weight. Tangent Computer Inc sells the same system for $2,890, so the 70/20 should not be purchased at a higher price. GRiD Systems Corp.: GRiDCase 1550sx. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs and GRiD Systems Corp's GRiDCase 1550sx laptop computer is a relatively expensive system that offers many options and features, including the IsoPoint pointing device. The $6,345 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 60Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit VGA display with 32 gray shades. The standard IsoPoint device is a rolling and sliding tube on the keyboard that provides cursor control without a mouse. System RAM can be expanded to 4Mbytes for $1,190 and to 8Mbytes for $3,295. The 77-key keyboard has good layout and labelling, although key travel is too short. An external keyboard or keypad can be added, and the 1550sx includes parallel, external monitor, external drive and two serial ports. The battery pack lasts for 1 hour and 50 minutes before a bridge battery takes over for 20 minutes. GRiD offers many options at high prices. Hyundai Electronics America: Hyundai Super LT5. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered Hyundai Electronics America's Hyundai Super LT5 laptop computer is one of several Sotec-designed systems, but its list price is higher than other Sotec systems and its parts-and-labor warranty lasts 18 months. The $3,995 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and an excellent cold cathode VGA display with 16 gray shades. The 11.6-pound system measures 2.5 by 12.5 by 12 inches and includes parallel, serial, game and external monitor ports. The battery provides just over two hours of use on one charge. The 85-key keyboard has strange labelling, but its design and layout are good. The documentation's appearance is unattractive, but its content is helpful. The high list price may be offset by 30 to 40 percent discounts from dealers. NEC Technologies Inc.: NEC ProSpeed SX/20. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs NEC Technologies Inc's NEC ProSpeed SX/20 portable computer is well-designed and well-suited for desktop use, particularly in combination with its intelligent docking station. The $6,198 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a paper-white, backlit VGA display with 16 gray shades. The 12.8-pound system measures 3.3 by 13.4 by 10.5 inches. The SX/20's battery runs 2 hours and 32 minutes, but it can only be recharged in the computer. The only performance drawback of the SX/20 is its hard disk, but NEC does not currently offer any alternatives. The $1,199 docking station provides two 16-bit expansion slots, two phone jacks, an external monitor port, a parallel port and two serial ports. The 83-key keyboard is detachable and well-designed. NEC offers toll-free technical support and good documentation. Network PC: Intra LT-386SX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs and Network PC's Intra LT-386SX laptop computer is one of several Sotec-designed systems reviewed. The Intra is distinguished by its low price and the inclusion of DR-DOS 5.0. The $2,499 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist display with configurable gray scaling. The 11.4-pound system measures 2.5 by 12.5 by 12.3 inches and includes ports for an external floppy drive. A $215 facsimile modem fits in a proprietary slot. The 85-key keyboard uses an unusual cursor key location, but the embedded keypad is convenient. The Intra LT-386SX performs poorly on most benchmark tests, but its BIOS Disk Seek performance is good. Network PC offers toll-free technical support in addition to the standard one-year warranty on parts and labor. Peregrine Computers: Peregrine Sport SX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Peregrine Computers' Peregrine Sport SX offers little to distinguish itself from other Sotec-designed laptop computers reviewed, and Peregrine offers fewer options than several other sources. The $2,699 test configuration includes 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist VGA display. The system price is fairly low, and Peregrine includes a serial mouse, MS-DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0, but no alternate hard disks are available and the only modem available is a basic 2,400-bps model. The Sport SX measures 2.5 by 12.5 by 12.3 inches and weighs under 12 pounds. The 85-key keyboard uses the unusual cursor-key position common to Sotec systems. The Sport SX display is acceptable, but its brightness and contrast are inferior to offerings from some other vendors. Sharp Electronics Corp.: Sharp PC-5741. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Sharp Electronics Corp's Sharp PC-5741 portable computer offers good RAM expandability and acceptable performance, but it is heavier than many portables and has some design flaws. The $5,495 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard drive, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a double supertwist nematic VGA display with 16 gray shades. The system accepts up to 12Mbytes of RAM. The 13.4-pound system measures 2.8 by 11.8 by 13.4 inches. The PC-5741 includes serial and parallel ports, dual RJ-11 jacks and digital and analog external monitor connectors. These connectors are located on the left side of the portable because an extra $399 battery pack snaps onto the back of the system. The battery pack arrangement is unfortunate, because it makes connecting the PC-5741 awkward. The 79-key keyboard is large and comfortable. Tangent Computer Inc.: Tangent Model 316L. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Tangent Computer Inc's Tangent 316L is one of several Sotec-designed laptop computers, and it has the unusual keyboard layout and acceptable display common to Sotec portables. The $2,768 test system includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist display. The 316L weighs under 12 pounds with the battery pack installed and measures 2.5 by 12.5 by 12.3 inches. The battery runs for about 2 hours, and recharging takes 8 hours with the system on or 3.5 hours with the system off. Tangent's modem and facsimile modem options are limited, but installing a modem is simple. The 85-key keyboard places the cursor keys in unusual positions, but the keyboard is responsive. Tangent Computer Inc.: Tangent Model 320L. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Tangent Computer Inc's Tangent 320L portable computer is essentially the same as Fora Inc's LP 386sx 70/20, but although both systems are rather average, Tangent's 320L has a fairly low price. The $2,890 test configuration includes 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist VGA display. The system weighs 14.8 pounds without its 2.1-pound AC adapter, and it measures 3.3 by 12.8 by 16.1 inches. The battery lasts only 1 hour and 13 minutes on a single charge. A parallel port and two serial ports are included; one of the serial ports uses a 9-pin connector to accept a mouse. The 320L keyboard is similar to those found on Toshiba portables. The system's weight, size and short battery life are major flaws, but its price makes the 320L worth considering. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: Toshiba T3100SX. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba T3100SX portable computer is more expensive and slower than some new systems, but its rugged design, excellent display and keyboard and long battery life combine to make a very desirable system. The $5,699 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a gas-plasma VGA display. The 14.9-pound system can accommodate up to 13Mbytes of nonvolatile RAM. The display is attractive and an external monochrome VGA monitor can be used simultaneously if required. The 86-key keyboard is large and comfortable, and a $99 external keypad is available. Battery life is extended by a wide array of user-defined power-down features. The T3100SX is older than many of the reviewed portables, but it is still an excellent system. Twinhead Corp.: Twinhead SuperLap 386SX/20. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Twinhead Corp's Twinhead SuperLap 386SX/20 offers a large number of features at a low price. The $3,070 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a cold cathode fluorescent tube (CCFT) Super VGA display. The 12.3-pound system includes a detachable, 83-key keyboard, one parallel and two serial ports, and external floppy drive and expansion station ports. The battery lasts two hours with the power conservation features disabled and is supposed to take only two hours to recharge, even if the machine is turned on. The documentation is well planned and presented, and both a one-pound main manual and a 4-ounce portable manual are included. The system's performance is about average. Dataworld Inc.: Dataworld Data LP/320; Dataworld Data LP/325. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in Dataworld Inc's Dataworld Data LP/320 and Dataworld Data LP/325 portable computers are poor performers and are very heavy, although the LP/325 is the only battery-powered portable reviewed that is based on an 80386 microprocessor. The $2,800 LP/320 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 43Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit double supertwist VGA display. The $3,655 LP/325 uses a 25-MHz 80386, but it is identical to the LP/320 in all other respects. The LP/325 is the fastest system in the review, but the LP/320 is slower than several 20-MHz 80386SX-based portables. The 19-pound systems include good keyboards, but the corners of the display fade, and the brightness and contrast controls are inadequate. The LP/325 is the better buy of the two systems at dealer discounts of 30 percent. Veridata Research Inc.: Lappower 386-20. (Hardware Review) (one of 21 evaluations of portable computers in 'Battery-powered 386SXs Veridata Research Inc's Lappower 386-20 portable computer has relatively slow video performance, but it offers good overall performance, rugged construction and relatively low weight. The $4,500 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist VGA display. The 14-pound system, which measures 4.3 by 13.7 by 8.5 inches, provides about two hours of battery use with the power management features disabled. The Lappower accommodates up to 16Mbytes of RAM, and a $600 120Mbyte hard disk is available from Veridata. System performance is higher than any battery-powered 80386SX portable in the review. The removable keyboard is comfortable and nicely arranged. The $999 expansion chassis provides a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, one 8-bit slot, two 16-bit slots, a parallel port and a serial port. AC-powered 386s. (80386 microprocessor-based portable computers)(includes related article on the Editors' Choice winner) Five portable computers based on 80386 microprocessors and powered only by AC are reviewed. The reviewed systems are Dataworld Inc's Portacomp III 386-25, Dolch Computer Systems Inc's Dolch P.A.C. 386-25C, IBM's PS/2 P70, and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba T5200C and Toshiba T5200/100. Portables in this class are powerful but luggable. The systems offer color displays, greater mass storage than battery-powered portables and full-sized motherboards with standard I/O slots. The power and flexibility of these portables demand a premium price, but not all 80386-based, AC-only portables are worth purchasing. The evaluated systems are worth considering, but many systems delivered for review lack FCC Class B rating, which is required for portables, and most are poorly constructed. Dataworld Inc.: Portacomp III 386-25. (Hardware Review) (one of 5 evaluations of portable computers in 'AC-Powered 386s') Dataworld Inc's Portacomp III 386-25 portable computer offers good documentation and a very low price, but its expansion capabilities are limited. The $3,320 test configuration includes a 25-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 100Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a gas plasma VGA display and an 102-key keyboard that doubles as the front cover. The Portacomp III weighs just over 20 pounds and measures 10 by 15.8 by 8.2 inches. Connectors for an external 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and an external monitor are included. The gas plasma display has no contrast control and allows little brightness adjustment. Only three expansion slots are available in the test configuration, and one of those slots is limited to RAM expansion because it lacks an opening for a connector. Dolch Computer Systems: Dolch P.A.C. 386-25C. (Hardware Review) (one of 5 evaluations of portable computers in 'AC-Powered 386s') Dolch Computer Systems Inc's Dolch P.A.C. 386-25C portable computer offers quality construction, excellent performance, a good keyboard and a commendable display. The $11,420 test configuration includes a 25-MHz 80386 microprocessor, a standard 32Kbyte RAM cache, an 80387 math coprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a gas plasma VGA display. The 386-25C can accommodate 8Mbytes of RAM on the motherboard and 16Mbytes of total system RAM. Four expansion slots are free in the test configuration, and an $895 expansion units provides three additional 16-bit slots. The detachable keyboard is awkwardly arranged, but the key response is good. The display is clear and quick. A $399 battery pack weighs 20 pounds and provides one hour of operation. Dolch offers on-site service through contracts with G.E. Computer Service. Color portables: finally worth their price. (portable computers with color displays) Portable computers with color displays are becoming available for reasonable prices. Color displays are traditionally unpopular with portable vendors and users because of concerns about price, size, weight, power consumption and image quality. The success of Microsoft Windows 3.0 increases demand for color displays because color is required to distinguish items in the cluttered Windows interface. Color portables are also attractive to users who do presentations on the road and to users who want to eliminate desktop computers completely. Future portables are expected to use thin-film transistor (TFT) display technology developed by Hitachi. Dolch Computer Systems Inc already offers a TFT display on a portable, and IBM plans to release a color version of its PS/2 75-486. Toshiba's T5200C uses a very clear and bright supertwist nematic (STN) display on its T5200C, and the upcoming T3200SXC uses a TFT display. The Ergo Brick. (Ergo Computing Inc.'s Brick portable computer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Ergo Computing Inc's Brick portable computer is actually a quiet-running portable CPU that can be moved between two or three locations equipped with keyboards and monitors. The $2,695 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 44Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk, a 2,400-bps modem, a Super VGA adapter with 1Mbyte of video RAM, a monochrome VGA monitor and several software packages. The CPU box weighs 11.2 pounds with its AC power supply and measures 3.3 by 8 by 11.3 inches. The Brick has a half-length 16-bit card slot and a half-length 8-bit card slot, but the 8-bit slot is obstructed by the floppy drive and accessing the portable's interior is difficult. The Brick performs well on video benchmarks, but it has about average disk and processor performance. IBM Corp.: IBM PS/2 Model P70. (Hardware Review) (one of 5 evaluations of portable computers in 'AC-Powered 386s') IBM's PS/2 P70 portable computer is slow and heavy compared to similar systems, but its full-sized keyboard, attractive display and relatively low price make it a good value. The $7,695 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 60Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a gas plasma VGA display. The 19.9-pound system measures 12 by 18.3 by 5 inches and includes one 32-bit Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) expansion slot and one half-length 16-bit MCA slot. The system can accommodate up to 16Mbytes of RAM using the 16-bit slot and a PS/2 P70 with an 120Mbyte hard disk is available for $8,295. The gas plasma screen is one of the best available, and the 102-key detachable keyboard is full-size, although it does not have the characteristic IBM click. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: Toshiba T5200C. (Hardware Review) (one of 5 evaluations of portable computers in Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba T5200C portable computer is a lightweight AC-only system with a 200Mbyte hard disk, an excellent keyboard and an attractive color display. The $10,498 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a color backlit supertwist nematic VGA screen. The T5200C measures 4.3 by 14.6 by 15.6 inches and weighs just under 19 pounds. It includes a 16-bit slot, a half-length 8-bit slot and a proprietary 16-bit slot. The T5200C accommodates up to 14Mbytes of RAM. The screen, which can display 16 colors simultaneously, is bright and clear. The keyboard is well-arranged and has good response. Toshiba offers a $999 expansion chassis, which provides five 8-bit expansion slots. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: Toshiba T5200/100. (Hardware Review) (one of 5 evaluations of portable computers in Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba T5200/100 portable computer is fairly expensive, but it offers an excellent keyboard, an attractive gas plasma display and good performance. The $8,798 test configuration includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 100Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a gas plasma VGA display. The 18.7-pound system can accept up to 14Mbytes of RAM, and one 16-bit slot, one 16-bit proprietary slot and one half-length 8-bit slot are available for expansion boards. The screen is bright, fast and readable, although it tends to tire the eyes. The keyboard is well-arranged and has good feedback. The T5200/100 deserves its Editors' Choice rating for its speed, expandability and flexibility. 286 notebooks. (notebook computers based on the 80286 microprocessor)(includes related article on the Editors' Choice Nine notebook computers based on the 80286 microprocessor are reviewed. The reviewed systems are Compaq's LTE/286, CompuAdd Corp's Companion, Sharp Electronics Corp's Sharp PC-6220, Texas Instruments Inc's TravelMate 2000, GRiD Systems Corp's GRiD 1720, NEC Technologies Inc's NEC UltraLite 286V, Ogivar Technologies' Ogivar Internote 286, Sanyo Business Systems Corp's Sanyo MBC-17NB and ZEOS International's Zeos Notebook 286. Systems in this class continue to improve significantly, but the 80386SX microprocessor is expected to dominate future market developments. Current products offer VGA-resolution displays and relatively large screen dimensions. Long battery life is critical for notebook computers, so power management features are important. Communications capacities are also essential for these systems. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq LTE/286. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Notebooks') Compaq Computer Corp's Compaq LTE/286 notebook computer is no longer a market leader because it offers only a CGA display with an unusual aspect ratio, and its keyboard is also substandard. The $4,048 test configuration includes a 12-MHz 80286 microprocessor, 1.6Mbytes of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk and a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive. The system's maximum memory is a mere 2.6Mbytes. The battery life is outstanding, yielding four hours of use, but the 1.9-by-11-by 8.5-inch system weighs over seven pounds without its AC adapter. The four-shade gray scale display measures 7.7-by-3.6 inches and yields a squashed image. The function keys and several other special keys are not full-sized, and the cursor control keys are arranged in an awkward 'L'-shaped pattern. Many options are available at extra cost. CompuAdd Corp.: CompuAdd Companion; Sharp Electronics Corp.: Sharp PC-6220; Texas Instruments: TravelMate 2000. (Hardware Review) CompuAdd Corp's Companion, Sharp Electronics Corp's Sharp PC-6220 and Texas Instruments Inc's TravelMate 2000 notebook computers are a triplet of 4.3-pound machines with excellent displays, acceptable battery life and compact size. The standard configuration, which lists for $2,895 from CompuAdd, $3,995 from Sharp and $3,999 from Texas Instruments, includes a 12-MHz 80286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk and a side-lit triple supertwist VGA display with 16 gray shades. No internal floppy drive is included, but software for transferring data files is provided. An external chassis can be purchased, as well as an external monitor interface. The machines perform nearly identically on benchmark tests, and actual prices should be comparable after dealer discounts. All three vendors offer a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. CompuAdd offers above average customer support. GRiD Systems Corp.: GRiD 1720. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Notebooks') (evaluation) GRiD Systems Corp's GRiD 1720 notebook computer offers the best overall performance in its class, and is lightweight with good features. The $3,495 test configuration includes a 16-MHz 80C286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a triple supertwist backlit VGA display and a 2,400-bps modem. The 6.6-pound system includes useful power management utility programs. The high-performance display measures 8.3 by 6.3 inches and can show 16 shades of gray. The keyboard uses 84 full-sized keys, including 12 function keys. System memory can be increased to 5Mbytes with two snap-in single in-line memory module (SIMM) card. The MNP5 modem is V.22 bis compatible. NEC Technologies Inc.: NEC UltraLite 286V. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Notebooks') NEC Technologies Inc's NEC UltraLite 286V notebook computer is fast and light, but its price is relatively high and it lacks an internal floppy drive. The $3,699 test configuration includes a 12-MHz 80C286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, an external 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit VGA display. The keyboard is poorly designed, making it difficult to hit the spacebar with wrists resting on the desk, and there is no connector for an external keyboard. The display's contrast and brightness are not ideal, but a 15-pin port for an external monitor is included. NEC offers relatively few options, but a 2,400-bps data modem and a 9,600-bps facsimile modem are available. The 286V accepts ROM cards with popular software programs, and two RAMdisk cards are available. Ogivar Technologies Inc.: Ogivar Internote 286. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Ogivar Technologies' Ogivar Internote 286 notebook computer includes a bilingual keyboard for operation in French and English and runs for over 2.5 hours on a single charge. The $2,999 basic and test configuration includes 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a side-lit supertwist nematic VGA display with 32 gray shades. One parallel, one serial and one external monitor port are also included. The display's adjusting knobs can be accidentally moved, and keyboard response is sluggish. The Internote's performance is lower than average on most benchmark tests. Despite its shortcomings, the system packs functionality into a small package, and the bilingual keyboard and long battery life could be vital for some users. Sanyo Business Systems Corp.: Sanyo MBC-17NB. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Sanyo Business Systems Corp's Sanyo MBC-17NB notebook computer is well-built, lightweight and easy to use, and it offers long battery life and attractive display. The $2,999 test configuration includes a 12.5-MHz 80286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a backlit supertwist VGA display. The same basic unit is sold by Ogivar Technologies and ZEOS International. The MBC-17NB accepts two add-in 2Mbyte RAM packages and includes parallel, serial and 8-bit VGA ports. The 8-by-6-inch display is easy to read and performs well under all lighting conditions, and the 83-key keyboard is well-designed and has good feedback. The MBC-17NB includes a software utility to sound an alarm when the cover is closed while the system is on or when the battery is low. The 2.75-hour battery life is among the best of the tested systems. ZEOS International: ZEOS Notebook 286. (Hardware Review) (one of seven evaluations of portable computers in '286 Notebooks') ZEOS International's Zeos Notebook 286 notebook computer offers light weight, good support and a good price/performance ratio. The $2,333 test configuration includes a 12-MHz 80C286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a backlit supertwist nematic VGA display with 32 gray shades and a 2,400-bps modem. The 6.8-pound system measures 2 by 12 by 10 inches, but the AC adapter/battery charger weighs an additional 1.8 pounds. Parallel, serial and external VGA monitor ports are included. The 82-key keyboard is quiet and well-designed. Memory can be expanded via two expensive 2Mbyte add-on RAM modules. Overall system performance is good, and the batteries last over 2.75 hours on the benchmark test. ZEOS offers a 30-day money-back guarantee in addition to the usual one-year parts-and-labor guarantee. 8086-class notebooks. (notebook computers based on the 8086 microprocessor)(includes related article on the lack of an Three notebook computers based on the 8086 microprocessor are reviewed: Compaq's LTE, Psion Inc's MC600 and Toshiba American Information Systems Inc.'s Toshiba T1000LE. These 8086-based systems do not provide desktop power, but they provide sufficient performance and storage space for many tasks. The processors in 8086-based systems can use smaller batteries that last longer, and some even use standard alkaline batteries. The systems are also lighter and cheaper than more powerful systems. Pocket computers and palmtop computers are even smaller alternatives, but such systems compromise disk space. Despite their advantages, all three reviewed notebook computers cost $2,499 or more, so 80286-based systems may be real alternatives. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq LTE. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable computers in '8086-Class Notebooks') Compaq's LTE notebook computer is a market leader and offers durable construction and long battery life, but the display aspect ratio causes images to look squashed and the system's keyboard layout is awkward. The $3,048 test configuration includes aa 9.54-MHz 80C86 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of RAM and a 20Mbyte hard disk. The LTE performs about as well as any system in its class, but its seven-pound weight is excessive for 8086-based systems. The keyboard uses reduced-size function keys, and several other keys are smaller than normal. The cursor control keys have a clumsy and counter-intuitive arrangement. The computer provides no warning if the cover is shut while the machine is still operating. Psion Inc.: Psion MC600. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable computers in '8086-Class Notebooks') Psion Inc's MC600 notebook computer is lightweight and uses interesting technology, but its high price, low performance, limited memory and lack of screen illumination detract from its appeal. The $2,995 test configuration includes a 7.68-MHz 80C86 microprocessor, 640Kbytes of RAM, 2Mbytes of solid state storage and a CGA display. The MC600 can use eight AA-size alkaline batteries or rechargeable nickel cadmium battery packs. The batteries last nearly 13 hours, but mainly because the lack of a backlight for the display reduces the system's power consumption. The display is dark, and its contrast is difficult to adjust. The MC600 includes four slots for EPROM storage modules. The flash EPROM storage modules retain their contents almost indefinitely, but they are expensive and must be reformatted between uses. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: Toshiba T1000LE. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable computers Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba T1000LE notebook computer offers good storage space, excellent design, a good keyboard and light weight, but its price is high for an 8086-based computer. The $2,499 test configuration includes 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.44Mbyte internal floppy drive, a 20Mbyte hard disk and a side-lit CGA display. The 6.6-pound system measures 2 by 12.2 by 9.8 inches. The T1000LE's battery packs are rated at 2.2 Amp-hours, and an extra battery can be inserted in the internal modem slot. The keyboard is typical of Toshiba portables, with logical layout and good response. The system's layout and design are commendable, but notebook computers based on the 80286 microprocessor can be purchased for a similar price. 486-based portables. (IBM's PS/2 P75 486 portable computer is the only Intel 80486-based portable legally available for purchase) IBM's PS/2 P75 486 portable computer is the only 80486 microprocessor-based system to receive the US Federal Communication Commission's Class B certification regarding frequency emissions. Portable computers cannot be legally sold or marketed without the Class B rating, so IBM's $15,990 system is currently the only legal 486 portable. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 processor, 16Mbytes of RAM, a 400Mbyte hard disk, an XGA-standard gas-plasma display and a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive. The 22-pound system includes four Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) expansion slots and uses bus mastering. Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drives can be added. The 120-watt power supply adjusts to use 115-volt or 230-volt AC current. The 101-key keyboard uses a full-size layout and includes a retractable cable. IBM's display has a fixed picture element size, so images smaller than 480 lines do not fill the screen. Convenience on the go: portable peripherals. Brown, Bruce. Portable computers are most useful when coupled with portable peripherals. Kodak's Diconix 150 Plus, Canon USA Inc's Canon BJ-10e, Computer Products Plus Inc's World's Smallest Printer? WsP-200, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's Toshiba ExpressWriter 301 and 311 and Seikosha America Inc's Seikosha LT-20 are six portable printers that are currently available. Axonix Corp's Datafile is an external hard disk that attaches to a computer's parallel port. Suncom Technologies' Suncom ICONtroller is a pointing device that resembles a joystick and is easily used in cramped quarters. Portable modems and facsimile modems are also available. SkiSoft Publishing Corp offers software packages that improve the legibility of text on small portable displays. Cases designed to carry portable computers and peripherals are available from several vendors. Peripherals are available through both retail and mail-order sources. File-transfer software: building workgroup solutions. (includes related articles on file-transfer software interfaces and the Nine file-transfer software programs are reviewed. The communications packages are Fifth Generation Systems Inc's Brooklyn Bridge 3.0, ConnectWorks ChainLink 1.21, Micro-Z Co's Direc-Link 3.1, Rupp Corp's FastLynx 1.1, GetC Software Inc's File Shuttle Xpress 5.0, Cyco International's Flying Dutchman 4.1, DATASTORM Technologies Inc's Hot Wire, Traveling Software Inc's LapLink III 3.0 and Intertech Marketing Inc's Rapid Transfer Easy 1.3. File transfer programs allow portable computer users to transfer data between their desktop and portable computers. All the packages cost less than $150, and all include file overwrite protection and error detection. Most packages include file management features and allow files to be tagged for transfer. Most packages are easy to install and include the necessary cables, which should be labelled for ease of use. The packages have a wide variety of interfaces. The Brooklyn Bridge. (Fifth Generation Systems Inc.'s communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine Fifth Generation Systems Inc's $139.95 Brooklyn Bridge 3.0 communications software offers command-line and menu-driven interfaces as well as a wide range as options. The command-line method requires 64Kbytes to 75Kbytes in each computer, while the menu-driven option requires 190Kbytes. The command line method allows file transfer and running programs from the remote machine's hard disk. The remote hard disk can be treated as a virtual drive by the local computer. Remote printers, network drives and other devices can also be accessed. The Filer menu-driven program has an interface similar to Lotus 1-2-3's. Filer includes 175 file management and file transfer utilities. Up to five applications on the local computer can be run from within Filer. Users of the two computers can exchange messages. ChainLink. (ConnectWorks Co.'s ChainLink 1.21 communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of ConnectWorks Co's $99 Chainlink 1.21 communications software is a file-transfer package with an intuitive interface, many features and a low price. ChainLink uses pull-down menus and supports a mouse. The program only supports a serial link, but ConnectWorks claims the package connects computers up to 2,000 feet apart. The software must be manually installed on each connected computer, so each computer must have a floppy drive, but 5.25- and 3.5-inch disks are included. ChainLink's split-screen interface displays files on the local and remote computers, and messages can be sent between the linked machines. ChainLink includes a four-level security system to manage access for up to 16 connected computers. All cables and hardware are covered by a one-year warranty, and toll-free technical support is available. The program suffers from low performance on benchmark tests. Direc-Link. (Micro-Z Co.'s Direc-Link 3.1 communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of communications Micro-Z Co's Direc-Link 3.1 communications software is inexpensive, easy to use, and provides efficient file transfer. The Direc-Link software costs $59.50, and a serial cable and parallel cable adapter costs $45. The software can operate in command-line mode or on-screen menu mode. The remote computer can be controlled by the local computer, and the software can be installed on a remote machine from the local machine. Direc-Link diagrams disk layout with a file tree when the program is initialized, and directories can also be viewed in a split screen. No notice is given that a file has been successfully transferred, but transfer progress is displayed on a thermometer icon during transfers greater than 200 bytes. Direc-Link's parallel connection has the slowest transfer in the review group. Micro-Z offers good documentation, toll-free technical support and on-line support via Prodigy and CompuServe. FastLynx. (Rupp Corp.'s FastLynx 1.1 communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of communications Rupp Corp's $149.95 FastLynx 1.1 communications software is powerful but easy to use. The software offers the fastest transfer rates in the tested group for both parallel and serial transfers. FastLynx includes a split screen mode of operation, a form mode based on macros and a command line mode. Installation and use is fast and simple, and the software can be installed on a remote computer from the local computer. The 'EBOX' feature allows FastLynx to operate like a local area network (LAN). EBOX requires 200Kbytes of RAM in the remote computer, but it allows virtual drive connection and peripheral sharing. Rupp provides good documentation to supplement the useful on-line reference guide, and toll-free support is available. Cabling is included. File Shuttle Xpress. (GetC Software Inc.'s File Shuttle Xpress 5.0 communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine GetC Software Inc's $139.95 File Shuttle Xpress 5.0 communications software can be used under MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows 3.0. It comes with a proprietary 'Rocket Socket' that connects to existing cables. The package has good macro support and file management features, but it does not display a directory of files on the remote computer, and its documentation is poor. The Windows mode of operation is well-implemented and easy to use. The DOS mode of operation is also easy to use, and it provides one of the fastest transfer times in parallel mode. Parallel transfers under Windows are slowed by about 100 bps, and serial transfers under Windows are among the slowest in the review group. File Shuttle Xpress allows file selection with wildcard characters and ranges of dates. File attributes can be substituted to prevent access or overwriting. GetC Software offers toll telephone support. The Flying Dutchman. (Cyco International's Flying Dutchman 4.1) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of communications Cyco International's $99 Flying Dutchman 4.1 offers a low price, ease of use, batch-file transfer and diagnostics tests, but it is relatively slow and lacks extensive customization and file management capabilities. Flying Dutchman has a single menu and few options, so it is easy to set up and use, but it cannot perform serial transfers. The program's parallel transfers are faster than only one other reviewed package. The Flying Dutchman uses the same function key values as WordPerfect's word processing software. It automatically determines the parallel ports being used and can test the cables and connectors for defects. The communication package's greatest strength is its ability to perform simple file transfers. The manual is 12 pages of easily understood basics and free telephone support is available. Hot Wire. (Datastorm Technologies Inc.'s communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of communications Datastorm Technologies Inc's $129 Hot Wire communications software offers simple file transfer features and several disk management functions. Hot Wire is not designed for Microsoft Windows, but it includes the Program Information Files required to run under the graphical user interface. File transfer can be performed through a serial cables or by modem connection. Hot Wire's serial transfer rates are good, but parallel connections provide the fastest transfer. The program uses an overlapping menu interface, but selecting a submenu eliminates the previous menu. The connected computers are treated as master and slave. During transfer, the master displays its current directory and the slave's directory, while the slave shows the file transfer progress. Changing master/slave roles requires restarting the program. Datastorm offers telephone support, a bulletin board system and a forum on CompuServe. LapLink III. (Traveling Software Inc.'s LapLink 3.0 communications software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of Traveling Software Inc's $149.95 LapLink III 3.0 communications software offers easy installation, a good range of options and fast file transfer. The software can be installed on the remote machine from the local machine. LapLink III displays the files on the local and remote machines, and either machine can control transfer. The files are displayed in two screens, and files can be tagged for an operation. Determining the source and destination machines can be difficult when both screens are full, and moving through the menu uses unfamiliar keys. LapLink III features include batch transfers, file activity reporting and command line operation. Drives connected to one machine can be accessed as virtual drives by the other computer. Installation is simple and the documentation is first-rate. Traveling Software offers toll-free technical support. Rapid Transfer Easy. (Intertech Marketing Inc.'s Rapid Transfer Easy 1.3) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of Intertech Marketing Inc's $69.95 Rapid Transfer Easy 1.3 communications software offers solid, affordable serial file transfer without frills. The program's benchmark scores are respectable, and installation requires only three minutes. Rapid Transfer Easy provides on-screen prompts and a simple moving-bar menu to increase ease of use. Files, subdirectories and logical drives can be transferred to specified subdirectories. The program includes error-detection and overwrite protection features. Transfers can be initiated from the DOS prompt, and batch file and automatic transfers are possible. The bland-looking manual is informative and well-written, and the software generates some help messages. Intertech Marketing offers toll telephone support. Add a musical dimension to your PC with MIDI. (IBM PC-compatible microcomputers)(includes related article consisting of a glossary Microcomputers can be used in home music studios in conjunction with Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)-based equipment. A microcomputer running appropriate software can operate as a sequencer in a MIDI music system. MIDI software can also act as notators, editors and librarians. IBM PC-compatible microcomputers are not normally equipped with MIDI hardware interfaces, so an interface card is needed. Implementation varies, although the Roland MPU-401 interface is a de facto standard. MIDI cards offer a variety of features including time codes to synchronize the computer with other devices. Some expensive cards include built-in synthesizers. MIDI data transmission requires 10 bits per byte and transmits 31,250 bps asynchronously over shielded twisted-pair cable. MIDI messages control specified devices or channels and systemwide functions. The Standard MIDI File format allows sequence sharing regardless of hardware platform. The process of making sound. (sound synthesis) Rubenking, Janet. Sound can be created electronically by generating waveforms to produce desired sound waves. The simplest sounds take the form of sine waves, while musical instruments generate complex waveforms that can be described as combinations of sine waves. The number of wave cycles per second is called frequency, which corresponds to pitch. Even the most complex sounds are composed of a fundamental frequency plus a group of multiples of the fundamental frequency, called harmonics. Electronic sound synthesis combines basic waveforms to duplicate sounds or create new sounds. This method is imprecise because so many waves must be combined to produce the known sound. Physical modeling is an alternative method that mathematically replicates an instrument's physical behavior, while granular synthesis develops sounds from time slices, called sonic grains, of sound. 2FILE and 2FLOPPY let you DISKCOPY by modem. (Utilities) (Column) (tutorial) 2FILE and 2FLOPPY are utility programs that allow files and disks to be copied, transmitted via modem and verified. 2FILE can generate a precise image of a floppy disk's contents and store the image on hard disk. The file can be transmitted via modem, or 2FLOPPY can use the image file to create a variable number of duplicate disks. 2FLOPPY formats a disk, duplicates the 2FILE image and checks the copy. 2FILE only writes to a drive other than the source drive, and it adds 13 bytes to the size of the disk. 2FLOPPY prompts the user to enter new disks if more than one copy is created. Disks are divided into concentric tracks, which have variable numbers of sectors per track. A file allocation table (FAT) is stored on each disk to record the use of disk space. Getting more color with the Windows Palette Manager. (Microsoft Windows 3.0)(Environments) (Column)(Technical) (tutorial) Microsoft Windows 3.0's Graphics Device Interface (GDI) supports a palette manager that allows Windows applications to use customized colors. Applications intending to use the palette manager should first check for device driver support. The palette table size, the color resolution and the number of reserved colors should also be determined. The system palette is a table of color values maintained by device drivers. The logical palette is an array of color values required by the Windows application. Color values from the logical palette are loaded into the system palette for use by the video board's palette table. Priority for the palette table is given to the foreground window. Applications can access 18 of the 20 system palette entries reserved by a device driver. Raster operations are altered by changes in the palettes, so they should be performed in black and white, which do not change. Creating a DPMI-based DOS extender of your own. (DOS protected mode interface)(Power Programming) (Column)(Technical) (tutorial) Microsoft Windows 3.0's DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) can be used as the basis for a DOS extender in the current complex hardware and software programming world. DOS extenders have initialization and interrupt handler components. Initialization is active when the DOS extender is loaded. The initialization routine checks for the presence of various memory managers, allocates memory and loads the calling application's code and data. The initializer also creates descriptor tables for protected-mode addressing, switches the CPU into protected mode and builds an interrupt descriptor table. The interrupt handler component is called when CPU faults, hardware interrupts or software interrupts occur. After initialization, the DOS extender acts much like a memory-resident program. TINYDOSX.ASM is a DOS extender based on DPMI 0.9 that can be linked to TESTDOSX.C to be tested. The Ides of April, part 2: four more tax prep packages help you deal with the IRS. (includes related articles on electronic tax Four tax preparation software packages are offered for filing 1990 returns including AM Software Inc's $40 Personal I and $60 Personal II versions of AM-Tax, Simon and Schuster Software Div's $74.95 J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax, Softview Inc's $99 MacInTax for Windows and Parsons Technology Inc's $49 Personal Tax Preparer. Each product offers electronic filing, but the costs of such services, and refund anticipation loans (RALs), may be too high for the advantage of a speedy refund. None of the four products reviewed offers the performance of MECA Software Inc's Andrew Tobias's TaxCut or ChipSoft Inc's TurboTax. The personal tax software products differ from professional ones in batch input features and administrative and printing support. AM-Tax. (AM Software) (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'The Ides of April, Part AM Software offers two personal versions of its AM-Tax tax preparation software. The $40 AM-Tax Personal I has 18 forms and schedules and is designed for smaller microcomputers with 256Kbytes of RAM, while the $65 AM-Tax Personal II requires 320Kbytes of RAM and offers 32 forms. AM-Tax is a no-frills package designed to make tax preparation easy. The product has no initial interview, final-form auditor or tax instructions. There is minimal on-screen help. AM-Tax does not support electronic filing. The package's depreciation worksheet is precise and fast. Use of AM-Tax requires a minimum of keystrokes and completion of the forms is effected speedily. AM-Tax can print US Internal Revenue Service-approved copies of the 1040 and 1040A forms with HP's T font cartridge. The eight state tax programs offered by AM Software cost $30 each. J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. (Simon & Schuster Software Div.) (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax preparation Simon and Schuster Reference Publishing Group, Simon and Schuster Software Div's $74.95 J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax is based on the 1989 version of the Tax Shop software product. Included in the new package is the 500-page book 'J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax.' The tax preparation software package targets both personal and professional tax preparers with its interviewer to facilitate the choice of forms, and functions are color coded throughout the program. Forms include both titles and numbers or letters to support referencing. The program has help features in the form of windows. There is also on-line referencing to the book included with the package. Your Income Tax supports electronic filing to registered transmitters, and forms acceptable to the US Internal Revenue Service can be printed on dot-matrix printers. Twenty-four state tax modules are available for $29.95 each. MacInTax for Windows. (Softview Inc.) (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'The Ides Softview Inc's $99 MacInTax for Windows requires Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 and a mouse as it depends heavily on the features the Windows graphical user environment offers. The graphics represent accurate images of tax forms in what-you-see-is-what-you-get screens. The tax preparation software package includes a Forms Guide, which is a sort of interviewer or checklist the filer uses to prompt the proper form to be filled. Entries are recalculated by MacInTax automatically, but there are no overrides for these fields. Other problems with the software include instances where US Internal Revenue Service publication cross-references exist with no MacInTax correlation. Softview offers 13 state programs for $29.95 each, and refund anticipation loan (RAL) applications cost $39.95 for a minimum $300 and maximum $3,000 loan. Personal Tax Preparer. (Parsons Technology) (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'The Parsons Technology Inc's $49 Personal Tax Preparer has several deficiencies including questions in its Quick Entry feature that are somewhat confusing and do not address central issues directly. Certain tax issues do not receive specific attention from Personal Tax Preparer including the underpayment penalty, the depreciation limitation for listed property and tax shelter passive losses. Recalculations and screen movements are slow and on-screen help is limited to basics or references to IRS publications. The program's depreciation calculator works well and features a suggest key that prompts principal choices for most elements. The tax preparation software has the basic Courier typeface for its print option. The package has no state tax versions. Microsoft Corp. is the target of FTC probe; company is under scrutiny following rivals' claims it manipulates market. (U.S. Microsoft Corp is under investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its competitive practices. The software publisher is under criticism for manipulating the computer software industry in ways that crush smaller companies and injure its rivals. The FTC is evaluating Microsoft's unique role as operating systems supplier and applications supplier. Some claim that Microsoft's control of the MS-DOS operating system and the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface give it an unfair advantage in creating the application software. Microsoft acknowledges that it has been under investigation by the FTC since Jun 1990. Agency policy prevents the FTC from commenting on a pending case. Revamp at Olivetti has yet to add up; computer maker's chief says turnaround is at hand. (Ing C. Olivetti & Co.) Ing. C. Olivetti and Co's Managing director Vittorio Cassoni expects that profit will increase for the Italian computer maker in 1991 even though 1990 results were dismal. The company's stock has fallen to one-fifth its 1986 peak since Cassoni has taken charge and it expects to report a 40 percent drop in its 1990 results. The reorganization efforts of Cassoni have yet to make a positive difference; so far they have only created turmoil inside the company and caused many customer complaints about service and quality. Industry observers perceive Cassoni's hitherto failing efforts at restoring Olivetti to its former glory in the European computer industry as indicative of companies that lose their market edge in the computer industry. IBM expected to unveil faster models of workstations, announce price cuts. IBM plans to cut prices on some of its computers and introduce new workstations. The new workstations are expected to be faster and will position the number one computer maker more firmly in the workstation market. IBM acknowledges that it will still be vulnerable to HP's powerful line of workstations that is expected to be unveiled at the end of Mar 1991. Industry analysts are more optimistic than IBM about the company's 1991 workstation revenue with some estimates going over $3 billion; IBM estimates that revenues to will be between $1.7 billion and $2 billion. IBM is expected to cut the price on its X station terminal by 25 percent. The company's stock prices fell $2.125 a share and closed at $129.125 on Mar 11, 1991. Technology stocks lead decline on worry over corporate profits. (Abreast of the Market) Investors worry about corporate profits for high-technology companies sent share prices down on Mar 11, 1991. IBM, which fell $2.125 a share for the day, and Intel Corp, which fell $5.75 a share, led the decline. Investors seem to have ignored the dropping interest rates and focused their worries on other economic indicators, including the 6.5 percent unemployment rate which suggests the recession has not yet ended. Analysts expect the recession's effects to be felt with regard to company earnings. Estimates for IBM's 1st qtr 1991 earnings have dropped from $1.82 a share to $1.75 a share; the number one computer maker earned $1.81 a share in the same period in 1990. Can the U.S. stay ahead in software? America still dominates the market, but foreign rivals threaten. (Information Processing - Although the US currently dominates the lucrative software field, competitors from companies in Japan, France, Great Britain, and Germany are spending billions to built up their own software capabilities. US software engineers may be complacent now, but industry analysts warn that US inattention to the industry may open the door to other countries. Japanese software companies are using statistical quality control to produce software with half as many defects as US products. At the same time, the US is experiencing a shortage of programmers that causes many companies to outsource software work overseas. Wages for programmers in the US are also much higher than programmers in places like India or Singapore. To avoid losing its lead in the software industry, the US must begin to pay attention to its investment in technology and education. Eureka may be Europe's ticket to software sovereignty. (Eureka Software Factory)(Information Processing - Software Special The Eureka Software Factory (ESF), a cooperative venture among companies and institutes from five European countries, may solve the problem of programming backlogs for government and corporate software. The group, which is working to automate software programming, is in its fifth year of a ten-year project. The project should give Europe some defense against US software companies that are making inroads in the European market. Like Japan, the ESF wants to increase programmer productivity, but it also wants to retain the creative spirit within the programmers. The project's heart is a layer of software that works on almost any type of computer and allows programmers to use different software development tools without compatibility concerns. The ESF also encourages the reuse of code. The ESF's goal is an increase of 10 to 15 percent in productivity every year that programmers use the ESF methods, but ESF officials want to make sure that they keep people motivated without putting too much pressure on them. Bits & bytes. (Information Processing) Eng, Paul M. IBM has developed a product to help college students register for courses over the telephone. The product is used at Howard University in Washington DC and Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown NC. IBM Credit Corp is also in the news for its law suits against Comdisco Inc, Cambex Corp, and EMC Corp. IBM Credit is suing the mainframe computer leasing companies because it says they are misappropriating IBM property by replacing original IBM parts when they upgrade mainframes owned by IBM Credit. Cellular Data Inc has patented a method of sending digital data over unused cellular telephone channels. Adobe Systems Inc plans to introduce a font technology, tentatively called Multimaster, that can recreate any size or variation of font, thus eliminating the problem of transmitting potentially incompatible PostScript font files from computer to computer. FonEx Inc Pres Bernard Riskin is working to add the letters Q and Z to the telephone keypad so that he can market his patented idea of using phone keypads to enter words that can be recognized by a computer. A wider role at COS?: group may explore range of technologies. (Corporation for Open Systems International) The Corporation for Open Systems (COS) International announces that it will, in the future, concern itself with three new areas beyond its initial focus on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and ISDN technology. Three areas that COS will focus on are the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, programming interfaces for OSI protocols, and the integration of OSI and Integrated Services Digital Network. COS states that it will unveil a plan concerning the open-systems environment by mid-1991. IBM adds SNA peers: APPN support comes to OS/2 and 3174 controller. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) (includes related IBM announces the addition of Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) to the OS/2 operating environment and the introduction of an internal code feature for the 3174 cluster controller. Networking Services/2 software makes possible APPN support for the OS/2 operating environment. APPN is IBM's architecture for peer networking. In peer networking, computers communicate as equals. APPN gives systems the major Systems Network Architecture tasks previously restricted to IBM mainframes. IBM Communication Systems VP and Gen Mgr Ellen Hancock states that IBM plans to add APPN to its mainframes, but she adds that there are no plans to put it on their MS-DOS workstations. What shape are we in? (Network Infrastructure)(Part 1) Foley, John. There is high interest in the level of investment in the public-network infrastructure. Critics charge that the US network infrastructure, a series of local exchange and interexchange telephone networks, is not being upgraded fast enough and will not be able to meet the demands of business in the future. Some observers feel that the federal government should take a role in upgrading the infrastructure. University of Southern California business professor William Davidson states that the infrastructure is second rate, citing the relatively low rate of expenditure per telephone access line by US carriers. AT&T has stated that charges that the network infrastructure is outmoded are fallacious, and many organizations believe that government interference and regulation may seriously impair the operation of networks. Users: we need Tariff 12: groups urge FCC to uphold offering. (Federal Communications Commission) (legality of American Users of AT&T services inform the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that unless legal issues surrounding Tariff No 12 is settled in favor of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), they stand to lose millions of dollars invested in custom-network service packages. AT&T uses Tariff 12 to create packages of services offering substantial discounts to certain customers. Other long-distance carriers are lobbying the FCC to rule against AT&T, charging that AT&T's Tariff 12 packages are merely standard services sold at discounts and have a negative effect on competition. The FCC has been seeking comments on whether Tariff 12 service packages are like the separate services that constitute the packages. The Communications Act of 1934 prevents dominant carriers from discriminating against users of services that are like one another. U.K. duopoly ends; wide competition coming in communications. Gareiss, Robin. In a move aimed at increasing choice, promoting enterprise and lowering prices, the UK government is opening local and long distance service to competition by granting licenses to all domestic and foreign companies. Since 1983, British Telecom Plc (BT) and Mercury Communications Ltd have operated the two public communications networks. The policy could encourage more international companies to base their communications operations in Britain. US-based companies are applauding the move, believing the extra competition will reduce prices. BT and Mercury will be less regulated in Britain, however, than their counterparts in the US. The new restrictions will allow BT, which controls 95 percent of UK's domestic market and 88 percent of the international market, to increase rates by as much as the inflation rate minus 6.25 percent; the old rate was the inflation rate minus 4.50 percent. A boost for FDDI?: IBM uses shielded twisted-pair. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) IBM states in a paper presented at an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) subcommittee meeting that the company has successfully transmitted data at 100M-bps using shielded twisted-pair wire. The subcommittee is developing a standard for adapting FDDI to twisted-pair wire, a less-expensive and more widely deployed alternative to fiber optic cable. Some observers believe IBM's participation will boost interest in the technology, and if the company's technology is adopted by the subcommittee, deployment of FDDI could be accelerated. The technology uses a prototype copper transceiver, rather than optical fiber, to send the data at 100M-bps, which could make the adapter cards much less expensive. Running FDDI over shielded twisted-pair will also be good for IBM: it will provide a path to FDDI for the company's 4M-bps and 16M-bps Token-Ring and 802.5 token-ring users. AT&T protests FTS 2000 handling. Schwartz, Jeffrey. AT&T is asking for what it believes is its rightful share of the government's $25 billion FTS 2000 contract. AT&T has filed a protest with the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals (GSA). AT and T is accusing the GSA of making contract modifications that shifted Navy and Marine traffic from the company's portion of the network to US Sprint Communications' portion. The protest also calls into question the amount of traffic the GSA is giving to the two companies; Sprint has been given 57 percent of FTS 2000 traffic and AT and T has got 43 percent. The percentages were supposed to be 40 and 60 percent, respectively. AT and T's protest could hinder some agencies' plans to add new network capabilities and could delay the Navy's plans to start cutting over its voice, video and data transmissions to FTS 2000 in Oct 1991. An AT&T spokesman calls the company's action a 'last resort.' HP tools coming; analyzers ease troubleshooting. (Hewlett-Packard Co.) Hewlett-Packard plans a line of protocol analyzers that the company says will make it easier to troubleshoot problems on data networks. The tools, which the company refers to as 'network advisors,' will let users focus on the symptoms of network problems instead of interpreting protocol traffic, prior to testing. The HP 4980A, 4981A and 4982A are portable systems used to decode and troubleshoot protocols. The HP 4980A, $25,000, works on combined token-ring and Ethernet LANs; the HP 4981A, $19,500, works on Ethernet LANs; and the 4982A, also $19,500, works on token-ring LANs. The analyzers feature the expert system-based Fault Finder, Intel 80386-based processors and a 32-bit RISC network interface module. Hurdles for global nets: less regulation urged in world markets. Sweeney, Terry. Worldwide anti-competitive policies are slowing the use of global communications networks, according to communications executives speaking at a conference sponsored by Communications Week, which was called The Networked Economy: Global Communications in the 1990s. Roadblocks to wide-scale global network use range from regulatory issues in the US and overseas to the lack of an open market abroad, they said. One spokesperson, William Coopman of INTUG, cited the US as a good example of a country using market forces rather than regulation to stimulate new services and competition; he also called for more deregulation of services in foreign markets. Another speaker, AT&T Chmn Robert Allen, said international accounting rates are too high, but rates are coming down. Intel, PacBell forge LAN pact. Bushaus, Dawn. Pacific Bell agrees with Intel to give LAN users one-stop shopping. Pacific Bell is leading the way for the other Bell companies in teaming up with LAN vendors. In Jan 1991, Pacific Bell signed a deal with Advanced Computer Communications (ACC) to sell ACC's routers and bridges. The recent Intel agreement is aimed at midsize users in California and comes at a time when PacBell is preparing to introduce more comprehensive data transmission services. The Intel pact will allow Pacific's customers to use the company's transport services while purchasing Intel's servers based on the 80386 and 80486 processors, Novell's NetWare operating systems and SynOptics Communications 10BaseT wiring hubs. Racal's DS-3 plunge: users await card to support 45-mbps links. (Racal-Milgo Inc.) Racal-Milgo announces plans to add DS-3 support to its high-end T-1 multiplexor, called the Omnimux 9000, by the end of 1991. The card will support three 45M-bps DS-3 circuits and will relieve users from having to change backbone networking equipment to upgrade from T1's 1.544M-bps speed DS-3 rate. Some analysts are weary of Racal-Milgo's plans given the long history of DS-3 development, but users welcome the company's move toward higher-speed, more functional network equipment. The California Department of Water Resources and Denver-based Kaiser Permanente are two users which looking forward to the new multiplexor. Broadband plan posted: Siemens Stromberg plot CO migration. (Siemens Stromberg-Carlson central office switches) Siemens Stromberg-Carlson details a broadband migration plan for its central office switches that promises to preserve the hardware and software investments of its public-networking customers. Key to the migration strategy, which the company refers to as Vision ONE, is an applications processor platform.(APP) The APP, expected in 1993, comprises the existing central processor and a new, general processor based on the Motorola 88000-series processor. Common software will let the APP run on - and deliver the same capabilities to - each switch. Unisys unveils new mainframe. (the A19) (product announcement) Jackson, Kelly. Unisys introduces the A19 mainframe, a high-powered computer for distributed, transaction processing applications. Based on Unisys' Super Scalar Architecture, which combines traditional mainframe processing with massively parallel processing, the A19 fills a role as Information Hub under the company's blueprint for networks and computers, which is called Unisys Architecture. The mainframe can run at 50 million instructions per second (MIPS), and it supports the X.25 packet switching protocol, the Unisys Burroughs Network Architecture, TCP-IP, and IBM's SNA. One industry analyst, The Gartner Group's Jim Cassell, is impressed with the A19's power. He says the mainframe could become the engine for an overall network management system. Databases evolve to satisfy future needs. (Technology Trends) Laws, Malcolm. Databases will evolve into a hybrid of networked integrated database/application programs. In the future, databases will serve as the basis of a wide range of applications by allowing the same data to be shared and used in different applications. The client-server model of computing is the theoretical basis of the database of the future. In the client-server architecture, a client, typically a workstation or PC, is linked to any type of computer over a local area network. Users can access the data they need from a shared database on a single server, or data can be distributed across multiple servers, thus reducing duplication of data. The advantages of shared databases include easy access to data, more efficient administration, and more closely integrated and efficient applications. IBM creates link to AT&T, Northern PBX. (International Business Machines, American Telephone and Telegraph) International Business Machines (IBM) announces the introduction of DirectRoute/2 communications software, which links IBM System/370 mainframe computers to American Telephone and Telegraph's and Northern Telecom Inc's PBXs. DirectRoute/2 is not compatible with CallPath Services Architecture (CSA), which IBM announced as its standard for computer-to-PBX applications. DirectRoute/2 software is an interim solution, and it is uncertain whether it will be made compatible with CSA. DirectRoute/2 runs on IBM PS/2s, accesses mainframes by emulating a terminal, and does not require changes to the software applications of host systems. The major drawback to DirectRoute/2 software is that it only handles incoming calls. Bells knock CONAP filing. (Coalition for Open Network Architecture Parties) (Public Networking) The Bell regional holding companies are disputing the contention of the Coalition for Open Network Architecture Parties (CONAP) that their Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) guidelines issued in 1990 by Bell Communications Research, Inc (Livingston, NJ) constitutes an attempt to close their networks to third parties. CONAP wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure that the Bell regionals adopt open network architecture and guarantee access to their public switched networks for software development and deployment by third parties. CONAP argues that the Bell regionals are not fulfilling the goals of the FCC's Computer Inquiry III rules. The Bell regionals claim that CONAP is misrepresenting their AIN guidelines, which allo the companies to offer customized services to meet their clients' demands. Carrier bills made to order. (billing services) (Public Networking: Product Essay) Users are demanding enhanced billing services from carriers. In response to demand, carriers are offering users more customized services as billing has become a commodity in itself. Users see the data that can be culled from billing as extremely valuable and are requesting more reports from carriers in order to enhance their business operations. The future of billing will see the elimination of paper bills, and American Telephone and Telegraph already offers electronic data interchange billing for its WATS and '800.'line services. MCI is testing a service that will provide clients with raw data and customized reports, and software to manipulate the data and reports. New software tools will enhance the flexibility and control of clients over their billing data. The holy war. (Transmission Control Protocol-Internet Protocol, Open Systems International, Management Services API) An application programming interface, Management Services API (MSI), has been developed for translating both the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol. In the field of network management, partisans of both TCP/IP and OSI are not enthusiastic for MSI, claiming that MSI favors the rival protocol rather than the one they favor. Critics claim that, while in theory MSI accommodates both the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), in reality it does not. MSI was developed by the Internet R&D community. MSI serves as a translator that allows developers of applications to create software that runs across networks controlled by either the SNMP or the CMIP. Choosing the right environment: the OSF is looking for a key to distributed computing. (Open Software Foundation) (Network The Open Software Foundation (OSF) is analyzing 27 competing proposals for the development of the Distributed Management Environment (DME), a management framework for distributed computer networks. The DME will likely become the application programming interface (API) for network management and will be the standard most applications developers utilize. The two leading candidates for the DME are proposals from the team of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co and International Business Machines and the team of Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) and BBN Communications Corp. Using OpenView architecture as a base, HP is combining two lower-layer APIs of the OSF into one Consolidated API. HP's API integrates network management applications with the underlying network management framework. DEC's API is based on fusing common APIs and Open Systems Interconnection standards. Which is the best route to take? (Common Management Information Protocol versus the Simple Network Management Protocol) (Network Router companies are faced with making a choice between the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). CMIP is the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standard for routing management information through a network, but router companies are put off from CMIP because there are uncertainties on how much memory and processing power it uses, and by a lack of demand by users. The greater sophistication of CMIP over SNMP makes it more difficult to implement. Although some router companies feel that routers should not be burdened with an extra protocol, most router companies plan to support CIMP. The two ways of implementing CIMP in routers are by utilizing dual network management stacks for both CIMP and SNMP, or by dedicating separate router models for both CIMP and SNMP. Major manufacturers scramble to sign VARs: vendors see niche sales opportunities. (value-added resellers) The shift in the marketplace toward sophisticated local area network solutions, along with opportunities in niche markets, has caused major hardware vendors to step up VAR recruitment. Sun Microsystems, IBM, NEC Technologies, Digital Equipment (DEC) and Apple Computer are enhancing their recruitment programs, targeting VARs as the most important opportunity for market expansion and revenue gains. Vendors need VARs because they have developed systems most of their dealers are not qualified to sell and are looking for resellers with the necessary skills. DEC officials say channel strategy is a number one priority with their company. Apple officials report a major focus on broadening the quality and number of relationships with solutions providers. Sun is looking to VARs to optimize the market with a minimum of channel conflict. IBM to debut 486SX PS/2s: new release on heels of April unveiling. (Intel 80486SX) (product announcement) IBM is expected to introduce at least two new PS/2 microcomputer systems based on the new Intel 80486SX and 80487SX processors, shortly after Intel unveils the two new chips on Apr 22, 1991. Some industry observers are surprised that IBM intended to use the low-end processors in the high-end Model 90 and 95 configurations. Dealers have indicated there is a demand for a more affordable IBM server. The design of the processor card complex in the Models 90 and 95 will allow IBM to introduce a new CPU without designing an entirely new system. Analysts see the new Model 95 as a good fit for businesses who want to buy lower-cost department servers that will still facilitate upgrading and expansion. At least 10 other systems vendors are expected to introduce 80486SX-based systems. These include Advanced Logic Research, Compaq Computer, Dell Computer, Tandy/Grid, Everex, and American Mitac. Clones pressuring Compaq: Market-share woes: vendor cuts prices to battle second-tier players. Compaq is cutting prices on its microcomputer line in an effort to stall the erosion of its customer base and loss of market share to second-tier vendors such as AST Research, NEC Technologies and others. are. The price of the Deskpro 386s 40 is now $2,999. Prices were cut $140 to $480 on laptop and portable systems available through the 1991-1992 General Services Administration contract beginning Apr 1, 1991. Even Compaq executives admit that some Compaq users are moving to lower-priced systems. Company officials indicate that some end users are trying other manufacturers during difficult economic times as budgets decline. Companies are trying to purchase more computer systems with fewer dollars. The company claims not to have lost market share but does acknowledge increased price sensitivity. It is responding with reduced prices, advertising promotions and incentives. Compaq dealers are remaining loyal and feel confident that the vendor is holding its own. New RS/6000 units: IBM boosts low and high ends of line. (introduction of two new RS/6000 models) (product announcement) IBM is expected to introduce two new RS/6000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstations to fill gaps at the high and low ends of the line. The PowerServer 950 will be available standard with 64Mbytes of memory. It is essentially a rack-mounted version of the Power/Server 550, operating at 41.6MHz. The PowerStation 330 comes in just above the PowerStation 320 and is a desktop machine that should give IBM Industry Remarketers more leverage with commercial accounts by offering a more powerful low-cost system. The 330 will be available standard with 16Mbytes of memory, a 160Mbyte hard disk drive and a 25-MHz CPU. The PowerServer 950 name is confirmed but a final name for the lower-end product has not yet been chosen. Faster systems would help IBM wrest market share from NCR, AT and T and other Unix vendors, according to resellers. New external disk-storage subsystems are also being introduced. VARs capitalize on health-care field: emerging vertical: crave automation. (value-added reseller) VARs marketing specialized information systems to aid hospitals and group and individual medical practices are in the position to capitalize on an evolving multibillion-dollar market. Health-care administrators are looking for sophisticated cost-control systems that can enhance the efficiency of medical personnel in the interest of improved patient care. Technology is aiding hospitals in care improvement, but VARs have to prove there is a payoff for investing in the systems. Vendors feel that more efficient solutions connecting patients to physicians and physicians to hospital departments hold the key for market success. Hospital stays are shorter today than in the past, making it necessary for hospitals to address alternate revenue sources. The potential benefits for capable VARs is staggering. End of Gulf War drives PC sales as Kuwait restores. (Operation Desert Storm) Attention in the Middle East is shifting to the restoration of Kuwait as Operation Desert Storm winds down, and US computer vendors are expected to benefit. Vendors and service providers are preparing plans in anticipation of new business. Houston Directional Software Inc, developer of a Macintosh-based disaster recovery program called 'Oil Well Blowout,' has received many calls. ' The demand for microcomputer products and services will extend beyond the oil business. Many Kuwaiti government agencies, banks and insurance companies will need new equipment. Computer systems ranked eighth on a list of top US exports to Kuwait before the war. Value-added resellers (VARs) are preparing to accommodate the expected demand. Rockwell Inc, a CO-based VAR specializing in the oil exploration marketplace, has sent free copies of its software to Kuwaiti government officials in exile in Saudi Arabia. Those vendors with long-standing ties to the Middle East or aggressive plans to pursue business in the area are most likely to benefit, according to industry observers. HP squeezes dealers with quotas. (Hewlett-Packard) Zarley, Craig. The new dealer contracts for Hewlett-Packard (HP) include sales quotas. Some dealers fear that the minimum performance levels may compel them to drop the popular HP printer line. The contracts went into effect Jan 1, 1991 and will be valid for 18 months. Dealers will be required to sell at least $150,000 in HP products per store to retain authorization. The vendor refused to discuss specific terms of the contracts. Some dealers do admit that the minimum requirements are modest when compared to those of IBM and Apple, but others carry only the HP printer line and fear they will not be able to meet the requirements in printer sales alone. Price cuts will make meeting the requirements even more difficult. One reseller official says that if he fails to make the HP quota he will sell another line of printers with higher margins and less gray market activity. Suit hounds Windows: Apple wins legal round against Microsoft. (Windows graphical user interface, Apple Computer) (Apple's Microsoft has lost a battle in its defensive war against Apple Computer's copyright-infringement suit filed over the look and feel of the Windows graphical user interface. Judge Vaughn R. Walker has denied an HP claim that the Mac interface is itself derivative and not subject to copyright. The preliminary ruling in federal court has caused some analysts to speculate that Windows could become a source of income for Apple. The suit filed by Apple alleges that Microsoft Windows 2.03 and Hewlett-Packard's NewWave, which is based on Windows, used concepts originating from Apple Macintosh displays. Windows 3.0 could also be affected by the final decision. A win by Apple could mean a federal court ruling requiring Microsoft to pay royalties on Windows 3.0 sales or even to take it off the market entirely. Microsoft would probably contest such a move. A 27-page court paper spells out the details of the preliminary decision. Report: VARs gaining larger role: workstations hot market for resellers. (value-added resellers) Ongoing research by International Data Corp has determined that an expansion of VAR's product offerings driven by swift changes in user demand and corporate buying patterns will alter the face of the reseller channel by 1994. The study predicts that VARs will continue to drain sales from dealers, further separating high-volume dealerships from more sophisticated VAR organizations. One VAR official says his customers generally want a bundled solution. Some end users are looking to increase value-add and trying to assimilate more complex products into an overall solution. Other corporations have been using microcomputers for years; their idea of value-add is having a system delivered in one piece. VARs say users are seeking expertise as the equipment is becoming more and more complex. Resellers buck the economic trend: despite recession, some bright spots emerge. Several dealers and value-added resellers (VARs) have remained unaffected by the slowing economy and have, in many cases, prospered by going on the offensive, although the recession has left an impression on the reseller channel. These 'recession busters' are prospering because of their ability to find markets that are either very stable or still expanding. Office Technology Inc, a franchisee of Intelligent Electronics in Neenah, WI, has become the primary microcomputer supplier for a large number of paper mills. Paper has traditionally been a recession-proof industry. US Microsystems is a VAR that has won a lucrative contract from a hospital consortium to automate 1,200 Long Island doctors. PC Warehouse, fueled by an infusion of $10 million, has defied the credit crunch. The company expects to post $150 million in sales, up from $100 million in 1990. Poor economy stalls Factory purchase. (CompuCom Systems Inc attempting to buy Computer Factory Inc) CompuCom Systems Inc blames the recession and the Persian Gulf War for the delay in efforts to finance the purchase of The Computer Factory Inc. CompuCom officials are nevertheless confident that the deal will be accomplished shortly. CompuCom could complete the merger very soon with help from ITT Commercial Finance and Safeguard Scientifics. Safeguard's contribution consists of financial clout rather than capital. Safeguard owns 66 percent of CompuCom. The reseller has thus far managed to secure only 10 percent of the required capital. CompuCom has found the banks' lending policies becoming extremely strict. Apple battles HP with new low-cost printers. (Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard) (product announcement) Apple Computer plans to unveil two low-cost computer printers while lowering the prices on existing models to combat advances made by Hewlett-Packard and other vendors into the Macintosh printer marketplace. The two new printers include the $599 StyleWriter inkjet printer and the $1,299 LS ($1,299). Prices are also being lowered on the high-end LaserWriter IINTX to $4,999 and the IINT to $3,999. Prices will remain unchanged on the LaserWriter SC and the ImageWriter II. The vendor has also surprised analysts and resellers by beginning to offer its TrueType technology, a component of its forthcoming System 7.0 operating system, free to resellers, users and developers. Apple officials call the move a grassroots effort designed to seed the market. VARs skeptical about SPARC clones. (value-added reseller, scalable processor architecture) VARs are unsure of the potential of SPARC compatible hardware in spite of bullish estimates from vendors. Shipments for 1991 are expected to number in the tens of thousands. Resellers say SPARC hardware vendors have not created a channel plan and that prices of the machines are still too high while the demand and margins for Sun Microsystems workstations remain high. The SPARC-compatible marketplace is still under development. Solbourne Computer, one of the earliest entrants, is dealing with a large number of problems ranging from a high turnover at management level to the company's inability to enhance product availability, which has hurt the channel push. Reseller officials complain about the inability of SPARC-compatible hardware vendors to offer aggressive pricing. Margins for Sun workstations have held steady. VAR Kurzweil boosts sales with medical solutions. (Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc., value-added reseller) Innovation goes hand in hand with value-added reseller Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc. The reseller has developed creative products for medical professionals such as VoiceMed, a voice-activated dictation system. VoiceMed operates with the dictation of a chart report or diagnosis into a microcomputer using a handset or other such device. The VoiceMed includes several programs: VoicePath for pathologists, VoiceEM for emergency medicine and VoiceRad for radiologists. Over 1,200 physicians, according to company officials, utilize VoiceMed. FrameMaker 3.0 for Sun debuts. (product announcement) Gross, June. Frame Technology has unveiled FrameMaker 3.0, the latest release of its high-end technical publishing application, on a number of workstation platforms in addition to the Apple Macintosh. The vendor will ship the new package in May 1991 on Sun Microsystems' Sun-3 and SPARC workstations, on Apple Computer Macintosh and on Intel 80386-based systems running SunView. A Motif version with X-Window capabilities for DEC, HP/Apollo, IBM, Sun and Intel 80386 and 80486-based systems will ship in the 3rd qtr of 1991. Each version features binary compatibility with the others, allowing files to be imported and read by FrameMaker on other platforms. Important new features include extensive table-modification capabilities like flexible header, footer, ruling, shading and multipage table options. The Mac version sells for $495; a license for Unix platforms is $2,500. StoreBoard survey reveals weak demand. (Window on Wall Street) (column) The year 1991 began with continuing weak microcomputer demand in the US, according to a dealer survey by StoreBoard Inc. Unit sales in Jan 1991 matched 1990 levels while revenues declined five percent. The Intel 80386SX market continued to slow with only a three percent gain in unit sales and a 17 percent drop in revenue. Demand for the Apple Macintosh outpaced the industry trend. Unit sales were up 79 percent and revenue up 44 percent, enhancing Apple's market share to an all-time high of 16.4 percent, up from 11 percent in 1990. Compaq Computer posted poor results with unit sales down six percent and revenue down 10 percent. The Compaq market share dropped to 17 percent from 18.1 percent in 1990. IBM also posted lackluster results with flat sales and a 4.2 percent decline in revenue. Enhancing business: poll shows training, support key to dealers' success. The chief strategy among computer resellers looking to enhance business in 1991 is increased support and training, according to a survey by International Data Corp. The survey revealed that profitable business is the key to dealer survival. More business is not necessarily better, but profitable business is vital. The most important business-enhancing strategy, as listed by 84 percent of respondents, is increased support and training. Officials of Random Access Corp say that training and support is the basis of his company's strategy. The reseller wants to increase service contracts for higher margins and wants to to maintain margins with corporate accounts, rather than competing on price alone. IBM holds on to elbow room in U.K. show arena. (Eurovision) (column) IBM U.K. has earned a reputation over the years as an innovator in sales and marketing. The company was the first with the idea for a now European-wide System Center dealer accreditation program designed for dealers moving into high-end systems support. The U.K. subsidiary has taken the lead in implementing a Value Added Remarketer program for resellers of the IBM RS/6000 workstation. The program may eventually be extended beyond the U.K. The subsidiary's greatest single marketing coup is the success of its annual IBM-only show, subtitled 'Solutions for Business in the IBM Environment.' The company has publicly announced its commitment to open systems but has developed an event that is designed to convince people that it is the one with the range and critical mass to offer business solutions. Canadian confidence: AST, ALR, Dell gain corporate accounts north of the border. (AST Research Inc., Advanced Logic Research, Dell Lesser known microcomputer vendors AST Research, Advanced Logic Research and Dell Computer Inc are finding better than expected revenue growth in the Canadian market along with new-found credibility with corporate accounts, after years of taking a back seat to the Big Three vendors. ALR reported a revenue of $15 million for its Canadian operations for fiscal 1990, an increase of almost 570 percent over 1989. Canadian revenue rise by 60 percent to an estimated $40 million in 1990. AST increased revenue by an estimated 11 percent in 1990 to approximately $30 million. AST officials noted that the vendor does not break out international revenue. Some of the companies' revenue growth is attributable to a relatively new position in the Canadian marketplace. Corporate sales account for 50 to 60 percent of Dell's Canadian business. AST officials report that they have had a former total IBM customer agree to put AST on its accepted in-house price list. 10BaseT evolution: developers connect to year-old innovation. Snapp, Cheryl. Product announcements at the 1991 NetWorld trade show confirm that the evolution of 10BaseT is moving ahead rapidly. 10BaseT technology established itself as an ad hoc standard even before the ink was dry on the IEEE 802.3i standard. Industry analysts call the growth of 10BaseT phenomenal. Market research data shows that sales of 10BaseT products in 1990 accounted for 20 percent of the total market for network interface cards. The technology has both proliferated and matured. 10Base T is becoming the dominant media for local area network (LAN) workstation connections on the low end, according to officials of NetWorth Inc, which debuted the EtherNext Series 4000 10BaseT product line in Jun 1989. The high end shows the market moving toward intelligent wiring concentrators, offering routing, bridging, network management and a migration path to Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). Officials of SynOptics Communications report that the market is moving to the internetworking of multiple access schemes in a single intelligent hub and that network management is a growing arena. The race is on to provide workstations for the Fortune 500. (The Platform) (column) A number of workstation vendors are joining the race to provide workstations for Fortune 500 companies. Sun Microsystems is in the lead with the ambitious National Value-Added Dealer program. The program will use 200 retailers to position its SPARC (scalable processor architecture) workstations and servers for client/server computing, database and productivity applications in the marketplace as alternatives to microcomputers. Mips Computer Systems has signed agreements with two-tiered distributors who are set to target an assortment of dealers. HP plans to put an Apollo workstation into the channel. Data General is considering the market. IBM is cautiously marketing its RS/6000 workstations through Sears Business Centers. Too many resellers, however, underestimate the problems associated with selling workstations into the microcomputer-oriented Fortune 500 market arena. Sun and DEC are running on unrealistic expectations, and memories of the Next-Businessland fiasco are lurking in the backs of most channel managers minds. Multiprocessing gauge eyed: AST looks to midrange vendors for advice. (AST Research Inc.) AST Research Inc is beginning the search for a multiprocessing architecture standard by meeting with a few midrange computer vendors to talk about feasibility problems. Company officials say the firm wants to talk to vendors of multiprocessing servers and mid-range systems in order to determine the viability of creating standard multiprocessing architectures for running a variety of applications. The intent is to keep the group's size to less than six participants. There are no plans to form a consortium to promote any standard that may be developed from the discussion. Officials stress that the discussions may lead nowhere but also emphasize that standards issues must be addressed if the appeal of multiprocessing is to grow. It is hoped that enough standards will be achieved in the multiprocessing bus architecture to create a marketplace for shrink-wrapped software. The vendor will consider compromise if it is unable to promote its architecture as standard. The company has no current plans to enter the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) marketplace but has not ruled out a future move into that arena. Three vendors tout 88M-byte drives: removable storage capabilities doubled. (product announcement) Removable cartridge drive vendors are moving up to the next level with the introduction of new systems offering twice the capacity of existing products. Three vendors introduced products in Feb 1991 that push storage capacity to 88Mbytes. The advantages of removable cartridges grow more attractive as the capacity range increases, prices drop and reliability approaches that of fixed hard drives, according to officials of Peripheral Land Inc. Peripheral Land has unveiled the Infinity 88 Turbo drive for Macintosh systems offering an unformatted capacity of 88Mbytes. The new drive, due to ship in Mar 1991, will support SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 standards. MicroNet Technology has introduced higher-capacity drives for IBM-compatible and Macintosh systems. The MR-90 will format for 84Mbytes for a Macintosh ($1,795) and 88Mbytes for an IBM-compatible system ($1,895). Mass Microsystems Inc has introduced a selection of higher-capacity removable cartridge drives. The DataPak 88, slated for limited availability in Mar 1991, will offer 88Mbytes on a single removable cartridge. VGAs gain acceptance: Windows 3.0's advanced graphics features spur demand. The popularity of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and its graphical user interface has enhanced the steady demand for VGA color monitors. VGA color monitors, according to industry analysts, have grown in appeal to the average user who wants to capitalize on the advanced graphics features offered by Windows. VGA offers the option of changing the colors of the multiple windows found in Windows applications. VGA's higher resolution offers the increased capability of drawing more detailed icons. Officials of Sigma Designs report that the increased popularity of Windows 3.0 brings more screen activity and that users will need more performance and higher resolution to take advantage of it. Industry analysts report that color monitors account for 75.5 percent of the 2.2 million monitors marketed through US resellers in 1990. VGA accounts for about 80 percent of that figure. 33-inch model capable of Super VGA: debut: Mitsubishi monitor arrives sooner than expected. (product announcement) Mitsubishi Electronics moved up the debut of the XC3315C ($5,495), its new 33-inch color monitor, after sending its entire inventory of the product to the Persian Gulf. The company had already received a substantial contract with the military in 1990 and the government sent a number of the previous CX3310C version overseas. The contract was executed through an unnamed US reseller. The XC3315C, unveiled in Feb 1991, is Super VGA capable and accepts most signal inputs. The CRT size is the same on both models. The newer version's electron gun is a database facility gun. Mitsubishi has also introduced a 20-inch model of its long-persistence phosphor monitor which runs IBM's 8514A video standard and the new XGA standard. The company also makes a 14-inch version of that monitor. Europe responds to VDT hazards. (video display terminals) Boyd, Wallace. Vendors are in agreement that the color side of the monitor business will be more profoundly impacted by concern about the health hazards of VDTs, as color monitors give off more electromagnetic radiation than monochrome monitors do. Europe and the Scandinavian countries have been concerned for some time about ergonomics, according to industry analysts. Europe, in fact, surpasses the US in their concerns. Sweden has created low-emission standards in spite of the lack of conclusive evidence that electromagnetic radiation poses a risk to health. The goal is to reduce the possibility of such a risk. The MPR II standard, created by the Swedish National Board of Testing and Measurement, limits the amount of electromagnetic radiation that can be emitted by VDTs sold in Sweden. European companies are demanding MPR II compliance. Vendors doing a great deal of business in Europe are already in compliance. Those doing most of their business in the US lag behind because the US has yet to enact emission standards. High-end color-monitor market gains popularity. Nunoo, Mildred. The high-end, 20-inch color monitor marketplace is growing rapidly along with the desktop publishing and computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) arenas. Manufacturers are introducing new products to compete for attention from a fairly small user base. Market leaders include NEC Technologies, Sony Corp, Panasonic Communications and Systems and Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. The CAD/CAM industry has been purchasing 20-inch monitors because users want the largest affordable size in order to view as much information as possible. Prices in the marketplace are dropping 10 to 12 percent annually. Analysts report that Sony has a reputation for large-screen monitor brightness, sharpness and clarity; NEC is also considered good. Another participant in the arena is Princeton Graphic Systems. Fortune 1000 prefer linking Macs to Macs. (Apple Macintosh) Tito, Susan. The majority of Fortune 1000 companies with Macintosh computer systems connect their Macs to other Macs, while midsize firms are more likely to connect Macs to other computing environments, according to a recent Gallup Poll. Some 48 percent of the Fortune 1000 Gallup respondents said their Macintoshes are connected to other Macintoshes while 38 percent said they connect their Macs to other environments and 14 percent did not know how their Macs are connected. The poll reported 29 percent of Dun and Bradstreet firms connect their Macs to other Macs while 53 percent prefer to connect them to other environments and 18 percent are not aware of how their Macs are connected. Mac-only dealerships branch out: large Apple resellers look to diversify. (Apple Macintosh) Large Apple Computer dealers that up until now have received all their sales from Macintosh equipment are broadening their product lines. Several of these dealers have applied for or received authorization from IBM, Compaq and other vendors in order to expand their businesses. LMB Microcomputers Inc, a Connecting Point franchisee, has been leading the way recently with $12 million in Apple sales alone in 1990. LMB gained an IBM medallion in Jan 1991 through the purchase of a local Entre Computer Center and has also won authorization from Compaq. Company officials say that the new authorizations will 'open many doors' and that the new authorizations should not detract from their Apple business as it will facilitate placing Macintosh products in new markets where Mac in not really understood. They further state that they need authorizations from the 'big three' vendors in order to offer complete solutions to their customers. A business with several systems is a top candidate for an integrated network. Connecting Point franchisee Random Access says the addition of Compaq authorization is one reason behind the firm's record earnings and revenue for 1991. Cayman connects with Cabletron: companies pool Mac R&D efforts. (Cayman Systems Inc., Cabletron Systems Inc., Apple Macintosh, Cabletron Systems Inc and Cayman Systems Inc plan to announce a joint product development agreement designed to integrate Cabletron's Multi Media Access Center and Cayman's AppleTalk gateway technology. This follows the trend of bringing LocalTalk into the corporate environment. Fractionalized and departmentalized local area networks (LANs) are now being interconnected and require cohesive interoperability solutions for corporate environments. Cayman is well-known for its GatorBox, an AppleTalk-to-Ethernet gateway. Cabletron markets an intelligent wiring hub supporting a wide range of wires and cable configurations for networks with many nodes. The first result of the alliance is called Gator Media Interface Module, or GatorMIM-CS, a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet router allowing AppleTalk Phase 1 and Phase 2 LANs with many nodes. The U.K. and U.S. are worlds apart in the software channel. (Soft Focus) (column) Computer software stores in the United Kingdom exist basically to market computer games to children. Attempts to create chains of general-purpose software stores offering office or business software are hardly visible. Households in the U.K. continue to use Amstrad, Spectrum and Commodore systems; this installed base has stood in the way of the growth of console game systems. Commodore's Amiga is the leader in the U.K. 16-bit marketplace with an installed base of 600,000 machines. White-collar workers are far less likely to have a microcomputer system at home than their counterparts in the U.S. Smalltalk goes Windows: new products offer interfaces to Dynamic Data Exchange. (product announcement) Digitalk Inc and ParcPlace Systems Inc have introduced versions of the Smalltalk object-oriented programming system for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and related products. Digitalk has brought out the $500 Smalltalk/V Windows and ParcPlace has shipped the $3,500 Objectworks/Smalltalk. Both products provide interfaces to Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) for sharing data among programs and Dynamic Link Libraries, enabling action connections between applications. Microsoft officials say that Objectworks/Smalltalk will be important for corporate developers building powerful Windows 3.0 applications. Industry observers say that Smalltalk tools will play a lesser role in the object-oriented development revolution. Users find Objectworks/Smalltalk beneficial because of its cross-platform portability. Writing on Windows: word-processing vendors step up activity. Clancy, Heather. DeScribe Inc is rushing to release DeScribe for Windows, its Windows 3.0 word processor, in the 2nd qtr of 1991 and has begun to demonstrate a preliminary version of the product. WordPerfect began demonstrating beta versions of WordPerfect for Windows in Feb 1991 to clients of PC Etcetera, a training services company, across the country. The DeScribe and WordPerfect programs are due during the 2nd qtr of 1991. Beta testing of the WordPerfect application will begin in Mar 1991. Wordstar International is now an OEM for another Windows word processor, NBI Inc's Legacy, as part of an effort to hold onto its DOS installed base. WordStar grows product line: Lifetree Software added. Clancy, Heather. WordStar International's recent acquisition of Lifetree Software will enhance its product line under both Microsoft Windows 3.0 and the Apple Macintosh. Lifetree specializes in word-processing add-ons such as the Correct Grammar grammar checker, which will be released in May 1991 under Windows. Lifetree will be the Writing Tools division of WordStar. It will maintain an independent charter to create word-processing applications under Lifetree founder Camilo Wilson, who will be a WordStar vice president. Industry analysts praise the acquisition. Domestic sales have been lagging for the company. The acquisition of Lifetree expands the company's presence in terms of platform and product type, bringing in products that can be marketed to the entire word processing user base. Grammar checkers are expected to become an integral part of many word processing packages and other applications like presentation graphics software. The Lifetree Macintosh grammar checker may also aid the company in moving into the Mac environment. DEC first to launch OSF/1; Motif for Sun users. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC has unveiled the first OSF/1 toolkit to bring Open Software Foundation technology standards to its platforms, hoping to grab market share and platform presence in the academic research and commercial software development fields. The company is seeding the software developer and university market by putting the toolkit on the DEC platform. DEC has also announced a Motif user interface toolkit and a toolkit for building Motif applications, both for Sun Microsystems workstations. The vendor wants the products to help it penetrate the Sun installed base and integrate Sun workstations in large systems. Large corporations want Motif, and DEC sees this need as a chance to put Motif on Sun workstations. Sun Microsystems does not offer or support Motif on its platforms. Company officials point out that barriers between different vendors' products are dropping. Car VAR serves up systems. (Computer Systems Division of Reynolds & Reynolds Co., value-added reseller) The Computer Systems Division of VAR Reynolds and Reynolds offers information-processing systems to US and foreign automobile dealerships. The company has unveiled a number of product enhancements and joint agreements to streamline its clients' service capabilities. The changes were introduced at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention and are meant to address dealership worries over sluggish car sales. Car dealers are seeking methods for improving business performance by achieving greater control over existing automation function and obtaining additional functions for existing programs. A major portion of additional control is necessary for the parts and service side of the business as well as the body shop. Recent NADA figures show that while service and parts account for just 15 percent of the average dealer's sales, they represent 64 percent of profits. The VAR has unveiled release 6.0 of its Unix-based ERA in-house computer system. TI signs first VAR for notebooks. (Texas Instruments, value-added reseller, notebook computers) Texas Instruments, as part of a strategy to increase its presence in key vertical markets, has signed insurance value-added reseller International Computer Marketing Corp to market its TravelMate 2000 and TravelMate 3000 notebook portable computers. The agreement is the first for TI to supply the TravelMate Line directly through the VAR channel. TI had marketed the units previously to some 2,000 resellers exclusively through industry distributors. The vendor is also working with other vertical VARs to create new markets for its TravelMate line of Intel 80386-based notebook computers. Few VARs will be able to attain the volume commitments required to work with the vendor directly, but company officials believe that additional revenue can be captured by placing with VARs in key vertical markets. Competitive advantage found not only in money, but in time. (The Pipeline) (column) The basic premise of 'Time-Based Competition' by George Stalk and Thomas Hout is the idea that focusing on reducing the amount of time necessary to service a client will automatically reduce the overall costs of serving that client and increase quality, optimize value-add and lower risks while increasing the pace of innovation. Extensive research confirms this. Knowing what to do is different from knowing how to do it, and Innovative approaches are often lost for the lack of effective implementation. The book offers some ideas especially relevant to the current computer reseller channel. The highly profitable clients are the time-sensitive buyers. Not all time-based competitors target these customers. Time-based superstore competitors work to reduce the amount of time between making decisions and taking action to cut overall costs. The bulk of these savings are passed on to customers in the form of discounts. Time, in short, is not only money but competitive advantage. ASCII Group holds steady: the buying network keeps its identity intact. The ASCII Group in 1984 was considered an industry freak whose membership of independent computer resellers would eventually be swallowed up by more durable franchisors. ASCII is still alive in 1991 and many of its competitors have been swallowed up. ASCII remains a buying group that lets independent dealers get discounts from large distributors. The organization is often described by outsiders as an association of mostly clone resellers with the ability to negotiate. Those skills have proven both threatening and amusing to larger competitors. Group officials are setting down roots by decreeing loyalty to a select few reseller partners. ASCII has endeared itself to distribution giants like Ingram Micro and Merisel by declining to warehouse any product and foregoing alliances with smaller regional distributors. The group's agreement with Inacomp Computer Centers will offer ASCII resellers authorization as Inacomp affiliates. Group officials feel that ASCII programs will be copied by franchise aggregators. Dealers weight shortage of Macintosh Classic: backlog seems 'solid.' Back orders for the Apple Macintosh Classic are so great the vendor expects it will be at least the 3rd qtr of 1991 before supply catches up with demand. Many resellers are left with little to sell at the low end of the Macintosh line. One division of franchisor Intelligent Electronics (IE) reports a Classic backlog of between 17,000 and 20,000 units. The reseller say they are consistently 30 days behind. Apple tells IE that shortages will clear up in Apr 1991, but IE says they have been hearing 'next month' since Dec 1990. Dealers do not seem to be over-ordering in order to make up for short supplies. Industry analysts estimate that Apple will sell between 850,000 and one million Classic systems worldwide in 1991. Sales of the Classic represent the quickest ramp-up of any product in the company's history. CompuCom enlarges management ranks. (CompuCom Systems Inc.) CompuCom Systems Inc is moving to enhance its management structure with the announcement of several important promotions. The company reported growth of over 26 percent in 1990. The chain's expansion to 31 branch offices has caused the management buildup and the recruitment of new managers for both field operations and the corporate infrastructure. Bob Donalson has been appointed vice president of the professional services division. David Posey will replace Donalson as regional vice president for the Southeast. The professional services division handles handles network support and integration services and has become increasingly critical for customer service. Philip Wise was recently appointed senior vice president for product management and will continue to be responsible for the company's relationships with computer product vendors and for managing the firm's distribution system and product inventory. Robert Boutin has been appointed senior vice president and will continue as chief financial officer. Morti Tenehaus has also been appointed senior vice president and will remain as chief information officer. Volatility in sales channel stocks part of the 'chain.' (Taking Stock) (column) Interest in computer reseller stocks prior to the stock market rally beginning on Jan 17 1991, was mediocre at best. The situation is changing rapidly with small stocks back in favor; secondary stock have lagged in performance behind larger stocks, and technology stock have been behind secondary stocks. The sales channel stocks are at the very end of that ranking. Intelligent Electronics is the only public company in that arena left with an unblemished record. Others, aside from carrying the burden of association with technology, have undergone drops in earnings, bad acquisitions and buyouts. Leading channel stocks have doubled or tripled in value since bottoming out in early winter. The improved performance may not be over. Regionals retaliate: Three regionals sign agreements to provide 24-hour support. (regional distributors) Rhino Sales Co, Fenton, MI; GBC Distributors, Berline, NJ; and Graydon-Sherman Inc, Orange, NJ have all signed contracts with 900 Support Inc, a toll-based telephone support organization in Lake Oswego, OR. These distributors can offer value-added resellers (VARs) and their clients quality technical support on a 24-hour basis. The main purpose is off-hour support. The support line, which was launched in Dec 1989, connects users to a certified technical staff capable of diagnosing and resolving problems with Novell NetWare via 900 telephone services. 900 Support officials say the chance to offer high-end support at any time brings a new level of competition to the channel. Regional distributors are unable to pay for support services themselves but do not want to turn customers away; 900 Support lets them offer support in much the same manner as the national distributors. VARs can use the service as an effective marketing tool. PC Distributing hopes to gain $20M with purchase of Tel-Matic Systems: regionals retaliate. PC Distributing has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Tel-Matic Systems Inc, a Toledo, OH-based distributor. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed but PC Distributing officials indicated the move should result in $20 million in additional revenue for the company. The purchase results in the acquisition of two enterprises: a microcomputer products distribution company and six Novell-sanctioned training centers. Organizationally, the acquisition will result in two companies: a distributor and a wholly-owned subsidiary called Professional Computer Development Corp, whose core business will be training. The six Tel-Matic training centers will be combined with PC Distributing's training facility. The acquisition is a part of an overall plan to grow through product expansion, operations improvement and acquisition. It is also evidence of the company's aggressive stance in a recessionary economy. Officials say the company is growing 40 percent annually and want to capitalize on Tel-Matic's management experience and their focus on technical support and training. Vitek continues growth with three key vendor deals, new Chicago facility: regionals retaliate. (Vitek Systems Distribution) Vitek Systems Distribution is continuing its growth with the signing of three key vendor contracts and the addition of a facility in Chicago. The company has signed agreements with The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), Link Technologies and Intel's Personal Computer Enhancement Division. All are part of an overall plan to enhance expansion by acting as a full service organization, according to company officials. The company's mission is the delivery of complete solutions. Vitek is a Unix specialist and under its agreement with SCO will distribute Open System Software products, including SCO Unix System V/386 and SCO Xenix System V. The company will also distribute Link Technologies' selection of ASCII, ANSI and multiuser computer terminals. Intel has signed Vitek to distribute in facsimile boards and local area network products. Ingram Micro adds vendors, broadens offerings. Ingram Micro has signed with three new vendors to expand its scanner and printer lines, tape backup products and token-ring offerings. An agreement has been signed with Canon Inc allowing Ingram Micro to distribute Canon printers and scanners throughout the US. Ingram will carry the complete line of Canon's letter-quality and laser printers along with the Canon Image Scanner. The agreement is significant, according to company officials, because of Canon's reputation as a leader in technological research and development. An agreement has also been signed with Colorado Memory Systems, whose principal products are the Jumbo 120, Jumbo 250 and the GFA-700 tape-drive subsystems. The significance of this agreement lies in Colorado Memory's prominence in the high-capacity, low-cost tape-market segment. The third agreement was signed with Proteon Inc for the distribution of Proteon's token-ring microcomputer local area network products. Advanced Data Products sets $100M sales goal. Advanced Data Products, an East Coast distributor specializing in Unix and networking product lines, plans to reach $100 million in sales by 1994. Sales are projected to reach $45 million in 1991, $62 million in 1992, $85 million in 1993 and $100 million in 1994. Two sales and warehouse locations have been added and an additional five vendors signed. Company officials feel that in spite of the distributor's small size they can compete favorably by offering more technical expertise, better personalized services and better accessibility to resellers. Strong telephone support for the Unix and networking product lines has helped to solidify business ties with dealers. Quality control, training and accountability systems will be installed by Jun 1991. Company officials say the firm is well-positioned in spite of a sluggish economy. The company experienced a 26 percent growth increase in 1990. Finding a balance between technology and creativity. (Corporate Closeup) (column) Software engineers are advised, when creating a new program, to step back and approach software design with a broader view. Social issues and demographic trends should be evaluated and space must be allowed for intuition. Designers need to find the balance point between creativity and technology and add fresh insights to software design. The result should be software packages that are more process-driven and less talk-oriented and that equip users to deal with current marketplace trends. Management expertise increasingly scarce due to the decline in the workforce, and it will be necessary to adjust from traditional to more functional structures with flattened hierarchies. The software must change along with the workplace. The interdepartmental paralysis that happens when complicated technologies are not deployed enterprisewide will be more widespread if it does not. The 1990s demand a broader view than that imposed by task-oriented software designers. Some wait for key apps before moving to Windows. (applications) Boyd, Wallace. Many microcomputer users are resisting the move to Windows 3.0 until certain applications are ported to the platform. The MIS department at Sea-Land Service Inc notes that some microcomputer users have remained with their old character-based applications although the company is offering Windows-based applications like Microsoft Word for Windows and Ami Pro by Lotus Development. Company officials say that they have many users with Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect who have assumed a wait-and-see attitude. Both vendors have confirmed that they do not yet offer Windows versions of their applications but expect to do so by the end of 1991. Information resource officials at Georgia-Pacific have pressured vendors to port their products to Windows since committing to the platform in Sep 1990. Georgia-Pacific users continue to use character-based versions of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and Paradox. Many Windows users retain their older applications and migrate as Windows versions become available, rather than waiting until more are available or migrating completely and abandoning existing applications. Microsoft offers free assistance: Support Coordinator Program designed for MIS managers. Microsoft plans to enhance its corporate support offerings with the introduction of a free Support Coordinator Program in Mar 1991 for Fortune 500 MIS employees. The program is one of several designed to help enhance interaction between Microsoft and its corporate accounts. It is similar to programs created by IBM and Apple Computer and is designed to give MIS managers access to technical data, training materials, electronic media, support and information exchange with the vendor. The program will be expanded by 1993 to include multiple members of a division, according to Microsoft officials. A formal local area network (LAN) evaluation program will be released soon which will include information on how to install a LAN, how to evaluate the network and how to install special support. Cuts draw tepid response. (price cuts on Apple Macintosh IIci and IIfx) Apple Macintosh users are reportedly enthusiastic about the potential of price cuts on the Macintosh IIci and IIfx, but most users interviewed say they do not plan to purchase more IIfx systems. The vendor is expected to reduce the list price of the two models by 20 percent in Mar 1991. Street prices are expected to come down 15 to 25 percent. The list price for the IIci will be $4,775 and the IIfx $7,175. Both Compaq and IBM have also cut prices on some of their models. The Apple price cuts are attributed to both competition and lower production costs. The high-end models will be more attractive to corporations if the prices are reduced. Two issues have kept the Mac out of MIS--price and networking. Price was partially addressed with the debut of the Macintosh Classic, IIsi and LC, but these models do not have enough power or flexibility to serve many business users. User group adapts to declining membership. (International Mini/Microcomputer Information Exchange) The International Mini/Microcomputer Information Exchange (TIMIX), which serves users of Texas Instruments (TI) computers, has witnessed a decline in membership, reduction of activities and condensation of staff. Group officials blame the trend on TI's low market share and the market in general. Twelve paid employees ran the TIMIX offices in 1984. Five people run the organization in 1991. The number of conferences has also been reduced to one per year. Financial support comes entirely from membership dues and conference fees; TI supplies only speakers and conference exhibitions. TIMIX found it hard to find new members when the vendor moved away from direct, end-user sales into channel-based sales. The next conference will be held in Houston, TX Apr 7-9, 1991 and will feature sessions on third-party software, networking, databases, system interconnectivity and marketing techniques. Adobe improves font format: DEC, Quark strengthen offerings at Seybold. (Adobe Systems, Digital Equipment) Adobe Systems assumed the spotlight at the Seybold Publishing Conference with the unveiling of a new technology that offers additional control and flexibility over font design. The new products are called Multiple Master typefaces and will generate an infinite number of variations between two master designs. The new fonts are extensions of the existing PostScript Type 1 font format, a competitor of Apple and Microsoft's True Type font format. The user and software now control multiple dimensions of typeface design, according to Adobe officials. The new open-ended technology gives users control over width, weight, style and size of a typeface. Currently users purchase fixed typefaces in a single package. The technology will be licensed to third party developers. DEC and Adobe have signed a licensing and distribution agreement offering DEC access to Adobe's Type Library for use on networked VMS-based and Ultrix systems. Quark has upgraded QuarkXPress 3.1 with 40 features, including a new color palette and the ability to update the software with new versions. PacBell taps Intel to bolster net service. (Pacific Bell Data Communications Group's network equipment and service marketing Pacific Bell creates a pact with Intel Corp to market network integration services and equipment in conjunction with its Data Communications Group. The group, which has access to Pacific Bell's sales and support staff, plans to target small-to-medium California businesses with $50 million to $250 million in annual revenue. The pact strengthens the telecommunications company's efforts to become a comprehensive network integrator and servicer. Pacific Bell, with Intel's Network and Services Division, intends to market Novell Inc's NetWare and Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating systems; SynOptics Communications Inc's and Cabletron System Inc's 10BaseT wiring hubs; and Intel's 80386- and 80486-based network servers and FastPath connectivity products. Compaq's factory push: Andersen, Sears alliance to measure integrators' clout in manufacturing market. (Compaq Computer Compaq Computer Corp pursues a marketing agreement with Andersen Consulting and Sears, Roebuck and Co's Sears Business Centers to sell its microcomputers and servers to manufacturers. Andersen Consulting ports its own applications onto Compaq's SystemPro network servers. The servers and microcomputers are being used by companies downsizing and cutting the costs of their large-scale factory floor systems. Observers predict that Andersen Consulting will have to pay large amounts of money to market the Compaq platform. Under terms of the agreement, Andersen Consulting can resell Compaq computers it purchases from Sears as an authorized dealer affiliate. Some manufacturers are turning to microcomputers to replace their minicomputers and mainframes, but analysts claim that the larger computers offer better security, fault tolerance and control. Potential customers express concern about the cost of Compaq products. Re-engineering tools reinvigorate CASE: IBM, Coopers, others disclose initiatives. (computer-aided software engineering; IBM, Coopers & Lybrand Inc, Price Waterhouse and Co, and Bell Atlantic Systems Integration Corp, among other companies, announce development of re-engineering software development tool products and services. Re-engineering involves utilization of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) and reverse-engineering to create an updated and enhanced version of an existing applications program. Manufacturing systems that have many lines of programming and financial institutions that need to update applications rapidly are seen as prime candidates for re-engineering products. Of the $2.3 billion CASE software market, re-engineering and maintenance tools account for only $55 million in sales. Only 10 percent of the software developers in the US use CASE tools. IBM reveals bid to wrest EDS air deal: claims Continental can save $20 million a year. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Continental IBM submits a bid to gain a facilities management contract from Continental Airlines Holdings Inc claiming it can save the airline holding company $20 million over the contract's 10-year period compared to a proposal made by Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS). EDS' $2.1 billion bid proposes to save Continental Airlines Holdings $5.3 million in the first year. The contract is important to IBM because Continental Airlines Holdings' System One Corp computerized reservation subsidiary is a reseller of IBM's PS/2 and AS/400 computers and owes $80 million to IBM Credit Corp. IBM's offer differs from EDS's in that it proposes to subcontract System One employees rather than take them on as personnel. IBM has a law suit against EDS that claims it fraudulently lent money to Continental Airlines Holdings' Airline Services Division and is using that loan to purchase the division. IBM client/server emerges; shifts proprietary SNA to peer-type network. (announcement of Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking; IBM announces its Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) protocol for OS/2 Extended Edition (EE) and its 3174 Establishment Controller. The two networking protocols allow local-area network (LAN) workstations to communicate through the Systems Network Architecture (SNA) without host intervention. IBM also includes APPN protocols in a subset of Systems Application Architecture (SAA), which is available in the public domain. Companies obtaining the protocols include Apple, Novell Inc, Systems Strategies Inc and Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG. The new protocols are part of IBM's strategy to change SNA into a peer-type network. IBM's other client/server plans include APPN and OS/2 EE support of Logical Unit 6.2 and SAA's Programming Interface for Communications (CPI-C). IBM, HP in RISC workstation face-off. (IBM's RISC System/6000 workstation and POWERserver 950 file server; HP's HP700 IBM announces enhancements to its Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) System/6000 workstations and the introduction of its POWERserver 950 file server to compete with HP's $12,000 to $20,000 HP 700 series workstations. The POWERserver 950 is a faster version of IBM's POWERserver 930 and has the internal equipment from the POWERstation 550 that runs at 54 million instructions per second (MIPS). Enhancements to IBM's lower-end RS/6000 include a 25 percent faster clock speed for the POWERstation and POWERserver 320. IBM is also adding new graphics with a single card for high-end computers, and is adding to its X Window terminal products. HP's low-end 700 series workstations run at between 57 to 59 MIPS and 14 million floating point operations per second (MFLOPS). Oracle to debut DBMS for multiprocessors. (Oracle Corp.'s Oracle 7.0 data base management system) (product announcement) Oracle Corp develops its Oracle 7.0 data base management system to run on DEC VAXcluster environments. The data base engine supports both multiprocessing and parallel processing architectures and both Pyramid Technology Corp and Sequent Computer Systems Inc plan to use it on the parallel and multiprocessor versions of their Unix systems. In addition, 50 percent of Oracle's DEC VAX site users are VAXcluster customers who have been waiting for multiprocessing on-line transaction processing capabilities since Oracle 6.0's release in 1989. The software previously could only be run in a single instance mode due to technical problems with Oracle 6.0 and DEC's VMS operating system. The new version should solve these problems as well as giving Oracle a way to move into the massively parallel processing market. EDS, SAP forge alliance in manufacturing arena. (Electronic Data Systems Corp. to offer SAP America Inc.'s R/2 System integrated Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) enters agreement with SAP America Inc to market SAP's R/2 System integrated manufacturing software to multinational corporations in the chemical, petroleum and pharmaceutical industries. EDS is not a reseller of the software, but acts as a vehicle for introducing SAP America's product to geographical areas in which EDS already has a foothold. EDS introduces R/2 System via its Integrated Subsidiary System, a program that provides networking and other computing services to multinational corporations. EDS also runs SAP America's software on its own mainframes, selling the service to customers without their own systems. DEC networks printers. (DECfonts Collection computer font) (product announcement) DEC announces its $420 DECfonts Collection computer font software that allows users on a multivendor network to send documents with fonts over their network without the receiver having to license the font on a particular printer. The software package is based on licensing agreements with various font publishers including Adobe Systems Inc. DEC uses its Network Application Support software to facilitate the use of DECfonts Collection over networks using multivendor products. The $420 price is for single-network use. DEC sells the product through a combination of its direct sales force, resellers, and network integrators. DEC also announces four laser printers starting at $1,499 and DECprint Printing Services that allows Apple Macintosh, microcomputers and VMS users to contact and manage DEC's Postscript printers anywhere on a network. CSC seeks unified commercial arm; outsourcing link remains elusive. (Computer Sciences Corp.'s CSC Consulting division) Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) works on its outsourcing business endeavors by consolidating the operations of its CSC Consulting commercial integration organization. CSC Consulting comprises Computer Partners Inc, Index Group Inc and Cleveland Consulting Associates Inc, all of which were purchased by CSC between 1986 and 1989. CSC is diversifying its federal integration business through these companies and is also trying to bolster its outsourcing operations as well as its facilities management and remote processing business. The several companies making up CSC Consulting now perform the functions of a dedicated commercial outsourcing unit. CSC is tying the work of the commercial group firms together through a global methodology that defines the company's approach to planning and building commercial market systems. Del Monte pact in the can for EDS. (Electronic Data Systems Corp.'s system integration contract with Del Monte Foods) Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) wins a system integration contract with Del Monte Foods to update aging IBM Series I minicomputers with IBM AS/400 units at 30 manufacturing sites and distribution centers. The two-year contract, with an option to be extended to five years, involves EDS designing network modifications to tie the minicomputers to Del Monte's IBM 3090 mainframe data center. The contract also involves the subcontracting of System Software Associates Inc and use of its manufacturing software product. EDS will develop code not covered by System Software Associates' package and will replace Del Monte's in-house custom code. The integration contract may be a lead for EDS to provide facilities management services for Del Monte in the future. Note of caution. (skepticism of KnowledgeWare Inc.'s earnings future) (Street Talk) (column) Analysts believe that computer-aided software engineering (CASE) program developer KnowledgeWare Inc derives its high revenues from an aggressive pricing and support policy that causes users to upgrade unnecessarily. KnowledgeWare is expected to enjoy further success in the near future as it branches into the European market. Recent successes of the company are seen as temporary, however. Industry analysts claim that the software publisher's cogenerator is a weak link in its CASE product. The company also faces new competition from the recent merger of Index Technology Corp and Sage Software. Unify equals diversify: eyes database applications. (Unify Software Corp.) Unify Software Corp's financial stability appears secure despite sluggish sales of its Accell program development environment. Sales of Accell provide little revenue and Unify's data base engine sales are accounting for less of the company's total revenue. The company remains profitable, however, reporting nearly $30 million in sales for fiscal year 1990. Unify receives per-unit license fees whenever an application is developed using Accell, on top of the revenue from the sale of the product. Accell-developed applications can be run on Unify's own data base engine as well as Oracle Corp and Sybase Inc's data bases. New era for outsourcing: contracts get smaller and more specialized. The outsourcing market grows from data center management to include the servicing of selective information systems functions. Smaller-scale projects include management of local area networks, microcomputers and systems software. Demand for selective outsourcing rises from the popularity of networked computing and client/server architectures. MIS managers find it increasingly difficult to manage multiple-architecture systems that have arrived with the shift in computing from mainframes to workstations. Outsourcing companies develop specific services to satisfy the new market trend. IBM's Network Traffic Analysis service addresses problems with Systems Network Architecture (SNA) networks. DEC creates a hardware maintenance unit that handles outsourcing called Desktop Services. Power Computing lifts off; persistent upstart targets outsourcing. Halper, Mark. Power Computing Co relies less on data processing and supercomputing services for revenue as it expands its outsourcing activities. The company's outsourcing business is expanding at a 50 percent rate, but it still accounts for less than one-half of Power Computing's total business. Most of Power Computing's customers had other outsourcers originally performing their duties, but Power Computing also searches out contracts from first-time outsourcers as well. The company also has customers purchasing outsourcing services that once came to the company for supercomputing processing. Power Computing's data center contains IBM mainframes, a Cray Research Inc supercomputer and Control Data Corp Cyber computers. Price overhaul constrained by product rules. (Price Waterhouse) (Project Analysis) Price Waterhouse hires PC Solutions Inc to install a completely new computer network at its Pittsburgh, PA office. Price Waterhouse's national office specifications require the use of IBM's Token Ring local area networks (LANs), Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system and Compaq computers. Price Waterhouse requires each desktop to be able to access all resources, in-house application development abilities and future growth capabilities. PC Solutions provides Price Waterhouse with a token-ring network for the workstation, but implements an Ethernet backbone for linking Compaq servers. Network users are tied into departmental servers that are connected through the Ethernet backbone to other departmental servers. The backbone centralizes all network communications resources. The new system has five servers and is expandable to over 250. Mainframers' mad dash: IBM retains advantage over competitors. (Market Report) IBM hopes to retain its mainframe computer market-share dominance with the multiprocessor features of its ES/9000 mainframe. Amdahl Corp and Hitachi Data Systems Corp both have mainframes that compete with IBM in terms of basic processor speeds, but IBM's product has faster multiprocessor speeds. Analysts believe that IBM can retain its market dominance until 1992 when all three manufacturers will be selling their newer mainframes in volume. Price and vendor loyalty are expected to be determining factors then. Amdahl's 5995 line of computers support IBM's ESCON fiber-optic channel architecture and the Sysplex dedicated processor configuration. Amdahl is also the only mainframe vendor with a strong Unix mainframe version, the UTS operating system. Hitachi Data Systems' competing products are its EX310 and EX420 computers. Pay, adventure draw IS job seekers to Kuwait. (information systems)(After the War) Many frustrated or adventurous information systems (IS) personnel are eagerly seeking jobs in Kuwait in the wake of the Persian Gulf war, which has led to a $50 billion recovery effort. An oversupply of IS managers in the US is stimulating demand for overseas positions. Bechtel Corp is recruiting data processing, contract management and other personnel; IBM has no large-scale hiring program, but has received many calls from people who want to work in Kuwait. Andersen Consulting has won a contract to restore Kuwait Airways Corp's facilities and systems. SAA hits open systems track. (Systems Application Architecture) Ambrosio, Johanna. IBM plans to offer more open systems features in its Systems Application Architecture and bring SAA links to its Unix-based AIX operating system. The company plans an announcement for late 1991 that is expected to detail plans for providing connectivity with non-IBM equipment and ways of mixing and matching elements of AIX and SAA. Open systems elements IBM plans to incorporate include the Posix interface, the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment and a distributed transaction processing monitor. Users are pleased with the new strategy, and IBM officials say they are adopting an open systems view in response to user demands for standardization. Specific elements in IBM's open systems strategy will include a native version of AIX for the System/390 mainframe, a port of the OS/2 Extended Edition database to AIX and AIX versions of the AD/Cycle development environment. Give this programmer sun, surf and software. (profile of Jack Geis) Veteran programmer Jack Geis sold his possessions and moved to St. John in the US Virgin Islands to escape urban congestion, but found himself able to work in a consulting capacity through telecommuting technology. He set up his own consulting shop, Island Programming, and worked for Machine Industries Inc, his former employer, on a part-time basis. Geis lives in his retired parents' mountaintop home and programs using a 20-MHz 80386-based microcomputer and a Scientific Micro Systems minicomputer. He installed a dedicated telephone line for telecommuting, uploading data with a 9,600-bps modem. Geis states that 75 to 80 percent of his work is done in an unusual language called NCL/APT, a subset of the APT language used in the aerospace industry. IBM seeks converts to peer-to-peer plan. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) IBM has launched a major Systems Network Architecture marketing initiative designed to make its SNA-based Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) more attractive to LAN users. The company is expanding APPN from the AS/400 minicomputer platform to OS/2 Extended Edition, the IBM 3174 Establishment Controller and non-IBM systems. APPN offers the dynamic routing, directory and configuration capabilities essential for effective peer-to-peer SNA networking. Current AS/400 APPN users say it simplifies resource tracking across multiple systems, but observers say that microcomputer LAN users are unlikely to migrate Novell NetWare and NetBIOS applications to IBM's LU6.2 protocol just to take advantage of APPN. Apple has already endorsed APPN, opening the potential for Macintosh users to call up SNA through the Mac's 'chooser' function. ICC, Cambex settle parts suit. (IBM Credit Corp, Cambex Corp.) Margolis, Nell. IBM Credit Corp has settled its lawsuit against plug-compatible memory vendor Cambex Corp out of court. The dispute between the companies involved Cambex' alleged illegal 'stripping' and selling of parts from leased IBM equipment. Cambex has agreed to abide by the letter of all ICC leasing terms and not sell or sublease any ICC-owned computer without written permission. It will pay $5.9 million to ICC in return for all charges against it being dropped. Analysts say the agreement could cause Cambex customers to shy away from upgrading leased machines with third-party memory because it sends a message that users as well as lessors could be viewed as party to allegedly illegal parts sales. Apple wins key court round. (Apple Computer Inc.) Daly, James. US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker has struck down several key defense motions in the long-standing copyright battle between Apple Computer Inc and its graphical interface rivals HP and Microsoft, upholding Apple's claim that the visual elements of the Macintosh screen display were not part of Apple's 1985 technology licensing agreement with Microsoft. The suit, filed by Apple in Mar 1988, charges that overlapping windows, icon manipulation and other audio and visual elements of the Mac are original and entitled to copyright protection. Some analysts say that the runaway success of Microsoft's Windows graphical interface has hurt Mac sales, noting that Apple could draw huge royalty payments from Microsoft if it prevails. The legal drama is more important to vendors than users, who say it will not affect their purchasing plans. User gripes on OS/2 to spur IBM marketing blitz. Keefe, Patricia. IBM reportedly plans an intense marketing initiative for the OS/2 operating system that will involve a series of promotions, marketing agreements and road shows. Observers say that IBM urgently needs to launch such a drive in order to ensure OS/2's future. Users are deserting OS/2 in favor of Microsoft's Windows graphical interface, and developers have long since staked their fortunes on Windows due to IBM's failure to give a clear statement of its OS/2 direction. IBM is dispatching executives to reassure user groups and information systems managers that OS/2 is a viable operating system and providing financial incentives to developers who program for OS/2. The computer giant reportedly also plans to cut the price of both OS/2 itself and the OS/2 software developers kit significantly. It may also bundle OS/2 with its 80386- and 80486-based PS/2 systems. No limelight for OS/2 at show. (Windows and OS/2 Conference) Daly, James. Microsoft Windows dominated the 1991 Windows and OS/2 Conference in San Jose, CA, indicating that many users and developers believe OS/2 and Presentation Manager are moribund. Many of the show's 15,000 attendees who came to see the latest developments for Presentation Manager were disappointed, while Windows programmers crowded into a series of workshops. Nearly 50 firms exhibited Windows programming tools on the show floor. Those once sold on OS/2 are now having second thoughts; OS/2 is technologically superior to DOS, but Windows is easier to place atop the vast installed base of DOS microcomputers. The current Windows 3.0 resembles Presentation Manager, and Microsoft is committed to putting OS/2-like features into the graphical interface. Not all users are discounting Presentation Manager; some note that it is a superior solution for multiprocessing machines. Displaywrite, Xywrite on the way out. (IBM Displaywrite, Xyquest Xywrite word processing software) IBM has confirmed an exclusive marketing and joint development agreement with word processing vendor Xyquest Inc in a move that signals the end of future major upgrades of both IBM's DisplayWrite and Xyquest's XyWrite character-based word processors. The two companies are developing Signature, a next-generation product line that will be offered on the DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows platforms. IBM says it will continue to provide minor interim upgrades to DisplayWrite and extend support for DisplayWrite 4.2 and 5.0 through 1992. Most Signature development is taking place at Xyquest; the next version of Xywrite will be repackaged as Signature, according to Xyquest officials. DisplayWrite users, who face the largest learning curve, will be offered file compatibility and the ability to remap their keyboards to the DisplayWrite interface. NCR changes anti-AT&T tone. (NCR Corp. unlikely to stop AT&T's hostile takeover bid) NCR Corp is attempting to restructure its board of directors as a defensive tactic against AT&T's hostile takeover bid, but analysts say the move is unlikely to do more than slow AT&T down. NCR stock recently reached a high of 97 1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange, slightly above AT&T's $90-per-share tender offer for the company. The rise in the stock market may force AT&T to sweeten its offer, according to observers. NCR wants the option of adding as many as eight new members to its board, and NCR Chmn Charles E. Exley Jr. is meeting with Wall Street analysts who recommend that the firm sell out. NCR is incorporated under the laws of Maryland, which allow it to expand the board from 12 to 20 members; if AT&T succeeded in ousting part of the board before the company's regular annual meeting, new members could rejoin the expanded board. Client/server craze driving growth in software market. (client/server architecture) A recent report by Sentry Market Research indicates that the corporate rush to implement distributed computing and client/server architecture is driving the software market. The overall software market is expected to grow 15 percent in 1991, and programming tools are the biggest growth area because firms are porting applications from mainframes and minicomputers to microcomputer client/server configurations. Commercial applications nevertheless continue to consume 41 percent of the average survey respondent's software budget; data center management software has 29 percent of the budget. Development tools and networking software each account for another 13 percent. Kraft drives vendor integration efforts. (Kraft General Foods Inc. contracts with HP, Allen-Bradley Co for computer-integrated Kraft General Foods Inc successfully drove a strategic alliance between HP and Allen-Bradley Co when it arranged a meeting with representatives of both firms and stated that it wanted tighter integration between its HP Unix processors and Allen-Bradley computer-integrated manufacturing controllers. The two firms announced their first integrated, high-performance manufacturing solution at a joint meeting held in Mar 1991 with Kraft officials on hand. Allen-Bradley is building a networked version of its Data Tape Library application programming interface for Kraft. The software will run on HP's 9000-series Unix workstations over an Ethernet network via Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Allen-Bradley officials emphasize that they are still fully committed to the Open Systems Interconnection Manufacturing Automation Protocol, which is replacing TCP/IP in many installations. Technology addresses clash of mice and menus. (Microsoft Corp. announces Ballpoint Mouse) (product announcement) Microsoft introduces the Ballpoint Mouse, a combination trackball/mouse device designed for use with portable computers. The hybrid pointing device clamps onto the edge of a portable keyboard using a two-pronged adjustable clamp designed to fit Compaq, Toshiba, Zenith Data Systems, NEC and Grid Systems laptops. Compaq will ship the Ballpoint Mouse free of charge to anyone purchasing a Compaq LTE or SLT portable between Mar 11 and Jun 30, 1991. Microsoft will not offer the Ballpoint itself until this period is over. Object databases within users' sight. (object-oriented data bases) Harrington, Maura J. New multimedia technologies are bringing 'object databases' based on the emerging object-oriented programming technology to users' desktops. Object-oriented databases use objects or icons as key identifiers; each object represents an individual set of rules, and the code assigned to a rule can be easily modified or updated without affecting the entire database. Obstacles to implementing the new technology include a shortage of programmers familiar with object-oriented techniques and a lack of standards for multimedia hardware and software. Many information systems managers nevertheless find the potential of the new technology alluring. Aldus Corp hopes to complete a multimedia E-mail application by 1993 and offer a server-based 'intelligent agent' that could be used to personalize each desktop microcomputer on a network. Analysts say that users will require some convincing before they are willing to invest in new technology. Corporate MIS managers will have to recognize the need for a more dynamic type of database that can manage today's document structures. A recent study identified three 'growth stages' for multimedia; the first will last through 1994 and involve primarily sales of specialized multimedia databases and interactive programs, while the second and third phases will focus on the office desktop and consumer products markets. The truth about data. Autry, James A. Many prevailing beliefs about the use of computer technology in business are untrue, particularly the claims that computers reduce paperwork and that computer-generated data simplifies decision making. Computerized information systems create more paperwork than they eliminate, and raw data has little to do with decision making. Decisions are not based on a computer but on the accumulated conscious and subconscious wisdom of a lifetime. Treating data processing as an end in itself has virtually enslaved many managers. Modern business relies on computers for convenience, but human decision makers who can base their actions on instinct are far more vital to an organization. Research constricted by inadequate funding. (high-technology research) Scientific and technological research at US universities and colleges suffers severely from a lack of funds; many of the best and brightest researchers are discouraged because they cannot afford to train gifted graduate students or obtain state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Recent funding increases have not offset decreases in earlier years. Industrial and national laboratories must be given priority in any new national science policy. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has published a report which concludes that the infrastructure of academic research may crumble as demoralized professors retire early or abandon their research activities. Scientific research has produced tremendous benefits in our economic prosperity and must continue if the US is to retain its international position. The United States has a gross national product of $5 trillion and a $1.3 trillion federal budget; a government thoroughly committed to science could do virtually anything necessary for our national well-being. The AAAS has proposed forming a commission to study the research funding problem and propose solutions. Shifting psychology. (DEC aggressively marketing RDB database in wake of financial difficulties at Oracle, Ingres) (Commentary) DEC has seized on recent upheavals among independent relational database software vendors to increase its own market share through aggressive promotion of its RDB product. RDB has never been known for speed, and Oracle and Ingres Corp each managed to grab more than 20 percent of the relational database market for DEC VAX systems. Oracle's financial difficulties and Ingres' acquisition by Ask Computer Systems have weakened user perceptions of the two companies' products, a situation DEC's sales force capitalized on in 1990 by offering a free runtime version of RDB. The marketing battles between DEC and its rivals are beginning to shift user psychology; some users are evaluating RDB as a replacement for allegedly overpriced and under-supported third-party products. Oracle 6.0 is not recommended for use on Vaxclusters, although a new version, Oracle 6.2, for Vaxclusters is due out in Mar 1991. DEC can take advantage of user fear and uncertainty about Ingres' future when comparing RDB with the Ingres database, but few Ingres users have abandoned Ingres yet. Independent software vendors retain the advantage of flexibility; their products can run in a variety of software environments. Users improvise on IMS, DB2 coexistence. (IBM mainframe databases) Hamilton, Rosemary. IBM plans to release a user guide to providing coexistence between its IMS and DB2 databases and migrating applications, but many users say that the guide is too little and too late. Users state that merging the environments is not a new problem, and many have relied on their own solutions. The approach to IMS and DB2 coexistence depends on which database is more critical to the operation of the organization and the relative urgency of migrating to DB2. Some users develop their own software for managing mixed IMS and DB2 shops, while others rely on IBM tools or third-party products. Many users mix and match database management techniques. Some clearly segregate IMS and DB2 applications while allowing them to share data. IMS is a hierarchical database, while DB2 is a relational database; users generally find them suitable for different applications. Users are also working with independent systems integrators to solve the problems associated with database connectivity. Northwest productivity takes off with imaging; airline gets data out faster, with smaller staff. (Northwest Airlines) Northwest Airlines is deploying a massive document imaging system to capture and process ticket stubs printed by travel agents and gate agents and carried by its passengers. The system supports 450 users and helps it bring its processing load up to date, generating revenue and audit reports on time rather than months after the fact. Northwest's 20-year-old manual processing system required revenue and marketing departments to conduct a 5 percent ticket audit in order to extrapolate numbers. The automated system lets the airline monitor the effectiveness of promotions such as short-term discounts or tie-ins with hotel chains. The passenger revenue accounting (PRA) system runs on Sun Microsystems Inc SLC diskless workstations attached to a Filenet Corp image server over a Sun local area network. SIG pilots 'developers environment.' (Securities Information Group) Securities Information Group (SIG), a spin-off from brokerage firm Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc, has begun providing its in-house developers with a set of integrated computer-aided software engineering and reverse engineering tools to simplify both new development and software maintenance. The company is a beta test site for Language Technology Inc's Crysallis reverse-engineering package, which will be linked into the existing tool kit if it proves successful. SIG's current tools include Knowledgeware Inc's Information Engineering Workbench, Cadre Technologies Inc's Teamwork and Bachman Information Systems Inc's Data Analyst. It has an internal support group for training users in the tools. SIG supports trading, branch office/retail, operations and corporate-systems programming units at Shearson. Index data collected on-line. (Consumer Price Index) (includes related article on how Consumer Price Index is compiled) The US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the SAS Application System development system to collect, tabulate, format and transfer data used in compiling the monthly Consumer Price Index, a key measure of the US economy. Forms are customized from previously completed pricing information and sent to 16,000 retail outlets, which fill them with a total of 85,000 price quotes and mail them back to Washington. Preliminary calculations aid economists in reviewing the data, and necessary changes are uploaded to an off-site Amdahl mainframe computer. The bureaus' Division of Consumer Prices and Consumption Studies uses more than 100 80386-based microcomputers and three Sharebase COrp 700 database servers to produce this data. In-house software systems used to produce the index include a commodities and service system and a housing system. Compaq misses low-price mark. (Compaq Computer Corp. 286N, 386N microcomputers) Compaq's new low-end Deskpro 286N and Deskpro 386N are more aggressively priced than other Compaq machines, but users say they still cost more and lack some of the features found in competing machines. The units can be configured either as diskless network workstations or as stand-alone microcomputers with hard and floppy disk drives. Analysts agree that the introduction of the new machines has not stopped customers from abandoning Compaq in favor of low-priced clones, but the 286N and 386N nevertheless continue the Compaq tradition of mechanical soundness. Unfocused product positioning is a major problem for Compaq in selling the new machines. The computers were initially positioned primarily as network nodes, but are serving many users equally well as low-end standalone workstations. Intel 386 tops buy lists. (Computer Intelligence market study) Keefe, Patricia. A recent survey of microcomputer purchase plans by Computer Intelligence Inc reveals that most corporations are standardizing on the Intel 80386 processor. Sixty-one percent of respondents endorsed the 386, although Intel has not yet succeeded in destroying demand for 8088- and 8086-based computers; six percent say they plan to buy low-end Intel-based machines. Nine percent plan to buy computers based on the Motorola 68000 processor, and 22 percent have plans to buy 80286-based computers. Only 1 percent of respondents express interest in 80486-based systems. A survey by The Sierra Group Inc/First Boston Corp MIS Executive Council indicates that projected growth in microcomputer spending will decline by nearly half to 24.2 percent in 1991. Computer Intelligence breaks down its records geographically to show that Baltimore, Cincinnati, Providence, RI and Buffalo, NY account for the majority of the low-end purchases and that Kansas City, MO, Milwaukee, Houston and Portland users plan to buy a disproportionate number of 80386- and 80486-based system. The study indicates that the discrete manufacturing, medical/education and process manufacturing industries are buying the most new computers. Sign maker glitters with IS gear. (Artkraft Strauss Sign Corp.) Hildebrand, Carol. Artkraft Strauss Sign Corp, a family-owned company that manufactures large outdoor advertising signs, uses microcomputers for tasks ranging from CAD/CAM to accounting and project cost estimating. Company chairman Jonathan Starr wrote a Lotus 1-2-3 template for job costing that lets estimators plug in labor hours and other factors. Programming of electronically controlled signs can be changed in-house and sent via modem. CAD is the most important of Artkraft's computer applications; the company has replaced a manual system with Autodesk Inc's Autocad running on NEC 80386-based microcomputers. Artkraft also invested in an integrated manufacturing package consisting of front-end software, cutting machinery and sub-packages for sign designing. Multiprocessors promise speed. Savage, J.A. Many reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation vendors are turning to multiprocessing systems to increase performance. Most currently use 'symmetric' or 'tightly coupled' multiprocessing, but IBM and some others are opting for 'loosely coupled' processors. Tightly coupled architectures were introduced in mainframes in 1973. Workstations with symmetric multiprocessors are currently used as servers; vendors rely on increasingly powerful uniprocessors for desktop machines, but several desktop machines can be linked to form a loosely coupled system. Processors in a tightly coupled machine share memory and run a single copy of the operating system; each processor addresses the same peripherals. Loosely coupled multiprocessors share the processing power of separate machines; each CPU has its own memory and operating system. IBM is using loosely coupled multiprocessing in an attempt to leverage its installed base of networked machines; it says it will eventually implement tightly coupled multiprocessing. Each technique has disadvantages; symmetric multiprocessing requires increased bandwidth to prevent conflict among CPU tasks, while loosely coupled multiprocessing needs a large amount of software overhead to synchronize its data. Monitrix's diagnostic capabilities first class. (Software Review) (Cheyenne Software Inc. Monitrix 1.1 network monitoring software) Cheyenne Software Inc's Monitrix 1.1 local area network monitoring software for Novell NetWare offers excellent performance and diagnostic capabilities. It can be loaded onto the file server as a NetWare 286 value-added process or NetWare 386 NetWare Loadable Module. The program's general-purpose diagnostic utilities and very good, and its background data-gathering capabilities are excellent. Users can track network statistics over any time period and use the data to establish trends. Monitrix is easy to use and well documented. Most reviewers agree that it is a good value, but recommend that it be used in conjunction with a configuration-management utility. Emonitor+ affordable but tied to old cards. (Software Review) (Brightworks Development Inc's Emonitor+ 1.31) (evaluation) Brightworks Development Inc's Emonitor+ 1.31 offers low-cost LAN monitoring and is compatible with Ethernet-specific LANs. It requires DOS 3.1 or higher and 256Kbytes of RAM. The program supports only slow 8-bit Ethernet cards and is not compatible with NetWare 386. It is best suited to small networks, where its is useful for identifying broken and unterminated cables and isolating faulty network adapters. It can measure network utilization and the level of corrupted data in real time but does not recommend solutions. Emonitor+ provides reports on data packets, giving administrators a good picture of network traffic. It is easy to install and use and has a well-written manual. The program is a worthwhile value at $295 per server. Cellular modems put the office on the road. (data communications) Booker, Ellis. Cellular modems are currently a very small market, with only 1 to 2 percent of the portable-computer installed base using them, but observers say the market could grow dramatically as laptop computer vendors forge alliances with cellular modem manufacturers. Several vendors have signed joint development agreements and plan to introduce integrated systems in 1991 and 1992. One analyst blames cellular modems' low market penetration on the lack of a distribution channel. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc is working with reseller Spectrum Information Technologies Inc and Microcom Inc to build a multipurpose cellular/terrestrial modem into Toshiba products. Debate continues over which digital standard to use; the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) standard has the endorsement of the Telecommunications Industry Association and is less vulnerable to service disruptions than the newer Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard, which promises a 10- to 20-fold increase in capacity at an incremental cost of only $250 per subscriber. All cellular networks are expected to convert to digital signaling eventually, but will stay with circuit switching in the immediate future. Airline stays true to host-based system. (USAir) Horwitt, Elisabeth. US Air is not following the trend of moving data away from host-based systems to distributed local area networks as many large companies have done. The airline is moving its users to LAN environments while remaining strictly within IBM's SNA structure and keeping MIS functions centralized. Communications take place primarily among users on the same LAN and between LAN workstations and the airline's IBM mainframes over LU6.2 connections. USAir is committed to SNA because the nature of its business requires it to track such data as seat inventory centrally. Officials say they avoid using such network systems as NetWare IPX to keep from having to 'retrofit a lot of alien protocols' into the corporate network. The airline nevertheless believes there is room for improvement in SNA, including such LU6.2 enhancements as wider implementation of the Common Programming Interface for Communications. Still not on the MAP. (Manufacturing Automation Protocol) Friscia, Tony. Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) products have yet to be implemented on a large scale, although the market for factory-floor networking grew 16 percent in 1990. DEC's DECnet is the leading protocol in plant networks, but microcomputer networking is the fastest growing segment of the market. General-purpose Ethernet vendors such as Ungermann-Bass account for $50 million in revenue and 13,000 network nodes. MAP has only a small market share and is used primarily in the automotive industry. Increasing demand for Open Systems Interconnection may nevertheless lead to increased use of MAP, but the evolution will be slow. More than 80 percent of users say they plan to migrate to OSI; most will migrate at the pace of DEC or another systems vendor, using the vendor's proprietary protocols. MAP has nevertheless accomplished much: it has raised user awareness of backbone networks and created a demand for standards-based networking. MAP can be seen as a 'forerunner' to OSI. Smart-hub rollout race speeds up. (Synoptics Communications Inc., Cabletron Systems Inc. offer network enhancements) Synoptics Communications Inc and Cabletron Systems Inc have both significantly enhanced their network hub products in a competitive race to develop 'smart' hubs, which act as intelligent wiring centers and can logically support a variety of LAN topologies and access methods. Synoptics now offers integrated Ethernet and token-ring network management based on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) in its Lattisnet hub. Cabletron announced network management enhancements in its Multi Media Access Center (MMAC) hub in Feb 1991 and plans to announce a partnership with Cayman Systems Inc under which Cayman's gateways will be incorporated into the MMAC. Market research firms say that 90 percent of Fortune 1,000 firms now have mixed Ethernet and token-ring LAN environments, and analysts praise the hub vendors for working to support multivendor systems. Wall Data adds PC-to-mainframe software (Rumba Graphics, Rumba Gateway Manager) (product announcement) Wall Data Inc introduces two extensions to its Rumba microcomputer-to-mainframe communications software line designed to give microcomputer users access to more powerful mainframe-based applications. The new Rumba Graphics module accesses mainframe graphics applications, integrating mainframe data with microcomputer graphics displays. Rumba Gateway Manager organizes gateway traffic from a variety of network operating systems and spreads it among Wall Data, IBM, DEC and other devices. Users say that Rumba simplifies cumbersome data transfer but is not entirely a substitute for 'downsizing' applications from mainframes to microcomputers. Carmaker turns over career tracks. (Nissan Information Systems Division)(includes related article on user of computers in Nissan Motor Corp, the US subsidiary of the Japanese automobile manufacturer, rotates MIS jobs to ensure successful career development among its staff. It follows the pattern of its parent company and is changing its corporate culture in response to competition from Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co. One top manager was moved from an applications group to a database design group, while another was moved from parts and service to general applications development in a major management reshuffling that began in Feb 1991. The company has also adopted a strategy of decentralizing information systems functions and running global operations in Japan, Europe and North America locally. Hardware purchasing, systems development and many other functions remain centralized; the company coordinates its purchases from IBM on a worldwide basis. Nissan has a five-processor 3090 mainframe at its Carson, CA headquarters and 20 IBM AS/400s at its distribution centers in major US ports. Outlook turns cloudy, dreary for job hunters. Booker, Ellis. The employment outlook for information systems workers is bleak despite the fact that the computer industry is generally faring better than the rest of the economy in the current recession. Companies are seeking 'perfect fit' employees with everything called for in the job description, and job hunters face tough competition for scarce positions. The most marketable skills currently include computer-aided software engineering, fourth-generation languages and experience with the IBM AS/400 minicomputer. A survey of 15,000 companies by Manpower Inc found that only 18 percent will add to their work force in 1991, while 13 percent will reduce employment. No hard hats or slide rules required. (project management software)(includes related article on user groups) (buyers guide) Project-management software is widely used in the aerospace, construction and engineering industries but has become more important in software development, which also involves the planning of large, complex products. Many vendors have begun marketing project management software catering to MIS concerns. The three basic functions in a typical project management package are estimating, scheduling and project control or tracking. MIS project managers have unique estimating concerns; most software projects are 'resource-constrained,' creating a demand for automatic resource leveling features in project management software. Scheduling software development projects is inherently difficult because there are few standards. Some MIS-specific products set up a planning methodology with standards for tasks. User groups of project management software in information systems include senior managers, project managers and the development team. Some low-end project management systems do not offer resource sharing. Ease of use is very important, and many powerful packages are available that run on microcomputers or local area networks. A table of specific products is included. Early project delivery can justify initial costs. (project management systems) Justifying the cost of project management software to top management involves estimating the payback that will result from earlier project delivery. A single project can recover the total implementation cost of a project management system in an MIS department if it shortens delivery time by 1 1/2 weeks. Information systems project managers typically require two types of user training: learning project management concepts such as task definition, dependency analysis and estimating techniques and learning to use the software itself. An average information-systems project requires four people working on it for one year; an information systems professional costs approximately 2.5 times the salary cost, and specific calculations are presented indicating that an expenditure of $9,425 for software, hardware and training would be offset by early project delivery. Project hot line: five most commonly asked questions. (William Duncan of consulting firm Duncan Associates answers common user Consultant William Duncan of Duncan Associates offers answers to five common questions about choosing and using project management software. The easiest way to select a package is to define user requirements and use the definitions as a way of evaluating the hundreds of specific products available. Users should try to get a real copy of the software rather than a demonstration copy to evaluate. Important requirements buyers often overlook include multiple calendars, built-in planning, variable time periods and the ability to interface with computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools. CASE tools support project management methodologies. Buyers generally get what they pay for; more expensive packages offer more functionality. Prices range from $400 to $5,000 for microcomputer products and $10,000 to $250,000 for products that run on larger systems. The length of time necessary to get new software 'up and running' varies depending on the amount of time and energy committed to training. Fuzzy logic clarified. (application of fuzzy set theory to information systems) Development tools based on a new form of mathematics known as 'fuzzy logic' can solve many complex information-systems problems and speed development of mission-critical applications. Insurance and financial risk assessment programs are good candidates for the application of fuzzy logic because they contain large numbers of variables and require expert decision-making input. Fuzzy set theory is based on the mathematical idea that an element may have 'partial' membership in a set. Users querying a fuzzy database could use statements containing qualifiers such as 'very' and 'rather.' Expert systems construction is also a natural application for fuzzy logic because the human experts who write rules do not think in terms of fixed values. Fuzzy logic can reduce application maintenance costs as well as the amount of initial programming by reducing the number of rules. Wanted: easy data retrieval. (fuzzy logic data bases ) Cox, Earl; Goetz, Martin A. A hypothetical example of a data retrieval system based on fuzzy logic is presented. The Municipal Criminal Identification and Profile System (MCIPS) can retrieve a list of probable crime suspects based on a generalized descriptions. A crime victim might describe an assailant in vague terms based on a brief glimpse, and the MCIPS operator would enter a rough outline into a computer terminal. The computer would apply fuzzy set 'grades' to each combination of attributes while searching through its suspect database and exclude rankings that fall below a critical level in truth membership. Querying massive databases using natural language concepts. (fuzzy logic data queries)(includes related article on where to obtain Databases using algorithms based on fuzzy logic allow natural language queries without the precise, detailed syntax and Boolean expressions used in current query languages. Every AND and OR statement in a query increases the complexity of the search statement; fuzzy-logic queries will simplify searching and retrieval by building simple linguistic expressions from 'blocks' of data. A fuzzy set can be mapped to a data set and terms used to select broad, imprecisely defined sets of possibilities. Fuzzy logic dramatically simplifies the computational logic involved in decision making, letting users modify a query more rapidly. IPL snaps back from the brink. (IPL Systems Inc.) Johnson, Maryfran. IPL Systems Inc has succeeded in overcoming financial difficulties by shifting its core business from IBM-compatible mainframes to minicomputer peripherals. The firm's stock has rebounded from 7/8 of a point to the high 20s, and IPL has also signed several new distribution agreements and introduced new products. Its new niche involves the final parts assembly and testing on data storage subsystems and add-in memory products for IBM System/36, System/38 and AS/400 minicomputers. IPL's revenue increased from $14.7 million in 1989 to $28.7 million in 1990. IPL originally was a minor-league player in the mainframe market, and price wars caused it to hover near bankruptcy by 1985. The company now has a strategic agreement with Bull HN Information Systems, whose field representatives service IPL equipment. IPL has no direct sales force, which it claims avoids competition with other companies' channels but which causes competitors to scoff. Software group gets bitten by the quality bug. (software industry association Adapso to offer quality awards) The software industry association Adapso has announced its first annual quality award program. The program is inspired by the US Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award program and uses similar qualification procedures. Entrants go through a series of rigorous audits which benefit their quality management regardless of who actually wins the award. The Adapso awards are more broadly defined than the Baldridge award and are aimed at spurring companies to improve their products and processes. Competition for the first annual Adapso awards is limited to members of the trade group's Software Industry and Vertical Application and Remarketers divisions but will be open to all Adapso members in subsequent years. Tech focus wins big at small firm. (Orkand Corp. winning government contracts) Privately held Orkand Corp, a $38 million company, often wins large government contracts for computer systems work and is listed in Washington, DC newspapers alongside such giants as IBM and Electronic Data Systems Corp. Orkand officials credit the company's focus on technology and strategy of appointing information systems task forces with much of this success. It has eight to 12 task forces operating at any given time; each has between three and 15 members. Topics covered include database technology, operating systems, computer-aided software engineering, geographic information systems, internetworking and image management. The firm's early and highly successful entry into desktop publishing was the result of task force recommendations, along with its adoption of microcomputers and Unix. Orkand also has a five-member advisory board made up of senior technology managers that is paid for its services. Zenith sells shares, contests proxy. (Zenith Electronics Corp. establishes strategic partnership with Goldstar Co.) Zenith Electronics Corp has announced a strategic partnership with Korean electronics giant Goldstar Co and has sold 1.45 million shares of its stock to Goldstar for $15 million. Zenith reported a loss of $25.5 million dollars in 4th qtr 1990 and an overall loss of $52.3 million for the year. Officials say that the deal with Goldstar is an endorsement of Goldstar's HDTV strategy, but Nycor Inc, the largest Zenith stockholder, accuses Zenith of attempting to stop its effort to replace three members of Zenith's 10-person board. Zenith and Goldstar signed licensing and technology agreements alongside the stock sale, including agreements for Zeniths' flat color picture tube. How to buy used PCs without getting ripped off. (used microcomputers) Tips for purchasing used microcomputers and avoiding possible pitfalls are presented. A used system can be a good value because new computers lose as much as 40 percent of their initial purchase price once the buyer opens the box, and any problems have most likely already been fixed under warranty. Used computers tend to be pre-configured and fully equipped with peripherals. Buyers should nevertheless know exactly what they want before shopping and conduct thorough research. No used system should be priced higher than an equivalent new system; every buyer should have intended purchases professionally appraised. Testing all components prior to purchase is essential. 'Reconditioned' equipment may mean only an exterior cleaning; full reconditioning means cleaning the keyboard, reformatting hard drives and cleaning and testing interior components. Warranties on used systems are usually not on-site service contracts. Buyers should avoid obsolete technologies that no longer attract the interest of software developers. 'Hot' or stolen equipment is also a danger; purchasing in volume or from a reputable trader is the best safeguard. The buyer should select high-quality goods with well-known brand names that hold their value. Getting your education at vendor 'universities.' (training services offered by computer vendors.) Many hardware and software vendors, including IBM, Microsoft Corp and Amdahl Corp, offer a full range of programs to train new users in their products. Many managers are pleased with the content and flexibility of vendor-sponsored training courses. Large companies offer courses through traditional 'university' locations designated for user education but are also extending the university concept to add regional training centers and increase the frequency of in-house course offerings. Some also create alliances with local colleges and key users. Vendors are motivated to train users partly because of the need to build immediate revenue and partly by the long-term need to offer support services. Adobe flexes typeface muscle. (announces Multiple Master technology) (product announcement) Adobe Systems Inc announces Multiple Master, a new font technology that lets users modify typeface width, weight and style as well as scale and create a wide variety of designs from a single font. Adobe fonts currently only let users scale fonts by changing all elements of a piece of type equally. Multiple Master fonts will allow precise adjustment and will be more readable in boldface styles and large point sizes. Multiple Master also improves font portability by letting those who receive a document containing a font that is not on their system 'mold' the type to match the output their printer is capable of. The new Multiple Master fonts will be fully compatible with existing Type 1 technology and will be available for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows environments in late 1991. Users no longer focus on SAA. (IBM Systems Application Architecture)(includes related article on future trends) IBM users say they are no longer committing themselves totally to the computer giant's Systems Application Architecture (SAA) strategy but are viewing the SAA platform as only part of a larger information-systems strategy. IBM has been slow to roll out SAA products and has stumbled with key pieces of the architecture. Many users say they consider the cross-platform design too fundamental to ignore but have nevertheless installed third-party software solutions due to repeated delays in IBM's OfficeVision office automation package. Some are trying to influence IBM's direction, working with user groups to present ideas and obtain IBM responses. IBM defends its track record with SAA, arguing that it delivers equipment and products on time and provides interoperability across mainframe, minicomputer and microcomputer platforms. Several IBM sites have already implemented enough SAA pieces to consider themselves SAA shops. Unisys mainframe praised but success questioned. (Unisys Corp. A19 mainframes) (product announcement) Unisys Corp introduces the A19, a new line of air-cooled mainframe computers that replaces the earlier A17 line and consists of six machines offering up to 51 million instructions per second of performance. The new machines run 1.8 times faster than the current A16 Model 61E intermediate mainframe, according to Unisys. Analysts and users praise the machines' performance, but doubt that many cost-conscious customers will be willing to upgrade to them. Several potential buyers say they are impressed with the A19's I/O handling but do not expect to buy one soon. One analyst describes the A19 as 'competitive' but essentially a niche product that will appeal to about 15 percent of the Unisys customer base. Sun fires another networking salvo at DEC. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s SunLink DECnet Intercontrol, SunLink TE100) (product Sun Microsystems introduces the SunLink DNI 7.0 terminal emulation software package that turns a Sun workstation into a DECnet Phase IV-compatible end node. In addition, SunLink allows concurrent DECwindows and XView applications under SunOS to be displayed because of SunLink's support of Sun's X11/News windowing system. The package also provides a VMS Mail gateway facility that allows Sun and DEC users to exchange mail without separate mailboxes on the network. Sun Microsystem's SunLink DNI 7.0 is bundled with SunLink TE100 6.1, a terminal emulation program, which allows users to access applications on systems that support VT100 terminals. The CD-ROM version costs $1,400. DEC's Posix promise might be a bridge too far. (plans to make VMS Posix compliant) DEC plans to enhance the VMS operating system this year to make it compliant with the IEEE's Posix standard. The company maintains that VMS applications will then be portable to other operating systems as Unix, DOS and OS/2. Although DEC intends to bring VMS into compliance with the standard this year, analysts note that the standard itself is not fully developed and therefore may not support fully portable applications for some time. Posix is still in the subcommittee stage, and to date only the IEEE 1003.1 specification has been approved by both the IEEE and ISO. DEC remains committed to implementing the entire standard, once fully developed, because it is such an integral part of open systems. The company maintains that its adherence to the developing standard is an indication of its commitment to both portability and interoperability across environments. DEC releases packages aimed at desktop publishing. (DECfonts Typeface Collection, DECprint Printing Services for VMS) (product DEC's new DECfonts Typeface Collection and DECprint Printing Services for VMS software packages are a renewed attempt by the vendor to make inroads into the desktop publishing market. DECfonts Typeface Collection allows users to print or view documents on remote systems using the same Adobe Type 1 fonts that were used to create the document. This is possible because of a special licensing agreement between DEC and Adobe Systems, which allows the fonts used to create a document to travel across the network with it. DECprint Printing Services for VMS allows Macintosh and IBM-compatible applications to access DEC's PostScript printers from anywhere on the network. DECfonts costs $420 per license, with the documentation and media priced at $290. A single stand-alone license for DECprint Printing Services costs $1,300. Seagate squeezes 2GB onto 5.25-inch SCSI drive to expand Elite line. (Small Computer Systems Interface) (Seagate Technology's Seagate Technologies' ST42400N is a 5.25-inch hard disk drive that offers a total of 2.4Gbytes of unformatted storage, an average seek time of 11 milliseconds (ms), an internal maximum transfer rate of 4.75Mbytes per second, and a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)-2 interface. In addition, the drive spins at 5400 revolutions per minute, and offers a 256Kbyte cache. The drive is priced at $3,450 for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) quantities. The new ST82030 is an eight-inch 2Gbyte version of the ST82500 drive. It has an average seek time of 11ms, and an IPI-2 or SMD interface. In OEM quantities, the drive is priced at $4,995 for the SMD version, and $5,295 for the IPI-2 version. The ST3144 is a 3.5-inch SCSI-2 drive with 130Mbytes of storage, an average seek time of 11ms, and priced at $495. The ST1481N is also a 3.5-inch SCSI-2 drive priced at $1,290 for 426Mbytes of storage with a 256Kbyte buffer. Fel Computing supports PS/2s as NetWare-to-LAT gateways. (LANlink-DECnet 2.6) (product announcement) Fel Computing has released LANlink-DECnet 2.6 computer network software package that allows PS/2 local area networks to access any host using DEC's Local Area Transport (LAT) protocol. The package comprises INT-14 and LAT interfaces, Fel's Mobius VT320 terminal emulator, and menu-driven file transfer software running on Intel 80286 or 80386 systems. The package is also compatible with other terminal emulators, and supports such LAN architectures as token-ring, Ethernet, Arcnet and StarLAN. The software contains NetWare support, and can reside in 10Kbytes of resident memory or be loaded into high memory. Lanlink-DECnet 2.6 is priced at $1,495 for five concurrent users, $2,450 for 10 users, $5,395 for 25 users, and $10,250 for 50 users. Trimarchi driver puts 7.3GB of SCSI storage on MicroVAX 2000 systems. (gigabytes, Small Computer System Interface) (DataKeg Trimarchi has released an upgrade to its DataKeg Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disk subsystem that can be configured with up to 7.3Gbytes of formatted disk storage. The system includes an upgrade to the device driver that allows for the connection of both the DataKeg disk subsystem and the TK50 tape drive to a workstation's SCSI bus. The new software supports 1.2Gbyte SCSI drives, as opposed to the old 300Mbyte and 600Mbyte drive supported on the earlier version. DataKeg's driver is compatible with VMS 5.1 through 5.4, and it support erasable optical disks. DataKeg 2.0 is priced at $3,195 with a 300Mbyte drive, $3,695 with a 600Mbyte drive, and $4,695 with a 1.2Gbyte drive. Sybase integrates PC SQL client applications with collection of network library modules. (PC Net-Library) (product announcement) Sybase Inc introduces PC Net-Library computer network software that allows Sybase client applications running on microcomputers to access any Sybase SQL Server on a number of different systems supporting the Sybase relational data base management system. The package is actually a suite of networking modules that support DECnet TCP/IP, Microsoft LAN Manager, IBM LAN Server, Novell NetWare and AT&T StarGroup. The more than 20 modules are designed for networking protocols that allow for the communication of Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS and OS/2 applications with other systems such as Unix, MVS, and VMS. A company representative claims Sybase has more microcomputer front-end tools than any other data base. PC Net-Library modules are priced at $145 per interface per user. VAX-based print server for PC LANs arrives. (Digital Area Networks' DPS-110, DPS-120, LAN Manager Print Server) (product Digital Area Networks has introduced the DPS-110 and DPS-120 stand-alone print servers for VAX-to-IBM-compatible local area networks. Each comprises a modified VAXstation 2000, one or two Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III printers, Ethernet cabling, and the DAN software. The LAN Manager Print Server (LMPS) consists of two pieces of software and is an unbundled version of the DPS for users on a Microsoft LAN Manager network who already have a VAX. Prices for the DPS-110, with one HP LaserJet II printer, start at $7,200 for a five-user license. The DPS-120, with two HP LaserJet III printers, is priced at $8,750 for a five-user license. The LMPS is priced at $6,000, or $3,000 for each piece of software. Xyvision rolls out Ultrix-based document manager. (Parlance Document Manager) (product announcement) Xyvision's Parlance Document Manager document management system includes a content manager, applications manager, and work-flow manager that allow for the organization of information. The package can be used as a stand-alone system or with Xyvision's Document Parlance Publishing System. The package's user interface is presented via an X windows environment which is based on the Open Software Foundation's Motif. The main database resides on an Ultrix system, with the document manager being object-oriented and designed for voice and video as well as binary large objects. The Parlance Document Manager is priced between $100,000 and $300,000 depending on the number of users and system configuration, and it should be available in the fourth quarter of 1991. Synoptics offerings distribute net management tasks, information. (Synoptics Communications' LattisNet Model 3040 Network Control Synoptics Communications has released a number of network management and internetworking products designed to decentralize the control and analysis of networks. The products are designed to work with the LattisNet System 3000 intelligent wiring hub. The $9,995 LattisNet 3040 Network Control Engine is a 12-MIPS Sparc-based reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor packaged with a 104Mbyte hard disk drive. The $2,495 LattisNet Netmap 2.0 allows PS/2s running NetView/PC to manage LattisNet token-ring and Ethernet networks from a single NetView console. The LattisNet Basic Network Management network management software package is priced at $2,295. The LattisNet 3323S and 3324S Local Ethernet Bridges are priced at $4,795 and $5,295, respectively. The LattisNet 3386 Remote Ethernet Router is priced at $6,995. Sun's rainbow of graphics. (Sun Microsystem's Sparcstation 2GX) (includes related article on the testing procedure) (evaluation) Sun Microsystem's $28,595 Sparcstation 2GX is a Sparc-based graphics workstation; the model as tested includes 32Mbytes of main memory, an internal 207Mbyte SCSI disk, a 669Mbyte external SCSI disk, a QIC-150 SCSI tape, and a CD-ROM running SunOS 4.1.1 operating system software. Software included also features Fortran and C Sparc compilers, both version 1.0Beta2, and Open Windows 2.0 graphical user interface. The system has a large library of over 2,000 applications focused primarily on engineering and science, and features excellent Central Processing Unit (CPU) and I/O performance. Application may appear differently than on other X terminals though because the 2GX does not comply with MIT's X definition on width-1 lines. Also the 2GX does not currently support Open Windows with GS and GT graphics options. Beating the odds: To buy or to lease? (a DEC VAX minicomputer) (includes related articles on the length of service being The question of purchasing or leasing a DEC VAX minicomputer is further complicated by the residual value of the existing machine. Each time a VAX is purchased or upgraded the hope is that the residual value of the existing system will help offset the cost of the new equipment. However, when the existing machine has no residual value, the company would probably be better off leasing a new computer. Generally speaking, any corporation thinking of using a particular system for less than three years will find it less expensive to lease a system. The situation is further complicated because life cycles have dropped to two years or less, and DEC continues to be undecided concerning modifications to its upgrade policies. The main attraction of leasing is that it fixes the cost of the machine for the company and leaves the residual value problem to the leasing company. Add-in firm to pay IBM $5.9M. (Cambex Corp.) Stedman, Craig. Add-in memory vendor Cambex Corp settles a law suit with IBM and agrees to pay the company $5.9 million. Cambex is one of three companies, EMC Corp and Comdisco Inc are the others, that IBM has sued over their subleasing practices. Cambex is the only vendor among them that is settling with IBM; the other two plan to take the matter to court. Cambex agrees to comply with IBM's conditions and terms for subleasing parts, which includes prior approval, to assuage customers' fears that IBM may also take legal action against Cambex's leasing customers. Industry observers note that IBM is not ruling out the possibility of suing the end-users. Most end-users doubt that IBM will do that, but the possibility is nevertheless making them nervous. IBM to license photoresists: withholds deep UV. (license agreement with Hoechst Celanese Corp.) IBM agrees to license its G-line and I-line photoresists to Hoechst Celanese Corp. IBM is withholding the deep ultra-violet resist, which the company manufacturers for use in its Micrascan step-and-scan lithography system, but indicates that it may be willing to license it in the future. Hoechst Celanese is the only company to obtain the IBM license; the company was chosen in Mar 1991 after IBM began looking for production partners in Mar 1990. IBM officials indicate that the company will retain the capability to manufacture 100 percent of its resist needs despite the new relationship, and the officials do not expect any impact on fulfilling internal customers needs. Reveal Semi-Gas sales eroding: at court hearing. (Semi-Gas Systems Inc.) Semi-Gas Systems Inc's sales are falling because a federal antitrust suit is prohibiting the acquisition of the company by Nippon Sanso. Officials at Semi-Gas testify that sales have dropped between five and 10 percent since the government prohibited the purchase of the company by Nippon Sanso for $23 million. Hercules Inc, Semi-Gas' parent company, agreed to sell the company in May 1990, and proceedings are still stalling the transaction in Mar 1991. Semi-Gas officials also note that the morale of its employees is low and key workers are leaving out of frustration. The government is seeking to bar the acquisition on the grounds that Semi-Gas has a 36 percent market share of the vital US semiconductor gas cabinet industry. Vendors tighten link with customer base. (semiconductor industry; includes related article on ASIC emulation niche) The 32-bit microprocessor development tool market is a changing landscape that is moving beyond traditional design applications into diversified applications for embedded controllers, such as cellular telephones, consumer appliances and automotive engine modules. Analysts estimate the microprocessor development tool market industry was $500 million in 1989 and forecast it to grow to $700 million by 1993, and according to Dataquest, of the 43 million 32-bit processors shipped in 1988, 36 percent went into embedded applications. Closer ties are being forged between the vendors of development tools and the parts suppliers and designers of microprocessor-based products. Industry observers note that the level of cooperation must increase because of the growing complexity of the industry. Customer-vendor partnering called crucial in microlitho. Dunn, Peter. The US microlithography industry is beginning to focus on customer-vendor development relationships because they have become an essential component for survival. American companies hoping to manufacture and sell wafer steppers are beginning to take the cue from the Japanese, who have long viewed such relationships as mutually beneficial. The wider acceptance of the concept in Japan is partly due to cultural factors: Japanese customers feel the need to stay with certain vendors and are more tolerant of early glitches in product development. Sematech, an American consortium in the semiconductor industry, has helped make the concept more palatable by helping GCA Corp get production-line experience for its next-generation stepper and by fostering an atmosphere conducive to partnering. CoCom talks on relaxing curbs break off. (Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls) The Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom) breaks off talks on a new core list of export controls after the US and allied negotiators deadlocked over products in the computer and telecommunication industries. The stall in negotiations represents a setback for CoCom, which has been trying to greatly relax export controls to Eastern European countries since 1990. US negotiators argued that certain telecommunications products, including ISDN equipment, advanced packet switching systems and fiber optic networks, would endanger national security because of their potential military use. Talks also broke down on setting a new performance threshold for computer controls. CoCom is scrapping its processing data rate control parameter in favor of its new Composite Theoretical Performance criteria, which is still too new and complex for most companies. Justice, FCC, Commerce back RBOC gear output. Connelly, Joanne. The US Department of Justice, US Department of Commerce and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are all in favor of allowing the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) to manufacture telecommunications equipment. The manufacture of telecommunications equipment by RBOCs is prohibited by the modified final judgment of the AT and T consent decree. The government agencies also express concern over possible misconduct by the telephone companies. Investigations surrounding US West led the RBOC to pay a record $10 million fine in civil penalties. That case is making several government officials skeptical about changing the modified final judgment. CCIA, AT&T unit ask Congress to wait on ethics law changes. (Computer and Communications Industry Association) AT and T's Federal Systems division and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) urge the US Congress to hold off on a Bush Administration request to implement new ethic law changes that affect government contractors. A bill introduced on Feb 21, 1991 by Sen William V. Roth, Jr. would slightly modify laws that govern the dissemination of sensitive information regarding government contracts and repeal some revolving door laws. AT and T and the CCIA argue that the procurement laws are confusing and do not give government contractors enough time to make appropriate changes. They also note that elimination of the certification provision is deleterious; CCIA Pres A.G.W. Biddle says, for example, that the administration's proposal would 'gut' procurement integrity laws by repealing certification provisions. Van Tassel retires after 11 years at NCR. (James H. Van Tassel) Zipper, Stuart. The head of NCR Corp's Microelectronics Products division James H. Van Tassel, 62, retires in Mar 1991 after 11 years with the company. Van Tassel indicates that his retirement is not associated with AT and T's attempt to take over the computer maker; he had planned to retire at 62 for some time. Van Tassel is credited with catapulting NCR's semiconductor business into market leadership with its mixed-mode ASICs. The company branched into two directions in 1981 with its semiconductor operations: ASICs and microprocessors. NCR came out with an early 32-bit MPU that used a multi-chip configuration but had to drop those efforts and focus on ASICs. Van Tassel will consult and help with the management transition. Trading places. (Government Closeup) (column) Robertson, Jack. US companies need to break into the Japanese semiconductor market if they wish to survive the 1990s. Japan has the largest semiconductor market in the world and those US companies that fail to penetrate it will be forced to scramble for declining markets in the rest of the world, including the US Industry observers note that it is difficult to penetrate the Japanese market, particularly since the Japanese seem to have a penchant for creating an internally sufficient infrastructure. Those US companies that have created a presence in Japan are not always achieving the sale levels they desire, but they are penetrating the market, which is particularly important in an industry that evolves so quickly. Cray updates Y-MP8 family. (supercomputers) (product announcement) Cray Research Inc introduces four new supercomputers that replace the company's entire Y-MP8 line of supercomputers. The memory of the new supercomputers has doubled while the price has decreased by 30 percent. The Cray Y-MP8I/464 supercomputer costs $9.8 million and is a single-cabinet unit that comes with four processors and 64 megawords of main memory. The Cray $16.3 million Y-MP8I/8128 supercomputer is also a single-cabinet unit, but it comes with eight processors and 126 megawords of main memory. The $15 million Cray Y-MP8E4128 and the $23.7 million Cray Y-MP8E826 are both dual-cabinet units having 128 megawords and 256 megawords of main memory, respectively. Hear DEC, Compaq lead effort for MIPS MPU standards group. (MIPS Computer R4000 RISC microprocessor) DEC, Compaq Computer Corp and Microsoft Corp lead the way in recruiting computer manufacturers to get behind MIPS Computer Systems' R4000 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The computer manufacturers and software publishers are part of the Advanced RISC Computing Architecture consortium, which hopes to standardize a network protocol, common programming interface, bus structure and operating system for the 64-bit MPU. The consortia hopes to offer stiff competition to the Sun Microsystems Corp Sparc architecture consortia with its efforts; keeping IBM out of the workstation market will also be a main objective. Unisys introduces new top of A line. (Unisys A19 mainframe) (product announcement) The Unisys Corp A-19 mainframe computer ranges in price from $5.35 million to $26 million and comes in single- to six-processor versions. The mainframe computer, which will be available in the 3rd qtr 1991, has as much as a 30 percent performance gain over the Unisys A-16 mainframe computer. Industry observers compare it to the IBM top-of-the-line ES/9000 mainframe computer and say it exceeds that computer on the basis of low operating costs and performance. Unisys officials would not comment on the million instructions per second (mips) performance of the new machine but would not argue with an estimate of 50 mips, a figure that outperforms the 45 mips rating of IBM's best mainframes. Unisys estimates that 85 percent of the buyers will be existing Unisys customers. PCMs see market chance in IBM 9335, 9336 snags. (plug-compatible manufacturers) Plug compatible manufacturers (PCMs) see an opportunity in the mainframe market after reports that the IBM 9335 and 9336 disk drives are experiencing spindle vibration problems. IBM acknowledges the problems and indicates that they are being taken care of: the company is replacing as many as 2,000 of the disk drives as part of a preventative maintenance program. The full extent of the 9335 problem is not known and the amount of customer dissatisfaction is unclear. PCMs see the dissatisfaction as a possible opportunity to gain some of IBM's dominant market share but admit that wont happen anytime soon. HP enters RISC laser printers. (reduced instruction set computers) (product announcement) Hewlett-Packard Co's new $5,495 Laserjet IIISi laser printer is built around a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor, comes with 1Mbyte of memory and is capable of printing 17 pages a minute at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi). The laser printer is a market entry for HP into the RISC-based laser printer market; the Laserjet IIISi is based on the Advanced Micro Devices Am29000 32-bit microprocessor. The printer can run on HP's PCL 5 or Adobe's Postscript languages and comes with four scalable typeface families and 14 fonts. Industry observers note that HP's entry into the RISC-based laser printer market is a major shift. AMD wins use of 386 suffix. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) Ristelhueber, Robert. Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) wins the right to use the 386 designation on its version of the Intel Corp 80386 microprocessor. A US District court rules that '386' is a generic name and is not protected by a trademark. Industry observers note that the ruling is likely to give AMD a marketing boost in its efforts to capture some of Intel's large microprocessor market share. The ruling states that Intel has failed to prove that the combination '386' is not generic, citing that the semiconductor company chose to select it as a trademark after it had become a commonplace phrase. AMD's version of the 32-bit microprocessor is called the Am386. VLSI Tech spins off design pack unit. (VLSI Technology Inc spins off its design software business and creates subsidiary Compass VLSI Technology Inc spins off its design software operations and creates a new subsidiary company named Compass Design Automation. VLSI announces that Dieter Mezger will be the president of Compass Design Automation. Industry observers expected the move and note that the new company will better serve customers by allowing them to use VLSI's design tools and ASIC library at wafer foundries not operated by the company. The new company will stay out of PCB layout and will only compete in selective parts of the CAE and IC layout market. The business that will make up the new subsidiary had revenues of $25 million in 1990; VLSI expects it to grow by 20 percent in 1991. Japan firms intensify RISC efforts. (reduced instruction set computer efforts) Japanese semiconductor companies forge ahead with their efforts to include reduced instruction set computer (RISC) technology in their microprocessor portfolios. Industry observers attribute the latest efforts by Japanese semiconductor companies as a reaction to their inability to gain access into the 32-bit market because of the sole-source policies of Intel Corp and Motorola Corp; their frustrated effort to create their own Tron processor technology is also a contributing factor. How the Japanese competition will affect US RISC manufacturers remains an open question, but analysts suspect that the Japanese agenda includes establishing a foothold in the growing semiconductor market as a means of gaining greater computer market share. 4 execs form ion beam consultancy: two Eaton founders. (consultants to the feasibility of ion beam microlithography) Eaton Corp's Geoff Ryding, Peter Rose, Bill Tobey and Ken Purser are forming a consultancy firm that will advise semiconductor equipment industry officials of the feasibility of ion beam microlithography. The four consultants will take on a variety of consulting jobs over time but believe that the large amount of money currently being invested in x-ray and phase-shift masks warrant the research into ion beam. Eaton Corp, which is experiencing a backlog of $17 million worth of semiconductor equipment, has achieved a position of leadership in the areas of medium-current and high-current implant equipment. X-ray litho project asks mask shop info. (National X-ray Lithography Program seeks sources for the production of a The US Naval Research Laboratory seeks sources for a full-scale photomask production facility under its National X-Ray Lithography Program. The mask-shop program is currently being planned as a five-year program that will be incrementally funded. The goal of the program is to create an US-owned facility that will be capable of managing large-scale production of masks for the defense industry. The facility program is part of a larger lithography program that has issued contracts of many areas of lithograph, including materials research, stepper development and mask production and repair. Naval Research Laboratory officials note that they are seeking a request for information, which is due by Mar 14, 1991, and not a request for proposal. AF ends AIL ECM pact, cites lack of funds. (The U.S. Air Force cancels electronic countermeasures contract with AIL Systems Inc.) The US Air Force terminates a contract with AIL Systems Inc for the production of the ALQ/161A electronic countermeasure (ECM) system because of a lack of funds. The ECM contract, which was designed for the B-1B bomber aircraft, would need $297 million in additional funds to complete. AIL Systems officials indicate that it will cost an additional $125 million to $180 million to restart the program. Air Force officials admit that the ECM is an important part of the B-1B bomber program, but have also expressed certain dissatisfaction with AIL Systems' contract performance. They said that the contract will be reopened on a competitive basis. Receivables stretching out. Grund, Howard. Accounts receivables are becoming larger at distributors and OEMs, and are creating financial problems. Many industrial distributors are being forced to tighten their requirements for credit and step up their collection efforts; the industry standard for days' sales outstanding (DSO) has grown past the average of 45 days to 50 days. The high DSO figure means that distributors are finding it difficult to secure working capital, which is further exacerbated by the credit-tightening measures that financial institutions have been prone toward in the first part of 1991. OEMs, which are experiencing problems collecting from their customers, are holding on to their money as long as possible before paying their distributors. AST pricing strategy hikes net estimates. (What They're Saying) (column) AST Research Inc's aggressive pricing policy boosts revenue growth and causes analysts to raise their earnings estimates in early 1991. The computer maker reported better-than-expected 2nd qtr results in early 1991; earnings were $1.12 a share before a two-for-one split was completed at the end of Feb 1991. Earnings surpassed the analysts estimate of 53 cents a share and even the company's own $1 a share. The company's wide product range, improved manufacturing processes and lower component costs all contributed to the strong 2nd qtr showing. Analysts now estimate FY 1991 to be $1.95 a share and FY 1992 to be $2.25 a share. Concurrent near deal on debt: to avoid Chapter 11. (Concurrent Computer Corp.) Concurrent Computer Corp reaches a tentative agreement with its creditors to restructure its debt of $53 million. The cash-strapped computer maker hopes the deal will help it avoid bankruptcy; the debt reorganization strategy is similar to one the company signed with its senior subordinated note stockholders in Jan 1991. The agreement calls for Concurrent to assume a $43 million term loan and a $10 million revolving credit line. The banks are not expected to gain any equity in the company as part of the deal. A negotiating committee that is representing the note holders still needs to approve the deal. Goddard to save perishable data through massive archive upgrade. (Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is soliciting bids for a project that will provide an automated system to store and archive the huge number of satellite images that the center must track. The $60 million procurement will result in a system that will require as many as five mainframe-size processors and store up to 225 trillion bytes of data. This system will serve as the base for the data and information system that will be required by NASA's Earth Observing System, which will go on-line sometime in the 1990s and will record terabytes of climate data each day. Industry sources say that two teams are bidding on the project. One team is led by Federal Data Corp and the other by Severn Corp. The bidders can propose a combination of storage technologies, such as magnetic tape, optical disk or helical scan. The system will be transparent to the user and, unlike the system currently in use, users will not need to keep track of where their data is stored. Commerce sows millions for high-tech research. (Department of Commerce) The Department of Commerce has inaugurated a new program, called the Advanced Technology Program, that provides seed money for high-technology research and development. The program, designed to increase US trade and industrial competitiveness, will provide funding for projects such as holographic storage, X-ray lithography, thallium superconductor technology, and low-cost flat panel displays. The Commerce Department is expected to spend more than $100 million on these projects between 1991 and 1995, but the department says that the majority of the costs will be carried by the companies doing the research. Most of the projects are sponsored by industry consortia such as Microelectronics & Computer Technology Corp and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. Companies that will receive funding include AT&T, Texas Instruments Inc, DEC, and Eastman Kodak Co. Air Force charges Unisys switched Desktop III parts. Brewin, Bob. The Air Force has accused Unisys Corp of switching key microcomputer parts on the machines sold under the Desktop III contract. The Air Force claims that the Unisys actions could have a catastrophic effect on government-owned software and programs and that Unisys made the changes despite warnings from the Air Force about the company's contractual obligations. Observers say that Unisys may have made the changes to reduce costs to the break-even point. They add that Unisys may be looking for other manufacturers to build Desktop III microcomputers because Unisys is unable to achieve optimal economies of scale. Currently, government buyers who try to purchase microcomputers under Unisys's Desktop III contract have to wait 10 to 12 months for the machines. Unisys officials concede that changes have been made to the hardware for Desktop III machines, but they claim that the changes were not wide-scale and that they represent improvements that add performance and capability. AT&T protests Navy's shift to US Sprint: charges GSA with illegal deal-making. (General Services Administration) AT&T has filed a protest with the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, accusing the General Services Administration (GSA) of making secret and illegal deals with US Sprint Communications Co when it switched Navy traffic on FTS 2000 to Sprint. AT&T says that the GSA made the change without soliciting comments from AT&T or notifying it about the change - AT&T officials say this constitutes a sole-source contract. The GSA has promised to maintain a 60/40 split between the two companies when distributing business from the FTS 2000 contract. AT&T asked the GSA to determine whether moving the Navy traffic would maintain the 60/40 ratio. The GSA conceded that it was awarding a significant amount of new business to Sprint in exchange for considerable price reductions. AT&T says that the GSA is reneging on a promise to give AT&T all the Defense Department traffic. GAO clears path for HFSI, Apple to get $600M AF buy. (General Accounting Office, Honeywell Federal Systems Inc, Air Force) The last barrier between HFSI and Apple and the $600 million Air Force command and control contract that they won has been removed by the General Accounting Office's (GAO) denial of a contract protest from C3 Inc. The GAO ruled that Apple Macintosh IIcx microcomputers and HFSI's Posix A/UX operating system provide a clear technical advantage over the architecture proposed by C3. C3 claims the Air Force decision in favor of HFSI and Apple ignores both the lack of multitasking in the HFSI software and a lack of security features offered by HFSI. Earlier, Martin Marietta Corp had protested the contract, saying that HFSI and Apple offered a non-compliant multitasking operating system. Martin Marietta won that ruling, but only C3 and HFSI resubmitted bids. HFSI's proposal still failed to meet the multitasking requirements, but the company won the bid because of what the Air Force called 'its perceived technical superiority.' EPA sees $1 billion in buys this year. (Environmental Protection Agency) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will have spent more than $1 billion in computer-related contracts over a 12-month period at the end of the 1991 federal fiscal year. This amount does not include the EPA's plans to purchase its first two supercomputers, at an estimated cost of over $90 million. The EPA will establish supercomputer facilities at the Center for Ecological Research and Training and at its National Computer Center. The EPA-acquired computers and services are used to provide public access to environmental data and to integrate the data that has been separated by program area. The agency also wants to sharpen its focus on geographic information systems and continue to modernize software at its Systems Development Center. The EPA contracts include two large service contracts that will provide telecommunications and computer services for its National Computer Center, a desktop computer contract, and a programming services contract. Minerals management modernization gets under way. (Minerals Management Service) The Minerals Management Service is planning to spend $41 million to modernize the computer systems it uses to track off-shore oil and gas drilling. A request for proposals for the Technical Information Management System (TIMS) procurement will be issued in Jul 1991 and the contract for the system is expected to be awarded in Apr 1992. In addition to TIMS, the modernization effort will also include a software conversion, a mapping and geographic information system software procurement, and a maintenance contract. TIMS will replace the minicomputers used by the Minerals Management Service's Offshore Minerals Management program. Bidders for the contract can propose a wide variety of solutions, including a centralized processor, minicomputers, microcomputers, or workstations. IBM, DEC, and Concurrent Computer Corp are expected to bid on the contract. Fedlink puts technological improvements in place. (the Fedlink interagency library services procurement network) The Library of Congress has improved financial management systems and procurement procedures for its Fedlink interagency library services procurement network, which has been attacked for inadequate tracking of buying procedures and poorly defined contract specifications. The technical improvements include a Banyan local area network to connect workstations among Fedlink's financial, contracts, and logistics support centers, and new data base management software. Fedlink is a consortium that operates a supply line of library systems and services to more than 1,400 federal libraries and information centers. It contracts out information services, such as CD-ROM books and serials, on-line research, and automated information retrieval systems, for other libraries and information centers that have obtained purchasing approval from the General Services Administration. AF navigates flying comm capsule. (Air Force, command and control center) The Air Force is using the Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center, developed by Unisys Corp, to help control air activities during the Persian Gulf War. The system, developed under a $32 million program managed by the Air Force Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom Air Force Base, provides pilots with up-to-date target and threat data and allows pilots to communicate with ground operations centers. It consists of a 20,000 pound, 47-foot-long capsule carried in a Lockheed Corp EC-130 turboprop aircraft. The capsule contains 15 consoles. Twelve are used by the battle staff responsible for coordinating strikes and other aircraft. The remaining three are used by a maintenance technician and two communications operators. The capsule also contains 23 radios and three satellite communications sets. The system can serve as a backup to the ground center if it is disabled. FBI fingerprint ID system faces pressure for local links. (Federal Bureau of Investigations) The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) has received a Presidential Priority System designation in the 1991 budget. The system is designed to automate the storage, transmission, retrieval, and processing of fingerprint records on a national level, thus making implementation of the system a huge challenge. The system must be compatible with state and local law enforcement agencies, which are automating their own fingerprint collection and storage systems, and it must offer inexpensive and fast transmittal of data. State law enforcement organizations are pushing for fast implementation of the system, which will probably be fully installed in 1995. The IAFIS consists of three integrated systems: an advanced automated fingerprint identification system, an interstate identification index, and an image transmission network. The FBI expects to be able to identify more than 29,000 fugitives each year using the IAFIS. FDA relies on optical imaging: radiological center builds its own archive. (Food and Drug Administration) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed an optical imaging system that allows the agency to store documents. The system, implemented at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, allows staff members to reclaim 4,400 feet of office space and saves workers thousands of hours that were previously spent filing and retrieving documents. The system allows more than one employee to view a document at a time. Although it considered using a systems integrator, the agency eventually decided that it could do a better job developing its own system. The agency estimates that it has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by using off-the-shelf products to develop the system. It includes microcomputers from AST Research Inc, Fujitsu scanners and HP laser printers. All of the microcomputers are linked to a DEC VAX. Most of the imaging software was developed in-house. DOD finishes consolidation of new finance and accounting service. (Department of Defense) The Department of Defense will save up to $150 million a year by transferring personnel and equipment to the new Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). The transfer, from the uniformed services, is part of the Defense Management Review, which may save the DOD $39 billion over a period of five years. All accounting and finance operations will be performed by DFAS, including military and civilian pay, travel and transportation payments, accounting and financial reporting, and payment to contractors. Automated Data Processing systems are expected to play a big role in DFAS, as illustrated by the appointment of information resources management expert John Springett as the deputy director of DFAS. The first part of the consolidation did not result in any personnel reductions, but succeeding phases are likely to reduce the total number of people who handle finance and accounting functions for the DOD. Internet architecture, speed and security need study, Cerf says. (Vinton Cerf, chairman of the Internet Activities Board) The Internet Activities Board (IAB) will develop a 10-year architectural plan for Internet during 1991 so that issues such as expansion and interfacing with the telephone system can be addressed. IAB chmn Vinton Cerf says that Internet links about 5,000 networks and 315,000 host computers, and about 13,000 additional networks are registered with Internet but not connected to it. One of the most critical issues facing Internet is the question of scale. Already, Internet managers are working hard on routing procedures to respond to the high level of use. Rapid growth is anticipated because the number of independent carriers offering Internet Protocol services is expected to rise significantly. The IAB will also have to address the speed issue, since many applications that will be used on Internet, such as imaging, will require higher speed. Cerf emphasized that issues such as diversity, security, and standardization will also be addressed. Pentagon dilemma: identifying, choosing critical technologies. (column) The Defense Department is drafting the third version of its critical technologies plan at the request of the Congress, which was unhappy with the first two versions. The main problem is that the DOD is having trouble identifying militarily critical technology that is distinct from the technology used and produced by the civilian sector. Congress asked the DOD to identify technologies that would ensure long-term superiority of US weapons systems, but the current list provided by the DOD does not provide military officials with the tools they need to make decisions about what to invest in for next-generation systems. The DOD list also fails to identify what makes a technology critical, but that is probably an impossible task. A technology might be called critical if it advances or obstructs technological process, but at the same time any technology can be called critical if it is desperately needed at any instance. Critical technologies plans can serve a purpose, but they should probably be used to list the technologies that will be the last to be sacrificed when the DOD is trying to determine which technologies are expendable. PerForm simplifies use, design of office forms. (Software Review) (Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro forms generation software) Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro allows users to design and complete forms, offering users technical excellence and a rich variety of features. The $299 package is a Microsoft Windows edition of DOS software that provides automation support to supervisors, form designers, and form users. The package comes with a concise 775-page manual, but many users will be able to begin using its intuitive interface immediately. Installation is relatively easy and on-line tutorials and help screens are included. PerForm is especially strong in security. It allows control of electronic signatures and many other techniques for preventing unauthorized access to data. Users can create original forms or scan in preprinted forms. Delrina is also extending its product line with products such as Winfax, which allows users to send facsimile messages from PerForm or other Windows 3.0 applications. Proposal to revamp revolving-door rules doomed. Richardson, Jennifer. Changes recommended by the Bush administration for the Procurement Integrity Act's temporarily suspended revolving-door provisions will not be enacted by Congress, according to Congressional Democrats. The suspended statutes prohibit officials from taking jobs with companies that hold contracts the officials worked on while in government service, thus prohibiting government employees from unfairly using their knowledge or influence to prosper in the civilian sector. The administration seeks the repeal of the revolving door controls. Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich) may suggest a bill that would result in a compromise on the post-government employment rules. The administration bill currently in question provides guidelines preventing the disclosure of procurement-sensitive information but does not place restrictions on the procurement officers who handle this information. Yet industry officials seem to support the act as it stands. AT&T VP Richard J. Lombardi says that it enhances the integrity of the federal procurement process. Balancing risk, negligence in fed contracts. Beutel, Richard A. Lawsuits based on claims of professional negligence are being filed against government contractors and systems integrators and these lawsuits must be taken into account when a bidder on a government contract calculates business risk. On one hand, companies should be held responsible for a system defect if that defect causes loss of life or property damage, but companies cannot be expected to place their entire fate at risk for one government contract. Several government contractors have asked for contractual protection from the government that would provide them with indemnification, or contractual protection from the procuring agency, in the event that the delivered system does not work properly or the vendor is sued for providing systems late. In the long run, the government may indeed have to provide this indemnification or it will not receive the latest technology that it needs to perform essential tasks. High-speed data collection, storage key to Fermilab's quark experiments. (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) Scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are studying the fundamental structure of matter using computing and tape technologies that have been developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The studies, which include the study of subatomic particles called quarks, are being done with high-speed customized computers and data storage systems from Summus Computer Systems. The Summus systems allow scientists to achieve a constant data recording rate of 10.5Mbytes per second, which is about 20 times faster than anyone in high-energy physics has ever written to tape. The experiments that involve quarks are being accomplished by taking 200,000 data sets per minute and studying those data sets at a later time to determine which contain records of collisions that produce quarks. The total data set is expected to reach between 50 and 100 terabytes. Other experiments at Fermilab that require rapid data acquisition include experiments in which protons are propelled through a linear accelerator so that scientists can find evidence of a theoretical quark called the top quark. Presentation graphics make the scene. (includes related article on presentation graphics standards) Presentation graphics are becoming an important part of Pentagon briefings. Presentation graphics allow officials to communicate points briefly and successfully. They can render material less boring and easier to absorb. Civilian agencies are also using the technology to display graphics in requests for proposals. The success of presentation graphics is based on the idea that delivery is paramount. Although tight government budgets may seem to make graphics a luxury for government agencies, the software packages, frequently priced around $495, can be well worth their cost if they help agencies acquire funding from the administration and from Congress. Packages such as Software Publishing Corp's Harvard Graphics 2.3 and Microsoft Corp's Power Point 2.0 are both popular, and even more packages will probably arrive as Microsoft's Windows becomes more popular. NASA Ames explores video animation for presentations. (Ames Research Center) Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center Information Sciences Division, together with the Ames Imaging Technology Group, used an Apple Macintosh and software packages MacroMind Director and Swivel 3-D to produce a video animation of a robotic vehicle for exploring outer space. The presentation, which was shown to Ames management and officials at the Johnson Space Flight Center, depicted a trip to Mars, demonstrating how the vehicle could be used in manned and unmanned modes for construction and maintenance work. Ames workers want to utilize even more advanced animation techniques such as those done on Silicon Graphics Inc workstations, but they are wary about the amounts of time and money that these presentations would cost. Scientists at the Imaging Technology Group also produced presentations that demonstrated lasers and neural networks. Demand has grown for this type of presentation, so much that the group has opened up a new Media Lab to handle the additional work. The Media Lab allows the group to concentrate on its main goals, developing videos and other presentations for public relations and educational use. OMB's Springer sells agency awareness. (Office of Management and Budget senior staff member Edward C. Springer) Edward C. Springer is a senior staff member in the Information Policy Branch at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the OMB. Part of his job involves visiting senior government agency officials to find out about their computer security plans. Springer was pleased to find that most agencies are putting integrity and availability of their computers and data on the top of their priority lists, before issues of confidentiality. People are beginning to address security issues as part of the design process and as problems that must be tackled from a broad, managerial perspective, rather than from a strictly technical perspective. Springer has also involved himself in security issues in another way, by helping to write National Security Decision Directive 145, the first computer-security charter for the National Security Agency (NSA). He also worked on its successor, National Security Directive 42, which brought the NSA into compliance with the 1987 Computer Security act. DCA chooses new exec for 10Net division. (Digital Communications Associates Inc.) Digital Communications Associates Inc (DCA) has chosen Robert M. Fratarcangelo as the new federal sales manager for its 10Net division. Fratarcangelo feels that fifty percent of DCA's 10Net income could be generated by federal business. Currently, 10Net's federal business includes a large LAN installation at the FBI. DCA also provides the LAN operating system offered on the Air Force's Unified Local-Area Network Architecture. The firm is part of an informal coalition of companies supporting Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager in the battle for domination of the LAN market. Its competitors include Novell Inc and Banyan Systems Inc. Fratarcangelo feels that his company could secure business through agencies acquiring microcomputers through Unisys Corp's Desktop III contract. Fratarcangelo says that DCA will continue to sell to the government through resellers. Cray rolls out improved Y-MP models. (Cray Research Inc.)(Y-MP supercomputers) (product announcement) Cray Research Inc has introduced two additions to its Y-MP supercomputer line that offer users an improved input-output subsystem and solid-state storage device in addition to greater reliability. The machines should help Cray remain competitive with the Japanese, according to industry analysts, by offering leading-edge technology in areas such as storage. The new systems, the Y-MP8E and the Y-MP8I, demonstrate a major improvement in packaging technology. The Y-MP8E is a dual-chassis system and the Y-MP8I is a single-chassis system. The Y-MP8E is Cray's top-of-the-line product. The V-shaped system offers more central memory, can be purchased in configurations of four to eight processors with up to 256 million words of central memory, and comes in high-tech red, gray, and black colors. The Y-MP8I may be Cray's price/performance leader. It offers up to eight processors, an I/O subsystem, and up to 128 megawords of central memory. SPSS lands GSA schedule for statistical software. (SPSS Inc.)(General Services Administration) SPSS Inc will probably offer its microcomputer-based statistical software to government agencies through a GSA schedule beginning Apr 1, 1991. The software package, also called SPSS, is a modular statistical data analysis package that runs on a variety of platforms, from Apple Macintoshes to mainframes. The GSA schedule will encompass all of SPSS's desktop products. The company is also working to include its mainframe products on the schedule. The advantages for government agencies include the opportunity to purchase the software for about 25 percent less than commercial prices, better product support, and faster purchase time. The GSA schedule will give SPSS the opportunity to better compete with SAS Institute Inc. SAS's software package, SAS Applications System, is run on 83 percent of IBM-compatible mainframes in the US, compared to 13 percent for SPSS. Thomson-CSF, U.S. Banknote merge computer ID businesses. (United States Banknote Co.) Thomson-CSF and United States Banknote Co have decided to merge their computerized identification systems businesses to combine their US and international technical and marketing expertise. The new company, Idmatics International, will operate out of Paris and New York and will combine laser printing and ID card production technology. Idmatics CEO Michel Didier says that the company will pursue government business in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company will use proprietary equipment to produce ID cards. Information about applicants will be input into a mainframe, then copied onto magnetic tapes or sent via telephone lines to production machines. The machines can produce more than 700 cards each hour, and 8,000 cards each day. Idmatics builds features into its cards which make them impossible to replicate, which is particularly important in the government market. Unisys unveils series of high-end mainframes. (product announcement) Unisys Corp has introduced a line of high-end mainframe computers, the A19 line, that will serve as information hubs or on-line transaction processing systems. The six A19 models use one to six processors and cost between $5.38 and $26 million. The A19 series of air-cooled computers will be available in fall 1991. Although they will have little effect on Unisys's current financial health, Unisys VP Jim Cassell says that he hopes the A19 computers will forestall the customer defections that are occurring because of fears of Unisys's stability. The A19 line uses Unisys Super Scalar technology, which features massively parallel processing and something called out-of-order processing to execute instructions. The A19 line offers a space advantage over IBM mainframes. The largest mainframe of the line still requires less than 25 percent of the space that a comparable IBM machine needs. Travelers takes a journey from SNA: the firm's LAN internetworking plan is a 'preemptive' move. (local area network) The long reign of SNA as the dominant networking environment at The Travelers Corp is nearly at an end. The company is in the middle of a large LAN internetworking project that will result in SNA being just one of many protocols supported. Distributed computing, according to company officials, is absolutely vital to an information-intensive industry such as insurance. Travelers is moving from SNA to groups of LANs connected by routers and bridges. Approximately 100 of the company's 175 Token-Ring LANs have been connected and Travelers will be deciding shortly on which routers to rely on to connect those bridged networks. Analysts say that Travelers is considering frame relay to save on data transmission costs. Unisys: will boosted high end boost sales? (Unisys Corp.'s A19 mainframes) Unisys Corp's A19 mainframes offer impressive power, transaction processing performance and technological innovation. Analysts and users feel, however, that the high-end systems will find little acceptance outside the current A series user base because of the company's financial troubles and the slowdown in mainframe sales. The A19 mainframe, a system that includes six models ranging from the A19-611, rated at 50 million instructions per second (MIPS), to the 240 MIPS A19-664. The new system improves by 1.8 times the performance of the A16-61E, Unisys' previous top-of-the-line uniprocessor. The A16-61E is rated at 272.5 transactions per second. The air-cooled processors will begin shipping in the 3rd qtr of 1992 with the delivery of five- and six-way processor configurations. Cost of the systems range from $5.4 million to $26 million. At NCR, thinking small pays off: firm offloads applications from mainframes to workstations. The 1990 year-end financial report for $6.3 billion NCR were completed on microcomputers, not mainframes, a major milestone in the computer vendor's drive to downsize its internal information systems operations. Four of the company's eight mainframe systems have been retired, resulting in a projected savings of $5 million over the next five years. NCR is well aware of the downsizing trend wherein cost-cutting is only one objective. Benchmarking studies prove that processing costs for the same transactions on workstations and microcomputers are far below processing costs for mainframe systems. The second trend is one which gives more autonomy to corporate business units, which demand more control over MIS. NCR is focusing its downsizing efforts in finance, marketing and manufacturing. Company officials project that microprocessors will have a 10-to-1 price/performance advantage over mainframes by 1995. Vendors get their Irish up: U.S. firms use Irish talent to customize software for the European market. US software vendors believe they have found gold in Ireland. Apple Computer subsidiary Claris Corp has announced it will spend over $16 million to expand its software engineering and production facility outside Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft also plans to spend over $17 million to expand its software plant there. With over half its revenue coming from sales outside the US, software companies have to quickly introduce customized products to meet local language, accounting and other requirements. The Irish Republic offers high-tech firms many attractive features, like generous tax and grant incentives aimed at attracting foreign investment, a nationwide fiber-optic network useful for connecting US programmers with their Irish counterparts, and a selection of strong support services. What really draws US companies to Ireland was the availability of programming talent with the ability to retool US products for the European market. Claris has now recognized the work done in Ireland by incorporating localization requirements into new product design. Declaring war on IS inefficiency: like any hard-pressed corporation, the Pentagon is consolidating to cut costs. The Defense Corporate Information Management (CIM) executive level group is a task force whose mandate is to do part of an internal review of Department of Defense (DOD) management practices. The group is made up of six information systems experts from the private sector and three Pentagon information systems officials. The group's instructions are to review all existing IS policies and structure, recommending steps for reducing costs and improving procedures. Those recommendations have already resulted in major reorganization moves. Congress, however, plans to convene hearings in Apr 1991 on the Pentagon's progress with CIM. Congressional staffers are not convinced that the DOD is standardizing on systems any more than they were in 1965. The DOD has submitted a proposal for 1992 to reduce spending by 1.2 percent, from $298.9 billion to $295.2 billion. The CIM program will save over $2 billion by 1997. Paul Strassmann has been appointed as Director of Defense Information and is expected to develop and use rigorous procedures for IS management. Are GUIs worth the hassle? Ease of use doesn't mean ease of installation. (graphical user interface) While the use of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) gives end users improved ability to control the work flow and quickens the writing of complex source code, migration to GUIs may not be as easily accomplished. GUIs require more computing power and high costs for training users. According to Corporate Software Inc, a company which provides service for companies migrating to GUIs, the minimum acceptable configuration for Microsoft Windows 3.0 is an Intel 80286-based machine with 2Mbytes of memory, and the optimum configuration is a 386 machine with 4Mbytes of memory. User training has proven to be costly and time consuming. Despite these hurdles, companies are migrating to GUIs. Windows seems to be the GUI of choice, with analysts estimating that 6.4 million copies of Windows 3.0 will be sold by the end of 1991 and 14 million by the end of 1992. Benchmark brouhaha: IBM must redo RS/6000 TPC-A benchmark, says vendor council. (Transaction Processing Performance Council) IBM will have to revise its price/performance tests for the RS/6000 workstation. These tests were based on the TPC-A benchmark from the Transaction Processing Performance Council. The company apparently erred in its choice of a storage medium when conducting the test. The incident spotlights the confusion surrounding benchmarks in general and the wariness of users of how vendors use the tests for marketing purposes. The council is keeping an eye on vendors, including its 40 member companies to ensure that its benchmark is handled properly. Hewlett-Packard blew the whistle on IBM by issuing a press release. The publicity is welcome news for users trying to measure the comparative performance of systems from different hardware vendors. Hardware vendors have always found a way to put their own systems at the top of the chart when publishing benchmarks. Users had no real clue as to what the truth was about systems tested by vendors. Sun shines on networking: strengthens DEC, OSI links, but may be more than users need. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Open Network Sun Microsystems introduces extensions to its networking offerings designed to strengthen its interaction with DEC VAX systems and ease the eventual transition from Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to OSI protocol standards. Its new products include: the $395 PC-NFS 3.5, which includes support for Microsoft Windows 3.0, the Simple Network Management Protocol and 3Com's and Microsoft's Network Driver Interface Specification; SunLink DNI 7.0 and SunLink TE100 6.1, both of which improve DEC connectivity and come bundled together on CD-ROM at $1,400; and the $2,800 SunNet OSI 7.0, the $2,800 SunNet X.25 and the $6,600 SunNet MHS, all of which support international protocol standards. The client/server model is at the center of the company's plans. Sun calls its version of the distributed computing environment the Open Network Computing (ONC) architecture. Turbocharged chips: some new products feature 2 nanoseconds per access. (at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference Prototypes displayed at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), held in San Francisco in Feb 1991, indicated that the latest generation of microprocessors are faster, cheaper and smaller. New technology is resulting in more and more powerful computer systems capable of executing real-time graphics, high-speed transaction processing and artificial intelligence. The latest products contain about one million to 1.2 million transistors on an average-sized CPU chip. The experimental 100-MHz 80486 chip from Intel was the star of the ISSCC trade show. Intel chip designers used the majority of the chip's 1.2 million transistors for special circuitry to make the processor as fast as possible. National Semiconductor Corp (Santa Clara, CA), in its product code-named 'Swordfish,' combined digital signal processor functions with those of a general-purpose CPU. IBM's 512Kbyte SRAM chip, code-named 'Lightning,' is the world's fastest high-capacity memory chip. Its speed was achieved with the pipelining technique of CPU designers. Boole & Babbage targets CICS: marketing strategy attacks both high and low end. (customer information control system) Boole and Babbage (B and B) is focusing on CICS, the 20-year-old transaction processing monitor, as a growth path. The company is one of the first sellers of performance management and automated operations technology for the IBM mainframe environment. B and B recently signed a contract with IBM's CICS development lab in England for the development of performance management products. Company officials say it is the biggest project in the company's history. B and B has also announced the purchase of a line of CICS and Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) products from Quantum International. IBM is seeking the company's expertise in order to revamp CICS and give it the ability to handle cooperative processing under SystemView, IBM's architecture for unified system management and automated operations. B and B was chosen for the CICS project as it has the best underlying architecture to manage the types of administration issues that will arise under SystemView. In search for PC support: Price Waterhouse looks for the right outsourcer. Price Waterhouse is experimenting on outsourcing microcomputer maintenance to avoid spreading its information systems staff too thinly in troubleshooting its more than 100 offices nationwide and its company's 8,000 multivendor microcomputers. It initial step is to try out IBM's new support service policy which targets multivendor microcomputer networks. Some 300 Price Waterhouse users have begun a pilot of the program. The company has decided to look at other service providers' offerings and will hire as many as three firms if necessary. Some 30 vendors have responded to a request for proposal, including Nynex, Comdisco and IBM. High time for a meeting. (Timeplex Inc. users group meets with management) Over 120 Timeplex users met recently to share their opinions about the company. Such a meeting would not have been possible a few years ago. Users tried unsuccessfully for years to arrange such a meeting but ran into problems with previous management. Timeplex was not customer-oriented during that era, according to one user. A committee of users was chosen to participate in product development briefings and the structure was created to turn the group into a more formal and independent organization. The meeting provided the opportunity for users to talk to engineers and get the multiplexor vendor to provide statements of direction. One important outcome was the realization that some items that were high on the vendor's list of priorities were not high on the users' list. Company officials offered no comment on rumors that Timeplex was up for sale. Developing the right skills--just in time: JIT has worked in manufacturing; can it work in IS training? (Just in Time Just in Time (JIT) is one of the significant management developments of the 1980s in terms of cutting inventory costs. It is essentially a process by which decisions can be postponed up to the last minute, thereby minimizing losses related to stocking parts that have become obsolete. JIT has been used exclusively in manufacturing but might also apply to information systems (IS) staff training and development. Training managers have found that the skills they attempt to develop in new employees often have little to do with eventual demand. Staffers with obsolete skills have a far greater negative impact on company performance than obsolete parts. Implementing JIT training will mean some fundamental changes. Section heads and superiors will have to provide more input for identifying training needs. Determination of skill requirements should be made quarterly, rather than annually. Lower-level managers will have to be given more power if decisions are to be made at the last minute. Development and training time will have to be integrated into project plans. The performance rating for each manager could include an assessment of training and development goals for each person under him. IS technology is advancing rapidly but implementation of the technology without training is counter-productive. IBM opens its SNA door to non-IBM PCs, LANs: brings OS/2 Extended Edition into the fold. (product announcement) IBM introduces SAA Networking Services/2, a suite of connectivity software products that comprise a major step in the company's new strategy of opening its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) to include non-IBM computers and local area networks. SAA Networking Services/2 includes IBM's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) for OS/2 Extended Edition, the Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) protocol and a new OS/2 version of IBM's Common Program Interface for Communications (CPI-C). APPN is a distributed networking scheme that lets any networked user communicate directly with any other. Any device can be configured either as a network node or as an end node. Previous versions of APPN were available only for IBM System/36 and AS/400 minicomputers. IBM has also published the APPN specification to allow third-party vendors to design products that can act as end nodes. CPI-C will simplify development of cooperative processing applications based on OS/2. IBM says it is trying to 'optimize' SNA for LAN users. 1-2-3 for Windows to go into beta with hopes for summer release. (Lotus Development Corp. beta testing new Windows version of Lotus Development Corp's long-awaited Windows version of its popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet will enter beta test in Mar 1991, and the company hopes to have the product available by summer 1991. Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows, code-named 'Rockport,' could provide a serious competitive challenge to Microsoft Corp's Excel, which currently dominates the Windows spreadsheet market. Many large corporate users have been waiting for a Windows 1-2-3 rather than adopting Excel because of their investment in DOS 1-2-3 and user training. Lotus admits that some customers have migrated from 1-2-3 to Excel, but more are taking a 'wait and see' position. Microsoft's 'incumbent' position will give it an advantage, but the huge installed base of 1-2-3 users could strengthen Lotus in the Windows arena. 1-2-3 for Windows will offer complete macro compatibility with DOS versions and a choice of the standard Windows interface or familiar Lotus menus. Analysts say that corporate adoption of graphical interfaces makes software selection less of an issue because it is easier for users to move from one application to another. Adobe moves to give users more typeface control. (Adobe Systems Inc. announces technology for creating multiple typefaces from a Adobe Systems Inc announces Multiple Master, a new technology that will enhance its Type 1 font format by giving typeface designers and end users greater control over the appearance of fonts. Multiple Master will support the Macintosh, Unix and Windows platforms and will let users and designers create custom variations of each typeface, such as different weights, sizes and styles. It will improve document portability by building metrically compatible typefaces if a document is sent to a printer that does not have the specified typeface installed. Adobe plans to deliver Multiple Master to users through a variety of applications, both its own and those developed by third parties. Analysts say that Multiple Master could improve Adobe's competitive position against Apple and Microsoft Corp, which plan to bundle their own TrueType font technology in System 7.0 and Windows respectively. FrameMaker 3.0 to offer high-end output support. (Frame Technology Corp. announces update of FrameMaker technical publishing package) Frame Technology Corp announces FrameMaker 3.0, an update of its technical desktop-publishing package that offers an integrated table generator, conditional text capabilities and support for high-end color output. The program lets users anchor tables to a page in a document or allow them to float with text when it is repaginated. It supports both Desktop Color Separation and Open Prepress Interface links to high-end color prepress and post-production systems. FrameMaker 3.0 will span the Macintosh, Sun, DEC, HP, NeXT and IBM workstation platforms. The Mac and Sun versions will ship in the 2nd qtr 1990; other versions will be available in the third quarter. FrameMaker 3.0 will sell for $995 on the Mac and NeXT. A floating license for the Unix version costs $2,500. Vendors turn to CD ROM, electronic publishing; techniques introduces Era of Convenience. (software vendors considering new Software vendors are increasingly turning to electronic publishing and CD ROM distribution to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Borland International Inc is negotiating to provide its language products via the Software Now on-line and CD ROM distribution service operated by Software Developers Co Inc. Users would have access to 6,000 software and demonstration programs which can be ordered via on-line services or CD ROM. Software Now uses electronic data interchange to eliminate the need for customers to communicate via voice telephone. A number of mainframe computer companies have also expressed interest in Software Now. The day of 20MB floppy disk drives draws near. (high-capacity floppies under development) Many vendors are developing new technologies which will allow users to store 4- to 20Mbytes of data on a single floppy disk in the near future. Ten vendors are now preparing to manufacture 4Mbyte floppy disks, but the decline of the 1.44Mbyte disk is being delayed by hardware vendors' reluctance to change and the need for backward compatibility. Systems vendors view high-density drives as add-on subsystems; analysts say that the drives will remain a niche market until a major vendor such as IBM, HP or Apple endorses the new format. There are currently no standards for 20Mbyte floppy disks, but three vendors are already readying them; the first manufacturer who delivers a product is expected to establish a 'de facto' standard. Power user or pencil pusher? Our industry requires a choice. (Tech Talk) (column) Computer software is intended to improve productivity by empowering users and enabling them to perform their jobs better, but much of today's software is so complex that 'power users' find they are more productive performing tasks by hand. A pencil and paper can be simpler and more effective at creating a calendar than many of the project management and project scheduling packages on the market today. Hand tools do not support the complexity or depth of expression supported by high-end software packages, but they have a much broader application domain. Most computer software present a very deep but extremely narrow profile. Programmers should consider developing a new generation of software tools with the shallow, broad characteristics of pencils and paper. Wireless networking finds its market niche; cable will still be preferred in most sites. (wireless LAN technology) The market for wireless LAN technology is growing significantly, and wireless networks will simplify the connection of portable computers to each other and to existing LANs. It will nevertheless remain a niche market and is unlikely to completely replace network cabling because of cost and performance considerations. Vendors and users attending a recent conference agreed that wireless networks are most likely to appear alongside cable in mixed systems and will be the preferred means of connection under some circumstances. 'Spontaneous networking' will let users exchange files with each other's personal computers at meetings and update calendars automatically. Wireless networks remain slow and expensive, but some users say they can save valuable time. Altsys, Letraset ready TrueType products: font creation, conversion, editing on way. (product announcement) Altsys Corp and Letraset USA have introduced new font products supporting the new TrueType font technology, which Apple plans to incorporate into System 7.0. Altsys' $149 Metamorphosis Professional 2.0 can generate TrueType fonts from straight text or from Adobe Type 1 and Type 3 fonts. It has a 'Convert Text' window where users type text or select a portion of typed or imported text for conversion into editable outlines. The 'Convert Fonts' mode lets users convert any number of fonts between formats. Registered users of Metamorphosis can upgrade to Metamorphosis Professional for $45. Letraset's $595 FontStudio 2.0 can generate Type 1, Type 3 and hinted TrueType fonts from scratch or edit imported fonts and scanned images. It has a kerning window for leading character metrics optically or numerically and an 'auto-hinting' algorithm that conducts an internal study of a font's characteristics. Stolen PCs surface in used PC exchanges; exchanges alter policies in response. (microcomputer theft) The Boston Computer Exchange recently discovered that it had unwittingly sold stolen microcomputers and contacted state authorities, who are now searching for two men suspected of fencing $1 million worth of equipment through the exchange. The alleged thieves, Louis Jatta and Carl Reid, specialized in Macintosh products and operated in the fall of 1990. The incident has prompted many used computer dealers to re-evaluate their procedures in the light of their vulnerability. Boston Computer Exchange Pres Alan Randall hopes to establish a national point-of-sale registry for computer serial numbers, a procedure which would protect both buyers and brokers. Broker ELI Heffron and Sons Inc does not accept merchandise without an original invoice and checks serial numbers; the Southern Computer Exchange Corp does not pay the seller until the buyer has owned the equipment for two days. Studies predict rapid growth for PC-based database server market. (Forrester Research and International Data Corp. studies) Market research firm Forrester Research Inc concludes from the results of two studies that the microcomputer-based database server market will grow rapidly in the 1990s, although it is currently a tiny market compared to the large installed base of microcomputers. Microsoft/Sybase SQL Server and Oracle Server are expected to each gain 30 percent of the OS/2 server database market based on current buying patterns in Fortune 1000 companies. IBM will have a 15 to 20 percent market share with its OS/2 Extended Edition Database Manager, while the remaining 20 to 25 percent of the market will go to second-tier vendors. Forrester analysts note that server databases are crucial in client/server architectures and to the success of the client/server strategies of the Fortune 1000. A total of 37,500 database servers were sold in 1990; 3,500 of these were SQL Server and 10,000 were Oracle Server. Upturn in the high-tech stock market may soon grow sour. (Tech Street) (column) High-technology stocks have led the current rally in the stock market, with Apple, Compaq and other major stocks surging significantly. This trend can be deceptive for a number of reasons. Strong fourth-quarter earnings buoyed stock prices, but much of this increase was related to the rising dollar and consequent foreign income gains. Overseas markets are slowing down as the worldwide recession worsens. Analysts say that the stock market as a whole has become bloated, and investor sentiment is the most bullish it has been since the early 1970s, a situation which usually signals the top of the market. Competition among computer vendors is heating up as MIS budgets in major corporations decline. The recession will not end along with the end of the Persian Gulf war because the war was not the cause of the recession in the first place. Data on demand: the market for "content-based software" will ride the wave of multimedia. (includes related article on the Lotus Multimedia technology and the growth of the CD ROM are likely to boost the market for so-called 'content-based software,' such as reference material, demographic data and video libraries. Several firms offer libraries of data on CD ROM, and The Voyager Co publishes an interactive music disc for the Macintosh. Many experts believe that the CD ROM market will not grow until software comes down in price and that software prices will not drop until the market grows enough to reduce hardware prices. Intellectual property rights are a difficult issue in the multimedia field; determining who owns the rights to scripts and music can be a problem. Technical drawbacks include the fact that CDs are currently a read-only medium; few end users can afford to develop their own content products. Several hardware vendors are developing machines optimized for multimedia use. The stakes are high in the multimedia market because of its enormous potential. The slow but steady transition to the realm of networking. (The Corporate View) (column) Information systems managers increasingly find they can no longer ignore local area network technology despite their prudent reluctance to 'rush in' and adopt bleeding-edge technologies. Electronic mail is widely predicted to become the next 'killer' application, and wide-scale networking is a growing trend. Attending trade shows is one way to broaden one's knowledge of networking. Arriving the night before the show opens and obtaining a directory helps the show attendee decide what to see; a 'team' sent to a show may want to assign each person to a specific area. About half of seminars and panel discussions are genuinely useful, while the other half are essentially sales pitches for a particular product. Printer languages. (a tutorial examining the differences between PCL 5 and PostScript) (includes related article on relative merits HP's LaserJet series is the most popular low-end line of laser printers, while printers using Adobe's PostScript page-description language dominate the high-end market. LaserJets use HP's PCL printer language and offer limited fonts, while PostScript provides high-quality, scalable typefaces and powerful graphics capability. The new PCL 5 used in the HP LaserJet III is a serious competitor to PostScript, providing scalable fonts, text rotation and definition of 'clipping' areas. Adobe has countered by developing the more advanced PostScript Level 2, and Microsoft and Apple's upcoming TrueImage printer language will complicate the problem further. Printer languages: Adobe PostScript vs. Hewlett-Packard PCL 5. (Software Review) (comparison of PCL 5 and PostScript printer Adobe's PostScript and HP's PCL 5 page-description languages are tested and compared. Both support scalable typefaces, but PostScript printers typically have 35 built-in fonts; the LaserJet III has eight. PostScript is a full-fledged programming language, while PCL 5 is a command language with no facilities for procedures, variables or conditional execution. Speed varies according to the rated speed of the printer and the design of the printer controller as well as the printer language itself. PostScript requires fewer commands to describe a page than PCL 5, but the printer takes longer to interpret the file once transmitted. Font caching involves using mathematical equations in the printer controller to scale fonts. Both PostScript printers and the LaserJet III store scaled characters in the printer's memory. Increasing printer memory allows a larger font cache. PostScript has a clear advantage over PCL 5 in device independence. Levels of Adobe's PostScript/Microsoft's TrueImage. Heck, Mike. Adobe Systems' PostScript Level 1 has been available since 1985 but remains a robust page description language for text and graphics, even if it suffers from slow performance. The company recently introduced PostScript Level 2, an upgraded version that addresses these and other problems. PostScript Level 2 provides more efficient processing because it can decompress files on the fly and takes advantage of printer controllers based on reduced instruction set computer technology. Adobe is now writing its own drivers, and PostScript Level 2 uses the CYMK color model to specify colors and generate high-quality color separations. It also addresses intelligent image processing. Microsoft's upcoming TrueImage page description language is an alternative that is fully compatible with PostScript Level 1 but is interwoven with the graphical operating environment in the host computer, increasing performance and reducing printer overhead. BeckerTools, FileApps give Windows file management relief. (Software Review) (hDC Computer Corp. FileApps, Abacus' Abacus' $129.95 BeckerTools 2.0 and hDC Computer Corp's $129.95 FileApps are file-management utilities for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface that improve on the weak capabilities of Windows' built-in File Manager. BeckerTools shows the user two windows with the contents of source and target directories; users set which is which before copying or moving files. It can also archive and pack files, create new directories, launch programs and bring up a DOS command line. The program is entirely icon-based and offers a wide variety of functions. FileApps is a set of five small utilities accessed through Windows' MicroApp Manager. A terminate-and-stay-resident 'Watcher' program intercepts commands that would delete files, asking the user to confirm deletions. 'Disk Viewer' shows the contents of the current directory path in any of several views. 'File Search' lets the user find the location of any file. FileApps lets users copy, move and delete files and perform a wide variety of other tasks. The utilities are not powerful but are very easy to use. Versatile EasyPlot produces slick scatterplots, histograms, and charts. (Software Review) (Spiral Software's data plotting Spiral Software's $349 EasyPlot 2.0 is a simple package designed for plotting and analyzing scientific and technical data. The program takes up less than 300Kbytes of disk space and can generate scatter plots, histograms, contour plots, polar charts or bar charts. Users can add multiple axes, colors, pattern fills and plot symbols. It accepts spreadsheet data from Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony and includes its own built-in free-form data editor. Sophisticated analysis options include curve-fitting of up to 20 unknowns, differentiation and integration, and save charts to disk files or output them to a variety of printers and plotters. EasyPlot does not offer all of the features of such complex technical graphics packages as Sygraph or Sigma-Plot, but is an exceptional value. TurboCAD works for beginners, but lacks many features. (Software Review) (International Microcomputer Software Inc.'s International Microcomputer Software Inc's $149.95 TurboCAD 2.0 is an inexpensive two-dimensional CAD package that offers enough features for beginning users but is too limited to be acceptable to serious users. The new version includes three symbol libraries, VGA support and support for dot-matrix and laser printers. It includes a wide variety of drawing and placement tools and sophisticated copying and moving commands. There is no true symbols or 'block' capability, and some editing capabilities are lacking. There is no chamfering tool, and there is no way to select multiple entities that do not fall into a window. TurboCAD is also slow and uses metric paper sizes rather than US paper sizes A through E. The package is suitable only for casual users. BMDP's PC-90 statistical package is more PC-oriented. (Software Review) (BMDP Statistical Software Inc.) (evaluation) BMDP Statistical Software Inc's PC-90 statistical package is more microcomputer-oriented than earlier versions, which used a mainframe-like interface. The new version has a full-screen editor, pop-up menus and context-sensitive help. Its documentation has been revamped, and the individual program routines require less memory. BMDP remains batch-oriented underneath the microcomputer 'shell,' forcing users to drop to the command level to access its more powerful operations. Users familiar with mainframe BMDP will be pleased with the familiar interface, but it is less interactive than other microcomputer statistics packages. Prices range from $495 for academic users to $2,195 depending on the specific routines selected. CorelDraw 2.0 retains title as top PC illustration package. (Corel Systems Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Corel Systems Corp's CorelDraw 2.0 is an upgrade of an already powerful product and is the best illustration package available for IBM-compatible microcomputers. CorelDraw 2.0 runs only under the Microsoft Windows 3.0 interface and supports color bit-mapped files, expanded font and symbol libraries and a new Mosaic file maintenance utility. The drawing and editing tools are excellent. Corel provides a deceptively simple toolbox with pencil, rectangle and oval tools; the pencil tool generates polylines, straight lines or Bezier curves. A new Freehand drawing mode lets users quickly sketch objects that do not require smooth curves. Tracing capabilities are very good; there is a built-in tracing tool and a comprehensive 'Corel Trace' utility. Import/export capabilities are very good, and speed is excellent. Output quality has been improved in the new version and earns an excellent rating. Documentation is extensive and earns a very good rating although there is n on-line help for the main programs .Ease of learning is excellent, and ease of use is very good. Error handling earns a 'good' score; brief messages warn the user if a mandatory step has not been performed, but there are no detailed error-recovery instructions. Corel Systems' support policies earn a 'good' score; the support provided is very good. The program earns a 'very good' score for value despite its increase in price to $695. CA-SuperProject 2.0: a top corporate project manager. (Software Review) (Computer Associates International Inc.'s project Computer Associates International Inc's CA-SuperProject 2.0 offers a more graphical interface and is easier to use than earlier versions, making it appropriate for smaller businesses and less-experienced users while retaining the powerful functions that allow it to serve corporate needs. The package is rated excellent in features and flexibility; users can build tree diagrams and PERT network diagrams, with emphasis on resource management. The user can allocate unlimited resources for each project and workgroup, and unlimited assignments for each task. Rescheduling and resource leveling are very good; there are 1,000 priority levels available. Speed is rated good, and reporting is very good. The program offers very good documentation, including on-line help and a reference card. Ease of learning is good, while ease of use is very good. Error handling earns a 'good' rating. Computer Associates' support policies are rated good, but the support itself is only satisfactory. CA-SuperProject 2.0 is rated a very good value for its price of $895. FileMaker Pro's network readiness pumps up its value. (Software Review) (Claris Corp. FileMaker Pro flat-file database for Apple Claris Corp's FileMaker Pro flat-file database management system for the Apple Macintosh offers a spelling checker, the ability to add buttons to layouts and other enhanced features. It will run on any Macintosh beginning with the Plus and includes a variety of features that have been available for longer in competing products. A new Time field type is available, and the Calculation field can accommodate longer formulas. Data entry is rated good, and reporting is very good. FileMaker Pro offers a type of query-by-example for finding records; it is rated very good in this area. Import/export features are also very good. Functions earn an excellent rating, and speed is excellent at record access but only good in setup functions. Ease of learning and ease of use are both rated excellent. Error handling is very good; data is saved automatically when created or modified, and the program automatically checks files after a system crash and attempts to repair them. Claris' support policies are good, but the actual technical support they provide is poor; not all of the technicians are knowledgeable, and getting through can be difficult. FileMaker Pro is nevertheless an excellent value for its price of $299. Despite its popularity, what's wrong with Windows 3.0? (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface)(Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Microsoft sold nearly 3 million copies of its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface in 1990, but Windows applications are not among the most interesting new software products introduced recently. Most new Windows packages are either development tools or utilities designed to fix Windows' shortcomings. One reason for the lack of powerful new Windows applications is confusion about whether Windows or OS/2 will dominate in the future, but the biggest problem is the very hardware independence Microsoft claims is an asset. Developers never know what kind of hardware will be running their software and are forced to develop for the lowest common denominator, currently an 80386SX-based machine with 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk and VGA graphics. Downsizing decisions. (includes related articles on payroll downsizing, downsizing difficulty) (Enterprise Computing 'Downsizing' in a large corporation involves modifying business philosophy and information strategies rather than merely changing to a different type of computer equipment. Sara Lee Corp has implemented distributed processing to some degree in most of its divisions and uses client/server architecture to automate its sales force. Portable operating systems are also important in downsizing because they allow connection of mainframes, minicomputers, Unix systems and microcomputers. Downsizing can lead to cost savings, but other benefits include increased flexibility and scalable hardware and software investments. It requires implementing and integrating hardware and software from many vendors. Users should avoid implementing 'bleeding edge' technology in mission-critical applications because problems with untested, unproven technologies are inevitable. Steps in implementing a downsizing program include forming a committee of managers, MIS staff and end users to define and monitor the project; identifying applications best suited for downsizing; identifying the work and data flows currently in place and determining what will happen to them after downsizing; determining who will own and be responsible for data; identifying project objectives and quantifying benefits; getting upper management involved; ensuring that the rationale is based on strategic business goals; and regularly reviewing the progress of the project. Downsizing with superservers: experts urge caution. (Enterprise Computing supplement) Many corporate information systems managers are eyeing multiprocessing 'superservers' as a strategic tool in downsizing applications from mainframes to microcomputer networks, but experts advise caution because the new technology is immature. A superserver is a high-end microcomputer designed specifically to act as a network server; examples include NetFrame's product line and Compaq's Systempro. Evaluating and selecting products can be difficult, and superserver-based architectures are difficult to configure. Getting applications to run on a superserver may require considerable tinkering, and interoperability is a serious issue. Downsizing also requires a streamlined information-systems staff with specific skills. One expert hesitates to recommend superservers because most corporate networks lack the design integrity to place mission-critical applications on a single box. Many firms have nevertheless based successful downsizing strategies on superserver technology. Database Tower of Babel: Portable SQL still a dream. (Structured Query Language) (Enterprise Computing supplement) Many vendor claims about the portability of Structured Query Language database applications are exaggerated despite the fact that SQL is a standard defined by ANSI. Virtually every vendor enhances SQL in different ways, extending or modifying the language to run on a particular platform or add value. The ANSI standard specifies syntax well but is vague about SQL's semantics, following the philosophy of E.F. Codd, who pioneered the relational database concept. Codd and others argue that SQL should be completely hardware-independent, but real-world programming involves system optimization; most SQL implementations add statements to simplify programming for particular machines. Data types and numeric functions vary among implementations. Most SQL queries are embedded in C or COBOL programs either via pre-compilers or application programming interfaces. One way of dealing with SQL incompatibilities is to use a front-end program that hides the differences between different vendors' SQL engines; another is to train programmers in the differences among implementations. The SQL Access Group, a newly formed industry consortium, is working on a standard that may make SQL more portable. Microwave users decry FCC proposal. (Federal Communications Commission) Microwave users from the energy and transportation industries, meeting at the Energy Telecommunications and Electrical Association Conference, are protesting the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) proposal to reassign the frequencies used in their microwave networks to wireless communications services. The prospects for sharing the frequencies between private users and wireless communications companies do not look promising, although the results of frequency-sharing trials are not yet available. Reallocation of the frequencies would saddle the microwave users with huge network replacement or re-architecture costs. U.K. embraces plan for full competition in net arena. (network) Crockett, Barton. Major telecommunications reforms by the British government will open competition in that country and lead to reductions in international service rates. The current duopoly restricts competition to British Telecommunications PLC (BT) and Mercury Communications Ltd. The new plan will allow any financially capable company to provide local, long-distance or international services. The resale of switched and dedicated services over private international lines will also be allowed. Resale market analysts claim resellers could provide switched services between London and New York for less than a third of AT&T's current International Long Distance rates and still break even. BT has agreed to a one time reduction averaging 10 percent on all international switched service rates and to abide by a price cap system that will limit price increases for both domestic and international services. IBM extends APPN to OS/2, 3174 devices; building on SNA framework, IBM paves way for migration to distributed processing IBM announces Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) support for OS/2 Extended Edition workstations and the 3174 cluster controller. Key parts of APPN are also incorporated into the Systems Application Architecture (SAA). The new products will aid in the transition to a distributed processing environment, a radical change from SNA's current hierarchical structure. IBM published the APPN end node specification as one of its SAA Common Communications Support protocols. IBM SAA Networking Services/2 lets PS/2 microcomputers running OS/2 Extended Edition act as APPN end nodes or network nodes. It will be available by April 1991; the first license costs $200. The IBM 3174 Establishment Controller APPN Licensed Internal Code (LIC) Features is a microcode enhancement that lets the 3174 function as an APPN network node. Prices range from $648 to $1,295. Wary users shelve ANI deployment. (automatic number identification) Privacy issues, alternative technologies and high equipment upgrade costs are limiting the acceptance of automatic number identification (ANI), a feature of Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN). Voice response units (VRU) are less expensive and more effective for initiating data base lookups for transaction processing. Automatic number identification technology can save telemarketers time. JC Penney Telemarketing was among the first to test ANI, but decided that upgrading costs would exceed projected savings and scrapped plans for the ISDN feature. A guide to wiring hubs: smart, smarter, smartest. (buyers guide) Patch, Kimberly. Smart wiring hubs allow users to manage computer networks from a single location. They play host to internetwork devices, such as bridges and routers, and save network managers steps through software that monitors and reports on network activities such as traffic load, error conditions and broken cables. More sophisticated wiring hubs monitor local area networks (LANs) at the port level and allow managers to configure networks from their desktops. Built-in bridging or routing functions will allow transmission of data between different LAN technologies. A buyer's guide compares the features and prices of 30 intelligent wiring hubs. Microsoft to buy E-mail maker to fill gap in line. (acquires Consumers Software Inc.) Microsoft Corp is acquiring Consumers Software Inc, a leading producer of local-area network (LAN) electronic mail software. The acquisition will provide mail and data-sharing capabilities to various Microsoft Windows applications. The estimated purchase price is between $18 million and $23 million. The move follows Lotus Development Corp's acquisition of cc:Mail Inc in Feb 1991, although Microsoft denies any connection. Consumers Software president and founder Jack Grushcow will help in the transition of the business before pursuing other interests. Sun widens PC, workstation reach in enterprise nets: firm adds new PC-NFS, SunLink DNI, OSI wares. (Personal Computer-Network File New products from Sun Microsystems Inc make it easier to integrate its workstations, servers, and microcomputers into enterprise-wide networks. A new version of the Personal Computer-Network File System (PC-NFS) program supports Windows 3.0 and adds print, mail and backup capabilities. A new release of the SunLink DECnet Interconnect (DNI) software package simplifies links between Sun workstations and VAX VMS systems. Enhancements to Open systems Interconnection software prepare Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) users for migration to OSI networks. The announcements underscore Sun's efforts to position its products for traditional business markets. Users urge FCC to let AT&T continue to offer Tariff 12. (Federal Communications Commission) Almost 50 users urged the FCC to again approve Tariff 12 and allow AT&T to continue offering the custom network deals. The users said Tariff 12 provides a level of service never before available from a long-distance carrier and rejection of the tariff would deny them a service in which they have invested millions of dollars and enormous amounts of time and effort. Opponents claim the tariff offers nothing more than bulk discounts on existing services and many of its capabilities are available elsewhere. A federal appeals court ruled that the FCC improperly relied on price as the distinguishing difference between Tariff 12 packages and their component services. Windows proponents stress issues of deploying software in networks. There were very few Windows network applications or utility programs displayed at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in San Jose, CA, in early March 1991. The technology is fairly new, and analysts expect that applications will eventually arrive on the market. Attention was focused on sessions offering advice on using the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface in user networks. Many network managers expressed concern over the inability of many DOS network utilities to support Windows 3.0 and the fact that Windows is incompatible with existing hardware and software. Faurer announces plans to retire as leader of COS. (Corporation for Open Systems International) Lincoln Faurer, Pres and CEO of the Corporation for Open Systems International (COS), plans to retire in May 1991. He will appoint current chief operating officer Steve Hudson as his successor. The transition has been planned for some time. COS reported a loss of about $200,000 in 1990, but a successful lease negotiation and full depreciation of equipment over the next five years should improve the company's situation. COS provides OSI testing systems to assure the interoperability of communications equipment. Faurer, along with 43 major equipment vendors, played a key role in the launching of the organization in 1986. PacBell looking for niche in LAN interconnect mart; will team with third parties, start frame relay tests. Pacific Bell is developing high-speed switched services and forming partnerships with third-party vendors in an effort to establish itself in the emerging local-area network (LAN) interconnection market. The company will begin frame relay trials in 1991 and signed a comarketing agreement with Intel Corp to offer LAN products and support. Pac Bell will offer products and services from Intel's Networks and Services Division as well as distribute other products Intel carries, such as Novell NetWare network operating systems software and SynOptics Communications's 10Base-T Ethernet hubs. Intel will offer Pac Bell customers national and regional network and systems technical support and train Pac Bell personnel to provide the same services. New HP protocol analyzer eases LAN problem solving; object-oriented user interface simplifies operation. Hewlett-Packard Co introduces the Network Advisor protocol analyzer, which runs expert system software and makes it easier to solve problems on Ethernet and token-ring local-area networks (LANs). It is designed to make it easy for entry-level network technicians to pinpoint and resolve failures. An object-oriented graphical user interface calls up test applications and menu-driven Fault Finder software. Users can manually test network performance while Fault Finder automates testing functions based on symptoms. It uses a series of if-then statements to determine causes of the problem and suggests likely fault resolutions. The unit is portable with a flip-up screen and pull-down keyboard. The product is currently available and costs $19,500 for either a token-ring or Ethernet version. A unit that supports both lists for $25,000. Five vendors to showcase DCE application at CeBIT. (Distributed Computing Environment) (Hannover Fair CeBIT show in Germany) The first demonstration of a network application based on the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is scheduled for mid-March 1991 at the Hannover Fair CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany. The application, which will run on disparate Unix-based workstations, was co-developed by five vendors: DEC, Group Bull SA, Hewlett-Packard's Apollo Systems Division, IBM and Siemens Nixdorf Informationssystems. The demonstration is OSF's first attempt to educate users about DCE's ability to support distributed applications on multivendor workstations and a variety of Unix implementations. It should help stir interest in DCE. Bush administration, Gore spar over U.S. gigabit net; both debate federal role in net's infrastructure. (National Education and Sen. Al Gore and the Bush administration have offered separate proposals for a gigabit-per-second National Education and Research Network (NREN) and are seeking congressional funding for their projects. Gore is battling the administration over the federal government's role in building the network infrastructure. The White House proposes government funding for network design research, but expects private industry to pay for the network. Gore's High Performance Computing Act of 1991 and a House companion bill call for government funding for the five-year project. The Bush administration asked Congress for $658 million for the first year of a computer research program. $92 million would be earmarked for research into a prototype of a gigabit NREN. 3Com sells off its CSI business unit. (Communications Solutions and Information group) 3Com Corp continues to shed its workgroup-related businesses with the sale of its IBM SNA connectivity business. The CSI group was sold to Attachmate Corp, financial terms were not disclosed. 3Com is leaving the workgroup market as part of its broad reorganization and plans to focus on internetworking products and network adapters. The CSI business was acquired when 3Com bought Communications Solutions Inc in Jun 1988. Attachmate pledges to continue to sell and support the Maxess product line for current 3Com Maxess customers and resellers. The company will not enhance the products. Novell, Banyan enjoy strong fiscal growth; despite toughening economic climate, both LAN makers see healthy boost in earnings, Local-area network manufacturers Novell Inc and Banyan Systems Inc reported big increases in both earnings and revenues for recent quarters. Novell doubled its earnings to $30.4 million with revenue of $134.6 million in its first quarter. The results reflect NetWare's acceptance as a standard for network computing. Banyan, which is privately held, reported 1990 revenues up 23 percent from 1989. Net earnings rose 24 percent to $4.7 million. The company credits the increases on users migrating from simple networks to enterprise LANs. Both companies have benefited from increased international sales. D.C. PSC won't regulate services by noncarriers; decision is victory for users, blow to local PUCs. (Public Service Commission) The Public Service Commission (PSC) for the District of Columbia dropped its attempts to regulate enhanced services from non-carrier companies. The proceeding was one of the first tests of local regulator's authority to oversee enhanced services. The PSC notified companies in the fall of 1990 that all providers would have to apply for certification whether they owned the facilities or not. Controversy arose, critics claimed the proposal was too far reaching and threatened legal action. State regulators normally have jurisdiction over communications carriers, the PSC proposal exceeded its authority. IBM PS/2 software integrates 370, PBXs; Direct Route/2 ties IBM hosts to rival AT&T and Northern Telecom private branch exchanges. IBM announces its Direct Route/2 software, which will integrate IBM System/370 mainframes with Northern Telecom Meridian 1 and AT&T's Definity and System 85 private branch exchanges. The program runs on a PS/2 configured as a gateway on an IBM Token-Ring Network. It uses automatic number identification information or data received from voice response units to provide agents with customer profiles from a database. IBM is considering bringing Direct Route/2 under its CallPath Services Architecture (CSA). The program costs $2,145, with additional licenses priced at $1,845 each. NARUC vetoes plan to ease MFJ restrictions on RBHCs. (National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, modified final The Executive Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (NARUC) rejects a proposal to ease the Modified Final Judgement restrictions on the Regional Bell Holding Companies (RBHCs). The debate drew attention on both the state and national level. State regulators were clearly opposed to allowing the RBHCs to enter the long-distance market, but were split on support to lift bans on the provision of information services and research and development for manufacturing. NARUC also opposes FCC pre-emption of state regulatory authority. In a related resolution, NARUC calls for the monitoring of local carrier price cap regulation on network investment and service quality. Task force to weigh merits of OSPF as draft standard; could pull ahead of Integrated IS-IS on Internet. (Internet Engineering Task The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is considering draft status for the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol. The move could open the protocol for widespread vendor implementation and put it a step ahead of the Integrated Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) in the IETF's standards-setting process. Both protocols are currently in the first stage of a three-stage standards setting process. One of them will be selected as the primary protocol for routing traffic on the Internet backbone. A number of vendors have already successfully implemented OSPF in the construction of large networks based on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. SUNY installs T-1 backbone to tie campuses statewide. (State University of New York) SUNY announces it has installed a T-1 backbone network for administrative, instructional and research applications at its 64 campuses. The network is based on Racal-Milgo Omnimux 9000 multiplexers. Over 80 percent of its bandwidth is dedicated to data, although it also carries voice for some long-distance service and tie lines. The new network, dubbed SUNYNet replaces a 56k-bps backbone that included 9.6k-bps tail circuits to the campuses. Racal-Milgo's Omnimux 9000 Network Management System monitors the backbone while Communications Management Series products control lower speed tail circuits. SNA net helps cities collect parking fines; Lockheed IMS service tracks parking violators. (Systems Network The Lockheed Information Management Services Co (IMS) and its nationwide SNA network are helping cities enforce parking fines. The network is currently used by 10 major cities to identify and track motorists that have not paid parking tickets. Cities using the service have reported a 63 percent increase in payments. Some cities are using portable digital radio terminals to identify and boot the vehicles of repeat offenders. Lockheed IMS systematically starts sending letters to motorists who have not paid parking tickets. TCP/IP beachhead formed in top Fortune companies; but protocol is still relegated to specific functions. (Transmission Control The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is finding wide acceptance among Fortune 1,000 users. Eighty-five percent of Fortune 1,000 sites have TCP/IP in some form, according to a report from Forrester Research Inc. The rest of the companies are adopting TCP/IP, are using Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) or IBM sites. TCP/IP is used by Fortune 1,000 sites to connect dissimilar systems, link microcomputer LANs to host systems and to build client/server applications on Unix systems. The report concludes that TCP/IP will be used for 60 percent of all file-transfer applications, 50 percent of network management applications and 10 percent of E-mail applications by 1995. GigaTrend to test high-speed backup; new archiving system will speed backup process by initiating process on multiple micros at GigaTrend Inc will release a beta version of its MasterData digital audio tape drive Apr 10, 1991. The drive can back up workstations on LANs five times faster than existing technologies. The program collects data from several workstations at once and is designed for unattended backup, although it can be used interactively. The hardware/software combination converts a microcomputer into a MasterDat archiving machine. General release of a NetWare 283, 3.XX and Portable NetWare version is scheduled for early May 1991. Christian Childrens Fund adopts client/server system. Gillooly, Caryn. The Christian Childrens Fund is downsizing its minicomputer systems, largely HP 3000 units, to a microcomputer local-area network (LAN) based on the client/server architecture. The group is headquartered in Richmond, VA, but is made up of International Partner Organizations in many countries. Each International Partner is like a separate entity and keeps its own local data base. The data bases keep track of information about the children and their sponsors. The first LAN will be installed at the German International Partner Organization. It will replace an HP 3000 and include an HP Vectra 486 microcomputer configured as a server for 10 HP 386 workstations. If the cutover goes well the same configuration will be recommended for the other 33 affiliates. Study: CIOs gain influence over corporate strategies; more than a third report to company CEO, COO. (chief information officers, A report released by Deloitte & Touche Information Technology Consulting Services in Chicago finds chief information officers (CIO) taking a prominent position in corporate America. Over a third of the nation's CIOs report directly to their company's chief executive officer (CEO) or chief operating officer (COO). The survey, based on responses from 614 CIOs at large corporations, also found that many CIOs focus too heavily on providing communications services, rather than devising strategic applications that could improve their company's performance. The information services organization has experienced a growth in prominence over the last three years, but 38 percent of the respondents still do not play a role in their company's strategic planning process. Nearly 60 percent of the company's surveyed are examining outsourcing as a way of improving service or cutting costs. IS execs must manage change and technology. (information systems) Eckerson, Wayne. Managing organizational change is one of the most difficult parts about building networks and information systems (IS). Many companies spend thousands of dollars on automating processes that are outdated, cumbersome and inefficient. It is necessary to reevaluate existing work processes before applying new technology. IS managers need to consult with end users to learn their needs. Business processes should be reengineered before building new information systems. Business process design requires a complete commitment from the CEO and all mid-level managers whose areas of responsibility will be changed. Network managers need to address organizational issues and concerns and advocate organizational change through the redesign of business processes. Firms look to boost interenterprise nets; Fortune 500 firms concentrate on expanding, improving intercompany EDI, EFT, E-mail Fortune 500 companies are increasing the efficiency of their inter-enterprise network systems (IES) that handle electronic mail, electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic funds transfers. Users are attempting to justify earlier investments in IES systems in order to gain funding to expand the networks. Many are integrating diverse IES systems within their firms through centralized gateways to support information exchange with trading partners. Leading users are exploring third-generation IES systems that run on client/server platforms and support interactive communications, instead of traditional store-and-forward messaging. FCC reports skyrocketing int'l networking market; surge in switched traffic volumes causes growth. (Federal Communications International networking is one of the fastest growing segments of the US telecommunications industry. Revenues for international services ballooned from $861 million in 1975 to $3.98 billion in 1989. The bulk of this growth came from increased international switched traffic, which rose from 375 million minutes in 1975 to 6.7 billion minutes in 1989. The average price per minute for international switched services declined during that period, but increased volume resulted in an annual growth rate of 13.8 percent. International switched services in 1989 were nearly eight times higher than total revenues for international telegraph, telex and private-line services combined. France relaxes rules for telecom industry; new legislation legalizes public network bypass, opens up mobile phone, data France eased restrictions on private networks through new legislation that encourages greater competition. The Telecommunications Regulation Law of Dec 29, 1990, legalizes public network bypass and eliminates most restrictions on the operation of private networks based on circuits leased from France Telecom, the government-owned carrier. The legislation is touted as one of the most significant regulatory changes in the country's history. Privately-owned facilities, such as microwave transmission systems and fiber-optic cables for private networks, are now allowed. The mobile telephone market should see increased competition. All restrictions on the operation of private networks serving closed user groups were removed. Private companies are now allowed to sell basic data transport services. Firms unite on NLM for NetWare SQL. (NetWare Loadable Module)(Structured Query Language) GUPTA Technologies Inc and Novell Inc plan to jointly develop a NLM version of NetWare SQL for use with GUPTA's SQLWindows application development tool. The product would let software developers use SQLWindows to write workstation applications that transparently access data on NetWare SQL data bases residing on NetWare servers. The announcement is part of an effort to position SQLWindows as a development tool for writing front-end applications that use NetWare SQL. The product is expected to be available in the third quarter of 1991. GUPTA also announced the availability of SQLWindows for Btrieve. It lists for $1,595. TLC offers high-capacity, centralized storage for LANs; product supports up to 8.5Gbytes of storage. (Tense Lectronix Corp.) The Legacy Multi Additional SCSI Subsystem Hot Fix Device (HFD), from Tense Lectronix Corp (TLC) holds up to eight storage devices that attach to a SCSI backplane. The device provides network managers with a central storage point for LAN servers, allowing the implementation of data security measures comparable to mainframe storage subsystems. The Legacy HFD attaches to a LAN file server through a SCSI connection. Both 3.5- and 5.25-inch drives can be installed in the unit. An optional software package provides disk striping, parity checking and an Error Correction Code feature that ensures that all data can be accessed. The product is scheduled for shipment in Apr 1991. Prices vary according to configuration, starting at $7,999. UB boosts software for MaxTalk router; users can swap data among Macs on AppleTalk Phase 1 and Phase 2 networks via MaxTalk router. Ungermann-Bass Inc announced enhancements to its MaxTalk router software, including support for AppleTalk Phase 2 protocols and the ability to pass data between Phase 2 and older AppleTalk networks. The support for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 traffic on the same router allows a gradual upgrade, rather than forcing users to convert their networks at once. The router is a 16-port module in the company's Access/One smart wiring hub. The software upgrade will be available in the second quarter of 1991 for $250. Standards efforts can boost productivity. (Open Systems Interconnection) Productivity increases during the current recession must be derived by modifying business practices and automating activity between organizations. Changes in organizational behavior can be aided by technology enablers. Standardized computer network infrastructures, such as Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), with controlled connections to other organizations can help companies manage the change. Vertical integration can streamline costs and increase a company's level of competitive responsiveness. OSI, which was developed by an international standards body, can help in globalization, acquisition integration and concurrent engineering. Setting a faster standards-setting pace. (Making Connections) McQuillan, John. Standards-setting has been a traditionally slow process, but times are changing. The pace of technological advances is increasing; many products now have a useful market life of less than two years. Informal industry associations provide a quicker and more effective form of setting standards than formal governmental bodies, but are not always effective. Vendor consortia have proven highly successful in establishing standards in a short amount of time. A method of continuous technical progress must be established. When new capabilities are identified they must be tested, accepted on the market, and all concerned parties must work to quickly establish standards. IBM unveils SNA net mgmt. tools. (Systems Network Architecture management tools) (NetView Distribution Manager/2) (product IBM announces two new and enhanced network management tools that make it easier to distribute software to workstations and other machines in Systems Network Architecture (SNA) networks. NetView Distribution Manager/2 (DM/2) runs on a PS/2 workstation with OS/2 attached to a host or LAN. It distributes data files and software to LAN-attached DOS or OS/2 workstations. A one time charge for the base feature is $450, the LAN Download Utility costs $50. NetView DM Release 3 for MVS distributes software over an LU 6.2 session to a PS/2 running OS/2 Extended Edition and the Base feature of NetView DM/2. Prices range from $39,600 to $246,950, depending on the processor. Both products will be available in Jun 1991. A.T.&T. pressures NCR board; says it is willing to pay $100 a share for a friendly deal. AT and T is willing to offer $100 a share for the acquisition of NCR Corp if the computer maker enters friendly merger agreements. NCR's response to the telecommunications giant was that it believes it can do better than that offer. The company expressed some distress over the manner in which AT and T proposed the new deal; AT and T sent out a news release of the offer and then called up NCR to inform them. The $6.77 billion offers is contingent on NCR entering negotiations and since NCR rejected the gesture, AT and T indicated that it was going back to its original $90 a share offering. U.S. seeks broad ban on computers. Markoff, John. The U.S. and Japan plan to re-negotiate a seven-year-old secret accord in Mar 1991. The agreement calls for a limit on the sale of supercomputers to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, including nations in Eastern Europe and the third world. The U.S. seeks to expand the U.S.-Japan accord to include other countries capable of producing supercomputers, including Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France and the Netherlands. The U.S. hopes that Japan will join it in international efforts to limit supercomputer exports from these countries. Supercomputers are vital tools for the development of missiles and nuclear weapons. American Airlines puts the brake on global network. Scheier, Robert L. American Airlines has severely curtailed its ambitious InterAAct networking project, which would have linked all 82,000 of its employees by mid-1991. The program was delayed six months as a result of user resistance and technical problems, and the rise in fuel prices and decline in the economy forced American to reduce deployment of new workstations from 500 to 100 per month. Only 3,000 InterAAct workstations are currently installed, and American is now concerned about whether it can afford to sacrifice money it needs to survive in the short-term in order to build information systems that would give it an advantage in the long term. InterAAct uses 80386SX-based microcomputers running HP's NewWave graphical interface and office automation software as 'electronic platforms' from which users can access data from corporate mainframes or local area networks. The first users to get InterAAct workstations were those accustomed to dumb terminals, who complained the system was slow. Training was another early problem, and the system initially had a tendency to crash because it ran beta versions of software. IBM readies two PS/2s with new 'super' floppy. (IBM PS/2 microcomputers with 2.88Mbyte disk drives) IBM reportedly plans to introduce two new 80386SX-based PS/2 microcomputer models, both of which will offer new 2.88Mbyte 'super' floppy disk drives. The new PS/2 Model 40 386SX will use the standard AT bus, while an enhanced version of the Model 55 will use the Micro Channel Architecture bus and include the 20 MHz version of the 386SX CPU. Both machines will offer 80, 160 and 320Mbyte hard disk options and 2Mbytes of RAM. Analysts expect IBM to aim the Model 40 at small businesses running stand-alone applications; the Model 55 will be positioned as a LAN workstation. Micro Channel Architecture supports bus mastering for running multiple devices simultaneously and allows NetView polling of PS/2 workstations. April debut set for FoxPro 2.0, sans compiler. (Fox Software Inc. to introduce FoxPro 2.0 relational DBMS in late April 1991) Fox Software Inc will release its long-awaited FoxPro 2.0 relational DBMS in late Apr 1991, but the product will not include the integrated compiler anticipated by some developers. The compiler will be available as part of a separately packaged distribution tool kit which will also contain a LAN version of the DBMS and a C-language tool kit. Developers accuse Fox of reneging on its promises, and beta testers complain that an actual working version of the compiler has never been seen. Fox says it never intended to offer the compiler as part of the database; many analysts see its packaging as essentially a marketing and sales issue. FoxPro 2.0 will sell for $795 and will be available in two versions: one using Fox's patented Rushmore technology on 8086- and 80286-based microcomputers, and another that will run in protected mode on 80386- and 80486-based machines. The distribution tool kit will cost $500. Beta users gear up for 1-2-3 for Windows. (Lotus Development Corp. sending 1-2-3 for Windows spreadsheet to beta test sites) Lotus Development Corp plans to ship the beta version of its long-awaited Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows spreadsheet for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface, in Mar 1991. The product, code-named 'Rockport,' will reportedly include solver capabilities, support for Windows' Multiple Document Interface (MDI) protocol and the ability to run a variety of add-in programs. Observers say that Rockport will be measured against Microsoft's Excel 3.0, which currently dominates the Windows spreadsheet market. It will include standard Windows options in the menu bar; the current 1-2-3/G for OS/2 Presentation Manager (PM) uses a hybrid of the PM interface and DOS 1-2-3 interface. Users of the Windows product will be able to pop up 1-2-3's traditional command-line interface by pressing the slash key. Rockport will be completely compatible with macros written in earlier 1-2-3 versions. MDI support will enable users to call up multiple worksheets from within the program's main window. Font rivals escalate battle: Adobe extends font flexibility. (Adobe Systems Inc. announces new 'Multiple Master' extension of Adobe Systems Inc announces Multiple Master, a new technology which will give corporate users and typography developers complete control over the weight, width, style and size of fonts. Users will be able to produce an infinite number of design variations from a single font and 'substitute' for fonts not installed on their machines by mimicking font attributes. Existing Adobe Type 1 fonts can be scaled only in height and width and have set weights; Multiple Master lets type designers create fonts that can be changed from one style to another. Analyst say the new technology will escalate the rivalry between Adobe and Apple, which is introducing its TrueType font technology in Mar 1991. Apple counters with TrueType. (Font rivals escalate battle) (product announcement) Apple will officially announce its TrueType scalable font set during the week of Mar 11, 1991. The new fonts will be incorporated into Microsoft's TrueImage page-description language and Apple's System 7.0 system software; users of the current Apple System 6.07 software will have access to a disk set the company will make available free of charge through user groups and bulletin boards. Analysts disagree about the significance of the product; some argue that TrueType will lock Apple into a 'catch-up game' with rival Adobe Systems Inc, while others say that Adobe's new Multiple Master technology is aimed at a niche market and that TrueType will have far more appeal to the installed base of Apple Macintosh users. Pair of POWERservers will bolster IBM's RS/6000 line. (IBM RISC System/6000) IBM reportedly plans to announce two new file-server models in its RS/6000 reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) line. The unnamed entry-level machine will be positioned between the low-end POWERserver 320 and midrange POWERserver 520 and will be aimed at small- to medium-sized departmental LANs. The high-end POWERserver 950, selling for $150,000, will reportedly be designed for industrial environments. IBM will also introduce the Xstation 130, an X terminal designed to operate off POWERservers. Observers say that IBM is timing its announcement to coincide with HP's expected introduction of new Precision Architecture workstations despite the fact that none of the new RS/6000 machines will compete with the directly with the HP workstations. IBM to bolster Current with PROFS, LAN links. (Current personal information management system) IBM reportedly will introduce a new version of its Current personal information management (PIM) software in Mar 1991. The program can access the company's mainframe-based PROFS office-automation software as well as local area networks. Observers say the enhancements to Current mark IBM's effort to fill the gap left by delays in its OfficeVision/2 LAN Series software, a key component in the company's cross-platform strategy. IBM will offer Current as an interim solution to OfficeVision customers who are waiting for PROFS connectivity. The company demonstrated the new Current at the Windows and OS/2 Conference held in San Jose, CA, the week of Mar 4, 1991. Users will be able to order it directly from IBM for $460. Upgrade duo will boost Oracle for DOS, VAX users. (Oracle Corp. to announce upgrades to Oracle 6.0, Professional Oracle and Tools Oracle Corp reportedly plans to announce upgrades to its Oracle 6.0 data base management system and Professional Oracle and Tools 5.1C development platform for MS-DOS. Programmers using the new Professional Oracle 6.0 will be able to create single-user applications that can be ported to Oracle 6.0 databases on a wide variety of platforms. The new version of the Oracle DBMS will improve its performance on DEC VAX networks and reportedly comes in response to complaints from Oracle customers at VAX sites about data-integrity and performance problems. Observers say that the Professional Oracle upgrade will give DOS developers access to Oracle 6.0's new SQL tools and will simplify initial development work for mainframe and minicomputer database applications. E-mail sends out a new message. (electronic mail systems) Higgins, Steve. Two pending acquisitions of electronic mail software vendors by major software companies and a trend toward incorporating E-mail functions into office automation packages are changing the E-mail industry and forcing smaller vendors to revise their development and marketing strategies. Lotus Development Corp is buying CC:Mail Inc, and Microsoft Corp recently announced plans to acquire Consumers Software Inc. The two firms being bought already control more than 50 percent of the E-mail market, and the massive resources and marketing clout of Lotus and Microsoft will increase their advantage over such competitors as Da Vinci Systems Corp and Sitka Corp. Both Novell Inc and Microsoft plan to offer add-ins that will add message-transport capabilities, a key component of E-mail software, to their network operating systems. Some startup companies are addressing message management as well. Bevy of programs for Windows, OS/2 vie for spotlight. (Windows & OS/2 Conference) (product announcement) Many vendors introduced new software products for the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager graphical environments at the 1991 Windows and OS/2 Conference held in San Jose, CA. Brown Wagh Publishing introduced Sybiz, an accounting package developed by Australian software vendor Sybiz that runs under Windows 3.0 and sells for $495. It includes a variety of modules in a single, integrated package. OSI Software introduced Split-Line, a new $295 asynchronous communications package for OS/2 Presentation Manager. NetManager Inc announced Chameleon, a $400 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol package that lets Windows users log on to remote hosts via the Telnet protocol. VZ Corp announced VZ Programmer 2.0 for Windows. The new package will provide a graphical user interface construction tool kit, C and C++ component libraries and an object-oriented database. Borland to ship Turbo Pascal for Windows. (Borland International Inc.) Borland International Inc announces Turbo Pascal for Windows, a new Windows 3.0 version of its popular Turbo Pascal programming environment that includes object oriented extensions. It lets Pascal developers perform standard Windows programming via the Windows application programming interface, use 'CRT' functions to port DOS programs to run in a full-screen window or work with Borland's own ObjectWindows class library. Turbo Pascal for Windows is positioned between Microsoft's Software Development Kit and C 6.0 environments. The product will be available in mid-Mar 1991 at a price of $249.95 for the base program and $199.95 for the ObjectWindows source code. American finds it's a rocky road to InterAAction: Eicon answers the call for Windows gateway. (American Airlines enterprise-wide Eicon Technology Corp won a major contract from American Airlines Inc in mid-1989 for provide Windows-compatible gateway software for the airline's ambitious InterAAction networking project. The deal meant a possible $12 million order for 1,000 gateways and 25,000 workstation licenses for terminal-emulation software. Eicon rose to the challenge of developing the Windows products even though it did not have a Windows product plan at the time. American Airlines had ordered about 5,000 licenses for Eicon's new Access for Windows 3270 emulation software as of late Feb 1991. Eicon says it hopes to license another 2,500 to 5,000 workstations. Crashes, bugs slow system. (American finds it's a rocky road to InterAAction.)(American Airlines enterprise-wide network) American Airlines Inc's InterAAction network, an ambitious project to link all of its employees via Windows-based workstations running terminal-emulation software for mainframe access, suffered from serious bugs and crashes during its initial deployment. Users complained that the network lowered their productivity because they had to log on and off multiple systems to check E-mail and wait for overloaded gateways to communicate with hosts. Most of the problems have been solved, although they created user resistance. Individual workstations and entire networks had a tendency to crash as a result of bugs in the beta code they were running, and the new cabling system linking the network was complex. InterAAct network 'informates' users. (American Airlines computer network) Managers at American Airlines describe the company's new InterAAct enterprise-wide network as an 'informating' technology that uses information to empower individuals and let them perform their jobs better. Charlotte, NC general manager Ross Bonanno says that the network helps him schedule flights up to five years in advance and allow for such situations as the airline picking up a competitor's routes. He can also budget for even the smallest items. InterAAct lets Regional Manager Don Miller, in Nashville, TN, check costs on-line on a single electronic form instead of looking at a large paper document. Use of E-mail on InterAAct has cut inter-office mail by 75 to 80 percent. Products run gamut at Seybold. (Seybold Seminars 91 desktop publishing trade show) (product announcement) Vendors introduced a wide variety of new products at the 1991 Seybold Seminars desktop publishing conference, with printers and color displays being among the most prominent. Apple launched two new low-end printers designed to accompany its low-cost Macintosh models. The $599 StyleWriter is a thermal ink-jet unit offering 360-dpi resolution, a serial port, 64Kbytes of RAM, a 500-page ink cartridge, four TrueType font families and a 50-page detachable cut-sheet paper feeder. The Personal LaserWriter LS is positioned against HP's LaserJet IIP and includes 512Kbytes of memory, a serial interface and a 50-sheet paper cassette. Eastman Kodak Co demonstrated the $2,695 Ektaplus 7008 8-ppm laser printer. Radius Inc displayed the Color Pivot, a new color version of its Pivot monitor which can be automatically switched from portrait to landscape mode and can be configured for either the Mac's built-in IIci and IIsi video port or Radius' own $795 interface board. The monitor itself costs $1,995. Olivetti sets its sights on U.S. laptop market. (Olivetti introduces three notebook, two laptop microcomputers) (product Ing. C. Olivetti & C. S.p.A introduces five new portable computer models aimed at the US market, including three notebook-sized and two laptop units. The machines all feature detachable keyboards and a unique 'touch-pad' input device located between the keyboard and the base of the display. Users can move the cursor by running a stylus or a finger over a 4.24 x 2.5-inch surface and execute commands with two buttons. The new notebook machines are the Notebook S20, a 20-MHz 80386SX-based unit; the Notebook V16, a 16-MHz 80286-based model; and the Notebook A12, which uses a 12-MHz 286 CPU. The S20 and V16 each feature 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 6Mbytes, VGA displays and 40 to 60Mbyte hard drives, while the A12 has CGA resolution and a 20Mbyte hard drive. Olivetti's new Laptop D33 and Laptop S20 are aimed at power users who want a portable as their only machine. The D33 has a 33-MHz 80386SX CPU, 4Mbytes of RAM and a 32Kbyte memory cache; the S20 has a 20 MHz 80386SX, 2Mbytes of RAM and a 16Kbyte memory cache. Both offer the choice of a 40 or 60Mbyte hard disk drive. Citrix OS/2 offers economical multiuser computing. (Software Review) (Citrix Systems Inc. multiuser operating system) Citrix Systems Inc's $995 Citrix Multiuser is an OS/2-based multiuser operating system that lets work groups access character-based OS/2 applications concurrently and share them with multiple users attached to a single machine. Citrix Multiuser includes a version of OS/2 licensed from Microsoft Corp and modified to allow multitasking by multiple users. One inherent problem with Citrix Multiuser is the fact that OS/2 is a 16-bit operating system; high-end multiuser operating systems such as Unix are generally based on 32-bit platforms. There is nevertheless little performance degradation when a small number of users run a word processor concurrently. The software works best with terminals from Relisys Inc, which use an Intelligent Console Architecture design to offload color, sound, scrolling and other functions away from the host CPU. Contact managers offer wide range of features. (contact management software) (product announcement) Vendors are rapidly developing increasingly sophisticated contact management software programs that offer such features as hot links to accounting programs, enhanced performance and automated communications tools. Electric Bookshelf Inc has introduced PC Sales Assistant, a new program that integrates fax mail and contact management features. PC Sales Assistant lets users track prospect data and telephone calls and automatically sends follow-up faxes. It sells for $295 and requires a fax board. Endpoint Marketing Information Systems announces Leads 1.1, a new version of its $1,795 Macintosh-based Leads contact management program that is twice as fast as the earlier version and requires less RAM. IBM pledges ongoing support for DisplayWrite. (DisplayWrite word processing software) IBM promises users that it will continue to support its DisplayWrite word processor line, allaying user fears that DisplayWrite will be displaced by IBM's upcoming next-generation Signature for DOS, Windows and OS/2 products. Officials say the company 'remains committed to the DisplayWrite product line with continued marketing and development support' and that it will continue to provide toll-free technical support for DisplayWrite 4 and 5 and the OS/2 Composer page layout program through 1992. Users express relief at the IBM announcement, but some expect Signature to eventually replace DisplayWrite entirely and say this is a necessary part of the evolution cycle of IBM word processors. Multiuser OS/2 systems offer high-power, low-cost solution. (Software Lifeline In.c Remote-OS, Citrix Systems Inc. Citrix Users are increasingly turning to multiuser versions of OS/2 made by Software Lifetree Inc and Citrix Systems Inc to build high-power work group systems at low cost. Cirtix' namesake product and Software Lifetree's Remote-OS can take advantage of the abundant protected-mode memory and High Performance File System found in OS/2 to provide significant advantages over multiuser DOS and DOS networks. Gulf States Utilities Co uses Remote-OS to dispatch repair personnel to fix power outages. Network and database consulting firm Logicorp Data Systems Ltd chose Citrix over such products ad NetWare for its five-station system, which uses an 80486-based host. Citrix and Remote-OS overcome DOS' limitations, but share the lack of OS/2 applications and can run only character-based applications. Novell and Gupta package Btrieve with SQLWindows. (Novell Inc., Gupta Technologies Inc. deliver results of strategic alliance) Gupta Technologies Inc and Novell Inc introduce SQLWindows for Btrieve, the first product to result from the two firms' strategic relationship. The package bundles Gupta's highly successful SQLWindows database front-end development tool with Novell's Btrieve record manager, which is also included in every NetWare network operating system package. SQLWindows for Btrieve will provide a more straightforward front end to NetWare users and can drastically reduce development time. Novell and Gupta say they plan to provide a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) server application that will add SQLWindows support directly to the NetWare SQL database engine. Gupta will introduce an update of its SQLBase database engine in Mar 1991. SQLBase 4.1 will handle routing of Novell protocols and let workstations link to SQLBase via Novell's IPX/SPX or NetBIOS. SQLWindows for Btrieve will sell for $1,595. 3Com users regroup amidst uncertainty. (3Com Corp. 3+ Open network operating system) Users of 3Com Corp's discontinued 3+ Open LAN Manager network operating system express concern over whether Microsoft Corp can pick up where 3Com left off when the smaller company withdrew from the network operating systems market. Users with heavy investments in the value-added 3Com products the company turned over to Microsoft in Jan 1991 say they have discussed their worries with Microsoft as well as 3Com and local LAN resellers and are not experiencing any short-term support problems, but they remain concerned that Microsoft may delay enhancing the value-added services, such as Macintosh support and support for multiple networking protocols, which 3Com developed for LAN manager. Other users are worried about the future of 3Com's 3Server network server line. Wall Data adds AS/400, other options to Rumba. (AS/400 connectivity option for Rumba emulation software) Wall Data Inc introduces enhancements to its Rumba emulation software that include an AS/400 connectivity option which provides 'hot links' among AS/400, IBM mainframe and Microsoft Windows applications. The $100 Rumba Gateway System add-on provides a graphical front end to the AS/400 PC Support terminal emulation program, which emulates a 5250 terminal. It links users on Token-Ring and Ethernet local area networks to IBM hosts and emphasizes open architecture. Rumba is compatible with IBM's Personal Communications/3270, DEC's IRMALAN and Attachmate Corp's Extra3270 software. Beta users are especially pleased with the gateway's ability to link Ethernet users to Token-Ring mainframes. Rumba sells for $895; developer's tool sets for Dynamic Data Exchange, EHLLAPI and Asymetrix Corp's ToolBook are available at $195 each. LAN Manager aims for the big leagues. Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. Microsoft Corp must develop a better-defined role for its LAN Manager network operating system in order to combat the enormous marketing clout of Novell Inc and the competing firm's new strategic alliances with such industry giants as IBM. 3Com's withdrawal from the network operating systems market is effectively an admission of defeat, and LAN Manager supporter DEC is strengthening its ties to Novell. Microsoft should accept that it will not be the dominant player in the LAN market in the near future and should try to find a role for LAN Manager as a database utility. LAN Manager runs under OS/2, which works well with large databases; Novell does not yet control this market. Internetworking is another field in which Microsoft could succeed. PowerBuilder simplifies downsizing. (Powersoft Corp. PowerBuilder graphical interface for client/server databases) (product PowerSoft Corp announces PowerBuilder, a new development tool for client/server databases that offers a graphical front end based on Microsoft Windows 3.0 and is designed to simplify the conversion of mainframe databases to microcomputer platforms. PowerBuilder lets developers create powerful applications for Microsoft's SQL Server, Gupta Technologies Inc's SQLBase and other database servers. It offers point-and-click capabilities and painting tools for designing windows and creating SQL statements that build visual representations of databases. The package also includes a built-in debugger, data repository for team development and fourth-generation scripting language. PowerBuilder is currently in beta test and will be available in May 1991 for $2,995. Library adds network links to Sybase's SQL Server. (Sybase Inc. to introduce Sybase PC-Net Library interfaces for linking database Sybase Inc plans to introduce PC-Net Library, a set o 31 interfaces for linking microcomputer front-end programs with the company's SQL Server database server across local area networks. PC-Net-Library will allow 'plug and play' operations for a wide variety of front end programs, according to the the company. Developers will not have to write different versions of applications for each network protocol. The new library supports NetWare, LAN Manager/Named Pipes, IBM LAN Server, TCP/IP, DECnet and AT&T StarGroup protocols. PC-Net-Library can also be used to link custom C language programs and SQL Toolset applications to SQL Server. It will be priced at $145 per network interface for the DOS version; versions for OS/2 and Microsoft Windows will be available in 2nd qtr 1991. Kinesix to enter Unix-based graphical interface arena. (Kinesix Inc.) (product announcement) Houston-based startup company Kinesix announces Samni, an X Windows screen-designed package designed to automate the creation of Unix-based graphical user interfaces. It lets developers create and customize interfaces for Sun Microsystems Inc SPARCstations, IBM RS/6000s running AIX, IBM PS/2s, DEC DECstations and HP/Apollo workstations. The software consists of a Format Editor, an application programming interface (API) module and run-time environment modules. The Format Editor includes drawing tools for creating graphics, windows and data fields for linking to databases and process-control systems; the API module has a suite of C programming utilities. Samni will be available by Apr 1991 at prices ranging from $12,500 to $25,000 depending on the hardware platform. Users find writing applications easy with ObjectVision. (Borland International Inc. ObjeftVision program development tool ) Early users of Borland International Inc's ObjectVision praise the product for the rich set of tools it provides, which they say allow for easy, painless application development. ObjectVision includes a database front end and an information access tool and supplies a set of forms and drawing tools for designing user interfaces. The package offers a decision-tree structure for creating the underlying application logic. Users say that integrating ObjectVision into an organization helps free valuable information systems resources and reduce developer backlog. ObjectVision's ability to create links to existing databases is another feature that earns praise. ObjectVision supports Dynamic Data Exchange for creating links to other Windows applications and sells for $495. It is available at a special introductory price of $99.95 through May 31, 1991. Realia's Real370 brings assembly code to desktop. (Software Review) (Real370 tool for embedding assembly language subroutines Realia Inc's Real370 is a development tool that lets mainframe COBOL applications continue using S/370 assembly code routines after being migrated to microcomputer platforms. The $995 compiler creates an efficient assembly-code and COBOL development environment that supports mainframe machine-code enhancements. Real-370 includes a full-screen debugger as well as Realia's RealDBUG COBOL source debugger. The package is easy to install and use and requires only 480Kbytes of disk space and 160Kbytes of RAM. It is especially easy to run in a DOS session under Windows. Real370 includes a sophisticated subroutine interface that supports calls from several COBOL compilers. Documentation is excellent, and the product includes one year of free maintenance and upgrades. EISA's star rising with the need for a 32-bit bus. (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) (Up Front) (column) The fortunes of the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) 32-bit microcomputer bus will rise quickly in conjunction with the growing popularity of microcomputers based on the Intel 80486 microprocessor. EISA will emerge as the dominant 32-bit bus standard, triumphing over IBM's Micro Channel Architecture bus. Momentum for the multivendor 32-bit EISA products is growing because of their importance as components in the 80486 systems, and because most non-IBM manufacturers of 32-bit buses have accepted the EISA standard. High-speed disk controllers for EISA systems are selling well. In addition, a new generation EISA bus is expected to result in lower prices for EISA systems and buses. IBM may even join the EISA parade in order to communicate to buyers that the OS/2 operating system is not proprietary to IBM or its proprietary bus. Compared to PCs, Macs still lack performance. (Apple Macintosh microcomputers) (The Corporate Micro) (column) In the ongoing debate about the performance of Apple Macintosh microcomputers vs that of IBM-compatible microcomputers, some people base their conclusions on information from specifications manuals, equating the Motorola 68030 microprocessor with Intel's 80386 product. A more apt pairing places the Macintosh IIci in comparison to a 20-MHz IBM-compatible microcomputer based on the Intel 80386SX. The Macintosh IIfx corresponds roughly to a 25-MHz compatible based on the Intel 80386DX microprocessor. When these pairings are tested against each other to compare how quickly the same-name applications perform, DOS computers tend to excel. Since a user's perception of the speed of a computer is based principally on the speed at which applications can be run, this is the best method for gauging relative performance. Here comes the computer training debate, again. (corporate computer training) (Risky Business) (column) The recession has prompted many corporations to consider curtailing computer training programs, but that decision would be a mistake for most firms. Corporate users tend to have an inflated impression of their level of computer skills and actually have a lot to learn from training courses - even those classes concerned with the basic operation of common software programs. Training can help to tap the full value of expensive computer equipment and can make employees faster and more efficient by teaching them new skills. Many help-desk calls are attributable to users unfamiliar with their software programs, demonstrating the need for an accurate assessment of employee computing skill levels. Apple dealer program is short on commitment. (Changing Channels) (column) Apple's new reseller program, beginning on Apr 1, 1991, is unlikely to improve the firm's relationships with its channel dealers. Apple's relations with its resellers are already strained due to a recent policy that bars Apple Education Sales Consultants (ESC) from selling competing hardware to their school customers. The upcoming reseller program prohibits dealers from selling Apple peripherals and CPUs to schools or to Apple's premium and incentive markets unless the reseller is an ESC. The new plan also places an unprecedented emphasis on whether a reseller adheres to a pre-established business plan arrived at in consultation with Apple. Dealers will be required to identify the geographic area that each of their stores targets and identify their main-market focus. Micro Channel PCs boost expansion; three 33MHz 486-based PCs provide more flexibility than IBM's PS/2 Model 90. (Advanced Logic Three 33-MHz Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) microcomputers based on the 80486 microprocessor are evaluated. These products include Advanced Logic Research Inc's (ALR) MPS 486/33, NCR Corp's System 3345, and Reply Corp's 32 i486/33. All three products are deemed to be more flexible than the IBM PS/2 90 microcomputer and contain more than three expansion slots. ALR's microcomputer, priced at $4,995 for a base configured model with 1Mbyte of RAM, was rated highly for performance, compatibility with board-level hardware, expansion potential, and price/performance. But the Reply 32 i486/33, awarded an 'analyst's choice' rating, excelled in all categories, including installation and setup. The Reply microcomputer in base configuration costs $7,995 and comes with 4Mbytes of RAM and and enhanced VGA monitor. NCR's System 3345 also performed well on benchmarks, but does not rank as highly as the other two products for price/performance. The NCR System 3345 costs $9,995 for a base configuration with enhanced VGA monitor. Buyers consider Micro Channel compatibles cost-effective. (Micro Channel architecture IBM-compatible microcomputers) More and more corporate buyers seeking 80486-based, 33-MHz Micro Channel architecture microcomputers are considering IBM compatibles, although potential buyers continue to stress the importance of compatibility with IBM networking equipment and other crucial products. In fact, concern with software and board-level hardware compatibility rank highest on a rating of corporate buying points. One such compatible - Reply Corp's Model 32 - is considered promising by corporate buyers only slightly put off by the compatible's reference disk menu. The menu offers a choice of configuration or utilities setting, then displays a function. Some users would prefer a main menu with more features. Other buyers feel that the cost savings for a compatible are balanced by compatibility problems with networking cards that have arisen for some firms. Advanced Logic Research Inc. Modular Processor System 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of three 80486-based microcomputer Advanced Logic Research Inc's (ALR) 33-MHz Micro Channel Architecture microcomputer is based on the Intel 80486 microprocessor. The unit under review, priced at $10,120, included 13Mbytes of RAM, a 14-inch Super VGA monitor, and a 16-bit VGA adapter. ALR's product performed well in benchmark tests, receiving good ratings for every category except ease of installation and setup, in which it performed poorly. The product lacks a caching Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) hard disk subsystem, placing it at a disadvantage during tests of disk performance. Eight expansion slots are provided: four 16-bit slots, two 32-bit slots, and proprietary slots for the processor board and supplementary memory. This powerful microcomputer is base-priced at $4,995 and delivers good performance for its price. NCR Corp. System 3345. (Hardware Review) (one of three 80486-based microcomputer evaluations in 'Micro Channel PCs boost expansion; NCR Corp's System 3345 microcomputer is a 33-MHz Micro Channel Architecture product based on the 80486 microprocessor. The evaluation configuration including 12Mbytes of RAM, 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 330Mbyte Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) hard drive and VGA card is priced at $20,945, significantly higher than roughly equivalent configurations of the other evaluated computers. The System 3345 performed well on tests of overall performance, compatibility, and ease of installation, but the microcomputer's hard disk system is slowest of the three products being tested. The product provides eight expansion slots and can accommodate up to 64Mbytes of additional memory. A lack of SIMM sockets on the motherboard restricts users to proprietary memory boards, which can be expensive. The documentation for NCR's System 3345 is outstanding. Reply Corp. Model 32 i486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of three 80486-based microcomputer evaluations in 'Micro Channel PCs boost Reply Corp's 32 i486/33 33-MHz 80486-based Micro Channel Architecture microcomputer was named 'Analyst's Choice' by evaluators pleased with its expansion sockets and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk controller with 2Mbyte cache. The product includes five 32-bit slots, one of which holds the disk controller, and five internal drive bays. The Reply product has eight SIMM sockets on the motherboard. Memory capacity, not as extensive as that of the other reviewed products, is expandable to 32Mbytes. The reference disk is difficult to use because the interface is complicated, but Replay may redesign it. Unlike other tested products, the i486/33 was able to make a bootable copy of the reference disk during testing. Documentation is satisfactory. Excel 3.0 sets spreadsheet standard; new version of Excel couples GUI shortcuts with knowledge of typical user needs. (Microsoft Microsoft Excel 3.0 upgraded spreadsheet software, designed to run with Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI), is superior to most other spreadsheets and may even justify the added hardware expense of a GUI. The software, priced at $495, was clearly designed to accommodate a user's daily needs, with recalculation algorithms geared for high performance and useful features for spreadsheet development. Automatic summation totals, consolidation of like-named groups of numbers form multiple spreadsheets, and multilevel summaries are among the features that accelerate a user's work. Excel 3.0 automatically prepares charts and enables graphical annotation of spreadsheets. Macro capabilities are expanded, but some problems with the macro translator result in errors. Unfortunately, the program's interoperability with other spreadsheets is flawed by the fact that a file imported from another format and enhanced with Excel 3.0 styling options, then saved with the default File/Save command, will be saved in the original format - any styling unique to Excel 3.0 will be lost. Buyers praise Excel's improvements, added features. (Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software) Corporate users of Microsoft Corp's upgraded Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) platform are pleased by the product's additional graphics and word-processing features. Support of on-sheet text formatting that enables selection of font, size, and style attributes is popular among users. Graphics and spreadsheets can now be easily combined on a single page. Highlighting and outlining features make spreadsheets easier to interpret. Excel 3.0's improved macro abilities please users who find debugging easier. However, some users regret that an 80386-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of memory is required to run the product speedily. Erasable optical drives aid LAN users; price, backup software differentiate NetWare-compatible storage devices. (Novell Corp.'s Five erasable optical disk drives are evaluated, each of which can be directly connected to a local area network (LAN) server running Novell Corp's Netware 386 network operating system. The performance, ease of installation, and ease of use of the five products are virtually equivalent, directing buyers to base purchasing decisions on whether a given product includes their desired features at a good price. Micro Design International Inc's LaserBank 600R, priced at $6,085, and Storage Dimensions Inc's LANStor Erasable Optical, priced at $5,695, are considered good values. Tecmar Inc's ProLine LaserVault, which costs $7,895, is a satisfactory value and boasts the best documentation of the five competitors. MicroNet Technology Inc's Micro/Optical SB-SMO-1/LAN, priced at $5,589, and FWB Inc's hammerDisk600S, priced at $5,495, are not considered good values in relation to their quality and breadth of features. Buyers move from tape to erasable optical drives for backup. Curry, Jennifer. Many companies have chosen erasable optical disk drives as the solution for backing up large volumes of data, sometimes as a replacement for other technologies such as tape drives or microfilm. Users note that data access is faster with optical drives than with microfilm. Although optical drive backup can be slower than tape backup, optical drives are easier to access for on-line storage and archiving. Ed Garibian, president of optical drive customer Applied PC Systems, is interested in lower-priced optical drives that would store smaller quantities of data than the 600Mbyte quantity common in the market in Mar 1991. Yet other customers will purchase only optical disk drives with 650Mbyte or larger storage capacities. FWB Inc. hammerDisk600S. (Hardware Review) (one of five optical disk drive evaluations in 'Erasable optical drives aid LAN users; FWB Inc's $5,495 hammerDisk600R erasable optical disk drive includes no backup software, and therefore is not a particularly good value in spite of its ease of use. The drive's performance and ease of installation are satisfactory, but the documentation for the drive provided by FWB is sparse. The hammerDisk is packaged with an Adaptec 1542B Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) host adapter card and with version 3.0 of SCSI Adaptec drivers for Novell's NetWare 386 and 286. Adaptec documentation for the drivers, included also, is quite comprehensive. Preparing the disk on each side with NetWare's Install utility creates partitions and volumes of up to 280Mbytes. Micro Design International Inc. LaserBank 600R. (Hardware Review) (one of five optical disk drive evaluations in 'Erasable optical Micro Design International Inc's LaserBank 600R erasable optical disk drive, priced at $6,085, is reasonably priced for its selection of features, which includes an Adaptec 1540B Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) host adapter, SCSI cable, Sony optical cartridge and external terminator. The Adaptec board is easy to install but lacks floppy-disk drive support. The drive is shipped with backup software from Micro Express. This LAN Librarian software enables unattended, scheduled backup of all or part of the network volume. Micro Design's drive can be installed directly into local area networks running Novell's NetWare network operating system. LaserBank's internal termination option is not operable in this release. The drive is easy to use but could benefit from easier installation and from screen illustrations in its documentation. MicroNet Technology Inc. Micro/Optical SB-SMO-1/LAN. (Hardware Review) (one of five optical disk drive evaluations in 'Erasable MicroNet Technology Inc's Micro/Optical SB-SMO-1/LAN erasable optical drive, priced at $5,589, can be used with local area networks running Novell's NetWare 386 network operating system. The drive is not packaged with backup or file management software, which detracts from its value since all other evaluated drives share its ease of use and satisfactory performance and ease of installation. The drive uses a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) adapter based on a product from NCR Corp, and MicroNet software drivers. The adapter supports a floppy drive but this support must be turned off if the network server has a floppy drive controller. Documentation for the Micro/Optical drive is rather poor. Storage Dimensions Inc. LANStor Erasable Optical. (Hardware Review) (one of five optical disk drive evaluations in 'Erasable Storage Dimensions Inc's $5,695 LANStor Erasable Optical disk drive can be installed in local area networks running Novell's NetWare network operating system. The drive is moderately easy to install, performs satisfactorily, and is quite easy to use. The LANStor is a good value because it is packaged with Cheyenne Software's ARCserve backup software, with a proprietary host adapter card, and a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) driver. A useful DOS utility, also called LANStor, verifies that the drive is on-line. Documentation for the disk drive is well-written and includes useful illustrations, but the host adapter guide is confusing. The manual on the SCSI driver lacks instructions on preparing the disk for use with NetWare. Tecmar Inc. ProLine LaserVault. (Hardware Review) (one of five optical disk drive evaluations in 'Erasable optical drives aid LAN Tecmar Inc's ProLine LaserVault erasable optical disk drive, priced at $7,895, is packaged with Tecmar ProServe for NetWare 386 backup software and an erasable optical cartridge from Sony. Adaptec's 1540B Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) host adapter and drivers for the Novell NetWare 386 network operating system are also included, but the availability of these features is accounted for in the high price of the drive. Documentation for the NetWare driver is inadequate, although manuals for the SCSI adapter, drive and backup software are easy to use. Internal termination for the drive is also possible due to DIP switches located at the back of the drive. Expert systems fortify applications; four packages that generate C code differ in design, ease of use and robustness. (includes Four program development tools are evaluated, all of which are based on expert systems technology and generate code in the C programming language. The products can each easily produce C code, but they are distinct in design, stability, and ease of use. AbTech Corp's Abductory Induction Mechanism 1.1 (AIM), priced at $1,495, combines qualities of an expert system and neural network to build a mathematical model based on examples contributed by the programmer. Easy to use, with the fastest expert systems development cycle of the four contenders, AIM does not have the If...then...else structure common to expert systems. AICorp's 1st Class 2.56 costs $995 and has the best selection of features as well as the most flexibility. XpertRule ProtoTyper 4.2 from Attar Software Ltd, priced at $3,850, is able to determine only one outcome at a time. It is easy to use and generates generic C code. Software Plus Ltd's CxPert 3.0, priced at $795, is the only reviewed product that allows programmers to develop directly in C. A library of C functions can be used to form a hierarchy of decision objects. AbTech Corp. AIM 1.1. (Abductory Induction Mechanism) (Software Review) (one of four program development software evaluations in AbTech Corp's Abductory Induction Mechanism 1.1 (AIM), priced at $1,495, is an expert systems program development tool for the C programming language. This product is rated highly for ease of development, quality of code, overall performance, and ease of learning. A combination design incorporating elements of neural networks and rules-based expert systems, AIM is the evaluated product that provides the most automation in creating an expert system. AIM constructs a mathematical model to represent relationships, and is well-suited for problems involving unclear data. Yet the statistical basis of the program makes it less suitable for knowledge bases represented with a conventional dynamic decision tree. AIM's user interface is exceptionally good, with mouse support, pull-down menus and dialog boxes. Documentation is clear and well-illustrated. Knowledge tools reinforce developers' efforts, cut time and expense. (expert systems program development software) Programmers often rely on expert systems program development software to create programs based on the C programming language. Products such as AbTech Corp's Abductory Induction Mechanism 1.1 that develop expert-systems software and generate C code can limit the development cycle's expense and duration. AbTech's mathematically based tool is useful for developing diagnosis software at Sound Linked Data Inc, where programmers have created software to identify patients' auditory problems. Another such tool, CxPert 3.0 from Software Plus Ltd, is used by Aeronautical Inc to develop airline communications programs. CxPert can be ported to the X Windows platform and also runs on the Sun Microsystems Inc SPARCstation. AICorp. 1st Class 2.56. (Software Review) (one of four program development software evaluations in 'Expert systems fortify AICorp's 1st Class 2.56, an expert system program development tool for the C programming language, is priced at $995. 1st Class is the most flexible of the evaluated softwares, with features suitable for developing large expert systems. Six types of building rules are provided: left-right, progressive, optimization, customization, exhaustive and matching. 1st Class also supports variables, functions, expressions and constants. Although the program is versatile and robust, it is flawed by a poor user interface. The interface is non-intuitive, provides little useful information, and lacks a proper mouse cursor. Experienced programmers could utilize the program, but 1st Class is not recommended for the novice. Attar Software Ltd. XpertRule ProtoTyper 4.2. (Software Review) (one of four program development software evaluations in 'Expert Attar Software Ltd's $3,850 XpertRule ProtoTyper 4.2 expert system program development tool for the C programming language is a valuable product that is straightforward and generates clean C code. XpertRule provides strong overall performance and easy expert-system development. An intuitive, spreadsheet-style user interface is used to provide examples. A rule-induction process is used to create a compact rule set. XpertRule unfortunately lacks the ability to use user-defined variables or mathematical functions in the expert system. Documentation is well-written. In Apr 1991, Attar is expected to deliver an upgrade to the program that will add embedded functions and an exception tree. Software Plus Ltd. CxPert 3.0. (Software Review) (one of four program development software evaluations in 'Expert systems Software Plus Ltd's CxPert 3.0 C language program development tool is based on expert systems technology. Priced at $795, CxPert is the best of the evaluated tools for developers willing to work directly with C code instead of relying on automation. The program is a library that offers such features as text handling, Why facilities, certainty factors, and backward and forward chaining. Procedural code for the manufacturer's user interface is included. Pop-up windows and scrolling data are featured. This product's expert system calls for a longer development cycle than other evaluated software, but its open structure and maximum access to C are strong positive points. Video cards expand graphics rainbow; 16-bit and 24-bit boards benefit Windows 3.0, Mac applications. (Apple Macintosh Either a 16- or 24-bit video card is necessary for high-end color graphics applications such as computer-aided design and manufacturing, desktop publishing, color pre-press and multimedia. Purchasers of video cards should look for products with both input and output capability which can be used to gather video images from devices conforming to the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standards. A 16-bit card will suffice for most users displaying their work on video screens, but photo-realistic computer images and color-publishing applications require the use of a 24-bit board. There are few 24-bit boards available, as of Mar 1991, that support Microsoft Windows 3.0-compatible drivers. Apple provides two 24-bit boards for the Macintosh, and others are available from third-party vendors. Apple suit grinds forward; all sides claim victory in copyright ruling. (Apple's suit against Microsoft Corp. and HP for copyright Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft Corp and HP for copyright infringement is continuing toward trial. The three-year suit concerns whether Microsoft and HP have appropriated parts of the famed Apple graphical user interface in their Windows and NewWave user interface software products. A US District Court judge recently ruled on a series of motions put forth by the three companies, all of which claim to be vindicated by the decisions. Rulings that favored Apple include the judge's conclusion that Microsoft's use of icons and overlapping windows is not warranted by a 1985 licensing settlement with Apple. Nor are 55 NewWave features covered by an Apple/HP licensing agreement. The Apple interface was determined to be an original work, but the judge stopped short of ruling explicitly that Apple's user interface copyrights are valid, saying that he did not have enough evidence to judge on that issue. The judge also disappointed Apple by refusing to decide the case based on 'look and feel' rather than by a feature-by-feature comparison. Analysts predict that the case may continue for a long time without coming to trial. Exhibitors brace for stampede at giant show. (CeBIT '91, largest computer industry trade show in the world, held in Hannover, The largest computer trade show in the world, CeBIT 1991, will be held in Hannover, Germany, in Mar 1991. Exhibitors are preparing for half a million attendees to the event, which will be six times larger than the 1990 Comdex/Fall show and more conservative in tone. Approximately 4,000 vendors from 100 nations will participate in the show. CeBIT is known for its no-nonsense atmosphere, unlike some US trade shows that include elements of entertainment. European buyers of computer equipment are purchasing large quantities of products that have been proven effective in the US market, among them Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system and microcomputers based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor. Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) is also selling well. AMD wins 386 trademark suit, faces microcode challenge; Intel charges AMD violated licensing accord. (Advanced Micro Devices can The legal disputes between semiconductor manufacturers Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) continue despite a ruling on AMD's use of the number 386 in the name of its products. Intel claimed to have trademark control over the number, but a federal judge ruled that 386 is a generic term. A more serious suit against AMD charges that the firm's Intel 80386-compatible microprocessor is based on Intel microcode that AMD is restricted from using in products for sale. AMD's defense rests on a licensing agreement from 1976 in which it gained the right to develop clone products based on all Intel microcode written through Dec 31, 1991. At issue is whether AMD has the right to market products made from the Intel microcode. Compaq goes on-line with direct support. (Compaq Computer Corp offers telephone support) In Mar 1991, Compaq Computer Corp initiated its first telephone support service. Toll-free customer support is available though the number 800-345-1518. The Compaq Customer Support Center, which handles the telephone calls, is oriented toward simple problems such as cable organization and memory conflicts. The service is intended to assuage customer concerns that vendors were not providing enough service support. Some early support line users report that Compaq service personnel have been competent and energetic in their response to questions. Another Compaq service connects telephone callers to the Technical Support Center for solutions to more complex problems. This advanced support is priced at $3,000 annually for up to 10 incidents of support. Lack of trade-in policies slows acceptance of new technology. (computer industry marketing strategies) (Looking Forward) Computer vendors generally ignore the opportunity to market used equipment, thus failing to develop an important market that could actually bolster the sales of new computer equipment as well. Trade-in policies are avoided in the industry partially because manufacturers believe users would circumvent the large margins on new computers by buying older models. But trade-ins could encourage a vendor's best customers to upgrade more frequently instead of hanging on to out-dated equipment. Selling used computers can be difficult, especially when vendors deny replacement parts to dealers of used products. Lack of support is another key issue. Yet the absence of trade-in arrangements delays the adoption of new technology, as users of older systems disparage and distrust the new products, partially because they are envious. Siemens Stromberg-Carlson sets network evolution strategy. Titch, Steven. Siemens Stromberg-Carlson has introduced its plan for integrating and developing the products and technology of Siemens and GPT Stromberg-Carlson, which merged at the end of 1990. The Vision O.N.E. strategy incorporates switching and transmission equipment from the two firms in a manner that helps local exchange carriers develop network products. An important part of the strategy is the applications processor platform that integrates a new group processor with the central processors in the Siemens EWSD and Stromberg-Carlson DCO central office switches. Both products will have software and product convergence. Engineers have been developing the processor platform since 1990, and it is expected to be available by 1993. Eastern Europe warms to U.S. telcos. (part 2 of 2) (The Iron Curtain Rises) Eastern European countries are realizing the importance of developing a modern telecommunications network for participation in the international financial environment. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland have begun seeking partnerships with the Bell regional holding companies, which offer new technology, currency for investments, and experience in Western business practices. Even Romania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, which have experienced more difficulties, have begun to plan for modernization. A study by Pyramid Research Inc has indicated that the average telephone penetration in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the former East Germany is 10 lines per 100, compared to 38 lines per 100 in Western Europe. Approximately $80 billion to $100 billion would be required to make telephone penetration comparable in Eastern and Western Europe. Political turmoil has affected the ability of Eastern European countries to develop their telecommunications infrastructures, but all nations have made telecommunications a high priority. U.K. unleashes competition. (telecommunications) Williamson, John. A UK government white paper on UK telecommunications would eliminate the British Telecom and Mercury Communications wireline duopoly, increase competition, and decrease end-user costs. The government will give licenses to wireline services operators, as well as allowing mobile network operators to build fixed links, telepoint operators to operate two-way neighborhood services, and corporations to build and manage private networks. The white paper may allow US firms to take advantage of new opportunities in the market, but the firms that are allowed to operate the new telecommunications services will be subject to certain qualifications. New MFJ bill slated for House. (Modified Final Judgment) Mason, Charles. The House of Representatives plans to introduce a bill that would eliminate the Modified Final Judgment's manufacturing ban by permitting the Bell regional holding companies (RHC) to manufacture telecommunications equipment. The bill is being co-sponsored by House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee member W.J. Tauzin. Two other issues are being considered: the entry of RHCs into the cable television (CATV) business and their entry into the information services industry. The RHCs have stopped lobbying Congress on their entry into CATV until US District Judge Harold Greene rules on the issue of information services. Telepoint awaits new beginning. (CT2 telepoint service) Purton, Peter. CT2 telepoint service is expected to improve in the UK. Some telepoint service operators have made changes in management and new equipment will become available. Some of the new equipment will be able to turn telepoint into a two-way service by integrating it with paging. The failure of CT2 service is considered to be the result of the UK government's decision to base initial telepoint services on proprietary specifications, while requiring carriers to adapt second-generation subscriber equipment to the common air interface (CAI) standard. The prospects for telepoint seem to be improving because of the resolution of problems involved in target marketing, the CAI, and high handset prices. The great spectrum squeeze of 1992. Taylor, Leslie. New communications technologies have led to services that require more spectrum. Many new spectrum-based communications technologies have been demanding frequencies in the US and around the world, including cellular telephones, mobile satellites, and personal communications networks. The International Telecommunication Union has responded to the requirements of new telecommunications services by scheduling a spectrum allocation conference, the 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-92). The main emphasis of WARC-92 will be on the mobile market, which can offer communications services in regions not served by the current telecommunications infrastructure. Motorola has prepared for WARC-92 by applying for a license to build the Iridium 77-satellite low-earth-orbit system for international satellite mobile telephone service. Data goes mobile. Didner, Bengt. Mobile communications services can improve labor force efficiency by offering both data communications in addition to voice communications. Mobile data communications offers immediate access to a computer system by combining computer capabilities and wireless communications technology. Users can utilize vehicle-mounted or portable terminals to transmit text and data messages from a mobile location. The advantages of mobile data communications include improved dispatching applications, access to information in a data base, and two-way exchange of information. One of the mobile technologies with data transmission capabilities is the Mobitex dedicated mobile data network. Mobitex, whose architecture is based on base stations, area exchanges, and main exchanges, is becoming a de facto international standard for mobile data communications systems. Putting SONET to work. (synchronous optical network) (Telephony's SONET Series: Early Deployment Challenges) Some type of synchronous optical network (SONET) deployment is being implemented throughout the telecommunications industry, but the degree and pace of the deployment are uneven. Bell Atlantic, which began deployment in early 1990, is expecting the deployment of several hundred SONET units to be cost-effective for future broadband services. US West Communications has given its approval for the implementation of loop and interoffice deployment. The other Bell regional holding companies have not begun deployment, but they have gotten involved in SONET trials. Nynex is involved in several SONET evaluation projects, and BellSouth is conducting SONET trials. The RHCs are experiencing problems with operations support systems, which may give independent telephone companies an advantage in SONET deployment. ADM: the SONET building block. (add/drop multiplexers, synchronous optical network) (Telephony's SONET Series: Early Deployment An important part of the bandwidth management capabilities of the synchronous optical network is its add/drop multiplexing capability. A great demand exits for add/drop multiplexers (ADM) because of their ability to provide economic advantages over asynchronous systems, provide the framework for SONET-based ring networks, and provide local exchange carriers (LEC) with more flexibility in fiber network planning. ADM products are differentiated by speed and functionality. ADMs cost 10 percent to 15 percent more than asynchronous multiplexers, but LECs can obtain considerable cost savings by deploying a chain of ADMs together. ADMs can also provide opportunities for new services and faster service provisioning. The capabilities of ADMs are being limited by operations support systems, but they are expected to be rapidly deployed alongside asynchronous equipment. AT&T is ready to offer NCR $100 a share; target refused to conduct weekend merger talks as proxy fight nears. AT and T prepares to offer $100 a share, or $6.8 billion, to take over NCR Corp but the computer manufacturer refuses to hold merger talks. AT and T leaves its $90-a-share offer on the table and indicates that it will offer $100 a share if NCR agrees to merger talks. A proxy challenge is expected to take place on Mar 28, 1991, at NCR's annual meeting. AT and T Chmn Robert Allen indicates that they are trying to break an impasse before the proxy challenge. NCR Chmn Charles Exley Jr indicates that AT and T should offer a serious proposal in writing instead of 'posturing in the media.' He also suggests that AT and T wants to give NCR shareholders as little as possible. Tokyo sets talks on foreign share of semiconductors. The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) seems to be making efforts to ensure that 20 percent of the Japanese semiconductor industry be comprised of foreign manufacturers. Two Japanese electronics companies say that the Ministry has sent letters requesting the attend a meeting on Mar 12, 1991; the companies suspect the government will ask them to use more foreign-made semiconductor products. The recent push by the Japanese government is in response to an agreement made in 1986. The agreement calls for a 20-percent foreign presence in the Japanese semiconductor industry by Jul 1991. Foreign manufacturers considered that percentage to be fairly secure, but Japanese government officials say that 20 percent is only a goal. 'Baby Bells' wait; hope judge relents: Is Judge Greene a law unto himself or an antitrust archangel? (regional bell telephone Controversy rages around Judge Harold H. Greene, who is currently seen as the nation's most important person in setting telecommunication policy. Since the mid-1980s, when Judge Greene presided over the breakup of AT&T, the judge has retained authority to tell regional Bell companies what they can and cannot do. Critics say Judge Greene is a 'one man regulatory agency,' stripping Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of their rightful authority. They further contend that Greene understands neither technology nor the market, and the telecommunications industry ought not to be regulated by one judge. According to Raymond W. Smith, chairman and CEO at Bell Atlantic Corp, Judge Greene is denying Americans of information-age services that are being offered in other Asian and European countries. According to Greene himself, he is concerned that without restrictions, Bell companies might use profits from regulated phone businesses to subsidize entry into other markets, or they might use their local monopolies to discriminate against rivals. If Superman were a printer...; Hewlett-Packard breaks ground with a faster, sharper printer. (Laserjet IIISi) (Hardware Review) (The HP introduces a new laser printer, the $5,495 Laserjet IIISi, which is well suited to office printing needs. The printer is powerful, robust and fast enough with an output high of 17 pages a minute. The Laserjet IIISi produces 300 dots per inch (dpi) print resolution, but the quality is said to be so good that output is hard to distinguish from print generated by 600-dpi printers. The IIISi has slots to facilitate attaching directly to a network, either Token-Ring or Ethernet, using Novell Netware or 3COM 3+OPEN operating systems. The IIISi does not need to be attached via a print server, so managers have more flexibility in placing it on a network. One Mbyte of memory and the HP PCL 5 printer language, with 13 built-in Intellifont type fonts, is included in the base price. The IIISi will be available in spring 1991 with 2Mbytes of memory and the Adobe Postscript language on a chip, for $6,595. Designers say that the IIISi is a culmination of years of researching customer needs. NCR chief reasserts view that A.T.&T. bid is too low. (Charles E. Exley, Jr.) NCR Corp Chmn Charles E. Exley indicates that AT and T's $90-a-share takeover offer is too low. Exley indicates that the offer was intended to take advantage of a 46-month low in the stock's price. NCR's stock closed at $98.25 a share on Mar 8, 1991, well above AT and T's current offer. The NCR Chmn also says that the board will review any serious offer carefully. He has indicated in the past that NCR stock is worth around $125 a share; he believes that the company's strategy will allow it to outperform the AT and T offer. Exley does acknowledge that the corporate strategy is a risky one because the computer industry is a risky industry. AT&T and NCR face major decisions on strategy as holder vote approaches. (shareholder vote on hostile takeover) Both AT and T and NCR Corp face important strategic decisions as they prepare for NCR's Mar 28, 1991 shareholders' meeting that could decide the fate of AT and T's $6.12 billion hostile takeover bid. AT and T's $90-per-share bid has been on the table for three months; in that period the Dow Jones Industrial Average has jumped 13 percent, with many high-tech stocks climbing by as much as 40 percent. AT and T must decide whether to increase its bid to an amount closer to NCR's asking price of $125-a-share. NCR has a board of 12 members, four of whom are up for re-election every year. NCR could maintain control of the board for at least a year even if AT and T wins control of all four seats up for election this year. Analysts say that NCR may also expand the number of directors on its board to 20, further diluting AT and T's influence on the board, but a divisive group on the board could still cause problems for NCR. Rival PC operating systems fight to set the standard. (microcomputer operating systems: MS-DOS, MS-Windows, OS/2, Apple The market battle over operating system software, the underlying software that controls a computer's operation, is heating up with IBM, Microsoft Corp and Apple in separate corners. Microsoft is the creator of MS-DOS, the operating system that has traditionally run on millions of IBM PC-compatible microcomputers around the world. Several years ago it became apparent that MS-DOS could not keep up with advances in the hardware end of the computer industry, so IBM and Microsoft teamed up to create OS/2, a more advanced operating system. However, Microsoft seems to have lost faith in OS/2 and has instead decided to back the Windows graphical user interface, an add-on to the MS-DOS operating system that sports many of the same features as OS/2. Apple's operating system has long provided the same easy-to-use features now found on Windows and OS/2, and the company is suing Microsoft and others for infringing on the 'look and feel' of its operating system. Microsoft's Windows opens a big lead; but users gripe about slowness and extra costs. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 graphical Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface has taken the computer software market by storm, but not every Windows purchaser is satisfied with the product. Two of the major complaints about the product involve allegedly hidden costs associated with upgrading computer systems and software to take advantage of the interface, and with the software's slow performance and lack of networking capabilities. Users say that while the Windows package itself costs only $99, the true cost of upgrading equipment, adding memory, purchasing new applications and training users can easily reach $1,200 to $2,000 per user. Corporate users in particular complain about Windows slowing down when run on a network; they also gripe about lack of a batch installation feature and the program's incompatibility with the popular Novell Inc networks. IBM is mustering its forces to save OS/2. (OS/2 operating system) Hooper, Laurence. IBM is tired of pursuing a reactive strategy in its dealings with operating system partner/rival Microsoft Corp, and instead will actively promote its OS/2 operating system as the software of choice for high-end microcomputers. IBM has been attempting to present a unified facade to the computer world despite its often factious relationship with Microsoft. This strategy has perpetuated an image of IBM as a passive, back-seat player in the relationship, with Microsoft dictating the direction of operating system development. Microsoft is discounting the future role of OS/2 in favor of improved versions of the Windows graphical user interface, and many analysts predict OS/2 may die as a product. IBM plans to begin a strong advertising campaign to back OS/2 in the coming year. Analysts say it will take all the backing IBM can muster to keep OS/2 alive in the marketplace. Get with the program: our man interfaces with three popular tax packages for the personal computer. (Software Review) (Personal Three software packages designed to aid in tax return preparation are informally compared. The packages are Andrew Tobia$ TaxCut from MECA Software, J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax Software from Simon and Schuster Software, and TurboTax from ChipSoft Inc. All three packages are priced in the $40 to $50 range and run on IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. Andrew Tobia$ TaxCut is somewhat awkward for novices to use, with vague on-screen help and difficult access to some forms in the software. J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax Software is easy to use, but it also fails to cover some oddities of tax preparation. The most satisfactory of the programs is TurboTax, which features a more logical method of working step-by-step through the various special forms before combining the results into a single process. Verilog feeds logic synthesis. (Optivisor and Improvisor electronic design automation tools from Cadence Design Systems) Cadence Design Systems of Lowell, MA, introduces two electronic design automation (EDA) software packages that work together, allowing engineers to use one design library for synthesis, simulation, verification and analysis. Both the Improvisor mixed-level logic simulator, priced starting at $15,000, and the Optivisor logic-optimization package, priced at $35,000 to $100,000 for a network version, support the Verilog hardware description language; support for VHSIC hardware description language is slated for later in 1991. Cadence says that Optivisor allows users to track timing constraints consistently regardless of the abstraction level and through simulation, synthesis and physical layout. Optivisor accepts gate-level descriptions. At least one resident Improvisor is required. Improvisor synthesizes the mixed levels of input to gate-level descriptions. Acceptance of the new EDA tools will depend on how compatible they are with existing tools. Carmakers flirt with 32-bit (microcontrollers). Ohr, Stephan. Forthcoming emission standards across the nation will force automakers to use 32-bit microcontrollers for engine and powertrain control. Electronic suspension and anti-lock braking may also spur use of 32-bit microcontrollers. Observers debate how far the movement to 32-bit devices will go. One group urges centralizing as many functions as possible in one large processor module, while the other group says a distributed network of 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers offers greater advantages. A large-scale move to 32-bit microcontrollers will not occur among US automakers before the mid-1990s. General Motors is designing around the Motorola 68332, while neither Chrysler nor Ford has yet made a commitment to 32-bit technology. A-12 jolts EEs: prime contractors lay off thousands. (cancellation of Navy A-12 attack plane program; electronic engineers) (includes Aerospace corporations have laid off thousands of engineers and other employees in the wake of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's cancellation of the US Navy A-12 attack plane program in Jan 1991. The two prime contractors, McDonnell Douglas' Douglas Aircraft of St. Louis and General Dynamics of Fort Worth, TX, say they were forced to cut 8,000 jobs in all. Job cuts will also affect the numerous suppliers and subcontractors connected with the A-12. Hunt Valley, MD-based Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group may lay off 1,200 workers, while General Electric has already laid off 200 workers at its Lynn, MA, aircraft-engine facility. Cheney cited overruns of as much as $4 billion in making the carrier-based, radar-evading A-12 the biggest military program ever cancelled. Intelligent memories emerge from the lab; commercial viability of content-addressable parts still in question. (includes related Novel memory schemes are being developed to cope with the high-speed logic of the new microprocessor architectures. Tri-port and quad-port random access memories (RAMs) have been developed in addition to the customary dual-port RAMs. Designers have added more on-chip logic to RAMDACs and first-in, first-out (FIFO) memories. Some developers believe memory should be emphasized more than microprocessors. Dave Patterson, who designed the architecture for Mips Computer Systems' R3000 reduced-instruction-set computing processor, says intelligent RAM will be the biggest trend of the 1990s. Content-addressable memories (CAM), which are mostly viewed as an academic curiosity, offer one possibility for intelligent RAM architecture. Upon receiving an address, conventional RAM will output data stored at that address. In contrast, CAM searches its entire memory in parallel upon receiving a data word; a match is made regardless of location. CAM devices are expected to find their initial acceptance in high-end communications and database applications. Motorola raises its wireless LAN profile; critics mull interference risks of through-wall transmission. (Altair wireless Arlington Heights, IL-based Motorola Radio-Telephone Systems Group announces the Altair network, an implementation of the firm's radio frequency (RF) Wireless In-building Network (WIN) architecture rolled out in fall 1990. RF wireless local area networks (LANs) use broadcast rather than line-of-sight transmission, or infrared transmission (IR). In Jan 1991 Apple petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to permanently set aside between 1,850 MHz and 1,900 MHz of the RF spectrum for wireless computing. Makers of IR wireless LANs say RF's ability to penetrate walls makes it susceptible to interference. The Altair control module, which can support 32 Ethernet devices, costs $3,995. Scarcity, bugs plague 68040; Motorola says ramp up is underway. Arnold, Bill. Manufacturers of VMEbus boards complain that they still cannot obtain sufficient quantities of Motorola's 32-bit 68040 microprocessor. Motorola plans to ship at least 4,000 of the microprocessors per week by late Mar 1991, up from about 2,500 per week for Dec 1990. Motorola says the highly integrated, 1.25-million-transistor 68040, initially announced in Apr 1989, essentially had to be designed from the ground up. The board makers say bugs still plague the 68040; Motorola says these are minor and mostly center on floating-point calculations. Motorola says the 68040 will cost $595 apiece in lots of 1,000 for distributors and OEMs until 1992. Manufacturers such as Campbell, CA-based Force Computers Inc, which was set to start making 68040-based systems in spring 1990, say the delay has robbed them of their marketing window. HDTV holds promise and peril for EEs; development may produce enhanced displays, but could also cost EE jobs. (high-definition High-definition TV (HDTV) could be a big driver of the electronics industry in the 1990s. HDTV research could fuel research in flat-panel and other display technologies. Proponents say the US's lack of manufacturing capability could weaken the demand for electronic engineers (EEs) to work on HDTV. Display consultant Elliott Schlam says HDTV should be about 5 feet wide by 3 feet high, have a resolution of about 1,100 rows by 1,900 columns and an aspect ratio (width:height) of 16:9. Much HDTV-display research now centers on plasma, electroluminescent (EL) and active-matrix liquid crystal diode (LCD) flat-panel displays. Currently, cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) offer the only cost-effective solution to HDTV resolution requirements; however, a 3-by-5-foot CRT would prove far too unwieldly for consumer use. Research continues apace on the CRT and combining CRT with flat-panel technology. Medical imaging could suit displaced engineers. (includes related glossary of medical equipment technologies) The medical imaging equipment industry is rich with job opportunities for electrical engineers. The jobs run the gamut from software engineers to system developers to application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designers. Manufacturers say applicants should have a thorough knowledge of physics and digital signal processing and familiarity with embedded software development and integrated-circuit and real-time-system design. Some medical-imaging manufacturers say they are willing to hire aerospace engineers, who have a similar skills set. There are five basic medical-imaging technologies: X rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET). Happy customers + sales = jobs at Dell Computer; typically 30 to 50 engineering slots are open at any time. (company profile) Dell Computer Corp Product Group Dir of Human Resources Bill McBride says that the company has between 30 and 50 engineering openings at any given time due to the success of its personal computer products. Dell recorded an increase in net sales in its FY ended Feb 2, 1990, of 51 percent to $388.6 million from $257.8 million in the previous year. The company makes and services systems based on Intel's 80486, 80386, 80386SX and 80286 microprocessors and running DOS, OS/2, UNIX and several network operating systems. Dell's engineering openings range from entry to management level, although most people the company hires have between three and eight years experience. The company prefers hiring those with experience in the design and manufacture of PCs but will hire anyone with a background in microprocessor-driven products, according to McBride. 3D display makers cite major software hurdle; image separation and synchronization tax algorithms. (includes a related article on Companies working on the development of three-dimensional displays say the greatest obstacle to be overcome is software, although power management and image synchronization pose problems as well. Tektronix Inc and StereoGraphics are among the companies using a polarizing or 'shutter' technique in which an image is displayed on a single conventional CRT and manipulated so that different views are sent to the left and right eyes of the viewer. These systems use either passive glasses along with a liquid-crystal shuttering device attached to the display itself, or active glasses containing the liquid-crystal shutter. VPL Research and Leep Systems are among the companies using the head-mounted 3D display technique, which requires a separate display for each eye; this is the technology used in most virtual reality and telepresence applications. Work progressing at these companies on 3D displays is described. New venture for Compaq called near. (Compaq Computer Corp. and Silicon Graphics Inc.) Compaq Computer Corp and Silicon Graphics Inc reach agree that Compaq will purchase a significant minority stake in Silicon Graphics, and both will work on the development of new workstations. The deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of Mar 1991, marks the end of a acquisition attempt by Compaq. The two companies will be working on a second-generation microcomputer and will be involved in an industry-wide effort to make the IBM microcomputer obsolete. Compaq and Silicon Graphics will be working on the first machine to use MIPS Systems Inc R4000 microprocessor and an operating system developed by The Santa Cruz Operation and Microsoft Corp. Industry observers believe the new workstation will not reach the market until 1992. Judge paves way for Apple copyright trial. (Apple Computer Inc.) Pollack, Andrew. Apple Computer Inc gains ground in its three-year copyright lawsuit against Microsoft Corp and Hewlett Packard Co after Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled against motions by the defendants. Walker's ruling clears the way for a trial but does not necessarily strengthen Apple's case. The lawsuit by Apple claims that Microsoft's Windows 2.03 graphical user interface and Hewlett Packard's New Wave software violate copyright. Apple's copyright is for a graphical user interface (GUI) that makes computers easy to use, and the interface has contributed substantially to the success of Apple computers. Walker indicates that the case will revolve around specific features of the Apple interface and not around the concept of 'look and feel.' Apple gets boost in copyright suit. (Apple Computer Inc.) (includes related article on 'look and feel' concepts) (column) Apple Computer Inc gets a boost in its copyright infringement case against Hewlett Packard Co and Microsoft Corp after a federal judge rejects motions made by the defendants. Apple is suing over the copyright of its graphical user interface, which is the one that makes the Apple Macintosh microcomputer so easy to use and so popular. The judgment does not say that Apple's claims on the copyright were valid but does undercut the defendants' arguments. Industry observers note that both Hewlett Packard and Microsoft might have some legal maneuvering up their sleeve. Officials at Apple call the ruling a partial victory; Apple is now preparing to go to trial on the suit. U.K. plans to open phone network to competition. Fullick, Neil. The British government has decided to end the telecommunications 'duopoly' of British Telecommunications PLC and the Mercury Division of Cable & Wireless PLC, and open up the UK telephone network to competitors. The government maintains that opening up the market will allow customers a wider choice of carriers and will ultimately lead to lower prices. The proposals call for more licenses to be issued for companies wanting to supply local, long-distance, and international services. They also allow more freedom to mobile and cable operators to provide services. The seven US regional telephone companies could gain considerably from the new rulings as they have been investing heavily in shares of cable-television operators in the UK in anticipation of the move. Computer makers are hurrying to create portables incorporating cellular modems. Computer manufacturers are seeking to take advantage of the current cellular communications boom by developing portable computers with built-in cellular modems. Toshiba Corp is already planning to introduce one such product in Jun 1991, with many manufacturers planning releases for the fall. The new products are seen as the first step towards the creation of a 'personal communicator' product that would fit inside a coat pocket and be capable of sending and receiving data over a cellular network. It is anticipated that the new technology would eventually be capable of automatically taking phone messages, notifying the user of upcoming meetings, updating simple programs and files, and displaying information on tiny liquid crystal screens. IBM unit settles lawsuit with Cambex on use of leased mainframe computers. IBM's credit subsidiary has settled a lawsuit it recently filed with Cambex Corp, in which it accused the company of misusing a leased mainframe computer. The suit is one of three filed by the giant computer manufacturer and is seen as an attempt by the company to crack down on the activity of its competitors, who often refit leased IBM machines. Camdex will pay an estimated $5.9 million under the settlement. The other two suits against Comdisco Inc and EMC Corp remain outstanding. The suit maintained that Camdex replaced memory microprocessors in the leased machines with its own products, illegally selling or leasing the IBM chips as upgrades to other machines. Before returning the mainframes to IBM, Camdex replaced the missing chips with different, but identical, IBM products. Excel update calculated to take on challengers. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software) (product announcement) Microsoft's Excel 3.0 is scheduled for release within the first six months of 1991, with a list price of $495. Its pending release means significant competition for other spreadsheet publishers, including Lotus Development Corp. Excel 3.0 features improved power, the ability to display graphics and free-form text blocks on the worksheet, a well-designed tool bar and macros that are triggered by clicking on graphic objects. Excel is the only spreadsheet for the Macintosh that includes an outlining feature. Many elements of the program increase productivity by reducing the time involved in creating and optimizing worksheets. Charting is improved, but remains one of the product's few weaknesses along with its limited color support. Adobe to market coveted typefaces from Berthold AG. (Adobe Systems Inc., H. Berthold AG) Adobe Systems Inc will announce a licensing agreement with H. Berthold AG at Seybold Seminars '91 in Boston in early Mar 1991. The agreement provides Adobe with 1,500 typefaces, including 400 that are exclusive to Berthold. The Berlin-based company's typefaces are not well-known in the US, but are highly regarded in the industry. The Berthold typefaces will bring Adobe's catalog to over 1,400 fonts in the PostScript Type 1 format. Art directors, especially in advertising, are expected to provide a ready market for the new fonts. Tower of power: '040 Mac will be well-connected. (Apple Macintosh microcomputer based on the Motorola 68040 microprocessor) Apple Computer Inc is developing a Motorola 68040-based Macintosh in a tower design. It is to be powered by a 25-MHz 68040 microprocessor and positioned as a high-performance workstation with cross-platform connectivity. The machine is expected to be more expensive than Apple's current top of the line, the Macintosh IIfx, but will include a built-in Apple Ethernet port and two standard AppleTalk ports. The logic board is not expected to support SCSI DMA, but third-party developers should offer add-on high-speed SCSI subsystems. The new Macintosh is being designed to support the DECnet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and Xerox Networking protocols. Prices will range from $9,500 to $11,500. Publishing pros press on to Seybold Seminars '91. Said, Carolyn; McManus, Neil. Seybold Seminars '91 will focus on typefaces and color publishing. The Boston trade show, being held the week of Mar 4, 1991, should host about 100 developers pushing their electronic publishing products, from page-layout software to document management systems to printers, with an emphasis on color. New products expected include multimedia systems, font libraries, add-in/on extensions to QuarkXPress, and editorial management packages. Adobe Systems plans to announce a licensing agreement with Berlin-based H. Berthold AG, for optical-scaling Type 1 fonts. Quoin Publishing Systems Inc has a page layout product called Quoin, while the neophyte Page will demonstrate a page composition prototype for NeXT computers. Other companies have new versions of desktop publishing software. Apple exec signs on as Claris coach. (Daniel Eilers becomes Claris CEO) Daniel Eilers, former Apple vice president for corporate development and strategic planning, is the new president and chief executive officer of Claris Corp. His first tasks are to get acquainted with the people at Claris, understand the company's products, and identify market opportunities. Claris was preparing to go public, but Eilers will now transfer it into an Apple division. Eilers has held several senior management positions at Apple and originated the idea of a software spinoff for the computer manufacturer. He intends to challenge Microsoft's dominant position in the Macintosh market. FrameMaker 3.0 'works like magic'; condition tags offer fast style variations. (Frame Technology Corp.'s desktop publishing software) Frame Technology Corp plans to announce its $995 FrameMaker 3.0 desktop publishing software at Seybold Seminars '91 in Boston in early Mar 1991. The workstation publishing package includes improvements that aid in the creation of long, structured documents. Condition tags allow multiple variations of a single base document. Data from spreadsheets and data base information can be integrated into fully formatted tables within documents. The program can run under the Apple Macintosh System 7.0 operating system but does not utilize its features. Expanded color support allows the incorporation of full-color scanned images into documents. Upgrades cost $150 for users who are not participants in Frame's update or support plans. Loop rewrites PictureBook utility; builds art gallery image cataloger. (product announcement) Loop Software's $99.95 PictureBook+, due in Mar 1991, is a complete upgrade and revision of the PictureBook desk accessory program. The utility provides users with the ability to open multiple scrapbooks; manipulate the contents; name, annotate and print clippings; and edit images. File contents can be sorted alphabetically or by date. PictureBook Plus's Clipboard Editor now contains Lasso, Marquee and other cropping tools. Loop Software also introduces Art Gallery, an image management program that reads images in several formats and translates between formats when possible. It will be available in Apr 1991 for $199.95. Mac Common LISP gets object extensions. (Spring 1991 release for Mac Common LISP 2.0 programming environment) (product Apple Computer Inc is readying an upgrade of its Common LISP programming environment for Macintosh developers. Mac Common LISP 2.0 provides better tools, improved performance, and a revised interface over its predecessor, Macintosh Allegro Common LISP, acquired by Apple from Coral Software Inc in 1989. The new version is a full implementation of the current industry standard. Enhancements include standard objects, an interface tool kit and a new introductory user manual. The product is scheduled for beta release in Mar 1991; shipment is expected later in the spring. The beta version, being marketed by Apple Programmer's & Developer's Association, costs $495. Swing Shift balances employee schedules. (Computed Designs Inc.'s Swing Shift automated employee-scheduling stack) (product Swing Shift 1.22, from Computed Designs Inc, is a $395 automated employee-scheduling software stack that handles full-time and part-time employees, flexible schedules and coordinates large numbers of workers. The project management program makes assignments based on company and worker requirements; users can override scheduling decisions if needed. The program tracks statistics, watches for scheduling conflicts, provides an overall view of schedules through an on-screen monthly calendar and includes various worker and shift reports. Version 1.22 is 50 percent faster than earlier versions. Swing Shift 2.0 should ship in Apr 1991 for $495. It will provide customizable time periods and include better handling of extended shifts and more options. Upgrades will be free. Controllers take over color copier; EFI, Canon ready for Seybold show. (Electronics for Imaging Inc., Canon U.S.A. Inc.) (Seybold Three companies are offering controllers that turn the Canon Color Laser Copier 500 (CLC) into a plain-paper PostScript laser printer. The products are useful for short-run color printing and high-quality color proofing, and they all provide 400 dpi continuous-tone images at up to five pages per minute. Custom Applications Inc's Freedom of Press Professional Server allows networked Macintosh microcomputers to print to the CLC 500. Electronics for Imaging Inc's Fiery ColorLaser controller processes color PostScript and photographic images; list price is $35,000. Canon expects to ship its PS-IPU controller for the CLC copier/printer in late Mar 1991. All products will be displayed at the Seybold Seminars '91 conference in early Mar 1991. Who's in charge? Mac-based newsrooms aren't always sure. (comprehensive document-management product for the Apple Macintosh Apple's Macintosh microcomputer finds acceptance among newspaper publishers for pagination and infographic creation, photograph image processing and color separation, but a turnkey document-management system for the Mac has yet to arrive. Many newspaper companies are putting their own systems together with products from more than one vendor. Tab Communications' TabTech division, for example, uses Layout 8000 from Software Consulting Services and Managing Editor Software Inc's Page Director. The company finds this makeshift arrangement somewhat inefficient and expresses dissatisfaction with the amount of paper files still being used. Future document management programs may use SQL or distributed databases. Several products currently under development that integrate document management, search and retrieval and other functions are described. Macs solid in display-ad creation. (Apple Macintosh software for advertising layout) (Macintosh Graphic Arts) Several software packages for creating newspaper advertising on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer provide advantages over traditional newspaper systems and desktop publishing programs. Scanning eliminates cutting and pasting ads by hand and engraving them. Display-ad software is specialized for individual page setup, rather than flowing text across many pages and adding pagination as desktop publishing programs do. Special features deal with the particular type requirements for advertisements. The ability to connect Macintoshes with minicomputer or mainframe systems provides ad software with even more options. The Detroit Newspaper Agency, which puts out the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, is one of several major newspaper publishers moving to such display-ad products as AdSpeed from Digital Technology International and Multi-Ad Services Inc's Multi-Ad Creator. Mac alters darkroom, delivers digital photos. (newsrooms using electronic manipulation) (includes related article on digital Many newspapers and news wire services use the Apple Macintosh microcomputer as part of their darkroom systems for the retouching and separation of photographs. Wire photo-transmission services are changing from analog to digital systems. As they do so, newspapers are following suit. Newspaper editors review, select, crop, size and manipulate photographs in a 'digital darkroom.' Crosfield's NewsLine and Nikon Inc's Image Management System, two of the most popular photographic turnkey systems, use the Macintosh as a key component. Honolulu Advertiser solves photo-deadline problems. (daily newspaper) (Macintosh Graphic Arts) The Honolulu Advertiser daily newspaper uses the Apple Macintosh to produce color photographs, including wire-service photos, on a near-daily basis. Associated Press photos come in on the Crosfield NewsLine. The three-color analog transmissions are then combined in a full-color picture and registered before they are sent to the Mac as a high-resolution TIFF file. Editors can fine-tune the color, balance, brightness and contrast. QuarkXPress is used to place photos on the pages. A Systems Integrators Inc mainframe computer performs the integration functions for the page. With this image processing system, photographs can be ready for the page in 20 minutes. The challenge of three dimensions. (three-dimensional graphics) (Macintosh Graphic Arts)(Boldface) (column) Three-dimensional (3-D) graphics software programs use photo-realistic modeling and shading to represent 3-D space on a 2-D computer display. These 'visualization' programs are used primarily by illustrators and graphic artists. The 3-D graphics market is growing, despite the need for expensive computers and the length of time required to accomplish detailed work. Some complex images can take hours to render. These 3-D packages usually split the process into two sections: a design/editing mode and a rendering mode. The 3-D graphics field may require multiprocessors, workstations or reduced-instruction-set computers with processing power beyond the ordinary microcomputer. Nevertheless, the industry and users of its products are moving toward 3-D as the standard method of doing graphics. Hit reset button and try that war again. (battle simulation) (Macintosh Graphic Arts)(New Media) (column) Microcomputers may some day play a role in resolving international differences. An analytical system used to plot the actions of the principal players involved in a conflict might help avoid misunderstandings and mixed signals. Military strategists in think tanks could use multimedia-based systems to provide background and perhaps some emotional understanding of the people involved. When the situation hits crisis level a rehearsal system could help try out various diplomatic gambits before negotiation meetings. There are several Apple Macintosh-based applications currently available for improving the quality of negotiations. Electronic mail: sorting out the pieces. (Commentary) Gassee, Jean-Louis. The lack of common addressing schemes hampers the evolution of electronic mail. E-mail systems require a dedicated line and computer, while facsimile transmission machines are able to use the regular telephone system. Users want to be able to communicate over e-mail systems with the simplicity of a fax. Yet they are faced with complexity and redundancy. The variety of e-mail systems and the difficulties in linking them are a result of their fragmented development and growth. Government standards are needed to realize the potential of e-mail systems as a powerful tool for creativity and productivity. Selling the Mac in your company. (The Mac Manager) (column) Crabb, Don. Some people despise the Apple Macintosh microcomputer simply because it is not IBM compatible. Apple Computer Inc's Small Business Sales System (SBSS) is designed to help sell the Macintosh to small businesses. The kit contains software, a CD-ROM and some manuals to demonstrate applications and sample data for five kinds of businesses: real estate, general business, legal, accounting, advertising and communications. Sample problems and solutions are presented for each type of business. SBSS could be used by Mac managers trying to promote the Macintosh in-house, consultants and trainers, but it is only available to resellers. A special version of SBSS is needed for corporate Mac managers. GraphMaster flashes flexible features for business charting. (includes related article summarizing product information) GraphMaster, available from Visual Business Systems Inc at a list price of $295, is one of several new business graphing programs that emphasize flexible editing and presentation-quality features that include 24-bit color, Encapsulated PostScript support and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics. The software package also contains pictograms and drawing tools; supports large data sets; handles EPS files and has transformation capabilities such as a formula language, a large variety of chart types and warm links to Excel spreadsheet files. Data entry and handling are excellent as is GraphMaster's management of both color and black-and-white graphics. The program has some bugs that need fixing, an unusual and somewhat annoying interface that requires using the well-written but poorly indexed manual, and an odd object-selection methodology. Upgrades are $99 for Visual Business No. 5 users. DiskFit: backups where they once belonged. (includes related article summarizing product information) (Software Review) DiskFit 2.0 and Network DiskFit 2.0 are upgrades of SuperMac Technology's local and network backup software. DiskFit 2.0's new features have been available in other products for some time and better implementations are available elsewhere. Backup speeds are acceptable, however, and the interface is basically intuitive. Network DiskFit 2.0 is identical to DiskFit 2.0, with the addition of network features such as backing up local disks to servers and backup of folder-privilege information from servers. Support for tape drives, scheduling and file selection are poor. The documentation for both programs is good, but neither program rates above average in any category. DiskFit 2.0 lists for $99.95; Network DiskFit 2.0 costs $395.00. New Pivot turns built-in video around; cardless 'soft' Pivot works with IIci, IIsi. (includes related product summary article) Radius Inc's $1,295 Pivot for Built-in Video is a display device driver that uses the graphics capabilities built into the Apple Macintosh IIci and IIsi microcomputers, saving users the need for a graphics card. Pivot for Built-in Video adds its software functions to the Radius Pivot monochrome monitor to receive the video signal and rotate the pixels in the screen display. Installation and set up are fast and easy, especially since the RadiusWare Installer deciphers and adapts to the appropriate CPU. The corners of the display slightly distort straight lines, the unit's only weak points. The Pivot for Built-in Video rates good to excellent in all categories and is considered a very good value. The display comes with a one-year warranty and , well-written and illustrated documentation. Rendezvous-Plus falls short as scheduler, address book; cannot import, export addresses. (includes product summary) (Software PMC Telesystems $249 Rendezvous-Plus is a personal management program for scheduling appointments, and 'to do' lists. It contains a diary and a few good features, but does not exchange address information with other programs. Scheduling of tasks is easy and Rendezvous-Plus has an useful 'task-forwarding' feature to carry unfinished chores to the next day. The sorting and reporting functions are weak, however, and the interface is awkward. For example, the user cannot move directly between the daily and monthly calendars. This program has decent documentation but rates no better than average in any other category. It is considered a below average value. Mac image catalogers improve. (1990 good year for image-management programs) (includes related article on storage and retrieval As image library managers use Apple Macintoshes more, the need for image-cataloging software and image-management systems increases. The latest products range from simple scrapbook programs to relational data base management systems with scanners and image-manipulation tools. Loop Software's $69.95 PictureBook is a low-end graphics cataloger that can hold 499 images per window and opens multiple windows. Multi-Ad Search, from Multi-Ad Services Inc, holds up to 32,000 8-bit color images and costs $199. Symmetry Software's Mariah is a $149 package that can manage multimedia items as well as regular images. CIS*Gallery from Barneyscan Corp catalogs scanned photographic images. It is part of the company's Color Imaging System, which includes slide scanners, but is available separately for $695. Nikon Inc's PictureDesk Image Manager software is geared toward professional use by newspaper, magazine and other publishers, but is available only as part of the $24,615 Nikon IMS system. Clearing up Start Using confusion. (HyperCard command) (StackWEEK)(Column) (tutorial) The Start Using command for HyperCard and HyperTalk 2.0 puts stacks into a message-passing hierarchy in HyperCard so that all HyperTalk commands and functions are sent to these stacks before they go Home or to HyperCard itself. Start Using is helpful in developing complex HyperCard applications, but can be confusing to use. Start Using does nothing by itself, but it makes sure that when a statement is used for which there is a handler in one of the stacks the handler will be executed. Without Start Using it would not be. The handlers provided are the only ones that can be used; user-written handlers do not communicate with Start Using. Apple alters dealer contracts; resellers must state focus. (Channel News) Apple Computer Inc is changing its requirements for resellers who sign Apple authorized-dealer contracts. The contracts are renewed every Apr 1 in the US. For contracts renewed after Apr 1, 1991, dealers must specify the type of market and the geographic area of focus for their sales efforts. Industry analysts see Apple's purpose in requiring these details as an attempt to segment and focus resellers. Resellers must also produce a minimum yearly commitment for the first time: $350,000 at each location. Third, the new contract also forbids dealers from offering promotions at the local level in ways similar to Apple marketing techniques. Do software bundles sell hardware? Peripheral vendors look for an edge. The practice of bundling software packages with Apple Macintosh peripherals began in the hard disk market in about 1988, and has now spread to the scanner, monitor and printer markets. An informal survey suggests corporate buyers and power users are not influenced by such arrangements. Vendors insist that bundling brings sales results and provides marketing advantages for them. They believe that less sophisticated users, in particular, like buying several software solutions at one time, with their hardware. Software developers view the long-term marketing advantages of bundling as more important than short-term revenues, especially since they may make only 10 percent of list prices for bundled packages. Market share can be leveraged into future sales. Computers gain new respect as translators. Leary, Warren E. The use of computers to translate documents from one language to another has long been a goal of scientists. Advances in artificial intelligence, more powerful computers and new approaches to translation have increased speculation that a fully-operational translation system is close at hand. Companies like Systran Translation Systems Inc of La Jolla, CA claim 85 percent accuracy with their document translation systems. Translated documents nevertheless still need a human editor to correct and refine the computer-generated results. Advanced techniques in artificial intelligence that simulate human thinking and the use of 'unified grammars' that contain common grammar concepts and universal meanings are making the idea of machine translation more plausible, but many scientists believe it will be many years before a realistic translation system is operational. Printers are improved. (dot-matrix printers) Lewis, Peter H. Dot-matrix printers offer a low-priced alternative to today's relatively expensive non-impact laser and ink-jet printers. Even the cheapest laser printers sell for over $750, with high-end models costing $6,000 or more. Dot-matrix printers from such companies as Panasonic Communications and Systems Co offer 24-pin quality for under $500. Such printers offer speeds of approximately 63 characters per second (cps) in letter-quality mode and faster draft modes with speeds of up to 240 cps. Price is not the only consideration when buying a printer. A dot-matrix printer is the only choice for businesses that print multipart forms such as invoices and receipts because non-impact printers do not make contact with the paper to produce carbon copies. Laser printers are quieter than dot-matrix products, however. Learning the business of desktop publishing. (three books on using software) Business One Irwin's $27.50 Desktop Publishing Success is a new book concerned with the business aspects of desktop publishing. While the focus of the book is on desktop publishing as an independent business, corporate desktop publishing is also covered in an appendix. Osborne McGraw-Hill's $19.95 Teach Yourself GW-Basic is a book on the popular programming language. While QuickBasic is a better language, GW Basic has the advantage of being bundled with almost every microcomputer that uses the MS-DOS operating system. Microsoft Press' $24.95 The Big Book of Amazing Mac Facts is a collection of hundreds of Macintosh software and hardware tips more than 500 pages long. Ralph Blodgett's $39.95 WordPerfect Power Pack is a book/disk combination that seeks to address the word processing software package's diversity by offering instruction on accomplishing specific tasks such as business letters, writing memos, minutes and reports. Hewlett plans more-powerful workstations. (Hewlett-Packard Co.) Zachary, G. Pascal. Hewlett-Packard Co is planning to release three fast new workstations in the near future. Some analysts believe that the product offering is just what is needed to reverse the manufacturer's fortunes and reassert it once again as the market leader. The new machines are reported to be capable of operating at 50 million instructions per second and are based on the company's own reduced instruction-set computing microprocessors. HP's acquisition of workstation manufacturer Apollo Computer Inc in 1989 made the company the number one workstation vendor, but HP has failed to keep up with competitors' offerings, particularly in RISC-based workstations. The company has fallen to number two behind Sun Microsystems Inc. Although the new offerings are seen as a boost for HP, the problems it inherited with its acquisition of Apollo will not go away. Apollo and HP workstations use different operating systems and although there are plans to merge the two, the confusion surrounding the dual systems will certainly not help sales of the new products. Adobe to showcase software technology that should boost electronic publishing. Adobe Systems is developing new software technology that will benefit newspaper publishers, printing concerns, and those who create documents and send them electronically. The new software, which will not be commercially available for at least five months, addresses the problem of how to make very small or very large type sizes appear clearer. Printers who switched to computerized printing procedures some years ago have had to accept a 'generic' size when dealing with type. The new product, called Multiple Master, will benefit newspapers wanting to improve the look of their classified pages and allow magazines to enhance their listings. Adobe plans to license the technology to others and market packaged versions of typefaces created using the technique. The Baby Bells misbehave; the past year has brought a rash of indictments, settlements, and fines. (includes related article on The Bell regional holding companies come under numerous investigations in 1990 and suffer from settlements, fines and indictments. NYNEX Corp is even in danger of being split up by New York State regulators because of the myriad charges against it.The telephone companies downplay the investigations and maintain that petty restrictions are responsible for the indictments and fines. The companies are being indicted mainly on two points: aggressive and overzealous marketing techniques and violations associated with the AT&T breakup. The US government prosecuting agencies emphasize that the size of the fines, a $42 million charge against Bell of Pennsylvania for misleading consumers, for example, should make the industry aware of the seriousness of its crimes. Industry analysts and government regulators believe that the Bell companies should be tightly regulated because of their monopoly status. Bill McGowan: to the edge and back; the irrepressible MCI chairman talks about his near-death, his heart transplant, and how he's MCI Communications Corp's Chmn and founder William G. McGowan is back to work at the long-distance telephone carrier in 1991 after suffering a heart attack in 1986. MCI gained $7.68 billion, or 19 percent, in 1990 revenues after McGowan orchestrated a takeover of Telecom USA. MCI stock suffered a 54 percent drop in 1990 because of a $550 million write-down for network improvements and a slow 4th qtr, but the stock has recovered slightly and is selling around $27 a share in Feb 1991, about its Oct 1990 level. McGowan is not fully recovered from his heart attack and subsequent heart transplant and is still removed from many day-to-day operations. He focuses on spotting trends, charting corporate strategy, attacking legislators, fighting entrenched bureaucracies and contributing to health-related research. The next great leap in computing speed: multichip packages cut computing time by precious nanoseconds. (Information Processing - Multichip semiconductor devices are making tremendous improvements in speed on a microprocessor. The rate at which microprocessors are becoming faster is slowing because there is only so fast a chip can go. Industry observers believe that the major improvements will be made in multichip packaging techniques, which put several chips in one package and therefore cut the time it takes for electronic data to go from chip to circuit board. Multichip technology is being hailed as an up-and-coming technology in the semiconductor industry by analysts who predict that it will become an $18 billion industry by the mid-1990s and that a third of all semiconductors will be housed in multichip modules by 2000. For this prediction to be fulfilled, further improvements in detecting faulty chips before packaging are needed to save discarding entire sets of as many as 20 chips because of one bad one. Snags, snafus - and a whole lot of static: AT&T and Sprint won a big federal phone contract. Why the tears? (Information Processing US Sprint Communications Co and AT and T have a government contract to install and manage Federal Telecommunications System 2000 (FTS-2000) for the US General Services Administration (GSA) but the project experiences problems. AT and T is rather upset at getting less than the 60 percent of the traffic the lowest bidder was to receive, and both AT and T and US Sprint are perturbed at the GSA for slapping a 10 percent management fee onto FTS-2000 telephone bills. The two long-distance carriers claim the management fee is taking away the system's competitive edge. Rival MCI Communications Corp supports that irritation by offering government agencies a 40 percent rate cut over the FTS-2000 fee for voice calls. User agencies complain that other telephone systems offer more services at lower rates. Bit & Bytes. (Information Processing) (product announcement) Eng, Paul M. Recent trends in information processing includes a touch-screen computer system for amusement parks, paperless resumes, new home video game systems and negotiating efforts in automatic number identification or caller ID. IBM is developing a 300-terminal network for Expo 1992 in Seville, Spain that will allow lost party members to relocate their groups by accessing electronic mail accounts and on-lin maps. Paperless resumes are offered through the Human Resources Information Network's Resumes-On-Computer on-line data base so human resources departments can more easily search for potential job candidates. Caller ID advocates wrestle with opponents over its use and some analysts believe a compromise, which entails allowing callers to block their identity, is on the horizon. SNK Home Entertainment Inc introduces its $650 SNK Neo Geo System, a 24-bit video game system with color graphics, voice digitizing and other features that appeal to adults. Moving to DS-3. (networking) (T1 industry status)(part two of two) Schultz, Beth. The technology of DS-3 networking is of crucial importance to current vendors and users of backbone networks. DS-3, though not widespread, has started to influence enterprise networking strategies and purchasing plans. Some users have become technological pioneers, using services and switches equipped with DS-3's 45M-bps speed, which is 28 times the capacity of T1. Users can now see the day when high-speed DS-3 multiplexing will be as commonplace as dedicated T1 is currently. Those considering DS-3 must weigh several factors. Upgrading is rarely simple. The cost of new DS-3 multiplexers ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other considerations deal with network management systems, interworking of DS-3 multiplexers and other networking and rerouting capabilities. EMA is late: DEC's shipping schedule for new net management products hits snags. (Enterprise Management Architecture, Digital DEC announces a delay in the shipment of three important components of its Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). The delays could hurt the company's attempt to reach beyond its installed base to control multivendor networks, especially with DEC's failure to back up a statement of direction by announcing a comprehensive product for EMA on the Ultrix operating system. Delays of two to four months for most EMA products, such as a management station for transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) networks and the second release of core management software, are not expected to influence the loyalty of DEC VAX customers. The company plans to make the EMA software as portable as possible. One of the biggest reasons for shipment delays is the task of making the EMA products compatible with pre-EMA management systems. Delayed products include DECmcc Management Station for Ultrix software, DECmcc Director for VMS/Basic Management System 1.1, and DECnet Diagnosis. Is this national ISDN? Bellcore standard gets wide backing. (integrated services digital network) (includes related article on Users have avoided embracing ISDN because of two fundamental problems. The first difficulty is that ISDN equipment is based on proprietary specifications and the other is that ISDN services are not widely available from telephone companies. The Corporation for Open Systems International (COS) has made a large effort to resolve the first problem and a lesser effort to resolve the second. COS brought vendor- and user-company officials together to introduce broad industry support for common specifications for ISDN, drafter by Bell Communications Research and known collectively as National ISDN 1. COS officials see the announcement as a milestone in efforts to help make standardized interoperable multivendor a reality. Availability of ISDN services still continues to be a problem. NT taps video: global conferencing net underscores trend. (Northern Telecom) Northern Telecom Ltd is constructing a videoconferencing network to connect 50 of its locations worldwide. The company is installing $2.5 million worth of videoconferencing equipment from PictureTel at European, Asian and North American locations. The network will also be used by Bell-Northern Research Ltd. Completion is scheduled for the summer of 1991. The move by Northern Telecom to widely deploy videoconferencing technology underscores predictions by industry analysts that users in the early 1990s will be installing extensive videoconferencing networks to improve productivity by facilitating more face-to-face meetings. The company has conducted some intercompany videoconferences using gateway services provided by US Sprint. Ultimately, NT plans to establish direct videoconferencing. IBM's front-end: the 3745 controller will become key piece of networking strategy. IBM plans to add DS-3, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and ES-CON networking support to its 3745 Communication controller, making the 3745 front-end processor the center of the IBM networking strategy. The enhancements are likely to be introduced by June 1991. ESCON is the company's fiber optic channel connecting IBM mainframes and peripheral devices. One insurance industry user, briefed by the vendor, says the high-speed networking support will be field-upgradeable for all existing 3745 models. IBM assured the user that his company's three 3745s, Models 130, 210 and 410, will all be eligible for upgrading by the end of 1991. ESCON support will come in the future, after all upgrades are delivered. Rebuilding Kuwait: most gear taken or destroyed (communications and networking equipment) Networking and communications vendors are preparing to start rebuilding Kuwait's communications infrastructure, which was destroyed during Iraq's six-month occupation and the Persian Gulf War. Billions of dollars worth of computer and communications equipment was either destroyed or taken to Iraq. United Kingdom trade mission members said invading troops stripped the country of nearly all of its communications and computer equipment, everything from microcomputers to facsimile machines. Any equipment that could not be moved was destroyed. The country's 319,000 line public switched network will cost about $315 million to reconstruct. Government officials have been negotiating with a cross-section of communications equipment vendors to rebuild the country once the war ended. AT and T was scheduled to begin providing 120 outbound telephone lines from Kuwait City as of Mar 2, 1991. How to stretch spectrum? NTIA proposes auctioning, leasing of frequency. (National Telecommunications and Information NTIA says that a more flexible, market-based approach is the best method to alleviate the spectrum shortage that has been bothering service providers and users. One approach proposed by the NTIA was having the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction the rights to frequencies now allocated for private use and another was the leasing of some some frequencies now reserved for governmental use. Other suggestions include license fees for private-use frequencies as an alternative to auctions and an experimental subleasing of private-use frequencies. All recommendations were part of a report on spectrum allocation and management. The report capped a nationwide study lasting more than one year. The auction proposal is expected to draw the most attention from lawmakers, government agencies, service providers and users. Auctions could also increase the frequency prices, according to critics. This could lessen the demand for communications equipment as well as slow the deployment of sophisticated equipment. SynOptics distributes mgm't: users react positively as company adds processing power to hub products with Lattisnet Network SynOptics Communications has introduced network management applications designed to reach more enterprise network users with a broader, distributed networking strategy. The company's new Lattisnet Model 3040 Network Control Engine (NCE) is a $9,995 module for its System 3000 intelligent hub. NCE utilizes a scalable processor architecture reduced instruction set computing (SPARC, RISC) chip set. The company also plans to unveil a product to implement the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) over shielded twisted-pair wire by the middle of 1991. The smart hub trend calls for the integration of both wide area- and local area networks (WAN, LAN). SynOptics and other hub vendors are using LAN management strategies to differentiate themselves. Search for savings: users keep cutting their long distance costs. (includes related article listing 10 ways users can save on long Officials of Progressive Insurance who were searching for ways to save money on long distance calling decided that all calls should be limited to the company's internal communications system. Branch office employees had been using the corporate 800 service number, which kept telecommunications costs down for the branches but pushed overall telecommunications costs up. Limiting all calling to the virtual private network trimmed costs 21 to 38 percent, compared with using the 800 line. FMC Corp relies on intelligent PBXs to route calls in a cost-effective manner. Calls not accepted by the private network are rerouted to the virtual network. The PBXs will route traffic off of the private network and onto switched networks to insure completion. User issues: service local competition. (telephone companies) Bushaus, Dawn. Many customers of telephone companies consider customer service as critical as price in selecting service providers. Many are ready to see some competition in the local loop, according to a survey released by Andersen Consulting. Over 200 middle-market telephone company users with annual telecommunications budgets ranging from $50,000 to $1 million took part. Results indicated that 45 percent of telephone company users would change local carriers right away given the choice. Some 60 percent favor competition in the local loop. Virtually all considered customer service an important criteria in vendor selection. Approximately 70 percent are willing to pay more for good service. New messaging mix: now HP, Retix X.400 ware works together. (Hewlett Packard) Retix and Hewlett-Packard are working together to deliver a global-messaging applications package that combines X.400 products from both vendors. Officials of both companies have announced that they have enhanced the software for their X.400 Message Handling System servers to enable users to create a complete X.400 messaging network. HP's OpenMail software will be used as the electronic-mail server and Retix OpenServer 400 software will be used as the transport mechanism. The two will endorse each other's X.400 products for users building X.400 messaging infrastructures, though the two companies will continue to market their products separately. HP's OpenMail 1.1 for SCO Unix with Retix OpenServer support ($2,395) will be available in the 2nd qtr of 1991. Retix OpenServer 400 software for SCO Unix ($6,995) will also be available during the 2nd qtr. Carriers shoulder int'l chores. (international) (Perspective) (column) A current axiom says that a successful business needs to expand beyond the borders of its home country. There are many examples to substantiate this statement. Users continually purchase products and services from multinational companies, regardless of where they are located. There have been some spectacular advances in technology. These advances have forced governments worldwide to think about changing their monopolistic telecommunications markets into competitive ones. These two factors have created a challenge for telecommunications managers to expand their networks on a global basis, thus creating more and greater challenges as managers are faced with differing standards, regulations, protocols and more. GE unit distributes network: approach uses mainframe, midrange, LAN systems. (General Electric Capital Fleet Services, local area General Electric Capital Fleet Services (GECFS) has been working on a $20 million project to move from mainframe to distributed software applications making the transportation-leasing firm a pioneer user of many emerging technologies, including IBM Logical Unit 6.2 communications and cooperative processing. GECFS is part of GE Capital Corp, a subsidiary of General Electric. The unit's applications run on Bull HN Information systems mainframes. The company oversees 500 ships, 400,000 cars, 400 jets and 90,000 railroad cars. The current software is over 20 years old and operates in batch processing mode. The company started in 1988 to look for ways to connect workstation computing power with that of mainframe systems. Company officials decided to adopt IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA). A three-tier network model was outlined with IBM mainframes at the top, IBM AS/400 minicomputers in the middle and IBM PS/2's on the the desktop. All are to be linked with Token Ring local area networks. HP, Sun mgm't gear draws vendor interest. (Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, management) Sun Microsystems' SunNet and Hewlett-Packard's OpenView are turning into lightning rods for multivendor local area network (LAN) management applications based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). HP has sold over 2,000 run-time OpenView licenses. Approximately 80 vendors are developing applications for the platform. OpenView is considered a management solution for both local area (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN). SunNet Manager, which is used for LAN management, has sold about 300 run-time licenses. Both vendors have offered network management hardware and software to other vendors as platforms capable of running their own management applications. New age of E-mail: combos with LAN applications. (local area network, electronic mail) Users of local area networks are bombarded with electronic mail messages. The glut worsens as the number of electronic mail users increases. Users must have ways to separate 'junk' E-mail from urgent messages and blend E-mail with other network applications. A new age for electronic messaging is necessary where the medium and the message are unique and cooperation and consolidation among vendors is a must. E-mail software is now available that will automate desktop applications and an organization's business methods. Two factors influence the next generation of LAN E-mail. One is the move away from proprietary E-mail programs toward open systems. The other is the splitting of E-mail software into two directions: a message transport vehicle and front-end user applications. The more connections an applications has with its competitors, the better. Separate and proprietary E-mail systems are out. Vendors have developed applications programming interfaces for users and developers to create new connections with their software. Industry observers say vendors like Apple and Novell plan to include E-mail in network operating systems at no charge. Blue Cross' hybrid remedy: new public-private net ensures savings, speed. (communications network for Blue Cross and Blue Shield) A communications network for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is nearly complete. The hybrid network will connect the 73 independent companies providing Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance. The network consists of two networks interconnected through a gateway in Washington, DC. One network is a public data network called the IBM Information Network and the second is a private T1 backbone network including Timeplex multiplexers and IBM front-end processors. The Unified Network is based on IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA). The new network will facilitate better, easier and cheaper data communications and will cut the annual data communication cost between the companies from $11 million to $6 million. Officials say the T1 backbone network is geared for 'high-speed, high-volume' traffic while the IBM Information Network is better for lower-volume locations. A help desk will be located at the Washington D.C. Blue Cross and Blue Shield office for users of both networks. The audio alternative: conferencing up as users cut down travel. (teleconferencing) A teleconferencing network is being built by Kemper Financial Industries that will connect 220 locations throughout the world and facilitate easier sharing of information. Many users view teleconferencing as an affordable method for enhancing worker productivity and as a technology of choice, considering the ease of arranging teleconferences and improvements in teleconferencing products. These factors are expected to contribute to a minimum growth rate of at least 24 percent in audioconferencing, according to a study by Telemanagement Resources International Inc. The report failed to consider the impact of Operation Desert Storm, which virtually eliminated both foreign and domestic travel at some companies and made audioconferencing a popular alternative. The war has had a similar impact on videoconferencing. The cost of building a videoconferencing system is $50,000 per site while an audioconferencing site can be set up for $3,000. Nasdaq chooses MCI to provide network access: new arrangement to offer line redundancy, savings. (MCI Communications, Stock brokers subscribing to the Nasdaq over-the-counter exchange have had to utilize expensive dedicated communications lines with little backup capability for access to its trading network. A new Nasdaq access network, to be constructed by MCI Communications, will offer users total redundancy and save them 10 to 20 percent in overall access costs. Nasdaq has signed a five-year, $10 million agreement with MCI for a nationwide data network. The Special Services Network, which is expected to be fully operational by Aug 1991, will include dedicated lines running at T1 speed and provide network management and monitoring functions. Users will have to lease MCI lines to access the nearest node in order to access the network. Industry officials are positive about the new network. FCC hears equal-charge views: AT and T tells FCC that access charges should be based on cost; competitors say change will A pending FCC ruling has at stake fewer choices and higher rates for long distance users, according to AT and T competitors. The FCC is deciding whether to continue requiring all long distance carriers to pay the same fee to access local telephone company facilities. Millions of dollars in fees are at stake. These costs are passed on to the end users. Fees for local access account for about half of most carriers' costs. The FCC adopted access-charge rules requiring telephone companies to charge different carriers different rates for transport, based on the cost of the transport. The AT and T divestiture accord in 1984 required the Bell Regional Holding Companies (BRHC) to charge the same rates for connecting their switching facilities to central offices. Several BRHCs admit that lifting the FCC waiver could adversely affect long distance competition and urged the FCC to keep the waiver until a new local transport rate structure is adopted. Opening up local access. (alternative telephone company access) Semilof, Margie. True access choices for local telephone exchanges are closer to becoming a reality. They have already arrived in some cities in the form of agreements on collocation between Bell Regional Holding Companies (BRHC) and alternative access companies. The agreements allow the alternative access companies to place their equipment in or near the BRHC central offices. The alternative access companies can, as a result, offer the same access to local exchanges as the operating companies, thus providing a disaster-recovery option for users. It could also signal the beginning of the the for the BRHC monopoly on local exchanges services. One BRHC, Nynex, has struck a collocation agreement as has New Jersey Bell Telephone. Illinois Bell is close to such an agreement. Two companies leading the drive for collocation are Teleport Communications Group and Metropolitan Fiber Systems. Users eye PRI ISDN: service can make networks more efficient for voice, data connections. (Primary Rate Interface, Integrated Bell companies have just begun to introduce tariffs for Primary Rate Interface (PRI) ISDN, though several offer Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN throughout their regions. Centrex users have been targeted as potential customers for the BRI ISDN services. BRI calls for two bearer or 'B' channels operating at 64K-bps and one signaling or 'D' channel operating at 16K-bps. PRI calls for 23 B channels and one D channel and allows the telephone companies to provide services for PBX customers. Illinois Bell has filed a tariff to offer PRI ISDN, as has Pacific Bell. Other Bell companies will follow suit later in 1991. PRI ISDN is seen as a way to save money and enhance efficiency. The technology can be used to cut the number of data and voice trunks needed, manage channels and bandwidth on a call-by-call basis, identify incoming calls and connect local area networks (LANs) to other LANs or to wide area networks (WANs). A new twist: closeup: 10Base-T promises networks that are flexible, inexpensive, easy to install. The 10Base-T standard is rapidly becoming the leading technology for Ethernet local area networking. The standard's technology makes a 10Base-T local area network (LAN) cheaper and more easily installed that regular Ethernet LANs, because of several factors. These include: the network topology, the unshielded twisted pair wiring, and the features available for a 10Base-T network. 10Base-T utilizes structured wiring with each microcomputer or workstation on the network linked to a central hub-repeater in a star configuration. Data travels over the network at 10M-bps. The star configuration facilitates natural segmentation of the network. Each node-to-hub link is a separate segment, aiding users in avoiding data-traffic bottlenecks. 10Base-T has changed the Ethernet repeater standard somewhat by expanding it to make room for multiple ports, which allows users to attach more devices to the hub/repeater, making it easier to add users to a network. What's the future for 10Base-T? greater integration and more management features. 10Base-T was introduced in 1987 and many vendors are working to improve it. More network management features are on the way. Integration of components will also be delivered and new markets will open up. Vendors working to improve 10Base-T include semiconductor makers, hub vendors and interface card companies. Chip vendors are researching 10Base-T integration by building more and more functions into fewer chips. Greater integration will mean lower product prices. Officials at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) say the firm's strategy is to provide a single-chip solution at the hub and at the node. Users feel that network management will be the key to making 10Base-T cost-effective. AT and T officials say the company wanted to be the first to integrate management capabilities in silicon. National Semiconductor unveiled a chip set to implement the hub draft standard late in Feb 1991. AMD may implement the management specifications of the hub draft in software or silicon. Using 10Base-T on a large scale. Levine, Judith. Users like 10Base-T for several reasons. These include ease of installation, lower cost, network management capabilities and flexibility. Conner Peripherals found that most of these factors played a role in the company's choice of 10Base-T technology. Company officials say 10Base-T was chosen for its flexibility, manageability and expandability. Conner actually has one of the largest 10Base-T networks worldwide, comprised of a series of 10Base-T local area networks (LANs) linked by routers and bridges. The network's focal point is the company's 10-building campus in San Jose, CA. Additional networks in branch offices worldwide are connected to the San Jose network. AT&T's e-mail prospects: EasyLink being folded in, new 'messages' eyed. (electronic mail) AT and T, two months after the acquisition of Western Union's EasyLink electronic-messaging business became final, is integrating the acquired business with its own messaging operation. The telecommunications company is exploring the addition of new capabilities to its services. Current offerings are limited to electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail, facsimile and telex. The integration of the Western Union unit will allow AT and T to include video and voice-mail capabilities into its messaging product portfolio by the year 2000. Industry analysts say the acquisition and subsequent strategy make sense and is consistent with the company's desire to include more value-added services. Industry observers feel that electronic mailboxes with facsimile, EDI and E-mail capabilities will be a reality by 1996. 'I quit' can spell disaster. (what happens when the one person who knows a network quits) The resignation of the one person who is solely in charge of a key network project is simply just another type of network disaster. The data processing director for a small company was constructing a 20-node local area network (LAN) with help from a LAN consultancy. Part way through the project the manager and the consultant both quit. The new network manager had a problem on his hands. The consultancy sent a new, untrained consultant who had to learn the project from scratch. The consulting firm expected the company to pay to bring the consultant up to speed. The company could not afford the additional fee of $130 per hour. Companies placing information systems projects in the hands of just one person are playing a risky game. Key person insurance is available in case a data processing manager dies, but not if he resigns. Every network backup plan needs to include having more than one person with intimate knowledge of the system. HP, Sun plan distributed software: will work on object-oriented network applications. (Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems) Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard set aside their competitive differences and announce a joint-development plan for distributed network application software. The announcement of development plans for the Distributed Object Management Facility (OMF) software was expected. OMF could become a standard. The joint development strategy, which has three parts, will focus initially on bringing the power of object-oriented software to Unix environments and eventually to other platforms. The goal of the joint development project is to create a set of interfaces to support current applications and allow developers to write new object-oriented applications that can operate easily across diverse platforms. Applications development is more productive with object-oriented software, according to industry observers, who go on to say that if the two companies can center the industry on a single implementation for networks all users will benefit. Both stress that their collaboration will not have any effect on HP's commitment to Open Software Foundation or Sun's commitment to Unix International. Despite all the talk, VARs find OS/2 sales: resellers accomplish what others can't. A number of value-added resellers have succeeded in fostering sales of OS/2-based systems, despite Microsoft and IBM's notable lack of success in that area. OS/2 is often selected by Unisys and NCR users who want to downsize their systems, prompting Unisys VARs to include OS/2 in their solutions. VAR officials say they began to use OS/2 when Unisys customers indicated interest in downsizing and have now found that OS/2 could lead them into new markets. Developers and VARs have achieved greater success for OS/2 in the corporate setting than in smaller office environments. Industry observers find that OS/2 succeeds in environments where users actually need its inherent advantages. IBM turns up the sales-quota heat: some resellers face 150% increase. IBM plans to have its local field offices assume responsibility for setting dealer sales quotas, beginning with the 1992 contracts. The decision is already seeing some smaller dealers' quotas designated to rise by as much as 150%. The minimum dollar amount of IBM products a dealer must sell per year to retain authorization previously was set by IBM's National Distribution Division. The amount was the same for similarly-sized cities throughout the US. Word of the change came to light when local IBM representatives started telling some smaller dealers that their 1992 sales quotas would be increased, causing some to fear that their medallions may be in jeopardy. The additional pressure comes just a few months after the dealers signed 1991 contracts, increasing their minimum renewable criteria (MRC) as much as 66 percent. The company is also changing the way it calculates MRC from what the dealer buys to what it sells, which means inventory can no longer be considered in reaching quotas. One dealer cautions that overall market growth is not strong enough to justify the drastic quota increases. January exceeds projections: 29% of Fortune 1000 expect normal February purchasing. The average expenditure for microcomputer hardware and software in Jan 1991 for Fortune 1000 firms was 10 percent more than expected. Surveys show that average Fortune 1000 organization claimed it spent $182,500 on microcomputer hardware and software in January, $16,500 more than expected. Analysts claim the increase could mean that large corporations are relaxing their spending restrictions somewhat as the recession continues. Some Fortune 1000 firms said they did not cut spending as planned. A similar survey in Feb 1991 discovered that at least half of the Fortune 1000 companies increased their spending in software, networking and connectivity, and desktop and portable computers. Laser, inkjet printer sales cut into dot matrix momentum. Quick, Gregory. Outstanding sales of inkjet and laser printers, enhanced by recent cuts in prices, have cut more deeply into the dot matrix market than was previously expected. Manufacturers of dot matrix printers are now branching into other product categories in order to remain competitive. Sales of dot matrix printers peaked in 1989 and were flat or slightly down in 1990. Analysts expect to see a continuing decline in sales during 1991. Sales for 1989 for all kinds of dot matrix printers totalled 5.2 million units in the US. That figure is expected to drop to about 4.7 million in 1991. The decline has been matched by sales increases for inexpensive inkjet and 4- to 6-page-per-minute (ppm) laser printers. Inkjet printer sales are expected to increase by 26 percent and 4- to 6-ppm laser printers will increase 51 percent. Adobe, DEC to forge desktop-publishing pact: font servers, new printer line slated. (Adobe Systems, Digital Equipment Corp.) Adobe and DEC will announce a method of licensing printer fonts that will allow users of networked printers pay for fonts on a per-use basis rather than via an up-front fee. The technology includes a font server to be placed on the network for users to share fonts , saving large network users thousands of dollars in licensing fees. Users with a variety of platforms, with this method, who use disparate software applications, can access font libraries when needed and pay only when the font is actually used. The goal is making desktop publishing available to more users. DEC also plans to introduce four new networkable laser printers as part of the overall printing solution. The announcement is scheduled to be made at the Seybold Publishing Conference during the week of Mar 4, 1991. VARs urged to strike strategic alliances. (value-added resellers) Senia, Al. The key to continued success in the VAR channel lies in the formation of strategic partnerships to create channels of opportunity, according to industry executives attending the Bluebird Systems annual reseller conference. VAR business strategies should include vendors, major accounts, manufacturers, dealers and distributors. The most successful resellers are shifting their focus away from task-automation applications and toward mission-critical applications. Bluebird has concluded a strategic deal to port its Business BASIC software to the IBM RS/6000 platform. Officials said the vendor had contributed $250,000 to partially fund the migration of Business BASIC to AIX. Inacomp Computer Center Pres Rick Inatome told resellers they will have an important role in the 1990s as the channel focuses more on mission-critical applications, predicting that a synthesis of dealers and VARs could result in both distributing product efficiently and focusing on value-added solutions. Top industry executives sell off stock: computer barons make millions on market's rally. Several computer industry executives capitalized on the Jan 1991 rally in the stock market, selling off hundreds of thousands of their companies' shares. Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates gained $32.4 million from the sale of 350,000 shares between Jan 28 and Jan 30, 1991, according to industry analysts; he still holds approximately 39 million Microsoft shares, worth over $4 billion. Apple Computer director Mike Markula made $20.6 million on the sales of 400,000 shares in a three-day period; he still holds 6.2 million shares. Apple Chmn John Sculley sold 100,000 shares for $5.3 million. Adobe Systems Chmn John Warnock earned $3.1 million for the sales of 100,000 shares. NetWare resellers targeted: Microsoft continues pursuit of Gold, Platinum VARs. Microsoft has signed several leading NetWare dealers to market LAN Manager, capitalizing on dissatisfaction with the Novell reseller ranks. Those resellers include Vinzant Inc, Portage, IN and CW Electronics, Denver, CO. The move is an attempt by Microsoft to add legitimacy and credibility to its network operating system. Novell is, however, currently reorganizing its own channel, possibly posing additional challenges to Microsoft. Novell is seeking to trim its reseller ranks, improving profitability for the most loyal of NetWare dealers. Novell has countered Microsoft's LAN Manager expansion plans by completing a partnership agreement with IBM, causing interest in LAN Manager to dip, according to some resellers. DEC beats chains, lands pc contract. (Digital Equipment Corp.) Sweeney, Jack. DEC beat out some of the country's top reseller chains to win a three-year contract to supply microcomputers made by IBM and Apple Computer to United Technologies. DEC, not authorized by Apple or IBM, plans to work with a franchisee of Intelligent Electronics to supply the necessary hardware. The contract with United Technologies is one of the country's top 50 accounts, with the largest operating divisions reportedly spending over $10 million per year in microcomputer hardware. Officials of United Technologies say the company is looking to consolidate all microcomputer purchases to one source. The company is just one of the corporate accounts DEC is looking to deal with as a single-source provider. Channel officials feel that IBM would not be in favor of DEC installing their hardware under this arrangement. IBM holds a similar type of contract at Boeing, however, where it is responsible for supplying Apple hardware. Claris targets small-business market. (allies itself with several chains, including ComputerLand) Claris Corp is working with a number of reseller chains, such as computerLand, to enter the small- to medium-size business market and improve software margins. The company is capitalizing on the success of Apple's Small-Business Sales System. ComputerLand will be the first to lease a customized software package but Claris is creating programs for other dealers involved in Apple's Small-Business Sales System program. The additional resellers include dealers targeting general business, advertising and communications, real estate, legal and accounting markets. Claris officials say the goal is to design a solution to be sold with hardware to small and medium sized businesses and departments within corporations. ComputerLand dealers will start marketing a single-box version of FileMaker Pro, MacWrite II and MacDraw II in Apr 1991. Buyers will be able to receive a free upgrade to Macdraw Pro when it is released. Some 11 customizable templates and an enhanced online help system are also included. LAN security software becomes hot growth market for VARs. (local area network, value-added resellers) LAN security software is the most rapidly growing market segment, according to a wide-range study of microcomputer software usage at large companies, conducted by Sentry Market Research. LAN security software protects networks from viruses and prevent users from accessing confidential files as well as preventing them from installing unapproved programs on the network. The results of the study also revealed that all segments of the networking software market underwent higher-than-average growth in 1990. The primary source for networking applications was resellers. Company are more comfortable purchasing networking gear from resellers though they are willing to spread out purchases of applications software for stand-alone computers. Tracking the rise and fall of Computer Factory. (part two of two) Sweeney, Jack; Markowitz, Elliot. The Computer Factory Inc intensified its drive into the corporate marketplace between 1987 and 1989, signing dozens of national accounts, including Western Union. Western Union indicated it had plans to purchase as much as $35 million worth of products from the reseller. The push boomeranged, however, with ballooning inventory managed by an outdated MIS system despite booming sales. Product management caused many problems. Cancellation of orders was not uncommon among corporate customers. Many of these orders included products not normally stocked in Factory's retail stores. Bankruptcy filing by Leading Edge Products left Factory with several millions of dollars of products for which demand plummeted. At the same time, the firm often found itself without critical products for certain markets. The chain's inventory grew 212 percent to $116.5 million while sales rose 198 percent to $369 million in the same period. Analysts point out that the customer mix had changed though the method of selling had not. Gross margins suffered as selling, administrative and general costs remained the same. CompuCom and The Bay Street Group have submitted bids for the company. CBM counters defections with focus on new areas. (CBM Computer Center Inc.) A large number of CBM Computer Center affiliates have joined organizations like ValCom, Connecting Point and Computer Bay while others have been acquired by Inacomp and others, eroding the company's position in the franchising arena. Company resources are being directed toward company-owned operations, along with expanding into the military and education markets with the winning of multimillion-dollar contracts. CBM has 49 sites currently with no more than five affiliates, according to estimates. The chain posted $200 million in sales in 1990, compared with $90 million in 1986. Much of the growth increase was attributed to company-owned stores. Franchise stores were falling on hard times and were later acquired by CBM. The defection has also been attributed to the company's loss of Compaq Computer authorization in 1989. IBM revises quota calculations. Zarley, Craig. IBM is altering the manner in which it calculates its minimum annual purchasing requirements from what dealers buy to what they actually sell to users. The move could affect some marginal value-added resellers (VARs) and dealers. The company previously tabulated its Minimum Renewal Criteria based on net location receipts, the dollar amount of products purchased from IBM or aggregators. The minimum renewal number is the dollar amount of products dealers must purchase annually to retain their authorizations. IBM, as of Apr 1, 1991, will switch its accounting methods for minimum requirements from net location receipts to user sales. Dealers received the news earlier in 1991 in a document sent to some by the IBM National Distribution Division. The revised methods apply to all IBM microcomputer dealers, printer dealers and remarketers sourcing products from a designated aggregator. Reseller officials feel the new methods would create a new level of mistrust between the vendor and its dealers. Others say they are willing to report sales any way the vendor wants. Distributors woo VARs with new service programs. (Value-added resellers) Several leading distributors of computer products are enhancing their service portfolios in a bid to attract VARs. These include Gates/FA Distributing and Micro United Computer Products. Gates now performs configuration, burn-in and application loading services for VARs. Micro United has organized a new repair service called MicroFix, to give VARs an alternative to vendor repair programs. These and other such services are giving VARs time to concentrate on offering customer services that actually add value, such as integration and applications development. Dealers are welcoming the new service efforts though they say the programs make choosing a distributor a more difficult task. Other distributors offering service programs for VARs include Tech Data, Robec and Vitec Distribution. Robec offers localized support and service for its VARs. Businesses tap chains for laptops. Caginalp, Elizabeth G. US businesses most commonly turn to independent dealers for desktop computers, but rely on major reseller chains for laptop and notebook computers. A recent Gallup survey, cosponsored by Computer Reseller News, shows that some 32 percent of business organizations count on independent dealers as their primary desktop computer source, while 39 percent count on major chains as their main source of laptop or notebook computers. MIS managers at Fortune 1000 companies and small to medium sized firms were queried. The survey results contrast with those of 1990, which found that major chain stores were the most popular source for both desktop and portable systems. Companies building laptop and notebook computers confirmed that corporations like having the security of purchasing the small systems from chains capable of providing on-the-road services. Ex-Entre execs revitalizing UPS maker Viteq. (uninterruptible power supply) Former Entre Computer Center Chmn Bert Helfinstein and former Entre VP of Marketing Margaret Rodenberg have discovered success at hardware vendor Viteq Corp, a manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies. Helfinstein and Rodenberg have been in charge of Viteq since Mar 1990 when the two, who married while at Entre, completed a search for a viable investment opportunity. The search included the evaluation of over 30 companies in diverse fields like sporting goods, housewares, auto service and mass merchandise discounting. The two decided to make a majority investment in Viteq because of the opportunity offered with products developed by company founder, Alex Severinsky, who serves as vice president of engineering. Helfinstein is president and chief executive officer while Rodenberg is vice president of sales and marketing. Both say that their experiences in the reseller channel have aided in their current venture in the vendor segment. SPA wins its largest lawsuit to date. (Software Publishers Association) The SPA, the software industry's anti-piracy watchdog, has won its biggest settlement in a suit brought against Davy McKee Corp, a construction engineering firm based in Chicago, on behalf of three software developers. SPA won a settlement of $300,000 in a copyright infringement suit which accused the company of unauthorized copying of Lotus, WordPerfect and Software Publishing Corp applications. The suit, filed by SPA's Copyright Protection Fund, was settled out of court. All proceeds go to the fund for further litigation and education expenses. SPA officials hope the suit will wake up MIS directors at large organizations. Most MIS managers do carefully police their systems. Davy McKee, apart from the settlement, is required to perform software audits on all microcomputers at the company's various sites. The company must destroy all unauthorized copies of software developed by SPA members. Businessland: From Icarus to phoenix? (Window on Wall Street) (column) The majority of investors have given up on Businessland, once the leader of the reseller channel. Concerns over the company's possible bankruptcy in the midst of increasing losses pushed the stock down to $.87 per share, a far cry from the all-time high of $19 in 1987. Businessland has lost over $23 million during the fiscal year ended Jun 30, 1990. Analysts expect fiscal 1991 losses of approximately $26 million, or $.88 per share. The company has also been in violation of a profitability covenant stipulated by holders of its $50 million senior debt. There are some indications that the reseller may stem the flow of red ink. Wall Street was surprised by a lower-than-expected loss of 15 cents per share for the 2nd qtr, ended Dec 31, 1990. Management has implemented some tough decisions, such as reducing the work force by 25 percent in Jun 1990. The number of locations was also reduced to 75 from 120. Public market redux: common stock offerings out of dormancy. Markowitz, Elliot. High-technology firms are searching for capital with a number of common stock offerings as investor apprehension lessens and Wall Street regains its confidence. The public stock market is receptive and on stable enough ground to handle offerings, according to industry experts. Computer companies are lining up to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission for offerings of common stock. Five technology companies filed in Feb 1991 for secondary public offerings to gain capital for expansion or debt repayment. The trend began with Intelligent Electronics (IE) which revealed plans at the beginning of Feb 1991 to offer three million shares. IE is selling 2.6 million shares directly to the public. The dealer will use the proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes. Silicon Valley Group plans to offer three million shares of stock. AST Research will offer two million post-split shares. CA files $4 million suit against former employee. (Computer Associates International, David Bryan) A lawsuit filed by Computer Associates International (CAI) against former employee David Bryan could stop Bryan's business dead. Bryan found himself, just six months after starting Application Development Technologies Inc, locked in a battle for control of his company and product, which has earned him just over $300,000 in revenue. CAI alleges that Bryan, during his seven-year employment, obtained detailed knowledge of the company products CA-Estimacs and CA-Planmacs, incorporating their formulas and algorithms into his own product AD/Tech-Sys. CAI filed the suit to stop Bryan from marketing his product. Modifications written by Bryan while employed by CAI are the property of CAI, according to applicable law and written agreements between CAI and Bryan. An insider's guide to Hannover Fair CeBit. (Eurovision) (column) Mueller, Mathias. The Hannover Fair CeBit, opening in Germany in Mar 1991, is reputed to be the largest computer show in the world, with over 500,000 visitors and an exhibition area of approximately two million square feet. The CeBit is a spinoff of the Hannover Industrial Fair, which takes place annually in April. There was no room for both computer and industrial equipment in the same exhibition so the fair split in 1981. Hannover is actually too small for the fair but exhibitors and visitors learn to cope. Many stay in private residences rather than hotels. A separate radio station reports about new products, events and traffic conditions. Booths are larger than those at American shows and nearly every one includes a few bottles or a barrel of beer. Hospitality is important as orders are taken at this time. It is a good time to contact potential customers and see how it is to do business in Europe. Looking at Latin America. (part two of two)(computer market in Latin America) Those computer companies entering the Latin American marketplace in 1991 will reap the benefits of their foresight for years to come. The current market arena in Latin America can be compared with the European market in 1985. The market will be enhanced as local governments continue efforts to tackle inflation and debt while encouraging foreign investment. Research shows that a viable marketplace is emerging in spite of barriers. Latin America offers a good combination of potential and growth. The area currently represents two percent of the total market worldwide but unit and revenue shipment growth will average between 20 and 30 percent annually through 1992. Those entering the Latin American market will have to deal with high inflation, political and economic instability, protectionist markets, cultural nuances, language requirements, piracy and gray marketing. Vendors and distributors remain optimistic. High-speed modems in demand, prices lowered. Hwang, Diana. The communications industry is realizing increased demand for high-speed modems now that the Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) has formally adopted the V.32bis data communications standard. Vendors are pricing products aggressively to meet market demands. V.32bis is an extension to the current V.32 standard supporting transfer rates of 14,400, 12,000 and 7,200 bits per second, facilitating communications speeds of 9,600 and 4,800 bps. The industry is moving toward V.32bis modems. Microcom is currently developing such a product. Intel's Personal Computer Enhancement Operation has unveiled an upgrade path to support V.32bis in its 9600EX modem and future products. Intel officials feel the two standards will merge into one market within 18 months. The V.32 modem market is on the upswing, with a compound annual growth rate of 38.5 percent, according to industry observers. The faster speeds are important to those with larger files to transfer. Prices are expected to settle around $400 by 1992. E-mail vendors launch products at NetWorld: electronic-messaging industry gets boost. (electronic mail) Most of the electronic-mail discussions at NetWorld centered on Lotus Development's acquisition of cc:Mail Inc. Several other e-mail vendors also displayed their products. Lotus' acquisition of cc:Mail lends an air of legitimacy to the electronic-mail industry, according to officials of Da Vinci Systems, who hope that the acquisition will mean an increase in the company's market share. The cc:Mail acquisition will broaden the base of Lotus' Notes groupware software package. Da Vinci introduced a new version of Da Vinci eMail 2.0 for DOS. Beyond Inc exhibited its recently announced BeyondMail rule-based mail application for DOS or Windows 3.0 environments. Brightwork introduces network management tools: debuts LAN Support Center, LAN Automatic Inventory. (Brightwork Development Inc., Brightwork Development has introduced two network-management tools meant to improve network efficiency and control. LAN Support Center ($595 per help desk node) is a fully relational database that lets managers of networks track the LAN environment. The program tracks and maintains data on each user's station and works in conjunction with the developer's NETremote+ application. LAN Automatic Inventory ($695 per file server) for Netware networks was also unveiled. The program builds and maintains a database for hardware and software components on each LAN. The new microcomputer coalition. (The Platform) (column) Goldberg, Aaron. The much-discussed alliance of OS/2 3.0, Mips processors, Digital Equipment and Compaq is expected to set a new tone and direction for the industry's key players. The alliance is calculated to decimate competitors' market share. The decision of these influential firms to move from the Intel/IBM/MS-DOS standard is intriguing. Sun Microsystems boasts rapid growth, high margins, strong operating system support and a good payback for research and development expenditures in the reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) arena, and this fact has been well noted by the alliance. Optical drives shine: mainstream acceptance spurs demand. Quick, Gregory. The market for optical rewritable disk drives is growing because of the increased mainstream channel acceptance, lower product prices, and new technologies. Market researchers expect the market to grow in both the 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch form factors with more growth in the smaller form factor. Sales of 5.25-inch drives with a 600Mbyte storage capacity will double by 1994. Sales of 3.5-inch drives with 120Mbyte capacity will increase from 15,000 units to 130,000 units by 1995. Increases will be greater if prices drop more than expected. Optical rewritable disk drives are used mostly for secondary storage, for server backup, for archival purposes, for large CAD/CAM systems and for storing large image files. Arche adds PC line. (Arche Technologies Inc.) (introduction of microcomputer line) (product announcement) Arche Technologies has introduced a new line of microcomputers for users with minimal expansion needs. The bare-bones products complement Arche's Legacy products, intended for higher-end users. The new line includes the Triumph 386SX-20 ($1,830) and the Triumph 386SX-16 ($1,395). The Triumph 386SX-20 is based on the 20MHz Intel 80386SX microprocessor and comes with 2Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 16Mbytes. It also includes on-board VGA. The Triumph 386SX-16 is based on the 16MHz Intel 80386SX microprocessor and includes 1Mbyte of RAM, expandable to 16Mbytes. All of the Triumph systems include a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a socket for an 80387SX coprocessor and space for two 3.5-inch internal hard disk drives. Also included are one parallel and two serial ports, a 101-key keyboard and slots for two 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion boards. Don't pop the groupware cork yet! (Soft Focus) (column) Higgs, Bill. A celebration for groupware, even on the product definition level, is probably immature. Successful groupware will have to include three elements: individual productivity modules, modules for communication and sharing among group members and modules for modeling and tracking the group structure and process. Effectiveness of current groupware products is, at best, mixed. Groups perform many tasks in the same way as individuals. Document processing, spreadsheet analysis, data management and graphical data representation are important for group and individual productivity. Many excellent products are available for each category as is the ability to connect output from one product type to another. Groupware sales will increase as current products evolve to meet market requirements more effectively. Sun shines on ISVs: looks to capture commercial market share. (Sun Microsystems, independent software vendors) Sun Microsystems has teamed with independent software vendors, especially in the legal industry, to expand the company's presence in several segments of the commercial marketplace. Sales of workstations dedicated to commercial applications account for 30 percent of Sun's revenue and sales in that category are increasing at an annual rate of 25 percent, more quickly than the technical marketplace, according to Sun officials. The figures coincide with market research figures. Sun has shipped 62,051 workstations in the under $1,000 category in the US in 1990. Industry-wide sales totalled 8.9 million. Sun has set its sights on eight vertical market segments. These include legal, telecommunications, insurance, banking, securities, accounting, data management and corporate publishing. Some 80 percent of the software developers the company is working with have backgrounds in the Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS environments. Mind's Eye enters commercial arena: names Coptech Industries master VAR. (value-added reseller) Mind's Eye Inc has shipped Mind's Eye ($695, shrink wrapped; $3,000 professional edition) its first commercial product, a graphical application for MS-DOS platforms that includes attributes of both a database and a hypermedia-based query tool. Mind's Eye was originally developed as a project and systems analysis application for the Department of Defense. The program runs in under 640K of RAM. A 20Mbyte hard disk is recommended. The vendor is searching for a VAR to develop vertical markets such as engineering, medical and construction. Coptech Industries has been signed as a master VAR. Company officials expect about 60 percent of the company's revenue to come from the VAR channel. A little finesse helps. (file management applications) Gillooly, Brian. File management applications require a more concentrated effort between vendor and reseller for success than more traditional applications do. Selling these applications takes more finesse on the part of the dealer as few prospective users see file managers as an integral part of the desktop computing solution. Programs like File Director from Fifth Generation Systems, Q-DOS II from Gazelle systems, PathMinder Plus from Westlake Data Corp and XTree Gold from Xtree have to be boosted by extensive market development programs and promoted with extensive advertising. Some vendors are proactive than others. Xtree's telemarketing group calls resellers at least once a month to ensure an adequate supply of marketing paraphernalia. Xtree wins high praise for its intimate approach. The company recently transferred to inside sales an organization of outbound sales representatives who had proved effective in reaching dealers. The representatives continue to offer hands-on training for dealers. XTree manages best. Rose, Phil; Sukert, Troy. The vast majority of MS/DOS-based computer users have hardware that is too limited to run Windows 3.0. Some turn to DOS shells while many find their main obstacle is the directory structure of DOS. File management applications allow users some of the benefits of a graphical environment, such as the ability to select groups of files with a mouse or view the directory structure represented as a tree. This is accomplished with minimal memory requirements. Stand-alone full-featured file managers are compared, including Fifth Generation Systems' File Director, Gazelle Systems QDOS II, Westlake Data's Pathminder+ and Xtree Gold 2.0. Two types of users are considered, the power user and the beginning DOS user. QDOS II is neither the most or the least sophisticated of the shells. XTree Gold 2.0 is impressive, but it requires 1.5Mbytes of disk space. File Director is meant for intermediate to advanced DOS users. PathMinder+ is a file manager and a user interface with menu-driven substitutes for all DOS functions. Grappling with marketing obstacles. (re: file management applications) File management applications need to be promoted as an integral portion of the business desktop computing solution. Many prospective users look at file managers as an afterthought. Software developers are working with resellers to alter user perception. Developer officials feel the problem is that the customer comes in to purchase a productivity package for his new system and a natural move for the dealer would be to add another $200 or so onto the sales for utilities. Utilities are generally considered sophisticated user's tools, though this is not necessarily true. The greatest obstacle to market expansion is getting the dealer to move beyond just the required software. Vendors are helping dealers move in this direction with enhanced telemarketing and advertising spiffs. Concepts Dynamic gains IR status: pact calls for reselling apps on IBM's RS/6000 units. (IBM Industry Remarketer, applications) Concepts Dynamic hopes to cash in on a perceived trend toward system downsizing among national vendors. The company has gained IBM Industry Remarketer status in order to market its proprietary Service Control System job applications on IBM RS/6000 workstations. Concepts Dynamic was previously designated as an IBM Applications Specialist, marketing its software while assisting IBM personnel in marketing and installing IBM systems on a local level. Concepts Dynamic, as an Independent Remarketer, will be able to offer RS/6000-based Service Control Systems to national accounts. The value-added reseller typically sells 80386 and 80486-based systems to multilocation companies, who usually have one to three locations in need of additional horsepower. The company's most prominent accounts include Westinghouse Electric and the University of Chicago. They also have reseller agreements with Hewlett-Packard, Bull HN Information Systems, Unisys and Motorola as well as Informix Software. Sitka sorts through VARs for new E-mail program. (value added resellers, electronic mail) Sitka Corp, formerly known as TOPS International, has unveiled a program to give local area network VARs the exclusive rights to market its InBox Plus e-mail application to Fortune 1000 firms with networks already in place. The company hopes to enroll between 25 and 35 Novell Platinum, 3Com and Sun Microsystems VARs emphasizing maintenance and training and with trained technical specialists on the payroll. Company officials say the developer does not want to enroll hundreds of VARs. They are especially interested in those that have installed many networks and view e-mail as an important application. Participants must achieve high-volume network product sales and maintain an outside-sales force and have at least one InBox Plus demonstrator system at their facilities. Merchandising: the proverbial everything. (The Pipeline) (column) Merrin, Seymour. More customers are purchasing microcomputers and related products from shelf-oriented dealers. Users are roaming aisles and scanning shelves. They are buying, often on impulse, across product categories. There needs to be more well-designed packaging. Misguided packages are the result of the industrial background of many of the participants in the computer industry. Packaging in that world is rarely, if ever, seen by the end user. The best way to approach packaging design is to consider each person who may see the box as an advertising impression. An impression in the advertising world is one reader/viewer with the chance to see an advertisement. A well-designed ad including a well-merchandised box helps enhance product awareness and create demand. Sears boosts ranks: '90 sales growth spurs expansion effort. (Sears Business Centers) Sears Business Centers (SBC), after boasting sales growth of 27 percent in 1990, has begun strengthening its management ranks as it looks to expand operations into both the low and high-end markets. Richard Marshuetz has been appointed chief operating officer. Marshuetz was previously chief financial officer for American Can Co. Ron McClanahan has been tapped as director of hardware services and reports directly to SBC president Bill Lenahan. McClanahan previously served as vice president of customer service for Zenith Data Systems. SBC, over the past few years, has been following the example of its competitors and been carefully moving its stores from expensive downtown locations to less costly corporate parks. More attention is being paid to high-end sales and training in networking and connectivity to enhance margins. SBC has not, however, given up on the retail sector. Computer Bay sets sail: names sales VP, inks AT & T pact. (vice president) Computer Bay has enlisted Bob Mahlum, a veteran marketing executive from Epson America and IBM, as vice president of sales and marketing. The company has also signed an agreement to market products from AT and T Computer Systems Group to help enhance future growth for the company. Mahlum replaces Rob Howe, who left to join MicroAge Computer Centers. Computer Bay officials say that Mahlum spent 20 years in various positions at IBM and his experience will help the company become a major force in the dealer channel. The AT and T authorization will help the chain attract more networking resellers and enhance the franchise base in foreign market arenas. The company has signed its first Canadian franchise. Service programs abound: national distributors clammer to fill void in channel. The support and service branch of the distributor market is heating up with a number of formalized programs, both free and fee-based, being introduced by national distributors. Ingram Micro D, Gates/FA Distributing and Micro United have introduced programs involving various service levels from multitiered telephone support and electronic catalogs to spare parts and warranty repair to full system integration. Most distributors have always offered some kind of service but it has been only recently that official service and support programs have come to light. Distributors are wrestling with the price issue as more of those official programs evolve. Robec signs deal to carry Motorola RISC systems. (reduced-instruction-set-computing) Robec Inc has signed an agreement with Motorola's Commercial Systems Division which will allow it to market the manufacturer's line of reduced and complex instruction set computing systems (RISC, CISC). The agreement marks the first time Robec will market RISC products. Robec officials say the company had been seeking a qualified supplier of RISC products to enhanced Unix/Xenix offerings. Robec plans to target high-end value-added resellers (VARs) with Motorola's Unix-based MultiPersonal Computer and Delta Series 8000 and Series 3000 product lines. Robec expects revenues of $12 million annually from sales of Motorola systems. The Delta Series 8000 and 3000 systems are multiuser computers based on their M88000 RISC and MC68030 CISC processors. The MultiPersonal Computer is a RISC-based system designed for networked commercial users. The distributor will provide primary service and support to the VARs. Promark merger to target growth. (merger of Promark Distributors and Zemex Electronics International) Promark Distributors and parent firm Zemex Electronics International have combined operations into one entity to operate under the Promark name. The changes were effected in order to enhance the company's distribution channel and to allow for expected growth, according to company officials. Promark and Zemex have locations in Hallendale, FL and New York City. These will be combined as a result of the merger and the company will have its headquarters in the Florida location. Zemex handled consumer electronics and home-office products while Promark carried computer systems and peripherals. The merger was effected because of the technological crossover in each area. The Promark name was chosen because of the strength of the computer marketplace. Effects of slow economy, war: some distributors seeking out alternative sales channels. Some computer distributors say that the war in the Persian Gulf and the sluggish economy are slowing business growth while others say their business has not been greatly affected. Industry analysts say the war and the economy are affecting all capital purchases, slowing distributor growth to about 25 to 30 percent. Sales are apparently going through alternative channels as a result of nervous spending. Some of the alternate channels include dealers, mail order houses and value-added resellers. Analysts report that all distributors are attempting to increase their integration services, which is important for margin. The trend in the industry is leading toward more cooperation in vendor/distributor relationships, because the more complex systems require more vendor support. Focus on Central-area distributors. (of computer systems) Nunoo, Mildred. Distributors in the Midwest report they are approximately even with 1989's sales and profit margin figure but have had to work twice as hard to reach the same place in 1990 and will work even harder in 1991. Some will not attribute their extra efforts to the recession, considering 1990 an average year and predicting 1991 to be a step upward. Officials of Price Electronics report sales and profit margins to be equal for 1989 and 1990. The company began 1991 by signing Leading Edge Computer Products and Microcom Inc. The company enhanced inventory levels to make deliveries to customers more efficient. Price plans to provide additional technical support and better customer service in 1991. The company will expand in the data-communications arena as they are serving more communications dealers. Show promoter uses VAR's solution. (value-added reseller, Broadway Series Management Group Inc.) Broadway Series Management Group Inc, an arts and entertainment management firm, needed to assume much of the responsibilities that had been farmed out to service providers in order to remain competitive. This required an immediate and heavy investment in microcomputer automation. The company installed a microcomputer network for its information management needs, relying on Hill Arts and Entertainment Systems Inc, a Connecticut-based value-added reseller. Hill was selected primarily for its market expertise. Hill officials point out that to have a competitive edge in the leisure marketplace require information management. Four Acer Technologies 80386-based microcomputers were installed as file servers to support a Novell network capable of managing as many as 20 terminals. A computer was placed at each city's storefront location and a bank of telephones installed at the Louisville, KY headquarters, housing up to 30 operators. The company uses the computers and Hill's ArtSoft Network for accounting, marketing and public relations functions as well as printing tickets, mailings and word processing. Corporate users look to third parties for support. Doyle, T.C. Corporate network administrators and information officers are looking to third parties for microcomputer support as a result of cutbacks and budget constraints. Many information managers have turned to local user groups when gathering technical data to provide to their users. Service with these groups is plentiful and available either at no charge or at a minimal charge. Groups such as the New York PC Users Group (NYPC) and the Houston Area League of PC Users (HAL-PC) have information lines where users can get information on support. The NYPC has a 24-hour hot line. HAL-PC includes several pages of names of contact for support in its monthly newsletter. Some corporate users are employing pay-as-you-go support. Bulletin-board services are also supplying technical support to corporate users. CompuServe and Prodigy offer extensive help forums. Specialty resellers have also enhanced their support services. Apple establishes territorial rights: $350,000 minimum requirement set. Apple Computer has announced that new provisions in its annual dealer business plan will put territorial restrictions on dealers, obligating them to focus on specific market segments. The new contracts, which will go into effect Apr 1, 1991, will set a minimum of $350,000 in yearly sales for all metropolitan dealers and $200,000 for small-town dealers. The vendor's intent is to aid the channel in starting to differentiate itself on a self-select process influenced by local relationships and opportunities and not contractual commitment, according to officials. Placing new territorial and segmentation provision in the business plan rather than the contract may help Apple to escape some backlash associated with the territorial and forced segmentation in it Apple Education Sales Consultant contracts. The company's actions in the K-12 market have left many dealers suspicious of their motives. New dealer contracts will prevent resellers from selling Apple products from inventory into the K-12 marketplace. IBM poised for run at EDS air deal; American Air also may bid on Continental services job. (Electronic Data Systems Inc., American Airlines Inc and IBM have won approval from the US Bankruptcy Court to reopen bidding on Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp's $2.1 billion Continental Airlines Holdings Inc facility management contract. IBM's request for competitive proposals comes from its leasing subsidiary, IBM Credit Corp, which has been attempting to block the EDS contract for several months. Continental and its creditors must weigh cost against strategic benefits in the bidding process, according to officials. Competitors have an advantage because many details of the EDS proposal are publicly available. The deal between IBM and American would team the computer giant with the SABRE computerized reservation system. DEC melds integration, outsourcing operations. (Digital Equipment Corp. consolidating groups) DEC is consolidating its systems integration, outsourcing and support service groups into a single organization, merging its Enterprise Integration Services and Customer Services units. The company's move resembles IBM's recent reorganization but involves creating a new organization rather than coordinating the efforts of several groups. Some industry observers see the consolidation as a positive move, but some say it may not help DEC respond to specific opportunities. The new DEC services group will offer front-end consulting, systems integration, project management, customer training, outsourcing, hardware and software maintenance and disaster recovery services. DEC will not say firmly whether the reorganization will lead to layoffs. Integration's new breed: network specialists emerge. Medford, Cassimir. A growing number of systems integrators today identify themselves as specializing in networks, and these integrators are increasingly sought after by major hardware vendors and large corporate users. The new breed of integrator typically specializes in networking technologies rather than focusing on selling networking products. ILAN Inc, a consulting firm that provides network design, installation and support services, is an $8.5 million company. Several regional Bell companies and systems vendors have network integration divisions, and many new industry players have been attracted by market potential. Market researchers expect the network integration market to grow 38 percent annually between 1991 and 1994. Companies using network integrators include United Technologies, Rockwell International Corp, Price Waterhouse and Enron. Unix foes become allies. (systems vendors moving toward standardization of distributed multivendor computing)(includes HP and Sun Microsystems Inc, rival vendors of Unix-based workstations, agree to jointly develop an object-oriented software environment for open systems. The product will be designed for distributed multivendor computing and emphasizes the notion that Unix is no longer an issue for competition. Sun and HP hope to gain a technological advantage by defining their own computing environment, a goal shared by the alliance composed of Microsoft Corp, Mips Computer Systems Inc, Compaq and DEC. Operating system kernels and graphical user interfaces have become commodities, and competition is increasingly significant because open systems have reduced the advantages of selecting particular products. IBM's RS/6000 and AIX platforms are rapidly gaining market share, and every firm hoping to retain a significant position in the open systems market fears the computer giant. Evernet buys Novell training specialist. (acquires ServTel from Acer America Inc.) Evernet Systems Inc, a major networking systems integrator, has purchased training firm ServTel from Acer America Inc. ServTel provides local- and wide-area network managers with technical, integration and implementation training and specializes in Novell Inc's NetWare operating system. The acquisition will give Evernet access to new service and field training expertise and to several large accounts, including Bank of America and United Air Lines Inc. Evernet plans to increase its own investment in training following the buyout and is hiring engineers qualified in Banyan Systems Vines and Microsoft LAN Manager installations. EDS takes $300M bank pact. (contract with Signet Banking Corp.) (Electronic Data Systems Inc.) Systems integration giant Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp makes a tentative $300 million facility management agreement with Signet Banking Corp. EDS is developing its own banking software but plans to use a third-party product provided by Software Alliance Corp for the Signet account because the program it is working on with Banc One Corp and Norwest Corp is not ready. The Software Alliance software encompasses consumer and commercial loans, checking accounts, customer service, deposits and a variety of other functions. It will replace several in-house programs currently in use at Signet. EDS will combine Signet's IBM and Unisys Corp mainframe operations into a single data center. E&Y formally enters re-engineering area. (Ernst and Young) (computer aided software engineering) Big Six accounting firm Ernst and Young launches a program to help customers re-engineer software systems using computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools. Ernst and Young's RE/Toolset technology compensates for the limitations of commercially available CASE products. The new service program, which will focus initially on IBM's AD/Cycle CASE framework, combines RE/Toolset with third-party tools. Ernst and Young incorporates tools from KnowledgeWare Inc, Bachman Information Systems Inc, Texas Instruments Inc and Synon Inc. Other Big Six firms are also building re-engineering strategies; all will rely to some degree on automated tools. SNA options weighed. (customers consider IBM versus non-IBM local area network connections) IBM customers are considering non-IBM equipment for local area network (LAN) interconnections even as the computer giant plans to introduce new pieces of its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) strategy. Some find multiprotocol routing attractive as the trend toward multivendor solutions continues, but extended SNA capability is critical for those customers moving to client/server environments. IBM plans to extend SNA by incorporating Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) in SNA hosts, controllers and other equipment. Cisco Systems Inc, Vitalink Communications Corp, Wellfleet Communications Corp and other bridge/router vendors plan to offer SNA support in their multiprotocol routers. IBM says it will support Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and TCP/IP protocols, but users are skeptical because of the firm's proprietary tradition. Those wishing to consolidate multiprotocol traffic on SNA backbones will encounter difficulty if IBM decides to withhold APPN routing technology. Excluding APPN configurations would let IBM leverage its own products into SNA environments, according to analysts. IBM, Novell ties assessed; NetWare tags rise, but users look for improved service. (IBM Corp, Novell Inc.) The recently announced agreement between IBM and Novell Inc is receiving mixed reactions from customers. Many LAN customers say they expect IBM's embrace of NetWare to lead to better service, but note that prices are likely to increase. Novell has already increased the price of the 250-user version of NetWare 386 from $7,995 to $12,500. IBM has relatively little experience in LAN service and support, but says it is aware that support constitutes most of the added value in network installations. Users say IBM's resources will add new support capabilities to NetWare while noting that learning LAN technology will take the computer giant some time. IBM risks the future of its own LAN Server product as well as that of NetWare if IBM sales representatives cannot determine when to sell one package over the other. Altos weighs integrator links to build big account presence. (Altos Computer Systems Inc. sets up task force to evaluate Altos Computer Systems Inc establishes a task force to study possible relationships between the computer vendor and systems integrators on Unix-related projects. The company says it may complement its 1,200 value-added resellers with systems integrators in order to strengthen its presence in large corporate accounts. Desktop computer vendors Compaq and Dell Computer Corp and Unix vendors HP, NCR Corp, Sequent Computer Systems Inc and Bull HN Information Systems Inc are forming partnerships with VARs and systems integrators. Five managers will lead the task force, which is conducting joint sales calls with several integrators. Observers note that Altos' leading-edge products are suited for systems integrators to handle, but that other vendors have already established integrator outreach programs. Mips taps Prime for net services. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc., Prime Computer Corp.) Prime Computer Inc announces that it will provide network integration and support services for MIPS Computer Systems Inc's line of workstations and servers under a $5 million, three-year contract Tandem Computers Inc held the previous MIPS service contract. The deal will strengthen Prime's PrimeService Business Unit, which contributed 40 percent of the minicomputer maker's revenue in FY 1989. Prime officials note that their own Unix-based EXL 7000 minicomputers use the MIPS reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor and that they resell MIPS equipment under an agreement signed in the fall of 1990. MIPS notes that PrimeService has a good reputation for third-party support. Vendors back spec to save ISDN. (telecommunications companies support interoperability specification for Integrated Services Several telecommunications vendors announce that they have agreed to support the National ISDN 1 specifications for ISDN product interoperability. Analysts say the specification is essentially a marketing pitch because many users and local exchange carriers have been reluctant to adopt ISDN, citing fears of incompatibility. The new specifications were developed by Bell Communications Research Inc with the aid of the ISDN Executive Council, a subcommittee of the Committee for Open Systems of McLean, VA. The ISDN Executive Council consists of representatives from computer vendors, telephone carriers and large users. North American Telecommunications Association statistics show that only 90,000 of the 122 million US telephone lines in use in mid-1990 were ISDN lines, and only 4 percent of 25,000 central offices were equipped for ISDN service. AMS writes the book on risk management: diversifies services. (American Management Systems Inc.) (company profile) Systems integrator American Management Systems Inc is succeeding in managing risk in the recessionary economy and matching cost to revenue. The $282 million firm nearly doubled its revenues in 1990 even as the computer industry entered a slump, and analysts expect its revenue to grow at least 15 percent annually. Observers say the company has done an excellent job of moving away from over-reliance on government business and emphasizing the lucrative telecommunications and financial services markets. AMS' financial services business grew 24 percent in 1990 to $50.3 million. It has also cultivated a strategic relationship with IBM, which owns 10 percent of AMS' stock. The deal produced $9 million in direct billings in 1990. Analysts suggest that these steady billings are part of AMS' strategy of favoring incremental customer relationships rather than single 'mega-contracts.' Agents of change. (role of systems integrators in the 1990s) (Viewpoint) (column) Systems integrators in the 1990s are likely to target client/server computing, electronic data interchange and other new technologies high on the strategic agendas of major corporations. The trend toward withdrawing users from the technical core of business systems is increasing, with companies buying applications software from third parties rather than developing it in-house. Users realize that they cannot keep up with increasingly complex technology and turn toward outside systems integrators to help them deal with support problems. The scope of user needs is increasing rapidly; 78 percent of users surveyed by Portman Cos INFORUM Div say they cannot get enough information to make an informed product decision on time. Virtually all major corporations have either used systems integrators for business projects or expect to do so by the year 2000. There is currently no standard for success in computing and integration, so users cannot properly choose their technical agents. University drops 'Sneakernet.' (Duke University hires Evernet Systems Inc. to build microcomputer network) Duke University has selected Evernet Systems Inc to build a 70-node, standards-based microcomputer network to automate manual operations at its medical center. The on-line system will help coordinate international data on cardiovascular diseases. Evernet outbid five other companies for the $150,000 project. Officials at Duke say that they do not want to rely on local Novell Inc resellers because they prefer to deal with a company with a proven track record. The new database will replace stand-alone microcomputers and multiplexed asynchronous leased lines. The network will run Novell's NetWare 386 operating system and use SynOptics Communications Corp Model 1000 concentrators, Model 480 10BaseT modules and Model 208 Attachment Unit Interface modules. Evernet will supply 3Com Corp network adapters and a variety of software applications, including DataEase International Inc's graphical SQL front end. Duke uses T1 lines and the 100M-bps Common Services Network to connect the local area networks to its main fiber backbone network. Other network components include Universal Data Systems modems and Cross Information Co's LAN+ Modem communications software. Canadian credit firm rates OS/2 Extended a net risk; version 1.2's host links, IBM service fall flat. (IBM's operating system is Trans Canada Credit Corp is calling off its endeavor to establish 150 local area networks running IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition 1.2 operating system after confronting major problems with the software in the first 30 sites. OS/2 was to connect microcomputers at the firm's branches to an IBM 3090 mainframe, but instead, the company will use a combination of IBM 3174 controllers, dumb terminals, independent IBM PS/2 microcomputers, and the mainframe. Trans Canada executives complain that the OS/2 1.2 system presents functionality problems and problems with remote management, including interface problems with the Customer Information Control System. Trans Canada also is disappointed with IBM's servicing of the failed network. IBM users get outsource itch. (IBM mainframe users consider outsourcing options) A group of 1,500 US information systems users was surveyed by International Data Corp (IDC) between Nov, 1990 and Jan, 1991. The survey concludes that many more IBM mainframe users are considering or implementing outsourcing than are users of non-IBM mainframes. Thirty percent of the IBM users welcome the idea of turning some or all of their MIS functions over to a third-party vendor, while only 18 percent of the entire survey base agree. This disparity can be partially attributed to the dearth of vendors providing outsourcing services for non-IBM mainframe platforms. IBM users also express the most interest in downsizing their computer operations, with 62 percent considering or initiating downsizing in contrast to 57 percent of non-IBM users doing the same. Insurer lures away MCI's Ditchfield. (Allan Ditchfield leaves MCI Communications Corp. to join Progressive Corp.) Progressive Corp, an automobile insurance carrier based in Cleveland, OH, has hired former MCI Communications Corp MIS executive Allan Ditchfield for the position as senior vice president of information services. Ditchfield helped his former employer win a 'most effective MIS user' award from Computerworld magazine two years in a row. Ditchfield is willing to move from the telecommunications to insurance industry because he views Progressive as ready for rapid growth, heavily dependent on information, and capable of applying information creatively to underwriting. Ditchfield's position at MCI will be filled by James Zucco, formerly vice president of product development. SAA data access plan coming: Wheeler outlines user-transparent 'warehouse.' (IBM Systems Application Architecture executive Earl IBM Programming Systems Division vice president and general manager Earl Wheeler describes the company's plan for access and delivery of data over an enterprise-wide network consisting of computers from several different vendors. The new initiative for Systems Network Architecture networks is known as a 'data warehouse' plan that extends the concept of distributed data bases. IBM's warehouse plan is designed to provide users with a minimal number of access methods to acquire data on the system, in spite of format or operating system on which it re sides. Users and analysts express interest in the plans, although some complain that IBM is too slow in developing its networking products. HP pushes RISC workstations. (HP 9000 700 reduced-instruction-set computing workstations) (product announcement) HP introduces new reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) workstations, the HP 9000 720 and 750, which are not based on the Domain operating system inherited from HP acquisition Apollo Computer Inc. The HP 9000 720 is a diskless workstation priced between $12,000 and $13,000. This model runs at 57 million instructions per second (MIPS), has a monochrome monitor, and 16Mbytes of memory. The high end workstation of the new series, the HP 9000 750, runs at over 70 MIPS and will cost approximately $30,000. The Apollo division of HP was instrumental in developing the new workstations, which use the Distributed Computing Environment architecture that will eventually be added to the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1 standard. Sun and HP pledge oneness in object-oriented business. (Sun Microsystems Inc. and HP create joint proposal for network Workstation competitors Sun Microsystems Inc and HP join forces to submit a proposal for an object-oriented data access network standard to the Object Management Group (OMG), a consortium of vendors seeking a common framework for applications for object-oriented computing. OMG intends to sponsor the development of a level of software that indicates the location of data objects on a network and can manage their movement regardless of the operating system on which they reside. If selected by the OMG, the joint HP/Sun software would run on the two main Unix systems, AT and T's Unix System V 4.0 and Open Software Foundation's OSF/1. Microsoft's OS/2 might eventually be supported. Speedier Aviion on-line. (Data General Corp. develops server that runs 100 million instructions per second) Data General Corp is developing a new Aviion product that will run at 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). The unnamed product, to be announced in Mar 1991, is designed as a file server for on-line transaction processing applications. The server is rumored to be based on the Motorola 88000 microprocessor and to have symmetric multiprocessing capability. Analysts suggest that the product will give Data General a strong position in the transaction processing market, where it could compete with Motorola for third-party software developer attention. Some industry experts predict the file server will include redundant disk arrays, fault tolerance and hierarchical storage management. U.S. vendors enlisted to help rebuild Kuwait. (aftermath of Persian Gulf War) US computer and telecommunications vendors are poised to take advantage of the destruction caused by the Persian Gulf War and Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Several American companies are securing contracts to rebuild damaged equipment and provide new services and equipment for the beleaguered nation. IBM has a preliminary agreement to replace computers that were stolen or destroyed during the crisis. A damage assessment relating to the IBM agreement has not been completed. AT and T will establish a portable satellite disk and bank of 120 telephones in Kuwait City, so that residents can utilize emergency telephone service for the first time since it was terminated on Aug 7, 1990. Mitel Corp (Ottawa, Canada) is submitting bids to install telephone exchanges and Ericsson GE Mobile Communications has a contract with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communications for a mobile radio network. Marines build high-tech muscle. (Hitachi Data Systems Corp. EX-33 mainframe computer installed for personnel and logistics data US military forces participating in the Persian Gulf War use a variety of computer equipment and software. The Marine Corps installed a Hitachi Data Systems Corp EX-33 mainframe computer in Saudi Arabia for use in personnel and logistics data processing applications. The Marines also use two IBM 9377 90 mainframe computers. US Central Command in Saudi Arabia uses 2,476 desktop and laptop computers running the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface as well as Microsoft's Project for Windows project management software package. Soldiers receive mail through videotex services such as Prodigy, which transmits mail to a facility in Saudi Arabia that prints and delivers messages. The process sometimes takes only four days, rather than the weeks required by conventional mail delivery. Digital Research hopes to exploit MS-DOS gaps. (introduces DR DOS 5.0 operating system) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp competitor Digital Research Inc introduces the DR DOS 5.0 operating system, priced between $120 and $199 but available for a limited time to upgrading users for $79. The product directly competes with the MS-DOS microcomputer operating system. Some systems managers and programmers prefer DR DOS 5.0 to beta copies of MS-DOS 5.0, reporting that the DR product is technically superior, particularly in network environments with limited memory. One US government agency decided to switch from MS-DOS to the new product because of the ability to install drivers in high memory and access better memory resources. The Digital Research product is also said to surpass MS-DOS file management, user interface and task switching features. Looking ahead to the next century: future technology will be discussed at an upcoming conference in San Antonio. (Association The Assn for Computing Machinery's (ACM) 1991 Computer Science Conference will focus on research developments in four areas: parallel processing, global networks, memory programming and workstations. Analysts expect the international networking structure to mature during the next decades, evolving into a transparent high-capacity system featuring user-friendly interfaces, security and frequent implementation of artificial intelligence. Workstations capable of over 100 million instructions per second are slated for the upcoming years, as are computers featuring photo-realistic capabilities and large amounts of memory. Parallel processing is predicted to move into the mainstream of computing, bolstered by improved mechanisms for interprocessor support. The Elephant 2000 programming language may be part of future developments. This language is conceived as having advanced abilities for memory programming. Beware the fruits of war-tech; U.S. needs to put emphasis on technology for something other than battle. (Viewpoint) (column) The Persian Gulf War enabled the US Defense Department to showcase a number of new weapons that utilize advanced computer and telecommunications technologies. According to military sources - the only available avenue of information at this stage - the weapons performed quite successfully. But the US needs to focus its high technology research and development efforts on commercial products that are not war-related. The continued emphasis on military technology as one of the only areas in which the US seems to lead the rest of the world does not do credit to the nation. Failing to stress non-military product development can lead to more weapons proliferation in sensitive areas of the globe as well as a stinting on basic research needs in other areas. This is likely to cause the US to fall further behind such countries as Japan technologically and economically. Gloomy tales don't tell the computer industry story. (basic macroeconomic perspective on industry is good) (Viewpoint) The US computer industry is in fine shape economically, despite allegations to the contrary in 1991 and 1990. Information industry sales worldwide exceeded $300 billion in 1990, and US firms led in this sales success story, with over twice the global economic growth rate. The computer industry is becoming more indispensable to other segments of industry, and many companies are continuing to profit in spite of a recession. There is little historical evidence to connect the performance of the computing industry to that of the US economy. This autonomy is caused by the speed with which technology and product cycles can stimulate the computer industry. The gloomy economic assessments may lead to misinterpretation that could create anxiety and weaken the industry. Bull torn by market forces. (Bull HN Information Systems Inc.) (includes related article on Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.'s use Bull HN Information Systems Inc, US operating unit of the French Groupe Bull computer giant, has been plagued by decreasing sales of its minicomputer and mainframe lines since 1989. Bull HN faces the need to satisfy its midrange and mainframe customers as it simultaneously develops open systems computing capabilities. The proprietary GCOS operating system architecture must be made interoperable with equipment from other vendors if Bull is to succeed in the computer market of the future. Downsizing its operations and juggling product lines, Bull tries to improve its precarious economic position. In addition, the firm has introduced new Unix-based computers as well as software applications for vertical markets such as health care industries and the legal system. IBM puts Showcase on display for AS/400. (cooperative processing software for the minicomputer) (product announcement) Showcase software for the IBM AS/400 minicomputer is a cooperative processing graphics package that enables IBM microcomputer or workstation users running a spreadsheet program to access an AS/400 data base to create graphics. The program is distinguished from other AS/400 software in that it includes modules for creating macro programs. It is also a relatively user-friendly tool for taking advantage of the minicomputer platform. Rochester Software Connection Inc created the software package, which was approved by IBM, who will sell Showcase directly to its customers. Oracle passes beta test at Hartford Insurance. (Oracle 6.2 relational database management system) Hartford Insurance Co is a beta tester of Oracle 6.2, the repaired version of Oracle Systems Corp's Oracle 6.0 relational data base management system (DBMS). Hartford reports that Oracle 6.2 configured on DEC Vaxclusters exhibits substantial performance improvement over the software used on individual VAXes. A test bed of two VAXES was used to run a claims application crucial to Hartford's group insurance operations. Oracle withdrew Oracle 6.0 for VAXclusters after resource contention problems caused users to reject the product. The upcoming 6.2 enables multiple computers on a DEC network to use the same copy of Oracle's DBMS and share disk memory in which data is stored. Hartford is ready to install Oracle 6.2 as soon as it is offered in Mar, 1991. Wheels keep rolling at AM General; firm uses Tandem, IBM systems to make military vehicles used in Gulf. (On Site) LTV Corp's subsidiary AM General uses computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software from MPACT Systems Inc and IBM 3090 mainframe computers to produce a variety of High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Hummers) for the US Department of Defense. Hummers, used in the Persian Gulf War, are the armed services' replacement for the US Army Jeep. AM General's production plant relies on Tandem Computers Inc's TXP computers to run the MPACT software, which registers materials received at the plant and correlates materials with orders placed by the military on an IBM remote mainframe. Dual Tandem processors schedule shop floor work and monitor the work process. The Tandem computers are fault-tolerant and have 20Mbytes of working memory. A step beyond a database: Johns Hopkins' networked databases benefit genetic research. (Johns Hopkins University) (On Site) John Hopkins University's Laboratory for Applied Research in Academic Information provides extensive genetics research information to medical researchers and practitioners via Telenet or Internet on-line services. The university links two data bases of human genetic data. The On-line Mendelian Inheritance in Man data base compiles over 5,000 inherited disorders and traits. It is connected on a network with the Genome Data Base (GDB), which is based on software from Sybase Inc. Activated in Sept 1990, the GDB is intended to support an international effort to comprehensively describe the human genetic structure. GDB identifies the location of 2,000 genes on their respective chromosomes and provides data about 5,000 sections of DNA. The two scientific data bases reside on Sun Microsystems Sun 4 computers. IEF: a worthy CASE competitor. (Texas Instruments Inc.'s Information Engineering Facility computer-aided software Texas Instruments Inc's Information Engineering Facility (IEF) computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool includes a Cobol generator and is well-integrated and helpfully documented. IEF completes the taxing project costing system application that is a case study for benchmark tests with a robust solution. But the software package creates unnecessary complexity by requiring a high level of detail, and its application logic is sometimes difficult to understand. The speed of development is likewise only fair. Maintenance speed is impressive, with near-automatic implementation of changes at the design level. Overall support of analysis and design stages are admirable but the implementation stage needs improvements. Promotional consideration. (Lotus Development Corp. promotes Ami Pro word processing software) (Commentary) (column) Software manufacturers are exerting themselves to promote their products in markets that are solidifying. Lotus Development Corp's promotion of the Microsoft Windows 3.0-compatible version of its Ami Professional word processing software is a case in point. Lotus is offering a free copy of the Ami package to buyers of the Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet software program, although the Lotus Windows spreadsheet could reach the market as late as Jun, 1991. Lotus users who like the Ami Windows word processor may also yearn for a Windows-supporting spreadsheet, but the only one available is from Lotus competitor Microsoft. Meanwhile, Lotus also is developing a version of 1-2-3 for the Macintosh platform. The product will support Apple System 7.0 and is said to have an interface that adheres closely to the Macintosh design. IBM's strategy for XGA excludes reseller deals. (Extended Graphics Array video controller technology) An IBM senior engineer erroneously announced that the company would function as an OEM, making and selling the chip set for its Extended Graphics Array (XGA) video controller technology to other vendors. After great excitement among industry analysts and vendors, IBM corrected the announcement, stating that it does not plan to be an OEM for the video board components but that it is interested in providing the technology to other companies that may develop video chip sets. Some industry analysts predict that the XGA technology for high-end, 1,024-by-768 pixel resolution will become the new video controller standard, replacing the current primacy of Video Graphic Array technology. Razzle-dazzle, plain and simple or in between? (presentation graphics software options) (Feature: Presentation Graphics) Presentation software packages give the corporate user a chance to impress the audience with colorful and complex slide shows or statistical information. Some presentation software products can import spreadsheet data to create graphics, import clip art images, and wrap text. Yet familiar software products such as spreadsheet programs are adding more graphical features, allowing for greater ease of use to balance their lower level of sophistication. Simplicity seems to be important to many buyers of presentation software, who may not need all the versatility of a high-end package. Easy-to-use Harvard Graphics from Software Publishing Corp commands 57 percent of the presentation market, although it is more limited than some of the newer offerings. PC system tackles Calif. drought; networked remote units monitor rainfall, collect data for conservation. (Datacommand telemetry Two California water management centers, the Rio Hondo Coastal Basin Spreading Ground and the San Gabriel Coastal Basin Spreading Ground, use the Datacommand software and microcomputer system from Sierra-Misco Telemetry Systems to monitor the distribution of excess storm water. California desperately needs rainwater to offset its drought, yet out-dated flood control engineering drains mountain rainwater swiftly into the Pacific Ocean without allowing it to seep into arid farmland. Urban design exacerbates the waste by directing rainwater off streets and into concrete channels to the sea. The state has established spreading ground facilities to counteract these earlier measures. Computer systems at the water centers fulfill valuable tasks of measuring water level and runoff to insure that maximum distribution efficiency is attained. PCs take command on campus. (Bowling Green State University installs Apple and IBM microcomputers in residence halls) (On Bowling Green State University initiates an ambitious pilot program in which each room in its Chapman residence hall is supplied with a microcomputer. Apple's Macintosh Classic and IBM's PS/2 55 SX are the two main choices, although the Macintosh LC and IIsi are also available. Residents will pay between $135 and $210 extra per semester for the use of the computers. The microcomputers are to be linked by an AppleTalk network to laser and dot-matrix printers in the dormitory. Later, the university hopes to extend the program to all of its residence halls. Plans are being made to link dormitory networks to the school's main Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol network, enabling students to access mainframes and the library data base from their rooms. Controllers limit LAN moves. (IBM 3274 cluster controllers complicate downsizing to local area networks) IBM users planning to downsize their operations from dumb terminals and mainframes to local area network (LAN) configurations are confronted by difficulties stemming from the old IBM 3274 cluster controller, which is used by many customers unwilling to exchange it for the newer IBM 3174 model. Companies such as Mellon Bank Corp want to establish LANs in order to minimize their communications costs, since the LAN system could let all of a site's communications travel over one T1 high-speed communications link. Yet users want to continue to utilize their old applications, prompting Mellon to consider the Systems Network Architecture Access Controller for Token Ring (SNAC/TR). This product from Sync Research converts IBM 3274 transmissions into protocols that can be accepted by a token-ring LAN. Netware faces problems on Arcnet. (Novell Inc.'s Turbo RX Net driver shuts down Arcnet networks) Users of NetWare 3.0 and 3.1 network operating systems are experiencing problems with Novell Inc's Turbo RX Net device driver, which seems to be shutting down networks using Datapoint Corp's Arcnet local area network (LAN) and other networks that use certain accounting software packages from Great Plains Software. Azure Technology has suffered from problems with its mail-order business line. The system has crashed or nearly crashed on an average of once a day for months. Other companies have received server messages indicating trouble, followed by server shutdown even at only 40 percent capacity. There appears to be a profound incompatibility between the Netware Btrieve record management system and the Turbo RX Net drivers. Customers report that Novell is trying to help, but is unable to fix the difficulty. PC users gain part-time X terminal capabilities. (X server software for microcomputers)(includes related article on vendors Companies that want to provide some of their microcomputer users with occasional access to an X-terminal network can do so without installing X terminals or Unix-based workstations. Instead, X server software for MS-DOS systems is rising in popularity as a means of protecting a firm's microcomputer investment while enabling users to access X-based applications, such as internally-developed financial programs. The market for X server software may grow by as much as 300 percent in 1991, for it is less expensive to upgrade microcomputers with the $300 to $500 software than it is to purchase new terminals. Additional expenses may be involved, however, depending on what networking protocols and display technologies are currently in use. Networked system gives Orange County new image; probate court's use of optical storage speeds access to legal documents for California's Orange County Superior Court's probate courts are testing a pilot image management system based on Optical Storage and Retrieval Library document management equipment from Filenet Corp, under a $1.2 million contract . The pilot project includes the use 44 Unix-based image terminals and 16 file servers on a network of both fiber optic and twisted-pair cabling. Some 180,000 court documents are being transferred to optical discs. Later, disc drives will be connected to a proprietary Filenet network. The image terminals can be used by judges, the public and court officials to access and copy legal documents. Orange County judges will even have terminals at their benches. The pilot system is more efficient than the old manual archiving, for it allows more than one person to view a given file at once. When Ray talks, people listen; SNET's IS head ensures state-of-the-art technology with low-key leadership. (Raymond Raymond Fletcher, general manager of information systems and technology at Southern New England Telecommunications Corp (SNET), uses a low-key management strategy to promote the implementation of new technologies within the Connecticut telephone company. In addition to MIS activities, Fletcher is responsible for two business divisions at SNET: operations budgets and results, and corporate purchasing. Under Fletcher's leadership the company's business divisions have embraced such upcoming technologies as computer-aided software engineering, executive information systems, electronic data interchange, and expert systems. Conflict of responsibilities. (balancing innovation and routine operations within the MIS department) (column) Information resource executives should structure their MIS departments in a way that does not require information systems managers to fulfill too many conflicting responsibilities. Attempting to manage a major new project while maintaining extensive distributed information systems, for example, can spread a manager's resources too thin. Innovations and operations can actually work at cross purposes, for significant and successful new projects can threaten the stability of existing operations. Putting the same person in charge of both will usually result in the downplaying of one goal or the other, and will likewise result in an overworked and harassed manager. Decision-making prowess: follow these guidelines, and your executive information facility will pack a wallop. (includes Executive information systems (EIS) software packages have gained more features for providing company management with the data they need to make decisions. Called executive information facilities (EIFs) by some, these systems provide up-to-date internal corporate information as well as external data from such sources as the Dow Jones stock ticker. Geographic and demographic information in graphical display is provided in some cases. MIS departments installing EIS in their companies need to ascertain what mixture of information company executives need to do their jobs. Repetitive prototyping can help establish these needs. The information systems designers must insure that an EIS can enable managers to share information with others. Training sessions for the users and continuous support are crucial. The executive's operating and support staff should also be encouraged to use the EIS system. CA looks to calm concerns; vendor's no.1 spot threatened by Microsoft, no major changes foreseen. (Computer Associates Computer Associates International Inc's (CA) position as the world's largest independent software vendor is being challenged by Microsoft Corp, which may surpass CA by 1992. CA has recorded a problematical three quarters of unimpressive revenue and income figures, but the overall health of the firm is quite good. In 1989, CA acquired Cullinet Software Inc and consequently experienced a period of suppressed earnings and revenue, but the company bounced back after three quarters. Again in 1991 CA is charting declining revenue and may have to widen its previous focus on systems, data base, and applications software to embrace newer markets such as Unix-like software and microcomputer packages. CA executives plan no major management changes, but are preparing for a major systems software announcement in Aug, 1991. Far East isn't recession cure-all. (U.S. technology companies seek foreign opportunities) As the US economy suffers from recession in 1991, some technology companies are considering a move into international markets, particularly in the Pacific Rim. Yet as a tactical reaction to the recession, analysts do not recommend such an effort. 'It's just too late,' some say. Asian buyers tend to distrust US attention during a down time in the US economy, fearing that Americans are trying to unload inventory. They fear that when the US market improves, production shortages may result in the Asian market being stinted of necessary parts. Moving into the international market is a wise idea in stronger times, as a strategic decision that is carefully planned. The cultural disparity between Japanese considerations of long-term business relationships and 'social obligations' versus the typical US emphasis solely on contractual obligations can also impede US expansion into Asian markets. Industrial espionage with U.S. runs rampant. (includes related article on surveillance technology) US computer and electronics industries are reportedly threatened by industrial spying not only by formerly antagonistic countries, but by allies. Foreign intelligence agencies are accused by US experts of refocusing their Cold War spying activities in the industrial arena. In 1988, the FBI uncovered an attempt by the French Exterior Security organization to hire employees at IBM, Texas Instruments, and other US firms to provide information for pay. The expansion of US industries abroad may increase the likelihood of theft of information, making it more important for companies to attend to security measures at their facilities. Although US security branches supposedly do not indulge in industrial espionage of their own, senior officials at the CIA and National Security Agency have publicly admitted that their organizations are considering 'putting more effort into gathering industrial information.' Japan may find closed doors in Europe. (European Roundtable Esprit excludes Fujitsu Ltd subsidiary International Computers Ltd. from The European Roundtable Esprit, an organization of nine major companies that work together to promote European technological competitiveness against US and Asian counterparts, has decided to exclude International Computers Ltd (ICL) from its ranks since that company has become a subsidiary of Japan's Fujitsu Ltd. ICL was one of the founding members of the roundtable in the late 1970s. Another European trade group, the Joint European Submicron Silicon Initiative (JESSI) project, may decide to prohibit ICL from participating in research projects focusing on new developments in supersilicon conductors. Many of the Roundtable firms are also members of the JESSI project. Nynex Australia out of race for the no.2 telecom spot; withdrawal could open up opportunities for other carriers. (Nynex Australia Nynex Australia PTY Ltd has withdrawn from the competition to become the second Australian telecommunications carrier. British Telecom and GTE Corp have reportedly also left the field. Australia's Ministry of Transport and Communications reports that as of Jan, 1991, 30 companies had expressed interest in establishing a second carrier by purchasing Aussat, a satellite communications firm. Detailed proposals are being solicited from the companies still interested in acquiring Aussat. The sale process is scheduled to be completed by Dec 31, 1991. Telecommunications traffic between Australia and the US is expected to increase because of agreements made between Australia's international carrier OTC, AT and T, and other US organizations. The parties have agreed to reduce accounting rates between the two countries. How to pick a hot site haven before the going gets tough. (disaster recovery facilities for computer industry firms) Recognizing that any computer facility can experience a disaster, and moreover, that if the surrounding community has stopped functioning, even a working facility can be put out of business, many firms are negotiating contracts with operators of disaster recovery facilities or 'hot sites.' The major players in this industry are Sungard Recovery Services, IBM, and Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services Inc, although Weyerhaeuser Recovery Services is also well-known for its reasonable prices. The cost of a hot site contract is the major element in choosing which firm to do business with, and services can be quite expensive. Managers planning their company's disaster recovery activities must consider equipment needs, cost, support and service, geographical requirements, and availability for testing. Pizza chain delivers multimedia training entree to its managers. (Pizza Hut Inc.) Pizza Hut Inc is using a combination of computer-based training (CBT), printed materials, and multimedia presentations to teach managers at its 3,000 restaurants how to use a new computer application. The application, Automated Restaurant Management System (ARMS), runs on 80386-based AT and T microcomputers and point-of-sale devices from Norand Corp. The software helps managers to predict how much food and supplies to order, predict sales, and devise efficient schedules for workers. Rather than take managers out of their restaurants to train them on the ARMS application, the multimedia, CBT, and print training formats are being used to conserve travel costs and forestall any problems that might have arisen from taking the managers out of the restaurants. Pirate boards a perplexing problem. (electronic bulletin boards can traffic in pirated computer games) The growing problem of software piracy may be exacerbated by the proliferation of computer bulletin boards, some of which offer pirated software. Computer games are particularly well-represented on some of the boards, which charge membership fees ranging from $15 to $30 or more but offer extensive amounts of software. Some boards have 100- to 200Mbytes of software available to their members. A Computerworld reporter investigated software available on a bulletin board run by Microsystems Software Inc and determined that several vendors of computer games on the board had not authorized Microsystems to copy and distribute their products. After being contacted by the reporter, Microsystems immediately withdrew the games in question from its bulletin board. Interleaf introduces active document tool. (developers tool will enable users to add intelligent capabilities to Interleaf Interleaf Inc is soon to announce a new program developers tool that will enable users of Interleaf active documents to add intelligent capabilities to documents in-house, rather than contracting with Interleaf to do the work. Active documents can electronically mail themselves to correct receivers at pre-determined times, can be designed to electronically identify and insert material from other databases, and can perform other such pre-programmed tasks. Active documents technology is still in a fledgling stage, but several computer industry analysts predict that it will be essential in some future environments. Engineers at Amoco Production Co currently used active documents to research standards guidelines on CD-ROM and connect the references with on-line construction specification forms. Despite progress, doubt still remains with ISDN. (Integrated Services Digital Network)(includes related article on ISDN) The agreement in February 1991 by AT and T, Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, and Northern Telecom Inc to implement key Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) standards has raised hopes among ISDN advocates that the service may actually be extended to millions of nationwide users by the end of 1992. The lack of multivendor switch interoperability was a major obstacle to rollout of the telecommunications technology. In addition, some regional Bell operating companies intend to offer ISDN's Primary Rate Interface by the end of 1992. Yet ISDN's bandwidth limitations in comparison with some alternative networking technologies have prompted users and analysts to be somewhat skeptical of the agreement. ISDN speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second are not fast enough for some companies, although ISDN's volume-based pricing structure and dial-up bandwidth are popular features. IBM fixing midrange disk drive woes. (disk drive failures on midrange computers) IBM is in the midst of an extensive 'preventative maintenance' program in which the company is replacing some of its 9335 hard disk drives that develop spindle vibration after significant use. The defective drives were manufactured at an IBM facility in England between June 1988 and March 1989. Between 1,000 and 2,000 drives have been replaced as of February 1991, but manufacturing delays are complicating the shipment of IBM 9336 replacement drives. Supplier problems are reportedly delaying the manufacture of the 5.25-inch, 857Mbyte 9336 product, which is 38 percent faster than the problematic predecessor. The company is meanwhile offering steep discounts on its older midrange disk drives. Gambling on a promise: exploring the real, and not so real, capabilities of the Windows interface. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 Computerworld's Windows Payoff supplement addresses the costs and benefits of embracing Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Microsoft Windows 3.0 running on an 80386-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of memory gives users access to the advantages of limited multitasking and extended memory management. Yet running on an 80286-based computer, the program's file management capabilities are obviously too limited. Supplement contributors interview information systems managers working with Microsoft Windows 3.0 as well as other MIS professionals who assess the product's performance on a variety of tasks. IS makes Windows work; many users are finding room for the new interface in the workplace - warts and all. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface has been the kiss of death for some minicomputer configurations, such as the Wang Laboratories Inc data center that Perkins Coie law firm is replacing with a local area network (LAN) running Windows 3.0. The graphical simplicity and point-and-click ease of the interface has stimulated rapid change in business computing environments, accelerating the system conversion trend that is threatening mainframes and minicomputer systems. Some analysts predict that in a few years, over half of the MS-DOS users will have Windows 3.0. Windows eliminates or mitigates some of the problems of the DOS operating system, including the 640Kbyte memory ceiling and the need to copy files from one directory to another. Hard benefit tough to figure. (difficulty in assessing benefits of installing Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface) Although the costs of upgrading microcomputers to run Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface can be estimated relatively easily, the financial benefits are much harder to pinpoint. Adding more memory and a faster microprocessor to existing equipment entailed spending $1,000 to $2,000 per workstation at Kendall Healthcare Products Co, but manager Roy Wilsker is uncertain about the benefits of the move. The improvements in production brought about by the interface are difficult for an organization to quantify. Training and support expenditures often accompany the implementation of Windows 3.0 in a business environment. Installers and researchers agree that the key to successful Windows installation is careful prior planning. Current needs, future promises: Windows users' wish list of improvements includes faster speed and font technology. (Microsoft Users of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are not shy about suggesting improvements to the software package. Among the most pervasive user concerns is the issue of speed. Many MIS managers and users regret the slow speed of the program when configured on 80386SX- or 80286-based microcomputers. Others lobby for improved font technology that would place strong type management functions within the interface itself. Northern Telecom manager Frank Reidelberger calls for better dynamic data interchange and an integrated file manager and program manager. Windows 3.0's less serious features, such as the Wallpaper function and Solitaire game, have also been criticized. With a quantum leap years away, Microsoft schedules incremental changes for Windows. (Current needs, future promises)(Microsoft Rather than preparing a major upgrade for Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface in 1991, Microsoft Corp executives are planning a series of regular but small advances. The major move to object-oriented programming is expected to occur in late 1993. Version 3.1, expected in mid-1991, will include Truetype fonts technology and advanced file management capabilities. Next in line for release is the Windows Libraries for OS/2 product, which will allow Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications to run under OS/2 2.0 with 5-10 percent degraded performance. Multimedia extensions are planned for late 1991: developers will be able to add music, audio, video, and animation to Windows programs. The Pen Windows handwriting recognition system is also slated for release around this time. Version 3.2 will support the applications programming interfaces for 16- and 32-bit Windows. DOS seen through other windows: DOS-based Desqview offers multitasking capabilities minus the graphical interface. Users interested in the multitasking capabilities of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface have alternative windowing choices that are not as dependent on memory capacity as the Microsoft product. Quarterdeck Office Systems' Desqview 386 is an operating system enhancement for DOS which is priced at $219 and includes the Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager-386. More expensive than the $149 Windows 3.0, Desqview is does not provide a graphical interface but performs well with a mixture of DOS programs. Conversely, Windows 3.0 works best with programs designed especially to run under the interface. Desqview also requires less RAM than Microsoft's interface. Users already transferred to the Windows platform can utilize HP's New Wave 3.0 to add dynamic data link functionality and to create intelligent macros. Meeting OS/2 head-on: success of the Windows interface has forced some OS/2 users to readdress their desktop needs. (Microsoft The success of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface has had deleterious effects on IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition operating system, which is selling at a much slower rate than Windows. OS/2 was presumed by many to be the successor to the DOS microcomputer operating system until Microsoft introduced its less expensive, easier-to-use product. Windows 3.0 has many more software applications than does OS/2, and the threat that Microsoft will deliver a 32-bit Windows program has prompted some MIS departments to postpone or reverse their decisions to implement OS/2. OS/2 is seen by some as being a more stable product than Windows 3.0, yet IBM is not perceived to have a clear vision of the future development of its operating system. OS/2 is succeeding most in environments in which internal programmers have written their own production applications for the platform. IBM forced into defensive role. (competition between OS/2 and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0) (Windows Payoff supplement) The introduction of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and its subsequent success in the MS-DOS environment has been a major setback for IBM and for the jointly-developed Microsoft/IBM OS/2 operating system. IBM has been forced to react defensively to Microsoft's strong marketing and development of Windows, and its intent to develop a 32-bit version of the program that will challenge OS/2 even more. Microsoft has postponed plans to make Windows and OS/2 applications binary compatible, and has encouraged software developers to focus on Windows at the expense of OS/2. IBM intends to emphasize it development plans for OS/2 in order to reassure developers and users that the operating system has not been eclipsed by Windows. Macintosh still holds graphical edge. (Apple's graphical user interface compared to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0) (Windows Many MIS managers in companies that use both Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface as a DOS shell and Apple Macintosh microcomputers with their built-in graphical user interface prefer the Macintosh interface for its stability and consistency among Macintosh applications. Although many programs for Windows have been created in the short time since it was introduced, a number of these are corporate-specific or intended for communications functions. Windows 3.0 lacks the complete set of interface conventions that brought Apple its glory. In the Macintosh environment, users can transfer from application to application and access files through the same point-and-click processes they use for other tasks. Windows 3.0 goes a long way toward making DOS-based computing simpler, but proficient users must still master DOS, making it unlikely that many Macintosh users will switch to the new interface. Programmers pick up paintbrushes. (programmers can use Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface to build menus and windows) Vendors are developing applications for Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface platform that will enable programmers to use the graphical interface medium to construct parts of their own programs, particularly windows and menus. Programmers will be able to point and click on icons that will prompt tools to generate code - the programmer will not actually have to write that part of the code. Manufacturers call such tools 'painters.' Smithkline Beecham's commercial information services uses Windows 3.0 to finish technical design of a work flow management system that will monitor work requests, time management, support calls and project management. DEC runs Motif on Sun workstations under NAS program. (Network Application Support) (product announcement) At the 1991 Sun Expo trade show, DEC displays portions of its Network Application Support (NAS) strategy for integrating workstations from Sun Microsystems into DEC-host environments. DEC also weighs in with its Advanced Development Kit for the integrated Ultrix-OSF/1 operating system, making it the first vendor to deliver an operating system based on OSF specifications. Specific elements of DEC's strategy to incorporate Sun workstations into its networking strategy include the introduction of DECwindows Motif, DEC Visual User Interface Tool (DEC VUIT), and DXMConvert SunView-to-DECwindows Motif, a third party code-conversion package from Expert Object. By using these and other NAS software modules DEC plans to bring forms services, terminal services, graphics services, data access services, print services and operating system interfaces to non-DEC OSF-compliant platforms. AT&T requests royalties for window technology patents. Briggs, George. AT and T is notifying a number of computer vendors it feels are using its patented windowing technology without paying a licensing fee. AT and T patent 8550 US4555775 covers a fundamental windowing technology known as backing store. Backing store is the method by which programs can be viewed on the screen as multiple bit mapped images representing the programs, which can operate concurrently, independent of the main image on the screen. AT and T representative Al Herron claims the notices to companies are not unusual and reflect the firm's ongoing efforts to enforce patent rights. Herron says the ability to update obscured portions of the screen is the basic feature for which AT and T wants compensation. HP, Sun look to bridge open systems gap. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) (Distributed Object Management Facility) A joint submission from Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems to the Object Management Group (OMG) offers to help unify the open systems market by providing a common distributed application environment. The pairing of HP and Sun, two long-time rivals, is an odd one, but because they represent different factions in the Unix standards battle their joint submission could go a long way toward ending compatibility problems. The joint proposal is called the Distributed Object Management Facility, and it would represent one layer of a distributed environment that would also include a graphical user interface, a desktop environment, networking and operating systems. The joint submission brings together elements of HP's NewWave application environment, Sun's Open Network Computing environment, and HP's Network Computing System. Intel to fend off RISC group by speeding CISC. (reduced-instruction-set computing, complex-instruction-set Intel Corp will attempt to stay one step ahead of competition from makers of reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) microprocessors by increasing the clock speed of its complex-instruction-set computing (CISC) chips. Leading RISC microprocessor vendor Mips Computer Systems has lined up an impressive array of computer manufacturers to support its chips as an industry standard. The consortium behind Mips includes DEC, Microsoft, Compaq and others, who hope the Mips chip will become a viable competitor in the microcomputer market. Intel has many factors in its favor including its large installed base and the support of hordes of software developers. By the end of 1991 Intel will have a 50 MHz version of its 80486 microprocessor on the market, to be followed by a 100 MHz version and a 250 MHz chip by 2000. Intel will also add on-board cache and other features to compete with RISC chip's superior price/performance marks. Motif-based environment eases GUI creation. ( Kinesix' Sammi graphical user interface creation software) (product announcement) Kinesix, an independent unit of Scientific-Software-Intercomp, introduces Sammi, a program development environment that enables end users to create customized graphical user interfaces (GUI). Sammi is priced at from $12,500 to $25,000 depending on system configuration; the package is based on the X windows standard and is targeted at Unix and Ultrix applications. Sammi includes three modules: an application programming interface (API), a run-time environment and a format editor. The API module allows developers to build servers that access outside applications such as databases; the run-time module handles display, data communications and user commands; the format editor acts like a CAD drawing module enabling users to construct windows and dynamic fields. Positioning technique speeds access for MTI subsystems. (Micro Technology Inc.'s MDI-79 Series disk drives) (product Micro Technology Inc introduces the MDI-79 Series of SDI-compatible disk drives that range in price from $9,872 to $33,372. The series, designed to compete with DEC's RA90 and RA92 drives, is based on Seagate Technology's ST 4769 5.25-inch drives that feature faster head-positioning via a new algorithm and the Short Stroke data-placement technique. The Short Stroke method only uses the inner tracks of the disk to store information, thereby sacrificing some disk capacity for the faster access times provided by having the head move no more than a few inches. MTI claims the drives have an average access time of 20.6 milliseconds, 30 percent faster than DEC's drives. The series includes five drives: the MDI-79 with a formatted capacity of 617Mbytes, the 1.2Gbyte two-drive MDI-279, the 1.8Gbyte three-drive MDI-379, the 2.5Gbyte four-drive MDI-479 and the 1.2Gbyte MDI-792 with two drives in one cabinet. Dilog posts $5.7M loss in 1990; cuts product line by one-third, plans entry into NFS market. (Distributed Logic, Network File Distributed Logic (Dilog) is staggering into dire financial straits as it reports a $5.7 million net loss for FY 1990 on sales of $44.9 million. Dilog had $18,641 net income on sales of $51.5 million for the 1989 fiscal year. The annual results include a $1.7 million restructuring charge as well as several other one-time administrative fees. The company is taking strong actions to deal with the slowdown including a 35 percent reduction in its workforce and a product shift away from 5.25-inch ESDI subsystems and toward higher margin SCSI workstation subsystems. The firm also admits it is in default with at least $4 million borrowed from Union Bank of San Francisco; Dilog is attempting to renegotiate that debt as well as $3.7 million in additional loans from Coast Federal Savings and Loan. SunAccount software ported to Ultrix systems; version 3.5 to support Oracle's SQL*Net. (Systems Union Inc.'s accounting Systems Union Inc announces the migration of its SunAccount accounting software package to the Ultrix environment. In a related announcement the firm unveiled SunAccount 3.5, a new version of the software that features client/server support for Oracle's SQL*Net. SunAccount, which currently supports VMS, MS-DOS and Unix variants from IBM, NCR, Mips Computer Systems and Altos Computer Systems, has the same look and feel when run on Ultrix and is completely file compatible across all platforms. Version 3.5 of the software includes pop-up query windows, a matrix report writer, encumbrance accounting capabilities and a fixed assets module. Systems Union states that other releases supporting virtually all major database platforms are forthcoming, enabling users to use SunAccount as a front end to relational DBMSs. Ross debuts accounting modules for RISC/Unix; plans third-party support for other Unix platforms. (Ross Systems Inc.'s Renaissance Ross Systems Inc introduces the Renaissance Open Series of accounting and financial software modules for DEC's RISC/Ultrix platform. The new package for Ultrix includes only the accounts payable and general ledger modules from Ross's VMS version of the Renaissance program. In addition to those two modules the Renaissance Series will include modules for purchase orders, accounts receivable, sales order management, inventory control, and sales analysis and planning; Ross based the technology for the other modules on software it acquired with purchase of Cardinal Data in 1989. Prices start at $16,000 per module. Ross will not develop the software for other Unix platforms, but it will encourage third-party vendors to distribute the Renaissance Open Series for other platforms. Open networks, tried-and-true protocols to coexist. (Tech Trends) Donohue, James F. Amarket research survey conducted by Business Research Group reveals that the majority of large corporate computer users will move toward open networking protocols at a much slower pace than previously anticipated by analysts. Instead, most corporations will continue to use proprietary networking protocols such as DECnet or IBM's SNA while slowly incorporating open systems. The survey reveals that only two percent of the respondents currently use the OSI standards, with 30 percent of the firms planning to add the protocol in the next two years. The survey also found that the TCP/IP protocol is used by 16 percent of those surveyed and 11 percent of the sites are using X.25 standards. DEC is particularly interested in the adoption of OSI standards since its router-to-router specifications are expected to be adopted by OSI, and DEC will have an easy time including OSI standards in its DECnet Phase V standards. Alliant enhances, expands FX/2800 line. (Alliant Computer Systems Corp.'s supercomputers) (product announcement) Alliant Computer System Corp introduces a new supercomputer as well as several enhancement options to its current FX/2800 series of supercomputers. The new model from Alliant is an entry-level addition dubbed the FX/800, which is priced from $189,000 to $600,000. The FX/800, like others in the series, is based on a reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) architecture and will run the Unix operating system. The FX/800 achieves performance ratings of 320 Mflops, a Linpack 1000 rating of 121 Mflops, and a VAX MIPS rating of 328; the scores are roughly equivalent to those of DEC's VAX 9000 440. The enhancements offered by Alliant to the FX/2800 line include support for the High Performance Parallel Interface (HiPPI) standard, a memory upgrade from 1Gbyte to 4Gbytes, support for the IPI-2 interface for disk drives, new system resource accounting software and software support for FDDI and large-scale disk arrays. Tool assists in logical design of Rdb database using DEC guidelines. (Information Systems Group Inc.'s FrendDb 1.15) Information Systems Group Inc introduces version 1.5 of its FrendDb database design tool. FrendDB 1.5 runs on VAX/VMS and MS-DOS platforms and is available for a single-user license fee of $4,850, or $21,000 for an unlimited-user license. FrendDB allows developers to specify the logical design of a database via a nine-step process. Developers can include table names, specify attributes and field capacity and manipulate other variables by using a menu-driven interface. FrendDB uses many of the logical specifications from DEC's own guide to tuning Rdb databases, and once the logical design is completed the software will use an SQL generator to partition files into storage areas. The software also includes cluster and shadowing functions. McData to distribute Interlink server products. (McData Corp.'s LinkMaster 6100E network server and Interlink Computer Sciences McData Corp announces it will add software features that it has acquired from a distribution agreement with Interlink Computer Sciences (ICS) to its LinkMaster 6100E network server. Through the deal McData will include ICS's SNA-to-TCP/IP software and SNS/TCPaccess as part of its LinkMaster product; the firm will also separately sell ICS's SNS/TCPvt, SNS/API and SNS/NFS products. McData's LinkMaster enables DEC users to access IBM mainframes; McData group manager Brian Witt claims the addition of ICS's software will provide users with a complete solution. Witt says the SNS/TCPaccess package supports the entire range of Internet protocols and provides users with the fastest version of the File Transfer Protocol for IBM's MVS operating system. Dilog 4mm tape stacker for VAXBI systems stores 20Gbytes (Distributed Logic Corp.'s VAXBI DATstacker) (product Distributed Logic Corp is the first manufacturer to offer a 4mm digital audio tape storage system for DEC's VAXBI bus system. Distributed Logic's VAXBI DATstacker is priced at $19,980 including the tape drive, host adapter and DATpak magazine holding eight 1.3Gbyte cassettes. A complete magazine will provide users with 10.4Gbytes of storage, and the two magazine version will double that to over 20Gbytes. The DATstacker features unattended backup capabilities via a process that automatically switches to the next cassette in sequence when the previous cassette reaches its capacity. Distributed Logic uses DEC's BIIC chip in the VAXBI-to-SCSI host adapter, making the tape system compatible with DEC's TMSCP for VAX 6000-, 8000-, and 9000-series computers. One tool just can't do it all. (network management) (column) Hancock, Bill. As many network managers have discovered, the sad truth about managing networks is that there is no single network management system that can handle the entire job. While many vendors advertise the contrary, the best approach for a network manager is to find specialized hardware and software packages that can work together in a comprehensive fashion the solve the problem. The basic functions any management system must handle include backup and restore, user accounting, disk management, tape library management, access controls, statistics, security, image control, systems performance, problem tracking and user support tools. Hardware components should include bit-error-rate testers, breakout boxes, time-domain reflectometers and load generators. Graphics galore. (Hardware Review) (HP 9000 425t workstation)(includes a related article on the model tested) The HP 9000 425t is a low-end workstation based on Motorola's 68040 microprocessor. The 425t lags behind competing reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) workstations in CPU performance, but it excels in graphics intensive applications. In CPU tests the $19,465 425t performed at 8.47 MicroVAX II units of processing (MVUPs), compared with Sun Microsystems' Sparcstation 1+'s 11.06 MVUPs and the DEC VAXstation 3100's 10.10 MVUPs. The 425t comes with a choice of four VRX graphics subsystems: PersonalVRX and TurboVRX for 3-D applications such as modeling, and VRX Color and VRX Mono for 2-D applications such as desktop publishing and CASE applications. With the VRX Color option the 425t showed impressive graphics power, outperforming the higher priced VAXstation 3100 76 in window management and X-specific tests. Expert systems pave way for knowledge sharing. (DR Strategies - Planning Technology Decisions)(includes related articles on a case Expert systems are finding niches in the market as add-on modules for relational data bases, in decision support systems, in program development tools and for fuzzy logic in consumer electronics. Expert systems are valuable because they can automate tasks by incorporating knowledge and making 'smart' choices that free workers from some of their more mundane and time consuming duties. Expert systems are particularly useful in searching for relationships in data bases because a well written system can search for non-mathematical relationships between data that are casual or require inference. Expert systems also have a place in program development tools helping developers optimize their programs to a particular vendor's system. Another application for expert systems is in combination with natural language data base front ends to process queries from non-technical users. Simulators win their wings in the Gulf. (Persian Gulf) Burrows, Peter. The military seems to have recognized the value of simulators. Military simulators were a $1.09 billion business in 1990. Current models vary from microcomputer-based battlefield systems to four-story $40 million computers. Market leader CAE-Link Corp has experienced brisk growth, as have several other major vendors. Simulation training paid off in the Persian Gulf when airmen struck Iraqi targets and knocked Scud missiles down with deadly accuracy. The electronics industry deserves credit for the improved effectiveness of simulators. Simulation also reduces the prohibitive costs of maintaining and training a military as well as providing a method of testing, analyzing and defining the nation's defenses. Dealmaking with Soviets proves disappointing. Rice, Valerie. Very little business has materialized from a summer 1990 visit to the Silicon Valley by a delegation of Soviet technologists. The Soviets met with 40 companies and signed several deals, but many are not working out and no new deals are being struck. Physically transferring the technology was more difficult than estimated and, despite relaxation of US export rules for semiconductor technology, the Soviet market has remained small due to a lack of hard currency. How five companies are beating the recession. (Cover Story) Rutter, Nancy. The electronics industry is hard hit by the recession, but several companies continue to prove that a well-run company with the right product can beat the economic odds. Conner Peripherals Inc consistently delivers innovative disk drives to a market that has remained constant for ten years. Borland International Inc saw sales increase 100 percent in one year and posted a $6 million profit since showing a $6 million loss two years ago. Altera Corp and Xilinx Inc deliver innovative user-programmable CMOS logic devices to a hungry market. Stratus Computer Inc increased its sales by 18 percent ($403.9 million) in 1990 on the basis of its fault-tolerant on-line computing. Intergraph still defending its contrary ways. (includes a related article on Intergraph's purchase of Daisy Cadnetix Inc.) (company Critics condemn Intergraph's business directions, but the company has not experienced a loss or annual decline in revenue since 1969 and posted more than $1 billion in revenue in 1990. Observers believe the company is locked into a losing strategy with no long-term growth prospects and must change the way it does business to survive. Intergraph is the last of the major turnkey systems vendors, selling both workstations and software applications as a package. The market is moving away from proprietary systems and could leave Intergraph with real problems. The company's current efforts in the CAD/CAM/CAE market could provide a glimpse into its future. Small suppliers join the ranks of U.S. exporters. (selling abroad could determine which companies survive the 1990s) Bison Instruments Inc's overseas business accounted for 63 percent of its 1990 sales, reflecting a successful trend among small- to mid-size electronics to establish exporting operations. The company uses trade-promotion programs run by the US Department of Commerce to find overseas distributors and publicize its products. Incentives are growing for companies like Bison to begin exporting. International markets are growing quickly, while the domestic marketplace is sluggish. The low dollar exchange rate makes US exports attractive and international markets are better insulated from business cycle depressions in a given location. Export-licensing restrictions and paperwork still present barriers in starting overseas operations. Electronics exports boosted the U.S. bottom line in 1989. (offshore sales close trade gap but foreign production slows pace Shipments by the top 100 US electronics exporters rose 19 percent in 1989 over the previous year. The $33.4 billion in products shipped overseas by these companies equaled 21 percent of all domestic and foreign electronics sales. The five largest US companies shipped $14.4 billion of the products and services, 43 percent of the total exported and 59 percent of the total value. IBM lead the exporters with $5.5 billion in overseas sales, 16 percent of the exports of the top 100. Sensormatic Electronics Corp is the fastest-growing exporter, Conner Peripherals Inc ranking second. Atari Corp sells the largest percentage of their products abroad with 88 percent of their output going overseas. Future export patterns are unclear. Sagging profits spark identity crisis at Nokia. (Finland's Oy Nokia) (company profile) Finland's Oy Nokia's attempts to become a European electronics giant through acquisitions is not working; the company is now looking to divest and focus on its core businesses. The company's telecommunications and mobile-phone units remain profitable, but Nokia must cut costs to restore profitability, hopefully by selling off its money-losing units. The company's pretax profits slid 66 percent to $123 million in 1989; 1990 saw a similar decline. Consumer electronics, the largest core business, accounted for about 25 percent of its sales. Nokia expanded its television business, but the European color TV market slowed seriously and that unit will not make money until late 1991. Nokia has a leading position in high definition TV research. Hong Kong in 1997: What if it works? McCormick, Joel. Hong Kong is preparing for its repatriation to China in 1997. The government is exploring ways to be involved in the development of high-technology. Tertiary institutions are forming an inter-university research and development network for industry. The government is now underwriting research centers and considering construction of a science park. The creation of an association to forge Hong Kong and Guangzhou, its neighbor, into an industrial combine is under consideration. Fueled by new software, Sparc vendors turn up the heat; Sun's risky gamble in opening Sparc is paying off. Sun Microsystems Inc converted its workstations to Scalable Processor Architecture (Sparc) reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) design in 1988 and licensed the Sparc technology widely. The move lead to broad acceptance of the standard in the marketplace and demand for Sparc-based systems accelerated; Sparc design is the dominant architecture in the $6.8 billion worldwide RISC market. US vendors of RISC-based workstations and servers are expected to generated $6.8 billion in worldwide revenue in 1991. Semiconductors expect higher growth in '91. Handleman, Julie. The semiconductor industry remains weak, but is looking for growth in 1991. The North American market showed declines in the first two quarters of 1990. Sales showed a faint increase of 0.5 percent in that year's third quarter before sliding again in the fourth quarter. 1990 sales of $14.45 billion were 0.6 percent lower than the 1989 level. It is too early to tell what impact the Persian Gulf war will have on the semiconductor industry. Lower interest rates and stronger investment in high-tech capital equipment should fuel the industry in 1991. HP, Sun end war of networks. (Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems to jointly develop object-oriented distributed networks; includes a Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard have reached an agreement to develop a common environment for object-oriented, distributed computing, to be called the Distributed Application Architecture (DAA). Under DAA Sun and HP will jointly develop software for distributed object processing that will run on either Sun's Open Network Computing (ONC) or HP's Network Computing System (NCS) and their respective remote procedure calls (RPCs). Portions of DAA have been submitted for acceptance under the Object Management Group's (OMG) Object Request Broker standards. Industry analysts and observers acknowledge the significance of DAA, but one analyst warns that it must be accepted by both the OMG and the Open Software Foundation for the strategy to be successful. One potential stumbling block is the fact that DAA is based on C++, which is in an early stage of development and has both compatibility and portability problems. Additionally, there is some question whether RPCs are the correct base for distributed computing. Regardless of these difficulties, the integration of ONC and NCS offers positive benefits for applications developers, particularly in the computer-aided engineering (CAE) arena. Pact may give Signetics memories of Matsushita. (involves access to Signetics foundries, processes) The final details are being resolved in an agreement that will allow Philips Components-Signetics to manufacture and market Matsushita-designed integrated circuits, and offers the potential to put Signetics into the high-density DRAM and SRAM business. Matsushita's gains from the arrangement include access to Signetics' foundry facilities and its BiCMOS, CMOS and bipolar processes. Signetics could bundle DRAMs and/or SRAMs with its 8-bit microcontrollers and video and audio chips for such memory-intensive applications as multimedia. More importantly, Signetics will be able to fill its currently underutilized BiCMOS and CMOS manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, NM, while Matsushita will also be able to use capacity at Signetics bipolar plants in Sunnyvale, CA, and Orem, UT. Rumors of such a deal have been rife for a number of weeks, and have even included speculation that Matsushita's US subsidiary, in which Philips holds a 35 percent stake, might be poised to take over Signetics. Quicklogic tools herald new FPGA. (field-programmable gate array; includes a related article on Quicklogic's new user-programmable QuickLogic will debut a tool set for its new FPGA architecture at the PLD Design Conference in San Jose, CA, during the week of Mar 11, 1991. Details of the architecture itself will not be released until May, but the toolset itself provides some clues to the nature of the upcoming user-programmable application-specific integrated circuit (pASIC) device. The tool environment is based on Microsoft Windows 3.0 and tightly couples third-party and proprietary design tools. QuickLogic's SpDE layout and test-generation tools are integrated with CAD/CAM Group's ECS schematic-entry system and Silicon Automation Systems' X-Sim simulator to form the pASIC Toolkit. Existing FPGA and PLD toolsets are either well-integrated proprietary sets or loosely-integrated mixes of proprietary and third-party tools. QuickLogic provides an integrated system with third-party tools by offering an object-oriented database very highly open access. The tool set, which comprises ECS, X-Sim, and all SpDE modules, will be available for less than $5,000 once first silicon is released in second quarter 1991. SIA: trade pact is coming: sees early sign of new chip agreement with Japan. (Semiconductor Industry Association) The SIA believes the US and Japan will soon reach agreement on a new semiconductor trade agreement, possibly before the current pact expires at the end of Jul 1991. The SIA also expects the agreement to closely mirror the recent joint proposal of the SIA and the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), despite a public statement by Japan that ruled out agreement to any pact that includes certain aspects of the SIA/CSPP proposal and denied any need for a new agreement. Despite that denial the Japanese government was quick to respond to a US suggestion for new negotiations, sending a high-level delegation to Washington in mid-February 1991. The initial proposal arrived at by the group is said to call for elimination of the trade sanctions imposed on Japan in 1987, and proposes that any new agreement be implemented on a non-government level. The chief stumbling block to current negotiations appears to be US insistence on a numerical target for foreign participation in the Japanese domestic market. An SIA official characterizes the objections as being for public consumption, noting that privately the Japanese are willing to concede the point. TI's array is biggest BiCMOS. (offers 150,000 raw gates, 200-MHz speed) Texas Instruments announces the largest device in its TBG1000 family, a 200-MHz, 150,000 gate system-on-a-chip that features a new method of embedding bipolar transistors in a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sea-of-gates. The device is the largest BiCMOS gate array announced and was developed with the assistance of what TI calls 'teaching customers', accounts that help shape a product. Three-layer metallization gives routing efficiencies that are claimed to be as high as 65 to 75 percent. The output of internal memory and datapath compilers can be implemented either in metallization or as diffused macros for user-specific versions of the array, allowing large subsystems to be implemented on a single chip. TI, which believes it has some six months lead time on its competitors in this area, is already working on several designs, and will begin making its libraries for the TBG1000 available in Apr 1991. Adaptive claims first neural server: CNAPS operates at 5 billion connections/second. (Adaptive Solutions Inc., Connected Network of Adaptive Solutions Inc announces the first dedicated neural-network compute-server. The CNAPS (pronounced 'synapse') compute-server is based on the N64000 digital neural-network simulation chip jointly developed by Adaptive and chip maker Inova, and provides a Unix user on an EThernet network access to a high-speed, neural-network simulator. CNAPS operates at 5 billion connections/second in execution mode and at 1 billion connection updates/s in learning mode. The server acts as the development system for engineers that want to embed the underlying N64000 into products, learning in seconds training that once took all night on a conventional mainframe computer. The box, planned for availability in fourth quarter 1991 at a cost of $55,000, comes bundled with one copy of the CodeNet development package; additional copies are priced at $9,950 per seat, and a C-language compiler should be available by the end of 1991 at a cost of $950. Inova manufactures and will market the N64000, while Adaptive concentrates on systems. Adaptive recommends CNAPS for pattern-recognition and similar applications. FCC gets HDTV proposals. (Federal Communications Commission, high-definition television) The FCC has received detailed broadcast proposals from each of the six groups seeking to be the standard-setter for the US terrestrial broadcast of HDTV. The proposals contain a mix of all-digital, all-analog, and hybrid digital/analog methods, but a particularly heavy emphasis on digital techniques will pose a problem for the FCC's testing labs, which are not yet prepared to handle some elements of the more advanced proposals. What details are currently available show a number of common trends among the digital technologies proposed by the various participants, along with a number of proprietary solutions. The all-digital systems place greater emphasis on picture luminance and detail information than on color-resolution information, and vary widely in temporal positioning of tens of megabits of video and audio data. Several proposals include data prioritization schemes that will ensure the proper transmission of major HDTV elements under marginal conditions. The FCC has warned that unexpected elements of digital transmission technology may cause its testing schedule to slip. HP veteran Parzybok takes the helm at Fluke. (Hewlett-Packard Co., William G. Parzybok Jr., John Fluke Manufacturing Co. Inc.) William G. Parzybok Jr., 48, has been named vice chairman and chief executive officer of John Fluke Manufacturing Co Inc., a leading maker of digital multimeters. David S. Potter will continue as chairman and George M. Winn will remain president and chief operating officer. Parzybok leaves a 22-year career at Hewlett-Packard, where he was most recently on special assignment, formulating a reorganization of the computer portion of HP's business. Prior to that he served as vice president and general manager of the Engineering Applications Group, but the greatest part of his time at HP was spent in the test and measurement sectors. Parzybok denies his departure from HP is related to the recent reorganization, instead characterizing the opportunity at Fluke as 'too good to pass up.' Fluke Chmn Potter cites Parzybok's strategic experience as the complement to George Winn's operations skills. Open Verilog effort opens up to public. Goering, Richard. The Open Verilog International (OVI) consortium, formed in 1990 after Cadence Design Systems decided to place the hardware description language (HDL) in the public domain, held its first public meeting in Santa Clara, CA, on Feb 22, 1991. At the meeting, six technical committees staffed by volunteers from the Verilog user community, were established to help shape the future of the HDL. Cadence has agreed to transfer the Verilog trademark to OVI, which will be responsible for creating a new language-reference manual, establishing compliance and compatibility procedures, promoting the HDL, and coordinating with VHDL and UDL/I committees. The six technical subcommittees (TSCs) chartered include Architectural Modeling, Compliance and Compatibility Testing, Language Support, Library Modeling, Logic Design Methodologies, and User Applications Support. A Technical Coordinating Committee, consisting of the chairpersons of the TSCs, will review all TSC proposals. The next public meeting of OVI will be held at the Design Automation Conference in Jun 1991. Tool joins analog, pcb: Valid rolls out A/S Lab design system. (Valid Logic Systems introduces Analog Systems Lab tool set) Valid Logic Systems introduces the Analog Systems Lab (A/S Lab), a tool for board-level analog systems design that integrates electrical analog design and printed-circuit board (pcb) engineering capabilities to provide analog design engineers with a single package that offers electrical and physical design and in-process analysis capabilities. A/S Lab encompasses both the design and simulation capabilities of Valid's Analog Workbench II and Allegro 5.0, the firm's advanced pcb engineering system. The integrated system allows a designer to back-annotate the physical parameters of a system into the Analog Workbench and immediately see the interplay of the electrical and physical components of the design. The Allegro component of A/S Lab has been enhanced to include curved traces and improved design rule checking, along with other improvements. A/S Lab is scheduled to ship in second quarter 1991 at an approximate cost of $45,000 for a basic package. Optional analysis capabilities are available for higher prices. HP strikes with 'Snakes' workstation. (proprietary reduced-instruction-set computer machine to debut in spring 1991) Hewlett-Packard reveals the technology of its new Precision Architecture - Reduced Instruction Set Computer (PA-RISC) workstation, scheduled for a spring 1991 release, at the IEEE CompCon conference, held in San Francisco, CA during the week of Feb 25. The new unit, code-named 'Snakes', relies heavily on Precision chips originally developed for the server market, but featuring an instruction set expanded for use in workstations. The number of registers in the new instruction set has been doubled to 32, and new floating-point instructions for multiply/add and multiply/subtract have been added. Number-crunching performance is further improved by the decision to have the FPU chip fabricated by Texas Instruments' EPIC-2 0.8-micron CMOS fab facility. The CPU chip is the product of HP's own Fort Collins, CO development facility and fab. HP had originally hinted at a single-chip approach for its next round of servers, but decided on the two-chip approach with external data and instruction caches. Sparc paces move to multichip modules. (Scalable Processor Architecture) Multichip CPU modules (MCMs) are a central topic of the 1991 IEEE CompCon conference, and it is clear from the tone of most presentations that a full-scale migration to MCMs is underway, with the speed of the migration to be set by the SPARC architecture. Keynote speaker Lou Tomasetta, president of Vitesse Semiconductor Corp, maintains that the modules will become commonplace in a brief number of years. Tomasetta also warns that repair constraints might limit the use of MCMs. Design complexity may also impede development. LSI Logic acknowledges that its Lightning Sparc implementation has fallen two quarters behind schedule, partially due to test issues. The Intergraph Clipper architecture will also see new life as an MCM, while in the MIPS architecture, most developers are waiting for the new R4000. Goldstar takes 5% stake in Zenith. Ryan, Margaret. The board of directors of Zenith Electronics Corp has approved the sale of 1.45 million newly issued shares of common stock to Korean consumer electronics firm Goldstar Co Ltd for some $15 million. The stock sale represents almost 5 percent of the company, and also includes a licensing agreement for Zenith's Flat Tension Mask (FTM) display technology and a promise by Goldstar to promote Zenith's high definition television (HDTV) scheme in South Korea. Under the FTM licensing, Goldstar will pay fees to Zenith for consumer-grade FTM picture tubes to be manufactured in Goldstar's factories for use in its own TVs and for sale to others. FTM computer displays are not included in the agreement. One industry analyst says Goldstar's agreement to back Zenith's Digital Spectrum Compatible HDTV approach as suggestive that Goldstar believes the Zenith technology will be the one to get the nod from the Federal Communications commission as the US standard. Jessi funds projects: Europeans support 67 programs. (Joint European Submicron Silicon Initiative) The Jessi board has approved funding for 67 research projects, out 250 proposals submitted, and the funded projects are expected to occupy nearly 4,000 man-years of effort in 1991 alone. The full Jessi project, which began in 1989 and continues through 1996, represents some 21,400 man-years of research and is expected to have a final cost of some 3.8 European currency units, about the equivalent of $5 billion. Recently approved projects include one relating to flexible automated wafer production, methods and tools for ultra-large-scale-integration system design, and the formation of a joint research-and-development group on semiconductor materials and manufacturing. The European Commission will provide some 25 percent of Jessi funding. On a national basis, Germany will make the highest overall contribution of participants, both from the industrial and the academic sector. Mentor, TI in software pact. (Mentor Graphics, Texas Instruments) Costlow, Terry. Mentor Graphics Corp and Texas Instruments form an alliance to jointly develop design-for-manufacturing (DFM) software, one of the first such agreements to be reached. The two firms hope to create software that will move manufacturing concerns closer to the start of the design cycle circumventing the design of boards that are costly or difficult to mass produce. No timetable has been set for the development of products, but the DFM software will be independent programs, not merely features added to existing Mentor packages. Mentor will commercialize TI's existing internal DFM software, developed for board and system programs and already largely in use at TI. Both firms maintain artificial intelligence software will not be required for the DFM software, and believe that DFM, which can help avoid some problems that now only become apparent at or near completion, represents a nich market in the concurrent engineering area. Startup Windata targets wireless data networks. Doherty, Richard. New firm Windata announces plans for a series of products to serve the nascent wireless data market, which Windata executives expect to reach half a billion dollars by 1994. Windata, backed by private venture capital, hopes to introduce products that will provide the flexibility of wireless data communications to existing local area network (LAN) and software systems with little displacement of hardware or need for customer reeducation. Windata's management includes president and founder Greg Hopkins, formerly vice-president of engineering at Ungermann-Bass, Charlie Bass, Bob Heile, formerly a general manager at Codex, and Bob Rosenbaum, previously a founder and marketing vice president of Xyplex. Hopkins believes this wide range of experience in wired-LAN technology will translate to success in the wireless-LAN field. Motorola and NCR Corp have already shipped wireless LAN products, and Apple Computer has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for the creation of a new wireless data service. Sony optical media group. (technical support and business unit to be dedicated to media for 5.25-inch form factor optical disks) Sony Magnetic Products Group of America forms a dedicated technical support and business unit to focus on marketing, sales and support of rewritable optical media to support Sony's 5.25-inch form factor rewritable optical disk drive. The market for rewritable optical media, though slow to develop, has been projected to reach $221 million by 1995, according to recent analysis by research firm Freeman and Associates. The capital intensive nature of the manufacture of rewritable optical media has kept prices high and demand for optical drives low, but the Freeman report predicts increasing competition, increasing production volumes and greater user demand will push prices down by the end of 1991, resulting in even greater production volumes in 1992. The creation of the new business unit, which establishes media as a separate product, rather than a mere adjunct to Sony's drive business, indicates that Sony expects the market is about to boom. While initial efforts will focus on support for Sony drives, ultimately the operation will extend to support for other vendors' products. CSPP: refocus R&D. (Computer Systems Policy Project, research and development) The CSPP has issued an update to its first technology-policy document, published in Jul 1990, recommending that the government refocus its research and development spending toward commercial technologies in order to achieve a greater return on investment for the $70 billion annually allotted by the government to various R&D projects. The CSPP was requested in Dec 1990 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make concrete recommendations on ways to change the way government R&D funds are used. The CSPP has made the following proposals: improve funding review mechanisms to include industry input in setting federal R&D priorities; implement the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative, which includes building a national network; and increase interaction between industry and federal labs, to include industry input on lab priorities. The CSPP has offered to work with the government on the three proposals and has set up three working groups to focus on other specific requests made by the OMB. AI withers, NIPT rises in Japan. (artificial intelligence, New Information Processing Technology) Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) will hold a symposium in Tokyo on Mar 13 and 14, 1991, to introduce what it is calling the era of New Information Processing Technology (NIPT). NIPT represents what would have been the sixth generation of artificial intelligence in Japan, but will address four problems that traditional AI has been unable to overcome. These comprise the need to be able to work effectively with ambiguous incomplete information, to adapt to change and generalize on the basis of experience, to solve unwieldy problems by breaking them down into more manageable segments, and to overcome the von Neumann bottleneck. A research committee formed to explore these problems believes that neural technologies may possess some of the abilities lacking in traditional AI, including learning ability and massively parallel architectures. Other stumbling blocks may be overcome by basic theory. RF, microwave designers explore simulation options: Spice, harmonic-balance simulators compete. (radio frequency; includes a The market for high-frequency RF and microwave design tools is growing rapidly as the number of applications for RF and microwave technology increases in such areas as radio and broadcast communications, consumer electronics, and military guidance systems. Several Spice simulation vendors are adding models for high-frequency design and analysis of s-parameters (reflection vs. transmission), while traditional microwave tools address lower frequencies. Harmonic-balance simulators are an alternative to Spice for circuits that feature steady-state, sinusoidal inputs. Harmonic-balance can be faster than Spice for such circuits, but it cannot handle highly non-linear circuits or anything that lacks a cycle. Most designers rely on an assortment of tools, to ensure their ability to handle any type of simulation necessary. While such simulation tools are invaluable to the design process, designers cite the need for better integration of simulation tools with layout and schematic tools. Several simulation tools are highlighted. Relays evolve to meet new demands. Derman, Glenda. Electro-mechanical printed circuit board relays will continue to be in demand for most of the 1990s for both telecommunications and automotive applications, thanks to an extremely economical cost-per-contact. Relay technology has recently benefited from the introduction of new contact and packaging materials and increased automation of the production process. Low-signal relays represent the fastest growing segment, driven by the demand for the ability to use cheaper, low-out power supplies. Optically coupled solid-state relays offer a number of advantages, including fast response and no moving parts to cause contact bounce, and that segment has been growing between 10 and 20 percent annually in the US and 40 percent in Europe. Hybrid and military-spec solid state relays are growing at a four to eight percent annual rate. High-voltage surge relays are the hot ticket in the telecommunications field. Devices from Omron Electronics, AT&T Microelectronics, Teledyne, and HP are highlighted. Sticking with films. (solderless techniques prevail in fine-pitch packages) Fine-pitch packages suffer from reliability problems related to soldering. Conductive adhesive films, which can replace both soldering and copper traces, not only address these reliability problems but also offer reduced cost and pollution levels. Conductive adhesives have lower surface tension and usually require less heat than traditional solder methods, reducing the bridging and gapping problems associated with solder flow. Many offer practical trace widths of from 10 to 20 mils, excellent for fine-pitch packages. Because the materials are applied using an additive, rather than subtractive, process, waste is eliminated, making the materials more economical. Conductive films do not require the use of CFCs for cleaning, and do not incorporate lead, reducing manufacture-associated pollution. Development efforts at 3M Co, Hitachi Chemical, and PolyFlex Circuits are highlighted. Adaptability: a keystone to survival: Part IV: study probes how to foster flexibility. (includes a related article detailing Adaptability and flexibility will be critical to surviving as an electrical engineer (EE) in the 1990s, says a report compiled by the National Research Council's Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel (OSEP). The report defines adaptability as the ability to easily and efficiently accommodate changes to work demands by applying methods and resources in new ways. The report offers findings on how flexible engineers are and how management can foster and encourage adaptability. EEs were found to be highly mobile, with the degree offering entree to a broad range of fields. This supports the contention of those who maintain that a shortage of engineers is unlikely, although it is probable that there will not always be an exact match between degree and job description. A continued investment in on-the-job training is cited as critical to maintaining the technical currency of engineers, and line managers particularly are charged with responsibility for allowing engineers release time to pursue both in-house and extramural courses. Software picture firms up: career opportunities in software. Rostky, George. Employment opportunities for engineers do exist at the major software firms, though not in the overwhelming numbers they have in the past. Oregon-based Mentor Graphics, for example, is looking for some 35 new engineers this year, essentially equivalent to the expected attrition rate. Candidates should be experienced in ASIC, standard IC, pc board and analog design. Logic Automation Inc, also in Oregon, plans to hire an additional 25 engineers during 1991, most of them in software. Familiarity with modeling and with various CAE tools is a plus for candidates for these positions. In California, Ready Systems has openings for five engineers with experience in Unix, C and embedded real-time systems. Other firms looking for small numbers of engineers include Quadratron Systems Inc (CA), Hilevel Technology Inc (CA), and WordPerfect Corp (UT). The East Coast picture is bleak; Waltham, MA-based Softech currently has no openings. Switch firms, telcos unite on ISDN-1. (Integrated Services Digital Network standards accepted by telecommunications switching Motivated by slow acceptance of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology and by a lack of ISDN standards, a group of major telecommunications switching equipment vendors, computer companies, and regional Bell holding companies agreed in Feb 1991 to accept the National ISDN-1 standards. This group of standards was organized by the Corporation for Open Systems International (COS), a group of telecommunications vendors. Parties to the agreement also disclosed plans to deliver national ISDN services by 1992. Regional Bell holding companies also announced plans to broaden access to digital networks, while switch manufacturers stated that they will cease to rely on proprietary standards. NCR plans expansion of board to 20 as new barrier to AT&T bid. (to forestall hostile takeover) NCR Corp, continuing efforts to avoid a hostile takeover by AT and T, proposes an optional plan to increase the membership of its board of directors from 13 to 20 members. AT and T has offered $6.12 billion to acquire the computer firm, and is attempting to arrange the election of new board members who will promote the merger. Under the new NCR plan, Charles E. Exley Jr. could stay on as chairman even if he was defeated in a proxy showdown in Mar, 1991. Exley's seat is one of four seats up for re-election. In an upcoming court case, NCR hopes to gain legal approval for the adoption of a $500 million employee stock option plan. Execs eye 1G SRAM as U.S. project goal. (semiconductor industry executives consider developing 1G-bit SRAM) Officials of the National Advisory Council on Semiconductors (NACS) have announced that the council's major upcoming project may center on the development of a one-gigabit static RAM product. The exact project is uncertain, but will almost certainly depend on 0.125-micron technology. The project, named Microtech 2000, is intended to promote the US semiconductor industry's competitiveness against foreign manufacturers. Details of the plan will be released in Apr 1991 at a workshop sponsored by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and NACS. It is hoped that the coordinated Microtech 2000 effort will avoid duplication of effort among US semiconductor manufacturers and improve US competition in major markets. IC vendors seek ISDN market opening. (integrated circuits, Integrated Services Digital Network) Many semiconductor firms are loathe to enter the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) market due to limited acceptance of the technology as well as an excess of US vendors interested in the market. Regional Bell holding companies (RBHCs), telecommunications switching equipment manufacturers, long-distance carriers and even computer vendors are involved in ISDN. These competing vendors are unable to agree on standards until a recent group of RBHCs and switch vendors settled on a group of standards. The ISDN market in the US is growing slowly, although some analysts predict that the market for ISDN customer premises equipment will reach revenues of almost $6 billion in 1994. Zenith to sell 4.97%, license to Goldstar. (Zenith Electronics Corp.) Zenith Electronics Corp is attempting to extricate itself from a takeover by Nycor Inc by selling a 4.97 percent equity stake of Zenith stock to Korea's Goldstar Electronics Company Inc. Nycor, a holding company created by air conditioning corporation Fedders, has denounced the stock sale as a technology giveaway. Goldstar is to pay Zenith $15 million for the shares and will gain the license to use Zenith's flat tension mask technology for television sets. Cathode ray tubes manufactured with Zenith's technology are said to have increased resolution, color fidelity, and contrast. Goldstar has agreed not to acquire more than 15 percent of Zenith for two years. The Asian firm will also promote Korean adoption of Zenith's high definition TV standard. Noh semiconductor agreement? (negotiation of new U.S./Japan semiconductor agreement) (Government Closeup) (column) The US Semiconductor Industry Assn (SIA) is promoting a new US/Japan semiconductor agreement to replace the five year treaty that expires in Jul 1991. The goal of US semiconductor firms to establish a 20 percent market share in the Japanese semiconductor market has not been achieved by the current treaty. In the first four years of its existence, foreign market share in Japan rose only from 9 percent to 12.6 percent - and the latter figure has remained stable for a year. Japanese companies may not sign a new agreement, but even if they do, the 20 percent goal may not appear in the new treaty. If such a goal does find expression in the agreement, it is unlikely that any penalties will be assigned for a failure to meet the target market share. Programmable vision systems gain in SMD placement. (storage module device) The market for storage module device (SMD) assembly equipment is growing larger and more sophisticated, with new programmable vision systems available to identify manufacturing faults in real-time. Imaging systems with multiple heads directed by proprietary software can detect and compensate for bent leads and pattern misalignment. Placement rates for the vision systems are as high as 30,000 or more per hour for a wide variety of SMD components. Among the systems available are TDK's FX-1080, which provides laser camera inspection for coplanarity, fiducial inspection, and a general vision check of leads. Competitor Philips Industrial offers the MCM 8 at a starting price of $370,000. The MCM 8 boasts a maximum rate of 31,000 placements per hour. Unisys computer group chief leaves for top Read-Rite post. (Cyril J. Yansouni, former head of the Computer Systems Product Div.) Cyril J. Yansouni, former head of Unisys Corp's Computer Systems Product division, has left his post to become president and CEO of Read-Rite Corp. Read-Rite, based in Milpitas, CA, manufactures disk drive components. Yansouni attributes his departure to personal reasons as well as to the fact that Unisys is in a 'contraction mode.' Read-Rite is located closer to Yansouni's family in CA. The company of only 2,000 employees makes thin-film magnetic recording heads for Winchester disk drives. The executive's decision comes at a critical time for Unisys, which is preparing to introduce a series of new mainframes and upgrades to older products. DEC offers stripped VAX 9000s in move aimed at Cray, Convex. (streamlined file server versions of mainframe for technical DEC is introducing stripped-down versions of its VAX 9000 mainframes that are meant to be used as file servers in technical environments. The move is designed to provide more lower-priced system competition for Cray Research and Convex Computers. The VAXserver 9000 110 is derived from DEC's 9000 210, and the VAXserver 9000 300 series is stripped down from the DEC's 9000 400 family. The 300 series includes systems with one to four processors priced up to $3,990,000 for the 340VP with vector processor. The VAXserver 9000 110 starts at $920,000. While DEC dropped $700,000 worth of features from the models in order to offer them at competitive prices, buyers only see about $400,000 in price reductions. HP, Sun team to offer distributed OS standard. (Sun Microsystems Inc., HP to contribute operating system standard) Workstation competitors HP and Sun Microsystems Inc are cooperating to develop a proposal for a distributed operating system standard sponsored by the Object Management Group. The proposed standard concerns the object request broker, a mechanism in multivendor networking that transports and shares data between heterogeneous computers. The two companies will face competition from at least six other proposed standards. The winning proposal will determine key parts of distributed architecture that will affect the entire industry. The cooperative effort is comprised of a Unix-like operating system and DOS system combination based on HP's NewWave 3.0 software. The two companies hope to establish more interoperability between the HP Network Computer System and Sun's ONC workstation network protocol. Signetics drops Seeq design for flash, eyes Intel scheme. (Seeq Technology Inc. loses Philips Components Signetics as second Philips Components Signetics may not continue its second source and foundry partner relationships with Seeq Technology Inc. Philips was initially planning to produce volumes of Seeq's flash memory design, but is currently said to be considering an architecture compatible with Intel's flash memory products. Philips executives believe the market for flash memory board products is becoming dominated by Intel. In addition, Philips managers note that the company has produced prototype versions of a 1Mbyte Intel-based product that is easier to produce than the Seeq products and is closer to the design of Philips' erasable programmable read only memory products. Signetics continues to produce EEPROMS for Seeq. Seeq Pres Dan McCranie notes that the flash memory market is developing slowly and claims all flash memory producers are currently generating low yields. Wavetek agrees to $28m takeover. (Torrey Investments Inc. to pay $3.15 per share for stock) Wavetek Corp has agreed to accept an acquisition by Torrey Investments Inc for $3.15 per share, or $28.3 million. Wavetek, a maker of test and measurement equipment, reported revenues of $90.6 million and net profit of $1 million for the fiscal year ended in Sep, 1990. Torrey has not guaranteed that it has the funds to complete the acquisition, but is reportedly getting a good price for the company, whose shares have a book value of $6.82. Wavetek is seeking a buyer because its market is increasingly competitive and is populated by larger companies. Consolidations in the testing equipment industry are reportedly being stimulated by technological transitions toward computerized instruments with extensive firmware and software components. Sony in talks for SVG Micrascan 9200. (SVG Lithography Systems Inc.'s step and scan lithography system) Sony Corp is making arrangements with SVG Lithography Systems Inc to purchase a Micrascan 9200 step-and-scan lithography system to be used to produce 0.25- to 0.35-micron linewidth fast static RAMs, application-specific dynamic RAMs, and application-specific integrated circuits. Sony's purchase would make it the second Japanese company to install US deep-ultraviolet lithography technology. Delivery of the equipment could take as long as two years, because SVG's efforts are currently directed toward filling $80 million worth of orders from IBM. Sony's plans to buy the Micrascan 9200 are part of a larger capital investment strategy on the scale of $600 million per year. GCA, ASM steppers to debut at SPIE. (ASM Lithography Inc. wafer steppers to be introduced at the Microlithography Symposium The Mar 1991 Microlithography Symposium sponsored by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers will feature introductions of new wafer steppers from ASM Lithography and GCA Corp. The XLS stepper from GCA, available with minimum resolutions of 0.35 microns for ultraviolet configuration and 0.5 micron for I-line configuration, will be discussed in a presentation by a GCA product manager. ASM's PAS 5500 I-line stepper will by described by a systems engineering manager. The PAS 5500 has an estimated throughput rate of 88 six-inch wafers per hour and features global alignment and field-by-field leveling. Papers on phase-shifting mask technologies will also be presented. Plan business as usual at Semicon Europa. (Mar 1991 semiconductor industry conference in Zurich) US semiconductor firms plan to participate as usual in the Mar 1991 Semicon Europa conference in Zurich in spite of heightened fears of international terrorism related to the Persian Gulf War. Sponsors of the conference note that they expect a high level of attendance, although some US firms are sending fewer US employees to the event this year and are compensating by sending more European-based employees. Conference planners report that they are instating new security measures, and that Switzerland's security organizations and reputation as a neutral country also contribute to a safe environment for foreign travelers. Zenith has $52m '90 operating loss: loses $25m in quarter. (Zenith Electronics Corp., fourth quarter 1990) Zenith Electronics Corp records a loss of $52.3 million for continuing operations in 1990, $25.5 million of which was incurred during the 4th qtr ending Dec 31. Zenith lost $17 million in 1989. Company officials attribute the losses to inflationary costs, lower revenues and price erosion. In 4th qtr 1990, the company took a $7 million provision to finance severance payments and other one-time charges. Reduced shipments of monochrome monitors and power supplies led to a 21 percent decline in sales of the company's components products during 1990. In 1990 Zenith increased its spending in the area of high-definition systems, where it hopes to develop strategic new computer monitor and color TV products, to over $9 million. Cypress praised for CDC fab deal. (Cypress Semiconductor Corp. acquires Control Data Corp.'s fabrication plant and equipment) investment community approves of Cypress Semiconductor Corp's deal to purchase an integrated circuit for arranging to buy a fabrication plant and its equipment from Control Data Corp for an initial payment of $11.5 million in Jul 1991, followed by a payment of 3.2 million in the following two years. The semiconductor manufacturing facility originally cost Control Data over $58 million. Cypress expects the plant to incur operating losses of about $4.6 million during the first half of 1991, but has convinced Control Data to compensate for the losses. The fabrication facility, Cypress's third, may break even by the 3rd qtr of 1993. Some investment analysts are keeping their fiscal 1991 estimates for Cypress at a pre-purchase level, projecting that increased revenues will balance any negative ramifications of the acquisition. $6B tax systems revamp shifts into first gear. (Analysis) Danca, Richard A. The Internal Revenue Service's Tax Systems Modernization (TSM) program will result in the IRS awarding three or four computer contracts and starting the procurement process for three major procurements worth several billion dollars. These contracts and procurements will most likely begin in early- to mid-1991. TSM is being called the largest civilian agency procurement ever. As part of the program, the IRS will award the $1.8 billion Treasury Multiuser Acquisition Contract, which will provide multiuser computers, terminals, microcomputers, and services for TSM in Treasury agencies. In Jun 1991, the IRS will probably release a request for proposals for the $2.2 billion Service Center Support System contract, which will replace IRS Univac computers at service centers. The program is expected to eventually account for more than $6 billion in awards during the 1990s and early 2000s. Air Force launches Desktop IV: SSC looks to solve Desktop III backlog with another big guy. (Air Force Standards Systems Center) The Defense Department may soon announce Desktop IV, a follow-up to the massive Desktop III procurement for 250,000 microcomputers. The troubled Desktop III, won by Unisys Corp in Nov 1989, is due to expire in Nov 1991 and the Air Force will not take up on its option to extend the contract. However, the huge order backlog on the Desktop III contract makes it essential that a replacement procurement be in place. For example, the Navy's 35,000 order backlog means that someone could order a computer and not receive it for a year. The Army and the Air Force are experiencing similar delays, although the Air Force delays are not as lengthy. A request for industry comments on Desktop IV will probably be issued before the end of Mar 1991. The Air Force Standards Systems Center (SSC) will not confirm reports of Desktop IV. Some industry insiders say that the SSC may pursue other alternatives, such as asking the Army and the Defense Logistics Agency to buy from another contract, or calling the new microcomputer by another name, so that problems associated with Desktop III will not color the new procurement. Digital captures PC LAN. (Digital Equipment Corp wins Navy PC LAN contract) DEC, together with Novell Inc, has apparently won the Navy PC LAN contract to supply software and hardware for as many as 8,000 Defense Department local area networks. Competitors estimate the DEC bid about $50 million to $60 million for the contract, less than the procurement's estimates $75 million value. Novell's NetWare LAN operating system could become the Defense Department's (DOD) standard as a result of this contract. The Air Force Computer Acquisition Center will not confirm that DEC has won the contract, but informed sources say that DEC will supply the DOD with 3,600 80386-based microcomputers from Tandy Corp as file servers, along with a recently upgraded version of NetWare, version 3.11. This new version provides Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile compatibility. The contract will provide DEC with an advantage in selling to DOD accounts, but the company will still have to compete with companies such as Electronic Data Systems Corp, which sells to DOD accounts through its Small Multiuser Computer contract. EDI standard near for federal agencies. (Electronic Data Interchange) The federal government will soon acquire a standard governing electronic data interchange (EDI) when the Commerce Department approves a proposal that in favor of the X.12 standard for transferring formatted messages between two parties. Edifact, the international equivalent to X.12, will also be approved. X.12, a standard of the American National Standards Institute, will be mandatory for agencies considering new projects involving EDI. X.12 will be used for domestic communications and Edifact, which was developed by the United Nations, will be used for international traffic. The National Institute of Standards and Technology developed the EDI standards proposal and officials there say that EDI should allow agencies to cut down on paperwork and increase productivity. Some agencies use X.12 and Edifact now, while others use proprietary message-exchange facilities. The Defense Department is the biggest EDI user, according to an Office of Management and Budget report. Magellan's mapping mission kindles burning concerns. Mercier, Ann M. NASA is using computer modelers to determine whether the spacecraft Magellan, which is orbiting Venus on a radar mapping mission, is operating in higher-than-expected temperatures. The computer modelers are simulating the spacecraft's thermodynamic situation to predict the temperature of the spacecraft's components so that NASA can make corrections in the spacecraft's position and configuration. The Magellan is being subjected to extreme temperatures simultaneously. The spacecraft's antenna registered 297 degrees Fahrenheit in early Feb 1991, while its louvers measured negative 27 degrees. NASA has shortened the Magellan's mapping passes temporarily, to compensate for the heat, and NASA has rotated the Magellan's solar panels to keep them out of the sun during mapping passes. The Magellan has already recorded and transmitted back to the Earth about 2 terabytes of data images and it is expected to complete 4 terabytes of data during its initial mission. About 250 different products will be created from the data, for use by about 200 to 400 members of the scientific community. Pentagon limits direct computer buys from Japan. Brewin, Bob. The Defense Department (DOD) has determined that the Japanese government computer purchases for Operation Desert Storm generally duplicate inventory already owned by the DOD. DOD officials say that they would rather have cash from the Japanese. The US Central Command (Centcom) has worked with the US Embassy in Japan to purchase $70 million in computers and between $20 million and $30 million in communications systems as part of Japan's support of the allied war effort. Centcom's requirements were funneled through the US Embassy to the Japan Gulf Peace Fund, which then placed orders directly with US firms. But this acquisition method was not tightly regulated, and gave rise to some concerns about congressional release requirements. This method will be largely discarded in favor of the regular supply system, although in some cases it could be used again if it represented the most expeditious way of acquiring equipment. NASA sends space station back to the drawing board. Mercier, Ann M. NASA will redesign its space station so that it is less expensive, smaller, and more modular in the wake of decreased funding and project delays. The space station will also use simpler and fewer computers, the architecture of its data management system has also been simplified. NASA expects to deliver plans for the new space station to Congress in Mar 1991. The new space station is now budgeted at $16 billion. The changes will affect NASA's agreements with its prime contractors for the space station, such as McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co, Boeing Aerospace Co, and Rocketdyne Division, Rockwell International, but NASA says that the changes were prenegotiated into the contracts. The new space station will begin operation with a 50M-bps data link, rather than the 300M-bps link that was originally planned, and detached payloads will be indefinitely deferred. SMC equipment orders rise following initial lull. (Small Multiuser Computer contract) Orders have increased for computers purchased under the Small Multiuser Computer contract that was won by Electronic Data Systems Corp in Nov 1990. Electronic Data Systems says that it is averaging a 28-day turnaround for microcomputers, file servers, and network systems. Orders are running into the millions of dollars. Electronic Data Systems is able to deliver equipment very quickly, especially in comparison to Unisys Corp, which delivers microcomputers under the Desktop III contract. Army Lt. Col. William Jaissle says that the Army is still experiencing a long backlog on orders from Unisys Corp. Army commands that want to buy microcomputers and can afford to spend about 50 percent more can buy computers under the Small Multiuser Computer contract. Electronic Data Systems has avoided some of the problems that plague Unisys by setting up a system that allows close communication between the customer and Electronic Data Systems before an order is submitted. The company asks potential buyers to send a draft order so that it can be checked before it is submitted. Pentagon to test domestic EDI: will assess whether CALS data can travel on EDI format. (electronic data interchange) ( The Defense Department (DOD) will test a new electronic data interchange network that will run on Internet between a DOD logistics center in Virginia, the Pentagon, and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The test will constitute one of the first network tests since the DOD announced that it would merge its EDI and CALS programs under the Electronic Commerce program. Lawrence Livermore has developed software for the test that contains data protection, encryption, and message translation capabilities. The DOD wants to find out if the less details CALS data can be transmitted with the EDI messaging format. The idea of transmitting data using a combination of EDI and CALS facilities would provide a cost-effective solution to suppliers if it tests successfully. The tests will check the strength of the Lawrence Livermore software and the stability of the network. Labor to test nationwide worker injury data base. (Labor Department) The Labor Department plans to institute a national data base to track worker injuries as part of its Redesigning of the Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (ROSH) program. Labor will test the concept beginning in the summer of 1991 and it will begin to release annual data in the fall of 1993. The ROSH program will consist of a census of fatal occupational injuries and a larger system that will track non-fatal occupational injuries, as well as illnesses. Labor currently collects data from about 280,000 workplaces on 800,000 injuries and illnesses each year. The data is stored on tape files, which the department wants to turn into a dynamic, interactive data base system. The system will provide a more comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date picture of occupational health and safety. The system will run on an IBM-compatible mainframe with CICS terminals and Grid Systems Corp microcomputers with attached tape drives. Marines avoid autodin traffic via satellite circuitry. Brewin, Bob. The Marine Corp is handling its administrative and logistics data processing needs in the Middle East by using a long-distance network that offers a low circuit cost of about $2,700 a month. The Marines use deployable Force Automation Service Centers (FASCs) in Saudi Arabia for personnel and logistics functions. The FASCs, which are mainframe-based systems, utilize information that is stored on tapes and shipped from the Marine Corps Data Center in Kansas City, MI. The less-current information is adequate for most needs, but the logistics officers in Operation Desert Storm can also get more up-to-the-minute data by tapping into a multi-hop communications link that goes from a TSC-93 tactical satellite uplink in Saudi Arabia to an Indian Ocean satellite to a Defense Communications System station at Fort Bruckner, Okinawa. From Okinawa, the data goes to Hawaii, then the continental US. The Marine's use this data path to take advantage of the processing power located on Okinawa and to avoid the data logjams on the more direct Atlantic Ocean routes. DOT works to complete financial management consolidation. (Department of Transportation) The Department of Transportation has received $3.6 million in the 1992 budget to complete a core financial management system that will consolidate 10 separate financial packages at nine different Transportation agencies. The Departmental Accounting and Financial Information System (DAFIS) will eventually function as an accounts payable, accounts receivable, and standard general ledger operations system throughout the department. The system is based on an existing system developed by the Federal Aviation Authority, called the Uniform Accounting System. The FAA's Monroney Aeronautic Center in Oklahoma City did the modifications to the FAA system, using the IBM 3084 mainframe that was already in use. The department has since upgraded to an IBM 3090 because systems other than DAFIS reside on the mainframe. The additional money that was budgeted for 1992 will be used to bring in four remaining Department of Transportation agencies, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Maritime Administration, the Urban Mass Transit Administration and the Federal Highway Administration. Census passes automation milestone with 1990 count. Kellner, Mark A. The Census Bureau has marked the 1990 census as the first time it was able to support the count exclusively with commercial computers and the first time that its district offices were fully automated. The Census's management system is built on a DEC VAX platform, with DEC MicroVax 3500 minicomputers, 250Mbyte hard drives, terminals, bar-code readers, modems, impact printers, and laser printers. The 1990 survey cost $2.6 billion and about $115 million to $125 million of that was automated data processing costs. The office systems are easy to maintain and code-compatible across various sizes of VAX systems. Bar-codes were used to track returns and electronic readers were used to scan the forms for processing. The agency was able to complete 95 percent of its census data processing by Nov 1990 and was able to deliver an overall total to President Bush by Dec 31, 1990. It expects to have the results of the 1990 count for all 50 states available by Jul 1991. IBM's DisplayWrite 5: irksome features hamper usefulness. (Software Review) (evaluation) IBM's DisplayWrite 5 word processing system offers users the ability to share documents, but its minuses, including its annoying drop-down menus, its inconsistent use of terminology, and its command-line interface are enough to discourage anyone except a long-time DisplayWrite user. The $495 system offers compatibility with existing hardware, including mainframes and minicomputers, and it offers improvements such as WYSIWYG previewing, multiple column formatting, split-screen editing, and enhanced referencing that generates and controls footnotes, end notes, tables of contents and tables of authorities. The system's drop-down menus are perhaps its most irksome feature. Although they can be called up with a mouse or a function key, but the mouse operations are not consistent. The command-line interface uses commands that are unique to DisplayWrite and are difficult to memorize and use. Overall, it would be difficult to recommend this package to anyone except a longtime DisplayWrite user. Japan's gulf role illustrates no-nonsense procurement process. Levine, Arnold S. Japanese purchases for Operation Desert Storm hold significance that extends beyond the Gulf conflict. Japan directly purchases US-made microcomputers that were then sent to US forces in Saudi Arabia. These purchases made it clear that if the stakes are high enough, alternatives to the acquisition system currently in place can be found. Japanese funding streamlined order processing, resulting in turnaround that could be measured in days rather than weeks or months. The quick movement eliminated concerns about technical obsolescence. If this same sense of urgency could be brought to other major federal program acquisitions, the lack of efficiency and timeliness that currently pervades the acquisition process could be eliminated. The Japanese purchases the equipment through giant trading companies, called sogo shosha, which served as pass-throughs, processing orders and paying US vendors for the equipment. These trading companies may eventually be the means by which the Japanese enter the US government market, if the Japanese decide to pursue that segment of the market. GSA releases guidance on used equipment: industry representatives decry what they call 'buyer beware' message in bulletin. (General The General Services Administration's (GSA) recently released guidelines about buying used computer equipment warns potential buyers to ask vendors questions about previous owners, information about who maintained the equipment, and information about who made engineering changes. Used-equipment vendors say that this will increase the amount of fear and doubt that agencies have about buying used equipment. The GSA also stipulated that used-equipment vendors must supply a warranty on the equipment, all parts, repairs, and labor. The GSA bulletin says that used equipment can be used to fill an agency's need when the agency can save a lot of money by using the equipment, when the solicitation for equipment is aimed at accommodating a short-term requirement, and when the application is not expected to last until the latest version of the technology becomes available. Army loses claim for Warner exemption. (Warner Amendment to the Brooks Act) The General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals has denied the Army's claim for an exemption for a Fort Belvoir, VA, telecommunications procurement under the Warner Amendment to the Brooks Act. The Army asked the board to dismiss Contel Federal System Inc's protest of the Telecommunications Modernization Project on the grounds that the board had no jurisdiction to decide the case. The Warner Amendment provides exemption for procurements that involve intelligence activities and command and control, but the board said that the Army's definition of 'involve' was overly broad, and that the exempted system must be more closely integrated with intelligence activities or command and control to qualify as exempt. In other procurement protests, Unisys Corp withstood two attempts to dismiss its protest of the National Office Automation -- Veteran Affairs contract. Contract winner Lockheed attempted to dismiss the Unisys claim, saying that the protest was not filed in a timely manner and did not contain a valid basis for protest. Both claims were overruled and the Unisys protest will continue. Revised FIRMR leaves some questions unanswered. (Federal Information Resources Management Regulation) The new Federal Information Resources Management Regulation has arrived, and although it is substantially completed, there are still questions that remain for acquisition personnel. The FIRMR, which should supplement the general policies and procedures in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), does not contain language that states that the FAR takes precedence in case of any inconsistencies or conflicts between the two regulations. Without this statement, problems may arise down the road. The rules guiding delegation of the General Services Administration's exclusive procurement authority have been changed. FIRMR states that contracting officers must ensure that procurement authority has been delegated from the agency's senior officials before they can begin contracting for information processing. Despite some problems with FIRMR, it should make contracting for information resources easier. How agencies can assess their risks and plan for disasters. Taylor, Thomas. Every government agency computer center should prepare a plan that evaluates all potential risks facing the information system and the impact that the problems could have on the system. Disaster contingency plans are also needed, so that organizations will know how to manage and recover from disasters. Automated risk-assessment packages are available. Windows & other GUIs. (graphical user interface) Danca, Richard A. Many users believe that Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface will be the ultimate winner in the desktop operating system market. MS-DOS machines dominate the federal market, with 1.5 million to 2.2 million in use, and Microsoft believes that it has more than 90 percent of the market share for desktop operating systems. As a result, there may be an increase in the number of federal Windows users. Part of this increase would be the result of recently awarded microcomputer contracts that include Windows and Windows-based software packages. Industry analysts say that Windows 3.0 is giving DOS computers the same ease of use that was once the sole mark of the Apple Macintosh computers. Despite the fact that there are only about 1,000 to 1,500 Windows programs available, compared to about 6,000 Macintosh programs, many organizations will choose Windows because of the compatibility issue. In addition, since Microsoft has sold 40,000 Windows software development kits, there are probably many companies that are working on Windows software. Sticky choices in use of GUIs. (graphical user interfaces) Danca, Richard A. Many users have not yet decided whether they will invest in a graphical user interface, despite their advantages. GUI vendors extol the advantages of the interface, saying that they make computers easier to use and are particularly good for users who want to connect applications and transfer data among programs. A graphical interface provides versatile to novice users and experienced users. Others say that pen-based interfaces may actually provide more ease of use, but that technology has not yet taken hold within the industry. Experts do not agree about the best graphical interface platform. Some feel that Microsoft Corp's Windows is best for software developers and users. They feel that the Apple Macintosh is a closed architecture, lacking the power and configurability of IBM-compatible microcomputers. Others say that the Macintosh is made up of underlying constructs that are easier for non-computer users to assimilate, unlike Windows, which is made of DOS-like constructs. Ada drives gulf plane-tracking system. Brewin, Bob. Comptek Research Inc's advanced computer workstations are being used to track allied aircraft and enemy aircraft in Operation Desert Shield. The Air Situation Display System, which runs Ada software, provides a real-time picture of aircraft movements, displaying up to 1,256 aircraft operating in an area of 1,024 square miles. The systems were made available to the US Central Command 17 days after they were ordered. They comply with all software and open architecture directives from the Defense Department and run on reduced-instruction-set workstations running under a Posix-compliant operating system. The system allows users to call up the history of each aircraft track as well as create and save separate geometric overlays of battle management areas. The system can record up to six hours of track data so that air battles can be replayed for US Central Command officers. DEC serves up VAX line for federal market. Mercier, Ann M. DEC has introduced extensions to its VAX 9000 line of mainframes, adding 10 mainframe and supercomputer servers for network applications. The machines, which are priced at between $920,000 and $3.99 million, are aimed at the government, scientific, and technical markets and will be available in late May or Jun 1991. The VAX 9000 line has been reconfigured by DEC so that an entry-level machine could be offered for people who do not need a full configuration. The VAXserver Model 110 is a low-end version of the VAX 9000 Model 210. The 110 comes with 128Mbytes of memory and an optional commercial instruction set. The operating system license is limited to two users. DEC has also introduced Models 310, 320, 330, and 340. These computers are scalar processing machines that contain one, two, three, and four processors, respectively. Kodak fields new printers for federal market goal: resellers and systems integrators are expected to help boost agency sales, Eastman Kodak Co's Personal Printer Products unit introduced several new printers, including a 16 page-per-minute LED-based model that they believe will help them double their federal business in 1992. The new Kodak Ektaplus 7016 allows small work groups to connect IBM-compatible and Apple Macintosh computers to the same printer. Users can attach a different network to each of the printer's four ports. Kodak hopes that this printer, as well as a thermal color printer and other printers that will provide a range of products, will increase Kodak's percentage of the federal market to 12 percent, up from five to seven percent. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the Navy have shown interest in the Ektaplus 7016. Kodak will probably market the printer through Falcon Microsystems Inc and Government Technology Services Inc. Everex Federal rallies despite parent firm's woes. (Everex Federal Systems Inc.) Despite layoffs and management changes at Everex Systems Inc, Everex Federal Systems Inc, which is a subsidiary of Everex Systems, will not experience any downturns. Everex is fully committed to the federal market, which currently represents less than 10 percent of Everex's overall business. As part of this commitment, Everex will hold its first General Services Administration schedule. It will also provide letters of supply to three resellers, down from the 12 or 14 resellers that held them in 1990. Everex estimates that its current federal contracts could bring in as much as $150 million in the early and mid-1990s. One result of Everex Systems Inc's financial problems is that Everex will no longer maintain a separate design center for its low-end AGI product line, which consists of 80286-based microcomputers. Everex will continue to manufacture AGI products for current contracts and those with outstanding bids. Wireless LAN technology bursts onto commercial scene. Sweeney, Shahida. Wireless LAN technology is a new concept for the federal market, and government telecommunications specialists are cautiously interested in utilizing the technology. Agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration say that there are no plans currently to use the technology within the federal government. Some of the issues that still need to be resolved include data protection and cost. Wireless LANs require a greater upfront investment than traditional LANs, but some say that the technology is particularly good for short-term projects, where wiring and installation costs are an issue. Major firms in the computer industry are taking an interest in wireless LANs. Apple has recently petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to dedicate part of the radio spectrum to wireless LAN use and an Apple official says that wireless LANs can offer users improved wiring safety. AT&T Co. picks Pyramid Software to secure FTS 2000 workstations. (Pyramid Development Corp) AT&T has selected software from Pyramid Development Corp to ensure the security of the information residing on its FTS 2000 support system workstations. The software, called the Personal Computer Data Access Control System (PC/DACS) will be installed electronically on 650 computers. By choosing a software solution, AT&T has avoided the difficulties that would arise if it had to install a board into each microcomputer. The computers that will be protected contain classified data that consists of financial management and network configuration information. The software provides a C2 level of security. C2 is a low-level security standard for sensitive, but unclassified data. PC/DACS was selected because it combined the four security features required by AT&T, including an identification/authorization subsystem, an audit trail, and access control. Bat flies through data entry. (Infogrip Inc's Bat input device) (product announcement) Infogrip Inc's Bat input device is a cross between a keyboard and a mouse. The $495 Bat consists of a pair of small chord keyboards that allow users to enter data much more quickly than with traditional keyboards. The Bat requires users to use only one hand, so that they can keep the other on a mouse, digitizer, or other data entry device. Although Infogrip is currently targeting applications that require both a mouse and data entry, eventually the company hopes to break into markets that provide solutions for engineers, secretaries, and the disabled. Users use the bat to input text and design graphics through 'chords' or combinations or seven keys. The Bat works with IBM-compatible computers and versions for the Apple Macintosh and for Unix systems should be available early in 1991. Infogrip expects the price of the Bat to drop to less than $300 when it begins making them in quantity, later in 1991. Xerox plugs scanner into Sun, hopes to capture CALS contract. (Xerox Imaging Systems, Sun Microsystems Inc)(Computer-Aided Xerox Imaging Systems hopes to gain federal documentation automation contracts with the introduction of its ScanWorX text and image scanner. The $17,950 device may help Xerox move into the Army CALS contract, which is reportedly worth $400 million. CALS is aimed at automating hard-copy weapons documentation. Although CALS is not supported in the first release of ScanWorX, Xerox Imaging Systems says that it will support it by the time the Army CALS is close to being awarded. The Defense Department and the Health and Human Services sectors have shown interest in the new system. ScanWorX runs under Unix on Sun Microsystems 3X, 4, SLC, and Sparc workstations. Xerox Imaging Systems will also offer the scanner for Sun's Open Look graphical user interface. ScanWorX recognizes a large number of type fonts and sizes and it allows users to interact with the system to identify characters on degraded documents. Bell TV? (PacTel Corp. believes it will be given access to the cable television business) PacTel Corp, a loosely regulated subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, one of the Bell regional holding companies (RBHC), is banking on the fact that US District Judge Harold Greene will soon reverse his prior decision and allow RBHC's to enter the cable television market. Previously Greene ruled that cable television services fell into the 'information services' area, a market that RBHC's are forbidden to enter under the antitrust consent decree that broke up AT and T. PacTel already has a sizable cable television presence in Great Britain, and it has placed itself in line to acquire US cable systems should Greene reverse his ruling as a US Court of Appeals has recommended. PacTel has invested $213 million in acquiring 75 percent of Group W's 111,500-subscriber cable system in Chicago by using Transamerica Corp as an intermediary. Analysts say that should RBHC's be allowed to enter the market cable stocks will rebound strongly. Wait and save. (teleconferencing technology) Churbuck, David. Videoconferencing systems and video telephones are finally blossoming into a full fledged market, but users may still want to wait until prices drop before jumping in. PictureTel currently fields the lowest priced videoconferencing system at a mere $39,500, but analysts say the cost of a system could significantly fall within two years. PictureTel's main rival is Compression Labs, which targets the high-end of the market with near-broadcast-quality systems costing $300,000. Compression Labs will also field a $1,500 telephone with a 3-inch-by-3-inch color screen in 1992. PictureTel reported 1990 revenues of $37 million while losing $209,000; however its stock price jumped 160 percent. Compression Labs' stock jumped 70 percent in 1990 with revenues of $52 million and net income of $2.6 million. Doubts concerning the market remain; however, and analysts warn that once prices come down PictureTel and Compression Labs will have to compete with the likes of Sony and AT and T. Chip squeeze. (packaging of semiconductor chips) Wiegner, Kathleen K. The way integrated circuits are packaged has not changed significantly since the 1970s; however, with the advent of faster and faster chips the old, bulky, centipede package has become a serious performance bottleneck. The traditional method places chips several inches apart on the circuit board, costing valuable billionths of a second of electrical travel time. The long legs of the centipede chip cause a degradation of electrical quality. A method called wafer-scale integration was tried in the early 1980s to solve the problem but it failed, and now a company called nChip has created a system it calls a silicon circuit board. nChip's model takes chips and mounts them on a silicon dioxide base using a thermally conductive glue. The company claims the resulting boards have shorter travel times, better connections and will create cheaper end products. The first planned application will be in workstations and microcomputers running at clock speeds over 40 MHz. Can dinosaurs adapt? (Tektronix Inc.) Pitta, Julie. Tektronix Inc may be back on track after stumbling through the 1980's searching for a way to expand from its base oscilloscope business. Tektronix is still the leader in oscilloscope technology, with 55 percent of its 1990 revenues coming from the business, which provides Tektronix with gross margins in the 50 percent range. For the first half of FY 1991 Tektronix reports net income of $21 million compared with a loss of $1.4 million for the comparable period in 1990. Times have not been so good in the recent past; however, with top management shakeups and a marketing mistake that cost the firm a headstart into the lucrative workstation market. The firm has trimmed its workforce by 10 percent in recent years and has sold off its semiconductor test equipment unit as well as aborting its belated effort to enter the workstation field. The firm plans to target the communications test equipment market and the color printer market. But can it read your mind? (Random Access, pen-based computing and the PenPoint operating system) (column) Go Corp's PenPoint operating system for pen-based computers is more than just an extension of traditional operating systems that happens to recognize handwriting. That could be said about Microsoft's rival product known as Pen Windows, but PenPoint can actually be viewed as the first wave in the next generation of computing technology. PenPoint enables users to access applications such as spreadsheets in the traditional way, but it also utilizes 'smart' features. These smart features make assumptions about certain things that a user would generally want to do with data. PenPoint is the foundation for application developers to create programs with built-in intelligence using object-oriented programming techniques. So called smart software can automate many of the mundane chores of moving and sorting data by making intelligent guesses about what a users intentions are. Unix micros used for C2 in Gulf War. (US Army uses Unix equipment during Persian Gulf war ground attack) US Army commanders used command and control systems running on Unix battlefield equipment for the first time during the US ground attack on Iraqi forces in Feb 1991. The supporting strategic operations system and the tactical troop maneuvers system ran on the new Common Hardware/Software (CHS) suite of computers; the CHS platform ran a modified version of the Army's European Tactical Command and Control System (UTACCS) and an enhanced version of the Maneuver Control System (MCS). Both CHS-based systems are designated as C2's by the National Computer Security Center, and are the first to be used by the Army at battlefield command level. During the Persian Gulf war ground attack, the C2 systems ran on 32-bit CHS microcomputers, ruggedized versions of HP's 9000 300 workstations. TRW Inc developed UTACCS provides a wartime commander-in-chief access to automated decision support tools. INS reorganization targets IRM's role. (US Immigration and Naturalization Service; information resource management) The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will reorganize its management and improve its information systems as mandated by Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. The reorganization could mean the replacement of associate INS commissioner for information systems, Elizabeth Chase MacRae, but Deputy Attorney General William P. Barr has made no official announcement. Thornburgh delegated the reorganization to Barr who will decide whether INS will retain its current division structure. Thornburgh initially requested that the US General Accounting Office (GAO) review INS management in 1990; consequent GAO reports stated that INS managers faced problems working with fragmented information systems developed for specific program needs. Management did not realize its plans to interconnect the systems and as a result INS cannot keep track of its finances. Mac becomes secure workstation. (US National Computer Security Center and US Defense Intelligence Agency issue security ratings The US National Computer Security Center (NCSC) and US Defense Intelligence Agency issue SecureWare Inc's system software a B-1 rating and compartmented-mode workstation (CMW) certification. The CMW+ system software runs on an Apple Macintosh, and it received its ratings after a three-year evaluation by the NCSC and DIA. The DIA designated the software/Macintosh duo a compartmented mode workstation because of its enhanced multilevel security features. CMW+ runs on Apple's version of Unix, A/UX, and combines multilevel operating system security with the X Window System and the Open Software Foundation's OSF/Motif graphical user interface. SecureWare's CMW+ is the first multilevel secure workstation to receive DIA certification out of five companies contracted in 1988. The other four DIA contracts were awarded to DEC, IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc and Harris Corp. 'Progressive' network set to handle oil spill claims. (US National Guard purchases Convergent Inc.'s B-38 EXP microcomputers for The US National Guard purchases 70 Convergent Inc B-38 EXP microcomputers to manage claims processing at the US National Pollution Funds Center. The B-38s, together with 12 AT&T 6325 microcomputers and six Apple Macintoshes will be connected on a local area network (LAN). The National Pollution Funds Center was instituted by the Oil Pollution Liability and Compensation Act of 1990, and it will process claims from any city, state or nation seeking funds to clean up oil spills. The computer systems will handle claims processing, financial management and administration of the center by Apr or May 1991. The National Guard is a US Transportation Department agency, and it acquired the AT&T and Apple machines through the Transportation office. The National Guard is utilizing a three-year-old support contract with Unisys Corp, Convergent's parent company, for the B-38s. GSA team emerges from 3-year FIRMR odyssey. (US General Services Administration's information resources management team rewrites The US General Services Administration (GSA) assigned a group of automated data processing (ADP) analysts and specialists to revise the government's information resources management (IRM) rulebook in Jul 1987. The four-member Federal IRM Regulation (FIRMR) rewrite team was recruited after the GSA's 1987 conference where senior agency IRM officials discussed ways to modify the FIRMR and implement policy changes mandated by the 1986 Paperwork Reduction Reauthorization Act. Team leader, David Mullins and members Paul G. Whitson, Jack Stewart and Patricia Phillips reviewed policy issues and established a plan for recasting the FIRMR in a lifecycle format. The team collectively evaluated all drafts, but assignments were made on the basis of each member's expertise. The team produced a draft on contracting policies in Feb 1989, and issued the new FIRMR in Dec 1990 after months of review. Data protection means a hammer and chisel. (staff members at US Embassy in Kuwait destroy computer equipment) US Embassy in Kuwait's Ambassador Nathaniel Howell instructed his staff members to destroy computer hardware and software with hammers and chisels to prevent their equipment from being captured by invading Iraqi soldiers in Aug 1990. Staff members first destroyed classified data, then the brains on the Tempest microcomputers. Howell regulated what was destroyed, and when abandoning the embassy became imminent, only a typewriter and the communications system were still operational. A US outpost generally consists of a Wang Laboratories Inc VS 100 minicomputer with 10 microcomputer terminals. System components include three 288Mbyte disk drives, two Wang Office Information System 140 tape drive systems, a 1,600-bit-per-inch Wang tape drive, an archiving workstation, four 4230A workstations and two 6554 telecommunications chassis. New products making debut at FOSE '91. (Federal Office Systems Expo) (product announcement) Everex Systems Inc, Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc, Central Point Software Inc, Software Publishing Corp, Gallagher Systems Inc and Picture Conversion Inc announce products at Federal Office Systems Expo (FOSE). Everex introduces the US Army Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) System 3000D, which includes 1-4- or 8Mbyte of random access memory (RAM), a math coprocessor and VGA display. Hayes introduces its LANstep multitasking network operating system, which can accommodate 255 total network workstations. Central Point introduces Anti-Virus, a $129 data security package that helps prevent computer viruses and includes disinfection programs for network and storage devices. Software Publishing introduces the enhanced version of its word processing software, Professional Write Plus. The $249 program supports graphics and table importation from other programs. Gallagher Systems introduces a local area network (LAN) version of InSync, its personal information management system designed to run under Novell Inc's NetWare. Picture Conversion reduces the price of its Briefcase Video Computer. WITS soon will give agencies ISDN services. (Washington Interagency Telecommunications System to provide integrated The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co-operated Washington Interagency Telecommunications System (WITS) will supply federal agencies in the Washington area with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines by Jul 1991. The US General Services Administration (GSA), Small Business Administration, Health and Human Services Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Peace Corps will be the first users of the ISDN basic rate interface (BRI) service, which offers digital communications services for voice, data, imaging and video. The GSA will likely receive ISDN BRI service first since it requires such capabilities as microcomputer screen sharing and incoming call identification. WITS ISDN lines cost $20.75 per month for one circuit-switched 64K-bps B channel; the service costs $40.50 per month for two 64K-bps B channels. Both configurations use a 16K-bps D channel for network signaling. Federal Computer Corp offers new logic in Companion protest. (protest against US Navy's Desktop Companion contract award to Federal Computer Corp protests the US Navy's Desktop Companion contract award to Government Technology Services Inc (GTSI). Federal Computer asked the US General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) to suspend the contract two days after it lost its GSBCA bid to recoup Companion expenses. Federal Computer also amended its protest against GTSI to include claims from its ally, SMS Data Products Group Inc. The Companion contract is potentially worth $500 million and has cost the Navy three years of battle to see it implemented. The Navy's Automatic Data processing Selection Office (ADPSO) issued the request for proposals (RFP) Jul 6, 1988. The RFP calls for hardware, software and support upgrades for the US Defense Department's Zenith Data Systems Z-248 microcomputers. ADPSO's 1988 contract award to Zenith Data Systems was overturned by GTSI's GSBCA protest. DOD halts systems study until Desert Storm ends. (US Department of Defense's Corporate Information Management plan to consolidate US Department of Defense (DOD) postpones a study of military personnel systems until Operation Desert Storm has completed its objective. Assistant Secretary of Defense for force, management and personnel, Christopher Jane, delayed a Corporate Information Management (CIM) plan to consolidate a number of personnel systems across the services and DOD agencies. Over 30 different systems keep data on civilian employees. During the fall of 1990, DOD's Major Automated Informations Systems Review Committee (MAISRC) announced that a CIM study group would begin defining requirements to initiate the consolidation of military personnel systems; additional groups are doing similar work in eight other DOD business areas. Jane indicated that the Persian Gulf war took priority over the CIM plan, but told Army officials to make their database information available to other services. The Army's Standard Installation/Division Personnel System-3 (SIDPERS-3) is also discussed. Glenn, Treasury spar over procurement. (US Senate Governmental Affairs chairman claims Department of the Treasury seeks to exempt US Department of the Treasury officials and Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Sen. John Glenn dispute Glenn's charges that Treasury is attempting to exempt itself from procurement oversight. Glenn criticized Treasury officials for saying federal procurement strategies are based on attempts to avoid protests at US General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA). Glenn claims the statements are products of individuals ignorant of the complexities of the acquisition process. Glenn says deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury, Steven W. Broadbent, made public objections to the GSBCA's oversight process and called for a reduction of GSA reviews and control of the GSBCA. Broadbent's superior is heading an advisory committee created by the GSA to review the procurement process. New chief trail boss lassos the program's mission. (US General Services Administration's Thomas J. Horan heads Trail Boss US General Services Administration's (GSA) Agency Liaison Program Division director, Thomas J. Horan, manages the Trail Boss program, a project that seeks to develop an elite corps of the 300 best acquisition managers across government. The program wants to influence the way agencies conduct their procurements by assigning one qualified acquisition manager to lead the project team from start to finish. Successful trail bosses possess a broad background rather than specialized knowledge in the technical or programming areas or in contracting. The majority of government agencies respond positively to the Trail Boss training program and a Trail Boss II program is being developed to provide managers with training in the area of design and implementation. There will not be any completed Trail Boss projects until 1992 or 1993, but it is evident that the GSA has developed a quality program. LAN operating systems: users steadfast in affection for NetWare. (Government Computer News' user survey of local area network Government Computer News' user survey of readers who buy or support local area network (LAN) operating systems reveals that users favor Novell Inc's NetWare. Novell LAN operating systems have received top ratings since 1989, and readers indicate that they value reliability over low price. Federal buyers indicate that good documentation and vendor support take precedence over low price in a LAN operating system. 3Com Corp's 3+Share emerged as another favorite, which ranked just below NetWare 386 and NetWare Advanced. 3+Share received the highest rating for value and tied for third in the speed category. IBM's LAN Server rated high, despite the confusion its name and marketing have spurred with Microsoft's LAN Manager. Users expressed some dissatisfaction with LAN Server's underlying operating system, OS/2 Extended Edition. Banyan Systems' Vines scored high among federal users who implement internetworking. Sitka's Tops, Apple's AppleShare and Digital Communications' 10Net Plus scored toward the lower end of the standings. System helps agencies automate small purchases. (Expert Systems International Inc.'s Pre-Printed Forms System) (Microcomputing ) US government agencies including the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service use Expert Systems International Inc's Pre-Printed Forms System (PPFS) to automate their small purchasing activities. The forms generation software automatically creates quarterly summary reports; seven Interior Department bureaus and eight government agencies have standardized on the PPFS. Government officials use PPFS to prepare reports necessary for the Federal Procurement Data Center (FPDC), such as the SF-281, the Summary Contract Action Report that agencies must file for all purchases under $25,000. The National Park service also uses PPFS to generate contract data that is entered into an internal data system as well as sent to the FPDC. PPFS includes a data base that extracts the SF-281 data after a purchase order has been entered; agency data bases may be combined nationally with PPFC. Low-priced 486s lurking around the bend. (Intel Corp. to market two 80486 chips) (Power User) (column) Intel Corp is rumored to be preparing two new 80486 integrated circuits for market. The rumor suggests that by the end of 1992, 8088/86 systems will be at the low end, 386SX systems will replace 286 and slower 386 systems and the new 20-MHz 486 will take the place of all other 386s. Information about Intel's new 486 chips indicate that they will be inexpensive, they will not include built-in coprocessor circuitry and a 20-MHz 486 with math coprocessor will cost $100 less than the present 25-MHz 486. The low-cost 486 will likely be successful since software can take advantage of improved execution of basic operations and a built-in 8Kbyte cache. By winter of 1992, 20-MHz 486 systems should run as fast as 33-MHz 386s. Intel is also developing a 64-bit 586, with clock speed of 66-MHz. IBM will be the first to market a system using the 20-MHz 486 chip. Zeos International's 386SX laptop computer is also discussed. Short on glitz, Mousedose is still a dazzling bargain. (Microshell Corp.'s Mousedose Deluxe security software) (Microcomputing) Microshell Corp's Mousedose Deluxe is an MS-DOS shell and security program that includes a basic word processor, calculator, address book, storage organizer, mouse utilities and a clipboard. The $89 character-driven program is often available for as little as $29, and it employs graphical user interface features such as pull-down menus and dialogue boxes. The interface is useful for novices, but the on-line help is merely a reiteration of the ineffective manual. Security features are not complicated to set up and they may be configured to lock users out of reading, editing or executing a specific file. Mousedose can prevent access of selected subdirectories, and it allows users to encrypt text files. The same password that lets users into the security system also unlocks users' files. Mousedose Deluxe offers fast and easy file protection on a local hard disk, but it is not high level security. Rational offers new MS Windows interface and library. (Rational's Rational Windows Interface and Rational X Library) Rational introduces the Rational Windows Interface (RWI) graphical user interface to Microsoft Windows, and the Rational X Library program development software program that allows programmers to develop and test graphical applications. Both programs make its proprietary Ada development environment, Rational Environment, accessible to a larger number of users. Rational Environment is a life cycle-oriented system, which integrates Ada software development activities. The RWI offers an interface to the Rational Environment from microcomputers running Windows under MS-DOS. The $500 per user node RWI includes a Windows-compatible mouse to browse the environment and to call-up Rational Environment commands through pull-down menus. The Rational X Library is an Ada implementation of the X Window System Xlib interface that enables Ada application developers to utilize all the capabilities of Xlib while working entirely in Ada. The Rational X Library costs $10,000 per Rational system. Norton Antivirus tames 'Tigers' with a phone call. (Symantec Corp.'s data security software application) (Microcomputing) Symantec Corp's data security software, Norton Antivirus (NAV), is an anti-virus application that features access to a 24-hour virus protection service telephone line. Users first call Symantec's Virus Newsline, which informs callers of the viruses for which NAV protects. Users may also phone Symantec's bulletin board system to download viral definitions, which are used by their copies of NAV. The $129.95 anti-virus software installs intelligently, meaning the software checks to see what type of equipment and software the user has and adjusts itself appropriately. NAV successfully identified and removed a variation on the Columbus Day virus on a micro known to be infected and restored the hard drive without complication. Nav includes a flexible terminate-and-stay-resident portion that examines files being accessed, copied or removed from the system, and a clinic utility. WordPerfect gets around to better Mac version. (WordPerfect for the Mac 2.0) (Microcomputing) (evaluation) WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect for the Mac 2.0 is a word processing application that includes more publishing capacity than MS-DOS versions. Users can set margins and tabs, and the ruler provides a key line down the page as a guide. Users may specify from no columns to 24 per page, each with variable widths and gutters. The graphics program features Bezier curves, full rotation and color mixing and the ability to import and export other graphics formats. Users can attach graphics to a single character, paragraph or page and assign it a caption or a number for future copying and editing. Users can also create text boxes with graphics qualities. WordPerfect for the Mac pools all format commands in the paragraph marker, which may be copied to the clipboard. Screen rewrite operates slowly if there are graphics on the page, and the occasional references to 'path' mean 'folder.' NASA bucks mainframe network management trend. (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center uses The US Johnson Space Center uses System Center Inc's Net/Master network management software to oversee 14 IBM and compatible mainframes ranging from IBM 4381s to IBM 3090-600s. The NASA agency uses mainframes to run administrative applications, including the equipment inventory system, personnel and payroll systems and IBM's host-based Profs office automation system for electronic mail and calendar planning. The center also operates 14 front-end processors, approximately 250 cluster controllers and 5,000 terminals. The majority of users at the center access mainframes via microcomputers attached to cluster controllers. The Space Center also has a 100M-bps Fiber Distributed Data Interface backbone network, which supports various work groups and provides access to the mainframes. System Center's Net/Master represents the only direct competitor to IBM's NetView. Sifting through the ISDN hype to find out what it all means. (Integrated Services Digital Network services may only benefit Integrated Services Digital network (ISDN) deployment represents profit for interexchange carriers such as AT&T, the regional Bell operating companies and equipment makers including IBM, and DEC. The end-user, however, may gain nothing substantial from ISDN services. The throughput speed of the 2B+D Basic Rate ISDN interface, which offers two 64K-bps main channels and one 16K-bps control channel, does not exceed greatly the 10M-bps capability of an average Ethernet local area network. The 23B+D 1.544M-bps ISDN Primary Rate Interface is, essentially, a dressed-up T1 circuit. International Data Corp's ISDN white paper gives the technology credence by underscoring its integration goals. The paper emphasized ISDN's ability to provide an interface between a wide range of information processing devices, including PBXs, computers, video codecs, terminals, telephone handsets, fax machines and central office switches. Datability, McData offer new links to mainframe. (Datability Software Systems Inc.'s gateway device and file servers; McData Datability Software Systems Inc introduces the $2,399 VCP-200 and the $2,999 VCP-300. Each file server contains all necessary software on ROM, making them plug-and-play units. Datability also announces a gateway device that provides its VCP-1000 file server with access to IBM hosts via a TCP-to-SNA or LAT-to-SNA link. The VCP-1000 previously supported only TCP/IP and DEC local area transport (LAT) protocols. The $4,999 cluster controller card emulates a IBM 3274 cluster controller. McData Corp introduces software features for its LinkMaster 6100E file server. The tn3270 software allows a variety of microcomputers in a local area network to access host applications. The 6100E previously required a channel-attachment to the host. McData also announces an agreement with Interlink Computer Sciences Inc to distribute Interlink's SNS/TCPaccess software. Product announcements from Cabletron Systems Inc, SynOptics Communications Inc, Digi International Inc and UDS Motorola are also discussed. Micom mux sends data, fax traffic on single line. (Micom Communications Corp.'s Marathon 5K multiplexer) (Communications) Micom Communications Corp introduces the Marathon 5K multiplexer, which allows data, voice and facsimile traffic to share one low-speed leased line. The US Army 7th Signal Command employs Micom MB3 multiplexers for voice and data communications between the Pentagon and Panama, and will beta test the $3,000 Marathon 5K. Using a low-speed leased line, such as a 9,600bps or 19.2- or 56K-bps circuit for voice, fax and data eliminates interoffice toll and fax charges between remote sites. The Marathon 5K's digital signal processors and voice compression algorithms enable a voice signal to be compressed to 4,800bps; ordinary conversation generally requires 64K-bps of bandwidth. Users may install up to four two-channel voice expansion modules in the mux's five-card slot chassis to support as many as eight conversations on a single 64K-bps line with bandwidth left for data communications. NASA mini to simulate space for shuttle satellite. (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration uses Partial Payload Checkout The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) prepares to deploy its Tethered Satellite System (TSS) with a computer system that simulates orbiter avionics. The Partial Payload Checkout Unit (PPCU) is a minicomputer system that took NASA eight years to develop and cost $10 million in hardware and software. PPCU tests each component of TSS for any miscalculations or misinterpretations of data. TSS, scheduled to be deployed in 1992, is a $100 million satellite that will conduct a range of science experiments while in orbit. TSS contains an innovative 12.5-mile long tether that attaches the satellite to one of NASA's space shuttles. Data obtained from the TSS will be transmitted to systems at two Space Flight Centers. PPCU includes 25 networked computers that perform different tasks using seven operating modules. Design and construction of PPCU is discussed. Trusted Xenix wins B2 rating, indicates system is more secure. (US National Computer Security Center issues security rating to The US National Computer Security Center issues Trusted Information Systems Inc's (TIS) Trusted Xenix operating system a B2 security rating. B2 is the third highest level of security in the Department of Defense's (DOD) Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, referred to as the Orange Book. Trusted Xenix is a multilevel secure Unix-like operating system for microcomputers with Intel Corp 80286, 386 or 486 microprocessors. DOD officials are considering Trusted Xenix for applications across multiple networks with a range of different classifications. The Trusted Xenix system includes the operating system, the development system and the formatting system. TIS plans to develop a secure version of its Mach operating system. TIS hopes to obtain a B3 rating for the Trusted Mach, which will be available in 1993 or 1994. FEDSIM's Ortego a skilled problem solver. (US General Services Administration's Federal Systems Integration and Management Center US Federal Facilities Management Support Center director, John R. Ortego is responsible for efficient operations of federal data centers. The center is a division of the US General Services Administration's Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM). Ortego came to FEDSIM from the US Veterans Affairs Department's data processing center where he oversaw the telecommunications and user support group. Ortego is an able problem solver and one of his goals is to establish a shared backup facility. FEDSIM operates on a for-hire basis, offering advice and technical consulting to client agencies, which include the US Department of Defense, Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. The center provides overall data center reviews, and staff members offer expertise in the areas of capacity management, charge and cost recovery, data security and systems engineering. AMHS spies messages for intelligence analysts. (US Department of Defense upgrades its Automated Message Handling System with Verity The Department of Defense (DOD) upgrades its Automated Message Handling System (AMHS) with Verity Inc's Topic Real-Time document retrieval system. AMHS is part of a global system headed by DOD Intelligence Information System, a worldwide network that transmits intelligence information. The US Army, Navy, Air Force and other agencies will use the system. Topic Real-Time replaces the Modular Architecture for the eXchange of Information (MAXI), a 1970s-developed system which officials claim is outdated and expensive. Topic Real-Time uses concept-retrieval technology to search for particular information. The system searches for topics of interest rather than keywords. The system connects to a variety of dynamic information sources including news wires, intelligence feeds or electronic mail. Topic Real-Time will allow AMHS to send intelligence reports and record message traffic from one organization to another. Reusable software goal of agencies' new partnership. (Software Productivity Solutions Inc. to develop software systems for US Software Productivity Solutions (SPS) Inc is developing reusable software systems for the US Army and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of two $500,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects. Software developed under each project will be interoperable and SPS will provide both agencies with a suite of tools that work together. SPS's combined product consists of the Army's Automated Reusable Components System (ARCS) Reuse Library System, being developed for the Army's Communications and Electronics Command (CECOM), and NASA's Eli Software Reuse Tools System. SPS will use its own Classic-Ada object-oriented programming tool, artificial intelligence, database management, an information retrieval system and reusable software components for common functions to develop the systems. Cadre has new tools to team with CASE product. (Cadre Technologies Inc. introduces tools for Teamwork 4.0 computer-aided software Cadre Technologies Inc introduces program development tools to complement its Teamwork 4.0 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) application. The $12,500 Teamwork/SIM is for dynamic modeling and real-time simulation; the $8,000 Teamwork/C Rev is for reverse engineering C code; and the $2,775 Teamwork/DSE is an Ada design-sensitive editor. Teamwork/SIM enables developers to address modeling issues including partitioning, allocation, process-to-resource mapping and performance estimates. Teamwork/SIM prevents critical errors from going undetected until late in the development process. Teamwork/C Rev automates the building of structure charts from C source files, which makes reverse engineering of C software easier. The tool also allows users to browse source code from the charts. Teamwork/DSE reduces the number of possible errors that can occur in the Ada code outside the CASE environment. The tool is useful for developers who want to reduce time-intensive Ada compilations they must run. DOD group is merging software standards. (US Department of Defense's Joint Logistics Commanders revises standards) The Department of Defense's (DOD) Joint Logistics Commanders (JLC) revises and consolidates software standards that govern DOD. The JLC is an ad hoc DOD group responsible for standards coordination in DOD. The Computer Resources Management Subgroup of the JLC is dedicated to coordinating policy, guidelines and standards that will facilitate better managed computer resources in DOD and all military services. The Computer Resources Management Subgroup was initiated in 1977 to assist in the development of Mil-Std 2167, the Defense System Software Standard, and Mil-Std 2168, the Defense System Software Quality Standard. Each standard specifies the format and documents contractors must use when developing software for DOD. A Subgroup panel identified a vast variety of standards and data item descriptors for different branches of Defense, and successfully consolidated them into a revised Mil-Std 2167. Development system integrates Ada, real-time tools. (TeleSoft's TelGen Real-Time Integrated Ada Development system) (Software) TeleSoft introduces TelGen Real-Time Integrated Ada Development (TRIAD) system program development software that comes with components for high-speed tasking. The Triad system is comprised of TeleSoft's Ada compiler, and integrates a complete set of Ada development tools and real-time run-time components into a single environment. Government agencies including the Air Force, Army, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Energy Department already employ components of Triad. The bundled package is available for prices ranging from $28,200 to $210,000. Triad consists of the core, TeleAda-Exec, and an Ada productivity tool set, made up of the components TeleAda-Link, TeleAda-LAN, TeleAda-File and TeleAda-I/O. C4's Desert Storm use marks 'new age.' (US Army Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers The Army Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) support US troops in the ground offensive against Iraq. Department of Defense officials express confidence in the systems in use in the Persian Gulf, and trust that interoperability among the allies will remain stable as the war shifts to the ground. Joint Chiefs of Staff director of C4 James S. Cassidy explains that interoperability has been in development for years via US exercises with its allies, NATO exercises and bilateral exercises. Officials noted that C4 use reached unprecedented heights during the first month of war with Iraq. Computer use in the war represents the result of a 10-year drive to convert the US military to commercial information technology. A wide range of equipment has been sent to Saudi Arabia, and automation devices range from laptop computers to complex computer systems. Modems for portable micros. (pocket modems, internal modem cards, facsimile modems for laptops and portable microcomputers) External portable modems, internal cards and facsimile modems are all part of the market for laptops and portable microcomputers. Internal modem cards are as functional as desktop modems, they are simple to install and generally comply with a number of protocols such as Bell 103 and 212A. A standard modem card for a Toshiba, Zenith or NEC laptop costs between $200 and $300, and transmits at 300bps to 2,400bps. A three- to five-ounce pocket modem the size of a cigarette package plugs directly into the RS-232C serial port of any computer, so it can be used with a variety of portables. Vocal Technologies Ltd's $295 Stowaway transmits at 2,400bps with multiple options including the Hayes AT command set, automatic fallback and auto-answering. Facsimile modems for portables generally come as internal half- or full-slot cards. Combination fax/data modems on a card are a fast-growing market sector. Cellular modem technology is growing, but it complicates data transmission. A guide to suppliers of portable modems is included. CAD hardware and software: standards, managers draw readers' fire. (Government Computer News' user survey on computer-aided design) A Government Computer News survey on computer-aided design (CAD) reveals that government users are more concerned about standards, user training and funding than CAD hardware/software products. Users would like to see a multiagency standard for file exchange to increase the number of eligible products and cost competition within the government sector. Data exchange between CAD systems is complicated because systems have implemented the Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES), a neutral file exchange standard, incorrectly, or have not yet implemented Product Data Exchange Specification (PDES/STEP). Readers indicated internal differences of opinion over the quality and practicality between Intergraph Corp's Microstation CAD package and Autodesk Inc's AutoCAD. The steep learning curve for CAD is another user concern. Other survey respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the government's procurement processes. Govt. enthusiasm grows for popular design systems. (US Naval Weapons Station Earle and US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Computer-aided design (CAD) users at the Naval Weapons Station Earle, and the Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Refuge System Realty Division say the software has increased the quality of their design work, but productivity improvements are more difficult to gauge. Naval Weapons Station Earle designs shipping and storage containers for missiles, vertical launch systems and handling equipment with the use of Computervision Inc's CADDS 4x software. The Station has four Computervision Designer 4X systems and two Computervision CADDStations, for which the 16-member staff must vie. The Station has allocated $130,000 for CAD hardware and software; in 1992, $200,000 will be budgeted for upgrades. The Wildlife Refuge System Realty Division uses Autodesk Inc's AutoCAD software and Generic Software Inc's Generic CAD to draw and modify property maps. The agency initially used CAD and Geographic Information Systems to track water quality and quantity. Compaq micros, AutoCAD software gets users' votes. (Government Computer News' user survey on computer-aided design; Compaq Government Computer News' survey on computer-aided design (CAD) reveals that government users work on microcomputers more than any other platform. Respondents indicate that their first choice microcomputer for CAD applications is a Compaq Computer Corp machine. Federal users cited office and other space planning as their most common use of CAD, for which a microcomputer is sufficient. Compaq was the chosen manufacturer over Sun Microsystems Inc, HP Apollo workstations and IBM-compatible 80486 machines for its reputation for manufacturing fast microcomputers. A number of users indicate that their offices are most likely to acquire IBM-compatible 80386 machines. The most widely used CAD application is Autodesk Inc's AutoCAD; CADkey Inc's CADkey and Intergraph Corp's Microstation tied for second place and Prime Computer Inc/Computervision's CAD software came in third. FOSE offers one-stop shopping and expert views. (Federal Office Systems Expo 1991) The Federal Office System Expo (FOSE) 1991 will offer US Department of Defense officials a one-stop shopping opportunity for computer hardware, software and graphics products. The trade show, which takes place Mar 5-7 1991, will feature more than 500 vendors. Government officials indicate that the trade show will help them keep up the changing technology. FOSE 1991 will feature many expert speakers on how information resources management (IRM) functions in the government. Other speakers will talk on relational data base technology and how the government is complying with Section 508, which calls for the government to meet the technology needs of people with disabilities. Alliance aims to help users break the habit. (User Alliance for Open Systems; IRM Notebook) (column) The User Alliance for Open Systems is a user group that believes information technology is a yet unused resource for improving productivity. The group focuses its efforts on defining open systems and user requirements, creating a user-driven vision of the need for open systems, lobbying policy-making bodies, establishing and publishing specifications, and creating a body of research, documentation and case studies. The user group will be fighting against the tide in the world of computing where open systems do not create short-term profitability and where companies are feeling the economic pinch to cut budgets. EDI use grows, but many users still are reluctant. (electronic data interchange; From the Crow's Nest) (column) Electronic data interchange's (EDI's) wider acceptance seems near at hand in 1991 after years of proselytizing by its advocates. The government is leading the way. The US Department of Defense requires contractors to conform to the Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS) system and other government agencies, and the US Customs Service and US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are also stepping up their use of EDI. EDI's use in the private sector is also increasing; analysts estimate 17,000 users by the end of 1991, up from 12,000 users in 1990. Major systems vendors, including IBM, DEC and AT and T, are expected to boost the use of EDI. Testing need not be 'mission impossible.' (DP Issues) (column) Perry, William E. Testing is an important part of data processing and should be viewed as an integral component of programming. There are five kinds of tests: unit tests, integration tests, system tests, acceptance tests and independent tests. Unit tests are conducted on the smallest programmed module and integration tests determine whether those units fit together properly. Systems tests are conducted to determine if the system meets the specifications and functions in the operating environment while the acceptance test verifies that users can work with the system to get their jobs done. Independent tests involve groups that do all the above tests without having a vested interest in the software. GAO's new hearing rules seen as victory for protesters' rights. (U.S. General Accounting Office; Federal Contract Law) (column) The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has long been an established government forum for contesting procurements. Lawmakers granted the agency the authority to hear bid protests with the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984; that law also established the US General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) as an alternative agency. Government contractors did not take long to figure out that the GSBCA is more sympathetic to protests than the GAO. The GSBCA, unlike the GAO, does not review protests with deference to an agency's decision. Figures indicate that protests are five times more likely to be sustained at the GSBCA than the GAO. Postal Service honors 6 automation contractors. Seaborn, Margaret M. The US Postal Service honors six government contractors for providing quality service in 1990 in the area of automation services. The six contractors have developed software and equipment that will help the postal service meet its 1995 goal of processing all letter mail automatically. The six contractors include PRC Inc, Accu-Sort Systems Inc, D. Little Inc's Technology Resource Center, AEG Electrocom, the University of Arkansas College of Engineering and the State University of New York at Buffalo. The Postal Service is well on its way to its 1995 goal; the agency estimates it is between 20 and 40 percent there. For the first time, State sends out report on disks. (The U.S. Department of State sends out report on floppy disks) The US Department of State sends out its annual 1,700-page human rights report on MS-DOS floppy disks for the first time in 1991. The government agency cites expediency as its main reason for offering the report on disk; it usually takes three to four weeks between when it issues the report and when the Government Printing Office publishes it. News organizations can now gain access to the report at the same time Congress gets it. The previous gap between general distribution and congressional submission created problems with leaking information. The State Department is required to give an annual report to Congress on human rights conditions in 168 countries. House committee wants OMB to flex its muscles. (The U.S. Office of Management and Budget) The House Government Operations Committee wants the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to be accountable for upgrading the government's financial systems. Government agencies are expected to spend near $7 billion for modern financial systems in 1991, mostly on distributed computing, communications systems and accounting software. The OMB will be responsible for overseeing those purchases to make sure they are sound and can share information. Government officials note that the OMB can be an important agency involved in procurement and management reforms. The OMB expects to eventually create a single networked system that allows central agencies to exchange financial data with agency program offices. Panel urges NARA to study data storage methods. (National Archives and Records Administration) The US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) must study its data storage methods. The House Government Operations Committee issues a report that indicates the agency will have to maintain software and hardware for electronically-stored documents; the congressional committee states that an electronic record that cannot be accessed is a record that does not exist. The committee also states that paper storage might be the most feasible method in the meantime, at least until the industry can develop an efficient method to access large volumes of electronic data. NARA's current policies do not take long-term data storage into consideration; the agency has 8,000 data files stored on magnetic tape, which are downloaded from federal mainframes. PEDRO keeps oil industry data flowing smoothly. (Petroleum Electronic Data Reporting Option) The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) uses the Petroleum Electronic Data Reporting Option (PEDRO) to keep track of information about the worldwide petroleum industry. The information system has been useful during the Persian Gulf war with Iraq; it has had the opportunity to become a highly visible information service. The mission of the EIA is to provide information to Congress and other federal agencies, which includes monthly reports of energy statistics and analyses and weekly summaries of jet fuel supply and demand. The PEDRO database resides on an IBM 3084 QX mainframe computer, and companies can access the information with a 512Kbyte microcomputer running at least MS-DOS 3.0. DEC gains ground with new game plan. (Technoviews) (column) Vizachero, Rick. DEC has a chance to take on its number one rival, IBM, if its new corporate strategy works. The computer maker is changing course and looking to the long-term needs of its customers; previously, the number two computer manufacturer put profits in front of the computing needs of its customers. The company now realizes that prices will have to come down and its operating systems will have to become less proprietary and more interoperable. DEC is a large company and changes come slowly, but it is headed in the right direction. Half of Dec's marketing battle is over with its new attitude and needs only to deliver the goods. DDI nominee's philosophy shapes IRM worldwide. (U.S. Department of Defense's director of defense information Paul Strassmann) Paul Strassmann is nominated for the US Department of Defense's (DOD's) director of defense information (DDI) position and government officials hope he can manage the reorganization efforts of the DOD's information resources management (IRM) group. Strassmann has been a Washington IRM consultant and is a former chief information officer at Xerox Corp. Strassmann would not comment on his nomination but did admit that the IRM philosophy of the DOD does match his own. He maintains that key IRM decisions must follow key business decisions, systems should be built around users needs and not around the philosophies of information managers and technical experts, and open systems architectures are a must. The right mix of skills: specialty insurer finds CIO after six-month search: MCI's Allan Ditchfield. (Progressive Corp, chief MCI Communications Sr VP of Engineering Allan Ditchfield is leaving the company to assume the post of Sr VP of Information Systems (IS) for Progressive Corp, a specialty insurance company. Ditchfield will also be a member of Progressive's 10-member corporate operating committee. Ditchfield's successor at MCI is James Zucco, vice president of product development in the systems engineering group. Zucco is number two information systems executive at the company and considered the obvious choice by industry observers. Progressive launched a comprehensive search to fill the information systems post in fall 1990 when Rex S. Wolf resigned following a restructuring of the IS group. Lucrative offers were made to two other candidates before Ditchfield. The company has found that few IS executives have the broad assortment of skills necessary to tie IS closely to the business. Strassmann to the Defense. (Paul Strassmann, Department of Defense) The United States Defense Department (DOD) is expected to name Paul Strassmann, a well-known member of the commercial information systems (IS) establishment, as the new head of its $9 billion IS budget. Strassmann, the author of The Business Value of Computers, is an information management consultant and former IS executive at Xerox. He is expected to be appointed Director of Defense Information in mid-March 1991. Strassmann refused to comment regarding reports of his anticipated appointment as the head of the DOD's Corporate Information Management (CIM) program. The newly-created position includes responsibility for oversight, implementation and policy decisions relative to the CIM program, which received the official go-ahead in late Jan 1991. IBM advances peer-to-peer networking. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer networking for OS/2 Extended Edition) (product announcement) IBM plans to roll out Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) for OS/2 Extended Edition and 3174 mainframe controllers. The new product is intended to aid users with peer-to-peer communications on the primary hardware platforms. The announcement is expected to be of only minimal interest to over 95 percent of the vendor's System Network Architecture (SNA) users still working with a hierarchical network structure. Most large systems users are awaiting the arrival of APPN for mainframe systems to let terminal users run 3270 data streams over APPN networks. APPN, when it finally becomes available on mainframe systems, will grow in importance from a simple networking product to an important component of SNA architecture. The greatest advantage of APPN is that it allows end nodes to communicate with any other end nodes or other node on any APPN network. Blockbuster expansion: leading U.S. video chain uses IT to win market share. (Blockbuster Entertainment Corp.) Blockbuster Entertainment Corp started out as Cook Data Services, a Dallas-based company selling software to the oil and gas industry. The name change came about when the founder decided to abandon the software business and open a video rental store in Dallas. Blockbuster Video now dominates the US video rental arena. The company already has stores in the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico and plans to expand to Australia, Japan, Ireland, Spain and Venezuela. The company's 120-person information systems (IS) department will play a major role in that expansion. IS technology has contributed to efficient customer service for the company by implementing a bar code laser scanning system to expedite checkout procedures. Company officials state that Blockbuster was probably one of the first chains outside the grocery industry to use bar codes in a retail setting. Bar codes also help track the ever-changing inventory. Customer credit and transaction reporting processes have also been automated. Each stores has a Digital Equipment MicroVAX 3100 or MicroVAX 2000 minicomputer and VT-320 terminals. Gupta, Novell move closer: developing SQL Windows-NetWare SQL Interface. (Gupta Technologies) Novell and Gupta Technologies used the announcement of Novell's support for Gupta's SQL Windows graphical interface environment as a chance to explain their relationship. Novell plans to develop an interface between SQL Windows, Gupta's database development tool and the Windows environment and NetWare SQL, Novell's server-based SQL relational database engine, which will be available free in the 3rd qtr of 1991. SQLBase server for Netware 386, which will go to beta test soon, was also introduced as was the availability of SPX/IPX routers for SQLBase server. All Gupta Gateway products will be developed as NetWare Loadable Modules. (NLMs). SQL Windows for Btrieve was also announced. Tightened belts, heightened productivity: despite recessionary cutbacks, IS chiefs say they have adequate funding. (information Information systems (IS) managers are learning to make do with leaner IS budgets, according to an annual IS budget survey. IS spending represents, on the average, approximately four percent of total annual corporate revenue. Almost half of the respondents said that, considering inflation, they will have less to spend in 1991,but 75 percent said that the funding level was adequate. IS managers report high pressure to use information technology in a more efficient manner. Managers are learning to allocate available funds more strategically. Some 51 percent of respondents report they will have more to spend in 1991, down from 70 percent who reported budget increases in 1990. Staff cutbacks were reported by 37 percent of the respondents, placing additional pressures on remaining staffers. Some IS projects were placed on hold. Most respondents predicted budget increases by 1994, in spite of an uncertain economy and pressures to cut costs. Will Intel be a media mogul? Chip leader plans expansion into new technologies. (includes related article on reduced instruction set Robert Noyce made notes on what nearly became the world's first microchip in Jan 1959, ten years prior to founding Intel Corp. One month later Texas Instruments employee Jack Kilby beat Noyce by unveiling an integrated circuit created from germanium. Six months after that Noyce introduced his microprocessor, made from silicon. Noyce and Kilby both received credit as co-inventors of the microchip. Noyce's chip and his company, Intel, have become a standard. The Intel X86 product line is such a critical part of computers that Intel should do well during 1991 without much effort. The company's efforts in multimedia are bound to attract notice. Intel has over 200 computer vendors in the X86 fold and will keep them there by introducing new chips. Intel keeps customers happy by offering upward software compatibility as it brings out new chips. The company also makes chips for various imaging tasks. Company officials are forecasting the transformation of computers into true visual communications platforms. Networks: the key differences: any LAN can do anything--most of the time. (local area network) Strategic alliances are very popular in the political realm of network operating systems. Shifting relationships among Novell, IBM, 3Com, Microsoft and Banyan Systems have made picking the right network operating system (NOS) a case of choosing sides rather than technologies; NOS functionality is of little use in the absence of support. Microsoft dominated the arena with strategic alliances until the recent agreement between Novell and IBM. Microsoft lets other vendors license its LAN Manager code and adapt it to new products as long as the basic functions and interfaces are maintained. Novell is the marketplace powerhouse with the dominant market share and fierce customer loyalty. Differences between NOSs are not as great as differences between the basic hardware platforms. ISDN gets a boost: vendors, carriers, users support Bellcore document calling for interoperability. (Integrated Services ISDN standard have lacked the specificity needed for true interoperability, though they have been developing for almost 10 years. A group of central office switch vendors, users and carriers will attempt to establish support of common ISDN standards by 1992. Time will tell if the effort provides the necessary boost. Vendor commitment has been a missing ingredient, and vendors attending a recent meeting agreed to comply with a Bellcore document, entitled National ISDN-1, to offer the platform for equipment from central office switch vendors, notably Northern Telecom and AT and T, to interoperate. Details are included on how central office switches will interoperate through Common Channeling System 7. Most user equipment works with either Northern Telecom or AT and T switches, not both. Proprietary prevails. Thyfault, Mary E. MIS is moving slowly toward open protocols for communications and most firms still rely on proprietary protocols for most of their enterprise networks. Industry officials point out that gateways will be around for some time and that protocol translation is still needed. Over 80 percent of MIS professionals from large end-user organizations surveyed say it is important to support multiple protocols, like Systems Network Architecture (SNA), Digital Equipment's DECnet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and Open Systems Interconnect (OSI). Over 75 percent of those responding are using SNA as primary or secondary protocol. Over 28 percent are using DECnet. Only 16 percent are using TCP/IP, 10 percent X.25 and two percent OSI. What's ICC really up to? Users fear that IBM credit unit's suits may mean less competition. (IBM Credit Corp.) Legal actions by IBM Credit Corp (ICC) against third-party lessors have caused speculation that the implications of the suits reach beyond the company's immediate concern of garnering additional market share from the leasing business. IBM's dominance of the marketplace, already near 80 percent for IBM mainframes and compatibles, will increase sufficiently to remove economic incentives to lease from third parties if the suits are successful, according to industry observers. Observers argue that with competitive barriers removed or lowered raised leasing prices will serve as an incentive to corral its installed base into the Systems/390 architecture. Separate ICC suits against Comdisco, Cambex and EMC Corp allege that the firms either disassembled ICC-owned computers, placed the parts within other units and sold or subleased the processors with ICC permission. The courts will have to sort out the charges. Health in open systems. (Wisconsin-based Marshfield Clinic's migration to open computing systems) Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, WI, is one of the largest health care centers in the US. The clinic has decided to give up its proprietary systems and run its 270,000 transactions per day on a Unix-based mainframe system, the 5995-700A from Amdahl. The clinic will install the Amdahl system and its UTS 2.1 Unix-based operating system by Aug 1991. Clinic officials considered their options before deciding to go with Amdahl. The clinic considered whether to retain its three Unisys A series mainframes, switch to IBM architecture or move to open systems. Information systems officials pointed out that they kept outgrowing the medium-sized Unisys systems. The clinic will have to overcome a few problems before adopting open technology, such as writing utilities to control printing. Trading in a new system: thanks to CAC, the Paris Bourse is a role model for exchanges everywhere. (automation of the Paris stock Nearly all of the traders are gone from the Paris Palais de Bourse, having been replaced by a computerized exchange system called the CAC. The CAC was introduced in 1986 as the second phase of a modernization program at the Bourse, which started with the elimination of paper stock certificates in 1983. The Bourse has activated the third stage of its plan as France approaches its integration into a borderless European Community. The newest addition to the Bourse's electronic modernization scheme is a $120 million back office settlement system called Relit. All trades, by the end of 1991, will be handled electronically. The CAC is run by software developed for the Toronto Stock Exchange. Relit, however, was created from scratch, developed by the Paris office of Andersen Consulting. It seems unlikely that a similar modernization effort will take place on the New York and American Stock Exchanges, considering the political clout of of American traders and specialists. Ross follows the leader: pact with DEC remains tight despite Oracle connection. (Ross Systems Inc, Digital Equipment Corp.) Ross Systems Inc, a vendor of financial management software, is closely allied with Digital Equipment Corp. It makes sense that soon after DEC announced a move into the open systems arena Ross would follow suit. Ross recently introduced an Ultrix version of its core accounting modules. Ross' Renaissance Open Series of Unix products will enter beta test late in Mar 1991 and are expected to be available in Jun 1991. The companies' relationship became somewhat strained when DEC announced it planned to jointly market and sell the financial software offered by Oracle Corp. Ross officials admit that the DEC arrangement with Oracle speeded up development on Ultrix software. Ingres pursues its vision. Todd, Daniel. Product development specialists at Ingres Corp have been busy since the company was acquired in Sep 1990 by ASK Computer Systems, trying to fulfill the corporate vision of providing a family of rich application development tools to supplement the organization's distributed database programs. One of the final links was added by bringing out Ingres/Vision, a fourth-generation language (4GL) application development tool meant for a large installed base of character-based terminals. Ingres/Vision enhances the development of query-based applications for terminals with a visual query editor and a frame flow diagram, both of which facilitate visual programming. HP poised for a surge: vendor set to unveil powerful new RISC workstations. (Hewlett-Packard, reduced instruction set computing) Hewlett-Packard (HP) is set for a Mar 26, 1991 announcement of a line of RISC workstations that feature a very aggressive price/performance ratio. Officials of the company's Apollo Systems division say users will see more than 50 million instructions per second (MIPS) on the desktop for under $20,000. A diskless model will sell for under $12,000. The two machines represent a two to three times improvement in price/performance over competitive workstations from IBM, Digital Equipment and Sun Microsystems. Previous workstations from HP are based on the Motorola complex instruction set computing (CISC) 68000 architecture. Industry officials say that HP has made an appreciable jump in performance, though not off the scale. Curing the spreadsheet habit. (the use of spreadsheets for engineering applications) David Hook, a senior civil engineer for the Santa Clara Valley (CA) Water District, has taken spreadsheet applications beyond their limits, using them for engineering applications. Hook had used Lotus 1-2-3 and Multiplan from Lotus to figure engineering formulas. He said the work started out simply but as he put equations into spreadsheet cells he could not see all of the formulas. Spreadsheets for engineering applications could get so complicated that no one else could understand them. Hook, after a few days, could not understand them either. He moved to MathCAD from MathSoft, which is designed for IBM compatibles, Apple Macintoshes and Sun Microsystems Unix workstations. The program is priced at $500 to $700, depending on the version. MathCAD gives the user a blank work space into which he can type formulas using ordinary variables and standard math symbols. PC system speaks in volumes. (Cambridge Encyclopedia, published in Wales) The winds blowing around David Crystal's home in Holyhead, Wales cause him some particular anxiety. Crystal is editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia and he has seen those winds play havoc with one of the world's most unusual databases. Crystal, who works in a small home office, has spent three years compiling the one-volume reference. The Cambridge Encyclopedia contains 30,000 entries, defined in 1.5 million words. The winds have caused him to lose a day's work. Disk space was another concern. Crystal started out with a 30Mbyte hard disk, which was quickly filled up. A second and a third were added. The disk-reading mechanism on the third disk was broken, costing Crystal a month's work and prompting him to change to a Compaq 386 PC with a 110Mbyte hard disk. The system includes a streaming-tape back-up system and uninterruptible power supply. A third microcomputer system has been added, enabling production of a concise edition of the book. Crystal also uses his desktop publishing system to product books on poetry and local history. PCs, mainframes, what's the difference? Too many people still try to find problems that fit their idea of a solution. (Final Word) Most articles on the future, or lack thereof, of mainframe computing, are well-written and convincing. There is a future need for mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers. The concept is an old one. Today's technology just confuses the issue. Why not take advantage of all appropriate technologies that are available? The specific need should be the greatest concern. The need may be technical, strategic, geographic or organizational but it is a need, nonetheless. That need should be assessed on its own merits. All options must be considered without preconceived ideas being part of the equation. A related factor is the amount of business knowledge possessed. The task of management information systems is to find a solution to a problem, not find a problem to fit a solution. IBM strikes back with OS/2 blitz: campaign designed to win over corporate 'hearts and minds.' IBM is preparing an aggressive new promotional campaign for the OS/2 operating system involving educational seminars and a $40 million year-long marketing effort. The company will bring in corporate and third-party developers to discuss OS/2 success stories at the seminars. It intends to pay little attention to Microsoft's Windows during the campaign, but stresses that OS/2 can be used as an engine to drive existing Windows applications. IBM will provide better Windows compatibility in OS/2 2.0 via a 'porting layer' that lets Windows device drivers work with OS/2. OS/2 2.0 is a 32-bit version of the advanced operating system which IBM plans to emphasize over the current 16-bit version in the seminars. First PC designs for Pen Windows may look familiar. (hardware manufacturers readying pen-based computer systems) Several hardware vendors are readying 'transitional' systems designed to support the upcoming Pen Windows pen-based extensions to Microsoft Windows. The machines resemble current laptop computers rather than the electronic 'clipboards' envisioned by many proponents of pen-based computing, and they include keyboards, but they have their motherboards and storage devices housed behind LCD screens. The keyboards will be detachable for mobile pen-based use. Microsoft plans to make Pen Windows capable of switching between portrait and landscape display modes. Some of the early pen-based portable computers will cost as little as $400 more than current notebook machines. Microsoft claims that Toshiba, NEC, Grid Systems, Seiko-Epson and consumer electronics firms such as Sanyo and Hitachi have pledged support for Pen Windows, but most of these have not decided whether to base their future strategies on the Microsoft operating system or on Go Corp's PenPoint. 40-MHz 386 clone ready; systems to ship in April. Quinlan, Tom; Darrow, Barbara. Advanced Micro Devices is expected to announce a 40-MHz 80386DX-compatible microprocessor in Mar 1991. Computer systems using the new chip are expected as early as Apr 1991. AMD has not yet announced a name or ship date for the new product, which will be available in both 25- and 40-MHz versions. Systems vendors are working with the new chip and note that it will help ease shortages of the 386, which Intel sells on an allocation basis. The AMD processor itself will sell for as much or more than the Intel chip; analysts note that AMD needs to avoid positioning itself as a 'cheapo' clone vendor. At least one hardware vendor has committed to using the AMD 386-compatible processor as an alternative to Intel's upcoming stripped-down versions of the 80486. SPC ProWrite Plus packs extras for midrange users. (new word processor for Microsoft Windows) (evaluation) Software Publishing Corp's new Professional Write Plus is a midrange word processor for Microsoft Windows that includes a built-in grammar checker, electronic-mail connectivity and a few other additional features. The $249 product shares little with SPC's Professional Write for DOS because it was built on code used in the low-end version of Samna Corp's Ami. It lets users define and change templates with multiple styles, set a variety of formatting options and add graphics to documents by placing frames in the text. Pro Write Plus supports a wide variety of graphics formats and offers multiple rulers, mail merge, footnotes and multiple-level undo. Limitations include the lack of macros or a glossary feature. SPC provides a special version of the Grammatik grammar checker with Pro Write Plus, and users can send and receive E-mail directly from within Pro Write Plus. DRI adds multiuser tools to DR DOS; MS DOS 5.0 release slips to June. (Digital Research Corp introduces DR Multiuser DOS; Digital Research Inc introduces DR Multiuser DOS, a new multiuser, multitasking version of its DR DOS operating system that replaces Concurrent DOS 386. DR Multiuser DOS lets any 80386-based system support up to 10 terminal and microcomputer users simultaneously with each node running up to eight independent DOS sessions. A bundled terminal-emulation program supports a variety of hardware. The multiuser program employs the same memory management techniques found in DR DOS 5.0; much of the operating system can be moved into high memory to free up the 640Kbytes of conventional memory for applications. DR Multiuser DOS will sell for $695 and will be available at the end of Mar 1991. Microsoft has announced that MS DOS 5.0, a new version of the standard DOS that incorporates many features found in DR DOS, will be delayed until Jun 1991. MS DOS 5.0 will be available both as an OEM version and as a 'generic' upgrade version. HP to unveil 17-ppm network printer. (Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIISi) (product announcement) HP announces the LaserJet IIISi, a 17-page-per-minute version of its popular LaserJet III laser printer designed for heavy-duty network use. The $5,495 printer uses a Canon print engine and AMD 29000 reduced-instruction-set-computing microprocessor. It comes with an enhanced version of PCL 5 and HP's patented Resolution Enhancement Technology. The IIISi also includes reporting capabilities that let network users know if a printing task has failed. HP will offer network interface boards for both Token-Ring and Ethernet LANs that support the Novell NetWare and Microsoft LAN Manager network operating systems. A 'microfine' toner cartridge works with the Resolution Enhancement Technology to boost resolution to nearly 600 dpi. Synoptics enhances distributed network management tools (Synoptics Communications Inc. announces SPARC-based hub module, LattisNet SynOptics Communications Inc announces the LattisNet System 30040 Network Control Engine (NCE), a new network hub, and three new network management software products. The $9,995 NCE distributes the burden of managing network data across all workstations and works with the LattisNet System 3000 intelligent hub. It is based on the Sun Microsystems Inc SPARC processor. LattisNet Basic Network Management and LattisNet Advanced Network Management are designed for small and large LANs respectively. The Advanced Network Management module runs on complex networks with multiple segments, protocols and security provisions. It costs $5,000 and is based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Basic Network Management is designed for networks of 200 nodes or less and sells for $2,295. LattisNet Network Management for Unix is a new network management program built on the SunNet Manager platform that can benefit from the NCE. IBM tries to jump start XGA development, to supply chip set. (new XGA graphics standard) IBM is aggressively promoting its new XGA high-resolution graphics standard, leaving the future of the 8514/A standard in doubt. The company plans to offer the XGA chip set, which consists of two application specific integrated circuits expected to cost $200, to board vendors on an OEM basis. XGA will give users access to high-resolution graphics and 16-bit color on a wide variety of desktop machines. Some vendors expect XGA clone products to become available rapidly, but many express concern about IBm's refusal to provide technical information about the future direction of the graphics standard. Developers also believe that the promotion of XGA could relegate 8514/A to a 'niche' standard. Problems with rasterizers arise: users encounter confusion with Windows-based type managers. Font rasterizing and scaling programs such as Adobe's Type Manager (ATM) and Bitstream's FaceLift for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface allow on-the-fly font generation but suffer from some bugs and incompatibilities. ATM causes some printer errors with the HP LaserJet Series II and earlier printers because these units cannot handle all of the complex operations involved in building fonts. It does not ship with the ability to pre-build or predownload fonts to printers, but users can obtain a free Font Foundry utility at no charge. Predownloading generates fonts before sending them to the printer. FaceLift has some difficulties working with Ventura Publisher; it reportedly causes awkward spacing between characters when creating a document that contains italicized type. Bitstream says the problem originates with FaceLIft, not with Ventura, and promises a fix in a future version. Many observers feel that such font problems will become insignificant after Microsoft releases TrueType, a font rasterizer that will be part of the standard operating system. SPC rolls out high-end Windows word processor. (Software Publishing Corp. introduces Professional Write Plus) (product Software Publishing Corp introduces Professional Write Plus, a $249 Windows-based word processor that can link to existing electronic mail systems via the Message Handing Service. Users can send and receive messages and attached files without exiting the application and automatically display imported files in native format by launching the applications that created them. Beta testers are impressed with the E-mail capabilities. Other features of Professional Write Plus include improved font and graphics controls, multiple modes for viewing data and a customizable icon bar that gives users easy access to frequently used functions and tools. Slew of ISVs ready to support Turbo C++ 2.0. (independent software vendors) (product announcement) Several independent software vendors have announced products that support Borland International Inc's Turbo C++ object-oriented development environment. Turbo C++ lets users develop Windows applications without requiring Microsoft's Software Developer's Kit. Zinc Software plans to ship DOS and windows versions of its Zinc Interface Library 2.0; the DOS package will cost $249 with source code and $199 without, while the Windows versions cost $399 and $299 respectively. Blaise Computing Inc has announced $249 Win++, a class library for writing Windows applications in Turbo C++. Xiam Corp plans to support Turbo C++ 2.0 in its Winpro/3 Windows code prototyper and generator. Many other vendors are offering new or enhanced programming tools that work with Turbo C++. Drive array technology too new for standards: implementation varies between vendors. (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) technology remains in its infancy and currently has no standardized form, with implementations varying from vendor to vendor. Several vendors offer RAID Level Five, but there are a variety of hardware and software architectures. Compaq's SystemPro drive array uses a proprietary design, and IBM and others are expected to offer their own drive array implementations. Other vendors rely on Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drives and host adapters with specialized software. A SCSI adapter can control up to seven drives, and multiple host adapters in the same machine enhance performance by reducing latency. SCSI is nevertheless not completely standardized. All drives in an array should be the same size to ensure proper 'striping' of data across the array. Portions of different files are stored on different drives, allowing data recovery by examining error codes on a surviving drive in the event of failure. Portability of PC applications provides fertile soil for viruses. (computer viruses) Computer viruses spread when programs are shared among users and uploaded or downloaded via communications programs. Viruses are controversial, with many claiming that the problem has been exaggerated by the media, but evidence of their prevalence is mounting and cannot be ignored. Taking the problem seriously is the first step in combatting viruses. The Computer Virus Industry Association has a 24-hour national BBS service with up-to-date antiviral shareware and information about new virus strains. Anti-virus software scans hard disks for virus' fingerprints.' Prevalent microcomputer viruses include the Retro Virus and Jerusalem virus. Vendors seek fax modem accord. (standard for facsimile modems) Coursey, David. The Electronic Industries Association is developing a new standard for facsimile modems that will allow compatibility with a wide variety of software. The association's Class 1 standard provides minimal hardware support for sending a fax from a microcomputer, while Class 2 adds over 40 AT-command set instructions and places more functionality into the modem to offload processing from the host CPU. Some observers speculate that the Class 1 standard, which several vendors plan to implement, will replace CA, an Intel design the company has tried to promote as a standard. Class 2 is not expected to be finalized until 1992. The upcoming Class 3 remains speculative but may involve on-board file conversion. Novell, Gupta announce joint database product: SQLWindows for Btrieve tied with NetWare. (Gupta Technologies Inc., Novell Inc.) Gupta Technologies Inc and Novell Inc announce SQLWindows for Btrieve, a key-indexed record management product the two companies developed under a joint agreement. SQLWindows for Btrieve lets developers build applications for Novell NetWare because Btrieve is bundled with every copy of the popular network operating system. Developers have traditionally created character-based front ends for Btrieve in C, Pascal or Cobol. SQLWindows supports the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. It is available immediately from Gupta for $1,595 and includes a development toolkit and five run-time versions. Rapport offers document control for mixed environment. (Clarity Software beta testing mixed-media document creation and Clarity Software Inc is beta testing Rapport, an integrated Unix-based package that offers facilities for creating mixed-media documents. The company hopes the new product will increase the appeal of Unix to business users. Rapport includes word processing, spreadsheet, charting, presentation graphics, sound and electronic mail capabilities. It is highly customizable and modular, letting users swap out portions of the program for other applications. The E-mail module has filters that act on incoming mail, routing or deleting incoming messages based on content and launching other programs in response to mail messages. The program runs under the Motif graphical interface on HP, DEC, IBM and Silicon Graphics workstations and under Open Look on Sun workstations. It will convert a wide variety of application files from Unix, IBM PCs and Macintoshes. Color matching is not all black and white. (matching monitor and printer colors on the Apple Macintosh) Matching colors displayed on Apple Macintosh monitors with those in printed output is a difficult problem for those engaged in high-end desktop publishing, although several vendors have developed products designed to make color matching easier. Supermac, Adobe Systems, Radius Inc, Tektronix and Electronics For Imaging have implemented color-matching systems in their monitors and printers. Color matching involves the conversion of RGB color spaces on the monitor to CMYK on the printer. 'Spot color' refers to single-colored images, while process color encompasses color photographs and other complex images. Pantone Inc is known for its spot-color standard but also offers a set of process colors that has been licensed by a number of hardware vendors. It has announced that its Professional Color Toolkit library of color lookup tables will be an open system. Lotus' bid for cc:Mail strengthens E-mail. (Lotus Development Corp. attempting to buy cc:Mail Inc.) Lotus Development Corp's effort to purchase cc:Mail Inc has strengthened the electronic mail industry by validating E-mail as an important and commercially viable product. Analysts say the proposed acquisition could alter the balance of the market by combining cc:Mail's software design expertise with Lotus' marketing clout. The acquisition is part of an emerging trend; Microsoft Corp is rumored to be working with Consumers Software Inc on a Windows version of Consumers' Network Courier, while Action Technologies Inc cooperated with Novell Inc to get the MHS transport system in place on Novell's NetWare LAN operating system. Not all analysts expect E-mail to become dominated entirely by large companies; some note that 'windows of opportunity' for smaller vendors will remain. cc:Mail buys Powercore's scheduler technology. (Powercore Inc.) Darrow, Barbara. Electronic mail software manufacturer cc:Mail Inc has licensed the Network Scheduler II technology from Powercore Inc in an effort to fill a gap in Lotus Development Corp's Notes office automation software. The scheduler would be integrated into Notes via Lotus' planned acquisition of cc:Mail, answering user complaints about the lack of a calendar feature in the costly Lotus work-group product. Powercore officials say they will continue to sell Network Scheduler II for 60 days, while cc:Mail will begin marketing it the week of Mar 4, 1991, and may integrate it tightly into the next release of its E-mail software. It will also sell versions of Network Scheduler for other electronic mail packages. Large cc:Mail users praise the acquisition, noting that it will give Lotus a competitive edge against IBM's PROFS. IBM's OS/2 2.0 needs strong marketing to face competition. (State of the Industry) (column) IBM faces the challenge of aggressively marketing the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 operating system against the overwhelming popularity of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft's strategy emphasizes Windows as a bridge between DOS and OS/2 3.0. IBM has released OS/2 2.0 to beta sites, and beta testers say it is a powerful and effective product. The computer giant has recognized the need for a less proprietary attitude toward the operating system and is asking beta testers to run it on non-IBM equipment. IBM still needs to outline a more effective upgrade path for OS/2 to counter the plan promoted by Microsoft. Its policy of not promoting unreleased products may be backfiring in the case of OS/2 because customer needs are being ignored. Wholesale clubs offer alternative for price-conscious buyer. (sale of microcomputers through wholesale membership clubs) Microcomputers are increasingly sold through wholesale clubs that run warehouse showrooms for the exclusive use of qualified members who pay annual dues for the privilege of shopping there. Positive Corp claims to be systematically developing wholesale clubs as a computer distribution channel. Computers sold by wholesale clubs have traditionally tended to lack the configuration and support services necessary for serious business users. Positive offers powerful, fully-configured machines, including a 33-MHz 80486-based unit with a 64Kbyte memory cache, 200Mbyte hard drive, Super VGA monitor and bundled software for $3,999. It contracts with third parties for support. Wholesale clubs offer both a sale model and potential second source for volume buyers. The new channel may be 'offbeat' but should not be dismissed. The power of the pen. (pen-based systems)(includes related article on prices of future machines) Go Corp's impressive PenPoint technology faces an uphill battle against Microsoft Corp's upcoming Pen Windows, which consists of extensions to the Windows graphical user interface. Go promotes PenPoint as a product designed from the ground up for pen-based use, while Microsoft touts compatibility with desktop machines. Microsoft claims it has attracted support from 21 hardware developers; only three have announced support for PenPoint, although IBM is among them. Most software developers are hedging their bets, publicly committing to both systems. PenPoint's technological edge may not sway corporate customers with large investments in Windows. Analysts say the market for pen-based software has three segments: desktop computers with graphics tablets, next-generation laptops with keyboards attached and so-called 'clipboard' machines. Some observers fear that the inaccuracy of early pen systems will drive away computer novices. The most effective PenPoint applications will be those that minimize the use of its handwriting-recognition algorithms. First 'information war' will affect the computing business. Saffo, Paul. The 1991 Persian Gulf war is the first to involve deployment of microcomputer systems for target control, data communication and other critical tasks. A complex electronic infrastructure keeps the resources in Saudi Arabia functioning, and computers support the command and control systems that allow the uncanny accuracy of Patriot missile strikes. The military is effectively 'learning on the job' in using its computer systems. 'Smart' weapons may or may not fulfill the promise of victory through air power, but private businesses can learn from the war as they deploy computers in their own organizations. Implementing computers and communications in an organization requires profound changes that will dramatically alter corporate structures in the future. The military is likely to remain infatuated with technology in the 1990s. Getting your wings. (Hardware Review) (overview of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based laptop computers)(includes related Eight notebook-sized 80386SX-based portable computers are reviewed. All offer flawless compatibility with common software applications including Microsoft Windows 3.0, and many offer substantial expandability. All offer optional 2,400-bps modems. There are fewer differences among 80386SX notebooks than among less powerful machines, although speed and battery life vary considerably. Prices range from $2,295 for the Zeos Notebook 386 to $6,499 for the Compaq LTE 386S/20. Testing and scoring 386SX notebook computers. (procedures used to evaluate eight 80386SX-based portables) Procedures used to test and compare eight 80386SX-based notebook computers are discussed. Performance tests are divided into CPU-intensive and disk-intensive speed benchmarks, software compatibility, size and weight, battery life, capacity, screen readability and keyboard design. Machines weighing less than 8 pounds are rated satisfactory for size and weight. An excellent battery-life score requires the battery to run for 6 hours; 2 hours rates a good score, and 4 hours a very good score. Satisfactory capacity scores require at least 1Mbyte of RAM and a 20Mbyte hard disk standard. Other scoring categories include documentation, ease of use, system design, support policies and technical support. The 'value' rating reflects price/performance ratios. ALR Venture 16-386SX. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') ALR's $2,795 Venture 16-386SX notebook computer comes with 1Mbyte of RAM and either a 20- or 40Mbyte hard disk drive. It ships with Digital Research's DR-DOS 5.0 instead of MS-DOS and offers average performance at a reasonable price. Performance on both CPU-intensive and disk-intensive benchmarks earns a 'good' score; the machine runs all software but has slight configuration problems with Windows 3.0 and Lotus 1-2-3 3.1. The machine weighs 7 pounds 12 ounces but is physically smaller than some other systems. Battery life earns a good score at 2 hours and 33 minutes. Storage capacity is very good. Screen readability and keyboard design earn 'satisfactory' scores. Viewing the screen at angles is difficult, and the keys have considerable travel and click. Documentation and ease of use are good. The ALR's design is solid, but it lacks a handle. ALR offers a one-year warranty and toll-free technical support. The support itself is satisfactory. The machine earns a 'very good' score for overall value. Altima NSX. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Altima Systems' Altima NSX notebook is relatively bulky at 10 pounds and lacks a handle but offers good expandability. It comes with 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 8Mbytes and a 20Mbyte hard disk. Speed on CPU- and disk-intensive applications is relatively slow but nevertheless earns a good score. Software compatibility is excellent. The machine earns a 'poor' score for its unusual size and weight. The batteries last only 1 hour and 20 minutes, earning a 'satisfactory' score. Storage capacity is excellent; Altima offers a 60Mbyte hard drive option. The screen and keyboard are only satisfactory, with the display washing out at angles and the 83-key keyboard offering a spongy feel. Documentation is satisfactory. Ease of use is good; the machine itself is quite easy to use but is downgraded somewhat for its heavy weight. System design is satisfactory. Altima's support policies and technical support are very good. The NSX earns a rating of 'satisfactory' in value for its $3,499 price. Compaq LTE 386S/20. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Compaq's LTE 386S/20 notebook computer represents the state of the art in 80386SX-based portables. It weighs 7 pounds, 13 ounces and is one of the fastest available. Speed is excellent in both CPU- and disk-intensive benchmarks, and software compatibility is flawless. Size and weight earns a 'good' score. The batteries last 3 hours 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Storage capacity is excellent; the unit comes with 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 10Mbytes, and the VGA-compatible screen display is good. Compaq's 80-key keyboard earns only a 'satisfactory' rating; its layout is slightly awkward, but the keys have a very firm click. Documentation is excellent, and ease of use is very good. System design earns a 'very good' score; it is sturdy, elegant looking and well-finished. Compaq offers a one-year warranty but provides service only through dealers; its support policies earn a 'satisfactory' rating. Technical support is very good. The machine's main drawback is its $6,499 price; it earns a good score for overall value. Everex Tempo LX. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Everex Systems Inc's 7-pound Tempo LX 80386SX-based notebook computer is well designed and offers impressive performance at a reasonable price. Performance on CPU-intensive benchmarks is inferior only to that of 20-MHz systems; the Everex uses a 16-MHz clock. Disk-intensive benchmark performance is average. Software compatibility is excellent. The computer is fairly light but lacks a handle. Capacity earns a 'good' rating: the Everex comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 3 or 5Mbytes, and the 20Mbyte hard disk is the largest currently available. Screen readability is good, but the keyboard is only satisfactory. Documentation is very good. Ease of use earns a 'good' rating; switches and controls are all conveniently located. System design is rated very good. Everex offers very good support policies, including a 48-hour repair policy for warranty repairs. Technical support is satisfactory. The Tempo LX is a very good value for its $2,999 price. Samsung Notemaster SX. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Samsung Information Systems' Notemaster SX 80386SX-based notebook computer resembles the Texas Instruments Travelmate 3000 and Compaq LTE 386S/20. Performance on CPU and disk benchmarks is better than average, and software compatibility is good; some memory must be reconfigured in order to run Windows 3.0. The machine weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces. Battery life is an impressive 3 hours, 19 minutes and 51 seconds. Capacity is very good; a 20Mbyte hard drive is standard and a 40Mbyte drive is optional. The 1Mbytes of standard RAM is expandable to 5Mbytes, and the machine comes with a 1.4Mbyte floppy disk drive. Screen readability is good, and the keyboard earns a satisfactory score. Documentation and ease of use are both good. System design is satisfactory; the case, hinges and switches are rugged, but the power supply DIN plug is easily bent and the power supply itself is imperfect. Samsung's support policies are very good. Technical support earns a satisfactory rating. The Notemaster earns a 'good' score for overall value; its costs $3,999 with a 20Mbyte hard disk and $4,499 with a 40Mbyte hard disk. TI Travelmate 3000. (Texas Instruments) (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting Texas Instruments Inc's Travelmate 3000 80386SX-based portable computer is much improved over the earlier Travelmate and has a 20 MHz processor. Speed on CPU-intensive benchmarks is excellent, and disk-intensive speed earns a 'very good' rating. Software compatibility is excellent. The Travelmate 3000 weighs 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measures 8.5 x 11 x 1.8 inches, earning a 'very good' score in the area of size and weight. Battery life is satisfactory; the battery lasts only 1 hour, 48 minutes and 5 seconds. Capacity is good; the 20Mbyte hard drive is not currently expandable. Screen readability earns a good score. The keyboard is satisfactory, earning average scores in use tests. Documentation and ease of use are both very good. System design earns a 'good' score. Texas Instruments has very good support policies; technical support itself is satisfactory. The machine earns a 'good' score for value: a 20Mbyte unit costs $5,499, while one with a 40Mbyte disk drive is $5,999. Twinhead Supernote SX. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Twinhead Corp's Supernote SX 80386SX-based notebook computer is impressively designed but relatively slow. It earns only satisfactory scores in CPU and disk benchmarks, but software compatibility is flawless. The machine weighs under 7 pounds and measures 11 x 8.6 x 2.08 inches; its size/weight score is very good. Battery life earns a good score at 2 hours, 21 minutes and 53 seconds. Storage capacity and screen readability are good. The 80-key keyboard is satisfactory; it is similar to that of the Compaq LTE. Documentation and ease of use are both good. System design earns a good score; workmanship is impressive, but the screen opening latch requires a firm grip to open. Twinhead's support problems are good; technical support is very good. The machine earns a 'satisfactory' score in overall value. It costs $3,495 with 2Mbytes of RAM and a 40Mbyte hard disk. Zeos Notebook 386. (Hardware Review) (one of eight evaluations of 80386SX-based notebook computers in 'Getting your Wings') Zeos International's Notebook 386 is an 80386SX-based notebook computer that offers good performance at a rock-bottom price. Speed on CPU-intensive applications is very good, but disk-intensive speed is relatively slow and earns only a 'good' rating. Software compatibility is excellent. Size and weight earn a good score; the Zeos is 12.3 x 10 x 2 inches and weighs 7 pounds 2 1/2 ounces, but the size allows for a bigger screen. Battery life is a good 2 hours , 36 minutes and 48 seconds. The 20Mbyte hard drive is not expandable; users can expand the standard 1Mbyte of RAM to 5Mbytes. The VGA screen earns a 'satisfactory' score for readability, and the keyboard is satisfactory. Documentation is only satisfactory because it is not detailed. Ease of use earns a satisfactory score. System design earns a very good score. Zeos' support policies are excellent and include a 30-day money-back guarantee, 24-hour direct technical support and a one-year warranty. Technical support is satisfactory. The machine costs only $2,295 and is rated excellent in overall value. Toshiba has strong entrant in 386SX notebook PC arena. (Software Review) (Toshiba T2000SX)(First Look) (evaluation) Toshiba America's T200SX 80386SX-based notebook computer comes with a VGA LCD display, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and a 20- or 40Mbyte internal hard disk. It uses a 16-MHz 80386SX CPU and is very light, weighing only 6.9 pounds. The machine measures 12.2 by 10 by 1.9 inches. The keyboard is impressive, and the sidelit LCD display is generally quite readable. Toshiba uses an unusual nickel-hydride battery technology for approximately 3 hours of battery life per 1.5-hour charge. The T2000SX is not cheap, but it is less expensive than the Compaq LTE. The T2000SX costs $4,999 for a 20Mbyte version and $5,499 for a 40Mbyte version. An extra megabyte of RAM costs $549 and is recommended for Windows users. It is solidly built and a very competitive entry in the growing 80386SX notebook market. Pacioli 2000 offers myriad accounting operations in an unconventional package. (Software Review) (Pacioli 2000 M-USA Business Systems Inc's Pacioli 2000 financial software offers comprehensive accounting functions through its eight modules and includes a pull-down menu interface with pop-up and text windows. All accounting operations with similar methods, such as invoices and purchase orders, use the same screen forms. Pacioli 2000 offers nine levels of password protection and supports record locking for network use. The program itself is very inexpensive at $49.95, but requires users to use preprinted forms for invoices and merchandise receipts. Pacioli suffers from some other serious drawbacks; there are no printer drivers, and the payroll module was not initially offered but can be ordered as an add-in for the price of shipping and handling. Ask Me 2000: an accessible authoring system. (ICS multimedia software) (Software Review) (evaluation) ICS' $495 Ask Me 2000 multimedia authoring software lets users create sophisticated presentations that include text, graphics, music, voice annotation, animation and still-motion video. The environment has no image-creation tools; users can import and manipulate bitmapped or object-oriented graphics. Ask Me 2000's proprietary Stratos authoring language provides 100 commands and 32 special effects. Every application created in Adk Me 2000 is essentially a multimedia database. Users can link files together with Stratos to build an interactive application. The $194 Ask Me Display application includes an unlimited run-time license and 'Appscan' utility that creates a list of all executable files needed. Ask Me Professional is a more powerful package that costs $1,795 and includes full-motion video capability. WordPerfect for the Mac sports powerful capabilities. (Software Review) (WordPerfect 2.0 for Macintosh) (evaluation) WordPerfect is the leading IBM-compatible word processor, but the Macintosh version has suffered from a poor implementation of the Mac user interface and gained little market share. WordPerfect for the Mac 2.0 attempts to solve these problems, bringing more of the capabilities of the text-based version to a graphical interface. New features include paragraph-based formatting, drawing capabilities, style sheets, text boxes and improved macros. Basic editing is rated very good, and the spelling checker and thesaurus are rated good. Mail merge is very good in the new version. Layout capabilities now include support for mixed-column documents and the ability to anchor graphics to a specific page or specific paragraph. The layout features are now rated excellent ,as are the graphics capabilities. Outlining is satisfactory. The table of contents and indexing capabilities are good. WordPerfect 2.0 for the Mac has powerful style sheets but suffers from a bug that prevents it from overriding a preset paragraph indent; style sheets are rated very good. Font support, footnoting and macro capabilities are excellent. Printer support and compatibility are very good. Speed is good, and documentation is very good. Ease of learning and ease of use both earn good scores. Error handling is rated good. WordPerfect's excellent support policies are famous; technical support earns a good score. WordPerfect 2.0 for the Mac is a good value for its $495 price. Is IBM overcoming its 'wimp factor' image with OS/2? (OS/2 operating system)(Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) IBM's recent moves to aggressively market OS/2 and its strategic relationship with networking market leader Novell Inc indicate that the company is changing its image and becoming more decisive in its actions. The company's new support of the NetWare network operating system makes NetWare a strategic solution while giving IBM a chance to do the same for OS/2. Novell previously provided little support for OS/2 on clients, but is now committed to eventually supporting OS/2 as a desktop platform. IBM is determined to support OS/2 and is rumored to be pushing for OS/2 and Presentation Manager development. The IBM-Novell agreement will also help solve problems stemming from competition between Novell and Microsoft; users had been concerned about OS/2 directions while Novell ignored OS/2 in order to deny Microsoft an easy way into the networking market. IBM/Novell: Victory for Netware? (potential effects of recent licensing agreement) The recent licensing agreement between IBM and Novell that calls for IBM to make Netware 2.x and 3.x available as an alternative to LAN Server and for Novell to develop a version of its Portable Netware for IBM's RS/6000 and 32-bit OS/2 platforms is regarded by a number of industry observers as a serious setback to LAN Manager and a further blow to the already rocky relationship of IBM and Microsoft. The announcement closely follows the announcement by Microsoft and IBM of a systems software strategy that diverges radically from earlier directions and is not yet endorsed by IBM. IBM officials deny the Novell arrangement is a result of the Microsoft announcement, saying that the Novell relationship has been under development for some time. Both IBM executives and resellers maintain that the agreement does not affect IBM's commitment to OS/2 and LAN Server, and many expect the apparent IBM/Microsoft rift to soon be healed. LAN Man users: dreamers still on course. (LAN Manager users unimpressed by IBM/Novell agreement) Corporations already committed to LAN Manager remain largely unmoved by the recent agreement between IBM and Novell that will see Netware offered as a 'blue box' operating system. US Sprint and Chrysler Corp continue with long-range plans to implement LAN Manager. One technical support specialist at Chrysler says the IBM/Novell agreement represents no new product, simply better support for those already using a combination of LAN Manager/LAN Server and Netware than has been available previously. Tandy Corp/Radio Shack will also proceed with plans to migrate its corporate E-mail network to LAN Manager, although one consultant on the project admits to greater concern about the success of the project in light of the announcement. Meanwhile, EDS will continue to use either LAN Manager and LAN Server or Netware as appropriate, according to the head of technology infrastructure services there. Novell dealers cheer agreement with IBM. (to ship Netware) Breidenbach, Susan. Novell dealers reacted enthusiastically to the announcement of the marketing agreement between Novell and IBM that will see Netware offered as an alternative operating system on IBM boxes. The announcement was particularly welcome to those resellers who also happen to be IBM dealers. Novell channel managers were braced for a negative reaction from much of the channel and are nonplussed by the generally welcoming atmosphere. As a whole, the reseller channel sees the agreement as legitimizing Netware in the IBM environment, and expect the end result to be easier selling of Netware into IBM accounts. Many point out, however, that the impact depends on the lengths to which IBM goes to sell Netware to its customers, and they look for a long period of adjustment. IBM LAN Server resellers also view the agreement positively, seeing it as opening new doors for them as well. Noorda says competition will strengthen networking industry. (Ray Noorda, Novell chairman and CEO, on IBM/Novell licensing Novell Pres, Chmn and CEO Ray Noorda welcomes competition and hopes the recent endorsement of Netware by IBM, as evidenced by the agreement to offer it on IBM boxes, will not mean the ultimate end to Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager, an eventuality many industry observers are now predicting. Noorda also expressed regret at the exit of 3Com from the network operating system arena. One consultant who shares Noorda's views that LAN Manager is not down for the count and that competition between the two firms will strengthen both products, compares the situation to the Ethernet vs. token-ring debate of the mid-80s, pointing out that the argument turned out not to be an either/or question. While Novell welcomes competition, management intends to take full advantage of the public relations boost offered by the IBM agreement, and will not simply yield sales and market share to rivals to maintain a competitive environment. Banyan, AT&T ink wide-ranging pact: under alliance terms, AT&T servers will run Vines operating system. Banyan Systems Inc and AT&T Computer Systems announce a strategic alliance aimed at increasing the interoperability of the two firms' network management capabilities and will support International Standards Organization protocols. Initial plans call for versions of Banyan's Vines and Vines SMP network operating software to be certified to run on AT&T's StarServer E Symmetric Multiprocessor System, StarServer E uniprocessor computers and Starlan 10 adapter boards. Further, AT&T's Stargroup LAN Manager Server will be interoperable with Vines networks, enabling the exchange of files and electronic mail messages between environments. In addition to the increased functionality, the agreement also gives both firms better positioning in the value-added reseller and distribution channels. 3Com gains control of its destiny, at last. (president says new focus in place) 3Com Corp Pres and CEO Eric Benhamou says the firm's transition from a workgroup systems company to a data networking entity is complete. The 'new' 3Com is engaged in only two businesses, end systems and intermediate systems, prompting one wag to suggest renaming the firm '2Com'. Those two businesses comprise four product lines (down from the eight to 13) 3Com was supporting prior to the transition, and encompass end systems, adapters, terminals and servers, and hubs and internetworking. While the shift may have seemed precipitous to the industry, Benhamou maintains the process was an ongoing one of long standing that was abruptly accelerated by Microsoft's shift to direct sales of LAN Manager and by heightened fears of a recession brought on by the Persian Gulf crisis. Benhamou says 3Com at last has control over its own destiny, rather than being subject to the ups and downs of its strategic partners, and will now concentrate on operating system- and hardware-independent computer-to-computer communications. Benhamou's message must be reaching at least some investors, as 3Com stock has begun to rebound from a Jan 1991 plunge to about the $5 per share level. Motorola's radio modules form 10Mbps Ethernet link: transceivers connect single or clustered users. (product announcement) Motorola Inc introduces the Altair transceiver, a modular device for radio support of wireless networks operating at full Ethernet speed. The size and weight of the module preclude its use as a portable local area network (LAN) link. Instead, it targets the desktop user who may occasionally shift location. A single control module supports up to 32 devices in any combination, cabled to user modules. Each user module supports up to six devices through either BNC or Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) connections. User modules, located on file cabinets, cubicle walls or desktops, link to a centrally located control unit positioned at a height of seven to 15 feet. Modules for open areas with higher ceilings are in the planning stages. Altair modules are free of the line-of-sight restrictions imposed by infrared and some directional links. Modules require Federal Communication Commission licenses, handled for the user by Motorola. Control modules are priced at $3,995; user modules sell for $3,495. 3Com, Microsoft outline the options for upgrades: companies address future of LAN Manager. 3Com and Microsoft Corp will begin to address the transition from 3+ and 3+Open networks in Mar 1991, making upgrade recommendations and previewing support planned for future versions of LAN Manager. A guide to be released Mar 25 calls for users to shift some servers from 3+Open 1.1 or 3+ 1.6 to LAN Manager 2.0, and Microsoft will offer special update pricing to registered owners through Jun 30. Phase one allows sharing of files, printing, and running of client/server applications across a mixed 3+Open and LAN Manager network. Full interoperability will come with the next version of LAN Manager, which could ship as early as June or as late as Oct 1991. Porting is advised for those users with applications based on Xerox Networking System (XNS) transport; Microsoft will offer an update toolkit for such packages. 3Com owners should contact Microsoft-authorized Network Specialists for the LAN Manager update. From entry-level 3+Open, upgrades cost $595 for five users or $795 for 10 users; the unlimited versions of 3+Open and 3+Share can be upgraded for $995. Thomas-Conrad moves into Ethernet, embraces Arcnet: first Ethernet interface card cuts packet move. (product announcement) Thomas-Conrad will introduce the first adapters based on National Semiconductor's 32-bit Sonic controller chip. Three Ethernet adapters scheduled to ship in Mar 1991 will be priced at $395 each with an RJ-45 or BNC adapter; a combination adapter will be priced at $449. A compact concentrator for the adapters, scheduled for release in May 1991, will be priced at $649. Thomas-Conrad also introduces two new Arcnet combination adapters that work with the firm's proprietary Twisted-Pair Plus (TP+) and standard twisted-pair connectors and coax connectors. The 8-bit TC6242 is priced at $249; the 16-bit TC6245 sells for $379. Two smaller-sized eight-port coax hubs are also scheduled for release in March. The TC6250 active hub is priced at $695. The TC6251 Smart Hub, with Thomas-Conrad's Hub Talk software, is priced at $895. LAN TIMES Readers Choice 1991. (presenting the Readers Choice award winners) (directory) The winners of the 1991 LAN TIMES Readers Choice Awards are presented. The awards are determined by a survey of LAN TIMES readers and represent the readers' determination of the best local area networking products available. The 1991 survey covered 21 product categories: client/server operating systems (OSes), peer-to-peer OSes, Intel 80486-based file servers, Intel 80386-based file servers; diskless workstations; Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs); token-ring NICs, ArcNet NICs; cabling systems, uninterruptible power supplies, storage systems, external bridges/routers, network analyzers, Physical Layer network management tools, Software Layer network management tools, print utilities, menu systems, E-mail/groupware, document management systems, SNA gateways, and backup systems. The winner and the first runner up for each category are briefly highlighted, with contact information provided for each company. LANs get handwriting-recognition package. (Penpoint, from Go Corp.) Handwriting-recognition comes to hand-held computers with the introduction by Go Corp, of Foster City, CA, of the Penpoint operating system. Officials for Go place an almost equal emphasis on the system's connectivity as on its handwriting-recognition technology, which can recognize both cursive and printed characters and punctuation, translating them into electronic text. Notes can also be stored as graphic image files, according to user preference. Penpoint is object-oriented and offers an intuitive graphical user interface. A multiprocessing, protected memory system allows multiple documents to be accessed and edited at the same time without linking the documents. Penpoint uses the DOS file system as a default, but can recognize other file systems as well. Connectivity is further enhanced by the multiprocessing capabilities and Penpoint's object-oriented architecture. Penpoint may face competition from a planned Microsoft product, Pen Windows, but delivery dates have not been announced for the Microsoft product, giving Go Corp a significant lead. Now Unix creates viable options for network servers: MS-DOS, OS/2 LANs benefit from Unix server platforms. Unix running as a network server on a microcomputer platform has a number of advantages to offer MS-DOS users. Unix is an obvious choice for use as a multiuser/multitasking platform in a distributed system. A very robust Unix server supporting from 20 to 30 MS-DOS clients can cost less than $30,000. Unix-based servers also offer faster performance with DOS/Unix crossover applications, and take full advantage of the 32-bit addressing, virtual memory and demand paging capabilities of Intel 80386 and 80486 processors. A number of network operating system (NOS) vendors, recognizing Unix's potential, have already begun to develop products that capitalize on Unix capabilities. Microsoft, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, has developed a Unix-based version of LAN Manager Server. The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) has developed a version of LAN Manager for SCO Unix. Novell has a number of Unix products, including a portable version of Netware 286, and a line of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) products. And two major microcomputer NOS vendors have announced support for their systems on Unix servers. How to tweak operating system environments: knowing options helps customize local area networks. (tutorial) All DOS, Unix or OS/2 programs have a package of information known as an environment that can be queried, altered or expanded. A sample program is provided that will print the environment or a specific variable, or add a variable to the environment. The environment consists of variables, which can be any text string within bounds set by the operating system and command processor. Variables can be altered via the SET command, or from within applications. Variables can be used to manage a local area network (LAN). Netware, LAN Manager and Vines all support environment variables control in network login scripts. This can be hampered by a lack of environment space, but environment space can be increased by adding the string shell=command.com/E:/P to the CONFIG.SYS file, with the desired size of the new environment. The workstation must be rebooted to make the new size active. Memory can affect your Netware 386 Monitor utility. (tutorial) Leibing, Edward. The Monitor utility of Netware 386 is particularly useful for supervisors. Monitor is a Netware Loadable Module (NLM) that can be loaded into memory either when Netware 386 is brought up or at any other time from the command module. Navigation within Monitor follows the same format as other Netware menu utilities using the C-Worthy interface. Information regarding the server and connections is provided at the top half of the Monitor screen; at the bottom half is a window showing the available options. Information provided in the top half of the screen includes file server up time, original cache buffers, total cache buffers, dirty cache buffers, current disk requests, packet receive buffers, directory cache buffers, service processes, connections in use, and open files. The information provided by the Monitor utility is useful in determining how well the network's memory needs are being met by available memory. Network-ready pcs aren't just dreams: LAN demand makes pc, chip developers face motherboard integration. Network-readiness is becoming a hot ticket in the microcomputer marketplace, and vendors are pursuing the best network interface integration scheme. The journey is a perilous one. Microcomputers lack the standardization inherent in the workstation arena or the design independence enjoyed by Apple. Vendors must make hard choices regarding which networks and media interfaces to support, and must also maintain a balance between cost and revenue. Compaq Computer details experiments with local area network (LAN) modules that plug into the motherboard. Chip maker Intel is backing the concept of an in-line card or socket attachment. Many chip makers see a universal communications interface in silicon as an exciting possibility, but microcomputer makers hesitate to commit to such a scheme until micros purchased for network purposes surpass standalone purchases. That time may be near, as projected growth for network computing exceeds that for stand-alones. Updates on NIC technology advances: developments include sanction of Ethernet wiring standard, laptop connection. A number of significant advances took place in the network interface card (NIC) segment of local area network (LAN) technology during the month of Feb 1991. The IEEE approved the use of unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) wiring for Ethernet transmission and released signal specifications that have been in development for three years. The approval will give a boost to Ethernet in the corporate arena by significantly lowering cabling costs and ensuring easy reconfiguration. A flood of adapters for connecting laptop, notebook and handheld computers to LANs was released. Cnet Technology unveiled its CN50 line of adapters for ArcNet and Ethernet, ranging in price from $259 to $399, with a token-ring model due in Jul 1991 at a cost of $699. IQ Technologies added Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) support to the drivers for its P*lan parallel-port adapters. And Megahertz Corp has developed a token-ring adapter for Toshiba's T1000 SE, XE or LE; T1200 XE; and T2000SX. When is data-line protection needed? (surge protection on AC lines is only a partial solution) (tutorial) Surge protectors and uninterruptible power supplies do an excellent job of protecting local area networks from power surges through AC lines. Unfortunately, LANs are also at risk from power surges through the data lines. At least four types of transient power surges can occur through the data line; accident-related surges; electrostatic discharge (ESD), which can build up on cables and components or can be transmitted by a user; electro magnetic radiation (EMR) produced by electrical equipment, including the fluorescent lighting common in offices; and reference ground surges. Prevention options include rerouting data lines away from obvious sources of EMR, replace unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable with shielded cable, and installing data surge protectors throughout the network. Gigatrend's new age of LAN backup: Mastersafe allows multiple nodes to take full advantage of the tape drive. Gigatrend introduces a distributed data management technique that allows a shared backup device to stream consistently throughout the backup process. Mastersafe makes it possible to provide data for backup at an extremely high rate, yet the technique requires no extra hardware. A highly efficient packet level communication protocol is central to the software system. Employing multiple nodes simultaneously eliminates the communications bottleneck created by the ability of individual workstations to maintain a high data rate. The data stream is received by a node acting as an Archive Server, a resource manager that enables other nodes to connect to a streaming tape device. Because Mastersafe is daisy-chained, data is distributed according to user, keeping all data from a given user's backup session on one tape. Other advantages to the Mastersafe concept include the ability for the administrator to automate backup through a TSR on the Archive Server, and the superior data compression available on workstations, as compared to host adapters and other data transfer devices. You can get more speed out of Netware. (tips for optimum network software environment setup) (tutorial) Tuning the network software environment can improve network response time. Flagging network files Nonshareable allows them to be stored in the workstation data buffering; program files should be flagged Nonshareable. Data files that are dynamically updated by several workstations should be flagged Shareable to prevent data corruption, but static data files should, when possible, be flagged Nonshareable to take advantage of workstation data buffering. Application program access methods can be tweaked by reducing the number of search drives mapped. Mapping a search to an explicit drive reference whenever possible further improves response time. Explicit directory referencing can also be used. The Mnu file should be kept small, as the menu program steps through each line sequentially. Finally, batch files, which are inherently slow, can be compiled into Com files, offering significantly faster execution. Name services can provide systemwide applications: prove a real boon for enterprisewide connectivity. Name services, also called directory services, are critical to communication in multiserver, multidepartmental networks. Name services support the use of multipart names, essential for large networks. A name service comprises a systemwide directory of network resources, including users, distribution lists, files, printers and so on. Name services provide the ability to build systemwide applications, support distributed administration, provide a consistent system image for both local and remote resources, support systemwide security, and allow systemwide network management. Name services currently available are all proprietary, but the International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCITT) X.500 and the International Standards Organization 9594 committees are jointly developing a single standard for names services. Once the standard is established and X.500 versions of operating systems begin to appear, names services will begin to be built into applications. Neither rain nor sleet. (examining the E-mail industry) (Special Report) Electronic mail (E-mail) is both an old and a new technology. One of the first applications available on mainframes, it was lost in the move to personal computers, then reappeared when the proliferation of local area networks (LANs) gave several small companies a vision of a new market. The current market numbers some 20 to 25 E-mail vendors. These vendors differentiate their products in one of the three basic E-mail services: data transmission, data storage, and directory services. It is interoperability with other E-mail services, whether mainframe, public, or LAN-based, that is the critical factor for E-mail acceptance. E-mail is being touted by some as the key to the paperless office, although there are significant technical, organizational and legal barriers to first be overcome. Others see E-mail as eventually occupying the same position facsimile machines do now. Industry experts look for the maturation of E-mail to accelerate the growth of LANs. DOS users connect to Unix over LANs. (Axcess, from Atlantix) (Software Review) (includes related article on ways to connect Axcess, from Atlantix, is easy to learn and use software that allows a microcomputer to be connected to a Unix system over a Netbios local area network (LAN). Axcess is provided on two separate sets of disks: three DOS disks are installed on the DOS client machine, and two Unix disks are loaded on the Unix server. Installation requires four steps, including configuring and installing network interface cards (NICs) on both the client and the server. Documentation is better than average, but slanted toward programmers, rather than users. Technical support is excellent. Error handling is acceptable, but not superior. Network awareness and interoperability of this package are excellent, but it seems more appropriate for systems integrators into vertical market development, rather than the average DOS user. The biggest single drawback to the package is the cost, a healthy $4,595 for a maximum of 32 users. Powerfusion is another way to connect DOS and Unix. (Software Review) (evaluation) Powerfusion, from Performance Technology, is an easy to learn and use collection of programs that allow a DOS-based microcomputer to communicate with a Unix host over a Netbios local area network (LAN) or an asynchronous connection. Powerfusion offers good network awareness and excellent interoperability. Installation is complicated by the fact that instructions for installing the DOS portion are in one manual and those for the Unix portion in another. Documentation is in need of a major overhaul. Fortunately, telephone support is excellent. Error handling is good - adequate but not outstanding. The range of features is rated as good. One particularly nice touch is a program called Local Navigate that lets the user traverse a directory structure using arrow keys in place of CD commands. Powerfusion features a friendly user interface and is priced reasonably at $750 for 5 users; $1,500 for 10; $2,250 for 20 users; and with an unlimited license at $3,000. Mixed reactions to four of Ultinet's peer-to-peer utilities: the print utilities are quite good, fill definite needs. (Print+, Four packages from Ultinet Development Inc are evaluated. Three (Print+, Queue+ and Spool+) are printer-sharing utilities that allow a local area network running LAN Manager to designate workstations as printer servers. The fourth package, File+, is a disk-sharing utility. Installation is fairly straight-forward provided the user has a good knowledge of how the network operates. The utilities blend smoothly into LAN Manager's command structure, giving them good ease of use. Ease of learning is also good, with a slight caveat regarding Print+. The three printer utilities have an excellent range of features, but File+ leaves much to be desired. Security also becomes an issue with File+, although it is essentially a non-issue with the printer utilities. Documentation is woefully inadequate for all four packages, but technical support is surprisingly good. Overall, the three printer utilities earn an Excellent rating, but File+ manages only a Good. Pricing is $499 per server for Spool+, and $895 per 3 servers for either Print+ or File+. Queue+ is provided free when accompanying Print+ and Spool+, or is available alone at $295 per server. Get the message? No? Then get Courier. (Network Courier from Consumers Software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Consumers Software's Network Courier electronic mail (E-mail) system, priced at $995 per local area network (LAN) with a maximum of 150 users, is a full-featured package that features easy, intuitive installation, good documentation, and runs on both Novell and IBM networks. Network Courier can be run as a terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program or not, as the user chooses. A utility called the Micro Monitor saves on TSR memory, but requires messages to be read at the command line. The package offers a wealth of features. Mail items can be stored in file folders; these folders can be private (user-only access), group (open to members of a defined group), or shared (open to anyone on the system with access rights). A particularly useful feature is the Sortkey, which allows the user to set the default for mail sorting on the main screen when the mail program is running. Mail can be sorted by sender, subject, date and priority. Network Courier requires a hefty 1.4Mbytes of available disk space, but any missing features probably are not worth having. A peer-to-peer network without a peer: Webcorp's network is hardware-independent, has low memory requirements. (Web 2.5 Webcorp's Web Network Operating System 2.5 is an outstanding hardware-independent, peer-to-peer network that offers a menu-driven interface that even a novice at networks will be able to use. Web 2.5 works with any Network Interface Card that loads IPX. Installing the NICs is the trickiest part of the entire installation process. One must be installed on every microcomputer on the network, and then all the NICs must be cabled together. Once the hardware is installed typing INSTALL at the command line finishes the process. The system is managed through the Station Manager (SM) application. The application can be password protected. Security can be set at several different levels. Documentation leaves something to be desired, particularly with regard to the hardware installation process, which is ignored in the written documentation, although an ASCII file called HARDWARE.DOC is provided. The system is shipped in a minimum memory mode, but can be optimized with any of several third-party disk-caching software packages. Pricing for Web 2.5 is $495 for up to five users, $995 for 15 users, and $1,495 for 30 users. Alcom package faxes from Windows: Lanfax Redirector for Windows retains graphical and font embellishments. (Software Review) Alcom's Lanfax Redirector for Windows offers real-time, peer-to-peer communications that allow the data printed by any Windows application to be redirected with the integrity of the original image maintained, eliminating the need to scan images into the fax redirector. Faxes can be addressed on the fly or from any of several predefined phone books. Installation entails installing the fax board in any empty slot, then installing the software from either the DOS command line or from Windows. The installation program is interactive and allows the user to set such defaults as fax orientation and resolution. Documentation was in a preliminary stage, but was very well written. The product is easy to learn and use. Lanfax Redirector for Windows is priced at $995 for an 8-user version, $1,995 for a 25-user version, and $3,495 for an unlimited user version. DCA offers communications versatility. (Digital Communications Associates; Crosstalk Communicator) (Software Review) (evaluation) Crosstalk Communicator, $99 from Digital Communications Associates, is an excellent communications software package that offers all the standard features and more. Installation is a breeze, requiring the user to merely type INSTALL at the command line. A context-sensitive on-line help system obviates the need for much written documentation, but what there is is both well-written and well-organized. Telephone support could be improved not only by extending the hours, currently limited to East Coast business hours, but by providing a toll-free number. In balance, there is an on-line BBS that can be dialed into for answers to questions. Several features distinguish Crosstalk from the competition. A filter allows the user to control the way data is received or displayed. For example, incoming data can be stripped of control characters, a real bonus when receiving ASCII data. Another nice feature is Easycall, which facilitates connecting to a host system. Prolinc offers link to multiple systems: Hughes LAN Systems product provides simultaneous access to TCP/IP, LAT. (Transmission Prolinc, from Hughes LAN Systems, is actually a collection of several programs with a common interface. Prolinc/TCP, Prolinc/LAT, Prolinc/NFS and Prolinc/IPX provide connectivity with hosts or servers running their respective protocols. Support is also provided for 3Com and Western Digital adapters on XT, AT or Micro Channel buses, as is support for third-party terminal emulators and file transfer protocols. Even with all these capabilities, Prolinc is easy to learn and use. Installation is menu-driven, and the component programs can be installed selectively. Documentation is excellent; each chapter is preceded by an individual table of contents, allowing the chapter to serve as a standalone document for its particular protocol. Prolinc is available in both 5.25- and 3.5-inch diskettes and is priced at $595 per workstation, with volume discounts available. Netutils helps rescue downed servers: Ontrack utilities offer users a wide variety of valuable troubleshooting tools. (Software Netutils 2.0, $99.95 form Ontrack Computer Systems, is a set of four utilities that can be run from the command line or from a menu to diagnose and repair problems on a downed server. The user license restricts use to one server at a time. For a single server, the best way to proceed is to copy the files to a subdirectory on the C drive. For multiple servers, make a backup copy of the Netutils diskette and use that at each server. Documentation assumes a certain level of expertise on the part of the network manager, but is complete and clear, and includes a troubleshooting guide that lists the bulk of the error messages Netutils generates, with details on fixing the problems. A particularly nice touch falls into the category of preventive maintenance: Netutils detects high-risk defects, protecting against lost data. Plusware boards provide a viable FDDI alternative: fast, inexpensive means of eliminating bottlenecks. (Fiber Distributed Plusware, a division of CompuShack, offers a range of boards as an alternative for high-cost FDDI board/cabling solutions. The boards use a polling scheme on a fiber optic system, resulting in high throughput regardless of the number of machines being polled. The boards are sensitive to bus timing, and a total of 24 rocker switches and five jumpers must be set for configuration. Performance is good, even with unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling, and Plusware will run on fiber optics and UTP with the same board. A bridge to FDDI networks is available. An adaptive, intelligent master controller for multiport repeaters soon to be available from Compushack will allow a Plusware topology to schedule slow and fast workstations. The 16-bit AT LAN board sells for $1,495, as does the 32/16-bit MicroChannel LAN board. The 32-bit EISA LAN board is priced at $1,795, while the Multiport Repeater is priced at $2,295. Fifteen charts or graphs in fifteen minutes: Graph-in-the-box produces a variety of charts, supports virtually any printer. Graph-in-the-Box Executive, from New England Software, is a menu-driven, memory-resident graphics program that can produce up to fifteen different types of charts from computer data. Available types of charts include vertical bar, horizontal bar, step, pie, text and organization charts. Almost any make of printer or plotter is supported, and this extremely flexible package is ideal for network environments where several individuals may be involved in assembling a series of charts for a presentation. Installation is a snap; the package installs from a local drive to the hard drive, and the enclosed Lharc program unpacks the files, which are automatically copied to a user-selected subdirectory. The program can be run by typing GBX at the command line, or by adding the command to the AUTOEXEC.BAT or login script. Documentation is compact and well-written. Graph-in-the-Box Executive is available on either 3.5- or 5.25-inch diskettes for an unlimited number of machines for $955. This provides simultaneous use for only five users; additional modules cost $595. Bridgeport lets PCs and Macs agree on a printer. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Extended Systems' $495 Bridgeport ESI-2679 is an intelligent printer sharing device that allows PCs and Macintoshes to share the same Postscript printer. Because Bridgeport is a hardware solution, no special printer drivers or complex PC configurations are required. Printers supported include the HP Laserjet IIP, IID, or III with an HP PostScript cartridge; HP Laserjet II, IIP, IID or III with Pacific Data Products PostScript Cartridge; QMS-PS 810 turbo, Canon LBP-8III, IIIT, or IIIR with Scriptcard PS-1; and the Apple Laserwriter IINT or IINTX. The Laserwriter IINT must be configured for a serial port to work with Bridgeport, but this is a matter of setting two DIP switched. Installation is simple. Customer support is excellent. Most impressive is Bridgeport's two-year warranty which replaces the unit if it fails any time within that period. Bridgeport offers an excellent, inexpensive alternative to buying another laser printer. Takeover takes over remote workstations. (Software Review) (evaluation) Takeover 1.1 is remote access/remote control software from Softklone. Takeover is comprised of two parts, Host and Guest, available together for $295, or separately for $150 and $195, respectively. Installation is simple, being a matter of inserting the appropriate disk into the 'A' drive and typing install at the command line. Technical support is excellent. Pull-down mouse menus make connecting with the Host easy, provided both Guest and Host are set at compatible baud rates. One useful feature, designed for security purposes but with other interesting applications, involves a callback feature in which the Guest computer calls the Host and gives a predefined user name, password and callback number. The Host disconnects from that call, then calls back the Guest computer. Once the connection is made, the Guest computer has full control of the Host. Error handling could be better, and running Windows on the Host computer is not possible, but these are minor inconveniences in view of the other benefits of Takeover. Neither rain nor sleet. (E-mail and the X.400 standard) Steiglitz, Mark. Electronic mail was one of the first applications to become available for networked microcomputers, but truly widespread use of the technology has come only with the growth of local area networks (LANs) and increasing distances between members of project teams. Connecting departmental E-mail systems can be problematic, however, because of the diversity of network operating systems and hardware platforms found in large corporations. Software gateways provide a partial solution to the problem, but they are specific to system pairs, and do not create actual direct links. A common messaging backbone, with which all gateways can communicate, is the ultimate answer. The X.400 standard, designed by an international group of hardware vendors and communications providers, is the best technology currently available for such a backbone. X.400 is compatible with existing, installed messaging systems. The main barrier to implementing X.400 is the wealth of options it provides. The message handling process employed by X.400 is examined. Telcos meet to form POS service rules. (Bellcore Bell Communications Research Inc. and regional carriers to develop Bellcore Bell Communications Research Inc and a group of regional carriers meet to discuss providing customers with a set of standard services for point-of-sale (POS) and other transaction-oriented applications. Carriers hope that consistent data transmission services will make it easier for users to manage networks that cross regional carrier boundaries. Bellcore's National Services Coordinating Group commissioned a special group of Bellcore representatives to develop technical guidelines for carriers that offer data- over-voice and other transaction processing services. Attendees at the committee's first meeting included regional Bell holding companies, Cincinnati Bell Inc and the US Telephone Association. The group will consider multiple telecommunications technologies, but carriers will likely promote data-over-voice technology for transaction processing needs. Global net users rethink public/private service mix. (cost of international private networks drops; virtual network services The cost of operating private network facilities has dropped considerably since 1987, which allows users more options in meeting their telecommunications needs. Prices for international leased lines have fallen more than 50 percent since 1987, and with the additional advent of voice compression technologies, international private networks are extremely cost-effective. Virtual network services are also emerging that make switched facilities attractive. Network World developed a model to illustrate how the crossover point has changed between international switched circuits and private-line services. The crossover point for 1987, 1989 and 1991 was determined by calculating how much dialup voice and facsimile traffic would be required before it would be cheaper to use a 56K-bps private line to carry the same traffic. The amount of switched traffic required to cost-justify transatlantic private lines has decreased substantially. SynOptics airs grand plan for net control. (SynOptics Communications Inc. announces network management software SynOptics Communications Inc introduces several network management software packages and router and bridge modules for its local-area network hubs. The LattisNet 3040 Network Control Engine (NCE) is a product that is key in establishing hierarchical management structures in which raw network data is processed by intermediate management devices located within a network. Event messages are only passed on to an upper level centralized network management station when error counts exceed predefined thresholds. This transfer eliminates the need for managers of large networks to address raw data from distant network elements. The $9,995 NCE module resides in SynOptics' LattisNet System 3000 Ethernet concentrator. SynOptics also announced network management applications Lattisnet Advanced Network Management, LattisNet Basic Network Management, LattisNet Network Management for Unix and NetMap 2.0. SynOptics also announced the LattisNet 3386 Remote Ethernet Router, and local Ethernet bridges LattisNet 3323S and 3324S. Tariff 12 users plan for the worst. (US Federal Communications Commission again investigates AT&T's packaged network deals) The US Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) re-investigation of AT&T's Tariff 12 has prompted some users to develop contingency plans in the event the rate schedule is overturned. American Express Co and USAir Inc are among those examining alternative network plans. The FCC's re-investigation must determine whether Tariff 12's packaged network deals differ from the component services purchased from individual tariffs. AT&T must substantiate the grounds on which Tariff 12 is priced to legitimize why its rates are lower than those of individual services. The FCC will investigate AT&T's first four Virtual Terminal Network Service deals with American Airlines Inc, American Express, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co and Ford Motor Co. The FCC disclosed that additional Tariff 12 deals raise the same legal issues and may be affected by its ruling. Caution advised in choice of systems integrator. (selecting and contracting computer systems integrators)(includes related A growing number of corporations are turning to computer systems integrators to complete projects for which they lack the in-house technical expertise or staff. Network managers must be aware of several factors before selecting a systems integrator. Contracts should protect the user during an integrator-managed project, an integrator's work should be monitored throughout the duration of a project, managers should consider how they will resolve disputes with a prospective integrator, and they should determine how they will deal with software licensing issues. While systems integrators formerly focused on writing custom mainframe software, in 1991, they largely specialize in local-area networks (LANs), multiple LAN hookups and client/server development projects. Contracting an integrator typically takes from three to six months. The top five systems integrators are Andersen Consulting, DEC, Electronic Data Systems Inc, IBM and Unisys Corp, which all have integration-related revenues of over $500 million annually. IBM expected to serve up surprise in APPN rollout. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking capabilities for OS/2 Extended Edition and IBM announces Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) capabilities for OS/2 Extended Edition-based workstations and 3174 Establishment Controllers. APPN support will allow the 3174 to perform as a low-end Systems Network Architecture (SNA) router, and will be able to connect APPN-equipped workstations or local-area networks (LANs) to one another without host intervention. APPN support on the 3174 only applies to devices that support IBM's LU 6.2/Advanced Program-to-Program Communications (APPC) protocol; it will not allow users to link LANs using other protocols such as Novell Inc's IPX over SNA links. APPN optimizes routing because data can take the most efficient path between APPN nodes rather than via a mainframe. APPN also simplifies network configuration because the APPN nodes do not need to be manually defined in configuration tables. Nasdaq enlists MCI muxes to construct nationwide net; system will help exchange guard against disaster. (Nasdaq uses MCI Nasdaq contracts MCI Communications Corp to provide it with multiplexers for a nationwide data network with enhanced disaster recovery capabilities. Nasdaq is building a network based on T-1 and 64K-bps trunks, scheduled to be cut over in Jun 1991. The network will serve brokerages and stock-quote vendors who employ Nasdaq's 'special services' stock-quote information. Special services are trade information feeds that Nasdaq sends directly from its computers to systems operated by its clients; the information is then dispersed to over 100,000 users and subscribers. Over 75 percent of the 85 firms that obtain special services from Nasdaq do not maintain connections to the firm's backup data center; if Nasdaq needs to shift operations to the backup site, special services customers are cut off. The new network allows subscribers to maintain dedicated links to the closest MCI point of presence. Object Management Group accepts 7 tech. proposals. (Group will select one of seven technologies as base for Object Request Broker The Object Management Group (OMG) will consider seven technologies for inclusion in the blueprint it is designing for developers to create object-oriented applications for distributed environments. OMG will select one of the technologies as the foundation of its Object Request Broker (ORB) specification by Aug 1991. The ORB will define how distributed, object-oriented applications will exchange messages via a remote procedure call (RPC), allowing one system to initiate tasks on another across a network. The technology could facilitate development of applications that let users click on an icon displayed on a workstation to call up a series of software routines stored as an object on a network server. Analysts laud OMG's efforts to define standards for object-oriented environments and claim the ORB could spark further interest in distributed computing. Carriers, CPE firms pledge support for ISDN strategy. (Integrated Services Digital Networks Executive Council of the Corporation for The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Executive Council of the Corporation for Open Systems International (COS) outline plans to incorporate a series of Bellcore Bell Communications Research Inc technical references (TRs) in their products beginning in 1992. The Executive Council, formed in Jan 1990 to encourage deployment and use of ISDN, sponsored the Feb 1991 gathering of users, carriers and equipment makers. The TRs, which are collectively referred to as National ISDN 1, specify how customer premises equipment accesses an ISDN switch and how multiple vendors' switches interoperate via a Common Channel Signaling 7 network. Members of the ISDN Executive Council, which includes users, vendors and regional Bell holding companies, claim that support for the TRs could facilitate widespread use of ISDN. MCI adds advanced routing feature to its 800 service; ECR lets users customize call routing, messaging. (MCI Communications Corp. MCI Communications Corp introduces Enhanced Call Router (ECR), the latest feature for voice processing systems in its public network. ECR adds value to MCI's 800 services because users save money when they customize call routing and messaging capabilities supported in MCI's network. ECR eliminates the need for users to purchase on-premises voice processing systems to perform similar functions. ECR features menu routing, message announcements, data base routing and busy/no answer rerouting. MCI executives say the carrier plans to complement the ECR announcement with future voice recognition and additional recorded messaging features. Users pay per-minute charges that cover the call from the point of connection until the time the caller hangs up. Users with a dedicated access line to an MCI point of presence pay 15 cents per minute; users with shared access pay 20 cents per minute. NTIA serves up plan for auctioning radio spectrum. (US National Telecommunications and Information Administration endorses new The US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announces its plan to auction radio spectrum. NTIA's proposal, supported by the Bush administration, calls for the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to auction off only available or newly appropriated radio spectrum. The proposal also requires that Congress enact new legislation that supports the concept of spectrum auctioning because NTIA's plan violates the Communications Act of 1934, which does not recognize the rights of individuals or companies to own spectrum. NTIA officials claim the US needs to change its spectrum allocation policy, and is requesting that the FCC implement the plan, initiate the formation of rules and policies for spectrum allocation and determine which public interests should be excluded from any auctioning requirement. NTIA advocates a market-based approach to spectrum allocation to encourage more efficient use of scarce radio spectrum. Start-ups poised to impress net users with new wares. (goals and objectives of Ascend Communications Inc., Beyond Inc., Coral Network World surveyed network industry analysts, consultants and venture capitalists to compile company profiles of Ascend Communications Inc, Beyond Inc, Coral Network Corp, T3plus Networking Inc and Unifi Communications Corp. Ascend's goal is to provide users with high-speed access to the public network. Multiband is a customer premises device that acts like a multiplexer to provide up to 4M-bps access speed to the public network. Ascend's other product, Pipeline, reduces the number of integrated services digital network (ISDN) terminal adapters that hosts require to communicate with remote workstations. Beyond intends to simplify the management of electronic mail. The company plans to announce its management tool, BeyondMail, by Sep 1991, and will release AtMail by Jun 1991. Coral Network's goal is to help users integrate local-area networks and wide-area networks into enterprise networks. Coral will begin shipping its Broadband Enterprise Switch by summer 1991. T3plus and Unifi are also discussed. Esrey predicts slow growth for US Sprint. (United Telecommunications Inc.'s Pres and CEO William Esrey) United Communications Pres and CEO William Esrey forecasts slower growth for the United Telecom and GTE Corp joint venture, US Sprint Communications Co. Esrey claims that US Sprint will employ tight cost controls to compensate for slow-growing revenues in future quarters. US Sprint realized 17 percent growth in revenue to reach $5.06 billion in 1990; 1989 revenue totaled $4.32 billion. US Sprint's operating profit fell from $227 million in 1989 to $148 million in 1990, but minutes of usage increased 23 percent. United Telecom provides scarce information about US Sprint's financials, and analysts are unsure of what is causing the carrier's decline in profitability. Esrey disclosed that US Sprint intends to benefit from growth in the global market. Esrey confirmed that US Sprint will continue investing in foreign ventures in which it has significant ownership or control over operations. Dow Chemical safeguards call center with AT&T help. (AT&T's Megacom 800 service feature; also offered as Split Access Feature Dow Chemical Co joins with AT&T to develop an advanced 800 call routing feature that will serve as a backup system in case of a switch failure at Dow's call center. AT&T offers its Megacom 800 services feature commercially as Split Access Feature Egress Routing (SAFER), which is designed for customers with a single call center supported by T-1 access from a single AT&T 4ESS switch. The feature routes calls to another 4ESS switch where they are delivered over an alternate T-1 line if the user's primary serving center cannot complete calls over the original T-1. Dow consolidated its distributed sales and service centers into a single call center in early 1989; the company worked with AT&T, its 800 service provider, to develop a backup system for the call center if its 4ESS serving switch failed. Intrastate rates rise in 4th-quarter 1990. (state regulators increase local carrier rates; order $451 million in price cuts) State regulators order local carriers to increase intrastate rates in the 4th qtr 1990, but require price cuts of $451 million for the entire year. The quarterly rate increase is the first since 1987. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Industry Analysis Division reports that state regulators nation wide approved a total of $110.3 million in price increases during the 4th qtr 1990. The FCC division's report indicates that the rate increases may be an isolated event and not indicative of a trend toward higher local rates. Most of the 4th qtr increase occurred in New York, where local regulators mandated a $250 million increase after a five-year moratorium on rate hikes ended in 1990. Regulators in almost 30 states are considering price cap-style regulation because it helps hold down prices. State regulators primarily ignored requests for rate increases in 1990, and focused on decreases instead. Primary Access adds PAD to network access system; sixteen-port card provides X.25 interface to nets. (packet Primary Access Corp announces the addition of a 16-port packet assembler/disassembler (PAD) function to its integrated network access system, which currently features channel bank and modem capabilities. The Primary Access network access system is based on a chassis with an internal bus, and it replaces modems, channels banks and PADs. Primary Access' channel bank and modem functions allow customers to utilize such digital T-1 services as AT&T's Megacom 800 to support remote dial-up modem users. The network access system will connect with host computers, public packet networks and private T-1 networks via an X.25 interface, which is established with a 16-port Data Communications Processor (DCP) card that provides PAD capability. The new PAD allows the Primary Access system to accept digital T-1 lines from carriers, and to output a single high-speed V.35 bit stream. Users tackle concepts of DECnet Phase V. (software migration from Phase IV to V) (Data Communications) Dec is helping users understand relevant concepts related to DECnet as they prepare to migrate from Phase IV to Phase V. DECnet Phase V is based on the Open Systems Interconnection standard, and has required DEC to introduce several new terms and concepts. The company is aiding customers in understanding domains and subdomains and how they compare to DECnet areas. Under DECNet Phase IV, users can divide a network of up to 64,000 nodes into 63 areas, also known as subnetworks, of 1,023 nodes each. Under DECnet Phase V, networks are divided into multiple routing domains that can be managed as a single administrative domain. Network managers can decide whether users in different routing domains will be able to communicate with each other since DECnet Phase V allows companies to build networks as a single domain. The DECnet Phase V concepts are based on DEC's adoption of OSI's addressing scheme. Start-up plans backbone for credit transaction net. (Transaction Communications Inc.) Transaction Communications Inc (TCI) announces plans for a nation-wide backbone to support its new public transaction processing network. The backbone will be based on Netrix Corp circuit/packet switches, and will provide credit transaction services that outperform similar services used by prospective customers. The network also supports check authorizations and medical or pharmaceutical claims. TCI's net will initially consist of five Netrix #1-ISS circuit/packet switches; the five nodes will support traffic coming from 21 devices that act as channel banks and packet assembler/disassemblers. A local exchange carrier's Local Group B service will be used to initiate credit card authorizations from point of sale terminals. Two vendors release SQL applications for Windows. (Precision Inc.'s Superbase 4 Windows 1.3 and Superbase SQL Library; Precision Inc enhances its relational data base management system, Superbase 4 Windows 1.3 and introduces Superbase SQL Library; Powersoft Corp introduces Powerbuilder program development software. The upgraded Superbase 4 includes an improved networking scheme and embedded structured query language (SQL). Precision also unveils the Superbase SQL Library, which works with the embedded SQL to enable Superbase to link to other relational databases on remote servers. Superbase 4 costs $695, upgrades cost $50 and Superbase SQL Library costs $495. Powersoft Corp's Powerbuilder is an object-oriented application development environment that features a scripting language and shared-object libraries. The $2,995 program development software package includes an object called DataWindow, which allows users to manipulate data base information without SQL or scripts. Users face obstacles to net integration. (Business Research Group survey indicates user concern over enterprise-wide network A Business Research Group (BRG) survey reveals that users face obstacles when they decide to integrate microcomputer local area networks (LANs) to their enterprise-wide network. A large percentage of survey respondents site a lack of network management tools, a high initial investment for integration and swiftly changing technology as factors that complicate the enterprise-wide integration process. Users sited initial cost as a key integration concern; 16 percent of respondents listed the ongoing cost of operation as one of their top three integration problems, and 15 percent listed cost-justification. The initial integration investment includes network planning, design, purchasing and implementation. Firms also need an expert manager to maintain the operation once installed. Ongoing costs associated with maintenance of a network are also of concern to MIS professionals. NW user panel discusses pros, cons of outsourcing. (Network World's User Advisory Panel; network operations outsourcing) Network World's User Advisory Panel debates the advantages and risks involved in outsourcing network operations. A majority of panelists say they would outsource basic network operations to a third party, but would be apprehensive about handing out strategic business applications. Panelists would outsource commodity operations such as data center operations, basic network transport and personal computer support. Members of the panel expressed concern over losing control through outsourcing. The User Advisory Panel consists of representatives of leading user groups and network executives from a variety of industries. The panel collectively defined outsourcing as the transfer of network assets or staff to a vendor who assumes profit and loss responsibility for some or all of the user's data processing and network operations. The user pays for the service on an ongoing basis. New mobile satellite phones shine in war. (demand for portable satellite-based telephones increases; systems deployed for The Iraq-Kuwait crisis stimulates growth of portable satellite-based telephones, a developing international networking technology. The systems consist of a collapsible antenna and telephone set that can be folded into a briefcase weighing about 65 pounds. The Persian Gulf conflict has given rise to one of the most extensive portable satellite telephone deployments ever, and it may spark commercial demand for the technology. News organizations including the Associated Press, Cable News Network (CNN), CBS News, Knight-Ridder Inc and The Wall Street Journal use the systems to transmit stories from areas where traditional telephone service has been cut-off or has never existed. Mobile Telesystems Inc manufactured about 80 percent of the over 2,000 portable satellite telephones in use worldwide and reports a 50 percent increase in orders since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in Aug 1990. Xylogics adds to low-cost server line. (Annex III file server) (Products & Services) (product announcement) Xylogics Inc introduces the Annex III, a low-cost Unix terminal server that supports Ethernet connections to Unix hosts and DEC VAX/VMS minicomputers. Annex three supports from eight to 64 serial ports, offers advanced security features and supports the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The file server provides better price/performance and more capabilities than the Annex I and the Annex II, which it replaces. Annex III was designed to tie terminals, modems, printers and microcomputers to Unix-based host computers over Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol-based Ethernet local area networks (LANs); the server also supports the DEC Local Area Transport (LAT) terminal protocol. Annex III's security features include user-level passwords and audit trails. The server costs $3,995 for an eight-port device and $6,995 for a 64-port device. Legent plans LAN version of NetSpy. (Legent Corp.'s NetSpy 4.0 network performance analysis software; local area networks) Legent Corp introduces NetSpy 4.0, a network performance analysis software application that provides users with a direct interface to IBM's NetView and Systems Center Inc's NetMaster network management software. NetSpy monitors network and host response times, traffic and Network Control Program and Virtual Telecommunications Access Method (VTAM) statistics. NetSpy is the first network performance manager to offer a direct connection to network management products. NetSpy-generated general, graphic and trace alerts are shared with NetView or NetMaster via a program-to-program interface. The $13,860 software also features NetSpy-to-NetSpy capability in which a copy of NetSpy running on one host can communicate with one or several copies of NetSpy on other hosts. Legent plans to release a local area network (LAN) version of NetSpy for enterprise-wide performance management. Seeking truth in carrier advertising. (AT&T's advertising campaign misleading) (Long-Distance Marketplace) (column) AT&T is a major long-distance carrier that has responded to market competition by resorting to advertising campaigns that are misleading to customers rather than educational. AT&T's 'Put it in writing' campaign's claim that competing carriers do not back up their claims in written form is largely untrue. The company's Fiji ad, in which a user trying to phone Phoenix consistently reaches Fiji, wrongly suggests that competing carriers often make mistakes in switching international calls. AT&T's 'Faster connections' campaign blatantly misleads customers by using large percentages to differentiate its call set-up times from competitors'. While AT&T's ads claim that users waste time and money waiting for calls to connect, the difference between AT&T's call set-up time and other carrier's set-up time is a matter of two seconds. AT&T's advertising lacks practical value. The brave new world of object orientation. (users must be familiar with the rapidly developing concept) (The Future of Networking) Object-oriented programming is an emerging multifaceted concept with which users must become familiar. An object is an abstraction of something that physically exists; a thing is described in terms of what it is, how it communicates and what it does, not in terms of its physical appearance. An object-oriented network management system would recognize that a modem is an object that has interfaces, generates specific alarms and performs certain loop-backs. Objects are defined by properties known as 'attributes,' which include the object's condition or the version of software it's running. The simplest meaning of object orientation usually refers to software that has been designed in the point-and-click style, rather than the command-line mode. Object orientation can also refer to a data modeling technique. There are several competing schemes for standardizing object definition. In U.S. technology, a gap between arms and VCR's. (video cassette recorder) The success of US technology in the weapons systems used in the Persian Gulf war leads many people to ask why the US cannot repeat that success in commercial electronics fields. Many analysts maintain, though, that those weapons are not necessarily that sophisticated. Nor does the technology used to develop them automatically translate into commercial applications. Many of the weapons used in the Gulf were created using ten-year-old technology. Developing a weapon often takes eight to 15 years, so the technology is often outdated by the time the weapon is in service. While it was true that at one time cutting-edge military technology eventually led to commercial uses, commercial pressures now dictate that technology is developed for non-military applications first, finding its way into military weapons systems at a later date. This process may increase Japan's competitive advantage. Intel loses case on chip trademark. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) Pollack, Andrew. Federal district Judge William A. Ingram's ruling in the case between Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc is that Intel is not entitled to trademark protection for the term '386'. The decision is seen as a considerable victory for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in its effort to market a clone microprocessor based on Intel's 80386 product. The judge holds that the term '386' is a generic form and therefore cannot be used as a trademark. AMD and Intel have extensive copyright litigation, dating from 1990 when Intel first sued after learning of AMD's proposed Am386 microprocessor. A number of other microprocessor manufacturers plan clones of the Intel 80386 product in an effort to break Intel's monopoly in this part of the semiconductor industry and to cash in on a market estimated at $1 billion. IBM to revitalize OS/2 with product, marketing push. Sherer, Paul M. IBM Corp plans to increase marketing efforts for its OS/2 operating system with a new campaign to begin in April 1991 that could cost the company up to $40 million. The new marketing strategy, which will include introduction of new products and technology as well as the forging of new strategic partnerships, is in response to a lack of demand for the operating system and Microsoft Corp's seeming disinterest in marketing the product. IBM officials also report that OS/2 2.0, to be released later in 1991, will run Windows applications. The company may also use its own or third-party technology for Windows compatibility instead of Microsoft's Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WLO). IBM, in a continued push to reduce its dependence on Microsoft, is also beta testing its own version of the OS/2 2.0 SDK. Statistics show OS/2 sales to be only 300,000 in 1990 compared to 2 million copies of Windows. Windows users face irksome incompatibilities. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) Users are discovering compatibility problems with Microsoft Windows 3.0 in several areas including DOS applications, hardware, peripherals and networks. Users are receiving an Unrecoverable Application Error (UAE) message on the screen when an application crashes. The message can signal serious problems such as system crashes or data loss. Some users find that the more applications loaded in the system, the more chance there is of receiving a UAE message. Some experts report that applications cannot manipulate interrupts under Windows. Microsoft officials contend that many problems are due to users setting up applications improperly. Users also note that the graphical user interface will not run on many pre-1987 microcomputers, including some with AMI BIOS. Some users with large hard-disk drives suffer data corruption because of disk cache incompatibilities. Professional Write Plus shows Windows panache. (Software Publishing Corp.'s Professional Write Plus for Windows)(PC Week Software Publishing Corp's $249 Professional Write Plus for Windows, is one of the few Windows word processors that allows Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange- (DDE) linked data to be incorporated into any part of a document. The package, which is to be released in late March 1991, also includes an integrated front end to E-mail and a wide variety of text and graphics formatting options that can be used for advanced desktop publishing. Software Publishing has also added a thesaurus as well as a grammar and spelling checker. Tests show document creation to be easy and intuitive. Importing and exporting features also convert correctly. Tests of the DDE 'paste link' facility also show good performance. Professional Write Plus for Windows also offers sophisticated layout and formatting features as well as usage of multiple fonts, bullets, columns and embedded graphics in documents. Symantec beefs up Q&A with programming power. (Symantec Corp's Q&A 4.0) Beta testers and industry insiders contend that Symantec Corp is readying its Q&A 4.0 to attract power users and developers with the addition of new development tools and an improved query system. Documents show that new features for Q&A 4.0 include mouse support, a Virtual Memory Manager, mail-merge programming functions, a cross-tab reports feature in the reports generator and programming routine support. The new version will also let users read dBASE files directly from Q&A, without having to import the file. The package will include a field editor to provide word-processing functions for data input. The built-in word processor will have WYSIWYG features, scalable fonts, and import and export filters for major word processing packages. Q&A 4.0 is expected to cost more than the current version, which is priced at $349. A release date is yet to be announced. Microsoft to acquire Consumers Software: proposed buyout will plug E-mail hole. (Microsoft Corp.)(Consumers Software Inc.) Microsoft Corp begins the process of acquiring Consumers Software Inc, the second leading vendor of E-mail products. The agreement would allow Microsoft to offer E-mail packages for DOS, OS/2, Windows and Presentation Manager and would give the company a solid base on which to integrate its desktop applications. The acquisition would allow Microsoft to start sales of an upgrade, currently in beta testing, to Consumers Software's Network Courier E-mail software, under the Microsoft label. The new product, Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, will address minor bugs in the current release of Network Courier. Microsoft would continue to sell Microsoft Mail 3.0 and plans to develop a gateway to let users exchange messages on both programs. Some users feel that Microsoft will be better able to handle inconsistencies in the Network Courier program than Consumers Software. AMD eyes Intel's turf with 40MHz 386 chip. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)(Intel Corp.) Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) plans to announce, in March 1991, its new family of 80386DX-compatible chips to compete with Intel Corp as a rival supplier of 80386 processors. Bell Computer Systems is expected to release the first microcomputer using the AMD 40-MHz Am386DX shortly after AMD's announcement. Insiders say that AMD will offer 20-MHz, 25-MHz, 33-MHz and 40-MHz versions of both the DX and the Am386DXL, a low-power version for the portable computer market. Prices for the 33-MHz and 40-MHz DX chips are expected to be at a point between Intel's $214 33-MHz 80386 DX and its not-yet-announced low-power P23 80486 chip which is expected to be priced at $250. Analysts contend that if Intel wins its current 80386 trademark suit, AMD may be forced to change the name of its chips. Ocean Isle reaches out to Windows; package provides dial-in access to another user's PC. (Ocean Isle Software's Reach-Out) Ocean Isle Software's Reach-Out program is a remote-control communications package that lets remote Microsoft Windows 3.0 users dial in to a local area network (LAN) and take over another microcomputer screen to perform such functions as file transfers, training, troubleshooting and technical support. Reach-Out is scheduled to be released in June 1991 and Ocean Isle may license the program to another communications vendor. Insiders say Microsoft Corp may bundle the product with its LAN Manager. Reach-Out's conferencing feature allows one user's screen to appear on multiple users' screens across a network. The only other remote-control software for Windows 3.0 currently available is Remotely Possible from Avalan Technology. Remotely Possible, however, does not support dial-in communications. Neither of the products are currently able to re-create graphics on remote screens at an acceptable pace as in similar Apple Macintosh products. Symantec developing Windows project planner. (Symantec Corp.) Ferranti, Marc. Inside sources report that Symantec Corp is developing a low-end, Microsoft Windows-based project management package to complement the company's Time Line DOS-based project management software. The software is geared toward managers who cannot invest time to learn the more advanced features of Time Line or Microsoft Corp's Project for Windows. The newly developed program will be easier to learn and will avoid project management terminology. The software will automatically take users through many of the steps of project management. Users will first outline project tasks in sequence and then enter data in a spreadsheet format. The software will automatically create a Gantt or bar chart and users will be able to directly manipulate the charts by using a mouse. The package is scheduled to be released by the end of the 1991 second quarter. Speedy LaserJet IIISi has muscle to tackle work-group demands. (HP's LaserJet IIISi) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) HP's LaserJet IIISi laser printer has top speed, paper handling and capacity features that make it an excellent choice for use in local area network and work-group computing. The printer features a 17-page-per-minute (ppm) print engine, 17Mbyte memory capacity and intelligent network-interface options. The direct local area network (LAN) connections bypass the serial and parallel ports which lets the printer accept data at network speeds up to 16M-bps. Tests show a 50-page document of ASCII text printing at almost the full 17-ppm engine speed. Using the parallel port, the printer slows down to 15-ppm. The LaserJet IIISi's prints PostScript documents with its optional reduced-instruction-set computer- (RISC) based PostScript controller and tests show extremely high speeds. The printer also boasts a 1,000-sheet paper capacity. On the downside, the toner cartridges print only about 8,000 pages, yet the printer's rated duty cycle is 50,000 pages per month. DRI drafts plan to stay ahead of Microsoft: DR multiuser DOS provides disk caching, minimized CPU polling. (Digital Research Digital Research Inc (DRI) announces its $695 DR Multiuser DOS, a replacement for Concurrent DOS 386, designed as an inexpensive network solution that runs on a dedicated 80386SX-based microcomputer or higher-end machines equipped with dumb terminals or microcomputers. The program offers several features not available in Concurrent DOS 386 including disk caching and a technique that minimizes central processing unit (CPU) application polling by freeing up the CPU between keystrokes. DR Multiuser DOS also allows for up to eight DOS applications to run concurrently. DRI is competing head to head with Microsoft Corp.'s forthcoming DOS 5.0 release with a series of promotions geared to convince DOS users to switch to the company's DR DOS 5.0. Under one promotion, any DOS user will be able to upgrade to DR DOS 5.0 for $79. A new version of DR DOS 5.0 is scheduled for release in the summer of 1991. Panasonic upgrades printer: two 24-wire units replace KX-P1124. (Panasonic Communications and Systems Co's KX-P1123 and KX-P1124i) Panasonic Communications and Systems Co introduces the $399 KX-P1123 and $499 KX-P1124i 24-pin dot matrix printers that replace the company's KX-P1124 model. Both printers offer 360-by-360 dots-per-inch resolution. The KX-P1123 offers the same features as the KX-P1124 but costs $100 less. The printer is targeted toward the home office user and offers a speed of 240 characters per second in 15-pitch draft mode. The printer also comes with a 10Kbyte buffer, three draft fonts and four resident letter-quality fonts. The KX-P1124i is geared towards small- to medium-sized businesses. The printer offers more features than the KX-P1124 including 11 resident fonts and a super-letter-quality mode that produces a laser-like quality. The KX-P1124i comes with a 12Kbyte buffer and can reach a top speed of 300 characters per second. The KX-P1124i is scheduled for release in April 1991. The KX-P1123 is currently available. PC makers take wraps off low-priced 486s. (Micro Express' 486-ISA/LC and Cheetah Computer Systems Inc.'s 425DT) (Hardware) Micro Express and Cheetah Computer Systems Inc both introduce 80486-based microcomputers at inexpensive prices. Micro Express' ME 486-ISA/LC has a base price of $1,999 and a standard configuration of 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 32Mbytes and a floppy disk drive. The addition of a 14-inch Super VGA color monitor, an 80Mbyte hard drive and memory of 4Mbytes brings the price to $3,509. Cheetah Computer Systems' $2,999 425DT includes 4Mbytes of RAM expandable to 16Mbytes, a floppy disk drive, a 128Kbyte cache, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a mouse. The addition of an 80Mbyte hard drive and a 14-inch color VGA monitor brings the price to $3,798 until May 31, 1991. After May 31, the base configuration will cost $4,487 and the enhanced version will be priced at $6,072. Both companies hope the low prices will increase lagging sales of 80486-based machines. Graphics vendors vie for Seybold spotlight. (Seybold Seminars '91) (Hardware) A variety of graphics vendors will display products at Seybold Seminars '91, to be held in Boston the week of Mar 4, 1991. Apple Computer Inc is expected to preview its StyleWriter LS low-end ink-jet printer and the LaserWriter LS, a TrueType laser printer. Insiders report that Apple will officially announce the products during the week of Mar 11, 1991. Wichita, Kansas-based DP-Tek Inc plans to introduce its TruePoint intelligent printer controller. The $1,695 board adds PostScript support and resolution of 600 dots-per-inch to laser printers based on Canon LX and SX engines. TruePoint is based on the Intel 16-MHz 80960 RISC processor and includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a PostScript interpreter and font-management utilities. Opta Corp of Palo Alto, California is expected to introduce its Mona Lisa 24-bit color display board for Industry Standard Architecture microcomputers. The board supports 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution and is scheduled to be released in April 1991. Other vendor products are described. Epson offers PostScript upgrade for forward-thinking buyers. (Epson America's EPL-7000 laser printer)(PC Week Labs First Look) Epson America Inc's $1,399 EPL-7000 laser printer gives users basic Laser-Jet-compatible printing and offers an optional PostScript controller board that performs almost four times as fast as an HP LaserJet III with a PostScript cartridge. The easy-to-install optional board is expensive at $2,220 and the $3,619 combined cost of the EPL-7000 and the board is more than the cost of buying a printer with built-in PostScript. However, the products give users a less expensive entry into laser printing as well as the promise of PostScript capability. The EPL-7000 produces clear, sharp text but during testing had some difficulty in printing graphics due to streaking. The problem was solved only after cycling through 100 printed pages. A significant feature of the printer is that users can print from either an Apple Macintosh or DOS-based microcomputer by simply adjusting the printer's interface setting from the control panel. Computer makers embrace DAT drives as backup solution. (digital audiotape) (Hardware) An increasing number of microcomputer manufacturers are committing to Zmm digital audiotape (DAT) technology over 8mm and quarter-inch tape drives for high-capacity backup solutions. Compaq Computer Corp is supplying DAT drives for its Systempro subsystem due to the low cost of the drives and the large number of DAT suppliers. DAT drive manufacturer Wangtek Inc is expected to sign original equipment manufacturer (OEM) deals with microcomputer manufacturers Group Bull and NCR Corp. A recent report on DAT predicts that 4mm DAT sales will top 8mm sales in 1991. The report also states that 1991 will show 191,000 DAT drives shipped versus 84,000 8mm drives. In 1990, only 76,000 DAT drives were sold, compared with 101,000 8mm drives. Industry observers note that DAT's popularity is due not only to its smaller size and less expensive cost but also because of the demand for reliable network backup. 486 PC vendors counter recession with lower prices. Skillings, Jonathan. The recession, more powerful microcomputers and new chips from Intel Corp are contributing to the lowering of prices on 80486-based microcomputers. Users feel that the machines are now affordable and that the mystique of the 80486-based microcomputer is disappearing. Users also realize that running graphical user interfaces such as Microsoft Windows 3.0 as well as multiple applications requires a more powerful, high-performance microcomputer. Intel Corp's development of its new low-power, low-cost 80486 central processing unit (CPU) will also contribute to the lower price of systems based on the chip. The chip is expected to debut in the Spring of 1991. The introduction of new 80486-based microcomputers competitively priced with 80386-based machines is expected later in 1991. Commax readies 4-pound 386SX notebook. (Commax Technologies Inc.) Skillings, Jonathan. Commax Technologies Inc is expected to introduce its new 4-pound, 1.5-inch-thick 80386SX-based notebook computer at the CeBIT '91 trade show during the week of March 11, 1991. The new notebook, which has yet to be named, owes its small size to the floppy drive being offered as an external device. The machine comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 4Mbytes, the external 3-1/2-inch floppy drive, a 20Mbyte hard drive, an 80-key keyboard, a VGA screen that can display 32 shades of gray and DR DOS 5.0. The notebook offers serial, parallel, external VGA and PS/2 mouse ports as well as the port for the external floppy drive. The notebook measures 8.25 by 10.5 by 1.5 inches and the four pound weight includes the battery. Battery life is two hours. The machine's price is expected to be approximately $2,995 and is scheduled to ship later in March 1991. MapInfo adds geographic data analysis to Windows. (MapInfo Corp.'s MapInfo for Windows 1.0)(PC Week Labs First Look) (Software MapInfo Corp's $995 MapInfo for Windows 1.0 geographic information system offers excellent mapping tools as well as relational data base management with Structured Query Language (SQL) capabilities. The new Windows version retains most all of the DOS version's functions but adds the capability of viewing a table of data, a graph of that data and its geographic representation all at the same time. On the downside, editing a map and its data or merging maps is awkward since it is difficult to keep track of multiple open files in different layers. MapInfo does not offer Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) links so users must manually enter updates to related fields. MapInfo for Windows also does not support MapInfo's MapCode programming language, a necessary requirement for creating custom mapping applications. Business programs share show spotlight. (Windows & OS/2 Conference) The Windows & OS/2 Conference, to be held the week of March 4, 1991 in San Jose, California, will showcase products to meet business needs. Bell Atlantic Knowledge Systems Inc will present its new Windows version of Thinx 1.1. The $495 package lets Windows users attach numerical values or other attributes to images. By manipulating the images, users can perform what-if analyses. The company has improved the interface to allow for faster data entry and editing. Metier Management Systems is expected to present a Windows version of its Prestige high-end project-management software. The package, which is scheduled for an April 1991 release, lets users allocate resources automatically across multiple projects. Peachtree Software Inc will introduce its $495 Crystal Accounting software which is the first and only non-spreadsheet-based Windows accounting software package available on the market. Del Mar readies multimodule Windows accounting system. (Del Mar Data Systems' Windoware Accounting) Del Mar Systems is planning to begin beta testing of its Windoware Accounting software, a Microsoft Windows-based accounting system based on Precision Inc's Superbase 4 database. The company is targeting an early Summer 1991 release for the package and is aiming the software at users who are downsizing from minicomputer accounting applications. Windoware Accounting is a multimodule, multiuser system designed to run on local area networks. The company plans to release modules on general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll. All modules will be priced separately. Del Mar will follow these releases with modules on fixed assets, purchasing, inventory and job cost. Windoware Accounting will offer Dynamic Data Exchange links to major spreadsheet and word processor programs and the ability to store numbers, images and text in the database. Color, publishing is Seybold focus: improved color, fonts key intros. (Seybold Seminars '91) (Seybold Seminars '91) Vendors at the Seybold Seminars '91 will emphasize color and fonts in the introduction of their new products. Agfa Compugraphic Type Division is expected to introduce its Intellifont Scalable Typeface Format specification. The specification allows third-party type developers to create Intellifont typefaces and will be available in April 1991. Frame Technology Corp is expected to present Frame 3.0, a new version of its electronic publishing system. The software now offers greater support for tables and color. The new version runs on NeXT, Apple Macintosh and a variety of Unix systems. Prices range from $995 to $2,500, depending on the system. Verity Inc will present Topic For Windows 3.0, its client software designed to let users access full text databases running on DOS, Unix, OS/2 and VMS servers. Topic for Windows 3.0 is scheduled for a May 1991 release and costs $795 per client. Duo spices up Mac desktop publishing: color, publishing is Seybold focus. (Quark Inc.'s QuarkXPress 3.1 and Quoin Publishing Systems Quark Inc and Quoin Publishing Systems Inc plan to introduce new Macintosh desktop publishing packages aimed at professional publishers and graphics artists at the Seybold Seminars '91 trade show. Quark Inc's $895 QuarkXPress 3.1 includes three new Macintosh palettes called Colors, Trap Info and Style Sheets. These palettes let users interactively change color, trap and style attributes. The Style Sheets palette lets users more easily choose fonts and page designs. QuarkXPress 3.1 is scheduled for release in the third quarter of 1991. Quoin Publishing Systems will introduce its Quoin Mac-based advanced typesetting software. Users can use the package with Quoin's custom keyboard or a standard Macintosh keyboard. Quoin starts at $4,95 for a single-user license. A multiuser license is $3,900. Quoin supports PostScript typesetters and printers as well as typesetting machines from Afga Compugraphic, Linotype and Monotype Corp. Drug dealers find haven in on-line services. Zimmerman, Michael R. Drug dealers are increasingly using electronic mail on videotex systems to conduct drug trafficking operations. Experts contend that, as society becomes more computer literate, criminals will take advantage of computer technology. These criminals are discovering the advantages of on-line services where E-mail is convenient and private. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, however, not only provides privacy rights for users but also offers guidelines for investigators to follow when monitoring E-mail. Law enforcement officials must get a court order and prove to the judge that there is probable cause an individual has committed or will commit a felony, that the e-mail will provide evidence of this, that normal investigative procedures have failed and that the computer is being used for illegal activity. Whither NetWare connectivity? IBM, Microsoft work separately. Morrissey, Jane. Microsoft Corp and IBM Corp are working on integration of NetWare interoperability for their respective LAN Manager and LAN Server network operating systems. At the same time, it is not clear how the companies will deliver their offerings. The two companies may also work out an agreement for a standard NetWare connectivity option. Microsoft is using 3Com Corp's Demand Protocol Architecture (DPA) that will let LAN Manager workstations load and unload NetWare's IPX/SPX protocol software. IBM's method is to load both NetWare and IBM connection software on the workstation. However, IBM could also implement a DPA-like function within LAN Server since the product supports Microsoft's Network Device Interface Specification. Analysts contend that, since both companies will rely on standard NetWare workstation software, users are not likely to run into incompatibilities. SynOptics bolsters LattisNet hub family. (SynOptics Communications Inc.) (product announcement) SynOptics Communications Inc introduces its $9,995 LattisNet Model 3040 Network Control Engine (NCE), a RISC-based distributed processing module for the LattisNet System 3000 intelligent hub. The product gives users the processing capacity and power required to off-load network management processing tasks from a workstation. The NCE's SPARC processor allows the engine to attain a performance of 12 million instructions per second (MIPS). The product includes 4Mbytes of RAM and a 104Mbyte hard drive. The LattisNet 3040 NCE is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 1991. SynOptics is also introducing four versions of its Simple Network Management Protocol network management software. The currently available, $2,295 LattisNet Basic Network Management package runs on Microsoft Windows 3.0 and offers low-end management features for small or medium-sized networks. Three other packages scheduled for release in the second quarter of 1991 include the Windows-based LattisNet Advanced Network Management package, $5,500; the $7,000 LattisNet Network Management for Unix software and the $2,495 Lattis Netmap 2.0. Unix package provides live links via E-mail. (Clarity Software Inc.'s Rapport) (product announcement) Clarity Software Inc introduces its integrated software, Rapport, that lets Unix users connected over TCP/IP networks share and modify text, numerical data and graphics. The package integrates object-oriented word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs with an advanced E-mail system. Users are able to send and receive e-mail messages that contain live links to each of Rapport's other components. The software includes built-in file translators to other popular Unix or DOS applications. Network managers create a directory listing the users with non-Rapport applications. The program checks the directory and then automatically translates the Rapport document into the format that user needs. Rapport costs $1,895 per server, plus $895 per workstation and runs on a variety of Unix versions. Tests demystify server performance. (PC Week Labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. Buyers, vendors, manufacturers and reviewers need to understand the elements that contribute to network server performance. Testing of servers is difficult because a server is not a single, measurable device, but rather a collection of components that make up a system. The server's subsystems include the CPU, RAM, hard disks and disk controllers and network adapters. Vendors need to combine these subsystems into one system with the best price and performance. PC Week Lab tests on file servers show that a fast CPU does not guarantee a faster server. Disks and RAM turn out to be more important in these tests. However, even a fast single hard disk and controller can give lesser performance than a group of slower disks and controllers that can handle parallel multiple file requests. Vendors need to run sets of reproducible tests to perform the same test on many different server configurations. Cognos readies OS/2 version of PowerCASE. (Cognos Inc.'s PowerCASE for OS/2) (product announcement) Cognos Inc.'s PowerCASE OS/2 computer-aided software engineering package allows developers to perform analysis, code generation, design, documentation and maintenance functions for applications to be run on minicomputers from IBM, DEC, Data General Corp and HP as well as workstations running Unix or proprietary operating systems. The product will be priced at $15,000 for the first license and is scheduled to be released in Jun 1991. PowerCASE OS/2 integrates design and analysis tools with its built-in PowerHouse fourth-generation language. This allows for the speeding up of application development and maintenance. The package supports proprietary file structures including DEC's RMS database system and HP's Image and TurboImage database files, which protects developer's investments in existing hardware and software. Unicode to standardize foreign language set. (multivendor consortium) Unicode Inc, an organization that includes IBM, Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp, is proposing a 16-bit superset of the 8-bit ASCII applications development standard that will be able to represent up to 65,536 characters. ASCII represents only 256 characters and does not address non-Roman languages. The new standard will provide a way of representing all international languages and make it easier for users and software developers to exchange data between international applications. The Unicode standard is able to represent all currently active languages with 27,000 separate characters. Microsoft is placing the standard into its Windows-32 application programming interface, scheduled to be released to developers in summer 1991. The company's Windows 3.1 package, to be released later in 1991, will also employ the standard for its TrueType fonts. Firms offer vibrant approaches to graphical development: Smalltalk exploits Windows 3.0. (Digitalk Inc.'s Smalltalk/V Windows 1.0)(PC Digitalk Inc's $499.95 Smalltalk/V Windows 1.0 (SVW) is a compact, well-integrated object-oriented programming language for Windows that produces fast, stable programs. The product is recommended for programmers who need fast development of applications as well as portability to other graphical-interface platforms. SVW allows for incremental application development by letting developers add new application-specific classes and methods to the program's powerful set. The program requires only 2Mbytes of hard-disk space and 3Mbytes of RAM. Execution speed in tests compares well with other high-level language products for Windows 3.0 that have higher hardware requirements. Smalltalk's syntax is unusual but is consistent throughout. Code is highly readable once users thoroughly understand the object/message concept. Extensive tutorials are provided. 9,600-bps modems won over even this skeptic. (Up Front) (column) Zachmann, William. Users who currently use dial-up telephone communications are strongly urged to buy a 9,600-bps, MNP/V.32/V.42/V.42bis modem. Users switching from a 2,400-bps to a 9,600-bps modem will find a tremendous difference in performance and speed. They may discover that their phone bills for on-line services will be significantly reduced. They will also notice that they can check on-line messages much faster. It is easy to be skeptical about new technology and 'revolutionary' products but this is one instance where the claim is justified. Users who start using a 9,600-bps modem will find it impossible to go back to using a 2,400-bps modem and it is likely that these modems will garner the highest sales of all hardware items over the next year. Re-engineering opens door to new technology. (The Corporate Micro) (column) Users should be aware that prototyping is not always the best method when attempting to migrate from mainframe and minicomputer systems to networked microcomputers in achieving better office automation. Many times a time-consuming mainframe program will simply turn into a time-consuming microcomputer program. This type of migration can often have expensive results. Users need to discover the transformational power of microcomputers and the way this power can change for the better how business is done. They should not use microcomputers as simply accelerators of old, poorly-designed methods, but should realize that the microcomputer can make it possible to do many things that could not have been done previously on the older systems from which they are migrating. Can 're-engineering the business' really work? (Risky Business) (column) Re-engineering is one of several different philosophies of system design. Proponents of this method feel that companies should fix inefficient processes of their systems before automation. They feel that firms should not continue past mistakes of previous processes by developing new applications that simply conform to the old manual processes. On the other side, this may not be a practical idea since re-engineering can take a long time and firms may find that the business process actually changes during the time of analysis and development. The classic systems development methodologies of presuming that users know what they want and have the time to wait for it can also be impractical. The most practical methodology seems to be prototyping, which allows companies to build fast but usable applications. A prototyping and custom tailoring approach can probably work for 80 percent of corporate systems. PC dealers seem to be destroying themselves. (Changing Channels) (column) The microcomputer specialty store is in danger of disappearing. Gross margins are decreasing because of price competition among non-differentiated resellers. These stores are running at or below fixed cost structures. Experts, noting the channel polarization of high volume super stores and specialized microcomputer stores, call this environment the Bankruptcy Gap. Most dealers categorize themselves as value-added resellers but do not hold to the term's definition of a reseller who brings specialized market expertise to a technical solution. A true value-added reseller takes a position and is at the forefront of customer demand. Microcomputer stores will only fail if they continue to become followers. Businesses need to satisfy customers by making their own market and not fall into a conservative, demand-fulfillment role. Only then can these stores survive price competitors. Trade-offs mar Windows EIS programs; four EIS packages take different approaches, possess inherent weaknesses. (includes Four evaluated Windows-based executive information system (EIS) packages each have their strengths for use in specific situations but each are different in design and the range of data sources they support. Pilot Executive Software's LightShip 2.0 can be likened to an EIS construction kit that produces canned point-and-click applications. Channel Computing Inc's Forest & Trees for Windows 1.0 performs well in ad hoc queries and at the identification and tracking of important data items. Cognos Inc's PowerPlay 2.0 emphasizes report-generation and drill-down capabilities. Info Innov Inc's Media 1.6c features an interface built around key data items and powerful drill-down ability. Forest & Trees is the most flexible with its ability to read varied file formats and usage of SQL queries and Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) requests. Lightship and Forest & Trees produce applications with low maintenance. Despite flaws, buyers see EIS packages as alternatives to mainframe systems. (user reactions to four evaluated executive Users feel that executive information systems (EIS) offer easy-to-use, low cost alternatives to mainframe-based systems. Cognos Inc's PowerPlay 2.0's hierarchical aggregation power is considered one of the best analysis tools to help pinpoint problems. Users feel the product is flexible and easy to use. Users like the object oriented development environment of Pilot Executive Software's LightShip 2.0 but feel it could have better links with major databases. They also would like to see expanded support for better graph types and presentation-quality reports. Users of Channel Computing Inc's Forest & Trees for Windows like its flexibility that allows for the combining of tools that can all share the same data. They feel the product could be improved with the addition of dynamic analysis. Users of Info Innov Inc's Media like its easy-to-use interface and the savings it provides over mainframe systems. They would like to see more print-based capability as opposed to screen-based. Channel Computing Inc.: Forest & Trees for Windows 1.0a. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of executive information systems Channel Computing Inc's $495 Forest & Trees for Windows 1.0a is an executive information system (EIS) that is recommended for use in tracking and rooting around in key data as opposed to the building of predefined multi-screen applications. The program allows users to pull data from many sources and perform calculations and a wide variety of functions on the key indicators. Forest & Trees offers a very useful multiple-stage alarm capability that warns when dangerous conditions occur and lets users determine the severity of the condition. The program offers a set of simple graphics tools to produce attractive graphs including pie and scatter charts and stacked horizontal or vertical bars. Graphics, however, cannot be printed from within the package but users can export them in bit-mapped TIFF or Metafile formats for printing within another program. The software offers only modest drill-down capabilities and there is no way to easily determine the origin of single data items. Cognos Inc.: PowerPlay 2.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of executive information systems in 'Trade-Offs Mar Cognos Inc's $850 PowerPlay 2.0 executive management system (EIS) has powerful analytical and drill-down capabilities but lacks support for common data sources and Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). The program also offers no alarm or applications-development capabilities. PowerPlay consists of the PowerPlay Creator, PowerPlay Reporter and PowerPlay Viewer modules. PowerPlay Creator translates structured data files and PowerPlay definition files into new files that can be used with the other two modules. The program is closely tied with Cognos' PowerHouse 4GL applications-development tool and users will have difficulty extracting data from non-PowerHouse applications. The Reporter and Viewer modules both offer strong drill-down capabilities and their tabular views of data look like spreadsheets. However, their underlying database structure makes them more appropriate for analysis of multidimensional data instead of standard spreadsheets. Info Innov Inc.: Media 1.6c. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of executive information systems in 'Trade-Offs Mar Info Innov Inc's Media 1.6c executive information system (EIS) offers excellent drill-down capabilities and powerful, easy-to-use data-analysis functions. The package requires extensive defining of its database and is, therefore, not recommended for users needing real-time data-analysis applications. The price of Media is $4,995 for a development site license and $1,995 per user. Although this is much less expensive in comparison to mainframe or minicomputer EIS applications, this is five times higher than any of the other three evaluated EIS packages. After users define the database, Media offers the strongest set of reporting and analysis tools of any of the three other evaluated products. Its Computer Assisted Report (CAR) helps users build requests for data. Instead of using SQL, users can easily build CAR requests by sequentially choosing standard English-language terms from a menu. Pilot Executive Systems: LightShip 2.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of executive information systems in 'Trade-Offs Pilot Executive Software's $795 LightShip 2.0 is a powerful executive information system (EIS) construction kit that offers graphical tools for creation of EIS applications. The program's pull-down menus offer choices of hot spots or draw objects instead of financial functions or query tools. These tools allow for the fast creation of applications, without users having to write programming code. LightShip relies almost solely on Windows Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) capabilities to bring native data into the program. Therefore, most of the data that comes into the software must come in by way of a DDE link, with no way to directly read files from many common applications. The additional steps required to convert data into a DDE-accessible form adds substantially to the difficulty of accessing data with the product. LightShip does not offer support for alarms and drill-down functions are limited. Computers with CD ROM players bring buyers a convenient storage solution. CD-ROMs offer a good solution to users that require easy access to voluminous electronic data. CD-ROM drives can be integrated into the chassis of a microcomputer, which makes them convenient, and the disks can store around 500Mbytes of information, which is substantially more the 1Mbyte of storage capacity available on a floppy disk. The CD-ROM does have slower access rates than hard disk drives, but not so slow that it makes a large difference. The amount of memory it has far outperforms the hard disk and makes its slowness bearable. Some of the current CD-ROMs out on the market have room for improvement, particularly in the area of ease of use. PCs with CD ROM players perform well; the trade-off for good CD ROM performance, however, is slow access speed. (Hardware Review) PC Week evaluates five microcomputers with CD-ROM players that range in price from the $2,848 Micro Express 386-SX/20/Caching/CD ROM to the $7,312 Tandy Corp 4033 LX. CD-ROMs have a storage capacity of 500Mbytes and are quickly becoming a standard component on microcomputers: they make large amounts of information easily accessible. The demand for CD-ROMs in the marketplace is not great in 1991, but computer manufacturers are looking at the trends and want to be prepared to compete in the evolving market. The CD-ROM players are evaluated on the basis of ease of use, ease of setup, price/performance ratio and the quality of the warranty. Micro Express: ME 386-SX/20/Caching/CD ROM. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of microcomputers with CD-ROM players in 'PCs Micro Express Inc's $2,848 ME 386-SX/20/Caching/CD ROM microcomputer's CD-ROM player outperformed almost all CD-ROM players in speed. With its CD-ROM applications loaded, the microcomputer performed well as a CD-ROM player and its performance is substantially augmented by a high-speed 16Kbyte memory cache. The ease of setup and use is less than other microcomputers evaluated and it takes considerable effort to get applications up and running; Micro Express did not take any special pains to provide easy access to the CD-ROM's huge volume of data. The microcomputer offers a 15-month warranty on parts and labor, but all repairs must be made at its California facility. Philips Consumer Electronics Co.: Magnavox Headstart 500CD. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of microcomputers with Philips Consumer Electronics $3,498 Magnavox Headstart 500CD microcomputer is an easy-to-set-up system that features a slow but useful CD-ROM player. The machine arrives with software that needs to be loaded in by the user, but the CD-ROM player makes the process simple. A floppy disk boots the system and formats the hard disk drive; all software from the backup files are loaded onto a single CD-ROM. The process is highly automated and takes around 30 minutes. The performance of the CD-ROM player was the worst of all CD-ROM players tested. The slowness is the main disadvantage of an otherwise thoughtfully-designed machine. Sun Moon Star: 286-12/CD. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of microcomputers with CD-ROM players in 'PCs with CD Sun Moon Star's $2,595 286-12/CD microcomputer features a CD-ROM player and about $2,000 worth of CD-ROMs. Six CD-ROMs are provided including Microsoft Small Business Consultant and Statistic Package, Microsoft Bookshelf, WGE Publishing Inc's CD Guide Optical Edition, Software Toolworks' World Atlas and Illustrated Encyclopedia, Hotline II the National Directory of Addresses and Telephone Numbers and a disk with eight computer games. The most interesting CD-ROM is the CD Guide Optical Edition; it is a database that supplies the titles and album cover picture of 50,000 audio CD tracks. The microcomputer also comes with Digital Research Inc's GEM Desktop graphical user interface, which is preconfigured to load the CD-ROMs and the other supplied programs. The 286-12/CD can do basic computing but has little room for expansion. Performance-wise, it compares well with the other products evaluated. Sun Moon Star: 386SX-16/CD. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of microcomputers with CD-ROM players in 'PCs with CD Sun Moon Star's $2,995 386SX-16/CD microcomputer offers the same CD-ROM features of the Sun Moon Star 286-12/CD microcomputer, including the $2,000 worth of CD-ROM disks. The 386SX-16/CD, however, provides a 32-bit processor and comes with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface for an additional $400. Users can easily gain access to the CD-ROM by using CDSETGO, a non-Windows application program that is provided. The performance of the CD-ROMs are severely degraded, however, when CDSETGO and the CD-ROM program are run as non-Windows applications. The time it takes to copy data from the CD-ROM to the hard disk takes twice as long under Windows 3.0 than it does with just DOS. Tandy Corp.: 4033 LX. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of microcomputers with CD-ROM players in 'PCs with CD ROM Players Tandy Corp's $7,312 4033 LX microcomputer features a standard CD-ROM player that provides fast access times. The CD-ROM, normally an $895 option, comes with Microsoft Corp extensions and a device driver. The software tested on the machine performed without any problems with the CD-ROM player. The fast computer provided some of the fastest CD-ROM data transmission rates of all machines tested. The microcomputer comes with a color monitor, 2Mbytes of RAM, MS-DOS 4.01, a mouse and a 52Mbyte hard disk. Three short booklets compromise the documentation for the machine and Tandy offers a one-year parts and labor warranty; service is performed by Radio Shack. NICs must fit both needs and networks; cards increase data throughput; software driver support essential. (network interface Buyers of network interface cards should keep several criteria in mind when shopping for products. Network interface cards provide increased data throughput by accessing a data link protocol. They work with basically three topologies: token ring, Ethernet and ARCnet. The main concerns buyers should address when looking at vendors are the reliability of the vendor and whether or not that vendor offers technical support for its product. Buyers also need to address basic questions including compatibility with cabling and IBM machines, the ease of the installation process, the amount of RAM support in each card and the software support available. Open Desktop offers Unix power in DOS form. (The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s Open Desktop graphical user interface) (buyers The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Open Desktop operating system offers DOS compatibility, the power of the UNIX operating system and icon-based graphical operations. The software offers the best of two worlds: the 32-bit multitasking, multiuser world of UNIX and the mainstream, corporate computing world of DOS. Open Desktop also offers such services as networking, Structured Query Language (SQL) and relational data base management systems (RDBMSs). The interface of the program adheres to OSF/Motif guidelines and allows users to run a graphical application on one machine while requesting graphical user-interaction services from other systems on the network. Open Desktop adds multitasking punch; SCO environment allows DOS, Unix applications to coexist peacefully. (The Santa Cruz Operation The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Open Desktop operating system offers users the multitasking environment of UNIX with DOS compatibility. Applications for Open Desktop are designed to fully exploit the environment's graphical environment and the traditional mission-critical business applications. Buyers need to ask several questions when purchasing an Open Desktop application program including: will the vendor be around for a while and do they offer technical support, does the intended network of use have enough memory and can the displays handle the amount of windows needed, is the product truly graphical-based and do existing DOS programs run under Open Desktop. NeXT boosts direct sales, negotiates with new resellers. Ould, Andrew. NeXT Computer Inc works on a sales strategy that it hopes will boost sales after a fairly slow start. The workstation manufacturer plans to increase its direct sales force from 17 to 50 by the end of Mar 1991 and is negotiating with several resellers on distribution deals. NeXT, which introduced its first machine in 1988, has sold less than 20,000 machines but hopes its new aggressive sales campaign will cause them to ship about 21,000 units in 1991. Its market share in the workstation market is fairly small; Sun Microsystems is expected to ship about 228,000 units in 1991, more than ten times that of NeXT. NeXT did sign an exclusive distribution deal with Businessland Inc in 1989 but the reseller has been able to sell only 5,000 units so far. High-tech union shatters merger myth: Acer, Altos upbeat on profits, channels. (Acer Group and Altos Computer Systems) The merger between The Acer Group and Altos Computer Systems disproves the myth that high-technology mergers always fail. The computer makers merged on Sep 7, 1990 with Acer purchasing Altos Computer for $94 million. The two companies have managed to keep their products and distribution channels separate and have succeeded in establishing a common vision with shared administration, manufacturing and support. Acer's revenue rose to $689 million in 1989 from $530 million in 1988 but saw profits fall to $5.8 million in 1989 from $26.5 million in 1988. The company attributes the fall to betting on the wrong architecture; it chose to pursue the Micro Channel architecture but now is pursuing the Extended Industry Standard Architecture. Officials at the companies attribute their success to keeping the two companies separate and clearly defining their goals. In digital photography, a picture can be worth a thousand lies. (Looking Forward) (column) Computer technology makes it possible to alter photographs without detection but the technique raises some important ethical issues. The emergence of digital photography makes it simple and inexpensive to transpose photographs, placing a familiar face on an unfamiliar body has been done and published in popular magazines. The technology has many benefits for the photography industry; digital technology provides high-resolution prints and makes high-resolution scanning of images possible. The public awareness needs to grow on the possible abuses of the emerging technology: photographs are no longer as reliable as they used to be and are no more honest than the words that accompany them. Firms offer vibrant approaches to graphical development: Mind's Eye takes a graphical cut at decision support. (Mind's Eye Mind's Eye Inc's $695 Mind's Eye is a powerful decision-support package that combines key elements of outline processors, data bases and interactive graphics. The program is recommended for vertical markets and in-house applications. A project in Mind's Eye consists of a tree-structured collection of objects. These objects combine elements of graphics, text and attributes, the latter being similar to the fields of a database or instance variables in object-oriented languages. Mind's Eye also includes a feature-rich word processor with pull-down menus, macros and block operations. The product requires 460Kbytes of conventional memory and also supports EMS expanded memory but tests show good performance with conventional RAM alone. The package uses high-resolution graphics in a proprietary graphics interface and requires an EGA or VGA display. A Super VGA display and 512Kbytes of graphics RAM is recommended. Windows outshines OS/2 in ongoing battle for market acceptance. Myers, Ben. Microsoft Windows 3.0 commands a considerable market lead over OS/2 Presentation Manager as the corporate graphical user interface of choice. Both IBM and Microsoft Corp recognize that OS/2 PM requires more hardware to use effectively than Windows does, and that OS/2 itself is currently overpowering for use on the desktop. Some analysts believe that OS/2 PM and Windows programming interfaces will eventually come together with Microsoft finding some way to place Windows under OS/2 PM. The extra hardware requirement of OS/2 has meant many corporations have gone with Windows as a cost-saving measure. Some analysts believe that, for OS/2 to gain some of the popularity currently enjoyed by Windows, microcomputer hardware price/performance ratios must improve considerably. Also, OS/2 must become a 32-bit operating system, and OS/2 products must offer functions and services that Windows products do not have. Development tools bring Windows to every desk. (new software offering promise faster, easier in-house development) Development tools for generating Windows programs have become increasingly sophisticated. Object-oriented languages and interactive approaches now offer serious alternatives to programming in C. Some products allow for the development of cross-platform applications with a common source code. Borland International's C++ 2.0 Professional is a traditional alternative to the original Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit. It includes both a C++ compiler and object-oriented extensions that follow the latest draft of C++ specification. GUI Computer Inc's 3-in-1 Prototyper is a modestly priced program that generates one window at a time, splicing together individual window elements with a text editor to make a working program. Additionally, WindowsMaker from Blue Sky Software, ProtoView 2.0 from ProtoView Development Corp, and CASE:W for C from CASEworks Inc, all offer added sophistication to windows prototyping. 4M bytes memory delivers best performance, tests show. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) requires considerable random access memory (RAM) to reach its full potential. While Microsoft Corp maintains that 1Mbyte is sufficient, experts believe multiple megabytes are required. Detailed are performance tests conducted on the GUI using different amounts of RAM. The tests indicate that Windows 3.0 can run with only 1Mbyte of RAM, but that limits the amount of workspace available on the desktop and restricts the user to running Windows only in real mode. The tests also found that adding memory to 2Mbytes was sufficient for single-application users who did not require multiple open applications. The minimum requirement for acceptable performance for running multiple applications was found to be 4Mbytes. Even then, a considerable performance degradation occurred when dropping memory from 4Mbytes to 2Mbytes. Corporate Windows pioneers see payoff after hard journey: firms eye long-range benefits of migration. Corporations migrating their computing environment to Windows are aware of the potential difficulties and probable deficit spending, at least through the first year. Many companies regard the migration as a sensible investment for the future, often part of a long-range plan that encompasses possible movement to OS/2 or X Windows at a later date. To make the initial move, pioneering companies have to work closely with software vendors and systems integrators. Third-party applications developers are making the transition in stages, which requires considerable cooperation between customer and vendor. In terms of programming, one of Windows biggest selling points is the Data Exchange capabilities in Windows' Program Manager, which permits debugging and software maintenance. Another strong point is that the graphical user interface makes all applications look alike, requiring less training. The biggest cost for most companies is likely to be in hardware, as users realise that the anticipated 1Mbyte of random access memory is on the low side, and machines will require memory upgrades to meet the requirements. Wendy's chain sells fast food through Windows. (Wendy's International Inc.'s use of Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user The Wendy's International restaurant chain is about to implement testing of a Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface application that will keep track of information such as labor, cash sales, inventory levels, speed of service, and wasted materials. The application was developed by Compris Technology using ProtoView Development Corp's ProtoView development package in less than six months. The basis of the system is an IBM PS/2, to which specially designed IBM point-of-sale (POS) microcomputers with liquid crystal display VGA touch-screens are connected. The main PS/2 is usually situated in the managers office, from which it collects data from the POS systems and then analyzes and reports key business information. Customer orders are also displayed in real time on monitors at each station where the food is cooked. Developers at Compris believe that, without ProtoView, the development process may have taken years rather than months. PC managers quantify costs and benefits of moving to GUIs. (graphical user interfaces) (Microsoft Windows 3.0) The corporate migration to Microsoft Windows 3.0 as a graphical user interface (GUI) environment has not declined, even in the face of growing scepticism at Microsoft Corp's claim that moving to a GUI can save large companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. The migration to OS/2 Presentation Manager or Windows is, if anything, gaining in popularity as many managers foresee a multitasking, graphical microcomputer interface as the best way to improve productivity and quality from their employees. The most likely users of GUIs in a corporate environment would be those who run both spreadsheets and word-processing applications. Many analysts believe the best productivity will come as a result of the ease of working with a GUI and the ability to move data among applications. Others view the real benefit of GUIs as coming from the way they encourage users to be more creative in thinking of ways to approach their work. Windows 3.0 must prove itself to be more than just a pretty interface. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface) One of Microsoft Windows 3.0's main attributes is its consistent command structure across applications which promote ease of use and a fast learning curve. That alone though does not account for its increasing popularity in the corporate environment. The graphical user interface's considerable memory management abilities, and its application linking and network support are regarded as the real benefits for corporate users. With the right hardware which includes 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), at least an Intel 80386SX microprocessor, and a fast hard drive drive, memory management features come into their own. Windows networking strength is symbiotic, with performance relying on interrelated aspects. For example, network users can benefit greatly from the extra RAM available above the traditional 640Kbytes, which enables them to run both the network driver as well as the application. Also, Windows networking abilities are underscored by the availability of a considerable variety of groupware applications on the market. Extra for Windows is judged winner. (PC Week labs shoot-out: 3270 terminal emulation)(includes related articles on the request for The Fox Valley Technical College and PC Week conducted extensive tests on five 3270 terminal emulation packages to find out the most suitable for use in the campus computer network. Attachmate Corp's Extra for Windows was rated the top performer, closely followed by DynaComm/Elite from Future Soft Engineering Inc and Network Software Associates Inc. Rumba from Wall Data Inc came in third. IBM's Windows Connection, and Eicon Technology Corp's Access for Windows brought up the rear. All three top packages proved to be good products with their own strengths and weaknesses. They have all matured since the release of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and are easy-to-use tools offering significant transparency to the user compared to traditional character-based emulation products. The tests conducted during the evaluation are detailed, along with the results. Setting the course for future buying decisions: Fox Valley Technical College gets an education in PC purchasing. (includes The internal programs and curricula of the Fox Valley Technical College located in Appleton, Wis., reflects the needs and training requirements of the large corporations in the local area. By 1989 the college had a total of 771 microcomputers and 346 terminals, but the procedures for purchasing new equipment were beginning to cause problems. A committee was set up to formulate a plan to replace the old IBM 4381-P2 mainframe with an ES 9000 mainframe. In addition, the plan called for all the terminals to be replaced with microcomputers, followed by the earlier machines being replaced with Intel 80386-based products. Word-processing was to be off-loaded to microcomputers, although the college was to continue to rely on PROFS for electronic mail and scheduling. Consequently, the committee also had to select a 3270 terminal emulation package for college-wide use. The procedure for selecting the emulation package is highlighted along with an overall description of the plan. A windows application in a mainframe world: the quality of 3270 emulation features is users' main buying concern. Despite the corporate popularity of microcomputers and local area networking, mainframe-based applications are still widely used. Consequently, the need for 3270 terminal-emulation products continues to grow. The newest 3270 offerings have brought windowing features such as color and graphics to the traditional character-based environment of older emulation products. Among the benefits of Windows are an accessible and consistent interface, multitasking, and mouse and icon support. Many analysts maintain though, that the main concern of corporations with a large installed base of 3270 users considering the move to Windows, is the quality of the basic 3270 functions. Printing under Windows is still a tricky business. Myers, Ben. Printing from Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface can present considerable problems, especially in terms of fonts. Although printer soft fonts can be used with Windows 3.0, whether or not they can be installed depends on the printer driver used to support the printer. WYSIWYG presentation of fonts on-screen is not possible because equivalent display fonts cannot be generated by a font installer for bit-mapped fonts. Because the printers and monitors have different resolutions, printer fonts and display fonts cannot be used interchangeably. For users that want to match their printer fonts with the display fonts, a third-party Windows font manager that supports their specific printer is really the only answer. A multitude of training aids hit the market. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) The common belief is that graphical user interfaces are easier to learn than character-based systems. Following the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0, a multitude of educational learning devices have appeared on the market. Books such as Robert Cowart's Mastering Windows 3.0 makes no claim to the GUIs ease of use or projected productivity increases. While Microsoft maintains the GUI is easier to learn, it makes no such claims for Windows programming. Programming for Windows applications is inherently more difficult than programming for a character-based interface. Microsoft itself offers the Microsoft Productivity Pack which contains a tutorial module, a module of tips and techniques, and an online help system with answers for many common Windows problems. Microsoft Press offers the Windows 3 Companion and the Running Windows books for users that want a more comprehensive presentation of the instructions for Windows than the accompanying user manuals provide. Windows sales thriving, but applications lag behind. Glitman, Russell. Sales of Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications have lagged far behind the 2.75 million copies of the program itself that have been sold up to the end of 1990. Additionally, only Microsoft applications bundled with the graphical user interface (GUI) have appeared on the best-seller lists kept by software dealers. Many dealers merely equate the difference to the natural adoption cycle for a new product. Other analysts maintain that the lag in applications sales reflects the inability of corporate information centers to rapidly train users and to support the new class of software. One of the main reasons for the low sales may be the lack of products from Lotus Development Corp, and WordPerfect Corp. Some analysts maintain that, as these two companies are the dominant developers in the spreadsheet and word-processing markets, many observers are waiting to see what their standards are in the Windows environment before committing to any development themselves. Telcos, vendors and users reach agreement on ISDN standards. (integrated services digital network) A group of Bell regional holding companies, switch vendors, computer companies and telecommunications users has agreed on ISDN standards that may lead to standards-based ISDN service in the US by 1992. National ISDN-1 standards, developed by Bellcore, are expected to lead the telecommunications industry toward nationwide ISDN. National ISDN-1 is based on Bellcore's ISDN Phase 1.1 Technical References. National ISDN-1 standardizes signaling protocols and messages between the public network and customers' equipment through a foundation platform that includes relevant technical references, uniform ISDN services, and required telephone company operations capabilities. Opportunity and risk abound in U.S.S.R. (telecommunications infrastructure) (The Iron Curtain Rises, part one) The USSR will be presented with both opportunities and risks as it makes the development of its telecommunications infrastructure a priority. The USSR needs to develop a strong partnership with the US because it has only five million telephones for a population of 287 million people. The development of the infrastructure can promote economic stability, but it also involves some risks. A substantial return will not be evident in the short run, the planned communications networks will only serve part of the population, and approval must be obtained from the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls. DSP may spell relief for urban cellular congestion. (digital signal processing) (includes glossary) Digital signal processing (DSP) technology may help reduce urban cellular congestion. DSP technology allows digital systems to offer several features not provided by the existing analog system, including higher capacity, a larger area of coverage, and improved channel clarity. Digital cellular mobile radio increases radio spectrum space by using multiple low-power base stations. Calls are automatically transmitted from one base station to another, and a base station several cells away can reuse a frequency. The requirements of mixed-signal processing, which will increase in importance, include flexible arithmetic, extended dynamic range, and hardware circular buffering. Groupe Speciale Mobile's digital speech coder-decoder is used for speech compression, while the Telecommunications Industry Assn's mobile telephone is used for such applications as adaptive equalization and error detection. Germany tears down the wall - and finds an aging network to rebuild. (Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, telecommunications network) Deutsche Bundespost Telekom is facing the challenge of avoiding competitive pressures in the western part of Germany as it rebuilds the antiquated telecommunications infrastructure in the eastern part of the country. Eastern Germany's telecommunications system is equivalent to the level of telecommunications development in the western part of Germany in the early 1950s. Telekom, which is planning to install 500,000 telephone lines in 1991, plans to install new lines at a rate of 1.5 million per year by 1991. Eastern and western Germany's telecommunications infrastructures should be at the same level by 1997. Competitive pressures, however, are forcing Telekom to take such measures as raising prices and asking Germany's main telecommunications equipment firms to supply, build, and operate local telecommunications networks. Motorola loses edge in microprocessors by delaying new chips; one is held up by obsession with quality, a second by corporate Semiconductor manufacturer Motorola Inc continues to lose market share to market leader Intel Corp, and to new rivals Sun Microsystems Inc and MIPS Computer Systems Inc. Analysts blame the decline on the company's delay in introducing improvements to its aging line of 68000 microprocessors. In the current microcomputer market, only one in ten machines is powered by a Motorola chip. In the fast increasing workstation market only 28 percent of new machines are powered by a Motorola microprocessor, down from 79 percent in 1979. Two main reasons are associated with the decline. In the first instance, Motorola's insistence on excellence leads to continuing product delays as chips are thoroughly debugged before release. Second, corporate infighting diverts resources away from the development of new products and towards the continuing support of older technology. Computer data on global warming questioned by federal meteorologists. Three federal meteorologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintain that it may be as long as 20 to 40 years before scientists know if global warming will be as bad as recent computer models predict. Thomas R. Karl, Richard R. Heim Jr, and Robert G. Quayle report their analyses of the weather records for the central US back to 1895. Results indicate that detectable changes in rain and snow patterns may take as long as 40 years to materialize. In an article published in a Mar 1991 issue of Science magazine, the researchers say they failed to find any trends in temperature and precipitation of the kinds predicted by the computer climate models. Precise navigation points to new worlds. (the use of satellites)(Technology) A new satellite navigation network coupled with advancements in electronic maps, information storage and non-satellite location techniques, is revolutionizing personal navigation and giving rise to immense potential in the field. In addition, sales of geographic information systems (GIS) increased 29 percent to $1.41 billion in 1990. Analysts believe sales of GIS could double by 1994. The rise in popularity is spurred by new technology such as the network of satellites known as global positioning system (GPS). This system, which is controlled by the US military, consists of a network of 16 satellites that allows users with receivers to pinpoint their actual position within 85 feet. In addition, advances in the computer industry enable miniaturization of the devices that use navigational information, allowing users to utilize the technology on an individual level, in cars for example. Data General to unveil fast Unix computer. (Technology) Bulkeley, William M. Data General plans to announce the availability on Mar 13 of a very fast Unix-based computer that can serve as the center of a network consisting of up to 500 users. The new addition to its Aviion workstation product line is expected to cost around $180,000, and to utilize four of Motorola Inc's 88000 microprocessors linked together. It is expected to operate at about 100 million instructions per second, which would make it twice as fast as Data General's fastest existing Unix computer. Analysts believe that even with the speed factor, Data General will still find it difficult to make an impact on the market with the new machine. In the Unix computer world, speed alone is surpassed so quickly by other manufacturers that it ceases to be a serious marketing tool. In the next month HP is expected to announce a reduced-instruction-set computer running at twice the speed of the Motorola 88000. The result would be a one-processor machine half as fast as Data General's but at only one-sixth the price. Judge says Intel doesn't hold right to '386' name. (Intel Corp.'s 80386 microprocessor)(US District Court Judge William A. Ingram) In what is seen as a small defeat for Intel Corp in its ongoing legal battles with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) over copyright issues, a federal judge ruled that Intel does not own trademark rights to the term '386'. AMD has developed a reverse-engineered clone microprocessor that mimics the popular Intel 80386 and plans to release it as the Am386. Intel filed a copyright suit a year ago after learning of AMD's product. The judge ruled that Intel failed to prove that the number 386 is not generic. Microcomputer manufacturers increasingly use the term 386 in their product titles. The suit was a vital one for AMD because, if the ruling had gone in Intel's favor, vendors would have been prevented from using the numbers although they had utilized the Am386 microprocessor. The big legal battle is yet to come though, as Intel also claims that the AMD product is based on specific proprietary Intel microcode. Microchips for drug compounds: packing compounds onto chips may speed drug research dramatically. (Technology) Affymax Research Institute, founded by Alejandro Zaffaroni, uses techniques borrowed from the electronics industry to speed drug research. Affymax combines photolithography with synthetic chemistry, creating 'very large scale immobilized polymer synthesis (VLSIPS),' which involves microchips containing thousands of potential drug compounds. According to researchers at Affymax, thousands of different compounds can be tested at once using VLSIPS, signifying an increase of orders of magnitude. Pharmaceutical companies are skeptical. For one thing, VLSIPS technology is useful only for building proteins and peptides, but most drugs are made of smaller organic molecules, which yield compounds that can be administered orally. Dr Zaffaroni sees no problem, noting that peptides can be administered trandermally, from a skin patch. Inder Singh on: Posix. Singh, Inder. Proprietary kernels, which have long been dominant in the real-time field, are facing the possibility of a shrinking market share due to the convergence of several strong market factors, such as the move toward standards. Computing has made great progress toward standard, open systems based on the Unix operating system and the emerging Posix standards. The attractions of standard, open systems include vendor independence, protection from obsolescence, preservation of software investment, availability of off-the-shelf applications, availability of programmers familiar with standard environments and connectivity between dissimilar computers within the user organization. The trend toward Unix/Posix-based real-time systems is gaining momentum with the emergence of standards like IEEE-1003.1 and 1003.4. The advent of the Posix standards lends legitimacy to the idea of Unix-compatible real-time systems. Real-time Unix develops multiprocessing muscle. Williams, Tom. The attraction of Unix has influenced several companies to provide versions of the operating system usable for real-time applications. Efforts are now afoot to expand the real-time adaptation of Unix to real-time architectures. Two companies have made significant progress: these include Modcomp and Lynx RealTime Systems. Modcomp is developing a multiprocessing version of its Realix realtime Unix system. Lynx is offering several multiprocessing versions of its Lynx/OS to conform to the Portable Operating System Interface for Unix (Posix) standard. The company is tailoring version of Lynx/OS to three different multiprocessor architecture schemes. The three architectures have been characterized as tightly coupled, snugly coupled and loosely coupled. The vendor will soon offer a tightly coupled symmetrical multiprocessor version of its single-processor Lynx/OS for the Motorola 88000 processor line. Tool suites address elusive analog problems. (design and development tools) Higher integration levels are bringing components off of circuit boards and onto chips, hybrids and multichip modules. These integration levels are causing design problems for engineers who need to consider analog effects of tightly-packed high-speed digital components and the headaches that come with mixed analog/digital circuits. Vendors of tools are responding with analog design environments to address these concerns and help engineers who may not have adequate experience in analog circuit design. There are only two or three thousand analog integrated circuit experts in the marketplace. The problems created for engineers by analog designs will only become worse as clock speeds increase and geometries shrink. Designers did not have to worry, until recently, about analog effects as there was not a lot of pressure on them to incorporate analog functions on a chip. Embedded processor hits 100-Mips mark. (National Semiconductor Swordfish) (product announcement) The reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) revolution has caused the birth of many high-performance embedded processors competing for advantage in a rapidly-growing market. Winners of this race will earn a market hare that is expected to top $1 billion by 1994. National Semiconductor has gained the lead with the release of Swordfish, the industry's first 100-Mips processor. National officials say the new chip combines the function of a high-performance processor with National's patented process and digital signal processing functions on one chip. The processing power comes from a combination of advanced superscalar architecture, its double-level metal complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process, added digital signal processing (DSP) functionality, a 64-bit data bus and National's optimizing compiler. The on-board floating-point circuitry utilizes IEEE-754 format, providing single- and double-bit precision operations. The new processor will find applications in areas where performance outranks price, such as with ultra-high-performance laser printers. JEDEC committee proposes standard ASIC technology. (applications specific integrated circuit) (includes related article defining Changing ASIC design technology has led the industry to a position where a discussion on the state of the art can lead to a vigorous battle over terminology. Megafunction, megacell and megamodule can all be used to describe a cell-based, fully diffused block embedded on a gate array master slice. Industry officials report that modifications and additions to the 12-1 standard are approaching standardization. Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is one definition under discussion. Much of the new terminology is related to synthesis. No one in the industry knew when the 12-1 JEDEC ASIC standard was drafted that synthesis would be the rage. The committee has defined the module generator as that which creates a parameterized macro cell. CrossCheck testability reaches commercial gate array family. Tuck, Barbara. The first commercial silicon implementation of CrossCheck Technology's applications specific integrated circuit (ASIC) testability approach is available from LSI Logic over three years after CrossCheck Technology was founded. LSI has just started to quote designs on the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) gate arrays with customized test structures embedded onto the base wager for design observability and control. The combination of CrossCheck software tools and on-chip test electronics integrated into LSI's Modular Design Environment trims the overall ASIC by 50 percent, according to LSI officials. ASIC designers do not deny that testability is consuming the largest chunk of the design cycle. Designer are inundated with highly complex test-critical designs that require top-notch fault coverage as management is pushing for shorter design cycles. LSI has delayed deciding on future implementations until the company can determine how the market accepts the LFT150K gate arrays. Single-chip controller eases Arcnet into industrial environment. Andrews, Warren. Arcnet has been quite successful in a wide variety of office automation applications but its acceptance in embedded control applications on the factory floor has been limited. Embedded controllers in industrial automation applications, outside of complete board-level solutions for the PC-compatible and STD Bus environments, have suffered from reduced throughput, poor reliability or other limitations of conventional communications protocols. The biggest restrictions to implementing Arcnet in industrial control applications have been high cost and high chip count. Officials at Standard Microsystems say they have eliminated both problems with the development of a highly integrated Arcnet controller with not only all the circuitry needed to implement the protocol but it has a large dual-port buffer RAM and complete microprocessor interface. Designers can now implement a low-cost Arcnet communications scheme with only two chips. The one-chip Arcnet controller provides the flexibility to let nearly any intelligent subsystem to become a network node for control, monitoring or updating. Many barriers slow quest for single-chip Ethernet adapter: vendors of Ethernet controller ICs are pursuing a single-chip LAN adapter. The goal of network hardware developers is the reduction of a standard to a single chip. Ethernet vendors are now working to put Ethernet onto a single chip. The benefits of single-chip integration are reduced space, shortened design time and reduced power consumption. Many technical barriers stand between current local area network product lines and the fully integrated adapter. Officials at Intel say that many vendors are working on a one-chip adapter and that the only question is which company has the first results. A number of technical issues stand in the way. An accepted Ethernet controller architecture is necessary while the front-end hardware represents a different type of problem. The transceiver presents an equally difficult problem. The single-chip solution will be an excellent fit for space-constrained, moderate performance applications and a technical stepping stone for even more integrated products, the LAN-in-a-chip set and the controller with on-chip protocol processing. Are mixed cells and arrays the solution ASIC vendors claim? Does embedding fully diffused blocks on gate arrays. (Applications Silicon vendors are pushing the idea of putting down a custom block of memory or other application-specific function onto a base array as users clamor for shorter turnaround time for complex ASIC designs. It remains to be seen whether benefits to customers will outweigh the disadvantages of mixed-architecture design remains to be seen. Mixed-architecture designers will be rewarded with the speed, flexibility and density of a standard-cell-based approach. They will also benefit from a quick turnaround time and fixed die sizes associated with gate arrays. Design activity in this arena will have some effect on the standard-cell market. Activity in mixed-architecture ASICs proves that design directions are hard to predict. Fuzzy logic simplifies complex control problems; fuzzy logic is proving a powerful methodology for control applications. Fuzzy logic involves inputs, calculations and outputs with precise numbers handled in a mathematically rigorous manner. Fuzzy logic does deal with vagueness and ambiguity. The vagueness of fuzzy logic comes with the linguistic expression of a problem and solution. A vague linguistic expression of a problem can be quite powerful as it allows users to develop and refine a numeric representation without having to understand a detailed numeric model. The precision of fuzzy sets comes from the exact mapping of input values to membership degrees. Fuzzy logic's ability to accommodate ambiguity comes from the use of adjectives. Applications for fuzzy logic are maturing in the US. Tools and hardware are available. High-performance microprocessors push limits of VMEbus. Child, Jeffrey. Advances in integrated circuits and system architecture have tested the limits of the bandwidth of the VMEbus. Vendors are squeezing all they can from the existing VME standard as they prepare for next-generation designs in VME64 and Futurebus+. Designs must allow for alternate pathways over which data can be sent in order to minimize traffic on the VMEbus. Mezzanine buses, custom on-board subsystem buses and the VME subsystem bus (VSB) are all being used to offer the necessary bandwidths. Vendor officials say designers are still faced with attempting to squeeze as much as power as possible on a single-slot board. Flexibility is also necessary to make use of processing power and avoid wasting it. The Radstone 68-41 board exemplifies this trend. The appeal of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) is having a growing impact but the 680X0 board are continuing to dominate the VME CPU market. Single-board RISC computer puts it all together. (reduced instruction set computing, based on the Motorola 88000 processor) The MVME187 ($7,000), developed by Motorola Computer Group, is a VME single-board computer based on the Motorola 88000 RISC processor and uses applications-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology to incorporate serial and parallel I/O, SCSI interface, Ethernet local area network (LAN) interface, a large cache, ROM/EPROM, timers and a time-of-day clock. The new product includes features that used to require five separate boards. The MVME187 includes an M88100 microprocessor operating at 25MHz, two M88200 cache memory management units (MMUs) handling 16Kbytes of instruction and data cache. The board design has been optimized to off-load the CPU and increase overall performance by reducing unnecessary traffic on the bus. Sample quantities of the new board will ship in May 1991 to key customers with production shipment scheduled for Oct 1991. BiCMOS arrays up to 150,000 gates offer compiled memory. (bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor) Seven base arrays in triple-layer-metal BiCMOS from Texas Instruments (TI) feature from more than 10,000 to more than 100,000 usable gates. The TGB1000 base arrays integrate BiCMOS and CMOS internal cells and optimize high-speed path requirements. The array's I/O structure facilitates mixing of ECL and TTL/CMOS interface levels. The gate arrays of the TGB1000 range in density from a 13,000-gate base array with 10,000 usable gates to a 150,000-gate base array with 112,000 usable gates. TI supports Mentor, Cadence, Synopsys, Valid and Ikos software tools on Apollo and Sun workstations for designing the arrays. Nonrecurring engineering expenses (NRE) for the TGB1000 arrays begin at $70,000. Circuit board reliability analysis moves up in the design cycle. (Viable and Cals-out from Valid Logic Systems) (product Many hardware manufacturers are turning to analysis programs to forecast a product's behavior in software before committing to a design because time-to-market windows are shrinking and costs of prototype iterations are growing. Vendors of electronic design analysis tools are marketing products that model many of a design's physical characteristics like thermal behavior and reliability prediction. Using these products allows decisions affecting a finished product's performance to be introduced early in a design cycle. Viable ($12,000) from Valid Logic Systems is a reliability analysis program offering both pre- and post-layout support for circuit boards, multiwire boards, hybrids and multichip modules. Cals-out ($6,000), also from Valid, is an integrated program that automatically generates release and process documentation to meet the documentation standards for Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS). Both are available as network-shareable software from Sun Microsystems, IBM and Digital Equipment. Logic analyzer houses 1-Gsample/s oscilloscope. (the 16532A oscilloscope from Hewlett-Packard) (product announcement) Designers are now troubleshooting problems that they have been able to overlook in the past now that clock speeds of current complementary metal oxide semiconductor and emitter-couple logic (ECL) devices are increasing. The rising clock rates mean that parametric waveform phenomena can no longer be overlooked. Vendors of test equipment are now offering faster oscilloscopes in order to meet these needs. Hewlett-Packard has now introduced its HP 16532A ($9,000), a 1-Gsample/s digitizing oscilloscope module for the HP 16500A logic analyzer system. The oscilloscope offer a 250MHz real-time bandwidth. The oscilloscope module is available now. Cadence integrates synthesis for front- to back-end design. (Cadence Design Systems) (product announcement) Cadence Design Systems has integrated synthesis technology into its Amadeus System Design Series and Opus IC Design Series, both of which are based on Design Framework II. The Cadence synthesis and optimization software includes the Improvisor ($15,000) and Optivisor ($35,000). Improvisor synthesizes mixed-level hardware description language inputs to gate-level descriptions. It also explores design alternatives. Optivisor provides optimization and technology-mapping functionality. The Verilog-based mixed-level synthesis solution offers integrated circuit, applications specific integrated circuit and systems designers particular advantages. The greatest advantage is the use of a single library for synthesis and simulation. 3Com network system cuts signals return to roots. (layoffs and change of strategy for 3Com Canada Inc.) Losses for the second qtr 1990 prompt 3Com Canada to lay off staff and reorganize its operation around a new strategic plan. According to company officials, the shift in marketing strategy will de-emphasize operating system sales and stress such areas of strength as transmission systems, internetworking products and communications servers. At the same time, 3Com pledges continued support of its client/server base, and has set aside $9 million for technical support. 3Com will also provide migration products for Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager network management system. The overall goal of the company's planning is to continue to support network software while returning to its strengths in the design of bridging and transmission products. NetWorld sets stage for key alliances. (networking and connectivity trade show in Boston, MA) The third annual NetWorld trade show in Boston, MA gives 24,000 attendees an opportunity to view 327 exhibits and evaluate over 150 product introductions and upgrades. IBM announced its intention to market, service and support Novell NetWare products for microcomputers running on both the Intel 80286 and 80386 processors, as well as a scheduled version for the OS/2 operating system. Among other key events at NetWorld was the announcement of a strategic relationship between AT and T Computer Systems and Banyan Inc. The agreement will result in the certification of the Vines operating system for use with AT and T's StarServer E Symmetric Multiprocessor. Also announced were a series of enhancements to DEC's Pathworks networking products which will allow migration to Novell NetWare. Stratford's Suzy stabilizing following rocky introduction. Cook, Carol. Stratford Software Corp, reeling from layoffs, losses and lower-than-expected sales revenue, continues to emphasize its Suzy search software. The Suzy package simplifies the task of on-line searching, and company projections had called for 50,000 users within a year of its May 1990 launch. These projections have been reduced to 30,000. The bundling of Suzy with IBM's PS/1 microcomputer, aimed at the home user market, is still expected to be a boon for sales of the search software. As of October 1990, IBM had sold 10,000 PS/1 units in the Canadian market. The upcoming Suzy 3.0, $59.95, due on the market in late March 1990, is expected to boost sales and produce a healthier dealer margin. Suzy 3.0 will also be available in a French language version. Ex-Lanpar founders in patent battle. (charge Lotus Development Corp. with patent infringement) A law suit against Lotus Development Corp, in which patent infringement on a key spreadsheet technology is alleged, could effect the entire spreadsheet market. The action, advanced by Rene Pardo and Remy Landau, owners of Forward Reference Systems Ltd, accuses Lotus of violating the license on 'natural order recalculation.' The patent for this technique, crucial to recalculation speed in a spreadsheet program, was awarded to Pardo and Landau in 1982. Subsequent licensing rights were acquired by the Canadian subsidiary of Refac Development Corp. The implications of the suit involve the strengthening of copyright protection by means of the patent process. Industry analysts have expressed the concern that such rulings could make it more difficult for small software publishers to compete with major companies. IT firms defying recessionary climate. (information technology) (Special Report) Reports produced by International Data Corp and Evans Research Corp conclude that the 1990 recession had a negative impact on the Canadian information management industry. The IDC report notes that demand for information technology is strongly impacted by economic conditions. Evans Research predicts that growth in the software segment of the industry will slow to around the 15 percent level, while the hardware segment will grow at about six percent. Notable exceptions to a trend of revenue losses throughout the industry are IBM, which gained over 10 percent in annual revenue in 1990, and Compaq Computer Corp and Apple Computer Inc, which posted respective gains of 70 and 12 percent for their most recent quarters. Microsoft Corp, which reported a 55 percent increase in sales revenues for the six-month period ended Dec 31, 1990, performed well in a flat software market. In conversation. (includes related articles profiling Anderson Consulting Canada and partner Robert Manion) (interview) Robert Manion, partner in Anderson Consulting Canada, notes that the systems integrator and consulting firm currently derives most of its business from the design of integrated solutions for its clients. Anderson's strength, he says, is that it can provide everything from a project manager to a trainer to instruct a client's employees on the fundamentals of a new system. The watchword at Anderson is the provision of a total solution for complex MIS environments. Outsourcing, which Manion defines in terms of the sharing of information resource management functions and program development with third-party vendors, is viewed as an emerging trend in the systems integration market. The firm's new $20 million data center, which is devoted to outsourcing, is currently generating about $15 million in contracts. Promoting new image system is a family affair. (Canadian Interlinear Technology Inc. develops MEDIS) (Modular Electronic Canadian Interlinear Technology Inc, an imaging technology firm based in Willowdale, Ontario, hopes to establish itself in the aerospace industry. The software publisher's premier product is MEDIS, the Modular Electronic Document Image System. MEDIS is a document imaging system comprised of seven modules based on the client/server architecture and designed to run on the Unix operating system. The program is compliant with the US Dept of Defense's CALS (Computer-aided acquisition and support) standard. The company's founder, Angus Sullivan, received initial encouragement from aerospace firms such as Boeing, Spar Aerospace, GE Aerospace and Litton Systems. Incorporated on Feb 1, 1991, the firm is looking forward to the sale of its initial system. Wang profits from change in focus. Eastwood, Alison. Wang Canada, like its parent Wang Laboratories Inc, faces the task of rebuilding client confidence in the Fortune 1000 word processing and imaging market. At the end of the 1980s, Wang faced a debt of $575 million and found that its customer base had eroded. Company officials say that Wang's mistake was to focus on the hardware rather than on partnerships with its clients. Along with its new marketing strategy, Wang entered the image processing market with such products as Open/image for NetWare, which is capable of integrating documents into Novell's NetWare 386 network operating system. Another new release, Open/image Windows 3.0, provides image processing software for microcomputers based on 286, 386 and 486-based processors. Wang reported a profit for its initial qtr ended Sep 30, 1991, which it intends to build upon. Help desk professionals ask for a little respect. (formation of the Toronto chapter of the Help Desk Institute) The Toronto chapter of the Help Desk Institute is established with the mission of promoting the interests of customer service and support desk professionals. Facing the common perception that help desk personnel are little appreciated by either their peers in the computer industry or by the clients they serve, the Help Desk Institute hopes to effect attitudinal change. The initial focus is upon providing those who work on the front lines of technology an opportunity to express their grievances and concerns. The Institute's founders feel that merely providing a platform for the sharing of information, both about service problems and the means of dealing with them, will provide a crucial first step in improving the situation. Sequent aims to bring open systems into the OLTP market. (on-line transaction processing) (Sequent Computer Systems Inc.) Sequent Computer Systems Inc launches its Symmetry 2000 open mainframe system, which it hopes will bolster its competitive profile in the on-line transaction processing market. Sequent's open mainframe system involves the integration of standards-based open systems into the OLTP arena. The Symmetry 2000 is based on configurations of the Intel 80486 processor. The high-end 700 model, which can cost up to $3 million, incorporates as many as 30 of the advanced processors, supplying multi-processing capabilities for hundreds of users. At the low end of the spectrum, the 200 and 400 models employ six and ten processors respectively. According to company representatives, the Symmetry technology integrates relational database and symmetrical multi-processing technologies. Sequent's Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) architecture gives it an advantage over its competitors. DEC Canada gets mandate to manufacture the VAX 4000. (DEC VAX 4000 200) Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd will manufacture a new low-end version of its best-selling minicomputer at its Kanata, Ontario plant. The new unit, the DEC VAX 4000 Model 200, will be targeted for the small business and branch office market, and will sell for between $26,000 and $78,000. It is the first VAX to be designed for client-server architecture applications, in which the system functions both as a storage facility and a source of processing power. The manufacturing plan will result in about $5 million in plant investment and will bolster the Kanata plant's workforce with about 76 engineering and manufacturing positions. The plant will also enhance the DEC VAX 6000 line with storage subsystems and dual-host configurations. The copyright gambit. (implications of the Ashton-Tate Corp. versus Fox Software Inc. case) (Law) The recent copyright infringement case involving Ashton-Tate Corp and Fox Software Inc illustrates the pitfalls of litigation over software packages. The suit began with the contention of Ashton-Tate that Fox's FoxBase Plus and FoxBase Plus/Macintosh infringed on the copyright for Ashton-Tate's market-leading dBase III package. But, as is often the case in litigation, the charge produced a counter-suit from Fox, which accused Ashton-Tate of concealing the origins of its package in a public domain program. A federal judge, in upholding the claim of Fox Software, accused Ashton-Tate of withholding material information when it filed its application with the US Patent Office. The valuable property Ashton-Tate went to court to protect against infringement is now a publicly-obtainable database management industry standard. Ex-software firm employee convicted of copying. (SBI Technologies Inc. employee Marc Alarie) Marc Alarie, a former employee of Unix software developer SBI Technologies Inc of Montreal, Quebec, is found guilty of four charges of software piracy. Alarie was fined $5,000, and now faces $180,000 in additional civil charges filed by SBI Technologies president Michel King. After a two-year, $50,000 investigation, a raid on Alarie's rival firm, Service Cite Informatique (SCI) netted several books of source code and 137 diskettes belonging to SBI Technologies and authored by King. SBI is investing $2 million in the further development and marketing of its products, which involve Unix-based computer-aided manufacturing systems. The firm has 25 employees and generates annual sales revenues of $2.5 to $3 million. Outsourcing, downsizing on CIPS agenda. (Canadian Information Processing Society) The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) will stress the emerging strategies of outsourcing and technology downsizing in an upcoming MIS panel Apr 10, 1991 in Toronto. In recent years senior executives have become more aware of the crucial role of information technology as a source of improved productivity. Those responsible for MIS planning face difficult choices that can critically impact the financial well-being of the company. The panel will consider the impact of outsourcing and its potential as a competitive weapon in the development of global information technologies. The panel will also consider the impact of smaller and increasingly more powerful computers on information processing environments. Report questions long-term worth of Windows 3.0. (report by Computer Technology Research Corp. prefers OS/2 and Unix) A report from Computer Technology Research Corp lauds the significance of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, but indicates that the long-range interests of MS-DOS users may be better served by OS/2 and Unix. The report notes that while Windows 3.0 creates a viable multitasking environment for users of the Intel 80286 and 80386 processor, 61 percent of worldwide users employ older systems that are not effective as Windows platforms. Although Windows is expected to delay the migration to the OS/2 operating system, the report stresses that the increasing sophistication of Windows applications for MS-DOS may expose the limitations of the system, prompting users to adopt OS/2 in increasing numbers. Compaq sues Dell over ad furor. (objects to product comparisons) Tanaka, David; Barker, Paul. Compaq Computer Corp files a law suit in the UK against Dell Computer Corp, charging its competitor with trademark infringement and deceptive advertising. Representatives of the mail order house expressed surprise at the action, calling its ads, which depict Compaq and Dell products side-by-side, a standard practice in the computer industry. To underscore this point, a Dell spokesman noted that Compaq itself had previously run advertisements comparing its products with those of IBM. Compaq, according to its representatives, was chiefly concerned about the issue of trademark infringement. Legal experts say that the UK was selected as a venue due to its relatively fast legal process. Dealers, discount outlets or vendor-direct: options available when it comes to the buying of hardware. User needs and the quality of customer support services are crucial factors in the selection of hardware systems by business firms. A company such as Toronto-based publisher McClelland and Stewart purchases microcomputers from Corel Systems Inc largely because of its publishing expertise and strong after-sale support services. Other firms, such as Bata Ltd, a Toronto manufacturing systems designer, are primarily concerned with getting a good price on equipment, since they have the expertise to handle their own computer maintenance on an in-house basis. Businesses that are more concerned with ongoing service and add-on services often select companies such as Businessland Inc, while companies primarily interested in putting equipment on the floor may opt to buy from direct sales manufacturers such as Dell Computer Corp. In a recession, you need to be imaginative: charging for services one way to remain on the payroll. In times of recession, a department that provides crucial computer support services without being connected to the earning of revenue can be in jeopardy. One strategy for avoiding becoming a target of cutbacks and layoffs is to charge other departments for the services performed. The problem with the free provision of services is that it creates a situation where there is no clear way to measure the value of the work performed by the service department. Another difficulty is that when other parties are forced to use the service , the ability to refuse a given project is lost. In effect, the department loses the ability to manage its own workload. Ultimately, such decisions are more in the domain of management than technology. Filemaker Pro: standout in Mac filer category. (Software Review) (Filemaker Pro from Claris) (evaluation) Filemaker Pro from Claris Corp is among the best data base management systems available for the Apple Macintosh environment. The main feature of this package is its user-friendly layout capability. Fields are pre-assigned default values and the layout module arranges them on the screen in the order of their creation. The fields can then be rearranged, with the graphics palette available for creating various boxes, lines and shapes. One problem with this program is the laxity of its field definitions. This is particularly true in the text field, where 'text' is defined as anything from one character to a number of pages. Although Filemaker Pro has a limited macro language, it is able to chain scripts together, giving application designers a way of speeding up frequently performed tasks. Low retail prices and outstanding manuals are other reasons for selecting Filemaker Pro. Multi-tasking made possible for XT, AT users: Quarterdeck's Desqview 386 for DOS-based applications. (Software Review ) Quarterdeck Systems Inc's Desqview 386 is an operating system enhancement that brings both real and standard modes of Windows to the multitasking XT and AT environments. The Desqview 386 package is actually comprised of Desqview and Quarterdeck's QEMM-386 memory manager. It facilitates the windowing of multiple text and graphics applications. It incorporates a DOS extender program to circumvent the 640K barrier, although it does not provide protection between applications. The program features a keyboard macro facility that is easily adjustable. Desqview is also easy to install, featuring an auto install program that analyzes the user's hardware and software setup. The operating system enhancement does not require an 80386 processor, since each DOS program is run on a 'virtual' 8086 processor which is terminated when the application is closed. The package is highly recommended. Nantucket issues challenge with Clipper 5.0: but programmers take note--this is not easy turf. (Software Review) (evaluation) Nantucket Corp's Clipper 5.0 brings a number of valuable new features to the program development environment. It eliminates the accidental inheritance of bugs caused by declared variables from previous levels. With Clipper 5.0, variables are known only within the module in which they are declared. The program also introduces a powerful code block data type, which facilitates the creation of general code and customized code blocks. The code blocks can be passed to the general array processor, which gives the programmer fewer functions as well as greatly improved flexibility. Even more importantly, the program makes it possible to declare and initialize an array in one line. On the down side, Clipper 5.0 is not yet a completely reliable program, although an upcoming fix disk is expected to resolve many of its difficulties. Second coming of Corel Draw warrants A+. (Software Review) (Corel Draw 2.0) (evaluation) Corel Systems' Corel Draw 2.0 is a highly recommended software graphics package that offers top value for its $725 retail price. With Corel Draw 2.0, the user gets 153 Type I fonts from 56 families. It also provides an outstanding type manipulation tool and a capable customizable auto-trace program. The program also offers WFNBOSS, a first-rate font utility that imports any Postscript or Corel-supplied font to Type I. Corel Draw 2.0 also includes the Mosaic file viewer, compressor and batch printer package. The changes in this upgrade of the world market leading Windows package make it both more accurate and more user-friendly. Borland uses subtle approach with its latest: version 2.0 of Quattro Pro spreadsheet program. (Software Review) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro 2.0 is notable for the subtle enhancements that are engineered into the program. The single most significant addition to the spreadsheet software program is a feature called 'Solve For,' which allows the backward calculation of a formula from such pertinent details as interest rate, term and amortization. Borland has also added four new three-dimensional chart formats to beef up the program: 3-D Bar, Ribbon, Step and Area. The Annotator feature has been enhanced with buttons capable of controlling the sequence of images. The number of graphics files have also been expanded, enabling users to save graphs in PCX format for use in a number of paint and slide programs. The program runs on any IBM microcomputer or compatible, requiring only 512K of random access memory. Financial planner takes sting out of taxman's bite: online advice available at touch of key. (HomeTax Plus, from Information 2000) Information 2000 Inc introduces HomeTax Plus, a versatile $49.95 package that doubles as an income tax preparation and financial planning software program. The tax preparation aspect of HomeTax Plus contains templates for Revenue Canada forms, as well as the information slips that apply to different income sources. The program handles the calculations and shuffles the numbers to their appropriate spots on the forms; it even makes online information available at the press of a button. This documentation is very informative in tax matters, although light on operational instructions. The Financial Information Portfolio portion of the program is quite versatile, allowing you to record everything from bank accounts to financial objectives. It also features helpful mortgage and loan calculators. HomeTax Plus runs on any IBM microcomputer or compatible that utilizes MS-DOS 3.1 or higher. Remaining competitive, profitable major challenges for today's players. (Third-party maintenance) The third-party maintenance market is expected to undergo a severe shakeout during the 1990s. Although immediate prospects are for a growth rate of six percent during 1991, factors including pricing wars, protection of installed bases by vendors and increasingly reliable hardware have created a highly competitive climate in the third-party maintenance market. As a result, companies are adopting such strategies as focusing on the service and maintenance of particular product lines as opposed to diverse ranges of products. Industry analysts note that two factors in the increasingly competitive market are increasing competition from vendors and dealers and the combination of lower hardware prices and increasingly reliability. In many instances, it is cheaper to simply put a new unit on line than to absorb the cost of a maintenance contract. New breed of diagnostic software enhances PC servicing. Lawrence, Mathew. The current generation of diagnostic software packages grew from file management utilities such as Norton Utilities and PC Tools. Where file management packages were more concerned with memory management functions and the avoidance of program conflicts, the need for additional capabilities drove the development of more analytical programs. Programs such as System Sleuth from Dariana Technology Group Inc and Control Room from Ashton-Tate increased the ability to aid users by determining microcomputer resources and identifying the functioning of installed options. Yet another generation of diagnostic packages, such as DiagSoft Inc's QA Plus allows users to identify circuitry problems, locate bad chips and defective ports and perform such sophisticated functions as virus detection, benchmark testing and LAN configuration. Vendors, resellers get into the act. (increasing competition for third-party maintenance vendors) Increasing competition in the area of maintenance and support of computer equipment is giving third-party maintenance vendors something to be concerned about. A growing number of equipment manufacturers and value-added resellers are adjusting their strategies and resources in an effort to address the customer's desire for 'cradle-to-grave' services. Such services can include a wide range of options, including warranty extensions, upgrades, refurbishing and repair, pre-installation cabling and the disposal of used equipment. Today, it is imperative for dealers of major equipment lines to be skilled in the handling of maintenance problems. In such an environment, training and education become a crucial competitive tool. Outsourcing helping to keep Quebec bank's ATMs in order. (servicing the automated teller machine network of Caisse Caisse Populaire Desjardins, a chain of 650 bank branches spread throughout Quebec, Ontario and northern New Brunswick, relies on outsourcing to provide vital servicing of its approximately 1,000 automated teller machines. Given the acceptance of ATM technology by the bank's 4.5 million customers, who conduct nine million transactions per month on the system, the task of network control and the correction of malfunctions requires 24-hour attention. Any downtime translates into unhappy customers and lost business opportunities. In Jan 1989, the bank signed a third-party maintenance contract with Olivetti Systems and Networks. In order to assure the smooth functioning of the network, some 30 Olivetti employees work with bank personnel at various locations, monitoring the performance of the ATM network. Maintenance agreements can be as critical as contracts. (Analysis) White, Leslie. The terms and conditions of the maintenance agreement struck between a vendor and customer are a crucial aspect of business planning. Ultimately, the contract can be just as important as the quality of the hardware and software purchased. Ideally, a maintenance agreement should be negotiated at the time the system is purchased, so that it can be included as part of a package deal with the supply contract itself. If the equipment is purchased through a systems integrator, it is highly desirable that the integrator be the prime contractor as well. In fashioning agreements with third-party maintenance vendors, it is important to obtain clauses specifying uptime and response time to service calls. Hayes runs with Waterloo software. (LANstep network operating system improves on Waterloo Microsystems Inc.'s Port networking Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc introduces LANstep, a network operating system package that derives in part from the Port networking software of its acquisition, Waterloo Microsystems Inc. Waterloo had been developing its network software for about three years, and Hayes had been participating in the development during the one year negotiation period prior to the acquisition of Waterloo Microsystems. LANstep will retail for $695, and will provide the means for file, printer and software sharing of MS-DOS and MS Windows applications on IBM microcomputers and IBM compatibles. Two other LANstep configurations are available: the LANstep 5-Step Expander and the LANstep Mail gateway are both $465. The introduction of the LANstep line signals the serious entry of Hayes into the local area network market. Transportation community embraces EDI. (electronic data interchange) Canada's marine, trucking, rail and airway cargo transportation industries are vigorously adopting electronic data interchange (EDI) technology. Interest in the step-saving technology began with the formation of CANSIF Canada Ltd, a non-profit organization dedicated to the establishment of a nation-wide EDI network linking various sectors of the transportation industry. A pilot project established the feasibility of the plan, leading to the formation of the Transport Data Network International (TDNI). The joint venture of CANSIF, Shared Network Services and Transaction Data Services currently has 30 clients ranging from Canada Customs, customs brokers, air freight firms and stevedoring companies. SkyTel, Cantel link up to form continental paging network. (SkyPager) SkyTel Corp of Washington DC and Rogers Cantel Mobile Inc launch SkyPager, a paging and voice message service based on satellite communications technology. The service will make it possible for business travellers to receive messages anywhere in the US or Canada. The network is expected to save subscribers money on long distance telephone calls and increase productivity. The network service's pager will feature a numerically-coded message system that will signal whether a call is of a sales or service nature. SkyPager will operate on the same frequency of 931.9375 MHz in both the US and Canada. By the end of 1990, 84,300 SkyPager units were in service in the US. Manitoba Telephone set to come under federal regulation. Edwards, Mike. The regulation of the Manitoba Telephone System will soon be transferred from the provincial Public Utilities Board (PUB) to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The change in jurisdiction is the result of a 1989 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. The transfer to CRTC authority will be effected by Sep 1, 1991. A key provision of the memorandum of understanding signed by Manitoba and Canadian Department of Communications Ministers stipulates that a telecommunications policy will be adhered to that is dedicated to providing 'reliable and affordable' telephone service in urban, rural and remote areas of the province. Private X.25 networks a choice. (Telecom) Allison, Cathy. Some business organizations are setting up private packet switched data communication networks based on the X.25 protocol as a money-saving alternative to Infoswitch and Datapac. Unitel's Infoswitch and Telecom Canada's Datapac are the two services offered by Canada's common carrier service providers. Companies with extensive inter-city data transmission requirements necessitated by work-at-home employees or branch-to-branch communications have tended to use either a dedicated leased-line network or one of the two public network services. The private X.25 network, however, is becoming a cost effective alternative method. By setting up such a private network, a company avoids the usage fees, although it still requires dedicated circuits, packet assembler/disassembler devices and communications software. De facto standards help simplify network management tasks. (Open Systems Interconnection, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet De facto standards are providing a crucial guarantee of interoperability for network managers. Given the variety of protocols, applications, wiring plans and access procedures that may exist in a network comprised of thousands of nodes, interoperable network management is becoming a focal point of network planning. When a product conforms to a published standard, it is guaranteed to work with products based on that standard, so that a common-denominator of performance is established. Among the leading de facto standards are IBM's System Network Architecture, the Open Systems Interconnection and its Common Management Information Services/Protocol (CMIS/CMIP), which functions with the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Network managers are beginning to consider the benefits of integrating these standards into a single management system. NovAtel maps out its business cordless telephone strategy. (the Affinity cordless business system) Calgary-based NovAtel Communications will begin manufacturing its cordless business telephone system, the Affinity, in the fourth qtr of 1991. The cordless system, which is based on CT-3 technology, will be designed to bring greater flexibility and enhanced personal communications features to the office environment. Company planners indicate that the three main market applications for the telephone system are expected to be office environments, residential environments and the public access markets. Due to economies of scale, the initial investment is expected to be relatively high. The system will consist of pocket-sized handsets, radio exchange units and suitcase-sized base stations, and will be marketed in North America and Europe. Unix server clout. (includes related article on Auspex Systems Inc. history) (Cover Story) The number of workstations on networks is multiplying rapidly; one unfortunate effect is degradation of performance. Diskless workstations put especially heavy demand on network-based bandwidth. Managers of networks based on Sun Microsystems Inc workstations complain about the performance of Sun's file servers. Some managers are turning to a high-performance file server, the Network Server (NS) 5000, from Santa Clara, CA-based Auspex Systems Inc. Base-priced at $115,000, the NS 5000 delivers throughput of as many as 1,100 Network File System I/O operations per second, or five times the performance levels of Sun's SPARCserver. The NS 5000 'superserver' can replace several conventional file servers, cutting costs, easing data administration and allowing easier data backup. The NS 5000 has separate processors for file-, network- and storage-processing; as many as 60Gbytes of formatted disk storage; two to eight Ethernet ports; various tape options; 16Mbytes to 96Mybtes of primary I/O cache memory; and Unix compatibility. PC portables join the executive ranks. Francis, Bob; McMullen, John; Moad, Jeff. Portable computers are rapidly becoming standard equipment in corporate America. Market research firm Dataquest Inc predicts that portable sales in the US will leap from 1.6 million in 1990 to 9 million in 1994. Advancing technology is a key reason for the popularity of portables. In 1985, portables were heavy, with external hard drives and battery packs and slow CPUs; today's laptops are light, fast and have large internal hard drives. The key to success with portables is finding uses for the technology rather than simply choosing the right hardware. Field auditors at Ernst and Young, for example, use portables running WordPerfect, SuperCalc and other applications to automate many manual tasks. Portable managers recommend standardizing on a small number of machines. One big question for the future is whether pen-based portables will succeed among white-collar workers. To date, these computers, which use a pen for input rather than a keyboard or mouse, have found limited success among blue-collar workers performing such tasks as inventory control. 2001: a portable PC odyssey. (prediction of what a new portable computer will be like in 2001) By 1999, portable computers will be able to recognize handwriting. The year 2001 will see the advent of two-pound portables that can also recognize the voices of as many as four persons. The computer will have to be 'trained' to recognize an individual's voice, and its 'vocabulary' must be expanded to suit the user's needs. A satellite cellular connection will be standard, enabling automatic connections to centralized data banks. Connectivity to a wireless local area network will also be provided. Batteries will work for more than a year. The color screen will have 2,024-x-2,024-pixel resolution. Solid state memory cards will store up to 100Mbytes of data. The core processor will work at 100 MHz. There's no stopping nonstop systems. (Japanese companies embracing fault-tolerant computers) Demand for fault-tolerant computers (FTCs) is exploding in Japan, and it is coming at the expense of mainframe computers. FTCs are most often minicomputers or superminicomputers with duplicate components that can keep running if one part of the system fails. Japanese retailers, manufacturers and other companies, realizing that a few minutes of downtime can cost vast amounts of money, are buying FTCs. International Data Corp predicts that the Japanese market for FTCs will grow at least 20 percent per year between 1991 and 1994; 1991 Japanese FTC sales were pegged at $259.4 million. US companies such as Tandem, Stratus Computer Inc and DEC are reaping the benefits of the Japanese FTC boom. NEC Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Fujitsu Ltd - Japan's biggest computer companies - are fighting back by developing their own FTCs; none has reached the market yet. Europe's software umbrella.(Euromethod, an umbrella methodology for software development across Europe) (includes related article Information systems development will merge along with European markets in 1993; however, a variety of methodologies are used across the continent for systems and software development. The European Commission (EC) has developed Euromethod, an umbrella methodology for development continentwide. In Phase One of Euromethod, completed in Jun 1990, an EC committee concluded that Euromethod should provide a framework and tools for working with existing methodologies, rather than replacing them outright. In Phase Two, completed in Dec 1990, an 11-member industry consortium appointed by the EC performed a feasibility study of the benefits and costs of developing Euromethod. The study includes plans for Phase Three, which is just starting. Phase Three's chief goal is to create a common taxonomy for the Euromethod development model. Rewritable optical still not in overdrive. McMullen, John. Predictions that rewritable optical disks would replace hard drives for microcomputers in 1989 have not been fulfilled. Users complain about slow access times (60 milliseconds and up, compared to 10 milliseconds and up for Winchester drives) and high prices ($5,500 and up, compared to $3,000 and up for similar-size Winchester disks). Most rewritable optical drives offer 650Mbytes of storage and come in the 5.25-inch format. Sony Corp dominates the market with a 70 percent share, followed by Ricoh Corp; their drives are called magneto-optical (MO). Faster, smaller and cheaper rewritable optical drives now entering the market might sell better, especially as users increasingly use memory-hungry image processing and desktop-publishing applications. Rewritable optical drives are also ideal for large databases residing on file servers. Industry observers say the way IBM chooses to use and market erasable optical drives will be a key to the technology's acceptance. Curing the LAN support blues. (third-party firms that repair local area networks) Large corporations are entering the local area network (LAN) service market. HP, DEC, Unisys Corp, Bell Atlantic Business Systems, TRW Inc and AT and T are some of the big companies that now say they will service LANs even if they did not manufacture or install the equipment. Until recently, most LAN service providers were small firms. Service providers say most contracts are customized. Typical services offered include 24-hour telephone support; guaranteed dispatch of repair personnel within four hours; pickup, repair and return of broken equipment; monthly management reports that summarize problems and sometime suggest solutions; and remote network management. Providers say their service costs about $20 per month per node. Firms should consider an outsider service provider if they have more than 100 nodes on LANs, if they do not have trained network specialists, if their LANs are geographically dispersed and if their LANs perform mission-critical duties. Stop NET FAULTS before they stop you. (includes related article on testing protocols) (tutorial) More and more networks are being laid low by 'net faults,' or failures caused by a logical error in either software or hardware. Because they are usually caused by faulty interaction between software and hardware, rather than a simple failure in one piece of hardware, net faults are often difficult to diagnose. Protocols and standards can cause net faults instead of preventing them. For example, two vendors may implement a protocol differently, causing interface problems when their products are connected. Networks should be configured beforehand to reduce the likelihood of net faults and to ease recovery when they do occur. Plug your customers in. (new network for customer relations at Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., shipping firm) To boost customer service, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd of New York City set up Combined Data Resources (CDR), a comprehensive cargo-booking and tracking system. Mitsui collaborated with six of its largest shipping agents to set up CDR, which will be used by 250 shipping agents and thousands of Mitsui customers. The agents are equipped with Intel 80386-based microcomputers or Sun Microsystems SPARCstations; most of these are networked via Ethernet to Sun file servers in six regional US centers or to the main hub in Jersey City, NJ. A 1.54M-bps T1 backbone links the regional Sun servers to the main hub. Customers will be able to access CDR by phone, fax, telex or directly by computer. Union, NJ-based General Logistics International Inc designed and installed CDR. Unix goes on line. (includes related article on hammering out Unix on-line transaction processing standards) Until recently, programmer- and user-friendly Unix was seen as not resilient enough for the demands of on-line transaction processing (OLTP). Unix OLTP proponents, however, point to Unix's communications strengths; they also say Unix will help lower OLTP costs. Existing Unix OLTP solutions typically support no more than 500 users at once and 100 transactions per second, far below the hundreds of thousands of transactions per second IBM's Customer Information Control System can support. Ninety-seven percent of the $40 billion annual OLTP market is still held by proprietary systems, according to market research firm Gartner Group Inc. Large vendors such as NCR Corp and IBM are hurrying to develop Unix transaction monitors. Standards still need to be developed for Unix transaction-management software; there is also a shortage of tools for developing Unix-based OLTP applications. Most users are waiting to see how Unix OLTP develops. A PC gateway for AS/400s. (5250 gateway device from Micro-Integration Corp.) (product announcement) Micro-Integration Corp of Cumberland, MD, introduces the 5250, an enhanced gateway that increases the number of number of microcomputer-to-AS/400 sessions a single server can support from seven to 28. The $1,995 gateway is essentially a software upgrade to the company's Bluelynx/5251-11 local gateway. The software enables one microcomputer server to support four gateways. Each of the gateways in turn allows seven other microcomputers to access an AS/400 at the same time. The 5250 also supports IBM's AS/400 PC Support software. The 5250 also enables the mixing of terminal emulation and PC Support sessions on the same gateway. PC accounting thinks big. (buyers guide) Caron, Jeremiah. Microcomputer-based accounting software, once used only by small and medium-sized businesses, is now getting a serious look from large corporations. The current generation of accounting packages offers feature-rich modules, local-area-network (LAN) connectivity and easy-to-use graphical user interfaces. Companies with minicomputer- or mainframe-based systems often use microcomputer accounting software for ancillary operations; the software is also being put on portable computers for remote use. Users can start with such core modules as Accounts Payable and General Ledger, adding modules as needed while retaining the benefits of a tightly integrated system. Some microcomputer accounting programs feature real-time transaction posting capabilities. Prices range from $50 for M-USA Business Systems Inc's Pacioli 2000 to thousands of dollars for complete systems. CAE tools help cure transmission-line woes. (computer-aided engineering)(includes related article on transmission-line Computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools can help pc-board designers predict and correct transmission-line effects in all stages of design. Designers can use tools before beginning board layout, following component placement and after routing. Tools can either be for analysis or screening. Analysis tools examine individual signal traces and allow for study of the circuit's behavior in detail using simulated waveforms. Analysis tools are good for establishing design rules before beginning pc-board layout. Screening tools allow designers to check for transmission-line effects after they know what the circuit will tolerate. Screening tools all calculate transmission-line effects but calculate them in different ways. Different vendors have tradeoffs between speed and accuracy. Designers need to evaluate the accuracy they need as well as cost and computer type when choosing CAE tools. Modules satisfy FDDI and other standards. (fiber-optic transceivers)(includes related article on fiber-optic network An important element of computer networks based on Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and the Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standard are the transmitter and receiver modules that interface with the fiber-optic link. Many of these modules are in transceiver form and typical examples are multi-sourced FDDI modules available from companies such as HP and AT and T. The HP FDDI transceiver includes a 1300-nm InGaAsP LED and a single custom bipolar LED-driver integrated circuit transmitter section. The receiver section of the module has two custom bipolar integrated circuits and a 1300-nm InGaAs possible intrinsic negative (PIN) photodiode. Products employing the SONET standard have not been as forthcoming as FDDI products but many authorities feel that the future networks are likely to be SONET. AT and T offers SONET-compatible modules as part of its Astrotec series including the 1227 transmitter and 1310 receiver. Further details are presented. Logic-synthesis software shares simulation model libraries. (Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Improvisor and Optivisor)(EDN Cadence Design Systems Inc's Improvisor and Optivisor are logic-synthesis tools that use the Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL). These tools can synthesize any construct allowed by the Hardware Description Language (HDL), unlike tools that accept VHSIC Hardware Description Language. VHDL is an industry standard but has its downside and these tools address the major problems in VHDL. Improvisor and Optivisor divide conversion of HDLs into logic as two operations. The Improvisor allows users to perform architectural tradeoffs using RTL-level behavioral models and the Optivisor allows for optimization of the design. The software uses two algorithms to optimize users' logic. The fast algorithm uses algebraic rules that treat the circuit as a polynominal equation while the other algorithm optimizes the logic using Boolean algebra rules. Users can choose the algorithm that applies to their circuit. The Improvisor is priced at $15,000 and the cost of the Optivisor depends on hardware configuration. Moderately priced, 100-MHz-bandwidth DSOs offer quick updates and analog-scope "feel". (HP's 54006A and 54601A digital storage HP introduces its $3,000 HP 54600A (2-channel) and $3,500 HP 54601A (4-channel) digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO). Both DSOs offer a variety of features and have the feel of analog-scope controls, with separate knobs for several functions. Both units provide a fast display-update rate with no perceptible lag appearing when observing circuit output under test and manually adjusting circuit parameters. The 100-MHz bandwidth is usable in viewing repetitive waveforms. The units' maximum vertical sensitivity is 2 mV/div and both offer 8-bit resolution. Users should note that the units offer no reconstruction filters and therefore, in order to obtain repeatable results with non-repetitive waveforms, users should take 10 samples of each signal cycle. Other features include 12 automatic measurement modes and cursor measurements of time and voltage. Users can utilize the IEEE-488 and RS-232C interfaces to control both DSOs. ISDN-based concurrent design. (includes related articles on the meaning of ISDN acronyms and glossary of terms) (tutorial) ISDN can extend concurrent engineering to include customers and suppliers from the beginning of a product's design. ISDN has a 192K-bps digital communications path that comprises two 64K-bps B channels for data or voice, one 16K-bps D channel for network signaling and control and an overhead channel of 48K-bps for framing and error detection. ISDN 2B + D lines allows for desktop conferencing, letting two users in remote locations converse and share a workstation session by accessing each others' local-area network. Users can also utilize ISDN to connect to existing local and wide-area networks as a gateway. ISDN features such as automatic number identification, automatic call back, electronic directories, messaging, call waiting and forwarding allow engineering firms to provide better integration to field representatives and better service to customers, which facilitates concurrent engineering. Task coordination: specific methods, general principles. (Real Time Programming Part II)(includes related article on companion Task coordination is an essential part of real-time applications, with each task being an independent program with the ability of running asynchronously in reference to all other tasks. Coordination is the blocking of one or more tasks until a specified condition is met, with the condition often being a function produced by one or more tasks and maintained by the operating system. Single-sided task-coordination schemes are asymmetrical, with one task coordinating with another but not vice-versa. Double-sided task-coordination methods offer mutual coordination and are symmetrical. The identity of the target task must be specifically known to the coordinator in directed schemes but in non-directed methods the identity is hidden. Procedures that are singly enabled allow for the proceeding of only one task at a time when more than one is waiting for coordination. Procedures that are multiply enabling release all tasks satisfying the coordination condition. Extensive details are provided. Spice simulations use controlled sources to model NTSC signals. (National Television Standards Committee) (tutorial) Designers can use PSpice Spice circuit-simulation software to build models of NTSC video signals from a set of controlled sources. Users can build several common video signals including the modulated-ramp, multiburst and composite test signals. The modulated-ramp signal is a 40-IRE p-p chroma signal superimposed on a 0- to 100-IRE luminance ramp and is useful for determining differential phase and gain. The Spice simulation of the multiburst signal uses an eight-order polynomial to sum individual frequency terms. The signal contains bursts of six different frequencies. The NTC7 composite test signal offers multiple video-system testing opportunities. The 2T pulse lets designers test short-time waveform distortions while the white bar can test medium-time waveform distortions and insertion gain. The 12.5T pulse allows for testing for luminance-chrominance delay differences. Designers can test for differential-phase and -gain errors with the modulated staircase. Extensive step-by-step details are presented. Japan association has formal start-up. (Satellite Office Association of Japan) The Satellite Office Association of Japan (SOAJ) was officially started Jan 30, 1991. The association will act as a promotion and research base for the use of remote work offices. SOAJ will work closely with government ministries and local governments that are interested in satellite and resort offices. The Shiki satellite office will continue to run as a model office. The office is located in Tokyo. Initial membership consists of 41 companies and 21 municipal bodies. The association hopes to expand its membership to 200 in its first year of operation. Finland launches flexiwork program. Kauppi, Hannu. Finland launched a national flexiwork program in Feb 1991. The program will involve over 1,000 employees from public and private sectors and is scheduled to last for several years. Emphasis will be placed on applying advanced information technology and telecommunications in office work. The aim is to improve productivity and the competitive edge of companies, promote advanced management methods, and create more attractive conditions for workers. The program will include several pilot and demonstration projects on telework and flexiwork applications. The first reports on the projects will be published in late 1991. Netherlands sees good results in two pilot programs. van Hekke, Jacob. The Netherlands' Ministry of Transportation and Public Works began two experiments with telework in 1990 to explore ways to alleviate rush-hour traffic problems. Quantitative surveys measured the effects of telework on the mobility of teleworkers and their families, various work patterns and schedules, the quality of work performed, conditions in the home, and managerial aspects of the organization. The results of the first experiment will be announced at a May 8, 1991, conference. Political and social interest in telework is expected to increase as a result of the experiments. Further experiments with telework for disabled people and families with young children are being considered. Gridlock-buster award competition announced. The Telecommuting Review is sponsoring the first annual competition for telecommuting excellence. The 'Telly' awards will recognize successful telecommuting programs in public and private sectors of the US; a special award will be given for an international program. The competition is open to US employers with 500 or more employees with a telecommuting program that has been in operation since Sep 1, 1990, and provides for regular, routine substitution of work at home or in satellite offices in place of normal in-house office work. New trip reduction statute in effect in Southern California. (Ventura County Air Pollution Control District implements Rule The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District's (APCD) Rule 210 is intended to improve air quality by requiring employers to implement trip-reduction programs for commuting employees. Rule 210 is similar to Regulation XV, a statute that covers a five-county Southern California area. Rule 210 calls for an AVR of 1.35 through Jan 1, 1997, then increases to 1.5. It provides for selective audits of employer compliance and will eventually cover all employers with 50 or more employees reporting to the work site. The rule, accompanying forms, instructions and guidelines make up 1.5 pounds of paper. Similar statutes are expected around the US shortly. California telecommuter plans to test home-office tax rules. (Carol Guilbault) California telecommuter Carol Guilbault plans to test the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) home-office tax rules. Most telecommuters are denied claims for a home-office deduction on Federal income tax returns. The office at home must meet three criteria to qualify: it must be for the convenience of the employer, it must be space that is used regularly and exclusively for the business purpose, and it must be the only work location for the employee. Telecommuters that work at home but maintain a desk or office in the central office do not qualify. Guilbault has telecommuted since Aug 1988. She goes into the office once a week at the most and does not have an assigned desk or office. She is going to claim the home-office deduction on her 1990 Federal income tax return. Insurance industry veteran sets up retiree employment project. (The Changing Workplace) Don Henyan, a retired executive from Northwestern National Life Insurance in Minneapolis, persuaded Northwestern to set up the Tucson Lifescope Center in Arizona. The center opened in Jan 1990 and employs about 120 part-time workers. Special training and orientation programs were designed to meet the needs of older workers. The center handles claims for policyholders in Arizona and is beginning to work on claims from other western states as well. Workers receive $6 per hour; they work 16 hours per week to stay under Social Security rules. Costs at the center are significantly lower because retirees do not need or want the standard benefits package that normally adds 35 percent to 40 percent of payroll costs. AT&T offering incentives to staff at computer unit. Keller, John J. AT&T has been offering financial incentives to its computer division employees to remain with the company for another six months. The reported exodus follows the company's attempts to acquire the computer manufacturer, NCR Corp. Analysts maintain that, should the acquisition come to pass, most of AT&T's computer division will either be merged into NCR operations or discontinued altogether. No employment guarantees have been given to employees that stay with AT&T up to the takeover. In Dec 1990, employees totalled about 9,000 for the computer division. Since then the unit has already cut 1,000 jobs in an effort to reduce huge financial losses. Olivetti trumpets European lineage of new PC line. (Ing. C. Olivetti e Compagnia S.p.A.) Ing. C. Olivetti and Company is seeking to regain momentum in the portable computer market by emphasizing the European technological, manufacturing and design qualities in its new line of products. The company is Europe's fourth largest microcomputer vendor. It is seeking to gain some of the portable market share from established leaders Toshiba Corp, and US-based Compaq Computer Corp by pricing its new products 10 percent less on some models. In 1990, the portable computer niche accounted for 12 percent of all European microcomputer sales. The new products are said to address the weight and size problems that have plagued previous Olivetti portable product offerings. The product line is made up of two basic laptop models and three notebook models, based on the Intel 80286 and 80386SX chips. Building better algorithms. (AI Insider) (column) Eliot, Lance B. Genetic algorithms are algorithms that are created, altered and combined from other algorithms to optimize performance for a given programming problem. Genetic algorithms evolve through a process of testing. If the programming problem requires a sorting algorithm, initial sorting algorithms are tested for performance in the necessary areas. The algorithms are replicated in proportion to their performance, and features from various methods are shared. The new algorithms are tested for performance. This process continues until the they no longer improve upon previous generations. Some researchers believe genetic algorithms can complement neural networks and expert systems. Unlike neural networks, genetic algorithms do not have obvious applications, and their basic concept is confusing. The commercial possibilities for the market center on educational products and services. Pattern recognition at the phone company: Soundex. (AI Apprentice) (column) The Soundex algorithm allows names to be classified with others that sound alike. The US Bureau of Archives developed the system to match names on old passenger manifests with the altered versions of the names that survive today. Soundex is based on three ideas: vowels are easily mispronounced, many letters produce similar sounds and double letters do not alter the sound of the letter in English. Soundex converts a string, usually a name, into a string that will be the same for all strings that sound the same. Soundex conversion retains the first character of the original string as the first character of its code. All double letters, vowels and the letters 'h,' 'w' and 'y' are removed from the original string, and the remaining characters are converted to numbers using a conversion chart. The table can be targeted to specific name groups. Game playing goes to work. (applying game-design methods to serious applications) (Expert's Toolbox) (column) Game theory can be applied to design problems because the process of determining a good game move is similar to the process of making a design change. A game computer starts with the game board layout, knows the legal moves from any game position, can evaluate the advantages of a current board position and can look ahead to find good moves. Game computers can also typically eliminate further investigation of relatively bad moves. The initial position is the proposed diet and the legal changes are adding or deleting food. The static evaluator determines the nutritional merit of the diet or flags violations of constraints. Standardized test design is more complex because about 50 constraints must be considered simultaneously. The program is written in Prolog, which is slower than procedural languages but reduces programming effort and design time. Evolutionary neural networks. (includes related article on genetic algorithm operators) Evolutionary neural networks are networks that change according to genetic algorithm (GA) principles to more efficiently solve particular problems. Neural network modification, in the form of training, usually corresponds to the nurturing an organism receives during its lifetime. GAs are applied to neural nets in the design phase to make them easier to train. GA operators include reproduction, mutation and crossover. The neural net is described by a string of 'genes' that describe network weights. The reproduction operator copies the network genetic structure, while mutation allows small changes to randomly occur in the structure, and crossover produces a network with a combination of genes from its 'parents.' The networks could be trained between generations with between five and 10 percent of the normal number of training cycles. Building a stronger AI profession. (artificial intelligence.) White, Milton. The International Association of Knowledge Engineers (IAKE) provides professional certification for knowledge-based system practitioners. Some analysts fear that certification can mystify the industry and foster professional elitism, but these fears are unfounded. The public conception of artificial intelligence engineers has fluctuated dramatically, and many knowledge engineers prefer to work without attracting attention to themselves, but this conservatism can harm the industry. IAKE is intended to provide identification and organization for knowledge engineers who wish to participate and obtain the benefits of identifying themselves. The Association provides measurement of professional ability for individuals who do not consider themselves knowledge engineers as well as those who do. Applying genetics to fuzzy logic. Karr, Chuck. A genetic algorithm-designed fuzzy logic controller (FLC) outperforms an FLC developed by trial-and-error in a liquid-level system, a pH system and a satellite-rendezvous system. The liquid-level problem requires an FLC that can move the liquid level to a given point in the shortest period of time. The FLC controls the system's inflow and outflow. This problem uses a genetic algorithm (GA) to learn membership functions. The pH problem requires an FLC to perform a titration or adjust the acidic and basic inflows into a cylindrical vessel to neutralize the solution at a steady pH = 7. The GA in this problem assists in selecting the rule set as well as membership functions. The spacecraft rendezvous problem computes the direction and speeds required for successful terminal rendezvous. This problem also uses a GA to learn rules and membership functions. Legal liabilities and expert systems. Tuthill, G. Steven. Developers and distributors of knowledge-based systems may be the targets of future litigation, just as conventional applications are a major source of current litigation. Knowledge-based systems are not linear, so liability for such systems is not clearly delineated. Knowledge-based systems are in a gray area between products and services, so individual applications may be classified separately. Liabilities vary between services, products and hybrids, but developers should prepare for the strict product liability classification. When a user bases a catastrophic solution on system output, the developer or distributor may be charged with liability for negligence. Negligence is often defended by assumption of risk and contributory negligence. Legal safeguards against liability include careful selection of resources, validation of rule sets and system testing. Search and solve. (designing expert systems) Kenney, Timothy P. An expert system is developed to assist systems support personnel with customer service problems. Four weeks are spent learning the basics of the support job and understanding users' expectations of the system. Programmers, management and support personnel have different expectations, and several expert systems are required. A study of the problems encountered on a daily basis yields a data base that stored case names and dates, keywords for the problems encountered, a problem and solution code, a one-line problem description, a list of symptoms, the solution and explanations of the problem's causes and solution. The data base is indexed by keywords, which the support personnel use to search for similar cases. The system stores 281 cases for reference. Prolog as a high-level C toolbox. (C programming language) (tutorial) Combining C and Prolog allows programmers to have C's flexibility and portability along with Prolog's improved data structure handling. C is fast, versatile, compatible with math coprocessors, useful for low-level programming and supported by a wide range of routine libraries. Prolog offers high-level tools, graphics features and ease of programming. Prolog's backtracking mechanism regulates program flow and optimizes pattern-matching, searching and recursion. Nondeterministic clauses can be included to find multiple solutions The connection between C and Prolog usually includes a main Prolog module and C and Prolog modules and libraries to be used. The initialization and application modules must be compiled and linked with the C and Prolog libraries. Object-oriented expert-system tool: Kappa-PC 1.1. (Software Review) (Software Review) (evaluation) IntelliCorp Inc's $3,500 Kappa-PC 1.1 program development software is a powerful and complex object-driven knowledge base development system with a relatively high price. Installing Kappa-PC is simple, and the software is fast, even on an 80286-based system. The program's manuals are well-written and extensively indexed. IntelliCorp can also provide a 23-page startup manual. Kappa-PC is best for object-oriented design and development, although rule-based applications can be created. Object-oriented programming requires more initial planning and less debugging than rule-based programming. Kappa-PC can interface with a wide range of products, and interactive graphics objects can be created easily. The software includes a list of known flaws, but its error-handling features are inadequate. The KAL program syntax is too complex for many users. The program's interface is also inconsistent. Sailing toward process control. (In Practice) Newquist, Harvey P., III. Gensym Corp's G2 program development software is the foremost product for creating real-time intelligent systems for monitoring and controlling industrial processes. Process control allows a system composed of several types of equipment to be controlled as a single part of a process. Expert systems are used as part of process control systems to monitor systems and prevent human error when possible. Industrial processes are continuous, so speed is more critical in process control than in most expert system applications. G2 runs on workstations and is used in applications such as desalinization plants, oil grading and refining, the Biosphere II ecosystem project and space shuttle mission control. The 386 gets a competitor: Advanced Micro Devices' 386 "clone" delivers identical performance to Intel's flagship chip. (Hardware Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale, CA) introduces the Am386 microprocessor (MPU), a pin-for-pin' compatible of the Intel 80386 MPU, and the Am386DXL, a full-CMOS low-power version of the Intel device. Testing the chips shows that they are 100-percent compatible with the Intel 80386, though the Am386DXL does add some additional features. The Am386/Am386DXL are not exact gate-for-gate copies of the Intel MPU, which would violate patent law, but do employ exact copies of Intel 80386 microcode. The Am386DXL adds such enhancements as requiring only two-thirds the power of the Intel 80386, support of clock speeds down to 0-MHz and drawing only 1-mA at that speed for a true sleep mode. The Am386DXL will also be packaged in a 132-pin plastic flat-pack that will cost less and be 40 percent smaller than a ceramic implementation. Sony's portable News: an 18-pound RISC-based graphics station. (Hardware Review) (Sony Microsystems' introduces the News 3250 Sony Microsystems Inc (San Jose, CA) offers the $9,900-plus News 3250, a well-designed 18-pound, non-battery laptop workstation based on MIPS 20 MHz R3000 reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The News 3250 features a 20 MHz R3010 floating-point unit, 32,000 bits each of data and instruction cache memory, 8Mbytes to 32Mbytes of random-access memory, 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, 240Mbyte or optional 406Mbyte hard disk drive, 11-inch backlit 1120-by-780-pixel supertwist nematic liquid-crystal display, 75 full-travel-key keyboard, 8-bit and 16-bit monaural and stereo audio interface, Sony proprietary expansion slot, and Ethernet, SCSI, parallel (non-standard) and serial ports. The unit employs the UNIX System V.4 operating system and the Motif graphical user interface. The Tandon NB 386sx Notebook: saving power when you have little to spare. (Hardware Review) (Tandon Corp's new notebook computer) Tandon Corp (Moorpark, CA) debuts a high-quality and cost-effective 6.5-pound notebook computer, the $3,495 Tandon NB 386sx Notebook, that features three modes of power conservation. The Tandon NB 386sx Notebook includes a 20-MHz Intel 80386sx microprocessor, 2Mbytes of random-access memory expandable to 16Mbytes, 30Mbyte IDE-type hard disk drive, 80-key keyboard and 9-inch backlit, cold-cathode fluorescent VGA display with 32 shades of gray. Ports include VGA, 25-pin parallel and two 9-pin serial connectors. A removable, rechargeable battery pack is good for about three hours of use and charges in three hours from 90-to-265-volt AC input. The power conservation techniques consist of suspend, doze and sleep modes. Traveling Software Battery Watch and Battery Pro will automatically shift the system into the various conservation modes. A new version of SideKick works with Paradox. (Software Review) (Borland International debuts SideKick 2.0) (evaluation) Version 2.0 of the SideKick terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) personal information management (PIM) program from Borland International Inc (Scotts Valley, CA) has several improvements that make the software package a more useful non-graphical PIM. These include a quick and relatively easy-to-use user interface, smaller random-access memory demand (under 40Kbytes in TSR mode), display of addresses in both tabular and Rolodex-style formats in the address book, a wide variety of mathematical and business functions in the calculator, Paradox data base management system engine, spell checker, thesaurus and more printing facilities in the notebook. The Paradox DBMS engine enables SideKick to support most networks. Bitstream fonts enable SideKick to print the address book and appointment lists in typeset format. Outlining and file management features were eliminated. Take a view into the video world. (Hardware Review) (AView Technology introduces the DesktopTV add-in analog television card) AView Technology Inc (Buffalo, NY) introduces the $395 DesktopTV add-in analog television card for IBM PC and compatible microcomputers. DesktopTV enables the user to switch between a computer display and a full-screen TV picture but does not digitize the image. Consequently, the TV picture can not be captured, manipulated or displayed in a window. The comparatively low-cost board, though, is targeted at individuals who use a computer a lot and need occasional video input from such sources as videotapes, company broadcasts, commercial TV and video conferences. The DesktopTV features a crisp display, 119 channels and a set-up program that installs a terminate-and-stay-resident program for switching between host and TV use. An IBM XT, AT or compatible microcomputer with a multisync color monitor supporting 15.7-KHz output are required. Form follows function with Persuasion. (Hardware Review) (Aldus Corp debuts version 2.0 of its Persuasion presentation software New version 2.0 of the Aldus Corp (Seattle, WA) $595 Persuasion presentation software package enables the rapid development of computer presentations with full-color, three-dimensional images. Program features include a set of about 60 slide and overhead AutoTemplates that speed development of custom images, an Outline view for preparing presentation outlines and slides, a Slide Sorter view for rearranging presentations, a variety of transitional effects and spell checker. The Outline facility also provides a display of an entire presentation as thumbnail sketches and can convert text information into charts. Persuasion can print overhead transparencies or provide output for creating 35mm slides. Presentations can be automatically run on a computer. Minimum host system requirements are an IBM AT, PS/2 or compatible microcomputer with 1Mbyte RAM, EGA and a mouse. A mirror into bigger and cleaner Windows. (Hardware Review) (brief review of Mirror Technologies' PixelView PC 20-inch monochrome Mirror Technologies (Roseville, MN) offers a comparatively low-cost 1280-by-960-pixel 20-inch monochrome monitor and compatible 16-bit graphics card combination, the PixelView PC, that provides an excellent environment for Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications. The screen is non-interlaced with no flicker and has a resolution of 91 dots per inch, 66-Hz refresh rate and fast 0.25-second screen redraw. The $1,797 4-bit version reviewed supports monochrome VGA output with up to 15 shades of gray. ($997 and $1,297 1-bit versions are available, the latter supporting Hercules emulation.) The card includes a Hitachi HD63484 graphics processor and 1Mbyte of video random-access memory. Installation is simple, and special driver software is included. Minimum host system required is an IBM AT or compatible microcomputer. Whose enterprise is it? (enterprise networking) (tutorial) Rash, Wayne Jr. The basic nature and design of an enterprise network is illuminated by an example network. IBM originated the concept of an enterprise network as an aggregation of interconnected local area networks (LANs) of microcomputers and workstations, all linked to centralized data storage and management, typically on a mainframe. The emergence and success of enterprise networks is a result of the fact that corporations view them as a practical means for 'timely contact' with and communications between employees wherever they are. Such networks require bridges to connect two LANs and gateways to connect to external services, such as a mainframe. The example enterprise network consists of an IBM mainframe, a controller that uses Token Ring, a bridge to the Token Ring and an Systems Network Architecture gateway for linking LANs to the mainframe. Example products for implementing the network are discussed. Why doesn't software work? (a panel discussion conducted on the BIX online service) (panel discussion) A variety of software packages do not work on newer generations of computer systems. This is a problem common to both IBM PCs and compatibles and Macintosh microcomputers. Several examples are briefly discussed. (It is asserted that the stability of the Macintosh operating system results in fewer system crashes due to incompatibilities with software.) Cited causes for the failure of software to work the way it should include insufficient time and money for adequate quality control, other requirements to minimize costs, competitive pressure to get a product to the marketplace, increasing complexity of the software, an expanding number of host platforms, product decisions made my marketing, insufficient attention to installation programs and failure to test software on a sufficient variety of machines. The multilingual edge: machine translation of human languages. Benton, Peter M. Commercial-quality computer-based translation systems are or will shortly be available on workstations and high-end microcomputers. The ever more global business community requires accurate translation of documents for both information dissemination and acquisition. Automated machine translation is becoming more important as manual methods become too slow and awkward for current and future translation needs. A basic computer-based translation system consists of a workstation, translation software and extensive bilingual electronic dictionary. Translation systems targeted at information dissemination are usually compatible with electronic publishing systems that provide suitable hardcopy output. Translation systems for information acquisition usually are integrated with optical character recognition scanners and other input units. The translation process consists of five stages: input, analysis, transfer, synthesis and output. Translation technology alternatives. (examples of automated language translation software packages) A variety of language translation software packages are very briefly discussed. Much of the development of machine translation systems was done in Europe and Japan. Low-cost systems typically perform word-for-word replacement, while more practical systems perform translation through analysis of sentence syntax. Example systems include Systran Translation Systems' Systran which is available in 20 language pairs, Pan American Health Organization's Spanam and Engspan, US Air Force's Logos which supports at least ten language pairs, the Smart line of translation systems and Siemens' Metal for German/English translation in an integrated multilingual publishing system. Effective translation systems are available for workstations and microcomputers. Oberon. (A distillation of the best features from Pascal and Modula-2) (the Oberon programming language) (tutorial) Oberon is a compact new general-purpose programming language that is simpler than its Modula-2 and Pascal predecessors yet enables the definition of new data types as extensions of older types. Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (Zurich, Switzerland) Professor Niklaus Wirth developed all three languages. Oberon was created in 1988 to be a complete operating system and programming environment for the 32-bit Ceres networked workstation. Major features of Oberon include a modular architecture, dynamic central memory allocation with garbage collection and type-extension facility. Type extension is discussed at length. Wirth excluded some Modula-2 features from Oberon, including variant records, FOR loop, and opaque, enumeration, pointer and subrange types. Oberon is in the public domain and implementations are expected under other operating systems in the next few years. Smart memories. (content-addressable memory chips) (tutorial) Wayner, Peter. Smart content-addressable memory (CAM) integrated circuits (ICs) are an intelligent memory technology that contain single-bit processors at thousands of memory locations. The growth of electronic information is spiraling beyond the capacity of even the fastest microprocessors to keep up with it. The consequent delay in processing can impede such operations as text searching. Smart CAM ICs offer a solution because they contain memory cells that can both store a value and respond to queries (matching) on that value. The cells can be cascaded for queries on whole words, word-size cell aggregates arranged in arrays and queried in parallel, and so on. Addition of 1-bit microprocessors to each word of memory makes systems of CAM cells massively parallel computers. Commercially available and experimental systems are briefly described. Applications of CAM technology to data retrieval, robotics and graphics are discussed. Mixing and matching LANs. (interconnecting local area networks is a primary network administration problem) (Cover Story) Interconnecting heterogeneous local area networks (LANs) to compose a larger LAN is a major problem for LAN administrators. The average LAN has only 6.3 users, so large organizations with many such networks eventually decide to link them. Such large, heterogeneous networks are becoming the dominant form of networking. Unfortunately, the LANs that they link up may have diverse protocols, operating systems and topologies. Successfully creating a heterogeneous network of LANs requires interconnecting those diverse topologies and mechanisms for transferring information between the LANs, the latter requiring a shared protocol at some point. Compliance with commonly accepted topology and protocol standards facilitates the linking. Such devices as bridges, routers, brouters and gateways enable the use and linking of diverse topologies and protocols. Planning and managing heterogeneous networks are discussed. Dynamic and distributed. (automated network management tools are needed to ensure the reliability of local area networks) (Cover Automated network management tools are important to ensure that local area networks (LANs), especially large ones with mission-critical applications, function appropriately. Ensuring reliable distributed systems is becoming a more difficult task because they are more-and-more combining microcomputers, workstations, minicomputers, mainframes, multiple LANs, wide-area networks and other components in heterogeneous, multivendor networking environments. Features in effective automated network management tools include the ability to handle common mode failures and high volumes of traffic in real time, robustness in handling unexpected events, centralized management, incorporation of standards, built-in test points, extensibility, programmability and 'inherent' reliability. Finding and correcting problems, configuration management, access control and security issues are discussed. Control central: tools, techniques, and advice for managing centralized LAN-based services. (local area network) (Cover Story) There are a variety of tools and methods for managing local area networks (LANs) and solving some of the common problems involved in providing such central services as communications, data base services, fax and distributed applications. Integrating, configuring and managing new central services involves accommodating hardware, software and users' demands for, and expectations of, such services. Several suitable tools for integrating new central services are briefly discussed. Examples include Fresh Technology's Modem Assist, which enables addition of asynchronous communications to an existing LAN without incurring unexpected effects; Automated Design Systems' Windows Workstation, which makes Windows 3.0 more manageable on a LAN; Cheyenne Software's ARCserve for automating backup on NetWare LAN; Palindrome's The Network Archivist, providing rule-based data management; and Cheyenne's NetBack, which saves the logical configuration of networks. Dueling protocols: will SNMP win out over CMIP, or vice versa. (simple network management protocol and common management Both the SNMP (simple network management protocol) and CMIP (common management information protocol) sets of protocols will be useful for the management of future heterogeneous networks. Both protocol families are designed to transport network management data so that a network manager can isolate problems and effect repairs. Both are based on the concept of a management information base that includes a set of test points, variables and controls supported by all network devices and used by network managers. Differences in data access philosophy, the use of polling versus reporting of device status, general functionality, size and performance of the sets of protocols, use of data transport mechanisms, compliance with standards and testing and availability of products are discussed. Managing big blue: IBM provides some serious network management tools for serious networks. IBM offers network management tools for its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) and for Token Ring local area networks (LANs), respectively NetView and LAN Manager. Managing large, sophisticated networks with hundreds or thousands of nodes on multiple, geographically-scattered linked local area networks (LANs) can be a complex task. Token-Ring technology provides a wealth of continuous network status information in circulating Medium Access Control (MAC) frames. IBM's LAN Manager (to be renamed LAN Network Manager in Apr 1991) can be used independently or with NewView, since many Token Ring LANs are incorporated in larger SNA networks. LAN Manager works with other IBM network products to control access, map the LAN and identify Token Ring components and failures. NetView integrates features of several IBM mainframe products to collect data on, analyze and manage SNA resources. Finding fault. (a four-step network fault management and performance monitoring process) (Cover Story) Network management tools are used in a four-step network diagnostic process consisting of observing problem symptoms, hypothesizing a logical cause for the symptoms, testing the hypothesis and developing the solution. Many mission-critical applications are being moved to networks of microcomputers because of cost, scalability, resource-sharing and distributed control advantages. Network downtime, though, can be extremely costly to a company. The central goals of network management tools are minimizing the number of potential network problems and the damage and inconvenience when a problem occurs. The International Standards Organization identifies five management subsystems to achieve the two goals: configuration, performance, fault, security and accounting. Four types of subsystems network management tools are physical-layer tools, network monitors, network analyzers and integrated network management systems. Let's get physical. (evaluation of the physical aspects of networks) A new generation of computerized cable management systems facilitate the management of the physical aspects of networks. Thorough tracking of the physical components of a network is a vital part of network management, facilitating troubleshooting, upgrading and change management. Cable management systems utilize commercial relational data base management systems that interact with graphical tools to document, display and report on network physical resources. The data base hosts detailed specification, vendor, cost, connectivity, and administration information on all network components. The graphical tools display, organize and change network architectures in various levels of detail, including cable routing and outlet and component locations. The links between the graphical tools and the data base enable changes at the graphical level to be automatically made in the data base. Please, mister postman: the BYTE Lab tests nine best-selling E-mail packages for DOS- and Macintosh-compatible LANs. (Software Comparison and review of nine electronic-mail software packages for Macintosh and IBM PC-compatible microcomputers concludes CE Software's QuickMail is the best choice for AppleShare LANs, cc:Mail Inc's cc:Mail for mixed IBM PC and Macintosh LANs and Action Technologies' The Coordinator for PC-only LANs. E-mail systems run on a LAN and through modems or bridges to other networks. They include a central data base for tracking user locations and names and a data base to track messages. Important E-mail features include reliable fast and secure message delivery, compatibility with varied host platforms and operating systems, effective user interface and conversion to other forms of messaging. Most of the nine evaluated systems support Action Technologies' MHS standard for exchanging messages among dissimilar E-mail systems. Other reviewed E-mail tools are Da Vinci Systems' eMail 1.07, Enable Software's Higgins Mail 2.3, Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Mail, Sitka Corp's InBox Plus, Consumers Software's The Network Courier 2.1 and Banyan Systems' Network Mail for VINES 4.0. E-mail under UNIX. (tutorial) Smith, Ben. UNIX operating systems offer several electronic-mail routing systems, of which smail, sendmail and MMDF (multichannel memorandum distribution facility) are the most common. The relative consistency of E-mail standards in UNIX operating systems enables E-mail messages to be successfully sent between most UNIX-based hardware. The major difference between UNIX E-mail systems is the front ends and mail routers. Most UNIX systems use either the line-oriented 'mail' front end or an enhanced versions of mail. Sendmail is the most commonly used UNIX mail router, is relatively flexible, also functions as a delivery agent, but is somewhat 'cryptic' and has poor security. Smail is a simpler, table-based router that also acts as a delivery agent. MMDF is a data base-based UNIX E-mail system that is distributed with Santa Cruz Operation UNIX. Banyan's Network Mail for Vines. (version 4.0 provides electronic-mail services) The Network Mail for Vines 4.0 from Banyan Systems Inc (Westborough, MA) is an electronic-mail system for microcomputer users on Banyan's Vines local area network (LAN). The software installs with Vines or can be added to a current Vines LAN. A copy of Network Mail resides on each server. Features include easy-to-use character-based menu screens, message editor, on-line context-sensitive help, automatic notification of mail and Banyan's StreetTalk global directory-addressing facility. Use of Network Mail for Vines 4.0 on a Vines network with a Compaq Deskpro 385/25e server was reliable. Vines does demand about 120Kbytes of random-access memory, though about 37Kbytes can be loaded into extended memory. Optional gateways for other message-handling and E-mail services are available. Ethernet's 32-bit players. (Hardware Review) (evaluation and comparison of Mylex LNE390, Novell/Anthem NE3200 and Evaluation of three 32-bit Ethernet network interface boards for the EISA Bus concludes that the Mylex Corp (Fremont, CA) $395 LNE390 is preferred model. A 32-bit Ethernet board may help eliminate performance bottlenecks on local area networks (LANs). The three tested boards are designed for the 32-bit EISA bus employed by some Intel 80386- and 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers but usually only work with file servers. The LNE390 features dual-ported zero-wait-state static random-access memory for communication with the host, NetWare 286 2.1x and 386 3.x drivers, thin and thick Ethernet interfaces, diagnostic software and supports transfer rates to 16Mbytes/sec. Novell/Anthem Electronics Inc's (San Jose, CA) $1,295 NE3200 includes a 10MHz 80186 microprocessor but is the slowest unit. Racal-InterLan Inc's (Boxborough, MA) $995 ES3210 supports the greatest variety of network drivers. Newtek's Video Toaster makes professional video affordable. (Hardware Review) (includes related article on BYTE's Multimedia The Newtek Inc (Topeka, KS) $1,595 Video Toaster is an amazingly low-cost yet full-featured professional video production system for the Amiga 2000 or 2500 microcomputer. Unfortunately, implementing a full video production facility with Video Toaster, Amiga and professional video equipment still requires about $25,000. Video Toaster is a sandwiched pair of circuit boards for the Amiga video slot. Major functional components include a special-effects generator, video switcher, character generator, color special-effects module, 24-bit paint program and three-dimensional modeler, render and animator. Other features include two pages of 24-bit frame storage, six BNC video connectors, background generator and genlock. The numerous features and functional capabilities are discussed at length. At least 7Mbytes of memory and an Amiga 1080-series or compatible monitor are also required with the host machine. A wallet-friendly Mac that delivers performance. (Hardware Review) (the Apple Macintosh IIsi; includes related article on the The Apple Computer Inc (Cupertino, CA) Macintosh IIsi microcomputer provides near-Mac IIci performance for a $1,900-lower base price of $4,497. That price provides a 20MHz Motorola 68030 microprocessor, 2Mbytes of random-access memory expandable to 17Mbytes, a single memory bank, 40Mbyte hard disk drive, keyboard, 12-inch color monitor, one NuBus/030 Direct Slot, mouse, and sound input jack, microphone, phono adapter cable, and 8-bit analog/digital conversion circuitry for digitizing audio. A small space above the hard disk drive allows addition of a one-third-height second hard-disk drive. Overall performance when the optional Motorola 68882 floating-point unit is added is slightly slower than the Mac IIci. The small 47-watt power supply requires careful selection of add-in boards so as not to overheat the Mac IIsi or damage its power supply. Quick relief for Windows programming. (Software Review) (Xian Corp's Winpro/3 user interface editing software) (evaluation) The $895 Winpro/3 software package from Xian Corp (Ridgewood, NJ) is a useful and flexible application builder for quickly programming good looking Windows 3.0 user interfaces in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get manner. Winpro/3 automates much of the process involved in programming user interfaces. The software enables the construction of interfaces by selecting, configuring and dragging the required elements into place, assigning attributes to them, producing the C code, and running and testing functionality of the elements and the application. Winpro/3 also manages application resources through the use of string resource, accelerator and other editors. There is poor control over the window class definition. Minimum host system required is an Intel 80286-based or higher IBM PC-compatible microcomputer, Windows 3.0, Microsoft Windows Standard Development Kit and a Windows-compatible C compiler. Powerfusion provides the glue for networking DOS and UNIX. (Software Review) (Performance Technology Inc software enables a The Powerfusion toolkit from Performance Technology (San Antonio, TX) enables a UNIX system host of an MS-DOS-based local area network (LAN) to act as an MS-DOS LAN server or to act as a host for a Novell NetWare LAN. The software consists of a Server Message Block (SMB) UNIX file server and NetBIOS-oriented UNIX terminal server and related MS-DOS-based terminal emulator. The SMB provides MS-DOS clients with file and print services through NetBIOS. The terminal server enables MS-DOS clients to run UNIX terminal sessions. Powerfusion employs the Powerbridge NetBIOS-to-NetBIOS converter on a non-dedicated NetWare LAN node to provide NetWare NetBIOS to UNIX NetBIOS communications. A NetWare client must also run an SMB-oriented redirector to use the file and print services provided by the SMB file server on the UNIX host. Minimum host system requirements are AT&T UNIX System V, ARCnet or Ethernet LAN and NetWare 2.1x or 3.x. Prices range from $1,750 to $2,250. 2-D and 3-D Mac CAD for less cost. (Software Review) (DesignCAD 2D/3D Macintosh 2.3; includes related article on the unified DesignCAD 2D/3D Macintosh 2.3, $699 from DesignCAD Inc (Pryor, OK), is a fast easy-to-install and easy-to-use computer-aided design (CAD) software package for 'relatively simple' two-dimensional drafting and three-dimensional modeling on the Macintosh microcomputer. General features include support for A/UX operating system, 32-bit floating-point accuracy and description of geometry by way of single mathematical parametric representations. The software's graphical interface displays such toolboxes as Editing, Locator, Dimensioning and Readouts. Specific graphics capabilities include rotation of drawings in real time, smooth shading, specular reflection using ray casting, unified cubic spline and unified bi-cubic surface geometry, and exchange of drawings in such graphics formats as DXF, IGES, PostScript and HPGL. Documentation is poor. There are hardware incompatibilities, and some file transfers are difficult. V-ATE revs up PC diagnostics. (Hardware Review) (Vista Microsystems Inc's V-ATE 2000 board for testing IBM AT-compatible The $1,495 V-ATE 2000 diagnostic add-in board from Vista Microsystems Inc (North Attleboro, MA) is a cost-effective and excellent tool for testing IBM AT, Intel 80386-based and compatible motherboards for faults. It would be a useful tool for system assemblers and repair shops, though it is not as flexible as a true logic analyzer. The V-ATE 2000 can operate as a stand-alone device in the machine to be tested or in a microcomputer controlling the test machine. Test capabilities include POST routines and V-CON software, an extensive series of diagnostics. Systems aspects tested include the microprocessor, random-access memory, extended memory, real-time clock, rom, system interrupts, read-only memory, DMA, bus-master capability, and input/output bus data, address and control signals. The menu structure is hard-to-navigate. Talk your way through Mac applications. (Hardware Review) (Articulate Systems Inc's Voice Navigator II voice-input system) The $795 Voice Navigator II (VN-II) from Articulate Systems Inc (Cambridge, MA) is an easy-to-use but limited voice-input system for the Macintosh computer. The physical components consist of a box that plugs into the Mac's SCSI port and a microphone. Voice Navigator II's software includes an INIT for controlling the voice options, Language Maker, which enables the development of a language file for any application, and voice files. The language file will consist of a menu command structure for that application. The software was easy to train to a specific voice, but the system confused some commands, and extraneous noise had an impact. Productivity gains using the software varied depending upon the application. Mouse-driven graphics programs showed the greatest gain in execution performance. More full-motion video for the Mac. (Hardware Review) (VideoLogic Inc's DVA-4000/Macintosh digital video board) (evaluation) The $2,995 DVA-4000/Macintosh from VideoLogic Inc (Cambridge, MA) is an easy-to-use digital video board that enables the Macintosh II microcomputer to display crisp full-motion video in a window with no degradation of the host system's performance. The unit consists of a pair of boards plus cables and adapter to connect the Mac to an external video source. Features include VideoSnap software for capture of video in 8- or 24-bit color or gray scale, 320-by-240-pixel or resizable windows for viewing images, Multimedia Interactive Control System II interface software and on-line help. A variety of special effects and titles can be employed. Video frames can be exported in several formats. NTSC and PAL television, composite, S-video and RGB standards are supported. Options and minimum host system requirements are discussed. Undocumented DOS. (MS-DOS contains many hidden functions that play a vital role in PC software development) (tutorial) The MS-DOS operating system contains undocumented functions and data structures between INT 21 function numbers 4F and 54 that are useful to programmers. Microsoft does not guarantee that the functions in these locations will exist in future versions of the MS-DOS operating system, but many applications employ these functions. Many of functions and data structures are vital to ensuring that MS-DOS achieves its potential as an extensible operating system. Undocumented fields in the data structures include ones in the Program Segment Prefix (PSP) and the Memory Control Block (MCB). Other undocumented features include the Drive Parameter Block (DPB), DOS internal variable table, System File Table and Swappable Data Area. Undocumented functions include Get InDOS Flag, Get PSP, Set PSP, Get List of Lists, Translate BIOS Parameter Block and Keyboard Busy Loop. Networking Windows. (Microsoft Windows 3.0; includes related article on modifying settings in the SYSTEM.INI file) (tutorial) The installation of Microsoft Windows 3.0 on a local area network (LAN) demands a thorough specification of system requirements and planning for implementation. Installing Windows on a LAN file server is a cost-effective alternative to individual copies on each stand-alone IBM PC or compatible microcomputer but several setup and configuration problems must be resolved. Step-by-step implementation of Windows on a LAN file server is detailed. The first step, though, is to determine if the performance level of the attached microcomputers is sufficient for a server-based Windows setup. Advantages of file server-based Windows include Windows-based access to and management of network resources, viewing and managing of remote files, viewing and managing print jobs on remote printers, and easy connection and disconnection of remote resources. Avoiding problems and implementation of Windows on Novell NetWare and Microsoft LAN Manager networks are discussed. Lossless data compression: two algorithms - Huffman coding and LZW coding - are at the root of most compression. (tutorial) Huffman and LZW coding are two lossless data compression/decompression technologies that are the basis of most current data compression products. Huffman coding is based on the fact that some symbols are used more often then others. The technology relates the number of bits identifying a symbol inversely to the frequency of occurrence of that symbol. Consequently, the more often a symbol is used the less number of bits needed to represent it. The Huffman compressor (and decompressor) encodes the symbols in a binary tree, reducing and combining nodes based on probability until a single tree with root=1 probability is generated. LZW compression also works by compacting redundancy of symbols but does so by extending the alphabet with characters that represent strings of characters. Details of the functioning of both compression/decompression techniques are discussed. The IDE hard disk drive interface. (Intelligent Drive Electronics) (tutorial) The IDE (Intelligent Drive Electronics) is becoming the dominant hard disk drive interface standard for IBM AT and compatible microcomputers because of its lower cost and superior flexibility, speed, functionality, AT compatibility and implementation when compared to the ST506 interface. IDE drives include the drive controller on the drive itself yet appear to the host system like ST506 drives. The actual physical interface to an IDE drive is basically a simple extension of the host input/output expansion bus. IDE drives record data at 34 or more sectors per track, run at a 1-to-1 interleave, usually include a 32Kbyte or 64Kbyte sector caching memory buffer, and work with the standard AT ROM BIOS. Details of the architecture and functioning of IDE and ST506 hard disk drives and controllers are compared. Windows programming made easy: you don't need C to automate the Windows environment. (tutorial) Several tools are readily available that enable end-users to integrate and automate applications for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface (GUI). Tools built in to Windows itself include the WIN.INI file which enables the automatically running of selected programs as icons when Windows starts. Windows' Recorder feature can automate Windows activities by recording a series of mouse clicks and key presses and assigning the series to a function key. Softbridge Inc (Cambridge, MA) offers a $695 Bridge Tool Kit that facilitates the integration of MS-DOS and Windows programs and $179 Bridge Batch, which provides a batch language and other facilities for integrating Windows applications. Asymetrix Corp (Bellevue, WA) offers ToolBook, which offers similar capabilities to Bridge Batch. Microsoft's WordBASIC (included in Word for Windows) can also be used to integrate almost the entire Windows desktop. The business Macintosh. (Software Review ) (modeling and simulation programs for the Macintosh as exemplified by High I Think software from High Performance Systems Inc (Hanover, NH) is a useful business simulation and modeling tool for the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. High-end, color Macintosh models are nearly ideal tools for simulation and modeling because of their graphical user interface, quality color displays and level of floating-point mathematics performance. I Think and other such programs are introducing Macintosh business users to the potential of the computer for simulations and to the usefulness of simulation and modeling products themselves. I Think is a discrete systems simulator that employs three simulation algorithms: Euler's method and second- and fourth-order Runge-Kutta. The software enables the visualization and dynamic modeling of relationships and outcomes of business and financial data or events. The functioning and use of I Think are discussed. HandOff II, $79.95 from HandOff Corp, lets the user assign applications to open files when there are no original applications. Extend 1.1, from Imagine That Inc ($495) is an object-oriented program. Tricks of the Unix gurus. (tips on disaster recovery, logging calls and getting rid of garbage) (column) Three useful UNIX operating system tips are briefly discussed. Both SCO UNIX and Xenix operating systems enable the creation of emergency boot floppy disks for booting up a system whose root file system disk or executable kernel has crashed or been lost. The emergency disks also allow the user to access the data on the hard disk drive and restore the system with a tape backup. A technique using the UNIX 'cu' program enables the logging of modem calls to another system. Several techniques are developed that enable the elimination of files with names that were created from uninitialized memory or that contain control characters that can not even be typed. In praise of remote procedure calls. (RPCs are useful for building client/server systems) (tutorial) Remote procedure calls (RPCs) are useful tools for programming heterogeneous client/server networks as if they were one, unitary computer. Specifically, RPCs enable components of an application to be partitioned to computers best suited for executing them. RPCs can be programmed in the C programming language, with each program module designated as either a client or server. RPC compiler script is written to identify the the state of the modules, then compiled to generate C source code linking the modules. Commercial implementations of RPCs use a variety of functions to link client and server components of an application. Examples include RPCs on OS/2-based local area networks (LANs), which employ named pipes, and Novell NetWare LANs, which use the SPX protocol. RPC linking may be through single or multiple-client binding or multitasking. Writing NetWare Loadable Modules server routines is discussed. Open season on UNIX? Popular versions of Unix have a long way to go before they are truly open systems. The concept of open systems and the idea that UNIX constitutes an open standard are both specious. Open systems have become mostly viewed as a user-interface issue, exemplified by Microsoft's Windows for MS-DOS and Presentation Manager for OS/2. Control of such proprietary 'standards' by one company may constitute the 'best kind of openness.' The UNIX industry has attempted to convince users that UNIX is an open system, but several circumstances deny the current accuracy of the appellation. These include the lack of a 386 Unix Binary Compatibility Standard that covers networked and graphical applications, the separate announcements by The Santa Cruz Operation and Interactive Systems that they each would extend UNIX System V.3.2 BCS to support networking and the X Window System, and Sun Microsystems' retention of part of its SunOS version of UNIX to itself. PC support: a new order unfolds. Sinclair, D. Bruce. The 1990s will see service and support as the major criteria for assessing microcomputers. This will happen for two reasons: the success of the 80386 processor will result in less innovation at the processor level and because microcomputer manufacturers must find new methods of standing out from the crowd. Microcomputers should not be seen as commodity items; they are not self-supporting. Installation, hardware and software configuration, training, service, and technical support are vital to the operation of a microcomputer. Customer service and support will be the preferred method of doing business in the 1990s. Customer demand will force microcomputer dealers to stock parts and make strong commitments to on-site service if they are to compete effectively with large manufacturers and third-party support services. Time for HyperDesk? (object management framework from HyperDesk) (Online with Patricia Seybold) (column) HyperDesk is the result of Data General's work on an advanced distributed object management framework. Data General decided to withdraw from this field in the fall of 1990 and the work was picked up by Japan's ASCII Corp. HyperDesk, which is a startup funded primarily by ASCII, has a good chance of succeeding. The Hyperdesk company plans to submit its technology to the Object Management Group, a key standards consortium in the object industry, for consideration in the selection of an Object Request Broker. HyperDesk's environment supports multiple clients and the server can be an active process in a distributed environment. Applications and devices can interact across operating environments and networks in the environment supplied by HyperDesk's software. Software rental scams. (EDP & The Law) (column) Mersich, Dan. The main goal of the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, which was organized by several leading software houses, is to educate the public about software theft. The Alliance is also prepared to take legal steps against those who pirate software. It is not clear if commercial rental shops are breaking the law. Part of the problem of software theft could be solved by permitting pre-testing. The best answer is self-preservation. There is always the risk of contamination of the software by viruses. Users share videos over Unix networks. (VideoPix add-in board from Sun Microsystems of Canada) (product announcement) Sun Microsystems of Canada announces VideoPix, a postcard-size, add-in board and software for use on Sun Sparcstation computers. VideoPix permits up to four users to capture, manipulate, store, and share color or black and white images across Unix networks. These images can come from various sources. The technology permits users to transmit high-quality images across local and wide area cropped or resized. Motion blur can be removed. The brightness and contrast of the images can be adjusted. VideoPix comes with extensive software libraries. Price is $1,165 (Canadian). Printer buying tips. Steinhart, Jim. There are several factors besides price that should be considered before buying a computer printer. Users who print primarily spreadsheets should buy a printer that uses fanfold paper. If printing multipart carbons, an impact printer is necessary. Word processing output demands a laser, 24-pin dot matrix or ink jet printer to produce the best-looking output. Graphics applications need laser printers. Other factors to consider include checking the drivers in the software and determining the programmability of the printer. Paper handling must be considered. Environmental factors include noise level, amount of heat put out, and how much air space is needed to dissipate the heat. Cost of and ability to replace ribbons and cartridges must also be weighed. GST building blocks. (managing an accounting system with the Goods and Services Tax in mind) The Canadian goods and services tax (GST) can be handled by most of the major microcomputer accounting software packages. To be used for GST tracking, the areas of the software that must handle data include the general ledger, accounts payable, invoicing or point of sales, sales analysis, accounts receivable, and detailed history modules. If a company handles its own payroll, the software should be checked to see if it will handle the goods and services tax liability for taxable benefits. Inventory control software should not be affected by the goods and services tax, but each item must be flagged to figure its proper tax status. Reports that are adequate for both internal use and government filings are provided by most accounting programs. Micro market review. (list of Canadian and US IBM PC-compatible vendors) (buyers guide) A comprehensive guide to the IBM-compatible personal computer business is provided. Forty-one Canadian and US companies are listed. Each listing includes company name, address, telephone number, and fax number. The listing briefly describes the history of the company, including acquisitions and if the company is a subsidiary. Major product lines are given. Some listings indicate if products are sold by authorized dealers or authorized resellers. Pen-based horror. (development trends in pen-based computers) (Software Directions) (column) Users who have illegible handwriting may not welcome what is expected to be the most promising new development in the computer industry, the pen-based computer. The software in such pen-based computers is expected to be sophisticated enough to read handwriting. The target audience for pen-based computers is mobile professionals who write notes, perform calculations, fill out forms, send facsimiles, and write or revise contracts in situations where a traditional computer would be awkward to use. Pen-based computers are expected to be popular for use in meetings where notes need to be taken, but where the clicking of the keyboard would be unwelcome. Pen-based computers will be lighter and more convenient to use than existing laptops and notebooks. General Motors to launch world's largest VSAT network. (very-small-aperture-terminal) (Satellite Networks) General Motors (GM) is implementing a video-teleconferencing system that will be the largest private satellite network in the world. The very-small-aperture terminal system, known as Pulsat, will link the corporate headquarters of GM with its wholesale operations and its dealer showrooms. Major suppliers for the system include two GM subsidiaries, Electronic Data Systems and Hughes Network Systems Inc. Pulsat is expected to help GM with inventory control, allow GM's GMAC financial service to get faster information and provide more effective and economical communications between headquarters, operations, and dealerships. Hughes installing hybrid VSAT network for Chevron. (very-small-aperture-terminal) (Satellite Networks) Hughes Network Systems (HNS) is installing a $40 million very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) hybrid network for Chevron Corp. The hub of the VSAT system will be located in San Ramon, CA, and a backup hub is being installed in Houston. The system will include three-quarter meter terminals at Chevron sites. The system is based on Hughes Network Systems' Personal Earth Station (PES) 6000, which uses a smaller antenna than does other systems. Chevron's Retail Automation Network (RAN) will be carried by PES 6000. RAN is used for point-of-sale credit-card authorization at large Chevron service stations. The new system replaces a terrestrial 2400 b/s multidrop leased-line system and is more economical, more technologically advanced, and has a lower profile. The future look of ship-to-shore. (communications) (Satellite Networks) Satellite networks such as COMSAT have dramatically improved ship-to-shore communication. COMSAT's Mobile Communications subsidiary offers ships, land mobile users, and drilling platforms satellite and coast earth-station services through its INMARSAT system. COMSAT pioneered the use of credit-card based telephones on ships beginning in 1986, and over 70% of the world's passenger ships now use its equipment. COMSAT has introduced smart card technology for its maritime telephones in order to reduce billing complexity and encourage use of the phones. The smart card serves as a debit card and allows the purchaser to use the telephone for an amount of time equal to the card's value. The benefits of the smart card telephone are that all calls are prepaid, and radio operators on the ship are freed from the responsibility of logging, placing, and collecting for personal calls. Farm Credit Bank of Texas saves with satellites. (Satellite Networks) Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT), a member of a national system of financial institutions owned by and serving farmers, provides 55,000 clients in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas with mortgages and loan services. FCBT's affiliates, Federal Land Bank Associations (FLBAs), process and transmit financial data via IBM terminals or PCs to FCBT's IBM AS/400 computer based in Austin, TX. FCBT has replaced its terrestrial network with a satellite network in order to improve communications with the FLBAs, which are located chiefly in rural areas. The very-small-aperture terminal system uses AT&T Tridom's AT&T Skynet Clearlink Service, allows FCBT's 52 remote offices to access information in the AS/400 in Austin. Auto industry leads VSAT boom. (Satellite Networks) Russell, John. The automobile industry is pioneering the use of very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks for data communications. VSAT systems, which are software-intensive and utilize standard data communications protocols, are analogous to packet-switching networks but use radio-frequency electronics rather than cables for transmission. VSAT systems are interactive and facilitate communications from remote locations to a central computing center. They are ideal for corporations with 200 or more remote sites, but can also be used economically by firms with as few as 10 remote sites. The advantages of VSAT systems include high reliability, simplicity of network management, rapid deployment, high data transfer speeds and ease in adding on applications. Fax machine designs to make current equipment obsolete. (Facsimile) Ken Camarro, head of Camarro Research (Fairfield, CT), a firm specializing in office automation equipment, predicts in the 'Fax Trend Report' that current facsimile machines will be rendered obsolete within the next 10 years by advances in fax technology. Camarro believes that fax transmission will be preferred over electronic data interchange and E-mail as a means for replacing standard mail and that fax machines will not be replaced by computer-based fax due to problems with the latter's power consumption, delivery of documents, ease of access and receipt of hard-copy signals. Camarro believes there is great potential for fax machines in delivering short documents. The report forecasts that low-end units will comprise 76% of the market by 1995, up from 62% in 1989. Fax that speaks opens world of trade to U.S. firms. (Facsimile) Businesses seeking export opportunities can use facsimile machines to access information on more than 3,000 clients of the World Trader Centers Association that are interested in doing business. Listings are accessed through a 'special request' fax system developed by SpectraFax Corp (Naples, FL) after telephoning 900-FAXPORT through a fax machine. Listings include buy and sell offers for services and goods and are sent directly via fax. Users are charged for all information they access on a per-listing basis. World Trade Centers formerly offered the listings via computer, but implemented the fax-based system to broaden participation. Listings, which number approximately 1000 a month, are updated twice a week. All inquiries and transactions are confidential. The system offers great time savings to those firms seeking export opportunities. Fax and TV team up in remote classroom learning program. (Facsimile) Facsimile (fax) machines and television are being used in Sibley County, MN to provide education courses to rural schools. The remote classroom learning program was implemented to compensate for the elimination of particular course offerings at rural schools adversely affected by declining enrollment and smaller budgets. The remote classroom learning program is an interactive instruction system that allows simultaneous teaching and exchange of hard copy via facsimile machines from Ricoh Corp. Courses taught at one location are provided to up to four county schools. Each of the four county schools has dedicated television instruction classrooms equipped with three television cameras, eight television monitors, two microphones, and a Ricoh fax machine. Connecting the fax machines to a private data network made fax transmission economical. Little user training needed with this IBM, VAX link. (Data Connectivity) The hospital information systems division of Medlantic Healthcare Group, which operates hospitals in the Washington, DC area, has implemented a T1 network to link its IBM 3090 mainframe with its VAXcluster in the laboratory of its 879-bed Washington Hospital Center in order to reduce paperwork and related labor costs. It is estimated that information handling accounts for 40% of a hospital's labor costs. The system uses a fiber optic Ethernet to connect all major computer systems in the Washington Hospital Center with the IBM 3090 mainframe. The VAX cluster, which uses the TCP/IP protocol, has been integrated to the IBM mainframe with Interlink Computer Sciences' SNS/TCPaccess, which links TCP/IP networks to IBM MVS mainframes. Nissan automates call processing, boosts collection productivity. (Data Connectivity) Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp (NMAC) has automated the call processing system of its collections operations with a computer-aided communications system provided by Davox Corp (Billerica, MA). NMAC (Torrance, CA) has a portfolio of 360,000 car loans valued at over $3 billion. The Davox system used by the collections operations consists of a 64-line, 32-agent dialing system, five communication resource servers (CRS) and over 100 multifunction workstations. The CRS controls data communications and allows the workstations to communicate with a wide variety of computing resources. The dialer generates 15,000 outbound calls daily, and half of the CRS units and workstations serve as collection points to process the 5,000 incoming calls NMAC receives daily. The system has improved the productivity of the collections operations significantly. N.Y. Stock Exchange, SIAC debut OSI network schedule. (Securities Industry Automation Corp.) (Data Connectivity) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and its partially-owned Securities Industry Automation Corp (SIAC) subsidiary are deploying a local area network (LAN) based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) at the NYSE. The volume of the NYSE dramatically increased in the 1980s, and 88% of all publicly-listed equity is traded on the NYSE. Rather than expand the NYSE's extant point-to-point system, SIAC decided to switch to a LAN system in order to provide for increased capacity and flexibility. The NYSE was limited as to the amount of cable it could run through its physical premises; a fiber optic cable was installed in the NYSE and SAIC buildings. The NYSE and SAIC believe that an open enterprise network platform that uses OSI will provide it with all the flexibility it needs to tailor the network system to its future needs. New data network links travel islands in Caribbean. (Travel/Hospitality) Travel agents in the eastern Caribbean region have implemented a new data network, Cable and Wireless PLC's Tarex Gold, to link their communications with the airline industry. Tarex Gold is a multi-access data system that enables travel agents to book airline and car reservations worldwide. The system provides accurate, timely information on airline schedules and travel services and uses only one set of instructions. Another service offered by the network is Tarex Caribnet, a managed data network connecting airlines' reservation operations and airport terminal systems to their central computers. The system uses submarine cable and satellite circuits to access the reservation databases of North America and Europe. Shipboard switch offers smooth sailing. (Travel/Hospitality) Princess Cruise Lines, which operates a fleet of luxury passenger ships, has updated the communications systems on its ships in order to provide their customers with first rate service. Shipboard communications systems are being provided by Rolm International and have been specifically tailored to the needs of a luxury liner. The new communications systems offer improved reliability, a small footprint, and the advantages of digital phones. New systems interfaces with ship-to-shore communications increase efficiency by improving data switching capability. Union Pacific steams ahead with ISDN. (integrated services digital network) (Travel/Hospitality) The Union Pacific Railroad has implemented an ISDN network developed by Rockwell Switching Systems and Union Pacific Technologies to provide support for its National Customer Service Center (NCSC) in St Louis, MO. The system centralizes the functions of 40 regional customer officers in one location and serves 30,000 customers. The ISDN system uses Dialed Number Identification Service and Automatic Number Identification to track Union Pacific's 185,000 freight cars, which are located in 19 states on 23,000 miles of tracks. The NCSC process 25,000 calls a day and operates 24 hours a day. Union Pacific has found that the use of ISDN has reduced freight handling times and increased customer satisfaction. Fairmont Hotel provides state-of-the art messaging services. (Travel/Hospitality) Fairmont Hotels has installed voice messaging systems in three of its five hotels in order to provide state-of-the-art messaging services for guests. The new system being used in the Fairmont Hotels is the Centigram Communications Corp's (San Jose, CA) VoiceMemo system. Guests are given a 'voice mailbox,' which receives confidential communications from callers who are unable to reach guests who are out or unable to answer the phone. Business travelers have been very positive about the system, which offers more complete messages than conventional systems in which operators take down messages. The system erases all messages twice after the room has been vacated in order to ensure privacy. SAS voice response system improves service, builds revenues. (Scandinavian Airlines System) (Travel/Hospitality) Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) has implemented a state-of the-art voice response system to improve the service offered by its reservations system in order to increase its revenues. SAS, which is noted for its outstanding customer service, applied interactive voice response (IVR) technology to its reservation system in order to screen calls relating to common customer service issues that do not require the attention of a reservation clerk. Reservation clerks had previously been swamped with calls, many of which were for simple information the IVR system can handle. The IVR technology used in the system, known as the Local Input Service System (LISA), is Syntellect Inc's Infobot. The LISA system was implemented slowly and carefully in order to work out 'kinks' in the system before going public with the enhanced IVR service. Networking the cargo component in an airline operation. (includes related article on wide area networking)(Travel/Hospitality) Cargo can prove to be a major source of revenue for airlines. An airline can maximize the revenue scheduled flights generate by improving cargo management operations. Airlines' flight analysts require computer software that allow them to plan and prioritize the shipment of cargo. Interoperable networks must be in place to distribute the availability of airlines' cargo capacity over a number of freight agents on a global basis. Sabena airlines uses UNISYS' USAS CGO system to integrate its import and export operations in order to maximize the exploitation of its cargo capacity. Sabena's system supports the direct entry of data concerning cargo manifests, invoices, warehousing and shipment tracking as well as agent support. The system, which is based in a 2200/400 UNISYS mainframe, handles 60,000 cargo transactions daily. Bootstrapping: make it easy to get a 'Yes'. (Entrepreneurial Telecommunications) 'Bootstrapping' entails the incremental testing and implementation of ideas in an affordable manner and is a hallmark of successful entrepreneurial firms. Bootstrapping is the perfect means for low-level managers to interest senior managers in an idea or system. By gradually implementing an idea or system in their own department, managers can work out the kinks in the idea or the system and prove its feasibility to senior management. A manager of technical services at Citicorp Savings of Illinois successfully proved the feasibility of a voice mail system by testing and refining the system in her own department, away from the attention of upper management. Training - don't eliminate it now! (Communications Management) Kirvan, Paul. Computer-based training (CBT) can provide firms with an economical means of training new employees. CBT represents an integration of computer and instructional technology to provide computer-enhanced training (CET). CBT/CET can reduce personnel costs associated with training by eliminating the need for human trainers. CBT/CET programs reduce training costs, allow students to control the pace of their own training, speed up training and improve consistency. For a CBT/CET system to be successful, the instructional technology must be highly interactive, use color displays and integrate text with graphics. Before implementing a CBT/CET system, the availability of computers for students should be determined and the technology's ability to reinforce learning and measure student progress should be reviewed. TCA targets development, names officers. (Tele-Communications Association) (On Associations) (column) The Tele-Communications Association has named its new officers, and 1991 Corporate President Donna Kwak has been named the 1992 Chairman of the Board. Kwak has stated that she plans to focus on the professional development of association members. The Energy Telecommunications and Electrical Association (ENTELEC) will hold a conference in Houston Mar 3-6, 1991, that will focus exclusively on energy telecommunications. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign systems manager Deanie Haldorsen, an Association of College and University Telecommunications Administrators (ACUTA) member, is offering students telephone services at a discount over AT&T rates through ACUTA News, the monthly newsmagazine of the Association. Will standard interfaces be enough to turn the tide for ISDN implementation? (ISDN Forum) (column) The implementation of standard customer premises equipment (CPE) interfaces for integrated services digital networks (ISDN) may encourage the use of ISDN on a nationwide basis by 1992. Demand for ISDN has lagged due to the lack of an infrastructure, but the implementation of standard CPE interfaces that would facilitate end-to-end compatibility could bring about mass production and lower prices. Mellon Bank's (Pittsburgh, PA) Patricia Graham, addressing the Communication Networks show, explained how the bank has realized financial benefits from ISDN by using it for video teleconferencing. Video teleconferencing via ISDN has eliminated the need for travel to sites where meetings are being held by bringing the meeting directly to interested parties through the use of portable video units. Why attend conferences when facing tight budgets? (Datacomm User) (column) Employees desiring to attend conferences should prepare a thorough presentation for management in order to justify the expenditure. Employees should analyze the conference in order to elucidate the benefits of attendance. The employee must present the manager with specific reasons why the conference will provide the employee with needed information. The manager will require details about what technical presentations at the conference will prove especially valuable. Employees should also thoroughly research the benefits of the conference to make sure that they will receive the maximum benefit possible and to ensure that they do not attend conferences offering little practical information. Is information property? (Legally Speaking) Samuelson, Pamela. On one side of the battle over freedom of information are people who believe that sharing information with other interested people is a good thing even if the information comes from someone who does not want it to be shared. Individuals and companies that would prefer that the information remain proprietary are on the other side of the fight. The criminal charges leveled against electronic publisher Craig Neidorf reveal the differing views that computing professionals have about the nature of information. Craig Neidorf was accused of publishing information about the 911 telephone system that he received from a proprietary document. One of the questions that comes up is whether the information was truly proprietary. Another is whether the government could prove that Neidorf was trying to acquire money or property from the rightful owner of the document. Although charges against Neidorf have been dropped, it may be wise to use the event as an occasion to ask questions such as why the law has largely resisted treating information as property. Coming into the Country. (cyberspace, the new 'datasphere') Barlow, John P. Much commerce, industry, and human interaction now takes place in 'cyberspace,' the emerging 'datasphere' that some are calling the 'electronic frontier.' Although cyberspace is now inhabited only by people who are comfortable with high technology, the concept of cyberspace is influencing more and more lives. Soon, concepts which have defined personal property, identity, movement and context must be redefined in the light of new, sometimes bewildering realities. Many people are reacting to the existence of cyberspace with distrust and resentment. They dislike the idea that strangers have access to their personal information, and they are tired of mastering new technologies, only to find that they have to start over again with a new version. Workers who are currently engaged in industries that touch on these issues will need to begin to consider the social philosophy behind the technology so that an ethics and a culture of cyberspace can begin to be shaped. The United States vs. Craig Neidorf: a debate on electronic publishing, constitutional rights and hacking. (one of three Craig Neidorf was a college student accused of fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property as a result of a document published in his electronic newsletter, Phrack. The case ended after four days of trial when the government dropped its charges. The charges against Neidorf came as part of a two-year investigation into illegal activity, during which the government seized over 40 systems and 23,000 disks. The seizures, and the Neidorf case, raise serious questions about the liabilities and responsibilities of system users. Neidorf's indictment has been seen by some as a threat to the freedom of the press. On the other hand, publications that print information that encourage people conduct illegal break-ins should not be considered proper simply because they are protected under the First Amendment. Some of the activities that might decrease illegal hacking include teaching computer ethics, both in classrooms and in professional forums. Colleagues debate Denning's comments. (one of three articles on the United States vs. Craig Neidorf case)(Dorothy Denning's Craig Neidorf was a college student indicted by the US government for fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property regarding a document published in his newsletter. Although the government dropped its charges, the case brings up interesting questions about freedom of information and electronic publishing. Neidorf claimed that his activities were protected under the First Amendment, but the judge in the case found no support for this contention. Other industry observers say that the Neidorf case was questionable not only on a legal basis, but on the basis of whether the government should be expending its limited resources on a case of such questionable priority. One observer says that too much concern is being expressed over the actions of hackers when those who do the most harm to systems are often uninformed or inexperienced users who have every right to use a system. Denning's rebuttal. (one of three articles on the United States vs. Craig Neidorf case)(author Dorothy Denning refutes criticisms The case of the United States vs Craig Neidorf, in which the US accused Craig Neidorf of fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property when he printed a document in his electronic newsletter, raises interested questions about freedom of information and electronic publishing. Four areas in which there is no clear agreement are whether hackers are being unfairly prosecuted, whether unauthorized entry alone is damaging, how young people who break into system should be treated, and what kind of penalties are appropriate for this type of criminal behavior. Hackers are probably not being unfairly prosecuted; rather, law enforcement officials are reacting to understandable concerns on the part of companies experiencing losses due to hackers. Unauthorized access can be harmful or harmless and young people need to be educated about the effect unauthorized access can have on organizations. Violators should be punished in accordance with the amount of damage they cause, rather than the vulnerability of the victim. Young people should not be treated as adversaries, but instead should be educated so that they better understand their responsibilities. Teaching calculation and discrimination: a more effective curriculum. Software engineers are being inadequately trained in mathematics, and this is resulting in problems with software system safety, reliability, and quality. Software engineers are also receiving insufficient education in the area of ethics. One symptom of the problem is a lack of professionalism, as shown by the fact that few software programs are guaranteed, and few companies will even refund the price of the software if it does not perform as expected. Often, the specifications and requirements that are developed show this same lack of professionalism, or lack of knowledge of field of programming. These problems may be solved by the application of a calculational style of working in which formulas of a calculus are manipulated according to the rules of that calculus. Most software engineers have a negative picture of the role of mathematics in their field, saying that it removes the element of intuition, but formalism can supplement intuition, offer short cuts, and provide a rigorous standard by which programs can be measured. Scalability of parallel machines. Nussbaum, Daniel; Agarwal, Anant. Scalability is a term used frequently by parallel computer manufacturers, but it is difficult to refute or prove whether a machine offers scalable, or large-scale, capabilities because there is not commonly accepted definition of the term. Scalability is important because it aids in the study of large machines. New architectures can be designed using small prototypes, which would prove the viability of the idea in larger machines. It is possible to determine a definition of scalability based on the communication patterns in parallel algorithms and the communication structures provided by parallel architectures. The scalability of an architecture can be defined as the fraction of the parallelism inherent in a given algorithm that can be exploited by any machine of that architecture as a function of problem size. The inherent parallelism can be derived as the ratio of the serial execution time and runtime on an ideal execution of a parallel random access machine. Minimal space, average linear time duplicate deletion. (includes an appendix that analyzes the method) (tutorial) A new method for deleting duplicates in a file is proposed, which is based on 'hashing.' The method involves making multiple passes over the file and moving duplicates to the tail end of the file. The algorithm which causes this generally requires only linear time and works with 0(1) extra space. The method, called the Duplication Deletion Technique (DDT), scans the input file, reducing the number of unhandled records. The method uses a data structure called a wheel. It could conceivably result in some degeneration, but this is unlikely since the divisor changes between passes as a random variable. In summary, the testing indicates that the constants are low enough to recommend the use of DDT in practice for any size input. Human-computer interface development tools: a methodology for their evaluation. Currently, no methodology exists that allows user interface management systems (UIMS) to be evaluated or compared. A methodology is proposed that provides a standardized approach, so that quantifiable results can be obtained; thoroughness, for the evaluation of a tool; an objective measurement method; ease-of-use for the evaluator; extensibility, so that advances in interface technology are accommodated; and adaptability, so that the method can be used in different development environments. The methodology is designed to determine the functionality and usability of the tool. The element of usability takes into account both subjective evaluation and objective evaluation. The methodology should provide consistent, reliable results despite differences in the technical level of the evaluators. However, the methodology should be used only by evaluators who are thoroughly familiar with the tool. Justification of printed music. (the science of music processing) Blostein, Dorothea; Haken, Lippold. The use of computer systems for printing and editing sheet music has lagged behind the computerization of text because of the complexity of music notation. Computerized music printing is more difficult because note placement must show the temporal relationships in music. Although computers are used to publish music, decisions about placing the music symbols are still made by people. An algorithmic method of spacing music to produce a right- and left-justified result is proposed. This method, called the Lime Music System, allows both textual and durational spacings to be computed. The system consists of two software components, the music editor and the music formatter. The editor accepts input from the user and analyzes it, makes changes to the abstract music representation, then invokes the formatter to create a graphic representation of the music. Although this method does produce good results for a large variety of music, further research is needed to solve the music-layout problem. Eye monitor: microcomputer-based instrument uses an internal model to track the eye. The brain uses shape, color, size, position, direction, and velocity of movement to quickly recognize objects. A visual search done by the human visual system uses internal models or representations of objects. A microcomputer-based instrument is inspired by the human visual system; the system measures pupillary responses to light stimuli and corrects, in real-time, for head and eye movements. Part of the hardware of the system is a charge-coupled device, black-and-white Panasonic WV-BL200 television camera. The eye monitor hardware is on two IBM PC AT bus boards. The software is written in Turbo Pascal 5.0 running under MS-DOS 3.1 or later. There is an assembly language routine called Etrack, written in Microsoft Macro Assembler, that initializes the boards and searches for the pupil in the center of the screen. The eye monitor can be used for early clinical detection of visual diseases, to study the reading eye movements of dyslexics, and to learn about the mechanisms of night blindness, among other medical applications. Only 30 minutes of training is required to be able to use the eye monitor since the computer handles most of the tasks. A microprocessor-based implantable telemetry system. Fernald, Kenneth W.; Cook, Todd A.; Miller, Thomas K.; Paulos, A flexible, intelligent system for implantable biotelemetry instruments that meets the research needs of a variety of biomedical applications is presented. This system is based on a modular set of CMOS chips. A specialized serial bus connects the chips. The system meets the general requirements of high reliability, low power consumption, small size, and minimum weight. Using a common peripheral chip set means the method supports the fast, inexpensive prototyping of research instruments. A custom microprocessor design is desirable and appropriate for implantable systems. Parallel processing for biomedical signal processing. Manolakos, Elias S.; Stellakis, Haris M.; Brooks, Dana H. Computer-based medical systems are being used more and more to collect, store, and process digitized biological signals. It is necessary to move from uniprocessor architectures to multiprocessor architectures if real-time performance in medical systems for biomedical signal and image processing is to be realized. Design turnaround time for parallel processing systems can be reduced by using systematic vertically integrated design methodologies. Critical design trade-offs for special-purpose VLSI processor arrays for higher order spectral analysis can be determined by using the canonical mapping methodology. Neuronet: a distributed real-time system for monitoring neurophysiologic function in the medical environment. Neuronet, a large software package with 80 workstations and instrumentation, supplies a number of readily accessible and continually expanding tools used to run clinical neurophysiology studies. Both off-line and real-time capabilities are provided by Neuronet. Neuronet permits one neurophysiologist to monitor multiple surgical procedures simultaneously. Immediate access to real-time life-critical data is provided by Neuronet. The remote capabilities in Neuronet include manual remote display, automatic remote display, and manual remote-message passing. Using a local area network satisfies the requirement for hardware upgradeability. Files that can be access from anywhere on the network implement the remote capabilities. The user interface, a mouse-driven interface, is easy to learn and use. Another feature of the user interface is its rapid response. Neuronet is effective and economical. Using fuzzy sets to diagnose coronary artery stenosis. (includes related article on dealing with uncertainty) The three ways to express the uncertainty present in information used to construct knowledge-based systems are Bayesian probabilities, the Dempster-Shafter theory of evidence, and fuzzy sets. A fuzzy set can be defined from training data. A fuzzy set can be used to handle uncertainty in diagnosing coronary artery stenosis. The locations and extents of perfusion defects are related anatomically in a 'fuzzy' way to the site of stenosis; fuzzy sets can be used to represent this relationship. The performance of the rules generated by using fuzzy set theory compare with an experienced cardiologist's performance. The rules become more reliable as the training data sample becomes larger. A neural network expert system for diagnosing and treating hypertension. (includes related article on diagnosing and treating Medical diagnosis and treatment are being handled more and more by computer-based medical systems. The most critical factors in a computer-based medical system are fault tolerance and reliability. Artificial neural networks are particularly effective in supplying solutions to the problems in emulating the experience of a physician. The main properties of an artificial neural network are experienced-based learning, fault tolerance, graceful degradation, and signal enhancement. Hypernet (Hypertension Neural Expert Therapist) is a neural network expert system used to diagnose and treat hypertension. Knowledge in Hypernet is distributed throughout the nets. Hypernet is very reliable. Internationalizing software engineering standards. Edelstein, D. Vera; Fujii, Roger; Guerdat, Craig; Sullo, Pasquale. The software industry may be affected by the growing movement for common international software engineering standards. There are generic models used to establish conceptual frameworks and basic terminology. There are technical standards, evolving in more and more finite detail, to describe specific implementations of the generic models. Quality management systems are also becoming standardized as producers, service providers, and consumers realize that product quality comes from process quality. Technology is driving international software standardization. Experiment design: Design-Ease (Software Review) (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel; Hamel, Clifford. Design-Ease, $300 from Stat-Ease, Inc, is highly recommended for use as a beginning tool to create and analyze experimental designs. It is an excellent product for the engineer or scientist who is new to experimental design. A set of two-level factorial and fractional factorial designs and the series of Placket-Burman screening designs comes in Design-Ease. It is excellent at the performance of basic data analysis, providing the user with useful information without digressing into difficult statistical jargon. An extensive set of plots comes with Data-Ease. The product does not have context-sensitive help. Experiment design: Design-Expert. (Software Review) (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel; Hamel, Califford. Design-Expert, Version 2.0, available for $695 from Stat-Ease, Inc, permits users to optimize the results of analysis in the area of response surface designs and mixture experiments, including several responses at once. It requires little learning time. It is excellent to perform simple, basic response surface analysis and analysis of mixture designs. There are consistent menus, which contribute to the ease of learning. It does calculations very responsively. A disadvantage is that using the data analysis feature requires either a better-than-average knowledge of statistics or assistance from a professional statistician. Experiment design: Xstat. (Software Review) (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel; Hamel, Clifford. Xstat, $350 from Wiley Professional Software, is a remarkable program with a number of exceptional capabilities in experiment design. Almost all known classical experiment designs are included as options, although Xstat is not meant to be used to massage massive amounts of happenstance data. The program does not have intuitive menus as it assumes the user has the background necessary to understand what must be done. Optimizing a program is one of the program's most powerful, important functions. If the user has sufficient background, this is an exceptional program. Xstat is capable of dealing with any requirement for the design and analysis of experiments. Experiment design: Echip. (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel; Hamel, Clifford. Echip, $1,495 for a one-year license from Echip Inc, can be valuable, especially for users who use contour plots. Echip has several standard designs including linear, linear with center point, factorial, and quadratic. Producing a variety of contour plots is the major emphasis and strongest feature in Echip. It provides a choice of two- or three-dimensional plots for response surfaces with three variables or less. A major weak point is data entry. Other disadvantages include weak points in editing and the considerable response time needed to update contour plots in graphics mode. Experiment design: Taguchi Analyst. (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel; Hamel, Clifford. Taguchi Analyst, $1,495 from Texas Instruments, is a package that uses the Taguchi method to facilitate experiment design and analysis. The emphasis is on permitting the user to concentrate on the experiment, not on how to determine the design. The actual preparation for the designs is the strongest point of the program. The presentation of these designs and analytical results are the weakest points. Users who want to prepare and design Taguchi orthogonal designs will find this program useful. Experiment design: Statgraphics. (evaluation) McAluffie, Daniel; Hamel, Clifford. Statgraphics, $895 from STSC Inc, is a powerful general-purpose statistical analysis package. The major emphasis is on graphically representing problem data. This program is highly recommended for the user who wants a general statistical package that has some experiment design features. With the Central Composite Designs feature, a matrix can be generated for a second-order composite design with up to eight factors. The user whose primary interest is in generating and analyzing experimental designs should look elsewhere. Statgraphics uses a wide range of methods to analyze data. It is a powerful, flexible statistical tool. Experiment design: Statistical programs. (Software Review) (evaluation) Statistical Programs offers Expertimental Design, Factorial-Design, and Screen; each is $295. Expertimental Design presents an old subject in a completely new way. It is an expert system that asks a long series of questions about experiment design to determine which expertiment design will meet the needs of the user. Expertimental Design is a very useful tool. Although Expertimental Design recommends the type of program to use, it does not generate designs or perform any data analysis. Screen and Factorial-Design are two programs that can be used for design and analysis. Screen, a simple but powerful program, is used for designing and analyzing screening experiments. Beginners and experts will find Screen worthwhile. Factorial-Design is used after the screening experiments are done to help optimize a process or tool. Factorial-design lacks a number of the user friendly concepts that Expertimental Design and Screen have and it is difficult to use. Review notes: Easyest. (Software Review) (evaluation) Eckhouse, R. Easyest, an expert system from Asyst Software Technologies Inc, currently available at $765 for the basic configuration, is heartily recommended. It is an expert system that automatically acquires and graphs data and then executes the frequency analysis. The program has features that users need to get started and a migration path for use when the user is ready to move to a more powerful system. Laboratory professionals who gather, analyze, and display low-frequency signals will find Easyest useful. Easyest is easy to use and is practical, but its graphical interface is nonstandard. Review notes: Pc-Trac. (Hardware Review) (trackball) (evaluation) Eckhouse, R. PC-Trac from Microspeed Inc is a 'must have' item that is strongly recommended. The design of this trackball is ergonomically superior, with the result that it fits the hand very well and can be used by either an 'over' trackball user or an 'under' trackball user. Trackballs provide a finer level of control than a mouse does, takes up less desk space, and does not need the same amount of movement a mouse does. There are three versions of PC-Trac: serial for $119, bus for $149, and PS/2 for $119. This trackball is fully Microsoft-Mouse compatible. Model for the analysis of a CSMA/CD channel for data and voice applications. (carrier sense multiple access/collision detection) A queueing model appropriate for the analysis of the CSMA/CD channel is proposed. The approach is characterized by simplicity. This admits the use of the proposed model in the analysis of more complex applications which are based on a CSMA/CD channel. In addition, with this model the performance of packetized voice traffic can be studied. The solution obtained exhibits very good agreement with simulation results, which both corroborates the correctness of the method and the significance of the results. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) OS/2 driver software design for an Ethernet adapter. (technical) Poo, Gee-Swee; Chai, Boon-Ping. A driver software has been designed and developed to operate on the data-link layer of the 3Com 3C505 Ethernet adapter under the IBM Operating System/2 (OS/2) environment. The software is written in the IBM Macro assembly language. It supports the Logical Link Control (LLC) Type 1 procedure, and serves as a basic building block for the construction of higher level communications software. In the design, an interrupt-driven approach is adopted for transmit and receive functions which involve downloading and uploading of LLC frames using DMA transfer. This is more efficient than the conventional polling method. The driver does not need to wait for the polling outcome, but returns immediately after issuing a command request and is interrupted later upon completion. This is useful in a multitasking environment, where the host CPU time 'saved' could be used to run other tasks concurrently. This further enhances the overlapping of processing between the host CPU and the adapter executing DMA operation. The efficiency is confirmed by performance tests on the network adapter. The result shows that as much as 40% host CPU time could be saved, which, if utilized, would result in a much higher data link throughput. The driver software can be easily adapted to other Ethernet adapters that use DMA operation and/or programmed I/O schemes. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Analysis of a p-persistent CSMA packetized cellular network with capture phenomena. (carrier sense multiple access) (technical) Ap-persistent CSMA protocol suitable for packetized mobile radio-telephone cellular networks with capture and a number of mobile terminals transmitting to a common receiver is considered. In a micro-cellular environment, messages from different transmitting terminals will suffer different attenuations (path loss and fading phenomena), yielding different levels of energy at the receiver. Thus, one out of 'i' attempting transmission packets will be successfully transmitted with some capture probability fi. Assuming that the receiver is within the range and in line-of-sight of all the mobile users in the cell, the capture probabilities can be determined by means of simulation, and a new probabilistic Markov model for the above network is introduced and analysed using the slot property of the channel. Under moderate packet length size the results obtained in respect of the throughput-delay performance and stability under heavy traffic conditions are promising compared with those of the corresponding conventional p-persistent CSMA schemes. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) End-to-end performance of interconnected LANs. (technical) Berg, Brigitte; Deng, Robert H. The end-to-end performance of interconnected local area networks (LAN) is studied. The system uses bridges to connect distributed LANs through a high-speed communication link. The interconnected system is modelled as a single-chain and multiple-chain closed queueing system. Based on the MVA (mean value analysis) method, an iterative algorithm is proposed to calculate the end-to-end performance (intra-LAN and inter-LAN throughput and average message delays). The impacts of various system parameters such as window size, bridge processing time and the communication link capacity on the end-to-end performance, are investigated. Finally, the analytical results are verified by computer simulations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Bridging the network generation gap. (technical) Leigh, Brian I. In common with other advanced technologies in widespread, popular use, corporate data networking tends to be subject to conflicting pressures. On the one hand are the seemingly ever-accelerating rates of technological obsolescence and innovation, on the other the day-to-day business constraints of economic and operational acceptability. Increasingly, the watchwords are 'open systems', 'evolution' and 'network management'. Some of the issues involved are investigated, and an architecture designed to alleviate the worst affects of the conflict is described. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) The need for network management. (technical) Potter, Duncan. As organizations have become increasingly dependent on their networked computing environments, the importance of effective network management has become a key element in the success of those networks. A flurry of activity in the network management field has resulted in a number of different standards efforts taking place concurrently, and different manufacturers adopting different standards for current products. The standards activities of most importance to one company, 3Com UK Ltd, are outlined, and the possibilities for future product development are discussed, particularly with reference to 3Com/IBM's recent Heterogeneous LAN Management (HLM) specification announcement. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Quantel rolls on. (Quantel gets an out-of-court settlement from Electronic Graphics over videographics patents) After filing a lawsuit against Electronic Graphics in Nov 1990 charging that they had infringed on four Quantel patents, Quantel has reached an out-of-court settlement which prevents Electronic Graphics from selling its Pastiche videographics/paint system anywhere in the world. The Pastiche system had competed with Quantel's Paintbox system in the video production market. Several vendors in the industry, including Electronic Graphics, have complained that Quantel's patents are based on known technology and should never have been issued. Quantel says if it were true that they were patenting obvious technology then it would have been easy to prove. Quantel is not discouraging any speculation that it will continue to take action against other vendors. Designing in a new dimension. (Modacad's Envision surface mapping software) (Product Spotlight) (product announcement) Modacad of Los Angeles, CA, introduces Envision, the first 3D system using the company's proprietary 2.5D surface mapping technology. When using Envision, the user can scan in any 2D picture and then reconstruct any 3D structure present in the image. The term 2.5D is a result of the 2D image appearing as a 3D illusion. Envision's modeler translates surface topology and interacts with the user via an expert system, unlike spline-based or polygonal modelers, which require that the user sculpt objects in complete 3D. Modacad believes that Envision possesses a myriad of uses wherever there is a need for visualizing a conceptual design, specifically for product development. Envision costs $1995 and will accept any PICT file as input for both background images and textures, supports both 8- and 24-bit color images and runs on Macintosh II computers equipped with 4Mbytes of RAM and an 8- or 24-bit color card and display. One slot fits all. (RasterOps' 24STV video board) (Product Spotlight) (product announcement) RasterOps introduces the 24STV board that allows computer graphics and live video to be integrated in full color and full motion on the Macintosh. This system allows a user to choose images from a variety of video formats and store the ones needed on a hard disk to be retrieved at a later time. With live video, the 24STV allows a user to overlay the video with graphics and text. The 24STV fits into one NuBus slot and provides capabilities for 24-bit color, hardware pan and zoom, digital television integration, frame grabbing and video overlay. Two optional expansion boards, QuickPak and QuickDraw, provide real-time compression/decompression and graphics acceleration. Users can view full-motion video from any NTSC, PAL, SECAM or S-Video source on an Apple 13-inch RGB or compatible monitor. The suggested price of the display adapter, with frame grabbing and video overlay, is $1795. RasterOps claims the 24STV is useful for video editing, imaging, graphics design, interactive training, information distribution and business presentations. Computer-controlled video. (Sony Corp. of America's Vbox controller) (Product Spotlight) (product announcement) Sony Corp of America introduces the Vbox controller, a computer/video interface that provides multimedia users with an easy way to connect computers to video equipment. This is achieved through the use of Sony's video system control architecture (ViSCA) protocol, a set of platform-independent command codes for synchronized control of multiple video peripherals. Apple Computer Inc, Farallon Computing Inc and MacroMind are endorsing ViSCA in their multimedia software programs in 1991. Sony says the Vbox interface allows the user to use consumer-level 8mm video equipment as the multimedia equivalent of a laser printer. The Vbox will sell for $249.95 at the end of the first qtr of 1991. Modelshop advances. (Paracomp Inc.'s Modelshop II computer-aided design software) (Product Spotlight) (product announcement) Paracomp Inc introduces Modelshop II, a reconstructed version of its Modelshop software package for 3D design and sketching. The new product is a response to the escalating need in the design profession for advancement in terms of more accurate rendering, animation, shadow studies, walkthroughs and fly-bys, as well as an object library. Designers can use the animation feature to view walkthroughs and fly-bys on-screen or save them as PICS files, while the object library contains a variety of commonly used architectural design units, such as desks, chairs, tables and cabinets. Modelshop II can be applied more successfully towards the needs of architects, urban planners, landscapers and interior designers who require the quick creation of 3D models which can be viewed from various user perspectives. Modelshop II requires 2Mbytes of RAM, runs on Macintosh Classics and Mac II machines. It will be available in Mar 1991, and will be priced between $600 and $800. An upgrade for current Modelshop users will be available, but the price has yet to be determined. A fluid market: animation flourishes as prices drop; corporate market proves especially strong. (Graphics Industry) The animation market is growing at a rapid pace, fueled by the trend towards lower hardware prices, and growth of applications and new users. Dropping hardware prices is expanding the market because the barriers to entry have been lowered. The increased competition in the microcomputer and workstation arena, manifested dramatically in the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh markets, has assured users of rising performance at depressed prices. The development of new applications has led to revenue growth even with falling hardware prices. Hardware vendors are therefore encouraged to build software functions into their products. Analysts predict a slower growth rate in the professional film and animation market. CAD users will increasingly use animation for applications such as walkthroughs and modeling. There will be a growth in the smaller animation market segments, such as medical illustration, plant or network monitoring and control, and consumer information services. Hollywood style: corporations turn to production houses for high-tech dazzle. (Focus) Many corporations are turning to computer animation production houses to fill their communication program needs. The cost of animation is much more affordable, so many more companies are opting for a high-tech look. Production houses are also creating generic animations that can be sold to various corporations. Companies such as Frito-Lay, Motorola and Pizza Hut have turned to production houses for communication videos. Some companies are opting to bring animation in-house as a means by which to control their budget. Production houses are going to have to be prepared to face increased competition that is created due to increased corporate demand. They will need to have a mix of 2D and 3D animation systems in order to successfully meet the needs of various companies. Making waves. (new-wave techniques creates true-to-life water animations) (part one) (includes related articles on fractal waves The ability to animate water and waves using computer graphics is increasing dramatically. Despite the fact that the shape of real waves are very complicated and they also must move, their motion has been adapted to algorithmic formulas by graphics programmers, resulting in much more life-like animation. Alain Fournier with William Reeves at Pixar created the first accurate graphic animation of waves in 1986. In 1990, Michael Kass and Gavin Miller addressed the problem of incorporating the net transport of water from one place to another, such as when water spills over an object and fills a hole on the other side. Using software that utilizes unique primitive shapes to create objects, Blue Sky Productions programmers Carl Ludwig and Eugene Troubetskoy have come up with an algorithm for creating melted chocolate, drooling honey and blobby water droplets. In creating computer-generated fluids, modeling, lighting and rendering are significant tasks. Water, water, everywhere. (the computational complexity of creating realistic-looking water effects)(part two) The abstract light patterns that reflect light up onto the surface of water are called 'caustics.' Conventional computer graphic programs are not capable of doing the proper ray tracing to capture caustics in computer animation. Conventional programs disperse rays backward from the eye out onto the scene, while the light-focusing and dispersing effects of caustics require that the rays begin from the light source. Recent research has concentrated on ways to map surfaces with forward rays from the light source before shooting rays backward into the scene. The researchers who have been creating images with caustic effects in them have utilized a two-step process. Rather than tracing individual rays, as done in conventional ray tracing, they trace whole beams of light in the opposite direction from the light source to the viewer to determine the caustic patterns. They then render the scene with conventional ray tracing in the usual direction. Other rendering techniques are discussed. The human factor. (human modeling systems offer new potential for ergonomic and mechanical analysis) (includes related article on Although current computer-aided design-computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAE) software allows engineers to use a computer to do a lot of the design and analysis of products that involve the human factor, human modeling software can take the analysis even further. These software packages are designed for use with CAD software and allow engineers to actually place human models into their designs. Another type of human modeling software evaluates what a person can reach and see while interacting with a design in a CAD application. A few human modeling programs are currently for sale at a cost of $699 to $15,000, utilizing a wide range of platforms and functionality, but all enabling engineers to generate dimensionally accurate human models. Some engineers have painstakingly placed human forms into their designs by creating their own models, while others have adapted robot simulation software enabling it to model human figures. Still others have gone without a human likeness nor the analysis capabilities it would have brought to their work. A high-tech globe: computer graphics and mapping technologies combine to create a 'living earth.' (Mapping) GeoSphere is the first three-dimensional, visually accurate model of the earth. It is being used as an educational tool in helping to make global issues, like the greenhouse effect and deforestation, easier to understand. Created by Tom Van Sant, GeoSphere is made of translucent fiberglass consisting of more than 2,000 computer-assembled and enhanced satellite images accurately depicting a cloudless Earth in natural coloring. The sphere itself is mounted on a base that allows for polar vertical positioning as well as the 23.5-degree tilt that represents Earth's relationship to the sun. A digital motor was also programmed inside the sphere to control the its rotation in relation to the natural rotation of the Earth. GeoSphere's surface is a computer composite that accurately represents a cloudless Earth in its natural coloring. Van Sant hopes to use GeoSphere on television to illustrate any disasters that might occur, as well as any other global phenomena. A new palette. (Quantel Graphic Paintbox provides flexibility and versatility to Palette Studios) (Graphics Applications) Philadelphia-based Palette Studios, an electronic prepress access center, uses the Quantel Graphic Paintbox to provide prepress services to ad agencies, design studios, photographers and corporations. The Paintbox is a high-level, front-end, image-creation and manipulation tool that works in real time. It accepts and outputs image data for clients to approve, and then gives them several options. Options may include four-color film separations and a color proof made on-site, full-color transparencies in up to 8-by-10-inch format that have been output from the Paintbox's magnetic tape or they can take the magnetic tape to a different service center where the final color separations can be output on a Scitex, Crosfield, Hell or Dainnipon Screen system. Paintbox users also create and alter designs using a pressure-sensitive stylus and tablet, as opposed to a computer keyboard. The Paintbox's flexibility allows Palette to work with a wide variety of clients, enabling their specific needs to be met. Box office smash? (magnetic resonance imaging in videos that show the motion of the spinal cord) Magnetic resonance imaging is a non-invasive, radiation-free procedure that relies on magnetism and radiowaves for determining appropriate candidates for certain types of spinal surgery. In combining magnetic resonance (MR) technology with computerized motion reconstruction techniques, Dr. Lucien Levy, a radiologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, is able to determine the speed and direction of the motion of the spinal cord and its surrounding cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF. Motion reconstruction measures the pulsing sequences directly from the hospital's MR imager. With the addition of flow imaging, physicians can determine how much blockage or compression there is because the CSF and cord pulsation are affected by these disturbances. This technique proves to be especially helpful because it can determine whether or not the patient will require surgery. The Video Toaster: Newtek's card offers Amiga users a low-cost, complete video production studio. (Commodore Amiga 2000) (Software Newtek's Video Toaster, a video card and bundled software for the Commodore Amiga 2000 microcomputer, offers Amiga users the production capability of advanced broadcast television equipment for only $1,595. The Toaster consolidates the functions of a variety of video gear into four custom chips on a single, plug-in, software-controlled card that is full of video production features such as production switching, chroma effects, a 24-bit paint box and a 3D animation and modeling program. The video production features are somewhat pixelated and the Toaster's built-in character generator cannot be controlled by a mouse, but overall, the Video Toaster is a tremendous value for any size company. Currently, it only fits the cabinet of the Amiga 2000 series, and cannot be used on the Amiga 3000 computer. The Toaster is also not compatible with one of the chips in the Amiga 3000, but Newtek says that it is working to correct these problems. Cadam tries 3D on a PC. (Micro Cadam 3D computer-aided design software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Cadam Inc's Micro Cadam 3D is a microcomputer-based software package that attempts to integrate 3D wireframe, non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) surfacing and solid modeling functions into a single product. Micro Cadam 3D requires the installation of either of two 2D drafting products to function properly: Micro Cadam Plus or Micro Cadam Cornerstone. Plus sells for $3,995, while Cornerstone sells for $2,995. Micro Cadam 3D is priced at only $1,200. Micro Cadam 3D does have potential, despite that fact that it is time-consuming to install and currently limited in its attempt to integrate wireframe, surfacing and solid modeling functions. Integration between these functions must improve to make the product more useful. Micro Cadam 3D is setting an important industry precedent by offering NURBS and basic solid modeling, two uncommon microcomputer features. The tools currently available for creating solid modeling must be upgraded because they are lacking, but the foundation of the Micro Cadam 3D appears to be quite stable and additional solid modeling features can be incorporated as Cadam's users continue to request them. A call for ethics. (the need for computer software industry standards for business practices) (column) Several vendors are tarnishing the entire high-tech industry's reputation by adopting shady business practices due partly to the pressures of competition. It must be stopped before it harms everyone attempting to do business in the computer graphics industry. In Oct 1990, the Software Business Practices Council was created. The group's objective is to establish and maintain the integrity of the software industry by creating and promoting ethical business practices and higher business standards. The council tries to initiate dialog and constructive action to restore trust and confidence where it is lacking within the industry. The council feels that industry executives must carefully consider matters such as the status of product planning, designing, coding, testing and the technological feasibility of all new products before announcing release dates for products that are either not ready or do not even exist. In taking this positive action, customers and vendors can stop the damage that has already been done, prevent any future unethical practices and allow continued growth within the industry. Data modeling in context. (includes related article on toolbooks and toolware) (column) Data modeling has taken a lesser role to programming and data structures. The increased importance of object-orientation is a contributing factor to the now increased emphasis on data modeling. James Martin has added to this by emphasizing data modeling in his talks at information engineering seminars. Object orientation methods, however, force the analyst to consider implementation-dependent issues sooner than appropriate for a technology-independent analysis of the problem domain. The best approach is a merger of classic structured analysis with data modeling during the analysis phase. Entity flow diagrams are provided that illustrate a high level data flow and data dictionary for use with bottom-up object-oriented techniques. PROLOG and client/server information systems. (Cover Story) Byrd, Lawrence. PROgramming in LOGic (PROLOG) is a language developed in 1972 in Marseilles. The language is a tool with metaprogramming capabilities for building successful applications that can drive client/server information systems. The typical PROLOG application is a natural language interface to data bases that allows users to make ad hoc queries in natural languages without the need for understanding data base organization or data base query languages. PROLOG is useful for data base manipulation and offers a visual interface from which fields can be selected from a graphical display. Other strengths of PROLOG are metaprogramming capabilities for transformation of high-level specifications into lower-level languages, the ability to transform complicated real-world information into computer-world data in a relational programming style, usefulness for coordinating tools in dynamic environments, and code that is easy to understand. Rexx: not just a wonder dog. (halfway between a batch interpreter and a full-blown language) Rexx is a common programming interface procedures language, a cross between a simple scripting language and a high-level programming language. Mike Cowlishaw of IBM developed Rexx in the early 1980s as an interpreter for IBM System/370 mainframes running VM/CMS. Popularity among users at IBM led to Rexx being adopted as the official system product interpreter for CMS. In 1991 Rexx is operational on several platforms, and is available for MS-DOS, OS/2 and Unix. As defined by IBM, Rexx is the common programming interface procedures language for the Systems Application Architecture (SAA) standard. The most popular microcomputer-based version of Rexx is ARexx, available on the Amiga. An environment of IBM mainframes and Amigas integrated with Rexx/ARexx is operational at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in California. Rexx is characterized as an interpreted language, has an INTERPRET keyword, has syntactic flexibility, and features a built-in debugging facility. A few words on Forth: Forth some love embedded systems especially for. Forth is a programming language that gives the programmer total control of the computer. This situation may not be advantageous in the hands of programmers who lack the necessary discipline. The greatest acceptance of Forth is in the area of small-scale embedded systems development. The small size of Forth, interactive nature and portability make it useful in this domain. Developers who require a strong compiler may not be interested in Forth. Forth resembles C Programming Language, in that they both are considered high-level languages and use punctuation marks as operators. C and Forth differ in the development cycle. Basically, Forth is an extensible, stack-based, incrementally compiled, threaded interpretive language. The bulk of Forth programmers work in embedded control. The Software Organization DialogCoder v. 2.0. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) DialogCoder 2.0, from the Software Organization, is a unique code-generation tool for dialog boxes. The $499 package is useful for coding complex control relationships. DialogCoder requires MS Windows Software Development Kit and Microsoft C Compiler 5.1 or 6.0. Complex dialog boxes can be generated, including groups of hidden controls that appear when buttons are pushed. One drawback is lack of a simulation mode for previewing boxes. Also, validation is available only upon field entry and exit. The software can help cut coding time for applications with a high number of dialog boxes. ProtoView Development Co.: ProtoView. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) ProtoView, from ProtoView Development Co, is an application generator and data-entry screen painter. The package can be used to create applications with robust data-entry forms; however, this is at the sacrifice of the standard Windows look and feel. The application generator portion of ProtoView, Protogen, allows users to build a main window for applications in point-and-click style. Protogen items are connectable to dialog boxes, but there is no way to connect menu choices directly to user-defined code entry points. Another tool, Viewpaint, is more stable and mature than Protogen. Viewpaint lets users place and position child window controls or fields onto the surface of a view. These views have a non-Windows feel. ProtoView is priced at $695. CaseWorks: Case:W. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) Case:W, from CaseWorks, is a point-and-click application interface generator for Windows 3.0. The $995 package is a good product for building user interfaces for Windows programs. Microsoft Excel and Aldus Pagemaker have smoother benchmark operations. Case:W uses MS Windows SDK 3.0 and Microsoft C Compiler. Menu-building facilities include support for configuring external code modules and linking to external applications. Extended code support for dialog boxes allows comprehensive edit field validation. Code can be generated that supports linking buttons to other dialog boxes. Documentation is not bad and is augmented with a good help file. SLR Systems: Optlink/Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) Optlink/Windows, $350 from SLR Systems in Butler, PA, is a replacement for the Microsoft segmented executable linker (MS-Link). The SRL Systems version is an improvement on MS-Link, and has features not found on MS-Link: OptLink/Windows can link an entire application, FIXDS.EXE development tool is built in, detailed generation of .MAP files, and speedy execution. Documentation is clear and descriptive and easy to read. One problem with the extended features is that sometimes they require the application's module definition (.DEF) file to be changed. The package is recommended for fast speed in the development cycle. Nu-Mega Technologies: CV/1. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) CV/1, $129 from Nu-Mega Technologies, is a fantastic single monitor debugger for Windows applications. The CV/1 Window has a mouse feel, however the drawback is that a portion of the display screen is covered by the CV/1 Window. This problem can be solved by switching with the F4 key. System requirements for the program include Windows 3.0 running in enhanced mode and the Windows SDK 3.0. Nu-Mega Technologies can be reached at PO Box 7780 in Nashua, NH. Fax is (603)888-2465; phone (603)888-2386. The Stirling Group: Shield series products. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) The Stirling Group, from Shield Series Products, is a group of five software packages that act as insulation between the programmer and a specific application interface. The series includes InstallShield, TbxShield, LogShield, DbxShield and MemShield; all are available in both OS/2 Presentation Manager and Windows versions. Documentation is minimal. InstallShield is a group of programs for developing GUI-based installation utilities; it is a truly professional installation package. TbxShield for Windows provides a simple, easy to use API for building and displaying toolboxes. LogShield is a rudimentary library for adding macro recording and playback capability. DbxShield for Windows is an innovative library with its own API, and utilizes a scripting language with rules that allow the user to define relationships between child window controls at a higher level of abstraction. MemShield functions as an alternative to built-in OS/2 and Windows heap managers. InstallShield for Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) InstallShield for Windows is one of five products in the Shield series of products that provide insulation between the programmer and a specific application interface. InstallShield, from The Stirling Group, is a set of programs for development of GUI-based installation utilities for Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager. The package is of professional quality; it is a combination of compilable scripting language and file compression software. Unfortunately the documentation is minimal and the scripting language has poor language structures. The file compression utility is standard and in a sample installation turned in a 64 percent compression ratio on application files; execution speed is lackluster. The license agreement requires purchase of one copy of InstallShield for every application the user intends to distribute. TbxShield for Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) TbxShield for Windows, form The Stirling Group, is one of five products in the Shield series products. TbxShield provides a small robust library that functions similar to the Toolbox control in ControlPak/W. The program has a simple API for building on-screen toolboxes with buttons users can click with a mouse. Developers experienced with Windows or dialog box construction with the SDK can easily use TbxShield. Documentation is minimal. LogShield for Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) LogShield for Windows, from The Stirling Group, is one of five products in the Shield series. This addition has rudimentary macro recording capabilities. LogShield has several limitations as a library for adding macro recording and playback capability to applications. With LogShield's call hooks in place at the beginning of every WndProc and DlgProc, the library functions are available for recording and playback. The macro files cannot be edited by the user or the developer. Documentation is minimal. DbxShield for Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) DbxShield for Windows, from The Stirling Group, is the most innovative package in the Shield series products. DbxShield is a library with its own API, and features a dedicated scripting language to supplant dialog box message-processing. The program uses the object-oriented style to associate the scripts in a close coupling with a dialog box; the scripts can be compiled for privacy. The developer must be committed to the integration of an additional language. The program's scripting language features simplify repetitive tasks in coding dialog procedures. Documentation is complete, and must be used to take full advantage of all the product features. MemShield for Windows. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) MemShield for Windows, one of five products in The Stirling Group's Shield series, is touted by the manufacturer as a speedy alternative to the built-in Windows and OS/2 heap managers. Benchmark results from a rudimentary test indicate MemShield times of 2,140ms for alloc/free in the default near heap, and 14,900ms for alloc/free in the default large (far) heap. Comparative time using the Windows memory manager on a 20 MHz 80386 in enhanced mode, was 1,200ms for LocalAllocs/Lock/Unlock/Free and 4,120ms for GlobalAlloc/Lock/Unlock/Free. What to buy and why: a difficult question. (Software Review) (Windows development tools: Part 2) (evaluation) Development teams on a limited budget need to pick development software carefully. The overall choice is WindowsMAKER if the user can live without additional code generation for dialog boxes; there is no extended code support feature. Case:W and ProtoView are on a par with WindowsMAKER when features are compared. Clumsy interfaces make Protoview and Winpro/3 difficult to work with when productivity is a major issue. For dialog box power, the buyer needs to be aware of the different approaches taken by Dialog-Coder, DbxShield, ControlPak/W, and WM_CONTROL. Optlink is a good choice for those who can afford it. Actor 3.0. (Software Review) (Software Reviews) (evaluation) Entsminger, Gary. Actor 3.0, $895 from The Whitewater Group, is a complete object-oriented general purpose language that operates under Windows. The product also incorporates a set of classes for easier Windows application development, and an object-oriented sign approach for extending and modifying classes and applications without rewriting excess code. Actor is interactive and features source-level debugging, with immediate feedback. Whitewater continually adds class libraries; two of the latest are WinTrieve and ObjectGraphics. WinTrieve is a tool set for creating data management systems within Actor; this library can be used with either Actor or C. ObjectGraphics is an object-oriented graphics library that adds drawing, painting and font capabilities to Windows applications. WinTrieve is priced at $395; ObjectGraphics is $445. Whitewater offers 30-day unlimited phone support. Thereafter support is $250 annually. Spontaneous Assembly. (Software Review) (Software Reviews)(includes related article on macros) (evaluation) Spontaneous Assembly, $199 from Base Two Development, is a useful and simple-to-install library for assembly language programmers. System requirements include MS-DOS 2.0 or later, MDA, CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA or compatible adapter, MASM 5.1 or TASM compatible assembler and an 80X86-based machine. There are over 700 separate functions and procedures featured on Spontaneous Assembly, plus five standard memory models that will look familiar to C programmers. In order to install all five memory models, 7Mbytes of disk space is necessary. Eighteen functional areas are supported; they use a common interfacing philosophy for easy connection from one to the other. The functional areas deal with array management, buffer manipulation, character classification and conversion, data conversion, date-time manipulation, file and directory management, integer math, memory management and manipulation, string processing, table management and lookup, miscellaneous DOS operations, and general areas likely to appear on any assembly language program. Due to the extensive components, it could take years to learn all the aspects. The 750-page manual is complete and competent. There are a few missing macros. EZ-Install v. 2.12. (Software Review) (Software Reviews) (evaluation) EZ-Install 2.12, $149 from The Software Factory, is a fine product with the advantages and disadvantages usually associated with an installation program that has its own scripting language. The product consists of three major components: Installation Aid (menu-driven installation program), EZ-Paint (screen design tool), and EZ-Install script language. System requirements include MS-DOS 2.1 or higher, 192Kbytes available RAM and a hard disk. An OS/2 version is also available. One shortcoming is lack of an integrated compression and disk arranging facility. The manufacturer plans a customized version of LHARC.EXE in the future update. Documentation is comprehensive and has a complete index that enables routines to be located quickly. EZ-Paint makes it possible to create complicated graphical elements quickly. Son of rotten foundation: the sequel. (how to correct algorithm problems in floating point arithmetic) (tutorial) Algorithms must be reliable; the basis for most arithmetic problems is the lack of one-to-one mapping of the real number line to the set of floating-point numbers. Limited accuracy can sometimes be compensated for. The function offered is X_MINUS_TAN_X; it occurs at small, reduced angles; the leading X term cancels. Characteristics aimed at in the function include improved reliability, high efficiency, error tolerance and enhanced maintainability. Abstraction, information hiding, exception handling and modularity are the software engineering principles used to produce a function that meets the requirements. Ada, Modula-2 and C++ were developed with modern software development requirements in mind. Specification, initialization and implementation are described in detail. A program listing specifies the exact routine. Is copyright right? (the author's right to original expression) Hooten, Karen. Software developers pay the price of litigation in the developing world of programming. The Lotus versus Paperback case, where Lotus sued Paperback for infringing on its rights to the Lotus 1-2-3 interface (Paperback developed a similar interface) indicates the need for astute decisions. Several analysts viewed the decision as a death blow to software development; the court decided the organization of a program's menu structure can be copyrighted. Opponents viewed the decision as the beginning of the end to creativity and innovation in software. The decision only protects the exact replication of an interface, however. Some critics say the judge has limited understanding of the technology. Several more court cases may be necessary in order to establish legal precedence. Patent law, rather than copyright law, may be a better fit for the high-technology field of software development. At present, the field does not fit neatly into any particular legal niche. Formal specification of topological subdivisions using hypermaps. (technical) In a way, the ideas of Lienhardt about boundary-representation models are extended, interpreted and rewritten. He has shown that the topology of graphical objects can easily be described by mathematical concepts of map and generalized map. The map specification problems are emphasized, to take into account topology and, to some extent, geometry. Indications are also given about implementation. A technique of algebraic specification is used to define a universe of graphical objects and operations based on the maps and their extensions. First, a unifying concept of hypermap is specified, for which different levels of operations are given. In the next step, this notion is specialized to retrieve the maps and the generalized maps with their own operations. The fundamental properties of the model of boundary representation are defined, and then obtained from the formal specification. It is shown that the notion of hypermap helps to precisely define the morphology of the objects, i.e. geometrical embedding and photometry, which can be attached to elements of hypermaps. The case of surfaces is specially considered. The question of implementation is also considered. From an algebraic specification, numerous concrete representations can be developed. Two different representations are demonstrated: a rapid prototyping in OJB3 and an efficient pointer realization in C. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Chameleon - an integrated desktop CAD system. (technical) Rodriguez-Tellez, J. Anew integrated CAD system called Chameleon, which is based on an IBM PC AT compatible computer, is described. Like many commercially available systems, Chameleon can perform circuit simulation and circuit artwork generation for various technologies (i.e. PCB, thick and thin film, custom and gate array technology). Like other systems, the description of circuits to be simulated is performed using graphical schematic capture techniques, and the integration of the various modules is achieved through a database. Unlike other systems, however, Chameleon offers device characterization and modelling for linear and nonlinear circuit applications and allows the DC, AC, time and temperature behaviour of analogue circuits to be investigated on the bench. Since the scope of the system is so wide, the paper provides only a global overview of some of the capabilities of the full system. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Global and local data reduction strategies for cubic splines. (technical) Global and local algorithms are developed, which minimize the number of knots of approximating cubic spline functions within a given deviation in the uniform norm. The global algorithm leads to a good approach to the minimum number of knots. The local algorithm saves computing time but generally leads to satisfactory results. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Stepwise-overlapped parallel annealing and its application to floorplan designs. (technical) A new parallel annealing scheme, stepwise-overlapped parallel annealing, is proposed. This can provide a massive speedup using a multiprocessor system with a large number of processors. It decomposes the annealing process by means of Markov chains. The annealing scheme of the systolic algorithm proposed by Aart et. al. is improved. The improved annealing schedule keeps a good temperature profile even when a large number of processors are used. The communication pattern is also enhanced. The new parallel annealing algorithm is applied to floorplan design problems. Experimental results show that the new parallel annealing algorithm is highly effective for a large number of processors. The experimental results of the proposed algorithm are compared with those of other parallel annealing algorithms and the distributed genetic algorithm. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Bertrand offsets of ruled and developable surfaces. (technical) Ravani, B.; Ku, T.S. A generalization of the theory of Bertrand curves is presented for ruled and developable surfaces based on line geometry. Using lines instead of points as the geometric building blocks of space, two ruled surfaces which are offset in the sense of Bertrand are defined. It is shown that, in general, every ruled surface can have a double infinity of Bertrand offsets; but for a developable ruled surface to have a developable Bertrand offset, a linear equation should be satisfied between the curvature and torsion of its edge of regression. In addition, it is shown that the developable offsets of a developable surface are parallel offsets. The results, in addition to being of theoretical interest, have applications in geometric modelling and the manufacturing of products. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Approximate transformation of an arbitrary curved surface into a plane using dynamic programming. (technical) This paper is concerned with the approximate transformation of curved surfaces with arbitrary shape into a plane using dynamic programming. In designing for curved shapes, CAD systems have a prominent role; in particular, methods for the transformation of arbitrary regions on the curved surface into flattened forms are indispensable for manufacturing processes. Generally, until now, in the absence of a systematic scheme for obtaining flattened forms, manual methods have needed a great deal of work. A method to transform curved surfaces using the finite element method has already been proposed. In this paper, DP is introduced into the primal problem. That is, an objective curved surface is decomposed into regions of adjacent strips. Then, each region is developed in turn into a flattened shape. The whole shape is derived by solving multi-stage decision processes. Moreover, a two-step algorithm is proposed for obtaining a good initial shape. By way of illustration, the results are then applied to the problem of transforming duct and shoe models into flattened forms. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Happy CAD/CAM campers. (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing market analysis) Vendors in the CAD/CAM and computer aided engineering (CAE) markets have a rosy outlook as they finish 1990 in the black. Daratech Inc reports mainframe sales up 18 percent in the US for IBM, and European and Asian sales up 20 percent. Computervision revenues are up 10 percent in 1990 to $820 million. HP had record revenue at the end of 1990 with $375 million in CAD/CAM sales of the ME10 and ME30 systems. HP plans to build on its mechanical CAD and design automation business. Intergraph anticipates good business for MDS, a mechanical drafting software based on the Intergraph 2000 Series workstations. CAD strikes melodious chords. (CAE in Action; computer-aided design) John Brombaugh, John Brombaugh & Associates, uses a 386 Dell computer running VersaCAD/386 to design pipe organs that sound like 17th century pipe organs. all the parts for the custom designed organs are designed using the VersaCAD software, which comes from Computervision. His first design is based on a 1685 English organ design and has 80 sets of pipes. The project will take over 3 years to complete from design to final tuning. Brombaugh says using software gives him greater feasibility and allows for design upgrades. CAD cuts saw development time. (computer-aided design; Application Note) The Milwaukee Electric Tool Co uses Integraph's Engineering Modeling System (I/EMS) integrated software to design its over 250 electric tools. Using I/EMS lets all project engineers work simultaneously on a project and see the changes other engineers make as they make them. Because the user interface is associated with all applications within Milwaukee Electric Tool, engineers spend their time designing tools, not going back and forth between formats. The company started with 10 Integraph Interpro workstations in 1988 and has expanded to 16 workstations. Productivity has increased as each workstation has been added. Number crunchers at NASA. (includes related article on Cray) Carrabine, Laura. NASA Lewis Research Center recently purchased a Cray Research YMP-2E. This machine has a crescent shape that allows rapid parallel and vector processing and high I/O bandwidth to give fast, efficient output. The Y costs less to purchase, install, operate and maintain than other super computers do. It is air cooled, has an electrical power system that does not need a motor generator set, and customers can prepare their own sites before installation. NASA uses the Y to model the flow of gases through jet engines. The Y is so fast, it would take a 600 line per minute printer 35 days to print the answers the Y calculates in one second. As another illustration, it would take 1,000 people 167 days to type every Social Security number. It takes the Y one-fourth of a second to total all those numbers. Linking design and manufacturing. (includes related articles on PDM systems) Product data management (PDM) is seen as supplying the missing link between design and manufacturing, since a PDM controls and manages the flow of information between the two. This is an emerging market and there are a number of differences in the PDM systems available. PDM systems from CAD/CAM vendors usually are tightly integrated with the modeling package, while packages from other vendors usually deal with files, not their contents. A PDM system includes a data base management system, networks and network services, and user interfaces. PDM functions include file management, including access, security, data transfer, and archiving; management of the review and release process; and project/product management. Many experts think the real interest in PDMs is as a tool for implementing concurrent engineering. It is not clear if one PDM package can handle both formal release programs and concurrent engineering, which is informal. Analysis for mechanical design. (includes related article on analysis approaches) The mechanical computer-aided engineering (MCAE) industry is just beginning to provide integrated analysis tools for design engineers, but not enough attention has been given to the actual needs of engineers as they do their jobs. The difference between the analysis needs of the design engineering and those of the dedicated analyst is the difference between analysis for validation (analysts) versus analysis for understanding (design). The four major factors needed to tie analysis and design together are a seamless geometry interface, quality of results, fault-tolerant systems, and ease of use. The three main mathematical approaches used to compute a part's mechanical performance are finite element, boundary integral, and finite difference/volume. None of these approaches meets all the requirements. Shortening product lead time. (Federal-Mogul Corp.)(includes related article on components of success) Federal-Mogul Corp, an auto parts and tool maker, reduced its sample development process from 20 weeks to 20 days by examining and changing its product development process. Teams were established to determine system solutions for CAD/CAM, engineering data management, cost estimating, and status tracking. Designing, developing, and implementing software and hardware tools to reduce production time was the responsibility of a tools team. Integrating and automating the product development procedures resulted in the reduced production time. Company pres Fred Musone says improved process and procedures brought about 80 percent of the improvement and technology accounted for the other 20 percent. Test drive without leaving home. (University of Iowa's CAD Center's driving simulator)(includes related articles on the The University of Iowa's Center for Simulation and Design Optimization is one of the largest organizations in the world dedicated to simulation-based CAD/CAM research. One of its newest projects is the Iowa Driving Simulator, which has a $6 million CT-6 image generator from Evans & Sutherland. The CT-6 renders 60 frames per second. The main benefit of the simulator is that any kind of vehicle and operator tests can be conducted without putting the operator in danger. The center is also working on real-time simulation, dynamics workstations, visualization of dynamic systems, and new general-purpose multi-body dynamic simulation code. CAD/CAM under the gun. (Industry Perspective) (column) Foundyller, Charles. The Gulf War is having reverberations in the CAD/CAM industry. International travel is not happening and video teleconferencing is taking its place. Most industry officials and watchers say it is too early to tell what effect the Gulf War will have. Some early changes are increased security and a new interest in video teleconferencing. Some officials expect that defense customers will buy more CAD/CAM products while non-defense companies may defer purchases. Variety key to one-stop shopping. (The VAR Side) (column) Carrabine, Laura. TechExpress Inc is a new value-added reseller that company officials say provides one-stop shopping for engineers, scientists, and other technical microcomputer users. The company has in-house engineers who match customers' needs with the appropriate software package from the over 100 programs the company provides. Supplying technical and application information is part of the company's service. A survey done by TechExpress shows 50 percent of microcomputer users are engineers who work on EDA-related projects, 25 percent are MCAE users, and 12 percent use CASE products. This led to the company's initial focus on EDA products. Metasystems to the rescue. (The Computer-Aided Engineer) (column) Orr, Joel N. Computer users who write letters, reports, and articles on different computers or who try out new systems or who switch systems need a computer-based way to find things. What is needed is a metasystem, which is a system about the systems used. A metasystem is a series of lists where the user records where important data is stored. Using a word processor for the metasystem permits the user to use the word processor's search function to find things. Capturing conceptual designs. (Floating Point; includes related article on what-if engineering) (column) Constraint-based geometric modeling (CBGM) is equivalent to a geometric spreadsheet for engineers and is designed to meet the needs of mechanical engineers to streamline the iterative conceptual design process. CBGM combines a sketch pad, equation solver, calculator and report writer and also is able to manipulate geometry, math and text. A constraint manager that has an iterative solver with a two-way link between geometry and engineering calculations is the heart of CBGM. CBGM permits conceptual designs to be changed easily, which should result in the exploration of more design alternatives. Networking standards: heading for harmony. (Industry Watch) Schmitt, William A. Two major committees working to achieve a consensus on medical information system networking standards are the Healthcare Information Standards Committee (HISCC) and Europe's Center European de Standardization, also known as the Center for European Normalization (CEN), and its healthcare subcommittee. The HISCC provides a means of communication and coordination for several member standards committees, including Health Level Seven (HL7) and the IEEE P1157 Medical Data Interchange (MEDIX). Most HISCC members feel that the organization has been a success in working towards medical networking standards, though there are differences among some groups, such as HL7 and MEDIX. The committees believe a universal networking standard can be developed by combining the best efforts of each group. The integrated hospital database in an open architecture environment. (Networking) Integrated hospital data bases (IHDs) are a means of consolidating data for open architecture, distributed hospital information systems (HISs). Implementation of open HISs based on standard communications protocols and employing software applications from multiple vendors is a major trend in the healthcare market because it enables hospitals to choose the most suitable applications for their needs. The IHD provides a central repository for business and clinical data taken from current hospital applications. The data is readily available for analysis and presentation. Relational data base management systems and SQL access technology are well-suited for such IHD applications. Defining a viable architecture for the IHD requires determining the application sources of the data, the nature of the data to be sent to and stored in the IHD, the format of the data and when it is sent. Back to school at Cleveland Clinic. (decentralization of management requires training administrators in management and Decentralization of decision-making and accountability to department levels at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF, Cleveland, OH) requires providing department administrators and physicians with management and information systems knowledge and skills. The CCF consists of a 900-bed hospital, a large multi-speciality clinic, a research institute and a graduate medical education program. Rapid growth in CCF staff and patient care requires decentralizing the operations, so the CCF Office of Practice Management has developed two 12-week training programs to provide physicians with management skills. Six hours in each program are devoted to an online tutorial on the use of the hospital information system software employed at CCF. Resistance to this aspect of the program is prompting the Practice Management training staff to start mandatory full-day computer labs for administrators. Parametric programming and Lagrangian relaxation: the case of the network problem with a single side-constraint. (technical) Programming problems such as the shortest path problem, the constrained assignment problem, and constrained network flow problems may be solved by applying some of the same strategies that are considered when searching for a solution to the Langrangian relaxation (LR) problem. A solution to this problem may be obtained by exploring the relationship between the LR problem and parametric programming. The LR technique is often applied when one is attempting to solve a problem that is formulated as a network problem with a linear side-constraint because an LR of a problem provides a lower bound on the optimal value of the objective function of the original problem. Several algorithms are presented that provide a parametric programming approach to LR. This topic may be explored more thoroughly in the future by examining the use of these algorithms for obtaining the optimal value of the Lagrangian function for certain problems. Replacement strategies with mixed corrective actions at failure. (technical) Resource management strategies require a plan for preventive replacement to avoid waste and prevent delays due to item failure. A policy is suggested that would replace the periodic replacement policy, in which an operating unit is replaced preventively by a new one at times independent of failure history and replaced when it fails. Although others have suggested modifications to this strategy, these modifications have largely involved implementing new kinds of corrective actions at the point of failure. An alternative preventive replacement policy involves either replacing the unit at failure, performing minimal repairs, or allowing the unit to remain inactive, depending on the time interval in which the failure occurs. The suggested policy is more flexible, since it allows the manager more options at the time of failure, and it is easier to implement than other policies. An efficient four-phase heuristic for the generalized orienteering problem. (technical) An algorithm is proposed that solves a problem illustrated by the sport of orienteering. In orienteering, participants select a single path from start to finish, visiting control points along the path. Participants increase their scores by visiting the control points but they also spend time traveling between control points. The problem is to select a path that maximizes the total prize so that the total cost of a given path is less than the value of the prize. A four-phase heuristic is proposed that solves the problem. These phases, called the vertex insertion, cost improvement, vertex deletion, and maximal insertion phases, are integrated within an algorithmic framework with five control parameters that serve to guide the search process. This algorithm can be expanded to solve a number of different practical problems with arbitrary cost functions. An optimal algorithm for the multiproduct capacitated facility location problem with a choice of facility type. (technical) An algorithm is proposed that allows users to determine the optimal solution to the standard capacitated facility location problem and, in fact, extends that problem to a generalization of a multiproduct-multitype capacitated facility location problem. In this type of problem, users must determine the location of a number of facilities which must serve a set of customers at minimum cost. Customer demands are assigned to the facilities and the fixed costs for opening a facility and the fixed cost for producing the products are also incurred within the model. The proposed model is not complete, since it does not consider issues such as capacity of route. However, the solution algorithm should hopefully serve as a basis for an improved algorithm or a means for evaluating other proposals. The algorithm is based on Benders' decomposition and provides computation results that are quite encouraging. Complementarity between the finite capacity and finite source queuing systems. (technical) Real-life problems have been analyzed with the help of two classes of queuing systems, finite capacity systems and finite source systems. In the first type, a multiple-server queuing system with no waiting room space, an arrival that finds all servers busy will leave without being served. The second type, a queuing system with finite source size, can be considered a complement to a multiple-server Erlang's loss system in regards to system size. The interrelation of these two types of systems can be demonstrated. It is also possible to determine the ergodic distribution of the system size for a finite source queuing system if the ergodic distribution of a corresponding Erlang's loss system is known. This interrelation also exists in the in reference to the mean system wait, server utilization, and mean busy periods for these two systems. Augment-insert algorithms for the capacitated arc routing problem. (technical) Two new algorithms are presented that provides a near-optimal solution of the capacitated arc routing problem (CARP). This problem is a capacitated variation of the rural postman problem, in which a capacity constraint is associated with each vehicle and heuristic procedures are desired to solve CARP. In CARP, an undirected network with nonnegative arc demands and arc costs is postulated, and therefore a set of minimal-cost cycles with each cycle passing through a central depot node must be found and vehicle routes must be designed so that several demands are met, such as a reduction in total routing cost. A solution to this problem can also be applied to real-life problems such as routing of school buses, meter reading, and inspection of gas or power lines. The two algorithms that are presented are fast, straightforward, and easy to implement. They use tour-augment and insertion ideas and they have been tested on many problems with sparse network and large arc demands. Parallel processing and OR/MS. (operations research/management science) (technical) The computer industry invested heavily in parallel processing architecture research during the later part of the 1980's and this research has changed parallel processing from a theoretical issue to a commercial issue that holds the promise of replacing much of the existing hardware in the engineering and scientific arenas. Although this area is vital, parallel processing also may solve some of the problems that arise in the operations research/management science field. Problems in this area, which typically involve combinatorial analysis, large-scale allocation, and simulation of complex systems, are often considered too expensive or impractical to solve. Parallel processing can process several parts of the same problem simultaneously, thus reducing overall computation time by a wide margin. Some of these operations research problems will be solved using coarse-grained multiple-instruction, multiple-data parallel computers. Introduction to artificial neural systems for pattern recognition. (technical) Neural networks are the latest trend in artificial intelligence and they hold the promise of solving some of the problems involving pattern recognition, including vision and speech processing technology. Neural networks, which operate in a manner similar to that of the brain and nervous system, also offer potential breakthroughs in solving decision making problems through the use of high level pattern recognition. People working in the operations research field need to be aware of artificial neural systems applications in solving optimization problems and decision problems involving forecasting and control. At the same time, neural network researchers can be aided by a knowledge of the operations research approach to decision making, so that the researchers can identify new areas of application and more quickly recognize advances in neural networks that will truly benefit users. Robust decisions in economic models. (technical) Sengupta, Jati K. Two broad measures of robustness can be developed in data envelopment analysis for efficiency measurement. This includes a measure which characterizes the probability distribution of random states of nature which generate the observed input-output data, and another measure which introduces a minimax class of optimal solutions. These optimal solutions have their robustness properties in a game-theoretic sense. These measures, or methods, assume inadequate knowledge of the decision-maker about the random states of nature. They also test a chosen strategy or solution to find out if it is sensitive to the worse contingency that may arise. The measures are illustrated through models of efficiency measurement according to the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. These measures show how robustness concepts can be incorporated into the DEA model by screening data sets and selecting the samples which are most appropriate. Gestalt system of holistic graphics: new management support view of MCDM. (multiple criteria decision making) (technical) Computers are better at processing numerical information, while most humans are better at processing graphical information. This mismatch is being addressed by attempts to find better ways to teach and equip computers to accomplish graphical reasoning. This different approach will help computers enhance and support human skills. A holistic system of unaggregated multidimensional profiles is presented wherein visualization of system information is done by transforming numerical data into graphical images. The proposed system, which is driven by attainable and non-attainable ideals, aspiration levels or referential structures, and their redefinition under changing circumstances, avoids reducing multicriterion dimensionality to a single number. Methodological developments and applications must take into account the system-organizational requirements and conditions that are an integral part of management support systems. The secret of success. (how to succeed as an independent consultant) (editorial) Information is a key to success as an independent computer consultant. A consultant should spend one-fourth of her or his time learning by reading newsletters, books and trade periodicals; attending conferences, seminars and classes; finding out about new techniques and products; and investing in proper equipment. In an unrelated note, 'X-Base' is the new term for 'dBASE-like.' X-Base products include dBASE III Plus, dBASE IV, FoxPro, Quicksilver, Clipper and Alpha Four. The term 'X-Base' is several years old and is now found at user group meetings and CompuServe and in papers and articles. Looking at your database from the Outside In. (utility program from Systems Compatibility Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Outside In is a terminate-and-stay-resident file-transfer utility from Systems Compatibility Corp of Chicago. Occupying 70Kbytes of RAM, Outside In allows a user to view information from spreadsheet and database files and import it into a word-processing document. Activating Outside In is done by pushing Ctrl-I. The interface, which lists available files, is much like Norton Commander's. Transferring information is simply a matter of blocking and copying text. Data can be transferred selectively, by alternate rows or columns, for example. Attributes such as underline and boldface are maintained. Outside In is flexible and logical. The documentation is excellent. Price is $99 for a standalone version and $299 for a local-area-network version. Doing flashy dialog boxes. (Flash Creative Management's Code In a Flash template for FoxView) (product announcement) Code In A Flash is a $195 template from Flash Creative Management of Teaneck, NJ, for creating FoxPro programs with CUA-like dialog boxes. Code In A Flash works with the FoxView screen designer that comes bundled with FoxPro. Code In A Flash allows the creation of text-based objects that look like check boxes, radio buttons, and so forth. Code In A Flash-generated dialog boxes support such nuances as enabled and disabled objects; context-sensitive help; and Tab keys that properly move the cursor around the dialog box's objects. Code In A Flash produces excellent programs. Its chief weakness is scant documentation. R!Genesis attempts to offer an R:BASE app starting point. (program development software from Custom Database Solutions) (product Custom Database Solutions of San Carlos, CA, debuts R!Genesis, a set of application utilities and routines aimed at cutting the time required for developing R:BASE applications. R!Genesis comes in two versions, one for R:BASE 2.11 and one for R:BASE 3.1. R!Genesis builds data dictionary tables for databases; developers then insert hooks into applications for time logging, standard security, report management and integrity functions. R!Genesis suffers from poor documentation and difficulty in customizing and integrating the product into applications. A major revision is in the works. Price is $129 without source code and $395 with source code. A Force-ful library from Jeff Davis. (the Jeff Davis Library for Force compiler from Jeff Davis and Associates) (Software Review) Jeff Davis and Associates of Boulder, CO, debuts the Jeff Davis Library for Force, a comprehensive, well-thought-out programming library expressly for the Force compiler - the first from a third-party developer, in fact. The functions come in 20 Clipper library-like categories, including Arrays, Binary File I/O, Interrupts/Pointers, Mouse, Printer and Screen. The library, which occupies 600Kbytes, includes such specialized functions as financial ones for calculating simple and compound interest. Except for the lack of windowing functions, the Jeff Davis Library is equal to most Clipper libraries. Force developers will immediately begin saving effort and time with the Jeff Davis Library. Price is $249. SIR: a hierarchy of heart attacks. (SIR USA Inc.'s SIR database management system ported to DOS-based microcomputers; it was used SIR USA Inc of Deerfield, IL, has ported its mainframe-based SIR (Scientific Information Retrieval) database management system (DBMS) to MSDOS-based microcomputers. SIR is the DBMS of choice for medical research. SIR is hierarchical. While SIR is not relational, it provides a high degree of data integrity and quality control and seamless interfaces to statistical software packages. SIR is a highly structured, data-dictionary-driven DBMS. It is also case-oriented, meaning that databases are organized around one entity, called the Case I.D. This unique identifier links the data stored in multiple record types. SIR suffers from a 1970s-vintage user interface and poorly integrated modules. Pop-up messages using windows. (Mac Rubel's Power Tools)(column) (tutorial) A function is given for adding windows with messages to FoxPro, dBASE and Clipper programs; specifically, a message telling operators to take a break while their computers reindex a master file and all of its children. The function, called POPTALK, should save many hours in coding messages. Under POPTALK, the program receives a message string from the calling program; then POPTALK begins to work. A line of code may be added easily to POPTALK that pauses the message and then releases the window when the user hits a key. Colors and sounds may also be changed. Word-wrap a character string. (solution to a programming problem) (tutorial) In the previous issue's assignment, the reader was asked to extract lines of a specific length from a character string and then figure out how many lines of text there would be in a message box with a given line length. One approach to this problem involves writing a parsing routine that moves from right to left in the string, starting at the maximum line length plus one. This approach is used in the MEMOLINE function, the code for which is given. The second approach tells how many lines of a given length exist in a character string. This approach is used in function MLCOUNT, also given. A third approach that may be taken by FoxPro developers involves using the MEMLINES() and MLINE() functions. The lesson to be learned is to always look for easy ways out of programming dilemmas. WAITing for trouble. (PAL's WAIT command) (The Paradox Programmer)(column) (tutorial) One of the PAL language's most powerful and useful commands is the WAIT command, with which a user can look at or change a table, field or record. However, WAIT hides a large number of traps. F1, the 'table-lookup' function, and Ctrl-Z, the 'zoom' function, require special programming to avoid pitfalls. When Ctrl-Z is pressed while in a WAIT TABLE command, Paradox will respond to many functions that the WAIT command would normally prohibit. One solution is to add 'Zoom' to the UNTIL list and beep if the user presses it; however, the user will be able to perform no more searches. Other, more complex solutions are given. The best may be to add the 'Zoom' key to the UNTIL list and then write a PAL procedure that walks the user around Zoom's pitfalls. F1's flaws and possible solutions are also discussed. The secrets of array handling, part 1. (of two parts) (Hardcore Clipper)(column) (tutorial) Clipper 5.0's new array handling capabilities are discussed, including how to create arrays, how to change their size and how to implement them. Examples are given. Arrays are created in Clipper Summer '87 by using either the PRIVATE, PUBLIC or DECLARE declarative statements. PRIVATE and PUBLIC arrays may be created using Version 5.0; LOCAL, INTERNAL STATIC and EXTERNAL STATIC arrays may also be created. Arrays may be initialized when the array is declared using array constants and an in-line assignment operator. Array sizes may be easily changed in Version 5.0 by using ASIZE(). Elements may be added to the end of an array by using the AADD() function. In Version 5.0, arrays exist in their own right, and not simply as part of a variable. Set up your accounting records, part 1. (includes related articles on billing clients and a sample chart of accounts) (How to Succeed Accounting records are the keystone of good business management. An accounting system should provide key data for running a business, including the status of a business at any given time and a log of financial events over time. An accounting system is structured like a pyramid, with transactions at the bottom and groupings and summaries at the top. 'Transactions' are defined; they are generally business exchanges, but sometimes they can be an accounting event, such as a fire that damages merchandise. Every accounting system has five types of accounts: assets, or what the business owns; liabilities, or what it owes; equity, or the owner's investment in the business and non-distributed profit; income, or money earned; and expenses, or assets spent by the business. All the account classifications in a business are listed under the Chart of Accounts; examples are 'office furniture' under 'long term assets' and 'parking' under 'expenses.' The General Ledger (G/L) lists all the amounts in the Chart of Accounts. Small satisfactions. (consulting for small, or "micro-based", businesses) (includes 15 related articles on consulting tips and Some consultants say it is a waste of time to consult for tiny, one- or two-person businesses. Still, they make good clients for those just entering the consulting field. Working for such 'micro' clients offers its own satisfactions, such as fast completion times and a wide variety of work. There are many micro businesses and they will talk up a good consultant. The micro business may grow, bringing lucrative contracts to the consultant. The consultant will often work closely with the principals, gaining valuable knowledge of a specific business. One of the biggest attractions is in meeting intelligent, self-driven business people. Tips and guidelines are given for micro-consulting. Big game hunting. (getting big businesses as consulting clients) (includes related articles giving consulting tips) (How to Succeed For computer consultants, medium- to large-size businesses offer a high return on marketing time and the promise of continuing contracts. In contrast to small businesses, bigger clients are generally better educated, pay better, and will not haggle over every dollar or hour charged. Selling to big businesses is usually more time-consuming, complex and riskier than selling to small businesses. The competition is usually stiffer. Consultants often face a chicken-and-the-egg situation when a big business demands references on big projects the consultant has performed. Consultants will usually work closely with users, but will also have to impress information systems (IS) professionals within the company. Image is very important in dealing with big business; it demonstrates a willingness to play the game their way. Other tips and guidelines for landing and completing big-business contracts are discussed. Flex reports, part 1. (includes related article on FoxPro 2.0 Report Writer changes) (Hands-On FoxPro)(column) (tutorial) The true power of FoxPro's Report Writer lies in its ability to incorporate developer-generated tools with its set of built-ins. Report Writer gracefully handles vertical lists of items or details in rows. Handling details in columns (horizontally), however, takes some effort. Several solutions are given for handling variable-width reports. Code listings are provided. Putting OOP to work for you. (object-oriented programming) (includes related article defining OOP and discussing why it Most programmers with object-oriented programming (OOP) experience say it more closely follows the way people think than procedural languages. OOP is neither more difficult nor more time consuming than procedural languages. Clipper 5.0 has a few objects, but is not yet a full-blown OOP language. The OOP 'class' is the definition of an abstract data type, or object. The class contains both methods and data. Developers may use classes without knowing what goes on inside of them. Classes that 'inherit' features from another class are subclasses. Objects communicate by sending messages. 'Binding' is creating a run-time module by joining an application's specific OBJs with the reusable OBJs stored in a library. Binding may be early, late or dynamic. One feature of dynamic binding is the ability to reuse objects in any application at any time. 'Polymorphism' is the ability to send the same message to multiple objects in order to achieve different results. dSTORY; how I really developed dBASE. (author of dBASE tells of the database management system's history) The history of dBASE begins with the author's attempt to develop a program so that he could better understand the football pool being run at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. He was quickly fired with the idea of writing a program that could understand normal English and work on the fly. He came across a manual for JPLDIS, an English-like DBMS, and ported it to a simple IMSAI 8080 microcomputer with 48Kbytes of RAM running Processor Technology's PTDOS. Jeb Long, a JPLDIS programmer, saw the new program, dubbed Vulcan, and became enthusiastic about its marketability. Vulcan was licensed to JPL in 1979. The author made several modifications to make it more like JPLDIS. He added full-screen capability, replacing a teletype-at-a-line orientation. In 1980, he signed a one-year marketing agreement with Hal Pawluk, Hal Lashlee and George Tate, and Ashton-Tate was born. Create the truly reusable routine. (design of Clipper Winter '84 and Clipper 5.0) (Clipper Developer)(column) (tutorial) Most programmers of dBASE-like database management systems (DBMSs) program procedures and procedure files using the DO command, originally found in dBASE II. A DO command, once executed, returns to the calling routine via the RETURN command. Clipper Winter '84 took a slightly different tack: in some cases the DO operation winds up with a value, which is then returned to the calling task. Thus was born the user-defined function (UDF), defined as a procedural set of operations with a return value. The original Clipper also treated functions and procedures identically and gave a procedure a default return value. Clipper also allowed a procedure to be called without a DO command. Features of Clipper 5.0 are discussed in detail, including the pre-processor, which matches texts and patterns and converts them to internal Clipper statements and functions, and data storage classes, which are two new methods by which Clipper treats the existence and visibility of a variable. Dressing applications: pictures in the right places can spice up your application and improve its usability.... (Mac Most Apple Macintosh applications put some picture on the screen when they start up to help users remember the application. Because the graphically based Mac uses menu bars that stay out of the way when they are not being used, the screen is often blank. For aesthetic reasons alone, it should be filled up. New ways to provide Mac users with navigational information include button-like menu choices that appear whenever a menu option has been selected. Pictures used in menu and start-up screens can be stored in a resource or database file. Storing pictures in a database file is simply a matter of creating a field with the 'pict' data type, opening it during a browse, double clicking on the picture field, and pasting in a picture from a clipboard or scrapbook. Instructions are given for incorporating pictures into FoxBASE+/Mac applications. Data dictionaries and demos. (using the Data Based Advisor Forum on CompuServe) (DB Connections) (column) Tips and information based on CompuServe's Data Based Advisor Forum are given. Data dictionaries store information about every field and file in an application, including query optimization information, referential integrity between files and field validation rules. Readers may download and test out a multi-module accounting system from Expert Interface Systems that runs on FoxBase/FoxPro/Runtime. Other demonstration programs that may be downloaded from the forum include Black and White International's Dr. Switch-ASE, a program switching utility; Scan-A-Lyzer!, a dBASE-compatible documenting and code-formatting tool; and hyperkinetix Inc's WarpLink, a dynamic overlay linker for BASIC, Clarion and Clipper. Fast work. (the North Carolina Developer's Competition) Droege, Thomas. In Jan 1991, one- and two-person development teams from four different states met at the North Carolina Developer's Competition. With an eye on $75,000 worth of prizes, the teams used the tools of their choice to develop a patient tracking system for Duke Medical Center's Child Protection Team within a six-hour deadline. Advice on running a similar competition is given. Promotion should start months ahead of the event. A site, sponsorship, judges and prizes must all be found. Great effort should be expended to attract competitors. The contest application should be interesting and different, with an altruistic bent. Event sponsors are advised to participate in similar events in order to gain fresh insights. How to beat IBM's software shakedown. (high prices for IBM mainframe software) (Open Networking Views) (column) IBM is gouging its captive customers on systems and communication software. These customers have millions of dollars invested in mainframes, which in turn cannot work without the proper software. In 1981, IBM's Virtual Telecommunications Access Method (VTAM) cost $385 per month; today, VTAM fees can surpass $4,500. In an attempt to cover up the high price hikes, IBM is using forced bundling and calling software upgrades 'new versions' instead of 'new releases.' For example, in 1982 IBM began bundling Multiple Systems Network Facility (MSNF) with VTAM 2.0. Even though many VTAM users did not need MSNF, they had to pay for it. Firms forced to buy IBM software are advised to scrutinize their invoices closely. Many firms pay for multiple versions of the same software or for software they do not use anymore. Big firms are advised to insist that if IBM replaces a software package with a new version, the new version is free. Firms should know when to lease and when to rent IBM software and should consider alternatives to IBM products. Don't blame Lady Luck when backup plans fail. (WAN Views) (column) Cotton, Dirk. The cost of data transmission has dropped dramatically since the early 1980s, in large part because single, large-bandwidth facilities can now multiplex a large number of applications. However, relying on fewer facilities means taking a greater risk should one of those facilities fail. No backup system is wholly foolproof. Analog backup is an old standby; only the failure of the local loop will wipe it out. However, analog backup suffers from limited bandwidth. Another alternative is diversely routed private lines, which most interexchange carriers offer at modest or no additional charge. However, some carriers only provide diversity for T1 communications. The process of moving customer circuits to take advantage of diverse routing also has its pitfalls. Switched digital services such as Nynex Corp's Switchway have their own set of problems. Communications managers are advised to use different carriers for primary and backup circuits. Broadband bonanza: uniting packets and circuits. (new switches and techniques for internetworking) (Internetworking Views) (column) For many applications, the ideal local area network (LAN)/wide area network (WAN) integration platform is an emerging category of broadband switches that exploit the newest techniques for cell relay, hybrid packet/circuit and cross-point switching. These broadband switches promise to combine the low transit delays of circuit switching with the efficiencies of packet switching. Cell relay, one of the newer packet-switching techniques, is ideal for bursty real-time applications. Cell relay has low overhead and permits several virtual services to share the same pipe as needed. Next-generation switches from Marlborough, MA-based Coral Network may be the best example of the confluence of telecom and internetworking. The diversity of architectural approaches taken by broadband network vendors seems confusing now, but they should work to users' advantage in the long run. HLM explores a new world of LAN management. (Heterogeneous LAN Management, a new technology for managing local area networks) Heterogeneous LAN (local area network) Management (HLM), co-developed by 3Com and IBM, seems to have much going for it; still, one cannot say whether it will meet with success or not. HLM addresses the growing need to manage interconnected, multi-vendor LANs. Based on OSI's Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), the HLM specification eliminates the need to support OSI Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 and rearranges Levels 2 and 7. As a result, HLM is expected to save 200Kbytes to 400Kbytes of RAM and cost less. HLM's commercial potential is difficult to assess because it leaves many key questions unanswered. For one thing, most potential users do not have CMIP management centers. Another problem is that neither 3Com nor IBM has committed to HLM-based products. It is too early to tell whether third-party vendors will support HLM. A simpler way to send software. (electronic software distribution) (includes related article on the Synchrony off-the-shelf Electronic software distribution (ESD) is emerging at last as a mainstream technology. With ESD software, microcomputer applications are transferred to minicomputers or mainframes and are then sent out to other microcomputers via coaxial cables or local area networks (LANs). Microcomputer-resident ESD software then sets up the applications to run properly. ESD enables MIS managers to quickly install new applications, keep better tabs on who has what application, enforce corporate software standards and detect and evict viruses. ESD is expected to become especially popular with managers of client/server networks. Vendors such as NCR Corp and IBM are debuting ESD software. SDLC support takes networks beyond Big Blue; Cisco and Wellfleet routers will connect IBM communications gear with non-IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) transmission capabilities recently announced by Bedford, MA-based Wellfleet Communications Inc and Menlo Park, CA-based Cisco Systems Inc will allow those firms' multiprotocol routers to transmit IBM's synchronous data link protocol (SDLC). Users of the routers will be able to consolidate traffic from remote IBM and non-IBM computers to central locations onto single backbone networks, thus saving money. Wellfleet's and Cisco's SNA support means that network managers will no longer have to buy third-party gateways or protocol converters in order to connect IBM communications controllers with router-based local area network (LAN) internetworks. Wellfleet includes SNA capability in Version 5.60 of its router software, slated to ship in Feb 1991. Cisco's SDLC capability will be included in all its routers by mid-1991. Better to switch than fight; fax switches give carriers and corporations the ability to manage unwieldy fax traffic. Facsimile technology has saddled organizations with soaring communications bills and overloaded telephone lines. One in-house solution is large store-and-forward switches that centralize fax management, transmission and reception. These switches save money by sending fax batches in off-hours or by using less costly private networks. Switches that can convert Group 3 analog to Group 4 digital signals allow faxes to be sent over less expensive digital lines. Some switches can store nearly 10,000 pages and transmit thousands of pages daily. The fax switch market is expected to grow rapidly to as much as $250 million in 1993, according to Norwell, MA-based Bis Cap International Inc, a market research firm. Switch prices range from $4,995 for Billerica, MA-based Biscom Inc's Faxcom 2000, which has one port and 40Mbytes of storage, to Naples, FL-based SpectraFax Corp's Special Request, which can have as many as 48 ports and 330Mbytes of memory and costs $275,000. A common API for Unix; the first standard API for any OSI layer will simplify the coexistence and migration of applications. Proponents of every major Unix flavor have agreed to support the X/Open Transport Interface (XTI), a common application program interface. XTI will allow applications using different protocols to communicate without the need for rewriting. XTI should also simplify applications migration across platforms. The supporters, including Sun Microsystems Inc, DEC, HP, the Open Software Foundation, ICL, IBM and Siemens, have agreed to implement XTI in their respective flavors of Unix. One of XTI's chief attractions is its capability to allow the OSI and TCP/IP protocols to coexist. London-based X/Open, which developed XTI, is a standards consortium made up of governments, vendors and users. To help out microcomputer-software developers, X/Open will publish 'The Use of XTI to Access Netbios.' As an interface to transport protocols, XTI will reside at the transport Layer 4 of the OSI model. Extending a 'global fiber highway' across the Pacific. Heywood, Peter. In Mar 1991, London-based Cable and Wireless PLC and other telecommunication carriers will begin operating the North Pacific Cable (NPC) fiber-optic link between Japan and the US. Other fiber optic projects will eventually span the Pacific. NPC will be made up of three fiber pairs, each running at 420M-bps, linking Tokyo with Pacific City, OR. One 420M-bps fiber pair will split off from the main lines in mid-ocean and connect with Anchorage, AK. Japan, Korea and Hong Kong have been linked since mid-1990 by a twin 280M-bps fiber cable. Other carriers owning parts of NPC include various US utilities on the West Coast and in Alaska, International Digital Communications Inc of Tokyo and Portland, OR-based Pacific Telecom Cable Inc. NPC offers higher capacity than the existing Japan-US link, which went on-line in 1989. SAA and NAS: the promise of distributed computing. (Systems Application Architecture and Network Application Support) (Cover The promise of enterprise-wide computing cannot be realized in today's multivendor, heterogeneous environments without greater interoperability than is currently available. IBM's strategy for interoperability between its products and other vendors' is Systems Application Architecture (SAA). DEC's is Network Application Support (NAS). Both seek interoperability, portability and scalability via user interface standards and application program interfaces (APIs.) Some SAA and NAS specifications overlap. Largely because DEC ventured onto NAS with only two operating systems, VMS and Ultrix, it now leads IBM in implementing open systems. SAA currently supports PS/2s running OS/2, OS/400, VM and MVS; AS/400 minicomputers; and S/370, 9370 and 43XX mainframe computers. NAS supports DEC minicomputers, Apple Macintoshes, Unix workstations and microcomputers running OS/2 and DOS. NAS also has links to SAA. Users rate X.25 access switches; Northern Telecom and Codex earn top honors for state-of-the-art X.25 gear. (includes related Belying analysts' belief that X.25 is near the end of its time, nearly nine out of ten users responding to a Data Communications magazine survey say that X.25 products will maintain their importance through 1993. Users were asked to rate their X.25 access switches. Most expressed satisfaction with their switches, giving them especially high marks for reliability. Complaints about switch vendors centered on customer training and the lack of network management features in their products. Rated best overall was Northern Telecom's DPN-100 line of access switches. Northern Telecom's customer services were rated best. Also getting high marks was Codex's 6525 Packet Switch. The Codex switch, in fact, was judged the better piece of equipment, but Northern Telecom got the nod on the strength of services. SQL access: a cure for the nonstandard standard. (includes related article on the SQL Access Group) Nearly every vendor of relational database management systems (RDBMSs) claims its products adhere to the English-like Structured Query Language (SQL) standard. But loopholes in the standard, originally put in place to give vendors some flexibility in designing their architectures, mean that most RDBMSs from different vendors do not work together. For example, vendors can add extensions to SQL that permit their products to perform tasks that other SQL-compliant RDBMSs cannot. The SQL Access Group, made up of computer vendors and users, is working to close those loopholes. The group aims to create a technical specification based on such existing standards as SQL and the Remote Database Access (RDA) standard. The group's efforts are described in detail. European EDI: business as usual. (electronic data interchange coming slowly but surely to Europe) (includes related article on With trade barriers coming down in Europe, users, not vendors, are driving the implementation of electronic data interchange (EDI). Users see EDI as a way to reduce delays at ports and custom posts, reduce language problems and smooth over differences with foreign business practices. At present, only IBM and GE Information Services Co (GEIS) of Rockville, MD, provide the level of multinational support that users feel they need. GEIS, which inaugurated its EDI*Express service in 1985, is the leading EDI supplier in the transportation and retailing industries. In 1987 IBM inaugurated its Information Exchange EDI service in Europe; the corporation is targeting retailing and financial services. Both corporations have investments in other EDI suppliers. British Telecommunications PCL will debut a global version of its EDInet by mid-1991. Other EDI services are planned by Brussels-based Infonet N.V./S.A. and UK-based AT and T Istel Ltd. Network security: just say 'know' at Layer 7; application-layer encryption is the key to secure corporate communications. Security is a growing concern for managers of corporate networks, who want to be sure that secret documents go through without alteration, eavesdropping or mishap. It is difficult to put a dollar value on unsecured networks or opportunities missed because of a refusal to use an unsecured network. The military has typically spent heavily to install security measures at ISO Layers 2 and 3. Most corporations do not need nor can they afford such high levels of security; for them, ISO Layer 7, the application layer, makes more sense. Recent developments that have made Layer 7's security possibilities more attractive include the CCITT's passage of X.509, a standard for distributing public encrypting- and decrypting-keys; new software tools for developing public-key security features; growing availability of directory server installations and implementations; and the development of secure applications, such as the Kerberos project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Smaller, cheaper, easier: BT Tymnet scales down an X.25 switch for remote-office access to backbone networks. (the PXL switch) BT Tymnet Inc introduces the PXL packet switch designed to save users as much as $12,500 over earlier X.25 packet switches while also reducing the amount of space it occupies significantly. The device costs from $7,500 for a basic unit to $12,000 for a device with the most expensive option cards; it replaces the company's Pico, Micro 3 and Micro 4 switches. The PXL can be expanded via software; it includes two network connections and slots for up to eight option cards supporting various protocols. The first release will support X.25, asynchronous, some 3270 SNA, 2780/3780 HASP, SDLC and UTS 4000 protocols; it will not support 3270 bisynchronous-to-3270 SNA conversions, 3270 SNA-to-3270 SNA connections or Burroughs poll select protocols, although support for these will be added by the end of Mar 1991, according to the company. The compleat internetworker. (Broadband Enterprise Switch from Coral Network Corp.) (product announcement) Marlborough, MA-based Coral Network Corp debuts the Broadband Enterprise Switch, an internetworking device for bridging and routing packet-switched data and circuit-switched voice over T1 and T3 lines. Essentially a hybrid of circuit-switch multiplexor and multi-protocol router, the switch can filter as many as 500 kilopackets per second for FDDI per port. The switch currently handles TCP/IP packets; support for DECnet Phase IV, XNS and IPX is slated for 1991. The switch comes with a 12- or 16-slot chassis and can handle as many as 40 T1 lines, four T3 lines, three FDDI networks and 20 Token-Ring or Ethernet local area networks (LANs). Prices start at $13,500, with the FDDI module costing an additional $17,000 and the Ethernet and Token Ring modules costing $4,700 each. The switch faces stiff competition from Cisco Systems Inc's AGS+ and Wellfleet Communications Inc's Concentrator Node. A smart hub with lots of options. (Luxcom Inc.'s LC100 Series 200 Universal Smart Hub) (product announcement) Luxcom Inc of Hayward, CA, debuts the LC100 Series 2000 Universal Smart Hub, which uses time-division multiplexing on the backbone and bus to support terminal interfaces, local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Featuring eight slots and a 100M-bps backbone, the Series 2000 can handle a variety of voice and data traffic types, including Token Ring, Ethernet, ISDN, SNA and T1. Luxcom claims the Series 2000 can work simultaneously as a LAN wiring hub, IBM 3299 terminal multiplexor and T1 multiplexor. The Series 2000's chief drawback is a backbone based on a proprietary access method; as a result, only Luxcom products can be installed on it. The base unit is priced at $4,995. Modules range from $495 for an EIA-232/RS-422 module to $2,495 for an Ethernet 10BaseT module Let's hear it for old technology. (EOT) (column) Johnson, Johna Till. 'Old products,' such as modems, are not making much news these days. Instead these vintage technologies are out in the field, providing dependable service. Modems, once viewed as novel, have been made obsolete by ISDN and other digital services. Many of these older technologies are still around, long after obituaries were written for them. They are inexpensive and reliable. V.32, once viewed as the last gasp of modems, has been superseded by V.32bis and the forthcoming V.fast. X.25 is another technology surviving in the teeth of such heavily promoted new technologies as frame relay. In the 1960s, University of Hawaii researchers developed Aloha for radio transmission to outlying islands. Aloha was essentially an early version of carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD), which later was transformed into Ethernet. One more appeal of older technologies: they are standardized. Ingres's DDBMS: Ingres scores a breakthrough in distributed database technology. (distributed database management system) Businesses, as they grow, can often make good use of distributed databases, which include multiple tables at local or remote locations that look to the user like a single database. A distributed database is accessed in the same manner as a single database. The manager of a distributed database must ensure integrity if a transaction updates more than one site. They are very useful in normal business applications such as when a salesperson in a retail store wants to sell something from warehouse inventory. They are also helpful when one needs to add computers to a network to manage increased loads. Ingres has recently released its new Ingres/Star distributed information manager. The previous version permitted distributed queries but not distributed updates. Ingres is now the only major relational DBMS supporting both distributed queries and updates, opening the door to a fully-distributed application. Ingres/Star represents a breakthrough in relational and distributed technology, which is largely unproven. It has set a new standard for others to beat. Dataease SQL: the first development environment we test gets good client-server marks. (Structured Query Language) (Software Review) There are few full-featured application development packages that can act as database server front ends. Those available fall into two groups. Some, including DataEase, have been available for some time as stand-alone packages and have been reworked to create client-server applications. Others are less mature but designed especially to be front ends and are generally more tightly coupled with the database server. Most users tend to follow one of the two groups. Some are opting for market share and maturity. Others feel the problems they may run into with the new packages are offset by the close coupling of that new tool to the server. DataEase is a good choice for those who prefer maturity and market share. DataEase SQL Professional is attractive because of its strong showings in microcomputer database competitions and because of statements by company officials. The vendor is committed to client/server solutions. The most impressive feature is the rapidity with which applications can be created. The feature range is extensive and complete. It would be especially good for developers who want to create applications quickly. SQL*Forms update: SQL*Forms 3.0 running in SCO Xenix is a preview of a DOS version to come. (The Santa Cruz Operation) (Software Most Oracle users agree that SQL*Forms for MS/DOS is ready for an update. SQL*Forms 3.0, which should address many of the current version's limitations, is still not available for DOS. It should be available sometime during 1991. The Xenix 386 version proves that the DOS version is well worth waiting for. The user should consider SQL*Forms 3.0 a superset of 2.3, though it looks considerably different. Version 3.0 includes all the functionality of earlier versions and much more. The familiar pop-up boxes have been replaced by a menu bar. Default forms are more functional in the new version. Pop-up windows can now be less than full screen size. It is now possible, too, to use a mouse to design and run forms in Oracle. Many new triggers are also available including: On-Delete, On-Error, On-Insert, On-Lock, On-Message and more. Ethernet vs. Godzilla: the founder of 3Com speaks out on the state of the LAN. (local area network) (interview with Bob Metcalfe) The name Bob Metcalfe brings two things to mind: Ethernet, the local area network (LAN) specification he created at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and pushed to International Standards Organization (ISO) standard status; and 3Com, the network company he founded. Metcalfe retired from 3Com in Jun 1990. Metcalfe is free to offer unbiased insight into the state of the LAN arena as he has been involved with microcomputer networks from the beginning but is no longer bound by allegiance to a vendor. Metcalfe has signed on as consultant to Patriot Partners, the joint development project of Metaphor Systems and IBM organized to create a platform alternative on desktop computers. Metaphor's involvement suggested he knew about tools developers and end users may find built into the Patriot platform. dB_Race speeds up your DBMS. (database management system, from Loadstone Inc.) (Software Review) (evaluation) dB_Race 1.04 ($395) from Loadstone is a database engine that supplements a current dBase-compatible database management system (DBMS). The program is compatible with FoxPro, FoxBase, Clipper, dBXL and dBase III+. Applications can be modified to pass off certain database commands or sequences to dB_Race via the database management system's 'run' command. The program then executes the command, entering the results in the database file or specified memory variable. It includes a component called dBMon that monitors the file-handling activity of the DBMS and communicates it to dB_Race. The way to obtain true performance benefits is to carefully select the commands and operations passed to its. Network know-how: how SBT Corp. gets the most out of it's (sic) Ethernet/NetWare 386 LAN. (local area network) SBT Corp is an instructive case for users concerned about the stress of heavy database demands on a LAN. The company is familiar to those who create microcomputer applications. It markets accounting software and source code for the various dBase products in the DOS, Xenix, VAX/VMS, and Macintosh environments. The company actually subjects its own products to intensive network use. The methods they have created to improve performance are ones every person responsible for multiuser dBase applications should be familiar with. All 148 workstations at SBT headquarters are creating disk I/Os all day long. Many business networks are characterized by heavy use of sedate applications like word processors, spreadsheets and electronic mail. They load once from the server and rely then on on local resources. Data traffic is sparse. SBT's LAN operations are much busier. The company does not just sell the software--it is one of the biggest users of its own product. Tapping NetWare's bindery APIs: manipulate the status of network servers, queues, and user attributes. (applications programming NetWare's APIs give developers a wide variety of network services. There are countless uses for the APIs from accounting services to communications between workstations to application transaction processing. NetWare 2.1 APIs are available in two forms--system calls and a C interface. System calls are used within assembly language programs, though they can be used from languages such as Pascal and C that offer a means of calling interrupts and manipulating registers. The C interface can be used only from the C programming language. The user should remember that each C function call has an equivalent system call. The NetWare Bindery include two hidden files in the SYS:SYSTEM directory. The NetWare network operating system stores data about network use and resources in these files. Advanced SQL queries. (Structured Query Language) (Part 2 in a series) (tutorial) Topics covered in the discussion of more complicated structured query language queries include: aggregation functions, GROUP BY and HAVING in SELECT, correlated subqueries, UNIONS, outer joins, NULLS and views. Illustrations refer to examples established in part one of the series. Aggregation functions are useful in complex queries. They are also called set functions and column functions. All columns that are not aggregation functions must be listed after GROUP BY when GROUP BY is used. When a subquery includes a reference to a column in an outer query it is a correlated subquery. UNION combines the rows from two or more selections. Views are one of the most useful and important concepts in SQL. Clipper 5.0's hot arrays. (Best of Clipper Aquarium; column) (tutorial) A tutorial is presented on using the multidimensional arrays in Clipper 5.0 to store an MS-DOS directory structure. Unlike the arrays in Clipper Summer '87, 5.0 arrays appear well-integrated with the language, making them easier to create and manipulate. In addition to support for more than one dimension, 5.0 arrays can be fully dynamic and have a greatly improved syntax. Arrays can be nested until the limits of available memory are reached, and elements can be added to an array while the application is running. the key to loading a subdirectory structure into an array is 5.0's directory () function. this function returns an array of arrays in which each element of the 'outer' arrays stands for an entry in the directory. Directory entries are described by an array of five values, including name, size, date, time, and attributes. Using .BIN routines: routines for accessing network services from your dBase applications. (Set Expert On) (column) The issue of extending the power of dBase applications with .bin routines is discussed. Several practical examples are included that the user may incorporate directly into multiuser applications. Binary modules are external programs in assembly or C that let your applications do what dBase will not allow, or will not execute fast enough. The file Inkey.bin issued by Ashton-Tate fixed a bug in dBase III Plus 1.1 that prevented the inkey () function from trapping the left-arrow key, which made a Lotus-style menu hard to code. Some users have the idea that a dBase .bin can be programmed in any language then converted to .bin using the DOS utility EXE2bin. This is incorrect, for several reasons, including the fact that dBase .bins are under strict rules, which are discussed. VAX factory-floor management. (Consilium Inc.) O'Connell, Brian. Consilium Inc and Digital Equipment Corp develop FlowStream, a new software product line that monitors and controls manufacturing operations. FlowStream runs on DEC VAXstations. It gives supervisors and operators a 'profession-specific' look at the data they need to do their jobs. FlowStream is designed to be used by companies in work-order-based discrete manufacturing environments. The software monitors, tracks, and controls materials, equipment, personnel, work instructions, and facilities. Benefits of FlowStream include enhanced product quality, reduced labor costs, increased capital equipment use, and shorter response times. Prices start at $30,000. Digital's Cohesion strategy. (includes related articles on CDD/Repository and CASE) Digital Equipment Corp appears to have chosen the computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environment as a place where it will build software, create an architecture, and conceive a viable long-term strategy. The company's Cohesion strategy is not just a theory; it includes a major thrust to make the DEC environment an attractive platform for developers to develop CASE tools on VMS and ULTRIX. Cohesion operates where CASE and traditional dictionaries meet. The company calls the Cohesion environment a 'repository-based CASE.' The Cohesion view sees a number of services as essential to the CASE process and provides them in the base repository product. These services include version control, workflow control, dependency recording, and reporting. Cohesion is expected o make CASE tools work in new and powerful ways and bring functionality to end-user fourth-generation languages and application development environments. Does tuning work? (Data General's default values) Horvitz, Phil. Simple system parameter changes can bring about dramatic performance gains. A factor in improving system performance is that Data General's default values, in use throughout the system, are not anywhere near the optimal values. Two items that can be changed easily are the system defaults for element size and default buffer size. The CLI COPY performance problem can be fixed by creating a macro that has the optimal values and use that macro instead of COPY. Framework for success. Hebhardt, Jon. Data General Corp is modifying its recipe for success. Step one is the Business Management Framework, which has as its objective the generation of an integrated plan, which involves marketing, sales, development, and manufacturing, that supplies quantitative targets to each organization, supports quarterly measurements and corrective action, and promotes efficient allocation of resources. The Management Framework is a change agent. The Re-forecast Cycle is the sequence of steps that evolve the integrated plan; this is done on a quarterly basis. The steps are variance, analyzing the prior quarter; new forecast assumptions; marketing forecast; kickoff package, which is sent to sales worldwide; sales forecast; reconciliation; and closure. Data General uses the Management Framework to adapt to the demands of the current computer industry climate. The emphasis in the Management Framework is on coordination, commitment, and accountability across Data General. The Management Framework is step one, ready. Step two, aim, is to use information-based sales and marketing capability to scope out opportunities. Step three, fire, is to execute its strategies. A way with words. (Software Review) (WordPerfect 5.0) (evaluation) Berndt, Randy. WordPerfect 5.0 is now available on Data General systems. There are several new features and enhancements. Existing customers will appreciate that 5.0 and 4.2 can coexist and run simultaneously. Version 5.0 has a new way of looking at printers and no longer limits them to 8 fonts; almost any printer is supported by WordPerfect. The way 5.0 handles screen preview for Data General tubes is an excellent compromise which permits this feature to be used. Other changes are a difference in the way fonts are handled; a macro language; printing documents that have graphic images; defining a page as always odd or always even; and specifying measurements in inches, centimeters, points, or columns. A new option is styles, which permit users to define a set of commands and formatting options and reference them with a single keystroke. The master document concept is another new feature. Version 5.0 has a Reveal Codes function that shows what is happening inside the document. The gain in functionality is worth the increase in price. Building blocks. Part II. (Windows) English, Arthur. WindowsMaker and the Whitewater Resource Toolkit are two products that make it easier to develop Windows applications. WindowsMaker, $795 from Candlelight Software, is an application development environment. It generates the files needed to build a working Windows application; these files include resource, C source code, model definition, and make files. WindowsMaker also has a collection of utilities and a set of debugging aids. This is a fine tool that saves time and effort and is suitable for use by novice Windows developers. Whitewater Resource Toolkit, $195 from the Whitewater Group, makes it easy for Windows programmers to manage the look and feel of a Windows application. It has 7 editors: bitmap, icon, cursor, menu, dialog, string table, and accelerator table. This is a serious utility that every serious Windows developer should have. The EDI experience. (electronic document interchange) Soares, Carlos. Over 6,000 companies worldwide are using electronic data interchange (EDI) and saving millions of dollars by doing so. EDI is defined as the application-to-application exchange of information in a variety of business documents among trading partners; these exchanges use a standard format. The generation and processing of paperwork is greatly reduced by using EDI, usually at a savings of $5 to $44 per transaction. The three components to a full EDI implementation are in-house applications, the translation system supplied by the EDI software package, and the communications system to send and receive EDI messages. Steps to implementing EDI are set goals; secure executive-level commitment; set up an implementation strategy; decide between centralized and decentralized EDI architecture; decide changes in business procedures; do legal agreements with trading partners on business procedures, contractual obligations, and technical issues; decide standard, transaction sets and fields; measure involvement; select communications; develop data processing specifications for in-house applications; provide training; test; and develop a plan for and implement rollout for adding more trading partners until all trading partners are using EDI. A matter of protocol. (standards) Thayer, Rodney. Using International Standards Organization (ISO) communications protocols permits users to obtain hardware and software equipment that allows non-vendor-specific data transmission in a variety of computing environments. But users must be sure they are using the standards in compatible ways for communication to be successful. Compatibility must be considered since using standard protocols does not automatically mean using compatible protocols. Users of Data General equipment should check for compatibility in cabling technology or if two devices cabled together expect different electrical signals. The ISO has standards for network layer protocols, but they are complicated and there are possibilities for compatibility problems at every layer. The data exchange. (electronic data interchange) Dysart, Joe. Companies are using their computer systems to send EDI messages to the facsimile machines of companies that do not have EDI systems. This permits these progressive companies to move the data and not resort to using paper. Companies that want to send faxes automatically from microcomputers and mainframes will find that several manufacturers provide the necessary hardware to do this task. Features to look for in an EDI/fax bridge are custom dialing, broadcasting capability, automatic retry, and delayed transmission. The best way to choose a unit is to sample various units on a trial basis. Users should also talk with people already using the technology. The DOVE connection. (Linc Technology's Data-Over-Voice Encoder) Fanning, Chris A. The United States Forest Service (USFS) expanded its Data General MV/1500 so that it accommodates over 100 users, but doing this expansion meant finding a wiring alternative. The USFS selected Linc Technology's Data-Over-Voice Encoder (DOVE) because it can move data, full duplex, over existing wires including power lines, Private Branch Telephone Exchange, 4-20 mA current loops, or any available twisted pair. DOVE permits existing intra-building PABX/Centrex wiring to be used for local area networking of all asynchronous data communications. Voice and data communications can go simultaneously through existing telephone lines without interference. DOVE is speed and protocol transparent and permits all types of RS-232 compatible asynchronous data communications equipment to be connected. DOVE is cost effective and flexible; it can be installed without disrupting office routines. Communication breakdown. (network communications) Helart, Ron. The first step in protecting a network from failure is determining the areas that have the potential to break down. The communications equipment is the first point of failure in most instances. Redundancy is a way to handle this kind of problem. Outside plant facilities between the company and the serving central office are the second point of failure. In this case, construction equipment can cut underground cables, gophers can eat through unprotected underground cables, or auto accidents can knock down overhead cables. Diverse routing of cables is one way around this type of problem; microwave systems are another; satellite networks are another. The third link that can fail is the switch network. Services from multiple carriers can solve this problem. The switched telephone network can serve as a backup and assist your network if there is a temporarily failure in the leased line. Switched digital services can handle additional throughput. 80x86 optimization: aim down the middle and pray. (80x86 family of microprocessors) (tutorial) Optimizing code for 8088, 80286, 80386 and 80486 microprocessors is difficult because the chips use significantly different memory architectures and instruction execution times. Code cannot be optimized for the 80x86 family; rather, code must be designed to produce good performance on a range of systems or optimized for particular combinations of processors and memory. Programmers must avoid the unusual instructions supported by the 8088, which have lost their performance edge in subsequent chips. String instructions should be used but not relied upon. Registers should be used rather than memory operations. Branching is also slow for all four processors. Memory accesses should be aligned to improve performance. Generally, optimizing an 80486 requires exactly the opposite steps as optimizing an 8088. Assembly language macros: writing assembly language you can read. (tutorial) Assembly language programmers can devise macros to make their code more readable and gain the speed and size advantages of assembly language. Macros can be designed to make the logic of a comparison clear while performing the comparison as fast as a CMP operation can. The return value from a procedure call can be determined more logically by a macro than by checking the carry, which could be misunderstood by a reader. Tables can be arranged quickly and efficiently using a macro that allows DB and DW commands to be placed on the same line. Without the macro, the relationship between the instructions may be unclear and modifications may not be performed properly. Equates can also be used to increase programming efficiency. A programmer used to a particular processor's instruction names can equate the familiar instruction names with the equivalent names in other languages. Porting UNIX to the 386: the standalone system; creating a protected-mode standalone C programming environment. (includes The project of implementing UNIX on an 80386 microcomputer includes the task of developing a protected mode standalone C language programming environment. Porting UNIX to the 80386 starts with testing the absolute loader, the assembler and the link editor. Testing involves attempting to run programs starting with the most trivial cases. Once the programming tools can be trusted to perform fairly faithfully, support routines must be developed to perform tasks such as implementing 80386 machine-dependent code. Keyboard and display drivers that bypass the system BIOS are also developed. Processor support is added to the standalone system. Paging is initialized and its mechanism is developed. Segmentation is also initialized and redefined. A root task state must be initialized and trap handling, including interrupt and page fault handling, is described. The Mewel Window System: targeting two environments for the price of one. (Magma Software Systems' Mewel 3.0 program development Magma Software Systems' Mewel 3.0 program development software is an implementation of IBM's SAA Common User Access (CUA) standard and a subset of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) Application Program Interface (API). Although Mewel has some object-oriented features, it is based on event-driven programming. Installing Mewel is simple, but there are minor problems with upgrading. The documentation is incomplete and error-ridden. Microsoft Press's books, SDK Programmer's Reference and the Guide to Programming, are required until Magma rewrites the documentation. Telephone support is provided by Mewel's programmer. Porting Mewel programs to Windows is possible but difficult. Mewel CUA programs are even slower than Windows. Mewel costs $295, $595 with source code, but its license prohibits use of the product to develop text editors or word processing programs. Networking with Windows 3.0: give your NetWare utilities a face lift. (Programmer's Workbench) (tutorial) A messaging and user information utility program for the NetWare network operating system can be developed under Microsoft Windows 3.0. The utility, called Megaphone, is written using Microsoft C 6.0 and the Windows 3.0 Software Development Kit. Megaphone allows network users to send and receive messages and retrieve basic information about the other users on the network. Megaphone's main window includes a system menu, a caption and a minimize button. The client area includes several controls, each of which can send and receive messages to other windows and controls. The main window is a dialog box defined as a window class. Making Megaphone capable of NetWare-API functionality is simple, although adapting the program to multiple-server environments, is somewhat complex. Remote connectivity for portable terminals: part II. (VT100 terminal emulation) (tutorial) Terminal emulation software can be developed to display a 24-by-80-character VT100 image on a Murata Links hand-held terminal. The program utilizes the features of the hand-held terminal's touch-sensitive display. The program is developed by arranging a screen hierarchy to specify the options available from each screen. The terminal can be connected to the host via modem or RS-232 connection, and the user can select the appropriate connection from software. The Links terminal displays the terminal contents via 'Greeking,' which represents characters as pixels. Control icons located at the bottom of the screen to allow the user to select the next function. The VT100 virtual image is divided into 12 sections that can be viewed with horizontal and vertical scrolling. A 'wrap' text mode displays a single 80-column line on the Links screen. The software allows updating at a rate slow enough for the user to identify changes. A conversation with Bill Duvall. (head of Claris Corp.) (Programming Paradigms) (interview) Bill Duvall worked with Doug Englebart at the Augmented Human Intellect Research Center (AHIRC) at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Duvall moved from SRI to Xerox Corp's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). While Duvall worked for Consulair Corp, he wrote a C compiler. Duvall's first involvement with the Macintosh was as a programmer of an assembly language development system. Consulair produced the C compiler it had been using for internal development for commercial use on the Macintosh. Duvall believes that HyperCard is an appropriate development platform for professional programmers as well as other users because HyperCard programs are quickly written and easy to maintain. HyperCard 2 includes more features desired by professional developers. Duvall believes HyperCard is useful for multimedia programs, and says Claris is investigating porting HyperCard stacks to other platforms. Of mice and messages. (event-driven programming) (C Programming) (tutorial) Event-driven programming is used by by hardware drivers for devices such as mice, keyboards and displays. Traditional driver programming requires the software to check the devices for activity, but event-driven programs use functions that call applications when events occur. Event software queues hardware events as they occur, while the dispatcher retrieves the messages and sends the to the appropriate functions. Functions can produce messages that the dispatcher sends to the application from the queue. Event-driven programs are more orderly than traditional programs, and Microsoft Windows programming involves event-driven techniques. Keyboard, mouse, and message drivers are included, as is a screen grabber program. Launching rubber chickens. (launching software products) (Structured Programming) (tutorial) Communications software programming involves learning about data translation. Communications links transfer groups of eight bits, one bit at a time. One translation, handled by a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART), transmits the bits one by one over the communications line. The UART has a register that stores each byte to be transmitted and translates the byte into a series of voltages. The voltages are placed on the line for precisely-measured periods of time. Serial ports are examples of UARTs, but serial cable can only precisely transmit the voltage levels for about 50 feet before inductance ruins the transfer. Modems are capable of transferring data much further because they translate bits to tones. When two modems communicate, they use different tones to distinguish sources of data. A simple terminal program flow chart is included. Fast convex polygons. (Graphics programming) (tutorial) Abrash, Michael. Assembly language programming can improve graphics performance and help programmers understand the function of their programs. Fast convex polygon filling can be performed by optimizing the existing polygon filling implementation. The drawing portion of the program is easily accelerated by using the 'memset' library function, which uses the REP STOS instruction. The code replacement yields a speed an order of magnitude faster than the old implementation. The polygon edge tracing procedures are slow because they use floating-point calculations, but integer calculations are both faster and more accurate. Modification of the drawing and edge tracing portions of the program increase performance almost 20 times. Assembly language can be used in place of C to improve speed even further. On the management of change: how not to develop textbooks. (experiences in a textbook production project in a Central A textbook production project in a Central American country, financed by an international development agency, is examined. The background and rationale of the project are described, and what went wrong is discussed. The country is one of the poorest in Central America. Transportation and communications infrastructures are weak; public services are inadequate. Conditions that favor adequate education are generally lacking. Several problems marred the project: writing and production schedules were unrealistic; superficial training was provided for writers; ideas from recent research were neglected; and editors were not properly prepared. Textbook development is an important way to improve education, and theory and technology exist to accomplish such a task, but clumsy bureaucrats and incompetent technical assistance personnel can get in the way. Strategies for cueing visual information: research findings and instructional design implications. There is strong support among instructional designers for using 'cueing' to highlight visual information, but there is a lack of guidelines. The author has conducted preliminary researches into the comparative effectiveness of basic cueing strategies on fourth-grade students. Arrows versus labels, single versus combinational cues, nonpictorial versus pictorial cues, and basic instruction versus cued pre-instruction were examined. Cueing effects on average and below average learners, distinct and indistinct information, and intentional and incidental information were also considered. Results are tentative and definitive guidelines will require more research. Authors and designers of educational software for children seem especially sensitive to the need for cueing strategies, which indicates an increased 'educational responsibility' in this area. Interactivity or instruction? A reaction to Merrill. (D. Merrill's theory of instructional design) 'First generation instructional design' models based on work by R.M. Gagne are criticized by D. Merrill and his colleagues Zhongmin Li and Mark Jones, who observe that such models are out of date. New technologies, they say, make possible forms of interactive education for which first generation models are not adequate. As part of Merrill and his colleagues' research, two theoretical expositions might be expected: a new definition of instruction, and a description of interaction. Approaches to these notions are described and discussed. Development of a second generation instructional design model will depend on a clear idea of what is involved in interactive transactions. Here is a beginning, indicating the way toward good definitions and consistent theory. Training with style: balancing theory and practice in training design. The concept of 'training style' can be helpful for trainers seeking to find the optimum balance between instruction based on concrete information and that based on conceptual information. A model is depicted that can increase awareness of practical, structural and process elements of training. Training style consists of two elements: the first involves the degree to which information is controlled and sequenced, or 'programmed'; and the second involves the degree to which the flow of information is controlled by the trainer. Learning environments vary from algorithmic to heuristic. Algorithmic styles are those that involve extensive control over information; such styles tend to be concrete and procedurally oriented. Heuristic styles are more flexible, more conceptually based. A training styles matrix is presented that can help a trainer decide the extent to which a training program should be programmed and controlled. Technology for learning: are teachers being prepared? Munday, Robert; Windham, Robert; Stamper, Jennifer. Applications of technology in education are exciting and promising as is illustrated in the futuristic videotape High School 2000, produced by Apple Computer Inc. CD-ROM, videodiscs, HyperCard, audio and video digitizers, video overlay, and telecommunications devices are ingredients that suggest what the future might bring. But some observers doubt that teachers are being prepared for such a future. According to the US Office of Technology Assessment, two-thirds of the nation's teachers have less than ten hours of computer training, and two-thirds of preservice teachers do not feel prepared to use computers. Only eight states plan to require some level of computer literacy for teacher certification, and only 14 states encourage computer courses for teachers. Teachers must have the training that will empower them and their students through technology. Specific recommendations to achieve this goal are offered. Comprehensive systems design in education. (Educational Technology Columnists) (column) Our schools were conceived during the industrial assembly line era, a fact that is reflected in the educational design that still prevails. Schools teach in a regimented environment that is rigidly controlled, typically involving thirty or more students in the classroom-box factory-like arrangement. It has been said that if Rip Van Winkle woke up today, the only place he would feel comfortable would be the classroom. Such an arrangement wastes people. As many as half of those who start out become rejects, so that schools function as a mechanism for weeding out people and wasting human potential. When children first come to school, they bring creativity and imagination with them, but over time, they are processed in ways that destroy these qualities. The design model of the last century does not work anymore; it cannot simply be fixed or restructured. A new educational design is needed that responds to the realities of the post-industrial information/knowledge society. Training technology: why instructional design fails in the workplace. (Educational Technology Columnists) (column) Instructional design that is apparently outstanding often fails to contribute to on-the-job performance improvement. Here, reasons why training that is well-designed fails to accomplish its purposes are discussed. Essentially, what is wanted is the design of 'performance environments' that link training and performance. Specifically, ten factors are mentioned: expectations, measurement, capacity, prerequisite skills, attitudes/motivation, instruction, instructional resources, feedback, motivational climate, and performance support. Taking the first factor - expectations - for an example, few training courses are based on what will actually be expected, so that instructional objectives are rarely consistent with on-the-job requirements. The interaction of learning styles with learner control treatments in an interactive videodisc lesson. Interactive videodiscs provide opportunities for investigating issues of adaptive instruction. Issues such as learner control, use of cueing strategies, and learning styles are considered together with their impact on computer-assisted learning. These increasingly relevant subjects are not widely reported in educational literature. Learner control means that students control the pace, sequence and style of learning. Learning style here refers to the difference between a 'field dependent' and a 'field independent' person, field independent learners being more assertive in learning new concepts. So far, not much research has been done on the relationship between learner control and learning style when using interactive videodiscs. The matter is complex, and graphics, the quantity of visual information available, and time spent processing information are among factors that are significant. The Job Skills Education Program: an example of military/education technology transfer. The Job Skills Education Program (JSEP), which was developed by Florida State University and the Ford Aerospace Corp, was sponsored by the Department of Defense for the purpose of improving academic competencies. The Army analyzed 100 common jobs to determine necessary competencies for each, and the results were a basis for the JSEP's design. The program was tested and found to be effective. Therefore, Ford and Florida State created a pilot program to test the use of JSEP in civilian environments to prepare underskilled individuals for employment or for subsequent education and training. The pilot succeeded in increasing scores an average of 34 percent from pre-test to post-test levels. The civilian version of the JSEP curriculum, which operates on the PLATO mainframe computer system and the MicroTICCIT microcomputer system, has over 300 lessons that address 200 academic competencies identified with 20 occupations. A technology for policy implementation: minimizing incongruity between ostensible policy and the policy at work. (educational There is often considerable difference between ostensible policy in complex educational systems and actual policy at work. Implementation always changes policy to some degree, and strategies for minimizing policy change are important when developing technology for policy implementation. Educational systems are often characterized by lack of coordination and control over classroom instruction. 'Loose coupling,' a circumstance in which systems are rigid and lack internal connections, is often to blame. Teacher autonomy and the 'myth of professionalism' can contribute to the problem. And improper allocation of resources can also intensify policy change. Over all, de facto educational policy will correlate more closely with ostensible policy if there is clear and logical communication between policy makers and teachers. Hypertext and printed materials: some similarities and differences. Similarities and differences between hypertext systems and print materials are examined. The researcher believes that a new technology that improves over an older one in some ways does not automatically relegate the older technology to obscurity. It is not assumed, nor is it concluded, that hypertext is 'better' than traditional print materials. Hypertext is seen as an expansion over printed materials. Both hypertext and print provide information, and both can be used as media of instruction. Hypertext is more effective at promoting non-linear thinking, and it is 'machine-supportingly dynamic,' generating multiple pathways, so that a user can jump from one place to any other place in a text. Hypertext is more compact than conventional printed material, but it is also less accessible and more complex and expensive. Hypertext is easier to customize, allowing the same document to serve many functions. Educational computing in Chile: trends, issues, and recommendations. The potential of educational computing in Chile causes controversy regarding the way the curriculum there should be altered in response to challenges posed by the age of information. A need to implement programs for educational computing is recognized both by teachers and by authorities in the Ministry of Education. Trends of educational computing are examined. Some recommendations are proposed to improve the quality of educational computing in Chile, including suggestions to develop computer literacy programs, initiate new teacher training in educational computing, and integrate the microcomputer into traditional curricula. CAD as means of stimulating interest in careers in technology. (computer-aided design) Enhancing the quality and quantity of computer usage are ways to improve our technological situation at a time when the level of our collective technical ability will, in large part, determine our well-being, prosperity and safety. One way to do this is to educate people in the use of CAD (computer-aided design, drawing, or drafting). Using a CAD software package, training may start out slowly, but a user's abilities can improve quickly. A learner can get important hands-on experience with a sophisticated and robust software package that generates impressive results without being overwhelmed by the computer. This is an excellent confidence builder. Interest stimulated by CAD can lead to a career in design or in a related field, such as CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing), CNC (computer-numeric control), or CMM (coordinate measuring machines). Optical Data, Panasonic customize videodisc player for Texas. (Optical Data Corp. to resell Panasonic LX-120s to Texas Panasonic Co manufactures a specially designed and priced videodisc player, which will be sold exclusively with Optical Data Corp's Windows on Science videodisc program to Texas elementary schools. The LX-120 is a $499 level-one player that features a customized remote control device with the buttons frequently used in Windows on Science clustered together. Optical Data purchased 10,000 LX-120s, and will resell them for $199 to those Texas schools that purchase Windows on Science. The offer will be available for the duration of Texas' elementary science textbook adoption, which ends Apr 1, 1991. Pioneer Communications of America manufactures over 90 percent of the approximately 35,000 videodisc players in use in K-12 schools. Panasonic stands to gain a significant share of the market if it successfully sells the 10,000 players. Pioneer offers a three-level videodisc player package to Texas schools for $495. Distance learning; a Georgia high school receives live televised instruction via satellite - and it works. (Satellite Educational Satellite Educational Resources Consortium (SERC) transmits live instruction into schools in 20 states on topics including Japanese and Russian language, physics and world geography. SERC was founded in 1989 with a $9.7 million US Department of Education Star Schools program grant. SERC's Star Schools grant covers expenses for equipment such as satellite receivers, televisions and phone lines at participating schools so that the high schools pay only student enrollment fees and staff supervision. The Star Schools program was instituted to encourage improved instruction in mathematics, science, foreign language and other subjects at small or remote schools through the use of satellite and other distance learning technologies. Upson High School in Thomaston, GA offers Japanese language courses via SERC, which produces courses at contracted sites. The Nebraska Department of Education and Nebraska Public Television work together to produce Japanese lessons that contain skits, direct instruction and occasional interaction with students. Wired to the world; Carrollton High School in Georgia connects social studies to the real world using online services and Carrollton High School principal Pat Wright believes that high schools should bridge students to the real world. The Georgia high school has created information centers out of its 50 classrooms with microcomputers and computer cable access. Carrollton works with Telecommunications Inc to access major international news wire services. The school receives between 10,000 and 12,000 pieces of information during a typical school day. Wright says the school began using CNN Newsroom in 1990 for an experimental class called 'Global Issues;' students of varying ability all earned grades of 89 or higher. Carrollton has extended its first period classes by 18 minutes so all students can watch the CNN broadcast; teachers receive a four-page lesson plan off the computer to accompany the broadcast. The high school has an IBM PS/2 with a 60Mbyte hard drive for archiving press services and CNN lesson plans. Classroom TV: what's available to schools: a comprehensive listing of educational programs and services offered by cable channels, Educational television (ETV) has evolved significantly since the 1960s. Most television networks, including independent and cable stations and PBS, broadcast educational programs. Not all educational programs are intended for classroom use, and educators should take copyright restrictions seriously. PBS provides a $7.50 booklet called 'Copyright: Staying Within the Law, A Resource Guide for Educators.' KIDSNET is a nonprofit clearinghouse that offers information on past, current and future programs, print materials and curriculum objectives. The Cable Alliance for Education (CAFE) is a nonprofit organization that was created in 1989 to encourage the use of educational television programs in schools. Over 30 cable programmers such as HBO and The Discovery Channel are members of CAFE. Includes a listing of 17 national cable networks. Schools of education: four exemplary programs. (University of Massachusetts, Michigan State, George Mason University and Penn Teacher education programs do not generally require coursework in technology which, in many cases, prevents new teachers from using technology in their classrooms after they graduate. Electronic Learning highlights four exemplary preservice programs in which technology is given priority. The University of Massachusetts, Michigan State, George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, and Penn State University all have teacher education programs that give students the competence and confidence to use technology when they become teaching professionals. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Math English Science Technology Education Project (MESTEP) allows students to work as paid interns at both school and corporate sites. Michigan State is working to cultivate close relationships with school districts that will supplement the professional development of teachers, which includes technological development. George Mason offers a fifth-year, 12-month teacher education program that pays particular attention to instruction in technology. Penn State's program makes the use of technology in the classroom compelling via video taped testimonials from practicing teachers and students. LCD panels: display your computer screen on a classroom wall - in monochrome or color. (liquid crystal display panels for use in the Aliquid crystal display (LCD) projection panel used with an overhead projector displays the image that is on a computer screen on a wall screen. Most LCD projection panels are monochrome or color, and project images that substitute patterns or intensities for colors. An LCD might distinguish yellow from orange by having each color appear in varying intensities of black or magenta. LCD panels are useful for teachers to demonstrate new programs to a full-size class; LCD projection systems allows teachers to work on computers and see the work executed on a wall screen. Dukane Corp's $1,095 Magniview 28A200C features a built-in cooling fan, power-on switch and standard image controls. The video cable is less than six feet. Chisolm's $1,845 Looking Glass 480LAD allows teachers to highlight selected portions of an image with a special Light Writer attachment. Products from In Focus Systems Inc, Proxima, Sharp Electronics Corp and Telex Communications Inc are also discussed. Books on disk. (Discis Knowledge Research Inc.'s The Tale of Peter Rabbit and William K. Bradford Publishing Co.'s Ananse the Spider) Discis Knowledge Research Inc's $84.95 The Tale of Peter Rabbit and William K. Bradford Publishing Co's $75 Ananse the Spider are two computer versions of story classics that encourage children to engage in the reading process. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is on CD-ROM and can be read on an Apple Macintosh computer. Children may elect to read the story themselves or listen as it is read aloud with musical accompaniment and other sound effects that include birds singing, objects falling and water splashing. Students may replay any section, highlight any word to hear it pronounced and point at part of an object on screen to learn its name. Ananse the Spider features a Story Teller disk with animated scenes; a Story Maker disk, which allows children to complete a partially written story; and a Writers Workshop disk, which includes a series of learning activities. At-risk readers. (Davidson and Associates Inc.'s TEAM Series: Reading Comprehension and TEAM Series: Vocabulary educational Torrance, CA-based Davidson and Associates Inc's $299.95 TEAM Series: Reading Comprehension and $299.95 TEAM Series: Vocabulary are software programs for at-risk readers that teachers rate high in the number and content of reading passages, in student enthusiasm and interest, and in the level and relevance of featured vocabulary. The Reading Comprehension program includes 1,000 high-interest, low-level reading passages that provide students with practice in basic skills such as recognizing the main idea, recalling facts, drawing inferences, and strengthening vocabulary via context. The Vocabulary program features a series of learning activities that help reinforce the meanings of words. The text in the MS-DOS versions make it difficult to distinguish between the letters b, d and h. The product's management system needs revision to make record keeping easier. Math labs. (Wolfram Research Inc.'s Mathematica 2.0 and Sunburst Communications Inc.'s Geometric Connectors: Transformations) Wolfram Research Inc's Mathematica 2.0 and Sunburst Communications Inc's Geometric Connectors: Transformations are mathematical software packages that encourage students to explore mathematics. Mathematica 2.0 is a math tool that can perform numerical, symbolic and graphical computation in algebra, trigonometry or calculus at the high school, college and professional level. The program requires an Apple II or Macintosh SE/30 with 4Mbytes of RAM; the program also runs on IBM 80386-based machines. Mathematica can animate graphs and features an interactive programming language for new functions and algorithms. Mathematica 2.0 ranges in price from $595 to $895. Geometric Connectors: Transformations is a $99 software tool for exploring transformational geometry. Students can use the product to investigate the nature of reflections, rotations, translations and dilations. Users may construct geometric figures and record and save them for later playback. Change brings doubt - and pain; without hard currency, Czech electronics industry founders. Czechoslovakia has been struggling economically since the demise of communism. The situation is even grimmer for the Czechoslovak electronics industry. The barely convertible crown can scarcely buy any Western electronics. Even strong sectors suffer from producing dated equipment; the Tesla telephone factory, for example, exports more than half of its output to the Soviet Union - but most of those telephones are rotary. Tesla will soon begin producing digital switches at three plants under license from Western firms. The switches are badly needed; even in Prague, it is common to take five or ten redials to complete a call. The ZVT plant produces a line of IBM PC XT clones called the PP06, but prices start at $16,000. Buyers are going across the border to Germany or Austria to buy cheaper clones. The semiconductor industry also lags. The cellular debate: static on the line. (debate over time-division multiple access vs. code-division multiple access The merits and demerits of technologies to replace the prevalent analog frequency modulation (FM) used by cellular radio are debated. IMM Senior VP George M. Calhoun favors digital time-division multiple access (TDMA), a software-intensive technology. TDMA has 15 times the capacity of analog transmission and cuts infrastructure costs by 70 percent while boosting signal privacy and quality. TDMA is also built upon industry experience with time-division. Qualcomm VP Allen Salmasi sees code-division multiple access (CDMA) as the basis for high-quality digital cellular systems and personal communication networks. CDMA requires fewer and less costly cells than TDMA; it offers similar quality and capacity gains over FM analog. CDMA will be ready for implementation in early 1992. No strings attached: wireless LANs edge into market with good prices, plug-and-play capability. (market analysis) Wireless local area networks (LANs) have been around for quite some time, but now three large corporations are pushing them. In Sep 1990, NCR Corp debuted WaveLAN, a microcomputer plug-in device based on spread-spectrum technology; BICC Communications Corp followed in Jan 1991 with the InfraLAN system based on infrared technology; and in Feb 1991 Motorola Inc unveiled the Altair system based on its 18-GHz technology. Compared to wired LANs, wireless LANs are extremely easy to move and configure. Users fear the discovery of some fatal flaw in the technologies, such as, Do sunrises affect infrared transmission? Because analysts do not expect a quick take-off in wireless LANs, the outlook could be gloomy for smaller vendors. Here come the modules; looking for more speed, users give multichip modules a boost. (industry outlook) Multichip modules are gaining in popularity, thanks in large part to their superior performance to one-chip integrated circuits. Nepcon West '91 featured eight technical sessions devoted to multichip modules. Market researcher Howard Bogert of San Jose, CA-based Dataquest Inc sees multichip modules as a key emerging market; the number of chips going into the modules rivals the numbers being used in surface mount. Firms such as startup nChip Inc of San Jose, Cypress Semiconductor Corp of San Jose and Integrated Device Technology Inc of Santa Clara, CA, the current market leader, figure to benefit from the boom in multichip modules. Design-software houses such as Beaverton, OR-based Mentor Graphics Corp also figure to benefit as they meet the demand for multichip-module design tools. Move over, HDTV; CD-ROM-based information delivery may reach the consumer by the mid-'90s. In the long run, the market in electronics-based information could equal that of high-definition TV; also, small to mid-size companies could be a part of that market. The term 'multimedia' emphasizes hardware, whereas the real market is in information and information delivery. Microsoft Pres Bill Gates has been leading the electronics-based-information charge since 1986 in a series of CD-ROM Conferences, renamed the Multimedia and CD-ROM Conference for 1991. Gates' vision is to change the microcomputer from productivity machine to an information-access tool, says one industry observer. Vendors are choosing CD-ROM over the competing delivery technologies of floppy and hard disks. Panasonic Industrial Co entered the US CD-ROM drive market in Feb 1991; that and other trends are driving down the prices of the drives. Challenging the leader: two new Verilog tools from Cadence invade Synopsys' turf. (product announcement) Synopsys Inc of Mountain View, CA, dominates the logic synthesis market, estimated to be worth $30 million annually, with an estimated 90 percent share, but Cadence Systems Inc of San Jose, CA, is making the strongest competitive bid to date with the debut of its Improvisor and Optivisor packages. Synopsys' synthesis tool takes an existing logic description in VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL), minimizes the logic and outputs a net list for gate-array or standard-cell design. Improvisor, priced beginning at $15,000, is a mixed-synthesis tool that incorporates a 'what if' methodology to check out differing technology alternatives early in the design process. Optimizer, priced beginning at $35,000, is the optimizing and mapping tool. It uses algorithms that optimize circuit-timing considerations without harming device performance. Both tools work on Cadence's Verilog, now in the public domain, which may be the most used HDL for VLSI CAD. Freedom doesn't come easy; it looks like a long and winding road to the wireless world. (Cover Story) A number of wireless communication technologies are being developed and implemented; still, much work cooperation needs to take place among industry leaders and regulators before the technologies become very successful. Motorola Inc is the leading US firm in the wireless arena; it is marketing a wireless Ethernet system, and in 1994 will inaugurate a 77-satellite global personal communications network. In Feb 1991 Apple petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to set aside 40 MHz of the 1.9-GHz radio frequency spectrum for computer communications. Motorola, NCR Corp and BICC Technologies Inc are among the many firms selling wireless local area networks. Incompatibilities plague the robust mobile cellular communications market; in addition, it faces the daunting technological challenge of switching from analog to digital transmission. The UK will be the first to unplug. (plans for personal communications networks) UK mobile communications firms project the development of services that will attract 10 million to 15 million paying customers by 2000. The UK may have at least 11 services offered by nine firms; of these, personal communications networks (PCNs) provided by three consortia are gaining the lion's share of the publicity. Commercial implementation is expected by late 1992 for PCNs with a 200-meter range between cell and handset and which will operate at 1.8 GHz. The PCNs will have to comply with the GSM standard all-European digital cellular networks slated to go on-line in 1991. GSM (for Groupe Speciale Mobile, which developed it) is based on the time-division, multiple-access (TDMA) technique. The GMS standard calls for storing service-related information in a subscriber-related module (SIM); UK PCN operators plan on offering value-added services based on the idea that SIMs can be transferred between handsets. Digital meets analog in a robust mixed market. (mixed-signal integrated circuits) Growth in sales of mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) is outpacing that of the semiconductor market as a whole. Sales of the mixed-signal ICs, in which digital and analog functions reside on the same chip, are projected to grow 18.3 percent annually through 1995, compared to 16.9 percent annual growth for the entire semiconductor market. Mixed-signal IC sales are expected to balloon from $3.9 billion in 1990 to $9 billion in 1995. Fueling the boom are customer demands for more functionality on a chip; chip design is becoming more and more like system design. Precise definitions of mixed-signal ICs vary. The growth in mixed-signal IC sales is fueling demand for specialized computer-aided design (CAD) tools. Chip makers join the multimedia rush. (includes related article on SGS-Thomson Microelectronics STj3220 data-compression device ) Chipmakers, fearful of being left behind, are joining the rush to develop the first low-cost chip that gives microcomputers video compression and decompression capabilities. Firms such as C-Cube Microsystems Inc of San Jose, CA, have already begun shipping chips that compress high-resolution still images. These chips use a standard developed by the International Standards Organization's (ISO's) Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). One problem is that chip makers must wait for a similar standard from the ISO's Motion Picture Standards Group (MPEG). The payoff for chipmakers will be huge, as they will capitalize on a multimedia market expected to grow from $217 million in 1990 to $10.8 billion in 1993, according to William B. Welty of the San Francisco-based investment firm of Volpe, Welty and Co. PLCs: what's new? (programmable controllers)(includes comprehensive directory of programmable controllers) (Cover Story) The trend by manufacturers of programmable controllers (PLCs) toward opening up their system architectures gained momentum in 1990 and continues in 1991. This trend should have a significant impact on users and PLC makers. The biggest gains in PLCs are expected to come in batch applications such as those in the food, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals industries, while the automotive and transportation industry has become saturated with PLC systems. The smart I/O category continues to expand, with a number of independents competing with traditional PLC makers for part of the I/O business. These independents make I/O for data acquisition, bus board systems, and other equipment that can either be used with PLCs or used to replace PLCs. The trend of wedding a PLC to a microcomputer or other computer is growing. The PLC-on-a-chip is expected to have a considerable effect on the PLC world. PLCs, which remain the workhorses of the factory floor, must adjust to changing times, learning new languages and working with new partners. A list of over 50 PLC manufacturers is given. The list includes PLC model, type and size of memory, I/O capability, languages, programming devices, and networking. SP50 fieldbus standard: patience will pay off. Bowker, Tony. A truly international fieldbus standard should result from the joint efforts of the Instrument Society of America (ISA) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The 4-20 mA loop cannot continue for much longer to satisfy the requirements of today's highly automated plants. Analogy loops do not have the capacity to satisfy the need for data of modern computers and their sophisticated algorithms. Users need high performance, reliability, interchangeability, and quick and easy installation. The ISA's SP50 is an effort to produce a specification that meets these needs. The specification includes a comprehensive coverage of the physical connections, data handling capabilities, and data processing. The use of existing loop wiring for the new standard is permitted. National standards with considerable merit include the French FIP fieldbus, the German PROFIBUS, and the Norwegian ISIbus. Once the control industry sees the advantages of a uniform signal cable bus, it should be incorporated in a majority of the systems. Fieldbus standardization: another way to go. (includes related article on fieldbus communication methods) There is a need for a worldwide fieldbus standard for sensors and other field instruments, but it is not necessary to standardize immediately all applications above Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layer 7. One approach is to define the physical layer and the data link layer first; the second step would be to define the application layer with its messaging protocols and, if needed, appropriate applications. Using existing standards is the best way to go for a messaging protocol. Work on an international fieldbus standard is not yet completed because the current proposals are much too complex because they are defining a fieldbus with an application layer protocol and a complete universal application for systems of today and in the future. Reducing the requirements to a 'good minimum' will enable the fieldbus effort to be successful. Object-oriented programming cuts development time, boosts reliability. (tutorial) Object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques are used to encapsulate or modularize a program based on major activities. The benefits of OOP include reduction in time needed to write code, it is easier to update and add new modules, code is more robust and reliable, graphics can be easily added, and control system capabilities are more easily added. The basis of OOP is dividing work and expertise into separate parts and providing a way to communicate among the parts. In OOP an object is where the code and data associated with an area of expertise are encapsulated and maintained. These objects can be created and maintained using data encapsulation, inheritance, and late binding. Data encapsulation, also called data hiding, is a collection of data defined by the programmer which is combined into one module and accessed by a predefined set of function calls. Inheritance is how a programmer uses existing code to create new software. Late binding permits the programmer to use a consistent message protocol across different objects that come from one common object. OOP provides end users with more reliable and robust products. Project management: software alone can't do the job. (tutorial) Gruber, Christopher O. Project management needs an integrated approach and capable, experienced, well-trained people to implement the approach. One approach is to have all the system tools and capabilities applied, in some degree, to every project, regardless of size or type. The most important element is a detailed description of the goals of the project and the main steps to be taken to achieve these goals. Then an integrated plan and schedule and cost budget are developed. The schedule is developed further into a variety of schedules showing various level of detail, including a project summary milestone schedule and a project summary schedule. The software package used during the schedule development process by one engineering firm is Primavera Project Planner from Primavera Systems Inc. Costs are divided into four categories: project budget estimate, project cash flow, project budget monitoring, and project cost accounting. The cornerstones of project management and control are scope, project plan and schedule, cost and performance measurement. State logic diagnostic system cuts fiber production downtime. Natarajan, Subbiah. Two days of unscheduled downtime recently cost The Monsanto Chemical Co over $200,000. This prompted the company to undertake a comprehensive research project that would identify ways to reduce downtime caused by equipment failure. Installing a computerized diagnostic system became both the cornerstone of the research and an ongoing part of the solution. The system used is the Adatek System 10, a state logic based industrial controller, which monitors process operating, locates faults, and sends failure and repair information to maintenance personnel. The System 10 is installed next to the process controller; it is connected to the same analog input signals. The benefits of using state logic for process diagnostics include simplified programming, ideal structure, easy operator interface and messaging capability, and completeness. The system paid for itself in the first six weeks. Control software downloads applications to network nodes. (GENESIS Control Series 3.50 software) The key features of Iconics' GENESIS Control Series software, Version 3.50, are application flexibility and communications. Users can use GENESIS to implement a 'blind node' station on any GEN-NET network. The blind node serves as a remotely controlled data concentrator that processes local I/O data, reducing the cost, complexity, and unreliability of obtaining data from large, remotely located I/O arrays. This collection also makes possible GEN-Commander, a network utility that permits an authorized station to remotely control any other node on the network; 20 serial ports running I/O simultaneously; time-proportional output algorithm; a flip-flop algorithm; and an enhanced shift historian. AT-compatible module plugs into PLC backplane. (Siemens Energy & Automation introduces CELL MASTER microcomputer module) (product Siemens Energy & Automation expects to ship its Intel 80386-based CELL MASTER in 4th qtr 1991. CELL MASTER, an AT-compatible microcomputer, fits directly into Siemens' programmable logic controllers. The CELL MASTER is expected to be used for cell control and monitor applications. The CELL MASTER runs MS-DOS and arrangements have been made for software support from third-party vendors. Cell control, SPC/SQC, process control loops, and screen development packages are available. The CELL MASTER has drivers for high-speed communications with the CPU belonging to the PLC. Features include a 40M byte hard drive, 4Mbytes of RAM, and a 3.5-inch floppy drive. It is compatible with any VGA/RGB monitor and AT keyboard. Price will be about $7,300. Loop and logic controllers solve several application problems. (Honeywell's 9000e, 9100e and 9200e controllers) (product Honeywell has added a number of enhancements to an existing product line offering with Models 9000e, 9100e, and 9200e of its Series 9000 integrated loop and logic controllers, also known as Version 3.0. The controllers have both discrete and continuous process capabilities and are designed to fill the needs of small batch or process operations that do not need a full-blown distributed control system. Some of the enhancements are a personal computer communication card, a second supervisory station, and several configuration enhancements that reduce engineering time. Scan time is improved from 10 ms/K to 2.5 ms/K of ladder logic. 'Showcase' site drops NewWave. (Royal Insurance ending HP NewWave graphical user interface usage) Royal Insurance, the first European user of NewWave, Hewlett-Packard's object-oriented graphical user interface product, is putting an end to its investment in NewWave. The insurance carrier is moving to Microsoft Windows 3.0 because it is quickly becoming the de facto industry standard graphical user interface. NewWave is lacking in applications software; therefore, users are treating it as though it has no future potential. The decision to switch to Windows 3.0 is said to be the best solution for Royal Insurance's information management as a whole, despite the appreciation of NewWave's technical features.. NewWave was chosen three years ago, before Windows 3.0 was available, and seems to be too advanced for the current marketplace. When the AS/400 goes down....(IBM minicomputer system failure) According to research reported by Safetynet, UK disaster recovery specialists, hardware problems are the main reasons IBM AS/400 systems crash. Safetynet surveyed 192 AS/400 users about the reliability of their systems during 1990. The AS/400 proved highly reliable overall, but unprotected users still worried about their preparedness in case of a sudden system failure. Nearly two-thirds of all problems with the AS/400 were hardware related, with 43 percent being disk problems. Sixteen percent of all problems were with power supplies, and critical networks are causing an increasing number of problems. More than three-quarters of AS/400 users run their machines unattended during the evening, with a lower proportion having early detection systems to protect data and programs if problems were to occur. Safetynet did find that more users are attempting to protect themselves in the event of a disaster, but more than half of the users have yet to try a system recovery drill. Lessees need security and choice. IBM Credit Corp (ICC) in the US and IBM FSL in the UK dominate the IBM computer leasing market. IBM is viewed as the main competitor of other leasing companies, according to a 1990 survey by the European Computer Leasing and Trading Industry. Since 1989, IBM has moved in to take full advantage of the self-destruction of the discount, 'flexlease' industry. Evidence does suggest, however, that the option most users prefer is leasing, and that the most cost effective options are operating leases, as opposed to finance leases. Approximately one-third of all IBM equipment installed is financed by operating leases, while finance leases are also used one-third of the time and outright purchasing is used another third of the time. The bottom line is that IBM computer users are searching for well-established, solid computer leasing companies with which to do business for the long-term. Meta Group forecasts for large systems direction. McGinn, Janice. Marc Butlein of the Meta Group made a series of intuitive forecasts about IBM at a 1991 conference on large systems. These forecasts include IBM increasing its software revenues in five ways: higher prices for new versions, increases in yearly license fees, new software programs, new model group prices for upgrades and, most importantly, the imposition of charges for internal code on devices such as controllers. IBM's 1991-1996 strategy is to sustain leadership in systems management, overwhelm its competition with software functionality and flood the market with announcements. Butlein says more users will use leasing to fill their hardware requirements. Meanwhile IBM can expect pressure from market forces to discount hardware and budget issues may put IBM's sales force on the defensive and affect IBM's credibility. IBM is developing several new, but expensive product lines as erasable optical technology is positioned as a mass storage device. Butlein also expects IBM to focus on niche markets and value-added resellers. Cincom's AD/advantage: 'reusability and fluidity.' (computer-aided software engineering software) (product announcement) AD/Advantage is Cincom's new application lifecycle for program development, taking six years to develop and having 20 million lines of code. Cincom believes it has developed something new in the computer-aided software engineering area by offering an unlimited amount of flexibility to users and by placing emphasis on the area of reusable code. AD/Advantage, available beginning at about 200,000 pounds sterling for MVS systems, takes design input from any of four sources using IBM's AD/Cycle standards: a CASE tool, an expert system, a database definition (from DB2, Supra or others), or manual coding. AD/Advantage then generates the intermediate code, although COBOL is not generated at this stage. The design then enters a stage that allows it to be altered until reaching a post-prototyping stage at which the Mantis code is compiled into COBOL. Cincom put a lot of its effort into this pre-COBOL stage, making two significant changes: the prototyping area is larger, to cover more of the lifecycle, and reusable modules of code are introduced. The end result of AD/Advantage is a portable third generation language, valuable to users who do not want to be locked into one fourth-generation language. AS/400 values hold but changes afoot. (IBM minicomputers) (Second User Values) AS/400 residual values are falling slowly. At the end of 1990, the 9406 models were worth 50 to 60 percent of list. This is a significantly higher residual value than might be expected for a system first delivered in Aug 1988. The 9404-B models depreciate rapid rapidly than the 9406s mainly because IBM lowered their list prices in 1990 after the introduction of the 9404-C models in Feb 1990. The 9404-Bs are worth about the same as the 9406s in terms of percentage of the new lower list prices, but they may well drop to drop to between 30 and 40 percent of list during 1991. End-of-year prices would be about $7,000 for a B10, $8,200 for a B30, and $140,000 for a B70. The announcement of a new high-end AS/400 in Jun 1991 should affect these also. A stabilizing factor is that IBM plans to make the 9406s field upgradable to the new models, in order to alleviate their obsolescence. DP into business will go. (data processing and capacity management to be discussed at 1991 annual UK Computer Management Group Capacity management and its central role in data processing operations is the main topic to be discussed at the May 1991 UKCMG annual conference in Birmingham, England. Case studies of companies such as the financial services firm M&G and British Telecom show that capacity management must be put in place before the development of service management. M&G realizes its importance as a result of its experience with system conversion from MVS to VSE and to upgraded computers. A lack of capacity planning and its separation from service provision planning and costing causes significant problems for MIS departments and users. British Telecomm's MIS staff believes that costing falls naturally within the parameters of capacity management, as does the analysis of current and future demands for services and for data center resources. British Telecom decided to keep its first attempt at unit costing simple and allow it to expand into a more sophisticated system as resources allow and demand for the cost information dictates. Users rate CSP below par but keep buying. (IBM's Cross Systems Product program development software) According to the latest Xephon survey conducted for the IBEX IBM Users Information Exchange, IBM's Cross Systems Product (CSP) program development software is rapidly gaining market share although users rate it as one of the worst products on the market based on its features. Half of all users of mainframe application generators who decide to buy a new package choose CSP. At this rate, CSP is expected to pass Software AG's Natural as the most popular mainframe application generator. On a sliding scale of 1-5, users gave CSP an overall satisfaction rating of just over 3, which was lower than 12 other named packages. Xephon attributes CSP's popularity to its being bundled with SAA, since other products rank higher in ease of learning and use, efficiency of produced code and productivity gains. Don't use power to overcome inefficiency. (when a mainframe suffers performance problems) (Viewpoint) When a mainframe computer suffers from performance problems, a number of options may be considered before purchasing a larger one. The mainframe may actually require upgrading, but less expensive alternatives may help sufficiently, after careful planning of needs and analysis of existing conditions. Increasing power on the mainframe should be used to provide better facilities such as replacing flat file systems with a relational data bases, for example. Other options include reviewing the applications to ensure that they provide a business advantage and are used adequately; investing in high-quality software performance tools; identifying inefficiencies in the applications; and off-loading program development from an overtaxed system. VSE evolves into entry level MVS. (IBM operating systems) Enticknap, Nicholas. IBM continues to support its VSE mainframe operating system with the enhanced VSE/ESA version, under development for years and finally shipped in Jan 1991. Important features consist of support for innovative technology, the removal of resource constraints and more consistency with the MVS operating system that makes migration easier for those users who decide to make the transition. VSE/ESA supports three technologies not available to users of earlier versions of VSE: the ESCON fiber optic channel subsystem, the 3390 disk subsystem and the PR/SM logical partitioning feature. PR/SM allows users to run multiple copies of VSE on LPAR mode under PR/SM, saving them the cost of the VM license since PR/SM comes free on ES/9000 computers. Three limitations are still evident: VSE/ESA does not support the repository-based features of AD/Cycle or multiprocessors, and it still is not a part of SAA, which provides consistent interfaces among all IBM computers. From tuning to planning to saving. (data processing managers prolonging system life) (includes related articles on software Software tools form only part of the solution for extending the life of a computer processor. There are a variety of methods available, but users who achieve the best results are those who take a serious approach towards capacity management by implementing detailed system monitoring. 'Panic buying' capacity management, especially in times of recession in hopes of producing instant improvement, continues to disappoint because the process takes time and should be gradual. Capacity management tools are mainly useful as strategic tools, and are, therefore, unlikely to yield surprising or immediate gains. Performance monitors and tuning tools can produce direct results, but only if there is a basic problem that has not yet been spotted. Tuning, on the other hand, can only postpone upgrading temporarily. Most upgrades are made when system demand is increasing rapidly or when a new application is being planned. Why aren't System 36 users migrating? (IBM System/36 minicomputers) By the end of 1990, only one in six IBM System/36 minicomputer users had migrated to the IBM AS/400, compared to one-third of System/38 users. One-third of all users of IBM midrange computers use System/36 machines. IBM continues to encourage such users to switch over by introducing low-end AS/400s, an improved System/36 emulation environment and a new AS/Entry System that can be upgraded to the AS/400. Price/performance at the entry level is up by 27 percent, but IBM does not seem to be able to entice System/36 users to change. They are more affected by the 1990-91 slow economic conditions, so price-performance improvements only help a little bit. System/36 sites also have other options, such as implementing microcomputer networks, or extending the life span of a System/36 machine by off-loading applications to microcomputers. IBM may pressure System/36 users to switch by increasing maintenance fees and reducing support for the older versions of its operating system. In addition, software suppliers may discontinue improvements for the System/36 applications. Time for tuning. (System maintenance and tuning instead of upgrading) Although many users think it is time for an upgrade when their computer systems start to slow down, there is actually a lot they can do to prolong the life of their existing system. By clearing out print queues and history logs, and working with application design, users can avoid a full upgrade. Several techniques for improving system performance are available: reduce the number of transactions going through the CPU; observe how the application software programs operate and make sure files open only as they are needed; reduce the subfile size in order to decrease the number of times the system searches through data bases, and change the number of files that are open, combining logical files and adjusting access paths. A system conversion also enhances performance. It does not have to be a full conversion; a modification of some processes helps. Make sure access path regeneration is not a problem and, finally, save on overhead expenses by training end users to operate the system properly. RS/6000 applications - more variety needed. (IBM workstations) Ridgway, Helen. The IBM RS/6000 workstation is criticized for lacking a broad choice of applications packages for commercial use. In a published report on IBM's workstation strategy, Computer Technology Research (CTR) says the 2,500 applications IBM claims exist for the RS/6000 reflect IBM's emphasis on technical use. CTR also says that many applications are ported versions of existing products and they do not utilize the Motif or NextStep graphical user interface on the RS/6000. It is surprising that more Unix applications are not being moved to the RS/6000, but software publishers are reluctant because of the maintenance costs of supporting users on different Unix versions while keeping current with the changes in the operating system itself. High-quality, complete software, especially for finance and accounting market, is also difficult to find for the RS/6000. IBM set on making new friends. (IBM ensures continued sale and support of OS/2) (OS/2 User Group Report) IBM promised existing OS/2 users that it intends to continue the sale and support of the operating system. IBM admitted at an UK OS/2 User Group Meeting that it has been lacking in terms of past support, but said improvements are underway to change the type of service provided to both users and dealers. OS/2 users were disturbed by a recent announcement that Microsoft is developing a new variety of OS/2. Microsoft, which was expected to attend the meeting and give credence to IBM's claims to OS/2 users, failed to show up. IBM also reassured users who claim that OS/2 is too time consuming and difficult to support across a large organization that a product is in beta test that enables installation of up to 150 workstations using a single diskette. IBM also promised that the printing problems in OS/2 1.2 would be solved in OS/2 1.3, and offered enhanced printer drivers at no cost. Compaq LTE 386S/20. (laptop computer)(Personal Computer Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The LTE 386s/20 is Compaq's newest 20-MHz Intel 386SX-based notebook computer. The system weighs only 7.5 pounds and is 8.5 by 11 inches in size , but has 2Mbytes of memory, a built-in high-speed modem and a VGA-compatible display with 16 shades of grey. Other features include the ability to connect to a docking station that accepts standard ISA expansion cards and room on the motherboard for an Intel 80387SX math math coprocessor. The LTE 386s/20 supports all the usual interfaces and is slightly faster than most its competition. Compaq has a few original approaches to the LTE's design, including a standard 1.44 Mb floppy disk that loads from the front rather than the side, and a motherboard that folds so everything fits. faster. The system is lacking in some areas: it does not have an IBM XGA-standard display adaptor, has only a 20Mbyte hard disk drive and uses one of the less powerful microprocessors. Apple Macintosh LC. (Personal Computer Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The 1,235 pounds sterling Apple Macintosh LC is one of Apple's new, lower-cost microcomputers. It can be put on a mixed environment network, and can be linked into Novell, 3Com and Token Ring networks. The Macintosh LC comes standard with an internal 40Mbyte hard disk drive and an internal 1.4Mbyte floppy disk drive, which allows a simple swap of data files between Macintosh, OS/2, MS-DOS, and Apple II ProDOS systems. Because the Macintosh graphical user interface is built into the computer's ROM, the user not need to set aside 6.5Mbytes on the hard disk simply to fit in the operating system, as is required with microcomputers using Microsoft's Windows 3.0. The built-in 2Mbytes of RAM, which is expandable up to 10Mbytes, allows most Macintosh software to be run off-the-shelf. The Macintosh LC also includes built-in AppleTalk networking, a Small Computer Systems Interface, for simple peripheral hook-up, and the Apple Desktop Bus, which provides a standard way to connect mice, trackballs, keyboards, graphics tablets and modems. A color monitor costs an extra 260 pounds sterling. Logix LG200S. (Lucky-Goldstar subsidiary Logix's workstation)(Personal Computer Reviews) (Hardware Review) Logix Microcomputers' 3,295 pounds sterling LG200s workstation is a Intel 80486-based 25-MHz tower-style system that comes with a 120Mbyte hard disk, 4Mbytes of RAM, a VGA color display, a keyboard, MS-DOS 4.1 and the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The system can fully utilize its maximum memory capacity by way of single in-line memory modules without requiring the use of expansion slots to reach 32Mbytes. The inclusion of space for two tape streamers, four extra internal hard drives and the provision of five internal ISA slots make the system adaptable to various user needs. There are also two hard disk bays to further increase the storage capacity. The average access time is supposed to be 15 milliseconds, but can be further enhanced by using a 64Kbyte cache. Logix provides three months of interest-free credit and a one-year warranty with guaranteed on-site maintenance within eight hours. Next colour NeXTstation. (NeXT Inc.s' workstation) (Personal Computer Reviews) (product announcement) NeXT Inc's latest line of computer systems is innovative in both performance and price. The new under-6,000 pounds sterling NeXTstation Color workstation is the most powerful in its price class; an Apple Macintosh or an Intel-80486 workstation could not come close. The NeXTstation Color includes the NeXTstep operating system, color display PostScript, new 2.88Mbyte, 3.5-inch disk drives that can read IBM PC-compatible microcomputer, Macintosh and original NeXT disk formats, and a software-based IBM-PC emulation module that runs as fast as an 80286 microcomputer. Where next for OS/2? (confusion abounds over the future path of IBM's OS/2 operating system) OS/2 was originally developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft as the operating system to replace MS-DOS. It has failed for a variety of reasons. However, Microsoft has announced plans to develop a new version of OS/2 that will offer support for multiple application environments including Microsoft's Windows, MS-DOS, Presentation Manager and Posix, and hardware portability. OS/2 3.0 is due out by 1993, and will be a portable 32-bit version of the operating system, freeing users from OS/2's Intel base and the IBM PS/2 microcomputer architecture. The open systems approach should increase OS/2's usability, but its price and memory requirements are not known yet. Industry analysts still question Microsoft's intentions because of the central importance of the Windows graphical user interface and its application program interface to the software publisher. Some think OS/2 3.0 will be a complete rewrite of OS/2, designed to give Windows with OS/2's multitasking capabilities. As far as IBM is concerned, OS/2 3.0 is still undefined and IBM continues to tout OS/2 as the best operating system for business use in client/server arrangements. OS/2 2.0, which can run Windows-based applications, is due to be released in 1991. IBM latches on to NetWare's success. (Novell Inc.'s network operating system) IBM and Novell have a joint licensing, distribution and support agreement for network software products, leading to clearer solutions for users running networks in a client/server environment. Novell's NetWare already runs with MS-DOS, Unix, Apple Macintosh and OS/2 operating systems. The agreement should increase these ties as IBM plans to market and sell NetWare in the US along with OS/2 LAN Server other IBM PC LAN products. Novell's part of the agreement is to develop enhanced NetWare products for the OS/2 and RS/6000 AIX platforms. IBM and Novell also promise to collaborate on increasing interoperability between Lan Server and NetWare, so that customers can run them in parallel without difficulty. IBM seems to be using the support of Novell to increase the reputation of OS/2. IBM wants OS/2 users to have this ability, which MS-DOS already has, to reinforce OS/2 as the strategic server platform. No easy print options. (As printers gain power they become more complicated) (buyers guide) Printing in the IBM environment is so complex that IBM has developed certain criteria for choosing the appropriate printer for the job. The IBM-compatible midrange or mainframe printer supplier deal with several standards, especially the 'all points addressable' AFP/IPDS (advanced function printing/intelligent printer data-stream) standards. Impact line or dot-matrix printers, are still popular, despite the fact that non-impact printers, such as laser and electrophotographic types, are the choice for the future. Although line printers can only output lines of characters, are slower than non-impact printers and have variable output quality, they are much less expensive, costing 10-12 pounds sterling per line-per-minute. Non-impact printer speeds vary from eight pages per minute at the low end to over 200 at the high end, but the high-speed printers are more prone to failure. IBM is the major supplier of non-impact printers, which it no longer builds, but buys from manufacturers such as Kodak and Hitachi. However, there are many printer manufacturers and the competition for a share of the IBM market is increasing. Tough times for AS/400 job seekers: the recession is having a negative effect on opportunities and salaries. (IBM AS/400 IBM AS/400 minicomputer staff are finding job opportunities to be rather grim due to the recession. The first cuts have been in-house software development and training budgets. There is also a recruitment freeze in most areas, and many companies are hiring on a replacement-only basis. MIS managers in finance are the hardest hit group; demand for managers and project leaders is low. The current salary for these positions is in the low 20,000 pounds, while they used to receive at least 25,000 pounds. Although RPG/400 and RPG II programmers' salaries are stable at about 19,000 pounds, demand is low, primarily due to retraining difficulties and the gain in popularity of RPG III and Synon computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools. RPG III jobs are plentiful, also at salaries of about 19,000 pounds, but competition is growing. A combination of skills in RPG III and the CASE tool Synon seems to be the best for acquiring employment, with salaries for people with these skills at about 20,000 pounds. VM/ESA: a single system for centralized and distributed computing. (technical) The rapid evolution of distributed and personal systems in recent years has not diminished the importance of centralized computing. Today, systems at all levels need to operate in networked configurations to allow users and applications to access and manipulate data from anywhere with full integrity and optimal performance. Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA) satisfies this requirement as a single VM product that has been designed for both centralized and distributed computing. This essay describes how VM/ESA builds on IBM's reputation for virtual machine performance, function, and flexibility to form an ideal solution base for the 1990s. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) VM Data Spaces and ESA/XC facilities. (technical) Gdaniec, J.M.; Hennessy, J.P. Release 1.1 of the Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA) operating system introduces a new function called VM Data Spaces, provided through a new virtual-machine architecture called Enterprise Systems Architecture/Extended Configuration (ESA/XC). ESA/XC is the strategic VM/ESA virtual-machine environment for Conversational Monitor System (CMS) users and service virtual machines requiring large amounts of storage or advanced data-sharing capabilities. ESA/XC includes all of the facilities of System/370 Extended Architecture (370-XA) that are used by CMS or server programs and is therefore upward compatible for CMS or server programs currently running in 370-XA virtual machines. To this 370-XA base, ESA/XC adds the data space and access-register addressing capabilities previously available only under the Multiple Virtual Storage/Enterprise Systems Architecture (MVS/ESA) operating system. These addressing extensions can be used to make additional storage available to large, storage-constrained applications and can also be used by servers as an efficient way of sharing data between service virtual machines and the users that access those servers. As an introduction to the VM Data Spaces function, this paper describes the ESA/XC virtual-machine architecture and presents an overview of the VM/ESA services provided in support of the ESA/XC architecture. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) ESA/390 interpretive-execution architecture, foundation for VM/ESA. (technical) The interpretive-execution facility of Enterprise Systems Architecture/390 (ESA/390) provides an instruction for the execution of virtual machines. This instruction, called START INTERPRETIVE EXECUTION (SIE), was initially created for virtualizing either System/370 or 370-XA architectures, and was used later for virtualizing ESA/370 and ESA/390 architectures. SIE has evolved to provide capabilities for a number of specialized performance environments. Most recently it provides for the unique requirements of Enterprise Systems Architecture/Extended Configuration (ESA/XC) virtual-machine architecture. This comprehensive set of capabilities in the architecture serves as the platform for the ability of VM/ESA to provide functions in virtual machines for end users and system servers. This paper describes the evolution of SIE and outlines use of the various capabilities in VM/ESA. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) VM/ESA CMS Shared File System. (technical) Stone, Richard L.; Nettleship, T. Scott; Curtiss, Jay. Discussed is work toward satisfying requirements on the Conversational Monitor System (CMS) in the areas of data sharing and physical DASD space sharing. This work advances the present CMS file system design that allows only active read sharing among users on a single VM system, where each user has a reserved, private allocation of DASD space for file data. Described in this paper is the CMS Shared File System (SFS), which was designed to satisfy the data sharing and physical DASD space sharing requirements by providing a pool of DASD space that is shared among multiple users. DASD space assigned to the pool is easily extended, and the read/write sharing of individual files is allowed. Also discussed is SFS security, usage of Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA) data spaces for single system performance, and coordinated resource recovery to provide file data integrity in the distributed environment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Coordinated resource recovery in VM/ESA. (technical) Maslak, Barabara A.; Showalter, James M.; Szczygielski, Thomas J. A system service for coordinated recovery of resources is a critical function needed for distributed processing environments because applications need to provide for data integrity while the location of the data and processes are transparent to the application. VM is the first IBM operating system to provide Coordinated Resource Recovery as a system service rather than as a service provided by unique environments running on the operating system, and the VM Common Programming Interface-Communications and Shared File System are the first subsystems to utilize the service. This paper is an overview of why and how VM provided Coordinated Resource Recovery (CRR). CRR is the implementation of the Systems Application Architecture (SAA) resource recovery interface within Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA). This coordinated sync point service allows one or more applications or subsystems to update multiple resources and to request that all updates be committed or backed out together. The applications and their respective resources can be local or distributed. CRR either coordinates the request to commit or backout immediately, or supports automatic resource resynchronization in case a system or subsystem fails. When restart is not possible, CRR allows for intervention by a system operator or administrator. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Systems management for Coordinated Resource Recovery. (technical) Bennett, R. Bradley; Bitner, William J.; Musa, Mark A.; Ainsworth, Coordinated Resource Recovery is a Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA) function for providing consistency of changes to multiple resources in environments that include distributed applications. It provides a uniform solution for applications to the problem of resource consistency. Systems management of Coordinated Resource Recovery in VM/ESA (CRR) is the set of system services and interfaces that support both automatic and manual procedures for managing CRR installation, performance, and recovery, as well as resource manager and application participation. Much of systems management is focused on application recovery from occasional failures of the procedures for coordinating consistent resource changes. This paper describes several key aspects of CRR systems management, including the CRR recovery log, facilities for minimizing manual intervention when failures occur, performance considerations, and application participation in recovery. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) VM/ESA support for coordinated recovery of files. (technical) Barnes, Cherie C.; Coleman, Andrew; Showalter, James M.; Walker, This paper discusses the concepts and facilities of the Shared File System (SFS) support for Virtual Machine/Enterprise Systems Architecture (VM/ESA) Coordinated Resource Recovery (CRR). It includes background information on limitations that lead to SFS support for coordination of file recovery functions. The level of support provided by the Virtual Machine/System Product (VM/SP) Release 6 SFS support is identified and contrasted with the support provided in VM/ESA. The paper contains an overview of the system structure and the rationale for the support and is a discussion from the overall perspective of the total system environment and system processing for resource recovery. After the concepts and structure of VM/ESA SFS support are introduced, the paper discusses the specific technology involved in providing SFS support for Coordinated Resource Recovery. This includes a discussion of specific facilities used by SFS and how SFS deals with certain conditions that can arise. In addition, this paper discusses the Conversational Monitor System (CMS) compatibility considerations that contributed to the design of SFS support for Coordinated Resource Recovery. This includes compatibility with prior releases and compatibility with the CMS file system support for minidisks. Finally, some of the future directions for file system support of resource recovery are identified along with some of the challenges that remain to be solved. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Multisensor visualization for underwater archaeology. (Visualization Blackboard) The ocean is a formidable challenge to the use of remote sensing to probe its depths. But a new approach to underwater archaeology is now possible because of improved sensors, platforms, and techniques for marine exploration. A major innovation is the remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which can go to depths that human divers cannot. Sonars are used to give the big picture. Scientists and engineers use computational and graphics technologies as a visual way to process the information that comes from the ROVs. It is frequently useful to process and represent survey information as a three-dimensional probability distribution. The shape of a wreck can be determined by accumulating and combining multiple returns. Marine archaeology is expected to continue to benefit from new platforms, more flexible sensors, and scanning lasers. Graphics applied to medical image registration. Maguire, Gerald Q.; Noz, Marilyn E.; Rusinek, Henry; Jaeger, The information content of radionuclide imaging and images from computer-assisted tomography can be enhanced by using graphics techniques; this, in turn, increases their diagnostic value. Software to automate and standardize comparison of three-dimensional images has been developed at the New York University Medical Center. There are five major approaches to image registration: analytical with respect to structure; analytical with respect to surfaces; procedural; anatomic atlas; and using external markers. A polynomial warping algorithm is the basis for image registration. Fusing the images gives clinical researchers information that previously had been unavailable. A kinematic model of the human spine and torso. Monheit, Gary; Badler, Norman I. Technology in computer animation has progressed to the point where it is necessary to have a more accurate model of the human spine and torso to continue to advance realism in human motion. The human spine is designed to support the weight of the body, stabilize the torso, have flexibility of motion, and protect the spinal cord. The spinal motion of the computer model is based on anatomy of the physical vertebrae and disks, range of movement of each vertebra, and effect of the surrounding ligaments and muscles. The rotations of the spine are calculated independently and then merged into one. The model also calculates how much a joint participates in a move. The model has a torso with 17 segments and functions as an approximation of human anatomy that efficiently displays movement, including breathing. An editable nonmanifold boundary representation. Crocker, Gary A.; Reinke, William F. Constructive solid geometry (CSG) and boundary representation are two prevalent representation formats used in solid modeling. A new approach to boundary evaluation uses nonmanifold topology (NMT). This approach makes it possible to overcome the editing and coverage limitations found in the manifold nature of existing boundary evaluation schemes. A nonmanifold topology permits all possible adjacencies among the basic topological elements to be represented. In the new approach the input primitives are merged into a single representation. The next step is to select the entities in the merged set that are the result of the Boolean operations. There are significant performance advantages when editing because a complete description of the input primitives is maintained. Ray tracking interference color. (Computer graphics in Europe) Dias, Maria Lurdes. Ray tracing is the best approach to the simulation of inference color produced in view-dependent transparent materials. A ray tracing model is able to reproduce this phenomenon because the model takes into account any kind of film layer in any medium. The method used is a generalization of well-known reference models. Of the two types of films, thin and thick, interference effects can be observed in thin films, but not in thick films. This method can be used to represent any kind of film layer in any medium as well as surfaces without layers. Requirements for the first international imaging standard. (Computer graphics in Europe) The proposal for a new work item on imaging was approved in MAY 1990 by the International Standards Organization/International Electronics Commission/Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 24. There will be three parts to the Image Processing and Interchange Standard: common imaging architecture; application-programming interface; image interchange format. Emphasis in the forthcoming standardization work is placed on imaging systems; one part of the work will deal with application-programming interfaces and one part will deal with image interchange formats. Mature and stable technical work in the related area is required to develop an international standard. The general requirements are device independence; compatibility; extensibility; testability; and an abstract model. The requirements and design goals for the API component are application probability; minimality, orthogonality, and extensibility; implementation; interaction and real time. The requirements and design goals for the IIF component are types of images; compression and coding; contents; media independent; and geometric models. Constructive page description. (Computer graphics in Europe) Schonhut, Jurgen; Wiedling, Hans-Peter; Samara, Veronika. Printing and computer science are still characterized as closed environments; printing is separate from computer science developments. Closed systems predominant in the printing industry even though end users want open prepress systems. In an open prepress system the end user could select appropriate system components from various vendors, resulting in systems that had a good price-performance ratio. The Constructive Page Description (CPD) approach is an attempt to overcome the current dead end situation and provide a reference model for prepress operations. The main goals of the CPD approach are independence of print technology; flexibility in handling and combining data and operations and flexibility in exchanging fully assembled or changeable digital pages or page sets; extensibility of data and operations for future applications and developement; consistency of digital data; and page or page set descriptions that act in their environment like pages or sets in final form when evaluated, but keeping information needed for modification as long as they have not been evaluated. The gap between printing and prepress and computers and computer graphics can be bridged by CPD. Enhanced interaction styles for user interfaces. (Computer graphics in Europe; includes related article on project Considerable advances are being made by European scientists in user interface design. The major advances are: giving designers guidance in human factors design; developing interface toolkits that include established techniques; setting up evaluation laboratories; integrating user interface technology into new application tasks; and integrating new techniques and artifacts into toolkits. A major development is the Elusive Office which integrates hardware, software, and communications components to support mobile workers or those who work at home. Other developments are knowledge-based systems and Datagloves, a neoprene fabric glove with a Polhemus cube above the wrist that gives hand position in three dimensions. Graphics workstations: a European perspective. (Computer graphics in Europe) Euroworkstation (EWS) and Spirit are two European projects with the goal of producing the next generation of multiprocessor, high-performance, extensible workstations. Funding comes from the European Commission under its European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technology. EWS and Spirit are expected to be able to visualize complex data and do image analysis, complex simulation, and photorealistic rendering of three-dimensional scenes. EWS, an open and modular hardware architecture, provides modularity at the levels of shared memory, a system bus, and a local area network. It has an object-oriented interaction framework that has a dedicated architecture to support user interaction. Spirit is a multiprocessor modular architecture designed to provide various levels of performance at a reasonable cost. Its software architecture is based on a uniform software component called the graphics interface layer. Although using similar overall requirements, the two design teams have achieved significantly different designs and trade-offs. Concurrent engineering in product development. Sprague, R.A.; Singh, K.J.; Wood, R.T. The DICE program (DARPA Initiative in Concurrent Engineering) is the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency's plan to promote the practice and acceptance of concurrent engineering in the US. US industry is recognizing the importance of time-to-market and the importance of total quality. Remedial solutions and plans for beneficial change can be found in concurrent engineering. In concurrent engineering, developers consider all elements of the product life cycle. Each discipline's constraints and requirements are satisfied as the design progresses. The two biggest barriers to acceptance of concurrent engineering are complexity and tradition. The DICE program, which started in 1988, is in its third year and is in Phase 3. Included in the DICE program are technology services, migration services, and a resource organization to serve national needs in concurrent engineering and support special services. The important concurrent engineering issues are addressed by the DICE program. Simulation-based verification for high-level synthesis. Ernst, Rolf; Bhasker, Jayaram. High-level synthesis has many advantages, but it cannot be used unless the user can be assured that the synthesis system itself does not have any errors. A reliable way to verify the synthesis automatically is explicated. This method, called Satya, can identify and diagnose errors in the synthesis process and in algorithmic descriptions. Satya detects semantic errors and identifies the source of the errors by mapping an algorithmic description to a logic circuit description and then comparing the descriptions. Satya is general enough to work with a variety of high-level synthesis systems. The compiled logic simulator. Keller, Brion L.; Carlson, David P.; Maloney, William B. CLS (compiled logic simulator) is a new simulator that extends support to RAMS, tristate logic, and non-scannable latches. There are three components in CLS: the CLS compiler, the object code and tables that the CLS compiler produces, and a simulation monitor to load and call the object code. CLS, which is a two-value, zero-delay simulator, computes signatures and analyzes fault coverage for circuits with built-in self-test. Intermediate assembly code is not necessary since CLS generates object code directly. CLS is fast and well suited to the fault simulation of flat random patterns, but it is not suitable for more general simulation of deterministically generated patterns. It is best suited for signature-based testing. Object-oriented programming for CAD. (computer-aided design) Wolf, Wayne. The design and implementation of CAD systems can be simplified by using object-oriented programming. Advantages of object-oriented programming include excellent support for abstract data types and the ability to divide the program into smaller units that are easier to manage. Dividing the program into smaller units makes program debugging simpler and makes it easier to reuse the code. Object-oriented languages may differ in syntax and some of the features provided, but they all provide data abstraction, inheritance, and runtime-function determination, three critical features. CAD programs force users to think about objects that can be expressed as abstract data types, making CAD programs well-suited to object-oriented programming. An object-oriented language should be used when there is a need for a programming language that has powerful data-definition facilities. VHDL as input for high-level synthesis. (The Very High Speed IC Hardware Description Language) VHDL, a formal notation for hardware description, permits the high-level description of digital systems. The advantages of a standard are combined with the advantages in high-level synthesis in high-level synthesis from VHDL. The sequential statements in VHDL are: process communication and synchronization, wait, signal assignment, and variable assignment. Sequencing is the basic control construct. Properly interpreting time and synchronization is the primary problem with VHDL in high-level synthesis. This problem can be solved by enforcing the most beneficial use of the wait statement. Twelve rules are given that permit high-level synthesis from sequential VHDL. Some of the rules restrict the language; some of them detail the semantics of sequential VHDL within a particular high-level synthesis framework. A rule-based design-for-testability rule checker. Bidijan-Irani, Mehrdad. An automatic design-for-testability rule checker is developed. The system uses expert-system technology, runs quickly and interactively, supports hierarchical design, and supplies concrete references about possible rule violations and how to eliminate these violations. The system functions at the register-transfer level, not the gate level as other automatic DFT rule checkers do. A combination of basic data structure and an abstract execution model make up the system's symbolic execution. Identifying violations of DFT rules as they relate to the circuit structure at the register-transfer levels or circuit structure at the gate is the primary function of the DFT rule checker. The system, which can verify even complex VLSI designs, can be used during the early stages of design. The designer can terminate the analysis as soon as the first violation is found, or the analysis can continue until all violations are found. The system can analyze any circuit of any size, but it can handle only structure-oriented rules. A fail-safe interlocking system for railways. Chandra, Vinod; Verma, M.R. A better approach to developing fault-tolerant and fail-safe systems is to implement functions vital to system safety at a higher safety standard than routine functions; routine functions have little or no bearing on overall safety. This approach is used in developing the FIRM architecture. FIRM, a fail-safe interlocking system for railways, uses microprocessors. There are two processor modules that operate in duplex mode. This new approach does not use the same safety standard for all functions. Levels are assigned to system functions; the level assigned depends on how critical the function is. There are four categories: data logging and maintenance support, where the function is implemented by a single processor with routine software; panel processor, where the function is implemented through software diversity; vital functions are implemented using specially developed fail-safe hardware; the output data conditions, which are implemented through electromechanical relays. The safety assurance is supplied by a number of distributed modules. Indian Railways is currently testing a prototype of FIRM. Designing a real-time coprocessor for Ada tasking. Roos, Joachim. A significant improvement in the tasking real-time performance of the Ada programming language is achieved by a new VLSI coprocessor. The design strategy is stepwise refining of functional models that represent the coprocessor at levels that are more and more detailed. Developing the VLSI coprocessor required using a highly automated design approach. The complex design was made possible by the interaction of the design tools. The interaction of the coprocessor with the Ada runtime environment was the key design issue. Coding the interface was necessary to make sure the instruction set details were fine-tuned for efficiency with the interface. This was the largest chip, 14.5 by 14.5 mm, ever designed entirely with the Genesil system. ASIC alternatives for system design. (roundtable discussion; application specific integrated circuits) Mike Bohm, Harris Semiconductor, Ewald Detjens, Exemplar Logic, Kurt Keutzer, Synopsys, Albert Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, University of California at Berkeley, Chuck Stroud, AT&T Bell Labs, Tim Williams, Alcatel, and Jerry Werner, technical consultant, have a roundtable discussion on system design. The issues discussed include what system designers should consider when implementing a new system; what trade-offs must be considered; the push towards higher density implementation; the need for computer-aided design tools that can accurately predict implementation concerns; changes in the basic approach to engineering; what design managers look at when implementing ASIC-based systems; field-programmable gate arrays; programmable logic; timing; what is being done to increase the testability of gate arrays; and sea-of-gates technology. Product Reviews: Asset. (Software Review) (evaluation) Lebak, James M.; Lenhert, Donald H. Texas Instruments Asset (Advanced Support for Emulation and Test system) can turn an IBM PC-AT into a test platform. This test platform can be used for devices, boards, and systems that comply with IEEE Standard 1149.1 Boundary Scan Architecture. Windows and menus are used extensively by the software, which is written in C++. A full Zortech C++ compiler and debugger is included. An analyzer feature that shows the results of successive scans on a time axis is included. Using Asset frees the user from the need to translate tests to a serial format for application by boundary-scan. This is a useful tool, but a bit expensive. The complete system costs $25,000, but reduced versions are available. Asset does not have any competing systems at this time. Integrated network management for real-time operations. Tjaden, Gary; Wall, Mark; Goldman, Jerry; Jeromnimon, Constantine It can be very difficult to manage today's corporate networks, which are made up of network elements from different suppliers, different network architectures, and different protocols. While the International Organization for Standardization for Open Systems Interconnection is working on developing standards that element management systems can use to communicate with each other, it is not necessary to wait for these standards to have integrated management of real-time operation of heterogeneous networks. The Universal Device Interface Generator, which is similar to a fourth generation language, has been developed by NYNEX. Using the Universal Device Interface Generator eliminates the need for interface protocol conformance. Open-architecture client/server workstation technology is used, along with off-the-shelf artificial intelligence tools, to integrate network management. Operations and management of a campus packet network. (University of Kansas) The University of Kansas, a research institution with an enrollment of approximately 28,000, deals with a wide range of networking activities. The University is a BITNET node; has connections, via NSFNET, to Internet; is a MIDNET member; and is connected to the Kansas Regents Network. There are several on-campus networks, with the Kansas University Packet Switch Network (KUPSN) the most ubiquitous. The major areas of concern are operational status, problem handling, network performance, network configuration, user connection, and new connections. The projects to address these concerns include the Traffic Analysis of X.25 project to provide precise X.25 trunk utilization statistics; the AM to provide network status and activity information in an online format; the Electronic Problem Logbook to track and management problem reports; and a Simple Network Management Protocol is being developed to monitor the University's expanding Ethernet environment. Traffic administration and engineering of a corporate wide area network. A private AT&T Corporate Wide Area Network (CWAN) is a three-tiered Datakit Virtual Circuit Switch-based hierarchical network. It handles AT&T's internal asynchronous data traffic, consolidating all AT&T asynchronous networks through its hierarchical architecture. Local Site Management Centers (SMCs) and the Corporate Network Management Center (CNMC) divide the network management and administration responsibilities. Together, they support centralized end-to-end management of the CWAN. The responsibility of the SMC is for overall performance and capacity management of the local area network switches. The responsibility of the CNMC is for network functions of the site switches and for transmission facilities to site switches and network services. Collecting and delivering network performance data is overseen by the CNMC. The CWAN Traffic Administration System (CTAS) is an automated system that implements the CWAN traffic engineering and administration method. Peer-to-peer network management in an IBM SNA network. Simon, Stephen. LEN (Low Entry Networking) is IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) peer-to-peer communication. LEN is a series of functions that permit two processors, which can be mainframes, midrange computers, or microcomputers, to communicate as peers with each other. Other LEN node capabilities are greater resource utilization, easier programming, easy installation, and a strategic direction for IBM. Because LEN is dynamic, the tools and methods must be dynamic. Challenges in managing a peer network include finding efficient ways to remotely capture, process, and forward information to a focal point; merging the information that comes from several sources; develop definitions that are meaningful across the variety of LEN applications; managing LEN resources within IBM's Network Control Program; managing sessions; handling session accounting collection; defining performance; and measuring performance. NETMATE: a network management environment. Dupuy, Alexander; Sengupta, Soumitra; Wolfson, Ouri; Yemini, Columbia University is working on the NETMATE project. Developing a unified and comprehensive software environment for network management that can oversee and handle the operations of a variety of devices and protocols is the goal of NETMATE (Network Management, Analysis, and Testing Environment). The design emphasis is on a distributed approach: defining, collecting, storing, analyzing, and reviewing network information may happen at several locations. A NETMATE environment's components are the Modeler, User Interface, Observation/Control Point, Simulator, and auxiliary systems. NETMATE supports a generic data model and a comprehensive set of distributed tools. Linear control analysis on a PC. (Caplin Software's Caplin linear control analysis software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Caplin Software's Caplin linear control analysis program for IBM PCs and compatibles is based on the classic LCAP2 developed by Aerospace Corp for analysis of space launch vehicles on mainframe computers. The $195 program ($49 for students) analyzes single-input/single-output (SISO) linear control systems interactively using transforms; among the classical analysis tools included are frequency response, sampled-data transforms and multirate sampled-data transforms, digital filter transformations using the Tustin, prewarped Tustin and matched pole-zero approximations, and root solving and root locus. The program handles only transfer functions or polynomials of degree 30, 999 polynomials or transfer functions, 25 continuous blocks, 20 discrete time blocks and five zero order holds. Caplin lacks some useful but non-critical functions, but it is highly recommended for its technical capabilities at such a low price. For large filter design. (DGS Associates Inc.'s S/Filsyn 2.2 CAE software, digital filter section) (Software Review) (evaluation) DGS Associates Inc's S/Filsyn 2.2 (digital filter section) provides techniques for the design, synthesis and analysis of practical high-order filters that meet detailed frequency-domain specifications. Segments of the $4,000 program support the development of infinite and finite impulse response filters in addition to an option using passband ripple, minimum stopband rejection and filter order. The program lets IIR filters be synthesized as cascaded second-order sections, as lattice filters or in terms of polynomial or partial-fraction expanded transfer-function form. It also lets FIR filters be factored into as many as five cascaded blocks and be designed using the McClellan-Parks-Rabiner algorithm or windowing techniques. The new release adds a menu-driven interface and an Extended Batch Language with example batch files for automating standard designs. The DOE: agency under fire. (the US Department of Energy) (Special Report: Energy Management) The US Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing to address problems in its nuclear weapons programs and civilian-energy programs that will set the direction for the agency into the next century. The ability of the agency to solve its many problems will affect national security, the environment and the fuels to be used to drive the US economy. The DOE budget of $13.5 billion annually makes it the 10th largest cabinet-level agency; it runs nine top scientific and technical laboratories and dozens of other special-purpose laboratories and facilities, as well as electric-power generation and marketing organizations in Alaska and many other US regions. Among the problems in the DOE's weapons programs are unsafe managerial and operating practices at the five US nuclear materials production plants; steps being taken to address these and other problems are described. Loosening the bonds of oil. (drafting of the US Department of Energy's 'National Energy Strategy'; includes a related article on The US Department of Energy was prepared for a disruption in the supply of oil to the US as a result of the Gulf war through development of five computer scenarios by the DOE's Energy Information Administration. The Gulf war may have diverted attention from many serious issues facing the nation and its use of energy, however. The development of a National Energy Strategy was made more urgent by the outbreak of war. The strategy is seen by the administration as encompassing every major aspect of US energy use: power generation by conventional, nuclear and alternative means; independent power production, regulation and transmission access; fuel production and regulation; energy conservation and efficiency; research and development; and transportation. The politics involved in developing such a strategy and research being conducted in various energy areas are described. Overhauling weapons production. (the US Department of Energy reduces and reconfigures its nuclear arms complex) (Special The US Department of Energy's nuclear weapons production complex has been paralyzed in recent years by safety deficiencies and environmental problems at its 15 weapons sites throughout the US. The DOE announced proposals in Feb 1991 that call for a smaller complex that could no longer produce fissionable plutonium but that would make weapons from retired warheads and existing supplies of plutonium. Treaties pending call for the current 20,000 nuclear weapons cache to be cut in half; the DOE has plans for cutting the number of weapons by from 15 to 70 percent. Problems with nuclear cleanup have transformed the DOE into an environmental agency: its cleanup budget of $4 billion in 1991 exceeds the $1.6 billion Superfund budget of the Environmental Protection Agency for cleaning up the worst US toxic waste sites. The DOE's plans for its nuclear weapons complex are described. Origin of a culture. (the US Department of Energy's secrecy is a result of its association with the Atomic Energy Commission) The US Department of Energy is a direct descendant of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and as such it retained many of the organizational characteristics of its predecessor. Many of the current problems troubling the DOE can be traced back to the secrecy, isolation and lack of outside assessment engendered by its AEC past. Following World War II Congress was most concerned with the security of the US nuclear weapons capability, giving less importance to technical issues of weapons production. The power given to the AEC was unprecedented among peacetime government agencies, and it soon focused almost exclusively on weapons production, pushing its initial hopes of peacetime uses of atomic energy to the background. AEC engineers were not concerned with dealing with nuclear waste; examples of the damage done by this disregard for the environment are described. Cutting the high cost of testing. (a new modeling technique for testing analog and mixed-signal devices) (technical) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a comprehensive approach to testing analog and mixed-signal circuit designs that balances the cost of testing and the generation of thorough results. The technique is based on the fact that the behavior of many devices is determined by a relatively small set of underlying variables that govern the results of many measurements. The method is an extension of the optimal design of experiments technique coupled with the concept of empirical modeling; it is much more computationally efficient than the optimal design technique while still yielding nearly as good results. The method is being used to test a diverse range of devices and instruments in addition to analog-to-digital converters, including amplifier-attenuator networks, filters and multi-range instruments. Anatomy of an X terminal. (technical) Socarras, Angel E.; Cooper, Robert S.; Stonecypher, William F. X terminals are able to support any type of font or window size, unlike ASCII terminals, which support only one character font and only one or two windows per display. X terminals use a bit-mapped screen that lets the application display text, images, drawings and other types of data formats simultaneously to enhance the productivity of users. X terminals are diskless, which means users need not serve as a system administrator, although the human interface gives them the impression that they are working at a high-powered workstation. X terminals focus on network communications, graphics performance and graphical user interface enhancements, creating what can be called an application-specific workstation. Several aspects of X terminal design are discussed, including human factors, communications, their graphics background, performance and market potential. When bust is best. (proving computer equipment by destroying it) (Systems Reliability) (technical) The testing programs at AT&T Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and other such laboratories often include methods for destroying computer and communications equipment. The two basic categories of destructive testing are limit testing to the failure point of the equipment to determine safety margins and the most extreme conditions under which it will function, and environmental testing under real-life conditions to determine the reliability of the equipment as it is handled roughly in transportation, installation and operation. Destructive testing is also sometimes used to duplicate conditions of past accidents in an attempt to avoid future ones. Testing procedures at Bellcore, EPRI and other labs are described, and specifications used in the testing process are discussed. Behind the Laplace transform. (Back to Basics) (column) (technical) Electrical engineers have long relied on the Laplace transform for finding the transient and steady-state outputs of circuits with periodic and aperiodic inputs quickly and reliably. The Laplace transform changes some of the most differential equations of physics into algebraic equations, which are usually easier to solve. The Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler wrote integrals in 1744 that looked much like the modern version; these were adapted by the Italian-French mathematical physicist Joseph Louis Lagrange to the needs of probability theory, and Lagrange's work influenced Frenchman Pierre Simon Laplace, who was writing the almost-modern Laplace transform by 1785. This is still used as the Mellin transform to solve differential equations with variable coefficients. The contributions of Joseph Fourier to the development of the Laplace transform and its current use are described. Alpo improves batch control with PC/PLC retrofit. (new control system employs personal computers and programmable logic Engineered Systems Inc (ESI, Easton, PA) developed and installed a microcomputer- and programmable logic controller (PLC)-based process control system to reduce manufacturing costs and improve consistency of the quality of canned dog food produced at Alpo Petfoods Inc's Allentown, PA, plant. The retrofit project for Alpo's wet plant production process was intended to increase productivity and meet customer demands for consistent quality in pet food products. Systems integrator ESI was involved with the design and implementation program from the start. The new control system employs the microcomputers and Allen-Bradley PLCs to monitor, document and regulate processes throughout the plant. The information is transmitted between the microcomputers and PLCs associated with different process areas across broadband Allen-Bradley Data Highway and Data Highway Plus local area networks. Details of the dog food production process and the process control project are discussed. Design considerations for high-risk safety systems. (tutorial) Balls, Basil W.; Gruhn, Paul. Process plant safety systems must be designed with a higher level of automation, reliability, availability and maintainability than process monitoring and control systems. Safety systems are vital to the protection of personnel, equipment, production processes and plant environment against damage. Safety must be an implicit consideration through the planning, design, implementation and functioning of any production process. Safety activities address four aspects of plant implementation and operation: plant design, process measurement and control, emergency shutdown and fire and gas monitoring and control. Design of safety systems requires analyses of the degree, frequency and effects of hazards using such techniques as mean time before failure and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Different safety system architectures must be assessed for their reliability, maintainability, field device integrity and effectiveness of output voting devices. Three technologies are used in process plant safety systems: electromechanical relays, hardwired solid state systems and microprocessor-based products. Integrating process control for improved customer service. (implementing computer integrated manufacturing at a Union Camp Rust International Corp (Birmingham, AL) implemented a computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) system to improve customer service in the paper roll finishing section of Union Camp Corp's Fine Paper Div mill (Franklin, VA). A CIM system must fulfill specific business goals. Union Camp translated its general business goals for the new system into engineering objectives from which specific equipment, process and information system requirements were developed. The engineering objectives included increasing roll paper wrapping capacity and quality; providing automatic printing, packaging and labeling per customer requirements; improving total roll finishing throughput; increasing accuracy of information by tracking each roll; reducing inventory costs; and increasing on-time shipments. The new system was implemented in several steps. Hardware consisted of Hewlett-Packard 3000 and 9000 computers, Allen-Bradley (A-B) PLC-3 and PLC-5 programmable logic controllers and an A-B broadband local area network running A-B's Data Highway software. The design and functioning of the CIM system is detailed. Designing an automatic batch control system: automating a brewery's aging and bottling cellars for the production of more A distributed process control system is developed that uses mathematical modeling and fourth-generation batch sequencing software to automate the aging and bottling of more than 20 brands of beer in a 71.5 million gallon-per-year brewery. The complex batch processes involve pumping a high-alcohol-content beer from 107 aging tanks through two pipe systems, injection of additives, filtration in one of four surge tanks, dilution of alcohol content and transfer to 21 packaging tanks. The control system must enable the operator to interrupt the process at any time with an orderly shutdown and restart. The new control system was chosen for its integrated and easy-to-use operator interface, ease of integrating digital and analog control, maintainability and reliability. The batch language eases the sequencing of the processes and offers on-line monitoring and dynamic debugging. A real-time dynamic process simulator employs mathematical modeling to facilitate process startup and analysis, operator training and operator feedback on the control system design. Solving calibration problems at Willamette's Red River Mill. (calibrating instrumentation in Willamette Industries Inc's A combination of Loveland smart pneumatic and electronic calibrators, a data base of flow transmitter service history and test and calibration programs are used to calibrate the Foxboro flow transmitters in the recovery boilers of the Red River Mill (Campti, LA) linerboard plant owned by Willamette Industries Inc's Paper Group. The flow transmitters provide information to feedwater control systems to ensure that critical water levels are correctly maintained in the boilers. Every six months the boilers are taken down for inspection, enabling the recalibration of the flow transmitters. Transmitter identification data and test-and-calibration routines and data are uploaded from a microcomputer into the calibrators for testing of up to 40 transmitters. Advantages of the automated calibration process include reduced manual entry, less down time due to transmitter failure and improved calibration accuracy. Object-oriented concurrency and distribution in DRAGOON. (technical) The two primary challenges facing large-scale, industrial software systems developers are increasing reuse of existing software components and taking advantage of cheap and powerful distributed processing systems for reconfiguration and fault tolerance. DRAGOON is a language developed by the European Esprit project, DRAGON. Because DRAGOON permits the use of the typing facilities, packages, subprograms and exceptions of the Ada language, programmers can use DRAGOON to take advantage of existing Ada software, even that which is not written according to the object-oriented approach. DRAGOON adopts the Ada convention of physically separating the interface and implementation of data definitions. It is intended for use in embedded systems. Instantiation of C++ objects in shared memory. (technical) Jordan, David. C++, an object-oriented language that offers the efficiency and portability of C, supplies advanced modeling and object-oriented features that are needed by system architectures that use shared memory to enable multiple processes to share data efficiently. A C++ object is made up of primitive and user-defined data members, pointers, nonvirtual member functions, and virtual member functions. Objects must get instantiated before virtual functions can be invoked on objects in shared memory. It is necessary to divide the shared memory pool between the many objects that will reside in the pool. Release 2.0 of C++ has several mechanisms that handle the instantiation of objects in private memory and shared memory. Industrial development of software with an object-oriented technique. (technical) There is a need for a more industrial attitude to system development, one that makes system development part of a larger enterprise that also includes manufacturing, marketing, and sales components. Object orientation is a basic programming technology that will become increasingly important in all system development work because system development must be designed as a process that can handle changes. System development must become an integrated part of a larger activity such as developing a product or administrative resources. A good way to develop systems is step-by-step, designing the core of the system and a few important functions first. Other functions are added as needed. The important ingredients in developing a system are object orientation, a process aspect of development work and a well developed tool box. Operator overloading in C++. (technical) Ferguson, Tom. Part of designing a language is syntactic consistency, which means that similar things look similar and different things look different. Making the language extensible is one of the design goals of object-oriented languages. C++ permits the definitions of operators to apply to user-defined types or classes. Overloaded operators are used as a convenient syntactic shorthand for commonly used operations and do not add anything to a language's basic functionality. Operator overloading is restricted in some ways in C++; users cannot change the semantics of the language. C++ permits users to declare nonmember functions to be 'friend' functions of a class; this enables the user to create a nonmember function without destroying abstract data type integrity. C++ permits users to use class constructors to take explicit control over the initialization of objects. Implementing operator functions to act as much like corresponding predefined operators is an effective way to avoid the problems of operator overloading. The semantics of const, part 2. (C++)(column) (tutorial) Shopiro, Jonathan E. User-defined types have member functions that might or might not change the object, making it complex to apply 'const' to user-defined types. There are two reasonable meanings to 'const': 'bitwise const,' where every such operation for a given type also preserves the bits of the object, and 'meaningwise const,' under which a meaning-preserving operation changes the bits of the object. Programmers can remove 'const' from a class if the class has a constructor or a destructor, but it is questionable to tag a function 'const' when it changes a visible aspect of its object. 'Const' may nevertheless be the best choice in some situations. Dynamic data exchange in Smalltalk/V Windows. (Smalltalk)(column) (tutorial) Dynamic data exchange (DDE) is a technique that allows an integrated community of applications to work together on a problem. DDE is appropriate in situations that do not involve explicit user control. A DDE conversation occurs when two applications are communicating, with one application acting in the role of a client and the other as a server. DDE is provided by Smalltalk/V Windows through six classes: Object, DynamicDataExchange, DDEClient, DDEServer, Window, DDEAuxWindow, DDEAuxClient, and DDEAuxServer. The client and server classes help shield the programmer from tedious low-level details. Smalltalk/V Windows' DDE facility is a powerful protocol that can be used to establish conversations between applications that execute independently. Toward a definition of object-oriented languages, part 1. (CLOS) (column) Object-oriented programming and the acceptance of the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) as a valid object-oriented language make it necessary to rethink the definition of object-oriented programming languages. The acceptance of CLOS shows that there is a move away from SmallTalk-like languages. The definition of an object-oriented language can be satisfied by the functions in Common Lisp. Functions and functional style are powerful, but message-passing and class-owning methods wear away this power. Programmers should nevertheless avoid abandoning function-based programming entirely. Benchmarking an ODBMS. (ODBMS) (column) Rotzell, Katie; Loomis, Mary E.S. Performance, a major consideration in choosing an object data base management system (ODBMS), is the main reason for selecting an ODBMS instead of a relational DBMS. There are few benchmark products for ODBMS; users will have to define their own benchmarks to reflect individual needs. Benchmarks that have been developed include the Engineering DataBase Benchmark from Sun Microsystems and the HyperModel Benchmark from Tektronix. These benchmarks help users differentiate between RDBMSs and ODBMSs, but they do not help much in determining if the performance expected will be realized because they measure representative operations on representative data. The factors to consider when evaluating an ODBMS based on benchmark results include: truly representative benchmark data and operations; the affect of multiple applications, multiple users, and multiple data bases on performance; how client/server computing affects performance; how multiple platforms affect performance; and the inclusion of development and maintenance time. performance. Measuring total performance is the best way to predict ODBMS performance. OOA/OOD and OOP. (Analysis & Design; object-oriented analysis, object-oriented design, object-oriented language)(column) Object-oriented analysis (OOA) and object-oriented design (OOD) constructs can be mapped to object-oriented programming languages (OOPLs). OOA and OOD constructs can be supported by OOPLs, but OOPLs that have developer-empowering environments and class libraries, such as SmallTalk, do a better job. Analysis and design reuse are made possible because OOA and OOD provide a stable framework for analysis and design results. The main factor in selecting and using a language is to select the language that does the best job of capturing problem domain semantics, not which language is most 'pure' or truly object-oriented. Avoiding group-induced errors in systems development. Kettelhut, Michael C. Information systems project managers can avoid errors in systems development that are caused by group decision making. Most software development projects require teamwork, but project managers have not been trained to understand the group-induced problems that can occur during the planning, analysis and design phases of software development projects. Project managers should understand the socialization processes that result in focused work, as well as specific group-induced errors. The errors made by groups include setting unrealistic goals, exhibiting 'groupthink,' and making risky decisions. The steps to take to avoid group-induced errors include deferring decisions until they can be investigated outside of the group environment, studying unsettling information outside of meetings, and acting as a devil's advocate to identify potential conflicts. Success: an IS turn-around. (information systems) Buechler, James A. Pac Tel Business Systems was able to turn around an information systems disaster through careful planning, which involved the use of teamwork, predetermined objectives, and disciplined procedures. The goal was to develop and maintain stability in the hardware and software environment. The strategy involved establishing a long-term plan for software, creating a dynamic team, developing a system for managing change, improving the software application, and enhancing the operating environment. The steps that Pac Tel took to make improvements and remove bottlenecks included replacing CPUs, solving input-output problems, upgrading the software for the operating system, implementing batch management routines, archiving data, and creating realistic expectations of system performance. JAD: a crucial dimension for rapid applications development. (joint applications development) Joint applications development (JAD) is an important part of rapid applications development. JAD can help organizations reduce the time required for logical design by six hours per function point, as well as reducing direct project costs by as much as 30 percent. JAD integrates behavioral and group dynamics methods within a framework of sound engineering. JAD involves groups of eight to 20 employees who make decisions through the aid of an unbiased facilitator who uses consensus-building leadership techniques. The workshops are followed by the validation and transitioning activities needed in the development environment. The JAD process involves several types of individuals, including an executive sponsor, a project manager, a documentation specialist, systems experts, and outside technical experts. Organizations must resolve issues related to organizational politics and cultural change before implementing JAD. Effective interviewing tips for information systems professionals. Saunders, Paul R. Information systems professionals can learn to conduct effective interviews when collecting data, either for making a decision or for designing a system. Interviewers should conduct background research on the person or department they are interviewing, followed by the completion of a list of items to discuss. Interviews should be scheduled, and the location should be chosen by the interviewee. Guidelines to follow during an interview include asking interviewees for solutions, being a good listener, taking notes, maintaining a professional attitude with difficult interviewees, being aware of the effects of body language, and dressing appropriately. National Semi debuts repeater chip. (National Semiconductor's DP83950 Repeater Interface Controller) (product announcement) National Semiconductor unveils the DP83950 Repeat Interface Controller (RIC), an Ethernet repeater chip designed primarily to be used in 10BaseT networks. RIC can also simultaneously support fiber, coax, thin coax and unshielded twisted-pair cabling. The RIC includes an Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) port, 12 interface ports, a Manchester encoder/decoder function, digital logic and a microprocessor interface. National Semiconductor claims that the RIC integrates the capabilities of 30 analog and digital integrated circuits. Sample quantities of the RIC are available now in a 160-pin plastic pin grid array. Price is $145 each in quantities of 100 or more. Fiber networks for the price of UTP. (fiber optics, unshielded twisted pair) (Raylan's Network series of networking hardware.) Menlo Park, CA-based Raylan, a subsidiary of Raychem, lowers the price of fiber-optic networking products into the range of unshielded twisted-pair networks. The Raylan Network Series transceivers and concentrators work with either 4/16M-bps Token Ring or Ethernet local area networks (LANs). The network employs an active star topology and uses 62.5/125 micron multimode cable. The concentrators may have a maximum of 16 ports. Raylan managed to cut the cost of the equipment by using lasers instead of costly LEDs to transmit data and by reducing the amount of error-correcting electronics. The Raylan concentrator chassis is priced at $595. Fiber and copper drop cards are priced at $220 apiece, while the transceiver is priced at $230. Marshall Rose: principal scientist, Performance Systems Int'l. (his views on development of network management and Simple Network Marshall Rose works on network management and OSI protocols in his position as principal scientist at Performance Systems International of Reston, VA. He also chairs the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) working group, an OSI subcommittee. Rose believes SNMP is among the emerging technologies that will make management of small networks simple. For managing larger networks, comprising thousands of nodes, a hierarchy of manager-to-manager management needs to be developed; Rose believes the protocol for that hierarchy will be SNMP. The differences in product platforms means networks cannot be managed from a single device. The installed base of TCP/IP is too big to be ever fully replaced by OSI. Rose says companies that oppose a standards process will send bad people to a committee; 90 percent of his work as chair of the SNMP working group involves damage control. Craving LAN control. (overview of seven articles on the problems and state-of-the-art solutions for network management) When a network goes out of service, time and money are lost. All networks fail; network managers must strive to eliminate the impact of these failures, especially as mission-critical applications are added to the network. The challenge of the 1980s was building multivendor, multiprotocol, multisite networks; the challenge of the 1990s will be to manage them. To best configure and control each aspect of a network, administration should be layered. Today, network management largely involves such monitoring activities as watching devices, gathering statistics and noting errors. One goal is to integrate the many monitoring devices and software into one or a few systems. Management of networks must have a hierarchical structure. Networks are extremely diverse. It is difficult for a network manager to apply his experience to another network. Combatting enterprise entropy. (problems in managing enterprise-wide networks) (special report: local area network Developing, maintaining and managing enterprise-wide networks, also known as corporate networks, global networks and wide area networks (WANs), is extremely difficult. Managers must constantly incorporate a diverse range of products, architectures and protocols into their local area networks (LANs) and WANs. No Network Management System (NMS) in existence gives managers complete control over their enterprise-wide networks. Some network management software allows remote configuration of devices and signal an administrator when a device or telecommunications link fails, but do not say why a link fails. Suitable service. (choosing support services for networks) (special report: local area network management) (tutorial) Tips are given for selecting network support service. Flexibility in designing a service package is desirable. A company that specializes in network support is preferable to a computer retailer that wants to expand its business. Companies selecting a service supplier should consider the cost of lost business from down time more important than the cost of the network installation. Companies often skimp too much in buying hardware support. The need for outside help, such as network design and maintenance, typically levels out as the network matures. Service contracts should be seriously considered for such key components as file servers, bridges, uninterruptible power supplies, backup systems and hubs. For less-critical equipment, such as printers and workstations, it is often more cost-effective to buy spares. Solving the SNMP manager puzzle. (how to buy the best Simple Network Management Protocol-based manager and get it to work) Simple Network Management Protocol (SMNP) is a promising step in the direction of the network manager's dream of being able to manage huge, heterogeneous networks from one site with ease and efficiency. SNMP, which evolved from the Internet and TCP/IP worlds, is a scheme for communicating network management data over a local area network to a single site, called a Network Management Station. Under SNMP, each network segment must have a device, called an agent, that can monitor devices in that segment and report the information to the Network Management Station. Devices that cannot speak SNMP must be linked to the Network Management Station via a proxy agent. The Management Information Base (MIB) is a collection of objects that the SNMP uses to send management commands and information over the network. Managing the center of the universe. (IEEE hub management draft) (special report: local area network management) The networking industries' embrace of star-wired topologies is making the wiring concentrator the heart of networks. The popularity of 10BaseT Ethernet is fueling an emphasis on modular, high-density, multiport repeaters, or hubs. Because all network nodes communicate via the hub, it provides a single point of failure; at the same time, it provides an ideal point from which to monitor and control the network. The IEEE 802.3 Hub Management Task Force, established in 1990, aims to develop standards for the management of Ethernet hubs. The task force has focused on two varieties of active hubs: active stars and repeaters. Active stars are found in the 10BaseFA proposal, while repeaters are found in 802.3 10BaseT, 10Base2, 10Base5 and Fiber-Optic Interface Repeater Link (FOIRL) networks. CMOL simmers. (Common Management Information Protocol) (Heterogeneous LAN Management proposal for managing mixed-media 3Com and IBM have proposed Heterogeneous LAN Management (HLM) specifications to meet the needs of managing mixed-media networks. HLM, which is based on the CMOL (CMIP Over LLC) network management protocol, requires IEEE standards approval. Customers expressed a strong need to both 3Com and IBM for network management in mixed Token Ring and Ethernet environments. HLM takes a new approach to the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) from OSI, using a two-layer rather than a seven-layer protocol stack. The two layers are the physical and the data link. HLM's data-link layer is made up of Media Access Control (MAC) and Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayers. Six-month payback. (planning and installing a Remote Diagnostic Access system at Bell-Northern Research) (special report: local The network support group at Bell-Northern Research (BNR) adopted a four-point system when BNR installed a distributed Ethernet enterprise-wide network comprising thousands of network stations on four continents. The four-point system comprises a Remote Diagnosis Access (RDA) program based on Menlo Park, CA-based Network General's Sniffer network analyzer and Irvine, CA-based Racal-Dana's 1250 Matrix Switch. BNR opted for the less costly, more flexible 10BaseT network on existing twisted-pair wiring, rather than installing a coaxial Ethernet network at each company location. The RDA project aimed for a cost-efficient, secure diagnosis and analysis system that would work across a multivendor system, allowing local and remote access. Planning and implementation of RDA is described. Exploring Extra! (includes related article summarizing Attachmate's Extra! Extended for DOS 2.10, Extra! for Windows Attachmate sells a full complement of IBM 3270 emulation products, including such software products as Extra! 1.42, 3270 Gateway Option for Extra! 1.231, Extra! Extended for DOS 2.10 and Extra! for Windows 3.10. Each of these software packages is normally used with Attachmate's 3270 Gateway Option software when operating in local area network (LAN) environments. Extra! 1.42 enables a DOS computer to link up with an IBM System Network Architecture (SNA) host. Extra! Extended for DOS 2.10, which provides a DOS computer with a full set of emulation capabilities, supports coaxial cable, Token Ring, LAN and Synchronous Data-Link Control (SDLC) connections. Installing, customizing and operating Attachmate products is discussed. Inside FDDI-II: the next generation of FDDI transmits circuit-switched and packet data. (Fiber Distributed Data FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) -II will feature an isochronous, or circuit-switched, data service atop FDDI's basic packet-switched service. While current FDDI networks have a data orientation and are mainly used to link local area networks, FDDI-II networks will most likely link Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) devices and PBXs. FDDI-II standardization is expected in 1991. Basic FDDI protocol architecture corresponds to the OSI physical layer and parts of the data-link layer. FDDI-II protocol architecture contains the optional Hybrid Ring Control (HRC) block in order to support a mix of packet data and isochronous service. HRC's lower sublayer is called the Hybrid Multiplexer (H-MUX); its upper sublayer is called the Isochronous MAC (I-MAC). A FDDI-II network can operate in basic mode, in which only packet-switched services are available. Or it can operate in hybrid mode, in which some bandwidth is allocated to isochronous services to enable circuit-switched services. Speedy and smart: Carnegie Mellon uses a 530M-bps backbone-in-a-box LAN topology and a practical expert system to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh decided to deploy an innovative network topology and a simplified expert system to manage it. The traditional Ethernet topology of subnetworks linked by geographically dispersed bridges and routers to a backbone network makes setup and maintenance time-consuming propositions. CMU network managers decided to ease these chores by providing each subnetwork with its own backbone, which is then linked to the data concentration facility via a fiber spine. The network managers installed all routers, bridges and wiring hubs in a central location in each subnetwork - 'backbone in a box.' The simplified expert system is built around Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and an Ingres database. Norton Utilities go network. (Software Review) (includes related articles summarizing Norton Utilities 5.0 and network support from Norton Utilities 5.0 claims to be the first version of the vintage MS-DOS program to offer network support, but that support is limited. The license is only for one workstation. Version 5.0 installed easily on a NetWare network, but would not install on a Sun PC-NFS or Microsoft LAN Manager network. The documentation is a good tool for learning about disk management, but its poor organization militates against its use as a reference tool. Not all disk optimization options support network drives. Norton Utilities' most appealing feature may be its ability to protect and recover data from a hard drive. Norton Utilities has a long way to go before it is fully integrated into network environments. Price is $179. XTreeNet is your LAN tour guide. (Software Review) (XTreeNet 2.0 from XTree)(includes related article summarizing product) XTreeNet 2.0 from XTree of San Luis Obispo, CA, helps ease management of NetWare directories. A graphical representation of the network file systems makes searching for files especially easy. XTreeNet great enhances network security by offering the ability to set differing levels of file and directory access for individual users. XTreeNet comes with four pieces of documentation; all together, these are quite good learning and reference tools. XTreeNet worked well in a test environment comprising NetWare 2.15, a Storage Dimensions FileMaster file server and several workstations. The price is $249 for NetWare ELS Levels I and II; $395 for NetWare SFT, 386 or Advanced. An upgrade from XTreeNet 1.0 costs $95. The purchase price includes a license agreement for an unlimited number of users on one file server. XTreeNet 2.0 runs on workstations with 256Kbytes of RAM and DOS 3.1 or higher. 3Com losing the LAN ware? (local area network) (company profile) Carr, Jim. On Jan 7, 1991, 3Com Corp announced that it is halting sales of its 3+Open LAN Manager network operating system and halting development and marketing of 3Station diskless microcomputers and 3Servers. 3Com also announced the layoff of 250 employees, about 12 percent of the company's workforce. 3Com will take a $45 million write-off to cover the layoffs and the termination of product lines. The following day, Jan 8, 3Com stock fell from $7.75 to $5.75 per share. The stock reached a high of $28.75 in Feb 1988. 3Com co-developed the OS/2-based LAN Manager with Microsoft, but sales never reached expectations. 3Com's Ethernet adaptors make up its strongest remaining product line. 3Com's future depends on continued strong sales of these adapters, the prices of which are being pushed down by stiff competition. COSTAR: fixing the Space Telescope. (NASA's Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement plan for the Hubble Space NASA plans to repair spherical aberrations in mirrors on the Hubble Space Telescope using two smaller mirrors in a plan called Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). The 10- to 30-mm lenses would be formed with an inverse aberration in order to offset distortions found with the telescope's reflective mirror. The plan was formed by a NASA panel, but now the space agency may be reconsidering the plan as managers protest that COSTAR is merely a temporary solution and that better plans exist. Also, NASA plans the installation of two instruments in 1996, which would replace existing equipment that COSTAR would repair. NASA feels that COSTAR might delay the installation of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). Beam delivery for automotive assembly. (Laser Ecosse develops modular laser system for Peugeot S.A.) Laser Ecosse develops a modular laser system for use in automotive assembly applications. The company demonstrates the system's modularity and features in Peugeot SA's research plant near Paris, France. The laser system can be used for body welding and can be reconfigured for other applications as well. It delivers beams with power between 0.5 kW and 7 kW to places removed from the laser. The system includes a 50-mm deformable mirror made of molybdenum and non-deformable mirrors made of copper-nickel-gold compounds. The mirror mounts are water-cooled. The water system is a back-up safety device that contains the laser beam if a mirror should fail. Laser Ecosse had been a division of Ferranti International PLC. Laser welding takes the lead. (three case studies featuring use of laser welding) (Cover Story) Laser welding offers several advantages over electron-beam and other manufacturing welding processes. In the automotive industry, laser welding provides precise joining with a minimum of metal distortion and weld-bead contamination. Electron beam systems require a vacuum apparatus, demagnetizer and radiation shielding, all of which add to the cost of operation. Lasers do not magnetize the workpiece and do not emit dangerous radiation. Lasers are also increasingly being use in stainless steel tube manufacturing applications because the weld bead produced is very narrow and has a high degree of integrity. Conventional welds often fail when stainless steel tubing is cold formed or bent. The chromium and the iron in the tubing oxidize to a greater extent with conventional welding techniques, but lasers weld more quickly reducing oxidization. Automobile manufacturers are discovering the advantages of using laser welders when joining galvanized sheets. The laser weld bead is narrow enough to allow the sacrificial zinc compound to protect the exposed material reducing oxidization. Lasers - the lightning of Desert Storm. (use of laser-guided weapons in the Persian Gulf war)(includes related article on The Persian Gulf war demonstrates the effectiveness of weapons that utilize lasers and electro-optical systems for guidance and target selection. Although news of the weapons' efficacy is causing the stocks of defense contractors to rise, the nation's trend of reducing the defense budget is expected to continue. The sudden increase in stock investments is attributed to temporary exhilaration. The weapons using lasers or electro-optical systems include the Tomahawk cruise missiles manufactured by General Dynamics Corp and McDonnell Douglas Corp. McDonnell Douglas also produces the Stand-off Land-Attack Missile (SLAM). Martin Marietta Corp makes forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems and a laser-guided 155-mm artillery shell. Some military equipment contractors may benefit from reports of the weapons' performances through domestic applications of the technologies or through foreign arms sales. Drawing a bead on power-supply reliability. (use of insulated-gate bipolar transistors) (technical) Capacitor-charging power supply systems require high voltage and high power in addition to market demands that they be small, inexpensive and reliable. The key component to capacitor-charging systems is the the inverter. The most common type of inverter is the series-resonant inverter. It can be utilized as a current source that drives short circuits without maintenance. The series-resonant inverter is advantageous because uncharged load capacitors form short circuits at startup. Series-resonant inverters require return current be present in the resonant cycle at all times. If no load is present, then the input power short-circuits the series-resonant inverters, which then fail. Series-resonant inverters also fail when an asymmetrical silicon-controlled rectifier's (ASCR) drive emits transient noise giving false readings that result in inverter failure. Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) solve these inverter failures by their nature of being controlled devices. The transistors are turned on and off by external drive circuits and are thus immune to load deficiencies. Standing up to the real world. (industrial use of lasers and electro-optics) (column) Lasers and opto-electrical systems are increasingly being implemented in harsher manufacturing environments and require protection from both harmful substances and misuse by operators. In manufacturing environments, lasers and opto-electrical devices are sensitive to vibrations caused by heavy machinery. Solutions to these effects include mounting the optical devices on vibration-isolation mounts or by removing the devices as far from the heavy equipment as possible. Diode lasers offer a solution to vibration-rich areas as they are somewhat resistant to vibrations. Industrial dust, oil vapor and bits of material made airborne during cutting or welding also wreck havoc on optical lenses and mirrors. Proper shielding reduces harm done to equipment by oil vapor, dust and metal particles. Proper operator training also increases the useful lifetime of opto-electrical equipment. Many manufacturers offer advice to their customers on maintenance matters. Null testing of aspheric components - part 3: aberration balancing. (laser equipment) (technical) Two techniques for performing interferometric null tests of aspheric surfaces include using a null lens or using a hologram to compensate for the aberration in the test. Using the null lens technique involves the distorting the test beam until the aberration produced by the test shape is corrected. Null lenses are smaller than reference spheres used in Hindle-type lenses, but they are expensive and difficult to manufacture and set up. They can only be used for a particular line of products to be tested. The hologram test technique produces a reference aspheric wavefront that is compared using the interferometer to detect flaws in the product tested. For testing, either a real hologram can be made of the aspheric surface being tested, or a computer-generated hologram can be made using software that models the test shape. A separate hologram must be made, however, for each test object and this adds to expense and time consumption. Beam sampler simplifies high-power measurements. (Gentec Inc.'s HBS laser beam measuring device) Gentec Inc develops a device for measuring the power, beam profile and pulse shape of a high-power laser beam. The holographic beam sampler (HBS) is actually a set of holographically etched diffraction gratings. The gratings split off a small portion of the beam and separate diffractions are then analyzed using a calorimeter, photon detector and a two-dimensional array. All three aspects of the main beam can be measured at the same time using the device. The HBS devices are insensitive to polarization, vibration and temperature or humidity. The devices can be used with or without coatings, although the manufacturer recommends coating on the output side at least. The HBS devices are able to withstand power concentrations of up to a few gigawatts per square centimeter. Prices for standard devices are $1,200 each. The nitrogen-pumped dye laser in the 1990s. (Applications Handbook supplement) (technical) The nitrogen-pumped dye laser ranks in the low-power range of the many types of lasers produced. It has been in use for nearly 20 years but still is useful for many applications. The basic design has not changed much, although advances in technology have led to increased miniaturization of nitrogen/dye lasers. Also, computer hardware and software development increasingly improve the control aspect of the technology. The nitrogen/dye laser's high peak power, short pulse length, low average power and monochromaticity make it especially useful for medical and biological research applications. Medical researchers are using this type of laser to generate fluorescence spectra of diseased tissues. This aids in identifying which tissue to remove. The nitrogen/dye laser is also used with optical fiber to stimulate or kill cells using a microbeam. The advantage of the nitrogen/dye laser, when used in cell research, is that it can excite large fluorescent signals without heating up the cell being studied. Selecting a monochromator. (Applications Handbook supplement) (buyers guide) Spectrometers and monochromators are just two of the many devices and techniques that take spectral measurements. Those devices that operate in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) range of the spectrum are listed. The grouping is determined by the fact that different designs are required for various portions of the spectrum. Wavelengths in the vacuum ultraviolet, near the soft X-rays, require selective absorption measurement techniques. Longer wavelengths also cause incompatibility when using UV/VIS/NIR equipment. These devices may be used in the longer wavelength region, but throughput is reduced and accuracy increases. Different techniques for measuring wavelengths are preferred for this area. Technology teams keep companies on top: a little vision and a lot of support is all it takes. (includes related article on American Advanced technology groups (ATGs) are teams of experts that companies employ to analyze and develop new technologies to enhance business strategy and techniques. Some companies' ATGs are formed solely of scientists, but other groups are composed of specialists in a variety of fields including physics, economics, marketing and consumer services. ATGs range in size from a single employee to hundreds of personnel. Companies such as Lotus Development Corp and Microsoft Corp offer the services of their ATGs to other companies. Companies that cut back on internal research and development look to outside ATGs to fulfill their technology needs. English 101 for your computer: query a database in your own language. (Structured Query Language-based systems)(Ideas & Structured Query Language (SQL) programs feature commands that allow users to access information from data bases using natural language. The programming commands understand human language and often are able to learn special uses of language. SQL programs speed the access time in client-server architectures because users can ask for specific information from the server rather than getting the whole database. Some users who are not technically oriented may yet have difficulty using SQL programs. Analysts feel that natural-language interfaces are better suited for specific situations rather than complex corporate use. SQL products also demand extra hardware investment. Natural Language Inc's Natural Language requires 8Mbytes of RAM for the user and 500Kbytes for additional users. Intelligent Business Systems Inc's EasyTalk needs 1.5 to 2Mbytes for each user. Freelance for DOS and Windows. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Freelance Graphics Plus presentation graphics software)(Ideas & Lotus Development Corp plans to release its presentation software package, Freelance Graphics Plus, in versions supporting both DOS and Windows operating systems. The graphics package will have a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interface and support the use of a mouse. The software will allow easy transportation of files across several operating systems including OS/2, DOS and Windows. The package will include SmartMasters graphics templates that aid the user in constructing presentations with consistent features. The features of Freelance Graphics Plus allow novice and advanced users to easily create graphics. Freelance Graphics Plus is an updated version of Freelance Plus 3.01, which is DOS based. Lotus cancels MarketPlace. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus MarketPlace: Households direct-mail marketing database) (atLotus) Lotus Development Corp is cancelling development of its direct-mail marketing data base Lotus MarketPlace: Households after protests by as many as one million people who wish not to be included on the list. Lotus has already cancelled its Lotus MarketPlace: Business and is offering a refund to present users. The MarketPlace data base is a CD-ROM-based product that lists the names of, and information about, 120 million consumers. The information for MarketPlace was supplied by Equifax Credit Information Services Inc. The product cost $695 for the software including a list of 5,000 names. An additional 5,000 cost $400. Make a date with 1-2-3: when you understand 1-2-3's calendar, you can create date-sensitive applications. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 spreadsheet software displays dates serially; a number represents the days passed since Jan 1, 1900. 1-2-3 has various (at)functions that calculate and convert date serial numbers. The (at)DATE function translates year, month, day numbers into date serial numbers. 1-2-3 3.x versions do not require (at)DATE formulas as a date entered into a cell is interpreted by 1-2-3 as a date serial number. /Range Format Date prompts a menu of six date form options. The current date and time on a computer can be accessed by entering (at)NOW on 1-2-3; the program will return a serial number consisting of an integer, the date serial number, and a decimal number that represents time passed from the previous midnight hour. Several other (at)functions yield calculations regarding the date and time. Safe file-saving: prevent mishaps with save and retrieve macros. (1-2-3 Macros) (tutorial) Three macros for Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software are discussed in detail. When using the /File Save command, it is important to have created a dummy file so that the macro does not overwrite a previously created file. Create a dummy file using !!DUMMY.WK1 and the macro will list it first without writing over an important file. A macro is demonstrated that checks for the existence of a dummy file. The simplest file-retrieving macro is /File Retrieve, but by adding the (NAME) command 1-2-3 will list worksheet files on the full screen and not just in the control panel. Other macros shows how the user may save a current file before retrieving a new one and how to change the default directory. Laser-printing clinic: twelve cures for what ails your printer. (tips for problems using HP's LaserJet printer)(Techniques) Problems occurring when using the the HP LaserJet to print out work done on Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software and Symphony integrated software packages are addressed. Final pages of a report or worksheet that do not eject from the printer are captured by the printer because its buffer may not contain a full page of data. The printer only releases a full page. Several techniques release a final page including the use of the master reset escape code, the form-feed code, an embedded page-break symbol or a page-advance command from the 1-2-3 or Symphony Print menu. The printer can also be taken offline, and pressing Form Feed will print out the last page. Other issues addressed include margin and page-length setting, pitch, line spacing and orientation setup and graph printing. When WYS isn't WYG: what to do when what you see isn't what you get. (what-you-see-is-what-you-get functions on Lotus Development Remedies for problems encountered when using what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) features on Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software are discussed in detail. Solutions for problems with font management, Allways file conversion, pagination, page formatting and printing orientation are included. The HP LaserJet printer defaults to Courier font if it it does not have the memory capacity to handle the downloaded font from WYSIWYG. Also, the amount of computer memory, hard disk space and the condition of the CONFIG.SYS file affect how the text may be printed in comparison with what is on the screen. In the CONFIG.SYS file, the FILES command should have a value of 20 or higher in order to print the text. The user should also check the available space on the hard disk and the computer's memory if the text is printing smaller than what is displayed on the screen. Keeping a lid on production costs. (Applications) Genis, Richard C. Manufacturers engaged in competitive markets should perform standard-cost analyses of the manufacture of their products. Standard cost is an estimation of the average cost of a single unit. When compared to the actual cost to produce the product, the standard cost is a tool that managers can use to identify and correct production expenses. Standard cost analysis is performed by some companies using a minicomputer, but there are software products available for use on the microcomputer. Simple standard-cost analysis can be performed using a worksheet produced with Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3. Costs for materials, assembly labor and outside work are computed using a worksheet that yields the standard cost per unit. Should you bet the house? A simple model helps weigh the risks and benefits of secured and unsecured loans. (includes related article Business can use Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 or Symphony to make a worksheet that will calculate the cost differences between a secured loan and an unsecured loan. Secured loans require assets to be offered as collateral in the event of a default in repayment of the loan. Interest rates for secured loans are usually lower than those for unsecured loans but offer the threat of repossession to the borrowing business. Unsecured loans are given to companies that can demonstrate their ability to repay based on cash flow, debt burden, expenses and income. Worksheets made with 1-2-3 and Symphony compare the costs of both loan types and determine savings by calculating asset values, predicted interest rates and the risks involved with offering collateral. Who's minding the store? Managing data is no longer just a technical issue, it's a business issue. (includes related article Companies requiring greater information storage capacities can choose between adding more conventional hard-disk drives, implementing the newer erasable optical media or streamlining their storage-management techniques. Conventional disk drives are fast and prices for such equipment have fallen, but they are still expensive. Erasable optical drives and removable electronic media are new technologies that offer economical data storage when configured in jukebox-like setups. Optical drives are slower, however, than conventional disk media. Another option for companies seeking more efficient and dependable data storage involves paying more attention to the management of networks and storage techniques. Users' files are stored on the server that manages, compresses and shares these files with members on the network. The server is then organized in a hierarchical format with essential files that are used more often getting priority on the disk. Bigger! Faster! Cheaper! New storage technologies boost speed and capacity, cut costs. (includes related article on Intel Corp.'s New data-storage products offer greater capacities for hard disks, floppy disks, optical drives and digital audio tapes (DAT). Areal Technology Inc is developing a glass platter hard disk that capable of holding up to 60Mbytes. For floppy drives, Insite Peripherals Inc is developing a drive that combines both magnetic and optical technologies. Brier Technology Inc's floppy-disk drive has its tracking information embedded below the data-carrying surface of the disk. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc is working on a floppy disk that stores data bits vertically rather than horizontally. New optical disk drives combine write once, read many (WORM) and rewritable technologies to offer increased flexibility. Digital audio tape (DAT) technology currently offers formatted capacities up to 1.3 gigabytes, and manufacturers are developing products with greater storage capabilities. Beat the "disk full" blues: pack more onto your hard disk with these five data-compression tools. (InfoChip Systems Inc.'s Inexpensive alternatives to buying more storage media include data compression products such as System Enhancement Associates Inc's $89.95 Arc+Plus and PKWare Inc's PKZIP file management software, InfoChip Systems Inc's $199 Expanz! circuit board, Symantec Corp's $99.95 SQZ!Plus utility program, and Stac Electronics' $299 software and hardware Stacker. ARC+Plus is the better of the two software products as it has a better compression ratio and an interface that is easy to use, but it is not integrated with DOS or Lotus 1-2-3. PKZip is a shareware product that offers better compression performance than Expanz! and Stacker. SQZ!Plus is meant to be used only for Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet compression and offers greater compression when used with Expanz! or Stacker. Both Expanz! and Stacker are data-compression boards that compress all types of files. Expanz! compresses worksheets better than Stacker, but works works with fewer versions of Microsoft Corp's MS-DOS and does not support unerase and defragmenter programs in The Norton Utilities and PC Tools utilities. PostScript for the rest of us: five snap-in cartridges improve output from LaserJet printers. (Adobe Systems Inc.'s page PostScript printer cartridges provide PostScript printer features for HP LaserJet IIP, IID, III and Series II printers. Adobe Systems Inc's $495 PostScript and Pacific Data Systems Inc's $499 PacificPage cartridges operate on Series II printers; the PostScript has 35 built-in fonts and prints faster than the PacificPage product. For IIP, IID, or III printers, HP's $695 LaserJet Printer PostScript Cartridge works faster than the cheaper $499 PacificPage PE from Pacific Data Systems Inc, or Computer Peripherals Inc's $395 JetPage. Each product offers quality printing and many fonts. The more expensive models print faster; the Adobe Systems PostScript is best for Series II printers, and HP's cartridge is best for IIP, IID, and III printers. Computer Peripherals Inc's JetPage is the slowest cartridge of the group. '486 PCs: power at a price; picking standouts in a high-speed, high-stakes market. (review of Intel Corp. 80486 Intel Corp's 80486 microprocessor-based microcomputers and workstations with the 32-bit architecture offer processing speeds that are twice as fast as 33MHz 80386-based computers. The 486 microprocessor runs computer-aided design (CAD) and calculation-intensive programs much faster, although certain applications such as word processors and spreadsheets are not designed to take advantage of the increased capabilities. Compaq's high-end, $34,697 Systempro 486-840 workstation uses a 33MHz 486 chip. IBM's PS/2 95 sells for $2,000 less. Workstations using the 25MHz 486 architecture cost considerably less at around $6,000 to $7,000 and $7,500 to $15,000 with RAM, video components and conventional memory added. Compaq Computer Corp and other companies offer a 32-bit bus with the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) that competes with IBM's similar 32-bit 486 computers with its Micro Channel Architecture (MCA). ObjectScript: a graphical macro system for Windows. (Matesys Corp.'s graphical user interface, Microsoft Corp.'s graphical user Matesys Corp's $150 ObjectScript graphical user interface runs under Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 and combines visual programming with a scripting language that is similar to BASIC. ObjectScript allows users to create front ends for other applications as well as stand-alone data-entry tools and Windows programs. The package contains built-in Windows-compliant objects that the user combines with the scripting language to create applications. ObjectScript contains push buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, edit boxes and input boxes for input with keyboard or mouse. The edit boxes can hold up to 32Kbytes of input and can be manipulated as a simple word processor with cut-and-paste, print and disk storage commands. ObjectScript contains list boxes that display disk directories and accept text file input. ObjectScript's tables support dBase files and support Microsoft's Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). The package's picture/text box enables the user to load text files, Windows Metafile or bit-mapped graphic files, but does not support the manipulation of such files. ObjectScript BASIC links objects to BASIC programs. Monologue: make your computer talk. (First Byte Inc.'s natural language user interface) (New Products) (product announcement) First Byte Inc's $150 Monologue natural language user interface software package scans text on the screen and produces a synthesized voice that is output through the microcomputer's speaker. No added hardware or extra software is required, although Monologue must run on DOS 3.0 or higher versions. The program has an on-screen menu that contains volume, speed, tone and voice-gender selection controls. Monologue is capable of reading spreadsheet text by row and column. The software is useful for checking grammatical or syntactical errors because it allows the user to hear rather than just see what has been entered. XTree Gold 2.0: new power for popular disk manager. (XTree Corp.'s file management software) (New Products) (product announcement) XTree Co's $149 XTree Gold 2.0 file management software offers enhancements of previous versions of the popular product including pull-down menus that replace the hot keys displaying file- and disk-management functions. The program contains more than 30 file viewers that display file contents in their original display format. There are viewers for WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect, all versions of Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 up to Release 3 and Symantec Corp's Q&A among other programs. XTree Gold 2.0 allows users to view, create and decompress ZIP files with an included facility. ZIP files are industry-standard files that have been compressed to gain more space on a disk. Users can create customized lists of programs on their hard disk which can then be started from XTree by pressing a single key. XTree Gold 2.0 also has an added command called Oops! that allows accidentally deleted file to be recovered easily. Diskless PCs: Boon or big brother? (Essay) Paul, Frederic; Friedman, Rich. Diskless workstations offer advantages in areas of security, cost and file management, but they also sacrifice the personal control of the user's desktop and commit users to depend on the health of the network. Diskless workstations connected to a LAN give users access to files stored on a server and ease the implementation of updated versions of applications. File backups are done automatically by the server. Security is provided by the fact that viruses cannot be introduced by floppy use, nor can corporate information be downloaded this way. Diskless workstations save companies from having to purchase microcomputers with large-storage disk drives. The disadvantages include the inability of users to customize their applications. Users are also tied to the applications residing on the server without personal preference choices. Networks that crash take all connected users down with it. The perfect portable. (IBM-compatible laptops) (column) Wiggins, Robert. Apple's Macintosh Portable, at 16 pounds, is much heavier than similar laptop and notebook computers based on Intel Corp's 80286 and 80386 processors. Notebook computers manufactured by Sharp Corp and Texas Instruments Inc weigh less than 4.5 pounds. In addition, IBM-compatible lightweight computers offer many of the same features a Macintosh does when running Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. It is similar to the interface of the Macintosh and does away with the MS-DOS command prompt. Software products such as CompuAdd Corp's LapLink allow users to transfer files between an IBM-based laptop and a Macintosh. Apple plans to compete further by introducing a lighter portable computer, perhaps in conjunction with Toshiba Corp. FileMaker Pro: it's no speed demon, but FileMaker Pro is still an excellent choice. (Claris Corp.'s flat file manager) (Software Claris Corp's FileMaker Pro database management software offers over 100 enhancements to its predecessor FileMaker II. Field definitions and layout creation are as simple to execute in FileMaker Pro as in FileMaker II, but The $299 software offers only 81 colors and does not support Apple's Color Picker. Use of the software does not require a server; this feature is advantageous for small businesses. FileMaker Pro can network databases across LocalTalk zones. FileMaker Pro also adds button features, a spell-checker and the flat-file manager simulates a relational data base product by using lookup tables for file migration. These new features mean that FileMaker Pro is slower than similar products such as 4th Dimension and only runs as fast as FileMaker II on a system with at least a Motorola 68030 processor. The program suffers from certain bugs that plagued FileMaker II, but Claris offers a bug-fix version free to licensed users. Norton Utilities for the Macintosh. (Symantec Corp.) (Software Review) (New on the Menu) (evaluation) Symantec Corp's $129 Norton Utilities for the Macintosh offers disk maintenance and performance improvement features that differ from other disk recovery utility programs. The Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) analyzes Macintosh volumes to diagnose problems and prompts a dialog box with an explanation of the problem. The NDD checks data structure integrity and looks for anomalies on each file. Norton Utilities for the Macintosh contains Format Recover for data recovery and re-initialization, and can restore a volume's file system in seconds. Speed Disk optimizes disks and displays file distribution graphically, but with only an average optimizing speed. Norton Utilities for the Macintosh contains two desk accessories that replace standard Apple ones: Fast Find is faster than Apple's File Find, and Key Finder replaces Key Caps. Nisus: with the addition of some substantial improvements, Nisus remains a contender at the top of the word-processing heap. Paragon Concepts Inc's Nisus 3.01, a word processing software product costing $395, contains several enhancements to previous versions. Keyboard-command assignment capabilities are expanded to include multiple keystrokes. Antonyms are now included in the thesaurus. The software package now uses mail-merge standards instead of the previously used non-standard macros. Improved graphics commands including Rotate by 90 degrees, Scale, Duplication and Page Graphics let the user place child documents into parent documents as graphics. The powerful Global regular expression parser (GREP) and Easy-GREP searching and macro features are renamed Power Search+ and Power Search. Programming Dialect, a BASIC-like programming language, is added to the macro language, while Nisus retains the Menu Command Dialect feature. Nisus reads Microsoft Word 3.0 and 4.0 files and is able to write Word 3.0 files. Aldus filter use enables Nisus to place files into PageMaker 4.0. Typist: Typist promises one-stop OCR convenience, but it doesn't deliver consistently. (Caere Corp.'s Typist optical character Caere Corp's Typist is a $695 optical character recognition (OCR) scanning device that ships with its own recognition software and runs with any other application requiring keyboard input. The software is installed as a startup application and desk accessory (DA). The DA must be installed under the Finder into the Apple Macintosh System file. The OCR unit uses the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) for its connector, but the product is shipped lacking a cable. The user must purchase a cable and probably a terminator separately. Typist requires 4Mbytes of RAM and a hard disk drive running on a Macintosh SE or later product. Graphics scanning is poor, but Typist can scan dot-matrix characters. Typist cannot filter non-text areas on a page as OmniPage can do; the user must mask out or scan around non-text areas. Typist has problems scanning glossy pages and print that bleeds through and is much slower than OmniPage 2.1. Navigator and CIM: CompuServe's two interfaces are a decidedly mixed bag of tricks. (CompuServe Information Service's interface CompuServe Information Services (CIS) $99.95 Navigator 3.04 offers features to maximize a user's on-line searching. Navigator executes all on-line functions without user intervention and saves charges because it can do this faster than the user. Menus and CIS topics are represented by tiles that are used to access most CIS areas. Those CIS areas that are not accessible through the tiles can be accessed via the manual mode in Navigator. Navigator also offers an automated address book. CompuServe Information Manager (CIM) is offered by CompuServe as an on-line product for $39.95 including a $25 usage credit. CIM is bogged down by too many icons, has few automated functions, and is very slow at file and text retrieval. Its Terminal Emulation window allows the user to capture texts from third-party vendors, which cannot be accessed via a graphics-oriented interface. The window is poorly designed and only allows the user to capture 500 lines of text at a time. Software Bridge for the Mac and Word for Word/Mac: two new products challenge DataViz's supremacy in PC-to-Mac file Systems Compatibility Corp's $129 Software Bridge for the Macintosh, a file translation software package, offers translation of MS-DOS-to-Mac files but not DOS-to-DOS translation. It is used in conjunction with the Macintosh's Apple File Exchange (AFE) file-transfer utility to translate Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and MacWrite II Apple Macintosh word-processing applications and over 20 DOS-based formats. Software Bridge for the Macintosh does not support graphics or spreadsheets. Software Toolworks Inc's $149 Word for Word/Macintosh is a similar translation software product, but it is a stand-alone application. Word for Word/Macintosh supports DOS-to-DOS file translation, graphics and spreadsheet formats. It is easy to use and, like Software Bridge, is faster and more effective than DataViz's MacLink translators. MacroMind Director: MacroMind's latest release takes animation beyond playback and into interactivity. (MacroMind Inc.'s MacroMind Inc's $695 MacroMind Director 2.0 animation software package allows users to create interactive animations and control peripheral devices including CD-ROM drives, video cassette recorders and videodisc players. Routines are written in Lingo, MacroMind Director's scripting language. Two animating environments exist in MacroMind Director: Studio and Overview. Overview is a simplified version of Studio and makes many of the features contained in Studio accessible through icons. Sounds can be imported from a sound application, or the user can choose from sounds included with MacroMind Director. Studio enables the user to generate more complex animation, painting, slanting, rotating and moving images. MacroMind Director allows the user to move static images in real time to create motion. Complex animations can be speeded up with MacroMind's $195 Accelerator. Claris CAD: a major upgrade makes Claris CAD a smart choice. (Claris Corp.'s computer-aided design software package) (Software Claris Corp's $899 Claris CAD 2.0 computer-aided design software package includes an added feature called Graphic Guide, which has three precision drafting features. Guideliner automatically places a full-screen pair of cross hairs on any midpoint, corner or center as the cursor is moved around the drawing. Dynamic Modifier chooses modifiers related to the selected tool automatically as the cursor nears an object. The third feature, Preview Cursor, is an icon attached to the cursor that shows the modifier currently in use. The CAD software package requires 2Mbytes of RAM and uses 1,700Kbytes of space on a disk and is a good mid- or entry-level drafting tool. Claris CAD supports HP and Houston Instruments' plotters. Other features of Claris CAD include its double parallel lines for architectural use, and implementation of ANSI's Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing system. The 6th annual editors' choice awards. (MacUser's Eddy Awards for 1990 products) MacUser announces winners for its 1990 editors' choice awards, the Eddy. The best software packages, peripheral equipment and storage devices for the Apple Macintosh computer are chosen in a variety of categories. The categories include data management, communications, desktop publishing, financial management, graphics, multimedia, utility, and educational products among others. Two personal awards are given. The John J. Anderson Distinguished Achievement Award goes to MacPaint software developer Bill Atkinson. Rand K. and Robyn Miller receive the Derek Van Alstyne Rising Star Award for their work in computer art. The overall software product of the year is Adobe Systems' Photoshop 1.07; the best hardware is Radius' RadiusTV. The breakthrough product is Virtus Corp's Walkthrough virtual reality software. Personal PostScript printers. (ten printers under $3,500) (includes related articles on paper selection, new products and Ten PostScript personal printers for under $3,500 offer similar performance and high-quality imaging. Abaton Technology Corp's $2,995 LaserScript runs a clone of Adobe Systems Inc's PostScript, while the other nine run the original page description language. HP's $3,025 LaserJet IIP, however, requires a LocalTalk interface, PostScript cartridge and additional RAM for an added cost of $1,530. Apple's Personal LaserWriter NT is $3,299 and the easiest to install on a Macintosh. Fujitsu America Inc's RX-7100PS costs $3,190, but is the only one with two bins. GCC Technologies Inc offers two printers: the $2,399 Business LaserPrinter II and the $2,899 IIS, both based on Okidata engines. NEC Technologies Inc's NEC Silentwriter2 sells for $2,495, and Okidata's OL840 lists at $2,999. QMS Inc's $2,795 PS-410 is by far the fastest for printing complex graphics. Texas Instruments Inc's $2,849 MicroLaser shares good speed with the Fujitsu. Painting programs: the fine art of 32-bit color. (Delta Tao Software Inc.'s Color MacCheese 1.05, Electronic Arts' Studio/32 Delta Tao Software Inc's $99 Color MacCheese 1.05, Electronic Arts' $695 Studio-32, SuperMac Technology Inc's $699 PixelPaint Professional and Zedcor Inc's $199.95 DeskPaint 3.03 offer 16,777,216 colors with from 72 to 4,000 dpi resolution. All the computer graphics software packages require a 24- or 32-bit video card, and need 32-bit QuickDraw installed from the Apple System Tools disk into the System Folder. The large number of colors also requires greater processing power, and a QuickDraw accelerator-card is recommended. Color MacCheese's resolution is limited to 72 dpi; DeskPaint 3.03 can produce resolution up to 4,000 dpi, and both Studio-32 and PixelPaint Professional support resolution up to 2,540 dpi. All four painting programs contain the basic painting tools included in MacPaint: the brush, pencil, eraser, bucket, and airbrush. Putting your business on the map: desktop mapping software gets your data out of a spreadsheet and onto a map. (four desktop Strategic Mapping Inc's $495 Atlas*MapMaker 4.5 geographic information system adds mapping capabilities to established data bases and is used as a presentation mapping product. The software lacks an internal data base; external data bases and information must be entered via the Clipboard. GeoQuery 2.0.1, marketed by GeoQuery Corp for $395, can read delimited ASCII files and query remote mainframes through Apple's Data Access Language (DAL) on Ethernet network-linked Macintoshes. Intermap Inc's $795 Descartes 1.0.3 package cannot access remote mainframes via DAL, but it does contain data base programs and querying tools. MapInfo Corp's MapInfo for Macintosh sells for $695, has an internal data base, querying functions, and is based on a Structured Query Language (SQL) data base. Tactics International Ltd sells its $995 Tactician 2.0 as a vertical-market software for complex sales and marketing purposes. Tactician also comes on CD-ROM with US zip code boundaries for $3,995. The paper trail. (purchasing printer paper for laser printers) (buyers guide) Choosing paper for laser printers requires selecting proper weight, texture, brightness and opacity. Laser printers need paper that is not too rough as the toner may not adhere properly to rougher grades. The Sheffield rating measures the smoothness of paper. Higher Sheffield numbers denote smoother grades and laser printer paper should have a rating of rating of about 350. Opacity and brightness are measured by percentage points. Opacity refers to how much the printing shows through on the opposite side of the sheet, and the brightness grade describes how much light is reflected from the sheet. A wove finish is smoother than a laid finish which is textured. White paper is better suited for photo-ready copy than off-white paper. Consumers who purchase small amounts of paper can order from stationary stores, print shops, or paper distributors, while customers with large usage can order direct from the paper industry. Filtered effects. (using painting program filters) (Step by Step) (tutorial) Painting programs such as PixelPaint, Studio-8, SuperPaint and UltraPaint and image-editing packages including Photoshop and ColorStudio come equipped with special effects features, or filters. Filters can change portions or the whole of a bit-mapped image. Different filters are able to lighten or darken images, or distort them by adding sharpness, textured effects and various patterns. Techniques discussed implement scanned black-and-white line drawings to which color and effects are added. Apple gives nod to Ethernet: five new Ethernet products point in a clear direction toward higher-speed networking for the Mac. Apple introduces communications connectivity equipment for Ethernet local area network use. The new products include two cards; the Apple Ethernet NB Card sells for $424, and the Apple Ethernet LC Card costs $200. Apple also introduces the Apple Ethernet AUI Adapter, a connector for thick coaxial, fiber and other connections costing $175, and two transceivers. The Apple Ethernet Thin Coax Transceiver and Apple Ethernet Twisted Pair Transceiver, which is 10BASE-T compliant, each sell for $175. The Apple Ethernet NB Card has a Motorola Inc 68000 microprocessor with 512Kbytes of RAM. Both cards contain Apple's Phase 2 EtherTalk drivers only, and do not have transceivers built in. Leaving the transceivers off enables the cards to be more flexible when changing cable types. The Apple Ethernet Thin Coax Transceiver and its cables contain self-terminating connectors that allow the network to continue operating if a connection breaks. Computing on the Go. (Go Corp.'s PenPoint operating system) (includes related article on software development for PenPoint) Go Corp's PenPoint is an operating system supporting mobile, pen-based computers. The operating system is a new one, not a modified DOS, Windows, MacOS or Unix system. PenPoint is object-oriented, which allows for development of compact applications. Information is stored in static RAM because power for notebook computers comes from batteries. PenPoint's operating system metaphor is a notebook, as opposed to the Macintosh's desktop metaphor. Documents are listed as sections in PenPoint's Table of Contents. Users tap onto page numbers with the pen to access documents. Document templates are called stationary; the user taps onto selected stationary in order to create a new document. Data is entered by writing with the pen. PenPoint recognizes printed writing and flashes an edit pad if a character is not recognized. What's in a name? (internet naming and numbering techniques) VanderSluis, Kurt. Zone-name integrity in an AppleTalk internet can be destroyed or altered if routers are disconnected for a period under ten minutes. Routers exchange network numbers and zone names in packets every ten seconds in order to learn the location of other routers in the internet. Routers delete network numbers and zone names of corresponding routers that have been disconnected for around ten minutes. Routers which remain disconnected for periods under ten minutes retain their old addresses; this causes problems as the old address may not correspond to the new network device. Remedies for retaining internet naming and numbering include leaving a router disconnected for over ten minutes, or renaming the zone and re-numbering the network. Extended keyboard secrets. (Apple's Extended Keyboard) (includes related articles on keyboard care and optional character set The Apple Extended Keyboard offers several features including added characters, file management, and shortcut procedures. The Esc key may be used instead the Command-period to cancel an action. The Tab key can also be used to move a cursor sequentially through a dialog box's fields. The Control key, function keys, and status lights are all borrowed from the DOS-based environment keyboard. Most Macintosh programs do not use the Control key, but it is useful in combination with other keys when assigned to keyboard macros. Function keys are useful for running DOS programs on the Macintosh and for programs with multiple menu items. Using the Option key in conjunction with G, 2, R and 4 produce the copyright mark, trademark symbol, registered-trademark symbol, and cent symbol respectively. Radical cosmetology. (customizing the Macintosh interface) (Beating the System) Dubl-Click Software Inc's ClickChange utility software allows the user to edit and create cursors for the Macintosh interface. The software package also contains a library of cursors from which to choose. Cursors may also be imported from files created with the Export option. ClickChange allows the user to add color, set individual bits of the cursor, name cursors and customize the mask area under the cursor. Windows, scroll bars and buttons can be customized using ClickChange. These features cannot be edited, but they can be toggled on or off and different versions may be selected. Scroll bars may be changed by selecting proportional elevators and left-right arrows. Changing windows, buttons and scrollbars affects the feel of an interface, not just the appearance. 35mm dreams. (Tamron Co.'s Fotovix 35mm slide-to-video converter) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Tamron Co's $899 Fotovix converts 35mm slides to good if not exceptional video images. The amateur model ships with a 3x zoom lens, focus and aperture adjusters, negative/positive switch and joystick-controlled color balancer. The small size of the joystick makes subtle color adjustments very difficult. The unit outputs NTSC video signals and can be connected with a digitizer to input images into a microcomputer. Fotovix uses a half-inch charge-coupled device to produce a 324,000 pixel image. Slide carriers for negatives and slides are included in the backlit imaging platform, and each carrier holds five images. The documentation is not particularly good and details of the equipment could be improved. Tamron sells a professional model called the Fotovix IIx for $1,899, which has a 6x zoom lens. The magnificent 7.0. (Apple's System 7.0 operating system for the Macintosh) (tutorial) Apple's System 7.0, the new operating system for Macintosh microcomputers, features capabilities including interapplication communication, virtual memory, outline fonts and an improved Finder interface. Programmers developing applications for System 7.0 need to make sure that their programs do not become dependent upon System 7.0. SysEnvirons can still be used to determine what system is being used, but Apple has developed a utility called Gestalt Manager developers can use make sure what system their application is running under. Gestalt Manager can also be used on System 6.0.4 and later versions to examine certain environmental features. Programs running on System 7.0 must conform to the 32-bit Memory Manager which uses the full potential of a 32-bit address. Previous systems used only 24 of the 32-bit address, but the balance still needs to be freed up in new applications. How does Apple deal with success? In fiscal 1991 Apple Computer will ship over 1 million Macintoshes. (difficulty meeting demand Apple has had difficulty meeting demand for its new low-end Macintosh microcomputers, and news reports have focused on shortages of the Classic rather than on the fact that the new machine is an enormous success. The company has little experience dealing with a product mix that has changed 80 percent in a single quarter, but is working furiously to increase production. Apple doubled its physical manufacturing space in 1990, building large additions onto its Singapore and Cork, Ireland manufacturing facility. The Classic is produced at both facilities, and Apple has introduced air freight because sea shipments lag. Apple originally planned flexible manufacturing, but has opted for faster dedicated capabilities. Another problem for the company is managing the dealer channel as the sheer number of products increases. Art beat. (tools, talent used to create graphics in Macworld magazine) Tools and techniques used to create illustrations in the Mar 1991 issue of Macworld are discussed. Illustrator Ron Chan worked with a Mac IIcx with 4Mbytes of RAM and an internal 80Mbyte hard drive, a Microtek color scanner and Adobe Systems Inc's Illustrator 3.0. Steps involved in creating a particular drawing are described. The drawing began as a rough pencil sketch scanned into Illustrator and edited as line art. CMYK process colors were entered for various parts of the drawing and gradients created. Specific areas were made into masks, and colors became blends. Search and destroy: what happened when the Secret Service visited Steve Jackson Games. (The Iconoclast) (column) Secret Service agents raided Steve Jackson Games, a small non-computer role playing game manufacturer in Austin, TX on Mar 1, 1990, seizing three computer systems, several hard drives, floppy disks, a laser printer, paper files anda pocket calculator. The confiscated equipment held data pertaining to 'GURPS Cyberpunk,' a game Jackson was preparing for release that had a plot involving a computer break-in. Jackson was told by the local branch of the Secret Service that the agents considered Cyberpunk a 'handbook' for would-be hackers. Jackson's lawyer could not even obtain a copy of the warrant, and obtained aid from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group which protects civil rights in technological situations. The actual motive behind the raid was to gather evidence relating to Loyd Blankenship, an employee of Steve Jackson Games who allegedly belonged to a group of hackers accused of meddling with the telephone system. Further investigation revealed that the charges against Blankenship were unfounded. The raid had nothing to do with Jackson's business beyond his employment of Blankenship, but the owner was forced to lay off eight workers and nearly lost his business. The company has yet to recover. Jackson retains a counsel through the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Law enforcement officers who learn to understand computers better and perform digital rather than physical searches will let common sense prevail, reducing the chance of another incident similar to that at Steve Jackson Games. Ethics, E-mail,and the law. (employee suing Epson America over electronic mail privacy) Alana Shoars, former electronic mail administrator at Epson America Inc has sued the company after being fired for allegedly questioning why her supervisor was reading employee electronic-mail messages without their knowledge. Epson says Shoars was 'terminated for just cause' and denies allegations that the firm was monitoring E-mail. Shoars' attorney claims that privacy is a constitutional right and is no different in the workplace than elsewhere. The Epson case raises important legal questions that will not be resolved soon. Any skilled technical person or network administrator can intercept messages, and eavesdropping goes only one step beyond this. Prodigy's rigid guidelines about user messaging limit communications with advertisers, so-called 'chain letters' and the use of messaging software with the service. The on-line service has been severely criticized for refusing to post messages whose content it objected to and for charging users extra fees for large numbers of E-mail messages. Prodigy is noting that it is not an E-mail service and has terminated the accounts of alleged 'abusers.' Dissent is not a crime, and Prodigy's actions are unethical although they are legal. Making music: you, too, can have a music studio in your own home. (State of the Mac) (column) The Apple Macintosh is an excellent platform for music composition, with third-party developers creating many software and hardware accessories to take advantage of the Mac's built-in sound capabilities. Apple has finally upgraded its operating system to take advantage of sound input and stereo output, and the new Mac IIsi and Mac LC come with sound-input ports and microphones. Sampling or digitizing technology, which converts analog sound waves into digital format, is discussed. The MIDI standard is a specification for physical and logical exchange of musical information between electronic devices. A MIDI-producing instrument such as a synthesizer or keyboard is a good start for computer music composition, and the Mac lets users record, edit and play back sound when equipped with appropriate hardware and software. Sequencing software packages such as EZ Vision, StudioVision and Performer let users build multitrack compositions. Digidesign's new Audiomedia NuBus board uses a digital signal processing chip to sample sound input at full CD quality. Apple delays backlit portable. (new version of Macintosh Portable microcomputer) Apple has delayed the introduction of the backlit version of its Macintosh Portable computer because of a memory-addressing problem, and some reports hint that it may cancel the product entirely. The company designed a 'pseudostatic' RAM to replace some of the expensive static RAM used on the Portable's system board; shipping the product without correcting the addressing problem could limit addressable memory to 5Mbytes and cause problems with third-party upgrades. The new Portable, when and if it ships, will come with either 2Mbytes of RAM and a 40Mbyte hard drive or 4Mbytes of RAM and a 40Mbyte drive. It will list for approximately $4,200 in the 2Mbyte configuration and $4,700 with 4Mbytes. Ray tracing for laypeople. (Software Review) (Ray Dream Designer from Ray Dream) (evaluation) Ray Dream Inc's $895 Ray Dream Designer is an easy-to-use three-dimensional modeling program with impressive rendering tools. The program consists of a 'LightForge' module for creating objects and describing surfaces and a 'SceneBuilder' program for bringing objects together and rendering them. Its solid shader tools can create a wide variety of effects, and the program supports bump maps and texture maps with 3-D registration marks. SceneBuilder lets each object project an outline of itself against two walls and the floor of a room. Ray Dream compresses images in memory and can run under MultiFinder, batch-rendering images in the background. The mature Excel. (Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet) (product announcement) Microsoft has announced Excel 3.0 for the Macintosh, a new version of its popular spreadsheet that features style sheets, powerful worksheet consolidation and a single-variable linear optimizer. Double-clicking on an Excel 3.0 worksheet column widens it to match the contents of the widest cell in a worksheet, and the Page Preview command is now accessible from a menu. The style sheets resemble those in the Microsoft Word word processor, and an intelligent outlining system can collapse rows and columns to create a hierarchy. The linear optimizer, called Goal Seek, is built in; a separate 'Solver' utility bundled as an add-in allows nonlinear, multi-variable optimization. Excel 3.0 will list for $495. Power requirements limit Mac IIsi expansion. Marshall, Martin. Many users may be tempted to expand the new low-cost Macintosh IIsi into an engineering workstation, but the machine's low power design limits the NuBus expansion boards that can be safely used with it. Apple's own 24-bit Macintosh Display Card 8*24 GC draws 20 watts of power, although the company has long encouraged developers to design boards drawing less than 15 watts per slot. The IIsi NuBUs adapter spec can handle no more than 13.3 watts. Radius Inc and SuperMac Inc also make color graphics boards that exceed this limit. Installing a power-hungry third-party hard disk in the IIsi can also cause users trouble. The 80Mbyte internal drive that comes with the system uses about 6 watts of power; Quantum's 105Mbyte drive draws 8 watts, and the extra power required reduces the amount of power available to the NuBus slot. Tektronix introduces color printers. (Tektronix Phaser II PX, Phaser II SX color printers) (product announcement) Tektronix Inc introduces the Phaser II PX, a replacement for its Phaser PX PostScript-based color wax-transfer printer that uses a new print engine from Sharp and sells for $7,995 equipped with Color PostScript, 35 Adobe fonts and 6Mbytes of RAM expandable to 10Mbytes. The company has also introduced the Phaser II SX, its lowest-cost color printer and first QuickDraw-based unit. The Phaser II SX uses the TekColor method of matching monitor and printer colors; the PX is Pantone-certified. It costs $4,995 and comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 13Mbytes. Apple announces plug-and-play Ethernet. (introduces Ethernet LC Card, Ethernet NB Card for Mac LC and Mac II) (product Apple introduces the Ethernet LC Card and Ethernet NB Card network adapters for the Macintosh LC and Mac II series respectively. The new boards allow 'plug and play' Ethernet connections via separate external transceivers for unshielded twisted-pair and thin coaxial cable attached via a proprietary interface. Both boards are self-terminating; users can add machines to a LAN without disrupting the entire network. The Apple Attachment User Interface (AUI) is designed to draw less power than conventional Ethernet boards. The LC Card costs $200 without a transceiver and $375 with one transceiver; the NB Card costs $424 without a transceiver and $599 with a transceiver. Mac vs PC. (comparison of Macintosh, IBM-compatible microcomputers) (Cover Story) Apple Macintosh and IBM-compatible microcomputers are evaluated and compared against each other in a series of tests running popular applications. PC-compatibles have long held the advantage in affordability, but Apple's prices now compare favorably with those of IBM and Compaq, the two leading PC manufacturers. Macs come with SCSI connectors and audio output circuitry, features that are optional on most PCs. PC add-ons are less expensive than their Macintosh equivalents, but the price gap is narrowing. Mac printers command a premium price because of their sophisticated PostScript controllers. Software applications for the Mac generally cost less than those for the PC. The Mac interface remains easier to use than Microsoft's Windows 3.0, but PCs are catching up with Macs in ease of use; PC hardware is getting easier to set up, and most machines now have built-in video circuitry and hard drives. The aging MS-DOS operating system is awkward to learn, but those who know it well can often navigate more easily than with the Macintosh. Setting up a PC with Microsoft Windows is harder than installing system software on the Mac. Standard Mac screen fonts are more legible than their Windows counterparts. Application interfaces are still more consistent on the Mac, but this may not be important to everyone. Expandability is limited in the compact Macs, but more extensive in the compact Mac II line. More expansion boards are available in the PC world. Macs offer flexible low-end networking with the built-in LocalTalk interface but PCs are better for high-end networking. A table of application benchmarks is included. Tools of the trade; assembling a toolbox of essential Mac utilities. Certain utility programs for managing hardware and peripherals, preventing virus attacks and managing system-level software are essential to safe and convenient Macintosh operation. An antivirus program is a must for most users because almost any disk may be virus-infected. Symantec's SAM utility locates and eradicates viruses and has a startup document in the background that prevents infection. Symantec operates a 'hot line' for alerting users to the latest virus strains and sends postcards to registered users. Microcom's 911 Utilities is useful for recovering files from damaged disks; other general purpose utility packages include SUM II from Symantec Corp and The Norton Utilities. Backup programs are vital because every hard disk eventually crashes. Fifth Generation Systems' Suitcase II lets users make an unlimited number of fonts and desk accessories available. The Handoff Corporation's HandOff II is a good file manager. CE Software's DiskTop makes it easy to find files based on their external characteristics. Screen-savers prevent phosphor 'burn in' caused by the Mac being left on for long periods. Microseeds Publishing's INIT Picker keeps System file size manageable and prevents crashes caused by INITs that conflict. Midrange hard drives: just right. (tests of 64 hard disk drives for the Apple Macintosh) (buyers guide) Sixty-seven midrange hard disk drives for the Apple Macintosh with capacities ranging from 115Mbytes to 250Mbytes are reviewed and compared. Only Rodime and Toshiba manufacture their own drive mechanisms; most purchase mechanisms from Quantum, Conner, Seagate or other OEMs. Mac Plus users can consider saving money buy purchasing a relatively slow drive because all the tested drives can send data faster than the Plus can process it. Liberty Systems and others offer drives that are especially portable. Most of the drives are designed to fit under a compact Mac, but owners of LCs or Mac II-class machines can opt for rectangular drives. Termination buses and bundled software are also discussed. La Cie, Rodime, SuperMac and Storage Dimensions provide very good utilities with their drives. La Cie's Tsunami and Cirrus and Microtech's Nova are rated the best drives overall. Money management cures. (using a Macintosh for personal finance applications) (buyers guide) A variety of Macintosh software programs are available that help users with such personal-finance tasks as check writing, investment tracking and tax preparation. Intuit's Quicken and Atarix's CheckWriter II are simply electronic checkbooks for entering income and expense transactions. Checkfree Corp's CheckFree also includes an electronic payment service users can subscribe to for $9 per month. GenMicronics' offers 115 investment-tracking templates for Microsoft Excel in its Financial Decisions package. Micro Trading Software's Stock Watcher is an excellent high-end investment package. Tax preparation software includes SoftView's MacInTax and Chipsoft's upcoming TurboTax for Macintosh. Heizer Software offers an extensive variety of personal finance programs, chiefly as templates for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Works. Nolo Press offers WillMaker and For the Record, two programs that simplify estate planning. FilmMaker. (Software Review) (Paracomp FilmMaker 24-bit animation system) (evaluation) Storing full-color 24-bit animations in real time is beyond the capacity of any microcomputer, but Paracomp's FilmMaker compromises by separating the actual animation definition from the display to save memory and disk space. The $695 FilmMaker program lets the user program animations in a monochrome wireframe mode and import screen objects from illustration programs as color PICT files. FilmMaker automatically 'tweens' an object between start and end frames by interpolating its status. The program is fast and convenient, but its method of working with representations rather than actual images can be slightly awkward for those unused to it. It nevertheless produces extremely professional looking results that are worth the extra effort. FilmMaker is somewhat less effective for multimedia presentations than the competing MacroMind Director package, but is ideal for video transfer and for animations with many special effects. LaserMax 1000. (Hardware Review) (high resolution laser printer from LaserMax Corp.) (evaluation) LaserMax Corp's $7,995 LaserMax 1000 is an expensive but powerful printer billed as a 'personal typesetter' that offers resolutions of up to 1,000 dots per inch. Its output quality is superior to that of a standard 300-dpi laser printer but still lower than that of an imagesetter because it uses toner instead of photographic paper. It uses a PostScript-clone interpreter and a NuBus board that plugs into a dedicated Mac II on a network. The LaserMax 1000 uses the same Canon SX print engine as the Apple LaserWriter IINT and includes software that spools print jobs to disk under MultiFinder. Its PostScript is not true Adobe, and some elaborate patterns and halftone fills do not print as well as under an Adobe interpreter. The LaserMax also does not produce good serif type at sizes smaller than 10 points in its highest-resolution mode. The String Quartet: the essence of music. (Software Review) (Warner New Media CD ROM audio program with HyperCard interface) Warner New Media's $66 The String Quartet: The Essence of Music is a CD-ROM based audio program with a HyperCard interface that educates users about Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14. The program is easy to install but requires 6.5Mbytes of hard disk space for its HyperCard files. It contains the Vermeer Quartet's recording of the piece, a good but not outstanding performance; listeners can approach the music via any of four different analyses that provide running commentary. 'Side trips' include a remedial music-appreciation course covering basic concepts, a description of musical forms and a history of the piece that includes biographical information on Beethoven and discussions of his peculiar techniques. The String Quartet is a powerful hypertext application, but users tend to get 'lost' despite its navigational aids. Macback 8000. (Hardware Review) (Advanced Digital Information Corp. tape backup drive) (evaluation) Advanced Digital Information Corp's $5,295 MacBack 8000 is a cartridge tape backup system for Apple Macintosh networks that includes a drive unit using either DC2110 or DC2165 tape cartridges and software for both local and networked use. It cycles through up to eight cartridges automatically and includes a key lock for security. Network users designate one Mac as a backup server and attach the MacBack 8000 to that machine, installing the MacBack Server software on its hard disk. Workstation users run MacBack Client software to have their files backed up; an 'Autostart' INIT allows unattended backups. Users can select files for backup by name or by application. Crating a backup document allows either users or server administrators to perform backups with both the Server and Client software modules running. The system is somewhat slow, but its software can be used to back up to other devices and its multicartridge design is convenient. Spyglass Dicer 1.0; Spyglass Transform 1.0; Spyglass View 1.0. (Software Review) (three-dimensional visualization, Spyglass Inc's $495 Dicer, $395 Transform and $395 View are three companion programs for the Macintosh that are designed to create scientific graphs and charts and assist with data visualization. View is a 2-D color graphing program with animation capabilities that provides such useful tools as false-color palettes. It lets users import data tables in ASCII, Excel or Hierarchical Data Format files and convert them into surface, contour, dithered and shaded plots. The program's advanced functions are aimed at FORTRAN programmers. Transform lets users manipulate data images without recomputing them at the source; it offers line graphs, color imaging and histograms while adding such sophisticated capabilities as rectangular-to-polar display conversion. Dicer is a pure 3-D visualization package that lets users manipulate cross sections of 3-D data tables such as resonance imaging files. Cheshire 1.0. (Software Review) (Abbott Systems charting utility) (evaluation) Abbott Systems' $125 Cheshire 1.0 is an add-in charting utility for Macintosh word processors that creates simple, no-frills graphs using 21 built-in chart types. It runs as an INIT and can be called up via a hot-key from Microsoft Word 3 and 4, MacWrite II, MacDraw II and PageMaker 3 and 4. The program uses a standard tab-delimited format and lets the user select any installed font. Graph options include white, black and gray grid lines; drop shadows; backgrounds; and a 'Plot White' feature that gives the effect of reversing the chart shape. Users can edit charts at any time from within other applications and quickly paste them into documents. Cheshire 1.0 unfortunately lacks a pie chart, but Abbott Systems says this will be an option in the next version. Serius Developer 2.1. (Software Review) (Serius Corp. application programming software) (evaluation) Serius Corp's $495 Serius Developer 2.1 application development software provides crash-proof, bug-free modular programming via a graphical window that represents program modules as 'objects.' Each object is a module of compiled code for which the software has defined a special I/O protocol. Users define objects and build interface elements for an application by dragging icons. Serius Developer can construct applications three to six times faster than coding by hand in c or Pascal, although final compiled applications carry 30Kbytes to 65Kbytes of additional memory overhead. A Serius Developer application does not run noticeably slower than its real-language counterpart, unlike programs created with Smalltalk or HyperCard. Serius Developer requires experienced programmers to reorient their style considerably, and the terse documentation does not make the package easier to user for inexperienced programmers. Becoming comfortable with the Serius Developer 'diagram' programming format can take several months, but the time investment is well worth it. Getting started with project management. (How To)(includes related article on project management tips) (tutorial) Project management software programs are designed to help users track the steps, or 'tasks,' involved in meeting a goal. Users can allocate 'resources,' such as people and equipment, to tasks and superimpose tasks and resources on a calendar to make certain important jobs are done on schedule. Project managers combine database, spreadsheet and graphics functions and allow 'what if' analysis. A project manager can generate charts depicting a project schedule from numbers supplied by the user. Many programs support the 'critical path method' developed by Du Pont and Remington Rand in the 1950s; tasks that directly affect other tasks are isolated. Program evaluation and review technique (PERT) charts represent a project as a network diagram. The user can specify duration values, lag times and earliest start dates. Resource histogram charts let managers see whether too much work has been assigned to a given resource for the time period allotted. 'Resource leveling' options found in high-end programs scan a project chronologically, locate over-allocated resources and adjust tasks and resources to resolve the problem. Specific products are discussed. Insights on FileMaker Pro. (FileMaker Pro database for Macintosh) (tutorial) Tips for working with Claris Corp's new FileMaker Pro database management system are presented. Converting files from the earlier FileMaker II to the new Pro version can be difficult; the original file should be backed up in compressed form and then opened via the Open dialog box in FileMaker Pro's File menu. Claris provides 'invisible' buttons in FileMaker Pro to let users customize their copies of the program; 'Go to First' and 'Go to Last' buttons for database navigation can be created by defining custom buttons with 'go to record 1' and 'go to record 99,999.' Invoking multiple color patterns allows a wider range of tones than possible with the standard 81 FileMaker Pro colors. FileMaker Pro slows down in network mode, but removing inactive sessions helps alleviate this problem. Keyboard shortcuts in FileMaker Pro sometimes fail if the system is running out of memory. The multimedia extensions for Windows - enhanced sound and video for the PC. (includes a related article on hardware requirements) The Multimedia Extensions for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment add video and sound capabilities to the DOS-based microcomputer. Multimedia Windows consists of a minimum hardware specification for a multimedia microcomputer and a set of Windows 3.0 extensions that let applications utilize this hardware in a device-independent manner. Minimum hardware for Multimedia Windows includes a 10-MHz Intel 80286-based computer, 30Mbyte hard drive, 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy drive, 2Mbytes of RAM and standard VGA. The extensions include device drivers, new file formats and dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). Microsoft is currently developing a Multimedia Development Kit (MDK) that will provide documentation and tools for application development in this environment. Applications include CD-ROM storage, signal sampling, MIDI, waveform functions, windows, new file formats, video and movies. Analyzing the optimization techniques compilers use to transform your C code. (tutorial) The techniques used by optimizing compilers are explained. A variety of optimization techniques are tested to discover which ones produce significant performance gains. Methods for applying these techniques to programs without using an optimizing compiler are presented. There are currently two popular philosophies concerning optimization: one says that compilers should include an optimization pass that implements tricks and techniques of great assembly language programmers; the other claims the program's hot spots should be identified in order to focus optimization efforts on them. The optimization techniques of compilers like Microsoft C are discussed. Testing optimization techniques. (tutorial) The TIMER.C timing program for creating optimization benchmarks is presented. The program executes two functions in loops of equal length. The first is an empty function; it takes no arguments and is simply a pair of curly braces. The second function, testfunc, contains the code to be benchmarked. The execution time of a test is calculated by finding the time required to execute the empty function in a loop and subtracting it from the time required to execute testfunc in a loop of the same length. This determines the real execution cost of the code. Tuning the performance of Windows and OS/2 programs with MicroQuill's segmentor. (tutorial) Performance problems in large Windows and OS/2-based programs may result from a condition known as thrashing, a great deal of execution time spent discarding and rereading code segments. Code segments can be reorganized so that text redrawing and text importing is fast enough, but these changes cause performance degradation in virtually every other area of the application. MicroQuill's Segmentor is a set of tools that monitor run-time activity of a program and determine the optimal organization of code segments. The steps in creating a data base with Segmentor are detailed. Porting 32-bit applications to Windows 3.0 with the WINMEM32 library. (tutorial) The current crop of 32-bit machines are not fully utilized by present versions of DOS, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft C, which can only harness 16 bits of the power. The 16-bit integer size in Microsoft C 6.0 limits code size to 64Kbytes per module. Thirty-two-bit huge pointers are limited by arithmetic problems. It is necessary to utilize the memory-addressing capability of Intel 80386SX, 386 and 486 microprocessors as increasingly larger applications are ported to Windows. The programming restraints of earlier chips must be discarded in order to program into a flat 32-bit model. The Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) Version 3.0 is a step in that direction. Techniques for porting large 32-bit applications to Windows' 16-bit environment are detailed. Learning Windows Part V: exploring the graphics device interface. (tutorial) The Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) renders device-independent graphics on everything from monochrome video systems to full-color laser printers. Standard graphical objects, fonts, bitmaps and metafiles can be displayed and manipulated. GDI functions use a device context data structure for an interface between Windows's API and the hardware device driver. A device context can be associated with any output device, usually a window on the screen. This fifth part of a series deals with adding graphics to a sample stock-charting application so each window will display a chart. Creating a client-server application with LAN Manager 2.0 and named pipes. (tutorial) The server in a client-server model should contain the intelligence necessary to manage the resource in order to reduce network traffic, simplify error handling and open the resource to diverse client applications. Many factors have impeded the development of the market in applications based on the client-server model, such as the learning curve involved. Microsoft's LAN Manager greatly simplifies the use of the network and provides two facilities for supporting network communication: mail slots and remote named pipes. The measurement of end-user computing satisfaction: theoretical and methodological issues. (Issues and Opinions) (technical) Measurement issues are receiving increased attention among the MIS research community. This increased attention is quite appropriate. The productivity of substantive research activities depends upon efforts to improve theory and measurement development. In a companion article, Etezadi-Amoli and Farhoomand express several methodological concerns about the measurement of end-user computing satisfaction. Some of these concerns appear to be based upon underlying theoretical assumptions; others are related to confusion concerning the purpose for measuring end-user computing satisfaction or the procedures for developing Likert-type scales. First, we will identify theoretical issues that guide instrument development. The purpose of the end-user computing satisfaction instrument (Doll and Torkzadeh, 1988) is explained in terms of the research domain in which it was designed to be useful and its role in that domain. Then, we respond to specific methodological concerns. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Executive information systems: a framework for development and a survey of current practices. (technical) Executive information systems (EIS) are now successfully providing computer support for senior executives in a growing number of organizations. Previous attempts to support senior executives are discussed with a focus on why these attempts failed and what was learned that should be incorporated in future efforts. An EIS development framework is presented that includes a structural perspective of the elements and their interaction, the development process, and the dialog between the user and the system. Survey data from 50 firms having an EIS are presented and discussed in the context of the development framework. While most of the findings confirm conventional EIS wisdom, others are somewhat surprising, such as the significant role that information systems management often plays in initiating the development of an EIS or serving as its operational sponsor. The findings lead to additional suggestions for EIS research opportunities, as well as predictions about the future nature of EIS. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Applications of global information technology: key issues for management. (technical) Carefully crafted investments in global information technology offer firms an opportunity to increase control and enhance coordination, while opening access to new global markets and businesses. But engineering such global systems presents numerous challenges to management. In this article, we relate these challenges as they were described to us by 25 senior managers from Fortune 500 firms responsible for implementing and managing global applications of information technology. Among the findings of the interviews are four common approaches for managing global information technology. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Executive information requirements: getting it right. (technical) Wetherbe, James C. Most managers spend half their time trying to get the information they need, whether it be informally through meetings, phone conversations, or reading, or formally through organizational computer-based information. During this process they have to sift through a great deal of useless information, a situation commonly referred to as "information overload." With the proliferating capabilities and plummeting cost of computers, it seems relief should be in sight for weary executives. Unfortunately, most information systems - formal or informal - do not meet executive needs. Indeed, most new systems require extensive revision (after they are supposedly completed) to even partially fulfill needs. This is a terrible loss. Most systems are expensive enough to develop. They are even more expensive to revise. As the pace of business accelerates, decisions that could wait for weeks must now be made in days, hours, or even minutes. Failure to get executives the information they need in a timely manner can result in lost opportunities or in a problem not being solved in time. Increasingly, executives have little reaction time to make decisions on pricing, product introduction, resource allocation, media inquiries, response to competition, and mergers. They need access to information without waiting several weeks or months for a computer project. Why can't executives and system designers work together to more correctly anticipate and determine information requirements? In this article, four reasons information requirements are not met are discussed, and four straightforward solutions executives can use to solve this problem are offered. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) On information systems project abandonment: an exploratory study of organizational practices. (technical) Information systems failure is a widely recognized problem in the IS community. However, abandonment of IS projects is an aspect of IS failure that has not gained much attention in either IS practice or research. This article examines the organizational practices resulting in the underlying characteristics of IS project abandonment. The results of a survey show IS project abandonment to be a complex multidimensional issue defying easy explanations. IS projects may be abandoned for any combination of factors including cost overruns and/or schedule slippages, technological inadequacies, and behavioral, political, or organizational issues. The last set of factors emerged as being the most dominant in most companies' decisions. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Identification of strategic information systems opportunities: applying and comparing two methodologies. (technical) Much has been said about opportunities for the strategic use of information technology by organizations aiming to gain a competitive advantage. However, not much is known about the actual process by which opportunities for the use of strategic information systems are identified. While various planning methodologies have been proposed, there is at present a paucity of information on empirical results obtained from applying them, and on their effectiveness, efficiency, and specificity. This article presents the results of a field experiment aimed at applying and comparing two well-known methodologies for identifying information systems opportunities from a competitive advantage perspective - Porter's value chain and Wiseman's strategic thrusts methodology. An instrument was prepared to operationalize each methodology, which was then applied in two matched sets of 10 medium-sized enterprises. Both methodologies were found to be effective in generating a significant number of ideas for information systems worthy of implementation. Similarities and differences are analyzed and discussed in terms of the number, estimated implementation costs and duration, managerial level, and decision to implement the applications identified by the two methodologies. These applications are also classified from the perspective of both Porter's and Wiseman's framework. The results seem to indicate that while there is an overall similarity between the two methodologies, there are certain differences that show the more outward orientation of the strategic thrusts framework and its greater attractiveness for organizations in unstable environments. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Decisional guidance for computer-based decision support. (technical) In the course of interacting with a decision support system (DSS), decision makers may have numerous opportunities for exercising judgment. Some judgments pertain to what to do next; others require predictions or evaluations. Either deliberately or inadvertently, a DSS may guide its users in performing these judgments. This article lays a foundation and proposes an agenda for researching such "decisional guidance." Studying decisional guidance matters for two reasons. First, deliberately incorporating guidance in a system offers the potential of more supportive systems while raising a number of decision questions. Second, understanding the consequences of guidance - deliberate or not - contributes to comprehending how DSSs affect decision-making behavior. This article examines three aspects of decisional guidance: (1) when and why system designers should provide decisional guidance, considering the opportunities, motives, and means for guiding; (2) how designers can provide guidance, introducing a three-dimensional typology for deliberate guidance; and (3) the consequences of decisional guidance - that is, its effects and effectiveness. This article provides a coherent approach to a set of behavioral questions just now beginning to be addressed by researchers in a fragmented, technologically oriented manner. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Personal computing: toward a conceptual model of utilization. (technical) Organizations continue to invest heavily in personal computers for their knowledge workers. When use is optional, however, having access to the technology by no means ensures it will be used or used effectively. To help us gain a better understanding of factors that influence the use of personal computers, researchers have recently adapted the theory of reasoned action proposed by Fishbein and Azjen (1975). This study uses a competing theory of behavior proposed by Triandis (1980). Responses were collected from 212 knowledge workers in nine divisions of a multi-national firm, and the measures and research hypotheses were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). The results show that social norms and three components of expected consequences (complexity of use, fit between the job and PC capabilities, and long-term consequences) have a strong influence on utilization. These findings confirm the importance of the expected consequences of using PC technology, suggesting that training programs and organizational policies could be instituted to enhance or modify these expectations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Buying supplies electronically. (the less-paper office)(includes related article on calculating the benefits from EDI) (Cover Electronic supplies ordering with electronic document interchange (EDI) systems can have several benefits for offices: paper reduction, cost reduction, fewer personnel requirements, reduced inventory levels, elimination of time zone barriers, better vendor relations, low initial investment for a potentially large pay-off, and improved customer service. EDI technology makes it possible for the end user to control the purchase of supplies. Improvements in the office supplies ordering process result in improved service from dealers and fast arrival of goods. The four technologies that dominate electronic supplies ordering are facsimile, direct customer-to-dealer computer ordering, electronic catalog ordering, and EDI. Focus on facilities: Wood Gundy BCE Place. (Wood Gundy investment firm in Toronto, Canada) (company profile) Canadian comprehensive investment dealer Wood Gundy has a new trading floor that covers 33,000 square feet in BCE Place in Toronto. The new facility was ready in 155 days, under budget. The original plans called for space for 180 traders; however, changes made by parent group Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce called for space for a total of 300 traders. All the original plans had to be redone within the original project schedule. The secret to the success of the floor planning was quick work on computer aided design (CAD) systems that was done with precise coordination of efforts for multiple activities. The monitors in the facility follow international trading. Lighting for the new, highly computerized area consists of indirect ceiling lighting projected onto the arch below to diffuse illumination and eliminate glare. EuroComm 91 speakers voice concern for user viewpoint in changing telecom policies. Attendance to the EuroComm 91 show held in Amsterdam, Netherlands Jan 22-25 was affected by the Mideast war, however most exhibitors with reserved booths were there. The point was made at the show that the industry has just begun in many countries, in the use of telecommunications. Government officials in the Netherlands pointed out that the two main elements of the European Economic Commission's policy making were liberalization, which stimulates new services, economic activities and innovation; and harmonization, necessary for the free flow of goods and services. ROLM Company is running on strong legs despite worsening road conditions. ROLM, the ROLM-IBM-Siemens partnership, is doing well despite the slow economy. Other communications vendors are having a difficult time, but ROLM's success can be attributed to a value-added focus on specific business markets and user applications. New order revenues rose by 17 percent in 1990. The company's direction towards call-center applications is evident, including an ISDN Primary Digital Network interfacing card that plugs into any ROLM 9751 CBX switch and is compatible with MCI and AT&T networks. ROLM also enhanced its PhoneMail messaging system with automated out-calling and automatic-number-identification features. Technology and imagination are the stuff from which businesses can be built. (column) Communications technology combined with imagination can become the basis for new business ventures, such as Gannett Co Inc's idea for a national daily newspaper called USA Today. The idea was studied by a group of marketing researchers from the company, and the idea only came to fruition by using various technologies. The company's goal was to produce a colored paper that could be distributed in many places simultaneously for timely distribution. The paper is composed and edited at the Arlington headquarters and transmitted to 36 printing plants in the US, Asia and Europe. The network is highly automated, using computers to control and track nearly every function. 1991 network spending and budgets on the chopping block. Lusa, John M. More than 800 network managers who participated in a user budget and spending survey by Network Management indicated that they would be cutting back their 1991 budgets. Due to the slow economy, bank failures and recession reports, managers are cutting expenses by 14 percent, and reducing capital budgets by 46 percent, compared to 1990 budgets. The survey covered 13 government and industry categories. Other trends that may be affecting budgets include the consolidation of the network budget into the overall management information systems budget, the use of charge-back procedures and the budgeting of communications expenses by user departments. Building a management system for tomorrow's enterprise network. (column) The network is becoming the core information resource for companies, evolving from being just a peripheral system. As a consequence, systems are being managed differently in 1991. Management of networks has become management of information systems (MIS) and will eventually subsume both the MIS and telecommunications management functions. Future applications and products will need to tie together, across information modes, planning and protocol layers. Such a complex system of interdependence will be difficult to develop. Vendors and network managers need to recognize all who would need to be involved, and realize that network management is a distributed process with participants throughout the organization. Fax market shifts as vendors target LAN users. (local area networks; includes related article on fax standards and one on a Vendors are developing more innovative software, specialized fax-based services and computer- and local area network-based fax products, enabling users of local area networks to integrate fax capabilities with other messaging media, such as voice processing systems and electronic mail. A new market of enhanced facsimile products is being produced by companies in the computer, facsimile and voice processing industry, according to research. This new market may grow to 200,000 units by 1993. Companies are preferring to purchase a centralized facsimile solution rather than putting fax boards in every microcomputer. In addition, centralized fax solutions do not tax the network's efficiency, since fewer additional phone lines are installed. Eleven approaches to tailoring a system to your needs. (telemanagement systems; includes a related article on Users of telemanagement systems need to select a system that is most useful for their situation, including style of operation and work preferences, in order to maximize their investment. There are more than 750 kinds of services, software, and equipment for call accounting, work orders, equipment inventory and traffic analysis from US and Canadian vendors. Telemanagement is a different category from network management. Most telemanagement systems are primarily used for voice communications. Network management is a more vague term, used to mean something different for different people. The system chosen must service all a user's telephone stations and all its business locations. Video graphics share the spotlight with paper and transparencies. (video-teleconferencing; includes a related article on graphics There is an increase in the number of hardware and software options available for different types of graphic capability, whether it be black or white, high or low speed, large or small. However, users are not ready to accept real-time computer graphics for videoconferencing. Nevertheless, companies such as LSI Logic, UVC, C-Qube and Intel-Princeton are developing chip sets or single chips that will bring still and motion graphics to microcomputers. Buyers of videoconferencing equipment need to clearly understand their needs before buying graphics support for teleconferencing rooms. When users finally realize that they can use such equipment, they will want the best resolution possible, such as that available from VGA and Super VGA. Making the case for sound LEC reform. (local exchange carriers) Pomeroy, William B. The International Communications Association (Dallas, TX) has published papers regarding the changes facing local exchange carriers (LEC) and state regulatory agencies. The first White Paper covers the first round of exchange carrier proposals for changing state regulatory policies. The second paper presents the need for changes in the relationship between business users and local telephone companies. The response to these two reports has been positive from users, legislators and state regulators. The third paper predicts price regulation may fail because regulators do not have enough information about cost trends and reduction opportunities. Token-ring's missing management links. (local area networks) Carltock, William. Local area networks are evolving into enterprise-wide networks, and network management tools are changing along with this change. Token ring networks are experiencing the information explosion too, and at speeds of 16M-bps, they are a good alternative when designing information networks. Token ring networks challenge Ethernet's dominance in the market. Managing such networks is still in the infancy stage, with different types of products being developed. New systems approach the problem of managing the physical layer, where most problems occur with token ring. These network management systems break the network into manageable partitions in order to prevent any one part crashing the entire network. Wideband for the 1990s: smarter, leaner, and cheaper. (includes a related article on fractional T3 and one on building a wide area Wideband products will become more flexible and smarter, as applications mature and the telcos win back private networks. The need for more bandwidth is apparent with such applications as local area network-to-local area network and videoconferencing. Frame relay features are enabling large companies and carriers to deploy and use wideband with more cost-effectiveness. The industry is rapidly accepting cisco's frame relay standard. StrataCom has made fast-packet communications more popular. Switched multimegabit data service (SMDS) enables users to have bandwidth on demand, and the impetus behind the regional bell operating companies promoting it is 'account control'. Mac TCP/IP network carries real-time financial data. (system spotlight) The banking firm of Hambrecht & Quist (HQ)(San Francisco, CA) is using the windowing environment of Apple's Mac, with TCP-IP linking it to the company's fault-tolerant, on-line hosts. A 10M-bps Ethernet network is used in HQ. Brokers easily share market information from coast to coast using wide area network connected to New York and Toronto. A Macintosh-based application called the Ensemble Financial System was developed by Ensemble Financial Systems Inc, a spinoff of the HQ software development team. The application is used for receiving and analyzing real-time market data, such as from the Dow Jones. Innovations in international telecom networking. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, a leader in pharmaceutical products, is paving the way in the development and utilization of international telecommunications networking. Their network combines voice, data, video and packet switching. The network is aimed at supporting their company research and development. The network is fully encrypted. The packet switching falls under the general head of ROCHENET, with X.25 packet service separately administered as ROCHEPAC. The ROCHEPAC private packet network accommodates a user, whether the need is small or large. At the heart of the ROCHEPAC is a Telenet TP4000 processor, with the hub in Berne, Switzerland.. Are SNA networks an endangered species? Gantz, John. The trend to interconnect local area networks will affect IBM's System Network Architecture (SNA), which was introduced in 1974 and eventually became the blueprint that alleviated confusion that existed in the IBM network products. Routing has become more of an issue in enterprise-wide settings, where packets need to travel through several bridges to get to their end points. Routers can cut down on network overhead by carefully choosing were to send packets, but routers are not the perfect answer. As the network backbone grows larger for local area network interconnection, the lower the performance will be. However, some users are putting in a router network, taking token-ring interconnection via routers in a serious way. Focus on software. (PICK makes a good operating system for businesses) (column) The 'ultimate' business-oriented operating system has yet to arrive, but PICK is one of the best around. PICK's strong suit is its friendliness, with an easy to learn interface and a report generator controlled by simple English commands. Users can take part in applications development without becoming a full-fledged programmer. PICK was originally designed as multiuser, multitasking environment. PICK has strengths that both MSDOS and OS/2 lack; in addition, because PICK can run under or over both MSDOS and OS/2, a composite environment often makes sense. PK Harmony 3.0 from Vancouver, British Columbia-based Synex Systems Corp helps integrate standalone or networked IBM PCs and clones with a PICK-based minicomputer. The less powerful Opal from Via Systems of Colorado Springs, CO, performs the same function in the Apple Macintosh world. Alleviating CTS and other work problems. (carpal tunnel syndrome) Atkinson, William. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the most prevalent and fastest-growing occupational injury is repetitive motion injury, formally known as cumulative trauma disorder. When it occurs in the wrist, repetitive motion injury is known as 'carpal tunnel syndrome' (CTS) or, more graphically, 'VDT disease.' The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently ruled that CTS is job-related and is levying fines against companies that do not related cases or work to prevent CTS. CTS develops at the juncture of hand and wrist, where one ligament and three bones form a 'tunnel' through which nine tendons link hand and arm. Stress and pressure can cause the tendons to become irritated, inflamed and swollen. Eventually, the soft median nerve that passes through the tunnel becomes compressed, eliminating sensation in the fingers. Security in the office: it can take many forms. (buyers guide) Theft, fire, accidents and natural disasters all threaten business equipment, supplies and data. Protective devices and software range from ID tags and simple locks to cutting-edge technologies such as retinal scanners and biometric devices. Security costs are trivial in comparison to the potentially astronomical costs of losses. Ventura, CA-based Anchor Pad International; Buffalo, NY-based Mead-Hatcher Inc; Jaffrey, NH-based Curtis Manufacturing Co; and Schiller Park, IL-based Bretford Manufacturing Co make locks that secure fax machines and microcomputers to work surfaces. PC Guardian Inc of San Rafael, CA, makes a $99.95 keyboard lock. TEAC America Inc of Montebello, CA, offers the TurboTape series of tape backup systems. Identograph Corp of Dryden, NY, makes the Video Identograph photo identification system, which uses a video camera to produce ID cards. Using color graphics in visual presentations. Sopko, Sandra. The day of the business speech without props is coming to an end. Graphics that help the audience remember what it has seen are being used more and more. Color boosts the retention capabilities of graphics. The presentation industry is now an estimated $20 billion a year. The overhead projector remains popular, but more and more preparers of presentations are turning to such new technologies as color ink-jet printers, color copiers that produce transparencies, color plotters and videotapes. Portability is a key issue for presentation-givers, many of whom must travel. The key, though, is a good speaker who eschews business argot for simple, direct prose. Researcher Lynn Oppenheim says handouts distract audience members. Computer furniture and worker comfort. (overview of ergonomics issues) The advent of computers has increased attention on ergonomics and workplace design. Specially designed computer furniture aims to put the worker at the proper height in relation to screen and keyboard in order to reduce carpal tunnel syndrome and back and eye strain. Adjustability is the key. In designing a work space, users must ask themselves how they spend their working day. Pennsylvania-based furniture maker CenterCore makes a wrap-around work surface that puts all equipment and cabinets within arm's reach. Furniture makers say improving user comfort leads directly to greater productivity. Good air and proper lighting are other major issues in user health, comfort and productivity. What do you really know about ergonomic chairs? (includes related article on choosing an office chair) Many sellers and buyers of computer chairs have a hard time separating the good from the bad. Office chairs have been developed that respond and adapt to the user. The most versatile chairs have as many as 23 adjustments and features, including back rests that follow and support the user and pneumatic synchronized articulating seats. Research has indicated that working and resting comfort are very different. A well-designed ergonomic seat can boost productivity by three to 12 percent. The extra cost of a good chair is small, considering that the chair will be used for years. Computer graphics are the office commodity. (trend toward graphics-based office computing) Spurred by falling prices for graphics monitors and cards, office computing has shifted from being primarily text-based to being graphics-based. Word processors today operate like desktop publishing applications, integrating graphics into text. Graphics capabilities have opened up a cornucopia of options for presentations, including LCD overhead displays, video, multimedia and on-computer presentations. The new generation of LCD projection panels for Apple Macintoshes and IBM PC compatibles starts at $1,500 for monochrome versions and $5,000 for color versions. The prices of film recorders, which are used in making slides, are falling rapidly; versions for 35mm cameras can be had for less than $1,000. In the future, presentations will incorporate such emerging technologies as virtual reality. Declining prices will put computer graphics technologies in the hands of the average office worker, not just executives. Copier controls do help reduce costs. (buyers guide) Rowh, Mark. Copier control units, known more simply as copier controls, help organizations effectively manage copier use and can lead to notable cost savings. The first copier controls were simple counters that reached market in the mid-1960s. Copier controls range in sophistication from small units to complex pieces of equipment capable of reporting and handling transactions involving thousands of accounts. With copier controls, managers can restrict access, allocate costs and reduce copy volume. Copier controls find their greatest usage in large organizations. But many smaller firms find them helpful, especially in charging costs to clients. A comprehensive list of copier controls is provided, including product name, supplier, price and functionality. Time recorder systems go far beyond 'punching in'. Curry, Gloria. The latest time-recorder systems do more than simply record arrivals and departures, thanks to improving technology. The simplest and least expensive type of time recorder, the electromechanical, is available in three varieties: sequential printers,side printers and cross shift machines. These devices usually provide single-column printouts. Electromechanical devices are the best-sellers among time recorders. They only print out day, date and time. Microprocessor-based time recorders debuted around 1983. The latest badge-based systems, working off an employee's coded ID badge, provide all sorts of sophisticated time analyses. Badgeless systems are another emerging technology. The new technologies enable time studies to be made. Smoothing your image. (Edsun Laboratories' Continue Edge Graphics chips)(Forum) Edsun Laboratories announces its new Continue Edge Graphics (CEG) technology that it places on chips functioning as digital-to-analog converters. The low-cost chips, which will replace standard chips used in VGA graphics boards, providing screen resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels. Standard VGA resolution is 640 by 480 pixels. CEG provides the improved screen resolution by using anti-aliasing, a method that can mix colors more precisely pixel by pixel. This results in the elimination of jagged screen images and the availability of up to 700,000 colors on an 8-bit color palette. The chip, which will cost approximately $10, is expected to appear in microcomputers and graphics boards in the near future. Its low price is unlikely to add further costs to products. Edsun is attempting to get enough support to make CEG a de facto standard so that software companies will provide CEG drivers. California presses mail-order tax collection. (Forum) Feldman, Saul D. Mail order microcomputer customers should be aware that state governments are continuing their efforts to force out-of-state mail order companies to collect sales taxes on purchases made by in-state customers. The state government of California sent letters to a large number of mail-order companies in 1988 and threatened the firms with summary tax assessments unless they agreed to collect California sales tax. A mail-order trade group brought a suit against the State of California in federal court and the suit was dismissed. The Federal Court of Appeals, however, overturned the ruling and a decision is expected in the summer of 1991. Opponents of the state governments are hoping that a federal injunction will stop sales tax assessments of the out-of-state companies. Customers should be aware that they must always pay state sales tax on mail order purchases. These legal issues question who should report the purchase. Common sense shareware. (Buttonware's EZ-file and Quicksoft's PC-Write 3.0 and PC Write Lite)(Forum) Users should be aware that the shareware market offers a large amount of sophisticated software. Shareware is usually low cost, often in the $5 to $50 range. Users can obtain the software from computer bulletin boards or mail-order shareware houses and can mail a registration fee to the manufacturer. Buttonware's flatfile database product PC-File helped launch the shareware market. Its current version, EZ-File 5.01, $129, has powerful features at an inexpensive price as well as dBASE III Plus compatibility. Quicksoft's PC-Write 3.0, $49, is a word processing package that offers many high-end features including style sheets, print preview mode and multiple indices, all of which first debuted in PC-Write. PC-Write Lite, which can be downloaded for free, is easy to learn and use and requires only 384Kbytes of memory to run. Of mice and men. (Hardware)(tips on mouse selection) Rowell, Dave. Users planning to purchase a mouse should consider several issues. Resolution is the term used in describing mouse sensitivity to movement. Mouse resolution is measured in dots-per-inch (dpi) or points-per-inch (ppi) and measures the number of signals the mouse sends out for every inch it moves. Two hundred dpi is the most common level. Users should be aware that mouse resolution over 400 dpi refers to software-enhanced sensitivity and not true hardware resolution. Users should also check that mouse manufacturers have good driver support. Mice attach to the computer either through a 9-pin or 25-pin serial port on the back of the microcomputer or by way of a bus expansion board. Bus mice are usually priced higher than serial mice because of the expansion card. Users may find the most important feature to consider is the ergonomics of the mouse. Extensive details on mouse selection are provided. Get control of graphics. (Software) O'Malley, Christopher. Many of the new presentation software programs give users more control over the creation of presentation materials than what was available with earlier graphics software. The Windows environment's visual orientation and ease of use have contributed to this. Microsoft Corp's PowerPoint is one of the leaders in this new generation of presentation software with its approach of letting users prepare slides within the context of a presentation. PowerPoint, along with Aldus Persuasion and Micrografx's Charisma share several features that increase user control. Templates help users streamline the slide creation process and improve the consistency and look of images. Predefined color schemes give users greater control over color by offering customization. Newly-added fonts, kerning features and spell checkers let users better manage word charting. Image sorters allow users to rearrange the order of slides to get a better idea of the flow of a presentation. ARCnet LANs. (Connectivity)(Attached Resource Computer Network) Allinger, Doug. Users looking for a reliable, flexible and inexpensive local-area network (LAN) should consider ARCnet. ARCnet's maximum transmission rate is only 2.5M-bps but the network has a steady throughput speed no matter how much data is sent across the network. Ethernet, for example, has a 10M-bps transmission speed but this can decrease when network traffic increases. ARCnet's token-passing network access method lets all workstations have access to the LAN in a set order. ARCnet LANs are flexible because users can configure them as a linear bus, a star, a distributed star or a combination star/bus. Cabling options include unshielded twisted pair, coaxial, telephone wire or fiber optic. Users can cut costs if they have existing network-ready telephone wiring in their building. Components for ARCnet LANs are also the least expensive of any of the major network topologies. High-res inspection. (resolution)(video specifications)(Marketplace) Users seeking to buy video systems with the 8514 graphics standard of 1,024-by 768-pixel resolution need to be aware of several issues. Most of the 1,024 by 768 systems are interlaced, a process which involves refreshing every other line of pixels and then returning to refresh the other lines. This will cause the display to flicker so buyers should look for a system with a non-interlaced graphics adapter to prevent this. Users can improve slow display performance in 1,024 by 768 mode by using a graphics adapter with an on-board processor. Users with a 14-inch monitor will find the small character sets used by 1,024 by 768 resolution hard to read. A 16- or 20-inch monitor will help this problem. Monitors in video systems with this high resolution usually have .28mm or .25mm dot pitch and users will find their 800 by 600 output will have a crisper look than with .31mm dot pitch monitors. Paper trail: what your mail order invoice tells you. (Strategies) (tutorial) Users should be aware of the importance of the mail-order invoice they receive when they purchase a vendor's products. An invoice should contain the company's name, address, phone number and, possibly, a company logo. It should also contain the customer name and address which users can show for tax purposes as a written record that they are the purchaser. Other things to note include the date of purchase, the salesperson's name or initials, a detailed list of the equipment purchased, the total price paid and method of payment and any special conditions or terms of purchase. Users should read the terms and conditions carefully. Users able to get a copy of the invoice before receiving the product can legally modify or delete any clause. Some vendors are willing to negotiate and compromise on various clauses. Users should note that the Internal Revenue Service requires that tax payers retain all deductible receipts for a minimum of seven years. Picture perfect: how to read a video card mail-order ad. (Buying)(includes related articles on video standards, video card Users seeking to buy mail-order video boards should consider resolution, color, performance and cost. Standard VGA resolution is suitable for the majority of business applications. Users going beyond standard VGA should note that each video board must have a driver to support specific applications. Users should note that when increasing resolution or number of colors they need a video card with more memory. A Super VGA system with 1,024 by 768 resolution and 16 colors needs 384Kbytes of video RAM. Users wanting 1,024 by 768 with 256 colors will need a video board with a graphics coprocessor chip. Higher resolution, more colors and the added performance they need increase the cost of video boards. Users should look for 100 percent hardware compatibility with earlier video standards in all VGA and Super VGA boards. They should also note that some boards claiming to use 16-bit access can actually be using 8-bit access to the RAM or on-board ROM or both. Other details are presented. New resolution: emphasize your laser's fine points. (upgrading laser printers)(includes related articles on software PostScript Users with HP LaserJet and similar laser printers can easily upgrade them to get the same graphics and text flexibility as high quality PostScript printers as well as higher output speed. Users can upgrade their laser printer to a higher Printer Control Language (PCL) version or use translation software that converts PostScript file instructions into PCL bit-image commands. These upgrades will usually demand a memory upgrade with a 2Mbyte memory upgrade board. Users doing serious desktop publishing will require an upgrade in printer hardware for PostScript compatibility. Users with LaserJet III printers can buy a PostScript cartridge. LaserJet II owners will need to insert a small circuit board into the printer, insert an expansion board into the microcomputer, connect the two and run the upgrade software installation. Extensive details are presented on these types of upgrades. Flexscan 9400i: brains and beauty. (Nanao's color analog monitor)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Nanao USA Corp's Flexscan 9400i is an excellent 20-inch color analog monitor with brilliant color display that boasts a 1,280 by 1,024 resolution. On the downside, the monitor handles only analog signals, which may be a disappointment to some graphics purists who contend that digital signals produce better color. The Flexscan 9400i has a list price of $3,999 and a mail-order price range of from $2,199 to $3,150. The monitor is multi-scanning with automatic signal preference sensing and has a bandwidth rated at 120 MHz. This is among the best ratings available and is almost 35 times the bandwidth of a color television set. The 9400i has flexible video input requirements with a 9-pin D-connector and five BNC connectors for coaxial cables. Tests of switching between 600 by 480, 800 by 600 and 1,024 by 768 resolutions cause no instability in display. Panther 486/33: a tower that stands tall. (Panther Systems Ltd.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Panther Systems Ltd's Panther 486/33 is a true tower unit with room for expansion at a competitive price. The Panther's base price is $3,649. The tested configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, an I/O board, a VGA board and a 200Mbyte hard drive and is priced at $4,799. The system is ergonomically well-designed with the floppy disk drives placed at the top of the unit and with the 5.25-inch floppy drive mounted horizontally instead of vertically as in many tower units. The machine is easy to open and has eight 16-bit ISA expansion slots. Three slots are filled by a 16-bit VGA graphics board, a 16-bit IDE drive controller board and an 8-bit I/O board with one parallel, one game and two serial ports. On the downside, Panther is a small company and technical support is limited. The company offers a three-year warranty on parts and labor and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Dell System 433TE: new bus, new look. (Dell Computer Corp.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Dell Computer Corp's System 433TE file server is a high quality EISA bus tower system that can handle many network environments now served by minicomputers. The base system includes a 10-MHz EISA bus, 4Mbytes of RAM, 128Kbytes of RAM cache, an 80Mbyte IDE hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte 5.25-inch floppy drive, a VGA video and monochrome VGA monitor and is priced at $8,949. One of the unit's most impressive features is its improved tower design that has all ports along the top of the computer and includes a sliding cover that hides cables from view. The system can accommodate eight hard drives and offers five additional half-height bays. The 433TE offers strong RAM expansion that allows for up to 64Mbytes of RAM. The company's Dell Drive Array (DDA) 32-bit bus master hard drive controller - to be released in February 1991 - will make the system an even stronger competitor. Service and support are excellent. Insight 486-25: 486 power at bargain prices. (Insight Computers)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Insight Computers' model 486-25 tower system offers adequate performance at a low cost. Insight's fully loaded system includes a 10-MHz ISA bus, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 100Mbyte IDE hard drive, one 5.25 1.2Mbyte and one 3.5 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a super VGA card with 1Mbyte of video memory, a 14-inch TVM 3a multiscanning monitor, DOS 4.01 and video utilities all for $3,495. The drives and ports are not labeled and the 5.25-inch floppy drive is mounted vertically under the 3.5-inch drive. Expansion room is adequate but the floppy disk drives leave room for only one more storage device. The motherboard has only five of its eight 16-bit slots available. The company provides a one-year warranty on parts and labor and unlimited toll-free technical support. The 486-25 is recommended mainly for budget-conscious users looking for high-end power. Users will be able to find faster systems but not at this price. Swan 486/25: a Swan takes off. (Swan Technologies)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Swan Technologies' 486/25 microcomputer offers fine performance for use in local area network, workstation and general power-computing applications. The base system includes 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes of cache, a 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mb floppy drive and 84Mbyte IDE hard drive and a 200-watt power supply priced at $3,995. The tested configuration including 8Mbytes of RAM and a 200Mbyte hard drive is priced at $5,275. The system has good expansion room with five drive bays. Six of the eight expansion slots are free. The hard drive subsystem offers exceptionally good performance. All drives in the tested configuration rate a high performance. Swan offers toll-free technical support that is helpful and efficient. The system user's manual is clear and adequate. On the downside, the system is more expensive than some but the quality components and good support make the system well worth considering. Tangent 486/33 Tower: a system with common sense. (Tangent Computer Corp.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Tangent Computer Co's 486/33 Tower microcomputer is well-designed and competitively priced. The base system includes an ISA bus, 1Mbyte of RAM and 128Kbytes of cache and is priced at $2,895. The tested system has 4Mbytes of RAM, one 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte and one 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 105MByte Quantum hard drive, a 1,024 by 768 Orchid VGA board and a Mag Computronic VGA multiscanning monitor all for $4,495. Ergonomic enhancements include the six disk drive bays being easily accessible from the front. The 486/33 Tower also has its floppy drives at the top of the unit. The system unit cover is easy to remove. The video cable is extremely short and limits the moveability of the monitor. The main manual is clear but has no illustrations. The company offers a one-year warranty for parts and labor and two years parts and labor for the motherboard. ALR BusinessVEISA 486/33 Model 101: making the (up)grade. (Advanced Logic Research)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) Advanced Logic Research's (ALR) BusinessVEISA 486/33 101 offers excellent performance at a competitive price with a strong upgradeable design. Mail order price ranges from $3,348 to $3,500 for the base system which includes an 8-MHz EISA bus, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte 5.25-inch floppy drive and a keyboard. The tested configuration, $6,788, includes 5Mbytes of RAM, an 80Mbyte Quantum hard drive, an ALR Super VGA card and a 14-inch FlexView 2a monitor. The system's modular architecture isolates the central processing unit (CPU) and memory from the system board which allows for easy upgrading. The BusinessVEISA 486/33 also has three 32-bit EISA expansion slots. The parallel, serial and mouse ports are integrated on the motherboard, leaving other slots free. The system is fast with the processor measuring just under 15 MIPS but the hard drive and graphics systems score only average. Storm System 333: inexpensive and effective. (Sunnyvale Memories Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Sunnyvale Memories Inc's Storm System 333 is a very competitively priced system that offers good performance. The base system's mail-order price is $2,260 and includes 1Mbyte of RAM, an 8-MHz ISA bus, 32Kbytes of RAM cache, a 42Mbyte IDE hard drive, a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a monochrome monitor and disk manager. The test system has 8Mbytes of RAM, an 80387/33 coprocessor, a 200Mbyte IDE hard drive, a Diamond SpeedStar 1Mbyte Super VGA video card, a Seiko CM-1440 monitor, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0, a Logitech mouse and costs $4,445. The motherboard is limited to 32Kbytes of cache RAM but is more than adequate for most user needs. An optional memory expansion card can bring main memory to 256Mbytes. The system uses 25-pin D-sub connectors for the two serial ports with no 9-pin or 15-pin adapters included which can cause some inconvenience. TransPerfect PC: a diamond in the rough. (TransComputer Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) TransComputer Inc's TransPerfect PC is a 25-MHz 80386-based desktop microcomputer offering processor technology that allows users to easily upgrade from an 80386 to 80486 chip. The mail order price for the base system is $1,149 and includes 32Kbytes of cache, an 8-MHz ISA bus, 1Mbyte of RAM and one 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive. The tested system includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, 1,024 by 768 Orchid VGA board and a Matsushita VGA multiscanning monitor all priced at $2,069. The T486PX central processing unit module holds an 80486 processor and plugs directly into the 80386 socket on the motherboard. TransComputer offers a toll-free telephone support line but there is no overnight cross-shipment of parts, on-site service or weekend hours. The company sells its computers through regional distributors which all honor the one year warranty on parts and labor and 30-day money-back guarantee. DataStor 386SX-20: class A unit, class A rating. (Computer Products Corp.) (Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Computer Products Corp offers its solid-performing DataStor 386SX-20 microcomputer at an 80286 price. The unit, however, has a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Class A rating which limits it to office and manufacturing environments. The base system is mail-order priced at $1,384 and includes an 8-MHz ISA bus, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a monochrome display system and DOS 4.01. The tested system has 2Mbytes of RAM, an 80Mbyte IDE hard drive, ViewPerfect Super VGA and a ViewPerfect 4 multiscanning monitor all priced at $1,995. The tested unit's hard drive has only a 3.5-inch form factor but offers 17 ms access time. Users can expand the non-caching motherboard to a limited 8Mbytes of memory. The smaller motherboard and hard drive do not detract from the machine's performance potential. FCS 386: DFX power for an SX price. (First Computer Systems Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) First Computer Systems Inc's FCS 386 workstation is a powerful microcomputer at a competitive price. The base system's mail-order price is $1,599 which includes an 8-MHz ISA bus, 1 Mbyte of RAM, 64Kbytes of memory cache, a 40Mbyte hard drive, a 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a Super VGA controller, a GoldStar 1,024 by 768 interlaced color monitor and DOS 4.01. The FCS 386's 64Kbytes of 25 nanosecond cache memory makes performance comparable to an 80386DX microcomputer. The Landmark Speed Test 2.0 gives an impressive 29-MHz rating, compared with the 80386DZ Compaq Deskpro 386/20e which rates at 31MHz. The machine's disk controllers, I/O ports and video controller are all on the system board instead of the expansion board and, therefore, only five of the eight expansion slots are available. Technical support is average and returned units are subject to a 15 percent restocking fee unless they are defective. QMS-PS 410: truly personal PostScript. (QMS Inc.'s PostScript laser printer) (Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) QMS Inc's $2,795 PS 410 is a competitively priced personal laser printer that offers four-page-per-minute speed and a variety of features and fonts. Mail order price ranges from $1,995 to $2,119. The PS 410 also offers Emulation Sensing Processor (ESP) technology. This allows the printer to be connected to and receive data from different DOS-based or Apple Macintosh microcomputers with the parallel, RS-232-C serial and AppleTalk/Local Talk interfaces active at the same time. The printer interprets the data and selects the correct printer language without any need to reconfigure DIP switches or menus. The printer comes with 45 fonts and the print quality is excellent. On the downside, the 50-sheet paper capacity is meager and only Courier, Courier Bold and Line Printer fonts are available under the Hewlett Packard emulation. Technical support is unlimited and there is a one year warranty on parts and labor. The Complete Flatbed Scanner: gray scale scanning. (The Complete PC Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Complete PC Inc's Complete Flatbed Scanner is a moderately-priced gray-scale scanner with excellent output. The scanner's list price is $1,599 with mail-order prices ranging from $988 to $1,175. The Flatbed scans photographs, line art and documents up to 8.5 inches wide and 14 inches long in 256 shades of gray at 300 dpi resolution. The scanner emulates the HP ScanJet Plus standard and comes with Astral Development Corporation's Picture Publisher gray-scale image editing program. Picture Publisher is slow but the scanner's ScanJet Plus emulation should allow it to work with other scanning software. Users can resize, crop, rotate and mask images and export them in a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) or as an Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file. Installation and maintenance of the scanner is easy. The company offers a one year warranty on parts and labor. Technical support is available but is not toll free. Mars 800 hand scanner: scanning in Windows. (Marstek Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Marstek Inc's Mars 800 hand scanner is low-priced and can handle resolutions up to 800 dpi. The scanner's list price is $459 with mail-order prices ranging from $279 to $299. Setup is easy. The scanner handles images only just over four inches wide so users must piece together wider images. Scanning is simple but users should note that the higher the resolution the slower the scanner must move across the paper. The scanner comes with Image-In scanning, paint and OCR software compatible with Microsoft Windows 3.0. The software includes editing tools for image processing but it is difficult to merge partial scans into a single image. The OCR software module, Image-In Read, is poor and can only handle very plain and clear text. The Mars 800 is recommended for desktop publishers on a tight budget. Technical support is good and the company offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. ScanMan model 256: gray-scale scanning. (Logitech Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Logitech Inc's ScanMan 256 is a high-quality 8-bit hand scanner that is mail-order priced from $319 to $395. The scanner's power and versatility is comparable to many flatbed scanners. The ScanMan 256 produces up to 256 levels of gray and up to 400 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. The scanner uses a red light to scan images which improves contrast and reduces errors when converting images to text. The scanner's rear-axle design and rubber compound on the rollers lets users track more accurately. The ScanMan 256 comes with two scanner control software programs. The Scan program offers only basic image size and file format management, working from the DOS prompt. The Ansel program runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and offers a wide variety of features including image rotation, scanner resolution and a useful stitching feature that allows users to merge separate images from a scan. Product support and technical service are excellent. ATI VGA Wonder+: speedy performer. (ATI Technologies Inc.'s Super VGA board)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) ATI Technologies Inc's VGA Wonder+ Super VGA graphics board is recommended for users wanting sharp and fast video performance for Microsoft Windows or other graphics applications. The board's list price is $299 for the 256Kbyte version and $349 for the 512Kbyte version. Mail-order prices range from $209 to $219 for the 256Kbyte version and $259 for the 512Kbyte version. The VGA Wonder+ is a compact Super VGA card measuring only 4.2 by 6.25 inches and fits into any 8- or 16-bit slot. The board is consistently the fastest in tests comparing it against other VGA and Super VGA boards. The VGA Wonder+ also equals the other boards in display color clarity. The card has a high screen refresh rate and offers a clear, stable and sharp image on a suitable monitor and has no noticeable flicker. ATI Technologies offers a two-year warranty on the board and unlimited technical support. The board comes with an integrated mouse port, a Microsoft-compatible bus mouse and easy-to-use installation software. Leading Technology VGA Ultra 16+: lighting graphics. (Leading Technology Inc.'s VGA board)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) Leading Technology Inc's VGA Ultra 16+ is a fast VGA graphics board that offers solid support for high-resolution modes in Microsoft Windows and other applications. The list price for the 256Kbyte version is $199. The 512Kbyte version is $270 and the 1Mbyte version lists for $259. Mail order prices range from $165 to $180 for the 256Kbyte version, $180 to $195 for the 512Kbyte version and from $210 to $225 for the 1Mbyte version. The VGA Ultra 16+ is best used with a multiscanning monitor. Users who will use high-resolution modes for long periods of time should use a 16-inch or larger monitor. The board's Microsoft Windows drivers accommodate resolutions of 640 by 480 pixels at 256 colors and 800 by 600 and 1,024 by 768 pixels at either 16 or 256 colors. The board works with the VGA drivers that come with Windows but do not allow for usage of the VGA Ultra 16+'s higher resolution or increased color palette. Irwin Magnetic's Model 80SXe: painless backups. (Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc's tape drive)(Product Reviews) (Hardware Review) Irwin Magnetic Systems' 80SXe tape drive is recommended for users needing single or shared backup arrangements among several non-networked computers. The package includes the external drive, backup software, adapter card and one tape for a list price of $799 and a mail order range of $599 to $675. An internal drive is listed at $649. In tests the Irwin tape drive and the included Central Point Software Backup program back up 56Mbytes of data in just under 16 minutes. This is a good rating of 3.6Mbytes per minute and tape space is only 34Mbytes due to data compression. On the downside, formatting time is overly long at 74 minutes for an 80Mbyte tape and 111 minutes for an extended length 120Mbyte tape. Irwin Magnetic offers a one-year warranty on the hardware and Central Point has a 90-day warranty on the software. Both companies provide toll-free customer support lines. GeoWorks Ensemble 1.0: a GUI you can stick with. (graphical user interface)(Product Reviews) (Software Review) (evaluation) GeoWorks Ensemble 1.0 is a very functional utility program that runs under an easy-to-use windowing, multitasking graphical user interface. For some users, Ensemble may actually be a better choice than Microsoft Windows 3.0 since it can run on any IBM PC-compatible machine with a minimum of 512Kbytes of RAM, a hard drive, a graphics card and a mouse. In tests on different microcomputers, Ensemble ran no slower than most applications on an 8088 machine and on an AT feels as fast as Windows 3.0 running on an 80386-based microcomputer. Ensemble has more use of graphics function indicators than Windows 3.0 which makes it very effective. All the program's applications have icons and labels. The program has three sections including Appliances, Professional and DOS Programs that all have their own useful applications including a WYSIWYG word processor, a banner printing program and a planner/scheduler. FormBase 1.1: two programs in one. (Xerox's Ventura Software Inc's form generator and relational database)(Product Reviews) (Software Ventura Software Inc's FormBase 1.1 is a forms management software that combines graphic design with a powerful database manager. FormBase has a list price of $495 with mail-order prices ranging from $295 to $325. The package includes a forms designing module where users can custom design forms on-screen. The database manager lets users search, access and display selected stored data. The same menu system covers both and this can contribute to possible tampering of information. The package offers password protection but a better design would be to limit access to the structural components of the database to the forms designer. The database module is so powerful that it can stand alone as a database manager with only the addition of a full programming language and macro editor. This power, however, will require users to spend quite a few hours of time to familiarize themselves with all of its functions and graphics capabilities. PerForm Pro: formulating perfect forms. (Delrina Technology Inc.'s PerForm Pro) (Software Review) (evaluation) Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro is a high-end Windows 3.0 forms generator with excellent form security and image and graphics handling capabilities. PerForm Pro has a list price of $495. Mail-order prices range from $268 to $319. The program offers automatic fill-in forms that speed up data entry and decrease errors. Two integrated modules, Designer and Filler, make up the program. Designer offers 12 graphic design tools and users can also import graphics images. The program can import eight graphics formats including TIFF, PCX, GEM and Windows Metafile. Filler lets users fill in the form and the module runs separately from Designer. Filler offers password and electronic signature security features, context-sensitive help and automatic data formatting. On the downside, PerForm Pro can take from several hours to several days to learn due to its extensive techniques and commands. Textra 6.0: text for less. (Ann Arbor Software's low-end word processor)(Product Reviews) (Software Review) (evaluation) Ann Arbor Software's $95 Textra 6.0 is a highly recommended fast, easy-to-use word processing package that comes close to the power of much higher-priced word processors. Textra offers macros, mail merge, graphics import, page preview, windows and more. Users can switch among full- or split-screen views of up to eight documents and can change fonts or page layout from the preview or editing screen. The product is extremely fast in its scrolling, reformatting and search-and-replace features. Textra lacks a grammar checker but offers an on-line, pop-up style guide that advises users on capitalization, punctuation and common style errors. The package's undelete key could be improved to be more of a true undo function. Users cannot underline or change text as it is typed but must highlight it and then apply the style or font. Microsoft Word Ver. 5.5 for DOS Systems: Word without Windows. (Microsoft Corp.)(Product Reviews) (Software Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's Word 5.5 for DOS Systems offers a Windows-like look and feel but runs on low-end microcomputers. Word's list price is $450 with mail order prices ranging from $209 to $229. The package can now open up to nine windows at a time and style sheets are now displayed within document windows so users can move between the two. Word also offers pull-down menus and dialog boxes that let users enter data, check off options or choose items from pull-down lists. The new look and feel of Windows does not sacrifice document compatibility or speed but any macros and glossaries created in Version 5.0 must be converted to be used in 5.5. The product has some incompatibilities with other Word packages in commands and keystrokes and Word cannot read native files produced by these other programs. Users must save the documents as Rich Text Format (RTF) files. Technical support is below average. Word for DOS is worth considering for users without Windows. CorelDRAW! 2.0: better than Crayolas. (Corel Systems Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Corel Systems Corp's CorelDRAW! 2.0 is an excellent Windows 3.0 drawing program that offers many functions and tools available, until now, only in high-end Apple Macintosh applications. CorelDRAW's list price is $695 with mail order prices ranging from $369 to $389. Drawing tools are improved in this version with users able to choose between freehand and Bezier drawing modes as well as use curve flattening to draw and print in draft mode and stretch and scale from the center of an object. The new Effects menu offers four transformation tools including an envelope tool that lets users contort graphics, a perspective tool, an extrusion tool and a blend tool. The font toolbox is the best of any program currently available in DOS-based microcomputers. Users can also customize the included color palettes. A clip art library with over 3,500 images is also included. Pacioli 2000 1.06: accounting at a bargain price. (M-USA Business Systems Inc.)(Product Reviews) (Software Review ) (evaluation) M-USA Business Systems Inc's Pacioli 2000 1.06 is a bargain-priced, eight-module accounting package recommended especially for small businesses choosing to automate. The product's list price is $49.95 with mail-order prices ranging from $29 to $49.95. The eight modules include general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, inventory control, budgeting, purchasing and auditing. More expensive accounting packages may offer more flexibility than Pacioli 2000 in the actual number of records and digits they accept, but Pacioli is not rigid in its numerical limits. The product keeps simultaneous, detailed ledger and journal entries for up to 3 years and users can control up to 999 companies at one time. Users can use the included standard Chart of Accounts, a modified version of it or create one of their own. Technical support is excellent and the company offers a 90-day money-back guarantee. LZR 650: Office workhorse. (Dataproducts Corp.'s laser printer)(Durability Test) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Dataproducts Corp's LZR 650 is a compact, 6 page-per-minute laser printer that offers excellent HP LaserJet Series II emulation. The LZR 650's base system list price is $1,695 with mail-order prices ranging from $1,095 to $1,295. The base system includes 512Kbytes of RAM, 300 by 300 dots-per-inch, two font card slots and a 250-sheet paper tray. The tested system includes a 1.5Mbyte RAM expansion card with 2Mbytes total and HP LaserJet Plus B and M font cards. The tested machine has been used steadily for 10 months, printing over 5,000 images. The tested machine's toner cartridge produced 3,500 copies, while the developer and drum were good for 25,000 and 50,000 copies respectively. This use of separate toner cartridge, developer and photoconductor drum can save users money on the cost of consumables. The paper tray holds 250 sheets of paper, letting users insert paper a half a ream at a time. The only drawbacks of the printer are its lack of true PostScript ability and its limited number of font cartridges. Printers that can: the latest 24-pin dot matrix printers can handle some jobs beyond the reach of lasers. (Hardware Dot matrix printers are an inexpensive alternative to laser printers and can perform certain tasks that laser printers cannot. Dot matrix printers are the only alternative for multipart forms and some models are offering printing of up to six layers. Other features can include multiple paper paths and advanced paper handling to switch between envelopes, single sheets and continuous-form paper without the need for reloading. New dot matrix printers have replaced belt-driven steering mechanisms with rack-and-pinion systems or screw drives that offer higher output quality. New models also have improved inking that gives darker output with less streaking and smudging. Dot-matrix printers also offer an alternative way to produce full-page proofs in desktop publishing in their ability to print right to the edge of the page. Users should determine their printing needs before buying including font options, print speed, paper handling, character modes, buffer size and service and support. Everyday use: finding the right comfort level. (Applications Focus)(one of six buyers guide articles on 15 reviewed dot matrix Users seeking to buy a 24-pin dot matrix printer should look at features that can simplify the everyday use of the printer including ease of setup, compatibility with industry-recognized standards, the quality of the manual, the presence of internal fonts and the printer's general speed and quality performance. Buyers should be aware that Epson and IBM dot matrix printers are the de facto standards for 24-pin dot matrix printers. Models that can emulate at least one of these two printers will offer maximum software compatibility. Users should note that the current preferred resolution standard for dot matrix graphics is 360 dots-per-inch (dpi) by 360 dpi and should not accept less than this. Users should also note whether the printer they are considering describes set configurations and options on the LCD panel or if the printer outputs the information on paper only. Paper handling: the importance of paper paths. (Applications Focus) (one of six buyers guide articles on 15 reviewed dot matrix Users should be aware of the paper-handling ability of the dot matrix printer they plan to purchase. They should look for printers that offer automatic paper loading that eliminates the need for lengthy hand feeding. Printers offering paper parking allow for the printing of single sheets even with form paper loaded. Most printers have a park button that requires users to remember to push the button but some printers retract and re-feed form paper automatically. Printers that have a zero tear-off distance will allow printing to start right at the top of the next page and will save on wasted paper. Printers with multiple paper paths allow for several types of paper, including forms and labels, to be loaded simultaneously. The best paper path for light weight paper is a straight path. Most users will prefer a printer with bottom feed so that the box of paper can be hidden from sight. Advanced features: those significant extras. (one of six buyers guide articles on 15 reviewed dot matrix printers) (buyers guide) Users looking to purchase dot-matrix printers will find many advanced printer features including single- and multi-bin cut-sheet feeders, additional fonts, envelope bins and color. Users can access fonts from soft fonts and font cartridges but they should make sure that the applications they are using recognize the particular printer and its font codes. Users who are generating lots of graphics may want to opt for a color printer but this will add 10 to 20 percent more to the printer's original price. Color ribbons also cost about 30 percent more than black-and-white printer ribbons. Dual-bin cut-sheet feeders offer more flexibility than single-bin feeders and will allow users to load both plain paper and letterhead automatically. Printer buffers keep the printer from tying up the computer. Users with software that creates its own print spooler will usually perform faster than a buffer. Service and support: when you need help fast. (one of six buyers guide articles on 15 reviewed dot matrix printers) (buyers guide) Users looking to buy a mail-order dot-matrix printer should also consider the manufacturer's support and service policies in their decision of which printer to purchase. Only four of the 15 reviewed printer manufacturers have 30-day return policies but many will extend a return policy to customers upon request. Most companies offer at least a one-year warranty. Before the warranty expires, users should contact the mail-order company to see if extended coverage is available. When printers need repairs, users should return the printer to the company from where it was purchased as opposed to an authorized dealer since dealers do not always honor warranties. Users who encounter problems with the mail order company should turn to the printer manufacturer for service. Users can also take advantage of manufacturer's support lines to ask questions about their printers. Dot matrix printers in detail. (Product Profiles) (Hardware Review) (overview of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers) The product profiles deal with 24-pin dot matrix printers that can be purchased by mail-order for under $600. Printers are reviewed as received from the manufacturer and include extras and options. Machines received with cut-sheet feeders or color options installed are mentioned where appropriate but the emphasis in the reviews is the base printer. All evaluated printers produce near-letter quality or letter-quality print in a range of fonts with high quality of output text. All printers are easy to set up and operate. The main differences in the machines concern price, flexibility, ergonomics and graphics output. The printers also differ in the number of available font cartridges and resident fonts. Other information users should consider is that concerning graphics quality. Graphic test samples are run for each printer with results offered in the reviews. AEG Olympia NP 80-24E. (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers in Detail') AEG Olympia's NP 80-24E is a superior text printer with a list price of $499 and an average mail-order price of $329. On the downside, the printer only generates fair graphics printing in both its IBM Proprinter and Epson LQ emulations. Images get heavy markings from printer-advance motor banding when printing dense graphics patterns. Therefore, the NP 80-24E is recommended primarily for text printing. Set up and operation are easy but users may find it difficult to change the printer's options. The options selection menu requires that users recognize a code displayed by a pattern of LED lights. The manual explains how to break the code. Text printing is excellent with the printer's included Courier, Prestige, Optimo and gothic fonts. The draft font is also more than adequate. The company offers an optional font cartridge with three additional fonts. Olympia provides a one-year warranty on parts and labor. ALPS Allegro 500. (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers in Detail') ALPS America's Allegro 500 offers good text and graphics printing ability at a list price of $499 and an average mail-order price of $295. The printer's paper path is straight, allowing paper to be fed through the front and exit from the rear, resulting in fewer paper jams. The Allegro 500's printhead is rated at an extraordinary lifespan of 250 million characters. The draft rate of 216 characters per second will give users a little more than 300 hours of printhead life before it requires changing. The Allegro's available typefaces include Prestige Elite, Tiempo, Courier, script, gothic, bold gothic and ALPS Draft. The printer offers Epson LQ emulation for text and graphics. ALPS claims the machine is also compatible with IBM graphics but the manual is not clear on this point. Users should be aware that, although Epson and IBM graphics commands can be similar, they cannot depend on 100 percent IBM compatibility with all IBM models. Brother M-1824L. (Brother International Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Brother International Corp's M-1824L printer offers excellent text and graphics printing for a list price of $749 and average mail-order price of $419. The printer offers Prestige, Brougham, Quadro and Gothic internal fonts and Brother offers an additional font cartridge with six additional fonts. The M-1824L offers Brother HR-Series, Diablo, Epson and IBM printer emulations. The printer's parallel port connection is placed conveniently on the left side of the printer which allows for easy placing of the printer on the right side of the computer, eliminating problems with twisted cables. The printer offers a 360 dots-per-inch resolution with sharp graphics and an excellent 12-point simulated body text. Letter quality and draft modes are both excellent. The only drawback of the printer is that a parallel interface cable for the printer must be obtained from a third-party vendor. Brother offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Citizen GSX-140. (Citizen America Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Citizen America Corp's GSX-140 is a solid production printer with a list price of $499 and an average mail-order price of $310. The printer's overall printing ability is equal to that of much more expensive printers. The GSX-1140 offers a dual paper-feed mechanism including a push-type tractor for continuous forms and a pressure feed for single sheets. Text printing is very good in the printer's resident Courier, Prestige, roman and sans serif fonts. Draft printing can use either a high-speed small matrix typeface or a standard draft typeface. The GSX-140's sheet feeder installation is easy but a driver from Citizen was needed to make it work correctly. The printer gives a good performance in both IBM Proprinter and Epson LQ emulations. The paper-advance motor control, however, is disappointing with heavy graphics use. Citizen offers an optional color kit as well as a two-year warranty on parts and labor. C-Tech C-610+. (C-Tech Electronics Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix C-Tech Electronics Inc's C-610+ printer offers the best paper-handling capabilities of the printers tested. The printer's list price is $799 and the average mail-order price is $549. The C-610+ has a flatbed tractor and a tray for manually fed sheets. A 100-sheet capacity single-sheet feeder with an adapter for up to 100 envelopes is optional. Users should note that the front cover and ribbon cartridge use micro switches and small plastic prongs for activation. Rough handling of the printer can shear the prongs and make it inoperable. The printer offers only Courier 10 and draft resident fonts but users can purchase optional font cartridges from C-Tech. Courier 10 is an excellent font for near-letter quality printing. The C-610+ offers both IBM Proprinter and Epson LQ compatibility. The Epson emulation is excellent but the IBM emulation is disappointing. A color version of the printer priced at $859 offers an excellent Epson JX-80 emulation. Epson LQ-850. (Epson America Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers Epson America Inc's LQ-850 is an excellent printer from one of the top printer manufacturers. The LQ-850 has a list price of $749 and an average mail-order price of $427. The printer includes a pressure-feed system that can handle 14- to 24-pound paper and has a bidirectional tractor. Users can also choose options including single- and double-bin cut-sheet feeders that accommodate 100 pages or 25 envelopes. Setup is easy but the printer has a rear U-fold path that can cause paper jams. The LQ-850 offers LQ Roman and LQ Sans Serif fonts in both monospaced and proportional typefaces as well as a draft font. Text and graphics mode printing are both superior. The printer has a DIP switch that can toggle between the Epson standard italic extended character set and the IBM graphics character set, allowing for screen-dump ability. Epson offers a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Fujitsu DL-3400. (Fujitsu America Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Fujitsu America's DL-3400 is a 24-pin dot-matrix printer but its primary emulations are of 9-pin printers. The printer has a list price of $699 and an average mail-order price of $369. Although the company claims the DL-3400 offers IBM and Epson emulations, graphics compatibility is limited to the IBM Graphics Printer, the IBM Proprinter XL and the Epson FX-80, all older, 9-pin printers. The printer offers a bidirectional tractor, alternate pressure feed roller and a 200-sheet single-bin feeder. Courier and Prestige Elite are the two included fonts but Fujitsu also offers four optional font cartridges. The DL-3400 also offers draft and high-speed draft fonts. Another weakness of the printer is its one-half inch paper tear-off that, for every one-page printing job, wastes two sheets of paper. Menu options, although easy to operate, also print out on paper. Fujitsu offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. IBM Proprinter X24E. (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers in Detail') IBM's Proprinter X24E is a solid printer that is almost two years old and most likely will be replaced. However, this may provide for some large discounts. The Proprinter X24E has a current list price of $859 and an average mail-order price of $559. The printer can use either the pressure-feed roller for single sheets or the bidirectional tractor for continuous forms. The Proprinter X24E includes draft, Courier, Courier PS and Prestige Elite internal fonts. IBM offers 11 additional fonts in cartridges as well as disks with downloadable fonts. The Courier typeface is more than adequate while the draft mode shows the matrix structure of the characters. The Proprinter X24E performs well on graphic print sample tests for IBM-compatible printers and shows only minimal banding. Small-scale graphics perform equally as well. IBM offers a one year warranty on parts and labor. Mannesmann Tally MT130/24. (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers Mannesmann Tally Corp's MT130/24 is an excellent printer, especially recommended for graphics use. The printer's list price is $899 and the average mail-order price is $599. The MT130/24 is one of the higher-priced of the evaluated group of printers but includes both pressure-feed and bidirectional tractor capability and Epson LQ-2500, Proprinter XL and XL24 and NEC Pinwriter emulations. The printer also has an optional 150-sheet single-bin feeder. Setup is easy although ribbon installation proved difficult in setting up the test printer. The MT130/24 offers dense graphics printing ability that shows only slight banding from the paper-advance motor overlap. Solid areas show as black instead of the washed-out gray found on many other printers. The printer offers three letter-quality fonts including Kaufman, Modern and gothic, with the latter two also offered in a nearly letter quality typeface. NEC Pinwriter P6200. (NEC Technologies Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot NEC Technologies' Pinwriter P6200 offers a variety of features and text printing capabilities but gives a disappointing performance in graphics handling. The Pinwriter P6200 has a list price of $749 and an average mail-order price of $464. The printer has both a pressure feed for single sheets and a tractor feed for continuous forms. A bidirectional tractor is available as an option. The Pinwriter P6200 is one of the few inexpensive dot-matrix printers to offer an optional dual-bin feeder. The printer offers fonts including LQ Courier, LQ Prestige Elite, LQ ITC letter quality fonts along with three proportional fonts and two draft fonts. NEC offers additional font cards at $125 each. Graphics speed is impressive with the 80Kbyte buffer but graphics quality is hampered by printer-advance motor banding on dense graphic images. NEC offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Okidata Microline 390 Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Matrix Printers Okidata's Microline 390 Plus offers high-quality text and graphics printing at a list price of $699 and an average mail-order price of $450. The Microline has a pressure roller for single sheets and a bidirectional tractor feed for continuous forms. Both methods work with paper weights from 12 to 100 pounds and the printer boasts the most versatile form-handling capabilities of the evaluated printers. The printer has no LCD to assist the control panel so options are printed on paper, which can be awkward. The front control panels are complex but the clearly-written setup guide makes the process easy. The printer offers six resident typefaces but no optional font cartridges are available. Graphics images are crisp and virtually unaffected from printer-advance motor banding in tests. A simulated Times Roman headline and body text printed in graphics mode rates superior in testing. Panasonic KX-P1624. (Panasonic Communications & Systems Co.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix Panasonic Communications & System Co's KX-P1624 offers solid text printing but is disappointing as a graphics machine. The KX-P1624's list price is $650 and the average mail-order price is $349. The printer is the wide-carriage version of Panasonic's KX-P1124 printer and offers both a pressure feed and bidirectional tractor feed that can handle up to 24-pound paper stock. The KX-P1624 has a 0.7-inch tear-off factor, wasting one page of paper for every printing job. The printer, however, does offer paper parking. The printer offers character printing with Courier, Prestige, Bold PS, sans serif, script or draft fonts. Text printing with the Courier font is as fast as some other printers' draft font modes and the KX-P1624's draft mode is even faster. The printer has IBM Proprinter and Epson LQ emulations but graphics images suffer from obvious banding. Panasonic offers a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Seikosha SL-90 Plus. (Seikosha America Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix printers in 'Dot Seikosha America's SL-90 Plus is an average-performing printer with adequate text and graphics printing. The SL-90 Plus' list price is $499 and the average mail-order price is $349. The SL-90 Plus offers a pressure-feed system and bidirectional tractor that can accommodate up to three-part carbonless forms. Fonts included are Courier, Orator, Prestige Elite, OCR-A, OCR-B, Seikosha Roman, Seikosha Helvetica, gothic and script. Seikosha does not offer additional font cartridges. Emulations include the IBM Proprinter and the Epson LQ-850. Text printing is average but the draft font is very light and matrix in appearance. Seikosha offers a film ribbon that increases sharpness of the fonts but it is single-strike only, which increases the price per-copy of printing. Graphics images printed in the Epson LQ-850 mode are good but banding is noticeable. The simulated Times Roman and headline and body text in the printer's graphics mode rates as superior. Star Micronics NX-2420 Multi-Font. (Star Micronics America Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot matrix Star Micronic's America's NX-2420 Multi-Font is recommended especially as a text printer, listing for $499 and with an average mail-order price of $355. The NX-2420 offers both pressure-feed and rear tractor paper handling for up to five-part forms. Bottom feed is also available. The printer offers five letter-quality fonts including Times roman, Courier, Prestige, sans serif and script. Draft and high-speed draft fonts are also available. The draft font is near-letter quality and only the high-speed mode shows a matrix quality. Graphics output in either IBM or Epson LQ modes shows banding with darker images but simulated desktop publishing text output is rated as very good. Star Micronics claims a lifespan of four million characters for its standard cloth ribbon, a sizable amount. Paper handling and font options are available from the LED-controlled front control panel. Star Micronics offers a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Toshiba ExpressWriter 420. (Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 15 evaluations of 24-pin dot Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's ExpressWriter 420 can be a slow, noisy printer but offers excellent graphics images and the best IBM Proprinter or Epson LQ emulation of any of the evaluated printers. The ExpressWriter's list price is $499 and the average mail-order price is $305. Character composition is excellent in both the letter quality and draft fonts. The five resident fonts include Courier, Prestige Elite, Helvetica, high-speed draft and 15 characters-per-inch script. The printer is extremely slow and noisy when doing graphics but Toshiba's Hexa density, using the half dot as a basic graphics element, generates superb graphics images. The ExpressWriter is the only printer of the evaluated group that could not compete the three-page Times Roman font emulation test because of slowness. However, what it did complete was the best graphics mode capability of any of the printers tested. Stalking the right database manager. (Software Overview)(includes related articles on task-specific databases, menus versus Users who are planning to buy a database management system should consider several elements in their purchasing decision. Ease of use is an important consideration, since database management systems require very large time investments. Programs can offer ease of use in both setup and operation. Some programs use menu formats to save time, others take users through separate steps in defining a database structure and then creating the data entry screen. Users should also consider the flexibility of the system in its report features. Some systems offer flexibility but only if users are willing to do programming. Other programs take a visual approach that make it easy to create complex reports by offering bands into which users place different expressions and fields. Flexibility should also be considered in data entry/edit screens, strong data import and export features, procedural language and security. Extensive details are provided. With help, more is better: installation, help and support. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on data Users should consider a database management system's support services, tutorials, context-sensitive help and manuals in choosing a database package since many programs have their own unique jargon and approach to various tasks. The tutorial is the most important element. Users should make sure the tutorial thoroughly introduces the program, is well-organized and gives step-by-step instructions of developing and using the application. A good manual is also important and should list error messages, be well-written with clear examples and should contain a thorough index. Context-sensitive help, although not as important as a good manual, can often save time. Users should investigate whether phone support is free of charge and unlimited as well as the hours support is available and the number of technicians on the support staff. Users should also find out the amount of disk space the program requires and whether the program supports expanded or extended memory. Ease of use and control: command structure. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on data base management Users should keep several things in mind when evaluating a database management systems' design in regards to ease of use and control. Programs with menu-based commands allow for quicker learning but systems that offer programming give users more control. Some programs will offer both. Users should find out if the package uses menu-based commands for application generation that they can use as is or customize with programming. Some users will prefer mouse-driven programs, while others will opt for software using pull-down menus or Lotus-type menus. Users should check whether the program uses its own language or the dBASE programming language. Users needing to exchange entire applications will require dBASE compatibility. Users developing applications for other users will need a program that has the ability to compile applications into .EXE files or offers royalty-free runtime distribution package. Fielding data for better control: data entry. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on data base management Users should consider the way data base management systems handle data entry screens when selecting a particular package. Users should look for a variety of field types in a program. Software should have numeric and currency field types that allow users to define the number of decimal spaces as well as the currency symbol. Some users may also need memo fields. Other common field types include time, date and logical. Masks control the format and type of data in a field and users should investigate how the program allows for their design. Users will also find helpful programs that offer default values to enter commonly used data but also allow for a manual override of the default. The database management program should also allow users to enter data automatically from a lookup table. Finding the data you want: query, browse and sort. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on database management Users should examine querying, browsing and sorting in the selection of a database management system. Users should find out whether the software allows them to find matches for numeric fields that are not just equal or equal to a specified field but ones that can be greater than, greater than or equal to, less than or less than or equal to. They should also look for a program that allows the use of wild card characters to search fields for specified patterns. Programs should offer the ability to query the database in order to find records with particular values in specified fields. Users should be able to enter criteria in a form or table format as well as have the option to save the query. The program should also be able to combine search criteria with AND and OR. The software should have a sorting function as well that lets users view a particular set of records in any specified order. Seeing your data in print: report writing. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on data base management Users should consider report generation features when selecting a data base management system. Reports can be either columnar or freeform. Columnar reports, known also as tabular reports, have fields lined up in columns with each row containing one record. Free-form reports can refer to labels, form letters and invoices, with fields arranged in any way desired. Users should look for report features that allow for record selection based on specified values in specified fields. Users who want to generate labels need to make sure that the program matches their printer. The database program should also have good sorting features including the ability to sort by multiple fields. Users will want to look for programs that offer the ability to choose which fields to include in columns as well as features that add a report header and footer for each page. Some users may find it convenient to purchase a database program that lets them export data to the mail-merge format of their favorite word processing program. Adding up the extras: advanced features. (Applications Focus) (one of seven buyers guide articles on data base management systems) Users should consider several types of advanced features when selecting a database management system. Some users may want to consider programs that offer a graphical user interface (GUI) with pull-down and pop-up menus, mouse support, dialog boxes and multiple windows. Programs without GUIs will most likely offer pop-up command windows and these windows should automatically list available files and fields and appropriate commands. Many database programs now offer the ability for users to create data entry and report forms through painting them on-screen. Non-programmers will want to make sure the software has an application generation feature that lets them build entire applications without writing programming code. Even users who are working on a standalone system should make sure the program has local area network (LAN) support available for possible future requirements. Closeups of each program. (Product Profiles)(overview of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (Software Review) Twelve evaluations of sophisticated data base management systems focus on the programs' relational capabilities, performance features and the main factors of day-to-day use. Also included are descriptions of basic and advanced features as well as ease of use. Review judgments are based on comparisons of ease of use and features among the systems based on the experience of installing, learning and using each package. Other information offered includes summaries of system requirements, the number of maximum fields per record and maximum records per data base, report format options, and whether the package offers password protection and Structured Query Language (SQL) support. A screen shot for each package is also included to give users an idea of what the product looks like on-screen. Advanced Revelation 2.0. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Revelation Technologies Inc's Advanced Revelation 2.0 is an innovative, full-featured package that allows for 6,000 data files open simultaneously and no limit on the number of records per file. Advanced Revelation has a list price of $995 and a mail-order price of $492. The most significant feature of Advanced Revelation is that users do not, as in most data base management programs, have to define a field as having a particular length. Users can also define how many characters of the field will display on-screen. Field types include character, numeric, floating, real, currency, memo, logical, integer, fixed decimal, currency, date and time. The package offers both command-line and menu-mode options as well as both columnar and freeform report formats. SQL support includes manipulation language and data definition language. Advanced Revelation requires DOS 3.1, 640Kbytes of RAM and a hard drive. The program also offers its own programming language. Alpha Four 1.1. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Alpha Software Corp's Alpha Four 1.1 is a database management system aimed at non-programmers that offers a very easy-to-learn menu-based interface with no programming capability. Alpha Four 1.1 has a list price of $549 and a mail-order price of $291. Alpha Four offers a maximum of 10 open data files, with 128 fields per record and 2 billion records per database. Field types offered are limited to character, numeric, logical, memo, date and time. Menu features use a combination of full-screen menus, function keys and single-line point-and-shoot menus that display at the bottom of the screen. Users can create custom menus for applications by using keystroke macros to define each menu choice. The program uses the same file format as dBASE III and dBASE III Plus which allows users who grow out of Alpha Four to move up to any other package that reads dBASE III files. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, DOS 2.0 and a hard drive. Clarion Professional Developer 2.1. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) Clarion Software's Clarion Professional Developer 2.1 is a sophisticated, feature-rich package that is recommended only for experienced database users. Clarion Professional Developer 2.1 has a list price of $845 and a mail-order price of $445. The program has a menu-driven interface with no command line option and offers modules that automatically generate programming code for applications. Clarion users do not have to write programs to use the software, but must understand the steps programs go through to design a database application. Clarion allows up to 254 open data files, 64,000 fields per record and unlimited records per database. Users can also incorporate information from dBASE data files within Clarion reports. Clarion can produce EXE files as well as use routines written in C or Assembly language. There is no support for SQL. System requirements include DOS 2.1, 512Kbytes of RAM and a hard drive. dBASE IV 1.1. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Ashton-Tate Corp's dBASE IV 1.1 is substantially improved over previous versions and proves to be, for the most part, a worthy competitor. dBASE IV 1.1 has a list price of $795 and a mail-order price of $481. dBASE IV users can employ either the command-line or the new Control Center alternative menu-driven interface. It is possible for non-programmers to build a complete application with Control Center without having to do any programming. dBASE allows up to 10 open files, 255 fields per record and 1 billion records per database. Users can define default values and automatic entry from a lookup table. SQL support includes data manipulation language, data definition language and allowable outer joins. The package offers columnar and freeform report formats. dBASE IV 1.1 requires DOS 2.1 or later, 480Kbytes of RAM and a hard drive. dBMAN V 5.2. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) VeraSoft Corp's dBMAN V 5.2 is a dBASE III Plus-compatible database manager that offers a fast compiler but will be mostly of interest to only dBASE III-level programmers. dBMAN V 5.2 has a list and mail order price of $595. dBMAN V 5.2 enhances the dBASE III Plus language with 320 extended commands and functions. Users can create reports in any format by painting the format on the screen. Menus allow for users to build their own programs but the package is still geared heavily towards command line-based programming. The software compares favorably to dBASE III Plus but does not compete well with the newer dBASE IV. dBMAN V 5.2 offers up to 10 open files, 128 fields per record and 2 billion records per data base. Report formats include columnar and freeform. There is no SQL support. System requirements include DOS 2.1 and 520Kbytes of RAM. dBXL 1.3R. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) WordTech's dBXL 1.3R lacks many features that are quickly becoming standard in other data base management packages but can be recommended for users interested in learning the dBASE language. dBXL 1.3R has a list price of $599 and a mail-order price of $140. The program is mainly command-based. A pull-down menu feature called Intro teaches users command-line equivalents but offers only a limited selection of commands. Unlike many of the more sophisticated systems, dBXL does not offer tools that can generate applications without programming. Parameters include up to 10 files open at once, 512 fields per record and 1 billion records per database. SQL support includes data manipulation language and data definition language. Report formats include columnar and freeform. The package claims 100 percent compatibility with all dBASE III Plus files. Systems requirements include 430Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.0. FoxPro 1.02. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Fox Software Inc's FoxPro 1.02 offers a Windows-like interface along with dBASE command compatibility. The menu and windowing system, although easy to use, suffer from an underlying opaque logic. The list price for FoxPro 1.02 is $795 and the mail-order price is $435. Fox Software claims that FoxPro 1.02 can run applications up to eight times faster than dBASE IV and 16 times faster than dBASE III Plus. The program allows for 25 open data files, 255 fields per record and 1 billion records per database. Some of the best features of the program, including automatic entry from a lookup table, can be used only through programming. Report formats include columnar and freeform. The package offers no support for SQL. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM, DOS 2.1 and a hard drive. Data types include character, numeric, floating, memo, logical, fixed decimal, date and integer. Paradox 3.5. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's Paradox 3.5 is a powerful, intelligently-designed package that is one of the better choices among current sophisticated database management systems. Paradox 3.5 has a list price of $795 and a mail-order price of $457. Paradox's menu system is easy to learn since it is designed as an integral part of the program. The program offers a menu-driven application generator that allows users to develop customized applications as well as its own Paradox Application Language (PAL). The software allows an unlimited number of open files, a maximum of 255 fields per record and up to 2 billion records per database. Users can define default values for data entry, verify entries in a lookup table and also automatically enter values from a lookup table. Users cannot, however, automatically increment fields. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM, DOS 2.1 and a hard drive. The package offers no SQL support. PowerBase 2.3. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Compuware Corp's PowerBase 2.3 is one of the easiest packages to learn of the 12 evaluated data base management systems and one of the few that offers only a menu-based interface. PowerBase 2.3 has both a list and mail-order price of $345. The program lets users create a data file, define fields and design a data entry form all in one step. Reporting capabilities are rather limited and lack a free-form report feature. However, users have the capability of exporting data to many popular mail-merge data formats. The program has no way to let users define an application menu to replace the standard program menus. This can be a problem for users developing applications for less sophisticated users, although the program is recommended for users building applications for personal use on a standalone system. System requirements include 384Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.1. Maximum open data files are four, with up to 64 fields per record and 65,534 maximum records per database. Ramis/PC 3.01. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) On-line Software Intl's Ramis/PC 3.0.1 is a program that has more features than many users will need but is easier to use than some packages that are less powerful. Ramis/PC 3.0.1 has both a list and mail-order price of $595. The package is a microcomputer version of the company's fourth-generation programming language-based mainframe package. The Ramis language is available but users can create and manage databases easily without the need for programming. Ramis lets up to 12 files be open at once, with up to 255 fields per record and 666 million records per database. Users can enter data with a lookup table as well as define defaults and automatically increment fields. Ramis lacks a true free-form report generator but does offer an extensive range of export options, including export to spreadsheets and graphics programs. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM, DOS 3.1 and a hard drive. R:Base 3.1. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Microrim's R:Base 3.1 is one of the better relational database management system packages available and could easily take the place of dBASE as a database standard. R:Base 3.1 has a list price of $795 and a mail-order price of $466. The package offers both menu and command-line interfaces as well as an applications generator that allows users to produce applications without programming. R:Base's menu system offers mouse support, pop-up boxes and a point-and-click command strategy. The program also automatically adds choices to the menu. R:Base has its own sophisticated programming language but can also read and write dBASE files directly. The package allows for up to 80 open data files at a time, with 400 fields per record and 2 billion records per database. Other features include incremental fields, automatic data entry from lookup tables and default values. System requirements include 470Kbytes of of RAM, DOS 3.1 and a hard drive. Smartware II 1.2. (Product Profiles) (Software Review) (one of 12 evaluations of data base management systems) (evaluation) Informix Software's Smartware II 1.2 is a database program that can stand well on its own, but is actually part of an integrated package that includes modules for word processing, spreadsheets and communications. Smartware II 1.2 has a list price of $699 and a mail-order price of $425. The program allows for a maximum of 255 open data files, 1,000 fields per record and 2 billion records per database. A data send command lets users transfer data to the package's other modules. Data types include character, numeric, floating, real, currency, memo, logical and fixed. Users can enter data automatically from a lookup table, automatically increment fields and define default values. Users who are not committed to other software may want to consider Smartware II 1.2 as an integrated package and not just as a database management system. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, DOS 2.1 and a hard drive. Fancy fonts. (Hands-On) (tutorial) Antonoff, Michael. Users who want to add more font capability to their laser printers can buy font add-in's in the form of a software package or a hard cartridge that plugs into a port in the printer. Users who mainly use spreadsheet and word processing software can enhance printing with a font cartridge. Font cartridges are also recommended for network usage since they are available to any microcomputer sending a print job over the network. Users doing desktop publishing will find that soft fonts will be more flexible and will offer more choices of fonts. They are also less expensive than cartridges. Soft fonts, however, consume hard drive space and printer memory and are slower than cartridge fonts since they must be moved to the printer before the document can print. Most cartridges have bitmapped fonts that require no processing time. Bitmapped fonts, however, are not as versatile as scalable fonts. Extensive details are presented. Standards: the good, the bad and the ugly. (Richard Landry) (column) The microcomputer industry is constantly attempting to standardize new technologies; standards such as the IBM PC contributed to the rapid evolution of the microcomputer itself. Standards nevertheless are often of more benefit to vendors than users. Startup Go Corp is attempting to capture the hand-held computer market with its new PenPoint pen-based operating system, while the entrenched Novell Inc is offering an update of its aging NetWare network operating system to fend off growing competition. Microsoft is pushing pen-based enhancements to its Windows environment over PenPoint while offering its LAN Manager as a next-generation client/server networking platform. Vendors want software to be compatible across multiple operating environments and to offer enhanced network functionality, but users want solid products that work well. Few of the new software products introduced in 1991 are likely to be standard bearers. Consumer watch. (buying computers by mail order) Furger, Roberta. Users planning to buy computers by mail order should first research the financial health of a firm they intend to do business with. The recession is hitting all industries, and a company that is having difficulties may fail to ship orders or answer customer calls. Signs of trouble include sudden requirements for cash payments, abrupt changes in advertising practices and disconnected toll-free numbers. The safest companies to deal with are those that have been in business for at least 18 months. Buyers should pay only by credit card because credit card companies offer protection against products that are not received or arrive damaged. Another recommendation is to buy only from companies offering a 30-day money-back guarantee. All conversations with the company should be documented in detail. Windows leaving rivals in the dust: mainstay packages will lift it into higher orbit. Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) is an emerging standard and is outselling competing graphical environments by a large margin, but many users have yet to adopt the new interface because it requires powerful hardware and because popular applications have not yet been rewritten for it. Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3, WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect, and many other programs are not yet available in Windows versions, forcing these vendors to play 'catch up' as Windows-specific applications grow in sales. Microsoft advertises that Windows will run on an 80286-based machine with 1Mbyte of RAM, but many experts say that a 25 MHz 80386 with a Super VGA display is necessary for acceptable performance. A survey nevertheless indicates that one third of PC World readers already use Windows and another third say they are likely to buy it when Windows versions of 1-2-3 and other popular programs hit the market. Whereto, high resolution? XGA, TIGA, CEG compete for backers. (graphics standards) Several standards now compete in the high-resolution graphics hardware market. The 640-x-480-pixel resolution of standard VGA is inadequate for Microsoft Windows and many high-end applications; users can obtain 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution with IBM's Extended Graphics Array (XGA), Texas Instruments' Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA) or Edsun Laboratories' Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG). IBM is positioning XGA as a successor to VGA, but industry analysts say that XGA does not offer the price/performance ratio of competing products. Entry-level TIGA boards are now available for less than $500. XGA may nevertheless become a standard because every adapter IBM has placed on a motherboard has done so; the computer giant is publishing XGA design specifications, and board makers are working on compatible products. CEG is an inexpensive chip that removes 'jaggies' from lines and fonts and can produce 790,000 colors on a standard VGA screen. Lack of software support is the main problem for all new graphics options; cost is another barrier, partly because high resolutions call for larger monitors. Workstations vie for desktop sales. (microcomputer makers developing SPARCstation clones) The distinction between microcomputers and workstations is likely to blur further in 1991 as microcomputer vendors introduce clones of Sun Microsystems Inc's low-cost SPARCstation reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) machines. The Sun SPARCstation IPC costs $7,995 with a 17-inch monochrome monitor, 8Mbytes of RAM and a 207Mbyte hard drive; it is priced below some high-end microcomputers, although today's 80486-based machines can match workstations in raw performance. UNIX workstations nevertheless remain largely confined to the technical market, where users require built-in multitasking, multiuser and networking capabilities; microcomputer users do not want to give up their installed base of DOS applications. Workstation vendors are attempting to break into the microcomputer retail channel in order to attract non-technical users. Document managers tackle networks. (document management systems) Henricks, Mark. Networked document management systems are a new category of software making a major impact in many large corporations. A document manager lets users search for particular information among thousands of documents; some products can transparently track files across multiple network servers and support multiple applications. Users must fill out detailed profiles to standardize working files, but the better programs automate most of this task. Harris and Paulson's reQuest and PerfectSolution's PerfectSolution 2.0 are among the more powerful document managers available. Visual tools aid Windows program developers. (programming tools for Microsoft Windows graphical interface) Many software-development applications are now available that let Microsoft Windows users design their own applications, but all require significant programming skills. Asymetrix' ToolBook is a $395 package that resembles Apple's HyperCard and includes a 'script' language for creating database and other interactive applications. Many users use ToolBook to create front ends for training and database management programs. Spinnaker Software's Plus for the PC runs n both PCs and Macintoshes. Most Windows users nevertheless stick with off-the-shelf utilities and applications. PenPoint puts it in writing. Landry, Richard. Go Corp introduces PenPoint, a new pen-based operating system that defines a new way of interacting with notebook computers. Users run the machine with a pen instead of a keyboard. IBM and several major software vendors, such as Borland, Lotus and WordPerfect, have already announced support for the platform. PenPoint runs on 80386 processors and requires about 3.5Mbytes of RAM. Its object-oriented design lets it run on a system with much less disk storage than conventional systems. Special handwriting recognition algorithms let PenPoint understand hand-printed text, and user 'gestures' perform such commands as editing and deleting. Sidekick scheduling wises up. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc. Sidekick 2.0 desktop organizer) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's $99.95 Sidekick 2.0 personal information management program offers more powerful scheduling features than previous versions. Users can load two daily logs on-screen and 'merge' appointments to resolve schedule conflicts and convert appointment files to the format used by hand-held organizers such as the Sharp Wizard. Sidekick 2.0 also offers improved notepad, address book, calculator and communications modules, but it does not have the file manager and outliner included in Sidekick Plus, which Borland will continue to sell. The program features a new interface with pull-down menus; users can flip between different modules via a window manager. Borland has built better network support based on its Paradox data base engine into Sidekick 2.0 . All files are stored in Paradox format and can be directly accessed through Paradox. 33-MHz 486s: ultimate PC power. (Hardware Review) (four high-end 80486-based microcomputers)(includes related articles on choosing Four high-end microcomputers based on the 33 MHz 80486 microprocessor are reviewed. An 80486 machine excels at applications requiring math coprocessors because the 486 integrates coprocessor capabilities; the 486 is well suited to CAD and complex spreadsheet applications with extensive mathematical functions. ALR's $15,473 PowerCache 33/4e is well constructed and has a large, expandable tower case but is somewhat slow on CAD benchmarks. Compaq's $16,499 Deskpro 486/33L is compact and extremely fast but very expensive; it is nevertheless rated a Best Buy because its price/performance ratio is exceptional. Compaq offers optional drive-array technology for faster access and better multiuser data integrity. Dell Computer's $9,799 System 433E offers powerful performance as a desktop workstation but is not expandable enough for high-end server applications; it can hold only 16Mbytes of RAM. Dell is known for its excellent service and support. Everex Systems' $10,987 Step 486/33 is also low priced and well supported, but does not use the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus and suffers from limited expandability. Pro vs. con: Are you ready for a 486? (whether or not to buy a 486 microcomputer system) Experts differ in opinion on whether users should upgrade to the new 80486 processor now or wait until prices drop. 'Boosters' argue that users should buy more power than they currently need to allow for future processing demands. Faster processing can make a user's business more competitive, and new applications such as Structured Query Language data base servers need powerful CPUs. Other observers say the 486 is too expensive for the desktop and overrated as a file server because disk speed is more important than CPU speed in server applications. Many buyers are waiting for the 486 to drop in price and become stable, noting that those who invest in 'bleeding edge' technology are effectively paying to be beta testers. Can you do better than NetWare? (Software Review) (comparison of four network operating systems)(includes related article on making Four network operating systems are reviewed and compared: Novell Inc's Advanced NetWare SFT and NetWare 386 3.1, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager 2.0, and Banyan Systems' VINES. Reliability is the most important consideration when purchasing a server-based network operating system (NOS); NetWare 386 is the most reliable of the four programs. LAN Manager uses 158Kbytes RAM and 4Mbytes of disk space on each workstation; there is not enough memory to run some applications, and serious bugs prevent some programs from working with the current version. Only OS/2 workstations can share resources, and installation is extremely difficult. LAN Manager 2.0 is a poor value despite Microsoft's flexible pricing policy. NetWare 386 3.1 is rated a Best Buy. It is very easy to install and supports large amounts of RAM and disk space. Advanced NetWare SFT is still an excellent choice for small networks, but it is unreliable on large networks because of its poor memory management. VINES 4.0 is easy to manage and has tools for multiple servers and WAN links but is very slow. A serious disadvantage is the fact that backup and restore operations must be run from the server. Windows tames the wild mainframe. (Microsoft Windows and terminal emulation) A wide variety of terminal emulation packages running under the Microsoft Windows graphical interface are available. Digital Communications Associates' IRMA product line dates back to 1987; Wall Data's Rumba was the first Windows terminal emulation program to handle multiple mainframe sessions. These packages emulate IBM 3270 terminals and support all necessary connectivity parameters and application interfaces and take advantage of Windows' data sharing capabilities. Hot links exploiting Dynamic Data Exchange connections let users retrieve mainframe documents and dynamically link them to data in Windows applications. Macro facilities or script languages can drive DDE interfaces to such applications as the IBM Professional Office System. Object-oriented programming tools such as Asymetrix' ToolBook let users create custom Windows front ends to mainframe programs. Early adopters of Windows terminal emulation include Seattle First National Bank and General Electric Power Generation Services. Fax boards and fax gateways. (Buyers' Guide) (buyers guide) Lusty, Susan. A guide to facsimile boards and gateways is presented. Microcomputer-based fax systems are more convenient than stand-alone fax machines and provide better text and graphics quality. Users can send files directly from a computer without scanning them first. Computer fax systems are nevertheless more challenging to master than stand-alone machines, requiring a special board and software for each user as well as either a dedicated phone line or fax-line switch. Fax gateways are software programs that let local area network users send and receive faxes via their workstations. Heavy fax users need boards that run efficiently in the background. Good fax boards can convert between a variety of file formats. Considerations in choosing a fax gateway include capacity, compatibility and routing capabilities. A table of product features is included. Five ways networks pay off. (local area networks)(includes related articles on common networking mistakes, exploring LAN connections) Five key benefits of installing local area networks (LANs) are discussed, and case studies showing how LAN use gives companies competitive advantage are presented. LANs can be used to automate routine tasks; law firm Sutherland Asbill and Brennan in Washington, DC, dedicates one server on its 360-node network to running an application that generates airbills for its heavy express mail deliveries. Group data analysis is another important advantage associated with LAN use. Company/West, a fund raising firm, has a 45-workstation NetWare LAN which it uses to track the success of client mailings. LANs help companies stay close to their customers. Electronic mail helps Pine Bluff Warehouse Company communicate with both the producers and purchasers of the products it stocks. A fourth LAN benefit is enterprisewide access to data. The Boeing Company's Aerospace and Electronics Division in Seattle links DEC VAX, UNIX and DOS platforms on the same Ethernet LAN running NetWare. Perfect mail merges for mass marketing. (using mail merge feature in WordPerfect 5.1) (tutorial) A guide to using the mail-merge features in the WordPerfect 5.1 word processor for mass marketing applications is presented. Mail merge lets users make form letters feel personal by tailoring letters to each customer's individual situation. The user writes a letter template and substitutes place-holding field markets for such specific information as name and address. A data file composed of records for each customer is used to fill the marked fields; the word processor combines the letter template and the data-file data. WordPerfect calls the data file a 'secondary file.' Specific instructions are given. Words into print: tips for getting the most out of your word processor. (generating indexes, tables of contents in Word, A guide to generating indexes and tables of contents (TOCs) in popular word processing software programs is presented, along with specific tips for index building in WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. Creating a TOC in WordPerfect is a four-step process that consists of marking entries with a block command, typing an indentation level, creating a blank page for the TOC and generating the TOC itself with a specific command. Generating an index is a fairly similar process; the user marks an entry, notes indentations, defines the index page and generates the index. Spreadsheets (A..Z). (includes related articles on macros in Microsoft Excel, tip for using Desqview) (tutorial) Tips and techniques for producing sophisticated graphs in the Lotus 1-2-3 2.x spreadsheet are presented. Data values on a bar chart can be used to create a wide variety of special effects. Multiple equals signs can be used as data labels to form a line in a chart; other data labels act as notes at the upper left and lower right corners of a graph. The user needs to create a dummy range to position the notes. Carefully labeled graphs are an effective way of summarizing complex quantitative messages for an audience of busy executives. Data basics. (band-oriented report writers)(includes related articles on shortcuts in Paradox, dBASE) (tutorial) A guide to using band-oriented report writers to achieve flexible report layouts is presented. dBASE IV, FoxPro, Paradox and other high-end databases all feature band-oriented reporting, which lets users build multiline detail reports without programming. The usual five bands include a title, detail lines, a footer and summary lines. Each is labeled at the left of the screen; the default blank report form usually offers only one detail line, but users can add more lines. Tips for adding lines in dBASE IV are presented, along with information about how to add text and boxes in dBASE IV reports. The user selects a box style from the Layout menu, places the cursor at the upper left corner of the box and presses Enter; moving the cursor to the lower right corner and pressing Enter again defines the box area. Adjusting or moving the box is very easy. dBASE IV also supports the use of calculated fields in reports. The art of persuasion. (desktop publishing)(includes related articles on inserting captions, third-party utility for editing A guide to creating and editing illustration captions with the popular PageMaker and Ventura Publisher desktop publishing programs is presented. Many desktop publishers wait until the last minute to create captions, which should be integrated into the initial design of a document. A good caption attracts attention as well as describing the picture it accompanies. Every picture with the exception of lead art should have a caption. Captions should appear below the picture in technical manuals and business reports; less formal documents can vary caption placement according to the size and shape of the illustration. They should be set in a slightly smaller point size than body text and in a contrasting typeface. Captions are easily imported into Ventura Publisher and PageMaker documents. The information edge. (using on-line resources)(includes related articles on shortcuts in Procomm communications software, Robnor Many on-line resources are available that can take the place of vast amounts of paper while providing encyclopedic coverage of world events. The Vu/Text data base delivers the full text of 69 US newspapers, five wire services and many Canadian and European business journals. Vu/Text costs approximately $160 per hour of use; its Wall Street Transcript weekly provides brokerage reports and 'roundtables' with securities analysts for $250 to $300 per hour. The service offers other extra-cost databases, including 'Profile' for European periodicals and 'QL' for Canadian periodicals. Vu/Text news does not provide up-to-the-minute news, but it is suited for lawyers, public relations consultants, business researchers and media professionals. Developer's toolbox: no-stall Install. (Software Review) (Knowledge Dynamics Corp. Install Professional software Knowledge Dynamics corp's $399.95 Install Professional is a software installation toolkit that can compress files, manage subdirectories and optionally modify system configuration files. Install Professional bundles two programs, Install and Distribution Disk Builder (ddb). The ddb program automates installation script creation; the user selects files and directories, and ddb compresses them and copies the files to floppy disks. AN ASCII script directs the installation process on end users' machines. ddb can generate stock commands or run scripts designed by the programmer from scratch. Install can display a copyright banner on start-up and comes with C source code. PageMaker pushes PC publishing limits. (Software Review) (Aldus' PageMaker 4.0) (evaluation) Aldus Corp's $795 PageMaker 4.0 is a capable, comprehensive desktop publishing package that offers considerable enhancements over previous versions. Enhanced features make PageMaker 4.0 a good package for long, complex documents. New features include the Story Editor, a word processor that allows last-minute changes as the document is laid out. Vastly improved typographic control is also a big plus; fonts can now be sized in tenth-of-a-point increments, and placed text can now be rotated in 90-degree increments. Improved graphics capabilities include the ability to anchor in-line graphics and better color features. The program will run on an Intel-80286-based machine with 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), but a 386-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of RAM is recommended. GO points the way toward pen-based-computing future. (GO Corp's PenPoint operating system) (product announcement) The trend towards pen-based computing received a major boost in Jan 1991 with the release of GO Corp's PenPoint operating system. The announcement was supported by around 50 developers who made public their intentions to develop hardware and software products for PenPoint. Pen-based computers use a stylus to write directly onto the surface of a flat liquid crystal display screen. The technology recognizes hand printing and specific gestures that designate data and commands, such as circling and crossing out. Among those who intend to develop pen-based computers are GRiD Systems and IBM. The first pen-based computers are likely to be notepad-sized machines with an eight-by-ten-inch screen. Most development activity is likely to occur in the software arena. Lotus Development Corp, Borland International Inc and WordPerfect have already pledged support for PenPoint. Wedded bliss: sharing a printer with Mr. and Mrs. Bridgeport. (Extended Systems BridgePort printer sharing device) (column) Connecting an Apple Macintosh and an IBM-compatible machine to a PostScript laser printer via a local area network can be a problem if the printer does not support AppleTalk. Extended Systems' BridgePort bridge device is useful in such situations, letting users connect a Mac via a serial port while an IBM-compatible is connected via a parallel port. The $495 bridge contains one serial, one parallel, and one AppleTalk input, and one serial and one parallel output. Several new groupware applications have been released. A product called Beyond Mail from Beyond Inc filters electronic mail according to pre-selected and defined rules of selection, increasing productivity and efficiency. ObjectVision from Borland International Inc is a program development tool that runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and allows the gathering, storing, and manipulating of data. Great color hand scanner marred by underpowered software. (Hardware Review) (Diamond Flower's Color Handy Scanner CHS-4000) Diamond Flower Electric Instrument's $699 Color Handy Scanner CHS-4000 is an excellent hand-held scanning device for capturing color images to enhance documents and presentations. It offers 16-bit resolution, a scan width of 4.1 inches and 256 colors at a resolution of 200 dots per inch. The unit has a dual-axle scan head that facilitates smooth, accurate passes over the image. The CHS-400 captures gray-scale images at 200 dpi for 64 shades of gray, and black-and-white line art at 400 dpi. Unfortunately, the accompanying software falls short in performance when sophisticated color scanning applications are used because it lacks image-processing power. The scan control and image enhancement software works well for small, basic color images that do not require refining but is not optimized for color scanning. CAD for all reasons: one of these drafting packages is right for you. (Autodesk's computer-aided design software) (Software Review) Autodesk Inc's $3,500 AutoCAD 11 is an excellent computer-aided design package that includes 79 new features. The most significant addition is a collection of features called the Advanced Modeling Extension (AME), which includes solid-modeling capabilities. Solid models involve three-dimensional drawings in which solid forms are represented by combined shapes. The basic AME feature includes all commands required to create solid models. There is also a $495 complete Advanced Modeling Extensions set which features additional commands for the creation of more complex and composite shapes. AutoCAD 11 requires an Intel 80386 microprocessor accompanied by a math coprocessor. A 60Mbyte hard drive and 2Mbytes of RAM are recommended. The program is a comprehensive CAD tool that will satisfy most professional users. Drafix CAD draws on Windows to aid occasional drafters. (Foresight Resources' Drafix Windows CAD 1.1 computer-aided design software) Foresight Resources' $695 Drafix Windows CAD 1.1 is an excellent computer-aided design and drafting package for non-professional users. The software offers considerable ease of use because it incorporates the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The program differs from professional CAD packages in that it lacks production drafting shortcuts, does not have three-dimensional modeling and does not support customized digitizing pad menus, but occasional users will not require these high-end features. Drafix Windows CAD does offer a great number of complete and flexible drawing and editing tools. For example, repetitive drawing tasks can be automated and the task's name added to pull-down menus using the built-in programming language. Multiple viewports allow users to view a drawing from four different angles. An Intel 80386SX machine with a 40Mbyte hard drive is recommended. The handwriting is on the wall for pen-based computers. (column) Dickinson, John. Pen-based computing technology will certainly assist those who are unfamiliar with computers and those who seek to use small hand-held computers like notepads, but the technology has a long way to go before either of these visions can be realized. New pen-based machines under development at such companies as GO Corp and GRiD Systems require the user to print the letters carefully on a screen in non-joined writing and do not always recognize what has been written. Current character recognition software can not keep up with the writer. Two areas where pen-based computing could gain popular support are in the form-filling application and pointing device markets. Forms usually require small amounts of data placed in a specific place on the page, and pointing-intensive tasks such as document editing could benefit from the new technology. Three cheers for Bravo 486/25: small case, smart design, low price. (Hardware Review) (AST Research) (evaluation) AST Research's $5,420 Bravo 486/25 microcomputer includes a 25-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor, two megabytes of RAM , built-in Super VGA video, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, an 80Mbyte hard drive and a color VGA monitor. The Bravo comes with a mid-sized case that contains two front-accessible drive bays and two internal bays. The system board integrates the disk and video controllers, a parallel port, two serial ports and a PS/2 mouse port, leaving all five 16-bit expansion slots free. Four single in-line memory module sockets sit in front of the slots and can expand RAM to 16Mbytes. Two problems with the Bravo 486/25 are the fact that it cannot be upgraded to a faster processor and its lack of support for Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA). Psion notebook is long on innovation, short on capability. (Hardware Review) (MC600 notebook computer) (evaluation) Psion's $2,595 MC600 notebook computer makes pioneering use of flash memory, but remains overpriced and underpowered. The price includes an 8-MHz 80C86 CPU, 640Kbytes of RAM, a nonbacklit CGA display, a 1Mbyte flash card, a 1Mbyte RAM disk and LapLink communication software in flash memory. It is lightweight, weighing only 5.3 pounds including batteries, and offers 20 hours of battery life on eight AA alkaline batteries. The machine comes with four slots for flash cards. Additional 1Mbyte cards cost $600 each, and 512Kbyte cards cost $400. Psion's proprietary six-pin flash memory design is slow, although the company claims it is more reliable than other manufacturers' products in a mobile environment. The capacity of the flash cards is disappointing, and the MC600's lack of support for expanded memory is a serious limitation. Flash memory: is it a flash of genius or a flash in the pan? Smith, Gina. Flash memory cards are already being used in new laptop computers, reducing the need for heavy hard disks and increasing battery life considerably. Although the maximum memory capacity for a flash card is currently 4Mbytes, many analysts believe that cards will be able to hold as much as 64Mbytes by 1995. Flash memory cards have many advantages over other forms of storage media. They are more reliable because they are solid-state devices with no moving parts, and their 250-nanosecond average access time gives them a considerable speed advantage over hard disks. The main problem for flash technology is high production costs. Although the price of flash cards is likely to decrease slowly over the next few years, it is unlikely to become comparable to that of hard disks until the mid-1990s. The PC superstore phenomenon: Does bigger mean better? (Dvorak vs. Seymour) (column) Some analysts believe that the current trend towards computer superstores represents a major shift in computer retailing styles. The new stores are seen as a welcome alternative to the traditional mail-order or nearly-full-list-price storefront retailers that have dominated the industry for so long. Although some of the stores have been plagued by out-of-stock problems with popular items, analysts believe they will succeed because of low prices and huge in-house stock inventories. The rise of superstores has made mail-order companies more aggressive as they promote overnight delivery and large inventories. Some analysts believe there is a danger of overexpansion that could result in cash-flow problems as unused stock lies idle on superstore shelves. Award-winning Corel Draw stays on top with raft of new features. (Software Review) (Corel Systems' Corel Draw 2.0) (evaluation) Corel System's $695 Corel Draw 2.0 is a high-end illustration package that offers many enhancements over the previous version. Although the program uses 9Mbytes of hard disk space, it offers so many features and enhancements that it can now be used to create such layouts as signs, fliers, advertisements, and simple brochures without the help of desktop publishing software. Among the new features is a special effects menu that includes an Envelope feature for the movement of blocks of text, an Extrude feature that creates three-dimensional blocks and a Blend effect that transforms one text block or object into another. Other new features allow users to perform simple layout and design functions. 286 notebook newcomer mixes solid features with a low price. (Hardware Review) (Ogivar Technologies' Internote 286) Ogivar Technologies' $2,999 Internote 286 notebook computer comes with a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a backlit LCD VGA display, a 20Mbyte hard drive and 1Mbyte of RAM. RAM can be expanded to 5Mbytes, but this has to be done at the factory. An external VGA connector and standard parallel and serial ports are located on the back panel, and an internal 2,400 bits-per-second modem is optional. The battery pack lasts two hours and can be recharged in one hour. There are a number of power-saving features that automatically engage after a specified amount of time has elapsed between keystrokes. The Internote 286 weighs seven pounds and measures 12 by 10 by 2 inches. It is a solid notebook computer that offers a full set of features at a reasonable price. Software publishers eye solutions to environmental woes. Smith, Gina. Many software publishers are now encouraging the use of recyclable packaging in response to environmental concerns. A number of companies, including software publisher Xtree, have stopped using non-biodegradable styrofoam packing peanuts when shipping products. Xtree uses recycled and recyclable materials for almost all of its packing, packaging and documentation. Often a company will adopt environmental policies in response to local environmental problems and customer pressure. PC Connection, Magee Enterprises and Datastorm are among the firms moving to environmentally friendly packaging. There's a great case to be made for building better cases. (column) There are a number of ways that the cases of computers and peripherals can be used to provide instructions concerning the contents. The bottom of many laptop computers is usually plain plastic, which can be imprinted with the most commonly used commands to negate the need for an instruction manual every time the user forgets an action. Cases that crack are a major problem among computer manufacturers, as is the tendency for doors covering ports to drop off. One way to stop this is for manufacturers to attach hinges to all port covers. Another good idea is to place a diagram inside the cover of a case containing details of what is where on the machine and other useful data such as diagnostic light codes. Act: a PIM that really works! (personal information manager) (Software Review) (Contact Software's Act 2.0) (evaluation) Contact Software's $395 Act 2.0 is a personal information management system that offers many improvements over the previous version. Act 2.0 now contains pull-down menus, improved contact handling, mouse support and better printer support. The main part of Act 2.0 is the contact screen, which includes fields for the contact's name, address and phone number as well as fields for meetings scheduled, to-do activities, calls scheduled and contact history. The combination query and report-writing feature is easy to use. A full-featured word processor has been added to the package; users need no longer exit Act to format text or spell-check. The new editor includes such functions as cut-and-paste, search-and-replace, spell-checking, and character formatting. Act 2.0 makes available an open-ended group of user-defined fields, supports multiple import formats and has a powerful report language. The Complete Flatbed Scanner is best value of gray-scale crowd. (Hardware Review) (The Complete PC) (evaluation) The Complete PC Inc's $1,599 The Complete Flatbed Scanner is a desktop scanning device that comes bundled with Astral Development's Picture Publisher image-editing software. The Flatbed Scanner is a 256-gray-scale scanner that is easy to set up. Picture Publisher, which runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0, offers a multitude of features. The scanner offers 300-dots-per-inch resolution, although Picture Publisher scans at 150 dpi to print to a laser printer. Captured images can also be output to higher-resolution 1,200- or 1,400-dpi typesetters. An optional sheet feeder is available at $499. The Complete Flatbed Scanner offers excellent reproduction of high-quality images and is probably best suited to those who need a gray-scale scanner for such tasks as positioning or sizing art or logos. File Organizer excels where Windows' File Manager falls short. (Software Review) (from Publishing Technologies) (evaluation) Publishing Technologies' $199.95 File Organizer 3.0 is a file management package that is a good alternative to Microsoft Windows 3.0's File Manager. The package can launch files and configure menus, but it is actually a comprehensive tool for restructuring and gathering information. A number of utilities are bundled with File Organizer. Desktop Manager saves screen layouts to a file. Text Editor is similar to Windows' Notepad in that it contains options to emulate some of the commands in WordPerfect, Word for Windows and Wordstar. Icon Manager offers an option that saves RAM and hard disk space by converting standard Windows icons into a proprietary file format. File Organizer 3.0 provides sensible, graphically-based file management procedures, multitasking capabilities and user-configurable screens. Qume's CrystalPrint Express puts network printing on fast track. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Qume's $5,595 CrystalPrint Express is a laser printer aimed at small- to medium-sized network environments. The product offers 3Mbytes of RAM upgradeable to 8Mbytes, a Weitek reduced-instruction-set computer-based processor, a 500-sheet paper capacity and a print speed of 12 pages-per-minute. The CrystalPrint Express also comes with a PostScript clone and 39 fonts, 31 of which are accessible in HP LaserJet Series II emulation. The printer comes with serial, parallel and AppleTalk connectors. It is quite expensive but offers considerable value for the money, although the absence of an SCSI port is a major omission. Software saleswire. (top selling software packages) Software sales statistics for Jan 1991 indicate that Windows-specific and Windows-compliant programs are dominating the market. Six of the ten best-selling business applications are available in Windows versions. Sales of Windows 3.0 itself have slowed, indicating to analysts that the initial rush to buy the product has tailed off and that users are now seeking complimentary applications. Tax preparation software packages have understandably surged and will probably continue to sell well through April. A table of top-selling programs is included. Take your 386 to the max. (Intel 80386-based microcomputers) White, Ron. Enhancing a microcomputer to take advantage of the Intel 80386's speed involves more than simply upgrading the microprocessor. The 386 chip is so far advanced over previous 8088 and 80286 technologies that adding it to a system based on the earlier microprocessors can actually hinder performance. To take advantage of the 386's potential, additional hardware and software enhancements are needed. Adding a multitasking environment such as Microsoft Windows 3.0 or Desqview 386 allows users to run applications simultaneously. Additional RAM over 1Mbyte allows for disk caches and RAM drives and can also be used for expanded memory. Memory management software and DOS extenders also improve memory performance. Using a video board with a graphics coprocessor will speed graphics performance, as will the addition of a math coprocessor. Buy your next PC at a brewery. (includes related articles on an inside look at a homebrew microcomputer and a sample of typical The ready availability and low-cost of many microcomputer components has given rise to a new industry of IBM-compatible computer system clone-makers. It is now possible to order custom configurations at a cost lower than most retail outlets and mail-order companies. An important aspect of ordering a custom configuration is the need to check the components before taking possession of the machine. It is also important to ask the right questions of a systems clone-maker, to check the makes of the components being used and to determine various configuration prices so that a comparison can be made between vendors. It is also important to verify the history of the vendor; one way to do this is to ask for references from satisfied customers. Easy envelope printing: word processing macros. (includes related articles on a printer dedicated to labels and cartridges that save Getting a laser printer to print the name and address on an envelope is often the most difficult part of preparing and sending a letter or report. It is possible to print an address on an envelope from a microcomputer using macros. Macros that allow 10 popular word processing packages to print addresses onto envelopes are presented. The word processing packages catered to are Ami Professional, WordPerfect 5.1, Word for Windows 1.1, Microsoft Word 5.0 and 5.5, Professional Write 2.2, XyWrite III Plus, MultiMate 4.0, DisplayWrite 5, and WordStar 6.0. Steps covered include setting up the envelope, creating the macro, and printing with the macro. Tame your taxes. (tax preparation software) (Software Review) (Meca Software's Andrew Tobias' TaxCut, DacEasy Inc's Sylvia Meca Software's $89.95 TaxCut, DacEasy Inc's $79.99 Sylvia Porter's RapidTax, ChipSoft's $75 TurboTax Personal, and Parsons Technology's $49 Personal Tax Preparer, are all personal income tax preparation software packages. TaxCut is an excellent all-around package that offers considerable on-line help and expert advice. One of its best features is its Shoebox function which allows for the random input of tax information while the program itself decides where to put it. RapidTax offers some similar features and also includes regional state form editions at $49.95 each. TurboTax Personal assists in the collection of information to be used by a professional accountant. Personal Tax Preparer is a fine package that offers a cut-and-paste feature for transferring data from Parsons' MoneyCounts accounting/checkbook program. Custom scripts end download chaos. (automating the capturing of archive files) (Help) (tutorial) Downloading archived files from bulletin boards can rapidly clutter a hard disk with unrecognizable programs. Each archived file can include a dozen other files to simplify the download and reduce on-line time; a utility is then used to uncompress the files. If the user is not careful about naming these downloaded files, a collection of unrelated, unrecognizable files could be the result. A communications scripting language can be used to create a separate subdirectory for each archive before decompressing it. Detailed are two programs, GET.XTS and GETDIR.XTS, written in Crosstalk Mk.4's CASL script language that automate and organize downloads. Use QUERY.COM to create interactive batch files. (Toolkit) (tutorial) One major problem with DOS's batch language is that it is not possible to ask a question, record an answer, and respond accordingly. A program called QUERY.COM that will ask a question and store the answer in the environment, a section of RAM reserved for DOS, is presented. QUERY.COM is especially useful for creating batch files for novice users. Once QUERY.COM appears in the current directory, the file should be moved to a subdirectory in the DOS PATH statement so that it can be accessed from any directory. QUERY.COM only works with DOS version 3.3 or later. Complete instructions and code listings are given. Reassign your disk drives with a powerful trio. (altering drive names with DOS commands) (DOS) (tutorial) Three commands provided by DOS allow the user to alter the logical configuration of a system's drives. ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST can save keystrokes but can be dangerous if not used judiciously. The ASSIGN command allows older programs designed for floppy-based microcomputers to run on newer hard disk-based machines by re-routing all activity intended for the A and B drives to drive C. JOIN changes the directory structure of one drive into a subdirectory of another. SUBST can be used to shorten path names and save keystrokes by disguising a subdirectory as a drive. Because all three commands change the logical structure of a system's drives, they should be used with extreme caution. Spiff up your dull desktop to reflect your taste. (streamlining the startup process) (Windows) (tutorial) It is possible to streamline the startup process in Microsoft Windows 3.0 by creating icons that both start a program and take the user directly to the document to be worked on. Details are given as to how the icon can be customized to move directly to a frequently used document. Users can also choose icons to represent particular applications either by downloading icons accessed on CompuServe's Windows Forum or by borrowing icons from other applications. Details of how to accomplish the selection and allocation are given, including the commands to use on CompuServe. Shoddy service? Don't get mad, fight back! (Consumer's Edge) (includes related article on what to ask when buying a hard disk) The first thing that should be done by a consumer if it is suspected that a contract has not been honored is to contact the dealer or manufacturer directly. Buyers can also enlist the help of a number of experts. Consumer organizations, user groups, and the threat of bad publicity can often solve problems quickly. If a mail-order business is not honoring a contract, the local Postal Inspector can often be of assistance in opening an investigation and closing down disreputable companies. The Direct Marketing Association can also help with mail-order complaints. The Association of Shareware Professionals Ombudsman can help if there is a problem with shareware or the program's author. Local consumer groups may also be of assistance. Local user groups may have suggestions in terms of people to contact, and online services are often excellent places to air problems. Fry's retains bargain prices despite theme-park glitz. (Fry's Electronics) Fry's Electronics has now discarded its previous image of an intimately technical, back-street computer store and become something of a high-technology supermarket. The three California stores have each adopted store-wide theme to make shopping more attractive. The Palo Alto store now has a Wild West theme; in Fremont it is a futuristic cargo hold; and in Sunnyvale, a huge microchip. In addition to the theme-park image, the store is still reputed to offer low-cost bargains and the sales staff are reported to be informative and courteous. Fry's no longer has such institutions as the 'blow-out' table, which once offered disassembled parts and non-working equipment users could repair themselves. All-in-one machines promise you a 'bundle. (Cumulus's GLC/SBS, US Integrated Technologies' The Home Office, Canon's Navigator HD-40) Bundling microcomputer hardware to include facsimile, modem, and voice-mail capabilities is particularly appealing to home office users because space is often at a premium. The machines are configured at the factory, eliminating the need to install peripherals. Bundling the hardware together should also save money. Cumulus' $2,195 GLC/SBS is a good value; it comes with Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a communications board that includes a 9,600-bps send-and-receive fax and 2,400-bps data modem. It also includes 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard drive, VGA graphics and GoldStar color monitor, fax and answering machine, mouse, high-density 3.5-inch drive and assorted software. US Integrated Technologies' $3,195 The Home Office is overpriced and only comes with an Intel 80286 microprocessor. Canon's $2,495 Navigator HD-40 is also overpriced and is little more than a telephone and fax machine bundled with an Intel 8088 processor. It has an inadequate eight-by-five inch monitor and uses awkward touch screen technology. A 'poor man's CompuServe' can put cash in your pocket. (the growth of super bulletin board systems) Users who like the idea of accessing information on-line but who balk at the price of established information services like GEnie and Compuserve may want to investigate the growing number of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). These new BBSes range from single one-line systems to full-blown networks with minicomputers handling hundreds of lines. Channel 1 is one such super BBS that runs 50 computers out of Cambridge, Mass., and offers no less than 250 conferences on a multitude of different topics. Rates for these services are usually considerably less than the nationwide on-line services. Some BBS services are available for only the cost of the call, but there is a trend toward charging annual subscription fees. You call all the shots with a 'lawyer in a box.' (legal software) (Software Review) (Nolo Press' WillMaker 4.0, Parsons Technology's Nolo Press' $69.95 WillMaker 4.0, Parsons Technology's $49 It's Legal, Meca Software's $119.95 Hyatt Legal Services' Home Lawyer, and Bloc Publishing's $99.95 Personal Law Firm are all legal software packages that provide a range of legal documents to be used for a number of contracts and legal situations. Nolo Press' WillMaker is the exception to this as it handles only wills and estate planning. All of the programs listed cover the drawing up of wills. WillMaker offers a very comprehensive guide to the filing of wills, including much detail that is not in the other programs because they contain dozens of other documents. It's Legal is the best all-around package offering dozens of documents, including powers of attorney, living wills, and leases. Home Lawyer contains the largest document selection of the products reviewed. Personal Law Firm is comprehensive, but lacks some legal expertise. Use your PC to stay ahead of your mortgage lender. (two templates for home loan qualification) (Prime Time) (tutorial) When applying for a mortgage it is a good idea to work out beforehand if the mortgage claim has a good chance of being approved in order to save on loan application fees. Lenders usually apply three rules in determining an applicants suitability. In the first instance, a minimum cash payment has to be made ranging from five to 20 percent. Secondly, there is a ceiling on how much a household is allowed to spend on a mortgage, usually 25 to 28 percent of the total monthly household income. Finally, lenders usually place limits on how much a household can spend on long-term debts such as car and student loans, generally 33 to 36 percent of total income. Two spreadsheet templates that use individual financial data to determine the likelihood of a loan being approved or disapproved are presented. SunOS and systems integrators: still a price/performance decision. (Sun Microsystems workstations) Sun Microsystems, founded in 1982, has approximately 35 percent of the engineering workstation market. Many systems integrators, such as Anderson Consulting, the Houston Chronicle and Yale University, like the Sun platform because it affords them the ability to make use of advanced technologies. The SunOS version of Unix provides a rich development environment designed for a variety of sophisticated applications. SunOS includes integrated networking, windowing, support for high-resolution graphics, powerful programming capabilities, and a rich suite of development tools; almost 3,000 applications are supported. Sun Microsystems owes much of its success to a commitment to open systems. Over 325,000 Sun systems were shipped internationally by the end of 1990. Interoperability is a major concern of systems integrators. A large number of solutions are available through third party vendors. S.F. monitors workers' health. (San Francisco, CA Board of Supervisors approves video display terminal law) San Francisco, CA is being watched carefully by computer-using businesses nationwide. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a video display terminal (VDT) law in Dec,1990. It mandates that, within four years, businesses with 15 or more employees must provide proper lighting, anti-glare screens, adjustable equipment and furniture, 15-minute breaks every two hours and training on proper equipment use for all employees who spend four hours or more a day using VDTs. It also establishes an advisory committee to investigate the possible radiation hazards from VDTs and make recommendations for improving the situation. Attempts to block the law are expected, but are likely to be unsuccessful because the new legislation does not preempt any state or federal law. In addition, reported VDT injuries have increased drastically over the past several years, calling more public attention to the issue. FreeHand gets a leg up on Illustrator. (Aldus FreeHand leading in duel with Adobe Systems' Illustrator)(graphics software packages) In the ongoing competition between the Aldus Freehand 3.0 and the Adobe Systems Illustrator 3.0 graphics software packages, Freehand is moving ahead of Illustrator in nearly every area. Freehand 3.0 lists for $595, while the upgrade from 2.0 is $150. Freehand requires a Macintosh Classic or higher, 2Mbytes of memory and a hard disk. In a comparison of these two PostScript drawing programs for the Macintosh, Illustrator triumphs in text handling and graphing, while Freehand rates higher in ease of use, WYSIWYG functioning, 'undo' features, fills, special effects and color. The programs' features tie in the areas of drawing and selecting, but Freehand's overall superiority makes it the first choice. However, if text handling and graphing are most important, then Illustrator may be the best choice. Visual, intelligent, and personal. (Japan's Nippon Telephone and Telegraph's slogan reflecting changing attitude towards visual Japan's Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corp (NTT) is revolutionizing the concept of visual communication by seeking ways to take advantage of human perceptual capabilities and focusing on the role of visual perception in thought and communication. Japanese researchers seem to be more aware than Western scientists of the importance of visual thinking when planning communication systems because their written language and spoken communication style are very dependent on visual cues. NTT envisions a multimedia technology that combines high-speed, high-capacity communication channels with vast libraries of images, full-motion video, text, voice communications and computer-generated graphics for the 21st century. This vision guides the research and development of pipelines used to transport information that can turn hardware into a system for amplifying human thought and communication. Getting started with CD-ROM: seventeen top titles for the CD-ready publisher. (includes directory of CD-ROM drive makers) (Integrated Compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) is a definite asset to data base publishers. A single compact disc for the Apple Macintosh or an IBM-compatible microcomputer can store about 650Mbytes of data. This can be enough for an entire software collection, reference libraries of encyclopedias, dictionaries and style manuals, or vast galleries of high-resolution photographs, clip art and fonts. Everything on CD-ROM is easily accessible and keeps premium hard disk space clear of a lot of fonts and graphics. The drawback, however is that one cannot record or write information to CD-ROM titles; they are purchased prerecorded for their existing contents. CD-ROM drives are also slower than hard drives, which can be annoying when loading complex color images. List prices for easily-installed CD-ROM players range from $600 to $1,400, but prices should fall as sales grow. A list of CD-ROM titles on various subject matters is given. CD-ROM travels far with American Airlines. (Integrated Media) Maloney, Janice. American Airlines' SABRE Travel Information Network Div (STIN) recently introduced SABREvision, an image-based information retrieval system for travel agencies. Using CD-ROM technology, travel agents can view images of more than 50,000 hotel properties and retrieve detailed features lists for selected hotels. Travel agents use American Airlines' SABRE network to access the graphically-based data base. SABREvision can also plot the location of a specific hotel in relationship to points of interest, such as an airport, using its own map-creation functions. The system operates under MS-DOS and works exclusively on IBM and AT&T computers. STIN uses a CD-ROM storage system because of its relatively low cost and its ability to provide local access to centrally-stored data. STIN executives are pleased with the overall system and with the fast CD-ROM software from OnLine Computer Systems. Case study: the paper chase. (Entertainment Weekly's file management system is a manila folder)(includes related articles Entertainment Weekly's staff uses a temporary file-management system in which a plain manila folder - containing printouts of all editing and layout revisions for a particular article - is the main component. The folder presents a way to create order out of countless revisions and determines who should have access to the electronic version of that article and when. Only the person who has the folder is authorized to make changes to the corresponding electronic file. This system alleviates any confusion over who has which file at any given time, and each person must 'sign-off' the manuscript as an indication that it has been read and approved before it can be sent to the next person. The manila folder system seems to be working smoothly, although it is only an interim solution to the problem of finding quality file management software, the only area in which the Macintosh fails. Spotlight on workgroup data handlers. (reviews of five data base management systems) (Software Review) (evaluation) Reviews are given of five data base management systems, taking into consideration report generators, data security and validation measures and query tools. Borland's $795 Paradox 3.5 rates highest of all the systems reviewed, with the strongest query engine and tools and the fastest operation for transactions on one station. Its network operations are less impressive. Clarion's $845 Professional Developer 2.1, a program development environment, has the strongest data entry and reporting tools in the group and is rated among the easiest to learn. Fox Software's $795 FoxPro 1.02 proves the fastest of all systems in tests involving queries from several stations; dBASE IV 1.1 from Ashton-Tate is among the easiest to learn and use for both end-users and database developers. Clipper 5.0, a $795 development environment, processes transactions much faster than it handles queries. The design of simulation languages for systems with multiple modularities. (technical) Biological systems exhibit several characteristics that are not shared by human-engineered systems: there are often no clear module boundaries (or there are several module boundaries, depending on the question being asked); individual parts often serve multiple roles, depending on the behavior being studied; and system characteristics often vary from individual to individual. Conventional simulation languages, however, do not cope well with this non-modularity. We have developed a theory of the design of simulation languages for such systems, and partially verified it in one case study. We separate the notion of "structure" S of a system from the "behavior" B of its parts. We allow multiple versions of both the structure (S1, S2, ...) and the corresponding behavior (B1/Si , B2/Si , ...) of each part Si. The different structures or behaviors might be alternative theories, or abstractions of each other, for example. We also have theories of how to interpret the simulations produced by (Si, Bj, /Si ) pairs. One goal is to extract "design" information, i.e. explain how the system solves problems. Another is to test the effects of alternative models of behavior B1/Si , B2/Si , ... for the same structure, or the effects on behavior due to alterations in structure. A third is to judge the relative degree of consistency between various (Si, Bj/Si ) pairs. We exhibit how these ideas apply to the motor nervous system of the nematodes C. elegans and Ascaris suum. We also provide arguments that this kind of simulation methodology is also applicable to engineered artifacts, such as systems where parts must serve multiple roles. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Discrete event simulation of object movement and interactions. (technical) A set of routines is described that assist a programmer in modeling object movement and interactions. Interactions occur when objects move in range or leave range of other objects. Interaction events are rescheduled automatically as objects change vectors. Routines are written in Pascal to take advantage of its dynamic memory allocation capability and minimize memory requirements. An airport simulation demonstrates use of the routines. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Dynamic process plant simulation and scheduling: an expert systems approach. (technical) The secure operation of a complex industrial process, such as a Steelmaking Meltshop or Nickel Smelter, depends almost entirely on a harmonic working relationship between the human operator and the real time process control environment. The introduction of sophisticated real time monitoring systems and faster than real time decision making modules, requires a new approach to dynamic process plant simulation, scheduling and production optimization under varying operating constraints. Based on the proven Expert Systems Methodologies of Knowledge Engineering and Rule-Based Logistics, The ADSI Scheduling Advisor has been successfully implemented on the shop floor of several major base metals producing facilities. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A non-linear pattern generator for testing digital VLSI circuitry. (technical) A digital pattern generator suggested by the boundary scan structure was examined using Fortran simulation. The scan register is closed to form a circular shift register. Each logic output is exclusive-ored between two boundary scan stages. The resulting circuit is a large, usually non-linear, sequential circuit suitable for built-in self-test. Earlier analysis using an independent input model demonstrated that this circular form will provide a rich collection of input test patterns. Our simulation indicates that typical circuits perform even better as pattern generators than the independent model predicts. Specifically the minimum sequence length necessary to cover all possible combinations of K variables was observed to be half or less than the length obtained from the independent model. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A performance study of the hypercube parallel processor architecture. (technical) This simulation study investigated the relationship between workload characteristics and process speedup obtainable on a hypercube parallel processor architecture. There were two goals: the first was to determine the functional relationship between workload characteristics and speedup, and the second was to show how simulation could be used to model the concurrently executing processes to allow estimation of such a relation. The hypercube implementation used in this study was a packet-switched network with predetermined routing and a balanced computation workload. Three independent variables were controlled: total computational workload, number of processors and the message traffic load. A benchmark program was used to estimate the fundamental timing models and to validate a discrete event simulation. Results of this study are useful to software designers seeking to predict the degree of performance improvement attainable on a hypercube class machine. The methodology and results can be extended to other parallel processing architectures. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A design of expert system architecture for communications engineering simulation. (technical) Simulation expert system architecture for communications simulation including the features of common data structure, top-down information driven technique, optimization, and expert system approach is addressed. The concepts can be combined to implement a very user-friendly simulation system for either a novice or experienced user. The architecture block diagram of the simulator is discussed to highlight the important functions. Complete or partial features addressed can be adopted in any simulator design. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Finding OS balance. (evaluating operating systems) (Forum: Open Files) (column) Proprietary operating systems are more expensive than open systems because they offer more features and functionality. Proprietary systems are also starting to incorporate standardized interfaces and improve connectivity. Choosing between proprietary and open systems can now be accomplished by comparing products for performance and functionality as well as portability of interfaces, files and applications. Ideally, operating systems should combine connectivity bolstered by vendor-added proprietary features. The X Windows X11 standard is available in the public domain, but all X11-based software includes vendor enhancements not available in the public domain. Distributed transaction processing requires that the operating system rather than the transaction processing monitor tracks multiple events. The operating system must operate with multivendor databases. Repository etiquette. (IBM's AD/Cycle Repository) (Forum: Open Files) (column) Using a repository for program development can be useful, but unless users cooperate to take advantage of a system like IBM's AD/Cycle, the repository is useless. A repository stores all information pertinent to software development and allows computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools to share data. Tool vendors can undermine a repository by limiting the amount of data a tool will share, hiding data where other tools cannot find them, making unnecessary changes in the repository, operating from a copy outside the repository, locking the repository while the tool is in use, undoing changes made by other tools, encrypting data in the repository, converting repository data to preferred forms, spreading extraneous information that other tools will read and deleting information not used by a particular tool. Tool vendors must avoid initiating a war of uncooperative programs. To sell to Sears, EDI is a must: 6,000 firms now using EDI; 30,000 by '93 seen. (Sears Roebuck and Co. Sears Merchandise Group to Sears Roebuck and Company's Sears Merchandise Group undertakes an aggressive plan to convert its vendors to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which is described as an intercompany format for business transmission. An estimated 6,000 US companies currently use EDI, but the number is expected to reach 30,000 by 1993, and analysts anticipate a $2 billion market for EDI-related products. Businesses can work to support EDI by establishing agreements with their equipment vendors, and small companies can work with larger companies to make the transition. Sears plans to have completed conversion to EDI by mid-1992, and it will provide support to its partners throughout the conversion process. Sears hopes to convert 200 vendors each month by requiring all suppliers to change to EDI. The gradual acceptance of EDI is outlined. VA pack tracks casualties. (U.S. Veterans Administration Information Service Center tracks Operation Desert Storm The US Veterans Administration (VA) Information Service Center designs an application for tracking casualties in the Persian Gulf War. The program, called ODS (Operation Desert Storm), is written in the MUMPS programming language. The software tracks American service personnel receiving medical treatment at VA hospitals. The Department of Defense request is received on Jan 10, 1991, and the software is distributed to VA facilities by Jan 17. The package is developed by six programmers, three technical writers and two quality control workers working 12-to-18-hour days. ODS is a module added to the VA's Decentralized Hospital Computer Program, which is used by hospitals worldwide. The VA is preparing to move the current patients in its hospitals to civilian medical facilities to make room for military casualties. Outsourcing expands: shrinking budgets, EDS prompt MIS to seek help. (Electronic Data Systems Corp.) (Field Report: Strategies) Shrinking budgets are leading many companies to hire outsourcing companies to handle their data processing and MIS operations. Outsourcing has been frowned upon by many companies, but since IBM assumed operation of Kodak's data processing effort in 1989, outsourcing has gained credibility. That credibility is bolstered by cost savings from 20 percent to 50 percent. Electronic Data Systems Corp has won a $450 million outsourcing contract with First Fidelity Bancorp of New Jersey. EDS has recently reorganized to prepare for expected growth from a $6 billion company to a $25 billion company in 1995. The reorganization created over 30 strategic business units (SBUs), which are targeted to specific industries and are responsible for their own revenues. Analysts estimate outsourcing will be a $50 billion market by 1994. OLTP, open systems merging: Unix-based monitors flooding into market. (on-line transaction processing) (Field Report: Open On-line transaction processing (OLTP) and open systems have traditionally been opposing forces in computing, but many Unix-based OLTP monitors are currently available, and as these products gain market strength, they may become the basis for a standards-based OLTP model. IBM's CICS OLTP monitor has contributed to making OLTP a possibility on mainframes, but as Unix systems and other potentially open systems gain acceptance in MIS departments, new monitors are being developed to operate in multivendor systems. As standards-based systems are adopted, OLTP can be adopted on architectures supporting hundreds or thousands of terminals. IBM is extending its CICS line to support the ESA, MVS, VSE, VM, OS/2 and AIX operating systems. Planning key to networking: consultants urge MIS to resist quick fix. Consultants believe companies implementing networks should emphasize planning. A company should identify its current situation and determine areas it wants to change in the future. By analyzing how it it must change, a company can identify the technologies it can use to accomplish its goals. Companies such as Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd (Tokyo, Japan) replace their mainframe-based information systems with a personal computer network to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Many companies adopt networks as they work to downsize operations, and as network technology matures, networks are becoming more widely useful. Networks offer better data access capabilities than mainframe-based systems. HP and Informix trade favors: Informix will embrace SoftBench; HP to buy stake. (Informix Software Inc., Softbench computer-aided HP and Informix Software Inc are working together to push HP's SoftBench as the basis for computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool integration. Informix announces plans to license SoftBench, and HP plans to acquire up to 15 percent of Informix by 1994. HP has also agreed to develop versions of the Informix data base management system (DBMS) for its Unix systems. HP hopes to make SoftBench a standard for CASE in Unix and plans to port the software to Unix workstations from Sun Microsystems Inc as part of its effort to gain support. Sun has declined to work with HP in developing SoftBench for its workstations. Informix chose SoftBench over Atherton Technology Inc's similar product, Software Backplane. Unstructured objects focus of new analysis. (includes related article on object-oriented technology terms) (CASE: Object-oriented programming (OOP) can be a valuable tool in computer-aided software engineering (CASE), but although OOP features are being implemented in CASE products, many vendors are claiming more OOP capability than their products actually offer. Some analysts believe that OOP will find widespread use through inclusion in CASE tools. OOP describes information, including functions as well as data, as objects that can be grouped into similar categories called classes. Classes can be separated into parent classes and subclasses. Users agree that OOP offers code reusability, quality, predictability and control of complexity, but its learning curve is steep. Converting to OOP is easiest if the transition process begins at the specification level, but object orientation should be transparent to users and the degree to which OOP is incorporated into software design should vary according to user needs. Standards groups clear way for OO Cobol; industry taking wait-and-see attitude toward feasibility. (object orientation) Object-oriented Cobol may be develop more rapidly than expected because the American National Standards Institute (Ansi) has agreed to merge with the Conference on Data System Languages (Codasyl) and the Object Oriented Cobol Task Group (OOCTG). The pooling of resources is expected to speed standardization, but while some analysts anticipate a good market response, others believe that object-orientation (OO) could merely muddle Cobol because it is not well understood. Some experts do not believe Cobol lends itself to supporting OO programming, and others point out that existing versions of Cobol allow relatively easy reusability. Other industry analysts observe that Cobol is an old language that can be significantly improved from OO extensions and programming techniques. Expert system advisors slow getting to market. (Data Center and Systems Support: Expert Systems in Operations) Expert systems are well-suited for use in assisting and automating programming and data center operations, but few software packages have been developed for such purposes. Users want expert systems to perform data analysis and make recommendations, and the lack of action by software suppliers opens opportunity for new companies. Users generally want expert systems that include rules based on conditional logic, flexibility in rule writing and the ability to learn from experience. The system should be easy to use, and should include reusable code in the form of templates. Many software vendors are developing packages that incorporate some of the desired features, but the expert system field is new enough that existing vendors have little advantage over new companies, and most large companies are hesitant to invest large amounts of money in a new technology. Object of MIS desire currently not OODBMS. (object-oriented data base management systems) (Data Resource Management: MIS departments are hesitant to adopt object-oriented data base management system (OODBMS) technology despite potential improvements in application development, reductions in cost and potential for utilizing emerging technologies. Vendors say that despite early acceptance by scientific, engineering and university users, their financial success depends upon adoption by MIS users. The few MIS departments utilizing OODBMS believe the technology gives them a competitive advantage in solving business problems. OODBMSs are being used in geographic information systems, financial trading systems and decision support systems. Advantages of the technology include code reusability and speed of execution. Analysts say customers fear that learning to use OODBMSs will be too difficult and that the lack of object-oriented programmers is detrimental to the OODBMS cause. Filling 'black hole' of shared DBMS tools: dearth of front-end tools to client/server engines slows development for LANs; The lack of front-end application development tools for shared data base management systems (DBMSs) on client/server networks makes development difficult. Software vendors have focused on improving their DBMS engines, neglecting front-end programming tools, so users find it difficult to develop business applications for distributed DBMSs. The lack of tools is also slowing the purchase of distributed DBMSs, so vendors and third-party companies are developing products to fill the void. Oracle Systems Corp has the most mature product, it is considered difficult to use and does not support graphical operating systems. Third-party companies have developed packages to address these problems. Sybase Inc also has a large customer base, and its product is used as the foundation for Microsoft Corp's SQL Server. Gupta Technologies Inc has addressed front-end tools more completely than the other companies. Vendors of microcomputer DBMS packages are working to position their products as front ends for distributed DBMSs, and some companies are developing products for graphical user interfaces. Relational gives bank fast access to queries. (relational DBMS) (Global Software Innovators: Data Resource Management) The Caisse Regionale de Credit Agricole Mutuel du Lot adopts Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Datacom/DB relational DBMS. The regional commercial credit division of France's largest bank chose Datacom/DB over IBM's DB2 because the CA software runs under the MVS/SP operating system. The cost of upgrading its hardware to run MVS/XA or MVS/ESA would be prohibitive for the regional operation, and the CA software allows data sharing with Credit Agricole's DL/1 database. The company believes the software will improve access to information to improve quality and profitability. The need for a relational DBMS was identified when the regional operation realigned its Commercial Management System. The company needs to improve its ability to perform multiple access queries. CA-Datacom/DB also offers Credit Agricole advantages in cost and capacity consumption. OSF's DCE attempts to add OSI services. (Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment) (Open Systems: The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is a layer grouping in the OSI communications model. Most users are not concerned with 'openness' in an abstract sense; they want portability and interoperability from open systems, and DCE is intended to provide transparent operation and development in distributed multivendor networks. DCE is a transition layer between kernel-layer communications and applications software. DCE includes remote procedure call services, naming, security, threads, time service, a distributed file system, personal computer integration and management. Users want graphical user interface standardization from open systems to provide consistent interfaces on multiple platforms. OSF's solutions are likely to prevail because its membership has industry clout. Cobol visionaries build on microcomputer success. (Micro Focus Inc company profile) (Cover Story: Micro Focus)(Company Profile) Micro Focus Inc is a software vendor that produces Cobol programming tools for microcomputers. Founders Paul O'Grady and Brian Reynolds are responsible for moving Cobol programming to microcomputers from its mainframe roots. Although Cobol was considered a dying language at the time, O'Grady and Reynolds believed in 1976 that the language could continue for at least 10 years. Their Compact Interactive Standard (CIS) Cobol was the first microcomputer-based Cobol compiler to meet the ANSI standard. Cobol continues to be popular because it is easy to maintain and many programmers are familiar with the language. An estimated 500,000 US Cobol programmers have produced 70 billion lines of Cobol code. Micro Focus has annual revenues of about $58 million and is driven by its Packaged Products Div, which markets products, and its Computer Industry Div, which licenses products to other vendors. Micro Focus produces many OEM products in addition to its flagship Cobol/2 Workbench development package. The company plans a user interface development tool. OLE helps Windows DDE links. (object linking and embedding, Microsoft Windows 3.0's Dynamic Data Exchange) (Pick of the Month) Microsoft Corp has issued a preliminary specification for a data exchange structure, Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) to replace Microsoft Windows 3.0's Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), which has been criticized for its lack of transparency and the difficulty in establishing and maintaining its links. Microsoft is also developing dynamic link libraries (DLLs) for DDE containing code that programmers can use rather than writing their own procedures. The DDE protocol allows Windows applications that use it to exchange data via multiple one-way links. DDE requires links to be reestablished whenever applications are restarted, and it separates data from sources file. OLE resolves both problems. Quality MIS post-and-beam. (information system quality) (Technology Transfer) Total Quality Management (TQM), which is a quality control movement intended to improve competitiveness and profitability, can be combined with MIS through operations and capacity management. A paper by Jack Brey and Rick Soroni, presented at the 1991 Computer Measurement Group conference, describes applying Statistical Process Control (SPC), which helps gauge the correctness of a process. SPC monitors data center procedures and reports on performance levels. Cause-and-effect diagrams can be used to determine the causes of abnormal events and determine corrections. The combined process provides a useful method for determining MIS operation effectiveness. TQM is also useful for showing the relationship between the design process and the cost, responsiveness and reliability of the process. Although TQM's terminology can be difficult to learn, its concepts are critical to MIS success. Why bother with cable? wireless LANs are here. (Wireless local area networks) (product announcement) Several new wireless local area network technologies which eliminate the need for cabling are emerging, including infrared transmission, spread spectrum technology and cellular radio. Motorola has introduced the Altair Wireless Network, which is based on low-powered microcellular communications in the 18- to 19-GHz frequency range. Altair uses one control module per microcell to control up to 32 devices and a user module that can link up to six devices. BICC Communications' InfraLAN uses the infrared frequency spectrum for its wireless network. InfraLAN can transmit data at 4 or 16M-bps and is based on the IEEE 802.5 Token-Ring standard. It works only in offices with low partitions because infrared transmission works only on a line-of-sight basis. Why LAN integration is a growth business. (local area networks) Wood, Thomas. Local area networks and internetworking are expected to be the two most important technologies for systems integrators in the 1990s, and the market for network integration is growing rapidly. Many systems integrators are specializing in LANs and developing enterprise-wide networking expertise. Eighty-two percent of 186 systems integrators polled in a Business Research Group study said that microcomputer LANs were used in their network integration activities, and 85 percent of MIS managers said that integrating LANs on a corporate backbone was of strategic importance to their organizations. IBM and Banyan Systems Inc are expected to gain larger shares of the network operating system market between 1991 and 1993, with IBM growing from 16 percent to 19 percent and Banyan from 5 percent to 8 percent, according to the study. In networking, clarity begins at home. (Network Report) (column) Glasgal, Ralph. Users can build local- and wide-area networks that meet corporate needs within budgetary constraints by taking advantage of new digital transmission services and equipment. Combining basic-rate or fractional T1 services with low-cost, low-speed voice digitizers helps users integrate voice traffic with LAN, WAN and fax data streams. Glasgal Communications Inc uses a combination of low-cost leased analog lines from MCI, a T1 local loop and remote voice lines that act as extensions to a headquarters PBX to save money and eliminate routine load on the headquarters switchboard. Fax machines can be linked through the PBX to voice cards and share lines with voice traffic. Four ways to keep your SCSI from hanging up multitasking. (Small Computer Systems Interface)(PC Report - column) (tutorial) Users working with multitasking software such as Microsoft Windows 3.0 and Quarterdeck Office Systems' QEMM386 and DESQview should carefully check the configuration of Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) devices to avoid data corruption or other problems. Standard DOS programs use 'real' mode to to map memory in terms of physical addresses, while the 80386 also offers 'protected' mode for access to 16Mbytes of extended memory and the 'virtual 86' mode used by Windows to run DOS applications. Windows changes the memory map constantly, letting the DOS program see only its own 640Kbytes of memory. The virtual-86 mode can conflict with SCSI devices, causing the system to freeze when starting two or more DOS applications and corrupt files just written by a DOS application. Ways to avoid these problems include using fully compatible SCSI drives based on the Virtual DMA Services specification, configuring the drive to use standard DMA, configuring the driver for double buffering or using the Windows SmartDrive disk cache utility. AFS widens your horizons in distributed computing. (Andrew File System distributed client/server strategy from Carnegie Mellon The Andrew File System (AFS) is a distributed client/server file system developed by Carnegie-Mellon University that is designed for large environments and offers location independence, cache consistency and data security. It is designed to appear as a single, unified file tree to thousands of networked workstations and uses servers that handle collections of files and directories called 'volumes' which are connected at mount points. AFS uses a 'volume location server' process to locate the server on which a volume resides; client machines each operate a cache manager that mediates all shared file access. The latest version of AFS caches files in chunks of 64Kbytes to reduce the amount of time data remains on the local machine and includes a callback facility to maintain cache consistency. Security features include control lists, by which AFS determines a user's right to access a file. AFS, an outgrowth of the university's Project Andrew, has been endorsed by the Open Software Foundation. Six fast-paced pathways on the way to learning SQL. (DBMS Report - column) (tutorial) Many excellent computer-based training (CBT) courses are available to help database users learn Structured Query Language (SQL). Jonathan Sayles' 'SQL as a Second Language' includes a book, a stripped version of Gupta's SQLBase and a text path aimed at mainframe users. It provides actual hands-on experience and lets students experiment with SQL features not covered in the text. Sterling Software's SQL BASICS targets the IBM DB2 version of SQL and includes elaborate animation and graphics but no advanced lessons. Relational Courseware's SQL Tutor is a generic but fairly complete program that covers a variety of material. Crescendo Associates' Teach-OR series is designed for Oracle SQL products, UNIFy's SQL/A provide specialized training. AMS Courseware offers a full-scale line of courses in IBM SQL. Tomorrow's broadband technologies. (Synchronous Optical Network, T3 communications) (Cover Story) New developments in broadband networking let users transfer larger blocks of data than in the past, and lower-speed communications and data lines are increasingly aggregated into broadband backbone networks. Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), digital imaging and video networks are among the important applications of broadband technology. New features of broadband communications include the serial T3 telecommunications line, synchronous optical network (SONET) standard for optical transmission and high speed serial interface (HSSI) international standard for data communication. SONET offers high bandwidth and its own optical carrier hierarchy expressed in multiples of the basic 51.84M-bps OC-1 rate. Timeplex Inc and Adaptive Corp are planning to base future offerings on SONET. Adaptive, Cisco Systems Inc and IBM are developing HSSI for local area networks. Networks can be bridged across a T3 line. Five methods to link PC LANs to Unix. (Cover Story) Simpson, David. Five approaches to linking microcomputer local area networks (LANs) to Unix systems are discussed. Many public-domain Internet Protocol (IP) stacks are available for downloading from bulletin board services and Novell's NetWire on Compuserve. The software usually requires one of the NetWare nodes as a router PC and a network interface card. Disadvantages of public domain software include lack of vendor support, potential bugs and out-of-date code. Microcomputer LAN vendors offer Unix connectivity products of their own; Novell's WorkPlace does not require an extra router or gateway, but works only with Federal Technology Corp's Exos network boards and costs over $1,000 per node. Gateways link microcomputer LAN protocols with TCP/IP and are often the most flexible and cost-effective solution. Other methods for linking LANs and Unix include dual-protocol stacks and Unix-based file/LAN servers. Solutions for network management. (local area networks)(includes related article on market research) (Cover Story) Systems integrators can use either the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) suites for setting up and managing enterprise-wide networks. Neither protocol is ideal for all situations, and each has advantages and disadvantages. SNMP is derived from the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standard, while CMIP comes from the world of Open Systems Interconnection. Most major systems vendors have some optional SNMP support today and are planning CMIP as part of their OSI strategies, but no vendor yet has a complete OSI/CMIP product line available. AT&T's Unified Network Management Architecture, IBM's NetView, and DEC's Enterprise Management Architecture are examples of major vendor LAN integration strategies. Some vendors, such as Electronic Data Systems Corp, have built customized in-house network management systems. NetView is the only prevalent premises-wide network management system in the commercial marketplace. Advantages of SNMP include flexibility, availability and ease of implementation, but CMIP is expected to replace it as a long-term solution. The OSI/CMIP specifications are not yet complete, a situation which enabled SNMP to surpass CMIP in the marketplace. 'Reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. (computer systems at MIT)(includes related articles on Project Athena profile, why MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is served by a massive, campus-wide computing environment known as Project Athena. Project Athena is centrally managed and based on distributed Unix systems. It serves more than 10,000 users, including students, faculty and staff. Over 1,300 workstations are grouped in 40 computer centers on campus, and the centers are open 24 hours a day every day of the year. Each workstation must have a 32-bit CPU, at least 4Mbytes of memory and a 40Mbyte dataless disk as well as a 1-million-pixel monochrome terminal display. Software in use includes the Berkeley Standard Distribution 4.3 version of Unix and the Open Software Foundation's X Windows-based Motif graphical user interface. Every student has access to 1.2Mbytes of backed-up file space, 135 laser printers and 1,200 pages per year as well as a user-authentication program, electronic mail and 'courseware' software written by MIT professors. The three types of Project Athena file servers include third-party servers that download course and personal files, dedicated servers that hold central services files and RVD servers holding system software files. Client machines must know what device has been designated as the host for services requested. High-end PCs push the envelope. (mixing and matching components for powerful microcomputers) (buyers guide) Today's high-end microcomputers offer such capabilities as multiprocessing, upgradable processors, unique disk caching schemes, powerful graphics subsystems and improved disk arrays. Advanced Logic Research offers several Micro Channel Architecture and Extended Industry Standard Architecture systems with 'mix and match' architectures that are easy to upgrade. The processor and a variety of other components can be swapped when necessary. AST Research Inc uses a 64Kbyte or 128Kbyte static RAM cache to improve memory performance in its upgradeable machines. Its new multiprocessing PowerPro server is designed to run SCO Unix and Banyan Systems Inc Vines, two multiprocessor-ready network operating systems. AST's Cupid-32 architecture lets users upgrade from an 80386SX to an 80386 or 80486 CPU and balances the system by placing the processor and system memory together on a single plug-in board. IBM's PS/2 Model 90 and 95 also allow CPU upgrades. Zenith Data Systems' Z-486/25E high-performance desktop workstation is a powerful, small-footprint machine. LAN adapters - performance plus. (local area networks)(Board Report) (column) Today's local area network (LAN) adapter boards offer increased performance, declining prices and a rapidly expanding range of station-interconnection options. Vendors are expanding support for noise-free fiber optic cabling as well as for inexpensive unshielded twisted-pair wiring. An adapter board usually contains a data transceiver and a communications processor; the data transceiver transmits or receives data packets, while the communications processor handles data etching, data assembly and other tasks. Boards differ in data-transmission rates, cable types and variety of network communications protocols supported. Prices have dropped considerably in recent years, while functionality is increasing; many boards now support 32-bit buses such as EISA and MCA. Support for unshielded twisted pair and fiber-optic cabling is the most important trend in the cabling arena. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface standard is rapidly gaining ascendancy. What integrators should look for in choosing a lawyer. Gilman, Joel B. A guide to choosing a lawyer who can deal with the needs of computer systems integrators is presented. The Yellow Pages are an excellent source of information about attorneys in a given area; the names under 'Computer Law' or 'Copyright Law' should be researched first. Some lawyers place their own status or prestige before their clients' needs; these should be avoided. Obtaining legal advice on every single sales contract is neither necessary nor advisable in all cases, but integrators should not wait until after a problem has arisen before talking to a lawyer. Sales orders can contain hidden commitments, and problems can stem from the differing language used in different contracts and different laws in different jurisdictions. Third-party SCSI drives beat vendors' - but Q-bus speeds all. (comparison of DEC, other drives) A comparison of DEC's RZ23 and RZ24 Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drives with those of third-party vendors indicates that third-party products provide better throughput, but notes that a Q-bus adapter can speed the performance of virtually any drive. American Digital System's Mastertalk Series 3 and Systems Industries' S1350 are made by Seagate and IBM respectively and are distinctly faster on benchmark tests. A third-party Q-bus adapter shows marked improvements over DEC's embedded SCSI in a VAX system. Demand for hard disk drives still growing. (market survey) Wardley, John D.; Franchi, Madeline. Demand for high-capacity 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch hard disk drives is likely to grow despite the economic recession, according to a reader survey. Multimedia, voice and data integration and image processing are among the applications that will continue to drive sales of larger disk subsystems. LANs and new operating systems are likely to strain existing storage devices; networks place heavy demands on a disk system. The 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch drive segments will be the strongest in 1990, and drives with capacities larger than 100Mbytes and 380Mbytes will do better than small-capacity drives. BT Tymnet unveils frame relay strategy. Valovic, Thomas S. British Telecom announces at the ComNet show in Washington, DC, that it plans to provide frame relay service in the US through BT Tymnet as well as throughout the UK, Europe and the Pacific Rim. BT Tymnet expects to offer the service to US customers by Jun 1991; the first offering will provide frame relay as an access interface as part of a larger three-year migration strategy that will end with the provision of broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) services. The first phase of the three-phase strategy will see the implementation of a hybrid frame relay backbone supporting TYMNET-II internodal protocol and frame relay traffic; the second will involve a wideband frame relay backbone able to transport node code traffic over frame relay; and the third will provide a broadband backbone running at T3/E3 and including support for isochronous (real-time voice and video) traffic. Communications standards: a progress report. Krechmer, Ken. Recent developments in standards for wide area network communications are discussed. The CCITT Study Group (SG) XVII plenary on Oct 23, 1990, technically approved the V.32bis modem standard, which enables full duplex operation at 14.4K-bps. Formal CCITT approval usually comes six months after technical approval. The SG XVIII plenary also technically approved automode, a description of the functions necessary to negotiate between V.32 and V.22bis modulation when a connection is established, and V.17, which enables 14.4K-bps Group 3 facsimile transmission. Currently, most Group 4 fax machines from different vendors cannot internetwork. Vendors are working to upgrade their Group 3 devices to Group 4's 300-by-300-dots-per-inch resolution. TIA 530A, an interface designed to replace the confusing V.35 48K-bps modem standard, is expected to be approved by mid-1991. The growing importance of network management systems and equipment. Network management is growing in importance as voice and data networks become increasingly complex. The market for network management services and systems is expected to balloon from $505 million in 1990 to $1.8 billion in 1995. Network management was much simpler before AT and T's divestiture, although deregulation has fueled an explosion of technological innovations. New technologies, such as microcomputers and local area networks, put greater demands on network managers. Network management addresses many different issues, but primarily it aims to keep the network up and running. Users are driving network management as much as technology. Network management capabilities have become key selling points for communications equipment. A growing trend is the outsourcing of network management. Managing DEC's enterprise-wide terminal connectivity strategy. Ghosh, Suvankar. Management of DEC's enterprise-wide network is discussed, with special emphasis on the key issues of cost, performance and interoperability. Currently, DEC terminal traffic is supported by X.25, statistical multiplexers, extended local area networks (LANs) and DECnet based on the Digital Network Architecture (DNA). DEC's worldwide network links more than 50,000 computers at transmission speeds of 9.6K-bps to 384K-bps. In the early 1980s an X.25 packet-switched network was implemented to support much of the US remote terminal traffic; that network currently has 200 nodes. Key aspects of DEC's strategy in the early to mid-1990s are distributing applications, migrating traffic to an OSI platform and managing the network under Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). An ISDN desktop central office switch for rural and remote area communications. (integrated services digital networks) High costs are slowing the implementation of integrated services digital networks (ISDN) in rural areas. Studies indicate rural users are willing to pay more for telephone services. Radio and microwave apparently makes economic sense for rural areas; but these are fundamentally limited by the available radio frequency spectrum. Using ISDN to make switches smaller and more efficient can cut rural switching costs. Modularity is a key in such switches. Such ISDN switches on microcomputer boards can cost less than $100 per line, compared to $800 for existing systems. Details of the proposed ISDN switches are given. Business watch on communication. (summary of growth in communications market) Many communication executives interviewed at the ComNet exhibition in Jan 1991 say the industry is strong despite a slow overall economy. Newbridge Pres Peter Madsen says company revenues grew from $67 million in 1989 to $121 million in 1990 and projects revenues to surpass $150 million in 1991. Rolm, Stratacom, Tekelec and others are also projecting growth in 1991. Penetration of the European and Pacific Rim market is helping many firms. The North American Telecommunications Association (NATA) expects PBX line sales to grow from 4.2 million in 1989 to 5.4 million in 1995. The profit picture has improved since 1989, when only Mitel posted a profit on PBX sales. Local area networks (LANs) are also expected to grow, with the number of peer-to-peer LANS tripling by 1995. The markets for wireless LANs and PBXs, cellular radio and personal communications networks (PCNs), Centrex customer premises equipment, service and support, and secondary equipment are also analyzed. Tapping the hidden savings in virtual networks. (hybrid networks) Luczak, Mark. Corporate network managers can realize substantial savings by using virtual networks such as MCI's Vnet, US Sprint's Virtual Private Network (VPN) and AT and T's Software Defined Network (SDN), as well as customized packages such as AT and T's Tariff 12. Hybrid networks, formed by mixing virtual networks with private corporate networks, can generate even greater savings. Hybrid networks capitalize on a key aspect of virtual networks: they cost less when traffic volume between two sites is low, but cost more when traffic is high. The greatest savings in hybrid networks will come from voice traffic. These savings come in three components: using lower-cost T1 or fractional T1 trunks instead of virtual networks; using voice compression techniques; and using low-cost, carrier-type circuits to cut off-net calling costs. The advantages of integrated circuit/packet switching systems. (includes related article on integrated circuit/packet) Users of private networks should understand the advantages network providers realize from integrating T1 circuit and X.25 packet switching systems. X.25 packet switching offers such benefits as error detection and recovery, virtual circuit multiplexing and traffic efficiencies; however, bottlenecks appear as traffic volume grows. Faster packet switching, at first provided by public data networks, provides only a partial solution. T1 transmission added to the public data networks improves transmission. X.25 control mechanisms also help to recover from T1 errors, which tend to come in bursts. Implementing circuit/packet integration with customer premises equipment (CPE) can help owners of private networks realize technical and economic benefits. Thoroughly modern modems: still the workhorse of today's networks. (analog modems) Since their inauguration in the 1960s, analog modem transmission rates have leaped from 1.200-bps to 19.2K-bps without data compression. Sustaining this transmission rate over the 3,400-Hz analog spectrum requires a sophisticated data encoding/decoding scheme. Analog modems will be required until local access lines become all-digital - a process that should take years. Their are two basic types of analog modems: dialup and leased-line. Dialup is mostly used for occasional communication between a microcomputer and a host computer. The use of several modems in one facility easily justifies the cost of leasing a private analog line and controlling access via a controller or master modem. Encoding/decoding schemes, digital signal processing, network management and dial backup are also discussed. TxPORT system design ensures cellular connection for US West. (Application Note) US West overcame several challenges when it acquired the franchise to provide a cellular telephone system for the San Diego metropolitan area. The terrain in the area includes flat beaches, rugged mountains, high-rise buildings and suburban housing developments. The wide temperature swings in the area, high winds, temperature inversions and air pollution have an adverse effect on signal quality. The company installed an NEC digital microwave radio system running at 6 and 11 GHz; the network is based on a ring architecture configured in a diamond shape to provide multiple signal paths with each radio node made up of three inbound and three outbound DS3s. The network had to be self-healing and able to reroute the signal when problems were detected without interrupting service. A combination automatic protection switch (APS)/D4 to ESF converter developed by TxPORT is used to monitor two T1 spans simultaneously. Internetworking solutions for Rockwell's Consort project. (Application Note) Rockwell International Corp began a project in 1987 intended to integrate the various computer environments in the organization into a corporate-wide communication system able to maintain access to all information for all users at all business unites. The CONSORT project entailed the use of a transcontinental Ethernet network to carry traffic from UNIX-based systems via TCP/IP, and from DEC VAX computers using the DECnet protocol. Rockwell allocated some of its nationwide T1 network to CONSORT and connected sites at various locations using T1 bridges; multiprotocol gateways were used to solve the problem of global interconnectivity. Gateways from Interlink Computer Sciences Inc were chosen for SNA-to-DECnet and TCP/IP-to-MVS connectivity, and a gateway from Wollongong Group Inc was chosen for DECnet-to-TCP/IP connectivity. High-speed cableless LAN system, introduced by BICC Communications, utilizes infrared light. (InfraLAN) (product BICC Communications debuts InfraLAN, a wireless Token Ring local area network (LAN) which uses the infrared spectrum. InfraLAN provides portability and high speed and accuracy. Infrared technology is immune to the interference that plagues radio frequency-based wireless LANs. The $2,995 InfraLAN system comprises a base unit, which serves six microcomputers, and two optical nodes for sending and receiving the infrared signals. The Token Ring system operates at 4M-bps or 16M-bps and the infrared signals are good for up to 80 feet. Each link with a microcomputer has a backup path that is automatically accessed when the primary path is blocked. InfraLAN fully complies with the IEEE 802.5 standard. Coddling up to our customers. (telecommunications technologies)(includes related list) Businesses can use telecommunications technologies to provide effective customer service. Acuvue, for example, has shortened customer verification and reduced the number of transferred calls by using an 800 number and automatic number identification to route telephone calls. The developers of Northern Telecom's Norstar have introduced several telecommunications software packages, including two packages that turn Norstar into an automatic call distributor, and packages for telemarketing, text messaging and time-and-billing applications. OAI: the dominant trend in integrated PBXs. (Open Application Interface) Open Application Interface (OAI) is having a profound effect on the PBX industry. Only three PBXs had an OAI in 1990, but 14 vendors are providing OAI for their switches in 1991, and six other vendors plan to offer OAI for their switches during 1991. OAI will be embraced by two-thirds of the voice and data PBX market by the end of 1991. The key open architecture trends having an effect on the PBX market include IBM's CallPath Services Architecture, low-end OAI, dumb switches, and the Telecom Developers trade show of 1991. Integrated PBXs. (buyers guide) A listing of selected products from 30 vendors is presented in alphabetical order by vendor name. The focus is on voice and data PBXs, particularly Open Application Interface (OAI) PBX/automatic call distributor (ACD)-to-host applications and host-to-PBX/ACD applications. Information provided for each product includes minimum and maximum trunks supported, minimum and maximum telephones supported, the type of architecture, and whether direct T1 interface and OAI are available. The features of each product are discussed in some detail. Proud to be dumb: a look at fully programmable telecom switches. (Integrated PBX) (tutorial) The most recent branch of PBX philosophy deals with fully programmable, application-driven 'dumb' switches. PBX vendors are developing switches that will not place, transfer or conference calls unless told to do so by the host computer. Vendors are delivering a fully programmable switch in a fully programmable system instead of a finished, self-contained product. The leading dumb switches include Teleos' IRX9000 ISDN Resource Exchange, Henriksen's PBXtra, Redcom's Modular Switching Peripheral, and Summa Four's SDS-1000. Capital gains: businesses benefit with better call accounting. (includes related article on Amtel's Telephone Answer Detection Businesses are beginning to reject standalone call accounting systems in favor of microcomputer-based call accounting systems, which perform as well as minicomputers and mainframe computers, but at a much lower cost. Microcomputer-based systems offer such benefits as higher processing and printing speeds, increased storage capacity, and multitasking capability. The software includes such features as graphic capabilities, export facilities, and account codes. Other call accounting capabilities include multi-site polling, improved Centrex compatibility, answer detection, and integration. Bigtime call-accounting. (includes related article on EMT NW's Universal-100/2) Large microcomputer-based call accounting systems, or those with more than 500 extensions and 500,000 call records per month, should include several key features. These features include high processing speed, the ability to handle more than 400,000 calls per 10Mbytes of memory, printer speed of 600 lines per minute, call pricing capabilities, local area network compatibility, on-site installation, real-time reporting capabilities, graphing capabilities, and toll-tape processing. Recession tips: 11 ways to trim down with call accounting. (includes related article on the Summa Prophet answer detection Telecommunications managers can use call accounting systems to control costs during a recession. Call accounting reports can be used as a tool for educating personnel, considering whether flextime would be cost-effective, redefining corporate policy for personal telephone calls, monitoring operator-assisted calls, allocating equipment costs, monitoring trunking, and checking tie-lines. These guidelines can also be used after the recession is over. Missed opportunity: interconnect tips for cashing-in on call accounting. (includes related article on INSINC's AVS answer A 1990 call accounting survey has indicated that many interconnects are ignoring opportunities for revenue, but they can take steps to reverse this trend. Interconnects should have both standalone systems and microcomputer-based call accounting systems because 62 percent of clients' systems are microcomputer-based systems, while 38 percent are standalone systems. A sales representative should be made the firm's call accounting expert, and call accounting should be listed as a separate alternative in all proposals. Finally, end users should receive adequate support of their call accounting systems. Reasons: why should you even consider purchasing a call-accounting system? (includes related article on Gemini Telemanagement's Companies can obtain many benefits from a call accounting system. Firms can eliminate abuse of the telephone system by employees, thereby reducing costs. Telephone costs can be allocated to various employees or departments, and call accounting reports can be used to verify telephone bills. The information provided by traffic analysis software can help organizations configure their communications networks for peak efficiency. More sophisticated traffic statistics packages are available in the form of simulation packages. A directory program, which indicates which employees are assigned to each station, can help firms determine which employees are making unauthorized long-distance calls. Call accounting: 1991 buyers' guide. (includes related articles on call-accounting products) (buyers guide) Call accounting products from 43 vendors are presented in alphabetical order by vendor name. Information provided for each product includes the operating environment, number of call records, account codes, prices, call pricing, vendor support, number of lines, and number of stations. The features and capabilities of each product are discussed in some detail. A table provides contact information for 50 vendors. Payphone patrol: action in the competitive payphone market. (includes related article on IntelliCall's VoiceRec and list of The market for pay telephones is competitive and prosperous. Microprocessor-based smart telephones are becoming more popular, with 50 percent of pay-phones expected to be upgraded by the end of 1993. The pay telephone industry is heavily regulated, but there is more equality in terms of regulation of long-distance carriers, AOS firms, COCOTs, and local exchange carriers. Customer service is improving, and manufacturers are ensuring that telephones will not be vandalized by surrounding them with galvanized stainless steel and using armored handsets. Cellular miscellany: little snippets of information and tips. (cellular telephones)(includes related articles on Consumers should consider several issues before purchasing a cellular telephone. Consumers should buy an inexpensive cellular telephone because all of the telephones have the same amount of power, and because the analog systems that are available will eventually be replaced by digital systems. Telephone users should be aware of the possibility of fraud, which occurs when telephone numbers are stolen and calls are charged to those numbers. The applications of cellular telephones include security, disaster recovery, and paging. One of the most important purchasing decisions involves the selection of a battery with a long life. Consumers should purchase durable telephones that will be able to withstand a reasonable amount of use. TeleMagic contact-management software. (Software Review) (evaluation) TeleMagic contact-management software can help organize contacts with customers, clients, suppliers and contacts. TeleMagic is an excellent software program, with such features as flexibility, the ability to generate personalized form letters, a very good appointment calendar, and automatic telephone-dialing capabilities. The advantages of TeleMagic include several data bases, other programs can be accessed at any time, the program can be used with the Seiko Smart Label Printer, and availability of a Developers' Kit. The package costs $495. The Concord 16 hybrid key system. (Concord Telephone) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Concord Telephone's Concord 16 analog hybrid key system is capable of accommodating as many as 16 lines and 48 stations. Forty-six of the stations can be single-line telephones. The self-diagnostic system displays text messages to users if the connections are incorrect. The Minitel video terminal is used for programming, instead of obtaining programming confirmation over the liquid crystal display. The system offers 192 programmable features, including three-party conferencing, call forwarding, and offhook monitoring. Users can conduct remote programming by writing the desired configuration on keysheets and sending the sheets by facsimile to Concord, which does all of the programming. The cost is $1,308 for the KSU, $400 for the Minitel, $142 for the executive key set, $104 for the super standard telephone, and $224 for the DSS console. Building a LAN-based office. Wohl, Amy D. Many companies can benefit from installing local area networks (LAN) but do not know how to make the transition from standalone microcomputers. Companies can buy everything from one vendor, or buy from a systems integrator, or integrate the different pieces of equipment necessary using company resources. Elements that need to be integrated include the physical LAN, including cables, connectors, and other hardware; the LAN operating system, one network server, one workstation for each user, and office application software. Setting up a network for a Macintosh system is easy, since it is equipped with a built-in LAN connector. However, there are some situations where the use of a professional is appropriate. The marriage of micrographics and optical-disk systems. (includes a related article on improving public service) Micrographics and optical-disk systems are being used simultaneously, since some companies do not want to give up their investment in microfilm. Systems that link these two technologies offer more flexibility, the maturity and dependability of micrographics, and the sophistication of optical disks. Documents can initially be stored on optical disks so that they can be accessed quickly, then moved to the less expensive microfilm system when the demand for the document diminishes. Software is a vital component when linking these technologies, allowing continuous access to documents and remaining media independent. Linking is a very expensive process, but companies are doing it. Traveling with a PC - and enjoying it. Seymour, Jim. Traveling with a laptop computer can be complicated, hauling along the power cord, transformer, batteries, disks, a modem and telephone cables. Pick a laptop that is small, but not too small to do serious work on it. Take along a fully charged spare battery, an AC power cord and a transformer. Carry a light weight 25-foot extension cord so that the portable can be set up conveniently at a hotel with hard-to-reach outlets. Purchase a 25-foot telephone extension cord with a single RJ-11 male connector on one end and a pair of RJ-11 jacks on the other end, giving you easy access to both the modem and the telephone. Bring along blank floppy disks to give to a colleague or to send back to the office. The multifunction machine: a jack-of-all-office-trades. (includes a related article on the multifunction market) The 1990s multifunction devices integrate the functions of different office tools, operating nearly equal to their individual counterparts. Machines such as printers, plain-paper facsimile units, copiers and scanners can be integrated into a single unit. The technology that enables different machines to communicate is digital. Customers are asking for such machines, wanting to protect their current investments, yet integrate with new capabilities. However, these machines do not offer flexibility, and they are not modular. If one function fails, then the device is out of service until the entire system is repaired. Document management software: the key to winning at hide-and-seek. Levy, Joel. Document management software designed for microcomputers without access to storage on mainframe computers or minicomputers enables users to search across file servers and wide area networks for documents. Users do not need to know whether the document is in a first or final version, or where it has been filed within the system. A user should be able to access a document from any application. Document management software on a local area network can be a big benefit to an information-intensive organization, such as insurance companies, banks, accounting firms and consulting organizations. The system should be client-server based with a seamless interface between applications and systems. Voice response system reacts to spoken word. (Hardware Review) (Editor's Choice; AT&T Business Communications System's Conversant AT&T Business Communications Systems has designed an automated telephone system that enables users to easily access information and retrieval services, regardless of the type of phone that is used. The Conversant Voice Information System 1 2.1 is an interactive voice-response system that enables users to input information with their natural voice. Callers respond to prompts verbally. The system recognizes fluent, continuous speech, and digits zero through nine. In addition, the system recognizes accents from every part of North America, and can accommodate larger vocabularies for customized applications. Other features of the system include prompt interrupt, enabling callers to respond to a message before it is finished. Two sound technologies. (Network File System and Remote File Sharing for UNIX System V) (Cover Story) Two distributed file systems technologies are available for UNIX System V Release 4.0: Network File System (NFS), developed by Sun Microsystems Inc, and Remote File Sharing (RFS), developed by AT&T. Distributed file systems, which provide transparent access to files throughout a network, combine the convenience and security of transparent data access with the efficiency of distributed processing. Networks running NFS can include computers running MSDOS, VMS and other operating systems. On SVR4, NFS will run on any connectionless-mode network provider. RFS works only with computers running UNIX System V; the network provider must support connection-mode service. Both NFS and RFS follow the client-server model. RFS, unlike NFS, supports the concepts of 'domains' and 'name-servers.' NFS is better for heterogeneous networks; it also offers excellent support for diskless clients. RFS, in contrast, offers strong support for users who share hardware resources as well as files. The next generation. (comparison of fourth-generation and third-generation programming languages) No consensus exists on the difference between third- and fourth-generation programming languages. Most third-generation languages are standardized, hardware-independent, typed and procedural. Operations must be detailed step by step. Most third-generation languages are general-purpose, but fourth-generation languages (4GLs) are usually intended to help design a specific type of application. 4GLs contain predefined procedures for performing such high-level operations as 'sort.' 4GL facilities are generally less flexible but more powerful than third-generation language facilities. Programming paradigms are more important in 4GLs than in third-generation languages. Many languages currently marketed as 4GLs are essentially low-level rewrites of report writers and COBOL. The development of 4GLs has been galvanized by a shortage of experienced software engineers and a desire to cut development cycles. Tested mettle. (Hardware Review) (Advance Logic Research MultiAccess Series 3000 and Wyse Technology 9000i 940 Two multiprocessing microcomputers are evaluated; while Advanced Logic Research's (ALR's) MultiAccess 3000 is rated average, the Wyse Technology 9000i Model 940 is rated good. The MultiAccess 3000 uses an ISA bus and supports one to six CPU boards, each containing a 33-MHz Intel 80386 microprocessor or a 25-MHz or 33-MHz 80 486 processor. The 9000i 940 has its own bus structure and supports one to eight 25-MHz 486 processors. The basic 486-based MultiAccess 3000 comes with one 25-MHz CPU, 8Mbytes of RAM and a 330Mbyte SCSI hard drive in a tower case for $15,999. The MultiAccess 3000 systems require SCO Unix, priced at $995. The base 9000i 940 comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, a floppy drive, a 150Mbyte tape drive, 32-user Unix license, Ethernet and SCSI controllers and a 380Mbyte hard disk for $42,605. The Unix that comes with the Wyse machine is similar to other 386-based Unix flavors, but the kernel appears to be customized. Both the ALR and the Wyse systems have impressive expansion capabilities. The Wyse's chief drawback is its price. Off the shelf: review of DOS-under-Unix software. (Software Review) (comparison of DOS-Unix capabilities of UNIX V/386 from Migrating from DOS to Unix requires making existing DOS files available on the Unix system and protecting one's investment in DOS applications and hardware. Santa Monica, CA-based Interactive Systems Corp's (ISC) UNIX V/386 operating system offers solutions to every Unix-DOS compatibility problem. Both ISC UNIX and the Santa Cruz Operation's Open Desktop (ODT) product include the PC-Interface Unix server module. ISC UNIX also comes with VP/ix Environment Core, VP/ix Environment Configuration, MS-DOS, VP/ix Environment Configuration, Dossette File Exchange Utility and DOS File Systems Support. SCO also offers ODT-DOS, an environment for handling DOS compatibility, and PCILIB, a program library that allows MSDOS programs to access PC-Interface's extended functions. Off the shelf: B-tree data-file managers. (Software Review) (evaluation of B-tree programming tools: D-ISAM from Byte Designs, Balanced-tree (B-tree) index structures use key values are used to locate matching records. Trees comprise a root node and several lower nodes, each made up of one or more keys. Records are located by moving down the B-tree and identifying a branch point at each node. A number of libraries of B-tree ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) functions have been released. Four products are evaluated: two dedicated B-tree ISAM products and two that expand on basic ISAM capabilities. Langley, British Columbia-based Byte Design's $595 D-ISAM, an enhancement and extension of C-ISAM from Informix Software is a complete and well-rounded library for experienced developers. Pasadena, CA-based Trio Systems' C-Index/II, a full implementation of B-tree ISAM, is a solid product for dedicated ISAM work that is easy to work with. Only the source code is provided. It sells for $695. Columbia, MO-based FairCom Corp's $595 c-tree Plus is the very impressive latest release of the company's venerable B-tree library. Bellevue, WA-based Raima Corp's $1,695 db_Vista is a complete, professional library. C advisor. (ANSI standardization of C programming routines) (tutorial) ANSI has standardized a large library of functions that exist in many C implementations. ANSI decided not to standardize most Unix system calls, such as chdir(), showing no interest in maintaining compatibility with BSD calls. The standards body essentially adopted used System V library routines for ANSI C. ANSI did not attempt to codify every major library package available; it concentrated on standard C library routines and header files. Most added functions are essentially rounded-out function sets or were adopted from an existing implementation such as BSD. Cross thoughts. (programming X Window System) (tutorial) Reichard, Kevin; Johnson, Eric F. Some apparently complex programming dilemmas can actually be solved quite simply. For example, all too often X Window System programmers and developers discover that the X window in which the mouse cursor currently resides will not accept keyboard input. This problem crops up most often when running an older X application on recently updated systems. The flaw often lies with the application or the way it is configured rather than with the window manager. Correcting the problem calls for setting the 'input' resource to 'True' in the application's class resource file. Other tips and techniques for handling keyboard-input problems are given. Daemons and dragons: the COPS security auditor. (tutorial) Kolstad, Rob. The COPS system is a collection of C programs and shell scripts aimed at helping system administrators fix common security gaps. COPS reports possible weak links in a system, including permissive directory, file, and device permission nodes; poor choice of passwords by users; newly added or otherwise questionable user ID files; writable files accessed by 'crontab' files or RC scripts; writable user startup files and home directories; and altered system files. COPS also features the Kuang expert system, which helps determine if one user or group could compromise the whole system. The COPS program proper is a Bourne shell script that runs and logs the results from the programs and scripts within the COPS system. Running COPS is easy; one simply types 'cops.' Much more than just the fax, ma'am. (Perfect Byte Inc's PerfectCOM combines fax, audio compression, voice mail and X Windows Perfect Byte Inc (Omaha, NE) offers an S-bus-based board, the $2,495 PerfectCOM, that combines facsimile, data modem, audio compression, voice mail and X Windows capabilities for SPARCstation workstations. Facsimile capabilities include automated dialing and answer; reception in Group III format conversion PostScript, TIFF or other raster file formats; and generation of facsimiles from PostScript, ASCII text, raster-based graphics or electronic mail files. Data modem capabilities include support of CCITT V.32 bis standard, Microcom Network Protocol levels one through five, and 14,400-bps full-duplex communications. PerfectCOM also employs the GSM audio compression standard to digitize, compress and store audio data. A 'pseudo X server' enables audio communications via the X Windows system. Other features and applications of the PerfectCOM are discussed. Open systems leave the Twilight Zone. (Digital Equipment Corp's Network Applications Support environment is an example) (column) Open systems are moving beyond software portability to include interchangeability among software components in the host environments, exemplified by Digital Equipment Corp's Network Applications Support (NAS) architecture. NAS is being evolved to be DEC's 'Information Network,' which will enable data to easily flow between heterogeneous applications on multi-vendor hardware in local and remote locations. The Information Network will be standards-based, supporting X/Open's XPG3 and the Open Software Foundation's AES 0. Four classes of NAS software will define the four central elements important to each application: data, other applications, the host system and users. The classes are Application Access, System, Communications and Control, and Information and Resource-Sharing Services. Application Programming Interfaces (API) will be implemented in each class. The son also rises. (profile of The Santa Cruz Operation's Exec VP Doug Michels) The Santa Cruz Operation's co-founder and Exec VP Doug Michels never intended to work with SCO co-founder and partner, his father Larry Michels. Workaholic Doug Michels asserts that he and his father share the same goals for the $100 million vendor UNIX operating systems and UNIX-based applications for Intel microprocessor-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers but sometimes support contrary ways of achieving them. The son also acts as an ambassador for UNIX, as is exemplified by his current presidency of the UNIX group UniForum, of which he was a founding member. Michels background, current interests and company demeanor are discussed. Motif on Sun workstations! (porting the graphical user interface to Sun Microsystems workstations, as exemplified by four products) About 20 software vendors and universities bought and ported the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface (GUI) to Sun Microsystems workstations, as is exemplified by four reviewed products. Sun does not support Motif on its own hardware because the firm is co-developer of the competing Open Look GUI, but third-party Motif products are attracting many Sun customers. Motif for Sun components and porting requirements and problems are discussed. Integrated Computer Solutions offers excellent but expensive support (first hour free) for its cost-effective $500 ICS OSF/Motif Developer's Kit 1.03. The main advantage of Quest Systems Corp's $370-plus Quest Commercial Motif 1.1 is its shared object library support. IXI Ltd's $495 IXI Motif Environment 1.03a has only 'passable documentation.' Unipalm XTech's $695 XTech Motif is the 'least desirable' version reviewed. NCR under seige (sic): while AT&T rushes to NCR to solve its own profitability woes, NCR has plenty of its own troubles ahead. NCR Corp faces a difficult time in implementing a very risky new open-systems product strategy while fighting off an AT&T attempt to take over the computer maker. Some analysts believe that AT&T will ultimately be successful in its bid, but the firm's dismal record in computer ventures is not promising for either AT&T or NCR. NCR chose to kill off its Motorola microprocessor-based Tower line of UNIX-based computers and introduce the System 3000 line of Intel 80386- and 80486-based general-purpose UNIX System V.4-based computers and related Open Systems Interconnect-based Open Networking Environment (ONE) in order to move from $6 billion to $25 billion in annual revenues by 1995. System 3000 and ONE are briefly described. The changeover required the company to make over its management and sales forces. Some analysts contend that NCR can not pursue its new strategy and fight off AT&T at the same time. Database hell. (migrating to a new data base management system) (tutorial) Moving to a new data base management system (DBMS) environment can be a complex and expensive but necessary task. Databases are often a company's most 'business critical' software, supporting several business applications and involving substantial time, money and expertise for development, use and maintenance. Unfortunately, a company can outgrow the capabilities of a DBMS but still be virtually locked into it because it is in a proprietary format, the costs are too high to convert to another one, and other business issues limit the choices. If the weights are in favor of moving to a new DBMS, then two basic tasks are ahead: moving the data and the applications that use that data to the new system. Moving the data and applications in UNIX, SQL and fourth-generation (4GL) database application language environments is discussed. 4GLs provide the most difficult problems in moving a DBMS. The debut of a new UNIX. (the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1; includes related article on slow growth of vendor support) The Open Software Foundation's new OSF/1 version of the UNIX operating system is very similar to AT&T's UNIX System V Release 4, though there are a variety of subtle and important differences that are detailed. OSF/1 is based on UNIX V.3 including the System V Interface Definition release 3 and includes Berkeley UNIX enhancements, compliance with X/Open Portability Guide version 3, symmetric multiprocessing capabilities compliant with the draft POSIX standard, application program-level multiprocessing interface, Orange Book B1-level security, support for multiple file types and support for international and multibyte character sets. OSF asserts that OSF/1 will be compatible with existing UNIX software, but only one application has yet been demonstrated to be so. Only Digital Equipment Corp appears interested in providing OSF/1 in the near future. Pricing is somewhat higher than UNIX V.4. The object-oriented database of your desire. (selecting the right object-oriented data base management system) (tutorial) Criteria for selecting an object-oriented data base management system (OODBMS) are discussed. OODBMSs are useful tools for tracking objects and their relationships. Selecting one requires a determination if one is needed in the first place. OODBMSs are useful for tracking parts and designs in computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing; multimedia applications, including office automation; tracking code objects in software engineering; and desktop publishing. Other activities facilitating the selection of an OODBMS including thoroughly testing the product before buying and evaluating the interface, programming tools, compatibility with other software, stability of the vendor, and the vendor's plans for evolving the software. One user asserts that implementing the technology requires extra time that should be planned for. Sony's portable RISC workstation: not quite a laptop, but real workstation performance. (Hardware Review) (the Sony Microsystems Co's (San Jose, CA) Sony News 3250 reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) processor-based portable workstation offers high performance but lacks battery power. The $9,900 standard News 3250 model features a MIPS R3000 17MIPS RISC processor, R3010 math processor, 64Kbytes of no-wait cache memory, 8Mbytes of memory (expandable to 36Mbytes), 240Mbyte hard disk, 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, 1,120-by-780-pixel black-and-white liquid-crystal display, thick Ethernet and SCSI connectors, non-standard Centronics parallel port, DB-9 serial port, expansion slot for Sony's 50-pin proprietary boards, all in a 17-pound laptop chassis. Sony's support for multimedia computing resulted in the presence of stereo input/output jacks and 'almost CD-quality' audio. A full-sized keyboard and three-button mouse are included. The News 3250 supports UNIX System V.4 operating system and the Motif graphical user interface. Fast track to Motif Applications: X.deskterm and SoftOption are fast and easy routes to creating X applications. (Software Review) The $1,500-plus X.deskterm from IXI Ltd (Cambridge, England) and the $1,500-plus SoftOption from Cambridge Connectivity (Cambridge, England) are 'effective' software tools for quickly converting character-based programs into ones that work under the X Window System graphical user interface (GUI). Eventually, software vendors will implement native X versions of their software. X.deskterm and SoftOption, a licensed version of X.deskterm with another functional layer added, are interim products but the only ones to provide GUI translation. X.deskterm provides a X interface and messaging process between the user and character-based software. This speeds development time and simplifies the running of applications in X Windows. SoftOption adds tools for programming of unrestricted Motif interfaces and does not require the source code for converting character-based applications. Either synchronize or clockwise. (Software Review) (PhaseII Software's Clockwise and Crosswind Technologies' Synchronize time The $995 (8-user license) Clockwise from PhaseII Software Corp (Woburn, MA) and $100-per-user Synchronize from Crosswind Technologies Inc (Felton, CA) are recommended and cost-effective time and task management software packages for individual and group use in UNIX-based environments. Businesses are demanding such groupware applications, though their successful use depends on a commitment to use them by the workers. Clockwise is an easy-to-use character-based system with a Lotus-style interface and such features as a calendar and appointment book, name and address book and to-do lists, good conflict and resource handling, but poor output on non-PostScript printers and poorly integrated data bases. Synchronize is the choice for X Windows-based workstations, and includes such features as an intuitive interface, fast scheduling, calendar, clock and calculator, but no task delegation. Playing the shell game. (UNIX operating system shell programs) (tutorial) The numerous UNIX operating system shells are all basically utility programs that run other UNIX applications. They typically work by executing a command that is typed in. Shell scripting capabilities are their most useful component, enabling the automated execution of a series of operations through the entry of a single command. UNIX versions have converged, but there are more and more diverse UNIX shells and resident command processors. Most include the AT&T Bourne shell, while some UNIX versions with Berkeley UNIX functions also include the Berkeley C shell. IEEE's POSIX 'shell and utilities' working group 1003.2 is developing an international, vendor-independent specification for a POSIX-compliant shell standard. The shell combines features of the Bourne and Korn shell plus new utilities, including ones that are used interactively. C++ class relationships. (last in a three-part series discussing C++) (tutorial) C++ programming language containment, inheritance and general container class relationships are introduced in the final part of a three-part series. The relationships are used to model data objects more accurately. Containment is demonstrated by an example 'stack' class that is developed which contains another 'vector' class, with the latter consisting of components employed by the former. Inheritance is shown to be a method of implementing a new 'derived' class through addition to or specializing another 'base' class. Objects in the derived class inherit behaviors from the base class. Methods for limiting the behavior of derived objects, protecting access in the base class, and the use of private and public inheritance area also discussed. Of central importance to these capabilities is the fact that they enable the efficient reuse of programming code. Computers keep funds in mint condition: a major money manager combines the scientific approach with human ingenuity. (Mint The investment and money management firm Mint Investment Management Co uses a completely automated quantitative investing method. The company uses computerized decision support systems and custom software developed in-house. Computers are favored because they are non-thinking, unemotional machines capable of making decisions based entirely on statistical information. After being in business for 10 years, Mint's managed assets are just over one billion dollars, and its average annual compounded rate of return is about 24 percent. The company now manages mixed asset funds of whatever is liquid, including foreign and domestic futures, US equities and international currencies. The firm trades over 60 different futures markets and 50 different interbank cross rates via its Sun Microsystems SPARCstations and servers running UNIX and the Sybase relational DBMS. The diversification means the fund would not be substantially injured if loss occurs in one trade, which is fairly small compared to the entire portfolio. Spotlight turns to systems at derivatives exchanges. (Exchange Derivatives) The combination of the Persian Gulf War and the recession may help the US derivatives markets recognize the advantages of automation. The biggest challenge is keeping the most important futures and options markets liquid over time. Foreign futures and options exchanges are highly automated, which results in reduced transaction costs and greater efficiency. Globex, an after-hours automated trading system that is one of two technological approaches under development in the US, is a joint project of Reuters and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It is scheduled to be activated in mid-1991, despite some analysts' concerns with the prominent role that Reuters is playing in the project, providing the network and terminals to members of participant exchanges. Despite the development of Globex, the US futures and options exchanges are playing catch up in the field of trading automation. The open-outcry tradition in the US markets is strongly supported and may prove difficult to dislodge even with increased competition from the electronic trading systems in France, Germany and other countries. Systems emerge to hedge risk in OTC equity derivatives markets. (over-the-counter trading) (OTC Derivatives) American and European banks that create the financial instruments and the brokerage houses that trade them are increasing their involvement in the OTC equity derivatives market because it is one of the few areas in which they can make money. Investment banks creating these instruments do so through custom software written in-house, relying only on their own systems to set prices and structures, and perform analyses. Even though investment banks reject 'analytics' created by software companies, some software boutiques, such as Algorithmics, believe they have more expertise in and special models for analyzing derivatives than the investment banks. A variety of systems and knowledge-based technology is used to manage equity derivatives with multiple exposures to other instruments. In addition to Algorithmics' HedgeWatch, there is also Analytic's MarketMind and Maxus Systems' Capri. Lexington's second revolution: Tartaglia rides again. (Nunzio Tartaglia and DerivaTech Inc. in Lexington, MA)(includes related Nunzio Tartaglia, who headed the trading and research departments at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Morgan Stanley, has left Wall Street to start his own money management company in Lexington, MA. Tartaglia says the most important factors in using state-of-the-art technology for trading applications are not the huge resources of a global investment bank, but vision and will. Tartaglia and his partner, Richard Bartels have a new company known as DerivaTech Inc. They are creating, with the help of a trader, an applications engineer and two existing systems, Quantex and MarketMind, a system for trading baskets and pairs of stock. The minimum DerivaTech account size is $10 million, and the firm presently has one Far Eastern client. Tartaglia incorporates Zen philosophy and his background in physics in his singular point of view towards the trading business and electronic trading systems. However, Tartaglia is currently taking his time in developing DerivaTech and exploring other applications of technology in the financial markets. Shrinking technology puts power in users' hands. (use of hand-held computers by options and futures traders) (New Technology) Hand-held computers are being taken more seriously and used more often by businesses. Futures and options traders are using 'palm-top' devices on the trading floor to improve their productivity and to retrieve trade data more efficiently. Although signs of portables replacing desktop computers are already evident, there is no dominant technology at such an early point in the revolution. These lightweight computers are, however, part of several exchanges plans for automation of trading. The Poqet weighs about 1.2 pounds, includes a 77-key keyboard familiar to any MS-DOS-based microcomputer user, a full 80-character by 25-line screen, MS-DOS compatibility and runs on two AA batteries for about 100 hours. The Atari Portfolio has an options application developed by Naditch Consulting, and uses the Scholes pricing model with some proprietary modifications to analyze options and risk management for market makers in the trading pits. Both models resemble the PC model with typewriter style keyboards for interaction with the programs. Specialized units, with tiny often touch-activated screens and limited numbers of keys, are used for specific applications on factory floors, in hospitals and by Federal Express employees. Why U.S. markets are losing their competitive edge. (Viewpoint) (column) Two prominent factors contribute to the shift of global investments away from the US and into overseas markets: government regulation and automation. The US market regulations are the most stringent in comparison to other countries, resulting in a serious detriment to their ability to compete internationally. US restrictions on program trading, requirements to trade on the floor and the regulation of the futures market are significantly different than the rules extant in other countries. Tight regulations drive volume overseas and increase the cost of doing business, causing traders to seek out more efficient and less expensive places to do business. The US markets also lag in automation. While several foreign stock exchanges have implemented automation, US exchanges have yet to launch a single automated trade execution system, further eroding the US share of global trading. MP calls for test case over student hackers. (UK Member of Parliament Tony Colvin, Computer Misuse Act of 1990) Tory MP Michael Colvin, who worked for the passage of the Computer Misuse Act, says Coventry Polytechnic should prosecute two computer science students who gained access to a password master list and obtained complete control of the campus network. The sought-after prosecutions would be a test case; no one has been prosecuted under the act, which became law Aug 28, 1990. Coventry Polytechnic wants to determine if the students actually sabotaged the network. The Computer Misuse Act bars using a computer to gain unauthorized access to programs or data on another computer, even if no physical damage is done. Polytechnic staffers say prosecution could gravely damage the students' careers. Battle starts for workstation lead. (Mips Computer Systems, Sun Microsystems and Motorola are among A new consortium reportedly will attempt to standardize on a workstation architecture that will compete directly with Sun Microsystems Inc's market-dominating SPARC. The current workstation market is much like the microcomputer market of the early 1980s, in which heated competition among microprocessor-makers led to Intel products being accepted as the industry standard. Compaq and DEC are among the hardware vendors in the new consortium, which will back reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) processors from Mips Computer Systems. Microsoft and the Santa Cruz Operation, which leads the market for microcomputer-based Unix, have also reportedly joined the consortium. Motorola and its acolytes in the 88Open group are pushing the Motorola 88000 architecture as the wave of the future. The outcome of the battle for the RISC market has yet to be determined. Beaming knowledge down from the skies. (using satellites in technical training) The use of satellite broadcasting for remote training is a small but growing market. The BSB's Computer Channel has already fallen by the wayside. One survivor is the European Programme of Advanced Continuing Education (Europace). Europace provides education directly to technical workers in fast-changing fields such as artificial intelligence. Traditionally, technical workers who wanted to stay up-to-date on their fields have relied on specialized journals and conferences. Europace was launched in 1989 by a consortium of high-tech firms, including DEC and British Telecom. It addresses five disciplines: advanced manufacturing technologies, artificial intelligence, software engineering, telecommunications and microelectronics, as well as technology management. Europace currently broadcasts about two hours a day, or 400 hours a year. Have you the hallmarks of a true professional? (searching for a job in the information technology market) (column) Workers often react with unwarranted fear to the prospect of a recession. 'Recession' does not mean a shrinking economy; rather, it means slowed growth, in which opportunities and jobs will continue to multiply at a somewhat reduced pace. Intelligent job-seekers in the information technology (IT) field with traditional skills, such as Cobol or C programmers or IBM mainframe operators, need not worry. The UK still faces a shortage of qualified IT personnel. The UK market is rapidly bifurcating into two camps. On the one side are those lacking traditionally attractive skills, and on the other side are those with the sought-after skills. Short-term prospects are grim for the first group, but good for the second. Fighting in the face of recession? (a look at the CAD/CAM industry in the UK) The recession has hit hard the computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) industry. Because users are performing CAD work on Apple Macintosh II and Intel 80386-based microcomputers, Cambridge, England-based market research firm Cambashi is predicting the first-ever decline in the CAD/CAM workstation market. UK CAD/CAM firms have undergone a rash of buyouts, layoffs and shut-downs in early 1991. One firm that is prospering is Autodesk UK. Autocad, the world's most popular CAD program, accounted for an estimated 121 million pounds sterling of the total UK CAD hardware, software and services market of 482 million pounds sterling in 1989. Autodesk UK recently debuted Release II of Autocad, which includes three-dimensional solids modeling. Ports to Unix and the Apple Macintosh are planned for 1991. Autocad's popularity derives from its open architecture, which allows third-party software developers to make their own enhancements. Freedom from the shackles of proprietary systems. (developing standards for computer-aided design) (includes related article on Computer-aided design (CAD) frameworks are emerging. These frameworks aim to free electronic design automation (EDA) users from their traditional situation of being locked into vendors' proprietary hardware, software and database architectures. CAD frameworks aim to provide common user interfaces and database links, enabling tools from different vendors to be used together. Development and verification of frameworks is managed by the Boulder, CO, USA-based CAD Framework Initiative, an ad hoc group founded in 1988. In Europe, the University of Paderborn and Siemens-Nixdorf are working on the Cadlab workstation design environment, while the electrical engineering department of the Delft University of Technology has developed the Nelsis integrated-circuit design system. Both Cadlab and Nelsis have been submitted to the CAD Framework Initiative. No room to move in the job market. (survey of job opportunities in electronic data processing) (includes related article on how the The SSP/Computer Weekly magazine Quarterly Survey of Recruitment Data and Trends saw the number of pages of job advertisements fall 30 percent to an all-time low in the last quarter of 1990. That quarter was also the sixth straight of declining job ads. The median salary increase for all surveyed job categories was 8.4 percent for the year. Average salaries offered in 1990 ranged from 9,305 pounds sterling for a junior operator to 33,044 pounds sterling for management consultants. Cobol remains the most-demanded job skill. In 1990, 18,105 positions required Cobol, compared to 8,981 positions requiring C, the second-most demanded skill. Unix, IBM CICS and IBM DB2 rounded out 1990's top five. Factories plug in just-in-time. (small UK firms turning to just-in-time and other computer-integrated manufacturing systems) Ironically, Japan's work ethic and successful application of information technology (IT) to manufacturing are having a beneficial impact on small UK suppliers. These smaller UK firms are becoming part of the Japanese multinationals' chain of just-in-time systems; in the process, they are re-evaluating their attitudes toward computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). In the 1980s, UK multinationals invested huge sums in adopting such Japanese techniques as just-in-time and Kaban, an inventory management system developed by Toyota. Many smaller firms believed they could not afford such systems. But just-in-time forges stronger ties between contractors and suppliers. The smaller UK firms are also learning that investment in IT can help a firm remain competitive on the world market, even in tough economic times. BICC rides recession with PCs. (BICC Cables making good use of local area network) BICC Cables, one of the UK's biggest construction and wiring firms, says its two-year-old local area network (LAN) of microcomputers is helping it weather the recession. The Ethernet LAN in Prescot, Merseyside, allows sales managers to access and manage sales and order information on an ICL Superdual 2960 mainframe computer in Penrith, Cumbria. The LAN consists of an Apricot VX FT file server supporting about 50 Apricot Qi computers. dBase IV databases with information about construction projects and BICC Cable's competition reside on the LAN. BICC Cables is trying to promote the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) among its customers; so far, however, only one in 50 does so. BICC Cables also runs a nationwide X.25 network. Protocols take a standard approach. (planning on standardizing on a single set of protocols) Transport and network protocols, such as TCP/IP and Xerox's XNS, enable the transfer of data between different networks. By 1995, most large organizations will realize large savings and fewer management headaches by migrating their current amalgam of networks to a common communications utility that uses a single, standard set of transport and network protocols. The best candidates for a standardized protocol are TCP/IP and the International Standards Organization's ISO, although XNS offers another option. Network managers should prepare for standardizing on one protocol set by investigating routers and Ethernet and Token Ring bridges; familiarizing themselves with the CMIP and SNMP network management standards; and considering abandoning SNA as a terminal-to-IBM-mainframe link. Laptop PC drives nV/m electric fields. (Compaq's battery-powered laptop microcomputer) A battery-powered laptop microcomputer from Compaq is an important part of a system for simulating small nV/m underwater electric fields. Washington University School of Medicine's Timothy Tricas and University of Nebraska graduate student Scott Michael used the system in an experiment to study the behavior of stingrays. The system, which is enclosed in a water-resistant case, includes a 12-bit multiplying digital-to-analog converter and an isolation amplifier. The isolation amplifier is capable of rejecting common-mode noise by as much as 120 decibels, thus avoiding distortion of the amplifier's output to the electrodes. Airborne experiments study superconducters at zero gravity. Novellino, John. Researchers are investigating the effects of gravity on the production of high-temperature superconducting (HTSC) materials. The electrical properties of HTSC materials are related to their microstructure, which is affected by gravity. A computer-controlled furnace has been placed on board NASA's KC-135 parabolic-flight aircraft by researchers at Space Industries International Inc and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The HTSC material is melted by the furnace, and it resolidifies while the aircraft is in near-zero gravity, which lasts approximately 20 seconds. A video camera and a VCR are helping researchers to analyze the data. Analog multiplier IC works from Dc to 200 MHz. (Elantec Inc.'s EL2082 integrated circuit)(includes related article) (product Elantec Inc's EL2082 analog multiplier integrated circuit (IC) has a two-quadrant current-mode architecture that can maintain accuracy while extending bandwidth. The EL2082 uses current steering to achieve its full-power bandwidth of 150 MHz. The wide bandwidth allows the IC to be located in a fast operational amplifier's feedback loop. The applications for the IC include manual gain control of wideband and fast-slewing signals, and changing the frequency response of active filters. The EL2082 is a good modulator and demodulator, and it can be adapted to mixing and multiplexing multiple signals. EDA tools evolve to suit MCM designers. (electronic design automation, multichip modules)(includes related article on Electronic design automation (EDA) vendors are starting to introduce design tools that will support multichip module (MCM) technology. EDA vendors are experiencing difficulties, however, because MCMs have features of both microcomputer boards and integrated circuits (IC). Most EDA vendors have opted to modify current board or hybrid design tools, some are approaching MCMs from the IC side, and others are combining elements of both board and IC design tools. EDA vendors should work closely with MCM designers to identify what is required in MCM design tools. Correct-by-construction design techniques will become more common in the future. Hierarchy and partitioning are two key features of MCM design tools, and the major elements of MCM computer-aided design tools include place and route, physical evaluation, and thermal evaluation. Additions to the VXIbus standard will enhance operating performance. (Test & Measurement) Members of the VXIbus consortium are planning to make additions to the VXIbus standard that will ensure interoperability and improve performance. Members are also testing products for interoperability, testing the robustness of the standard, and adding standard mnemonics to increase the use of common VXI resources. The consortium has developed the block data format to reduce the bottleneck arising from the interpretation of high-level commands. The consortium has described how and where block binary data is put into memory, and it has agreed on a few number formats, including 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit integer formats, and 32-bit and 64-bit real formats. The consortium plans to make sure that test-software architecture is fully defined. Configuring your first VXIbus test setup. (Test & Measurement) Desjardin, Larry. Users can successfully configure a VXIbus test setup by following a step-by-step process. The first step is to select the proper instrument modules, accounting for the measurement requirements, usually in terms of source, sensor, and switching functionality. The next step is to select additional system modules, such as the VXIbus Slot 0 module, command interpreters, and internal computers. Selection of the mainframe can be simplified by having the manufacturer of the largest number and highest power-density modules make a recommendation. This step is followed by determining the configuration, installing the modules, and beginning the application programming process. Synthesis tools complete front-to-back EDA system. (electronic design automation)(Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Improvisor and Cadence Design Systems Inc's Improvisor and Optivisor synthesis tools represent the first commercial design-synthesis tools developed as an important part of framework-based electronic design automation systems. The capabilities of the products include the synthesis of designs of more than 20Kbyte gates, one library for all verification functions, and timing-driven constraints during the design cycle. An important advantage of the synthesis technology is that it is tightly integrated with a proven design environment, including existing libraries, simulation documentation, and verification tools. Improvisor uses mixed-level hardware description language inputs to produce gate-level descriptions, while Optivisor optimizes the gate-level circuits produced by Improvisor. Chip suits telecom, datacom control. (Siemens AG's SAB 82532 multiprotocol communications controller) (product announcement) Siemens AG's SAB 82532 serial multiprotocol communications controller allows designers to implement all serial interfaces for data communications and telecommunication applications by using a single type of controller and uniform software. The SAB 82532 facilitates software design by offering two independent full-duplex serial channels. The chip is capable of controlling synchronous data transfer rates of up to 10M-bps and asynchronous data transfer rates of as high as 2M-bps. Data communications applications include office computers, X.25-interface workstations, and multiprotocol communications cards. Telecommunications applications include data packet assembly and disassembly, the implementation of serial data channels, and ISDN applications. Bus-master chips simplify smart network card design. (PLX Technology Inc.'s 90X0) (product announcement) PLX Technology Inc's 90X0 interface chips can simplify the implementation of bus-master cards for the IBM Micro Channel, AT buses, and the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus. The interface chips will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of a bus-master network card by eliminating several of the simpler chips on the card. The bus versions of the 90X0 interface chips all have identical configuration registers, which can be used in such applications as static or dynamic programming of board identification information, and four user-definable programmable configuration bits. The first application-specific group of the 90X0 chips will tie directly into local area network support chips from Intel, National Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments. Cable tv in phone challenge. (FCC allows the testing of local networks) Three major cable television companies have received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to build experimental telephone networks. The ruling is seen as a considerable threat to established local telephone companies that already provide conventional cellular service. The new networks would allow users to utilize small pocket-sized telephones. The cable television companies would ultimately have to replace existing coaxial cables with high-capacity optical fibers. Analysts believe that many companies already have plans for the transition even though it would call for major investments of capital. The new networks would require the tying together of numerous low-powered radio towers. The towers resemble the existing cellular radio towers but would be capable of detecting the fainter signals. NCR amends bylaws to expand board size. Shapiro, Eben. NCR Corp amends its corporate bylaws in a further attempt to foil the hostile takeover by AT&T. The new bylaws will allow for the board of directors to be expanded to 20 and to appoint one of the new members chairman. The move is seen as a tactical move to thwart AT&T's attempts to oust the current chairman, Charles E. Exley Jr., from the board. Exley is one of four directors standing for re-election at NCR's annual meeting on Mar 28, 1991. The change in the bylaws requires a vote of approval from the majority of board members and 80 percent of the directors who have served continuously in the preceding two years. A majority of stockholders is required to vote on new directors, and 66 percent favor a takeover by AT&T. Even if Exley does lose his elected position at the annual meeting, the remaining board members can vote to expand the board, re-elect him, and then appoint him acting chairman. Bringing Futurebus+ on-board. (Futurebus Manufacturers and Users Group meeting) Board-level components are now availble for the design of systems based on the Futurebus+ high performance bus standard. The 64-bit processor board interconnection architecture was the topic at the Futurebus Manufacturers and Users Group (FMUG) in Windsor, England, in mid-Feb 1991. The NR3000-1 developed for the US Navy's Next Generation Computing Resources program is the first commercially available Futurebus+ board in the UK. The board is designed for systems ranging from diskless single-board computers to multiprocessor Unix-based systems. Force Computers has a range of modules for circuit designers, mezzanine boards that can be mounted on existing VME boards. National Semiconductor offers a bridging device that links Futurebus+ to the high-speed Multibus II bus architecture. Macro Group is offering ASIC support. French fight for MAC standard. (D2-MAC satellite broadcast standard) The commercial success of the rival PAL standard is threatening the D2-MAC standard, but the French government is still behind it. The French are lobbying the European Commission on behalf of D2-MAC and formed an association to promote the standard. Commercial pressure from Astra satellites and technical difficulties with French broadcasts, along with the failure of its only commercial backer, are inhibiting success of the standard. Two transponders on the French MAC satellite failed in Oct 1990, stalling negotiations with TV service providers in November. Two more MAC satellites will be launched in 1991. The telecommunications commissioner is pushing to make all TV satellites to use the D2-MAC format. Chip reference price: who benefits most? (European Commission says DRAM reference price is designed to protect European memory chip The European Commission's (EC) attempts to regulate DRAM memory chip prices are drawing criticism for making European DRAMs too expensive to compete while guaranteeing Japanese chip makers a profit. The EC is raising 1Mbit DRAM prices in Europe while they are falling around the world. The increase in the reference price for the first quarter is blamed. The DRAM reference price system is designed to protect European memory chip makers from unfair competition and provide European equipment makers with access to the technology. The STACK consortium of electronic equipment makers accuses chip makers of manipulating the reference price for their own benefit. The future chip technology and threat of Japanese technological supremacy is the strongest argument for reference price supports. Home automation team raise Europe's standard; (a pan-European team's standard home automation architecture) Research shows most Europeans like the concept of a home automation system, but few are ready to buy; wary consumers want standards established first. The Esprit home automation architecture allows the user to begin with a minimum level of services and add to it later. The datagram packet data transmission protocol, the heart of the system, passes information around the network. Each device stands alone, but when networked can take advantage of the other devices on the network. The typical home system will grow in clusters, starting with home entertainment systems and progressing to security or energy management systems. The Esprit proposal is currently under consideration by the European Commission. No thanks for the memory. (price of memory) Jackson, Peter. Proprietary memory layouts designed by microcomputer manufacturers make it difficult for users to buy chips and install them themselves. PC manufacturers can set up a temporary monopoly in memory upgrades and charge whatever prices they want, regardless of real costs. Manufacturers have ways to keep an exclusive hold on users' memory purchases. Standard memory boards are rare in the laptop market. Only laptop models from Toshiba and Compaq, the most popular designs, have third-party memory expansion options available. Miniature circuit boards offered by microcomputer manufacturers sometimes have RAM chips surface-mounted, and only available from the original manufacturer. The keys to your system. (questions that face users over DOS, OS/2, Presentation Manager and Windows)(includes related article Computer users can be frustrated by the fact that software capability lags behind the capability of hardware. One example is the Intel 80386 processor, on which many users have been running software designed for the 8088 processor found on the original IBM PC. Microsoft has finally announced operating system strategy for the full 32-bit 386 computing environment. This development comes four years after ALR and Compaq produced the first 80386-based microcomputers. Microsoft's new strategy is based on Windows and on OS/2. Applications are to be written fully for the 386 as well. Much of the rewrite for OS/2 will involve the kernel, or as referred to by Microsoft, New Technology. RISC devices will be easier to port after the changes. The major difference will be the lack of an exposed API; programs will not be able to address the operating system directly. OS/2 - the reality. (real performance issues are complex)(includes related article on Posix) (Cover Story) OS/2 1.3, from IBM, has new features such as new font technology from Adobe, extensive printer support, lower memory requirements, and the addition of the REXX language. Adobe Type Manager has been added and creates an improved style of characters displayed on the screen. Unfortunately, Type Manager is embedded in Presentation Manager and the user has no access to it. The most notable improvement is speed; screen redraw is touted to operate up to 10 times the speed of OS/2 1.2. Users should not expect OS/2 1.3 to run properly with a couple of applications in 2Mbytes memory. OS/2 will load, and one medium application will run in 2Mbytes. For anything beyond that, the user needs to add to that amount the memory required by the additional applications. Standard Edition users should plan for 4- to 6Mbytes on their machine. Extended Edition users should plan for 6- to 8Mbytes. Lateral Thinx. (Software Review) (Bell Atlantic's Thinx was of representing data graphically) (evaluation) Thinx, from Bell Atlantic, is a 485 pounds sterling graphical data manager distributed in the UK by Tashki Computer Systems. The program has multiple levels of abstraction that can be a problem for users to understand. Objects are the basic data item and are equivalent to a record in a traditional data base. Each object has its own graphical image associated with it. All the graphical images are drawn with the Thinx palette of drawing tools. Miniature representations of the graphics symbols are placed in the Object Palette. Formula objects can also be entered, which are applied to the values stored in other data objects. The formula objects are built by choosing table and attribute names from lists in a dialog box and linking them with built-in functions. Thinx could compete with traditional data base tools if it had better ways of retrieving and analyzing information. Overall, performance is good. First past the post. (Software Review) (electronic mail) (evaluation) Pinboard, from the UK firm Threadz, is an effective 79.95 pounds sterling electronic-mail program. Users can be on a network, or a single machine. The product has a facility that replaces the Windows desktop with itself, so that it is always revealed when the application is minimized to an icon. Pinboard supports almost 30 note styles (Windows bitmaps) which are easy to copy, modify or recreate with Windows Paint. Network users can choose the recipient of the note from a scrolling list box or broadcast to all members of a group. On receipt, there are 32 alarms to choose from, or the user can write an original alarm theme to let the recipient know the message has arrived. Discarded notes go up in flames in the 'waste basket'. Perfect partners. (Software Review) (New Wave 3.0 desktop document manager) (evaluation) New Wave 3.0, from Hewlett Packard, is a good performing desktop document manager with excellent engineering. The 129 pounds sterling package is fundamentally no different from the previous version but adds a number of significant enhancements. A major addition is the 'intelligent agent' tool, a macro that operates across multiple applications and compound documents. The macros can be produced by writing in the New Wave 3.0 Agent language directly, or users can record the set of actions they desire and then store the result, which is saved as an agent task. Agent tasks can drive applications without ambiguities or keystroke recording. MS-DOS and Windows programs must be encapsulated for use with New Wave. A problem for New Wave may come up when the new Object Linking and Embedding spec for Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange mechanism enters the market, doing all the things that New Wave 3.0 does now. Vectra 486/33T. (Hardware Review) (tower-style microcomputers) (evaluation) The Vectra 486/33T, 7,859 pounds sterling from Hewlett Packard, is a high-end tower style Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) microcomputer. General characteristics, engineering and performance are rated excellent. The Vectra 486/33T is based on the Intel 80486 microprocessor, has 12 expansion slots (eight EISA slots), total memory capacity between 2Mbytes and 32Mbytes, features six half-height bays for storage devices, HP 16-bit SuperVGA video board, and both floppy and hard disk controllers. New Wave 3.0 runs on Vectra, as does Windows 3.0. An improvement could be made with a monitor supporting higher resolution display modes. This may be one of the few machines around on which New Wave 3.0 runs at peak performance. All things to all men? (Hardware Review ) (ICL DRS 3000 microcomputer) (evaluation) The ICL DRS 3000, from ICL, is a 17,995 pounds sterling Unix-based high-end microcomputer with good performance, engineering, documentation, ease of use and general characteristics. The machine has a small footprint of 16 x 15 inches and stands 24 inches high. A typical configuration weighs in at around 70 pounds. Front panel LCD display and controls can be controlled by two keys that call up several menus on the LCD. The two buttons are an inferior approach. The server-type box is air cooled and can be annoying to persons sitting close by. The system features two full-height bays for hard disks, and users can choose between 330- or 660Mbyte drives interfaced to a bus mounted SCSI adapter with a 5Mbyte per second maximum data rate. There is an EISA bus with five free slots. An external 128Kbyte pre-processor cache supplements the standard 8Kbyte cache RAM. Mail by numbers. (Software Review) (QuickAddress data base of postal addresses) (evaluation) QuickAddress, an 875 pounds sterling data base for addresses, is an excellent product from QuickAddress Systems. The product provides a quick method to address mail and save money. QuickAddress is a compilation and condensation of the 23 million addresses in the UK Post Office Postcode Address File. The UK file takes 2Gbytes of disk space; the QuickAddress data base uses 6Mbytes of disk space. There is a TSR application that cuts the time needed to enter address data and check for inaccuracies. The price entitles the owner to two upgrades per year; after that upgrades are 400 pounds sterling. QuickAddress is highly recommended for mail order companies, direct marketing organizations, mailing houses, data preparation bureaus, financial institutions and anyone who needs to save time and money addressing mail. Editors at large. (Software Review) (program editors) (evaluation) Whitehorn, Mark. Four program editors are evaluated, three are rated excellent, one is rated good. Basic Reconfigurable Interactive Editing Facility (BRIEF), from Software Paradise, is a good 185 pounds sterling program with moderate ease of use and documentation. BRIEF is an adaptable editor with a strong macro language. The macro is like C and can be used to write extra commands or string existing commands together. After the macro is compiled it can be called up any time within BRIEF. The Professional Editor is an excellent fully featured editor from Software Generation. The 195 pounds sterling program is user friendly and can be mouse driven. Professional Editor has a facility to undo an unlimited number of keystrokes. C++, a 159.95 pounds sterling integrated editor from Borland International, is an excellently engineered product that is user friendly; C++ incorporates a macro language. 'E dot com' is a Norton Editor, a part of the Norton Utilities. This simple editor has excellent engineering, is 45 pounds sterling, is user friendly and has good performance; it can be purchased from Trisoft. Brother HL-4PS. (Hardware Review) (laser printer) (evaluation) Robinson, Gail. The Brother HL-4PS PostScript laser printer, 1,495 pounds sterling from Brother Business Machines, is a moderate product with good documentation. The four page per minute personal printer is Macintosh compatible and incorporates Appletalk emulation. A floppy disk with printer utilities and fonts for the Macintosh is bundled with the printer. HL-4PS can also emulate an HP LaserJet IIP and act as a PostScript-compatible using BR Script. Extra memory can be stored in expansion slots at the back of the printer for a maximum of 6Mbytes; 2Mbytes come standard. Output quality is average. Cashbook. (Software Review) (accounting software) (evaluation) Needham, Mark. Cashbook 4.5, from Freeway Software, is a good 15 pounds sterling accounting software package. Features include a bank reconciliation module, three-digit nominal codes to create a chart of accounts, and the ability to print an income and expenditure statement. It produces a summary that is not exactly a profit and loss account, however it provides a rough guide as to whether any money has been made. Cashbook is available as shareware; the user has to phone the manufacturer to receive a free license number. Calculations include Gross Profit, Net Profit, and Increase in Cash/Bank. The program operates as a general cashbook, so the user can log receipts and payments and reconcile accounts with a bank statement. Locland 386-20S. (Hardware Review) (80386SX-based microcomputer) (evaluation) Locland 386-20S, from Locland Computer, is a good Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer priced at 1,295 pounds sterling. Locland features a Super VGA option with 1Mbyte DRAM, 42Mbyte hard disk, 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy disk drives. The 1,000 pounds sterling version features Windows 3.0, DOS 4.01 and a Microsoft Mouse. Maximum on-board memory is 8Mbytes expandable to 16Mbytes. Other features include two serial ports, one parallel port, three free 16-bit slots, and two 8-bit slots. Hard disk options are available from 42Mbytes to 320Mbytes. The highest priced version is the VGA model with 320Mbytes memory for 2,495 pounds sterling. High performance is provided by a Chips and Technologies NEAT chipset. Psion MC200. (Hardware Review) (laptop computer) (evaluation) Smith, Sid. The Psion MC200 is an excellent laptop computer priced at 495 pounds sterling. The machine rates excellent in general characteristics, documentation and engineering. User friendliness and performance are good. This model is the best value in the Psion line of laptops. The memory cards used by the MC200 are credit card sized, the case is beautifully detailed, and the unit weighs in at 4.3 pounds. Features include a 75-hour battery life, 7.68 MHz 80C86 processor, 256Kbytes RAM, full travel keyboard and a serviceable screen, although it is rather dark. The machine has a Macintosh-like front end and a touch-sensitive pad between the keyboard and the screen. There is a word processor and an excellent undo facility. The calculator input box holds over 100 characters and shares many functions of the ROM-resident OPL programming language. Lotus Works. (Software Review) (integrated software) (evaluation) Annesley, Angela. Lotus Works, available for 145 pounds sterling from Lotus Development, is an integrated software package with excellent documentation and good performance. The product is designed with the novice user in mind and offers six applications in one package: word processing, spreadsheet, data base, spell checker and thesaurus, graphics, and communications. Lotus Works allows the user to work on nine documents at once; only two documents can be viewed on the screen at any one time. Features of the data base include mailmerge, selected recall, and programming functions. The spreadsheet uses the same file structure as Lotus 1-2-3, however there is no support for 1-2-3 macros. The printing procedure is complex and difficult. Personal R:Base. (Software Review) (menu-driven database manager) (evaluation) Personal R:Base, from Microrim, is a 99 pounds sterling menu-driven data base manager with good performance, engineering and general characteristics. The product could be improved with a Windows front-end and SQL capabilities. Personal R:Base uses the same files as R:Base for DOS and R:Base for OS/2. Personal can access and edit dBase III Plus files, however there is no R:Base programming development language, command line operation, multiuser capability or ANSI 2 SQL, as are shipped with full versions of R:Base. Personal R:Base includes a version of HIMEM.SYS for those with over 640Kbytes memory; a video memory utility is included for others. Data is stored in tables, and the software follows a relational theory of data base management, similar to Paradox. Personal R:Base is more user friendly than dBase and less technical than Paradox. Word processors. (includes evaluations of DisplayWrite 5.1 and WordPerfect 5.1) (buyers guide) Forty-five word processing packages are listed in this buyers' guide. Information includes supplier name and number, product name, price, macros and general specifications for each product. WordPerfect 5.1 and DisplayWrite 5.1 are featured. DisplayWrite 5.1, from IBM, is a good 425 pounds sterling word processing package that is functional but not outstanding in any way. DisplayWrite has support for 83 printers from most major manufacturers. The manual is not especially helpful for new users. WordPerfect 5.1, from WordPerfect UK, is an excellent 425 pounds sterling word processing package that offers power and versatility. The product has 25 percent of the market in the UK. WordPerfect features extensive printer support with printer preview option. The manual consists of three bound volumes (reference parts I and II, plus a workbook). Big Blue cultivates new markets by thinking small; eschewing the 'do-it-ourselves' approach, IBM buys into niche players. (IBM buys Since early 1988, IBM Corp has acquired more than $500 of equity in small US businesses. Analysts regard this as an attempt by the computer giant to forge new revenue by expanding into niche markets. Some analysts also view this as an indication that IBM has finally recognized that if it is to remain as a market leader, it must to ensure leading business applications are tailored to IBM computers. IBM even has a separate business unit, the Application Solutions Division, to ensure that the company has an application for every major segment of every major market. Software publishers look upon an alliance with IBM as a ready-made way to boost unit sales. IBM investment in a company is often viewed by analysts as a marketing technique, showing the industry that it is serious about a specific product line or planned development. Compaq confirms talks on setting industry standard for workstations. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp has confirmed that it is negotiating with hardware and software companies, intending to form an industry coalition to develop workstation standards. Analysts view this as an attempt by the company to break into the lucrative workstation market. The new product could be based on Mips Computer Systems Inc's R4000 workstation microprocessor, and Compaq confirms that both Mips and software giant Microsoft Corp have been approached concerning the alliance. The alliance is a threat to workstation market leader Sun Microsystems Inc, which already has enlisted companies including AT&T to support its Scalable Product Architecture (SPARC) hardware. Some analysts believe that, if an alliance such as this is to succeed, it must begin within the next two years. Sony forms unit to link software, hardware lines. (Sony Electronic Publishing) Sony Corp has created a unit called Sony Electronic Publishing. The unit, which will be part of Sony Software Corp, will create and distribute software for use with microcomputers and other electronic hardware. Sony Electronic Publishing aims to take advantage of the products produced by Sony's record and movie companies. It will also create software for the Sony Data Discman, a portable compact disk player that can store databases such as books and dictionaries. Olaf Olafsson, a Sony vice president for special projects, has been named the president of the new unit. Multimedia pace to pick up with rollout of QuickTime. (Apple QuickTime media manager)(includes related article on new CD-ROM Apple Computer Inc plans to release its QuickTime multimedia manager to Apple Macintosh developers at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in May 1991. Industry analysts contend that Apple is attempting to make the Macintosh into the preferred platform for digital media in competition with Microsoft Corp which is currently developing multimedia extensions to Windows 3.0. QuickTime manages input, output and manipulation of video, sound, animation, graphics and text. QuickTime is designed for use with Apple System 7.0 but the company plans to first release it as an extension Startup document (INIT) that developers can use with System 6.0.x. Apple plans for a general release of QuickTime in August 1991 in time for the Boston Macworld Expo but some industry sources doubt that the company can adhere to that schedule. Apple sets May date for 7.0: telephone support free for 90 days. (System 7.0 operating system) Apple Computer Inc intends to release its System 7.0 operating system enhancement on May 13, 1991, the first day of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Customers are expected to be able to obtain System 7.0 from their dealers by May 13 unless unforeseen bugs in the final beta version delay the release until June 1991. System 7.0 will not be available through on-line information services. The software will be distributed in two upgrade kits to be available only through dealers. The first kit comes with the system software on 800Kbyte diskettes and is intended for individual users. The cost is between $50 and $100. The second kit is for installation on multiple Macintoshes and will be distributed on CD-ROM. The software will include extensive on-line documentation. Pricing is yet to be announced. The upgrade kits will also include 90 days of unlimited, direct telephone support from Apple. System 7.0 will also include a HyperCard 2.0 stack consisting of an introduction to the operating system and a Compatibility Checker utility. Printers quicken paper chase. (new reduced-instruction-set computing-based, high-speed laser printers)(QMS Inc. and HP) QMS Inc and HP are both expected to announce new high-speed laser printers based on reduced-instruction set computer (RISC) processors. QMS is expected to announce, in April 1991, its 20-page-per-minute (ppm) RISC-based laser printer that can produce 11-by-17-inch documents and automatically switch among DECnet, AppleTalk and Ethernet interfaces as well as among PostScript, HP-GL and PCL emulations. The printer also offers duplexing as well as a unique feature that combines RAM and a hard disk. The QMS printer is expected to be released in the summer of 1991 and will cost over $10,000. HP is planning to announce in early March 1991 its 17-ppm, RISC-based LaserJet IIISi that will cost $5,500, or $7,000 with PostScript. The printer offers optional duplexing, 300 dots-per-inch resolution and token-ring and Ethernet interfaces. Analysts say that the benefits of this new generation of printers include speed, auto-switching, larger output, duplexing and lower prices. Type pros eye optical scaling of Type 1 fonts. (Adobe Systems Inc.'s optical scaling typographical technology)(includes related Adobe Systems Inc is planning an early March 1991 introduction of its new optical scaling typographical technology for Type 1 fonts that adjusts the shape of a typeface at different point sizes, making the type easier to read. At a small point size an optically-scaled font, for example, will have thicker hairlines, more pronounced serifs, taller x-height and be proportionally wider than it would be at a large point size. Desktop publishing analysts contend that Adobe is ahead of Apple Computer Inc with this optical scaling technology. Apple Computer Inc's TrueType fonts that are scheduled to be released in the spring of 1991, reportedly will not offer optical scaling. Traditional typographers always cut slightly different designs for different type sizes to make the typefaces easier to read. With the arrival of digital type, this practice was completely eliminated. Vendors struggle to find drive mechanisms for Classic. (Apple Macintosh Classic microcomputer)(News Analysis) Third-party storage vendors are having difficulties finding hard disk drives that meet Apple Computer Inc's stringent power requirements for the Apple Macintosh Classic. Quantum Corp, whose disk drives dominate the Apple internal drive market, still has not been able to comply with Apple's limits. The company's LPS ProDrives were to have met the specifications but later modifications have made currently available drive units draw more +12-volt power than Apple advises. Several leading storage vendors in both the reselling and mail-order markets are not planning to offer the Quantum-based internal drives. Other vendors are marketing the drives despite the problem with power. GCC Technologies officials contend that the +12-volt power consumption in Classics using the Quantum drives exceeds Apple's limit only for a spin-up period of two seconds when the computer is booted from the internal floppy drive. Apple joins quest for universal character standard: with 16 bits, code will include all languages, symbols. (Unicode) Apple Computer Inc, along with other major computer firms, are working together to develop Unicode, a new standard that will represent text and characters in all languages. The standard will provide a 16-bit alternative to ASCII, the current eight-bit electronic text standard that is limited to 256 characters. Languages such as Japanese, Korean and Chinese require larger character sets to represent their writing systems and European languages use a different eight-bit code. Unicode would encompass approximately 65,536 combinations which will cover all the world's languages as well as thousands of punctuation and symbol characters. Analysts contend that the new standard will make information systems easier to manage, multilingual software easier to write and information exchange more practical. The Unicode consortium hopes to release the standard in the spring of 1991. Japanese users meet Mac exhibitors: Expo highlights KanjiTalk wares. (Tokyo MacWorld Expo 1991) The first Macworld Expo in Japan draws 50,000 attendees, 500 vendors and displayed over 150 KanjiTalk-compatible applications. Apple Japan's pavilion dominates the trade show and the company expects to more than double its installed base of 100,000 Apple Macintosh users in Japan in 1991. Many exhibitors feel the Japanese crowd is computer-literate but more reserved than US Macworld Expo attendees. Attendees are especially looking for consistency in the incompatible software that dominates the Japanese computer market. Other popular products include those addressing English-to-Japanese translation and interactive software for practicing English conversation. Some dealers contend there is a definite trend of Japanese users moving away from DOS-based computers and towards the Macintosh. Exabyte moves to boost capacity, speed: maker of 8mm drives faces DAT challenge. (digital audio tape) Exabyte Corp and other manufacturers employing 8mm videotape technology in their tape drives are facing the challenge of 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) with the development of new products. Exabyte's EXB-8200 stores up to 2.2 Gbytes of data but the company's newer EXB-8500 drive has a capacity of nearly 5Gbytes. The company also plans to incorporate a 5-1 compression algorithm it licensed from IBM Corp into a new version of the 8500. The new model will have a capacity of up to 25Gbytes per tape and is scheduled for release in late 1991. One major advantage of DAT is its ability to locate files more quickly than 8mm drives. Recent advances by Exabyte, however, bring the company's drives to the same search speed. Exabyte's new drives also speed data transfer with the 8500 boasting 500K-bps. Drives employing Exabyte's new compression algorithm will, in theory, be able to reach 2.5M-bps. Computer Care links Portable, large screens. (Video Mac Pac internal video expansion card) (product announcement) Minneapolis-based Computer Care Inc announces its $449 Video Mac Pac, an internal video expansion card for the Apple Macintosh Portable, scheduled for release in March 1991. The card allows users to connect their Mac Portables to larger displays and fits in the Processor Direct Slot (PDS). The Video Mac Pac supports a wide variety of screen types and uses different resolutions on different screens including 272 by 208 pixels for National Television System Committee (NTSC) composite overhead-projector screens as well as 800 by 600 pixel resolution used in Super VGA displays. The main display is not affected since the card contains RAM used to store a second screen buffer. The board also draws power only when a screen is connected, thus drain on the battery is reduced. Growing array of Ada options for Mac programmers: new Alsys compiler for federal standard. (Ada compilers and program The Ada programming language, a standard for the Department of Defense, is becoming available to Apple Macintosh programmers with several companies announcing new products and lowering software prices. Meridian Software Systems Inc announces Open Ada for the Mac, a new version of its AdaVantage Compiler and Tool Set. Meridian drops the price from $1,995 to $149. The price goes to $495 after March 31, 1991. Open Ada works under Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) and the package includes MPW. Open Ada for the Mac has a high-level linker, C programming language interfaces and an Ada-specific source-level debugger. Alsys Inc announces its $940 Ada Software Engineering Environment for MPW. The package offers developers a choice between an Ada user interface or a standard Macintosh interface. The software includes programming interfaces to MPW C and Pascal. Internal tool aids Apple DAL access: IS&T's CADET converts data types. (Data Access Language)(Apple's Information Systems & Apple Computer Inc's Information Systems & Technology group (IT&S) introduces its Client-Server Application Development Enhancement Toolkit (CADET) which integrates front-end applications with Apple's Data Access Language (DAL) structured query language- (SQL-) based client/server software. IS&T emphasizes that CADET is not a product but analysts feel that a commercial release serving large corporate networks could occur in the future. CADET is a set of high-level data routines. Developers can use these routines from within their own applications to access data from other platforms that support DAL. CADET has three basic uses including integration with host platforms, data access on local or remote databases and generation of SQL commands for data update. CADET can process different host data types, which are usually very different from Macintosh native types, in fast, consistent versions of data between platforms. Association fills in color standard: ACD unites major color companies. (Association for Color Developers) The recently-formed Association for Color Developers (ACD) announces plans to write an application programming interface (API) that devices and applications can to use to more easily communicate with color-management systems. The ACD, which includes representatives from many major computer and graphics companies, hopes the API will become a cross-platform standard that will give vendors a more standardized development environment and offer users color consistency. The group does not have a specific schedule for the API, but ACD members say it is moving fast. The group is targeting one problem area that is impeding realization of open color systems that will ensure color consistency through all different components of a system. The ACD is also addressing color-management systems that provide closed-loop methods for calibrating devices, but is not attempting to address device-independent color space issues. Quark blocks Visionary link. (Quark Inc.)(Scitex America Corp.'s Visionary software) A Denver, Colorado judge grants a request from Quark Inc for a temporary injunction that stops the shipment of Scitex America Corp's Visionary software. Visionary acts as a link between Scitex's pre-press system and the Apple Macintosh and is based on a modified version of Quark's QuarkXPress. Quark says only that the lawsuit has resulted from a contract dispute. Scitex says it will continue to support Visionary users. The Visionary package lets users produce documents, including color photos, graphics and text, and then transmit them for final output to the Scitex Response system. The lawsuit does not affect Visionary Interpreter for Postscript (V.I.P.), a Macintosh application that converts PostScript files into a Scitex format. The company is examining the possibility of writing new Visionary software based on a different Macintosh page-layout program. New ColorSnap boards grab, archive color images. (Computer Friends Inc.'s ColorSnap 32+ and ColorSnap LE data acquisition devices) Computer Friends Inc announces two new boards for color video capture on Apple Macintosh II microcomputers. The $995 ColorSnap 32+ is a NuBus board that allows users to capture 24-bit color video images in real time from S-Video, National Television System Committee (NTSC) and red, green, blue (RGB) video sources. Software that comes with ColorSnap 32+ includes Viewfinder, which lets users preview the video in a small window, and the Gallery, a built-in image database. The software supports low, medium or high compression that are each compatible with the proposed Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard. The product also offers control for image editing including adjustments for hue, saturation and brightness. Computer Friends' $549 ColorSnap LE is a less expensive capture model that captures 8- or 24-bit color images in 1.6 seconds and includes the same software included with ColorSnap 32+. Will we ever work in the 'office of the future'? (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. The paperless office is basically an unattainable fantasy despite the appearance of microcomputer-based electronic data management (EDM) systems. Scanners are becoming more affordable and write-once-read-many (WORM) drives and increased capacity hard disks are also appearing, but how easily users can feed documents into the computer is still unclear. Other things to consider are how much of the data stored can be recognized by the system and how difficult input, indexing and navigation of the data can be. Many microcomputer users do not find database or optical character recognition software easy to use. Users are also not ready to return from a business trip and feed business cards, brochures and hotel receipts into a computer and then retrieve the data later in a usable form. However, if the cost of EDM goes down and becomes more convenient it may be possible to save some trees and get closer to the paperless office. Does a Mac crash more than a PC? (Apple Macintosh)(The Mac Manager) (column) In tests comparing system crash potential, the Macintosh running MultiFinder experiences more system crashes than high-end microcomputers running DOS. Using a Toshiba microcomputer running Windows for 23 hours produced six crashes. Using the same machine running only DOS 4.01, there were no system crashes. An informal survey of Macintosh managers using at least Mac IIcx systems and running MultiFinder shows an average of three crashes a week. A Macintosh running MultiFinder is certainly more powerful than any DOS-based microcomputer running only DOS but Macintosh users need to realize they have pushed for more accessories and Startup documents (INITs) instead of better security. The System 7.0 operating system will eliminate the need for many INITs and will also handle desk accessories and other system resources in a better fashion. This should give the Macintosh greater crash-proof reliability. HyperCard: the next generation. (Claris Corp.'s HyperCard 2 data base management system)(includes related articles on bugs in Claris Corp introduces HyperCard 2 which offers many useful new features and a more powerful development environment. On the downside, there is no backward compatibility with previous versions. New capabilities include variable card sizes, multiple windows open at the same time, improved printing, an icon editor and marked cards. HyperCard 2 scores very good on overall value and performance. The product scores a rating of excellent for features and support and documentation. Ease of use is rated as average. One of the most significant new features is external commands (XCMDs) which can now open their own windows called XWindows. The XWindows remain open for an entire HyperCard session and act like any other Macintosh window. HyperCard 2's included stacks are greatly improved and will help both HyperCard novices and experienced users. Slender TelePort A300 fax/data modem for movers and shakers. (Global Village Communication Inc.'s TelePort A300) (Hardware Global Village Communication Inc's TelePort A300 is a uniquely-designed 2,400-bps data and 4,800-bps send-only facsimile modem, the only fax modem currently available that connects to the Apple Macintosh through the Apple Desktop Bus. The quality of standard data and fax communications is acceptable but the product is not recommended for users who send more than one or two faxes a day because of the slow speed. The TelePort A300 scores average on overall value, features and compatibility. It scores a rating of very good on installation and configuration and receives a rating of below average on performance. Tests show the product performs well as a data modem with the Microcom Network Protocol (MNP) turned off. With the MNP turned on, there are problems in connecting to some other brands of modems. The software interface is easy to use but lacks some of the more complex features found on other fax-modems. Macintosh maintenance contracts come in all shapes and sizes. (includes related articles on large multivendor service providers Apple Macintosh managers should be aware that they can get Macintosh service from an increasing number of third-party multivendor maintenance providers. Many companies have become multivendor environments but they find that they want only one maintenance service provider. Multivendor service contracts are available from manufacturers, resellers and independent maintenance providers. Users should note that Apple Computer Inc authorizes only resellers to offer service in-warranty. The majority of independent maintenance providers are providing out-of-warranty service. Major third-party maintenance providers can offer services including on-site service, depot service, support service, management assistance and networking systems support. Types of maintenance contract terms include a set fee per system, materials and time or a flat rate that covers all services. Hacking out options for LC expansion card. (Apple Macintosh LC microcomputer)(MacInTouch: Bugs & Tips) (column) Apple Computer Inc's Apple IIe expansion card for the Macintosh LC is not user-installable since a technician must remove parts of the LC in order to install or remove the card. Users who are buying any expansion card for the LC should check to see if it is user-installable. HP releases Version 2.1 of the driver software for its DeskWriter inkjet printer that adds support for programs that use low-level print commands. The driver also changes the wording in the envelope-printing dialog to make it easier to understand. A new $12.99 kit from JetFill America Inc, called JetFill, lets users easily refill DeskWriter ink cartridges. Quark Inc releases Zapper XTension 2.00A for QuarkXPress 3.0 that fixes several bugs that occurred in the initial revisions of XPress. Quark also adds enhancements to QuarkXPress with its Freebies XTension. New Apple ed programs has resellers up in arms: longtime dealers stripped of status. (Apple Education Sales Consultants program) Apple Computer Inc's implementation of its new Apple Education Sales Consultants program is causing concern among many Apple dealers. The program reduces the number of education consultants authorized to sell and support education accounts to one consultant per district. Apple is also requiring the consultants to represent Apple products exclusively. Apple Dealers Association officials say the changes were necessary because there were too many consultants authorized to service the same accounts. Setup, Training and Orientation (STO) commission fees were being dispersed among too many consultants and affecting the quality of service. Some of the consultants dropped from the program were longtime, Apple-only resellers. They contend that Apple has offered their business to dealers who also supply IBM products in an attempt to lessen IBM's market share. Consultants are also concerned that they unable to get adequate explanations as to why they were dropped from the program. Rooting out viruses. (Personal Computers) (column) Lewis, Peter H. Computer viruses are often more annoying than destructive, but measures should nonetheless be implemented to protect computer software from unwanted intrusion. Software packages such as Norton Antivirus from Symantec Corp and Hyperaccess/5 from Hilgraeve Inc can provide a solid line of defense against computer viruses. Norton Antivirus operates by scanning a user's disk looking for sequences of characters unique to known viruses. Once a virus is located on a disk it is removed and the disk is immunized against further attacks by that same virus. Hyperaccess/5 is an excellent communications software package that also includes a feature for screening software that is downloaded over telephone lines. By using these or other security packages and by following safe computing practices users can be fairly safe from viruses. The beauty of chaos. (Peripherals)(Autodesk's James Gleick's Chaos: the Software) (product announcement) Autodesk Inc's $59.95 James Gleick's Chaos: the Software is a software package based on James Gleick's 1987 book 'Chaos: Making a New Science.' The theory of chaos is based on complex mathematics, and while the software and accompanying 200-page documentation does include some of the mathematics it is also fascinating for the layperson. The software package comprises six programs: the Mandelbrot sets; magnets and pendulum; strange attractors; the chaos game; fractal forgeries, and toy universes. The software runs on IBM and compatible microcomputers with 640Kbytes of RAM and either an EGA or VGA graphics card. The software renders in full color and the results are often stunningly beautiful. Patent action on software by A.T.&T. (patent on windowing technology) AT and T sends letters to numerous software publishers informing them that they are infringing on a 1985 windowing technology patent held by AT and T's Bell Laboratories. The patent covers the basic technology used by most developers of workstation applications to enable multiple programs to run simultaneously in multiple 'windows' that can be visible or invisible to the user. The window managing technology is fundamental to most workstation applications based on the X Windows standard. Members of MIT's X Consortium, a group of software publishers who create applications for the Unix operating system, are among those contacted by AT and T. AT and T states there is nothing unusual in the letters, claiming they are part of normal industry practice. Hewlett and Sun in link to create networking software. (Hewlett-Packard Co., Sun Microsystems Inc. ) Long-time rivals and members of competing Unix consortia, Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc, announce they plan to cooperate in the development software technology to enable computers from a variety of vendors to work together on a single network. The two companies and their respective Unix consortia continue to develop different versions of Unix, but the new object-oriented technology should make it easier to create software that runs under both flavors of the operating system. The two firms state their intention to submit their new software to the Object Management Group, a standards group attempting to create object-oriented and interoperability standards. A separate alliance headed by Microsoft Corp and Compaq Computer Corp is also developing object-oriented standards that could emerge as rivals to the HP-Sun technology. Autodesk's 3D Studio brings advanced animation to the PC platform at a price. (Software Review) (Autodesk 3D Studio painting Autodesk Inc's $2,995 3D Studio is a powerful program for animating three-dimensional graphic images. It consists of five modules for creating, animating and editing solid objects: 2D Shaper, 3D Lofter, 3D Editor, Materials Editor and Keyframer. Keyframer lets users define the start and end frames and automatically creates those in between. The 3D Lofter extrudes two dimensional outlines along a predefined path. The Materials Editor performs semi-realistic rendering in 256 colors. The program demands powerful hardware: an Intel 80386 or 80486-based machine with a math coprocessor and at least a VGA monitor. A Targa graphics system is recommended for maximum utilization of the shading and anti-aliasing algorithms in 3D Studio. Basic tasks in 3D Studio are easy to learn, but the more advanced features have their own learning curve. Some of 3D Studio's interface elements are inconsistent because they are designed to work within the limitations of standard VGA. ObjectVision: visual data entry applications generator. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc.'s database programming Borland International Inc's ObjectVision is a database development tool that combines elements of hypermedia, spreadsheet, database and forms-design packages. It is highly integrated and generates object-oriented data entry applications for Microsoft Windows 3.0. The program has 'Form,' 'Tree,' 'Stack' and 'Link' tools that let users build applications by pointing, dragging and resizing objects. The Form tool is used to design forms in a WYSIWYG mode. Tree allows developers to create and modify graphical decision trees attached to fields. Stack displays the relationships between forms, and Link establishes linkages between fields. ObjectVision is easy to use, but is less flexible than such products as Asymetrix' ToolBook and Apple's HyperCard for the Mac because its capabilities are narrowly defined. It is nevertheless an ideal tool for meeting unique needs. The Video Toaster teaches your PC new video tricks. (Hardware Review) (NewTek Inc.'s add-on graphics board)(First Looks) NewTek's $1,595 Video Toaster is an add-on video board with software for the Commodore Amiga microcomputer that can be used to export and import IBM PC-based graphics. The system, when installed in a dedicated Amiga, acts as a PC peripheral that overcomes the PC's inherent video-processing limitations. Video Toaster has a switcher that can select from any of four synchronous video sources and provide preview and program output. It can coordinate digital video effects and special effects as well as straight cuts between timed sources. The Video Toaster includes a complete video-oriented paint program, character generator and 'still-store' for grabbing individual frames. Forest & Trees for Windows: data access, integration and monitoring. (Software Review) (Channel Computing Inc.'s Forest & Channel Computing's Forest & Trees for Windows is a Microsoft Windows-based front end for multiple databases that can query data from a variety of sources on local hard disks, LANs or mainframes. The executive information system contains facilities to automatically notify the user of 'alarm' conditions and has interfaces for dBASE III and IV, R:base, Paradox, DataEase, Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Excel and ASCII files. Users build 'views' containing all information related to gathering data and producing a result. Hidden views can exist solely to gather data from higher-level views, and queries are constructed with SQL SELECT statements. A view can hold only a single column, but the program includes a comprehensive report writer. Forest & Trees for Windows offers excellent scheduling options for financial calculations and is a good microcomputer-based product for integrating corporate data. Two new inkjet printers for graphics and text: Color 4 from Kodak surpasses HP's PaintJet in output quality and paper handling. Eastman Kodak's $1,495 Diconix Color 4 color ink-jet printer offers flexible paper-handling features and high-quality output at a low price. Its price/performance ratio is between that of HP's PaintJet and PaintJet XL printers. The Color 4 supports both standard continuous-feed paper and cut-sheet paper and includes a built-in 60-sheet paper tray. It contains separate cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink cartridges; users replace the printhead each time a new ink cartridge is installed. HP's printers use a black ink cartridge and a three-color cartridge, a less flexible system. The Kodak's setup is easy, and the unit prints 150 characters per second in draft mode. The Color 4 is designed for graphics, not text, printing and has only three built-in fonts. Text output tends to bleed, but the inks are almost completely water-resistant once dry. Graphics speed is 1.1 graphics pages per minute, slightly less than that of the PaintJet. Canon's wide-carriage BJ-330: quiet, quick, and high quality. (Hardware Review) (Two new inkjet printers for graphics and Canon USA's $949 BJ-330 is a wide-carriage ink-jet printer that serves as an alternative to both low-end laser printers and 24-pin dot matrix units. Canon printers offer faster output than HP's DeskJet units and more dot matrix emulations. The 64-nozzle printing mechanism produces a maximum resolution of 360 dots per inch, although the edges of text are not as clean as those laser printers produce. Replacement ink cartridges cost $28 and are rated for one- to two million characters of output. Users can load single sheets of paper through a front slot, use a built-in tractor feed, or load cut sheets with an optional sheet feeder. The BJ-330 prints well on plain paper, although the ink is somewhat water-soluble. It comes with built-in Courier, Prestige and Gothic fonts and can emulate the Epson LQ-1050 and IBM Proprinter dot matrix printers. It is significantly faster in Epson mode than in IBM mode and produces better output. No HP emulation is available. ReadyLINK: low-cost, entry level DOS-based LAN. (Hardware Review) (Compex ReadyLINK peer-to-peer network system)(First Looks) Compex Inc's ReadyLINK is a low-cost peer-to-peer networking system designed to build a 10-node local area network that lets users send and receive messages and share files and devices without requiring a dedicated file server. It costs $699 for a starter pack with two Ethernet cards, cabling, software and drivers. A unique configuration scheme for interconnecting workgroups lets users install two adapter cards in one workstation, which then acts as a 'drop off point' for data. Each machine on a ReadyLINK network can be configured as a dedicated server, a non-dedicated server or a workstation. A machine configured as a network client requires a significant 80Kbytes of RAM for the ReadyLINK drivers. Benchmark performance is typical of low-cost entry-level LANs. The ReadyLINK system is not as easy to use as Artisoft's LANtastic and requires more RAM, but it is economical and offers an upgrade path to Novell NetWare. Cumulus GLC/SBS: a survival kit for the home office. (Hardware Review) (Cumulus Computer Corp. 80386SX-based system)(First Looks) Cumulus Computer Corp's GLC/SBS microcomputer is an 80386SX-based machine, aimed at the home-office user, which includes built-in telecommunications support and considerable memory and storage space in its main configuration. The GLC/SBS comes with a combination modem/fax/voice-mail (VDF) add-in card, 2Mbytes of RAM and a 40Mbyte hard disk for $1,895; a unit with a 100Mbyte hard disk and color monitor costs $2,495. A 'Fax Manager'' software program handles fax transactions. The VDF card cannot distinguish between incoming fax and voice transmissions; Cumulus recommends third-party external switching devices. The phone-mail system supports only one outgoing message. Users can apply 50 percent of the value of the 386SX CPU toward an upgrade during the first year of ownership. WinFax brings Windows' benefits to fax transmission. (Software Review) (Delrina Technology's WinFax facsimile software for Delrina Technologies' WinFax is the first facsimile software package written for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface; it is a bargain at $69. The program makes sending faxes as easy as printing from any standard printer.WinFax requires a supported fax board in addition to Windows 3.0. It appears in the Printer Setup menu as an installed printer. A pop-up window lets the user enter a fax phone number or select one already stored in the WinFax phone directory. Output generated at the receiving fax is sharper than that of any standalone fax scanner because it goes directly to a 200-dpi image file. WinFax supports fax boards that use the Sierra Semiconductor Sendfax chip set. Delrina plans to offer WinFax bundled with a fax board in the future. $149 AutoWord converts text and graphics. (Software Review) (word processing data conversion utility from White Crane Systems)(First White Crane Systems' $149.95 AutoWord is a text- and graphics-conversion utility that supports 23 word processor formats, and .PCX, .TIF, .MAC, .MSP and .WPG graphics formats. The program also can convert a text file to Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet file format but not the reverse. It can save files in Ventura Publisher ASCII with special codes Ventura can interpret. Although easy to use, AutoWord does not work well. It has some trouble with almost every output format, and is best at converting WordPerfect 4.2 to 5.0. Most AutoWord conversions drop headers, footers, flush-right, double space, and sub- and superscript codes. AutoWord is not recommended over the built-in import and export facilities found in most word processing software packages. On-line clip art. (Software Review) (The Adonis Corp.'s Clip-Art Window Shopper 1.1 search software for its on-line service)(First Adonis Corp's $49.95 Clip-Art Window Shopper 1.1 is the search software for an on-line videotex clip-art service and is based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Users can preview images on-screen before purchasing items or entire libraries from several vendors via modem. A series of menus prompts the new user to set up communications, billing and shipping information. Logging onto the Adonis Service requires a toll call to Washington state. Users can download individual images from the service immediately, but libraries are delivered by mail. Images cost $1 to $18 each. Adonis charges a $35 annual service membership fee in addition to the price of the log-on software. CaLANdar keeps smaller groups on schedule. (Software Review) (Microsystems Software Inc.'s LAN-based scheduling software)(First Microsystems Software Inc's $695 CaLANdar network-based scheduling software can help coordinate schedules for up to 50 people while retaining individual calendar privacy. It notifies users of meetings, appointments and new electronic mail messages on-line. A 'conflict' flag alerts those scheduling group meetings when someone is unavailable at a particular time. The 'RSVP' feature ensures that each attendee acknowledges the meeting notification message sent out. A 'Topview' module provides a summary-level view of people and appointments for any selected time period. Installation is easy, and the user interface includes pull-down menus. The package can operate either in the foreground or as a 7Kbyte memory-resident program. Graphical isn't necessarily better. (allClear flow-charting package from) Graphical user interfaces are not ideal for all microcomputer applications. The new allCLEAR flow-charting package is more powerful for its intended purpose of creating flowcharts and decision tree diagrams than drawing programs are precisely because it abandons a graphical operating model. The allCLEAR package uses an innovative design technique that lets users build flowcharts from an outline-like list of all points, with punctuation marks handling conditional logic paths. Character-based input takes advantage of the microcomputer's power to determine where each box is placed and how to fit all boxes on one sheet of paper, intelligently scaling boxes, text and arrows. Corporate E-mail and bulletin boards. (column) Zachmann, William F. Electronic mail is rapidly becoming an indispensable application in many computing organizations. Virtually every local area network system software package offers E-mail features, and companies view it as a tool for integration. E-mail can replace paper memos and is better than paper in most instances, but the electronic bulletin board (BBS) metaphor is a more powerful model for internal communications. An E-mail message can be distributed only to those individuals to whom it is addressed, following the traditional corporate model of 'chain of command.' BBSes post messages publicly where they are readily available to all who wish to read them. The BBS model follows the trend toward decentralization and reduction of bureaucracy in modern business. Information can be quickly disseminated throughout an organization, fostering the evolution of organizations away from rigid corporate hierarchies. Making the most of Windows 3.0. (overview of four sections on tips, utilities, video performance, 3270 terminal emulators) An overview of four major sections discussing methods of improving productivity under the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface is presented. Windows' enormous popularity is due to the fact that it runs on the vast installed base of DOS microcomputers and provides an easy-to-use graphical environment. The Windows packages is nevertheless complex and requires fine-tuning for maximum performance. Many utility programs are available that fill gaps in Windows' built-in functionality or replace features it comes with. Video performance under Windows can be improved by selecting the best graphics adapter, and an evaluation of 3270 terminal emulators for mainframe connectivity is also presented. Tips, tricks & hints for Windows 3.0. (includes related article on memory management) Tips for improving the performance of the Microsoft Windows graphical interface are presented. Windows' Program Manager can create program 'groups' for managing the desktop and has choices in its 'Options' menu that prevent icons from obscuring each other. Icons can be re-labeled, and the user can design custom icons or create a unique 'wallpaper' design behind applications. Memory management techniques include making sure the machine running Windows is powerful enough to handle its demands, setting aside RAM as a disk cache, turning off the EMS page frame, enlarging the DOS environment for DOS sessions and removing fonts if desperate to save memory. Windows loads a large number of files during installation, taking up a large quantity of hard disk space. Users should move Windows to a new directory and use a permanent swap file in the 80386 enhanced mode. The SYSEDIT utility helps fine-tune performance, as does starting recorder macros from icons. Double-clicking on icons is one way of launching Windows applications. Other tips for running DOS sessions and general troubleshooting are presented. Windows your way: 41 utilities for Windows 3.0. (Software Review) (overview of several sections containing evaluations of Microsoft Forty-one utility programs for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface are reviewed. The programs are categorized under program management, file management, accessories, screen enhancers, macros, text editors, icon editors and network utilities. Most of the programs are commercial products, but many fine utilities are available as shareware. METZ Task Manager, PubTech File Organizer, DeskTop Set, WideAngle, Bridge Tool Kit, and Windows Workstation are rated Editor's Choices. Numerous other programs could not be included in the review because they had not yet been released. Program management utilities. (Software Review) (overview of seven evaluations of program management utility programs for Microsoft Eight Windows program-management utilities are reviewed, six in detail and two in brief. Many users dislike the Program Manager that comes with Windows 3.0, but they can load another program as the 'primary shell' by entering the SHELL= line in the SYSTEM.INI file. Any good program manager should start all programs in the easiest, most efficient manner possible while retaining flexibility and should be able to launch applications. Each product takes a different approach. METZ Software's METZ Task Manager is rated an Editor's Choice for overall quality. NewTools Inc: Aporia. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program management utilities.') Newtools Inc's $50 Aporia program-management package for Microsoft Windows provides a true iconic interface for Windows and replaces the standard Windows Program Manager. It creates an icon to represent each group of programs; users can view a group by double-clicking and launch an application by double-clicking an individual program icon. Aporia has many tools for customizing the desktop, including a 'Trash Tool' for file deletion and the ability to customize program icons. Aporia can clutter the desktop if used carelessly, but is a worthwhile product and a significant improvement over the Program Manager icon desktop. Wilson WindowWare: Command Post. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program management Wilson WindowWare's $49.95 Command Post is a program-management utility for Microsoft Windows 3.0 that improves on the MS-DOS executive in Windows 2.x without using icons. The package maintains its user-defined drop-down menus for organizing and executing programs and uses a batch language to control menus and their functions. The current version has an expanded batch language that gives users full control over how each selection will execute programs or perform complex tasks. Command Post is ideal for those who are most comfortable in a character-based environment. METZ Software: METZ Desktop Manager. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program METZ Software Inc's $30 METZ Desktop Manager is a Microsoft Windows utility that improves program management by providing menuing features beyond those in the Windows Program Manager. Users can run programs by double-clicking a menu selection, but there is no facility for assigning keyboard shortcuts or for using existing Program Manager groups to construct menus. Creating separate menu files that can be linked is a simple technique that allows user to build sub-menus in Desktop Manager, but the overall feel of the package is inferior to that of hDC Software's Windows Express. METZ Desktop Manager nevertheless offers many good support utilities. METZ Software: METZ Task Manager. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program management METZ Software's $30 METZ Task Manager is one of several shareware program management utilities the company offers for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and is its best product. It provides a list box that lets the user switch to any running program and an enhanced Task List that adds program and file management to Windows' built-in capabilities. The program replaces Windows' TASKMAN.EXE file during installation. A File Finder utility on the File menu can be used to locate and run programs along with the full-featured File Manager METZ provides. A commercial version with more file management features, File F/X, is available from ThreadZ Software Design Group for $129.95. Romberg & Romberg: SmartWin. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program management Romberg and Romberg's $59 SmartWin is a shareware utility for Microsoft Windows program management that offers a good range of commands but few customization features. Users can add programs to an Apps menu, but SmartWin is essentially only an enhanced version of the MS-DOS Executive. It does not offer the functionality of competing programs, although it can direct a program's execution path via command-line parameters. SmartWin is not recommended for serious users because it is not up-to-date enough to compete with the features built into Windows 3.0; it is essentially designed for Windows 2.x. HDC Computer Corp.: Windows Express. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program hDC Computer Corp's $99.95 Windows Express is a slick, powerful program management utility for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. It uses a file and folder metaphor to merge the capabilities of DOS menu programs and Windows, basing its organization on the 'program groups' in Windows' built-in Program Manager. The icons are for appearances rather than for launching programs; an Express Editor feature merges Program Manager groups into Windows Express. The user launches programs by pressing a single key or with a single mouse click. Windows Express lets users password-protect any menu entry, making it ideal for LAN managers. Additional program management utilities. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of Microsoft Windows utilities in 'Program First Genesis Software Inc's $99 StraightLine and METZ Software's $10 METZ Runner are handy program-launching utilities that can start from the LOAD= line in the WIN.INI file. StraightLine is a commercial product that remains on the desktop at all times and is launched by pressing a user-defined key combination. METZ Runner is a shareware program that lets users keep a 'command line' icon active. The user starts any program by entering its name in a box. METZ Runner unfortunately must be minimized manually because it cannot create icons as an automatic function. Other program management utilities available as 'freeware' or as part of programs falling into other general categories are discussed. File management utilities. (Software Review) (overview of six evaluations of file management utility programs for Microsoft Utilities offering Microsoft Windows file management capabilities beyond those found in the Windows File Manager are reviewed. The packages include four icon-based, general-purpose file utilities, three special-purpose programs and some programs still under development or available on bulletin boards as 'freeware.' The File Manager in Windows 3.0 is a major improvement over the MS-DOS Executive in Windows 2.x, but programs such as Abacus' Becker Tools, Access Softek's Dragnet and Prompt and Publishing Technologies Inc's PubTech File Organizer add such capabilities as file encryption, compression, backup and text search and replace the File Manager with a new interface. PubTech File Organizer is rated an Editor's Choice. Abacus: Becker Tools. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of Windows file-management utility programs in 'File management Abacus' $79.95 BeckerTools file management software for Microsoft Windows 3.0 replaces the Windows File Manager icon-based interface with a text-based one but suffers from a flawed and unattractive design. Users can operate BeckerTools either from pull-down menus or a set of 'ToolBox' pushbuttons. The program lacks flexibility; it divides the screen into source and target windows for all file operations, and most operations are more cumbersome in BeckerTools than in File Manager. An Undelete feature restores erased files, but undeleted files tend to emerge larger in size than when deleted. BeckerTools also uses a proprietary data compression algorithm that is not compatible with widely accepted standards. Access Softek: Dragnet Prompt. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of Windows file-management utility programs in 'File Access Softek's $129.95 Prompt and $144.95 Dragnet are two file management utilities for Microsoft Windows that work best when used together. Prompt provides a point-and-drag interface for file copy and move operations; Dragnet offers file-search capabilities. The Prompt screen represents disk drives as icons proportionally filled in to represent the percentage of their capacity in use. Its design is intuitive, but its terminology is somewhat awkward because the words used for directory-tree editing clash with those normally used for text editing. Prompt provides some file viewers, but Dragnet is better for heavy-duty text searching. A series of dialog boxes let users specify the extent of any search and what text strings to search for, although the DOS global wildcard is not available. Publishing Technologies Inc.: Pubtech File Organizer. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of Windows file-management utility Publishing Technologies Inc's $199.95 Pubtech File Organizer replaces the File Manager in Microsoft Windows 3.0 with a colorful icon-based interface that can be somewhat intimidating for the new user. It is nevertheless easy to learn and use; windows represent disk drives and contain folders representing subdirectories. File Organizer lacks file viewers, but otherwise offers a very rich feature set. Users can prune files from directory trees and recover deleted files with a true undelete function. Pubtech File Organizer is rated an Editor's Choice for overall quality and value. Special-purpose file utilities. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of Windows file-management utility programs in 'File Three special-purpose file management utilities for Microsoft Windows 3.0 are briefly reviewed. Distinct Corp's $129 Distinct Back-Up offers a high-speed backup from single or multiple hard disks in one pass and lets users schedule daily, weekly, or monthly backups and specify groups of files and directories to back up. GETC Software's $139.95 File Shuttle Xpress 5.0 offers high-speed file transfer between Windows machines; it is fairly typical of file-transfer software, offering serial and a parallel transfers and many facilities for maintaining files and directories. Moon Valley Software Inc's $21.95 Zip Manager creates and extracts compressed file archives; it is designed for use with PKZIP, but also works with the popular ARC and LHARC file compression utilities. Additional file management utilities. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of Windows file-management utility programs in Upcoming shareware and 'developer-ware' file management utilities for Microsoft Windows 3.0 aer discussed. METZ Desktop Navigator is a shareware program with a customizable drop-down menu for launching applications and a password-protected screen saver. It can search for files over multiple disk drives. HDC Computer Corp has just announced FileApps, a set of five pop-up 'MicroApps' that let users view disk space in a graphical display, encrypt files, undelete, search files and transfer data between machines. FlashPoint Development's WinNav is an ambitious package that can search for files locally and globally, archive and unarchive files, launch programs and scan for viruses. Accessories. (Software Review) (overview of 5 evaluations of Microsoft Windows utility programs) (evaluation) Four major and three minor Windows desktop accessory utilities are reviewed. Windows comes with Cardfile, Calculator and Calendar accessories; programs such as Impact Software's Almanac and Okna Corp's DeskTop Set add more elaborate calendars, schedulers, telephone dialers and other useful features. Each accessory package significantly enhances the Windows desktop, adding value to the graphical interface. Some products are available as shareware via on-line services, while others are commercial products. A determination of the most effective package depends largely on the requirements of the individual user. Impact Software: Almanac. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Windows desktop-accessory utility programs in Impact Software's $34.95 Almanac is a shareware utility for Microsoft Windows that replaces Windows' built-in calendar desktop accessory with a more powerful calendar utilizing Windows' ability to open multiple documents and overlay graphics between files. Almanac has a very flexible monthly calendar that stores events in overlay files, letting users 'mix and match' regular weekly events with appointments. The program includes three standard overlay files with national holidays for the US, Canada and Sweden and lets users show the Jewish calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar. Almanac also offers a full-featured daily scheduler and an excellent printing facility. Okna Corp.: DeskTop Set. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Windows desktop-accessory utility programs in Okna Corp's $149 DeskTop Set is an elaborate collection of Microsoft Windows utilities powerful enough to compete with dedicated personal information management programs. Its 'Phone Book' address-book feature uses alphabetical tabs to move from page to page and lets users keep business addresses in an alternate 'yellow pages' file. Phone Book includes an auto-dialer and some basic text-editing and mail-merge facilities. The appointment calendar is more robust in the current version of DeskTop Set than in previous versions. Other utilities in DeskTop Set include a full-featured business calculator, a text-file viewer, and an 'expert' mode with pop-up menus. DeskTop Set is rated an Editor's Choice. hDC Computer Corp.: FirstApps. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Windows desktop-accessory utility programs in hDC Computer Corp's $99.95 FirstApps is a collection of Microsoft Windows 3.0 utilities loaded via the Windows MicroApp Manager. A 'Work Sets' module lets the user save sets of files or programs as groups to call up with a single keystroke or mouse click. 'Autosave' lets the user set a timed interval after which the active file will be automatically saved to disk, and an 'Alarm Clock' lets users set an unlimited number of alarms. Most of the other features in FirstApps are essentially novelties; a 'system Enhancer' module lets users open applications without returning to the Windows Program Manager, and a 'Font Viewer' displays all currently installed fonts in their own typefaces. WinSleuth. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Windows desktop-accessory utility programs in 'Accessories.') (evaluation) Dariana Technology Group's $149 WinSleuth is a diagnostics package for Microsoft Windows 3.0 with eight modules that tell the user about workstation hardware and software configuration nd check the status of the CMOS battery in the computer. 'RAM Information' displays data about memory usage under Windows, and 'Hard Disk Information' indicates total space used and available. WinSleuth also has an 'I/O Card Area Information Module' that gives copyright information and addresses for add-in boards installed in the user's machine. The package includes features for optimizing configuration via the 'Tune-Up Module,' which evaluates current setup and provides suggestions or improving performance. Additional accessories. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Windows desktop-accessory utility programs in 'Accessories.') METZ Software and Dragon's Eye Software distribute several useful shareware Windows utilities that enhance the desktop with new telephone-management and other features. The $20 METZ Phones offers a pop-up direct-dial pad and a display of US area codes and foreign country codes. METZ Dialer is a $10 auto-dialer utility, and Dragon's Eye Software offers the $25 K-Free memory viewer. K-Free shows the amount of Windows memory available and the current Windows operating mode, CPU type and largest block of memory currently in use. It also indicates the amount of free space available on all disk drives. Screen and mouse enhancers. (Inner Media Inc. WideAngle, variety of shareware products) (evaluation) Utility programs for Microsoft Windows, capable of enhancing the desktop screen and preventing 'burn-in' by blanking it out, are reviewed. Inner Media Inc's $129 WideAngle gives users a much larger virtual workspace than Windows itself; users break the workspace into nine screen-size 'desktops' arranged in a three-by-three array and numbered like the keypad. Users can configure WideAngle to open applications in assigned desktops at startup, a convenient mode that requires a large amount of RAM. WideAngle is available in each desktop in either icon, small-window, or full-screen mode. Screen savers include Intermission, which lets users select from over 30 different modules; METZ Lock is a $10 shareware screen blanker that requires a password to 'wake up' the screen. The $39.95 Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows includes seven games and an 'IdleWild' screen blanker. Numbers and Co's $15 Whiskers, a mouse-enhancement utility that lets users assign key combinations to the right and middle mouse buttons, is also discussed. Macro utilities. (Software Review) (overview of four evaluations of macro programs for Microsoft Windows graphical interface) Three major and two minor macro utilities for Microsoft Windows are reviewed. Macros allow customization of commands and menus either by recording a series of keystrokes and playing them back or by writing small programs in a batch language. Windows comes with Recorder, a very simple macro utility, but it is underpowered, offering no way to edit a macro. Another disadvantage of Recorder is that its macros will not work with non-Windows applications. Softbridge Inc's Bridge ToolKit is rated an Editor's Choice despite its high price of $695 because it offers many batch-language commands. Softbridge Inc.: Bridge Tool Kit. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of macro programs for Microsoft Windows in 'Macro Softbridge Inc's $694 Bridge ToolKit is an expensive but powerful macro utility for Microsoft Windows that lets users create programs in ASCII with virtually any text editor and interactively debug them. Bridge programs resemble DOS batch files in syntax, but Bridge has more commands than DOS; over 125 statements and functions, including branching, looping, file handling and string handling, are supported. It offers Minimize, Maximize, Move and other Windows-specific commands as well. Bridge uses hotkeys to control programs, but users can also run a specific program from a custom menu. The utility can also pass information between DOS and Windows programs. Bridge ToolKit is an ambitious package that offers tremendous programming power and is rated an Editor's Choice. Publishing Technologies Inc.: Pubtech BatchWorks. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of macro programs for Microsoft Publishing Technologies Inc's $99.95 BatchWorks is a sophisticated macro-programming utility for Microsoft Windows that includes a 'learn' mode for recording keystrokes and an extensive batch language for creating and editing programs. The package can be used to create and modify custom menus and dialog boxes for graphical applications. The BatchWorks programming language contains about 85 statements, including commands for branching, string handling and file handling and for Windows-specific needs. BatchWorks suffers from two severe drawbacks. An incompatibility with the Word for Windows word processor causes macros to execute three times instead of once when called, and documentation is poor. Publishing Technologies says it is working on the compatibility problem, but the current version is unusable with Word for Windows. Affinity Microsystems Ltd.: Tempo for Windows. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of macro programs for Microsoft Windows Affinity Microsystems Ltd's $99.95 Tempo for Windows is a keystroke-recorder macro utility for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface that offers more features than Windows' built-in Recorder program. It creates macros only through a learn mode and can record mouse movements, but can assign the same key to different macros in different applications and can 'hook' macros together with a variety of menu-driven options. Tempo suffers from several drawbacks; attempting to record a macro to launch a DOS program gives a 'probably out of memory' error message, and the system locks up if the user goes into Excel and then Word for Windows with the application-launching command. Affinity Microsystems says it is aware of the problem. Additional macro utilities. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of macro programs for Microsoft Windows in 'Macro Many small shareware utility programs are available that augment the capabilities of the Recorder keystroke-recording facility in Microsoft Windows. The $10 Recorder Run from e-Image lets users attach Recorder macros to icons in the Program Manager for execution by double-clicking. Software GT's $20 Hotkeys lets users assign hotkeys for launching or switching to Windows applications or for such common commands as Minimize and Exit. Windows offers its own hotkey definitions in 386 enhanced mode, but Hotkeys is slightly more versatile. It nevertheless lacks the ability to define two-key macros. Text editors. (Software Review) (evaluation of two major and two minor text editors for Microsoft Windows graphical interface) Microsoft Windows-based text editors are reviewed. Publishing Technologies Inc's $79.95 Pubtech Text Editor is available either as a standalone product or bundled with the company's Pubtech File Organizer file manager. Pubtech Text Editor improves on the Notepad utility built into Windows, letting users run keyboard macros, open files of virtually any size and Undo multiple levels of operations. It cannot edit multiple files unless the user opens another copy of the program. Bradford Business Systems Inc's $295 SpeedEdit is a professional text editor that allows command input from menus, on-screen function keys, pop-up command lists and a command-line mode that remembers previous commands. Users can open multiple copies of SpeedEdit that are linked via a WIndows menu, and the mouse interface is intelligent. Other text editors are discussed. Eastern Language Systems' $99 CView is a commercial product designed specifically for C programmers. Icon editors. (Software Review) ( icon-drawing utility programs for Microsoft Windows) (evaluation) Several shareware programs are available that allow users to edit customized Microsoft Windows icons. Every Windows application has predefined icons, but users must supply their own icons for DOS applications. Philip B. Eskelin Jr's IconDraw is an easy-to-use but limited program sold as shareware for $10. It has six drawing tools that can be selected either from a menu or from a group of oversize buttons. It can import icon files but is best for creating icons from scratch because it cannot extract icons from executable files. Impact Software's $10 PBIcon relies on an external paint program for icon creation but is nevertheless easy to use. The user copies any icon from the paint program to the Clipboard and pastes it into PBIcon. A 'Capture' function can capture 32 x 32-pixel images from anywhere on-screen but offers no visual feedback. Jason Lacombe's Transparent Icon Editor is a $10 shareware DOS program for creating Windows icons. Network utilities. (Software Review) (Automated Design Systems Inc. Windows Workstation; RD Software Inc NetMagic utilities for Automated Design Systems Inc's $695 Windows Workstation network utility software expands on the very limited networking capabilities built into the Microsoft Windows graphical interface and provides intercom, alarm clock, timed execution, screen-blanking and security features. Its Intercom option allows 'rude' messaging, with received messages popping up over applications; each message can be set aside for later reading. Windows Workstation offers an improved system clock utility and powerful network printing capabilities. Users select networked printers through well-designed dialog boxes and the Windows control panel. The traditional menu-based Windows Workstation interface can be installed as the primary Windows shell or run in tandem with Program or File Manager. Installation is awkward; the manual does not distinguish between the server and workstation directories, and the crucial step of installing drivers is not mentioned. R.D. Software Inc's NetMagic, a supervisor utility that provides Novell NetWare utilities under Windows, is also discussed. Boosting video performance under Windows 3.0. (graphics adapters compared at various resolutions)(includes glossary of terms) Trends in video performance are discussed, with special attention paid to the performance of popular graphics adapters when running the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Tests of low-end 8-bit VGA, low-end 16-bit and high-end 16-bit VGA cards reveal that performance does not necessarily degrade at higher resolutions, but going from Super VGA to 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution slows down operations unless the board includes a video coprocessor. Some boards use proprietary video RAM to overcome this problem, but upgrading to a coprocesser board is frequently worth the investment. Choosing drivers is as important as selecting a board; driver software must accommodate the highest resolution a user needs as well as the largest number of colors. Users with only one or two 256-color applications should install 256-color drivers only as needed because the extra depth slows performance. XGA: IBM's new hi-res spec. (IBM Extended Graphics Array) Stone, M. David. IBM's new Extended Graphics Array (XGA) graphics specification is a significant development but is likely to benefit only Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) users in the near future. XGA is presently available only in IBM's high-end PS/2 microcomputers; no Industry Standard Architecture (ISA, or AT-bus) or Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) version of the design has been developed. Each XGA board can repress its high-end features and act as a standard 16-bit VGA board; the earlier IBM 8414/A standard was incompatible with VGA. XGA ships with drivers for Microsoft WIndows, AutoCAD and OS/2 Presentation Manager. The Windows drivers work only in 256-color mode. IBM offers XGA on the motherboard of the PS/2 Model 90 and as a separate board for the PS/2 Model 95 and other Micro Channel machines. XGA takes advantage of bus mastering and can display up to 65,536 colors at 640 x 480 pixels or 256 colors at 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution. It lacks a midrange resolution, and its high resolution is interlaced and causes annoying flicker. Video standards are less important in Microsoft Windows than in DOS because Windows requires only one driver for all applications. 3270 emulation the easy way under Windows 3.0. (Software Review) (overview of five evaluations of terminal emulation software for Five IBM 3270 terminal emulation software packages for linking Windows-based microcomputers to IBM mainframe hosts are reviewed. Most DOS-based 3270 emulators product awkward screens that look nothing like those of local applications and do not handle multiple sessions well. Windows is ideal for 3270 emulation because it solves these problems and offers a consistent interface. Each program uses fixed-width raster fonts that coincide with specific window sizes; the program selects a font at the correct size when the user resizes a window, allowing smooth transitions. Windows applications allow 'hot linking' to mainframe data; the best Windows emulators make good use of dynamic link libraries. All the emulators tested can operate in coaxial, gateway and TIC-connected environments. Digital Communications Associates' IRMA Workstation for Windows is rated an Editor's Choice. Extra! for Windows. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Microsoft Windows terminal-emulation software in '3270 emulation Attachmate Corp's $425 Extra! for Windows 3.0 is a 3270 terminal emulation program with simple default selections and easy-to-manipulate control parameters. The program runs on IBM, IBM-emulating, and Attachmate adapters. The software is easy to install and configure; adapters range in price from $570 to $595. Defaults include a windowed keypad, 'hot spots' for linking applications and several different font sizes. The program unfortunately lacks any hot link option and supports only seven fonts; window resizing does not work as smoothly as that in competing packages. Performance is good on CUT-mode terminals; some characters are missing from the lower right-hand corner of the screen in LU2 single-session mode. Extra! for Windows is nevertheless a good choice when ease of use is a primary concern. IRMA WorkStation for Windows. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Microsoft Windows terminal-emulation software in Digital Communications Associates' IRMA WorkStation for Windows 3270 terminal emulation software sells for $495 and supports more IBM Systems Network Architecture features than competing products. It provides LU1 and LU3 printer emulations, LU2 terminal emulation and both CUT and DFT support as well as an asynchronous mode. Hardware adapters for the system range in price from $695 to $1,195. Installation is easy, and the software includes keyboard mapping, macro support, a scripting language and an on-screen keypad. Users must select session definitions for multiple terminal sessions and can save a session 'profile' for future sessions. A built-in keystroke recording function allows automated log-ons. IRMA WorkStation includes an asynchronous terminal emulator that is essentially a scaled-down version of Digital Communications' CrossTalk for Windows. IRMA WorkStation is rated an Editor's Choice. LinkUp 3270 COAX Windows UniSession. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Microsoft Windows terminal-emulation software Chi Corp's LinkUp 3270 COAX Windows UniSession is an entry-level terminal emulation program that runs under Windows but does not take full advantage of the graphical interface. It offers excellent throughput and support for the Clipboard along with user-configurable installation; the install program generates an ASCII file which users can edit to include different parameters. Uses can select a keyboard map from the install program but cannot change it on the fly. LinkUp works only in CUT mode, although Chi offers a gateway system for DFT sessions. Its icons are puzzling; several of them lead nowhere. There is no macro support in LinkUp. LinkUp software sells for a very reasonable $225 plus $470 for a coaxial adapter. Netlogic W3270 Support Package. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Microsoft Windows terminal-emulation software in Netlogic's $249 Netlogic W3270 Support Package terminal emulation software focuses more on its interface to applications than on the actual task of 3270 emulation; Netlogic calls it a '3270 server.' Dynamic link library functions give applications access to 3270 communications, and the program displays larger fonts than competing products. It runs over industry-standard hardware and supports multiple CUT sessions; multiple DFT sessions are available via a special HLLAPI dynamic link library. Users can move across large fonts with scroll bars and can zoom in and out of text. Netlogic nevertheless suffers from some rough edges; some functions displayed in the menu bar are not discussed in the documentation, and the software does not support extended attributes. Netlogic is recommended only for system developers, who can take best advantage of its more powerful mainframe support features. Rumba. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of Microsoft Windows terminal-emulation software in '3270 emulation the easy Wall Data's $495 Rumba 3.0 terminal emulation software offers very good overall performance but lacks support for LU2 CUT mode operation. It supports numeric fields and operates very smoothly, with easy installation. Features include hotlinks, hotspots, a macro editor and on-screen keyboard mapping. The program has only seven fonts, but they work smoothly. A variety of macros simplify mainframe usage and automate terminal functions. Wall Data offers an optional software development kit (SDK) that supports HLLAPI and Dynamic Data Exchange. IBM PS/2 Models 90 and 95: true 486 power at last. (Software Review) (new IBM PS/2 80486-based microcomputers)(includes related IBM's new PS/2 Model 90 and 95 microcomputers are the computer giant's first true 80486-based microcomputers and are highly competitive with other 486 machines on the market today. Both machines use an upgradeable architecture, with the CPU and control system located on a 'Processor Complex' expansion board rather than on the motherboard. The Model 90 is a traditional desktop machine, while the Model 95 is a tower. Hard disk options range from 80 to 320Mbytes, and prices begin at $12,495 for the Model 90 and $14,145 for the Model 95. Standard features include 4Mbytes of RAM expandable to 32Mbytes, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and support for the IBM's new XGA standard. The Model 90 has three free expansion slots; the Model 95 has six. I/O ports on both machines use direct memory access control. The Micro Channel bus can potentially be upgraded to the future Micro Channel/2 system, and the processor to a reduced instruction set computing chip. The Models 90 and 95 offer on-board diagnostics and setup and hard-disk based BIOS. Other features, particularly the new machines' extraordinary expandability, are discussed. Plain-paper fax devices: no curls, no shine, no problem. (Software Review) (overview of three evaluations of devices for using laser Three devices that allow users to print incoming faxes on plain paper using a laser printer are reviewed. The thermal paper used in most dedicated fax machines is difficult to handle and tends to smear; fax machines that print on plain paper are available but are expensive. Plain-paper laser-fax devices typically connect to or reside in an HP LaserJet or compatible printer and can be connected to a microcomputer as well as to the telephone line. JetFax Inc's JetFax also offers transmission capability, but this is a secondary feature because third-party fax boards are inexpensive and widely available. All the devices work best in a dedicated machine because the process of receiving and printing a fax image generates a stream of hardware interrupts and reduces the CPU power available to run foreground applications. Extended Systems Inc's FaxConnection 5011A is rated an Editor's Choice. Extended Systems Inc.: FaxConnection 5011A. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of plain-paper fax devices in 'Plain-paper Extended Systems Inc's $595 FaxConnection 5011A plain-paper fax device is very easy to install. It consists of a board that resides in the laser printer and an RJ-11 cable for connection to a microcomputer. The board supports the HP LaserJet II, IID and III printers but not compatibles or early LaserJets. It is completely transparent to the user, and can store 15 to 50 pages in memory before filling its 256Kbyte buffer. Output quality is excellent, and users can choose to receive faxes on either legal- or letter-size paper. Extended Systems also offers an external version of the FaxConnection, the 5018S, that will work with the LaserJet IIID and compatibles. JetFax Inc: JetFax. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of plain-paper fax devices in 'Plain-paper fax devices: no curls, no JetFax Inc's $995 JetFax connects to any HP LaserJet II-series or compatible printer to allow users to print incoming faxes on plain paper and can also transmit faxes without requiring an internal fax board in the microcomputer via a $295 software package called JetFax PC. The software can run either as a foreground application or as a terminate and stay resident module. Image quality is good, and transmissions proceed quickly. Users can mail-merge documents and append scanned-in letterheads or signatures. The device supports resolutions of either 200 x 98 or 200 x 196 dpi and offers preview of faxes yet to be sent. Tall Tree Systems: Fax-O-Matic. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of plain-paper fax devices in 'Plain-paper fax Tall Tree Systems' $399 Fax-O-Matic plain-paper fax device lets users print incoming faxes on a laser printer, solving the problem of hard-to-read faxes. It can receive but not transmit, working in conjunction with any HP LaserJet II, IIP, III or compatible printer. The Fax-O-Matic is an external device that connects directly to the laser printer through a parallel port. It is easy to install and automatically scales legal-size faxes to fit letter-size pages; the generous 512Kbyte buffer will store up to 30 pages. Output is clear and readable, but the Fax-O-Matic tends to lose a small part of the bottom of images sent in fine-resolution transmission mode. It is also somewhat slower than competing products but is nevertheless a bargain-priced alternative to conventional fax machines. Tefax: the versatile do-it-all faxer. (Hardware Review) (Tefax System Model RA2110) (evaluation) Relisys Inc's $1,095 Tefax System Model RA2110 is a combination facsimile transceiver, printer and scanner that connects to microcomputers without taking up an expansion slot. Users can configure it to act as a telephone, fax modem, line printer, graphics scanner or copier. Performance is adequate in the fax-machine mode, but the paper trays are cumbersome and the document feeder can only hold transmissions of up to five pages. There is no paper cutter or drop bin for incoming faxes. The Tefax works best when connected to a microcomputer running one of the two software packages, Tefaxcom and FAXit for Windows, bundled with the device. Incoming faxes can be printed on either the built-in thermal printer or an attached laser printer. A Scan option in the Tefaxcom software turns the Tefax into a high-quality scanner. FAXit for Windows is less flexible, but is compatible with the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Financial modeling software: the Price Waterhouse report. (Software Review) (overview of three evaluations of financial Four financial-analysis software packages are evaluated by independent testers from Price Waterhouse using real-world business models. Ferox Microsystems' Encore Plus is a financial programming toolkit for building models, while Mobley Matrix International's Mobley Matrix, BrainChild Software's Financial Wonder and Decisus' BusinessWits expand on the spreadsheet model with built-in routines to guide financial analysis. Modeling packages allow users to generate sophisticated reports simply by inputting data. Encore Plus asks the user to build lines of financial code; the other three products use a fill-in-the-blank approach. No software package is a substitute for human experts in performing sophisticated analysis, and none earns an Editor's Choice award. All are good choices for those who need elaborate modeling functions not found in spreadsheet programs. Business Wits. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of financial modeling packages in 'Financial modeling software: the Decisus Software's Business Wits financial-modeling software is a $595 package that comes with a library of 'hyper program' formulas specifically tailored for common business problems. It goes far beyond the capabilities of spreadsheets, offering 118 hyper programs in its 'General Business Library' and 237 additional hyper programs in three optional libraries sold for $150 each. The General Business Library has functions for forecasting, loans, present and future value, mortgages, depreciation, statistics and variance reports. Business Wits worksheets resemble input forms and are much easier to use. Users can modify variable names and fill in values. The package works best on problems covered by its hyper programs, but users can also develop programs from scratch. Reports can be printed in horizontal, vertical or statistical format, and the program offers some graphing capabilities. It lacks file compatibility with spreadsheets and can import only ASCII data. Business Wits is a powerful decision support tool. Encore Plus. (Software Review ) (one of four evaluations of financial modeling packages in 'Financial modeling software: the Ferox Microsystems Inc's $895 Encore Plus 1.5 is essentially a programming language designed for creating financial models rather than a financial modeling package. It is aimed at spreadsheet power users and those who want to move mainframe financial applications to microcomputers without losing functionality. Encore's programming language, Exec, has over 300 commands and can perform powerful data manipulation. Users develop a model by developing a logic file with a text editor, compiling the file into pseudo-code, and adding data directly to the logic file by entering it into a spreadsheet-like module. Data can also be imported from Lotus .WKS and .WK1 formats. The programming syntax is English-like and uses field names instead of cell addresses in its formula to reduce errors. Encore Plus can run Monte Carlo simulations for investment evaluation. Its graphics capabilities are extremely limited. The package can be very valuable for financial analysts who have outgrown their spreadsheets, but it is more difficult to learn than a spreadsheet. TM/1 and Complete: far beyond spreadsheets. (ManageWare Inc Complete Modeler, Sinper Corp TM/1 financial modeling programs) ManageWare Inc's $4,995 Complete Modeler 4.1 and Sinper Corp's $795 TM/1 4.0 are two sophisticated spreadsheets that offer more powerful financial modeling features than standard packages such as Lotus 1-2-3. TM/1 is a relational spreadsheet combining the features of a standard spreadsheet and a relational database. Users enter information in a central database that generates spreadsheets. The program offers true multidimensional functionality; users can specify up to eight dimensions and define elaborate financial formulas. TM/1 has excellent import capabilities and is well documented. Complete Modeler 4.1 is a Windows-based decision support system that shares many of TM/1's features. It allows up to 12 dimensions per model and lets users switch among data dimensions with a mouse click. The package supports high-level financial analysis functions and has many powerful built-in tools but lacks graphics capabilities. Financial Wonder. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of financial modeling packages in 'Financial modeling software: the BrainChild Software's $495 Financial Wonder financial modeling package provides 650 financial accounts and 94 formula methods along with many advanced allocations and calculations and functions to adjust for seasons. The program uses a hardware-key copy protection device. It has approximately 250 predefined accounts in its base template and about 400 sub-accounts that may be added to any of these. Financial Wonder has a data entry screen for actual data and a formula screen that lets the user define a formula for each predefined account and sub-account. The program can perform sophisticated interest assumption and interest expense calculations. Seasonality calculations can adjust values to account for business surges during particular times of year. Financial Wonder's three-year projection limit is a serious limitation, especially in real estate applications, but its cash flow statement complies with Financial Accounting Standard No. 95 and can therefore be used by CPAs. Data can be exported to 1-2-3 files, but there is no import facility. The Mobley Matrix. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of financial modeling packages in 'Financial modeling software: the Mobley Matrix International Inc's $1,195 Mobley Matrix 2.1 financial software implements a theory developed by IBM alumnus Lloyd Mobley which focuses on emerging trends. It comes with Mobley's book 'A Guide to Finance' and has special features for experimenting with strategies via horizontal models. The program's categories are fixed and compact, and there are relatively few data-input fields. Each field has a pop-up 20-line detail window and an 'Adjustment Statement' column. The actual matrix consists of a five-column statement that flows balance sheets through income, cash-flow and adjustment statements. Users can create up to 100 accounting periods of any length but can view only two sequential periods in detail. The Mobley Matrix has several built-in graphs but lacks a means for automatically linking or consolidating related matrices. What you should know about the FCC emission standards. (Federal Communications Commission) (Lab Notes) (technical) Many computer manufacturers fail to comply with the Federal Communications Commission's demanding standard for radio-frequency emissions, and ensuring that computers do not interfere with electronic communications nearby is the responsibility of the user. Any electronic device with high internal operating frequencies can emit signals a radio or television set can pick up, causing interference. FCC certification shows that a particular product does not exceed a given level of interference with broadcast frequencies. The FCC Class B certification program began in the late 1970s, when emissions from computers were causing dangerous interference with police, aeronautical and other communications vital to public safety. Computers sold for use in the home must meet Class B standards; Class A devices are those sold only in business and industrial applications. All microcomputers are categorized as Class B, but vendors can apply to have specific machines treated as Class A if they can verify that it is not suitable for home use and that it is not sold for such use. Most 80386 and some 80486 machines fall into this category. MBOOT.COM: a multiple boot program for your PC. (Utilities) (tutorial) MBOOT, a utility that lets IBM-compatible microcomputer users keep up to four different startup configurations on one machine, is presented. Each session can use different versions of DOS or different CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. The program is installed on a bootable disk drive via a menu-driven procedure and includes Add Session, Rename Session, Update and Return functions. It works by replacing the DOS boot record with its own custom boot record, deciphering the BIOS parameter block and using BIOS calls to manipulate disk data before the operating system loads. The program's three parts are the boot record, the extended boot record, and the installation code. The extended boot record reads the file allocation table into memory. The installation code checks for previous installation and allows session configuration using the menu router. An introduction to the Windows 3.0 palette manager. (Environments) (tutorial) A guide to programming the color palette manager in the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is presented. Windows 3.0 offers device drivers for boards that support more than 16 simultaneous colors, allowing applications to change the palette lookup table for the board. The Windows Graphics Device Interface allows device-independent use of video hardware by applications. GRAYS, a sample program that illustrates the Windows 3.0 palette functions by displaying 65 shades of gray as a 'fountain' of color. Programmers working with the palette manager normally call the CreatePalette function to create a logical palette and use the Windows LocalAlloc function to allocate enough local memory for one data structure per gray shade. Technical details of the program design are discussed. DOS extenders old and new: protected-mode programming in DOS. (Power Programming) (tutorial) DOS extender technology allows applications to overcome DOS' 640Kbyte memory limitation by using the protected mode of the 80286 and 80386 processors. Traditional DOS extenders designed before the introduction of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface are incorporated in 386-specific applications that run in protected mode. The DOS extender program sets up a protected-mode environment for the application, building the interrupt descriptor table and a variety of other tables to provide addressability. Any interrupt in protected mode causes the extender to switch the CPU back to real mode. DOS extenders are concerned with functions that require a mode switch, functions that address application buffers, functions that must be completely replaced to work in protected mode and function calls unique to the DOS extender itself. Windows 3.0 includes an integral DOS extender, letting programs use extended memory. It offers much of the power of OS/2 without forcing programmers to learn a new application programming interface but is not well documented or supported. A technical description of Windows DOS-extender functions is given. Tax prep software for 1990 emphasizes abundant on-line help and graphical WYSIWYG forms. (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) (Software Four 1991 tax-preparation software packages are reviewed: Meca Software's Andrew Tobias' TaxCut, Sylvia Porter's RapidTax, Timeworks Inc's Swiftax and ChipSoft's TurboTax. The IRS now accepts typed tax forms that meet standards for underlining and legibility, eliminating its earlier requirement that returns be submitted on a near-perfect replica of an official form. Some programs produce only dot-matrix quality output, while others generate forms virtually indistinguishable from an IRS-issue Form 1040. Ease of use is the most important consideration in choosing a tax package. Most 1991 versions of tax programs have added pull-down menus, pop-up windows and other graphical interface elements. The best programs take advantage of computers' power to provide correct information precisely as needed. Andrew Tobias' TaxCut. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax-preparation software in 'Tax prep software for 1990 Meca Software Inc's $89.95 Andrew Tobias' TaxCut tax-preparation software provides an intuitive interface to the federal Form 1040 and 33 supporting forms and schedules while adding new functions that expand its 'expert advisor' capabilities. Artificial-intelligence techniques guide users through completion of specific items, forms and schedules via a series of questions. TaxCut can also import tax-classified numbers directly from Meca's Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money 6.0 or 7.0, virtually completing a return in a single pass. It can also import data from other personal-finance packages as well as 1-2-3 and ASCII files, but handles only one item at a time. A new 'where am I' chart shows the user how information in the current form fits into the data flow from other forms. TaxCut can print output in three different IRS-acceptable styles, including a simple typewritten format and a graphics-quality Form 1040 that prints on HP laser printers. Meca offers electronic filing service for a $19.95 fee. Sylvia Porter's RapidTax. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax-preparation software in 'Tax prep software for DACeasy Inc's $79.95 Sylvia Porter's RapidTax is a new tax-preparation package that coherently links the federal Form 1040 with 33 other forms and schedules. It offers an interview that lets users know which forms they need to fill out; users have the option of using a simpler questionnaire that accepts yes or no answers and creates check-marks on the forms menu. One problem with RapidTax is its depreciation worksheet: the form can do all necessary calculations, but is somewhat inflexible. On-line help is available, but the help screens are brief. RapidTax offers compatible state return programs packaged by region; each $49.95 package covers six to nine states. Electronic filing service costs $20. Swiftax. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax-preparation software in 'Tax prep software for 1990 emphasizes Timeworks Inc's Swiftax tax-preparation software opens with a succinct tutorial and provides information about 1990 tax law changes, and an interview helps users determine which forms must be completed. The program's depreciation and passive-activity calculation features are weak; it includes Form 4562, but users must calculate the actual deduction by hand. A data-integrity checker audits finished returns and warns the user of errors. Swiftax prints a graphical Form 1040 in dot-matrix style; all other forms are in the Courier typeface, and all are accepted by the IRS. Swiftax costs $79.95; users who bought the $39.95 'early bird' version can upgrade to the full version containing final-draft forms for $24.95. TurboTax. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of tax-preparation software in 'Tax prep software for 1990 emphasizes ChipSoft Inc's 1991 TurboTax tax-preparation software adds a new approach to on-line help to its already powerful features. Its screens have windows labeled 'logical next step' that include both a tutorial for new users and a guide to tax law changes for experienced users. An expanded tax interview informs users which forms they need to fill out, and the forms instantly appear behind the interview window. TurboTax highlights words and phrases that have longer explanations, and its 'trust information' folder contains the K-1 worksheet. Users can import data from personal finance programs. TurboTax offers a graphical output mode that produces a nearly perfect Form 1040; electronic filing is available for $15. ChipSoft also offers a $40 state tax package for each of the 44 states that has an income tax. TurboTax is rated an Editor's Choice. Bellcore sees faster speeds for computers. (new method using semiconductor lasers to speed clock times) Bellcore, the research unit of the Bell regional holding companies, announces a breakthrough that could increase the clock speed of computers by as much as ten times. The method relies on semiconductor lasers acting as a computer's clock rather than the traditional quartz crystal technology. Quartz crystals present problems to computer developers as the upper limits of their speed are tested. One such problem, which is known as skew and is caused by small variations in the crystal's oscillations and by small problems in the miles of wiring found on integrated circuits. Bellcore's laser is the size of a grain of sand and emits a pulse of light every 120 picoseconds. Because the laser is extremely accurate skew, can be reduced and pulses could arrive at the circuit board within 12 picoseconds of each other. Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard plan to jointly develop some software. Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard announce they will work together to develop software technology based on object-oriented programming methods that will enable computers from various vendors to communicate and share software. The alliance between the firms is an unlikely one because they have long been rivals in the fast growing workstation market. The new technology may be based around HP's NewWave object-oriented technology. Both companies intend their development to extend beyond compatibility between their own products. They are hoping other manufacturers will sign on and help create an industry standard. The companies will also submit their work to the Object Management Group, a standards body with more than 100 industry members. Standards set for data-voice phone service. (Corporation for Open Standards adopts standards) The Corporation for Open Systems, a nonprofit standards body, announces it has adopted specific standards for integrating voice and data communications over a single telephone wire. The standards are those proposed by Bell Communications Research Inc, the research unit of the Bell regional holding companies. The standards will cover the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) service that is expected to be available across the country by 1992. ISDN technology is already being used by many corporations over private network lines. The benefits of the technology include lower entry costs because existing phone lines can be used as well as the potential for offering cable television, computer imaging services and modem-like capabilities over normal telephone connections. Microsoft increases pressure on rival in Pen software. (Go Corp.) Hill, G. Christian. Microsoft Corp, worried that there be any aspect of the microcomputer industry it does not control, announces that 21 major computer makers are considering supporting its operating system for pen-based computers. Microsoft's new operating system will be a variant of its Windows graphical user interface. The firm's chief rival is diminutive Go Corp, which has introduced PenPoint, its operating system for controlling pen or stylus input. Go Corp already has the partial support of IBM, NCR and Grid Systems Inc, but Microsoft is also counting NCR and Grid on its side along with NEC Corp, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Toshiba. Analysts say that small computers controlled via handwriting could blossom into a market at least as big as the laptop computer market. High-tech stocks may be near their highs. McWilliams, Gary. High technology stocks performed well from Nov 1990 to Feb 1991, but the outlook for high-tech companies is uncertain. Hambrecht and Quist's Technology Index increased by 42 percent between Nov and Feb, while the Standard and Poor's index rose 20 percent in the same period. High-tech stocks benefit from the impressive display of modern weaponry in the Persian Gulf War and from good earnings reports from the leading US computer, software and integrated circuit vendors. Despite above-average earnings for six of the seven leading companies in these industries, analysts note that US sales are slow and foreign sales look especially good because of the weak dollar. Export sales are also declining as the European economy becomes more sluggish. For PBX makers, the future is later; they're selling at a loss - hoping to create new markets tomorrow. (Information Processing - Private branch exchange (PBX) vendors are selling basic telephone switchboard equipment at a loss, hoping to recoup their costs with sales of additional, more expensive equipment and services later. The $4.5 billion US PBX market peaked in 1984. Northern Business Information (NBI) reports that AT&T lost more than $300 million on PBX shipments in 1989 and Rolm lost $100 million. NBI estimates that 1991 sales of new PBX equipment will be $1.7 billion, down 44 percent from 1987, but voice-mail systems sales are increasing at about 10 percent per year and automatic call distributors sales are up 7 percent per year. Vendors plan to market PBXs to combine voice and data communications to support access to computerized records when clients call. AT&T, Rolm and Northern Telecom, the largest PBX makers, are working to develop the new technology, but smaller companies lack the resources to devise computer links and market their products. Why almost everybody is watching Compaq. (plans to expand into workstations) (Information Processing - Computers) Compaq plans to move into the workstation market, and the computer industry waits to see which hardware and software are chosen for the new line of products. Rumors indicate that the $3.6 billion company plans to use reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chips from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. Microsoft Corp wants Compaq to use its Windows graphical user interface, and other companies that already use MIPS chips are likely to join in devising a new workstation standard. The $7.4 billion workstation market is growing, and there was a 30 percent increase in sales to nontechnical buyers in 1990 because prices have dropped significantly. Compaq would like to expand outside the microcomputer market, which is slowing significantly, but the company may need help from outside sources to develop its first workstations. Critics say that Compaq will have difficulty creating a dominating workstation standard. Bits & Bytes. Eng, Paul M. GTE Corp's ImageSpan Div has a new system that transmits digitized pictures between microcomputers by using satellites. Text is sent over telephone lines, and the two components arrive almost simultaneously. Another advance in the communications industry is the re-use of the old copper cables under the ocean that were made obsolete by new fiber-optic cables by scientists to study geological forces generated by plates in the earth's crust. In the computer industry, Compaq is adding a $3,000 telephone support service for customers with network problems, breaking its longtime strategy of dealer-only service. Compaq is also creating a training program to improve dealer service. IBM pledges RS/6000 and PS/2 computers to the Partnership for America's Cup Technology to help analyze sailboat hull design for racing yachts. Data East USA Inc introduces its $50 Continuum as a New Age game designed to reduce stress. Connecting PBXs, hosts: MCI's operators to use link. (MCI Communications Corp.) MCI is making plans to deploy a PBX-to-computer automated interface by the end of 1991 in order to offer better operator services. The company decided to employ the interface after a switch-computer automated interface (SCAI) connecting Digital Equipment Corp VAX computers to an SL-100 PBX manufactured by Northern Telecom was successfully beta-tested. SCAI applications seem to be more than the technical marvels working well in laboratories. Telephone companies have noticed an increase in the productivity of operators, realizing cost savings attributable to reduced call-handling times. MCI officials call such benefits coincidental, continuing to say the company adopted the technology for reasons of flexibility and enhanced product rollout. IBM to unveil S/370 connection: connecting PBXs, hosts. (product announcement) IBM announces the development of Direct Route, a PBX-to-host telephone management software designed to offer access to IBM System/370 mainframes for microcomputers connected to Northern Telecom or Rolm PBXs. The application is said to be outside the CallPath Services Architecture (CSA), announced by IBM in 1990. Direct Route was created for Northeast Utility Service Co, Berlin, CT. Northeast is one of New England's largest power companies. The new application is expected to debut during the 2nd qtr of 1991. Direct Route's technology may be a vital tool for enterprise-network users who need to leverage their installed PBX and mainframe computing bases instead of waiting for CSA capabilities due in 1992. Apple talks SNMP: user pressure prompts vendor to embrace net mgm't standard. (management; Simple Network Management Protocol) Apple Computer is planning to adopt the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to manage its AppleTalk networks. The company plans to use primarily SNMP technology instead of Apple Management Protocol (AMP), which is good news to many Apple users who were critical of the vendor for taking a proprietary approach. Company officials say Apple has not so much changed course as refined its direction, recognizing new SNMP functionality. Some of the larger users in the Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems (MacIS) user group has laid out their multivendor network management requirements. They wanted interoperability with a variety of network management schemes. The vendor's acceptance of SNMP could, according to users, have a critical impact on mixed-protocol networks as users could integrate AppleTalk with the systems of other vendors. Users buying--slowly. (status of T1 industry; part one of two) (includes related article on the difficult choices caused by The year 1991 seems to be one of transition for the high-flying T1 marketplace. Changes in the supply and demand of the backbone networks are apparent. Builders of enterprise networks are facing economic limits and recessionary pressures. Buyers of T1 services and switches are proceeding cautiously. Vendors are working to determine need, trimming their operations and creating the next wave of technology, as well as looking beyond sales to users of private networks in the US and looking for business from telecommunications carriers and the largely untapped foreign marketplace. Users seem to want to buy. The cost-benefit analysis is simply more difficult. Corporate managers face a formidable task in justifying their budget requests. Benefits must be immediately apparent. NetSpy upgraded; LAN tool coming. (from Legent Corp., Local Area Network) (product announcement) Legent Corp introduces NetSpy 4.0, a new release of its performance management application for IBM networks and systems. The company also reveals plans to ship LAN performance management functionality later in 1991. NetSpy 4.0 includes the ability of one application to communicate remotely with other NetSpy VTAM applications, interfacing with IBM NetView and a mechanism allowing problem-determination messages to be reflected on NetSpy or Multiple Virtual Storatage console. Beta testers are enthusiastic about the new release of Netspy, including communications enhancements, but are more excited about the LANSpy product to be released later. General American Life Insurance is a LANSpy beta test site. Users on the company's 20 to 30 networks are seeking mainframe access and backup and the company plans to support such integration. Legent officials expect LANSpy to offer network systems and performance data similar to LAN analyzer applications. Net mgn't for hubs: National Semi rolls out chip set. (management; National Semiconductor) National Semiconductor unveils a hub repeater chip set that integrates network management capabilities to simplify local area network control. The two-chip set will make it more cost-effective for hub manufacturers to include network management functionality in low-end products. High-end gear will benefits as the new product will free processors and software for other jobs. A number of other semiconductor vendors also expect to introduce similar devices. Users say the new product was a very necessary development in network management. National and several hub manufacturers plan to use the chip set to develop less costly products for users. The chips will provide a platform on which vendors will develop systems based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). ISDN '92 in the wings. (Integrated Systems Digital Network) Sweeney, Terry. Enthusiasm for the expected announcement of 1992 Nationwide ISDN is muted by doubts about just how aggressively the Bell regional holding companies will move toward implementation. The document, prepared by Bell Communications Research Inc, describes how central office switches will set up calls on an ISDN, how the switches will communicate and how long distance ISDN will be achieved, along with laying down guidelines on ubiquitous ISDN and feature transparency. The real proof, according to users, will be in the deployment plans of the Bell regional holding companies. The lack of ubiquitous ISDN has constrained the development of the technology. Biggest tariff 12 deal yet: AMR upgrades contract with AT & T. Killette, Kathleen. AMR and AT and T renegotiate their Tariff 12 contract, making it AT and T's largest custom-networking contract ever. AMR is the parent company of American Airlines. The contract was renegotiated after AMR expanded its international operations and added international communications capabilities. AMR wanted to take advantage of AT and T's switched 56K-bps service, virtual networking and fractional T1. AMR was changing from a multidrop configuration to an X.25 point-to-point backbone. AMR started using Virtual Telecommunications Network Services, which provides internal and external domestic and long distance voice services and data transmission to travel agents in Jan 1989. Travel agents are customers of American Airlines' SABRE automated reservation system. AT and T has also offered Partitioned Data Base Management, which allows AMR partition VTNS locations. Vendors push code for global links. (Unicode) (includes related article listing members of Unicode Inc.) A digital-character code encompassing alphabets worldwide has been created by a consortium of 12 major computer companies. Specifications indicate that Unicode is a 16-bit format containing 27,000 characters and with a capacity for over 65,000 characters. Unicode, in theory, will allow a computer using any human language to read text files from any other computers and to write text files to be read by any other computer. The new code will also enhance global communications, proving especially useful to multinational corporations and other groups needing to transmit multilingual text. Unicode's draft specification is nearly ready and a final release is due in Apr 1991. A rival specification, ISO 10646, is being prepared by the International Standards Organization. Both Unicode and ISO 10646 are designed to address the shortcomings of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), an 8-bit-per-character code corresponding to the Roman Alphabet. HP to unwrap networking gear. (Hewlett-Packard) (EtherTwist Hub Plus/48, Fiber Optic Hub Plus) (product announcement) Hewlett-Packard (HP) introduces new networking products the company says will provide some of the best reliability features and most aggressive price/performance ratios ever. Announcements were also made of enhancements to its network management software and its powerful 'deskside' computer. EtherTwist Hub Plus/48, based on chips co-developed by HP and Advanced Micro Devices, offers up to 48 10Base-T twisted-pair ports for network connections. Each of the processors supports eight ports, integrates transceiving and receiving functions and allows the hub to support more users in less rack space than traditional hubs. The Fiber Optic Hub Plus is an eight-port hub connecting multiple Ethernet work groups or networks utilizing Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 standards and supporting connections up to 1.5 miles. Fiber Optic Hub Plus also comes in a compact module. New features were also unveiled for OpenView Bridge Manager and OpenView Hub Manager software. Unisys: new co-op: distributed-processing moves. (Cooperative Computing Platform) (product announcement) Unisys introduces a 2nd generation Micro A ($27,000) desktop computer, combining workstation and mainframe environments in the Cooperative Computing Platform (CCP) ($26,750 and up), the company's first distributed-computing platform. CCP combines the Micro A with either the Unix System V or OS/2 operating systems, representing the first in a series of distributed processing systems expected from the vendor. The first fruits of the new Unix architecture are represented by CCP and Cooperative Computing Environment (CCE), the software that runs on it. The standards-based architecture is a way to connect the vendor's disparate computer and network equipment with products from other vendors. A goal of distributed processing is the ability to share processing duties among different network systems. More Sonet choices: DTS, Hitachi, TranSwitch new to market. (synchronous optical network, Digital Transmission Systems) More and more vendors are unveiling Sonet products, which pleases users building Sonet networks. Sonet is a set of international standards to facilitate transmission over optical fiber at speeds from 51.84M-bps to over 13G-bps. Standard interfaces and midspan meet capabilities facilitate the use of Sonet equipment from different vendors. Hitachi America and TranSwitch have introduced Sonet products and Digital Transmission Systems (DTS) is currently developing a Sonet product line. Hitachi plans to introduce transmit and receive modules in the 3rd qtr of 1991. TranSwitch has already introduced its first Sonet equipment, SM3 multiplexes synchronous transport signals. The company has also rolled out the SOT-1 Sonet overhead terminator. DTS has acquired the rights to technology developed by Digital Photonics. E-mail helps UPS deliver. (electronic mail, United Parcel Service) Jackson, Kelly. United Parcel Service (UPS) needs to coordinate activities for and communicate with 1,000 sites around the world in order that packages be delivered on time to the correct addresses. The time factor is critical. Time-zone differences between offices make it difficult to keep the business operating smoothly. Paperwork also causes problems. UPS runs its own UPSNet T1-based backbone network to transmit voice and data traffic worldwide. Data is transmitted in X.25 packets. Some 350 IBM Token Ring local area networks (LANs), which run the Novell NetWare operating system, are connected to an IBM mainframe in New Jersey via T1 lines. The company began building an e-mail system in 1987 to deal with the time-zone gap and handle paperwork. That system support over 14,000 users worldwide. Sysm e-mail software from H and W Systems runs on the company's IBM 3090. Systems Center pushes NCL: forms net mgm't alliance with Fujitsu. (network management) The Systems Center Inc (SCI), trying to make its NCL procedural language a de facto standard, announces a Net/Master network management applications-sharing partnership with Fujitsu Ltd, SCI's fourth major network management alliance. Those users to gain the most from the new agreement will be international corporations using both Fujitsu and IBM systems. Japanese firms will be the first ones to take advantage of the new software resulting from the alliance. Net/Master users without Fujitsu installations will benefit as it will encourage the development of more NCL-based applications. Net/Master users who have little Fujitsu equipment do not expect the agreement to affect them. Systems Center has not talked to Fujitsu about a reseller arrangement. Superservers enhanced: Compaq: more storage, lower price. (Compaq Systempro) Compaq Computer bolsters the Systempro competitive edge by boosting storage, cutting prices and adding free telephone customer support for the superservers. The enhancements were rolled out at the NetWorld '91 trade show in Feb 1991. The Systempro product line includes six models all based on the Intel 80386 and 80486 microprocessors. Storage was enhanced through the Intelligent Array Expansion System, an external cabinet with eight full-height drive positions supporting a Compaq 1.3Gbyte Differential Interface Fixed Drive. The Model 2600 ($21,999) is available with 2.6Gbytes of storage. The storage system includes fault-tolerant features: drive mirroring, an on-line spare drive and controller duplexing. New prices are as follows: Model 486-840, $26,999; 486-420, $21,999; 486-240, $19,499; 386-840, $20,999; 386-420, $15,999; and 386-240, $13,499. Small-user package from MCI: carrier unwraps program that offers billing features, ways to save on long distance charges. (MCI MCI Communications introduces a long distance calling package, called MCI Preferred, designed specifically for small businesses requiring unified billing, volume discounts and other cost-cutting and cost-control features already enjoyed by large users. MCI officials expect businesses spending between $50 and $1,500 per month on long distance telephone service will find the Preferred program ideally suited to their needs. The program covers all outbound business calls-domestic and international-as well as 800 services, facsimile usage reporting, residential calling for up to five homes, account code and a new travel card. The Preferred program is a refinement of the company's focus on the business market. It enhances the Vision plan introduced in the summer of 1990, which includes distance-insensitive rates, volume discounts, unified billing and other features. Preferred customers choose from two inbound service options: Classic 800 with basic inbound service and Private 800, restricted to callers dialing a private access code. Fiber capacity galore: transoceanic lines improve options. Poe, Robert. Increasing activity in the transatlantic fiber optic cable arena will probably flood the market with capacity and bring additional price competition and routing diversity for international corporate users. Three new trans-Atlantic cables have been announced in recent months. These announcements were followed by a tentative agreement to consolidate two of them. AT and T and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom announced their plans to lay the TAT-G1 cable, opening the first trans-Atlantic entry into Germany, by 1993. This brought swift response from British Telecom plc and MCI Communications, who announced plans for TAT-X. TAT-X will merge with TAT-9A, a cable announced by AT and T, France Telecom and Mercury Communications. Industry analysts say that established telecommunications operators are forming such strategic alliances based on profits and economics. Frame-relay: users have few plans, many queries. Foley, John. Members of the Communications Managers Association (CMA) have made it clear they are interested in frame relay technology but still have many questions about it. Frame relay is a network interface appropriate for interconnecting local area networks. Some 130 CMA members attended an educational seminar to listen to presentations by representatives of TimePlex Inc, StrataCom Inc, and US Sprint Communications. Just a few users attending the seminar are planning to use the frame relay interface, though interest in the technology is high. Seminar attendees pointed out that they needed to understand the technology prior to planning its use. Benefits include faster transmission speeds and the ability to accept many protocols. Limitations include lack of ability to carry voice traffic and the lack of a congestion management function. VSATs come down to earth. (price cuts on very small aperture terminals) Prices for low-end VSAT systems are coming down as much as 50 percent. The new trend should encourage users of terrestrial lines to consider VSATs, making network expansion to smaller, remote office locations more economically feasible. Falling prices could also foreshadow more turbulence for a market that has already experienced many fluctuations during the 1980s. Many companies rushed into the marketplace, armed with predictions of phenomenal success for VSAT technology and a large number soon ran into problems. Sales increased at slower than anticipated rates and many firms encountered financial problems and some were acquired. Problems had more to do with erroneous market predictions than the technology. Industry analysts say market saturation was another problem. Technical advances are also helping vendors to reduce prices, which is only a first step toward low-cost VSAT technology. Where are the users? Vendors rushed to provide fractional T1. Schultz, Beth. AT and T rolled out its Accunet Spectrum of Digital Services in Apr 1989, lending credibility to the use of fractional T1 connections in corporate backbone networks. Long distance carriers and networking equipment vendors now feel they must provide T1 capability. User demand, however, remains weak. Industry officials are unsure how much additional business has been gained with fractional T1. User demand is much lower than expected as the industry is still experiencing a learning curve. Demand is beginning to increase as users look for ways to draw remote locations onto backbone networks. MCI tries to revive growth: rolls out discount packages aimed at different users. (MCI Communications Corp) MCI Communications rolls out three discount service packages in a move to reverse its slow growth in the long distance marketplace during 1990. MCI's market share, not counting its acquisition of Telecom*USA Long Distance Co, grew by just one percentage point during 1990 to 13.8 percent, a sharp decline from previous years. The current recession, aggressive marketing efforts by AT and T and the acquisition all contributed to the company's lack of appreciable economic growth. The new discount services are targeted at small businesses, federal government users and multinational companies and are an example of how MCI is trying to compete by means other than price. MCI Preferred is targeted at small businesses, Government Telecommunications Service at users of Federal Telecommunications System 2000 and Global Communications Services at multinational corporations. Requests for spectrum swamp FCC: Sikes supports bill to allocate frequencies for wireless services. (Federal Communications The FCC has been inundated with requests for airwave access by communications firms that want to fill users' ever-increasing demands for more-flexible wireless services. FCC Chmn Alfred Sikes and others testifying before a hearing of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee regarding proposed legislation to require the Commerce department to set aside 200 megahertz of unused or underused government spectrum for public safety and commercial use. Sikes supports the fundamental thrust of the bill, citing the increasing demand faced by the FCC for frequencies by companies introducing new offerings like personal communications services and high-definition television. Co-sponsors John Dingell and Edward Markey want to move the legislation through committee quickly. It has strong bipartisan support. A similar bill won approval of the full House in 1990. Databases: crossing networks & user needs. (Interoperability Guide Supplement) The story behind the distributed database is connected to technical evolution as well as the development of business organizations and structures. The movement toward decentralization of computing resources has resulted in networking environment with multiple generations of centralized mainframe, decentralized minicomputers, distributed workstations and microcomputers, wide area- and global networks. The software environment is just as complex. Two forces, price/performance curve of the technology and the efforts of information technologists to better serve their organizations, are driving this diversification. Operational problems are quite similar regardless of the network has developed. Trends like departmental computing and downsizing have created ranks of users and developers who have yet to view operation from inside the traditional bastion of the mainframe. UPS travels distribution path. (United Parcel Service, distributed databases) Recent technical advances have produced some surprises as well as a few disappointments for United Parcel Service Inc. Advances in communications and computer networking have allowed the parcel delivery company to link thousands of workstations to a nationwide backbone network and design over 40 sets of cooperative-processing applications. The inability of database management system vendors to keep up with technological advances has forced UPS to stop short of a 1987 goal, when the company began a five-year plan to revamp its information systems at a cost of $1.4 billion. The makeover centered on a move toward distributed applications. T1 lines facilitate 1.544-mbps data transmission among the country's 1,200 offices in 73 districts. Local area networks will be installed in all offices by 1993. Much of the application development work centers on the Data Manager data base management system that comes with IBM OS/2 Extended Edition. How many tools are ready now? (distributed database systems) Wallace, Scott. Two questions come to the mind of a network manager evaluating a new technology for use: how will it affect the installed equipment base and how much of an investment must be made. Users are increasingly interested in and impressed by technology relevant to distributed-database systems. How well current network management tools and security and reliability features meet users needs is a topic of debate. Token Ring and Ethernet local area networks running at 10 megabits per second are sufficient for standard database implementations, if they do not support image transfer or other high-bandwidth applications. The workstation: a network window. (includes related article on maintenance of data integrity and security) Users feel the key to a client/server network is the workstation that gives access to that network. The workstation directs data flow to the user and accepts directions from the user. The same is true of networks based on distributed database systems. Client/server networks are a precursor of such systems. The make and model of the workstation are not especially important if the workstation provides enough power and memory to manage the required functions. The software run by the workstation is the important thing. This includes the operating system, applications and user interface. The interface represents not just the screen format but the computing environment as well. A good interface is necessary for the user to transform data into knowledge and for controlling the system providing the data. Data management is becoming more equally spread over the network and the distinction between client and server is becoming more blurred. 1991 outlook in distributed database technology. (includes related article on IBM's distributed database plans for 1991) The year 1991 promises to be one of important advances and product developments in network and distributed database technologies. The maturing of client/server implementations will be the strongest trend. Ancillary products, expertise, knowledge and tools are beginning to come together. Officials at Novell expect 1991 to be the year that client/server technology will become more enough to be more viable for users, which is welcome news for organizations ready to more to the commercially mature distributed database systems. Non-traditional database use will also gain momentum. More integration of relational multimedia in expected, which should enhance the effectiveness of executive information systems. Object oriented interfaces will help ease problems to be solved by distributed databases in unified environments. IBM pieces together low-end RISC strategy; intricate distribution plans. (low-end reduced instruction set computer workstations IBM is preparing to introduce a series of low-end reduced instruction set computer (RISC) workstations in late 1991 and is working to develop a marketing and support strategy through a broad base of resellers while still using its skilled direct-sales force. The new workstations, code-named the RS/5000 series, were described by IBM officials as extensions to the RS/6000 series; the new machines are expected to be produced in volume, whereas the RS/6000 is manufactured on a build-to-order basis. The new small-footprint workstations will use enhanced VLSI technology to integrate its processors and put them on a single planar board. The new design and manufacturing plan are intended to improve product cycle times and quality, according to dealer sources. The systems are expected to cost between $5,000 and $35,000; IBM's marketing strategy for the machines is discussed. IBM plans 3Q 'Super Server'; includes update to OS/2 1.3. (a PS/2 Model 95-based hardware/software product) IBM plans to introduce a PS/2 Model 95-based 'Super Server' hardware/software combination that will include an OS/2 1.3 update in the summer of 1991. The new server will be based on a single 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor that can be upgraded to a 50-MHz 80486 in the 4th qtr of 1991; many IBM customers expect a dual-processor version of the server to be made available in the future that will put the second processor on a bus master card inside a high-end PS/2. The new server will include new fault-tolerant system functions, a version of OS/2 1.3 optimized for the hardware, and Novell's NetWare SFT III operating system; it will also offer a choice of network bus master cards, including a new IBM Ethernet bus master co-developed with 3Com Corp and IBM's current Token-Ring bus master card. VARs losing free technical support. (value-added resellers) Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Ingram Micro Inc is planning a comprehensive fee-based technical support program that will change the way value-added resellers (VARs) get product information and technical assistance on the products the company sells. The move by Ingram Micro follows similar moves by other large industry distributors, who have found that technical support is too costly to provide for free, although smaller distributors with smaller product lines will likely continue to offer free support, according to James Dewey, founder of networking VAR LAN Vendor of Hermosa Beach, CA. Ingram Micro officials say the company receives an average of 50,000 calls from resellers each month; Tech Data Corp and Merisel Inc report about the same volume of calls. Ingram Micro's new program will go into effect in Apr 1991; it will charge $5 per call to resellers using its 900 number, but the fee will be waived for those purchasing at least $2,500 in merchandise a month on a 90-day average. IBM woos LAN VARs; Management Systems recruits resellers. (networking distributor Management Systems Group to recruit IBM test markets a new program under which networking distributor Management Systems Group will recruit and authorize value-added resellers (VARs) for IBM's networking products, including Token-Ring and PC Network hardware and software. Management Systems Group has been designated the only IBM Authorized Connectivity Wholesaler for the program, which was begun in Dec 1990. The program is intended to determine whether IBM can reach LAN resellers and customers that are not reached by IBM's existing dealers and VAR channels, according to IBM Dir of Channel Management for Connectivity and Market Development Dave Nichols. Management Systems and IBM will work together to monitor the success of the pilot program, which, if successful, may be broadened beyond the East Coast. The program is applauded by industry analysts, who say it will allow non-IBM authorized dealers to sell products without going to gray marketers. PC outsourcing: VARs under siege. (value-added resellers face competition from vendors and integrators in providing Value-added resellers (VARs) are being pressured increasingly by vendors and integrators in the market for microcomputer outsourcing services to Fortune 1000 firms. Analysts attending the Yankee Group conference in Orlando, FL, in Feb 1990 assert that the central issue is account control: suppliers are trying to meet almost all their customers' needs, including those that have traditionally required outside expertise. Suppliers hope that providing a wider range of services will lead to exclusive contracts and complete control of the account. Yankee Group Dir of Data Communications Research Todd Dagres says vendors and integrators will compete for network management, training, microcomputer help-desk support and other LAN and facilities management services. Many VARs, such as GNP Computers Inc, avoid deals that may lead to confrontation with vendors and integrators because vendors want complete account control; instead they focus on a specialty or customers not targeted by vendors. IE to own major stake in superstore franchises; Big Three vendors give nod of approval. (Intelligent Electronics Inc. receives Intelligent Engineering Inc (IE) receives approval from IBM, Apple and Compaq for its superstore strategy, which calls for shared ownership of the stores between IE and its franchisees, with IE typically the majority partner. IE Chmn Richard Sanford says the superstore strategy is still being formulated and may change in the future; the company is still looking for a chief executive to head the superstore division, which will be based in Exton, PA. IBM, Apple and Compaq will work with IE on the strategy, but they have not given a blanket authorization to the planned stores. The first store is expected to open in late summer 1991, and between eight and 12 stores are expected to be opened in the year following the initial opening. Mabun Nugent & Co analyst Kevin McCarthy says the superstores will basically be company owned, with franchises in their geographic areas being offered some kind of minority interest. HP readies new wares, marketing strategies. (eight new microcomputer local area network products from Hewlett-Packard) Hewlett-Packard introduces eight new microcomputer local area network (LAN) products, signalling a change in its PC strategy that will link marketing and distribution of its systems, networking and laser printer products. The new Vectra 486/33T is targeted as a UNIX multiuser server and a network server for as many as 200 users; it uses a 33-MHz 80486 and includes eight EISA expansion slots, a floppy drive, a 128Kbyte cache memory and 4Mbytes of memory expandable to 64Mbytes in its base configuration. Prices for the five models in the series range from $9,499 to $17,999. Also introduced are the Vectra 486/25T in five models priced from $7,499 to $13,799 and equipped with eight EISA bus slots, a floppy drive and 4Mbytes of memory; an EISA host bus adapter; a rewritable optical drive; an EtherTwist EISA Adapter Card; and new network hardware and software for HP EtherTwist LANs. Sam HP readies new wares, marketing strategies. Spiegelman, Lisa L. HP introduces the Vectra 486/33T and Vectra 486/25T network file servers as part of a new microcomputer marketing strategy. The Vectra 486/33T is a 33MHz Intel 80486 system that includes eight Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus slots, a floppy drive, a 128Kbyte cache memory and 4Mbytes of memory expandable to 64Mbytes. The file server comes in five models priced from $9,499 to $17,799. The Vectra 486/25T is a 25MHz 486 system that includes eight EISA bus slots, a floppy drive and 4Mbytes of memory. The file server comes in five configurations priced from $7,499 to $13,799. HP also announces a series of EISA network adapter boards, a rewritable optical drive and network hardware and software for HP EtherTwist local area network (LAN) solution. The announcements represent HP's move to merge a series of products into a single marketing message. Tracking the rise and fall of The Computer Factory. (a history of The Computer Factory Inc. and founder Jay Gottlieb)(includes Computer Factory Inc founder and Pres Jay Gottlieb faces the decline of his company as stock drops as low as $2.50 a share, and the chain posts losses of $16.7 million for FY 1990. Computer Factory was trading its stock at $27 in 1987, and Gottlieb sold 300,000 of his shares at almost $26 each to earn $7.7 million through the chain's offering. Gottlieb reported a 33 percent drop in sales to $84.5 million in 1st qtr FY 1991 ended Dec 31, 1990. An investor who bought 300,000 shares of the stock at $8 sold them at $3.25 a share in 1990. Computer Factory is merging with CompuCom Systems Inc as part of its effort to compensate for 1990 losses; the chain also closed 23 of its 54 outlets and reduced its workforce by 20 percent in Jan 1991. Gottlieb entered the microcomputer industry via an investment advisory newsletter called The Wall Street Irregular. The newsletter led to several dealer contracts for Computer Factory. Executives Russell Madris and Ed Anderson are also discussed. New group rivals IBM XGA standard. (GUI-X enhanced video standard committee announces intent to develop XGA alternative) A group of hardware developers at a Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) meeting announced the formation of a committee dedicated to 'GUI-X,' a enhanced video standard being developed that may compete with IBM's XGA standard. The GUI-X committee plans to create an alternative standard that would speed up the performance of Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface and offer higher resolution than VGA. VESA members discussed the conflict between developers working on register-level-compatible IBM XGA products and those developing enhanced VGA-compatible products that are not interoperable with XGA. XGA accelerates the operation of MS Windows, but it will take vendors 12 to 18 months to become hardware compatible with IBM's technology and manufacturers would like to have an alternative standard. S3 Inc will announce graphics chips during 2nd qtr 1991 slated to rival XGA. Unisys recruits Big Blue VARs. (Unisys RPG Application Migration Product may be valuable platform for value-added resellers; Unisys Unisys Corp recruits IBM Industry Remarketers (IRs) for a special value-added resellers (VAR) program based on Unisys' hardware and software platform. Unisys is encouraging IBM IRs to port the source code of high-end minicomputer software applications from IBM's System/36 architecture to microcomputers linked to the Unisys RPG Application Migration Product (RAMP). RAMP is a better migration path for the software programs than platforms such as the RS/6000 workstation or AS/400 because complete conversion is required for the software to operate. RAMP is comprised of a Unisys hardware platform, twinax line connectors, RPG II compilers and an operational control language-like application interface environment. Unisys is marketing RAMP as a base on which to build future microcomputing applications. VARs who participate in Unisys' RAMP program will be permitted to resell Unisys' Micro A microcomputer. Peachtree readies Windows software. (Peachtree Software Inc. repackages and markets Accounting by Design Inc.'s accounting Peachtree Software Inc repackages and markets Accounting by Design Inc's Bookkeeping by Design accounting software as Crystal Accounting. The contract is based on royalty payments to Accounting by Design, which still owns the product and the copyright. Peachtree will sell Crystal Accounting for $495, $200 less than its price as Bookkeeping by Design. Accounting by Design Pres Seth Pratt says his company entered into the marketing contract because it lacks the resources to compete with Microsoft Corp, which is seeking third-party Windows applications to market through its own Entry Unit Business. Bookkeeping by Design is available in Windows 3.0 and 2.x versions, but the product has an installed base of only 300. Industry observers question whether demand exists for Windows-based accounting. Users catch an early glimpse of Adobe's direction. (Adobe Systems Inc.'s Type Align for Windows computer graphics software; plans Adobe Systems Inc demonstrates Adobe Type Align for Windows 3.0, and shares future product ideas at the New York Personal Computer User Group meeting. Adobe Type Align is in alpha testing, and is expected to ship in 2nd qtr FY 1991. The $99 software is compatible with page-layout, drawing, presentation-graphics and word-processing applications. The software allows users to twist or wave text to create logos and add text to graphics. Type Align features a draft mode that shows box outlines of the letters for faster work. Adobe plans to upgrade its Type Manager for Windows during 1991, and will capitalize on PostScript's device independence to create electronic document-sharing methods. Adobe officials say the company may develop solutions during the next 18 months that allow users to read and print any document regardless of what platform sent or received it or what fonts it includes. IE posts strong 1Q; earnings up 70%. (Intelligent Electronics Inc. outperforms other chains first quarter fiscal year 1991) Intelligent Electronics (IE) Inc posts a 70 percent increase in earnings and a 22 percent increase in sales for the 1st qtr FY 1991. IE Chmn Richard Sanford attributes the company's growth to its strong asset management and cost control. Needham & Co Inc analyst Liz Buyer forecast IE's sales and administrative expenses at four percent; they came out at 3.7 percent. Buyer expected the chain to report $3 million more in sales, and she claims the recession is responsible. IE reports that its net income increased to $10.2 million on sales of $432 million for the period ended Jan 31, 1991. Earnings were $6 million on sales of $356 million for the comparable qtr FY 1989. IE sells products to 1,058 franchised locations and affiliates, and targets its sales at small- to medium-sized markets. Study shows training has most impact on sales. (Dataquest Inc.'s survey of which vendor support programs increase sales) Dataquest Inc's survey of US microcomputer dealers reveals that sales training is regarded as the best way to increase sales. Eighteen percent of the respondents say that sales training on the part of vendors is most effective in raising the volume of dealers' sales. Sales spiffs were named by 12 percent amd demonstration units by 10 percent as two other effective vendor support programs. Other responses included networking support, nine percent; vendor rebates, six percent; dedicated sales support and technical training were each selected by five percent of respondents. Four percent of surveyed dealers named bundled software, special pricing promotions and newspaper ads as programs that would impact sales volume positively. Survey respondents reported they allocate 44 percent of their support funds to advertising. Some vendors restrict the products that dealers may advertise. AG Group launches worldwide reseller program. (company seeks value-added resellers with network management expertise) AG Group announces its domestic and international reseller program, designed to give the company geographic channel coverage. AG Group seeks resellers with network-management expertise, and is targeting geographic areas including Southern California, Boston, NY, Dallas, Chicago and Denver. AG will sign on select dealers to distribute its Macintosh-based network management tools, which complement products to Novell Inc.'s LANalyzer and Network General's Sniffer product lines. AG's EtherPeek is for Ethernet local area networks (LANs), and LocalPeek is for LocalTalk LANs. AG has agreements with about 20 dealers and will maintain its direct-sales policies. AG does not anticipate channel conflict between its direct-sales force and resellers because it intends to encourage clients to work with a reseller in their geographic areas. AG has signed on six international distributors. Brock Systems' intrepid helmsman. (Brock Control Systems Inc.'s founder Richard Brock) Brock Control Systems Inc founder Richard Brock has watched his company's revenue grow at a compounded rate in excess of 150 percent every year since 1984 to reach $10 million in 1990. Over 400 clients across all industries use the sales and marketing automation value-added reseller's (VAR) Unix-based Activity Manager system on a variety of hardware platforms. Company employees cite Brock's integrity as a key element in Brock Systems' success, and others point out his ability to foresee trends as an underlying factor of his success. Brock is a risk-taker who released an MS-DOS version of Activity Manager a year after its release; the product had initially contributed to the corporate Unix trend. Ernst & Young, Inc magazine and Merrill Lynch named Brock GA's high-tech Entrepreneur of the Year for 1990. STSC's Statgraphics wins over VARs, resellers. (value-added resellers market STSC Inc.'s statistical analysis software; STSC Inc's Statgraphics $995 statistical analysis software is gaining prevalence in the value-added reseller (VAR) and reseller markets. STSC has signed up 24 VARs and 50 resellers since initial marketing of Statgraphics began in Jan 1991. Statgraphics allows users to perform statistical studies and present analysis using graphics such as pie charts, bar graphs and 3-D images. Statgraphics offers an relatively simple way to obtain and present statistical information. STSC plans to hold a number of training courses to increase the technical expertise of the resellers. STSC surveyed users of Statgraphics and their resellers in 1990 and began developing two-hour training sessions. The company has 210 employees and sales of about $25 million for 1990. STSC introduced Statgraphics in 1984 and has sold about 40,000 copies worldwide. Factory on right path: cutbacks of western stores help, but more restructuring is needed: Factory on right path. (The Computer The Computer Factory Inc closes down almost half of its locations in efforts to restore profitability to its corporate sales. Industry analysts support the company's move to shut down its CA outlets in Sacramento, Los Altos, San Jose, Walnut Creek, Irvine, Los Angeles West, Orange County and Pasadena. The Computer Factory will operate only its San Francisco and mid-Los Angeles stores as corporate sales centers only. Analysts agree that the reseller should have focused on its strong Northeast market and waited too long to close its western outlets. The Computer Factory's sales margins have dropped from 18.2 percent in FY 1989 to 13.8 percent in FY 1990, and analysts believe the company will need to do more than close stores to return to profitability. The Computer Factory's selling, general and administrative costs rose to 25.2 percent of sales in its 4th qtr FY 1990. CompuCom, Egghead gain. (CompuCom Systems Inc.'s fourth quarter FY 1990; Egghead Inc.'s third quarter FY 1991) (Business & Financial) CompuCom Systems Inc and Egghead Inc report strong growth in their Dec 1990 quarters with earnings meeting the expectations of industry analysts. CompuCom reported a 101 percent increase in net income from $1.51 million for the period ended Dec 31, 1990. The company's earnings were $752,000 in the comparable period FY 1989. CompuCom's revenue rose 33 percent from $81.3 million in 1989 to $108.5 million for its 4th qtr FY 1990. The firm's fiscal 1990 earnings increased 124 percent to $3.6 million on revenue of $343.3 million. CompuCom's stock rose 6 cents after it posted its financial report. Egghead's income increased to $7.4 million on sales of $130.1 million for its 3rd qtr FY 1991. Earnings fro the comparable period FY 1990 were $774,000 on revenue of $116.3 million. Egghead's direct sales accounted for about 54 percent, or $70.3 million, of its total 3rd qtr revenue because it had flat retail growth of 5 percent. Head for the Pacific. (US computer companies find opportunities in Pacific Rim countries)(part 1) (International) Pacific Rim countries including Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan offer significant opportunities within the computer industry. These markets represent the fastest-growing regions in the world, and they are expected to comprise a greater percentage of US computer companies' overall revenue by 1994. International Data Corp reports that the Pacific market is less saturated than the US and European microcomputer markets. US companies seeking global opportunities within any Pacific market need to establish a presence and develop a strategic marketing plan that simultaneously involves the major world markets: Japan, Europe and the US. IBM plans to create a standards group in Japan, and has released a new version of DOS to facilitate the porting of application software from English to Japanese. The computer market in Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan are discussed. New products from Novell: long-awaited Mac version of NetWare finally arrives. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare 3.11, NetWare for Novell Inc introduces a new version of its NetWare network operating system, NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) for Macintosh and Unix platforms and TCP/IP support with IBM's network management software. Novell's NetWare 3.11 is a major new version of NetWare, which Novell is offering at a revised cost structure. NetWare 3.11 is available for 20-, 100-, and 250-user price points of $3,495, $6,995 and $12,495, respectively. Novell announces Macintosh support with NetWare for Macintosh NLM 3.0. The NLM suite is priced at $895 and $1,995 per server, and allows from 20 to 100 clients to be Macintoshes. Novell announces the NetWare Network File System NLM, which provides Unix clients with support for NetWare 3.11 file and print services. Novell also announces $4,995 NetWare file-transfer access management (FTAM), communications software for exchanging data in a multivendor open system interconnect environment. Lotus Notes 2.0 hits the channel: names Notes Alliance Partners. (Lotus Development Corp. enhances its network software; selects Lotus Development Corp introduces Notes 2.0, an enhanced version of its groupware communications product, and announces plans to authorize select Notes Alliance Partners to become value-added resellers. Notes 2.0 features seamless integration for remote laptop users, extended imaging capabilities, automatic storage compression, enhanced security and integration with other Windows 3.0-compatible applications via Microsoft Corp's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. Notes 2.0 has a redesigned user interface, tables in documents, network administration enhancements and support for Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system. Lotus plan to include electronic mail, wide-area communications and support for the X.400 intercompany mail and X.500 directory services standards in future versions of Notes. Lotus is authorizing some members of its Notes Alliance Partners Program to resell Notes 2.0 in any quantity bundled with their own products and services. LAN Systems adds LANSpool for LAN Man, LANSight version 2.0. (LANSpool for OS/2 LAN Manager printer software and LANSight 2.0 LAN Systems Inc introduces LANSpool for LAN Manager and LANSight 2.0. LANSpool for LAN Manager enables users to create network print servers at any MS-DOS workstation on a local area network (LAN) running under Microsoft Corp's OS/2 LAN Manager network operating system. LANSpool runs in dedicated or non-dedicated mode and requires 2.5Kbytes of memory per shared printer at the server. The software costs $495 and attaches as many as five network printers to a print server workstation. LANSight 2.0 is a network management utility that combines remote control, diagnostic, monitoring and administrative tools necessary for efficient network management on a daily basis. LANSight 2.0 is priced at $395 and allows network administrators to view, control and monitor workstations, file servers and specialized servers on Novell Inc NetWare networks. Better quality, price cuts boost color-scanner market. (color scanner market expanding) (Hardware) The market for color scanners is growing as the price of units drops and the quality of scanned images improves. Color scanners made up less than nine percent of total desktop scanner sales out of 100,000 units in 1989; the figure increased to 23 percent of total unit sales of 150,000 in 1990. Microtek Lab Inc was the first company to develop a product in the low end of the color scanner market with its MSF-300Z. The desktop scanner was announced in Sep 1989, and it combined gray-scale and 24-bit color capabilities for $2,195. Many users purchased the MSF-300Z because its price was comparable to that of a gray-scale scanner, and color seemed to be the direction the market was headed. Companies such as Epson America Inc and Howtek Inc followed Microtek's lead with their own color scanning devices. The Macintosh market has been much stronger for color scanners than the IBM-compatible market, largely because Macintosh machines have better software and display technology. Rough road for workstations: sales outlook is dim. (Tatung Science & Technology Inc.'s TWS-5020 and Tyan Computer Corp.'s Voyager) Dataquest Inc revises its estimates of 1990 worldwide workstation vendor sales from $8.7 billion to $7.35 billion. The company forecasts 1994 revenue for the category at $20.8 billion. Analysts anticipate marginal sales for small manufacturers of workstations. Bull HN Information Systems Inc's DPX/Prostation is the company's first commercial workstation. The machine is expensive, but analysts praise its quality. Tatung Science & Technology Inc introduces the $9,995 TWS-5020, a SPARC clone that includes 8Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), expandable to 64Mbytes. The unit supports OSF/Motif and Open look graphical user interfaces. The TWS-5020 features a 19-inch color display and Texas Instruments graphics accelerator. Tyan Computer Corp introduces the $9,999 Voyager, an Intel 80486-based unit that supports Unix and MS-DOS operating systems. The Voyager comes with either Motif or Open look installed. The unit features 8Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 64Mbytes. Acer packs 120MB drive into 1100LX. (Acer America Inc.'s laptop computer with large disk capacity) (Hardware) (product Acer America Inc introduces an enhanced version of its AnyWare 1100LX laptop computer that features a 120Mbyte hard disk. The 16MHz Intel 80386SX-based 1100LX features a detachable keyboard, 10-inch VGA screen and optional expansion box for supporting two AT boards and one XT card. Acer is marketing the $3,995 machine as an alternative to desktop systems for users who require large disk capacity for such data-intensive applications as accounting and financial modeling. The 1100LX weighs 13.8 pounds with battery pack installed and includes 1Mbyte of memory, expandable to 5Mbytes, floppy drive and hard disk. The portable computer comes with two serial ports, a mouse port and a keypad port. Options for the 1100LX include an external 5.25-inch floppy drive, a 17-key numeric keypad, the OS/2 operating system and Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface. Samsung targets small-business market: new DeskMasters feature small design, low cost. (Samsung Information Systems America Samsung Information Systems America Inc introduces the DeskMaster 386S/16 and DeskMaster 286/12 microcomputers. The DeskMaster 386S/16 features 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), expandable to 8Mbytes and 3.5-inch floppy-disk drive. The $1,599 16MHz Intel 80386SX-based machine ships with Microsoft Corp's MS-DOS 4.01 and Windows 3.0 software. The microcomputer includes three 16-bit expansion slots, one serial and one parallel port, a mouse port and one VGA port. The DeskMaster 286/12 comes with 1Mbyte of RAM, expandable to 2Mbytes and a 5.25-inch floppy-disk drive. The $1,099 12MHz Intel 80286-based machine features three 16-bit expansion slots, one serial and one parallel port, a mouse port and one VGA port. The DeskMaster 286/12 ships with MS-DOS 4.01. Samsung is targeting both units at the small-business market. Hewlett-Packard adds color: PaintWriter printer positioned as low-end Mac solution. (Hardware) (product announcement) HP introduces the PaintWriter 180-dot-per-inch inkjet printer. The new color printer represents HP's low-end Macintosh solution, and replaces the HP PaintJet printer/HP Color PrintKit duo. The $1,395 printer supports Apple's 32-bit color QuickDraw and connects to all Macintosh computers via a serial port. HP PaintJet printer users with the HP Color PrintKit may purchase an upgrade kit to obtain PaintWriter functionality. The $235 kit includes a RS422C serial interface and I/O panel, new circuit board, new drivers and new manual. The HP PaintWriter completes HP's color printer offerings; the HP PaintJet represents the high-end, the HP PaintJet XL represents the low-end of the IBM -standard market. The PaintWriter XL is HP's high-end Macintosh product. The PaintWriter ships with HP's new drivers. The color-matching driver and Macintosh QuickDraw driver are available for $20 to users who wish to upgrade from existing machines. The RS/6000 one year later: workstation vendors go head on with IBM product. (IBM, DEC and HP compete in workstation market) HP and DEC develop new products and distribution strategies to compete with IBM's RS/6000 workstation, which was announced in Feb 1990. The RS/6000 dominated seven percent of the domestic workstation market by Dec 1990, including systems with an average price of $15,000. IBM shipped over 25,000 units worldwide, and the RS/6000 brought the company's reduced instruction set computer-based (RISC) revenue to $1 billion. BIS Strategic Decisions Inc analyst Bill Ablondi expects IBM to double its market share by 1994. HP/Apollo and DEC both claimed about 23 percent of the domestic market in 1990, but have since lost market share to IBM. DEC has initiated aggressive campaigns to recruit new value-added resellers (VARs) in efforts to reclaim its lost market share. HP and DEC tied for second place behind Sun Microsystems Inc in the workstation market; Sun held 25 percent of the market in 1990. X terminals emerge as cost savers. (MIS managers turn to x terminals instead of workstations to upgrade systems) (Special X-terminals offer corporate users an economical way to upgrade MIS systems without purchasing additional intelligent workstations. Houston Chronicle manager of technology resources, Jerry McEachern purchased 250 Visual Technology Inc X terminals for Chronicle staff to use for word processing, financial and spreadsheet applications. X terminals enabled McEachern to redistribute extra CPU horsepower generated by 12 Sun file servers to the administrative staff without incurring the expense of new workstations. McEachern convinced users that they could replace $500 terminals with $1,000 X terminals and obtain more advantages. X-terminal vendors are expected to ship about 175,000 units during 1991, which represents a 250 percent increase from 1990. Market analysts predict X terminals will post an annual growth rate of 112 percent thru 1994. Highland targets CD-ROM: Software Store disk to show host of Unix applications. (Highland Software Inc.'s software distribution Highland Software Inc introduces its Software Store compact disk (CD), which contains Unix applications and tools from over 35 companies. Highland's CD-ROM software distribution strategy includes plans to develop custom disks for several industrial distributors in order for them to offer their product lines on disk for direct-sales, value-added resellers (VARs) and users. Highland is creating separate Software Store disks for Sun Microsystems Inc, HP and DEC workstation platforms. The CD data bases include demonstrations and disabled working versions of software applications. Over half of the applications are capable of unlocking and downloading the software electronically. Sun, HP and DEC are all planning to shift to CD-ROM as a preferred Unix software distribution media for new operating systems releases and upgrades, and Highland is counting on the number of CD-ROM users to increase. Dealers strapped for cash: risky business: resellers have tough time offloading costs. (The Soft View) (Software) (column) Computer Reseller News columnist and Merrin Information Services Inc Pres Sy Merrin has shown in his analysis of reseller profits that the distribution channel is struggling financially. The average public software company earns a pretax profit of 20 percent after operating costs. Well-established vendors allocate about 10 percent of sales to research and development funds for next-generation markets. Start-up companies and venture capitalists invest higher percentages in untested software markets. Software developers may give away up to 60 points of margin to the distribution channel to underwrite merchandising and support. Most points are transformed into price discounts, leaving dealers without sufficient funds for rudimentary services. Software companies can spend 20 percent of revenue on inventory and receivables. Dealers find themselves responsible only for physical distribution, and software vendors will eventually find cheaper ways to handle that job. Adobe 'special effects': TypeAlign for Windows set to ship in 2Q. (product announcement) Adobe Systems Inc's TypeAlign will be available in the second quarter under Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0, enabling users to design special effects for text. The proper version of Adobe Type Manager, which controls the use and display of PostScript Type 1 outline fonts on either Windows or Macintosh, is required for both versions of TypeAlign. Features of TypeAlign include the ability to place text on a straight line, oval or free-hand line, the ability to change text contents even after performing a special effect, zooming and rotation features and kerning control. TypeAlign for Windows includes a grid for type placement on a page, the ability to create background templates and several other features not available in the Macintosh version. The user can create a customized palette using the 10 predefined color palettes that come with TypeAlign. A 286-based computer with 2M bytes of RAM and a hard disk drive are required. TypeAlign for Windows sells for $99, and Adobe Type Manager also sells for $99. CA accounting bundle for $595. (Computer Associates International Inc.) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) is selling the General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable modules in its AccPac BPI accounting series as a bundle for $595, a savings of $590 from the combined cost of buying each product separately. AccPac BPI is the accounting software answer for businesses that need more functionality from their software than that offered by low-end accounting packages. The bundling decision stemmed from a need to make the software easier for resellers to stock and sell. Each module will still be available separately by placing a special order, and will sell for $395 each. Users can also supplement the bundling package with the rest of the modules in the AccPak BPI series at a list price of $395 each. A CA maintenance contract can also be purchased for $225, and includes toll-free telephone support and free product upgrades for a year. CA also offers a $100 rebate for each AccPac BPI module that is traded up for a similar AccPac Plus offering. Visix snags Sun for user interface. (Visix Software Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc.) Visix Software Inc and Sun Microsystems Inc have formed a strategic partnership for joint marketing of Visix's Looking Glass graphical user environment. The relationship will establish Sun's Open Look among a wider audience, and coincides with Looking Glass's availability in a single binary form and new packaging for Sun's Open Look environment and The Open Software Foundation Inc's Motif. Looking Glass is an icon- and mouse-driven graphical user environment for UNIX workstations as well as X Window System terminals. Visix has modified Looking Glass to comply with the Open Look graphical user interface specification, and it currently operates on UNIX platforms from DEC, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM and others. Visix currently claims sales of $4.5 million, and is planning to triple its sales by selling into the Sun installed base. Dickens sees brisk sales: new workstation division scores profitable month. (Dickens Data Systems Inc. is successful Dickens Data Systems Inc's workstation division sells IBM's RS/6000-based systems to the technical market, and has had a successful first sales month. The company has obtained several CAD/CAM installations, contracted with Silicon Graphics Inc to become a value-added reseller (VAR) for 386-based workstations and is negotiating independent software vendor pacts with Sun Microsystems Inc, DEC and HP. Dickens officials predict the workstation division will account for $8 million of the VAR's anticipated $50 million of total sales for 1991. Dickens offers RS/6000-based systems users its proprietary Design Bid CAD software for the construction and architectural markets and the IBM architecture application, CADAM. Dickens will introduce ObjectCAD, an object-oriented database program, in Jun 1991. The product will compete with AutoCAD Inc's AutoCAD. IE franchisees consider Sun VAR purchase options. (Intelligent Electronics Inc. franchisees to purchase Sun Microsystems Inc. Intelligent Electronics Inc (IE) franchisees authorized for Sun Microsystems Inc hardware choose to purchase Sun products directly from the vendor while IE completes its ongoing reorganization. As IE integrates Connecting Point of America Inc into its own operations, it expects its franchised division to acquire over 50 Sun-authorized value-added resellers (VARs). IE, MicroAge Computer Centers Inc and Nynex Business Centers were authorized as national value-added dealers of Sun products during the summer of 1990. Copley Systems Inc left the chain after being authorized less than four weeks because IE operated too slowly. Copley officials claim the company will work with Sun directly as an authorized VAR. Workstations Plus is also a former IE reseller that has chosen to purchase directly from Sun. Workstations Plus had been an IE franchisee for three months when it became an authorized Sun VAR. A channel backlash? Apple education plans cause 'wedge of mistrust.' (Apple drops many loyal dealers from its Apple Apple's new education policies may permanently alienate the vendor from a substantial portion of its resellers. Apple has summarily dismissed 20 percent of its entire dealer network from participation in the K-12 market. The 400 Apple Education Sales Consultants (AESC) are primarily small- to medium-sized dealers that have been Apple-only for 10 years or more. Apple declines to disclose the specific criteria it uses in determining which resellers remain in the AESC program. Apple dropped its long-time, devoted dealers with little or no warning. Dismissed dealers claim that Apple gave no specific reasons for their dismissal. Dealers now excluded from the education market face layoffs, store closings and personal bankruptcies. Many dealers mistrust Apple, and the vendor will have difficulty regaining loyalty and commitment from them in the future. NCR launches Gold Medallion plan. (NCR Corp.'s strategy to expand its dealer network) (Channel) NCR Corp announces the Gold Medallion Program, structured to expand its dealer network and strengthen its presence in 100 cities. NCR will collaborate with one dealer in every city, positioning each dealer as a workstation supplier to NCR's installed base within that dealer's metropolitan area. Gold Medallion dealers will be expected to obtain substantial market share within their geographical area, and may expect a high level of support from NCR. NCR will offer dealers marketing support and joint selling opportunities with its direct-sales force. Marketing support will consist of market development funding to increase awareness of the dealer program, and assistance for dealers in segmenting their market and targeting acceptable accounts. NCR will use strategic channels including dealers, value-added resellers, distributors and a direct-sales force to expand its dealer coverage. Merisel's new strategic plans: closing warehouses, restructuring. (Merisel Inc.'s reorganization) (Distribution) Merisel Inc consolidates several of its warehouses and announces a corporate reorganization. The national distributor is closing four of its 13 locations and integrating three key warehouses into three master warehouses. Merisel has not announced which locations will close. The company is changing its field-sales structure by combining its Value-added Reseller (VAR) and Retailer divisions and expanding its Workstation division. Integrating the outside nd inside-sales forces will eliminate overlapping sales. Merisel's intent in changing the structure of its sales and operations is to streamline its operations; the company is not changing direction. Merisel senior VP Carol Miltner is leaving the company for a position at Ingram Micro Inc. Merisel senior VP of marketing and products John Connors will replace Miltner. Connors was senior vice president of sales at Microamerica Inc before it merged with Merisel. Hall-Mark signs 3Com, Pacific Data Products. (Hall-Mark Electronics Corp. to distribute product lines of network equipment Hall-Mark Electronics Corp signs agreements with 3Com Corp and Pacific Data Products Inc to distribute each vendor's product lines. Hall-mark will carry 3Com's full line of local-and wide-area network products, which includes high-performance network adapters, multiport repeater hubs, network file servers and software to wide-area bridges, routers and communications servers. The 3Com product line is offered at each of Hall-Mark's 33 locations and its Technical Enhancement Center (TECenter) offers assistance in specifying 3Com products. Hall-Mark will distribute Pacific Data Products' full line of enhancements and accessories made for HP and IBM laser printers and compatibles. Hall-Mark will carry Pacific's PacificPage and Pacificpage PE memory boards, 25 Cartridges in One!, Headlines in a Cartridge, Plotter in a Cartridge and Pacific Print printer software. E-mail gets first-class stamp from corporations. (MIS managers slowly replace paper correspondence with electronic mail systems) Corporate decision makers rely more on electronic mail systems than on traditional mail services. E-mail has advanced significantly, causing more administrators to avoid hard-copy correspondence whenever possible. Several large-scale users have plans to replace paper distribution with electronic transmission, but the shift is not happening as quickly as the marketers would hope. Users still have some obstacles to overcome before they replace standard paper, and large numbers of users must invest in the technology to make it viable. A Gallup Organization Inc survey reveals that 39 percent of Fortune 1000 MIS managers are already using E-mail to replace paper correspondence. Survey respondents reveal that 23 percent use E-mail most of the time and 44 percent do so occasionally. Laptops aid Squibb's sales. (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Pharmaceutical Group Squibb Diagnostics division purchases Compaq Bristol-Myers Squibb Co Pharmaceutical Group's Squibb Diagnostics division equips its 21 sales representatives with portable computers and custom software to increase their productivity. Squibb purchased 21 Compaq Computer Corp Intel 80386-based LTE laptops and 21 HP DeskJet printers from a reseller in Montreal. Squibb runs Market Power Inc's custom personal information management system application on the laptops. The total cost of the system was $75,000 to $100,000 and took three months to implement. The Matrix Information Technology software is an object-oriented client information software system that can be adapted easily to meet Squibb's specific needs. The software allows Squibb to track its sales and its field people and lets remote sales representatives communicate with a central database. The application features a word processor, database, agenda, calculator and mail-merge function. Firms embrace pen-based systems: cite ease of use, increase in availability of solutions. (Grid Systems Inc.'s GridPad becoming Several large companies are purchasing Grid Systems Corp's GridPad pen-based portable computers because the number of software solutions for these systems is increasing. Corporations including Kellogg Co, Gerber Products Inc, General Motors Corp, Chrysler Corp, Tenneco Inc and Consolidated Edison of New York all employ GridPads. Software developer Fastech Inc predicts that pen-based systems will grow from 10 percent to 50 percent of its new business by 1992, when a large number of customers will have shifted from hand-held computers to pen-and-display units. Market researchers at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler use GridPads instead of pencil and paper to conduct consumers surveys of prototype vehicles. The New York City Transit Authority is piloting a project in which inspectors use GridPads to record and transmit data about the city's bus routes. Group meeting: high-end sales look good. (Intel Corp. confident of 1991 micro computer sales; president speaks at Westchester Corporate users upgrade their microcomputers at an increasingly rapid pace because more powerful and sophisticated equipment is becoming available. Intel Corp's Microprocessor Group Pres David House spoke at the Westchester Corporate Micro Users Group meeting, claiming users depreciate their microcomputers over four to five years. House believes sales of Intel's 80486-based systems will increase in 1991 as more companies depend on networked microcomputers instead of minicomputers or mainframes. Internal research at Intel reveals that 21 million microcomputers will use Intel-based technology out of 28 million microcomputers expected to ship in 1991. Sixty percent of the units shipped will cost less than $3,000; 23 percent will cost between $3,000 and $4,999; 1.1 percent will cost between $5,000 and $7,999; 4 percent will sell for over $12 million. Accounting firm goes on one-stop-shopping trip. (Smith & Howard contracts Macdonald Consulting to install its local area network) Atlanta-based accounting firm Smith & Howard contracts Macdonald Consulting to install its first local area network (LAN). Smith & Howard bought a Novell Inc LAN, networking software and 12 Dell Computer Corp 316SX systems, each including 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), a color monitor and floppy-disk drive, under the terms of the $50,000 contract. Great Plains Software director of channel management Don Nelson claims more business users are turning to consultants to install accounting systems. Great Plains sells its own high-end accounting system, and Nelson says business is shifting away from the storefront. Great Plains only earned 40 percent of its sales through storefront resellers in 1990; the figure was 50 percent in 1989. Macdonald Pres Taylor Macdonald believes users are reluctant to purchase their hardware separately, thus he is selling Dell hardware. Users alliance moving forward. (Users Alliance for Open Systems plans meeting; report outlines goals for corporate computing The Users Alliance for Open Systems discusses ways to implement open systems in a corporate user setting at the Corporation for Open Systems' meeting Mar 12-14, 1991. The meeting announcement follows the Alliance's release of its first official report titled 'Overcoming Barriers to Open Systems Information Technology.' The report outlines the group's goals and objectives for a simplified corporate computing environment, and it includes a brief history of the Alliance. The report also strives to clarify the meaning of 'open systems,' over which vendors, resellers and industry analysts have debated. The Alliance's report identifies obstacles that prevent users from taking advantage of open-systems technology such as the absence of a process or vehicle to adopt open systems, conflicting attitudes and cultures and inadequate products. Push for character encoding standard. (Unicode Inc. consortium) Unicode Inc is a consortium formed by several computer companies that seeks to develop a multilingual text and character encoding standard. The Unicode project is dedicated to simplifying the development of international information systems through one uniform character standard. Individuals, institutions and companies are reviewing the first draft of the Unicode standard which includes over 27,000 characters and encompasses all major languages. The standard emerged out of the industry's need for a 16-bit version of ASCII. A group of linguists, engineers, managers and information professionals using global information systems initiated the Unicode project in early 1989; the incorporated consortium plans to release Unicode 1.0 in the spring of 1991. Unicode character codes are fixed-width, unambiguous and include all characters typically used in electronic data processing. Workstation wars: HP, Silicon Graphics plan low-cost RISC lines. (product development) HP and Silicon Graphics Inc develop low-cost workstations. The HP systems use its proprietary reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) Precision Architecture (PA), and are expected to be released by late Mar 1991. The first HP model is a 50MHz to 60 MHz diskless unit that includes 16Mbytes of random access memory (RAM), expandable to 64Mbytes. The $11,000 to $15,000 workstation has one EISA slot. The second model is priced at $20,000 and includes a 200Mbyte hard drive, 16Mbytes of RAM expandable to 64Mbytes and an EISA slot. The third model is a tower system priced at $40,000; the unit comes with three EISA slots and 16Mbytes of RAM expandable to 192Mbytes. Silicon Graphics' $5,000 to $7,000 workstation is slated for release in the 2nd qtr of FY 1991. The unit will support 3-D graphics through software instead of hardware. Shiva's goal: to net No.1 spot: developer revamps Ethernet products, marketing efforts. (Shiva Corp. to develop network cards Shiva Corp enhances its EtherPort product line with Apple Macintosh IIsi cards and reorganizes the product line and distribution management to increase its share of the Macintosh Ethernet market. Shiva predicts that Ethernet will emerge as Apple's primary networking scheme, and is following the company's lead by upgrading its Ethernet products to include support for faster drivers, 10BaseT, Apple's operating system System 7.0 and the Apple Ethernet Cable System. Shiva's new communications boards that support Apple's Cable System include the EtherPort II A, EtherPort SE A and SE/30 A. Shiva acquired the EtherPort product line from Novell Inc in Dec 1990. Shiva is developing the Etherport IIsi card for thick and thin cabling and IIsiT cards for 10BaseT Ethernet connectivity. The cards will plug directly into one of the Mac IIsi's expansion slots, eliminating the need for an adapter. Novell to ship key Mac-to-PC link: after long delay, NetWare for Mac V. 3.0 to debut in April. (Novell Inc.'s network operating Novell Inc introduces NetWare for Macintosh 3.0, a network operating system that connects the Apple Macintosh to a microcomputer-based local area network (LAN) built on NetWare 3.11. NetWare for Macintosh 3.0 requires NetWare 3.11, Novell's upgrade to its NetWare operating system; NetWare for Mac will be offered as an optional product to NetWare 3.11 at a price of $895 for a 20-user version and $1,995 for a 100-user version. The Apple-Novell announcement also includes the NetWare AppleTalk Support package, which enhances NetWare 3.11 with AppleTalk protocols and AppleTalk routing capabilities. The product will be offered through Novell's After Market Products group for $495 per site license. Utilities: lucrative field: software category a 'vital component' in Mac environment. (distributors find opportunity in carrying Macintosh distributors identify utility software programs as a means of bolstering sales and adding value. Utilities include screen savers, data compression products, electronic mail and anti-virus programs and provide dealers with an opportunity to enhance any Macintosh system, a number of software applications, and customized systems. Utilities are considered a vital aspect of the Macintosh environment in terms of the number of units and the volume of sales. Utility software comprises 20 percent of Merisel Inc's Macamerica Macintosh division's product line, and 10 percent of Ingram Micro Inc's Macintosh software sales. Ingram Micro Inc has signed a contract with Aladdin Systems Inc to distribute its Stuffit Deluxe and Shortcut utilities. Memory-intensive application software is spurring development of data compression utility products. Fred Ebrahimi and Quark. (Quark, Inc. Pres and CEO F. Fred Ebrahimi says QuarkXPress makes publishing 'more accessible to the Fred Ebrahimi, president and chief executive officer of Quark Inc, is a native of Iran who believes that freedom of speech is often taken for granted in the US. He is proud that his firm's chief product, the desktop publishing package QuarkXPress, makes it easier for those with more ideas than capital assets to make themselves heard. The firm is not resting on its laurels where the product is concerned. Discarding the notion that designers and desktop publishers rely only on the Macintosh as a platform, a PC version of QuarkXPress is under development. Ebrahimi stresses the quality of QuarkXPress as its strongest selling point and states that the firm's goal is to ensure that they offer the best possible publishing tool, regardless of hardware platform or language supported. The Ethernet world embraces 10Base-T. (Product spotlight) (Special Advertising Supplement: Ingram Micro) A wide range of products for the Ethernet environment and 10BaseT networks are beginning to appear. These include adapter boards, concentrators, hubs, transceivers, and turnkey network solutions. Products from eight vendors are briefly highlighted. These include the 10T Hub from Asante, 3Com's Etherlink II TP adapter, MultiConnect TP Module, and Etherlink TP Transceiver, and products from SMC, DCA, SynOptics, Tiara, Western Digital, and Kodiak. CASE key to D&B's software strategy. (Dun & Bradstreet Software Services Inc. to adopt computer-aided software engineering Dun & Bradstreet Software Services Inc (D&B) accelerates its development of client/server applications in efforts to compete with companies offering networked application solutions that enable customers to reduce their reliance on mainframe computers. D&B plans to acquire a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) company to assist in applications development for the company and its customers. D&B's strategy is to develop an architecture for its next generation of business applications, and to utilize client/server and other new technologies. Industry observers say applications providers must secure CASE technology if they are to remain competitive. D&B will build its own CASE tools, take an equity position in a CASE company, or acquire one to obtain CASE technology. D&B will release a complete client/server offering at an undetermined date. IBM taps Booz Allen exec to spearhead consulting. (Robert Howe to lead firm into management consulting) IBM names Robert Howe general manager of consulting practices and operations, which signals its new emphasis on management consulting. Howe, formerly a senior vice president at Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc, will oversee essential IBM management resources such as its Professional Services unit, which provides commercial integration, and its Executive Consulting Programs, which provide business consulting services. Computer systems integrators are increasingly including management consulting in their skill sets because it can help to increase systems integration and outsourcing business. Management consulting offers higher gross margins than other services, and several large integrators are integrating technology implementations activities with strategic consulting operations. IBM intends to increase its services revenue to half of total business by the mid-1990s. DEC searches for network integrators. (marketing strategy for desktop integration) DEC pursues local area network (LAN) integrators to boost its efforts to sell desktop products and services. DEC set up a separate desktop services group in 1989, when it first targeted the desktop integration market, but had limited success in reaching the people who buy LANs and servers. DEC's channel and reseller programs must be reorganized to include representatives who understand the needs of LAN managers and users. DEC has offered LAN Systems Inc a contract to sell and install its Unix servers and connectivity products, but LAN Systems officials are concerned about conflict between their sales force and DEC's direct sales force. LAN Systems specializes in legal, financial and entertainment markets, which would supplement DEC's vertical market expertise. Microcomputer services, software and hardware claim 10 percent of DEC's $12.9 billion in revenue. IBM, Coopers consult on factories. (IBM, Coopers & Lybrand joint venture, Meritus Consulting Services Inc.) IBM and Coopers & Lybrand form a joint venture called Meritus Consulting Services Inc to improve their competitiveness with Andersen Consulting. Meritus will offer diagnostic services to improve the quality of business operations and products of manufacturers. Meritus will target a variety of manufacturing niche markets including consumer packaged goods makers and pharmaceutical and health care suppliers. Meritus will also target aerospace/defense and automotive companies. Meritus' advisory services will not be associated with either IBM's or Coopers & Lybrand's products and services, and clients are free to hire either company or other parties to implement a solution. Analysts claim that Meritus undoubtedly will act as a marketing arm for IBM and Coopers & Lybrand. Meritus is equally owned by both parties, and they will share its revenue and profit. Macintosh at core of woes: Apple recasts services. (Apple to place Macintosh in commercial systems integration contracts) Apple strives to place the Macintosh in mainstream commercial integration contracts despite a bias toward IBM in portions of the information systems community. Apple Integrated Services (AIS) director Jim O'Gara is depending on integration partnerships with Peat Marwick, Electronic Data Systems Corp and Andersen Consulting, and on relationships within the independent software vendor community to combat Apple's market disadvantages. Macintosh solutions are difficult to sell because customers worldwide tend to favor IBM and PC platforms. Microsoft Corp's Windows graphical user interface provides a second environment for software development, which has made it easier for clients to adopt both Apple and IBM. Apple intends to offer its integrators hardware solutions as well as software that will make the Macintosh more attractive. Comshare Inc released a Macintosh version of its Commander executive information system. Retix group offers OSI services to integrators. (Special Projects Group and Corporate OSI Partners Program provide systems Retix announces The Special Projects Group, which provides Open Systems Interconnection (OSI)-related services to computer systems integrators, and its Corporate OSI Partners Program, which offers integrators a complete line of OSI products for a one-time fee. The Special Projects Group, located in Dublin, Ireland, will provide integration services including systems and application design and support in the role of subcontractor on government and industry bids. Retix is adding staff in the US, but its most qualified and experienced OSI developers are in Dublin. The Corporate OSI Partners Program lets customers pay a one-time licensing fee for a full suite of products in such areas as portable, operating system-independent software; ported Unix source code; and ported MS-DOS code. The combination of both programs will encourage companies to subcontract development work to Retix. HP taps SAIC to port software. (HP contracts Science Applications International Corp.; ports software to Sun Microsystems Inc. HP contracts Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) to convert its programs to run on Sun Microsystems Inc workstations. The systems integrator will port, distribute and support HP's graphical user interface development environment and network optimization software. SAIC is best known for its work with the US defense Department, and the HP deal is part of its development strategy for the commercial sector. Sun Microsystems is working with Andersen Consulting and other integrators to aid customers in porting applications designed for platforms other than its SPARC workstation. SAIC expects to release the HP Visual User Environment and HP Task Broker, a network optimizer, by summer 1991. HP intends to make its software available on other platforms, particularly Sun's SPARC workstation. HP offers its OpenView network management server software and its SoftBench computer-aided software engineering software for Sun workstations. Sears forms integration unit. (Sears, Roebuck & Co. Sears Business Centers forms the Hardware Services Group) Sears, Roebuck & Co's Sears Business Centers creates a group dedicated to offering network services and solutions. Sears already offers integration services, but established the Hardware Services Group to raise its profile among Fortune 2000 companies. The group will also help Sears to compete for future integration projects. Sears' Hardware Services Group will provide project management, hardware installation, training, repair and network integration services for Sears' customers. The group will offer client/server environment integration services as well as support for such products as IBM's Token-Ring, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager and Novell Inc's NetWare. Sears named Ron McClanahan, formerly of Zenith Data Systems Corp, the organization's director. RTC System comes under fire. (US General Accounting Office claims IBM information system incompatible with US Resolution Trust US General Accounting Office Comptroller General Charles Bowsher told the US House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs that IBM's real estate asset contract with US Resolution Trust Corp may not meet the Congress-created savings and loan company's needs. Bowsher warned a House of Representatives panel that the processing system IBM is implementing for Resolution Trust may be incompatible with other of its computer operations. Resolution Trust, which was formed to save the savings and loan industry, awarded the $14 million contract to IBM in Jan 1991 to implement and operate a system to track $16.7 billion in real estate assets. Bowsher's assessment of the IBM job is part of a broader criticism of technology and other operations at Resolution Trust. Bowsher claims the company needs a real estate information system compatible with its overall information system to integrate data. Integrators seek project managers. (computer systems integrators cope with shortage of skilled managers) Computer systems integrators cope with a shortage of project managers, who are crucial to a project's success or failure. A project manager must have a wide range of skills to envision a project's product or end result, be able to communicate it to co-workers and clients and see a project to its fruition. Managers must additionally have the technical knowledge to establish a team of technical experts, and the administrative skills necessary to manage the complex array of personalities involved in a project. Respondents to a survey conducted by trade association ADAPSO selected project management as the most important of 32 skills used in the integration industry. Project managers were described as very difficult to find and retain. The survey revealed that project managers are likely bid for and bought within the industry for their services. Experienced project managers make $80,000 to $100,000 per year. Legent eyes LAN management. (Legent Corp. to adapt network management software for local-area networks) Legent Corp will expand the use of its mainframe-based network management software to local-area networks (LANs), which could make the supervision of enterprise-wide networks easier. Legent intends to release a software module called LANSpy for its NetSpy network manager that will monitor token-ring environments residing on MS-DOS-based LANs. Additional versions of LANSpy will monitor Ethernet LANs and OS/2 networks. Legent announced NetSpy 4.0 in late Feb 1991, which is the firm's first step toward enterprise network performance management. NetSpy 4.0 provides a direct interface to IBM's NetView and System Center Inc's Net/Master network management systems; the software also provides a communications link between NetSpy hosts. NetSpy costs $13,860 for a permanent license; price is based on processor size. Legent executives estimate that 80 percent of NetSpy users will need the LANSpy option. Oh, Cisco! (Cisco Systems Inc.)(Street Talk) (column) Mehler, Mark. Cisco Systems Inc continues to succeed since going public in Feb 1990. The multiprotocol internetworking products maker's share price more than tripled during 1990 from $18 per share to $58. Market analysts believe that Cisco will remain a leader in the market for another year and a half without serious competition from rivals. 3Com Corp will not release a competitive intelligent hub system for another 18 months, and Vitalink Communications Corp will continue licensing its router technology. Wellfleet Communications Inc, a privately held company, supports eight protocols vs Cisco's 14, but Wellfleet lacks Fiber Distributed Data Interface support. Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co analyst Therese Murphy forecasts Cisco's earnings at $3.11 in fiscal 1991. Cisco's stock carries an 18.5 price per earnings multiple, representing a 17 percent premium to the market. CASE vendors still struggle: AD/Cycle is no savior. (IBM's application development/cycle computer-aided software engineering IBM's Application Development/Cycle (AD/Cycle) has legitimized computer-aided software engineering, but the software architecture has also increased competition and consolidation within the industry. The CASE marketplace is comprised of some 150 suppliers, yet users of many Fortune 500 organizations say they are almost exclusively considering IBM's AD/Cycle for new CASE environments. IBM AD/Cycle business partners tend to win the majority of corporate purchases of CASE software. KnowledgeWare Inc has specifically benefited from AD/Cycle, and it is playing a key role in developing AD/Cycle's central repository. KnowledgeWare reports shipping over 20,000 units of its new Application Development Workbench, and saw a 107 percent increase in revenue for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990. CASE market consolidation accelerated in 1990 with six acquisitions and three strategic minority investments by IBM. Good news at last from HP. (HP reports increased earnings, first quarter fiscal 1991) HP reports strong earnings for the quarter ended Jan 31, 1991 with net income increasing 18 percent to $205 million from $173 million in the first quarter of FY 1990. HP's revenue increased 10 percent to $3.41 billion from $3.10 billion. US revenue grew 2 percent during the quarter to 1.5 billion, and foreign revenue increased 16 percent to $1.9 billion. HP's earnings announcement caused its stock to reach $5.38 in trading in late Feb 1991 to a closing price of $45.50. Order growth was spurred by strength in HP's multiuser Unix-based systems business. US orders increased 3 percent to $1.54 billion, while international orders increased 20 percent to $2.16 billion. HP is cautious of the US economy and plans to control its expenses throughout 1991. Avnet pushes Macintosh integration. (Avnet Inc. offers integration services to link DEC VAX and Apple Macintosh computers) Avnet Inc exploits a significant business opportunity in offering its integration services to users who want to link their Apple Macintoshes into DEC VAX-based client/server environments. Avnet has installed close to $1 billion worth of DEC equipment on its own and with value-added resellers. Macintosh-to-VAX integration services has grow substantially since the Macintosh began to enter mainstream corporate computing. Work Group technology Inc estimates that 22 percent of all Macintoshes at VAX/VMS customer sites are connected to DEC systems and that by 1992, 36 percent of those Macintosh systems will be connected to DEC VAXs. Apple and DEC have a longstanding alliance dedicated to developing tight connectivity between their computers. Avnet offers a range of services including needs analysis, network design, network management, implementation, support and maintenance. IBM, Novell eye net management. (companies to integrate NetView and NetWare network management software) IBM and Novell Inc will integrate Novell environments into IBM's NetView network management architecture. IBM will license, distribute and support Novell's NetWare local area network (LAN) operating system as well as its own OS/2 LAN Server. The companies will develop near-term activities for sending physical LAN alert information to IBM's mainframe-based NetView management system. NetView will be capable of receiving alerts from NetWare LANs on Token-Ring media via an SNA Systems Service Control Point-to-Physical Unit (SSCP-to-PU) after Novell releases NetWare 3.11 and NetWare Loadable Modules for NetView in Mar 1991. IBM and Novell will also create an SSCP-to-PU session to send operational commands from NetView to NetWare LANs. The companies will employ the Heterogeneous LAN Management specification to facilitate physical management of mixed token-ring and Ethernet environments. RISC standard at stake. (alliance between MIPS Computer Systems, Compaq, others)(includes related article on technology vs. Compaq's alliance with MIPS Computer Systems Inc in an effort to create an industry standard for reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessors threatens market leader Sun Microsystems Inc, whose SPARC design is widely accepted and licensed by many manufacturers. Analysts say MIPS could overtake Sun in the market by letting its RISC technology migrate to the microcomputer level. Compaq is reportedly close to signing an OEM contract with MIPS, and both IBM and HP plan new low-end RISC machines of their own. Sun officials insist they expect to remain dominant, pointing to their direct sales force and powerful engineering capabilities. Sun could benefit from the rapidly expanding workstation market if SPARC remains dominant, according to analysts. No user rush for Windows applications. (Microsoft Windows graphical user interface) Applications for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface have not generated the enormous revenue that Windows itself has produced for Microsoft, but observers say that 'killer applications' expected in 1991 could encourage more Windows buyers to use the program. Most Windows users are currently content to run old applications under it; many point to their heavy investments in such non-Windows based applications as Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. Users run Windows as a front end to older applications in which they are trained. Lotus is expected to introduce a Windows version of 1-2-3 in Jun 1991, and WordPerfect for Windows is due by May. These applications, along with Aldus Corp's Persuasion presentation package and an update of Word for Windows, are expected to generate significant buyer interest. The Software Publishers Association notes that significant gaps remain in the Windows market, such as the lack of database and spreadsheet applications. Spring revamp set for AS/400. (IBM to introduce upgraded AS/400 minicomputers in Apr 1991) IBM is expected to introduce a revamped line of AS/400 minicomputers in Apr 1991. The new AS/400 D models reportedly will be based on CMOS chip technology and will replace the entire B line, offering up to 35 percent better price/performance ratios. A new top-of-the-line unit will offer dual processors, and all the new models will use 'N-way' architecture. IBM will also upgrade the OS/400 operating system for the AS/400 to include multiprocessing capabilities and better disk mirroring. The company will offer software-only upgrades for older AS/400 models at no charge, but IBM will demand upgrade fees from all customers for the third version of OS/400, expected in late 1992. OS/400 2.0 will make disk mirroring more cost-effective by utilizing compact direct access storage devices. LAN users shun IBM's route to SNA connection. (Systems Network Architecture)(includes related article on IBM's to-do list) Few LAN users have purchased equipment based on IBM's LU6.2 and PU2.1 networking protocols despite the computer giant's heavy promotion of its SNA LAN integration strategy. IBM is expected to announce an OS/2 version of its Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) platform, a key SNA component, in Mar 1991. APPN is designed to provide transparent access to all SAA platforms in multinode distributed systems. OS/2 servers acting as APPN nodes will be intermediaries between DOS and OS/2 clients on both individual LANs and enterprisewide resources. Many users nevertheless prefer Cisco Systems inc or Wellfleet Communications Inc routers and other third-party products that support multiple protocols and offer better price/performance ratios than IBM front ends. Analysts say IBM may continue to encounter resistance from companies with 'bottom-up' approaches to LAN installations. Parlez-vous ASCII? You may not have to! (Unicode Inc. consortium to develop international standard for representing data) Unicode Inc, a consortium made up of such big-name computer vendors as IBM, Apple, Microsoft Corp, Sun Microsystems Inc, Lotus Development Corp, Xerox Corp and others, announces a new 16-bit coding standard that will allow computers to represent all of the world's languages. Current formats such as ASCII use eight bits to represent a character; the 256 characters available are inadequate for non-Roman alphabets such as Japanese kanji. Unicode can represent 65,536 characters and has defined 27,000 so far. Problems include the fact that the 16-bit system will require more memory and storage capacity than eight-bit systems and will require translation to work with current software applications. Users say that an international data representation standard will not solve all problems involved in creating multinational systems, noting that cultural, legal, currency and even religious differences must be taken into account. DEC airs cheaper VAX 9000. (DEC to announce lower priced models of VAX 9000 mainframe) (product announcement) DEC is expected to announce five new VAX 9000 mainframe models during the week of Feb 25, 1991. The new machines will be priced lower than current offerings and will range in price from $920,000 to $3.7 million. The new VAX 9000 Model 110 is a stripped-down version of the Model 210 intended for use as a specialized file server. DEC claims the new models will broaden the VAX 9000 market, but some analysts are skeptical and see the new products as merely repackaged versions of existing machines. They may attract users hoping to upgrade the performance of VAXcluster minicomputer networks. DEC hopes to compete with Convex Computer Corp and Cray Research Inc mini-supercomputers. IBM enhances high-end tape drive capacity, discards 3380. (IBM announces new, upgraded 3490 tape drives) (product announcement) IBM announces new and enhanced versions of its high-end 3490 tape drives and discontinues the 7-year-old 3380 drives, stating that it will withdraw support for the 3380 A22 and B22 models. The new 3490 Model A10 will have a capacity of 1.2Gbytes and will be available in Apr 1991 at a price of $62,100. An enhanced version of the 3490 A01, first introduced in Oct 1989, will have a capacity of 600Mbytes. Both will offer optional support for IBM's Escon fiber-optic channel architecture beginning in Jun 1991. All new 3840 models will use enhanced recording techniques to increase capacity and reduce the need for manual intervention. The 3490 A01 sells for $56,460. Write-once technology still too costly for most. (optical disk drives) Write-once optical disk technology is gaining popularity in information systems shops and software houses that can afford it but remains too expensive for the mass market, according to observers. A lack of user interface standards is also hindering the growth of the write-once market. The Frankfurt Group, or CD Write-Once Ad-Hoc Division, is expected to introduce new specifications, at the Microsoft Corp CD ROM conference in Mar 1991, that could set guidelines for allowing users to write to a standard CD ROM. Write-once CD ROMs are designed for producing customized prototype or small-volume CD ROMs. Analysts say it will be at least five years before the technology becomes inexpensive, although prices declined 60 percent in 1990. Lack of standards is keeping costs high; a customized in-house production system currently costs approximately $40,000. Developer shift to Windows puts IBM OS/2 in quandary. (OS/2 Extended Edition operating system) The shift in software developers' focus from OS/2 to the Microsoft Windows graphical environment puts IBM in a difficult position. Developers are not building OS/2 applications because users are turning to Windows instead and because few OS/2 packages already exist. IBM admits that it faces a 'tough sell' and must convince developers that OS/2 is worth their time. Many developers endorse OS/2 as a file server platform but say that Windows is much more attractive to desktop users. They suggest that IBM learn from Windows and bundle OS/2 with the client/oriented tools that were left out of Presentation Manager. Windows applications are also more consistent than OS/2 applications. Confusion among developers and users is another problem for OS/2; many are still waiting for Microsoft and IBM to show unity. Legent Netspy monitors host to LAN. (Legent Corp Netspy performance monitoring software) (product announcement) Legent Corp introduces Netspy 4.0, a new version of its network monitoring system it claims is the first enterprisewide network management system that can handle both IBM VTAM hosts and LAN servers. The new performance monitoring tool can alert either Systems Center Inc's Net/Master or IBM's Netview to network problems and lets administrators monitor SNA and VTAM performance on the same terminal. Beta testers say they are pleased with the product's ability to forward alerts to Netview systems. Lanspy will help managers track changing network configurations by reporting when new microcomputer users come onto a LAN. Diebold: multimedia is growing up. (Diebold Group chairman John Diebold) (interview) Diebold Group Inc chairman John Diebold predicts that multimedia will alter the economics of the computer industry as it becomes 'commoditized' and produced by a small number of large firms. Small entrepreneurial firms may be able to align themselves with larger companies while remaining innovative, but such alliances will involve 'striking a balance' between the needs of a few highly talented personnel and the commercial needs of a large organization. American companies are slower to foresee the potential of new technology than Japanese companies. The money in multimedia technology will center around professional rather than entertainment fields. Important applications will surface in medicine, marketing and education. Diebold states that end users should experiment with compact discs, digital video interactive and other new technologies to a greater extent in order to prepare themselves for the advent of new hardware.Legal issues involving intellectual property rights in multimedia have yet to be resolved. Is Microsoft abusing its power? (Microsoft Corp.)(Viewpoint) (column) Microsoft Corp has enormous power in the software industry due to its size, marketing clout and virtual monopoly on operating systems for Intel-based microcomputers. It now threatens startup Go Corp's PenPoint pen-based operating system with pen-based extensions to the Windows environment. Many observers and users believe the company is abusing its power. Tactics such as 'pre-emptive' product announcements and vertical integration into applications software are reminiscent of IBM's alleged monopolistic practices in the 1960s. The company's software licensing terms are also extortionary; users are essentially forced to license DOS on the software giant's terms. Microsoft cannot be shown to be actually violating the law, but its practices are inexcusable. Multimedia: big boys use standards as a weapon. (Viewpoint) (column) Multimedia technology is more a synthesis of existing technologies than a new product and is designed to make data more appealing to users by presenting it in a format that is easy to understand. Pioneering companies such as Farallon Computing Inc, Radius Inc and Macromind Inc offer powerful multimedia products, but industry giants IBM and Microsoft are attempting to dominate them by imposing 'standards' based on vision rather than actual hardware and software. These standards are arbitrary and can only hurt the multimedia market. IBM and Microsoft's attitude resembles that of artificial intelligence (AI) vendors in the late 1980s. AI companies' attempts to impose standards set the industry back almost five years; declining sales returned after the vendors began offering new concepts once more. Standards will hurt both dedicated multimedia firms, who must decide whether to follow IBM and Microsoft when developing new products, and users, who will have to accept products that may not meet their requirements. Microvax still making its mark. (DEC MicroVAX workstations) Johnson, Maryfran. DEC has sold nearly 200,000 of its entry-level MicroVAX minicomputers since 1985, most of which have been MicroVAX 3100s used as file servers. The company's new VAX 4000 is a powerful machine in a small package that has made several MicroVAX models obsolete; its new strategy is built around machines called 'Entry Systems.' DEC's VAX 4000 is the first VAC designed for client/server applications and replaced the MicroVAX 3800 and 3900 models. It sells for $106,000, while the entry-level MicroVAX 3100 costs $15,000. Toys R Us plans to add 1,300 MicroVAX 3100s to its network in 1991. Users have responded vigorously to the company's offering of an upgrade path for MicroVAX users to the VAX 4000 Model 200. Feeling the squeeze a decade later. (mainframe spreadsheet market)(includes related article on mainframe versions of Lotus The mainframe spreadsheet market is declining despite the fact that spreadsheets were accepted on mainframes before they were available on microcomputers. Microcomputers' widespread acceptance in corporations and the growth of desktop computing power have resulted in spreadsheets being perceived as a desktop function. Many firms are also 'downsizing' applications from mainframes to microcomputers and abandoning large systems entirely, but some vendors and users say that mainframe spreadsheet computing is still justified. Most corporate data still resides on mainframes, and a single copy of a mainframe spreadsheet package may be more economical than multiple copies of a microcomputer package. Users of mainframe spreadsheets include large companies that want on-line access to rapidly changing databases, those who want very large spreadsheets, those with very few microcomputers and those who cannot afford to purchase enough microcomputer hardware and software. Some longtime mainframe spreadsheet users continue to back the mainframe, but note that data entry is easier in microcomputer-based packages. Strange way to win friends. (Computer Associates International Inc. price increases) (column) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) has alienated many customers by increasing the price of its IBM VSE software products. It charges between $1,400 and $11,500 for upgrades to its VSE/ESA 1.1 package, claiming that the high prices are justified due to the amount of work needed to prepare the new programs. Other independent software vendors do not follow this philosophy, saying that asking users for more money is inappropriate since the actual amount of work involved in an upgrade is minimal. Users can buy alternative products for what CA charges to upgrade. Some users complain that they never received formal notification or explanation of the new fees. Many analysts believe CA will have to back down because its policy has caused bad feeling even among those customers too heavily committed to CA products to consider switching. Per-user pricing may be fair but a headache, too. (database software) Many database management system (DBMS) vendors are considering replacing site-license or hardware-platform pricing policies with per-user pricing. The new pricing systems will make system administration more complicated by shifting the burden of proof to the user, and many users feel that they will end up paying more. Some nevertheless say that per-user pricing may prove more equitable, especially for small companies. Informix Software Inc, which has been selling most of its products on a per-user basis since Jan 1990, says that the system works well and that most clients notify the vendor when they need to put more users on their systems. Sybase is exploring per-user pricing and may expand it soon, and other vendors such as Ask Computer Systems Inc and Oracle Corp are considering doing the same. CASE speeds development for insurer. (computer-aided software engineering at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.) Mutual Life Insurance Co is phasing in the third module of a major computer-aided software engineering (CASE) project designed to overhaul most of its software systems. The company began using its new office-administration package in Feb 199 and delivered a medical provider system in 1990. The 'Horizon' internal CASE project, begun in 1987, relies on Texas Instruments Inc's suite of CASE tools. Mutual Life does not expect big payback from CASE until the future, when developers will be able to reuse code. Applications developed using CASE will require less time to maintain and alter. The company currently has 175 staff members involved with CASE. It introduced the tools in 'vertical slices' to overcome user resistance. Staff members were able to work on small development projects from start to finish, adjusting to the new tools slowly. Computers help launch space research projects. (Aerojet Advanced Solid Rocket Motor propulsion system) Aerojet Inc uses a Pick Systems Pick-compatible database management system running on a Prime Computer Inc minicomputer to manage the design of the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor propulsion system for space vehicles. The Prime Information DBMS provides Aerojet with budgeting, cost-tracking, materials and other data for analysis. Record and field lengths are flexible, making the database easy to change. Aerojet also uses an Oracle database running on DEC VAX minicomputers for in-house problem and inventory tracking. The company has 2,000 users connected to the DEC and Prime computers via Ethernet, using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and DEC Local Area Transport links. It is converting all of its Prime Information-based applications to run on a very fast Prime EXL 7860 Unix platform. Multiprocessor wait continues. (multiprocessing microcomputers) Pastore, Richard. Many microcomputer users are impatient with IBM for the computer giant's failure to introduce a multiprocessing system. The company is following a strategy based on upgradable uniprocessor and loosely-coupled multiprocessor technology. Users claim IBM representatives say they are 'working on' multiprocessors, but many have refused to wait and bought such competing products as Compaq's Systempro file server. IBM says it is not interested in developing tightly coupled symmetric multiprocessor systems. Symmetric multiprocessing lets multiple CPUs share memory and requires specialized operating system software. The upcoming Portable OS/2 and Open Software Foundation OSF 2 systems will support multiprocessing, but will not be available until 1992 or 1993. Multiprocessing technology will not be practical to implement until the software is available. IBM is customer-testing a loosely coupled 'superserver' platform. Ancient Torah art gets new look via computer. (computers used to supplement Hebrew calligraphy)(includes related article on Vaad Mishmereth Stam, a service with offices in Jerusalem, Brooklyn and Strasbourg, France, uses computers to proofread Hebrew Torah scrolls used in Jewish prayer services. Any scroll with an incorrect or missing letter, extra letter, missing word or extra word must be set aside, but today's scribes tend to fall short of the performance of ancient calligraphers despite years of training. Vaad Mishmereth photocopies each Torah to be checked and scans the copy into computer memory page by page. The computer checks it against a 'perfect' Torah stored in memory. It uses such algorithms as 'stroke analysis' found in pen-based systems; a bell sounds when an error is detected or uncertainties exist that may have been induced by discoloring of the original parchment. The complete photocopy and printout indicating errors are returned to the owner. Photocopies also provide positive identification and discourage theft. PC buyers scout new retail outlets. (microcomputer distribution) Pastore, Richard. Microcomputers are increasingly sold through warehouse club outlets, such as Price Club and Sam's, which sell a wide variety of merchandise at less than 9 percent markup. Retail analysts say that 60 percent of club sales are to business buyers rather than home consumers; most of these buyers are small firms, but corporate buyers are increasingly seeking out club purchases as budgets tighten. Companies tend to be suspicious at first, buying a few machines and evaluating them carefully before making volume purchases. Positive Corp markets its microcomputers exclusively through clubs. Their products range from a $1,499 80386SX-based machine to a $3,999 33-MHz 80486-based unit that comes with a 200Mbyte hard disk, 64Kbyte memory cache, Super VGA monitor, mouse, DOS 4.01 and Windows 3.0. The high-end unit is comparable to name-brand machines selling for $8,000 to $12,000. Reviewers find few faults with Excel 3.0. (Software Review) (Microsoft Corp. Excel 3.0 spreadsheet)(includes related articles Microsoft's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet earns highly positive reviews from the majority of observers, who cite its powerful graphics capabilities and data analysis features. Excel is not exceptionally fast because it is heavily graphical, but it lets users easily link and consolidate different worksheets and manipulate data in outline form. It is compatible with all versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and has a built-in graphics advantage because it operates under Microsoft Windows. Excel has built-in flat-file database capabilities and includes bundled software for importing SQL Server and dBASE files. Documentation has been improved in the new version, and the Windows environment enhances ease of use. Microsoft's technical support is solid. Reviewers say Excel is one of the best spreadsheet values on the market today. NSF network: still plenty of work to do. (National Science Foundation computer network)(includes related article on goals and The National Science Foundation is upgrading its NSFnet backbone network to offer data transfer speeds of 45M-bps but must overcome several hurdles before academic and scientific users can take full advantage of its potential. NSFnet must interconnect domestic users to their counterparts on overseas networks; this project has already begun, but ensuring connectivity is difficult because the networks use different types of routers. The NSF is waiting for more vendors to implement the de facto Point to Point Protocol standard, which will ensure interoperability. Users also must migrate from Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to the OSI standard. The foundation is trying to smooth the transition to OSI by developing such services as a network information center. Wireless networks pass early tests. Wexler, Joanie M. The market for wireless local area networks is growing as users, many of whom were skeptical at first, find that the technology works for them and reduces wiring costs. Motorola Inc's Radio/Telephone Systems Group demonstrated a microwave-based Ethernet-compatible LAN called Altair at the 1991 Networld trade show in Boston. Beta testers say the wireless LAN offers the same response time as standard Ethernet and does not change the way users interact with the network. Altair consists of a user module connected to an Ethernet device via thin coaxial cable and a centrally located control module. The $3,495 user module transmits data across low-frequency radio waves, while the $3,995 control module checks addresses and forwards data packets. A 30-user Altair network costs $715 per port. Users note that cabling is vulnerable and is responsible for the majority of network downtime. TCP/IP key element in Netware V3.11. (new version of Novell Netware network operating system) (product announcement) Novell Inc's Netware 3.11, an upgrade of its Netware network operating system scheduled to ship in Mar 1991, will let users integrate the proprietary system with such widespread communications protocols as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The new software will come bundled with support for five protocols, including TCP/IP, which is used in many Unix-based systems. Users wanting to link TCP/IP and Novell LANs currently must use cumbersome third-party gateways to convert Novell's proprietary IPX/SPX protocols. Netware 3.11 will range in price from $3,495 for a 20-user version to $12,495 for a 250-user version. Some observers claim about the high pricing and lack of a 500-user version. Niagara Mohawk looks to tap the power of networking. (Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. 'downsizing' from mainframes to microcomputer Niagara Mohawk Power Corp is moving some of its employees onto microcomputer LANs and away from mainframes in an effort to increase database access and increase the efficiency of work groups. Officials at Niagara Mohawk expect that downloading specialized data from a mainframe to a LAN will allow 10 to 25 percent faster access. The utility company stores its data on an IBM 3090 Model 400S mainframe which a typical four-person department accesses for a total of 14 hours per day. Switching users to networked microcomputers would save the company an average of $2,000 per employee annually. Niagara Mohawk does not intend to abandon its mainframe entirely, citing the advantages of central control, backup, disaster recovery, security and support. It hopes to have at least one work group using a transferred fixed-asset tracking application by Mar 1991. Ninety to 100 systems applications currently reside on the 3090. Synoptics airs customer support plan. (Synoptics Inc.) Nash, Jim. Synoptics Inc plans to offer new services under its 'Customer Support Affiliate Program,' which has enrolled AT&T, HP and two other major hardware vendors. Each vendor in the program receives technical training and access to advanced support directly from Synoptics. The Customer Support Affiliate Program resembles a separate agreement Synoptics has in place with DEC. Analysts say that the Synoptics program may be part of a trend; customers will demand high-level support and force similar agreements on many vendors. Customer service is a key component in today's competitive strategies among hardware and software vendors. Being the best in business. (Federal Express CEO Frederick W. Smith) Federal Express Corp CEO Frederick W Smith credits information technology with helping his $8 billion firm become the world's largest express courier service, handling 1.5 million shipments per day. Federal Express won the coveted Malcolm Baldridge national Quality Award for 1990. The company's goals include 100 percent on-time deliveries, accurate information on every shipment to 127 countries and 100 percent customer satisfaction. Federal Express uses 'service quality indicators' to show the incidence of problems and weights errors according to severity. Smith is enthusiastic about the company's Cosmos package tracking systems and notes that his philosophy of information technology is to keep improvements incremental and systems user-friendly. NEA program hopes to turn PC into teacher's newest pet. (National Education Association) The National Education Association has launched Edstar, a program under which teachers can buy microcomputers at large discounts for use at home. NEA's 10,000 members will be offered a special version of the IBM PS/1 for $2,249 that includes Microsoft Works integrated software, programs for tracking student grades and attendance, desktop publishing programs and communications software for the Prodigy on-line service. Members will be able to get a 15-month Prodigy subscription for the price of a 3-month subscription, and the service will soon have an Edstar club. NEA officials say they also plan to offer an Edstar configuration based on the Apple Macintosh. Many NEA members are enthusiastic about Edstar, but some express concern that teachers should be developing new systems for evaluating students and curricula. Relational DBMS: making peace with the past. (choosing a relational database)(includes related articles on coexistence, A guide to selecting relational database management systems (RDBMSs) for mainframe and minicomputer systems are presented. Relational technology is taking over even the most rigidly structured databases, such as IBM's IMS. Users often need applications written for relational databases to access data generated by non-relational 'master' databases. Most vendors position their RDBMS gateways as products that can map Structured Query Language onto old databases via specialized front ends. DBMS gateways range in price from $1,000 for microcomputer versions to more than $100,000 on a minicomputer. Computer Associates International Inc uses a single-database approach in its applications but forces users to physically migrate 'legacy' databases. IBM has announced Data Propagator, which maintains old and new databases as 'mirror images' without affecting the performance of mission-critical systems. DEC's Rdbaccess gateway family provides on-line access to Oracle and DB2 databases. A table of RDBMS products for midrange and mainframe computers is presented. The next standard for SQL and what it will mean to you. (Structured Query Language) (SQL-2 standard for data base access) The upcoming SQL2 standard for Structured Query Language database access will be even larger and more complex than the current SQL-89 ANSI standard. No database vendor yet complies with SQL2, although all have access to a draft specification. Even vendors claiming full compatibility with SQL-89 do not always offer fully compatible products. SQL2 consists of features designed to overcome the limitations of SQL-89 and eliminate incompatibilities, but it offers three levels of compliance. The 'entry' level consists mainly of bug fixes to SQL-89, while the 'intermediate' level is the level most users need. The full level of compliance offers additional functions only a few will need. Products complying with the same level of the same standard are nevertheless unlikely to be fully compatible with each other. How vendors have and have not met criticism. (database vendors) Taylor, Allen G. Users of relational database management systems have complained about poor performance, complexity and difficult maintenance for many years, but vendors have successfully responded to many problems and those that remain have not seriously affected the popularity of relational DBMS technology. Eighty to 90 percent of mainframe users find current product performance at an acceptable level, but very large organizations may still have some difficulty. Relational databases have a reputation for being difficult to tune, but some new products have greatly increased flexibility. Vendors have addressed the complaint that Structured Query Language (SQL) databases are difficult to use, offering query builders and other tools that shield end users from SQL and generate code automatically. Current products offer much better data integrity than earlier versions. Some users complain about the lack of arrays in the relational model; most vendors support repeating groups in their relational products rather than adhering to 'pure' relational design. Users rate Adabas function over relational form. (survey of buyers of mainframe relational database management systems) A survey of buyers of mainframe relational database management systems (RDBMSs) indicates that users prefer Software AG's Adabas over most other products in the field. Adabas earns top scores in eight of 15 categories, including system availability and recovery from crashes, effective programming tools, integration of DBMS and operating system security, performance in decision-support applications and ease of migration from non-relational databases. Oracle Systems' Oracle earns the second highest overall rating, earning special praise for its SQL extensions. IBM's popular DB2 scores second place in two categories and fourth place overall. Wa$te not, want not: reaping benefits from information technology begins by knowing where your money is going. (excerpt from Information technology (IT) use at American corporations has grown about 15 percent annually since 1960, but this rate will be impossible to sustain in the 1990s as senior executives worry that MIS costs are out of control. Many firms do not track their IT expenditures effectively. Costs include the supplier costs charged by corporate information systems groups, which act as internal suppliers analogous to utility companies, and user costs, which vary widely and include allocations and chargeback of central supplier costs and direct usage costs. Problems in allocating MIS costs include the question of who should pay for outside telecommunication services and who should pay for developing custom master databases. Senior management reacts to good and bad business conditions by adjusting IS budgets but tends to ignore MIS cost dynamics. A firm that does not commit to at least 15 percent annual growth is effectively cutting back its IT capability. Business managers must work to ensure return on investment and avoid uncontrolled budget growth in IS while maintaining the competitive edge technology can provide. Bellcore in search of new ideas. (Bell Communications Research)(includes related articles on value in telecommunication Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) is the research arm of the seven regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), established when the RBOCs were spun off from AT&T as the result of a court decision. Regional Bell companies are forbidden to manufacture equipment, but Bellcore designs hardware and licenses technology to manufacture. The main item Bellcore gives regional Bells is software; the company designs applications to help the companies manage and optimize their voice communications networks. Regional Bells are not heavily involved in data communications, providing dial-up data service and leased lines but little else. They have nevertheless been forced to acknowledge the likelihood of double-digit annual growth in data networks. Bellcore has more influence than AT&T in standards development and is pushing switched multimegabit data service (SMDS), which would provide 'dial tone for data' and let company local area networks access one another readily. New posts for disaster planning. (Computer Careers) Toigo, Jon William. Many firms have established new centralized disaster planning functions in the wake of such calamities as the Hinsdale, IL, switching station fire, Hurricane Hugo and the San Francisco earthquake, creating new job opportunities for specialized information systems (IS) personnel. A disaster recovery manager with over six years of experience can earn as much as $75,000 per year, while salaries for lower-level disaster planning analysts and coordinators range from $45,000 to $55,000. Banking and financial industries provide the most opportunities for dedicated disaster planners, but those with the largest promise are those with $500 million or less in assets. Many corporations are uncertain about where disaster recovery professionals fall in the corporate hierarchy and select their planners by default. Disaster recovery planners face not being treated as true professionals in many organizations. Making a CASE for better training. (computer aided software engineering) Many organizations have seen computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools as a panacea for their development problems, but CASE does not address all issues of applications development despite its importance in increasing programmer productivity. One reason for the slower-than-expected growth of CASE is lack of user training. CASE is difficult to teach; trainers say CASE classes cost 33 percent more than those for other information systems subjects. Basic precepts of progressive CASE training include the fact that courses must include development methodology in addition to specific software tools, the need to customize training to fit the needs of each company and the need for 'just in time' training before or during pilot projects. Consultants recommend teaching CASE within the context of an actual software development project. Compaq RISC plan leaves users wary. (Compaq alliance with MIPS Computer Systems Inc to standardize computer aided software Compaq is seeking an alliance with MIPS Computer Systems to develop a standardized reduced instruction set computing (RISC) strategy that could allow RISC to migrate to desktop microcomputers, but some analysts question the viability of a Compaq RISC system. Users of Compaq's high-end Systempro file server generally state that they have no foreseeable need for RISC, while those using competing workstations from DEC and Sun Microsystems have no plans to switch. Distribution is another potential hurdle for Compaq; the company's dealer-only strategy is already causing difficulties with the Systempro and would be even more awkward with an advanced RISC system. Microsoft Corp is reportedly negotiating with both MIPS and Compaq; observers say the software giant's involvement could help the alliance. Microsoft has announced plans to port its upcoming Windows 3.2 and Portable OS/2 operating systems to RISC. NCR's new ESOP could diminish AT&T threat. (employee stock ownership plan)(includes related article on history of AT&T NCR Corp has created an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) as a defense against AT&T's attempt to take over the company by ousting the NCR board of directors. NCR says it will hold its regular annual shareholders meeting and a special meeting to vote on the board ouster on the same day. AT&T has extended its tender offer to Apr 30, 1991 and stated that the number of shares tended had dropped from 70 to 66 percent. The ESOP gives 8 percent of NCR to its employees and could signal that AT&T will not get the 80 percent vote it needs to remove the NCR board. Analysts agree that the ESOP combined with a surge in NCR stock prices could force AT&T to 'sweeten' its offer. Nationwide ISDN predicted for 1992. (integrated services digital networks) The Corporation for Open Systems International ISDN Executive Council predicts that ISDN service will be available nationwide by the end of 1992, stating that the council will officially announce an implementors' agreement among switch vendors the week of Feb 25, 1991. Such a standard could result in increased availability of interconnected ISDN Networks. The ISDN Executive Council includes regional Bell companies, switch vendors, computer vendors and user companies. ISDN is intended to give users access to dial-up voice, data and video services over the public telephone network worldwide at data transfer speeds of 1.544M-bps. Interoperability problems and the daunting task of upgrading telecommunications infrastructures has slowed the maturation of ISDN technology. Banyan need not despair - yet. (marketing challenge posed by IBM/Novell agreement) The recently announced OEM and marketing agreement between IBM and Novell poses significant marketing challenges to Novell's rival, Banyan Systems Inc, but is not a technological threat. Banyan's Virtual Networking Software (VINES) is likely to remain the LAN operating system of choice for large, enterprise-wide networks because it offers powerful technical advantages such as naming services and robust wide-area network protocol support. Banyan has historically offered more advanced technology than Novell, although the gap is narrowing. Netware still does not offer a global directory service; Banyan users can access network services residing on different work groups from a single log-on. Marketing is Banyan's weakness; officials acknowledge that they mistakenly thought their technology would sell itself. DEC to debut 10 low-end VAX 9000s in bid to improve sales at VMS sites. (mainframes) Digital Equipment Corp is set to announce the availability of ten low-end versions of its VAX 9000 mainframe computer product line. As a result of the new products, the entry level price for a VAX 9000 will now be reduced to less than $1 million. The company is also assembling a salesforce of one hundred dedicated to marketing the line. This is a new strategy for DEC, which did not previously have a salesforce concentrating on the VAX 9000 product line. Analysts see the move as an attempt to make the mainframe line more attractive to the installed VMS base. Generally, the lower the price of the new machines, the more trimmed is the memory. In addition, DEC is removing some of the services such as consulting, training and education, that were bundled with the earlier models System to meld VAXft 3000 platform with VAX 4000 CPU. Donohue, James F. DEC is set to introduce a fault-tolerant VAX minicomputer built around the architecture of the original VAXft 3000. The as yet unnamed machine is said to be modelled on the CPU found in the VAX 4000 Model 300 and the VAX 6000 Model 400 series. The new machine is said to be capable of delivering approximately 10.4 MicroVAX II units of processing. The company has not committed itself to a price, but analysts believe the new product will deliver a 20 percent to 25 percent improvement in price/performance over the VAXft 3000. The multiuser version of the VAXft 3000 was originally priced at $229,000, but was reduced to $168,000 after only six months. Oracle poised to fulfill VAXcluster pledge. (Oracle RDBMS 6.2) (product announcement) Oracle Corp is set to release Oracle version 6.2 relational data base management system. The new version promises full support for VAXclusters, along with a parallel cache management server that can coordinate cache memory across clusters using DEC's VMS Distributed Lock Manager. To facilitate fast commits, group commits and deferred writes to minimize disk I/O, Oracle 6.2 uses a shared memory cache. Analysts see the clustering abilities as a real boost for the new version as Oracle had to develop a way to coordinate the independent memory caches on different nodes to run the data base management system. SI accord with DEC comes under strain. (System Industries) Bowen, Ted Smalley. The DEC and System Industries (SI) legal patent battle may have been settled out of court, but the dispute is continuing. At the center of the row is an SI claim that it is authorized by DEC to market STI and SDI products for a period of years. DEC denies the claim, maintaining it is merely allowing SI time to find an alternative non-infringing product. Since the settlement of the original claim in Dec 1990, DEC maintains SI has been making misleading references to the substance of the agreement. SI has continued to introduce HSC-compatible products based on non-DEC equipment. SAS adds visualization abilities to statistical software offerings; plans push into Unix market. (SAS Institute Inc's SAS Institute Inc has announced a number of software products that bring visualization capabilities to the company's statistical software. SAS/Nvision is a three-dimensional graphics program that is designed for rendering, modeling and animation of high-end business graphics. A library of objects is included that allow the user to digitize, modify and create objects, and experiment with shading, lighting and color. SAS Application System 6.07 is the newest version of the company's data analysis package and starts at $825 for a single-user workstation. SAS/Lab is an interpretive package for data analysis. SAS/Executive Information System is a program development interface tool. SAS/Calc is a three-dimensional spreadsheet for the SAS System and is priced between $1,050 and $4,500 depending on the number of users. Metrum helical-scan drive for 14.5GB cartridges to yield 9-terabyte robotic jukebox. (Metrum Information Storage's RSP-2150 Metrum Information Storage has introduced the RSP-2150 helical-scan cartridge tape drive. The drive utilizes half-inch T-120 tape cartridges, with each cartridge storing 14.5Gbytes. The product provides a sustained transfer rate of 2Mbytes per second with a 4Mbyte burst rate. The high-end rate is achieved by the use of either 4Mbyte or 8Mbyte buffers. The drive comes with either a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or a Pertec/Cipher interface. The company intends to put the drives into its RSS-600 and RSS-48 robotic jukeboxes. The $90,000 RSS-48 comes with two drives and can store 696Gbytes using 48 cartridges. The $265,000 RSS-600 uses two drives and 600 cartridges to store 9 terabytes of data. Sun configures Sparcservers with net processor boards; cuts prices. (Sun Microsystems) Sun Microsystems is offering its Sparcserver 490 and 470 file servers in specially priced configurations that combine Sun's own Prestoserve NFS accelerator and the Interphase NC400 network coprocessor board. The NFS is used to reduce disk I/O bottleneck, while the NC400 will off-load network traffic from the Sparcserver CPU traffic. The move is in response to the fierce competition developing in the file server market. The lower-priced configuration reportedly represents as much as a 15 percent reduction in cost over the same configuration purchased separately. The Sparcserver 470 is priced at $89,900, down from the regular $107,795. The Sparcserver 490 is listed at $114,900, down from $134,195. The discounted products include two NC400 network coprocessors, a Sun Prestoserve NFS accelerator, 1.8Gbytes of IPI storage, 32Mbytes of code memory, a 644Mbyte SunCD CD-ROM drive and a 150Mbyte quarter-inch tape drive. Analysis package evaluates code portability, compliance. (Abraxas Software's CodeCheck 3.0) (product announcement) Abraxas Software has released CodeCheck 3.0, a source-code analysis package that assists developers in determining whether an application can be ported successfully to another platform. An engine that reads the C or C++ file is included, along with an expert system containing rules with standards and compiler-emulation data. CodeCheck is primarily for maintaining the consistency of programmer code. The package's validation segment matches source code against various industry standards including Bell version 7, Berkeley 4.2, AT&T Unix System V release 3 and the System V Interface Definition, IEEE Posix, ANSI, and ANSI X3J11 C. CodeCheck can detect portability problems that compilers would otherwise miss. CodeCheck 3.0 can be used on multiple platforms including VMS, Ultrix, Unix, MS-DOS, OS/2, and Macintosh. Prices range from $495 to $995 per user. Massively parallel system adds statistical database. (Maspar Computer's Table-Maker) (product announcement) Maspar Computer has introduced the Table-Maker statistical software product designed to be run on the company's MP-1 massively parallel computer. The program utilizes the MP-1's multiple processors to create multidimensional data tables on which the program can then simultaneously perform operations such as histograms and data correlations. Workstations connected to the MP-1 require between 1Mbyte and 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM). The program is designed for use within other programs that can make use of the created data and handle the display. The program can also be used as a separate application, allowing users to select from various statistical manipulations using a key-word selection menu, and to set data ranges. Table-Maker prices begin at $30,000; this includes both the custom data input module and annual license. Unix use up, but VMS still dominates DEC sites. (Computer Intelligence estimates) Computer Intelligence estimates that there are as many as 45,800 VAX and MicroVAX sites in the US. Of these sites, 93 percent of them run only the VMS operating system. For VMS-only sites, 28 percent were found to be medical and educational, discrete manufacturing accounted for 19 percent, and government accounted for 11 percent. Unix/Ultrix operating system usage is also seen to be heavy in these industry segments. The rise of Unix is further demonstrated as 22 percent of VMS-only sites were found to include at least one Unix workstation. Analysts believe the figures reflect a major concern among VAX/VMS users that they may end up locked in a proprietary platform while the rest of the industry moves towards open systems. NCD X terminals to come with fax image compression package. (Network Computing Devices) Network Computing Devices plans to provide free monochrome facsimile document image compression software for its X terminals. The software, called Simple Imaging Extension, works with DEC's X Imaging Extension, a larger imaging program that offers color and a complex programming interface. XIC has been submitted to MIT's X Consortium for consideration as a standard. If it is accepted, NCD plans to support it on its midrange and high-end X terminals. The company also plans to include SIE as a standard feature in its X server software by mid-1991. The program allows facsimiles to be received and stored in compressed form on Unix hosts, compressing images using Group 3 and Group 4 fax techniques. Mounting a heated challenge. (Hitachi America Ltd.'s DK516C-16) (Hardware Review) (includes related article on the test model) Hitachi America's $3,995 DK516C-16 is a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) hard disk drive that offers a sizeable on-board cache and large storage capacity. It is a 5.25-inch drive that supports SCSI-2 commands and has an unformatted capacity of 1.65Gbytes, and a formatted capacity of 1.25Gbytes. The drive has densities of 1,954 tracks per inch, and 48,525 bits per inch. The product also includes a read-ahead cache on its integral buffer that uses a 256Kbyte read buffer. The 256Kbyte buffer can be divided into either eight 30Kbyte segments or four 60Kbyte segments. Detailed are the full results and performance ratings for the DK516C-16. Repositories to provide base for mastering art of CASE. (computer-aided software engineering) (includes related article on One of the main problems preventing wide implementation of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology is the lack of sufficient CASE tool integration. An industry standard for a central repository that different vendor's CASE tools can share is still absent from commercial offerings. Few tools cover the entire software development life cycle. Many industry observers feel that end-users need an integrated tool that covers all aspects of development from identifying problems to creating documentation. At the moment, achieving CASE tool integration involves the translation of one tool set's data format to work with another. Many analysts believe that the establishment of an industry-wide central repository standard is essential for the development of multivendor CASE integration. Preparation paves the way to CASE success. (computer-aided software engineering) The key to a successful corporate implementation of any computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool set is establishing a carefully planned foundation before the tools arrive. Some analysts believe that employing CASE methods can produce better applications through the use of the CASE tools' code analysis. Some analysts believe that only large and complex projects requiring the ability to store and reuse code warrant the purchase of CASE tools. Vendor-supplied end-user training sessions should be taken advantage of by MIS managers. One of the most important factors in using the CASE tool is making sure the product is employed correctly, which some analysts believe can take as long as a year. Shuttle to fly with new solid-state computers. (NASA ) Doherty, Richard. The Mar 1991 launching of NASA's space shuttle Discovery will mark the first use of general-purpose computers equipped with modern solid-state memory in space flight. IBM AP101S computers based on static-random access memory and Schottky logic will be used, enhancing the operation's processing margins. Increased processing capability and additional memory reserve may enable developers to design more robust software routines, strengthening safety and mission-performance margins in the space program. The new equipment will replace NASA's slower, core-memory-based AP101B technology, which will be relegated to the sheds of Cape Canaveral. Cadence in logical move to synthesis. Goering, Richard. Cadence Design Systems Inc is introducing its own suite of synthesis tools to compete with Synopsys' translation link products, which have been used with Cadence products for several years. Cadence's Verilog Hardware Description Language and Synopsys' logic synthesis tools have complemented each other since 1988, providing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designers with an automatic link between gate-level logic implementations and HDL descriptions. Cadence tools include a separate optimization module and a Verilog synthesis package, both of which are integrated into the Cadence Design Framework. FPGA design standard: group seeks interface between tools and silicon. (field programmable gate arrays) An ad hoc group of computer-aided engineering software and programmable logic device (PLD) vendors is designing a standard that will enable designers to cover a variety of silicon implementations within one design environment. The standard is necessary because users of field-programmable gate arrays and complex PLDs currently have to purchase separate, proprietary tool sets for each architecture. The standard will connect design front ends to FPGA-implementation software, allowing each tool vendor to make only one exporter program and each FPGA vendor to use only one reader. There are currently some third-party front-end tools available, but choices are limited. NACS' second report; next: a 10-year plan for chip technology. (National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors) The National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors (NACS) is designing a 10-year strategy to help the US technology industry outpace its foreign competitors. The committee is fostering the development of semiconductors targeted for high-volume applications. The US share of the technology market is declining; foreign firms now control more than 60 percent of the world market. NACS was established by Congress in 1988 to plan a national semiconductor strategy. This strategy includes proposals for 'pre-competitive' research programs, recommendations for national initiatives, suggestions on how the industry can help itself and ways to remove barriers to investment in the semiconductor industry. Vendor group pens SONET specification. (Synchronous Optical Network) Component vendors from around the world have agreed on a set of standards for fiber-optic communications, ensuring international joint sourcing of optical transmitter and receiver modules. The Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) is an American National Standards Institute standard for fiber optic voice and data communications that provides communication across multivendor transmission equipment. Any transmission equipment manufacturer can now produce SONET equipment without having to design its own transmitters and receivers. Companies involved in the agreement include AT&T Microelectronics, which spearheaded the accord, and Hitachi Ltd, BT&D Technologies and Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. Memory chips break 3 V. (3 volt) Wilson, Ron. Notebook and palmtop computers operate from the voltage of a small battery pack, motivating circuit vendors to break through the 3-volt barrier and offer extremely low-power, low-voltage operation. Catalyst Semiconductor will announce a 1K-bit serial EEPROM that can write and read at power levels as low as 2 V. The Catalyst EEPROM represents a breakthrough because non-volatile technology is inherently a high-voltage one, taking volts to pump charge into the gates of cells. The company has plans to make other low-voltage serial EEPROMs in the future. Other Japanese vendors such as Hitachi are preparing similar products. Vendors are readying one-chip 10 Base T. Gold, Martin. Companies such as National Semiconductor (NS), Fujitsu and Advanced Micro Devices are preparing the single-chip solutions for IEEE 802.3 10 Base T Ethernet controllers. These chips will put 10 Base T Ethernet technology directly on the motherboards of high-end microcomputers and engineering workstations. NS's ST-NIC (Serial Network Interface Controller/Twisted-Pair) will be introduced in May 1991, according to company officials. Fujitsu is working with Level One Communications Inc on a single-chip solution that will be available in sample quantities by late 1991 or early 1992. DEC extends VAX 9000. (Digital Equipment Corp's VAX 9000 110 and 300) (product announcement) DEC introduces new, reconfigured versions of its VAX 9000 mainframe computer line targeted for engineering, scientific and government applications. The VAX 9000 110, based on the 210 model, and the 300 series, based on the 410 series, will be available in April 1991. VAX 9000 mainframes are systems with vector-processing options, and the company refers to them as supercomputer servers. The new machines have lower memory entry points than the original VAX 9000 and offer fewer XMI buses. DEC also removed the commercial instruction set for Cobol users and cut the consulting services that are included with its other mainframe configurations. Prices have been lowered to below $1 million for the smallest VAX 9000 110 system. TI's Heilmeier to Bellcore. (Texas Instruments Inc.'s chief technical officer George Heilmeier; Bell Communications Research Texas Instruments (TI) Inc chief technical officer George Heilmeier is leaving the company to become Bell Communications Research Corp (Bellcore) Inc's president and chief executive officer. Heilmeier played an active role at TI in information systems, semiconductor and defense groups, remaining in top research groups for 13 years. TI will not replace Heilmeier right away but will work with a decentralized research structure. Bellcore wanted a strong technology executive who was also familiar with marketing. According to Heilmeier, Bellcore will be defining voice and data technologies during the 1990s and is likely to be an important player in the multimedia market. Sony claims breakthrough in magneto-optical drives. (Sony Corp.'s Irister magneto-optical drives) (product announcement) Sony Corp introduces the IRIS Thermal Eclipse Reading (Irister), a new form of magneto-optical (M-O) disk-recording technology which the company claims increases recording density by a factor of six to allow as much of 4Gbytes of storage on a single double-sided 5.25-inch disk. The increased density triples data transfer rates, expanding from the current 0.925M-bps. The 30-ms access time remains the same. The system includes a conventional visible red semiconductor laser and the same lens that is used in Sony's conventional M-O drive. However, it differs from M-O drives because it has a biasing initialization phase that reverses the polarity of signals and erases the readout layer. Nepcon focus: MCMs; multichip modules to be featured. Costlow, Terry. The 1991 Nepcon semiconductor trade show will focus on multichip modules (MCMs), featuring five dedicated seminars and discussions of the impact of MCMs in such areas as tape-automated bonding and soldering and fine-pitch technology. Specialists will teach every aspect of the growing technology in order to further the volume production of new MTM products. Manufacturing engineers and designers will see changes as the technology spreads. Ceramic substrates with copper-polyimide thin-film layers will be used more than the thick-film technology found in current substrates. One complex task is the linking of MCMs to the circuit board. Sharp to make LCDs here. (liquid crystal displays) Yoshida, Junko. Sharp Corp will manufacture simple-matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in Camas, WA beginning in Dec 1991. It will be the first Japanese company to set up a LCD manufacturing base in the US. The move to the US was made before the International Trade Association (ITA) assessed dumping margins for some Japanese flat-panel displays and had nothing to do with government regulation, according to the company. Sharp officials state that they wanted to be able to respond more quickly to US microcomputer manufacturers' latest demands. Sharp will invest $14 million in the new facility and build 300,000 units in 1992. Listening. (Japanese trade agreement) (Yakitori) (column) Lammers, David. The trade agreement between Japan and the US will expire in summer 1991, although it has been a success in many ways. There is now a much healthier network of relationships between foreign-based semiconductor companies and Japanese firms than was common in the past. Pressure from the government has motivated people to communicate. Larger companies have gained the most from Japan's openness because they have the patience to prove their sincerity and build the slow-moving relationships the Japanese prefer. Smaller companies do not have the time to build the low-tech products Japanese firms ask for as part of their relationship protocol. Smaller businesses' needs should be considered when the US negotiates a new semiconductor trade agreement with Japan. Radiosat has global plan. (Radiosat International) Robinson, Brian. Radiosat International plans to replace the international shortwave broadcasting system with a digital-direct-broadcast satellite service, creating a potentially large market for electronics and radio manufacturers. The first of three satellites will be launched in 1995, carrying a minimum of 200 program channels. The planned system will offer high broadcast quality and eliminate the 'rise and fall' reception problems that plague conventional shortwave broadcasting. The service could become popular among religious and educational broadcasters as well as such heavy government users as the BBC World Service and Voice of America. Fujitsu ups 5 1/4-inch ante; drive hits 2 GBytes. (Fujitsu America Inc.'s M2652 disk drive) (product announcement) Fujitsu America Inc introduces the M2652, a 2Gbyte disk drive that puts 12 platters into the 5.25-inch form factor and surpassing the access and data-transfer times of other similar products. This product furthers Fujitsu's efforts to become the first Japanese supplier to gain significant market share in the 3.5- and 5.25-inch disk markets. Fujitsu is still dominant in 8-inch products, but has suffered along with other Japanese firms because of its comparatively high prices. Much of the M2652's performance improvement comes from the drive spinning 50 percent faster than the conventional 3,600-rpm rate. Another special feature is the adoption of dual porting, which allows two hosts to access the drive at the same time. Fujitsu sees future in HEMT, JJ use. (High Electron Mobility Transistor, Josephson junction)(includes related article on HEMT Fujitsu Ltd plans to develop computers that will combine devices based on Josephson junction, High Electronic Mobility Transistor (HEMT), ECL and cooled complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The company has developed 'exotic' integrated circuit technology since the 1980s and plans to implement it in the 1990s. HEMT devices operating at room temperature can be designed with high enough densities for a rudimentary computer, but there will still be a need for other technologies because simulations require large address and memory spaces. HEMTs are based on a short, thin channel filled with electron gas at the heterojunction between GaAs and n-AlGaAs, and have the ability to overcome the short-channel effect that affects silicon-based arrays. Workstations bust out. Ryan, Margaret. Unix-workstation vendors are moving beyond the traditional technical customer base, attempting to penetrate the larger commercial market. The Unix-based workstation market is expected to grow by as much as 50 percent in 1991, with sales to the commercial-business sector accounting for most of the growth. Sun Microsystems Inc has sold the most workstations for business purposes; these sales now account for 30 percent of the company's total workstation revenue. Sun has surpassed its competition largely because DEC and IBM have ignored the business market. Sun workstations have been sold for use in such areas as banking, insurance, publishing, legal services, telecommunications, and the manufacturing and medical industries. Arche, Viewlogic forge link. (Arche Technology Inc. and Viewlogic Systems Inc.) Arche Technology (AT) and Viewlogic Systems Inc (VS) have forged a link involving a new design synthesis tool and creates an unusual relationship between the firms. In 1989, AT poured $2 million into the development of Design Express, a proprietary synthesis tool that AT needed in order to gain a design edge in the microcomputer clone market. The tool was developed by two engineers who formed the Aspin Group, which AT quickly bought. AT sold its Design Express technology and development to VS in Feb 1991, ensuring that AT will be able to continue to use the technology and any further developments. The sale ensures AT that the technology will be further developed by a strong partner. Grim times for Euro computer makers. Woolnough, Roger. The immediate outlook for the European computer industry in 1991 looks grim despite expected growth of 45 percent in the first half of the decade. The big growth in large systems installed between 1980 and 1985 has slowed. The midrange computer sector is in disarray, with the prospects for Unix remaining unclear. Growth is thought to have peaked for microcomputers during 1987-89, and in 1990 there was evidence of a significant slowdown. Workstations and enhanced microcomputers are expected to show market growth until 1994. Companies have been cutting costs and laying off employees in reaction to the slowdown. Groupe Bull of France will cut 5,000 jobs internationally by Nov 1991. IC vendors go public; up stock market an opportunity for IPOs. (integrated circuit; IPO funds) Many private semiconductor companies have made initial public offerings during Feb 1991 because the stock market has remained strong despite a sagging economy. Companies such as Zilog Inc, Atmel Corp and Brooktree Corp have filed to go public. The stock market is high at around 3000 while the overall economy is distress, offering firms that go public a chance for a cash infusion with which to weather the recession. Government regulations do not allow companies to comment on their public offerings, but observers say that the current situation may be the only opportunity some companies will have to go public. Atmel has filed to offer 4 million shares of common stock at $12 to $14 each. The initial public offering (IPO) funds will go to retire debt as well as to satisfy general corporate and capital equipment needs. An ultrareliable future. Robinson, Brian. The defense sector of the aerospace industry has long been more the follower than the leader in introducing new technology, but is becoming more aggressive in an effort to get more performance from the Defense Department's steadily shrinking budget. One major area of focus is ultrareliable electronic systems. The Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA) is attempting to reverse the tendency to follow rather than lead by publishing a road map from which specific technology goals can be drawn. Some technologies are considered vital to develop in order for the US to remain competitive in the 1990s. These include producing better products and implementing process integration in manufacturing. Such steps will result in better product reliability, cutting high operating and maintenance costs. War dampens move to freer exports. Robinson, Brian. Technology industries may be disappointed at the list of controlled exports that will come from the meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls in Feb 1991. Fighting in the Persian Gulf and conflict within the Soviet Union are likely to hurt attempts to loosen controls. Technological industries have been irritated for years by tight export controls, but the government seemed to be preparing itself for major reforms in exports following the collapse of Eastern European communism. The new core list may not please as many as would have been expected. According to some reports, there will be decontrol of microcomputers. U.S. in Japan: a foot in the door, but plenty of resistance still lies ahead. Although the US has implemented actions needed to establish free trade between the US and Japan, the Japanese attitude toward these changes has not h changed. Japanese are still more comfortable with their traditional dependencies and fear change, although formal barriers to semiconductor investment and import have been removed. The US government and semiconductor industry encouraged Japan to lower barriers to market access by foreign companies, but little actual change occurred until the 1986 Semiconductor Trade Agreement was set. The Japanese needed to see real numbers, fixed-measurement methods and stated timetables before they changed their ways. The pull of magnetic chips. Brown, Chappell. Ferric materials used in compound semiconductors are giving the products new electronic properties that could create a new generation of electronic devices, storage media and optical computing components. Among the new devices being added to circuit design toolkits are magnetic stripline microwave filters, optical rectifiers and polarizing field-effect transistors (FETs). Magnetic semiconductors offer new effects that are being studied. Research has revealed that magnesium can substitute for cadmium in cadmium telluride, a II-VI compound semiconductor that is incorporated in infrared sensor technology. New additions to the semiconductor production line have been extensively studied, but the knowledge has not yet penetrated electronics research and development labs. At ISSCC: the push for fast RAMS. (International Solid-State Circuits Conference; random access memory) The semiconductor industry is increasing its efforts to produce faster memory chips, according to the volume of research reported at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The research is laying the foundation for a new category of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) and offering a possible landmark in fast static random access memories (SRAMs). Both Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp presented papers in high-speed RAM sessions at the conference. The Hitachi BiCMOS device is produced using an 0.8-micron process, while the Toshiba CMOS device is made using a 1.6-micron-well CMOS process. Scan techniques merge with design automation; automation brings scan benefits to those who are not experts. Scanning techniques are merging with design automation, making the design of larger circuits possible. Automation is also becoming easier and more accessible to circuit designers. Scan design is creating opportunities for extending automation from design to testing. One system combines a powerful test generator with a fast fault simulator, achieving almost 100 percent coverage of all testable static faults on all scan circuits. Tests can also be generated for AC testing, with the designer identifying specific AC faults in the design to be patterned. Scan tools must be fully integrated into the design-automation environment in order to make concurrent engineering possible. Test-pattern generation comes of age; ATPG techniques relied on to solve ASIC-testing puzzle. Automatic test-pattern generation (ATPG) is becoming more attractive as the imperatives of design complexity and time-to-market pressures pull the system designer in two different directions. ATPG techniques are being used to solve complex ASIC-testing problems, and several sequential ATPG software products are now on the market. The products can be used with little or no change in the original design methodology, allowing asynchronous design techniques or reduced design methodology intrusion. For full-scale designs, the use of ATPG is growing quickly. Full-scan design is a structured DFT approach, requiring that all storage elements be connected into a scan chain. Using internal scan and boundary scan: scan for device testing, boundary for boards. (includes a related article on fault coverage Newer circuit designs cannot be tested unless test circuitry is incorporated into the design itself because circuits are becoming more dense and complex. Two major approaches to testing are boundary scanning for board testing and internal scanning for device testing. Boundary scan, a structured technique, overcomes difficulties associated with testing advanced designs using traditional board-test methods. Internal scan makes efficient automatic test pattern generation possible with a very high fault coverage using commercial tools. Test engineering that uses scan techniques must begin during product design because the test circuitry is part of the design. ICs count on SMT packages. (surface mount technology) Derman, Glenda. Electronic-equipment manufacturers will increasingly rely on surface-mount-technology rather than advancements in component design to improve performance. By 1995, 50 percent of the components used in the US will be surface-mounted. Component packaging is intrinsic to total system design and manufacture, relying on working relationships among interconnect technologies, packages, component and materials selection, handling and assembly and test. Surface-mount integrated circuit packages are getting thinner and smaller and include the high-density thin small-outline package and the shrink small-outline package. One cost-cutting trend is the use of plastic packages for logic devices with less than 20,000 gates. Discretes opt for SMT and MCM. (surface-mount-technology and multichip modules) New packages for discrete semiconductors have been developed as a result of industry trends toward miniaturization and surface-mount technology (SMT). Larger packages with higher pin counts and lower thermal impedances are needed as more chips are added to discrete products to offer more features. Two of the fastest growing areas in discrete component packaging are multichip modules (MCMs) and their accompanying power modules. Japanese companies have designed two smaller packages targeted for consumer electronics, the SC-70 and the SC-90. Motorola introduced the DPAK package in 1985 and developed the D2PAK in 1991. Reasons for using multichip and modular packages include reduced component count, ease of assembly, higher efficiency and improved reliability. SMT: the benefits, the trade-offs. (surface-mount-technology) Schroen, Walter. Surface-mount-technology (SMT) offers benefits in such areas as materials usage, design process and manufacturing economics. The most important benefit of SMT is that it saves space on the circuit board by increasing density, cutting costs up to five times compared with through-hole assembly. SMT reduces board thickness as well, especially for memory devices. Semiconductor packaging technology is affected by material selection trends. Designers selecting materials for metallic lead frames should consider costs, performance improvement and reliability factors. Alloy 42 lead frames are being replaced with less-expensive copper in many applications. Thermal modeling can be used to help in the selection of molding compounds and other factors. Wire-bonding capability paces the requirements of packaging. Sheaffer, Michael. Advancements in software and wire-bonding are giving circuit packaging more capabilities than ever before, resulting in precision accuracy of bond placement, improved wire paths and trajectories, better weld control and automatic targeting of bonds onto the package. These improvements have led to chip and wire interconnects capable of being applied to packages that were previously bondable only through tape automated bonding. Axis motion control is one of the most important, yet underpublicized, developments in high-speed automatic wire bonders. Wedge bonding offers a choice of gold or aluminum wire, fine-pitch capability and highly controlled looping. Chip makers return to TAB. (tape automated bonding) Khadpe, Subash. US semiconductor companies increasingly use tape automated bonding (TAB) instead of wire bonding for producing high-density, high-performance applications such as workstations and computers. TAB's growth has been due to such factors as the rise of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), surface-mount-technology (SMT), and the growth in miniaturization. Japan is the largest TAB user and possesses more than 70 percent of the market. TAB applications include watches, smart keys, blood-pressure sensors and digital thermometers. Liquid crystal displays account for the largest part of the TAB market. TAB innovations have spurred the market further. Translating TAB into more pads. (tape automated bonding) Arnold, James N.; Hawk, Donald E. Supporting technology and interconnect technologies are not keeping pace with application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and very large- scale integration (VLSI) chip I-O counts. A new tape translator technology could renew the standard lead-frame and wire-bond design, putting a tape automated bonding (TAB)-like packaging version into the realm of 800 I-Os. TAB extends the life of wire-bonding and minimizes silicon area while allowing continued growth in I-O counts. There is also a savings in silicon with tape translation. Lead-frame manufacturers are attempting to overcome mechanical obstacles in the fine-pitch world to allow 70 percent material etching, which would achieve an 8.4-mil inner lead pitch. SM resistor networks take on DRAM termination. (dynamic random access memory) Robust packages that withstand solder processes for single-sided and double-sided printed circuit boards have been developed as a result of advances in surface-mount (SM) resistor networks. Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) termination is one rapidly-growing application for SM resistor networks. Valuable microcomputer printed circuit board space can be saved by using SM resistor packs, rather than chip resistors. New SM high-density packages with 50-mil-pin spacing eliminate trace inductance and are critical for DRAMs. Close care and attention should be paid to memory damping to avoid damage to the DRAM. Programming Windows 3.0: not an easy task; developers cope with memory, graphics challenges. (Microsoft Inc.'s Windows 3.0; Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 is becoming the dominant microcomputer software platform during the 1990s, but developers are having difficulties programming for it. Such problems as conforming to Windows' graphics, its lack of full memory protection and its cooperative scheduling are difficult to deal with. There are few programmers who can program for Windows, and such people are in demand. The early nature of the tools and documentation make Windows 3.0 hard to learn and work with. In addition, programmers face event-driven programming, which has no hierarchy and no fixed sequence. Porting Unix applications to Windows is also difficult. 'Engineers for Education' drive launched. Bellinger, Robert. A voluntary campaign has been launched among 41 engineering societies to recruit 100,000 engineers to help 100,000 elementary and secondary schools improve science and math education. 'Engineers for Education' has been endorsed by President Bush, who states that the drive will play a key role in achieving math and science excellence by the year 2000. Every elementary and secondary school in the nation will be matched up with an engineer, and the program will continue indefinitely. Every week for an hour or so engineers will help schools formulate their programs. American students have fallen behind their counterparts in other countries in these areas. How to take advantage of controversy; debate over issues can be fruitful. Controversy is good to have in the workplace, and electronic engineering (EE) managers need diagnostic and application tools in order to take advantage of it. When everyone thinks the same way, a company should consider itself in trouble. Innovation comes from people thinking differently about issues. EE managers need to develop the habit of defining projects in terms of results rather than in terms of processes or approaches. Customers always want something that does not exist. The EE manager must encourage different approaches to the problem, but not favor one over the other. Managers should impose a solution only if consensus fails and avoid compromise solutions. A trace of good hiring news; career opportunities in CAE/CAD. (computer-aided engineering-computer-aided design) Computer-aided engineering and computer-aided design businesses are hiring mostly software engineers with different levels of experience. Schlumberger's CAD-CAM division will hire 15 entry-level engineering employees to develop products ranging from automotive circuits to electronic components. Analogy Inc (Beaverton, OR) is also hiring approximately 15 engineers. Data I/O Corp (Redmond, WA) needs four engineers with BSEE or BSCS degrees and Sun Microsystems and Unix experience. Silvar-Lisco (Sunnyvale, CA) will be hiring six software engineers. Software engineers at one time earned less than hardware engineers, but this situation has changed. Interconnect densities in M/C modules heat station design. (multi-chip modules can present thermal management problems for Computer designers working with tightly packed multi-chip modules are confounded by thermal management complications. Workstation technicians are considering several different packaging variations to try to minimize the heat problem. Quad flat packs, solder bump carriers, and tab automated bonding are among the surface-mount techniques sampled by board designers, who must deal with massive interconnect densities. The search for packaging alternatives has also led to investigation of non-traditional packaging techniques such as the use of high-speed, high-density connectors to mount substrates to workstation boards. Pin grid arrays have also been considered, although cost and production delays are discouraging. Notebook battles ravaging prices. (notebook computer market) Deagon, Brian. The market for notebook computers has become increasingly competitive, with many similar 80386SX-based portables now available from companies in the US, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, and South Korea. Intense competition has driven down prices of the products, which contain approximately equivalent liquid-crystal displays, microprocessors, and 20Mbyte hard drives. Profit margins are consequently eroding to levels that are rare for products in their immature market stage. Compaq Computer Corp initiated the notebook rush, but the firm's initial price of $6,499 for a 30Mbyte drive notebook computer was dramatically undercut by Dell Computer and AST Research soon after. Hint at new U.S. project to aid semicon industry. (semiconductor industry seeks government aid) The National Advisory Council on Semiconductors has announced plans for a new initiative to boost the US semiconductor industry. The Council will choose a 'capability target' that will unify the market and promote international competitiveness. A spring workshop co-sponsored by the Council and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will give planners the opportunity to organize the project. The initiative may utilize the resources of academic consortia, federal laboratories, and military funding. The Council remarked that the US share of the world semiconductor market continues to decline. NCR sets up stock hurdle to AT&T. (NCR tries to avoid hostile takeover) In another effort to stave off AT and T's hostile takeover, NCR Corp has established and funded an employee stock ownership plan in the range of $500 million. AT and T will attempt to overthrow the computer company's board of directors at the Mar, 1991 shareholders meeting and elect new members that will facilitate the acquisition. AT and T's tender offer worth $6.12 billion has been energetically resisted by NCR. It is likely that the telephone giant will have to increase its tender offer by $750 million or even abandon the takeover effort. The latest developments in the battle have sent NCR stock climbing to a record $93.75 per share. Claim LCD firms need U.S. orders, not duties. (liquid crystal display manufacturers need orders to boost business) The anti-dumping case against Japanese manufacturers of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) will not help US LCD suppliers as much as a new batch of orders could. Market analysts suggest that any duties levied against the Japanese would not make up for the lack of orders experienced by seven US flat panel firms involved in the case. The Commerce Department has levied minor preliminary penalty duties on only two of 13 Japanese companies charged with dumping. Meanwhile, several US computer firms are purchasing LCD screens from the Japanese, including Compaq Computer Corp and Apple. IBM, which has a joint venture with Toshiba to produce LCDs, is considering opening a stateside LCD manufacturing facility. Shifting through the flat panel dump. (Japanese liquid crystal display manufacturers accused of dumping) (Government Closeup) The US Department of Commerce preliminary decision on charges against Japanese liquid crystal display (LCD) manufacturers for dumping has done little to ease pressure on US LCD vendors, who are in need of more orders. The decision allows both sides to claim victory and assesses only minor penalties on Japanese suppliers. US computer companies that buy Japanese LCDs for their products are squaring off against angry US LCD suppliers who claim they are being unfairly opposed, leaving the Japanese mostly in the background. Instead of the current confusion, the US government should instate a strong national program to promote high definition display research and production. IBM updates 3490 tape store, set to pull support for 3480. (tape storage systems) (product announcement) IBM plans to withdraw marketing support for its 3480 tape drive products in the wake of upgrading its half-inch 3490 tape drive subsystem. The 3490 has 36 tracks and features new data compression technologies that have not yet been equaled by competitors. Rack-mountable drives from Hitachi Data Systems and other vendors will continue to compete with IBM for the low end of the market. IBM customers are reportedly reluctant to move from the 3480 to 3490 equipment, yet they may have little choice after May, 1991. The 3490 drive comes in six models and uses thin-film tape heads that write tape in both directions, eliminating rewind requirements. MAI phasing out production in shift to VAR. (MAI Systems Co. to become value-added reseller) MAI Systems Co is curtailing its computer manufacturing efforts and will become a value-added reseller. The company failed in an attempt to acquire Prime Computer, and has since suffered from poor financial results and an erosion of its share of the microcomputer market. MAI has acquired approximately $50 million in third-party software applications and technology. Its major hardware earnings since 1986 have come from sales of equipment to niche markets such as hospitals, hotels, construction firms, and the financial industry. MAI and HP have signed a three-year contract enabling MAI to resell HP's 9000 Unix-based computers and Vectra microcomputers. Sun markets updated RISC server line. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s reduced-instruction-set computing file server products) Sun Microsystems Inc is preparing a selection of updated products for its current line of computer network servers. The upgrades will include software and Network File System accelerator boards. These development efforts are reportedly unconnected with other company issues, such as the delay in developing a new, multiprocessing reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) file server that is code-named Galaxy. Sun intends to add the NC400 Network CoProcessor to its Sparcserver 470 and 490 in order to improve performance by up to 250 percent. Another board, the Sun Prestoserve accelerator, will also be added to Sun's product line. Software lag hits Alliant i860-based CPU sales. (Alliant Computer Systems Corp.'s 80860-based parallel processors) Alliant Computer Systems Corp has been unsuccessful in selling its FX/2800 line of parallel processing supercomputers, partially due to a lack of available applications software packages. The company is concentrating on the image and signal processing, and chemistry industries, although the computer is also suited for tasks pertaining to mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics, and simulation. Alliant has suffered from losses and a reduction of its sales force, making the FX/2800 all the more difficult to sell. In order to improve the applications situation, Alliant is courting third-party developers in some of the untapped vertical market areas. HP markets 33MHz PC, cuts older models' tags. (HP 486/33T 1 computer) (product announcement) HP introduces the Vectra 486/33T 1 workstation with 3.5-inch floppy drive, 4Mbtes of RAM expandable to 64Mbytes, eight 32-bit slots and a hard/floppy controller. With a 170Mbyte hard drive, the product costs $11,249, although high-end versions with 440Mbyte drives can cost $14,499. The new computers are intended for use in financial analysis, computer-aided design, and multi-user applications. In an effort to compensate for disappointing workstation sales, HP has reduced prices on earlier versions of the Vectra that are based on 25MHz microprocessors. The company has also agreed to co-develop expert systems software with Hitachi Ltd. Wireless LAN suppliers foresee growth as user concerns fade. (local area networks) Vendors of wireless local area network (LAN) equipment are encouraged by growing consumer confidence in the new technology. Users initially worried about the transmission speeds, security, and costs of such computer networks. Wireless LANs are more expensive to install than conventional networks, yet the elimination of the need to rewire the networks render them attractive to many potential customers. Wireless vendors such as NCR Corp, BICC Technologies Inc, and Motorola Inc are placing more emphasis on product development in anticipation of increasing customer interest in the wireless approach. Although they are not entirely void of wiring, wireless LANs are less likely to be flawed by faults in wiring that cause many LAN errors. IBM Japan eyes cellular, notebook CPU link. (data transmission using notebook computers) IBM Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Communications are discussing the future lease of airwaves from a Japanese cellular communications firm in order to provide data transmission using notebook computers. Although it will not confirm the rumors, IBM is reportedly developing a portable computer specifically designed for such a purpose. IBM has increasingly located its microelectronics research efforts in its Japanese branch. The prospect of using cellular technology to convey data rather than voice communications is relatively novel. Analysts are in disagreement over the potential size of a data communications cellular market. DEC to offer R3000-based stations in '91, use MIPS 64-bit MPU in '92. (development of reduced-instruction-set computing In 1991, DEC plans to introduce new reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) workstations based on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's R3000 microprocessors. These rollouts will be followed in 1992 by workstations based on MIPS's upcoming 64-bit R4000 microprocessor. The R3000-based products will feature removable CPU and memory modules that will make it possible to perform the first in-cabinet upgrades of RISC computers. Internal disk storage slots are to be included in the R3000 line, which includes a high-end model that runs almost twice as fast as the DECstation 5000 200. The new R3000s will be based on microprocessors of 33MHz and 40MHz speeds. Hitachi, AT&T, Fujitsu, BT&D in fiber optic SONET accord. (companies will make fiber optic transmitter and receiver modules Hitachi, AT and T Microelectronics, BT and D Technologies, and Fujitsu have signed an agreement to develop fiber optic transmitter and receiver modules that support the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standard as well as the SDH (Synchronous Data Hierarchy) standard. The companies will develop devices with compatible pinouts and electrical specifications. SONET and SDH support interoperability and interconnection among fiber optic telecommunications equipment. The standards apply to end-user systems, customer premises equipment, and carrier equipment. Analysts predict that the market for optical communications modules will reach $200 million in 1995. Atmel: short $18.5M in EpROM sales. (erasable programmable read only memory) Atmel Corp has lost at least $18.5 million in erasable programmable read-only memory (EpROM) semiconductor sales since 1989. The losses, mainly caused by problems at a wafer foundry, were exacerbated by a legal challenge from Intel Corp. The Sanyo Electric Co, which supplies most Atmel wafers, suffered significant yield deficiencies. The Intel suit centered on a patent infringement charge and resulted in an exclusion order against Atmel that forced it to redesign some of its products. Yet the company has remained profitable despite these difficulties, and has even managed to increase its sales every year since its founding. Foreign market access in Japan still thorny semicon trade issue. (international semiconductor industry) A discussion about extending the current US-Japan Semiconductor Trade Arrangement beyond its expiration in Jul, 1991, did not resolve the issue of whether to include in the agreement a target goal of 20 percent foreign market share in the Japanese market. The US Semiconductor Industry Assn (SIA) is lobbying to continue the 20 percent target for 18 more months. The US government is reportedly undecided as to whether to support this industry preference during negotiations with Japan. Japanese semiconductor executives and government officials resist specific market share target percentages for the new agreement. Japan: x-ray may wait for 1G DRAM. (x-ray lithography, dynamic random access memory)(gigabyte) A US government trade surveying team has concluded that the semiconductor industry in Japan will continue to use optical lithography to make products through the generation of 256 megabit dynamic RAM, moving to X-ray lithography technologies when the one-gigabit generation is reached. Semiconductor company officials in Japan asserted that the late stages of the 256 megabit generation may use X-ray lithography for a portion of the manufacturing process. The US team predicts that Japan will move to X-ray lithography in 1998, using the technique to create products with linewidths of 0.1 microns. Analog IC firms building own testers. (integrated circuits) Winkler, Eric. In a reaction against equipment available from commercial vendors, analog integrated circuit manufacturers are considering developing their own test equipment for the circuits, which are particularly difficult to test. Proprietary equipment is less expensive than commercial testers but is inherently limited to a single device. Some analog integrated circuit suppliers are using built-in self test or design-for-test methods to position part of the testing hardware on the circuit itself. Testing an analog product requires much more detailed diagnostics than the on or off testing diagnostics used for digital equipment. GAO: DOD data on offshore reliance inadequate. (General Accounting Office faults Defense Department for ambiguous documentation of A report issued by the General Accounting Office (GAO) concludes that the Department of Defense (DOD) cannot estimate the degree of US dependence on foreign sources for weapons manufacture because the DOD has failed to collect data on foreign sourcing for products at the subcontractor level. The GAO report concludes that two defense projects designated in the past as being dependent on foreign technology remain so. The M1 Abrams tank uses microcircuits from foreign manufacturers and the F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft likewise includes non-US components. Some DOD critics are worried that foreign competitors will be able to dictate the quality of technology and availability of US weapons systems parts. HP profit up 18% in quarter. (first quarter 1992) HP's 1st qtr 1992 earnings rose 18 percent over the previous year's 1st qtr figure, indicating the success of the computer firm's initiative to reduce costs and whittle its workforce. HP eliminated 1,000 jobs during the quarter, using a combination of layoffs, attrition, hiring freezes and an early retirement program. The company has reduced its workforce from 95,000 to 92,000 in only one year. Consolidated revenues during the quarter grew 10 percent, from $3.1 billion to $3.4 billion, largely because of international trade. US revenue increased from $1.47 billion to $1.5 billion for a 2 percent improvement. R4000 prospects counter earnings results at MIPS. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s microprocessor) (What They're Saying) (column) MIPS Computer Systems stock is staying at about the $15 level in spite of infelicitous earnings results that caused analysts to lower their EPS estimates and equity ratings for the semiconductor firm. The stable stock price is attributable to excitement in the industry generated by MIPS's plans for the R4000 microprocessor, which may become the reduced-instruction-set computing standard for Compaq Computer Corp and DEC. MIPS may sign an agreement with major computer manufacturers centered on the upcoming chip, to be shipped late in 1991. One stock market analyst predicts that the total number of MIPS microcomputers in the market could rise from an estimated 150,000 in 1990 to an estimated 900,000 in 1991. GSA probes agency use of software site licenses. (General Services Administration) The GSA is considering the idea of federal agencies using site licenses for microcomputer software. Officials met with vendor and reseller representatives to look into ways government agencies can save money by obtaining many copies of off-the-shelf software for a set fee. Site licensing is especially useful for agencies who need more software copies than they can purchase through the GSA schedule. The GSA plans to publish a site-licensing handbook for senior information resource management officials. The handbook would present alternatives not requirements. A few problems remain, especially defining what constitutes a site license. GSA officials prefer to use the term software distribution agreement. NASA plans first-ever bulk mainframe buy: computers would form basis of common NASA architecture. (National Aeronautics and Space NASA plans to award what is believed to be the government's first requirements-type contract for mainframe systems, a $460 million order for some 48 mainframe systems to support its space shuttle and space station operations. The Operations Automatic Data Processing (OADP) contract has indefinite quantity and indefinite delivery requirements. The contract is being managed by officials at Johnson Space Center and is meant to stock the building blocks of a common computer architecture across Johnson and other NASA centers. Information Resources Management (IRM) officials at NASA are attempting to build a common base on which to build a future architecture. NASA plans to use OADP for ground support for the space station and space shuttle programs. The goal is using the same equipment for both programs and the facilitation of code utilization between programs and centers. Glenn slams Treasury for procurement reform push. (Sen John Glenn) Richardson, Jennifer. Sen John Glenn, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, has taken the Treasury Department to task for publicly criticizing procurement law and policy because of its record of computer purchases. Glenn stated in a Jan 25, 1990 letter to Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady that a number of protests against Treasury department procurements had been received at the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSABCA). Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Services Steven Broadbent was cited for publicly objecting to GSABCA's oversight process. Broadbent claims his actions were aimed at making things easier for federal agencies. DOD picks ex-Xerox exec to head CIM. (Department of Defense, executive, corporate information management) Reports say that the Department of Defense (DOD) has chosen a retired chief information systems executive from Xerox, Paul Strassmann, as director of Defense information. Strassman will be given the responsibility for managing Corporate Information Management (CIM) within DOD. Strassmann, who refused to either confirm or deny that he had been approached for the position, is currently an information technology consultant in CT and will come to the Pentagon with a broad knowledge of the goals of the CIM plan having served on the defense federal Advisory Board for Information Management. NASA gives green light to Japanese super bids. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, supercomputers) NASA plans, after one year of strong debate, to allow Japanese supercomputer vendors to submit bids on an upcoming procurement at Marshall Space Flight Center. The agency's decision was delineated in procurement plans sent to the General Services Administration (GSA) for approval on Feb 1, 1991. Officials will issue a reply by Mar 1, 1991. The decision represents a major reversal for the agency. NASA failed in Mar 1990 to limit the Engineering Analysis and Data System (EADS) II project to the single domestic supercomputer vendor, Cray Research. This will be the first time a US government agency will purchase a foreign-made supercomputer if a Japanese vendor wins EADS II. EADS II is a ten-year contract for a supercomputer, networking, mass storage, mini-supercomputers, workstations, software and support, at an estimated value of $200 million. Possible bidders could include incumbent Grumman Data Systems, Boeing Computer Services and Technology Applications Inc. Navy fights internal war over DP control. (data processing) Brewin, Bob. The Navy Regional Data Automation Centers (NARDACs) and the Naval Supply Command (NAVSUP) are battling over control of the Navy's mainframe data processing installations (DPIs). Observers put NAVSUP far ahead in the battle, partly because of the disinterest of the ranking NARDAC official, Vice Admiral Jerry O. Tuttle, director of space and electronic warfare. Administrative data processing is not high on Tuttle's list of priorities. A shortage of funds and a lack of management support could mean that NAVSUP could come out the winner at installation having both MAVSUP and NARDAC operated data processing facilities. Money shortage plagues border plagues border inspection system. (Interagency Border Inspection Service) Expansion plans for the Interagency Border Inspection service to 23 airports and land entry points by the end of 1991 are facing problems because of unexpected funding shortfalls. Officials warn that slowdowns in tourism and cutbacks in funding will limit IBIS expansion. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) must have $22 million to install the network between now and 1993. Operating costs alone run approximately $10 million annually. The agency has approximately $8 million allocated for IBIS for 1991. The network is funded by moneys from airports' inspection user fees and by Congressional appropriations. The expected $6.4 million from airport fees fell to $5.1 million due to drop-offs in tourism. Congressional appropriations for 1991 were only $3 million, down from $5 million in 1990, representing a 30 percent funding drop, not enough to cover expansions or enhancements. NOAA seeks funds to save decaying tapes. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) (preservation of satellite data) NOAA is attempting to win $12.6 million over 1991 and 1992 to preserve satellite data stored on tapes that are deteriorating rapidly. The funds would create a new Environmental Sciences Data and Information Management Program (ESDIMPP). The new program would be led by Vernon Derr, who would report directly to chief scientist Sylvia Earle. The ESDIMPP office would be the central NOAA site for policies and procedures to improve storage of million of environmental data sets gathered since 1971. A number of NOAA officials had been pleading the case for environmental management but had, until now, great difficulties in winning the undersecretary's attention in light of other financial priorities. The $12.6 million being requested will handle just the tip of the iceberg in data management. Funding for data management has declined annually for 10 years, causing serious problems in data accessibility. FAA contract en route to setback, cost hike. (Federal Aviation Administration) IBM's contract with the FAA for the Advanced Automation System (AAS), designed to modernize air traffic control across the country, has been renegotiated. Some $213 million in new AAS requirements have been added, causing a delay of another six months to the program. This, together with 13 months in software delays and late deliveries, mean AAS is now 19 months behind schedule. FAA officials say the renegotiation reflects AAS's complexity and the risks involved, including unexpected difficulties in supporting Ada as the software support environment. The Ada tools and compilers were not available when expected. The agency is performing audits and feels that the technical risks have all been handled. The delays will occur in the second contract phase, the Initial Sector Suite System (ISSS), when IBM moves new consoles into FAA en route centers. The ISSS is the contract linchpin and will cause delays in remaining stages. Groups gets funds to upgrade NSFnet: $6 million will help boost eight more nodes to T-3 speed. (National Science Foundation) The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an additional $6 million to Merit Network Inc to upgrade eight more nodes of NSFnet to T3 speed of 45M-bps. The addition to the contract will bright the NSFnet T-3 backbone to 16 nationwide sites. NSFnet operated previously at the T-1 speed of 1.54 megabit/sec at 13 sites. All 16 T-3 nodes should be fully operational as early as Jun 1991. Four sites have operational T3 nodes now, including the supercomputer centers funded by NSF at San Diego, CA and Champaign IL, as well as sites in Palo Alto, CA and Ann Arbor, MI. There are no plans, according to agency officials to add more nodes or to upgrade past the T-3 speed. Officials of both NSF and Merit, who operates the network under contract, expect a large increase in traffic when T-3 service is available. The future of NSFnet is uncertain as NSF has not decided what to do when Merit's contract runs out in Nov 1992. NSFnet is the forerunner to the National Research and Education Network (NREN), a nationwide network capable of transmitting at gigabit speeds. Global network brings TV, radio news to U.S. troops. (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) The Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) provides blanket radio and television coverage to most of Saudi Arabia, giving US forces a chance to hear and see themselves through a global satellite network. The AFRTS, starting nearly from scratch in Aug 1990, installed a radio network capable of providing FM radio service to most of the 500,000 troops serving in Saudi Arabia and a television network to 10 to 15 percent of those troops. AFRTS officials compared the job to building a broadcasting network capable of serving an area from Maine to Washington DC and as far west as Ohio. The job was far more difficult due to the lack of infrastructure. AFRTS has dispatched 60 technicians, announcers and other personnel to provide the same real-time news and information access received by people in the US. AFRTS uses transponders on International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) satellites to provide global service under long-term contracts with the Defense Commercial Communications Office. Most of the programming is handled by four in-country studios. hDC utilities enhance Windows menu operations. (hDC Computer Corp.) (User World) (column) Windows 3.0 from Microsoft is the hottest-selling microcomputer software partly because of the appeal of its icon-based menus. The vendor has skillfully integrated function and design features with much more power that those of any character-based DOS menu system. Windows Express ($99.95) from hDC Computer Corp brings many significant and intelligent improvements to the Windows environment. The company also published FirstApps ($99.95) for the Windows environment. An editor that allows a system manager to create standard, icon-based menus that only he can change could be especially useful to government agencies. The limited security allows the system manager to control who has access to which programs. Express menus are organized as a collection of folders, each with applications and subfolders. Express displays a full-screen main menu that displays subfolders and applications names, instead of displaying only icons, as Windows does. FirstApps includes a collection of 11 pop-up utilities. Both programs are well-designed and cost-effective. Problems in end-user computing still years away from solutions. (In perspective) (column) The federal government has belatedly recognized the difficulties connected with training end users from many backgrounds to use desktop computers to their full capacities. The Apple Federal Systems Group offers solutions to training problems. The Macintosh systems, when compared IBM PC and compatible systems, are easier to learn, require much less documentation and some applications, especially graphics, are dazzling in their functionality. The questions still remain how technology can support federal end users and just who these end users are. Apple has consistently offered a particular approach to the needs of the end user. IBM and compatible systems offer a technology. Vendors need to consider the needs of the end user and the agency. Apple is basing its future on the idea that systems will grow with the functions for which they are used. Armed Services Board clears C3 in DLA default dispute. (Defense Logistics Agency, Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals) The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) has awarded a decision to C3 Inc in its protracted dispute with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) over the DLA's termination of a $16.2 million systems contract. The ASBCA overturned a DLA decision to terminate the contract for default, converting it to termination for the government's convenience, effectively removing a legal cloud that could have affected the firm's competitive position in regard to other government contracts. Company officials say the decision underscores the company's position as one of the top integrators in the commercial marketplace, allowing the company to recover costs under the contract. Recovery is expected to be in the seven-figure range. OMB to hone financial reporting regs. (Office of Management and Budget, regulations) Recently-passed Chief Financial Officers legislation will be used by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to streamline financial management reporting requirements for agencies. An ad hoc working group of representatives from OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and Financial Management Division has been formed to ferret out duplicate reporting requirements. The OMB has been found through audits of agency systems to be part of the problem. There are conflicting requirements and duplicate reporting in many areas. Agencies are required to submit reports on major systems acquisitions as well as submitting a separate five-year plan on financial management systems. The plan is to consolidate both requirements under the overall reporting of the Chief Financial Officer. Burden steers Microsoft Federal to top. (Microsoft Federal Systems Group, Paul Burden) (interview of Paul Burden) (interview) Federal government agencies are continuing to ask for Microsoft applications in the requests for proposals (RFP) on large microcomputer procurements. Potential prime contract have to go to Paul Burden, general manager of Microsoft Federal Systems Group, because procurements generally request MS-DOS, Windows or both. Other requirements offer Burden a chance to make a deal with Microsoft's highly-rated word processor, spreadsheet, graphics and project management applications. Burden is considered a classic insider in federal procurement circles. 1991 marks Burden's tenth year in the computer business and sixth year with Microsoft. He has always headed the company's federal office, starting as a one-man organization. The Federal Group shares office space with Microsoft Mid-Atlantic, a sub-set of the eastern region and Microsoft University, the vendor's training organization. Much of Burden's day is taken up with reading and answering electronic mail from others in the Microsoft organization. Navy hops on POPS with super. (Primary Oceanographic Prediction System, supercomputer) A new supercomputer is being tested by the Naval Oceanography Command that will be one of the most powerful systems in the federal government when it goes into operation in Mar 1991. The new 8-processor Cray Research Y-MP supercomputer, which is located at the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Cray at Stennis is the largest currently delivered by the vendor and one of only ten in the world with that much memory. A Cray Y-MP2E will act as file server. The Navy, with the testing at Stennis nearly at an end, is accelerating the installation of a second more capable system at the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center in Monterey, CA. The two supercomputers and the related storage, file management and networking systems will be provided under a contract awarded to Grumman Data Systems in Apr 1990. The Primary Oceanographic Prediction System (POPS) is an 11-year program with an estimated value of $204 million. CompuAdd rakes in more desert desktop orders. (Operation Desert Storm, desktop computer systems) CompuAdd Corp has been awarded a new order for 400 Intel 80486-based microcomputers and 335 80386SX-based laptop systems for Operation Desert Storm. The total value of the order is $10.4 million. This brings the total value of orders place by the US Central Command (Centcom) in three months to just over $31 million. CompuAdd has quickly become the standard desktop microcomputer in the Persian Gulf theater. The company delivered 1,300 486-based microcomputers and 350 386SX laptops in Jan 1991 under a $21 million order paid for by the Japanese government as part of the financial pledge to support US forces in the Persian Gulf. Centcom and other users in Saudi Arabia are happy with the reliability and performance of CompuAdd systems, claiming they have had fewer problems with the CompuAdd systems than with some of the ruggedized systems in the theater. Centel Federal offers FTS pricing service. (Federal Telecommunications System, Centel Federal Systems Inc.) Centel Federal Systems Inc is marketing an FTS 2000 pricing service, making use of experience gained from its Technical Assistance and Management Service (TAMS) contract with the General Services Administration (GSA). The company has found a void in support of FTS 2000, acknowledged by the GSA. Agencies need engineering and planning support services that are not available under FTS 2000. The FTS 2000 Cost Optimization Model (FCOM) fills a need the company found while working on TAMS with GSA. Company officials say the company offers the tools and service to get the job done but the tool is used by Centel employees. One reason the company decided to offer a service was the level of technical experience within the company. Centel's FCOM is means to guide agencies toward making informed choices with FTS 2000. Army launches CHS-II procurement. (Common Hardware/Software II) Brewin, Bob. The Army initiated the procurement process for a $1 billion-plus next-generation battlefield computer system making use of the best commercial workstation technology. Potential workstation vendors could include Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, MIPS Inc and IBM. IBM is expected to propose a solution based on its RISC System/6000 (reduced instruction set computing) computer system line.The Communications-Electronic Command (Cecom) of the Army will release a draft statement of work (SOW) for its CHS-II procurement, to acquire an entire family of advanced computers to support the Army Tactical Command and Control System (ATCCS). Cecom will acquire minicomputers, desktop systems, portable and notebook systems to process data for the Army's five battlefield systems: Maneuver Control, Fire Support, Combat Service Support, Intelligence/Electronic Warfare and Air Defense. The procurement will reduce training, maintenance and service costs by giving all units a common family of hardware, operating systems and application programs. NetWorld alliances may signal end of proprietary systems. Danca, Richard A. Strategic alliances are spotlighted at the NetWorld 1991 expo in Boston. Such alliances may signal the end of some proprietary products. IBM announced its plan, amid a flurry of interest, to resell Novell's NetWare operating system under the IBM label. Analysts and reporters attending the briefing wanted to know what the new alliance means for IBM's LAN Server network operating system, considered superfluous following the announcement, despite denials by IBM officials. The vendor plans to support both products equally. The decision to market NetWare was prompted by customer demand. Novell announced several product enhancements, including NetWare 3.11 and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) allowing NetWare to operate in a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network. Banyan Systems and AT and T Computer Systems plan to work together develop and market new networking products. Banyan vines and Vines SMP network operating systems have been certified on AT and T's Unix-based StarServer E symmetric multiprocessor system. Farming out the networks. (trends in network management outsourcing) (Top of the Week) Chevron Corp, Eastman Kodak Co, Hyatt Corp and Merrill Lynch and Company Inc are among the corporations outsourcing management of their networks. Market research firm Yankee Group Inc predicts that the fast-growing network management outsourcing market will hit $5.6 billion in 1994. Network management outsourcing has grown in the wake of the AT and T divestiture in 1984 and increased competition in the telecommunications arena. The resulting plethora of carriers and protocols makes network management ever more difficult. MIS executives considering network management outsourcing must ask themselves whether voice and data networks can be outsourced without hurting their company's business strategy. Outsourcing firms have differing definitions of network management and the potential savings may not be worth the risks. A solid line to the top: Northern Telecom hardwires MIS into senior management. Northern Telecom Ltd's Jan 1, 1991, restructuring places corporate-wide MIS and telecommunications responsibilities under one executive, Mark Jacobson, the assistant vice president of information networks. Jacobson is now on Northern Telecom's senior management team, reporting directly to corporate finance. For MIS and telecommunications purposes, Northern Telecom no longer makes distinctions among its subsidiary companies, which circle the globe. Jacobson is looking for standard computer systems for the entire corporation. Southport, CT-based consultant Rainer Paul says the involvement of top management is required in order to maintain a global focus on systems development. HP: learning to market quality. (debuts HP Vectra 486/33T microcomputer, network hubs, new marketing strategy) (product HP hopes to cash in on the corporate trend to move mission-critical applications from mainframes to microcomputer networks by debuting a new Vectra file server and local-area-network (LAN) products backed by strong support and an advertising campaign that emphasizes the reliability of the new products. Computer reliability and customer service are increasingly important selling points. Each new product will come with a one-year, on-site service warranty. The new products include the HP Vectra 486/33T, a 33-MHz Intel 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) computer with 4Mbytes of RAM and priced at $9,499 to $17,799. HP also debuts transceivers, an adapter card and EtherTwist hubs for Ethernet and 10BaseT networks. Computer: heal thy self. (new hardware diagnostic software) Xenakis, John J. MIS departments are purchasing large numbers of new hardware diagnostic programs that are relatively easy to use. The diagnostic packages, which typically retail for about $200, include QaPlus from DiagSoft Inc of Scotts Valley, CA; PC Probe from Landmark Research International Inc of Clearwater, FL; and System Sleuth from Buena Park, CA-based Dariana Technology Group Inc. MIS departments use the programs to track down and fix small problems before calling for help from the vendor. Some of the packages, such as Check-It from Huntington Beach, CA-based Touchstone Software Corp, provide performance benchmarking. Landmark Research International also sells an add-in circuit board, the Kickstart, that can diagnose computers that cannot boot. 3-D engineering. (three-dimensional concurrent engineering using computer-aided design workstations) Concurrent engineering, in which teams of engineers accelerate product development by working on different aspects of the new product, is beginning to pay off, thanks to new, relatively low-cost computer-aided design (CAD) workstations that support 3D solids modeling. An engineer says 3D solid modeling provides the closest approximation to the real-world behavior of a product. One problem project managers face involves transferring data among differing proprietary formats. Many engineers like to work on microcomputer-based mechanical CAD programs, such as Claris CAD; transferring files created by these programs can be time-consuming. Some of the microcomputer-based packages are limited in their abilities to handle 3D modeling. New standards for file formats that support 3D solid modelling are under development. Merrill IS: the cautious bull. (new chief information officer at Merrill Lynch and Company) (includes a related article on Merrill DuWayne Peterson will retire as Merrill Lynch and Co's chief information officer in Jun 1991, after five years, and will be replaced by Edward Goldberg, a 30-year veteran of the brokerage company. Goldberg, 50, comes from Merrill's business side and has never been a technology manager. Goldberg says he will work with Howard Sorgen, the new director of global information services, to fine tune the dramatic expansion of computers and communications that Peterson began, while cutting high MIS costs. Merrill spends about $1 billion annually on operations, systems and telecommunications (OST). The differences in management style between Peterson, reportedly the first million-dollar chief information officer, and company loyalist Goldberg are dramatic. A window into MIS: Windows 3.0 has given Microsoft a bigger role in core business operations. The advent of Microsoft Windows 3.0 has made Microsoft Corp a key player in corporate MIS plans. While MS-DOS was so stable that it was nearly invisible, MIS directors are now expressing keen interest in Microsoft's development plans for the Windows graphical user interface. Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates says the company is increasingly interested in platform migration, connectivity and client/server and applications development. MIS departments are buying huge volumes of software from Microsoft, much of it Windows 3.0, which has sold more than 2.7 million copies since its spring 1990 debut. Windows and Windows-based applications take up an increasing proportion of software sales to businesses. Just for starters: some entry-level network solutions may become a burden to internetworking plans. (comparing file-server based Some analysts warn organizations with serious networking plans against using 'starter' peer-to-peer local area network (LAN) kits such as Tucson, AZ-based Artisoft Inc's LANtastic and Sausalito, CA-based Webcorp's Web. Paul Zagaeski of Boston-based consultancy Yankee Group Inc says such starter kits provide no path to enterprise-wide connectivity. He predicts many companies will simply throw away their starter kits and start over. The appeal of peer-to-peer kits is their low cost, ease of installation and low memory requirements. Peer-to-peer networks have been replaced in recent years by server-based networks. The biggest limitation of peer-to-peer networks is their reliance on a workstation to perform double duty as a regular workstation and as a file server, with subsequent performance degradation. Skates steers DG off thin ice. (interview with Data General CEO Ronald L. Skates) (interview) Data General (DG) CEO Ronald L Skates, a former Price Waterhouse partner, attempts to reposition DG as a leader in information technology. Skates attributes the better-than-expected profit of $12.4 million on $311.7 million in revenue for 1st qtr FY 1991 to strong sales of Aviion workstations and stabilization in the dropping sales of DG's proprietary MV Eclipse computers. With only $50 million in long term debt and recent cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, Skates believes DG's long-term prospects are good. DG's goal with the Aviion reduced-instruction-set computers (RISCs) is to be a server company. In other developments, Skates admits that the high-end 32-bit Eclipse MV will not debut before 1992. DG recently landed a $127 million contract with the US Department of the Interior for a land information and mapping system. Skates views open systems as a potential growth market for DG. StorageTek set to make a RAID. (Storage Technology Corp. developing Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) Storage Technology Corp previews its forthcoming Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) storage devices. Such disk arrays reduce storage costs and access time by storing data on many small disks rather than one large disk. EMC Corp, which in Oct 1990 beat StorageTek to the market with its Symmetrix RAID-based subsystem, says it cannot meet demand for the $240,000-to-$400,000 systems and plans to hike prices 4-13 percent, effective Mar 1991. IBM reportedly has a RAID system under development for late 1991 or early 1992 release. StorageTek's product, code-named Iceberg, will not ship before mid-1992, but reportedly features 128 1.6Gbyte, 5.25-inch HP disk drives in a multiple cabinet arrangement. To appeal to IBM users, Iceberg's design includes an interface like that in IBM's 3390 direct access storage device. Nevertheless, industry analysts express doubts about StorageTek's ability to compete with EMC's established place in the market. Social automation: Social Security handles increased load through networking. The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to deploy local- and wide-area-networks (LANs and WANs) across the US in the 1990s to meet growing demands on its systems. Currently, the SSA has 768 MIPS of mainframe computing power at its Baltimore data center. The mainframes link up with 39,000 terminals nationwide via an IBM Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network. Automation has enabled the SSA to reduce its staff 17,000 by positions via attrition since 1982. The SSA could choose to deploy more mainframes and dumb terminals; instead, it will migrate to client/server computing, with the mainframes being used as huge servers. The SSA's current $4.1 billion budget includes $205 million for MIS; the SSA says it needs more. Users build bridges to IMS. (support for IBM's old-line network database) Whether IBM will continue to support the old-line IMS network database remains unclear. For years, the company has been advising IMS users to adopt the DB2 relational database management system. IBM has apparently shifted support for access to IMS via Structured Query Language (SQL) to an unknown third party. A new IBM product, Data Propagator, slated for Feb 1991 release, will provide limited interaction between IMS and DB2 databases. Analysts expect IMS users to make greater use of SQL gateway products from third-party manufacturers. Quebec City, Quebec, is using another method by purchasing Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Datacom and porting all IMS data to the new database. The new setup should insure SQL accessibility. Oracle opens its Windows. (debuting Microsoft Windows 3.0-based products) Oracle Corp will unveil a number of Microsoft Windows 3.0-based products in spring 1991. Oracle has already announced the Pro C pre-compiler for the Windows environment and Oracle Card, a development tool for graphical applications. Oracle sales manager Marc Benioff says the company will debut a Windows version of SQL Forms 3.0 and a database tool that will give Windows software easy access to Oracle databases. Observers praise Oracle's quick move to Windows. With the new products, Oracle faces a marketing challenge. Products such as Oracle Card are flashy, powerful application development tools that may meet with resistance from MIS directors. Calling EDI central: large corporate users are finding EDI centralization the way to go. (electronic data interchange) Some large corporations are, such as General Electric Co, HP and E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co, are trying to centralize control and management of their electronic data interchange systems. Decentralized control of EDI can confuse suppliers and customers. David Leland, chairman of Mobil Oil Corp's EDI committee, predicts that lower labor costs, elimination of redundant efforts to support multiple protocols, and improved security will accompany centralization. Centralization will also speed up the deployment of EDI companywide. Centralizing requires handing EDI over to MIS, something most EDI managers are loathe to do. A fuzzy future for MIS? Unlike Japan, the U.S. has yet to latch onto Fuzzy Logic - and it will feel the loss. (Final Word) Fuzzy logic, developed by Lofti Zaden in 1965, has the potential to fundamentally change the future of MIS. The Japanese are already making good use of fuzzy logic, while the US lags. Fuzzy logic allows the definition of data processing solutions in subjective terms that more closely mirror the way humans think, rather than the 'either-or', '0/1' paradigm of traditional computing. Fuzzy logic offers a computer language that can handle such relative terms as 'high' and 'old.' Computing has its roots in the need to tabulate huge amounts of data with absolute values; little headway has been made in moving expertise, procedures and policies onto computers. Fuzzy logic can help in this task. Novell consolidates 286 line with Netware 2.2. (Novell to offer NetWare 2.2) Novell Inc will reportedly announce NetWare 2.2, which consolidates all of its 80286-based LAN operating systems into one product, in Mar 1991. Beta testers say the new product includes the features of the current Advanced NetWare, NetWare Entry Level System (ELS), and System Fault Tolerant (SFT) NetWare packages and will be priced according to the number of users it supports, with the most expensive version supporting 100 users. It will contain the fault tolerant features of SFT, which include disk mirroring and transaction tracking, and will be bundled with the new NetWare for the Macintosh 2.2 value-added process (VAP). NetWare 2.2 will also reportedly offer a simplified installation procedure that replaces the awkward Netgen program with a refined Install program. Advanced NetWare, SFT Netware and ELS NetWare currently comprise 90 percent of Novell's shipments. Delayed Win 3.1 will lack Net DDE. (dynamic data exchange) (Microsoft Windows 3.1 graphical user interface) Microsoft's upcoming Windows 3.1 graphical user interface will reportedly be smaller and faster than the current version and offer better multitasking, but will lack some promised features and will be delayed until at least the fall of 1991. Reasons for the delay include problems with the True Type font technology and the need for slight changes to ensure compatibility with the upcoming DOS 5.0 operating system. Windows 3.1 will lack the promised Network Dynamic Data Exchange (Net DDE), which would have allowed hot-linking of files and applications across local area networks. Net DDE users would be able to query for files on a network and bring data fields directly into their local applications. IBM gives beta sites the go ahead to test OS/2 2.0 on non-IBM hardware. IBM, which has long been criticized for optimizing the OS/2 operating system to work best on its own hardware, is asking beta testers of OS/2 2.0 to run the program on competing systems to test for compatibility. The company is apparently attempting to change its reputation for promoting OS/2 as a system exclusively for the PS/2 line and may aggressively promote it on non-IBM hardware. Beta testers and potential users say they had told IBM that OS/2 would be essentially a proprietary operating system unless it were opened up to multiple platforms. Observers say that IBM will be forced to unbundle the database and communications features of OS/2 Extended Edition because the software's hard-coded nature is 'becoming a liability.' The computer giant is rumored to be negotiating with Compaq and others about licensing OS/2 and OS/2 Extended Edition. Component pinch continues to dog laptop production. (component shortages delaying release of 80386SX-based laptops) Persistent shortages of VGA LCD displays, high-capacity disk drives and 80386SX microprocessors are delaying production of new 386SX-based notebook computers, and volume shipments of many products are not expected until the summer of 1991. Vendors blame poor first-production yields for the shortages; 60Mbyte drives are in the shortest supply. Conner Peripherals Inc, the leading supplier of the 2.5-inch 60Mbyte drives used in the Compaq LTE and upcoming IBM Laptop 40SX, says it is unable to keep up with the huge demand for powerful laptop machines. Intel is also having difficulty meeting demand for CPUs. Analysts say the problems with supplying components will be resolved soon and point out that production is slowly improving. Sybase beefs up SQL Server connections to Unix, VAX. (includes related article on upcoming SQL Server update) Sybase Corp plans to ship DOS versions of its PC Net-Library protocols in Mar 1991 in order to simplify the task of integrating front ends for OS/2 SQL Server into DEC VAX and Unix-based networks. The new product is a response to claims that SQL Server suffers from limited internetworking capabilities. Much of SQL Server's installed base is on Unix, VAX and IBM mainframe systems. Sybase-supported applications for microcomputers previously supported only a few networking protocols and were not network independent; developers had to link specific interfaces into each product. Sybase says the new release will give all existing SQL Server front ends automatic access to Sybase SQL Server. PC Net-Library will cost $145 per interface. HP ups ante in RISC price/performance. (reduced instruction set computers) HP will reportedly announce a new generation of its HP 9000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstations in Mar 1991. The new HP 9000 720, 730 and 750 will offer nearly twice the performance of competing machines in the same price range. The Model 720 will offer 57 million instructions per second (MIPS) performance and will be based on a 50 MHz HP Precision Architecture processor, while the 76-MIPS Model 730 will have a 66 MHz processor and built in Extended Industry Standard Architecture expansion slot. A high-end unit, the Model 750, will have four EISA slots, a 660Mbyte hard disk and a RAM capacity of 192 megabytes. It will use the same CPU as the Model 730. All three workstations will run the HP-UX operating system and offer a layer for Apollo Domain compatibility. Analysts expect the new machines to help HP increase its share of the workstation market, which is dominated by Sun Microsystems inc. Ashton-Tate to update Dbase IV data entry tools. (Ashton-Tate to introduce new version of Dbase IV) Ashton-Tate plans to ship a new version of its Dbase IV data base management system with improved data entry tools and a new Professional Compiler for creating executable files, in the summer of 1991. Company VP David Proctor and Pres Bill Lyons say that shipping the compiler, which is currently in pre-beta test, is their top priority. A second priority is developing a Windows version of Dbase. Ashton-Tate will offer several enhancements in the new DOS release, including a' Control Center Booster' that lets users design data entry screens that pop up 'browse' screens from other data files and key memo files with help text to specific fields. SAS covers desktop with Windows, Unix versions of system. (SAS Institute Inc. previews Windows, Unix versions of its data SAS Institute Inc announces new Windows and Unix versions of its modular data analysis and management software. SAS for Windows is a full implementation of the SAS System that runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and will ship in 4th qtr 1991 along with SAS 2.0 for OS/2. It provides tools for data access, analysis, management and presentation, and it is designed for decision support, forecasting and statistical analysis applications. The company has also announced support for the OSF Motif, Open Windows and NextStep Unix graphical interfaces. SAS is offering three new modules in the Windows and Unix versions: SAS/EIS, an executive information system development tool; SAS/Calc, a three-dimensional spreadsheet; and SAS/Insight, a data visualization tool. Prices falling to $500 for 9,600-bps modems. Coursey, David. Industry analysts expect prices of 9,600-bps modems to drop to as little as $450, for volume purchasers. The high-speed units cost approximately $2,000 when first introduced in 1987 and are now widely available for under $1,000. Universal Data Systems Corp has cut the price of its Fastalk V.42/V.42bis modem from $1,145 to $795, possibly signaling a wave of discounting. Practical Peripherals and others are selling V.32 modems for an average of $500. Most modem vendors are now competing on price rather than features, but Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc's $1,199 Ultra 9000 has extra packet capabilities and high-speed modem features that can save enough in communications costs to pay for its initial premium price. More Windows word processors emerge. (Describe, Software Publishing Corp to announce WIndows versions of their word Describe and Software Publishing Corp (SPC) plan to announce Windows 3.0 versions of their word processing programs the week of Mar 4, 1991. Describe for Windows will ship in 2nd qtr 1991 and will closely resemble the original Describe package, which runs under OS/2 Presentation Manager. It will be file-compatible with its OS/2 counterpart but will not support Bezier curves, multithreading or other OS/2-specific capabilities. It may have multidirectional Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support and will be available in a $595 server edition; additional LAN nodes will cost $250 each. SPC's Pro Write Plus will sell for $249 and will include an address book, multiple-column capabilities and rudimentary drawing tools. Some analysts question whether a low-end product like Pro Write Plus will appeal to Windows users. Input device decides image clarity. (bit-per-pixel ratings may not affect image resolution) High-resolution graphics boards do not always produce ideal WYSIWYG color output, and in many cases input-device quality rather than the bit-per-pixel rating of a graphics board determines the clarity of the image. Video images imported with frame-grabber boards usually only provide 15 to 17 bits of color per pixel, even if used with a 24-bit graphics board. Low-cost '24-bit' scanners actually only import images in 18 bits. High-end scanners provide true 24-bit-per-pixel color but cost up to three times as much as the lower-priced units. Experts nevertheless recommend boards designed for 24-bit format because even the low-cost products are better than 16-bit boards. Most 16-bit boards are actually 15-bit boards, with 5 shades each of red, green and blue in each pixel. Eighteen bits per pixel increases the total number of shades per color from 32 to 64. RAID boosts performance, reduces data loss rick. (Technology TUtorial) Levels of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (RAID) disk architecture aer discussed. A simple two-drive architecture is a Level One system; adding a third drive doubles the actual usable capacity by distributing data across the three drives instead of mirroring a single drive. Data on a failed drive could be reconstructed from that on the remaining two drives, which would hold enough information to keep the system running. A three-drive system also boosts performance significantly. Level Five RAID, the highest level defined by the group at the University of California at Berkeley which developed the architecture, allows more than one drive to write concurrently. Level Five systems are complex to manage because each drive contains data and parity information. Tandy's lower cost 286 takes on PS/1. (Tandy Corp introduces Tandy 1000 TL/3) Tandy Corp introduces the Tandy 1000 TL/3, a new low-cost 80286-based system intended to compete with the IBM PS/1 in the home computer market. The computer has a 10 MHz 286 CPU and comes bundled a variety of software. It has MS-DOS 3.3 and the Tandy Deskmate graphical interface in ROM and includes Lotus Spreadsheet for Deskmate, Deskmate Q&A and Quicken. The TL/3 costs $1,599 equipped with a CGA monitor and 20Mbyte hard disk drive. Tandy has also announced the small-footprint Model 2500 XL/2, which has a 16 MHz 80286 and built-in VGA support. HP prepares new foray into workstation market: ports software to Sun operating system. (HP Soft Bench, HP VUE, HP Task Broker) HP plans to announce that it has ported its HP Soft Bench, HP VUE, HP Task Broker and other development tools to the Sun Microsystems operating system. Soft Bench is a set of integrated computer aided software engineering tools, while HP VUE is a Motif-based graphical environment that manages desktops, files and 'work spaces.' The Task Broker, which evolved from the Apollo Location Broker, can break up large computational tasks into pieces which are then sent to a polled network in real time. Task Broker is designed for heterogeneous systems and uses 'intelligent bidding' to assign tasks to network nodes. It costs $5,000 for a 10-node license. HP VUE for the Sun platform will be priced at $550, and HP Soft Bench will sell for less than $3,000 per seat. Sun strengthens its high-end Sparc-Server. (Sun Microsystems Inc. announces enhancements to high-end Sparc-Server 470 NFS Sun Microsystems has enhanced its high-end SPARCserver 470 and SPARCserver NFS with the NC400 Network Coprocessor, a board and software combination the company says can improve Network File System performance by 250 percent or more. The coprocessor, designed by Interphase Corp and licensed by Sun for exclusive use on Sun VMEbus systems, offloads network communications processing to client workstations. It employs an intelligent Ethernet controller with its own microprocessor. Sun is also offering a 'Prestoserve' accelerator in the new systems. The new SPARCserver 470 and 490 NFS configurations each include two NC400 boards; the 470 costs $89,900, while the 490 is priced at $114,900. Each system includes 32Mbytes of memory, a 644Mbyte CD ROM drive, 1.8Gbytes of IPI disk and a 150Mbyte tape-backup drive. Interphase sells the NC400 board separately for $7,950. A computer virus' goals: staying alive, making mischief. (design of virus programs)(Tech Talk) (column) A discussion of how computer viruses operate is presented. Software viruses exist to survive and replicate themselves on different systems; some are benign, while others are designed to destroy data or cause other harm to a system. A virus 'rides' on a host program and gains brief control of the host system when the program is run. Well-designed viruses do not make themselves known until every file on a system is infected. The virus searches for an uninfected application each time it runs and creates a parasitic copy of itself before passing control to the host application. When all available files are infected, the virus switches into a 'nonreproductive' mode and may perform almost any action. Reformatting a hard disk is antithetical to the virus' goal of survival; clever malignant viruses remain hidden while frustrating the user. DEC unveils Netware Coexistence mode. (for Pathworks software) Darrow, Barbara. DEC announces a 'Netware Coexistence' mode for its Pathworks line of connectivity software products. Analysts say the enhancements are a move toward the company's ultimate goal of putting Netware directly onto VAX and Ultrix servers, and the enhancements represent an acknowledgement of the market dominance of Netware. Netware Coexistence places dual network protocols on desktop machines, enabling a single microcomputer to access Netware and Pathworks servers concurrently. DEC may move Netware onto the server in response to IBM's agreement with Novell Inc to resell Netware, the leading microcomputer LAN operating system. Officials at the minicomputer firm say they are considering porting Netware's IPX protocol to the server but will not discuss plans to port Portable Netware itself. Protools updates Protolyzer with new protocols. (enhances Protolyzer graphical network management tool) Protools Inc enhances its Protolyzer graphical network analysis tool with support for 16M-bps token-ring LANs, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) systems and wireless networks. The new features will allow Protolyzer to find and repair 'beaconing' token-ring nodes, which send out information when another machine on the network crashes. Protolyzer can now analyze Unix packets via its TCP/IP support and run from machines with EISA buses. It also supports Wavelan, NCR Corp's wireless radio-wave network. The Wavelan feature will be available in 2nd qtr 1990; the other enhancements are available immediately. Protolyzer prices are modular and range from $5,995 to $14,995 depending on the number of network topologies supported. Token Ring users demand better tools. Fickel, Louise. LAN equipment vendors are responding to customer requests for more advanced management and integration tools on Token Ring networks. Users want tools that integrate both logical and physical analysis, and take advantage of Token-Ring's inherent capability to send performance data to network administrators. Products such as Network General's Sniffer and Proteon's Tokenview Plus allow the administrator to identify bottlenecks, potential problems and actual failures. Many Token-Ring administrators do not know where to place bridges, routers or costly backbones because they do not have an overall view of user demands and network performance. Protools' Protolyzer lets users enter the token ring during continuous 'beaconing' and monitor traffic from other attached token rings to identify bottlenecks. Microsoft behind on CD ROM office update. (Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Office CD ROM for Macintosh) Customers complain that Microsoft Corp is slow to upgrade its CD-ROM-based Microsoft Office package for the Macintosh. The Microsoft Office includes the Excel spreadsheet, Word word processor, Powerpoint presentation software and Mail electronic-mail packages as well as a variety of third-party utilities. Power users praise the CD ROM for its convenience, but the product has not kept pace with bug fixes on many of its applications. Microsoft has sold 8,000 copies of the CD ROM, but the installed base is still too small to provide software publishers adequate return on their investment. Users also want Apple to make THe Microsoft Office more compatible with networks because the expensive CD ROM players are usually shared. A CD ROM player configured as a Appleshare server must currently be rebooted whenever a user switches CD ROMs. Apple focuses on Mac apps market. (Macintosh applications) Coale, Kristi. Apple is seeking to gain a larger share of the Macintosh software market, now dominated by Microsoft Corp. The company's reassumption of control of its software subsidiary, Claris Corp, was part of its general plan to increase its software presence. Claris' main challenge today is to offer a more well-rounded product line. The Apple/Claris entity competes directly with Microsoft in both operating systems and applications. Its counterattack against the fast-growing Microsoft Windows market was the release of the new low-cost Macs, and it has word processing, flat-file management, general graphics, project management and software development programs that compete directly with Microsoft applications. Claris has yet to introduce an integrated package to challenge Microsoft's Works. Recession reveals already faulty areas. (analysis of computer industry) Industry analysts say that most microcomputer manufacturers facing layoffs and restructuring are experiencing difficulty as a result of poor management rather than the recession or Persian Gulf war. Analysts say that recessions tend to 'flush out' pre-existing problems and point to strong companies such as Compaq, AST Research and Microsoft Corp who are hiring rather than firing employees. Everex Systems Corp cites slow product cycles, poor sales in the US and high expenses as triggering its restructuring effort, which has involved the elimination of 500 jobs. Disk drive manufacturer Maxtor Corp, Network Equipment Technologies and 3Com have cut 550 jobs, and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc announced a 5 percent reduction in personnel. Wang, DEC, NCR Corp and National Semiconductor have also announced restructuring plans and layoffs. Compaq's support program is a precursor to future plans. (State of the Industry) (column) Compaq's recent announcement of its first direct telephone-support program indicates that the company is aware it cannot rely on dealer-only support for complex, high-end systems. Few dealers are capable of supporting Compaq's powerful Systempro file server, a fact which has crippled corporate sales. Few major corporations are willing to base mission-critical applications on a system supported only by a local dealer. The new support program foreshadows Compaq's planned entry into the reduced-instruction-set-computing workstation market. Compaq's MIPS-based machine will be a newcomer in an already crowded market, and software will not be standardized for any system. Direct support is necessary in order to help users design the specific networking and peripherals needed for each workstation, and to mix and match components. IBM/Motorola promote useful low-tech wireless data net. (Tech Street) IBM and Motorola Inc are jointly promoting Advanced Data Radio Information Service (ARDIS), a commercial version of the radio-based data communication network IBM has employed for its field-service technicians since 1983. The network does not use the highest level of technology currently available but is designed to be useful. It covers 90 percent of the US, operates 24 hours a day and guarantees an error rate of less than 1 bit out of every 100 million. ARDIS communicates at only 4,800 bps and is designed only for data use. It is too slow to connect remote LANs, but it can handle IBM batch and 3270 protocols and asynchronous, bisynchronous, and LU 6.2 communication. ARDIS will compete with cellular modems and pocket pages rather than with wireless LANs. It will open new possibilities for the deployment of notebook and hand-held computers. Choices...choices...choices. (trends in computer retailing)(includes related article on how business buyers Microcomputers were at one time sold exclusively through retailers, but a variety of economic and market forces have led corporate buyers to turn away from dealers as the sole suppliers of hardware, software and support services. Most dealers are aggressively pursuing corporate accounts and trying to discourage individual buyers from wandering into their stores; some dealerships have closed down storefront operations altogether. Price wars have caused a shakeout in the microcomputer marketplace, but the retail channel remains alive. Many buyers purchase equipment and support from multiple sources: directly from the hardware vendor, from retailers and from value added resellers specializing in vertical markets. Software was the first area where discounting became prevalent, but the gradual narrowing of margins on hardware and the unbundling of support services caused increasing fragmentation of the dealer channel. Manufacturers now frequently authorize 'super' dealers with higher levels of expertise to provide advanced support. The growth of 'superstores' has further changed the retail channel by focusing on low prices and immediate availability. Corporations nevertheless say they still need their dealers in order to obtain influence from vendors. 20 MHz. (Hardware Review) (evaluation of 12 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers)(includes related executive summary) (evaluation) Twelve microcomputers based on the 20-MHz Intel 80386SX processor are reviewed. Prices range from $2,116 for Blackship Computer System's 386SX/20 MHz to $4,898 for the Compaq Deskpro 386s/20. 386SX-based microcomputers have become the most popular entry-level machines and are displacing 80286 systems. Many of the machines offer RAM cache; those with this feature significantly outperform those without it. Northgate's Slimline 320SX has a 64Kbyte cache, while CompuAdd uses a more sophisticated two-way cache. The Northgate machine earns the highest rating for performance, while the AST Premium II has an upgradable architecture and the best overall system design. Compaq, ALR and Dell also offer good performance, but Compaq's high price and limited support make it a relatively poor value. Evaluating the performance of 20-MHz 386SX systems. Methods used to test and compare 12 microcomputers based on the Intel 80386SX processor are described. Performance tests include both CPU-intensive and disk-intensive benchmarks; ratings are based on average performance times for machines in the same class. All the systems proved flawless in both hardware and software compatibility. Expandability factors include how much RAM the motherboard holds and how many expansion slots are free in a fully configured system. A machine that is easy to set up should have relatively few jumpers or DIP switches to set, an on-line user guide and a design that is easy to configure. Serviceability factors include overall workmanship, support policies and technical support. 'Value' scores reflect the price/performance ratio of a machine. Thinx helps you get an overall picture of data using graphics. (Software Review) (First Look) (evaluation) Bell Atlantic's $495 Thinx is a Windows-based data analysis package that represents items graphically and shows users the relationships between different items. The user creates graphical symbols to represent data with basic drawing tools and defines the drawing as an 'object.' One useful application for Thinx is creating an office floor plan. Thinx can use data from other applications and supports Dynamic Data Exchange. The product suffers from some drawbacks, such as the confusing documentation and the fact that it uses a great deal of unique terminology. It displays only inch-high letters when using Adobe Type Manager and does not make data entry easy. Thinx is nevertheless an interesting package that is useful for building situation models. Ready, Aim, File's interface is a fresh approach to DOS file management. (Software Review) (Vsoft Systems' Ready, Aim, File) VSoft Systems' $89.95 Ready, Aim, File is a powerful file manager for DOS that uses a manual filing metaphor rather than the trees of directories and subdirectories found in many DOS shells. File has six color-coded icons on its main stream for storing file 'folders' and allows file names of up to 50 characters. Users can copy files or move them between cabinets and folders as well as create or delete files. File does not automatically log new files because its is not memory-resident. It is not easy for novices to use and suffers from some bugs. Vsoft says that it will introduce Ready, Aim, File 2.0 in Mar 1991 and that the new version will fix most of these problems. Menu Software Marxmenu touts programming prowess. (evaluation) Schulz, Peter. Computer Tyme's $59.95 Marxmenu 2.2 menu-building software offers considerable programming flexibility and includes screen editor, TSR management and memory and configuration display utilities. The newest version can make application programming interface (API) calls to the Desqview graphical interface and has over 400 commands in its programming language. Users can create exploding and shadowed windows, move windows or have unlimited menu layers. The Marxedit screen editor supports multiple windows and files. Watch is a memory-resident program that keeps track of other TSRs; Disable can deactivate a TSR without removing it from memory. Marxmenu is fairly easy to use, although those developing complex menus should have at least some familiarity with programming. IBM's Storyboard Live offers expanded multimedia tools. (Software Review) (graphics software) (evaluation) IBM's $495 Storyboard Live is a powerful multimedia presentation package with five main modules: Electronic Presentation, Picture Maker, Picture Taker, Story Editor and Story Teller. Users can create and import still pictures or animated graphics, add sound effects and synthesize elements into an interactive presentation. Accessing the Picture Maker module from within the Electronic presentation module lets the user build presentations quickly. Picture Maker includes 800 clip-art images and a Library function for scaling vector graphics. The module can also digitized imported video images when used with a frame-grabber card. Animation is good, and scripting/presentation tools are rated very good. The paint/draw tools earn a 'satisfactory' rating. Storyboard can read ASCII, PIC, IBM AVC, bit-map, GIF, Linkway, Windows and OS/2 BMP, PCX and TIFF file formats. Import/export is very good, and sound effects are excellent. Ease of learning and ease of use are both satisfactory. One problem is the fact that the Picture Maker module has no object-oriented drawing tools. Error handling is good, support policies are good and technical support is satisfactory. Storyboard Live earns a 'good' rating for overall value. What would a Compaq, DEC, Mips agreement really mean? (Compaq Computer Corp, DEC, Mips Computer Systems, Microsoft, Santa Cruz Many computer industry observers are speculating on a possible agreement between Compaq, DEC, Mips Computer Systems Inc, and software giants Microsoft and The Santa Cruz Operation to develop a standardized reduced instruction set computing (RISC) workstation architecture. A key issue in any such arrangement would be how Compaq and DEC would share control of the hardware design because the companies are known for their different views of computing. DEC already offers workstations based on MIPS processors, but its products are not compatible with others using the same chip. Compaq defined the IBM-compatible computer in 1983; Sun Microsystems Corp has done much the same for RISC systems by licensing its SPARC processor. DEC is a $14 billion corporation with a heavy investment in proprietary designs; Compaq bases its business on compatibility. Any agreement between the companies or resulting product is unlikely to be a success. OOP tools ease Windows developers' plans. (Windows special section) A guide to object-oriented programming (OOP) tools for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface is presented. Graphical interfaces make microcomputers easier to use but harder to program, and many products have appeared that can automatically generate interface code or hide the complexities of programming from end users. Microsoft is redesigning its mainstream language programs around OOP, and its $500 Software Developers Kit (SDK) provides an integrated development system but does not include a language compiler. Knowledge Garden's Knowledge Pro for Windows 3.0 is a development system for creating Windows expert systems that includes code-generating capabilities as well as an editor, debugger and resource utilities. The Whitewater Group's Actor 3.0 does not have Knowledge Pro's hypertext or expert system features but has a stronger, more traditional OOP orientation. Its Resource Toolkit is a lower cost alternative to the Microsoft SDK and Resource Compiler. Asymetrix Corp's ToolBook and Spinnaker Software's Plus are designed for programming novice. Both can create 'stacks' that provide an intuitive graphical interface for database applications. Plus lets users develop programs on a Macintosh and transfer them to Windows without modification but does not let users build true stand-alone applications. Will OOP Basic fulfill Gates' vision of the future? (object oriented programming) (Windows special section) Microsoft Corp is developing an 'object-oriented' version of the BASIC programming language for its Windows graphical user interface, but the promised cross-application macro control capabilities will not be available until at least 1993. Interim versions of Windows Basic may nevertheless serve Microsoft's vision of an object-oriented future by providing a programming language for Windows database applications. Microsoft plans to provide a complete object-oriented user environment in a next-generation version of Windows based on 'informational data types' manipulated via 'command objects.' It will include an object-oriented file system and truly object oriented shell. These changes are the result of several technologies merging. Compiled versions of BASIC have been available for several years, and the Quick Basic compiler will be bundled with DOS 5.0. Microsoft Word for Windows includes a Basic-like macro language, Word Basic. Windows Basic will ultimately evolve into a transparent, easy-to-use facility for automating complex tasks by performing them once; recorded keystrokes and mouse clicks will be transformed into editable Basic code. Windows' growth spawns user groups, newsletters. (Windows special section) The popularity of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface has led to a proliferation of special-interest user groups and publications dealing specifically with graphical-interface users' needs and problems. Nearly every regional user group maintains a Windows special interest group, and the Windows and Presentation Manager Association (WPMA) now has 400 vendor/developer members and 100 corporate customer members. WPMA holds corporate 'roundtables' in which both users and developers discuss their needs. The Windows User Group Network acts as a 'channel of communication' among user group leaders and publishers the 'Wugnet Journal' every other month along with a disk of utilities, tutorials and demo programs. Compuserve is a major source of Windows information. The Cobb Group of Louisville, KY, publishes Inside Microsoft Windows, a monthly journal that offers tips and tricks to Windows users. Third parties embrace Windows for multimedia. (Windows special section) Many third-party vendors offer multimedia programming tools for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface or are planning to do so. Authorware Inc, Aimtech Corp and Asymetrix Corp are all developing Windows multimedia authoring tools for incorporating text, graphics, sound and animation in applications. Several hardware vendors are also using Windows as a vehicle to enter the multimedia market. Tandy Corp, Fujitsu America Inc, AT&T Computer Systems and others have announced plans to release microcomputers that support the upcoming multimedia extensions to Windows. Three companies are expected to introduce relatively inexpensive multimedia upgrade kits in 1991. Media Vision Inc has announced Pro Audio Spectrum, an audio board expected to sell for less than $400. Creative Labs is shipping a $239 Sound Blaster audio board and will release a full upgrade kit by mid-1991. Headland Technology Inc plans to introduce a multimedia upgrade kit in the spring of 1991. Training gives Windows 3.0 users an edge. (Windows special section) Microsoft Windows users are discovering that the graphical interface is not completely intuitive and takes some time to learn. Experts agree that user training in Windows is vital and that most microcomputer users do not immediately feel comfortable in the new environment. Windows is easier to use than DOS, and computer-literate users should have little difficulty adjusting to it, but a user must allow time to 'get back up to speed.' Some companies use in-house training sessions or seminars to teach WIndows, while others prefer self-paced software training packages such as Individual Software's Professor Windows. Windows' simplicity drastically reduces the amount of time needed to train users, according to experts. CASE:W shortens software development time. (Software Review) (Windows special section) (evaluation) Caseworks' CASE:W 3.0 is a computer-aided software engineering package, for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface, that can drastically reduce the time required to develop, maintain and upgrade applications. It automates user interfaced design and other elements common to all Windows applications and includes pre-written code for creating menus and dialog boxes. The user designs an interface, and CASE:W generates all code necessary to implement it including C coce, a header file, resource scripts, make files, linker definition and control files and module definition files. Performance is rated very good; CASE:W offers more extensive capabilities than competing packages. Documentation is poor. The manuals appear unfinished and lack crucial information. Ease of learning is very good, and ease of use is good. Error handling earns a 'good' rating. Caseworks' support policies are excellent and include unlimited toll-free telephone support, fax support, Compuserve support, a 30-day money-back guarantee and an in-house bulletin board system. CASE:W is priced at $795 and earns a 'very good' score for overall value. Dialog Coder code generator runs the gamut in functionality. (The Software Organization Dialog Coder 2.0A) (Software Review) The Software Organization's Dialog Coder 2.0 is a specialized programming tool for Microsoft Windows that generates C code for handling dialog boxes. Dialog Coder does not handle windows or pull-down menus, but its dialog box features ar more robust than those of other packages. It can generate code to validate user input according to data type or a custom edit mask and lets users add their own code to generated programs. Dialog Coder 2.0 can cause objects to trigger actions on other objects and test specifications before generating code. The package costs $499 and is recommended for serious Windows programmers. Windows Tools gives users the functionality Windows promised. (Software Review) (Windows special section) (evaluation) Oxco Corp's $195 Windows Tools is a set of utilities that significantly enhances the feature set supplied with the graphical interface by Microsoft. It offers powerful file handling, system diagnostics and other tools. Users can move files, add descriptive comments and give files attributes. The systems diagnostics in Windows Tools provide systems information rather than true diagnostics, but they do give a detailed list of how a system is configured. Windows Tools lacks the sophistication and detail of such specialized programs as Dariana Technology Group's Winsleuth, but is adequate for troubleshooting. The package also includes a screen saver, a backup-and-restore option, an ASCII table and a listing of free memory. Additional tools in Windows Tools include a 'camera' screen capture utility, a storage utility and a unit-conversion utility. User, vendor camps rally to boost ISDN. (integrated services digital network) The Corporation for Open Systems International sponsors a meeting for vendors and users in support of integrated services digital network (ISDN) interoperability through Bellcore technical references (TRs). The meeting will include companies such as General Motors Corp, Eastman Kodak Co, IBM, DEC and others. Industry observers believe this could be a watershed event for the acceptance of ISDN; the companies hope that the adoption of the Bellcore specifications will incite wider support for ISDN. The Bellcore TRs will provide an infrastructure for ISDN, a standard that has experienced a hard time gaining acceptance because of the difficulty associated with its installation. GE seeks service edge via cooperative processing net. (GE Capital Fleet Services) General Electric Co's Capital Fleet Services unit intends to gain an edge over its competitors by offering its customers enhanced services. The GE unit uses cooperative processing in its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network, which will support an array of enhanced services. Remote mainframe programs are transparently linked to applications based on the local area network (LAN). Workers are able to access more information and cut response times with the new setup; productivity has dramatically increased and the company has been able to keep staff down to a minimum. The amount of information that customers are provided with under the new system save them money and the company believes the incentive will generate business. Squabble over radio spectrum heats up; FCC chairman says effort to accommodate new technologies will affect current microwave users. US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chmn Alfred Sikes indicates that current users of microwave frequencies will be displaced to give room for voice and data communications over wireless networks. Sikes also indicates that he favors the idea of auctioning off frequencies in the telecommunications spectrum to ensure the efficient use of the finite resource. The auctioning would not include the broadcast frequencies. Emerging wireless telecommunication technology is crowding the radio spectrum; the frequencies that personal communications network (PCN) users would occupy range from 1.8 to 2.3 GHz, the range that the petroleum, public safety, railroad and utility industries use. New pricing makes VSAT nets far more attractive. (very small aperture terminals) The new pricing policy of very small aperture terminal (VSAT) providers makes it cost-efficient to use satellite networks in international communications. Shared hubs on a regional basis is being provided by some VSAT providers for small organizations; the providers discover new application opportunities in 1991 and see the potential benefits of making VSAT a competitive product. VSAT, which has an installed base of 35,000, has proven to be reliable in satellite transmissions. Vendors concentrate on bringing prices down and on providing users with advanced capabilities and network management options: video, image, data and audio applications are now supported over VSAT facilities. Shakeout looms over bypass mart. (the deployment of fiber by Regional Bell Holding Companies) The Regional Bell Holding Companies (RBHCs) are faced with a shortage of capital and a weak U.S. economy in early 1991 and may have to check their aggressive deployment of fiber. Industry observers believe that this condition will influence the market and create the emergence of a small group of alternative access carriers that will provide substantial competition for the local telephone companies. Alternative access providers are expressing optimism in the face of the looming shakeout and indicate that they will be able to provide new services, which include local area network (LAN) interconnection and personal communications network-related offerings. Analysts believe the shakeout will leave only those companies that have large cash reserves built from equity investments and mergers. HP to bolster LAN line with new 10BaseT, fiber devices. Gillooly, Caryn. Hewlett Packard Co plans to announce a new line of communication products for local area networks (LANs) that will make it easier to install structured wiring systems. Some of the new products include the HP Fiber Optic Hub Plus, the HP EtherTwist Hub Plus/48, the HP Fiber Optic transceiver, the HP EtherTwist EISA adapter Card/32 and the HP ThinLAN transceiver. Enhancements to its OpenView network management software is also planned. Industry analysts believe the announcement of the HP EtherTwist Hub/48 is the most significant of the new products; the device, which was codeveloped with Advanced Micro Devices Inc, is a 48-port, 10BaseT intelligent repeater. Hughes Aircraft preps for DECnet Phase V migration; set to install multiprotocol routers in net this fall. Hughes Aircraft Co plans to start its migration to DEC's DECnet Phase V computer network in the fall of 1991. The migration, which will begin with the installation of multiprotocol routers, is expected to allow the company to continue to add subnetworks to its backbone as it acquires new companies or expands its offices. Hughes is quickly exhausting the number of subnetworks it can have under DECnet Phase IV. DEC's Open System Interconnection software for the computer network will not be available by the time Hughes begins installing its multiprotocol routing backbone, but the company is eager to make the migration as smooth as possible when the time comes. US West admits to violating MFJ restrictions, pays fine. (Modified Final Judgment) US West is the first Regional Bell Holding Company (RBHC) to admit to violations of the Modified Final Judgment. US West agreed to pay a $10 million in exchange for the halting of investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice for other allegations. The telephone company admitted to four violations of the Modified Final Judgment, which calls for the separation between RBHCs and AT and T, between 1985 and 1989. Industry observers note that the $10 million fine, which is the largest ever given by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, serves both as a punishment of US West and as a warning to other RBHCs. US Sprint admits further delays in complete cutover of billing service. (installation of Invoice Processing System delayed) US Sprint Communications Co announces that it has fallen behind in its new billing system and does not expect to have it in place until after Aug 1991. The telephone company had previously announced it would have the new system in place by Mar 1991 and then pushed that date back to Aug 1991; it now will not commit to any deadline. The new invoicing system, also known as the Invoice Processing System (IPS), includes consolidated invoicing, and advanced reporting and management capabilities. IPS will provide users with one detailed bill for all services rendered and will feature custom management reports and on-line access to traffic data. MCI offers new pricing, options for small users. Taff, Anita. MCI Communications Corp announces a new pricing policy aimed at small businesses that spend as little as $50 to $1,500 a month on network services. The new pricing will offer flat-rate pricing, new dialing features and volume discounts to these small business users. The new MCI Preferred service offers management reports, discounts, and consolidated billing, services that have previously been unavailable to low-end customers. Some other services offered under the new program include switched voice service, international service, 800 service and new calling card offerings. Competitors AT and T and US Sprint Communications Co indicate that they have comparable offerings for small businesses. Bank to test videoconferencing for customer/expert interaction. (Huntington Bancshares Inc) Huntington Bancshares Inc will begin beta-testing a new microcomputer-based videoconferencing service that will allow customers to talk directly to securities brokers and mortgage specialists in remote offices. The six-month test is called 'Talk to the Experts' and aims to make loan and investment inquiries more personal and convenient for customers. The bank, which has 296 offices in 14 states, hopes that the futuristic technology will also lure new customers. The microcomputer-based system will use T1 communications links and provide full-motion video. Equipment for the system will come from Palaver Systems Inc. FCC considers end to cellular bundling ban. (Federal Communications Commission) The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers lifting a ban it has enforced on cellular telephone providers that keeps them from offering bundled packages of service and equipment. The FCC's current policy prohibits any common carrier from offering equipment discounts or giveaways in connection with services but the government agency is changing gears and is now supporting the dropping of that ban. The cellular market is largely unregulated and functions in a duopoly system where two cellular providers can provide service in a given area. The amount of providers is limited by the radio spectrum available. The FCC believes that the current system offers sufficient competition and indicates that the cellular industry is mature enough to facilitate the deregulation. Acquisition to help Telebit market wares to LAN users. (Telebit Corp acquires ParaData Computer Networks Inc) Telebit Corp's acquisition of ParaData Computer Networks Inc will add to the communication equipment maker's product line and will help it make headway in the internetworking and local area network (LAN) equipment markets. One important series of products that is added to Telebit's offerings is a line asynchronous communication servers that are designed to link microcomputers and LANs to other LANs via dial-up links. The products are designed to work with Novell Inc NetWare and Network Basic I/O System LANs; they feature high throughput rates and offer dynamic assignment of dial-in/dial-out ports and diagnostic management. US Sprint will offer free T-1 monitoring. Wallace, Bob. US Sprint Communications Co will announce a new program that will monitor the performance of customer's extended superframe format (ESF) T1 communication lines for free. The program, known as the Clearline ESF Monitoring Program, will also enable technicians to inform customers about circuit degradation. ESF, which enables carriers and users to monitor T1 communication line performance via computer-based systems, is an advanced T1 communication framing format. It allows users to identify circuit quality degradation before a circuit fails; US Sprint's new program will perform that function from a series of Sun Microsystem Inc workstations. Deregulation theme of Bush proposal for telecom mart. (telecommunications market) (US President George Bush) George Bush proposes regulatory changes in the telecommunications industry. Industry observers view the changes as radical; they call for the lifting of Modified Final Judgment restrictions on all Regional Bell Holding Companies (RBHCs). Bush's changes also calls for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change its current method of licensing radio spectrum space and begin auctioning the limited resource to the highest bidder. The president also supports the use of price cap regulation, which is also known as incentive regulation, over the rate-of-return regulation for telecommunication monopolies. Systems Center, Fujitsu to link net mgmt. system. (network management) Fujitsu Ltd and System Center Inc agree to work together on developing a link between their integrated network management systems. The network management link will allow users of IBM and Fujitsu mainframe computers to manage both environments from a single management system. Industry observers note that the move will give Fujitsu support for SNA networks. System Center will gain control over Fujitsu's Corporate Network Management System for Information Processing Subsystem (COMS-1) to work on the project. The software is expected to become available in the 3rd qtr of 1991 in Japan and will run on Fujitsu mainframes. Worldwide availability is expected to come between six and nine months after the Japanese debut; pricing information is not available. Unisys tools provide for co-op processing. (cooperative processing facilitated by Unisys Corp.'s Cooperative Computing Environment Unisys Corp announces two products that allow UNIX and OS/2 workstations to access data from Series A mainframe computers attached to the network. The two products, the Cooperative Computing Platform (CCP) minicomputer and the Cooperative Computing Environment (CCE) computer network software, help users develop cooperative processing applications. The CCP is a dual-processor desktop machine that runs on an Intel Corp 33 MHz 80386 microprocessor and is the first hardware platform approved to run the CCE software. The minicomputer can run the MCP/AS mainframe operating system concurrently with UNIX or OS/2. Unisys officials indicate that there are no technical reasons why the CCE software could not run on another machine. DRN to cut costs by buying long-haul service from Visa. (Digital Radio Networks Inc) Digital Radio Networks Inc announces that it will assume the long-haul transmission services of Visa USA Inc instead of maintaining their existing X.25 backbone network. The contract calls for Digital Radio Networks to link radio systems in about 50 metropolitan areas across the U.S. to Visa's VisaNet network. The project is expected to lower costs for some users that use Digital Radio Networks' on-line credit card authorization service; it will also eliminate the need for Digital Radio Networks to expand its current backbone network, which is made up of 13 regional X.25 packet switches. Industry observers believe that small and mid-sized merchants are likeliest to benefit from the agreement. User Alliance's Bud Huber urges users to be proactive: Hughes exec offers advice in NetWorld keynote. (User Alliance for Open User Alliance for Open Systems' Chmn Bud Huber criticizes users for not pushing the computer software industry toward addressing the issues of connectivity and interoperability. Huber warns against complacency and short term solutions for network strategies. He tells network managers that they need to keep their primary aim in sight: to integrate the business information environment by overcoming the barriers. His criticism is aimed at the users, whom he believes influence what the vendors will create. Users are not aware of the need for interoperability and focus to much of their efforts on connectivity and automation. New Auspex SPARC server boasts high NFS throughput. (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Network File System) (Auspex Systems Inc) Auspex Systems Inc announces that two new processor boards for its NS 3000 and NS 5000 UNIX file servers are now available. The new processor boards will provide the highest Network File System (NFS) throughput of a scalable processor architecture (SPARC)-based file server. The host processor board, which can perform more than 12 million instructions per second (MIPS) is based on a VME SPARCengine from Sun Microsystems Inc; existing boards in the NS 300 and NS 5000 file servers process at two to three MIPS. The new processor board works under the Functional Multi-Processor (FMP) architecture, which allows file, network and disk management functions to be allocated to specialized processors. Multivendor Ethernet mgmt. tool offered. (Racal Interlan Inc.'s Roll Call network management software) (product announcement) Racal InterLan Inc's $995 Roll Call network management software is a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based program that can manage multivendor Ethernet interfaces. The first version, which will be available in Apr 1991, can manage Ethernet adapter cards from Racal InterLan's SNMP agent or Novell Inc's NetWare Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol. The next version will be able to handle Ethernet adapter cards regardless of their manufacturer of whether they support the SNMP protocol. Roll Call is based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and allows network managers to view a network as a whole or in segments. Net mgrs. should donate skills for community good. (computer network managers) Network managers need to take the cue from socially-responsible doctors and lawyers and donate their time and skills to the community. The lending of time to worthy community groups and needy individuals is a well-established tradition among many professional groups. The special skills that network managers posses could be very useful to small community groups. Network managers could help with determining the communication needs of an organization, identifying the potential vendors, negotiating a good price and helping with the installation of the system. The services of a network manager could prove invaluable to groups that cannot afford professional consultation. On-line order entry system give parts maker an edge: FACT system is a boon for Land Rover parts. Land Rover Parts Ltd uses the Fast Action Computer Terminal System (FACT) to better process orders and achieve a competitive advantage. The distributor of automotive parts believes its system, which is a modification on its competitors' on-line order-entry systems, is faster, less expensive and more useful. FACT resides on an IBM 4381 mainframe computer and processes more than 150,000 orders from 150 dealers monthly. The system, which can be accessed from microcomputers, allows dealers to place orders and gives information on order status, account status and parts availability. Net execs face harsh reality of joblessness: victims of downsizing, outsourcing struggle to find new opportunities in a Network managers work in a volatile market where downsizing and outsourcing are a constant threat to their jobs. Those that have been victimized by corporate reorganization need to continue their job search and use all available sources they have; applying the principles of project management to their job search will certainly help. Currently employed network managers must not take their position for granted. Good reviews and length of employment do not guarantee that they will be let go; keeping close contacts in the industry and understanding their place in the company are important safety nets. Job security in large corporations is a thing of the past. Cellular firms poised to compete with PTTs abroad. (post, telegraph and telephone companies) The cellular radio market in Europe is expected to grow substantially in the 1990s and industry observers believe that foreign cellular providers will become the post, telegraph and telephone (PTT) companies' leading competitors. European government begin to accept more liberal regulatory stances that invite foreign competition into a monopoly market. Analysts believe the competition will cause cellular prices to fall and will contribute to the growth of the industry. The cellular market is in contrast to other service industries in Europe, where competition is very limited and monopolies are preserved. Soviet satellite group may join INTELSAT. (INTERSPUTNIK) Messmer, Ellen. The American-led International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) may merge with INTERSPUTNIK, a Soviet satellite consortium. Some users of the international satellite service expressed optimism over the proposed merger and indicated that it would provide better communications for Eastern European countries. Other analysts believe the merger would thwart competition in the satellite industry. Both the 120-member INTELSAT and the 15-member INTERSPUTNIK operate as monopolies. The line has been drawn between communist and non-communist countries but with the end of the Cold War, the distinction is not so clear. DG offers LAN-based office automation. (Data General Corp.) (product announcement) Data General Corp's Open Systems Office/pc.DAA office automation software supports MS-DOS-based microcomputers connected to Data General UNIX-based file servers. The new office automation software allows users to migrate from their proprietary systems to local area networks (LANs). The new software, which is based on Data General's Distributed Applications Architecture, provides users with file and print services, electronic mail, and application integration. The program is also based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and also supports supports Hewlett Packard Co's NewWave software. The cost of the package is $550 for single users and $28,800 for 64 users. VMX voice system talks with DBMSs. (data base management systems) (column) VMX Inc's VMX 300 voice messaging equipment supports between 200 and 2,000 users and has the ability to interact with data base management systems. VMX officials indicate the new products fills a gap in its product line; the product costs about 25 less than the VMX 5000 and supports more users than the VMX Dial system. VMX 300 provides up to 350 hours of voice storage and is expandable from four to 32 ports. The new product can be integrated with other VMX systems to form a multilocation voice processing network. It can also bel linked with private branch exchange or Centrex telephone systems. The cost of the VMX 300 ranges from $50,000 to $395,000, depending on software, disk storage and the number of ports. Virtual reality may transform future multimedia interfaces. (Macroscope) (column) Virtual reality is a new trend in computing technology that may transform the interfaces of multimedia. Virtual reality, a concept and term coined by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, invites users to step into a system-defined world. Users must don sophisticated I/O devices, which includes goggles, touch screens, data gloves and heads-up displays. Electronic information is manipulated in three dimensions by the user, models and displays are juxtaposed and rotated as if they were physical objects. The usage of virtual reality may be too rich for most corporations seeking multimedia applications, but the technology can become useful instead of being merely gimmicky. Computer project sends messages to Gulf. (Purdue University students create telecommunications link to Persian Gulf area) The Student Concerns Committee of Purdue University's Student Government have set up a communications line with military personnel serving in the Persian Gulf War. Using computers donated by IBM, messages are entered by volunteer student typists and sent via modem to Saudi Arabia. IBM has linked the student's computer system to General Electric's Genie telecommunications network. Once the messages are received at the information center in Saudi Arabia, they are printed and sent out. The entire procedure takes two days, whereas mail service can take up to a month. The telecommunications service is free to students and staffed solely by volunteers. The service began on Feb 7 and will continue until the war is over. The only rule governing message-sending is that a message may not exceed 640 words. More than 600 messages had been sent as of Feb 13th. Toshiba's slick T2000SX has big power at big price. (Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s notebook computer)(First Look) Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's T2000SX notebook computer employs a new battery technology that rivals Compaq Computer Systems Inc's LTE 386s/20 with its performance and price. The T2000SX is the first notebook-sized microcomputer to use a nickel-hydride battery, which offers more power than the prevalent NiCad battery. Nickel-hydride batteries continue to fully charge with repeated use, and the T2000SX's battery outlasted those of other Toshiba products in PC Week Labs' tests. The notebook computer's sidelit, VGA-compatible LCD screen provides easy-to-read text and graphics, and the system includes an enhanced keyboard. The T2000SX features AutoResume, which allows programs and data to be stored in random access memory (RAM) when the machine is turned off. The T2000SX costs $4,999, which is only $400 to $500 less than the expensive Compaq LTE 386s/80. cc:Mail acquires LAN scheduler from Powercore; firm plans links to E-mail package. (cc:Mail to merge electronic mail system with cc:Mail Inc integrates its electronic mail package with calendar and scheduling features under an agreement with Powercore Inc. cc:Mail will develop an add-on application that provides users with transparent calendar and scheduler links, using Powercore's Network Scheduler II software. An enhanced version of the scheduler, due out in summer 1991, is the initial step in merging the two products. cc:Mail also plans to modify the Network Scheduler interface to more closely mirror that of cc:Mail, and to synchronize the mail and scheduling program directories so that mail users are automatically registered in the scheduler. Powercore offers Network Scheduler II in MS-DOS and MS Windows versions, and has designed versions for cc:Mail, Da Vinci Systems Corp's eMAIL and Consumers Software Inc's Network Carrier. The programs will eventually be united so that schedule changes are automatically issued to remote local area networks. IBM's strategy for XGA startles board vendors. (extended graphics array technology standardization) IBM announces at the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) meeting that it plans to distribute its Extended Graphics Array (XGA) technology to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), adapt XGA for the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) and develop a non-interlaced version of XGA. IBM's strategy is to make XGA a dominant standard across the PS/2 line. The company may increase the number of colors the adapter supports or the adapter's resolution. IBM will not make the specifications for an XGA implementation for the ISA architecture available to developers until the product is announced. Board manufacturers will either continue developing their own implementations of XGA or wait for IBM to supply its ISA version. Developers may end up repeatedly revising chips to meet IBM's changes, which could prove costly. IBM's Hollywood to take bow at Computer Society. (presentation-graphics program to be previewed at Boston Computer IBM previews its Windows-based presentation-graphics application, Hollywood, for Boston Computer Society members. Hollywood features outlining, templates and the capacity to distribute self-running presentations. The program is noted for its ability to produce presentations that can be distributed with a run-time version of the program. Users without Hollywood installed on their machines may still run the presentations. Business users who create slides and handouts for presentations will appreciate Hollywood's ability to produce expanding bullet charts by displaying multiple layers one at a time. The program's sophisticated templates let users connect slides via Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) with other Windows applications, and it makes many design choices for the user. Hollywood has been under development since 1989, and is expected to ship in the second quarter of 1991. Knowledge Network is power for Coopers & Lybrand users. (Reach Networks Inc. installs executive information system for accounting Coopers & Lybrand (C&L) implements Reach Networks Inc's The Knowledge Network to allow 1,700 MS-DOS microcomputer users at 90 office sites share, modify and create volumes of information. Reach Networks intends to sell a commercial version of the network by summer 1991 for MS-DOS and Windows or Macintosh users on Novell Inc NetWare local area networks (LANs). The Knowledge Network includes standard messaging, filtered new feeds and regulated discussion forums for its users. The Network is similar to Lotus Development Corp's Notes. However, The Knowledge Network's equipment requirements are less stringent, and using it does not require extensive computer proficiency. The Knowledge Network features five modules, which are easily accessible via a character-based menu interface. The modules comprise messaging, a database, a compilation of industry-specific news publications, a repository and a companywide bulletin-board-style discussion system. PageMaker's pasteboard paradigm gains powerful new tools. (Aldus Corp.'s PageMaker 4.0 for Windows)(First Look) (Software Review) Aldus Corp's PageMaker 4.0 for Windows offers sophisticated desktop publishing features to users with ample memory and processing power. Aldus has enhanced PageMaker with the Story Editor module, which offers full-functioned text-processing capabilities such as a search and replace function and a spelling checker. The module replaces an external word-processing application, and it reduces the need to perform slow text revisions on a page. The Story Editor allows Pagemaker 4.0 to rival such applications as Ventura, Interleaf and FrameMaker for producing books and large documents. PageMaker 4.0 now features the ability to import 24-bit color and binary Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) graphics, but the color and gray-scale is stepped down to black and white while a graphic is being moved. Switching from PageMaker to other applications such as Microsoft Word for Windows takes over a minute. IBM's NetWare decision perplexes some users. (IBM to support Novell Inc.'s local area network operating system as well as its IBM will resell and support Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system, which has users questioning their local area network (LAN) software choice. Some users of IBM's LAN Server are reconsidering their commitment to IBM, while others are relieved that the company is endorsing an alternate option. IBM's move has made the choice between NetWare and LAN Server more complex, and customers are waiting to see if IBM will emphasize one more than the other. IBM claims to be committed to both products, and has pledged, with Novell, to offer interoperability between the operating systems in the future. IBM says that supporting both products will allow it to offer customers the optimum network solution, including implementing both systems. LAN Server will be most effective at sites employing distributed database environments, while NetWare will work well for users who need fault tolerance or support for multivendor networks. LAN Server, NetWare application developers see business as usual. (developers wait for IBM, Novell Inc. to implement Network applications developers continue to create separate programs for OS/2-based LAN Server/LAN Manager and NetWare while IBM and Novell Inc complete the implementation of interoperability between the two network operating systems. Novell officials say the company will support OS/2 applications and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs). Oracle intends to release an NLM version of its data base server and will continue to support its OS/2 LAN Manager version. When Novell releases NetWare 3.2, OS/2 developers will simply need to write the 32-bit version of OS/2, but NLM vendors will have to recompile the code in their existing applications. Some developers disagree with Novell's opinion that the NetWare release for OS/2 will be as successful as native NetWare. The extra layer of running both OS/2 and NetWare on a server tends to adversely affect performance. ALR's notebook offers 386SX power at 286 price. (Advanced Logic Research Inc.'s Venture-16 notebook computer)(First Look) Advanced Logic Research Inc's (ALR) Venture-16 is an Intel 80386SX-based notebook computer that offers average performance for a low price, according to PC Week Labs. The $2,795 portable includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen that provides better resolution for text applications than complex graphics. The Venture-16's standard benchmarks results fell between those of the Intel 80286-based Compaq Computer Corp LTE/286 and those of the Compaq LTE 386s/20. The Venture-16's NiCad battery lasted two hours and 29 minutes in PC Week Labs' battery-life test. The machine comes with power-saving options common to most portables, such as the ability to turn off the screen's backlighting or the hard disk after specific periods of inactivity. Changing the battery in the Venture-16 is too difficult; users must remove a plastic cover and two screws before detaching the battery from a snap-in connector. NYNEX, Codenoll ready LAN, WAN network manager. (NYNEX Corp.'s and Codenoll Technology Corp.'s Codeman AllNet Enterprise Network Codenoll Technology Corp and NYNEX Corp introduce the jointly developed Codeman AllNet Enterprise Network Manager, a Unix-based package that runs on Intel 80386-based microcomputers or Sun Microsystems SPARCstations. Network administrators can monitor local, metropolitan and wide area networks from a single site using the network management software. Codeman employs the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standard, which lets it manage any SNMP-based device over a TCP/IP network. Codenoll designed Codeman to accommodate all aspects of a wide area network (WAN), and NYNEX added the necessary components to manage a local area network (LAN). Codeman's X Windows-based interface provides managers with a graphical view of network components including adapters and wiring hubs on a LAN, and switching components on a metropolitan area network. Two new offerings expand Windows database palette. (Malachite Corp.'s Dossier for Windows and Quadbase Systems Inc.'s Malachite Corp introduces Dossier for Windows, and Quadbase Systems Inc introduces Quadbase-SQL for Windows, scheduled to debut at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in Mar 1991. Dossier for Windows is a relational database management system that offers compatibility with dBase III Plus and Nantucket Corp's Clipper. The $495 program provides Windows graphical features such as dialog boxes and radio buttons that developers use to create applications. Dossier for Windows allows developers to use existing dBase code instead of having to write programs from scratch. Dossier for Windows includes its own programming language and supports Windows' Multiple Document Interface (MDI) to provide cascading and tiled windows. Quadbase-SQL for Windows is a database engine that costs $995, and handles basic database programming within the Windows environment. HP hails new Vectra, Ethernet hubs, printer: Vectra 486/33T to support 200 users. (HP's file server, network hubs, transceivers HP introduces a range of local area network (LAN) products including an Intel 80486-based microcomputer, network hubs and Ethernet transceivers. The Vectra 486/33T file server supports over 200 local area network (LAN) users, or 100 terminals in a Unix environment. The base configuration, priced at $9,499, includes 4Mbytes of expandable random access memory (RAM), a 128Kbyte cache and eight 32-bit Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots. The $7,999 HP EtherTwist Plus/48 is a 48-port, 10BaseT concentrator that includes integrated repeater and transceiver logic. The $3,299 HP Fiber Optic Hub is an eight-port device that links multiple work groups across distances of up to 1.5 miles. HP's transceivers, the $499 HP Fiber Optic and $239 HP ThinLAN, links users to fiber and thin coaxial cabling through an auxiliary unit interface port. The HP EtherTwist EISA Adapter Card/32 is a 32-bit EISA network interface card. Novell NetWare users may purchase the card for $695 in May 1991. PC-in-a-keyboard adds 386SX power, super VGA. (Alloy Computer Products Inc.'s Earthstation III diskless workstation)(First Look) Alloy Computer Products Inc's Earthstation III is an Intel 80386SX-based diskless microcomputer with outstanding VGA graphics. The Earthstation III comes with 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM) and an Ethernet adapter, and its video speeds outstrip the majority of 386SX desktop systems that PC Week Labs tested. The Earthstation's time in the text scrolling and window scrolling tests is faster than many other rival products such as Advanced Logic Research Inc's BusinessVEISA. The Earthstation III is well suited for such specialized applications and environments as point-of-sale systems, data entry and installations where security is a high priority. The Earthstation has a smaller footprint than conventional diskless workstations, and it is noiseless because it does not have a fan. The Earthstation's average processor speed is less impressive than other of its features. BrainMaker 2.0 tackles business brainteasers. (California Scientific Software's BrainMaker Professional 2.0 data analysis California Scientific Software's BrainMaker Professional 2.0 data analysis software, priced at $795, is available to upgrading users at $200. This impressive knowledge-based artificial intelligence software provides a neural network that solves business problems by tracking complicated patterns in data. BrainMaker 2.0 can determine neuron sensitivity, which can help to identify the data-capturing cells that could affect a given output. The upgraded version lets users train and tune the neural network. Version 2.0 also includes an improved user interface, support for expanded memory, and capacity to work with very large neural networks. BrainMaker Professional 2.0 is a fast as well as powerful data analysis tool. Systems Union boosts SunAccount reporting. (SunAccount 3.5 accounting software) (product announcement) Systems Union Inc's SunAccount 3.5 accounting software, priced at $4,000 for an MS-DOS single user, includes reporting capabilities, new file formats that promote future support for Structured Query Language relational data bases, and query windows. The integrated accounting package includes accounts payable, general ledger, accounts receivable, and report-writer functions. Document output functions have been improved and a document-formatting function enables users to create their own check designs as well as other forms. The product will be beta tested in Feb 1991. SunAccount will be sold only in a four-module package. PC-Kwik Power Pak utility boosts speed limit. (Multisoft Corp.'s Super PC-Kwik Power Pak 2.0 memory management software) (Software Multisoft Corp's Super PC-Kwik Power Pak 2.0 utility program, priced at $129.95, gives Microsoft Windows 3.0 users the opportunity to improve their microcomputers' performance and memory management. Power Pak 2.0 is a valuable disk-cache software program that utilizes expanded or extended memory to store frequently used disk blocks. The program tested at rates that far outdistanced competitor SmartDrive from Microsoft. Power Pak 2.0 can load itself into high memory to save memory space. Multisoft's product is best for users that utilize DOS as well as Windows, because some of Power Pak's features, such as the keyboard and screen accelerators, do not work with Windows applications. Will price changes deter NetWare 3.11 buyers?; Users want more bang for the buck. (Novell Inc.'s network operating system) Novell Inc customers clamoring for lower-priced versions of the NetWare 386 network operating system may balk at the high-end prices of NetWare 386 3.11, to be shipped in Mar 1991. The operating system software will cost $3,495 for a 20-user configuration, $6,995 for 100 users, and $12,495 for the 250-user version. The previous cost of a 250-user version was $7,995. Larger installations may be postponed because of the jump in the high-end configuration cost. The pricing policy may frustrate Novell's goal of inspiring NetWare 286 users to upgrade. Instead, users wishing to upgrade at the upper user level may move to Microsoft's LAN Manager 2.0 operating system, which is generally lower in price. Prodigy execs forecast healthy future for service: membership drive is 'right on track.' (interview with Theodore Papes, Prodigy Services Inc's president, Theodore Papes, and senior vice president, Henry Heilbrunn, note that the Prodigy videotex service is subscribed to by a growing number of members that may exceed one million in 1991. Prodigy has made computer industry news frequently in 1990 and 1991, partially because of an altered electronic mail pricing policy that aroused the wrath of a group of users. The service has over 800,000 members and has been offered nationally since Sep 1990. Executives predict that the company, which is a joint venture of Sears Roebuck Inc and IBM, will become profitable by the early 1990s. RIC chip seen easing path to lower-cost LAN hubs. (National Semiconductor Corp. and Cabletron Systems Inc. announce DP83950 National Semiconductor Corp and Cabletron Systems Inc announce a new integrated circuit, the DP83950 Repeater Interface Controller (RIC), that will contribute to the design of less expensive local area network hubs that feature management capabilities. The RIC chip includes 12 transceivers for 10BaseT-compliant wiring and one interface for coax cabling. The product can be used with National Semiconductor's Systems Oriented Network Interface Controller (SONIC) integrated circuit to produce data about managed objects. The RIC product accumulates data about network hubs, workstation use, and packet processing. It is available to OEMs in Feb 1991. Group seeks applications growth for VINES networks. (Banyan Systems Inc.'s network operating system) Several Fortune 500 companies that use Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system have formed a consortium to encourage computer software developers to design applications especially suited for use in large corporate local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Art Beckman of Pacific Gas and Electric organized the group, which met for the first time in San Francisco in Jan 1991. The un-named group hopes to accelerate the development of programming, applications, interoperability, and management software for large VINES networks. Most VINES installations serve large numbers of microcomputer users. Compaq Computer Corp, a major VINES user, is in the group as a user rather than as a vendor. Novell should look down as well as up. (Novell should develop for large heterogeneous networks and simple microcomputer local area In order to maintain its dominant position in the computer industry, Novell Inc must develop and support products for the simple local area network (LAN) market as well as create software for the new and growing market of large heterogeneous networks. Unfortunately, Novell seems to be focusing most of its attention on the market for complex LANs, which does not please its NetWare 286 customers or convince other buyers to purchase the 286 products. Since most networks are still in the 10 to 20 user range, it is unwise policy to ignore the low-end network market. Novell's pricing for its NetWare 386 products is too high to attract many small companies, and it will be unlikely to encourage customers to upgrade from the NetWare 286 to NetWare 386 product lines. Ergo beefs up its 286 and 386 DOS extenders. (Ergo Computing Inc.'s OS/286 2.1.05 and OS/386 2.1.05) (product announcement) Ergo Computing Inc introduces two new operating system enhancements: OS/286 2.1.05 and OS/386 2.1.05. The products, priced at $695, or $1,490 with virtual memory support, give users access to new graphics features and support for compilers such as Microsoft C 6.0. Better mouse support and more access to memory-mapped devices is provided by the extenders. Programs compiled with OS/286 are able to address up to 16Mbytes of memory. The 386 version extends memory access to approximately 4Gbytes. The new extenders support C, C++, and FORTRAN compilers from MicroWay Inc but do not yet support Borland International Inc's Turbo C++. Visible upgrades CASE tool for client/server databases. (Visible Systems Corp.'s Visible Analyst Workbench 4.1 computer-aided Visible Systems Corp introduces Visible Analyst Workbench 4.1 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software, priced at $2,795 for a single user and $7,895 for the local area network (LAN) three-node version. Upgrades for current users are priced at $300 and $900. This CASE tool helps programmers design client/server data base applications. Workbench 4.1 produces Structured Query Language (SQL) DDL files - ASCII text files on which SQL data base programs are founded. Users will therefore be able to concentrate on designing user interfaces. Visible's product runs on Novell's NetWare LANs in addition to single microcomputers. The upgrade automatically generates decomposition diagrams. Borland C++ 2.0 eases Windows programming. (Borland International Inc.'s compiler) (product announcement) Borland International Inc introduces Borland C++ 2.0, a compiler that can help novice Microsoft Windows programmers develop applications. The software costs $495 and includes C++ and C compilers, utility features, a proprietary DOS extender, a debugger for Windows, and an integrated development environment. Users report that the product provides beginning developers with a less complicated environment for building Windows applications than do tools available from Microsoft Corp. Veteran developers are convinced that the Windows Software Development Kit from Microsoft will be necessary for advanced programming, such as creating 'user-defined resources.' Some critics feel that the C++ language is not mature enough to use in development software packages. JPI launches compiler line: offers multilanguage programming. (Jensen and Partners International Inc.'s TopSpeed Development Jensen and Partners International Inc (JPI) develops a suite of program development tools that enable users to work interchangeably with four language compilers within the same development environment. Compilers for Modula-2, Pascal, C, and C++ are available from the company for $99. The TopSpeed Development Environment that unites them includes an editor, debugger, an automatic project-management system, and 'make' utility. Users can combine compiled code modules from the four TopSpeed compilers. JPI's TopSpeed Professional Techkit 3.0 program development software offers more programming features, including integration with third-party debugger software. 'The IBMpire strikes back' - at Microsoft. (IBM supports Novell Inc.'s NetWare network operating system) (Up Front) (column) IBM's agreement to market Novell Inc's NetWare operating system, and Novell's concurrent announcement that it is developing versions of the product for IBM's OS/2 2.0 and AIX platforms, are indicative of the growing competition between IBM and Microsoft Corp over which of the two former development partners will control the direction of the computer industry. Microsoft provoked the IBM/Novell agreement - which threatens Microsoft's LAN Manager network management system - by encouraging software developers to write to the Microsoft Windows applications programming interface (API) and virtually ignore the OS/2 Presentation Manager fully backed by IBM. Unless Microsoft decides to strongly support OS/2 2.0 later in 1991, the competition between the OS/2 developers is bound to increase. Compaq delivers too little support, too late. (Compaq Computer Corp.) (The Corporate Micro) (column) After years of complaining because microcomputer manufacturer Compaq Computer Corp did not provide direct support for its customers, users and industry analysts are equally dissatisfied with the company's announced direct support service, which is quite expensive. Compaq is offering two support programs: an information service about the company and its products, offered for free and essentially functioning to promote the company rather than to supply technical help; and a $3,000 per year technical support service for customers allowed only 10 telephone 'support incidents' annually. Compaq is siphoning some of the annual fee to its vendors in order to assuage their fears that the manufacturer is cutting into their own marketing and support operations. The price of power is a bargain in the long run. (companies should buy 80486-based microcomputers) (Risky Business) (column) In the not so distant past, corporate information systems managers and upper-level executives were loathe to spend extra money to buy their users microcomputers based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor instead of the less powerful Intel 80286 processor. Yet in 1991, it is evident that the 80386-based computers have been a wise choice for firms that want to take advantage of large, memory-hungry graphical user interface programs and faster multitasking software. An equivalent choice is arising between 80386-based microcomputers and 80486-based microcomputers; the latter are being ignored by too many corporate buyers who will later be sorry they failed to purchase the most powerful computer available. Buying 80486 computers will make the downsizing process from the mainframe easier to accomplish. Microcom seeks broader distribution advantage. (Changing Channels) (column) Microcom Corp is a $72 million vendor of computer network products that seeks to expand its market share with better distribution. Microcom has employed a single-tier strategy for the distribution of its LAN Bridge products, which it has been selling since 1988. The company now looks at a two-tier approach for the LAN Bridge products that will imitate the distribution of the company's other products. Microcom will be targeting value-added resellers (VARs) and avoid the vertical specialists who solve technical problems with specific market expertise. Microcom, which has around 100 VARs for its LAN Bridge products, plans to expand its VAR base and establish a VAR policy. Color scanners give buyers economical image reproduction. Mann, Mary. Scanning technology in 1991 allows users to save time in reproducing documents that require time-consuming data input procedures. One application of scanning technology is the analysis of crop and farm field conditions. Scanners can scan infrared photographs taken from an airplane and highlight and contrast nutrient-deficient areas; farmers use the information to effectively dust their fields. Some scanning machines have color shading features that allow users to distort images and make details stand out more vividly. The caliber of color scanners is improving and some users are satisfied with their rendering enough to go from scanned image to layout. Color scanners produce quality images; Howtek yields sharpest images at 300 dpi; at 100 dpi the products are comparable. PC Week labs evaluates five scanning devices and finds that the products are comparable in quality at 100 dot-per-inch (dpi). Howtek Inc's $1,995 Personal Color Scanner turns out a superior performance when the scanning speed is increased to 300 dpi. The five color scanning devices are evaluated on the basis of the quality of the color scan, the quality of the gray-scale scan, the ease of operation, the ease of use with bundled software and the speed of scanning. The cost of color scanners have kept them from dominating the scanning device market, but manufacturers have been able to drop the prices to the $2,000 to $2,700 range. Each of the scanning devices evaluated can scan in 24-bit, full-color mode, in 8-bit grey-scale and in 1-bit black-and-white mode. Advanced Vision Research Inc. AVR 3000/CL Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of color scanners) (evaluation) Advanced Vision Research Inc's $2,590 3000/CL Plus scanning device is an elegantly designed and quiet product that performed well under testing. The scanner comes bundled with Astral Development's Picture Publisher Plus software and is compatible with Hewlett Packard Co's Scanjet software; it operated flawlessly when used with the ScanJet driver. The product must have its own drivers installed to fully harness the color capabilities. The 3000/CL Plus delivers excellent color registration and can deliver a sharp image at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi); it is evidence that a low-cost quality product need not be bulky and noisy to work. Epson America Inc. ES-300C. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of color scanners) (evaluation) Epson America Inc's $2,494 ES-300C scanning device is a competitively-priced product that comes with plenty of software and provides excellent scan quality. The scanner can be directly linked to a printer, an Epson America LQ series dot-matrix printer with color ribbon or a Hewlett Packard PaintJet color ink-jet printer. Scanned photographs at 100 dots-per-inch (dpi) and 300 dpi were excellent, but there were a few color registration problems encountered in the scan of some printed material. Re-scanning, repositioning scan material and using different scan resolution helped alleviate some of the color registration problems. Howtek Inc. Personal Color Scanner. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of color scanners) (evaluation) Howtek Inc's $1,995 Personal Color Scanner scanning device provides extra-sharp scanning at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi), but it is twice as slow as other color scanning devices evaluated. The dot-gradient test pattern taken at 300 dpi in extra-sharp mode had especially impressive results and there was almost no hint of color mis-registration. The bundled software that comes with the Personal Color Scanner is vastly different from the other bundled software packages associated with the other scanning devices evaluated. The Personal Color Scanner software, Scan-It, has a weak interface and uses video memory like a scratch pad. Microtek Lab Inc. MSF-300Z. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of color scanners) (evaluation) Microtek Lab Inc's $2,695 MSF-300Z scanning device is a bulky 16 inches wide and 24 inches deep and has an older design than other scanning devices evaluated. Its performance is mediocre, which makes it a hard color scanner to recommend. Performance at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) were acceptable but fell short when compared to the other scanner evaluated. The MSF-300Z has severe color registration problems when small areas are scanned. This problem is alleviated when a large area is scanned and the desired smaller area is cropped out. The software included with the scanning device, ImageStar, is a good Microsoft Windows 3.0-based package. Umax Technologies Inc. UC300. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of color scanners) (evaluation) Umax Technologies Inc's $2,495 UC300 scanning device is a respectable product that faces stiff competition. The color scanner includes a special gray-scale filter that is designed to increase the quality of gray-scale scanning, but testing yielded little difference. Comparable color scanners could match the difference by adjusting their contrast, gamma and brightness. Scanned images done by the UC300 color scanner at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) showed some color mis-registration. The company maintains that their UC300 scanner can better detect subtle differences in color, but testing did not yield any spectacular results. Buyers look for programs offering comprehensive, accessible data. (network software) Users of AppleTalk network management programs like to use software that provides quality workstation information and gives reliable and easy access to stored information. Some network management programs can help network managers determine what software is being used on the network and what printer is hooked up to what workstation or mainframe computer. One application for network management software is in drafting and design; architects can more easily lay out the commercial building space for their clients with the software, and clients can continue to use the program after the design has been completed. Programs maintain AppleTalk networks; facilities-management products show hardware, software installed on the LAN. (Software PC Week Labs evaluates five network management software packages that work on AppleTalk local area networks (LANs). The network facilities management programs are evaluated on the basis of the quality of report options and display options, the ease of learning and use, the quality of documentation, and the breadth of workstation information. The software products all help network managers keep track of information on what Apple Macintosh microcomputers are on their networks and what software and hardware those microcomputers are using. The five software packages range in price from $129 for Apple Computer Inc's InterPoll 1.02 software, to $1,495 for Aperture Technologies Inc's Aperture Network and Resource Manager program. Aperture Technologies Inc. Aperture Network & Resource Manager 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations for network Aperture Technologies Inc's $1,495 Aperture Network and Resource Manager 1.0 computer network software helps network managers by visually representing local area networks (LANs). The program assists network facilities management by generating line drawing and attaching data to the drawings. Users can click out of an element and move to different portions of a network with ease. The program will run on monochrome screens, but the manufacturers suggest using a color monitor so that elements can be spotted more easily. Aperture Network and Resource Manager cannot gather system data, which is its major limitation. Manuals and documentation are poor and do not help network managers in getting solutions to their problems. Apple Computer Inc. Interpoll 1.02. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations for network management software packages) (evaluation) Apple Computer Inc's $129 Interpoll 1.02 computer network software package is the most basic product evaluated and is by far the least expensive. The program does a lot for the money: it can gather system information from an unlimited number of Apple Macintoshes and provides network managers with an easy-to-use view of an AppleTalk local area network (LAN). The program communicates in AppleTalk terms and gives information about the socket number, Chooser name and node number of any device or system. Interpoll does not provide any special information on Macintoshes but does give information about IBM-compatible microcomputers and printers on the system. CSG Technologies. Network Supervisor 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations for network management software packages) CSG Technologies Inc's $495 Network Supervisor 1.0 computer network software is a useful tool for creating reports using data taken from networked Apple Macintosh microcomputers. The program provides information on each Macintosh in the network including its font, application programs, DAs, system software versions, system configuration, installed small computer system interface (SCSI) and NuBus devices, and PRAM settings. Networks managers can create reports based on this information and can include such features as footers, headers, totals, breaks, multilevel sorts and filters. One problem encountered in testing is the creation of a new data base, a process that takes more than five minutes. Network Supervisor can only retrieve data from 10 Macintoshes. Pharos Technologies Inc. Status*Mac 1.1. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations for network management software packages) Pharos Technologies Inc's $799 Status*Mac 1.1 is a performance analysis software package that provides a good selection of information about Apple Macintosh microcomputers on an AppleTalk local area network (LAN). The software has strong reporting capabilities and includes all the information about a Macintosh microcomputer that a network manager would like to know, including fonts, system software versions and DAs. Status*Mac 1.1 does have some limitations, even though its price is relatively high; the base price covers 10 Macintosh users, although network mangers can buy a 50-user license for $2,750. The company is said to be working on a new version of the software, but details are not available. Technology Works. GraceLAN 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations for network management software packages) (evaluation) Technology Works' $395 GraceLAN 1.0 network management software is inexpensive and a relatively easy-to-use tool for on-line inquiries of an AppleTalk local area network (LAN). The program is one of the least expensive products evaluated; $395 for 50 Macintoshes, $590 for 100 Macintoshes and $995 for 200 Macintoshes. GraceLAN's has a nice interface that is easy to use and works with IBM-compatible microcomputers but its major drawback is that it cannot store the network data it retrieves. Network managers are required to get network data every time they begin the program. Reporting functions are limited to the program's built-in windows. The software requires AppleTalk Phase 2. Relational spreadsheets boost analysis; TM/1 has superior performance; Compete boasts top-flight data-evaluation tools. PC Week Labs evaluates two relational spreadsheets and determines that Sinper Corp's $795 TM/1 Relational Spreadsheet 4.0 has superior performance while Computer Associates International Inc's $995 Compete 4.1 provides good data-evaluation tools. Relational spreadsheets differ from traditional ones in that they streamline the process of creating links between data. Traditional spreadsheets join many other spreadsheets together by a cumbersome process of organizing spreadsheet views. The two spreadsheet programs evaluated serve different needs: Compete offers dynamic data exchange (DDE) and is a Windows 3.0 graphical user interface compatible product; TM/1 is a character-based program that allows only one spreadsheet to be displayed at a time. Computer Associates International Inc. Compete 4.1. (Software Review) (one of two spreadsheet evaluations) (evaluation) Computer Associates International Inc's $995 Compete 4.1 is a relational spreadsheet software package that offers spreadsheets in 12 dimension and features on-screen views, or slices, of data in the traditional, two-dimensional spreadsheet. Compete allows users to use a wide array of data analysis tools but suffers in that its performance is slow. The program does not offer any of its own macro languages or graphic capabilities. The spreadsheet features the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and allows users to view several slices at the same time. The mouse feature makes it easy to compare the data in more than one slice. Spreadsheets deliver strong analysis; buyers praise packages' data-import capacity. Relational spreadsheet software allows users greater flexibility in cutting through large amounts of data than traditional spreadsheets can offer. Multidimensional relational paradigms also cut down the number of data-entry errors that can be created. Relational spreadsheets afford an ad hoc analysis, which later becomes a routine analysis and can tremendously cut down the time it takes to analyze data. The relational spreadsheets that are on the market in early 1991 do not have good graphics, reporting and printing capabilities. Sinper Corp. TM/1 Relational Spreadsheet 4.0. (Software Review) (one of two spreadsheet evaluations) (evaluation) Sinper Corp's $795 TM/1 relational spreadsheet 4.0 software does not offer a Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and requires users to use character-based commands to create the outline of each model. The spreadsheet is very fast, despite its outdated interface, and the product is ideal for evaluating enormous amounts of data that frequently changes. The graphics capabilities of the software is limited, which is a shame given the multidimensional nature of its data. TM/1 has its own macro language, which is easy-to-use, and offers 60 different functions for what-if analysis, most of which are non-analytical in nature. Debuggers slash development time; third-party tools challenge power of language-specific debuggers. (buyers guide) Debugging software is a good program development tool since it helps programmers cut the amount of time it takes to develop a program. The search for potential bugs is an essential part of any programmer's job; debuggers help programmers by examining the operation of program code and tracking down programming errors. Many programs come with their own debuggers, but depending on the complexity of a problem, programmers are not always able to locate problems with those debuggers. Third-party debuggers should be fully compatible with the development language and should be easy to use; programmers should also examine whether a third-party debugger will drain resources needed for development and whether the debugger needs hardware assistance. IBM-Novell alliance puts connectivity spring in IBM's step. Burke, Steven. The alliance between IBM and Novell Inc with their network software heralds a strong step forward for IBM in computer software connectivity. The two software publishers are integrating the Novell NetWare network operating system with the LAN Manager network management software, which was developed by Microsoft Corp and 3Com Corp in 1988. IBM understands that it is not an innovator in the networking market, but also realizes that it can act as a mediator between the two network software packages. IBM plans to sell PC versions of NetWare as well as Apple Macintosh and Unix versions. Industry observers note that IBM's commitment to NetWare is unprecedented for the number one computer maker. Hot stock market sees PC firms selling shares; unexpectedly upbeat earnings reports help kick off high-tech rally. (includes related AST Research Inc, Dell Computer Corp and Intelligent Electronics Inc announce plans to issue additional shares of stock. The computer manufacturers are encouraged by the surge in the stock market and upbeat earnings reports in the beginning of 1991. The companies believe that now is the time to sell equity and build cash reserves. AST Research wants to offer two million new shares; its 52-week high and low as of Feb 19, 1991, is $48.75 a share and $3.13 a share, respectively. Dell's high for that period is $27.38 a share and its low is $5.50 a share. It hopes to gain $100 million in its new share offerings. Intelligent Electronics's shares traded as high as $36.50 a share and as low as $10.75 a share for the same period. From courtroom to courtship: Apple's about-face on Windows. (Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user Apple Computer Inc decides that Claris Corp, a software publisher that it reabsorbed in Aug 1990, will continue to develop products compatible with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Industry observers take special note of the decision since Apple was only recently ready to take Microsoft to court on copyright infringements. The decision by Apple is seen as a way to beat the competition: if you you cannot destroy the competition, develop for them. Apple's selling strategy in the 1980s was to reap high margins on its machines since the ease-of-use they offered was unbeatable. The introduction of Windows 3.0 has diminished Apple's advantage and the company is charting a new strategy that includes dropping the prices of its microcomputers and, perhaps, developing software for MS-DOS. Agreement on multiple sourcing could speed SONET development. (AT&T Microelectronics, Fujitsu Ltd., BT&D Technologies and Multiple sourcing of synchronous optical network (SONET) components will be possible as a result of an agreement between AT&T Microelectronics, Fujitsu Ltd, BT&D Technologies, and Hitachi Ltd. The firms will support common product specifications, as well as meet requirements for module pin-out, footprint, logic interface, optical parameters, and power supply. The agreement could accelerate the implementation of advanced fiber-optic technology, as well as the international SONET standards process. Other firms are expected to become involved in the agreement. NY Tel posts network centurion. (New York Telephone's Network Guardian Center) New York Telephone's Network Guardian Center is a state-of-the-art network monitoring system for network switching equipment and transmission facilities in New York. The Center serves as a second-tier check, allowing NY Tel to provide and market reliability to corporate customers. Operational for about a year, the Center is still evolving. NY Tel constantly adds new computer workstations and software to strengthen and expand its offerings. By 1992, the company hopes to monitor all network switching equipment and fiber optic transmission facilities throughout the state of New York. The system can gather information from about 700 switches, covering about 95 percent of NY Tel's 10.9 million access lines. DOJ pursues RHC wrongdoing. (US Department of Justice, US West) (Bell Regional Holding Companies) The US Department of Justice proved that it has begun enforcing Modified Final Judgment (MFJ) activities by imposing a fine on US West. US West was fined $10 million for violating the MFJ. US West's violations included discriminating against AT&T by offering the US government switching services at a low price, providing Atlantic Richfield Co with prohibited information services, marketing operator workstations, and offering reverse directory services. The Justice Department plans to continue the aggressive enforcement of MFJ activities. Privatization eyed for Panama's Intel. Luxner, Larry. Panama Controller-General Ruben Dario Carles believes that Panama should privatize Intel, its state-owned telephone company. Panama could receive as much as $1 billion from privatization, which would help reduce the country's $6.2 billion external debt. Intel General Mgr Jose Mauad insists that complete privatization will not occur in the near future because the government is more interested in divesting other money-losing enterprises. One US official blames Intel's problems on overstaffing and bad management, but Mauad blames it on Manuel Noriega's regime. Houston goes high-tech. (SUPERCOMM '91) Wilson, Carol. At the SUPERCOMM '91 trade show in Houston, TX, exhibitors are expected to display applications for education, medical science, home entertainment and mobile communications. For supporting technologies, the trend points to broadband fiber-based. Two participants will do live asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch demonstrations: NEC will demonstrate its NEAX 61E SMDS service mode and Siemens Stromberg-Carlson will link an EWSD switch with ATM capabilities. AT&T's various applications will include several built on microcomputer-based videoconferencing via narrowband integrated services digital network technology. Other highlights include live demonstrations of FTTC systems, CT2 technology, switched multimegabit data service and frame relay. There's more to Houston than Tex-Mex and jalapeno lollipops. (SUPERCOMM '91) Houston, TX, site of SUPERCOMM '91, offers a wide variety of attractions for tourists, including museums and restaurants. Houston, with a population of over 3.6 million, is the US' fourth-largest city, and the Port of Houston is the second-largest US port in terms of foreign trade. The attractions in Houston include the Transco Park and Water Wall, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Natural Science, and the NASA-Johnson Space Center. Houston also has several restaurants offering excellent Tex-Mex and Mexican food, as well as several other ethnic restaurants. Sam Ginn and Pacific Telesis are ready to take on the world. (chairman and CEO) (interview) (Cover Story) Pacific Telesis (PacTel) Chmn and CEO Sam Ginn is willing to risk a short-term decrease in earnings for long-term competitiveness. PacTel experienced a 17.1 percent decrease in net income and a 14.6 percent decrease in earnings in 1991. Ginn attributes this to the $391 million rate reduction imposed on PacTel by the California Public Utilities Commission. Ginn plans to continue upgrading PacTel's telecommunications network, and developing a better understanding of PacTel's markets. Ginn's objectives include expanding the California market, expanding the US cellular business, and expanding wireless services. PacTel has achieved a number-two rating in terms of expenses per number of access lines among the Bell regional holding companies. Vermont's dynamic duo. (New England Telephone's use of horses to install cable) (LoopScoop) (column) New England Telephone uses a horse to help install cable in rural areas. The horse, Bill, is a Percheron stallion capable of pulling as much as 8,000 feet of cable. Bill is owned by independent contractor Claude Desmarais. New England Telephone has been able to save time and money by using the horse to pull cable. The cost of using the horse is between $250 and $300 a day. Talking technology: the market realities. (a panel discussion with industry representatives) (Horizons of Technology Special Telecommunications industry experts participated in a panel discussion about the effect of new technologies on the public network. The participants included Southern Bell Network Exec VP Richard Snelling, AT&T Bell Laboratories Advanced Technology Laboratory Dir James Cochrane, Ameritech Services Technology Management VP Joel Engel, and Bell-Northern Research Network Services VP Ian Stewart. Snelling indicated that the telecommunications industry is experiencing uncertainty in integrating all of the new technologies. Stewart felt that identifying applications for new technologies has become difficult because of the rapid development of new areas. Cochrane said that the standard-setting process is delaying the introduction of new services. Other topics discussed included broadband networks, passive optics systems, personal communications networks, local competition, and the Synchronous Optical Network. Making the transition to the new network. (public telecommunications network) (Horizons of Technology Special Public telecommunications networks of the 1990s must become more intelligent, more open to access, more informative, easier to operate, and harder to disturb. The challenge is to standardize telecommunications capabilities and to determine how to use them in the public network. This challenge is being met in three areas: transmission, switching, and cellular technology. Transmission speeds are increasing, and terabit systems may be available soon. The synchronous optical network standard has been developed to manage and protect increasing bandwidth. Switching systems are attempting to catch up to the trend toward high-speed transmission, as well as to the trend toward distributing intelligence within the network. The objective of cellular technology is to provide a high level of personal service by increasing the mobility of users. Do the telcos have a broadband strategy? (Horizons of Technology Special Supplement) The Bell regional holding companies (RHC) seem to be committed to developing a broadband network. The development of a broadband network involves technologies, equipment, and applications, but local exchange carriers (LEC) have differing opinions about the way in which broadband capabilities will be used and applied. Some LECs and vendors believe that broadband development involves the use of frame relay or switched multimegabit data service and asynchronous transfer mode, while others believe that much more effort will be required to develop broadband applications. Broadband applications of the RHCs include medical imaging and entertainment applications. Rhyme and reason: artificial intelligence in the public network. (includes related article on COMPASS expert system) (Horizons of The Bell regional holding companies (RHC) have begun using artificial intelligence in public telecommunications networks. The most popular type of artificial intelligence is an expert system consisting of a knowledge base, which is similar to a data base; and an inference engine, which controls the system. Nynex has developed the MAX expert system, which identifies local-loop problems; and the Arachne expert system, which is used for interoffice network planning. AT&T Bell Laboratories' expert systems include NEMESYS, which reduces long-distance network congestion; and ACE, which identifies outside plant problems. RHCs can use expert systems for a wide variety of tasks, including network monitoring, network maintenance, and employee training. Looking into the horizon. (future telecommunications technologies) (Horizons of Technology Special Supplement) New telecommunications technologies are quickly replacing such current technologies as digital switches and broadband fiber, but the evolution of a telecommunications network is a lengthy process. Photonic switching, for example, is still in the early stages of development. The development of a photonic switch with a non-electronic fabric probably will not occur until 1997 or 1998. Researchers are questioning the future of coherent lightwave research because the availability of 2.4G-bps systems may make the development of coherent lightwave systems infeasible. Personal communication networks (PCN) are increasing in popularity, but a licensed PCN industry may not exist before 1993. ASCII Corp. denies misappropriating computer software. Pravda, a newspaper of the Soviet Union, printed an article claiming that ASCII Corp and Shinjidaisya Corp misappropriated 800 software programs received during a software-writing contest. The two companies organized the contest, which ran from Feb to Jun 1990, in conjunction with the Soviet Union's State Committee for Public Education. ASCII is protesting the accusations and has written a letter to Pravda requesting a published correction and an apology. The article maintains that ASCII took advantage of Soviet citizens by purchasing their programming for unreasonably low prices. According to contest rules all entries must be original and fees would be paid to the applicant(s) should their work have commercial value. ASCII insists that it has been protecting the copyrights of the software programs submitted, and further states that the contest was devised to offer Soviet programmers an opportunity to publicize and promote their work. Radio waves that really bind, from Motorola: faster and less susceptible to interruption, but costlier than wires. (The Motorola Inc demonstrates a wireless local area network (LAN) device at Networld 1991. The device permits computers to receive and transmit data at high speeds within a building, using radio frequency waves. The central command module costs around $3,995, and user modules, which can connect up to 32 computers, cost $3,495. Computers are connected to user modules via wires and through a network adapter card; the cost to connect a computer varies between $715 to $1,000. Industry observers note some of the shortcomings of the current product, such as its impracticality in historic buildings and warehouses, but also note that the product is moving in the right direction. The system, which is called the Altair Ethernet network, transmits and receives data in the 18 to 19 GHz range. Toward the voice-literate computer; leading Japan into a keyboardless future where PCs multiply (Technology) (column) The complicated Japanese language makes it unwieldy to device keyboards for microcomputers but researchers are working on voice recognition machines that can translate the spoken Japanese into kanji characters. Microcomputers have not caught on in Japan as much as they have in the US, partly because of the Japanese 7,000-character alphabet. The voice recognition technology is expected to open up a new market, but most industry observers are not optimistic about the overnight development of such a market. The elimination of the keyboard in microcomputers is a trend that is already manifesting itself in the development of pen-based computing. NCR establishes an employee stock plan. (NCR takes measures to prevent AT&T's takeover)(Business Day) NCR Corp announces a $500 million employee stock ownership plan to stave off the hostile takeover attempt of AT&T. The plan could potentially control eight percent of the company's stock and prevent AT&T from removing NCR's 13-member board at the Mar 28, 1991 special meeting requested by AT&T. The NCR board also approves a special $1 dividend payment to shareholders in the hopes of encouraging more votes in favor of retaining NCR's board. The employee stock ownership plan is expected to purchase a new issue of 5.5 million shares of preferred stock that can be converted into about 8 percent of NCR's common stock. NCR does not require outside financing to buy the newly issued stock. Analysts believe AT&T still has a good chance of obtaining four seats on NCR's board on Mar 28, since 66 percent of NCR shareholders voted in favor of AT&T's tender offer of $90 a share. Made in the U.S.A., but by Sharp. (Sharp Corp. to manufacture flat panel display screens in US)(Business Day) Sharp Corp announces that it will begin producing flat panel display screens for portable computers in the US. The move is apparently a political gesture intended to dissipate a recent high-technology trade dispute. Sharp is likely to be followed by other Japanese ultra-thin video screen manufacturers in response to the US Commerce Department's dumping accusation. Dumping is the term used for the practice of selling products below the cost of producing and marketing them. Sharp's strategy is similar to that of Japanese auto makers in which a large portion of a product is manufactured in the US, with American employees, making it difficult for Congress to impose punitive or protective measures. Sharp will produce only its simplest liquid crystal display screens in the US, and claims that production at a new US facility will be restricted to 'final assembly' operations. NCR's stock jumps on news of ESOP plan; traders say defensive move may draw a higher bid from AT&T, force sale. (employee stock The price of NCR Corp's stock rises to $93.125 per share on news of the computer manufacturer's plan to implement an employee stock ownership program (ESOP). The $500 million ESOP, including a $1 per share dividend and two-cent per share quarterly dividend, comprises 7.9 per cent of NCR stock. NCR plans to keep AT&T from forcing the removal of NCR's board by forming a bloc of friendly stock ownership. AT&T needs an 80 per cent vote in order to toss out NCR's present board. The employee stock plan consists of 5.5 million new preferred shares NCR plans to issue to a trustee. NCR employees are able to purchase these shares for the next 25 years as part of a pension/retirement benefits plan. The trustee may vote all shares in alignment with NCR employee votes. NYNEX's unit in New York gets new chief; Richard A. Jalkut is given post at phone concern: Salerno moves to parent. (Richard A. NYNEX Corp announces the appointment of Richard A Jalkut to the position of president and chief executive officer of New York Telephone Co. Jalkut replaces Frederic V Salerno, who is moving to become vice chairman and a director at NYNEX. The appointments are part of a series of management changes at New York Telephone resulting from friction with state regulators. Regulators charge New York Telephone with procurement abuses and are trying to restructure the telephone company's relationship with NYNEX affiliates. Jalkut has operational experience, having been employed by New England Telephone and Telegraph Co and New York Telephone, but his appointment is not expected by some analysts to effect the necessary changes. Other new directors include New York University Pres John Brademas and Ivan G. Seidenberg. Sharp to build screens in U.S. for laptops. (Sharp Corp., laptop computer displays) (Technology & Medicine) Sharp Corp announces it will begin manufacturing thin liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens in its new Camas, WA plant. The screens are used in laptop computers and are essential for reducing the weight, size and cost of the popular systems. Laptops comprise the fastest-growing segment of the microcomputer industry. Only 50 per cent of the value of the screen will be manufactured at Sharp's US plant; the balance of the screen's manufacture will be done in Japan. Only monochrome screens will be made in the US. Sharp plans to produce 500,000 10-inch diagonal screens by 1993 at the Camas plant, employing 250 employees. The secret word is Swordfish. (National Semiconductor reveals chip architecture at IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Designs unveiled at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in mid-Feb 1991 in San Francisco include a dramatically dense neural network; a 32-bit, 100-MHz microprocessor and a 64-bit, 100-MIPS microprocessor. National Semiconductor discussed the architecture of its long-rumored Swordfish, a 100-MIPS reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) superscalar processor. The name comes from a Marx Brothers' movie. National Semi expects to ship samples of the Swordfish in 2nd half 1991. Intel Corp discussed an 80486-compatible processor that in theory can run at 100 MHz. The Neural Network Execution Engine from Adaptive Solutions Inc of Beaverton, OR, and Inova Microelectronics Inc of Santa Clara, CA, packs a 26.2-by-27.5-millimeter die with more than 10 million transistors. Glass abets 2.5" drives; data compression tagged too risky for now; mechanical gains continue. Areal Technology Inc of San Jose and Toshiba America Information Systems plan to release 2.5-inch hard disks made of glass in 1st qtr 1991. Neither company is putting data compression capabilities in their respective 62.9Mbyte and 43Mbyte drives. Areal boosted drive density to more than 2,000 tracks per inch by cutting the fly height of the read-write head to under 4 microinches. Other drive manufacturers complain about glass's cost, reliability and availability. While glass is smoother and more rigid than aluminum, it costs about twice as much and is more brittle and fragile. Drive makers say only Hoya Electronics and Nippon Sheet Glass, both of Japan, make the glass media in production volumes. Crosstalk is a problem glass drive makers must confront, a Seagate Technology executive says. Intel airs 80X86 cache-control plans. Arnold, Bill. In Mar 1991, Intel Corp will ramp up production of a series of 8Kbyte cache controllers for 80386- and 80386SX-based computers. In 2nd qtr 1991, Intel will begin sampling a 16Kbyte cache controller for 386SX-based computers and a board that combines static random-access memory (SRAM) and controller logic for second-level cache designs in 486-based systems. The controllers give up performance in exchange for more board-level space. Design engineers increasingly use cache memory as 386- and 486-based systems approach speeds of 33 MHz and higher. Cache memories are designed to reduce the number of times a microprocessor has to wait for information. Cache memories store the data most recently held. Recession dampens hiring in Northwest. Colborn, Kate. In the face of a national recession and international problems only a few firms in Washington and Oregon are planning on hiring large numbers of engineers in 1991. Many observers believe Oregon will feel the recession's impact less than other high-tech regions, partly because the state's small, niche-oriented electronics firms are faring better than large corporations, and partly because the state relies minimally on military contracts. The state Economic Development Department is also giving the industry strong support. On the other hand, Washington could suffer from its dependence on Seattle-based Boeing if airlines cancel plane orders. Demands for engineers by the state's hundreds of software publishers, most quite tiny, remains strong. R3000A gets software, hardware modeling support. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s R3000A microprocessor) At least two computer-aided engineering (CAE) firms have rolled out hardware-modeling support and software models of MIPS Computer Systems Inc's R3000A microprocessor architecture. A smaller version of the reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) MIPS R3000 that also consumes less power and requires less support memory, the R3000A reaches clock speeds of 40 MHz and 33 million VAX instructions per second. In Jan 1991, MIPS announced that five semiconductor firms that license the R3000A's manufacturing rights had produced software- and pin-compatible versions of the microprocessor. Logic Modeling Systems Inc of San Jose, has begun shipping hardware models of the R3000A. RISC International Systems Corp, also of San Jose, has begun shipping a Soft-RISC software simulation model of the new microprocessor. Sequent shows multi-'486 box at Uniforum. (Sequent Computer Systems' Symmetry 2000, Intel 80486) (includes related article on At Uniforum in Jan 1991 Sequent Computer Systems of Beaverton, OR, debuted the Symmetry 2000 computer, which uses as many as 30 Intel 80486 microprocessors. Fremont, CA-based Everex and Irvine, CA-based Corollary have also announced 486-based multiprocessing computers. The announcements signal a move to using multiprocessor computers that are based on off-the-shelf microprocessors for commercial transaction processing. Sequent's first symmetric multiprocessing machines were viewed as academic curiosities when they debuted in 1983. Symmetry 2000 product manager Tejas Vakil says a symmetric processing architecture is better for transaction processing. VLSI PC/AT chip set spans 10 to 20 MHz. (VLSI Technology Inc.'s SCAMP chip set) (product announcement) VLSI Technology Inc of Tempe, AZ, debuts a microcomputer-logic and peripheral-controller chip set for 10-MHz to 20-MHz IBM PC AT-compatible and Intel 80386SX-based notebook and laptop computers. However, VLSI faces stiff competition from Chips and Technologies, Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices, all of which offer cheaper or more highly integrated chip sets. VLSI's Single-Chip AT Mid-Range Performance (SCAMP) set includes the VL82C312 power-management chip, the VL82C-310 or VL82C-310-LT (for laptop) controller and the VL82C107 combination chip. The combination chip includes a real-time clock, keyboard/mouse controller, PC memory-card interface circuitry, direct memory access (DMA) acknowledge decoder and address latches/buffers. SCAMP lacks an integrated processor. The three-chip set costs $77. Graphics-chip companies staff up for new IBM scheme. (Extended Graphics Array display scheme) In response to IBM's Nov 1990 introduction of its Extended Graphics Array (XGA) display standard, many third-party manufacturers of IBM-compatible graphics chips plan to hire software and hardware engineers. A good amount of work is still being done on IBM's XGA forerunners, including the 8514/A scheme and the Video Graphics Array (VGA) and Super VGA standards. XGA is quite similar to 8514/A. Both define 256 simultaneous colors and 1,024 by 768 pixel resolution. XGA also offers a 65,000-color 640 by 480 mode. IBM designed XGA to run on Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), but some third-party chip makers are considering AT bus support for the standard. XGA design engineers face such challenges as line-drawing capabilities and bit-block transfers that are not found in the VGA standard. Doing business screen to screen: video conference calls shorten the distance between two points. Video conferencing is experiencing an enormous increase in use. The popular technology, is becoming much more so as a result of the the war in the Persian Gulf. The crisis in the Gulf region is one of several reasons that combine to benefit video conferencing. First, there is an overall tendency to curtail corporate travel, for safety, economics and time-saving. Second, advances in computer chips translate into advances in conferencing technology and falling prices, with new systems costing about one-half of the $90,000 price tag in 1987. Video conferences are now possible in major metropolitan areas where long-distance telephone companies have completed fiber-optic networks that can transmit volumes of digital code. According to one industry executive, while video conference calling has limitations, depending on the purpose of a meeting, it can be 90-100 percent as effective as 'being there.' Planning for an 'Apollo'-type program for chips. (semiconductor devices) Government representatives and semiconductor industry officials combine to advocate a plan to develop an advanced computer chip. According to Ian M. Ross, chair of the National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors and president of AT&T's Bell Laboratories, referring to the American effort that landed a man on the moon: 'It could be the Apollo equivalent of the semiconductor industry.' Details of the plan are not yet clear, but it is anticipated that a significant target would be chosen. According to industry sources, the goal might be a static random access memory (SRAM) capable of storing a gigabit (one billion bits) of information or about 1,000 times what is now possible. Industry, universities and national laboratories would cooperate, but the program would not require the massive federal funding of the space program. The aim is to help the US semiconductor industry compete with the Japanese. Universal computer code due; rivals join forces to design standard for all languages. Twelve companies, including IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Xerox, make up a consortium to develop and promote a universal digital code, which would be known as Unicode. If such an Electronics Age lingua franca were to become a worldwide standard, it would be easier for people in different countries to communicate by electronic mail. It would also be easier for software publishers to develop applications, using differing programming languages. Until now, the digital codes that represent accented characters on a French computer, for example, might be unintelligible on a computer located in the US. With the proposed new code, computers anywhere would understand everything from French accent marks to Chinese ideographs, including letters in any of the world's various alphabets. Hewlett posts surprise gain in earnings. (Hewlett-Packard Co.) Fisher, Lawrence M. Hewlett-Packard Co reports unexpectedly strong earnings for the 1st qtr ending Jan 31, 1991. Hewlett-Packard executives say earnings are $205 million, or 83 cents a share, up 18.4 percent from $173 million and 72 cents a share in the same period in FY 1989. Revenues show a rise of nearly 10 percent, to $3.4 billion from $3.1 billion. The company's stock value is up by $5.50, to $45.625, on the New York Stock Exchange. Orders for HP products are increasing the most internationally and more slowly in the US. Analysts think this news might signify an end of difficult times for the company. Hewlett-Packard cites new products and cost-cutting efforts to explain the turnaround. Top Bellcore post filled by inventor-executive. (George H. Heilmeier) (Business People) Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore), the research and development institute for the seven US regional telephone companies, selects George H. Heilmeier, formerly with Texas Instruments (TI), as its new president and chief executive officer. Heilmeier succeeds Rocco J. Marano when he assumes his new responsibilities at Bellcore on Mar 1, 1991. He is an engineer and inventor in his own right and his most recent position with TI is senior vice president and chief technical officer. Bellcore is the successor to Bell Laboratories; it was set up in 1984 to provide engineering and technical support to the regional telephone companies after the AT&T divestiture. Marano, the leader of Bellcore through the years that followed the breakup of the Bell system, is named chairman and continues in that post until his retirement in May, 1990. Tiny rival says Nintendo made secret changes. (Nintendo Company Ltd.; American Video Entertainment Inc.) American Video Entertainment Inc, a San Jose, CA, video game manufacturer, charges that Nintendo Company of Japan is shipping secretly modified machines to the US. According to American Video Entertainment, the new machines include technical changes that render competitors' cartridges unplayable on Nintendo systems. The video game company also contends that retailers and consumers are not aware of these alterations because Nintendo never told anyone about them and does not mention the incompatibilities or changes on the packaging. A spokeswoman for Nintendo characterizes such charges are 'crude scare tactics,' saying that changes in Nintendo hardware are part of an ongoing effort to deal with a worldwide game counterfeiting problem. Hewlett's profit climbed by 18 percent in its first quarter; most forecasts exceeded as cost-cutting moves begin to show results. Hewlett-Packard announces a rise in net income of 18 percent for its 1st qtr ending Jan 31, 1990. Net income for the quarter is reported at $205 million, up from $173 million in the same period in 1989. Revenue is up from $3.1 billion to $3.41 billion, a rise of 10 percent. The results mark an end to several consecutive quarters of sliding profits, as the company attempts to adjust in a shift in demand towards microcomputers and workstations and away from its mainstay minicomputer and test-and-measurement products. Much of the growth in orders for HP's products comes from the overseas market, which is larger by 20 percent, to $2.2 billion. The figures for domestic orders show growth only three percent to $1.5 billion. Analysts attribute the overall improvement to HP's recent cost reduction efforts. AT&T bid to buy NCR is complicated by the recent surge of computer stocks. AT&T's attempt to gain control of NCR Corp becomes more difficult as computer stock prices rise. AT&T's original offer of $90 per share, or $6.12 billion, tendered on Dec 2, 1990, remains unchanged, even though the stock market has surged considerably. Consequently, the premium of (or difference between) AT&T's offer over the price level that NCR stock would trade at in the absence of any bid is lower by one-third to one-half. Some analysts believe that AT&T could take advantage of the market surge by using its own inflated stock to buy NCR shares at a higher price. AT&T needs 80 percent of stockholder votes at a special meeting to replace NCR's board of directors, and cannot complete its offer because of NCR's takeover defenses. AT&T has since launched a proxy fight to force the company to change the measures. Motorola, Northern Telecom set pact on cellular gear. (Technology & Health) Northern Telecom and Motorola have a new cellular equipment alliance that could develop into a joint equipment venture. The alliance calls for both companies to develop cellular telephone network equipment to a common standard as well as to market each other's established product lines. Some analysts believe the alliance could lead to a joint venture to develop and market cellular equipment worldwide. Motorola is the world's largest radio-communications equipment manufacturer. Northern Telecom is a leading player in the digital switching system market. The alliance could pose a serious threat to other major equipment manufacturers such as AT&T. US West to offer names of callers via new service. (Technology & Health) US West is the first telephone company to offer a next-generation Caller ID service that identifies callers by name as well as number. The service is currently being tested in the Boise, ID, area where the company has 70,000 residential and small business customers. The company expects name and number identification to be available in most major cities within three years. With the service, the number of the phone from which the call is made, along with the name under which it is listed, and the date and time of the call are displayed on a small device that attaches to the customer's telephone. Addressing the concern over privacy, the company maintains that callers who do not wish their numbers to be displayed can simply dial a special blocking code while making each call. SyQuest drives double removable capacity; new 88MB unit due this summer. (SQ5110 removable-cartridge hard disks ) (product SyQuest's SQ5110 removable-cartridge hard disks double the capacity of their previous products and will be capable of storing up to 88Mbytes of data per cartridge. The drives will read, but not write, the company's current 44Mbyte format. They deliver the 20-millisecond average seek time of the older models, but offer 25 percent to 30 percent improvement in performance through a new 32Kbyte buffer and better buffer management. Three leading Macintosh storage vendors plan releases of systems based on the enhanced technology. Limited quantities of the SQ5110 will ship in early second quarter 1991, volume shipment is expected in June. Service centers will get simplified diagnostic tools. (Macintosh Multiple-Product Diagnostics) (product announcement) Apple Computer developed a new series of service and diagnostic tools for Macintosh service centers that are designed to be foolproof and easy enough to use that they may eventually be released to the general public. The Macintosh Multiple-Product Diagnostics series includes MacTest MP, which can isolate and identify logic-board faults in Mac IIfx, IIsi and Mac LC computers. It tests the ROM, SCSI registers, clock, communications circuitry and other subsystems. It can also test internal and external floppy drives, Apple monitors and video cards. Apple reportedly plans to incorporate the functions of MacTest into a hand-held hardware device. In search of new standards; Apple aims to ease data interchange. Said, Carolyn. Apple Computer is hoping to exploit some of the advantages the Macintosh has in transparent data exchange by implementing standards for storing and exchanging files. The company is spearheading agreements among application developers on ways to implement these standards. Apple would benefit greatly by agreement on cross-platform standards, since MS-DOS machines dominate the business world. The company is initially focusing on low-level standards likely to be used by the broadest array of users, Rich-Text Format (RTF), complex images, and ASCII. Wall Street takes note as Apple rides higher. Gore, Andrew. Apple Computer is breaking all-time sales and financial records while the US experiences a recession and most capital-intensive businesses are cutting back. Apple doubled its ship rate and has benefited from its new product line. The company's stock hit a record high of $60 in mid-March 1991. The rise is part of a bull market resulting from the war in the Persian Gulf. The credit for the company's success is given to CEO John Sculley, who is focusing his efforts on product development, and COO Michael Spindler. A plan to reach into the mainstream market by selling its products through low-cost computer super stores may develop poor relations with Apple's dealers. New Portable upsets RAM vendors. (Macintosh Portable) (includes a related article on Lind Electronic Design Inc's External Battery The backlit screen and other changes on Apple's new model of the Macintosh Portable are forcing changes in third-party RAM cards for the machine. Apple plans to sell the product with the RAM slot already occupied by a RAM card; to buy a machine without one the purchaser must pay the regular purchase price and then wait four weeks for delivery. Apple RAM cards will not work with third-party cards in the Processor Direct Slot (PDS), forcing users to remove the Apple cards to get full advantage of third-party RAM options. Some vendors are offering rebates to encourage that option. Many third-party companies are discouraged by slow sales and many have abandoned their products for this machine. Orange386 opens Windows on Mac; NuBus card takes PC expansion cards. (Windows 3.0 now available on the Macintosh) (product The Orange386, from Orange Micro Inc, is a NuBus card that takes PC expansion cards and allows the use of custom or standard DOS applications, including Windows 3.0, on a Macintosh. The card can be installed on any Mac II, including the IIsi. DOS applications run in CGA mode in windows on the Macintosh screen. EGA or VGA graphics are possible through the addition of a VGA card, a multisync monitor and the $199 Orange Peripherals Kit; users must toggle between Macintosh and IBM PC modes. The Orange386 has two slots that accept IBM PC expansion cards. The first version of the card is currently available for $2,299. A second version with a 20-MHz processor and 2Mbytes of RAM will be available lin late Feb 1991 for $2,559. Another small step for Mac-kind; SuperCard mock-up tests space robot. (Flight Telerobotic Servicer) Martin Marietta Corp's Space Operations Simulator Laboratory used Silicon Beach Software's SuperCard on a Mac IIx to create prototypes of its Flight Telerobotic Servicer. The two-armed robot is the size of a large human being and will be an essential part of the space station Freedom, a semipermanent manned installation planned for the late 1990s. The robot will perform maintenance and collect samples outside the station, helping to reduce the number of dangerous spacewalks by the astronauts. SuperCard controls a huge battery of switches, indicator lights and buttons. The true interactivity of the robot is advanced over previous simulations, it provides real data and responds instantly to commands. The company used SuperCard over HyperCard 1.2.5 because of its color and multiple-screen capability. A Macintosh with a 50-MHz DayStar Digital accelerator was used to program the simulation. TalkManage: one AppleTalk tool for network monitoring, managing. (Distributed Technologies Corp's TalkManage) (product Distributed Technologies Corp's TalkManage is an AppleTalk tool for router management, traffic-flow control and network security monitoring. The program provides a two-level map of the network in real time; the first level displays routers or hubs, the second shows any AppleTalk zone in a network. TalkManage provides most of the features found in Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), future versions will support SNMP. Two other programs are included with TalkManage: TalkSpy, a rudimentary packet analyzer; and TalkStat performance measurement software. TalkManage is currently available for $3,950; TalkStat and TalkSpy, when sold separately, are $495 and $295, respectively. Growing market for shrinking images; lack of JPEG rules still causes conflicts. (Joint Photographic Experts Group) The current crop of image-compression products lack a common standard; there are still too many approaches, file formats, and differences in implementation. The JPEG's standard for variable levels of compression, based on an algorithm that allows for some loss of detail in the first compression, has not been finalized. Standards are needed before interchangeability can be achieved. Current software compression times should be under a minute for most single-page images, and less than five seconds for generalized hardware-based methods. Decompression times should be faster than compression times. Compression can speed sending images over communications links, facilitate archiving, and allow for faster image retrieval. Another standard is another chance. Gassee, Jean-Louis. Microsoft, MIPS Computer Systems, Compaq, Digital Equipment Corp and Silicon Graphics are reportedly working on the development of a new computing standard that combines hardware and software. The standard includes the MIPS R4000 RISC platform. IBM and Intel have not taken a position on the standard, as yet, IBM could push for its own RISC architecture. An increase in the number of standards would release Apple Computer from its proprietary design and improve its position for better system integration and compatibility. A new standard could move the industry forward, the plan should help Microsoft retain its influence in the market. Sometimes a deal is too good to be true. (Jasmine Technologies) (The Mac Manager) (column) Jasmine Technologies once produced some of the best Macintosh storage peripherals in the market, but quality and compatibility problems lead the company to chapter eleven bankruptcy. Chess SA, a French company, bought Jasmine but is not honoring warranties or supporting the company's DC-2000 DirectTape drive. The Macintosh peripheral market is shaky and buyers should beware of low prices, they often mean support for the product is unavailable. Off brands can also suffer compatibility problems or lack long-term reliability. Buying from established companies may be the best bet. WordPerfect gets it right the second time around; styles, new macros, bugs in Version 2.0. (Software Review) (includes a summary WordPerfect for Macintosh 2.0 is a complete rewrite of the Macintosh version of this popular word processing program. It includes significant new features and avoids the quirks and idiosyncrasies of other versions. The program provides macros, drawing features, and easy methods for using styles. The Draw Overlay provides layout capabilities far superior to Word 4. The program has outstanding documentation and support. There are still some bugs in this version and some design problems that need improvement. WordPerfect for Macintosh 2.0 is considered a good value at its $495 list price. Ray Dream Designer's new interface makes 3-D shapes easy to create: but offers limited modeling, rendering. (Software Review) Ray Dream Designer, from Ray Dream Inc, is a modeling and rendering program for creating photo-realistic images. Its innovative interface makes it easier to create three-dimensional objects and scenes than with any of the other programs in this category. The modeling and rendering capabilities of the program are somewhat limited, however, and it lacks the capability for creating animations. The program contains a few bugs and has a limited number of shades. Ease of use is Ray Dream Designer's best feature, it is considered a good value at its $895 list price. P*INK a shade light on capabilities; SQL server lacks features, ease of use. (Software Review) (P*INK SQL 1.04) (evaluation) P*INK SQL 1.04 is the first SQL server for the Macintosh, but is a premature product that needs polish and is very difficult to use. The product is intended as a tool for programmers; it provides applications programming interfaces for several programming environments, including HyperCard, FoxBASE+/Mac and 4th Dimension, and furnishes a customizable relational-database server for networked Macs. The performance is good, but the program lacks tools and needs more work in almost every category. The program was developed by P*INK Software Engineering GmbH & Co and is supported in the US by MacVONK*USA. The product is considered a below-average value at its price, which begins at $2,275. How to find the right data server. (tutorial) Keenan, Vernon. Client/server computing requires the selection of the right data server. Data servers are changing the way computer-equipped offices run by storing data in a centralized fashion, eliminating redundant storage, reducing errors, and decreasing information transmission times. They also speed up file-server-based multi-user database applications. The relational database management system (RDBMS) server is different from a file server in that it contains built-in data organization and indexing capabilities. A reliable and fast RDBMS engine is the most important element in data server selection. The SQL-command processor should be able to handle all kinds of basic data definition and manipulation. Pay attention to the detail and quality of documentation and the availability of data dippers that are compatible with the server's applications programming interface (API). Security features, reliability and the quality of support are also important considerations. Putting the squeeze on backups; CTS-4 PlusM drive stores up to 2Gbytes on DAT. (digital audio tape) (includes a related article The CTS-4 PlusM digital audio tape (DAT) drive from Transitional Technology Inc uses hardware data compression to store 2Gbytes on a single tape cartridge. The unit will back up all the hard disks on a local area network (LAN). Data is compressed and decompressed in real time through the use of the new WangDAT 2600 mechanism. This is the first DAT for the Macintosh that has data-compression hardware built in. Its capacity rivals 8mm drives, speed is comparable, and the cost is considerably lower. Nightshift backup software is bundled with the unit to provide minimal backup features. The drive is considered an average value at its $4,995 list price. Mapping programs take the high road; Descartes, MapInfo define high end. (Software Review) (contains a related article comparing Two high-end desktop mapping programs are evaluated and compared. Descartes, from Intermap Inc, has a pseudo-Macintosh interface that makes the program cumbersome and exasperating to use. The file structure is unworkable and requires elaborate procedures for simple mapping operations. It lacks drawing tools and base maps must be purchased from the company. This is a below average product and not a good value at its $795 purchase price. MapInfo 1.02, from MapInfo Corp, is a powerful mapping program with a good interface and powerful relational-database capabilities. Base maps can be purchased, constructed from coordinate data or drawn on-screen. Business operations are easy to perform; multilayered maps are linked to internal and external databases to perform relational selections and queries. The data-import features need improvement. This is considered a very good value at its $695 purchase price. Color-printer choices expand as prices fall. (includes a related article on color printers that use plain paper) (buyers guide) A variety of color inkjet and thermal printers are now available and prices are beginning to fall. Inkjet printers are the least expensive, but require coated paper to produce acceptable quality. Thermal transfer printers are more expensive and provide better quality, but need special paper. Solid inkjet printers provide quality similar to that of thermal printers at about the same cost, but use plain paper. PostScript is apparently replacing QuickDraw as the leader in printer software. Fifteen thermal printers and six inkjet printers are compared. Hayes case casts shadow on market; modem makers fear licensing fees. A federal jury in San Francisco found that Everex Systems Inc, Omnitel Inc and Ven-Tel Inc deliberately infringed on a patent held by Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. The case may have far-reaching implications for the modem industry. About a dozen companies have contacted Hayes since the decision was rendered, inquiring about licensing. Hayes is requiring them to pay retroactive royalties and wants a check for $1 million before talking to them about licensing. This may put about half to three-quarters of the modem industry out of the market. Seventeen larger companies have already signed license agreements. Hayes denies requiring retroactive royalties and says it is dealing with each company based on the particular circumstances. The 1.75 percent royalty Hayes is requiring will amount to about $15 per modem. Reshaping the delicate art of skull surgery with a computer. Rosenthal, Elisabeth. Computers assist doctors in simulating skull surgery before an operation by providing three-dimensional (3D) images that can rotated, examined and manipulated. The new technology, which is fairly inexpensive, stacks dozens of horizontal CAT scans and builds 3D images of the patient's skull. Such 3D imaging no longer requires large computers that are very expensive to operate and maintain. Surgeons can now, with simulation and computer-aided design software that costs as little as $15,000, conduct safer and shorter skull reconstruction surgery after simulating complicated surgery on a computer. Physicians note that the use of computers to simulate surgery may become more widespread as programs become less expensive and easier to use. An example of the new programs is I-sight Inc's Montefiore software. Personal professors, pupils and pitfalls. (Individual Software's Professor Mac and Professor Windows software tutorials) The Professor Windows and Professor Mac are two $49.95 educational software packages from Individual Software Inc. They help users learn to use the Apple Computer Macintosh microcomputer interface and Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, two interfaces that were designed to make life much easier for microcomputer users. Professor Mac requires a Macintosh microcomputer with at least 512Kbytes of internal memory and Professor Windows requires a microcomputer with either a double-density 3.5-inch floppy drive or a high-density 5.25-inch floppy drive and the Windows 3.0 interface installed on the hard disk. Each program is easy to install and covers the basics as well as hardware and software related topics. Both software packages provide much information, even for already knowledgeable users of Windows and the Macintosh. The new, 2.0, version of Claris Corp's Hypercard is also discussed. The handwriting on the wall. (Personal Computers)(product development of pen-based computer operating systems) (column) Microsoft Corp and Go Corp are two software publishers that are currently developing operating systems for pen-based computers. The operating systems will be used on this new generation of computers that are operated by writing on the screen or a tablet with a pen-like stylus. The new pen-based computers are expected to find use in factories, warehouses, police departments, hospitals, restaurants and many other industries where workers must be on their feet a lot. Pen-based operating systems use a complex technology known as object orientation, which is being increasingly used in advanced computer programs. The pen-based operating systems also have a unique notebook interface. President is promoted by Alliant Computer. (Alliant Computer Systems Corp's Craig J. Mundie)(Business People) Alliant Computer Systems Corp's Pres and COO Craig J. Mundie, 41, is promoted to chief executive officer. Mundie succeeds Ronald H. Gruner, 43, who resigned as vice chairman and chief executive officer. Alliant Computer Systems is a maker of mini-supercomputers that has been losing sales and market share to Convex Computer Corp in the early 1990s. Mundie and Gruner, who co-founded the company in 1982, have very different management styles. Gruner comes from a hardware background while Mundie comes from a software engineering background. Mundie indicates that he is more oriented towards discussion and consensus. Mundie suggests that the company can be turned around in part by its shift from using proprietary microprocessors to building systems around more standard ones from Intel Corp. The FCC tries to reverse some overseas charges: it's prodding foreign phone carriers into cutting international rates. FCC Chmn Alfred Sikes plans to overhaul international long-distance telephone accounting rates that are negotiated between U.S. and foreign carriers. Present practice has accounting rates equal for both incoming and outgoing international calls, but foreign carriers benefit because the U.S. sends nearly twice as many calls as it receives. Foreign carriers also impose large fees for their internal calls making U.S.-bound calls much more expensive. The accounting rate is a negotiated payment passed between U.S. and foreign carriers for delivering each others' calls. The international phone service trade imbalance for 1991 is expected to reach $2.7 billion, up twice what it was for 1987. Sikes proposes a veto that the FCC may impose on deals struck between U.S. and foreign carriers if the agency feels negotiated accounting rates are too high. The sons of Apollo may outshine the original: the once-hot workstation maker has spawned a raft of upstarts. (Apollo Computer Former engineers of Apollo Computer Inc have started eight of their own companies. After Apollo Computer's business declined following several years of growth, HP forced cutbacks causing Apollo engineers to form startups of their own. David B. Leblang started Atria Software Inc and is furthering Apollo's software engineering work. R. Bruce McClure headed Apollo's Domain network technology and has formed Synernetics Inc, which specializes in fiber-optic technology. Electronic mail company Alfalfa Software Inc and Avid Technology, a video-editing systems manufacturer founded by former Apollo manager William J. Warner, are off to profitable starts. Fluent Machines Inc, started by former Apollo founder David L. Nelson, makes sound and video software for microcomputers. No more funny money for software makers: stricter accounting rules may force many to revise income figures. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants issues a set of accounting guidelines for the computer software industry that will be enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Software publishers now record sales when a customer pledges a purchase, but the new guidelines require accounting of sales when deliveries are made. The new practice will raise the balance of accounts receivables for most software publishers. Informix Software Inc, having adopted the new, conservative accounting practice, has laid off 15% of its workforce after reducing its revenue report by $13 million. Some computer companies that sell their products through dealers may not be affected by the new guidelines. Companies that sell software for minicomputers and mainframes and that offer combined services may find the new accounting practices difficult to implement. Bits & Bytes. Eng, Paul M. The Software Publishers Assn is increasing action taken against software piracy. Kemper Lesnik Organization settled out of court after being charged with illegally copying Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect software. In order to gain larger discounts for distributors, ASCII Group Inc and Inacomp Computer Centers Inc form a consortia of smaller dealers and specialized resellers. IBM sells PS/1 microcomputers to teachers through the National Education Assn for $2,249 including a printer and special software. NEC Technologies introduces its $1,099 MultiSync Reduced Magnetic Field monitor that emits lower levels of electromagnetic radiation. SelecTronics Inc plans to sell its Private Eye electronic reference tool to aircraft manufacturers and government agencies. Private Eye weighs less than 12 pounds and holds technical manuals in credit-card size cartridges. A small screen mounted on a head-band displays the text's image. Aim: action on frame-relay. (vendors form Frame Relay Implementors Forum) A group of vendors have formed the Frame Relay Implementors Forum to help speed the movement of the technology out of the laboratory and into the corporate environment. The group will focus on the development of US and international standards for frame relay and the interoperability of equipment to allow users to more speedily implement frame relay as a backbone network switching technology. Frame relay will benefit local area network (LAN) connections, but has not yet been developed to a point where disparate hardware can interact transparently. The origins of the consortia can be traced to a Sep 1990 agreement among cisco Systems, DEC, Northern Telecom and Stratacom on a local management interface (LMI) specification that defines frame relay connections of private-, public- and computer-networking equipment. More than 30 other vendors have since agreed to conform to the specification, and membership in the consortium currently stands at 42 members. User input will be actively sought by the consortium, and will most likely be obtained through the marketing development committee, which held its first meeting in early Feb 1991, in Reston, VA. Among those users already considering frame-relay are Motorola, FMC Corp, United Stationers, and Oracle Corp, which hopes to have frame relay in place by the end of 1991. Boeing, Dow try LAN sans wire. (Boeing Computer Services, Dow Chemical beta testing wireless Ethernet from Motorola) Boeing Computer Services and Dow Chemical Inc hope a wireless Ethernet local area network will help them acheieve lower costs and more flexibility in LAN configuration. The two firms are serving as beta test sites for the Motorola network, officially debuted at the NetWorld '91 trade show in early February. The network, called Altair, is comprised of 18 GHz user and control modules that transmit and receive in the microwave radio spectrum. Standard Ethernet connectors are used between the user module and microcomputers, and each user module can support as many as six Ethernet devices, including printers as well as microcomputers. Each control module can serve up to 32 Ethernet devices, through the user module connections, and broadcasts signals in a 5,000-square-foot area designated a 'microcell'. Elimination of cables simplifies the setting up and reconfiguration of networks. The microwave spectrum is licensed through the Federal Communications Commission, and Motorola has 600 licenses nationwide. Each LAN user will receive a license, which comes with a high and low frequency. Through 'reusing', a technique in which the high and low frequencies are alternated, a microcell can address more than 32 users. IBM to sell NetWare; work on LAN links. (IBM, Novell reach product development, resale agreement) IBM and Novell reveal a joint development plan for future versions of the NetWare network operating system (NOS) and a resale agreement that will allow IBM to sell the NOS to its large business accounts, which have been putting pressure on IBM to support the dominant NOS. An earlier, limited agreement allows IBM to resell NetWare to educational institutions. The two firms plan to provide NetWare support for the OS/2 and AIX environments with the release of version 3.2 of NetWare, expected to be delivered by the end of 1992. Other plans include the provision of management of NetWare local area networks (LANs) through IBM's NetView mainframe-based network management system and the development of interoperability between NetWare and LAN Server, the IBM version of Microsoft's LAN Manager. At the same time, Novell debuts NetWare 3.11, to be available in Mar 1991. New capabilities added to the latest version of the NOS include support for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and NetWare File Transfer, Access and Management. NetWare's relationship to IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA) is also clarified, with Novell demonstrating a NetWare extension service for SAA, included as part of NetWare 3.11, which provides connectivity between NetWare LANs and IBM hosts running the MVS, VM, and OS/400 operating systems over IBM Synchronous Data Link Control and Token-Ring networks. NetWare for SAA will be provided free of charge until Sep 30, 1991. Tariff 12 tool: study helps AT&T users compare how their services, costs stack up. MBG Associates Ltd has published a study of cost-per-minute averages for voice services for 80 of the 85 options available under AT&T's Tariff 12. The study could be a useful tool for Tariff 12 users wishing to renegotiate their current contracts. First National Bank of Chicago used the report as one of its tools and successfully renegotiated its Tariff 12 contract for lower rates despite the fact that the current contract still had five years to run. The report, which includes charts and tables examining costs per minute, total minutes per month, lengths of contracts and total costs, and provides summaries of each option, is seen by many users as a good place to start when considering a renegotiation. Others, however, believe the report is oversimplified. The report does provide interesting grounds for comparing Tariff 12 options. Final costs are more similar than different, but some of the differences that do exist are significant. One thing the report does point out is that user size has little impact on rate differences. Other factors that do impact rates are the number of calls made on the customer network, the percentage of inbound '800' service calls, and the percentage of international calls. Rates available at the time the contract was negotiated also may account for some differences. Lotus buys e-mail: Notes and cc:Mail connection planned. (Lotus Development Corp to acquire cc:Mail Inc.) Lotus Development Corp unveils plans to acquire cc:Mail Inc in a deal to be completed in Mar 1991. cc:Mail holds over 30 percent of the local area network (LAN) electronic-mail market. Initial plans call for establishing e-mail connections between low-end LAN users running cc:Mail software and large-user sites running Lotus Notes, a client-server communications package. Lotus hopes through the connection to draw cc:Mail users to Notes. The two packages will be connected via a gateway to allow swapping of e-mail. Further plans are still sketchy. There are no plans for full integration of cc:Mail and Notes, but the two firms will co-develop future products, which will be distributed work-group applications. Details of the acquisition are also sparse. No financial data is available; cc:Mail will become a subsidiary of Lotus. The deal may turn out to be the first of many similar mergers, acquisitions and technology-sharing agreements resulting from a shakeout in the LAN e-mail market, currently growing at about 70 percent per year. The Lotus-cc:Mail arrangement also drew attention to the e-mail plans of Microsoft. While the firm declined to reveal details of e-mail plans for its MS-DOS operating system, it is said to be considering two options. It could resell Consumer Software's Network Courier package, through an OEM deal reached in 1990. Or it could wait and debut an internally developed e-mail package for MS-DOS. A prototype OS/2 e-mail system is already on deck at Microsoft. IBM works to develop fiber-based MAN product. (fiber-optic metropolitan area network) IBM is working to complete technical development of a 1.13-gigabit-per-second (Gbps) version of its fiber-based metropolitan area network (MAN), Cyclic Reservation Multiple Access (CRMA). The network has the potential to operate at up to 2.4 Gbps, far beyond what is currently available. QPSX Communications Pty Ltd's Distributed Queue Data Bus (DQDB) MAN currently offers a top speed of 140 megabits per second. CRMA is somewhat similar to DQDB, but has superior network access methods, allowing it to provide faster, better-quality communications at high speeds. Target market for CRMA is as a backbone connecting LANs and image applications. IBM is said to be promoting CRMA to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute MAN technical committee as the basis for networks operating at speeds above 1 Gbps. DQDB has been selected to serve as the basis of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' 802.6 MAN standard. Northern reshuffles: reorganizes for better sales, service. (Northern Telecom Ltd.) Northern Telecom Ltd has reorganized along geographical and product lines to minimize redundant calls on customers and to provide better response to global-networking requirements. The new organizational structure has four geographical divisions and three product divisions: Northern Telecom U.S., Northern Telecom Canada, STC/Northern Telecom Europe, Northern Telecom Asia/Pacific, Northern Telecom Private Networks, Northern Telecom Public Networks, and Northern Telecom Wireless Networks. The Public Networks group will oversee switching, transmission and cable products, the Private Networks operation will handle key systems, data networks and terminals, and PBXs, and the Wireless Systems division will have responsibility for cellular and personal communications networks. Northern's customers have been urging the firm to find some way of reducing the number of sales people contacting customer accounts. In addition to simplifying business relationships with customers, the new structure will provide regional units with the opportunity to be more involved with sales and service, while the technical units will be free to oversee design, development and delivery of products, and will streamline manufacturing costs. A new LAN plan: AT&T, Banyan joining for broad approach to LAN marketing. AT&T and Banyan Systems Inc announce plans for cooperative marketing and distribution of local area networks. It is also announced that Banyan will certify that the symmetric-multiprocessor (SMP) version of AT&T's StarServer E can run Vines SMP. Symmetric multiprocessing is a technique for distributed processing of server-related tasks, and Vines SMP is the first major network operating system that makes full use of its capabilities. Vines is already certified to run on the single-processor version of the StarServer E. AT&T and Banyan already have a relationship through which they have been cooperating on engineering and standards, and the two firms demonstrate e-mail, distributed-database and network-management interoperability between Vines and AT&T's StarGroup LAN Manager at NetWorld '91. The companies promise to extend interoperability between Vines and AT&T platforms, increase support for Open Systems Interconnection standards, and share technical information freely. A high priority is placed on providing Vines-related products with advanced network management features, including links to AT&T's Unified Network Management Architecture and IBM's NetView. There is no financial transaction involved in the extension of the relationship between the two firms, although AT&T does not rule out licensing some of Banyan's technology. Ongoing negotiations between AT&T and NCR Corp do not affect the AT&T/Banyan relationship. Cellular competitor. (Federal Communications Commission okays combination of digital switching and transmission techniques with The Federal Communications Commission has approved a request by Fleet Call Inc, a New Jersey-based provider of specialized mobile radio services, to enhance its service by combining digital switching and transmission techniques with frequency reuse. The enhancement, which should increase frequency capacities some 15 times, will also make the services more competitive with cellular phone services, and was strongly opposed by cellular companies, which charged tha Fleet Call was trying to bypass federal regulations and private radio rules without exposing itself to public debate. The extent of competition the enhanced services will present to cellular service is not yet clear. Subscribers will first have to replace their current radios with new, enhanced models that will be slightly more expensive than current cellular phones. Monthly service charges and per-minute fees are expected to remain stable. The dispatch service fees currently range between $16 and $25, while connection to the public network ranges from $35 to $65 per month, Per minute fees vary, but average between $25 and $55 per month. Cellular monthly fees are roughly comparable, while cellular per minute fees range between 30 cents and 70 cents. Low-end mobile phones cost about $300, high-end portables about $4,000. MCI switch upgrade under way. Sweeney, Terry. MCI Communications Corp has begun the installation of new switching equipment that will streamline its network, provide more processing power, and allow the firm to offer frame-relay and SMDS and provide new T1 and DS-3 services more easily. Full deployment of the new switches will take two years. Once that has been accomplished the savings produced will be passed along to the consumer, said a spokesman for MCI. The new equipment includes 600E tandem switches from DSC Communications Corp and Enet switching modules from Northern Telecom Inc. In addition to integrated services digital network (ISDN) and Signaling System 7(SS7), the new switches will also support MCI's calling-card, '800' and Vnet virtual private network services, and will speed development of intelligent network services. The savings expected from the new network will accrue from a reduction in the amount of central office equipment and cabling, and the ability to test the network and provide services more quickly. The equipment will also make it possible for the company to eliminate the cross-connect technology it has been relying on to provide switched T1 and DS-3 services. Medical-research networking: talking shop. (interview with Mohamed el Lozy, network manager at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) Mohamed el Lozy is the manager of the LMAnet installation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a hospital affiliated with Harvard University. LMAnet links the networks of Harvard's two schools of medicine and four affiliated hospitals, including Dana-Farber. LMAnet is a fiber-based star network with a centralized hub consisting of two interconnected routers located at Dana-Farber and a router at each institution. El Lozy discusses the makeup of Dana-Farber's internal network and the protocols run on the various networks. In particular, he discusses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which controls both LMAnet and the Dana-Farber internal network. El Lozy offers the opinion that SNMP is still in a state of transition and that its monitoring capabilities exceed its management capabilities. El Lozy also discusses plans for expansion of the LMAnet, which include greater interoperability between the institutions, and the possibility of adding Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) capability to support transmission of radiological images. U.K. plans E-mail standard: vendors would have to interconnect systems. The United Kingdom will adopt a new standard for electronic mail systems that will require service providers wishing to be designated administrative management domains (ADMDs) to interconnect their services within the UK. The standard is currently in draft form, and is expected to serve as a prototype for other European countries and the US, where a study group of the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee is expected to use the specification as the basis for an addressing and administrative infrastructure for X.400 Message Handling System traffic. In the UK the standard will also make it easier for private E-mail user groups run by multinational corporations to connect with more than one ADMD. The standard is designed to address major user concerns with e-mail: lack of interconnection among ADMDs, supplier lock-in and local registration. Lannet, RAD unveil SMDS ware: mgm't tool runs on Intel 80386 & Sun gear. Lannet Data Communications and RAD Network Devices have jointly developed Simple Network Management Protocol software that runs on the Intel 80386 microprocessor and on Sun Microsystems workstations. MultiMan/386 runs on an Intel 80386-based platform and is geared toward managing Lannet's hub products. Release 1.0 is already available. Release 1.5, due out in Mar 1991, will add automatic database recognition of SNMP nodes on a network; release 2.0, scheduled for the second quarter, will add support for managing routers and topology mapping capabilities. Pricing begins at $3,995. MultiMan, designed to run on a Sun-4 workstation, is expected to ship in Apr 1991. It will manage products from both Lannet and RAD. The Sun-based software package is priced at $5,995 and includes the kernel and a choice of either hub- or router-management capabilities. Separately, the hub- and router-management packages are priced at $1,995 each. A terminal-server application is planned for inclusion in the Lannet hub product, but no price has been set. Looking at Windows: barriers now, but future seems clear. (results of research by Forrester Research Inc.) Two recent reports by Forrester Research Inc seem to confirm Microsoft Corp's new view of the network software market, which holds that Windows will become the dominant interface for corporate network clients, with LAN Manager and OS/2 gaining popularity in the server software arena. One Forrester report predicts the adoption of Windows as the standard client interface for Fortune 1000 companies. Hardware upgrade costs are seen as the single greatest barrier to widespread Windows implementation by about 50 percent of those interviewed for the study, while a lack of Windows versions of popular business software applications is cited by 40 percent. Announcements made at NetWorld '91 in early February have changed some of the views expressed in the second Forrester report, says Forrester founder and president George Colony. The study predicted that Novell's NetWare operating system was facing its first serious challenge from LAN Manager with the release of version 2.0, and predicted that NetWare would lose about one-third of its Fortune 1000 customers to various versions of LAN Manager. However, after IBM's NetWorld announcement of support for NetWare on its AS/400 midrange systems, Forrester's Colony says LAN Manager as a separate Microsoft product is all but dead, and predicts the IBM/Novell arrangement will lead to further strain on the relationship of IBM and Microsoft. Oracle eyes frame-relay: large LAN user awaits Netrix tests. Schultz, Beth. Oracle Corp is awaiting the results of internal frame-relay tests to be conducted by Netrix Corp before making a final decision on whether to implement the technology throughout its global enterprise network. Oracle is seen as an excellent candidate for frame-relay, which is being presented as the best method for transmitting data among interconnected local area networks (LANs). Frame-relay has limited error-detection and correction facilities, allowing it to move data faster than the X.25 packet-switching technology that Oracle's backbone network is currently based on. Frame relay, operating at high speeds, is fast, supports multiple users on a single line, and can efficiently handle the irregular bursts of data generated on a LAN. Though the speed offered by frame-relay is attractive, an Oracle spokesman voiced concern that the packet-processing technology has not yet been proved in live networks, noting that Oracle would like to test the technique in situations where bandwidth demand exceeds supply. The spokesman said he would also like to learn how to reconfigure the network if that would achieve better cost efficiencies. Access rates could change: FCC weighs shift to cost-based charges. (for access to local telephone companies' facilities) The Federal Communications Commission is considering a possible switch from its current policy of requiring all carriers to pay the same rates for access to local Bell operating company (BOC) facilities to a cost-based pricing mechanism. A change could directly affect customer costs for carrier services and could effectively drive many small and medium-sized carriers out of business. The current policy is based on an obscure point in the AT&T divestiture order that is about to expire. In response to the rule, the FCC waived a provision of its own access-charge rules that required telcos to charge carriers different rates, according to the actual cost of the service. In the face of the expiration of the divestiture provision, the FCC must decide whether to continue the waiver. In the absence of the waiver, AT&T, which relies mainly on dedicated circuits for connection to BOC central office facilities, would have a distinct advantage over other carriers, who use more costly tandem switching technology. US Sprint is investigating the possibility of building or leasing dedicated links to the BOCs' central offices, but that could be too costly to sustain for some smaller end offices. The BOCs themselves are reportedly viewing the expiration of the rule with some concern, in light of the increased competition they are facing from alternative local access carriers. J.C. Penney testing PRI: wants to improve services, keep costs down. Retailer J.C. Penney Co is engaged in a test of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines. The trial, expected to conclude in sthe spring of 1991, is designed to simulate the environment of a Penney store, and may be extended beyond the original six-month period to include an actual site. The trial is limited to an interLATA (local access and transport area) basis and is being used to test an imaging application that could supplement the Direct Broadcast System very-small aperture terminal (VSAT) network currently used in the firm's nationwide merchandising process. The ultimate goal of the trial, from Penney's standpoint, is to determine whether PRI can meet increasing bandwidth requirements without increasing costs. PRI services are also being tested by Northern Telecom at its Richardson, TX site. Most Bell operating companies have heretofore focused on offering Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN, but a spokesman for Southwestern Bell said that upon completion of the Penney and Northern Telecom trials, it plans to file a tariff for PRI in the summer or fall of 1991. CloseUp: private networks. (panel discussion) Wilde, Candee; Roeckl, Chris. Seven Wall Street securities analysts participate in a round table discussion of issues affecting the private networking industry. Among the topics discussed are possible new focuses of vendors resulting from the flattening PBX market, a comparison of the flattening of the PBX market with that occurring in the T1 market, the effects of movement toward AT&T's Tariff 12 services and away from T1, emerging trends in network management alternatives, the state of the videoconferencing market, the potential impact of such technologies as frame relay and circuit-switching, the satellite communications market, and the increasing use of outsourcing. Participants in the discussion are Susan Kalla of Northern Business Information, Maria Lewis of Shearson Lehman, Mary McCaffrey of C.J. Lawrence, Eric Buck of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; George Kelly of Morgan Stanley, Fred Ziegel of Punk, Ziegel & Knoll; and Steven Levy of Hambrecht & Quist. Profits plunge at DSC: revenues for 1990 rose to record levels. (DSC Communications Corp.) (company profile) DSC Communications Corp reports record revenue for both its fourth quarter and fiscal 1990, yet income for those same periods is down some 40 percent. Net income for the year falls to $20.1 million, from $33.3 million, while income for the fourth quarter is reported at $6.9 million, down from $11.6 million in the same period one year earlier. Annual revenue is reported as $519.3 million, up from $429.7 million in 1989. Fourth-quarter revenue of $154.6 million is up 19.6 percent from 1989 earnings of $129.3 million in the same quarter. DSC Chmn and CEO James Donald attributes the growth in revenue primarily to initial deliveries of the firm's new tandem switch platform Megahub 600E, along with increased demand for cross-connect products and revenue from two companies acquired in 1990, Integrated Telecom Corp and Optilink Corp. Donald blames worsening economic conditions and the acquisition of a major DSC customer, believed by one analyst to be Telecom*USA Long Distance Co which was acquired by MCI, for the slip in profitability. Products ease mgm't burden: NetWorld intros include LAN, bridge and hub gear. (product announcement) The NetWorld '91 show, held during the week of Feb 11, saw the introduction of several products designed to ease the task of local area network management. Madge Networks debuted an enhanced version of its token-ring network management system, Ring Manager II, priced at $3,195, or as an upgrade from Ring Manager I for $1,995. Madge also introduced a token-ring source routing bridge, the Smart AT Bridge, for $3,995. Both products will be available in April. Racal-Interlan introduced Roll Call, a standalone network management system for its network interface cards that is based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Roll Call will also be available in April, at a cost of $995. SynOptics Communications revealed a small hub for 10Base-T networks, the 2810 Managed 10Base-T Workgroup Concentrator, with 12 microcomputer ports and one Attachment Unit Interface port. An SNMP agent allows the hub to be controlled by SynOptics' LattisNet Basic Management System, which is available as an option, or any other SNMP-based management station. Prices range from $2,295 to $2,595, depending on options, and the unit will be available by mid-May. IBM planning new workstation line; 'RS/5000' to battle Sun RISC machines. (product announcement) IBM introduces the RS/5000 series of low-end, small-footprint Micro Channel workstations priced from under $5,000 to $35,000 and expected to ship in the 3rd qtr of 1991. The machines will be based on a higher-integration version of IBM's 'Americas' RISC processor used in the RS/6000 workstation series, but it will have scaled-down features and performance in a smaller design. An IBM spokesman says that the company's VLSI technology will allow the seven custom VLSI chips now on several boards in the RS/6000 to be placed on a single planar board in the RS/5000. The new machine will have full application binary interface compatibility with the RS/6000 and run existing applications; the company also plans to upgrade capacity and graphics in the RS/6000. The RS/5000 will be positioned as an office desktop workstation, much like Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation SLC, according to an IBM source. IBM, Novell strengthen ties; NetWare at center of accord. Shore, Joel; Zarley, Craig. IBM agrees to resell Novell Inc's NetWare products in a move many analysts see as a concession that LAN Server by itself cannot meet the local area network operating system needs of users. IBM Personal Systems Gen Mgr Jim Cannavino says future NetWare versions will support OS/2-based servers and IBM's RS/6000 UNIX workstation; IBM will develop software allowing NetWare to interoperate with IBM's LAN Server network operating system based on Microsoft's LAN Manager. Novell Exec VP of Marketing and Services Darrell Miller says the interoperability software is being written for NetWare 3.2, which is expected to ship in 1992. Novell Chmn and CEO Ray Noorda says the agreement will not affect the company's Platinum resellers, although he says it will raise questions among distributors and dealers; he emphasizes that Novell's customers are the most important factor in the agreement. Lotus betting on the VAR channel. (Lotus Development Corp.'s initiatives intended to increase software distribution through Lotus Development Corp announces two initiatives intended to increase software distribution through value-added resellers (VARs), which the company considers one of its most strategic distribution partners. Lotus's Notes Alliance Partners program will be amended to designate some alliance partners as Notes VARs. The company also will sell greater numbers of 1-2-3 through VARs, systems integrators and consultants. The two moves are the strongest indication to date of Lotus's commitment to VARs, according to Lotus Dir of Solutions Marketing Al Stoddard. As many as 50 alliance partners will be designated as Notes VARs; Notes marketing depends on direct-sales specialists, systems integrators and product developers. Lotus is hoping VARs, particularly those with networking experience, will increase its presence in smaller and more vertical markets. Software sales on rise; VARs turn bullish on automation apps. (a report from Information Systems Marketing Inc. on value-added A report from marketing services firm Information Systems Marketing Inc claims that value-added resellers (VARs) may be key to increased sales of sales-automation software through 1995. The report finds that efforts in the sales-automation software market have been thwarted to date by a failure to identify appropriate target markets and distribution paths. Increasing VAR participation and tighter integration of technology could help transform the niche market into a mainstream product category, according to the report, but companies must pay attention to users' needs. Factors expected to drive the sales-automation software market include wider availability of lighter portable computers with increased memory, sophisticated network and communications technology for online ordering, telemarketing and other functions requiring instant access to large databases, and the integration of what have long been separate functions. Group close to workstation accord: Compaq, DEC, others unite. (standardization on hardware and software platforms for A group of computer firms is working to establish a standard hardware and software platform for workstations based on Mips Computer Systems Inc's R4000 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor. The group includes Compaq, DEC, Microsoft, Santa Cruz Operation, Mips Computer Systems and Silicon Graphics; the results of its work may be announced as early as mid-March 1991. The group is referred to informally by members as the Open Systems Consortium, but no formal name has yet been adopted. A standard hardware platform for workstations would let software publishers develop compatible operating system software and applications that run across all workstations based on the architecture. Workstation analyst for Hambrecht & Quist Inc Robert Herwick says Microsoft wants to take the lead in the software area, Mips is hoping for high volumes, and Compaq is trying to break the monopoly now held by IBM and Intel. Value-added reseller is key to Apple's strategy. (Jostens Learning Corp. key to Apple Computer Inc.'s efforts in the K-12 education Jostens Learning Corp, an education value-added reseller, is key to Apple Computer Inc's strategy in the K-12 education market, particularly in light of IBM's recent moves in the market. Jostens, which also publishes curriculum software, can help increase Apple's share of the K-12 market; the VAR announced in Jan 1991 that it would be exempt from the restrictions placed by Apple on its Education Sales Consultants and will be free to continue its VAR relationships with Tandy Corp and IBM. Apple Education Sales Consultants will be prohibited from selling competing CPUs to K-12 customers as of Apr 15, 1991. Jostens relies primarily on its ability to integrate learning systems running on networked microcomputers in computer lab environments; the firm claims to be the largest educational software vendor in the world, with sales of $121 million in FY 1990. Adobe has big PostScript plans; developer's strategy: make printer language a broad standard. (Adobe Systems Inc. Chmn John Warnock Adobe Systems Inc will add extensions to PostScript intended to widen the printer language's applicability as a standard. Adobe Chmn John Warnock says PostScript may eventually be able to handle facsimile transmissions and process electronic documents with sound, animation and video. Warnock will discuss Adobe's PostScript development plans at a meeting of the New York Personal Computer User Group. Warnock foresees an electronic paper comprised of files that are able to represent anything printable; the files would be sent autonomously around networks of computers. PostScript may some day work with hypermedia technology for online documentation in military, automotive, insurance and other such applications. An editable version of PostScript could theoretically store and transmit files that could be edited by any user working in any operating environment. Vendors align with VARs: in pursuit of small business. (value-added resellers) Hardware vendors plan to use value-added resellers (VARs) increasingly in their attempts to target small and mid-sized businesses. DEC is recruiting hundreds of VARs to sell its Intel 80486-based systems to small and medium-sized businesses. Other vendors offering new programs and incentives for existing VARs to pursue the small- and medium-business markets are AT&T, Apple, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Analysts expect VARs depending primarily on Fortune 1000 accounts to experience declines as those firms reduce spending in the near-term due to a slowed economy. It is often difficult for large vendors to afford the cost of marketing to accounts in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and they rely increasingly on VARs to gain share in this market. Sun Microsystems claims 75 to 80 percent of its future sales potential is in small and mid-sized business markets. NetWorld sparks new deals; Banyan, AT&T, IBM, Novell all unveil partnerships. (NetWorld '91 in Boston) While IBM's announcement of its alliance with Novell Inc dominated the headlines at NetWorld '91 in Boston, several other vendors announced deals of significance as well. Novell's NetWare 3.11 upgrade of its 80386-based network operating system will include built-in support for TCP/IP and Simple Network Management Protocol. Banyan Systems Inc and AT&T Computer Systems will jointly develop and sell products that integrate the computing resources of large organizations into a unified network. The agreement calls for AT&T to certify versions of Banyan's VINES and VINES symmetrical multiprocessing network operating system to run on AT&T's StarServer E computers. DEC's Pathworks 4.0 for DOS clients is a network operating system based on Microsoft's LAN Manager and that supports Windows 3.0, the Network Device Interface Specification and Digital Communication Associates Inc's 3270 terminal emulation products. Sun forms units to push software, ease backlogs. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sun Microsystems Inc creates SunTech Enterprises Inc and SunSoft Inc, two wholly owned subsidiaries intended to broaden the market for the company's software and eliminate order backlogs. SunTech Enterprises will be headed by Pres Eric Schmidt, formerly General Systems Group VP; the company will handle the marketing and development of value-added software and hardware products. SunSoft will be headed by Pres Ed Zander, formerly Marketing VP; the company will develop and distribute Sun's systems software and related products. Sun hopes the move will allow it to focus on specific markets while at the same time providing better access to products for SPARC-compatible manufacturers and letting Sun sell systems software for other hardware platforms. Schmidt says the new companies may stimulate the SPARC-compatible market. Wireless LAN tests channel reaction. (Motorola Inc.'s Altair wireless Ethernet local area network) (product announcement) Motorola Radio-Telephone Systems Group introduces the Altair wireless Ethernet local area network, but the company has not yet been able to convince value-added resellers (VARs) and computer dealers to carry the product. Reseller contracts are currently being negotiated with ComputerLand and MicroAge, and executives for the two firms expect to conclude an agreement by the spring of 1991. Motorola will use national distributors to reach VARs and is negotiating with Tech Data Corp and Vitek Distribution Systems Inc. Motorola hopes to authorize between 500 and 600 resellers and VARs by Aug 1991, according to Altair Product Operations National Distribution Mgr Glen Kephart; Kephart is drafting the company's reseller authorization program. MicroAge plans to target CPAs, military installations, manufacturers and companies with large warehouses. Borland debuts Windows compiler, tool. (Borland International Inc.'s ObjectVision) (product announcement) Borland International Inc introduces the ObjectVision visual programming tool for Windows users and a professional compiler for creating DOS and Windows 3.0 applications. Borland Chmn Philippe Kahn says ObjectVision will serve as a key building block in the company's Windows product strategy; it will cost $99.95 through May 31, 1991, and $495 thereafter, and a runtime license will be available for distributing applications created with the program. ObjectVision uses forms technology to assemble basic fields required by the application interface; users then define requirements for specific fields by using familiar spreadsheet logic. ObjectVision uses dynamic data interchange to connect to other Windows applications; it also connects to such databases as Paradox, Ashton-Tate's dBase and Novell's Btrieve. Borland C++, a $495 object-oriented compiler for professional developers, was also introduced. IBM flexes muscle as Microsoft keeps lead. (Random Access) (column) IBM's agreement with Novell to resell NetWare through its direct sales force and reseller channel is a blow against Microsoft's LAN Manager. The move shows the friction in the IBM-Microsoft alliance, but the two companies are currently too important to each other for a real falling-out to occur. There will likely be much more opportunity for alliances among IBM and Microsoft competitors, which is good for the industry. IBM has been unable to make its Micro Channel Architecture a microcomputer industry standard, and it has had limited success with OS/2; Microsoft has moved away from OS/2 and toward Windows. IBM is not willing to abandon its OS/2 strategy, and the company has reportedly reserved some money to fight Microsoft on OS/2. There is much speculation that IBM is preparing for a large, open push in the microcomputer market to regain lost momentum, and Microsoft may not benefit. Company-owned superstores not part of IE's plan. (Intelligent Electronics Inc.) Intelligent Electronics Inc will stock spare parts for its franchisees by the end of 1991 and limit its new superstore division to a franchise-based operation. Intelligent Electronics Franchise Div Pres Jim Ciccarelli says the retail strategy will be offered to franchisees of Connecting Point, Entre Computer Centers and Todays Computer Business Centers only. Resellers had earlier expressed concern about a company-owned unit in the company's Exton, PA, headquarters, but Ciccarelli says the Intelligent Electronics does not plan to spend for company-owned locations and will use them only to stay in markets where the franchisee is in trouble or going out of business. Ciccarelli also says that company-owned stores pay the same cost-plus price for products as franchisees, but some dealers claim the company-owned stores have more resources available and can qualify for the lowest markup. Fujitsu touts speed of new 2G-byte hard drive. (Fujitsu America Inc.'s M2652) (product announcement) Fujitsu America Inc introduces the $5,995 M2652 5.25-inch hard disk drive with 2Gbytes of capacity (1.6Gbytes formatted), an average seek time of 11 milliseconds and a 4.8Mbytes-per-second data transfer rate, which the company claims is the fastest available. Dataquest Inc expects the market for 5.25-inch drives with 1Gbyte or greater capacity to grow from 240,000 units sold in 1991 to one million in 1995. The fast data transfer speed is required to allow the drive to keep pace with ever-faster processing speeds in desktop computers, according to Fujitsu OEM Div Sr VP and Gen Mgr Michael Gluck. Versions of the drive are available with the SCSI 2 and IPI interfaces: IPI is intended for high-end users, while SCSI 2 is less expensive and easier to integrate, according to Gluck. A matter of life: computer executive Wes Richards' battle against time. (disease strikes the family of former IBM, Software The family of Wes Richards, who has worked for IBM, Software Publishing Corp and Ashton-Tate Corp, has been struck by a rare neurological disease called adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). Terri Richards, Wes's 37-year-old wife, and their two sons, Jordan, age 7, and Ryan, age 4, have been diagnosed with ALD, which could be fatal for the boys and permanently debilitating to their mother. Bone marrow transplants are required from healthy donors, but there is only a one-tenth of one percent chance of finding a potential donor for every 250,000 people tested, and there are over 9,000 people waiting for donors. ALD allows fatty acids to accumulate in the brain's white matter and in the adrenal gland, which is believed to keep the cells from functioning. Few resources are allocated for research on the disease because it is so rare, but the Richards' are raising funds to help the fight. Graphics firms ride wave. (Micrografx Inc. and Corel Systems Corp. see sales of their graphics applications boom on Windows' Micrografx Inc and Corel Systems Corp report large increases in revenue in their most recent fiscal quarters as a result of sales of their graphics applications running under Microsoft Windows. Media Research Inc Pres Bill Coggshall says the total graphics software market exceeded $720 million in 1990, and analysts expect the growth to continue, providing considerable opportunities for expansion for Micrografx and Corel. Micrografx recorded revenue of $8.3 million in its 3rd qtr ended Dec 31, 1990, up 99 percent from sales of $4.2 million in the year-earlier period; net income rose to $1.2 million, or 24 cents a share, in the period, compared with $12,000 in earnings, or less than one cent a share, in the same period of 1989. Corel reported $1.9 million in net income, or 18 cents a share, in its 4th qtr ended Nov 30, 1990, on sales of $10.5 million; year-earlier figures were $1.1 million, 13 cents a share and $6.7 million. Merger a success; Ingram logs record 4Q, fiscal year. (Ingram Micro Inc., result of the merger of Ingram Computer Inc. and Micro Ingram Micro Inc reports sales of $432 million in its 4th qtr ended Dec 29, 1990, an increase of 41 percent from the same period a year earlier; annual sales reached $1.46 billion, up 43 percent from the earlier year. Ingram's growth outpaced that of the distributor sector as a whole, which Bob Anastasi of The Robinson-Humphrey Co estimates at 21 percent in 1990. Analysts point out that Ingram Micro's selling, general and administration (SG&A) expenses have long been among the lowest in the industry; Ingram Micro Pres David Dukes would not release SG&A figures, saying only that those expenditures had actually sequentially declined as a percent of revenue. Dukes says the firm was able to increase domestic market share by 4 or 5 percent to a total of 26 percent of the reseller market. Compaq European sales help boost 4Q net 70% Hubbard, Holly. Compaq Computer Corp reports net income of $135 million, or $1.50 a share, in its 4th qtr ended Dec 31, 1990, an increase of 70 percent from the $79 million, or 92 cents a share, earned in the year-earlier period; revenue in the quarter was up 27 percent to $1 billion from $788 million in the same period a year earlier. The company recorded net income of $455 million, or $5.12 a share, for the year on sales of $3.6 billion. Compaq's stock rose $3.50 to $66.75 after the announcement of the 4th qtr numbers. Among the factors cited by Compaq COO Eckhard Pfeiffer for the strong performance are aggressive pricing actions in Aug 1990, buoyant international sales (which outpaced North American sales for the first time) and new product sales. Overseas revenue accounted for 54 percent of Compaq's total sales in 1990, or about $2 billion, an increase of 49 percent from 1989; North American sales grew only five percent. Computer firms hampered; recession in Australia slows PC growth, buying habits. The recession has hit Australia's computer industry, and growth in the sector, which has been consistently strong, is starting to slow. Interest rates at record highs of as much as 15.1 percent and an 8 percent rate of inflation have contributed to lower customer demand and slower growth. International Data Corp's Australian unit Dir of Research and Consulting Alastair James says the company is pessimistic about a turnaround in the second half of 1991. Growth in Australia's information technology industry was 6 percent in 1990, according to International Data, compared to 11.4 percent in 1989. Sales of microcomputers increased 12 percent in the year, compared to a 17 percent increase recorded in 1989. The reseller shakeout continues in the country, which has led to an increase in direct sales for many top vendors, according to James. NLMs begin to stack up; but developers maintain a slow pace in joining the fray. (Netware Loadable Modules) Industry sources claim that resistance continues among developers toward creation of NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) despite the availability of NLMs from Novell and third parties. Forrester Research Inc Dir of Network Strategy Service Janet Hyland says that developers feel they must create NLMs because of the large number of NetWare users, but they hesitate because of the potential for such development problems as corrupted data and server crashes. Among the NLMs debuting at the NetWorld trade show in Boston in Feb 1991 were NetWare for the Macintosh 3.0 and NetWare NFS 1.1 from Novell, and such third-party NLMs as the Informix Online database NLM and the Open/image NLM and related products from Wang Laboratories Inc. Novell began an NLM certification program in 1989 that costs third-party vendors a $10,000 entry fee. X-terminals arena strong, competition taking shape. (product announcement) X-terminals are becoming available from a growing number of vendors, and existing manufacturers are bringing out new utilities and cutting prices. International Data Corp predicts 112 percent compound growth in units shipped worldwide from 1989 to 1994. Visual Technology showed its $4,495 X-19PQD Imaging Display Station at the UniForum show in Dallas in Jan 1991; the system, intended for photo-quality imaging, has eight-plane video with 256 levels of gray-scale and a 19-inch monitor with 1,280-by-1,024-pixel resolution. Also introduced were SunRiver Corp's Xcel Series of fiber-optic X stations priced from $1,999 to $2,999, and Human Designed Systems' three monochrome X-terminals priced from $1,499 for a 15-inch unit to $2,699 for a 19-inch unit. Hewlett-Packard lowered the prices of its X-terminal products, and Network Computing Devices Inc has introduced NCDware 2.3. Mips announces 64-bit RISC chip: next-generation R4000 boasts 50MHz speed. (Mips Computer Systems Inc.'s R4000) (product Mips Computer Systems Inc introduces the R4000 64-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor running at 50 MHz. The 64-bit architecture of the chip and its ability to process two instructions per cycle make it suitable for such applications as technical graphics, databases and others requiring large amounts of memory. The 64-bit architecture will lead to a new generation of software, but 32-bit applications software will run unmodified on the R4000 as well; operating system software will have to be rewritten for the chip; however, because it requires a new memory management kernel. The chip will come with Mips' version of UNIX. The R4000 differs from the company's R3000A chip in that it also has a built-in 64-bit floating point unit, 8Kbyte cache memory for instructions, 8Kbyte cache for data, and a memory management unit. SAI ships CPU box; PeeWee positioned as laptop alternative. (SAI Systems Laboratories Inc.'s PeeWee transportable microcomputer) SAI Systems Laboratories Inc introduces the PeeWee 12-MHz 80286-based transportable microcomputer that will be sold as an alternative to laptop systems. PeeWee comes in a CPU box weighing under five pounds with a 40Mbyte hard disk drive and measuring only 10-by-8-by-1.75 inches. Users place the optional monitor and keyboard at home or the office and transport the CPU, with all internal components, between the two. PeeWee lists for $1,295, including monitor and keyboard; an additional monitor and keyboard list for $195, which makes the total system cost about half that of a comparable laptop computer. Included are 1Mbyte of memory expandable to 2Mbytes, two RS-232C serial ports, a printer port, and a 1.44Mbyte 3.5-inch floppy drive. The 40Mbyte hard drive can be upgraded to 200Mbytes, and a LAN adapter is optional. Dell joins notebook arena; new service policy put into effect. (Dell Computer Corp.'s 212N and 320N notebook computers) (product Dell Computer Corp introduces the 212N notebook computer based on a 12-MHz Intel 80286 microprocessor and coming standard with a 20Mbyte hard disk drive for $2,399; a version with a 40Mbyte hard drive is also available. Also introduced by the company is the 320N notebook computer based on a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX and coming with a 30Mbyte hard drive for $3,399; a version with a 60Mbyte hard drive is also available. Both machines include 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 4Mbytes, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, two expansion slots for additional memory, and a dedicated slot for an optional Dell data/fax modem. The notebook computers come with VGA LCDs with resolutions of 640 by 480 pixels; they use a nickel-cadmium battery pack and a backup battery providing at least two minutes of operating time. CD-ROM on the rise; education, medical applications lead way. Nunoo, Mildred. The growing popularity of CD-ROMs is seeing the optical storage medium used in a broadening range of applications, led by medical and educational uses. Bureau of Electronic Publishing Inc CEO Larry Shiller says the most popular CD-ROMs at present are Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia, US History on CD-ROM and Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia. Shiller also cites the growing use of CD-ROMs for entertainment, such as the recent disks with Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 and Mozart's The Magic Flute that allow users to interact with the music as well as listen to it. Popular medical CD-ROM applications include the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) and Teton Data Systems' StatRef electronic library system comprised of 15 to 20 medical reference books. Analysts mixed on CD-ROMs' longevity; CD-ROM: Long-term storage solution or transitional medium? CD-ROMs are seen as the next step in storage media, but analysts disagree on whether the technology is the ultimate in data storage. Link Resources Corp VP of Electronic Services Steve Sieck says CD-ROMs are a transitional medium that may peak in the mid-1990s, eventually being replaced later in the decade by a less expensive hard disk technology. Sieck says the paper-intensive government may be the biggest market for CD-ROM applications, although he doubts CD-ROMs are universal enough to replace paper altogether for archival storage. Multimedia Computing Corp Pres Nick Arnett says the emergence of CD-ROM makes it easier to use computers because audio and visual information is easier to understand than a string of words; Arnett says the primary reason the government wants to do away with paper is that the massive volumes on Navy ships slows down their cruising speed. Portable computing: pen-based apps present new opportunities. (the success of pen-based operating systems depends on the availability The initial success of Go Corp's PenPoint and Microsoft's Pen Windows pen-based operating systems will depend on such vertical market applications as forms-based productivity packages and personal information managers. Developers will eventually have to emphasize links to current desktop systems and the strengths of the pen-based interface, according to analysts. Biscom Corp says the period through mid-1992 will be critical for the acceptance of forms-based applications for portable pen computers; the company claims that the market for pen-based computers may reach only $1.5 billion by 1995 if the focus remains too narrow, but it could also reach as high as $3.5 billion if the correct issues are addressed. Borland International, Lotus Development, Microsoft and WordPerfect are among the large developers announcing support for pen-based computing systems. Low-end sales on the rise: information management. (information management software market analysis) Increased sales of laptop computers have led to increased interest in the information management software market. Borland International has announced a revision of SideKick, its information management package released initially in 1984; version 2.0 adds a reconciliation function allowing users to merge appointments from a second schedule into the primary one and a time planner for performing communications functions without supervision. The $99.95 package includes an address book, time planner, notebook, calculator and communications and can be run on LANs; its auto-refresh feature updates the screen when a file is changed. Market Intelligence Research Corp estimates that annual sales of contact-management software will increase from $72 million in 1989 to $198 million by 1992. Among the other information managers described are Richmond Technologies & Software Inc's Maximizer 2.1 and Gallagher Systems Inc's InSync. Faxes within Windows apps. (Delrina Technology Inc.'s Winfax communications software for sending facsimile messages from within Delrina Technology Inc introduces the Winfax communications software package that lets users send facsimile messages from within any Microsoft Windows 3.0 application. The $69 package works with sending fax/modems based on Sierra Semiconductor's Sendfax chip set, which includes modems from Zoom Telephonics Inc, Cardinal Technologies Inc and Practical Peripherals, among others. The program is being sold by several of these board makers as well as by Sierra; Delrina has contacted facsimile modem OEMs interested in selling the program to their current installed base. Delrina is also planning joint promotions with major software resellers; the program is carried by distributors Ingram Micro Inc, Kenfil Distribution Inc, Merisel Inc and Software Resources Inc. An option is included that lets users assemble a fax document with data from more than one application. Piggyback sale is key. (Reference Software International bundles its Grammatik IV grammar-checking software with other software Reference Software International's Grammatik IV grammar-checking software package is bundled with WordPerfect, MultiMate, WordStar and other word processing packages, but it is also sold with Intuit's Quicken accounting package and other non-word processing applications. Reference Software VP of Sales and Marketing Jeff Mallett says the low margins for word processing packages cause resellers to look for products such as Grammatik IV that enhance sales; the company provides marketing kits for resellers to help them show users how a grammar checker works with a word processor. Que Corp is careful about promotions for its RightWriter 4.0 grammar-checking package to assure that margins are not inadvertently made too low, according to Que National Accounts Mgr Ted Beesley. Also described are the marketing strategies used by Lifetree Software for its Correct Grammar package and by Sensible Software for its Sensible Grammar program. The latest grammar checkers really help. (four grammar-checking software packages are compared) (Technical Analysis) (buyers Four grammar-checking software packages are analyzed and compared: Que Software's RightWriter, Reference Software International's Grammatik, Lifetree Software's Correct Grammar and Sensible Software's Sensible Grammar. The Macintosh versions of RightWriter, Grammatik and Sensible Grammar (which only comes in Mac and Apple II versions) were tested, as were DOS versions of RightWriter and Correct Grammar. Grammatik's interactive option is of questionable usefulness because it tends to flag too many possible problems that do not exist, but the program has a good interface. RightWriter focuses on mark-up mode, which works within Windows and MultiFinder but not in other environments. Correct Grammar lacks the continuity of Grammatik and RightWriter; its interactive mode works well but does not replace a mark-up mode. Sensible Grammar's interactive mode is difficult to impossible to use, but it has extensive phrase dictionaries. Piggyback, piggyback. (Scandinavian PC Systems Inc.'s Corporate Voice lets users match various existing writing styles) Scandinavian PC Systems Inc's Corporate Voice is often categorized as a grammar-checking software package, but in fact it goes far beyond simply checking grammar. The program is described by the company as a style replicator for its ability to help writers match existing writing styles. Corporate Voice uses a scatter chart that plots sentences in a document against a style, allowing users to compare their work with built-in existing style standards. The company sees a primary application for the package in corporate report and memo writing and documentation, allowing various writers to compare their documents with the departmental standard and make changes to conform to the style where appropriate. The package is sold by Egghead Inc, Soft Warehouse, 47th Street Computer, J&R Computers and other high-volume software houses. Scandinavian PC Systems' marketing strategy for the package is described. VAR takes its own medicine; dose of proprietary software proves beneficial. (value-added reseller Creative Socio-Medics Corp.'s Value-added reseller (VAR) Creative Socio-Medics Corp automated its customer tracking system to improve customer service and show that the systems it promoted to potential users were equally useful to its own organization. The company provides turnkey patient tracking, billing and accounting systems on IBM, DEC and Unisys workstations to psychiatric hospitals, mental-health centers, and drug and alcohol treatment facilities throughout the US. The proprietary Health Services Information System patient-tracking software developed by Creative Socio-Medics was relatively easy to adapt to customer tracking, according to company chairman John Phillips. Among the variables tracked by the system are the types of computers installed for clients, the number of peripherals attached, how the software is being used, and any questions or problems they have reported. SQL Solutions launches vertical VAR program. Boyd, Wallace. SQL Solutions Inc has begun a value-added reseller (VAR) recruitment program intended to reach new markets for its relational DBMS software and to complement its telemarketing and direct-sales efforts. The Value-Added Reseller Alliance Program will look for VARs active in vertical markets, according to SQL Solutions Marketing VP Dan Cronin. The company expects that VARs will account for 20 percent of its 1991 revenue, with 50 percent coming from direct sales to users and 30 percent from sales to the federal market. SQL Solutions will provide VARs incorporating development tools from its SQL Productivity Environment into their applications sales and marketing support as well as discounts on development licenses and resale of sublicenses on all such products. The company currently has 25 VARs selling systems to financial services, manufacturers, telecommunications firms, government offices, and other vertical markets. IE margins spark conflict; chain's direct-sales emphasis raises franchisee concerns. (Intelligent Electronics Inc. expands direct Intelligent Electronics Inc (IE) expands its company-owned operations into top US markets, causing many of its franchisees to worry that they will feel the pressure from its direct-sales push. Frank Slovenic, president of the firm's company-owned operations, says IE is aggressively buying centers, including one in Nashville, and is targeting the top 30 US markets. Company executives point out that most of its franchisees are in secondary markets, so the amount of conflict should be minimal. Some franchisees say the increased competition from the company-owned stores will put even more pressures on margins; they say that IE seems satisfied with single-digit margins. Slovenic says company-owned stores have been winning contracts based on the services they provide rather than on price; he says the pressure on franchisees will ease after IE chains become more fully integrated. New York throws out most of school contract; Apple portion only part that is retained. (New York City Board of Education's $70 The New York City Board of Education throws out most of its three-year, $70 million computer contract, deciding instead to use IBM and Apple as its primary suppliers. The contract was watched closely by analysts because it included dealer installation and service fees as part of the bidding process. The price cutting in the bidding was so severe among the 30-plus dealers and vendors competing that at least two dealers underbid IBM on the IBM-only portion of the contract, valued at between $27 million and $29 million. One bidder said the process was so complicated that the board may not have been able to analyze it properly; the contract also was a victim of budget limitations. Dealers and vendors were able to bid on hardware only, hardware and partial services, and hardware and complete services, including setup and maintenance. Leading nationals step up activity in networking arena. (national distributors) National distributors Merisel Inc, Tech Data Corp and Robec Inc will increase their activity in the networking and connectivity markets in 1991, targeting resellers selling to small businesses in particular. Merisel VP of Product Linda Kroog says the company is focusing on four segments of the market primed for growth in 1991: laptops, windows, laser printers and connectivity; she claims connectivity has been the distributor's leading segment, especially at the end of 1990. Tech Data Sr VP of Sales and Marketing Howard Crystal says the distributor has long targeted high-end networking products, although the company's strategy for 1991 is to add lower-end lines to broaden its product offerings. Robec Pres Robert Beckett says the three components driving the low-end networking market are a low entry cost, low expansion costs and low operating costs over the life of the network. Arrow guides offer solutions; reseller directories published. (Arrow Electronics Inc.'s Commercial Systems Group publishes two Arrow Electronics Inc's Commercial Systems Group publishes two reseller solutions directories following contributions from Altos Computer Systems Inc and AT&T Computer Systems resellers. All the solutions described in the catalogs have been used by actual Arrow reseller customers; the catalogs will be sent free of charge to all Arrow resellers in North America. The directories are intended to allow resellers to contact one another and work together. There are 167 solutions from 21 industries in the Altos directory; they were contributed by 70 of Arrow's Altos resellers throughout the US. The second edition of the AT&T directory, which was first published in Sep 1990, has 211 solutions, 70 of which are new. Concise descriptions of the software packages and their appropriate markets, target customers, hardware systems and other information are included. Eternal Graphics emphasizes service (Distribution: Specialized) (company profile) Start-up distributor Eternal Graphics Inc has found success by offering a small number of vendor lines and a high level of service. The company, which specializes in graphics and display technology, was founded by Lawrence Blaney, former Jackman Sales Inc VP, who claims the time was right to start a specialized distributor because the larger regional companies and other CAD distributors have to be more like large national distributors, only offering local resellers price and local inventory. Blaney says graphics VARs need product support and are willing to look for companies providing it. Eternal Graphics is located in Aurora, IL, and operates in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota; the company targets the CAD, presentation, imaging and public-information display markets. The firm's customers need a full-service distributor that can bridge the gap between low-end and high-end graphics systems. Schools against Apple plan; districts oppose program of installing dealer assignments. (Apple Computer Inc.'s new K-12 education Apple Computer Inc's new K-12 education program, scheduled to take effect Apr 15, 1991, is threatened by a growing revolt among school-district computer purchasing managers. Apple claims the program is intended to benefit school districts, but many school officials complain about the company's intention of assigning one Apple Education Sales Consultant to each school district, which they say is often done with little or no input from the school or the dealer. A purchasing director at a large school district in the Los Angeles area says the program is illegal; the executive says the district will not comply with the program. Apple claims it has not heard specific complaints from school districts, and several school administrators say they see the program as a positive development. OS/2 migration calls for reseller's help. (Provident Accident and Life Insurance reassesses outsourcing as it moves to OS/2 while Provident Accident and Life Insurance is reconsidering the use of outsourcing services of value-added resellers as it migrates to OS/2 while still needing to support older systems. Provident Microcomputer and Office Systems Mgr Bill Quintrell expects all of the company's microcomputers, including 2,000 already supported by the group, to run OS/2 by 1995, although only 450 OS/2 systems have been installed to date. The company is one of the first to commit to OS/2 companywide; it expects to spend about $3 million in 1991 for 400 IBM systems, compared to $3.9 million spent in 1990 for 550 IBM systems. The systems include an IBM Model 70, an 8515 IBM monitor, 4Mbytes of non-IBM memory, an IBM Token-Ring card, a surge protector, a Microsoft mouse and an additional OS/2 EE license; each costs about $5,000. Support costs climbed as a result of supporting both DOS and OS/2 systems; outsourcing some low-level services to third parties is expected to keep support costs down. Health clinic saves time, money with PC LAN. (Laconia Clinic's local area network) (User Market: Small-Business Market) Laconia Clinic replaced its minicomputer with a microcomputer-based local area network (LAN) from NEC Technologies Inc that runs software developed by value-added reseller CompuSense Inc. The multi-practice, multi-specialty health care clinic runs the CompuSense software on 65 NECT PowerMate 286 microcomputers, four NEC BusinessMate multiuser systems and a Novell NetWare 386 network; 10 computers are used for data entry and accounting, 10 for administration and 45 for appointment scheduling. CompuSense specializes in health, municipal and non-profit software; it developed an open-architecture management-information system for the clinic that interacts with commercial software. The clinic's 25 doctors see about 108,000 patients annually; its cash flow increased 17 percent as a result of the system, according to CFO Sharon Brissette, who was responsible for system selection. New York group grows despite humble start. (The Westchester Corporate Micro Users Group) (User Market: User Groups) The Westchester Corporate Micro Users Group in White Plains, NY, began in the early 1980s in the back room of a local ComputerLand store, but it now holds its meetings in conference rooms at member companies' offices and attracts speakers such as Intel Microprocessor Group Pres David House. The group was founded by the owner of that ComputerLand franchise, Matt Fitzsimmons, who was also once an MIS manager for a Westchester corporation, as well as by three or four other executives at different organizations. Fitzsimmons says the founders all needed someone to talk with about their use of microcomputers, and from the three or four companies that started, the group now has 28, including American Express Co, Arthur Andersen & Co, Price Waterhouse & Co, Texaco Inc, Goldman Sachs & Co and PepsiCo Inc. The membership is limited to 30 corporations, but the group is seeking new members. Lotus buys cc:Mail; integrated solution for Notes expected. (Lotus Development Corp. acquires electronic mail vendor cc:Mail Inc.) Lotus Development Corp acquires electronic mail vendor cc:Mail Inc, moving the company one step closer to its goal of being a major force in the network market. The acquisition of cc:Mail, along with Lotus's earlier acquisition of Samna Inc, has renewed speculation that Lotus plans to move into high-growth markets through a policy of strategic acquisitions. The acquisition of Samna brought many developers with Windows expertise to Lotus in addition to the Ami Pro word processor for Windows; Lotus continues work on developing 1-2-3/W, its version of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet for Windows. The acquisition of cc:Mail is intended to combine that firm's e-mail product with Lotus's Notes graphical group communications package, providing what Lotus Pres and CEO Jim Manzi calls an integrated solution for enterprisewide communications. Office chains bullish: Staples, BizMart, Office Depot still expanding. (office product superstore chains) (Computer Retail The recession has not stopped the expansion plans of office product superstore chains, although some analysts question how long the chains will be able to maintain their rate of growth. Office Depot Inc reported earnings of $2.63 million, or 16 cents a share, on sales of $181 million in its 4th qtr ended Dec 31, 1990; the 122-store chain expects to complete its acquisition of the Office Club Inc by the end of the current quarter. Office Club's 51 stores recorded net profit up 167 percent in the 4th qtr ended Dec 31, 1990, from $573,000, or one cent a share, to $1.53 million, or 21 cents a share. Office Club's gross margins were 21 percent and Office Depot's were 25.5 percent, although comparable-store sales lagged at Office Depot. BizMart Inc expects to open seven or eight new office product centers by the end of its fiscal year in Apr 1991 to add to its current 51 stores. Staples Inc has offered to buy 10 Southern California locations from HQ Office Supplies Warehouse Inc. Sales fall at war's start; normalcy now returning; PC retailers note traffic slowdown of 20% to 50% during first week. (Computer The Persian Gulf war caused a sharp decline in computer retail store traffic in its first week, but traffic was returning to normal levels more recently, according to most retailers. Traffic was down 20 percent to 50 percent in the first week of hostilities, with Jan 17, 1991, the slowest day, according to many stores. Managers at Sears Brand Central in Indiana and Minnesota and at a Radio Shack store in Arizona say sales were off precipitously in the first days of the war, but that more recently things are returning to normal. Workplace Inc, a nine-store chain in Clearwater, FL, says sales of military simulation games increased 10 percent to 15 percent after the start of the war, showing the emphasis of war has spread to children, according to a store executive. The experiences of several other retailers in the wake of the war are recounted. PS/1 meets '90 target shipments; but positioning still questioned after 100,000 units. (Computer Retail Week supplement to Computer IBM surpasses its goal of shipping 100,000 PS/1s worldwide in 1990, although the machine's position in the market continues to cause some confusion and criticism. International Data Corp estimates of 100,000 units shipped in 1990 were confirmed by IBM VP Anthony Santelli, who further stated that the company was on target to meet its objectives for returning to the home computer market. Link Resources Corp analyst Tom Miller says IBM could have recorded much higher sales for the machine if it had targeted first-time buyers who already use a microcomputer in the office. IBM has instead focused on novice users, even though the machine has found more success with work-at-home people rather than people who use it as an appliance or entertainment product, Miller says. Link Resources claims 2.4 million computers will be bought by work-at-home users in 1991; small businesses will buy 1 million units in the year. Deluxe Amiga expected in spring; Commodore looks to boost badly sagging PC sales. (Commodore Business Machines Inc.'s new Amiga Commodore Business Machines Inc will bundle its Amiga microcomputer with new software and accessories in the spring of 1991 and will double distribution of the series in the first nine months of 1991 to a total of between 3,000 and 3,500 retailers. The company was able to sell only 22,000 units of the Amiga in 1990, far short of its conservative goal of 55,000 units, according to Commodore VP of Consumer Sales Bob Larsen. The Amiga 550C model intended primarily for consumers and the Amiga 500P model intended for more sophisticated users will both continue to be sold, according to Larsen, but the deluxe version will come in new software bundles, including one that lets the machine be used with home video systems. Commodore was hurt by the failure of Campeau Corp's Federated and Allied units in Jan 1990, as well as by Circuit City Stores Inc's decision not to carry the Amiga in Sep 1990. Price Club, Sam's make Positive move. (Positive Corp. signs agreements with warehouse clubs Sam's Wholesale Club and the Price Positive Corp signs agreements with warehouse clubs Sam's Wholesale Club and the Price Club to sell its 80486-, 80386- and 80386SX-based computers. The machines will be carried by most of Sam's Wholesale Club's 176 outlets and by most of Price Club's 60 locations. Six microcomputers will be offered ranging in price from $1,499 to $3,999: the high-end 80486-based system runs at 33 MHz and includes a 64Kbyte cache memory on its motherboard and a 200Mbyte hard disk drive, while the low-end 80386SX-based system runs at 20 MHz and includes a mouse, VGA monitor, 40Mbyte hard disk drive and 2Mbytes of memory. Positive Pres Bob Dushane says the company, which sold $20 million worth of computers in 1990, is beginning to become profitable; it anticipates $80 million in sales in 1991, partly due to its new reliance on warehouse clubs. Resellers face struggle opening superstores. (computer resellers Inacomp Computer Centers Inc. and The Computer Factory Inc. find Computer resellers Inacomp Computer Centers Inc and The Computer Factory Inc are finding it more difficult than they had anticipated to open superstores. Inacomp runs a superstore in Garden Grove, CA, but it was forced to delay conversion of its headquarters in Troy, MI, to a retail superstore because of local zoning regulations. Inacomp had hoped to complete the conversion before Soft Warehouse Inc was able to enter the local market in an adjacent Detroit suburb. Inacomp's Computer City, founded in 1989 along with Mitsubishi International Corp, has been profitable for three consecutive months, according to Computer City Gen Mgr and Inacomp Exec VP Mike Rusert. The Computer Factory hoped to open its superstore in Brookfield, WI, in Nov 1990, but Wisconsin's planning board was slow to approve the building plans; an offer for The Computer Factory has since been made by reseller CompuCom Systems Inc. Retail sales of top games are tracked; Top 40 list of MS-DOS titles prints monthly. (The Software Publishers Association's list The Software Publishers Association (SPA) publishes its Top 40 list of MS-DOS entertainment software, based on unit sales; the list will be published monthly. Rankings are determined by analysis of nationwide sales from three large software retail chains: Babbage's Inc, Soft Warehouse Inc and Waldensoftware, which is run by K mart Corp unit Walden Book Company Inc. Sales of MS-DOS software have been growing slowly, and analysts expect continued sales growth in the sector despite the recession. Alex. Brown & Sons Inc analyst Chris Mortenson says companies such as Electronic Arts Inc are expected to experience strong growth despite the overall economic downturn. SPA Research Dir Ann Stephens says entertainment software sales increased about six percent in the first nine months of 1990. How Leading Technology is led: question & answer: Pat Terrell. (Leading Technology Inc Pres Pat Terrell) (Computer Retail Week Leading Technology Inc Pres Pat Terrell says computers bought through the retail channel are purchased as tools rather than as novelties, and it is important that the company make sure first-time customers have a positive experience. Terrell calls the company's strategy one of 'thoughtful bundles' that make its microcomputers as turnkey as possible; its HyperDOS graphical shell for DOS is similar to the PS/1 approach. Terrell says the days of hardware differentiation are almost over, making applications, ease of use, training ability and power demos more important in the purchase decision. Leading Technology plans to add a line of notebook computers, but Terrell says the key is offering them at the lowest possible cost; he calls multimedia one of the most exciting areas the company is researching. Borland, Sharp combo takes data mobile. (Borland International Inc. signs comarketing agreement with Sharp Electronics Corp Borland International Inc signs a comarketing agreement with Sharp Electronics Corp allowing buyers of Sharp's Wizard to buy SideKick at half price, or $49.99. The promotion, which runs through Aug 15, 1991, is open to any retailer selling Wizard, including Service Merchandise Company Inc, Staples Inc, BizMart Inc, Circuit City Stores Inc and Highland Super Stores Inc. A counter-card display at the stores will have coupons that Wizard buyers send with a check and a Wizard proof-of-purchase seal to get the low-cost copy of SideKick. SideKick 2.0 includes a time planner, address book, communications, notepad and calculator, all integrated under a windowing user interface with full mouse support. Wizard includes an address book, calendar, telephone directory, world clock, notepad and calculator. Multimedia slow to gain retailer's commitment; latest category may not reach masses until well into 1992. (Computer Retail Week Mass merchants are not likely to devote much shelf space to multimedia products until 1992 despite continuing enhancements to the look and sound of the applications. Multimedia hardware support is expected to grow in 1991, followed by development tools and finally multimedia titles, both arriving by the end of the year. Commodore Business Machines Inc, Emerson Computer Corp and Apple have developed what they consider multimedia machines, and they hope sales of the systems will spur development of multimedia applications. JVC Information Products Company of America has committed to the market with disk drives, DAT tape drives, writable CD-ROM drives and video compression technology; the company's Data/DAT tape drive is used to store video frames and computer data. Sun Moon Star Exec Elliot Dahan says that hardware support for full-motion video and multimedia titles are required for true multimedia to exist in the retail channel. Retailers take out fewer consumer ads; reduced co-op funds induce some ad cutbacks. (computer retailers trim advertising budgets) Many computer retailers are reducing their advertising budgets as a result of the recession; analysts also attribute the cutbacks to higher advertising costs in most media and reductions in co-op funds offered by vendors. A few larger stores are bucking the trend and increasing their advertising budgets, but they are the exception, according to analysts. The New York Times reports that retail ad linage fell 10.2 percent in 1990, but linage in all 24 of the New York Times-owned newspapers was up 0.8 percent. Research firm Leading National Advertisers Inc analyst John Cardona cites several specific examples of reduced ad spending among computer retailers in 1990: a drop from $807,700 to $478,000 in the first nine months of the year for 47th Street Computer, a cut from $250,100 to $8,700 by Dayton Hudson Corp from Jan-Sep 1989 to the same period of 1990, and a drop from $2.03 million to $343,200 for The Sharper Image from the first nine months of 1989 to the same period in 1990. Kenfil program offers specialized packaging. (Kenfil Distributing's consumer-channel marketing program) (Computer Software distributor Kenfil Distributing's consumer-channel marketing program uses plastic 'clamshell' packaging and a point-of-purchase display rack. The company has signed contracts with Costco Wholesale Corp and HQ Office Supplies Warehouse Inc, although the status of the latter deal is unknown following HQ Office Supplies' announcement on Dec 28, 1990, that it is selling its US stores. Retailers need service from distributors and vendors, according to Kenfil VP of Sales and Marketing Casey Hughes; he says the company's merchandising program is designed to meet the inventory commitment retailers require. The company will offer 25 titles, representing about 25,000 pieces; the clamshell houses shrink-wrapped software in a package much like that used to sell audio compact discs. The display rack is intended for the company's personal finance packages and other product categories. Consumers charge ahead: store-, bank-issued credit cards give retailers a boost. (a Computer Retail Week survey) (Computer An informal Computer Retail Week survey finds that fewer than half of the computers bought by consumers are charged, and few of the machines bought on credit are put on proprietary store accounts. Store credit cards such as those provided by Sears, Roebuck and Co and J.C. Penney Company Inc and bank-issued cards such as MasterCard, Visa and American Express are 'credited' with increasing microcomputer sales. IBM Entry Systems Div VP Tony Santelli says store-issued credit cards have helped sales of the PS/1 at Sears Brand Central Stores, Dillard Department Stores Inc, Hechts Co and Dayton Hudson Department Store Co. Soft Warehouse Pres and CEO Nathan Morton says about half the purchases made at the company's stores are made with MasterCard, Visa or Discover cards. Use of credit cards at other computer and software retailers is examined. Super SKUs: emerging technology. (Hydra Systems Inc.'s Hydra One lets PCs run Macintosh software) (Computer Retail Week supplement Hydra Systems Inc's Hydra One lets PCs run Macintosh software while continuing to use DOS, Windows and other PC software. Hydra Dir of Sales and Marketing John John says PC users have shown more interest in the device than Macintosh users, partly because they are more familiar with add-in cards. The card must at present be sold by retailers with their own repair shops who are able to install and buy RAM and ROM chips; Hydra requires two ROM chips from the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh 512KE. The product includes a full-length PC add-in board, proprietary software and custom PC/Macintosh interface connectors; it uses a 16-MHz Motorola 68000 processor and software supporting file transfer between PC and Macintosh applications and text conversion. Hydra will be sold through dealers and VARs. Oracle to keep services operation. (Oracle Corp.'s Oracle Complex Systems Corp.) Oracle Corp plans to keep its integration subsidiary, Oracle Complex Systems Corp, rather than sell the low-profit organization. Oracle Complex Systems is diversifying its federal business into commercial markets and is focusing on imaging and larger, in-depth niches. The parent company wants to keep Oracle Complex Systems a separate company in case any legal or financial problems arise. Oracle Complex Systems reported revenues of $65 million for 1990. Oracle Complex Systems presently has large contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency and New York and Ohio states. The subsidiary is expected to become a holding company if it cannot turn a profit by Jun 1, 1991. Microsoft's OS/2 gambit: RISC initiative threatens the Unix establishment. (coalition formed to compete with Unix workstation Microsoft Corp forms a consortium with DEC, Compaq Computer Corp, MIPS Computer Systems Inc and The Santa Cruz Operation Inc to develop hardware and software for Windows and Microsoft's New Technology (NT) operating system for the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) market. The proprietary technology is expected to compete directly with Unix operating system products. Advantages of NT include a new kernel technology designed to mesh with the Windows environment. The Unix community is wary of the non-standards based technology and its proprietary nature. The consortium's effort will be positive for end-users as it will become a competitive incentive for both camps. Unix already has the established basis of years of development and support from Sun Microsystems Inc, HP and IBM. Andersen equity deal falls apart: returns shares to end claims processing pact. (Andersen Consulting, United Medicorp Inc.) Andersen Consulting and United Medicorp Inc dissolve their equity-for-business pact after 22 months. The agreement called for Andersen Consulting to provide a claims processing system for the medical insurance claims processor. The computer systems integrator was to have the option of operating the system and receiving payments from United Medicorp based on its revenue from the system. Andersen Consulting now has the software license and is paying United Medicorp $1.5 million for that license and will return the one percent stock it acquired through the deal. The pact with United Medicorp was part of Andersen Consulting's plans to launch more equity-for-business contracts in order to compete with rival Electronic Data Systems Corp. Perot Systems' reach exceeds its grasp. (Perot Systems Corp. and IBM pact failure) (includes related article on Perot Systems The outsourcing business agreement between IBM and Perot Systems Corp appears to be dissolved as the relationship has produced no major contracts. IBM and Perot Systems were to have combined efforts in order to land Fortune 500 accounts. IBM has not provided data center resources that Perot Systems requested, and IBM is said to be displeased with Perot Systems personnel who have been assigned to the alliance. Perot Systems' work with DEC on another contract is said to be an additional strain on the IBM relationship. Perot Systems itself is having trouble landing many major contracts. Its largest pact yet is a five-year, $100 million contract with American Medical International Inc and a $10 million manufacturing automation project with Springs Industries Inc. Networking at NetWorld: cultivating allies. (NetWorld 1991) Medford, Cassimir. The 1991 NetWorld trade show turns out to be an arena for integrators to develop relationships with vendors. The show focuses on equipment and products rather than services. Some companies attract new customers at the show, but the main activity involves integrators meeting with the manufacturers of the products they sell. Most companies depend on vertical market industry shows to attract the upper management personnel who make purchasing decisions. Users at the show generally are interested in the products and not the services; integrators use the show to further relationships rather than sell systems. Lotus courts integrators: programs authorize resale of 1-2-3, Notes. (Lotus Development Corp.'s spreadsheet and groupware Lotus Development Corp unveils plans to recruit value-added resellers (VARs) and computer systems integrators to resell Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software and Notes office automation software. The Notes VAR Program authorizes integrators and high-end VARs resell the Notes product. Members from Lotus Development's Alliance Program, including Electronic Data Systems Corp, Diversified Business Systems and Nynex Corp are participating in the reseller program. Lotus Development's Business Partners program allows VARs and integrators with vertical market integration capabilities resell the 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. Lotus Development also announces its acquisition of CC:Mail Inc in order to reinforce the electronic mail capabilities of Notes. CC:Mail is a local-area network (LAN) electronic mail vendor. EDS to run Signetics data center: $100M outsource pact could be a wedge into other electronics deals. (Electronic Data Systems Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) announces a 10-year, $100 million outsourcing contract with Signetics Corp to take over that semiconductor manufacturer's data processing center. Signetics retains its voice communications network, and General Datacom Inc continues to handle the network management systems. EDS takes over Signetics' data processing center, which includes 47 million instructions per second (MIPS) of IBM mainframes supporting the semiconductor manufacturer's administrative, financial and human resources operations. The center also houses DEC 8300 series VAX processors that support the manufacture of silicon wafers. The contract is seen as an opportunity for EDS to gain further access into the electronics industry for outsourcing contracts. Virginia picks CBIS for imaging system. (Virginia Department of Health, Cincinnati Bell Inc.) Cincinnati Bell Inc announces a two-year, $2 million contract with the Virginia Department of Health to provide an optical storage and retrieval system. The system will contain the state's records of births and deaths starting from 1912. The system is to be built around Apple Macintosh microcomputers that run Blueridge Technologies Inc software. Cincinnati Bell plans to implement Sony Corp optical disks, Fujitsu America Inc scanners and Ricoh Corp printers. Records from 1912 to 1939 are the first that will be entered; until now these have been handled manually. The state has entered birth and death records into a host computer since 1979, but these have been inaccessible electronically. Cincinnati Bell plans to microfilm the records then digitize them for optical storage. IBM embraces NetWare: Novell deal gives IBM users a choice of net operating systems. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare operating system) IBM announces it will market and support Novell Inc's NetWare operating system. The announcement means that IBM supports operating systems other than its own OS/2 LAN Server and PC LAN Program. The two companies plan to develop interoperability between NetWare and OS/2 LAN Server environments. NetWare will integrate with IBM's Communications Manager and Database Manager features from OS/2 Extended Edition when it is implemented on OS/2 and will give users access to IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SNA) services. For Novell's part, it will offer NetWare functionality on OS/2 and IBM's version of Unix, AIX. IBM plans to support Novell's IPX protocol stack for its 8209 LAN Bridge, which will enable NetWare servers to communicate with Token-Ring/Ethernet environment clients. Wireless net venture recruits integrators: initial allies include Andersen, Cap Gemini. (Motorola Inc. and IBM's venture Ardis; IBM and Motorola Inc's venture Ardis are soliciting agreements from computer systems integrators to provide wireless network services based on radio communications. The basic systems involve accessing host applications via handheld terminals or portable computers that have radio modems. Companies Ardis is working with include Andersen Consulting, Cap Gemini America, McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Co, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and others. Andersen Consulting and Ardis are working on a cost benefit analysis model for firms interested in using radio networks for relaying information to and from offices and sales representatives. Bell Atlantic taps LAN experts. (local-area networks) Medford, Cassimir. Regional Bell holding company Bell Atlantic Corp announces cooperative agreements with network integrators Gorham Clark Inc, Real World Systems Inc, Riverbend Group and IPC Technologies. Bell Atlantic plans to increase its local-area network (LAN) integration offerings with these contracts. Bell Atlantic will act as prime contractor, subcontractor or sales agent on client contracts with the integrators. Pacific Bell also announces plans to form a separate unit to work on network integration. Pacific Bell relies on its relationship with its vendors to develop networking experience, while Bell Atlantic uses its own talent to find and manage integration contracts. A lawsuit too far? (IBM Credit Corp.'s lawsuits) (column) Sperling, Ed. IBM Credit Corp may be alienating its customers by suing Comdisco Systems Inc, EMC Corp and Cambex Corp for alleged misappropriation of IBM equipment. IBM names several of its customers in its suit against Comdisco Systems including Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS), McDonnell Douglas Corp, Amoco Corp and Cincinnati Bell Inc. These firms may have to testify in court and be liable for paying legal fees. The users are liable for usage of IBM equipment; Comdisco Systems, EMC and Cambex merely sold the equipment. The three companies sell memory for IBM mainframe computers and give credit for memory they replace. The practice has gone on for years with participation by IBM lessees and little opposition from IBM. Integrators lay an egg on merger market: valuations decline. Mehler, Mark. Market values for publicly held professional services, including software, data processing and networking companies, fall by 20 per cent in 1990. Integrators that specialize in government business sell for an average of 20 per cent of annual revenue in the same year; this figure is down from 40 per cent a few years earlier. Budget restraints are straining bookings and margins. Commercial businesses retain their values better if they have a strategic, fixed-price integration concentration rather than contract programming. Companies that have billable hourly services sell for less than 25 per cent of annual revenue. Keeping the competitive edge. (executives' opinions on U.S.' competitiveness in integration markets) The U.S. continues as leader in the computer systems integration field and faces little foreign competition. Industry executives believe that U.S. firms that maintain global relationships and software development strengths will continue to be major players internationally. In Europe, Cap Gemini Sogeti SA is the leading integrator. European firms tend to focus on local business, but Cap Gemini Sogeti is also a world player. Japanese firms pose little competition now as they have weak software experience, yet they have the advantage of links with international hardware suppliers. Success for U.S. firms depends on global alliances, continuing education and familiarity with foreign standards organizations. Unix still needs catalyst programs: today's applications don't take advantage of special features. The Unix environment lacks applications that utilize networking capabilities of the operating system. Most packages are similar editions of products ported from the IBM-based microcomputer world such as Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, Wordperfect Corp's Wordperfect word processor and Ashton-Tate Corp's dBase IV relational database management system. New applications for Unix are being developed and take advantage of Motif- and Open Look-based software development kits. Other products such as Applix Inc's $995 Asterix integrated word processor, spreadsheet and graphics product and Clarity Software Inc's $895 Rapport offer integrated programs for Unix users. While the Unix market may be low volume, increased sales of data bases for Unix suggest a future need for retrieval and manipulation programs. IBM, Novell in LAN power play. (IBM to sell NetWare 286 and 386 network operating systems) IBM forms a relationship with Novell Inc under which it will sell Novell's NetWare 286 and 386 operating systems as 'NetWare from IBM' and offer NetWare as an alternative to its own OS/2 LAN Server network operating system. Many users are pleased that IBM has endorsed NetWare because the Novell product is a market leader, and some wonder why IBM took so long to make the move. Observers say that the agreement between the hardware and networking giants will benefit the industry but may hurt LAN Server users. NetWare has a 57 percent market share; LAN Server has approximately an 8 percent share. The vendors plan to support NetWare under IBM's Netview network management system and route NetWare protocols through IBM's 8209 bridges. Novell will port NetWare to IBM's RS/6000 and upcoming 32-bit OS/2 platforms. Users express concerns about interoperability as a result of the joint licensing, distribution and support agreement. Competition = bargains for Windows software buyers. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) Many vendors of applications for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are offering price promotions that enable buyers to obtain bargains on Windows software. Microsoft itself is cutting prices on its Word for Windows word processor and Excel spreadsheet under a qualified limited-time offer. Users can obtain a copy of either program for $129 if they are currently using another product in the same category. Lotus Development Corp will give away free copies of the $495 Ami Professional word processor to buyers of its $695 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet. Vendors say that they cannot afford to continue the low-price promotions in the long term, but the strategy pleases users. Liberty Mutual rewrites IBM policy. (Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. moves away from IBM computer hardware) Liberty Mutual Insurance Co is one of formerly all-IBM information systems (IS) shops that have reduced their dependence on IBM hardware in recent years. It currently runs applications on DEC, Sun Microsystems, Apple, and Teradata Corp platforms in addition to IBM mainframes. Sixty percent of Liberty Mutual's older applications run on IBM platforms, but more than 75 percent of its new applications run on equipment from other vendors. The company has traded in two of its 3090-400E mainframes for an Enterprise System/9000 Model 720, keeping the other two and noting that the IBM mainframe remains integral to its MIS strategy. Liberty Mutual is breaking a tradition in the highly conservative insurance industry by moving away from IBM. Its new applications include Mac programs for personnel selling Liberty Mutual products to businesses and a DEC VAX-based report generator with a Mac front end. The Teradata machines run large relational databases, and the company performs application development work on Sun Sparcstations. Credit check goes on the air. (Visa USA to implement on-line radio-based credit card authorization) Visa USA Inc plans to aggressively promote a new system for radio-based on-line credit card authorization that will save merchants communications cost and shoppers time when making credit purchases. Visa's recent deal with Digital Radio Networks will provide merchants with radio transmitters linked to tower-based radio networks. The company says that replacing current telephone-based authorization systems with radio will cut response time from an average of 25 seconds to six seconds, helping the company move into such traditionally cash-only areas as fast food restaurants, movie theaters and supermarkets. Merchants' telephone bills could drop by up to 60 percent, especially in metropolitan areas. 1-year-old RS/6000 outgrows desktop tag. (IBM RS/6000 workstation) Johnson, Maryfran. IBM's RS/6000 workstation line has proved to be atypical of workstations in the year since its introduction, with many customers employing it as a substitute for minicomputers in file server applications or using it to bridge mainframes and networked microcomputers. The RS/6000 helped IBM quadruple its share of the workstation market, selling 25,000 units in six months. Most users consider the RS/6000 too expensive for the desktop, and there have been few large volume sales. Gulf States Utilities Co, a typical installation, uses four RS/6000 Model 320s to run a nuclear engineering application that previously ran on an IBM 3090 mainframe. IBM now offers 12 RS/6000 models and will introduce new low-end units in Mar 1991. Some buyers prefer to install third-party disk drives, peripherals and memory due to the high cost of the hardware. Mobile PCs weathering Desert Storm. (use of computers in Persian Gulf war)(includes related article on $21 million order sent to US forces in the Persian Gulf are working with a mixture of standard commercial microcomputers and special 'ruggedized' systems designed to withstand the harsh desert environment, and military officials say the machines are holding up well. Some of the unmodified Zenith Data Systems Z-248 desktop machines could not cope with the 120-degree weather in Saudi Arabia, but other machines have special heavy-duty fans or other equipment such as shock absorbers and air filters. The Army is using more than 2,000 Unisys Corp ruggedized microcomputers for its Tactical Army Combat Support Systems. Also in use in the Desert Storm operation are microcomputers from CompuAdd, Zenith Data Systems and Grid Systems Corp. More CIO departures are not done by choice. (chief information officers) A survey by research firm Deloitte and Touche shows that chief information officers (CIOs) have a high turnover, with almost 25 percent of CIOs responding saying that they gained the position because a predecessor had been fired; 19.8 percent said their predecessors had left voluntarily. This compares to a 1989 study showing that 21.8 percent of CIOs had been fired and another 21.8 percent had departed voluntarily. Many observers attribute the change to increasing pressures on executives to communicate the 'bottom line' benefits of information systems to top management. Thirty-eight percent of the CIOs surveyed say they have no input in the strategic planning process at their companies; respondents rated the bottom line only seventh on the list of important factors in measuring IS service. Implementing systems on time and within budget was the No. 1 concern. Vaxcluster Oracle version on the way. (Oracle Systems Corp. plans to introduce Oracle 6.2 for DEC VAX) (product announcement) Oracle Systems Corp plans to introduce Oracle 6.2 for DEC VAXes, a new version of its database management software that overcomes Version 6.0's incompatibility with VAXclusters. The update will include a rewritten distributed lock manager that solves the excessive I/O messaging and disk resource contention problems VAXcluster users had reported with Oracle 6.0. Oracle 6.2 can perform transaction processing on VAXclusters by collecting database queries in a 'journal' before transacting them to reduce the number of I/O transactions to shared disk memory. DEC's own Rdb relational database manager breaks databases into multiple partitions, each of which is dedicated to a single VAX in the cluster. Unisys plans hybrid A series midrange system. (Unisys Corp. to announce Cooperative Computing Platform) (product announcement) Unisys Corp is expected to announce the Cooperative Computing Platform (CCP), a new midrange system with both Unisys and Intel microprocessors that can run OS/2, Unix or the proprietary Unisys operating system. The company hopes to expand its minicomputers to a wider audience, but analysts are skeptical about whether it can sell to users other than the installed base of its current Micro A series systems. CCP could let users combine A series, DOS, Unix, and OS/2 applications in a single platform and may be particularly useful for on-line transaction processing, according to observers. The new hybrid machine can include DOS services under the optional Unisys Usernet software and can function over a Novell local area network. Prices for the CCP will range form $26,750 to $100,000 and up. Amdahl selects Sparc for Unix server/hosts. (Amdahl Corp. to license Sun Microsystems Inc Scalable Processor Architecture) Amdahl Corp announces it will license Sun Microsystems' SPARC reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) processor technology for its upcoming Unix-based server/host machines. Amdahl officials say they hope to fill a user need for centralized processing within open systems. The company's UTS 2.1 version of Unix complies with AT&T's Unix System V specification but has extensions that support data integrity, enhanced network management and IBM mainframe connectivity. Amdahl hopes to position the SPARC machines as corporate database servers. Its early Amdahl 7300 Unix-based system failed in the marketplace because it was overpriced, according to analysts. SPARC will allow Amdahl to built more competitively priced Unix machines. RISC alliance draws mixed reviews. (Compaq, others working to develop standardized workstation platform) Compaq is reportedly leading an alliance involving several major hardware and software vendors that hopes to develop a standard for workstations based on the MIPS Computer Systems Inc reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor. Officials at Compaq say they have yet to select a RISC architecture, but observers expect the company to announce the adoption of the MIPS platform. The vendor coalition reportedly includes Microsoft Corp, DEC and The Santa Cruz Operation. Analysts say that developing a RISC-based product line would strengthen Compaq's market position. Several vendors, including Sun Microsystems Inc, Motorola Inc and Silicon Graphics Inc, say they are negotiating with Compaq. U.S.: Japanese displays underpriced. (accusations that Japan is dumping flat-panel displays in the US) The US Department of Commerce announces a preliminary finding indicating that Japanese firms are 'dumping' flat-panel displays in the US at selling prices below fair market value. The finding could lead to the enactment of anti-dumping penalties against Sharp Corp, Toshiba Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hosiden Electronics Corp and others if further study confirms it, a move that would increase the price of laptop computers. Flat-panel displays are based on plasma, electroluminescence and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and ar widely used in laptop and notebook computers. The Commerce Department found that the Japanese firms were selling the displays for approximately 4.6 percent below fair market value, far less than the discounts cited by the Advanced Display manufacturers of America in its initial complaint. The many tongues of computers. (electronic translation) Nash, Jim. New technologies for translating language are gaining attention from those who believe that computers are well suited to the task of translating dry, repetitive technical language but remain controversial. Denham, MA-based Logos Corp markets software and services based on neural networks that can categorize words into 'pigeonholes' and impose thousands of translation rules. The Logos system is similar to the approaches used in other major machine translation applications. Several European governments are eyeing computer translation systems. Xerox Corp and Autodesk Inc are among companies testing 'dial-up' translation systems. User acceptance of the technology remains slow despite technical advances. Machine translation earned a bad reputation in the 1960s, when a National Academy of Sciences report ridiculed bungled translations. It's shareware, not virusware. (misconceptions about shareware)(Viewpoint) (column) Shareware disks have an undeserved reputation for being virus-infected, and many companies and government agencies ban them from their organizations despite the fact that viruses have appeared on at least 17 vendors' shrink-wrapped retail software. The shareware industry has a better record of avoiding virus infection than the retail software industry because bulletin boards and disk vendors who distribute shareware take steps to prevent infection. Disk vendors scan disks for viruses before offering them to customers, and most bulletin board operators test software before placing it in download libraries. Observers say that most BBS and shareware users practice better virus safety measures than other users. The shareware 'threat' nevertheless seems plausible because people who share software risk viruses and because 'experts' label their assumptions as fact. Retail stores have seized on the alleged peril of shareware as a marketing tactic, telling their customers not to buy shareware. Information technology: promises remain unfulfilled. Noonan, Dennis E. Many information technology developments have failed to live up to predictions that they would dramatically increase productivity by saving labor in the office. Technology has had a major impact on the typical office environment, but the work week for the typical white-collar professional has increased rather than decreased since 1980 while productivity has declined. Computers often make more work instead of simplifying it. Developers offer endless variations and upgrades on new software to take advantage of hardware upgrades, but this technophilia does not increase productivity. Most users do not want sophisticated software for its own sake but demand easy installation and bug-free operation. Software does not have a right to be defective as some technophiles believe, and users want systems that are 'forgiving' to novices but offer more sophisticated potential. IBM 3390 market set to open. (alternative products) Bozman, Jean S. Several vendors are preparing to create competition in the high-end mainframe disk drive market by introducing equipment compatible with the IBM 3390 drive standard. Hitachi Data Systems, Amdahl Corp, Memorex Telex Corp and Storage Technology Inc all either offer 3390-compatible systems or are preparing to introduce them. Hitachi introduced its 7390 drive in Sep 1990 but has suffered from ramp-up problems that limited availability; volume shipments are not expected until Apr 1991. Amdahl is expected to announce a 3390-equivalent by that time. Analysts say that the competition may force IBM to discount its drive products, which it has not done in the past. New HP mini makes splash at aquarium. (Monterey Bay Aquarium using new HP 3000 Series 932 minicomputer) The Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA is using a new HP 3000 Series 932 minicomputer to keep track of 600 volunteers, 325 staff members, and 10,000 daily visitors as well as its growing bookstore, warehouse and the 3,000 pounds of fish food given to its captive organisms per month. The aquarium was built with a $55 million donation from HP co-founder and chairman David Packard, but its information systems officials say the organization nevertheless had to pay full retail price for its machine and that it chose HP for quality rather than due to any 'nepotistic' concerns. Aquarium director of finance and administration Michael Pinto says that the computers had not been upgraded since 1985 not due to lack of funds but because the organization felt it could get a better deal by waiting. Smart money managers can avoid cost of DASDs. (direct access storage devices) Many information systems managers turn to advanced systems software tools to avoid the cost of buying expensive hardware add-ons such as direct access storage devices (DASDs.) Navistar International Corp of Chicago uses an aggressive management program to manage hierarchical data via Dening Statistical Process Control theory. Special financial models evaluate the cost of data based on the size and age of the data set, the number of times it is accessed and the statistical probability of users needing it again after a certain number of days. IBM's Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) scheme is one of the most powerful Dening-management products available, although it requires 10 to 15Gbytes of DASD storage. IS department nurses hospital computing ills. (Women and Infants' Hospital in Providence, RI) Women and Infants' Hospital in Providence, RI has upgraded its computer systems and increased its information-systems staff to meet its ever-growing computing needs. The hospital, under the management of VP of information services Bruce Reirden, replaced its aging Data General MV 4000 and MV 10000 systems with a top-of-the line MV 40000 supporting 220 devices on an Ethernet LAN. Networked devices include CRTs, printers and embossers. Women and Infants' upgraded its Professional Health Care Systems' Patient Communication package from version 6.6 to version 7.1 in Dec 1989. Reirden says that the upgrade was so significant that it could be compared to changing vendors because each employee had to learn a new software system on top of his or her own job. Health-insurance related information can now be passed electronically into the program's billing module, saving paperwork and allowing doctors to spend more time with patients. The hospital has also replaced its 9.6K-bps communication lines with a microwave and fiber-optic link. DG adds to CEO software. (Data General Corp. announces CEO Object Office 3.0 graphical user interface) (product announcement) Data General Corp introduces CEO Object Office 3.0, a new version of its object-oriented, icon-driven graphical environment and office automation system. The interface runs on the MS DOS platform but requires a DG MV midrange machine as a server. The user interface is implemented at the microcomputer level and runs on top of Microsoft Windows and HP NewWave; the office automation package itself runs on the MV. Beta testers say that Object Office reduces training time and cost by letting end users avoid cumbersome DOS commands and allows them to use more DOS applications than would be possible if they ran MV applications from dumb terminals. Du Pont employs Expert help to increase database benefits. (Du Pont Co. uses RDB Expert database design tool) Du Pont Co uses DEC's RDB Expert physical database design tool to simplify database administration on its many DEC VAX systems. RDB Expert includes its own expert system that analyzes the logical design, transaction work load, data volume and system environment of a database to optimize performance. It generates executable procedures for either restructuring old designs or building new ones. The program works in conjunction with the DECtrace layered package, which collects and reports data and performance information from VAX applications. RDB Expert sells for $2,340 to $149,400 depending on the hardware platform. Project management tries anew. (project management software) Keefe, Patricia. Vendors of project management software are hoping that the current recession and credit crunch will create new marketing opportunities as users struggle to reduce manufacturing costs. Computer Associates International Inc hopes that its revamped CA-Superproject 2.0 for DOS will entice users with its ease of use, graphics capability and real-world functionality. Users complain that current project management packages are two awkward to use, lack multiplatform capability and are difficult to install on networks. Observers say that project management will have to balance simplicity and functionality to succeed among business managers, who do not generally come from an engineering background. Prices are dropping; desktop project management programs today list for an average of $2,306, but some new products are available for as little as $300. Lotus Improv makes its move on the Next platform. (Lotus Development Corp. bundling Improv with 68040-based NeXT Lotus Development Corp is bundling its new Improv spreadsheet with Next Inc's 68040-based workstations until Mar 31, 1990. The new product marks a departure for Lotus because it is not backward-compatible with 1-2-3 commands. It offers such breakthrough features as dynamic spreadsheet views, sophisticated presentation graphics and plain English formulas. Users can quickly reformat spreadsheets by creating multiple views and name data cells and formulas with words instead of numbers. Beta users say Improv lets them build large models than possible with previous spreadsheets and change the models in a variety of ways to satisfy different people. Reclassifying categories is easy, and model expansion or contraction can be either built up or restricted. No one is laughing. (Commentary) (column) Bailin, Rebecca. Many observers point to GeoWorks Corp's GeoWorks Ensemble graphical user interface as an example of what Microsoft Windows should have been, ignoring the fact that technical superiority alone does not result in a superior product. A 'good' product must be well-marketed, well-documented and well-supported as well as technically excellent. 'Value' is complex to corporations, who want to buy from a vendor whose products will survive in the long term. Microsoft leaves its competitors far behind in marketing and support, and the popularity of Windows 3.0 indicates that most customers see value as involving more factors than technology alone. Library users get in touch with Access. (Library of Congress' new computer system) The Library of Congress plans to introduce Access, a new touch-screen front end to its computer systems that will let the American public view portions of its enormous catalog database on-line. Access was developed using the Easel graphical interface programming tool and generates data strings that emulate mainframe keyboard commands to search two bibliographic databases when the user touches a box on the screen. The general public can currently use three prototype Access terminals in one of the library's reading rooms and fill out questionnaires evaluating the system. Access may eventually be expanded to cover foreign-language texts, photographs, music, map and film collections. Rollouts designed to let PCs, workstations act like Macs. (Hydra Systems Inc announces Hydra One emulation boar; Nutek Computers Several vendors are offering or developing hardware and software which allows IBM-compatible computers to emulate the Apple Macintosh. Hydra Systems Inc has announced the Hydra One, an add-in board for IBM PCs and compatibles that comes with proprietary software and interface connectors that lets the computers directly use Macintosh software. The Hydra One sells for $995 and includes Mac-to-PC file transfer and text conversion software. RDI Computer Corp has announced Companion, a program which emulates the Mac operating system on any workstation using the Sun Microsystems Inc SPARC processor design. Nutek Computers Inc is developing hardware it claims will allow manufacturers to legally product Macintosh clones. Coors brews up sales strategy. (uses COmpaq LTE portable computers for sales and marketing) Coors Brewing Co equips its 170 area sales managers with Compaq SLT and LTE 286 portable computers and WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Harvard Graphics software in an effort to strengthen its sales and market share in a fiercely competitive market. The representatives use an internally developed communications package, Coorslink, to transmit information to the company's 650 distributors nationwide. Sales presentations are a key part of the job of field representatives, and Coors officials say the sales managers are now armed with more effective templates. An analysis showed that representatives saved an average of 2.5 hours per week after only five months using the portable computers. The company hopes to give representatives remote access to its mainframe data in 1991. Federal program plow IS efforts into snow removal. Hildebrand, Carol. The National Research Council is investigating new technologies that would allow faster and more accurate snow removal at lower cost. The council's Strategic Highway Research Program is targeting atmospheric and pavement sensors that measure surface temperature, weather conditions and the presence of snow, water or ice on roads; the National Weather Service's Nexrad weather monitoring network; and 'thermal mapping,' which uses an infrared scanner attached to a vehicle to pinpoint warm or cold spots on a road. Local agencies would feed data generated by these technologies into a CPU for analysis, and the resulting increase in road crew efficiency would result in significant fiscal paybacks. Wingz trades strong graphics for compatibility. (Software Review) (Informix Software Inc Wingz spreadsheet package)(includes related Informix Software's $599 Wingz 1.1 spreadsheet runs under both DOS and Windows and uses an object-oriented design, but its superb graphics and charting capabilities come at a price: the program is not compatible with the Lotus 1-2-3 standard. A Wingz spreadsheet can consist of 32,000 rows and columns; the number of spreadsheets users can open simultaneously is limited only by system memory. Wingz can read Excel files but cannot write them; it imports and exports 1-2-3 files but cannot translate 1-2-3 macros. Many of the graph types available in Wingz are rarely seen in IBM PC programs. Documentation is good, but the on-line help is not context-sensitive. Wingz is intuitive in some functions but not consistent. Cable firm eyes basics. (Cox Cable of San Diego, CA using fault-tolerant computer systems) Cox Cable of San Diego Inc, the third largest cable television company in the US, began to computerize such basic functions as installation and cost tracking in early 1990. The company uses an 18-node Novell NetWare 386 network with a Compaq Systempro file server to run its cost-tracking system, which includes both off-the-shelf spreadsheet and database packages and custom code. Cox keeps the cost-tracking network separate form its Tandem Computers Inc TXP fault-tolerant superminicomputer which runs its signal processing and customer access functions. The Systempro package lets 50 users calculate return on investment and track costs and materials associated with bringing cable service to new housing developments and upgrading older ones. There are currently 1,255 projects active. Users join open systems forum. (Open Systems Interconnect Network Management Forum lets users as well as vendors join) The OSI Network Management Forum, traditionally a vendor-only organization, has decided to open its doors to users in order to strengthen its efforts to promote standards-based interoperability among computer network management systems. Forum president Robert Montgomery states that the group must expand in order to succeed and that users and companies acquainted with multivendor networking problems are ideal candidates for membership. More than 100 vendors currently belong to the forum, whose original purpose was to promote the development of common network management specifications. The group is now looking for 15 to 18 users to join an 'advisory council' which will meet twice a year. Issues it identifies as top priorities include network accounting and inventory applications, security and access control, a multiprotocol management information base and fast recovery from system failures. EDI booms as global outlook booms. (electronic data interchange) LaPlante, Alice. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is growing in importance as Europe moves toward the 1992 common market, with governments spending millions to ensure smooth international trading of electronic data and durable goods. One serious problem is the incompatibility of the emerging EDIFACT international standard wit the ANSI X.12 EDI standard employed by most US firms. Some parts of Europe also suffer from a poor telecommunications infrastructure. EDI is nevertheless in use at 3,000 to 5,000 European businesses, most of whom use standards created within their own industries or countries. Special software allows conversion between ANSI X.12 and proprietary standards. Telecommunications services in the UK, France and Germany are sophisticated, but those in other countries are often unreliable. Electronic meetings increase. (growth in videoconferencing)(includes related article on telecommunications The market for videoconferencing is growing rapidly as the cost of switched network service and equipment declines and technology improves. Demand for videoconferencing has also increased significantly since the outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf because security fears have caused many companies to curb global travel. More firms can afford videoconferencing rooms on their own premises, equipping a facility with a coder/decoder, camera, monitor, microphone and audio system. Coder/decoders compress video signals to allow transmission at a reasonable cost. Full-motion video requires at least two 56K-bps channels; major long-distance carriers are beginning to offer switched 384K-bps services and ISDN primary rate services on a cost-effective basis. J.C. Penney pleased with results of its ISDN testing. (integrated services digital network) (retailer J.C. Penney Co. conducts J.C. Penney Co is testing Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) systems that help it balance voice and data traffic and transmit still video images between its local area networks. The retailer says it is satisfied with the demonstration of interoperability among premises equipment and local and interexchange carriers. J.C. Penney uses 1.5M-bps primary-rate ISDN lines and Teleos Communications Inc network access equipment, dealing with carriers MCI Communications Corp and Southwestern Bell. Dialing up 64K-bps segments of a channel lets the company link LANs in geographically dispersed stores. A total of 800 stores could be candidates when service becomes available from carriers in a wide variety of locations. ISDN's switched nature lets customers access and pay for bandwidth on an as-needed basis. Technology succeeds at Failure. (Failure Analysis Inc.) (company profile) Failure Analysis Associates Inc of Menlo Park, CA, an engineering research firm that analyzes disastrous explosions and breakdowns and tests consumer products for possible defects before they reach the market, uses specially designed computers for many of its operations. Crash-testing of automobiles, which accounts for 50 percent of Failure Analysis' business, involves attaching computers to dummies and to the automobile to measure impact, fluid dynamics and other events during the test crash. All information is stored in a special database which includes animated graphics and video. Most software is developed in-house. The company was founded in 1967 and went public in 1988, reporting revenue of almost $60 million. It does not advertise, relying on word of mouth and its engineering expertise for all of its business. The company owns $11 million worth of hardware and software, including hundreds of 80386- and 80486-based IBM-compatible PCs, Apple Macintoshes, Sun Microsystems Inc Sparcstations and a DEC VAXcluster with five VAX systems. It also has an IBM 3083 mainframe and a total of 64Gbytes of hard disk storage. Virtually all data is stored electronically. The art of managing expectations. (Commentary ) (column) Silverman, Michael; Borgen, Daniel. Systems designers need to consider user expectations as well as functional requirements and technologies during a project life cycle. Managing expectations consists of determining what users expect, analysing which expectations cannot be met and minimizing negative results by managing discrepancies. The needs assessment phase is the best time to determine end users' levels of computer literacy, define acceptable degrees of impact on day-to-day work life and differentiate between desirable and mandatory technologies. 'Expected deliverables' are then categorized as those included within the scope of a particular effort, available as future enhancements, or designed out of the system. Managers should schedule meetings to update 'key users' on project status, outline tasks performed and in progress and avoid packaged software installations that conflict with the way end users are used to performing tasks. Managing IS in Hawaii is no vacation. (problems faced by information systems managers in Hawaii) Managers of information systems (IS) shops in Hawaii face special problems due to their distance from the US mainland and the large time difference. Technical publications take two weeks to arrive, and attending conferences is difficult and costly. The cost of living in Hawaii is extremely high, but many employers believe they can pay less than the national average because the island climate is an inherent benefit. Technology nevertheless helps Hawaiians in their relative isolation, because technical support can be obtained over the telephone. Nearly all Hawaiian IS jobs are on the island of Oahu, because banks, hotels and other computer users center their operations in Honolulu. Many computers are not state-of-the art; aging IBM 4300 and DEC VAX 11/785s remain in widespread sue. The Hawaiian IS community is very close, and news of how well a vendor performs a job spreads rapidly. Let's make a deal. (information systems managers who survive through bargaining skills)(includes related article on making Information systems (IS) managers need delicate negotiation and bargaining skills in order to juggle executive, user and steering-committee demands effectively. The first rule for managers is to negotiate from a position of strength; IS consultants say an effective manager must build respect and credibility in order to have negotiating clout. Mastering the organization's business is also essential. A negotiator must understand his company's business goals and avoid technical jargon whenever possible. Developing negotiation skills involves understanding the nature of negotiations; IS managers cna walk away from vendors if necessary, but not from users. Managers should work toward building partnerships under which interests coincide rather than compete. Playing politics is a last-resort option when all else fails. Tips on making trustworthy deals. (negotiator Bob Woolf) (interview) Celebrity entertainment and sports lawyer and well-known negotiator Bob Woolf discusses bargaining skills that are important to information systems managers. Common mistakes made by inexperienced negotiators include the tendency to view every problem as a fight and making unreasonable demands. The same basic principles apply to all negotiations. Woolf's book 'Friendly Persuasion: My Life as a Negotiator' contains 101 tactics, strategies and techniques for effective negotiation. Negotiators should be honest and firm with internal clients who ask for more than they can be given. Corporations often fail to take the time to train employees in negotiating skills. Going forward is important when dealing with powerful people, and language is important. Evaluate, don't procrastinate: seven steps to sizing up user application requests. (tutorial) Managing such user requests as system enhancements, small applications and maintenance fixes efficiently helps reduce the need for large, costly projects, enables many problems to be solved without recourse to information systems (IS) resources and deliver beneficial enhancements as well as educate users in IS life cycles. Managers should first look for low-cost non-IS solutions before recommending an information technology answer to a problem and should explore other departments that may have the information users request. Understanding the reason for a request is important, and managers should know when performing work immediately would take less time than relegating it to an official backlog. Not all 'fix the problem' requests should be acted on; many involve only cosmetic changes. 'Throw-away' application systems are useful for meeting particular business needs. Managers should look for solutions or opportunities users have not yet asked for. Cray spin-off unfazed by losses. (Cray Computer Corp.)(includes related article on 'the other Cray') Cray Research Inc spin-off Cray Computer Corp reports a whopping loss of $46.4 million on revenue of $13 million for fiscal 1990, but officials of the supercomputer firm say the financial difficulties and production delays are offset by Cray's technical successes. Cray Computer was established by Cray Research founder Seymour Cray in order to develop the Cray-3, a new supercomputer based on gallium arsenide semiconductor technology. The new computer architecture is difficult to manufacture, but Cray Computer expects to have a working prototype assembled by the summer of 1991 and has demonstrated a 32-bit foreground processor running at 500 MHz. Cray Computer claims a far better yield rate on its gallium arsenide chips than originally budgeted. Analysts say these successes lessen the impact of the company's year-end loss. Sales training viewed as competitive tool. (computer industry firms train new employees in sales techniques)(includes related Many large computer firms and service vendors train new employees in sales techniques to make themselves more competitive by leveraging internal resources. Senior management is increasingly involved in planning training programs. Andersen Consulting and Sun Microsystems Inc have advisory committees or training and development councils of senior executives who determine training priorities and keep them in line with current business objectives. Some companies still use paper-based courseware, but there is a significant trend toward computer-based training. Many firms implement post-training evaluation to assess how well new employees have retained the information and applied it in their jobs. A big brother for Sybase? Bozman, Jean S. Sybase Inc is entering a phase of development analogous to an individual's post-adolescence crises. The database vendor, co-developer with Microsoft Corp of the SQL Server database engine, has spent five years determining its direction but has yet to decide which major vendor it will form a long-term partnership with. Some analysts speculate that either Microsoft or Lotus Development Corp, which holds a large stake in Sybase, will acquire the company. Sybase officials say that they are preserving their independence by straddling the line between the competing vendors. The company is a development partner with Microsoft and a marketing partner with Lotus, serving the former as an advanced technology lab and the latter as a provider of database expertise. It obtains large-user government contracts to help Lotus enter new businesses and provides systems consulting for Lotus customers. Colleges seek corporate money. (colleges and universities)(includes related article on US industrial Universities and colleges increasingly seek funding from large corporations in the computer industry to maintain technology research. Federal funding is not enough to keep up with rising costs despite recent increases, and companies are asked to donate funds in exchange for technology that can be turned into new products. Nearly all major computer science departments have industry liaison programs, but corporations still contribute only about 6.6 percent of the $15 billion universities spend on research annually. Important products to come out of academic research include DEC's DECwindows interface and Ultrix operating system. Higher pay vs. higher education. (utilities industry, education as areas for information systems professionals) Both the utilities industry and higher education offer attractive job opportunities to information systems (IS) professionals, and each has advantages and disadvantages. Pay scales in utility firms are high because company structure requires IS personnel to earn higher-than-average compensation and average pay is established through collective bargaining, although IS positions are not unionized. IS personnel in utilities are very stable, with low turnover, and increasingly important to their organizations' operations but are seldom promoted to top management positions. Universities and colleges offer lower-than-average pay for IS workers, but other benefits and cultural conditions balance the relatively low salaries. Educational IS personnel typically get four weeks of paid vacation, twelve paid holidays and a week-long Christmas break as well as tuition breaks for themselves and their families. Universities are known for providing job security, but this situation may change as enrollments decline. University culture attracts many people because there is no pressure to conform to any rigid image. Netware pact leaves LAN Manager up in air. (effect of IBM-Novell marketing alliance on Microsoft) Industry observers speculate that the recently announced development and marketing alliance between IBM and Novell Inc could adversely affect Microsoft Corp, Novell's largest competitor in the local area network operating system market. Most analysts say that IBM's embrace of the NetWare network operating system will hurt Microsoft's LAN Manager, noting that Microsoft's strategy of placing some parts of LAN Manager into the Windows environment and others into OS/2 prevents it from effectively countering the IBM-Novell combination. Network administrators do not expect any direct impact on their organizations, and those already sold on LAN Server, IBM's own licensed version of LAN Manager, say they are more likely to use the OS/2 product because it is technically superior. Vines, Stargroup LANs to interoperate. (Banyan Systems Inc. VINES, AT&T Stargroup LAN Manager networks to offer two levels of Banyan Systems Inc and AT&T announce several levels of interoperability between Banyan's VINES network operating system and AT&T's StarGroup LAN Manager. Products for exchanging E-mail for the two networks and for file and print sharing are available immediately, and Banyan' StreetTalk global naming service can now reportedly operate on StarGroup servers. Users can access Oracle Corp databases from both networks via an SQL bridge. Observers note that the interoperability will appeal to some users with heavy investments in StarGroup who want access to Banyan naming and mail services, but some see little need for connectivity between the two systems because AT&T's share of the network operating system market is miniscule. Apple enhances Mac portable. (adds new features, cuts price of Macintosh Portable computer) Apple enhances its much-criticized Macintosh Portable with a backlit screen and other new features and cuts its price to $4,199 for a unit with a 40Mbyte hard disk and 2Mbytes of RAM, but users say that the machine is still too bulky at 15 pounds. Users and analysts had complained that the earlier Macintosh Portable was too expensive and too difficult to read in dim light. The machine also now ships with enough memory to run System 7.0, Apple's upcoming operating-system upgrade. Backlighting makes the screen easier to read and speeds response . The Mac Portable will continue to use sealed lead-acid batteries, but battery life has been downgraded from 6-9 hours to 3-6 hours. Users of the earlier Mac Portable can upgrade for $1,095. Lotus enhances Notes, buys top E-mail firm. (Lotus Development Corp. announces plans to purchase CC:Mail Inc, introduces Notes Lotus Development Corp introduces Notes 2.0, a new version of its high-end work group office-automation package, and announces plans to purchase CC:Mail Inc for an estimated $25 million. The company plans to provide a gateway between Notes and CC:Mail's namesake electronic mail system, synchronizing Notes directory services to incorporate CC:Mail and adding X.400, X.500 and X.25 support. Lotus is also developing a Macintosh version of Notes. Enhancements in Notes 2.0 include improved connectivity for remote laptop computers, expanded imaging capabilities, Super VGA support, enhanced security, better database management and support for Microsoft's Dynamic Data Exchange and Object Linking and Embedding standards. The new version can import large bit-mapped graphics files for document imaging. Users will be able to set up active links with other applications under the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Lotus offers Notes through direct sales only at a price of $62,500 per 200-user installation. DEC to brave retail PC market again. (Digital Equipment Corp to offer microcomputers through retail channel) DEC confirms that officials are signing a series of new microcomputer distribution agreements designed to bring the company back into the retail channel, an area where it has traditionally had difficulty. The company hopes to become a major laptop vendor by introducing its own DOS-based portable machine, possibly in late 1991. Analysts warn that DEC will not be able to make a profit in the microcomputer channel unless it buys components and assembles its own machines. Breaking into new accounts via microcomputers could open up new markets for the company's Pathworks networking products and VAX/VMS servers. DEC currently sells 35 percent of its microcomputers through indirect channels and the remainder through its direct sales force. Fujitsu packs 2GB of storage in 5 1/4-inch form-factor drive. (Fujitsu America International introduces new 2Gbyte SCSI and IPI Fujitsu America introduces the M2652, a new line of 5.25-inch SCSI and IPI Winchester disk drives for DEC VAX systems. The drives have unformatted storage capacities of 2Gbytes and are designed to replace 8- to 10-inch drives. Each uses a sputtered thin-film media with an aerial density of more than 80M-bits per square inch. Drive connections in the M2652 family include the dual-ported SCSI 2 M2652HD and single-ended SCSI 2 M2652S. The drives are designed for high reliability, with a mean time between failure of 200,000 hours. Volume shipments of the M2652 are expected by 2nd qtr 1991; Fujitsu will sell disk array versions of the products in Japan and to OEMs. DEC, Novell embark on different paths to boost NetWare-to-VAX links. (networking DEC VAX minicomputers) (product announcement) DEC and Novell Inc both introduced products at the 1991 NetWorld trade show designed to improve connectivity between DEC VAX minicomputers and the Novell NetWare network operating system. DEC announced its PathWorks for DOS (NetWare Coexistence) and PathWorks for DOS (TCP/IP) layered communications products. PathWorks for DOS (NetWare Coexistence) gives NetWare microcomputer users simultaneous access to NetWare services and client services such as X.400 mail and SQL database servers. Pathworks for DOS (TCP/IP) was developed for DEC by 3Com Inc and provides file and print services to IBM-compatible microcomputers via NetBIOS. Novell introduced NetWare 3.11, a new version of its 80386-based network operating system that supports IP tunneling of IPX packets and routing of packets across a variety of network topologies. It also offered LAN Workplace for DOS 4.0, which provides direct concurrent access to Unix, VAX, NetWare and IBM mainframe systems. Consortium to focus on RISC standard. (joint effort involving Compaq, DEC, Microsoft and others) A group of hardware and software vendors are reportedly engaged in a joint effort to develop a binary standard for reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessors that would allow microcomputer clone makers to enter the workstation market. The group involves Compaq, DEC, Microsoft Corp, Mips Computer Systems and The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) Inc. Compaq is expected to develop desktop workstations based on Mips' R4000 RISC chip that will run both Unix and Microsoft operating systems. DEC is likely to help SCO develop a new version of Unix that complies with Open Software Foundation (OSF) standards; although officials refuse to comment on the company's involvement. Observers say that MIPS stands to gain the most from the alliance. SIG council asks DECUS board to delay changes to management for one year. (Special Interest Group) DECUS' 25-member Special Interest Group (SIG) council has passed a resolution opposing proposed changes to the user group's bylaws that would alter its management structure significantly. The DECUS board voted to draw up new bylaws in Feb 1991 on the advice of management consulting firm Arthur D. Little, but SIG council members say there are more important things that should be done. Key changes in the bylaws would enlarge the board of directors from nine to 13 voting members and change the 12-member DECUS management council, now a separate organization, into an operating committee. Those opposed to the reorganization claim the changes would create the type of activist board that has proved inefficient in the past. Updated Star*Show software from Procyon eases editing of chart, graphics applications. (Procyon Software Systems introduces Procyon Software Systems introduces Star*Show 2.1, a new version of its chart and graphics software for DEC VAX/VMS systems that can run on any ANSI-based terminal and includes commands for making line charts on non-graphics terminals. Star*Show now has a fully menu-driven interface that beta testers say is much easier to use than that of previous versions. Users can do virtual pixel work, automatically format bullet charts and align text blocks. The program offers new line-smoothing capabilities, several new chart types and an optional spreadsheet data editor. Star*Show 2.1 costs $1,995 and up for a single-user license. A companion product, Star*Draw, allows sophisticated graphics editing and also sells for $1,995. 8mm subsystem offers 45-cartridge carousel; can hold 225GB. (Spectra Logic STL-8000 tape storage system) (product Spectra Logic announces the STL-8000, a new 8mm tape storage subsystem with a 45-cartridge carousel that can provide random access to up to 225Gbytes of mass storage. Analysts praise Spectra Logic's choice of a carousel mechanism, noting that such systems are more reliable and less costly than machines using automatic cartridge handlers arrayed vertically or with X and Y axes. The new subsystem can be configured with one or two 2.25Gbyte tape drives; a higher-capacity STL-8000H version supports 5Gbyte drives. The STL-8000 carousel receives library commands via serial cable or from an SCSI-2 command controller. Spectra Logic sells Exabyte Corp's Exasafe backup software for $21,450. Prices for the STL-8000 begin at $25,890 for the single-drive version and $39,500 for the two-drive version; the STL-8000H costs $28,000 to $42,000. Age of MAN heralds networking's next step. (metropolitan area network, Tech Trends) Metropolitan area networks (MANs) are a major trend in corporate data communications. Local area networks are increasingly linked to each other in facilities scattered throughout cities and their surrounding suburbs. Analysts say that telephone carriers will price MAN service competitively under the IEEE 802.6 standard, which supports current US telephone equipment. A MAN must provide transmission rates of more than 40M-bps for switched data transmitted 50 kilometers or more. Two competing MAN implementations are Switched Multimegabit Data Services (SMDS), backed by AT&T, and QPSX Systems' Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB). Many observers see MANs as precursors of ISDN networks and note that there is little actual difference between SMDS and DQDB. Compiler readies VAX Fortran for FPS vector, parallel processors. (FPS Computing Inc. introduces Unified Application Compiler) FPS Computing Inc introduces the Unified Applications Compiler, a device that compiles VAX Fortran applications for the company's parallel and vector supercomputing processors. The product will support FPS scalar processors, Fortran-77, and C as well as Cray Research's compiler of Fortran. It is targeted at users who want to run their current applications on higher-performance FPS platforms. The Unified Applications Compiler uses software developed by Kuck and Associates to direct sections of code to the appropriate FPS processors and optimize data locality for fast program execution. An 'iteration space tiling' technique lets the compiler read application data in blocks. The new compiler will sell for $20,000 to $40,000 and will be available in the 2nd qtr of 1991. Highland hands out Unix software on CD. (Highland Software introduces Software Store sales and distribution program) Highland Software is cooperating with HP, DEC and Sun Microsystems in a platform called Software Store, under which selected workstation users will receive CD-ROM volumes of UNIX application software free of charge. Highland will create, distribute and market the CDs, each of which will contain 550Mbytes of software. The company plans to recruit independent software vendors who have difficulty persuading dealers to market their products. Analysts say the new distribution strategy could alter distribution channels by skewing price structures and creating an end-user market for Unix applications. The resulting demand would force dealers to stock 'proven' applications, but the price structures for CD marketing and dealer distribution would have to coincide. CDC releases LAT software for HP 9000 workstations. (Control Data Corp.'s Ascent*Link, Local Area Transport software for HP 9000 Control Data Corp introduces Ascent*Link, a Local Area Transport network software package for HP 9000 workstations that supports the company's Ascent*DNI DECnet product for Unix systems. Ascent*Link sells for $875 to $9,750. HP itself has announced volume shipments of the 25 MHz 68040 version of its HP 9000 400 workstation. The new chip is faster than the 50 MHz 68030 currently in use despite its slower clock rate because of architectural changes that allow it to read an instruction from memory while another is being executed. Prices for the HP 9000 400 series range from $8,990 to $14,000. Lucas-Bear beefs up Demand Forecasting's graphics, screen capabilities. (financial modeling software) (product announcement) Lucas-Bear and Associates introduces Demand Forecasting 9.0, a new version of its software designed to develop models for regular, promotional, seasonal and sporadic demand and set levels at which materials should be replenished. Demand Forecasting is intended for use in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, sales and retailing. The new version includes interactive graphics for viewing and adjusting data, enhanced external forecasting and improved technical functions. Demand Forecasting 9.0 has screens with more flexible data arrays than previous versions and new external forecasting algorithms that can perform forecasts for gross national product, installed bases and distribution. Data can be exported to Lotus 1-2-3. The software is available for VAX/VMS, IBM AS/400 and System/38, HP 3000 and MS-DOS machines. Prices range from $60,000 to $90,000. Nomad environment accesses Rdb, RMS files. (Must Software International introduces Nomad 3.0 application development Must Software International introduces Nomad 3.0, a new version of its database application development environment that can access Rdb and RMS files on DEC VAX systems. Nomad 3.0 comes with database arrays, a CREATE VIEW command that supports Structured Query Language syntax and the complete Nomad tool kit. The Rdb/V MS interface and Rdb/VMS Server features create access to DEC's Rdb database. The new interface lets users create Rdb databases from Nomad schema created with the database definition generator in the Nomad Toolkit. Must plans to offer interfaces to Ingres, Oracle and Sybase relational databases in the future. Nomad 3.0 costs $3,000 to $12,000; the Rdb/VMS Interface and RMS Interface sell for $600 to $31,400 each. Adopt an engineering customer. (Bill Hancock) (column) Hancock, Bill. US developers should learn from the Japanese, who expect and pursue customer contact instead of trying to avoid it, when dealing with user needs. Many developers do not understand real-world issues as they apply to customer sites, leaving it to the user to resolve difficulties that arise when a product does not do what it is supposed to do. Products that are not easy to use and take too long to learn end up on the 'back burner' regardless of how powerful they are. Developers should 'adopt' customers to give feedback directly to engineers. Such a program would make development more dynamic and therefore more useful. X power unleashed. (Hardware Review) (DEC VT1300 X terminal)(includes related article on test model) (evaluation) DEC's $7,495 VT1300 X Windows terminal is a powerful, high-end unit that behaves much like a diskless workstation and can be upgraded to a VAXstation 3100 workstation. It comes with a 90-nanosecond CVAX CPU, SPX graphics coprocessor and 8Mbytes of memory as well as standard and thin-wire Ethernet interfaces. The unit supports both TCP/IP and DECnet networking. Installing and maintaining host-based server software makes system management more difficult, but the VT1300 offers performance superior to that of many competing X terminals. The VT1300 is ideal for MIS sites that need workstation-type graphics capabilities at low cost. Digital update: information gridlock. (Special Advertising Section, DEC) Document management systems can help users solve the problems of information 'overload' generated by electronic data storage and desktop publishing. Integrating desktops with larger systems in a client/server environment helps prevent obsolete and incomplete information from existing on different systems and makes it easier to locate files when they are needed. A good document management system should include routing, storage, retrieval and linking capabilities. DEC sells and distributes several third-party document management products for VAX systems, including Odesta Corp's ODMS, Excalibur Technologies' PixTex and Verity Inc's TOPIC. New memory modules for VAX 6000 systems. (DEC VAX 6000, special advertising section) DEC offers a variety of memory modules for its VAX 6000 minicomputers that improve performance to meet the demands of powerful database, scientific and vector processing applications. The MS65A modules come in 128Mbyte, 64Mbyte and 32Mbytes versions and use a unique design that allow very fast access to memory data. Configuration options include replacing current MS62A modules with higher-density MS65A units or combining MS62A and MS65A modules in the same machine. Users can buy memory in whatever increments best serve their needs. Maintenance is available free of charge for systems covered by Digital service contracts. Integrating OS/2 into the network: Digital's strategy. (special advertising section, DEC) DEC's Personal Computing Systems Architecture is designed as a complete solution for integrating microcomputers into large systems environments and underlies the PATHWORKS line of connectivity software products. PATHWORKS lets users link DEC-based LANs with a variety of host systems and is based on industry-standard architectures. DEC supports OS/2 under the Network Application Support strategy. Its PATHWORKS for OS/2 lets users configure an OS/2 client or server and supports the LAN Manager application programming interface. The product also includes DECnet network transport software and lets OS/2 clients access file, print and mail services from a variety of servers. It supports Presentation Manager applications. Industry static for 1991 as world economy cools. (computer industry economic outlook)(includes related article on economic Overall computer shipments in 1991 are expected to increase, but growth in some sectors of the computer industry will remain flat due to the recession in the domestic economy and the Persian Gulf war. A survey by the Index Group management consulting firm in Oct 1990 projected that MIS budgets would increase only 5.3 percent in 1991. Most companies are either pessimistic about the economy or cautious due to a lack of consumer confidence, increased unemployment, fluctuating oil prices, bank failures and the collapse of the real estate market. DEC's market for midrange computer systems is shrinking, although workstation shipments show substantial increases; analysts say these figures reflect the 'downsizing' trend. Many companies are emphasizing reduction of overhead in their attempts to deal with the recession and avoid 'throwing computers' at everything. DEC remains at the bottom in terms of revenues generated per employee when compared to competing vendors. Manufacturers weather the storm. (economic recession) Grygo, Gene. The economic recession has hurt the manufacturing sector severely, but some manufacturers will actually increase their information systems budgets as a result of high demand for their products. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing and cosmetics manufacturer American International say they expect growth in 1991 and are buying more hardware and software technology to maintain their competitive edge. Boeing has nevertheless been forced to reallocate some resources as a result of reduced defense spending, and orders for its new 777 aircraft may not materialize if business travel continues to decline. American International notes that the beauty products market is virtually recession-proof and that it acquires many new products annually. Bankers examine cost of survival. (economic recession,) Jenkins, Avery L. 1990 was a difficult year for the banking industry, marked by widespread failures of savings and loan institutions and some major banks; growth in MIS budgets is slower in banking than in many other sectors of the economy. Many financial institutions want to increase the value derived from their current information technology investments rather than making new investments. Mellon Bank plans to spend its 1991 MIS budget on systems integration rather than new hardware. It has one IBM 3090 400E and two 3090 600J mainframes and many DEC and other systems, including more than 100,000 workstations linked in a wide area network. The bank is equipping its programmers and analysts with their own workstations in order to improve productivity and save internal MIS costs. Ameritrust, a large bank holding company, prefers to buy and customize off-the-shelf software rather than building applications from scratch. Increased programmer productivity has allowed it to cut some of its MIS staff. Health-care MIS budget remains robust. (effect of recession on various economic sectors) The health care industry is likely to increase spending on computer systems in 1991 despite the economic recession. Some hospitals and health insurance companies are investing in new hardware and installing major upgrades. Tufts Associated and Total Health Plans, a Waltham, MA-based health maintenance organization, plans to buy a new HP 3000 Series 958 minicomputer to add to its current Series 70 and Series 950 machines. Officials at Tufts note that HP's price cuts have made it feasible for them to buy new rather than used equipment. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston will buy several new IBM PCs in 1991, increasing its hardware budget while keeping software spending at 1990 levels. Desert Storm clouds government spending. (effect of Operation Desert Storm on federal MIS budgets) Operation Desert Storm has increased demand for command, control, communications and other computer equipment to meet immediate military needs, but has delayed the starting dates for some new strategic weapons contracts indefinitely. The effect of the war on programs such as Corporate Information Management, a movement within the Department of Defense to consolidate and standardize systems, remains uncertain. The $1 billion Corporate Information Management initiative is designed to alter the department's fundamental business operations; most expect funding for the project to remain intact. Demand for CAD and geographic information systems in the government market remains strong, but demand for minicomputers is slack. Oil industry refines MIS efforts. (effect of recession on oil and gas producers and MIS spending) Fluctuating oil prices and the war in the Persian Gulf make it difficult to forecast MIS spending in the oil industry, but analysts say most petroleum industry segments are doing relatively well compared to the rest of the economy. Oil and gas producers remain vulnerable to declining prices, and many were unable to raise retail prices as fast as the price of oil went up between Aug and Oct 1990. Most oil capital is invested in new exploration, with very little spent on data processing equipment. Chevron, which spends 0.6 percent of its sales revenues on computers and services, is building a wide area network to link its European operations with its computer center in California and is developing a new central company database. The Persian Gulf war has increased the motivation for new oil exploration in the US. Graphing and curve-fitting software: packages present data so it makes sense. (includes list of manufacturers) Graphing, curve-fitting, and visualization software packages can help engineers interpret experimental data. Visual aids include graphs, three-dimensional displays, animated displays, and contour plots. Curve-fitting software identifies an equation that matches a group of data points. The factors to consider when selecting a software package include whether the package will be used on a daily or an occasional basis, the types of features desired, whether the package can read data from files in a format that can be produced by the data-acquisition software, the size of the data sets handled by the program, whether the software supports the printer or the plotter, and compatibility with video-display hardware. VXI packaging and power issues heat up. (VME extensions for instrumentation)(includes list of manufacturers) Heat and power considerations are becoming more important as manufacturers are adding more components and features to VXI modules. Some manufacturers are complying with heat dissipation and power demands by utilizing onboard smart cooling fans, fins, and towers, while others are splitting VXI instruments by locating segments in multiple slots or outside mainframes. Users wishing to avoid split instruments can use a VXIbus extender. VXI systems are designed to avoid the heat and noise generated by traditional configurations with switching power supplies. The factors to be considered by VXIbus test and measurement system designers include VXI enclosures and power ratings. Many manufacturers do not publish specifications for cooling capacity, so users should determine each box's cooling capacity per slot, as well as verifying whether the per-slot power ratings are based on intermittent or continuous operation. Precision parts demand kid-glove treatment: Low-drift op amps. (operational amplifiers)(includes related article and list of Designers of low-drift operational amplifiers (op amps) face several challenges when attempting to meet performance goals for precision circuits. Designers must decide which parameter to maximize at the expense of others. The selection of a low-drift op amp involves deciding between traditional bipolar or chopper input stages. Chopper input amps provide excellent voltage low-drift performance over a wide variety of temperatures and over long periods of time. One goal in restricting thermal electromagnetic field effects is to minimize the amount of junctions and thermal gradients along the signal tracks. A high degree of thermal balance can be obtained by maintaining symmetrical geometry on the die. Battle between EISA and MCA continues. (Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Micro Channel Architecture)(includes related article The differences between the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) are becoming less obvious, and board designers' choice of bus may depend on which one allows them to sell their product more easily. MCA board designers will gain access to IBM's market, while EISA designers will obtain access to a more diverse and cost-conscious market. Both architectures offer similar features, including the ability to reduce bandwidth bottlenecks resulting from the Industry Standard Architecture in IBM-compatible computers, similar data-transfer performance potential, straightforward development paths, and a logical 32-bit path. One of the differences between EISA and MCA is speed. MCA utilizes a 10-MHz clock, while EISA uses an 8.33-MHz clock. EISA and MCA have more similarities than differences, and neither one appears to have become designers' architecture of choice. Real-time Unix-like operating system implements Posix 1003.4 extensions. (Portable Operating System Interface for Unix) Lynx Real-Time Systems Inc's Lynxos 2.0 Unix-compatible real-time operating system is capable of implementing all of the real-time extensions specified in IEEE Portable Operating System Interface for Unix (Posix) 1003.4. Posix 1003.4 allows real-time applications to run on multiple vendors' systems and processors. The features of Lynxos 2.0 include binary semaphores, shared memory, asynchronous event notification, interprocess communication, and contiguous real-time files. Lynxos requires an IBM PC- or AT-compatible computer. The cost is $1,495 for PC- and AT-compatible programs, and $2,995 for a PC-compatible development kit for ROM-based systems. Voice-storage chip supplies nonvolatile analog memory. (Information Storage Devices Inc.'s ISD-1016) (Hardware Review) The Information Storage Devices ISD-1016 voice-storage chip is capable of supplying nonvolatile analog memory. The ISD-1016 relies on neither an analog-to-digital nor a digital-to-analog converter. The nonvolatile memory cells store charges in a RAM arrangement by using a proprietary Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor/EEPROM technology, which eliminates the need for a backup power supply for the chip. The ISD-1016 needs few external passive components and stores up to 16 sec of speech. The chips, which cost $16 per 1000, can be ordered in a 28-pin DIP or in a 28-pin plastic leadless chip carrier. VME64 68040-based single-board computer supports 32M bytes of dynamic RAM. (Synergy Microsystems Inc.'s SV430) (Hardware Review) Synergy Microsystems Inc's SV430 single-board computer is capable of supporting 32Mbytes of interleaved dynamic RAM. The SV430 CPU board, which complies with the VME64 bus specification, is appropriate for applications involving high-performance Unix systems and real-time systems. The CPU board uses a 64-bit-wide data path to perform VMEbus block transfers at speeds up to 66Mbytes per second. The CPU board is capable of performing one-wait-state memory writes and zero-wait-state memory reads. The cost of the SV430 is $4,605. STD Bus DSP board delivers 25M flops and 3.5M-byte/sec data transfer. (WinSystems Inc.'s MCM-DSP32C digital signal processing WinSystems Inc's MCM-DSP32C digital signal processing board is capable of delivering 25MFLOPS and 3.5Mbps data transfers. The processor, which runs at a clock frequency of 50 MHz, plugs into an STD Bus, and data transfer to the bus is three times faster than that provided by a memory-mapped alternative. A reduction in memory-access bottlenecks minimizes the code's execution speed. The cost is $1,795 for a board with 256Kbytes of zero-wait-state RAM, and $1,495 for a board with 64Kbytes of RAM. Compact crystal oscillator features 2 X 10 to the power of -7 stability. (Raltron Electronic Corp.'s TF-65010-B) (product Raltron Electronic Corp's TF-65010-B compact crystal oscillator can be used for high-stability applications at a low cost. The oscillator is capable of achieving a temperature stability of 0.2 ppm over an operating range of -20 to 70 degrees Celsius. The stability level is reached within two minutes. The oscillator, which uses oven-like compensation techniques, provides real-time reaction to variations in temperature. The oscillator is small and uses little power because of the design of the resistance heating element, which acts directly on the oscillator's AT-cut crystal. The cost of the oscillator is $65 per 10,000. Real-time multiprocessor series occupies one board set. (Concurrent Computer Corp.'s 7000 computers) (product Concurrent Computer Corp's 7000 computers perform real-time multiprocessing with one CPU board set. Raw data can be accepted by the computers from VMEbus input-output (I/O) boards across many channels, with aggregate rates of up to 50Mbps. The I/O channels comply with the VME32 standard and the proposed VME64 standard. Between 8Mbytes and 112Mbytes of parity memory can be accessed, and memory can include up to 5,123Kbytes of UV EPROM. A five-slot chassis with 8Mbytes of memory costs $14,500, and a 21-slot chassis with 8Mbytes of memory costs $27,995. SMT troubleshooting. (surface-mount technology)(includes glossary, related article, and list of manufacturers) Surface-mount technology offers such benefits as high packing density and high speed, but it also complicates such tasks as prototyping, testing, and troubleshooting. The examination of a package terminal is a challenge because of increased pin counts and more refined lead pitches. Most high-level integrated circuits are contained in either leadless chip carriers, plastic leaded chip carriers, or plastic quad flatpacks, but not many products provide designers with the capability of interfacing the packages to wire-wrap posts for prototyping. However, off-the-shelf adapters can solve the problems related to troubleshooting and prototyping. The companies that manufacture prototyping and troubleshooting adapters include Antona, McKenzie Technology, Ironwood Electronics, Global Specialties and Emulation Technology. Task coordination and communication via signals. (Real-Time Programming Part 10) Private communication is possible through the use of signals that allow one task to transmit information to a specific recipient. The four modes of signal use are intratask coordination, error recovery, debugging, and intertask coordination and communication. Signals are different from other coordination mechanisms in that signal communication can be either synchronous or asynchronous, and each task can determine the way in which it will respond to each signal. Each task can either ignore the signal, perform a specific procedure, be blocked until the debugger begins operation, or terminate. A task can identify when a requested service is completed by waiting, continuing immediately, continuing without any coordination, or continuing with a signal in the zero-to-15 range transmitted after the service is completed. Noninteger division synthesizes multiple clock frequencies. (tutorial) Noninteger division is frequently needed when producing multiple clock frequencies from one reference. Digital designers have traditionally experienced problems when designing frequency dividers with noninteger division ratios. Conventional techniques for producing fractional division ratios include using a frequency synthesizer that uses the ratio of N/M as the division ratio, and using a very high-frequency reference with a period equal to the least common multiple of all the desired clock periods. The first technique can be inaccurate, and the second technique requires such a high-frequency reference that generation is nearly impossible. A fundamental algorithm can offer an alternative to conventional division methods by providing some selection of the reference. Examples are presented to illustrate the technique. Downturn and downsizing spell decline for desktop PCs. (Update: Business Trends) An uncertain economy, a saturated market and competition from laptop and notebook PCs are expected to mean an end to the yearly increases in desktop PC sales in 1991. Over six million desktop PCs were shipped in 1990 and a report from Forrester Research Inc shows that sales of the systems have already begun to drop; the report predicts industry consolidation, causing many low-end clone manufacturers as well as many dealers and resellers to close. The report says a trend toward portable computing is the primary reason for the decline in desktop PC sales: US sales of laptop and notebook PCs reached 570,000 units in 1989 and 832,000 in 1990, and they are expected to reach 1.2 million units in 1991 and 2.6 million in 1993, at which time they will represent one-third of the US PC market. International Data Corp expects only a three percent increase in US PC sales in 1991, compared with the six percent increase recorded in 1990 and the seven percent one in 1989. Slowing sales put squeeze on capital-spending plans. (of electronics firms) (Update: Economic Trends) A capital spending poll by the magazine indicates that only 25 percent of the 61 electronics firm CFOs surveyed in the last quarter of 1990 spent less on new equipment and factories in 1990 than in 1989, but more than half cut their near-term capital budgets in the 3rd qtr of 1990 from levels in the previous quarter, and 47 percent said spending had declined from year-earlier levels. Only 18 percent of the CFOs reported an increase in capital spending from the 2nd to 3rd qtrs of 1990, compared to the 38 percent who planned capital spending increases from the previous quarter in the spring of 1990, and the 32 percent planning increases in the summer. The poor economy is cited as the primary reason for the change by the CFOs: more than half said spending was limited primarily by expected flat sales in the near term. Developing a new strategy at Kodak. (hoping to be a standard-setter in the electronic-imaging industry) (includes Eastman Kodak Co hopes to use its technology and knowledge of photography to lead the burgeoning electronic-imaging market, and particularly the desktop color imaging segment. Kodak Chmn, Pres and CEO Kay R. Whitmore says desktop color imaging is a natural direction for the company given its years of experience in electronic imaging. The company plans to create hybrid products that combine photography and electronic-imaging equipment, printers and scanners, software and data storage systems while simultaneously establishing industry standards for the capture, storage, transmission, manipulation and printing of photographic images. Increasing competition in photographic markets is expected to reduce sales growth for film, photographic paper and similar products, causing Kodak and other companies to look for markets with greater growth potential; the firm's plans for the electronic imaging market with such products as its Photo CD system are described. Defense electronics wins early challenges. (high-tech weapons perform well in air war over Iraq) (Special Report: Electronics in In the early stages of the Persian Gulf war the focus was on the high-tech electronics in weapons, aircraft and submarines. The headlines may have been grabbed by Raytheon Corp's Patriot missile and General Dynamics Corp's Tomahawk cruise missile, but Allied forces have used a variety of electronic weapons, intelligence-gathering systems, communications equipment, radar, computers, night-vision and infrared devices and other systems with a tinge of science fiction about them. The success of the systems has been good news for defense contractors, who have recently heard much more criticism about their products and how they were developed. The first stages of the war have shown some gaps in the US military weapons arsenal; former undersecretary of defense for procurement Robert B. Costello says air and ground forces need more 'fire-and-forget' weapons. The performance of several specific weapons systems is examined. GE Fanuc rethinks the factory of the future. (earns the 1991 Factory Automation Award) (Managing Resources: Factory Automation) GE Fanuc Automation North America Inc wins the magazine's 1991 Electronics Factory Automation Award, which is given each year to the company that best uses manufacturing technology to improve its competitiveness. GE Fanuc's Charlottesville, VA, manufacturing operation makes such factory automation equipment as programmable logic controllers and computer numerical controls. In 1987 the factory was cited as a primary reason for the company's decline in the factory automation market, but new management and a new manufacturing philosophy have made the factory the foundation of the company's fast growth in all of its major markets. General Electric Corp built the factory in the early 1980s as a showcase for factory automation products, but it was beset by mismanagement in its first years of operation due to misguided reliance on automation; how the management was able to turn things around is described. Optical inspection makers tough it out in a slumping market. (Orbot and Optrotech call off merger, plan different Manufacturers of automatic optical inspection (AOI) equipment for printed circuit board (PCB) makers are suffering through some bad times: KLA Instruments is divesting its AOI business for PCBs, and Orbot Systems Ltd and Optrotech Ltd cancelled their merger plans, which were intended to eliminate each other's primary competitor. The two Israeli companies together represent about 80 percent of the worldwide market of AOI for PCBs; 1990 orders fell 24 percent from 1989, according to Orbot, and both companies have experienced difficulties in other areas. Optrotech's 1989 net income was only $4.5 million on revenue of $73 million, while Orbot recorded net income of $16 million in the year on revenue of $60.6 million. With their merger off, both firms will diversify in an attempt to increase revenue: Optrotech continues to invest heavily in R&D, while Orbot relies on its relationship with IBM. A big country with big plans - and big problems. (Asia/Pacific Business: India) India's electronics industry has grown four-fold since 1986, but the boom will have to continue for the industry to meet the ambitious goals of the government for 1995. The Government of India Department of Electronics (DOE) reports that the electronics industry in the country grew at a compound annual rate of 35 percent between 1985 and 1990; electronics revenue increased in the period from $1.2 billion to $5.1 billion, adjusted for inflation and the depreciation of the rupee in the period. The Bangalore area in India's Karnataka state has been called the country's Silicon Valley, but the area experiences problems with communications systems and power supply. Growth has been the result primarily of low-end consumer production, mostly televisions; it was helped considerably by the Integrated Policy Measures in Electronics implemented by the government in 1984. Can connector makers halt the pricing free-fall? (Market Perspectives: Connectors) US connector manufacturers have seen prices for their products drop throughout the 1980s, and several have recently announced price increases to signal to customers that their price strategies are about to be changed. Amp Inc, the $3 billion industry leader, recently announced its first formal price increase since 1985, increasing prices by 2 percent to 5 percent as of Jan 1, 1991; Cinch Connector, Augat Inc and ITT Cannon have also raised prices, and price hikes are planned by Amphenol Corp, Burndy Corp and Du Pont, among other connector manufacturers. Analysts claim that while the price hikes are overdue, they may not have the desired effect; major end users will likely expect something in return, such as quality and delivery, according to Shearson Lehman Hutton analyst David Nelson. The increases are not expected to affect large OEM customers, but distributor margins may be squeezed even further. In search of the high-fashion mouse. (Market Perspectives: Non-Keyboard Input Devices) Logitech CEO Pierluigi Zappacosta wants to sell microcomputer users two mice or trackballs: one low-cost device sold to OEMs for packaging with the basic system, and a fancier device, with a fancier price tag, that will let users make a 'fashion' statement. The non-keyboard input device market has been a commodity market since Apple popularized the devices with the Macintosh, but companies such as Logitech hope to differentiate their products by adding new features and otherwise sprucing up the products. Mouse Systems, Logitech and Alps Electric, the three largest US market suppliers of non-keyboard input devices, are working on the ergonomics of their devices and on making them easier to use. Left- and right-handed versions of the products will be offered, and they will come in different sizes for large and small hands. Windows 3.0 is increasing demand for all types of pointing devices. The erosion of relationships. (success in the computer industry will rely more on relationships, service and goodwill in the A discussion with a computer industry veteran of almost 30 years touched on what will be the keys to success for companies in the 1990s and led to some startling conclusions. Among the most important considerations will be goodwill, service and relationships, which are three characteristics that are difficult to find in computer industry firms at present. The relationships between customers and suppliers continues to erode: purchasers continue to push suppliers to the wall on price and drop one when another offers a better deal, and the fastest growing department in many organizations is the legal department. Businesspeople enter relationships expecting the other party to do its best to screw them, and they are rarely proven wrong. Relationships once meant more to people than the bottom line, but those were simpler times. Why the Japanese can't be more like us. (Viewpoint) (column) Bairstow, Jeffrey. Japanese often confound people in the US: things in Japan are very different than in the US, but people in the US often expect Japanese to be more like them. The book The Enigma of Japanese Power by Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen describes Japan as a country run more by its 'System' than by individuals; the System is an informal and shifting alliance between key bureaucrats, businessmen and bankers. The concept of the System is described as more than the relationships between individuals; it also encompasses forces that individuals cannot hope to overcome without using violence, and it runs apart from a state or a society, yet it determines how people's lives are lived in the country and who does what to whom. One of the reasons trade negotiations with government leaders in Japan rarely work is because the System can ignore or subvert any politicians. ISSCC: mixed signal, micros and memory: leading edge, mixed-signal ICs unveiled. (International Solid State Circuits Conference; The focus of the 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is on devices based on linear complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) processes and the sigma-delta modulation design technique for analog-to-digital conversion. NEC Corp reveals details of a highly integrated 16-bit oversampling coder-decoder (codec), processed in 1.2-micron CMOS and housed in 44-pin plastic leaded chip carrier. Several joint efforts are also introduced. AT&T Bell Labs and Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd have developed a cellular telephone chip that will be marketed by AT&T Microelectronics, while General Electric and Yokogawa Electric have devised a programmable mixed signal application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for power metering that includes six sigma-delta A/D converters and a programmable digital signal processor (DSP). Also debuting products at the ISSCC are IBM, with a 27-MHz magnetic recording channel DSP, and Level One Communications, with a single-chip mixed-signal transceiver that operates at 14 baud rates. 'Swordfish' MPU surfaces: ISSCC: mixed signal, micros and memory. (National Semiconductor introduces superscalar embedded The 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is the site for the announcement by National Semiconductor of the development of a 32-bit embedded processor. The 50-MHz, 100-Mips 'Swordfish' processor represents an important advance in reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, and will become part of National's family of 32XX imaging and communications processor family. The part is already in first silicon, but official sampling will not begin until Aug 1991, with full production not expected until summer 1992. The device offers on-chip digital signal processing hardware and a 64-bit external bus. The CPU follows a symmetric superscalar architecture, with two nearly identical execution units; Swordfish actually has four execution units, including two integer units, a floating-point unit, and a DSP-influenced Wallace-tree multiplier unit. The introduction of symmetric superscalar design is considered a major step in the development of multiple-instruction-per-clock capability. Any two of Swordfish's execution units may be active at the same time. Japan has memories of the future: ISSCC: mixed signal, micros and memory. (Japanese semiconductor firms dominate the memory-research Japanese researchers, as evidenced by papers presented at the 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and by interviews in Japan, are putting extraordinary efforts into finding ways to reduce the cost of producing DRAM chips, in order to restore profitability to the DRAM market. Hitachi researchers presented a paper on a silicon-saving architecture, block-oriented RAM (BORAM), which cuts cell sizes in half by configuring the memory capacitor/transistor arrangement in blocks of four, connecting them in series through the block. The technique is still in the experimental stages. Mitsubishi researchers presented a paper describing a simplified synthetic yield model to determine the optimum redundancy scheme for 64-Mbit DRAM fabrication. An equally important focus for Japan is to overcome the dominance of US firms in non-volatile memory. Toshiba is working on a NAND-type EEPROM first described in a paper presented at the 1987 International Electron Devices Meeting. Mitsubishi and NEC also have a major commitment to flash memory devices. ITA finds flat-panel dumping. (International Trade Administration approves initial margins) The International Trade Association (ITA) rules that some Japanese flat-panel display makers are guilty of dumping product in the US, but considers the violation relatively minor, approving initial dumping margins of under five percent for the worst offense. US industry representatives warn of new information that could lead to significantly higher penalties in the next phase of the investigation. The investigation is the result of a petition by US manufacturers, banded together as the Advanced Display Manufacturers of America (ADMA), which charges that Japanese manufacturers have been selling flat-panel displays below their cost of manufacture. The ITA focuses the bulk of its attention on four Japanese manufacturers that control over 60 percent of the market: Hoseiden, Matsushita, Sharp and Toshiba. Hoseiden and Matsushita are found to have sold at fair market value and are assessed zero margins. Toshiba is assessed a 1.46 percent margin, and Sharp 4.6 percent. All other manufacturers named in the petition are assessed 2.33 percent each. Importers must pay a cash deposit or bond equal to the assessed margin to get panels out of import warehouses. If the ITA reaffirms its findings, that bond will be forfeited. This latest contretemps does not improve the state of US/Japanese trade relations. Matsushita eyeing Signetics operations. (Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. Ltd. in talks with N.V. Philips) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd is reported to be discussing a variety of possible deals with N.V. Philips that would involve Philips Components/Signetics and could range from joint ventures to a complete transfer of assets. Signetics Pres James Dykes confirms that Matsushita's US subsidiary is looking at various Signetics facilities for its own US manufacturing needs, but will not comment further. A team from Matsushita is also reported to have been at Philips headquarters in Eindhoven, the Netherlands for several months, but no offer is believed to have been made as yet. Matsushita and Philips have a long-standing but minor relationship arising out of an equity tie by which Philips owns a 35 percent interest in Matsushita's semiconductor arm. Signetics is currently in the throes of extensive cost-cutting and consolidation, and rumors about its fate have been circulating for months as Philips attempts to focus on its core business and halt losses in both its component and computer operations. Semi pact talks off to 'constructive' start. (Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, U.S. Trade Representative seek The meeting of a delegation from Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and officials of the US Trade Representatives office to discuss semiconductor trade is seen as a good start to negotiation of a new agreement between the two countries, despite the absence of any substantive results from the initial meeting itself. Details of the talks were not released, but various sources report the Japanese side suggested a number of points for inclusion in an agreement to replace the current pact, due to expire Jul 31, 1991. Elimination of trade sanctions levied against Japan in 1987 and the removal of numerical market-share targets are believed to have been among the points raised, along with a suggestion that any future pact not be a government-to-government agreement. Progress toward an actual agreement may be difficult, despite the good start, as Japan's eagerness for the removal of numerical market share goals faces equal determination on the part of US industry that those goals remain in force. A 20 percent share is seen as a 'rough indicator', although the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has never asked for a specific level. The 20 percent figure arises from a disputed side-letter to the 1986 agreement, and has always been regarded as merely an expectation by the Japanese, who want a 'numberless' agreement this time. TI-DEC develop mixed-signal 'Ethercell'. (mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuit) Texas Instruments and Digital Equipment Corp have jointly developed a series of mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), dubbed the 'Ethercell' family and intended for use in Ethernet hub and concentrator applications. The chips will be offered to third parties as part of the LinASIC library. Several analog Ethernet firms have semicustom design talents; Digital chose to work with TI in part because of that firm's LinBiCMOS process technology. Digital designers had responsibility for development of the system interfaces and control logic for the Ethercell, while TI's team of engineers worked on high-performance analog blocks, mixed-mode simulations, and auto place and route. Digital will have first use of the cells, which will eventually be brought to TI's merchant market. Sierra samples chip for caller-ID services. (Sierra Semiconductor Corp.) Sierra Semiconductor enters unmarked territory with the sampling of an analog front-end chip for caller identification services. The SC11210/11211 chip takes signals sent out by the phone company between rings and converts them to display the calling number before the user picks up the phone receiver. There is an ongoing debate over whether this service invades caller privacy, but Sierra is banking on user demand to outweigh such concerns. The chip, which comes in both a 14-pin and 8-pin version, offers compact size, low power consumption and surface mount technology, making it feasible for design into standard and cordless phones as well as the standalone caller-ID boxes already sampled by some manufacturers. In high volumes, both versions of the chip are expected to sell for about $2 each. One analyst believes the availability of such chips may provide the software development base that will speed the acceptance of Integrated Services Digital Network technology. Motorola demos microwave LAN system: Altair transparently connects to Ethernet hosts. Motorola has developed a microwave-based wireless communications system that transparently connects to Ethernet ports on PCs, workstations, and Macintoshes. The Altair system was first demonstrated at the NetWorld conference, held in Boston, MA, during the first week of Feb 1991. Organizational intelligence and radio frequency (RF) routing instructions have been placed in a control module, leading a senior marketing engineer to describe the system as 'an RF engineer in a box.' The module is priced at $3,995 and comprises the licensed portion of the Ethernet connectivity solution. Any IEEE 802.3-conformant Ethernet computer, workstation, or peripheral can be attached as if the Altair were a physical media link. The control module directs data traffic for up to 32 users. User modules, costing $3,495 each, can be shared by up to six users each, lowering the per client cost to as little as $715. Interconnectivity is transparent to the user, regardless of the controlling software (Novell NetWare or Microsoft LAN Manager), and data is transmitted at rates up to the 10 Mbp/s Ethernet limit. The Altair system is said to be capable of token-ring speeds, and a token-ring version has not been ruled out. Motorola has permission from the Federal Communications Commission to operate Altair under Digital Termination Service Band Rules, and is negotiating with foreign governments for similar permission. Windows stars at SD91. (Systems Development Conference) Weiss, Ray. More than one-third of the vendors at the 1991 Systems Development Conference (SD91) demonstrated products related to Microsoft Corp's Windows, underlining the graphical user interface's increasing dominance of the microcomputer software arena. Microsoft's dominance of the Windows development tool market was challenged by Borland Int'l and Jenson & Partners Inc (JPI), both of which introduced packages that can build Windows programs without Microsoft's System Development Kit (SDK). Borland's challenger, the latest generation of its C++ compiler, offers a fully integrated development environment and includes the Turbo Debugger and the WhiteWater Group Resource Toolkit. JPI introduced Windows compilers for C, C++, Modula-2, and ISO Pascal. Microsoft is hard at work on its own set of advanced tools; to maintain position until that point, Microsoft integrated its SDK and C6.0 compiler and dropped the combined price by 25 percent. Another strategic battle highlighted at SD91 is that of cross-platform portability; Smalltalk is a leader in this battle. ParcPlace Systems' version of Smalltalk runs on Windows, the Macintosh, and Open Look-based Unix systems, while Smalltalk/V, from Digitalk, runs under Windows, OS/2 PM, DOS, and the Macintosh. The new migrants. (possible effects of the single European market on the engineering profession) (Uncommon Market) (column) The single European market may lead to an increasing number of engineers 'working abroad,' that is, holding a job outside their native country. Few engineers currently apply for jobs outside their own country purely as a means of career advancement, largely because to date professional qualifications have varied from country to country. A directive from the European Community that calls for each Common Market country to recognize professional qualifications and titles granted by other member countries may remove this barrier, but the language barrier, not only for engineers but for their families as well, along with the need to adapt to a different culture, are cited as further concerns. The bottom line, however, may be more than a touch of xenophobia; Germans find the French isolationist, the French think Britain can not support its electronics industry, the British think the Germans are more interested in mechanical engineering than electronics, and so on. Despite these problems, three-quarters of the respondents to a survey of British, French and German engineers believe the labor market will be more mobile after 1992. Though it may be a few years longer before the workforce becomes really fluid, there will always be job opportunities for those with the necessary qualifications. Goals set at CFI meet. (CAD Framework Initiative) Wirbel, Loring. The long-range planning group of the CAD Framework Initiative (CFI) will recommend that the group's full board set a deadline of Nov 1991 for the publication of specifications on design representation, intertool communication, and tool representation and encapsulation, targeting the ICCAD meeting to be held in Santa Clara, CA for an actual date. Other topics discussed by the group during its Feb 8-9 meeting included dealing with conflicts in the schedules of CFI's various technical subcommittees (TSCs), and how the CFI is to interact with the CFI Users Group, to be formed at the annual meeting in Sunnyvale, CA, also to be held in February. CFI president Andy Graham will propose that the board ask members to make a greater commitment in terms of both budget and manpower in what is a key year for the organization. Tasks to be completed after 1991 still remain to be defined; database formats for design data management and how CFI tools for electronic design will interface with mechanical CAD standards and corporate-wide data representation standards are two major issues to be dealt with. CFI leadership is also taking steps to establish communications with government standards bodies, both domestic and international. Ada firms go commercial: British vendors are counting on 'Project Abacus.' British software houses and the academic community have joined forces as 'Project Abacus' to increase commercial and industrial usage of the Ada computer language. The initiative, known officially as the Commercial Ada Task Group, is promoted by Ada Language UK Ltd (Ada UK), a non-profit organization, and backed by six commercial and academic organizations: Alsys Ltd, the Center for Advanced Software Design at Napier Polytechnic (Scotland), DDC International A/S (Denmark), NA Software Ltd, SD-Scicon plc, and York Software Engineering. Ada has been most widely used in the defense and space industries. John Barnes, chairman of Ada UK, notes that decreased defense budgets have created a need to develop new markets. Martyn Jordan, marketing director of Alsys, acknowledges that it will not be easy to create a commercial market for Ada, but Ada is beginning to find some commercial support. To encourage wider commercial acceptance, Alsys is introducing entry-level Ada products, the first of which is FirstAda, a software-engineering environment for either the PC or Apple Macintosh. Arcom has 386-based processor board. (SCIM386SX) (product announcement) Arcom Control Systems Ltd combines Intel's 80386 microprocessor with Chips and Technologies' SCATSX chip set and the STEbus to create the SCIM386SX, a processor board for the embedded and OEM industrial computing markets. Thought to be the first 80386-based processor board for the STEbus, it is also believed to be the first industrial application of the Chips and Technologies SCATSX chip set. By adding extensive memory and I/O capability to the 80386SX CPU, the board creates a platform for real-time systems running PC/AT DOS or OS/2 software, or even Unix. Configured with 1Mbyte of RAM, the board sells for the equivalent of approximately $1,760. A surface-mount memory array allows the board to be supplied with up to 4Mbytes of DRAM, and this is further expandable to 16Mbytes with a plug-in module. Other hardware includes BIOS EPROM, math coprocessor socket, keyboard interface, loudspeaker output, floppy disk controller and real-time clock. Arcom plans to release a board for the VMEbus to be based on the 80386DX microprocessor, and the two boards have been designed to be highly compatible. Managing director Paul Cuthbert says he sees nothing to prevent the board to be integrated into the Futurebus + environment as well. Bill colors chip talks. (Congress considering Trade Agreement Compliance Act) A bill recently introduced in Congress could provide US industry with a greater voice in oversight of compliance with trade agreements, and could put renegotiation of the US/Japan Semiconductor Agreement under a pall of possible trade sanctions. The Trade Agreement Compliance Act of 1991 would allow private parties that have an 'viable' economic interest in a trade agreement to question foreign compliance with the agreement, triggering an investigation by the US Trade Representative that would lead to retaliatory action if a violation were to be found. Under the current Trade Act of 1988, only the US executive branch can call for an investigation. The failure of the Bush administration to press Japan to comply fully with the terms of the current Semiconductor Agreement is the prime motivator behind the Trade Compliance Act, although, if passed, the legislation would be applicable to all such agreements. Chances for passage of the legislation are good. A wide range of companies and industry associations have shown support, and a majority of the membership of the Senate Finance Committee are cosponsors of the bill. The balance of Congress, already upset of the level of Japanese contributions to the Persian Gulf crisis, could be expected to be receptive to the bill. The administration's position is less clear; while acknowledging congressional ire over Japan's low level of support for the war effort, there is still a need to insure Japanese support in other matters. Open digital TV scheme pushed. Doherty, Richard. A number of all-digital approaches to High-Definition Television (HDTV) may be among the proposals to be considered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its search for an HDTV standard. The digital approaches are based on a concept called Open Architecture Television which holds that TV systems should not be constrained by such things as a fixed number of lines of resolution. One proponent of such an approach is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, which has been tracking how current 1,000-line progressive scan, high-resolution engineering workstation displays could be integrated into developing global HDTV standards. MIT researchers believe that the application of digital-encoding methods to any design proposed for HDTV monitors could make an Open Architecture Television format viable internationally for both advanced TVs and computer displays, potentially lowering the price of both HDTV monitors and workstation displays by amortizing the cost of development across a major commercial market. The movement supporting such all-digital, open-architecture technology has met with resistance from broadcast and conventional television operations that have a major investment in analog-technology-based systems. Fat times for thin film. (thin film media technology) Costlow, Terry. The market for thin-film heads, which experienced a 50 percent growth in 1990, continues to grow rapidly. One of the newest entrants is Komag Inc, which in Feb 1991 purchased sputtering equipment from Siemens AG, which has left the disk drive market. Analysts and vendors attribute the explosive growth of the market to factors other than just the industry's small size. Head makers have finally resolved production snags, allowing them to achieve higher yields from what are essentially semiconductor type processes, and drive makers have reached bit and track densities that exceed the capabilities of ferrite heads. A side bonus to thin film technology is its size savings over ferrite heads, beneficial both to makers of 2.5- and 3.5-inch form factor drives, in which space is at a premium, and makers of larger drives who are putting up to 12 platters in a single 5.25-inch box. Head makers are having difficulty keeping up with orders, but the bright side to this is that prices have risen accordingly. There is a strong feeling that there will be little competition from Japan, at least during the first half of 1991. Thin film growth will have a damping effect on the growth of the market for metal-in-gap (MIG) heads, which use an enhanced ferrite technology. NCR division to focus on 60 MHz and up: new multichip module operation key to next-generation systems. (Microelectronic NCR Corp's new multichip module (MCM) division will take a leading role in the development of next-generation computer systems, say executives from the firm's Microelectronic Products Division. MCMs will be key components of essentially all reduced-instruction set computer (RISC) and complex instruction set computer (CISC) systems operating at 60 MHz and above. Although NCR has a strong set of proprietary application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design tools a workstation-based standard MCM package from an outside electronic design automation (EDA) vendor will be used at NCR design centers, which will soon offer MCM design as a standard semicustom service. The available market for MCMs is estimated as being as much as $41 billion per year by 1997. Some 8,000 square feet of NCR's Colorado Springs (CO) facility will be retrofitted for MCM production, and should produce its first prototypes by third quarter 1991, with volume production expected by first quarter 1992. Other microprocessor vendors share NCR's reading of the importance of MCMs, and a number of EDA vendors are also hurrying to develop design packages for the market. J-STARS to earn wings in war. (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System; Persian Gulf War) The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS), a real-time battlefield-management system, is one of many recent additions to the US arsenal that is literally undergoing a trial by fire in the Persian Gulf War. J-STARS is designed to locate, classify and track ground targets under all weather conditions and convey that information to other aircraft and Army ground troops. Two E-8 aircraft, modified Boeing 707s, have been equipped with J-STARS and are deployed in the Middle East. The design of J-STARS allows the aircraft to remain well behind the front lines of battle and to detect another country's ground preparations without violating the country's airspace. The radar operates in several modes: search sector/moving-target indicator (SS/MTI), wide-area surveillance/MTI (WAS/MTI), synthetic aperture radar/fixed target indicator (SAR/FTI), and low-reflectivity indicator (LRI). Data can be used both for targeting and battle planning and for assessing battle damage. The communications system used is secure and jam-resistant. J-STARS represents a $4-billion-plus investment through 1988 for the Air Force and Army. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces have expressed interest in J-STARS, but regardless of its acceptance by NATO, J-STARS is designed to work with other shorter range surveillance systems. Designers eye DSP operating systems: users like that they ease development tasks, but seek some improvements. (digital signal Specialized real-time operating systems intended to help designers take full advantage of digital signal processing (DSP) architectures include Spectron Microsystems' SPOX and AT&T Microelectronics' VCOS, both for 32-bit floating-point DSPs, and VRTX32/DSP56000, jointly developed by Motorola and Ready Systems for use with Motorola's fixed-point DSP 56000. The AT&T and Motorola OSs are new products, and are designed for proprietary DSPs. SPOX has been designed into a number of devices, including products from Verbex Voice Systems, Texas Instruments (TI) and Davox Corp. Since SPOX is a modular system, the designer need not use all of its components. The next generation of SPOX, already under development, will include a software interface layer that will enable the DSP to communicate with any other operating system. This Open Signal-Processing Architecture (OSPA) defines a set of interfaces and protocols linking standard computer operating systems with SPOX via the SPOX Server, a host-resident SPOX extension. TI is working with Spectron to port SPOX to high-end fixed-point devices. While each of these OSs can dramatically reduce time-to-market, designers would like to see them improved in areas including error checking and the level of scheduling knowledge required. Digital signal processing requires OS support. Frankel, Robert. The complexity of applications for digital signal processing (DSP) hardware requires the use of a real-time operating system (OS) optimized for use with DSPs to control software costs. Such OSs allow software developers to deal with objects specific to DSP operations, such as vectors, filters and streams, and address real-time system needs with device-independent I/O, interrupt management and multitasking support. SPOX, developed by Spectron Microsystems, addresses these needs with a modular, portable run-time environment that can be optimized for any of several DSP platforms and integrated with applications targeted for these systems. Features that optimize SPOX for DSP system use include limited program memory, high-frequency data rates and extensive numeric computation. Reusability allows a body of 'off-the-shelf' software to be embedded in systems, eliminating the need to develop them with each new application. SPOX supports applications development using high-level languages and a number of source-level debuggers are being enhanced with knowledge of SPOX. The addition of the Open Signal Processing Architecture to SPOX enables clients to transparently control and communicate with multiple SPOX tasks. An EE career isn't what it used to be: Part II: engineers will play a new role in tomorrow's organization. (electrical engineer) The role of the engineer will be greatly impacted by changes in organizational structure taking place in the 1990s. Effects will be both positive and negative. Engineers will find their responsibilities broadening and will experience a wider range of career opportunities, and fewer engineers will be assigned to permanent management positions. There will be greater job mobility, either to other companies or into their own company or an independent consultant role. Both engineers and companies will take a greater interest in career development. Engineering will move out of the narrow niche it has occupied in most organizations to become involved with the full product life cycle. A promotion to management and a salary increase will no longer be the quid pro quo for an assignment completed on time and under budget. Instead, an engineer could be rewarded with a choice of assignments, a bonus, and the option of assembling his own team to tackle the next project. Career paths will no longer be strictly vertical; a trend away from specialists toward generalists will allow movement up, down and laterally, either within a single organization or among various organizations. One consultant draws a comparison to a helicopter, as opposed to the traditional ladder concept of career paths. A healthy hiring diagnosis: opportunities in medical electronics. Rostky, George. The generally lackluster hiring picture for engineers is belied by the medical electronics field, where many companies are hiring. Medtronics, located in Minneapolis, is seeking engineers for its three medical electronics groups. The neurological devices group is seeking abouut a half dozen engineers, the tachyarrhythmia group is looking for 20 engineers, and the pacemaker group is looking for about 75 engineers, mostly on the software side. Experienced engineers are preferred, but recent graduates will be considered. Hardware engineers should be familiar with biomedical design. Intermedics, of Freeport,TX, also makes pacemakers. There the need is for five engineers, one software, some hardware and some reliability. Intermedics looks for two to three years experience, but it need not be in medical-electronics. Diasonics, in Milpitas, CA, also has five positions to fill. Software engineers should have backgrounds in Unix and C, and hardware engineers should have both analog and digital experience. Tremetrics, formerly Tracor Instruments (Austin, TX) has a single opening, for a high-level engineer with seven to 10 years experience in gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. And Hewlett-Packard is looking for two engineers with at least two years in sonography, to fill positions at its Massachusetts location. Japan's vision of the future. (as portrayed in papers at the 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference) Seven of the 11 papers presented in two sessions of the 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) focusing on advanced processor design were presented by Japanese firms, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Mitsubishi Electric and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. The Japanese vision of the future does not entail catching up with US and European vendors in the area of complex-instruction set computer (CISC) or reduced-instruction set computer (RISC) performance. Instead, it focuses on new dataflow and vector architectures and specialized CPUs for ultra-high bandwidth digital signal and video processing for high-definition television (HDTV) and multimedia applications. The most outstanding example of this focus is a 32-bit microprocessor, details of which were revealed by Mitsubishi Electric. The microprocessor combines elements of conventional pipelining with dataflow techniques previously used only in supercomputers. Both the Mitsubishi device and a similar design from Sharp are based on an architecture derived from research conducted by Hiroaki Terada of Osaka University and sponsored by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Matsushita and Sanyo have a design in development that is also based on Terada's work, and Hitachi is funding work on a single-chip dataflow microprocessor at the University of California at Berkeley. Say Compaq, DEC in talks on interface: MIPS chip. (DEC and Compaq to develop application programming interface for MIPS Computer Compaq Computer Corp is discussing development plans for a common application programming interface with DEC and other licensees of MIPS Computer Systems Inc's reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor before it commits to using the chip for a new line of workstations. Dec is recruiting Microsoft and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) to write software for MIPS-based machines, and Silicon Graphics is also said to be talking with DEC. DEC's motivation to form an alliance with Compaq, Microsoft and others is apparently to increase the degree of backing for the MIPS RISC architecture, and consequently to slow the momentum of Sun Microsystems' and IBM's line of workstations. Industry analysts compare DEC's initiative with the formation of the SCO Open Desktop Unix derivative, when DEC played a major role in teaming up different vendors to create and market the package as a SCO offering. Commerce imposes negligible duties on 2 Japan LCD firms. (US Department of Commerce imposes antidumping duties on liquid The US Department of Commerce imposes minimal antidumping duties on two flat panel display firms in a preliminary ruling. Sharp and Toshiba incurred penalty duties of 4.6 percent and 1.46 percent, respectively, in a law suit that a seven-member group of US flat panel makers initiated. Commerce will announce a final antidumping decision by Apr 29, 1991. Computer firms including Apple, Compaq, IBM and Tandy acquire flat panels for their portable computers from Japanese suppliers, and strongly contested the dumping petition of US firms Planar Systems, Plasmaco, Optical Imaging Systems, Cherry Corp, Electroplasma, Photonics and Magnascreen. Commerce discovered that dumping had occurred based on Japanese-supplied data, and the petitioners believe that an anticipated in-depth investigation will reveal far more extensive dumping. Commerce set a potential preliminary penalty duty of 2.33 percent. US West fined $10M for MFJ gear violations. (US Department of Justice Antitrust Division charges company with violating modified The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division charges US West a $10 million civil penalty for violating manufacturing provisions of the 1982 AT&T consent decree which broke up the Bell system. The Justice Department believes the settlement is a victory for enforcement of the modified final judgment (MFJ) of the consent decree for US West and other regional Bell operating companies. The Justice Department charged US West with violating the MFJ's manufacturing provisions by designing, producing and marketing operator workstations used for directory assistance and call assistance operators. The Department also claims that US West violated discriminatory pricing provisions of the MFG when it sold switching services to a US government agency in 1985. US West admits that it violated the MFG ban on supplying information services, but claims the violations were all inadvertent and have been discontinued. 8-inch wafers may end batch processing era. (single-wafer processing takes precedence over multi-slice processing) Single-wafer processing may dominate multi-slice or batch processing as 8-inch wafers gain prevalence in the semiconductor industry. Texas Instruments is already conducting pilot production in Japan, Motorola is equipping MOS-11 in Austin, IBM has invested two years into the conversion and Intel is planning two development fabs for 8-inch slices. Equipment suppliers are concerned about the economic and mechanical trade-offs between both methods of wafer processing since the changeover necessitates new production equipment and changes in the wafer-making process. Larger wafers cost more per square inch than 4- or 6-inch wafers, but they offer 80 percent more surface area than a 6-inch, and can accommodate large dies used in advanced chips more efficiently. Observers note that some wafer-making processes do not obtain consistent results when applied to batches of the larger diameter wafers. Set probe of SGS claim Seiko SRAMs infringe. (US International Trade Commission to investigate Seiko-Epson Corp. for violation of The US International Trade Commission (ITC) will investigate charges by SGS-Thomson Microelectronics that Seiko Epson Corp and two of its subsidiaries are illegally importing static random access memory (SRAM) chips that violate SGS memory patents. ITC will carry out a full-scale investigation of Seiko, S-MOS Systems Inc and Epson America Inc in response to SGS' complaint filed with ITC, and the firm's patent infringement suit filed with the US District Court. Seiko filed a suit with a Northern California US District Court to block the SGS patent demands. SGS intends to establish its patents as essential to the manufacture of SRAMs, and the company has licensed them out to some 15 Japanese, Korean and US companies. SGS is using its ITC action and lawsuit to block the sale of Seiko memory devices and the wide range of products made using those devices. CFIUS fuss. (US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US)(Government Closeup) (column) The US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) claims to have the authority of the expired Exon-Florio Amendment, but the committee almost never rejects a foreign buyout of an American high tech operation. CFIUS' legislative authority to review foreign acquisitions for threats to national security began with an amendment to the Omnibus Trade Act of 1988. Sen James Exon and former Rep James Florio saw their amendment empowered when it was included as an amendment to the Defense Production Act, which regulates scarce materials used in national defense. Congress allowed the Defense Production Act to expire Oct 1990, and the Exon-Florio power expired with it. Lawmakers are attempting to extend the Act, and legislation that moves beyond simply granting CFIUS review authority is necessary. CFIUS may be unjustly charged with conducting non-rigorous national security reviews of foreign takeovers. Exec leaves IBM Asia for NT VP slot. (Northern Telecom Ltd. hires IBM's Edward Lucente; reorganization planned) Northern Telecom Ltd hires IBM's former president and representative director of IBM Asia Pacific, Edward Lucente, as senior vice president for marketing, and announces a reorganization intended to centralize its manufacturing operations. Northern Telecom Chairman, Pres and CEO Paul G. Stern, with whom Lucente worked at IBM in 1974, enticed Lucente to join Northern, but the new post leaves Lucente's status unresolved since the presidents of the regional marketing units do not report to him. Lucente also takes a seat on a new executive office implemented to speed up decision-making. Northern Telecom's reorganization separates its marketing activities from its manufacturing operations, which grew in 1990 with the acquisition of UK-based STC plc. The reorganization will eliminate management overhead in the factories and will help the company achieve integration of purchasing. Public Networks, Private Networks and Wireless Systems are three newly created product groups. Two execs reassigned in realignment at Sun; software units spun off. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sun Microsystems Inc reassigns two key hardware executives and spins off its software divisions into two subsidiaries as part of a corporate reorganization. Sun's Desktop & Graphics and General Systems divisions have been replaced with SunTech Enterprises Inc and SunSoft Inc; the independent units are intended to better target software to customer needs. Engineering manager Curtis Wozniak assumes responsibility for Sun's Sparcstation desktops and the high-end server program, known as Galaxy. Wozniak also assumes the hardware duties of senior executives Wayne Rosing and Eric Schmidt, who have both been dispatched to other operations within Sun. Edward Zander, formerly VP for marketing, has been replaced with Lawrence Hambly. Observers speculate that Sun intended to announce the Galaxy server during the summer of 1990, and they do not expect the product to go to market until 1992. IBM agrees to resell Novell LAN software. (IBM to market NetWare local area network software; less focus on LAN Server) IBM signs an agreement to resell Novell Inc's NetWare local area network (LAN) software, a move that acknowledges the limited success of IBM's own LAN Server package based on Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager technology. IBM will likely diminish its focus on LAN Server when it offers native NetWare and Novell-developed versions that support OS/2. IBM projects that sales of the Novell software will surpass LAN Server business levels. IBM executives claim the company will not develop an AIX version of LAN Server and expect sales from reselling the anticipated Microsoft LAN Manager for Unix packages to be adequate. While LAN Server has rivaled Novell for customers of very large systems, it has been less successful with small- and medium-sized accounts. IBM will offer native NetWare under its own logo and packaging and will add NetWare support to its NetView application and its 8209 LAN bridge. Compaq cuts high-end PC tags. (Compaq Computer Corp. markets SystemPro microcomputers; announces new distribution program) Compaq Computer Corp reduces prices of its high-end microcomputers by as much as 21 percent, and announces the Compaq Specialized Dealer program for its specialized products. Compaq cut the prices of its SystemPro models between four and 10 percent, and doubled the standard random access memory (RAM) on 386-based SystemPros to 8Mbytes, the amount of RAM on the 486-based models. Compaq reduced the price of the 486-840 model from $29,999 to 26,999; desktop units in the DeskPro series were cut from 13 percent to 21 percent. The Compaq Specialized Dealer program will help identify dealers best prepared to distribute Compaq's sophisticated networked systems. Compaq will work with selected software vendors including Novell, Santa Cruz Operation, Microsoft and Banyan. Twenty to 30 percent of Compaq's current dealers are expected to qualify for the new distribution program. The price cuts are an attempt to make Compaq's machines more competitive with rival systems. National to market 64-bit RISC MPU: for embedded applications. (National Semiconductor Corp.'s Swordfish National Semiconductor Corp will begin sampling its 64-bit reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) microprocessor, known as Swordfish, in the third quarter of FY 1991. The device features on-chip digital signal processing for embedded control applications, and it is being targeted at other applications such as data compression and decompression, pattern recognition and digital high-definition visual presentation. The Swordfish's 50MHz core can deliver 100Mips processing speed and can concurrently execute integer, control or load store instructions in a single cycle. National will market Swordfish in sectors including printers and print servers, digital copiers, color facsimile machines, combined modem, fax and datacom, robotics and machine tools and voice and video compression. The unit performs such IEEE-754 operations as add, subtract, multiply, and divide. 4 Japan firms detail 64M DRAMS: at ISSCC. (Mitsubishi Corp., Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Mitsubishi Corp, Toshiba Corp, Fujitsu Ltd and Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd presented papers on 64M-bit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips at the International Solid State Circuits Conference. Mitsubishi's 45 nanosecond (ns) device was built in 0.4-micron linewidths using I-line microlithography. The 64M-bit DRAM operates like four distinct 16M-bit devices because it is divided into four segments with separate peripheral circuits. Toshiba's device uses an asymmetrical stacked trench (AST) capacitor cell in a positive channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS). Fujitsu's 40ns device has an exclusive data bus for read and write, and is divided into eight segments in the column address direction. Matsushita's 64M-bit multiple-I/O DRAM features a meshed power line (MPL), a distributed sense-amplifier driver (DSAD) scheme, and a VSS shield peripheral circuit layout scheme. See 16M DRAMs hiking etcher use. (more etching systems required to produce 16M-bit dynamic random access memory devices) The use of etch systems in the semiconductor industry is expected to increase as 1M-bit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) production shifts to 16M-bit DRAM fabrication. Analysts claim that semiconductor vendors will require three times as many etch systems in 16M-bit DRAM production as in 1M-bit production. 16M-bit parts require more mask layers and sophisticated metal etching techniques. While 20 etchers are needed to produce three million 1M-bit DRAM units per month, 60 etchers are required to fabricate the same quantity of 16M-bit units. The cost of a 16M-bit fab capable of such output would cost about $610 million. Industry analysts single out the etch market as the single largest growing market in semiconductor equipment. Many firms will select the necessary equipment for 16M-bit DRAMs in 1991, but peak production of the units will not be reached until 1997. Navy extends Tomahawk output: through FY95. (US Navy to purchase cruise missiles through fiscal year 1995)(Military & Aerospace) The US General Accounting Office reports that the US Navy has extended production of Tomahawk missiles through FY 1995. The success of the missile in the Persian Gulf air war incited the Navy to add 200 Tomahawks in FY 1991 in addition to the 400 missiles ordered from contractors General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas; the Navy will purchase 400 more missiles a year through fiscal 1995. Contrary to the Navy's original plan to end Tomahawk production after FY 1991, it now intends to develop an upgraded Block-3 version of the missile to increase its accuracy and range; a Block-4 upgrade is also being considered. The Navy is developing a next generation Long-Range Conventional Standoff Weapon land attack cruise missile, which it will evaluate against the upgrades of the Tomahawk. Hughes, EDS post net hikes: in fourth quarter. (General Motors' Hughes Electronics Corp. and Electronic Data Systems Corp. report General Motors' Hughes Electronics Corp and Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) report record sales and earnings for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990. During the final three months of 1990, Hughes' earnings increased seven percent to $195.6 million, which held the year-end profit decline at seven percent to $726 million. Company officials say year-end earnings were down because of reduced defense spending and lower motor vehicle production volumes. Quarterly revenues increased two percent to $2.94 billion in 1990 compared to $2.89 billion in 1989. Year-end volume went up from 11.4 billion to 11.7 billion. EDS reports a 12 percent increase in earnings for the last quarter of 1990 from 119.5 million in 1989 to $133.4 million. EDS earned $496.9 million in 1990, which represents a 14 percent profit increase from 1989 when it earned $435.3 million. TI stock rebound stirs analysts' confidence. (Texas Instruments Inc.)(What They're Saying) (column) Industry analysts' earnings per share (EPS) projections for Texas Instruments Inc (TI) were conservative as a result of TI's fourth-quarter results and bleak first-quarter forecast, but stock has since recovered sufficiently to mollify analysts. The shares recovered a loss of three points and increased three more to 40-plus. Shearson Lehman analyst Mike Gumport cut his year-end EPS projection from a profit of $1.20 to a loss of 50 cents, and he says TI could potentially post $7 to $8 at its next earnings peak. TI must grapple with the price decline in memory prices, and First Boston's Jack Geraghty forecasts TI's chip business for a net loss of $1 a share. Geraughty anticipates TI's military business to earn $200 million, which will compensate for the firm's loss in its semiconductor operations. Prudential-Bache's Dan Glesken projects that TI will net about $192 million, or $2 a share, in 1991. An unlikely trustbuster. (AT&T expands into Europe, competing with monopoly telecommunications providers) AT and T is engaging in a significant push to enter the European telecommunications market, which is controlled in many western European countries by state-owned telephone monopolies. These companies, some of which are technologically backward, charge much more for a telephone call to the US than AT and T charges for the same call originating in the US. AT and T has increased its international traffic by 20 percent per year. It is investing heavily in new fiber cabling and other technologies in order to increase its transatlantic capacity. AT and T is beginning to challenge the European companies by offering US travellers and some overseas US workers the opportunity to call from Europe to the US at reduced prices. Callers use an AT and T calling card to avoid the higher European rates. Wider area networks. (Banyan Systems Inc.'s data communications networks) Banyan Systems Inc has become a profitable vendor of computer network equipment based on open systems and on the Unix operating system. The Banyan Vines software can be used to connect microcomputers to minicomputers and mainframe computers located in different cities, creating a wide area network. Even with an underdeveloped marketing strategy, the privately-owned company sold $98 million in hardware and software in 1990. In order to compete effectively with Novell Inc and 3Com Corp in the data communications market, Banyan is placing an increasing emphasis on marketing, expansion into international markets, and creating relationships with companies that install networks. Here comes IBM. (IBM's pervasive influence in the computer industry) (company profile) Investors should keep IBM in mind in 1991, and remember that the company is far more than a mainframe computer vendor. IBM's Summit line of mainframes will have impressive power as well as extensive capability to share data with computers made by other vendors. Big Blue's minicomputer and microcomputer products are selling strongly, even in a market depressed by war and recession. IBM has stopped losing market share in the microcomputer area, and has expanded its PS/2 line to accommodate many different customer needs. IBM minicomputers, particularly the AS/400 line, have been skillfully marketed. The company may even emerge as one of the leaders of the burgeoning notebook computer market. Fooling the inner ear. (amusement park simulators based on computer technology) Computer technologies have resulted in flight stimulators that can be interactive, allowing the user to participate in directing and reacting to the events being simulated. Amusement parks are currently installing non-interactive simulators that combine actual rides or movement with visual and audio effects, giving customers the feeling that they are actually in a futuristic spaceship or in a speeding taxi. Designers use software on microcomputers to program hydraulic equipment to rise, fall, and otherwise operate in a way that mimics action on a screen. Interactive simulator rides are the next horizon. Vendors brace for changes; Conyers may revise Brooks Act, CICA. (Competition in Contracting Act) Information technology vendors are expecting changes in the Brooks Act and the Competition in Contracting Act, following several meetings with the House Government Operations Committee staff. Rep. John Conyers, Jr, the head of the committee, might reconsider the act and re-evaluate the role of the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA). The Brooks Act, enacted in 1965, is the main law regulating federal ADP procurement; it establishes the GSA as the overseer of procurements. The committee will examine GSBCA and reform and GSA oversight in the spring of 1991. Computer companies are against changes in procurement laws that would add red tape or limit competition. President wants more for CIM, key systems. (Defense Corporate Information Management) Pres Bush's fiscal 1992 budget will increase spending on presidential priority systems 37 percent, to $2.28 billion. Information technology is considered essential to federal management reform. The $1.4 trillion budget includes $7.9 billion for 107 high-risk programs in agencies. Bush lists nine presidential priority systems: SSA Strategic Plan; Tax Systems Modernization; Governmentwide Financial Management System; FTS 2000; FAA Advanced Automation System; Interagency Border Inspection System; SEC EDGAR System; Defense Corporate Information Management; and the FBI Automated Fingerprint Identification System. DOD shuffle goes beyond CIM. (Department of Defense, corporate information management) The Department of Defense (DOD) has reorganized its management of information resources and established a structure to provide more control of corporate information systems (CIM). A new director of defense information (DDI) will soon be named by the Pentagon to oversee all policies governing CIM. The DDI is expected to be someone from industry with experience in information management. The DDI will set policy, while 'deputy assistant secretary for information systems Cynthia Kendall will oversee systems development and life cycle management. MCI offers savings over FTS, gets cool reception. (FTS 2000 communications) MCI Communications Corp have offered savings as high as 40 percent in FTS 2000 communications costs, but the offer has not generated much interest among federal officials and lawmakers. Rep John Conyers Jr expressed concerns over the General Services Administration's (GSA) handling of FTS 2000 and asked the General Accounting Office to investigate its implementation. MCI's Government Telecommunications Service (GTS) would cost $100 million less than FTS 2000. Third parties and several government-sponsored studies have questioned whether FTS 2000 is the most economical network for the government in a highly competitive market. GSA wants schedule pricing info on disks. (General Services Administration) The General Services Administration (GSA) wants microcomputer and software vendors to submit pricing updates on MS-DOS diskettes. The move is part of an attempt to reduce delays in schedule contract negotiations. GSA's IRM Service has awarded 415 MAS Group 70 B and C contracts; the Schedules Division staff is reviewing 1991-91 contract bids. Many vendors are complaining the demand for pricing and discount information caused the delays and that IRMS is under staffed. GSA officials hope the data in electronic format will reduce delays and make sure the government receives the best possible discount. Army rushes upgraded map system to Gulf. (Maneuver Control System) Green, Robert. The Army is rushing an upgraded version of the Maneuver Control System (MCS) battlefield management system to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a ground war against Iraq. MCS uses near-real-time electronic mapping to support troop movements and assess fighting conditions. The system runs on the Tactical Army Combat Service Support Computer System. MCS is one of five software programs in the Army Tactical Command and Control System. Lack of money cripples OMB systems. (Office of Management and Budget) The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) budget and financial systems are between seven and 20 years old and do not share information with other systems, such as the Treasury Department's or the Congressional Budget Office. OMB officials plan a new system by 1992 and will integrate with the Treasury by 1994. The modernization effort was originally scheduled for completion by 1991 but funding problems hindered the project. The OMB's Maximum Information in the Year 2000 modernization project calls for a large-scale mainframe, relational database software and communications infrastructure. Bush tags financial systems as an area needing reform. Power, Kevin. Pres George Bush designated financial systems as one of 11 areas that need reform in the federal government. Bush's fiscal 1992 budget proposal targets $596 million for financial system upgrades, up $157 million from 1991. A new chief financial officer (CFO), not yet named, will develop primary financial systems in government agencies. Automated data processing is considered an integral part of any federal management improvement program. Company official says DOD needs CALS training. (Department of Defense, Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistic Support program) The Department of Defense (DOD) is establishing standards for limiting paper documentation, but Electro-Tech International Corp Pres Edward G. Newman says the procurement offices, both in the DOD and in industry, are not ready for the world of digitized data. He claims the cost impacts are not properly defined and many DOD representatives are unfamiliar with the CALS program. Newman made his remarks, describing his company's experiences in providing CALS-related services for the Army, during a conference on Standard Generalized Mark-Up Language at the Government Printing Office in Washington, DC, in Feb 1991. GTSI tiptoes to avoid companion protest. (Government Technology Services Inc.) Government Technology Services Inc, which was awarded the Navy's Companion contract, hopes to quietly pass the protest period and enter performance testing in Mar 1991. Shipments should soon follow. The Navy fought a three-year battle for the Companion contract, which is potentially worth $500 million. Federal Computer Corp has asked the General Services Administration Board of contract Appeals to reconsider its decision on costs, but the company had not filed a challenge to the award as of Feb 18, 1991. Orkand's goal: contracts that 'make a difference.' (Orkand Corp founder Donald S. Orkand) (includes a related article describing Donald S. Orkand, founder, president and CEO of Orkand Corp, believes his company is doing well during the recession because the government market is still expanding. Orkand's market share translates into specific procurements. He sees government spending increasing for ADP projects and telecommunications. He believes government agencies have a stronger capability in-house now, and do not need to rely on outsourcing. Orkand also believes there has been a lot of improvement in the government's practices in purchasing computers. Compaq, Zenith in close 386 competition; high-performance 386 PCs. Robb, David W. A survey reports Compaq Computer Corp and Zenith Data Systems are battling in the governments's high-performance 25- and 33-MHz 386-based microcomputer market. The two companies make all four models that drew significant response from federal users. The Compaq Deskpro 386/33 won the top spot, edging out Zenith's Z-386/33, but the Z-386/33 won in six of the 13 categories. The Compaq is considered expensive. The Z-386/33 scored highest in value. FOSE '91 promises record-breaking attendance. H. Ross Perot will deliver the keynote speech at the FOSE '91 trade show Mar 4-7, 1991. Seven conference tracks will focus on microcomputers, workstations, computer graphics, digital imaging, networking, and large systems and software. Tutorials include Windows 3.0, graphics, digital imaging, LANs and data centers. Database programs mesh Army fire, rescue effort. Taft, Darryl K. Army firefighters will use microcomputer databases created with Clarion Software Inc's Developer package to track equipment and safety conditions at each Army site. Army firefighter and software engineer Terry Burdett created six Clarion firefighting applications at the Army's Fire Prevention Division at Fort Carson, CO. They include a building inspection program, a sprinkler program, a hose system, a hydrants program, a hazardous materials program and a dispatcher program. The programs have been well received at 10 beta sites. WordPerfect equation editor factors into fancy printing. (tutorial) WordPerfect 5.1's equation editor allows the creation of mathematical or chemical formulas in documents; it will also print text in almost any size without uploading special fonts to the printer. The effect can spruce up forms and documents, letters and memos. The method described will work with most graphics printers. TDSS to chart 1st-class postal routes, traffic. (Transportation Decision Support System) The Postal Service's new Transportation Decision Support System (TDSS) will model the surface transportation network for first-class mail. The OS/2 application is one of the earliest major government OS/2 applications. TDSS displays a map of the United States and helps transportation managers plan routes and route changes. It began as a component of the Postal Network Model (PNM), a logistical model of the first-class mail network. PNM contains information on point-to-point mail flows, mail service standards, mail volumes and performance. InfoSpotter lets you tour your computer's innards. (Software Review) (InfoSpotter Version 2.5) (evaluation) InfoSpotter Version 2.5, from Merrill & Bryan Enterprises Inc, is a diagnostics program for MS-DOS microcomputers. An excellent manual explains MS-DOS in novice-level language; the glossary provides information for more advanced users. Installation is fairly easy, the text provides a good system tutorial. The program contains most of the basic diagnostic tools and provides printed lists of your system's attributes. The memory-resident program allows analysis of an application when problems occur. The program costs $79.95. Hardcard's so nice it's hard to give up. (Hardware Review) (Plus Development Corp's Hardcard II XL105) (evaluation) Plus Development Corp's Hardcard II XL105 provides 105Mbytes of single-slot storage with access speeds approaching 9 milliseconds. It fits into industry-standard expansion slots, though installation may be difficult. The drive formats automatically. Performance is rated at 9.5 times that of an IBM XT computer's hard disk. Prices range from $600 to $700 on the street, or $999 retail. Transportation drives for high-speed LAN route. (U.S. Department of Transportation) The Department of Transportation is promoting a high-speed network that would link all of its offices in Washington. The local-area network would keep telephone directories current, file accurate travel vouchers, save time and keep information up to date. Connections to the government's FTS 2000 network would link the agency's accounting system in Oklahoma City. The high-speed LAN would provide a centrally managed backbone to interconnect the department's new office automation systems. A demonstration network has been designed and tested; the decision whether to build a large-scale network depends on financial figures. Persoft turns PC into low-cost bridge for Ethernet. (Intersect software bridge and SmarTerm terminal emulation software) (product Persoft Inc's Intersect software bridge is a low-cost way to connect Ethernet networks. Intersect can connect a mix of Ethernet local-area networks (LANs) that run on thick, thin or twisted-pair cabling. The company is targeting agencies that are already customers of its terminal emulation products. The list price is $1,495. The company also introduced several enhancements for its SmarTerm line of terminal emulation software. It enhanced DEC's Local Area Transport (LAT) protocol to support Ethernet boards with the Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS) protocol. Pyramid shows reliant product at Uniforum '91. (MIServer Reliant Series) (product announcement) Pyramid Technology Inc's MIServer Reliant Series is designed to provide complete recovery from system failure in under three minutes. The series can process hundreds of transactions per second and supports up to 2,000 concurrent users in a dual system configuration. It provides continued computing through system-level redundancies in a two-system concurrent operation. The alternate live system takes over immediately in the event of a failure on either system. The product is aimed at on-line transaction processing where many applications do not require full fault tolerance. Pyramid introduced the product at Uniforum '91. The MIServer Reliant Series prices begin at $700,000. Integrity complaints halt IRM seminars at USDA. (information resource management, Department of Agriculture) Possible procurement integrity conflicts are putting off a monthly series of educational seminars for IRM managers in the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) subagencies. The technology update seminars could create possible conflicts with federal procurement integrity rules. Vendors would brief the USDA managers on the company's hardware and software products. Only one vendor was allowed at each seminar, prompting other vendors to complain that it was not full-and-open competition. The seminars are postponed until the USDA officials can better understand the procurement integrity rule. Dyna3D delivers more bang to collision research. (Software Review) (evaluation) Dynamics in Three Dimensions (Dyna3D) is a 54,000-line design program used to test the effect of objects hitting several types of weapons. Designed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dyna3D is the basis for crash research at many federal agencies and private interests such as universities, research labs, computer companies, aerospace companies, atomic energy companies, and automobile manufacturers. The program allows the study of objects to see how well they survive crash conditions and how materials bend, twist or break. The general engineering tool analyzes high-rate dynamic and impact problems. Federal agencies can use the code at no cost; companies can also use the code for free if they agree to share improvements with the lab. At least 90 percent of the errors in the code have been located by outside companies. Entire SQL keeps House communications in order. (U.S. House of Representatives) (product announcement) Software AG announced the Entire SQL Server relational database server, the first of a series of open SQL servers. Entire SQL runs on many operating systems and contains the full American National Standards Institute Structured Query Language. It supports high-volume, on-line transaction processing; batch processing; multiprocessors; two-phase commit for distributed logical transaction; the automatic maintenance of replicated table copies in multiple server nodes; and transparent distributed selection of data rows across distributed files. The US House of Representatives will use the Entire SQL Server to organize its computer resources. Experts debate the direction of open systems. (Fed Unix conference in Washington) Unix is an important step in the move toward open systems, but Unix does not solve problems with communicating between heterogeneous computers and operating systems. Unix will never replace many successful operating systems, although it has gained acceptance in the government and commercial markets. Standardizing on one operating system will never work. Open systems ensure the protection of original investments. Unix was the subject of a speech by David Tory, pres of the Open Software Foundation, at the Fed Unix conference in Washington, DC, in early 1991. C4 chief bridges gaps in Army information plans. (Lt. Gen. Jerome B. Hilmes) Army Dir of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications and Computers (DISC4) Lt. Gen. Jerome B. Hilmes believes progress must be tangible. He issued the Army Long-Range Plan for the Information Mission Area (IMA) in Jan 1991. The Plan calls for conversion to open systems within 30 years. Hilmes also devised a new sustaining base automation architecture and mandated the creation of a servicewide data dictionary through Army Regulation 25-9. His ultimate goal is to leverage the value of the Army's ADP budget. Technical workstations: separating what you need from all the possibilities. (buyers guide) Fifty-seven varieties of RISC, CISC and high-end 486-based technical workstations are listed in a buyer's guide. Low-end workstations are in the $9,000 to $12,000 range. Machines with 8Mbytes of RAM and up to 200Mbytes of disk storage range from $15,000 to $22,000. High-end workstations for surface modeling and finite element analysis cost $40,000 to $100,000. RISC workstations are generally priced between $10,000 and $25,000. CISC workstation prices start at $50,000. Navy copes with IRM shuffling, cutbacks; cooperation buoys efforts to streamline operations. (information resource management) Information resource management (IRM) in the Persian Gulf War means keeping track of a landscape that shifts daily. The Navy is changing its information management and procurement structures in an effort to streamline operations while facing budget cutbacks; in response to a Defense Management Review (DMR). The Navy is attempting to strengthen, centralize and emphasize the management of the contracting process. The plan to replace old computers comes during a series of acquisition problems, including allegations of bias toward IBM. The Marine Corps reduced its IRM operations and cutback services in the fall of 1990. Marines get mainframe power to gulf in a flash; Corps handles problem of overtaxed systems in Desert Storm. The Marine Corps installed a third mainframe computer in Saudi Arabia following what is called their fastest ever procurement. The two mainframes installed in the fall of 1990 for Operation Desert Shield grew overloaded as the number of Marines continued to increase. The Two Force Automation Service Centers (FASCs) are trailer-mounted IBM 9377 Model 90 mainframes. The urgent and compelling need for computing power urged Corps officials to bypass some procurement procedures to acquire the third computer. Only Vion Corp and IBM make air-cooled mainframes with enough computing capacity in a size that fits on an 8-by-8-by-35 trailer; the largest the Corp can transport. The bid went out on Dec 7, 1990. IBM declined to bid; Vion was awarded the $1.6 million contract on Dec 14. Navy integrates shipboard communications. Robb, David W. The Navy is integrating its on-board data communications networks. Some Atlantic fleet ships are being readied with fiber-optic backbones. There are currently many independent networks on ships that cannot share information. The Navy based its communications strategy on a high-level communications control architecture developed in the late 1980s. The Base Information Transfer System (BITS) will govern on-shore communications. Afloat architecture details data communications on-board ships and between vessels. The Marines are planning an architecture for communications when they hit the beach. Playing to a new beat to get IRM in sync; Navy's Cornett says cooperation floats the boat. (Deputy assistant secretary of the Nina G. Cornett helps Gerald A. Cann, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to execute his duties as the senior information resource management official under the Paperwork Reduction Act. They are responsible for policy, planning, standardization, oversight, budget-review and coordination. The world situation is reducing budgets in all areas of government, and the Navy needs to find better, more efficient ways to do things. The Navy's 1991 budget is approximately $2.7 billion. Cornett's two major goals are open architecture and to place more emphasis on the Navy than the Marine Corp in budget considerations. The push to stay in step with technology. (Navy) Robb, David W. The Navy is pressing on with several computer procurements during a period of war and fundamental IRM changes. The deadline for proposals for the Tactical Advanced Computer (TAC-3) procurement was delayed until Mar 1991. The $400 million contract for up to 4,000 high-performance tactical workstations is expected to be awarded in late 1991. A request for proposals for a follow-on contract should be ready following the TAC-3 award. Five computer-aided design (CAD-2) procurements could be the Navy's largest non-tactical computer purchase. CAD-2 will design and repair vessels, aircraft and facilities. The Shipboard Non-Tactical ADP Program (SNAP) will provide computers for inventory, financial, administrative and maintenance applications. Used equipment becomes obsolete faster. Houser, Walter R. Buying used data processing equipment increases the likelihood of hardware obsolescence. Used equipment is appropriate for augmenting existing vintage equipment or to provide a technological bridge from ancient equipment; it can be an interim solution with minimal conversion complications before eventual modernization. Old hardware is hard to maintain, leading to more downtime and higher repair costs. Replacement parts become scarce and qualified support staff is hard to find. The limits of both hardware and old operating systems can stymie improvements. Only the well-managed companies will thrive in '91. Weil, Ulric. US information technology (IT) companies performed satisfactorily in 1990, although several weaker companies are losing market share. Leading hardware vendors showed very good results. Japanese companies also did well, while European systems vendors were hurting. Recession concerns lead to a discouraging prognosis for 1991, capital spending for new plants and equipment is expected to slow to a 2.4 percent gain over 1990. That meager gain will be downgraded in the next survey released in Mar 1991 by the US Department of Commerce. Information technology budgets tend to correlate with capital spending plans, although systems can provide competitive advantage and reduce costs during a period of declining revenues. The well-managed, established hardware vendors should survive the recession in good shape. Objectives pave the road to noble goals. Perry, William E. One reason for the lack of goal setting in large businesses and government agencies is that goal setting establishes a failure scenario. Zero-defect goals are unachievable in data processing shops. It is better to set quantitative goals. A goal is the ultimate objective; objectives are the means for achieving those goals. The goal serves as inspiration; people should strive toward perfection. Goals should stretch your maximum capabilities. Recent changes modify the integrity law. Hunter, William N. Amendments to the 1988 procurement integrity law have brought it back from suspension. The law establishes requirements for contractors bidding on federal contracts. Government contracting officers and the senior official for the company must sign certifications that they are unaware of violations of the law and they must report information about possible violations. Restrictions are place on employees that leave federal service. Healthy growth ahead for govt. IRM industry. (information resource management) Federal spending on computers, communications and related services is expected to grow at a healthy rate for the next few years. Spring 1991 predictions promised $2 billion growth for information spending, although that number dropped to $1.5 billion by summer; still a healthy 7.5 percent growth. The administration's 1992 budget proposal indicates a high priority for information technology. Federal information technology spending should grow by 37 percent. The chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 will mean another $7 billion in information technology spending before the turn of the century. Justice, Inslaw continue their battle of Promis. (Inslaw Inc and Justice Dept. dispute rights to Promis case management software) Inslaw Inc continues to battle the Justice Department in a 10-year-old dispute over the rights to the Prosecutors Management Information System (Promis), a case management software package developed by the company. In 1987 a federal court ruled the Justice Department stole 44 copies of the program; the Justice Department is appealing. The Department claims it took possession of the software two years before Inslaw Inc filed for bankruptcy in 1985 and could not have violated a 1985 court-ordered stay. Three circuit judges are presiding over the appeal. Use of micros leads to new demands on House staff. Seaborn, Margaret M. Microcomputers have cultivated great expectation in the House Budget Committee and increased pressure on the staff to handle larger workloads. Reports are expected in short order, more alternate budgets are examined than before the influx of microcomputers. Budget estimates on paper spreadsheets took two to three days in 1983, now it takes two or three hours to respond to requests. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) plans to bring more microcomputers onto its LAN during the next few years and will link them to the mainframe through terminal emulation and Software AG's Natural Connection software. Picking winners at the 386 notebook rodeo. Vizachero, Rick. Notebook computers based on Intel's 386 processor provide good performance, but vary in weight and price. AST Research Inc's Premium Exec 386SX/20 is the best pick with prices that start at $2,995. The Zeos Notebook 386 and Tempo LX are also good selections. The lightest machines are from CompuAdd and Texas Instruments Inc (TI), with units weighing only 5.7 pounds. Most of these machines lack a SCSI port for daisy-chaining peripherals and are not recommended for a person's only computer. IBM, Novell alliance sets up a networking love triangle with Microsoft; LAN vendors play the dating game. (includes related IBM and Novell Inc make a cooperative agreement that allows IBM to market, support and service Novell's NetWare network operating system software products, while Novell produces NetWare for OS/2 and a portable NetWare package for the IBM RS/6000 workstation. IBM claims that its support for NetWare does not reduce its support for its own OS/2 LAN Server package, and notes that NetWare will not be part of the Systems Application Architecture (SAA). The agreement further broadens the rift between IBM and Microsoft Corp, which has attempted to make headway into the network operating system market with its LAN Manager package. Analysts expect Microsoft to be hurt by the instability in its relationship with IBM and by confusion over Microsoft's networking strategy. Standing up to Sun. (Sun Microsystems Inc. challenged by consortium) (Top of the Week) Compaq, DEC and Microsoft Corp are rumored to be leading a reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) workstation consortium to compete with Sun Microsystems Inc. Industry observers speculate that the formation of such a consortium is a sign that microcomputer vendors realize RISC technology will dominate the computer industry. Observers also believe the consortium plans to base its products on MIPS Computer Systems Inc's RISC processors and Santa Cruz Operation Inc's version of UNIX. One analyst suggests that Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system software must run transparently for a UNIX system to garner user support. Meanwhile, Sun's attention is on its internal organization as it spins off its systems software and technology groups into independent subsidiaries, SunSoft Inc and SunTech Enterprises Inc respectively. Tanking up on technology: Shell Oil eyes standardization, consolidation. (Royal Dutch/Shell Group) (Strategies ) (company Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Cos depends upon information systems to minimize costs, anticipate and respond to oil price changes, and develop new oil fields. The group's information and computing (IC) division is responsible for tasks such as notifying the entire organization of oil price changes and determining the advantages and risks of new field development. The innovations Shell does in MIS are considered partially responsible for its success as an oil industry leader. IC has no data center and no corporate operational responsibilities, but it is installing a network to replace its non-standard inter-company communication links. The network is expected to significantly reduce maintenance costs and improve performance. The company is also attempting to standardize its software purchases to provide portability and price reductions. IC advises the group's companies on the ramifications of changes, without dictating the changes itself. Millennium morass: as the year 2000 nears, MIS execs brainstorm over problems with date-dependent programs. (Issues) (panel Many companies and MIS departments use date-dependent programs that will be rendered useless in the year 2000 because of the way dates are represented. Dates are stored for myriad reasons, but stored dates are easily found and changed. A greater problem is comparisons of dates, because date-dependent logic is more difficult to locate and alter. Problems with banking systems during leap years indicate the types of problems that are expected to arise. MIS departments must quantify the problem by determining failure points and estimating programming times and costs for fixing the problems. Executives outside MIS may not realize the scope of the problem. Choosing a standard can be a dilemma if software vendors and internal developers select incompatible formats. Can MIS make networks play together? (network operating system interoperability) (Cover Story) MIS departments are being asked to reconcile multiple network operating systems to improve intracompany communications. Individual divisions and departments typically choose their networking products independently, without considering enterprisewide network capabilities. LAN Manager, Netware and Vines are the most commonly used network operating systems, and although the packages offer similar features, they can be difficult to integrate. Atlantic Richfield Co and Bank of Boston are investigating companywide local area network (LAN) system strategies to link networks where communication is required. Rockwell International Corp's wide area network (WAN) is composed of LANs that are independent but integratable. Kodak intends to move entirely to open systems. Industry analysts say the network operating system 'big three' will only work together if users demand it. New technology chase: Chase Manhattan targets 'Common Technical Environment.' (Network Computing) Chase Manhattan Bank NA plans to standardize its information systems around technologies it calls the 'Common Technical Environment' (CTE). The bank plans to move to the Chase Metrotech Center, which should allow the company to streamline its MIS systems and design a building specifically to make use of advanced technologies. The banking industry is consolidating to cut costs in the slow economy. One consultant says Chase's biggest challenge is to reduce technology costs without harming strategic investments. The bank's MIS group is narrowing the range of applications and operating systems the company uses. Software is selected for factors such as mobility, volume purchase potential and ease of use. The MIS group also plans to remove technical network management responsibilities from individual units and establish a centralized pool of network management specialists. Hammer time for D&B Software. (Dun and Bradstreet Software Services Inc. looks to the future after merger with Management Dun and Bradstreet Software Services Inc (DBS) is surviving its acquisition of Management Science America Inc (MSA) and McCormack and Dodge, and the software publisher looks forward to pushing its unified client/server Future Architecture products. DBS reported a revenue increase of 131.5 percent in FY 1990, with total revenues of $538 million. Adjusting for the MSA acquisition, revenue growth becomes 10 percent. Although the transition forced layoffs of about 400 DBS employees, DBS Chmn John Imlay now has a stable team of executives and a parent company with cash to finance the Future Architecture financial software. DBS has been providing support for MSA and McCormack and Dodge's installed user bases, but the Future Architecture program would join the product lines around graphical, object-oriented applications. Ashton-Tate: down, not out: hopes to recapture market with new dBase products. (PCs & Workstations) Ashton-Tate hopes to regain stability with improved product development efforts. The company is beta testing versions of the dBase IV data base management software for the Apple Macintosh and for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers running Unix. A Microsoft Windows version and a compiler version of dBase are also being developed. Ashton-Tate lost $5.6 million in the 4th qtr despite operating profits over $2.1 million due to a stockholder suit settlement. Regaining customers who purchased other data base management systems during Ashton-Tate's weak years may be difficult because of the large amount of established user code in the other systems. This difficulty is exacerbated by a federal judge's declaring invalid Ashton-Tate's copyright on dBase. Ashton-Tate, which held a 58 percent market share in 1987, had only a 33 percent share in 1990. Some MIS managers say good compiler and Windows products may win back developers. Is the pen mightier than the keyboard? (pen-based I/O) (PCs & Workstations) Mobile professionals such as financial consultants, insurance adjustors and field sales representatives can use computers with pen-based I/O for familiarity and ease of use. Proponents say that pen-based systems are more accessible to users and seem less imposing to users' clients than keyboard-based computers. Go Corp's PenPoint operating system is generating a large response from MIS managers. As users write directly on a tablet-sized screen, the printing is converted to type. Commands and modifications are indicated by pressing menu items and drawing simple editing marks. Software developers are responding favorably to Go Corp's PenPoint operating system, and Microsoft Corp is countering by distributing its Pen Windows operating system to applications developers. Although PenPoint is already available and is optimized for pen I/O, Microsoft has the advantage of a wide support base of Windows applications. From Marx to MIS: the new dynamics: how technocentrism has altered the way we work. (Final Word) (column) Organizational use of technology alters the structure as well as the productivity of the organization. Organizations that depend upon information technology for success become 'technocentric.' Technocentric organizations are decentralized by portable computers and improved communications, which expand the definition of the office. Technocentric organizations also increase productivity without altering the salary structure, so turnkey systems and user-friendly software can improve productivity while maintaining salary levels. Changes in technology, including information technology, alter society. Changes in technology critical to an organization's function change the entire organization. SPC's Gunslinger takes aim at the Windows market. (Software Publishing Corp.) (new drawing and illustration program under Software Publishing Corp (SPC) is reportedly developing several new products for the Windows graphical user interface, including a drawing and illustration package code-named Gunslinger that will include an auto-trace facility similar to that in Corel Draw. SPC also plans Windows versions of its existing Harvard Graphics, Info Alliance, Harvard Geographics and Professional Write packages. SPC pres and CEO Fred M Gibbons says the company's strategy is now based on graphical platforms, with Windows dominating its desktop product development and OS/2 the focus of its file server development. The Windows version of Pro Write Plus is expected to be announced at the Windows and OS/2 Conference in Santa Clara, CA, in Mar 1991. SPC has been 'easing' its way into the Windows market by purchasing technology from other companies; Gunslinger is reportedly based on technology SPC acquired from Arta Software Inc, a small graphics firm based in Madison, WI. LAN Server takes backseat to NetWare? (IBM offering its own version of Novell NetWare network operating system) IBM has begun selling its own version of the popular Novell NetWare network operating system, although it says it will continue to sell and enhance its own LAN Server networking software. Users generally applaud IBM's move, but some industry observers believe the company's agreement with Novell is the first step toward making NetWare a part of Systems Application Architecture and ultimately using it to replace LAN Server. Most IBM users prefer NetWare for its superior security and administration features as well as performance. IBM and Novell have jointly announced that NetWare 3.2, the upcoming upgrade of NetWare scheduled to ship in 1992, will run on top of AIX and OS/2 2.0. DOS client workstations can access both LAN Server and NetWare servers simultaneously. New CD ROM specifications to standardize write-once drives. (Sony Corp, N V Philips, others developing specifications for optical Several major CD ROM vendors, including NV Philips and Sony, are reportedly working on a standard that will allow users to record data to CD ROM disks without rewriting the entire disk, using the disk in a new type of write once drive. The 'Frankfurt Group' plans to introduce specifications for the new optical disks at the Microsoft CD ROM conference in Mar 1991. Existing read-only CD ROM drives will not read the new write-once disks, but write-once drives will be compatible with standard CD ROMs. Frankfurt Group members include Sony, DEC, Meridian Data Inc and others; executives at the companies say that the new write-once CDs will fill a need for low-cost rewritable optical media. PC leaders join in RISC alliance: Microsoft to offer vendors board based on OS/2, R4000 chip. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc's reduced A group of microcomputer hardware and software vendors have formed a consortium hoping to develop and sell a new workstation based on the MIPS Computer Systems Inc R4000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor and the upcoming OS/2 3.0 operating system. Consortium members include MIPS, Compaq and Microsoft Corp; the standard high-performance design would compete with workstations built around the Sun Microsystems SPARC chip and the IBM RS/6000 line. Microsoft is expected to offer small microcomputer makers a workstation-board design that will enable them to enter the workstation market quickly. Microcomputer vendors are eagerly awaiting the outcome of Microsoft's research. The software giant has been negotiating with virtually every supplier of non-proprietary RISC chips and is reportedly committed to offering hardware vendors a bundled design even if the consortium fails. Users fear CC Mail will suffer under Lotus' hand. (Lotus Development Corp's proposed acquisition of CC Mail Inc.) Users express concern about Lotus Development Corp's proposed acquisition of E-mail software manufacturer CC Mail Inc. Lotus CEO Jim Manzi says the acquisition will let the spreadsheet giant 'expand and enrich' CC Mail products through Lotus' Notes graphical environment, but users note that Lotus has a history of market failure with products other than spreadsheets. Corporate microcomputer managers want to see how well Lotus can integrate existing third-party E-mail into Notes and state that Lotus will need to improve the Macintosh version of CC Mail. Users fear that Lotus might lock users into a proprietary software design, increasing costs. Analysts say the acquisition of CC Mail could help Lotus compete more effectively with Microsoft Corp. 'Advanced Windows' may resolve OS/2 dilemma. (OS/2 3.0 'New Technology' kernel) Microsoft is reportedly developing a new 'Advanced Windows' concept based on the 'New Technology' kernel in OS/2 3.0, which supports multiple application programming interfaces (APIs). The NT kernel includes a core set of portable, multitasking, multithreading operating system features and is a true 32-bit system. An installable file system feature lets NT support multiple file systems, including the DOS File Allocation Fable and OS/2 High Performance File System. It will support the OS/2, 16- and 32-bit WIndows, DOS and Posix APIs to provide all the capabilities of current versions of OS/2. Microsoft could strip OS/2 3.0 of the OS/2 APIs and position it as a new version of Windows if users continue to reject OS/2. Microsoft has been repositioning OS/2 as a competitor to Unix rather than DOS in 1990 and adding many of the capabilities of the OS/2 Presentation Manager interface to Windows. OS/2 shift clouds LAN Manager future. (recent announcements by IBM and Microsoft) IBM's and Microsoft's recent announcements about their future LAN strategies have confused many users, and those who have invested in the OS/2 LAN Manager network operating system feel especially threatened. Microsoft denies that it is less committed to LAN Manager or OS/2 than in the past, but most observers believe it is shifting its emphasis to the Windows environment. The software giant hopes to evolve to a distributed operating system model, but this strategy does not eliminate the need for a network operating system. Connectivity between LAN Manager and Novell NetWare networks is another major user concern. Novell and IBM are planning network interoperability, but Novell has not been willing to cooperate with Microsoft to integrate NetWare with LAN Manager. IBM and Microsoft have developed a common set of application programming interfaces to let LAN Manager applications run on IBM's LAN Server 1.3 LAN operating system. Borland C++ 2.0 shines at Software Development '91. (Borland International Inc. C++ 2.0 compiler) (product announcement) Borland International Inc introduced its C++ 2.0 compiler at the 1991 Software Development conference. The second-generation object-oriented development environment lets users create both DOS and Windows 3.0 versions of an application from the same code, bypassing the need for the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit. Borland has licensed the Microsoft resource compiler and Windows.H header file, both of which are included in C++ 2.0. The development environment includes Turbo Assembler 2.5 for building assembly language routines; Turbo Drive, which lets the computer run either in protected mode or using extended memory; a Make utility with Unix extensions; the VROOM segment overlay manager; and Turbo Profiler, which profiles how an application uses particular modules. Borland plans sell C++ 2.0 for $495; a comparable package from Microsoft, including the SDK, assembler, C 6.0 compiler and Charles Petzold's 'Programming Windows' book would sell for $929. Borland acknowledges that C++ 2.0 lacks exceptions handling capability and templates, but several third-party class libraries are now available. PC buyers find bargains in recessionary market. (microcomputer purchasing) Microcomputer hardware and software prices are declining as a result of the economic recession, but some organizations are unable to take advantage of the available bargains because they are locked into long-term purchase agreements. The savings available are real but not enormous, according to some users; dealers' profit margins are already razor-thin, and most price cuts come directly from manufacturers. Year-long price agreements were the norm in large organizations during 1990, but many buyers now renegotiate such agreements or go outside them. DOS apps migrate slowly to Unix; familiar programs bring non-Intel platforms closer to mainstream. Many microcomputer software vendors are porting popular DOS applications to Unix platforms or plan to do so, increasing the appeal of such powerful reduced instruction set (RISC) computers as the Sun SPARCstation, Motorola 68040 and Intel 80486. Lotus Development Corp is shipping its 1-2-3 spreadsheet on the SCO Unix and SunOS Unix versions and offers Improv for the Next machine. WordPerfect Corp offers its WordPerfect word processor on many Unix platforms, and Insignia Solutions' Soft PC DOS emulator runs on almost every non-Intel platform. Soft PC gives complete DOS compatibility to powerful workstations but is slow, making a powerful workstation perform at approximately the speed of a 12 MHz AT. Lotus' Improv for the Next offers high-end spreadsheet features but retains compatibility with the 1-2-3 .WK1 file format. The SCO Unix environment has had more DOS applications ported to it than other Unix versions, partly because it runs on Intel processors. Objectworks get 32-bit linear address mode. (Parc Place Sysetms' Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0) Parc Place Systems announces Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 for Windows, an upgrade of its object-oriented development environment that lets developers select from 7,400 reusable methods and call up to 350 portable object types. Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 supports the 32-bit linear addressing mode in Windows 3.0, making applications readily portable to the Macintosh and Unix workstations and letting programmers write code with no memory segment limitations. Sixteen-bit Intel code is limited to memory segments of 64Kbytes, a severe performance bottleneck that slows execution speed by up to 50 percent. Parc Place officials say that Objectworks/Smalltalk is aimed at corporate in-house developers because it lets users build a high level of program functionality very quickly. Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 for Windows 3.0 will be available in Mar 1990 for $3,500. Blue Sky Software ships Windows application tool. (Windows Maker Professional) (product announcement) Blue Sky Software Corp announces Windows Maker Professional, a new programming tool for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface, which is designed to free developers from having to write Windows-specific code. It uses drag-and-click techniques to build the entire user interface, linking on-screen objects in functionality and generating C source code as output. The package supports the Microsoft C 5.1 and 6.0 and C++ compilers. Windows Maker Professional can execute dynamic link libraries and has a variety of manipulation tools for creating professional-looking menus and dialog boxes as well as support for Dynamic Data Exchange messages, MIDI applications and custom color settings. The product provides instant access to Windows Software Development Toolkit tools and conforms to IBM's Common User Access interface specifications. Windows Maker Professional will sell for $995. RAID a data security alternative. (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) (part 1 of 3) Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) technology brings the performance and data security advantages of mainframe and minicomputer disk arrays to desktop microcomputers. A study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley determined that high-end microcomputer disk drives offer performance comparable to that of mainframe drives but suffer from much higher failure rates. Arrays of the inexpensive microcomputer drives can overcome the drive failure problem while providing storage capacity similar to that of mainframes. Five levels of RAID are delineated in the study; each level divides data across an array of drives instead of putting all data on one drive. Level One RAID uses two drives for mirroring; if one drive fails, all necessary data will be found on the other. Compaq offers disk array for Systempro. (Compaq Computer Corp. announces disk array expansion system for Systempro file server) Compaq announces a new disk array expansion subsystem for its high-end Systempro file server offering up to 18Gbytes of storage. The basic system includes 2.6Gbytes and sells for $21,999; users can add up to five 1.3Gbyte drives at $9.099 each. Users can install up to four half-height tape backup drives in two expansion slots on the Systempro. Disk duplexing is an option requiring additional Intelligent Drive Array controllers priced at $2,999 each; drivers are available for the Novell NetWare 386 and SCO Unix System V operating systems. Compaq has also cut the prices of all Systempro models by 4 to 10 percent. The uniprocessor Systempro configuration now sells for $13,499 to $26,999. Intel hopes its low-cost 486s will entice buyers. (Intel Corp. 80486 microprocessor) Intel is developing new low-cost versions of of its 80486 microprocessor, which analysts say could provide 20 million instructions per second (MIPS) performance at approximately the same price as the current 80386DX. The low-cost P32/1 member of the 486 family will have a disabled floating-point unit, while the stripped-down P23/2 will have the on-chip cache disabled. The P24 will substitute a double cache for the on-chip floating-point unit. Both Intel and industry observers maintain that the new 486s will still be faster than the 386 because the 486 draws on reduced instruction set computing architecture to improve performance by a factor of up to 3. The 486 requires fewer clock cycles to perform an instruction than the 386. Observers say the P32/1 may make 32-bit laptops possible because its on-board cache is a virtual necessity in a high-performance machine. Computer viruses follow clever paths to evade detection. (part 1) (Tech Talk) (column) Computer viruses are increasingly cleverly designed to make them hard for utility software to detect. An understanding of how viruses operate is important in determining how to prevent them from infecting a system. Viruses can be classified as 'general purpose infector,' 'special purpose infector,' 'very clever general purpose infector,' and 'central system infector.' General-purpose viruses attach themselves to the beginning or end of executable files and cannot infect data files; simple ones are easy to spot because the alter the program's length and sometimes date. Some viruses can nevertheless mask their size and restore the 'date last modified.' Special-purpose viruses are designed to reside in only one version of a particular application and reside within the body of code. Very clever viruses combine the capabilities of the first two types, identifying noncode-bearing regions within the bodies of a wide variety of applications, easily overrunning every program in an entire computer system. Motorola bets on Altair's success. (wireless Ethernet LAN) Coursey, David. Motorola Inc's new Altair wireless local area network, demonstrated at the Networld trade show in Feb 1991, may be difficult to sell at a price of approximately $700 per workstation. The system uses Motorola's proprietary Wireless Inbuilding Networking (WIN) technology and is incompatible with the network statistics functions of popular LAN management packages. It requires two radio transceivers to replace conventional cabling, a $3,995 control module attached to the server that supports up to 32 users and a $3,495 user module that can be daisy-chained to as many as six workstations. Motorola executives claim the network can pay for itself by saving $200 to $1,000 per user in rewiring costs when an organization rearranges its office. Competitors are readying other wireless network offerings. Apple has asked the FCC to allocate new frequencies for 10M-bps wireless networks, a proposal that would allow many vendors to compete in the wireless LAN arena. Radius, IIR plan to unveil 040-based accelerators. (Radius Inc., IIR Inc. to officially announce 68040-based Mac II accelerator Radius Inc and IIR Inc plan to announce 68040-based accelerator board for Macintosh II computers in 2nd qtr 1991. Both boards are reportedly NuBus cards that will work with any machine in the Mac II family, but the firms are positioning them primarily for the IIci and expect them to give 68030-based Macs performance better than that of the IIfx. The 68040 processor is 3.2 times faster than a 68030 running at the same clock rate, according to Motorola's benchmark reports. Actual delivery dates for the new accelerators depend on how soon Motorola delivers the chip; the 68040 has been delayed by development problems and is not yet available in sufficient yield for Apple to produce 68040-based Macintoshes. Dealers try new tactics for lean times. (selling in recessionary market) A new report by market research firm Dataquest Inc indicates that dealers are emphasizing training, service and support programs in order to supplement their dwindling profit margins in the lagging computer market. The survey of 516 company-owned chains, franchises and independent computer stores concludes that dealers are being forced to rely more heavily on manufacturers' reseller aid programs. These agreements are mutual: the vendor receives a greater market share of dealers it works with, while the programs lower the dealer's operating costs and let them offer equipment to prospective customers at better prices. Sales training, technical training and dedicated vendor sales personnel are the best investments a dealer can make to improve sales volume. Newspaper coupons and trade show booth rebates are ineffective. Dealers blame the new 'superstores' for the drop in profit margins. Political climate opens door to VC technology. (videoconferencing) Graggs, Tuseda A. Demand for videoconferencing services has increased as a result of companies' cutting back on travel because of fear of terrorism resulting from the Persian Gulf war. US Sprint has reported that requests for its Sprint Meeting Channel international videoconferencing system have tripled since the war began. Rates for a one-hour transmission on an overseas call range from $1,222 to $1,975, plus the cost of renting the videoconferencing room. Videoconferencing equipment manufacturer Compression Labs Inc reports a growth trend. Large firms such as HP which have curbed international travel are also reporting an increase in reservations for its 28 videoconferencing sites. Why should anyone buy Lotus 1-2-3- or Dbase anymore? (State of the Industry) Once-innovative but dated software programs such as Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE continue to dominate the market despite the fact that competing packages offer better price/performance ratios. dBASE does not offer the network performance of other database management systems, and Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro spreadsheet has more features and is a better buy than 1-2-3. Microsoft's Excel takes advantage of the fast-growing Windows graphical user interface. Ashton-Tate and Lotus have enormous marketing clout and can sell products partly on the basis of inertia alone. Large companies can make money and fund new development entirely on the basis of their past successes, Corporations often prefer to stick with products they are familiar with because of the costs of transition and retraining, but buyers may decide to consider alternatives in the future. Corporate Software finds happiness in customer support. (large reseller)(Tech Street) (column) Corporate Software Inc, a reseller that deals only with buyers in large organizations and specializes in high-end support services, has seen its revenues grow tenfold since 1985 because of helping corporate information systems managers support their internal end-user clients. The price of hardware and software packages Corporate Software resells includes fees for consulting, installation assistance and post-sales support. Corporate Software sees consulting as its primary mission and reselling as secondary. Its profit margins remain high because of its many value-add services, while its competitors are watching margins drop under price competition from non-traditional sources. Buying from a value-added reseller that follows the Corporate Software model is an investment in support infrastructure that gives end users access to a excellent hotline support and trained support representatives. Flexing muscle: corporate PC managers are teaming up to gain influence with PC vendors. (includes related articles on Windows Corporate microcomputer professionals are increasingly attracted to organizations designed to increase user clout with vendors. Today's microcomputer managers view information technology as strategic and are actively participating in such groups as the International Dbase Users Group (IDBUG) and New York Microcomputer Managers Association (MMA), which lobby vendors for product improvements. The MMA once put out a white paper that let software vendors know how difficult upgrades are for users and succeeded in impressing Lotus Development Corp with the importance of the issue. IDBUG has actively opposed Ashton-Tate's lawsuit against Fox Software and attempted to mediate between the two companies. Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems (MacIS) is a group of Macintosh managers and has succeeded in influencing recent decisions at Apple. Many users voice their concerns on Compuserve forums and attempt to influence vendors. Desktop marketing may open your home to 'little brother.' (Future Tense) (column) The consumer outrage provoked by Lotus Development Corp's MarketPlace CD ROM database of household information and the company's subsequent withdrawal of the product only marks the beginning of an upcoming controversy over 'desktop marketing' technology. Desktop marketing gives small businesses access to data that has been accessible to large corporations for many years: MarketPlace was compiled from huge databases Equifax Inc sells to insurers, direct mail houses, banks and others. MarketPlace attempted to protect consumer privacy by carefully limiting its contents to publicly available information, but this information can be very invasive when 'aggregated' to provide a composite view of marketing targets. Large corporations are not interested in prying into single households except in such special cases as granting a loan; the entry of small businesses into desktop marketing could upset the delicate balance of consumer privacy by using information to serve their personal interest. Private investigators and others curious about personal lives could abuse the information. Paradox SQL Link. (Software Review) (includes related article on client/server vs. file server databases) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's $495 Paradox SQL Link is a powerful development system for client/server databases. The packages is easy to install and returns queries and processes single transactions faster than traditional file-server based products, but slows down when processing multiple transactions and limits the end-user functionality of the Paradox DBMS when used as a front end. Users can begin to work with SQL commands as soon as the workstation is connected to a server, but Paradox must create a dictionary of replica tables in order to use the query by example interface with existing server-based tables. SQL Link code is not always portable across servers, and its data types may not be compatible with some servers. Users cannot directly modify data in remote SQL tables. The Paradox query engine is very fast, but multiuser transaction processing is slow. Documentation is excellent. SQL Link disables many of the features of the Paradox 3.0 query by example interface when querying remote tables. Only experienced Paradox programmers who do not rely heavily on the database's interactive features should consider Paradox SQL Link. All Clear simplifies the task of converting text into diagrams. (Clear Software All Clear idea processing program) (evaluation) Clear Software's $299.95 All Clear is designed to help users pull ideas from a text file and convert them into graphic diagrams such as flow charts and tree diagrams. It includes a scripting language that tells it how different components in the user's model relate to each other and a diagram interpreter/editor that converts the script into a diagram. Users create the script either in the program's built-in text editor or with a word processor; scripts can be simple series of statements or can include any of the basic constructs found in procedural programming languages. Printing options include printing directly to a printer, to PRN files, or to Encapsulated PostScript, PC Paintbrush or Lotus PIC files. All Clear automatically downloads fonts for HP LaserJet printers. All Clear is well implemented and very useful for software developers. Disk Fit, Network Disk Fit sport new tree display for easier use. (Software Review) (Super Mac Technology backup software ) SuperMac Technology's DiskFit 2.0 and Network DiskFit 2.0 offer the same user interface as earlier versions but use a new tree display to simplify file and folder selection for backup. A new subvolume option lets users back up and restore to a specific folder on another hard disk. The program can now back up and restore files as large as 2Gbytes and perform unattended backups. DiskFit costs $99.95 for the single-user version and $395.95 for the network version; upgrades are $24.95 and $54.95 respectively. Borland's Turbo Pascal 6.0 boasts key improvements. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc. Turbo Pascal development Borland International Inc's new Turbo Pascal 6.0 development environment offers a reworked integrated environment and many refinements that enhance an already excellent product. It offers the object oriented programming (OOP) extensions introduced in version 5.5 and a new Integrated Development Environment (IDE) similar to that supplied with Borland's Turbo C++. New features include mouse support, overlapping windows, a true in-line assembler and a better heap manager. On-line help now includes examples for almost every function. The compiler is extremely fast, and the Turbo Vision object library creates a complete framework for event-driven applications. Turbo Pascal 6.0's language extensions are very good, and its new integrated debugger is excellent as is the object oriented programming implementation. Documentation is excellent, and the program is both easy to learn and use. Turbo Pascal 6.0 offers very good error handling. It is rated an excellent value for its price of $149.95 or $299.95 for the Professional package including Turbo Assembler, Turbo Debugger, Turbo Profiler and Turbo Drive. IBM PS/2 P75 puts different twist on the portable PC. (Hardware Review) (IBM PS/2 portable computer) (evaluation) IBM's PS/2 Model P75 80486-based portable computer supports 16Mbytes of RAM on the motherboard and includes several expansion slots. It is a 20-pound 'luggable' system that comes standard with 8Mbytes of memory and a 160Mbyte hard drive; an optional configuration includes a 400Mbyte disk. Performance is excellent on CPU-intensive application benchmarks and very good on disk-intensive benchmarks. The machine earns a poor score for its size and weight, and it cannot use batteries. Software compatibility is excellent, as is the 101-key enhanced keyboard. Documentation is fairly complete but not plentiful, earning a good score; setup is very good, but ease of use earns only a good score because the power switch is difficult to reach and there is no reset button. Workmanship is satisfactory. IBM's support policies earn a poor score because IBM offers support only through dealers, but the support itself earns a good rating. The PS/2 P75 is only a satisfactory value at a price of $15,990 for the base configuration or $18,890 for the 400Mbyte unit. HP drivers standardize color output on Paintjets. (HP announces Mac, Windows color output drivers for PaintJet ink jet printer) HP announces new color-matching drivers for its PaintJet ink jet printers that standardize color output on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 and Macintosh platforms. The drivers automatically match on-screen colors with output from the PaintJet and from the PaintWriter, a new Mac printer HP will ship in March 1991. The mac version supports Apple's QuickDraw language and ships with 13 typefaces as well as support for three dithering patterns; the Windows version comes with 6 typefaces and can print PMS colors. HP's new $1,395 PaintWriter is designed for the low-cost Macs and offers 180-dpi output, support for 32-bit QuickDraw and fast throughput. Will Appletalk license sell Macintoshes into mixed networks? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Apple has recently licensed its Appletalk protocol stack to third-party vendors of DOS and Windows connectivity products in an effort to sell Macintoshes into multivendor network environments. The company is focusing its own experts on the desktop rather than on enterprisewide networks, which are hard to define. Appletalk is an excellent and versatile network operating system that works with all PostScript printers, placing the Mac in a great position as a communications workstation. Apple chose Farallon Computing Inc, a company with a superior understanding of communications, as its licensing partner; Farallon plans o enhance the Appletalk protocol stack with new functions and features. Farallon's goal is to make networking technology simple, accessible and inexpensive. Lotus offers a powerful new Notes. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes 2.0) (product announcement) Lotus Development Corp introduces its Notes 2.0 groupware with enhancements including improved security features and application integration as well as support for Banyan Systems Inc's VINES network operating system. Notes lets users on multiple local area networks (LAN) exchange electronic messages and share documents and data bases. Notes 2.0 also adds support for remote computers which allows users without LANs to exchange mail or share data with other Notes users. Another enhancement is physical encryption of data as it is stored on disk in place of the public key encryption used in Notes 1.0. The new version features enhanced application integration with its support of the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) specification as well as Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to let users create dynamic links between Notes and OLE-supported applications. Mainframes take on role as LAN servers, but slowly. (includes related article on IBM Corp.'s LAN Resource Extension Services/VM) Industry analysts and users contend that further product development is needed before mainframes can be used effectively as servers for local area networks (LANs). IBM Corp only recently has demonstrated mainframe/server products and Unisys Corp plans to announce products that will let its A series mainframes act as LAN servers. Mainframes can be especially useful as data base servers in large companies where users require access to corporate-wide information. Most analysts feel that mainframes can be best used as a tool to help users back up vital files on multiple LAN servers since most microcomputers lack strong backup capability. Some observers contend that mainframes cannot function as well as file servers because mainframe channels are not meant to link a mainframe to a LAN supporting microcomputers. Long access data time due to holding files in cache can be another problem. IBM, Novell finalize NetWare resale deal: IBM will market NetWare and its own LAN server; Novell will offer NetWare versions for IBM Corp and Novell Inc announce distribution, licensing and support agreements that will have IBM marketing Novell's NetWare local area network operating system. Novell will offer a NetWare version for OS/2 as well as a version for AIX running on the IBM RISC System/6000 platform. Novell users will have more access to IBM environments through the company's commitment to OS/2 and through concurrent LAN Server and NetWare support. Novell will be able to increase sales through the new relationship by being able to market to MIS managers through IBM. Users are concerned about IBM's commitment to LAN server in light of the new agreement as well as the seemingly deteriorating relationship between Microsoft Corp and IBM. IBM officials are assuring customers they will continue to enhance and support LAN Server. The relationship will also increase the growth of distributed processing. Users see clear value in image networking. (includes related article on a network manager guide to imaging law)(Feature) Users have hesitated in using image networking technology despite its potential benefits because of low flexibility and expense. Recent trends such as competition between image product manufacturers and lower costs, however, are making image networking more attractive to users. Other factors include the appearance of local-area network-based image management systems as well as more powerful desktop processors. Users are realizing that image systems can save money for companies that handle large numbers of paper documents. Document archive storage requirements are smaller. Productivity is improved due to the reduction of time spent in filing and retrieving documents. Some problems still exist, including the hooking up of local-area imaging networks to wide-area networks. New international image compression standards will offer improved compression, making transmission less expensive. Users lament Tariff 12's inflexibility. (American Telephone and Telegraph) Many AT and T Tariff 12 customers are discovering that regulatory requirements are often delaying incorporation of new services into their custom networks. Some users complain that the quick access to new services and technologies that AT and T promised in its promotion of Tariff 12 has not been forthcoming. AT and T admits that the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) re-filing process, which takes from 45 days to several months, delays the addition of new services for Tariff 12 customers. The carrier contends, however, that it provides Tariff 12 users with these new services ahead of other customers. Some users feel Tariff 12 is not a strategic partnership and cite that some Tariff 12 users must go outside the tariff to get certain services. These problems have played a part in some customer decisions to switch to custom networks from MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Co. Lotus announces proposal for acquisition of cc:Mail: move puts Lotus at top of LAN messaging mart, gives cc:Mail support it needs Lotus Development Corp announces the acquisition of cc:Mail Inc. Industry analysts estimate that Lotus will pay between $20 million and $30 million for the company, a leading supplier of local-area network (LAN) electronic mail systems with sales of $7.5 million in 1990. The acquisition will give cc:Mail added distribution and marketing support and will make Lotus a major supplier of LAN messaging systems. Lotus will acquire the cc:Mail general-purpose messaging system that has approximately 35 percent of the market for LAN messaging systems with its more than 800,000 users. Lotus' own product Notes, a program that allows communications and document-sharing on LANs, will serve the the high-end messaging market, with cc:Mail supporting more of a mass market. Observers contend the two products are complementary but still distinct and one will not replace the other. Motorola unveils wireless Ethernet local net offering: WIN technology reduces cost of node changes. (Motorola Inc.'s Altair Motorola Inc introduces its Altair wireless Ethernet local area network based on Wireless Inbuilding Network (WIN) radio technology. The technology uses 18-GHz signals and can support up to 32 Ethernet devices in microcells 80 feet in diameter. Wireless technology keeps costs down, eliminating the need for implementation and maintenance of network cable. Altair's WIN technology offers a 15M-bps transmission rate and support for the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard. Altair has two components, the Control Module, $3,995, and the User Module, $3,495. The Control Module manages traffic flow within a microcell and connects to either an Ethernet network host system or directly to an Ethernet backbone. The User Module can be linked to up to six Ethernet devices by way of thin-wire coaxial cable. Both of the modules have radio transceivers. MCI switch upgrade widens service options for users. (MCI Communications Corp.) MCI Communications Corp announces major upgrading of its network switches that will give the carrier twice its current capacity and will pave the way for possible advanced services such as fast packet switching, frame relay and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET). The switch upgrade will support T-1 service, which MCI plans to offer in the third quarter of 1991, and may also support switched T-3 services. After completion of the upgrade, each switch's capacity will increase from between 30,000 and 50,000 ports to between 80,000 and 100,000 ports. MCI's network should have 80 switches by the end of 1992, with 75 percent of the switches upgraded to larger port capacity. MCI has completed the upgrade on its switches from DSC Communications Corp as well as one of its Northern Telecom Inc switches. MCI will begin upgrading switches at its other locations in late February 1991. DEC enhances PathWorks, boosts software options. (Digital Equipment Corp.'s PathWorks for DOS 4.0, NetWare Coexistence for DEC announces a new version of its computer networking software, PathWorks for DOS 4.0, priced at $195 per client, which includes support for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and the Network Device Interface Specification. The company also announces version 1.0 of Netware Coexistence for PathWorks for DOS. This new package lets microcomputers run LAN Manager- and NetWare-based PathWorks client services concurrently, allowing for easier access to DEC PathWorks and Novell servers. The software is scheduled for release in Spring 1991 and carries no additional cost. DEC introduces another PathWorks option in TCP/IP for PathWorks for DOS 1.0, priced at $100. In this package, PathWorks uses TCP/IP as a transport mechanism instead of using DECnet. This allows for the use of DEC Ultrix systems as PathWorks servers and lets PathWorks users exchange mail with Unix systems. US Sprint widens ISDN support, upgrades switches: will satisfy growing user needs and cut costs. (Integrated Services Digital US Sprint Communications Co announces plans to upgrade all of its 43 network switches to provide ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) service by the end of 1991. US Sprint now offers PRI from two Northern Telecom Inc DMS-250 SuperNode switches and pays for user access line delivery from any points of presence (POP) to the PRI switches. The decision to upgrade all switches to PRI is a result of increased user demand for ISDN PRI service as well as the expense of providing access to the two DMS switches. User demand for ISDN PRI service is higher than US Sprint expected, with more than 20 companies currently using 42 PRI lines provided by the carrier. US Sprint officials say that offering ISDN will not only cut costs for the company but will also free up network bandwidth for the carrier's Virtual Private Network users. Analysts contend that the two-switch PRI strategy let the carrier easily analyze the market. European firms unite in effort to construct OSI nets. (Open Systems Interconnection) The OSITOP user group, which promotes the use of Open Systems Interconnection protocols, is sponsoring a project that will help establish OSI-based production networks and applications. At least thirteen major European companies will participate in the project to set up a live demonstration of interoperating and interconnected OSI systems among the companies. The project's goals include having the companies using OSI links to conduct their daily business transactions. The group has not yet determined how the companies will be physically linked. OSI protocols that most likely will be used include the File Transfer, Access and Management (FTAM) standard, the X.400 messaging standard and possibly the X.500 directory specification. The group is currently attempting to establish a common set of OSI-based applications that will work with the OSI application-layer protocol. Retailer expands MCI deal, examines global services: Woolworth looks at services for business abroad. (MCI Communications Woolworth Corp signs a new contract with MCI Communications Corp worth $15 million over three years which focuses on global services. The new deal replaces Woolworth's existing $12 million three-year contract. Woolworth will carefully consider using MCI's growing international network services for its expansion of businesses overseas. The company may replace its dial-up and public packet services employed at its international sites with an extension of MCI's Vnet virtual network service. Woolworth may also take advantage of MCI's new Global Communications Service. The new contract has MCI carrying almost all of Woolworth's domestic and international voice traffic nationwide. Woolworth will also expand usage of Vnet as well as use MCI 800 service for its 24-hour consumer help line. The retailer will use MCI's Corporate Account Service and Information Management System. Study identifies keys to good partnerships: year-long study about strategic alliances between large and small firms says flexibility A study from Stockman & Associates Inc indicates that there are several major factors in building successful partnerships between large, established vendors and small or startup companies. Important requirements for success include the aligning of the alliance's goals with the partners' main business objectives, a flexible contract that can change along with market conditions and business objectives, and the management of the partnership at an operational level. These partnerships, which can include agreements for co-marketing and joint development, typically let large firms focus on upgrading their product lines and allow them to present new products without extensive research and development. Small firms usually benefit from financial backing and wider distribution. The study finds that alliances structured mainly with equity are four times as likely to fail than other partnerships. Aspect winning converts in competitive ACD market: late entrance let firm focus on new technology. (Aspect Telecommunications Aspect Telecommunications Corp's recent contract with Fidelity Investments is one more victory for the company which is beating the competition with its Call Center automatic call distributor (ACD). Some observers contend that Fidelity Investments has one of the largest call centers in the Northeast. The company chose the Aspect Call Center because it has more highly integrated messaging and routing capabilities and more options in call processing than competing ACDs. The Aspect Call Center supports almost 1,000 recorded announcements. Most other ACD's support about 60. Analysts point to Aspect's willingness to enter into a strategic partnership as the reason for the success of the Fidelity deal. In these types of partnerships, users can select one or two vendors from which they purchase most of their equipment. Customers are then ensured lower prices and a say in product development. FCC urged to block D.C. regulatory move: users, service providers, industry groups hoe to stop PUC from regulating enhanced services. A group consisting of users, industry associations and service providers is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stop an attempt by the Washington, D.C. Public Service Commission (PSC) to regulate enhanced services. The group contends that, even though a 1990 court ruling stated that the FCC had acted improperly in preempting state regulators, the agency still has the authority to block local efforts for the regulation of enhanced services. Computer III imposed a national policy that providers of enhanced services should not be regulated. The group feels that enhanced service regulation will slow investment in new technology, decrease the introduction of new services and will diminish price competition. They also fear that some companies may artificially restrict the sale of services in areas that regulate enhanced services. AT&T unit offers billing services for hospitals. (AT&T College and University Systems) AT and T College and University Systems (ATTCUS) introduces a new telecommunications service for hospitals that allows the carrier to to assume customer service as well as patient billing, collection and management. Hospitals save money that would be spent on a billing staff and can devote more time to patient care. Patient Telephone Service gives patients a personal security code they use to place long-distance calls during their hospital stay. A minicomputer polls hospital station message detail recording (SMDR) units and charges calls according to a rate schedule preset by the hospital. ATTCUS prepares and sends the bill to the patient and handles all customer service inquiries. This smooths out the problems hospitals can encounter with alternative operator services (AOS) including higher rates. Security codes used with the Patient Calling Service can also reduce toll fraud. AT&T files 15th Tariff 15 custom net arrangement. (American Telephone and Telegraph) AT and T files its fifteenth Tariff 15 deal with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for customer Thomson Communication Services' contract that offers the firm a ten percent discount off total monthly charges for several of the carrier's services. The discount offer is in response to a similar deal offered to Thomson by US Sprint Communications Co. The FCC has never reached a decision on the legality of such deals. The agency is expected, as it has done on previous Tariff 15 deals, to hold up the deal for the maximum time legally allowed and then suspend it for an additional five months to conduct an investigation. Opponents question the legality of Tariff 15 since it allows AT and T to give discounts to a specific customer in response to competition. The Thomson deal is the first Tariff 15 deal to offer discounts on more than one type of service and this is expected to raise even more legal issues. New net mgmt. approach winning fans among users: study says three-tiered method gaining popularity. (Data Communications) A report from International Data Corp (IDC) indicates rapid growth for the emerging multiequipment network management systems market. The report states that there is an increase in the number of users adopting a three-tiered approach to network management. This approach consists of multiequipment network management systems, element management tools for modems and multiplexers and integrated network management products. Multiequipment network management systems control and monitor element management tools. They can also distribute information to a larger integrated network management system. The IDC report singles out two multiequipment network management systems that it believes offers the most functionality. These are Racal-Milgo's Communications Management Series 6000 and Codex Corp's 9800 Network Management System. New York Life girds net against disaster: life insurance company uses diverse routing, redundant circuits to protect net from New York Life Insurance Co develops a fully redundant nationwide backbone network and has completed a disaster recovery plan that gives the company protection from unexpected network equipment failures and service outages. The company now uses both AT and T and MCI Communications Corp services for its long distance traffic. The company's implementation of diverse routing and redundancy circuits protects it against a network failure. AT and T looked at four single points of failure in devising its disaster recovery plan. These included premises facilities, long-haul circuits, the local loop and backbone nodes. The company built extra wiring closets at each premises location and implemented alternate routing in the local loop. The company diversifies the backbone network with the leasing of 56K-bps dedicated lines from MCI and switched 56K-bps service from AT and T to back up the MCI circuits. HLS adds token-ring, net mgmt. support to ProLINC: now supports IBM DLC for Token-Ring Nets. (Hughes LAN Systems' ProLINC LAN Hughes LAN Systems introduces its $595 ProLINC LAN 2.0 connectivity software that includes support for IBM Token-Ring Networks as well as network management capabilities. ProLINC LAN gives DOS-based microcomputer users access to network-attached resources that support different network protocols, including Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), IBM's Data Link Control (DLC) protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) as well as several others. Hughes LAN Systems' multiprotocol driver supports each of the protocols and provides the interface to the network adapter in the user microcomputer. ProLINC LAN allows users to load and unload protocols at random without rebooting the system. This helps in conserving memory in the microcomputer. The 2.0 version of ProLINC LAN is scheduled for an April 1991 release. Hayes LAN designed to be simple to use: LANstep, based on technology bought from Waterloo, supports up to 128 network nodes. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc introduces its LANstep low-end network operating system, a product the company is targeting to small sites that have yet to implement local area networks. The product is based on technology developed by Waterloo Microsystems Inc. LANstep can support up to 128 simultaneous DOS or Microsoft Windows users on Ethernet or Arcnet networks. The package comes with an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for users to manage a network. LANstep also includes an electronic mail feature called LANstep Mail. The operating system is a peer-to-peer network and does not require a dedicated server. The package also offers centralized management and directory services. LANstep is licensed in five-user increments, with the basic five-user license priced at $595. A five-user expansion kit costing $395 is scheduled for an April 1991 release. Women still face hurdles within networking arena: execs offer advice on scaling corporate ladder. (Management Strategies) Divestiture has brought with it many opportunities for women seeking management careers in the communications industry, but experts contend that it will take another decade before the number of women network managers in large firms equals that of men. Women managers in the field say that women need to strive for greater visibility within their companies. Some believe that women actually have an advantage over men with their strong skills in participatory management and consensus building. These attributes alone, however, will not ensure success unless women give themselves better exposure. Women can increase their visibility by joining amd seeking leadership positions in professional organizations. Women also need to sharpen their managerial skills and take advantage of educational opportunities in order to reach top management positions. Nets help firms react swiftly to mart flux: managers called on to provide the infrastructure necessary to speed new products to Many companies are increasingly relying on networks to help them quickly bring new products and services to market to beat competition and increase market share. Networks can enhance these processes by speeding the flow of information among employees and business partners. General Electric Co implemented an international network knowing it would help keep the company competitive in the 1990's by accelerating the development of new products. client/server computing is allowing The Travelers Corp insurance carrier to develop and implement new strategic business applications in four to six weeks instead of the three to five years it takes in the mainframe environment. The company is currently re-engineering its nationwide wide-area network to supply high-speed interconnection between its more than 300 token-ring networks. Travelers is also developing tools for managing network traffic. FCC urged to postpone rule about satellite competition: State, Commerce ask agency to weigh implications. (Federal Communications The US Departments of Commerce and State are requesting that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) postpone a decision on a petition issued by Pan American Satellite Corp (PANAMSAT) regarding a change in the rules controlling international satellite competition. The petition proposes the lifting of a ban preventing PANAMSAT from having its international satellite services linked to the public switched network. This would end the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization's (INTELSAT) monopoly on global public switched satellite traffic. The Commerce and State departments want the matter to be put on hold until the Bush administration gives its position on the issue, which is expected to be sometime before May 1991. Analysts say it is likely the FCC will comply with the request for the delay, although the FCC has yet to announce its answer. Takeover of TRT/FTC to benefit int'l users: acquisition would give Cable & Wireless increased international presence and range of new Cable & Wireless North America Inc announces plans to acquire TRT/FTC Communications Inc for $174 million. The acquisition would give Cable & Wireless Communications Inc, which is owned by Cable & Wireless North America, an increase in international offerings by using TRT's international packet-switching, telex and messaging services, which it provides to over 100 countries. Cable & Wireless currently does not offer any of these services. TRT/FTC's expected benefits include the resources and reputation of Cable & Wireless North America. Between 70 and 80 percent of TRT/FTC's $200 million yearly revenue comes from international services. Cable & Wireless Communications can only offer international switched services by reselling service from other carriers and only 25 percent of its $323 million annual revenue is derived from international services. Process Software releases upgraded TCPware for VMS: new version broadens functions for DEC users. (Process Software Corp.'s Process Software Corp introduces TCPware for VMS 2.2, which offers data base support and distributed programming services features and is available in a modular form. The new features give DEC computer users a wider range of functions and services than are available on DEC's Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) offerings. TCPware 2.2 also includes a set of development tools for remote procedure calls (RPC), allowing users and software developers to create distributed and client/server applications. The package also now supports Domain Name Services, Simple Network Management Protocol, DEC windows and the Serial Line Interface Protocol routing protocol. Process has also added IBM 3270 emulation capabilities. TCPware for VMS 2.2 is priced at $1,000 for a VAXstation 3100. Other prices vary according to system and configuration. The product is scheduled for a mid-March 1991 release. High-powered server is SPARC-compatible: multiprocessor Solbourne server said to offer 20% better price, performance than Sun Solbourne Computer Inc introduces its Series5E/800i high-performance multiprocessor server that the company claims offers more computing power at a less expensive price than a Sun Microsystems Inc high-end SPARCserver. The server comes in single-, dual- and quad-processor models, with the latter two supporting symmetric multiprocessing. In this type of processing, the kernel functions of the operating system are simultaneously executed by each central processing unit (CPU). This balances the server's processing load and substantially increases throughput. Solbourne says that the machine is the only SPARC-compatible currently available that supports symmetric multiprocessing. The Series5E/800i costs from between $74,900 and $450,590 depending on the amount of memory required and the number of CPUs. The machine runs over 2,100 SPARC applications. The FCC should reallocate spectrum to benefit the public. (Regulatory Affairs)(Opinions) The radio spectrum is congested due to overcrowding and the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) inflexible system of spectrum allocation needs to be improved. The FCC is responsible for the assignment and allocation of spectrum to be used by the public. The Department of Defense controls about 60 percent of the spectrum, with much of it in reserve for emergency purposes. Some analysts contend that radio and television should not be broadcast but should be piped into homes by way of fiber or cable. The FCC, however, bows to the pressure of the nation's broadcasters and their political power in Washington DC and refuses to consider this suggestion. Some analysts feel that the agency should allocate spectrum more in relation to the marketplace. They feel the FCC should consider more the benefits to the public instead of commercial business interests. New image buzzwords: JPEG and JBIG. (Joint Photographic Expert Group)(Joint Bi-level Imaging Group) Two new international standards, Joint Bi-level Imaging Group (JBIG) and Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG), deal with the transmission and storage of color and gray-scale image applications. JBIG will be used to compress bi-level images, offering superior image compression over Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) Group III and Group IV fax standards. The JPEG algorithm eliminates redundant data and is known as a 'lossy' image compression technique. It proceeds on a pixel-by-pixel basis and the resulting compressed image is indistinguishable from the original image. JPEG and JBIG are tool kits as opposed to end user standards and will be incorporated into application standards. The final version of JBIG is expected by 1993 while JPEG is expected to be an international standard by the end of 1991. Further details are presented. IBM, Novell pledge to fortify networking bonds: symbiotic alliance a boon to OS/2, a blow to LAN Man. (LAN Manager network management IBM, turning away from LAN Manager manufacturer Microsoft Corp, has agreed to publicly endorse competitor Novell Inc's successful NetWare network operating system. The alliance between IBM and Novell, promoting interoperability, may be a serious threat to LAN Manager's goal of gaining market share. IBM's new corporate policy is attributable to the conflict between IBM and OS/2 development partner Microsoft. The discord was engendered by Microsoft's focus on Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) development and marketing at the expense of the IBM OS/2 Presentation Manager. Novell's NetWare dominates the network operating system market, particularly since 3Com Corp dropped out of the market. Comprehensive pact to boost NetWare on multiple platforms: IBM, Novell pledge to fortify networking bonds. (IBM endorses Novell's IBM will start to resell Novell Inc's popular NetWare network operating system in addition to offering its own competing OS/2 LAN Server software. The cooperative agreement will position NetWare as a key component of the IBM Systems Application Architecture. IBM has been informally marketing the NetWare program to its corporate accounts for two years, but the new agreement is more dramatic and will entail cooperative development efforts to foster interoperability between LAN Server and NetWare. Naming systems and interfaces of the programs may be altered to facilitate application interchange across the two environments. Lotus buys cc:Mail in bid to give Notes a shot in the arm. (Lotus Development Corp.) Lotus Development Corp has acquired electronic mail systems vendor cc:Mail Inc in an effort to revitalize its own Notes network software. cc:Mail's eponymous product will be integrated with Notes work-group software, which is presently inappropriate for low-end users with simple messaging needs. cc:Mail Inc will be purchased for between $30 million and $35 million and will continue to function as a separate component. Novell's acquisition is seen as an alternative method of pursuing its networking systems ambitions, which were stymied by the failure of a proposed merger with Novell Inc. Lotus intends to offer a gateway enabling Notes and cc:Mail users to exchange messages with multiple attachments. HP aims to topple Sun with RISC workstation. (Model 720 reduced-instruction-set computing workstation competes with Sun HP will introduce a new reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) workstation, the Model 720, which will compete against products from Sun Microsystems Inc. The HP computer is scheduled for release in Mar 1991, and it will cost approximately $12,000. The Model 720 diskless workstation will process 57 million instructions per second. Two other high-end workstations are also forthcoming from HP: the Model 730, based on a 66-MHz microprocessor, and the Model 750 tower-style computer based on the same component. The new computers are targeted for users in the computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer-aided design (CAD) areas. Borland C++ 2.0 offers a one-stop Windows shop. (Borland International Inc.'s program development tools for Microsoft Borland International Inc's C++ 2.0 versatile program development software combines Borland tools with development components licensed from Microsoft Corp and The Whitewater Group. The suite of development tools, available in Feb 1991, can be used to create applications for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Borland's product provides better integration among its parts, aswell as better support of large programming projects, than does Microsoft's Programmer's WorkBench. The software runs well, especially in large memory configurations, and includes a built-in assembler for direct integration of fast machine-code sequences. The pre-compiled headers unfortunately consume large amounts of disk space as they produce symbol tables. PC, workstation players moving to MIPS standard. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.) MIPS Computer Systems Inc has enlisted support for its workstation architecture from Compaq Computer Corp, Microsoft Corp, and other large computer industry vendors in an effort to challenge Sun Microsystems Inc in the workstation market. In Mar 1991, a group of hardware vendors, led by DEC, will endorse an MIPS-compliant definition of workstation standards that provides binary compatibility among workstations its goal. Independent software vendors are expected to quickly join in the coalition, which has a strong chance of challenging Sun. Scott McNealy, president of Sun, says that the MIPS group will require time to create a definition and to develop computers that implement it. Microrim shifting Vanguard focus to encompass Windows front end: software to support number of databases. (graphical user interface Microrim Inc has altered the goals for development of its Vanguard software, which was originally intended to be a client/server collection of front-end applications that would be accessible from multiple platforms. Now the company is creating a front end for Microsoft Windows that will read and write to R:base, dBASE, and other data base file formats. Vanguard is expected in 1991 and will support several data base management systems as well, although the products to be supported have not been named. The Vanguard product will be portable to many computer platforms, including DOS, Macintosh, Unix, and VAX/VMS equipment. Intel shows off 100MHz prototype of 486 chip. (80486 microprocessor) Intel Corp has created a prototype for a 100-MHz version of its 80486 microprocessor, although the item is not scheduled for commercial production. Some aspects of the prototype design will appear in 80486 products slated for release in 1991. The prototype features a math coprocessor and 8Kbyte cache, like commercial versions of the microprocessor, but it is half the size of the commercial chips and uses only 30 percent of the power they require. The prototype product could be constructed with a modular design that places critical components such as the second-level cache and cache controller near the CPU. Competition heat up in database-server contest: Oracle, Microsoft rally third-party front-end support to spur sales. (client/server Oracle Corp and Microsoft Corp are engaged in a battle to dominate the data base management system market for client/server architectures. Both companies are relying on third-party data base front-end products to make their own software more marketable. Oracle's Oracle Server and Microsoft's SQL Server can both claim over 60 compatible end-user and programming packages for their environments. The wealth of third-party products is expected to increase sales in the data base management system market, as it will reduce the need for buyers to create their own applications. End-user education and reseller alliances are also necessary for the success of the client/server architecture. Lotus' Improv spreadsheet offers powerful data-analysis features. (Lotus Development Corp.'s software for NeXT Computer Inc.'s Lotus Development Corp's Improv spreadsheet software for the NeXT Computer Inc workstations, priced at $695, is a powerful data-analysis tool that enables users to define and display up to 12 categories of data and restructure the data to reflect changed relationships. Improv uses categories and items as the foundation of its data organization. Categories can appear as rows, columns, or pages. Improv can automatically copy formulas and formats, limiting the chance of user error. Unfortunately, the program is not easy to use, even for veteran spreadsheet manipulators. Improv lacks macros and an undo function, but can accommodate voice annotations to its graphs. Managers demand bottom line on new technology. Eskow, Dennis. MIS managers seeking to implement local area network (LAN) technology in their companies may need to convince skeptical upper management personnel that the equipment acquisition will include a substantial return on investment. In order to do so, information systems managers need to conduct a financial analysis of their company and do a 'post cost' study as well. MIS officers can refer to the corporate accounting office for information on the company's discount rate - the cost of financing applicable to that company - and data on the tax value of the equipment under consideration. Computing the net present value of the project will make financial analysis more useful to management. New Mac Portable offers updated LCD, more memory. (liquid crystal display of the Apple Macintosh Portable) Apple has enhanced its Macintosh Portable computer to include an improved liquid crystal display (LCD) as well as increased memory capacity, yet the overall weight of the computer is still 16 pounds. The backlit active-matrix LCD makes the screen easier to use. The newer version of the portable also includes 2- or 4Mbytes of RAM rather than only 1Mbyte, in order to be able to support the new System 7.0 operating system due in Jun, 1991. The enhanced Macintosh Portable can access up to 8Mbytes of memory when it is configured with RAM cards from third-party vendors. Some analysts are unconvinced that the enhancements will impress buyers. Da Vinci revamps eMAIL with modular design: 2.0 upgrade supports 3rd-party databases. (Da Vinci Systems Corp.'s electronic mail Da Vinci Systems Corp announces the eMAIL 2.0 electronic mail system, to be delivered in Apr 1991. The software is priced at $495 for a 10-user version and up to $1,495 for a 50-user installation. eMAIL 2.0 features support for third-party Structured Query Language (SQL) and non-SQL data bases, which can be used for storing messages. The upgrade also supports hierarchical file folders and allows multiple folders to access a single message on a server. Da Vinci has added a spell checker and search feature to the software. Remote DOS or Windows workstation software is also available for $195 per computer, or $995 for 10 users. DEC enhances Pathworks with NetWare, TCP/IP options. (Pathworks for DOS NetWare Coexistence client/server software enhancement DEC has enhanced its Pathworks for DOS 4.0 network operating system by offering the NetWare Coexistence option, which requires a $195 Pathworks 4.0 license but is otherwise free of charge. The option adds support for Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system in addition to support for the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). NetWare users can now access Pathworks network servers. Equipped with the optional software, Pathworks and NetWare local area networks can use the same Ethernet network and use the resources of both operating systems. Users, while pleased, would reportedly like to be able to manage NetWare in the same fashion that Pathworks is managed. Compaq takes on IBM, adding storage, memory to Systempro: unit expands on-line storage to 20G bytes. (Compaq Computer Corp.'s Compaq Computer Corp announces the Compaq Intelligent Array Expansion System, a disk drive array that expands the Compaq Systempro multiprocessing file server's on-line storage capacity to 20Gbytes. This maximum storage capacity is available if users 'daisy-chain' two expansion units to an eight-bay system containing 2.6Gbytes of storage, expanded to 9.1Gbytes. An array with 2.6Gbytes of storage costs $21,999. Hard disk drives with 1.3Gbytes of storage cost an additional $9,099, and IDA Expansion Controllers are available for $2,999. The storage equipment enables Systempro users to run fault-tolerant applications such as mirroring, duplexing and parity. Programming tools strike Windows chord at Software Development '91. (convention features program development software compatible The Software Development '91 trade show, held in Feb 1991, featured program development tools that are compatible with Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Among the new products were debuggers, development environments and user-interface design programs. Jensen and Partners International Inc introduced a set of compilers for development of Windows applications, including TopSpeed Pascal 3.0, TopSpeed C++ 3.0. and TopSpeed Development Environment 3.0, all priced at $99. Digitalk Inc. introduced Smalltalk/V Windows, a $499.95 object-oriented program development package. Tape-backup programs debut at NetWorld 91. (Mountain Network Solutions and Novell Inc. introduce tape-backup software for local New tape-backup software for local area networks (LANs) was showcased at the 1991 NetWorld convention, where Mountain Network Solutions introduced the Mountain Data Management Software suite that includes FileMan backup software, Connection peer-to-peer communications software, Analysis reporting software, and Tracking cataloging software. Tracking and FileMan are both priced at $1,695 per sever, while Connection costs $695 for 20 users. Novell's NetWare 3.11 network operating system includes an enhanced backup application, Sbackup, that supports over 50 tape drives. The software is based on the B/R Device Interface. ATI's 8514/Ultra Adapter outshines Super VGA performance. (ATI Technologies Inc.'s graphics board) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) ATI Technologies Inc's 8514/Ultra video graphics board, priced at $599 with 512Kbytes of memory and $799 with 1Mbyte of memory, is an excellent product that makes software programs easier to read and more responsive than Super VGA adapters do when operating at the same resolution. The Ultra board provides 1,024-by-768 pixel resolution in up to 256 colors. The anti-aliasing technique for displaying fonts is utilized, giving the board the power to provide sharp, smooth typefaces. Tested against Super VGA boards and the IBM XGA adapter, the ATI board performed impressively, surpassing the VGA products and equaling the speed of the IBM board. Snags stall DOS memory gains. (microcomputer memory management problems) Computer users working with microcomputers based on the MS-DOS operating system have embraced a number of operating-system and memory-management software packages designed to circumvent the infamous DOS 640Kbyte memory barrier. Unfortunately, many of these programs do not work with each other effectively, leading to system crashes and other complications. Conflicts often arise between different memory management programs and between various device drivers. The problems arise when more than one such management program tries to use the same area of memory. Users can sometimes get advice about how to configure their packages from computer bulletin boards, but sometimes the conflicts prove insurmountable. New interface enhances view for Open Plan. (version 4.0 of Welcom Software Technology Corp.'s project management software) (product Welcom Software Technology Corp introduces Open Plan 4.0, an upgraded project management software package priced at $4,200. Open Plan 4.0 features a new, proprietary graphical user interface, Project Executive, that enables users to view and input information in three interconnected formats: the work-breakdown structure; the bar chart and resource-histogram view; and the project network view. Users can switch between formats in order to identify potential conflicts in the allocation of resources. Open Plan 4.0 also includes a screen painter that allows users to design new data-entry forms. ImagePrep for Windows offers wealth of graphics options. (Computer Presentations Inc.'s data conversion software) (Software Review) ImagePrep 3.1 computer graphics software from Computer Presentations Inc, priced at $295, is a valuable program that provides file conversion and screen capturing functions for desktop publishing. ImagePrep can export 13 different file formats, making it easier for artists to work with a variety of graphics programs. The package includes the Optimized Image Compression feature, which minimizes the tendency of graphics images to monopolize disk space. Users can display or save an image in standard VGA palette, and 8-bit palette, or 24-bit color. The program has dithering features, but they are not always satisfying. ImagePrep 3.1 is a powerful program in spite of the fact that it cannot retouch pixels in a small part of an image, but rather operates on the entire image at once. Excel 3.0 users draw up wish list for next upgrade. (Microsoft Corp.'s spreadsheet software) Users of Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software are making their desires known in regard to a future upgrade of the popular software, which has been praised for its graphical and analytical features. Some Excel users are frustrated by limitations in the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) platform's system-resource memory, a 64Kbyte area used to store and maintain graphical components of applications. When the area is filled up, users cannot utilize certain display-oriented capabilities, such as changing the size of a window, although they may have adequate RAM or extended memory. Users would like to be able to print discontinguous ranges, which are ranges of numbers that do not border each other, on a single page. FSX provides first Windows 3.0 telecommunications: version 5.1 helps users manipulate, transfer files and directories. (GetC GetC Software Inc's File Shuttle Xpress 5.1 (FSX), priced at $139.95, is a useful file-transfer software package based on Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. FSX is intuitive and easy to use, and provides improvements over the file manager included in Windows 3.0. The package supports file transfer under DOS and OS/2's DOS-compatibility feature. Transferring directories is simple under the Split Screen option. The test process at PCWeek Labs resulted in transfer times approximately equal to those cited by GetC; a transfer of 30 files totaling over 1.03Mbytes took 32 seconds. Frye package tackles LAN problems. (Frye Computer Systems Inc.'s NetWare Early Warning System 1.1 local area network analyzer) Frye Computer Systems Inc.'s NetWare Early Warning System 1.1 network analysis software, priced at $495 for the first server and $250 for each additional server, is a versatile program that is able to identify and correct problems on Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system. Early Warning System 1.1 supports local area networks (LANs) running NetWare 386 as well as older versions, and can monitor over 50 different NetWare statistics, for example server utilization, traffic level, and disk utilization. The software is easy to install and comes with excellent documentation. An optional voice adapter, priced at $1,350 for AT bus or $1,750 for Micro Channel, sends voice reports to network managers about LAN errors. Eicon bolsters LAN, mainframe, mini gateways. (Eicon Technology Corp.'s LAN Router/400 1.2, SNA Gateway Entry Level software) Eicon Technology Corp's LAN Router/400 1.2 is a new network software program that can connect microcomputers on local area networks running NetBIOS or Novel IPX protocols with the IBM AS/400 minicomputer. In the past, the LAN Router could only support remote connections to the AS/400 through X.25 or Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) connections. The software costs $3,500 but will be available to upgrading users for $100. Eicon also announces SNA Gateway Entry Level software, priced at $195, which enables single users or small groups of MS-DOS and OS/2 users to access IBM host computers via X.25 or SDLC lines. Finally, Eicon is adding native support for Banyan Systems' VINES network operating system to its Systems Network Architecture gateway software. System automatically tracks LANs, WANs from central site. (FSX Inc.'s R-Start network management system) (local area networks, FSX Inc introduces the R-Start network management system, a hardware and software combination that centrally manages local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). R-Start includes the Remote Start Unit (RSU), priced at $1,250; the Remote Console Control System (RCC), priced at $1,450; and the Power Monitor, priced at $399. R-Start components monitor gateways, cluster controllers, file servers and multiplexors. The system can automatically restart failed network devices and can turn networked workstations and file servers on and off. The RSU unit controls device power supply, network security, and network diagnosis. RSU connects to RCC via a communications link. RCC is a DOS program that controls RSU. It also maintains a data base that monitors system configuration, status, and documentation. Lotus upgrades Notes with DDE, remote links. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes 2.0)(Dynamic Data Exchange) (product announcement) Lotus Development Corp announces Notes 2.0 network software, priced at $62,500 for a 200-node license. This work group software with messaging capacities supports Microsoft Windows 3.0's Dynamic Data Exchange protocol. Notes 2.0 features a revised user interface, improved imaging functions, and advanced remote communications and security features. Lotus intends to create an Apple Macintosh version of the program in addition to the current DOS package. Notes 2.0 is designed to benefit remote users, who can dial into a remote local area network to exchange messages, disconnect to work separately, and then re-connect with the network so that Notes can automatically update the server database. Notes 2.0 can run on LAN Manager, VINES 2.0, and NetWare operating systems. Brightwork packages police disparate LAN components. (Brightwork Development Inc.'s LAN Automatic Inventory and LAN Support Center Brightwork Development Inc announces two new local area network (LAN) analysis software packages for Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system: LAN Automatic Inventory (LAI), priced at $695 per server; and LAN Support Center (LSC), priced at $595 per user. The products are utilized together to automatically create a data base of LAN hardware and software. Brightwork's programs keep a record of changes and problems relating to network equipment. When used in conjunction with Brightwork's NetRemote+ communications software, LAI and LSC can incorporate information about remote LANs as well. The central data base created by the programs can continually update the components of each networked microcomputer. Network compatibility: issue for the '90s. (PC Week Labs) (column) Van Name, Mark L.; Catchings, Bill. One of the main focuses of the computer industry in the 1990s will be the issue of compatibility across local area networks. True network compatibility is established if equipment can be easily added to an existing network and successfully used with it without any changes to the network. 'Easy' installation implies simply installing a network adapter and loading network software. If users have to load extensive new software onto existing servers or client computers, the installation fails the compatibility test. Network computers of the future should be able to function as clients and servers. A modest amount of file compatibility is also implied by network compatibility, as is 'a willingness on the part of systems vendors to make their systems work well with today's networking standards.' The graphical Norton Editor 2.0 offers easy, full-screen editing. (Symantec Corp.'s text editing software) (Software Review) Symantec Corp's Norton Editor 2.0 text editor is an effective and easy-to-use product that sports a graphical user interface. Priced at $99, the software product includes two components: the new graphical Norton Editor and the Norton Classic Editor. Both programs can edit any size files and perform split-screen editing of two files. Basic word processing features are included, and the software can be customized to reflect the user's preference in screen colors, number of lines on-screen, and default or replace entry modes. This strong text editor would be more valuable if it could utilize expanded or extended memory. It also lacks an undo function. Microsoft WLO Kit spans Windows, OS/2 worlds. (Windows Libraries for OS/2 Development Kit) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces Windows Libraries for OS/2 Development Kit 0.9 (WLO) program development software, an advanced beta release priced at $150 and available in Feb 1991. Buyers will receive a copy of version 1.0 free of charge when it appears later in the year. WLO software enables programmers to port Microsoft Windows applications to the OS/2 operating system. WLO is comprised of dynamic link libraries that can be included in Windows applications, transforming their application programming interface calls to those appropriate for OS/2. The development software includes features that convert Windows icons to Presentation Manager icons. Legent extends Endevor to DOS and OS/2 PCs. (Endevor for DOS and Endevor for OS/2) (product announcement) Legent Corp introduces two new program development software packages: Endevor for DOS and Endevor for OS/2. Network licenses for each product cost between $5,375 and $26,875, while corporate licenses are priced between $80,625 and $201,562. Endevor for OS/2 has a Presentation Manager graphical user interface. Both of the products are intended to help manage the software development process across platforms when assisted by Endevor Link communications software, which transparently links microcomputers running Endeavor to an Endevor release in a host environment. The two Endevor releases help users to shift software development projects from large systems to the microcomputer level. Pendulum will swing from Windows to OS/2. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, OS/2 operating system) (Up Front) Upcoming developments in the software industry in 1991 and 1992 will be largely dependent upon the future of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and IBM's OS/2 Presentation Manager graphical user interface, as well as other elements of the OS/2 operating system platform. While OS/2 seems to be threatened by the overwhelming success of Windows, developers for the OS/2 operating system should not entirely lose hope, since sales of Windows 3.0 are not great enough to establish it as the dominant desktop operating system. IBM is strongly committed to OS/2, and seems to be planning a major promotion of OS/2 2.0 and Presentation Manager in late 1991. A year later, Notes is better, more affordable. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes) (The Corporate Micro) (column) Lotus Development Corp has done a good job of upgrading its Notes network software, bringing its price down and improving functionality. The program has great potential for enhancing the corporate environment. Difficult to describe, Notes is a communications program that can be used to structure the delivery of electronic messages, to organize data storage and retrieval, and to manage projects in development. However, in order to get the best return on investment, companies need to make a commitment to developing the software to provide extensive linkage and communication between remote sites. Notes can now be bought through value-added resellers, and is available in smaller quantities than the original 200-node configuration. Corporate America needs more 'smartware.' (Risky Business) (column) Corporate computer users should explore the world of 'smartware' software packages, programs such as encyclopedia software and atlas programs that can offer salespersons, market analysts, and investors access to great amounts of information. Many character-based encyclopedia programs are on the market, as are larger CD-ROM volumes and graphics versions. Students can utilize such resources as well. Other versions of smartware give users access to thousands of literary quotations. Some such software programs even allow users to add their own choice quotations to the data base. Israeli businesses roll out contingency plans. (Valley Voices) (column) The Persian Gulf war between Iraq and the American-led allied forces results in the bombing of Israel and US semiconductor companies who have operations in Israel reconsider their strategy. Israel provides many government incentives, a large pool of skilled engineers and access to the European market, all important factors for research and development in the semiconductor industry. However, US semiconductor companies are beginning to question the wisdom in having research and manufacturing operations in a place that is being bombarded by Scud missiles. The incentives that Israel offers are very attractive to those companies and they may learn to adapt to the wartime climate. Compaq commended for bold support initiative. (Changing Channels) (column) Compaq Computer Corp's decision to implement a customer support service is long overdue. The program began in the fall of 1990 with the Integration Partners Program, in which Compaq dealers were cross-trained on operating systems from Banyan, Microsoft, Novell and The Santa Cruz Operation. The initiative is the base of Compaq's new dealer authorization program. Compaq also plans to open up a toll-free customer relations line in Mar 1991 that will provide answers for users with technical and marketing questions. A more complete service for direct support will be available for a retail price of $3,000. Compaq says dealers that have already invested in their own support infrastructure can prosper from the new arrangement by offering services on top of the new customer service telephone support. Cache performance gains overcome buyer trepidation. (disk caches for Microsoft Windows 3.0) Cache memory products greatly increase the performance of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Windows 3.0 works fine on IBM-compatible machines that use Intel's 80386 microprocessor but 80286 machines experience some difficulty in running the graphical user interface. Buyers of disk-caching products mostly agree that the investment is well worth the money. Disk-cache products offer a wide variety of options including the ability to reside in extended, expanded, protected and higher memory, which does not use space in conventional DOS memory. Using disk-cache products in a network environment does present some problems, but users note the increased performance and flexibility is worth the trade off. Caches accelerate Windows 3.0 speed; Power Cache Plus, HyperDisk produce best gains in database applications. (Software Review) PC Week Labs evaluates six disk cache utility programs that increase Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface performance. The programs are evaluated on the basis of their performance under Windows 3.0, their conventional memory usage, their performance under the MS-DOS operating system, their overall compatibility and the flexibility of their configuration options. The widespread usage of Windows 3.0 has made disk caching utilities more popular where once they were limited to users of disk-intensive applications such as CAD programs or databases. Microsoft provides a disk caching utility with Windows 3.0 called SmartDrive, but the program is not particularly fast; all the programs tested outperformed SmartDrive. The Aldridge Co. Cache86 3.51. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) The Aldridge Co's $49.95 Cache86 3.51 disk cache utility program offers users of Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface little or no performance gains, but does take up a minimal amount of conventional RAM. The software includes four separate cache programs that provide support for extended memory cache, expanded memory cache, conventional memory cache and 386-specific extended memory cache. The program has advantages over SmartDrive in that it takes up a minimal amount of RAM memory, which makes a difference when running character-based, memory-intensive DOS applications or Windows 3.0 in real mode. Cache86 takes up 1Kbyte of conventional memory while SmartDrive takes up 20Kbytes. Golden Bow Systems Inc. Vcache 5.06. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) Golden Bow Systems Inc's $69.95 Vcache 5.06 disk cache utility program for Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is only 15 percent faster than Microsoft's standard SmartDrive utility software. The program consists of three programs that create caches in conventional memory, extended memory and expanded memory. The program takes up 8Kbytes of RAM when it is in expanded or extended memory. The Vcache package offers a program to provide caching for floppy drives since the program does not do it independently. The program is well-documented, flexible and reliable but offers only mediocre performance improvement and provides little reason to choose it as an alternative to SmartDrive. HyperWare. Hyperdisk 4.20. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) HyperWare's $69.00 HyperDisk 4.20 disk cache utility software is a very fast program that uses unique techniques to achieve its performance. The program, which uses redundant-write checking and staged writes for hard and floppy disks, had the fastest times of all programs evaluated in two categories and was a close second in a third category. HyperDisk 4.20 includes five different disk cache programs including a generic extended memory cache for use with 386 extended managers, 286- and 386-specific extended caching, an conventional memory cache and an expanded memory cache. The software allows users to configure nearly every aspect of the cache's performance including verification of disk writes and length of write delays. Intelligent Devices Corp. Power Cache Plus 1.25. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) Intelligent Devices Corp's $99.95 Power Cache Plus 1.25 disk cache utility software is the analyst's choice of all the programs evaluated. Cache Plus 1.25 is extremely fast, the fastest on Windows 3.0 graphical user interface data base tests, is compatible with nearly any DOS-compatible device and has several ease-of-use innovations. The program uses DOS-file I/O commands, unlike other disk cache utilities that use device-specific BIOS-level commands. Power Cache Plus 1.25 has no problem adapting for use with Bernoulli Boxes, CD-ROM drives, large non-standard hard disk drives and other device-driver storage options. The software provides many installation options and command-line switches, which can modify the characteristics of its cache. Multisoft Corp. PC-Kwik 2.0. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) Multisoft Corp's $79.95 PC-Kwik 2.0 disk cache utility software package should be used as a replacement of Microsoft Corp's SmartDrive only in write-intensive databases or CAD applications that use the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The program performed sluggishly on read-intensive Windows 3.0 applications, which is surprising given its flexibility of memory use. PC-Kwik 2.0 has the ability to share memory with other applications, either extended or expanded; the memory is lent to other applications as needed and then reclaimed when an application discards it. The program does not provide much control over the inner workings of the cache. Software Matters Inc. Flash 7.06. (Software Review) (one of six disk-cache software evaluations) (evaluation) Software Matters Inc's $69.95 Flash 7.06 disk cache utility software is mediocre and unstable even though the company has gone to great lengths to make the program compatible with the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Fundamental problems still exist and render the software unsatisfactory. Flash 7.06 has many impressive features and options, including an ability to load the program into extended or expanded memory, the ability to support non-standard drives and the ability share memory with other programs that use extended memory. Access to these features is very difficult because of the poorly organized documentation that is provided. Tri-Star leads 33 MHz 486 PC pack; eight low-cost systems perform well; video and hard-disk components vary. (Hardware Review) PC Week labs evaluates eight low-cost Intel Corp 33 MHz 80486-based microcomputers. The microcomputers are evaluated on the basis of hardware compatibility, performance of standard peripherals, expansion capability, price/performance ratio and the quality of the warranty. The price of most 80486-based microcomputers in 1991 ranges from $4,000 to $10,000; all microcomputers evaluated cost around $5,000 in the suggested configuration. The microcomputers perform well as a whole under testing and include brand-name components, despite their lower prices. Each system tested includes an IDE-controlled hard disk and accommodates I/O ports, disk interfaces and video controllers on the expansion bus. EPS Technologies Inc. EPS 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) EPS Technologies Inc's $5,095 EPS 486-33 is a low-cost microcomputer built around the Intel Corp 80486 microprocessor. The system includes a 200Mbyte hard disk drive, Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and a Logitech Inc mouse. The microcomputer, which is a tower unit that provides room for three additional half-height 5.25-inch drives, had performance times competitive with the other machines evaluated. The base configuration consists of three 16-bit slots that are occupied by the video controller, the disk controller and the I/O controller. The machine's system board consists of a new BIOS from Microid Research, which affords the ability to change the wait states on the memory bus. The EPS 486-33 finished with results placing it in the middle of the pack. Low-cost 486 PCs meet buyers speed needs and budgets. Mann, Mary. Buyers indicate that Intel Corp 80486-based microcomputers are powerful and speedy but must carry a lower price tag to be appealing. Buyers are finding it difficult to justify the purchase of an expensive 80486-based machine when technology moves so fast and soon makes current machines obsolete. Lower-priced 80486-based machines are available on the market and cost around $8,000, as compared with around $15,000 for their expensive counterparts. Buyers indicate that service and reliability of low-priced 80486-based machines are comparable to the more costly machines, while the price/performance ratio is substantially higher. First Computer Systems Inc. FCS 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) First Computer Systems Inc's $3,999 FCS 486-33 is a low-cost microcomputer that is based on Intel Corp's 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine is the lowest-priced of all microcomputers evaluated but is offered at this low price at the expense of a slower hard-disk drive, a slower video controller and reduced overall capability. The machine uses a Western Digital Imaging video controller that yielded the slowest performance of all the units evaluated; the controller provides only 512Kbytes of memory, which limits the number of colors to 16 for a 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution. The case, which has potential ventilation problems, is a short tower that has room for two additional 3.25-inch devices and two 5.25-inch devices. The FCS produced results placing it at the bottom of those computers evaluated. Insight Computers. 486-33 ISA. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) Insight Computers' $4,795 486-33 ISA is a low-cost microcomputer built around Intel Corp's 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The microcomputer, which comes with a Microsoft Corp mouse, DOS 4.01 and the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, is in a slim tower case that depends on two fold-out legs for stabilization. The machine includes a 209Mbyte Conner Peripherals hard-disk drive and both 5.25-inch and 3.50-inch floppy disk drives. No problems were encountered during the testing period and the 486-33 ISA did well in compatibility and performance tests. Video performance was not exceptional because the video BIOS commands cannot be done from the fast system-board memory but must be executed from the slow ROMs on the video controller. The 486-33 ISA finished near the bottom of the group tested in overall performance. Micro Express. ME 486-ISA/33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) Micro Express Inc's $4,774 ME 486-ISA/33 is a low-cost microcomputer that uses the Intel Corp 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine features a small footprint desktop case, which has plenty of room for eight expansion slots and two additional half-height 5.25-inch storage devices, and includes a 200Mbyte Maxtor hard-disk drive and both 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy disk drives. The video controller, which is based on the Tseng Laboratories 4000 chips set but carries a Micro Express label, was the fastest of those tested. The 486-ISA/33 experienced no compatibility problems during testing and matched or bettered the performance of other machines tested. Including all factors the ME 486-ISA/33 finishes in the middle of the pack of all computers rated. PC Brand Inc. 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) PC Brand Inc's $4,994 486/33 is a low-cost microcomputer that is based on Intel Corp's 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine is well-built and offers impressive expansion potential for a desktop unit. The desktop unit includes sufficient cooling with three fans, one of which is committed to keeping the 80486 microprocessor cool. Six expansion slots, which accept full-length expansion cards, are free after the video controller and combination disk controller and I/O controller take their slots. The machine has a 125Mbyte Seagate Technology hard disk drive, which slows system performance by 20 percent. PC Brand's five year warranty, which is the longest of all machines tested, includes a 90-day on-site service. The 486/33 finishes near the bottom of all computers evaluated. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc. SAI 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's $4,595 SAI 486/33 is a low-cost microcomputer that uses the Intel Corp 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine comes in a standard AT desktop case and offers good value, though expansion capabilities are somewhat limited. The system board, which comes with eight 16-bit expansion slots, offers only four free slots after the standard configuration; the video controller, the I/O controller and the disk controller each take up one slot while the fourth expansion slot is blocked by external connectors. The microcomputer matched other machines evaluated in performance tests but fell short on compatibility testing. In overall tests the SAI 486/33 earned a rating placing it in the middle of the pack. Tangent Computer Inc. Model 433i. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) Tangent Computer Inc's $4,950 433i is a low-cost microcomputer that is based on the Intel Corp 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine comes in an AT-style desktop case and features three free storage bays after a Quantum 105Mbyte hard disk drive and a floppy drive, either a 3.5-inch or a 5.25-inch floppy, take up two spaces. The system board has a 128Kbyte secondary memory cache and comes with 16 SIMM sockets. The video controller, and Orchid ProDesigner II, matched the performance of other video controllers tested. The 433i performed comparably with other machines tested and did not experience any compatibility problems. The 433i finishes near the top of the pack in overall product value. Tri-Star Computers Corp. Flash Cache 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of eight 80486-based microcomputer evaluations) (evaluation) Tri-Star Computers Corp's $4,895 Flash Cache 486-33 is a low-cost microcomputer based on the Intel Corp 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor. The machine was elected as analyst's choice of the eight microcomputers tested and features a heavy-duty tower case. The large tower case, which has wheels that make it easy to move around, has room for four additional half-height 5.25-inch storage devices; a space, when coupled with the Maxtor 200Mbyte hard disk drive, that provides potential for large storage capacity. The machine comes with a Diamond Super VGA video controller, which has 1Mbyte of video memory, and performed about average when compared to other video controllers tested. The documentation is the best of all the machines tested. Programs tame software-revision cycle; Pansophic's version-control system earns analyst's choice with security, ease of use. PC Week evaluates six version-control system (VCS) software packages that serve as program development tools. The software packages are evaluated on the basis of the quality of their interface, their security under multiuser access, the ease of use, the ease of installation, configuration and administration, and the quality of project-control facilities and reports. VCS software becomes important as the software for microcomputers grows in complexity and size. VCS software tools, which are a sort of librarian program, help microcomputer users manage revisions to program source code. All the programs evaluated are capable of managing multiuser projects on networks with a range of security options. All of the packages support DOS, and all but Burton Systems Software's TLIB support OS/2. Buyers value VCS tracking tool; reliability, security are critical features. (version-control systems) Buyers of version control system (VCS) software packages value the reliability and security these programs offer. VCS software, which assists users in keeping track of updated versions of software, proves to be a valuable tool. It provides a reliable tracking system in an environment were changes are crucial to the operation of a network. Some VCS programs have file-locking capabilities, which are important in a network where several users can get into the same file. VCS programs also provide security for small to mid-sized development shops; network managers can assign certain levels of security for each user on the network. Burton Systems Software. TLIB 4.12. (Software Review) (one of five version-control software package evaluations) (evaluation) Burton Systems Software's $100 TLIB 4.12 version control system (VCS) software is a small and nimble program that provides the fastest times for processing files into and out of libraries. TLIB 4.12 consists of one main program that does the major operations of locking and unlocking library files, producing reports and checking modules in and out. The locking control feature is very convenient and comprehensive; it allows libraries to be locked and unlocked without moving any modules and allows modules to be checked with or without the locking of the library. TLIB 4.12 has a restriction that a locked library can be accessed only by the user ID that applied the lock in the first place. In overall ratings TLIB finishes near the bottom of those packages evaluated. Mortice Kern Systems Inc. Revision Control System 4.3. (Software Review) (one of five version-control software package evaluations) Mortice Kern Systems Inc's $189 Revision Control System (RCS) 4.3 version control system (VCS) software is a program development tool that develops MS-DOS versions of UNIX utilities. The program's control over locking behavior is not ideal since library files do not lock automatically when a module is checked out but must be commanded to do so with a cryptic command. RCS 4.3 provides adequate security under UNIX because it identifies users by their log-in names; security under DOS and OS/2 is less impressive since a user can control their user ID. RCS 4.3 is available in DOS, OS/2 and dual-mode versions. In overall ratings RCS finishes near the bottom of those packages evaluated. Pansophic Systems Inc. Pan Life Cycle Manager 3.3. (Software Review) (one of five version-control software package evaluations) Pansophic Systems Inc's $899 Pan Life Cycle Manager (PAN/LCM) 3.3 version control system (VCS) software is a program development tool that is designed for large programming shops. PAN/LCM 3.3 includes an interface to mainframe library systems and a full password-protected security system. The program was elected the analyst's choice, but only by a narrow margin. PAN/LCM 3.3 outpaces all its competitors in ease of use and convenience; it has a password-protected security system, which is mandatory and requires the installation of a small terminate-and-stay-resident program on each workstation. PAN/LCM 3.3 does have some weaknesses: slow performance in some operations and the lack of flexibility in control over some configuration options. Sage Software Inc. Polytron Version Control System 3.3. (Software Review) (one of five version-control software package evaluations) Sage Software Inc's $495 Polytron Version Control System 3.3 version control system (VCS) software is a program development tool that can implement a password-protected security system with multiple levels of access privileges. Security, which utilizes a terminate-and-stay-resident module on each workstation, is optional. One of the program's most useful security features is an option to reserve certain configuration commands to users with administrative privilege. The program does have some minor operational inconveniences: locking is not automatic and must be requested for each checkout; the full screen interface does not save its settings from session to session and a-more-trouble-than-its-worth editor is called in at every check-in. In overall ratings Sage's product finishes in the middle of the pack. Solution Systems Inc. Sorcerer's Apprentice 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five version-control software package evaluations) Solution Systems Inc's $499 Sorcerer's Apprentice 1.0 version control system (VCS) software is a program development tool that resembles a UNIX utility in its command structure and overall construction. The program, which is entirely command-driven with no prompted or full-screen interface, has several convenient features that makes it a good choice for an environment where strict security is not required. One important feature the program performs is grouping modules. Grouped modules make it easier to execute changes when the same change occurs across several modules. Checking a group out locks out all of the constituent modules, once that group has been defined. In overall ratings the Sorcerer's Apprentice finishes near the top of all packages evaluated. NetWare/X links Unix and NetWare; NCR's version of portable NetWare offers largely trouble-free integration. (Software Review) NCR Corp's $10,000 NetWare/X 1.50.00 network operating system is the first portable NetWare product to be shipped and comes in a quarter-inch tape, which is easier to install than Novell Inc's NetWare 386 network operating system. NetWare/X is NCR's version of Portable NetWare, which is a Novell network operating system that can be ported to Intel Corp 80486-based and reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC)-based minicomputers and mainframe systems. NetWare/X performed poorly when tested with a 80486-based system; the software would probably work better with RISC-based systems. The documentation is excellent for the operating system, but UNIX training is important since the software is running on a UNIX machine. Portable NetWare spans gap between Unix, NetWare, buyers say. (NCR Corp.'s NCR NetWare/X network operating system) NCR Corp's NCR NetWare/X network operating system offers user a practical and cost-effective way to connect microcomputers running MS-DOS to UNIX-based file servers. The network operating system offers the look and feel of NetWare when used exclusively on microcomputer-based networks. Users indicate that NCR NetWare/X is a good way to connect and share resources and peripherals; connecting with UNIX is an added plus. Computer students benefit from the ability to connect their school's UNIX-based systems to a NetWare network environment because it gives them a familiarity with a product that is in great demand. Many schools also have limited resources, which makes it ideal to link various microcomputers to a UNIX file server. Portable NetWare has running start on LM/X. (AT and T's LAN Manager for Unix)(Novell Inc.'s Portable NetWare) Novell Inc's Portable NetWare network operating system gains ground on AT and T's LAN Manager for UNIX (LM/X) network operating system. Both network operating systems aim to convert a microcomputer-based network operating system into a UNIX application but go about it differently. LM/X is based on Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager, which is a product that is in a state of flux; some question its stability while others await new versions including a 32-bit OS/2 version. Portable NetWare is a Novell product, which the software publisher licenses to approved OEMs for royalties and licensing fees. Novell supplies all the source code to the OEM, which assures that it is fully compatible with all versions of the system. Windows lifts client/server databases; version 3.0 offers an amiable client climate to database servers. (includes related Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface offers many possibilities for client/server data base computing. Buyers of Windows 3.0 data base development tools should look at products that provide stable relationships between data, use appropriate data base models, are able to handle the transaction speed needed, capable of supporting file- and record-locking, DDE links and ad-hoc query reporting. Buyers should also note if the product comes from an established vendor, whether royalties must be paid on all run-time applications and whether or not the product follows Microsoft's recommendation in compiling source code. Buyers note that Structured Query Language (SQL) Windows can be a highly useful application. Color printers' graphics convey powerful message; color ink-jet, thermal-transfer printers reduce out-of-house printing. (buyers Buyers of color ink-jet printers and thermal-transfer printers should ask themselves several questions before committing to a purchase but will find that the right purchase will yield a printed page with a powerful message. Buyers need to ask if the printer quality is sufficient, whether appropriate software drivers are included and appropriate hardware platforms supported. PostScript support and the capability of being shared on a network are also important criteria to consider. Other questions include: are service and warranty policies adequate, can it print on different sized paper, are paper and ink volumes sufficient and is it easy to use. Color printing provides easy-to-read graphics and contrasts that are sure to communicate a message more effectively. ComputerLand touts efficiency of central distribution center. Fisher, Susan E. ComputerLand Corp's new 200,000-square-foot distribution center in Indianapolis, Indiana will help the company cut costs and become more efficient. The computer retailer believes that fast and accurate distribution with airtight tracking will become an invaluable sales tool. The center, which was opened in the beginning of Feb 1991, takes the place of four regional distribution facilities. ComputerLand, a $3 billion reseller, struggles to support its 423 franchises as profit margins lower in the computer industry. The new facility gets products into the hands of customers much faster than previous facilities and has an error rate of only 0.02 percent. AST, Dell seen basking in international sales' glow. (AST Research Inc. and Dell Computer Corp.) AST Research Inc and Dell Computer Corp experience strong growth in their international sales during 1990. The US computer makers take a strong market share beside their larger competitors in the international marketplace due to competitively-priced machines. AST's international revenue increased to $191 million in 1990 from only $5 million in 1984. Dell Computer experiences an international revenue of $220 million in 1990 after only entering the international market in 1987. Industry observers note that international trade and business will become a significant source of revenue for the small computer makers in the 1990s. The dominance of the international market by Compaq Computer Corp and Apple Computer Inc is expected to wane. Break free from network-cabling bondage with wireless LANs. (Looking Forward) (column) Wireless local area networks (LANs) can help network managers break free from the hassles associated with cabling for LANs. Wireless technology is an evolving market; one system uses spread-spectrum radio transmission in a bandwidth opened up by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), another is based on infrared light transmission, which works much like the remote control on televisions. A limited number of frequencies are available and competition for these frequencies is fierce. The FCC, in an effort to make frequencies available, introduced the Digital Termination Service (DTS) in 1990, which operates between 18 GHz and 19 GHz. Cutting the LAN cord will become necessary in the future and the development of wireless technology will create a new medium with profound impact. Northern Telecom management takes a global perspective. Titch, Steven; Wilson, Carol. Northern Telecom Ltd has undergone a reorganization in an attempt to develop a more global approach to the provision of telecommunication services. The reorganization created three manufacturing units that will feed into North American, European, and Asian marketing operations. The new structure, which has been adopted successfully in the computer industry, is more customer oriented than the previous organizational structure. Northern Telecom has established four marketing units: Northern Telecom United States, Northern Telecom Canada, STC/Northern Telecom Europe, and Northern Telecom Asia/Pacific. Northern Telecom's goal is to become the world's leading telecommunications supplier. Pac Bell launches major AIN test. (Pacific Bell's Advanced Intelligent Network) Pacific Bell has begun assessing the feasibility of using Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) technology to provide customers with telecommunications services. Thirty to 50 customers will be involved in the testing process. The tests will use a 5ESS switch, 5E6 generic software, and a Signaling System 7 link. The testing program will include an evaluation of Pacific Bell's ability to develop AIN-based services, as well as a simulation of the service. Pacific Bell's objective is to create AIN technology compatible with any vendor's equivalent equipment. The advantages of AIN will include a decrease in Pacific Bell's dependence on vendors, and a decrease in time-to-market for new services. Nynex to close gateway service. Mason, Charles. Nynex's Info-Look information gateway service will be discontinued indefinitely on May 10, 1991. The discontinuation of the service is the result of restrictions imposed on Bell regional holding companies (RHC) by US District Judge Harold Greene. The restrictions have caused RHCs to have problems attracting and retaining customers because they are only allowed to be distributors of information services provided by other organizations. Nynex could neither provide services on the gateway nor control their quality. Green is re-evaluating the restrictions, and his decision may be revealed by summer 1991. The Bell Atlantic way. (telecommunications services) (includes related article) (company profile) Bell Atlantic increased its competitiveness by undergoing a reorganization that involved reducing the management staff and developing an aggressive approach to investment in networks. Bell Atlantic, with 39 employees per 10,000 access lines, has the best employee-to-access-line ratio in the telecommunications industry. The company's investment in switch replacement is beginning to show results. New digital switches are allowing customers to convert quickly to Signaling System 7, making Bell Atlantic a leader in the deployment of custom local access signaling services. Bell Atlantic, which plans to introduce 20 new services in 1991, has restructured its sales force to provide customers with better service. The recession is having a considerable effect on Bell Atlantic's operations, but the company expects to maintain 6 percent to 9 percent earnings per share in the long run. Dissecting the customer base. (Building a Centrex Marketing Strategy) Telephone companies can expand the market for Centrex products by segmenting the market according to criteria other than size. Telephone companies that evaluate customers in terms of their service requirements will find that there is market potential in targeting smaller companies. One way to determine market potential is by understanding the way in which customers evaluate economic value. Potential customers can be identified on the basis of geographic location because Centrex costs are based largely on the distance from the central office. Potential Centrex customers include governments, banks, colleges, and hospitals. The RHCs learn their ABCs. (Bell regional holding companies) (Building a Centrex Marketing Strategy) The Bell regional holding companies (RHC) are learning that proper positioning is just as important as cost when marketing Centrex products. The RHCs are differentiating Centrex from PBXs by positioning Centrex as a networked service, and they are developing customized applications for customers. BellSouth Services, for example, is becoming more customer-oriented by identifying the needs of governmental, educational, and medical customers. The popularity of Centrex in lower line sizes is increasing, and the RHCs are using agents to attract organizations with fewer than 100 lines. Effective market positioning strategies can help telephone companies become competitive in the Centrex market. Georgia has ESSX service on its mind. (Georgia Department of Administrative Services) (Building a Centrex Marketing Strategy) The Georgia Department of Administrative Services is using Southern Bell's ESSX telecommunications service because it offers more benefits than PBX service. The advantages of ESSX service include competitive prices, flexible prices, contract renegotiation options if other customers' prices decrease, and the availability of such features as voice messaging and automatic call distribution. The overall level of ESSX service has been good, but some problems exist. The Administrative Services Department must write its own computer programs and use its own mainframe during the billing process, and some of the switches in the system are incompatible. New switch refuels Centrex at DFW airport. (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport) (Building a Centrex Marketing Strategy) Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, which has been using GTE Southwest's Centrex telephone service since 1974, has increased the service's functional capabilities by replacing the old switch with a Northern Telecom DMS-100 digital switch. DFW airport wanted to add features to the existing service without switching to PBX service, which would have required the use of more equipment and personnel. Over 10,000 Centrex lines provide the airport with such features as station message detail recording, ring-again capabilities, and improved communication among departments. The airport's Centrex service is less expensive than PBX service because GTE handles the maintenance problems. Using computer engineering to mimic the movement of the bow: researchers are trying to capture the complexity of musical The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Laboratory attempts to capture the subtleties and complexities of musical information on computer. Researchers at the Media Lab uses a Sun Microsystems workstation that controls a grand piano and 64 music synthesizers. The research aims to find new ways to compose, play and record music. Computerized synthesizers have been unable to match the flexibility and fullness of musical instruments in the past, but the Media Lab is using more sophisticated computer-based technologies that hope to reproduce the nuances of a live musical performance. The lab focuses on imitating gestures, or the subtle component in musical performance that makes each performance different. Networld: the talk is of strategic partnerships. (The Executive Computer) (column) The Networld 1991 trade show reflects a growing trend in the computer industry, where strategic partnerships are forming in a wide range of markets. IBM announces that it will begin supporting Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system, versions of which Novell is developing for IBM's midrange systems and high-end microcomputers. The network operating software will run on top of OS/2 and the AIX-UNIX operating system; IBM is working on altering the software so its LAN server network operating software runs seamlessly with Netware. Rival companies indicate that the Novell-IBM alliance is good for the computer industry. Buying a personal computer: the choices can be daunting. (includes related article on repairing microcomputers) Consumers face many choices in buying a microcomputer in the early 1990s. IBM-compatible microcomputers offer the most complex choices and Apple Computer Inc microcomputers offer less. The foremost concern for consumers is the microprocessor: it is the heart of a computer and might limit certain software applications if it is not powerful enough. Buyers should take their software with them shopping and test a microcomputer to see if it has adequate power for their applications. Buyers should also consider internal memory and hard disk storage capacity. Other choices include the graphics card and the screen. Consumers can shop for microcomputers by going to a retail store, ordering via mail order or buying from a small assembly shop. Bridging a gap for blind PC users. Computer makers and software publishers are creating new products for visually handicapped microcomputer users. One software program allows blind persons to choose between on-screen icons or menus, reading images aloud. Some observers express concern that the fast pace of technology will further disadvantage blind people, but companies such as IBM are working to make advanced technology available. Software developers face obstacles in making programs available to the blind because the current trend is towards graphics-based representation. Translating words on the screen to synthesized speech is less daunting a task than translating icons into synthesized speech. CD-ROM production power! (Meridian Data Inc.'s CD Professional for manufacturing CD-ROMs in-house)(includes related article on CD-ROM CD Professional from Meridian Data Inc of Scotts Valley, CA, is a microcomputer-based device for storing data on and manufacturing compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). The system, base-priced at $93,195 with a 600Mbyte hard-disk drive, breaks new ground in making it affordable for companies to publish their own CD-ROMs in-house. CD Professional eliminates the need for sending data to an outside mastering facility, which often charge $1,500 per CD-ROM. The low cost of manufacturing with CD Professional encourages prototyping and thus allows for the development of better applications. CD-ROM offers a way to store thousands of pages of data in a compact, easily accessible form. Meridian Data has installed about 100 CD Professional systems. Take control of your PC assets. (microcomputer censuses) Francis, Bob. Taking a periodic microcomputer census of a business improves network management, maintenance and control of software upgrades. Senior managers are more likely to approve of micro purchases if they know what they already have. Third-party maintenance firms want to know what equipment they will have to maintain before negotiating a contract. Some MIS managers find all sorts of odd hardware and software in their censuses. CA-Netman, the Micro Resource Manager, from Computer Associates International Inc, helps MIS managers with inventory tracking, configuration management and other aspects of their jobs. PC Census from Hanover, NH-based Tally Systems Corp automatically reads and prints out a microcomputer's complete hardware and software configuration. PC software moves upscale. (microcomputer-based software ported to minicomputers and mainframes) Lotus Development Corp and WordPerfect Corp are among the microcomputer software firms porting their software to minicomputers and mainframes. Telemarketing firm Meyer Associates Inc of St. Cloud, MN, uses WordPerfect on an NCR Tower 650 running Unix. National Semiconductor Corp runs Lotus 1-2-3M on a mainframe computer, making it easier to service the 2,000 1-2-3 users at the firm's Santa Clara, CA, facility. Using 1-2-3 on both microcomputers and a mainframe reduces the cost of application development. Many companies, tired of the poor functionality of their old minicomputer-based word processing software, want to switch to software developed for micros and ported to minis. Wireless LANs cut cabling hassles. (local area networks) Bunker, Ted. Proponents of wireless local-area networks (LANs) say that under the networks, users can move their computers around without the need for an army of technicians pulling and laying down cable. Big vendors such as Motorola Corp, Apple and NCR Corp are entering the wireless LAN arena, with Apple expected to seek Federal Communications Commission approval of a radio transmission system. Wired LAN user have been put off by the slow speeds of early wireless LANs; however, acceptance should grow as the technology improves. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer's (IEEE) 802.11 committee is writing wireless standards. New muxes deliver low-cost data. (network access multiplexors for T1 networks) More and more low-end T1 multiplexors are entering the market. Also called network access multiplexors, the devices range in price from $3,000 to about $20,000 and support both 1.544M-bps T1 and 64K-bps fractional T1 service. The network access multiplexors, typically purchased by firms with just one T1 line, replace modem links, PBX analog links and low-speed digital links. T1's popularity has grown since AT and T cut its prices on the service in 1989. Some of the new network access multiplexors are the $3,000 6250 from Codex Corp, the $5,000 Route-24 from Telco Systems Network Access Corp and the $4,000 3140 from Canoga-Perkins. New tools to integrate the office. (includes related articles on office automation at Ogilvy and Mather and IBM's fading Business people want the equivalent of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), integrated financial management applications and automated materials requirement planning (MRP) software to run offices. While HP, DEC, Data General Corp, AT and T and others are all about to ship or have shipped next-generation office integration software, IBM has again delayed Version 2.0 of OfficeVision. If exploited properly, the new office integration software can re-engineer the office. Office integration software needs to have a common look-and-feel across multiple platforms. Rather than simply automating traditional office functions, the new software aims to improve workflow and take advantage of imaging and other technologies. Inside IBM's SystemView. (IBM's system management strategy under SAA) (includes related articles on open systems at IBM and early IBM is using SystemView to incorporate networking into mainframe-based corporate computing. IBM debuted SystemView in Sep 1990 as its systems management strategy under Systems Application Architecture (SAA). With SystemView, IBM aims to put systems management functions under one framework with a common graphical user interface and common user access (CUA). SystemView has three 'dimensions.' The application dimension will integrate and manage systems management applications. The data dimension will maintain all systems-management data in a common database repository. The end-user dimension will include a common user access (CUA) for all platforms. Full-blown SystemView installations are not expected to be in operation before 1994. A kinder, gentler EDS? (Electronic Data Systems Corp. pursues outsourcing contracts) (company profile) MIS outsourcing is one of the few fast-growing segments of the information technology industry today. Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) of Dallas plans to capitalize on that trend; however, it faces stiff competition from such newcomers as DEC, IBM, Computer Sciences Corp, Andersen Consulting and smaller firms. In 1990, EDS reorganized into 39 strategic business units, the better to serve vertical markets such as transportation and telecommunications. EDS, which posted $5.5 billion in revenues in 1990, now has 60,000 employees in 27 countries and more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in cash reserves. EDS has invested heavily in such firms as Hitachi Data Systems Corp and ASK Computer Systems Inc in order to stay abreast of new technologies and to enter new markets. Many MIS managers see business-hungry EDS as a threat. A Windows alternative. (Geos graphical user interface from GeoWorks Inc.) Geos is a $195 graphical user interface (GUI) from GeoWorks Inc of Berkeley, CA, that runs on Intel 80286- or even 8088-based systems. Geos is aimed at users who want the convenience of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface but are unwilling to buy the pricy hardware that Windows requires. Geos faces two uphill battles: it must compete against the Windows/Apple Macintosh onslaught, and almost no applications have been developed for it, save by GeoWorks. GEOS takes up less than 100Kbytes of memory and emulates the Open Software Foundation's Motif GUI. Geos' minimum requirements are an IBM PC XT with 512Kbytes of RAM, video board and 3Mbytes of free hard disk space. Geos comes bundled with the GeoWorks ensemble, a suite of applications that includes a word processor, calendar/scheduler, communications software and address book/automatic dialer. Supercomputers: big bank, big bucks. (includes related article on performance measurements) (buyers guide) The Data Analysis Group of Georgetown, CA, predicts that the supercomputer market will grow 21.7 percent annually through 1993, while sales of parallel-processors will grow 64.4 percent annually over that period. Most supercomputers are optimized for vector processing. Most supercomputers are moderately parallel, with two to eight processors; the relatively new massively parallel systems can have thousands of processors. At the low end of the supercomputer market, workstation servers provide 100 MFLOPS performance. The most expensive supercomputers to buy and run are from Cray Research Inc. Supercomputers are often run on time-sharing networks. Supercomputers can solve complex problems that would be otherwise insoluble. A list of supercomputers, manufacturers and prices is included. Ruling on computer screens seen as victory for Japanese. (Department of Commerce rules on dumping investigation) In an announcement that is seen as a victory for Japanese manufacturers, the Commerce Department released the results of its preliminary investigation into the dumping of flat panel displays onto the US market by foreign producers. It found that, although there were indications that dumping has occurred, the price differences were relatively modest. High dumping margins could have led to higher computer costs for domestic manufacturers, who maintained throughout the investigation that domestic screen manufacturers did not produce the types of products needed. The decision is also seen as a major blow for the domestic manufacturers of computer screens who had hoped that sanctions against Japanese producers would follow any decision in their favor. The preliminary ruling stated that Japanese companies were selling screens at only 4.6 percent below fair market value. NEC sets drive into Europe to sell PCs. Schlesinger, Jacob M. NEC Corp plans to enter the European computer market in 1991. The move by Japan's number one computer maker is an attempt to penetrate markets outside of Japan, an effort that has been hitherto futile. NEC controls more than 50 percent of the Japanese market but has less than three percent of the U.S. market. NEC hopes to become a leader in the German computer market, the largest in Europe, and believes it can achieve market share leadership by 1994. Industry observers note that the European market is becoming extremely competitive as U.S. computer makers move in to offset a saturated U.S. market. NEC hopes to start in Germany, where it already has a good business in printers and monitors, and then move out to other European countries including France, Italy and Spain. Commerce agency says display screens from Japan are being dumped in U.S. (U.S. Commerce Department) The U.S. Department of Commerce alleges that Japanese companies are dumping display screens on the U.S. computer market. The Commerce Department states that the display screens, which are used on laptop computers and electronic notebooks, are being sold in the U.S. at less than their home-market prices. The U.S. government recommends that Japanese companies pay anti-dumping duties including a modest duty of 4.6 percent for Sharp Corp display screens, a 1.46 percent duty for Toshiba Corp products and a 2.33 percent duty for the displays of several other Japanese companies. The ruling is seen as a partial victory for U.S. makers who petitioned the Commerce Department to investigate the dumping. IBM leaps to rescue BR from Atlantic crash. (British Rail) Collins, Tony. IBM rescued British Rail (BR) from financial problems caused by the collapse of Atlantic Computers but is not providing help to smaller mainframe users. BR is one of IBM's largest users in Great Britain with Es9000-620 and 3909-500 mainframes. The company also upgrades its software regularly. IBM paid Atlantic's administrator for privileged access to detailed information on user leasing contracts and received official approval to approach users. ICL signs fulham boss to run ICSL subsidiary. (Ken Mander to run ICL subsidiary ICSL) ICL Inc appointed former Hammersmith and Fulham information technology (IT) director to manage the facilities at its ICSL subsidiary. Hammersmith's appointment is part of a deal that transfers four local govenment facilities management contracts from Hammersmith and Fulham to ICSL. ICL's public sector facilities management business is over 20million pounds sterling per year. The Fujitsu subsidiary purchased a 75 percent interest in the CFM facilities management company, which runs five computer operations. ICSL will be renamed CFM and will assume responsibility for running IBM, Bull and McDonnell Douglas hardware and ICL equipment. ISDN applications get the green light. (integrated services digital network) British Telecom (BT) made a firm commitment to integrated services digital network (ISDN) technology and demonstrated a prototype videophone and systems for accessing a database of images. Several companies were awaiting BT's move and are ready to deliver ISDN applications. ICL Inc is now selling its Desktoop Conferencing package that ties microcomputers together and provides voice and data communications. The first data communications products provide an alternative to leased circuits; ISDN allows users to pay for actual sessions, rather than for the entire year. How to get that lean and mean look about you. (departmental efficiency) Budget pressures are forcing efficiency and tight spending on information technology (IT). Justifying IT expenditures can be difficult; the only successful conclusion drawn by comparing IT expenses against IT effectiveness is that less successful companies spend more on IT. Only 11 percent of 400 British companies surveyed had successful IT, although 67 percent thought they did. Personnel issues, such as good manager-employee relations, become a factor in increasing productivity without more money. Customer-service becomes more important and the drive for a competitive edge is keener than ever. IT can help eliminate jobs through computerization. A Computer Weekly Management Programme in London on Apr 8, 1991, will focus on managing IT during a recession. The law learns to cope with new technology. Holt, Jerry. The law is in its infancy as far as the computer industry is concerned. Software copyright issues are still being decided. Several hardware companies have discovered that their liability insurance is cheaper if they establish an acceptable set of terms and conditions, many of them simply copy those of their competitors and never change them. Any standard set of terms needs to be reviewed on a regular basis, at least every two or three years, to be effective. The legal profession has not shown the expertise to handle matters for the computer industry, if your company has a good relationship with a lawyer it is worth nurturing. Lawyers with their own computer law departments have a bright future. Measuring up a PC's performance. Barrett, David. Benchmark tests are playing an increasing role in microcomputer purchase decisions. Benchmark testing has always been controversial, especially among manufacturers whose products do not measure up to the performance criteria. Some tests are clearly too technical for the needs of the average buyer. Computer Weekly benchmark tests measure disk i/o, processsor performance, the performance of the graphics adaptor, and how all areas combine in a real situation. The tests are designed to be of use to both corporate buyers and manufacturers. Does the 486 give value for money? (comparison of 80286- 386SX- and 80486-based systems) Four 80286-based microcomputers, three 386SX-based systems, and three 80486-based systems are evaluated and compared to see whether the 386SX processor really provides better performance than a 286 machine and whether the processing power of the 486 is really worth the price. There was a great similarity in the performance of all the computers, regardless of processor, except for the AST Premium 486/25. This machine's 486 processor, combined with a proprietary disk cache system, produces phenomenal performance. The Qubie 386SX had particularly disappointing results. The Prism 286 system outperformed all of the 386SX systems tested. The 486-based machines excelled at calculations, due to their built-in math co-processor. How royal mail bosses learn it. (Royal Mail Information Systems) Whyte, Gemma. Royal Mail Information Systems won the gold award in the seventh annual Computer Weekly training awards. The awards are meant to encourage the development of well-thought-out training schemes for information technology (IT) skills in non-IT companies, and to change the image of training. They also aim to identify excellence in IT training and demonstrate its connection with improved performance. The Royal Mail is a 350-year-old division of the Post Office Corporation. Its main activity is sending and delivering letters. Text retrieval tested in court. (text retrieval specialists are concentrating on ease of use and integration) Text retrieval systems have been confined to special applications, like industrial databases or libraries, but advances in the technology are bringing recognition in data processing. Basic problems were solved by system integrators using text retrieval engines to handle text in larger systems while text retrieval specialists concentrated on making their systems easier to use and integrate. Most text retrieval systems are used in specific applications that tailor search facilities through the use of a thesaurus. Hypertext incorporates the ability to build logical links into a database and the addition of phonetic searaching to find words where the spelling is uncertain. The prosecution in the Guiness trial used the Catchall system to search the trial's mass of documents in a variety of ways in a matter of seconds. Unisys beats IBM to battery market. (Unisys Powerport battery-operated portable computers) (product announcement) Unisys beat IBM to the market with a battery-powered portable computer. IBM was hampered with component sourcing problems that delayed the introduction of its L40 SX by a month. The Unisys Powerport computers are based on Intel's 386SX and DX microprocessors. They weigh 9.7lbs and feature monochrome VGA liquid crystal displays that use 32 grey shade to emulate color images. The PP 386-SX1 costs 3,950 pounds sterling, the PP 386-DX1 lists for 5,900 pounds. IBM is blaming a shortage of vital components for the delay of its 80386 SX-based notebook computer. UK firm claims a Windows 32-bit first. (Computers Unlimited distributes Caere's Omnipage 386 optical character recognition Computers Unlimited, a UK distributor, is touting Caere's Omnipage 386 optical charaacter recognition (OCR) program as the world's first 32-bit Windows 3.0 application. The program runs five times faster than 16-bit programs. The systems requirements for the product are only 16-bit products. It runs on 80386-based microcomputers with 4Mbytes of RAM, DOS 3.1, Windows 3.0 and 8Mbytes of hard disk space. Omnipage 386 is priced at 595 pounds sterling. Industry breaks academia's games record. (BCS Programming Competition) Programming teams from industry and commerce broke the academic world's domination of the BCS Programming Competition by capturing four of the six heats in the event. Five of the 11 finalists will be from outside the academic world. The competition provides an opportunity to tackle programming tasks in a realistically simulated commercial environment. The finals will be April 6, 1991, at British Aerospace near Preston, Lancashire. Off-shoots spring up in the north west. (BCS Software Quality Management specialist group established in north west England) The BCS Software Quality Management specialist group is establishing a regional branch in northwest England. The first meeting is in Altrincham in early Mar 1991. This is the fourth sub-group formed in the last 16 months. Enthusiasm for specialist topics is strong enough to support the regional events; meetings are usually in London. The inaugural meeting will test local interest and support. New boss for IBM Canada. (Bill Etherington) Slofstra, Martin. IBM Canada has chosen a new president and CEO, Bill Etherington, a native of Exeter, Ont. Etherington is known as a doer, an executive who focuses on the execution of plans. Etherington replaces John Thompson who has taken the position of vice-president, marketing and service, in New York. Etherington has been a career IBM employee, beginning at IBM Canada after graduation from the University of Western Ontario. Etherington has seen IBM undergo many changes while he moved from one position to another in the company, giving him the job variety that he was lucky to get. In retrospect, he views the 1960s as a growth period for IBM, followed by the ups and downs during the 1970s. In 1985, there were big changes in the industry, as the market turned away from products to solutions, from mainframes to end-user systems. Microsoft denies OS/2 withdrawal. Eastwood, Alison. Microsoft Corp denies that it is planning to eliminate OS/2 and focus exclusively on the development of a Windows-based platform. A report in the Wall Street Journal in Jan 1991, claimed that it would drop the platform that it developed in collaboration with IBM. Microsoft states that the company believes strongly in OS/2, but could not disclose future plans. A spokesperson for the company promises announcements in regard to the platforms, and confirmed that Windows would be made available on the OS/2 platform. Reaction to OS/2 has not been overwhelming since it was introduced in 1987, and only 16 percent of Canadian organizations are operating with an OS/2 environment. UniForum '91: Unix vendors finally deliver. Leibovitch, Evan. The 1991 UniForum, the largest Unix show in the world, offered an opportunity for vendors and software developers to introduce many products that had only been talked about in previous years. The show was considered the most successful yet, with an 18 percent increase in attendees. The new Unix System V 4, an amalgam of AT and T Unix and Berkeley Unix, was incorporated into the products being shown at the booths of some of the 301 exhibitors. Two companies, UHC and Dell Computer Corp, are shipping a version of Release 4 designed for machines based on the Intel 80386 processor. H-P and IBM will both migrate their own systems' Unix variants to OSF/1. Unix has proved helpful to the Japanese computer industry, since it makes it easier to sell computers to the European and American markets. In conversation; Mark Skapinker; Derlina Technology Inc. (includes related articles on Mark Skapinker and Derlina Technology Inc.) Mark Skapinker, co-founder and Pres of Derlina Technology Inc, believes that forms processing should be controlled according to the size of the corporation, and that it is now being integrated in an overall information strategy for many companies. Forms processing is a good complement to client-server architecture, since costs are reduced as forms processing is reduced. Every business uses forms as a means of communication. Positioning and market share are important for success, and Derlina Technology's initial goal was to become a market leader in the forms processing industry. Skapinker predicts a convergence of the imaging, forms processing and electronic data interchange markets. Claris' latest version of MacDraw Pro shipping in spring. (Claris Canada's MacDraw Pro desktop publishing software) (product Claris Canada's MacDraw Pro computer graphics software for desktop publishing may expand the company's market share while keeping its large installed base of users intact. MacDraw Pro provides 100 new enhancements, targeted for the layperson and the professional illustrator alike. New features include 32-bit color, an eyedropper tool, an enhanced polygon and bezigon tool, easily selected color, gradients and patterns, and a spelling checker. The package is expected to do well because of the interest in the Mac Classic. MacDraw Pro, priced at $529, will begin shipping in the spring 1991. An upgrade can be purchased for $129. Ribbon-cutting robot opens IT complex. (Information Technology Research Centre) The official opening of the University of Toronto's newest research facility was celebrated by a robot using an electronic glove to cut the ribbon. The $9.1 million building is the departments of computer science and electrical engineering, as well as the Information Technology Research Centre and the Computer Systems Research Institute. The building is a state-of-the-art facility, housing some of the best information technology worldwide. The new building is named after David Lawrence Pratt, a former University of Toronto civil engineering graduate who died in 1969. The building was made possible by a bequest from Pratt through his widow. City tree program branching out thanks to this system overhaul. Eastwood, Alison. The City of Toronto's Parks and Recreation Department keeps track of 90,000 trees growing on over 550 miles of streets by installing a new computer system. The old system was not powerful enough to administer the approximately 12,000 service requests, 6,000 permit applications and the planting of 4,500 trees annually. The department, with a staff of five, found itself unable to manage the mounting paperwork and communicate adequately with a field staff of 80 employees. The old forms had to be converted into the new system. The new system, which runs on the city's Amdahl mainframe and a network of IBM PS/2s, is based on Cincom's Supra database, incorporating the ad-hoc query tool Spectra and other software, such as Harvard Graphics. Bank's new IPS geared to maturing, buying baby boomers. (Investment Product System) Baby boomers are moving from active borrowing to informed investment, as the average Canadian approaches the age of 35. By the year 2000, the number of 40 year olds will be approximately 13.2 million, and Retired Savings Plans and Guaranteed Investment Certificates will become a more important part of banking business. The Bank of Montreal has developed a new Investment Product System which improves customer service with online access to investment information. The software chosen was developed by Computrol Inc, the developer of the Investment Deposit System Plus. Any type of investment or deposit plan can be managed with this system, which was customized to accommodate Canadian pension and tax regulations. Video offers solid intro to LANs. (local area networks; Anderson Soft-Teach's training video) A good introductory course for managers and end-users is Anderson Soft-Teach's training video called 'Introduction to Local Area Networks,' designed for classroom or for self-study. The tape consists of one- to two-hour video training sessions and can be viewed in three easy learning sessions. A basic knowledge of computers and computer terms is assumed. No microcomputer or special software is required. The introductory section covers basic LAN concepts, such as file servers, LAN structures, file and record locking and passwords. The second part gives a wider view of linages to larger computer systems and networks. A glossary is included in the guide. IS now forced to develop 'soft' skills. (information systems) McKague, Anne. The role of the chief information officer is changing towards issues of leadership and personal effectiveness, according to a report prepared by the Andersen Consulting group. Technology and operations concerns dominated from 1986 onward, but an ever-increasing interest in people concerns have evolved. IS executives are taking on more strategy-making functions, made with slimmer resources to back them up. Because resources are slim, IS executives are focusing on developing their 'soft skills,' or personal skills among technical staff. Staff is encouraged to attend courses in communications, management and leadership skills. Computer Associates commits to Unix; customers ask for and will get Unix versions of CA software. (Computer Associates Computer Associates International Inc (CA) will enter the Unix market, joining the Open Software Foundation and Unix International. In addition, CA will co-develop open systems software with HP. The move to Unix is part of CA's Computing Architecture for the 90s strategy, integrating applications across software products, hardware platforms and operating systems. Customers have motivated CA to move to Unix, asking for Unix versions for existing CA packages, such as IDMS and Datacom. In the past, CA had been well-known for its proprietary systems. CA officials deny that its entry into the Unix market is a token one. Progress Software bucks the trend; company sees control of revenue growth as key. Progress Software Corp (Bedford, MA) reaches the $40-million mark, bucking the downward trend other software publishers in the market are experiencing. With nearly a 60 percent increase over fiscal 1989 results, the company reports that return of average shareholder equity in FY 1990 was among the highest for suppliers of database and applications development software. The company attributes their success in part to their focus on who their target markets are. Other companies grew too wide, too quickly, according to company officials. The database and applications development market is still growing. Co-operative processing: on the cheap. Guy, Ed. Co-operative processing can be done less expensively if a company is using microcomputers as terminals linked to a mainframe. Back up the microcomputers to the mainframe, then to the off-site backup service. Items from the mainframe database can be incorporated into word processing documents on the microcomputers. Users can print to a host-connected printer. Facsimile messages can be sent from a word processing package, or from an electronic mail system, if a microcomputer facsimile box is included. Files can be transferred from one microcomputer to another on the system or anywhere. A high-end microcomputer is not needed. HP rounds out CASE strategy with Cognos tools. (computer-aided software engineering) HP is making its HP CASEdge strategy available for commercial applications for the first time, taking third-party vendors such as Cognos under its wing. The strategy is targeted at giving value-added resellers and end-users a variety of open-systems computer-aided software engineering (CASE) solutions from both third-party vendors and H-P. CGI Systems Inc, Softlab Inc and Cognos Corp will provide three integrated CASE packages, supporting new code development, and enabling existing code for the HP 3000 PA-RISC and HP 9000 to be ported. The third-party vendors' packages such as PACLAN and PACBASE from CGI and Maestro II from Softlab do not integrate with one another at the present. Decision support system speeds up MRP II; time, money saved with offering from Kanata-base start-up. Carp International Corp's decision support system CARP, for Computer-Assisted Resource Planning, includes a hardware engine and a database manager. The company believes that the system has brought manufacturing resources planning (MRP) to a new level, offering users the ability to increase productivity. CARP can also integrate with any MRP II software so that users can schedule more efficient production runs. John Deere Ltd and Compaq Computer Corp are among the company's customers. The CARP system extracts a set of data from the host MRPII database and downloads it into a file. Then CARP explodes the MRP/Capacity Requirement Plans, allowing planners to analyze the labor and material impact resulting from changes. Contact management firm to share its services; The Last Byte says distribution route is too expensive. The Last Byte Inc is distributing its Fon-Fon: The People Base, a contact management software package, through shareware, offering prospective buyers a free evaluation version of the software. Fon-Fon will be available for downloading from selected bulletin board systems around the world. The main sites for Fon-Fon are CompuServe Information Service and Canada Remote Systems. Look for the file name FON.ZIP, requiring PKWare's PKUNZIP program to unarchive. Fon-Fon includes a central phone book screen where users enter contact records, update and review them. Contact records may be cross-referenced by user-defined categories. Looking at the big picture. (Imaging) Pedersen, Cynthia Ross. Imaging technology is still in a primitive stage, although users have seen glimpses of where it may go. In 1991, imaging is used in traditionally paper intensive industries such as banks, although the technology will eventually evolve into other applications. In the near future, voice messages and annotations should be attachable to documents in an imaging system, since there is nothing clearer than the human voice. With electronic mail systems, users should be able to send an image, or graphically annotate an image, using the system as a delivery mechanism. Faxed input should be accepted like scanned input, from an imaging standpoint. Imaging can enhance security by preserving the copied document, using an optical character recognition system. OLTP comes out of the closet. (On-line transaction processing) Fitzmaurice, Shev. The lines between mainframe computers and workstations are beginning to blur, becoming twice as indefinite with Unix workstations, since they come in many different sizes. Mainframe applications are migrating to smaller systems, such as on-line transaction processing (OLTP), an application that includes a large number of users. Airplane reservation systems is a good example of large OLTP systems, however, a small order entry system could utilize OLTP as well. Traditionally, OLTP was not well-suited for UNIX, but now such systems are taken for granted. Unix systems have a price/performance advantage, making them more attractive than proprietary systems. AccPac Plus and GST, too. (Accounting) Walkin, Lawrence. CA's AccPac Plus, a financial software package, has been upgraded with useful features such as special consideration for Goods and Services Tax. The product as 80 percent of the market within its class, its success enhanced by having linkages with more than 200 software packages related to both non-vertical and vertical solutions. More than 1,000 Canadian dealers sell and support the package, with more than 300 Canadian offices with installers qualified to install the product. Within the product line, Bedford is appropriate for companies with 20 or fewer employees, BPI handles five to 100 employees, and Plus is applicable to a size range of more than 35 employees. A lot of good, unknown software in Quebec; new centre aims to commercialize province's software. The Centre de promotion du logiciel quebecois is receiving $200,000 and $400,000 respectively over a period of two years from the federal Department of Communications and the provincial Ministry of Communications. The monies will be used to help software companies with excellent, but unknown products, learn marketing skills. The centre will host workshops every month, and allow software producers to present their products to distributors and prospective clients. The goal is to help local companies exploit their markets, and to encourage larger companies to consider locally developed software before they consider packages from the US or elsewhere. Users take note: once plunge made, you're locked in. (fourth generation languages) A fourth-generation language is proprietary by its very nature, and users who adopt such a language are locked into using one particular vendor who will support it. Vendors agree. For example, Empress, the fourth generation language from Empress Software Inc (Toronto, Canada) operates on a variety of platforms, but does not run on IBM mainframes. Consultants believe that the productivity gains outweigh the limitations on the mobility of these languages. Vendors claim that users can still have portability within the limits of the hardware that the language supports. Moving from one type of database program using a fourth generation language to another is easy if their structure is similar, however moving from a non-relational system to a relational system is not easy. Will DB2 assure 4GL's immortality? Morton, Carole. DB2 might just ensure the longevity of fourth-generation languages (4GL), helping them survive the popularity of computer-aided software engineering. One in five IBM sites uses a 4GL, and the sales of such languages continue to climb beyond the $250 million mark. DB2 relation technology not only serves as a solid foundation for bolder applications, but also complements 4GL applications. The structured query language standard makes it easier to se what is lacking in 4GLs, and specially engineered products such as the information management system called DYL-80 II Relational from Sterling Software incorporates SQL and DB2. Application generators forcing wise use of reusable code. Dowling, Richard. Application generators are used by organizations to make available a library of pre-written program modules. These generators force the wise use of reusable code. Some generate 4th generation language code or 3rd generation language code. Some modules are necessarily added to any application generator in order to meet the organization's needs. Existing modules may need to be modified for the same reason. Organizations will find that the use of such generators will change how applications are developed. Using an application generator, applications that would have taken months to developed can be developed in days. MIS' handling of 4GLs mixture of struggles and fatal flaws. (management information systems) Information systems professionals are struggling to define fourth generation languages (4GLs), which represent an enigma in the application of management information tools (MIS) and technologies. A review of articles that cover the topic of 4GLs reveals that these tools have not been properly integrated into the regular toolkit of an MIS shop. This mishandling of 4GLs has led to narrow the strategic application of technology by restricting the wide use of an excellent MIS tool. This does not mean that there is a flaw in the technology or the tool, but only in the application of 4GLs. Home of the handyman now home for 4GL systems strategy. (fourth generation languages) Home Hardware Stores is changing the way the cooperative company does business with Canadian dealers. Based in Ontario's Mennonite community, the company's focus is on offering the independent dealer base, or Home Hardware shareholders, the data that will boost sales. In 1967, the company run Cobol-based programs with NCR computers. However, as the company grew, dealers began to request decision support systems, or systems that were capable of managing accounts receivable and payable, and order processing. The company considered a fourth generation language on the NCR systems. They decided to develop a systems methodology where online management systems information would be an important part. 3Com exits LAN software market. (local area network) Frangini, Monica. 3Com is leaving the local area network software market, backing away from LAN Manager. LAN Manager will be merged with Microsoft Corp's into one operating system marketed and sold by Microsoft. LAN Manager, an operating system for local area networks, was developed both by Microsoft and 3Com for integrating multiple computing platforms. 3Com's decision to leave the network software market will make the company more independent when it comes to operating systems. The company will stop selling 3+ Open 2.0 for microcomputer-based servers, and will continue to market its 3+ Open LAN Manager 1.1 package for the 3Server and microcomputer servers line. Study shows packet switch rates less in U.S. Brown, Stephen. Telecom Canada's Datapac packet-switching data communications network can be linked to numerous computers and terminals, including microcomputers to databases, microcomputers to microcomputers and facsimile machines. Users can access Intelligent Communications Network via Datapac, an access that supports terminals that conform to the X.25 network access protocol. Datapac is available to those users located outside or within a Datapac Serving Area (DSA), the charge being the sum of the network-usage charges, plus optional feature and access-arrangement charges. The higher the DSA grade classification of the user's original access line, the higher the charge of the long-distance usage charges. Relationship banking system speeds teller transactions. Brown, Jacqueline. Prologic Computer Corp will market its microcomputer-based customized banking system more intensively in the North American market, since its domestic market is more secure, with sales doubling annually. The target area is the US, and the company is negotiating $2-$3 million in private money to reach its goal. According to company officials, no other product offers the same networking capabilities, or integrity and security. The key to the product is a fourth generation language, Probe, a language that was developed by the company for IBM microcomputers and compatibles. Prologic will market to banking institutions, and is currently marketing to credit unions. U.S. RPC software tool vendor sets up shop in Canada. (remote procedure call; Netwise Inc.) Netwise Inc (Boulder, CO), a remote procedure call software specialist, opened an office in Mississauga, Ontario to enter the Canadian multivendor connectivity market. The company's Netwise RPC Tool product line enables software to operate as an integrated, transparently distributed entity, even though it may run on dissimilar or similar operating systems and hardware. The tools transform software to operate on network operating systems. Developers can create programs that can make remote procedure calls across more than 50 different platforms. Netwise has been somewhat successful in Canada. The tool uses OSI standards and no specialized networking experience is necessary. An e-mail program's progress. (Local Area Networks) Boom, Clyde. Electronic mail systems (EMS) have improved in recent years, providing not only sophisticated network communication, but also useful utilities such as file managers and calendars. Not all EMSs offer these utilities, but potential buyers can look for them. Few companies want to spend the extra money for these features, but some can become valuable additions. For one manufacturing client, the Calendar module of an EMS proved to be an important part of the package, providing access to a daily Memo, Appointment Calendar and a To-Do list. Some modules were not required, such as the Notebook and Editor, so they were removed from the office menu program. CTI enters IBM 3270 market with Comterm technology. (CTI Datacom Inc.) CTI Datacom Inc of Dorval, Quebec is designing, manufacturing and marketing a line of data communications products for the IBM 3270 terminal communications market, entering with an established customer list, an installed base of 30,000 units, and acquired technology. The company's goal is to increase its market share held by Comterm Inc (Pointe Claire, Quebec), from whom CTI Datacom purchased the terminal technology, related rights and trademarks. The new company's first year business plan includes a $3 million investment.The 3270 market is viable as long as CTI has a broad line of products, according to company officials. CRTC commences regional hearings. (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will conduct hearings during Feb and Mar 1991 so that users can present their views on increased competition in the telecommunications market before the main hearing begins in Ottawa in Apr 1991. On Nov 1990, telecommunications companies filed their responses to the Unitel Communications Inc and B.C. Rail/Lightel applications for competitive long-distance voice services. Issues that will not be discussed at the hearings will be the monopoly of Teleglobe in the provision of overseas services, the local measured service, the local service competition and other items. Presentations will be limited to 15 minutes. Canadian banks making sense of EDI communications. (electronic data interchange) More companies are realizing that electronic data interchange (EDI) can play an important part in making the ordering and payment processes more efficient and attractive. Canadian banks are carefully studying how banks in other countries incorporate EDI in their payment process, since trade is important to Canada's economic survival and EDI facilitates business communication. In the US, Canadians found that separating the payment transfer from the invoice details created a bottleneck in the reconciliation process. By carefully examining payment problems, Canadian businesses can now use an EDI/EFT (electronic funds transfer) payment mechanism that can give them leverage over their US competitors. Next-generation RISC CPU gets 50 to 100 MIPS from 64-bit internal architecture. (reduced instruction set computing, millions of It has been relatively easy for CPU vendor to attract customers by making CPUs larger and faster to create major improvements in throughput and system integration. Most already reached scaling limits. Attention must be paid to changes in architecture so the advantages of fine-line complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) or bipolar processes are maximized. The architecture of the Mips R2000 and R3000 processors was innovative when the processors were first released. but many tricks have been learned since then in both silicon architecture implementation and in compiler design. The first change was a move to a two-instruction-issue superpipeline, which increases integer and floating-point performance. The vendor has included some debug features on the chip to ease system software development and hardware debugging. Apple Macintosh clones now possible with three-chip set and software. Nutek Computers has been working since 1989 to develop a motherboard chip set and system software to mimic all Apple Macintosh functions, making it feasible for companies to construct low-cost NuBus-based Mac compatibles. The market for Macintosh-compatible computers is currently very small; most systems require either cannibalizing another Mac or getting a ROM-based operating system from Apple Computer. Industry analysts predict a market with high growth potential if a compatible operating system, user interface and underlying hardware can be established. Nutek want to build a Mac-compatible market similar to the one for IBM PC-compatible computers. Nutek has created the three key elements needed for a true Mac compatible: a logic chip set, an internal operating system and a graphical user interface. Combo CPU and DSP chip performs a sea of tasks. (digital signal processing) It may soon be passe to meet each system processing requirement with a dedicated controller or applications-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The new trend for general-purpose controllers is the inclusion of specialized subprocessors. National Semiconductor has built a multiple-processor chip to be shared by several embedded-control tasks in the same system by combining a 64-bit superscalar general-purpose processor with a floating-point math unit and digital-signal processing functions on one integrated circuit. The 1.1-million-transistor processor, called Swordfish, can be changed from serving as a laser-printer controller, for example, to a fax-modem processor by downloading a new control program. A single chip could replace the dedicated controller and signal-processing chip currently used in such applications. The Swordfish processor has been given a full 64-bit internal architecture with two four-stage integer pipelines. Once the processor is designed into a system a self-test capability allows users to test the I/O buffers and more. ISSCC digital technology. (trends shown at International Solid State Circuit Conference) (includes related article on Soviet The phrase 'system on a chip' describes the great leaps in the level of integration possible on a very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) processor. CPUs with over one million transistors, logic circuits that include several hundred thousand gates and memory chips including 64 million storage cells prove that past perceptions of systems were simplistic and rudimentary. New integration levels go far beyond the brute-force packing of more of the same type of circuitry on chips and open the door to more complex, functional systems on one processor. Advanced CPUs are more sophisticated those of a few years ago and take advantage of more on-chip parallelism and large amounts of closely-coupled memory. Processors with these resources can achieve supercomputer-level performance numbers, with throughputs as fast as 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). ISSCC: analog technology. (International Solid State Circuit Conference) The 30 papers on analog amd mixed signals to be presented at the 1991 International Solid State Circuit Conference focus heavily on sampling. They delve into oversampling and undersampling, sampling ac and sampling dc, prequantization sampling and sampling for nonvolatile analog on-chip storage. A pure-analog sampling paper describes a charge-coupled device (CCD) delay-line filter for video signals; other topics range from 14-bit linear sample-and-hold amplifiers (SHAs) with acquisition times below 250 nanoseconds to oversampling delta-sigma modulators. Speed continues to rise. An 8-bit ADC reaches a 2-GHz sampling rate while a one-chip 6-bit ACS runs at 1 GHz. An 8-bit flash converter samples at 500 MHz. A selection of pure-analog papers cover chips ranging from 10-GHz gallium arsenide to a 50-MHz 80-dB attenuator. ISSCC: communications. (International Solid State Circuit Conference) The complicated nature of signal-processing algorithms for communications uses has caused the emergence of more devices resembling digital signal processors.New communication-system building blocks to bring improvements in precision, speed, sensitivity and circuit-integration levels prove this trend. Improvements could lead to smaller, less-expensive and more user-friendly products for all aspects of communications technology, such as data transmission, radio and imaging. Single-chip receivers for paging applications were previously restricted to operation under 200 MHz; operating at higher frequencies called for use of external channel-filtering components. Researchers at Philips Radio Communications Systems Ltd have created a single-chip radio receiver for UHF and VHF wide-area paging transmissions of up to 500 MHz with frequency-shift keying data rates as fast as 1200 bps. Characterize digital control loops. (tutorial) Nhu, Hoang. Many of today's control systems have a mixed analog-digital loop including digital compensator or digital feedback circuitry. Measurement of parameters like gain and phase margin in mixed-signal loops is a definite challenge. Designers, at first glance, may wish to adapt the popular technique for measurement of analog control systems. That method includes stimulation of the loop with an external signal using an analog summing junction and the addition of a DAC to convert the signal to analog form. A DAC causes major errors and requires additional complex circuitry. A more effective solution would be the use of a software summing junction into which a digital stimulus signal is introduced. An example is included that explains how this method can be used to characterize a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) digital control loop in a drafting plotter. Build ultra-low dropout regulator. (tutorial) Williams, Jim. Low-dropout linear regulators are often required by switching-regulator post regulators, battery-powered apparatuses and other such applications. Battery life is often significantly affected by the dropout performance of the regulator. A circuit that provides a lower dropout voltage than any available monolithic regulator is described. Operation is straightforward. The three-pin LT1123 regulator servo controls the base to keep its feedback pin at five volts. Special techniques used to offer short-circuit protection in the design are discussed. What's all this Teflon stuff, anyhow? (Pease Porridge) (column) Pease, Bob. The design of a good operational amplifier with a very low bias current is discussed. The teflon coating of the push rod and its bushings caused some erroneous readings because it generated thousands and thousands of volts of static electricity. The problem was taken care of by replacing the Teflon parts with ground metal parts. Teflon remains useful for such applications as insulation coatings in sockets. Shock mounting is another method of controlling static electricity. Process and design bring fast, low-cost op amps. (operational amplifiers) (tutorial) Devices built over the past few years on complex and expensive complementary- bipolar processes have dominated the high speed/wideband integrated circuit operational amplifier arena. The one exception is fast-settling devices with JFET input stages. Even several FET-input operational amplifiers are now constructed on these processes. Circuit and process designers at Linear Technology Corp feel that there is much life left in the fast lane for operational amplifiers from non-complementary processes. Their goal is to challenge the performance of the fastest integrated circuit operational amplifiers and beat them on cost. The development process took two approaches. One resulted in the LT1190 family with three video-bandwidth op amps and two video-bandwidth gain block with high impedance differential inputs. The second resulted in the LT1122, one of the fastest-settling op amps with a JFET input. Embedded controller board offers in-system reconfigurability. (product announcement) Dallas Semiconductor introduces the DS2340 ($53.40), a compact circuit board assembly which can afford designers a reprogrammable, embedded CPU to handle demanding control tasks. It combines a high-integration processor and as much as 256Kbytes of static battery-backed RAM. The new board uses the NEC V40 processor, an 8086 software-compatible CPU with several on-chip features including a serial port, interrupt controller, timer-counter and DMA controller. As much as 256Kbytes of complementary metal oxide semiconductor static RAM, a lithium battery and the recently released DS5340 Micro Softener chip, which assures crash-free recovery from unstable power conditions, are also included. It replaces over half-a-dozen other circuits to implement a power monitor, watchdog timer, address decoder, dual port register file and parallel I/O ports. Dual PWM-controller IC fixes AC power factor, regulated DC out. (pulse-width modulator, integrated circuit, alternating current, Micro Linear Corp introduces the ML4819 integrated circuit, which is aimed at 100- to 400 watt power supplies for microcomputers, instruments and peripherals. It includes two pulse width modulator (PWM) controllers that share one oscillator, voltage reference and an undervoltage lockout (UVLO) circuit. Common circuits eliminate external components, saving cost and board space. There is no need for specialized circuits to prevent beat notes as the oscillator is shared. The output PWM controller is a conventional current-mode electrical circuit with added features, including a maximum duty-cycle clamp, slope compensation and cycle-by-cycle current limiting. It is recommended for use in two-switch forward converters. Competitor in cellular telephones; F.C.C. lets concern start up in 6 cities. (FCC allows new form of cellular service) The Federal Communications Commission decides to allow Fleet Call Inc, a company that provides mobile communications for car and truck fleets, to offer cellular service to individuals in six major cities. Previous FCC rules had confined cellular service to just two telephone companies in each city. The cellular industry has been opposed to the changes from the start. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association claims that the ruling is unfair because it places fewer restrictions on the new service than currently exists on conventional cellular services. The FCC is reportedly in favor of the new ruling as it would open up the cellular market to greater competition, which in turn would lead to lower prices for the consumer. U.S. and Japan to start negotiations on computer chips. Sanger, David E. The five-year-old semiconductor accord between the United States and Japan expires in 1991 and many analysts question whether it is necessary to renew it at all. The original accord was implemented to prevent the Japanese from dumping microprocessors onto the US market and thereby putting domestic manufacturers out of business. Unfortunately, by the time the agreement was signed in 1986, most of the manufacturers had already left and, even under the protection of the agreement, none have re-entered the market. Many analysts feel that the accord actually led to higher microprocessor costs in the US, forcing domestic consumers to pay higher prices for products. While the original agreement allowed 20 percent market penetration for US manufacturers, current figures show domestic manufacturers able to hold little more than 13 percent of the Japanese market. Fleet Call Inc. is cleared to build digital communications systems. The Federal Communications Commission has approved Fleet Call's request to provide cellular service to six major cities. The ruling is a landmark decision because up until now, only two cellular telephone companies have been allowed in each city nationwide. The ruling allows the radio dispatch company to provide wide area digital cellular systems. The FCC maintains that allowing the new form of cellular service opens up the market to competition and will eventually lead to lower costs to the consumer. The Cellular Communications Industry Association maintains the ruling is unfair because the new services are not regulated in the same strict manner as conventional cellular services. It also maintains that the FCC was not in a position to issue the ruling without public debate. IBM reigns again as the king of the stocks; 'Beamer' paces rallying market. IBM is now regarded as the major indicator of current stock price trends by most stock market analysts. Confidence in IBM has returned after the company's latest earnings report. Only a year ago, IBM seemed in financial trouble after posting a $2.4 billion special charge for the fourth quarter of 1989. From January 16 through February 13, IBM stock was up 23.4 percent, compared with a 15.95 percent gain in the Dow industrials and a 16.72 percent gain in Standard and Poor's 500-stock index. Flash race pace quickens. (vendors striving for selective erasability) The demand for flash memory chips which can be erased in part has triggered a race that involves Intel, Toshiba, and Texas Instruments (TI), each of which expects to have a part-erasable chip on the market by early 1992. Currently the only part-erasable flash chip is a 256K-bit chip form Atmel which can be erased 512 bits at a time. Atmel expects to add a 1Mbit flash chip with the same 512-bit erasability in Mar 1991. TI, which has a technology exchange arrangement with Atmel, expects to have a 1M-bit chip available by the end of 1991. Atmel's chip will cost about twice what whole-erase flash chips sell for, and TI, while not estimating a price, concedes that its device will also be more expensive. Toshiba believes the selective erasability will require an additional layer of polysilicon, which will add to manufacturing costs. And a spokesman for Intel says commercial, rather than technical, issues will be what holds up the release of a part-erasable chip. Siemens and GPT edge toward telecoms union. Bennett, Chris; Clifford, Leon. GPT, Britain's last telecommunications switch maker, is developing closer ties with German electronics firm Siemens, and cooperation in research, product development and purchasing is becoming evident, as exemplified by a major contract signed by Siemens that will obtain power supplies for both firms' products. GEC and Siemens, which jointly acquired GPT in 1989, have always promised closer cooperation between the two telecommunications companies, and that promise id now being fulfilled. The two firms are already at work developing the software for the next generation of telecom switches, and Siemens has developed a plan to merge the three switch technologies currently supported by the firms: Siemens' EWSD, GPT's System X, and Stromberg-Carlson's DCO. GPT is expected to announce that it will be switching from the Motorola 68000 microprocessor to Siemens' microprocessor for use in its main System X switches. The move will make the development of common software and eventually common hardware easier. Apricot to spearhead Mitsubishi's global push. (acquisition of Apricot Computer gives Mitsubishi toehold in Europe) The evidence is now clear that Mitsubishi Electric acquired Apricot Computer, for which it paid 39 million pounds sterling, as a springboard to establishing a global presence in the computer market, particularly personal and business computers. In addition to the purchase price, Mitsubishi is laying out an additional 11 million pounds in development funds. The engineering staff at Apricot's Birmingham research and development facility is expected to add 30 design engineers, who will work on such items as fast desktop microcomputers and minicomputer-level network servers. A 4 million pound extension will be added to Apricot's Glenrothes manufacturing facility to enable in-house production of circuit boards, and production of microcomputers at the same facility is expected to be boosted from 40,000 to 100,000 annually. Products will carry both the Apricot and Mitsubishi Electric logos. Apricot's move into the Japanese market will be helped by IBM's decision to allow an internally developed Japanese version of the DOS operating system to be sold on the open market. Architecture: a standard problem; different micro architectures mean expense to software companies. The proliferation of microprocessor architectures, exacerbated by licensing agreements that result in several slightly different 'flavors' of a single architecture, creates problems for both system designers, who may want to employ several architectures in a single piece of hardware, and software companies, confronted by the expense of developing several different versions of each package. These difficulties could be resolved by the development of standards that allow different microprocessors to communicate and software to run equally well regardless of the microprocessor architecture. Establishing such standards constitutes one of the goals of the Open Microsystems Initiative (OMI), a part of the Esprit high technology research project expected to be approved sometime in early 1991. OMI is expected to support development of two microprocessors with up to 100 million transistors each, and their adjunct development and programming tools, but standards development will be the real thrust of OMI. Flashing a warning to disks. (the effects of flash memory on the computer industry) A new era in laptop computer technology may be about to begin, thanks to flash memory. British firm Psion first used flash memory in its MC600 laptop, replacing a combination of SRAM and EEPROM chips used in earlier units. Flash chips are free of both the expense and volatility of SRAMs and the necessity of removing EPROMs from the computer in order to reprogram. Flash memory has yet to fully replace hard or floppy disks because of the cost per Mbyte of storage factor; a 1Mbyte flash memory card, the equivalent of a 2 pounds sterling floppy disk, costs some 250 pounds sterling. Intel Corp, which currently commands some 90 percent of the market for flash chips, believes that discrepancy will soon disappear, the result of increasing flash chip density and increasing demand for flash chips that will spur the kind of volume production that causes per unit prices to drop radically. Issues of chip durability and erasability have yet to be resolved, but disk storage for laptop computers could well disappear by the late 1990s. Money making modems. (Touchbase Systems targets the portable computer market with the WorldPort 9600 V.32 modem) Touchbase Systems has developed the WorldPort 9600, a V.32-compatible modem aimed at the laptop and notebook computer markets. A two-chip, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital signal processor (DSP) engine allows the WorldPort 9600 to be contained in a box no larger than a package of cigarettes and to run off a 9V battery for up to four hours. The two DSP chips, running in tandem, have been clocked at 19.6 MHz. Surface mount technology (SMT) keeps board area to a minimum, and all the circuitry is contained on 12 chips. A dedicated ground plane on a six-layer PCB reduces radio frequency interference. The US-made modem is distributed in the UK by Andest Communications, whose managing director portrays a portable modem as essential to the usefulness of a portable computer. Unions see red at GPT redundancies. (censure firm for workforce reduction methods) GPT has been criticized by technical and managerial unions representing personnel at its Coventry (England) design and manufacturing facility for the way in which it has handled the latest reduction in force. The unions claim GPT misled personnel about the possibility of a layoff and has failed to meet the terms promised to laid off personnel. Some 260 jobs have been cut from the Coventry facility since Dec 1990, despite assurances in Jul 1990 that no such redundancies were planned. Additionally, the unions point out that many staff members had only recently transferred from adjoining plants, rather than accepting severance at terms superior to those now being offered. The net result, say the unions, is a complete demoralization of staff. GPT has also announced 270 redundancies at its Beeston, Nottinghamshire, facility. New teaching tools for a video age. (the use of computing in education) New educational compact-disk read-only-memory (CD-ROM) packages are bringing multimedia technology into the classroom. Some analysts maintain that the bland presentation of text book-only instruction is finding it more difficult to hold children's attention in an age where it must compete with high-technology leisure pursuits such as video games. Some new products due for release soon combine audio, graphics, text and video in an effort to bring advanced educational techniques into the classroom in the form of interactive entertainment. Threat to cellular phone services. (Federal Communications Commission ruling on new mobile phone service) The Federal Communications Commission is expected to rule soon on whether to allow Fleet Call Inc to provide a new form of mobile telephone service. The ruling, should it be in favor of the company, will have far reaching effects on the cellular industry. Currently, regulations only allow two cellular companies to operate in a single city. The ruling would allow private radio service companies that cater to taxi fleets and delivery services, for example, to provide mobile telephone services to individuals. The FCC is said to be in favor of the scheme as this would open up the market to greater competition. The new services may have some drawbacks when compared to regular cellular systems and may turn out to be no cheaper, but critics of the current system claim that the competition factor alone should reduce market prices. Fleet Call would initially set up networks in only six major cities. NCR gives holder list to A.T.& T.: court appeal is lost; phone concern to seek support for cash offer. In the ongoing takeover bid by AT&T of NCR Corp, a federal court ordered NCR to release a list containing the names of most of the shareholders of the company to the telecommunications giant. This will allow AT&T to contact the shareholders directly in an attempt to convince them that the company's $90-per-share offer is a good one. About 70 percent of NCR stockholders voted at a recent meeting to accept the offer. The current tender offer is expected to be extended slightly to give shareholders time to reconsider. AT&T began the hostile $6.12 billion cash takeover bid in December 1990 after the NCR board rejected an initial $85-per-share offer. An 80 percent shareholder vote is required at any special meeting to replace directors. A computer becomes a studio. (Hardware Review) (Newtek Inc's Video Toaster; Business Technology) (evaluation) Newtek Inc's $1,595 Video Toaster is a graphics board and software combination that works with a Commodore Amiga to create a television studio environment. The board can produce most of the stylish effects seen on network news broadcasts, including splitting or flipping images, the generation of letters to superimpose over pictures, and the production of three dimensional-looking animation. The technology is expected to open the market for other multimedia products that utilize similar techniques to produce effective and low-cost video images. The Toaster includes a digital effect program that allows for 132 special effects, and a switcher, which enables a user to cut and fade between different video sources. The Video Toaster is available through Amiga distributors and some video equipment stores. Japanese seem ahead again on advanced chips. Pollack, Andrew. A number of papers to be given at the International Solid States Circuits Conference would indicate that Japanese companies such as Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, Matsushita, and Toshiba have developed prototypes of advanced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) microprocessors that can store 64 million bits of information. The prototypes are two generations above the four-million-bit DRAMs that are currently available. Even though the 64Mbyte microprocessors are not due for mass production until 1994, the fact that the Japanese companies have prototypes would indicate they are going to be the first on the market. Intel is expected to describe an advanced version of its 80486 microprocessor that can operate at 100 million cycles per second and perform at least 60 million instructions per second. National Semiconductor is about to release a similarly fast microprocessor called the Swordfish. Famous 5.0 at your service (MS-DOS 5.0) Henning, Edward. Microsoft hopes to lay its reputation for producing bug-ridden products to rest with its new MS-DOS 5.0 offering. The new operating system offers considerable enhancements over its predecessor, including expanded memory management capabilities that allow drivers to be loaded into upper memory, and a friendlier front-end that has some of the flavor of Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager. Microsoft's approach to distribution is different than for previous versions, the new product is now available through dealers. They will supply an un-doctored MS-DOS, although hardware manufacturers will still be allowed to adapt it before selling. Analysts believe that the move could benefit original equipment manufacturers a great deal, and regain some of the market currently being lost to Digital Research's DR-DOS. Microsoft selected around 7,000 sites world-wide to beta-test the product. WordStar Legacy opens the door to Windows. (the trend towards software publishers buying Windows products) WordStar International's acquisition of the Legacy product is another indication of the current trend towards software developers buying into the Windows market. WordStar is a one-product company. Some analysts believe the company made the acquisition both as an indication of its future commitment to Windows technology, and to make it more attractive to prospective buyers. Many observers question the acquisition though, as it does not benefit the four million-strong installed base of WordStar word processing users at all in the near term. While the company eventually intends to merge the two technologies into a Windows-based desktop publishing and word processing super-product, users of both packages are questioning which elements of both will be included. Exclusive: Aldus PageMaker 4.0. (Software Review) (evaluation) Dallas, Karl. Aldus' 695 pounds sterling PageMaker 4.0 is a powerful upgrade to the best-selling desktop publishing software package. The enhancements include full Microsoft Windows 3.0 compatibility. Installing is easy and quick using the Windows RUN command in the FILES menu. The program uses 2Mbytes on the hard disk with an additional 1Mbyte for templates, and another 500Kbytes for the tutorial. The main enhancement is the addition of the Story Editor function, which is fast, effective and easy to use. PageMaker's metafile export and placing gives it a considerable advantage over Ventura, which lacks a similar feature. The new file-linking feature is also a considerable plus, allowing for a link to be set up between, for example, an imported text file and its source. This is a considerable enhancement on previous versions, offering more competitive features and extra power. Publishing comparisons. (Software Review) (Frontline's Frame Maker 2.0, Interleaf UK's Interleaf Publisher 5.0, Computers Unlimited's Frontline's 2,245 pounds sterling Frame Maker 2.0, Interleaf UK's 725 pounds sterling Interleaf Publisher 5.0, Computers Unlimited's 695 pounds sterling Quark XPress 3.0, and Ventura Software's 795 pounds sterling Ventura Publisher are all desktop publishing software packages. Each compares favorably with PageMaker 4.0 in some respects and badly in others. Frame Maker can have multiple documents on-screen to cut and paste, has anchored graphics, better book-building, and multiple master pages per document compared to PageMaker, although it does have a trickier interface. Interleaf Publisher offers hypertext links between files, good graphics creation, and a bitmap editor, but it also has a steep learning curve and unfamiliar graphical interface. Quark XPress has precise typographic control, and allows multiple documents on-screen, although it has no table generator and no automatic table of contents. Ventura Publisher offers sophisticated typographic control, and powerful table and equation editors, but no spelling checker and no support for Pantone colors. Applications of DTP. (desktop publishing) Lang, Kathy. There are many desktop publishing packages on the market, some more suited to different applications than others. The length of the document being designed is one of the best indicators of the suitability of a product. PageMaker 4.0 is very efficient at dealing with short documents such as advertisements and brochures. While Timeworks is not suitable for long documents because it cannot flow text automatically from page to page, it is worth trying if a simple, low-cost package is required. The precision placement of columns makes PageMaker easier to use than Ventura Publisher when it comes to magazines and newsletters, especially when the layout is variable. Ventura's style sheets and chapter templates make it a better choice when the publication is more predictable in design. Moving picture. (IBM's Storyboard Live) (Software Review) (includes related article on motion video) (evaluation) IBM's 395 pounds sterling Storyboard Live is a multimedia software package for creating microcomputer screen-based presentations. The package offers considerable enhancements over the base product. Installation is quick and easy, running from a batch file. Documentation is clear and simple and includes an Installation and Tutorial guide, a User Guide, and a Quick Reference card. A main problem with the software is that it takes 530Kbytes of random access memory (RAM) to obtain its full complement of 640-by-480-by-16 colors. The program cannot use extended memory and is not supported by a full Windows 3.0 application, which creates considerable memory limitations. Features include the Electronic Presentation module that allows for the fast creation of individual frames for a simple story, the Picture Maker for creation of artwork, the screen-capture Picture Taker module, and a program generator called Story Editor. The list price for this package is reasonable, but the necessary hardware add-ons will raise the price considerably. Noteworthy notebooks. (Hardware Review) (Arche Technology's Messenger 386SX, Texas Instruments' TravelMate 3000) (evaluation) Arche Technologies' 1,795 pounds sterling Messenger 386SX and Texas Instruments' 3,395 pounds sterling TravelMate 3000 are both Intel 80386SX-based notebook computers. Arche's offering is a low-cost, high-performance machine that runs at 16MHz and comes with a socket for a math coprocessor. It also includes a 20Mbyte hard drive with a 23 millisecond average access time, 1Mbyte of random access memory (RAM), a nine-pin serial port and a screen measuring a little under seven-by-five inches. At just under six pounds the TravelMate 3000 offers the best performance and functionality with the least amount of weight in its class. The unit comes with 2Mbytes of RAM as standard, and runs at 20MHz, 10MHz, or 8MHz. Included with the machine is a 20Mbyte 23 millisecond average access time hard drive, a nine-pin serial port, a 25-pin parallel port, a PS/2 mouse port, and a 15-pin VGA port. Textual healing. (Software Review) (Lotus Development Corp.'s SmarText) (evaluation) Lotus Development Corp's 495 pounds sterling SmarText is an electronic document utility that allows a picture to be manually linked to the text that explains it. The package is particularly suited to reference documents and takes about 2Mbytes of disk space. Although the system runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0, the program icons have to be added manually using the Windows Setup function. Documents are created by combining text from an external source with graphics. The program will then create a document with index, outline, and links. All words that are not simple ones like 'and' are indexed, and any that occur frequently are treated as keywords and put in the text as links. Although the package is useful, it is expensive and a little cumbersome. Learner clone. (includes a related article on developing software applications with Coherent) (Software Review) (Mark Williams Mark Williams Company's 99 pounds sterling Coherent is a Unix clone operating system that offers many of the features of Unix without the expensive price. The software includes an extensive 1,079-page documentation package that offers tutorials on Unix basics such as multitasking, the file system, and text editing. Coherent also includes an electronic mail system as well as the UUCP (Unix-to-Unix copy) feature that can provide access into the USENET worldwide network of Unix boxes. Installation of the three 3.5-inch disks is easy and takes no more than a half hour. Coherent requires at least an Intel 80286-based IBM-compatible with 10Mbyte of hard disk space. Mark Williams itself provides free telephone technical advice, or its own bulletin board for less urgent enquiries. This is an excellent introduction to the Unix operating system and includes many of the features to be found on the more expensive products. SoftSpeak version 2.4. (Software Review ) (Quantech) (evaluation) Boxer, Steve. Quantech's 49.95 pounds sterling SoftSpeak 2.4 is a speech package for IBM microcomputers and compatibles. The package comes on three 3.5-inch or five 5.25-inch disks and is easy to install. It requires a rather large 3Mbytes of hard disk and, although the manual does explain the package's features, the operation of the program is unusual. SoftSpeak consists of the library and the editor. The library offers a comprehensive collection of words and sound effects, from which phrases can be assembled. The editor is used after the required phrases are put together and allows sophisticated operations to be performed on the resulting speech waveforms. The editor is easy and fun to use, but the complexity of the library can hinder the user. Texas MicroLaser PS35. (Hardware Review ) (Texas Instruments) (evaluation) Texas Instruments 2,495 pounds sterling Texas MicroLaser PS35 is a PostScript laser printer that comes with the Adobe PostScript interpreter, 35 fonts and 1.5Mbytes of standard random access memory (RAM) that is expandable to 4.5Mbytes. The printer is very easy to set up and has a helpful control panel featuring twelve buttons for font selection, tray selection, and portrait/landscape orientation. The liquid crystal display next to the control panel offers simple plain English messages instead of the usual technical abbreviations normally associated with laser printers. The printer is HP LaserJet II, HDump and PostScript-compatible. The PS35 is easy to use, prints at 6 pages-per-minute, and produces high quality output. Power Macros. (pregenerated macros for WordPerfect) (The Microcomputer Unit) (evaluation) The Microcomputer Unit's 49.95 pounds sterling PowerMacros is a word processing macro add-in software package for WordPerfect users. The package essentially takes the easier day-to-day tasks that WordPerfect performs and customizes them for users. Installing the package is easy, with program-generated prompts offering continuous help. Although the manual is limited in its explanations of the various macros, the macros themselves are quite useful. The package is primarily designed for WordPerfect-intensive users or microcomputer support managers that can customize individual user's machines to improve productivity. WP-Easy; WordPerfect front-end. (Software Review) (Softsolve) (evaluation) Softsolve's 90 pounds sterling WP-Easy is an add-in software package that acts as a front-end interface for the WordPerfect word processing software package. WP-Easy begins by grouping the multitude of WordPerfect commands into alphabetical order. The package also provides other features, simplifying many of WordPerfect's commands by providing its own macros to facilitate short cuts. The package does provide an installation routine for re-assigning existing macros, in the event of any of them conflicting with those of the user. The package does simplify the extensive menu-ridden command process of WordPerfect and is easy to use. Databases. (Software Review) (Buyer's Guide) (evaluation) Wright, David. The use of structured query language (SQL) in data base management systems is becoming increasingly common. Microrim's 595 pounds sterling R:Base 3.1, Sapphire's 595 pounds sterling DataEase 4.2, and Gupta Technologies' 1,250 pounds sterling SQL System are all market leading DBMS that utilize SQL as their programming language. DataEase 4.2 does not need a language to create menus and screens because it is basically forms-driven. An SQL version is due later in 1991. It is a good DBMS for local area network-based environments, although it is beginning to show its age. R:Base 3.1 is based on a relational DBMS that can be used in a LAN environment. Of particular use is its ability to handle dBase II and III data and index files on networks. SQL System is a high-powered SQL database for Microsoft Windows 3.0 environments. Although it carries a high price, it also offers very high quality. A buyer's guide compares features of over fifty data base management systems. Training: introduction to WordStar 5.5/6 (Comtec's two day training course) Comtec offers a two day introductory training course for WordStar 5.5 and 5.6 word processing software. The course costs 320 pounds sterling and has an ambitious agenda featuring proper commands rather than function key short-cuts. A slim text book is provided on the first day that covers the use of different editing and word processing functions. The instruction includes not only the commands, but the logic behind them, which is particularly useful in WordStar, as commands are taken from several different menus. The staff at Comtec were found to be friendly and efficient. The sessions themselves were short and to the point with plenty of breaks. Comtec is situated in the center of London and is easily accessible on public transport. 'Hardcore techies' gather to compete for semiconductor bragging rights. (International Solid State Circuits Conference)(Technology Three significant microprocessor developments are expected to be announced at the upcoming International Solid State Circuits Conference. Intel is expected to announce a faster version of its 80486 microprocessor that can run at 100-MHz, or three times faster than the current fastest 80486 on the market. Fujitsu is planning to show details of a 64Kbyte static random access memory microprocessor that can run up to four times faster than conventional static RAM. National Semiconductor is expected to unveil a prototype microprocessor code-named Swordfish that processes 100 million instructions per second and is several times faster than the fastest embedded controllers today. The Swordfish uses reduced instruction-set computing technology and is unique in that it also utilizes digital-signal-processing circuitry. Insiders at Apple and Microsoft trim holdings after run-up. (Inside Track) The recent successes of both Apple Computer and Microsoft Corp sent their stock prices up higher than expected. Apple's stock rose 49 percent and Microsoft's 53 percent since Oct 1, 1990. Stock market analysts expressed concern, however, at the announcement that prominent insiders at the two companies filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell large amounts of personal stock. Some analysts viewed this as an indication that the stock price may be reaching its peak. Four executives and officers at Apple revealed plans to sell 252,000 shares valued at $15.1 million. At Microsoft four insiders sold a total of 453,900 shares worth $46.9 million in the Jan 1991. Although most of those involved retained substantial holdings in the two companies, analysts are still concerned about the reasons for the sale. Bell Atlantic's LAN plan: recent pacts leverage VAR market. (Bell Atlantic Corp., local-area network, value-added reseller) Bell Atlantic Corp increases its presence in the local-area network (LAN) value-added reseller (VAR) market through contracts with SMS Data Products Group Inc and Data Net Inc. Under the contract with SMS Data Products Group, Bell Atlantic will resell the LAN VAR's network software and hardware. Bell Atlantic will sell modems, T1 and fiber multiplexers and protocol converters under terms of its contract with Data Net Inc. Bell Atlantic also plans to increase its computer and networking maintenance skills with experience from VARs. These contracts are the culmination of a strategy by which Bell Atlantic will become a vendor of turnkey communications products and services in addition to its voice communications products. Hayes steps into networking market: seeks to shed modem-only moniker. (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. introduces LANstep Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc introduces a five-user, $595 network operating system called LANstep. LANstep eliminates the necessity of using expensive file servers and falls in place between DOS-based local-area networks and networks based on Novell Inc's NetWare or Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager. The product is intended for companies with two to 100 employees or for workgroups within large companies. LANstep supports Ethernet, token-ring and Arcnet interface cards. The price of LANstep in Canada is $695. Hayes Microcomputer Products also offers a $395 expansion kit for five users called LANstep 5-Step Expander. Apple, AT&T pact lacks support. (Apple Computer Inc. and AT&T Computer Systems' AppleTalk to Unix applications programming Recently announced application programming interfaces (APIs) are being released to third-party software developers by AT&T Computer Systems and Apple Computer Inc. The specifications allow AppleTalk network applications users and UNIX users to share files on UNIX networks. Pacer Software Inc will participate in licensing the new APIs. UNIX International and the Open Software Foundation have yet to accept the new specifications. Apple Computer and Pacer Software will take part in licensing duties, and Pacer Software will offer additional porting services. Apple plans to include the APIs in the next version of the Portable AppleTalk source code. The updated code will automatically be sent to present AppleTalk source-code licensees. AT&T Computer Systems will focus on marketing the technology. Novell promo takes aim at client/server market. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare 386 Client/Server Starter Kit) Novell Inc introduces a marketing strategy to promote its NetWare 386 network operating system. NetWare 386 buyers may purchase for $95 the NetWare SQL database and Vinzant Inc's front-end structured query language (SQL) tool SQLFile. The Client/Server Starter Kit is available through Novell's 3,000 Gold and Platinum resellers. The NetWare SQL engine is implemented as a NetWare Loadable Module. SQLFile includes application development and data editing features, and allows users to develop applications independent from the operating system or database server. The Starter Kit is compatible with several front-end software packages including Novell's DataLens driver for accessing Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet data, the Clipper interface library RaSQL, Concentric Data Systems Inc's report generator R&R for SQL and Novell's Xtrieve Plus. Buying trends: poll shows business investing in networks. (poll by Gallup Organization Inc.) Gallup Organization Inc reports in a poll that 66 per cent of the largest companies increased spending on networks in Jan of 1991. Of the 21 per cent that increased spending during the same period, networking was the chosen field for investments. Companies cutting spending during the recession see networks as means to save money. Many resellers report increased sales during Jan of 1991 following several months of slow movement. Resellers report special activity in UNIX and local-area network areas and also for cards, operating systems and large mass-storage items. Motorola to debut high-end wireless LAN. (Motorola Inc.'s Radio-Telephone Systems Group, local-area network) Motorola Inc Radio-Telephone Systems Group plans to introduce a wireless local-area network (LAN) based on its Wireless In-building technology. The LAN uses radio frequencies rather than infrared signals to transmit bundled data at 15M-bps. The LAN links microcomputers and other equipment throughout a building. Prices are estimated to be at $1,000 per node, but could be higher. The wireless LAN can operate on all existing network operating systems. ComputerLand Corp, MicroAge Computer Center Inc and some value-added resellers are expected to sell the product, and Motorola plans to have Tech Data Corp. and Vitek Distribution systems to distribute the LAN. Hughes updates network software. (Hughes LAN Systems Inc.'s ProLINC 2.0 communications software) (product announcement) Hughes LAN Systems Inc introduces its $595 ProLINC 2.0 computer network software package. ProLINC 2.0 continues to support DOS and Windows 3.0 access to multiple hosts, file servers and network operating systems and also supports Banyan Systems Inc's VINES, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager, 3Com Corp's 3+Open and 3+Share, AT&T's Star Group and Novell Inc's NetWare. The local area network (LAN) software will now support Standard Network Management Protocol and NetWare Driver Interface Specification-compliant token adapters in addition to Data Link control protocol support for native-mode access to IBM environments and Ethernet/Token Ring multi-protocol cross connectivity. Users can access IBM mainframes through an application level via ProLINC 2.0's Data Link Control protocol instead of going through bridging and gateway solutions. Attendance forecast up despite Gulf crisis: NetWorld 1991 poised to outdo last year. (Persian Gulf war) The 1991 NetWorld trade show in Boston is expected to draw increased attendance from the previous year despite conflict in the Persian Gulf. 20,000 people are estimated to attend the networking market exposition; the convention center covers 100,000 square feet featuring 300 exhibitors and 80 planned seminars. Motorola Inc, DEC and Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc are anticipated to make product introductions. Bruno Blenheim Group PLC, the show's sponsor, is charging $30 per square feet for show space. Exhibitors of past shows are pressing the sponsor to attract new users in addition to the existing customers they have dealt with in the past. Artisoft widens distribution: small-business LAN developer attracts Tech Data, Merisel. (local area network) Artisoft Inc signs contracts with Merisel Inc and Tech Data Corp to have those companies distribute it's LANtastic local-area network hardware and software. These contracts add to a recent pact Artisoft signed with Ingram Micro Inc; the moves are seen as Artisoft's attempt to attract value-added resellers targeting small-to-medium sized businesses. Artisoft's LANtastic products serve networks with two to 300 users. Tech Data will target all of its customer base with Artisoft products to form a comprehensive network products business. Merisel will use the Artisoft products as part of its connectivity business strategy. Smaller systems are in: downsizing plays major role as revenue booster. (Selling the PC Network) The downsizing of networks is expected to increase and poses opportunities for network resellers. Microcomputer-based local-area networks (LANs) are replacing mainframe and minicomputers as corporations are moving their applications to these environments. Microcomputer LANs offer the cost-effectiveness managers are seeking during economic downturns. Microcomputers are attractive because or their price differential and increasing power. Resellers should analyze the business they are providing equipment for rather than merely selling that equipment. Vendors are offering services packaged with equipment and manufacturers are making pacts with network integrators. IBM and Compaq Computer Corp install programs involving network integrators and resellers. UPS switches to LANs: moving to smaller systems provides fast paybacks. (United Parcel Service of America Inc.) (Selling the PC United Parcel Service of America Inc (UPS) downsizes from mainframe and minicomputers to microcomputer-based local-area networks (LANs) in order to reduce costs and decentralize its MIS department. The parcel courier uses 80386 microcomputers made by AT&T running Novell Inc's NetWare 386 operating system. UPS' intention is to become a leader in information technology and attempts to be self-sufficient in its installation of equipment. Applications need to be re-engineered when transported from the mainframe to the LAN environment, and the company's COBOL programmers need to learn how to write applications that will run on distributed systems on the LAN. Downsizing has led to decentralization of UPS' MIS shop; local sites handle 90 per cent of the technical support questions. Profiting from the right services: companies turn to LAN specialists for value-add. (local-area network) (Selling the PC Resellers specializing in installation of local-area networks (LANs) note techniques for successful business and customer satisfaction. LAN resellers offer technical support for small- and medium-sized businesses that do not have network expertise or staff to solve problems. While LAN resellers should not overextend their specialization, a too-narrow concentration on products is also detrimental as new solutions may solve a particular problem. LAN specialists should carefully study a customer's needs before installing a system. . Many resellers are offering training services to their customers. Some specialists offer hands-on rather than classroom training. Other resellers have on-line support services for their customers. Reseller training push: distributors, vendors team to support channel. Local-area network vendors and distributors are working with their resellers to offer training programs in order to offer customers better service. 3Com Corp, Banyan Systems Inc and Farallon Computing Inc work with their respective, established resellers to develop intensified training. Farallon Computing's resellers are required to master the AppleTalk and Ethernet products. These resellers are members of Farallon Computing's Team Profit program. Banyan Systems offers a certification program at the entry-level but also offers intermediate and advanced training in installation, design and troubleshooting of its VINES networks. 3Com requires its sellers of bridges, routers and terminal servers to attend a seven-day product training course. Network race heats up: top vendors tout solutions for downsizing. (Selling the PC Network) Microsoft Corp, Novell Inc and Banyan Systems Inc each are implementing programs to strengthen ties with networking resellers and market their products more aggressively. Microsoft's Network Specialist program authorizes dealers who specialize in network implementation. Novell is limiting dealer authorization via new educational requirements in an attempt to gain higher-quality dealers. Banyan Systems depends on value-added resellers (VARs) rather than dealers to sell its networking products; the company has fewer VARs and is able to work on an individual basis with them. Banyan Systems has a series of programs for its resellers to help them with startup, marketing, development and revenue opportunities. Other programs deal with technical support, service, education, sales tools, market development, business and operational support, feedback and communication. Tackling Windows' drawbacks: new products aim to patch up shortcomings. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 graphical user Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 offers advantages and disadvantages for networks; products are being introduced that complement and augment the features of Windows 3.0. Windows 3.0 does not allow the logging in and out of Novell Inc's networks; the user must exit Windows 3.0 and return to DOS. Also, some users find the implementation of Windows 3.0 on a multivendor network to be difficult. Customers are caught in between the competition IBM poses with its OS/2 and Presentation Manager against Windows 3.0. Windows 3.0 does allow administrators to monitor network performance more easily, and it is customizable. Training employees to use Windows 3.0 is easier than training them to use character-based programs. Automated Design Systems Inc offers Windows Workstation that includes print manager, local-area network security and software metering tools. Key for network strategies: Macs ride wave of integration in PC lans. (Apple Macintosh, personal computers) (Selling the PC Apple's Macintosh microcomputer is gaining acceptance in the corporate world through the increasing ease by which it can be connected to local-area networks (LANs). Communications boards make Macintosh-to-microcomputer LAN connectivity a plug-in process. Apple is furthering LAN connectivity with its Ethernet cards and licensing of AppleTalk source codes to vendors. Macintoshes are increasingly being used as front-ends to mainframes, in cooperative processing and as desktop devices in distributed data access environments. Microsoft Corp licenses 3Com Corp's value-added Mac connectivity software in addition to the LAN Manager network operating system attesting to the importance of Macintosh connectivity. The variety of network standards is cause for concern for network managers who wish to see consolidation of those standards. Apple also needs to work on connectivity with DEC, IBM, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and Open System Interconnection environments. This mail call is booming: greatest demand will be for LAN-based models. (electronic mail, local-area network) (Selling the PC International Data Corp reports that local-area network- (LAN) based electronic mail sales in 1991 will reach $102 million and will grow at a compounded annual rate of 33 per cent for the following five years. Analysts believe that high-end, LAN-based E-mail systems will sell more successfully than lower-end products. The market has shifted to an emphasis on large corporations that are economizing and wish to control their MIS and E-mail costs. Smaller companies are slowing down purchases of E-mail products. Vendors of lower-end systems see opportunities in Europe. Both low-end and high-end E-mail products will be easier sell when E-mail routing capabilities are added to public data networks such as Compuserve and MCI Communications Corp' MCI Mail. Vendors walk a tightrope: superserver makers don't see eye to eye. (Selling the PC Network) Manufacturers of superservers, computers with large storage capacities built around Intel Corp 80486-based multiple processors and having built-in network features, are exploring a variety of marketing and distribution strategies. Compaq Computer Corp attempted selling its Systempro superserver via its established desktop distributors, but the $20,999 price and support demands caused problems for the distributors. Now Compaq is implementing a dealer qualification program. Tricord Systems Inc uses only value-added resellers and systems integrators for its distribution strategy. Parallan Computer Inc sells its superserver through a direct sales force. NetFrame Systems Inc plans to evenly split its distribution among value-added resellers, dealers and Businessland Inc stores. Profiting from the niches: small business, medical, financial may be lucrative. (strategies for local-area network dealers) (Selling Local-area network (LAN) dealers can find increasing business opportunities within vertical market niches. Dealers will be more successful if they specialize in a vertical market rather than offering a variety of horizontal market features. Dealers should research a market before committing to service it. Active vertical markets include legal, financial, automation, education, non-profit and government areas. Vertical market dealers tend to offer both hardware and software products in addition to support and maintenance services. There is an increasing need for resellers to offer added value to the products they sell. Vendors are increasingly focusing attention to LAN dealers and are giving business leads to them. Shows highlight FDDI: a review of industry forums. (Network Computing Forum, Communication Networks, 1991, fiber distributed The 1991 Network Computing Forum industry show featured client/server computing and internetworking as main topics. Advantages to client/server technology including cost control, interoperability and globalization were discussed. Also on the agenda were areas of challenge including support of the multivendor environment, increasing the LAN network operating system bandwidth and raising the price/performance ratio of client/server systems. MIS managers, consultants and systems analysts attended the conference. The 1991 Communication Networks show highlighted fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) and internetworking technology. The conference had 432 exhibitors including DEC, IBM, MCI Communications Corp and AT&T. Product introductions abound at NetWorld expo. (NetWorld 1991) (product announcement) Accton Technology Corp, Advanced Concepts Inc, Avalan Technology Inc, Corel Systems Corp, Futurus Corp and IMC Networks Corp introduce local-area network (LAN) products at the 1991 NetWorld exposition. Accton Technology Corp's LanSoft 2.0 network operating system costs $75 per node, and its EtherHub-12R concentrator costs $100 per port. Advanced Concepts introduces Office Minder with an upgrade including a 4.5Kbyte TSR; Office Minder costs $895 per server for unlimited users, or $495 for 10 users. Avalan Technology introduces Remotely Possible 2.0 LAN remote-control software that supports Windows 3.0. Remotely Possible 2.0 costs from $199 for two users to $1,299 for 512 users. Corel Systems' CorelDriver for NetWare 386 costs $995 for the 18T-Bus and $1,295 for the Micro Channel Bus version. Futurus introduces Right Hand Man II at $149 for a single user, and Right Hand Man Remote for $295. Both Futurus products are personal information management systems. IMC Networks' LANrepeater products for BNC to BNC and BNC to fiber optic interfaces cost from $795 to $995. Novell upgrade to give Mac access to first-class NetWare: NLM for '386 set to ship in April. (Apple Macintosh microcomputer)(NetWare Novell Inc announces its new $1,995 NetWare Loadable Module (NLM), NetWare for Mac 3.0, that the company hopes will let it successfully enter the Apple Macintosh market. The NLM provides fault tolerance, high-speed file service, security and print services to up to 100 Macintoshes by way of the AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP). The product is scheduled for an Apr 1991 release. The NLM runs on an Intel-based server with the NetWare 3.11 network operating system, also scheduled for a Mar 1991 release. NetWare for Mac 3.0 lets Macintosh users create groups, add and delete users, and set network security privileges. The product also permits developers to write a single application to the Novell interface that can work with any protocol supported by the NetWare 3.11 server, including AppleTalk. Novell has a 60 percent share of the networking market among IBM microcomputers and compatibles but most of the installed base is NetWare 2.x which does not support servers running multiple protocols. March rollout brings cuts on older Lasers. McManus, Neil. Apple Computer Inc plans to cut prices on its current laser printers as well as introduce two new low-priced printers in mid-March 1991. Apple is expected to lower the price of the Personal LaserWriter SC to $1,499 and the Personal LaserWriter NT to $2,799. These are cuts of $500. Apple also plans to drop the price of the LaserWriter IINT by $700 to $3,799 and that of the LaserWriter IINTX by $1,000 to $4,999. Industry analysts, while welcoming the price cuts, are uncertain whether Apple can maintain its 80 percent market share in the competitive Macintosh printer market. The company's newly-announced $599 StyleWriter should offer competition to other low-cost ink-jet printers from HP and Eastman Kodak. However, Apple's other new low-priced printer, the $1,299 LaserWriter LS, lacks both PostScript and AppleTalk networking support, which may hamper sales. New backlit Portable still a heavyweight. (Apple Macintosh Portable computer) Apple Computer Inc announces its first upgrade for the Macintosh Portable, to be shipped the second week of Feb 1991. The new 15-pound model offers a backlit screen, a range of new RAM configurations and a price cut of over 25 percent. A system with a 40Mbyte hard disk and 2Mbytes of RAM will cost $4,199, compared to $5,499 for the current 1/40 model. A 4/40 configuration is priced at $4,699. Apple no longer sells floppy-only versions of the unit. The new portable offers the same 640-by-400-pixel resolution as the previous model. The active-matrix liquid crystal display's surface is less reflective so users are likely to require backlighting on most occasions. The company now uses the less expensive pseudo-static RAM and sells the portable with a 1Mbyte or 3Mbyte pseudo-static RAM card in the RAM slot. Battery life is less with the new model. Test users claim a battery charge lasts half as long at the brightest screen setting. However, the screen is more visible than in the previous model. Picasso paints clear picture of dense data. (Apple Computer Inc. IS&T Group's Picasso search software) Apple Computer Inc's Information Systems and Technology Group (IS&T) demonstrates Picasso, a multi-dimensional query tool based on technology used in the MacDSS spreadsheet. Apple plans to release the product commercially but the program's price, release date and distribution channel are not yet known. Picasso offers a table tool that allows users to select a local or host-based database file through Apple's Data Access Manager. Users can focus on a file's fields through a view-builder dialog and can display different dimensions of a chart or table. A floating data navigator palette lets users manipulate aspects of a table or chart, including relationships and format. Picasso also provides MacDraw-like tools that allow users to create presentation-quality reports on specified data. Price, capacity driving DAT into net mainstream. (digital audio tape) Several developments are contributing to the increasing popularity of digital audio tape (DAT) drives for network management backup. Until recently most DAT drive prices were in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. In Feb 1991, Relax Technology Inc announces a 3.5-inch DAT drive for $1,599. Other DAT drive vendors sell 5.25-inch WangDAT units in the $1,750 range. Extended-length DAT tapes that hold approximately 2Gbytes are expected to be released in late winter 1991. New compression technologies allow even more data onto tapes. Drives are getting smaller and lighter and complete systems are expected to weigh between three and five pounds. Improved network backup software is also contributing to the appeal of DAT drives, since these applications support unattended backup of both servers and workstations. Analysts predict that DAT drive sales will go up to 131,000 in 1991 and exceed 250,000 in 1992, compared to sales of only 9,000 in 1989. Stacks and CDs tackle Japanese: business, alphabet, culture tutorials. (Four Japanese language software products) Several companies offer Apple Macintosh products that aid users in learning the Japanese language. Ariadne Language Link Company Ltd's $623 NihongoWare 1 comes as a Macintosh CD, focusing on business Japanese. The 10 lessons give users both sound and graphics in an interactive approach that covers grammar as well as cultural perspectives. Ayumi Software's $99.95 JapanEase Vol. 1 Katakana concentrates on the teaching of katakana, the Japanese phonetic alphabet used mainly for foreign words. This series of HyperCard 2.0 stacks includes Japanese clip-art and a Business Card Maker. Hyperglot Software Co's $199 EasyKana is another HyperCard 2.0 stack series that helps users learn both phonetic alphabets - hiragana and katakana. The program includes animated stroke-order drills and pronunciation guides. Bright Star Technologies Inc's $499 Kaika is a Macintosh CD product that combines video, music, animation, art and music. The program offers 10 language and five culture lessons and teaches basic hiragana, katakana and kanji. Optima unrolls 500MB drives for IIcx, IIci; erasable optical, tape drives added. (Optima Technology Corp.'s MiniPak 500, MiniPak Optima Technology Corp announces several new products for the Apple Macintosh high-end storage market. The $4,995 MiniPak 500 is an external 3.5-inch Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drive that offers an average seek time of 12 milliseconds and a capacity of 500Mbytes. Optima's $4,995 MiniPak 500I is an internal version of the same drive to be used especially in Macintosh IIcx and IIci machines. The $8,995 DisKovery 1000IM is a dual-spindle internal system for use with the Apple Macintosh II, IIx and IIfx; it includes two 500Mbyte drives packaged in one case. Optima's $3,995 DisKovery 480IM is another dual-spindle internal system that consists of two 3.5-inch, 240Mbyte drives, designed for six-slot Macintosh machines. The $7,995 Concorde 1350 is an external 5.25-inch drive with an average seek time of 14 milliseconds and a storage capacity of 1.35Gbytes. The company's $6,995 Concorde 600MO is a magneto-optical drive that includes one rewritable 600Mbyte cartridge. Also included is MOinit, a Startup document (INIT) that allows for floppy disk emulation. QuickMail on the way to PC LANs: DOS client to run on mainstream PC nets. (CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail PC 2.5 for PC LANs, CE Software Inc introduces new versions of its QuickMail network electronic mail system package and other Apple Macintosh network products. QuickMail 2.5, priced at $599.95 for 10 users and a server, runs on a Macintosh. The client software provides installation under Apple's Installer utility, pop-up address books, additional forwarding and reply options, and a separate folder for incoming mail. QuickMail PC 2.5 for PC LANs allows DOS users not directly connected on AppleTalk to exchange QuickMail with Macintoshes connected via a PC server running the AppleTalk Filing Protocol. QuickMail PC 2.5 for PC LANs also costs $599.95 for 10 users. QuickMail PC 2.5 for AppleTalk is priced at $549.95 for 10 users. This product is a 10Kbyte terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program that lets a DOS microcomputer connected directly to an AppleTalk network have access to a QuickMail server. Dial-up access is provided to Macintosh users by QM Remote 2.5. Mountain Network Solutions' DMS makes network backup a molehill. (Mountain Network Solutions Inc.'s Mountain FileMan, Mountain Mountain Network Solutions Inc announces its four-part Data Management Software (DMS), designed to ease network backup and file management for managers of mixed networks. Mountain FileMan is a password-protected control program that lets users manage data by dragging icons of directories, files and disks between devices on the network. Mountain Connection is the client software; it lets users publish local drives for use on the network. Mountain Tracking gives users an audit trail of archived files as well as automatic backup schedules. It also maintains security and provides virus detection and notification. Mountain Analysis provides analysis and report writing, using information from the Mountain Tracking module to create reports for such factors as available storage or usage trends. The Apple Macintosh version of DMS is scheduled for release by the end of 1991. It is priced at $200 for one client and one administrator. Version for 20 and 100 users are available but unpriced. Where is Mac networking headed? (includes related articles on Apple Macintosh managers' needs, Apple's VITAL architecture and Network managers question Apple Computer Inc's network strategy for the future and express concern about AppleTalk's ability to provide the needed performance, security and management features required of today's complex computer networks. Some users feel that the Apple Macintosh environment cannot meet current network managers' needs. Others feel that Apple needs to define a strategy that integrates Macintoshes into IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) as well as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Apple says its strategy is to improve wide-area network support, create tools for network managers, support Ethernet or migration to Ethernet, and develop a multiplatform standard with the help of third parties. Apple also is pushing AppleTalk as an open, multiplatform networking standard. The company plans to address networking issues compiled by the Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems (MacIS) network managers' group and is demonstrating product prototypes developed in response to these demands. Managing the big picture. (network management products)(includes related article on programs that help prevent software piracy on Several software programs are available for Apple Macintosh network administrators to help them test reliability, analyze data packets and update applications and network system software. Apple's Inter-Poll gives users basic network information that helps determine which Macintoshes are on the network and ensure the system is on-line. Technology Works Inc's GraceLAN gives a graphical display of the network which helps users collect network data. Farallon Computing Inc's PhoneNET CheckNET lets network administrators check reliability of specific points on the network. Users can determine if a problem exists with a connection through echo packets sent to specific nodes on the network. Neon Software Inc's NetMinder Ethernet is a packet analyzer that helps managers analyze data packets and has capabilities similar to the DOS-based packet analyzer from Network General Corp, The Sniffer. Macs moving slowly to token ring. (includes related article on token ring topology)(Apple Macintosh microcomputers used with Migration of Apple Macintoshes from LocalTalk to token ring networks is slow, despite the ready availability of Macintosh-based token-ring products. Some network managers feel cost is a major issue. Users who are basically satisfied with LocalTalk speed do not want to pay the high price of installation of token-ring cards. Some users connect LocalTalk and token-ring networks by way of a hardware or software router. Many existing token ring sites use the topology for microcomputers to access mainframes and not as a method to share services among the microcomputers, highlighting another reason for the lack of urgency in connecting Macintoshes to token ring networks. Novell Inc encourages token ring use for Macintoshes with its NetWare for Macintosh 2.0 value-added process (VAP) released in Sep 1990. This operating process enhancement supports TokenTalk and AppleTalk Phase 2 and allows Macintoshes on token ring to directly access Novell servers. New FreeHand distinguishes itself; features draw away from Illustrator 3.0. (Aldus Corp.'s FreeHand 3.0 computer graphics New features in Aldus Corp's FreeHand 3.0 demonstrate its continuing differentiation from Adobe Illustrator. FreeHand 3.0 is scheduled for release late in the 1st qtr of 1991, with a list price of $595. It offers no new tools, but provides new Layers, Colors and Styles palettes with functions that were controlled by menu commands in previous versions. The Layers palette lets users create and name new drawing layers, make them visible or invisible, and change their stacking order. This feature is more flexible than the hiding and stacking features in Illustrator 3.0. The Colors palette allows users to define and name new spot and process colors and apply them to the stroke and/or fill of the object. The Styles palette supports saving the fill, color, stroke and halftone screen specifications to a named style. FreeHand 3.0 also offers automatic trapping for basic lines and fills for work with spot color, and on-line, context-sensitive help, two features unavailable in Illustrator 3.0. First all-Mac photo wire service makes super debut. (Apple Macintosh workstations produce 1991 Super Bowl photos) (Screen The first all-Apple Macintosh photo wire service, sponsored by Nikon Inc, made its debut at the 1991 Super Bowl as it delivered photographs to newspapers subscribing to the PressLink on-line service. The wire service, housed in a trailer, consisted of two Macintosh-based scanning and transmission workstations as well as a complete minilab for color negative film processing. Photographs were scanned using a Nikon 35mm scanner and digital images were sized, cropped and color-corrected using Adobe Photoshop. They were then compressed using Storm Technology Inc's PicturePress compression board and software along with a low-resolution thumbnail file created from the original file. Captions were written on a Macintosh and both the caption and compressed high-resolution and thumbnail files were uploaded to a special folder on PressLink. Subscribing newspapers could immediately access the caption and compressed thumbnail. If the photo was chosen for reproduction, the compressed high-resolution file could be downloaded in less than five minutes. Graphics coming of age in Gulf war. (Persian Gulf War, 1991) Said, Carolyn. Specialists contend that the Apple Macintosh has been invaluable in creating infographics and digitized video images for newspaper coverage of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf. Factors include the Macintosh's ability to easily create, store, retrieve, edit and transmit graphics across the country. Newspapers used the microcomputers to design background graphics such as descriptions of aircraft, missiles, tanks, regional maps and historical information. Macintoshes also allow images that are only available on television to be video-captured and generated without having to photograph a TV screen. This allows for much higher quality newspaper photographs. Some analysts contend that the coverage of the war has made editors realize that graphics are much more than colorful decorations. T/Maker, FM Waves, Wayzata pencil in more clip-art collections. (T/Maker Co., Wayzata Technology Inc. and FM Wave new clip-art FM Waves is one of three companies announcing new clip art software packages. Its FM Quality Artware consisting of several volumes, priced at $144 each, that each contain 100 400 dots-per-inch (dpi) TIFF images. Volumes include Glamour, Animals, Fashion, Fantasy, Business Cartoons and Agenda for the '90s. All volumes come with a utility that converts the black-and-white TIFF files to PICT format. Wayzata Technology Inc introduces the $249 Down to Earth! and the $149 Clip Art Masterpieces, both on CD-ROM. Down to Earth! offers over 750 color and monochrome PICT images including drawings, scanned photos and digitized video images. Clip Art Masterpieces is a collection of over 1,300 turn-of-the-century woodcuts and engravings covering 22 categories including animals, sports and transportation. T/Maker Co introduces a new package in its ClickArt series called Events & Holiday Cartoons. The $49.95 product features 100 black-and-white bit-mapped images of major holidays and events such as birthdays and vacations, created by Phil Frank. Can dye sublimation replace film proofing? (Dye-sublimation printers) Dye-sublimation printers help Apple Macintosh users create presentations and portfolios that have photographic-like color and clarity. Most pre-press professionals agree, however, that these printers do not currently provide an output quality that can replace film-based proofing. Advanced color-mapping and calibration technologies like those expected in PostScript Level 2, may help the machines replace film-based pre-press proofs. There are several printers available that offer this photo-like quality. Du Pont's $38,000, 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) 4CAST includes a PostScript interpreter and can print images up to 11.9 by 17.3 inches. Eastman Kodak's $24,895, 200 dpi XL 7700 printer does not include a PostScript interpreter but works with clone interpreters from various third parties. Nikon Electronic Imaging's $12,950, 203 dpi CP-3000 will have a PostScript available interpreter by late 1991. Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc's S340-10 dye-sublimation printer is less expensive at $13,995 but only prints at 150 dpi. Our role in the Japanese technology machine. (Commentary) (column) Gassee, Jean-Louis. Analysts who are concerned that Japan will overtake the US as the dominant force in the area of microcomputers do not criticize the US companies that provide intellectual and physical tools Japanese companies need. Analysts can look at a situation in which a US company provides competitive software and a Japanese company provides the complementary hardware as a Japanese invasion, the triumph of US ingenuity or simply the workings of the free market on an international level. The Japanese microcomputer industry has yet to produce competitive system software or hardware architectures so it relies on Western companies to sell or license these technologies. The US cannot afford to say no to the licensing or sale of these technologies and must work through its relationship with Japan without dwelling on perceived threats of Japanese dominance or resorting to 'Japan-bashing.' MultiFinder isn't really multitasking. (The Mac Manager) (Apple Macintosh system software) (column) The Apple Macintosh's MultiFinder extension to the Finder system software does not perform true multitasking. MultiFinder allows users to open several applications at one time but only one can be used at a time. Most programs cannot perform unless they are in the active window. The NeXT NeXTCube Unix-based workstation actually lets users layer many different windows that run applications simultaneously. The NeXT's pre-emptive multitasking is linked to a dynamic memory map so users do not have to pre-allocate enough memory for each application as MultiFinder requires. MultiFinder users cannot change the memory allocation of a program until they quit the application because the Macintosh's memory map is static, not dynamic like NeXT's. Apple should get rid of the static memory map and implement a dynamic allocation system so the Macintosh can have true pre-emptive multitasking. Looking sharp on plain paper. (high resolution PostScript printers)(LaserMAX Systems' LaserMAX 1000 Personal Typesetter and LaserMAX Systems' $7,995 LaserMAX 1000 Personal Typesetter and NewGen Systems Corp's $7,495 TurboPS/480 are two high-resolution printers based on the Canon SX laser engine and offering PostScript compatibility. The TurboPS/480's maximum resolution is 800 by 400 dots-per-inch (dpi). The LaserMAX 1000 has a top resolution of 1,000 by 1,000 dpi. Both printers offer better output in tests than a standard 300 dpi laser printer. However, in printing bit-mapped images, TIFF files show little increase in quality over a 300 dpi machine. The TurboPS/480 provides slightly lower quality than the LaserMAX but still is recommended over its competitor because its configuration and operation is the same as other PostScript/AppleTalk printers. The LaserMAX has more fonts and somewhat better output quality but its configuration is awkward. The printer must be connected to a NuBus card in a Apple Macintosh II-family host computer. AppleTalk network users may experience access interruption if the host is not dedicated exclusively to printing. Taxing programs return: TurboTax, MacInTax, Heizer. (Chipsoft Inc.'s TurboTax, Softview Inc.'s MacInTax and Heizer Software's Three tax preparation software packages for the Apple Macintosh are evaluated. ChipSoft Inc's $89 TurboTax is a new Macintosh version of the best-selling tax software ever. The product has lower-quality forms than the other packages reviewed, but the program's interface and performance are good. TurboTax includes tax advice and ChipSoft's documentation and technical support are excellent. Softview Inc's easy-to-use $99 MacInTax has excellent on-screen and paper forms and a handy itemization window feature. The product's on-screen help offers information from the Internal Revenue Service instruction booklet, but the package offers no tax advice. MacInTax does support for electronic filing and offers excellent customer assistance. Heizer Software's Heizer Tax Series is a set of templates for use with Microsoft Corp's Works integrated software and Excel spreadsheet software. The Heizer Tax series contains more forms than TurboTax or MacInTax but awkward printing and scant documentation make it recommended only to users experienced in filling out both spreadsheets and tax forms. The 1040 Individual version costs $39. Projecting a better Macintosh image. (LCD panels and data projectors for the Apple Macintosh)(includes related article on Users can project Apple Macintosh screen images onto a wall or a projection screen using liquid crystal display (LCD) projection panels or the data projectors. Both technologies have improved their capabilities and functions and many projection systems currently available are appropriate for most applications and budgets. LCD projection panels, which are flat plates placed on overhead projectors, are slower and offer fewer colors than data projectors. They are, however, relatively inexpensive, lightweight and easy to transport and set up and the newest projection-panel models offer a variety of colors. LCD projection panels are generally fast enough for simple animation but too slow for complex animation and multimedia. Data projectors are recommended for users who do not like the limitations of LCD projection panels. Data projectors project RGB (red, green, blue) beams directly onto a wall, providing a one-to-one correspondence between the Macintosh screen and the projected image. Data projectors are more expensive and bulkier than LCD projection panels and converging RGB beams requires expertise. New outlook for stack developers: HyperCard 2.0 brings optimism. (Claris Corp. data base management system) Claris Corp's new HyperCard 2.0, with its technical changes and new price, may brighten the prospects for HyperCard stack developers and their products. HyperCard products traditionally are difficult to market because, since the product was bundled free with every Macintosh sold from 1987 through 1990, users perceive the software and its stacks as worthless. They are reluctant, therefore, to pay for commercial products based on HyperCard. With the new version, developers are now seeing use of HyperCard in major businesses for the creation of internal applications. HyperCard stack vendors, however, still hear complaints about the overhead HyperCard requires. They say customers see it as an educational fun environment instead of a business productivity tool. Some vendors are turning their stacks into desk accessories that are readily accessible from the Apple menu. Tax help for DOS-based machines. (part 2) (Software Review) (tax preparation software; Personal Computers) (evaluation) Chipsoft Inc's $75 Turbotax, and MECA Software Inc's $89.95 Taxcut are tax preparation software packages for DOS-based microcomputers that assist in the filing of personal income tax forms. Both programs can extract data from other personal finance software programs, which facilitates the tax data gathering process. Tax planning features are included in both packages, which assists in the filing of next year's tax forms. Taxcut generally is a more complicated package that offers a lot of advice and explanation. Turbotax is a little faster and less complex and also offers considerable advice features. Both offer optional state tax programs, although Turbotax has a more comprehensive list. New Sidekick is sleek and slick. (Software Review) (Borland International's Sidekick 2.0; Peripherals) (evaluation) Borland International's $99.95 Sidekick 2.0 is a personal information management system package that includes windows and menus for ease of use and will work with a mouse if desired. The package is an office automation product that includes calendars and appointment schedulers. The improved features in this version include the time planner where an appointment alarm can call a particular number or send a message at a designated time. Other improvements include enhancements to the address book, communications module, calculator, and a spelling checker, which is being added to the notepad. Although the package only takes up 35Kbytes of internal memory, it does use 3Mbytes of hard disk space when installed. The package comes with a 212-page manual, plus a 71-page introductory supplement. Compaq to discuss Silicon link. (Compaq Computer Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc.) Compaq Computer Corp and Silicon Graphics Inc are negotiating a possible merger or joint technology development agreement. If the companies agree to merge it would combine two different sectors of the industry. Compaq is a manufacturer of high-quality IBM-compatible microcomputers, while Silicon Graphics is a market leader in the manufacturing of workstations. Analysts say that Compaq would either be interested in an outright acquisition of the company or a technology agreement linked with a significant equity investment. The merger would provide Compaq, who has recently developed its own workstation product, with instant access to the workstation market. In addition to utilizing Silicon's technical expertise in the field, Compaq would also benefit from the company's direct sales force. Computer data service is shut down by Nynex. (Info-look) Shapiro, Eben. Nynex Corp plans to suspend its Info-look electronic information service in May, 1991. It is a gateway service available in only three Northeastern cities, and it enables users with microcomputers to access information provided by other companies. The service has lost money in all three years of operation and reportedly attracts only 1,000 regular users. Nynex maintains that the main problem involves judicial restraints that prevents the company from owning the information services outright. The regulations effectively limit the company's ability to control the format and quality of the data provided. I.B.M. official moving to Northern Telecom. (Edward E. Lucente; Business People) Edward E. Lucente has been appointed a senior vice president for marketing and a member of the executive office of the Canadian telecommunications company Northern Telecom Inc. He has previously held a number of posts at IBM, including corporate vice president, president of the World Trade Asia Corporation unit, and head of the United States marketing division. He is also responsible for many of the cost-cutting strategies and work force reductions that have occurred at IBM since the middle of 1988. Lotus to add electronic mail unit; upgraded version of Notes computer program also planned. (Lotus Development Corp. acquires Lotus Development Corp announces its acquisition of electronic mail system publisher CC:Mail Inc. The acquisition marks the first big shift toward the integration of electronic mail by a major player in the computer software industry. Analysts believe that Lotus recognized the importance of e-mail in connection with the growth of its other software products. The company was reputed to have paid between $25 million to $30 million for the private company. Philippe Courtot, the head of cc:Mail, will retain his position although the acquired company will now become a division of Lotus. There are an estimated 850,000 users of cc:Mail's electronic mail system, and revenue for 1990 was $7.5 million. GeoWorks Ensemble lays the foundation for a brave new OS. (operating system; GeoWorks Inc.'s graphical user interface) GeoWorks Inc's $199.99 GeoWorks Ensemble graphical user interface (GUI) is an efficient and attractive package that can be run on 8088-, 8086- and 80286-based microcomputers. GeoWorks' PC/GEOS GUI is OSF/Motif-compliant and is faster and better-looking than the Microsoft Windows interface. Ensemble is divided into workspaces for novices, professionals and MS-DOS programs. The novice workspace includes simple desktop tools, while the professional workspace includes powerful features compatible with the novice tools. All the PC/GEOS program icons are stored in a single screen to provide a central reference point, but the location of the screen may confuse some users. PC/GEOS includes a WYSIWYG imaging model with extensive printer support. No PostScript printer driver or spreadsheet/database programs are included, and only one MS-DOS program can run at a time. Northgate, Icon feature Edsun Continuous Edge Graphics. (Edsun Laboratories Inc.'s digital to analog converter chip is used in Edsun Laboratories Inc's Continuous Edge Graphics Digital to Analog Converter is used in Icon Technologies International's $475 Photo Board graphics board and Northgate Computer Systems Inc's SlimLine 386/33 microcomputer to smooth jagged VGA output with anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing adjusts pixel colors at the edges of images to increase a monitor's perceived resolution. Both products include drivers for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x, Symphony and AutoCAD. The 16-bit Photo Board carries 1Mbyte of video RAM and offers 256 colors at Super VGA resolutions. The SlimLine is aggressively-priced and well-integrated. Icon and Northgate both use a version of Edsun's chip that is limited to 55 MHz, so 1,024-by-768 resolution is only supported on interlaced monitors. Non-interlaced monitors will be supported after April 1, 1991. The output from both systems in AutoCAD is outstanding. Storyboard Live! melds presentation & multimedia. (IBM's multimedia presentation software) (Software Review) (First Looks) IBM's $495 Storyboard Live! presentation graphics and multimedia software is an affordable package that includes features for creating both screen-based and multimedia presentations. Producing full-motion video requires IBM's M-Motion Adapter/A or Videologic's DVA-4000 graphics board. Pseudo video output can be produced by calling scanned images that are stored on disk, but this output is less attractive. Storyboard's animation effects, called sprites, can be modified, and limited sprites can be created. The user interface is arbitrary and non-intuitive. The program can import .PCX, .TIF and .CGM files, but images created with different palettes are not properly displayed. Storyboard also supports some non-IBM multimedia hardware products. Upgrades from previous Storyboard versions costs $120. OS/2 reconsidered: faster and smaller version 1.3. (IBM's OS/2 1.3 operating system) (Software Review) (First Looks) (evaluation) IBM's $345 OS/2 1.3 operating system has improved speed and font options, but its features are more likely to please users of previous OS/2 versions than new users. The OS/2 RAM requirement has been reduced from 2.5Mbytes to 2Mbytes, but 4Mbytes of RAM are required to do fast, productive work. OS/2 1.3 offers foreign language support and customized installation. Adobe Systems Inc's Type Manager (ATM) is included, and over 200 printers are supported. Any Type 1 font can be used on-screen and on the printer. IBM's REXX programming language is included to improve batch file programming. Some features from Presentation Manager programs do not run under OS/2 1.3, but all character-mode programs operate correctly. The new version corrects many past problems, but unless users have OS/2 software, most may want to wait to purchase OS/2 2.0. Release 11: AutoCAD remains leader of the pack. (Autodesk Inc.'s AutoCAD 11.0 computer-aided design software) (Software Review) Autodesk Inc's $3,500 AutoCAD 11.0 computer-aided design (CAD) software offers improved features for networking, solid modeling, shading, external drawing reference and custom application programming. AutoCAD 11.0 includes file locking, which prevents multiple network users from unintentionally accessing the same file simultaneously. The $495 Advanced Modeling Extension (AME) allows three-dimensional solid modeling using Boolean operators or custom-designed commands. AME can calculate mass properties of objects it has created, and cross-sections can be displayed and exported. AME objects are easily edited because AutoCAD records the objects and operators used in each object's creation. AME was created with the AutoCAD Development System (ADS), which allows users to program new functions. New data recovery and virtual memory features are also included. Ask*Me 2000 targets low-cost multimedia authoring. (Innovative Communications Systems Inc.'s Ask*Me 2000 2.01) (Software Review) Innovative Communications Systems Inc's $495 Ask*Me 2000 2.01 program development software offers a powerful and complex scripting language for producing multimedia presentations. Ask*Me 2000 can produce interactive presentations combining .PCX images, digitized sound, still-frame video, animation and text overlays, but full-motion video is not supported and no image capture, drawing or animation features are included. The program's graphical user interface includes some helpful features, but the script editor is very primitive. The script language itself is flexible and powerful. Text-positioning and color selection are difficult, but digitized photographs and sound are easily input, and presentations can be branched depending on user input. Connecting/ROOM loads terminal emulation software into high memory. (Helix Software Company Inc.'s utility program) (Software Helix Software Company Inc's $995 Connecting/ROOM utility program loads terminal emulation software into disk, expanded or extended memory to make conventional memory available for applications programs. Connecting/ROOM functions with 3270 terminal emulation programs using Token Ring, NetBIOS or IPX/SPX protocols. Coaxial and serial connections are also supported. Connecting/ROOM files load themselves into conventional memory and swaps the terminal emulation software into alternate memory when a hotkey is activated. About 50Kbytes of conventional RAM are saved when using Attachmate's Extra!, and over 100Kbytes are saved when using Novell's PCOX/GW3270 and DCA's IRMALAN. RoundTrip's 2-way data integration. (CFO Reporting Systems Inc.'s RoundTrip 2.0 program development software) (Software Review) CFO Reporting Systems Inc's $495 RoundTrip 2.0 versatile program development software allows data to be moved between worksheets or between spreadsheet and non-spreadsheet files. The fourth-generation language processes and sorts input data and can generate output in a variety of formats. Output to worksheets is described in .WK1 worksheet files with RoundTrip code added. These worksheet "pattern files" can also include normal spreadsheet formatting information. RoundTrip is complex, but extensive menus allow novices to use the program without fully understanding it. The interface is not always intuitive, and the help screens are not always sufficient. Up Periscope: new interface enhances debugger. (Periscope Company Inc.'s Periscope 5.0 debugger) (Software Review) (First Looks) Periscope Company Inc's Periscope 5.0 debugging software is a powerful package with extensive features. The program comes in five packages: $195 Model II-X includes software only, while $225 Model II includes an interrupt button and $595 Model I adds a board with 512Kbytes of RAM to safely store the Periscope software. A Micro Channel Architecture version of Model I costs $695 and holds 2Mbytes of RAM. Model IV costs $1,895 to $2,795 and traces instructions while the computer runs full speed. The Periscope software includes a menu similar to CodeView's. Program data is displayed in windows, while drop-down menus show tables and control options. Breakpoints and traces are set with function keys. Software interrupts are executed without affecting the operating system. The program requires 77Kbytes of RAM without menus or 135Kbytes with menus. Periscope only works with MS-DOS programs. dB RACE: a drop-in, high-speed database engine. (LodeStone Inc.'s dB RACE 1.04 add-in-on software) (Software Review) (First Looks) LodeStone Inc's $395 dB RACE 1.04 add-in software for data base management systems (DBMSs) is a data base engine that accelerates the performance of dBASE-compatible DBMSs. dB RACE can be added to FoxBase, FoxPro, Clipper, dBXL and dBASE II Plus. dBASE IV can also be used if the cache is disabled. The program monitors file operations and finds the fastest access methods for each data request from a set of compressed map files. dB RACE does not support all dBASE commands. If conditional queries are used, dB RACE executes commands on 5,000 records in 15 to 20 percent of the time it takes dBASE IV, and 50,000 records take only 2 to 6 percent of the time dBASE IV takes. The program's interface and documentation are not ideal, and the program is best for applications using large numbers of data base subsets and conditional queries. Planisoft: impressive scheduler lacks adequate docs. (Software Inc.'s project management software lacks sufficient documentation) ASD Software Inc's $349 Planisoft scheduling software for Microsoft Windows 3.0 takes advantage of many Windows features, but it is not as easy-to-use as it should be, and its tutorial is misleading and contradictory. The main scheduling screen shows a grid of days and times. When a block of time is dedicated to some activity, the appropriate section of the grid is filled with a user-determined color. Separate grids are maintained for each user, and meetings can be scheduled for groups. The program will check for schedule conflicts. A technical reference manual supplements the weak tutorial, which ASD plans to rewrite. A five-node network version of Planisoft costs $895, and a ten-node version costs $1,295. Arc+: a menu for Arc. (System Enhancement Associates Inc.'s utility program) (Software Review) (First Looks) (evaluation) System Enhancement Associates Inc's $89.95 Arc+ archiving software adds a menu-driven user interface to the well-known Arc utility program. The software displays files and archives in separate windows in either list or tree format. The basic Arc features can be accessed via one set of menus, but the full list of features are available using another set. File packing, unpacking, tagging and sorting are all supported. Users who dislike menus can still operate in command-line format. Overall, the menus and display features of this utility take some of the uncertainty out of file compression. Welcome to Windows; bring your checkbook. (hidden costs of using Microsoft Windows 3.0) (column) Users who invest in Microsoft Windows 3.0 (Win3) to use WYSIWYG word processing software may be surprised by the expense of adding additional products required to properly perform the task. The word processor included with Win3 lacks sufficient power for many tasks, so Ami Professional or Microsoft Word for Windows should be added. The HP Z font cartridge for the LaserJet II lacks headline fonts, but there are many possible cartridges and software packages that can be used instead. Adobe Systems Inc's Type Manager is required to produce fonts in large point sizes. The macro recorder does not offer macro editing, but Bridge Tool Kit increases macro power and allows editing. GUIs and word processors: strange bedfellows. (graphical user interfaces) (column) Microsoft Windows 3.0 has become the graphical user interface (GUI) of choice for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers, but Windows can reduce productivity for many tasks. Word processing programs are better under character-based interfaces because they are more efficient. Microsoft Word for Windows looks good and includes an excellent page-previewing feature, but it is extremely slow. GUI-based word processors tend to work best for arranging a document's final look, but character-based packages tend to be far better for entering text. When productivity is a central concern, there is still no substitute for an up-to-date character-based word processing program. Microsoft's OS/2 promise. (OS/2 remains the operating environment goal) (column) IBM and Microsoft Corp have reconciled some of their differences over OS/2 and Microsoft Windows, and the future of the two operating environments is becoming more clear. Microsoft is encouraged software developers to write products for Windows, and the company has improved support for Windows programs under OS/2. A software migration kit translates Windows programs to OS/2, and Microsoft plans to give OS/2 2.0 binary compatibility with Windows to allow Windows programs to be used directly. Microsoft has also indicated that the future version of OS/2, called OS/2 3.0, will support the Windows application program interface (API). IBM is responsible for most of the work on OS/2 2.0 and previous versions, but Microsoft has more control over future versions of the operating system. Windows may be part of OS/2 3.0 rather than a competitor, though it will still compete with OS/2 Presentation Manager. Maximum performance. (33-MHz 486 PCs)(includes related article on the Editors' Choice award winners) (Hardware Review) (overview of Thirty microcomputers based on Intel 33-MHz 80486 (486) microprocessors and the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus are reviewed. Systems from Amax Engineering Corp, Arche Technologies Inc, BitWise Designs Inc, Blackship Computer Systems Inc, Blue Star Marketing Inc, Boss Technology Corp, Club American Technologies Inc, Computer Market Place Inc, Diamond Technologies, Dynamic Decisions Inc, Dyna Micro Inc, Eltech Research Inc, Fortron/Source Corp, International Instrumentation Inc, Micro Express Inc, Micro Telesis Inc, National Micro Systems Inc, Northgate Computer Systems Inc, Novacor Inc, Panther Systems Ltd, PC Brand Inc, PC Pros/Touche Micro Technologies, Peregrine Computers, SAI Systems Laboratories Inc, Standard Computer Corp, Systems Integration Associates, Tangent Computer Inc, Tri-Star Computers Corp and Twinhead Corp are evaluated. ACMA Computers Inc.: ACMA 486/33 Engineering Workstation. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM ACMA Computers Inc's ACMA 486/33 Engineering Workstation offers good expansion capabilities, overall performance and support services. The $7,195 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 210Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA monitor and video board with 1Mbyte of video RAM and a 450-watt power supply. The FCC Class A-certified tower case has six drive bays and can hold two 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion boards. The AMI Voyager motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and one of the 8-bit card slots can hold a $225 32-bit memory board that can hold 16Mbytes of additional memory. The system's Conventional Memory and 800486 Instruction Mix test scores are very high, and its video performance is above average, but the hard disk is among the slowest tested. ACMA offers a 45-day money-back guarantee and provides one year of on-site service from TRW and a toll-free support line. Amax Engineering Corp.: Amax PC/486 Power Station. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM Amax Engineering Corp's Amax PC/486 Power Station offers average performance, good expansion potential and a reasonable price. The $7,795 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 355Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 20-inch Super VGA monitor and a video board with 1Mbyte of video RAM. The FCC Class A-certified tower case holds six half-height drive bays and a 250-watt power supply. The AMI Voyager motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and a $186 32-bit card can hold 16Mbytes of additional memory. Six 16-bit slots and one 8-bit slot are also included. The Amax PC/486 is only distributed by dealers, who provide service under the one-year warranty on parts and labor. An on-site service contract can be purchased from Memorex Telex Corp. Arche Technologies Inc.: Arche Legacy ProFile 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM Arche Technologies Inc's Arche Legacy ProFile 486-33 microcomputer offers excellent performance, support and expansion potential at a high price. The $13,734 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 256Kbyte RAM cache, a 338Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a Super VGA graphics board and a VGA monitor. The FCC Class B-rated holds a 220-watt power supply, two 3.5-inch drive bays, two half-height 5.25-inch bays and two full-height bays. The Arche motherboard can hold up to 64Mbytes of 32-bit RAM, two 8-bit card slots and six 16-bit slots. The Legacy ProFile's video and hard disk performance scores are among the highest in the test group, and its memory and processor scores are well above average. The system is sold only through dealers and includes a two-year warranty on parts and labor. On-site service is provided free for 30 days from TRW, and coverage can be extended to two years for $149. Bitwise Designs Inc.: Bitwise Model 433. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Bitwise Designs Inc's Bitwise 433 microcomputer offers flexible drive arrangement and fast video performance, but its price is high for a system that is average overall. The $10,809 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA board with 1Mbyte of video RAM and a monitor. The FCC Class A-certified mini-tower case holds three half-height drive bays and a set of bays that can hold two half-height drives, two 1-inch-thick 3.5-inch drives and a standard 3.5-inch drive, or two standard 3.5-inch drives and a 1-inch-thick 3.5-inch drive. The AIR motherboard has slots for five 16-bit and two 8-bit expansion boards. All system RAM is stored on a 32-bit expansion card that can hold up to 16Mbytes. Disk performance is slower than average, although the Bitwise video score ties for first place. Processor RAM cache: hype or help? (supplementing the 80486 microprocessor's cache) Microprocessor RAM cache effectiveness varies between microcomputers depending upon the interaction of the CPU and system RAM. Because current DRAM chips cannot keep pace with the fastest microprocessors, caches of faster SRAM are used as a buffer between the microprocessor and the CPU. Intel's 80486 microprocessor includes an internal cache, but 8Kbytes is not large enough for an optimal solution. Determining an optimal cache size is guesswork because a 100 percent hit rate requires that the cache must be large enough to hold all program instructions the processor accesses before the cache is updated. Caches from 8Kbytes to about 64Kbytes achieve hit rates from about 83 to 86 percent. Ensuring a 100 percent hit rate would require using 640Kbytes of expensive SRAM in a MS-DOS environment. Blackship Computer Systems Inc.: Blackship 486/33I. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM Blackship Computer Systems Inc's Blackship 486/33I microcomputer offers acceptable performance, but its expansion capability is limited and its price is not compelling. The $6,827 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 202Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a Super VGA monitor and board with 512Kbytes of video RAM. The Atronics International motherboard holds 8Mbytes of RAM. An additional 8Mbytes can be added via a 32-bit expansion board, but the memory board replaces the RAM cache board. The system can hold six 16-bit board slots and two 8-bit slots. The FCC Class B-certified case holds five half-height drive bays and a 220-watt power supply. System performance is average, but video performance is slower than average. Blackship offers a seven-day unconditional guarantee and a 30-day conditional guarantee. On-site service from GE is available at extra cost. Blue Star Marketing Inc.: Blue Star 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Blue Star Marketing Inc's Blue Star 486/33 microcomputer offers average expandability, support and performance at a moderate price. The $6,799 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 208Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA monitor and board with 1Mbyte of video RAM. The Blue Star motherboard can hold the system limit of 16Mbytes of RAM and eight expansion boards. The FCC Class A-certified desktop case holds five half-height 5.25-inch drive bays. The Blue Star video performance is very fast, and the system performance is average. Blue Star Marketing offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, one year of TRW on-site service and a 24-hour toll-free support line. Boss Technology Corp.: Boss 486 Model 4633. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Boss Technology Corp's Boss 486 4633 microcomputer offers a two-year warranty, high-quality components and an acceptable price. The $7,995 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The tower case holds a 300-watt power supply and five half-height and two 3.5-inch drive bays. The power supply's fan rate can be adjusted to increase system cooling. The AMI motherboard can hold 32Mbytes of RAM, although memory can be added on a 32-bit memory board instead. The system is well designed and constructed. Club American Technologies Inc.: Club Hawk IIITi. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM Club American Technologies Inc's Club Hawk IIITi microcomputer offers expandability, good performance and sturdy construction at a good price. The $6,100 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 256Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 338Mbyte hard disk with a 32Kbyte buffer and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Club American Technologies motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of memory, and 8Mbytes of additional RAM can be added on a $150 expansion board. One expansion slot will hold the 32-bit memory board or a 16-bit board, and the system includes seven other 16-bit slots. The Hawk's processor and memory benchmark scores are average, but its disk scores are above average and its video scores are high. The FCC Class B-rated tower case holds a 250-watt power supply and nine half-height drive bays. A 30-day money-back guarantee and one year of on-site service from GE are included. Computer Market Place Inc.: Ultra 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Computer Market Place Inc's Ultra 486-33 microcomputer offers excellent configuration flexibility, good support and service, average performance and decent expandability at a good price. The $6,499 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA adapter and monitor, a 211Mbyte hard disk, a 130-key keyboard and an uninterruptible 220-watt power supply. The FCC Class A-certified tower case holds six half-height drive bays. The Cache Computers motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM, seven 16-bit expansion slots and one 8-bit slot. The Ultra's video benchmark scores were low, but Computer Market Place includes a memory-resident utility that should improve video performance. A 45-day money-back guarantee and on-site service from Phoenix Technology are included. Diamond Technologies: Diamond 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Diamond Technologies' Diamond 486-33 microcomputer offers good performance and expandability at a good price, but on-site service and a toll-free technical support line are not available. The $5,499 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 360Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The AMI Voyager motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and up to 16Mbytes of additional memory can be added on a 32-bit memory board. The motherboard has six 16-bit expansion slots and one 8-bit slot. The 32-bit slot can be used for an 8-bit board instead. The tower case includes a 220-watt power supply and six half-height drive bays. The system's memory benchmark score ties for first place, and it has high scores on the other benchmarks. A 30-day money-back guarantee and a 15-month warranty on parts and labor is included. Dynamic Decisions Inc.: Dynex 486. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Dynamic Decisions Inc's Dynex 486 microcomputer offers acceptable performance, expandability, service and support, but it must be obtained through value-added resellers (VARs) at a relatively high price. The $7,495 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disks, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA adapter with 512Kbytes of video RAM and a Super VGA monitor. The FCC Class A-rated tower case holds six half-height drive bays and a 230-watt power supply. The AMI Voyager motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and a $295 expansion board can hold up to 16Mbytes of additional memory. The 32-bit memory board slot can hold an 8-bit card instead. Another 8-bit and six 16-bit slots are included. On-site service is provided by TRW except in New York City, where the VAR performs warranty service. Dynamic Decisions provides a 30-day money-back guarantee. Dyna Micro Inc.: Work Master 486 33 Cache. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Dyna Micro Inc's Work Master 486 33 Cache microcomputer has a fairly high price, but it offers excellent design and superior graphics performance. The $9,999 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 256Kbyte RAM cache, a 320Mbyte hard disk, two 1.2Mbyte and one 1.44Mbyte floppy disks, a Super VGA monitor with 1Mbyte of video RAM and a Super VGA monitor. The AIR motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM and eight 16-bit expansion boards. The disk controller supports three floppy drives or two floppies and a tape backup. The system performance is average, but video performance is the best in the test group. The FCC Class A-rated tower case holds six half-height drive bays and a 250-watt power supply. Eltech Research Inc.: Eltech Model 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Eltech Research Inc's Eltech 486-33 microcomputer offers average performance and adequate expansion capabilities, but it is reasonably priced and includes a 60-day money-back guarantee and one year of on-site service from Intel. The $5,559 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 300Mbyte hard disk, 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA adaptor and monitor. The AMI Voyager motherboard accepts up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and 16Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a 32-bit memory board. Two 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion slots are included. The desktop case holds five half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. The Eltech's disk drive is slower than average, but its video performance is better than average. Very little of the documentation included with the system is useful, but Eltech Research has a toll-free support line. Fortron/Source: Fortron NetSet 433I. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Fortron/Source Corp's Fortron NetSet 433I microcomputer offers acceptable performance, decent expandability and one year of on-site service at a low price. The $5,495 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 207Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The AMI motherboard can store 16Mbytes of RAM, and 16Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a 32-bit memory board. Six 16-bit slots and one 8-bit slot are also included, and only two slots were occupied in the test configuration. The FCC Class B-certified desktop case holds five half-height drive bays. The Fortron NetSet's performance on all benchmark tests is about average. International Instrumentation Inc.: Blue Max Monolith 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM International Instrumentation Inc's Blue Max Monolith 486/33 microcomputer offers good expansion capability and better-than-average performance, but its price is relatively high and it lacks on-site service. The $8,726 test configuration includes 8MBytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 300Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The desktop case holds five half-height drive bays and a 230-watt power supply. The AMI Voyager motherboard holds 8Mbytes of RAM and can accept 16Mbytes of additional memory on a 32-bit expansion board. Two 8-bit and six 16-bit slots are also included. The small setup and use section in the system documentation is helpful. International Instrumentation provides telephone support, but the system must be sent to the vendor or dealer for repairs under the one-year warranty. Micro Express: Micro Express ME 486-ISA/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Micro Express Inc's 486-ISA/33 microcomputer offers excellent performance and expandability, but although the system is covered by a two-year warranty, no on-site service is included. The $7,224 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 330Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The AMI motherboard can hold 16Mbytes of RAM and eight 16-bit expansion cards. The tower case has not yet been FCC-rated, but Micro Express expects a Class B rating. The case holds ten half-height drive bays and a 250-watt power supply with five device connectors. Disk drive is above average and video performance was very good. The system documentation is limited, but Micro Express provides phone support and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Micro Telesis Inc.: Micro Telesis 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Micro Telesis Inc's 486/33 microcomputer offers good processor, memory and video performance, but its hard disk is slow and it lacks on-site service. The $7,199 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The mini-tower case holds five half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. The SIC Research motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a 32-bit expansion board. Slots for seven 16-bit boards are also included. No system documentation is included, and although the warranty covers parts and labor for 13 months, telephone diagnostics and parts shipping are offered in lieu of on-site service. National Micro Systems Inc.: Flash 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible National Micro Systems Inc's Flash 486-33 microcomputer offers good performance and expandability at a low price, although on-site service is not available. The $4,999 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 300Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The FCC Class A-certified tower case holds eight half-height drive bays and a 230-watt power supply. The AMI Voyager motherboard holds 8Mbytes of RAM and accepts up to 16Mbytes of additional memory on an expansion board. Two 8-bit and six 16-bit expansion board slots are also included. The system's hard disk and video performance is above average. The technical manuals from the components are included, but no system manual is provided. National Microsystems offers telephone support, a 15-month warranty on parts and a two-year warranty on labor. Northgate Computer Systems Inc.: Northgate Elegance 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM Northgate Computer Systems Inc's Northgate Elegance 486/33 microcomputer offers good design and performance, useful documentation, excellent service and FCC Class B certification. The $7,195 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The Motherboard Factory motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional memory can be stored on a 32-bit memory card. Seven additional expansion slots are included. The tower case holds seven half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply with five device connectors. Northgate Computer Systems provides toll-free phone support and next-day parts replacement. On-site service is provided by Sorbus. Novacor Inc.: Novas OPTimum 486-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Novacor Inc's Novas OPTimum 486-33 microcomputer offers average performance and plenty of space for storage devices at a reasonable price. The $6,286 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA adapter and a VGA monitor. The Novacor motherboard can accommodate up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a $195 32-bit expansion board. No RAM cache is included on the motherboard, but another 32-bit slot can hold a $295 128Kbyte or $395 512Kbyte cache board. One 8-bit and five 16-bit expansion slots are also included. The FCC Class A-certified case holds five half-height and two full-height drive bays. Novacor covers the system with a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Panther Systems Ltd.: Panther 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Panther Systems Ltd's Panther 486/33 microcomputer offers an excellent warranty, acceptable performance and a low price. The $4,999 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a VGA board and monitor. The Award Vantage motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM and eight 16-bit expansion boards, but it has no RAM cache. The tower case accommodates six half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. The system's disk and video performance is above average. Very little documentation is included with the system, but Panther Systems offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, telephone support and parts shipment and optional on-site service from GE. All boards in the system are covered by a three-year warranty, and other components have a one-year warranty. The motherboard can be upgraded. PC Brand Inc.: PC Brand 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers PC Brand Inc's 486/33 microcomputer offers good performance and expandability at a good price. The $5,908 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 256Kbyte RAM cache and a Super VGA board and monitor. The PC Brand motherboard can hold up to 32Mbytes of RAM, seven 16-bit expansion boards and a 16-bit proprietary board for a Weitek 4167 coprocessor. The desktop case holds five half-height drive bays, one 3.5-inch bay and a 200-watt power supply. Most of the system's benchmark scores are average, and its video performance is better than average. PC Brand includes a five-year warranty on parts and a one-year warranty on labor. PC Brand also provides a toll-free service number. TRW provides on-site service. PC Pros/Touche Micro Technologies: Touche 486-33 Model 5550. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC Pros/Touche Micro Technologies' Touche 486-33 5550 microcomputer offers good design, expandability and performance at a reasonable price. The $5,499 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 338Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA adapter with 1Mbyte of video RAM and a Super VGA monitor. The AMI motherboard can hold up to 32Mbytes of RAM. The FCC Class B-certified tower case holds six half-height drive bays and a 250-watt power supply. Hard disk performance is excellent, and video performance is above average. The system documentation is merely a compilation of component manuals, but Touche Micro Technologies offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor with on-site service from TRW. Peregrine Computers: Peregrine 486/33 Flyer. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Peregrine Computers' Peregrine 486/33 Flyer microcomputer has good design, construction and expandability, but its price is relatively high. The $6,999 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA board and monitor. The AMI motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and 16Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a $225 32-bit expansion board. Six 16-bit slots and one 8-bit slot are also included. The tower case holds six half-height drive bays and a 300-watt power supply. The 486/33's performance is about average. Peregrine Computers provides a one-year warranty on parts and labor and a toll-free telephone support line, but no on-site service is included. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc.: SAI 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's SAI 486/33 microcomputer offers average performance and expandability at a low price. The $5,195 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAm, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 212Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The AIR motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM and seven 16-bit expansion boards. The desktop case holds five half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. SAI provides a three-year warranty on labor and a one-year warranty on parts. SAI also maintains a telephone support line, but no on-site service is available. Standard Computer Corp.: Standard 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Standard Computer Corp's Standard 486/33 microcomputer offers good performance, a large RAM capacity and a low price. The $6,315 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The AMI Voyager motherboard can hold 32Mbytes of RAM, six 16-bit expansion slots and two 8-bit expansion slots. One of the 8-bit slots can also hold a 32-bit memory board with 16Mbytes of additional memory. The FCC Class A-certified mini-tower case holds three half-height drive bays, two 3.5-inch bays and a 200-watt power supply. The system's benchmark scores rank in the top ten percent of the tested systems. Standard Computer provides a toll-free support number with its one-year warranty on parts and labor, and TRW provides on-site service. Systems Integration Associates: SIA 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Systems Integration Associates' SIA 486/33 microcomputer is expensive, but it offers high performance and good expandability. The $10,725 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, two 1.2Mbyte floppy drives, a 322Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The SIA motherboard can store 32Mbytes of RAM, and additional memory can be added via an expansion board. Six 16-bit and two 8-bit expansion board slots are included, but only four 16-bit slots and one 8-bit slot are free in standard configuration. The tower case includes ten half-height drive bays and a 450-watt power supply. The SIA 486/33 is available only through dealers, who may provide extended and on-site service, but SIA offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and runs a toll-free telephone support line. Tangent Computer Inc.: Tangent 433i. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers Tangent Computer Inc's Tangent 433i microcomputer offers a two-year warranty on parts and labor, high-quality components and a reasonable price. The $6,690 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 128Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Advanced Integration Research motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM and eight 16-bit expansion boards, and the tower case holds six half-height drive bays. The system's video and hard disk performance ranks among the top performers, although its processor and memory scores are at the low end of the evenly-matched group. Tangent Computer can create custom systems to meet user requirements. Tangent can also provide TRW on-site coverage under warranty for some problems. Tri-Star Computer Corp.: Flash Cache 486. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Tri-Star Computer Corp's Flash Cache 486 microcomputer offers acceptable performance and expandability at a good price. The $6,235 test configuration includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The AMI motherboard holds 8Mbytes of RAM and can accommodate a 32-bit memory card with 8Mbytes of additional memory. Six 16-bit expansion slots are unused in the test configuration. The tower case holds five half-height and three full-height drive bays, but Tri-Star does not offer hard disks larger than 200Mbytes. The case includes a carrying handle and wheels for improved mobility. Tri-Star provides a 60-day money-back guarantee and a two-year warranty on parts and labor. Twinhead Corp.: Twinhead Superset 600/433. (Hardware Review) (one of 30 evaluations of 33-MHz 80486-based IBM PC-compatible Twinhead Corp's Twinhead Superset 600/433 microcomputer offers a compact and affordable package, but its performance is lower than average and its small size limits the system to personal workstation use. The $6,325 test configuration includes 8MBytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 204Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA adapter and monitor. The Twinhead Superset uses a passive backplane design, which accepts four 16-bit expansion cards and a proprietary processor card. The small-footprint desktop case holds two one-third-height drive bays, one half-height bay and a 3.5-inch bay. Twinhead offers a one-year warranty with on-site service from Nationwide Warranty Co. 1-2-3 release 3.1: graphic improvements. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet software) (Software Review) Lotus Development Corp's $595 Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet software includes Wysiwyg, a version of PC Publishing Inc's Impress add-in software that provides publishing features for Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 can run in Microsoft Windows 3.0's protected mode, and the package includes a mouse interface and allows greater control over screen appearance. The package is significantly better than than version 2.2 with Allways, but there are some inconsistencies between Wysiwyg and the host spreadsheet, which reduces ease of use. The program requires 1Mbyte of RAM and an 80286 or better processor. 1-2-3 3.1 allows multipage worksheets, file linking, virtual memory, background printing and performing relational operations on external data. If those features are not important, users can gain version 3.1's publishing capability by purchasing the $149 Impress 2L package. DR DOS 5.0: the better operating system? (Digital Research Inc.'s operating system)(includes related articles on differences between Digital Research Inc's $199 DR DOS 5.0 operating system offers command improvements over MS-DOS, memory-management and battery-saving utilities and a graphical user interface based on Digital Research's GEM environment. DR DOS and software drivers are loaded into high memory, freeing low memory for applications software. DR DOS can run almost all software written for MS-DOS, although some MS-DOS utilities do not run properly. DR DOS can be run from ROM, allowing computers to boot without accessing a disk drive. Most commands have a help function listing proper syntax and options, and features and functions are added to the basic list of MS-DOS utilities. DR DOS 5.0 has no significant flaws, and even if it does not become a popular operating system, its presence in the market will require Microsoft Corp to improve MS-DOS in significant ways. External LAN adapters: building workgroup solutions. (Overview of three evaluations of portable local area network D-Link Systems Inc's D-Link Ethernet Pocket LAN Adapter, Xircom Inc's Xircom Pocket LAN Adapter and IQ Technologies Inc's pLAN external local area network (LAN) adapters are evaluated. These LAN adapters connect to the parallel port of a microcomputer or portable computer to provide quick or portable network access. Although external adapters are easily installed and used, they provide about 75 percent slower throughput than internal adapters, and they are not compatible with all parallel ports. Several models of the adapters are available, but all testing was conducted using the 'thin Ethernet' versions. D-Link Systems, Inc.: D-Link Ethernet Pocket LAN Adapter. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable external D-Link Systems Inc's $495 Ethernet Pocket LAN Adapter is easily installed and performs well despite its small size. The Pocket LAN Adapter comes with a carrying pouch that accommodates the installation guide as well as the adapter. Installation merely involves connecting the Pocket LAN Adapter to the computer's parallel port and the network cable, but the parallel port cannot be used for other activities while the adapter is connected. D-Link offers adapters for thick Ethernet, thin Ethernet and 10BaseT Ethernet networks and includes software for many network operating systems. IQ Technologies Inc.: p.LAN. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable external local area network adapters in IQ Technologies Inc's $695 pLAN Ethernet external LAN adapter is designed for use with a desktop microcomputer, so it is larger than the other adapters tested, but it provides a local parallel port, fast throughput and a well-designed connector. The one-pound pLAN includes a short cable, so the adapter can be placed next to or on the computer, allowing users to see the diagnostic and status information on the front panel. The adapter runs a diagnostic test each time the driver software is run. The parallel printer port on the pLAN yields to network traffic in case of conflict. pLAN adapters for ARCNET networks cost $495, while Token-Ring adapters cost $950 and 10BaseT costs $795. pLAN is easily installed, and its software automatically configures the parallel port. Xircom Inc.: Xircom Pocket LAN Adapter. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of portable external local area network adapters Xircom Inc's Pocket LAN Adapter comes in versions for most wiring standards and operating systems, and a wide range of support is available, although Xircom's products have slower throughput than the other tested adapters. The $595 Ethernet Pocket LAN Adapter includes a power supply and diagnostics software. Versions for ARCNET and Token-Ring are also available. A $95 multiplexor allows a parallel printer to be connected while the adapter is in use. The documentation is useful for installation and troubleshooting. Although adequate, Xircom's Ethernet adapter did not perform as well as competing products in throughput tests. Math coprocessors: fact or fantasy. (includes related article on choosing a math coprocessor) Math coprocessors can greatly improve microcomputer performance, but increases in speed are dependent upon the type of software being used, so math coprocessors are not necessary for most users. Coprocessors perform floating-point operations more efficiently than general-purpose microprocessors can, but most applications require few floating-point calculations. Engineering and scientific applications that use transcendental functions are likely to benefit coprocessors, and some computer-aided design applications benefit. Intel Corp's 80387, Cyrix Corp's 83D87 and EMC87 and Integrated Information Technology Inc's 3C87 offer similar performance gains, but Intel's 80486 chip outperforms all four coprocessor and microprocessor combinations on the benchmark tests. Coprocessor performance should not vary significantly in everyday use. The 80387: a programmer's perspective. (Intel Corp.'s 80387 math coprocessor) Intel 80387 math coprocessors must be controlled by program code to provide performance improvement. The 80387 can be detected by checking the Control Register bit for a 1. When the 80386 microprocessor is given an 80387 instruction, it passes the instruction when the 80387 is idle and proceeds to the next instruction. Programmers should use the FWAIT instruction to prevent the 80386 from using 80387 output before it has been calculated. The 80387 uses seven different data types and includes eight 80-bit registers that can be used as individual registers or a stack. All 80387 assembly language mnemonics begin with "F," and all 80387 instructions begin with the bits 11011. The 80387 instruction set includes a few instructions not supported by Intel's 80287 math coprocessor. What about the Weitek? (Weitek Corp.'s 3167 and 4167 math coprocessors) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Weitek Corp's 3167 math coprocessor is not widely supported, and it does not provide better performance than other coprocessors in most commercial applications that support it. Weitek's Abacus series of coprocessors, which includes the 3167 and 4167, uses memory mapping and an architecture dissimilar to Intel Corp's 80387 math coprocessor, so software supporting the 80387 does not support the 3167. Weitek's coprocessors are supported by about 38 applications, but the performance increase provided by the chips is reduced by I/O activity. It should be noted that Weitek used a large RAM disk to minimize disk overhead in its testing, and also employed a high-end graphics coprocessor to increase the speed of video displays. Handle your expense account the easy way with JOURNAL.COM. (Utilities)(includes related articles on customization procedures JOURNAL.COM is a utility program to record expenses and produce expense account reports. JOURNAL can be run as a memory-resident program or as a standalone application under MS-DOS. The utility includes calendar and scheduling features in addition to its expense accounting features. JOURNAL can report either the total of outstanding expenses or a list of daily, itemized expenses. Daily records can be purged once they have been reported, and the purged records can be archived for future reference. DOS commands for JOURNAL are included. Determining the colors available on an output device. (Environments) (Column) (tutorial) Microcomputer video adapters using 24-bit RGB color running Microsoft Windows typically display 16 or 256 colors, and because the default colors vary from board to board, it is useful to determine the colors available to individual boards. The RGB color model is described by a cube because color is represented by three parameters. The CLRCUBE utility displays an unfolded color cube, which has vertices colored red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, black and white. The six external sides of the cube and two internal diagonals are displayed as squares composed of 17-by-17 grids. The color cube can display pure or dithered colors. Dithering is a method of combining pure colors to produce more colors. An introduction to the DOS Protected Mode Interface. (Power Programming) (Column) (tutorial) The DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) is an MS-DOS extender designed by Microsoft Corp to allow Windows 3.0 to use extended memory while applications run in protected mode. Microsoft initially developed DPMI without regard for the Virtual Control Program Interface (VCPI), the industry-standard DOS extender, but the DPMI specification has been developed by an open committee, and Microsoft has eliminated the portions of DPMI that conflict with DOS extenders. DPMI allows multitasking, runs on microcomputers using 80286 and 80386 microprocessors and supports a kernel/user protection model. The DPMI specification supports functions related to the management of Local Descriptor Tables (LDTs), DOS memory, extended memory, page memory, interrupts, translation services and miscellaneous services. Unisys suspends its dividends on preferred: decision reflects struggle with $3.7 billion debt; price of common jumps. (Unisys Unisys Corp suspends dividend payments on its preferred stock in an attempt to further reduce its heavy debt of nearly $3.7 billion. The move to withhold dividend payments in Feb 1991 will save the computer maker around $120 million a year. Unisys' preferred stock tumbled $3 a share and closed at $8 a share on Feb 11, 1991. The company's common stock closed at $4.50 a share for the day. Unisys posted a loss of nearly $436.7 million for 1990, which brings the loss for 1989 and 1990 up to $1.1 billion on annual sales of $10 billion. The computer maker suspended dividend payments on its common stock in Sep 1990, a move which will save it around $160 million a year. Europe's 2 giants of cellular phones to join forces. (Oy Nokia AB and Technophone Ltd.) Finnish cellular telephone maker Oy Nokia AB agrees to acquire British cellular telephone manufacturer Technophone Ltd for $67.6 million. The acquisition of Technophone, a privately held company created in 1984, is the first by Nokia since 1987. Nokia's cellular telephone division suffered an operating loss in 1989, but industry analysts believe it successfully recovered in 1990. Analysts note that the acquisition of Technophone will boost Nokia's annual cellular telephone sales by 13 percent; it is estimated that Technophone produces around 200,000 cellular telephones in Great Britain and Hong Kong. Nynex discloses it will suspend videotex service. (Nynex Corp.) Carnevale, Mary Lu. NYNEX Corp announces that it is cancelling its videotex offerings because the service generated several million dollars a year in losses. Videotex is a service offered to users with microcomputers and provides customers with a variety of information including news, weather, stock information and sports. NYNEX indicates that the videotex service may be reopened if the regulatory, judicial and economic climate improves. Other companies that offer videotex services also express some difficulty in attracting customers and providing a wide variety of information services. NYNEX states that its inability to control the interfaces between various services was a factor in its decision. Northern Telecom gets IBM's Lucente to run marketing. (Who's News) (Edward Lucente) Northern Telecom Ltd lures Edward Lucente, 51, from IBM in a move that industry observers are calling mildly surprising. Lucente joined IBM in 1961 as a systems engineer and has been mentioned as a successor to Pres and CEO John Akers on various occasions. Lucente was in charge of IBM's overseas operations in Asia and the Pacific and was expected to return to the U.S. in 1991. Observers did not expect Lucente's return to the U.S. to be marked by a retirement from IBM. Lucente, who will be in charge of overseas corporate policy at Northern Telecom, mentioned that the opportunity at the telecommunications concern was excellent; he feels he is young enough to take advantage of it. O.K., it was just one quarter. Still.... (earnings gains at IBM, DEC, and DG offer hope for computer makers)(Data General Corp.) Digital Equipment, IBM and Data General all report larger earnings than expected for the quarter ending Dec 31, 1990. Many industry analysts regard this as an indication that some computer makers are adapting to a market that is moving towards more standardized designs and away from older, proprietary products. Microcomputer manufacturers, unlike the larger old-style computer makers, continue to fare well. Although Data General had to lay off 2,000 employees in Aug 1990, it reported a profit of $15.5 million on revenues of $312 million for the quarter. DG has not posted an annual profit for five years. DEC's recent decision to layoff 3,500 people is expected to save it $600 million in annual costs. IBM's new resurgence in the market is reflected in net profits of $2.5 billion on $23 billion in revenues for the quarter. This satellite company runs rings around rivals. (Luxembourg's Societe Europeenne des Satellites)(Science & Technology: Societe Europeenne des Satellites' (SES) Astra medium-power satellite, launched in 1988, was designed to broadcast TV programs to home rooftop receivers across Europe. The company's initial $240 million investment paled against the $2.7 billion its rivals were able to produce to fund four similar projects. In 1991, however, SES's persistence has paid off. Nearly 20 million European homes receive programs transmitted by Astra. While most of those come indirectly through cable operators, an estimated two million homes have the company's $300 24-inch, direct-to-home reception dish. The demand from broadcasters is so great that SES plans to launch a second satellite on Feb 21, 1991. Two more are planned for 1993 and 1994. The four satellites, moving in the same orbit, should supply 48 TV channels. Sources say that the major US cable companies are already negotiating with SES for distribution channels. AT&T slowly gets its global wires uncrossed. (Information Processing: telecommunications) AT&T's share of the international telecommunications and computer markets has shown considerable growth in recent years. By 1990, the company was receiving $5 billion annually, or 15 percent of its revenues, from foreign sales and services and international calling. Foreign sales of equipment rose 35 percent in 1990, up from 8.2 percent in 1984. The number of foreign employees has grown dramatically from the initial 50 in 1983, to an estimated 21,000 in more than 40 countries. The trend towards global telecommunications is seen by many analysts as essential for the company's future survival. Some observers believe that AT&T's attempt to takeover NCR Corp is partly because of NCR's foreign business presence. As more of its major clients seek international communications capabilities, AT&T must implement advanced voice and data networks world-wide and learn to share its technology and know-how. Now software isn't safe from Japan: it's turning programming into a factory job. (Information Processing: software) Japan's new success in writing huge custom programs and its use of 'embedded' software is creating interest among US software designers, even though US suppliers still control more than 60 percent of the world packaged software market. Japanese companies regard programming as a manageable and quantifiable process, emphasizing standardization of design and reusable code. Software engineering is not the wide open creative endeavor it has come to symbolize in the US. The Japanese have considerable success by creating software factories where heavily monitored programmers are crammed into buildings emulating its auto assembly plants. Some analysts maintain that this form of production-line programming increases the lines of source code yield per programmer by as much as 70 percent, and decreases the number of defects by as much as half. MCI aims at FTS 2000; tariff hopes to beat AT&T, Sprint prices. Sweeney, Terry; Schwartz, Jeffrey. MCI Communications Corp submitted a tariff that undercuts FTS 2000 pricing for domestic and international long distance, inbound toll-free and private-line services. The filing is part of the company's continuing challenge to AT&T and US Sprint Communications, the leading suppliers of FTS 2000 network services, by telling the government it can save money by using its Government Telecommunications Service (GTS). The tariff also presses the General Services Administration (GSA) to examine areas in which FTS 2000 pricing can be lowered. The offering provides a flat fee per minute usage charge; FTS 2000 rates are distance-sensitive. Is Timeplex on the block? Schultz, Beth; Chester, John S., Jr. Unisys Corp may sell or spin off Timeplex Inc as a separate public entity in order to raise badly needed cash. Unisys posted a net loss of $436.7 million for 1990, compared with a loss of $639.3 million the previous year. Officials from both companies refused to comment, nor would representatives comment from several companies rumored to be interested in purchasing Timeplex. When Unisys purchased Timeplex in 1988 the T1 market was growing at over 30 percent a year, but it has shrunk to 13 percent in 1991. Timeplex's market share declined along with the market. New shine on NetWare; Novell to unveil links at NetWorld. (product announcement) Novell is introducing new products and enhancements that push the NetWare network operating system to the forefront of client-server computing. Connectivity is improved, providing access to more systems and networks. The introductions will be made at Boston's NetWorld '91 trade show. Version 3.11 of NetWare provides wider connectivity through NetWare Loadable Modules (NLM). A complete Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) NLM connects disparate networks; it is included free. Prices range from $3,495 to $12,495. DOT maps out network plan: FDDI Mega-LAN. (U.S. Dept. of Transportation) The US Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to install a FDDI-based local area network (LAN), possibly the world's largest. The 15,000-node LAN will process documents with image-based technology that will replace paper. A prototype of the network is already running. The DOT is also upgrading four central office switches with integrated services digital network (ISDN) interfaces, in preparation for an ISDN trial. A new headquarters building in Washington, DC, will house one of the government's most elaborate telecommunications networks by the end of the decade. E-mail agreement; Novell to take ownership of, evolve Action Technologies' messaging-standard products. Action Technologies Inc is expected to sign an agreement with Novell Inc to strengthen Message Handling Service (MHS), the popular but beleaguered electronic mail standard. Novell will own the MHS engine and source code and assume full responsibility for the evolution of the standard. Action Technologies, the original developer, will license the standard from Novell. Action will continue to develop MHS-based applications. NetWorld to offer variety; wide range of new products. Levine, Judith. The Boston NetWorld '91 trade show in mid-Feb 1991 will feature a range of new local area network (LAN) products based on microwave signals to two new network management systems. Motorola Inc Radio-Telephone Systems Group's Wireless In-building Network provides 10M-bps throughput with microwave radio technology. It lists for $710 per port in a multiple-port configuration. Fibermux Corp will introduce its LightWatch network management system, featuring an X-Windows interface, for $4,500. Cabletron Systems Inc will introduce two gateways to link its Spectrum and Remote Lanview/Windows network management systems to NetView. Novell goes outside for net mgm't. (increased reliance on third-party network management products as its own are delayed) Novell Inc is experiencing delays in the development of its own network management architecture and finds itself relying on third-party development. Novell's first product in the line, the Communication Services Manager for NetWare 386, was originally targeted for an Oct 1990 release; it is now expected in mid-1991. Novell made a mistake in aligning itself with Network Computing Inc to link NetWare systems management with enterprise network management tools. The company announced a non-exclusive agreement to encourage sales of NCI's NetWare 286 LANAlert through its distribution channels. Novell's first Simple Network Management Protocol server agent is expected to be announced in mid-Feb 1991. Hayes jumps in; its first net operating system is coming. (Hayes Microcomputer Products' LANstep) Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc is ready to introduce a network operating system that provides both peer-to-peer and server-based computer networks. LANstep is a multitasking network operating system that supports shared files, printers, DOS and Windows 3.0 applications, and clients. It includes LANstep Mail and contains a Network Basic Input Output System emulator. The expandable design is considered unique. A five-user package costs $595; additional packages cost $395. Managing AS/400s; net mgm't on IBM's AS/400, not mainframe. (The Systems Center Inc.'s AS/Hub) (product announcement) The Systems Center Inc's new AS/Hub systems management software for IBM Application System/400 minicomputers provides central management and monitoring of multiple AS/400s on a network. The software runs on an AS/400, not a mainframe. AS/Hub sends urgent messages to the host and keeps track of all reported information in a central database for trend-analysis of recurring problems. AS/Hub works with the company's AS/Center management software; it lists for $1,000. Woolworth enlists MCI for a global network. (MCI Communications Corp.) F.W. Woolworth Co is planning to improve the management of its business operations worldwide through a single, global communications network. MCI Communications Corp will provide international communications services and network management capabilities. Woolworth is considering using the Global Communications Service offered by MCI through an alliance with 15 foreign carriers. Dedicated terrestrial circuits will link US operations to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Frankfurt, Germany. MCI will probably manage the networks. Woolworth is also planning to expand its use of MCI's Vnet virtual private network service domestically. Wiring up LANs; NetWorld featuring unshielded twisted-pair. (product announcement) The NetWorld '91 trade show in Boston during mid-Feb 1991 will see several introductions of LAN products that support unshielded twisted-pair wire. Users are moving to unshielded twisted-pair wire for LANs because of its ease of installation and low cost; Ethernet and token-ring topologies are riding the wave. Thomas-Conrad Corp will introduce three adapter cards. IMC Networks Corp will introduce a 10Base-T hub, one-port Ethernet repeaters and a family of 16-bit Ethernet adapters. Gateway Communications Inc is lowering prices on its 10Base-T adapter cards. Proteon Inc is announcing a new marketing program. New: hybrid dragnet? The Law's using Bell packet-TCP/IP net. (Pacific Bell and Network Solutions offers a hybrid network for County law-enforcement and judicial agencies near San Francisco are tying their computer and communications systems together with new technologies from Pacific Bell and Network Solutions Inc. The hybrid communications network combines packet switches and network management capabilities from Pac Bell with Network Solution's TCP/IP software. Police and legal agencies in Contra Costa County, CA, are using the network to provide access to criminal records that reside in computers in over 10 cities. The county is leasing two Northern Telecom Inc packet switches located in Pac Bell offices in Concord and Martinez, CA. Making connections on campus. (networking at West Virginia University) West Virginia University (WVU) is using the Basic Rate Interface (BRI) of integrated services digital networks (ISDN) to lower costs and provide remote access to campus LANs and the West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing (WVNET). BRI offers economy and flexibility with its two bearer, or 'B', channels operating at 64K-bps and one signaling, or 'D', channel operating at 16K-bps. The purchase and installation of more T1s was considered, but WVU users do not ordinarily need the bandwidth and cannot afford the monthly charges. Goodbye to the big ugly. (the cyclical nature of internetwork technology) (Perspective) (column) Big networks at the end of the 1970s were based on hosts and terminals; the major internetworking problem was achieving multihost connectivity from a single terminal. Front-end processors provided switching and routing functions between the two sides of the network - the Big Uglies. The early 1980s saw Ethernet change terminal networks dramatically, putting front-end processors out of business. Ethernet was soon used to implement distributed processing on LANs. When LAN-to-LAN connectivity became an issue, the Big Ugly was reinvented in the form of bridges and routers. Technology that puts switching and routing back into the network fabric must be implemented before internetworks can be global in scale. Frame-relay and the 802.6 standard will change wide area networking in the 1990s. Connecting FDDI nets; ISDN PRI, SMDS are seen as viable options. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface, Primary Rate Interface, Connecting Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networks with switched services over the public network could be useful to corporations running FDDI local-area networks (LANs) operating at 100M-bps over optical fiber. The next step will be connecting FDDI networks to each other for data sharing purposes. The International Communications Association (ICA) will feature its 'City of Solutions' showcase during its annual conference Jun 4-6, 1991. The showcase will highlight applications operating on two interconnected FDDI networks. Many future services will be suited for FDDI-to-FDDI connections. DEC rolls out mixed bag. (Communication Networks '91 product introductions) (product announcement) Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) made several product introductions at the Communication Networks '91 show in Washington, DC, in Jan 1991. The DECconcentrator 500 is a new FDDI network hub, listing between $12,000 and $16,500. DEC also demonstrated FDDI over shielded twisted-pair wire and unveiled a new version of the Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT) platform, which will abe available in Mar 1991 for $3,890. Prices for a new CIT application for integrating a message desk into DEC's office-automation program start at $10,400. Mercury halts VSAT plans. (Mercury Communications Ltd.'s very-small aperture terminal services) Mercury Communications Ltd, in London, abandoned plans for operating very-small aperture terminal (VSAT) services in Europe due to insufficient customer demand. Mercury installed a trial interactive VSAT network in early 1990 with PTT Telecom the Netherlands and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. The decision raises the question of whether US users will rely on VSAT for expanding their domestic networks into Europe. American Airlines is expanding its SABRE (Semi-Automated Business Reservation Environment) reservation network in Europe using a terrestrial solution. A VSAT solution is generally more expensive than a leased circuit. Newbridge adds DS-3 card; users of MainStreet mux can get better fiber. (Newbridge Networks Inc.'s MainStreet 3645 DS-3 Newbridge Networks Inc introduces a new optical interface for its high-end MainStreet 3645 DS-3 multiplexer that provides an interim step in the migration to high-speed Sonet networking. Users will be able to tap into faster, more resilient and cleaner fiber facilities. The card is based on the Sonet optical carrier level-1 format, but it carries transmissions at the DS-3 rate. The multiplexer will now be based on the synchronous optical network, but the multiplexing technology will still be the asynchronous M13 technique. The price of the optical interface has not been established. BellSouth, IBM exploring broadband technologies. Sweeney, Terry. BellSouth Corp and IBM are working together on broadband networking vehicles. The three-year study may benefit users who process large volumes of network traffic over wide areas. Research will focus on utilizing the speed and bandwidth of fiber as well as development of a IBM prototype network known as PARIS (packetized automatic routing integrated system). BellSouth will provide Sonet transmission capabilities and IBM will provide fast packet switches. PanAmSat Plan endorsed; would ease satellite connection restrictions. (Pan American Satellite) A Pan American Satellite (PanAmSat) petition requests that the FCC re-examine its rules barring Intelsat's competitors from linking their facilities to public switched networks. PanAmSat is protesting a 1985 restriction that forbids private satellite systems from connecting to public switched networks. The restriction was designed to protect Intelsat, but experience has shown competition benefits Intelsat more than artificial protectionism. Users agree that the rule is becoming an embarrassing anachronism. Is the '800' market competitive? Killette, Kathleen. A debate at the Communication Networks '91 meeting in Washington, DC, focused on whether AT&T is still the dominant long distance carrier in the US. A Federal Communication Commission (FCC) pending proposal would ease regulations on AT&T's long distance services to large users. Users want to retain their 800 numbers when switching carriers (portability); the 800 market would become more competitive and users would be more receptive to switching. AT&T is downplaying the portability issue. The FCC could issue new rules regarding 800 services as early as late spring 1991. Over the bridge. (Close Up: the rapid growth in popularity of bridges and the rise of routers mean more competition - and lower The maturing market for bridges in the overall communications market may benefit users through price reductions and vendor consolidation. Bridges connect local area networks in different locations over telephone lines. There are two types: Logical Link Control and Medium Access Control. The Ethernet bandwagon of the mid-1980s spurred momentum in the bridge market. 3Com Corp is restructuring to emphasize internetworking and new products, prices and promotions are expected. Urge to merge will grow; big vendors will aim to get bigger. (network industry analysis) Acquisitions will play a part in building the dream end-to-end networking solution in 1991. The year 1990 saw 661 mergers and acquisitions among companies providing computer equipment, communications equipment, software products, and telecommunications services. There were 683 deals made in 1989, but 1990's deals were worth more: $33 billion, compared with $295 billion in 1989. Large vendors and carriers want to offer electronic data interchange and electronic mail along with end-to-end connectivity. More international mergers and acquisitions are predicted for 1991 than occurred in 1990. Unisys hit by big losses; not quite as bad as last year - but revenue was flat and the fourth quarter was worse. Unisys Corp posted its second straight annual loss, but it was not as bad as in 1989. The company reported a net loss of $436.7 million for 1990, compared with $639.3 in 1989. Revenue was up by a mere $14,000. Analyst reaction to the news is mixed. The company is attempting to cut expenses but may be running out of time. It cut its work force by 8.5 percent and will continue consolidation efforts in 1991 in hopes of reducing debt by $600 million to $800 million. Just be patient. (waiting for the final, important, pieces of the local area network puzzle) (Parting Shot) (column) Managers of local area networks and computer installations are always waiting for the creation of some new technology that will let them get some real use out of the technology that does exist. This is usually a software application that performs a task a human needs performed. Sometimes the missing link is hardware, bridges for local area networks, for instance. Some technologies arrive before other technologies, and it takes a while before everything gets put together in useful form. HP gives EDA users path to open systems. (Electronic Design Automation) Hewlett Packard (HP) has withdrawn from the electronic design automation (EDA) software business but promises to support its EDA products from five to seven years. The company will help customers by porting their design databases to other packages. Five vendors have agreed to provide engineering services and assistance packages for HP's products. Brad Miller, general manager of HP's Electronic Design Division says his firm decided not to compete because of a number of strong EDA products running on its hardware. Customers wanting to make the transition would require engineering assistance from HP and the customer's new software vendor. There are about 3,000 HP workstations installed using over 6,000 application licenses. An observer sees this as providing opportunities for the five EDA software houses. DRAM price parity imminent. (1M-bit and 4M-bit) Thryft, Ann R. Market analysts forecast a price parity between 1M-bit and 4M-bit DRAMS due to a drop in the prices of the 4M-bit units. The market trend shows that the price of 1M-bit is stable, but the cost of the 4M-bit is steadily declining. Market analysts predict this decline will lead to the cost per bit of 4M-bit DRAMS dropping below the cost of 1M-bit parts by mid 1991. The reduction in price, according to analysts, has led to a crossover from 1M-bit to 4M-bit parts. The five times price-per-bit engineering crossover may enable designers to achieve cost and density advantages. The five times price-per-bit engineering crossover is when the 4M-bit device is five times the cost of the 1M-bit part. Designers are using the 4M-bit device at the five times price ratio in memory intensive applications such as high-end workstations, mainframes and minis. GaAs merger a turning point. (gallium-arsenide) (Tri-Quint Semiconductor Inc, GigaBit Logic Inc.) An industry analyst sees the merger of Tri-Quint Semiconductor and GigaBit Logic as beneficial to computer designers. He notes that the merger produces a company which offers a full line of gallium-arsenide parts (GaAs). The merger will also have an impact on the next generation of workstations. GaAs provides twice the clock speed for the CPU with very little power and enables one to lessen power consumption by a factor of three. The new firm, TriQuint Semiconductor is to be jointly owned by the current investors DEC, Tektronix, Analog Devices and NKT. The transition may cause some problems for customers, however they will be informed in the event of changes. New study finds hole in board vendor support. (Users of analog I/O boards lack vendor support) A study by Venture Development shows that users of analog I/O boards are lacking product support. The study indicates that users found software and hardware support programs lacking in areas such as documentation and support staff training. According to the study software manuals were inadequately prepared and in most instances provided information in a piecemeal fashion. The survey claims telephone support users are facing a similar problem in getting technical support. Users claim that those supporting analog I/O hardware and software over the phone had little experience with the products. A spokesman for Venture Development says both experienced and novice users need a combination of clear documentation and in-depth technical support. Cyrix/Intel suit an industry trend? (Cyrix Corp., Intel Corp's law suit) Intel Corp wants a court injunction against the sale of Cyrix Corp's S87 Fasmath coprocessor. Intel also wants the court to have Cyrix Corp pay triple damages. Cyrix has counter-sued Intel asking for an invalidation of the company's patent. The suit involving the two company is bound to set off a rash of cases involving protection of intellectual property rights within the semiconductor industry. An observer claims that firms within the industry have not adequately protected their intellectual property rights. Most firms have not had an acceptable return on their investments in research and development. An Intel Corp spokesperson claims that Intel welcomes competition that is legal but would not tolerate the infringement of their products. Cyrix accuses Intel of being greedy and wanting to maintain a monopoly. Cypress' strategy: two sources of growth better than one. (includes related article on consortium picks Cypress) (Cypress Cypress Semiconductor Corp purchases for $14.7 million a fabrication line from Control Data VTC unit. The Minneapolis-based facility is the third wafer production facility that the company has purchased. Dubbed Cypress 3, the facility produces about 300 wafers a week and has a weekly production capacity of 2,000. CEO TJ Rodgers sees the purchase as being strategic in that it will maximize the company's production capacity. Revenue from the Cypress Fab 3 in the first year is projected at $36 million. Control Data had planned to divest itself of the unit because it did not fit into its corporate strategy. Some analysts doubt whether Cypress' strategy would forestall the Japanese domination of the semiconductor market. Fed: systems makers face stiffening foreign competition.(US Industrial Outlook analysis) A government economic study warns that US systems houses will face increased foreign competition in 1992. The analysis claims that the economic threat of a united Europe coupled with Japanese competition could cause considerable hardships for the US computer industry. The study from the US Industrial outlook predicts that US computer manufacturers in response to competition abroad will form mergers with international companies. The analysis projects that the microcomputer market abroad will exceed $70 billion by 1994 with Europe and Japan experiencing an 11 and 18 percent increase in demand, respectively. The US domestic market will see a slower increase. Workstation vendors will encounter another lucrative year with a reported growth of 30 percent. This brings the industry's world-wide dollar volume to over $30 billion by 1995. IC hardware emulator cuts time-to-market. (Integrated Circuit) (Prime Computer Inc's simulation systems) Prime Computer Inc's purchase of eight software simulation verification tools brings it closer to the limits of verifiability in its ASIC design. Prime Computer's Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) System purchased from Quickturn Systems allows users to perform concurrent functional testing of the final product during the integrated circuit design/ verification process. The system consists of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) controlled by a processor which operates on commands from a workstation software package. The acquisition of the Quickturn system is a competitive advantage which may bring changes to the company's design process. Despite the system's ASIC verification delay the company hopes to reap dividends in the future. The emulator comes in a basic 25,000-gate model excluding workstation for about $100,000. A 10,000-gate version will cost about $70,000. Sun, Force ink Sparc partnership agreement. (Sun Microsystems Inc, Force Computers Inc) Sun Microsystems and Force Computers Inc have signed a technology transfer agreement that gives Sun's board customers a second source for their Sparc-based 1E boards. Under the agreement Force Computers will manufacture and market boards that conform to Sun's Sparc 1E design, a 6U VMEbus version of the Sparcstation motherboard. Force customers will have access to boards with SunOs and selected real-time operating systems, which have 2,100-plus applications for the Sparc. The agreement gives Force Computers the rights to design, manufacture and market VME boards based on Sun's Sparcstation 2 chip and board technologies. Sun hopes to completely turn over the manufacture of VMEbus processor boards to Force Computers. The company plans to offer the 1E board for the next five years. A Force spokesman says the agreement will not affect the company's 88000-based product plans. New PCB tools curb costs, design time. (Printed circuit-based software) The new printed circuit-based computer-aided engineering (CAE) software packages curb production costs and makes designing and laying out printed circuit boards easier. The new design tools are capable of accommodating boards with up to 1,000 components, 3,500 nets and 30 layers due to memory extension techniques. Research from Hillsboro, OR-based OrCAD Systems Corp shows that many of the 200,000 Computer-Aided-Engineering users want design tools that are easy to use. Racal-Redac's Maxi/PC features built-in options which let users route critical traces interactively. Tools combining interactive and automatic routing are becoming a hot commodity. Omation's Schema tool is limited to interactive routing but a $750 auto-router option can be added. Accel Technologies' $1,695 Tango-Plus handles boards with up to 23 layers. Tango-Plus features manual, automatic or interactive placement. OrCAD's $1,495 PCB IV features separate place and route editors. OrCAD's $995 VST Release IV makes simulation easier and faster. Racal-Redac's Maxi/PC allows users an easy upgrade to the company's mid-range CADstar system. Notes from across the pond. (Concurrent engineering commentary) (column) Concurrent engineering is the right approach to winning market share. American firms should follow the lead of top rated companies and embrace concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering involves the designing of products and processes with the input of customers. American firms see factors such as quality management and statistical process control as means of reducing manufacturing costs, but this approach doesn't work. From 60 to 90 percent of product cost is determined during the design phase. In Europe companies are investing their resources in the concurrent engineering approach and are finding means to implement it. CIM systems link manufacturing with rest of Time-to-Market team. (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) A report from the American Electronics Association claims most US manufacturers are not using computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) despite the successes of the system. Sixty percent of the technology companies polled had no plans for CIM. Another report from IBM claims that only 30 percent of these manufacturing companies are using CIM to capacity. Motorola Inc used CIM in its Paging Division and built its Bandit factory-within-a-factory with CIM. The investment of $10 million paid off. Motorola saw a 68 percent drop in inventory and a 99 percent decrease in cycle time. CIM vendors are wooing firms that can afford the technology. 'Teacher-customers' help team plan project; an inside look at Texas Instruments' Time-to-Market Team. (company profile) Texas Instruments' (TI) 'teacher-customers' project is geared towards developing trust and cooperation between the company and its customer base. TI had three customers from non-competing firms join its engineering staff during work on its 150,000-gate submicron BiCMOS gate array. The customers had a say in such areas as design and packaging and helped with the EPIC-IIB process technology. TI also enlisted vendors to work along with the firm's engineers to discuss the product's mechanical and electrical requirements. TI ensured that those involved took part in every aspect of the product's development and manufacture. Members of TI project were spread through the US, Japan, India and England. Manufacturing joins design at product starting line. (includes related article on the NCR manufacturing team) The key to US companies overcoming foreign competition lies with the implementation of concurrent engineering through all aspects of the product development process, from marketing, manufacturing, design through procurement, test and field support. Manufacturing gains the most from this process. Tom Christen, manufacturing engineering manager for board systems at Hewlett Packard, says the input of the manufacturing group comes late during the process of design. A trend within the manufacturing industry is to have manufacturing and design engineers work together on a day-to-day basis. Christen's firm has set up a unit with four manufacturing engineers of diverse backgrounds to tackle issues relative to product development. The meeting gives each engineer an opportunity of exchanging data and making an input before the design phase begins. MMG exceeds goals set by Schulwitz. (Multibus Manufacturers Group) (Len Schulwitz and the Multibus II) Len Schulwitz's three major four-year goals set for his Multibus Manufacturers Group (MMG) for 1990 to 1993 have been fulfilled. Schulwitz's goals he set when he took office in 1989 are increasing his company's world membership, expanding the multibus II services and boosting Multibus II's world market share. MMG's membership has grown by 35 percent. The group consists of 60 vendors of Multibus products and services. MMG has over 3,500 Multibus products available from 400 vendors worldwide. Schulwitz has also seen a simultaneous growth of his Multibus II products by 38 percent, and vendors by 40 percent. Schulwitz believes open systems and inter-vendor compatibility are essential to the success of Multibus II. Dazix users gain second platform. (Dazix software) Thryft, Ann R. Intergraph, which recently acquired Dazix, is to integrate its EDA products with Dazix's product line on Intergraph and Sparc platforms. The dual-platform strategy ensures that Dazix and Intergraph customers have a broad choice of EDA solutions. The company will continue using its Clipper-based systems although they are porting their EDA products to Sparc. Intergraph's first move towards integrating the combined set of tools is to port its Simultaneous Engineering Environment (SEE) framework to Sun Microsystems Sparc platform. The acquisition makes Intergraph the third largest EDA vendor based on installation and sales, according to Intergraph president, Eliott James. Hamilton/Avnet puts polish on service. (Hamilton/Avnet's improved services) Hamilton/Avnet has gone through a reorganization process as a means of improving customer services. The company has merged its 52 full-service stocking facilities into three regional warehouses. The distributor's administrative and service functions have been blended into eight regional service centers called hubs. The eight hubs consist of the company's product management, application engineering, inside sales, customer service and technical training. Bill Hickey, director of distribution for connector manufacturer Molex, says the company's service has improved due to regionalization and hubbing schemes. The distributor has centralized its connector assembly and hopes to expand to Europe. Higher-density designs drive up PC board costs. (Printed Circuit board) The demand for complex printed circuit boards (PCB) with finer lines and tighter line spacing is driving the cost of PCBs. The average PCB of today is much smaller, compact and multilayered than those of yesteryears. High-end microcomputers use 4-layers while the average workstation goes from 6 to about 12 layers. The complex board designs of today's systems require multiple-layered boards with hole diameters under 10 mils and fine line circuits with line widths and spacing to 5 mils and below. Manufacturers are using costly materials with better dimensional stability and lower dielectric constant to meet the complex designs of these boards. Eight layer boards are not uncommon in CPU's such as the 80386 and 40486. Although the use of surface-mount and fine-line technologies can reduce the amount of layers per board, an average circuit board of today consists of multiple layers. Novell to unveil NetWare 3.11 today: portable version may debut as well. (Novell Inc.) (product announcement) Novell Inc plans to introduce its NetWare 3.11 network operating system at the 1991 NetWorld trade show. The upgrade offers Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) support, native support for many UNIX-based workstations, direct Apple Macintosh support and tiered packaging for networks of up to 20, 100 or 250 users. The 100-user version of NetWare 3.11 is priced at $6,995. Resellers wish the announcement would also include immediate availability but the product is scheduled to begin shipping in March 1991. Novell is dropping the 386 microprocessor designation from the product name in order to avoid confusion. The company wants to de-emphasize running the product on specific processors and prefers to focus on products. Novell is targeting NetWare 3.11 at the enterprise customer who needs multivendor connectivity, scalability and the ability to run corporate-wide applications. Lucrative liaisons: IBM, Novell battle Microsoft. (IBM Corp.)(Novell Inc.)(Microsoft Corp.) IBM Corp is scheduled to announce a strategic partnership with Novell Inc at the NetWorld trade show. The agreement will result in SAA support for NetWare across the PS/2, RS/6000, AS/400 and mainframe product lines from IBM. IBM will directly support and market NetWare along with its own OS/2 LAN Server operating system. Novell is expected to announce 'NetWare Services for SAA,' a LAN-to-IBM host integration product. DOS and Windows versions of the product will be available. Industry observers see the agreement between IBM and Novell as a reaction to Microsoft Corp's recent announcement that it will focus on Windows and not OS/2 as its future systems strategy. Insiders at IBM say the alliance between the two companies may have far-reaching implications for the future development of both LAN Server and NetWare. The two firms have not yet disclosed specific terms regarding the agreement. Inacomp invests in VAR channel. (Inacomp Computer Centers Inc.) (value-added resellers) Inacomp Computer Centers Inc is planning to acquire Graphix Zone Inc, an Irvine, California-based desktop publishing value-added reseller (VAR). The purchase is part of an acquisition strategy that will have Inacomp invest millions of dollars in the VAR channel to strengthen its business. Inacomp will allow any VARs it purchases to operate independently with their own identities as part of Inacomp's network. Inacomp will use its own capital to expand the VARs into major metropolitan markets. Reseller ownership will allow Graphix Zone to expand into new geographic areas and will result in pricing advantages. Inacomp will be the first national reseller chain to try a strategy of purchasing and nationally expanding specific VAR businesses. Inacomp's expected acquisition is seen as a threat to many VAR competitors. Compaq's VAR base skyrockets in Europe: will the domestic channel follow suit? (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp's success in Europe is attributed in large part to its reliance on value-added resellers (VAR). Almost 75 percent of Compaq-authorized resellers in Europe are VARs. Sales in the European market grew 49 percent in 1990 while US sales grew 5 percent. It is not clear how many of Compaq's 1,850 US resellers are VARs. Industry analysts contend that, along with the reliance on VARs and high-caliber dealers, greater market emphasis on service and a strong overall computer market also contribute to Compaq's European market success. Sixty-six percent of Compaq's 505 UK dealers are VARs along with 69 percent of 379 dealers in France, 92 percent of Compaq's 271 dealers in Germany and 80 percent of its 134 dealers in Italy. Compaq officials say their European and US strategies are the same but note that Europe lacks large dealer chains. Windows on Borland. (Borland International Inc.) Clancy, Heather. Borland International Inc is planning to announce Object Vision, an object-oriented, Microsoft Windows-based program development tool that will form the basis for the company's spreadsheet and database manager. Interoperability features will let Object Vision work in multiuser environments across a wide range of products. One of the package's major features is its ability to link files in a logical relationship. Borland says the pressure is on for the company to release a version of Quattro Pro for Windows, spurred by Microsoft Corp's recent release of Excel 3.0 for Windows. Borland continues to threaten Lotus Development Corp's lead in the DOS spreadsheet market, but analysts feel that loyal Lotus users are willing to wait for a Lotus Windows product. Borland is also facing a 'look and feel' lawsuit from Lotus. New kid on block cashes in: controversy continues to surround Apple's K-12 ultimatum. (Apple Computer Inc, reseller Ages) Competing dealers claim that Ages, a Colton, California Apple Education Sales Consultant (AESC) in business since Oct 1990, is being awarded the bulk of the lucrative K-12 education accounts in the Southern California area over dealers who have long serviced many of the same school districts. Dealers also contend that Ages and several other dealers were privy to detailed information regarding Apple's education program before the company's Jan 17, 1991 announcement. These AESCs were then able to act on the information, giving them a substantial advantage over competing dealers. Ages denies the allegations. Ages' management is made up of the former education department of the Upland, California ComputerLand store, which generated approximately $600,000 yearly in Apple setup, training and orientation fees. Factory shuts 21 of 54 outlets. (The Computer Factory Inc.) Markowitz, Elliot; Grace, Tim. A restructuring effort has caused The Computer Factory Inc to shut down 21 of its nationwide outlets without warning. Eight of the 10 California outlets are now out of business; the 13 other closed outlets are spread across the country. The shutdowns have affected 20 percent of the company's workforce. Computer Factory president Jay Gottlieb says the closed outlets may reopen after evaluation. The closure of the stores will have no bearing on the company's pending merger with CompuCom Systems, which is scheduled for completion in March 1991. CompuCom officials say they support any Computer Factory restructuring effort that leads to profitability. Computer Factory is repositioning the two remaining California sites located in San Francisco and mid-Los Angeles as corporate sales outlets, eliminating all retail business. Compaq to unleash three-pronged strategy: 600 dealers expect advanced status. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp plans several programs to improve its direct customer support. These plans include a specialized dealer program that will advance approximately 400 to 600 of Compaq's 1,850 vendors to high-end specialized resellers. The specially authorized dealers will each be required to have an accredited Compaq systems engineer on staff, carry an inventory of Compaq spare parts and offer on-site support, service, systems integration and operating systems demonstrations. Compaq will use the program to provide technical assistance to customers who use Microsoft Corp, Novell Inc, Santa Cruz Operation Inc and Banyan Systems Inc operating systems. This will allow Compaq to compete with vendors such as HP and IBM who are involved in the direct support of high-end products. Compaq is also implementing its first toll-free customer support line. Intel to cut 486 costs. (Intel Corp.) Spiegelman, Lisa L. Intel Corp plans to to cut the price of its 80486 microprocessors by 50 percent, reducing the cost of 80486-based microcomputers. The company hopes to increase sales of 80486-based machines, which have been very slow sellers. Intel is developing two new 80486 chips, the P23 and P23N, that will cost approximately half as much as current 486 versions. The two new chips will initially operate at 20 MHz, will be half the size of current 486 microprocessors and will have a slower clock speed. Only the P23N will have an internal math co-processor chip. The P23 chip will be priced at $250 per chip in quantities of 1,000. The P23N chip will be priced between $400 and $500 per chip in quantities of 1,000. Current 486 prices range from $671 to $860 per chip depending on the clock speed. Many resellers say that 486-based system sales are slow due to high prices. Sun plans new systems for VARs. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) (value added resellers) Industry sources say that Sun Microsystems Inc will deliver the MP Series, its first multiprocessing system, to value-added resellers (VARs) in the fall of 1991. The series will be made up of workstations employing two to four 40-MHz SPARC processors on plug-in cards. The MP Series, which will include a desktop model, will offer computing power in the range of 40 million instructions per second. The machines will be built with a scalar architecture that will allow upgrades to higher processor levels. The units will employ the SBus for peripheral card installation. Sources have no details on the system bus. Sun is also expected to build in a Network File System accelerator board. Sources claim that the new multiprocessing workstations will not support multithreaded applications, opening up the possibility that the SunOS operating system for the series will not be the final implementation. Microsoft unveils migration plan for 3Com users. (Microsoft Corp. offers LAN Manager to users of 3Com Corp 3+ Open network operating Microsoft Corp will announce a plan to help resellers migrate 3Com Corp 3+Open LAN Manager and 3+Share server users to Microsoft's LAN Manager 2.0. 3Com Corp announced the plan for Microsoft development of LAN Manager in Jan 1991. Phase one of the migration plan lets users migrate at a discount until Jun 30, 1991. Phase two of the plan will involve Microsoft introducing an update toolkit. Microsoft will also release a new version of LAN Manager that will integrate Macintosh and NetWare connectivity features not supported in the current version. The new version is expected to be easier to configure and will offer more options. 3+Open Entry System customers will be able to upgrade to a one-to-five user LAN Manager server for a list price of $595. A 10-user license will cost $795. ComputerLand, Falcon to join forces? (ComputerLand Corp.)(Falcon Microsystems Inc.) ComputerLand Corp is considering an alliance with government value-added reseller Falcon Microsystems Inc to help the Pleasanton, California ComputerLand government subsidiary improve slow federal sales. Falcon president Dendy Young acknowledges that discussions have taken place between the two companies but wants to curtail rumors of a possible acquisition. ComputerLand and Falcon have discussed a possible tie-in with Falcon's dealer-alliance program. Industry sources, however, believe the acquisition of Falcon is a possibility. Government sources contend that Apple is assuring ComputerLand that its status as the exclusive supplier of Apple products for the General Services Administration schedule will not be affected by a Falcon acquisition. Many observers feel that Falcon would give ComputerLand a stronger federal sales presence. Businessland beats expectations. (Businessland Inc.) Hubbard, Holly. Businessland Inc posts a loss of $4.5 million, or 15 cents per share, for the quarter ending Dec 31, 1990. Industry analysts expected the loss to be between $8 million and $12 million. The period's revenue totals are $334.3 million. The equivalent period for 1989 showed a loss of $3.9 million, or 10 cents a share, on $375 million in sales. The announcement brought Businessland's stock to a high of $1.37, 37 cents higher than its recent record $1 low. Businessland officials say the improved performance is a result of company restructuring and cost cutting. Businessland had reduced its worldwide staff by 25 percent as of Jan 31, 1991. The company has reduced inventories by $74 million since June 1990 and plans to reduce the number of configuration centers from nine to two. Businessland will continue to make cutbacks but will also implement service improvement plans. ComputerLand franchisee wins $17M in ITT suit. (ComputerLand Corp.)(ITT Commercial Finance Corp.)(MWM Enterprises Inc.) MWM Enterprises Inc, a former ComputerLand Corp franchisee, is awarded $27 million in a lawsuit regarding interest rates filed against ITT Commercial Finance Corp in 1985. Many analysts contend that the large judgment could further hurt ITT, which has been suffering as a result of bad loans to its commercial customers. ITT Corp posted sales of $20 billion in 1989. ITT offered MWM two lines of credit in 1984, one for $3 million in inventory financing and the other for $1 million in accounts receivable. MWM charged that ITT did not disclose the interest rate and that there was no way to calculate the true rate on ITT's difficult-to-decipher invoices. It also claims that it was overcharged and driven to bankruptcy by the increasing interest payments. Problems with the software ITT used to calculate interest payments also contributed to the dispute. Radius continues push into IBM-standard market. (Radius Inc.'s TPD/PC-MCA interface card) (product announcement) Radius Inc will try to gain share into the MS-DOS market by releasing its $895 TPD/PC-MCA Micro Channel interface card for 19- and 21-inch Radius Two Page Display Systems. The card answers user display needs across ISA, Micro Channel Architecture and Macintosh platforms and is compatible with the VGA, MDA, CGA and Hercules graphics standards. The product boasts a 1,280 x 960-pixel high-resolution mode, supports a 640 x 480-pixel mode with 16 shades of gray and offers VGA compatibility in a black-and-white mode. Radius is also offering a Windows 3.0 driver in its RadiusWare PC 1.2 software. The package is included with all Radius microcomputer products. In addition to the new products, Radius plans a marketing and advertising campaign to get out its message to the MS-DOS market. Radius monitors offer greater screen size, faster refresh rates and four times the information of standard 12- or 13-inch screens. Leading Edge, Ingram Micro sign $31M accord. (Leading Edge Computer Products Inc. signs distribution agreement with Ingram Leading Edge Computer Products Inc signs an agreement valued at $31 million with Ingram Micro Inc for distribution of its line of desktop microcomputers and laptop computers. Leading Edge hopes to increase sales and reach more diverse markets. Some current Leading Edge distributors feel the agreement shows the vendor is moving away from a limited distribution policy that can provide resellers with added margins. Officials at Leading Edge says the company still believes in limited distribution and the authorization process. The contract states that Ingram Micro can sell only to authorized dealers in the US and Canada. Merisel Inc, which signed an agreement with Leading Edge in March 1990 as its exclusive national distributor, will continue to carry Leading Edge products with the exception of laptop computers. MicroAge net slips: analysts point to Apple product shortage. Markowitz, Elliot. MicroAge Inc posts a net income of $1.6 million, or 38 cents per share, for its first quarter, ending Dec 31, 1990. The company reported earnings of $1.8 million, or 42 cents a share, for the same period in 1989. Analysts feel that the dealer's poor performance is due to the shortage of Apple's new s Macintosh Classic microcomputers and estimate that this cut about 5 cents a share off of MicroAge's earnings. Other dealers, whose quarters end in January, are less affected by the Apple product shortages. The company also attributes the decline in earnings to organizational improvement costs. MicroAge's revenues show an increase of 32 percent to $192.8 million for the first quarter. This compares to $146.4 million in sales reported for the same period in 1989. Analysts forecast earnings of between 35 cents and 41 cents per share for the second quarter ending in March 1991. Microsoft's new strategy fuels growth. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Microsoft Corp will continue to keep DOS as an important operating system for low-end microcomputers with limited performance and memory. The company will also continue to enhance DOS. DOS 5.0 is scheduled for release sometime in 1991. Microsoft plans an enhanced Windows 3.1 for 1991 and will push the graphical user interface as an operating system for the mainstream microcomputer market. The company is currently developing a 32-bit version of Windows called Windows-32. Developer's kits are due to be released in late 1991, with the operating system itself becoming available in late 1992 or early 1993. Analysts contend that Microsoft will continue to have a strong financial outlook and the company's earnings-per-share figure is expected to exceed predictions of $3.50. For fiscal 1992, Microsoft is likely to reach earnings-per-share growth of 30 to 50 percent, or between $4.55 and $5.25. Conner Peripherals posts strong fiscal year. (Conner Peripherals Inc.) Conner Peripherals Inc reports sales of $418.4 million for its fourth quarter ending Dec 31, 1990, a gain of 85 percent. This compares with revenue of $225.7 million for the same period in 1989. Conner Peripheral's income increased 225 percent for the quarter to $47.4 million, or 81 cents per share. This compares with earnings of $14.6 million, or 32 cents per share, for the same period in 1989. The company's gross margins for the fourth quarter were 26.5 percent, up from 19.6 percent for the same quarter in 1989. Analysts contend that Conner kept its margins by not participating in the 3.5-inch 40Mbyte hard disk drive market, where pricing pressure is severe. The company's international business market accounts for $655.4 million or 49 percent of revenue for the year and $234.3 million or 56 percent for the fourth quarter. ValCom logs 4Q net of $2.4M despite rising costs. Boyd, Wallace. ValCom Inc reports earnings of $2.4 million or 57 cents a share for the fourth quarter ending Dec 29, 1990, an increase of 8 percent. This compares with net income of $2.2 million, or 49 cents a share, for the same period in 1989. Fourth quarter revenue increased 27 percent to $124.1 million, up from $97.2 million for the 1989 fourth quarter. Fiscal-year revenue grew to $427.9 million, a 19 percent increase over the $359.11 reported for 1989. Earnings show $7 million, or $1.69 a share, for the year. This is an 11 percent increase from $6.3 million or $1.40 a share for the 1989 fiscal year. ValCom's rise in selling, general and administrative costs (SG&A) did not impact the company's earnings as much as analysts had expected. Observers contend that the company's move towards service-oriented sales kept 1990's gross margins level with those in 1989 at about 11 percent. Wall Street wrap-up: tech stocks rally as earnings and war reports fill the news. The low amount of reported US casualties in the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, along with strong December 1990 earnings reports, are giving a boost to stocks, especially technology issues. Analysts contend, however, that stocks will suffer if the war continues for a long period of time. Distributors' stocks show an increase of 31.54 percent for the week ending Feb 1, 1991, with Merisel Inc. up $1.50 or 75 percent, closing at $3.50 per share. Entertainment Marketing Inc shows an increase of 71.43 percent, or 31 cents, finishing at 75 cents per share. Peripherals companies advance 16.67, with QMS Inc rising 14.62 percent or $2.38 to finish at $18.63 per share. RasterOps Corp stock gains 9.59 percent or $1.75 per share, closing at $20 per share. The communications group shows an increase of 8.76 percent with Novell Inc rising 15.06 percent, or $5.88 per share, closing at $44.88. Economic woes overseas: US computer firms find foreign pastures not so green at end of '90. (Year In Review International) US computer companies doing business abroad during the fourth quarter of 1990 find they are affected by the recession and the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The UK, Australia and Scandinavia are all suffering from a recession and higher-than-ever interest rates. Sweden and Canada show extensive increases in taxes. European businesses, suffering from rising fuel prices due to the Persian Gulf crisis, have begun deferring or cancelling purchases including those for computer hardware and software. Analysts, who were expecting 22 percent growth in the European microcomputer market, report growth rates as low as 15 percent for 4th qtr 1990; growth could fall to 12 percent if the situation continues. US computer companies' progress has been slow in the German market due to the difficulty of incorporating East Germany into the German economy. Fiber-optic cable in demand: study cites fiber as fastest growing LAN medium. A study from the Yankee Group indicates that fiber-optic cable will capture to 24 percent of the local area network (LAN) market at the 5,000 largest US companies by 1994. The study shows that fiber is the fastest growing medium for LANs. Currently, only three percent of companies surveyed use fiber, but the number is expected to increase to 11 percent by 1992. Forty-nine percent of the companies surveyed use coaxial cable, a figure that is expected to decrease to 32 percent by 1992 and 24 percent by 1994. The Yankee Group study indicates that usage of twisted pair remains steady at 50 percent. Analysts contend that the major reason for fiber's growing popularity is the decline in equipment and installation costs. Higher quality, less expensive Fiber Distributed Data Interface chip sets make for less expensive cards. The emergence of high-speed applications also contributes to the need and growth of fiber. Equinox subsystem offers single-slot UNIX link. (Equinox Systems Inc.'s Megaplex 96 I/O board) (product announcement) Equinox Systems Inc introduces its Megaplex-96 I/O subsystem for UNIX Extended Industry Standard Architecture and AT bus computers. The product uses multiple 24-port cluster multiplexers to connect as many as 24 users to the host by way of a fast, four-wire link. The company's CMX-24 multiplexer can be up to 2,500 feet away from the computer. This allows for a connection of a single telephone-grade twisted-pair cable instead of 24 individual cables from the user terminals to the host. The Megaplex-96 employs custom reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) technology to let all ports be served in parallel without decreasing terminal response time. The entry-level 24-port configuration consists of one CMX-24 multiplexer and one MCC 24x4 and costs $2,395. The Megaplex-96 is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 1991. Strong support for 10BaseT: technology expected to surpass coax as primary medium. The number of vendors supporting 10BaseT technology is growing, and the new standard is expected to overtake coaxial cable as the most popular local area network medium. A study from CIMI Corp indicates that 50 percent of new Ethernet shipments are expected to be based on 10BaseT by the end of 1991. The number should increase to 90 percent of all Ethernet shipments by 1993. Leading 10BaseT vendors include SynOptics Communications Inc with a 50 percent market share and Cabletron Systems Inc with a 20 percent market share. Vendors will be able to compete more effectively in the fast-growing market by differentiating themselves with value-added features. Vendors selling boards based on 10BaseT technology can offer driver support for different operating environments. They can also add network management products to promote functionality or develop unique features or niche products. Mac resellers call out for vendor cooperation: need for more solutions-oriented training. Apple Macintosh resellers who support multivendor environments complain that very few Macintosh networking vendors provide solutions-oriented reseller training. Resellers say they must provide high-level network administration, consulting and management in order to stay competitive. Many organizations are building in-house teams of specialists and do not rely on resellers for support. Resellers also feel that networking companies need to work together and invest more in beta testing and developer programs to promote interoperability. Some companies minimize incompatibility by adherence to industry standards in product development or by giving developers access to products to ensure compatibility. Other resellers do not rely heavily on vendors for solutions, preferring to take on networking expertise responsibilities themselves. Notebook changes to come: study shows improved portables will spur market growth. A study on notebook computers from Hambrecht and Quist indicates that systems will become faster, smaller and more powerful between 1990 and 1995, spurring 50 percent annual growth in the market. The three technological areas that will have the most profound effect on notebooks will be display, data-storage and semiconductor technology. Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are currently the most popular display technology due to ease of production and low manufacturing costs. Alternatives such as gas plasma displays and electroluminescence remain costly. Manufacturers are developing fully-functional 2.5-inch hard drives with increasing capacity. Flash memory, which can serve as a memory card or storage device, will appear in more notebook computers. Notebook computer size will decrease due to faster chip speeds and the ability to place more functionality on a single chip. Tektronix adds to TekXpress line: new product aimed at low-end workstations. (Tektronix Inc.'s XP21 X terminal)(Hardware) Tektronix Inc introduces its $2,995, 17-inch XP21 monochrome X terminal with a resolution of 1,152 x 900 dots per inch. The Tektronix X terminal line also includes a $3,495 19-inch gray scale unit as well as three color terminals priced from $3,995 to $5,995. Tektronix is positioning the line to compete against low-end workstations. Tektronix also announces the signing of a distribution agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc distributor Access Graphics Technology Inc in an effort to compete against Sun in the low-end workstation market. Access Graphics sells a wide variety of technical peripherals and has a distribution network of 15,000 value-added-resellers (VARs). The Tektronix line will be the only X terminal line that Access Graphics will offer. Studies show that worldwide revenue for X terminals is expected to grow from $255 million in 1990 to $387 million in 1991 and $485 million in 1992. HP ships 68040-based workstations: 425t, 425s: company extends 40Plus program.(HP's Apollo 9000 425t and 425s) (product HP announces shipment of its first 25-MHz 68040-based workstations, the Apollo 9000 425s and 425t. Both machines feature 22.1 million-instructions-per-second (MIPS) performance and are 100 percent compatible with the rest of HP's 68000-based workstations. The Model 425s is a deskside machine featuring four expansion slots that allow users to add a variety of peripheral devices. The 425t is a desktop model with one expansion slot. The 425s is designed for use in design automation and scientific applications, while the 425t is targeted at non-technical environments. The 425t starts at a list price of $8,990. The 425s is priced at $11,990 in its basic configuration. HP also announces plans to extend its 40Plus program, which lets all HP Apollo 9000 Series 400 customers upgrade to 40 MIPS performance for $5,000 or less. The program was originally scheduled to end on Dec 31, 1990 but is extended due to 68040 chip delays. Clarity Rapport unveiled: product acts as tool set, applications suite. (Clarity Software Inc. introduces Rapport program Clarity Software Inc introduces Rapport, an object-oriented tool set/integrated application software development environment which includes a spreadsheet, document editor, word processor, presentation graphics and advanced electronic mail support of fax and audio. The program is geared towards workstation users wishing to use their machines' advanced capabilities. Rapport runs under both the Open Look and Motif graphical user interfaces. Users can nest objects with one another and send them electronically across platforms. The software is priced at $895 per seat and is scheduled for a March 1991 release. Clarity will be selling converters separately that supply transparent access to other platforms. UNIX Pack, PC Pack and Mac Pack converters will be priced at $195 each. Supported multimedia features include raster images, audio annotation, fax and slides along with partial video support. Falcon tightens grip: Ungermann-Bass deal to boost VAR sales. (Falcon Microsystems Inc. signs contract with Ungermann-Bass Inc.) Falcon Microsystems Inc announces the signing of a one-year agreement with Ungermann-Bass Inc that will allow Falcon to be the exclusive General Services Administration schedule holder selling the vendor's Net/One and Access/One products to the federal government. These products will help expedite networking of Apple Macintosh microcomputers with other platforms used in federal agencies. Net/One software allows the addition of new computers to a network on an as-needed basis while Access/One is a network delivery system that uses an intelligent hub to integrate Ungermann's LocalTalk router into a variety of multivendor networks. Analysts contend the agreement will result in $1 million in monthly incremental revenue for Falcon. Falcon's sales have recently increased due to the government's need for computers for Operation Desert Storm. Apple stings dealer: plan spells trouble for education reseller. (Apple Computer Inc. education market segmentation to hurt Apple Computer Inc's education market segmentation plan will heavily impact revenues earned in education fees by ComputerLand Mid-Atlantic. The reseller earns $3 million per year in K-12 revenue between Apple and IBM Corp sales. Beginning April 15, 1991, ComputerLand Mid-Atlantic must decide whether or not to sell only Apple products, a decision that may result in the loss of $1.5 million. Officials say they are in a 'lose-lose' situation. ComputerLand's IBM product sales for the education sector have risen quickly from zero to 40 percent; vendor ratio is closer to 50/50 because marketing expenses are offset more by IBM than by Apple. Many school districts have invested heavily in Apple II hardware and are undecided whether they will switch from Macintosh to DOS-based systems. ComputerLand Mid-Atlantic dominates most of the school districts within a 50-mile radius of Washington, D.C. Chain competition heats up: analysts say resellers have control of margins. (Reseller Margin Update) Analysts contend that reseller margins and the number of dealers in the channel will be impacted by increasing competition for a smaller number of microcomputer sales. Studies indicate that microcomputer shipments will drop two percent in 1991. Competition and thin product margins may force some resellers into bankruptcy. Others may be forced to merge with other companies, which would reduce the number of dealers. Prices are expected to fall as vendors compete for the declining microcomputer market. Resellers who are repositioning themselves in the market or changing their strategies are reporting slightly improved gross margins for 1990. Some companies have started to implement strategies to earn more revenue from service and support. Others that rely on high-volume sales are dealing better with low margins by developing systems built around 'nameless' IBM PC compatibles. Market pressure hits hard: independents: differentiation one answer to staying afloat. Resellers are differentiating themselves through concentration on specific markets or by providing service and support to survive the recession. Surviving resellers may have significant opportunities after the recession due to the shrinking channel. Many resellers are losing in the competition due to low product margins caused by price cutting when volume outweighs demand. Resellers usually get 35 percent to 37 percent off list price and only make around 10 points on the product. Large reseller chains can sometimes make less than 5 percent on sales to large accounts. Dealers can make up for these low margins by selling services such as technical support, network service, installation and training. Independent resellers can also increase their margins through sales of peripherals, software and add-ons. Ways to spur demand: distributors' proactive approach to market. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Distributors, attempting to differentiate themselves in the channel, are taking a more active role in creating market demand and de-emphasizing their reliance on vendors. Vendors and resellers are now recognizing the services that distributors can provide. Some distributors keep a large number of store keeping units (SKU) and vendors while taking advantage of product demand created by the manufacturer. Others are creating demand through their own marketing and sales strategies, although many industry observers feel that it is the vendor's and reseller's responsibility to create user demand. Observers contend that distributors can help address demand with marketing tools funded by the vendor. Some distributors act as marketing organizations for the manufacturers they represent. They provide customers with solutions and support. Tech Data launches four-part service program. (Tech Data Corp.) Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Distributor Tech Data Corp is offering a new service program that focuses on returns and inventory management for resellers. Tech Data's new program includes a new 60-day dead-on-arrival policy that gives customers an exchange or credit if a component fails within the first 60 days. A new stock balancing policy will have Tech Data accepting a rotation on 15 percent of a customer's purchases for new, unopened products purchased from the distributor in the previous 150 days. The order fulfillment program will let Tech Data drop-ship to a reseller's customer with orders shipped in plain boxes with generic packing slips. Customers will also be able to call or fax the distributor for return authorization under the new services. Tech Data has recently signed contracts with 23 new vendors with emphasis in networking products. The distributor currently carries over 140 product lines. PCs speed dental payments: affordable PC prices, better vertical software spur automation. More dentists are automating their offices today due to the low cost of microcomputers and improvements in vertical market software. A survey of 261 dentists indicates that 47.5 percent currently are using computers in their offices. Just under 61 percent of the non-automated dentists say they will be adding computers in the future. The dental market has previously been restricted to minicomputers due to the lack of available microcomputer software and the large number of offices with multiple dentists. This situation has changed, and about 60 percent of the approximately 150,000 dentists in the US now have solo practices. Dentists are now using microcomputers for billing, insurance forms, patient statements, health histories as well as other needs. Billing and time savings are the most important reasons for the move towards office computerization. Independent dealers attracting small law firms. Boyd, Wallace. A survey by the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center reveals that almost two-thirds of 305 small law firms surveyed rely on independent dealers for hardware, software and support. Analysts contend that smaller legal firms do not have the capability to provide internal support for local area networks (LANs) and increasingly sophisticated software. These firms are also more likely to use a reseller that focuses on the law market instead of a discount house or national chain. The firms may find support expensive, but realize it is a valuable investment. Many dealers are emphasizing LAN management services due to the large number of firms using LANs. The survey also indicates that 53 percent of small law firms plan to buy between $2,000 and $5,000 in hardware in 1991. The survey reports that almost half of all computer purchasing decisions are made by an individual or managing partner. New Comdex face: Interface restructures spring show. (Comdex/Spring repositioned, renamed by organizer The Interface The Interface Group plans major changes in the Comdex/Spring computer trade show, including a name change and a new focus on comprehensive end-user solutions. The show's organizers hope to attract end users as well as the resellers who have been the show's primary attendees in recent years. Interface Group officials say the changes are largely the result of exhibitor demand for better opportunities to educate users about their products. The new show will have three new exhibit areas: Networked Computing, Multimedia, and a Windows World section co-sponsored by Microsoft Corp that will focus on applications for the Windows environment. Panel discussions for corporate users are being developed. The changes will not be applied to the Comdex/Fall show, which Interface Group believes should remain for resellers only. DEC recruits VAR: Qantel first to get UNIX multiuser line. (Digital Equipment Corp.)(Qantel Business Systems Inc.)(News) DEC announces the signing of Qantel Business Systems Inc as its master value-added reseller (VAR) for UNIX-based multiuser systems in hopes of capturing a share of computer sales in the small- and medium-sized business markets. Qantel is a manufacturer of proprietary and open-systems hardware and software. The company will sell its distribution, manufacturing, automated retail and accounting systems on DEC's UNIX platforms through its network of 60 VARs and its own direct-sales force. Analysts contend that DEC has traditionally done well in selling to large MIS organizations. The company wants to use VARs to get into small and medium-sized businesses as well as departments within large organizations. DEC plans to sign on more master VARs in 1991 as well as hundreds of VARs that target small- and medium-sized businesses. Merisel boosts support of VARs: Connors to assume Miltner's post. (Merisel Inc.) Merisel Inc is expanding its workstation division and combining its one-stop shopping strategy for VARs with a focus on the selling and servicing of DEC products. The company hopes to build up a customer base that will make the division profitable. The cost of services of the Workstation Division is subsidized by Merisel's overall operations and DEC. Merisel officials hope the division will be able to eventually stand alone as a profit center. Merisel is adding 10 people to the Workstation Group's field sales staff of 28. The 10 new salespeople will focus on sales of the DEC 433MP, a UNIX-based 80486 systems to be sold mainly through the VAR channel. Merisel also announces a replacement for vice president Carol Miltner, who will resign from the company as of July 1, 1991. John Connors, senior vice president of marketing and products, will take on Miltner's post. Worldwide Mac units up 26.5%. (Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh computers) Research company Dataquest Inc predicts that statistics will show 1.47 million Apple Macintosh microcomputers shipped in 1990, a 26.5 percent increase over the 1.16 million shipped in 1989. In 1988, Apple shipped only 953,000 Macintoshes. The company's release of its new Mac Classic, IIsi and LC models in October 1990 is a major reason for the increased shipments. Analysts contend that Apple's Macintosh Classic will be one of the best-selling products in the company's 1991 line, with anticipated sales of 800,000 to 1 million. Apple's unit share of all microcomputers sold through the US dealer market for the fourth quarter of 1990 is 33 percent, up 12 percentage points from the 21 percent unit share it had in the fourth quarter of 1989. Macintosh Classic units made up 57 percent of the company's total unit volume. Solutions for education: Apple road show features array of software for schools. (Apple Computer Inc.) Apple Computer Inc, in collaboration with 40 major education developers, is demonstrating solutions for education in a national tour called the Education Solutions Forum. The forum will visit five cities including San Francisco, Long Beach, CA, Tampa, FL, New York and Chicago. Educational technology administrators are invited to day-long conferences demonstrating educational uses of the Macintosh as well as software demonstrations from educational developers. Educational areas include social studies, math, science, writing and publishing, English as a second language, integrated learning systems and students with learning disabilities. Apple officials note that the new Macintosh LC microcomputer incorporates many features requested by educators and that it is extremely important to offer customers the opportunity to see the results of their suggestions. Users struggle to distribute: CASE key to client/server. (computer-aided software engineering tools) New computer-aided software engineering tools offer solutions for the increasingly popular client/server and distributed processing architectures. Client/server technology currently suffers from a lack of application development tools, and many companies need to do low-level programming in-house. Client/server environments are appealing because they move the bulk of data processing to the workstation and relieve the host of expensive duties. Powerful workstations and graphical interfaces give users access to increasing amounts of information. Client/server environments still need further development of interoperability and distributed database technologies. Object-oriented techniques are being used in CASE tools, and this technology is seen as essential for successful vendors. Object-oriented tools are able to generate reusable blocks of code. IBM sets up service hurdles. (imposes two-year prohibition of resale or sublease of mainframes) IBM imposes new restrictions on the resale or sublease practices of its mainframe customers. Those customers are not allowed to sell or sublease memory components, or the mainframes themselves for two years from the point of purchase. Previously, the restricted period was one year, but many companies claim that IBM enforced its rule so loosely that they did not know the rule existed. The proposed increase in enforcement spells trouble for add-in and leasing companies such as Cambex Corp and EMC Corp. IBM has brought suits against these companies alleging they replaced IBM components with other-than-original ones. Customers claim that IBM has in the past allowed this practice as long as the replaced parts were identical and that IBM was notified of any subleasing done. The regulation applies both to purchased and leased systems as well as components. Compaq qualifies integrators: seeks network skills to support server sales. (Compaq Computer Corp.'s Specialized Dealer Program) Compaq Computer Corp's newly-announced Specialized Dealer Program allows qualified resellers to become endorsed network integrators. The program is supposed to be a catalyst for increased sales of Compaq's servers and microcomputers. Qualification includes the requirement of an employed, accredited Compaq engineer who must have at least 40 hours of Compaq training each year. The reseller must offer a specific level of service, support multivendor environments and sell Compaq products including its SystemPro. The reseller must also sell a local area network (LAN) operating system from Novell Inc, Microsoft Corp, The Santa Cruz Operation Inc or Banyan Systems Inc. Customers are able to purchase Compaq's new service, which includes technical support for one year in addition to services from the reseller, for $3,000. Compaq will qualify between 500 and 600 resellers under the program. Lotus looks to network 1-2-3. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus Business Partner program for reselling the spreadsheet software) Lotus Development Corp's Lotus Business Partner program enables integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) to resell 1-2-3 for networked environments. Participants in the program must attend a two-day training course offered by either Merisel Inc, or Ingram/Micro Inc. Both are Lotus distributors, and they are sources from which VARs and integrators may buy 1-2-3. The participating integrators and VARs must also provide application and network integration services using 1-2-3. Lotus Development's major resellers are comprised of storefront computer resellers, software distributors and mail-order businesses. Lotus Development does not offer a network version of 1-2-3, but it is often used in that capacity on Sun Microsystems Inc and DEC platforms. SHL wins $270M postal contract: outbids four integrators to build and operate mail tracking system. (SHL Systemhouse Inc., U.S. SHL Systemhouse Inc's U.S. subsidiary, Systemhouse Inc, lands a $270 million contract with the Postal Service to provide a mail tracking system called the Comprehensive Tracking and Tracing System. Systemhouse will provide integration of custom software, hand-held bar code scanners and a customer inquiry center. All will be connected through a nationwide data communications network to an IBM 3090 280J mainframe in Houston. Systemhouse will run IBM's DB/2 for the data base manager and will develop a custom tracing application. The contract is seen as critical for the Postal Service to compete in the overnight mail market. Federal Express and other competitors already utilize computerized mail tracing systems while the Postal Service presently uses written logs and a burdened data center. The scanners will be provided by Symbol Technologies Inc, and Unisys Corp will maintain them. Network integrators gain IBM's blessing: endorses multivendor nets. (IBM's Value Added Enhancement program) IBM's new local area network (LAN) Value Added Enhancement program allows systems integrators to utilize IBM's products along with other manufacturers' in multivendor network projects. The new policy marks a loosening of restrictions the company previously enforced. The Value Added Enhancement program requires participants to have installed at least 120 LANs, each with a minimum of 30 nodes, within the past year. The program is seen as evidence of IBM's recognition of the value of multivendor environments and systems integrators. Several LAN connectivity products IBM has introduced are catching the attention of LAN integrators, including the PS/2 Model 95 network server, the 16/4M-bps Token Ring card that has bus master capabilities and its OS/2 LAN Server package with Ethernet support. Sun taps software allies: program aims to broaden appeal of SPARC platform. (Sun Microsystems Inc., Andersen Consulting, Cincinnati Sun Microsystems Inc introduces a consulting program involving Andersen Consulting, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems Inc (CBIS) and Interactive Systems Corp as initial members. The program is aimed at helping Sun Microsystems' customers port applications to its SPARC platform. Sun Microsystems is trying to form new relationships with integrators and third-party developers by increasing the availability of SPARC-compatible applications. Andersen Consulting and Interactive Systems Corp both have experience developing Unix systems, and CBIS specializes in the telecommunications field. Andersen Consulting's role involves helping customers port applications running on Intel Corp- and Motorola Inc-based systems. CBIS' will center on the telecommunications market in its contract with Sun Microsystems. Laventhol spawns second consultancy. (Laventhol and Horwath's Phoenix Technology Inc.) Phoenix Technology Ltd is founded by former Laventhol and Horwath principals Gary Glickman and Eugene Costa. Phoenix Technology offers strategic planning, program evaluation, market assessment, information and telecommunication systems management and vulnerability assessment services. The company also will offer technology planning and acquisition consulting services. Markets targeted by Phoenix Technology include the government, banking, health care and technology. Phoenix Technology has a $150,000 subcontractor pact with the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service to provide automation of food stamp distribution. The company also has other federal contracts, including a pact with the Resolution Trust Corp. Client/server software lags. (shortage of software applications for client/server architectures) The increased popularity of client/server architectures is suffering from a lack of software development tools and distributed applications. International Data Corp reports that in the next few years over one million Intel Corp microprocessor-based servers will be delivered. IBM, DEC and Sun Microsystems Inc are all providing development tools and architectures in an effort to increase software development. Customers are wary, however, to implement single-vendor client/server architectures because of a lack of standards. Developers see a need for increased user interest to spur client/server applications development. IBM's AD/Cycle, DEC's Network Applications Support (NAS) and Sun Microsystems' Open Network Computing/Network Computing System (ONC/NFS) all offer competing tools that may cause users to hold off implementing client/server architectures. Defying categorization: BSG does more than networking. (Business Systems Group Inc.) (company profile) Business Systems Group Inc (BSG) is an integration consulting firm specializing in client/server computing. Steve Papermaster, a former Andersen Consulting manager, is its president. The majority of its senior consultants are former Andersen Consulting managers or former Big Six accounting firm employees. For installation of systems, BSG sometimes subcontracts work out to network integrators as its emphasis is on consulting. BSG's major competitors are Andersen Consulting, Perot Systems Corp and Electronic Data Systems Corp. BSG focuses on the oil and gas industry, and it also does business with transportation and health care industries. BSG's revenues for 1990 totalled almost $10 million. Novell to deliver internetworking. (enhancements to Novell Inc.'s NetWare 386 network operating system) Novell Inc introduces an enhanced version of its NetWare 386 network operating system. NetWare 3.11 now supports client services for DOS, Windows, OS/2, Apple Macintosh and Unix systems. The product also supports the following protocols: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and the Simple Network Management Protocol. NetWare 3.11 will continue to offer integrated support for IBM's NetView network management architecture, which allows monitoring of a NetWare server from a NetView terminal. The package also offers backup and restore function enhancements and configuration options that include 20- and 100-user versions. Novell is offering the product in modular form, and observers are critical of the high prices involved with this strategy. Netware 3.11 costs $3,495 for a 20-user version, $6,995 for 100- and $12,495 for 250-user versions. Stalemate. (Compagnie Generale d'Informatique's investment in Computer Horizons Corp.) (Street Talk) (column) Compagnie Generale d'Informatique claims that Computer Horizons Corp's financial turnaround is due to cost cutting rather than its ability to perform as a project management business. Compagnie Generale d'Informatique uses its 16.2 per cent stake in Computer Horizons as a means to distribute its own high-level computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools in the U.S. However, the French company's ultimate goal is control of Computer Horizons, and it has tried several strategies to take over the integrator, but poison pills and a majority insider ownership have stymied all efforts. Compagnie Generale d'Informatique earned $1.30 per share on its 398,000 share stake in Computer Horizons Corp in 1990. EDS sounds muted warning: questions arise over GM, non-GM projects. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., General Motors Corp.) General Motors Corp (GM), parent company of Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS), states that EDS must increase its revenues from sources other than GM. The announcement follows GM's plan to cut back on purchases from suppliers. EDS reports it has not met its goal of expanding non-GM business by 20 per cent in 1990 and that GM's cutbacks may affect EDS' revenues. 1990 profit for EDS increased 10 to 15 per cent for 4th qtr 1990, from $131 million to $137 million. GM and EDS may negotiate price concessions on existing contracts. EDS presently has two five-year contracts with GM that were signed in 1988: one with the Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada division, and one with Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac. EDS also has a four-year extension contract with GM's Truck and Bus operation that was signed in 1989. Fixed-price contracts between GM and EDS include ones with GM's Service Parts, Automotive Components and Delco Electronics. Financing an obstacle in Citicorp acquisition. (Citicorp Information Resources Corp.'s sale of operations to Fiserv Inc.) Fiserv Inc's plan to buy 75 per cent of Citicorp Information Resources Corp's outsourcing operations faces financial obstacles. The deal also includes Citicorp Information Resources' AS/400 value-added reselling unit and other operations. Citicorp Information Resources Corp operates an IBM 3090 at one facility and a Data General minicomputer center in Troy, MI. The assets to be acquired had 1990 sales totalling $90 million. Citicorp, the parent of Citicorp Information Resources, will retain a $39 million payroll processing operation. Fiserv will be prevented from using Citicorp's name for the new acquisitions. Citicorp is believed to be behind the proposed sale in order to generate capital. Citicorp Information Resources has recently won contracts from the Resolution Trust Corp involving asset liquidation of failed savings and loans. Image processing wakes up. (Viewpoint) Santeusanio, Peter. Developers of image processing (IP) products should form strategic partnerships with systems integrators and original equipment merchandisers (OEMs). The IP industry is focusing on microcomputer-based platforms that cost much less than the dedicated systems offered in the late 1980s. Integrators are playing major roles in the emerging market with their experience of lengthy market times and volume production requirements. Innovations in the future will include increased speed of subsystem functions, multiple operating system and high-speed peripherals support, and memory enhancements. IP also requires proven hardware and software development tools, and common image libraries are essential. Successful IP suppliers will need to demonstrate technological superiority, financial strength, manufacturing capability and technological support. IBM wins $25M court deal. (integration contract with the U.S. court system) IBM lands a five-year, $25 million contract with the U.S. court system to install a nationwide data communications network. The network will link offices of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, U.S. District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and the Federal Judicial Center. Subcontractors involved in the pact include Computer Sciences Corp, Arix Inc, Synoptics Communications Inc and Cisco Systems Inc. IBM will provide a network comprised of nearly 2,000 small local-area networks (LANs), 150 large LANs and 14 electronic mail nodes. The project involves integrating over 15,000 existing workstations and terminals and 100 mainframe computers as well as 2,000 new PS/2 workstations. The new network will also tie into the Federal Telecommunications System 2000. PRC Inc has contested the veracity of IBM's bid submittal to the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals. IBM widens parts stripping fight. (attempt to stop 'illegal' sales of used IBM parts) IBM Credit Corp (ICC) has filed suit against several companies for allegedly stripping and reselling parts from used IBM equipment. IBM charges that Comdisco Inc, Cambex Corp and EMC Corp illegally removed parts from computers leased by ICC. Observers say that subleasing and re-marketing of parts is vital to the leasing industry and has become a common practice because of user needs for flexible, inexpensive systems. They note that many companies are involved but not every leasing firm is 'cannibalizing' machines. ICC personnel say the company is only attempting to stop outright theft and not stifle the third-party market. Some industry insiders claim IBM's actions are intended to divert attention from the controversy over restricted access to IBM microcode. Hacker probe bogged down; Operation Sundevil case 'going nowhere.' (federal crackdown on computer crime) The federal government's 'Operation Sundevil' crackdown on computer crime has reportedly stalled and has come under attack by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, two prominent advocacy groups. CPSR filed suit in Feb 1991 to force the US Secret Service to reveal details of the investigation, which insiders say is 'going nowhere.' More than 150 federal agents worked with local and state authorities to execute 27 search warrants in May 1990, seizing 40 microcomputers and 23,000 disks. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided counsel for several defendants in the 'Sundevil' cases and plans to take its own legal action soon. The EFF contends that innocent people have been caught in the hacker 'dragnet' and have had their rights infringed. DEC finds software makes the sale. (Digital Equipment Corp. marketing strategy - part 3)(includes related articles on Unix, Software rather than hardware is the key to most of DEC's sales of its proprietary minicomputer line, according to both DEC and customers. DEC is working with Phoenix Mutual life Insurance Co to develop systems software that manages the interaction of different programs to reduce code maintenance. Ralston Purina Co's Protein Technologies Inc division chose the DEC VAX as its primary computing platform because of the variety of process industry applications that run on it. Quotron Systems Inc, a developer of Wall Street trading systems, is also working with DEC on customized software. The companies hope to jointly produce FX/Trader, an interbank foreign exchange trading system that guarantees a two-second response time from workstations anywhere in the world. FX/Trader will use IBM PS/2 microcomputer workstations, but DEC Microvax 3100 machines will handle all telecommunications processing. Windows close on New Wave. (poor sales of HP's NewWave operating environment)(includes related article on different 'flavors' of HP's Windows-based NewWave graphical operating environment is not selling well despite the fact that several vendors plan to incorporate it into their platforms. Very few NewWave applications have actually been shipped. NewWave offers a higher degree of object orientation than Windows 3.0 alone, but Microsoft is pledging a more object-oriented Windows 4.0 sometime in 1993 and has already begun to implement object linking and embedding technology. Many users are taking a 'wait and see' stance, noting that NewWave currently does not work with such popular DOS applications as Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect and dBASE. Applications must be ported to NewWave to take advantage of the HP environment's multitasking capabilities and automatic updates; applications running under Windows 4.0 would offer similar functionality without requiring modification. HP marketing personnel nevertheless say NewWave already has more features than Microsoft is planning for the upcoming Windows version. Retail pinch sparing IS investments. (information systems spending) The growing recession is helping rather than hurting sales of information systems (IS) to the retail industry as retailers turn to technologies that can help them fight the slump in sales. Market research firm Index Group Inc expects overall IS spending among retailers to rise 6.1 percent, compared with an average of 5.3 percent for all industries, based on a survey of 20 top retail and wholesale IS executives. Many retail IS managers nevertheless say they plan to spend less on technology in 1991 than they did in 1990. Some retailers that have experienced severe difficulties in recent years, such as Sears Roebuck and Co, are investing in technological upgrades to compete more effectively. Compaq ready to offer direct support: most observers happy with plan, but pricing plan may discourage users. (Compaq Computer Compaq plans to announce its first direct technical support service on Feb 11, 1991, in a move observers say could boost sales. The company will charge $3,000 for 10 telephone-support solutions per year in the areas of system compatibility, configuration, installation and troubleshooting. Support contracts can be purchased from dealers and include a subscription to Compaq's Quickfind Support Reference Library CD ROM. Some resellers appreciate the plan because of the difficulty of offering high-end customers satisfactory support when dealing with complex platforms. Users are generally pleased with the idea of direct support from Compaq but complain that the service is overpriced. Notebook PC price war on hold. (microcomputer prices) Pastore, Richard; Fitzgerald, Michael. The 'price war' in the notebook computer market which some analysts have predicted since Oct 1990 has not materialized because of pent-up demand for those products available and the fact that several vendors have delayed introducing competitive products. Large portable microcomputers have dropped in price, but prices of notebook machines remain high. Compaq's 80386SX-based LTE computer lists for $6,500 and up, and IBM is expected to introduce a $5,000 to $5,500 386SX notebook in the spring of 1991. Prices may drop when second-tier vendors such as Dell Computer Corp and AST Research Inc deliver long-promised machines. AST missed its Jan 1991 shipping date due to the component shortages that have troubled vendors announcing new laptops. Systems Center won't wait for IBM platform. (Systems Center Inc. developing platform for integrated, centralized management of IBM Systems Center Inc is developing its own centralized management system for IBM platforms well in advance of the computer giant's upcoming Systemview architecture. Systems Center says it will support the data engine, applications programming interface and user interface of Systemview but is not waiting for IBM to finalize specifications before beginning development. The company is currently working to integrate existing Unix, VM, MVS and AS/400 system management products into an 'enterprise management solution' with a data repository and integrated applications that offer a unified user interface. Several IBM shops, including USAir, have expressed interest in a third-party systems integration solution like the one Systems Center would offer. Saab Cars shifts gears to IBM. (Saab Cars USA Inc. ports applications from mainframe to distributed system of midrange IBM Saab Cars USA Inc has moved its applications from mainframe computers to a distributed system based on IBM midrange machines and workstations, hoping to save $5 million between 1991 and 1995. The company, the largest of nine Saab automobile importers worldwide, is a subsidiary of Saab Automobile AB in Sweden, which outsourced its entire information systems division to Electronic Data Systems Corp. Saab AB's outsourcing deal will not directly effect importers, all of whom have chosen IBM's AS/400 platform for their new distributed environments. The information systems department at Saab Cars USA maintains records for the company's six-year, 80,000-mile warranty on 1991 cars in a custom-designed application. Saab Cars USA is now evaluating packaged software for most of its application areas but will continue building its own software for services and warranties. Pentagon funds peacetime products. (military funds used for projects that will benefit nonmilitary use) San Diego-based HNC Inc, a neural networking applications developer, is working on several projects funded by the military which could be put to peacetime use. HNC is developing a target-recognition system which is 'trained' to identify military targets but could just as easily track commercial airliners. Other military-funded projects at HNC include a speaker-independent continuous speech recognition system and an analog neural network controller chip. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Computing Program funds these and other projects for military applications, but most of its technology base is basic research in fundamental computer science. David Sarnoff Research Center, Texas Instruments and Sun Microsystems Inc are using DARPA funds to develop a multimedia workstation, and more than 300 private companies are using 3-D structural analysis software originally developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for weapons systems. Purging information overload. ('data ecology')(Viewpoint) (column) Hall, Mark. Information 'overload' is a significant problem in many organizations and is analogous to environmental problems caused by waste. Newspapers and electronic media reach every corner of the world, and billions of tons of unwanted 'junk mail' clutters homes. Information 'pollution' contributed to the recent savings and loan crisis because a problem that had existed for years was abruptly brought to public attention. Voluntary restraint is the key to preventing a catastrophic crisis, and IS departments will suffer considerable 'backlash' as information ecology becomes important. Data can and should be 'recycled' in creative ways. Technology offers disabled a chance to make their mark. (impact of Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990) (computers and The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 makes discrimination against physically or mentally handicapped persons illegal, and its passage is an unfortunate but not surprising necessity as many employers and others cling to archaic attitudes and practices when dealing with the disabled. Computers and specialized software are among the most important adaptive technologies that allow disabled people to become productive members of society. Technology is available to assist people with visual or speech impairment, motor dysfunction and certain mental disabilities. It acts as an 'equalizer' that tends to make discrimination obsolete; disabled people find many of their disabilities erased. Providing adaptive technology for disabled employees costs relatively little and reduces the overall cost to society of providing relief. More change needed at D&B. (Dun and Bradstreet) Cusack, Sally. Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) Software Services, formerly McCormack and Dodge, is still aligning its products and services for the DEC VAX platform after merging with Management Science America Inc and going through several major restructurings. The company's Millenium operating environment, introduced in Aug 1988, pleases most users, but some have complained that service and support have declined since the merger. D&B Software has offered a complete line of financial and accounting modules for Millenium since Nov 1990 and uses a new automated service system which officials say some users may have slight difficulty adjusting to. Some users say that the merger actually led to improved service. Cognos extends AS/400 support for Powerhouse. (Cognos Inc. introduces new fourth-generation language tools for IBM AS/400 Cognos Inc now offers its Powerhouse fourth-generation language (4GL) application development tools on the IBM AS/400 minicomputer. Powerhouse is already established on DEC, HP and Data General Corp midrange systems, but analysts note that it faces marketing hurdles with the AS/400 because it is based on the C programming language. The AS/400 has a reputation for poor C performance, and competitors Sysnon Inc, System Software Associates Inc and Aspect Inc dominate the market with third-generation language code generation tools. Cognos does not yet offer computer-aided software engineering, documentation or maintenance tools in the Powerhouse system, but plans to add them in late 1991 and stresses that all AS/400 Powerhouse tools will be fully compliant with IBM's SAA and AD/Cycle platforms. Cosmos2: Fedex's next generation. (Federal Express Corp. enhancing Cosmos II worldwide tracking system) Federal Express Corp is building its Cosmos2 next-generation worldwide tracking system on Unix, relational databases and distributed computing platforms. The overnight delivery service pioneer uses an IBM IMS database running on and Amdahl mainframe and Tandem Computers Inc system to process 14 million transactions per day. Federal Express plans to integrate its database structure by adding a relational DBMS, a peer-to-peer computing environment and Unix-based platforms in its dispatch stations. Information systems staff at Federal Express are testing Unix prototypes on varying hardware with the goal of offloading some transaction processing from the mainframes and bringing information closer to station personnel. 'Supertracker' scanning packages help sort route and sort packages automatically via 'smart labels' on packages. State program chooses minis over PCs. (Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children in Little Rock, Arkansas) The Arkansas Department of Health chose a Wang VS minicomputer-based environment to administer its Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) rather than a microcomputer-based local area network because its has been a Wang shop since 1983 and wanted centralized control of software updates. Officials at the department note that all software applications are developed in-house using Cobol-85. It stores all data for WIC on a Wang VS 10000 with 288 active ports and has a VS 7310 serving as a network controller to communicate with VS 5000 systems throughout Arkansas. Each of the approximately 100 health units in Arkansas has a Wang 2110A asynchronous terminal for accessing the WIC software. The health department selected the Wang terminals over microcomputers so that mobile personnel could work with a single keyboard configuration. Second Specmark suite aimed at the high end. (benchmark suite for workstations) Systems Performance Evaluation Cooperative Marks (SPECmarks), developed by the SPEC consortium, are a popular alternative to the standard MIPS benchmark for evaluating workstation performance but suffer from well-acknowledged problems that have led SPEC to develop a second benchmark suite. The 23 SPEC member companies will begin reviewing a new set of benchmark applications designed to gauge multiuser throughput and the speed of machines in commercial applications in Feb 1991. The current 'Release 1' Specmark suite of 10 applications was designed for single-user machines with relatively slow CPUs and small cache sizes. It runs too fast on today's fast CPUs to give an accurate view of performance. Release 2, which will simulate multitasking and test I/O throughput, takes up to eight hours to run on low-end workstations. Windows support service debuts. (Corporate Software Inc. offers third-party support for Microsoft Windows graphical interface) Corporate Software offers a third-party user training and support package for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface that includes assistance with large-scale migrations. The company worked with Microsoft on a 'GUI Pilot Program' to identify the problems and issues associated with migrating to Windows and gathered quantitative and qualitative data about user needs and the effect of migration on productivity. Corporate Software is betting that large companies will prefer to contract with third parties rather than committing their own resources. Some users are pleased with the idea, but others complain that the Corporate Software service is too expensive at $120 per hour plus travel expenses. IS changes brewing at Nestle/Hills Brothers. (Nestle/Hills Brothers Coffee Co.) The information systems (IS) department at Nestle/Hills Brothers Coffee Co is in the process of migrating from centralized to distributed computing systems and replacing dumb terminals with microcomputers. All companywide applications, including the Nesnet international electronic mail system, formerly ran on IBM mainframe computers via Systems Network Architecture terminals. The mainframe still runs an internal order-processing system, but many departmental applications have been moved to Novell NetWare-based local area networks connected with an SNA backbone. Nestle/Hills remains an IBM shop, using 80286-, 80386- and 80486-based IBM PC and PS/2 microcomputers. Officials say that microcomputers are more cost-effective as a means of information storage than dated minicomputers and mainframes. The company uses off-the-shelf software whenever possible. Quattro Pro: well-rounded and good value. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc. Quattro Pro 2.0 spreadsheet)(includes Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro 2.0 spreadsheet offers better than average performance, excellent read/write compatibility with other databases and good integrated graphics capabilities. Borland's virtual real-time object oriented memory management (VROOMM) feature lets users work with very large spreadsheets, and the program is fast. It does not support three-dimensional spreadsheets, and its graphics are limited but serviceable. Documentation is good, and ease of learning is considered very good. Quattro Pro is a very good value for its $495 retail price, and many users can upgrade from either earlier versions or competing products. Multisided Tariff 12 debates not over yet. (AT&T Tariff 12 telecommunications services)(includes related article on Many argue that AT&T's new Tariff 12 services are anticompetitive and act against innovation while causing prices to rise, while others allege that they are essentially a 'secret price list' that lets the carrier circumvent government regulations. AT&T argues that the courts have affirmed Tariff 12, which provides large users with customized voice and data service packages at large discounts, as legal and claims that competition in the high-end business market is particularly fierce. Its competitors say that AT&T should not be deregulated further because it holds 65 percent of the long distance market, five times that of MCI Communications Corp, the second-largest long distance carrier. Users are pleased with the options Tariff 12 offers them, but third parties see AT&T as an impediment to their obtaining market share; equipment manufacturers fear that AT&T will pressure Tariff 12 customers into buying its own equipment. Network programming requires new attitudes. Wexler, Joanie M. Customized local-area network applications are difficult to write, and expertise in LAN programming is scarce because microcomputer networks are a relatively new technology which requires traditional mainframe programmers to change their attitudes. LAN developers must think in terms of how to make the computer do what they want rather than in terms of what the computer will accept. Some companies are turning to automated programming tools such as Syscorp International Inc's Microstep 1.5, which lets programmers 'paint' applications on the screen and automatically generates C source code. Firms announce plans for future services. (AT&T, British Telecom introduce service plans at Communication Networks 91 trade AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced plans for new long-term electronic mail and ISDN services at the Communication Networks 91 trade show in Washington, DC. AT&T's new 'Easylink' service will merge its former E-mail service with the service it acquired from Western Union Corp, and British Telecom's BT Tymnet subsidiary has announced a migration path to ISDN. Easylink will phase in multimedia support, provisions for image databases and other new features over the next few years and will aggressively expand its overseas service. BT Tymnet plans to migrate its users to broadband ISDN by supporting frame relay-based connections of up to 256K-bps and implementing a full frame-relay backbone in 1992. IBM, router vendors wield SNA swords. (competition in Systems Network Architecture arena) (IBM Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking Cisco Systems Inc and Wellfleet Communications Inc have both announced support for IBM's Synchronous Data Link Control protocol in their router products as part of efforts to combine IBM's hierarchical Systems Network Architecture scheme with their own distributed and peer-to-peer computing systems. The new Cisco and Wellfleet routers let disparate networks merge over a common serial data backbone by encapsulating SNA packets. Cisco says it has licensed source code from start-up Brixton Systems Inc that will let its routers handle SNA protocols n the near future. SNA nodes can also be connected to a token-ring network, linking LANs with IBM's proprietary bridging scheme. Gateway puts pennies in its bank. (Gateway Bank) (uses write once read many optical disk technology) Norwalk, CT-based Gateway Bank uses optical disk technology to store vast quantities of documents formerly archived on microfiche. The write-once read-many (WORM) disks contain 14 banking applications as well as data, including customer and commercial checking and savings accounts, installment loans and mortgages. Value-added reseller Integrated Financial Systems (IFS) Inc constructed the system for Gateway form an IBM AT microcomputer, a 5.25-inch WORM drive, a tape station, a printer and custom-developed software for archiving and retrieving reports. Gateway now has three microcomputers equipped with optical disk drives and plans to add a fourth in 1991. It has saved more than $100,000 per year in the three years it has used the system, spending $21,000 per year for optical disks rather than $130,000 for service-bureau microfiche transfer. IFS now markets the 'Optical Disk Information Network' to other banks. Just say career rotation. (Commentary) Lodahl, Thomas. Many large organizations appoint chief information officers (CIOs) with little or no experience in information systems (IS) because they need business problems translated into technological action, and such executives often have difficulty earning credibility. A few strictly business-based CIOs succeed in their new posts and become highly valued senior managers, but the cost is high. A better method of managing IS is to train vice presidents of data processing in executive development and place them on the executive committee. These people may not understand marketing and finance but are somewhat more likely to succeed than business managers placed in charge of IS. Requirements have changed, and IS has become a front-line function that requires a CIO to have credibility in both business and technology. 'Career rotation,' the ideal way of developing such a person, tends to happen by accident. The best-managed companies systematically rotate people in and out of IS and other business functions to give them a broad understanding of how to apply technology to business solutions. Flexible manufacturing: it's gotten easier to change on demand. (includes related article on costs of flexible manufacturing) Flexible manufacturing systems allow factories to quickly produce a wide variety of products using the same equipment. The machines have evolved from complex, fully-automated systems to clusters of less automated machines that are dedicated to specific purposes and are easier to operate and maintain. Almost any computer-aided manufacturing application can make a plant more flexible. The core of a flexible manufacturing system is a supervisory program running on a minicomputer, microcomputer or workstation. These 'cell control systems' or 'supervisory control systems' can either be bought off the shelf or custom written for a particular application. The software collects data on work in progress and prepares analyses and reports. Local controllers translate instructions from the supervisory programs into codes that operate factory machinery, and the factory floor network operates at high speed in real time. A checklist of key qualities defines the ideal supervisor. (choosing a supervisory program for flexible manufacturing) Guidelines for choosing supervisory software for flexible manufacturing systems are presented. A good program should have an easy-to-create, highly readable graphics display, interfaces to the specific controllers used in the factory and standard libraries of control functions or well-designed tools for creating new functions. A robust database that tracks operating status is essential; process manufacturing needs a more powerful database than discrete manufacturing. Supervisory programs should have powerful reporting capabilities, including a menu of standard reports and custom reporting tools. The program needs to prominently flash an alarm message if a process is about to fail. Multitasking capabilities are also vital, especially in process industries. Plant management systems use many aliases. (guide to plant management software)(includes related article on 'must have' A guide to choosing plant-management software is presented. Plant management programs may be referred to as area management systems, factory management and control systems, factory floor management systems or plant operation management systems, but all have the same basic function of linking the corporate planning layer to the factory control layer. The software forms a new 'execution' layer between planning and control and gives operators and manufacturers up-to-date views of all manufacturing resources. A plant management system can cut manufacturing costs by up to 55 percent, with a typical payback period of less than one year. Prices range from $10,000 to $1 million or more. 'Integrated plant management systems' are usually modular and consist of planning and scheduling, tracking and monitoring, quality management and computer integrated manufacturing interface components. Unix myths exploded. (includes related articles on proprietary vs. open systems, Unix consortia) Many information systems (IS) shops avoid the Unix operating system because of myths about its complexity, lack of standardization and difficulty of obtaining qualified personnel to program it. These myths are half-truths, and managers should consider Unix more seriously as a solution to their open systems needs. Vendors do not set standards; de facto standards are set by users who choose whether or not to adopt a technology. Beginning programmers say Unix is hard to learn, but almost anyone can learn Unix with proper training and become a competent user in approximately one year. Unix software is often said to be completely portable, but it is actually 'luggable;' only applications that conform to such multi-platform standards a Posix are portable. Unix programmers are stereotyped as 'flaky' but are not as scarce as some claim. Unix/C programmers do command higher salaries than Cobol programmers in some remote areas, but developing Unix applications often saves enough to pay back the cost. Unix is gradually becoming more secure despite its notorious security holes and some widely publicized break-ins. Unix offers more transparent security options than many proprietary operating systems. Quality: take it to the limit. (IBM Rochester improves quality control) IBM's Rochester, NY site, which manufactures the AS/400 minicomputer and peripherals, has built a quality-oriented corporate culture which helped it win the coveted Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in the fall of 1990. IBM Rochester implements ideas it learns from other companies as well as those used within IBM, and other companies now try to see what they can 'steal' from IBM as they do from other Baldridge award winners. The company was eliminated in the final Baldridge round in 1989 but re-applied in 1990 and reorganized its management to succeed. IBM Rochester increased its emphasis on benchmarking department results against those at competing firms during the Baldridge qualification process and manages quality as a top-down effort. Ask exec outlines new game plan for Ingres. (Ask Computer Systems acquisition of Ingres Corp.) Ask Computer Systems Inc executive VP of product operations Eric Carlson is moving to make the company's new database division, acquired when it purchased Ingres Corp, more competitive with rivals such as Oracle Systems Corp. Ask plans to boost Ingres' market share via business partnerships with hardware vendors such as HP and DEC and is requesting that some systems vendors underwrite the cost of porting Ingres' database to their hardware, according to Carlson. Ask's Application Product Division will become a 'software factory' creating shrink-wrapped programs for Unix-based open systems machines and proprietary IBM AS/400, DEC and HP computers. The company's products will support nine standard open systems environments which account for the majority of hardware platforms today. Opus picks Sun and Motorola for RISC architecture. (Opus Systems developing CPUs based on both Sun, Motorola reduced instruction Workstation vendor Opus Systems Inc offers products based on both Motorola 88000 and Sun SPARC-compatible reduced instruction set computer (RISC) CPUs. The company uses the 88000 chip in its Series 400 Personal mainframe and the SPARC design in its Personal Mainframe 5000, while the Personal Mainframe/8100 and 8200 families use Intel 80286 and 80386 processors. Analysts say Opus' 'divided allegiance' could be helpful if one or both processors is very successful in the marketplace but forces the vendor to divide its resources. Opus markets its SPARC-based systems at wholesale prices approximately 20 percent less than Sun's. Opus has a side business in attempting to ensure that SPARC remains a high-volume architecture. Challenges created by Windows' popularity. (market trends) Keyes, Jessica. The growing popularity of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface poses major technical and marketing challenges for independent software developers who wish to create applications for it. New development tools are beginning to address the problems of programming for a windowing environment, but information systems (IS) managers still need to be aware that graphics programming is fundamentally different from programming text-based applications. Windows applications must be structured to accommodate a flexible user interface; the user rather than the program controls interaction. The need to train programmers for a new environment while maintaining development schedules makes selecting a good development tool a necessity. Use of the mouse in software development, object orientation, multiplatform considerations and disk and memory requirements are discussed. Technical support is also vital in a Windows programming tool. Business as usual for disabled. (hiring disabled people to work in information systems) Information systems (IS) trainers say that training disabled people to work in IS is little different than training anyone else once the system is made accessible to the student, but potential employers often remain unconvinced of the disabled person's abilities and fail to tap a vast pool of talented personnel. IS positions are often well-suited to a disabled person's abilities and limitations, The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Information Resources (CIR) offers a variety of IS training programs for the disabled and attempts to adapt to the person rather than his or her limitations. Staffers work with the individual to provide assistive devices and have placed more than 90 percent of graduates in full-time IS jobs. IBM offers IS training programs for the disabled, and other organizations help employers find assistive technologies for particular individuals. U.S. budget shines on high-tech. (includes related article on highest-priority program) The Bush administration's budget for FY 1992 has earmarked generous increases for several federal high-technology programs, including the National Research and Education Network project. President Bush has asked for $76 billion for technology research and development, an increase of 13 percent over 1991. The budget also seeks a 19.5 percent overall increase for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a 26 percent boost for NIST's computer activities. Several agencies, including the IRS, are expected to receive new funds for overhauling antiquated data processing systems. Agencies are not counting on receiving the funds, noting that Congress must approve all appropriations. Alliances to be announced at NetWorld. (Networld 91 Boston trade show)(includes related article on maintenance update for Novell Local area network vendors are expected to announce many strategic alliances at the 1991 Networld trade show in Boston, but analysts do not expect breakthroughs despite the fact that the vendor agreements are aimed chiefly at ensuring interoperability. IBM is likely to demonstrate LAN Server and Novell NetWare coexisting on the same network and to announce ports of NetWare for the OS/2, AS/400 and RS/6000 platforms. Analysts say that DEC and Novell may announce the integration of DEC's Pathworks networking software with NetWare. Another area the show will address is LAN management, which one analyst says is in an 'awful state.' MISC architectures could nullify RISC/CISC debate. (minimum instruction set computing) Teraplex is developing a minimum instruction set computing (MISC) microprocessor that is said to provide a tenfold to one hundredfold performance increase for one-third the price of existing products. MISC architecture is designed to streamline information processing by using as few instructions as possible. The company maintains that MISC technology is significant in that it allows end-users to reuse software no matter what the underlying hardware architecture and it is highly scalable. Should this be true, the current open systems debate would become irrelevant. MISC architecture does not require decoding because all the control information needed to run the instruction is stored in the instruction itself. Although the technology itself would be revolutionary if developed, many analysts believe the technology could not be translated into a commercial product. DEC slightly relaxes VMS licensing policy concerning upgrades. Ballou, Melinda-Carol. DEC has announced that its VMS licensing regulations will be repriced to take into account the age of the technology on which the operating system is to run, although the established VMS licensing upgrade policy will remain unchanged. The established policy states that when an upgrade is purchased, the original license is terminated and another is initiated. The best prices for the upgrades will be for users that purchase a bundled package direct from DEC. The next best prices will be for those who purchase the hardware from DEC and then the upgrades as they are needed. The least attractive price will be for those who purchase hardware from a dealer and then return to DEC for a new license. DEC will also continue to charge users some type of fee for new VMS licenses. Persoft package runs LAT across token ring. (Passage) (product announcement) Persoft has announced that the Passage network software package is available for IBM-compatibles on token-ring networks to access VAX resources via Local Area Transport. Passage is designed to support Persoft's SmarTerm 320 and SmarTerm 340 terminal emulation packages running on IBM-compatibles. A typical Passage network server would consist of an IBM-compatible microcomputer equipped with both token-ring and Western Digital Ethernet communications boards, with Persoft's LAT software on each networked microcomputer. The Passage software product, available in April, will be priced at $5,995 for a 20-user license, and $9,995 for a 50-user license. Gateway joins NetWare PCs, VAXes via LAT. (Golden Gate Communications' Vaccess) (product announcement) Golden Gate Communication's Vaccess network software package, is a NetWare-to-VAX gateway that allows Novel microcomputers on a local area network to access VAXes via the Local Area Transport protocol. The package resides on an IBM-compatible microcomputer-based gateway running NetBIOS, LAT software, MS-DOS, and terminal emulation software. With Vaccess, the serial output is redirected from the VT emulator to the server's network interface card. The NetBIOS output is then multiplexed from the server onto Ethernet via the LAT protocol. The software requires 640Kbytes of memory on the server, and each client on the LAN requires a VT emulator and Vaccess client software. The client software is non-memory resident, but requires 20Kbytes of RAM. Vaccess is priced at $9,900 for 10-session support, and $13,900 for 32-session support. Proposal would change tenure, membership of DECUS directors. Donohue, James F. The Digital Equipment Computer User Society plans to vote on proposed bylaws that would change the 12-member management council from a separate organization into an operating committee of the board. The changes would also entail increasing the number of voting members on the board from nine to 13. Also planned is a change in the way members are elected. If the board of directors approves the changes, they would have to go to the 50,000 membership for approval. Two-thirds of those members that actually vote would need to endorse the changes in order for the user group to adopt them. DEC pairs DECpresent with color PostScript printer; adds PostScript support to WPS-Plus. (Colormate printer, WPS-Plus for DEC has introduced the $9,450 Colormate PostScript laser color printer for use with the DECpresent presentation software package. Colormate is a 300 dots-per-inch, one-page-per-minute, non-impact machine that comes with 8Mbytes of random access memory (RAM). Based on an NEC printer engine, Colormate prints color on treated paper and overhead transparency film, and includes such printer interfaces as RS-232-C, RS-422, Centronics, and AppleTalk. Also introduced was the WPS-Plus for VMS version 4.0 word processing software package. New or enhanced features include PostScript support, proportional printing, and better graphics integration. It is compatible with DEC's Compound Document Architecture, and prices start at $3,940 for use with a MIcro-VAX II system. DEC should thrive as LANs become WANs. Varney, Sarah E. According to a recent survey by market research firm Computer Intelligence, wide area network (WAN) use has increased dramatically in the past few years. This has resulted from the popularity of local area networks (LANs), and the need to join these together to facilitate inter-company and intra-company communications. At the same time, increasingly sophisticated networking applications have necessitated expanded networks. The survey shows that DEC dominates the LAN market, controlling 40 percent of the federal government market segment, and 32 percent of the Fortune 1000 market. In WANs, traditionally leased analog lines are the most common. Fortune 1000 companies accounted for 21 percent of the digital leased lines and T1 and T3 lines for data networking. Four Seasons object-oriented 4GL provides database independence. (fourth-generation language) (SuperNova) (product announcement) Four Seasons Software has released SuperNova, a program development tool that allows users to develop database- and operating system-independent applications. The package uses an object-oriented fourth generation language to access Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, Teradata, and Informix databases, along with flat files. Traditional programming knowledge is not required with SuperNova. It also allows users to integrate data from multiple databases simultaneously. SuperNova also supports X Window System version 11 release 4. SuperNova for VMS and UNix is priced from $3,000 to $115,000 for development copies, and from $1,060 to $38,000 for run-time versions. Distributed capabilities are also included with the developer's license. A run-time license inclusive of distributed capabilities is priced from $1,590 to $57,000. Sherpa, DEC ink joint concurrent engineering pact. Bowen, Ted Smalley. Digital Equipment Corp and Sherpa Corp have signed a marketing agreement involving product information management software. The Sherpa software provides a tracking and organizational tool for concurrent engineering and manufacturing and runs on VMS and Ultrix. It is an 18 month non-exclusive agreement that covers joint marketing but independent sales efforts between the two companies. Sherpa already has similar agreements with the Apollo Division of Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. Under the terms of the agreement, Sherpa software will be marketed to Ultrix and mixed VMS and Ultrix sites by DEC. Time for a tune-up. (Nemonix Inc's NXVS31-XL, NXMV35-XL, NX621-XL, and NX631-XL accelerators) (Hardware Review) (includes related Nemonix is a manufacturer of accelerator boards for upgrading DEC computers. The $1,995 NXVS31-XL is for VAXstation 3100 models 30 and 40. The $8,995 NXMV35-XL is for the MicroVAX 3500. The $9,995 NX621-XL is for the VAX 6000 model 210, and the $19,995 NX631-XL is for the VAX 6000 model 310. Nemonix accelerators provide an alternative clock microprocessor to DEC's that speeds up the CPU, and is contained in a separate enclosure. Installation of the accelerator is easy, taking only 30 minutes. The enclosure is attached to the VAX system's housing via two fasteners, and the accelerator module is connected to the CPU board at existing test points with push-on connectors. A well written user manual is supplied to aid installation, and DEC maintains and installs all Nemonix products. Rdbms security: a dirty little secret. (includes related article on inferential attacks eluding database security) Relational databases are intended to provide a central information repository with easy access for updates. This very notion presents a growing problem to system managers intent on preventing unauthorized access to sensitive areas of the database. While many system managers consider their network security adequate, operating system or network security products alone are not sufficient. Information theft and data alteration have always been the most serious crimes directed against relational databases, Increasingly though, RDBMS are being used in transaction processing by financial institutions. The most common way to evaluate a system's security is with the Department of Defense's hierarchy of security classification levels from level D up to level A. Many MIS managers are now using a similar hierarchical grading level in allowing users limited access to the database. TI, Hitachi develop package for 16-Mbit. (Texas Instruments Inc. and Hitachi Ltd. produce 16M-bit DRAM chip in innovative Texas Instruments Inc's (TI) and Hitachi Ltd's joint DRAM Technology Development Program develops a new plastic package for the firms' 16M-bit DRAM chip. The new package design incorporates a lead frame directly on the surface of the chip, allowing all bonding pads to be located in the center of the die. Advantages of center bonding include smaller dies, higher throughput, uniform capacitance at all pins, uniform distance between internal leads, reduced noise, better grounding and greater reliability. Both companies plan to employ the new lead-on-chip-with-center-bond (LOCCB) packaging technology in future chip designs. Chips up to 330-by-660-mils can be housed in a standard 400-by-700-mil LOCCB. Details of the package design are described. Flat-panel decision due: expect finding of Japanese dumping, preliminary tariffs. (International Trade Administration's The International Trade Administration (ITA) is expected to announce a preliminary determination that Japanese firms are dumping flat-panel displays in the US. Preliminary dumping tariffs are also expected pending a four-month investigation that will decide the final tariffs and confirmation of the dumping decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC). A Jul 1990 complaint by the Advanced Display Manufacturers of America (ADMA), a consortium of US flat-panel display vendors, prompted the ITA investigation. ADMA contends that a shift in ITC's focus, from fair market value to production costs, indicates that the agency will decide in favor of the US flat-panel vendors. The consortium hopes that the decision will prompt US system vendors to take a closer look at domestic flat-panel products, but system vendors say no equivalent technology is available domestically and costs for available technology will rise. Matsushita in pact for power ICs. (integrated circuits) (Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. will make and market Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co (Osaka, Japan) signs a license/foundry agreement to manufacture and market smart power ICs based on Power Integrations Inc (Mountain View, CA) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The highly integrated off-line Matsushita power ICs will be employed in power supplies and motor controllers for the company's portable tools and battery chargers. It is unclear whether the 'limited marketing' rights granted Matsushita limit the firm's marketing to Japan or not. It is also not known how much money Power Integrations received for the license, but the company is gaining a low-cost source of chip wafers and an endorsement of the the firm's technology. Futurebus still idling: won't pick up momentum till 1992. Costlow, Terry. Few Futurebus products have been developed since the specification's introduction in Feb 1990. Futurebus implementation has been slow because the specification is incomplete. Few hardware vendors want to risk the substantial investment required to develop Futurebus products that might not meet the eventual standard. Major military suppliers are developing products to meet the US Navy's Futurebus compatibility requirement, but these products may not be fully compatible with the final standard. Small companies are expected to move more quickly to Futurebus, while larger vendors will lag behind until they start losing market share to their smaller rivals. Current Futurebus revenue predictions range from $700,000 in 1992 to $9.9 million in 1994. ULSI math chip turns up at last; Intel surprised. (ULSI System Technology Inc. and Specialty Development Corp. introduce 83C87 ULSI System Technology Inc (San Jose, CA) and partner Specialty Development Corp (SDC, Austin, TX) introduce the 83C87 floating-point coprocessor, which is pin compatible with Intel Corp's 80387 math coprocessor. ULSI has managed to survive despite several Intel intellectual property suits starting in 1989 that severed ULSI's relationship with Advanced Micro Devices. ULSI made agreements with SDC to finish product development and with HP to manufacture the 83C87 in 1-micron complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). SDC will market the 83C87 in 25 MHz and 33 MHz versions as part of the firm's MathCo series of coprocessors. Prices are expected to range from $325 to $450. Intel has pursued suits against several other vendors of Intel-compatible floating-point coprocessors. LSI Logic first with CrossCheck ASIC. (LSI Logic Corp.'s LFT150 FasTest Array application-specific integrated circuits includes LSI Logic Corp's (Milpitas, CA) LFT150K FasTest Array chips are the first ASICs that incorporate CrossCheck Technology Inc's built-in chip-level testing circuitry. There are four versions of the 1-micron gate arrays with 270 to 410 signal pins and 37,000 to 80,000 usable gates. LSI claims that the CrossCheck technology achieves 98 percent fault coverage and reduces the design cycle by up to 18 weeks. The CrossCheck technology also includes test software, which LSI includes in its Modular Design Environment package. The CrossCheck technology requires a 20 to 25 percent larger silicon area and costs 25 to 50 percent more than conventionally gate arrays. LSI is now accepting designs for implementation in LFT150K arrays, with the first prototypes expected to ship in Jun 1990. Budget plan boosts R&D 13 percent; technology and science fare well under Bush's proposal. (research and development) President Bush's proposed FY 1992 budget increases federal research and development funding 13 percent to almost $76 billion. This increase demonstrates the administration's commitment to R&D, as the Bush executive and the Congress agreed last year to put an automatic limit on spending, with any exception requiring an offset in other budget components. The National Science Foundation's funding increases 18 percent, to over $400 million, while NASA's R&D budget increases 20 percent, to $7.2 billion, the National Institute of Standards and Technology budget increases 15 percent, to $248 million, and overall Department of Defense R&D spending increases 14 percent, to $43 billion. Some proposed defense R&D spending, particularly the Strategic Defense Initiative, is expected to experience considerable opposition in Congress. Gulf war throws wrench into ISSCC '91 program. (International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, CA) Many Japanese and European researchers are expected to stay away from the 1991 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, CA, because of travel security concerns related to the Persian Gulf war. Only seven of 44 Japanese papers and six of 11 papers from European companies will be presented by their authors. Consequently, attendees will not be able to directly ask questions of the absent authors but will be able to write down questions that will be forwarded to the authors for response. No US companies have restricted the travel of their researchers to the ISSCC. Foreign attendance at the conference is also expected to be lower, although there will be a large number of US attendees. Security at the conference is expected to be more extensive than usual. Track-and-hold amp ICs hit video speed. (Analog Devices Inc., Vanguard Semiconductor Corp and Acculin Inc. offer fast 12-bit Vanguard Semiconductor Corp (Milpitas, CA), Acculin Inc (Natick, MA) and Analog Devices Inc (ADI, Greensboro, NC) introduce fast 12-bit monolithic track-and-hold amplifiers (T/H amps). Such T/H amps can be used to improve performance and reduce costs of equipment such as high-definition televisions, data-acquisition systems and radar equipment. ADI's AD9100 integrated circuit costs $79 each in quantities in the hundreds and features 30 million samples per second (Msamples/sec) performance, -44 dB total harmonic distortion at 20 MHz, 16 nanosecond (ns) hold-to-track acquisition time with 0.01 percent accuracy, 250 MHz tracking bandwidth and 1 watt (W) power dissipation. Acculin's $95 (in 100s) AL1210 features 50 Msamples/sec performance, -70 dB total harmonic distortion at 20 MHz and 375 milliwatt (mW) power dissipation. Vanguard's $54-$60 (in 100s) VN1250 offers 10 Msamples/sec performance, -44 dB total harmonic distortion at 20 MHz and 600 mW power dissipation. Nycor heats up bid for Zenith. (Zenith Electronics Corp.) Costlow, Terry. Nycor Inc (Basking Ridge, NJ) releases a Jan 9, 1991 letter by CEO Sal Giordano Jr asserting that Zenith Electronics Corp (Glenview, IL) Chmn Jerry Pearlman plans to have the firm exit the consumer television market. A subsequent Pearlman letter says no such plans have been made. A Zenith spokesperson affirms that the company will not leave the TV business, as it is part of the firm's strategy for developing high-definition transmission and display technologies. Nycor is attempting a hostile takeover of Zenith by electing a slate of executives to the Zenith board at the annual meeting on Apr 24, 1991. Nycor is Zenith's largest single shareholder, holding 8.2 percent of its stock. The letters between the two executives reflect the bitterness between the two companies. How to get from here to there. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. plans fiber-optic links to most homes in Japan) Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corp plans to link most of Japan's 50 million homes with fiber-optic broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) cable over the next 25 years. NTT must establish a pricing structure, select services to be carried on the system and develop new hardware before the link is completed. Necessary hardware developments include low-cost optical amplifiers, new ISDN user interfaces, artificial intelligence-based data base technology, coherent transmission systems and asynchronous transfer mode switches. Potential services include image-based home shopping and information retrieval data bases. NTT is not going to be broken up for five years to it can implement the nationwide fiber-optic ISDN network. Currently only 40,000 of NTT's 1.2 million kilometers of cable are fiber-optic. A 'Spritely' Esprit project: develops multi-compiler system for VLSI design. (very-large-scale integration) A European Community Esprit research program led by Belgium's IMEC microelectronics research center is developing the Sprite multi-compiler silicon compilation system for the design of very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) integrated circuits (ICs). The system can handle applications that require clock frequencies up to 108 MHz and throughput in the hundreds of megabytes. A 'mixed functional/procedural' language employs knowledge-based methods and algorithms to input behavioral specifications that will be compiled into chip layouts. The Sprite system consists of five application-oriented parallel compilers, of which two prototypes have debuted: Phideo, developed by Philips Bedrijven B.V. (the Netherlands) for real-time video applications, and IMEC's prototype Cathedral-2nd for digital audio, back-end image processing, telecommunications, speech processing and automotive applications. Zuken signs OEM pacts. (to sell Viewlogic Systems Inc.'s computer-aided engineering tools and Yokogawa Hewlett-Packard Zuken Inc (Yokohama, Japan) will resell front-end computer-aided engineering tools from Viewlogic Systems Inc and electronic-design automation (EDA) tools from Yokogawa Hewlett-Packard Ltd (YHP) on an OEM basis. The contracts are part of Zuken's strategy to expand into new business areas. The $85 million firm currently sells 80 percent of its products to printed-circuit board (PCB) designers but expects the Viewlogic tools to make inroads into the application-specific integrated circuit design market. Viewlogic's tools will gain entry to the Japanese PCB design market. Zuken will market YHP's DCS 4.0 design capture system and a design-verification interface to GenRad's HiLo simulator. YHP is leaving the EDA software business but will continue to market its workstations. 90 percent of the installed Zuken software is running on YHP workstations. IC execs uncertain about '91. (integrated circuit makers) Thompson, John. Semiconductor industry analysts and executives at the Montgomery Securities Conference expect the economy in the 1st half of 1991 to be weak, with a probable economic recovery in the 2nd half promoting industry growth. 1990 industry sales were down 2.6 overall. The probability of more slow sales in 1991 is causing chip companies to pursue several strategies to ride out the downturn. These include restructuring, layoffs, consolidation of operations, closing facilities, cutbacks in research and development, and other cost cutting measures. Measures taken at several semiconductor manufacturers are briefly discussed. Some analysts predict the economy will be as bad in the 2nd half of 1991 as in the 1st half. The greatest uncertainty affecting the economic recovery is the Gulf War. Harris shuffles IC sector: ASIC division axed, 500 face layoffs in reorganization. (application-specific integrated circuits) Harris Corp (Melbourne, FL) reorganizes its Semiconductor Sector, laying off about 500 people, eliminating the Sector's application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) division and dividing the Semiconductor Products Group's operations and products into four divisions. The four divisions are the new Power and Logic Products Div, Manufacturing Div, IC Products Div and a forthcoming division handling mixed-signal and intelligent-power devices. The Semiconductor Sector will no longer offer digital semicustom ASICs except for military and aerospace applications through the Military and Aerospace Div. Semiconductor Sector Pres Jon E. Cornell says that the activities will enable Harris to 'do as well as possible' in a market that may be flat through 1991. Harris reports a $115 million restructuring charge that results in a $55.8 million net loss for the quarter ending Dec 28, 1990. NASA reform wins support. (the Augustine Report suggests NASA return to a focus on science and technology) The Augustine Report on the future of NASA suggests the space agency return to a focus on science and technology. Scientists and engineers at a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing are enthusiastic about the report. Martin Marietta Chmn Norman Augustine chaired a NASA advisory committee charged with proposing a future path for the space program. Other witnesses at the hearing agree with the report that scientific research and development should be at least 20 percent of NASA's budget, links with academia should be strengthened, an evolutionary model for space engineering technology should be developed, money for a fifth space shuttle should be used for a low-Earth-orbit launch system, and science projects should have finite budgets. Witnesses also agree that NASA managers need clear mission goals, pay parity with the private sector and freedom to do engineering work rather than paperwork. MagneTek, IBM in power deal: license agreement promises fast switch. (MagneTek Defense Systems licenses IBM's Electronic Bus MagneTek Defense Systems (MDS) licenses IBM's Electronic Bus Transfer (EBT) technology to extend the capabilities of its solid state Fast Transfer Switch. The computer-controlled EBT technology monitors asynchronous power sources and loads to determine where, how and when to switch sources for minimum phase deviation. The combination of EBT with MDS's Fast Transfer Switch technology will enable power-supply switching speeds as fast as 50 milliseconds. Such switching speeds enable virtually seamless switching between power sources. The solid-state fast switching technology is also compact, so it is suitable for computer-controlled electronics warfare applications. AT&T generates sub-ps light. (AT&T Bell Laboratories develops 600 femtosecond laser light pulses; picosecond) AT&T Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, NJ) has developed a colliding pulse-mode (CPM) locked multiple-quantum-well laser that generates continuous stable 1.5-micron wavelength transform-limited pulses at 600 femtoseconds (fs). The highly integrated passive CPM laser is contained on a single indium phosphide integrated circuit (IC). This includes lenses, prisms, mirrors, saturating absorber and compensation components. No synchronization sources are required. Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technology was used to construct the CPM device. Advantages of the technology include greater efficiency, lower distortion through the optical fiber, and low optical loss and threshold current. The technology has been tested to 350 billion light pulses per second through a 15-kilometer fiber optic cable and a gain of 20 to 30 dB at a 350-GHz bit rate through a 15-meter cable. ITO adapted for image sensors: indium tin oxide increases sensitivity. Researcher Christ Weijtens of the Microcircuits Department of Philips Research Laboratories (Eindhoven, Netherlands) develops a method for depositing indium tin oxide (ITO) to create 2-micron-wide electrode tracks two microns apart. ITO-based electrodes can be used to increase the sensitivity of solid-state image sensors, but the new technology is still at the research stage. Weijtens' method for depositing ITO eliminates crystal faults found when polycrystalline silicon is used for electrodes. The new process uses a magnetron sputter deposition system to deposit indium and tin atoms combined with oxygen on an oxidized silicon wafer covered by a very thin conductive layer of polycrystalline silicon. The ITO layer is etched to create electrodes, and a double layer of aluminum on titanium tungsten creates good electrode contacts. A brief heat treatment eliminates most defects. Board revives CMAC neural model. (Shenandoah Systems Co. introduces CMAC-AT coprocessor board based on the firm's Shenandoah Systems Co (Newington, NH) introduces the $7,950 CMAC-AT, an AT-bus coprocessor board that employs the firm's Cerebellar Model Arithmetic Computer (CMAC) neural network model for efficient learning. CMAC is useful for such applications as pattern recognition, signal processing and robotic control. The CMAC associative memory model accepts current inputs to activate intermediate associative memory units, and the system output is generated by adding the weights of the activated units. A least-mean-square training rule adjusts weights resulting from the input-output relations to achieve a desired relationship more quickly than back-propagation-of-errors methods. CMAC is also faster, executing two billion to five billion connections per second producing eight outputs from 32 inputs in 200-500 microseconds. Boundary-scan-tool users are doing it themselves; first commercial products are just beginning to appear. (includes related article There are still few commercial tools for automatic insertion of boundary-scan circuitry on application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), other ICs and printed-circuit boards (PCBs), so many circuit designers are using a variety of methods to include the test circuitry. Boundary scan circuitry enables device testing at chip or board level. The IEEE P1149.1 standard, also referred to as JTAG (for Joint Test Action Group), defines boundary scan functionality, while the Boundary Scan Description Language (BSDL) is an evolving standard language for describing boundary-scan circuitry. More chip vendors are including boundary-scan circuitry on their devices, but designers use a variety of board-test, computer-aided engineering and ASIC tools to implement the circuitry. Examples of current boundary-scan design tools and forthcoming combined BSDL and logic synthesis tools are discussed. Speed race hits larger PLDs. (chip vendors ship fast programmable-logic devices) Altera Corp, Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) are all introducing faster, mid-size complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) programmable logic devices (PLDs) compatible with Altera's 16-macrocell EP610. Intel claims 10 nanosecond (ns) performance for its new 85C060-10. Alterna introduces three EP610a versions that offer 15 ns, 12 ns and 10 ns performance. AMD is shipping its PALCE610 in a 15-ns version. PLD designers and users must combat noise by using PLCC packaging and controlling driver operation in the transition area between 1.5 and 1.6 volts. Future Altera EP610-compatible CMOS PLDs may be able to reach 7.5ns performance. Du Pont crosses fine line. (Du Pont Electronics licenses Kansai Paint's electrodeposition process for printed-circuit board lines) E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Inc's Electronics Department (Wilmington, DE) licenses Japanese paint maker Kansai Paint's printed-circuit board (PCB) electrodeposition process and plans to offer it in the US as Primecoat. The process offers several advantages over standard dry-film technology, including better yields, shorter developing and hold times, lines as fine as 3 mils wide, 0.0005-inch thick resists, even filling of through-holes and better coverage of irregularities. The resists and lines produced with the technology are also less susceptible to damage during the manufacturing process. Kansai has licensed the technology to more than 20 Japanese PCB makers who use the process on over 10 percent of the PCBs produced in that country. Board tester targets cost; S780 improves throughput, cuts program-generation time. (Schlumberger Technologies' ATE Division Schlumberger Technologies' ATE Division (San Jose, CA) introduces the $250,000-plus S780 combinatorial board testing system for verifying printed circuit boards (PCBs) and a variety of integrated circuits. The S780 is designed to reduce program-generation and testing time and costs while improving throughput. The 10-MHz unit features a new pin architecture with 2,048 hybrid pins, multitasking, windowing, import of PCB schematics and layouts, object-oriented program generation software, cluster testing and computer-aided test engineering (CATE) software. Design evaluation, test flow-chart generation, automatic program generator, graphical test display, diagnostics and test optimization software is included. A window on Windows. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 as an environment for electronic design automation)(Desktop Engineering) (column) Microsoft Windows 3.0 will probably become the microcomputer environment of choice for electronic design automation (EDA) applications, but there are currently few EDA tools that fully implement Windows 3.0 capabilities. These include The CAD/CAM Group Inc's (Cupertino, CA) ECS schematic capture system, Altera Corp's (San Jose, CA) Max+Plus II EPLD design system, and Design Systems Inc's (Versailles, France) DS-Board computer-aided design system for printed circuit boards. Most existing MS-DOS applications will run under Windows, but they are running as MS-DOS software in a window and not utilizing Windows' multitasking capabilities and other features. Windows' real advantage is enabling multiple concurrent schematic and layout windows, interactive use of such windows, and real-time simulation. VHDL 'spreadsheet' bows. (Lewis Systems Inc.'s Hum computer-aided engineering software employs a spreadsheet-like interface for Lewis Systems Inc (Irving, TX) offers the $24,000 Hum modular family of electronic design automation (EDA) software tools for the implementation of VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) circuit models. The Humtables module employs a spreadsheet-like entry interface for developing VHDL behavioral models. Other modules include Humgraph, which generates a timing diagram from Humtable data; Humpins, which provides a table for defining input/output pins; Humsym, a symbolic simulator; Humbase, an intermediate programming language; and Humbugger debugger. The software currently runs on Sun Microsystems' SPARCStations. Update/schematic capture: tightly integrated tools the trend. Goering, Richard. Electronic design automation (EDA) vendors are integrating schematic capture and entry tools for circuit design more closely with other EDA tools. Recent and forthcoming EDA tools combine circuit design data entry from schematic drawings with data expressed in text-based hardware description languages (HDLs) such as the very high-speed integrated circuit (VHSIC) HDL (VHDL). Most such systems are available only in workstation environments, though some microcomputer-based tools are available. Other integration issues being pursued include the combination of schematic capture with other components of the circuit design cycle, including simulation, layout, back annotation and schematic symbol librarian tools. Dynamic net-list generation is expected to provide even tighter integration between schematics and simulation. Products exemplifying the various implementations of schematic capture are briefly discussed. Sub-$5K FDDI board. (SBE Inc. introduces VCOM-100 Fiber Distributed Data Interface board) (product announcement) SBE Inc (Concord, CA) introduces a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) board, the VCOM-100, that will sell to OEMs for $4,500 each in quantity. The 6U VME-bus board features a National Semiconductor Corp FDDI chip, a 25-MHz Motorola 68030 microprocessor for system control, 25 gallium-arsenide programmable-logic devices for station management support, 1Mbyte or 4Mbytes of DRAM, two PROM sockets and a modular 1,300-nm optical transceiver. Link-level drivers for the SunOS operating system facilitate use of the station-management capabilities when the board is hosted by a Sun Microsystems workstation. The board was designed for single-attachment FDDI environments, but a daughter board will provide support for dual-attachment FDDI rings. HP acquires equity stake in Informix. (Hewlett-Packard Co. may buy as much as 15 percent of Informix Software Inc.) HP (Palo Alto, CA) may purchase five percent of Informix Software Inc's stock on the open market between Apr 17, 1991 and Feb 4, 1992, and as much as 15 percent of Informix stock by 1994. HP's investment in the relational DBMS vendor reinforces the two companies' joint development agreement related to software product development for HP's 9000 family of UNIX-based systems. The pact covers joint development of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, data bases for fault-tolerant systems and secure data bases. Informix will use HP's SoftBench CASE environment as the core of its OpenCase/ToolBus graphical CASE environment. SoftBench will also be ported to Sun Microsystems workstations. HP previously invested in Ask Computer Systems Inc (Mountain View, CA), which bought RDBMS vendor Ingres Corp (Alameda, CA). The EE degree: is four years enough? (electrical engineering) Bellinger, Robert. Electrical and electronics engineering (EE) professors and many employers and managers of EE professionals believe that college EE programs should be lengthened to five or seven years. EE professors complain that the typical four-year programs do not provide enough time for presenting enough relevant material. EE employers and managers feel that many EEs did not gain enough hands-on experience and lack communications skills and business background. One EE and computer science professor contends that EE programs should be a rigorous seven years, similar to medical and legal professional programs, and designed to 'produce fewer, but better-trained professionals.' One disadvantage of longer degree programs would be the increased cost of education. Rewritable op drive market ripe for OEMs. (rewritable optical disk drives) Vendors of rewritable optical and multifunctional disk drives are preparing to compete for OEM business. Value-added resellers (VARs) have provided most rewritable drive business, but the technology has found market acceptance, and OEMs are showing interest in the drives. The promise of OEM business has reduced prices, with reductions from 12 to 30 percent on recent OEM bids. Multifunction drives combine rewritable optical and WORM technology at little additional cost. Multifunction drive vendors differ in their approach to pricing, so the additional cost for a multifunction drive over a rewritable-only drive varies from nothing to 10 percent. The format of the multifunction media is also in question, with half the vendors supporting the American National Standards Institute specification and half backing the International Standards Organization's Continuous Composite standards. Amelio, Sporck plan transition at National. (National Semiconductor Corp.'s chief executive Charlie Sporck to be Gil Amelio is replacing Charlie Sporck as National Semiconductor Corp.'s CEO. Sporck, who has held the CEO position for 23 years, is known for his ability to control costs, while Amelio is expected to bring technical experience and product development discipline to National. The semiconductor firm has experienced several reorganizations, layoffs and facility closures, but industry sources believe National can hold its position as the fourth-largest US chip maker. The company's linear circuits and logic products are its major strengths, and the very large integrated circuits (VLSI) group is expected to provide new proprietary products for National. Industry analysts say Amelio will be able to direct the VLSI division's growth to improve National's position in the systems market. DOD budget seeks $100m for Sematech. (Department of Defense) The Bush Administration's proposed budget for the US Department of Defense (DOD) requests $100 million for funding Sematech (the Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Institute) in FY 1992. The DOD budget also requests $35.9 million for the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program and another $100 million for Sematech in FY 1993. The proposed budget provides the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with $248 million for projects including intelligent machines, fiber optics and high-temperature superconductors. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) budget does not include funding for high definition systems or X-ray lithography. HP accord for 10% of Informix seen as further shift to 3d-party marketing. HP's investment in Informix Corp continues a recent trend toward third-party development of relational DBMS software. HP does not intend to drop its proprietary relational data base software, but the company will develop and market software for the commercial Unix market in cooperation with Informix. Oracle Corp selected HP as a new Unix platform for its data base software, and HP's investment in Ask Computer Systems Inc provides access to Ingres Corp's relational data base products. Sales of HP's Allbase and TurboImage packages have declined relative to total data base management system sales for HP computers. Compaq refines strategy to boost 486-based CPUs. (80486 microprocessor-based systems) Compaq intends to improve dealer support of 80486-based SystemPro file servers and other expensive systems to increase sales while maintaining its dealer-only distribution method. Compaq's plan allows more system integrators and value-added resellers to become dealers and provides direct support through a telephone hotline. Compaq also plans to allow its software partners to initiate equipment sales. Compaq has recently enlarged its field sales group and created the Major Account Council to improve relations with sophisticated users. The company hopes to improve sales of the SystemPro, which generated only $200 of Compaq's $3.6 billion sales in 1990. Bush plans $638m for SuperCPUs, com. (proposed budget includes funds for supercomputers and communications) The Bush Administration's proposed budget for FY 1992 includes funding for a five-year research and development program to improve US performance in supercomputer and communications markets. The program is intended to increase computing capability by 1,000 times by 1996 to maintain the US lead in high-performance computers. The High Performance Computing and Communications program includes $156.8 million for supercomputer network hardware to provide 100 gigaflops (Gflops) performance in the early 1990s and Tflops by 1996. The program would also provide $265.1 million for software development to improve reliability, productivity and computer-user interaction. The National Research and Education Network (NREN) is slated to receive $91.9 million, while $124.5 million are allotted to basic research and computer training. Eight federal agencies share work on the project. Integrators target banks' DP units. (data processing) Computer systems integrators, including IBM's Systems Services division (SSD), are offering data processing services for banks that wish to avoid the capital expenditures in-house data processing requires. SSD has received a 10-year contract to direct the data center and data and voice communications for Riggs National Bank. SSD was established on Nov 1, 1990 to coordinate IBM's service offerings. The terms of the Riggs contract have not been disclosed, but major bank contracts typically cost $5 million to $40 million. FIserv Inc is a data processing services provider that plans to gain larger contracts by purchasing Citicorp Information Resources Inc. Optical vendors target niches. (target markets for optical disk drive vendors) Optical disk drive vendors are targeting market niches that promise the greatest growth potential. Vendors say optical storage offers removability in addition to storage capacity, but estimates of the extent to which optical disks will replace Winchester drives vary widely. Maxoptix VP John Freeman says optical disks will comprise 20 to 25 percent of the rotating disk market by 1994, while Literal Pres Steve Popovich believes a 15 percent market share for optical disks in 1996 will be good performance. The optical market has developed slowly because the drives have slower seek times than current Winchester drives, and their Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) is too slow for mainframe users. Magnetic disks also have an advantage of a large installed base. Makers moving to 3.5-inch drives. Zipper, Stuart; Deagon, Brian. Venders of rewritable optical disk drives are developing 3.5-inch drives that would offer a smaller form factor and a lower price. The 3.5-inch disks typically hold 128Mbytes per side, while existing 5.25-inch optical drives hold up to 500Mbytes per side. Mass Optical Storage Technologies (MOST) already offers a 3.5-inch drive, and IBM has been showing prototypes of its drive since 1990. Sony, Sharp and Toshiba are developing their own drives. More vendors are expected to enter the 3.5-inch drive market now that IBM has chosen the standards used by MOST. The chip sets used in 3.5-inch drives are the same as those used in 5.25-inch drives. Industry analysts are concerned that competing media will confuse the market and that the 128Mbyte capacity is insufficient. AT&T's merchant IC move snags foundry relationships. (AT and T Microelectronics strains semiconductor foundry capacity) AT and T Microelectronics' aggressive marketing campaign for its integrated circuit fabrication services has overloaded production capacity, causing AT&T to forfeit orders from Xilinx Corp and cancel a contract with Paradigm Technology Inc. Xilinx has transferred its device orders to Seiko's fabrication facility because AT&T's device production runs four to five months behind schedule. Xilinx management thinks AT&T gives priority to its own production needs and has added too many customers to meet its supposed six-week turnaround time. Paradigm and AT&T mutually cancelled their Aug 1989 SRAM second-sourcing and development contract. An industry observer says Paradigm was unhappy that AT&T made agreements with SRAM suppliers, Logic Devices and Mitsubishi. AT&T built between 60 and 70 percent of Western Digital Inc's devices in 1990 and will build the same number of units in 1991. Novellus, Lam team to beat Applied for Cypress semi CVD, etcher pact. (Novellus Systems Inc. and Lam Research Corp. join to beat Novellus Systems Inc and Lam Research Corp have joined together to receive a Cypress Semiconductor Corp order for a tungsten chemical vapor deposition (CVP) system and metal etcher. The deal provides Cypress with a Novellus Concept One-W CVP and a Lam Rainbow etcher. The Novellus/Lam proposal defeated a proposal from Applied Materials Inc, which would have provided an Applied Precision 5000 CVD Tungsten system. Industry observers say cooperation between companies is critical to gaining contracts in the 1990s, and although Novellus and Lam made separate deals with Cypress, the companies intend to mix their process modules in future contracts. Army readies $1B battlefield CPU RFP. (request for proposals for the Common Hardware-2 integrated battlefield computer system) The US Army is preparing its request for proposals on the Common Hardware-2 integrated battlefield computer system, which includes systems from notebook computers to high-performance workstations and has a $1 billion potential value. Systems integrators IBM, HP, GTE Corp, Electronic Data Systems Corp and possibly Miltope Corp are preparing to bid for the contract, and several workstation vendors are working to subcontract for the 10,000 workstations requested in the program. Common Hardware-2 requires workstation performance of 50 to 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). The program is the fourth attempt since 1970 to integrate all battlefield computers, and it requires the conversion of existing software into Posix-compliant Ada. The Navy is also procuring workstations under its TAC-3 procurement. Industrials cite gains in January. (1991) Grund, Howard. The electronics and semiconductor industries report modest sales growth in Jan 1991 despite negative economic conditions overall. Anthem Electronics Inc experienced modest, steady growth throughout the month, while Marshall Industries and Cypress Electronics Inc had a 10 percent sales increase across the board. Sterling Electronics had a sales increase of seven percent. Hammond Electronics experienced a five percent sales increase and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1 to 1. Powell Electronics Inc's sales were 10 percent higher in Jan 1991 than the monthly average for the 4th qtr 1990, and bookings were up 16 percent. Almo Electronics Inc had its best month in nearly a year, while Shelley-Ragon Inc's revenues were eight to 10 percent higher in Jan 1991 than in Jan 1990. Lex Electronics Inc had soft sales during Jan 1991, but February is expected to be a good month. GenRad has $26m operating loss. (GenRad Inc.) GenRad Inc reports a $26.2 million operating loss for FY 1990. The company absorbed a $2.96 million 4th qtr deficit and took a $10 million restructuring charge. GenRad's early retirement of convertible debentures resulted in a $5.1 million extraordinary gain, so the company's 1990 net deficit was $21.1 million. GenRad's revenues dropped 5 percent, from $188.9 million in 1989 to $179.3 million in 1990, but 4th qtr orders increased 19 percent from 3rd qtr levels. The company also held a $43 million year-end backlog, a 68 percent increase from 1989. The company holds $13 million in cash, but 1991 is expected to yield another loss because of a difficult automatic test equipment (ATE) market. Quarter's uncertainty puts Pyramid on 'hold.' (Pyramid Technology Corp.) (What They're Saying) (column) Pyramid Technology Corp shares and equity are receiving a 'hold' rating because the company's performance in the 2nd qtr of FY 1991 is uncertain. Pyramid is making a transition to a new computer line and a new operating system. The company has used about $12 million of its $41 million supply, and more financing may be required in 1992. Pyramid's inventories have risen 43 percent in the 2nd qtr, but its revenues have remained level. Analysts say Pyramid is expected to have good long-term performance, due in part to a potentially $100 million OEM agreement with Olivetti and a growing relationship with AT&T. Pyramid expects over $70 million in revenue from AT&T in 1991. Analysts estimate Pyramid's FY 1991 earnings per share (EPS) at $1.70 and its FY 1992 EPS at around $2. DOD C3I has last word on ADP buys. (Assistant Secretary for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence)(automatic data The US Department of Defense (DOD) has approved a detailed plan for beginning the Corporate Information Management (CIM) program to adopt standard defense administrative systems. The cost-saving plan gives authority over all Pentagon information systems and technology to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence, a post held by Duane Andrews. The CIM plan grants the DOD Assistant Secretary the power to manage n all DOD ADP procurements and to make sure they comply with CIM policies. Under the program, the DOD official also will manage a wide range of manage a wide range of policies and plans, such as developing a procedure for the transition of DOD ADP procurement to a fee-for-service basis; setting up an oversight process for the consolidation of ADP operations; and standardizing data and information management programs, including the Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support and Electronic Data Interchange projects. Budget boosts supers with $1.9B; proposed spending would double funds available to HPCC. (High Performance Computing and A $1.9 billion program to double federal spending on supercomputing may be closer to becoming a reality after the Bush administration approved initial funding for it in the 1992 budget. Excitement was tempered, however, because the president's budget must get past Capitol Hill before any money can be appropriated. The High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative was allocated $148.9 million in the 1992 budget, which would increase spending for several big-ticket science programs, including global climate change research, space exploration and the Superconducting Super Collider. A major goal of the HPCC initiative is to create a high-speed national supercomputer network. The program has four key participants: NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Energy. Congress: FTS 2000 deals upset 60/40 split. (contract between AT&T and US Sprint Communications Co., Federal Telecommunications Congressional Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Frank Horton (R-NY) and Jack Brooks (D-TX) sent a letter to General Services Administration (GSA) head Richard Austin, criticizing the GSA's oversight of the FTS 2000 contract that allots a 60 percent-40 percent revenue split to AT&T and US Sprint, respectively. AT&T has actually received 47 percent of the revenues, while Sprint now has 53 percent, a disregard of the telecommunication system contract. The intention of the letter was to arrive at an agreement and end the price war between AT&T and US Sprint over FTS 2000 earnings. Meanwhile, MCI Communications Corp files with the Federal Communications Commission for a tariff that assigns new voice and data rates for agencies, saying the new rates would save subscribers 40 percent over the rates offered through FTS 2000. Officials from both AT&T and US Sprint say that MCI is offering fewer services than those provided for under FTS 2000. OMB targets high-risk areas. (Office of Management and Budget emphasizes revamping government financial management programs) Reorganizing government financial management programs is a top priority of the Bush administration's 1992 budget. It has earmarked $1.8 billion in financial management improvements in 1992, an increase of $338 million over the 1991 budget. The money will support what the Bush administration hopes will become a single government-wide financial system with common agency accounting, budget and payroll systems, linked to central systems run by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The system should clear up many inefficiencies within the OMB and end a lot of the criticism of governmental management. Additional top level management positions at both the OMB and program agencies will be created in order to help efficiently expedite these programs. Apple and SecureWare top DOD security gauge. (Department of Defense) (Apple Macintosh IIfx and SecureWare Inc.'s security SecureWare Inc and Apple Computer Inc received a security rating making their products the most secure workstations ever developed. The Defense Intelligence Agency awarded the first compartmented mode workstation (CMW) rating on a Macintosh running a secure version of Apple's A/UX Unix, while the SecureWare CW+ software received a B1 security rating from the National Computer Security Center. The CMW rating is the stricter standard because it incorporates features from security levels above B1. The system consists of a Macintosh IIfx running multilevel secure versions of the X Window system and the Open Software Foundations's Motif Window Manager on top of A/UX 1.1. SecureWare and Apple's Federal Systems Group submitted the CW+ to the Defense Department agencies in Jan 1990 after working together on the evaluation process since 1988. PRC protests IBM award for courts' data comm net. (US federal courts' network) IBM Corp's Federal Sector Div has been given a $25 million contract by the Administrative Office of the US Courts for a nationwide data communications network connecting the local area networks in the federal court system. If the Administrative Office were to accept all options, the contract could be worth $233 million. Losing bidder PRC Inc protested the award to the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals, and charges that the agency failed to follow its stated criteria and waived requirements for IBM without telling other bidders. PRC wants the agency to issue a new solicitation for bids, or to cancel the award to IBM and given it to PRC. USPS deal would automate lagging express service. (United States Postal Service) The US Postal Service (USPS) awards a $270 million outsourcing contract to Systemhouse Federal Systems Inc for an automated point-to-point tracking and customer inquiry service in order to revive its mediocre Express Mail overnight delivery service. The 11-year deal will provide USPS customers with fast reports on the status of their express mail. The Postal Service hopes this service can help it regain market share lost to highly competitive private express-mail companies which are years ahead in marketing and technology. The Canadian-owned Systemhouse leads a team of companies that are knowledgeable in telemarketing, bar coding, scanning and systems integration to set up a comprehensive tracking and tracing system. The bar coding of express mail and other new techniques should facilitate the handling of up to 60 million express deliveries annually. Weather systems give allied forces an edge: combination of old and new gear deployed in Desert Storm. Despite the importance of meteorological information for warfare, the Air Force is using old systems and labor intensive procedures to process and disseminate weather forecasts to the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm. Teletype machines that are more than 10 years old are used to transmit weather bulletins; charts are transmitted by facsimile machines, and field forecasters use clipboards, not computers, to prepare predictions because a war environment is not conducive to experimenting with new equipment. Although newer microcomputer-based equipment is used in Desert Storm, state-of-the-art workstations, while procured, are not ready for field use. However, Air Force officials do say that new software provides the forecasters in the field with more raw data than ever before. Operation Desert Storm may be the last time the oldest teletypes are used because the Air Force is expected to award a contract for new microcomputer-based terminals for use in the US, along with the workstation-based Automated Weather Distribution System. FBI plans electronic case management file. Sweeney, Shahida. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) plans to develop an electronic file system for its 270,000-plus cases now under investigation in a move to streamline its data management. New text retrieval software provided by from Infodata Systems Inc under an $800,000 contract, combined with imaging and media conversion systems, will be used to automate case recordkeeping. Optical disk storage manages supporting records from outside the FBI. More than 9,000 agents at 56 field offices should be able to more effectively manage criminal investigations as well as intelligence work through the electronic case file. The FBI contract provides for the installation of 8,000 microcomputers, including 386-based machines, while the new text retrieval software is being tested by the technical staff. The case data will be centrally stored in an IBM mainframe, which will be linked to microcomputers through a local area network. 1991 IRM predictions. (federal information resource management) (Comment) Federal information resources management (IRM) is a combination of practice and policy that enables the world's largest purchaser of information technology to decide how to use that technology. There should be no dramatic moves in IRM policy in 1991, as a period of consolidation sets in, in which government agencies absorb system planning and end-user computing lessons of the 1980s. Major trends are predicted to include an even greater emphasis on oversight mechanisms to uncover problems before they became significant. The General Services Administration must decide the role of trail bosses in agency acquisition of information systems beyond the demonstration project stage. Program agencies meanwhile get serious about end-user training. On the financial management side, the move toward less labor-intensive processing should continue. Finally, senior executives are expected to reverse the trend toward decentralizing information management. NIH network facilitates global medical research. (National Institutes of Health) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) uses flexible data communications networks for its biomedical research to allow as many application paths and growth as possible; they are designed for continual evolution. The umbrella network, NIHnet, offers its scientist users a range of options, while the Division of Computer Research and Technology (DCRT) ensures that an application fits the component network and its capacity. NIHnet consists of two primary data systems: a 1.5M-bps T-1 backbone network, that links the NIH campus, its remote locations and other agencies to NIH's computer center, and a high-speed 100M-bps fiber optic network for advanced use and development. Three groups within DCRT handle the agency's networks: The Communications Technology Section of the Personal Computing Branch supports microcomputers and local-area networks; DCRT's Computer Center Branch provides mainframe services to NIH and other agencies and, a Network Task Group is developing a research network known as RESnet to handle high-resolution, imaging and graphics applications. Chronos' project manager tells who-what-when. (User World) (column) Chronos Software Inc's $295 Who-What-When (WWW) is a powerful, easy-to-use project management software package for the IBM-PC and compatibles. WWW consists of about 12 data screens organized into four groups: Who, What, When and Etc. 'Who' shows the project data - tasks, schedules and milestones - for any one employee. It also provides status reports on each employee's progress on assigned tasks. 'What' reveals all personnel assigned to a particular project, coupled with related project data. 'When' shows the user's personal daily or weekly calendar and an office calendar, and the 'Etc' screens provide project housekeeping and reporting features. WWW allows the user to enter information in any of the screens on which it will appear and automatically displays it on all relevant screens. In Dec 1990, Chronos released WWW Enterprise, a $695 local-area network version developed in partnership with Novell Inc. Chronos describes it as a new method for work-group management, useful for increasing office productivity as it links WWW files on separate microcomputers via the network. Programmers exempt from overtime pay. Mercier, Ann M. Under a US Department of Labor rule that implements legislation passed late in 1990, software engineers, programmers, system analysts and other contract computer professionals who make $57,460 or more per year are exempt from overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Act says that people paid hourly must earn more than 6 1/2 times the minimum wage to be considered exempt. Some industry analysts express concern that the rule decreases the income of contract computer professionals, but others say that the rule benefits government agencies, workers and vendors. Computer professionals who are not usually asked to work overtime at a time-and-a-half rate are more likely to be asked to put in extra hours at straight-time rates, thus increasing their overall earnings. In addition, employers may also see lower labor costs and more accurate bids as an outcome of this rule. GSBCA call could affect Ada evaluation. (General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals) The General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) upheld the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Div's decision to award a contract to a high-priced bidder based on a measure of productivity equivalent to about three lines of Ada code per programmer per day. DynaLantic, which presented a lower bid of $1.38 million promising an average of 10 lines of Ada code per programmer per day, lost out to Environmental Tectonics Corp (ETC)'s $3.48 million bid in Sep 1990 and protested the result. Others in the Ada community said ETC's standard is much too low. The case involved an Air Force contract for hardware, software, courseware supply, installation and support services for avionics equipment maintenance. GSBCA ruled in favor of the Air Force, agreeing that ETC had a better technical approach and that DynaLantic failed to prove any statute was violated. Network management. (includes related article describing several new network management software packages) Local-area network (LAN) management software packages vary in capability and price, and must, therefore, be selected so that migration is possible when new products become available. Some LAN vendors are beginning to provide support for standard protocols. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) runs on top of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), in place at many multivendor networking sites. Management systems accommodating SNMP can send and receive network information to and from a variety of bridges, routers and other network interfaces from any manufacturer. SNMP focuses on simple devices on TCP/IP and Ethernet networks. Vendors and analysts also expect the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), based on the layers of Open Systems Interconnection, to simplify communication among network management systems. Regardless of the applications running on a network, the goal is to provide effective network computing where geographic location is no longer a major factor. Agencies explore FDDI for local-area networks. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Federal agencies looking for new ways to connect their growing local-area networks (LANs) are experimenting with FDDI, a networking technology that promises to increase local network traffic speeds by 10 times. FDDI is a protocol for fiber-optic networks designed to attain a high-speed channel through which various applications, terminal equipment and LANs can be attached. FDDI can achieve 100M-bps throughput speeds, as compared to current Ethernet speeds of 10M-bps. Top FDDI speeds of 100M-bps are not always reached, but the increases represent enough additional bandwidth to support LAN clusters and wide-area networks (WANs). Analysts and users say FDDI offers users advantages in speed, interoperability and security. In addition, FDDI networks can link a variety of LANs and hardware systems. The disadvantage of FDDI is its high cost - FDDI adapter cards for microcomputers and workstations can cost 10 times the $500 price of token-ring adapters, and FDDI bridges can cost four to five times the price of LAN bridges. Despite the cost, the Strategic Air Command, the Federal Reserve, NASA and the Commerce Department plan FDDI networks. NASA plans high-speed data network as replacement for Nascom. Mercier, Ann M. NASA plans to replace the NASA Communications Network (Nascom) with Nascom II, a high-speed network, to accommodate the huge amounts of data expected from several upcoming, multi-year missions. Nascom is an earth-based voice, data and video network that supports Earth-orbiting, planetary and manned spaceflight missions at speeds up to 50M-bps. Nascom II is designed to provide speeds as high as 300M-bps. NASA rarely utilizes 50M-bps transmission speeds, but the new space projects will process large amounts of data continuously, requiring faster transmission and switching speeds. Nascom II will be built in three parts, each about two years apart. The first stage, scheduled for Dec 1995, will provide a 45M-bps network with nodes at the Goddard, Marshall and Johnson Space Centers, White Sands, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The second phase will increase network speed to 150M-bps at White Sands and possibly other sites. The final piece aims for 300M-bps speeds at White Sands, with the possible addition of other locations. While Nascom II is being phased in it will operate in tandem with Nascom. Sprint moves Forsee up, Rooney to fed market. (US Sprint Communications Co., Gary Forsee, Chris Rooney) US Sprint promotes Gary Forsee to president of the company's business services group, where he will concentrate on Sprint's small- to medium-size business market. Chris Rooney, who has been vice president and general manager for sales operations for Sprint International for seven years, succeeds Forsee as the head of Sprint's Federal Systems Div. In his previous position with Sprint International, Rooney worked to establish joint ventures with foreign companies in the UK and Japan. He believes there would be similarities between his old and new positions. Rooney has already begun acquainting himself with his primary account - FTS 2000. FTS 2000 is being consolidated, but both FTS suppliers, Sprint and AT&T Co, still have work to do in selling data service to federal clients. USGS plans its first big laptop buy. (US Geological Survey) Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. The US Geological Survey (USGS) plans to buy up to 4,150 laptop computers over the next four years. The Water Resources Div is expected to be the primary user, performing real-time data collection in the field, but other USGS and Interior Department offices will also be eligible to purchase equipment under the contract. Although the procurement is fairly small, it is the first major laptop buy at USGS, which is expected to begin accepting bids on the laptop procurement early in Mar 1991. Under the procurement, USGS plans to buy two types of notebook-size portables, each weighing under seven pounds. Specifications for both types include a power system based on a removable battery pack, support for an optional internal modem, a 1.44Mbyte external floppy disk drive and an internal hard disk drive. The first class of computer is to be based on the 8086/8088 microprocessor with a clock rate of 8 MHz and a 20Mbyte hard drive. The second class of machine must have an 80286 microprocessor, a 12-MHz clock rate, and the hard disk must be expandable to 40Mbytes. GIS vendors track Fed workstation trail. (geographic information systems) Several geographic information systems (GIS) software vendors are enhancing their products to run on various workstation platforms, and thus pursue upcoming federal contracts. ERDAS Inc, Terra-Mar Resource Information Services Inc and MapInfo Corp announce the portability of their packages for workstations from Sun Microsystems Inc, DEC, Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM and Data General Corp. The products are targeted at GIS procurements taking place at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. These hardware acquisition programs have a combined value of several hundred million dollars, with the purpose of bringing thousands of high-powered workstations to federal employees for mapping, land management and other geographic applications. The enhanced software products provide more choice to federal buyers, who have been limited to purchasing most of their GIS software from industry leaders Intergraph Corp and Environmental Sciences Research Institute. I-Net unit to target Fed market in imaging. Sweeney, Shahida. I-Net, a recent entry in the imaging and optical disk storage market, has created a special Electronic Information Systems Group (EISG) to reach new markets for imaging technology. Two established optical experts will lead the new group: Bill Hooton, selected to be vice president of operations, and Frank Moore, the new program director. Hooton will manage major imaging projects in both the federal and private sectors, and oversee I-Net's work on a major Army Personnel Records Center (Arpercen) contract to convert personnel records from paper and microfiche to digital media. This is the largest file conversion contract from the Federal government ever received. Hooton was formerly project director of the optical digital image project for the National Archives. Moore, formerly of the Internal Revenue Service, will be in charge of business development as well as managing the implementation of imaging systems. Sun's Air Force win bolsters presence in defense market. (Sun Microsystems Inc wins $48 million Tactical Air Force workstation Sun Microsystems Inc, bidding against DEC and Oracle Complex Systems Corp, wins the $48 million Tactical Air Force Workstation contract, known as AFCAC 308. Sun already leads workstation vendors in the federal market, and holds two contracts worth more than $150 million with the Air Force Computer Acquisition Center (AFCAC) and for the Navy's Standard Desktop Tactical Support Computer. Sun has the potential to sell nearly 7,000 workstations to Department of Defense (DOD) users. Analysts say that, although Sun has these contracts, they do not guarantee sales. Revenue depends on the DOD budget and Sun's ability to market, sell and deliver these systems. Sun's contract with the Air Force calls for shipping regular, Tempest and rugged versions of its most popular workstations and servers. Other products in the contract include printers, communications equipment and multiplexors. Air Force firms to test proposed changes to Ada 9x. Danca, Richard A. Three Ada compiler companies receive contracts in Jan 1991 from the Air Force to test proposed changes to the Department of Defense's required Ada programming language. The contracts, ranging in value from $594,000 to $790,000, are the most recent in the Ada Joint Program Office's (AJPO) move toward the development of Ada 9X. At least one additional company is to work with each of the prime contractors to test how Ada 9x changes affect the prime contractor's compiler. Each test arrangement uses different compilers and different hardware platforms. AETech Inc (Solana Beach, CA) is set to work with R.R. Software (Madison, WI) and AdaSoft (Lanham, MD) in testing its Integrated Posix compiler on Unisys Corp 386-based microcomputers available from the Air Force Desktop III contract. TeleSoft (San Diego, CA) teams with Unisys to run its TeleGen2 compiler on Sun Microsystems Inc Motorola 88000-based computers. Tartan Inc (Monroeville, PA) and TRW's Military Electronics and Avionics Div (Dayton, OH) plan to use systems based on Intel Corp's i960 MC, a reduced-instruction set computer chip. NASA lab is the big catch for supercomputer vendors. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Nasa's Ames Research Center is expected to award several major hardware and services contracts in 1991. Among those pending is the seven-year, $100 million automated data processing services contract for the Central Computing Facility (CCF). This contract involves high-performance computing, systems support, mass storage, maintenance, hardware and software. The lab's Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility intends to buy a state-of-the-art supercomputer capable of 3 billion floating-point operations per second (Gflops) for its computational fluid dynamics research. Boeing Computer Services Co and Grumman Data Services express interest in the CCF contract. Incumbent Sterling Software and Computer Sciences Corp, which holds the support contract at the NAS facility, are also expected to bid. Meanwhile, both Cray Research Inc and Cray Computer Corp are expected to bid their latest supercomputers for the contract at the NAS facility. Military special forces get the picture with Harris imaging terminal. Harris Corp Communications RF Div has a hand-held video imaging terminal developed for use with field radio units by US military special forces It includes built-in video compression and frame grabber boards, designed around an Intel 80386 microprocessor. This terminal, combined with a still video camera and Harris's Base Station Video Imaging Terminal, comprise what the Army terms its Electronic Filmless Camera System (EFCS) used by its special operations forces. Harris Comm RF was recently awarded a $5.4 million contract by the Army Communications and Electronics Command for 200 complete EFCSs. Under the contract, Harris will deliver 126 portable units, which include the still camera, the handheld video terminal and 36 base stations that consist of decompression software, a user interface and a 60Mbyte hard disk. RTC taps IBM to set up asset tracking plan. (Resolution Trust Corp) The Resolution Trust Corp (RTC) was established to manage the nation's multibillion-dollar portfolio of failed thrift institutions. It has awarded a $14 million, two-year contract to IBM's Federal Sector Div for a computerized property management system. The Real Estate Owned-Asset Management System (REOMS) is needed to manage, track and eventually dispose of up to 300,000 separate properties. RTC plans to automate the inventory of property that bankrupt savings and loans turn over to it by utilizing the off-the-shelf nationwide listing service. The contract covers the cost of purchasing an IBM mainframe, access to an existing IBM commercial network and software to track and manage RTC's real estate inventory. The contract may be extended for two additional two-year options at the added cost of $10.2 million. LAN-WAN connections. King, Julia; Holmes, Edith. Until true open networks become reality, internetworking continues to be the means by which multiprotocol gateways connect unlike, but existing data networks. However, industry analysts predict that internetworks of the 1990s will not be restricted by protocols and will provide Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) interconnection regardless of the media, speed or data-link method. This type of open architecture can permit users to purchase the equipment that best suits their communication needs. Bridges and routers are the main components of connectivity for internetworking. Bridges are data-level links between physically separate LANs with the same protocols. Routers, which can be programmed for each network protocol involved, can support different kinds of LANs. Internet nodal processors (INPs), or multiprotocol bridging routers, are a new approach that can perform bridge and router functions and more because they support more than one particular communications protocol. NASA Ames: an evolving internetwork. (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Ames Research Center) At user demand, the local- and wide area networks at NASA's Ames Research Center's Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility are being upgraded. The center is also developing an internetwork at the same time. Ultra Network Technologies Inc (San Jose, CA) has the $2 million contract to set up the new 1G-bps network. Wellfleet Communications Inc and cicso Systems Inc are bidding for the $500,000 contract to provide Ames with a new set of routers to replace its WAN bridges. The NAS facility also wants to lease 10-11 additional T-1 communication lines to improve overall performance. AT&T may install these as part of its position as NASA's FTS 2000 contractor. The improved network, named AeroNet, will use meshed topography for redundancy and automatic rerouting in case of failures. The Simple Network Management Protocol is the basis for better network management. Bridges, routers...or INPs? (internet nodal processor) King, Julia. Deciding when and where to use either a bridge, router or an internet nodal processor (INP) is crucial to the usefulness of a network. A bridge is the simplest way to extend or connect local-area networks (LANs) of the same type with identical protocols, and works best in linking LANs in small internetworking environments. Routers are protocol-specific and must be programmed for each network protocol. They support different kinds of LANs, and are especially useful in wide-area networking (WAN) applications because they only send information to preprogrammed addresses. Routers also can provide barriers between LANs, permitting network operators to isolate problems. Multiprotocol bridging routers, or INPs, can perform all the functions of bridges and routers and more. Unlike ordinary routers, INPs support more than one LAN or WAN protocol. Desktop vendors answer call for more support: user demands spur Compaq and Sun to beef up service for multivendor networks. High-end desktop computer system vendors are responding to user demands for more product support, especially in the multivendor network arena. Compaq Computer and Sun Microsystems have formalized relationships with integrators and dealers to aid users working to design, optimize and troubleshoot their networks. Both companies are employing third-party expertise to address user concerns. Compaq will begin limited technical support directly and expert dealers will also provide in-depth troubleshooting for the SystemPro server and related software under the Specialized Dealer program. A fee-based support program, The Telephone Support Agreement, is also being introduced for users with more complex questions. Sun has signed Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, Andersen Consulting and Interactive Systems Corp to provide services to its user base. These agreements complement similar hardware support agreements under the Strategic Partner Program. The great data center hand-off: at brokerages, IS assets keep changing hands. (information services) (outsourcing management of Responsibility for data centers throughout the financial sector is a highly volatile environment in the current climate. Staff members at Lincoln Savings and Loan's two data centers were barely able to adjust to working under new owner Resolution Trust when data center management was transferred to Citicorp Information Resources, which was then sold to FIserv Inc. First Boston Corp plans to shift its data processing communications management duties to IBM and AT and T. Shearson Lehman has transferred data processing management to parent company American Express. Industry analysts report that a great effort is being made in the financial services industry to cut costs and companies must determine what is strategic and what is not. Is RISC at risk? RS/6000's unconventional architecture is either a dead end or a major breakthrough. (IBM RISC System/6000, reduced IBM's RS/6000 has sold 25,000 units since its debut in mid-1990, accounting for over $1 billion in revenue. The architecture of the workstation violates some tenets of good RISC design, raising some questions. Is the RS/6000 a true RISC system? Industry observers see the RS/6000 as too complex a design to be considered true RISC. The controversy centers around the realization that the system does not have a reduced instruction set. The 184 instructions bring it closer to complex instruction set computing (CISC). And some of those 184 instructions include a very complex string of commands. Industry analysts, who say RISC is a much-abused term, expect to hear much more about superscalar in the future. Engineering reengineering: as MIS interest grows, so does Index Group. (reworking business processes, management information Consulting firm Index Group Inc is in the business of reengineering: reworking business processes. Interest in reengineering has skyrocketed because of recession and foreign competition. Small, incremental changes are no longer enough. Information systems managers especially like the concept. Interest is spreading rapidly as Index Group officials write and speak on the topic and business periodicals carry articles. Companies who reengineer processes reap large benefits. Ford reengineered its invoice processing and cut the number of required employees by 75 percent. Index Group is growing rapidly, opening more branch offices and hiring more consultants. The company plans to open offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Frankfurt to supplement offices in Los Angeles, London and Paris. Levi's tries on private network: new deal includes voice, data, and eventually video. (Levi Strauss and Co) Clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss is abandoning its public packet data network and planning to adopt a private network to connect its facilities in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Brussels. The network will transmit data and voice as well as video eventually. Applications include inventory data, sales data and electronic mail. The X.25 and T1 network was purchased from Telematics International. It includes a T1 backbone comprising multiplexers and digital switches as well as protocol conversion equipment, and will be combined with the company's current IBM Systems Network Architecture environment. The company has utilized T1 technology in the past to cut costs. Codex gets small. (network management tools for smaller networks) (product announcement) Codex, a subsidiary of Motorola, introduces the Codex T1 management system for small and medium-sized Codex networks, which runs on the HP/Apollo workstation. Users can easily migrate from low-end to high-end system with the Codex 9800 LE Network Management System ($20,000), based on the Codex 9800. The 9800 LE is usable with the Codex 6250 ($4,000), allowing additional functionality at a lower price point. Upgrade begin at $10,000. Bush budget commits to Gore act. (President George Bush, Senator Albert Gore) (High Performance Computing Act) Pres George Bush is committed to developing high-performance communications and computing networks, recommending Congress allocate $149 million to a super computing initiative introduced by Tennessee Senator Albert Gore. The High Performance Computing Act would construct a high-speed supercomputing network to link researchers and universities; over one million computers at more than 1,000 locations in all 50 states. The network would be able to transmit, for example, an entire encyclopedia in a single second. The bill called for $650 million for the National Science Foundation and $338 million for NASA to research and build the multigigabit network. Sen. Gore is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. The promise and the pitfalls: groupware's potential is great--if it all comes together. (includes related article on productive Groupware technology will advance another step with the introduction of a new release of Notes from Lotus Development. Groupware is such a broad term that developers of imaging systems, databases, videoconferencing equipment and all types of multiuser software claim to be part of the movement. If groupware lives up to its potential, it could have a great impact on the way that companies operate. It could enhance communications within firms, which should improve productivity as well as lead to greater advances. Some products deal with the allocation and coordination of projects and resources. Others are more strategic and address the creation of values or a shared understanding. Industry analysts expect that groupware tools will soon be like phones. No one will be able to imagine working without them. The MIS battle for the skies: American and United fight for air supremacy with high-stake investments in IT. (Management The two largest airlines in the US, American Airlines and United Air Lines, find that large-scale technology spending undergoes scrutiny even in the best of times. The Gulf War has made times far from good by raising fuel prices and making customers hesitant to fly overseas. Stiff competition and a sagging economy also seem to indicate large cuts in an information technology budget. American and United, holding a 16.6 percent and 16.5 percent world market share respectively, are investing heavily in technology-intensive projects. American officials say that technology projects receive serious consideration if they promise a payback within three to five years. Industry analysts claim the carrier creating the best technology system will be the winner for the 1990s. United has undertaken a number of automation projects to cut costs, enhance productivity, and offer better passenger service. An open market for HP: vendor raises competitive concerns by buying equity stake in Informix. (Hewlett-Packard) (HP's purchase The 'open' Unix market has become more complicated with the announcement by Hewlett-Packard (HP) that it would purchase as much as 10 percent of Unix developer Informix Software Inc. HP plans to purchase a five percent stake sometime after Apr 17, 1991, with the option to acquire an additional five percent later. HP and Unix will have joint product development, marketing and sales. ASCII Corp also purchased a five percent stake in Informix in Nov 1990. And HP recently gained an equity interest in ASK Computer Systems to fund that company's takeover of Informix competitor Ingres Corp. HP officials say the firm does not perceive any conflict of interest in acquiring stock in both software companies. The HP-Informix deal is reminiscent of AT and T's purchase of an equity share in Sun Microsystems in 1987, which touched off a great deal of controversy because of worries over proprietary vendor advantage. The Informix stock price, which has been quite low, is expected to rise because of the investment. IBM documents repository specs: users, third-party vendors express enthusiasm. (specifications for a component of Repository Manager Response has been enthusiastic to the news that IBM will disclose specifications for an important component of its Repository Manager, version 1, release 1, marking a distinct change in disposition for both vendors and users. Both had been bitter that IBM had made the documentation available only to licensees of the repository. Users commented that the documentation will aid them in setting a more tangible time line for product development and will include the types of data that they need to help them understand what may be missing from the IBM approach. A 420-page manual includes the detailed description of the types of data, and their relationships, managed by the Repository Manager. Lotus upgrades Notes: new features, marketing approach for groupware product. (Notes 2.0 from Lotus Development) (product Lotus Development plans to introduce Notes 2.0 at the NetWorld '91 trade show. The new version of the groupware application will include a number of technological upgrade and a new marketing approach that will let companies try the product without a major financial commitment. The upgraded packages will be marketed both directly and through value-added resellers who can sell as many or as few copies as desired. Previously Notes was sold only directly with a minimum purchase price of $62,500 for 200 users. Improved security features will allow the encryption of certain fields or entire documents. Notes will also support Dynamic Data Exchange from Microsoft, which allows data from other applications to be imported more easily. Also included are a new interface, better messaging capabilities and compatibility with the Banyan Vines network operating system. Novell forges better ties: version 3.11 offers support for Mac, Unix and SAA. (NetWare 3.11, Macintosh, Systems Application Novell will introduce a suite of products at NetWorld '91 focusing on NetWare 3.11. The new release, a extension of NetWare 386, will features closer connections between NetWare and IBM SAA, which should offer alternatives to the IBM/Microsoft alliance. NetWare 3.11 will include Novell's Integrated Computing Architecture, designed to connect heterogeneous environments like MS/DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2 and Unix and facilitate the sharing of print and file services. Though the new release is an extension of NetWare 386, Novell decided to change the name to prevent its being too closely associated with a particular processor. Support is offered for both the Intel 80386 and Intel 80486 microprocessors. Support is also provided for transmission control protocol/internet protocol, Government Open Systems Interconnect Profile (GOSIP) and IBM NetView. Separate NetWare Loadable Modules will offer support for Apple Macintosh, Unix workstations using the Sun Microsystem standard and IBM host environments. Users seek applications support. (distributed applications) Garvey, Martin. Users are growing tired of waiting for software developers to create distributed applications and are forming consortia to develop their own. They blame the vendors for not having workable solutions after nearly 10 years. Officials of the Electronic Joint Venture Partners L.P. (EJV), a joint venture of Morgan Stanley Group Inc and Salomon Inc, state the technology is available to create applications with the right tools but a proper mindset is needed to build the right platform. EJV has formed a team to develop ways to share bond prices and other such information with distributed applications. Vendors should be assisting with the burden, according to users, who say that the time for a good off-the-shelf network application solution is long overdue. The information systems group at Texaco is currently creating applications for functions like generating work order for maintenance workers in case of accidents. EJV officials warn against accepting incomplete strategies. Needed: a secure foundation: the government needs to jump start computer security; endless reports won't do. (Final Word) (column) The reality of government/private sector cooperation in the face of Operation Desert Storm is in marked contrast to the reality of government/private sector cooperation in the face of the necessity of government computer security standards. A recent report from the National Research Council said a private foundation needs to be established to create and enforce information secority standards and recommended that vendors and users pay for it. The Defense Department (DOD) once created the DOD Computer Security Center as an arm of the National Security Agency (NSA) then expanded its role to become the National Computer Security Center. Vendors seeking NSA certifications were put through an expensive and laborious process. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has also been appointed as an information security guru. The NIST is understaffed and underfunded. Compaq answers calls for help with service programs. (Compaq Computer Corp. offers telephone support contracts) Compaq plans to announce two technical support programs under which customers will be able to receive telephone support. The pay-for-support service will cost $3,000 for 10 'incidences' of problems and includes a CD-ROM reference library. Buyers and analysts say the program will do little to improve Compaq's reputation for poor support because most customers feel they should not have to pay for vendor aid over the telephone. Compaq has traditionally relied entirely on dealers for its support. The new Telephone Support Agreement will provide 12-hours-a-day access to the company's technicians Monday through Friday. Compaq has also announced a new toll-free telephone number for product and operating system questions. IBM to bless Netware for AS/400, RS/6000. (IBM forms marketing, distribution agreement with Novell Inc.) IBM plans to announce versions of Novell Inc's Portable Netware network operating system for the computer giant's AS/400 minicomputers and RS/6000 workstations under a new marketing and development agreement between the two firms. The new products are expected to be announced at the 1991 NetWorld trade show in Boston. Analysts call IBM's move 'brilliant' but note that IBM faces serious interoperability problems if it commits to selling NetWare. The future of IBM's own LAN Server product, a licensed version of Microsoft's LAN Manager, is uncertain. Netware 3.11 gets links to OSI, TCP/IP, Netview. (new version of Novell Inc's NetWare network operating system) (product Novell Inc introduces NetWare 3.11, a new version of its high-end LAN operating system with many new features, optional Netware Loadable Modules for Macintosh and Unix workstation platforms and a new pricing structure. NetWare 3.11 is available in 20, 100 and 250-user versions for $3,495, $6,995 and $12,495 respectively. The product supports multiple name spaces for different file systems, including Sun Microsystems' Network File System for Unix clients and the Macintosh file system. Netware 3.11 adds FTAM and OS/2 HPFS file support as well. Novell also plans to introduce MHS 1.5, a new version of its Message Handling Service E-mail platform. Compaq spurns Sparc, taps MIPS' RISC chip. (Compaq to build next generation of servers and workstations around MIPS R4000 Compaq has reportedly decided to built its future high-performance workstations and file servers around MIPS Computer Systems' R4000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor. The company had been negotiating with Sun Microsystems, HP and others but selected the MIPS processor both because of technical and marketing considerations, according to analysts. Industry observers say Compaq wants to differentiate itself from the many vendors offering SPARC-compatible microcomputers. The 64-bit MIPS chip has not yet been formally announced but is estimated to offer performance of 50 million instructions per second (MIPS) at a clock rate of 50 MHz. Compaq will continue to offer its traditional Intel-based products but is reportedly impatient with Intel's slow progress in developing the next-generation 80586. Deepening IBM, Microsoft rift over Windows, OS/2 leaves users in the cold. (confusion about operating systems) Microsoft's and IBM's realignment of their OS/2 and Windows product development strategies and the growing split between the two firms have left users confused and concerned about which operating system to adopt for their future computing platforms. Microsoft says it expects Windows to be the dominant graphical user interface for most microcomputer owners, with OS/2 being confined to the high-end server market. Analysts say that the Windows application programming interface (API) is likely to dominate over the OS/2 API because Windows is the more popular product. IBM claims to be firmly committed to OS/2 both because of its own and its customers' investments. Some observers say the announced Microsoft strategy will benefit users with microcomputer local area networks but hurt those with IBM mainframe servers, who need OS/2 because of the heavy communications requirements of Systems Network Architecture backbones. Client/server tools seek identity. (Borland International Inc introducing Object Vision) (product announcement) Borland International Inc announces Object Vision, joining a large number of software vendors offering new programming tools that attempt to define the emerging graphical client/server computing market. The new software category, variously referred to as 'data source integration,' 'data access and retrieval' or 'information browsing,' lets nonprogrammers generate applications to manage data from a wide variety of sources. Object Vision and other products such as Software Publishing Corp's Info Alliance each focus on different information systems areas, possibly causing user confusion in the future. Lotus rolls out faster, more flexible Notes 2.0. (Lotus Notes 2.0 work group software) (product announcement) Lotus plans to introduce a new, faster version of its Notes work-group software at the 1991 NetWorld trade show and announce a new sales strategy that will allow some resellers to package special value-added versions of the product. Notes 2.0 supports the Dynamic Data Exchange protocol in Microsoft Windows and offers a Common User Access-compliant interface. Other features include better graphics support and faster, more automated remote access capabilities. Lotus plans to provide links between Notes and third-party graphical data analysis packages. The company currently sells Notes directly for a minimum price of $62,500 for a 200-user license, effectively limiting itself to the Fortune 500 market. It claims 75 corporations have bought a total of 34,000 licenses to date. The new Notes marketing program will allow selected resellers to offer vertically oriented Notes applications for smaller workgroups and specific business needs. Corel readies bug fix to correct 2.0 problems. (Corel Draw 2.0 bugs) Corel Systems Corp plans to ship Corel Draw 2.01, a bug fix for Corel Draw 2.0 that solves a variety of problems which have led to user complaints. The patch disk will fix problems with importing files from previous versions of Corel Draw and exporting files to the GEM format. It will also prevent text formatting from reverting to default settings after modification. Corel Draw 2.01 will solve a serious problem with exporting multiple fonts to the WFN Boss font converter. WFN Boss automatically assigns PostScript identification numbers to the group of fonts and creates an incorrect lookup table; fonts cannot be printed correctly. Microsoft, Borland ready C products. (Microsoft Corp to ship version of C 6.0 bundled with Windows Software Developers' Kit, Microsoft and Borland International Inc are planning to introduce new C-language products that simplify development for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Microsoft will offer a version of the Microsoft C 6.0 development system bundled with the Windows Software Developers' Kit (SDK). Borland plans a new high-end Turbo C++ package with built-in Windows support. Turbo C++ users will be able to write Windows code in either C or the object-oriented C++ language. The high-end package reportedly includes the Turbo Debugger, Profiler and Assembler development tools. Microsoft C 6.0 will include an extended-memory compiler that supports DOS extenders. The software giant will also ship its own C++ package in 1991 with a source-level debugger and the ability to generate pseudocode. Third-party vendors offer add-ons for Paradox 3.5. (Borland International Inc's Paradox 3.5 database) (product announcement) Financial Modeling Specialists and Farpoint Systems Corp introduce new add-in software packages for Borland International Inc's Paradox 3.5 database management system. Financial Modeling's $145 Paraview is a forms and report documentation program written in Paradox Application Language that helps developers track reports and forms. It runs within Paradox and requires at least 640Kbytes of RAM. Farpoint Systems' $149.95 Scriptview 2.01 is a complete development system that supports the latest versions of Paradox and lets users analyze and document application scripts. The program generates comprehensive reports and a variety of graphical diagrams. Do SCSI peripherals call for system cache? (Small Computer Systems Interface) The proliferation of Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) peripherals has left some users confused about whether they need to add cache memory to their systems. Some SCSI host adapter manufacturers provide cache on their adapter boards, but others have declined to do so, claiming that on-board caching causes performance problems. A general-purpose cache can only run under one operating system because DOS, OS/2, Unix and Novell NetWare all transfer data differently. Analysts say that using a system cache is more justified in AT-bus systems than in those based on 32-bit bus architectures. Performance on non-caching SCSI controllers declines when there are more than six users on the system, according to Dave Race of Distributed Processing Technologies, which makes cache controllers. Intel, Phoenix pressure hardware giants. (development agreement between Intel Corp. and Phoenix Technologies Ltd.) Intel Corp and Phoenix Technologies Ltd are jointly developing a complete single-board design for notebook-sized computers that uses Intel's 80386SX processor and the Phoenix ROM BIOS along with power-management software. Several companies are expected to market notebook computers based on the new technology by the end of 1991, and Intel and Phoenix note that these may sell for as little as $2,500. Compaq's 7-pound LTE 386/20 notebook system sells for $7,000, and IBM's upcoming competitive machine will be priced for $5,000 to $5,500. The new Intel/Phoenix board will put severe price pressure on the system giants and possibly cause a price war, according to observers. IBM and Compaq are also suffering from product delays caused by component shortages. Dell introduces five premiere machines. (Dell Computer Corp. introduces new microcomputers, notebook system) (product Dell Computer Corp introduces three new desktop microcomputers and two new notebook-sized laptop models. The $2,499 Dell System 325P and $2,899 System 333P desktop machines feature an upgradeable architecture that lets users install a cache memory board or 80486 microprocessor in a dedicated expansion slot. The cache card costs $299, while the 486 upgrade is $2,399. Dell has also introduced the System 433P, its first Industry Standard Architecture 80486-based machine. The 433P uses the same design ad the 325P and 333P but is directly configured with the 486 and costs $4,999 to $6,199 depending on configuration. Dell has announced the System 312N and System 320N laptops priced at $2,399 an d $3,399 respectively. The 212N has a 12 MHz 80286 processor; the 320N has a 20 MHz 80386SX. Each weighs 6.4 pounds including the battery pack and comes with a 40Mbyte hard disk drive. Dell claims battery life of over 3 hours. Analysts predict tenfold jump in RS/6000 sales; IBM threatens Sun's lead in workstations. Analysts at market research firm International Technology group say they expect sales of the IBM RS/6000 workstation to increase tenfold in 1991, threatening Sun Microsystems Inc's lead in the reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) workstation market. The RS/6000 is the middle portion of IBM's three-tiered strategy for linking mainframes to microcomputer local area networks. Connecting LANs directly to mainframes running the massive DB2 database is too difficult for software developers, but the RS/6000 can act as a networking relay to bridge the gap. IBM plans to offer Sun's Network File System, MIT's X Window System, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and the Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment in its MVS mainframe operating system. The company will also add more virtual memory and disk capacity to its mainframes to secure their role in large corporations. Static RAM caching provides superior memory performance. (Tech Talk) One of the most effective ways of improving system performance is to implement static RAM caching on the motherboard. Cache memory keeps the most frequently used data in the fastest available memory, and static RAM (SRAM) is much faster than the dynamic RAM generally used as system memory. SRAM is far too costly to build an entire system around, but a small amount can store data that has been accessed once and quickly retrieve the data when the CPU needs it again. Studies show that most data references repeat frequently; these cache 'hits' can dramatically speed up system. X.400 brings hope for universal E-mail. (X.400 electronic mail protocol) The Electronic Mail Association has announced that each major domestic E-mail carrier either has or is planning connections to other mail systems using the X.400 protocol. Observers say X.400 connectivity is a step toward implementing a single 'universal' E-mail network. X.400 is a group of standards on top of the OSI protocol stack that specifies how individual programs or users communicate with mail servers of 'message transfer agents.' It can run over any OSI lower level stack, including X.25 packet-switched networks, Fiber Distributed Data Interface, Ethernet and token-ring LANs. The standard has broad specifications that support a wide variety of platforms and connections; it specifies both the file format for a message and how portions of a mail system or different mail systems communicate. Other X.400 specifications deal with how end-user software communicates with mail servers and how mail servers communicate with each other. 3Com, UB, ACC demo internetwork products at Comm Net. (Communication Networks trade show) 3Com Corp, Ungermann-Bass and Advanced Computer Communications Inc (ACC) all introduced new wide area networking and wireless data communication products at the 1991 Communication Networks trade show. 3Com's 3Com OSI has functions virtually identical to those of the company's earlier 3+ Open TCP network shell and offers the same user interface. It works with standard 3Com network adapters to allow DOS communications over OSI-based local area networks. Ungermann-Bass introduced the $7,495 Access/One ASM 8320, a new bridge/router module the uses brouter software from Advanced Computer Communications. It routes information through either public and private X.25 data networks or point-to-point serial lines. ACC announced the ACS 4200 brouter, which offers remote links at speeds of up to 2.048M-bps and sells for $8,500. EFI, Kodak agreement raises patent issues. (Electronics For Imaging, Eastman Kodak Co. software patents) Electronics for Imaging (EFI) has granted Eastman Kodak Co a non-exclusive license to an MIT patent governing device-independent color output systems, raising questions about EFI's leverage in its patent-infringement dispute with Adobe Systems Inc. The MIT patent covers color scanners, computers with color monitors, color printers and lookup tables for converting monitor RGB colors to printer CMYK values. It deals with how these hardware and software items are linked together. EFI claims Adobe's use of device-independent color in PostScript Level II and its Photoshop photo-retouching software violates the patent. Developers are expected to introduce color printers incorporating PostScript Level II in 1991. Synoptics develops plan to extend user support. (Synoptics Communications Inc signs support agreements with HP, AT&T, Network Synoptics Communications Inc has signed key agreements with three hardware vendors and with TECHS International, which publishes the Technical Encyclopedia of Computer Hardware and Software, to help provide support services for use its network products and reduce end-user downtime. The companies have signed the Synoptics Investment Protection Program (IPP), which leverages vendor technical resources and service organizations to provide customer support. AT&T will market cabling systems along with Synoptics and provide a variety of consulting and project management services, while HP will work with Synoptics on identifying and resolving problems for mutual customers. Network Technology and Design has pledged to provide voice, data and network cabling support for Synoptics products, and TECHS will provide the sole support database for Synoptics technical documentation. Windows' future benefits Microsoft, but who else? (Microsoft Windows graphical interface)(State of the Industry) Microsoft's Windows development strategy involves a combination of technical and marketing moves designed to keep Windows the graphical interface of choice for desktop microcomputer users. The upcoming 32-bit version of Windows will offer true multitasking and a graphical front end identical to that of the OS/2 Presentation Manager interface, providing all of the features that make OS/2 attractive and eliminating the need for many users to migrate to OS/2. This strategy is self-serving for Microsoft, which has never been highly responsive to user needs. Microsoft's own Excel and Word for Windows products are the top-selling Windows applications; third-party applications account for only a small proportion of sales. Will anyone attend the pen-based computing revolution? (Go Corp's PenPoint pen-based operating system)(Tech Street) (column) Go Corp's new PenPoint pen-based operating system has received considerable media attention but is unlikely to dramatically revolutionize computing. Users are often reluctant to adopt new technology because it forces them to change their work styles, and the development of new PenPoint applications will take time. Many factors influence corporate purchasing decisions, including company politics, budget constraints, ongoing projects and past investments. Go's backers want the startup firm to become a $5 billion company by 1995, but such growth will require a revolution that is unlikely to materialize because most users are conservative about adopting new technology. Making the grade: graduate business schools score high in PC training, low in information technology strategy. (includes Graduate business schools have worked hard to ensure that their students learn about microcomputers since 1985, but information systems (IS) professionals complain that future managers need to learn more about the strategic role of information systems than the technology itself. Microcomputers have a strong presence in business schools; some professors even assign homework in the form of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. Most two-year MBA programs assume that students have little or no prior business education and attempt to provide a broad understanding of business, but accounting, finance, marketing, management policy and other essential areas are complex and the application of information technology is difficult to teach. Most schools do offer an MIS emphasis, but the deeper understanding of computers is limited to the few students who elect to take such a program. Enrollments in advanced MIS courses are declining. Some professionals believe that schools should teach less about specific products and more about tools in general. There is nevertheless a significant trend away from forcing students to use standard systems and software. Probing the nature of LANs. (Software Review) (overview of four evaluations of network operating systems)(includes related Four network operating systems are reviewed and compared: Novell's NetWare 386 3.1 and Advanced NetWare 2.15c, Banyan Systems' VINES 386 and Microsoft's LAN Manager. Advanced NetWare, or NetWare 286, currently enjoys the largest installed base of the four products, and it is known for its speed and stability. The 32-bit Netware 386 system is less mature and does not have as much third-party support, but it is faster, more expandable and much easier to install. VINES offers superior wide-area network connectivity but is not as well supported as NetWare. LAN Manager is a generally inferior system whose primary attraction is the fact it is based on the powerful OS/2 operating system. Key issues in networks include data security, vendor support and compatibility. Ease of administration is also crucial, as is speed. The perils of network operating system testing. (procedures involved in testing and comparing four LAN operating systems) Procedures involved in testing and comparing Novell Inc's NetWare 386 and Advanced NetWare, Banyan Systems' Vines and Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager 2.0 are discussed. Vines was difficult to test on a standard 24-workstation test bed because jumper settings on Ethernet cards had to be changed, and benchmark scripts proved incompatible with it. Most normal users would not encounter these problems, but Vines' high network overhead caused 'out of memory' messages that could affect some real-world applications. LAN Manager proved incompatible with some well-established releases of popular software. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 has difficulty with the Count file that tracks the number of licenses the user has purchased because of an incorrect archive flag. A more serious problem involved Paradox 3.0, Borland International Inc's popular database. The configuration program that sets up Paradox for LAN Manager suffers from a bug that prevents it from running on the server; Microsoft claims it has fixed this problem. Some workstations tend to shut down at random when all 24 are operating. Advanced Netware Version 2.15c. (one of four evaluations of network operating systems in 'Probing the nature of LANs.') Novell Inc's Advanced Netware 286 2.15 is available in both a basic version and a System Fault Tolerant version, which provides better data security features. Both support up to 100 users; an Entry Level System version is designed for networks of eight or fewer workstations. Performance on benchmarks is second only to Netware 386 3.1 but shows some degradation on large LANs. Flexibility and compatibility are excellent, and security features are very good. Access to the system is controlled either by individual accounts or user passwords which are encrypted at the server. Error handling earns a good score. Novell support policies are poor; there is n free support for Netware products and requires users to either have a contract or a credit card to pay for each support call. Technical support itself is satisfactory. NetWare 286 earns a 'very good' score for overall value. It costs $3,295 for unlimited users. Netware 386 Version 3.1. (one of four evaluations of network operating systems in 'Probing the nature of LANs.') (evaluation) Novell Inc's $7,995 Netware 386 3.1 is the fastest major network operating system available and supports up to 250 concurrent users. It integrates system fault tolerance, improved resource tracking and a variety of other powerful features. Dynamic resource allocation speeds the program and earns it a 'very good' rating for speed. Flexibility and compatibility earn only a 'good' score because there is less broad support for it than for Advanced NetWare, but users can seamlessly intermix topologies across the network and integrate TCP/IP, IPX, NFS and AppleTalk protocols. Security features are very good. Only supervisors can grant user rights, and the program maintains detailed audit files. Documentation is very good, and setup is much easier than with Netware 286. Ease of administration is very good. Error handling earns a very good score. Novell's support policies are poor, but a formal survey shows technical support itself to be good. NetWare 386 is rated a good value. Banyan Vines Version 4.0. (one of four evaluations of network operating systems in 'Probing the nature of LANs.') (evaluation) Banyan Systems Inc's Vines 4.0 network operating system offers powerful wide-area network features, but its speed earns only a 'satisfactory' rating because it is less consistent than Novell NetWare under heavy traffic loads. Flexibility and compatibility are good; users need expanded memory because network drivers take up 118Kbytes of RAM Vines relies on third-party products to support diskless workstations. Security features are very good. Documentation earns a score of satisfactory; each manual features a table of contents and an index. Setup is satisfactory; users must install a bundled version of Unix on the server. Ease of administration earns a 'good' rating. Vines provides three main administration utilities: service, user and group. Error handling is good. Banyan's support policies earn a poor rating: users need a service contract number in order to reach a technician by telephone. Support itself is satisfactory. Vines 4.0 earns a satisfactory score in overall value for its $5,995 price. Microsoft LAN Manager Version 2.0. (one of four evaluations of network operating systems in 'Probing the nature of LANs.') Microsoft Corp's $6,490 LAN Manager 2.0 network operating system is based on the powerful OS/2 operating system, a standard for Structured Query Language back ends, but suffers from poor performance. Speed earns a 'poor' rating. Flexibility and compatibility are good; the proprietary High Performance File System (HPFS) replaces the DOS File Allocation Table on the hard disk, theoretically improving performance. Many network interface card vendors support LAN Manager 2.0, but there are not nearly as many products available as there are for NetWare. Security features are very good. The administrator can configure either user-level or share-level security at setup. Documentation is very good; the manuals ar thorough and well organized. Setup earns a 'poor' score. The Setup diskette is used to create the server; installing a DOS workstation requires it along with seven other floppies. Ease of administration is good. Error handling earns a 'very good 'score. Microsoft's support policies are poor; the company provide 30 days of free telephone support but requires users to purchase a service contract thereafter. Technical support itself is good. The program earns a satisfactory score in value. Go's Pen Point OS lends itself to a variety of applications, especially forms-bases ones. (Software Review) (First Look) Go Corp's new PenPoint operating system offers a unique user interface that recognizes both hand-printed text and 'gestures' that perform specific commands in a variety of applications. Some of these gestures are extremely intuitive: drawing an 'X' atop a word deletes it, and drawing a caret inserts text. Users scroll documents by flicking the pen in any of four directions. 'Taps' select or activate whatever the user touches. The handwriting recognition in PenPoint is useful for simple data entry but no substitute for a keyboard. Users can 'train' the system and set it up for a variety of recognition modes. The user must be careful when printing, but the operating system works. Other advanced features include an embedded document architecture and easy links between different places in the operating environment. Another look at Pen Point: it's more than a pen-based 'shell' interface. (Software Review) (Go Corp. PenPoint operating system) Go Corp's new PenPoint operating system is a sophisticated product that runs in protected mode on the 80286 processor and isolates applications to allow true pre-emptive multitasking. Its handwriting recognition algorithms are among the best available, although users must still go back and correct one out of every 15 characters. The pen is nevertheless not intended for entering large bodies of data. Go's 'Notebook User Interface' provides an intuitive paper metaphor with a table of contents, index tabs and 'gestures' for performing such commands as insertion and deletion. Remote LAN software can ease administrator's work. (Software Review) (Avalan Technology Inc Remotely Possible 2.0, Fresh Two local area network-based remote-control software packages are reviewed. Avalan Technology Inc's Remotely Possible and Fresh Technology Group's LAN Assist Plus are both straightforward packages to use, but neither offers file transfer capabilities. Remotely Possible offers excellent node-to-node performance but does not include off-LAN capabilities. Its documentation is good, and both ease of administration and ease of use are very good. Error handling earns a good score; error messages are not always clear. Both Avalan's support policies and its technical support earn 'very good' scores. Remotely Possible is a good value at $399 for 32 nodes. LAN Assist plus supports multiple viewers connected to one host, a feature especially useful for training. Node-to-node performance is good, but there is no support for of-LAN connections. Documentation earns a satisfactory rating. Ease of administration is very good; ease of use is good, as is error handling. LAN User Plus costs only $295 for an unlimited number of users, making it a good value despite its lack of support for WIndows 3.0. Formbase and Perform Pro adapt gracefully to Windows. (Software Review) (Forms Software Formbase, Delrina Technology Perform Pro Ventura Software Inc's $495 Formbase 1.1 and Delrina Technology's $495 PerFORM for Windows are both powerful forms-generation packages for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical environment. Formbase 1.1 updates the original Formbase to add Windows compatibility and a few new design tools. It combines the functionality of a forms program and a relational database. Forms design earns a very good score because the program can easily switch between design and data entry modes and has powerful design features. Data handling is excellent, and the import/export features are very good. Output support is very good despite a few minor shortcomings. Documentation is very good. Ease of learning is rated good. Ease of use and error handling both earn very good scores. Ventura's support policies are satisfactory, and technical support is very good. Formbase is a an excellent value. Perform Pro for Windows has over 100 sample forms and templates and includes a 'Fast Fill' feature that disables graphics to speed data entry. Forms design features in the product are excellent, and data handling features are very good. Import/export earns a good score; output support is very good. Documentation is rated very good. Ease of learning is good, and ease of use is very good. Error handling earns a good score. Delrina's support policies are good ,but support itself is only satisfactory. Value is rated very good. How is Microsoft addressing its networking problems? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) Microsoft Corp is having difficulty developing network products that are powerful enough to compete with Novell NetWare and commercially viable. LAN Manager has not introduced anything truly new to the LAN operating system field; even licensing it to systems vendors for bundling with hardware has not helped it gain market share. Microsoft is finally facing the real technical problems impeding LAN Manager, hiring former Banyan Systems chief technical officer Jim Allchin to head its networking strategy. Allchin has proposed that basic network services be built into Windows in order to make stand-alone computers essentially indistinguishable from networked ones. He also wants Microsoft to add mail and directory services to the set of standard network functions. Building networking into Windows faces severe hurdles, including the fact that DOS and LAN Manager use radically different file systems. SAA: can it bridge the gap? (Enterprise Computing special section) Foster, Ed. IBM is betting its future on its Systems Application Architecture (SAA) strategy for common enterprise-wide computer platforms. SAA aims to provide a fundamental architecture under which software will run identically across microcomputer, workstation, midrange and minicomputer platforms. Its building blocks are a common programming interface, communications support, common applications and the Common User Access interface specification. IBM has announced plans to implement the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and integrate it with SAA. Some observers see this move as signaling a shift in the SAA philosophy toward non-proprietary platforms. This evolution could ultimately hurt SAA because IBM's host operating systems are heavily proprietary. Large organizations basing impressive enterprise projects on SAA include General Electric Co. Office Vision fails to enlighten even true blue converts. (IBM Office Vision work group software) (Enterprise Computing special IBM's Office Vision work-group software platform has been plagued with delays and a lack of enthusiasm among all but the 'purest' IBM accounts. Office Vision is designed to link a total of 12 applications across the MVS, VM, OS/400 and OS/2 operating systems, but only about half the applications are currently available in the OS/2 local area network version. The Office Vision project is technically ambitious, but some say it suffers from a lack of a clear vision. The three standard tasks IBM wants to accomplish with Office Vision include the distribution of text, graphics, voice and image data across networks; enterprisewide connectivity; and support for a full range of applications and services. Slow sales of OS/2 are one factor impeding the growth of Office Vision. Office Vision's success may ultimately depend on IBM's technology partners, who are working to adapt it to multivendor environments. GE Capital Fleet Services stakes the enterprise on SAA. (Enterprise Computing special section) GE Capital Fleet Services has based its "Systems of the 90s" enterprise-wide computing architecture on IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA). The company is completely revamping the way it does business in order to gain a strategic advantage in its marketplace. The company is not a traditional IBM shop, but says it chose SAA and the OS/2 operating system for their technical advantages. SAA also enables GE Capital Fleet Services to buy time on its parent company's IBM 3090 mainframes in Stamford, CT. The new SAA-based corporate strategy evolved out of a series of brainstorming sessions in which staff identified their needs and discovered many improvements they could make on their own. IBM has used the GE site as a 'showcase' for SAA technology. It runs a variety of maintenance control and other applications. Customers learn to cope with the many faces of IBM. (Enterprise Computing special section) Both industry analysts and IBM executives say the computer giant is working hard to change its image, emphasizing user needs rather than attempting to force proprietary solutions on users. These efforts have earned a largely positive reaction from IBM customers, but some say that the new attitude has not yet reached all account executives and sales representatives with whom they have contact. Customers armed with large purchase orders often get the best attention. IBM's entry into the 'solutions' business led them to try to understand what customer businesses were doing, but it still wants solutions to be on its own terms despite the increased legitimacy of the microcomputer. Windows is one area where customers believe IBM is still not listening to them. Many corporations are standardizing on Windows at the desktop level, but IBM continues to all but ignore the Microsoft interface. Microcomputers are nevertheless becoming more and more important in IBM's strategy as the vendor focuses marketing effort on all-microcomputer installations. Customers agree that IBM should be treated no differently in the bidding process than its competitors. Object-oriented programming: an executive overview. (Enterprise Computing special section) Object-oriented programming (OOP) represents a fundamental change in programming style and requires programmers to realign their thinking, making it an option to consider rather than a panacea for all in-house programming needs. OOP systems differ from traditional programming systems in that they do not separate algorithms from the data structures they work on. Algorithms and data are encapsulated as 'objects,' and procedures that affect objects are referred to as 'methods.' OOP syntax frames calls to subprograms as injunctions. Data encapsulation theoretically hides all data structures from the outside world, but has two potential disadvantages: invoking a method may be slower than changing a variable directly, and the code may take up more room. Inheritance is a key feature found in most OOP systems: objects in subclasses can inherit characteristics from objects higher in the hierarchy. Encapsulation and inheritance promote reusable code but are not foolproof. Commercial OOP systems include Apple's Object Pascal and Borland's Turbo Pascal as well several C++ development environments. OOP principles can be applied to all existing languages. J.C. Penney looks to ISDN PRI as way to link stores. (Primary Rate Interface) J C Penney plans to use ISDN Primary Rate Interface to integrate access links for its stores and support emerging bandwidth-on-demand. The high capacity access links will provide employees with fast, flexible methods of accessing resources on the retailers net. At present, the company relies on a broadcast satellite video network for distributing information about fashion trends to store employees. The ISDN imaging technology that will be used, allows employees to view images at their leisure and make ordering decisions from their workstations. J C Penney's director of information systems, David Evans, says that the ISDN trial proves that technology to implement PRI exists today. ISDN could be a step in the direction of Open Systems Interconnection for the company, which is at present planning its OSI migration path, he adds. Fed agency to run FDDI to desktops. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)(Department of Transportation) The Department of Transportation plans installation of a 15,000-node Fiber Distributed Data Interface network that brings 100M-bps connectivity to users' desktops. The network will run fiber directly to the desktops and support 15,000 microcomputers and workstations. Three Department of Transportation buildings would be linked to form a single FDDI network. Lonn Henrichsen, chief of the telecommunications division at the department says the FDDI network will be tied to outside facilities through Integrated Services Digital Network services. He adds that such a link would be difficult to create. Analysts say the Transportation Department's plans are ambitious and do not reflect vendor capabilities. Novell preps product feast for NetWorld. (Novell introduces NetWare 3.11 and connectivity products) (product announcement) Novell Inc introduces NetWare 3.11, a version of NetWare 386 that enables client devices based on DOS, the Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, OS/2 or Unix to share file and print services on a NetWare local area network. A 20-, 100 and 250-user version sells for $3,495, $6,995 and $12,495 respectively. The product, which runs on Intel 80386- or 80486-based machines, features fully integrated support for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) of the Open Systems Interconnection model, easing the integration of NetWare networks into these environments. NetWare 3.11 supports Unix and Macintosh workstations through two new NetWare Loadable Modules (NLM): the $895 20-user and $1,995 100-user NetWare for Macintosh 3.0, and the $4,995 NetWare NFS. The $4,995 NetWare FTAM is a set of NLMs that allow users to transfer files between NetWare and OSI-based networks. All three NLMs are available in Apr 1991. ROI pressure puts crimp on net plans. (top management demands quicker return on investment from networks) Network managers are being saddled with demands from top management for quick return on investment (ROI) and shorter payback period. This tendency makes it difficult to get projects funded, network executives say. Shorter ROI periods are reflective of the swift pace of technology enhancements and the inability of businesses to predict future trends. Jim Verges, managing director of reservations at American Airlines Decision Technologies Inc says his firm demands project payback in five years or less. The firm previously had procurements with payback periods of up to 10 years. Chuck Garrison, vice president of telecommunications at the Chicago Board Operations Exchange claims his executive management wants a shorter break-even point on investments. He adds that four years seem a long period for ROI. Richard Harland, telecommunications consultant for ICI Americas Inc says shorter ROI spells flexibility. Companies must achieve this to remain competitive, he notes. Build your own NetView token-ring control tools. (tutorial) Chagnon, Robert; Pavlat, Robert. IBM's NetView and LAN Manager 2.0 help network managers build tools that can monitor extended networks from a single net control center. The enhanced version of LAN Manager 2.0, now called LAN Network Manager, helps develop three tools: a system which funnels token-ring exception alerts to a single alert processing routine, a dynamic monitoring system which displays the network's topology and the status of all token-ring LANs and bridges, and a method for measuring and reporting performance criteria for token-ring bridges. Under NetView, a simple token-ring network monitor with a topological display can be built under NetView using dynamic panels, a Command List (CList) to interface with LAN Manager 2.0 and another CList to display operator panels and message automation table logic to route messages to network operators. MCI challenges US Sprint, AT&T pricing of FTS 2000. (MCI Communications Corp. says the two companies are overcharging MCI Communications Corp accuses the General Services Administration, the oversight agency for the FTS 2000 network, of allowing US Sprint Communications Co and AT&T to overcharge federal users of the network. MCI adds that the carriers use the excess profits to subsidize services for big corporate users. MCI executives are highlighting the FTS 2000 pricing problems in two ways: first, by presenting evidence to Congress that both carriers charge more for FTS 2000 services than commercial users pay for the same services under general tariffs; and second, by introducing a discount package for federal government users featuring virtual network voice services, 800 service and private lines at prices below FTS 2000's. Observers say MCI's goal hinges on giving itself a chance at winning some of the FTS 2000 traffic when the contract prices are rebid in 1992. IBM Token-Ring had major impact in first five years; LAN took market by storm since its introduction. (local area network) IBM's Token-Ring local area network is surging in popularity with users in fields such as education, finance and insurance. Token-Ring's acceptance and reliability forms the basis for the next generation of token-passing LAN technology, 100M-bps Fiber Distributed Data Interface networks. Observers predicted correctly that IBM-supported LAN technology would become popular among corporate users because many have IBM processors. Bank of America has 1,200 IBM Token-Ring LANs during the past few years to support everyday business and administrative applications throughout the company's branches and service centers. Curt Dunbar, a senior LAN product planner at IBM, says his firm chose to base its LAN strategy on 802.5 rather than the established 802.3 Ethernet standard because of the efficiency of the token-ring protocol. Microsoft airs plan to get 3Com users to LAN Mgr. (LAN Manager 2.0) Microsoft Corp announces a two-phase program for users of 3Com Corp's 3+Open and 3+Share to migrate to LAN Manager 2.0 network operating system. The program involves an initial offering of a four-month price incentive during which 3Com users can purchase LAN Manager 2.0 for rates that range from $400 less for a one- to five-user server package to $4,500 off for an unlimited license. Phase 2 of the program will involve the upgrading of LAN Manager to support functions available only from 3Com. 3Com has exited from the network operating system market. Its products offered value-added features such as support for Apple Macintosh and Novell NetWare client workstations, internetworking and electronic mail. Microsoft hopes to introduce the upgrade by early 1992. It will also ship an updated LAN Manager tool kit that will provide LAN Manager client workstations access to 3Com networking and E-mail. Integrated access service to help bank cut net costs; Security Pacific tests service built with PacBell. (Security Pacific Security Pacific Automation Company Inc is testing an integrated access service developed with Pacific Bell to help the bank cut down its network costs. The service, Uniform Access, allows bank sites to transfer voice and data via a T-1 circuit to the nearest central office, where individual channels are routed to their destinations. Security Pacific currently has different devices in each branch linked via separate analog multidrop leased lines to IBM mainframes in the bank's data centers. The bank is introducing platform automation, a new set of client/server applications that enable customer service personnel to merge data from multiple data bases onto a single screen for developing specialized banking plans for users. With Uniform Access, Security Pacific will be able to introduce new applications, such as interactive training classes or executive meetings via videoconferencing to its branches. Novell preps new message handling service release. (introduces Message Handling Service 1.5) (product announcement) Novell Inc introduces Message Handling Service (MHS) 1.5, a back-end message transport system which handles collection, routing and delivery of messages and files across multiple computing environments. MHS 1.5 will be priced at $100 per E-mail hub for a six-month promotional period to start in Mar 1991. The software package will later have a list price of $495 per hub. Novell's MHS 1.5 replaces version 1.1 and Action Technologies' version 1.2 of MHS. Action Technologies and Novell entered an agreement in which Novell gains ownership of MHS source code, future development of the technology and distribution of MHS for NetWare. Over 80 electronic mail, facsimile, data base, voice mail and imaging products from about 20 third-party developers are based on MHS. Action Technologies Pres Tom White says the companies decided on the partnership because of the danger of each of them backing incompatible versions of MHS. Systems Center intros tool for managing AS/400 nets. (AS/Hub) (product announcement) Systems Center Inc introduces AS/Hub, a software package which provides users with centralized control of over a network of IBM Application System/400 minicomputers. Price begins at $1,000 per AS/400. The AS/Hub works with Systems Center's AS/Center, which supports capabilities such as report management, backup and recovery, security monitoring, access control and automated features. AS/Hub allows a central-site administrator to monitor and control remote AS/400s outfitted with AS/Hub and AS/Center. Merged with AS/Center, AS/Hub provides centralized audit functions that ensures disaster recovery procedures. Consumers Software APIs open up message system. (Application File Format API, Gateway File Format API and Remote File Format API) Consumer Software Inc introduces three File Format application program interfaces (FFAPI) in an effort to open up its messaging architecture. The APIs are: the $1,000 Application FFAPI, which enables third-party developers to build applications which use Network Courier as a messaging transport; the $1,000 Gateway FFAPI, which permits third-party software users and developers with proprietary E-mail systems to build gateways between the Network Courier and other E-mail systems; the $195 Remote FFAPI, an add-on application which runs together with the company's Modem Mail and PC Postoffice, its remote dial-up product for stand-alone microcomputers. AT&T establishes global messaging services unit; carrier melds offerings with Western Union unit. (AT&T EasyLink Services) AT&T sets up its EasyLink Services business unit, which will provide global messaging services such as electronic mail, facsimile, electronic data interchange (EDI) and voice-messaging. The new unit was born out of AT&T's $180 million acquisition of Western Union's Business Services Group. The acquisition catapulted AT&T as the market leader in electronic mail in terms of the number of E-mail boxes supported. EasyLink in itself is considered by analysts as the market leader. The new EasyLink Services unit incorporates Western Union's messaging service strengths, such as efficient message switching, connectivity to data bases and Telex capabilities, into that of AT&T's, which include EDI capabilities and X.400 support. The unit plans to expand its international service capabilities by having nodes in 15 to 20 countries, in addition to the current 160 countries it services. ANSI, NIST muddle OSI net address plan. (lack of coordination on standards may cause routing problems) (National Institute of Lack of coordination between ANSI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding the distribution of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network addresses is confusing some users. ANSI has assigned unique user network and mailbox addresses for global OSI directories but the NIST has issued its own addressing schemes to comply with Government OSI Profile (GOSIP) requirements. The proliferation of a variety of OSI addressing schemes has raised concerns about internetwork routing problems. The addresses are intended to allow the International Standards Organization (ISO) to build international X.400 and X.500 directories. War, finance woes distract Congress from net issue: telecom concerns on back burner in this session. The nation's financial problems and the Persian Gulf war are distracting Congress from tackling communications legislation. Lawmakers predict that action on measures, such as easing the Modified Final Judgment business restrictions on the regional Bell holding companies and allocating spectrum for new telecommunication services, may be delayed. They claim progress may also be stalled on some of the Federal Communications Commission's items, such as reducing regulation of AT&T. Rep Jim Cooper (D-TN) says that aside from the war, lawmakers must address the financial problems, such as the Department of Treasury's proposed restructuring of the US banking and financial industries, the savings and loan crisis and the recession. RBHC ISDN delays hobble user plans. (problems encountered in expanding existing ISDN networks) (regional Bell holding Slow deployment of Integrated Services Digital (ISDN) Networks by the regional Bell holding companies (RBHC) keep customers from expanding their networks, speakers at a Communications Networks '91 conference disclosed. Speakers from the RBHCs say ISDN will not be widely used and fully featured until 1992. A spokesperson for the telecommunications division of Mellon Bank Corp claims that her firm cannot get over 200 Basic Rate Interface (BRI) lines from Bell Telephone Co of Pennsylvania. AT&T Bell Laboratories has 13,000 BRI lines in two RBHC regions, but says requests for additional lines to the local exchange carriers must be made a year before the lines are needed. Users are also concerned about the lack of ISDN terminal portability. One of the limitations of ISDN is its inability to use station equipment with service from any vendor's central office switch. Microcom opens door for vendors to license MNP 10. (Microcom Network Protocol) Microcom Inc plans to license its Microcom Network Protocol (MNP) 10 modem protocols to other firms. The move is intended to increase support for the technology as a de facto standard. The licensing broadens the market for modems supporting MNP 10, a link-layer protocol which builds a link with the minimum packet size and increases the size by as much as the line conditions permit. Company officials say the MNP 10 is ideal for users of portable computers or those who are at remote sites where communication lines are subject to quality degradation. Rockwell International Corp's Rockwell/Digital Communications is the first licensee of MNP 10. Grid Systems Corp, Spectrum Cellular and Toshiba America Inc plan to incorporate MNP into their products. A one-time license fee range from $5,000 to $20,000, based on the annual revenue of the vendor requesting the license. SMDS Interest Group to set interoperability guidelines: will work with user groups, standards bodies. (Switched Multimegabit Data The Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) Interest Group is organized by more than 100 users and vendors to develop interoperability guidelines for forthcoming SMDS equipment and services. The group hopes to promote interoperability among SMDS vendors and identify applications users want. The group will work with the Internet Engineering Task Force to define how Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol can be routed across SMDS services. The Interest Group hopes to develop testing facilities which ensure interoperability and plans several SMDS seminars and interoperability demonstrations. The SMDS Interest Group which met in Washington, DC approved a $4,999 membership fee and a $175 observer's fee. Net mgmt. vendors focus on the future. (AT&T, DEC, HP, IBM and Systems Center Inc.) At the Communications Networks '91 conference five leading vendors were asked to explain capabilities they can provide users with today that were not available a year ago. HP shipped a Unix version of OpenView that draws on the multitasking capabilities of Unix to support multiple attached systems. DEC introduced the first iteration of DEC Management Control Center (DECmcc) Director which uses a single user interface for managing four existing DEC management systems. DECmcc is anchored on the company's Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). IBM shipped NetView 2.1 on mainframes running the MVS/ESA and MVS/XA operating systems. AT&T released specifications that allow other vendors to develop Common Management Information Protocol products that are interoperable with its Accumaster Integrator. Systems Center Inc acquired Software Developments International, Pty, Ltd, the developer of Net/Master. Also acquired was the international marketing rights to Net/Master from Cincom Systems Inc. Microsoft outlines Windows, OS/2 plans. Gillooly, Caryn. Microsoft Corp's long-term strategies for Windows and OS/2 hinge on the new Windows-32 application program interface (API) and OS/2 3.0. Windows-32 is an API for programs running on microcomputers with 32-bit architectures. Microsoft officials disclose that the company will integrate network extensions into Microsoft Windows, either as part of Windows-32 or as extensions to future Windows releases. The network extensions will allow users more flexible access and manipulation of network resources while still working within the Microsoft Windows graphical environment. With Windows-32, Windows will evolve into an operating system, not just a graphical user interface. OS/2 3.0 will offer users the advantages of portability; it can run on any processor and allow users to make use of the capabilities of each. OS/2 3.0 will also provide scalability by supporting symmetric multiprocessing. Analysts read Microsoft's plan for OS/2 as positioning the operating system as a Unix alternative. Defense scraps mini-based document system for LANs. (Department of Defense to use Verity Inc.'s TOPIC Real Time document analysis The Department of Defense (DOD) will install Verity Inc's TOPIC Real Time, an intelligent document analysis product, under its Intelligence Information Systems Automated Message Handling System (AMHS). McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Co, the prime contractor of the $40 million project, will install AMHS prototypes running TOPIC Real Time at the Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts and Griffiss Air Force Base in New York. AMHS, a LAN-based system to be complete d in 1995, relies on a client/server architecture. TOPIC Real Time software has the capabilities for sorting, archiving and generating messages, as well as defining extensive information profiles. The server portion will perform central clearinghouse functions that will send catalogued information to microcomputers equipped with the client portion of TOPIC software. Cabletron to offer NetView links to Spectrum, LANView; gateways enable systems to exchange data. (Cabletron Systems Inc., network Cabletron Systems Inc introduces gateways that link the company's network management systems, Spectrum and Remote LANView to IBM's NetView management system. Spectrum, an object-oriented, protocol-independent, multivendor network management system, will be available by the end of Mar 1991 for more than $50,000. The new gateway software will link Spectrum systems directly to NetView. Remote LANView, about $20,000, is Cabletron's lower end network management product that controls and manages Ethernet networks. The Remote LANView-to-NetView gateway will use IBM's NetView/PC to link to NetView. Both Spectrum and Remote LANView gateways will be available by the end of Mar 1991 for $15,000 and $6,000, respectively. New Windows development tools offer TCP/IP support. (NetManage Inc.'s Newt, VisionWare Ltd.'s XVision 4.0 and Wollongong Group NetManage Inc, Wollongong Group Inc and VisionWare Ltd introduce products that make it easier to write Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications incorporating TCP/IP support. NetManage Inc's Newt is a network protocol stack that lets multiple concurrent TCP/IP applications run in multiple windows. The company's $500 Newt-Software Development Kit includes Network Driver Interface Specification and Berkeley Unix 4.3 BSD socket interfaces. Wollongong's $200 update of its applications programming interface (API) incorporates a TCP/IP interface for applications to run in protected-mode memory. The API includes Network Basic I/O System and Berkeley sockets transport interface libraries. VisionWare's $499 XVision 4.0 is an update of the XVision X Window System server software for microcomputers. Version 4.0 incorporates support for the X11r4 protocol, for 'backing store' and 'save under' functions which allow users to store the contents of obscure windows locally. E-mail privacy issue gains momentum with 2nd suit; two ex-Nissan workers take automaker to court. (Nissan Motors Corp.) Two former employees of Nissan Motors Corp USA have filed invasion of privacy suits against the company for intercepting and reading their E-mail messages. The employees charge Nissan with the violation of a California wiretapping statute which regulates the interception of telegraph and telephone communications. The two employees were Information Systems specialists. One of them was fired after he filed a complaint against the company about the practice; the other was forced to resign. This is the second E-mail suit brought against a US employer in 1990. Epson America Inc was the first to be sued, but a superior court judge has dismissed the case, saying the California wiretapping statute does not apply to E-mail. The two cases underscore the dilemma of companies in seeking a balance between protecting their property versus ensuring the rights of employees. Hospital LAN offers users array of data. (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia installs an Arcnet local-area network (LAN) in its cardiology department that enables personnel to access a common data base with patient data. The LAN gives the department an integrated approach to managing patient information and allows physicians access to patients records more easily. The LAN connects over 30 microcomputers divided among nine floors and two buildings. The Arcnet network is anchored by Intel Corp's 80486-based Dynamic Digital Service server running Novell Inc's NetWare 386. It also features Ratliff Software's Emerald Bay data base server. Charles Kruse, senior programmer/analyst at the hospital designed the network. He says the hospital chose Arcnet, a baseband, token-passing LAN topology because it was the most appropriate. Users strive to resolve varied global net standards; observers applaud efforts to unify regional rules. Network users, vendors, regulators and carriers are working towards coming up with a common set of standards for network equipment and services. An industry observer claims that the standards problem will be cleared by the mid-1990s. Differences in regional standards complicates building and maintaining international networks by forcing users to deploy dissimilar types of equipment in different countries. This increases costs, makes management difficult and limits growth opportunities overseas. One major effort towards standardization is being spearheaded by the European Commission, which is developing a set of rules that will allow a vendor with type approval from any European Community country to market equipment in the Common Market. Vendors are also standardizing on the next generation of services, such as Synchronous Optical Network, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and frame relay. Joint venture takes MCI Vnet to Australia. (MCI Communications Corp, AAP Communications Pty, Ltd.) MCI Communications Corp plans a joint venture company with AAP Communications Pty, Ltd to offer public Vnet service in Australia. The service mirrors MCI's US virtual network service. The joint venture company, still unnamed, will be 80 percent owned by AAP and 20 percent owned by MCI. The MCI-AAP agreement marks the first time users outside the US can avail of Vnet services. With the deal, MCI's international Vnet services can be improved because, by working with a compatible system in another country, MCI can offer Vnet features available in the US. The new Australian Vnet service will utilize AAP's existing terrestrial network. The joint venture company might use new DMS-100 central office switches from Northern Telecom Inc to support the Vnet service. System hinders airlines' links to tracking network. (Automatic Dependent Surveillance) The General Accounting Office (GAO) warns that the airline industry may miss out on a new international satellite communications system for transoceanic flights due to problems with a ground-based computer system. The new system, Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS), will improve air safety and the use of crowded airspace by furnishing air traffic controllers with statements from transoceanic flights via satellites. The ground-based computer system, called the Oceanic Display and Planning System (ODAPS), will plot the progress of planes on computer screens monitored by air traffic controllers. It will replace the manual position-tracking methods air traffic controllers use. These methods are deemed obsolete in dealing with the flood of information provided over the ADS network. However, ODAPS development is three years behind schedule. The GAO recommends its reevaluation. Wellfleet features boost security to NetWare LANs; router filters control client access to servers. (Wellfleet Communications Inc.'s Wellfleet Communications Inc's Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) and NETBIOS filters work with the company's bridge/routers products to provide enhanced levels of data security to Novell Inc NetWare local-area networks (LANs) while efficiently utilizing available bandwidth for data transmission. The bridge/router features let a network administrator partition a large NetWare LAN by department or application, and eliminate unauthorized access to restricted users. SAP and the NETBIOS filters run on Wellfleet's FeederNode, Link Node and Concentrator Node bridge/routers. Servers in a NetWare LAN use SAPs to distribute their name, the services they provide and their location in the network; the SAP filters feature allows net administrators to control how a SAP update is sent across the network. The NETBIOS feature allows administrators to regulate servers' communications. Fibermux to unleash mux net mgmt. pack. (LightWatch network management system)(Products & Services) (product announcement) Fibermux Corp introduces LightWatch 2.0, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based network management system that monitors and controls Fibermux's Crossbow wiring hubs when integrated with a Sun Microsystems Inc's SunNet Manager. The LightWatch software package lets users pool net control activities on one screen by providing network managers at a SunNet Manager central console with event information. LightWatch offers alarm and event reporting, configuration control and diagnostics. Fibermux has added an automatic recovery feature that corrects some alarms without intervention by a network manager. The network management software also provides statistics gathering and analysis at the hub and port level. LightWatch graphically views all network connections and executes node moves. The $4,500 software does not include a feature that views event conditions on network interface cards. A glossary for understanding 'execu-speak.' (Opinions) (column) Crawford, David. Executives employ managerial slang combined with technical terms to communicate within the corporate culture. Executives refer to their work in the computer industry as 'competing in the computer arena.' Executives 'use intelligent workstations to implement personal productivity solutions'; they do not use personal computers to run software applications. Platforms are groups of computers categorized by CPU type, manufacturer or market niche. The term server as in file servers, print servers and compute servers means it is used by more than one person. Executives do not refer to the design of a network, but rather its architecture. The majority of executive slang comes and goes in trend cycles. Integration or disintegration: which is best for users? (challenges of planning an integrated network)(Opinions) Users face financial, technical and organizational challenges in achieving integration of voice, data, image and video in their communications systems. The mid-1980s trend of combining voice and data on T-1 multiplexers had more to do with the economic advantages of T-1 circuits than with achieving integrated telecommunications. A number of users have since moved their voice communications off private T-1 backbones and onto the public switched network because prices on the public network have dropped considerably. Carriers are moving forward with plans for broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) even though users can obtain the same degree of functionality with their own private networking using narrowband ISDN. Broadband carriers believe that future networks will be integrated, but in the meantime they are restricting their services to data transmission. FDDI products proliferate, prices plummet. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface networks offer higher speed at affordable prices) Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) equipment and per-connection prices are dropping, which makes the 100M-bps standard an attractive network solution for many organizations. Prices for FDDI dual-attach station (DAS) adaptors for Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus and AT bus personal computers have fallen from $10,000 to $5,995. However, LAN adaptors often cost more than the price of the microcomputers they connect. Analysts predict the close to 1,000 FDDI-connected nodes in 1989 to expand to over 340,000 in 1993. Improved FDDI chipsets and increased chipset competition will spur further cost reductions. Users ought to consider FDDI in their long- and short-term networking plans despite questions regarding compatibility, interoperability, vendor support, protocol choices and the stability of the FDDI standard. Includes buyers guide on a variety of FDDI products. Desperately seeking fault-tolerant WANs. (wide area networks lack effective back-up systems) Products that offer wide area networks (WANs) cost-effective data recovery or uninterrupted transmissions are scarce and high in demand. The lack of fault tolerance was apparent Jan 4, 1991 when AT&T accidentally cut its own fiber cable in Newark, NJ, shutting down the majority of its long-distance service to Manhattan. Many carrier services users found that their ostensible back-up systems were included in the downed loop. Although many have responded to the event by purchasing redundant T-1 lines and signing up multiple long-distance carriers, industry observers point out that this may not be appropriate action, especially if companies fail to do a risk assessment. Regional Bell holding companies have responded to users' concern about the vulnerability of the public network by trying to regain the business reserved by such alternative access carriers as Metropolitan Fiber Systems Inc. Bridges and routers: will they mix, or merge, in networks of the future? (Supplement) Over 25 percent of local area networks (LANs) are now being interconnected with wide area networks (WANs) and the numbers are still increasing. Analysts see the 1990s as the age of efficient and seamless LAN-WAN integration, aided by the successful use of routers and bridges. One encouraging trend is the narrowing price disparity between routers and bridges, due to the recovery of the initial development costs of routers and the introduction of enhancements that allow bridges more protocol-related processing. Another trend is the reshaping of LAN into topologies resembling the long-distance telephone network, with the emergence of Unshielded Twisted Pair technology and single nodal hubs. The evolution from the traditional single-cable 'bus' topology towards a 'star' is also defining the form, function, deployment and management of bridges and routers. How many protocols are too many? (the political issues involved in migrating to a single protocol) There are emerging trends in the area of mixed-protocol networking, according to technical managers. One of these trends is protocol purity where the same network protocol is used throughout an organization. Large firms tend to use Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP-IP) and DECnet, but IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) which stands out in wide-area data networking in large firms has achieved little penetration in LAN circles. Small to mid-size firms are likely to chose TCP/IP and Novell Inc's Internet Packet EXchange (IPX). IPX is surging in popularity within bigger firms, but DECnet remains a contending force, technical managers claim. In deciding whether a LAN should be linked via bridges or via routers, two criteria more important than protocol are: topology and throughput. LAN-WAN bottlenecks: finding the problem is half the fight. (Supplement) Diagnosing a network problem is becoming more difficult with today's increasingly complex network architectures. Some problems, such as those involving response-time or performance, may require relocating equipment or replicating the resource. When the problem is insufficient bandwidth in the WAN link, companies, such as Xyplex (Boxborough, MA), employs a technique in its bridge products called Interconnection Protocol Optimization (IPO). IPO drastically reduces the amount of bits passed from the LAN to the WAN to solve the problem of low-data-rate WAN links. Other vendors, such as Cryptall Communications Corp, adds compression capabilities to bridges. By using a variety of compression techniques, Cryptall increases by four- to fivefold the available transmission bandwidth of a communications facility. The various LAN/WAN protocols and building LAN/WAN backbones are also discussed. Windows blitz from Microsoft, Borland set. (Borland International Inc. to compete with Microsoft in integrated Windows language Microsoft Corp and Borland International Inc are expected to compete fiercely in the market for Windows language software. Borland will announce its C++ for the Windows compiler at the Software Development '91 show. The product enables users to create applications for Microsoft Windows 3.0, but is does not have a Windows interface. The company is beta testing Turbo Pascal for Windows, a program development software product. Microsoft intends to include C 6.0 in its Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) and has signaled its plans to market a C++ compiler by the end of 1991. Developers are pleased by the competition, which may result in an influx of development tools that are easier to use and less expensive than SDK. 20MHz chip duo to lead Intel's 486 power play. (80486 microprocessors without math coprocessor) Intel will upset the balance of processing power by introducing two new microprocessors that are based on the 80486 chip but have a lower processing speed of 20MHz. One of the products, code-named P23, includes an 8Kbyte cache and costs about $250 for OEMs. This price places the product well under prices for current 80486 products and closer to Intel's 80386DXs. The P23 will lack the math co-processor included with earlier 80486 chips. The other new microprocessor is code-named P23N. The P23N has a math co-processor and cache; its price is about $350. The P23 and P23N, which may be marketed by summer 1991, will power microcomputers that will probably run faster than those based on the 33MHz 80386 microprocessor. Pro Write Plus first up in SPC's Windows lineup. (Software Publishing Corp.'s word processing software for the Microsoft Software Publishing Corp (SPC) will join the throng of developers for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 platform by introducing its Pro Write Plus word processing software in Mar, 1991. The software, priced at about $249, will include a built-in address book, multiple column layouts, and tools for line drawing. Users will be able to connect with external electronic mail systems from within the word processing program. SPC is developing a Windows version of its Harvard Graphics presentation software program; the program is in the beta test stage. SPC is also upgrading the DOS version of the package. Harvard Graphics 3.0 will be released at an unspecified date. IBM melds NetWare, mainframe worlds: direct link on stage at NetWorld. (IBM and Novell Inc. agree to include Novell's NetWare At the NetWorld 91 trade show IBM and Novell Inc will announce a marketing and technology agreement in which the two companies will include Novell's NetWare local area network (LAN) operating system as a major item in IBM's software and systems strategy. Higher levels of interoperability between NetWare and LAN Server are expected to be the result of the agreement, in addition to more interoperability between IBM mainframes and midrange systems and the Novell operating system. IBM will resell NetWare. The NetWorld convention will feature a demonstration of LAN Resource Extension and Services/VM, an application that enables NetWare 386 users to access IBM mainframe storage, administration, and printing functions. IBM shapes contingency plan for Portable OS/2. (IBM developing backup version of operating system in case Microsoft Corp. fails In case OS/2 development partner Microsoft Corp does not come through with OS/2 3.0, a portable version of the operating system, IBM is developing its own backup version. The program is designed for IBM's RS/6000 and other high-end computers. IBM is making its independence from Microsoft evident, developing networking technology with Microsoft's rival Novell Inc. IBM is concerned that Microsoft, which is concentrating on its best-selling Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface software, will be unable to honor its commitment to OS/2 3.0 on the agreed-upon time schedule. IBM has begun discussing publicly its view of OS/2 developments. Windows at crux of Oracle PC push. (Oracle to release microcomputer software for Microsoft Windows 3.0 platform) Oracle Corp is striving to alter its image as a vendor of software for proprietary mainframes in order to move into the microcomputer software market as well. The company is developing several products for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 platform, including OracleCard, a program development software tool for end-users, and Pro*C, a pre-compiler for database applications. The company is also developing a version of SQL*Forms screen-design software that will enable Windows applications with Dynamic Data Exchange to access Oracle databases. Oracle has enlisted the participation of new software developers in its software vendor program. The developers will design Windows front ends for Oracle Server. PS/2 L40SX packs design novelties: LTE, TravelMate edge beta unit in benchmark tests. (beta version IBM notebook computer tests A beta version of IBM's new PS/2 L40SX portable computer was tested against Compaq Computer Corp's LTE 386s/20 and Texas Instruments Inc's TravelMate 3000, both of which performed at slightly better rates on graphics and CPU tests. The IBM beta portable, which measures 8.5 by 12.8 inches, is about half a pound heavier than many of its competitors. The PS/2 L40SX has 2Mbytes of RAM, VGA screen, 60Mbyte hard drive, internal fax/modem, and a removable and rechargeable battery. The portable has built-in ports for serial and parallel communications and includes a socket for a math coprocessor. One of the product's most innovative features is its nearly full-sized keyboard. APPN support slated for IBM OS/2. (implementation of Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network protocols for operating system) IBM will introduce add-in/on software for the OS/2 Extended Edition operating system that will implement the company's Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network (APPN) protocols. This will enable OS/2 workstations on Ethernet or Token-Ring local area networks (LANs) to connect to other LANs or hosts equipped with IBM's Systems Network Architecture communications equipment. The software will be officially announced in Mar, 1991. This product will effectively connect workstations to hosts across wide area networks and local area networks at the same time. Its provision of wide area routing fills a major gap in IBM's interconnection product line. LAN Manager features tapped for migration to OS/2's core. (Microsoft to shift LAN Manager features to operating system) IBM plans to transfer some of the key features of its LAN Manager network management software program to future releases of the OS/2 operating system. Some industry analysts are concerned about the effect this shift of networking components to OS/2 may have on the longevity of LAN Manager, but IBM officials assure users that the changes will be gradual and that LAN Manager will acquire functions positioning it as a network management application to run with OS/2. Microsoft will design OS/2 3.0 to include such features as the ability to run on multiprocessing servers, a distributed file system, and portability to other processor platforms. Dell rolls out notebook PCs, 386 desktops: firm introduces SCSI hard drives, slashes prices on existing PCs. (Dell Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp introduces several new products including two 6.4 pound notebook computers, the 12-MHz 80286-based System 212N and the 20-MHz 80386SX-based System 320N. Both computers are due in Mar, 1991, and will include 1Mbyte of RAM, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and hard drive. The 320N with 60Mbyte hard drive costs around $3,699 while the 212N with 40Mbyte drive is priced near $2,699. Dell is also introducing Small Computer Interface (SCSI) hard drives in 200 Mbyte, 330 Mbyte and 650 Mbyte sizes. The company is reducing the prices of its microcomputers too. For example, the 433TE model with 8Mbytes of RAM, floppy drive, VGA color monitor, and 190Mbyte hard drive will cost $9,499 instead of $10,399. NeXT takes giant step with low-cost NeXTstation. (NeXT Computer Inc.'s Unix-based workstation) (Hardware Review) (First Look) NeXT Computer Inc's Unix-based NeXTstation workstation is an impressive computer that performed well on tests, including measurements of its ability to support DOS disks as readable disks in the NeXT applications-launching interface. The workstation, priced at $4,995 for a base configuration including a 25-MHz, 68040 microprocessor and 8Mbytes of RAM, has a better price/performance ratio than the original NeXTcube--a slower computer lacking the NeXTstation's built-in floppy drive. The NeXTstation is priced reasonably for the Unix market, but in comparison with the cost of an 80486-based 25-MHz microcomputer with 200Mbyte hard disk, it is rather expensive. NetWare naming service offers best of the basics. (Novell Inc.'s network naming system) (Software Review) (evaluation) Novell Inc's NetWare Naming Service (NNS), priced at $1,995, is a dependable but unspectacular software program that helps managers run multiserver networks. NNS enables administrators of the NetWare network operating system to group file servers and associated user names and to print queues into one domain to be centrally administered. NNS works well on Advanced NetWare 286 2 .15, NetWare 386 3.1, and NCR Corp's NetWare/X, as well as versions of the NetWare system. The product cannot work with existing programs that change the NetWare Bindery, nor does it maintain a central database of all network resources and users. The NNS software is not particularly fast. Novell's RMF cuts administrators response time; network managers gain control of remote NetWare 386 servers. (Remote Management Novell Inc's Remote Management Facility (RMF) network management software for the NetWare network operating system is a valuable product that gives administrators access to functions unavailable from the NetWare console. The software, priced at $1,995 per company, allows network managers to control any NetWare 386 file server without having to be at the server console. RMF is quite useful in cases when servers are inconvenient to access. The software is mainly composed of the remote console utility, RCONSOLE, and two associated loadable modules for user-password authentication and for redirection of the console screen and keyboard I/O. Mass migration means many problems: load software, configure memory, rewrite macros....(MIS managers install Microsoft Corp.'s Many MIS managers report multiple problems in the process of switching their users to the Microsoft Corp Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Although most of these managers feel the move is justified in the long run, they complain that support staffs become over-extended as many users demand training and support. Configuring networked microcomputers to support Windows 3.0, and aligning it to work with existing applications, can require up to four hours per workstation. In order to make maximum use of the Windows program, users must convert old files and macros created under DOS. Then they are able to run their applications in Windows 3.0 without switching into DOS. Is outside help the answer? (MIS departments consider outsourcing installation of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 graphical user Some computer industry companies, taking advantage of the problems inherent in moving groups of users to Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface, are offering outsourcing services for installation and support of the popular microcomputer software. One such vendor, Corporate Software Inc, offers a service for $120 per hour, plus travel and expenses of the service representative. While some MIS managers feel that outsourcing prices-- generally well over in-house support costs--are justified in order to minimize complications of reconfiguring systems and managing memory to best accommodate Windows 3.0, other managers feel the price of outsourcing is prohibitive. Oki workstations to tap the i860 as CPU. (Oki Microsystems Inc.'s OKIstation 7300 based on Intel 80860 microprocessor) (product Two new Oki Microsystems Inc workstations are based on Intel's 80860 microprocessor. The OKIstation 7300 will be marketed in 33-MHz and 40-MHz versions available in May, 1991. Analysts are unsure of the success of the workstations, given the low market penetration of the 80860 microprocessor when functioning as CPU. Popular in vector processing and geometric computing applications as a graphics coprocessor, the component is not proven as a CPU. Both versions of the OKIstation include 8Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard drive, 4Mbytes video RAM, and 12Kbytes of cache memory. The workstations also include a 3.5-inch floppy drive, two Ethernet ports, and color display. They will run the AT and T Unix System V 4.0 operating system. Solid-ink technology could jolt thermal transfer's market reign. (Jolt color printer technology from Dataproducts Corp. could Solid-ink color-printing technology, said to rival or surpass the quality of current thermal transfer color printers, may soon reach the market after three years of maintaining a low profile. Dataproducts Corp, which demonstrated a prototype solid-ink printer called Jolt, has licensed its technology to Tektronix Inc. Dataproducts plans to introduce two solid-ink printers in summer, 1991. The microcomputer version will cost about $5,000. Solid-ink printers may have an advantage over thermal transfer since the new technique allows printing onto any type of paper. Color is introduced in a wax-based state and then melted on the paper. Sales of color computer printers are expected to triple between 1991 and 1996. Mac IIx network streamlines airline operation. (American Airlines installs Ethernet network of Apple's microcomputers in Systems American Airlines Inc has installed an Ethernet network composed of 323 Apple Macintosh IIx microcomputers running expert systems software developed by the company's employees. The airline invested $40 million in a new Systems Operations Center and in computer equipment in order to improve its data collection operations on 'active crafts.' Airline officials predict that the network will enable the company to increase daily flights by 20 percent over a three-year period. The project will also allow American to undertake a 40 percent increase in the size of its jet fleet. The network is credited with keeping the company's workforce level after years of hiring increases. Bugs plague Corel Draw's font utility. (Corel Systems Corp.'s Corel Draw 2.0 computer graphic software unable to convert fonts Many buyers of Corel Systems Corp's Corel Draw 2.0 computer graphics software were attracted to the WFNBOSS utility, which was to have enabled the program to convert its 150 fonts to the format of Adobe Systems Inc's Adobe Type 1. Unfortunately, the utility is defective. Incorrect implementation of the Type 1 format and incorrect translation of character sets are among the flaws. In addition, users must exit and restart the program whenever a font is converted. Corel Systems is developing an interim release to correct the bugs, but it may not be available until Apr, 1991. A partial remedy for the bugs is available in the Corel forum on the CompuServe videotex system. Vendors group seeks color match for Mac: Association hunts for API standard. (Association of Color Developers seeks common The Assn of Color Developers is a group of hardware and software vendors working together to create a common applications programming interface (API) for the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. Their goal is to enable applications for the Mac to work with any color-management system that adheres to the API, thereby insuring that colors on monitors and output devices will match. The group hopes to develop a cross-platform API that includes the microcomputer. There are four competing color management systems in 1991, which makes it difficult for applications developers to standardize their work. AutoShade 2.0 taps RenderMan's power for AutoCAD drawings. (Autodesk Inc.'s computer graphics program includes Pixar Inc.'s Autodesk Inc has included Pixar Inc's RenderMan computer graphics technology in AutoShade 2.0 computer graphics software, which in turn works with AutoCAD computer-aided design software. AutoShade serves as a geometry translator between RenderMan and AutoCAD drawings, and also as a user interface for RenderMan. The enhanced AutoShade can create powerful photo-realistic three-dimensional drawings. Users can add colors, textures and shadings to their AutoCAD drawings to achieve impressive results. AutoShade 2.0 unfortunately requires considerable computing power--at least an 80386-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of RAM, but is wonderful for detailed computer graphics production. Ticker plant enjoys performance gain with OS/2. (PC Quote Inc. installs OS/2 operating system) PC Quote Inc uses the OS/2 multitasking operating system to improve the performance of its ticker plant in Chicago. IBM's OS/2 is proving to be an effective platform for real-time, high-volume mathematical tasks. The local area network-based system at the plant is more reliable and streamlined since the company changed from DOS to OS/2 software. The ticker plant collects stock quotes from various market, sorts and condenses the information, and returns it to financial analysts and brokers. PC Quote's customers use the service in lieu of direct feeds from the stock exchanges, consequently avoiding the need to perform error checking, data sorting, and maintenance themselves. Practical pumps some new blood into modem line. (Practical Peripheral Inc.'s PM2400 SendFax Modem) (product announcement) Practical Peripherals Inc has expanded and upgraded its line of modem products. The company's PM2400 SendFax Modem, priced at $229, includes automatic redial, cover-page generation, and automatic answer features. The modem can send ASCII, TIFF, or PCX files. The PM2400 is comprised of a 2,400-bps data modem and a 4,800-bps Group III send-only facsimile board. Practical Peripherals is also releasing versions of the PM2400 MNP/5 data modem with V.42bis data compression and V.42 error checking features. The modem costs $249 for internal and $299 for external versions. The firm is developing two new bundled modem products for Apple Macintosh computers as well. Simpact to merge voice, E-mail for Notes users. (Simpact Associates Inc.'s prototype technology for Lotus Development Simpact Associates Inc has developed an innovative prototype for equipment that integrates voice communications with electronic mail (e-mail) systems, allowing users of Lotus Development Corp's Lotus Notes 2.0 software to send and receive voice annotations to e-mail over telephone lines. The Simpact technology enables users to transmit integrated voice and text messages on a local area network-based server running the Lotus office automation software. Users can also play back messages over the telephone. The Simpact system is not in the beta phase as of Feb, 1991. Prolinc upgrade increases links to LANs, hosts. (Hughes LAN Systems Inc.'s Prolinc 2.0 multiprotocol communications software Hughes LAN Systems Inc introduces Prolinc 2.0 multiprotocol communications software for local area networks (LANs). Prolinc 2.0, priced at $595 per workstation, is expected on the market in Apr, 1991. The upgraded software enables users of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and DOS to simultaneously communicate with multiple host and network systems by dynamically loading and unloading protocols from memory. Prolinc 2.0 adds support for the Simple Network Management Protocol as well as the capability to connect to IBM architectures through Token-Ring adapters and IBM's Data Link Control software. QuickMail 2.5 opens door to PC LAN user. (CE Software Inc.'s electronic messaging software works with several network operating CE Software Inc introduces QuickMail 2.5, a new electronic messaging upgrade that operates with several popular network operating systems. The e-mail software will cost $399.95 for a five-user license and $2,499.95 for a 50-user license. Equivalent releases of QuickMail 2.5 for AppleTalk are priced at $349.95 and $2,299.95. The software, which will be marketed in 2nd qtr 1991, is intended for use in local area networks (LANs) that include both Apple and DOS microcomputers and run Macintosh versions of DOS LAN software. QuickMail 2.5 features a remote-user interface and applications programming interfaces that integrate existing applications with the e-mail program. Hardware heavies to reveal their 'soft' side. (networking vendors introduce software at NetWorld 1991 trade show) Several vendors known for hardware products are planning to introduce new software programs at the 1991 NetWorld trade show. Cogent Data Technologies will unveil the Open Windows communications software program, priced at less than $100 for NetWare and LAN Manager support and $395 including support for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Open Windows enables users to run NetWare, TCP/IP and LAN Manager sessions at the same time under Microsoft Windows 3.0. Cabletron Systems Inc will introduce Spectrum/Netview Gateway software, priced at about $15,000, which lets network managers communicate with IBM's NetView interface software via the same terminal running Spectrum. Other companies introducing software include Racal-Interlan Inc, Fibermux Corp, and Madge Networks Inc. Carlisle updates suite of utilities: version 2.0 lessens VINES memory constraints. (Carlisle Gateway Systems Inc.'s Carlisle 2.0 Carlisle Gateway Systems Inc introduces Carlisle Utilities 2.0, a set of over 40 utilities replacing or improving administrative commands of Banyan Systems Inc's VINES 4.0 network operating systems. Carlisle's software, priced at $695, features the ability to unload NetBIOS protocol software if it is not needed,in order to make more memory space available. Users can also monitor server disk-space use and enjoy streamlined access to electronic mail systems. Carlisle Utilities 2.0 includes useful replacements for the VINES TREE and DOS DIR commands and extends these functions to more areas. Alliance coordinates LAN testing standards. (Performance Testing Alliance for Networks, local area network equipment) The Performance Testing Alliance for Networks (PTAN) is a group of vendors, end-users and media organizations that compares the performance and quality of available local area network products. PTAN will hold its third meeting at NetWorld '91, where members will discuss product testing procedures and debate issues relating to benchmarks and quality. No major vendor has publicly endorsed the group, but representatives from major networking equipment manufacturers attended the second PTAN meeting and see potential in the organization. Connectivity cornucopia overflows on NetWorld 91 stage. (LANSystems Inc.'s LANSpool for LAN Manager, Blue Lance Inc.'s LT NetWorld 91 will enable many local area network vendors to introduce new products to promote connectivity. One such manufacturer, LANSystems Inc, will introduce the LANSpool for LAN Manager, printer-server software for Microsoft's network operating system. The LANSpool program costs $495 per server and can link up to five network printers to a microcomputer print server. Blue Lance Inc will introduce LT Auditor 386 for Novell's network operating system. The program, priced at $695, tracks user log-ons/log-outs, copies, and file deletions. It enables users to analyze events that led to a network crash or problem. Trade-show security upped under specter of terrorism. (NetWorld 91 wary of Persian Gulf War terrorism threat) The Persian Gulf War of 1991 sparked fears of increased international terrorism, leading trade show officials to heighten security preparations for the Communications Networks and NetWorld 1991 conventions. The Communications Networks organizers prohibited package delivery through the front door, banned unidentified trucks and vans from parking near the convention center in Washington where the show was held, and demanded that freight delivery personnel identify themselves. Organizers of the NetWorld show in Boston will hire an increased number of guards to patrol entrance points, and will scrutinize freight entering the exhibition hall. Alsys' ASEE fails to tap full Macintosh potential. (Ada Software Engineering Environment compiler) (Software Review) (First Look) Alsys Inc's Ada Software Engineering Environment (ASEE) for the Macintosh, 5.0, failed to work effectively with the Apple Macintosh architecture. The compiler software, priced at $940, was evaluated on a Macintosh IIfx microcomputer. The IIfx, with 8Mbytes of RAM and 35Mbytes of hard disk space, was only adequate for the huge program, which occupies 15Mbytes of disk space and calls for 8Mbytes of memory. ASEE-developed programs can run on any Macintosh, but must be created on Macs with 68020 or 68030 microprocessors. ASEE required an extensive installation process. The documentation was less than helpful for programmers new to the Ada language. Firms to deliver pair of GUI tools. (Neuron Data Inc.'s Open Interface and CASEworks Inc.'s CASE:W Corporate Edition program Neuron Data Inc and CASEworks Inc have both introduced new program development software packages for designing graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Neuron's Open Interface, priced between $7,000 and $12,000 dependant upon operating environment, enables developers to create a GUI and then recompile it to operate in many different windowing environments. Among the supported environments are Microsoft Windows 3.0, OSF/Motif, DECwindows, and OS/2 Presentation Manager. CASEworks' CASE:W Corporate Edition, priced at $995, is intended for advanced developers who are creating 'mission-critical' applications for Windows 3.0. CASE:W supports Microsoft's Multiple Document Interface. Revelation eyes link to Oracle Server. (Revelation Technologies Inc.'s Oracle Server Bond proprietary interface) Revelation Technologies Inc (RTI) is developing Oracle Server Bond, a proprietary interface that connects RTI's Advanced Revelation data base to several external data bases. The Oracle Server Bond software will be beta tested in Mar, 1991, and may be on the market by the 2nd qtr. The product will provide access to multiple Oracle Server data bases on microcomputer, mainframe, and minicomputer platforms. The company hopes to expand the Server Bond technology to connect Advanced Revelation with other front-end applications. SQL2 review process begins: compliant products due in mid-1990s. (American National Standards Institute's revision of Structured The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is circulating copies of SQL2, the latest revised specification to the Structured Query Language (SQL). The public is invited to comment on SQL2, which will likely be finalized and ratified by the ANSI in late 1992. Publication of the standard is scheduled for mid-1993 at the earliest, with data base products based on the standard reaching the market in the mid-1990s. The draft is unusually complicated, detailing language refinements made in relational data base technology since 1986. SQL2 features allow for more flexibility in relations between data base tables. Intel 486 systems will be where the action is. (80486 microprocessor) (Up Front) (column) Despite predictions to the contrary by computer industry market researchers, the market for microcomputers based on Intel Corp's 80486 microprocessor is going to improve dramatically in late 1991. IBM and manufacturers of compatible microcomputers are developing 804860-based products that will sell in large numbers. This change will occur because prices for the computers will go down significantly. Already, in Feb 1991, buyers can find fully-configured 80486-based systems with hard disk and monitor for less than $4,000. The competition from 80386-based compatibles will drive prices down, as will competition from other 80486-based products. Were you surprised Microsoft is 'dropping' OS/2? (OS/2 operating system) (The Corporate Micro) (column) The report that Microsoft Corp is 'dropping' the OS/2 operating system is not as surprising as the degree of surprise that the report elicited among computer industry watchers. The events of the last months of 1990, and even events of the year or two before that, clearly indicated that Microsoft and development partner IBM had their differences. One case in point is the controversy between the two companies about IBM's sponsorship of OS/2 Lite. IBM, impatient over the speed and direction of the development effort, was desperate to get OS/2 into the market. The success of Microsoft Windows 3.0 only made matters worse. In the future, IBM may switch its energy to developing products with Metaphor Systems, while Microsoft will likely produce a 32-bit version of Windows. The OS/2 Presentation Manager interface is bound to get lost in the shuffle. Choosing the role the IS department should play. (information systems) (Risky Business) (column) Advances and changes in computer industry technology are prompting many MIS workers to question the nature of their roles within corporations. Managers may ask if they are 'builders, buyers, or architects.' Such questions can take on emotional overtones as well as financial and technological shadings. MIS departments full of talented programmers sometimes take on too much responsibility, insisting on writing all software programs in-house, even when this is unnecessary or counter-productive. This mistake can also lead to higher support responsibilities and the neglect of other business needs. Local area network-based client/server data bases that run multiple front-end programs can be a wise solution for over-worked MIS departments. Farallon blurs line between PCs, fax machines. (Farallon Computing) (Valley Voices) (column) Farallon Computing president Reese Jones seems to perceive of telephones and facsimile machines as being on a continuum with microcomputers, at least in the area of usage. Jones seems to think of a microcomputer as a telephone or fax machine with a screen, and thus his company develops innovative products that will improve the communications abilities of the microcomputer and make it popular among the mass of US consumers, as telephones are. One of Farallon's upcoming products combines the portability of a beeper with the power of a CPU. Another developing product offers real-time multimedia communication instead of conventional electronic mail transmission. Dealer relations tense after Apple revises program. (Apple and resellers at odds over Education Sales Consultant Program) Apple management's decision to change the microcomputer company's Education Sales Consultant Program has aroused the opposition of some user and vendor groups. The trade group ABCD: The Microcomputer Industry Assn also disapproves of the changes, which require Apple education sales representatives to stop selling competing CPUs in the K-12 market or face the loss of their Apple education credentials. The education consultant status is different than authorized dealer status, but most times it overlaps. This policy forces Apple dealers to choose between the company and other vendors, which will be quite difficult for most. Under the new rules, education consultants will benefit by being paid upon receipt of customer invoice, and they will be granted quarterly advances. Novell's LANalyzer wins performance tests: Network General's team demonstrates superior knowledge of Token-Ring LANs. (PC Week Labs A PC Labs 'Shoot-Out' competition to judge both local area network analysis equipment and technicians' expertise was won by Novell's LANalyzer and the employee team of Network General Corp. Teams of technicians from six companies were tested as they used their analyzers to tackle several different network malfunctions. The analyzers were timed as they entered a beaconing Token-Ring network, located the position of an illegal node, and other tasks. Bytex Corp's ATS100 network analyzer and Network General' Sniffer 700 portable analyzer took second and third place for hardware performance. The network experts from Bytex took second place in the technical talent portion of the contest. The analyzers from Spider Systems Inc, ProTools Inc, and Digilog Inc were less successful. The price of maintaining the company network; downtime, training costs force corporate users to re-evaluate network-management Corporations are re-evaluating network management priorities because of the rising costs of downtime and training. Local area networks (LANs) are becoming extremely expensive to maintain and many companies spend more than $650,000 a year in performance upgrades; LAN maintenance for those companies runs $60,000 annually. Observers note that LAN downtime dramatically affects user productivity, which affects the bottom-line of a company. Reducing the length and extent of LAN downtimes will be a priority in the 1990s but industry observers believe that user-consciousness has to be raised about using protocol analyzers and other network analysis tools. Users debate the merits of protocol analyzers; tools offer a variety of functions, from monitoring LAN traffic to Protocol analyzers have a variety of functions that include helping users monitor local area network (LAN) traffic and troubleshoot problems. Network managers use protocol analyzers for everything, from pinpointing a defective node to decoding the packets that run across the LAN. Vendors have chosen to make each analyzer unique and many serve specialized functions. Some protocol analyzers are more difficult to learn to use but there are protocol analyzers that are menu-driven and user-friendly. Network managers that are considering the purchase of a protocol analyzer should first look at their LAN and its problems, then decide what function they most need from an analyzer, and finally determine how steep the learning curve is for any particular analyzer. Network-management challenge evolves in the '90s. (PC Week labs shoot-out: network management) Local area networks (LANs) are evolving in the 1990s and the network management challenges grow. The evolution of LANs calls for the use of more sophisticated tools and protocols. The creation of a standard protocol for LANs is also an evolving arena with several standards competing including the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), IBM's Netview and DEC's Enterprise System Architecture. Network management is beginning to take on broader definitions in the 1990s and can be applied to operational, tactical and strategic uses of LANs. The largest challenge network managers face in the 1990s is the ability to keep pace with two trends: the trend towards centralization and the proliferation of non-compatible LANs. LAN servicing programs are on the upswing; DEC, HP and IBM compete to be the one-stop shop for network users. (local area network) IBM, DEC and Hewlett Packard Co are competing to provide one-stop service for local area network (LAN) users. Outsourcing increases among companies in the 1990s as LANs become more complex and harder to maintain. Third party vendors have been the main provider in the market and normally offer several services including core services, or hardware and cable laying, operational services, which includes remote LAN monitoring and analysis, and design/implementation services, which involves network configuration and planning. IBM, DEC and Hewlett Packard seek to take advantage of this growing outsourcing market and claim that they are now ready to design, implement and maintain LANs. Vendors divided on standards issue; CMIP seen as ultimate goal; SNMP strength is simplicity. (Common Management Information The Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) are two standards that are competing in the local area network (LAN) market. Industry observers see the CMIP standard as the ultimate goal to be achieved, though its progress has been hampered by approval processes. It is the model of the International Standards Organization/Open Systems Interconnect (ISO/OSI) for network management and is the network management protocol that is generally accepted by LAN managers. The SNMP standard is reliable, realistic and currently available, and has enlisted the support of LAN managers because of its availability. The strength of the SNMP standard is its simplicity. Goals are clear in quest for protocol standard; SNMP is in place, operational and flexible for multivendor communications. (PC Week The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standard for local area networks (LANs) is in place and operational. The standard has made it possible to achieve connectivity on a LAN, for heterogeneous networks to communicate with one another. SNMP, which is considered an interim network standard waiting for the full implementation of the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP), has three parts to it: the structure of management information (SMI), the management information base (MIB), and the protocol itself. SNMP conveys information to and from entities created by the SMI and MIB; the structure is very flexible and network managers can define different MIBs when needed. Network operating systems add reliability; VINES, NetWare and LAN Manager try to take the bite out of network failures. (PC Week Banyan Systems Inc's VINES, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager and Novell Inc's Netware network operating systems provide network managers with reliability in a less-than-perfect network environment. These network operating systems can monitor critical information such as the status of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) when it is in use. The network operating systems also bolster the reliability of hard disk drives by using a technique known as dynamic bad-block remapping. The technique allows a LAN to recover from media imperfections that can be present on small portions of a hard disk. Hard disks can malfunction if they do not spin at the right speed or if the read/write head cannot position itself properly on the disk. LAN management on a smaller scale; inexpensive software tools monitor departmental networks. (PC Week labs shoot-out: network Local area network (LAN) software tools provide network managers with the ability to set thresholds to warn of oncoming problems, track individual nodes and help monitor an LAN for the long-term. Many of these software tools do not require a dedicated monitor and generally run in the background of a network operating system; if they do not run in the background they take up very little RAM. Various network monitoring tools exist for the small LAN manager and though they differ between one operating system to the next, they are similar in that they all monitor a manageable number of LAN functions and inform network managers about what is going on in the network. Software takes sting out of paying income taxes. Schroeder, Erica. Many tax preparers agree that using tax accounting software increases accuracy and makes the chore of preparing taxes more manageable. Many of the tax preparation software packages out on the market are easy to use and accessible to those who do not have a strong accounting background. An important advantage of using tax preparation software is the accuracy factor; users need only enter the data once and print out the results. The organization that the software packages offer also provides users with insights into deductions they did not know they had. Some problems with the tax preparation software is the availability of tax forms on disk, and the ability of the software publisher to get them out in a timely manner. Tax software offers various returns; Turbotax, TaxCut provide strongest interview modules, most useful operation. (Software PC Week labs evaluates seven tax preparation software packages that are designed to help users deal with tax preparation in 1991. The software packages are smarter than in previous years and are designed to deal with the complex 1991 tax forms. The programs normally begin with an interactive process whereby the user is interviewed with specific questions and the program decides what tax forms and schedules to use. All the programs have the basic tax forms that most taxpayers will use and some contain special forms. ChipSoft Inc's $75 TurboTax Personal/1040, which is easy to use, and Meca Software Inc's $89.95 Taxcut, which provides beautiful replicas of IRS tax forms, are selected as the analyst's choices. Chipsoft Inc.: TurboTax Personal/1040 8.0. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax ChipSoft Inc's $75 TurboTax Personal/1040 8.0 tax preparation software package offers an attractive graphics installation screen and high-quality help and interview screens. The tax preparation software is chosen as the best of all seven software packages tested. The program supports a mouse and features a special on-line help system that offers true cross-referenced, hypertext tax and program information. TurboTax Personal/1040 8.0 begins with an interview process that allows users to break and partially or fully fill out various tax forms. The program prints IRS replicas for the 1040 and 1040A return form and prints out the rest of the available forms in straight text mode. DacEasy Inc.: Sylvia Porter's RapidTax. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax DacEasy Inc's $79.95 Sylvia Porter's RapidTax tax preparation software package is a good program that offers attractive screens. The program unfortunately does not offer a mouse and moving from screen to screen is somewhat difficult. RapidTax offers a comprehensive and well-written manual and on-line help and tutorial screens, which are awkward since they must be scrolled through and no hyper-text cross-referencing is offered. Users can complete tax forms by either filling in a form or by going through an interview process that fills in the forms automatically. Tax planning on the RapidTax is rather limited to the program's automatic calculating. Meca Software Inc.: TaxCut. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax software Meca Software Inc's $89.95 TaxCut tax preparation software package offers users with a special guarantee that it will pay any penalty a user incurs as a result of using the software. TaxCut, which is the only program in 1991 that is certified by a large accounting firm, receives a top rating. The tax preparation software features optional mouse support, top-line menus and pull-down option menus, which are easy to use. The software offers an impressive on-line help system that provides official IRS instructions for schedules and forms, and expert references. TaxCut also offers a tax-auditing feature, which alerts users of a possible audit and offers suggestions on how to limit liability. Parsons Technology: Personal Tax Preparer. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax Parson Technology Inc's $49 Personal Tax Preparer is an inexpensive tax preparation software package that offers an easy-to-use interface and a thorough interview process. The program does not have all the features of more expensive tax preparation programs but does offer a text notepad, a mini spreadsheet, amortization and accumulation sheets, a data back-up utility, and pop-up math, financial and depreciation calculators. The interview portion of the program is complete and consists of 109 simple questions. Recommended forms are presented after the interview process is complete and the program allows several forms to be opened at once. Simon & Schuster Software: J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax Software 1991. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax Simon and Schuster Software's $74.95 J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 1991 tax preparation software package offers high-quality IRS replica forms. The software comes with a straightforward interface that includes top-line horizontal bar selections and bottom-line function key assignments. An on-line help system includes IRS publications as well as the J.K. Lasser Your Income Tax Guide. The interview displays a list of forms to use and users can access those forms during the interview process by pressing the PF5 key. The software does calculations across all the forms when the keyboard is inactive. The program is not reliable at catching all problems and errors. SoftView Inc.: Macintax for Windows 1.0. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax Softview Inc's $99 MacInTax for Windows 1.0 tax preparation software package is the first tax preparation software that can use the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The software offers beautiful IRS replica forms and schedules, which can be printed on dot-matrix or laser printers. MacInTax's interview process is not as interactive as other programs that were tested; questions are not asked one at a time but are presented on one static scroll screen. The program does not offer a comprehensive error checking facility and users are limited to looking for missing information. The tax preparation program does not have much use for tax planning. TimeWorks Inc.: Swiftax. (Software Review) (one of seven evaluations of tax preparation software packages in 'Tax software TimeWorks Inc's $79.95 Swiftax tax preparation software package offers users a well-designed interface but is not as powerful as similar programs at comparable prices. The software program comes with a users manual that is designed well but displays only a few screen shots. The interface, which can be operated by an optional mouse, is intuitive and uses a top-line horizontal menu with pull-down menus. The interview process does not allow users to switch between questions and tax forms; results from the questionnaire are displayed in a forms screen. The software has limited tax planning capabilities and prints 1040 forms in graphics form. NTSC boards provide cost effective option for video production, buyers say. (National Television Standards Committee) The National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) makes in-house video production possible with the use of full-motion video cards. In-house video production cuts costs and production time; it takes two to three days to produce video in-house and between two and three weeks out-of-house. Production of video in-house also lets a company be more creative and explore different solutions. Video cards allow video images to be stored on hard disk and make editing an easier task. Buyers of video boards must consider some features that a particular video card offers including the quality of the video image it can create and the number of colors its supports. Boards bring live-video images to PCs; Matrox, VideoLogic products let PCs display live, high-quality video images. (Software Review) PC Week Labs evaluates two video boards that are part of a growing trend towards multimedia presentations. The two boards, one from Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd and the other from VideoLogic Inc, are evidence that it is now feasible and affordable to enhance training programs and other presentations with full-color video images. The boards adhere to the National Television Standards Committee's standard rate of 30 frames per second and capture and display images in real-time. Images that are displayed on a computer can be frozen on a single frame and stored. The two boards evaluated differ in fundamental ways and each serve a specific application. Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.: Illuminator-16/AT. (Software Review) (one of two video board evaluations in 'Boards bring The Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd $2,495 Illuminator-16/AT video board successfully captures and displays images and is capable of modifying video images with its software. The video board, which is flexible because it is not aimed at a particular video input, is complicated to operate. Setting jumpers is required to support specific video input and output signals, and the process is time-consuming and difficult. The software provided with the video board, known as Ilumutil, includes an intuitive utility. The Ilumutil allows users to reconfigure the board for temporary settings and switch between two operation modes. VideoLogic Inc.: DVA-4000/ISA. (Software Review) (one of two video board evaluations in 'Boards bring live-video images to PCs') VideoLogic Inc's $2,830 DVA-4000/ISA video board is designed to be specifically used with commercial laser-disk players that have RS-232C adapters. Hardware installation for the video board is fairly simple: the product consists of a main board with jumpers and a daughterboard, known as the DFA-4000, that gets rid of much clutter on the motherboard and makes the jumpers more accessible. The set-up of the software is equally simple and straightforward. The video board provides excellent video images and high-quality output. The documentation is clearly written in four manuals and includes many appendices that provide solutions to common error messages. Packages provide early warnings. (local area network diagnostic software) LocalTalk diagnostic software is useful to local area network (LAN) managers for troubleshooting problems but the products could be improved. Apple Computer Inc's Interpoll is easy to install and can immediately inform network managers what devices are missing and what system software is on what node, but the package does not do mapping. Farallon Computing Inc's products, such as TrafficWatch, are also useful for LAN diagnostics. TrafficWatch shows network managers the load any particular node is placing on the network, which helps them plan for future growth. The software also features macros that can produce charts from stored data. LocalTalk programs need improvement; diagnostic packages provide basic functions, but fall short of their potential. (Software PC Week labs evaluates four performance analysis software packages that work with LocalTalk networks. The diagnostic software packages are evaluated on the quality of basic diagnostic functions, the ease of learning and use, the quality of display and report functions, and the quality of documentation. Network managers who use LocalTalk local area networks must deal with problems as they arise and often need to turn to third-party vendors. The products that are evaluated are all inexpensive and offer the basics of diagnostics; none of the products offer much more than the basics. None of the products realizes its potential but given the price range, which is between $95 and $195, they are better than nothing at all. Advanced Electronic Support Products Inc.: NetMap 1.0. (Software Review) (one of four computer network software package evaluations Advanced Electronic Support Products Inc's $99 NetMap 1.0 performance analysis software package for AppleTalk local area networks (LANs) is not impressive but does give network managers an easy way to see what systems are running on their LAN. The systems on an AppleTalk network can be linked via LocalTalk, EtherTalk or TokenTalk. NetMap has simple documentation and comes with a manual that contains over 30 pages of information. The program also comes with an alert signal, which sounds whenever a system joins the LAN or an active system becomes inactive; the alert signal can be useful but also irritating in a place where Macintosh microcomputers come and go on a regular basis. Apple Computer Inc.: InterPoll 1.02. (Software Review) (one of four performance analysis software package evaluations in Apple Computer Inc's $129 InterPoll 1.02 performance analysis software package is the best diagnostic software of all programs evaluated. InterPoll has several options for customizing a display and network managers can sort the system list in descending or ascending order by node number, socket number, system type, network or zone. Another feature available on the software is the ability to query any system by double-clicking on its entry in the systems list. The major weakness of the diagnostics program is that it does not inform network managers when systems join or leave the network. The software comes with a 92-page manual, which is the best of those evaluated. Farallon Computing Inc.: PhoneNET CheckNET 1.11. (Software Review) (one of four performance analysis software package evaluations in Farallon Computing Inc's $95 PhoneNET CheckNET 1.11 performance analysis software package is a desk accessory that serves as an adequate system status-monitoring tool. The software displays a list of all the systems on an AppleTalk local area network (LAN) like other programs evaluated, and updates the display at intervals chosen by a network manager. PhoneNET CheckNET also features some important display customization options, which allows network managers to pick one of seven possible display configurations including ascending or descending order by system name, network address or type. The software also includes a utility that allows users to query LaserWriter printers. Farallon Computing Inc.: TrafficWatch 1.08. (Software Review) (one of four performance analysis software package evaluations in Farallon Computing Inc's $195 TrafficWatch 1.08 performance analysis software package does not monitor the status of systems on an AppleTalk local area network (LAN) but does help network managers locate problems by displaying the traffic on the LAN. TrafficWatch displays packets in two ways: it shows the name of each system with a two-color moving bar and shows the traffic between every possible combination of 256 devices on a LAN on a 256-by-256-cell matrix. The software also includes a utility that allows managers to assign system numbers in the matrix. TrafficWatch only works on LocalTalk LANs and cannot detect traffic from systems on the other side of a router. Tools bring AD/Cycle goals to Windows; LBMS offers high-end CASE tools; Popkin has more affordable LAN support. (Software Review) PC Week labs evaluates two computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software packages that include two key components of IBM's AD/Cycle. IBM's AD/Cycle is a distributed microcomputer and mainframe computer strategy for CASE and whose two key components are the Common User Access Interface and the use of a shared repository for all project information. The CASE software is evaluated on the ease of use throughout the development cycle, the ease of use for application prototyping, the ease of checking program logic, the ease of integrating tools and the extent and variety of support for standard techniques. Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems Inc.: Systems Engineer 2.1S. (Software Review) (one of two CASE software evaluations in Learmonth and Burchett Management Systems (LBMS) Inc's $7,500 Systems Engineer 2.1S computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software package features an on-line tutorial that uses the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface Help application. The Help application leads users through extensive examples but the manuals are long on details and short on convenience. The CASE software maintains the discipline of its data dictionaries and data-flow diagrams throughout the final phases of development and achieves an incredible integration with its interactive pseudocode editor. Systems Engineer performed well in all the areas it was tested including ease of use and the extent and variety of support for standard techniques. For buyers, tools from LBMS, Popkin organize team efforts. (Learmonth and Burchett Management Systems Inc. and Popkin Learmonth and Burchett Management Systems (LBMS) Inc and Popkin Software and Systems Inc are two software publishers that provide computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools that feature a shared repository for all project information. The software publishers consider repositories as being central to the CASE tools because it facilitates team efforts on development projects by providing flexibility to developers. Users complain that low-end CASE tools do not provide data-flow diagrams and data repositories while high-end CASE tools are too expensive. CASE tools provided by LBMS and Popkin allow users to make a transition to CASE without heavy investments. Popkin Software & Systems Inc.: System Architect 2.1G. (Software Review) (one of two CASE software evaluations in 'Tools bring Popkin Software and Systems Inc's $1,395 System Architect 2.1G computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software package takes up one-ninth the space and costs one-fifth the amount of the other CASE software package evaluated. System Architect is a multiuser system that is not as sophisticated as other available CASE software programs. It is not a distributed application and does not control data access below the level of an entire diagram. The CASE software does gain some benefits from its simpler design and includes manuals that are less intimidating; common-sense examples are used in the hard copy tutorial. System Architect has interesting interactive tools and includes an extended vocabulary of mouse commands. Integrated packages persevere in '90s; buyers praise graphics modules, ease of use; memory is trade-off. (buyers guide) Integrated software is still popular in 1991 despite the rumors that it is losing favor in the computer software industry. Most integrated software packages include a word processor, a spreadsheet, a data base and sometimes a communications module. The benefits in integrated software are the lower costs and easier training sessions, though users oftentimes sacrifice certain features that are present in individual modules. Users who are considering buying an integrated software package need to ask if the spreadsheet provides linking between cells, if the word processor features advanced functions, if graphics and communication facilities are provided, and if the package provide filters for file imports and exports. Informix seeks bigger market role with sale to HP. (Informix Corp. and Hewlett Packard Co.) Hewlett Packard Co agrees to purchase 10 percent of Informix Corp in addition to making a joint software development and marketing agreement with the software company. Hewlett Packard agrees to purchase five percent of Informix during 1991 at current market prices, which comes out to around $3.5 million, and an additional five percent through newly issued securities, which will be issued at Informix's discretion. Hewlett Packard can gain as much as 15 percent of Informix by 1996 but does not get to put anyone on the board of directors. Industry observers note that the deal is especially good for Informix, which is short on cash at a time it wishes to further penetrate the computer software market. Compaq plans support to quell user complaints. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp decides it will establish its first telephone-support help lines for its customers. The computer maker, which had previously let its dealers answer customer complaints and questions, will make two services available. The first service is the Compaq Customer Support Center, available for general questions about prices and simple problems. The second is the Compaq Technical Support Center, which is intended to address more complicated customer problems and questions. The Compaq Technical Support Center will cost users $3,000 a year and will cover as many as 10 incidents; the service will only be available through dealers. The two service support lines will become available in Mar 4, 1991. What do computers know about you? Personal information too readily available. (includes related articles on privacy issues and US Personal information becomes too readily available on commercial data bases and some critics claim that the content of such data bases raises some important privacy issues. Right-to-privacy advocates maintain that people should have some control over how information about them is used. The rapid advances made in technology has increased the amount of information that is stored about private individuals and has made that information easily accessible. Technology sometimes advances quicker than the discussion about privacy and issues arise after a computer maker or software publisher begins developing a controversial product. Utility software hits mainstream, sales soar; users seek recovery, backup, protection. Utility software packages are competing with spreadsheets and word processing programs for market share in the computer software industry. Corporations are a big customer of utility software and use the programs for hard-disk backup, disk recovery and anti-virus protection. Business begin to rely more heavily on microcomputers and are not willing to risk losing data, so they invest in utility software. As business' reliance on software and networks increases, the likelihood of data damage increases. Industry analysts also note that an increase in the sale of utility program software packages is due to the fact that they have become easier to use. Microsoft announces nuptial plans for Windows and OS/2. (Microsoft Corp.) Microsoft Corp plans to integrate its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface with the OS/2 operating system. The computer software publisher and the number one computer maker are expected to smooth out a long-standing dispute over the future of OS/2 Windows is expected to be the interface in all future versions of OS/2. Windows used to be exclusively paired with MS-DOS while PM was the primary interface for OS/2. The development of a 32-bit version of Windows 3.0, code named Windows 32, makes it possible to integrate the interface with the future OS/2 3.0 operating system. Industry observers note the success of the integration is important to both IBM and Microsoft. Integrating different networks pays off now and later. (Interoperability supplement) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is investing up to $9 million for a new integrated network computer system installed in Jun, 1990 at a rocket-building plant. The interoperable system includes DEC VAX minicomputers, IBM-compatible microcomputers, Unix-based workstations and Apple Macintosh microcomputers, all linked by network software so that data can be shared. A central database connects the various computers. NASA technicians consider an interoperable network essential for cost effective and accurate computing, mainly because connectivity allows more access to information. The end goal of constructing safe space equipment is more likely to be achieved through open systems computing. Managers look to standards to chart interoperability course. (Interoperability supplement) Grumman Data Systems' pattern of network evolution is typical of the current trend among corporations trying to make their computing environments more interoperable. Companies face technical challenges in connecting equipment from different vendors, and they must also cope with cost-justification and the resistance to standards sometimes caused by corporate politics. Grumman initially depended on IBM mainframes for terminal-to-host emulation. Two types of local area networks (LANs) - for engineering and scientific applications - were added in the 1980s, relying on Ethernet links. The company's business systems run on Token-Ring networks and hundreds of Apple Macintosh microcomputers are installed at one of the company's offices, linked by LocalTalk. Other manufacturing corporations such as Tektronix, Martin Marietta and Chrysler, work to ease similar complexities in data processing networks. 'Interoperability' is a label for many ideas. (Interoperability supplement) The rise of the concept of interoperability in the corporate computing arena is due to the manifold benefits of being able to interconnect computing equipment from a variety of manufacturers. Open systems computing enables end users to use almost any platform to do productive work, since they know that their data can be combined with data and work performed on other platforms. Interoperability enables a much greater degree of resource-sharing and can help systems buyers make economical purchases based on the ability to buy from many different sources. Expenditures on interoperable equipment are intended to increase productivity and eliminate the hidden costs of less effective systems of computing. 'Can-do' telecom team takes on multiplatform strategy. (Saskatchewan Telecommunications Corp.'s MIS team promotes open The MIS department at Saskatchewan Telecommunications Corp (STC) aggressively promotes the open systems model of network computing. The aim is to link equipment from various manufacturers to provide for data sharing and greater efficiency. Two major interoperability projects at STC involve electronic mail systems and client/server architecture. The STC systems team allows users to choose the microcomputers they prefer, so the company has both Apple Macintoshes and IBM compatibles, in addition to minicomputers. MIS must insure connectivity among e-mail systems to protect the investment in many different products. Another open systems project involves a Macintosh-to-DEC VAX client/server distributed data base application that tracks 2,000 vehicles owned by the company. Northern Telecom answers users' calls for interoperability. (Interoperability supplement) Northern Telecom Inc (NT) has established a multivendor enterprise-wide network called CORWAN, which connects the company's six data centers across the North American continent and also links assorted computers within each center. IBM and Amdahl Corp mainframes, HP and DEC minicomputers, and microcomputers running Apple Macintosh and Unix operating systems are interconnected on the massive system. Approximately 18,000 microcomputers and workstations are included in CORWAN, which is based on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol connections. Users demanded an interoperable system that enables them to share files with workers on other systems. Open systems products only beginning to hit the shelves. (Interoperability supplement) The fact that more businesses are acquiring open systems computing equipment based on the goal of interconnecting computers from different vendors is partially attributable to the increased availability of such items. Open systems products are only just entering the market in 1991, hampered by the lack of agreement on standards. Some standards, such as X.500, have not been defined yet. Others are being fiercely contested by companies that want to dominate the market. Competition between the International Organization for Standard's Open Systems Interconnect and IBM's Systems Network Architecture exemplifies this problem. Open Systems is resisted by some users who are afraid of losing their investment in older proprietary modes of computing. Novell's NLMs will open door to NetWare 386 services for Mac. (NetWare Loadable Modules precede network operating system Novell Inc's NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) are being designed to pave the way for Apple Macintosh support of the NetWare 386 network operating system. Novell intends to enable the AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) and the NetWare Core Protocol to access common resources. Database, communication and messaging services will eventually be available to Macintosh users. The NetWare 386 NLMs serve to integrate the AppleTalk protocol suite with NetWare, enabling AFP requests to be sent directly to the correct NetWare service. Beta testers of the NetWare 386 for the Macintosh claim that it is faster than AppleShare. PC, Macs share resources, data for network harmony. (TOPS network operating system lets Apple Macintosh and DOS-based microcomputers New software has enabled Apple Macintosh and DOS-based microcomputers to interconnect on a network, allowing users to enjoy the benefit of resource sharing in which equipment from different vendors can use the same disk space and output devices. Interoperability also provides for data sharing. Sitka Corp's TOPS software is a leading network operating system that links Macs to DOS microcomputers so that any node in a peer-to-peer network can publish all or part of its disk for use by other nodes. Easy to install and use, TOPS is difficult to administer in networks of more than 10 or 15 nodes. Turning LANs into WANs via repeaters, bridges, routers. (local area networks, wide area networks) (Interoperability supplement) Before a corporation can successfully transform its isolated local area networks (LANs) into wide area networks (WANs), managers must consider the distance between LANs and the type of communication protocols involved. The types of applications to be used on the WAN, the desired range of response time, and the estimated volume of data on the network must likewise be determined. Several different types of internetworking equipment are available for linking LANs. The repeater is the simplest such device; it physically extends the network by increasing the signal strength of electronic impulses. More expensive and powerful than repeaters, bridges are protocol-independent. They filter packets, forwarding some packets of data to nodes outside the immediate work group. Routers are able to select individual packets for routing over multiple communication paths. Application interoperability hampered by lack of standards. (Interoperability supplement) Computer users are ready for applications interoperability; they would like to be able to use an application on almost any computer platform. The trend toward interoperability is progressing in the direction of client/server computing, where network facilities become crucial to what a computing system can accomplish. Portability and linkage are two of the main elements involved in providing for the configuration flexibility that lets applications work on several platforms. Microcomputer portability depends on application binary interfaces, while linkage issues revolve around common protocols and formats. The current lack of agreement over networking standards has confounded efforts to move quickly to open systems computing. OSI model offers basic framework for networking. (Open Systems Interconnect) (Interoperability supplement) The International Standards Organization (ISO) developed the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model to 'define and categorize the functions that all networks, regardless of vendor, provide.' The ISO likewise created a set of communications rules, or protocols, that put the OSI model into effect. The OSI model separates a network's activity into seven layers, each of which has interfaces with up to two other layers. Two communicating systems share data between their corresponding layers. Clumps of data known as packets can move up and down the layers of computer systems. Networks adhering to the OSI model gain flexibility by being able to change layers without disturbing other parts of a software program, providing that the new version of a layer maintains its proper interfaces with the layers above and below it. Finding the core of Apple's networking plan: trying to fit Macs into a multivendor world without losing their identity. (interview James Groff, Apple's director of worldwide product marketing for communications and networking, comments on the company's plans to participate in the computing industry's move toward interoperability. Apple has returned its networking products marketing and development activities to the system-software division, eliminating its separate networking division, yet the company's investments in networking have grown substantially since 1988. Apple aims to protect the distinctive user experience provided by the Macintosh microcomputer while insuring that Mac users can participate in multivendor networks. Ethernet support will be built in to future Apple products. Network improvements on tap in System 7.0. (Apple microcomputer operating system) (Interoperability supplement) Apple's upcoming System 7.0 upgrade for the Macintosh operating system will include features that enhance the microcomputer's networking capability, including file sharing and interapplication features. Access to a data base server is also provided. System 7.0's Interapplication Communications elements enable users to dynamically link applications at the Edition Manager, AppleEvents, and Data Access Manager levels. File sharing will be possible without use of a dedicated server or peer-to-peer network application. Another System 7.0 feature, Communications Toolbox, supplies tools that give different applications a common way to control communications functions such as file-transfer protocols, terminal emulations, and data connections. MCI slashes government rates, puts FTS 2000 in jeopardy. (MCI Communications, Federal Telecommunications System 2000) (News of MCI Communciations files a Government Telecommuncations Service tarriff with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). MCI claims its tariff offers overall savings of as much as two-fifths over current government rates, adding that the government could save more than $100 million annually if it switched all of its Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000 business over to MCI. This filing, coupled with the huge federal deficit, could put pressure on the General Services Administration to reopen FTS 2000 negotiations with the corporation. In 1988, the GSA awarded AT and T 60 percent and US Sprint 40 percent of the FTS 2000 contract. SW Bell, MCI join JC Penney in PRI interconnect test. (Southwestern Bell Telephone, MCI Communications Corp., primary JC Penney, MCI Communications Corp and Southwestern Bell Telephone are embarking on a trial integrated services digital network (ISDN) primary rate interface (PRI) between JC Penney's Dallas headquarters and an out-of-state data center. The test aims to find out how efficiently PRI connects with a long-distance network via the local exchange. PRI, which is mostly used to link customer-premises switches to the public ISDN, consists of one 64K-bps data circuit and 23 64K-bps voice circuit. JC Penney can use its voice circuits more effectively by connecting PRI through the local exchange network. NTT rate cuts puts pressure on its competitors. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.) (News of the Week) Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) will introduce 230 billion yen ($1.75 billion) in rate cuts in late Mar 1991. The biggest cuts will be in portable phone rates, including a 26 percent reduction in the basic monthly charge for portable-phone service, to 19,000 yen. NTT will also debut four new, light cellular phones. NTT will cut its rate for a three-minute daytime call of over 160 kilometers to 240 yen and extend the nighttime discount period until 8 A.M. In 1990, NTT instituted 140 billion yen in cuts. Many analysts are surprised by the size of this year's cuts. Competitors see the price cuts as a serious challenge. Deluxe CEV has two clean rooms - but no bath. (controlled-environment vault installed by Cincinatti Bell) (Cover In late 1990, Cincinnati Bell installed a controlled-environment vault (CEV), a two-room underground structure designed to hold digital-loop and fiber-optic carrier systems and two digital remote switch units. The CEV was installed in Newport, KY, in order to serve the offices, condomimiums, marinas and restaurants being built along the Ohio River across from Cincinnati. Because digital switch equipment is highly sensitive to dirt or changes in temperature or humidity, a five-ton air conditioning unit and a standby unit, along with dust filters, were installed. Details of the CEV and its construction are given. A low-cost solution to held-order problems. (digital telecommunications interfering with existing analog In 1986 and 1987, Nynex discovered that its existing single-channel analog-pair gain systems would be incompatible with forthcoming integrated services digital network (ISDN) equipment. The problem is that digital transmission, which generates powerful signals over a broad frequency spectrum, often causes crosstalk interference. To address the crosstalk problem, Bellcore began developing a set of spectrum management tools. Nynex found it could increase the signal-to-noise ratio of a given service by reducing its deployment range, thus boosting spectrum compatibility between two otherwise interfering technologies. Nynex developed a set of recommended maximum deployment ranges for various service offerings and products. Cities complain that NCR system isn't reliable. (emergency dispatching systems) NCR Corp is involved in a law suit with Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co concerning a contract to computerize Electric's emergency dispatching system. Electric's lawsuit, filed in December and claiming $2 million in damages, claims that the system was liable to crash at any time and was eventually taken out of service after two years. The damages sought are for the cost of the original system and the cost of the new system that had to be installed from Digital Equipment Corp. Computer analysts say that these sorts of litigations are unusual because computer companies can usually make the systems perform satisfactorily and have carefully worded warranties written into the contracts. NCR has since stopped marketing the system, although it does continue to service existing customers. Western Digital has negotiations to rearrange debt. Cottschalk, Earl C., Jr. Western Digital Corp is restructuring its $160 million bank debt and is asking its lenders to roll over existing indebtedness as it becomes due. The company is not honoring payments on any of its bank loans until a restructuring agreement has been completed. The disk drive manufacturer also posts a loss of $98.5 million for the second fiscal quarter ended Dec 29, 1990, against a net income of $8.6 million a year ago. That loss includes pretax restructuring charges of $66 million. For the second quarter, revenue fell 13.4 percent to $230 million from $265.6 million a year ago. Duty on screens could lift price of U.S. laptops. (Computer) Zachary, G. Pascal. The federal government is expected to announce some sort of a import penalty decision concerning the importation of Japanese screens for use in the manufacture of US laptop computers. The consequences of such legislation would result in an increase in prices as virtually every major manufacturer relies on Japanese sources for the display screens. Another consequence may be the shifting of manufacturing abroad in order to sidestep the regulation. Under the proposed regulation there is no provision for preventing a company from importing the entire computer as opposed to the screen itself. Computer analysts point out that simple regulation would not solve the problem of display manufacture because US companies do not make the right kind of products. Japanese companies have reportedly invested billions of dollars in the development of the screens, whereas the US has failed to invest at all. IBM, Novell to announce marketing pact. Carroll, Paul B. IBM and Novell Inc are expected to announce a marketing agreement whereby IBM's sales force will resell Novell's Netware network operating system. The agreement is expected to put a further strain on the relationship between IBM and Microsoft Corp. Many analysts view the network operating system market as the next big battleground for software companies. IBM already markets a competing operating system called LAN Server which derives from Microsoft's LAN Manager. Novell is the major industry player in the network operating system market controlling 53 percent of wide-wide sales last year. IBM and Microsoft could only account for 10 percent of the market between them. The question to be answered is how hard the IBM sales staff will promote the Netware product, since IBM will also market LAN Server. Compaq to classify certain retailers as specialists for its complex machines. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer is expected to announce a special classification of computer dealer, in an attempt to address customer complaints that the average computer dealer is unable to cope with the company's increasingly complex product line. In addition, they are also expected to begin charging customers for services that dealerships used to offer for free. As many as two hundred of its 2,000 North American dealers are to be classified as highly trained experts. These dealers will install and maintain the SystemPro file server product line, along with complex networking software and other products. Although all dealers will continue to stock the complete range of Compaq products, it is expected that only about 20 percent to 30 percent of them will qualify for the new classification. Compaq, Microsoft plan industry group to create standard for workstations. (Technology) Microsoft Corp and Compaq Computer Corp are planning a coalition of companies to develop reduced instruction-set computing (RISC)-based computers to attack the workstation market currently led by Sun Microsystems Inc. The plan is to develop the kind of de facto software standard for workstations that was an essential factor in the success of the microcomputer. The workstations would be powered by RISC technology that allows for the faster operation of chips because they are essentially less complex. Should it succeed, the coalition would reduce the market share of companies such as Intel and Motorola who dominate the microcomputer industry with their proprietary chips. An aging dancer fights to keep up; Silicon Valley's future may hinge on winning the palmtop computer race. (includes related The Silicon Valley asks itself if it will continue to be the center of high technology in the world throughout the 1990s. Portable computers, which are one-pound wonders that can receive and transmit data and take orders from handwritten commands, are expected to be a booming industry in the 1990s and some industry observers believe the Japanese have the upper hand. Analysts believe that the portable computer will make its debut in the early 1990s and mark the beginning of the end for desktop microcomputers. Companies in the Silicon Valley will have to fill niches left behind by the Japanese or else follow the product development of the Japanese if they cannot take the initiative in new technologies. Ex-I.B.M. head gives $25 million to Brown University endowment. (Thomas J. Watson Jr.) Former IBM Pres and CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. contributed $25 million to the Brown University endowment fund. The grant, which consists of $10 million in cash and $15 million in bequests, is the largest grant received by Brown University. Watson graduated from Brown in 1937 and has served as trustee, adviser and vice chancellor for the university. Watson has been the university's largest donor with contributions totaling $42 million. Brown University is currently seeking to add $500 million to the school's endowment; the endowment drive is being headed by Varton Gregorian. A new sidekick for a modern world; the program's changes reflect the networked office environment. (The Executive Computer)(column) Borland International Inc's Sidekick 2.0 personal information management system software package is an executive organizing tool that offers a Windows-like interface. The program can work on a microcomputer that has Microsoft Windows 3.0 but it takes over the screen when activated. Sidekick 2.0, which takes up 40Kbytes of memory, features an electronic address book with an autodialer, time management tools, an alarm clock, a notepad, communications software and a calculator. The software, which supports various networks including Novell, 3Com, Banyan and Token Ring, can be loaded as a memory resident program or as a separate application. Computer group is preparing to challenge top PC makers. Markoff, John. A group of computer manufacturers and software publishers that includes Compaq Computer Corp, Microsoft Corp and DEC is banding together to create a new standard for the manufacture of microcomputers. The hope is that the new standard would help unseat the current market leaders, IBM, Apple Computer, and Sun Microsystems Inc. The new technology would be based on reduced instruction-set computing chips such as the R4000 microprocessor from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. These types of chips are faster and simpler than the current microprocessors on the market, because they eliminate many of the instructions built into conventional chips. The new alliance threatens not only the major computer manufacturers, but also the current leaders in microprocessor production, Intel Corp and Motorola Inc. A giant killer in Silicon Valley: MIPS is a leader in chip-selling race. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.)(reduced-instruction-set MIPS Computer Systems Inc is one of the semiconductor industry's leaders in the area of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chips. MIPS licenses its microprocessor design to Motorola Inc, Intel Corp, HP and Advanced Micro Devices Inc; the number of computers that employ the MIPS RISC chip design fall behind only those that use Sun Microsystems Inc's design. MIPS has a unique business structure and strategy different from any other Silicon Valley chip maker, hardware manufacturer or software developer. MIPS licenses production and sales of its RISC chips to partners rather than manufacturing the product itself. The company receives royalty fees and eliminates the cost of fabrication plants. MIPS produces workstations and file servers for other computer makers who sell them under their own names, a practice that promotes widespread adoption of MIPS technology and avoids conflicts of interest. Ericsson says pretax profit rose 16% in 4th period, but firm is cautious on '91. (L.M. Ericsson Telefon AB) L.M. Ericsson Telefon AB attributes continued expansion of its public telecommunications and radio communications divisions to its 4th qtr FY 1990 pretax profit increase of 16 percent to 1.61 billion Swedish kronor ($294 million). Ericsson CEO Lars Ramqvist says it will be difficult to improve the company's profit and was conservative about 1991 prospects. Market reaction to Ericsson's careful assessment resulted in a decrease in the price of the company's shares on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Ericsson's B-free stock dropped 22 kronor to close at 177 kronor. Investors expected Ericsson's profit to continue growing strongly, but are alarmed by the company's 1991 forecast. Ericsson reported a 30 percent pretax profit increase during 1990 to 4.85 kronor from 3.72 kronor in 1989. Sales for 1990 increased 16 percent to 45.7 billion kronor from 39.55 billion. Defense contractor expects to report net fell in quarter. (Dynamics Research Corp.) Dynamics Research Corp reports a 24 percent decrease in net income for 4th qtr FY 1990. The company expects to report that net income dropped to about $1.3 million, or 29 cents a share, from $1.7 million, or 34 cents a share for the comparable period in 1989. Dynamics Research Pres Albert Rand claims the decline reflects lower operating margins resulting from increasing costs for personnel and medical benefits and company efforts to continue developing new commercial product lines while bidding on additional federal contracts. Ninety percent of Dynamics revenue comes from government contracts, primarily a contracts to maintain software for the US Navy's Trident submarine program, the US Air Force's F-16 fighter planes and the Air Force's Hanscom Field operations. Dynamics expects to report that net income for 1990 decreased 11 percent to $3.2 million from $3.58 million. Insurers balk at code cost. (Insurance companies re-evaluate their commitment to Continuum's Client Contract Administration program) Insurance companies that have helped to fund the development of Continuum's Client Contract Administration software are reviewing their commitment to the package. The development of the program has taken over 10 years and involves eight million lines of code. Insurance companies contributed over $100 million for development of the package, but are now finding the program too big and all-encompassing for use with their long-established systems. Delivery was originally scheduled for 1986, but delays were encountered when different users made varying demands on the way the program was developed. BT quits 100m pounds sterling project as MoD feels Gulf grip. (British Telecom, Ministry of Defence) British Telecom backed out of the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) office automation project shortly before a decision was to be announced on the final contract award for the 100 million pounds sterling program. The project has involved five years of planning and pilot trials. A consortium led by ICL is the only bidder left, but a spending review and the Gulf war have cast doubt on the whole project. The MoD is reviewing its priorities before making a decision. Bidding for large contracts has characteristically been problematic for the computing and telecommunications industries due to unclear specifications and high costs in preparing a bid. Cincom replaces Mantis. (Cincom Systems UK Ltd.'s Ad/Advantage program development software, Mantis fourth generation language) Cincom's new Ad/Advantage program development software package, priced between 50,000 and 120,000 pounds sterling, is a successor to the Mantis fourth generation language also produced by the company. Ad/Advantage took six years to develop, at a cost of $25 million. The product is a family of tools that can utilize relational database tables, expert system knowledge bases and computer-aided systems engineering (Case) design to generate Cobol or Mantis code. The program will automatically produce open architecture applications and provides the ability to re-use code and designs. Please handle those techies with care. (the information technologist's transition to management) The transition from technical specialist to general management position entails overcoming several problems and prejudices. Technical managers who undertake their first general management position may need to learn the art of achieving their ultimate goals by using subordinates' skills. They may need to hone interpersonal communications skills or learn new ways of interacting with others. Good managers should be able to push hard for performance, yet be empathetic and supportive. Some plans need to be explicit, others must be flexible. Training courses provide short-term means for acquiring awareness of the interpersonal skills required. Upper management should carefully prepare satisfying alternative career paths for the new manager in case the transfer proves untenable. Tozer - a president sold on job satisfaction. (Computer Services Association president and Softwright managing director Jane Tozer) Jane Tozer, president of the Computer Services Association (CSA) and managing director of Softwright, a software publisher, is heading a campaign to promote the UK information technology services industry. CSA has launched a major promotional campaign, using the slogan 'Buy IT in'. A series of lunches with top managers will culminate in a conference later in 1991. Tozer is convinced the campaign will help the computer software and services industries to grow. Tozer, who worked for IBM for 13 years but left because of disinterest in a sales job, is now engaged in the CSA sales effort since it allows her to work with people at all levels of the computer industry. No longer secure in the knowledge. (Gallup survey reveals startling ignorance among UK data security managers) (includes According to a Gallup poll of 101 companies, three out of ten UK security managers do not have a policy on computer security. They are apparently oblivious to threats of fraud, vandalism, technical failure, and espionage. Sixty percent of the polled managers do not have a risk assessment program for their computer equipment. Medium-sized firms seem to be especially complacent, as 60 percent of those polled claim to have no protection against computer hackers, while 40 percent have no contingency plan for coping with a technical failure in the system. Ironically, the great majority of MIS managers believe their firms could become the targets of hackers. BA flies ITs flag. (British Airways information technology) (includes a related article on the Speedwing Technologies An airline is dependent on computers to keep track of flights, passengers, staff, and international controls. British Airways (BA) information management director John Watson describes BA's reliance on and commitment to information technology (IT) and remarks on the main priorities facing IT managers. Understanding new technological platforms and the opportunities they present is important to businesses and their MIS managers. Customer support is a crucial area for BA. Business centers support key areas from within the information management department, creating hybrid managers who have a mix of IT and business skills. BA runs over 300 systems, all justified from a business point of view. A system for the sound of music. (Jazz FM, one of the UK's first computerized radio stations) (includes related article summarizing London's Jazz FM radio station uses a computer system to select its music between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM. Two software programs, Media Touch and Selector, control the system, which is also used as an aid during other hours. The station uses a Multiserver MS427 file server manufactured by Willaire Electronics. It has a 190Mbyte twin duplex drive, twin controllers, and an uninterruptible power supply. The system's twin controllers and drives provide the high degree of fault tolerance needed to avoid embarrassing on-air mistakes. Media Touch fully automates overnight transmissions and provides details on the compact discs played. The computer selects the music and transmits the information via a Novell network to eight compact disc jukeboxes. Advertisements are prerecorded and stored on the hard disc storage system. And it all looked so simple on paper. (providing information technology) In 1988, the Northamptonshire County Council began building an information technology (IT) policy that would require the county IT section to compete for business, giving users a better deal and making the computer department more accountable. IT would no longer have a budget under the plan, making it user-driven. The reorganization was intended to isolate IT costs and ensure that the council was getting a good return on investment. The results, to date, are not acceptable and the council is reforming its policy. The IT unit made a profit in the first year, but ran into difficulties in teaching IT skills to its users. A staff shortage reduced the unit's effectiveness and business was lost to outside suppliers who were cheaper, but did not necessarily supply adequate systems. Much of this business is now returning. One window finds little opportunity. (concept of one-window management of entire MIS department) The dream of a universal management station for an information technology (IT) organization that would control both the network and the connected computer systems is fading. Management of the IT infrastructure requires a variety of skills, so there is little point in providing all of this information through one window, or providing it to all managers. There is a growing demand for a common overview of the whole network, but multiple screens are envisioned as replacing the single screen concept. The current success of the simple network management protocol (SNMP) may impede progress because of its technical differences from ISO standards. OSI established a forum to accelerate the implementation of open standards and is likely to develop a convergence between voice and data network management. Printers with video interface. (Colorgraph's 300 dpi thermal transfer color printers and General Parametrics UK's Spectra*Star Colorgraph and General Parametrics have announced new thermal color printers. The four Colorgraph products all operate at 300 dots per inch. The CHC-445, priced at approximately 3,600 pounds sterling, can print an A4 image in 50 seconds. The CHC-745 produces an A3 image in 65 seconds. The CHC-443MV and CHC-743MV thermal printers are enhanced versions of the other products. Colorgraph's MV models have video interfaces and can work with up to 16 different systems or monitors. The high-end CHC-743MV costs about 9,000 pounds sterling. General Parametrics' Spectra*Star 400 line of five thermal printers of A4 quality includes the 1Mbyte 410, priced at 4,000 pounds sterling; and a 6Mbyte, 6,900 pound sterling printer based on reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) technology. The series also includes a 4Mbyte RISC model and two printers with 32Mbyte hard disks. Users can buy lower grade products in the General Parametrics line and later upgrade to the top of the range. Microsoft sticks with DOS. (will no longer develop OS/2) Microsoft Corp is reducing its role in OS/2 development to that of advisor to IBM. The company still sees OS/2 as a high-end operating system for fault-tolerant applications. IBM, which positions the OS/2 operating system as the backbone of its Systems Network Architecture, will continue to develop the product. Microsoft is involved with three computing environments, DOS, Windows and OS/2. Microsoft officials expect growing portable computer sales to ensure a place for DOS in the computing industry for years to come. Microsoft will introduce DOS 5.0 in the spring of 1991 and plans continuous improvements of Microsoft Windows 3.0, including a 32-bit version. IBM is now supporting Windows 3.0. Coming soon to your board. (Intel's Digital Video Interactive videoconferencing technology) Videoconferencing will provide a major new application for microcomputers in the 1990s as the technology merges with multimedia. Intel Corp's Digital Video Interactive (DVI) technology currently allows the compression of full motion video and playback on a multimedia screen. The next step will be to integrate live full motion video conference frames in windows on the same screen. Microcomputers will need to be equipped with low-cost TV cameras, microphones, and add-on software and hardware. Merged multimedia and videoconferencing could make videoconferencing more accessible, moving it from the boardroom to the desktop. The merger of multimedia and videoconferencing should occur around 1992 and 1993. Northants abandons competitive buying. (Northamptonshire County Council to forego policy of open competition on information The Northamptonshire County Council plans to curtail its policy requiring competitive bidding for all MIS purchases. The county's decision is based on a perception that users are dissatisfied with some systems provided under the old arrangement. For two years, the county government's MIS sections have had to compete with outside vendors for government contracts. The policy will be changed so that the county's MIS department gets first run at any Northamptonshire county contract, but users dissatisfied with the offering can refer to vendors outside the council. The county's MIS section will be divided into two providers, IT Services and Information Systems Consultancy. Cadence aims at analog layout: toolset automates generation of analog cell blocks.(includes a related article on the layout Cadence Design Systems has introduced the latest addition to its Analog Artist toolset, the Layout Editor, an interactive polygon editor aimed at helping both analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) engineers with analog layout. Layout Editor facilitates tight coupling of circuit schematics and physical layouts generated by various design team members, allowing the specification of contingencies such as transistor matching and symmetry during the design process. For mixed-signal designs, Layout Editor supports automation of analog cell block generation, allowing layout to be initiated on the schematic level. A parameter extraction feature supports system calculation and display of electrical net-length information. Layout Editor lacks a compaction algorithm, limiting the package to service as a supplement to, rather than a substitute for, the manual layout that currently dominates analog and mixed-signal design. High-frequency crosstalk and temperature gradients must also be dealt with manually. Here comes analog memory: storage scheme uses floating-gate EEPROM cells. (memory array from Information Storage Devices uses Information Storage Devices (ISD) a Santa Clara, CA-based start-up firm, has developed an analog memory array that uses floating-gate EEPROM cells to store variable charges. The first implementation of the new technique is in the ISD 1016, a single-chip voice-message integrated circuit capable of storing and playing back a maximum of 16 seconds of telephone-quality sound. The chip, implemented in 2- to 2.5-micrometer complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, has three basic functional blocks: signal conditioning, storage and playback. It comes in a 28-pin package and samples at 8 MHz, meeting the Nyquist sampling criteria for a telephone pass-band frequency of 3.4 MHz. At 210 by 210 mil and offering an estimated savings of about $40 in end user costs, price and size are the 1016's biggest advantages. The chip is expected to sample in Feb 1991, with production quantities to be available in the third quarter. Cost per chip in quantities of 1,000 is expected to be about $20 for both plastic dual in-line packages (DIPs) and leadless chip carriers (LCCs). Mips details a 64-bit R4000 design. (Mips Computer Systems announces details of new microprocessor) Mips Computer Systems announces details of its R4000 microprocessor, to be manufactured by Mips licensees Integrated Device Technology, LSI Logic, NEC, Performance Semiconductor and Siemens. The chipmakers will control price and cost decisions concerning the chip, for which they plan to make working samples available during second quarter 1991, with production quantities to be available later in the year. The 64-bit architecture will support integer and floating-point units and on-chip primary cache. The R4000 will feature a single clock-output, simplifying timing, and will issue two instructions per clock cycle. The new design, which also calls for 64-bit virtual addressing, adds a wealth of features, but some observers question whether the additional features require too much silicon. The 550 by 750-mil design would require a 400-plus pinout, and could put initial prices in the neighborhood of $1,000. Real-time OS makers seek breadth of skills. (operating systems) Schechter, Joanne. Developers of real-time operating systems are looking for design engineers with such diverse skills as high-level languages, graphics, and networking experience. While the skill set has somewhat changed, the basic requirements remain the same: a firm understanding of an operating system at the detailed level and a background in real-time devices. The wide applicability of real-time systems helps the firms that develop them weather the current economic downturn, and jobs are available. Microware Systems Corp is looking for eight to 12 engineers at various levels, and is particularly looking for those with networking background. Motorola, which will have several openings in first quarter 1991, looks for engineers who have end-user experience with real-time operating systems as well as design experience. Wind River Systems, currently with three or four openings, and Software Components Group, with about eight, are more concerned with real-time design experience than actual hands-on experience. Blue, superbright LEDs to change color-display equation. (light-emitting diodes) The availability of production quantities of blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and some success with what are called ultra-bright diodes is expected to lead to the introduction of full-color LED modules for full daylight use. In addition to completing the red-green-blue (RGB) underpinnings of full-color displays, blue LEDs are also needed to produce white light. The availability of blue LEDs will allow a single LED module to be tuned to the desired color. Blue LEDs are somewhat constrained by a narrow viewing angle and low luminosity, but their biggest drawback is cost, averaging about $2 each, compared to a range of $0.06 to $0.10 for standard red, green or yellow LEDs. Prices are expected to drop significantly as production volume increases. And researchers at Nagoya University are reported to have developed a blue LED that is 100 times brighter than previously developed blue LEDs. Automotive applications are expected to be a particularly fertile field for LED use, particularly in areas such as running lights and other uses where bulb replacement is problematic. HDTV: everything's coming out digital. (high definition television; includes a related article on the five HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) is expected to bring about a number of changes in the electronics technology of the 1990s. The advantages HDTV seeks to offer over conventional television include improved resolution and audio quality comparable to that of compact disks, and reduced picture noise. This will require the development of more powerful digital signal processor (DSP) chips, both standard and customized. These chips are expected to make possible a number of applications once believed impractical, including fully digital transmission of TV signals. A fully digital transmission scheme would also facilitate the use of HDTV signals with other digital transmission media, such as fiber optics, opening the way to unite computers, telephones and TVs. Combining HDTV and workstations could significantly impact computer-aided design (CAD), and could also allow simulations to be stored on video. Kodak posts improved earnings; rise in quarter comes despite Polaroid costs; share price falls to $44. (Eastman Kodak Co., Eastman Kodak Co announces strong earnings for its 4th qtr of 1990 despite a $564 million after-tax charge the company took to settle a patent-infringement case with Polaroid Corp. Investors on Wall Street were not satisfied with the 4th qtr 1990 results and moved the stock down $2.25 a share to close at $44 a share on Feb 6, 1991. Kodak earned $326 million, or $1.01 a share, for the 4th qtr of 1990, compared with a loss of $60 million in the same period in 1989. Sales for the 4th qtr of 1990 were up 5.5 percent from the preceding year to $5.15 billion from $4.88 billion. Earnings for the entire 1990 year reached $703 million, or $2.17 a share, which is up 32.8 percent from 1989 where earnings were $529 million, or $1.63 a share. Investigation into software. (US Federal Trade Commission investigates Open Software Foundation) The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigates the Open Software Foundation's (OSF's) trade practices. The OSF is a computer software consortia whose aim is to develop a version of the UNIX operating system. The OSF Unix operating system will rival that of AT&T and Sun Microsystems. OSF includes HP, IBM, and DEC. The FTC is investigating the OSF's method of requesting technology but they will not elaborate on the investigation; the OSF is unaware of any investigation. OSF was founded in 1988 as a result of computer software industry controversy over the UNIX operating system. UNIX has become a popular operating system in recent years among users who are looking for industry-wide standardization. Nynex ties commercial to Gulf War. (Nynex Corp and the 1991 Persian Gulf War) The Nynex Corp decides that it will use the Persian Gulf war between Iraq and the American-led coalition forces in its advertising. The telephone company says that its not a question of whether or not to use the war in advertising, it is a question of how to use it. Nynex's ad emphasizes that communication is important in times of stress. The company's ad is a 15-second spot that includes black-and-white images of war spliced with images from the home front. The ad ends with a color picture of the earth and states: 'never is information more crucial to democracy than at times like these.' Kodak reports 4th-quarter net of $326 million; but turnaround from '89 doesn't satisfy analysts, who cut '91 estimates. (Eastman Eastman Kodak Co reports a 4th qtr 1990 net income of $326 million, or $1.01 a share, compared with a loss of $60 million in the same period in 1989. The photography supply company's earnings fell short of analysts' projections, which ranged between $1.01 to $1.10 a share for the 1990 4th qtr. Kodak indicated that the 1991 forecast of $4.25 a share is optimistic; the news sent the stock down $2.25 a share to $44 a share on Feb 6, 1991. Kodak had net income of $703 million, or $2.17 a share, for the entire 1990 year, which includes a one-time, after-tax charge of $564 million for a patent-infringement settlement case with Polaroid Corp. Net income in 1989 was $529 million, or $1.63 a share. General Dynamics takes biggest charge in its history, posts $530.1 million loss. (General Dynamics Corp.) General Dynamics Corp posts a 4th qtr 1990 net loss of $530.1 million, or $12.71 a share, after taking the largest charge in its history. The charge of $566.9 million was associated with several failed programs, including the cancellation of the US Navy's A-12 aircraft. General Dynamics would not have fared well even without the charge; earnings would have been $36.8 million, or 88 cents a share, less than half the 4th qtr 1989 earnings of $82.8 million, or $1.98 a share. The company's A-12 debacle accounted for a $450 million charge in the 3rd qtr of 1990 and a $274 million charge in the 4th qtr of 1990. Other charges for the 4th qtr of 1990 include a $300 million charge from its Atlas commercial launch business and $70 million charge from its Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System. US firms ready to join Esprit micro project. (Open Microsystems Initiative) Mips Computer Systems, Intel Corp, Texas Instruments and IBM are all considering joining the Open Microsystems Initiative (OMI), a research project being planned by the European Community to develop the next generation of microprocessors. If approved by the European Commission (EC), OMI will become part of the Esprit high technology research program. The US firms, which may exchange know-how for financial help in developing the technology, will have to be approved for participation by the EC. A spokesperson for the EC says approval will be predicated on whether the candidate firm has an appreciable research and development presence in Europe, and whether the European Community would benefit from the participation. Intel chips under greater threat. (Microsoft plans operating system changes) Plans by Microsoft to develop a new operating system (OS) that encompasses a POSIX interface, the DOS operating system, and 32-bit versions of Windows and OS/2 could further impact Intel Corp's microprocessor business, already under serious pressure from a number of sources. Intel depends on the high margins made on its 80386 and 80486 microprocessors. But both arch-rival AMD and start-up company S3 are believed to be preparing to challenge Intel in the 32-bit microprocessor arena. Additionally, Compaq is thought to be considering using Mips Computer chips in future products. Microsoft's planned OS is aimed at the reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) chips produced by Mips and also by Sun Microsystems. The OS will make it easy for RISC-based workstations to run DOS and OS/2, allowing workstation vendors to begin encroaching on territory formerly held by Intel-based high-end microcomputers. This could have the net effect of forcing Intel to lower the price of its chips. Windows win. (Microsoft announces future plans) Clifford, Leon. Microsoft's recently announced plans for the future of microcomputer operating systems clearly show a growing reliance on the Windows graphical user interface (GUI), despite Microsoft's claim that it is not abandoning its much heralded OS/2 operating system. Microsoft announced plans for both a low-end and a high-end operating system are based on Win-32, a 32-bit version of the GUI that is expected to be released in late 1992 or early 1993. The low-end solution will combine Win-32 with an advanced version of DOS that offers significant savings in memory real estate over current versions. A brand new operating system is being developed for corporate users that will be based on a 32-bit kernel that has been designated NT, for New Technology. Sitting atop the kernel will be Win-32, DOS, support for Unix applications, and the core of a 32-bit version of OS/2. Microsoft is calling this new system OS/2 3.0. UK firms freefall into recession.(includes a related article on trends noted in the Confederation of British Industry survey) Britain is tumbling headlong into a recession that threatens to be as bad as that experienced in 1981, and the electronics segment has taken a particularly severe beating. These facts are noted in a recent survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The CBI survey notes that some 87 percent of the industrial electronics firms that responded to the survey reported they were working below full capacity. Eighty-two percent noted below-average orders. Investment spending in the sector was also severely impacted, with 75 percent of the firms noting planned reductions in the level of spending on training, research and development, and product innovation in the coming year. Noting that a sharp drop in inflation is expected to occur during the year, one CBI economist called for a relaxation of controls on borrowing, but also warned that controls should not be released too quickly. Buzz in the air as satellites take off. (includes a related article on very small area satellite terminals) The satellite communications market is on the verge of explosive growth to be driven by such technologies as mobile communications and fixed point digital business communications. International satellite operators have previously depended on telecommunications carriers and television broadcasters for the bulk of their business. In anticipation of the growth promised by the new technologies, Eutelsat has already launched a second satellite, and Inmarsat is preparing to do so in Feb 1991. Manufacturers as well as service operators are enjoying the benefits of the projected growth. Marconi Space Systems and GE Astro have a contract to produce four new high-powered satellites for Inmarsat. NEC Japan is one of several manufacturers working on Inmarsat's specifications for a hand portable terminal. Motorola has proposed a network of 77 low-orbit satellites to be accessed from a terminal only slightly larger than a cellular telephone. And British Aerospace is considering satellites that would fly an elliptical orbit, coming close to the earth at specific locations. AT&T uses erbium to boost fibre amplifiers. (increases power of optical signals without electricity) AT&T Bell Labs scientists have developed an erbium-doped optical signal fiber amplifier that does not rely on electricity. THe amplifier is currently undergoing field trials in an undersea cable running across the Pacific to Tokyo. The approach allows longer intervals between routine maintenance because there is no need to change batteries. The amplifier is light-driven. A pump laser creates a population inversion in the energy levels of the erbium-doped silicon fiber. Photons from an incoming signal collide with the electrons, causing the electrons to drop to the lower energy level and producing an output signal. The erbium doping creates an extra energy level, so the electrons are not forced immediately to the stable inversion level by the pump laser, but instead decay naturally to the stable state, and are forced from it by the incoming signal. Erbium doping also allows for the construction of a more compact device. Bell Labs hopes that the light-driven devices eventually will be less complicated than the current devices. Engineers add reality to classroom. (recruiting engineers to teach in secondary level UK schools) Britain's Department of Education and the Engineering Council have joined forces in a campaign to inspire engineers working in industry to make a career switch and become technology teachers at the secondary school level. Technology, comprising a number of existing subjects, including information technology, art and design, and business studies, has been made a compulsory subject for students between the ages of five and 16, and is intended to prepare children to tackle real problems that require knowledge in a number of different fields in order to be solved. Engineers are being particularly sought for technology teachers because of the approach to problem solving that is part of engineering. Additionally, it is hoped that engineer-teachers will help to raise the profile and image of engineering in schools, and help to forestall a projected shortage of engineers later in the 1990s. War spurs navigation by satellite. (Persian Gulf War 1991)(Pentagon satellite system) The Persian Gulf War between Iraq and American-led coalition forces is spurring the use of the United States Department of Defense's Navstar Global Positioning System. The Navstar Global Positioning System is a satellite-based navigation system that fighter pilots are using to determine their location in a featureless desert. The system has been under development since 1973 and will cost around $10 billion when completed. The system is highly accurate and allows pilots to determine their position within 100 feet and sometimes within a fraction of an inch. The navigation system, which is commercially produced, is also used by foot soldiers and military ships; selective availability allows the military to send erroneous information to non-military receivers. Zenith considers sale of television business. (Zenith Electronics Corp.) Zenith Electronics Corp is considering selling its television manufacturing business in an attempt to fight off a proxy battle by Nycor Inc. Nycor acquired 8.2 percent of Zenith stock in the fall of 1990 and has been active in attempting to unseat the television company's board of directors. The television business is considered an integral part of Zenith's long-term strategy, however the company indicates it will seek to serve the interests of stockholders, whatever that entails. Zenith is the only American maker of television sets and has reported losses for every year expect one between 1985 and 1991. Zenith stock closed at $6.875 a share on Feb 5, 1991, unchanged for the day. IAC: sorting out the alternatives. (interapplication communications) Developers and users face a confusing task in sorting out tools that tie disparate applications together. Microsoft, Apple and UserLand Software Inc have announced individual approaches to interapplication communications while promising to connect programs through system software or programming tools. Users find the terminology associated with the interapplication communications' (IAC) capabilities unclear. Application control and data integration are often melded in the IAC concept. Actually the term has more to do with application control techniques that allow communication between programs. Applications supporting IAC become tool kits of solutions for scriptwriters. Claris 'suite' on integration; System 7.0 versions may be bundled. (Apple System 7.0 operating system) Claris Corp is beginning a campaign to break Microsoft's hold on the Macintosh software market. The company will introduce four System 7.0-compatible applications by the third quarter of 1991. The programs, MacDraw Pro 2.0, MacWrite Pro, FileMaker Pro 2.0, and a derivative of the Wingz spreadsheet, will be given similar interfaces and utilize System 7.0's Interapplication Communications (IAC) features. Specialized multiple applications will be linked within what appears to be a single application. This compound document architecture will combine data elements from Claris' applications into a single file. Claris also plans to upgrade its XTND technology to allow data links to be converted during a file format conversion. Sources maintain that the pricing of Claris' suite of applications must be comparable to the $849 price tag on Microsoft Office in order to be competitive. Taste tests word processing waters; DeltaPoint launches new $149 program. (Taste word processing software) (product announcement) DeltaPoint Inc's Taste word processing software offers several high-end features for a price of $149. The company is counting on the product's economy and functionality to earn it a share of the Macintosh market. The program includes a 117,000-word spelling checker and a 1.4 million-entry thesaurus. Taste supports several internal address books and can import/export files from several major Macintosh word processing programs. Features include footnoting, kerning, endnoting, custom text styles that are applied with a keystroke, and a selection of stationary templates. Options include master-page elements, multiple serpentine columns, eight-bit color, multiple layout settings, and importing of PICT and Encapsulated PostScript images. The product ships in Feb 1991. Spectral bolsters DSP lineup with two-clip, 50-Mflops MacDSPII card; second card aimed at media market. (Spectral Innovations Spectral Innovations Inc introduces the MacDSPII and Media Engine boards which contain digital signal processing (DSP) chips. The MacDSPII is a NuBus card with two DSP chips, while the Media Engine has only one. The $7,995 MacDSPII features two AT&T DSP32C floating-point processors running at 50MHz to provide 50Mflops performance. The board uses the Apple Real-time Operating System Executive (A/ROSE) to concurrently run multiple processes and distribute processing between cards and across networks. The Media Engine comes with either 64 or 256Kbytes of on-board DRAM, and sells for $2,895 and $3,995 respectively. This time, expo goers say yes to CD-ROM. (MacWorld Expo 1991) Said, Carolyn. The long-delayed 'Year of CD-ROM' may have finally arrived as many exhibitors at the 1991 Macworld Expo in San Francisco sold out their stock of CD-ROM drives and discs. The market has finally stopped waiting for a plethora of CD-ROM before purchasing drives, and developers have stopped waiting for the market to take off before developing new programs. Numerous new disc offerings could be purchased at the show. Categories the programs span include history and politics, reference, graphics, shareware, science and medicine. Getting data ready in-house for CD-ROM. Said, Carolyn. Companies are turning to CD-ROM for publishing in-house training material, documentation, multimedia presentations and databases. Technical knowledge of the medium is not prerequisite to preparing data for use on CD-ROMs. The problem that does need to be addressed is how to access the CD's contents and optimize its usefulness. Most material requires considerable indexing. Creating multimedia disks that integrate text, graphics, sound and video can be an involved and complex task. A variety of off-the-shelf search-and-retrieval packages are available to help users organize their data. Custom software applications such as 'input filters' can also facilitate the preparation of material for CD-ROM publication. Desktop tattooing cuts crime rate; French system puts S.T.O.P. to theft. (Security Tracking of Office Property) (product A computer-marking and tracking system from France is now being marketed by Security Tracking of Office Property (S.T.O.P.) in the US. The system combines several features to discourage theft and provide prompt return of stolen equipment, if recovered. A metal identification plate attached to equipment uses a patented combination of adhesives, inks and plastic foils. An indelible 'Stolen Property' alert is imprinted on the computer when the plate is attached. The plate and tattoo include a unique identification number that is kept on file at S.T.O.P. headquarters along with owner information. The company maintains a toll-free number which appears on both the plate and tattoo. A single-machine kit lists for $60. Pacer Software defines 'groupware' with AppleTalk conferencing system. (PacerForum computer bulletin board) (product Pacer Software Inc is readying its PacerForum AppleTalk-based network application for a summer 1991 release. The program provides the functionality of an electronic bulletin board system with more sophisticated options for discussions, user registration and security. A desk accessory gives users access to discussion areas defined by an administrator and represented as icons. PacerForum runs on a dedicated Macintosh or network workstation. The bulletin board can handle documents that are either sounds, files or graphics, thus its versatility is considerable. A five-client package lists for $549. Apple petitions FCC for wireless LAN radio space. (Federal Communications Commission)(local-area network) Apple Computer is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set aside a portion of the radio spectrum for wireless microcomputer networks. Apple is proposing a new class of communications: Data Personal Communications Services (Data-PCS). Current wireless communications services are impractical or uneconomical for point-to-point high-speed data exchange. The proposal would provide non-licensed, nondiscriminatory access to the frequencies with no air-time charges. Data-PCS would be in the national interest if the US is to compete successfully in the next wave of microcomputer technology. TrueImage: is it just another clone? (Microsoft's page description language takes on PostScript) The first printers based on Microsoft Corp's TrueImage page description language have made it to the market much to the surprise of some critics. TrueImage printers provide several advantages over PostScript: faster output, lower prices and built-in support for Apple's TrueType outline font technology. TrueImage is PostScript compatible, possibly aiding to its acceptance among users. Adobe CEO John Warnock claims TrueImage is a poor PostScript clone that neglects to offer users any advantages not found in PostScript. The editor of Bove & Rhodes Report on Desktop Publishing, Tony Bove, agrees that clone products have yet to improve on the technology found in PostScript and predicts that the introduction of PostScript Level 2 will reenforce Adobe's position. The first TrueImage printers are available from Abaton, LaserMAX Systems, Microtek Lab, and NewGen. Forum pinpoints issues facing Mac in professional color production. (Color Connections '91)(Apple Macintosh) The Color Connections '91 conference in San Francisco in Jan 1991 focused on the future of digital color. The conference was designed as a forum for color users, PostScript service bureaus, and high-end printing service suppliers to discuss new electronic color processing techniques. Issues included the need for a PostScript printing standard and meeting high-quality, high-volume color printing demands with PostScript and the Macintosh microcomputer. Pre-Pres Technologies Inc introduced its SpectreLink system for connecting Hell drum scanners to Macintoshes through two high-speed interface boards. The system costs $34,995. Macros ease large-scale text processing. (Boldface) (column) Shapiro, Ezra. Text processing is generally unheard of in the WYSIWYG world of the Apple Macintosh, thus, to a large extent, its usefulness remains unrealized as well. Hardly the antiquated paradigm it has been relegated to, text processing can save designers from the dreadful task of reformatting when combining files from various word processing programs. Paragon Concepts Inc's Nisus word processing software includes a programming language and a search-and-replace function so wild cards, style attributes, and position information can be included in the macro. A macro comprised of numerous search-and-replace functions offers an easy solution for problems such as converting business paragraphs into running text. Nisus' search capability is among the best when compared to similar Macintosh programs. Text preprocessing macros can also aid in the enforcement of companywide graphics standards. PenPoint starts new chapter in notebook computing. (Go Corp.'s PenPoint operating system) (column) GO Corp's PenPoint operating system may be the new operating standard for notebook computers. A pen-based system can be extremely productive when coupled with good networking and delayed printing or sending. Just how productive the system is depends on the calibre of its handwriting recognition capabilities; 90 percent accuracy will not be adequate for many users. Programmers who feel crowded in the established field may find GO Corp a source of interesting products. It will be necessary for a strong hardware manufacturer to develop a computer that takes full advantage of GO's pen-based software environment to insure the product's success. Time to renovate in-house development. (The Mac Manager) (column) Crabb, Don. Program developers are moving from Unix workstations, VAX/VMS minicomputers, and mainframe computers to the Macintosh for serious programming projects. Macintosh applications such as THINK Pascal, C++ and HyperCard make application programming difficult, so many users turn to non-standard development environments. The Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) is indispensable, but aggravating, as in the case where a project crashes moments before completion. Surprisingly, developing programs for Windows 3.0 is not extremely difficult. The Microsoft Software Developer's Kit for Windows combined with a good C compiler makes a very nice program development environment. Map makers take upgrade path; sizing up GeoQuery and Atlas mapMaker. (Software Review) (includes a related article on desktop Two desktop mapping programs that use geography as a platform for data analysis are evaluated. GeoQuery 2.0, from GeoQuery Corp, is suited for business needs. It produces thematic maps that link to SQL databases. GeoQuery contains excellent tools for querying on-screen maps, preparing lists and constructing new map regions. The program lists for $395. Atlas MapMaker 4.5, from Strategic Mapping Inc, is a better program for making maps from scratch and assembly-line production of thematic maps. It provides a wide range of mapping options, but several are badly flawed. Analytical tools are poor and on-screen maps are not interactive. Atlas MapMaker's list price is $495. WealthBuilder offers advice; how to keep your hard-earned money. (Software Review) (Reality Technologies Ltd.'s financial software) WealthBuilder, from Reality Technologies Ltd, is a personal financial planner for the investment novice. The program is heavy on features but short on substance. There are better programs for investment analysis and portfolio management. This can be a valuable, but somewhat inflexible, tool for new investors that are seriously considering their goals and financial situations. Reports must be printed out to be seen, they cannot be viewed on-screen or saved to disk. Some of the financial advice is highly questionable. WealthBuilder's list price is $249.95. For the Record 2.0; global Find, net-worth report beef up personal data organizer. (Software Review) (Nolo Press' personal For the Record 2.0, from Nolo Press, is comprised of an excellent printed guide for recording personal data and a software package that helps keep the data organized. The program's best features include a global Find command and reports for net worth and home inventory. For the Record includes 27 categories, such as Tax Records and Emergency Information, and over 200 subcategories. Three of the program's noteworthy features include the locking of databases or individual categories, categories can be searched by text strings, and each entry is automatically saved. The best part of this $59.95 package is the documentation which contains 200 pages of important personal finance information. Capitalist tools for Mac tycoons; Mac stock trackers come up a bit short. (Software Review) (Market Analyzer, Market Manager Plus Both professional brokers and amateur traders can use computers for the acquisition, analysis and management of financial information. Three programs are evaluated that fall between the needs of the professional and the amateur. Pro Plus Software Inc's Wall Street Investor 3.02 offers the most capabilities and will challenge tentative tycoons, but its client-management utilities are too limited for professional brokers. It is also the highest-priced of the three products at $695. Market Manager Plus 2.03, from Dow Jones & Co, is a portfolio management package that offers several types of performance reports but has poor client-management features. It costs $299. Market Analyzer, also from Down Jones & Co, offers simplicity and high-quality support. It downloads news and historical data from the Dow Jones News/Retrieval service and provides impressive analytical tools. It needs upgrading. The price is $299. Display systems for low-cost Macs; new buses, connectors and specs have created some confusion over compatibility. (includes a The introduction of the Apple IIsi, LC and Classic Macintoshes creates confusion over new buses, connectors and specifications, but also brings several new display systems. There are many displays that plug right into the built-in video port of the IIsi. At least five manufacturers repackaged existing -030 PDS boards for the IIsi. The LC does not have built-in display, however Apple monitors and the same displays that work with the IIsi can be literally, and easily, plugged into the microcomputer. Many existing VGA monitors will work with the LC. The Classic has no official means of expansion, but an external display can be attached to the 68000 processor. Currently, all the displays available for the Classic are monochrome. At least eight companies are selling adapters for the Mac Classic. Penning our hopes on a 'humanistic' future. (GO pioneers unchartered computer waters with its non-traditional PenPoint GO Corp's PenPoint operating system is the most exciting development in microcomputers since Apple's introduction of the Macintosh. The current challenge is to encourage developers to create compelling applications for the platform to ensure its success. A stylus allows true drawing and writing as well as manipulating information in a natural way. Words are erased by merely crossing them out. The stylus can replace the keyboard-and-mouse combination for everything but typing. GO Corp is marketing its pen-based system as 'human literate', the computer that works the way people do. Apple pushes Mac LC on educators; Apple IIe no-show on five-city tour. (Educational Solutions Tour)(Macintosh LC) Apple Computer Corp is promoting the Macintosh LC on its nationwide Education Solutions Tour. The venerable Apple IIe, the mainstay in schools for a decade, is seen only in emulation running on the LC. During the tour, educational software from 40 developers is being shown on over 50 Macintoshes. The company is still producing the Apple IIGS, but hopes to convince educators that the low-end Macintoshes are the educational computer of the present and future. Many teachers expressed some interest in the Apple IIe emulation card that was shown running on a Macintosh LC and wondered if it would support Apple II software, thereby protecting previous investments. Taking on Form 1040 with 2 Mac programs. (Softview Inc.'s Macintax and Macintax for Windows tax preparation software)(Apple Softview Inc offers tax preparation software packages for both Macintosh and IBM-based microcomputers. Both MacInTax and MacInTax for Windows are available in a Federal version costing $99 and state versions costing $69. MacInTax for Windows is for use on IBM PC-compatible microcomputers running Microsoft Windows 3.0. The programs handle tax filing for the District of Columbia, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The MacInTax program represents a tax form on-screen, and the user enters information into the open fields. The computer makes calculations and links related forms. The forms are then sent to a laser or dot-matrix printer. High-resolution documents are accepted by the US Government. MacInTax for Windows emulates the Macintosh graphical user interface, but has flaws typical of a new product. A Babel of programs and one translation. (Systems Compatibility Corp.'s Outside In data conversion software) Systems Compatibility Corp's Outside In data conversion program can translate data from over 50 MS-DOS and 3 Macintosh programs into a form that can be understood by a word processing program. Outside In can handle word-processing, data base and spreadsheet programs without compromising character attributes or formatting characteristics. A list of compatible products is listed on the package, but a list contained inside also gives specific version numbers. Most of the program's tasks are performed using the function keys. The program ships with a 27-page tutorial that is written with Microsoft Word commands. If another word processor is used, the user must translate the commands. Claris Corp ships HyperCard 2.0, an improved version of its data base management system. The $49 HyperCard upgrade is able to mix fonts, styles, type and sizes. Thomson to enter European market for telephone gear. (Thomson S.A.) The French state-owned electronics company Thomson SA plans to sell telephone equipment in Europe. A market-sharing accord with Alcatel Alsthom SA, signed in 1983, had formerly kept Thomson SA from selling telephones in Europe. Thomson also plans to sell telephone answering machines, facsimile machines and cellular telephone equipment. Analysts believe that Thomson will have difficulty achieving success in the already mature telephone equipment industry, but they see opportunities for the electronics firm in telephone-related technologies. Thomson will not receive public funding for its telephone venture; its consumer electronics division is investing $30 million for a three-year period. Much of the industrial work will be subcontracted out to smaller French firms. This army marches on silicon. (cover story) (the military's use of computers in the field) Following the US military operations in Granada, the Defense Department formed a special group, called the Joint Tactical Command, Control and Communications Agency, to explore ways of making the multitude of computers used by the four services more compatible. There were a number of consequences as a result. Standardization is seen by many as the key to compatibility among the services. Buyers of government and military computers now look towards open systems as a way for different types of computers to work together. Another change in policy resulted in a move towards off-the-shelf software and hardware in non-critical areas of the military. Analysts say the real test of the military's computers and improved communications structures will come in the event of a substantial ground war some time in the future. Coming to America: Compaq's European star. (Compaq Computer's Eckhard Pfeiffer) Compaq Computer's recent replacement of Michael S. Swavely with Eckhard Pfeiffer as head of North American operations have led some observers to question the stability of the company's management. The company's year-end results, ended Jan 30, are reputed to show only four percent growth in the US, when the overall market grew seven percent. Much of the slow growth could be attributed to the lack of supply of the new LTE 386 laptops and the company's reliance on dealer-only distribution channels. Pfeiffer succeeded in Europe where, as president of Compaq International, he took sales up fifty percent to $1.8 billion by changing the dealer-only distribution channels. Analysts maintain that he was hired specifically to focus on US distribution, and to pursue a new type of distributor that specializes in integrating computers for specific types of business. Bits & Bytes. (Information Processing) Eng, Paul M. Poquet Computer Corp releases an enhanced version of the Poquet palm-top computer. The one-pound $1,495 Personal Communicator now includes a modem and software, is compatible with any IBM clone, and is aimed at executives who currently use heavier laptops. DEC and IBM have put many doubts about their commitment to open systems to rest by winning a contract to supply General Motors Corp with hardware and Unix programs for its international vehicle-design and engineering project. The two companies will work independently. By adhering to open system standards all products produced will be compatible with each other. Claris Corp's William Campbell has left the company and joined Go Corp, a new company primarily involved in the development of software for tablet computers that use electronic pens instead of keyboards. FCC revisits Tariff 12 issue: proceeding could take several months to determine future of custom networks. (Federal Communications The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has added to the already lengthy process of determining the legality of AT&T's Tariff 12 by calling for comments on its approval of the hotly debated pricing scheme. The FCC has asked for comments regarding the first four 'options', or integrated service packages, deemed unlawful by the FCC in 1989, and considered by many AT&T competitors to still be unlawful, despite modifications ordered by the FCC. Comments on the first four options are due by Mar 4, 1991, with replies from the FCC due by Mar 25. But the FCC concedes that other Tariff 12 options may be subject to the same questions raised regarding the first four. FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan hopes the results of the new proceeding will serve to guide consideration of all Tariff 12 options. AT&T meanwhile is encouraged by the fact that the FCC continues to allow Tariff 12 options to take effect. The current count of Tariff 12 deals is 85, serving some 120 users. LAN users join; demand software: Banyan, Novell, 3Com customers.(local area network) Local area network (LAN) administrators from some 23 corporations and government agencies have joined forces as the Network Applications Consortium, a user's group with the primary purpose of forcing software houses to develop applications for LANs. Specifically, the consortium wants groupware applications that allow many users to work together over networks. Group members primarily operate LANs that run on Banyan Systems' Vines network operating system, but systems from Microsoft, Novell and 3Com, among others, are also represented. The consortium had its beginnings at the Dallas-based MCI Communications Corp site, where MCI and Lotus Development Corp were forced to rig network clients with a kludge of 3Com's Network Basic Input/Output Protocol to allow running of Lotus Notes, a networking application not supported by Vines. Lotus then began to court other Vines users, including Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), where manager Art Beckman came up with the idea of forming a group of Vines users concerned with Vines development and the development of network applications, management and interoperability. Microsoft: keeping OS/2: net-computing plan includes Windows. Dortch, Michael. Reports of the death of OS/2, like that of Mark Twain, appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Just one day after published reports indicated Microsoft was abandoning development of the operating system in favor of increased development of the Windows graphical user interface (GUI), Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and a host of Microsoft officials unveiled a network computing strategy in which OS/2 and Windows play vital, complementary roles. The strategy is based on a tri-level approach to operating systems, with MS-DOS alone at the low end, Windows and MS-DOS providing support for mid-level standalone and networked machines, and OS/2 and LAN Manager at the network server level. Additionally, while IBM has assumed responsibility for versions 1.X and 2.X of OS/2, version 3.0 will be supported by Microsoft, with OS/2 3.0, Windows and LAN Manager eventually becoming tightly integrated. OS/2 3.0 will be based on a new software kernel and will incorporate support for DOS, Windows, versions 1.X and 2.X and POSIX. The kernel supports applications portability, symmetric multiprocessing, file recovery and disk mirroring, and security features, in network environments. Features will be developed in LAN Manager and moved to OS/2 on a customer demand basis. Protocol offers path to IBM's SNA. (Systems Network Architecture; Synchronous Data Link Control protocol) IBM's Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) is being added to the bridge-router devices of major companies, including those of cisco Systems Inc and Vitalink Communications Corp, to allow better connection of multiprotocol networks with IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA), the dominant force in corporate networks. Cisco is adding SDLC to its routers; it will be part of all cisco routers by mid-1991, and current users can get free upgrades under cisco's software support program. Sometime early in the decade pure SNA routing and support for IBM's NetView network management system will also be added to the firm's routers. Cisco, like Wellfleet Communications Inc, which also has announced SDLC support, has chosen to begin with encapsulation of SNA traffic within a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) data packet. Vitalink, which has reached a deal with Netlink over its SNA and SDLC technology, has not yet decided how to implement SNA in its routing devices. Also announcing plans to support the SNA world is Advanced Computer Communications, while Proteon Inc and 3Com Corp already support SDLC. Call-protection plan: N.Y. Tel outlines recovery service. Schwartz, Jeffrey. New York Telephone Co plans a switched-voice disaster recovery that will make it possible for companies to have portions of their exchanges routed through two separate central offices. This alternate-routing capability would allow firms to continue to place and receive calls in the event of a cut cable or central office failure. The current plan was organized by the New York Clearinghouse Association, comprising the state's 11 largest banks. The scheme will constitute the second phase of NY Tel's Alternate Serving Wire Center service. A first phase, aimed at providing alternate routing for dedicated private-line services, was proposed to both the Federal Communications Commission and the New York State Public Service Commission in 1990. Pricing for the new service was not immediately revealed. Tariffs for PBX and centrex alternate routing services are expected to be filed in May and Jul 1991, respectively. Frame relay for BT: adding an interface to Tymnet. (British Telecom plc) British Telecom plc (BT) announces plans for a frame relay interface for its Tymnet network to be added in Jun 1991 and to be incrementally improved through 1995. The service will be available internationally beginning in 1992, but will not offer speeds in excess of 64K-bps until 1994. A similar service to be provided by US Sprint beginning in third quarter 1991 will offer T1 speeds from the outset. The underlying strategy is to provide a path to broadband integrated services digital network (ISDN) technology, to be established in three stages. Reaction to the announcement is mixed. One analyst says that while the basic idea is sound, BT's approach is at odds with the way customers want such services to be provided. Yet an FMC Corp communications executive says his firm, which is considering expanding its network to Europe, finds BT's proposed frame-relay service attractive, and as yet has no need for T1 communications. IBM's SNA net-configuration plans. (Systems Network Architecture) Korzeniowski, Paul. Enhancements to IBM's Logical Unit 6.2 (LU6.2) communications software and the addition of Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) to IBM hardware are among IBM's plans for adding dynamic network-configuration capabilities to its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network model. The firm also is interested in fast-packet technology. APPN will be added to OS/2-based workstations by the end of 1991; a date has not been established for the addition of APPN to mainframes and RISC/System 6000 units. APPN will also be licensed to other vendors. Planned enhancements to LU6.2 include additional defaults, among them a maximum buffer size. Finally, fast-packet capabilities such as end-point synchronization will be added to SNA to allow it to support transmissions in the gigabyte-per-second range; work on the fast-packet technology is in the very early stages. These plans were announced during a briefing session held at the 1991 Communications Networks convention, held in Washington D.C. during Jan 1991. Courts choose IBM: massive national network plan. Knowles, Anne; Schwartz, Jeffrey. A three-vendor team led by IBM and including Arix Corp and the Network Systems division of Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) has been awarded a five-year contract valued at $25 million for the design and installation of a data communications network for the US federal court system. The network will eventually link all the federal government's judicial branches. Various options could extend the contract an additional four years and make the full value close to $233 million. IBM's Federal Sector Division will have overall responsibility for the project, including systems design and development and technical consulting services; Arix Corp will supply minicomputers for the network control centers. CSC's Network Systems group will provide installation and initial training and ongoing operation, management and maintenance. The IBM team beat out Wang Labs and Planning Research Corp for the contract. A spokesman for the federal court system says a protest of the award has been lodged, but did not comment further. Bellcore: new details on ISDN plan. (Integrated Services Digital Network) Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore) reveals plans for an aggressive effort on the part of the regional Bell holding companies to market integrated services digital networks (ISDNs). Formal announcement of the plan, now called 1992 Nationwide ISDN, is expected sometime in Feb 1991, but details were revealed at the 1991 ComNet show in January. The plan is intended to provide equipment interoperability and universal service availability, two glaring omissions that have kept ISDN from widespread acceptance in the past. Interoperability is being addressed by AT&T, Northern Telecom amd Siemens Communication Systems, which have agreed to cooperate in the design of a common version of ISDN software. The Baby Bells will address the universality of service issue with a major deployment of ISDN software and increased marketing efforts that will target the massive small- and medium-sized business market. The Corporation for Open Systems and the federal government are said to be indirectly supporting the plan, COS through alleged plans to design tools for testing product compatibility with plan specs and to carry out some testing, and the federal government through Federal Information Procurement Specifications (FIPS) expected to be adopted this year and with which the Bellcore specs are consistent. AT&T wins round; NCR wins rematch: AT&T can't get shareholder list - yet. (AT&T's attempt at hostile takeover continues) AT&T's efforts for a hostile takeover of NCR Corp was stalemated by a temporary stay awarded to NCR of an order to turn over to AT&T a list of NCR stockholders. The stay is effective until Feb 5, 1991, when attorneys for both sides are expected to present further arguments on the merits of releasing the list. AT&T made a $6.1 billion dollar hostile bid for NCR in Dec 1990 that was rejected by the NCR board of directors as inadequate; the board also noted incompatibility of the two companies' product lines and failed merger attempts involving other computer and communications companies. Some NCR users are fearful of a merger, but that fear is apparently not shared by Federal Communications Commission Chmn Alfred Sikes, who noted in a letter to a House subcommittee that FCC regulations discourage AT&T from subsidizing computer manufacturing with communications revenues. Both a regular and a special shareholders meeting has been scheduled for Mar 1, 1991, by NCR. AT&T has told NCR it will seek to remove all 13 board members at that meeting. Owners of 80 percent of NCR's outstanding shares must approve such a move; on Jan 21 AT&T claimed it had support from owners of some 51.6 percent of the shares for the calling of a special meeting. 3Com product plan: refocused 3Com tells what's new. Jackson, Kelly. 3Com Corp announces its product plans under a new business strategy that centers on the provision of global internetwork building blocks. Network adapters, hubs and bridge-routers will compose the product line, employing advanced silicon technologies and incorporating network management and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) support into the units. Hubs will be based on a star topology with point-to-point circuitry and bridging and routing capabilities rendered in silicon. A new bridge-router line is expected to be introduced in the second half of 1991, featuring smaller systems that use fewer ports than existing products, yet offer full network management support and a full range of networking protocols. New small and large platforms will be introduced, competitively priced between $5,000 and $10,000. Protocols not already supported that are expected to be added by mid-year include Open Shortest Path First, X.25, frame-relay, and AppleTalk. As part of the general refocusing, 3Com will exit the network operating systems arena, a decision exemplified by the turning over to Microsoft Corp of LAN Manager. MCI goes worldwide: allies with 13 foreign carriers. (MCI Communications Corp.) MCI Communications Corp announces its Global Communications Service (GCS), launched with the participation of 15 foreign carriers, to provide comprehensive design, implementation and management services for international networks. Credit card firm Visa International is the first user of GCS, signing a five-year, $87 million contract. Initial offerings of GCS include private-line, data and messaging services to and from the US and between and within the foreign locations connected with GCS. Planned additions include international virtual private networks, international 800 services, improved network management, and trouble-reporting and billing services. GCS, which includes locations in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Sweden and the UK, resembles the alliance announced by AT&T, British Telecom, France Telecom and Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD) in 1990, but includes more countries and provides details of the services available. MCI is said to be negotiating with seven additional carriers, including British Telecom, France Telecom, and KDD. Incorporating separate nets: talking shop. (interview with Rick Thompson, manager of telecommunications at Georgia-Pacific Corp.) Rick Thompson, manager of telecommunications for Georgia-Pacific Corp, discusses the changes necessitated by the firm's acquisition of Great Northern Nekoosa Corp (GNN). The acquisition added more than 150 facilities and a full telecommunications staff, but the biggest single task as been establishing the extent of GNN's inventory of telecommunication contracts, vendors, equipment and services. Merging the two networks was eased by the fact that both firms had MCI Communications Corp virtual networks. Thompson also discusses the benefits of the MCI agreement, which include significant cost savings and enhanced ability to monitor usage, traffic patterns, trouble and costs. The MCI agreement includes informal outsourcing arrangements and MCI is included in the internal planning process. Georgia-Pacific is able to monitor MCI's performance through weekly and monthly status meetings and with an ongoing quality assurance program. Token ring still needs work. Semilof, Margie. Token-ring technology has been around since the early 1980s, yet the technology still needs a lot of work, particularly where large networks or networks running at 16 megabits per second (M-bps) are concerned. Line-noise problems, inherent in ring topologies, and referred to as jitter, are particularly difficult to resolve. Unshielded twisted-pair wire is often used for local area networks (LANs) because it is already installed in most cases. But running a token-ring LAN at 4M-bps over unshielded wire is already problematic, and many feel running at 16M-bps would simply be too problem-ridden. Jitter problems, which have been traced to chips as well as wiring, seem worse on unshielded wire. Proteon and Texas Instruments have jointly developed technology that reduces jitter over unshielded networks and other adapter-card suppliers have built in proprietary solutions to the jitter problem. Yet many vendors still have difficulty running at 16M-bps even on shielded wire. And cable lengths for a 16M-bps network must be kept relatively short to ensure an acceptable error rate. ICA targets applications: new type of showcase planned for show. (International Communications Association) The 1991 International Communications Association (ICA) convention, to be held in June in Anaheim, CA, will spotlight Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) in an applications, rather than connectivity, showcase. Two FDDI local area networks (LANs) will be set up in separate areas of the Anaheim Convention Center and then linked. The idea is to simulate a real business environment, with multiple, interconnected LANs. Applications to be demonstrated need not be designed for FDDI transmission, but must travel over media that can be linked to FDDI. This poses a problem for Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN); while the ISDN Primary Rate Interface (PRI) was originally planned to be included in the showcase, AT&T's PRI ISDN-to-FDDI equipment is not yet ready. FDDI was chosen for the backbone technology for the show because it is felt by many that FDDI will be the standard of choice for high-speed networks in the future. Digital Equipment Corp will install and manage the two networks for the show. ATC may widen its region: users could get more choices. (Advanced Telecommunications Corp.) Advanced Telecommunications Corp, a regional long distance company located in Atlanta, GA, and currently the largest alternative carrier, is considering expanding to large business centers outside its region in order to remain viable in the face of pressure from communications giants AT&T, MCI and US Sprint. Expansion is being considered along the Eastern seaboard to New York, to Chicago in the Midwest, and to California in the West. ATC would only extend into a new region after a customer base was established there. The firm plans to become a multi-regional rather than a national carrier, following its customers to the terminus of their long distance calls. The move bodes well for multi-location users, who may soon find available an alternative to national carriers along with competitive pricing and attentive service. Global ISDN. (Integrated Services Digital Network) (Closeup on ISDN) International ISDN is a promised yet unfilled for the vast majority of US communications managers. While a number of telecommunications carriers, notably AT&T, British Telecom, France Telecom and Kokusai Denshin Denwa, offer international services based on ISDN standards, access is limited by local exchange networks in the US which can not transfer 64K-bps calls to interexchange carriers. General availability of 64K-bps capability is months or perhaps years away. Only AT&T and US Sprint Communications Co currently have overseas dial-up capabilities, and to use them the customer must have Primary Rate Interface (PRI) access to the carrier's switching center. A second alternative, the Basic Rate Interface (BRI), is not available from US-based interexchange carriers. Some alternative local carriers are exploring 64K-bps service, but on a very limited basis. And despite increasing availability of services, it is still easier to find users who are interested in ISDN than those who are actually using it. Where are the applications? (Closeup on ISDN) Evagora, Andreas. A dearth of ISDN applications nearly 20 years after the technology first gained notice leads many corporate users to doubt whether the technology has much to offer. And a recent survey concludes that many large telecommunications firms may actually have little need for ISDN; most data transfer needs can be readily met at speeds of 9.6 kilobits per second, and many large firms have large private networks that obviate the need for ISDN. Still, supporters continue to point to ISDN's potential in such areas as call number identification, conference calls, simultaneous voice/data transmission, and call diversion. The Highlands and Islands Development Board of Scotland has an ambitious telecommuting project in process, but it is expected that the initial use of ISDN will be to carry out existing applications more reliably and quickly. France Telecom's Numeris, the first public ISDN in Europe, is used largely for private network back-up and local area network interconnection. Except in Germany, however, public operators have done little to promote ISDN, being primarily concerned with their own bottom line and getting the most out of existing networks. And despite the emergence of some ISDN products, different implementations of ISDN standards prevent those products from being universally applicable. Germany marches on: incentives aimed at overcoming late start. (Closeup on ISDN) Integrated Services Digital Networks got off to a rough start in Germany, but an incentive program that offers adapter cards for personal computers and Basic Rate discounts for ISDN telephony is making great strides toward turning things around. A number of problems remain to be resolved or overcome before complete success is ensured. They include the high cost of ISDN terminals, insufficient security for large volumes of data, growing competition from services such as facsimile and modems, service rates that are nearly 2.5 times those for analog networks, and an ongoing privacy debate regarding both caller identification and data protection within the network. The infrastructure is growing despite these problems, with some 135 cities linked by the end of 1990, and some 70 percent to 80 percent of all western German businesses having access to ISDN. Implementation in eastern Germany will take longer because of the need to rebuild the entire telecommunications infrastructure there, but full coverage is expected some time between 1993 and 1995. Germany also leads in connections to other international carriers. The real test will come when European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards are established and Germany must implement them. Microsoft readies major Windows apps upgrade: taking aim at Lotus and others. Microsoft Corp is starting an extensive direct-mail marketing campaign to one million registered Microsoft Windows 3.0 users. The campaign lets customers upgrade their character-based spreadsheet and word processor packages to Microsoft Excel 3.0 and Microsoft Word for Windows for $129 each. Fulfillment will be available through Microsoft but the plan is designed for channel fulfillment to be more attractive. Users who buy directly through Microsoft will pay the full retail price with a three-to-four-week turnaround. Microsoft officials hope to create a demand that will result in sales of additional products when users enter stores. Among the spreadsheet packages that qualify for the upgrade are Lotus' 1-2-3 and Symphony and Borland International's Quattro and Quattro Pro. Word processing packages include WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect, Ashton-Tate Corp's MultiMate and IBM's DisplayWrite. Compaq lends direct support; new plan includes dealers. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp is planning to change its dealer-only support policy by implementing a toll-free technical support line for customer questions, online technical support and a fee-based, direct-support contract sold through resellers. Compaq will extend an internal online support system running on Lotus Development Corp's Lotus Notes to high-end dealers and large end-users. A tiered, qualified-dealer program will provide customers with access to various levels of dealer support throughout the US. Compaq wants to satisfy customers who want direct access to the company. Many chains are accepting the Compact deal because they will be able to resell either a Compaq service contract or their own. The plan may also attract customers who have been hesitant to buy Compaq products due to its dealer-only support policy. It is still unclear how Compaq will handle multivendor support. January: cautious spending: Gallup/CRN: one in three Fortune 1000 users purchasing as usual. A Gallup Organization Inc poll finds that one in three Fortune 1000 companies spent as much on microcomputer products in January 1991 as they normally do in January. The poll also indicates that one in five companies spent either a lot more or slightly more than usual on such products for the month. At least half of the companies are spending more on networking, software, connectivity, desktop, laptop and notebook computers. Of the companies that spent less during the month, 54 percent said current hard economic times are the reason why. Some analysts feel that although businesses are cutting back, they are still buying microcomputer products. Others contend that the companies spending more will have to purchase a lot to make up for the companies cutting back. Most all say that managers will spend more cautiously in 1991. Eighty-two percent of 250 managers polled say the US is now in a recession. Apple mandate stirs fury: as vendor seeks loyalty, resellers lobby for policy changes. (one of six articles in 'Apple's Big Gamble: Apple Computer Inc is implementing a new policy that forces its Apple Education Sales Consultants to stop selling competing vendor microcomputers and products in the education market by April 15 or risk losing their education authorization. Some dealers feel if the plan is successful, Apple will expand the marketing strategy to the commercial market. Apple Chmn John Sculley says that the strategy will not necessarily apply to other segments. Analysts contend that one of the major factors behind the education strategy is to cut down on the abuse by some resellers to gain more market share. Some dealers offer rebates to school districts which, according to some analysts, amount to bribery. Some dealers will find that limiting the number of options will make the product easier to sell. For other dealers, however, there is not enough of a market to sell only one brand. 'Rough go for the dealers': assessing damage: some resellers drop IBM, others cut by Apple. (one of six articles in 'Apple's Big A large number of education dealers are complying with Apple Computer Inc's new plan for its Apple Education Sales Consultant Program but some estimates conclude that Apple has terminated contracts with up to half of its 800 education resellers. The owner of the Byte Shop in Greensboro, NC, an Apple-only reseller since 1978, has been dropped and has not been given a reason for the non-renewal. Much of the owner's education business will be picked up by a shop 75 miles away. The owner claims that to persuade that shop to drop IBM products, Apple took his business to the other dealer. The owner also feels that he has been chosen for non-renewal because he has been critical in the past concerning Apple's strategy in the education market. Computerland Mid-Atlantic will lose $1.5 million in educational sales with either decision. Large VAR receives special treatment: Jostens free to sell IBM. (Value-Added Reseller)(Jostens Learning Corp.)(one of six articles Jostens Learning Corp, the largest Apple Computer Inc educational value-added reseller (VAR), will not need to comply with Apple's new non-competitive restrictions even though it sells products from IBM and Tandy Corp. Jostens officials say they are not affected by Apple's new policy because they are a VAR and not an Apple Education Sales Consultant (AESC). Apple has not asked educational VARS to stop selling competing vendor products but has asked them to team up with AESCs. Apple is also telling AESCs that they cannot sell Apple Macintosh microcomputers out of dealer inventory to K-12 schools. Jostens sells central processing units (CPU) from vendors to schools as part of turnkey, curriculum systems. Some AESCs do not understand why Apple would make Jostens exempt from the restriction since the VAR is often a competitor on very large deals. Competing vendors doubt Apple's success: none plan to follow suit. (one of six articles in 'Apple's Big Gamble: Education Ultimatum Apple Computer Inc's recent decision to force education dealers to stop selling competing products or lose their authorization does not appear to be influencing other vendors to implement similar policies. Few vendors feel that Apple will be successful with this marketing strategy. NEC Technologies Inc officials feel the policy will not be expanded to commercial segments. The company says their best strength lies in customers being able to compare their products side-by-side with those of the competition. Officials at Radio Shack/Tandy Corp's education division believes Apple's plan may succeed. Radio Shack feels that only large companies like Apple and IBM can attempt such a policy since clone vendors do not have as strong of a marketing position. NCR Corp officials feel that if Apple's strategy becomes successful and becomes an archetype for the industry, smaller vendors will suffer the most. IBM responds with incentives: soft dollars including MDF and ProPlan for resellers who remain 'true blue'. (one of six articles IBM denies that it will be badly affected by Apple Computer Inc's new education policy. The company plans to offer soft dollars to vendors who choose IBM over Apple to offset business they will lose. IBM will make short-term investments using ProPlan dollars and market development funds. Analysts contend that IBM has an excellent chance of gaining new market share in the education field if they can acquire de-authorized Apple education dealers. These dealers number from 400 to 600. If Apple's plan is successful, however, some observers believe IBM may lose many millions of dollars, considerably setting back IBM's momentum in the K-12 market. Some dealers who have business split evenly between the two companies say if IBM can make up for most of the lost Apple sales, they will go with IBM to escape Apple's controversial policy. Users expect better service and support. (one of six articles in 'Apple's Big Gamble: Education Ultimatum Splinters the Channel') Many K-12 school districts feel that Apple Computer Inc's new education dealer policy will improve service and support from Apple Education Sales Consultants (AESC). Apple is assuring school districts they do not have to worry about resellers with monopolies inflating prices or creating service delays. Districts purchase their hardware from Apple directly and say they are not concerned that prices will increase unfairly. Many users with multiple platforms already use at least two education sales consultants. They do not feel they would be inconvenienced if one reseller only sells Apple products. Some users feel that Apple's new strategy is not due to a desire to improve support and service but one to dominate and control the education market. They say that the new monopoly policy may cause support to suffer since districts will no longer have the ultimate say in the choice of their AESC. Apple nears its decision to fill Claris top post. (Apple Computer Inc.)(Claris Corp.)(News) Apple Computer Inc's VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Randy Battat, and Dan Eilers, Apple's vp of corporate development and strategic investment, are the leading candidates for the position of president of Apple's subsidiary, Claris Corp. Claris needs to replace its former president, William Campbell, who resigned in January 1991 to head Go Corp. Claris officials decline to comment on specific candidates but say that a final decision will be made by mid-February 1991, when Apple Chmn and Chief Executive John Sculley holds his executive staff meeting. Claris wants to quickly replace Campbell to reassure its employees that the company will not be reabsorbed back into Apple. Apple contends that, although it decided not to spin off the software subsidiary, it intends to allow the company to develop its own culture. Novell takes step to ensure one MHS standard. (Message Handling Service)(Novell Inc.)(Action Technologies Inc.)(News) Industry sources say that Novell Inc will take over Message Handling Service (MHS) development from Action Technologies Inc in an agreement the two companies plan to announce in early February 1991. The move will provide a single industry standard as well as ensuring the growth of MHS for electronic mail. Novell officials say the company will continue to work with all E-mail vendors and leave front end application development to third party vendors. The agreement will also dismiss rumors that Novell and Action have terminated their once close relationship. Novell officials say the company will ship NetWare 386 MHS NLM sometime in 1991. Sources also contend that Novell will soon announce its Netware MHS 1.5 product, currently in beta testing, that will support X.400 and several other applications and protocols. Observers feel that the product will give Novell control over the E-mail market. Apple's direct users question vendor strategy. (Apple Computer Inc.)(News) A small but influential number of customers are dissatisfied with Apple Computer Inc's recent policy of canceling its direct contracts with major corporate accounts. Apple's policy, which went into effect in October 1990, cancels direct accounts as they expire and requires customers to buy products from Apple resellers. Apple says the move, which is designed to give resellers a boost, has been successful. Users feel that support will suffer without direct ties to Apple and some say they will consider other brands if the quality of service declines. Apple contends that the plan only requires that customers purchase from resellers. The company says customer relationships will not change. The majority of the 70 remaining direct supply contract customers have contracted with resellers but there are a few who are holding out for a better solution. 386 notebooks await chip shipments, FCC nod. (Federal Communications Commission)(News) Notebook computers based on the 80386SX chip are in short supply because of the shortage of 386SX chips and hard-disk drives. Other manufacturers are slow to introduce the new products because of internal testing or waiting for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Manufacturers that are currently shipping notebook computers are suffering a shipping backlog due to the overwhelming demand for the products. Twenty megabyte and 40Mbyte 2.5-inch hard-disk drives are in especially short supply. Some companies have been forced to hold back on notebook computers with higher storage capacity because of the shortage of high-capacity drives. Industry observers expect that vendors will end up shipping products in volume at the same time. Some of the major vendors with new notebook computers include Compaq Computer Corp, Advanced Logic Research Inc, Texas Instruments, Epson America Inc and Everex. ADAPSO sets PC arbitration center. (Association of Data Processing Services Organizations' Bernard Goldstein-Milton R. Wessel Dispute The Association of Data Processing Services Organizations (ADAPSO) is establishing a center that will allow computer industry members to resolve disputes of computer-related problems. The Bernard Goldstein-Milton R. Wessel Dispute Resolution Center's arbitration services will, in many cases, provide the industry with an alternative to the courts. Proceedings will be less expensive, faster and can prevent public disclosure of trade secrets. The center will offer a four-part program that includes arbitration, mediation, specialist opinion options and a computer settlement panel that will develop solutions to party demands. Decisions will be non-binding and the center will charge only a small fee. ADAPSO expects the small number of suits in the computer industry to increase due to business growth. The program will be fully functional by the spring of 1991. IBM pushes customer-satisfaction program. (News) Hedlund, Kristen. IBM is expanding and cutting the cost of participation in its Commitment to Customer Satisfaction program for resellers. The new Option 2 plan, which costs 768 ProPlan points, will now let resellers get customer satisfaction polls on sales of outside vendor products as well as IBM machines. The Option 1 plan, which only applies to IBM products, is reduced in cost from 675 points to 584 points. Dealers in the Option 1 program can move up to Option 2 for 584 points during the first quarter of 1991. IBM plans to encourage dealer program participation and will offer bonuses based on the level of customer satisfaction. Dealers who score at the top level of 4.5 will receive $700. $500 will be awarded to those at 4.4 and $300 for scores of 4.3. Third parties perform the customer polls to ensure confidentiality of dealer client databases. Dealers receive results at the end of each quarter. 10-Q: getting ready for the big 'R'. (review of 50 companies and the effects of the recession) Apple Computer Inc's debut of its three low-cost Macintosh microcomputers, the Classic, LC and IIsi, gives the company a complete product line. Challenges ahead for Apple include maintaining a strong momentum and gaining market share. Apple's fourth-quarter stock performance ranks $29 on Sep 30, 1990 and $43 for Dec 31, 1990 for a gain of 48 percent. Borland International Inc continues its rapid growth with third fiscal quarter ending Dec 31, 1990 income increasing to $7.76 million from $3.22 million. Borland faces the challenge of maintaining its market share with Microsoft Corp Windows products. Egghead Discount Software continues to grow with a fourth consecutive profitable quarter. Total number of stores is now 188. Settlements of lawsuits make total legal costs at $6 million. Profiles of 47 other companies are presented. Networking vendors target wide-area-network market. (Networks) Mehta, Suketu. Microsoft Corp and Banyan Networks Inc are introducing products and programs for the wide-area-network (WAN) market. Banyan officials see user needs changing from isolated workgroup network operating systems to distributed network operating systems in a WAN-connected environment. The company's VINES network operating system has several advantages for customers who want WANs. VINES can connect across disparate areas but still maintain an integrated feel. Its support of multiple languages on a single server across different different geographical locations is a big plus for multinational companies. Microsoft's WAN strategy includes LAN Manager's Open Transport Architecture that serves various WAN networking protocols. Microsoft's partnerships with leading networking companies ensures users of multivendor compatibility. Another advantage is DCA/Microsoft Select Communications Server. Preferred Systems' new network-automation tool. (Preferred Systems Inc.'s PSI/LanStandard and PSI/Origen)(Networks)(LAN Software) Preferred Systems Inc's network-automation software tools, PSI/LanStandard and PSI/Origen, can reduce the time required to install Novell Inc's NetWare from several weeks to just several hours. The company plans to introduce the products at the upcoming NetWorld trade show. LanStandard lets users automate manual tasks. An MIS department can centrally control a network and, at the same time, decentralize daily user application access. Using LanStandard, network managers can define network configuration standards. The second part of the software is Origen. This program configures file servers and lets LanStandard manage them. LanStandard and Origen support NetWare versions 2.1 and higher. Novell Inc has a high interest in the product but currently there are no formal marketing agreements set between the two companies. Preferred Systems plans to ship Origen in Mar 1991 and LanStandard shortly thereafter. David Systems joins Mac, WAN arena. (David Systems Inc.)(Apple Macintosh)(Wide Area Network)(Networks) (product announcement) David Systems Inc is expanding the company's product development plans to include Apple Macintosh and wide-area network (WAN) systems. The firm is developing a NuBus 10BaseT adapter card for the Macintosh market that is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 1991 at a price of approximately $450. An AppleTalk router module for $2,500 will be shipped in the second quarter of 1991. David Systems' ExpressWay product line will consist of WAN servers, communication and software modules. The company will offer the ExpressWay WAN servers as either a microcomputer AT-style card or as a concentrator module. Three software modules for the WAN servers will also be available. The firm is currently shipping its $1,495 ExpressWay Local Bridge that supports a single Ethernet network of as many as 1,200 nodes. The system is a Microsoft Windows 3.0-based application. Pen, stylus systems: gaining ground despite obstacles. (Go Corp.)(Hardware) Hardware and software developers at Go Corp's Development conference say it will not be until 1992 that notebook-style computers using electronic pens or styluses for input will be available to the general public. Go Corp's PenPoint pen-based computing operating system is currently shipping to software developers but it will take longer for hardware developers to catch up. IBM, NCR Corp and Grid Systems Corp have already announced that they plan to develop notebook computers with pen-based computing. Industry analysts contend that the potential market for pen-based computing is extensive but agree that it will take time to develop. Shipments are expected to number 1.2 million units in the US by 1994. Observers believe that applications will be initially vertical-specific in fields that are document- or form-intensive. Go Corp currently has 40 software developers with development plans for PenPoint. Kodak Ektaplus 7016 laser printer debuts: $5,495 product doubles as a copier. (Eastman Kodak Co.)(Hardware) (product announcement) Eastman Kodak Co introduces its $5,495 Ektaplus 7016 16-page-per-minute laser printer that also functions as a 6-page-per-minute photocopier. Kodak is expanding its presence in the channel by selling the printer only through resellers. The Ektaplus 7016 is networkable and supports multiplatform computing but has no Ethernet or token-ring capabilities unless it is connected to a server. It has five printer emulations and comes with one serial and one parallel port. AppleTalk is available as an option and the printer is expandable to four active ports. The ports can each be attached to a single computer or to a different network which lets many users have simultaneous access to the printer. An add-on board is available for $1,995 that comes with 4Mbytes of RAM and a Motorola 68020 processor. The price of the Ektaplus 7016 with the board included is $6,995. Low prices create a buyer's market: thinking of buying a printer? (one of two articles in special section on printer Industry observers contend that prices on impact and non-impact printers are continuing to decline, which is good news for consumers. Laser printers are also appearing with much lower prices. The top three non-impact printer vendors are HP, IBM and Apple Computer Inc. In 1990, HP installed over 3 million printers with all other vendors being below 1 million. Observers believe that widespread distribution is the key to HP's success. IBM printers are sold mainly to corporate customers and Apple printers are sold only to the niche market of Macintosh users. Analysts attribute low prices to the maturity of printer technology, decreasing development costs and an excessive number of competing vendors. 1990 brought the first laser printer for under $1,000. PostScript printers can be purchased for under $2,000. Observers predict 1991 will see a large number of inkjet printers for as low as $350. Getting more for less: top printer makes offer affordable options. (one of two articles in special section on printer Many major printer vendors, both impact and non-impact, are manufacturing high-speed printers at lower prices, giving customers a lot for their money. Star Micronics America Inc is introducing two low-priced 24-pin dot matrix printers. The $329 NX-1020 Rainbow printer has a 10-inch carriage and 7-color printing. Star Micronics' NX-2420 Rainbow printer, which also offers 7-color printing and a 10-inch carriage, is priced at $549. Okidata is reducing prices on some of its printers in order to compete directly with laser printers from HP. Okidata reduced the price on its OL400 4-page-per-minute printer from $1,495 to $995, which has increased sales by 300 percent. The company doubled sales by reducing its OL800 printer from $1,795 to $1,495. HP is introducing its $3,595 LaserJet IIID printer which is designed for high-volume users and shared-printing. Dealers learning 486. (Reviews)(33 MHz 486 Systems)(Market Trends) Gillooly, Brian. Dealers are becoming more familiar with 80486-based microcomputers, resulting in an extensive decrease in technical support calls from resellers. Predicted strict training requirements and channel segmentation have not been necessary in selling the machines since dealers and resellers view them as an extension of existing standards. Dealers find that amounts of service and training depend on the platform and operating system. Some Extended Industry Standard Architecture- (EISA) based systems require more training. When Advanced Logic Research Inc's Powerpro is sold in a dual-processor configuration, more support is needed. Lower prices will help in increasing sales of 486 machines. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's 486/33 EISA has dropped in price from $6,595 to $4,995, . The machine now accounts for more than 70 percent of 80486-based machine sales. Options count most in a closely matched field. (Reviews)(33 MHz 486 Systems)(Technical Analysis)(Advanced Logic Research Inc.'s Tests on Compaq Computer Corp's Deskpro/486/33L, Advanced Logic Research Inc's PowerPro, IBM's 90 XP, Mitac Corp's 4280G and SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's 486/33 EISA 80486-based machines show all systems equally good used as a single workstation. Systems tested all have 8Mbytes of 32-bit RAM, a single 300Mbyte or greater fixed-disk drive with a single controller, and an S-VGA or other high-resolution standard video board. Usage tests as eight and 16 workstations show results about the same for the Compaq, ALR and SAI systems. ALR's components are of high quality but the machine's case is not too sturdy. Compaq's 486/33L has the best expansion possibilities with RAM up to 100Mbytes compared with 64Mbytes or less on the other tested systems. The Mitac 4280G's SCSI drive and Mylex controller far surpassed the other systems and manufacturing is of top quality. Further details are presented. Sell the architecture's merits. (Reviews)(33 MHz 486 Systems)(Money Makers) Vendors say that dealers will make higher profits and increase sales of 80486-based microcomputers by emphasizing the benefits of Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and Micro Channel Architecture to users in their marketing of the machines. Advanced Logic Research Inc wants to assure buyers that moving up from industry standard architecture to EISA with their PowerPro system will not result in a heavy price increase. The PowerPro costs $7,495 for 10 expansion slots and 5Mbytes of RAM. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc markets its SAI 486/33 EISA as a machine that answers current computing needs with the capacity to be a high performance solution in the future when EISA cards are less expensive. IBM markets its 90 XP by offering upgradable processors for its Micro Channel environment that give the user 80486 flexibility now or in the future with enhanced video and SCSI devices. In search of vertical VARs: associations seek tailor-made systems. (VAR News)(Value-Added Reseller)(American Society of Association A study from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) shows that its 9,300 members want value-added resellers (VARs) to provide custom systems specially developed and marketed to the association vertical. Studies indicate, however, that there are very few VARs that have systems suitable for this market. ASAE member groups need systems that have trade-show management and dues collection capabilities. Other needs are subscription fulfillment, membership processing, fund-raising activities and legislative tracking. The ASAE feels they need to communicate their needs to VARs. Most member groups buy their systems from dealers and retailers who give only minimal support. Thirty-four percent of groups surveyed say they have no staff for data processing. Several VARs who do develop these types of systems say that the customization and support services provide substantial profit opportunities. Ed Anderson on what '91 holds for ComputerLand: issues include continued cost-cutting, royalty rates. (Channel) (interview) ComputerLand Corp USA Pres Ed Anderson says royalty rates are frozen for the time being and that further cost cutting should involve ComputerLand Corp supplying techniques to franchises to help them run their businesses more efficiently. Anderson says that ComputerLand is planning to buy Dataphaz but will probably not re-franchise them since the company has many satisfied customers. ComputerLand does plan to shorten the order-processing time for Dataphaz customers in order to get more repeat business. Anderson says it is likely that ComputerLand will continue to buy other franchises. He feels that Apple Computer Inc's intent in its decision to segment its education channel is good but dealers will be forced to make a difficult choice. Anderson thinks it is unfortunate, however, that the multivendor concept is being taken away. Distributors ramp for UNIX: increasing commitments to UNIX lines, services. (Distribution) There are two basic theories on whether emphasizing UNIX products and services will help distributors avoid the effects of a recession. Some observers believe that because users get more performance for the price, customers will buy UNIX products even in hard economic times. Others feel that advanced UNIX systems on the market will be hurt because UNIX is still not the mainstream operating system and lacks applications. Some analysts contend that current UNIX buyers are only technical users with their own developers and proprietary applications. Despite these doubts, many distributors across the US feel UNIX is recession-proof and are committing to the UNIX market. Distributor Merisel's strategy is UNIX and related applications on microcomputer-based platforms. The company is joining with Toshiba to develop a bundle using Toshiba 5200 laptops with UNIX System Laboratories' UNIX System V Release 4. Utility firm gets energized: Kansas Power & Light: productivity boost from LANs. (User Market) Kansas Power & Light Co (KP&L) is using NetFrame Systems Inc's NF 100 and 300 servers to let their local area network (LAN) serve as a front end to their mainframe computer. This has increased productivity and increased the value of the mainframe. Kansas Power and Light's token ring networks operate with Novell Inc's NetWare 386. Two centers in Topeka are connected with fiber-optic backbones. The Kansas City center is wired with fiber-optic cabling for future use of FDDI. KP&L has approximately 500 workstations attached to its LANs, most of which are IBM PS/2 55 SX machines. The company uses IBM, BusinessLand Inc and Andersen Consulting for various services, making for friendly competition. BusinessLand takes care of the servers and guarantees to repair or replace any defective server within four hours. Microsoft maps strategies: Windows, OS/2, DOS plans in the making. (Microsoft Corp.)(News) Microsoft Corp announces strategies for its DOS, Windows and OS/2 products. Win-32, a new 32-bit Windows applications programming interface (API) will have multi-threading and advanced file system capabilities previously available only in OS/2. This will essentially make OS/2's Presentation Manager interface obsolete. Microsoft plans release of Windows 3.1 by the summer of 1991. The new version will have better screen display, better DOS applications support, TrueType font support and improvements in network awareness and error reporting. The company hopes to release MS-DOS 5.0 before July 1991. The company says Windows will continue to develop with object linking and embedding technologies which let applications contain objects created by other applications. Microsoft says that the next generation of Windows will not be released until at least 1993. DEC plans software licensing options: change comes after users reject strict usage fees. DEC announces planned changes in its software licensing fee policy. Users were displeased with a previous charge plan that was based on usage alone. DEC plans a charging policy based on sites, usage or clusters of VAXs. Also offered is a lower-cost VMS operating system with limited functionality for software developers aimed at vertical market solutions. Customers are being given the choice of charge option they desire. The increased prices reflect DEC's feeling that customers have been receiving more from the software products than they pay for; the new pricing policy is meant to make the products more attractive, however. Some companies will find it difficult to change software licenses because they have numerous sites. IBM gives up on database link. (will halt development of SQLaccess linking DB2 and Information Management System databases) IBM announces the cancellation of development of SQLaccess, which would have had the ability to link DB2 and Information Management Systems (IMS) databases. SQLaccess was supposed to offer structured query language access from IMS hierarchical databases to information on DB2 databases. The project was cancelled because the resulting product would have been too costly and complicated to implement. IBM will focus on selling DB2 to customers, but will continue to sell IMS products because some companies are still committed to it. Cancellation of the project is expected to make application development easier for users and integrators to choose which database to support. Some observers doubted if the project was ever worthwhile; SQL access to IMS causes a performance drain that is detrimental to the common transaction processing characteristic of IMS. Microsoft builds OS/2 for all. (OS/2 3.0 and 32-bit Windows development plans) (includes related article on OS/2 2.0 and Microsoft Corp plans to develop a new version of the OS/2 operating system and its Windows product. The new OS/2 will use Microsoft's kernel technology called New Technology (NT). NT enables OS/2 to become a multiuser, fully distributed environment. OS/2 3.0 will also support client/server environments on workstations, servers and multiprocessor systems. OS/2 3.0 will support MS-DOS, Presentation Manager and POSIX applications. The new operating system will compete directly with Unix RISC-based systems. Also planned for OS/2 3.0 are features transported from Microsoft's LAN Manager. Windows will be upgraded to a 32-bit environment and have enhanced networking, memory support and applications development. OS/2 3.0 will support IBM's System Application Architecture (SAA), but the new Windows version will not. The new products will not become available before the end of 1992. CSC ends commercial SI drought: wins $25 million deal with energy concern. (Computer Sciences Corp., systems integration, Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) lands a $25 million systems integration pact with Halliburton Co, an energy company. The contract is the latest large commercial deal for CSC since its $20 million pact with Weirton Steel Corp in 1989. CSC beat out Andersen Consulting and Electronic Data Systems Corp for the contract. Both Andersen Consulting and Electronic Data Systems have made large outsourcing deals with energy companies. CSC's CSC Consulting unit will provide Halliburton with a financial management system and other related integration services. CSC Consulting will work with Halliburton's Information Services Center on the energy company's data processing operations. The Information Services Center uses mostly IBM computers. IBM to open SNA to local-area nets: expanding distributed capability is key to client/server schemes. (Systems Network IBM plans to improve its distributed networking strengths by expanding Systems Network Architecture's (SNA) local-area network (LAN) and distributed applications capabilities. SNA will be expanded to include the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) protocol. APPN will allow SNA to handle high-speed broadband and fast-packet features which are used by distributed applications. APPN will also increase integration of LANs into SNA hosts; workstations on a LAN would then be able to communicate over an SNA backbone without host intervention. Use of the APPN protocol will reduce systems administration needs when nodes are added or deleted because it can reconfigure a network automatically. IBM also announces that it plans to add a programming interface for Systems Application Architecture (SAA) for messaging applications. IBM, Andersen share RTC pact: outbid EDS team to supply property asset management system for Fed's S&L bailout. (Andersen IBM and Andersen Consulting win a contract with the Resolution Trust Corp to provide property asset management service relating to the Government's bailout of failed savings and loan associations. The contract is worth $14 million for two years and may be extended to $10.2 million for four years. IBM and Andersen Consulting beat out Electronic Data Systems Corp and Price Waterhouse for the contract. Cooperation between the winners stems from Andersen Consulting's new Business Integration Partner program. IBM will supply hardware, including a 3090 mainframe, and software along with other services. Andersen Consulting will provide systems integration and project management services. IBM and Andersen Consulting will use Lomas Mortgage USA's asset management software. Andersen appoints MIS chief. (Arthur Andersen and Company Ste. Cve., management information systems, Bruce Turkstra) A former Merrill Lynch and Company Inc information systems executive, Bruce Turkstra, is named by Arthur Andersen and Company Ste. Cve. to head its management information systems department. Turkstra now heads Arthur Andersen's Information Systems Support group. The selection of Turkstra marks the first time an outsider has headed Arthur Andersen's MIS department. Turkstra gained experience in financial and outsourcing services while working for Merrill Lynch. Andersen Consulting may provide data processing for its parent company, Arthur Andersen, under Turkstra's direction. The MIS position was vacated by Casey LaVelle, who is nearing Arthur Andersen's mandatory retirement age. EDS gets 5-year oil pact: expects Venezuelan deal to foster more business. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Lagoven S.A.) Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) wins a contract with the Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.'s subsidiary Lagoven S.A. Under the five-year contract, EDS will provide Lagoven with information systems, applications software, consulting and technical training services. Other subsidiaries of Petroleos de Venezuela will have access to services from EDS. The contract with Lagoven is a strategic gain for EDS as it forges inroads to the energy market. EDS has another contract with a South American oil company, Shell Brasil S.A. Petroleos de Venezuela is a major exporter of oil to the U.S. NCR safety system draws customer ire. (automatic public safety system failures) Users of an automated public safety system manufactured by NCR Corp complain of failures. Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co has filed a lawsuit seeking damages it claims stem from failures of the safety system. The system is used around the country by emergency dispatching agencies, county and city police and fire departments. Several private companies and the city of Portland, OR, have settled out of court with NCR. NCR provided systems integration services as well as V8555II hardware and VRX operating software and applications. The systems run on NCR's V and I platforms. The system purchased by Cleveland Electric Illuminating cost almost $1 million and was part of an emergency-preparedness plan for the companies nuclear power plant. LAN alliances abound: large companies team with niche players as market complexity grows. Many large local-area network (LAN) interoperability companies are turning to alliances with smaller firms in order to offer newer and more developed network products. Vitalink Communications Corp has made an equity investment with Systems Network Architecture (SNA)/LAN connectivity solutions supplier Netlink Inc. Cisco Systems Inc has aligned itself with Brixton Systems Inc to acquire that company's SNA routing and NetView interface source codes. Novell Inc and PeerLogic will co-develop PeerLogic's Pipes platform for NetWare. Cabletron Systems Inc has made an agreement with Xyplex Inc to combine Cabletron's intelligent wiring hub technology with Xyplex's terminal server. British Telecommunications PLC and Ungermann-Bass Inc are teaming to offer interoperability between British Telecom's Concert network management system and Ungermann-Bass' NetDirector Open Systems Interconnection LAN management system. Avoiding outsourcing traps: thorough analysis is mandatory. Halper, Mark. Companies considering outsourcing their data center operations should undertake a thorough analysis of their needs, reports Gartner Group Inc. Companies should be aware of hidden costs involved with outsourcing. Vendors may not cite incremental work charges, inflation adjustments or taxes in the proposals they submit. Vendors may also exaggerate savings by overstating a client's internal data processing costs. Gartner Group also advises the creation of backup plans in case the outsourcing customer reduces in size at a later date. Software companies also may charge large transfer fees when an outsourcer takes over data processing. Finally, a prospective customer ought to solicit estimates from several vendors in order to stimulate competitive bidding. Gartner Group estimates that the facilities management market will grow at 33 per cent per year to 1995 when it will be worth $12 billion. Integrators help workstation push: lead commercial transition. McGee, Marianne Kolbasuk. Commercial sales of workstations are increasing partly due to cooperative efforts between systems integrators and workstation vendors. Worldwide commercial workstation sales grew in 1990 by 29.6 per cent compared with overall market growth of 21.5 per cent. Technical sales still lead commercial sales; commercial sales worldwide accounted for 9.7 per cent of the $7.4 billion market in 1990. Workstation sales suffered from economic downturns falling 40 per cent off 1989's sales. Attraction to the workstation in the commercial sector is due partly to client/server environment popularity and the fact that workstations can make disparate systems appear homogeneous to users. Integrators are increasingly working with manufacturers; Andersen Consulting has agreements with DEC and Sun Microsystems Inc. DEC is soliciting partnerships with other integrators and value-added resellers in order to support commercial sales of its VAXstations. Banyan Vines users organize: group wants products for large PC networks. (Banyan Systems Inc.'s VINES network operating system, A Banyan VINES user group called the Network Applications Consortium is formed of 23 corporate and government users of the network management system. The goal of the group is to promote network management products and to make vendors aware of growing microcomputer network demands. Banyan Systems Inc is not a member of the Network Applications Consortium, but it does support the group. The group will call attention to the need for development of groupware, network management and database technologies. The group also cites office software products working across multiple groups of local-area networks as needing increased offerings. The group represents 2,500 servers and 75,000 client nodes across the country. Eventually the group will expand membership beyond VINES users. Stakes and mistakes. (strategic investments) Sedlacek, Scot. Strategic investments have become a popular means for smaller companies to gain access to geographic markets and certain technologies they might otherwise be unable to achieve on their own. This type of investment allows the company to retain ownership control of its products while taking advantage of the investor's marketing and manufacturing strengths. In the first eight months of 1990, 90 strategic investments accounted for over $600 million. There is a fear that Japanese companies are taking U.S. technology away, but emerging companies are acquiring technological applications and market access otherwise unavailable to them. Over half the strategic investments in the U.S were made by U.S. companies. Strategic investments make up under 15 per cent of all U.S. information technology deals. IntelliCorp restates revenue. (changes revenue accounting practice) IntelliCorp Inc changes its revenue recognition policy, resulting in a $3.2 million charge in its first quarter ending in Sep 1990. IntelliCorp will no longer consider revenue at the point of shipment to resellers; revenue will now be recognized when the product is sold to an end user or when the reseller sends cash. Other software companies have turned to the new policies outlined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants including Phoenix Technologies Ltd, Interleaf Inc and Informix Software Inc. IntelliCorp reported for its second quarter ending Dec 1990 a $1.6 million loss on $3.3 million. At the end of 1990, IntelliCorp reported a net profit of $433,000 against revenues of $6.1 million. The outsource resource. (advantages of outsourcing for retailers) Gates, Jack. Outsourcing information systems operations is a means for retail stores to reduce costs and free up revenue during economic downturns. Retailers suffering cash problems can sell their information systems assets to outsourcers, then lease them back. The outsourcer also takes over information systems payroll, freeing up cash for recovery. A retailer alternatively might sell its equipment and transfer its applications to the outsourcer's computers. Outsourcing information systems duties frees up executive managers' time to center on recovery goals. An important element to recovery involves retail customer satisfaction; outsourcing may offer more efficient credit-card verification times. Nynex recasts services group. (Information Solutions Group now consolidated under Worldwide Information and Cellular Service Nynex Corp consolidates its Information Systems Group into its Worldwide Information and Cellular Services Group. The systems integration operations will be handled now by Worldwide Information and Cellular Services Group. Information Systems Group was comprised of Nynex's AGS Computers Inc, BIS Group Ltd and Nynex Computer Services. AGS Computers will be responsible for Nynex's systems integration in the U.S. Nynex hopes that the reorganization will improve its delivery of services and increase its flexibility during harsh economic periods. Nynex predicts an annual growth rate of 15 per cent through 1996. The company will focus its business on specific industries including banking, financial and airport and transportation cellular billing systems. Nynex Business Information Systems Co, Nynex Mobile Communications Co and Nynex International Co are also controlled by Worldwide Information. Lockheed goes civilian: integrator's commitment questioned. (Lockheed Integrated Solutions Co.) Lockheed Integrated Solutions Co is making inroads into the civilian government integration market. The integrator has landed a $153 million office automation contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs for office automation and a $40 million pact with the Department of Health and Human Services' National Caner Institute. These are the first large civilian contracts since it decided to focus on such markets. Analysts are skeptical about parent company Lockheed Corp's decision to move Lockheed Integrated Solutions' headquarters from Fairfax, VA, to Santa Clara, CA, because the new headquarters are far from Washington D.C. Lockheed plans to reopen a Washington area office should the Fairfax move prove to be a mistake. The contract with the National Cancer Institute involves supercomputer integration of a Cray Research Y-MP with high-speed networking, parallel processor and graphics workstations. Novell lining up links to outside world. (Netware 3.11 network operating system to appear, link with IBM's Netview network Computer software industry sources suggest that Novell Inc plans to introduce Netware 3.11 network operating system at the Networld '91 conference in Feb. The enhanced software promotes the connectivity of Novell's products with IBM's NetView network management software. New development strategy at Novell involves enabling Netware management applications to pass alerts to NetView. Novell is reportedly developing products that can also link Netware to the Apple Macintosh, the Network File System from Sun Microsystems Inc, and to a file transfer access and management protocol from Open Systems Interconnect. Microsoft, IBM diverge on OS/2 direction: 32-bit system to move to multiple platforms. (OS/2 operating system development effort) The two developers of the OS/2 operating system, Microsoft Corp and IBM, are proceeding to develop the 32-bit software independently, having agreed to cross-license each other's versions. Microsoft executives insist that although the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is the company's 'target operating system,' they intend to offer OS/2 3.0 for power users. This multiplatform product would be compatible with MS-Windows, MS-DOS, Posix and Presentation Manager. OS/2 3.0 is based on the New Technology kernel. IBM has released OS/2 1.2 and is developing version 2.0. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, applications for the IBM version of OS/2 will be compatible with applications running on the Microsoft version. IBM vows to stick with Presentation Manager. (Microsoft, IBM diverge on OS/2 direction) IBM officials report that the company is firmly in support of the OS/2 operating system and the Presentation Manager graphical user interface for OS/2. This commitment exists despite rumors that development partner Microsoft Corp was abandoning OS/2 and concentrating on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. IBM is developing OS/2 2.0, a portable version of the operating system, which will support applications based on 32-bit OS/2, 16-bit OS/2, MS-DOS and Windows. IBM executives expect the IBM and Microsoft 32-bit OS/2 programs to 'look the same.' Users and IBM leaders hope that more applications designers develop programs for the OS/2 platform. DEC faces rocky road in service shift. (Digital in Transition, part 2)(DEC overhauls support services) (includes related articles DEC is trying to reverse its reputation for sloppiness in the area of support services. Seeking to establish a new corporate identity as a systems integrator and software, networking and services provider, the well-known minicomputer manufacturer needs to be able to work effectively with third-party vendors to insure that the customer's needs are satisfied. DEC is reorganizing its management structure in order to accomplish this goal, creating 18 business units within the company, each accountable for a particular market. DEC's efforts are hindered by technological challenges, including the re-engineering of the VAX architecture, and by recessionary pressures that have led to layoffs. CA users fume over new fees. (Computer Associates International Inc. charges large fees to upgrade customers from VSE to VSE/ESA Customers of Computer Associates International Inc (CA) are infuriated at the charges the company is demanding for upgrading some VSE operating system software to the VSE/ESA 1.1 version. IBM finally is upgrading the VSE operating system after years of neglect, giving CA customers cause to celebrate until they learned they would be charged fees ranging from $1,400 to $11,500 per package by CA to get upgraded versions. CA characterizes VSE/ESA 1.1 as essentially a new (and incompatible) product, but customers conceive of it as an enhanced version of a package they already paid for. Users may be able to postpone upgrading their mainframe computers, yet IBM is discontinuing sales of VSE later in 1991. It is reportedly less expensive to license the upgraded VSE/ESA than it is to maintain older VSE software on IBM computers. Comdisco answers IBM charges; firm appeals to customers, saying IBM Credit Corp. restricts freedom. (lessor of IBM computers Reacting to a lawsuit filed against it by rival IBM Credit Corp, Comdisco Inc, a principal lessor of IBM equipment, appealed to its customers, claiming that IBM seeks to restrict the freedom of customers to sublease computers. IBM's suit alleges that Comdisco illegally subleases and reconfigures equipment that belongs to IBM. Industry analysts interpret IBM's legal action as an attack on the entire third-part market rather than merely as an assault on Comdisco. At least until the case is resolved, customers in the previously freewheeling computer leasing market are expected to become more cautious about their contractual agreements. Users hold off on open systems; recession, lack of software compatibility prevent users from taking risks. Businesses are slowing down their acquisition of open systems equipment in an effort to save money during the ongoing 1991 recession. Potential hardware and software purchasers are also reacting to a low level of software availability on some open systems microcomputer and workstation platforms. The move to an open systems computing environment, in which computers and software from several vendors can cooperate, is often perceived by businesses as being expensive and somewhat risky, especially when linked to a move to the Unix operating system. Many users view a move to a Unix-based operating system as more risky than installing a local area network system running a non-Unix operating system. High-tech battlefield. (Persian Gulf War includes many computer weapons and surveillance systems) As the Persian Gulf War continues, US military commanders are surprised by the resiliency of Iraq's military communications network, which is withstanding considerable bombing by the US coalition attackers. The US bombing missions are dependent on advanced, sometimes old, computer systems for targeting sites in Iraq and for interfering with Iraqi defensive fire. As of late Jan, 1991, the US military claims to have destroyed or disabled one-third of Iraq's command, control and communications facilities. Redundancy and careful positioning evidently preserve much of Iraq's network. Communications cables link many Iraqi command posts housed in underground concrete bunkers. Iraq also uses small ground-level satellite dishes to transmit information. Amtrak follows airline route. (National Railroad Passenger Corp. plans automated yield management system) National Railroad Passenger Corp, or Amtrak, is working with American Airlines Decision Technologies to develop yield management software similar to that used by airlines and the hospitality industry. Yield management programs analyze a company's historical data to gauge patterns of patronage. Such information allows transportation companies to devise what is likely to be a profitable combination of fares for a given day and route. The software, being designed to run under DB2 on an IBM 3090 mainframe computer, should enable Amtrak to begin a practice of overbooking of reserved seats, based on past patterns of customer 'no-shows.' More profitable distribution of fare discounts and effective limits on short rides are other system goals. Panel calls for easing of computer gear exports. (National Academies of Sciences and Engineering and Institute of Medicine The National Academies of Engineering and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine formed a panel to study the rationale underlying continued government regulation of computer exports. The panel's report disparages many export controls on the computer industry, concluding that technological progress and diminishing Cold War tension reduce the need for strict international trade restrictions. The panel observes that many export controls for computer hardware, software and networking equipment are counterproductive, wasteful and threatening to US industry's international competitiveness. The panel's lengthy report also includes suggestions for revising export controls, such as gradual removal or 'sunset' clauses. Packing in the magnetic media: advances are being made to address the needs and demands for greater disk storage. (includes related Technological advances in the design of magnetic media are keeping magnetic disks at the forefront of disk storage, despite competition from new optical disk products. Brier Technology's high-density floppy disk drive accommodates 3.5-inch disks with 1Mbyte to 25Mbyte capacity. The company is developing a 50Mbyte capacity floppy drive as well. Insight Systems Inc manufactures similar high-density floppy disk drives. On the hard disk front, manufacturers are learning to make 2.5-inch drives with over 300Mbytes of storage capacity. Komag Inc can produce ultra high-density internal disks with more than 1Gbyte of storage for 5.25-inch drives. New techniques are also being pursued for magnetic tapes such as 8mm tape for backup purposes. We must take care when computers control war. (Viewpoint) (column) Lecht, Charles P. The incursion of computer technology into the decision-making process is evident in many aspects of life in 1991. It probably has a role in the US government's assessment of whether and when to attack Iraq. But recent computer system failures, and especially the example of the 1988 Black Friday stock market securities sell-off that was largely prompted by unsupervised computer-assisted trading, suggest that there are significant dangers in becoming too dependant on computer analyses. If used to determine whether or not a country should go to war, computerized analysis would be based on many qualitative judgments existing independently of analysis of facts. Strong safety rules that could intervene in a computer-generated decision are crucial for the life-and-death context of war. NTT sets rules for vendors. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp.) (includes related article on future interface developments) Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp (NTT) is presenting vendors with its Multivendor Integration Architecture (MIA), which includes a list of purchasing specifications for software standards. Vendors hoping to sell computer equipment to NTT are required to comply with the standards by Oct 1992. NTT spends up to $1.5 billion annually on information technology, inspiring vendors to follow its guidelines. Analysts interpret the NTT plan as an effort to establish a 'middleware' level of software above the operating system layer and below specific applications. Middleware would render the operating system transparent to a given application, thereby promoting interoperability. Industry observers view NTT's MIA as similar to DEC's Network Application Support strategy. Softbench wins Informix backing for CASE products. (HP Softbench software, Informix Software Inc., computer-aided software HP's Softbench computer-aided software engineering (CASE) package will be used by Informix Software Inc as the basis for its own CASE products. The Informix Opencase environment will consist of Softbench, third-party CASE tools, and the character-based Informix/4GL fourth-generation programming language. Informix will create Opencase/Toolbus, a final product that 'leverages' Softbench's design and permits third-party software components to be added to it. Softbench supports the Open Software Foundation's OSF/Motif graphical user interface. HP licenses the CASE environment to Control Data Corp and other vendors. Scientific data may not be safe: NASA and other federal agencies hit for failing to archive information. (includes related article The General Accounting Office (GAO) claims that NASA and other federal agencies are remiss in safeguarding scientific space data gathered in the course of costly federal projects. A critical GAO report cites examples of failure to archive crucial data, poor storage conditions and loss of stored data. The GAO reports note that 'NASA's archives are largely incomplete for many important missions and contain no data for others.' The GAO determined that NASA has archived less than 60 percent of the data required to document 23 of the agency's 37 most important missions. NASA has evidently failed to come to agreement with investigators about which data to archive. The space agency complains that it has an inadequate budget. General federal policy on archiving is in doubt, since the GAO also criticizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Geological Survey. Airline builds scheduler on client/server model. (American Airlines Inc. uses networked computing architecture) (On Site) American Airlines Inc (AA) is dispensing with its mainframe-based scheduling system in order to establish a client/server architecture based on the Unix operating system. Sabre Computer Systems in a partner in the development effort along with American Airlines Decision Technologies. The new Integrated Capacity Planning System is being designed to also manage maintenance and food service tasks. AA expects to improve efficiency with the new system and its accompanying decision-support tools. The first phase of system installation entails running Oracle Systems Corp's database management software on workstations and file servers from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. The completed system should include 72 schedulers. Altos offers Unix release. (Altos Computer Systems' Unix System V/386 2.0 operating system for multiuser computers) (product The 1991 Uniforum computer industry trade show featured Altos Computer Systems' introduction of its Unix System V/386 2.0 operating system. This product for multiuser computers is touted as providing system throughput improvements of up to 35 percent in addition to enhanced I/O capacity. The company also introduced new multiuser computers based on Intel Corp's 80386SX, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors. AT and T Unix Systems Laboratories and development partner Sequent Computer Systems Inc announced efforts to improve AT and T's Tuxedo System/T transaction monitor for multiprocessing systems. A number of Unix-based applications were also introduced. Latest Crays on campus. (sales of Cray Research Inc.'s supercomputers) (New Deals) Cray Research Inc improves its bottom line with several orders for supercomputers. The University of Texas has a contract for its third Cray product, a Y-MP8 for $20.4 million. This system is to be housed at the Center for High Performance Computing and used for research at the university. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory also has an X-MP, which Cray donated along with needed technical support as part of its education support program. Two government agencies have orders in for Cray systems. France's National Organization of Aerospace Research wants a Y-MP2E as a replacement system for its X-MP. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to purchase a $5.5 million Y-MP2 for research by it and other agencies. Meanwhile, Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence has a 500EA from Floating Point Systems Inc, one of Cray's main competitors. Multiuser DOS: LAN alternative. (local area network) (Analysis) Daly, James. Many companies are avoiding the complexity and expense of installing a local area network (LAN) by using multiuser DOS products instead. Multiuser DOS links microcomputers and dumb terminals to a central processor. This practice is becoming more popular with the advent of powerful microprocessors such as the Intel 80386 and 80486, which can effectively manage multiple DOS sessions. Multiuser DOS architectures enable MIS managers to continue their reliance on familiar DOS applications and commands. Dumb terminals are less expensive than the microcomputers mandated by a full LAN architecture. They also can be operated with stricter security guidelines - dumb terminal users are unable to remove data stored centrally on a host computer. Tempest on the desktop. (Microsoft Corp. and IBM feud over development plans for OS/2 operating system) (Commentary) (column) Development partners IBM and Microsoft Corp are at odds on the future development, maintenance and marketing of the OS/2 operating system. According to some analysts, Microsoft's focus on its successful Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is troubling for IBM. IBM cannot afford to disregard Microsoft, as the software publisher currently dominates the microcomputer software market. Microsoft did not provide binary compatibility for OS/2, so developers intending to design for both systems must develop for Windows first and OS/2 second. The tension between the two companies is worrisome to users and developers who have invested time and money in the OS/2 Presentation Manager interface, which may be overshadowed. Project manager's users cite Windows edition's speed. (Computer Aided Management Inc.'s Viewpoint 4.1 project management software) Computer Aided Management Inc's new Viewpoint 4.1 for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment is a project management software product whose users commend its improved graphics features and speed. Viewpoint 4.1 makes it easier for users to draw complex scheduling graphics that depict worker hours in the form of a chart. Cutting and clipping between Windows applications is better supported, and vertical lines can be easily added to charts in order to promote readability. Users of earlier Viewpoint editions can upgrade to 4.1 for $150. Many new 4.1 users recommend running the package on a computer with an 80386 microprocessor for best performance. Next move up to customers in Amoco's OS/2 plan. (Amoco MIS department waits for business units to request development John A. Chapman, the head of the Information Services Department at Amoco Corp, chooses IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition operating system as the company's operating platform for the future. However, he is waiting for one of the company's business units to request a systems development project based on OS/2. As MIS manager, Chapman is impressed with the operating system's performance and sensitivity for designing mission-critical applications. The MIS department members hope IBM will further develop OS/2 Extended Edition, giving its users the ability to remotely service, manage, update and maintain the system. These developments are especially necessary for Amoco because the firm uses several different kinds of computers, none of which are IBM's. Additional applications are also needed. Lotus decision impact weighed. (Lotus Development Corp. abandons Marketplace: Households consumer demographics data base) Lotus Development Corp has cancelled the release of its Marketplace: Households data base of consumer demographic information after sustained opposition to the proposed CD-ROM product by privacy and consumer rights advocates. Marketplace: Households, priced at $695, was to have contained 120 million US consumers' names, addresses, buying habits and estimated income. Firms planning to use the data base to distribute personal data about individual consumers are disappointed by the decision. Over 30,000 people complained to Lotus, calling on the company to remove their names from the data base and withholding permission for Lotus to sell personal information about them. Other developers of similar data bases expressed more concern about the privacy rights of consumers, especially considering that a software publisher as large as Lotus had to discontinue a product. MCI airs its global strategy. (MCI Communications Corp.) Anthes, Gary H. MCI Communications Corp's new Global Communications Service (GCS) is a group intended to assist US firms in designing and managing international communications networks. GCS gives companies a centralized contact for creating networks that support extensive foreign operations. The program is a result of MCI's surveys of the needs of its largest customers MCI is negotiating with 16 foreign telecommunications carriers to offer GCS. The GCS service, which MCI plans to run in conjunction with Infonet, incorporates systems integration, administration and network management. Each GCS contract carries its own individual pricing structure, although basic service elements provided by MCI and foreign communication service suppliers are priced at standard tariff rates. U.S. E-mail providers close interconnections. (public electronic mail vendors complete X.400 interconnection agreements) All large US public electronic mail (e-mail) providers have reached commercial X.400 interconnection agreements. The progress toward these cooperative agreements was relatively rapid, beginning in 1989 when some e-mail vendors initiated a pilot project. Transmission of messages over X.400 gateways will not become commonplace immediately; its proliferation depends on the experience of vendors and customers. The Electronic Mail Association, pleased with the agreements, hopes to promote international interconnections of e-mail systems and creation of a directory service to support global e-mail. The trade group also advocates connection and support of private e-mail systems. LANs slow downsizing efforts. (lack of powerful local area networks and development tools slows migration from mainframe At a Downsizing Conference sponsored by Digital Consulting Inc, speakers alluded to a slowdown in the migration from mainframe computers to the more cost-effective local area network (LAN) architecture because of a perceived lack of high-performance LANs and development tools. Users complained that many LAN data base management products do not effectively support distributed data base functions. Other conference speakers felt that downsizing was accelerating due to an effort by MIS managers to reduce spending and trim the applications backlog. LAN vendors cited the need to improve the data security and network management aspects of LAN software. Broadband gear on tap. (Teleos Communications Inc. and Ascend Communications Inc. introduce communications controllers) (product Users anxious for the appearance of reasonably priced broadband telecommunications switching services should welcome two new communications controllers from Teleos Communications Inc and Ascend Communications Inc. Teleos' IAP6000 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Access Server and Ascend's Multiband family of communications products can reportedly combine switched 56K-bps connections into larger sections of bandwidth that are to be allocated as needed for applications. The products accept input and transfer bandwidth to videoconferencing systems, networking equipment and private branch exchange (PBX) systems. Teleos markets its controller as a link for token-ring local area networks, while Ascend's product is targeted at traffic from LAN bridges and routers, videoconferencing systems and PBX systems. Securities group signs up for Sprint discounts. (Securities Industry Association contracts with US Sprint Communications Co.) The Securities Industry Association (SIA), a trade organization that represents 600 investment and brokerage companies in the US and Canada, is contracting with US Sprint Communications Co for discounted long-distance voice and data services. The three-year agreement is valued at over $100 million and includes private- and public-line services in addition to the Sprint Virtual Private Network, WATS lines, and incoming 800 services. Securities firms that are members of the association make arrangements directly with US Sprint to obtain the SIA discount. The amount of each firm's savings is contingent upon its combination of network services and its list of telecommunications service providers. Customer service drives ISDN. (Integrated Services Digital Network utilized by support services personnel) (Commentary) The potent combination of computer and data base resources with automatic call distribution technology and the intelligent switching capability of public and private networks can be used to achieve better customer support. Service and support departments spend millions on automatic call distribution, and the market is quickly expanding. Call distribution systems are being combined with new telecommunications technologies such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) to deliver powerful services such as automatic number identification (ANI). ANI can be used by customer service representatives to acquire a caller's file from the corporate data base. Other possibilities include the use of artificial intelligence expert systems to solve equipment problems, and the use of ISDN to deliver voice communications and information from data bases simultaneously during a service request. A conservative road to success: New England's largest supermarket chain has a no-nonsense way of managing IS. (The Stop & Shop The Stop and Shop Companies, New England's largest supermarket firm, has an MIS department that values practicality, conservative management style and cautious innovation. Information resource managers at Stop and Shop seek to provide computer systems and equipment that make each element of grocery shopping as fast and easy as possible for the customer. The department is not eager to downsize its systems, but believes in maintaining a balance between decentralized and centralized computing. MIS workers are unwilling to 'experiment on customers' by excessive testing of new equipment, but Stop and Shop was one of the first food vendors to install point-of-sale scanning equipment in its chain in the early 1980s. VDT liability raises questions. (heath and legal issues related to use of video-display terminals) Although it has not been conclusively determined that exposure to electromagnetic fields emanating from VDT terminals pose health hazards for users, the possibility that the causal relationship will be demonstrated in the future gives companies some incentive to examine their liability. Many large companies, including AT and T, are quite skeptical about the potential for employees winning lawsuits for claims of health problems. Companies are protected by state workers' compensation systems, which are considered by the companies and analysts to be a sort of 'no-fault' insurance that protects employers from large payments and civil liability. A case moves out of the workers' compensation system only if negligence, fraud or malicious conduct on the employer's part can be proved. One AT&T lawyer considers the health risk from VDTs so tenuous that even workers' compensation claims may be denied. Using subcontractors: outside help is in. (includes related article on negotiating contracts) Many private sector companies are now adopting the federal government's practice of hiring a principal contractor and several subcontractors to handle large information systems projects. This trend reflects the fact that many large system design, integration and installation efforts are too complex to be optimally accomplished by a single systems integrator. Yet some MIS managers fear that the participation of several companies can have a negative impact, making a complex situation even more complicated. The process of contract negotiation clearly becomes more formidable. Yet hiring subcontractors enables the main contractor to gain expertise on parts of the project that may otherwise have been mishandled. Meritor opens the integration door; nation's oldest thrift banks on its deepening relationship with EDS. (Meritor Savings Bank Meritor Savings Bank's contract with Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) covers a wide variety of facilities management functions. Under the ten year contract, EDS assumes responsibility for systems development and maintenance, including the areas of data and voice communications, check processing and back-office automation. One result is the movement of Meritor's data center into a regional EDS facility and the proposed conversion of its banking processes to the Integrated Financial System provided by EDS. Meritor officials estimate the outsourcing policy has saved the bank almost $9 million since it was initiated in 1989, helping the institution to move toward greater profitability. Management also believes the contract with EDS is resulting in greater efficiency in MIS. Subcontracts that work well: users say that a good legal pact can be a firm's best friend during projects. Companies planning to hire subcontractors to work on a computer systems integration project are advised to examine carefully the legal aspects of the relationship. Customers should be represented by responsible lawyers able to develop contracts that will hold up in case the project does not. A carefully prepared contract can enable a company to replace a subcontractor that does not fulfill its obligations. In some versions of the outsourcing relationship, a company can negotiate an agreement that permits it to communicate exclusively with the contractor. The contractor is then responsible for all interaction with subcontractors. The new corporate workstation. (future trends for microcomputers in business environment) Future versions of the microcomputer for the business environment should focus not just on speed, but on the more profound goal of improving the way in which users work. Businesses want to justify their hardware acquisitions by the assurance that these computers make workers more creative. In order to do so, microcomputer designs need to more closely parallel the way most people work - jumping from one item to another, working on more than one task at a time. The new microcomputers must permit users to switch between tasks quickly. A common interface for all applications would make this easier. Other desirable features are high resolution screens, mouse-type switching from task to task, and sufficient memory to handle a number of applications before having to page to disk. A workstation put into practice: Dormitory Authority will build off an Apple Macintosh base. (NY agency's workstations) (includes The New York Dormitory Authority has a powerful network of microcomputers that allows users to work on several tasks with relatively little difficulty in switching from one to another. The state agency uses Apple Macintosh microcomputers linked on an Ethernet network. The Macintosh platform is used because it has an intuitive user interface and high consistency among applications. Thus lawyers, accountants, architects, programmers, office staff and project managers can all use the same basic systems including electronic mail. The file formats and availability of large screens are also important to agency workers. Users at the Authority rely on The Wingz spreadsheet software package from Informix Corp as well as Microsoft Corp's Word word processing program as their basic applications. While Oracle plans offense, time flies and money dries. (Oracle Systems Corp. troubled by cash shortage) Software publisher Oracle Systems Corp is undergoing difficulties in maintaining a healthy level of cash reserves. The company has a series of steps to try to avoid a cash shortfall before Feb, 1991, at which time Oracle can again borrow from its banking syndicate. Oracle's accounts receivable are being audited by a group of banks to determine whether further credit will be extended. The syndicate has offered Oracle $170 million of credit, but only $5 million are left to be tapped. The syndicate agreed to renegotiate the terms of Oracle's loans, preventing the company from being in default. In order to maximize its cash, Oracle is offering its customers discounts for quick payment in cash and increasing its late-payment collection efforts. Other steps include requiring payment with 30 days of shipping and charging for consulting. Smart hubs owe it all to LANs; despite economy, LAN boom will ensure continued need for smart hubs. (local area networks, The boom in installations of local area networks (LANs) of computers should have a positive effect on the sales of smart hubs, keeping their manufacturers from worrying too much about the 1991 recession. Smart network hubs are intelligent wiring centers capable of linking dissimilar LANs. In addition, they can provide centralized network management. Because they can connect different types of LANs running over disparate types of cabling, the smart hubs are valuable to large corporations that initially installed LANs separately and from different vendors. Two of the prominent smart hub vendors are Synoptics Communications Inc and Cabletron Systems Inc, each of which reported over $48 million in revenues for the 3rd qtr. Swavely's sudden departure prompts changes at Compaq. (Compaq Computer Corp. North America Pres Michael Swavely) Compaq Computer Corp North America President Michael Swavely's abrupt departure from the microcomputer firm on a six month leave of absence indicates that the company is experiencing a management shakeup related to pricing and marketing strategies. Compaq announced that Swavely's departure has prompted a reorganization of management structure. The overall sales growth for the North America area was never more than 5 percent in 1990, in comparison with growth rates of 50 percent in international revenue, an overall profit increase of 70 percent and a 27 percent sales increase for the quarter ending Dec 31, 1991. Some analysts attribute part of the marketing and pricing problems to Swavely's failure to react to competition from second-tier vendors. Making a move painless and inexpensive. (employee relocation) Crane, Katie. Companies are cutting down on some employee relocation payment packages because of the recession. Nevertheless, most firms recognize the need to provide necessary support to employees, either organized by the employer or delegated to a relocation services company. Most relocation programs provide considerable information to the relocating employee about the nature of the new location. Veteran relocation services providers recommend that relocating employees be given an honest and thorough briefing on the disadvantages of the new location as well as its assets. Employee who relocate into an environment or a job that is quite different from what they have been led to believe tend to suffer erosion in job performance. Relocation services may also provide visits to the new location to find housing, and moving services for the employee's belongings. Packages pinpoint productivity problems. (microcomputer applications measure productivity) Productivity analysis software packages can help information resource managers to identify problems in programmer productivity. These packages measure the size of a project, staff experience, lines of code produced, other demands on MIS staff time and industry-specific benchmarks in order to determine what is impeding the programming staff. One such program is RA-Metrics from Howard Rubin Associates, which costs $45,000 for an unlimited site license. Other productivity software is offered by Quantitative Software Management, Software Productivity Research, and Computer Power Group. MIS managers may be able to apply the results of one productivity analysis to subsequent productivity problems. Refuting sales training myths. (Head of the Class) (column) Porter, Kathleen C. Companies training their sales force to use information systems equipment should take care not to rely on misleading training myths during the process. One such myth is that training salespeople has to be a process of great seriousness. Using humor and fun activities can be the means to tailor technical training for a group of people who tend to be competitive, independent, and motivated by rewards and incentives. Another damaging myth is the notion that older salespeople have difficulty using computers. This is simply an unfounded prejudice. According to yet another myth, salespeople should all be trained together, regardless of level of computer background and expertise. This is not efficient. Sales managers need effective computer training too, even if they have secretaries. OSI delay forcing firms to seek other options. (Open Systems Interconnect network management standards not commercial yet) Users disillusioned with the delay in commercial marketing of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) network management standards are beginning to buy open systems network management products that promise the ability to interoperate with OSI in the future. One such company, National Westminster Bank PLC, is installing Allink Operations Coordinator from Nynex Corp. National Westminster could not go directly to an all-OSI architecture because most of its current network products are not compatible with the standard. National Westminster's decision was affected by its need to curtail the evaluation process in order to prepare for another project. Marine Midland Bank of New York State is also purchasing the Allink software. IBM reveals plans to expand APPN. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) IBM intends to combine its basically hierarchical Systems Network Architecture networks with the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) distributed computing and peer-based communications architecture. By the end of 1991, a common programming interface should be available for APPN and the C language (CPI-C) on additional platforms. CPI-C is an interface specification for the SNA protocol permitting applications to communicate between peers. CPI-C for the OS/2 operating system is scheduled for release late in 1991. A release for the MVS operating system is planned for summer 1991. APPN automates the activities of adding directory functions, network nodes, and routing. These features are already part of the IBM System /36 and AS/400 minicomputers. Intel '486SX' may not catch users' attention. (80486SX microprocessor) Intel may be readying a new 80486SX microprocessor for the 1991 market, but many users are not convinced that a 20-MHz chip lacking the math coprocessor included in Intel's 25-MHz and 33-MHz 80486 products would be desirable. An 80486SX introduction might be part of the manufacturer's strategy of attracting customers away from competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc's 80386 clone products. If Intel does market the 80486SX, IBM and Advanced Logic Research Inc are likely to announce microcomputers based on the microprocessor. The 80486SX chip is expected to be slightly faster than Intel's 80386DX. Ex-VMS guru leads push to port OS/2 to RISC systems. (David Cutler of Microsoft) Microsoft Corp announces it will begin licensing a portable version of OS/2 3.0 for use on Intel and Reduced-Instruction-Set Computer (RISC) platforms. OS/2 3.0 will be radically different from previous versions of the operating system, with a completely rewritten kernel designed by David Cutler, creator of the VMS operating system. The new kernel will not be based on Carnegie-Mellon's Mach multiprocessing operating system as many observers had predicted. Instead it will be completely redesigned with four application programming interface subsystems providing backward compatibility to existing applications built for OS/2 versions 1 and 2, MS-DOS, MS-Windows and Posix. Analysts speculate that one RISC platform likely to be supported is Mips Computer Systems' RISC architecture. Low-end DECstation successor on way. (DEC DECstation 4500) (product announcement) DEC is expected to introduce a successor to its DECstation 2100 and 3100 low-end workstation models. The new DECstation 4500 will be based on Mips Computer Systems' 33-MHz R3000-A microprocessor and will have a base price of $5,000 for a diskless system with a color monitor. The new 4500's will be available by the end of Spring 1991. Analysts say the new systems are needed to shore up DEC's low-end Reduced-Instruction-Set Computers (RISC)/Ultrix lineup, which is losing market share to other vendors. The new 4500's will also feature an upgrade option, available in 1992, that will involve a daughterboard swap for the new Mips' R4000 CPU, which will run at from 50 MHz to 100 MHz and will have true 64-bit architecture. Rdbstar project casts doubts on Ultrix SQL. (DEC's efforts to market Rdbstar across multiple operating systems) DEC's program to develop its own distributed database system across multiple operating systems places the future of its Ultrix SQL database in jeopardy. Ultrix SQL is an Ingres database clone that comes included as a run-time license with the Ultrix operating system. DEC's new database system, known as Rdbstar, will not be available until 1993 at the earliest, but at that point DEC will probably drop the Ingres system and find a way to move Ultrix SQL users to the new system. The new database system will initially run on Ultrix according to analysts, and then DEC will begin porting it to other operating systems. Analysts point out that Rdbstar could eventually make DEC's Rdb system for VMS obsolete as well. DEC delivers $135,000 electronic mail carrier. (Enterprise Messaging Server 2.0) (product announcement) DEC introduces version 2.0 of its Enterprise Messaging Server (EMS), a hardware/software combination for electronic mail service over large networks. The $135,000 system uses the EMS software, a VAXserver 3100 20e with 16Mbytes of RAM and two 104Mbyte RZ23 disk drives. EMS provides a backbone for DEC's Network Application Support Mailbus Message Router and Gateway services in an E-mail system. The new version of EMS includes Mailbus Data Collector, Mailbus Directory Registrar, Mailbus distributed directory service Rapid Replicator, Mailbus Monitor, Mailbus Directory Synchronizer and Mailbus Directory Query modules. The new version of EMS comes out just six months after the initial product introduction. CMIP to change net management. (Common Management Information Protocol)(Closer Look) Observers believe that a new network management protocol standard being developed by the International Standards Organization will replace methods based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The new Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) will be more robust than current systems and will cover nearly all areas of network management including physical faults, file operations, security breaches, configuration data and performance accounting. While SNMP uses flat files, CMIP uses object oriented descriptions enabling network managers to set parameters for the system to monitor. Observers say SNMP probably will remain the dominant protocol until at least 1995. Microsoft Windows 3.0 X server to support DECnet. (Visionware's XVision 3.2, 4.0) (product announcement) Visionware Ltd introduces version 3.2 of its XVision software package, with version 4.0 due out only two months later. The XVision package allows X windows users with VMS or Ultrix servers to run X windows applications concurrently with Microsoft Windows 3.0 applications. Users can copy, cut and paste between applications on the two environments while using the Open Look, Motif or MS-Windows graphical user interfaces. XVision 3.2 will operate over DECnet as well as TCP/IP networks. Visionware states it is releasing the interim version 3.2 in order to immediately meet customer demand for color capabilities. Version 4.0 will include the color capabilities as well as updated fonts, pixel-perfect drawing and extensions for making square windows. DEC reaches out to AT&T under CIT program. (DECagw, Computer Integrated Telephony) (product announcement) DEC introduces DECagw, a $50,000 telephone management application development tool that expands DEC's Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT) system to include AT and T PBXes. The new tools add to DEC's telephone system compatibility with Northern Telecom and Rolm, two other main manufacturers of PBX equipment. With DECagw, companies using AT and T PBXes can manage data exchange from AT and T's Definity Communication Systems to applications running on DEC's VAX/VMS environment. With DECagw users can create applications for call transfer tracking, automatic number identification, dialed number identification services and outgoing call management. Enhanced version of Pathworks to be announced at NetWorld. (DEC product announcements) DEC will introduce a new release of its Pathworks network software that will provide improved support for microcomputers running Microsoft Windows 3.0. The enhancements to Pathworks will include improved support for LAN Manager 1.1 as well as the relocation of certain DOS drivers to extended memory, thereby freeing memory for applications. In other news, DEC will release DECquery, a software package that allows microcomputer users to download Rdb files using an SQL interface. DEC also announces it is reducing prices on some of its DECstation product line, and it will introduce two new microcomputers based on 20-MHz Intel 80386 microprocessors. The DECstation 320+ and 320sx will be priced at $4,010 and $3,375 respectively. Two network management suppliers sign up to write access modules for DECmcc package. (Network Computing Inc., Technically Elite DEC announces that two more companies have committed to joining its DECmcc (management control center) Strategic Vendor Program. With the addition of Technically Elite Concepts Inc and Network Computing Inc, there are now 17 third party vendors supporting DEC's Enterprise Management Architecture. Both firms will write access modules linking their particular network management packages with DECmcc, enabling DECmcc network manager to manage devices linked to the other management packages. Technically Elite Concepts will create an access module for its Network Professor system that manages Ethernet networks from VAX/VMS hosts. Network Computing Inc will create a module for its LANAlert Network Management System for NetWare networks. DEC access to gallium-arsenide research expands. (Tech Trends) Bowen, Ted Smalley. With the merger of Triquint Semiconductor into Gigabit Logic, a firm partially owned by DEC, DEC should have access to research into gallium-arsenide (GA) semiconductor technology. Gate arrays and circuits made using GA technology are up to three times faster than those made using silicon. The use of GA technology to build entire systems is still several years away, but in the near future GA will appear in strategic architectural locations to break bottlenecks in applications such as LAN interfaces, graphics interfaces and dynamic RAM drivers. Analysts say that some GA integrated circuit companies will make significant market inroads in niches such as telecommunications, satellite communications and supercomputer gate arrays. Dilog links ESDI drives to SCSI buses. (Enhanced Small Device Interface, Small Computer Systems Interface, Dilog Corp.'s SA607, Dilog Corp introduces the SA607 and the SA617, caching devices that enable two Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) disk drives to operate from one Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) bus. The SA607 with 2Mbytes of internal cache memory is priced at from $1,500 to $2,900, while the SA617 with 4Mbytes of cache is priced at from $1,750 to $2,900. The controllers include embedded SCSI and ESDI adapters along with Smart Shadow, Dilog's method of formatting the second ESDI drive to shadow the the first drive while staying 180 degrees out of sync. The two controllers can link the twin ESDI drives either as a shadowed pair, as separate logical units or as concatenated as a single unit. NCD implements Motif-based window manager on X terminal. (Network Computing Devices Inc.'s NCDware 2.3) (product announcement) Network Computing Devices Inc introduces NCDware 2.3, an enhancement of the firm's X window server software. NCDware allows up to eight simultaneous terminal emulation sessions enabling users to mix X window applications with non-X applications. NCDware uses the Motif graphical user interface and the software itself resides on the X terminal rather than on the host. Company officials claim that by placing the software on the terminal it reduces the load on the host and on the network. NCDware on the terminal uses 100Kbytes of memory compared with 1Mbyte if it were on the host. New features on the latest release include support for the MIT Magic Cookie-1 security software as well as a remote reset feature. DEC rings up major system sales; unveils DECcashier. (retail sector, point of sale terminal) (product announcement) DEC announces two large retail contracts and introduces DECcashier, a new point-of-sale terminal. Toys 'R' Us has purchased 1,300 MicroVAX 3100s to be installed in over 700 of its stores for duties such as payroll, credit authorizations and price checks. CVS, a drugstore chain, has purchased 1,300 DECstations for use in its 1,300 stores handling communications, payroll and daily cash tracking. DEC claims the contracts are worth some $16 million and are the result of a concerted marketing effort in the retail area. DEC's latest retail product, the $3,400 DECcashier, has a 14-inch monochrome monitor, full keyboard, 40-column printer, dot-matrix customer display, and optional scanner and magnetic strip reader. Joiner adds three features to SNA file transfer package. (Joiner Associates Inc.'s Jnet 3.5) (product announcement) Joiner Associates Inc introduces Jnet 3.5, the 10th version of the firm's communications software linking DEC VAXes with IBM Systems Network Architecture networks. Jnet runs on the VAX and emulates a Systems Network Architecture (SNA) Network Job Entry node. Jnet can transfer files to several IBM platforms including DOS/VSE, VM and MVS. The latest release of Jnet features multiple transmission streams for improved throughput, a documented application programming interface (API) to enable users to create applications to run on top of Jnet, and VAXcluster transparency to allow users to send messages to an entire VAXcluster. BMDP adds graphics, windows to statistical software. (BMDP Statistical Software Inc.'s BMDP for X Windows) (product BMDP Statistical Software Inc introduces BMDP for X Windows, a port to reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC) platforms of the popular statistical software. Company officials say the addition of graphics capabilities brought by the X windows standard will greatly enhance the statistical analysis capabilities of the software. The software includes 44 statistical programs, and it makes full use of windowing techniques for input, output and graphics rendering. Beta testers say the statistical software running on the RISC/Ultrix platform is nine times faster than on the VAX/VMS system. BMDP is making the software available through a lease scheme that places the price at $750 per year for academic users and $1,500 for commercial users. LAN opportunities using multiport bridges. (local area networks) (Editorial/Opinion) (tutorial) Multiport bridges have only been available since 1990, but they create so many new possibilities among Ethernet/802.3 configurations that design criteria for 802.3 LANs must be revised. Multiport repeaters have already been used for many years, and they allow expansion at reasonable cost, but there are limitations in some configurations, and there is a need for multiport bridges, especially in local area network (LAN) configurations. Multiport bridges can provide multiconnected, redundant connections, and they are cost-effective for networks with many systems, but configuration using multiport bridges must be carefully considered so that the bridges are used to their maximum potential. recovery time, easier installation, and more flexible expansion potential. Network intelligence: NetVisualizer from Silicon Graphics makes it easy to clue in on a network's troubles. (Software Review) Silicon Graphics' NetVisualizer is recommended for network managers who already have an investment in Silicon Graphics' workstations, but because of its relatively high price other managers may want to look elsewhere. NetVisualizer's software runs only on Silicon Graphics' Iris 4D workstations, with NetVisualizer software costing an additional $8,000, and $4,000 more for the Data Station software. NetVisualizer's strongest asset is its intuitive graphical user interface and easy-to-understand documentation. There are four major programs within NetVisualizer: NetLook provides a graphical representation of the network; NetGraph gives a graphical rendering of network utilization; NetSnoop captures and decodes network transmissions; and Analyzer provides protocol decoding. NetVisualizer is not the most feature-filled monitoring tool on the market, and it is slowed drastically when more than one program is used at once. Animated future on the horizon for desktops. (multimedia computing, Planning Technology Decisions) The promise of multimedia technology is so appealing that even though there are still significant technological problems that must be solved before it is a legitimate market force, nearly all major players in the computer industry are developing multimedia products. Market forecasters project that multimedia software will increase from 14 percent of all software sold in 1991 to 37 percent, or $7.9 billion by 1995. Analysts say that Apple is three to four years ahead of other manufacturers in multimedia technology, but that IBM, DEC and others are closing fast. IBM and Microsoft are teaming up once again to set standards for multimedia software development. DEC is likewise banking on developing its DECstation 5000 with its 100M-bps Turbochannel bus as a multimedia platform. High-technology defense: first major tests under fire. (Update: electronics in the Gulf; Desert Storm) Advanced defense electronics systems are undergoing their first tests under actual combat conditions in the Persian Gulf. Early reports seem to indicate that systems are performing at or above expectations, and observers are already conjecturing that these successes will provide a major public relations boost for such systems as Grumman Corp's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, Texas Instrument's high-speed anti-radar homing missile (HARM), and General Dynamics Corp's Tomahawk cruise missiles. There is general agreement that the length of the Gulf war will be a mitigating factor in the impact of these early successes on actual Pentagon spending, however. Electronics already accounts for some 40 percent of the Defense Department's research, development and procurement budget; an early victory would serve to increase the stature of electronic weaponry among those with decision-making power. A drawn-out conflict, in contrast, could exhaust the Pentagon's budget, and could actually result in cuts in electronic defense purchases. Overall, a short war will be better for the economy, but no matter how short it might be, the recession will not end overnight. Remaining competitive: a test of structure. (U.S. - Japanese competition in the semiconductor field) Much of the tension within the US semiconductor industry and between the industry and its Japanese competitors can be attributed to a flaw in the structure of the US computer industry. The industry is divisible into three sectors: computer companies, semiconductor manufacturers, and makers of semiconductor equipment and materials. But the capitalization levels associated with remaining competitive in the semiconductor sector have risen to the point that existence as a 'pure-play' semiconductor manufacturer, i.e. one that has no business other than semiconductor production, is no longer economically feasible. In comparison, the Japanese computer industry is vertically structured; all Japanese semiconductor manufacturers are divisions of larger computer, telecom, or consumer electronics companies, a structure that ironically resembles IBM, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer. While the horizontal structure of the US computer industry is a handicap to semiconductor manufacturers, it is beneficial to US computer companies. Consequently, computer manufacturers must assist semiconductor manufacturers in meeting the challenge. Industry leaders including Sun, MIPS and Hewlett-Packard are already making such moves, either through licensing agreements or through provision of foundry services. Novell sets its sights on corporate networking. (includes a related article on Microsoft's corporate networking plans and a One of Novell executive's Ray Noorda's first moves was to refocus the firm's development efforts on local area network software. That move has more than paid off; the company's NetWare product line holds approximately a 60 percent share of the network operating system marketplace and one analyst likens the position of NetWare in the networked microcomputer arena to that of MS-DOS among standalone micros. Novell will continue to produce some key hardware components. Now Novell will go head-to-head with Microsoft as it seeks to establish NetWare as the dominant connectivity product at all levels of corporate computing. To do so will require a greater involvement in service and support, and Novell is addressing this larger commitment by adding a level to its independent reseller structure. So-called 'Platinum' level dealers must have at least two Certified NetWare Engineers (CNEs) at each branch and expertise in wide area connectivity. Platinum dealers will have exclusive distribution rights to the most sophisticated NetWare products. The driving force for networking projects will still have to come from systems suppliers and consultants, and Novell has formed working relationships with the major players in these areas. Materials Research gets a new lease on life. (buyout by Sony opens new doors for semiconductor production equipment vendor; includes Materials Research Corp (MRC) has derived some significant benefits from its Oct 1989 buyout by Japanese conglomerate Sony Corp. MRC was founded in 1957 to develop equipment and techniques for the commercialization of sophisticated materials, the company produced the first commercial sputtering system in 1964. But the company fell on hard times in the 1980s, losing its position as number one vendor of sputtering equipment experiencing the failure of several key product lines. By 1988, debt exceeded equity, and traditional sources of financing were reluctant to become involved in long-term strategic plans. Long-time customer Sony acquired the firm for $14 per share, and assumed the company's debt. The acquisition has provided MRC with technical expertise, capital funding, and the market credibility of being backed by a $16-billion multinational corporation. Sony's policy of 'global localization' allows the firm to operate largely independently, although long- and short-term plans are reviewed with the parent company. Sony in turn looks to MRC for expertise in areas that include thin-film deposition. MRC president Garrett Pierce feels the threat to the US electronics industry posed by Japanese acquisitions is overrated. Business lessons from an entrepreneur. (Matthew Lorber, founder of five firms since 1961, offers advice on starting a business in Matthew Lorber, founder of five companies including Analog Devices Inc, offers observations on how the environment for start-up companies has changed since the early 1960s, when he cofounded both Solid State Instruments and Analog Devices. Solid State, founded in 1961, was begun with capitalization of just $9,000, provided by Lorber and cofounder Ray Stata and a third investor. Start-up costs today are much higher, and will most likely come from venture capitalists, who have grown wary of start-ups because of lessons learned in the 1980s. To win funding, founders must be able to show what differentiates their product from the masses and what will maintain that difference. Lorber offers the following advice to would-be entrepreneurs: start with superior technology; employ superior personnel to produce and market that technology; have a consistent product strategy; stick to your area of expertise; do not release a product until it is fully ready for market; find a viable market niche; keep an eye open for new, inventive applications for the product; watch for opportunities to become a global player. Small U.S. companies look to Europe for boost in sales. Berkman, Barbara N. Small US electronics manufacturers are attempting to gain a foothold in the European market, where they hope the weakened US dollar will drive sales up and help them weather the current domestic recession. Such firms face a number of obstacles, including local-content rules, language barriers, and the necessity of convincing European buyers that US goods offer superior quality at lower prices. US participation in the 1990 Electronica trade show in Munich, Germany, was up 37 percent over that in 1988. Five US firms that participated in Electronica 1990 are profiled, with particular attention paid to their strategies and the problems they face in trying to penetrate the European market. Rush to Eastern Europe leaves bargain hunters disappointed. ( taking advantage of the emerging market will take time and Western firms that expected to make a quick profit in the emerging Eastern European market have been disappointed. There is no quick money to be made; instead, long-term investments must be made, with a return only after five years, according to one executive with a Finnish firm that trades with the Soviet Union. Problems awaiting the unwary include revenue erosion due to falling currency values, rigid quality and infrastructure requirements, and the collapse of Comecon, the trade network that had supported artificially high prices based on the ruble. On the manufacturing side, would-be investors face a scarcity of technicians to run and maintain plants and production methods best described as archaic. Finally, the information available regarding such statistics as gross national product is unreliable at best. Potential investors in Eastern Europe are advised to use local agents wherever possible; be prepared to spend some time educating local partners about basic free-market principals; provide turnkey systems and servicing; and formulate a strategy early, exploring the possibility of exporting to Eastern Europe without setting up local manufacture and being sure to attach brand names to any products that will also be marketed in the West. Japan logs a downturn in electronics spending. Doe, Paula. Capital spending by Japanese electronics firms has slowed significantly, responding to rising costs of capital, a slowdown in the global semiconductor market, and bleak economic outlooks for the US and several European countries. Some analysts predict that this is only the beginning of spending cutbacks in the electronics industry; Mitsubishi Electric Corp cut its total capital spending for the fiscal year ended in Mar 1990 and expects to make even further cuts in the current fiscal year. This trend is in stark contrast to Japanese industry as a whole, where capital spending is expected to grow by some 16 percent. Despite the trend, Japanese electronics firms will out spend all US firms except IBM. Reasons for the cutback vary. The market dominance of Japanese semiconductor companies has reduced the aggressive competition that fueled investments in earlier years. Another reason is that capital in Japan is no longer as cheap as it once was, and producers may have reached the limits of what they can afford. The investment required to produce memory chips increases with each new generation, yet chip prices are constrained by the low cost of earlier generations. Semiconductor investments will remain static at best, a fact that may lead some companies to opt out of the increasingly costly market. Compact gigabyte devices squeeze out larger models. (5.25-inch drives replacing 8-inch units in new designs) Volume shipments, high performance, and aggressive pricing of 5.25-inch disk drives are making significant inroads into the arena formerly dominated by larger form factor drives. The target market for these devices spans a range of systems from high-end desktop units to mainframes, and is expected to grow to about $6.4 billion by 1993. In comparison, shipments of 8-inch drives are expected to peak in 1992. The so-called 760-megabyte (Mbyte) market is considered by far the largest opportunity for gigabyte-capacity 5.25-inch vendors. Much of the market has already been snapped up by 1.2Gbyte drives, leaving some doubt about the future of the 1.6Gbyte drives now in production. Additionally, at least one vendor is already shipping 2Gybte drives in volume. Some vendors see the 1.2Gbyte drives as a bridge from 760Mbyte to 1.6Gbyte drives. The widespread availability of the small computer systems interface (SCSI) among small form factor storage peripherals directly benefits the 760Mbyte market, and the latest version, SCSI-2, offers performance capabilities close to that of storage module device (SMD) interface devices that dominate the 8-inch drive market. Factory management systems bring planning to the plant floor. Burrows, Peter. Goals such as quality control and time-to-market dates must be embedded within the manufacturing process to guarantee they will be met, and vendors of factory management systems contend that they have the answer. These packages, also called shop-floor control systems and manufacturing execution systems, allow plant supervisors to observe and control many aspects of a production line in real time, filling a gap left by traditional computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) packages. The market for such packages is expected to grow at a rate of 30 percent annually through 1993. Electronics companies, particularly semiconductor firms, are leading the movement toward adoption of these systems. In addition to improving the efficiency with which the shop floor is run, customers also report quality improvements resulting from the use of these packages. Distribution throughout the factory makes the systems useful as repositories for statistical process control (SPC) data, and others use them to ensure correct job performance. A legitimate factory management industry is beginning to emerge, and some companies are expected to come to dominate the market. Microsoft's 32-bit move: operating system will run Windows, OS/2 Unix applications. (developing OS/2 3.0)(includes related article Microsoft Corp has announced a new software package called OS/2 3.0 that will allow users to run Windows, OS/2 and Unix applications concurrently on one microcomputer or server. The new software is more than just an upgrade of OS/2. It is part of Microsoft's plan to move the operating software base for microcomputers from 16 bits up to 32 bits by taking the 16-bit Windows graphical user interface up to a 32-bit implementation. The new system will also work with Posix applications and will offer features such as support for distributed computing, fault tolerance, and security. Microsoft also discussed its NT-OS/2, a developmental version of OS/2 that will be portable across different hardware platforms. Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates says that Microsoft's chief priority in the new operating system is portability and he added that Microsoft may license, port or sell the operating system kernel for other platforms. OS/2 3.0 is slated for 1992 release. MIPS makes a 64-bit march on the market. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc. developing R4000 microprocessor) MIPS Computer Systems Inc has introduced the first full 64-bit RISC architecture. The architecture, called R4000, is most unusual, according to MIPS Chmn and CEO Robert Miller, for its 32-bit to 64-bit path. MIPS achievement is particularly notable for its balanced approach to achieving a nearly 100-MIPS performance rating and its strong price/performance ratio. The R4000 is a fully 64-bit architecture that uses 64-bit addresses, registers, buses and execution units, yet also executes unmodified 32-bit code from the MIPS R3000 and R6000 product lines. MIPS officials are convinced that their customers need the 64-bit capabilities, despite the fact that in the current market all the competitors and all the codes are 32 bit. MIPS still has some work to do to complete the architecture, including developing a Unix kernel that can manage both 32-bit and 64-bit tasks. Ramtron taps ferro film for non-volatile DRAM. Wirbel, Loring. Ramtron Corp has announced a chip that will take advantage of the company's unique ferroelectric-material technology. The device, which functions as a conventional DRAM, is also capable of retaining its data when it loses power. Ramtron uses ferroelectric film to form the DRAM cells' storage capacitor. The capacitor can operate normally, requiring periodic refresh to retain data, or it can be polarized to form long-lasting bistable storage elements when power is removed. When the power is returned, the capacitors return to their normal, linear state. Ramtron is sending out an evaluation board of the 4K-bit memories that sells for $4,995 and includes 16 separate FMx 1208 memories. Ramtron still has some work to do on the device. The evaluation parts do not have on-board refresh and Ramtron plans to multiplex some I/O for different addressing characteristics. At Buscon: VITA vetoes SBus. (Delegates deem daughterboard dictum 'divisive')(Buscon West/91, VME International Trade Association) Delegates at the Buscon West/91 conference were unable to standardize on a daughterboard interface for VMEbus and Futurebus. The VME International Trade Association's technical committee decided that a standard for the VMEbus would be virtually useless, since an estimated 22 daughterboard, or mezzanine, buses already are available in the marketplace. They felt that a standard for the still young Futurebus would be useful, but its usefulness would be outweighed by the political damage a standard would cause. The decision was a setback for the SBus, which many felt was a strong contender for the standard. Other participants felt that SBus was an inappropriate standard. Ithaca, NY-based Ironics VP Ed Schulman believes that the SBus is not fast enough for high-end applications. Another Ironics spokesman said that no single interface can meet everyone's needs. Apple seeks FCC nod for new RF data link. (Federal Communications Commission) Apple has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval of a type of wireless data communications that Apple believes could establish an international wireless data communications standard. The category, which Apple has named Data Personal Communications Services (Data-PCS), would be made available to all computer makers. The filing is the end result of a multiyear study by Apple during which user networking needs were studied. If the category is approved, it will enable wireless communications at speeds up to 10M-bps and at distances of up to 150 feet. The Apple proposal follows similar proposals from Motorola Inc and NCR Corp, but Apple's is unique in that it suggests using a part of American RF spectrum, a mobile communications UHF voice band. Apple believes that the success of its plans hinges on fast approval from the FCC. Transistor pioneer dies. (John Bardeen) (obituary) Costlow, Terry. John Bardeen, the last surviving member of the trio that invented the transistor, died of a heart attack at the Harvard Medical Center in Boston. Bardeen was the first person to win two Nobel prizes in the same field, one for his work on transistors and on for the theory on superconductivity. The other two members of the trio, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, died in 1987 and 1989, respectively. Shockley took credit for inventing the transistor, but Bardeen and Brattain invested the first point-contact transistor, which exhibited minority carrier injection. Shockley added his name when the device was first demonstrated and he helped advance the product to a more marketable form. Bardeen once said that his work in superconductivity was more rewarding than his work with transistors, despite the fact that the transistor has had a much greater influence on society. Hydra ships Mac-compatible PC card. (Hydra Systems Inc.) (product announcement) Hydra Systems Inc has introduced the $995 Hydra One, a hardware emulation of the Apple Macintosh computer that works on any host IBM-compatible platform. The product uses Xilinx-programmable gate logic elements, which act to emulate the logic functions of the Motorola 680X0-based Macintosh products. The Hydra One offers users nearly twice the speed of the Apple Mac Classic system, half the MIPS rating of 68020- and 68030-based entry level Macs, the ability to add on RAM and ROM, and the ability to use PC peripherals such as modems, keyboards, and mice with Macintosh software. Hydra One's primary advantage is that it offers concurrency between Mac and PC platforms. Either system can be operated at full processing speed and data can be shared using the host PC systems bus and disk drives. Maximum RAM capacity is 4Mbytes and users must supply their own Macintosh ROMs from existing equipment. Although these ROMs cost only about $125, Apple has begun to tighten the supply by encouraging dealers to swap ROMs back to Apple for credit. GI, MIT team up for FCC HDTV test. (General Instrument Corp., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Federal Communications General Instruments Corp (GI) and MIT have announced the formation of the American Television Alliance. This announcement, which may affect the FCC's plan to start testing six rival HDTV technologies in spring 1991, is a joint effort aimed at winning approval from the FCC for an all-digital HDTV standard. The alliance could slow down the FCC's test plans because the FCC may have to make changes to its advanced standards format converter, its most important testing tool. These changes would result from any last-minute changes made by GI and MIT to their previously-submitted proposals. Already, MIT has discarded its plans to develop a mixed analog and digital HDTV system in favor of GI's all digital approach. The alliance will allow both MIT and GI to reap the rewards of HDTV if their standard is approved. HP gives its EDA-tool users a way out. (phasing out Electronic Design Automation tools) Hewlett-Packard Co took its first step toward moving out of the EDA-software business by announcing its EDA Transition Program. Under the program, HP will support its EDA tools until 1997 and will provide translation services for participating EDA vendors such as Cadence Design Systems, Mentor Graphics, and Racal-Redac. HP developed the program to safeguard its customers' investments in HP EDA software and to allow its customers to gradually migrate to different vendors. HP will provide a release of its EDA tools in the summer of 1991 and another release in 1992, but users should not expect major improvements in the tools themselves. In 1992, the tools will move into what HP terms "support life status" for the following five years. This means that the company will no longer track future platforms or operating systems, but will support the products and fix bugs. In 1997, all support will come to an end. Darpa targets high-definition again. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has issued a second major round of RFPs (Request for Proposals) but has limited the request to requirements needed for military applications. The first set of RFPs, in 1989, caused a great deal of controversy. Congress held hearings on the subject and Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher claimed that his agency's highest priority was HDTV. The recent proposal is spread across seven research areas: displays, manufacturing equipment, display enabling technologies (such as materials and manufacturing processes), storage devices, processors, imagers, and signal distribution. Darpa also is interested in ideas about integrating such equipment into pilot and full-scale manufacturing plants. The amount of money available for the requests is estimated to be slightly less than $75 million. Chip framework agreed to: Japan, U.S. move closer to semi-trade accord. The current five-year US-Japanese Semiconductor Trade Agreement expires in Jul 1991 and US officials are already beginning to work on a new agreement that will hopefully increase market share for foreign-based suppliers. The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) says that it basically supports this increased market share. The Semiconductor Industry Association and the Computer Systems Policy Project have also proposed an elimination of the fair market value system. MITI cautiously supports this, but officials added that they cannot guarantee any certain market share. MITI also opposes the use of sanctions by the US in the event that market share does not rise as anticipated by US officials. In the Jul-to-Sep 1990 quarter, foreign-based semiconductor companies held 13.1 percent of the Japanese market, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics council. Parsytec partners to push parallel. (parallel processing) Woolnough, Roger. Parsytec GmbH is working to increase the use of parallel processing by cooperating with a number of different scientific and industrial partners. The joint efforts are designed to develop practical solutions to end user problems. For example, Parsytec recently opened a parallel-processing center with the University of Glasgow, Scotland. The center will investigate new optoelectronic devices, research the miniaturization limits of transistors, and develop new logic devices based on quantum mechanic interference of electron waves. Parsytec managing director Falk-Dietrich Kuebler says that massively parallel systems can compete successfully against vector supercomputers. He believes that massively parallel systems offer a better practical application performance and a better price/performance ratio. Synopsys set for round 2. (Synopsys wins the Application Specific Integrated Circuit-logic synthesis contest) Synopsys Inc has achieved a market share of 80 percent to 90 percent in the ASIC-logic synthesis market, but the company still faces strong competition in 1991 from vendors such as Mentor Graphics Corp, Cadence Design Systems Inc, and Viewlogic Systems Inc. Synopsys's market share translates into about $26 million of the estimated $30 million integrated circuit-synthesis market. These figures do not include PLD-synthesis tools. Logics synthesis allows designers to create complex integrated circuits and ASICs from high-level descriptions using hardware-description languages. Officials from the market research firm Dataquest Inc estimates that the market will experience compound annual growth rates of 60 percent per year between 1991 and 1995, with the 1991 market exceeding $50 million. Synopsys's growth is in part due to the fact that it signed ASIC vendors as partners. The company also supports standards, such as Unix, X Window, and the Verilog and VHDL hardware-description languages. Intel to spend up to $1B on new capacity in 1991. Thompson, John. Intel Corp plans to spend between $800 million and $1 billion to increase its semiconductor-manufacturing capacity in 1991. Intel will use to money to expand its facilities in New Mexico and elsewhere, upgrade its current 0.8-micron capacity, and invest in its first 8-inch-wafer facilities. Financial analysts at the meeting where Intel announced its plans were very concerned about the effect the spending would have on Intel's gross margins, this despite Intel's balance sheet, which shows a cushion of at least $2 billion in cash. Intel executives conceded that they may be misreading the market, but they feel confident about their reasoning and confident that Intel would have a positive cash flow for 1991. Intel supported its spending by showing graphs that illustrate capital spending by different companies in the industry. Although Intel has remained close to the industry average throughout the 1980s, the top range of its proposed 1991 expenditures puts it above the rest of the industry in capital spending. Whither tech? (The Business of Technology) (column) Rappaport, Andy. The computer software industry is becoming the heart of the computer industry, as software increasing becomes the part of the system where the user perceives value, and hardware is relegated to component status. For example, Microsoft Corp's Windows environment and its MS-DOS operating system define the computer for most microcomputer users, who consider the processor in their buying decision only after they decide on a computing environment. In the technical workstation market hardware is also less important than it once was, due to the prevalence of workstation clones and the feature-packed Unix operating system. Even mainframe users find that the underlying hardware architecture is hidden by layers of software and operating systems. Most users now access mainframes through Windows or Unix-based operating environments that conceal the fact that they are moving through a number of different networks and databases. The computer business is now defined by a company's ability to manipulate what happens on the screen, not by what is inside the computer. Control EEs get grip on chaos. (electronic engineers)(mathematical theory of chaos) Researchers at the Naval Surface Warfare Laboratory have experienced a breakthrough on the mathematical theory of chaos. The breakthrough is resulting in a new branch of control theory and is departing from the linear-feedback methods of classical control-system design. The naval experiment used a class of materials that change their elasticity in response to a magnetic field. Electromagnets were used to induce chaotic motion in a ribbon of the material and the researchers verified that chaotic behavior provides an efficient method of moving from one stable system state to another. Applications of the theory will not be available for some time, but the research laboratory plans to sponsor a conference on experimental chaos in fall 1991 that may launch a new field of engineering. Components-data gap hampers EDA activity. (electronic design automation) Electronics manufacturers and designers waste countless hours finding component data, entering it into proprietary databases, and validating the information because reliable component data is not available from a single source or group of sources. This information, which is essential to the design process, may be unified by a single model that draws different EDA tools together and encourages development approaches such as concurrent engineering. Designers who can acquire accurate component information obtain a huge advantage in the competitive global market. However, industry officials predict that moving toward a common data model for component information will probably be a slow, painful process. Standards bodies and manufacturers are just beginning to work on the problem. For example, R.R. Donnelly, in Santa Clara, CA, is developing an on-line database of parts information that it receives from Texas Instruments. Digital advances for the UPS; batteries make chemical switch. (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Changes in digital-system technologies are bringing about new advances in UPS technology. New rechargeable-battery technologies are also changing UPS products. The new battery chemistry developments, which are caused by advances in fabrication and packaging techniques, and new materials, will eventually lower the cost and reduce the size of UPS products. Improvements in sealed lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries are blurring the lines between the two different types of batteries and the different types of applications for which they were considered appropriate. The most notable advances in UPS architectures have focused on dc-output UPS designs. One advantage of the dc-output design is that fact that at least one conversion step, the one from battery voltage to ac voltage, is eliminated. The end result is smaller, simpler, less expensive and more reliable UPS systems. UPS topologies meet demands. (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Oughton, George. The growth of the low-end computer market and the increasing use of critical applications on those computers make versatile and powerful UPS systems a necessity. The systems must be able to keep the machines running and provide enough power to prevent data corruption. Size, weight, and ease of installation are also important considerations for new UPS systems. The new systems that can handle the increased demand are called on-line units. On-line units ensure that the inverter is always powering the load and sending clean power. Severe line disturbances mean that power is drawn from the battery rather than the line. While this type of UPS has always been more expensive than off-line systems, the cost gap is growing smaller. Customers also need customer configurability and increased serviceability. Today's UPS systems take a 'soft' approach to CPU shutdown. (Uninterruptible Power Supply, Central Processing Unit) Increased use of RAM resident applications make reliable UPS systems more critical than ever before. In response to the increased use of local area networks, software designers have designed their software to shut down various systems in an orderly, automatic manner so that information held in the RAM is saved. In turn, more sophisticated UPS systems are available that can interface with the CPU to coordinate an orderly shutdown and minimize the amount of time it takes to bring a system back up after a power loss. These UPSs interface with the network and communicate with network users to provide increased security. There are many UPS system software packages available for systems below 1 kilovolt-ampere. For systems above 1 kilovolt-ampere, MIS personnel can write simple programs to monitor the condition of the UPS. Battle of the nickel links. Eager, Jon S. Although the rechargeable battery cell of choice for the foreseeable future is still the high-capacity nickel-cadmium cell (NiCd), a new battery option, called the nickel-metal-hydride cell (NiMH), is being developed. This last option is particularly appropriate for applications that require high energy densities. NiMH cells may offer higher performance than NiCd batteries and the manufacture of NiMH cells involve materials that are less harmful to the environment than cadmium. Recent advances in the performance of NiCd batteries and the advantage offered by the wide range of types and sizes available allow NiCd batteries to retain their premier position, at least during the 1990s. However, NiMH technology is likely to outstrip NiCd in the long run, providing improved performance, and the cost of NiMH batteries, which is about double that of a NiCd batteries, is expected to drop dramatically in the early 1990s. Primary batteries get a boost. Harville, Al; Aoki, Joe. The energy density and energy capacity of primary, or non-rechargeable, batteries is expected to improve during the 1990s and environmental concerns will become an important part of the development of new batteries. This is especially true for lithium technologies. Increased use of lithium batteries is expected as manufacturers switch to safer chemistries. Lithium is an ideal substance for batteries, because it has a higher intrinsic negative potential than any other type of metal. One of the changes that can be expected for alkaline batteries is a reduction in capacity due to an effort to reduce the mercury content of batteries. This is in response to concerns about keeping mercury out of the environment. Startup unveils analog memory IC. (Information Storage Devices introduces ISD1016 integrated circuit) Information Storage Devices, a startup company based in San Jose, CA, has introduced an integrated circuit that can store analog data in a non-volatile E2PROM-based memory array. The IC, called the ISD1016, offers applications such as 16 seconds of voice recording and playback in user interfaces and messaging systems to remote data logging for industrial operations. Information Storage Devices is packaging the ISD1016 with on-chip pre-amplifiers, filters, and power amplifiers. The chip may be used as an alternative to digitized audio and users will be able to connect it to a battery, microphone, and speaker to create a solid-state voice recorder. The heart of the chip's memory array consists of 128,000 E2PROM cells, addressable in sequential blocks of 8,000 cells each. Samples of the chip are being shipped, along with a faster 12-second part and a slower 20-second part. IBM acquires 6% of SVG Litho. (SVG Lithography Systems Inc.) Dunn, Peter. IBM agrees to acquire a six percent stake in SVG Lithography Systems Inc, subsidiary of Silicon Valley Group Inc, for $2.7 million. The number one computer maker's equity will consist of shares in the company; Perkin-Elmer Corp will control 19.5 percent and SVG will control 74 percent. IBM also contributed $20 million to research and development, made a commitment to purchase $80 million worth of the Microscan 9000 step-and-scan lithography system, and assigned some engineers to help improve the systems. IBM's six percent equity consists of one-year convertible notes, which was part of the buyout agreement created in 1990. Eaton sets withdrawal from thin-film field. Dunn, Peter. Eaton Corp leaves the thin-film metalization business after investing around $25 million between 1986 and 1991. The company's Semiconductor Division, which makes implant and wafer track equipment, was successful in shipping only one Radian system. Eaton decided that it would be unable to adequately penetrate the market. The company claims that its product is good and its work at Sematech was satisfactory, but admits it has not received any follow-on orders because the market is entrenched by other companies. Eaton's decision to drop out of the business will result in around 45 out of 460 employees being dismissed at its Beverly, MA facility. Suppliers vie for pending major bids. (military computers) Robertson, Jack. The computer industry vies for large military contracts from the US Department of Defense. Industry observers believe the large military contracts that are pending in 1991 could disperse the overcrowded military computer market. The contracts are expected to give companies a lot of leverage in locking into future business. One of the largest growing segments of the military computer industry is the tactical workstation market. The workstations are used to plan missions, process intelligence reports, perform C3 analysis and simulate a realtime battlefield action. The military workstation market was limited to ruggedized models, which can withstand outdoor conditions, but the current trend is towards commercial models. Order Navy to award VAR $500M CPU pact. (value-added reseller contract) The United States General Services Administration (GSA) Board of Contract Appeals orders the US Navy to award a $500 million microcomputer contract to a value-added reseller (VAR). The order puts to an end a long dispute over the project, which was initially awarded to Zenith Data Systems. The GSA board was responding to a protest filed by Government Technology Services Inc, claiming that there was no rational reason for its not having been awarded the US Navy contract. The GSA board further ordered the Navy to award a massive Standard Desktop Companion contract to Government Technology Services. The GSA decision comes as a blow to Zenith Data Systems, which won the contract only to have it stripped away months later. Seeks to hike Puerto Rico tax. Barrett, Joyce. Puerto Rico debates whether or not it wants to remain a commonwealth of the United States. The decision of statehood will affect the tax-free status of Puerto Rico and around 21,283 jobs in the electronic and computer industries. Twenty-six of the top 500 US companies have operations in Puerto Rico, including HP, DEC, Motorola Inc and General Electric Co. Computer and electronic manufacturers are lured to Puerto Rico because of its tax-free status, which is granted under Section 936 of the US income tax code. Some industry observers note that manufacturers may not be encouraged to have facilities in Puerto Rico if the tax-free status is revoked. Louisiana Senator J. Bennett Johnston vows that he will see his bill become law by Summer 1991. ITT taps defense unit for Exec VP. (D. Travis Engen ) ITT Corp announces the promotion of D. Travis Engen, 47, to executive vice-president. Engen will assume some of the duties of DeRoy C. Thomas, 65, who is retiring at the end of Feb 1991. Engen was formerly general manager and president of ITT Defence Inc, a portion of the business that contributed approximately $1.6 billion to company revenue. He now assumes control of ITT's manufactured products group as well, which has a combined annual sales of $6 billion. Engen will continue to supervise the company's defense business and has been named to ITT's Management Policy Committee. John Bardeen, Nobel laureate, dies. (co-inventor of the transistor) (obituary) Nobel laureate John Bardeen dies in Jan 1991 at the age of 82. Bardeen was the co-inventor of the transistor and twice-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics, once for his work on transistors and the second time for his work on superconductivity. Bardeen was part of a three-man team that developed the transistor; other members of the team were William Shockley, who died in 1989, and Walter Brattain, who died in 1987. Bardeen described his role in the development of the transistor as mostly theoretical. In 1972, while employed at the University of Illinois, Bardeen originated a theory of low-temperature superconductivity with the help of two graduate students. He received his bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a mathematical physics doctorate from Princeton University in 1936. The Japan that says what? (Government Closeup) (column) Robertson, Jack. US criticism against Japan for withholding technology is creating a heated political debate, however, there is little evidence to suggest that Japan is denying American requests for state-of-the-art technology. US critics claim that the Japanese withholding of technology is muzzling American companies who are afraid to speak out for fear they will lose the current level of technology being offered by Japan. Analysts perceive US criticism as evidence that American companies have become vulnerable and weak, signs of too great a dependency on Japanese technology. US industry should not whimper about whether or not the Japanese are keeping back their technology, rather it should take the initiative to develop technology on its own. Maxtor aftermath. (exodus of top engineers occasions company reorganization) Maxtor Corp suffers from a crippled 1Gbyte Panther disk drive program, the exodus of top engineers, deep-seated morale problems and the lack of a cost reduction strategy. Officials at the hard disk drive manufacturer say that boosting morale and implementing cost-reducing measures will be a priority in 1991. The resignation of Maxtor's Pres and CEO George Scalise in Jan 1991 has been a blow to the company; Scalise claims his departure was due to personal reasons. Maxtor hopes to revitalize several disk drive programs that have fallen behind schedule including the 1Gbyte Panther disk drive and a new 3.5-inch disk drive. Maxtor stock was trading near its all-time low in early Feb 1991 after reaching a high of $17 a share in the preceding 52 weeks. Congress gets new supercomputer bill. (research and development on supercomputers, advanced computer software and networks) The US Congress is considering a $988 million, five-year program for research and development on advanced computer software, computer networks and supercomputers. The bill, known as the High Performance Computing Act, was introduced in Jan 1991 and hopes to enlist the support of President Bush, who left it out of the 1990 budget. Bush indicated that funding for high-technology programs would be included in the 1991 budget and observers believe this bill will be part of that initiative. The bill calls for cross-agency cooperation and provides a coordinated federal research program, a program that some members of Congress believe is important to the future economic strength of the US. Tandem offers trade-in program. (Tandem Computers Inc.) Lapedus, Mark. Tandem Computers Inc offers its customers a trade-in policy on their computers in an effort to boost sales of its new fault-tolerant computers. The computer maker is also stepping up efforts to market its UNIX-based machines and targeting the telecommunications market. Tandem is planning to offer, by the end of 1991, a multiprocessor line that ports the Guardian proprietary operating system to reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors. Slumping conditions in banking and government markets, where Tandem derives an estimated 40 percent of its total sales, have damaged its financial position. Tandem additionally hopes to increase sales of subsidiary Ungermann-Bass' Access/One modular software and hardware networking platform. Access/One is being marketed as a front end to Tandem computers. Archive fights debt, drive delay. (Archive Corp. struggles in aftermath of Cipher Data Products Inc. acquisition) Archive Corp struggles financially and with product development after its acquisition of Cipher Data Products Inc. Archive has already lost key OEM opportunities because of its inability to get our a new quarter-inch hard disk drive. The acquisition of Cipher cost Archive $147 million of debt on what was once a fairly conservative balance sheet. Some analysts believe that Archive's prospects are bright, even though earnings have been disappointing and the balance sheet has become a leveraged one. Officials at Archive are blaming the revenue shortfalls and canceled orders on a recessionary economy, but do acknowledge their product delays exacerbate the situation. New network lines seen reducing IBM systems integrator position. Collier, Andrew. The 1991 Communications Network trade show introduced many new network and network management products that will make it easier for users to attach new machines to their installed IBM computer bases. Many of the communications products are compatible with IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SAA) and are designed to improve the portability of applications software between systems. Industry observers note that the networking products may erode IBM's ability to keep its customers dedicated to its product line. Other analysts believe that network compatibility will encourage users to purchase more equipment, including IBM machines. Intel to stress MPU outlays, will not build memory fabs. (wafer fabrication plants) Intel Corp plans to rely on outside foundries to manufacture its low-margin memory chips. The semiconductor company decided that it would no longer build wafer fabs for its memory products because it would rather use its capital spending on the more lucrative microprocessor products. Intel indicates that it would need to spend $400 million on building new fabs, too much money for a low-margin market where it would have to compete with several other suppliers. The company has been able to reap huge profits from its 32-bit 80386 and 80486 microprocessors, a market that it has held a virtual monopoly over. See bright LCD materials picture. (liquid crystal display market) Winkler, Eric. The liquid crystal display (LCD) market is growing and industry analysts expect the demand for liquid crystal materials to boom. The liquid crystal materials market totaled around $291 million in 1990 and analysts believe it will reach $806 million by 1993 and $5 billion by 2000. Japanese companies are anticipating the growing demand for liquid crystals and analysts estimate that Japan has spent over $1 billion on factories in 1990. Even industry observers that are hesitant to make grand predictions are admitting that the liquid crystal material market will become a mega-industry by 2000, paralleling the growth of the semiconductor industry in the 1980s. Keithley founder exiting post, not firm. (Joseph F. Keithley of Keithley Instruments Inc.) Keithley Instruments Inc's founder Joseph F. Keithley steps down as chairman of the company he founded in 1946. Keithley, who will be 75 years old in 1991, is not leaving the company but will staying on to work with product quality control. Keithley's position as chairman of the board is expected to be replaced by his son, Joseph P. Keithley. The senior Keithley graduated from MIT in 1937 and worked as a Naval researcher during World War II. He started Keithley Instruments in Cleveland, OH, amidst modest surroundings. The company was able to grow through government contracts and reached its first $1 million year in 1960. Keithley Instruments hit $100 million in sales in 1990. Unisys let $156M Navy pact. (Unisys Defense Systems) Robertson, Jack. The United States Navy awards a $156 million computer contract to Unisys Corp. The military contract calls for Unisys to be the sole provider of the Navy's AN/UYK-43 computers for fiscal 1991; analysts note that awarding the contract to one supplier ends the practice of dual-source competition for the Navy's shipboard computer. Control Data Corp has been the potential second-source supplier for the AN/UYK-43. A spokesman from Control Data said the company has yet to decide whether it will protest the decision. Some Navy officials doubted whether or not the production base for the Navy computer could justify a two-source approach; dual-source competition for the computers was initiated by Navy Secretary John Lehman. Distributors increase reserved stocks as MRP software, JIT programs gain. (materials requirement planning and just-in-time Computer software distributors increase their reserve inventories due to demand for new materials requirement planning (MRP) software and just-in-time (JIT) programs. Industrial distributors now have as much as 20 percent of their stock in reserved inventory. Distributors note that the recent trends has been encouraged by the reliability of overnight delivery services and the use of improved purchasing forecasting methods. The reserved inventory agreements prove advantageous for the customer because it decreases the amount of inventory stored at their own facilities. Industry observers note that the trends is mutually beneficial to customers and distributors. Unisys loses $88M in quarter. Unisys Corp reports net losses of $88.5 million for the 4th qtr of 1990 but states that operations were profitable. Unisys had 1990 losses totaling $436.7 million, which compares with losses of $639.3 million for 1989; the computer maker also had a profit of $34 million, or five cents a share, for the 4th qtr of 1989. Unisys reports a profit from operations of $88.3 million for the 4th qtr of 1990, which is down from the $162.3 million earned in the same period in 1989. The company's operations ends 1990 in the black with a profit of $44 million; operations from 1989 were $210.1 million in the red. Revenues for the 4th qtr of 1990 were $2.934 billion, which is down 1.2 percent from the 4th qtr of 1989 results of $2.969 billion. Intel MPU profit surge raises earnings estimates. (microprocessor units)(What They're Saying) (column) Intel Corp's 4th qtr 1990 microprocessors profits cause analysts to raise their earnings estimates for the semiconductor company. Analysts expect that Intel's shipments of its 80486 microprocessor in 1991 should triple from 1990 results and reach 1.5 million units. Some analysts believe that Intel will outpace the industry in the 1990s and increase its market share between five and seven percent. Other analysts believe the threat from competitors such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc will pose a threat to Intel's market share. Industry observers note that Intel is trying to make the 80386 obsolete by pushing the 80486 but the effect may not be significant in the near term. Color power. (RasterOps Corp. is a leader in image processing equipment)(Computers/Communications) High-powered color display systems help graphic artists create images on their computer screens that replicate the photograph, drawing or other image used to generate a label, brochure, newspaper or magazine page. RasterOps Corp manufactures color display systems that sell quickly despite their high price. The company expects to report $70 million in profits for FY 1991, which has increased from $46 million for FY 1990. Color equipment is expensive because the red-green-blue of a computer screen emits light and is fundamentally different from the color system of a magazine page or an object. The color system used to generate a magazine page reflects rather than emits light. RasterOps developed a graphic system, an add-on board full of special chips and a high-resolution RasterOps tube, that enables artists to use an Apple Macintosh to display images difficult to distinguish from photographs. Telecomputing on the cheap. (Xcellenet Inc. offers companies inexpensive telecommunication Xcellenet Inc allows corporations to connect individual microcomputers to a main computer for brief intervals that occur only at night. Xcellenet's communications software provides an inexpensive alternative to leasing a dedicated phone line between each computer and the home base. Branch offices and store outlets that only need to access the home office occasionally can configure a low-budget network by first purchasing a $200 modem to add to each branch office microcomputer. The Xcellenet software that instructs the microcomputers when to dial the home office costs $219. The network manager at the home base installs a file server for about $15,000, an adaptor, an 800 number, and additional Xcellenet software costing between $12,000 and $17,000. After the initial cost of around $69,000 to connect multiple branch microcomputers to the mother computer, the nightly phone calls cost about 53 cents apiece. The perils of success. (what makes a company successful in the long run) (Random Access) (column) Successful companies stagnate if they do not generate and implement new ideas. Data General Corp was very successful as a minicomputer manufacturer during the 1970s, but declined in the 1980s when microcomputers became prevalent. When Data General chairman Edsun de Castro realized the company needed to change its strategy in order to regain profitability, Data General was inattentive and forced him out of the organization in early 1991. De Castro believes that established companies face the same risks as startups when they invest in new technologies. Most organizations do not endorse new ideas because the payoff in utilizing existing technologies tends to be greater. The act of coming up with better ideas is what makes a company successful. De Castro made Data General a successful company that overstayed its innovations and was unable to forge ahead. Software cracks terrorists' lock on seized files. (Access Data Recovery Service's WPPass) US government officials use Access Data Recovery Service's WPPass utility software to crack encrypted passwords in WordPerfect files used by a Bolivian terrorist group. Bolivia's Nestor Paz Zamora Committee faction of the Army of National Liberation planted a bomb outside the residence of the American Embassy's Marine Corps guards on Oct 10, 1990. The terrorist group encrypted their files using WordPerfect's password file lock. Government officials say the files contain information on terrorist activities but have not disclosed how they located the files. WPPass uses statistical analysis of the frequency of letters used in words in the file. The program reveals the password through this analysis. The package uses frequency of letters in English words but works well with other languages. WPPass works with many versions of WordPerfect as well as other word processing packages. Patriot missile success tied to 386. (Whittaker Electronics Systems' Data Link Set)(KMS Advanced Products Inc.)(Desert Storm) Whittaker Electronics Systems' Data Link Set battlefield command and control system, residing on a KMS Advanced Products Inc 80386-based microcomputer, is contributing to the successful usage of Patriot missiles in Operation Desert Storm. Unlike previous systems that were of enormous size and cost millions of dollars, the micro-sized Data Link system can travel in the HUM-V, the Army's Jeep-sized combat vehicle. The Data Link machines in Saudi Arabia receive early warning data from various sources shortly after Iraqi forces launch Scud missiles. The system displays the current path or track of the missile as well as its speed and direction. This information gives Patriot commanders the information they need in preparing response launches. The Army pays between $120,000 and $400,000 per set depending on the communications hardware configuration. Tiger team attacks Desktop III backlog. (United States Air Force)(Unisys Corp.) The Air Force assembles a tiger team of Defense Department specialists to help Unisys Corp with the backlog of almost 10,000 unfilled orders for Desktop III microcomputers. Unisys and the tiger team have reduced the number of unfilled orders to 5,000, after resolving problems in 5,265 orders for the microcomputer, its software and peripherals. To avoid further problems, the Air Force and Unisys have defined 12 standard configurations for ordering in the Desktop III contract. Previously, any number of configurations were allowed. Unisys has also signed an agreement with the Air Force and other Department of Defense agencies to allow for more flexibility in order processing. The agreement lets certain errors be fixed immediately instead of requiring them to be sent back to their originators for correction. Officials expect orders to be current by the first quarter of 1991. Companion judge gives GTSI a win. (Government Technology Services Inc.) ($500 million U.S. Navy Desktop Companion contract) The General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) rules that the Navy must award its Desktop Companion contract worth $500 million to Government Technology Services Inc (GTSI) by Feb 7, 1991. Defense Department officials hope that the decision on the microcomputer software and peripherals contract will allow for product ordering in Feb 1991. The board also rules that only one of the four original bidders, Federal Computer Corp, will be able to protest the decision in order to win the contract for itself. Observers say that the Navy will not want to spend the money needed to take the case to court again. They also contend that if Federal Computer Corp does not protest the decision, GTSI will receive the Companion contract for substantially more money than they would in the case of a re-bid. It is not clear if GTSI will be supplying 1988 products at 1988 prices. Micros triumph in Gulf War; rugged systems work best. (News Analysis) Microcomputers are enjoying success in the Persian Gulf war, with failures limited only to older desktop units not designed for outdoor use. Although the war is in an early stage, the Defense Department is recognizing several requirements for microcomputer usage. The Department now realizes that day-to-day computers will increasingly be put into battlefield service. Day-to-day computers also need to be more rugged than was anticipated earlier. Mil-specs for ruggedized computers are working well. Laptop computers overall are performing well due in part to their shock absorbers and the ruggedness of their components. Zenith Data Systems' Z-184 units and various systems from Grid Systems Corp are giving good performances. Modern microcomputers with their efficient cooling systems and more advanced hard drives are performing better than older machines that are specifically designed for outdoor use. GSA advises NASA to get better IRM oversight. (General Services Administration)(National Aeronautics and Space A report from the General Services Administration's Information Resources Management Service's (GSA IRMS) procurement and management review team indicates that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) needs to improve its IRM strategies or else it will continue to face difficulties in protecting its extensive software investment. The IRMS uses the reviews to ascertain how well government agencies are handling IRM responsibilities. They also use the information in deciding whether to raise, lower or maintain the procurement authority standard delegation of $2.5 million. Officials at NASA agree with many of the team's findings but do not feel that their IRM program is at fault. They also disagree with the slant of the report which stresses that IRM should be an agency objective instead of a tool to achieve the agency's objectives. AF to merge Logistics, Systems commands. (Air Force)(News) Green, Robert. The Air Force announces plans to merge its Logistics and Systems commands into a single command called the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) in July 1992. The AFMC will take over the current location of the Logistics Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The Air Force intends for the AFMC to combine both the Systems Command's expertise in technology and research and development with the Logistics Command's expertise in life cycle acquisition and supportability into a single world class organization. AFMC will be the single point of contact for systems acquisition, maintenance and modification. The Systems Command had announced in early 1990 the cutting of 5,000 jobs from its workforce of 52,700 through 1994. The Logistics Command workforce numbers approximately 90,000. The merger was precipitated by the Defense Department's management review ordered in 1989 by the Bush administration. New road map updates outlook for Unix future. (Unix International's 1991 Unix System V Roadmap)(News) Unix International's 1991 Unix System V Roadmap provides information on current and future product releases in an outlook of the operating system for the next three to five years. Government agencies will be especially interested in the enhanced security release of Unix called SVR4 ES. The release will offer C2, B1 and B2 security and will be available in June 1990. SVR4 MP, a multithreaded version of Unix, will let various existing applications run on multiple processor systems. Unix International also announces Open System Architecture (OSA) which will define distributed computing, corporate hub computing and desktop computing. The consortium will release the first OSA definitions in the second quarter of 1991. Another announcement is the availability of the Generic Application Binary Interface test suite for SVR4 that allows vendors to ensure compliancy of their SVR4 ports. DEC unveils new imaging software. (DECimage Express)(DECimage 2000 X Window terminal)(News) (product announcement) DEC announces its DECimage 2000 X Window terminal, priced from $3,395 to $4,095, which allows users to process and display facsimile and scanned images of documents. The terminal's features include decompression, scaling, zooming, clipping, panning and rotation. DEC's extensions to the X Window protocol let digital images move around a network in a 10-to-1 compressed format. DEC also announces its new document image management software, DECimage Express, priced from $250,000 to $500,000. The software supports indexing, filing, scanning, retrieval, integrated optical character recognition and routing for networked VAXstation users. Environments supported include DECwindows for VAX users and Microsoft Windows for microcomputer users. The microcomputer version of the software will be available in mid-1991 through an agreement between DEC and LaserData Inc. Cisco's SDLC package lets IBM mainframes route data. (Cisco Systems Inc.)(Synchronous Data Link Control)(Proteon Inc.)(News) Cisco Systems Inc announces a Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) software that will allow IBM mainframe computer front-end processors and cluster controllers to communicate through the company's routers. The software will eliminate the need for an expensive separate serial line for a router network as well as a different line for communications for the mainframe. Cisco Systems' package is scheduled to be released in mid-1991 at a cost of $500. Proteon Inc introduces its ProNET CNX 500 router that incorporates reduced-instruction-set-computing technology. The product supports a two-step packet handling system that allows for an up to 35 percent reduction in packet handling. The router will be released in a variety of local and remote configurations in Spring 1991 ranging in price from $10,995 to $19,945. CNX 500 support for SDLC will be available later in 1991. 'Financial' systems can't track war costs accurately. (Desert Storm) Comptroller General Charles Bowsher contends that hard figures of the cost of war with Iraq are impossible to obtain because the Defense Department's systems for managing expenditures, inventories and procurements are obsolete. Bowsher agrees with the estimates that the war costs between $500 million and $700 million a day but says there is no way to verify those figures. The comptroller says that the Defense Department is unwilling to work with the General Accounting Office to get the specific numbers. The accounting systems are also inadequate at tracking how much money nations are contributing to the war effort. Senator John Glenn (D-Ohio) says that Congress needs accurate spending figures on Desert Storm in order to adopt the federal budget. He says that Congress needs to understand how the war effort impacts the cost of other government operations including upgrading of agency accounting systems. State expands backups at Dhahran consulate. (News) Smith, James M. The State Department consulate in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia continues to upgrade its communications and computer equipment despite repeated Iraqi Scud missile attacks. The Dhahran consulate is playing a big role in the war with the State Department expanding its communication links to the consulate to provide backup information in case of evacuation. Computers at the consulate can back up copies of files online. The backup will allow for operations to be reestablished quickly in the event of an emergency. The State Department is also using electronic mail to obtain real-time information from US embassies in Cairo and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Riyadh embassy officials can send encrypted e-mail messages to the department headquarters in Washington, DC. The Dhahran consulate uses Wang systems hardware including a Wang VS 100 minicomputer with 8Mbytes of memory operating as a system hub. GAO official says out-sourcing 'isn't a silver bullet'. (GCN Interview)(General Accounting Office)(JayEtta Z. Hecker) JayEtta Z. Hecker, director of resources, community and economic development information systems for the General Accounting Office's (GAO) Information Management and Technology Division, believes one of the major factors for success in an Information Resources Management (IRM) department is access to top management. Another factor is the strategic use of technology to transform organizations in how they function and how they are organized. Hacker says the GAO reviews agency systems usually at the request of Congress. She says the goal of the GAO is not to find fault with a program but to objectively evaluate a program with an alleged or apparent problem. Hacker feels there are some positive aspects in regards to out-sourcing but says it is important for government agencies to effectively manage a system they have out-sourced. She says agencies need to pay more attention to strategic planning. Users underwhelmed by top packages: grammar and style software. (Product Preference Survey) A user survey of preferences in grammar and style software puts Que Software's RightWriter at the top, only barely beating its three other competitors to the number one spot. Only four packages drew enough user response to be included in the final results. Most survey participants feel the capability of the software to integrate with a word processor as well as its ease of use is more important than the accuracy of its grammatical suggestions. Many users feel RightWriter is easy to use and integrates well with word processors. Lifetree Software Inc's Correct Grammar for MS-DOS ties for second place with Reference Software's Grammatik Government Version. Both packages receive the highest scores for accuracy. Grammatik's non-government edition scores low in the area of accuracy but some users feel the package's grade-level gauge is valuable. Users also like the software's summary statistics. NASA, police team up to nab Mac virus author. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)(Microcomputing) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is helping the Dallas, Texas Police Department build a case against the author of the Scores virus that first infected the agency's Apple Macintosh computers in 1988. The Scores author may or may not be a former employee of Electronic Data Systems Corp, where the virus hit in early 1988, affecting 25 machines. NASA officials suspect that the virus was brought in with software downloaded from a public-access bulletin board. The virus infected approximately 250 machines as it spread to NASA sites in Florida, Maryland and Washington. NASA officials developed a virus eradication procedure. The virus does not destroy data but causes the Macintosh systems to crash repeatedly. Officials at NASA are attempting to assess costs incurred as a result of the virus in case criminal charges are filed against the alleged author. Cracking that lost password easy as 123. (Power User column)(Microcomputing)(Access Data Recovery Service's WPPass, Access Data Recovery Service's WPPass, 123Pass and XLPass are very useful password decryption utility programs that are priced at less than $200. The three programs work with WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel respectively and offer quick, regular and in-depth analysis levels to determine encrypted passwords of files. Tests on all three products show that they perform well. WPPass has users start the program, input the names of the encrypted files and select the level of analysis. The program provides only the password and does not decrypt the file. Therefore, users need to analyze one file out of a group that use the same password. XLPass and 123Pass work in a similar way. Access Data offers users a free analysis of any files the programs cannot break. The company emphasizes, however, that all-numeric or very short files cannot be decrypted. Polaroid's Digital Palette makes presentable slides. (Digital Palette CI-3000) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Polaroid Corp's Digital Palette CI-3000 is an easy-to-use 35 mm slide printer that will save money for federal users who have medium-size slide presentation needs. Users install the included ImagePrint software and hook up the unit to a microcomputer printer output. Users load the film in the included camera, shoot their slides and the CI-3000 prints on the film. The machine is priced at $2,482.25 on the General Service Administration schedule and users will find making slides using the CI-3000 is much cheaper than using a federal office or service bureau. The CI-3000 supports a maximum of 2,000 lines for resolution which is adequate for most slide uses. The ImagePrint output software is powerful but the menu interface is awkward to use and can be confusing. The product includes a power processor and slide mounter for instant slide film. Soft Warehouse moves full speed into govt. market. (Microcomputing) Soft Warehouse is entering the federal government microcomputer equipment supplier market with the goal of market domination. Soft Warehouse's Government Division has three government sites in its stores in Dallas, Atlanta and Vienna, Virginia. The company plans to open government offices in 12 cities over the next year. They hope to increase the entire Government Staff to include approximately 88 employees. Soft Warehouse plans to increase its current General Services administration schedule of 23 vendors and 200 products to 65 vendors and between 800 and 1,000 products. The company recently won a contract with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp worth $600,000 to supply software, printers and central processing units (CPU). Some government agency users say Soft Warehouse is very competitive with more established government resellers. E-mail systems are vulnerable, but security's winning attention. (electronic mail)(Data Lines)(Communications) (column) The US government is looking closely at the problems of abuse of electronic mail systems by outsiders as well as internal employees. The National Security Agency is administering the Secure Data Network Standard program for development of network protocols to ensure the security of federal government Open Systems Interconnection networks. The program's Key Management Protocol and Message Security Protocol concern encryption of sensitive e-mail messages. The Internet Activities Board Privacy Task Force is developing standards around authenticity, confidentiality and message integrity into Internet's electronic mail. The Protection of Logistics Unclassified/Sensitive Data (PLUS) program from the Department of Defense is advising more use of the Data Encryption Standard as well as other encryption systems for unclassified but still sensitive federal government applications. Smart SNMP shoppers can avoid letdown later. (Simple Network Management Protocol)(Communications) Network management experts advise that users striving for interoperability on their SNMP wide-area networks need to be aware of SNMP agent software, SNMP station management software and the management information base (MIB). The MIB defines SNMP agent information about a piece of hardware. Hardware vendors supporting SNMP usually add their own extensions to the standard MIB. Users should ask their vendor if their MIBs are published and should find out if their network management station vendor includes the other vendor's private extensions in the management station software. Users purchasing hardware such as gateways and wiring hubs need to find out if vendor SNMP software includes an entire set of SNMP verbs to query the MIB. SNMP is being used until the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile standard for a Common Information Management Protocol (CMIP) is completed. ULANA to offer adapters for Desktop III. (Unified Local Area Network Architecture) The Air Force announces plans to add Desktop III-compatible Ethernet adapters from TRW Inc and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp to its Unified Local Area Network Architecture (ULANA) contract. The cards from EDS and TRW offer more features than the less expensive Desktop III Ethernet adapter with file transfer software. These include access control and authentication, low memory intrusion and protocol support for network management. ULANA officials have made some changes to the TRW card to ensure Desktop III compatibility. The ULANA Approved Products List now offers more than 250 products and officials are currently migrating all the ULANA components to implement the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). This will allow ULANA users to control many different devices on their networks from a single network management station. Flexible PAMRI sends FAA flight data faster. (Peripheral Adapter Module Replacement Item)(Federal Aviation Administration) The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in its effort to upgrade the air traffic control system, accepts the Peripheral Adapter Module Replacement Item (PAMRI) enhanced communications link under the Advanced Automation System contract with IBM Corp. The PAMRI replaces the currently-used Peripheral Adapter Modules (PAM). The PAMRI can transmit larger amounts of flight plan and radar data at faster speeds and more reliably than the equipment now used. It is designed and manufactured by IBM sub-contractor Formation Inc and consists of microprocessors and software mounted in racks. The PAMRI will gather data from remote air traffic subsystems. It then distributes the data to IBM 3083 host computers at all of the FAA's 20 en route centers for air traffic controllers to use. IBM officials contend that the PAMRI can do the work of three PAMs and can move data eight times faster. FmHA automates tape backup to save time, preserve data. (Farmers Home Administration)(Unitech Software Inc.'s Ubackup) The Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) is licensing 2,500 copies of Unitech Software Inc's Ubackup for automation of tape backup for its Unix minicomputers. The software saves time since it automatically verifies backed up data and allows backups with users on line. Previously, backups would take one hour each day and users could not access files during that time. The FmHA loans money to individuals, communities and organizations for farming, housing and development projects. The Administration needs a reliable backup procedure since a disk crash or system failure could result in critical delays in loan processing and money delivery. The software makes a note of open documents at the time of backup so the system can back up those files again after the completion of the main backup. Ubackup ranges in price from $2,000 to $8,000 and runs on a variety of Unix versions. Sybase products focus on CICS mainframe links. (Customer Information Control System)(Sybase Inc.'s Open Server for CICS, Sybase Inc introduces Open Server for Customer Information Control System (CICS), Open Gateway for CICS and Net-Gateway that integrate IBM Corp's Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) mainframe computers into a client/server environment. Open Server for CICS, which ranges in price from $75,000 to $155,000, lets mainframe CICS transactions act like any other Structured Query Language (SQL) server or open server on the network. Open Gateway for CICS, ranging in price from $100,000 to $210,000, offers read/write capabilities for on-line applications, turnkey access to DB2 and emphasizes decision support capabilities. Net-Gateway, which costs from $1,260 to $64,800, monitors and controls workstation access to the mainframe. The software offers protocol conversion between workstations and IBM's Systems Network Architecture and runs on Unix workstations. Coy-Slim trims cost for Army software planning. Schwartz, Karen D. Mark Coy, a computer scientist at the Army's Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), wins the command's Cost Analysis award for development of the Coy-Software LifeCycle Model (Slim), a model that analyzes costs for system software development. Coy bases his model on Lawrence Putnam's Slim, which uses physics equations to determine software management and costing. Coy's system evaluates development costs, contract incentive award estimates and time requirements in order to project costs and determine business plan feasibility. The Coy-Slim model uses sequential logic. It features a graphical user interface and is easy to use. Users enter raw data estimates and the computer generates the results in about 15 minutes. The model is so successful that it is part of a required course for Army cost analysts. The in-house development of Coy-Slim has saved the Army about $180,000 in direct costs. Group's goal: make Posix safe for supercomputers. (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers)(IEEE 1003.10 and 1003.15 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is attempting to bring the benefit of the Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX (Posix) standard to supercomputers. The IEEE 1003.10 Super computing Applications Profile group and the IEEE 1003.15 Batch Extensions to Posix group are both working towards goals of operating system portability, user portability and systems administration portability. The IEEE 1003.10 group is listing existing standards needed in the supercomputing environment. The group is also working with other Posix groups in listing extensions required to bring the Posix standard to the supercomputing environment. The 1003.15 group is attempting to standardize on a batch queuing system in a network environment or across multiple machines. The groups find that supercomputers are special due to their high cost and the applications they run. Army unveils 30-year plan for move to Open Systems. (DOD Computing) The Army releases its Long-Range Plan for the Information Mission Area (IMA plan), a 30-year plan for policies, standards and technologies moving towards open systems in the areas of automation, printing and publishing, telecommunications, records management and visual information. The plan calls for the fifty percent reduction of the Army's 3,100 software systems and consolidation of automated data processing (ADP) facilities with the elimination of the Army's proprietary Viable network ADP processing centers. The IMA plan emphasizes data element standardization, advanced operating system capability and better database management reporting. The plan's priority needs include improved integration, greater service interoperability, faster systems development, accessible artificial intelligence, the elimination of paper and new executive decision systems. Joint chiefs get new role in CIM oversight. (Corporate Information Management)(DOD Computing) Duane Andrews, assistant secretary of Defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, adds Lt. Gen. James S. Cassity Jr. to the Major Automated Information Systems Review Committee (MAISRC), giving the Joint Chiefs of Staff a major role in the corporate information management (CIM) campaign by the Department of Defense. Defense Department observers see the appointment as an indication that CIM is one of the Department's highest priorities. Andrews has been playing an active role in CIM by redistributing approximately $1 billion of appropriated funds to defense and military services agencies. In the CIM drive, Defense Department officials are striving to bring single systems to the Department for processing administrative data including financial, logistics and personnel information. The MAISRC panel is studying systems development oversight. One- and two-page monitors: the right screen can help you see possibilities. (Government Buyers Guide) (buyers guide) Users who employ microcomputers for computer-aided design, desktop publishing or technical editing should consider a full-page or two-page monitor. Full-page monitors have the standard 15-inch diagonal measurement. They are taller and narrower than standard monitors in order to display an 8-1/2- by 11-inch page. Two-page monitors display images side by side on a 19- or 20-inch screen. Full-page monitors are either monochrome or grayscale while many two-page display monitors come in color. Macintosh users should buy from a specialized vendor since monitors and video cards are closely integrated. DOS-based microcomputer users will find their choice having to do with the monitor's capability. Users should note that in general, the higher the resolution of the monitor, the sharper the picture. Other things to consider include refresh rate, brightness, gray linearity and convergence. LAN security: don't let disaster strike your network system. (GCN Spotlight) Local area network (LAN) administrators need to first define a set of functional security requirements in order to ensure network system security. Administrators should interview users to determine their security requirements and how they use network information. They can then write a LAN security policy that includes defining basic rules for passwords, physical protection of file servers, encryption and key management and control of network users' addition of software to the system. Administrators who are evaluating LAN security protection need to determine the access between users and LAN data and between the LAN and outside users. They need to understand how the LAN controls access to data. This can be through the network operating system, by encryption devices, dial-back modems or specific applications. Further details are provided. NSF data chief wants network security options. (National Science Foundation)(Spotlight on LAN Security)(Windows: An Occasional Look Richard V. Langguth, chief of data communications at the Office of Information Systems (OIS) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), feels that network security should be a higher priority in planning. Langguth feels the NSF needs stronger network security with the availability of different degrees of security. Langguth contends that with budget cutting, data security will become an even lower priority and backup sites and training will also suffer. NSF uses 3Com Corp's 3+Share to link its 1,150 microcomputer and workstation users. The network uses passwords but Langguth would like to see something more powerful. OIS does not enforce network security but ensures that LAN administrators are aware of security risks. Each NSF office chooses its own network administrator. Langguth assisted the 50 administrators in setting up file servers and has offered voluntary training courses on LAN topics. Least-privilege limits help squash DBMS worms. (Data Base Management System)(Spotlight on LAN Security) System administrators must be aware that a virus or network worm that gains access to the privileges of a database kernel may not be easy to see. Data base management system (DBMS) software gives easy access to data and does not have the same protection mechanisms as an operating system. Kernels, developed in order to increase processing speed, can assume high privilege states within system hierarchy. In this way, they avoid many operating system security powers. Least privilege gives users access only to system privileges they need to perform a current task. This can help curb the spread of a virus since if it were to infect one program, it could not perform in the capacity of all possible privileges. Database and systems administrators should establish several less-privileged user accounts for their duties and, if possible, turn off privileges when not in use. To stop security leaks, plan in advance. (Spotlight on LAN Security) Network administrators need to examine many aspects of their local area network (LAN) in order to ensure network security. The local storage of servers and workstations make them one of the highest LAN security risks. Administrators can control access to workstations by having users turn off their machines and lock their keyboards when they leave the office. Another option for greater security is the use of removable hard drives. Cabling also has its risks. Copper cabling, especially twisted pair, can be tapped without direct wire contact. Some government LANS use encryption to ensure security in connections between servers and workstations. Network administrators should not allow passwords to be recognizable words or names. They should change passwords frequently. Managers should make sure that only licensed software is used on the LAN and need to keep accurate records of license and release numbers. GSA model points out barriers to successful IRM. (Headlines and Footnotes)(Opinion)(General Services Administration)(Information The General Services Administration's 57-page booklet, 'A Model IRM Program,' contains yet another information resources management (IRM) life cycle model. The report shows an inside view of agency practices in information resources management and problem areas. Personnel issues are one of the main problems cited and include inconsistencies in the grading of positions which impacts both approval of positions and the number of applicants for openings. The report indicates that procurement offices have a high turnover rate. Many employees leave soon after being trained, leaving an insufficient staff for the workload. The document also states that users react to delays in systems implementations by adding their own changes to the system to meet their needs. This makes data transfer and database transportability difficult. These problems take away time that could be spent on technology management. NIST report guides open systems users. (IRM Notebook)(Opinion)(National Institute of Standards and The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) 'Guide on the Applications Portability Profile: The US Government's Open Systems Environment Profile' report is designed to help guide technicians and managers in making open systems standards work together. The document describes the open systems environment (OSE) as a set of building blocks that include interfaces, services and data formats. The OSE's major functions include management, user interface, system services, information interchange and communications (MUSIC). The Applications Portability Profile's (APP) standards fit into the MUSIC areas but the report instead uses two schemes when one would be enough. The report does not include the American National Standards Institute's electronic data interchange standard X12 or the international version, EDIFACT. Pitfalls keep investors away from info technology. (From the Crow's Nest)(Opinion) (column) The financial community is reluctant to invest in information technology (IT) for a variety of reasons. It happens often that no matter how carefully IT managements devise their strategies, something goes wrong. The product development process often takes much longer than expected and leads to missed market opportunities. It is also all too common for new products to be shipped too quickly without adequate testing. This can lead to more costs to fix problems as well as customer dissatisfaction. Investors feel there is no effective way to protect themselves from these incidents other than to reduce their investments in the IT sector. High technology entrepreneurs are in a bind because presenting a conservative business plan with a low rate of return brings no financing. Yet, the strategy of exaggerating prospects to get funding up front no longer works on today's investors. Management policies differ but share goal. (Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act)(DP Issues)(Opinion) (column) The philosophy of total quality management (TQM) and the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) share similar goals but have substantial differences. TQM is not simply an FMFIA for the 1990's. FMFIA requires financial managers in federal agencies to develop, implement and manage internal controls. TQM's goal is to improve user satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness of government agency services and products. Both seek the reduction of mismanagement and abuse. TQM is the responsibility of senior management, while FMFIA rests responsibility with financial managers. FMFIA is a federal law while TQM is a management philosophy. The General Accounting Office (GAO) evaluates FMFIA compliance but not TQM compliance. FMFIA relies on the interpretation of internal control as seen by accountants and auditors. TQM uses techniques developed by manufacturing industrial engineers. FIRMR bulletin calls for agency protest forums. (Government Business)(Federal Information Resources Management Regulation) The General Services Administration's Federal Information Resources Management Regulation (FIRMR) Bulletin 71 recommends that government agencies establish independent review boards to handle protest disputes at the lowest possible level. The bulletin is designed to reduce protest costs and procurement delays. Procurement attorneys feel that vendors will not give up their rights to delay a contract by filing protests with the General Accounting Office or GSA Board of Contract Appeals. The new protest guidelines are a result of many disputes being settled after the filing of formal protests. The bulletin originally was to have created a separate interagency review panel for disputes but agencies did not want to give up control of their protest procedures. The bulletin states that reviewers should have the authority to modify contracts if changes are needed. GAO, Claims Court give COs broad powers. (General Accounting Office)(Contracting Officers)(Federal Contract Law)(Government The General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Claims Court grant contracting officers expansive powers for disqualifying prospective contractors for ethical reasons. The decision involved a case where Compliance Corp wanted to bid on a Navy contract that was being performed by Eagan, McAllister Associates (EMA). The Naval Investigative Service (NIS) discovered that an official from Compliance sought information from an employee of EMA regarding EMA's performance and also allegedly used a government database to obtain a list of EMA employees. Although there was no direct evidence of these incidents, the contracting officer disqualified Compliance from bidding. The Claims Court ruled on an injunction suit filed by Compliance that even if no illegal act occurred, it is enough if the appearance of an illegality directs the decision of the contracting officer. FBI sees buy as new chapter in NCIC success. (National Crime Information Center)(Federal Bureau of Investigation)(News) The Federal Bureau of Information (FBI) plans to upgrade the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), its system that distributes information on missing persons, crime suspects and stolen property. The FBI plans to award a contract for the new NCIC 2000 by Sep 30, 1991 to a vendor that will supply database software for the IBM MVS/XA operating system. The contract will also include provisions for 100 to 200 80386-based microcomputers with image processing capabilities from which users will access the main database. Image processing capability will allow police officers to enter and retrieve digitized signatures, fingerprints and photographs from the system. FBI officials want NCIC 2000 to be available to law enforcement officers 24 hours a day to let police officers communicate with others who are most knowledgeable about a crime and to verify information. Forest Service photos stored on laser disk. (Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library) The Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library curators use laser disks to store photographs and corresponding data. Photo access is improved and the curators hope this will increase demand. The library is the first to use this type of picture cataloging system and plan to offer images from the Forest Service on disk to the public for $95. Each laser disk can hold approximately 50,000 images including black-and-white photographs, color slides and illustrations. The disks are expected to last at least 100 years. The curators use Image Concepts' C-Quest picture cataloging software. C-Quest offers a 30,000-word thesaurus for cross-referencing data on images that has been customized to include all Department of Agriculture terms. Users can search the thesaurus by using one of several synonyms for a subject. GAO lambastes NOAA, says agency has lost data. (General Accounting Office)(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)(News) A General Accounting Office (GAO) report indicates that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) poor data management has resulted in both the deterioration and loss of data stored on magnetic tapes. The report also states that the NOAA lacks an agency-wide inventory of its data and therefore cannot determine what data it has, its location and what data may be lost. The report also cites poor security measures at NOAA. The GAO also contends that the US Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center, which works with NOAA in the management of Landsat satellite data, is also suffering from problems with data maintenance. Fifty-percent of the 130,000 Landsat tapes are deteriorating and the agency does not have the appropriate hardware to restore them. The report indicates that agency management has failed to make data management a priority. Secure data categories seen as no. 1 need. Power, Kevin. The National Computer Systems Security and Privacy Advisory Board feels government agencies need a consistent classification scheme for data protection. The board differs, however, on how to establish standard data protection categories that would dictate security measures used in the storage and sharing of sensitive data. Some board members contend that only Congress can force the agencies to adopt common practices. Other members feel that any laws would create more confusion. Some board members want more time and information to draft their own proposal. Government agency security managers also told the board many agencies do not understand the security guidelines from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Managers contend that there is still confusion in how to identify and protect sensitive data, especially data that is labeled sensitive but unclassified. Falcon again protests Treasury's DMAC II buy. (Falcon Microsystems Inc.)(Departmental Microcomputer Acquisition Contract) Falcon Microsystems Inc is protesting to the General Accounting Office (GAO), claiming that changes to the Treasury's solicitation for the Departmental Microcomputer Acquisition Contract (DMAC II) restricts the company from offering new hardware because its proposed products were not discontinued. Treasury is moving up commercial availability dates on discontinued models and laptops only. Falcon is requesting that the GAO recommend that the Treasury use the same availability dates for all hardware or cancel the microcomputer buy. Treasury officials, desiring more powerful laptop computers, moved up the date for laptops to Oct 1990. The discontinued hardware date is tentatively set for early March 1991. Hardware that is not discontinued is to have been available commercially by the original deadline of Dec 1988. Falcon says Treasury is irresponsible to request 2-year old equipment. Vendors flood FAA conference on CORN. (Federal Aviation Administration)(Computer Resources Nucleus)(News) The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), seeking true open competition, holds a conference for its Computer Resources Nucleus (CORN) project, after only one company bid was received on the original request for proposal (RFP). FAA officials have extended the bidding deadline to June 3, 1991 but still plan to award the CORN contract by Jan 1992. The FAA canceled the original CORN RFP in Nov 1990 to make needed revisions. The contract is worth up to $1.5 billion over 10 years and is a fixed-price, indefinite-quantity, indefinite-delivery purchase. CORN will consolidate many of the FAA's administrative applications currently running on three different hardware architectures at 12 locations. Electronic Data Systems Corp, which helped FAA officials on the original proposal, was the only bidder. The company filed a protest in Dec 1990 seeking proposal costs. Treasury 'soothsayer' peers into IRM's future. (Information Resources Management)(The Executive Suite) Jim Flyzik, director of the Treasury Department's Office of Telecommunications Management, needs to predict the information resources management (IRM) future to ensure that technologies he chooses will not become obsolete. Flyzik's biggest challenge is the conversion of the Treasury's nationwide Consolidated Data Network (CDN), managed by the Customs Service, to FTS 2000 data services. The department has migrated all voice services to FTS 2000 but still needs to convert massive amounts of data to the network's environment. The CDN contract expires in 1993 and the new contract will handle certain special security services not provided under FTS 2000. The department will replace CDN with the Treasury Communications System (TCS) which will also support the Internal Revenue Service's Tax System Modernization project as well as new Treasury financial systems. 386 notebooks have a glaring weakness. (Technoviews) (column) Vizachero, Rick. 80386-based notebook computers are the best computers designed so far but their one big drawback is a lack of significant open expansion. The parallel port network adapter was close to making the laptop computer viable as a user's only computer but there are now more demands for expansion. Users may soon be demanding CD-ROM drives on laptops as well as sound input and output capabilities. High-speed networks will demand more speed than a parallel port can give. A standard Simple Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) port can meet all these requirements. 80386-based notebook manufacturers need to develop an industry-standard daisy-chaining expansion port. Only this will allow the laptop to be practical enough to be a user's sole computer. Manufacturers should make the standardization of SCSI a top priority. Bill's excellent adventure. (Bill Gates) (Microsoft Corp.'s future plans) Microsoft Corp has announced its future strategy concerning Windows and OS/2. The plan is part of a move towards networked-based distributed computing and raises questions about the company's commitment to OS/2. The strategy calls for the development of a new platform composed of an advanced version of Windows and a new version of DOS and OS/2. Two version of Windows are currently in development. The first is an upgrade of Windows 3.0 that will include a WYSIWYG feature, laptop support and improved printer support. The second, called Windows-32, will signify the products' optimization for 32-bit microprocessors. The new version of OS/2, called OS/2 3.0, raises doubts as to the future of both the LAN Manager network operating system and the Presentation Manager graphical user interface, and is likely to further strain Microsoft's relationship with IBM. Hello, OS/2 3.0, goodbye, LAN Manager? (the future of Microsoft's network operating system) Following Microsoft's announcement concerning the OS/2 3.0 operating system, doubt has been cast as to the future of the LAN Manager network management system. Microsoft maintains that LAN Manager will still be available as a separate product even though some of its features will be included in future versions of OS/2. Company executives also maintain that the future LAN Manager will simply be a set of services running above the operating system, but claim it will not become redundant. To add to the confusion, the company indicates that Windows will be supported by LAN Manager on a client level, and that the interface will have networking capabilities. Analysts believe that the announcements indicate a shift in Microsoft's networking strategy towards incorporating Windows and MS-DOS at the client level. IBM, DEC burrow from within. (the rise of the outsourcing market) Caldwell, Bruce. The computer outsourcing market is expected to grow from the $29 billion in 1990, to an estimated $49.5 billion worldwide by 1994. Both IBM and DEC view the growing market as more than just a window of opportunity. The companies view the entire systems services industry as being vital to their futures. While facilities management may not be dramatically profitable for the vendor, often it is offered to build up a future relationship with the customer. Analysts maintain that once a vendor gains access to the internal workings of a company via outsourcing, future sales contracts are easier to monopolize. Consequently, the awarding of future contracts remains no longer cost-based, but relationship-based. Software audits start to add up. (the problem of illegal software copying) The Software Publishers Association (SPA) has stepped up its aggressive investigations into illegal use of software by companies, and has now completed as many as 60 forced audits. Some companies, such as General Motors, Eastman Kodak, and FMC Corp, are already conducting their own audit of all their corporate sites. Illegal copying of software is a growing problem for publishers. The SPA is encouraging corporations to conduct self-audits and to use the association's own SPAudit inventory management tool. SPAudit checks the hard disk of a machine against a list of some 700 common applications. The ensuing result is matched against the company's purchase orders. The SPA does not follow up self-audits, but merely requests the companies destroy any illegal copies found. In this way corporations can avoid the risk of forced audits by the SPA and US Marshals. Minding the store: New York Mayor's Office reluctantly agrees to share control of contractor database. The New York Mayor's Office has agreed to relinquish partial management of a computer system designed to prevent the awarding of city contracts to disreputable vendors such as criminals and tax evaders. The database, called Vendex (Vendor Information Exchange System), holds information on the 60,000 contracts and 1 million purchase orders awarded in the past three years. Previously, this sort of information was scattered around the many city government departments. Eight hundred contract managers now access the data base to verify a vendors credentials each time they award a contract over $10,000. The data base is now under the joint control of the mayor and the city comptroller. Custom deals, common woes: citing similar gripes, Tariff 12 users may form a user group. AT&T Tariff 12 users are planning to form a user group to address common problems they are having with the company. Currently more than 80 companies have Tariff 12 contracts. While most companies have individually-constructed contracts that often contain confidential information, they have common complaints. Most of the problems center on billing. While a more simplified billing process tops most users' lists, the FCC's complicated process requiring refiling of contracts impedes many company's use of emerging technologies. Some analysts maintain that the delay in obtaining services discourages many potential new customers to Tariff 12. AT&T, MCI serve up global fare. Medina, Diane. AT&T announces the formation of its Easylink Services division to provide multinational companies with an array of telecommunication services worldwide. The division, formed as a result of AT&T's acquisition of the messaging division of Western Union, will offer electronic-mail, electronic data interchange (EDI), facsimile, and telex services to 160 countries. The company also plans to extend the user-friendly directory capability on AT&T Mail to EasyLink. By the end of 1992, the division hopes to have united the various messaging products onto a single distributed, reduced instruction-set computing-based, fault-tolerant platform. MCI Communications meanwhile, in cooperation with Infonet and 17 other international operators, launched its Global Communications Service division. The company hopes to simplify multiple currency billing by providing users with a single currency invoice. BT Tymnet runs frame relay. Thyfault, Mary E. BT Tymnet Inc has announced that it will be deploying frame-relay wide area data networking technology over a five year period, beginning the second quarter of 1991. Frame-relay is a high-speed packet-switching service, and although it will be made available in the United States in June, it will not be available in Europe until 1992. Frame-relay offers higher throughput and less delay than X.25, because it relies on intelligent end-user devices such as microcomputers for error correction. The company intends to offer the service on its Tymnet value-added global packet switching network. BT Tymnet executives maintain that the deployment of the service will be cautious to ensure there is a substantial demand for the service. Accounting for information: Coopers & Lybrand reaches for quick and easy access. Coopers & Lybrand, a major accounting firm, utilizes a system put together by Reach Networks Inc to stay in touch with their isolated offices around the country. The Reach system links 1,700 partners, managers, and directors on a microcomputer-based network that runs off five Sparc workstations from Sun Microsystems, as part of DEC's DECnet environment. The network is an alternative to the usual process of installing a skills inventory on a relational database to locate colleagues with particular skills. Reach allows easy access to an electronic network via discussion groups and bulletin boards. The system is a cross between a RDBMS and an electronic mail system. Information can be retrieved from a hierarchy of different sources. With the system users can scan various information options such as company-wide or divisional news data bases, or a general customized news feature. Reach vs CompuServe. (Hercules Inc's use of the information storage and retrieval system) Hercules Inc, a $3 billion processor of citrus products, utilizes Reach Network Inc's Reach videotex system at its fragrance and food ingredients division. The company recently replaced the CompuServe videotex system with Reach because it is much more user-friendly. Company executives maintain that Reach does not entail complex search techniques in order to obtain useful information. In the Hercules version, all employees, from executives to shop-floor workers, have access to information about the company and the industry in general. Hercules is planning to expand the network to allow clients the opportunity to query corporate information as well. Practicing what they preach: Many companies are hiring consultants to sit in the hot seat and head IS units. A growing number of companies are hiring outside consultants to head their information systems departments. Many believe that consultants bring a fresh way of thinking and a diversity of experience to the corporate world that cannot usually be found in-house. Consultants are often good salesman, able to sell new projects to senior managers. Often a company can benefit by having an outsider guide the IS department through organizational changes. In an effort to prevent conflict with established staff, some companies simply give former executives new positions and titles. A long term problem that can arise for new employees is that, once the IS department has been brought under control, they may find themselves out of a job. In economic hard times though, some companies are finding hiring an outside consultant less than appealing, as the changes that were originally suggested become unaffordable. The CASE for change: automated software tools are helping businesses turn on a dime. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology is being used by some companies to create applications that can be reshaped or molded quickly to capitalize on opportunities. Analysts maintain that, along with the immense benefits a CASE environment provides, a high price can be paid in terms of major cultural changes within the organization itself. The benefits of a CASE environment can range from production improvements to increased cooperation between departments. But other changes can include redefined or lost information system (IS) jobs, the need to set more rigorous development standards, and changes in recruitment practises. While CASE tools enhance the efficiency of corporations, they can also redefine the thought processes and methods of the IS professional. Too many points of contact: bank gets frustrated over AT&T Datakit installation. When AT&T solicited a data networking contract from First American Information Services (FAIS), the main marketing angle of the telecommunications giant was its ability to provide a single point of contact. FAIS provides data processing to 43 First American banks and branches in the Midwest. The company wanted AT&T to install Datakit in three data centers as an initial step towards network computing. Soon after the first Datakit segment was installed the original AT and T account team was transferred. According to FAIS there have been at least a dozen AT&T employees who have called since, each maintaining they were the sole point of contact. While no other large users have reported problems concerning the equipment, FAIS has been waiting more than a year for the other Datakit segments to get up and running. CA competes for the title: acquires spreadsheet to bolster PC offerings. (Computer Associates International Inc. acquires In an effort to increase its microcomputer-based product line and take advantage of the popularity of Microsoft's Windows 3.0, Computer Associates International purchases the Compete spreadsheet software package from ManageWare Inc. Unlike conventional spreadsheets that require separate worksheets for each comparison, Compete allows multidimensional and financial modeling in which the data is entered on sales, products, and earnings, and then viewed in any fashion. The product is to be renamed CA-Compete and the price of the new 4.2 version will be cut from $4,995 to $995. The copy protection device will also be removed from the new version, which will be given away free to existing Compete users. X terminal marks the spot. ( increase sales) Myers, Kara; McClatchy, Will. The market for X terminals is expected to grow considerably in the next few years. X terminals are diskless terminals that provide a graphical multi-windowing high-performance front end to X window applications running on any type of Unix server. An estimated 6,870 units were sold in 1989, and this figure is expected to go as high as 275,000 by 1994. Analysts expect the X terminal market to double in the coming year. It is not just their high performance that is attractive to potential customers, but their low cost compared to workstations. A color workstation can often cost twice as much as a color X terminal. Chip clones ahoy. (microprocessors) McClatchy, Will. A number of manufacturers are currently working on Intel and Macintosh microprocessor clones for release later in 1991. Advanced Micro Devices intends to release its Am386 family of chips in the first quarter to compete with Intel's 80386. Intel is expected to retaliate by offering a stripped down version of its 80486 chip. NexGen Microsystems is working on its F86 reduced instruction-set computing chipset to compete with the 80486. Intel is again preparing a counterattack with both 100Mbyte and a 50-MHz versions of the 80486 later this year. Nutek Computers on the other hand is preparing to release a chipset for original equipment manufacturers to produce Macintosh compatible clones. Although analysts say Nutek went to great lengths to avoid Apple copyrights, Apple may still delay the release through court battles, and might even license Macintosh technology as a result. Share and share alike: IBM's Mike Saranga explains his open systems strategy. (interview) Michael Saranga, IBM's general manager of systems structure and management, believes that, although the AIX operating system and the Systems Application Architecture (SNA) operating environment may appear to have some commonalities, the architectures are fundamentally different because AIX is a Unix operating system. He maintains that IBM plans to have a workstation database capability that will span both the AIX platform and the OS/2 product line. Development within the company will eventually include the Open Software Foundation platform, and although the company currently encompasses OSF/1 technology, should OSF/2 be released in the meantime, IBM would probably change its plans accordingly. He also believes that the MVS operating systems will have added functions in the future, but maintains the company has no plans to phase it out. Unisys looks on the bright side: despite poor financials, company and users are optimistic. Unisys reports a loss of $436.7 million on revenues of $10.11 billion for 1990, as opposed to a loss of $639.3 million on $10.1 billion in 1989. The fourth quarter results are little better. The company posts a loss of $88.5 million for the quarter, after a net income of $34 million for the same quarter last year. Revenue slips 1.2 percent to $2.93 billion from $2.97 billion in the previous year's quarter. The company is optimistic; however, pointing out certain bright spots such as the conversion of an operating loss to an operating profit, the firm's defense business returning to profitability, an increase in cash flow, and a debt reduction of $600 million. A total of 75,000 employees remain on the payroll, after a reduction in work force of 7,000 last year. Oracle gets some credit: despite credit woes, user group sees improvement. Oracle Corp, the leading RDBMS vendor, began 1991 with disappointing first-quarter results and then announced that it had to renegotiate its credit terms to stay within the guidelines set by its 13-member banking syndicate. The company's new customer relations initiative termed Real Time Support Service (RTSS) is seen as an attempt to boost its flagging market share. Analysts maintain that service and support has improved greatly since the inception of the RTSS in September of 1990. In another attempt to improve quality assurance, the company has also initiated training programs for its sales personnel, and its consulting and support staffs. Applications of common sense: IS management is mostly like any other, but it does have its distinctive features. (information The management of information systems programming personnel should facilitate an environment of mutual respect, with everyone working towards long-term goals. This can be encouraged in a number of ways. In the first instance, it is a good idea to provide a template programming language tool for both end users and programmers. Managers should remember to give praise for work completed ahead of schedule, and to be consistent when reprimanding poor workmanship. Programmers generally do better work when they know exactly what is expected of them. It is also a good idea to invite criticism from personnel as this can often lead to innovative ideas and improved interaction between management and personnel. Microsoft realigns Windows, OS/2: Windows to serve the mainstream; OS/2 relegated to the high end. Microsoft Corp outlined a plan that cemented the position of Windows as its mainstream IBM-compatible operating environment and OS/2 as the high end system. Microsoft's long-term strategy is centered around a 32-bit applications programming interface called Windows-32. Windows-32 will eventually run over DOS or OS/2 3.0. Windows-32 will offer OS/2 Presentation Manager capabilities. Microsoft also announced that it would ship DOS 5.0; observers say that it will probably be available in spring 1991. Microsoft will also release Windows 3.1 and a developer's kit for Windows-32. After it releases OS/2 3.0, sometime in the next few years, Microsoft will release something that Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates calls Windows: the Next Generation. This version of Windows will offer a truly object-oriented user shell. New strategy marks reversal in way Microsoft views migration to OS/2. Microsoft Corp outlines a new strategy that varies from the strategy it announced during the late 1980s. The new strategy provides for upgrades for MS-DOS, moves Windows into position as the mainstream operating system, and places OS/2 into position as the operating system for the high-end market. Microsoft officials explained the change by admitting that they were wrong. In the new strategy, Microsoft kills off the concept of using Presentation Manager for mainstream applications. OS/2 3.0 will run Windows and Presentation Manager applications, so developers will have little reason to create Presentation Manager-specific applications. The strategy will let developers write applications that span a number of different computers. Customers will reap the advantages of flexibility and improved applications. Eventually, Microsoft expects to see increased use of technologies such as distributed processing and an external macro language that will connect applications. Action, Novell planning detente on MHS control. (Action Technologies Inc, Message Handling Service) Novell Inc and Action Technologies Inc will clear up the confusion over who controls Message Handling Service (MHS) when the two companies announce, in mid-February, that Action will hand over control to Novell. Novell's Netware MHS 1.5 will become the standard MHS for Netware installations. Action will develop MHS for other environments, such as Unix and OS/2, and will license MHS technology from Novell. The contract between the two companies, in which Action hands over control of the technology it originated, comes in response to user demands for a standard. Developers are pleased about the announcement, saying that many developers who were frightened off by MHS's lack of standardization will begin to work with it again. Industry observers note that Action's share of the deal, in which it will develop MHS for Unix and OS/2, leaves it with little to do, since Unix and OS/2 both have accepted mail technologies in place. Apple seeks radio range for wireless LAN. Coursey, David. Apple has asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve frequencies for radio-based LANs. The new LANs would offer speeds as high as 10M-bps and would move information at distances of up to 150 feet. Motorola has announced that it will introduce its Wireless Inbuilding Network (WIN) wireless technology on Feb 11, 1991. Apple's proposal differs from Motorola's in that it would not require an FCC license, so users could move their networks from place to place without government approval. Although industry observers say that the Apple proposal is a strong one, it may not win the approval of the FCC, since current users of the frequency are determined to retain control of it. Motorola currently has an FCC license that allows its customers to use the WIN devices only within 35 miles of 300 large cities. Apple's license, if it is approved, will be easier to use and cheaper to implement. IBM putting its Signature on word processing market. (with Signature word processing software) IBM and Xyquest Inc are planning to release their jointly-developed word processing package sometime in the 2nd qtr of 1991. The DOS-based program will be the first of IBM's line of Xywrite-based programs, which will eventually include a version for Windows and for OS/2 Presentation Manager. The word processor family, called Signature, will have an almost identical look and feel, according to beta testers and other sources. Signature will allow users to import existing files from Xywrite and Displaywrite. It offers pull-down menus, mouse support, and multiple methods of displaying documents on screen. Beta testers were pleased with the software's graphical look and its speed. One tester said that Xywrite users should feel very comfortable with Signature, although Displaywrite users probably will not be as impressed. Displaywrite users will be offered a low-price upgrade as an incentive. IBM replacing fuzzy 8513 displays: heat buildup causes monitor to lose focus; warranty extended. IBM is replacing or repairing hundreds of thousands of its 8513 color monitors because of a problem that makes the unit appear out of focus while it is physically changing the focus voltage. In its second Engineering Change Announcement addressing the monitors, the company has offered a replacement unit free to customers for as long as four years after the date of purchase. An IBM representative was unable to estimate how many monitors had been or would be affected since the defect depends on how many hours a day the monitor is used. Monitors with serial numbers ranging from 72-0000000 through 72-064-000 are affected. Raylan products make fiber more feasible. (product announcement) Fickel, Louise; Darrow, Barbara. Raylan Corp introduced its Network Series in late Jan 1991 in an effort to make fiber-optic cabling a cost-effective alternative to copper wiring. The Raylan Network Series consists of a $595 concentrator, $220 fiber and copper drop cards, and a $230 transceiver. The products work with Ethernet and token ring and provide a basis for the Fiber Distributed Data Interface, which will be available in Mar 1991. The products were demonstrated by Siecor and Anixter Bros, which connected five microcomputers in two booths via an all-fiber token ring configuration. At one installation, traditional copper cabling cost $1,040 per workstation, while Raylan glass cabling cost $1,080 per workstation. Raylan's cabling allows token ring systems to support as many as 16 concentrators and about 250 computers connected at distances of up to one kilometer from the concentrator. InfoWorld products of the year 1990. (InfoWorld readers vote on their favorite products) InfoWorld readers are surveyed on their favorite products for 1990 and Windows is the overwhelming winner. Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 made Overall Software Product of the Year. The Hardware Product of the Year is Hewlett-Packard's Laserjet III printer, which sets a new industry standard. The Networking Product of the Year is Novell Netware 386 3.1. The winners of these awards, and others, were chosen from a survey of InfoWorld readers taken in mid-Dec 1990. Other products that were recognized for excellent include Geoworks Ensemble, a multitasking windowing environment that requires only 512Kbytes. Claris's CAD 2.0 package was called easy to learn and full-featured. Aldus Pagemaker Windows 3.01 was a favorite of InfoWorld readers, as was Adobe Illustrator 3.0. Macintosh chosen for color-matching API: technical shortcomings discount Windows. (Application Programming Interface) The Association of Color Developers is writing its initial specification for the Macintosh, not the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment, because association members say that there are 'technical shortcomings' in the Windows 3.0 environment. The association's ultimate goal is to produce a platform-independent application programming interface that will match color displays to color print output. The technical shortcomings, according to one observer, are linked to Microsoft Corp's inexperience with color and with hardware limitations that the Macintosh is not subject to. Microsoft acknowledges the importance of color matching to Windows and professes itself very interested in work on the standard. Eventually, the association does plan to bring its standard over to DOS/Windows. Foreign virus strains emerge as latest threat to U.S. PCs. Graggs, Tuseda A. Viruses coming from Bulgaria, Germany, Taiwan, China, and other parts of the world are infecting US computers and account for more than 75 percent of all computer viruses found in US computers, according to Computer Virus Industry Association Chmn John McAfee. One antivirus program that is available is PC Norton Group's Norton Anti-Virus for IBM-compatible microcomputers. A handful of other companies also sell antivirus programs, but experts agree that these programs can only minimize the risk, not eliminate it entirely. The situation will only worsen, partly because viruses are becoming larger and more complex, and partly because every virus that was ever created is still in existence and is capable of spreading. Companies can avoid viruses by educating users about the dangers, minimizing external virus exposure, and using antivirus software. 16-bit DOS extender offers more memory. (panel discussion) Scannell, Ed. Phar Lap Software Inc will soon release a 16-bit DOS extender that is aimed at allowing character-based OS/2 applications to run under DOS. The extender offers opportunity to OS/2 developers who want to extend their potential market from the 300,000 OS/2 users to the more than 30 million DOS users. The $495 Phar Lap 286/DOS Extender supports the Virtual Control Program Interface and DOS Protected Mode Interface. It allows developers to create OS/2 executable files and carry out dynamic linking as OS/2 does. The extender supports a subset of OS/2's application program interfaces and works with the entire Microsoft C toolkit. The program makes more memory available for Microsoft's C compiler so that programmers can compile large programs without worrying about running out of memory. Phar Lap expects to ship the product in mid-Feb 1991. Market reflects worry over VDTs: many manufacturers redesign popular models to lower radiation. (video display terminals) Monitor manufacturers are redesigning their devices amidst growing concern about the effects of video radiation on users. The redesigns are aimed at lowering or eliminating electromagnetic emissions. NEC Technologies Inc has introduced the Multisync 3DS, a version of its Multisync 3D monitor that has lower emissions. NEC achieved this by adding a heavy-duty, ground yoke which set up an alternative field to cancel the monitor's electronic emissions. The monitors perform virtually identically, other than the difference in emissions. The yoke adds about $100 to the cost of the monitor and NEC is passing only half of that onto the consumer. The 3D costs $1,049 and the 3DS costs $1,099. An NEC official says that the cost of the yoke is due to the fact that it is specially designed, and if the 3DS becomes popular the yokes will become cheaper. Qume Corp has also introduced a reduced emissions monitor and has added $50 to the price of the monitor. Qume's QM835 VLF Super VGA costs $699. Interleaving provides partial solution to slow DRAM access. (dynamic random access memory) (column) The need for faster access to DRAM can be partially solved by using a technique called RAM interleaving. This is a non-RAM-caching solution that allows users to set up an interleaved memory system, which is split into two halves, or banks, with even accesses fetched from one RAM bank and odd accesses fetched from the other. This method helps overcome the main disadvantage of DRAM, which is that its cycle time is usually twice as long as its access time. As a result, the system's overall performance degrades because wait states must be introduced while the RAM recovers from its last access. Using the RAM caching system, the overall effect is zero-wait-state RAM access. The disadvantage is that the system is constrained when the user violates the even/odd access sequence by asking for two even or two odd addresses in a row. The real answer to the DRAM problem may lie in true RAM caching. Screen savers offer security, amusement: clever artwork disguises product's function. Cleverly designed screen savers can help users avoid screen burnout and provide them with added security. Berkeley Systems Inc has introduced a set of screen savers. After Dark provides password protection for screen and system access. The security features may make them more attractive to corporate buyers, who may not want to spend money on what they regard as toys, but a representative from another screen saver manufacturer, Fifth Generation, says that while corporations officially want screen savers to prevent burnout, buyers are actually interested in them as entertainment. Some of the views offered by the screen savers include flying toasters, accompanied by flying toast, aquarium scenes, and snowflakes. Fifth Generation offers a $39 or $49 package called Pyro, while Berkeley Systems Inc's $39.95 After Dark will soon be available for Windows 3.0 users. Antsy developers create font utilities. Coale, Kristi. Altsys Corp and Area Software Corp are just two of the companies developing font utility-font conversion tools for the True Type font package, despite the fact that True Type is not yet available. Area has introduced a font conversion utility that converts Adobe System Inc's Type 1 fonts to Apple's True Type. The utility, called Font Monger, costs $99.95 and includes font design capabilities. Altsys's Metamorphosis lets users convert Type 3 to Type 1 fonts and the capability to convert to True Type is expected relatively soon. The $149 Metamorphosis is more expensive than Font Monger, but Altsys Pres Jim Von Ehr says that he expects the new version, containing True Type capabilities, to be very competitive with Font Monger. Ares will ship Font Monger sometime during the 1st qtr of 1991, regardless of whether Apple ships True Type or System 7.0, the new operating system for the Macintosh. Service becomes issue for software vendors: vendors and resellers charging for support. Corporate Software has developed a program designed to make it easier for corporate customers to move from a character-based computer environment to Microsoft Windows 3.0. The program, called Migration Services for Windows, includes a white paper that describes the advantages and requirements for Windows, and services that include installation and project planning. Corporate Software is working with Microsoft Corp's information technology integration services for some of its offerings. The company is charging $120 an hour for a Windows installation session and $150 per user for three months of subsequent phone support. Lotus Development Corp is also working to provide value-added system integration. The company feels that customers want one source for support. Lower cost, more power are key to making Mac compatibles. (State of the Industry) (column) Nutek's attempts to develop a Macintosh compatible microcomputer could be the first to actually provide customers with a workable machine. Nutek is using clean-room engineering techniques to create a chip set and BIOS so that a systems manufacturer can replicate the Mac OS and ROMs. The engineers working on the chip set and BIOS do not have access to a Macintosh computer. Clean-room engineering has been validated by courts as a way to provide compatibility without infringing on a company's intellectual property. Nutek may still face problems in the courts, but if a company is able to produce a less-expensive, more powerful, or more technically innovative system, the resulting open market could be large enough to make a legal fight with Apple worth the time and money. Oracle speeds up the application development process. (Tech Street) (column) Oracle Corp has developed a portable, multimedia, end-user database client for the Windows 3.0 and Macintosh environments called Oracle Card. Oracle Card allows users to build applications on top of Oracle databases. It is simple to use and powerful, and it could be an excellent tool for MIS managers and software developers who need to develop SQL-based applications for their internal customers. It is also a rapid prototyping tool. Although Oracle Card has yet to reach the beta installation test stage, Oracle officials need to keep a close eye on its use at those stages. If Oracle Card has potential beyond Oracle's current strategic plan, those users will discover it and Oracle will have a better idea of how to market it in an industry that needs an easier way to develop database applications. Riding the Internet: this vast collection of networks is a mystery even to people who call it home. (includes related articles on how Internet is a Unix-based network that is comprised of thousands of networks. The contents of Internet run the gamut from high-level discussions between prominent scientists and researchers to UFO warnings and gourmet cooking. Internet can be difficult to access, which limits use to a technological elite. The biggest part of Internet is the National Science Foundation network, NSF-Net. Usenet, although not strictly part of Internet, connects the networks that make up Internet and provide bulletin board services that include nearly 850 ongoing discussion groups. Usenet is currently facing problems because of cost issues and pornography issues. Previously, large sites have provided news feeds and mail to smaller sites, but these large sites are beginning to realize that this service can be quite expensive. Other problems center around the fact that some sexually explicit graphic images and discussion groups are available via Usenet. 'Revolution' the hype word of computer industry advances. (Future Tense) (column) The word 'revolution' is often used to describe a concept in the computer industry that unduly raises expectations, so that the gap between what a user expects and what a manufacturer supplies grows ever wider. For example, the Apple II was supposed to revolutionize computing, bringing computers to every home. The current revolution revolves around pen-based computing. Hopefully, the same cycle of growing expectations, followed by disappointment, will be avoided, but perhaps that cycle is an essential part of the innovation process. As user expectations and technological achievements begin to mesh, innovation will continue to affect the technology in question and evolution will be seen as part of the daily routine, rather than a radical change. Computing heresies sometimes have the ring of truth. (The Corporate View) (column) There are certain accepted ideas about computer design that may need to be examined if the accepted ideas do not seem to be producing the desired results. For example, common wisdom says that any job worth doing is worth doing well. In fact, it is a better idea to evaluate the importance of the job, then determine how well it needs to be done. Another piece of common wisdom is that mainframes will always be needed. Many people believe now that networked microcomputers can replace mainframes. The idea that if something is not broken, then it does not need to be fixed, can also be examined. Perhaps the observer may just think that it is going well, and does not actually understand the situation. Sometimes constance vigilance is required, even if the surface seems unruffled. Microcomputer managers, programmers, and systems designers sometimes need to take a heretical view to avoid being lulled by common wisdom. Type scalers: InfoWorld evaluates five packages for enhancing Windows' print and display quality. (Software Review) (evaluation) Type scalers have solved some of the problems that have plagued the task of design-intensive text-based work on microcomputers. Five packages are evaluated that allow users to see accurate on-screen representations of fonts and send the output to almost any printer, even a non-Postscript machine. The five packages are: Adobe Systems Adobe Type Manager, Bitstream's Facelift, Micro Logic Software's More Fonts, Atech Software's Publisher's Powerpak, and Zenographic's Superprint. Although Type Manager has achieved a greater market share than the other products, the other packages offer a great deal to different user niches. Facelift is aimed at users of Bitstream's Speedo type library. More Fonts offers the best speed but it is not suitable for WYSIWYG Windows applications. Superprint offers on-the-fly scaling of typefaces, but its slow screen display the unreliable performance make it a poor choice. Publisher's Powerpak has limited appeal because it supports only HP laser printers and it relies on its own type library. Clarifying font technology. Gruman, Galen. The meaning of different typographical terms has been blurred as computer technology has infiltrated the typesetting world. Some of the terms are used differently by different manufacturers, making it difficult to determine the capabilities of a program. Typefaces are styles of letters, numerals, and punctuation. Most typefaces consist of different faces, or variants of the style, that provide the user with italics or bold characters. A font is a typeface at a particular size. Most vendors use the word font rather than face, so a company that advertises a set number of Postscript fonts actually is supplying that number of faces, with an even greater number of fonts, depending on the number of sizes that the technology can scale to. Resident fonts are those in a printer's ROM. Soft fonts and downloadable fonts can be sent for storage in a printer's RAM. Borland's object vision lets users create forms-based apps using decision trees. (Software Review) (evaluation) Borland International Inc's Object Vision program development software lets users create forms-based applications without using programming code. Object Vision provides decision trees and incorporates spreadsheet-like formulas. The program can create, read and write data from Paradox, Btrieve, Dbase III and III Plus, and ASCII data files. The program lets users create new fields, size them, and place them on the form. A decision tree is then attached to individual fields. This way of creating forms is particularly useful when the user is looking for a result that is not straightforward. Object Vision can also be used to create multiple forms within the same application. The user can then link those forms together and work with them in a stack. The program is a good choice for users who want to create logic- and forms-based applications without the difficulties of programming. Power on/off lets you turn on remote PCs by phone. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Server Technology's Power-On/Off lets users turn remote microcomputers on and off by telephone. The $219.95 device consists of a single AC power cord, four plugs for devices, and two telephone jacks. When the Power-On/Off senses that the phone line is ringing, it turns on its AC outlets and passes the phone signal to the modem. The outlets stay on until the line is disconnected and the phone signal is unmodified. All the user has to do to turn off devices attached to the device is hang up the telephone. The primary benefit is that the device lets the microcomputer stay off until someone tries to access it. Also, the remote microcomputer can be turned off without someone being physically in the office. This device is highly recommended for anyone who wants more control over remote microcomputers. Autocad 11 features true solids-modeling capabilities. (Software Review) (evaluation) Autodesk Inc's Autocad 11 computer-aided design software is a full-featured package that offers speed, plotting enhancements, solids-modeling capabilities, new management tools, and an improved user interface. The $3,500 package also includes, for an additional $495, a 3D solids-modeling toolset called the Advanced Modeling Extension. A shading add-on, called Autoshade, is also available at either $500 or $1,000. The package contains basic drawings tools, along with polar and rectangular arrays, multiple copies, and a complete line of dimensioning techniques. Autocad 11 is difficult to learn and it lacks features such as automatic trimming and associative capabilities, but it offers an excellent value compared to mainframe CAD systems. Departmental Laserjet IID matches performance of III: Hewlett-Packard's eight-ppm laser printer is a worthy successor to Hewlett-Packard's Laserjet IIID is an excellent printer that offers superb output quality via Resolution Enhanced Technology (RET), scalable fonts, excellent expandability, and duplex printing. The $3,595 printer uses HP's Printer Control Language and is built around a Canon RX engine with a 20,000-page-per-month duty cycle. It has excellent paper-handling capabilities and font-handling capabilities. It is a very fast printer, both with graphics and text, and it comes with superb documentation. The only negative is its 75-pound weight, which means that two people are needed to set it up. Overall, the Laserjet IIID is the best choice for users looking for a printer to work in a shared environment. Is Win 32 going to dominate the operating system world? (Windows 32) (column) Microsoft Corp's product strategy seemed to be designed to eliminate the two or three different Microsoft operating system standards in favor of a single operating system standard called Win 32, or Advanced Windows. This new operating system standard will apparently be Windows, although it will incorporate multiple application programming interfaces and may include a new underlying NT kernel. Microsoft may run into problems in implementing this strategy. It needs to make sure that Win 32 addresses the midrange user and the high-end user and that it is upwardly compatible from the current 16-bit Windows. The creation of a single baseline operating system also provides an opportunity to IBM. If IBM supports Win 32, it will finally support Windows and will, in effect, catch up with its customers. Microsoft's overall strategy is impressive, largely because it focuses on the needs of Microsoft customers. Hot startups: And they're off! (third in a three-part series of profiles of LAN and WAN companies) Adaptive Corp plans to provide advanced high-speed and bandwidth broadband networks that will go far beyond today's T1 and T3 frame-relay-based services. The company will ship the first of a family of network switches in the second quarter of 1992. They are based on broadband ISDN and will utilize both synchronous Transfer Mode (STM) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). Softswitch could be one of the biggest success stories in the LAN/WAN market. The maker of multivendor E-mail and X.400 multipoint mail gateways focuses on the 'middleware' market, the fastest-growing area in the networking industry. Softswitch Central, the company's main product, is a distributed switch. The company is growing at a rate of 70 percent per year and has hit the $25 million sales mark. Beyond Inc has close connections to Lotus that attract attention to the company. It is ready to release its first product at the Networld '91 trade show, an off-the-shelf E-mail product. Novell's SFT III isn't shipping, but does anyone really care? Breidenbach, Susan. Netware users seem unconcerned that Novell Inc will probably not release SFT (System Fault Tolerance) Level III in 1991. The extension to Netware 386 will let users mirror their servers in a second machine that will take over server functions automatically in case of a hardware failure. Many of Novell's prospective customers do not feel a need for the product, but it could be useful for a company whose information is critical to its daily business operations and where that information is run on local area networks (LANs). LAN-based, mission-critical applications that are not on-line transaction processing (OLTP) types can tolerate up to 40 minutes of downtime occasionally, so a backup server is not needed. Raylan slashes fiber-optic cost for linking desktop PC LANs. (The Network Series) (product announcement) Raylan Corp's new Network Series is the first fiber-optic concentrator for Ethernet and token-ring LANs in the same price range as unshielded twisted pair (UTP) wiring programs. The concentrator is FDDI-compliant, has 16 ports, and permits wiring fiber-optic cable to microcomputers with standard network adapter Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) ports. Raylan's Ethernet of token-ring transceiver provides the link between fiber-optic termination and the microcomputer adapter's AUI connector. The concentrator lists for $595. The transceiver costs $230 and fiber or copper drop cards go for $220. The products will be available in Mar 1991. Hayes network targets niche market; new Lanstep offers easy installation, maintenance, and operation. (product announcement) Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc is targeting small, growing businesses for its Lanstep local-area network (LAN) product. Lanstep provides ease of installation, maintenance and operation. Hayes is hoping its name, primarily established through modem sales, will help it in a market dominated by Novell. Lanstep grows with a business' needs and does not require a specialist to install and maintain it. An icon-based user interface makes the product easy to use. The product will be available by the end of Mar 1991 for $595. A Lanstep Mail Gateway will be available in April for $395. 3Com Brouters now offer IPX, Decnet, OSI support. (Netbuilder) (product announcement) 3Com Corp enhances its Netbuilder brouter line with software that supports Novell's Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), DEC's Decnet, and OSI's Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocols. The IPX support should make the low-priced brouters more appealing to Netware users. This is the first commercially available implementation of OSI's draft IS-IS standard. Netbuilder with local bridging software costs $5,495; equipped with brouter software it costs $7,995. Cabletron does management for Macintoshes. (Maclanview) (product announcement) Cabletron Systems Inc's new Maclanview is software for its Lanview Network Analyzer that monitors and manages Apple Macintoshes. It will diagnose Macintoshes attached to IEEE 802.3 Ethernet or 2.3K-bps Localtalk LANs. Maclanview connects to Ethernet networks through Cabletron's E5000 or E6000 series of Desktop Network Interface (DNI) cards. The package utilizes the Macintosh's graphical user interface (GUI). It provides a complete spectrum of performance and usage statistics, including audible and visual alarm mechanisms. The product is currently available for $3,995. 100Mbps twisted-pair will attract power LAN users; emerging TPDDI finds enthusiastic niche market. Twisted-Pair Distributed Data Interface (TPDDI) media provides a cheaper alternative to fiber-optic cable for high-end workstation users who need a low-cost interim solution. TPDDI uses IBM twisted-pair cabling to transmit data at 100Mbps, as specified by the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). Lower installation costs associated with using previously installed twisted-pair cable is a good reason for considering the fledgling technology. There are currently no available TPDDI products on the market and industry observers do not expect them to appear until late in 1991. Oracle Corp. announces Hypercard-based product; software builds apps to access Oracle databases. (Oracle Card) (product Oracle Corp's Oracle Card software uses a graphical point-and-click interface for building applications that will access Oracle databases residing on a wide variety of hosts. The Hypercard-based product runs on Macintosh and DOS-based microcomputers with Windows 3.0. Oracle is targeting the product at customers that are building corporate information systems, sales and training systems, or visual databases, like product or parts catalogs. The product includes two Oracle connectivity programs: SQL Net and Oracle Access. Oracle Card lists for $299. Crosscomm bridges join remote LANs to WANs; Ethernet products boast fast speed, data filtering. (HSB-ELL and HSB-ETT Ethernet Crosscomm Corp's new HSB-ELL and HSB-ETT Ethernet bridges connect remote Ethernet networks over a variety of wide area network (WAN) links. They will transmit data up to 100 times faster than normal telephone lines and are capable of achieving the highest data-filtering and packet-forwarding rates of any Ethernet bridges currently available. They achieve these performance levels through the company's Asic-based Internetwork Engine and a 16Mbps Intel Corp 80386 processor. The products are currently available. The HSB-ELL costs $5,995 and the HSB-ETT lists for $7,995. BICC unveils new officers, business units, network; new wireless LAN uses infrared light beams. BICC Data Networks, a subsidiary of BICC Technologies Ltd, announces two US-based business units: BICC Technologies Inc, of Westborough, MA; and BICC Communications, of Auburn, MA. The two networking businesses emphasize the parent company's intent to become a major factor in the growing networking market. The companies will focus on the Infralan infrared cableless LAN technology recently acquired from United Telecom. An Infralan LAN for IEEE 802.5 token-ring LANs has been beta tested and is already shipping. It costs $2,995 for two optical nodes and a base unit that supports six users. American Power releases new UPSes; products provide up to 35 minutes of backup for file servers, networked PCs. (American Power American Power Conversion Corp's three new Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units protect data on multiple file servers, networked microcomputers and other devices on a local-area network (LAN). The Smart-UPS units protect data for up to 35 minutes during a power outage and contain microprocessors for communicating with network administrators and diagnosing problems linked to faulty power. The three units contain the same features; differences appear in the power ratings. The Smart-UPS 900 costs $999, the Smart-UPS 1250 lists for $1,299 and the Smart-UPS 2000 sells for $1,999. They began shipping on Feb 1, 1991. Products tap IBM's new Micro Channel upgrades; Ethernet servers may be the first to benefit. IBM is readying enhanced-mode token-ring and Ethernet adapters that will take advantage of second-generation Micro Channel Architecture features for PS/2 microcomputers, although a shipment date has not been announced. The features are currently built into the RS/6000. 3Com is ready to offer its own version of the Ethernet adapter, perhaps in the spring of 1991. Cogent Data Technologies Inc shipped a 32-bit Ethernet adapter, the E/Master III, that costs $695 but supports thick/thin coax cable only. Tiara Computer Systems Inc is ready to ship its Lancard/E*MC32 in the first quarter of 1991. Apple takes steps to build Ethernet into the Macintosh; company takes nonstandard approach, though. (Apple Ethernet Cabling System Apple Computer Inc considers its Apple Ethernet Cabling System architecture to be the first step in building Ethernet connectivity into the Macintosh microcomputer. The company is producing a line of media-independent boards for the Macintosh LC and the Macintosh II; the Ethernet transceiver and cable interface are a separate product that connects to a nonstandard plug on the back of the board and the outside of the machine. The boards can be mixed on a LAN with existing Ethernet boards. The LC adapter lists for $199, the Nubus board is $424. One of three types of transceivers are required, each priced at $175. Invisible Software updates its peer-to-peer network. (Invisible Network 2.0) (product announcement) Invisible Software's Invisible Network 2.0 is a peer-to-peer network that rivals Netware 286. It includes Transbios, a high-speed communications protocol that combines the best features of peer-to-peer and client/server protocols. Transbios analyzes traffic on network connections and, when it detects a client/server transmission, alters its operation to match the client/server traffic flow. Version 2.0 is targeted for the small business market. The networks costs $215 for Model 200, $315 for Model 300, $399 for Micro Channel and $369 for Ethernet. Upgrades are available for $150. Using the new Netware 386 3.1 remote console utility. (tutorial) Liebing, Edward. Netware 386 3.0 did not include Netware 2.1's FCONSOLE as a complete utility. Novell corrected this with the release of Netware 386 3.1 and the release of the RCONSOLE (Remote Console) utility. RCONSOLE runs at a workstation; it allows the supervision of the network console and performs the same functions as if located at the server. Two Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs) must be run at the server before running RCONSOLE at the workstation; REMOTE.NLM and RSSPX.NLM are both stored in the SSYS:SYSTEM directory. The RCONSOLE utility is also located in the SYS:SYSTEM directory. RCONSOLE is a valuable tool for troubleshooting and maintaining Netware 386 file servers. Tips to new users on setup, batch files, and printing. (LANtastic) (tutorial) Lantastic users do not have to dedicate a computer to the network in order to share printers and disk drives. A server can be used just like it is in a single-user environment. It may, however, be more efficient to distribute the processing and resources. Lantastic 3.0 includes a fast, easy method of automatically generating batch files; instructions for using it are included. Several tips are presented for printing problems. Artisoft maintains a bulleting board service for support, available at no charge. Resource forks might save your lost data. (Apple Talk) (tutorial) Day, Michael. Macintosh resource forks can be pitfalls for DOS network managers. Mac files have two segments, or forks: the data fork and the resource fork, which contains information that the Finder and Mac OS use to manage a file. Modifying resource forks can provide some interesting capabilities; ignoring them can cause the loss of data. Tips for altering Macintosh resource forks are provided. Centralized management can increase network efficiency; Net/One LAN Manger's statistics features help. (fourth in a four-part Net/One LAN Manager collects statistics from LAN Manager servers and allows network managers to read them from a central console. This approach reduces troubleshooting time and increases management efficiency. A Statistics Logger program and Statistics Report program and a Print Log File program are used to gather information. Net/One LAN Manager's Statistics Monitor collects information on memory use, disk use, print servers, network control blocks, and I/O use. The data is in ASCII format and is easily integrated into reports and documents. Centralized management simplified the management of multiple servers and provide network administrators with a means to justify equipment upgrades and reallocations. LAN edges mainframe, lands Canadian site. (Certified Netware Engineers' problems in developing and implementing a new design) The problems encountered by Dataguard Computer Management Ltd Certified Netware Engineers (CNEs) while setting up a local-area network (LAN) at a remote site in northern Alberta, Canada, are described. The LAN includes 75 workstations with four servers running Netware 386 and Netware VMS that are interconnected and bridged to a QNX system. Problems arose with an ALR 80386 33MHz Admin server, it began hanging without any error messages or clues. The problem was traced to the Monitor Netware Loadable Module (NLM) running on the server. An on-line backup server running another copy of Netware 386 is now used to keep downtime to a minimum. Network managers aren't frills; they're necessities. Germann, Christopher. Network managers are essential for all connected microcomputers, regardless of how small the network. The administrator must optimize all applications, recommend new ones, make the network more usable, and evaluate new products. Most small companies have part-time LAN managers that perform routine network tasks along with their regular jobs. Four areas can give new network managers problems: software upgrades, maintenance, new technologies, and tracking statistics. Controllers: options for server tuning; new and updated releases offer ways to experiment with performance. New small computer systems interface (SCSI) drive controllers offer more ways for network managers to experiment with server performance. SCSI should be considered for future server expansion are when facing heavy storage demands. Several SCSI products are discussed, including Smartcache Plus, from Distributed Processing Technology; Core International's CPR series; Mylex Corp's AT-bus DC376 controller; Perceptive Solutions Inc's Hyperstore; and Always Technology's IN-2000 AT-bus SCSI adapter. Dayna announces slew of Mac connectivity products; new Etherprint Plus converts Ethertalk to Localtalk. (product announcement) Dayna Communications introduces several new products that provide Macintosh compatibility between Ethernet networks, MS-DOS products and external attachments. Etherprint Plus connects multiple Localtalk devices to an Ethernet network. It shipped in Jan 1991 and is available for $899. The Daynafile II disk drive is cheaper and now includes the company's DOS Mounter software. It will sell for $599 when it becomes available at the end of Feb 1991. Dayna Communications also plans to produce products that are compatible with the Apple's newly announced Apple Ethernet Cable System. How to specify the right FDDI optical fiber; benefits include enormous information-carrying capacity and low attenuation. The increasing importance of enterprise and Wide Area Networks (WANs) are drawing attention to the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). Consideration should be given to optical fiber for FDDI any time rewiring is planned. Not all optical fiber meets FDDI standards; use of 62.5/125 micron optical fiber is recommended. FDDI performance parameters include bandwidth, attenuation, chromatic dispersion, numerical aperture, and fiber geometry. Network analyzers tackle FDDI challenges; new diagnostic tools test network components and monitor the network itself. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard is finding acceptance among network managers. It solves many problems in existing LANs and offers higher bandwidth, greater reliability through dual counter-rotating rings of fiber cables, better network management and control and supports more nodes over greater distances. Many network managers are predicting FDDI will be the dominant LAN technology of the future. There are some challenges in the deployment of FDDI, including revisions of chip sets, specifications of the protocols for the physical and data-link layers, topology issues and the development of formal tests to certify FDDI equipment. Broadband forms strong LAN backbones; more powerful than baseband, carries a much wider range of frequencies. A backbone is needed to connect two or more local area networks (LANs). RF broadband is increasingly used for this purpose. Other options include daisy chaining or combining all workstations into an organization-wide LAN. Most current LANs still use baseband technology, which is not as powerful or flexible as broadband. The multichannel advantages of broadband allow voice, data, video, security, energy management systems, and other communications over a single cable simultaneously. Broadband allows a network to span greater distances, at least two miles. It also eliminates electrical noise that occurs on baseband's lower frequencies. Broadband is costly and there is a need for further standardization. Determining printer needs, made easy; use these tips to find the right "networkable printers" to put with your systems. The printer is the most common bottleneck on a local-area network (LAN). LANs with mixed systems create additional problems, although 'networkable' printers are now available. Printers should be specified when the network is designed. Issues to consider when selecting printers include instantaneous emulation switching, resident font support, paper supply, memory requirements, speed, resolution and quality. The printer must support both Postscript and PCL. Wang integrates imaging into Novell LANs; Open/image puts document processing directly into Netware 386. (product announcement) Wang Laboratories Inc's Open/image for Netware integrates document processing into Novell's Netware 386 network operating system. This is a set of application tools designed as Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs) that consist of an image services subsystem and an optical jukebox subsystem. The image services subsystem allows accessing, managing, storing and printing of images. The optical jukebox subsystem supports rewritable magneto-optical (MO) storage for large volumes of images and data on standalone MO disk drives. The jukebox stores 32 MO disks. The NLMs become part of the Netware 386 3.1 operating system when installed. The need for a dedicated image server is eliminated. Open/image for Netware will ship in Feb 1991: the image services subsystem costs $10,000; the optical jukebox subsystem costs $8,000 for jukebox applications and $3,000 for standalone MO disk applications. Wang also announced Open/image-Windows 3.0, it will be available in Feb 1991 for $495. Access releases document review system for Netware. (Forcomment workgroup software) (product announcement) Access Technology's ForComment workgroup software tools allow everyone on a network to provide input on any written work, from technical documentation and contracts to proposals, agendas and simple memos. The program provides an easy-to-use, cost-effective document-review capability. ForComment automatically distributes a draft document to a list of designated reviewers. The reviewers can make comments on the document on-line. Other reviewers can comment on the comments. The program works on all versions of Netware. It is currently available and costs $1,295 for a 10-user license. Additional users can be added for $100 each. E-mail products boast major new features. (points for selecting an E-mail system) Major new features for E-mail systems make the selection process more challenging. All E-mail systems contain the same basic features: mailing lists, file attachments, carbon copies, certified mail, message notification, prioritized mail, remote dial-in, and others. Gateways are now available in three basic types: direct, public E-mail, and X.400 gateways. Other new features include fax output, administrative features, directory propagation, multiple platforms, and Application Programming Interface (API) access. Pick the right client/server database system. Guengerich, Steven L.; Rhodes, David A. Jr. Choosing a network operating system for a client/server database system depends upon the size of the company and its connectivity needs. Smaller companies should choose a network operating system that does not require a dedicated computer for the database server; it should reside and operate on the file server. Programs that require nonproprietary multitasking operating systems, such as OS/2 and Unix, cannot run on a Novell file server. Currently, Novell's Netware SQL Value Added Processes (VAPs) and Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs) are the only database management systems that run on a Netware file server. Superservers, with multiple processors, large amounts of RAM, and massive storage capacities can run file server and database server applications simultaneously to accommodate the needs of medium-sized companies. Dedicated database servers increase performance of the servers. The need for transparent access and centralized management for databases is growing in importance. NSA announces X.25 WAN connectivity; new Adaptx25 provides dial-up access to multiple SNA protocols. (product announcement) Network Software Associates Inc's Adaptx25 is the first dial-up multiple Systems Network Architecture (SNA) protocol system for X.25 wide area networks. Adaptx25 is a connectivity solution that allows microcomputers to use X.25 Packet-Switching Data Networks (PDNs) to access multiprotocol SNA mainframe applications. The program integrates the higher layers of SNA with the lower layers of the Open systems Interconnection (OSI) architecture. The Adaptx25 Controller is a new cluster controller that interfaces the IBM mainframe to the PDN. The program is available in Feb 1991 for $2,995. Brightwork enhances its LAN management support product. (The LAN Support Center) (product announcement) Brightwork Development Corp's upgrade of the LAN Support Center (LSC) network management program provides network managers with a central database repository for diagnosing problems and troubleshooting their local-area networks (LANs). LSC will replace Brightwork Development's Netmanager package. LSC is an integrated database system that tracks all LAN support activity, creates user profiles, and maintains complete inventories of devices and equipment on the network. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the company's Netremote+ remote access and user support server-based software package that allows network administrators to view individual nodes and control user's microcomputer screens from a network management console. The LAN Support Center is currently available for $595 per network administrator. Netremote+ costs $350 per file server. Software gives framework for automating management; PSI/Lanstandard provides centralized LAN control. (product Preferred Systems Inc's PSI/Lanstandard decentralizes and automates Netware LAN management. It allows large corporations to implement standards and create enterprisewide network computing platforms. Ten to over 100 independent networks can be pulled into a cohesive, logical internetwork with a manageable set of LAN resources. PSI/Lanstandard specifies an unlimited variety of user rights, creates standard directory structures, verifies workstation hardware, establishes automatic audit trails and meters applications. It is available in five- to 1,000-user packages. Prices begin at $1,895. Unix breakthroughs create LAN products; spinoffs include client/server computing, named pipes, distributed processing. Today's most promising LAN technology has its roots in Unix research. The client/server model began as an extension of the Unix kernel's multitasking capabilities. Named pipes and streams stem from Unix's use of pipes as a method of Interprocess Communications (IPC). Modular protocols evolved from Unix research on protocol stacks during the seventies and early eighties. Remote procedure calls (RPC) developed as a method for abstracting the complexity of Unix network programming. It is reasonable to assume that Unix breakthroughs will continue to show up as new LAN products. Netware link products connect dissimilar LANs; make different networking topologies communicate. The terminology in Netware link products is changing; bridges are now repeaters or routers. A repeater uses the bottom layer of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnect) model and repeats all traffic from one segment of a LAN to another. A bridge uses the physical and data-link layers of the OSI model. A router works at the network layer of the OSI model, 'learns' all node addresses and finds the fastest route for passing data packets. Netware link products are all routers. The Netware link family consists of Link/X.25, Link/64 and Link/T1. VSAT satellite-based networks enter computing mainstream; lower prices, evolving technology spur development. Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite-based networks are now a leading, mainstream, data-communication networking solution for both large and small companies. The VSAT is a flexible software-intensive system based on standard data-communications protocols that are packet-switching networks that use radio frequency (RF) electronics instead of cables. They can use geosynchronous satellites to provide communications between remote locations and a central facility. The hub, or master station, is the central component of a VSAT network. There are five key dimensions for any VSAT system design: Bandwidth management, the basic architecture of the VSAT network, network management, advanced remote design, and system software definition. VSAT networks are highly reliable, can be deployed quickly, provide improved data transfer speeds and provide built-in redundancy. Most VSAT users experience 20 to 40 percent cost savings. Networks and Windows, a personal odyssey. (column) Stephenson, Peter. Personal experience with Windows 3.0 and networks provides a skeptical position that the graphical user interface (GUI) is a Band-Aid on the DOS operating system, which was not designed for multitasking and multiuser environments. Two finished network installations are described, both are prime examples of a marriage between Windows and a network. Windows Express provides a Macintosh-like GUI that makes Windows into a controllable, user-friendly environment. The use of a real networking operating system is preferred. Windows and Netware can be combined if properly planned and designed. Software piracy causes loss in the billions; BSA dedicated to investigating, prosecuting international violators. (Business The defects in current intellectual property protection are raising serious obstacles to future innovation and growth in the industry. Many international software companies are having problems with software piracy. Over $6 billion of Europe's annual revenue was lost due to piracy. The US is also experiencing piracy problems, but the international market is a bigger problem, due to the lack of laws regarding intellectual property. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is responsible for investigating and prosecuting international software piracy. The affiliate of the Software Publishers Association (SPA) also helps countries adopt laws to protect intellectual property. Digital to lay off 3,500 workers, more may go. Didio, Laura. The fabled 'no layoff' tradition at Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) ended with the announced layoff of 3,500 employees in Jan 1991. About 3 percent of the company's worldwide work force will be cut. DEC is taking a systematic approach to the layoffs that will not disrupt business at all. The economic recession, diminished sales of minicomputers and delays in the development of its VAX 9000 class of mainframes are blamed for DEC's decline. More layoffs are expected by observers. Networking sales, which account for about 10 percent of DEC's overall revenue, should show steady growth over the next three years. DEC is providing severance pay for the terminated employees. Integrated solutions may solve industry's price woes. (column) Spiner, Susan. Marketing efforts may be the only significant difference in network products in 1991. Product benefits, rather than features, will receive the most emphasis in sales strategies. Enterprise networking will be the type of market that will involve billions of dollars in sales. Customers will buy complicated solutions and complex support services. Position is the most critical issue for resellers to face in 1991. Pricing issues are resolved by focusing on solutions, service and support mechanisms. Windows on your LAN. (local-area network) Levine, Stan. Windows-based networks can be a solution for creating corporatewide information systems. Windows' benefits include reduced training costs, and technical support needs, improved productivity and consistency, a companywide networking strategy, distributed processing and client/server computing, and protection of the company's computing investment. Multitasking increases productivity; several applications may be opened at the same time, and applications can be made more powerful. The need for standardization in network computing architectures remains. Microsoft is preparing a Windows computing architecture that supports the most advanced current technology, including multimedia, advanced file management and handwriting input. Windows first aid. (tutorial) Levine, Stan. A network installation utility is described for installing the complete Windows suite on a file server and performing a quick network station installation. The utility records hardware-specific information for each workstation. The number of open file handles available to the file servers and workstation must be increased by a factor of four or five in order to support multitasking. Tips are provided for avoiding the crash of Netware 286 file servers without warning. Palindrome makes science of archiving; the Network Archivist offers a usable menu interface and the ability to focus on Palindrome Corp's Network Archivist is a network archiving system that manages a company's data through a tape archiving scheme. Network Archivist provides backup activities and manages the archiving process. It has a good menu interface and can focus on files from previous days, weeks or months. The product's performance is excellent, it is fairly easy to install and use, and the documentation and support are considered satisfactory. The list price for an AT version is $695, while a Micro Channel version costs $995. Graphics make Borland's Quattro shine; version 2.0's graphing capabilities rival those of presentation packages. (Software Borland International's Quattro Pro 2.0 spreadsheet provides graphics and charting capabilities that rival those of many presentation graphics programs. The program retrieves Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets and reads Lotus 2.01 macros. Quattro Pro contains sufficient power for most users and all of the essential spreadsheet features. The program is easy to manage on a network. It lists for $495, but Borland will sell a copy for $99 with proof of purchase of another spreadsheet program. Flexstar 3000S tests SCSI disk drives; product is valuable for VARs, service groups who wish to check SCSI devices. (Hardware Flexstar Corp's 3000S single port 6.8 test system weighs just over 2 pounds and is about the size of a city phone book. The software for creating and editing tests is simple to use; installation takes three steps. The machine's primary use is for evaluation of limited quantities of devices. VARs and system integrators may find it valuable for verifying drive malfunctions or as part of incoming inspection procedures. It is small and light enough for field work. The list price is $2,995 plus $250 for SCSI devices. Sparkle offers modem, resource sharing; software provides both inbound and outbound communications for networks. (Software Concept Development Systems Inc's Sparkle 5.1 communications software allows background modem and serial-line resource sharing on local-area networks (LANs). Modemless workstations can use modems attached to other workstations on the network; other asynchronous resources are accessed through Sparkle or third-party communications packages. A security scheme provides name and password protection. The program's performance is satisfactory, but its manageability is poor. The user interface and error messages are too cryptic. The documentation is poor and needs rewriting. The product's list price is $895 for a five-user version. Paramail creates an E-mail paradise. (Software Review) (evaluation) Paramail 2.16, from Paradox Development Corp, is a local-area network (LAN) communications program that provides mail management, phone memo management, fax and optical image management and compound document control. The program also includes notepads, on-screen calculator, and full-featured editing with a simple, menu-driven environment. The program runs on MS-DOS 3.0 or later and Netware 2.0a or later. It lists for $989 for 100 users, $489 for 10 users. Powerbridge links all the networks you'll ever have; program uses Netbios for flexible, transparent bridging. (Powerbridge II) Powerbridge II is a software-only bridge that uses Netbios as its protocol interface to achieve full functionality. The bridge supports nine network operating systems and is capable of cascading an unlimited number of LANs into the same network system. It is much easier to work with than traditional hardware bridges. As many networks can be bridged as there are slots in the bridge machine. Qualitas improves memory, but keeps bad performance; 386 Max's slow speed never lets you forget you're using it. (product Qualitas' 386 Max is a high-memory management program with horribly slow performance. The program is easy to configure and its memory management is passable, but the performance does not compare with Qemm 386 from Quarterdeck. It runs at half speed and the hard disk gets a real workout. The program is not recommended. Calypso coordinates and automates office work-flow; this program can intelligently manage network projects. (product preview) Calypso is a network-based software application that automatically retrieves and integrates information drawn from widely-dispersed sources on a network. The program can form the basis of a low-cost Executive Information System (EIS) that automates the task of retrieving, distilling, and displaying corporate data for managers. Calypso takes an active role in such routine procedures as order processing, month-end closing, claims adjustment and manpower reporting. The program, from Systems in Concert Inc, costs $10,000 for a full development version. Developers and consultants can design vertical applications with a runtime version. Netlight network line monitors fit in a shirt pocket. (Netlight-1 miniature thicknet line monitor) (product preview) Knowledge Implementations Inc's new network line monitors cost less than $200 and are small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. The manuals are the size of the units. The device will spot failing networks and verify cables, but a multimeter will check the cabling for a lot less money. Netlight-1 monitors network traffic between a transceiver and an AUI port in an Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 network. Netlight-2 has a single BNC connector and is designed for monitoring signals on 802.3 10kBase2 coaxial cable. Q&E tackles all levels of data-management; program might be the only Windows database product users will ever need. (product Pioneer Software's Q+E query management tool provides a Windows interface to standard .dbf files. This is a fairly full-featured front end to SQL Server and any Windows application that supports Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). The program contains features that enhance the user interface or facilitate daily database work. The program works exceptionally well with Excel. Q+E is exceptionally easy to use and is great for keeping track of simple records, such as addresses, phone number or personnel records. Users build client/server future on SAA foundation. (Systems Application Architecture) IBM's Systems Application Architecture (SAA) gives companies an ideal framework for building the next generation of cooperative processing and client/server applications. Users of SAA say the standard helps them develop better applications and achieve higher returns on information technology investments. General Electric Capital Corp's Fleet Services has committed to SAA as a platform for building cooperative processing applications for its customer service and accident tracking systems. The firm is rewriting many of its host-based applications as cooperative processing applications based on SAA. The state of Alabama uses SAA to fully exploit the potential of information systems (IS) by rewriting financial and accounting systems as cooperative processing applications. IBM to bring OS/2 into APPN family. (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) IBM plans to bring OS/2 into the Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) design within its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) platform. IBM hopes to ship the support for APPN on OS/2 within a year. Only the AS/400 and System/36 minicomputers support full APPN capabilities today. IBM plans to roll out APPN on mainframes and the RISC System/6000 workstation after it is available on OS/2. The three main benefits of APPN are the ability to add or remove nodes to a network, enhanced directory functions and enhanced routing. APPN features two node types, network nodes and end nodes. Network nodes have a full directory of devices and can route traffic to any other node. End nodes lack directory support but request routing information from a network node. IBM also plans to ship an OS/2 Application Program Interface (API) to its LU 6.2 transport mechanism. The move will help users develop client/server applications. Cisco turns AGS line into SNA routers. (Systems Network Architecture) Cisco Systems Inc plans to team up with third-party software firm Brixton Systems Inc to enable its AGS bridge/routers to emulate IBM front-end processors and route Systems Network Architecture (SNA) data. The plans include porting Brixton PU Type 4 emulation software to Cisco's line of bridge/router products. Cisco claims that the new software is under development and is about a year from delivery. It hopes to add support for IBM PU Type 2.1 nodes to the bridge/routers. PU Type 2.1 will allow intelligent workstations that support IBM's LU 6.2/Advanced Program-to-Program Communications (APPC) protocol to communicate with APPC devices without going through a VTAM host. Cisco Systems routers attach to to 3X74 cluster controllers or host-attached 37X5 front-end processors in SNA networks. Carriers slowly improve management offerings. (includes related article on contradiction in terms) (buyers guide) Network managers often find their carriers' carrier net management services inadequate. AT&T, MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint offer network management services, but provide little integration. Carriers are creating applications software systems that coordinate and expand on underlying element management systems. They package these element management systems together and sell them as extended or expanded network management systems. IBM markets some of its element management systems bundled as 'NetView.' AT&T offers 15 element management systems, with three more forthcoming. MCI has six element management systems available and has three more due the end of 1991. MCI's Configuration Management and Network Information Management Services for its virtual network product provide the same functionality as AT&T's Expanded Service Management System, s a package of five AT&T Software-Defined Network (SDN) element management systems. Microsoft unveils Windows plans, denies OS/2 rumors. (not discontinuing OS/2 but shifting emphasis to Windows) Microsoft Corp announces that it will continue support and development of OS/2 but plans to shift emphasis from Presentation Manager to Windows. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates denies a Wall Street Journal report that his firm will scrap OS/2. He says that Microsoft will market and support OS/2 for users needing high-end capabilities. A company spokesman notes that Microsoft wrongly expected the market to migrate from DOS to OS/2. Microsoft will concentrate on two markets: midrange users running Windows on top of DOS for graphics-based systems and high-end customers using OS/2 and Unix as underlying operating systems for more sophisticated client/server applications. Analysts doubt that Microsoft will continue support of OS/2. One analyst notes that the de-emphasis of Presentation Manager indicates the likelihood of OS/2 being dropped in the future. AT&T ACD package routes calls to homebound agents; AT&T also announces support for integrator. (Home Agent) (product AT&T introduces Home Agent, a $30,000 communications software package which enables its automatic call distributors (ACDs) to route calls and customer data from call centers to up to 36 homebound agents. The software runs on AT&T's Conversant Voice Information System and instructs AT&T Definity Generic 1 and 2, System 75 and System 85 PBXs configured as ACDs to route calls to agents working at home. A homebound agent calls into the Conversant or the PBX and the call is passed to the voice processing system. The software assigns an analog port on the PBX and informs the switch that the agent is ready to receive calls. The company also announces DECagw, a $50,000 set of PBX software programs for DEC VAX systems. Users can speed processing of outgoing and incoming calls in customer service, telemarketing and order entry applications by integrating Definity Generic 2s with the VAX through gateways. VAXes. FCC: fate of Tariff 12 may depend on broader issue. (Federal Communications Commission) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) court-ordered re-investigation of Tariff 12 may be linked to a broader proceeding on AT&T's dominance. The FCC must show that services packaged under Tariff 12 are dissimilar to identical services purchased under individual tariffs in order to allow AT&T to offer Tariff 12 arrangements. The FCC will limit its reexamination of Tariff 12 to the first four Virtual Terminal Network Service deals made at the time AT&T rivals filed a suit to challenge the FCC's approval of Tariff 12. A federal appeals court accuses the FCC of relying on improper factors in allowing the deals. The FCC proposes reducing regulatory constraints on AT&T, which could reduce the need for Tariff 12, according to a spokesperson. An AT&T spokesman notes that he is not surprised by this phased approach. WilTel to support frame relay, acquire Centel PBX. (Williams Telecommunications) Williams Telecommunications Group Inc (WilTel) upgrades its Northern Telecom Inc network switches to provide a public frame relay service which it will market in Mar 1991. WilTel, the first carrier to deliver a frame relay service, did not say how the service would be deployed. Sources say the carrier will equip its Northern Telecom switches with DataSPAN software to deliver the frame relay service. WilTel plans to buy Centel Corp's Centel Communications Systems private branch exchange and key system distribution unit from Interconnect Acquisition Corp. The deal will allow WilTel to market turnkey systems featuring PBXs, key systems, telemanagement software and services provided through its nationwide fiber and digital microwave networks. Users push pilot projects at first net computing forum: say technology needs live testing to succeed. Participants at the 1991 Network Computing Forum agree that users and developers should pilot distributed computing applications to prepare for implementation of the technology in 1991. Network or distributed computing allows developers to delegate some processing tasks, such as number crunching, to the machine best suited for executing them and allows multiple users to share access to any task. A spokesman for Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp says his firm merged a plethora of products and developed custom software to build a distributed computing application which sends sales information from 160 stores to its data center and downloads price changes to all stores. Burlington stores are each equipped with a local area network that supports NCR Corp's electronic cash register and a Sun workstation which doubles as a file and communications server. MCI to act as go-between for users building int'l nets. (MCI Communications) MCI Communications plans to serve as a go-between with several European carriers for users designing, building and maintaining multinode international networks. MCI's new Global Communications Service (GCS) allows users to place it in charge of securing international private lines, packet switching, collocation and network maintenance services from 17 carriers. The firm has cooperative agreements with Germany's Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, UK's Mercury Communications, Belgium Regie des Telegraphes et des Telephones, and Italcable of Italy. The firm can order private lines within a foreign country or between two or more countries. MCI will work with foreign carriers to house and keep a user's equipment on the carrier's premises and hopes to sign up to 20 GCS customers. Apple requests exclusive spectrum for wireless LANs. Messmer, Ellen. Apple Computer Inc seeks an exclusive radio spectrum for wireless-local area networks from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Apple wants the FCC to set aside 40 MHz of bandwidth in the 1,850-to-1,990 MHz band to expand US investment in the development of wireless LAN products. Apple seeks regulations prohibiting other users or service providers from gaining an exclusive license to the 40 MHz requested for a wireless LAN. Private microwave users at utilities, petroleum companies and railroads regard Apple's petition as a threat. A spokesman for Utilities Telecommunications Council claims 100 gas, water and electric utilities have fixed, operational microwave systems valued at half a billion dollars in the band Apple wants to use. Users mixed on value of frame relay. Users at the Communication Networks '91 conference are uncertain about the future of frame relay technology in their networks. An engineer for Hartford, Conn-based Travelers says his expectations of frame relay's performance benefits are low. Another user claims his company has put most voice and data on a T-1 backbone but has to dedicate channels for different services. He adds that frame relay with fast packet will ease this process but could impose delays. His firm uses Cisco Systems Inc routers with a T-1 interface and adding another layer of routing could reduce overall throughput. The manager of telecommunications planning for American President Systems Ltd says his firm is exploring frame relay for support of local-area internetworking. A spokesman for Capital Holding Corp, an insurance company, says his agency does not need frame relay. Touch package to aid vendors' OSI efforts. (Open Systems Interconnection) (product announcement) Touch Communications Inc introduces Alliance OSI Management, an Open Systems Interconnection software package priced at $10,000 to $50,000 . Alliance OSI Management is designed to meet the Release 1 specifications of the OSI/Network Management (NM) Forum. The package features four modules that link the OSI protocol stack to non-OSI network management systems and managed devices. The modules include Management Communication Services (MCS), a foundation module which sits on top of the protocol stack, and Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). Other modules feature an application program interface for non-OSI net management systems, routines for integrating non-OSI devices and a system agent which routes information between the stack and the devices. Alliance is available as source code that can be loaded into any computer with a C-compiler. Some voice mail firms hit hard by economic malaise: Buyers may gain from price cuts, other incentives. Voice mail firms are reeling from the effects of a weakening economy and may resort to more aggressive marketing tactics, according to industry observers. VMX Inc reports nearly a $3 million loss for its second qtr and has cut its work force; Digital Sound Corp has laid off 25 percent of its work force. Market leader Octel Communications Corp saw a 10 percent drop in second qtr earnings. An industry observer notes that the reaction from vendors during the recession is to push the dollar benefits of using voice messaging. Octel is training its sales force in how to sell during a recessionary market. An analyst says that the soft dollar savings tactic, which emphasizes improved productivity, is an effective marketing strategy. AT&T and Northern Telecom are faring well through sales of voice mail packages bundled with private branch exchanges. AT&T encryption unit is NSA-approved; GE and Motorola also plan to launch into the commercial arena with STU-III-compliant wares. AT&T introduces the 2000 Series of STU-III Secure Communications products, a line of voice and data encryption products priced from $2,000 to $4,000. The 2000 series meets the National Security Agency's Communications Security (COMSEC) specification. General Electric Co's Government Communications Systems division and Motorola Inc are the other two companies in the COMSEC STU-III product development program. AT&T will introduce two separate voice and data devices and an integrated voice/data unit. The data devices can be used with microcomputers and facsimile machines. AT&T promises improved voice quality through a new voice encoding algorithm called Code Excited Linear Prediction (CELP). CELP is a government standard was developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories. The stringent conditions of the NSA COMSEC program requires that all three vendors' devices be interoperable. Carriers provide phones for Desert Storm: Mobile units are moved to the front with soldiers. Carriers are providing communications equipment for Desert Storm troops. AT&T, MCI Communications and other carriers are allowing calls from Saudi Arabia to the US through agreements with Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. MCI president and chief operating officer Seth Blumenstein claims the operation is risky because the military is unable to guarantee that the equipment will not be destroyed. MCI, AT&T and other carriers want to offer the service free of charge, but the project is costing each carrier over $1 million. AT&T logs over 5,000 calls a day, and MCI logs about 4,000 calls daily. Another carrier claims the average holding time is over 20 minutes per call. AT&T has provided services free on two occasions. Image processing net improves GE service; images scanned into jukebox when received, reducing image retrieval and data entry General Electric Co's Electrical Distribution and Control Division image processing network improves the company's customer service. The network enables customer service representatives to retrieve document images instantly via on-premises workstations when answering customer inquiries. The company uses fractional T-1 circuits on GE's corporate backbone network to link remote workstations and scanners in customer service and distribution sites in Charlotte, NC and Mascot, TN to a FileNet Corp optical disk jukebox system. GE notes that with the new system only two percent of documents get lost. Image processing systems enable documents to be indexed by as many as 30 different parameters, which reduces the impact of data entry errors. GE uses the network to process about 5,000 document images per day. Survey: Buyers are wary of untested X.400, fax gear. Messmer, Ellen. A new survey published by International Data Corp (IDC) states that information Systems (IS) executives are wary of untested X.400 and facsimile connectivity products for fear that these products have not yet matured. The report states that 61 percent of the corporations surveyed have sites where X 400 gateways could be used due to disparate electronic mail systems, but only 31 percent have multiple systems fully connected. Thirty-five percent of IS directors at sites with some unconnected messaging systems plan to buy at least one gateway within the next 18 months, and another 17 percent plan to buy a gateway after that time. An industry analyst notes that users are still trying to grasp the X.400 standard and related products. He adds that ignorance of fax gateways is equally common. DEC's net mgmt. scheme gains NetWare LAN access. (agreements with Network Computing Inc. and Technically Elite Concepts) DEC reveals the addition of two third-party vendors to its list of network management partners: Network Computing Inc (NCI) of Dallas and Technically Elite Concepts (TEC) of Hermosa Beach, CA. NCI will develop a link between its LAN-Alert NetWare network management software and DEC's DECmcc Director. NCI will write an access module for DECmcc management station, a part of DEC's Enterprise Management Architecture (EMA). The Access module allows network managers in a DECnet environment to monitor Novell Inc NetWare local-area networks. TEC will build a DECmcc Access module that gives DECmcc Director access to TEC's Network Professor Ethernet monitor. Network Professor acts as a front-end processor when used with an access module. A DEC spokesman says that TEC Network Professor provides global network management by tracking protocols and nodes on a network. Net design tool uses real network traffic; Comdisco's BONES can now import LAN traffic from sniffer LAN analyzer for modeling Comdisco Inc enhances its Block Oriented Network Simulator (BONES) network design tool to use real LAN traffic statistics recorded by Network General Corp's Sniffer analyzer. BONES costs $20,000 and runs on Sun Microsystems Inc Sun-3 and Sun-4, SPARCstation and DEC DECstation workstations. Network managers will no longer have to simulate network traffic to run thorough network modeling and performance tests. The use of actual network traffic by the Sniffer allows the net manager to precisely determine the best network configuration. Comdisco claims BONES converts all Sniffer data packet information, including source, destination, packet size, Internet Protocol address and transmission time. An analyst states that one of the obstacles to the acceptance of design tools like BONES is the price. E-mail software lets users filter incoming messages. (Beyond Inc. introduces BeyondMail) (product announcement) Beyond Inc introduces BeyondMail, an electronic mail application which enables users to filter and control incoming messages. A single-user license sells for $250 and an eight user license costs $1,395. BeyondMail screens the contents of incoming messages and works according to users' instructions to sort out 'junk' mail and forward messages to other users. Applications such as word processing packages can be accessed from within BeyondMail. BeyondMail features 'intelligent agents' which allow users to filter, prioritize and act on messages based on content. These agents are created by users through a rule editor program. BeyondMail runs on DOS-based workstations and under Microsoft Windows in character mode. Survey finds some workers unclear on company ethics. (Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Co. proctors survey at International Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Co deputy general counsel Mark Smith administered an informal survey at the International Communications Association (ICA) Winter Seminar inquiring about companies' codes of ethics. The survey reveals that although users and vendors may have to abide by corporate requirements, they often do not understand the policies involved. The survey was not an official ICA undertaking and participants were not required to sign questionnaires. Sixty-three respondents disclosed that their firms follow a code of ethics, set of guidelines or policy statement regarding business conflict and conflicts of interest. Seven respondents did not know if such a policy existed and one said his firm had no formal program. Fifty-seven people indicated that their company codes address employee acceptance of goods from firms doing business with their company. Videoconferencing propels Bendix/King. (Allied Signal Aerospace Co. Bendix/King General Aviation Avionics Division)(Management Allied Signal Aerospace Co's Bendix/King General Aviation Avionics Division uses videoconferencing to streamline manufacturing operations and facilitate the flow of goods from suppliers. Videoconferencing has allowed the aircraft radio and flight instrument manufacturer to reduce product development time because design engineers at sites in Kansas, Florida and the Far East can confer on an as-needed basis. The videoconferencing network enabled Bendix/King to complete a prototype for a Traffic Alert and Collision-Avoidance System a year before many other manufacturers could submit their products to airlines. Bendix/King employs Compression Labs Inc's digital multipoint control unit (MCU), a digital device that supports manual and voice-activated switching of videoconferences between as many as eight rooms. The network is linked by the company's T-1 network. Terrorism threat results in videoconferencing demand. (corporations find alternative to overseas travel during the Many corporations have increased their use of videoconferencing to reduce international travel during the Persian Gulf war. The war has created an increased interest in videoconferencing services because there is national concern about the possibility of terrorist attacks on US citizens traveling abroad. Since Jan 1991, AT&T and US Sprint Communications Co have reported increased demand for their services. US Sprint has accommodated an average of 90 requests for videoconferencing sessions per day since Operation Desert Storm began, with 30 being for international services. The company serviced an average of 70 requests per day before the war, with about 10 being for international services. AT&T reports sales increases of 75 percent to 100 percent in domestic and international videoconferencing since the war began. Internal requests for videoconferencing at Unisys Corp doubled in Jan 1991. Frame relay holds promise for int'l nets. (communications technology may prove less costly and more efficient) Frame relay products and services have the potential to play a substantial role in international communications, but industry analysts claim that lower quality private lines outside the US could hinder the international deployment of the technology. Frame relay is an emerging standard for sending packets of data between devices. It has less network delay and supports higher throughput than the X.25 protocol and could help international users off-load traffic to public data nets or utilize international bandwidth more effectively. The technology could also help users reduce the high cost of international private lines. Frame relay lets public data net service providers improve network access support at a variety of speeds ranging from 56K-bps to 2.048M-bps. Support for high transmission speeds facilitates better support for imaging and videoconferencing. New software eases task of setting up NetWare servers. (Preferred Systems Inc.'s Origen and LANStandard network management software) Preferred Systems Inc (PSI) introduce Origen and LANStandard, two network management software applications that streamline the installation and maintenance of Novell Inc's NetWare operating system in a multiserver local-area network (LAN). The software helps network managers reduce NetWare server setup time in a multiserver network from about a week to a few hours. Origen allows users to enter system setup parameters in one server and then copy all or part of the configuration file to NetWare bindery data bases on multiple servers across the network. LANStandard is a program that aids users in maintaining and modifying net configuration and directory files. Origen runs on a NetWare 286 or NetWare 386 server. Both applications run on NetWare 386 version 3.0 and above and Advanced NetWare, NetWare ELS and NetWare SFT version 2.1 and above. Tandem unleashes extensive X.400 line. (Tandem Computer Inc.'s OSI Message Handling Systems, MHX400 and NDX.400 network software Tandem Computers Inc introduces OSI/Message Handling Systems (MHS), MHX400 and NDX.400 computer network software packages that allow users to build an X.400 backbone supporting electronic mail traffic from Tandem's NonStop line of mainframe computers as well as distributed minicomputers and local-area networks. The X.400 messaging products will help users implement standards-based enterprisewide E-mail networks that allow multivendor messaging systems to exchange data across internal nets, and with customers and suppliers. OSI/MHS, the core X.400 software in building a messaging backbone, runs on NonStop CLX, VLX or TXP machines. The MHX400 software module runs on Tandem's Integrity S2 Unix-based minicomputer and can be used as a message switch or gateway. NDX.400 is a LAN-based E-mail system with an X.400 gateway that connects with OSI/MHS or MHX400. Automated integrated mgmt. best investment for tight times. (network managers must evaluate the management infrastructure in Network managers in 1991 face the challenge of balancing staff and budget freezes with the financial demands of improving decision making, retaining customers via high-quality service and reducing transportation costs. While sales pitches in 1991 will emphasize improved performance at lower cost, network managers must consider the level of efficiency vendors offer in providing high-quality voice, data, video and image services to end users before committing to major network transmission and switching investments. A network management infrastructure comprises automated management tools, staff levels and skill distributions and organizational structures and policies regarding the way in which services are delivered to the end user. If corporations are to reduce costs and improve telecommunications productivity in 1991, managers must scrutinize the infrastructure. Network innovators: Myron Krueger. ('father of artificial reality') Network specialist Myron Krueger is credited with coining the term 'artificial reality' and states that interactive computer-generated environments work best when combined with networking technology. His 'VideoPlace' environment uses computer-linked video cameras to convey images of a user to a computer screen that change as they contain physical objects. Remote users could send data to each other over digital telephone lines and superimpose silhouettes over on-screen information to point to features in the data. Artificial reality is a natural ISDN application, according to Krueger. VideoPlace is less complex than graphically intensive systems that require data gloves, glasses or suits. Krueger objects to forcing users to wear such devices, claiming that the need to spend time becoming accustomed to them defeats the purpose of artificial reality. Microsoft maps out its OS master plan. (discusses Windows, OS/2 plans at press briefing) Microsoft states at a press briefing that it is focusing most of its development efforts on a new 'Windows-32' 32-bit application programming interface (API) for its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and has no plans to evolve the OS/2 Presentation Manager API. Analysts speculate that this strategy could lead to an outbreak of hostilities between Microsoft and IBM, which has taken over most OS/2 development and is extremely committed to Presentation Manager. IBM VP of programming Lee Reiswig notes that his company plans to ship most of the Windows-32 functions in OS/2 this year. Microsoft itself will accommodate low-end users by making future versions of DOS faster and more efficient and by building in better utilities. Windows-32 will improve Windows' performance on network client machines. IBM may add Unix-like capabilities to OS/2. IBM laptop sports data/fax modem. (IBM PS/2 L40SX) Marburg, Robert. IBM reportedly plans to introduce a new 80386SX-based laptop computer with a built-in data/fax modem and sophisticated LCD display in Mar 1991. The 7-pound PS/2 Model L40SX, originally scheduled for a Feb 1991 release but reportedly delayed due to hard disk drive supply problems, uses a 20 MHz 386SX processor and a Super Twisted Neumatic (STN) VGA-compatible LCD. It will come with 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 18Mbytes, a 60Mbyte hard disk drive and a Hayes-compatible modem that sends data at 2,400 bps and faxes at 9,600 bps. IBM says that STN technology reduces screen glare and improves contrast. The machine uses the standard AT bus instead of the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) found in IBM's other 386-based microcomputers, a design choice analysts say is a 'tacit admission' that MCA is not suitable for the low-end market. It is expected to sell for $5,000 to $5,500. HP, Lotus pact to put 1-2-3 in palm-sized PC. (HOP and Lotus Development Corp. developing hand-held computer capable of running HOP and Lotus Development Corp are jointly developing a pocket-sized computer that reportedly weighs less than 12 ounces and contains the 1-2-3 2.2 spreadsheet software in ROM. The machine, code-named 'Jaguar,' will use 1Mbyte RMA cards and come with 512Kbytes of internal memory, a QWERTY keyboard and the mathematical functions found in HP business calculators. Users will be able to transfer data to and from desktop machines via a serial port or a wireless infrared system. 'Jaguar' is expected to sell for about $600, making it a strong competitor to Poqet Computer Corp's $1,995 Poqet PC. Lotus embellishes Notes with new sales strategy. (Notes 2.0 work-group software) Lotus will follow a new sales and marketing strategy for version 2.0 of its Notes work-group productivity software. The product was previously offered only through direct sales, but Lotus will allow some of its 'alliance partners' authorized for Notes support to sell the package as well. Dealers will reportedly not be restricted to the company's current 200-user minimum configuration, which sells for $62,500. Notes packages designed for smaller work groups could attract small to medium-sized customers who have shied away from the high-priced commitment required for the original version of the product. Vertical systems integrators will enhance Notes with applications designed for such markets as financial services and insurance. Beta testers say the Notes upgrade includes such features ad support for Microsoft Corp's Dynamic Data Exchange, a Common User Access-compliant interface and support for graphics files of any size. Novell emerges as victor in MHS fight with Action. (Novell Inc. reaches agreement with Action Technologies Inc. on Message Novell Inc signs an agreement with Action Technologies Inc that establishes Novell as the developer and primary provider of Message Handling Service (MHS) software for its NetWare network operating system, ending a year-long dispute that confused many users. Action will continue supplying MHS enhancements for other LAN operating systems. MHS was originally released by Action in 1986 and is a transport mechanism for electronic mail and other messaging programs. Novell's MHS 1.5 adds several new capabilities for users of Netware 2.15, such as pull-down menus and the ability to attach multiple files to one message. Action's current MHS product is version 1.2, and Novell does not promise that the two versions will be compatible. With XyQuest's help, IBM to put DisplayWrite to rest. (IBM to supplant DisplayWrite word processor with new software under IBM and XyQuest Inc are jointly developing a new line of word processing software that will supplant IBM's aging DisplayWrite package and will be file-compatible with both DisplayWrite 5 and XyQuest's XyWrite II Plus. Analysts say the new software represents a much-needed upgrade because DisplayWrite is based on outdated technology and because competing products are luring users away. The 'Signature' word processors for DOS, Windows and OS/2 will reportedly be available in 2nd qtr 1991. The DOS version combines features of DisplayWrite and XyWrite and will include a proprietary Common User Access-compliant graphical interface that will let users work in a WYSIWYG mode. IBM will continue to support DisplayWrite, and users will be offered an upgrade to Signature, which is expected to sell for $495. Lotus' Freelance for OS/2, 1-2-3/G offers powerful one-two punch. (Software Review) (Lotus Development Corp. Freelance Graphics for Lotus Development Corp's Freelance Graphics for OS/2 is a powerful presentation package that takes advantage of the Presentation Manager graphical user interface and is tightly integrated with the company's 1-2-3/G graphical spreadsheet. Unique features in Freelance Graphics for OS/2 include 'SmartMaster,' a set of chart templates that control layout, text style and size. Graphics are automatically adjusted to fit in any assigned space, and users assemble a presentation by selecting 'families' of templates and formats for each chart before entering or importing the desired text and graphics. Freelance Graphics lets 1-2-3/G users open a file as a spreadsheet, presentation or graph and share 1-2-3/G's Graph Tool. The program provides extensive preview options and a built-in spelling checker as well as support for the Adobe Type Manager font management program. It sells for $595; upgrades from Freelance Plus for DOS are $150. Apple targets 68040 server at high end. (Apple developing 68040-based tower-style file server for Macintosh networks) Apple is reportedly developing a 68040-based file server that will include 64Mbytes of RAM, an 80 or 160Mbyte hard disk drive and a 600-watt power supply. The new machine will have five NuBus slots and a subsystem capable of handling up to four Small Computer Systems Interface devices. Analysts are uncertain whether Apple plans to aim the server at the Macintosh or Intel-based networking market, but most note that Apple needs to keep up with the high end of the Intel market by offering its own high-powered product. WordPerfect for Windows delayed to 2nd quarter. (WordPerfect Corp. announces it will not deliver WordPerfect for Windows until WordPerfect Corp announces that its WordPerfect for Windows word processor, originally scheduled to ship at the end of 1st qtr 1991, has been delayed until the second quarter. The company's flagship product leads the DOS market, but analysts note that WordPerfect badly needs to establish itself in the Windows arena and that the delay will make this more difficult. Competitors such as Lotus Development Corp, which entered the Windows word processing market through its acquisition of Samna Corp, say that the WordPerfect delay will give them more market share. Other analysts nevertheless dismiss the delay, noting that WordPerfect's enormous installed base is willing to wait for the Windows version. Some observers are skeptical about whether WordPerfect can introduce the product in the second quarter. Microsoft hedges away from earlier OS/2 commitment. (Microsoft Corp. emphasizing Windows at expense of OS/2) Microsoft Corp is no longer aggressively promoting the OS/2 operating system as a solution for all users and is instead emphasizing the Windows graphical interface in its development plans. The company is staking its future on a 32-bit version of Windows, leaving users and developers confused about its commitment to OS/2. Microsoft has reaffirmed its intention to continue selling, supporting and evolving OS/2, but developers say they have difficulty basing their plans on the software giant's statements. OS/2 1.3 is now available to hardware manufacturers, and Microsoft says it will introduce OS/2 2.0 later in 1991. It will also ship a new version of the OS/2 2.0 Software Development Kit in Mar 1991 and is pushing the Windows Libraries for OS/2, which allow OS/2 to run Windows applications. WordPerfect 2.0 for the Mac offers drawing, macro tools; lacks speed. (Software Review) (WordPerfect Corp. word processing WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect 2.0 for the Macintosh offers many powerful macro and graphics tools and page-layout capabilities but remains somewhat slow. The program is easy to use and includes a MacDraw-like object-oriented module for creating graphics within a document. Users can place graphic images with either 'draw overlays' or within the body of the text. Separate text boxes can be set off with borders, shading, numbering, styles and fonts. Version 2.0 adds macro editing capabilities to its keystroke-recording facility. Performance remains disappointing; the program is slow to redraw graphics and sometimes requires scrolling in order to refresh the screen. The package also lacks Microsoft Word's easy-to-use table feature, and its multicolumn formatting features are weak. The ruler and outliner are nevertheless superior to those in Word. WordPerfect 2.0 for the Mac costs $495; upgrades are $89. Lotus, Borland spark interest with spreadsheet upgrades. (Lotus Development Corp, Borland International Inc. beta testing upgraded Both Lotus Development Corp and Borland International Inc are beta testing new versions of their popular spreadsheet packages, and the upgrades are already attracting interest from corporate users. The new programs offer greater graphics control, better memory management and more ease-of-use features than their predecessors. A major New York bank beta testing Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 notes that it offers new interactive editing capabilities and has been fine-tuned for better performance on low-end machines. Borland's Quattro Pro 3.0 reportedly includes a WYSIWYG mode that offers zoom control over font size and better display of mixed text and graphics files. Vendors pump up bridges, routers with new abilities. (Communication Networks 91 trade show) (product announcement) Several vendors introduced enhancements to their local area network bridge and router products at the 1991 Communication Networks trade show in Washington, DC. Cisco Systems Inc, the current bridge/router market leader, added software support for IBM's Synchronous Data Link Protocol (SDLC) wide-area networking protocol throughout its line. Wellfleet Communications Inc announced that it will add support for Novell NetWare clients to its network management products. Ungermann-Bass Inc introduced the Access/One ASM 8230, a bridge/router module for its Access/One intelligent wiring concentrators that includes multiple serial ports for collecting remote Ethernet LANs. 3Com introduces new software for rival OSI and TCP/IP products. (3Com Corp. introduces OSI 1.0, TCP 1.2 integration software at 3Com Corp introduces new software for OSI and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) data communications. 3Com OSI 1.0 is the first OSI product designed for end users, and it runs over Ethernet LANs using Novell or Microsoft LAN operating systems. It lets DOS users communicate with OSI Virtual Terminal Access Method and File Transfer Access Method hosts. 3Com TCP 1.2 lets workstation users communicate with hosts via Telnet and File Transfer Protocol, two protocols built into TCP/IP. The new version adds support for Novell IPX and NetBIOS LAN Manager services. 3Com TCP 1.2 costs $1,495 for 10 users, $2,995 for 30 users and $395 for a single user; 3Com OSI will be available in late spring 1991.Prices have not yet been set. Microsoft further delays True Image interpreter. (Microsoft Corp. delays shipment of True Image interpreter to OEMs) Microsoft Corp announces that it is delaying shipment of interpreters for its new True Image page-description language for the second time in three months. The company claims that the problem stems from Apple's failure to deliver the True Type font rasterizer. Several printer vendors, including LaserMaster Corp, Abaton and Microtek Lab Inc, had promised True Image printers in Dec 1991; Microsoft's delays have prevented most of these companies from fulfilling their promises. LaserMaster is shipping three True Image printers without the True Type rasterizer, using its own fonts instead. Analysts do not expect True Image to significantly affect the market for some time because major vendors such as HP and IBM do not yet support it. PC Brand's 486-33 desktop stumbles over data transfers. (Hardware Review) (PC Brand Inc. 33 MHz 80486 microcomputer; First Look) PC Brand Inc's 486-33 microcomputer uses a fast 33 MHz 80486 processor and is remarkably inexpensive at $4,924 for a fully-configured system with a Super VGA graphics subsystem, but it suffers from some serious problems with serial data transfer and has a poor keyboard. It comes with 4Mbytes of RAM, an 80Mbyte hard disk, a 14-inch Super VGA monitor, DOS 4.01 and a mouse. Performance is excellent on most benchmarks, but high-speed serial transfers to another machine using the LapLink file-transfer program do not work unless the user disables the memory cache. The Super VGA monitor and graphics card provide excellent resolution and clarity in VGA and Super VGA modes, but the screen flickers badly at 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution. The 101-key keyboard is not firm enough for the comfort of most touch typists, and its layout is nonstandard. Expandability features in the PC Brand computer include five free expansion slots and an additional drive bay. FRx extends reporting power of Platinum Series. (IBM Desktop Software's line of accounting software) (Software Review) IBM Desktop Software's Financial Report Extender (FRx) add-in for the Platinum Series accounting package lets Platinum Series handle large corporate applications better and brings the somewhat dated IBM package up to par with other DOS-based financial reporting programs. FRx is available in either a Standard or Advanced Edition; the Advanced Edition enhances Platinum Series' General Ledger module with multilevel reporting capabilities. Advanced Edition FRx costs $1,995 and uses 'reporting trees' to separate report generation from the Chart of Accounts in the General Ledger. It is easy to install, and setting up reporting trees is a simple but time-consuming task. FRx is straightforward to work with and adds considerable value to the Platinum Series. CA-Complete to pack performance punch. (Computer Associates International Inc. Windows-based spreadsheet/database package) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) announces CA-Complete, a new version of the Windows-based data analysis package it acquired from ManageWare Inc in Jan 1991. CA-Complete is a hybrid database/spreadsheet package that can perform multidimensional data analysis and will offer ease-of-use enhancements. Computer Associates is considering adding links between CA-Complete and its other products in a future version. Improved memory management will let users work with larger data sets. Data can be typed directly into CA-Complete's relational DBMS or imported from another database. Computer Associates will sell the program for $995. PostScript corrals agency's publishing needs. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) The Technical Information Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses PostScript to link together a variety of computer platforms into a single publishing system that handles more than 4 million pages of output per month. Data from 12,000 microcomputers is routed to an Autologic Inc APS-PS Page Image Processor PostScript interpreter and to printers, plotters and imagesetters through a multiplexor. The microcomputers include 7,000 IBM-compatible, 4,000 Macintosh and 1,000 Unix machines. Lawrence Livermore's new system allows up-to-the-minute revisions, although managing the software applications used to create documents is a complex task. IBM fine-tunes interim release of OfficeVision. (OfficeVision network software) IBM announces OfficeVision/2 1.1+, an interim release of its OfficeVision network productivity software designed to 'patch' some of the problems in current Version 1.1 until the long-delayed Version 2.0 becomes available. OfficeVision 1.1+ can launch DOS applications from the OfficeVision desktop and lets administrators create a customized desktop for multiple users. IBM also plans to offer third-party developers an application programming interface for integrating their own products into the OfficeVision environment. Microsoft Corp is already committed to developing an API for OfficeVision E-mail, and several others are working on OfficeVision integration for OS/2 LAN-based products. Database community must rally around SQL2 flag. (structured Query Language standard) (column) SQL2, the upcoming enhanced version of the Structured Query Language (SQL) database language, could create a standard allowing for a new level of interoperability among networked systems if vendors and buyers adopt it rapidly. SQL2 is expected to be officially approved as an international standard by mid-1992, but users should pressure database vendors to support it before that date. It is a large language that will require considerable modification of database products. The new language provides full database definition manipulation functions, improved referential integrity and dynamic SQL statements among many other improvements. There are three levels of SQL2 implementation: the lowest level is essentially similar to ANSI SQL but fixes bugs, while the other levels include more powerful features. Users should demand support for the higher SQL2 levels. Firms offer free communication to troops in gulf. (AT&T, Prodigy Services Co., Association for Electronic Communications) Several vendors are offering free electronic communications with Persian Gulf troops to US civilians. AT&T, Prodigy Services Co and the nonprofit Association for Electronic Communications offer a variety of electronic bulletin board (BBS), fax and E-mail services that route messages to troops within three days. Prodigy has added 'USA Connect' to its on-line information service to enable subscribers to send E-mail messages to the Persian Gulf. USA Connect messages are routed to Saudi Arabia via IBM's Information Network, printed and sent through standard military postal channels. The AEC lets users access any of its three electronic BBS systems to send messages to the Persian Gulf free of charge. AT&T's Desert Fax service lets Americans send free faxes to the Persian Gulf from any of its 400 Phone Center stores. All three services require the sender to specify the complete postal military address of the recipient. SAA interface bolsters Futurus' Right Hand Man. (Futurus Inc. announces Right Hand Man II work group software) (product Futurus Inc announces Right Hand Man II (RHM II), a redesigned version of its work-group software that features improved messaging capabilities and a new user interface. RHM II will have an SAA-compatible menu-driven interface as well as LAN messaging, personal information management system and group scheduling functions. An optional RHM Remote package will let users send and receive remote messages. Some users of the current RHM package hesitate to praise the new Common User Access interface, noting that the previous interface could be customized extensively. The new program will include new carbon copy and message archiving features as well as enhanced fax capabilities. RHM II costs $495 for five users and $5,000 for unlimited users; the RHM Remote option sells for $295 per user. This token-ring LAN monitor is loyal Watchdog. (Software Review) (Network General Corp. Watchdog Network Monitor for Token-Ring Network General Corp's Watchdog Network Monitor for Token-Ring networks allows real-time monitoring of network traffic and generates comprehensive reports. It requires a dedicated 80286- or 80386-based system and is exceptionally easy to install. The program can monitor up to 1,024 stations simultaneously, letting network administrators quickly assess the utilization, traffic and error patterns of any 4- or 16M-bps Token-Ring LAN. Watchdog helps alert network managers to points at which a network could fail. It also aids in managing and protecting network growth via its 'Global History' utilities. The software performs well in application tests, quickly detecting two failing network adapters on a multi-server LAN. Watchdog provides error classifications ranging from 'warning' to 'critical' and can be set to signal the administrator with an audible alarm. Voice-data links lead DEC ComNet announcements. (DEC announces Computer Integrated Telephony 2.1, enhances DECconcentrator 500 DEC introduced a wide variety of new products and technologies at the 1991 Communication Networks trade show. The company announced a new release of its Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT) integrated voice/data development platform. CIT 2.1, implemented in the DEC CIT Server for VMS 2.1 software, links VAXes to PBX systems via a special application interface. It supports three new caller identification functions, including Automatic Number Identification, Dialed Number Queuing Service and Automatic Call Distribution Queue Monitoring. DEC has also enhanced its DECconcentrator 500 network hub for Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networks with an optional card that allows two concentrators to be up to 40 kilometers apart. The company also demonstrated new technology for sending FDDI traffic over shielded twisted pair cabling. New tools at UniForum ease graphical interface design. (application development software introduced at UniForum trade Many vendors introduced new UNIX development tools at the 1991 UniForum trade show in Dallas. TeleSoft Corp introduced a microcomputer-based version of its TeleUse user interface development tool for the SCO Open Desktop UNIX environment. TeleUse costs $7,500 in the SCO version; it is also available for DEC VAX, Sun SPARC, IBM RS/6000 and other platforms. Open Inc announced Aspect, a set of tools for developing graphical interfaces that can be easily ported from one platform to another. Aspect will initially support OSF/Motif and the Apple Macintosh. Language Processors Inc introduces CodeWatch 5.0, a new version of its source-level debugger with a windowing interface. Startup readies first PenPoint tool. (Slate Corp. to introduce PenApps Developer's Release software) (product announcement) Slate Corp, a startup company based in Watertown, MA, plans to introduce PenApps Developer's Release, the first application development tool for the new PenPoint pen-based operating system. PenApps uses a forms approach to let users build applications easily without having to learn the complexities of PenPoint coding in the C language. Observers say the product will simplify the creation of pen-based applications, but some say its approach hinders performance because it is a flat-file forms processor that is not suited for commercial or vertical-market development. PenApps will be available directly from Slate for $2,500 or from Go Corp, PenPoint's developer, as part of the $7,870 Corporate Developers Program. System melds diverse software to facilitate grant applications. (training system for applying for federal grants) Washington, DC, startup Health and Human Resource Development Assistance Corp is designing a training system for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to guide minority students and researchers at small colleges through the complex process of applying for federal grants. The system, called Hugo, will reduce the need to send NIDA trainers directly to colleges. NIDA gives out Public Health Service Grants for drug abuse research, but many two-year colleges and black colleges lack the infrastructure to educate their students on how to apply for grants. Hugo is based on the Knowledge Garden Inc KnowledgePro for Windows expert-system shell and includes modules that provide an electronic version of the grant form and background help. It is menu-driven and can launch several background applications. Network muscle pumps SysCorp's new RAD update. (MicroStep 1.5 rapid application development tool) (product announcement) SysCorp International Inc introduces MicroStep 1.5, an update of its rapid application development tool that adds long-awaited support for building network applications. The new program generates Microsoft C code for client/server applications running on NetWare or IBM Token Ring LANs. Networking support had been planned for version 1.4 of MicroStep but was delayed by the daunting complexity of developing it, according to SysCorp. Developers can build sophisticated capabilities such as record locking, transaction commit and rollback into applications created with MicroStep 1.5. MicroStep 1.5 is sold directly by Sys Corp for $7,500; the price includes training and one year of free technical support. IBM must break the silence about its future vision. (Up Front) (column) Microsoft Corp confuses users with its conflicting announcements about future operating system strategies, but IBM has failed to speak out at all on its commitment to OS/2. Reliable sources state that IBM has made major new funding commitments to the completion of OS/2 2.0, but the computer giant refuses to make explicit public announcements, forcing users to infer its position indirectly. IBM may be so confident that it thinks it does not need to counter Microsoft's aggressive marketing; a more plausible explanation is that the company is not aware of Microsoft's lead in public relations. IBM may simply be waiting for a firmer commitment from Microsoft before it asserts its own position. Lotus' MarketPlace succumbs to media hysteria. (Lotus Development Corp. MarketPlace database) (column) Lotus Development Corp's abrupt cancellation of the MarketPlace data base resulted from an excessive, hysterical reaction on the part of the news media which inflamed consumer fears that their privacy would be invaded. The company received more than 30,000 requests from individuals that their names be removed, and the cost of doing so would have undermined the profitability of the product. Uncritical news reporting painted MarketPlace as a product that would let virtually anyone pry into the lives of millions of people, but MarketPlace actually offered less data than many other databases; it did not contain telephone numbers, credit histories or incomes. MarketPlace would have extended the ability to create mailing lists to small and medium-sized firms that otherwise could not afford direct marketing. The switch to high-speed modems is simple logic. (Risky Business) (column) High-speed modems are becoming standardized after years of 'wars' among manufacturers and are dropping in price, making it a sensible business move to switch to 9,600-bps units. Most newer 9,600-bps modems support the V.32 protocol, and some support error-checking and correcting protocols such as MNP Class 5 and V.42. The new V.42bis compression technique allows data transfer rates of up to 38.4K-bps under ideal conditions. Faster file transfers save users money when data is sent over long distances because telephone charges are reduced. A user who transfers a 2M-byte file over long distance connections once a week will save $1,100 over the course of a year, a sum that is now more than the street price of most high-speed modems. Micronics takes place among 'no-rent' launches. (motherboard manufacturer Micronics Inc.)(Valley Voices) (column) Micronics has become one of the most successful vendors of IBM-compatible motherboards since its founding in 1986 in a garage. The firm initially sold its products through local advertising and personal contacts, receiving $250,000 in private financing in 1987 and selling $4 million worth of 80286 and 80386 motherboards in its first nine months of operation. Micronics has continued to grow since. The company now offers boards to a wide variety of systems vendors and integrators on an OEM basis. It is diversifying into such products as X terminals, displaying a combination X Windows terminal and personal workstation at the 1991 UniForum trade show. Flagship Group gets its strategy back on course. (Changing Channels) (column) The Flagship Group, a consortium of vertical market software vendors, originally planned to acquire developers and centralize their functions before exporting their economies of scale to value-added resellers (VARs). The group succeeded in purchasing three companies, but failed to leverage its internal resources to benefit VARs. It now appears to have gotten back on track after stumbling. Flagship imposed authorization criteria on its VARs in the summer of 1990 and moved to narrow its VAR base. A new Marketing Services Group provides advertising and marketing for the VARs, helping them develop individualized vertical market plans and corporate identities. SupportMagic tops help-desk software; outdated interface designs undermine easy operation of other packages. (Software Review) Four help-desk software packages designed to simplify the task of providing internal computer support are reviewed. Help-desk programs log support calls into a queue that includes subject, status and the name of the person responsible for resolving the problem. Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Netman/MRM Pro and Magic Solutions Inc's SupportMagic are specifically designed for internal support, while BusinessWise Inc's SupportWise and Strategic Microsystem Corp's Customer Support System 3.2 are external customer-service systems that can be implemented internally. The internal programs are more powerful and flexible and offer a modular design. SupportMagic is rated an Analyst's Choice because its interface is much more sophisticated and up to date than those of the other three products. BusinessWise Inc: SupportWise 2.3. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of help-desk software in 'SupportMagic tops help-desk BusinessWise Inc's SupportWise 2.3 help-desk software is a program designed for external customer service that can also be deployed within an organization. It is powerful and versatile, but many of its features work best in external situations involving contracts, pay-per-call billing and purchase-order acceptance. SupportWise is available for DOS, Unix, VMS and BTOS operating platforms and uses Progress Software Corp's Progress DBMS, which users must purchase separately for $200 to $2,000. Its interface and documentation are Unix-oriented, but its menu trees can be customized for specific uses. The software has a powerful, built-in search facility that lets users associate keywords with particular records and perform searches on raw text. SupportWise sells for $2,500 for a single user and $9,000 for an eight-user LAN system. Help-desk buyers need flexibility, better reporting. (survey of users of help-desk software packages) Buyers of four help-desk software packages say that flexible reporting is a key factor in purchasing decisions. Users like packages that they can configure to suit their needs but complain that reporting is not flexible enough in most programs. Magic Solutions Inc's SupportMagic earns praise for its internal-use orientation and fast database. One user is especially pleased with its add-in MagicTree expert-system module. Buyers of BusinessWise Inc's SupportWise are pleased with the program's knowledge base and the variety of ways in which users can search the database. Strategic Microsystems Corp's Customer Support System is praised for its efficient data retrieval and ease of learning. A Customer Support System user notes that the program's reports are good but would like to see more flexibility. Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Netman/MRM Pro is oriented toward inventory control; users like it as an alternative to mainframe-based packages. Computer Associates International Inc.: CA-Netman/MRM Professional 3.2. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of help-desk Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Netman/MRM Professional 3.2 help-desk software is written in Progress and provides a common interface on microcomputer, mainframe and DEC VAX versions. Its documentation is excellent, but the user interface is outdated and awkward. The program provides minimal on-screen information about its data-entry fields; most commands are function-key driven. There is no context-sensitive help. CA-Netman/MRM Pro uses 'Action Requests' and 'Memo Files.' The Memo Files have been rendered obsolete by today's groupware and electronic mail package. A Training and Support Library module consists of Training Notes, Support Notes and Product Notes modules. CA-Netman/MRM Pro costs $4,995 for a single user and $7,495 for a 15-user LAN version. Magic Solutions Inc.: SupportMagic 1.5. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of help-desk software in 'SupportMagic tops Magic Solutions Inc's SupportMagic 1.5 help-desk software is designed specifically for internal computer support and is easy to install and use. The user-friendly interface has pull-down menus, pop-up dialog boxes and context-sensitive help. Data access is very fast, and the program uses Novell's Btrieve DBMS. SupportMagic has built-in security features; individual users can be assigned specific rights down to the field level. Magic Solutions offers an extra-cost add-in, MagicTree, that provides expert-system technical assistance. SupportMagic 1.5 costs $3,995 for a single-user version and $7,995 for an eight-user network version. Strategic Microsystems Corp.: Customer Support System 3.2. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of help-desk software Strategic Microsystems Corp's Customer Support System 3.2 help-desk software uses the fast Novell Btrieve database engine but suffers from a dated user interface. The data-entry screens are uncluttered, but lack context-sensitive help or pull-down menus. Users planning to configure Customer Support System for internal support need to be cautious when setting up the program because it is designed as an external user-support package. Its 'Client,' 'Company,' 'Contact' and 'Industry' terms must be mapped to those appropriate to an internal help desk. Codes such as 'Product' and 'Priority' must be redefined, and there is no provision for creating new codes during a session of logging calls. Customer Support System costs $995 for a single user and $1,995 for unlimited users. DAT drives prove quick and reliable; Maynard Electronics and Mountain Systems perform best of six reviewed. (Hardware Review) Six digital audio tape (DAT) drives are reviewed. A single DAT cartridge can store 1.3Gbytes of data in a 2 x 3-inch package and is highly reliable; data access is quick when the drives are coupled with good backup software. DAT drives sell for $4,000 to $6,000, but the cost decreases when it is spread across a network. The cartridges can also store five to 10 times more data than a typical quarter-inch tape cartridge. The high capacity of a DAT drive also makes network backups far more convenient. Maynard Electronics' MaynStream 1300DAT and Mountain Network Solutions Inc's FileSafe 1200 are the quickest of the tested drives and are reliable; Tense Lectronix Corp's TLC Legacy 1000S and GigaTrend's LanDat 122 suffer from relatively poor performance. Mountain Network Solutions' supplied backup software is the easiest to use. Backup devices' 1.3G-byte capacity reduces user intervention, buyers say. (survey of owners of digital audio tape drives) Buyers of six digital audio tape (DAT) drives say they appreciate the drives' high storage capacity, which allows backups of larger disk drives without the need for user intervention. One user of Mountain Network Solutions Inc's FileSafe 1200 drive notes that it eliminates the need to switch tapes during nightly backups, improving system reliability because backups are more convenient and are no longer postponed. Another notes that users no longer have to shut down networks for backup, a fact which improves overall productivity. GigaTrend Inc.: LanDat 122. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT drives prove GigaTrend Inc's $5,650 LanDat 122 digital audio tape (DAT) drive uses a Western Digital Imaging SCSI host adapter, but lacks the drivers and BIOS EEPROM necessary to control SCSI disks or daisy-chain drives. It comes with LANsafe backup software, which includes an automatic installation program and a package of 1.2Mbyte 5.25-inch floppy disks. LANsafe sets up a database with information about saved information and verifies all backups. It can create a 'script' file via a menu-driven operation. Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc.: Model 9131Se. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT drives Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc's $5,196 Model 9131Se digital audio tape (DAT) drive uses an Archive Corp drive mechanism and an Adaptec AHA-1540B SCSI adapter that comes with all software necessary to control other devices. Users must install the SCSI driver in the CONFIG.SYS file and match a series of parameters to match the jumper settings. Users can attach SCSI disks, and Irwin's EZTape backup software is very easy to use. Users must remember to erase tapes before using them the first time. A small window shows backup progress. Mountain Network Solutions Inc.: FileSafe 1200. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT Mountain Network Solutions Inc's $5,995 FileSafe 1200 digital audio tape drive is very easy to install, but the installation software must be run from the A drive using a floppy disk. Users need not install DOS device drivers. Mountain provides both FileSafe and FileTalk backup software; the former is for backing up workstations, while the latter is designed for peer-to-peer backups across a LAN. The estimated percentage of backup completed shows in the display and is refreshed regularly. FileTalk is slower in benchmark tests than FileSafe but is more flexible. Maynard Electronics: MaynStream 1300DAT. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT drives prove Maynard Electronics' $5,995 MaynStream 1300DAT digital audio tape drive is nearly identical to Irwin Magnetic Systems' Model 9131SE because Archive Corp is the parent company of both Irwin and Maynard. Its SCSI adapter is very easy to install and has only one jumper to set its I/O port number. Maynard provides the TMenu backup software on both 720Kbyte 3.5-inch and 360Kbyte 5.25-inch floppy disks. The software is menu-driven and includes a scripting capability, but lacks the ability to display reports on backup or restore progress. Tecmar: DATaVault. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT drives prove quick and Tecmar's $5,490 DATaVault digital audio tape drive comes with an Adaptec AHA-1540B SCSI host adapter but no Adaptec drivers. Installation is easy, and the supplied Quality Tape software backs up and restores files for all Tecmar tape drives. The software is available in both menu-driven and command-line versions, but is less intuitive than the programs available with some competing DAT drives. A batch-file setup activates timed automatic backups. Part of the backup software is a 2,416-byte memory-resident utility. Tense Lectronix Corp.: TLC Legacy 1000S. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of digital audio tape drives in 'DAT drives prove Tense Lectronix Corp's $4,199 TLC Legacy 1000S digital audio tape drive consists of a set of integrated off-the-shelf components including an Adaptec SCSI host adapter and a customized version of Sytron's Sytos Plus tape-backup software. The software is not compatible with 80386 memory-management programs, which must be disabled prior to using the drive. Users must also format DAT cartridges before performing backups. Sytos Plus does not provide information about backup progress, but its interface complies with the IBM Common User Access specification. It cannot restore all files under all conditions. Interactive faxes save time, money; Ibex's FactsLine proves most full-featured system for sending faxes automatically. (Hardware Five interactive facsimile systems consisting of voice-processing and fax cards installed in dedicated microcomputers are reviewed. An interactive fax system lets a user with a telephone and fax machine call a number to connect with the voice-processing card and select a fax to receive from a recorded voice menu. Implementations of interactive fax technology vary; Brooktrout Technology Inc's FlashFax is sold as a turnkey system without a keyboard or monitor, while FaxBack Inc's FaxBack and Ibex Technologies Inc's FactsLine can be pre-installed in an 80286-based microcomputer. Copia International's FaxFacts uses command files to program its voice prompts and is best suited for experienced programmers. Nuntius Corp's CommandFax supports only one voice line. Ibex Technologies' FactsLine is rated an Analyst's Choice for overall quality and value. Brooktrout Technology Inc.: FlashFax 1.2. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of interactive facsimile systems in Brooktrout Technology Inc's $7,995 FlashFax 1.2 is an interactive facsimile system that comes pre-installed in an 80286-based microcomputer with no monitor or keyboard. Any user who knows how to operate a fax machine can program the FlashFax. It comes with pre-recorded menus. Placing documents into the system is easy; a system administrator logs on with a password and faxes documents to the FlashFax. The FlashFax is less flexible than systems consisting only of user-programmable boards. Entering complex menu systems can be extremely time-consuming, and administrators must use a dumb terminal connected to the unit for document loading. Copia International Ltd.: FaxFaxts 3.22A. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of interactive facsimile systems in Copia International Ltd's FaxFacts 3.22A interactive facsimile system is extremely user-configurable; its hardware and software components are sold separately at $500 per fax card, $795 per two-channel voice card and $1,495 per four-channel voice card. The software costs $1,250 for a one-line version and $3,000 for a four-line version. FaxFacts is difficult to set up and demands considerable technical expertise. Users can create image database files via an ASCII text editor, and recording the voice menus requires users to load a special utility program before dialing into the system. FaxBack Inc.: FaxBack 1.4. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of interactive facsimile systems in 'Interactive faxes FaxBack Inc's FaxBack interactive facsimile system includes an Intel Connection CoProcessor fax board and Dialogic voice-response card. It is available in an $8,450 four-channel version and a $13,950 eight-channel version; either can be pre-installed in a Dell 320LX 80386SX-based microcomputer. The FaxBack implementation of document sending is awkward; administrators must assign each document placed in the system a keypad number via the FaxBack's console keyboard. FaxBack can confuse callers as well because it uses the '1' telephone key to confirm a selection and '2' to enter a new fax request. FaxBack can accept credit card numbers, which are recorded in its transaction log. Ibex Technologies Inc.: FactsLine 1.3. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of interactive facsimile systems in 'Interactive Ibex Technologies Inc's FactsLine 1.3 interactive facsimile system is extremely full-featured, letting callers work with voice mail and transfer calls to an operator as well as receive faxes. It uses a GammaLink fax card and Dialogic voice card with modular software 'boxes' for different functions. Voice menus let callers request a document or leave a message; the menus can be bypassed. Administrators record voice prompts with a touch-tone phone and on-screen menu. FactsLine includes a very comprehensive transaction log and is rated an Analyst's Choice for overall quality. Prices range from $7,650 for a two-line unit to $29,850 for an eight-line unit. Nuntius Corp.: CommandFax 1.0. (Hardware Review) (one of five evaluations of interactive facsimile systems in 'Interactive faxes Nuntius Corp's CommandFax interactive facsimile system uses an Intel fax card and PC Dialog voice card to let callers request faxes from a voice menu. It lets administrators assign fax files to specific menu selections and display a directory of files on the system's hard disk. Faxes on the system can be password-protected. The CommandFax transaction log records what callers have requested specific documents, and the log is kept in dBASE format for easy export. Administrators need to use both the screen and a touchtone phone to record voice messages. CommandFax is priced at $3,600 including both necessary computer boards and an analog telephone. Interactive faxes ease information sharing. (survey of users of interactive facsimile machines) Buyers of interactive facsimile systems are pleased with the way the fax board/voice board combinations save customer-service costs by allowing callers to automatically retrieve documents by fax. One user of Ibex Technologies' FactsLine notes that his clients use it to retrieve changes in government regulatory information and that it makes data more available to smaller customers because it does not require a computer for document retrieval. The FactsLine transaction log wins praise from many users. Another user works with the Brooktrout Technology Inc FlashFax turnkey system and states that it is extremely reliable. Packages blend the best of Unix, DOS. (Software Review) (overview of two evaluations of microcomputer-based UNIX operating Interactive Systems Corp's Architect Workstation Developer Platform 2.2 and The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Open Desktop with Development System are reviewed and compared. Both are UNIX-based operating environments that run on microcomputers, provide a windowing interface and can run a variety of DOS programs in an emulation mode. Each supports X Windows, an emerging standard for distributed windowing systems. SCO offers better DOS support and superior technical support, but the Architect Workstation program has a faster implementation of X Windows. Both systems support TCP/IP networking and Sun Microsystems' Network File System. Interactive's system is incompatible with some hard disks and controllers. Open Desktop is the better buy of the two programs. For buyers, Unix boosts productivity without sacrificing DOS investment. (survey of buyers of Interactive Systems Corp's A survey of buyers of Interactive Systems Corp's Architect Workstation Developer Platform 2.2 and The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Open Desktop microcomputer-based Unix operating environments reveals that users are pleased with the ability to tap Unix power without sacrificing their investment in DOS applications. One user calls Interactive Systems' VP/ix DOS emulator 'wonderful' and notes that it allows DOS clients to upgrade to Unix without losing any existing applications. Another user is generally pleased with Open Desktop but complains that it does not support the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Others note that the open Unix environment provides considerable flexibility. Interactive Systems Corp.: Architect Workstation Developer Platform version 2.2. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of Interactive Systems Corp's $1,995 Architect Workstation Developer Platform 2.2 is a Unix operating environment for 80386- and 80486-based microcomputers that provides DOS compatibility. Installation is easy but time-consuming; the developer's version ships on over 60 high-density floppy disks. The software fully supports DOS 3.3 partitions, which can be mounted as separate file systems. Users can configure up to 2Mbytes of system memory as expanded memory. The VP/ix DOS emulation program lets multiple users share the C drive but requires system-administrator privileges to make any alterations. Architect Workstation Developer does not support local CONFIG.SYS files. The Developer Platform includes the C language programming system and X-11 development system, with both AT&T and LPI C compilers. Interactive Systems' technical support is adequate but not outstanding. The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.: Open Desktop Release 1.0 with Development System. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's $2,490 Open Desktop UNIX operating environment for 80386- and 80486-based microcomputers is powerful, flexible and highly compatible with DOS programs. It ships on more than 70 floppy diskettes, but SCO offers tape installation. The packages supports only DOS 3.3 partitions that can be booted, but users can have local CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Open Desktop comes with a well-designed but rather slow X Windows environment that resembles the Macintosh more than Microsoft Windows. The Development System includes networking tools, database development systems, the AT&T and Microsoft C compilers, and the X-11 and OSF/Motif systems. SCO provides excellent technical support. Notebooks offer weighty performance; market share expected to rise; other low-weight options are available. (guide to choosing Notebook-sized microcomputers weighing seven pounds or less were not as popular as larger laptop machines because they are not as powerful, but notebook computers are catching up with laptops in both power and popularity. Lightweight machines using the Intel 80386SX processor are now available and have enough power to serve as a user's primary system. Market-research firm WorkGroup Technologies divides the notebook computer market into executives who use them as secondary computers, professionals who use them as primary computers and professionals who use them exclusively in the office and for occasional travel. Those who travel frequently are the largest market for the small machines, which can now be purchased for only $1,000 more than a desktop machine would cost. Laptops benefit from reduced weight, power needs. (buyers guide) Claiborne, David. Several cutting-edge technologies allow notebook-sized computers to be made both smaller and faster as they require less power and weigh less. Dynamic RAM chips are the smallest and simplest type of semiconductor memory but place a constant drain on the battery of a portable computer; static RAM requires less power to retain its state and is used in such tiny machines as the Poqet PC. Pseudo-static RAM chips compromise by using only one transistor and capacitor per bit and include extra circuitry to reduce the power required during refresh cycles. Flash memory technology retains its electrical state indefinitely, even when the machine is turned off. Miniature optical disk drives may appear in future laptop computers. Intel's new highly-integrated 80386SL microprocessor provides all of the functions of a conventional AT desktop computer in only two chips. Disk-mirroring products offer true fault tolerance; hardware and software solutions available; choice based on speed, cost. Many new hardware and software products are available that support 'disk mirroring,' a system under which data is written to two separate servers simultaneously to provide an immediately-available backup if one disk fails. The system automatically switches to the secondary 'mirror' disk with no downtime, providing true fault-tolerance. Disk mirroring is critical in banks and other institutions that must be in operation 24 hours per day. The US Mint in Philadelphia uses disk-mirroring software that also provides disk duplexing. A duplexed system has a separate adapter board or controller for each drive. Disk mirroring features can be implemented through software or built directly into a disk or cache controller. Compaq's new Systempro file server can allocate 50 percent of its drive array capacity as a physical mirror image. Mirroring prevents disk-crash nightmare. (disk mirroring systems at Micro Central Inc.) (buyers guide) Computer-products distributor Micro Central Inc of South River, NJ implemented a disk-mirroring system after a hard disk crash in Nov 1989 put the company out of business for three days. Micro Central installed Distributed Processing Technology's SmartCache disk controller and disk-mirroring module. The device performed well, keeping the system going smoothly after a second crash a few months later. Micro Central had to shut the system down during an evening to install a replacement drive; using a software disk-mirroring system would have reduced the downtime, but software mirroring is much slower than hardware-based mirroring. Entrepreneur plans to make PCs in Russia. (Soviet businessman Mikhail Botcharov) Soviet entrepreneur Mikhail Botcharov hopes to singlehandedly create an IBM-compatible microcomputer industry in the Soviet Union. Botcharov, a trained lawyer, engineer and economist, heads a newly-formed conglomerate of 450 Soviet firms employing 50,000 people. He states that he recognizes the importance of microcomputers in the Soviet Union's transition to a market economy and predicts that the nation will need 'tens of millions' of microcomputers by the mid-1990s. The Soviets aim to reduce their current dependence on imported machines and develop the manufacturing capacity to build and export their own. Mikhail Aroutiounov, head of computerization in the Russian republic, says that the government hopes to build one to two new computer factories annually. Lotus posts $31.6 million loss following acquisition of Samna. (Lotus Development Corp.) Lotus Development Corp posts a loss of $31.6 million for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990, the first loss in the company's nine-year history. Analysts expected the report and attribute the loss to a one-time charge incurred when the company purchased Samna Corp, maker of the Ami graphical word-processing program. Lotus earned $53 million for the quarter, compared to $29.4 million for the same quarter in 1989. Competitors Microsoft Corp and Borland International Inc have eroded Lotus' market share through aggressive marketing moves, but the spreadsheet market continues to grow worldwide. Lotus CEO Jim Manzi states that '1990 was the strongest year for the 1-2-3 product family,' but analysts warn that Lotus has yet to deliver a Windows-compatible or Macintosh version of 1-2-3. Oracle seeking Japanese partner to curtail cash-flow woes. Ould, Andrew. Oracle Corp, facing severe cash-flow problems and difficulty obtaining credit, is seeking a Japanese financial partner to provide new capital. Oracle chmn and CEO Lawrence Ellison says that the firm is negotiating with several large Japanese firms but claims that finding a partner is 'not essential.' Analysts disagree, stating that there is no way Oracle can balance its budget without a financial partner because its debt of $207 million makes it difficult for the firm to meet its monthly commitments. Others state flatly that the database vendor may become insolvent. Ellison has ruled out Fujitsu Corp as a financial rescuer because the Japanese company has a proprietary architecture and states that it cannot team with a hardware vendor because it wants its software products to be platform-independent. Belated court triumph may bring Hayes $12.5 million; Everex, OmniTel, Ven-Tel charged with modem patent infringement. (Hayes Hayes Microcomputer Products has won a $3.5 million jury award in its patent-infringement lawsuit against three competing modem vendors who allegedly used its AT command-set technology without proper licenses. The company's victory comes after a five-year court battle that began after Prometheus Products Inc and US Robotics Inc filed suit against Hayes in Nov 1986 to invalidate a patent defining how modems switch from receiving and sending to Hayes interpretation. Hayes entered a counterclaim and sued Everex and OmniTel in mid-1988; other companies then began to file their own suits against Hayes. Most of the companies settled out of court by agreeing to pay licensing fees. US District Court Judge Samuel Conti may order the companies to discontinue infringing products, award triple damages to Hayes or require the defendants to pay interest on licensing fees. Massively parallel microprocessors attack supercomputers. (Looking Forward) (column) Microprocessor-based systems using massively parallel architecture now compete seriously with supercomputers, frequently offering better price/performance ratios. Massively parallel designs include Single-Instruction Multi-Data (SMD) and Multi-Instruction Multi-Data (MMD). SMD systems use a large number of traditional microprocessors which all run the same instruction at the same time and share program but not data memory; MMD systems let each chip run independently, with its own data and program memory. MMD systems usually use fewer CPUs and often rely on high-end Motorola 88000 or Intel i860 chips. MMD tends to offer better price/performance than SMD, but software development is more difficult because programmers must keep track of the interactions among different processes and programs. Thinking Machines Inc's Connection Machine is an SMD system, while Intel's Touchstone is the leading MMD product. Carriers help CN '91 users sort fact from fiction. (vendors at Communication Networks '91 showcase new technologies) The 1991 Communication Networks trade show was characterized by vendors offering explanations and demonstrations of the benefits of their new telecommunications products and services. BT Tymnet unveiled its plans to initiate frame relay service in 2nd qtr 1991. Company representatives explained to users the plan for a hybrid frame relay backbone capable of transmitting X.25 traffic as it internally carries frame relay traffic at sub-T1 rates . Access at speeds of 56K-bps and 64K-bps will be offered at first. Newbridge Networks produced a live demonstration of its Integral Frame Relay Switch, to be offered in 3rd qtr 1991. This applications processor card will be used with T1 and T3 multiplexors. Net management in focus at CN '91. (Communications Networks 1991 centers on network management) Vendors at the 1991 Communications Networks trade show were confronted with customer demands for network management equipment that is both comprehensive and easy to use. These criteria present a problem for some vendors, who see them as contradictory. Vendors are trying to resolve the dilemma by offering partitioned network management systems that divide the network into smaller parts, allowing for specialized management at several levels. This approach is favored by the telecommunications carriers, who hope to keep network management from compromising network security. The SelectView multiple subnetwork management software package from Netrix lets the user choose parameters that determine the partitioning. Video is the only way to fly during war. (videoconferencing increases as Persian Gulf War reduces traveling) The war in the Persian Gulf has led to increased fears of terrorism and therefore greatly reduced international business travel, leading to a dramatic rise in the bookings for public videoconferencing facilities. Demand in both France and London is reportedly at record heights. An hour-long videoconference between the two countries for six or eight people at each end can be cheaper than air fare for a single traveller. However, since the beginning of the war, it has been very difficult for French businesses to find a free line to London because the English community is using videoconferencing so much. Telecom critical in Gulf War news. (telecommunications systems crucial to coverage of 1991 Persian Gulf War) The Persian Gulf War of 1991 has demonstrated the importance of telecommunications systems, which have enabled Cable News Network's (CNN) reporters to continue to broadcast from inside Iraq in spite of the disruption of many communications systems. CNN's Peter Arnett has been using a satellite telephone unit to send his reports from Baghdad to CNN's headquarters in Atlanta. The TCS 9200 unit from Mobile Telesystems Inc, a portable system, is installed on the roof of a hotel in the Iraqi capitol. Earlier in the war, CNN reporters used a 'four-wire' private-line telephone circuit to connect Iraq with Atlanta. Europeans like their privacy: telecommunications privacy is a major international issue as Europe moves closer to 1992. US telecommunications vendors should begin to consider the seriousness of European respect for privacy issues as the European Community moves toward market unification Consumers in Europe are much more concerned about maintaining their rights of privacy than are their US counterparts. Cultural factors, such as the historical experience of the rise of Nazism and its subsequent erosion of privacy, make privacy an issue dear to most Europeans. In order to participate on an equal footing with European vendors, the US will have to respect these stricter regulations guarding the individual against the private sector's privacy incursions. Will mobile mania grip the east? (mobile communications industry in Eastern Europe) Eastern Europe, like the West, has embraced cellular telephony as the initial technology in the evolving deployment of personal communications systems. While England's mobile communications providers suffered shrinking subscriber rolls and major financial setbacks in 1990, the eastern European outlook for cellular telephone networks and other services grew stronger. Because the telecommunications infrastructure in many of these countries is inadequate, users are attracted to mobile communications systems because they offer the opportunity for faster provision of services. The countries of the east are in a hurry to establish a greater penetration ratio of telephone services, and the fast installation of cellular technologies can help them. Cost of fast modems falling fast. (Technology) (column) Yoder, Stephen Kreider. The price of fast modems is going down because of technological advances. Microcomputer users now have a cost-effective way of transmitting data quickly. The price of a 9,600 baud modem have fallen from around $2,000 to near $500 since late 1990. Modem manufacturers such as Intel Corp and Practical Peripherals are able to sell the modems more cheaply because of advances in circuitry, which allow more circuits in fewer chips. Several data base service companies now offer 9,600 baud capabilities because the proliferation of these fast modems is inevitable. A 9,600 baud modem retrieves in one second the amount of information it takes the more common 2,400 baud modems four seconds to retrieve. This improvement makes data retrieval more convenient and less expensive by reducing telephone use charges. Who said thin TVs mean fuzzy pictures? (flat screen displays) (Technology) (column) The television equipment industry is developing television sets that are thin, weigh far less than conventional television sets and offer better quality than flat-screen televisions. Traditional television sets, which use cathode ray tubes (CRTs), are too heavy but their contemporary counterpart, the flat-screen display, cannot offer the display speed, brightness and contrast of CRTs. Researchers are using the CRT approach of shooting electrons onto a screen but are doing it with with a new implementation of the 20-year-old microtip technology. Microtip technology or field emission display involves shooting electrons into a vacuum created by two panes of glass; it uses millions of cone-shaped electron guns whereas a CRT uses only one. IBM pension plan changes are expected to entice thousands of workers to retire. IBM changed its pension and early retirement program at its US facilities in an attempt to reduce its work force to a manageable level as part of its cost-cutting measures. The number one computer maker has already succeeded in trimming 37,000 employees between 1985 to 1990 but still has 205,000 employees in the US in 1991. IBM did not publicly announce its new early retirement initiatives but officials at the company acknowledged that they need to pursue employee cuts more aggressively. The new severance program did not and will not affect IBM's earnings in any quarter because it costs can be taken from the company's pension fund, which is already $7 billion greater than required to cover obligations. The new regulation means that workers with 30 years of service can take early retirement with full pension without having to be 60 years old. What laptop users can expect to find at airports. (effects of Persian Gulf War on domestic security measures) (The Executive The 1991 Persian Gulf War is affecting US business travelers through increased airport security measures. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline industry traditionally restrict the use of computers, radios and other electronic devices during take-offs and landings. Concerns about terrorism, however, have led to the implementation of Level IV security levels at US airports for the first time. The rules involved provide for additional examination and restrictions on laptop computers. Some airports require that the main batteries be removed and placed in checked luggage. Most airports now confiscate and destroy any unattended baggage, including expensive portable computers. Often travelers must turn on and boot-up their computers to prove that is indeed what they are. Travelers are advised to make sure insurance covers computers while traveling and consider renting them at airports as needed. Pete Yeatman on: bus-board architectures. Yeatman, Pete. Analysts have predicted the demise of the standard board market since the 1970s, but while mainframes and minicomputers have seen their roles in the computer hierarchy diminish, the standard board business has grown to be a significant part of the industry. Some forecast double-digit annual growth rates for the sector in the early 1990s as the boards supplant proprietary solutions. The first standard board architectures, VMEbus, Multibus, STD and Futurebus, among others, continue to be viable architectures today, in part because their authors anticipated some developments and because standards are often difficult to discard in favor of new technologies. Board designers have instead adapted new technologies to older buses, and while some predict the higher levels of IC integration will spell their end, in fact it will be a boon for the standard board market as the drive to open systems continues. MIPS rethinks RISC with superpipelining. (MIPS Computer's R4000 superpipeline architecture) MIPS Computer's R4000 uses a concept the company calls superpipelining, which lets users fetch two instructions at once and feed them both into the pipeline by running the execution pipeline twice as fast as the instruction fetch logic. The R4000 runs at 50 MHz, which requires a 100-MHz pipeline, a level that can be reached with existing CMOS processes only because the pipeline does not have to drive any external pins. Data dependency problems were solved using bypass circuits rather than by scoreboarding, which would stall the pipeline until the key instruction finished. The bypass circuits allow a following instruction to access results while they are still in the pipe and before they are put back in the register file. Among the advantages of superpipelining are simpler dispatch logic and enhanced robustness; it is theoretically less scalable than superscalar techniques, however. Japan's Tron initiative may be opportunity for U.S. manufacturers. Williams, Tom. Japan's TRON project is intended to develop a real-time operating system to form the foundation for higher-level operating systems for workstations, network servers and network management. The operating system also forms the foundation for an instruction-set specification used by several Japanese microprocessor manufacturers and as the basis for a networking scheme intended to connect a billion or more processors in a highly functional distributed system (HFDS). THe HFDS is seen as the medium used to connect computer-based 'intelligent objects' in future automated environments; among the intelligent objects will be televisions, VCRs, household appliances, personal workstations, industrial robots and network databases. The TRON project's goal is a reorganization of the entire computer environment; TRON's various components and opportunities presented for US firms are discussed. National unveils Futurebus+ silicon. (National Semiconductor's Futurebus+ chip set) National Semiconductor becomes the third company to announce a Futurebus+ chip set, joining Philips-Signetics and Texas Instruments, which has a second-source agreement with Signetics and a joint design agreement with Force Computers. National Interface and Peripherals Group Marketing Dir Brian Gillings says the company's approach differs from those taken by Signetics and TI in that it waited until formal announcement of the Futurebus+ specification to bring out its product so that no major changes would be required; the company also waited until volume production had begun to make its announcement, and it kept its chip set down to the basic components required to implement a Futurebus+ system, leaving many higher-level protocol functions to be implementation- and processor-specific. The five chips in the set form a complete Futurebus+ solution when joined by a protocol controller. Semiconductor maker enters VMEbus board market. (Performance Semiconductor's PaceRunner/3400 single-board computer) (product Performance Semiconductor introduces the PaceRunner/3400 VMEbus board with a MIPS R3000 RISC-based processor set and a high-performance architecture that includes a 64Kbyte cache and 4Mbytes of memory. Performance hopes to capitalize on its semiconductor technology to succeed in the VMEbus market; the PaceRunner/3400 single-board computer, which will be offered in 25- and 33-MHz versions, uses the company's latest processor, memory and chip technology to optimize functionality, according to a company spokesman. It is a 6U, single-slot VME board with Performance's PR3000/PR3010A integrated CPU/FPA chip set; it also includes an eight-word-deep write buffer, a programmable 32-word read buffer, two RS-232 ports, on-board SCSI with a DMA controller, an Ethernet controller and 256Kbytes of EPROM. The device is the only general-purpose R3000-based CPU card on the market, the company claims. Combined scope/logic analyzers detect hard-to-find analog problems. (Hewlett-Packard's 16500 logic analyzer series) (product Hewlett-Packard introduces the 16500 logic analyzer series that offers an optional digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) module with a 400M-sample/sec digitizing rate. The DSO lets engineers perform analog analysis on hard-to-find problems by allowing a signal to be probed, the waveform to be seen and associated logic analyzer views be observed simultaneously. Events can be viewed up to 10 microseconds before triggering; time interval accuracy is better than one nanosecond. A signal's behavior can be analyzed without having to count graticules through automatic display of waveform parameters on the scope. Error conditions occurring infrequently can be observed many times and accumulated over multiple acquisitions because the scope and analyzer can trigger each other. The 16500 is compared to Tektronix' dual-channel, 8-bit digitizing scope module for its logic analyzers. Windows 3.0 extends PC-based PLD design limits. (Altera's MAXPlus II programmable logic design software) (product announcement) Altera introduces the MAXPlus II programmable logic device (PLD) design software running under Windows 3.0, the first such computer-aided engineering (CAE) software to do so. The MAXPlus II toolset will be available a few months before the company samples its high-density MAX 7000 CMOS erasable PLDs; the software can handle design synthesis, automatic place and route, and simulation of the densest of MAX 7000 designs. PC-based PLD design will rely increasingly on Windows to overcome the 640Kbyte DOS memory limit and to handle the increasing complexity of system-level designs with 50,000 or more logic gates. Windows lets MAXPlus II automatically partition large designs into multiple EPLDs and support multiple-chip simulation for verification of the entire design. Questions remain, however, as to whether designers will abandon PC-based solutions in favor of workstations. FDDI chips struggle toward the desktop. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is intended to connect all desktop computers by serving as a 100M-bps fiber-optic backbone network, but while FDDI works as a corporate network backbone connecting slower and less expensive LANs, the technology does not yet exist to move the connectivity to the desktop. Among the issues that must still be resolved are shifting standards, various media choices and concerns about the adequacy of workstation architectures, but the biggest obstacle to widespread use of FDDI is the inability of existing FDDI adapters to provide the cost/performance ratio required to spur a boom. Few customers are willing to spend more than 10 percent of the cost of a workstation for connectivity, but current FDDI adapter cards cost between $6,000 and $8,000; analysts claim the cost will have to drop to $1,000 by 1993. FDDI adapter card research is described. Debate over frame-based SMT functions continues. (the Fiber Distributed Data Interface station management technology The availability of standard Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) hardware allows designers to consider integrating FDDI networks in their systems, but questions remain as to FDDI's station management technology (SMT) functions. SMT functions provide the station-level control required to manage the processes occurring in various FDDI layers to allow a station to work cooperatively on a ring. Among the layers are the physical layer protocol (PHY), the physical media dependent (PMD) and the media access control (MAC). Among the SMT services are connection management functions and fault isolation and recovery functions. Agreement has been reached on PHY, PMD and MAC layers and on many lower-level SMT functions, but disagreement continues on higher-level frame-based functions responsible for passing frames to and from other SMT nodes; several of these issues are discussed. Tools bring vital information to early stages of systems design. (CAD tools that predict component behavior before prototyping) Computer designers are moving many operations that previously waited until after the prototype stage of the design cycle to the early stages of design capture. Electronic design automation (EDA) vendors are providing tools that let designers predict the electrical and mechanical behavior of integrated circuits, circuit boards, cooling systems and cabling layout before the prototype stage. Pressures to reduce time to market and cost make it much more practical to move as much data analysis as possible to early in the design stage, but even when EDA tools and frameworks are available to accomplish this, a commitment is required from the tool users and their managers to share critical information to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of the design cycle. EDA vendors are working with IC houses to develop tools supporting testing during manufacture; several products are described. Graphical design environment builds on framework. (for computer-aided circuit design) Many circuit design firms implementing concurrent engineering find the best way is to use graphical, multidisciplinary design capture and new analysis tools embedded in a design automation framework to start system-design capture at the earliest requirements stage and continue it through the entire product development process. Such an approach raises the level of analysis to support creation of better specifications and designs earlier in the process. Design iterations are also possible prior to simulation, allowing fast evaluation of evolving specifications and designs before initiating exhaustive verification work. Starting graphical design capture at the system level connects hardware, software, communications, project management, safety, reliability and ergonomics. How automated systems-design tools work is described. Will performance win over sophistication in workstation buses? (new workstation buses challenge traditional open buses) (Cover Traditional open buses such as VMEbus and Multibus I and II are being challenged by Sun Microsystems' SBus, DEC's Turbochannel and IBM's Micro Channel in the workstation market. Sun Exec Paul Borrill says workstation buses are small in form factor to fit in desktop configurations, relaxed in power dissipation to minimize power-supply requirements, high in performance (50Mbytes-per-second transfer rate) to realize the full benefits of new RISC and CISC processors, and scalable to provide a migration path to higher-performance processors. SBus, Turbochannel and Micro Channel differ from VMEbus and Multibus in that they operate with a motherboard rather than being on a passive backplane, but more importantly they represent a change in design philosophy. The new buses are more extension buses than expansion buses; the two types of workstation bus architectures are compared. Turbochannel targets graphics, networking and large database storage. (DEC's workstation bus) DEC's Turbochannel I/O interconnect design is based on the same philosophy as reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architectures; the resulting simplicity lets problems be fixed quickly and efficiently, and the entire design is optimized for I/O with all control signals being point-to-point. The bus was designed specifically to meet the I/O needs of graphics, imaging and animation, high-speed networking and data collection, and large database storage. The radial design architecture means the bus is not shared, so there is no loss in bandwidth to memory; Turbochannel's theoretical peak bandwidth is 100Mbytes per second, although the achieved peak is currently 78.1Mbytes per second. The flexibility of the Turbochannel specification allows it to take advantage of future workstation technological breakthroughs; options meeting the specifications can work in diverse system implementations. New SBus specification helps developers prepare for the future. (Sun Microsystems' SBus workstation bus) Sun Microsystems' SBus high-performance open bus architecture is becoming a standard I/O interconnect for reduced instruction set computer (RISC) desktop and server systems. The ever-higher performance of desktop computers requires buses that can support their I/O needs; SBus will continue to be enhanced and supported by Sun as an I/O expansion interconnect for all current and future systems. The new SBus specification includes a provision for a 64-bit transfer protocol, allowing 64 bits of data to be transferred with each clock cycle and providing a peak bandwidth of 160Mbytes to 200Mbytes per second. This overcomes the current I/O bottleneck in most existing systems and makes SBus the only desktop expansion bus able to keep pace with high-performance systems. Specification B.0 instructs system designers in the creation of the new 64-bit data path without increasing wires or transfer time. Getting I/O buses to keep up with high-speed processors. Powell, Tom. Very high speed complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors such as Motorola's 68040 are able to move data at almost 70Mbytes per second, but inefficient I/O bus design can reduce the high data bandwidth considerably. Four techniques for enhancing the performance of an I/O bus to make it more effective when used with a high-speed processor are described. Byte packing, used in all but the lowest performance systems, matches the width of the data being transferred to the maximum width of the I/O bus. Direct memory access (DMA) channel use for I/O bus operations reduces the time the main processor is involved with I/O transfers. Adding localized intelligence to the boards on the I/O bus transfers much of the overhead of running high-level protocols to the I/O board itself. Optimized block transfer combines several individual I/O data transfers into one high-speed burst transfer of several long-words. High-speed DACs target waveform synthesis and video. (digital-to-analog converters) (buyers guide) Applications requiring digital-to-analog converters (DACs) are becoming more complex, putting increasing pressure on DACs to improve their own performance to keep pace with the processing speeds made possible by faster, more powerful processors and larger memories. DACs now provide update speeds of 100 Mhz and up, and they include on-chip functions supporting increasingly sophisticated video and graphics operations. The need to support higher-resolution monitors has driven DAC processing speeds up, but designs using direct digital synthesis (DDS) require such new process technologies as bipolar and gallium-arsenide for broad bandwidth waveform synthesis. Among the DACs described are TRW's TMC0458 mixed-signal device specifically for video, Brooktree's Bt463 RAMDAC, Sony's CXA1236Q for high-resolution monitors, and Analog Devices' AD9712/13 12-bit monolithic converter. New chip offers nonvolatile analog memory. (Information Storage Devices'1016) (product announcement) Information Storage Devices unveils the 1016 chip that uses a new technology to provide an inexpensive and easy way to capture, randomly retrieve and replay audio-frequency analog data. The chip uses a conventional EEPROM cell to store an analog voltage rather than a binary bit; it has an array of analog storage cells configured to save and retrieve consecutive samples. Applications for the chip include voice recording and playback, sourcing for test signals and temporary storage of telemetry. The 1016 reaches a maximum sample rate of 8 kHz and is able to store as many as 16 s of continuous data. All components needed to perform the store and replay functions are included: an analog preamp, automatic gain controlled input amp and output amp, 3.4-kHz anti-aliasing and smoothing filters, clock generators and sampling circuitry, and addressing logic. It costs $20 in 1,000-unit quantities. Multimedia chip compresses video and audio in synch. (UVC's UVC7710) (product announcement) UVC introduces the UVC7710 integrated multimedia processor chip able to compress and decompress motion video signals in real time along with synchronized audio. The UVC7710 provides compression ratios of 20:1 and 30:1 at 30 frame-per-second frame rates and features a high compression mode with a ratio of 500:1; it uses a patented compression technique that the company says is about 50 times simpler than the other color video compression method now in use, discrete cosine transform (DCT). The tiled approach used by DCT requires that it first look at several scanned lines before it is able to work on any data, and it uses complex mathematical algorithms. The UVC technique compresses a frame of video data one scan line at a time, sampling each line as it is scanned and digitizing the analog signal according to the company's own algorithms. The UVC7710 will cost under $100 in OEM quantities. Xilinx backs enhanced FPGA family with improved development software. (the XC4005 logic cell array) (product announcement) Xilinx introduces the XC4005 logic cell array, the first third-generation field-programmable gate array (FPGA) from the company. There will be 10 devices in the XC4000 submicron FPGA series, providing system speeds as high as 60 MHz and density from 2,000 to 20,000 usable gates. Hard macro support and a memory compiler have been added by Xilinx to its XACT 4000 development system to meet the needs of higher-performance devices. On-chip SRAM has been integrated onto the XC4000 devices, made possible by basing the logic cell arrays on an SRAM process; the on-chip SRAM can be used for such applications as FIFOs and register stacks, and memory can be configured in increments from 2K-bits to 28K-bits. Also provided is a library of predefined, tested and fully characterized hard macros, including fast counters, fast adders, RAMs, FIFOs, LIFOs and register stacks. XC4000 prices start at $192.50 per sample. Ada development environment is all ADA. (TeleSoft's Telegen2 real-time integrated Ada development environment) (product TeleSoft introduces the Telegen2 real-time integrated Ada development (Triad) environment comprised of three primary component groups. Triad uses the company's Ada compiler technology intended for Motorola 68000 microprocessors and has a full suite of Ada productivity tools as well as an Ada-based real-time execution environment with the new TeleAda-Exec executive. All components in the package are written in Ada to assure a seamless development environment. All three Triad versions use the Telegen2 optimizing compiler technology: a Sun-3 to embedded 68000 version, a Sun-4 (Sparc) to 68000 version and a VAX to 68000 version. Window- and mouse-based user interfaces are included in the Sun versions ($28,200), as well as SunOS and SunView Ada bindings and X Window bindings. The VAX/VMS version (from $28,200) is based on the digital command language interface standard. Analog layout editor links schematics to physical design. (Cadence Design Systems' Analog Artist) (product announcement) Cadence Design Systems introduces the Analog Artist layout editor intended to meet the needs of advanced analog and mixed-signal IC design. Analog Artist supports creation of analog cells and blocks through tight linkage between schematic design and physical layout; it is based on a 32-bit precision database supporting all-angle hierarchical design. The editor has unlimited library referencing and an unrestricted editor selection list that works with multiple individually configured windows so that several designs can be edited at one time. Commands are included for handling arcs, ellipses and Boolean operations to allow users to cut polygon shapes, merge polygons and convert paths to polygons. Analog Artist is available as a standalone system or as an upgrade to existing Cadence layout editor installations; it supports most industry-standard Unix platforms and costs from $25,000 per seat. Mitel facing uncertain future after top executive packs it in. (Anthony Griffiths appointed president and CEO, replacing John The recent appointment of board chairman Anthony Griffiths as new president and CEO of Mitel Corp leaves analysts uncertain about the future strategic planning agenda of the PBX manufacturer. Griffiths replaces John Jarvis, who resigned the top spot on Jan 8, 1991. Thus far, Griffiths, who previously served as Mitel's president for two years during the mid-1980's, has taken a low profile. The leadership change, along with the announced sale of 51 percent of its stock by British Telecom and declining sales in the PBX market, compound the doubt of analysts about the firm's prospects. Market analysts suggest that the troubled company's best prospects would be to concentrate on building market share for its smaller systems, the SX-50 and SX-200D, among small business customers. Bryden steps down from Systemhouse. (SHL Systemhouse Inc.'s board of directors calls for resignation of chmn, director and CEO The board of directors of systems integrator SHL Systemhouse Inc asks founder, chmn and CEO Rod Bryden to resign after a sixteen-year tenure. The move is prompted by a decline in public confidence in the firm, largely the result of Bryden's activities as owner of former parent company Kinburn Corp. In his administration of Kinburn, Bryden defaulted on $800 million in loans in 1990, the same year SHL Systemhouse was put up for sale. Confusion over the ownership and prospects of the systems integrator caused its stock to fall from a value of $10 per share to about $4 per share, posting a loss of $40 million for FY 1990 in the process. Kinburn's shares of Systemhouse's stock, estimated to be 51 percent, are now controlled by a syndicate of banks and Bell Canada Enterprises. GST means lower PC prices. (Goods and Services Tax) Frangini, Monica. IBM Canada Ltd, NEC Canada Inc, Dell Computer Corp and Compaq Canada Inc are among the microcomputer vendors that have lowered equipment prices in an attempt to offset the effects of the Goods and Services Tax. The GST will eliminate a 13.5 percent border tax on hardware imported into Canada, stimulating competition in the industry. IBM Canada announced a five percent reduction on hardware prices and a six percent reduction on the price of supplies. Though this reduction would make prices about the same by the time the GST is assessed, the cuts of other vendors will cause an overall price reduction of about five percent. Leading the way in competitive reductions are NEC, which is reducing laptop and CD-ROM products between seven and 18 percent, Dell, with reductions of about seven percent and Compaq, with a five percent overall reduction. Mac notebook a given, Apple's Sculley pledges. (John Sculley, Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO) Speaking at the seventh annual MacWorld Exposition in San Francisco, CA, Apple Computer Inc CEO John Sculley pledged that an Apple notebook computer will be in the market on or before Feb 1992. Sculley acknowledged that Apple missed a key product development opportunity by not bringing out a laptop computer. Apple's single entry into the portable market, the Macintosh Portable, was criticized by both analysts and users for being too bulky and too expensive. Apple now plans to address this missing link in its marketing strategy by speeding up its plans to develop an Apple laptop. Industry insiders speculate that an undisclosed Japanese partner would join Apple in the production of a laptop model, but Apple insists that it will build the machines on its own, taking maximum advantage of its competitive edge in software technology. Focus shifted to computing at Pacific Rim. (special report on 1991 Pacific Rim Computer and Communications Show) The latest developments in local area networks and Unix software are the focus as over 15,000 potential buyers evaluate the latest hardware and software products at the seventh annual Pacific Rim Computer and Communications Show in Vancouver, BC. The current show signals a shift from the general office equipment orientation of the last several shows. Among the vendors demonstrating new technologies were Atari, with an elaborate multi-media presentation and Kodak, which showed its new four-pound laptop computer. Another trend noticed at the trade show was the presence of a large number of value-added resellers and representatives from discount houses such as Egghead Software. The best-selling product in attendance was Microsoft Windows 3.0, which one participant claimed was being used by about 75 percent of the companies being represented. EDS to manage Toronto's DP operations. (will handle Toronto's data processing operations for five years) Metropolitan Toronto signs an outsourcing contract with EDS of Whitby, Ontario. Under the terms of the agreement, EDS will handle the city's information processing for a five-year period. The firm will provide technical support and will also operate the telecommunications link between Metropolitan Toronto and the Oshawa, Ontario operations center where the city-owned IBM ES/9000 mainframe computer is being utilized. Ownership of the mainframe computer enables the city to maintain control over its increasing volume of processing while avoiding the expense of establishing an independent data center. Metropolitan Toronto will pay a fixed rate to EDS up to 1994, with increases after that linked to the consumer price index. Other aspects of the EDS operation include payroll, printing and applications development. Wyse takes direct aim at competitors with multi-user Unix. (Wyse Technology Ltd.'s 5000i, 7000i and 9000i computers to be Wyse Technology (Canada) Ltd seeks to build market share in the Unix-based multi-user marketplace with the introduction of three series of file servers based on Intel's 80386 and 80486 microprocessor architecture. The Intel architecture was chosen over competing Motorola and RISC architectures because its Unix installed base runs on about 70 percent of the installed systems in the US market, according to company sources. Wyse's Series 5000i carries a beginning price of $13,500. A typical configuration in the Series 7000i ranges from $22,000 to $39,000; while the high-capacity Series 9000i, capable of serving up to 250 users, runs from $45,000 to $250,000. The Advanced Systems Unix line will be distributed by Arrow Electronics Inc. New developments and open systems changing complexion of the DBMS. (data base management systems) (Perspective) The management of information resources and the development of a knowledge of markets, trends and other competitive factors is seen as a key trend for business in the 1990s. Within the crucial data base management system market, three key trends are expected to have a major impact. On-line transaction processing will be integrated with decision-support systems in increasingly flexible open systems architectures. Another major trend will see the rapid growth of client-server architectures, with corporations downsizing computer operations to the microcomputer platform. A third development will see the advent of parallel processing, in which individual processors are linked together to satisfy system requirements. An over-arching trend will be the movement toward open systems, in which the products of vendors run on the platforms of their competitors. In conversation. (Robert Gordon, president of Stratus Computer Inc.) (interview) Robert Gordon, president of Stratus Computer Inc, discusses the strategic planning goals of his company. He stresses that the growth of Stratus, which saw revenues expand in both the third and fourth quarters of FY 1989, is attributable to a firm sense of its place in the market. Stratus specializes in fault tolerant systems, peripherals and software for firms running on-line transaction processing applications in both IBM and DEC environments. A strong player in the banking and financial services arena, Stratus sees opportunities for growth in the telecommunications area. According to Gordon, a combination of Unix and open systems, as well as the company's unique relationship with IBM, will bolster the plans of Stratus to expand its telecommunications operations. DEC Canada to chop 100 from staff. Eastwood, Alison. Digital Equipment Corp of Canada announces that 100 staff and management positions are scheduled for elimination by Mar 28, 1991. The move is expected to affect management and administrative personnel in the company's Ottawa and Toronto operations. Company representatives traced the cuts to the continuing impact of the recession in the Canadian computer market. DEC Canada's parent company in Maynard, MA is in the midst of a $550 million restructuring of operations which has already resulted in 3,000 employees being laid off during FY 1990. DEC Canada's share of the overall restructuring costs is expected to reach $7 million by the end of FY 1991. Laid off employees are given an option of finding a new position within DEC or taking advantage of a financial support option. FPS survives transition to open systems. (Floating Point Systems Ltd.) Floating Point Systems Ltd, which has changed its focus from the manufacture of board-level accelerators for minicomputers to array processors over its 20 year existence, is evolving in the direction of supercomputers for the scientific market. The key event was FPS' purchase of Celerity Computing, which enabled it to become a supplier of high-end vector processing systems based on the Unix operating system. Its current flagship product is the Model 500 supercomputer, which began shipping in mid-1989 and is now installed at 60 sites, mainly in the petroleum industry and the university market. The Model 500 required FPS to change from a proprietary to an open system architecture. With 'heterogeneous supercomputing,' as FPS terms it, scalar, vector and matrix processing functions can be linked together. Data collection firm bounces back from epic battle. (Epic Data Inc.) A change in strategic goals enables Epic Data Inc, a designer of data acquisition systems, to recover from a $6 million FY 1989 loss and earn $2 million in FY 1990. The thawing of superpower relations caused a decline in business opportunities in the US defense and aerospace industries, resulting in the biggest loss of Epic Data's fifteen-year history. The company branched into such vertical markets as the airline industry, ground transportation, electronics, ceramics, printing and publishing. Among the major customers of the rejuvenated Epic Data are Qantas Airlines, TWA and American Airlines. The data collection company also has a number of third-party marketing agreements, most notably with DEC. Please...do the setup. (comparison of the difficulties of setting up Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS networks) (Education) Installation of computers requiring a setup to connect them to communications networks can severely test the limited knowledge of novice computer users. This can be particularly problematic in the education market, where computer manufacturers are currently making a major marketing effort. A comparison drawn from first-hand experience at the Agincourt Collegiate Institute bears out the contention that Apple Macintosh's Appleshare network is easier to install than a popular MS-DOS network. The perceived difficulty of setting up networking systems is a factor in their slow adoption in the educational market. Many educators would be more eager customers if computer hardware arrived already set up, ready to plug in and use, with communications boards a standard feature. April conference will set precedent. (Joint Conference of Municipal Information Technology) (Geographic Information Systems) The Joint Conference on Municipal Information Technology, scheduled for Apr 22-23, 1991 in Toronto, will boost the adoption of geographic information system (GIS) technology by municipal governments. The joint initiative, sponsored by three professional associations, is intended to provide an opportunity for dialogue between the public and private sector with regard to the establishment of GIS technology. Among the perspectives explored will be the employment of GIS technology from an engineering, public works and utilities perspective. Sessions at the conference will address the use of GIS in management information systems and data processing, planning, environmental services, demographic analysis and emergency services. 7th MacWorld attracts 60,000. (MacWorld Exposition, Jan 10-13, 1991) Enhancements and upgrades are the order of the day as more than 60,000 people attend the MacWorld Exposition 1991 in San Francisco, CA. Although more than 500 vendors exhibited products and technologies in the 300,000 sq ft environment of Moscone Center and Brooks Hall, analysts noted that there was a paucity of new products. Among the featured software upgrades were Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet program, Aldus Corp's Freehand design and illustration program and Deneba Software Inc's drawing program, Canvas 3.0. The largest crowds gathered to size up multimedia software such as MacroMind Inc's MediaMaker. Several other companies introduced products which support Apple's new Ethernet Cabling System. Sculley vows to use users in R&D. (Apple Computer Inc. Chmn and CEO John Sculley; research and development) Apple Computer Inc Chmn and CEO John Sculley, delivering the keynote address at MacWorld Exposition 1991, outlines Apple's new research and development strategy. He stressed the continuing role of user input and statements of user needs and requirements in the design process and noted that the time-to-market in the computer industry, once two to three years, is now about 15 months. Under Sculley's leadership, Apple weathered an initially troubled fiscal 1990, which featured layoffs and changes in upper management, making a comeback with the successful introduction of the Apple Macintosh Classic and the Apple Macintosh LC. Among the key trends Sculley sees looming for the 1990s are the miniaturization of hardware, increasing degrees of integrated communications capability and growing numbers of first-time computer users. Microsoft rolls out Excel. (Excel 3.0 graphical spreadsheet) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces a Windows-oriented upgrade of Excel, its graphical spreadsheet software program. In keeping with Microsoft's goal of making its products user-friendly, Excel 3.0 for Windows contains a number of features which are designed to take full advantage of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. Toolbar, an on-screen assortment of commonly used functions, makes the program easier to use than previous versions. Highlighting, centering, charting and other basic functions can be accomplished with a click-and-point formatting feature. The improved program also has a data consolidation feature that allows the integration of information from a number of spreadsheets into one document. The program also contains a help module for users of Lotus 1-2-3. The program is shipping now at a suggested retail price of $649. Intel, Cyrix file suits against each other. (anti-trust action centers on math co-processors) Intel Corp and rival math coprocessor manufacturer Cyrix Corp are involved in a dispute over alleged antitrust law violations. Cyrix charges that Intel engages in illegal exclusionary practices to protect its monopoly. Specifically, Cyrix maintains that Intel made false claims about Cyrix's FasMath processor in a white paper sent to Cyrix customers, and that it offers various discounts and rebates to dealers as a reward for not selling the rival processor. In a counter-suit filed by Intel, Cyrix is accused of violating the basic patent that underlies all of Intel's math coprocessors. Cyrix denies this claim, charging that Intel has falsely asserted the terms of the patent. Thermal printer for PCs released by Tektronix. (Tektronix Canada Inc.'s Phaser II SX, Phaser II PX, Phaser II DX, Phaser II DXN, Tektronix Canada Inc introduces six new models of its Phaser II color thermal printer for IBM microcomputers, compatibles and HP/Apollo, Sun and Tektronix workstations. The Phaser II SX is compatible with both Apple Macintosh and IBM microcomputers and handles between two and five users. It costs $6,359. The Phaser II PX, $10,082, is a version designed for large Macintosh and IBM-compatible networks. A model for IBM host environments, the Phaser II PXS, is $13,859. Three workstation models of the printer are also available. All are geared for Sun, HP/Apollo and Tektronix workstations and utilize the Motorola 68020 processor. The Phaser II DX is $11,343. The Phaser II DXN is $15,126. The Phaser II PXN is $13,859. All of the printers employ a thermal-wax transfer print engine and are capable of accepting input in the Postscript page description language. Caution now norm with software upgrades: purchasers opting for conservative approach. While upgrading software packages is an important part of overall business planning, purchasers are beginning to take a more selective approach to newer versions of company programs. Besides the initial cost of the newer versions, there are collateral costs such as retraining of personnel and installation. There are also concerns that newer versions will contain bugs or conflict with memory-resident programs or other aspects of the corporate network. Industry analysts note that increasingly, users are electing to forego upgrades completely, taking the view that most of the additional features in newer versions are not essential. The disadvantage of this conservative approach is that, with upgrades coming out about every eighteen months, it is easy to be left with a technology that is several years old and lacking in vendor support. Hats off to entertainment software players: their applications truly do push technology to the limit. The makers of computer games and entertainment software set a standard of innovation and efficiency for the entire software industry. While many business applications are poorly designed and implemented, the programmers of the entertainment software industry continue to produce programs of the highest quality. Many innovations, including the first use of natural language processing interfaces and the first use of three-dimensional graphics can be traced to their origins in computer games. A current outstanding example is Wonderland, a text-based adventure game based on the Lewis Carroll classic, 'Alice in Wonderland.' Wonderland makes extensive use of online help facilities and graphical user interface technology. Power a priority in red-hot portable market: rise of docking station may spell trouble for the desktop set. (Micro Report: The growing utilization of docking stations or bus extenders, which are capable of converting portable microcomputers into nearly full-function desktop systems, is causing some vendors to change their marketing strategies. Ogivar Inc, producer of the Interport series of laptop computers, estimates that convertible systems will comprise up to half the installed microcomputer base by the end of the 1990s. Ogivar's docking station leads the race so far, being able to handle six ISA or EISA cards and up to four storage devices. Other major players in the portable computer market, including Compaq Computer Corp and Toshiba Information Systems Group, have recently introduced docking stations. A market analysis from Evans Research Corp, lists three categories of portables, including luggables, laptops and notebooks. Notebook computers are expected to grow by a rate of 45 percent in 1991. Feds buy 1,885 NECs for GST system. (1,775 NEC ProSpeed 286 laptop computers and 100 NEC ProSpeed 386 modular workstations; Goods and Supply and Services Canada purchases $7.95 million worth of NEC laptop computers for Revenue Canada. The computers will form part of the extensive computer network that will be utilized in the administration of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The contract calls for the purchase of 1,775 NEC ProSpeed 286 laptop computers and 100 NEC ProSpeed 386 laptop computers. Some of the laptops will be networked across a Token Ring Network to an EX/100 mainframe computer, which is currently being assembled by GST Communications, a division of the Customs and Excise Department of Revenue Canada. The laptops will be equipped with internal 2,400 baud modems and will be able to access GST legislation through the QL data system. Color, lower prices next on notebook agenda: After that? Palmtops but as a niche product. (Micro Report: Laptops and Portables) The trend in portable computers is toward greater functionality in increasingly smaller machines. With Japanese companies such as Toshiba, Sanyo, Sharp and NEC setting the pace, notebook computers are expected to address such problems as battery life, screen resolution and limited applications as new systems are developed. Some new models will feature continuous battery replenishment and provide VGA 640 by 480 dpi resolution, as well as connectivity with VGA color monitors. Based on Intel 80286 and 80386SX processors, this new generation of notebook computers will offer fast information throughput and the capability of running popular applications such as word processing and data collection, as well as advanced charting and number manipulation applications. Another area of development, the palmtop computer, is likely to remain a niche market product. Laptops will command PC market, analysts say; market expected to grow by upwards of 14.5 percent this year. (Micro Report: Laptops A report from Evans Research Corp predicts that the laptop and notebook computer segments of the microcomputer market, comprising about 11 percent of the total market, are growing at a rate of 36 percent per year. In 1991, the market share belonging to portables is expected to increase to about 14.5 percent. The functionality of laptop units has been increasing, the report notes, due to the increasing utilization of the more powerful Intel 80386 and 80386SX processors. Basic considerations in the purchase of a laptop include weight, speed and versatility. The more powerful processors are better suited to running high resolution programs such as Microsoft Windows. The overall popularity of laptop and notebook computers is expected to increase as prices are reduced. Crisp display makes this Bondwell a winner: B310SX contains muscle at reasonable price. (Hardware Review) (Micro Report: Laptops and Bondwell Industrial Company Inc's B310SX provides a powerful laptop computer package for less than $3,000. The machine is based on an Intel 80386SX processor with up to five Mbytes of RAM and an 80 Mbyte hard disk. The 7.5-pound unit has an easy-to-read VGA backlit supertwist liquid crystal display. The unit is equipped with two serial, a parallel and an external monitor port. The quality of the graphics is equal to that of a standard grey-scale monitor. The hard disk, designed for low power usage to conserve battery power, is capable of running any program that can be used on a desktop 386-based machine. One drawback of the B310SX is its lack of an internal modem, although any standard desktop external modem or portable modem can be utilized instead. Compaq LTE 386s/20: perfect Windows machine. (high price may deter sales) (Hardware Review) (Micro Report: Laptops and Portables) A high price tag beginning at over $9,000 may be the only factor discouraging the sales of Compaq Computer Corp's LTE 386s/20. In most respects, this laptop computer, which weighs only 7.5 pounds, offers the features and power of a desktop machine. It has a 20 MHz 386SX processor, a built-in 30- or 60Mbyte hard drive and a memory which can be expanded to 10Mbytes. It also has an internal modem and an expansion chassis. The monochrome VGA display is capable of running up to six Windows-based applications simultaneously. Aside from the high price, the major drawbacks of the Compaq LTE 386s/20 are the poor quality of the keyboard and the easily-broken door covering the connectors at the rear of the machine. Add-on products give WP-2 a bit of panache: Tandy release a low-cost alternative to DOS-based units. Tandy Corp's WP-2 word processing system offers users the smallest and least expensive machine in the portable computer market. At less than $500, the WP-2 is lower in price than any of the current field of portable MSDOS systems. The two-pound unit is limited by two factors: it is not a DOS machine and it has a limited 22,000-word workspace capacity. Two third-party software packages enable users of the WP-2 to transfer files to a desktop microcomputer. WP2DOS from Club 100, $34.95, is an elegant file management package that makes the microcomputer appear as a Tandy Portable Disk Drive to the WP-2. For Apple Macintosh users, Club 100 offers the WPDuet file management software package, $99.95, which enables WP-2 users to exchange files with Apple Macintosh machines. Vendors facing screen, battery limitations: on plus side, internal storage capacity expected to rise. Manufacturers of portable computers face two critical factors, quality of display and battery limitations, as they seek to press the development of smaller and more efficient laptop units. Thin film transistor technology offers the best chance to provide a sufficient quantity of error-free displays to keep up with the demands of the market. The TFT screen is fashioned from a single wafer, and requires 921,000 functioning transistors to produce a 10-inch VGA color screen. Sharp and other manufacturers are incorporating TFT technology into several laptop systems currently under development. Battery storage technology remains a problem. New devices, improved displays and increasingly rapid clock speed put a strain on battery capacity. The current trend is for a variety of third-party memory, modem and peripheral products to be employed to support ever more powerful portable computers. Visual-based applications gain wide acceptance. (Visual Computing and Graphics) Visual computing, the graphics-oriented approach to systems software sometimes termed 'visualization,' is making an impact in the business world. Previously confined to the realm of scientific applications, visualization is coming to be appreciated by the business community. Although currently only about a $50 million segment of the $12 billion computer graphics market, visual-based applications is being given a major boost by the growing impact of the graphical user interface (GUI). Analysts predict that within a few years about 75 percent of microcomputer systems will feature GUIs. These systems will be bolstered by such visual computing platforms as Microsoft Windows, the Apple Macintosh interface and IBM's OS/2. Currently, Silicon Graphics leads the market in visual processing workstations. Alias Research Inc, another visual computing leader, recently acquired Full Color Computing as part of its product development agenda. Windows 3.0 fuels demand for more color, higher resolution. (Visual Computing and Graphics) With shipments of CPUs expected to decline, increased shipments of graphics boards and user-friendly graphical user interface, desktop publishing and presentation products are expected to dominate the market. Market analysts point out that hundreds of thousands of business users will seek to upgrade machines based on the Intel 80286 processor rather than spend thousands to purchase new equipment. Coprocessing graphics boards are a logical choice for the user who seeks to increase processor speed and enhance the clarity of images with such popular desktop environments as Microsoft Windows 3.0. Graphics boards and high-resolution, non-interlaced monitors provide an economical solution to the demands Windows 3.0 places on the memory and processing power of the hardware in a system. Halifax teams up with ESRI Canada to build citywide GIS. (geographical information system) The city of Halifax, Nova Scotia and ESRI Canada Ltd contract for a geographic information system that will provide complete management of the city's extensive data base. The city's Land Records Management System contains comprehensive information on 30,000 land parcels, and includes data on building footprints, sidewalks, wooded areas, sewer locations, water mains and water valves. The selected systems for the GIS network consist of a network of Sun Microsystems remote workstations, NCR towers and mainframe computer, and Oracle Corp's Oracle relational database management system. The workstations are linked via an Ethernet network used in conjunction with a Sun Microsystems SPARCserver 490 file server. Graphics a prospering market as users strive to communicate. (Analysis) A report from Evans Research Corp says that computer graphics software is the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian computer market. A growth rate of about 30 percent is predicted for 1991. The recent success of Microsoft Windows 3.0, which analysts say brings a unified graphics-based operating system to MS-DOS machines, is cited as a major factor in the growth of computer graphics. With Windows-based third-party products proliferating, users now have the same basic graphics capabilities as users of the Apple Macintosh environment. The memory management capabilities of Windows 3.0 are expected to boost adoption by business users. Products of third-party vendors including Software Publishing Corp, Harvard Graphics, Corel Systems, Matrox Electronic Systems and Everex Systems are discussed briefly. Technological advances move graphics into the mainstream. (Analysis) Rapid technological advances are driving the growth of the computer graphics market, pushing it into the mainstream. Computer graphics are now an indispensable aspect of business planning, as a unified concept of multimedia software replaces such discrete categories as CAD/CAM software and business graphics. With reduced instruction set computing and parallel processing technologies bringing increasing computing power to the desktop, applications developers seek to create more sophisticated graphics programs. A need for the integration of computer systems on a global scale currently informs the adoption of picture- and data-exchange standards. The graphical user interface acts as a powerful stimulus for the continued growth of computer graphics, as do future technologies such as virtual reality, a technology expected to be boosted by increasingly powerful hardware and lower-cost displays. E-mail gateway ties into Envoy 100. (Consumers Software Inc.'s Network Courier 400 package) (Communications) (product Consumers Software Inc of Vancouver, BC introduces a LAN-based electronic mail gateway based on the X.400 protocol. The gateway, part of the firm's Network Courier 400 network software package, supports Telecom Canada's Envoy 100 electronic mail network. Using the Consumers Software package, users on any local area network E-mail system can communicate with the Envoy 100 network. Following an extensive suite of tests, Telecom Canada affirmed that the gateway met its exacting performance and reliability standards. Since the Envoy system accessed by the Consumers gateway incorporates the X.400 standard, global communications are enhanced. The gateway is also compatible with France's Atlas System, Sprint Mail and a number of public messaging networks. The software lists for $2,500 plus an additional $1,000 for each downstream post office. Cellular fax use gets boost. (Datacall/Faxcall service from Bell Cellular) (Communications) An innovative new switching technique from Bell Cellular will reduce the cost of transmitting facsimile and data. The switching technology is able to monitor tones, differentiating between voice, facsimile and data transmission. At the heart of the service, called Datacall/Faxcall, is the Intelligent Voice Detection Device (IVDD), a differentiator located at Bell Cellular's central office. Cost savings are expected to be significant, since the company charges in 10-second increments for facsimile or data transmission, as opposed to one-minute increments for voice transmission. Company officials estimate that Bell Cellular invested $100,000 to develop the service. IDEAssociates adds PC LAN-to-mainframe/midrange links. (IDEAcomm 5251/Gateway AH and IDEAcomm 3270/AFT) (Communications) (product IDEAssociates introduces two internetworking products that extend the range of connectivity in both multi-host and midrange computer network environments. The IDEAssociates IDEAcomm 5251/Gateway AH consists of a communications board and gateway adapter handler software. It sells for $1,940 in versions designed for the microcomputer and $1,970 in versions designed specifically for the IBM PS/2 family. When installed in the gateway server, the 5251 provides access to LAN resources as well as making such support functions as file transfer and data sharing available. The IDEAssociates IDEAcomm 3270/AFT is a plug-in communications board with software that provides 3270-like terminal capabilities as well as access to an IBM mainframe computer. It costs $550 in addition to software costs, which total $595. Conferencing does the job. (advantages of teleconferencing) (Communications) Teleconferencing and videoconferencing can provide a cost-effective means of bringing a firm's managers and employees together with customers. Estimates are that the average cost of a teleconference runs about 10 percent that of a face-to-face meeting. Besides the obvious savings in travel budgets, conferencing through telecommunications offers other advantages. It builds morale by suiting the needs of telecommuting employees and provides greater flexibility as to when meetings can be held and who can attend them. A basic conference requires only a telephone set with a three-way calling feature or a conferencing feature on the set. Some meetings are such that a videoconference will be more appropriate, as when documents are passed out or when it is important to assess reactions to proposals. A studio for this purpose can either be set up in the office or rented from the telecommunications provider. Unix punch for PCs. (Santa Cruz Operation's Unix System V/386 3.2) (includes related articles on SCO's shrink-wrapped workstation and Operating systems for microcomputers now include Unix in addition to MS-DOS, and OS/2. The market leader for microcomputer-based Unix is Santa Cruz Operation's (SCO) Unix System V/386 3.2. It is estimated that SCO captured 65 percent of all Unix shipments for Intel-based machines in 1989. Unix has made inroads into the corporate marketplace both as a replacement for minicomputers, and in terms of distributed computing for use with network server applications. One advantage of SCO's Unix has over MS-DOS is the ability to exploit the power of 32-bit microprocessors, enabling full 32-bit addressing, which allows for unlimited virtual memory capability. Another reason is its adherence to a number of industry standards such as the IEEE Portable Operating System Interface for Unix (POSIX), and the federal government's C2 security standard. Prices start at $595. Digital Research builds a better DOS. (Software Review) (DR DOS 5.0) (evaluation) Digital Research's $199 DR DOS 5.0 is a MS-DOS compatible operating system that offers significant advantages over the Microsoft product in terms of memory management, functionality, and ease-of-use. DR DOS takes up only 20Kbytes of random access memory, compared to 70Kbytes or more for MS-DOS. This allows users to load network and printer drivers as well as memory resident software into upper memory, thereby freeing more conventional memory for application use. Also, DR DOS's character-based ViewMAX DOS shell is a help to beginners, as is the menu-driven installation feature. Microsoft's future release of MS-DOS 5.0, though, is expected to include memory management enhancements. The simple solution to multivendor networks. (includes related article on who sets the Simple Network Management Protocol) The Simple Network Management Protocol is beginning to emerge as the de facto standard for managing local and wide area multivendor network equipment. The SNMP will not eliminate incompatibility problems altogether, but it will simplify network management and provide a greater degree of uniformity. The basis for SNMP is that a single software agent resides in each device on the network. The agent can be queried by and reports back to a single network management station. For workstations that are SNMP compatible, an agent in any vendor's equipment can be monitored. SNMP tools are also being developed that monitor network performance and status, and report, analyze and remedy faults. Mainframes with a Mac face. (Software Review) (Simware Inc's SimMac 3.1 connectivity software) (evaluation) A new generation of Macintosh-to-mainframe connectivity software addresses the problem of losing the Macintosh interface during time spent connected to a central computer. Simware's $395 SimMac 3.1 is a terminal emulation package that preserves the Macintosh interface during sessions with such hosts as IBM mainframes and VAX minicomputers. The software not only works with a wide range of add-in workstation connectivity hardware, but also supports popular AppleTalk server-based gateways. SimMac sits between the user interface and the host, negotiating multiple communications protocols to link the Macintosh into the mainframe over a variety of networks. A scripting language called Advantage is also included. ASK outlines a client/server plan. (ASK Computer Systems Inc.) Francis, Bob. ASK Computer Systems Inc is positioning itself to take advantage of the trend towards client/server architecture, following its acquisition of database vendor Ingres Corp. and the rehiring of founder Sandra Kurtzig. One of the first decisions Kurtzig made upon rejoining the company was to increase the budget for research and development from 10 percent to 50 percent. She also repositioned the company away from the manufacturing software niche it is associated with towards the financial services, healthcare, government, and database markets. Immediately after the acquisition, 270 employees were laid off. Following that, the company outlined its open system, distributed computing plan, maintaining that its first client/server software will appear as new applications for Unix workstations. Classic mainframe software moves to PCs. (IBM) (includes related article on the future Odyssey product line from Dylakor) Sterling Software Inc's Dylakor division's DYL-280 II data base management system and Pansophic Systems' Easytrieve Plus search software were both originally produced for IBM S/370 mainframes. Both companies are now developing new versions for microcomputers. Dylakor, whose microcomputer product is tentatively titled Odyssey, plans to downsize the software while maintaining IBM compatibility with an IBM-approved graphical user interface. Pansophic's Easytrieve Plus Workstation will allow the company's programs to be developed on a microcomputer. The package will allow the user to select which class of computer they intend to work with from a menu, with the application itself looking the same for both mainframe and microcomputer. Pansophic intends Easytrieve Plus Workstation to be priced at $995. Dylakor may offer Odyssey for as little as $200. Can Big Blue reposition big iron? (IBM's mainframe strategy) (includes related article on Electronic Data Systems' developments IBM is now marketing its mainframe computers as large network servers that will dispense data and system management services to servers and workstations that will run most of the applications that previously had been run by the host itself. There are however, a number of elements needed by IBM mainframe users before their computers can be integrated into client/server networks. In the first instance, a common data management server is required, along with an intelligent directory to tell what devices are on the network at any one time. A client/server resource manager is also needed to determine which processes are using which network resources. Finally, a client/server transaction monitor that permits multiphase commits and joins across a network, and an enterprisewide problem management server to pinpoint network failures are also required. And how the S/390 fits in. (IBM's mainframe strategy) (includes related article on IBM's System/390 goals) IBM's System/390 mainframe introduction was the first step in bringing to market the elements needed to construct and operate enterprisewide information-processing systems. While many analysts praise the System/390 architecture, many still note that strategic tools are still missing that would enable management information systems to control a network from a central point. IBM points to its System View set of standards as the vehicle for planning and setting up enterprisewide information systems. Critics point out, though, that it could take five years for IBM and third party developers to develop a full list of products that conform to System View. Lacking also are large-capacity, high-performance storage systems that could be used in such a network. Vendors cast mini in new role. (the repackaging of minicomputers) Bunker, Ted. Stand-alone minicomputers based on proprietary operating systems face a difficult struggle to survive. Sales of non-Unix minicomputers have slowed almost to a standstill as users demand open systems in an effort to safeguard against hardware redundancy. Networked microcomputer-based file servers are becoming an attractive alternative to minicomputers. Midrange vendors, faced with falling sales, are adding open system interfaces to their products. In addition, they are embracing reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) architectures to an effort to increase price/performance ratios. Also, vendors are encouraging clients to accept minicomputers as network, database, and file servers. A CASE powerhouse for OS/2. (Software Review) (Cognos Inc.'s PowerCASE for OS/2) (evaluation) Cognos Inc's $15,000 PowerCASE for OS/2 is a computer-aided software engineering tool for designing, developing and maintaining business applications software. It is an integrated CASE tool that can generate both fourth generation language (4GL) and structured query language (SQL) code. Applications generated with the package can be transported to many midrange systems. Because the package uses a client/server scheme, heavy processing and compilation is placed at the server level, thereby minimizing network traffic and freeing client processing time. PowerCASE for OS/2 requires an Intel 80386- or 486-based system and at least 4Mbytes of random access memory (RAM). Laser printing goes full speed ahead. (low-end printers) (buyers guide) The popularity of laser printers has increased considerably in recent years as technological advancements and declining prices has led to a 30 percent market share of all microcomputer printers. The trend towards desktop publishing helped considerably, allowing organizations to produce professional, high-quality documents and presentation-style graphics in-house. A new breed of low-cost laser printers are now coming to the forefront, offering four to six pages-per-minute speeds at prices between $1,000 and $2,000. Most printers now come with one of two main page description languages (PDLs): either Hewlett-Packard's Printer Control Language (PCL) or Adobe Systems' PostScript. On the down side, laser printers are more expensive to operate than conventional printers, and also require a clean, temperature-controlled environment in order to function properly. Lotus posts its first loss for a quarter; deficit is attributed to $53 million write-off on Samna acquisition. (Lotus Development Lotus Development Corp reports the first quarterly loss in the software publisher's history. Lotus loses $31.6 million, compared to a profit of $29.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier. For 1990, Lotus reports earnings of $23.3 million or 54 cents a share, compared to $68 million and $1.61 a share in 1989. According to Chmn Jim P. Manzi, the loss is not significant. Manzi says the quarterly loss is a result of a $53 million write-off charged to the cost of last year's acquisition of Samna Corp, an Atlanta-based company that makes Ami Pro, the word processor. Otherwise, sales are up. Nevertheless, industry analysts express doubts about the long-term status of Lotus and believe a Lotus spreadsheet product that supports the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface is necessary to the company's financial well-being. Special report: telecommuting along the Pacific Rim. (the Jan, 1991, Pacific Telecommunications Council meeting in Hawaii and The Jan, 1991, Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) meeting in Hawaii, Hawaii Telework Center demonstration project and impressions of Japanese telecommuting received at the Jan 21 International Flexwork Seminar (IFS) in Tokyo are discussed. Several papers addressed the current and future state of telecommuting at the PTC meeting; contrasts between telecommuting in Japan and the US were a major topic. The demonstration project is a satellite telecommuting facility with seven employees from six Hawaii State government agencies and ten employees from five companies. Workers and management are 'almost universally positive' about it. Observations at the IFS include a widespread Japanese belief that telecommuting satellite offices are needed quickly in Japan, successful satellite office trials and a strong commitment to telecommuting planning and implementation in Japan. Lessons learned from Washington State pilot. (state of a telecommuting pilot project managed by the Washington State Energy Interviews with members of the Washington State Energy Office (WSEO) on the agency's pilot telecommuting project provide an overview of the state of the project. The approximately 250 telecommuters in the project come from eight Washington State government agencies, five private companies and ten 'quasi-public' organizations. The WSEO staff cited working with a variety of organizations and their varying approaches to telecommuting as the most 'gratifying' part of the project. Unexpected results included long delays between recruiting an organization and its actual participation, frustration caused by distance from actual operation and less-than-active commitment by some participating organizations. Disappointments included pull-outs by two organizations and bureaucratic delays. Author comments on the project are included. Independent contractor report to Congress calls for better approaches, tax amnesty, policy clarification. (report of a House The 'Tax Administration Problems Involving Independent Contractors' report (House Report 101-979) submitted by the House Committee on Government Operations on Nov 9, 1990, discusses misclassification of worker status and recommends corrective actions. The report summarizes a study conducted by the Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs subcommittee. It states that the IRS does not have a systematic and objective approach to the selection of independent contractor misclassification cases to audit. Methods for reporting independent contractor income can be improved, and some firms that intentionally misclassify workers are protected by 'safe harbor' clauses. Employee status is often subjectively decided by 'common factors,' and some firms that misclassified workers would remedy the situation if no back taxes or penalties were assessed. Corrective recommendations are noted. AT&T announces new software for linking telecommuters to inbound call centers. (introduces Home Agent software package) AT&T introduces Home Agent, a software package that enables an AT&T DEFINITY, System 85 or System 75 communication system to handle and route incoming voice calls to remote telecommuting workers using touch-tone telephones. The system is useful for such applications as home-based reservation or catalog order takers. The software enables the telecommuter to function as if he or she were in the office. A connection to the office private-branch exchange equipment is made through AT&T's CONVERSANT voice response system. All features of the host communication system are available to the remote worker. The telecommuter does need a separate data line for connections to a local microcomputer or host terminal. Home Agent will handle up to 36 telecommuters for $30,000 and will ship in 2nd qtr 1991. Canadian organization offers work options publications, administers reimbursement plan. (British Columbia's Work Well) Work Well (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) employs several methods to promote flexible work alternatives in Canada, including a program for reimbursing private employers who commit to creating such work options in their firms. The latter program is funded 10 percent by British Columbia's provincial government and 90 percent by the Canadian federal government. Employers can receive up to $2,000 for each layoff avoided or each new full-time position created as a result of utilizing flexible work alternatives, up to a maximum of $10,000. The reimbursement covers such expenses as personal equipment and recruitment, training and administration costs. A two-year, $350,000 grant covers the entire program including startup and staffs, but only $100,000 is available for direct reimbursement. Officials say that $2,000 is nevertheless cheap compared to the social welfare costs that may be the alternative. Next scores big with campuses on second try. (NeXT Inc.) (Computer) (column) When Steven Jobs' company, NeXT Inc, produced its first microcomputers, the machines were expensive, costing $6,500, and NeXT's products lacked power and software applications. Now, however, NeXT's products contain state-of-the-art hardware and impressive software, and the computer maker is targeting college campuses with machines priced as low as $3,000. So far, there is not much enthusiasm over NeXT microcomputers in the corporate market, and long-term success for the company depends on doing better in that arena. Nevertheless, Jobs indicates that one-half of the 4,000 new models shipped recently have gone to business. Vicki Brown, an analyst at International Data Corp, expects NeXT to sell between 36,000 and 44,000 units in 1991. Industry opinion is shifting in favor of Steven Jobs, and some observers now think he can make good on his promise to set a standard for academic computing. Mips gives details about new line of computer chips. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc. R4000 microprocessor) (Technology) MIPS Computer Systems Inc reveals details about the company's new R4000 computer chip. The R4000 is the first microprocessor actually announced that uses a 64-bit architecture. According to MIPS Pres Robert Miller, design of the R4000 is almost complete and samples should available in Spring 1991. Rumors that Compaq Computer Corp plans to use Mips' R4000 are driving MIPS's stock up 23 percent, to close up $2.50 at $13.375 in over-the-counter trading on Jan 31, 1991. Neither Miller nor a Compaq spokesperson would comment, but at least one analyst believes 'the rumors have become too consistent and broad-based to be ignored any more.' If they only knew. (convincing management of the benefits of artificial intelligence) (AI Insider) Artificial Intelligence (AI) specialists must be able to make their firms aware of the benefits of AI and expert systems. Otherwise, management reorganization and lack of awareness can inhibit development or halt existing AI projects. AI specialists need to make expert systems part of the company. Some specialists may want to establish their own in-house expert systems consulting services. AI specialists can bring attention to expert systems and AI by starting a forum on the electronic mail system or holding a brown-bag lunch talk about the technology. A small library of AI-related and expert systems materials can also be helpful in attracting attention to AI services. Specialists can prepare surveys that inquire about applications needs but also refer to expert systems. Specialists can organize survey results to show percentages of employees who feel expert systems are needed. Recognizing patterns. (AI Apprentice - column) (tutorial) Minasi, Mark. Pattern recognition is a difficult problem in artificial intelligence because computers cannot see as human eyes do. Elements of pattern recognition include pattern matching, induction and classification. All can be difficult to implement in a computer. Pattern-recognition systems take a signal, remove the noise from it and attempt to fit it to a known pattern. Examples include optical character recognition (OCR) machines and software, digital image processing, digital sound processing and natural language understanding and recognition. In a program that lets the computer play the children's game 'Paper, Scissors, Rock,' the computer can analyze the behavior pattern of a human opponent. The programmer assumes that users' choice of paper, scissor or rock is determined partly by their previous choice and partly by the computer's choice. Further details on the program are presented. An object-oriented neural network. (Expert's Toolbox)(column) (tutorial) Discovering object types and building programs from objects makes software easier to maintain and modify. Object-oriented programming allows programmers to take any approach because the object types, not the approach, are important. Programmers should consider several points to find objects that describe the general characteristics of a neural network. These include the number of patterns to be input to the network, the amount of neurons in each layer, the number of layers and the ways to describe connection weights as well as error and learning rates. Programmers need to specify where the information to the network comes from and the network's interactions with the outside world. Other characteristics include how the network will calculate, store and update information. Several examples of neural networks written in the C++ language are presented. Genetic algorithms for fuzzy controllers. Karr, Chuck. The design of fuzzy-logic controllers (FLCs) is often slowed by the time consuming problem of defining fuzzy membership functions. A search technique called genetic algorithms (GA) can be useful not only in establishing fuzzy membership functions, but also for selecting rules to use in FLCs. The rules used in an FLC must effectively model the human approach to system control. Fuzzy membership functions must be modified until the controller can perform satisfactorily for the variety of conditions that can exist in the controlled environment. GAs consider many points from the search space at the same time. They efficiently use random choice in their exploitation of prior knowledge, quickly locating near-optimal solutions. Designers using GAs must decide how to code possible solutions as finite bit strings and how to evaluate each string's merit. Other FLC and GA details are presented. Fuzzy tools for expert systems. Schwartz, Tom J. Proponents of fuzzy expert systems say that these systems can often perform as well as conventional expert systems but with 50 to 80 percent fewer rules. There are several software tools available that allow programmers to easily create fuzzy applications. Togai InfraLogic's TILShell is a forward-chaining system with a graphical user interface (GUI) that runs under Microsoft Windows. TILShell lets programmers build an entire expert system by connecting graphical objects. HyperLogic's CubiCalc is another Windows system that is a fine introductory tool for forward chaining fuzzy systems. CubiCalc is graphical but uses the keyboard more than TILShell. The best feature is the Simulation Editor, which displays a fuzzy system simulation. Knowledge-Based Technologies' Telus is a mainframe product, not yet available on microcomputers, that offers fuzzy interferencing and defuzzification. Selecting expert-system applications. (tutorial) Beckman, Thomas J. Managers and system designers should use a criteria checklist that addresses technical and practical issues when deciding whether to use expert systems. The six categories in the checklist are task, payoff, customer management, system designer, domain expert and user. Task and payoff are vital for success, and the remaining four categories are influential to lesser degrees. The task must be technically feasible and expert systems should be an appropriate solution. The task should involve symbolic processing, judgment and uncertainty. Benefits of the system for user management make up the payoff. Types of benefits include reduced costs, increased revenues, improved quality and captured expertise. In many cases the expert system should be designed as an assistant so that users are in control of the task. Users will not support a system that displaces them. A criteria scoring system is presented. Prolog in front COBOL in back. Howe, Geoffrey A. The development of an expert systems university fund raising management program to integrate with a COBOL-based alumni-donor database illustrates several typical problems programmers face. Quintus Corp's Prolog 2.4 is selected as the development language because it can link to COBOL object code. Integration of the database involves loading a schema that describes database records the expert system will use. Most of the database-integration predicates in the schema are in the form of Prolog database records, with each field given the same field name used in the COBOL system. The database-integration module includes basic query, object identity, table look-up and update functions. . Using basic Prolog predicates and COBOL functions, a prototype that can validate a solicitation plan for any prospect can be developed. Extensive details on the integration are presented. The first international robot Olympics: robots from around the world compete for the gold. The Turing Institute's First International Robot Olympics had 60 robots from 12 countries competing in Glasgow, Scotland on Sep 27 to 28, 1990. The purpose of the Olympics was to bring robotics to a broad audience by displaying what is possible using current state-of-the-art technology. The competition had no pre-defined rules. Developers were invited who had built robots with any interesting set of behaviors. The institute devised competitions after looking through lists for common capabilities. Eleven Olympic events were held, including more-than-two-legged races, wall climbing, obstacle avoidance, javelin, talking, pole-balancing, phototrophic, manipulation, wall-following and behaviors. The competing robots were built by both professionals and amateurs. The wall-climbing competition showed off Soviet and British entries as prototypes for application in the nuclear industry. Prolog for the Mac: price vs. performance. (Software Review)(Quintus Corp.'s MacProlog, Advanced AI Systems' AAIS Three Prolog development systems for the Apple Macintosh are reviewed. Quintus Corp's $995 MacProlog boasts an attractive interface and excellent documentation. It is the best choice for users needing compact and fast code compatible with many platforms. The debugger is attractive but is initially difficult to use. Advanced AI Systems' $298 AAIS Prolog M2.0 is has the easiest environment to work with among the three packages. It is also the most compatible package with the minicomputer and mainframe Prolog interactive-session concept. AAIS Prolog is the best package for users who are learning or want to experiment with the Prolog language. Delphia Corp's $395 Prolog 2.0.4 uses HyperCard as a graphical front end. The package's vague error messages are a serious design weakness. Many document names and comments in example programs are in French. The customizers. (Carnegie Group) (In Practice )(column) (company profile) Carnegie Mellon University's Carnegie Group is a pioneer in the artificial intelligence field. The company develops expert systems for many industries including telecommunications, transportation and the military. Their most current expert system is the Pulse Radar Intelligent Diagnostic Environment (PRIDE) developed for the US Army. The system is currently being used in Operation Desert Shield to aid soldiers in troubleshooting for the Hawk air-defense system. Carnegie is also developing a system for Ford Motor Co called the Service Bay Diagnostic System (SBDS). The system helps service mechanics through diagnosis and repair procedures. Goals of the system include the elimination of wholesale exchange of parts, minimizing the time for finding car problems and improved customer satisfaction. Carnegie is also developing systems for US West, one of the group's recent investors. Users will have more room for applications under new DOS; 5.0 due soon. (the forthcoming version of Microsoft MS-DOS is in The forthcoming version 5.0 of Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system will be more compact but will provide more capabilities. These include a facility for loading most of MS-DOS into the high-memory of extended memory to free up low memory in Intel 80286-, 80386- and 80486-based systems. MS-DOS 5.0 will be able to load TSR programs, device driver and other applications into upper-memory on 80386 and 80486 systems. Other features include a graphical user interface closer to Windows 3.0, a function for switching between tasks without exiting either one, a 'sophisticated' help system, a version of Central Point Software's Mirror program, a QuickBASIC-based interpreter and debugger and full-screen, menu-driven ASCII editor. The program is expected to ship in March or April of 1991 for between $99 and $199. Object links coming to Windows applications. (Microsoft releases beta version of its Object Linking and Embedding technology for Microsoft Corp releases the beta version of its Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology for the Windows graphical user environment to developers. The package consists of libraries of object code that enable the development of applications for Windows that will be able to access a single block of data (linking) and embed data from another application into a document. Such OLE applications will not have to understand the format the object data is in. OLE applications are expected to debut in the 1st qtr 1991. Beta OLE libraries for the OS/2 operating system and Apple Macintosh should ship in early 1991. A problem in the OLE technology is that linking to a file depends on an application remembering the location of the file. There is no method for tracking a file that moves, so the link breaks. A pack of laptops. (using several laptop computers and brief discussions of several software packages) (column) The use of several laptop microcomputers and several software packages are discussed. The Zenith SupersPort SX is found to be powerful enough for most portable applications, but is somewhat heavy. Ergo Computing Inc's Ergo Brick is a powerful Intel 80386SX portable without screen and battery power supply but with a lot of bundled Desqview software. The Texas Instruments TravelMate 2000 and Zenith MinisPort HD laptops and tiny Poqet hand-held computer are also described. MicroLogic included numerous small and some major improvements when it upgraded its Tornado Notes free-form notepad software to Info Select. Other products discussed include the Trilogy programming language from AI Software's Vertical Software division and Microlytics' Random House Encyclopedia on floppy disks. Corporate style: in business communication, it's important for everyone to speak the same language. (using Corporate Voice and Scandinavian PC Systems Inc's (Rockville, MD) $119 Corporate Voice and Reference Software International's (RFI, San Francisco, CA) $99 Grammatik IV Government Edition (GE) are easy-to-use and effective style- and grammar-checking software packages that help writers to achieve a consistent, specific writing style. Corporations and the government employ standard document styles to ensure that confusion doe not arise in their communications. Corporate Voice analyzes documents as a whole, comparing them against a predetermined style standard. That standard was developed by having Corporate Voice read a series of documents that the software is told is representative of the desired style. Grammatik IV GE compares documents to style and writing guides from the Government Printing Office, National Labor Relations Board, the Air Force and other federal agencies. Whither Windows? 1990's glamorous graphical user interface still needs a solid foundation. (Microsoft Windows 3.0) (column) The Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI) supports the running of multiple Windows applications plus MS-DOS applications under virtual 8086 (V86) protected mode on Intel 80386-based microcomputers. This is facilitated by the fact that the V86 mode MS-DOS sessions are not isolated applications but run under real-mode MS-DOS using shared memory. Unfortunately, this leads to crashes when a program executing in the protected mode attempts to write outside of its allottd memory locations. A soft- or hard-restart will probably be required at a minimum, and data may be lost or corrupted. Fortunately, every major vendor of MS-DOS applications is probably planning or developing Windows 3.0 versions, and the forthcoming version 5.0 of MS-DOS is supposed to manage memory 'more intelligently' the the current generation. OS/2 2.0 can also be considered a viable alternative. Macintosh: the next generation: newer Macs need revolutionary designs to jump ahead of the PC pack. (Lotus Marketplace: Business Apple Computer Inc should hire Claris Pres Bill Campbell to provide the leadership obviously needed to rapidly develop new generations of Macintoshes that respond to customers' wants and needs. The recent Mac Classic, LC and IIsi debut prove that Apple can respond, but it takes too long to act. Apple should pursue a near-term product development agenda resulting in a 40-MHz to 50-MHz Motorola 68040 system in 1991, debut of a System 7.0 operating system by summer 1991, a System 8.0 version by the end of 1992 that includes dynamic memory mapping and preemptive multitasking and a line of Macintosh notebook computers by the end of 1991. Long-term goals include a Macintosh by 1994 that is oriented to three-dimensions and includes high-performance audio input/output and 19-inch color display with high resolution and 16.8 million colors. Lotus Development Corp's $695 Lotus Marketplace: Business is also discussed. Heed the standards. (evolving UNIX operating system standards) (column) The emergence of international standards in the UNIX operating system (OS) environment facilitates the use of the OS and promotes the development of hardware and software that employ it. The implementation of a UNIX installation requires a thorough understanding of how UNIX standards may affect it. These existing or emerging UNIX standards include the support of 8-bit ASCII characters by UNIX System V since version 3.2 in order to handle 255 different characters enabling support of several non-English alphabets, support of PostScript page description language, X Window System and such graphical user interfaces as Open Look and OSF/Motif, Ethernet and TCP/IP for local area networking, various standards for exchanging data on floppy disks or cartridge tape, and forthcoming multimedia standards. The return of ARCnet: the new 20-Mbps ARCnet specification is fast and downward-compatible. (column) The forthcoming ARCnet Plus local area network (LAN) architecture from Datapoint Corp (San Antonio, TX) will offer 20M-bps data transfer performance and backward compatibility with ARCnet equipment. ARCnet is an attractive alternative to the market-leading Ethernet and Token Ring because of its use of the low-cost 92-ohm coaxial cable that is already installed in many buildings, the low cost of the technology's adapter cards and its robust, active-hub-based performance that enables the system to work well in the presence of many mechanical faults. ARCnet Plus has an effective data transfer rate of 16.84M-bps, faster than its competitors, and much lower per-packet overhead. Maximum packet lengths have been increased to 4,096bytes. Up to 2,047 nodes can not be supported. ARCnet Plus can connected to 2.5M-bps ARCnet nodes, with performance gracefully degrading as needed. Fax boxes keep your laser printer busy. (Hardware Review) (brief reviews of Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic and Extended Systems' Tall Tree Systems' (Palo Alto, CA) Fax-O-Matic and Extended Systems' (Boise, ID) Fax Connection are receive-only fax devices that automatically output to laser printers. The $395 Fax-O-Matic is the best of the two units because it 'works perfectly,' is much less expensive, outputs 150-dpi resolution on any Hewlett-Packard LaserJet-compatible with at least 256Kbytes of random-access memory (RAM) (300-dpi with at least 1Mbyte of RAM), automatically downscales legal-size documents to 8.5-by-11-inch paper and stores up to 30 pages in a 512Kbyte buffer. FaxConnection comes in $595 add-in board and $695 external versions. The board only fits HP's LaserJet IID or III models. It features a 256Kbyte buffer, does not downscale legal-size faxes (thus requiring legal-size paper and use of a command to tell the machine to receive legal-size faxes) and requires a laser printer with at least 1Mbyte of RAM. Mathematica does Windows. (Software Review) (brief review of Wolfram Research's Mathematica for Windows 3.0) (evaluation) Wolfram Research Inc's (Champaign, IL) new $995 Mathematica for Windows 3.0 is a powerful mathematics program that requires a minimum of an Intel 80386-based microcomputer with at least 2Mbytes of random-access memory (RAM) and a hard disk. The software includes all of the extensive numerical calculation, symbolic manipulation, graphing and structured programming capabilities of other versions while exploiting the graphics and task-switching functionality of Windows 3.0. Specific examples include a 'notebook' interface which combines Mathematica tools, outlining functions and word processing for creating, viewing and editing mathematical documents. The Windows 3.0 version of Mathematica may run slower than the MS-DOS version because of the overhead of working with Windows. 4Mbytes of memory is recommended. Live, from IBM - it's Storyboard! (Software Review) (brief review of the Storyboard Live! multimedia software) (evaluation) IBM's $495 Storyboard Live! offers extensive multimedia capabilities but has a 'cumbersome' interface. Multimedia functionality include still and moving digitized video, computer-generated graphics and text, animation and quality audio. A graphical menu provides mouse-selected access to such executable files as storyboard editing, animation editing and playback. A library of 800 graphics images and 11 fonts are included, and additional images can be imported in several formats. The Story Editor can combine graphics, sound, animation sprites and live video to create powerful presentation. Minimum host required is a 640Kbyte IBM XT or compatible with MS-DOS 3.3, hard disk drive and and EGA or better display. FileMaker Pro gives the old a new look. (Software Review) (brief review of Claris Corp's data base management system) (evaluation) Claris Corp's (Santa Clara, CA) $299 FileMaker Pro nonrelational data base management system for the Macintosh computer includes significant enhancements over its FileMaker II predecessor while retaining the reliability and 'clean' interface. Enhancements include a popup menu for changing layout views, enhanced layout tools, interactive buttons, improved export and import of data, multiuser support and improved data-entry checking. The multiuser support is limited to file access grants and limits. The major debit is the awkward and limited script editing facility. Minimum host requirements are a Mac Plus with two 800Kbyte floppy disk drives and System 6.0. Instant hard disk expansion. (brief review of Stac Electronics' Stacker compression software and add-in board) (evaluation) Stac Electronics (Carlsbad, CA) offers $129 software and $229 coprocessor board versions of the firm's Stacker easy-to-install and foolproof data compression and decompression technology. Stacker increases the capacity of a hard disk by an average of 1.7 times for mixed program and data files by compressing data on the fly. The 8-bit board version showed no impact on host system performance, while the software version had a negligible impact on the performance of a 33MHz Intel 80386-based IBM compatible microcomputer. Other features include a utility that indicates the degree of compression on the hard disk and a device driver that automatically switches to software-only compression and decompression when a Stacker board fails. Minimum host requirements are an IBM PC or compatible with MS-DOS 3.0. New extras for Excel: version 3.0 for Windows 3.0, the Mac, OS/2. (Software Review) (Microsoft's spreadsheet software package) The power and numerous features in the new version 3.0 of Microsoft's $495 Excel make it a spreadsheet software package well worth considering. Excel 3.0's interface and functionality are highly consistent through its Windows 3.0, Macintosh and OS/2 Presentation Manager versions. Enhancements include three-dimensional graphics, picture charts, inserting of charts directly on worksheets, an outlining feature for structuring nested hierarchies of data on the worksheet, Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding technology for manipulation of data objects, named-based linking of ranges of data on multiple spreadsheets, and a variety of links to external text and graphics documents. Other important features include several tools that ease building of data models, Solver application for variable goal-seeking, and bundled Q&E query and edit utility enabling Excel to front-end several data bases. OS/2 goes on a diet; Big Blue targets Windows 3.0 with a leaner, meaner, and faster version of OS/2. (Software Review) (brief Version 1.3 of IBM's OS/2 SE (Standard Edition) multitasking operating system is faster and more compact, stable and bug-free than preceding versions but still requires 4Mbytes of random-access memory (RAM) for successful use of several different applications at the same time. The software also needs 11Mbytes of hard disk space for a 'full-fledged' installation, but the selectable setup enables the implementation of only those OS/2 1.3 components that are needed. Important enhancements include a faster and more intelligent swapper program, reduced minimum RAM requirement (2Mbytes), improved installation process, printer setup during installation, 'full-featured' drivers for PostScript and LaserJet printers, IBM's REXX procedural language and new data-compaction capabilities. Other features of, use of and the market outlook for OS/2 SE 1.3 are discussed. Perfectly portable: 15 notebook computers push the state of the art. (includes related articles on Psion's MC-600 notebook Evaluation and comparison of 15 IBM PC-compatible notebook computers concludes that Zeos International Ltd's $1,995 Zeos Notebook 286 is the 'clear winner.' Typical features included weight less than eight pounds, maximum size of 12.4-by-11-by-2.2-inches, 20Mbyte or larger hard disk, batteries, MS-DOS and at least 1Mbyte of memory. The computers were rated on size and weight, battery usage, display technology, keyboard design, durability, expandability, and benchmarked performance. The three classes of notebook computers reviewed were Intel 80386 SX-based, 80286-based and IBM XT-class. The only 80386SX system was the Compaq LTE 386s/20. 80286 computers reviewed were the Compaq LTE/286/ Toshiba T1200XE, Ogivar Internote 286, Sanyo MBC-17NB, CompuAdd Companion, TI TravelMate 2000, Sharp PC-6220 and NEC UltraLite 286V. XT-class units were the Toshiba T1000LE, Tandy 1500HD, Grid 1810 and Zenith MinisPort HD. Libraries with class. (Software Review) (brief reviews of five C++ programming language class libraries) (evaluation) Five C++ programming language class libraries that can produce MS-DOS executables are briefly evaluated. C++/Views, $495 from CNS Inc (Eden Prairie, MN) is modeled on the Smalltalk class library, includes classes for Microsoft Windows but has a poor installation program. Financial MathLib++, $199 from Greenleaf Software Inc (Dallas, TX), provides fixed-point numeric, date and financial function classes, but the C++ input/output functions are faulty. M++ 2.0, $296 from Dyad Software Inc (Renton, WA), includes array classes and numerous mathematical functions useful for numerical analysis, statistics or specialized arithmetic. Tools.h++, $200 from Rogue Wave (Corvallis, OR), includes Smalltalk-like and generic macro collection classes. Zinc Interface Library, $199.95, includes classes for developing forms, menus and dialog boxes. All five libraries work with Zortech and Borland Turbo C++ compliers. The littlest SPARC. (Hardware Review) (Sun Microsystems's Sparcstation IPC workstation) (evaluation) Sun Microsystems Inc's (Mountain View, CA) $7,995 (base price) Sparcstation IPC is a compact but powerful workstation that compares very well with high-end 33-MHz Intel 80486-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. The Sparcstation IPC is based on the 25-MHz SPARC reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor and in the base configuration features 8Mbytes to 24Mbytes of system memory, a 207Mbyte hard disk drive, 17-inch monochrome monitor, 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, two SBus slots, 107-key keyboard, optical mouse, and SCSI, audio, thick Ethernet and dual serial ports. Bundled software includes the SunOS 4.1 version of UNIX and OpenWindows application development environment. A Graphical User Interface Design Editor (GUIDE) that comes with the developer's release of OpenWindows simplifies graphical user interface design. PS/2 blues disappear with first 16.7-million-color MCA adapter. (Hardware Review) (RasterOps Corp's 1024MC Colorboard) RasterOps Corp (Santa Clara, CA) offers a 24-bit color graphics board, the $4,395 1024MC Colorboard, that enables professional-quality imaging and desktop publishing on Micro Channel Architecture-based microcomputers. The board features display of up to 16.7 million colors on multiscanning VGA monitors to a non-interlaced 1,024-by-768-pixels, 3Mbytes of random-access memory (RAM), drivers for 24-bit Windows 3.0 and OS/2 Presentation Manager, and 24-bit Windows 3.0 image-processing, conversion and compression utility, ImagePrep. Software drivers work with proprietary RasterOps chips to manage video RAM and VGA bus input/output, capture and pass-through. The output display is 'beautifully crisp'. The current execution of Windows 3.0 applications is slow, but a new Windows 3.0 driver and reprogrammed RasterOps chips should speed their performance. An artist's old tool learns new tricks. (Software Review) (Adobe Illustrator 3.0) (evaluation) Version 3.0 of the $595 Adobe Illustrator drawing software package from Adobe Systems Inc (Mountain View, CA) is an excellent tool for drawing, text processing and graphing on Macintosh computers. The software has corrected many of the problems in the previous version and added or enhanced several capabilities. Improvements include effective performance in the 32-bit QuickDraw environment, a separate text-processing window with several new or enhanced text-handling functions, a Graph tool with a range of graphing styles and controls, and elimination of several of the text- and color-handling limitations in the prior version. Debits include an inability to edit artwork in a preview mode and blobs of black lines in the drawing window. Minimum system requirements are a Mac Plus with 2Mbytes of random-access memory, hard disk drive and System 6.0.3. Statistical analysis for the executive. (Software Review) (FirstMark Technologies' KnowledgeSeeker 2.0) (evaluation) FirstMark Technologies Ltd (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) offers a 'worthwhile' statistical analysis package, the $495 KnowledgeSeeker 2.0, that can apply X-squared and F-test statistical procedures to a wide range of problems. The software applies these procedures to a data base of information imported from WKS, WK1, dBase III Plus and IV, and ASCII files. Results are pictorially represented in a tree diagram, with each node a portion of the most significant subset according to the user's criteria. KnowledgeSeeker also indicates other statistically significant subsets. Other features include translation of trees into series of decision rules, a validation procedure, excellent printed output. Debits are an inadequate manual and slow data import and data base definition. Minimum host requirements are an IBM PC, PS/2 or compatible with 640Kbytes, hard disk and MS-DOS 3.2 or higher. Concern for the editing environment. (Software Review) (The Iliad Group's PIEdit 4.00 full-screen editor) (evaluation) The Iliad Group Inc (San Francisco, CA) offers a quality, richly featured full-screen programmer's editor, PIEdit, in $195 MS-DOS, $249 OS/2, and $349 386 UNIX, Xenix and AIX versions. The menu-driven editor features multiple text windows, automatic file saving, macro support, scrolling, context-sensitive and menu-driven on-line help, expression evaluation, error logging, and programmability. The software also has an interface to a compiler, linker, lint, make and other functions. A PML macro facility enables the mixing of editor commands and structured statements to develop functional programs. The major debit is the 'fairly primitive' interface to the compiler, linker and some other tools. Torture test: two 386/33 systems survive the Byte Lab. (Hardware Review) (Club American Technologies' Hawk I and Arche Evaluation and comparison of Club American Technologies Inc's (Fremont, CA) $4,139 Hawk I and Arche Technologies Inc's (Fremont, CA) $10,775 Legacy 386-33 33-MHz Intel 80386-based microcomputers concludes that the Legacy offers slightly superior performance but the Hawk is by far the more cost-effective choice. Both systems included for the price as reviewed a 33MHz 80387 math coprocessor, 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, 16-bit VGA cards, analog VGA color monitors, 101-key keyboard, and one parallel and two serial ports. The Hawk I also included 4Mbytes of SIMM random-access memory (RAM), 64Kbyte static RAM processor cache memory, 150Mbyte hard disk drive. The Legacy included 8Mbytes of SIMM RAM, 128Kbyte cache, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 120Mbyte QIC tape drive and 360Mbyte ESDI hard disk drive. Bus design, performance and minor problems are also discussed. Dynabook revisited with Alan Kay: Is the reign of the desktop computer about to end? Apple Computer Apple Fellow Alan Kay believes that the laptop computer of 1995 will resemble his Dynabook concept of 1968, which included eight microprocessors, a million-pixel screen, and wireless and cabled networking in a small, portable box. Kay's vision of the future of computing, though, goes far beyond his original Dynabook vision. He now defines the Dynabook concept as an implementation of the 'intimate computing' third stage of human-computer relationships, wherein the main work of the computer is to learn from the user. This requires proactive and intelligent software agents that employ context-based and 'competent' artificial intelligence. Kay believes that intimate computing will have an effect on our culture similar to that printing had on Europe. He also discusses how active simulations will replace data bases and that the destiny of computers is to be mundane. The point of the pen: GO's vice president of software examines the new PenPoint operating system. (includes related article on the The architecture and functioning of the 32-bit, object-oriented PenPoint multitasking operating system (OS) that GO Corp developed for pen-based microcomputers is discussed. The major elements are the notebook user interface (NUI), gestures, operating system objects, Embedded Document Architecture, mobile connectivity capabilities, hardware compatibility, and applications support. The support of pen-based computing required the addition of many functions not on found in other OSs and graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The NUI, for example, is based on a notebook metaphor, providing rapid access to thousands of 'pages' of information. Gesture functionality employs the pen tip for pointing, data entry and actions, the latter through the use of gesture commands. Each of the major elements of PenPoint and the current development and market status of the OS are discussed. Impressions of GO and PenPoint. (GO Corp and its PenPoint operating system) GO Corp (Foster City, CA) has developed both a pen-based notebook computer and an operating system, PenPoint, design specifically for pen-based systems. The company believes that the ease of use and 'true' portability of such computers will make the market for them as large by the year 2000 as the current market for desktop units. Go's prototype pen-based computer hardware consists of a thick notebook-size clamshell package containing a 5.5-inch-by-8-inch high screen, cordless pen that interacts with the electromagnetic field on the surface of the screen, Intel 80286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of random-access memory, and port for external floppy drive. Applications for the system will be oriented to the pen/writing paper paradigm, with text and graphics entry similar to writing and drawing on paper. Impact of the object-oriented nature of the system on applications is discussed. Pen-based applications. (start-ups PenSoft and Slate develop products for the PenPoint operating system) Start-up companies PenSoft and Slate are two of the firms developing applications for Go Corp's PenPoint object-oriented operating system. Go specifically developed PenPoint as an OS for pen-based microcomputers. PenSoft and Slate are both developing pen-based software from scratch because of the new input paradigm of using gestures to directly manipulate objects onscreen. PenSoft is developing a personal information manager application that will fully exploit PenPoint's capabilities. Slate is developing its Professional Application Development System (PADS), which will enable third-party software developers to create pen-based applications. PADS is based on a data base engine that can read and write to many data base formats, create customized application forms or templates and make the data base engine resources available to applications. Touch-and-feel interfaces: built-in pointing devices replace mice in notebooks and laptops. Several alternative, built-in pointing devices may replace mice in laptop and notebook computers. The move to smaller and lighter computers, the shift to graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and the need for more ergonomic and efficient input tools are driving the development of new pointing technologies. These include trackballs; touchpads, such as those used on the Psion MC200 and MC400 laptops; touchscreens, as used on Scenario's DynaVision portable; the Alps (San Jose, CA) Isopoint developed by Craig Culver of Culver Research and Home Row Inc's (Clackamas, OR) Home Row key mouse, which employs sensors under the letter J to allow the key to function as a pointer when a specific combination of keys are pressed. Advantages and disadvantages of each pointing technology are discussed. Culver asserts that the basic goals in such technologies should be robust sensory feedback, subtlety and comfort. LCDs and beyond. (the future of liquid crystal display technologies) Three innovative technologies are targeting laptop and notebook computer displays, but each must overcome problems to gain acceptance. The trend in lightweight displays is to high-resolution color with low power demand. Thin-film transistor (TFT) color liquid crystal displays (LCDs) offer the clarity of monochrome TFT LCDs, but color TFTs need more powerful backlight (thus more power demand) and have very low production yields. Focus Systems (Tualatin, OR) is refining a passive-matrix display of stacked supertwist LCD panels, each subtracting a primary color from a backlight. Commercial units have been developed, but the complex backlighting increases the weight and power demand, and the response time is currently low. Coloray (Fremont, CA) is developing commercial CRT-like thin field-emission displays with high manufacturing yield and low power demand, but few are aware of the technology. Displays - down the DRAM drain? (small US display makers claim Japanese firms are dumping flatscreens in the US just as they did The International Trade Commission ruled that Japanese flat-screen display pricing policies are hurting US flat-panel makers. An expected similar decision by the US Dept of Commerce will probably result in tariffs that will increase the cost of US-made portable computers that use Japanese flat-panel displays. Japan has dominated the liquid-crystal display (LCD) market since 1973, and US vendors of alternative gas-plasma and electroluminescent flat-panel displays have not gained major market share outside of US Dept of Defense (DOD) contracts. Declining DOD budgets reduced military sales and hoped-for subsidies for high-definition television development. This and the decline in flat-panel display prices may have prompted the action by US flat-panel manufacturing group Advanced Display Manufacturers of America. Tariffs may not help the US flat-panel makers as they did not help US DRAM makers. Destination laptop: AMD's "AT on a chip" takes personal computer integration to new heights while bringing power consumption to new Advanced Micro Devices' Intel 80286-compatible Am286LX (and related Am286ZX) microprocessor (MPU) is the first example of AMD's integrated processor (IP) technology, which combines the MPU and the basic support chip into a 28-mm-square low-power device. The Am286LX enables almost any firm to easily design and manufacture an IBM AT-compatible laptop or smaller computer by adding a BIOS, keyboard controller and memory. The chip includes a CMOS 80C286 MPU, 8254-compatible 16-bit counter/timer, two 9517-/8237-compatible DMA controllers, page register, two 8259-compatible interrupt controllers, and real-time clock with extended static random-access memory (RAM), enhanced bus and dynamic RAM controllers, direct interface to the ISA bus and power-saving functions. Details of the design and functioning of the AM286LX are discussed. Inside a laptop. (system design of a laptop computer based on Advanced Micro Devices' Am286LX microprocessor) System design of a typical laptop or notebook computer based on Advanced Micro Devices' Intel 80286-compatible Am286LX integrated processor (IP) requires addressing several power design issues. The basic goal is to provide the most computing performance for the least demand on the battery. The Am286LX IP must control its own power consumption and that of the rest of the circuitry in the computer. Memory power demand can be minimized by the use of slow-refresh dynamic random-access memory (RAMs) chips or static RAMs. Power management functions can be incorporated in the devices attached to both the on-board expansion bus and the AT system bus. It is particularly important for the liquid-crystal display to have power management features because its backlight may constitute as much as 40 percent of the computer's power demand. The importance of the BIOS in power management is discussed. Memories in my pocket. (solid-state memory cards for laptop/notebook computers; includes related article on standards Physical, electrical and most software standards issues for solid-state memory cards have been resolved. Consequently, a variety of semiconductor memory technologies can be used, including ROM, EPROM, RAM, EEPROM and flash memory. The Japanese Electronic Industry Development Assn and the Personal Computer Memory Card International Assn settled on a 68-pin package with 3.5-mm 'card-detect' pins on the outer edges, insertion/withdrawal force compliant with the US Military Standard 202F, two thicknesses (3.3-mm and 5-mm with both 3.3-mm at the guide/contact area), battery placement opposite the write-protect switch and magnetic and x-ray interference immunity. Electrical compatibility for peripherals has been resolved. Three software issues addressed are selecting the file format, providing header information and executing programs on the cards. Use of memory types are discussed. The future of network operating systems: networks are undergoing evolution, not revolution, say the experts. The general trend in network operating systems (NOSs) is to easy and transparent network use and management by 1996. A current and major trend is the increasing cooperation between NOS vendors to ensure that their systems coexist. Specific trends include the use of multiple cooperating servers, file access technologies included in the NOS itself, transparent access across multiple levels of hardware, files that span multiple servers, and sharing of the same data by mainframe and microcomputer applications. Trends in network management include improved interfaces and expert systems for monitoring, diagnosing and maintaining networks. Other trends include the increasing use of remote procedure calls and more distributed computing on microcomputers. Down the LAN road. (nine experts forecast the future of local area network operating systems) Nine local area network (LAN) experts separately forecast the future of network operating systems (NOSs). Apple Computer Collaborative Network Systems Technical Dir Gursharan Sidhu believes that future NOSs will include multiple cooperating servers. Microsoft Network Business Unit Program Mgr Eric Rudder and LAN Manager Product Mgr Russ Siegelman assert that the major NOS trend will be an emphasis on bringing information to the users who need it. Sun Microsystems Senior Product Mgr for Distributed Computing David Rosenlund compares Sun's distributed computing platform to the NetWare environment. Perspectives of Novell product line Mgr John Edwards, Ungermann-Bass Pres and CEO Ralph Ungermann, Clarke Burton Corp CEO Craig Burton, Arthur D. Little senior consultant Brad Friedlander, and Banyan systems Senior VP James E. Allchin are also presented. An easier interface: Xerox PARC, originator of the computer desktop, unveils a vision for the future of user interfaces. (PARC The PARC System Sciences Lab of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is developing the Information Visualizer, an experimental mouse-driven user interface for enabling users to better visualize and manage applications that involve large amounts of data. The dimensions of most computer screens are not suited for the effective display of large data sets. The Information Visualizer employs color and interactive real-time three-dimensional animation to help understand the data. Information is manifested as 3D objects, with the 3D qualities achieved through such rendering techniques as light and shading. The user can 'fly' around the data objects to better understand the nature of the represented information. Other discussed features of the Information Visualizer include the Cognitive Coprocessor, an underlying text database, the clustering of information and hierarchical trees. XGA: a new graphics standard; combine a fast VGA, a graphics coprocessor, and bus mastering. (IBM debuts its high-resolution IBM debuts its high-resolution Extended Graphics Array (XGA) video display standard for Intel 80386- and 80486-based IBM PS/2 microcomputer hardware. XGA solves many of the problems in IBM's previous 8514/A high-resolution display technology, including backward compatibility with the VGA graphics standard. Major components of an XGA product include dual-ported video, random-access memory (RAM), custom graphics coprocessor and display controller chips, glue logic, and video-out connector. The technology supports display modes to 1,024-by-768-pixels with up to 65,536 colors. Details of the initialization processing, display controller, task switching, defining drawing space, drawing with the XGA, and bus-mastering problems are discussed. XGA will probably not affect the market for Super VGA or 8514/A products in the near future. Making Windows work. (a collection of tips ) (tutorial) Lubeck, Jeffrey H.; Schatzman, Bruce D. Several tips facilitate use of Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI). Almost all problems with Windows 3.0 relate to the differences in functioning of third-party products in the MS-DOS environment. The tips provided address the use of the SETUP installation program, hardware and software conflicts with the GUI, running of MS-DOS programs in the standard or enhanced mode under Windows, the use of third-party disk managers, problems with mice, problems with MS-DOS applications that use a COM port for communications, variances in BIOS operation and printing and utilities problems. Fax facts: a look inside PC-based and stand-alone fax devices. (tutorial) The CCITT Group 3 digital facsimile technology standard enables reliable high-speed fax transmissions over telephone lines. The rapid growth of the fax market in the late 1980s is due in part to the capabilities of digital fax technology to rapidly scan, compress, send, receive and print document images. Details of the functioning of fax technology and the processes involved in a Group 3 fax call are described. Group 3 fax use two compression techniques, the one-dimensional modified Huffman code and two-dimensional modified READ code, to speed transmission of the fax document image. Add-in fax boards for microcomputers are another booming part of the fax market, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of fax boards and fax machines are discussed. The forthcoming Group 4 fax technology is intended to work primarily with ISDN. A brief history of fax technology is provided. A practical guide to queuing analysis: simple techniques that you can apply to many problems. (tutorial) Several techniques are presented for performing queuing analysis in single-server and multi-server queues. Queuing analysis involves the application of queuing theory to the analysis and prediction of performance of communications circuits or equipment, such as local area networks (LANs), under a change in design or load. Sets of equations based on queuing theory are used to model single-server and multi-server queues. Solutions of the equations produces such information on the network performance as response time and throughput. Queuing analysis equations are applied to several example problems including a data base server, a multilinked protocol problem, single-server and multi-server systems, and traffic through a router connecting a LAN to a wide-area network. Great expectations: don't set yourself up for disappointment when buying a computer system. (Stop Bit) (column) Computer system buyers can avoid disappointment by ensuring that they know what they are buying and holding realistic expectations for the technology. Several specific tips are provided, including asking company managers to write down those business objectives that are difficult to achieve and what capabilities are needed to achieve them. Help the managers to envision how to solve those problems and ask vendors what tools and information can facilitate the solutions. Do not promise to solve the managers' problems or use technical expertise to push a solution on to managers that they do not understand. Buy systems based on their capabilities, not on their dazzling technology. Do not expect miracles from the system, but ask the vendor for proof of the claimed capabilities. Microstation goes graphic. (Intergraph UK Ltd.'s Microstation PC 4.0 computer-aided design software)(cover story) (Software Review) Intergraph UK Ltd's 2,995 pounds sterling Microstation PC 4.0 is a major revision to the software publisher's computer-aided drafting and design package. The two- and three-dimensional software does not have a 3D solids modeler function, but rather an improved surface modeler for complex shapes. It also has a brand-new OSF-Motif graphical user interface (GUI), very similar to Microstation Mac's, with windows and buttons. It still works much like earlier versions but via the new GUI's windows and pull-down menus. The file format is backward-compatible. Other new features include a built-in C compiler, file exporting, 'non-uniform rational B-spline' geometry, and shading that provides perspective. Aimed at architects and engineers, Microstation PC 4.0 requires at least an Intel 80386-based system with either CGA or EGA graphics support, 2Mbytes of memory and a mouse. Scanning the horizon. (the past, present and future of document image management systems) (Strategist) High-powered microcomputers and workstations support sophisticated scanning software capable of real-time raster to vector conversion and the interpretation of text. Such advanced technology makes imaging and document processing systems more useful and cost-effective for capturing, editing, revising and transmitting all kinds of engineering documents, resulting in savings of 14-25 percent. There are two basic types of imaging systems: document image management systems (DIMS), used in engineering, and document image processing systems (DIPS) for office automation. Only companies with quantities of important drawings benefit significantly from the more expensive, elaborate, computer-aided design oriented DIMS. DIPS can be useful for many types of businesses and various kinds of file management and document archiving. The choice and use of a document management system depends ultimately on the type of business, the cost and the uses to which the system is put. Ink monitor. (Zeta Graphics Corp.'s Zeta 936 IPS plotter) (Hardware Review) (Plotter Upgrade) (evaluation) The Zeta 936 IPS AO batch plotter, made by Zeta Graphics Corp and distributed by AM Computer Graphics, provides high capacity unattended plotting for 9,750 pounds sterling. Equipment includes a built-in 3.5- or 5.25-inch floppy disk drive and a power stand with automatic take-up. The main feature that makes the Zeta unique is PenMinder, an infra-red ink level sensing system built into the pen carrier, which should end plots spoiled by pen failure. The Zeta does not have the usual 1Mbyte of RAM, but rather only a small 18K buffer, so either a microcomputer must be dedicated to plotting, or plots must be spooled to disk and plotted off-line using the floppy disk drive. Thus, the size of the buffer should be increased; the machine's usefulness is currently too restricted. Plotting quality is average and is affected negatively when the motors jerk the paper rollers. The documentation is also average. The Zeta provides good value for its price. Fast forward: Cambridge Computer Graphics' Phantom 1280AT gives a whole new meaning to speed. (graphics board) (Hardware Review) Cambridge Computer Graphics' 4,395 pounds sterling Phantom 1280 AT is a 16-bit full-length graphics controller board. It provides redraws nearly 10 times faster than a Compaq 486 workstation and pans/zooms are five times faster. The excellent display quality has a 60Hz refresh rate and a drawing rate of 25 million pixels per second. The Phantom has three new commands in addition to all those of earlier boards: these implement real time zooming, panning and both in combination. The Cadscope pop-up bird's eye view feature is included and is still an excellent function for repetitive work on different areas of a drawing because it permits storage and recalling of five zooms. Cambridge's Phantom supports the loading of 'Tiff' files as underlays for retracing, providing a quick, clean way of converting scanned images to vectors. These features plus easy installation and very good documentation make the Phantom a good value. Fujitsu M3191F2 scanner. (Shortlist) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Fujitsu's 1,404 pounds sterling M3191F2 flatbed scanner for IBM-PC/AT compatible microcomputers comes with driver software, a SCSI interface card and a paint program for editing. The tested version did not come with a manual for the scanner so that its installation was difficult, requiring time and effort. The driver software is copied from floppy disk and the SCSI card simply plugs in but the cabling is tricky and the system stubbornly refused to accept the ID number, a problem the testers solved by trial-and-error since Fujitsu's technical support did not solve it. The PC Paintbrush software is a good color paint program for controlling scan quality and editing the resulting images. The documentation quality is average, but the M3191F2 scanner is still a good value for the money. A mouse is required. Realise solid modeller. (Perspective Design's computer-aided design software)(Shortlist) (Software Review) (evaluation) The 550 pounds sterling Realise solid modeller computer-aided design (CAD) software is a Macintosh program created by Perspective Design. Two versions of the application are available: one for the Mac Plus, Classic and the other for the Mac II family and SE/30 that takes advantage of the math coprocessor. The Mac IIsi does not have the coprocessor as standard, but a utility is included that identifies the system being used. Installation is quite easy because the software fits on one floppy disk, and the files are copied into a folder created by the user. Realise solid modeller is also easy to use and does not have an excessive number of functions. Although the shading is basic, the package is still considered a good value for the money, with its ability to combine solids into more complex objects and rotate them. Exhibition highlights: Cadcam 1991 is the showcase for the state of the art in computer aided design.(includes related articles on Cadcam 1991, the largest computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing trade show in Europe, takes place on Mar 19-21 at Birmingham, England's National Exhibition Centre. The seventh annual CAD/CAM exhibition features the industry's major players and a variety of smaller companies with innovative and advanced technologies. The show has a reputation for displaying state-of-the-art technology from the initial design phase through the manufacture. It also presents visitors with the chance to receive advice and help from industry experts. Other aspects of Cadcam 1991 include advice forums, executive briefings and workshops on every facet of CAD/CAM. Sun Microsystems Inc's Sun Village is a new feature that provides an opportunity for visitors to see and discuss the entire range of Sun hardware and the CAD software that runs on it. Autodesk Village, where the CAD software maker shows off its new products, and CGSA Avenue, where members of the Computer Graphics Suppliers' Association are available to offer advice and support, are returning. The changing face of CAD.(how to get the most and the best from Cadcam 1991) (Cadcam 1991 supplement) Selecting hardware and software from among all the new items demonstrated at a trade show can be problematic. Cadcam 1991 has an enormous number of new systems for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and computer-aided engineering (CAE). The performance of an organization's design and engineering functions and use of CAD, CAM and CAE products should be kept in mind when executives attend exhibitions like Cadcam 1991. Any purchases or system changes made should be effective and add real value to one's current system, with only what is useful and cost-effective being acquired. They should also be part of an overall strategic plan of the business and a vision of the directions it is developing, including the the relevant time to market, customer support, manufacturing needs and other parts of the corporate operation. CAD/CAM can be a business advantage depending on the way it is utilized and integrated into the business. Docking stations: a safe harbour for portables? Grantham, Tim. Users may experience problems when plugging a portable computer into a docking station. Many portable computer companies are attempting to provide consumers who are reluctant to purchase desktop computers with docking stations, expansion devices which remain on the desktop while the microcomputers travel.Docking stations, however, cost as much as a complete desktop unit and technical problems, such as security and software configuration, remain. The memory, display, and storage environment may change drastically after the microcomputer is plugged into the docking station. Several corporations would probably require a networking card and a tape drive or an extra hard drive, which would, in turn, require changes to be made in the computer's boot sequence. Applications also have to be reconfigured to work with different display and storage devices. Tackling network printing. (Online with Patricia Seybold) (column) Seybold, Patricia; Millikin, Michael. Network printing services could solve many printing problems of network users. Both Sun Microsystems and Xerox have introduced network printing service products. Sun's NeWSprint is designed to enable users to send jobs to any printer. PostScript and non-PostScript output devices can be delivered anywhere on the network, and users get complete WYSIWYG when NeWSprint is used with Open Windows. Xerox has attempted to help users eliminate a lot of offset printing work by introducing DocuTech, which provides users with scanning, filing, printing, and finishing capabilities. These products have the capability of providing highly functional, transparent printing services in a mixed network environment. Ode to software royalties. (buying software royalty rights reduces investment risks) (EDP and the Law) (column) Purchasing royalty rights in a software package, instead of buying shares in a software firm, has become a less-risky method of investing in software companies. Investing in a software firm's shares usually results in a strained relationship between the company's founders, whose primary concern is product quality, and the investors, whose primary concern is the value of the shares in the market. Both investors and founders, however, can benefit from royalty arrangements. With royalty investments, both founders and investors have a common objective of seeing the product perform well in the long run. The investors begin to receive returns immediately because they are paid from gross revenues. Lastly, the founders can keep their shares in the firm. Adventures in networking. (issues in local area network management) The increasing importance of local area networks (LAN) is raising new issues for both buyers and vendors. Internetworking is becoming more popular, and several firms are using a variety of LANs in enterprise networks. These different kinds of networks must be able to coexist. The speed of existing networks is adequate for most LAN users, so there is not much incentive to use optical fiber until software requiring high speed becomes available. Unshielded twisted pair is the wiring selected by most users, and standard network operating systems include Novell Inc's NetWare, Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager, and Banyan Systems Inc's VINES. Networks will become more complex, but network management probably will become easier. Stellar prospects for portables? Grantham, Tim. Sales of portable computers are increasing dramatically, but experts have not agreed on the extent of growth of the portable computer market. Notebook computers, laptop computers, and transportables have all become popular portables. Most experts believe that portable computers will be widely used by 1995, but there is some question as to whether manufacturers will provide the type of pricing and connectivity required to cause users to exchange their desktop computers for portable computers. Experts believe that desktop users will become interested in laptop and notebook computers if their prices drop to 25 percent above the cost of desktop computers. Casting magical spells. (computer communications) (includes related article on computer communications books) Many organizations are hesitant to implement computer communications systems, but these systems can increase income and reduce operating costs. The problem with communications software is that too many transmission standards exist. Both senders and receivers must match several variables to make their software universal. A new generation of communications software provides remote-to-host interchange without the replication of office programs and data. Microcomputer-to-facsimile systems, which are easy to use, can help reduce transmission time. Organizations with a need for communications software should become aware of the complexities of various communications products, as well as the implications of the variables that need to be set. Sante Quebec: effective treatment for information deficiency. (Quebec's personalized information management service designed for Sante Quebec is a personalized information management service for the Quebec social services network. The services offered by Sante Quebec include MedLine, a medical, dental, and nursing data base; Saunders Colleague, a data base of medical publications; and Sante Voyage, a medical-scientific data base. Sante Voyage, which is designed for medical professionals and academicians, provides health care information on 256 countries and territories worldwide. Sante Quebec runs under iNet 2000, Telecom Canada's intelligent network. Toronto law firm uses CBANET to streamline legal correspondence. (Paterson McDougall's electronic mail system) (Data Communicator) Law firm Paterson McDougall (Toronto, Canada) uses the CBANET electronic mail system to transmit legal documents. The system's Envoy-to-Fax messaging feature allows Paterson McDougall to transmit electronic mail messages to nearly all Group 3 facsimile machines in the US and Canada. Attorney Peter Jones believes that CBANET facilitated communications with lawyers in Massachusetts when he was preparing material for a conference. Other attorneys at the firm are expected to begin using CBANET after they realize its benefits. TradeRoute helps business move with electrifying speed. (electronic data interchange) (Data Communicator) TradeRoute, Telecom Canada's electronic data interchange (EDI) service, provides organizations with instant transmission of commercial transactions, including shipping invoices and payment notices. TradeRoute receives documents, translates them into a universally understood EDI standard, and routes the documents to the network. Documents are re-translated into clients' own formats after they are recieved. One TradeRoute user, Groupe Rona Dismat, has reduced handling time and input errors by 50 percent. Copyright conundrum. (Software Directions) (column) Glen, Ron. The software industry may be forced to take legal action in cases of software piracy. Such tactics as software protection devices and amnesty programs have had little success. Copy-protected disks have failed to deter established pirates, while making it difficult for honest users to make backup copies and transfer programs to a hard disk. Amnesty programs, which allow software pirates to receive a legitimate program at a reduced cost in exchange for a pirated copy, have had little response. The Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft has been established to educate the public about the costs of software piracy. The Software Publishers Assn (SPA) has begun taking taking legal action against pirates. The SPA orders pirates to 'cease and desist,' as well as implementing litigation without warning. Rising xenophobia. (US-Canada Free Trade Agreement and computer purchases) (John Dvorak's "Inside Views") (column) Canadians are against the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and they want more value for their money when purchasing computers. A Macleans survey has indicated that 39 percent of Canadians would rather deal with Canadian firms when buying computers. US computer stores are beginning to be established in Canada, but the prices of their products are too high. US computer retailers have differing opinions about the viability of selling computers in Canada. Some retailers believe it is impossible, while others believe that Canadians are interested in value added. Lincoln National places premium on quality communication. (Lincoln National Life Insurance Co.) (Teleconferencing) Lincoln National Life Insurance Co (LNLIC) places high premium on videoconferencing as a means of communicating with its 250 offices located across the US and its subsidiaries in Europe. LNLIC uses its videoconferencing equipment for project management, human resources planning, corporate communications and training. The company owns a four-site videoconferencing network supported by Compression Labs Inc's high-quality, high resolution Rembrandt video codecs, with two rooms in Fort Wayne, IN, and one each in Avon, CT, and Colorado Springs, CO. Video transmits at 768K-bps over dedicated T1 lines which links the three locations. The remaining 1.544M-bits of bandwidth is used for ongoing voice and data requirements. The company plans to use its network to support business television applications, like tele-training and broadcast of product announcements and educational seminars. Video communications comes of age with H.261 standard. (Teleconferencing) The quality of video communications is enhanced by the international H.261 standard. The standard provides a consistent method for decoding video signals coming over a network and enables signals to be transmitted at data rates of 64 to 2048K-bps in multiples of 64. The standard has been adopted by the Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT). The standard enables users to select the codec of their specific requirements, such as facilities, features and quality. Codec is the device that carries out the video processing. Specification and design of the codec is left up to the manufacturer. Guidelines for selecting a codec vendor are provided. Teleconferencing without equipment. Harler, Curt. Teleconferencing services are increasingly being used by many businesses to reduce travel and equipment costs, and the services can be used to set up conference calls anywhere in the world. Alliance Teleconferencing Service's recent increase in business is indicative of this growth in the service; the company's services saw a 20 percent jump in services during the last quarter of 1990, due in part to the Middle East crisis. The crisis increased the prices of oil and gas, which pushed travel costs up. There are several advantages to using teleconferencing services. They can bring executives together by allowing ice-breaking, pre-meeting conferences. Teleconferences save travel costs and time, with a typical conference lasting 35 minutes and involving five locations; such conferences also cut road time. A teleconference call is also of higher quality than calls made through a PBX. How we began teleconferencing. (Pratt and Whitney's use of videoteleconferencing technology) Pratt and Whitney's video conferencing system increases efficiency and quality by saving travel costs and improving communications between the company's branch locations. The system features PictureTel V-3100 Video Conferencing Systems and AT&T Accunet Switched 56 Service, which grabs two 56K-bps circuits at once. The system is user friendly, portable and can be wheeled into any room. Reservations are not necessary because the signals run over AT&T's switched network instead of dedicated T1 lines. The service is accessed through a reliable, digital PBX. Pratt and Whitney plans to add more PictureTel units to their locations. Keeping American Airlines on time. (American Airlines' Photophone video telephone helps solve airframe and engine problems) American Airlines' Photophone video telephone helps solve the company's maintenance-related delays and cancellations. Mechanics connect a standard video camera to the Photophone to send images of the aircraft's structural damages to the firm's Maintenance and Engineering Center in Tulsa, OK. At the center, engineers evaluate the damages and approve repairs based on the images. Prior to Photophones, mechanics sent photographs by mail or courier to the manufacturer's offices across the US. Most of American's suppliers have Photophones, which makes it easier for the airline to communicate with them about problems with component parts. Chris Marple, senior Power Plant operations engineer for American Airlines, says that prior to the Photophone, the confirmation process could be lengthy and expensive; it had been proper procedure to contact Tulsa and explain the problem by phone. Why Bechtel chose to meet via video. (Bechtel Corp's videoconferencing system) Bechtel Corp operates 10 videoconferencing systems with each consisting of a PictureTel video codec, a video camera and color monitor, a tabletop conference control panel, two to four microphones and a full-duplex audioconferencing system. Bechtel's systems are spread across eight offices in the US. AT&T Accunet Switched Digital Service (ASDS) carries the sound and video signals digitally between offices. Bechtel finds dedicated access unnecessary because ASDS is reliable. Meetings are scheduled on short notice and personnel can communicate with a company with a comparable system. Meetings that took days now often last hours and the inconveniences of traveling have been eliminated; for example, Bechtel managers bidding on a project on the east coast can communicate visually with the San Francisco headquarters. Handshake is all that's missing. (Southern Company Inc's GPT Video Systems' videoconferencing technology) Southern Company executives are finding videoconferencing a useful tool that saves them valuable work time and reduces travel costs. The company uses videoconferencing technology from GPT Video Systems. Southern's videoconferencing network features high-quality data, voice and image transmission between the headquarters of its five operating companies and the company's service offices in Birmingham and Atlanta. The company acquired a videoconferencing system to offset production-robbing factors such as travel, the scheduling of meetings and budgets, and employees' need to take time away from work. Southern Company's videoconferencing system operates at T1 (1.544M-bps) on the company's private network. John Myers, director of information network services at Southern Co, says videoconferencing has had an immense impact on improving communications within the company. Penn State network combines video, satellite POTS. (Penn State University) Penn State uses compressed video, satellite, computers and telephone services in its 80,000 square mile network, which serves 71,000 students at 23 campuses. The university claims one of the oldest distance learning networks. Penn installed its first electronic distance education system and closed circuit TV in 1952, and by 1986 the system began using half of a digital T1 datalink with compressed video. Richard Grubb, senior vice president and dean of the distance learning program, says the success of the network hinges on the firm integration of media-based courses into the academics. In addition to the network, the university also serves as a beta test site for videoconferencing units from Compression Labs. Penn State's satellite network transmits beyond Pennsylvania's border and has downlinks as far as Alice Springs, Australia. ARCO: fill'er up with bandwidth on demand. (ARCO's use of the Demand Digital Network Service, for videoconferencing) (Atlantic ARCO uses the Demand Digital Network Service (DDNS) from Williams Telecommunications for conducting high-quality, videoconference meetings with employees who are located in different locations throughout the country. DDNS is helping to make videoconferencing accessible to companies that are wary of setting up their own videoconferencing networks. DDNS provides speeds from 64K-bps to 1.536M-bps in 64K-bps increments and is offered through dedicated DS-1 local access facilities. The DDNS applications feature multipoint video broadcasting; point-to-point, high-speed data transmission; disaster-recovery alternate routing; and point-to-point and multipoint video teleconferencing. Iaia Rae, WilTel product sales manager, says the service offers a cost-effective method of providing videoconferencing for a company. ARCO plans to have an international videoconferencing network with 20 sites worldwide by 1992. Audio concerns in videoconferencing. (Getting quality audio from videoconferencing) Audio is an integral part of videoconferencing, but most users tend to neglect this aspect, often pairing cheap audio solutions with high-end video systems. There are several audio problems inherent in teleconferencing systems. Problems such as reverberation can be solved by improving the room's acoustics with sound-absorbent paneling, carpeting and curtains over window. Reverberation is best avoided by not using omnidirectional microphones. These mikes cover an entire room and allow reverberated sounds to pass through. Directional microphones with gating technology helps eliminate this problem. Gating technology uses a technique which chooses the best microphones to pick up the speaker. Audio is also hindered by additional noise sources, such as echo and external noise sources in the videoconferencing room itself. Remedies for these problems are discussed. Can your vendor make the correction. (integrating local area networks with wide area networks) Integrating local area networks with wide area networks is a key issue for network managers today. The eight factors to consider in itemizing a checklist of capabilities are network management, ISDN, efficient use of bandwidth, redundancy, architecture, reliability, product flexibility and modular design. Simple network management protocol (SNMP) is today's premier standard, but there are indications that open systems interconnection (OSI)-based management systems will be the standard in the future. ISDN offers advantages for the wide area network (WAN) environment, although it may never make the desktop market. The span of LANs to wide areas will usher in a demand for more bandwidth. Providing T1 lines partly helps, but this is a costly solution. Mead Data Central offers lawyers the right to a speedy file. (Mead Data Central Inc's legal information service, LEXIS) Mead Data Central Inc (MDCI) operates LEXIS, an on-line, dial-up service that offers lawyers fast access to archives of federal and state case law, codes and regulations. LEXIS includes 29 specialized libraries for practices ranging from securities, banking, environmental and insurance. Over 250,000 customers access LEXIS/NEXIS by using industry standard modems, dial-up telephone lines or a microcomputer-based workstation. MDCI has upgraded its dial-up network, replacing the 2400 baud modems at its Dayton-based central site. The upgrade allows users to research business, legal and financial information up to three times faster than before, and it complements MDCI's new LEXIS 2000 workstation, which features an IBM PS/2 55 SX microcomputer, color monitor and keyboard. The workstation lets users better manipulate information, shorten on-line time and download information to their hard drives or printer. Mix and match spells success for Northwestern. (Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company's combination of Dial-up and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co combines dial-up and leased line networking to reduce costs, facilitate network management and streamline the procedure used by agents to connect to the home office. The firm uses a dial-up network that offers smaller agencies high-speed access to Milwaukee in a shared network environment. Northwestern uses X.25 packet switching over dialed and leased services. The service is shared among the company's 106 general agencies and about 20 district agencies. Northwestern's headquarters has two Codex 6525 X.25 packet switches transport network control information that comes from a Codex 9800 Series Integrated Network Management System. The 9800 eases network management and diagnostics and controls dial-backup lines to backbone nodes, the agencies and MCI points of presence (POPs). Northwestern's systems coordinator says the response to the new network has been positive. The real modem question: 2 wires or 4? Altig, Dick. Four-wire modems and conditioned private lines may not be adequate for high-speed data transmission lines. Two-wire modems are capable of operating over a DDD switched network or two-wire private line at 19,200 bits a second. The performance improvement in two-wire modems is due to the addition of monitoring circuitry that adjusts packet size to adapt to phone-line conditions. The modem transmits large packets when it detects good line quality and reduces packet size when the line deteriorates. Smaller packets sent during poor conditions reduces time spent on re-transmissions. A blend of two-wire/four-wire modems provide an alternative for telephone operating companies, service bureaus and other application users, for whom reliability is a concern. When faced with the office wiring decision, 'let the buyer beware.' An Infonetics Research Institute study claims companies lose about $3.5 million in productivity and over $600,000 yearly due to local area network (LAN) downtime. The study reveals that the average network is affected by downtime six percent of its operating time; they lose over $2496 a year and the cost rises to $22,464 considering there are nine workstations in an average system. Cable failure is often cited as the main cause of network downtime. Finding the right cable is essential to keeping the LAN working efficiently, and the issue must be addressed before installing a new system or upgrading an existing one. Coaxial, twisted pair and fiber optic cables each carry varying properties and characteristics that influence overall system performance. Coaxial and twisted-pair cables feature properties such as attenuation, impedance, bit rate capacity and crosstalk, while fiber optic cables feature bandwidth and fiber size. User demands fuel growth of LAN interconnections. (includes related article on LAN expansion) Bridges, routers and gateways are easing the task of interconnecting multiple LANs and giving them access to the installed base of mainframes and minicomputers. Repeaters were used with early Ethernet networks for expanding LANs. Operating at the first layer of the OSI reference model, repeaters are the easiest LAN interconnection options. Bridges operate at layer two, while routers at layer three. Bridges linked LANs with area networks (WAN) or other LANS without dealing with layer three networking protocols. Bridges also serve as extension between networks. Data compression increases the efficiency of bridges and routers by compressing more information into the transmitted data. Microcom Inc, which uses data compression on its bridges, introduced enhancements to its T1 compression features and a new X.25 compression option. Microcom uses software and hardware to gain a 4:1 compression ratio. The Fiber Distributed Data Interface and 10BaseT standards, and gateways are also discussed. Seven-Eleven goes to ISDN in Japan. (Integrated Services Digital Network) Seven-Eleven Japan is connecting 4200 stores with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) over the public switched network. The stores use the network to support large volumes of data, including pricing changes and sales transactions sent between the stores and headquarters. The network also supports lower volumes of data, such as graphics images of promotional products. ISDN provides Basic Rate Interface at the standard 64k-bps and is faster than the network Seven-Eleven Japan previously used. The stores use Stratus XA2000 Continuous Processing Systems for their inventory merchandising and management system. Four of the Stratus Systems, one Model 250, two Model 230s and the Model 210, run the network from Tokyo. There are three other backups in a Yokohama data center. The Strauss System serves as a high-speed communications switch, which transmits sales, inventory and pricing information between Hitachi machines. Personal computers and the world software market. (Personal Computing) The global software market is dominated by US firms, but conditions in Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, India and South America make for development opportunities due to low wages and low overhead. Software developers in Chile use the same equipment as American developers, and the training offered by universities there is excellent. Companies such as Lotus Development Corp, Claris Corp and Microsoft Corp have opened software development offices in Ireland. Workers there are well-educated and hard working. India also offers well-educated developers who do not command the high wages given to American workers. Eastern European companies suffer from unfamiliarity with market economies and produce more custom software than packages. Some Eastern European companies are selling products in the US and Western Europe. Software is the fastest growing industry in Eastern Asia, and government sponsorship is planned in many countries. Quick, where do the computers go? (computers in education) (Log On Education) Education in the US is still based on didactic techniques developed in the 19th century and needs to take the form of interactive, hands-on training. The Information Age requires use of computers in education to take the form of computer assisted instruction (CAI) and intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) environments that guide students in investigation and learning rather than merely present information. The hands-on approach is more conducive to the natural learning process, and computers are being used in ways to help students in real investigative projects. Students studying acid rain collect and share data with other students and scientists via computers and telecommunications in a nationwide project. The results of their work is more meaningful as it bears relation to themselves and they are sharing their data. Software safety in embedded computer systems. (Cover Story) Leveson, Nancy G. System-safety engineering in software development involves identifying hazardous software behavior, thus reducing risks of hazardous situations. Software safety refers to situations where running software operates within a system without causing risk. In the absence of software reliability measurement techniques that demonstrate high software reliability and safety, certain software engineering techniques are necessary. These techniques include identifying hazards through analysis procedures, using hardware and software interlocks to eliminate and control those hazards, using safety analysis during software development, and the evaluation of analysis and development procedures. This final technique is used to judge the level of confidence that analysis and development provide for system-safety engineering. Superimposing encryption data. Tong Lai Yu; K. W. Yu. The process for superimposing encrypted data based on time-reversal transformations in order to produce a secure data security model is discussed in detail. The model combines time and spatial correlations of the data to be encrypted making it difficult to observe meaningful patterns from ciphertexts. The process also makes it difficult to gain information about the plaintext from symbol occurrence frequency in the ciphertext. The use of time-reversal transformations when superimposing data in encrypted forms yields functions for secure operations such as a large choice of keys, the arbitrary number of iterations and the property of arbitrary backgrounds. Understanding fault-tolerant distributed systems. Cristian, Flaviu. Concepts for designing and naming components of fault-tolerant distributed computing are discussed in detail. Concepts of fault-tolerant distributed computing require clear terminology because confusion arises when common semantical conventions are not adhered to. Terms and concepts such as service, server, "depends" relations, failure semantics, hierarchical failure masking and group failure masking are all specific to fault-tolerant systems. While paying attention to semantical issues may help solve some problems in designing fault-tolerant systems, there is a lack of practical advice or published information regarding how different systems behave during failures. Distributed fault-tolerant systems design continues to be more of an art form than a formal, systematic process. Technical correspondence: on Gerasch's insertion algorithm. (T.E. Gerasch) A proposed optimization for T.E. Gerasch's insertion algorithm for creating a minimal internal path length binary tree is discussed in detail. The optimization technique challenges Gerasch's shift direction strategy. The technique involves constraints in addition to Gerasch's logarithmic strategy including traversing three descending paths rather than one and the requirement of numbering nodes. The overhead in the new strategy is lower than that of Gerasch's. Strategies for implementing the optimization are also discussed in addition to identifying situations where the strategy is not useful. Pseudorandom bit generators in stream-cipher cryptography. (technical) Cryptography is used to protect private information against unauthorized access when sending information over an insecure channel such as a telephone line, microwave, or satellite. Diplomatic and military practices rely on stream ciphers. The difficulty in generating a long unpredictable sequence of binary signals from a short and random key is the main problem with stream ciphers. The three requirements for crypotgraphically secure keystream generators are: the keystream must be large enough to handle the length of the transmitted message; it must be easy to generate output bits; it must be hard to predict the output bits. Three of the simplest techniques to guarantee the unpredictability of the keystreams are the nonlinear feed-forward transformation, step control, and multiclocking. Certifying a generator for use in communication protection can be done by running merciless mocking attacks on the generator. A comparative evaluation of expert system tools. (technical) Mettrey, William. Five expert systems were evaluated. The C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) has strong support of forward chaining, can easily integrate with external systems, is portable over several hardware platforms, has fast execution, low price, and no licensing restrictions; it does not support backward-chaining and frame-based programming. The Automated Reasoning Tool for Information Management overcomes some of the problems of the Lisp-based ART in integrating with traditional software systems and delivering applications on platforms other than Lisp machines; it does not support backward chaining, performance statistics, viewpoint, multiple inheritance, and user-defined inheritance relations. Knowledge Engineering System supports forward chaining, backward chaining, and classes. Level 5 supports backward chaining, an English-like rule language, and certainty factors; it does not provide a frame system; forward chaining is suitable only for simple problems. VAX OPS5's characteristic is using the recognize-act cycle and the Rete matching algorithm for forward-chaining inference; it does not do backward chaining or frames. The study shows that each expert system has strengths and weaknesses and no one tool is dominant. Paradigm: a highly scalable shared-memory multicomputer architecture. (technical) ParaDiGM (parallel distributed global memory) is a shared-memory multicomputer architecture under development to demonstrate that high-performance microprocessors can be used to build a large-scale machine. The memory module, the multiple-processor module, and the interbus caching module are the three key hardware building blocks in ParaDiGM. Unix programs under emulation are supported in ParaDiGM; there is no significant performance loss. ParaDiGM has a shared bus/cache hierarchy configuration. Market pressure is bringing about the rapid development of the microprocessors, buses, and high-speed networks needed for a ParaDiGM implementation. Integrated voice-data communication over high-speed fiber optic networks. (technical) A person is active only 40 percent of the time in a typical two-party telephone conversation; the other 60 percent is spent listening to the other person, thinking, or pausing between syllables. Packet-switched computer networks are suitable for integrating data and digitized voice because digitized speech usually can be compressed by better coding or suppressing silences in speech. High-speed fiber optic networks are long and provide high bandwidth and can use unidirectional buses for information transfer, making them suitable for integrating voice and data. Lightwave technology is appearing at just the right time to integrate digitized speech and data and digitized video and interactive graphics. Train-oriented voice-data protocols, such as Expressnet, C-Net, and Fasnet, are limited by signaling overhead between rounds. The non-trained protocols, p-sub1-persistent and DQBD, can achieve 100 percent channel utilization, making them suitable for networking over wider areas such as that covered by metropolitan area networks. Two other important issues are fairness and the packet length used by the stations to communicate with each other. Identifying and qualifying reusable software components. (technical) Productivity and quality in software projects can be increased by an order of magnitude by effectively reusing knowledge, processes, and products from previous software developments. The model presented for reusing software components divides the life cycle model into the project, which delivers software systems, and the factory, which supplies reusable software objects to the project. Software models and metrics are used as the basis for identifying and qualifying reusable software. Using metrics is one way to automate extracting reusable software components from existing systems; this reduces the code that needs to be analyzed by an engineer who knows about the application domain where the component was developed to see if it is, in fact, suitable. Care (computer-aided reuse engineering) is a computer-based system that analyzes existing code and helps extract and qualify reusable components. Ethics and the safety of computer systems. (Standards ) McFarland, Michael C. The issue of responsibility for computer failures in critical systems, such as medical information systems, has not received as much attention as it should. It has a great impact on human welfare and is representative of the issues a number of computer professionals confront in their work. The three basic modes of ethical analysis are normative ethics, which develop and justify rules for right conduct; the ethics of virtue concerns questions of character as it asks, not what is the right thing to do in a situation, but what kind of person does the right thing; and social ethics which asks what structures are required to support values such as justice and respect for human life. These ethics are not mutually exclusive, but are complementary perspectives. Computer professionals must grow up and look beyond fascination with technology and making money and accept their obligations to society. Time stamp for electronic documents defies tampering. (Update) Carlson, Bob. Two researchers, Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber, at Bellcore, the technical support organization for the Bell telephone companies, have developed a method that time-stamps an electronic data file and supplies a way to detect subsequent alterations. The system does not operate on text, it operates on bits, so all types of digital data could have the protection of time-stamping. Stornetta says this system does not require that someone be trusted, as in a cryptography system. The company has applied for a patent. Adding memory boards to the 286 and 386. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Users who want to upgrade equipment without replacing the motherboard in an older computer or who have a new computer and want to preserve some of their original investment should consider a memory board. The Ramflex board, an extended/expanded memory board for AT-compatibles, was easy to install and reliable to use; it is the best buy of those reviewed and is available from Computer Elektronik Infosys of America, Inc. Rampage Plus 286, from AST Research, Inc, works as extended or EMS 4.0 expanded memory. Installation was easy. This is the most elegantly engineered board of those reviewed and is highly recommended. Intel Corp's Intel Above Board Plus 8 and Plus 8 I/O are high-quality products. There were a few problems with the software with Monolithic Systems Corp's Just RAM/AT16 Expansion memory Module. High Fidelity Computer Components' CPI-XMA 4 memory board takes up more than a full slot; there were problems fitting this board because it was not made for the generic clone's chassis. The approach suggested by High Fidelity's customer support division did not work and they had no other suggestions and did not sympathize with the problem. This product is not recommended. Top-of-the-line display equipment. (Hardware Review) (Prism Imaging Systems and Nano Flexscan 9500) (evaluation) Prism Imaging Systems' Excelsior card is an excellent display adapter. It is rugged and uses interlaced and noninterlaced scanning to offer 33 resolutions in both text and graphics and in monochrome and color. The Excelsior is based on a Tseng chip. Price with 1Mbyte of memory is $899. Nano USA Corp's 20-inch Flexscan 9500 is a multiscanning monitor with all controls up front. This is an exceptional unit that switches silently from one resolution to another. Price is $3,999. Microsoft Works 2.00. (Software Review) (evaluation) Somerville, Daniel. Microsoft Works 2.00 for IBM PCs and compatibles is an enhancement of earlier versions; new features include a thesaurus, footnoting, on-screen documentation viewing, a calculator, an alarm clock, DOS file-management, up to 8 files on screen simultaneously, and an automatic telephone dialer. Four programs are integrated into Microsoft Works: a word processor, which is the easiest to use and most flexible of the four; data base management which is for simple flat-file data, no rational, cross-reference, or indexing is offered; a spreadsheet that works well but is unremarkable; and a serial communications module of which the terminal emulation works imperfectly. This is an inexpensive package, $150 retail. The functionality of each program is inferior to the functionality provided by a dedicated program, but they will meet the needs of most users, are well integrated, and commonality makes it easier to learn the various applications. The program is not as easy to use as Microsoft claims, but this is a good product for not much money and is recommended without reservation. Turbo C++. (Software Review) (Review notes) (evaluation) McAuliffe, Daniel. Borland International's Turbo C++ is a complete C++ development environment, the first from a major programming language tools manufacturer. It is available as a standard Turbo C++ package for $199.95 and Turbo C++ Professional for $299.95. For the small difference in price, users should buy Turbo C++ Professional. The complete system is easy to install and installation takes only minutes. Libraries for several basic C++ classes are included. A version of Turbo C++ for OS/2 is not available, which is unfortunate. This is an excellent product and is highly recommended. Almost "Turbo" was Ada. (Software Review) (Meridian Software Systems. Review notes) (evaluation) Open Ada from Meridian Software Systems is the only Ada system that comes close to the same level of user interface as Borland International's Turbo product line. Meridian's compilers are not the equal of the products from Alsys, but they do produce production-quality programs. The IBM version has a real-mode Ada compiler and an Ada compilation environment (ACE), which has a good blend of keyboard and menu-driven processing. The Apple Computer Macintosh version has the Programmer's Workshop environment. Open Ada is recommended for users who want to establish an in-house Ada training program, want to teach a college course in Ada, or want to learn what Ada is all about. Open Ada is the best low-cost compiler available. Quality displays. (Software Review) (Adobe Systems Inc's Type Manager; Review Notes) (evaluation) Adobe's Type Manager (ATM) makes characters on screen smoother with less jagged edges and increases font choices within Window applications by 13 additional fonts. Using ATM means graphic applications are starting to perform the way users have always wanted them to perform. ATM requires a PC running Windows 3.0, a floppy, slightly less than 1 megabyte of hard disk space, and almost any Windows-supported printer. ATM costs $99 and is well worth the money for its more-pleasing on-screen and printed results. Backups made easy. (Software Review) (Central Point Backup; Review Notes) (evaluation) Central Point Backup, $99 from Central Point Software, Inc, is worth the money. Advantages include versatility in providing both backups and restores to tape and to disk; intuitive windows and menus, excellent information and help messages, and a flexible interface so either the keyboard or a mouse can be used; faster and easier backup times; level of control is finer. Central Point Backup can be used with all sizes and densities of floppies and a wide range of QIC-40/80 tape drives. This is a program that is used daily. Sony launches Unix laptop. (Sony Microsystems Co.'s News 3250 Laptop Workstation) (product announcement) Sony Microsystems Co (San Jose, CA) debuts the UNIX System V.4-based News 3250 Laptop Workstation. The 17-pound, 12-ounce 3250 features a 20-MHz MIPS R3000 reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor and a 20-MHz R3010 math coprocessor that give, respectively, 17MIPS and 1.8MFLOPS of performance. Other features include an 11-inch, 1,120-by-780-pixel backlit monochrome liquid-crystal display, 8Mbytes to 24Mbytes of random-access memory, a 240Mbyte or 406Mbyte hard disk drive, 16-bit/8-bit monoaural or stereo audio capability, audio jacks, a speaker, Ethernet interface and a mouse. Sony claims that the 3250 can handle almost any design, program development, scientific or mathematical task expected of a desktop UNIX workstation. Software available for the 3250 includes OSF Motif, IslandDraw, IslandWrite and Cadkey. The 240Mbyte version is $9,900; the 406Mbyte model is $11,900. A designer's dream. (Ray Dream Inc introduces Ray Dream Designer three dimensional graphics software for the Macintosh) (product Ray Dream Inc (Woodside, CA) introduces the $895 Ray Dream Designer high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) color graphics software for the Apple Macintosh computer. The integrated software system can create photo-realistic, 24-bit images in 2,048-by-1,366 pixel resolution for MacroMind's 3DGF file format and PICT format, with .DXF, IGES and Swivel-3D formats to debut in version 1.1. Ray Dream Designer has two major modules: the LightForge modeler and SceneBuilder set of 3D and photorealism functions. Specific capabilities include shading, modeling, rendering, scene description and post-production functions. Incredible Interactivity Inc (New York City) Pres David Biedny's experience with and analysis of the software is discussed. Desktop DNA. (Textco Inc. introduces its Gene Construction Kit) (product announcement) Textco Inc (West Lebanon, NH) introduces its $895 Gene Construction Kit, a software package for designing and analyzing DNA models on the Apple Macintosh computer. The software can construct DNA models graphically or sequentially. The models can be edited in either mode, with complementary changes automatically occurring in the other mode. The graphical mode defines DNA models as linear or circular forms, with the images savable as PICT files. The sequential display mode defines the DNA constructs as single- or double strands of nucleotides. The software also features tracking of DNA segments and segment ends, DNA Inspector for storing DNA sequence files, and a function for attaching electronic notes to construct components. DNA models can be displayed and printed in 8-bit or 32-bit color or in black and white. Phone line photos. (Nikon Inc.'s Image Management System) (product announcement) Nikon introduces its Image Management System (IMS), which includes several related open-architecture products for digitizing, compressing, decompressing and transmitting color photographs over analog telephone lines. The system is targeted at publishing industry applications. IMS components include the PictureDesk image data base and control software for the Apple Macintosh, a compression coprocessor for compressing images to 1/40 of their file size, an intelligent wideband multichannel receiver card for the NuBus, an automated 35mm color film direct telephoto transmitter, LS-3500 film scanner, CP-3000 full-color thermal-dye printer and HQ-1500C high-definition electronic still camera. Three IMS packages are available at prices ranging from $12,000 to $30,000, depending upon the components included. Solid modeling: even though the market gets larger and more indistinct, it's still worth pursuing. (Graphics Industry) Solid modeling computer graphics technologies are becoming much more useful and gaining a larger share of the three dimensional (3D) technical computer market. Analysis of solid modeling market growth is difficult, however, because the capabilities are integrated in mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD) products. Worldwide revenues for 3D workstations and servers will grow from 1990's 19 percent of a $6.7 billion technical computing market to 24 percent of 1993's $12.8 billion market. MCAD workstation seats with solid modeling capabilities will grow from 35 percent of 1990's 60,000 total MCAD seats to 75 percent of 1995's 150,000 MCAD seats. Functional trends in solid modeling applications include parametric modeling, feature designing and integration into overall CAD systems. Potential users, though, should have realistic expectations for the technology and be aware of the trend toward microcomputer platforms. Winds of change. (the trend toward implementing solids-modeling computer-aided design systems)(Focus) The desire of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) users to gain a competitive edge is shown by a switch to CAD/CAM technologies that effectively employ solid modeling, exemplified by Parametric Technology Corp's (PTC, Waltham, MA) ProEngineer software. Industry analysts variously estimate that 10 to 35 percent of CAD users currently use solid modeling. Most CAD/CAM vendors are selling solid modeling technologies that are 10 to 20 years old. Smaller CAD/CAM vendors are leading the industry in developing more advanced solid modeling capabilities. PTC's ProEngineer, for example, has a design paradigm based on object features and parameters, providing an 'unparalleled ability' to experiment with designs through changing parameters. Some large firms, such as Cadam (Burbank, CA) for example, continue to succeed because of user demand for a stable, reliable product. In search of the miracle hologram: spatial image researchers strive to achieve stereoscopic reality. (includes related article Researchers in holography and other visual technologies attempt to achieve fully three-dimensional (3D), walk-around, real-time interactive images. Holography, the use of reference and object laser beams to create interference patterns on film (a hologram) that capture a 3D image of a target object, is the leading candidate for fully three-dimensional images. A variety of holographic technologies are being developed that provide improved depth perception, resolution and brightness; real-time interactive video; realistic color; broader viewing angles; and virtual reality environments. Holographic research and development work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Spacial Imaging Group and at Applied Holographics (Oxnard, CA) is discussed. Alternative 3D visualization technologies include the OmniView multiplanar spinning screen system being developed by Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX). Video meets PC: video editing systems on PC platforms boast new visual and integrative powers. (personal computer) New video-editing technologies enable cost-effective and easier editing of video and audio on microcomputers. Conventional video editing is a laborious and time-consuming process. Several described products demonstrate the ease, speed and cost-effectiveness of the new microcomputer-based video-editing technologies. Avid Technology Inc's (Burlington, MA) $60,000 Avid/1 Media Composer is a powerful, Apple Macintosh IIx computer-based turnkey system that can create a video edit decision list (EDL) and subsequent video in a non-sequential manner. Editing Machines Corp's (Washington, DC) $35,950 Emc2 for IBM AT and compatible hardware employs erasable, removable magneto-optical disks for image storage and advanced visual editing. Digital F/X Inc's (Mountain View, CA) $10,000 Video F/X can control two videotape editors with its proprietary 'black box' and the host Macintosh. Filling a niche: flexibility and interactivity are key to computer illustrator/fine artist. (the work and tools of Minneapolis, MN, Successful Minneapolis, MN, fine artist and commercial illustrator Charley Murphy finds that computer-based graphic systems provide him with a high level of 'flexibility and interactivity.' Murphy's hardware includes an Intel 80386-based Zeos International AT-compatible microcomputer, a Howtek Scanmaster flat-bed scanner, an Eastman Kodak Eikonix linear array camera, a Truevision Targa32 32-bit graphics board, a Summagraphics 12-inch digitizing tablet, and a Management Graphics Solitaire film recorder. Graphics software employed includes the 32-bit version of Time Arts' Lumena, Autodesk's 3D Studio, AT&T Graphics Software Labs' Rio and Topas and Ron Scott Inc's HiRes QFX. The $20,000 cost of Murphy's system is generally beyond the budgets of most commercial illustrators and fine artists. How Murphy employs his graphics technology for both fields is discussed. The art of experimentation: design team refines traditional computer graphics tools to create their own techniques. Senior animator Renee Sauickie and creative Dir Tom Casey of post-production firm Production Masters Inc (Pittsburgh, PA) continually adapt computer graphics technology to their needs. Through experimentation they often find that the computer graphics software packages they employ have capabilities for special effects beyond those visualized by the vendors. An example is the use of a marble surface generator to create lightning. Software used by the team includes Ampex's AVA-3, Alias Research's Alias 3, Thomson Digital Images' Explorer, Media Logic's Artisan, 42 Inc's The Answer and proprietary applications. The software runs on Silicon Graphics 4D/70 and 4D/25 graphics workstations. Use of the software to create cover art for textbooks used in a General Electric training program demonstrates the team's flexible experimental approach. An unlikely pair: medical image processing techniques make inroads in the fine arts arena. (methods employed by Lunagrafix Inc fine Lunagrafix Inc (Cazadero, CA) co-owner and graphic artist Christopher Muench employs his knowledge of computer-based medical illustration techniques in creating fine arts images. His company provides computer-based image processing and illustration services to the medical and scientific communities. Muench employs Time Arts' Lumena, Crystal Graphics' Crystal 3D graphics software, proprietary image processing software and analog photographic techniques to create medical illustrations that are used for such applications as textbooks and advertising. He finds that such image processing techniques as edge and contrast enhancement, color mapping and gamma correction facilitate the creation and modification of fine arts images. Examples of Murphy's use of the graphics software and image-processing techniques to produce computer art are discussed. Flexible design: computer graphics provides ease of use and flexibility with type and design. (techniques employed by Design Design Press (Indianapolis, IN) creative Dir and production Mgr Keith Hampton finds that computer graphics software eliminates many of the tedious manual tasks, and provides more flexibility in graphics design. Hampton provides computer graphics design and illustration services. He finds that a combination of graphics software enables him to achieve any effect that he wants, including mimicking conventional manual graphics techniques. Hampton employs such graphics software as Quark's QuarkXPress, Aldus Corp's Pagemaker, Pre-Press Technologies' SpectreScan, Digital Arts' DGS Paint and Adobe Systems Inc's Photoshop, Freehand and Illustrator. Apple Macintoshes are his host microcomputers because he believes the combination of available graphics applications for the machines make them more powerful tools than IBM PCs and compatibles. Production of graphics examples is discussed. A seductive role: computer graphics technology links the worlds of photography and drawing. (techniques employed by photographer and Photographer, computer artist and professor Susan Felter likes the spontaneity and artistic experimentation potential of computer graphics technologies. She combines computer graphics software for drawing with standard photographic techniques to produce her images. Products employed includes the 8- and 16-bit versions of Time Arts' Lumena graphics software, Summagraphics and Kurta digitizing tablets and pressure-sensitive pens, and a host IBM PC microcomputer. Felter digitizes photographs, manipulates them in several ways and combines them with other images. She cites several advantages to this type of computer graphics manipulation including easy resizing of images, faster execution and ability to do effects that would be difficult manually. Examples of Felter's use of the graphics technology are briefly discussed. Color on the horizon: tabloids may be ideal testing ground for color desktop publishing. (includes related article on the The current generation of microcomputer-based color desktop publishing systems is completely suitable for the production of such types of publications as tabloid newspapers. Newspapers do not require the high-quality color, image quality and resolution of many other types of publications. Color images, though, can add to the appearance of the newspaper. Hardware and software required for producing a tabloid newspaper with color images and photographs include a slide scanner or flatbed transparency scanner, image editing software, 24-bit large-screen color display, high-end color desktop publishing software, color PostScript printer, removable or portable mass storage unit and file compression tools. Exemplifying products are briefly noted. The sophistication of current desktop publishing tools enables the entire process to be performed in-house. Color in, same color out? Will an RGB standard assure reliable, repeatable color throughout the graphic arts industry? (Graphics Industry desire for a device- and process-independent digital color standard drives efforts by national and international standards organizations. The growth in desktop color prepress systems increases the need for methods to transfer electronic color image data directly between remote systems. This requires ensuring that color displayed on one system is identical with color displayed on the other. The American National Standards Institute's Image Technology Committee (IT8) leads US development of a color digital data exchange standard. IT8 is developing an input color target for scanners; transforms for converting color between various RGB, reflective and CMYK color standards; specification for color on displays; and a method for relating color in prints to the underlying data. The International Standards Organization Technical Committee 130 is trying to develop worldwide standards for graphics arts electronic data interchange. Breaking new ground: Mass. DPW turns to AEC and mapping technology to bring major Boston freeway underground. (Massachusetts A committee of Massachusetts Department of Public Works (DPW) and consultancy Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/PB) personnel use a McDonnell Douglas (St. Louis, MO) GDS computer-aided design and drafting (CADD) system to design and implement a $4.9 billion project to place Boston's Central Artery freeway underground. A high accident rate and horrendous congestion plague the 40-year-old freeway. The DWP project will replace the three-lane freeway with a six-to-eight-lane underground freeway without disrupting traffic. The GDS system includes the 3D XSVS three-dimensional modeling system, a powerful relational data base management system and project tracking and drawing revision controls. GDS runs on a DEC VAX cluster consisting of a MicroVAX 3600 Timeshare system, MicroVAX 3900 Server and 37 networked VAXstation 3100 and eight VAXstation computers. Project use of GDS is discussed. Seeing the puzzle. (researchers model Alzheimer's disease-affected cells with three-dimensional computer graphics)(Graphics University of California at San Diego (UCSD) cellular neurobiologist Mark Ellisman, neurophysiologist Stephen Young and software engineering David Hessler are employing three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics to model the disease-affected brain cells of Alzheimer's patients. The use of 3D computer graphics is helping researchers to visualize and analyze the biological components of such chronic degenerative diseases. The contours of brain cells in photographs of slices of brain tissue about 1/10,000 of an inch thick are digitized into a microcomputer. The component slices are stacked , then a Silicon Graphics Iris workstation and a Cray Y-MP supercomputer are used to generate surfaces across the sections. The researchers wrote custom software to handle the surfacing, a Previewer program to rotate rendered views of some surfaces and a proprietary program to create transparent structures. A real-time stroll: Virtus' Walkthrough software lets Mac users create and explore 3D environments. (three dimensional) (Software Virtus Corp's (Cary, NC) Walkthrough is a useful software tool that enables architects, interior designers, building developers and others to design and take clients on a realistic real-time walk through a structure. The software is relatively intuitive to use, with navigation through a structure carried out mainly with mouse and cursor control. Walkthrough includes a Design View facility for creating buildings through design and connection of blocks to make rooms and other objects. A Surface Editor facility enables walls to be cut and doors and windows installed. The Walk View operation allows shifts in points of view in three dimensions and varying rates of travel. Debits include the ease in walking through walls and lack of some useful features. Minimum host system required is a Macintosh Plus with 2Mbytes of memory, though Walkthrough offers more capabilities on a Mac II with a color monitor. Science spreadsheet. (Software Review) (DSP Development Corp's Data Analysis and Digital Signal Processing software DSP Development Corp (Cambridge, MA) offers two versions of its useful and easy-to-use DADiSP (Data Analysis and Digital Signal Processing) software for transformation and analysis of data series. DADiSP has a spreadsheet-like windowed interface into which series of data values and functions are entered. Transformed data series are displayed in other windows as two- or three-dimensional graphs or plots. DADiSP is useful for applications requiring statistical data analysis, but its sophisticated mathematical abilities make it less graphical than even the scientists at whom it is aimed might like. The $895 DADiSP/1.05 can manipulate and display up to 64 data series simultaneously. It includes a wide variety of functions and runs on a minimum of an IBM PC or compatible with 640Kbytes memory, two floppy drives, MS-DOS 2.0 or higher and graphics card. The $1,695 DADiSP/2.0 adds more data views and functions, handles up to 100 data series and requires an AT or compatible with MS-DOS 3.0. Drawbacks area also noted. Adopting an RGB standard: the desktop publishing explosion demands a digital color standard. (Graphics Output) A standard for digital color technology is vital to ensuring the realization of desktop publishing's potential. The increasing transfer of image files among multiple devices and host systems increases the likelihood that colors will be distorted. The situation is complicated by the fact that the capture of primary red-green-blue (RGB) on film is an RGB process, while the separation of colors for four-color printing is requires a cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK) format. Consequently, accurate transformation from RGB to CMYK is vital to ensuring proper color. The Kodak Q-60 RGB target for scanning Ektachrome-based transparencies provides a standard for scanning transformations. The definition and adoption of a full range of standards is necessary for seamless color data transfers. These may include the emerging Digital Data Exchange Standards and the RGB target. Heresies of software design. (column) Plauger, P.J. Heretical software programming ideas (heresies) are often worth considering when conventional approaches do not provide a solution. These heresies include: if you know how to do it, it is not worth doing; if you have never done it before, you do not know how to do it; trust your customer or systems analyst to tell you how to do it wrong; prototype a system to find out what not to do; if you do not understand how to apply a design method, it is probably not your fault; do not tune a system if you can get away without tuning it; and do not jump to projects or jobs that are too far from your level of expertise. Each of these concepts is discussed. Scoping out the context. (using context diagrams to define the domain of a system to be analyzed; includes related article on Context diagrams are useful for defining the domain of a systems problem to be analyzed preparatory to programming a solution. Determining the appropriate limits of a system to be analyzed is important to ensuring that all important components are included, that changes in the project scope will not require costly additional programming, and that resources are not wasted studying system aspects that are not relevant to the system's functioning. Context diagrams define the limits of what should be included or not included in the definition of a systems problem. The diagrams specifically consist of a single process, interacting entities and data flows. The development of a context diagram should be an interactive refinement process. An example problem demonstrates the the nature of the components and the use of context diagrams. Taking control to task. (multitasking object-oriented programming) (Cover Story) Multitasking object-oriented programming (OOP) involves defining the functions and interactive behaviors of a set of programming objects. Two classes of objects, task and scheduler, are developed to demonstrate the functioning of a simple multitasking system. Multitasking enables the user to leave one executing application and and enter another without disturbing the state of either. In a multitasking OOP system multiple interacting objects can be trained to handle messages and exhibit suitable behaviors in response to the messages. Such programming methods are useful to developing complex simulations. A class of tasks is developed that performs non-pre-emptive concurrency. A scheduler is developed that includes all the tasks and the mechanisms to execute them. Multitasking in Modula-2. (using the language's coroutines in MS-DOS) (tutorial) Modula-2 programming language coroutines can be programmed to effect a simple form of multitasking under the MS-DOS operating system. Coroutines are independent procedures that communicate with other coroutines. They are executed through a call to a procedure termed TRANSFER and when completed terminate the associated program. The ability of a coroutine to voluntarily issue a TRANSFER call can be used to implement a 'primitive' form of multitasking. Modula-2's IOTRANSFER procedure call enables the linking of a coroutine to an interrupt signal which causes the host processor to save the system's immediate state while executing some other coroutine. Programming, functioning and an example of the use of Modula-2 coroutines are discussed. Shake & make: this reusable, network-based tool manages code and minimizes conflicts. (using Sage Software's PolyMake utility Sage Software's PolyMake utility program is used to develop a 'build' system for managing a programming project where more than one person is involved in developing code for a single application. Conflicts in code will inevitably arise in medium-sized and larger programming projects where two or more programmers are working on the same program. The build system developed with Polymake accomplishes three tasks to ensure that such conflicts do not arise: minimization of conflicts between developers, implementation of a testable base of current code against which developers can test evolving code, and formal version control. The system is implemented in two workspaces: the BASELINE, which resides on a network server and contains the most recent and complete source code, and the LOCAL workspace, which is a private work area that resides on the programmer's workstation. BlueSky Software: WindowsMAKER v. 3.01. (Software Review) (programming tool and code generator for Microsoft Windows BlueSky Software's WindowsMAKER 3.01 is an easy-to-use and recommended menu-driven software package for developing and encoding applications for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface environment. The software produces source, make, include and resource files in C programming language code according to the programmer's specifications for the application's visual appearance. WindowsMaker then employs the Microsoft C compiler and Windows Software Development Kit to automatically generate the application. Specific features include an excellent menu-generating feature, tools for performing searches by file specification and by text strings, a collection of data on all open-system windows and the configurable QuickMENU program. Enhancements in the new version include a new facility for incorporating the user's code into code generated by the program. Xian Corp: Winpro/3. (Software Review) (software package for developing Microsoft Windows applications) (evaluation) Xian Corp's easy-to-install Winpro/3 software package features customizable code generation for the development of Microsoft Windows applications but has awkward, non-intuitive menu-building functions. Enhancements in the new version include a WYSIWYG application designer, an improved user interface, and resource files do not have to be edited before program prototyping. The new customizable code generation process uses an xBASE-like template language that enables programmers to gradually become accustomed to the application, but documentation is limited and no tutorial is provided for the facility. Other Winpro/3 features and limits are discussed. Problems experienced in attempting to implement a Windows application interface are described. Sage Software Inc: Control Pak/W. (Software Review) (software for developing child window controls for the Microsoft Windows Sage Software Inc's Control Pak/W is a useful software package that enables the development of fully featured child windows for Microsoft Windows applications. The software features an excellent dialog editor and six custom child-window controls: Palette, which offers a grid of color choices; Picture, which enables the display of ordered bit-mapped pictures; Ruler; Toolbox, which enables the display of a collection of icons onscreen; Slider, which is essentially a scrollbar control; and Arrow, which supports a variety of activities. The dialog editor enables the placement of the six controls into dialog boxes. Excellent documentation is included. Millennium Software: WM_CONTROL v. 1.0. (Software Review) (data entry template editor for use in developing Microsoft Windows Millennium Software's WM_CONTROL is a useful utility software package for editing data input templates when developing applications for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. WM_CONTROL capabilities include restricting data entry in fields through the use of field-validation characters, user-defined field-by-field validation and automatic conversion of text input to numeric format. The software works by making the edit controls in the dialog box a subclass. A minor debit is the appearance of the field entry format for date fields. Four example programs and an easily understandable manual are included. A rotten foundation. (errors in floating-point computations) (column) Floating-point calculations are common in computer applications, but the numbers are inaccurate being approximations. Compilers may implement part of the specifications of the 16-digit IEEE-754 64-bit double-precision floating-point standard (none of ten reviewed compilers met all the specifications). Unfortunately, the computer implementation of the concepts of accuracy, precision and significant bits results in floating-point representations that are the nearest approximation of the actual values. These approximations may be convergent or path calculations, but each method carries tiny errors through to subsequent calculations. Floating-point processing is moving into the billions of operations per second, so the errors rapidly accumulate. Subtraction of numbers close in value is the worse problem. Numbers that a computer can exactly represent can reduce the problem. Options, soft and hard. (the state of human-computer interaction is similar to the state of early automobiles) (column) The state of human-computer interaction (HCI) is at a level of development similar to that of the early automobile. A major HCI research challenge is to reduce the knowledge needed to enable non-expert but capable individuals to effectively use computers. Anecdotal description of an educated person who used one computer but developed a growing computerphobia exemplifies the problem. A central part of the problem is the non-standardization and complexity of computer interfaces. This situation is similar to early automobiles in that the latter hosted a variety of steering, pedal and other control layouts, functions and modes of use. The current ease with which one can switch from one car to another is a result of standardization due to the costs of retooling and the potentially dangerous impacts of non-standard interfaces. The need for standardizing computer interfaces is trivial in comparison. CAD keeps motorists moving. Carrabine, Laura. The Massachusetts Dept of Public Works asked Bechtel/Parsons, Brinkerhoff, management consultants, to help them with the traffic volume in metropolitan Boston. B/PB called on computer graphics service bureau Corrigan LoVerde Group for help. The result was a plan for a $4.9 billion Boston Central Artery Tunnel, to be completed in 1998. This is a 7.5-mile interstate highway with 3.7 miles of tunnel and 2.3 miles of bridges. This is a complex project with over 50,000 drawings. Keeping track of this number of drawings required CLG to create Drawing File Relocation and Databasing software. This software, which accesses, organizes, and manages the drawings, runs on a Digital Equipment VAX 3100 system with a CalComp 5735 plotter and 90-100 digitizer, and a Tektronix 4115 terminal. The next phase is an interface for users to record information about a file. Convair goes concurrent. (includes related articles on teamwork and Convair's Integrated Management System) Convair began a program in the mid-1980s called the Integrated Management System (IMS), which focuses on the design, production, and logistics support of the product life cycle. Digital Equipment Corp is working with Convair as system integrator, developing commercial software that is important to IMS. A philosophy called Total Quality Management (TQM) is an essential part of the IMS program. TQM stresses teamwork, trust, and the quest for continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. The first major objective of the IMS development team was concurrent engineering, which is basic to the TQM philosophy and success. A prototype project was selected to implement concurrent engineering. The prototype had a multi-discipline team and free interaction among team members, two characteristics of concurrent engineering. The project was successful and demonstrated that concurrent engineering is an effective method to develop a product. Convair practices will be modified to enable and encourage concurrent engineering. Finite-element analysis software. (includes buyer's guide and related article on vectorization) There are over 30 finite-element analysis (FEA) programs available from more than 20 developers. This increase means FEA programs are becoming more capable and better able to model the real model and no longer require a Ph.D. in structural mechanics to use. There are vendors who are aiming at low-cost FEA for design engineers and analysts at smaller companies. The main differentiator in FEA software is the type of problem handled by FEA codes. Some programs do all kinds of analysis, while others focus on specific types. There are different analysis methods such as the H method, the P method, and boundary element analysis. Tasks that must be done in finite-element modeling are setting up the model for analysis and then reviewing the results from the analysis, usually with graphics. The most common FEA platforms are workstations and microcomputers. The price of FEA software depends on the particular hardware. Gearing up for distributed computing. (includes related articles on the OSi stack, network topologies, owning a network, and The most important factor in a local area network (LAN) is user transparency and ease of use; if a LAN does not have these, users will not use the network. Companies are looking to the future and setting up extensible, workstation-based networks. The architecture, wiring, protocols, and higher-level services of these networks are transparent to the user. Workstations are used because they are designed to be networked and come with the Unix operating system and networking hardware and software. Companies use workstations as file servers, compute servers, or print servers. The star, the bus, and the ring are popular network architectures, or topologies. Engineering LANs usually are a bus or ring topology. Wiring choices are coaxial cable, baseband coaxial cable, twisted pair cable, or fiber optics. There are official standards in use. Added value in network services and software, network management, and connectivity is what differentiates one platform from another. Fast disks for fast workstations. Johnson, Steve. A bottleneck to high performance is disk speed, the I/O throughput rate. Hewlett-Packard's Workstation Performance Lab did tests to measure and evaluate workstation system performance. The results of the tests show that random access is high; 85-92 percent of all disk I/Os are for random data access. Another result is that a disk performs an almost equal number of physical reads and writes. Results show that virtual memory is the largest component of total I/O with data the smallest component. The disk specifications that contribute most to random performance numbers are average latency, average seek, and controller overhead. Random performance can be improved by using multiple, independent disks, or by using two disks, one for data and overhead and one for virtual memory. Enhancements will focus on reducing the total number of I/Os, making random more sequential, and continued improved random performance. Nothing sketchy about pencil plotting. Carrabine, Laura. Users who are considering buying a plotter should consider what the plotter will be used for; the features that are most important; what size and type media will be used; cost to operate; and warranty life. Users should consider the benefits of pencil plotters versus pen plotters. Pencil plotters are more than twice as fast as pen plotters; are erasable; draw images as good as or better than pen plots; are reliable; pencil leads draw instantly and need no attention; and have a lower cost for consumables. Japanese engineers use and prefer pencil plotters because of the speed, especially for engineering drawings. Back to square one? (Industry Perspective) (column) Foundyller, Charles. CAD/CAM elements are in a state of flux as major vendors make fundamental changes in the basic graphics data structures of the CAD and solids modeling systems. Customers' needs are demanding these changes. The focus of these changes is to increase information content and achieve greater data integrity and accuracy. There is also the goal of making graphical data easier to edit and easier for computers to manipulate. Standards for CAD and solids data are unstable and are likely to remain that way for a considerable time because inherent anomalies and other problems are not yet solved even in the most advanced systems available today. This is an important problem that users and vendors must deal with. Computers in engineering education. (The Computer-aided Engineer) (column) Many engineering schools do not teach students how to integrate computers into the practice of engineering. The computer is a powerful tool that would help engineers in all areas of engineering. The problem is that teachers in engineering schools do not have much experience with computers and do not have a model for teaching computing to students. Schools should see students as their products, not their customers; the companies that hire students are the customers. Schools should become involved with local employers, set up methods to check periodically with companies to see what they want, and develop curricula that include the use of computers. Manufacturers should set up committees to redesign their engineering processes so they take computers into account; establish links with local universities and help universities design new engineering curricula that includes computers. The ups and downs of drafting workloads. (The VAR Side) (column) Carrabine, Laura. Value-added resellers are becoming a significant presence in the CAD/CAM arena, which results in lower prices for support and services. Barco Division of EMS Engineering needed to meet irregular drawing work loads with a large enough number of qualified drafters. Researching the problem brought Barco executives to a Technical Software Inc seminar on AutoCAD VAR. Barco bought two TSI AutoCAD systems and has found that these systems have resulted in staff stability, fast startup, user friendliness, higher quality, ability to make changes easily, and online storage of basic elements. Barco executives think the advantages of a CAD approach are faster turnaround time, better accuracy and resolution, and it is easier to make changes. Information systems form large part of strategic plan. (includes related article on hospital information objectives) Pitt County (North Carolina) Memorial Hospital's first information system plan was developed by Ed McFall in 1986 and completed in 1989. Hospital administrators completed another five-year plan in two-and-one-half years. They are halfway through their third plan after only 18 months. The key to their success, according to McFall, is connecting the information system (IS) plan to the hospital's overall strategic and fiscal plans. The IS plan supports the hospital's business and strategic plans and the plans of the East Carolina School of Medicine (ECMS) as the hospital is the school's primary teaching hospital. Most planning is driven by the daily information needs of the hospital and medical school. Any system must fit the hospital's hardware, integrate with current applications and be easy to access. A crisis of leadership in healthcare systems. (column) Simborg, Donald. Debate precedes the adoption of all standards. It should not surprise us that there is some debate regarding the appropriateness, benefits, and other aspects of Health Level 7 (HL7) and other such standards. No one really questions the value of standards for data interchange in healthcare. The roster of breakthrough standards in data communications includes familiar de facto and formal standards like Ethernet, transmission control protocol, X.25 protocol, and others. Criticisms of HL7 includes that it is not 'plug and play,' it is not complete, it serves vendors' proprietary interests and does not solve the integration issue. Consumer groups need to take an active stand and participate in HL7 and other standards organizations. Government agencies may fill the void otherwise. Computers are stepping stones to improved imaging. Freiherr, Greg. Unix and reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC)-based computing platforms as well as graphics supercomputers are part of systems designed to enhance and transmit medical images. These systems provide the necessary power to process large amounts of information being retrieved from computed tomography (CAT) scans. Sometimes only processors or accelerator boards are used. Other times it is the entire computing engine, either as main processor or front end. Imlogix displayed, at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, a four-screen display that could be connected to Next, Sun, IBM or Macintosh platforms. Siemens Medical Systems showed a workstation for processing positron emission tomography scans, utilizing a Sun scalable processor architecture (SPARC) computer. Sun components are included in a three-headed nuclear camera by Trionix. Macintosh platforms are being adopted on a large scale, because of the drop in price and rise in power. Desktop supercomputers advance medical imaging. Frisiello, Roxanne St. Claire. Highly integrated computer system design and high-level languages along with easy-to-use three dimensional graphics software have caused dramatic changes in medical imaging, which requires some technology not common in the computer industry. Medical imaging demands dynamic manipulation of large data volume at a speed and resolution available previously only to supercomputer users. That speed and power is now contained within workstation-sized systems. The same graphics capabilities used for weather forecasting and Stealth bomber development is now linked to traditional imaging to let clinicians do more than look at a slice of acquired data for diagnosis. Previously clinicians had to view transaxial data slices acquired from an imaging system and mentally stack them to achieve three-dimensionality. This is no long necessary with new technology. HIS technology trends. (hospital information systems) Zinn, Tim K. Information systems planners, in tomorrow's hospitals, will benefit from breakthroughs in storage, networking standards, integration and processing time that will gain full potential in the 1990s. Technology will not provide all the answers for HIS departments. Powerful software and hardware can expose other weaknesses like poorly trained personnel, weak planning and unrealistic expectations. Healthcare providers and suppliers will have to make greater commitments to technology before many of these developments can take place. Some automation tools are fairly well-established. Optical disk technology has advanced quickly. Staffing and management applications are available for hospitals that want to monitor staffing levels more closely. Bedside terminals will simplify gathering of clinical data. Electronic billing: a cost reduction opportunity. (Management Perspective) Electronic billing is usually considered as an opportunity to enhance cash flow and reduce outstanding receivables. Attention should be shifted to using it as an opportunity to cut operating costs. The cost of collecting money needs to be controlled, just as any other cost. The focus is on claim payment turnaround times that sound too good to be true. The technology offers efficient technical alternatives to the usual paper, typewriter and correction fluid methods. Most electronic billing systems can edit claims, highlight errors and accept corrections on-line. Quality control, supervision and training are poor in some organizations as generation of required data is expensive and time-consuming. HL7: facilitating multiple approaches to systems integration. Smith, Steven; Dennis, Brian. Hospitals in the 1980s were oriented toward a more centralized information system using mainframe computers and software for all ancillary systems with a single vendor providing the software for all departments. Reliance on a single vendor resulted in many systems becoming cumbersome and outdated. True systems integration and use of multivendor systems gives hospitals a choice of ancillary systems based on functionality. Using a standard during the systems integration process reduces costs and enhances performance. Misconceptions persist within the industry about the HL7 standard. Most hospitals have started an integration effort to keep up with service demands, though many are still using complex, system-specific interfaces. Hospitals may benefit from minimal impact on departmental operations with the HL7 standard, along with ease in implementation impact on operations and more. Computer technology safeguards blood supply. (includes related article on the design and construction of BBOSS) A recent report from the National Research Council says the chance of infection with HIV, hepatitis or other viruses from the transfusion of a unit of blood ranged between one in 40,000 and one in 153,000. Maintenance of a safe blood supply is critical. Blood Systems Inc is the second largest non-profit supplier of blood and blood products, serving 20 regional distribution centers in 19 states. The company developed the Blood Banking On-Line Support System (BBOSS), a custom applications software system designed to process the business and medical side of the blood products industry. The program monitors donor history and testing data between the distribution center and Blood Systems headquarters Each center has a minimum of two Compaq Deskpro microcomputers attached to a laser printer, bar-code readers and other equipment to facilitate blood testing. On the eve of destruction. (Ashton-Tate versus Fox Software) Hawkins, John L. US district Judge Terry J. Hatter has declared Ashton-Tate's copyrights on dBASE invalid, leaving the company without control of its product line. Some analysts believe that A-T will go under if the ruling stands because the dBASE product line sustains the company. A-T had claimed that Fox Software's FOXbase+ was a copy of dBASE III Plus. In a counter-suit, Fox has claimed that A-T stole FoxBASE + secrets. Fox has not yet decided whether to pursue this countersuit. Fox claims A-T does not hold a valid copyright on dBASE because the program was developed at the US Government's expense at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA). Anything created by the US Government falls automatically in the public domain. RTlink/Plus forges ahead. (Pocket Soft Inc.'s RTLink/Plus 4.1 utility program) (product announcement) Software developers are using Pocket Soft Inc's RTLink/Plus 4.1 dynamic linker and overlay manager to develop data base management programs. RTLink/Plus 4.1 enables users to link library files and compiled object code into executable files. Size problems are combated by reducing random access memory requirements, or by reducing program disk-space requirements. For Clipper 5.0 users, RTLink Plus 4.1 enables programmers to 'virtualize' most third-party libraries in addition to Clipper.Lib and Extend.Lib. Users can also create overlays automatically or manually. When extra memory is available, RTLink/Plus allows ASM and C programs to automatically execute in expanded memory. AREV users connect at conference. (Advanced Revelation) Gunther, John. The second annual National Revelation Conference (NRC) demonstrated the growth of Advanced Revelation in the database market. Attendees and show organizer Cogen Information Systems were perplexed by Revelation Technologies Inc's decision to pull its sponsorship in favor of planning its own conference for Apr 1991. Data base servers were a popular topic among attendees, and one Structured Query Language seminar for those wanting to use the AREV/SQL Server/Sybase environmental bond was especially crowded. . One interesting product exhibited was OSR's dBASE-to-AREV application converter, which accelerates the process of letting xBASE shops change standards without disruption. Attendees talked about how Advanced Revelation's power helped their departments solve crises. Flow Charting III updates an age-old tradition. (Patton & Patton's Flow Charting III) (evaluation) The flow chart is still one of the best ways to plan an application, and there are several programs that will help this process. Patton's Flow Charting III is a quick, high-quality, polished package that lets programmers build flow charts easily and produces excellent output on a number of printers. Installation is easy, and users can create, edit, save and load charts from the menu of function keys. Users can add text anywhere, even on the connecting lines and inside the symbols. Documentation is excellent, but the manual is short on diagrams and does not discuss the rules of flow charting well. Flow Charting III is a good value at $195. Get reverse reports with Monarch and Extract. (Software Review) (Datatrope Corp.'s Extract and Personics' Monarch utility Datatrope Corp's Extract and Personics' Monarch database development utilities both have the same basic functionality and premise. Both programs take an existing ASCII format report and pick out elements that a user would like to capture as fields in a file, turning out reports from data files. Monarch, priced at $495, sometimes enables users to re-assemble data into a report without intermediate steps. The program includes extensive reporting capabilities. Extract, priced at $279, is excellent at exporting up to nine DBF files simultaneously. Both products offer more features than bare-bones utility programs, but neither is truly polished or sophisticated. Making sense with Packrat. (Software Review) (Polaris Software's Packrat 3.0 desktop accessory software) (evaluation) Polaris Software's Packrat 3.0 runs under Microsoft Corp's Windows and helps users stay organized. The user's personal information generally falls into specific categories which are represented by icons in the programs. These categories include names and addresses, phone numbers, phone calls, to-do lists, appointments and meetings, expense account/checkbook, disk files and project management. Key words or phrases are associated with each item the user enters and can be used to conduct a 'fuzzy search.' The program's attachment capability enables users to relate one item to another. Setup and configuration are flexible, allowing extensive customization. Some users may find this flexibility an overwhelming experience. Packrat 3.0 is priced at $395 for a single user and $695 for a multiuser version. Remember the people factor. (The VAR Report) Blumenthal, David; Brandi, JoAnna. When installing a new computer system, remember that it is the way the system is integrated into the workplace that will determine how successful it is. Most people resist change, and it is important to lead clients through the process of change by helping them create a clear, realistic vision of where they are going and walking them through the initial steps. Some system integrators are guilty of creating a false impression of what new technology can do for clients. Integrators should take responsibility for easing their fears and use active listening skills whenever possible. Technical jargon that may intimidate clients should also be avoided. How to sort arrays. (Mac Rubel's Power Tools)(includes related articles on leap year feedback, solution to last month's brain A guide to arranging the contents of data base arrays is presented. There are several ways to alphabetize lists of file names entered into an array; specific instructions for those using the Clipper and Fox database development systems are given. An algorithm taken from Donald Knuth's 'Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 3, Sorting and Searching' is used. Donald Shell's method of sorting is very fast and requires only one extra memory variable. It also produces very compact code. Programming instructions are included in the article. Code block basics. (Hardcore Clipper) (tutorial) Spence, Rick. Code blocks are difficult for most programmers to deal with, although they are one of Clipper 5.0's most important features. A code block is essentially a new data type that enables programmers to use a variable to hold a sequence of code that will eventually be executed. Code blocks can be used to replace repetitive macro expansion. The two iterator functions AEVAL() and DBEVAL() can be used to replace loops, making code more efficient. Parameterizing the logic of a routine is the true benefit of using code blocks. Instructions for compiling code blocks at runtime are included. User's choice. (The Fox Files) (tutorial) Goley, George F. A programming lesson dealing with BROWSE windows in the FoxBASE data base management system is presented. A previously developed 'power search' routine can be used to write a program that enables the user to select from among two 'active' BROWSE windows and one 'active' at...SAY...GET window when all three are under program control. The NOWAIT, SAVE, NOCLEAR and LAST clauses of the BROWSE command are helpful in speeding searches because the program can exit and re-enter a BROWSE session without redrawing the screen. A sample program that lets users show multiple windows and select among them with the mouse is presented. Database experts open Windows. (includes a related article on glossary terms) The acceptance of Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 environment for MS-DOS-based systems has motivated developers to explore its possibilities in terms of database products. However, Windows' special features demand powerful hardware, limiting the potential market. A company must have compelling needs to upgrade its hardware in order to adopt a graphical user interface environment. The number of Windows users may nevertheless surpass the number of Apple Macintosh users by the mid-1990s. Windows database development tools include such products as Omnis 5, SQL Windows 2.0, Superbase 4, Q+E and dBFast/Windows. When will the big companies tackle GUIs? (graphical user interfaces; includes related article on meaning of Users are demanding graphical user interfaces such as Microsoft Corp's Windows, and major database vendors are responding to their needs. One of Ashton-Tate's plans is to port dBASE IV to the Windows 3.0 environment. Borland International Inc has made a commitment to Windows 3.0 despite having moved toward OS/2 in recent years. DataEase is also planning a Presentation Manager version if its namesake product that will also be ported to Windows. Fox Software hopes to have a Windows 3.0 version of FoxBASE in beta test by late 1992. Microrim has already moved toward OS/2, but plans to deliver a Windows 3.0 engine. Nantucket Corp has confirmed that the company will have a Windows release of its Clipper development system in the future. A corporation opens Windows. (JC Penney) Brandenburg, Jonathan. Retailing giant J.C. Penney Co uses the Microsoft Windows interface as a standard operating environment throughout its corporate offices and uses fourth generation languages to prototype and develop applications quickly. Graphical user interface features help users perform tasks better and more efficiently via integrated data sharing capabilities. Windows can be also used with MS-DOS-based 80286 machines to extend their life. In-house developers who create new Windows applications use graphical development tools such as Gupta Technologies' SQLWindows that are consistent with Windows presentation standards. In the area of database management, client-server architecture is important. Picking the right interface. Streich, Mark. Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 is not the only graphical user interface (GUI) program on the market. Users choosing a GUI should determine their needs and compare features. The most important GUI features include the interface, multi-tasking capabilities, device independence and Dynamic Data Exchange. For high-end IBM-compatible machines, users should consider OS/2, IBM and Microsoft's successor to DOS. The user interfaces of Windows 3.0 and OS/2 are almost identical, making it easy for users to switch between them. Quarterdeck Office System's DESQview can run multiple DOS programs at the same time on hardware ranging from low-end microcomputers to 80486-based machines. GeoWorks' Ensemble is designed for those who have 8088- and 80286-based computers. Russian developments. (Soviet database market) Lewis, Mike. By 1999, the Soviet Union will become the largest consumer of database software in the world, according to major database vendors. These vendors are investing large amounts of money in the Soviet market, hoping for long-range profits. The U.S.S.R. is a vast country of 280 million people that is working towards building an efficient market economy. Changes in the Soviet economy will require massive computerization, and manual systems will be replaced with microcomputers rather than mainframes. Western vendors have problems to overcome when entering this huge market. A major difficulty is the fact that vendors in the Soviet Union are required to sell in rubles, which cannot be converted into cash to spend back home. Exploring MDXs. (multiple indexes in dBASE IV) (tutorial) Freeland, Russell R. MDX files are one of the best features of dBASE IV, allowing users to store up to 47 index 'tags' in one MDX. Users can have multiple MDXs active simultaneously. MS-DOS does not perform well when there are many directory entries; consolidating NDX files into a single MDX can reduce directory entries. MDXs are essentially modified NDXs compressed into a single file. The header prologue is placed at the file's beginning and remains a constant 512 bytes long. The 'tag directory' consists of 48 32-byte entries. The program maintains a binary tree for the entries in the tag directory. Programming instructions are included. Accounting firms face xBASE divergence. Briggs, Linda L. Accounting firms need to decide which dialects of xBASE are worth investing in as software developers drift further apart in terms of what features they offer. The largest firms, including SBT Corp, SourceMate Information Systems Inc and Champion Business Systems, provide multi-dialect support. Some smaller firms offer separate solutions. SBT will support the Fox, dBASE and Clipper development systems because each dialect has devoted users. Champion will continue to support versions of the main dialects, and in addition, is reviewing Clipper 5.0. SourceMate is testing its software with a pre-beta version of Arago, a new xBASE from WordTech Corp, and has high hopes for it. Paging Revelation right. (setting up linked windows in Advanced Revelation database management system) (tutorial) Linked windows were easy to set up in Revelation G, enabling users to move through a series of pages quickly. Advanced Revelation's virtual windows let the user see only part of a window on-screen, and the prompt sequence takes the user through all of the prompts in the window. A technique for linking windows in Advanced Revelation so that users will have to navigate pages only when necessary is presented. Advanced Revelation requires the user to create one or more subwindows and execute them from the master window or from one another. Programming instructions are included. Programming for the future with RDDs. (replaceable database drivers) (tutorial) Nantucket's Clipper 5.0 offers many new features, such as user-defined commands, virtual memory management and replaceable data drivers (RDDs). RDDs will enable users to build applications that can work with many different database management systems, including those not available when the program was written. The idea behind the drivers is that Clipper 5.0 is an extendible application development language rather than a database management system. RDDs, when accompanied by other powerful methods of database management such as client-server architecture, can increase the performance of database systems on local area networks. Memory matters. (Hands-On Paradox) (tutorial) Rowe, Robin. Developers can eliminate the problem of seeing 'memory resources exceeded' message when developing large Paradox applications by avoiding recursion. . in scripts or procedures operating under Paradox 3.0 or 3.5. Recursion occurs when one script plays another and returns to the first place in the calling script. Any Paradox application with more than one script can result in recursion. Excessive recursion will cause the application to run out of memory. Programming instructions for remedying this potential problem are included. How to share applications. (Mac Master; includes a related article on FoxPro/Mac) (column) Making applications work on both MS-DOS and Mac platforms requires planning. All files are binary, but FoxBASE+/FoxPro and FoxBASE+Mac are technically different applications compiled to work on different processors, each of which runs a different operating system. If programs do not work immediately after being ported from one platform to another, some debugging may be necessary in order to get them to run. Most applications written for FoxBASE+ on MS-DOS computers run nearly unchanged when ported to the Mac. One of the largest obstacles in porting from FoxBASE+Mac is the PIXELS keyword in at...SAY...GET commands. Resources such as fonts, external commands and external functions used by the Mac are not portable because they are stored as binary data. Do you need a math coprocessor? (FoxPro Performance) (column) Winchell, Jeff. Math coprocessors will speed math operations, but are not worth the additional cost for the majority of users. Execution times are usually less than .001 second on an 80386 microprocessor, and only if a user is doing financial modeling or scientific calculations are there any important improvements on applications. Adding an additional 2 to 8Mbytes of RAM is a better way for many users to improve speed; those buying a new machine should put the money that would have gone towards a math coprocessor towards a faster CPU. Results of a series of tests using a math coprocessor are categorized for comparison purposes. Start with what you know. (Clipper Developer) (tutorial) Straley, Stephen J.; Tamburrino, Jim. Clipper programmers need to write code that is robust and adaptable to the environment in which it is called. Routines should be able to act on their own, instead of taking a function and adding parameters to extend its lifespan. Code should extend a function or procedure to make it reusable. Writing for change is important because users always want change. As the application environment changes, the code should be changed as well. The thrust of the Clipper language is in the STD.CH file, a file that should be printed out and kept with the programmer so that it can be studied. Justmice and Justmenus; JASCO Consulting. (Software Review) (JASCO Consulting's Justmice and Justmenus libraries) (evaluation) JASCO Consulting's Justmice and Justmenus are two $39 add-in keystroke libraries for the Clipper database compiler. Justmice lets programmers use a mouse in Clipper applications, and Justmenus provides functions for creating pop-up menus under a mouse-aware interface. The first package includes functions that replace DBEDIT(), MEMOEDIT() and ACHOICE(), three Clipper functions that recognize a mouse. It includes a demo program with source code that uses all Justmice and Justmenus functions. The libraries are easy to use with all standard Clipper applications. Five RAM rules. (random access memory; includes related articles on mail-order and on reading numbers) (column) There are several different factors to consider when buying random access memory (RAM) chips. The kind of material used to package a chip will determine how well it dissipates heat; the two most common materials are ceramic and plastic. Buyers should consider reliability by checking the rating in the technical specification manual produced by each manufacturer and determine know what is included with each RAM chip. Buying higher quality chips will cost more. Those using computer systems for light work can consider buying less expensive RAM, but users who run high-stress applications should wait the extra time necessary for availability and pay a higher price for quality. Beginner's luck. (DB Connections) (column) Frier, David. One of the most admirable benefits of using any CompuServe Forum, especially the Data Based Advisor Forum, is the fact that any question posed is answered with respect. An example of correspondence is included in the article that follows a question initially posed by a user. The question is answered, then answered again when the user still had doubts about how to add the FIELDS in one record, having the total displayed and recorded in the last field. Other users joined in to answer him via the forum, until the user progressed from neophyte to beginning programmer and gained more understanding of how to develop a dBASE application. To mux or not to mux: the internetwork question. King, Steven S. Multiprotocol routers are gaining in popularity in the local area network market, and multiplexor and controller networks are seen by some analysts as inferior. But router networks are often accompanied by decentralized deployment and management, and have little in the way of bandwidth management capabilities. Because they work best with a high degree of route diversity and underutilized bandwidth, router networks can get expensive. In the event of a line failure, the network will force a fixed amount of traffic through reduced bandwidth, which can be a problem for routers as they have no way of deciphering the important data from the less important. Multiplexors are seen by some analysts as a more highly engineered, centralized alternative, with a specific built-in response for every possible wide-area failure. They can also be programmed to give a device more bandwidth at specific times. What IBM isn't saying about LU 6.2. (Logical Unit 6.2 ) Mohen, Joe. IBM maintains that Open Systems Interface (OSI) applications are being developed that comply with Systems Application Architecture (SAA), and that these will be compatible with both IBM and OSI stacks. Some analysts point out that there is a problem of slowness associated with SAA because of its key network protocol, Logical Unit 6.2 (LU 6.2). Analysts point out three main problems associated with LU 6.2. The most pressing problem is that it only provides for half-duplex communications, the sending of data from one user at a time. This can cause major bottleneck problems for OSI applications designed for full-duplex communications. The second problem centers on L.U. 2's limited security capabilities as it does not allow encrypted passwords. Finally, the protocol's lack of flexibility in dealing with sessions can also be a problem. A heads-up approach to tail circuits. (letting the interexchange carrier handle the management of an entire telephone connection) Corporate telecommunication managers can now choose between handling the local telephone circuits themselves, or giving control over to an interexchange carrier. Companies are free to choose the local exchange carrier that offers the best services, but this can lead to administrative headaches as the telecommunications manager then has to coordinate the local carrier and the long distance carrier to ensure correct service. An alternative is to pay an access coordination fee to one of the interexchange carriers that will allow the company to order and maintain the local tail circuits. This will spare the telecommunications manager from having to deal with the two local carriers at each end of the long distance call and the long distance company. It also means there is just one central point of contact should anything go wrong with the connection, and maybe a single bill for all services. The beginning of the end for SNA? (folding SNA into a multiprotocol backbone) Changes in the wide area network environment and new router releases from third-party vendors are helping to fold IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) into a multiprotocol backbone. At that point, SNA would be treated like other protocols, such as TCP/IP, DECnet, and AppleTalk. Network managers would have a variety of lower-cost wide area options by moving SNA traffic into a multiprotocol backbone of internet nodal processors. IBM itself may precipitate this event with future announcements supporting a wider range of networking protocols for key IBM applications. A trip through the OS/2 Twilight Zone. (linking DOS clients with OS/2 Extended Edition servers) The OS/2 Extended Edition operating system can be accessed by DOS users who wish to draw information from OS/2 SQL servers using a client-server architecture. Unfortunately, some analysts claim that IBM does not supply enough documentation or support to enable users to take advantage of the distributed database capabilities in OS/2 peer connections. Without documentation, most customers do not possess the technical qualifications to work out the connecting procedures for themselves. Some analysts also maintain that, in addition to neglecting to provide a suitable a user interface, IBM has also offered few details on how links can be set up between DOS clients and OS/2 Extended Edition servers. Net management enters the multivendor era. (proprietary distinctions among systems should fade as vendors add protocols) Many leading software vendors are developing software products that will allow for the management of networks using different protocols. Many of these products are focusing on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)-based simple network management protocol (SNMP) and the common management information protocol (CMIP). Some analysts believe though, that the success of these products will be limited by the fact that these protocols are still being developed themselves. The trend towards multiprotocol support is bound to benefit managers of large networks. The most immediate area of benefit will be the ability to monitor and control multivendor networks from a single point. Safe at any speed. (multiprocessor servers offer fault-tolerance as well as power) As networking has developed from a local operation to networks containing hundreds of computers, so the requirements have changed with it. With a simple local area network supporting only a few computers speed is usually the critical factor. Often with such networks, mission critical applications are run safely on a mainframe or minicomputer. If the file server goes down in such a network, only a few machines are affected. But in large, corporate networks, reliability is as important as processing power. Fault-tolerant file servers that ensure data integrity are now in demand, especially when supporting mission critical applications. Another essential element in a large network is server availability. To preserve accessibility some new products are offering features that include the ability to route traffic around the failed component in the event of a malfunction. Squeezing more out of T3. (high-speed serial bandwidth to expanded bandwidth) The high-speed serial interface (HSSI) promises to allow connections at up to 52M-bps. This should lead to previously impossible wide area network applications. Network managers have always had difficulty in finding a uniform way to feed serial data into multiplexors or switches at high speeds. The HSSI should solve the problem, and is important in other ways. It is a nonproprietary standard and may soon become an ANSI standard. Because it is a nonproprietary specification, it can be included in any vendors' product, thus allowing for future workstations to interoperate with other products that support HSSI. Also, the Small Computer Systems Interface-II (SCSI-II) 50-pin tab connector and shielded twisted pair cabling requirements match those of HSSI. These SCSI requirements are already widely in use, providing HSSI with a ready made hardware base. ISDN's quiet revolution. (Integrated Services Digital Networks) (includes related article on switched services from telephone New Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) equipment that provide links to public digital networks could be a decisive advance in wide area network technology. The companies marketing the new products are hoping that network managers will view primary-rate ISDN as an economical alternative to private-line networks. With the new products, high bandwidth applications are linked to switched digital services. The new products include multiplexors, switches, and an ISDN data service unit. Moving certain applications to the public networks could prove to be a cost-saving measure for companies in terms of both staff reductions and aggressive pricing from the telephone companies. Some applications like electronic mail still work better over dedicated lines. A global approach to electronic messaging systems. Scott, Karyl. Electronic mail has provided gains in productivity in terms of ease of use in moving documents and messages over a network, but it is also apparent that incompatibility problems between messaging systems is a growing problem. To address the issue, Tandem Computers Inc and Soft-Switch Inc have released products that could transform backbone networks into strategic communication tools for both inside and outside a network's boundaries. Soft-Switch's Mail Network Monitor can manage electronic mail systems from multiple vendors in a coherent manner, and operates at an application level rather than a network level. Tandem's OSI/MHS X.400, MHX.400, and LANMail marry X.400 and electronic data interchange in providing a reliable store-and-forward delivery mechanism for electronic documents. Testing multiprotocol routers: How fast is fast enough? (includes related articles on testing activity, router vendor roundup , the The challenge when testing multiprotocol routers is to measure characteristics that actually affect end-users on a real-world network. Simple router tests do no more than mimic certain aspects of the actual operating environment. When evaluating a router then, test results should be used in conjunction with an end-user's in-depth knowledge of network operations. Additionally, performance is only one aspect of the overall evaluation. The range of functions and protocols a router supports, the network interface it accepts, and its packet filter capabilities should all be considered. Good technical support is also a vital consideration when testing a router. Various evaluation subjects are detailed including network pathology, router criteria, and performance and test results. VSATs give corporate networks a lift. (very small aperture terminals) (includes related articles on hub stations and Very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite networks are gaining considerable popularity in the corporate world as a way to save on expensive leased lines when linking remote sites to a central host. The VSAT market has grown considerably since the technology was first introduced in 1984. In 1990 it had reached more than $400 million with an installed base of over 27,000. That figure is expected to reach the $1 billion mark by 1995. VSAT satellite networks have a number of strengths including an average availability of more than 99.5 percent, about a three second average response time, and a better bit-error rate than conventional land-based networks. VSAT technology is generally used when sites are distributed over large geographical areas, making it too expensive to utilize land-based links. LAN Manager: stuck in Tomorrowland. (two problems) Grieves, Michael. The idea of enterprise computing, where all corporate information resources are accessible to a single individual at any time no matter where or how the data is stored, is considered by many to be an illusive dream. Microsoft Corp and IBM are among those vendors that regard LAN Manager as the network operating system of the future, and the one most likely to bring those dreams to fruition. Many analysts identify two main problems preventing LAN Manger from fulfilling those high expectations. In the first place, there are now many different variations of LAN Manager on the market, each generally incompatible with the others. In the second place, with the exception of 3Com Corp, none of the LAN Manager vendors supports the full range of network protocols required for enterprise networking. Many observers maintain that, until the main vendors rectify these problems, enterprise computing will remain a vision of the future. Users rate WAN protocol analyzers. (wide area network)(Data Communications user survey) (includes related articles on the Today's wide area network protocol analyzers are considerably more advanced and easier to use than their predecessors. Network managers use them to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot enterprise-wide networks. Today's products can monitor more network functions and decode more protocols faster and more accurately than earlier products. Choosing the right analyzer for a specific network can be a daunting task. To find out how today's protocol analyzers rated in terms of quality and service, Data Communications surveyed nearly 200 network managers who regularly use the tools. Detailed are the results of the survey which rated products in 11 different categories, including testing quality, ease of use, system reliability, and vendor support and maintenance. Hewlett-Packard products came out on top, capturing the first three places for overall customer satisfaction with the HP 4954A, HP 4952A and HP 4951C. European VARs step into the spotlight. (value-added resellers) Heywood, Peter. Demand for multivendor, multiprotocol networks is on the rise, leading to many European value-added resellers (VARs) positioning themselves for larger roles in the construction of international networks. The choice of a VAR over an equipment vendor or project management consultant holds several attractions for organizations that want to install and maintain pan-European data networks. VARs tend to have little vested interest in proprietary products and often serve as distributors for innovative products from smaller companies that do not have the resources to reach the mass market. Established VARs are more likely to have experience in building and maintaining multivendor networks, and in the unique administrative problems associated with international projects, such as language differences and coordinating cable contractors. VARs are more likely to have access to larger discounts because they coordinate equipment purchases for the entire network. Having a centralized VAR in charge ensures a certain amount of uniformity in network construction. Codex brings out low-cost T1 feeder mux. (6250 network multiplexor, 9800 LE network management system) (product Codex has introduced the $9,870 6250 network multiplexor, and the $20,000 to $50,000 9800 LE network management system for small to midsized packet-switching and T1 networks. The 6250 is compatible with a variety of data interfaces and standards including CCITT V.11, V.24, V.35, and the EIA-232 and EIA-530 interfaces. It supports two T1 lines in redundant and point-to-point networks, and has six voice and six data ports. Codex is also marketing the 6250/9800 LE as a combination to be used for sending synchronous traffic into a backbone network. A blueprint for multiprotocol applications. (Stratus Computer Inc's Network Express and OSI Server 2.0) (product announcement) Stratus Computer Inc's $2,200 OSI Server 2.0 is an Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) communications package that supports Ethernet, X.25 and associated OSI transport protocols. Network Express is a network management and application development tool that allows users to be insulated from protocol differences. License fees for Network Express start at $6,800, and a separate license is required for each protocol supported, starting at $2,720. Network Express consists of an Assist component, which includes the subroutine library and a common application program interface, the Profile Database, which contains the multiprotocol communications information, and a network monitor called Aware. Both software packages are designed for use with Stratus Computer's XA2000 minicomputer. Hired hands for NetWare LANs. (Frye Computer Systems Inc's NetWare Early Warning System 1.1, and LAN Directory) (product Frye Computer Systems Inc's $495 NetWare Early Warning System 1.1 is a computer network management software package that automatically checks NetWare Intel 80286- and '386-based servers and workstations. It can also identify potential problems on the network and rectify them before clients realize anything is wrong. It can monitor 50 possible network errors, including cache read errors, packet loss, and disk channel failures. Through a database of network resources, Frye's $495 LAN Directory keeps track of all software, printers, hard disks, modems, and users on a network. It also facilitates the automatic updating of LAN configurations and distribution of software. U.S. developers are missing the boat on SDL. (Specification and Description Language) US companies are moving steadily towards fully digital telephone systems and, in the process, creating huge computer networks. Some analysts believe however, that US software developers must begin to work with recognized international telecommunication standards, or risk being left behind by international competitors in the years ahead. One such example is CCITT's Specification and Description Language (SDL). While the standard has considerable commercial support in Europe. some observers believe many US software developers have yet to hear about it. SDL enables the easy and accurate description of very complex real-time systems by defining system operating characteristics. Computer-aided design is one such area that would benefit greatly from SDL development. Many European companies are already requiring that tendered systems be described in SDL. Some analysts feel that, unless software developers begin to incorporate SDL in their products, new software may be considered obsolete and incompatible with international markets. Digital's RDBMS: Rdb/VMS and Ultrix/SQL are worthy contenders in today's RDBMS market. (relational database management system) Digital's relational database management system (RDBMS) strategy is new and combines functionality, stability and connectivity with performance and price. A run-time version of DEC's Rdb/VMS is bundled with the VMS operating system. Organizations therefore need to purchase just one Rdb/VMS development license. Rdb applications, once they are developed, can be deployed on all VMS systems with additional licensing. DEC's Ultrix operating system is available with a run-time version of Ultrix/SQL RDBMS. Ultrix/SQL is the Ingres RDBMS supplied to DEC as part of a partnership with Ask/Ingres. Rdb/VMS is the leader on VMS platforms with over 14,000 development licenses and has been focused by the vendor as a strategic product. The program features a wide variety of tools for administering and using databases in single-site and distributed environments. R&R for SQL reports: Concentric's report writer makes a smooth transition to client-server. (Concentric Data Systems Inc.'s R and R and R Report Writer 3.0 from Concentric Data Systems is a good tool for designing front ends to SQL databases. The program is a powerful report writer that is useful as a programming or end-user application. R and R is based on dBase and is the most popular independent report writer in the marketplace, consistently winning industry awards. Users familiar with Lotus 1-2-3 will find R and R easy to learn and use. The user manual is detailed, well-indexed and easy to use. R and R 3.0 for SQL is strong and can produce a variety of reports. Versions of R and R Report Writer are available for NetWare SQL, XDB SQL and Oracle SQL. Report writers: Easy SQR: SQL Solutions' answer to Oracle's report writers. (Software Review) (Desktop Oracle) (evaluation) There is a great deal of competition among relational database management system vendors in the area of front-end tools for applications development. Easy SQR from SQL Solutions is a screen-oriented program for creating textual reports from relational databases. The program can develop reports with most standard features, like sorted columns of text and numbers with subtotals and totals. Report layout is visually oriented, almost WYSIWYG. Layout is performed in areas and bands. Generation of SQR code is another useful feature. Easy SQR has some important, though not serious, limitations. Reports must run through pull-down menus, not directly from the operating system. It is therefore impossible to incorporate Easy SQR reports into custom applications. One band at a time in the layout window is a small problem. The program cries out for mouse support, as well, which is missing. Easy SQR costs $450 for the MSDOS version and $950 for the basic Xenix version. OLTP for Netware. (On-line transaction processing) (Informix-Online Netware Loadable Module for Netware 386) (product The Informix-Online Netware Loadable Module (NLM) for Novell's Netware 386 ($4,995) will be released in spring 1991. The new product will run on a Netware 386 server providing database services to multiple MS/DOS, OS/2 and Unix clients. Informix-Online NLM is a fault-tolerant server offering protection and recovery in case of system failure. Special features include disk-mirroring and Online NLM's raw disk I/O process. The program, which includes a choice of installation program for various skill levels, takes advantage of Novell's 32-bit architecture and multithreading capability. Gateway to DB2. (interview with Richard Hackathorn, Micro Decisionware VP of technology) (interview) Micro Decisionware VP of technology Richard Hackathorn joined Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates at the 1990 Network World to jointly announce a DB2 Database Gateway for LAN Manager. Micro Decisionware was founded in 1980. Its first product was an implementation of a mainframe CODASYL database written by Hackathorn at the Wharton Business School. Microsoft put the company in touch with a Japanese microcomputer vendor who purchased the rights to CODASYL DBMS, which kept the company going until it found its market niche with another helping hand from IBM. IBM asked Micro Decisionware to provide CODASYL connectivity to DB2. LAN-to-host communication. (includes related article on session-related Execute Interface Block fields) (Cover Story) Most communication at present between an IBM mainframe and MS/DOS-based local area networks (LANs) is accomplished using 3270 protocols. A client/server solution offers better advantages for interactive microcomputer-to-host communication. The problems involved in using 3270 communications include slow processing times and limiting of transmitted data to 'displayable' characters only. Also, communication cannot be initialized from the host to the LAN, and every 3270-based communication needs a dedicated host session. In contrast, the APPC communications vehicle overcomes 3270 drawbacks by providing fast communication in both directions; APPC also does not need a dedicated host session. APPC's chief drawback is its hunger for memory: about 200Kbytes on aa MSDOS microcomputer. A cost-effective solution to this problem is implementing client/server architecture for interactive communications. An implementation of APPC is discussed in detail. SQL tutorial: part 1 of a series on getting up to speed in SQL language programming. (Structured Query Language) (includes SQL is a standard database language for querying and updating most client/server database management systems (DBMS) and is the language of choice for host-based DBMS products. SQL is usable for many tasks ranging from casual database query to database programming and administration. The simplicity of SQL, which facilitates the specification of very complex statements, is deceptive. SQL is not, however, a DBMS or an application development language. SQL was created at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, CA, in the early 1970s, shortly after the publication of "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks," a highly influential article by Ted Codd. SQL was originally called 'Sequel' because it was the sequel to Specifying Queries as Relational Expressions (SQUARE). Bar code bonanza. (includes related articles on bar code symbologies and Time Wand II from Videx) (tutorial) Most computer programmers do not understand bar codes. Many will ask how to have their programs read bar codes. More correctly the hardware reads the bar code and the program utilizes the data as if it came from the keyboard. Bar code expertise comes in familiarity with the bar code readers and the software that lets ordinary printers generate bar codes. Bar codes provide speed and accuracy, eliminating the risk of human error. Usage of bar code technology was limited to the industrial arena until recently. The proliferation of microcomputer technology means that many who want to save time and enhance accuracy are adopting bar code technology. Taking advantage of Foxpro memo fields. (Hands On) (tutorial) Olympia, P.L.; Cea, Kathy. Techniques for memory field handling in FoxPro are discussed. FoxPro does not pre-allocate space in the .fpt file for memory fields in each .dbf record. FoxPro manages its .fpt file space in a more intelligent manner than dBASE III Plus. FoxPro does not rewrite a block after an edit unless the edited text surpasses the initial length of the block. dBASE IV is more efficient yet. It recycles the space when it rewrites a block to the end of the .dbt file because new edits have caused a current block space overflow. Block size in Clipper, Summer '87, FoxBase+ and dBase III+ is fixed at 512 bytes. dBASE shakeout. (look back at Ashton-Tate, Nantucket Corp. and Fox Software Inc. conferences) (dBase Tutorial) A new side of Ashton-Tate was apparent at the company's Technical Conference. Virtually the entire dBase staff was in attendance, including Ashton-Tate Pres Bill Lyons. They were easy to find though probably somewhat intimidating for the average user to approach. A majority of those in attendance were end users. Individual sessions were unsuccessful, at least for experienced developers. The Clipper Developer Conference, sponsored by Nantucket Corp., seems to indicate that Ashton-Tate will have to work hard to woo back serious developers. At its conference in Toledo, OH, Fox Software Inc. made an impressive showing with the pre-release version of FoxPro 2.x. dBASE pictures: products that make applications speak louder than words. (brief reviews of three software packages for incorporating Displaying pictures and other graphics in dBASE applications in a professional manner calls for the use of one of three packages created to handle graphics within a database application. These include Database Graphics Toolkit from Blackhawk, T-Base from Videotex and SilverPaint from SilverWare, which all work with dBASE III+, dBASE IV, FoxBase+, FoxPro and dBXL. Database Graphics Toolkit (DGT) 2.0 includes a variety of .bin routines, stand-alone executables and other such utilities. An image can be scaled automatically to fit an assigned space. DTG is an excellent value at $295. T-Base is like DGT except that all functions are supplied in one program. The user manual is complete and easy to read and includes tips and techniques for creating and capturing pictures. T-Base costs $495; it is the program of choice for developers who write in Microsoft C. SilverPaint is available in two versions, linkable and load/call. Its library features 38 low-level functions. Price is $129. Switch on the Ethernet! (Kalpana's EtherSwitch EPS-700 ) Schoeniger, Eric. Kalpana Inc's EtherSwitch EPS-700 is a multiport, fast-packet switch that functions like a telephone PBX for Ethernet packets. The product, which has three main components (an Ethernet Packet Process, a Cross-Point Switch Matrix, and a System Module), delivers over 30M-bits of Ethernet throughput, allowing simultaneous conversations. Fast-packet and circuit switching on a per-packet basis are used to achieve throughput increases. Ethernet performance is optimized without using FDDI, Token Ring, or other connectivity options. Prices start at $4,995 for a two-port version; a fully configured version costs $9,995. A growing family. (Demax Software's Securepak 3.2 and Secureaudit) (product announcement) Demax Software Inc introduces several new products. Securepak 3.2 works with Digital Equipment Corp's VMS 5.4, exploiting the security enhancements in VMS 5.4. It costs from $495 to $12,995. Secureaudit can be used by standalone or networked systems to verify compliance with a company's security objectives. Secureaudit costs from $225 to $974; when used with Securepak, it costs from $150 to $3895. Pakmanager 3.0 can analyze space consumption across multiple volumes; it runs on VAX/VMS and costs from $395 to $5,195. Dynamic Load Balance 2.1 has new options that permit the system manager to dynamically monitor system performance and then implement an automatic tuning process that matches; it costs from $245 to $5,195. Monitor automation. (Computer Information Systems' Robomon 4.1) O'Connell, Brian. VMS system managers can use Computer Information Systems' Robomon 4.1 to tune their system. Robomon has Tuning Solutions, a real-time tuner that supplies static and dynamic tuning automatically. Robomon detects conditions, generates warnings, and takes corrective actions on VAX/VMS. System managers can select from two configurations: advise only or advise and tune. Another feature of Robomon is Automated Operations to continually monitor a data center. Price ranges from $750 to $20,000. Prototype projection. (Synthesis Computer Technologies' case/ap) Schoeniger, Eric. Application developers can use Synthesis Computer Technologies' case/ap integrated application development system to build an initial prototype for an entire application and then use the Iterative Refinement Process to refine the prototype until the application solution is reached. This means the final prototype is the actual production system with no recoding phase. Developers can produce code in either C or COBOL. Each prototype developed in case/ap is a running application with screen layouts, report formats, and interactive processes. It costs $5,000 to $75,000, depending on CPU, for the VAX/VMS version. Topping off storage needs. (Dilog's RTS 3480 cartridge tape subsystem) Dilog's RTS 3480 series of IBM 3480-compatible cartridge tape subsystems for the Digital Equipment Corp VAX is the first add-on product for the DEC market under unlimited VAXBI bus license. Dilog uses VAXBI interconnect technology in its host adapters. The RTS 3480, which is to be used on VAX 6000s, 8000, and 9000s, comes in three configurations. The company also introduced the DATstacker, a storage solution that provides over 10 gigabytes of unattended backup. There are two versions: an end-user subsystem for $5,629 and a large-volume OEM subsystem without a drive for $1,660. Ask the expert. (Lysis's SIS) Fullerton, Pamela F. Lysis's Support Information System (SIS) collects answers to questions and makes them available to answer queries from other customers. Calls, callers, questions, and answers are automatically tracked by SIS. No artificial intelligence techniques or special hardware are required to use SIS, which runs on a PC, DOS-based network, or VAX. The focus in SIS is on what experts know, not how they know it, so building an answer base is easy because anyone can contribute to the answer base. The VAX version ranges in price from $12,000 to $50,000, depending on configuration. Charting your course. (includes related articles on hierarchical storage management, I/O performance, and technology trends) Storage I/O systems are unable to perform to the level of today's CPU power. A Digital Equipment Corp VAX coupled with a mass storage system results in the process capability of the whole system being held up by the I/O system's ability to service requests for data. The storage device is the biggest contributor to data latency. Methods to improve system response and job run time include reducing data latency and improving system I/O bandwidth. Data latency can be reduced by reducing the demand, or command queue length, on a disk or by improving caching or by using a faster storage device. Disk read performance can be improved by volume shadowing. Striping, decomposing an I/O request into multiple I/O requests processed concurrently on two or more drives connected to separate channels increases disk I/O bandwidth. New VAX hardware and VMS features are expected to change the way VAXclusters and storage systems are configured. I/O subsystem performance. (Part 6) Bates, Kenneth H. Problems may remain even after the I/O subsystem is configured for maximum performance. Performance monitoring tools to move hot files from heavily used disks to relatively idle disks will take care of most of these remaining bottlenecks. Any bottlenecks that remain after that probably will not cause serious degradation in the I/O subsystem's performance except for systems that have extremely high I/O rates or are very performance-sensitive. One method to handle these remaining bottlenecks is to add disks to an existing k.si. Another way is to consider the bandwidth of both the disks and controllers so that a high-speed disk is not attached to a lower speed controller. D-A-T-A compression. (includes related article on 8mm tape drives) Strass, Hermann. Data compression provides high-performance, low-cost backup for a system. File size can be reduced by a factor of two or more using compression, and all the original information is preserved. Hardware-based compression does not introduce overhead into the backup or restore process and does provide significant gains in performance for both backing up files and restoring them. The type of data being compressed determines the compression ratio; a ratio of 2.5:1 is conservative. There are a number of general-purpose compression algorithms; the most popular are the LempelZiv (LZ) algorithms: LZ-1 and LZ-2. Inspecting COBOL copy modules. Lovejoy, David A. COBOL programmers can use the TPU procedure, COPY_FROM_LIBRARY.TPU, to read a file referred to in a COPY statement. The procedure puts the information on the screen. This allows the programmer to inspect, extract, or manipulate the text or alter the copy module. A modified module can be written out to disk. The procedure can be used as a standalone command file. Accounting for UNIX. (Software Review) (GEJAC's ARSAP/Unix) (evaluation) Users who need a networked multiplatform resource accounting solution should consider GEJAC's ARSAP. The company's ARSAP/UNIX 1.1 is an extension to its ARSAP resource accounting package. ARSAP/UNIX collects data on a UNIX/ULTRIX system and then sends the data to the ARSAP server on a VAX/VMS node. At least 25,000 free blocks are needed on the disk where ARSAP will be installed. VMS 5.0 or later is required to run ARSAP. ARSAP permits project accounting to be enabled or disabled. New users are added automatically to the ARSAP authorization file. ARSAP/VMS costs from $5,000 to $50,000; ARSAP/Unix from $500 to $60,000, including ARSAP/VMS. Blissful BI backup. (Hardware Review) (Clearpoint Research's DCMS-TSB 8mm subsystem) (evaluation) Clearpoint Research's DCMB-TSB subsystem satisfies cartridge backup needs and should be considered by a user needing a BI-based backup solution. A Clearpoint BI SCSI host adapter is used, rather than attaching to an HSC. Installation took about 15 minutes. Clearpoint's Subsystem Maintenance Utility is supplied, which enables the user to see exactly what is happening with the SCSI 8mm drives. The DCMB-TSB costs $17,850. Riding the TekXpress. (Hardware Review) (Tektronix TekXpress XP27) (evaluation) Users who are evaluating X terminals should consider the Tektronix XP series. The TekXpress XP27, which costs $4,995 for the base unit, is of first quality; its hardware performance and engineering in color representation is first quality. X stations from Tektronix can use the Digital Equipment Corp fonts on a VMS machine in their native font format. The XP27 has unusual packaging, which permits it to work without a fan. It can connect to Thin or Thick Ethernet. An X station should be thought of as a network resource. System speedup. (Hardware Review) (Nemonix NX880-XL CPU accelerator module) (evaluation) Nemonix Inc's NX880-XL is a CPU accelerator for the Digital Equipment Corp VAX 8800. Installation is easy. The product works by supplying a clock that is about 23 percent faster than the clock on the clock card supplied with the VAX 8800. The Nemonix clock accelerates the clock cycles on each CPU, except for those on the primary CPU that handle the BI bus. This acceleration results in each CPU running about 23 percent faster. Installation is easy. Users can determine if they could benefit from the NX880-XL by watching idle time and seeing how much minutes of 0 percent idle are costing the company in productivity. Also, the effect on throughput that results from every instruction being executed by each CPU at a 23 percent faster rate should be considered. The NX880-XL costs $42,000. Connecting to IBM. (Networking) (column) Harison, Bradford T. IBM is participating in the move to open systems with products that integrate its Systems application Architecture (SAA) with its UNIX AIX-based RS/6000 series of workstations and servers. A variety of products that permit the traditional Digital Equipment Corp VAX/VMS environment to interoperate with DECstation/DECsystem UNIX-based product line have been developed by DEC and its third party. These products make it possible for traditional DEC installations to participate in the multivendor, industry-standard environment developed around UNIX. The main standards in this environment are UNIX, TCP/IP, NFS, and Ethernet. There is evidence that the industry is moving to direct peer-to-peer communication, especially int terms of DEC-to-IBM integration. Outsourcing steps out. (Field Service; includes related article on TRW's Customer Service Division) (column) Outsourcing, going outside the company for knowledge and experience needed to do a specific job, is projected by the market research firm The Ledgeway Group/Dataquest to grow by 15.5 percent per year to $35.8 billion by 1994. The benefits customers can expect to receive from outsourcing include improved performance and reduced costs. Outsourcing can be used to solve the problems of a shortage of in-house skills; high overhead; unacceptable lead time to complete a project. Criteria used to select an outsourcing firm include vendor's reputation, knowledge, and experience; financial condition, proximity to company site, and attitude of vendor personnel. Digital Equipment Corp customers who want to outsource business support services or MIS integration functions can turn to DEC. DEC has several outsourcing programs. DECstation in a VAX/VMS town. (Workstations) (column) Bynon, David W. The underlying operating system is the major difference, from a user perspective, between the Digital Equipment Corp VAXstation and DECstation systems. DECstations can fit into the VMS computing environment, but the user must be receptive to ULTRIX and its tools. A DECstations functions as an ideal platform for CPU- and graphics-intensive applications in the VMS environment. The local area network is what binds the DECstation into the VMS environment. Romancing the database. (Digital Watch; includes related article on DEC layoffs) (column) Loyal Digital Equipment Corp minicomputer users may be wondering if DEC has forgotten them as they see the company announcing products and services to increase the interoperability of Rdb/VMS. Industry observers think that these announcements, along with IBM's SAA and DB2 strategies, are strategies to corner the data base marketplace and revive the mainframe. DEC is working to convince vendors to choose Rdb as the data base command center. DEC marketing mgr Vickie Farrell says the Rdb strategy is partly in response to customer demands for a DEC answer to IBM's DB2 relational data base technology. There are two RdbAccess products: RdbAccess for Oracle on VMS and RdbAccess for RMS (flat files). DEC has formed the Rdb Migration program to help customers convert from Oracle data base applications to Rdb. DEC has taken an object-oriented stance for its Information Network through Trellis Object System 1.0. Objectivity/DB, also from DEC, provides full relational functionality in an object-oriented data base. Teleportation for fun and profit. (DCL Dialogue) (column) Barkes, Kevin G. Kermit, a file transfer protocol, is an excellent way to get two different computers to exchange data. It can handle .EXEs without some type of special post-processing program. Copies of Kermit can be mailed over DECnet using an undocumented feature in the most release of MAIL: the /FOREIGN qualifier. UNIX networking: nontrusted host access. (ULTRIX; includes related articles on Internet identity and Bookreader for ULTRIX) (column) UNIX trusted host access is simple, but there is a loss of security, which means trusted host access usually is restricted to UNIX hosts in departments or divisions and is under the control of one administrator. Nontrusted host access, accessing the remote host by providing password information, is the more usual situation. UNIX is more complex than VMS in nontrusted host access. In UNIX, different commands and a different command syntax from that used when accessing trusted hosts are used for nontrusted host access. It is necessary that a UNIX user have access to an account on the remote host, which is not the same as DECnet VMS, which permits a user to copy a file from any reachable remote node if the file is world-readable. Dec aims for open space. (DEC, UNIX, and open systems; includes a related article on DEC's Distributed Computing Environment and an Unix has been established as the operating system standard for open systems and hardware independence, but the Unix marketplace has for some time been divided into two rival factions - one supports Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4), as defined by AT&T, and the other supports OSF/1, the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) flavor of Unix. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) regards SVR4 as AT&T's proprietary operating system, and had originally thrown in with the OSF. Ultrix, DEC's version of Unix, will incorporate OSF/1. But DEC is not stopping there in its assault on the open systems marketplace. DEC will also add open systems characteristics to its VMS operating system by adding a Posix interface and identifying VMS as conforming to the X/Open Portability Guide III. DEC will ship both OSF/1 and SVR4, with SVR4 shipping on Vaxs used for telecommunications. The focal point of DEC's efforts will be to disabuse users of the belief that open systems are synonymous with Unix. To that end, DEC is developing the Distributed Computing Environment, which will make it possible for different systems to work together on a network, while appearing to the user as a single system. The main bus route for device connection. (the Small Computer Systems Interface bus now serves mid-range as well as The Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI), originally developed for the microcomputer market, is now being touted by controller and peripheral makers as the universal standard for connecting disk and tape subsystems to all the computers. The main attraction of SCSI is its simplicity, which makes it possible for manufacturers to design a single controller, rather than having to design one for each of several competing 'standards'. SCSI's Common Command Set (CCS) brings it as close as possible to 'plug-and-play' compatibility for peripherals. Additionally, SCSI offers data transfer rates ranging from 1.5 Mbytes/s for asynchronous transfer up to 5 Mbytes/s for synchronous transfer. This speed is further enhanced by a disconnect/reconnect function that eliminates bus tie-ups caused by slower peripherals. Further, SCSIs make it relatively easy to daisy-chain peripherals via the 50-pin cable configuration. A SCSI feature of particular attraction for DEC system users is its multi-host facility, which allows a device to be accessed dynamically by up to eight connected systems. Two exceptions to this multi-host capability in the DEC world are a new range of high-performance Winchester drives for the Microvax range, which use the Digital Storage Systems Interconnect bus, incompatible with SCSI, and the SCSI bus on the Microvax 3100, which lacks the bus reserve/release feature that allows multi-host access. Decisive support for information systems. (buyer's guide to decision support software) (buyers guide) Decision support systems (DSS) and executive information systems (EIS) are differentiated essentially by their target market. A DSS tends to be somewhat more complex, and is used by a manager to analyze corporate data and produce reports and forecasts to be presented to more senior executives and board members. A senior executive will use an EIS - generally an easier to use package - to pick out trends and otherwise examine what has been provided by the DSS. Some packages offer both levels of function, on the theory that an executive who has become comfortable with an EIS will want access to the underlying tools in the DSS. A buyer's guide to decision support systems is presented and guidelines for selecting a package are provided. Data handling and modelling abilities are crucial to a DSS. Ease and speed of implementation and ongoing operation are also critical factors. Multidimensionality, that is, the ability to look at various aspects of a business in relationship to each other, is a strong selling point for some applications. Other considerations are the existing data infrastructure of the firm, and as always, budgetary constraints. An appended chart lists packages from some 19 vendors, providing information that includes the operating system(s) the package will run on, where and how it obtains data, what reporting facilities are provided, and the price range. Dec opens up to cabling standards. (Open DecConnect, a plug and cabling system, may improve performance levels) (technical) Digital Equipment Corp, as part of its ongoing effort toward conformity with industry and international standards, has removed the proprietary aspects from its DecConnect plug and cabling system and rechristened it Open DecConnect. Conversion aids have been promised for installations with six-core cable and DecConnect plugs, and the older cabling system will be phased out. DecConnect was originally devised as a way of reducing the cost and simplifying the installation of cabling systems that conformed to the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) RS232 standard and the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) V.24 standard. These standards were very limited in the amount of voltage they could carry and in the length of cable that could be supported. Two new EIA standards, RS423 and RS422, and their CCITT equivalents, V.10 and V.11, support higher minimum voltages, increasing the distance and data speed that can be used. DEC has devised an internal standard for connecting devices that conforms to RS423. The new system is designed to reduce the costs of installation and maintenance. Guidelines are presented for installing the new system. Dec takes stock in spirits production. (Digital Equipment Corp and Cincom Systems win contract to integrate United Distillers' United Distillers is the spirits branch of the Guinness organization, and has a product range that includes a variety of alcoholic beverages. It also comes with a wide variety of disparate computer systems used for bottling, production and order processing. The contract for integrating these systems, using Packer, based on Cincom's Control:Manufacturing software and running on Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) hardware, will be worth some 2.5 million pounds sterling to DEC and over a million pounds sterling to Cincom. It covers 12 modules of Control:Manufacturing, Cincom's Supra Rdb, Mantis' 4GL, and Spectra, an end user development tool. The final hardware mix has not been determined. Seven different plants are involved in the project, one at Laindon, Essex, and the other six at various locations in Scotland. Each presents its own set of problems in terms of migration to the common system. The first system approached, at Inveralmond, Scotland, was highly integrated and included areas not covered by Packer; in such a case, the migration becomes a matter of determining which areas are vital and which can be jettisoned. Full benefits from the system will only begin to accrue once the entire company is running Packer. PC spreadsheet joins VMS big league. (Lotus 1-2-3 for VMS) (Software Review) (evaluation) Lotus 1-2-3 for VMS is a version of the popular microcomputer spreadsheet package redesigned for the DEC environment. Installation is quick, via a standard VMSInstall procedure that includes an Installation Verification Procedure (IVP) and should be a simple task for those familiar with VMS. Documentation is excellent, whether used as a simple reference guide or as a tutorial. Example files for nearly every use a novice might have are supplied with the package. Ease of use is good, with a standard command line interface, and there is excellent online help. One drawback is that the numeric keys are defined and can not be used for numeric input. Another problem is experienced only when running the package under DEC's VWS windowing system; graphs that print clearly are often impossible to see on the workstation screen. This may be the fault of the Regis terminal emulation that must be used with VWS to produce graphics on the workstation, rather than of the 1-2-3 package itself. The bottom line is that this is an excellent package that can hold its own with any of the other major VMS spreadsheet packages. Price was not noted. A fine report for batch processing. (Decscheduler) (Software Review) (evaluation) Decscheduler, from Digital Equipment Corp, is a job scheduling package that automates the running and management of repetitive jobs. An internal logging facility provides an audit trail of all jobs run. Control information about a job is maintained in a separate database from the job itself. Jobs can be scheduled to run at intervals or at set times, and dependencies can be established that require certain tasks to be successfully completed before other, tasks can be run. Decscheduler supports load balancing across a cluster, or can be set to run jobs on a given node, even a remote node. Job completion notifications are sent by VMS Mail and/or a terminal broadcast message. This is a useful tool for batch scheduling, but it will probably be truly useful only in a situation where there are batch requirements of major proportions with critical scheduling conditions. Speeding up ?FSTAT: finding and eliminating a system bottleneck. Horvitz, Phil. Performance tuning shows that VS/II systems respond very well. Tests show that a heavy demand on a system can be caused by link resolution and numerous complex pathnames; this can result in poor performance. An alternative approach to using full pathnames is to DIR into the target directory and use only the simple filename to perform the ?FSTAT call. This should make a VS/II system run faster. New benchmark results show that a considerable amount of CPU can be saved by using simple filnames in place of full pathnames where directory scans are being performed on complex directory structures. Reducing both the depth and number of links in frequently accessed directories can also result in better performance. Building blocks. Part 1. (Windows) English, Arthur. Microsoft Windows and HP NewWave solve the problems faced by programmers who write code to support different brands and types of display adapters and printers. A consistent graphical user interface and built-in menuing systems are part of Windows and NewWave. Programmers build a Windows application, not write a program. A C program is the core of any Windows application, but it is a C program that makes considerable use of Windows functions, macros, type definitions and messages. Building a Windows application requires the Windows SDK and a compatible programming language such as Microsoft C 6.0. A programmer first needs to create the files needed to build an application and then compile the resources. Record time. (WordPerfect's macro recorder) (tutorial) Finkle, Kent. WordPerfect's Z.CLI permits a programmer to record CLI commands in a file as they are executed with only one extra keystroke per line. Time and effort are saved by using Z.CLI because it allows programmers to skip writing out macros in the editor. All that is needed is to show the computer an example of what the macro should do and the computer writes the macro. Straight talk. (Data General's Angelo Guadagno and Ron Edlin) (interview) Data General VP of US Sales and Service Angelo Guadagno and Dir of Systems Engineering Ron Edlin discuss Data General's reorganization of the systems engineers divisions. The charter of the new Systems Engineering (SE) organization is given. Also discussed is the consolidation of US sales and systems offices into geographic areas and how this affects Data General customers. Support for dual Eclipse and AViiON hardware platforms is discussed. Rave review. (Software Review) (The Ultimate data base utility) (evaluation) Ultimate is a utility that relieves the problems of adding, changing or copying data base records. One extremely useful feature is its ability to add and change records using the user's COBOL copyfiles. It can copy records from one data base to another, especially helpful when setting up a test data base. Ultimate also reformats all records in a subindex. Features include always defaulting to the last keys or last option entered and a way out from any option at any time. A limitation is that it handles only seven of the available 32 subindex levels. Another limitation is that it displays only the first 50 characters of a key. Anyone looking for a way to enhance productivity or reduce frustration should try Ultimate. Serving up SQL. (The Database Manager) Morrell, John. The needs of the applications and systems should determine the need to use a relational data base. Relational data base management systems (RDBMS) and fourth-generation languages (4GLs) have a number of unique advantages and Data General Corp's DG/SQL and DG/Ingres provide them. These advantages include high availability and data integrity; online management; portability and interoperability; and powerful query capabilities. It is difficult to compare the performance of RDBMS applications to ISAM or DBAM-based applications, but the features of an RDBMS reduce some of the overhead needed for validity checking and record searching. In control. (The Database Manager) Kellogg, David. Client/server computing brings two major changes into the computing environment: many application development tools are not adequate for building Windows programs and applications now reside on each workstation of a large, distributed network. New graphical tools are needed to address these changes. One kind of tool is a 'dressed up' terminal-based application tool to provide the native graphical user interface; this tool is severely limited. Another kind is a 'turbo-spreadsheet,' which is a spreadsheet designed for end-user analysis and not for mainstream MIS programming. A third tool is one designed for application development of core-production applications on workstations; this is the only one valuable to data processing departments that are developing or deploying client/server applications. Client/server computing requires changes to technologies to fully exploit the capabilities and power of graphical workstations and to provide intelligent data bases that return data base control to the data base administrator. The database connection. (The Database Manager) Howard, Keith. Commercial and business users who want to interact with different software products from their COBOL applications usually need to interface with relational data bases. COBOL applications coupled with a relational data base can be built in two ways. The easier way is to use SQL statements embedded in the COBOL program. The other way is to develop a customized SQL gateway that supplies specialized services that an application needs. Using embedded SQL statements or a specialized gateway makes sure that the common SQL protocol is used to access the data base. The customized gateway can be tailored to the needs of the application. COBOL users can use SQL gateways to take advantage of different technologies while preserving the systems that have been developed over the years. A new generation. (The Database Manager) Morrison, Linda. Informix 4.0 has two new data base engines: Informix-SE (standard engine) and Informix-Online. Informix-SE, a Standard Query Language-based multiuser data base management system, is designed for use in environments where low maintenance is the main requirement. Informix-SE gives the power of SQL without requiring a high-level data base administrator. Informix-Online is designed for the Unix Online Transaction Processing market; it is upwardly compatible with Informix-Turbo, the first generation engine. Features in Informix-Online include advanced logging, checkpoints, online archiving, and enhanced performance and availability. These new features require a more sophisticated data base administrator. Integration strategies: the new networks. (adding RISC CPUs to networks) Combining workstation technologies and reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) creates a major discontinuity in technical computing's evolution. When cutting-edge workstations become competitive with supercomputers in terms of raw computing capability, users may move from departmental computing to distributed computing. Bottlenecks can result because of the rate at which workstations issue network file system commands and the rate at which servers can respond to commands that come from several workstations. RISC CPUs change this picture: the performance of workstations and servers jumps to 7 MIPS and the network lags behind at the old capacity. Servers must evolve so that they overcome bottlenecks caused by the physical aspects of data handling and movement. Users should look for increased use of parallelism in data subsystems, tighter integration of communications and data subsystems, and algorithms that decrease dependency on physical latencies such as head positioning and rotation. Testing, testing. (Software Review) (a shareware memory management utility) (evaluation) RAMTest, a shareware utility from Brown Bag Software, can be used to indicate why memory is unavailable. There are three kinds of volatile electronic memory in today's computers: RAM, EMM (Expanded Memory), and EMS (Extended Memory). When a start-up routine checks the RAM and any additional memory and a problem is found, the difficulty is displayed as a statement of the usable memory without any explanation of why the nominal memory is not completely there. RAMTest solves this problem. It comes in 5.25- or 3.5-inch disks and should be used from a separate disk. It is simple to use. The SAS evolution. (the SAS System data analysis software) Pastore, John N. SAS Institute has spent over 47 percent of its revenues on research and development and $100 million into rewriting its system in the C language as the company continues to evolve its SAS System. The SAS System has evolved to a set of valuable personal support tools: Data Access, Data Management, Data Analysis, Data Presentation, and Applications Development. Analysis tools are add-ons: SAS/OR for operations research; SAS/ETS for econometric modeling, time-series analysis and forecasting; SAS/QC for automated quality control; and SAS/IML for interactive matrix language. These tools also help fulfill the adviser role. SAS/Graph is the best feature offered by the SAS System. The cornerstones of the SAS System are communication and its presentation. Duck soup. (the Unix-to-Unix CoPy, or UUCP, communications utility) (column) Unix's UUCP stands for Unix-to-Unix CoPy. This collection of programs permits Unix systems to communicate with each other. The uucp program transfers files between Unix systems; uux executes commands on a remote system; and mail sends mail to users on a remote system. Standard serial cables and telephone service are used by UCCP to create a dial-up system. After setup, minimal supervision and overall administration is all that is needed by UUCP. Arithmetic coding and statistical modeling: achieving higher compression rates. (technical) Arithmetic coding and modeling techniques enable statistical data compression methods to achieve better performance than dictionary-based techniques. Statistical data compression encodes symbols sequentially into output codes, the length of which varies inversely with the probability of occurrence of a symbol. Modeling techniques are required to accurately predict the frequency of occurrence of symbols in the input data. Finite-context, adaptive and highest-order modeling are discussed. Accurate predictive modeling is vital to the functioning of arithmetic coding. Arithmetic coding is a compression technique that consists of generating a single floating-point number between 0 and 1 that uniquely represents a stream of input symbols. Testing of compression programs on two input samples demonstrates the viability of statistical methods, but they currently require too much memory. Entropy: the key to data compression. (technical) Thomas, Kas. Understanding the frequency of occurrence of individual data bytes in a file enables the accurate calculation of the file's redundancy, which closely approximates compression with tools like ARC 6.02. Claude Shannon determined that English text is generally 70-80 percent redundant, implying that about six of the eight bits in a byte of text data are redundant. The information content of text, then, is in the remaining two bits because the redundancy is calculable and superfluous to the content. This also means that information efficiency in a communication (Shannon calls it 'entropy') is the inverse of the predictability of the bits or, in text, letters. Shannon devised a method for calculating the probability of occurrence of each letter of the English alphabet and, thus, the uncertainty or entropy in a text file, for example. A Turbo C program is developed that calculates entropy and redundancy in a file. Differential image compression: an ideal technique for compressing animated sequences. (technical) Real-time differential (DFF) image algorithms efficiently compress animated images by storing only the difference between sequenced frames after initially storing a primary image, particularly data defining a fixed background. DFF encoding and decoding algorithms offer major disk space savings over other general compression algorithms, minimize the number of bytes per image frame that must be written to video random-access memory (RAM) and can effect smooth-motion, low-resolution video transmission over phone lines. DFF-encoded data is stored as bitmap bit tables with one bit per byte position or in a skip/copy mode where the number of reoccurring bytes to skip and the number of new bytes to copy are stored. Data storage techniques and savings, impacts of major image changes and special applications of DFF technology are discussed. Porting UNIX to the 386: three initial PC utilities. (includes related article on the 386BSD project porting Berkeley BSD UNIX to Three IBM PC-based utility programs are developed that enable MS-DOS access to hardware in order to begin porting BSD UNIX to the Intel 80386-microprocessor environment. A boot utility loads a 32-bit protected-mode program compiled with the GNU C Compiler into memory location 0 and executes it in protected mode from MS-DOS. The second utility loads a basic root file system on the system's hard disk from a downloaded MS-DOS file. The BSD UNIX kernel accesses the file when it initializes itself in the latter stage of boot-up. The third utility copies files to a portion of the hard disk that can be accessed by both MS-DOS and UNIX. This enables the BSD operating system kernel to employ MS-DOS applications and driver programs. Details of the functioning and coding of the utility programs are described. Remote connectivity for portable terminals: part I: VT100 terminal emulation and more for 8051-based systems. (tutorial) Murata Hand-Held Terminals (Amherst, NH) developed a program, Links100, that enables the firm's Links handheld terminal to emulate the DEC VT100 terminal. The Links is an Intel 8051-based unit with a 12-by-20-character touch screen. The Links100 software enables the Links display to emulate the VT100's 24-by-80-character virtual screen. Murata's Speed C program development software was used to modify an existing VT100 terminal-emulation application in Magna Carta Software's (Garland, TX) C Communications Toolkit on an MS-DOS IBM PC-compatible. The resulting code was compiled with Microsoft C, tested with the Murata Speed C Emulator, cross-compiled with an ANSI Standard 8051 cross compiler and loaded into the non-volatile random-access memory of the Links. Details of the development, functioning and benchmarking of the Links 100 terminal emulator are described. Looking into the future of microprocessors: a report from the Microprocessor Forum. The future of microprocessors (MPUs), new MPU announcements and the reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) marketplace were discussed at the Microprocessor Forum. Keynote speaker Andrew Rappaport of the Technology Research Group (Boston, MA) asserts that the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) fabrication technology and, consequently, microprocessor (MPU) fabrication, are advancing so fast that industry will not be able to make 'effective' use of all of the transistors that will be available on future MPUs. Institute for the Future forecaster Paul Saffo described the acceptance of technology as a three-stage, 30-year process. New MPUs introduced at the Forum included the Motorola 88100 RISC processor, Advanced Micro Devices' 29050 RISC processor and the Inmos H1 transputer. Optimizing integer division by a constant divisor: speeding up slow processors. (tutorial) A method is developed for decomposing a division process using a constant divisor into a series of additions, subtractions and shifts. Division is a very slow process in comparison to add, subtract and shift instructions, even on current 32-bit microprocessors. Consequently, it may be faster to perform a division through the sequence of the latter operations than through divide instructions. The conversion of a quotient function is described at length. A C program is developed that produces an algorithm consisting of an instruction sequence for solving the problem. Worst case execution of the sequence on an Motorola 68020-based system was 35 clock cycles, while a divide instruction took 47 cycles. Screen capturing for Windows 3.0: a useful utility for grabbing screen images. (tutorial) A utility program is developed, Snap3, that enables any displayed part of an application in a Windows 3.0 window to be grabbed and pasted to the clipboard. The program consists of four files: a file that calls C and resource compilers and a linker to generate the program, a very simple DEF file, a resource file which defines a menu and names the programs icon, and a header file that includes define statements and function prototypes. Programming and use of Snap3 are discussed. YACC for expert systems: developing a complex rule base. (Turbo C 2.0 and MKS Inc's YACC are used to implement an expert system) Mortice Kern Systems' YACC (from the firm's $249 MKS LEX & YACC package) and the Turbo C 2.0 compiler are used to develop a forward-chaining expert system for the recognition of land forms. Expert systems are of five types: diagnostic, procedural, monitoring, configuration and design, and planning and scheduling. All the systems incorporate a knowledge base of rules for how information will be interpreted. Expert systems use one or both of two methods for stepping through sets of rules to achieve a conclusion. The forward-chaining method involves a data-driven, goal-oriented process that develops a conclusion from applying the rules to a body of data inputs. The backward-chaining method involves a fact-driven, solution-oriented process in which the cause of an existing event or state is derived. The programming and functioning of the land-form-recognition expert system are detailed. Intrinsics of the X Toolkit: a toolkit for configuring your user interface. (tutorial) The X Toolkit handles low-level programming details to enable programmers to concentrate on development of application interfaces for hardware-independent X Window System graphical user interfaces. The X Windows system manages input and output on UNIX-based workstations with bitmapped displays and across heterogeneous networks. X Toolkit consists of the Intrinsics and Xaw subroutine libraries. Intrinsics is a generalization of the Xlib set of C-callable subroutines which transmit windows and graphics requests to the X Window System server. The subroutines are used to develop event dispatching mechanisms in applications. Xaw is the Athena Widget set of reusable user-interface objects which are composed of an X window or windows, state data and manipulation methods. Xaw widgets are used to transmit interprocess communications calls to interacting applications. A sample application is developed. CUA and data compression. (programs supporting the IBM Systems Application Architecture Common User Interface at the East Coast Huffman data compression/data compression and new programs supporting IBM Systems Application Architecture Common User Access (CUA) interface are discussed. The CUA is the interface standard to which Microsoft Windows 3.0 and OS/2 Presentation Manager conform. New software at the Nov 13-16, 1990, Software Development '90 conference (Boston, MA) included Borland International's Turbo Pascal 6.0, which contains the Turbo Vision class library that implements CUA-like functions. Magma Software Systems' Mewel 3 provides C programmers with a CUA function library that works with Microsoft C and the Turbo C++ C compiler, but requires a knowledge of Windows 3.0 programming. The design and functioning of the Huffman data compression algorithm are discussed at length. Programs are developed that build a Huffman tree and implement Huffman compression and decompression processes. Pondering imponderables. (generalized program design and Zeller's Congruence are discussed) (column) A generalized approach to software design and Zeller's Congruence for extracting the day of the week for a given year are discussed. The generalized approach is summarized as 'think' about what has to be done. This consists of five activities: understand what must be done, realize what you do not know how to do, solve any conflicts between the two, do what has to be done and ensure that the result is what was desired. The programmer must understand his/her limits or constraints in knowledge plus those constraints imposed by the target system architecture and by organizational policies. Conversely, the programmer must also understand the requirements of the software to be designed. A terminal emulation program will be developed over several issues to demonstrate the general design process. The -2*J expression and the modulus function in the Zeller Congruence algorithm are explained. The polygon primeval. (filling polygons) (column) Abrash, Michael. The first in a series of columns develops routines to draw filled polygons. Filled polygons, which are essentially any closed form filled with pixels in a consistent color or pattern, are useful for a variety of graphics constructs. Polygons are divisible into convex, nonconvex and complex shapes. Filling a polygon is fundamentally a rasterization process involving drawing all of the horizontal lines within the polygon's boundaries. Problems that must be resolved include defining which pixels are within each polygon and ensuring that multiple polygons can fit together without overlapping. A line-tracing algorithm is modified so that it contains only pixels that are truly within the polygon. Rules and routines are developed to fit polygons together without overlapping and fill them. Allowing time for change. (results of the four-year Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow study on the integration of technology into The four-year Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) study concludes that a willingness of teachers to change and a slow implementation pace are required for successful integration of technology into the classroom. The ACOT program is intended to create vital, creative learning environments using interactive technologies and evaluate their impact on learning and teaching success. The research involves 45 teachers and over 900 students in suburban, urban and rural schools. Conclusions thus far are noted in the ACOT 1990 report, 'Evolution of Teachers' Instructional Beliefs and Practices in High-Access-to-Technology Classrooms.' These include: teachers began to confront their traditional teaching beliefs and embraced the collaborative effort with the students in a noisy learning environment where students proactively worked with each other. Other conclusions are discussed. Systems thinking in Tucson. (Sunnyside High School math teacher Paul Dye successfully teaches systems thinking; includes related Sunnyside High School (Tucson, AZ) math teacher Paul Dye successfully implemented a program wherein students experiment and teach themselves systems thinking. Dye introduced High Performance Systems Inc's (Hanover, NH) STELLA (Structural Thinking Experimental Learning Laboratory with Animation) simulation software into his classroom as part of a strategy to encourage students to experiment. His students began to use STELLA to model behaviors, events and processes on the Macintosh. Subsequently, Dye formed a Systems Thinking Club (SST). Members enthusiastically create their own projects, using STELLA for all types of complex simulations and acting more like researchers than students. Interactive AIDS education: technology plays a key role in a new AIDS education project in Florida. (includes related article on A pilot project is successfully using an ABC News Interactive (ABC-NI) videodisc, interactive videodisc players and computers to provide AIDS education to students in 23 of Florida's 67 school districts. Florida Dept of Education comprehensive health education director Mae Waters saw ABC-NI's 'Health AIDS' videodisc as a new way of delivering AIDS education to Florida students. The two-hour videodisc features such people as former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop and the late Ryan White, interviews, narration, sound, video, and pictures. Waters' pilot project received loans of laserdisc players from Pioneer Communications and Macintosh SE computers from Apple Computer, which also provided Macintosh and HyperCard support and training. Training of 23 district health supervisors and their training of health teachers are also discussed. The new Macs go to school. (Are the new Macintosh computers what educators wanted? Includes related article detailing software Teachers, educational administrators and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower cost Apple Macintosh computers. Apple Computer Inc announced three new models: the low-end, 68000-based Mac Classic, which has an educational price as low as $774; the 68020-based Mac LC, which features color and a hard disk for as low as $1,550; and the 68030-based Mac IIsi, a high-end system for an educational price as low as $2,925. Apple's manager of strategic planning Sue Talley believes the Classic will go into learning labs, while there will be an immediate demand for the LC because it supports color and can run Apple IIe software, and the IIsi will be used for specific high-end classroom applications, teacher productivity and administration. The comments of several teachers, educational administrators and software developers about the new Macs are provided. Slide into a winning presentation: desktop presentation software lets you create, organize, and present your ideas professionally - Five powerful, easy-to-use and comparable desktop presentation software packages for the Macintosh exemplify the technology. Desktop presentation software enables the planning, generation, organization and display and control of professional-looking presentations on a microcomputer. There are two basic categories of presentation software: slide-by-slide drawing type and multi-slide outline-oriented packages. The software features master slides as templates for all slides plus basic word processors, drawing tools, charting and graphing functions, automated slide-show presentation capabilities and hardcopy output. The five briefly-described presentation software packages are Computer Associates International's $495 Cricket Presents 2.01, Symantec Corp's $395 MORE 3.0, Aldus Corp's $495 Aldus Persuasion 2.0, Microsoft Corp's $495 PowerPoint 2.01 and Letraset USA's $295 StandOut! Old titles, new Mac: three familiar programs take advantage of Mac IIsi technologies. (Software Review) (brief reviews of The The $59.95 Number Maze: Decimals and Fractions from Great Wave Software (Scotts Valley, CA), $69.95 The Playroom from Broderbund Software (San Rafael, CA), and $49.95 Once Upon a Time, Volume III from Compu-Teach (New Haven, CT) elementary education software packages were upgraded to use the capabilities of the new Macintosh computers. The Playroom encourages young children to explore by discovering something associated with each object in a room, with the new version allowing the user to record his/her voice as one of the objects. The new version of the Once Upon a Time, Volume III creative writing software enables students to add their voices to text and graphics stories they create on Wild West, Space and Medieval themes. Number Maze: Decimals and Fractions makes great use of the color and graphic capabilities of the newer Macs in presenting problems to be solved while negotiating mazes. Beyond writing: four new programs offer middle school teachers more than word processing. (Software Review) (brief reviews of Four Macintosh educational software packages for grades 5-8 are briefly discussed. The $69.96 Math Shop from Scholastic Software (Jefferson City, MO) offers great color and graphics in a simulation of a mall of shops in which students perform various practical mathematical exercises. The $100 Visual Almanac form Optical Data (Warren, NJ) is an Apple Computer Interactive Multimedia Kit that enables students to explore 7,000 images, sounds and 22Mbytes of text information on videodisc and CD-ROM. The Wagon Train 1848 from MECC (St. Paul, MN) is a simulation of a wagon train trip requiring decisions on many parameters to ensure a successful trip. The $119.95 International Inspirer from Ton Snyder Productions (Cambridge, MA) is a simulation of a trip around the globe, with students gaining geographic knowledge as they search for information. In living color: three new programs for math and science utilize the color of the new Macs. (Software Review) (brief reviews of Three new algebra or physics educational software packages that utilize the color capabilities of the new Macintosh LC are described. The $149 Xpresser from William K. Bradford Publishing (Concord, MA) is a powerful program for helping students to learn how to solve algebra programs and bridge the concrete and abstract aspects of mathematics. The $59.95 Alge-Blaster Plus! from Davidson & Assoc (Torrance, CA) consists of drills, practice activities and a game for learning and reinforcing algebra skills. The $75 Physics Explorer: Gravity from Wings for learning Inc (Scotts Valley, CA) consists of an interactive simulation and laboratory experiments for learning about gravity and its effects. IIe titles on the LC: five popular Apple IIe titles are tested on the new Macintosh LC. (Software Review) (evaluation) Five Apple IIe educational software packages are run on the new Macintosh LC. The LC acts as a IIe through addition of an Apple IIe Card in an LC slot. The $89.95 Bank Street Writer III from Scholastic Inc (Jefferson City, MO) is a powerful word processor that uses the 80-column mode and 1.4Mbyte floppy drive of the LC while running as a IIe program. The $119.95 Immigration: Maintaining the Open Door from Tom Snyder Productions (Cambridge, MA) is an excellent simulation the involves one computer and an entire class in discussing the social and political issues involved in immigration. The $65 The Factory from Wings for learning Inc (Scotts Valley, CA) encourages planning and problem solving through the construction and management of an assembly line. The $59 Odell Lake from MECC (St. Paul, MN) and $299.95 Gertrude's Secrets from The Learning Co (Fremont, CA) are also described. Rich child, poor child: inequalities in technology's use in the classroom and its funding must be examined to insure equal Unequal funding of public schools is preventing students in poor districts from gaining the benefits of computers which, 'when used wisely,' could in turn reduce the disparities in education and opportunity between the rich and the poor. Funding per student can range from $1,800 in some Mississippi and Vermont districts to over $11,000 in some New York City suburbs. Some districts may have one computer for every five students, while others one for every 60 students. Unfortunately, where there are computers there may be a disparity in usage. Poor schools typically 'teach computers,' using them for passive 'repetitive and role activities' such as word processing. Computers in affluent schools are used for expanding the intellectual capabilities of the students. Computers should be used to give students the reasoning and strategic skills to be able to adapt and be proactive in a changing world. Letter from Hong Kong: the city prepares for annexation by China. What will 1997 bring? (electronics industries) (column) Hong Kong awaits the 1997 annexation by China with uncertainty, but the city has ambitious plans that might function as a form of insurance. There are, for example, plans to expand Hong Kong's container port by a factor of five, and there will be a new airport and a new suspension bridge. Hong Kong foresees a transition from a labor-intensive to a knowledge-based economy, and success can no longer depend on cheap domestic labor. In Hong Kong's electronics industries, the challenge will involve training and holding on to talent. Hong Kong has always followed tenets of laissez-faire economics, minimizing taxes and government interference, but this is changing. The government apparently now believes that high tech cannot depend on laissez-faire. Intellectual property: fair return vs. fair play. (Pat Weber vs Wilfred J. Corrigan) (Face off) (column) According to Pat Weber, intellectual-property protection is essential to technology advancement. Without intellectual-property protection, no company can protect its inventions from infringers. Intellectual-property protection translates into stronger companies and strong industries, maximizing innovation and competition. Wilfred J. Corrigan agrees that intellectual-property rights are important, but he opposes abuse of the system. He mentions Texas Instruments (TI) as an example of a company that goes too far. TI's intent, says, Corrigan, is to divert income produced by innovative competitors, which could generate unfortunate consequences both in the US and internationally. Olympian achievement: preparing for the '92 games, Spain installs the world's highest-capacity telecom link. (1992 Summer Olympics) Spain, as part of its preparations for the 1992 Summer Olympics, is installing a 2.5 Gbit/s digital communications system, which will be the first gigabit Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) system in the world. The system was developed by Philips Kommunikations Industrie (PKI), a German company. The link that is installed in Spain extends 150 miles from Valencia, which is on the Mediterranean coast, to Cuenca, which is halfway to Madrid. In Nov 1990, PKI turned its system over to Telefonica de Espana for field tests. PKI hopes to win a contract from Telefonica to complete a network that would connect Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona, so that the completed network would form a triangle. What's doing in Russia? The ISSCC lives up to its global moniker by spotlighting Soviet scientists. (International Solid State The 38th International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), held Feb 13 through 15, 1991, in San Francisco, will be the first such event that will serve as a host to researchers from the Soviet Union. Four USSR researchers will present papers in a special session on technology in the Soviet Union. The papers are on unusual subjects: one describes the use of space-charge waves in gallium arsenide thin films for microwave signal processing; another describes a non-volatile static random-access memory organized as a 4K-bit main nonvolatile memory that copies into any of four pages of 4K-bits each; a third paper discusses a family of n-channel 256K-bit and 1M-bit flash electrically erasable programmable read-only memories; and the fourth deals with a modular minifab for low-volume, fast-turnaround application-specific integrated circuits. Other papers to be delivered at ISSCC are mentioned and are briefly described. Multimedia: making all the pieces play together. (Cover Story) Shandle, Jack. Microcomputer manufacturers will begin, in Feb 1991, to introduce machines that conform to minimum specifications that were established at the Microsoft Multimedia Developers Conference, which was held in San Jose, CA, in Nov 1990. More, however, is required. A digital-signal-coprocessor architecture is needed, and so is a control architecture for video and another for audio. Good tools for writing software are wanted, and so is a reliable way to distribute multimedia documents. And there ought to be a sophisticated reseller channel. Many parts of an overall multimedia technology seem to be coming together, but disseminating documents created at a desktop still poses a formidable problem. According to a spokesman for Xerox, which is a leading player in the image market, starting from the definition of a document as a collection of information, requirements quickly escalate to the requirements of 'groupware,' with an ability to browse and query a document base. This, in turn, implies a friendly user interface. Here's an integrated approach to multimedia; Fluent unveils a PC system that can distribute video and sound over a network. (Fluent Fluent Machines Inc introduces a 'video system architecture.' The company's concept brings full-motion digital video and sound to networked microcomputers as standard data types. Fluent's architecture includes two PC/AT-compatible boards, systems software, development tools and video application utilities. It allows a user to bring digital video and digital audio to applications such as spreadsheets or desktop publishers. The system requires an 80386-based PC, and the video is displayed in OS/2 Presentation Manager windows. The system costs $5,000 to $6,000 if a user installs it, and it costs around $20,000 if it is preconfigured by Fluent. One possible use of such a system is in advertising. Fluent plans applications in desktop video conferencing, video mail and training. The patent battle takes an ugly turn; the chip industry is up in arms over TI's pursuit of intellectual-property rights at the ITC. Competition in the semiconductor industry is increasingly moving from the marketplace to the courtroom. Chip companies, led by Texas Instruments (TI), want profits on the basis of patent rights, and such companies are waging legal battles over alleged infringements. TI, which was successful in winning substantial royalty payments from the Japanese, now accuses US chip manufacturers of violations. TI also pursues intellectual-property rights through the International Trade Commission (ITC), a tactic that is deeply resented. Other companies that have been involved in fights over intellectual property include: Motorola Inc and Hitachi Ltd, over a microprocessor design; Intel Corp and NEC Corp, over microcode; and Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, also over microcode. National chip set unclogs the data highway; the Futurebus+ offering broadens the bandwidth of advanced computers to 3.2 National Semiconductor Corp implements the Futurebus+ standard with a new five-chip set. Futurebus+ and its implementations break a throughput bottleneck caused by the mismatch between computer central processing units (CPUs), which have been fast, and internal buses, which have restricted data flow. The Futurebus+ standard is not expected to be finalized until late in 1991, but specifications are already set. Several companies are expected to go after business in this area, which is expected to grow from $5 million in 1991 to $200 million in 1994. The 82532: a chip for all seasons. (the SAB 82532 Enhanced Serial Communications Controller, from Siemens AG) (product announcement) The Enhanced Serial Communications Controller SAB 82532, from Siemens AG, can be used for both data communications and for telecom. The versatile 82532 provides various operating and clock modes, different encoding and decoding schemes, and support functions. The 82532 marries features of Siemens' HSCX serial communications controller for integrated services digital networks (ISDNs) with the data communications features of Advanced Micro Devices' 8530, which is a world standard for implementing serial channels for data transmission. Siemens foresees a vast market in computer, communication, and industrial applications. What Dennis says. (Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of the C programming language) (UNIX Regular) (interview) (Cover Story) Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of the C programming language, is asked about the beginnings of the language out of the Multics operating system, the main language of which was PL/1. Ritchie began working on porting the BCPL compiler to Multics. The B programming language was used on the first UNIX system; it was a BCPL-based interpreter that produced intermediate code rather than machine code. B was the first high-level language used on UNIX; one of its implementations was an ordinary interpreter generating intermediate stack based language, while the Virtual B software paged version allowed 4K word segments to be paged in and out by the interpreter. Ritchie also discusses other features of B, the development of structures in C, array problems and ANSI's role in the development of C. C++ or C9X? (the future of the C programming language in the wake of the ANSI standard for C) (includes a related article on The future of the C programming language is discussed in the wake of the ANSI standard for C. Most programmers believe that C++ will be the successor to C, but it may not be a simple matter to convert C code to C++. The view that C++ is a superset of C arose in part from the design of many C++ compilers that translate into C as an intermediate stage, but the ability to translate to C does not guarantee compatibility. The developers of C++ consider it a separate language that is distinct from C, although they intended to make it as compatible as possible with 'classic' C. ANSI's X3J11 C standard committee is now planning C9X, the next revision of the language, which means that in five to ten years there may be two incompatible versions of C in use. The C and C++ standardization process and the development of CX9 are discussed. Here are the bugs - TopSpeed C. (testing the TopSpeed C compiler) Turturea, Doru; Somnea, Dan. The TopSpeed C compiler, version 1.04b, is tested with version 2.02 for the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) as a follow-up to an article that appeared earlier in the Here are the Bugs series. Examples of bugs used in the earlier articles in Microsoft C 5 and Turbo C 2.0 were tested first, and TopSpeed passed all the tests, with one exception: the compiler did not detect the 'too large' value of the expression LONG_MAX * 8. The testing also sought to determine how close the TopSpeed compiler was to the ANSI C standard, which led to the discovery of a bug in the %o specifier. The solution suggested is to avoid the %o specifier. Among the advantages of TopSpeed C are nine windows in the editor, friendly error messages, the ability to use all of Turbo C's graphics primitives, its closeness to OS/2 through the MS-DOS DLL mechanism and the powerful set of utilities subordinated to the same IDE. Name mangling in Turbo C++. Lane, Alex. The name mangling scheme used in Turbo C++ and its advantages for C++ programming are discussed. The four basic forms of encoded names in Turbo C++ are (at)className(at)functionName$args, (at)functionName$args, (at)className(at)dataMember and (at)className(at). The most complex part of name mangling is argument encoding because of the number and variety of combinations of function arguments. Turbo C++ uses an improved encoding scheme from that used in AT&T's cfront compiler, which was designed with C as an intermediate language. The cfront scheme also is intended to be used for systems with a single type of function call and a single pointer type. It is possible that names created in C using cfront will look like C++ mangled names when encoded. The scheme used in C++ makes it easier and faster for debuggers and other such associated tools to find and process mangled C++ names. Inside the indexes. (comparison of dBASE, Clipper and FoxPro index files) dBASE, Clipper and FoxPro use a B+ Tree for maintaining database information in sorted orders, as do most other database products, but alternatives are available for implementation details. B+ Tree minimizes the number of disk accesses, which takes thousands of times longer than accessing RAM in even the fastest drives. The larger the block size, the fewer disk accesses are required, but large block sizes can require more RAM, and any disk accesses will take longer. dBASE III NDX index files are slower than Clipper NTX files and dBASE IV MDX index files because the block size of dBASE III NDX files is fixed at 512 bytes, while the block size of Clipper NTX files is fixed at 1,024 bytes, and the block size of dBASE IV MDX files defaults to 1,024 bytes. Other significant differences in the internal index file formats of the three packages are described. A new Smalltalk. (Objectworks/Smalltalk Release 4 from ParcPlace Systems) (Software Review) (evaluation) Objectworks/Smalltalk Release 4 from ParcPlace Systems is currently available for the Macintosh and for several UNIX systems under X, and a version for Microsoft Windows 3.0 will soon be available. The new release does away with the Smalltalk-80 window manager, using the platform's native window manager instead for handling windows. The Smalltalk language is relatively unchanged; the assignment symbol is now the familiar :=, although the left arrow symbol used in earlier versions may also be used. Objectworks differs from C or Pascal in that there is no main program, no apparent compilation and no linking. Programmers change the Objectworks image incrementally, altering existing methods and introducing new ones. Objectworks feels like an interpreted system, but it compiles methods into machine code on the fly. Objectworks is best when portability across platforms is most important. No excuse for user abuse. (human-computer interaction) Harris, John. Some of the things that can go wrong when users get their hands on new computer systems are discussed. Software developers usually work with a systems approach that gives priority to data and functions rather than to the user's perspective. Over time, structured methods and development models have become more amenable to iterative design, but too often the user interface is simply grafted on after the other aspects of the system are complete. One of the myths of user interface design is that menus are user-friendly, but the menus will be used by people with various levels of expertise, and there are many different types of menus. Menus can become incredibly complex as well, and a program may have many levels of menus through which users must traverse. Techniques for cutting down on the number of menus and getting users and designers to work together are discussed. Meeting the deadlines. (the real-time executive in real-time operating systems) The first real-time systems had reliability, safety and deterministic behavior as their essential requirements, but as microprocessors found their way into the systems, response time became an essential requirement as well. Distinctions must now be made between fast and slow, hard and soft responses. Response times measured in seconds are slow, and soft systems, regardless of their speed, are able to go late on their deadlines without causing problems. The most popular technique for fast response is to make time-critical tasks interrupt driven, but most embedded systems are made up of several time-critical processes, which makes this technique difficult. Ready Systems' VRTX32, Software Components Group's pSOS and other executives designed for real-time embedded systems use priority task scheduling schemes; setting schedules in such systems is discussed. A video labelled 'X'. (an X windows training video: All-Hands-On X Video Workshop) The All-Hands-On X Video Workshop is made up of 11 videos, each about 20 to 30 minutes long, in two volumes: An Introduction to the X Window System, and Programming with XLIB. The documentation includes the standard three-volume X Window System User's Guide and a workbook with a transcript of the videos and exercises. The course is presented by Bif Boston and Marilyn Megabucks; concepts are acted out in various settings, such as a burger bar to represent a graphics server. The first volume presents a complete picture of what X components are and how they work together, all without getting too technical. The second volume is at the code level and covers all the important XLIB C calls, as well as their function in the context of example programs. The hands-on practicals were not tested because of a lack of equipment, but the videos are entertaining and educational even without a system to work on. Memoirs of a frontier programmer. (the reflections of a programmer who first learned to program using Mercury Autocode) A programmer with 30 years of programming experience recalls his first encounter with a high-level language. He learned to program using Mercury Autocode, which was first implemented on the Ferranti Mercury in Mar 1958. Mercury Autocode was derived in large part from mathematical notation; it represented variables by letters and subscripted variables by A1 or AK. Brackets were used only for a complex subscript and took the form index + integer. Integer arithmetical instructions could only include integers, but when the left-hand side was a real variable, the right-hand side could contain either type, which was an early version of a mixed-mode expression. Other aspects of the Mercury Autocode described include input/output, organization and control; random, complex and double precision numbers; matrix manipulations, and step-by-step integration of differential equations. The Polish connection. (software development from a Polish perspective) (From Our Own Correspondent) (column) The Polish tradition in computer science goes back to the Polish scientist Lukasiewicz, who is best known for Reverse Polish Notation, and Karpinski, who invented one of the first minicomputers in the early 1970s. Karpinski's project was discontinued because it did not fit into the Soviet standards, however. Karpinski was eventually able to return to computer research, and he now runs his own company abroad. The only machines used in Poland prior to the introduction of PCs were the ODRA Polish version of the ICL 1900, the RIAD Russian IBM 360-style mainframe and the SM-60 and MERA based on DEC's PDP-11. In 1985, almost every Polish technical magazine published a short course on BASIC, and a wave of computer 'madness' struck; the most important machine used at the time was the ZX Spectrum, which could be exported from the West without a license. The state of Polish computer use is discussed. Two column listings. (a plan to save the rain forests through an undocumented feature of some Epson-compatible printers) (The Code Printed program listings do not reach the end of the line, which wastes paper and contributes to the deforestation of the planet. A short C program is presented that prints out programs and documentation in two A5 columns of 80 characters each. Many claim that such a feat is impossible on strictly Epson-compatible printers, which can only run 132 columns in condensed pica mode. In fact, it is relatively easy for compatible manufacturers to add 160 columns. The program listed uses a buffer to read in text a page at a time; the text is rearranged as it is printed. The program is fast, but the type printed may be less legible. High-speed lightwave component analysis to 20 GHz. Wong, Roger W.; Hernday, Paul R.; Harkins, Daniel R. Engineers at Hewlett-Packard have developed an integrated system that combines 20-GHz microwave and lightwave technologies to provide lightwave component analysis capabilities. Hewlett-Packard's 20-GHz lightwave program has already produced a number of products, including the HP 8703A lightwave component analyzer, the HP 83420A lightwave test set, and the HP 83422A lightwave modulator. These instruments, and others, characterize electrical, electrooptical, and optical components of fiber optic communications systems at modulation rates to 20 GHz. Hewlett-Packard's products will eliminate the need for lightwave laboratories to develop their own measurement systems. The integrated product design will allow users to optimize system dynamic range by designing microwave components capable of optimizing lightwave and microwave interfaces and of driving lightwave components at their preferred levels. Design of a 20-GHz lightwave component analyzer. (includes related article on the measurement capabilities of HP's 8703A lightwave Hewlett-Packard's HP 8703A lightwave component analyzer was designed to incorporate 20-GHz measurement capability, traceability, measurement accuracy, and system value. The approach that Hewlett-Packard finally took resulted in an integrated analyzer system that optimized the measurement dynamic range and accuracy and simplified the user interface. The HP 8703A consists of two subsystems that are connected together to work as a single system. The upper box of the analyzer is based on the HP 87028 network analyzer and contains the RF test set and the processing and display section. The lower box contains the lightwave components and the front panel lets users configure measurements quickly and easily. The analyzer also provides users with a choice of wavelengths and laser types. 20-GHz lightwave test set and accessories. Dunsmore, Joel P.; Vallelunga, John V. Hewlett-Packard's HP 8340A lightwave test set can be used with HP's microwave network analyzers to duplicate the functions of the HP 8703A microwave lightwave component analyzer. This test set was designed to bring the HP 8703A lightwave technology to the HP 8510B, HP 8720B, and HP 8757C microwave network analyzers. This configuration allows users to take advantage of the HP 8703A's lightwave component analyzer capabilities and still use the microwave network analyzers for their normal functions. The major hardware components of the HP 83420A lightwave test set are the lightwave source, which converts RF energy into modulated laser light, the lightwave receiver, which completes the lightwave path, the RF drive portion, and the main control board. The test set also includes software that is written in HP BASIC so that it could be easily modified by the user. Accuracy considerations and error correction techniques for 20-GHz lightwave component analysis. The HP 8703A lightwave component analyzer can be made even more accurate if it is used by someone who understands factory calibration techniques, system capabilities, and device-under-test sensitivities. The HP 8703A can perform four different types of measurements: optical-to-optical, electrical-to-electrical, optical-to-electrical, and electrical-to-optical. The first two types of measurements can be traced using standards developed by the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), but the last two types do not have standards that are directly traceable to NIST. To ensure accuracy, users can base their calibrations on theoretically derived performance of electro-optical devices. Although the measurements used in the calibrations are not directly traceable to NIST, they are traceable. Development of an optical modulator for a high-speed lightwave component analyzer. Developers of the HP 8703A lightwave component analyzer needed an efficient, large-bandwidth, calibrated optical modulated optical source so that the HP 8703A would be provided with maximum modulated power at all frequencies for a given drive power. It also required a repeatable, stable frequency response that could be calibrated out by the instrument. The HP 8703A uses external modulation. This permits the laser diode itself to be unmodulated and the linewidth of the source to be very narrow if a distributed feedback laser is used. Before the optical modulator was selected, it was determined that it met bias drift requirements and that it could withstand rigorous environmental factors. The modulators are manufactured on lithium niobate with optical waveguides produced by diffusing titanium onto the wafers at high temperatures. A high-performance optical isolator for lightwave systems. Chang, Kok-Wai; Schmidt, Siegmar; Sorin, Wayne V.; Yarnell, Jimmie When HP engineers realized that a commercial isolator with adequate specifications and a reasonable price was not available, they developed their own high-performance isolator. Using a proprietary technique developed at HP's laboratories, they developed a fiber-pigtailed, polarization independent optical isolator that offered peak isolation greater than 60 dB with isolation greater than 40 dB over a combined wavelength and temperature range of 0 to 55 degrees centigrade and plus or minus 20 nm, a return loss less than 60 dB, and an insertion loss less than 3 dB with a polarization sensitivity no more than plus or minus 0.2 dB. The optical isolator is used to protect optical sources from interference that may cause output instabilities or unneeded changes in the output spectra. HP's isolator combines two isolating stages in series to obtain high performance, although it is based on a previous, single-stage isolator design. A broadband, general-purpose instrumentation lightwave converter. Miller, Christopher M.; Collins, Roberto A. Hewlett-Packard has developed a lightwave converter that allows developers to test high-speed fiber optical transmission systems. The HP 11982A amplified lightwave converter makes it possible to characterize these systems and their components in both frequency and time domains. The converter can be used with spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, network analyzers, and bit error rate testers, and it allows a variety of different measurements of optical waveform characteristics. The converter combines a high-speed pin photodetector and a low-noise preamplifier to provide frequency and time domain measurements on optical signals over the 1200-nm-to-1600-nm wavelength range. The HP 11982A was designed to provide ample conversion gain, broad bandwidth, and good flatness. Dc-coupled response was also a target of the designers, since it is required to display the absolute levels of a time-domain waveform. A lightwave multimeter for basic fiber optic measurements. Maisenbacher, Bernd; Reichert, Wolfgang. Hewlett-Packard has developed a new lightwave multimeter, an successor to the HP 8152A lightwave power meter, that offers improved flexibility, improved performance, and a lower price. The HP 8153A can accomplish a variety of basic fiber optic measurement tasks. It's design includes a mainframe with two plug-in slots and different plug-ins for applications such as short-wavelength fiber applications and collimated-beam applications. The device is capable of performing absolute power measurements of light from active optical components, relative power measurements applied to active or passive optical components, and loss measurements on passive optical components. The HP 8153A can replace standalone instruments such as optical power meters, stable lightwave sources, and dedicated loss test sets. Design of a series of high-performance lightwave power sensor modules. Hewlett-Packard has developed the HP 8153A lightwave multimeter which uses lightwave power sensor modules that had to be designed to very specific requirements. The modules had to possess a low-cost, compact fiber interface, improved sensitivity, low wavelength dependence, fast autoranging, and absolute accuracy traceable to national standards. The device uses InGaAs as its detector material because the material offers the sensitivity and wavelength dependence requirements that HP needed. HP also had to develop a new reference standard for the calibration of the multimeter's modules, since no national standard for fiber-coupled devices exists. The multimeter uses a graded-index (GRIN) lens, a custom gate array, and a digital interface to the multimeter mainframe. Calibration of fiber optic power meters. Hentschel, Christian. Hewlett-Packard is trying to contribute to finding a solution to the problem of calibrating fiber optic power meters. Internal company standards currently determine calibration and accuracy specifications, thus, different vendors specifications cannot be compared and instruments frequently do not meet specified accuracies in practical measurements. An international standard is being developed to solve the problem of incompatible procedures in evaluation accuracy. The standard, the IEC document Calibration of Fiber-Optic Power Meters, is designed to make calibrations traceable, comparable, and transparent to the user. The standard is illustrated by using an example from the HP line of test equipment. The production of the HP 8152A InGaAs plug-in for the HP 8153A lightwave multimeter makes it possible to assess the IEC document. Semiconductor laser sources with superior stability for optical loss measurements. Hewlett-Packard's HP 8153A lightwave multimeter offers superior loss measurement capabilities. Four different laser-source modules have been developed for the HP 8153A, the HP 81551MM 850-nm multimode, the HP 81552SM 1310-nm single-mode, the HP 81553SM 1550-nm single-mode, and the HP 81554SM dual-wavelength single-mode. These laser sources have been designed to reduce the parameters that limit the stability of laser sources. Temperature deviations can cause a lack of stability, as is the laser chip-to-fiber coupling ratio. These effects can be avoided, however, by thermal stabilization of the fiber-to-chip alignment and by providing a hermetic encapsulated housing. A hybrid laser module was chosen to accommodate these considerations. A high-precision current source was implemented to obtain high-quality short-term performance and good stability in noncontrolled chopping. Lightwave multimeter firmware design. Pless, Wilfried; Pott, Michael; Jahn, Robert. Hewlett-Packard engineers have developed flexible, modular software for the HP 8153A lightwave multimeter, plus built-in application software that automates many of the most common measurements that will be taken with the HP 8153A. The software had to be designed to provide customers with the flexibility to adapt to all the possible combinations of sources and power sensors. The built-in application software lets the customer perform frequently-needed measurements without a controller and without writing code. Some of these measurements include stability measurements and a logging application, which stores up to 500 successive measurement values. The software uses the HP-IB system language that has become the industry standard, but it also provides a compatibility mode for users who have a large investment in ATE software for the previous version of the HP 8153A, the HP 8052A. A visual user interface for the HP-UX and Domain operating systems. (includes related articles on the Open Dialogue Hewlett-Packard has developed a graphical user interface for its HP-UX and Domain operating systems that make both systems easier to use for inexperienced users and faster to use for sophisticated users. Two versions have been developed: HP-VUE 2.0 for Domain and HP-VUE 2.0 for the HP-UX operating system. HP VUE provides a look and feel based on the OSF/Motif user interface. It includes a point-and-click interface for direct manipulation of the file system, pull-down menus and dialog boxes. Components include a calendar and appointment manager, a scientific calculator, a window manager, and a system load monitor. One of the most interesting parts of HP VUE 2.0 is its workspace manager, which allows multiple workspaces and drop zones. For example, users can drop icons onto the printer drop zone and route work to different printers according to their needs. Putting sensors to work in food processing. (includes related article on using an artificial intelligence sensing network; part Food companies are turning more and more to cost-effective automation in production processes. Sensors have a critical role in acquiring accurate process information. Tangible and intangible are two categories of sensor measurement important in food processing. Tangible measurements include temperature, pressure, and weight; intangible parameters are taste, smell, texture, and color. It is difficult to perform direct measurement of the process variables that affect these parameters. The latest innovation is factory-floor color sensing that can detect and deliver color information to a control system. Artificial intelligence sensing networks are beginning to be used. The steps in creating an AI intangible sensing network are data collection and sensor selection, training the model, and testing and validation. In dealing with food processing, it is necessary to be aware of the special requirements for sanitary guidelines for food being processed and with the overall sanitation requirements in the plants. Thermal gas mass flow controllers move into the process industries. (Special Report: Flow Monitoring) The accuracy needed to precisely control, blend, dilute, and deliver various gases used in processing is provided by thermal gas mass flow controllers (MFCs). These controllers are being used in many processing industries, not just in the semiconductor/microelectronics industries. An MFC is made up of a flow sensor, flow conditioning bypass restrictor, electronics, and control valve; a thermal mass flow meter is the same except it does not have a control valve or control electronics. The types of control valves used include solenoid, piezoelectric, magnetostrictive actuator, and thermal. Most MFCs have a typical accuracy of 1 percent of full scale, an operating temperature range of 0 degrees to 50 degrees C, and a pressure operating range of 10 to 40 psid with an optimum pressure calibration. MFCs can be used in materials coating, blending analyzer calibration gases, sample conditioning and collection for gas analysis, process gas stream control in pilot plants, leak testing, thermal spray coatings, and fiber optic coatings. It is important to know the flow range, both inlet and outlet operating pressures, and gas composition when specifying an MFC or MFM. Gas MFCs should be used in gas blending control, gas analysis, gas stream control, and metal coating. Choosing level measurement and control instruments. (Special Report: Level Monitoring) The products from the technologies used in level measurement and control are changing rapidly, and evaluating and choosing the best product for an application is becoming more difficult. The two types of level control schemes are interactive, which is used in loops that are affected somehow by other control loops and loops that are critical and need close operator supervision, and noninteractive or standalone, which is used in loops that are remote and not very sophisticated. Interactive control loops need at least a controller and a level transmitter. A variety of hardware can be used to control standalone loops. In selecting a level device, consideration should be given to performance, especially accuracy and repeatability; system requirements; and cost, including purchase cost, installation costs, and maintenance costs. Smart pressure transmitters: a technology update. (Special Report: Pressure Monitoring) (buyers guide) The smart pressure transmitter, introduced in 1983, has not captured as big a share of the market as expected, but it will become a key item in the design and operation of a true digitally controlled process system in the future. One obstacle is the lack of a digital communications standard, but this problem is being worked on and a solution is near. Applications, not price, are the main factor limiting acceptance of smart transmitters. A large number of plants are still operating very satisfactorily with conventional devices in 4-20 mA loops. Many 3-15 psi controlled plants are running relatively well and plant officials do not see a need to change to smart transmitters. Another obstacle is that many companies do not trust digital devices. All of this is expected to change in the future when a standard process industry high speed communication protocol is established. What a systems integrator can do for you. Janovski, Joe. Planning is the main rule for the successful completion of automation projects. The plan must include the business objectives or goals; the results of the project can be measured against these objectives or goals. Hiring a systems integrator is one approach to automating that is very successful. The integrator can perform the necessary interaction between the different departments. The systems integrator's neutrality permits each group to discuss its problems and concerns freely. One of the requirements of the systems integrator is experience in the industry at hand. The first step the systems integrator should do is analyze the company to develop an automation plan that fits the company's business strategy. One method used by systems integrators to change today's business behavior into behavior that matches the planned objectives is to use a four-phase approach: domain analysis, which studies each existing facility to see how it functions; requirements analysis, to show what must be get done; design, which covers how things actually get done; and implementation, which consists of coding, internal testing, factory acceptance testing, and field start-up. PLC-based system monitors and documents pollution abatement. (programmable logic controller) DST Controls, a systems integrator in Benicia, CA, was asked by Chevron USA to perform a feasibility study to meet Chevron's need for an accurate, reliable and timely way to report on soil and ground water pollution abatement activities at Chevron's San Jose, CA, gasoline tank truck loading facilities. DST Controls chose a GE Fanuc Automation Series 90-70 programmable controller (PLC) with a Genius input/output system to meet Chevron's requirements for long-term data logging, ease of use and easy system expansion. A single twisted-pair cable is used by the intelligent distributed I/O system; this results in simpler and less costly installation. The I/O system has self-diagnostic capabilities, meeting the goals of the company. DST chose a DEC MicroVAX computer to function as the central computer to collect information from remote locations. The MicroVAX uses GE Fanuc's CIMPLICITY software package for data acquisition. The three phases of Chevron's pollution abatement project are liquid, separate (free product) and vapor. Shared SCADA system, software run suburban water system. (three Minneapolis suburbs provide low-cost water utility service) The water departments in Golden Valley, Crystal and New Hope, MN, suburbs of Minneapolis, pooled their resources to device a low-cost, up-to-date, effective way to provide water utility service. The departments asked Autocon Industries to help implement a SCADA system to tie their resources together. The new system has an Autocon MICROCAT Class 9900 Telemetry and Control System, Compaq 286 microcomputers, ONSPEC 286/386 Control Software from Heuristics Inc, and MICROCAT 9900 software from Autocon. The master computer in the system is located at the Golden Valley utilities building, where it receives and transmits data via radio telemetry from MICROCAT Remote Terminal Units. There is a graphical user interface in the operating software that permits operators to monitor tank levels. The application software has an algorithm that limits the total number of pumps running at a given time, reducing operating costs. A graphic display permits participation in a load shedding program. The system is extremely successful; it is easy to use and it helps regulate the operating budget. Integrated computers make short work of compression brake testing. Hoover, Mark. Schenck Turner Inc has provided a solution for a leading compression brake producer that needed to test the performance of compression brakes prior to installation. The procedure Schenck developed for simulating the conditions of a diesel engine is a test stand that integrates a programmable controller (PLC) and two SBCs to perform multiple tests at high speed. The solution combines Indocomp Systems's IND-68041 SBC with a Logical Design Group PC/XT board. The entire process takes 2.5 minutes, and some 20 parts can be tested in an hour. The Schenck Turner system is more reliable and faster than subjective manual inspection. Memory chip stores data in analog form. (Information Storage Devices Inc.'s 1016 analog storage chip) (product announcement) Information Storage Devices Inc introduces the 1016 nonvolatile memory chip that stores analog information in analog form. This means that no A/D or D/A converters are required. The 1016 can retain data for up to 10 years without power. The first applications to be targeted are voice signals, for voice annunciators, communications equipment, and the like. The chip comes in 28-pin DIP, plastic leadless chip carrier or small outline packages. Multiple messages can be stored and played back whenever the user wants. A storage array of 160 segments is the basis of the device. Scepticism grows over OfficeVision. (IBM's OfficeVision) Signs indicate that IBM's plans for OfficeVision are falling apart. OfficeVision is the SAA product which the company calls 'the glue for all its applications.' Release dates for important parts of the product were withdrawn in Dec 1991. A Gartner Group report recommends that mainframe users switch to an alternative to OfficeVision such as Verimation's Memo, a move that could save them as much as $4 million over three years with no function loss. Mainframe users in the UK are growing skeptical of OfficeVision/MVS. Company officials believe that IBM introduced OfficeVision, which it hoped would become a de facto standard, before it had the ability to deliver a range of cost-effective applications. Imageplus on PS/2s but no dates yet. (IBM's SAA document image processing system) (product announcement) IBM's SAA document image processing system, Imageplus, will soon be available for PS/2 local area network servers to run, although the company has not given a date or a price. Users have been waiting for the PS/2 host version of the product, especially those who want to try it out before committing to the MVS/ESA version. However, IBM needs to make the product SAA-compatible before Imageplus is delivered. Imageplus PS/2 can scan documents using a variety of scanners, and manipulate images on screen, scaling them and integrating them into larger documents. Text notes can be added with the mainframe versions. Oracle moves its CASE tools onto IBM platforms. (Computer-aided software engineering) Oracle is migrating its computer-aided software engineering tools to IBM environments, except for AS/400. The company also plans to develop both interfaces and bi-directional bridges to support software developers who are interested in using both Oracle's portable CASE tools and IBM Repository Manager. The Oracle products on IBM platforms include CASE Generator, CASE Dictionary, and CASE Designer. CASE Dictionary 4.1 is a multi-user dictionary that operates on top of the Oracle database. CASE Generator takes design data from the CASE Dictionary and generates structured query language forms applications. CASE Designer is integrated with the dictionary and operates on OS/2. Is IBM's office vision beginning to blur? (IBM's OfficeVision; includes a related article on OfficeVision 1.1) Both users and IBM have concerns about IBM's OfficeVision, intended to be a user-friendly co-operative processing office automation product. OfficeVision offers a unified vision that is in concert with the ideals of SAA. Presentation Manager, which is based on a graphical user interface, and PS/2s are used with OfficeVision. Delays in the introduction of the Direct Connect facility, which ensures cooperative processing between server and desktop, is another key concern of users. OfficeVision/2 LAN Series 2 was to have been released in Mar 91, but has been delayed until 1992. Price concerns users as well. The mainframe products are expensive to operate, with overhead and license fees. Users are also concerned about marketing with OfficeVision, and the product's all or nothing approach. Maintenance gets even more flexible. (IBM midrange and mainframe equipment) Maintenance options are more flexible in 1991 for IBM midrange and mainframe users. Independent Maintenance (IML) is offering a new service, using the advantage of innovations in financial and technical engineering. The 'pay as you go' maintenance service along with a ceiling maintenance price per year is attracting such companies as Aviation and General Insurance, which claim that IML's maintenance price is approximately 40 percent of IBM's. Other companies using IML's service include Intercity Consultants and Woodgrange Metal. However, IMC is limited by offering service for only IBM machines. Most sites that are maintained are multi-vendor sites, and having them maintained by a third-party vendor is easier. Effects of IBM reorganization. IBM reorganized again at the end of 1990, in order to increase operating efficiency and focus sales more tightly. Changes will have an impact on customers. IBM's reorganized operational structure is based on vertical markets. Northern England will focus on industry and manufacturing. The southern part of England will be responsible for government and public services. The largest region in London and the southeast area will manage banking, retail and financial services. Branch managers are now bypassed, as a tier in the hierarch has been eliminated. Sales staff reports to the director of United Kingdom channels, Tony Hill. Some users fear it may be difficult to get access to information and important staff members because of these changes. Others welcome the concept of centralized expertise. Availability of 3990 hits 3380 resale values. (used equipment) IBM's 3390 mainframe disks have not reached the used market in large quantities, but users can purchase them soon at approximately 85 percent of IBM's list price. Prices of these disks should fall during 1990, and decline to 70 percent of their list price by the end of 1990. The availability of 3390 disks has caused a decline in the value of 3380s during 1990, with used 3380Ks being purchased for around 70 percent of their list price. This price is nearly full price, since IBM gave discounts of 25 percent to almost everyone. The older 3380Es lost 50 percent of their value during 1990, still a good price for a product that is almost five years old. The 3990 disk controllers have kept their value well in 1990. Service with a frown? (includes a related article on service management) A survey published in 1990 reveals that many companies are not planning information technology service management with enough careful thought. Service level agreements can be used to give companies solid objectives, involving them in both technical and managerial issues. Some consultants believe that capacity planning tends to dominate other important issues of providing overall service. Service level agreements need to be linked to user and business goals in order to be successful. In order to make an agreement work, everyone in the organization should know about it, rather than keeping it exclusively to a few people involved. Desk efficiency charts can be put on the wall to help, and such agreements should be made living documents. MVS-ESA - big benefits for small machines. (IBM's Multiple Virtual Storage/Enterprise Systems Architecture) When IBM upgrades from the MVS-XA operating system to MVS-ESA, smaller IBM mainframe processor models may benefit over larger systems, according to a report by Xephon. A ten percent improvement in throughput can be obtained, along with an 11 percent improvement in response time, a 10 percent in central processor unit utilization and 13 percent in input-output activity. Xephon found no evidence that the benefits of ESA increase with the power of the machine, and expanded storage does not guarantee any greater performance benefit. However, the latest version of ESA 3.2 does give more of a performance uplift than the earlier 3.1 version. The report also reveals that VM and VSE users are planning to move quickly to ESA versions. PR/SM performance. (Processor Resources/Systems Manager) (Viewpoint) All installation managers who have PR/SM (Processor Resources/Systems Manager) are faced with deciding between flexibility or individual job performance. Managers have to trade-off the improved performance gained on any single job by using dedicated partitions versus possible improved performance over a mixed workload of jobs using PR/SM in logical partitioning mode. IBM reports at the recent US CMG conference that the core of the problem is to assess the overhead related to the PR/SM in this mode. According to IBM, the overhead is slight and is a function of the ratio of logical to physical processors, resulting mainly from the use of the LPAR dispatcher. Corporate image. (Norwich Union; includes a related article on Imageplus and one on IBM's strategy for document image processing) Norwich Union, Europe's beta test site for IBM's Imageplus MVS-ESA, is displaying its pilot application of what will be its enterprise-wide operational image processing system. This document image processing (DIP) system differs from others in that it will be closely integrated with other applications. Maturing technology that made this system possible for the company to use includes scanning, powerful but low-cost workstations, communications systems and optical disk storage. Norwich was becoming lost in its own paper files before the system was installed. Norwich will complete the evaluation of two pilot applications within the new system in Feb 1991. AS/400 is 'good value.' (IBM midrange computer) Ridgway, Helen. In a report published by Touche Ross and Ideas International, IBM's midrange AS-400 computer is termed to be a good value for the price. Over a five year period, the real cost of several different computer systems was compared. IBM's low operational costs stood out compared with other systems. Hardware maintenance costs were 50 percent less than that of other vendors. IBM does not add software support charges to the one-time software license fee. As the computer systems get larger, IBM's hardware costs rise and overtake the other suppliers, so that users need to think in long-term views to benefit from IBM's low on-going costs. Midrange clash. (IBM's AS/400 and RS/6000 minicomputers; includes a related article on the RS/6000 performance and one on the IBM states that its new midrange RS/6000 Unix workstation will not compete with their AS/400 model, however users are being lured in that direction. The RS/6000 PowerServer is an attractive multi-user commercial minicomputer that is competing with IBM's proprietary midrange computers. Key to the competition will be how many System/36 users migrate to the RS/6000, rather than to the AS/400. For example, Loot, a London newspaper company, is moving from a S/36 24D to an RS/6000 which will support 80 users in 1991. The chief drawback to the AS/400 system is its high cost. the RS/6000 system is half the price and performs in a comparable way to the AS/400. IBM ponders RDB options. (relational database) IBM has decided to develop and market a relational database for AIX, a product that will be surrounded by controversy. Details of the product have been learned, although there is no official announcement yet. The database will be modeled on the OS/2 extended edition database manager, not on DB2. The product will be written in C, and will be portable and will run on multiple platforms. IBM will make use of its distributed relational database architecture within the product, enabling structured query language statements to work over a network of distributed databases. Other details about the product are not as clear. RS/6000 costs look good. (IBM's RS/6000 workstation) IBM's RS/6000 Unix workstation is a good value for the money, according to a report prepared by Touche Ross and Ideas International. The report avoids drawing comparisons between proprietary and Unix systems because the software differs for each. However, as the size of the system increases, the hardware costs of Unix-based systems were approximately 30 percent less than proprietary systems, according to the report. IBM's RS/6000 boasted the lowest cost of ownership after five years, along with Unisys and DEC systems. DEC was the cheapest over five years, but had higher hardware maintenance costs than IBM. What's behind the Compaq cache? Compaq conceals no great secret behind its success as a microcomputer maker. Founded in 1982 with $10 million venture capital, the company quickly became the world's second largest microcomputer supplier, and it still holds this title in 1991. The company has shown great strength among microcomputer manufacturers in Europe as well. Compaq systems gained a reputation for operating slightly faster than IBM systems, and offering more memory and storage. Most importantly, Compaq systems were available at a time when IBM found it difficult to deliver IBM AT systems to its customers. Compaq seeks the right markets, such as in 1991 when there is a widespread automation of sales forces with notebook microcomputers. Exploiting the power of the 486. (Hardware Review) (80486-based microcomputers; NCR's NCR System 3340, Dell Computer's Dell System NCR's powerful 80486-based NCR System 3340 microcomputer is a Micro-Channel Architecture-based machine that includes a 486 processor operating at 25-MHz, either 2 or 8Mbytes of on-board 32-bit 80-nanosecond high-performance random access memory, a standard 8Kbytes of cache memory, and a 'super-VGA' display adaptor. The machine reviewed is priced at 6725 pounds sterling, which included 2Mbytes of random access memory. NCR includes its own SCSI controller to control hard disks, a feature that has slowed the arrival of SCO Unix on the System 3340. Dell's new 80486-based computer, the Dell System 433TE, is the company's most powerful microcomputer, priced at an entry-level price of 7,469 pounds sterling. The system is an interesting alternative to IBM's new range of Model 90 and 95 Personal System/2 computers. Toshiba's Toshiba T5200C200 portable, priced at 6995 pounds sterling, includes a 16-color Double Supertwist Nematic LCD color display. This 80386-based machine is exactly the same as the T5200 except for the color display. Quality & Quantity. White, Kevin. Companies are using their freedom when buying microcomputers for their organization, with some purchasers opting to buy IBM-compatibles instead of IBM PCs. Price does not always make the choice an obvious one, with IBM typically offering a 20 percent discount. The Post Office, one of the largest IBM sites with over 100 AS/400s, made an initial order of 3,000 Opus microcomputers, a 3 million pound sterling deal. The Post Office adheres to strict 'open contract' procedure, testing equipment and comparing, then checking the liability of the vendor. The quality of after-sales support and ease of maintenance is important when microcomputers can be purchased cheaply. The appeal of 10 Base-T. The approval of the 10Base-T standard, passed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Sep 1990, has opened up options for Ethernet users, especially at the lower end of the market. The growth of 10Base-T, with its more resilient star configuration, will be strong. Some suppliers believe that even IBM users committed to token ring will migrate to the new standard. Uxbridge will announce that its concentrator will support token ring protocols over its low cost unshielded twisted pair star networks. Advantages of 10Base-T over Ethernet include the fact that it more easily reconfigured, cheaper, and more suitable for network management. Distributing the power. Carr, Jeff. Users are rebelling against dumb terminals, despite the efforts of data processing departments to prevent it. Users are getting used to using microcomputers and their applications, and like the graphical user interfaces, the instant response time, the Apple Macintosh and Windows 3.0. Mainframe departments would like to give users what they like in microcomputers, but they cannot, or they have yet to catch up with the outside world. In order to save mainframe usage, departments need to adopt IBM standards, use cooperative processing and true SAA/CUA to improve costs and user acceptance. Showtime showdown. (includes related article on IBM '91) IBM '91 is hosting 270 exhibitors. New entry level IBM AS/400 models and their new applications are being shown. Software Systems' focus is cooperative processing at the show. Attendees can see a new version of Cooperative Application System 400 which enables cooperative processing between PS/2 or PC and the AS/400. Charterhouse Group offers AS/400 applications for the legal profession. The latest and most powerful RS/6000 550 workstation will be on IBM's scientific and technical stand, along with new RS/6000 applications. Such companies as Brook Street Computers, Facts Software, Kalamazoo Computer Group, and Mancos are showing applications for the IBM RS/6000. Back to the basics. The downturn in the market and economy during 1991 has placed new projects and middle management on the line. In-house development has given way to purchasing software packages, and managers and project leaders may be asked to do some coding in order to save money. Flexibility is the key to remaining financially stable. More basic skills are in demand, although programmers who have progressed from assembly language to Cobol, then to DB2, do not want to go back to assembler. One area that is difficult to recruit is companies working in operating systems such as VM. Programmers need to know Cobol, but everyone has moved onto MVS. Stephen Grossberg on neural networks: burning the candle from both ends. (interview) Stephen Grossberg, founder and director of the Center for Adaptive Systems and the graduate program in cognitive and neural systems at Boston University, discusses neural networks. He discusses how he became interested in neural networks, why there is a resurgence of interest in neural networks, the focus of the research done at the Center for Adaptive Systems, how neural network models differ from traditional artificial intelligence algorithms, how neural networks can be adapted to large real-world tasks, and the future of the neural network research at the Center for Adaptive Systems. Artificial life a constructive lower bound for artificial intelligence. Artificial life, ALife, will alter human understanding of what constitutes life and intelligent behaviors by living systems. In the process, ALife will change artificial intelligence (AI). The ALife perspective is that living and computational systems are not that dissimilar. Abstracting the logical form of life, without depending on the particulars of the carbon-based biological life (BLife) forms on this planet, is the goal of ALife. A central tenet of ALife is that in examples of naturally occurring intelligence the one incontrovertible feature is that they are alive. Two basic tenets of ALife are that living systems are not designed to perform a task, they evolve until a niche is found where they can survive and the intimate relation between an organism and its environment makes both the environment and the organism/environment interface major elements of ALife simulations. The ability of an organism to succeed in its environment and reproduce itself is basic to what makes, and keeps, it alive. Almost all ALife experiments are done on computers because the logistics of actual experiments are extremely difficult. Logos a constraint-directed reasoning shell for operations management. Operations management areas, such as factory management, airline gate scheduling, and flight operations control, can have plans disrupted by unforeseen events. Real-life situations frequently demand replanning and rescheduling in a relatively short time, making heuristics-based techniques useful. The Logos reasoning shell supports reactive scheduling applications, which are applications characterized by adding and retracting constraints incrementally, and supports temporal constraints, which is reasoning about events. In Logos, domain knowledge is modeled statically and dynamically and constraints are used to model both static and dynamic knowledge. Experience shows that Logos adds constraints incrementally reasonably well, but takes considerably longer to retract constraints. The biggest execution bottleneck is developing the initial constraint network. Resource allocation in distributed factory scheduling. Sycara, Katia P.; Roth, Steven F.; Sadeh, Norman; Fox, Mark S. Scheduling in a manufacturing organization occurs at all levels. The various parts of manufacturing organizations must be scheduled so that the performance of the whole is optimized. Texture measures that predict the impact of local decisions on system goals were developed and are now used to direct distributed scheduling. Agents are factory areas modeled as machine agents. A group of agents carries out distributed scheduling. Each agent has limited knowledge of the environment and constraints and intentions of other agents and has a limited number and amount of resources. The distributed artificial intelligence system uses local computations and information exchanged among agents to arrive at global solutions. The roles texture measures play in distributed search are to provide guidance in making decisions, focus the attention of each agent on globally critical decision points, be good predictive measures of how local decisions will impact system goals, and can be used to model the beliefs and intentions of other agents. Building a speech interface to a medical diagnostic system. Shiffman, Smadar; Wu, Allice W.; Poon, Alex D.; Lane, Christopher The quality of the user interface can influence physicians to accept or reject a system. The interface should minimize interruptions to routine patient care, let users have a sense of control, and use intuitive input techniques instead of typing. Speech recognizers are the most natural approach for entering clinical data. Two off-the-shelf programs that integrate speech technology and programs that manipulate medical terminology were used to design an interface for QMR-DT, a decision-theoretic version of Quick Medical Reference. The focus of the interface was on the speech interface guiding user interactions. The drive to the year 2000. Myers, Ware. Semiconductor technology is expected to continue to be successful for another decade, along with processors, memory, digital signal processing, and communication. A panel of experts expects logic and memory component density to increase by a factor of 10 every five years through the end of the 1990s. There are four technologies that are challenging silicon technology: gallium arsenide (GaAs), sueprconducting, optical computing, and molecular computing. The 1990s will see the race between mass storage technologies of magnetic recording, optical storage, and semiconductor storage continue. By the year 2000 handwriting recognition, voice recognition, and speech synthesis will be common. Huge investments are needed to maintain the pace of technology development during the 1990s. Also needed are new applications, more intensive use, and market expansion. Dedicated tools for microprocessor education. (includes related articles on microcomputers, logidules, and developing student The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology faculty developed dedicated hardware and software tools used in the institute's courses on minicomputers and microcomputers. These tools are designed to give students access to computing equipment. One tool is CALM, which uses a simple set of mnemonics to make the size of operands explicit; it holds addressing modes that read clearly. Another tool is Dauphin, a didactic microprocessor system that students use to become familiar with processor operations. Other tools include logidules and the Smaky system. Fun and games and microcomputer interfacing. Fulcher, John A. A microcomputer laboratory can reinforce fundamental concepts and let students experience an immediate and tangible result of their programming efforts. The University of Wollongong has a microcomputer laboratory that supports the third year Microcomputer Interfacing and Real-Time Computing courses for computer science majors. Students use the laboratory to compose music and control slot-car and model railway sets. An advanced educational microprocessor system. Pollard, L. Howard; Jordan, Ramiro. The University of New Mexico has developed a host-independent, 68030/68882 Advanced Educational Microprocessor System board that helps instructors teach about and with microprocessor systems. The AEMS board is used to explain microprocessors and computer-related concepts and systems to students. The board has a number of features not available in other educational processor implementations such as easily accessible data lines and control points, user-controlled event counters, a configurable cache system, an Ethernet network interface, terminal access, and an interface capability that can be easily utilized. The AEMS is used in computer engineering and electrical engineering. A configurable, virtual microprocessor system for instructional use in real-time, real-world studies. (includes related article on Pennsylvania State University at Great Valley has developed a system that permits students to design a process plant and simulate and validate their design and write a control or sequencer program that controls plant operation. This system was developed because instructors find it difficult to teach real-time, real-world computer applications in a classroom setting. This is an innovative system that is a multifunctional tool for instructional use. Software structures are included in the design, making it possible for students to configure the system for different virtual processors. The industrial engineering students find the graphics model particularly useful because it permits them to visualize program execution and obvious fluid flows. Peripheral hardware and a hands-on multitasking lab. (includes related articles on peripheral modules and group projects) Three microprocessor courses at Purdue University are designed to strengthen knowledge about hardware interfacing; these courses use a set of custom-built hardware assemblies that can be interfaced easily to I/O ports. The focus of the laboratory activities is on embedded hardware applications. Advantages of the prebuilt modules include low cost, visibility, available in quantity, and added learning. There is also a hands-on multitasking lab to reinforce multitasking and planning ideas. Students in this lab perform embedded-control projects and they work in groups of threes, which is also a learning experience since many students have never worked in groups with a technical goal. Adapting curriculum materials for different course sequences. Hall, Douglas V. Faculty at Portland State University have discovered that the low mathematical content of introductory material about microprocessors makes it possible to use very similar course materials in a wide variety of courses. A common core of microprocessor topics and skills can be customized to maintain student motivation while helping the students develop strong skill sets. A base of 8086 systems and a programming orientation can be used as the basis for designing core curriculum for electronic engineering technician students and for electrical/computer engineering courses. It is more productive for students to begin by learning one microprocessor family very thoroughly and then learn others as needed. A Futurebus interface from off-the-shelf parts. (includes related article on transferring a five-word packet) Graph Reduction in Parallel (GRIP), a multiprocessor designed to execute programs written in a pure functional language using graph reduction, uses only packet-switched communication techniques. A Futurebus interface using standard parts has been designed as part of the GRIP project. This interface uses fully asynchronous finite-state machines. Futurebus is technology independent; any board, no matter how fast, can interoperate with any other board, no matter how slow. The four parts of the Futurebus interface are the data path, the Futurebus Receive machine, the Futurebus Send machine, and the Futurebus arbiter. There are about 35 integrated circuits in the Futurebus interface and it occupies about 150 square centimeters. There's a standard hiding out there. (Micro Standards) (column) Warren, Carl. Considerable work was done on standards in 1990. The Futurebus standard has become a reality. Chip manufacturers are looking at the Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI). Standardization of the AT bus, IEEE P996, has moved very slowly. Work on P996 may set the stage for future ISA and EISA bus work. Optical computing has already been practically applied in several areas, but its full impact for general computing is still several years away. Evaluating shielded twisted-pair cables. (On the Edge) (column) Warren, Carl. Users who plan to develop networks of shielded twisted-pair cable need to consider that it is often necessary, for proper operation, to terminate the bus with an impedance matching the characteristic impedance of the cable. This can be determined by using a network analyzer to generate a Smith chart which shows if the cable is inductive, capacitive, or resistive. A mathematical tool, Math CAD from Mathsoft, Inc, can be used to determine the characteristics of a particular cable mathematically provided a few of its variables are known. The Paperback case: part 3, misconceptions about functionality. (Micro Law; includes related article on the functionality of the The functional aspects of the user interface of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program were discussed only a little in the court's opinion in Lotus Development Corp v. Paperback Software International, but it should have been a central factor in the legal analysis. Failure by the court to recognize the functionality of standardization is a major flaw in its analysis of whether or not Lotus 1-2-3's command structure is functional. The court should have asked what a user interface or input-command structure is supposed to accomplish; does 1-2-3 do that better; are there externalities or extrinsic factors associated with the 1-2-3 user interface that make it better in the marketplace. Concerns about the court's decision are that it imposes severe costs on users in wear and tear and in loss of competition. Computer software rentals restricted in US. (Micro News) (column) Stern, Richard H. Congress passed the Computer Software Rental Act of 1990. This is an attempt to balance the rights of users and the rights of software owners. The new law gives copyright owners the right to prohibit the direct or indirect rental, lending, or lease of the computer programs they own the copyrights to for the purposes of direct or indirect commercial advantage. The three exceptions to this right are nonprofit libraries and nonprofit educational institutions, computer programs embodied in a machine or product that cannot be copied during ordinary operation or use of the machine or product, and programs embodied in limited-purpose computers designed to play video games. Optical computing activities. (Software Report) (column) Kahaner, David K. There is considerable activity in the field of optical computing and a few practical applications are already here, although its real potential for general computation is still several years in the future. Several Japanese companies are working on optical computing as they see it as an essential direction for computing research. There are four categories of optical computers: optical analog, optoelectronic, optical parallel digital, and optical neural. Neural computing and optical computing are being brought together. Research on optical computing is not restricted to one country. It is a branch of experimental optics and that means careful attention to fine detail of setup and analysis. Evolving architectures. (Micro View) (column) Slater, Michael. A tremendous number of new architectures were developed in the 1980s; a key factor in this development was the evolution of integrated circuit technology. This intense development will not be repeated in the 1990s. New microprocessors developed in the 1990s, at least in the first half of the 1990s, will be new implementations of existing architectures. These new microprocessors will use increasing transistor budget to improve performance or reduce system chip count or both. How US lead in power equipment ended. Watson, J. Eugene, Jr. The decline in the US electric power equipment industry began in the late 1950s and culminated in the 1980s because its market, largely the electric utilities, favored competition from other developed countries. The power equipment manufacturers began experiencing declining income and erratic profits following price fixing scandals in the late 1950s and growing price consciousness by the US electric utilities. This resulted in increased profit pressures on equipment vendors and lowered expenditures on research and development. Foreign power equipment vendors entered the US market, but US manufacturers found markets in foreign developed countries closed to outside vendors. The subsequent impacts of the 1973 oil embargo began a continuing decline in demand for electric power equipment. US vendors began exiting the market. Computer-on-a-chip: Why so long to patent? (Gilbert P. Hyatt's pursuit of his microprocessor patent) Gilbert P. Hyatt's 20-year successful effort to gain US patent 4,942,516 for a 'single chip integrated circuit computer architecture' (a microprocessor) reveals the need for adequate enablement documentation. The long process was a result of several factors. Hyatt made eight separate filings for the patent beginning in Nov 1969. The Patent Office did not believe that a single-chip computer could have been built in 1970 and Hyatt relied on documentation of the general state of the circuit fabrication technology to establish that the chip could be made. The final submission to the Patent Office resulted in the Mar 9, 1990, grant of the patent. Hyatt has two possible means of gaining from the patent: license it for royalties or sue chip vendors who Hyatt believes to be infringing on the patent. An infringement trial might result in testing the validity of the patent again. A single-electron transistor. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IBM Corp researchers devise new kind of transistor) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, MA) researchers Marc A. Kastner and Udi Meirav and IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY) researcher Shalom J. Wind developed a new transistor that turns on and off through the addition or subtraction of a single electron. The transistor consists of a heavily doped gallium-arsenide (GaAs) substrate surfaced by a layer of insulating aluminum-GaAs and topped by a thin layer of lightly doped GaAs. The top layer has an electrode at either end of a transistor with a gate between that allows electrons to pass through when a voltage is applied to the gate. The entry of electrons into the channel forces the current up or down, effectively turning the transistor on or off. The researchers can control the exact number of electrons entering the channel to achieve the desired state. Improving the world's largest, most advanced system: a system-wide upgrade races to replace two-decade-old equipment. (the Federal The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun a complete redesign of the US air traffic control system. The program consists of 90 projects, 88 of which are under contract, with over 30 percent completed. The rapid growth of the US aviation system is outstripping the capacities of US air traffic control systems and airports. This may result in diminished safety, greater congestion and more delays. Unfortunately, much of the FAA's redesign efforts are delayed because of budget and other problems. Major components of the $20 billion-plus FAA Capital Investment Plan include the Advanced Automation System, employing IBM 3083 computers for identifying and guiding planes; airport surveillance radar-9 digital radar systems; new voice switching and control system; upgraded automated radar terminal system III; airport surface detection equipment 3; and initial sector suite system. Satellites and artificial intelligence promise improved safety and efficiency. (the US Federal Aviation Administration invests in new The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is pursuing next-generation weather radar, satellites, global air-traffic digital telecommunications, and artificial intelligence to improve air traffic control. About 14,000 US air traffic controllers handle over 180,000 flights daily, with the total expected to increase in 10-to-15 years. The FAA, though, expects to operate at 1980 budget levels and reduced staff in the year 2000 through use of advanced technologies. Several of these technologies are discussed. They include the Nexrad next-generation Doppler weather radar system for improved weather surveillance, CTAS (Center/Tracon Automation System) set of algorithms and expert systems for more tightly funneling airplanes to airports, on-board wind shear detection systems and other intelligence, global digital communications and Aera automated air traffic control system. Expert observers define top priorities to ensure safe and accessible skies. (experts are surveyed on US air transportation Sixteen experts were surveyed for their views on what constitutes the foremost problem with US air transportation and how to implement a safe, efficient system in the year 2000. The problem most cited was the decline in air transportation capacity. This partitioned into several problems, including lacks of runway capacity, radio frequencies and airspace near airports. Other problems cited include inadequate training and experience of airplane captains and first officers and outdated air traffic control systems. Suggested steps to achieve a viable air transportation system in the year 2000 include constructing new airports and runways, improved air traffic control system, use of the global positioning system for navigation, systems to improve takeoffs and landings, use of demand management methods, collision avoidance systems, and providing the Federal Aviation Administration with resources to achieve these goals. How to select tools for microcontroller software. (tutorial) Gilmour, Peter S. Selection of suitable programming tools for developing microcontroller software is vital because such software often accounts for up to 75 percent of a microcontroller development project. Microcontrollers usually contain a microprocessor and related circuitry for implementing a complete embedded control system. Consequently, programming, verifying and debugging the software required in such devices is typically a complex task with many 'interrelated variables.' Selecting viable microcontroller program development tools thus depends on multiple factors, including the type of microcontroller, the most cost-effective yet suitable programming language, level of reliability demanded, programmer skills, degree of support offered by the programming tool vendor, budget and time available. Noninvasive software tools, debugging and computer-aided software engineering tools are discussed. Embedding spectral analysis in equipment. Jangi, Shrirang; Jain, Yogendra. A variety of real-time spectral analysis technologies have been developed that improve the performance to Fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) while effectively running on the same digital signal-processing (DSP) chips as the FFTs. FFT-based spectral analysis is used in a wide range of applications, such as radar, telecommunications, nondestructive testing, vibrational analysis and remote measurements of physical dimensions. Existing FFT spectrum analysis technologies are generally based on algorithms for estimating power spectral density of sampled signals. Accuracy of a PSD system depends upon the selected rational system function model used to described the digital filters. Autoregressive, moving average and combined models are discussed. The effective use of floating-point DSP processors and applications of spectral analysis are discussed. The case for object-oriented databases. (tutorial) Atwood, Thomas M. Object-oriented data base management systems (OODBMSs) are finding applications in electronic design automation (EDA) because of the manner in which OODBMSs view data as objects defined by functional attributes. This facilitates the modeling of EDA data, interactive data base processing and control of design versioning and configuration. The OODBMS is particularly suited for modeling real-world relationships in EDA problems because the technology is based on the definition and analysis of relationships between objects. The second generation of OODBMSs employs translation of global object identifiers of objects in main memory into local memory addresses to speed mapping and, thereby, the interactivity of the data base. Benchmarking of new OODBMSs, support for collaborative EDA work and questions to address when selecting an OODBMS for EDA activities are also discussed. Ericsson bets on a cellular world; Sweden's biggest electronics company succeeds in the fastest-growing market in Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Sweden's largest electronics firm, claims that 40 percent of the world's cellular telephones are linked to an Ericsson cellular network. The $7 billion (1989 revenues) company has made a major success in providing telephone networks internationally. Central to Ericsson's current and future cellular marketing strategy is the firm's modular AXE digital switch, which facilitates the migration of telecommunication networks towards cellular communications. Ericsson has been successful in promoting its frequency-division multiple access Telepoint cellular service, but is now focusing on time-division multiple access cellular technologies in Europe and the US. Much of the industry, though, is promoting code-division multiple access cellular communications. Ericsson's research and development efforts and other communications technologies are discussed. Pushing the limits of standard CMOS: circuit refinements helped by computer-aided design raise clock rates by an order of magnitude. A combination of improved clocking, circuit and logic design enable the clock rates of standard CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) to be pushed to as much as 200-MHz to 1.2-GHz depending upon the device. CMOS process technology offers several benefits in the implementation of very-large-scale integration ICs, including low power demand, 'wide noise margin,' and low cost. Unfortunately, CMOS is slow compared to other process technologies. The new, faster CMOS technology employs a true single-phase clock, optimization of device sizes for speed and precharged logic style to increase performance. The main trade-off is a doubling of the circuit area required. The new technology is best suited for applications with simple algorithms. Details of the high-speed CMOS technology are discussed. Plastic-packaged ICs in military equipment. (the military is reconsidering allowing plastic-packaged integrated circuits) The US military is reconsidering its ban on plastic-packaged integrated circuits (ICs). The plastic in the early plastic-encapsulated ICs was susceptible to rapid failure because of damage by corrosive chemicals in the plastic or ones penetrating the porous body. Current plastic ICs are far improved, with device failures in 10 (FIT) billion hours of operation commonly in the 1 to 50 range. The improved failure rate has persuaded the US military of the suitability of the devices to military applications. Other factors promoting US military interest in plastic-packaged ICs include their success in the automotive industry, their possible superior performance in air-conditioned dry environments and the packages' low cost in both pin-through and surface-mount implementations. Military budgets are declining, while new equipment is increasing electronic. On unordered codes. (technical) Bose, Bella. An unordered code occurs in binary code C when no codeword is 'contained' in another, when the positions of the ones in one codeword will never be a subset of the positions of the ones in a different codeword. Unordered codes can be used to achieve the data integrity of write-once memories and can detect all unidirectional errors in a data word. Unordered codes which can be efficiently encoded and decoded are presented. These codes, which are a parallel unordered coding scheme with 2(superscript-r) information bits and r check bits, are based on extending the results given by Knuth in designing balanced codes. Theory and design of t-error correcting/d-error detecting (d > t) and all unidirectional error detecting codes. (technical) A new method for constructing systematic t-EC/d-ED/AUED codes is given; this method gives significantly more efficient codes. The method uses t-EC/d-ED/AUED codes, with t < d, instead of t-EC/AUED codes. The t-EC/d-ED/AUED codes represent codes that can correct all errors with multiplicity less than or equal to t, or equal to d, and can also detect all (d + 1 or more) errors if they are unidirectional. These codes are effective against transient, intermittent and permanent faults. An error control code requires simple and fast encoder and decoder circuits to be suitable for use in a computer system. Improved diagnosability algorithms. (technical) Raghaven, Vijay; Tripathi, Anand R. One-step diagnosability algorithms for the asymmetric invalidation (BGM) model and the PMC model are presented. The ability of a system to use a single collection of test results to determine all the faulty units is called one-step diagnosability. A careful implementation of iterative steps in the network flow algorithm can reduce the time complexity in one-step diagnosability. The redundant steps in the algorithm are eliminated by a new characterization of diagnosability in the BGM model; this improves the algorithm. Increased throughput for the testing and repair of RAM's with redundancy. (technical) There are a number of different methods, both online and off-line, to test and repair redundant random-access memory (RRAM). Some of this work can be done while memory testing is being done, making it possible to stop the testing process if the chip is unrepairable. One method is to increase the number of working RRAMs manufactured per unit time, not per wafer. This can be achieved by a computationally efficient algorithm that detects unrepairability, a computationally efficient algorithm for optimal repair for special patterns of fault memory cells, and online algorithms. These online algorithms can locate an optimal repair or detect unrepairability during memory testing and can reduce the average time to repair with a reduction in yield. Minimization algorithms for multiple-valued programmable logic arrays. (technical) A study of the performance of various heuristic algorithms for minimizing realizations of multiple-valued functions by CCD and CMOS programmable logic arrays shows that the performance of the Dueck and Miller and Besslich heuristics is about the same. These heuristics perform slightly better than the Pomper and Armstrong heuristics. All of these perform better than a heuristic that selects a solution randomly. The Gold algorithm, which selects the best of the three heuristics, does better than any particular one. Test results show that, on the average, heuristics perform quite close to optimum. A surprising test result is that prime implicants have little value in the search for minimal sum-of-products expressions for multiple-valued logic functions where sum is truncated sum. Minimal solutions can be eliminated if the search is restricted to prime implicants. Static rate-optimal scheduling of iterative data-flow programs via optimum unfolding. (technical) Unfolding the data-flow signal processing programs can exploit the inter-iteration precedence constraints of iterative data-flow programs. This results in an increased number of tasks in a program, an unraveling of the hidden concurrency in iterative data-flow programs, and a reduction in the iteration period. Test results show that there is no further improvement to be gained by unfolding any data-flow program beyond the optimum unfolding factor. The main point is that it is possible to always use the optimum unfolding factor to construct rate-optimal fully-static period schedules of data-flow programs for multiprocess implementations. Square meshes are not always optimal. (technical) Bar-Noy, Amotz; Peleg, David. An attractive and practical parallel processing architecture is the mesh organization. The three primary advantages of the mesh organization are: a simple, modular interconnection pattern; natural correspondence to the data format of several matrix computation and image processing problems; and amenability to VLSI implementation. The large diameter is the primary disadvantage. Analysis of semigroup computations for meshes with a single global bus and multiple buses shows that the square design is not optimal for semigroup computations. Because performance improvement is attained only when the number of processors is very large, these results are primarily of theoretical interest. On the complexity of VLSI implementations and graph representations of Boolean functions with application to integer Boolean function complexity under an abstraction of digital logic as implemented in very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit technology and the ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD) representation shows that related techniques can be used to prove lower bounds in both models. The fundamental limitations of VLSI as an implementation medium are shown by the lower bounds. Lower bounds also show OBDD's limitations as a data structure. A technique that proves that any VLSI implementation of a single output Boolean function has area-time complexity can also be used to provide the OBDD representation of the function; however, the reverse is not true. An improved vector-reduction method. (technical) Sips, Henk J.; Lin, Haixing. An operation that occurs frequently in many computer applications is vector-reduction. An improved method is based on Ni and Hwang's symmetric and asymmetric reduction methods. Overlapping the feed phase with the merging phase can improve the performance of both the symmetric method and the asymmetric method. A different hardware configuration is required to achieve this performance improvement. This new method is one of the fastest among known pipelined vector-reduction methods. Setup algorithms for cube-connected parallel computers using recursive Karnaugh maps. (technical) Optimal setup procedures for cube-connected networks include paths, transpositions, cycle and one-pass permutations. Karnaugh maps, which are frequently used by logic designers to simplify Boolean expressions, can also be used to capture the structure of a cube-connected network. Two optimal setup algorithms are presented. The PERMUTATION procedure is a general procedure that can determine if a transposition, a cycle, or a permutation is realizable in one pass. The PERMUTATION procedure can also be used to specify the states of the cells for the network. The CYCLE procedure, which needs fewer steps, can be used to realize w-cycles and arbitrary transpositions. A parallel time/hardware tradeoff T . H = O(2-superscript-n/2) for the knapsack problem. (technical) A parallel algorithm is presented that solves the knapsack problem on an SIMD machine that has shared memory. The knapsack problem is one method of studying some large problems in number theory. Its exponential complexity makes it suitable to be used as the basis for some public-key cryptosystems. A concurrent read exclusive write single instruction multiple data model of parallel computing with shared memory is the basis of the new algorithm. Using shared memory means that concurrent reading is permitted while concurrent writing is forbidden. A study of odd graphs as fault-tolerant interconnection networks. (technical) Odd graphs are studied to see if they are suitable to design interconnection networks. Interconnection networks can be competitive with ring, star, mesh, binary n-cube, chordal ring and flip-tree networks. Significant features of interconnection networks are small internode distances, higher density, maximal fault tolerance, strong resilience, good persistence and simplicity in implementing self-routing algorithms. The ability to partition into symmetrical regions is the most important feature of interconnection networks. Decentralized routing algorithms are presented. Diagnosabilities of hypercubes under the pessimistic one-step diagnosis strategy. (technical) Diagnosing hypercube multicomputer systems can be done by having the processors test each other and then collecting and analyzing the test results to locate faulty processors. There are two different strategies to do this: the one-step diagnosis, also called the diagnosis without repair, which has one test phase and one repair/replacement phase, and the sequential diagnosis, also called the diagnosis with repair, which may have several iterations of the testing and repair phases. As the diagnosis strategy changes from the precise one-step strategy to the pessimistic one-step diagnosis strategy the degree of diagnosability of the n-cube increases. It is determined that the pessimistic one-step diagnosis is very suitable for use in hypercube systems. A hardware-oriented algorithm for floating-point function generation. (technical) A new algorithm that performs accurate, high-speed, floating point function generation for univariate functions defined at arbitrary breakpoints is developed. The primary operation in the algorithm is rapid identification of the breakpoint interval, including the input argument. The algorithm's input and output data formats and precision comply with IEEE Standard 754. There are two processing stages in the algorithm: preprocessing and run-time processing. The algorithm replaces the run-time search operations with a one-time preprocessing operation that generates the lookup tables and the constants used in the conversion operation. Performance analysis of synchronous production lines. (technical) Leung, Ying Tat; Kamath, Manjunath. A model for a synchronous production line (SPL) is developed. SPLs are used primarily for mass producing high demand products that have a relatively stable market. Random line stoppages of SPLs fall into two categories: faults and failures. Faults occur independent of time, are detected at the end of the cycle, and the line is usually stopped for only a brief time. Failures are dependent on elapsed time after last repair, are usually caused by wear, and take much longer to repair than faults take. The SPL model can yield a powerful and detailed analytical model for multistage SPLs. New heuristic algorithms for efficient hierarchical path planning. (technical) Creating autonomous robots is one of the ultimate goals of robotics research. Advances must be made in automatic reasoning, perception, and real-time control. Hierarchical approximate cell decomposition is a popular approach to motion planning, one of the key topics in reasoning. New algorithms to construct more efficient path planners are presented; the path planners are based on hierarchical approximate cell decomposition. Advantages of hierarchical approximate cell decomposition include ease of implementation, they are reasonably efficient, parallelization is possible, complete under reasonable assumptions, and they produce a channel, not a single path. In the hierarchical approximate cell decomposition approach, the robot's configuration space is decomposed into cells of predefined shape. Cell decomposition and graph searching are the two main steps in the approach. An inherent stability problem in Cartesian compliance and an alternative structure of compliance control. (technical) The legs of a walking machine are often controlled by active compliance; this permits the vehicle to adapt to irregularities in the terrain. There is an inherent kinematic stability problem of Cartesian-space force control. An alternative is presented. This alternative structure of compliance control does away with the inherent source of instability, but still allows the machine to adapt to irregularities in the terrain. Tests show that the algorithm of active joint compliance is effective. Weighted selection of image features for resolved rate visual feedback control. (technical) Image-processing equipment in robots is at the stage where vision can be used to send information that the robot can use to control the position and orientation of the manipulator end-effector in real-time. This means the robot does not need to have previous knowledge of where the part is or the part's motion to manipulate and track it. The robot's pose can be updated by using a resolved motion rate control scheme. This scheme uses the position of three features in the camera's image to update the robot's pose. The three features are selected based on a combination of image recognition criteria, which includes robustness, completeness, cost of feature extraction, and uniqueness of feature, and control criteria of system observability, controllability, and sensitivity. Near-minimum-time task planning for fruit-picking robots. (technical) Planing of minimum-time movements for a robot manipulator is one method used to achieve the goal of increased productivity in industrial automation. A new near-minimum-time task-planning algorithm is presented. This algorithm can be used in designing a robot to select the most efficient design if the robot is to perform a sequence of tasks at N known locations. The design phase should consider the geometrical distribution of the task points. A comparative study on the path length performance of maze-searching and robot motion planning algorithms. (technical) Maze-searching algorithms, which appeared first in graph theory, are now being used in works on computational complexity. Choosing the planning algorithms that are used for autonomous vehicles and robot arm manipulators that work in an environment that has unknown obstacles of unknown shapes should consider convergence. Another major consideration is minimizing the length of generated paths. The efficiency of general maze-searching algorithms can be exceeded by the special structure of graphs that correspond to planar environments that have obstacles. Manipulating and grasping forces in manipulation by multifingered robot hands. (technical) Internal force is a major factor in analyzing and synthesizing fingertip forces in robot hands so that the fingertips can grasp and manipulate. A new definition of grasping and manipulating forces for multifingered robot hands is presented. An internal force that satisfies the friction constraint is the grasping force. A fingertip force that produces the specified resultant force, is not in the inverse direction of the grasping force, and is orthogonal to the grasping force component is the manipulating force. An integrated computer aid for generating and evaluating assembly sequences for mechanical products. (technical) Using an integrated program of algorithms and interactive programs to generate and edit assembly sequences can transform weeks of work into hours. The integrated set of user-interactive programs generate sequences by using a disassembly analysis. All feasible assembly sequences for a product are produced by the programs. The programs use various criteria to help the user determine the value of the various sequences. The programs also provide online visual aids. Theory and experiments on the stability of robot compliance control. (technical) Using robots in manufacturing means that there must be mechanical interaction with the environment or with the object the robot handles in combination with high-speed maneuvering in unconstrained space. There are two components to the control of the manipulator: a computed torque trajectory controller to regulate the position of the robot and a compliance controller to modulate contact forces. There are three stability conditions. Stability when the robot is interacting with a finite-stiffness environment is achieved by two of the criteria. Stability when a compliance-controlled robot is interacting with an infinite-stiffness environment achieved by the third criteria. Real-time communications in a computer-controlled workcell. (technical) One of the goals of a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) system is to keep the possibility of missing a deadline to a minimum. One of the ways to do this is by the proposed bus access mechanism. This mechanism uses a poll number to reduce the risk of messages missing their deadlines. Advantages of a poll number are decentralized control of the intracell bus and considerable flexibility in scheduling messages. Effect of motor dynamics on nonlinear feedback robot arm control. (technical) Integrating robot equations of motion with the robot actuator dynamic model results in a complete set of third-order robot dynamic equations. A robot controller that incorporates the dynamics of the robot joint motors and the robot manipulator dynamics works directly on the robot task space input commands. It does not need to decompose the commands into the joint space commands. There is good trajectory tracking performance with this controller. The controller is robust if there are model inaccuracies. Tests show this controller has improved performance over a nonlinear feedback robot controller based only on manipulator dynamics. A parallel algorithm for incremental stereo matching on SIMD machines. (technical) Recovering depth information from the relative lateral displacements of the positions of objects within a pair of images taken from slightly differing viewpoints is the goal of stereo vision. The three-dimensional structure of a scene is recreated using this depth information. An algorithm that uses existing techniques and reformulates and integrates them in terms of parallel execution on a SIMD machine is presented. There are two phases to the matching algorithm: discarding unlikely matches and evaluating remaining matches and computing initial estimates of the probability of each possible match. This algorithm uses the parallel architectures of SIMD processors to achieve high speed. Modeling flexible manufacturing systems: the concurrent logic programming approach. (technical) A new approach to modeling and analyzing a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) focuses on shop-floor control processes. Concurrent logic programming is the basis of this approach. The properties of concurrent logic programming make it a good choice to model and analyze advanced manufacturing systems. These properties include hierarchical description, timing specifications support, concurrent and synchronization modeling, generic modeling support, facilitating data transfer and complex communication, capable of performance evaluation, capable of static and dynamic analysis, debugging capabilities, and simulation ability. Determination of robot locations by common object shapes. (technical) Robots must be able to determine their positions with respect to known objects to be able to navigate automatically; they must be able to catch the objects or avoid colliding with the objects. A new approach to robot location uses space pencils, which exist on common objects, as standard marks. The approach uses the shapes of common objects, such as cubes, machine parts, and buildings, as hints for robot location. The top shape must be known in advance, then any object with a polygon-shaped top and a lateral surface perpendicular to the top can be used for robot location. This approach is more practical for general applications than approaches that use specially designed marks or need iterative computation. Robot force sensor interacting with environments. (technical) Zheng, Yuan F.; Fan, Yuka. Abrupt changes of velocity to the end effector and force to the force sensor happen when the robot has physical contact with the environment. The robot must be able to detect the impact to take proper actions after contact is made. The force sensor's response to an impact can be studied and special features extracted from the responding signal can be used to detect an impact. The controller can use this information to stop the robot motion, avoiding damage to the robot or a malfunction of the robotic system. Probabilistic modeling of intelligent robotic systems. (technical) Valavanis, Kimon P.; Saridis, George N. An intelligent robotic system composed of three interactive levels of organization, coordination, and execution of tasks uses a probabilistic approach. The mathematically proven principle of increasing precision with decreasing intelligence is obeyed by the modeling constraint. The functions of the coordination level are to coordinate the vision, sensor, motion, and gripper systems. The execution level executes the specific tasks issued by the various systems on the coordination level. Some tradeoffs for interfaces to piezoresistive sensor arrays. (technical) A sensing system that uses piezoresistive arrays has tradeoffs between interface electronics complexity, numeric computation burden, array accesses and the information that can be obtained. There are three levels of electronic capability and information can be obtained at each level. Tradeoffs between computation and number of array accesses exist for the most capable interface. Various algorithms can be used to exploit these tradeoffs. Design concept development of a spherical stepper for robotic applications. (technical) The design concept for a new spherical stepper motor that has three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) motion in a single joint is based on the principle of a hybrid permanent magnet and a VR stepper motor. The kinematic characteristics that are wanted in an ideal wrist are no singularities and isoptropic manipulation in all three directions in performing trajectories following tasks. The new design has a relatively simple ball-like structure which effectively minimizes or eliminates the undesired cross-coupling and centrifugal components of the wrist rotor dynamics. An automatic navigation system for vision guided vehicles using a double heuristic and a finite state machine. (technical) Robot mobility is a necessity. A vision-based navigation system for use in automated guidance vehicles combines robot navigation techniques used in unexplored terrain and the global map method; tests show this to be a valid technique for AGV guidance. There are three main phases to system operation: learning phase, path scheduling phase, and navigation phase. The system can avoid unknown obstacles and recover from unidentifiable locations. Rules-based system performs best in configure-to-order. Dinitz, Michael. Rules-based systems outperform features and options systems in manufacturing configure-to-order products. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied to a rules-based system's order entry process. AI can store knowledge built up by one employee over years of work, making it available to novice employees. Companies have great freedom in building their own rules-based order-entry system. For example, a clothing manufacturer can tailor order entry rules to include sleeve lengths and other details. Rules-based systems enable a company to build a pricing matrix that allows customers to be charged extra for specific options requested. Rules-based systems can generate a unique routing slip for manufacturing an order. Eaton-Kenway uses simulation to cut costs and to offer solutions to customer needs. Eaton-Kenway, a Salt Lake City-based vendor of automated material handling systems, began simulating its material handling systems in 1974. A staff of five simulation analysts, running AutoMod simulation software from AutoSimulations on Silicon Graphics workstations, currently performs about 150 simulation studies annually. Eaton-Kenway uses simulation to be sure that systems are designed to meet customer needs and to explain designs to the customer. Systems simulation greatly cuts the costs of both Eaton-Kenway and its customers. Simulation helps to check the performance of a complicated material handling system, which is notoriously difficult to do in the field. Material delivery glitches? Mack Trucks has the answer and it cuts inventory levels. Mack Trucks Inc adopted a just-in-time inventory solution to meet the needs of having many parts available for its custom-built trucks. The company's Winnsboro, SC, plant was built in 1986 with just-in-time capabilities in mind. The highly automated plant employs simultaneous subassembly of such components as transmissions and engines. Parts are received in the sequence in which they will be assembled. Just-in-time has made work areas in the plant open and uncluttered. Housekeeping is reduced and the plant operates more efficiently than other Mack plants. Reusable containerization reduces non-value-added material handling efforts. (case study at Texas Instruments' Defense Reusable, protective containerization can cut material damage and reduce material handling efforts that do not add value. This is a lesson learned from a packaging project for microwave circuit boards (MCBs) at Texas Instruments' Defense Systems and Electronics Group. The number of scrap MCBs, which are used in a missile, increased with an increase in missile production in 1987. Most of the scrap resulted from handling and packaging damage. A stopgap solution proved too costly in terms of labor and time. The packaging engineering department eventually developed a customized plastic folder that opened and closed easily and was easy to carry. Details of instituting the reusable containers are given. An on-line parts management system at Grumman produces fast, accurate data. Grumman Corp discovered that its batch computer system was not up to the demands of managing the 1 million parts the company used in manufacturing aircraft, electronic equipment and weapons. To replace the batch system, called Methods, Grumman Data Systems developed the on-line Corporate Parts List (CPL) system. In contrast to the time-consuming old system, CPL works virtually in real time, providing up-to-the minute parts data that allows a much faster manufacturing process. CPL comprises 150 modules written in a quarter million lines of COBOL. CPL works across 11 plants in six states. CPL was able to maintain use of Method's IBM System 38 series mainframe, 1,400 terminals and IMS database. One new feature of CPL, 'cascade,' automatically modifies all related parts when a particular part is modified. Cascade saves much time spent in methods engineering. Details of CPL's implementation are given. If you don't understand JIT how can you implement it? (just in time inventory systems) (tutorial) Although just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems have been discussed widely for a decade, much confusion surrounds them; manufacturers are even unsure of defining JIT. Successful implementation of JIT can reap enormous benefits. Many firms fail to implement JIT, however, because they do not realize that JIT requires a fundamental change in attitudes about how a manufacturing company operates. JIT requires the design of products for economical production; plant layouts that eliminate or shorten material moves; the institution of worker-involvement programs, or quality circles; more accurate data; less paperwork; less scrap; smaller inventories; and a constant striving for ever-higher goals in all areas of production. While JIT is a manufacturing philosophy, MRP is a manufacturing technique. Costs are reduced through build-to-backlog and autoreplenishment systems. (case study at Texas Instruments' Johnson City facility) In 1985, Texas Instruments' (TI) Johnson City facility began an effort to enhance customer service while cutting costs of programmable logic controller production. Before 1988, the facility's production plan was set in stone for the following 16 weeks. 1988 saw the implementation of the 'build-to-backlog' program, designed to eliminate unsold finished goods while allowing more flexibility in meeting varying customer demand. Improvements were also sought in the kitting operation, in which materials are delivered from warehouse to manufacturing. As many as 50 deliveries were occurring daily to the same manufacturing operation. TI put an Autoreplenishment system into effect. Autoreplenishment, an automated materials control system, is integrated with manufacturing operations. Deliveries are predicated on manufacturing's demand. Details of the efficiency program are given. Warning: don't be half-hearted in your efforts to employ concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering, also known as 'concurrent design,' 'team approach,' and 'simultaneous engineering,' is a process for designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing a new product. The serial engineering method often used has several disadvantages, including long product development times and the fact that manufacturing engineers have little say in product design. Serial engineering is sometimes cited as a reason for the United States' falling performance in the world market. However, it must be noted that other factors come into play. For example, foreign firms have very different personal management policies; senior technical employees who are neglected in the US are often given 'guru' status overseas. The father of concurrent engineering may be thought of as Henry Ford, whose inexpensive, reliable Model T is a marvelous example of the method. The history of US concurrent engineering and the role of teamwork in US culture is discussed. At AT&T, IE's are on the shop floor closing gaps and solving problems. (industrial engineers) A productivity improvement program was inaugurated at AT and T Network Systems' Oklahoma City Works to improve the development of firmware used in circuit pack kits. Engineers first performed an operations analysis, in which each process step was analyzed in detail. A simulation analysis performed on data generated by the operations analysis identified bottlenecks. A number of steps were then taken to improve productivity. Total Quality Control (TQC) team meetings highlight quality problems. Operations that did not add value were eliminated, and some operations were combined. Bottlenecks in product quality checks and lead-straightening were reduced. A new floor layout smooths material flows. Teamwork is now paramount, with engineers passing most of their time on the shop floor and participating in all TQC groups. An algorithm for a tandem queuing model with feedback operation. Noh, Yong D.; Herring, Bruce. Many production lines may be thought of as a sequence of workstations with variable operation times. A manufacturing system with two restrictions is discussed. First, a limited queue may gather before the first machine, and second, no queues are permitted between pairs of machines. A interactive program was written in BASIC and running on an MSDOS microcomputer in order to determine the performance of the open tandem queueing model with feedback operation. Hydrostatic tank gauging - technology whose time has come. (includes related article on how hydrostatic tank gauging Hydrostatic tank gauging (HTG) offers more accurate volume and mass measurement than level measurement or other techniques. HTG is a bottom-up measuring technique that avoids accuracy impingements caused by bottom movements, encrustation and tank calibration. HTG also is insulated from errors caused by temperature fluctuations. HTG's main features include no moving parts, external tank mounting, density and mass readout. The transmitters used in HTG communicate digitally and this solves problems caused with digital to analog converters. HTG utilizes a hydrostatic interface unit (HIU) that is a combination of hardware and software. The HIU calculates product mass, density at product temperature, standard density, product volume, and standard product volume and level. Fiber optic sensors grow into networks. (technical) Hamilton, Kevin J. Fiber optic lines are finding their way into sensor applications as well as network architectures. Fiber optic lines can be placed in hazardous environments without requiring costly conduit material that electrical lines need. Also, fiber optic systems are immune from data corruption caused by interference from high-power sources in manufacturing situations. Fiber optic lines offer security from network failures when configured in dual-ring architectures. Such fault-tolerant configurations allow for faster transmission speeds than point-to-point networks. If one line in a dual-ring network is severed, then the other line performs the network function. Point-to-point architectures are undesirable because often the cost of implementing the network surpasses the cost of the network hardware. Fiber optic sensors endure microwaves. (technical) Woracek, David. Fiber optic sensors offer advantages over metallic sensors and infrared temperature sensing techniques used in microwave oven applications. Metallic sensors reflect and absorb energy and require special grounding. Metallic sensors also conduct heat and cause electromagnetic interferences that tend to distort desired readings. Infrared sensors yield only surface temperatures. Fiber optic sensors do not conduct heat or interfere with microwave functions because they are made of glass and ceramics. MetriCor Inc's ColorOptic measuring device utilizes fiber optic sensors that use a fluorescence technique that measures spectral shifts in returning light. The device differs from other similar fiber optic measuring equipment in that the returning light signals travel on the same waveband as the outgoing test signal. Trends in low gas flow metering. (technical) Welch, John V. Thermal-based mass flow controllers (MFCs) offer precise automated gas flow control. MFCs also provide electronic readings of gas flow rates; this is advantageous where electronic instrumentation is increasingly being implemented in various gas-measurement environments. Thermal-based MFCs determine gas flow rates by measuring the amount of electrical current needed to maintain a constant elevated temperature across a laminar flow tube. The instruments calculate flow rate using the specific heat of the gas and the dimensions of the bypass tube and the laminar flow tube. Thermal-based MFCs do not need to be adjusted to compensate for gas pressure or temperature changes. A sampling of on-line analysis techniques. (technical) Price, Valerie A. On line, real time analytical measuring devices satisfy requirements in a variety of applications. Neutronics Inc's on-line process oxygen analyzers are used to reduce the amount of oxygen present in centrifuges that produce pharmaceutical chemicals. Oxygen must be replaced with inert gases to prevent combustion of the processed material. Neutronics' instruments monitor and control the oxygen levels. Wedgewood Technology Inc makes a solids concentration monitor that measures contaminants using the optical transmittance principle. Endress and Hauser Inc's moisture measurement equipment measures the dew point in heating hoods to reduce energy use. George Fischer Corp makes controllers that monitor pH and oxidation reduction potential processes in waste-treatment plants. ABB Kent-Taylor's sensors help control redux operations for companies removing metallic residue from waste water. Fisons Instruments offers an inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer that tests for chemicals present in food-processing equipment. Intrinsically safe pressure measurement instrumentation loops. (technical) Intrinsically safe (IS) instruments offer cost advantages in addition to safety features that surpass other techniques employed to prevent explosions caused by sensors and electronic monitors. IS devices can also be worked on and calibrated when hot because of their low current usages. IS instruments are designed not to provide for ignition of hazardous, explosive gases or dusts. Their construction contrasts with two other design techniques for instrument safety. Explosion-proof devices are housed in protective cases to isolate them from explosive conditions. Should the explosive material leak into the housing, only the device suffers from a resulting combustion. Another safety technique involves purging the device's housing of oxygen and pressurizing that space with an inert gas. V-Windows merges video, CRT data. (Eaton IDT Inc.'s V-Windows graphical user interface) Eaton IDT Inc's V-Windows graphical user interface combines video images with graphics for use on industrial workstations that monitor and control manufacturing processes. Up to four direct selectable video inputs can be multiplexed and shown on the dedicated video memory plane. The graphics plane overlays the live video display. Video images can be displayed in full-screen, quarter-screen, or sixteenth-screen scale sizes using a feature called Freeze Frame. The video images can also be stored as files to be archived and viewed later. V-Windows allows the merging of monitoring screens and graphical control terminals to provide more efficient operation of manufacturing processes. The system also helps to shorten emergency response times. Generalized arithmetic in C++. (tutorial) Budd, Timothy A. A cardinal tenet of object-oriented programming is that objects should be characterized by behavior rather than structure. Objects that share a common behavior should be logically interchangeable. A common set of arithmetical operations, such as subtraction and addition, are performed on a variety of different values, such as integers and polynomials. Two C++ classes, Coercive Generality and Double Polymorphism, are described; these aspire to correspond to the everyday usage of numbers. While Coercive Generality is simpler, Double Polymorphism is faster in execution. The two techniques are compared and contrasted in detail. Flattening the learning curve; educating object-oriented developers. (tutorial) A developer learning object-oriented programming must shift his perspective from the traditional, non-object-oriented approach. Upper management and technical managers as well as developers themselves must make this perspective shift. Learning object-oriented programming is generally said to take a long, taxing learning period; the author helped develop a curriculum that reduces this process. Details are given of the curriculum. An empirical approach was taken to developing the curriculum. A critical approach is to learn from developers of successful object-oriented systems. An intermediate educational specialist can then put the developers' do's and don'ts into terms comprehensible by learning developers. SPOKE: an object-oriented programming environment. (development of SPOKE 3.0) A team at Alcatel Alsthom Recherche of Marcoussis, France, developed the SPOKE object-oriented programming environment over the course of five years. The redesign of SPOKE 3.0 is described in detail. SPOKE aims at the following goals: cutting-edge answers to problems of knowledge representation; being a true programming language; and being an open, efficient, flexible and portable environment. Object-oriented languages used in developing large, complex and interactive software systems should be fully integrated into the development environment and should take full advantage of such new tools as graphics workstations. Although now widely used, an integration effort of object-oriented programming is still needed. Such integration needs to follow two directions: the integration of databases and object-oriented programming technologies; and the integration of distributed systems and object-oriented programming. The semantics of const. (keyword in C++ programming language) (tutorial) Early in the development of C++, the keyword 'const' was introduced so that both programmer and compiler can know when the value of a data object does not change. The programmer uses const to declare when an object should not be changed or when a function should not change its environment; in turn, the compiler sees to it that this restriction is not mistakenly violated. Using const enhances the reliability and maintainability of C++ programs; it also improves program performance. Const can be used in declaring an object, reference or pointer or a member function. Details are given of using const. ODBMSs as database managers. (object-oriented database management systems) For a programmer experienced in relational database management systems (DBMSs), object-oriented DBMSs (OODBMSs) represent quite a change, because the heritage of OODBMSs is in programming languages instead of data management. OODBMSs are compared with traditional DBMSs as data managers. Among data models, the object model is unique in that it supports encapsulation, or the modeling of both structures and their related procedures. Compared to the relational model, the object model supports more expressive data representations. The object model also encapsulates data with behavior. The capabilities of OODBMSs in assuring data integrity are also discussed. Windows, panes, and events in Smalltalk/V PM. (tutorial) LaLonde, Wilf; Pugh, John. In both Smalltalk-80 and Smalltalk/V, 'controller' and 'dispatcher' are synonymous; so are 'view' and 'pane.' However, the windowing classes in the libraries of the two languages are wholly different. Smalltalk/V PM (for OS/2 Presentation Manager) is fully event-based and supports what may be called the application-pane (AP) paradigm. The differences between the model-view-controller (MVC) paradigm in Smalltalk-80 and the AP paradigm are discussed in terms of a pluggable tiling pane abstraction. An example application is given in order to show how illustrators must be provided to interface with panes in the window. OOA & OOD: a continuum of representation. (object-oriented analysis and object-oriented design) (tutorial) Since the late 1970s, software developers have had to deal with two great chasms: that between entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) and data flow diagrams (DFDs); and that between analysis and design. Both chasms vanish when a uniform underlying representation for organizing data and its exclusive processing is added. Object-oriented analysis (OOA) identifies and defines classes that reflect directly the problem area and the system's responsibilities within that area. Object-oriented design (OOD) identifies and defines further objects and classes, concentrating on implementation of the requirements. OOA and OOD can be applied sequentially or together. OOA is wholly, and OOD is largely, language-independent. Benefits of abstract superclass. (first column on Actor programming language) (tutorial) The purposes and goals of the new Actor programming language column are discussed. Object-oriented programming is the latest proposal for realizing the wishes of software developers for faster development, higher-quality products and easy maintenance and extension. Object-oriented programming offers four main features: abstraction, inheritance, encapsulation and polymorphism. Abstraction renders modules sharable, reusable and integratable. Inheritance renders modules sharable, extensible and reusable. Encapsulation renders modules extensible, integrable and reliable. Polymorphism renders modules sharable and extensible. An example is given of 'abstract superclass,' which is a class that functions as a placeholder of data and methods common to descendant classes. The example is called HasMenuWindow; source code is provided. Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0. (new capabilities) (Software Review) (evaluation) Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 represents significant changes over earlier versions. Objectworks has about 350 classes with more than 7,000 methods, while Smalltalk 2.3 has only about 300 classes with more than 3,000 methods. Objectworks' graphics classes have been wholly redesigned and the user interface is different. Objectworks now has a Launcher window for providing menu options in five categories: utilities, windows, browsing, changes and quit. The new menu organization means that the system is easier to manipulate. The most significant drawback of Objectworks/Smalltalk 4.0 is the large effort needed to become familiar with the new classes. Software cost reduction methods in practice: a post-mortem analysis. Sixty percent of the software costs associated with the design, development, and implementation of computer systems occurs in the maintenance phase. Since change is intrinsic in software, a significant reduction in the maintenance costs can be realized by recognizing the evolutionary aspects of software and integrating a design for change philosophy into the engineering life-cycle. Programs must be designed to be alterable and the resulting change process rigorously planned and controlled. From 1984 to 1987, the government funded a large, computer-based training effort based on these goals. The training system software provided hands-on training for a large collection/processing system by emulating the man-machine interfaces. The fundamental goal of the design and documentation effort was to minimize the impact of implementing expect system changes to the training system. Initial maintenance metrics collected during 1988 and 1989 for the effort suggest that several of the project design/documentation and maintenance goals were realized. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the design methodology and goals of the effort by analyzing change data gathered during the system test and early maintenance phases. This data strongly suggests that integrating a design for change philosophy into the software development practices has the potential to significantly reduce full life-cycle costs. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Approaches to program comprehension. Robson, D.J.; Bennett, K.H.; Cornelius, B.J.; Munro, M. Software maintenance is recognized as the most expensive phase of the software life cycle. The maintenance programmer is frequently presented with code with little or no supporting documentation, so that the understanding required to modify the program comes mainly from the code. This paper discusses some of the current approaches to theories of program comprehension and the tools for assisting the maintenance programmer with this problem. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Measuring software misinterpretation. Cioch, Frank A. In practice, when assessing the understandability of a software-related product, one is often concerned not only with the degree to which the information is comprehended but also with the degree to which it is misinterpreted. For example, because requirements specifications are used during the planning phase of the software life-cycle, how much the specification is misinterpreted is often as important as how much of it is comprehended. Low comprehension can be recognized before design proceeds. However, misinterpretation is can easily go unnoticed until later in the life-cycle, when they are more expensive to resolve. This distinction between comprehension and misinterpretation is difficult to address experimentally because of measurement difficulties. Construction of an operational definition of the degree to which information is misinterpreted is difficult to achieve using traditional methods. In this paper a technique is described that can be used to measure both software misinterpretation and comprehension. The results of an experiment are presented in which the measurement technique was used to assess misinterpretation and comprehension of requirements specifications. The impact of specification language on misinterpretation was different from its impact on comprehension in the experiment, underscoring the value of measuring both misinterpretation and comprehension. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A reusable toolset for software dependency analysis. Wilde, Norman; Huitt, Ross. Software maintenance is costly because of the many complex inter-relationships in a large software system; an understanding of these program dependencies is fundamental to efficient software change. This paper describes a general purpose tool set that has been developed to capture and analyze software dependencies. The tools are designed to serve as reusable components. They may be used not only to aid programmers directly in understanding programs but also as a basis from which other specialized tools can be constructed. The tools use the concept of a dependency graph as a basic abstraction to simplify the understanding of software relationships. Definitional, calling, functional and data-flow dependencies are analyzed. An external dependency graph for each function is developed to encapsulate the effects of function calls. A prototype of the dependency analysis toolset has been implemented to analyze C language code and seems to be quite useful, although some design and efficiency deficiencies were encountered that would need to be corrected in any 'industrial strength' version. Dependency queries can be used directly in designing and verifying software changes and also serve as a basis for other maintenance tools. For example, a graphic program browser was constructed in only one man-month, illustrating the use of the toolset as a reusable component to build more sophisticated tools. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Using documentation blueprints to produce mandated DoD data items. (Department of Defense) Although U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Data Item Descriptions provide a rough framework for preparing mandated software technical documentation, the guidance they furnish is generic and minimal. It is left to the contractor to: determine project-specific technical content and use that technical content in the software engineering process. To help produce complete, correct, and timely Data Items and to use that process to detect product errors earlier, Raytheon's Equipment Division has developed 'documentation blueprints.' The blueprints are technical engineering documents consisting of: general introductory information, e.g., general guidelines, instructions, checklists, and relationships to other documents and reviews, and detailed instructions for creating the document, e.g., suggestions, notes, cautions, acceptable technical text variants, examples from past projects, hypothetical examples. A tutorial approach is used throughout the blueprints to: help software engineers understand the 'whats and hows' of the Data Item, institutionalize mandated policies and procedures, and provide a reference to past successful technical practices, 'lessons learned,' and company-specific approaches. Feedback for blueprint revision is generated by responses to customer-unique requirements, from internal and customer reviews, and from project-specific tailoring. Experiences in other engineering and user documentation environments indicate that use of these blueprints can save up to five percent of the software acquisition cost. In addition, the blueprints enable the engineering documentation to evolve with the software product, thereby facilitating the review process and enabling product errors to be detected earlier. When used in conjunction with other support services, e.g., CASE tools, technical writers, these blueprints can provide further savings. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher) On dynamically updating a computer program: from concept to prototype. An approach to dynamically updating a computer program, i.e., updating while it is executing, is presented. Dynamic updating is crucial in applications where the cost of stopping and restarting the program makes doing so impractical. The presented system works with programs written in procedural languages such as Pascal and C. It is assumed that computer programs are written in a top-down manner consistent with good software engineering practices. Also assumed is that the underlying computer system logically provides a network-wide sparse virtual address space. Using these assumptions, it is possible to update computer programs with minimum interruption to the running program. by partitioning the address space into a number of version spaces, the handling of multiple simultaneous updates is possible. This allows one update to begin before previous updates complete. Via appropriate mapping mechanisms, old versions of procedures may call new procedures and maintain consistency. An overview of the design and implementation of a working prototype updating system is discussed and a sample updating session is illustrated. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) ASDM: the universal systems development methodology. (advanced systems development methodology) The advanced systems development methodology (ASDM) can help information systems (IS) managers handle all types of systems development situations. The components of an ASDM include a project management perspective, an automated approach, advanced procedures, the development of standards, and the use of documentation. IS managers can adapt the ASDM to specific situations by using a formal tailoring process, which includes identifying systems development characteristics, selecting the appropriate approach, selecting automated tools, establishing standards, and developing documentation. Where does prototyping fit in IS development? (information systems) The prototyping approach to systems development can be used to enhance the slower and more traditional systems development life cycle (SDLC) approach. The steps in the SDLC approach include feasibility analysis, systems analysis, requirements definition, systems design, systems development, implementation-evaluation, and maintenance. Prototyping involves the construction of a model of the proposed system. The advantages of the prototyping approach include speed, the ability to adapt to changes in system requirements, and the involvement of users in the development process. The disadvantages of the prototyping approach include the tendency of users to adopt the prototype as the final version of the system, and the decreased focus on documentation. Prototyping should be used during the requirements definition and systems design stages of the SDLC method, and possibly during the development stage. The implementation-evaluation and maintenance phases of the SDLC should be retained. CASE technology: today's reality. (computer-aided software engineering) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology can lead to significant improvements in productivity, yet many organizations are not using CASE to manage large portions of their applications. The barriers to CASE implementation include high costs and relatively unsophisticated technology. The primary issue in implementing CASE is the difficulty of software conversion. CASE offers organizations the potential to have a totally automated software development environment by the mid- to late 1990s, and this will lead organizations to the eventual implementation of CASE technology. Organizations may implement CASE for documentation purposes, as well as for ensuring the structure and conformity of application codes. OOPS are picking up speed. (object-oriented programming systems) Aeh, Richard K. Object-oriented programming systems (OOPS) are becoming more popular, and they may replace procedural systems by the year 2000. An OOPS allows data and code to be placed together in autonomous, non-interrelated objects that activate the proper procedure code. Objects, which essentially are independent plug-compatible units of software, can be easily modified. Brooklyn Union Gas Co (BUG) is one of the first organizations to develop its own OOPS for mainframes. The benefits of BUG's OOPS include reduced systems maintenance, increased programming flexibility and improved customer service. Strategic information planning: a corporate necessity. Battaglia, Greg. Organizations should become aware of the importance of strategic information planning (SIP), the process of analyzing information needs and aligning those needs with corporate strategy. SIP has become more important as a result of changes in technology and the business environment. The issues that should be considered when implementing SIP include the development of standards for communications networks, the use of data bases, and the development of purchasing plans for hardware and software. The issues to consider when implementing information technologies include the integration of data processing, communications, and automation; the use of decision support systems; and the implementation of advanced applications systems development methods. Are desktop processors a rational choice? Butler, Charles W.; Richardson, Gary L. Organizations can make rational decisions about the use of microcomputers through the use of careful strategic planning. Most conventional information systems professionals would consider mainframes or departmental systems to be more effective than microcomputers in terms of both cost and capabilities, but users would rate microcomputers as the most effective way of meeting their information needs. Users appreciate the fact that microcomputers are fast, user-friendly, and easy to control, but may not realize the potential problems of computer security and the loss of data. In considering microcomputers in their overall information management strategy, organizations should evaluate their use in terms of control objectives, telecommunications goals, and risk. Life cycle management: it's already broken. Johnson, M. Demarco. Information engineering professionals should ensure that the life cycles of the components of information systems are synchronized within an overall information architecture. Information life cycle management involves applying conventional management processes to stages of the information life cycle, including information storage, retrieval, and processing. Information life cycle management focuses on information content management. The life cycle technique involves information resources planning, development, and management. The useful life of an information system depends on many factors, including the volatility of the business, software development techniques, and technology. The structural soundness that is necessary for the expansion of an information system is lost when the components are repaired without considering the entire system. IS salaries up for '91. (information systems) Salaries for information systems (IS) professionals will increase in 1991. A Robert Half International and Accountemps salary survey indicated that starting salaries for IS professionals are expected to increase by an average of 5.1 percent. Average salary levels are expected to be $43,000 to $60,000 for computer-aided software engineering specialists, $34,000 to $47,000 for associates in IS consulting, $51,000 to $66,000 for senior project managers in large organizations, and $68,000 to $91,000 for MIS directors in large organizations. Salary ranges will vary according to geographic location, with salaries approximately five percent higher than the national average in California and Connecticut, and nine- to 10 percent lower than the national average in Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida. Novell battles software pirates. (News) Novell Inc wins a copyright infringement suit against Computer Technology de Espana, a software development company in Madrid, Spain for copying Novell's Advanced Netware and selling it as a networking program called CompNet. A Spanish court has ruled that in doing so, Computer Technology de Espana infringed on Novell's NetWare copyright. Novell's in-house security team that battles software piracy is made up of four full-time investigators. The team especially focuses on resellers in the US who make copies of operating systems, use a single serial number and charge license fees to users without paying Novell. Novell has settled disputes on infringement violations with Ellis Enterprizes, which was selling pirated copies of NetWare with counterfeit NetWare labels, as well as Vicom, Genesys and Zielinski & Associates. Protect yourself from copyright infringement. (Patches and Fixes) The Software Publishers Association (SPA) files lawsuits on behalf of its member companies for copyright infringement violations. Network administrators should be aware that fines and imprisonment are possible penalties for illegal software duplication under federal law. The SPA offers a self-audit kit so users can avoid problems and clear up any possible violations. The kit lets users search directories for specific applications and possible multiple copies. Users can not only eliminate illegal copies but can also get rid of redundant data. Network administrators should locate appropriate licenses if they find multiple copies of an application. If there is no license or proof of purchase document, users should either destroy the illegal copies or contact the software company for additional licenses. Users should also make sure their license agreement provides for the correct number of users. UB announces NetDirector. (Ungermann-Bass's NetDirector network management system)(Broadcast) (product announcement) Ungermann-Bass (UB) introduces NetDirector, which the company claims is the first network management system designed around Microsoft LAN Manager and a Structured Query Language (SQL) database. NetDirector's first release is scheduled for January 1991 and a start-up system will be priced from $7,500 to $16,000 per server, depending on configuration. UB contends that NetDirector is both a network management product and platform. NetDirector includes a standard core set of applications supporting individual packages as well as five management applications. The system is a client-server application running on a dedicated server which allows multiple client workstations. NetDirector allows network managers to configure or download information to over 40 types of UB devices, monitor and correct faults and manage and print network inventory with the SQL database. AMD introduces FDDI chip for half-size card. (Advanced Micro Devices) (Broadcast) (product announcement) Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) introduces SuperNet 2, an integrated chip set for FDDI local area networks that fits on an AT half-card. The product is smaller, less expensive and uses a third of the power of its predecessor, SuperNet 1. SuperNet 2 costs $225 in lots of 1,000, while SuperNet 1 costs $295. SuperNet 2 supports full 400M-bps FDDI memory bandwidth. The product combines the Integrated Media Access Control (MAC) unit with the AmPhy low-power physical-layer controller. This integrates a new physical layer portion, referred to as physical connection management. SuperNet 2's multi-cast filtering feature provides more intelligence at the chip level for filtering packets. The product also offers asynchronous priority queues and full duplex operation. SuperNet 2 is scheduled to be available in production quantities at the end of the first quarter of 1991. SNA and LU6.2 connectivity. (Part 31 of the LAN Tutorial Series)(Systems Network Architecture)(Logical Unit) (tutorial) IBM's Systems Network Architecture is a seven-layer communications protocol. The layers handle various tasks. Functionality is basically limited to layers four through six. Logical units (LUs) and physical units (PUs) are referred to as network-addressable units (NAUs) and are the two main functional elements of an SNA network. LU6.2 is an IBM protocol that makes all computers peers on an SNA network and permits cooperative processing. LU6.2 acts as an interface between SNA and the end user's application. It consists of a base set of features plus 41 options. IBM implements the protocol in its entire product line. Users are probably most familiar with LU6.2 as Advanced Program-to-Program Communication (APPC) in the form of a developer's toolkit. LU6.2/APPC is mainly a resource allocator and controller, ensuring that programs have access to network resources when needed. Pat Thaler: the IEEE's 802.3 chair looks at Ethernet and its future. (Institute of Electronic and Electrical HP engineer Pat Thaler is the head of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineer's (IEEE) Computer Society's 802.3 Working Group, a committee that sets and maintains standards for Ethernet. Thaler feels that end users can get involved with shaping Ethernet standards by becoming a member of the IEEE's Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC), talking to vendors about their concerns or corresponding with the 802.3 Work Group by mail. The 802.3 Working Group is striving to resolve issues on hub management standards. A final hub management vote is, at the minimum, a year away. The group is also working on conformance tests and Thaler feels that if the group does a good job on writing standards, conformance should result in interoperability. The 802.3 Work Group is also tackling the proposed 10BaseF standard for fiber Ethernet with another ballot planned to go out in March 1991. Make the leap: multiprocessing NOSs are the next step. (Network Operating Systems)(includes related article on levels of Multiprocessing is an architecture used by high-end host operating systems. Multiprocessing network operating systems (NOS) offer better performance over single processing NOS because they can process tasks in parallel. Asymmetric multiprocessing systems have the operating system run on one processor with applications running on the other processor(s). These systems are best for applications with predictable loads and repetitive tasks. In symmetric multiprocessing systems, all processors have the same capabilities and all tasks are put into a common queue. Tasks are assigned by a scheduler to the available processor. Existing applications run faster on multiprocessing NOSs, but multiprocessing-aware applications will run faster. These applications, however, will take time to be developed. Banyan and Microsoft are the only companies thus far that have shipped multiprocessing versions of their NOSs. Gearing up: a systems approach to optimizing network performance. (Performance Tuning) (tutorial) Users should look to a systems approach in local area network design to help them optimize and upgrade their network's performance at less cost. User reasons for upgrading usually fall into categories such as severely outdated technology, an increased number of nodes accessing the file server, the use of client-server or other network bandwidth-intensive applications or more demanding printer usage. If network performance is sluggish, sometimes users only need to replace one of a file server's components instead of the file server itself. Other users may find performance improved after replacing the server disk drive and controller. Users can solve network traffic problems due to printing by switching from a file server-based print server to a standalone, networked model. Upgrade options are easy to implement and can provide cost-effective solutions as well. Bearing the load: load testing requires substantial planning. (Performance Tuning) (tutorial) Users who want to perform load testing on their local area networks need to plan carefully and determine exactly what they are testing for. Some users will be testing for the break point of the system while others will be looking at the capacity limit of a specific system component. Users should be aware of several problems inherent in system testing including scheduling considerations and resource requirements, accumulation of the load generation data baseline, load generation and impact, and the return to normal operations. The baseline load must represent a set of database states and transactions that are consistent. Users must carefully schedule the system to be tested and organize resources including nodes, people and databases. Users must consider timing and time required for bringing the network back to a daily operational state after testing. Extensive details are presented. LAN Legos: bridges and routers: the building blocks of internetworks. (Internetworking)(includes related articles on Many users building an internetwork find they have difficulties in deciding what combination of bridges, routers and their hybrid devices will best benefit the network. Internetworking devices can be used to partition traffic as well as to connect local area networks of different physical media. Remote bridges and routers can also join local area networks across cities, states and countries. Users must base their choice on application needs and budget limitations. Bridges cost less and are faster than routers but one of their drawbacks is in the difficulty of locating problems in a bridged network. Users can locate problems easier on networks with routers since routing devices isolate each segment from the others. Routers also have identities as network devices while bridges are transparent to the upper-layer protocols. Routers also offer higher security. A comprehensive directory is included of bridges, including product name, manufacturer, LAN and WAN media, price and performance specifications. Lean and mean: project management software makes you more efficient. (Application Software) Project management software can help companies define priorities and become more efficient, which is especially important in hard economic times. Project management programs let managers define multiple simultaneous projects and then define interdependencies among them. Project management software should also track resource schedules as well as give users a graphical representation of important tasks to be completed at an early stage. Standard diagrams include Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) as well as Gantt charts. K&H Professional Management Services' $5,590 Prestige package has support for Structured Query Language (SQL) and includes cost control and resource scheduling. Computer Aided Management's ViewPoint, $3,500, allows users to design projects based on final goals. Information Research's entry-level Syzgy, $695, is best used for short duration tasks. Fortified projects: how project management enriched Certified Grocers. (Certified Grocers of California's use of Poc-It Certified Grocers of California's use of Poc-It Management Services' MicroMan II Project and Staff Management System allows the MIS staff to spend 62 percent of its time working on large, strategic projects. MIS staffers use the system to track MIS projects and produce reports for project managers and upper management. The company runs MicroMan on a Novell NetWare local area network running on Token Ring hardware. Certified Grocers is currently working on updating network topology from two rings in one building to six rings split between two buildings. The backbone will be fiber-optic. The company uses MicroMan to keep the tasks organized in this large undertaking. All MIS projects are entered into the MicroMan system and are tracked on a daily basis. Estimates and schedules for each task are monitored to make sure they stay on schedule. InfoAlliance: SPC changes how we look at LAN databases. (Software Publishing Corp.'s InfoAlliance OS/2-based database-access Software Publishing Corp's InfoAlliance client-server, database-access application is a useful tool for accessing and manipulating data on multiple database management system applications on local area networks (LAN) . The product is not necessarily easy to learn and users should know how to use their databases and how to navigate their way on local area networks. The product comes with eight volumes of user documentation, demonstrating its powerful capabilities as well as its possible difficulty for some users. The company is targeting InfoAlliance at large corporations shifting to client-server computing. InfoAlliance is priced at approximately $99,000 for a nine-server network with 200 users. The product requires OS/2 and Presentation Manager 1.20 or higher. LAN users need LAN Manager 2.0 or NetWare 386. Other details are presented. Hot or not: the much-touted diskless PC market has yet to catch fire. (Diskless PCs) (buyers guide) The diskless workstation market is not growing at the fast rate predicted although analysts forecast steady growth and a mature market by 1995. Diskless workstations are not having much impact in the corporate world due to several factors. Some users feel that company use of diskless workstations implies that employees are not trusted if the machines are being used to replace microcomputers. Other users still want local storage and more capability on the desktop. Many vendors are targeting diskless workstations at companies that use dumb terminals with multiuser architecture and want to migrate to client-server architecture with intelligent workstations. IBM targets the machines at customers buying local area networks. Security is one of the major pluses in diskless workstations and MIS directors must balance data security without taking away user productivity that comes with local storage. A list of workstations, including product name, manufacturer, processor, clock speed, price and other features, is included. Loop de loop LANs: networking makes Six Flags parks screamingly efficient. (Case Study) Six Flags, which operates amusement parks in seven locations across the US, replaces its mainframe and minicomputer environment with local area networks. Each park is like a small city and digging trenches for network wiring is prohibited since it can disrupt electric lines or water pipes. Six Flags uses Networth's proprietary solution that is similar to Ethernet but implements collision elimination instead of collision detection. Workstation-to-hub distance can be extended to 6,000 feet and data is transmitted at 800K-bps. Ethernet is used to connect microcomputers in the main building at each site. Each park, as well as the company's corporate headquarters, uses an Advanced NetWare 286 network with a single file server and as many as 30 nodes. Networks control every aspect of the park from food concessions to human resources. A network banking system tracks daily sales at each park. Tangle-free LAN: Web is a flexible, low-cost, peer-to-peer NOS. (Webcorp's Web network operating system)(Test Drive)(includes Webcorp's Web 2.5 network operating system is a flexible, easy-to-implement network operating system recommended for small-scale networks. A five-user license for Web is priced at $495 and a 30-user license is $1,495. The menu-driven installation helps beginners install the package. A command-line installation speeds the process for experienced users but with a less thorough configuration than the menu-driven installation. Web has a useful, built-in electronic messaging system that users access through the Station Manager application. The product does not support user and group profiles and lacks support for file attachments, although there are work-arounds for these problems. Documentation is weak and lacks information about how the network operates. In testing, most applications function well. Network resource management is reasonable for a network with 15 or fewer stations. Resourcefulness: IBS's DataClub: a distributed Macintosh network. (Test Drive)(International Business Software's DataClub 1.1 International Business Software's DataClub 1.1 is a low-cost, distributed network operating system for the Apple Macintosh that actually distributes the whole network instead of just network processing. DataClub takes advantage of all system disk drives and treats them as if they were one. DataClub 1.1 is priced at $295 for a three-server version and $795 for 10 users. Novice network users will find the network easy to access and sophisticated users who can maintain their own systems will encounter few problems. When users access a network file, they do not need to know which server or workstation maintains the file. Tests show some problems with invalid system setups and locked data files but the program generally performs well. Documentation is well organized but the lack of an index makes it weak as a reference tool. System requirements are an Apple Macintosh Plus or higher and 2Mbytes of memory for servers. Speed demon: high-speed search makes Exabyte the fastest tape backup. (Exabyte's 8200SX tape backup drive)(Test Drive) (Hardware Exabyte's 8200SX is a 2.5Gbyte tape backup drive that, with a new high-speed search feature, reads and writes bytes faster than any type of tape unit commonly used on microcomputer local area networks. Backup software supports the high-speed search feature and tests with Palindrome's The Network Archivist (TNA) 1.8B have the drive looking for a file mark at approximately 15M-bps. TNA keeps each file set as small as possible. The Exabyte 8200SX has easy installation and works with any small computer system interface (SCSI) port. TNA requires a workstation with a minimum of 512Kbytes of available RAM. Performance statistics on the Exabyte 8200SX include a 246K-bps sustained transfer rate and a 0.429 inches per second tape speed. An AT bus version is priced at $6,695 and backs up total disk space of 350Mbytes. Expansion to 1Gbyte costs $995. Write your name on a mountain. (Roctronics Entertainment Lighting's Lasergraph display system) (From the Laboratories) Roctronics Lighting has produced a a user-friendly display system that allows one to write, direct and produce an entire animated laser light show. The user can learn the basics of the new Lasergraph's controls in less than a few hours and create a visual display that moves, responds to audio or other cues, activates kaleidoscopic projections and other artistry along with delivering coherent messages. Lasergraph costs approximately $20,000, or $2500 for a single event rental. It is a portable and lightweight control panel, about 18 x 36 x 4 inches, with 100 manual control buttons, switches and joy sticks. Its language consists of more than 4000 solid-state memory-stored figures and words that can be customized depending on the needs of the client. Countdown to the single market. (International News) (European Common Market) Due to Europe's planned single market, the need to meet Europe-wide standards, for both foreign and domestic markets, is going to be one of the initial new demands on the laser industry. Standardization is essential to insure the safety of lasers. A 'CE' symbol showing compliance with European directives, such as electromagnetic compatibility and safety, will be attached to a device or system allowing it to be placed on the European market beginning on Jan 1, 1992. Goods that are not designated in this manner, or failing to meet the standards, may then be subject to a prohibition order. The three methods for 'CE' marking are self-certification, certification by a test house, or if an existing standard seems inappropriate, by establishing a Technical File for the product. It is expected that standards for industrial, scientific and medical equipment will apply to most laser equipment. Pilkington faces an uncertain future. (Pilkington Brothers group) (International News) The Pilkington Brothers group (Lancashire, UK) has been negotiating the sale of Pilkington Optronics, its optical detection subsidiary, to Thomson-CSF, the French electronics giant. Negotiations took place throughout the second half of 1990. The sale would add to an active year of acquisitions for the French company. BTR, a previous predator for the Pilkington Group with a bid of more than $2 billion in 1987, may possibly initiate a takeover of Pilkington. Meanwhile, Pilkington has announced a joint venture for a plant in Poland and the purchase of Akener Fahrzeugglas in the eastern part of the new German federal state. Both of these announcements pertain to float glass. Dialing for wavelengths. (comparison of solid-state and dye lasers) (Cover Story) Tunable solid-state lasers have a way to go before surpassing the popularity and functionality of dye lasers, despite the fact that dye lasers have come close to their probable operational limits. The tunable solid-state lasers that have been recently marketed fall into a class of lasers called vibronic lasers, where the lasing transitions occur between vibrational levels of different electronic states. Similar to tunable lasers are their modelocked counterparts, either dye or Ti:sapphire. The material in Ti:sapphire can be readily modelocked, but synchronous pumping is prohibited; therefore, intracavity modelocking, either passive or active, is necessary for Ti:sapphire lasers. Many manufacturers talk of frequency-doubling options for their lasers due to the substantial pulse energies and good beam qualities obtainable from Ti:sapphire. Even in the modelocked area, where only one product has been formally introduced, frequency doubling still looks like a viable option. However, frequency doubling in Ti:sapphire leaves an inaccessible spectral window from about 530 to 660 nanometers, which means if a beam in that spectral window is required, one must then use a dye laser. Measuring spectra of diode lasers: laser diagnostics can be improved with an ultrahigh-resolution spectrum analyzer. The diode laser has recently become a prime participant in the expanding fiberoptic communications, fiber sensor and optical storage markets due to its small size, low power requirements and low cost. The diode laser is compact and is able to provide output that can be both modulated at very high rates and accurately restricted to complex high-frequency waveforms. Designers of spectrum analyzers are now developing increasingly sophisticated laser diagnostic equipment to keep up with changing technological requirements. A new line of scanning Fabry-Perot (FP) optical spectrum analyzers has high resolution, a large free spectral range, narrow linewidth and thermal stability. FP spectral analyzers are capable of two main functions. The first allows observation of the entire spectrum of the diode laser without interruption or overlap, while the second function provides the option of selecting a transmission window for channel bandpass filter applications. Until recently, resolving the spectra for diode lasers was difficult due to the lack of resolution and free spectral range found in most spectrum analyzers. OFC '91 - a broad reach: spanning the fiberoptic universe, from new laser schemes to the subscriber loop. (Optical Fiber Among the many highlights to be featured at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference on Feb 18-22, 1991 at the San Diego Convention Center are advanced semiconductor lasers, optical amplifiers, high-performance fiberoptic transmission and fiber to the home plans. The meeting is jointly sponsored by the Optical Society of America, the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the IEEE Communications Society. Developers will be presenting 240 papers at the technical sessions, while more than 180 companies will be participating in the exhibition. Papers will report advances in diode lasers, progress on erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and the high-power diode-laser pump sources for them. Deriving laser spectra from a single pulse. (At the Test Bench) Gornall, William S. Finding good diagnostic equipment is essential to the testing of tunable lasers. The main concerns when characterizing tunable lasers are wavelength determination and spectral analysis. Any good performance-testing instrument should be easy to use, reliable and provide the information needed. Eight criteria apply to an instrument intended for the measurement of the wavelength and spectral structure of tunable pulsed lasers: ease of alignment, broad wavelength coverage, built-in pulse detection, single pulse detection, self-calibration, rapid operation, direct readout and data storage. Good diagnostic equipment is commercially available from a multitude of sources for continuous-wave lasers. OTDR goes "undercover" in laptop PC. (Antel Optronics Inc.'s optical time domain reflectometer cards and software) (Product Antel Optronics (Ontario, CN) develops an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) plug-in card for a laptop computers. The OTDR's functions are operable from 10 of the computer's function keys. The Next Generation OTDR, as the Series AOC-10 plug-in cards and related OTDR software are called, was initially intended for the LAN market but is now aimed at the complete OTDR market and fits into any laptop or microcomputer that can take a full-size card. The OTDR cards use an Intel 80196Kbyte 16-bit microprocessor for data acquisition. Deliveries for singlemode products begins in Apr 1991, while multimode units are available earlier. Prices vary and exclude the cost of the host computer. The 850-nm multi-mode option is $8500; the 1300-nm multimode option is $10,500; a dual-wavelength multimode version is $15,000; the 1310-nm singlemode option is $12,000; the 1550-nm singlemode option is $15,000 and a dual-wavelength singlemode version is $21,000. These prices include a motherboard and software. E-O phase modulators crack the high-voltage barrier. (electro-optic)(New Focus Inc.'s 4000 Series modulators) (Product New Focus Inc has introduced the 4000 Series, a new line of electro-optic (E-O) modulators that are likely to end high-voltage manipulation while maintaining high-frequency performance. The 4000 series is able to operate at several hundred megahertz, while conventional E-O modulators must switch kilovolts in nanosecond intervals. A very small device capacitance of 20 picofarads is the key to the wideband performance. Predictions for US pricing will be about $3000 per unit for standard products, with off-the-shelf deliveries scheduled in Feb 1991. Get with the program. (includes related articles on spreadsheets and C, object-oriented languages, and Lotus to upgrade 1-2-3 Much of the drudgery has been removed from using programming languages by the utilization of graphical user interfaces, on-line help systems, and libraries of programming routines. Third-generation languages like C, PASCAL and BASIC are still the main media for software developers, even with the trend towards the usage of macros in certain applications like Lotus 1-2-3. Some analysts maintain that the design and construction of these macros is in itself programming. Even so, many business users, having utilized the simplistic macro capabilities of certain applications, re now turning back to third-generation languages to design certain aspects of software. Analysts point out that using such third-generation languages provides greater design flexibility, more efficient use of disk and memory, faster performance, and closer interaction between communications services and hardware. Color to go. (the use of color in portable computers) (includes related article on radiation in liquid crystal displays) Portable computers featuring color 'active-matrix' liquid crystal display screens are currently entering the market priced around the $9,000 to $10,000 mark. As the technology to produce the screens becomes more efficient, the prices are likely to come down considerably. The machines use new thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology where each of the screens 921,600 pixels is represented by a transistor. The transistors act as high-speed shutters, allowing light to pass through red, green, and blue filters. The screens are difficult to manufacture because any failed transistors leave a black space or an inappropriate spot of color. Consequently, because so many of the screens fail to survive the manufacturing process, high prices are charged for those that survive. E-mail goes global. (X.400 standard) O'Malley, Christopher. The emergence of the X.400 protocol as an international standard for connecting electronic mail systems has not been an overnight affair. The specification, adopted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT) in 1984, drew little notice outside of technical circles. It is only e-mail's new found popularity that has prompted widespread demand for some sort of a communications standard. There are an estimated 15 million electronic mail users in more than 50 countries worldwide. Both private and public e-mail networks now utilize X.400, often providing gateways between dissimilar private networks as well as larger international connections. The two main areas of concern with X.400 are the absence of an addressing format, and the lack of directory services. Consolidate your worksheets. (tutorial) Gasteiger, Daniel. The numbers entered on a monthly financial spreadsheet can change on a monthly basis, but the basic structure of the worksheets often remains the same. Consequently, a new spreadsheet is created each time whose physical layout matches that of the previous one. Data that has been stored on disk can be merged into the current worksheet by copying all the individual cell entries, by adding the values, or by subtracting the values. This consolidating of worksheet data is done by using the File Combine commands that are found on all releases of Lotus 1-2-3. The article gives a detailed description of how data can be merged into a current worksheet. In case of emergency. (using the ONERROR command to prevent Lotus 1-2-3 macros from bombing) (tutorial) When macro execution in Lotus 1-2-3 terminates with an error message, you can usually press the Escape key and begin again. Sometimes though, errors are more problematic. Macros written with new users in mind should include safeguards that prevent accidental crashing of the spreadsheet. The ONERROR command is provided in Lotus 1-2-3 to cope with many unforeseen errors that may occur during macro processing. The command works by intercepting error conditions before they can halt macro processing. A detailed explanation of how the command works is presented. A taxing worksheet. (spreadsheet tips to assist in personal tax decisions) (tutorial) Some of the most common questions asked concerning filing a personal income tax form involve the need to itemize deductions, the need to file separately or jointly with a spouse, whether an underpayment penalty is due, how much of an IRA contribution is deductible, how to control tax liability on mutual fund withdrawals, what to do when selling a home and buying another, and how to cope with self-employment tax. The creation of spreadsheet templates for use with Lotus 1-2-3 or Symphony to act as scratchpads in an attempt to answer the questions is detailed. Tool for taxes. (using Lotus 1-2-3 as a paper-tape calculator) (tutorial) Anyone that deals with columns of numbers, such as bookkeepers and tax accountants, have traditionally relied on paper-tape calculators to total the figures and track their work. Lotus 1-2-3 can be used to provide a better paper-tape calculator, because it allows the user to change the values that have already been entered. Also, if a mistake is made with a traditional paper-tape calculator the user often has to restart from the beginning. In the Lotus 1-2-3 version working with worksheet data, adjustments can be made at will. The article shows how to use Lotus 1-2-3 to create a paper-tape calculator, using the microcomputer's numeric keypad just like the keys on a desktop calculator. Tranche warfare. (Citicorp's use of Lotus 1-2-3 to repackage residential mortgages) Citicorp's Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) analysts utilize a networked version of Lotus 1-2-3 3.0 to analyse and track the resale of mortgages for investors. Citicorp's REMIC group bundles large numbers of American residential mortgages into a single REMIC, and then divides the result into customized segments called tranches, for offering to potential investors. Citicorp uses an in-house designed Lotus 1-2-3 infrastructure for the calculations. By doing them in-house rather than employing an outside accounting firm, analysts believe the company makes considerable savings each year. The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet-based modeling gives the company's analysts maximum flexibility when putting deals together. Your ticket to the memory circus. (the different classifications of memory) (tutorial) There are several types of memory today that software packages can use. In the first place, disk memory offers permanent storage of data, either on a hard or floppy disk. Most applications do not support virtual memory, which is the partial allocation of a hard disk for use as temporary workspace. Conventional memory is the first 640Kbytes of random access memory (RAM) in the microcomputer; both expanded and extended memory access memory above 1Mbyte, but in different ways. There are a number of techniques for obtaining more memory when using Lotus 1-2-3 or Symphony. First, disable the Undo command, erase all unnecessary data, and delete unneeded range names and named graphs. Then, detach all add-in programs in the same order they were attached, reset the format of blank cells back to the default, and unload memory-resident programs. Finally, remove macro libraries not in use. Hard copy made easy. (obtaining hard copies of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets) (includes related article on driver installation) To obtain a hard copy of a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, the printer being used must communicate effectively with the application. This is achieved using a number of print commands. Following the installation of a printer driver, a number of instructions have to be adhered to. The article covers the sequence of instructions that must be followed, from assigning a Print range, to aligning the paper and fitting the page. The article also covers how to use headers and footers, repeating information on subsequent pages, printing attributes, and resetting Print settings. Sideways revisited. (Software Review) (Funk Software Inc's Sideways 3.3) (evaluation) Funk Software Inc's $89.95 Sideways 3.3 is a printer utility that allows sideways printing with dot-matrix printers. The package requires 75Kbytes of RAM with Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.0, and 86Kbytes for Lotus 1-2-3 release 3.0. Sideways 3.3 allows more worksheet columns onto a page by rotating the output and printing small fonts. The package offers nine character sizes, along with control of the spacing between characters and between lines. Also offered is a choice of single or double density and control of all four page margins. Special effects, such as underlined, boldfaced, or expanded print can be applied to selected blocks in the Print range. Because of Lotus Development's decision not to support dot-matrix printing in immediate future releases of Lotus 1-2-3, Sideways will remain a favorite with the large numbers of users who still use dot-matrix printers. Affordable portables. (NEC Technologies' UltraLite 286V, Zeos International Notebook 286, and CompAdds' Notebook Companion) NEC's $3,999 UltraLite 286V, Zeos International's $1,999 Notebook 286, and CompuAdd's $2,895 Notebook Companion are all notebook computers offering the same basic configurations. Each includes an Intel 80C286 processor running at 12-MHz, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk drive, and a 640-by-480 VGA display. The differences between the machines become apparent when considering the weight, price and storage options. Although the CompuAdd Companion is significantly lighter and smaller than the other machines at just 4.4 pounds, it offers no internal floppy-disk drive. While the NEC model is a sound machine its expensive price tag may put off some prospective users. Overall, the Zeos Notebook 286 is the best all around purchase of the three. The machine comes equipped with an internal floppy-disk drive, and although it is 2.6 pounds heavier than the CompuAdd Companion, is by far the least expensive. Spreadsheet safety net. (Software Review) (Decisus' Business Wits library of business formulas for spreadsheets) (evaluation) Decisus Inc's $695 Business Wits is an analytical-support package that gives spreadsheet users access to formulas that are more complex than the usual worksheet and macro routines. The package requires 512Kbytes of RAM without graphics, and 640Kbytes with graphics. To assist in the management of memory the package will utilize EMS memory if it is available. The package comes with its own spreadsheet and graphics programs and report generator, and includes 118 business formulas. Three optional program libraries are available for in-depth help containing hundreds more formulas and priced at $195 each. The company offers free telephone support for 60 days and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Rating the tax packs. (a guide to tax software) (includes related article on tax software products and publishers) The range of tax preparation software includes those programs that are very comprehensive and those that simply provide data-entry forms. In terms of importance, the program should offer a complete range of forms, worksheets, and schedules used to prepare a reasonably complicated form. In addition, a state tax-preparation module may be required, which can usually be obtained from the same software vendor where the federal-tax software was purchased. Completing the actual tax return is the next step and knowing what the package can and cannot do is therefore important. Although electronic filing is now possible for those due a refund or with no taxes due, it has to be done through a federally-approved third-party bureau. For a small fee the company will file the return direct to an IRS computer. Original W-2 forms have to be provided. Professional assistance is usually required when filing a 1040. Superlatives: find the best answer. (Software Review) (from Graphicus) (evaluation) Graphicus' $295 Superlatives is a goal-seeking package that can look for the best solution to a problem while remaining within defined limits or constraints. The package requires DOS 2.0 or higher, 512Kbytes of RAM, and VGA or EGA graphics. It is a stand-alone program, rather than an add-in, and is designed to read and write WKS and WK1 spreadsheet files. Superlatives is organized into three on-screen windows, the first of which, called the model window, shows the original spreadsheet file. The second window, called the input window, indicates all the cells within the spreadsheet that have been designated adjustable or goal cells. The third window, called the output window, shows the result of the program after it has executed its goal-seeking. Superlatives is an easy to use package that has good design and is sufficiently fast and powerful. Lottery software: don't bet on it. Scapicchio, Mark. Software packages specifically designed and marketed to assist in the selection of lottery numbers are not uncommon. These programs generally include a database of past winning state lottery numbers, from which numbers are selected. The selection is based on numbers that have appeared more frequently than others, or numbers that have not won in some time. The actual winning numbers are selected using lottery machines and while some observers claim that all machines are likely to show a particular bias over time, many analysts contend that such a system has no proven track record. Lottery officials say that after interviewing all lottery winners, no-one has yet won using a software package to pick the numbers. LANs, LONs, and gamelans. (Jon Zilber) (column) Zilber, Jon. No universal standard for transparently moving information around Macintosh networks yet exists because paper remains the ideal model for computer protocols, but the paper medium is difficult to replicate. The MIDI interface is the closest thing to a universal standard in the electronic world. Apple has become more tolerant of heterogeneous environments, but most integration efforts still take place at third-party vendors. Echelon, a startup co-founded by early Apple employee Mike Markkula, is promoting the concept of the 'local operating network' with its LonWorks communications protocol. Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, which Apple is investing heavily in, may eventually build CPUs for Macs. Microsoft's Bill Gates is planning a new multimedia standard based on the 'gamelan' concept, in which the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Support woes. (Robert Wiggins) (column) Wiggins, Robert. Many software vendors' technical support departments are understaffed and do not have enough telephone lines, forcing users to spend hours on hold or listening to busy signals, and many support departments fail to call back when given a user's number. Voice-mail systems often trap callers. Vendors are also beginning to charge fees for telephone support despite the poor quality of the service. Users often get 90 days of technical support beginning when the product is registered and must pay for additional support. Microsoft and others are also failing to notify users of bug fixes and interim upgrades, sending out a copy only if the user reports a bug over the support line. On-line services and user groups are a good way of keeping up to date with interim program versions. Some progressive vendors provide online support through commercial services or a private BBS and do answer telephone calls promptly; users should patronize these. Illustrator. (Software Review) (Adobe Illustrator drawing and painting program) (evaluation) Adobe's $595 Illustrator 3.0 PostScript graphics package offers improved text handling, three new tool types and a command set better suited to graphic designers than that of earlier versions. Users can now change font sizes and styles, colors and leading within any on-screen text block. Illustrator 3.0 also provides automatic kerning, tracking, hanging punctuation, paragraph spacing and horizontal character scaling. It still does not automatically indent lines for creating initial caps. The package can align text on a curve with a very intuitive tool, and it comes bundled with the Adobe Type Manager program for creating screen fonts. New tools include a 'scissors' for path adjustment, a direct selection tool and a charting tool, all of which are powerful. Interface changes include a Move dialog box on the Edit menu, the ability to preview selected items and color views of placed images. Studio/32. (Software Review) (Electronic Arts 32-bit painting program) (evaluation) Electronic Arts' $695 Studio/32 is a 32-bit successor to the company's well-designed Studio/8 color painting program. It maintains and expands Studio/8's thoughtful interface to give users access to 16.7 million colors and supports the Pantone and CYM color models, as well as RGB, hue-saturation-value, and hue-saturation-luminance. The program provides four 256-color palettes that can be custom-organized and has an on-screen version of the Pantone 747 XR Color Formula Guide. Tools include standard shape tools, Bezier curves, selection tools which can exclude or include specific colors, and a 'magic wand' for making selections by color. Users can fill, colorize, or merge selected areas and create complex gradients and blends using 'water drop' and 'smudge' tools. Studio/32 is a superb program that gives artists tremendous flexibility in creating complex images. MacProteus and Deck. (Software Review) (synthesizer card; music recording software) (evaluation) Two Macintosh digital recording products from Digidesign are reviewed. MacProteus is an $895 NuBus board that contains a 'sampling' synthesizer that can play but not create 16-bit linear, 39-kHz mono or stereo samples. It is easy to install and uses a 'Front-Panel' interface to control the many sounds available. MacProteus' documentation is frustratingly inadequate, but the product is fairly easy to use. Deck is a $349 software package that can record and play back MIDI-generated sounds, and can be used to combine MIDI with live music. It is a complete recording environment that can 'bounce' tracks and process elaborate effects. Deck requires Digidesign's Audiomedia or soundTools card and a hard disk rated at 28 milliseconds or faster. It also creates enormous sound files of 20Mbytes per minute of recorded music. Deck is an excellent product, but the underlying hardware is a performance bottleneck. requirements. Full Impact 2.0. (Software Review) (Ashton-Tate Full Impact 2.0 spreadsheet software) (evaluation) Ashton-Tate's $295 Full Impact 2.0 spreadsheet package for the Apple Macintosh can directly import and export Microsoft Excel files and uses a similar interface, but offers many new features not yet available in the Microsoft package. Full Impact features include 3-D graphics, 32-bit color, custom data formats, programmable buttons, improved presentation capabilities and more accessible menu commands. Charting in Full Impact is easy, and the new version includes three-dimensional views for bar, stacked-bar and surface charts. Users can customize dat formats and place them on the Format menu and activate programs written in the package's powerful FullTalk macro language by using any screen object as a button. Memory requirements remain a drawback, but Full Impact uses virtual memory to move infrequently used data onto the hard disk. Spyglass Dicer. (Software Review) (three-dimensional visualization tool) (evaluation) Spyglass Inc's $495 Spyglass Dicer three-dimensional scientific visualization program for the Macintosh is provides many useful tools for displaying data but suffers from some serious weaknesses. It can import raw binary data or 'netCDF' data, but its native Hierarchical Data Format is a public-domain format developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. Three tools display flat planes or slices through a data set, while a data cube tool lets the user define a rectangular solid and a cutout tool defines holes in the solid where data is not displayed. Creating 3-D solids requires the user to define a rectangular region and specify a direction in which to stretch the rectangle. The program occasionally crashes for no apparent reason, and it loses track of the original value of data elements when normalizing numbers as it plots. There is also no magnifying-glass tool. Smart Alarms and Alarming Events. (Software Review) (electronic appointment book programs) (evaluation) JAM Software's $125 Smart Alarms and CE Software Inc's $129.95 Alarming Events are two closely matched programs for scheduling and reminding users of appointments. Smart Alarms 3.0 is a Startup Document that acts as a desk accessory; all of its functions are accessible from one dialog box. The user simply sets a time and writes the desired message to create a reminder; recurring appointments can be set for any specified interval. Smart Alarms can notify the user of an appointment from within any application. It comes packaged with an Appointment Diary desk accessory that acts as an electronic date book. Alarming Events offers most of the same features as the Smart Alarms/Appointment Diary package but integrates them into a single module. It opens with a calendar view, and a pop-up menu lets the user treat any event as an alarm or as a to-do listing. Its archiving feature is superior to that in Smart Alarms, and it can run on a file-sharing network without modification. Alarming Events is the better of the two programs overall, but some users may prefer Smart Alarms' interface. Inside Information. (Software Review) (Microlytics' hierarchical dictionary) (evaluation) Microlytics Inc's $119 Inside Information is a hierarchically structured dictionary and thesaurus organized by categories instead of alphabetically. Seven basic 'root' categories branch into several layers of subcategories each, with most word accompanied by brief definitions. The program provides outline, tree, and graphic views of the hierarchy. Users can find the pathway to a particular definition via a dialog box, but this approach sometimes leads to unexpected results. A 'Last Word' pop-up menu returns the user to any previously selected word and can create permanent 'bookmarks.' One of the best features of Inside Information is its 'Reverse Dictionary,' which lets users type in an approximate definition of any word and displays a list of possible matches. It suffers from rough edges; the user is often forced to second-guess the phrasing of the actual definitions of Inside Information's dictionary. Timeslips III. (Software Review) (business accounting software) (evaluation) Timeslips' $299.95 Timeslips III 2.0 time-accounting package includes a desk accessory version and a powerful report generator but suffers from some serious bugs. It lets users open a time slip and turn on the Mac clock at the start of any activity to be billed to clients. The user can enter a description for each slip. Timeslips provides three preset methods of adding up billing costs: comparing actual time spent with that estimated, adding time costs to a flat fee and describing the billing status of a particular time block. The 'TSReport' module offers a wide variety of flexible report formats. The program is somewhat difficult to learn and lacks an automatic shutoff option. It also conflicts with other Mac functions that use the clock or serial ports. if:X Forms Designer. (Software Review) (Softview Inc. forms design package)(includes related article on Bloc Development' F3 Forms Softview's $279 if:X Forms Designer forms-generation package for the Apple Macintosh offers some powerful and innovative tools but suffers from significant drawbacks. It emphasizes graphics capability and presents a set of unusual icons on its composition screen, but it generally resembles a spreadsheet more than a desktop publishing program. Designing a form to match an existing form is almost never intuitive, but the process can be figured out by researching the package's thorough documentation. Controlling the screen interface is also awkward. Softview nevertheless offers a 'Graphics Intelligence' feature that makes every cell aware of other cells that surround it, automatically updating cell sizes to reflect edits and revisions. Unique features include the ability to fine-tune alignment and automatic reversal of the contents of sequential cells. if:X is fascinating but difficult to use due to its non-standard approach. Microsoft Word utilities. (Software Review) (four programs that work with Microsoft Word word processor) (evaluation) Four useful utilities for serious word processing in the Microsoft Word Macintosh word processor are reviewed. Advanced Software's $159.95 DocuComp 1.5 works with Word and with several other word processors; it compares different versions of the same document and shows where text has been changed. Strike-through marks in the earlier version indicate deleted text, and underlines in the new version indicate added text. SNA's $79.95 Stylist makes Word's powerful style sheets easier to use by giving complete, unabbreviated descriptions of all formatting characteristics in each style, and it has several predesigned style sheets in various formats and a supplementary dictionary of computer terminology for use with the Word spelling checker. Gencomp's $79 TechWords is a set of seven supplemental Word dictionaries covering scientific, technical, medical and other fields. Microsoft's own foreign language dictionaries act as replacements for the standard US English dictionary; no two can be open at the same time. Each sells for $75. Freedom of Press; Freedom of Press Light. (Software Review) (Custom Applications' software PostScript interpreters for Apple) Custom Applications' Freedom of Press and Freedom of Press Light are software PostScript emulators for the Apple Macintosh that allow PostScript graphics printing on QuickDraw printers. Both require a Mac Plus or later with at least 2Mbytes of RAM and several megabytes of free hard disk space. The full version costs $495 and supports virtually all QuickDraw printers; Freedom of Press Light supports fewer printers and comes with only the standard LaserWriter fonts, but it is a bargain at $99. Both provide full Adobe Type 1 font support via the Adobe Type Manager rasterizing program. Freedom of Press is less efficient than the cartridges offered for the HP LaserJet, which provide true PostScript rather than a clone version, but it is ideal for film recorders and printers without cartridge capabilities. UltraScript for the Macintosh. (Software Review) (PostScript emulation software for the Apple Macintosh) (evaluation) QMS' UltraScript for the Macintosh is one of the more powerful PostScript clones available, but it suffers from some serious drawbacks. Users must convert all Adobe printer fonts into a special QMS format in order to use Type 1 fonts, a process that can take anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes per font. It comes with converted versions of the standard fonts from the original LaserWriter. Version 1.11, unlike some early versions, is compatible with the Suitcase II desk accessory. It works well and can operate in the background under MultiFinder, but it offers fewer features than the competing Freedom of Press Light and is more expensive, at $195. UltraScript Plus, which includes 43 converted fonts and a network spooler, costs $495. Cheshire. (Software Review) (Startup program for creating simple charts on the Apple Macintosh) (evaluation) Abbott Systems' $125 Cheshire is a Startup document that simplifies the creation of common business charts on the Apple Macintosh. The user selects tab-delimited data from within MacWrite II, Word, MacDraw II or PageMaker, and then, the user launches Cheshire with a defined key combination. Users can choose any of 21 chart types and control the appearance of the chart; clicking 'OK' pastes the settings for the chart into the document. Cheshire is limited: it does not support color, cannot plot data that are not contiguous, and works with only a few applications. It is nevertheless well implemented; its modularity lets users add more capabilities by dragging files into a special folder. Trax; EZVision. (Software Review) (entry-level music sequencers) (evaluation) Opcode Systems Inc's $149 EZ Vision and Passport Designs' $99.95 Trax 1.2 are entry-level music sequencing programs for the Apple Macintosh. Both work with the Apple MIDI Manager. EZ Vision includes most of the components of the company's Vision professional sequencer, adding color support and the ability to view and edit multiple tracks simultaneously. An 'Arrangements' window allows additional editing, and a 'Scrubbing 'feature lets users move backward and forward in the tracks. Trax is a scaled-down version of Passport's Master Tracks Pro, offering 64 available tracks and a 'Transport' window with tape-recorder functions. A 'Conductor' window lets users change tempo and time signatures. The program is a solid product but has fewer high-end functions than EZ Vision. Both packages are surprisingly powerful and are good choices for beginning electronic musicians, but EZ Vision is easier to use and more feature-laden. HandOff II. (Software Review) (application-substitution, launching utility) (evaluation) Software Innovations' $79.95 HandOff II utility offers adds a new launching menu to the application-substitution features of the original HandOff. It lets users choose an alternative application when opening a document whose application is not available and can remember the selection. The user can assign all documents of a given file type to a particular application and install applications or attach documents to them. It recognizes DOS-like filename extensions and groups documents used together into 'briefcases.' Users configure the program though the Control Panel. HandOff II is an indispensable utility for users who work with many applications and file types. interFACE. (Software Review) (Bright Star Technologies interFACE animation program) (evaluation) Bright Star Technologies' $499.95 interFace animation software lets users match the lip positions of animated faces with words. It includes a 'Dressing Room' partition with 256-color painting tools for creating 'Actors'; an 'Easel' for building facial images; and a helpful set of clip art. the 'Speech Sync Laboratory' partition mates digitized voices with images. interFACE does have some problems with synchronization and is somewhat slow. It is nevertheless a good tool for constructing interactive educational applications. VideoQuill. (Software Review) (Data Translation VideoQuill font generator for multimedia, video presentations) (evaluation) Data Translation's $495 VideoQuill font generation program is designed to produce high-quality typefaces for video or multimedia applications, but it is overpriced and limited. It requires a 32-bit color video system and at least 2Mbytes of free hand disk space. VideoQuill can use only Data Translation's proprietary outline font format and cannot convert Adobe fonts. It comes with Times and Helvetica look-alikes as well as 'FG NuvoRoman,' a display face. Users can buy a supplementary package with 47 other fonts for an additional $495. VideoQuill includes selection, rotation, TIFF and PICT graphic placement, and filled-rectangle tools. Its anti-aliasing produces excellent results, but it lacks em and en dashes or left-hand smart quotes. The program is also extremely slow. VideoQuill is not recommended because its price/performance ratio is poor. Beyond. (Software Review) (Dr. T's Music Software package for Macintosh) (evaluation) Dr. T's Music Software's $319 Beyond is a competent entry-level music synthesizer for the Macintosh that is somewhat overpriced. It offers many extra features, including a' Clocks per Quarter Note' feature and functions that assist users with composition technique. 'Chromatic and Intelligent Harmonies' can add harmonies to the user's melodic line from six different modes. Beyond suffers from some significant drawbacks; users cannot edit the Display List information, and the Set function is somewhat awkward. Only one track can be copied or pasted at a time. The program also has some difficulty opening and playing complex MIDI files. Beyond would be an excellent program if these problems were corrected in an update. Picture-perfect portraits: full-page displays. (guide to Macintosh one-page monitors)(includes related articles on displays for new A guide to 15-inch full-page displays for the Apple Macintosh is presented. Monitor resolutions vary, but a resolution of 72 dots per inch is necessary for true WYSIWYG in desktop publishing. Sigma Designs' PageView and DTI's SpeedView monitors offer 72 dpi; the others show 76 to 80 dpi. Radius' Pivot monitor has the unique ability to rotate 90 degrees to a landscape mode. All the monitors come with NuBus interfaces for the Mac II' some are available for the SE or SE/30. Some vendors offer upgrade paths; Apple and Radius ship monitors in low-level gray-scale form and let users increase the number of gray levels by adding video memory chips. Apple's Portrait Display and the PageView and SpeedView monitors have the best screen geometry. The Apple monitor and the Radius Pivot are much brighter than monitors from Ehman, Cutting Edge and others. Some monitors have glare, jitter and noise problems. The Apple Portrait Display is rated the best product overall but is also the most expensive at $1,698. Radius' Pivot is $1,690, and the Mobius One Page Display is a good buy for SEs at $795. DTI's $2,495 SpeedView is designed for professional publishers; it can display a full tabloid page in true WYSIWYG mode. A table of product features is included. Do-it-yourself screen tests. (shopping for a monitor using specially designed test suite) (tutorial) A guide to simple tests buyers can use when shopping for a Macintosh monitor is presented. Monitors should be oriented facing east or west (aligned with the earth's magnetic field), and they should be turned on for a full 15 minutes to warm up the cathode ray tube. Waring a white shirt is one way to test for glare, and actual resolution can be compared to a manufacturer's claims with a cloth tape measure. A simple method of testing the monitor's focus is to change the desktop pattern to a pattern of E's and check for blurring at the edge of a monitor. Several shareware programs that test screen geometry are available; Larry Pina's Color Test Pattern Generator is the most useful. 'Nuisance factors' include flicker, jitter, and glare; potential buyers should examine every monitor carefully because these problems indicate a display's overall design quality and because they can be extremely annoying in long-term use. Portable secure unlimited-storage cartridge drives. (removable media for Apple Macintosh) (buyers guide) A guide to 30 removable magnetic cartridge drives is presented. Removable disks allow unlimited storage and provide security because the disks and their contents can be locked away. They are also convenient and portable. The three types of magnetic disk cartridges are Iomega Corp's Bernoulli flexible disk systems and two different hard-disk cartridge systems made by Ricoh and SyQuest. All three provide at least 40Mbytes of storage per cartridge; individual manufacturers couple them with power supplies, place them into cases and add the necessary SCSI connectors, switches and software. Important features in a good drive are a substantial, UL-listed power supply and shielded SCSI connectors. Formatting software may or may not be compatible across different brands of SyQuest drives. The Syquest FWB $1,395 HammerDisk 44 is rated the best of the drives by a small margin; better buys include MacProducts USA's $495 Magic 45 and La Cie's 45 MB Removable. Ricoh drives are less mature than SyQuest drives and cost an average of $200 more; Microtech International's $1,299 R50 is outstanding. Too big to fit on a floppy? (handling large files)(includes related article on networking) A guide to managing large files on the Apple Macintosh is presented. Basic applications such as page layout, painting, and even database management programs can generate very large files, and multimedia software is notorious for creating files that take up several megabytes each. PostScript graphics, scanned photographs, desktop video, animation, digitized sound, CAD and HyperCard files all tend to be massive. Large files can cause the Mac to crash because it runs out of memory, and some operations within applications slow down when a large document is open. They also process very slowly on networks and can bog down an entire LAN. Uploading or downloading large files via telephone lines is time-consuming and therefore costly. Upgrading hardware may be the best long-term solution to large-file problems, but hard disk space can be conserved through careful data management and rebuilding Desktop files. Using the lowest scanning resolution that does not compromise quality is another way to avoid generating monstrous files. Every Mac should have as much memory as it can hold, and 68030-based Macs can utilize third-party virtual memory utilities. Upgrading to a larger, faster hard drive is also a good idea. File compression utilities save disk space by shrinking files. Routers on a network cna isolate the work groups who pass large files from the rest of the LAN. True grid. (secrets for creating neat 'grids' in desktop publishing programs) (tutorial) A guide to creating effective 'grids' for page layout on the Apple Macintosh is presented. Traditional production uses calibrated rulers and engraving tools that inscribe hand-created grids onto a master film negative for printing on sheets that link rough sketches with paste-up boards. Grids can now be made electronically, but most page-layout programs do not automate the process. A well-designed grid reflects the style of the information being published and can convey any of a wide variety of attitudes. Varying the number of columns makes its easier for a reader to select important information on a page; uneven column widths are ideal for small art, subheads, and quotes. White space gives the reader's eye a rest but can be a distraction if misused. A grid must place text, graphics, and utility functions consistently; the master pages in a page-layout program can act as a master grid for subsequent page templates. Tips for electronically re-creating grids, working with service bureaus and high-end output devices and measuring exact placement are presented. What's new at NeXT? (Hardware Review) (NeXTdimension, NEXTcube, NeXTstation workstations)(includes related article on Lotus Improv NeXT Inc offers three new workstation models that compete with high-end Apple Macintoshes in price/performance ratios. The NeXTstation, NeXTstation Color, NeXTcube, and NeXTdimension all use the Motorola 68040 microprocessor running at 25 MHz; hard disks with 105Mbyte or 340Mbyte capacities are standard equipment, with optical drives optional. Each comes with a 2.88Mbyte floppy disk drive that can read UNIX- and DOS-formatted diskettes but does not support Macintosh diskettes. The new NeXTStep operating system, NeXTStep 2.0, includes the Mach version of UNIX and bundled E-mail, file management and fax modem software. The NeXTdimension offers true 32-bit color. Connectivity to other systems is the most glaring omission in the new NeXT machines. Prices begin at $4,995 for the NeXTstation, $7,595 for the NeXTstation Color, $11,495 for the NeXTcube and $17,615 for the NeXTdimension. Analyzing network costs. (designing local area networks) VanderSluis, Kurt. A guide to estimating the actual annual cost per user of operating a local area network (LAN) is presented. Obvious costs of a network include the initial outlay of hardware and software and the salaries of the skilled personnel needed to administer a LAN; other costs include consumables for shared printers, training costs, and depreciation. Network congestion may lead to a decision to redistribute traffic via bridges and routers, which adds approximately $30 per person per year to the cost of operating a 200-user LAN. Costs can be analyzed in relationship to reliability, desired performance levels and other network design values. A typical network with 200 Macs, eight LocalTalk work groups, an Ethernet backbone, two LaserWriters and two SE/30s for file and E-mail service costs $647 per user per year to operate. Secrets of the menu bar. (guide to Macintosh menu bar) (tutorial) Danuloff, Craig. A guide to utilities accessible from Finder menu bar on the Macintosh is presented. Apple provides some utilities free with the System software, but some more powerful ones are available from third parties. Utility programs that add icons to the menu bar include the QuicKeys2 and Tempo II macro packages; PopChar, which pops up lists of every character available in the current font; and the free MacroMaker utility bundled with every Mac. MultiFinder places a mini-icon at the right of the normal set of menus; SuperClock, a common Startup document, displays the time constantly on the menu bar. The Disk Doubler and Stuffit Deluxe file compression utilities have their own Finder-level menus. Other shareware programs that add features to the menu bar are discussed. How to get a MacUser index. (downloading index to MacUser articles from CompuServe) (tutorial) Tips for obtaining a MacUser/MacWEEK index cataloging more than 7,000 articles published in both magazines are presented. The index is available only through the Zmac service on CompuServe and can be downloaded as a HyperCard stack. Zmac is available directly to any CompuServe subscriber; every issue of both periodicals has instructions for downloading for non-subscribers. CompuServer Information Manager and Navigator are two interface programs that automate downloading, but neither deals well with CompuServe's Terminal mode, from which the MacUser index is accessed. Sound the alarm. (future of Macintosh sound applications)(includes related article on System 7.0, 'Puzzle Box') Sound recording and playback as a Macintosh application will increase in importance in 1991 if Apple succeeds in its heavy promotion of multimedia and with the new sound capabilities built into its Macintosh LC and IIsi models. The new machines allow voice annotation of documents, but the use of this facility is inherently limited because sound files tend to be very large. Existing applications that add sound capabilities will not design them in but will implement them as an afterthought, and most existing applications are not time-aware. Apple's new System 6.07 operating system lets uses record new sounds in its microphone-equipped machines. Good third-party tools for tweaking sound include Dubl-Click Software's ClickChange. Happy birthday. (update of issues discussed in 1990) (The Expert's Edge) A review of Macintosh user tips presented in 1990 is presented, and some of the information is updated. The Dove Fax modem is the best fax modem yet designed for the Macintosh and eliminates many serious objections to the use of Macintoshes for fax transmission. It is fast, and its Startup document does not conflict with other INITs. Statements about back-up strategy are codified: data and programs should be backed up separately, multiple backups are necessary and backups in special formats should be avoided. Adobe Type Manager was previously not recommended for use with the ImageWriter because it failed to improve print quality enough to justify its performance penalty. ATM 2.0 solves most of these problems; its is fast enough to use effectively on a Plus or SE and renders fonts better, although it still should be used with at least 2Mbytes of RAM. Adobe is criticized as a 'System Folder polluter' because its font files must be in the top level of the System Folder. Claris uses the same set of dictionaries and file filters in all of its products, letting them reside in a single folder within the System Folder. Other firms should follow this lead, and products that use several data files should place them in a subfolder within the System Folder. Any program that saves preferences should place them in a dedicated folder whenever possible. What comes after C? (object oriented programming) (includes related articles on object-oriented libraries, update of previous Object oriented programming (OOP) is a major trend within the software development community, and OOP threatens to make programmers' traditional ways of thinking obsolete. Apple has long been at the forefront of object-oriented technology, and the MacApp program library is a powerful set of object classes for building applications in Pascal and the C++ superset of the C language. An object is a composite of a data structure a and the routines that access it; data is 'encapsulated' within objects, preventing routines outside the object form accessing data. Objects are grouped into classes; 'methods' are routines that access an object. A method looks identical to a procedure in procedural code but is executed differently. 'Shells' that come with a development system contain the framework of an application; the programmer codes the contents of its windows and format of its data files. The shell, not the program, calls the methods. Many people used to procedural programming find it difficult to make the mental adjustment OOP requires. Programmers using OOP techniques have less overall control but save time because the more tedious aspects of programming are already done. Multimedia and video. (The MacUser Multimedia Encyclopedia special section)(includes related articles on HDTV, glossary of terms) Video technology and its integration into microcomputer systems is discussed, along with specific products for creating 'multimedia' applications that incorporate video into Apple Macintosh programs. Users can add video output via NuBus expansion boards costing between $600 and $10,000. The Mac can process video signals at acceptable quality; capture still video frames in standard file formats; and record Mac graphics on videotape. Producing broadcast quality video requires a digital VTR costing at least $40,000; three such units and a controller are needed for special effects. Low-cost one- or three-chip cameras create industrial quality videos. The VHS and 8mm formats produce home-video quality output that loses 3 to 5 decibels per generation; Hi-8mm and S-VHS have a higher resolution. Disk storage requirements for video are enormous; compression technology is currently considered 'hot,' Real-time hardware digitizers cost $1,000 to $6,000; image-compression software is available very inexpensively. Specific products are discussed. Multimedia and audio. (The MacUser Multimedia Encyclopedia special section) (buyers guide) Technologies for incorporating sound recordings into Apple Macintosh applications are discussed. All Macs include some built-in sound features, and newer models come with stereo-sound output ports. The Mac LC and IIsi have input ports and microphones; third-party products can add similar capabilities to other Macs. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a standard for music synthesis on the Mac as well as on other platforms. Sampling is the process of digitizing analog music sources; sophisticated Mac-based sampling requires the power of a Mac SE/30 machine. Synthesizers create sound either by oscillation and filtering or by sampling. Sound editing software is vital for complex samples. Musical notation packages process sheet music, and MIDI 'records' are a means of incorporating music into multimedia applications. Specific products are noted. Authoring, modeling and animation. (The Macuser multimedia encyclopedia.) (buyers guide) A guide to incorporating three-dimensional graphics and animation into Macintosh multimedia applications is presented. Authoring software lets users orchestrate disparate multimedia elements into a coherent whole, while animation software flashes images on a monitor at a speed fast enough to create the 'persistence of vision' effect that provides the illusion of motion. The Mac system does not move data fast enough to run an entire movie, but real-time animation is possible for some applications. 'Sprites' are foreground elements that are animated over a still background layer. The more animated a presentation is, the less interactive it is. Specific animation products ranging from HyperCard to MacroMind Director and FilmMaker are discussed, along with three-dimensional graphic rendering programs that create photo-realistic images. The future of television and computers; in 1991 computers and video are combining to create new media. During 1991 computers will mix with television to create a new kind of media. Technology is already being developed, such as Aapps (Sunnyvale, CA) MicroTV and DigiVideo boards that enable a user to view television in a window on the Mac. Or the RasterOps board that can store frames or groups of frames in the computer. Farallon is developing a product called DiskPaper that can open any kind of file without accessing the original application. Soon, users can send frames of video to other users. Explorer announced NuBus boards that incorporates software which enables users to perform special effects on still frames. Art beat. (the technique of Macworld artict Steve Lyons) Abes, Cathy. Macworld's artist Steve Lyons began using the Mac in 1989 and now uses it exclusively to design for the magazine. Hardware used includes a Mac II with 8Mbytes of random access memory, a 120Mbyte internal hard drive, and a Wacom pressure-sensitive tablet. Lyons also uses Adobe Illustrator 3.0 (AI) and Adobe Photoshop 1.06 (AP). For an illustration used in the product review section of the Feb 1991 issue of Macworld, Lyons used AI to design a background and AP to make an EPS file to import into AI. First, he filled the drawing area with color, then drew squiggly lines using a brush tool and Wacom tablet. A border was designed around the finished artwork using the computer. Outbound and gagged; a small company's future is in Apple hands. (column) Outbound is marketing a light-weight portable computer that users can buy and equip with their own Apple Macintosh read-only-memory (ROM) technology for power. Users need to have dealers extract the ROMs from a Mac Plus or Mac SE and install them in the portable, called the Outbound. There are questions about the legality of doing this, since Outbound may be infringing on Apple's intellectual property rights. Apple has not protested, however the company has made oblique statements on the subject. Apple has given Outbound permission to sell their products, however Outbound is hoping that Apple will give them the right to package Apple's ROMs with their computer as well. Buyer beware; radiation finds its niche as a marketing tool. (includes a related article on radiation-prevention products) Buyers need to beware of companies that are implying or making claims for their products that are designed to protect the user from computer radiation. Some of these claims are not accurate. For example, Committee Against Radiation Inc (Phoenix, Arizona) manufactures the Champ Polar Filter that was once tested by the Environmental Protection Agency and found to be effective against radiation. However, the EPA discovered that the test was flawed and asked the company to stop telling customers that the filter was EPA certified. The company believes that the tests may have been accurate, and blame political pressure for forcing the agency to take back the statements. All the colors of space; first came calibration; now true matching is in the works. (Apple Macintosh; includes a related article on True matching of colors is being developed by different companies, such as RasterOps with their self-calibrating monitor. Radius has been a major pioneer in this area, with its PrecisionColor Calibrator that compares the colors produced to the signals sent to the display. SuperMac formed an alliance with Tektronix to produce the SuperMatch Professional Color Matching System that calibrates a larger number of monitors than the Radius product. Kodak makes the most recent entry into this market, with its Kodak Photo CD system promised for 1992. This system will transfer photographic images from 35mm film negatives and slides to high-resolution digital images stored on write-once compact discs, to printed pictures. Cloud over SyQuest. The reputation of SyQuest's popular SQ555 drive mechanism is in limbo, with a pair of lawsuits filed by removable hard drive manufacturer SyQuest and Microtech International. Microtech alleges that SyQuest failed to meet a guaranteed failure rate of 5 percent or less. Microtech is suing to collect $851,000 supposedly owed by Microtech for drives purchased. The SQ555-based drive is the de facto standard for removable media in the Macintosh. Removable-cartridge drives are less reliable than fixed ones because of the fine tolerances that are needed in spindle alignment, read-write head and insertion mechanisms. New products for the new Macs. Software publishers are rushing to introduce new add-on products for the new Classic, LC and IIsi Macintoshes. Dove Computer Corp introduces MaraThon 030 Classic, a 16-MHz 68030 processor upgrade for the Mac Classic. RasterOps introduces five display products for the Mac LC, including the 8LC Display Board, a 256-color adapter that supports a 19-inch monitor. Radius presents display boards that enable the Radius Two Page Display and the Radius Pivot rotating monitor to operate with the IIsi. Sigma Designs is shipping the PageView GS, a 15-inch portrait gray-scale monitor that works with the IIci and the IIsi. Page wars; a feature-by-feature face-off between Aldus PageMaker and QuarkXPress. (Software Review) (Aldus Corp.'s Pagemaker and Both Aldus Corp's Pagemaker 4.0 and Quark Inc's QuarkXPress 3.0 are excellent desktop publishing programs; however, their feature sets and their working styles differ widely. PageMaker is an easier program to use, with its custom vertical ruler, zooming conventions, stand-alone text and graphics, grabber hand and other features. PageMaker is also the more stable program, freer of problems, and the company offers excellent support. Users are being lured from PageMaker to QuarkXPress by its speed, extensive feature list and well-honed interface. QaurkXPress is clearly the leader in the number of features, with its numeric positioning, skewing, rotation, color capabilities, libraries and other features. Managing networks. (includes a related article on enterprise-wide management) No AppleTalk network management program does everything a network manager needs done, making additional programs invaluable aids. Apple's InterPoll determines whether a cable is intact by sending echo packets to a specific device. Novell's LANalyzer Network Analyzer, an expensive product ranging in price from $9,980 to $20,000, will analyze packets if the cables are determined to be in good condition. Shiva Corp's Internet Manager helps maintain all the repeaters, routers, gateways and other network devices as the network grows and becomes more complex. Digital audio at last; is it real or is it Macintosh? (includes a related article on digital audio demystified and one on Apple's Low cost hardware and software products designed for the Mac offer direct-to-hard disk 16-bit recording and playback sampled at '4.1kHz, compact-disk-quality sound that was not available until the early 1990s. Digidesign's Audiomedia board, a second-generation product, offers four-track playback and enables users to multiple DSP and EQ effects in real time. Lower prices of digital audio tape decks are now the standard for professional music recording; many record at the 44.1kHz sampling frequencies used by compact discs. Digidesign is marketing a product with Emu Systems and Opcode, a NuBus board version of Emu's Proteus/1 sound module called MacProteus, a multitimbral, 32-voice, polyphonic sample player. Color printers here and now; color printers are better than ever. (Hardware Review) (includes a related article on systematic Features and quality of new color printers in 1991 are rising, while costs are lowering, making a purchasing choice more difficult. The ink-jet technology is the most mature and best suited to presentation graphics. The H-P PaintJet Color Graphics printer is easy to use and inexpensive at $1,395. Tektronix's ColorQuick Ink-Jet Printer offers the most photo-realistic output compared with other ink-jet printers, and is priced at $2,345. Overall, the Postscript printers performed best when tested, although printers such as the Mitsubishi Electronics America S340 and the Tektronix ColorQuick ran as quickly as the PostScript OceColor printer. Mac Video, take II. (Mac tools for video productions; includes a related article on text and one on video) Mac-based video tools are proliferating with new software and hardware introductions, although the potential for Mac applications in broadcast television remains mostly untapped. NEC's $2,100 PC-VCR is a lower-cost SuperVHS video deck that can be attached to the PC-VCR directory to the Mac, allowing users to do frame-accurate editing using timecode information. Nec's PC-VCR and Light Source's Multimedia Toolkit, priced at $149, enable Mac users to control the PC-VCR directly from within HyperCard stacks. VENT's video Master is a hardware box that enables Mac users to control videotape decks, videodisc players and CD ROM drives via built-in infrared remote controls. Publish your database. (Software Review) Heid, Jim. By merging data and design using the right combination of page-layout and database tools, Mac users can get high-quality published products, ranging from mailing labels and lists to directories and catalogs. Database publishing is achieved either by combining a data base manager with a desktop publishing program or by using a database manager's form-layout features to format the hard copy. The latter is not as fancy as the former approach. ElseWare Corp's DataShaper and Aldus's PageMaker 4.0 used together form the most powerful database publishing pair, with their ability to import graphics as well as text and establish links to database files. Use Claris's FileMaker Pro for one-step database publishing. Adobe Illustrator 3.0. (Software Review) (Adobe Systems) (evaluation) Adobe Systems' Adobe Illustrator 3.0 is the best design package available, with improved type-handling, and excellent control of type along a path. Users can now manipulate and create type directly in the drawing area. In addition, users can flow text between multiple text blocks. The program interface has been improved as well, with the drawing area containing the dotted outline of a single page. The toolbox has more than twice the number of tools of earlier versions of the program. Drawbacks include no online help, and no grids or coordinate system. There is little support for non-PostScript printers. The program requires at least a Mac Plus, 2Mbytes of random access memory, and a hard drive; a Mac II is recommended. Price is $595. Switchboard. (Hardware Review) (Datadesk International's Switchboard modular keyboard) (evaluation) Datadesk International's Switchboard modular keyboard is a worthy contender among other similar products that should be considered, with its improvements in key layout, its configurability and potential for expansion. Each bank of keys on the keyboard is contained in its own removable module so that users can redesign their keyboards if they choose to do so. The ads mislead the reader into believing that the modules can be redesigned in any position; however, this is not true. Switchboard is one of many keyboards that are superior to the Apple keyboard that users buy with their Apple computers. Users can choose between a light, less-audible touch to their keys, or a touch that produces an audible click. Price is $239.95. Business Laserprinter IIS. (Hardware Review) (GCC Technologies's Business Laserpirnter IIS and QMS's QMS-PS 410 PostScript page GCC Technologies's Business Laserprinter IIS (BLP) and QMS's QMS-PS 410 are two PostScript-based laser printers priced under $3,000 that are a study in contrasts. The QMS-PS 410 is targeted for both the Mac and IBM PC environments, while the BLP IIS is designed solely for the Mac. These two printers reveal how important it is to choose a printer based on the type of documents that will be printed. Both are well designed and are excellent values with many features of more expensive machines. The QMS-PS 410, priced at $2,795, processes complex documents quickly, although the 4-ppm engine is a bottleneck for some jobs. The BLP IIS, priced at $2,899, is moderately fast with a good all-around performance. The setup is slightly more difficult than the QMS-PS 410. Timbuktu/Remote Access Pack. (Software Review) (Farallon Computing's Timbuktu/Remote Access Pack modem and remote access Farallon Computing's Timbuktu/Remote Access Pack modem and remote access software enables users to use another Mac to access the Mac at the office, for example, retrieve a copy of a file, then shut down the office Mac. The product includes a high-speed modem, although the user needs to purchase two Access packs to link two Macs. The modem supports V.42bis data compression at speeds of up to 9,600-bps. Users can display the remote Mac's screen in movable, resizable windows; however, the display screen is in black and white. In addition, screen updates can be slow for 13-inch or larger monitors. Price is $1,295. Rival 1.1.4; SAM (Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh) 2.0. (Software Review) (Symantech Corporation's SAM 2.0 and Microseeds Two programs recommended for fighting computer viruses are Microseeds Publishing's Rival 1.1.4 and Symantec Corp's SAM (Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh) 2.0. For the general Macintosh user, Rival does a good job of preventing viruses, and includes more vaccines. This transparent program both detects and removes viruses. Rival, priced at $99, requires a Mac Plus. SAM 2.0 is for the more advanced Mac user or for those who manage a network. Unlike Rival, SAM has excellent customization features and extensive scanning options. SAM, priced at $99.95, includes advanced features that are not for the beginner. The Norton Utilities for the Macintosh 1.0. (Software Review) (Symantec Corp.'s Norton Utilities for the macintosh 1.0 disk Symantec Corp's Norton Utilities for the Macintosh 1.0 disk utilities are excellent file-recovery tools that fix many types of file and directory damage with a wide number of utilities. The product is an impressive first Mac entry for Peter Norton Computing. Norton Utilities includes UnErase that recovers files that have been erroneously deleted; Disk Doctor that diagnoses and repairs damaged or crashed hard drives or floppy disks. One drawback to the program is that UnErase does not show the amount of free space on the destination disk. Norton Utilities requires a Mac Plus and is priced at $129. Nisus 3.01. (Software Review) (Paragon Concepts's Nisus 3.01 word processor) (evaluation) Paragon Concepts's Nisus 3.01 word processor has a broader and more sophisticated number of tools for the serious writer than other programs of its kind. As a text editor, the program really stands out, with unique and useful extensions to the usual editing features. For example, users can select anything from a single word to a complete document with a few mouse clicks, or users can select noncontiguous portions of text, deleting them or changing their appearance. Ten clipboards allow users to store passages of text that they want to save someplace. Drawbacks include the fact that there is no word count. Nisus 3.01, priced at $395, requires a Mac Plus and a second disk drive. Go Junior. (Software Review) (Toyogo's Go Junior computer game.) (evaluation) Go Junior is a computer game specifically designed to introduce the 4,000-year-old Japanese pastime go to beginners. The program, priced at $35, requires a Mac 512KE. Go Junior is the best introductory Go game version ever made, letting the user win a game every now and then to maintain interest in the program. The game looks simple to play, but it takes skill in pattern recognition. Opponents attempt to enclose areas on a board by placing white or black stones at different points on a grid. Authorities were not sure that the game could be done by computer at all, but then a number of games appeared. The main drawback to the game is that beginners may need more on-line help. Playmaker Football 1.0. (Software Review ) (Broderbund Software's Playmaker Football 1.0 computer game) (evaluation) Broderbund Software's Playmaker Football 1.0 is a football strategy game that simulates the entire experience of coaching a football team. This intellectually exciting game enables users to design plays on the chalkboard in the Chalkboard Editor and call plays on the field in the Game Mode. Digitized sound effects of the players add realism to the game while playing, with the audience booing and applauding along. A drawback to the program may be that it is not in color. The playing field is seen from a bird's eye view, with each player represented as a small animated figure. Each play has a corresponding Artificial Intelligence Window that enables users to decide how often a play will be called and under what circumstances. ClickChange 1.01; Personality 1.01. (Software Review) (Dubl-Click Software's ClickChange 1.01 and Preferred Publisher's Personality Users buy customizers like Dubl-Click Software's Clickchange 1.01 and Preferred Publishers' Personality 1.01 mainly to make their screens look better. Both programs work in basically the same manner, although once a user delves into both utilities it is obvious that Clickchange is the superior product. For example, Personality 1.01 gives users eight arrow cursors of different colors to choose from, while ClickChange comes with 83 animated cursors of all types. Both programs provide the user with various sound effects that users can link to different events. However, Personality's use of a pop-up menu to assign sounds to events is unintuitive and tedious. ClickChange 1.01 is priced at $79.95, and Personality 1.01 is priced at $99.95. WPduet. (Software Review) (Cabochon's WPduet file-transfer kit for the Tandy WP-2.) (evaluation) Cabochon's WPduet file-transfer kit for the Tandy WP-2 laptop word processor includes a program and cables for transferring files to the Mac. The kit is quick and functional to use, and of all the non-Mac portable operating systems, the Tandy WP-2 may be the most comfortable for Mac users. WPduet also sends files from the Mac to the WP-2, although this process is confusing. In addition, WPduet also transfers files to and from the WP-2's optional Portable Disk Drive, priced at $200, a far less impressively designed and documented unit than the WP-2. WPduet was written by one lone programmer that saw the need for such a product. FileMaker Pro. (Software Review) (Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro flat-file database program) (evaluation) Users might be pleased with the updated version of Claris Corp's FIlemaker Pro, although some users will want more from the flat-file database program, priced at $299. the program was revamped to bring it in line with other Claris programs, adding the help system and the XTND architecture which allows for export and import with many other programs. Much improved design layout features were also added, due to user requests. Users can give layouts buttons that trigger commands or scripts, or switch to other layouts. No significant performance gains were made, despite the company's advertising claims. Drawbacks to the program include a number of bugs. Typist. (Hardware Review) (Caere Corp.'s Typist hand-held OCR scanner) (evaluation) Caere Corp's Typist hand-held Optical Character Recognition scanner transforms scanned images into ASCII characters. The Typist operates by putting recognized text directly into a spreadsheet, a word processing document or a page-layout file, as if the text were coming from the keyboard. However, the SCSI adapter box that Caere includes has only one SCSI port, which does not allow other SCSI devices to be daisy-chained from it without a T adapter cable. In addition, the box is not internally terminated. However, the Typist really does work well on high-quality typeset text and newspaper text. There were no compatibility problems with several applications tested. Price of the Typist is $695. Bernoulli Transportable; Microtech R50. (Hardware Review) (Iomega Corp.'s Bernoulli Transportable and Microtech International Iomega Corp's Bernoulli Transportable (BT) and Microtech International's Microtech R50 (MR50) removable-media drives combine unlimited storage and high performance with the easy transfer of large data files. Both drives were tested for a 3-month period against a Syquest drive using DiskTimer and DiskBasher. Both drives achieved benchmarks between 19 and 38 percent slower than Syquest, however the performance of all the drives were generally equal. BT, priced at $1,399, includes crash-resistant Bernoulli technology and has swift file copying and data transfer features, although the drive is relatively heavy. MR50, priced at $1,299, comes bundled with Norton Utilities and Total Recall backup software, but is rather noisy during disk access. Plottergeist 1.0. (Hardware Review) (Palomar Software's Plottergeist 1.0 chooser plotter-device driver) (evaluation) Palomar Software's Plottergeist 1.0 plotter driver works best as Microspot's MacPlot Chooser driver, included in its simplest form with MacDraw II, Claris CAD and MacProject II. If a user needs background plotting capabilities and LaserWriter fonts, then Plottergeist 1.0 should be considered. If a user outputs a lot of graphic art and engineering drawings, Plottergeist again should be considered; however, the product may be considered to be too expensive at $395 if the user only occasionally produces engineering drawings. Plottergeist 1.0 includes cables and renders LaserWriter fonts. The product does not work with all software packages, and font rendering takes a long time. Quick tips. (answers to readers' questions) (column) Poole, Lon. Tips for Mac users include the fact that users can expand the display area on some systems from 640 by 480 pixels to 704 by 512 pixels with the shareware utility from Naoto Horii (Belgium) called MaxAppleZoom. Apple's Disk First Aid program, included with the Macintosh, remedies the problem users have when they use an application that temporarily allocates work space on the disk and then does not release it properly. In answer to a reader's inquiry, most systems work well if users turn on the power to all devices at once, including the Mac and peripherals, although some hard drive vendors recommend turning on the hard drive first, then waiting 15 or 30 seconds to turn on the Mac. Getting started with power protection. (tutorial) Heid, Jim. Apple Macs are designed to buffer sags and surges in power, although users should always plan a defense against any power deficiency. The most popular power-protection device is the surge suppressor that reduces incoming surges to harmless voltage levels. These are the least expensive power protectors, but they do not help when the power sags. A standby power supply protects against sags and short blackouts, as well against surges. The amount of power that is supplied depends upon what the standby power supply is connected to. More sophisticated supplies include an interface connector that enables users to attach the supply to the Mac's printer port or modem so that status information is conveyed. Insights on QuarkXPress 3.0; tips for a super-power publishing tool. (tutorial) QuarkXPress 3.0 adds new features and eliminates a number of frustrating quirks in earlier versions of this desktop publishing program. The Measurements palette enables users to interactively adjust specifications for graphics and text. For setting up and navigating a document there is now the Document Layout palette, the fastest way to turn pages in a QuarkXPress document. Keyboard shortcuts are abundant in this program, including various program-specific commands. Rules can be placed above or below a paragraph using the Rules command, in order to create reverse type on different color rule. Drop caps are easy to do with the program, and text can be put inside any shape with the Runaround command. Updates. (buyers guide) The latest versions of Mac software are included, with the minimum random access memory required, upgrade price and the last date the product was reviewed in MacWorld. Approximately 375 products are listed, including such products as word processors, financial software, graphics programs and others. Mini-articles are given for AgfaType 2.0, HandOff II 1.1, and FileMaker Pro. Temporary services: more than putting out fires. (includes related article on The National Association of Temporary Services' 25th Temporary help is quickly becoming a basic part of efficient business practice. The temporary-help payroll is growing 10 percent annually; each day, more than 1 million people go to work as temps. Temporary help agencies provide skill levels ranging from laborers to doctors. Temporary help agencies follow emerging technologies closely and are among the first companies to provide training in new areas. In an era of downsizing and cost-containment, many companies find they can rely on temporary help for flexible staffing. Complex publishing needs dictate custom solution. (includes related article profiling Electronic Data Systems manager Wallace Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp of Dallas chose to build its 30,000-pages-per-month publishing efforts around a combination of desktop and mainframe publishing systems, linked by the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SMGL). Users can pick the system and software most apt for the job at hand. The mainframe system in IBM's Master Series Publishing System, while the desktop system uses a variety of Apple Macintosh-resident applications. Software that manages your files. (document management software) (tutorial) Document management (DM) software packages have evolved from their original purpose of automatically locating files to being the basis of an organizationwide approach to managing business information. Prices range from less than $100 to more than $100,000. Before choosing DM software, a manager should first obtain an accurate inventory and assessment of all paper-filing applications. Bar coding systems and software can make paper management more efficient. LAN capability, interfaces with other technologies and applications development support are all features to consider when choosing DM software. When to choose an ink-jet printer. (includes brief descriptions of three printers) Ink-jet printers cost less than laser printers and are especially well suited for low-cost color, portable printing and laser-quality printing on paper that is not standard size. Ink-jet printers are faster and quieter than dot-matrix printers. Because they have few moving parts, ink-jet printers make reliable portable printers. Canon and Eastman Kodak Co make portable ink-jet printers ranging in price from $350 to $550. Color ink-jet printers cost as little as $1,400, compared to $5,000 and up for color thermal-wax transfer and laser printers. Ink-jet technology adapts well to the 11-by-17-inch format. Managing stress in the workplace. Losey, Michael R. Employee stress is a growing problem, costing American businesses an estimated $150 billion annually. Managers should understand the causes of stress and recognize the warning signs. The chief cause of stress may be the feverish pace that corporations set for themselves. Automation in the form of beepers, fax machines, cellular telephones and computers have many workers feeling as if they are on call around the clock. Office automation has shortened project turnaround times; taking advantage of this fact, bosses impose tighter deadlines on managers. Downsizing and mergers have cut workforces, forcing many employees to juggle several projects simultaneously and increasing employee anxiety about job security. Managers should question whether the demands they place on employees are realistic. Network General's Saal believes success comes from addressing basic network needs. (founder Harry Saal) Network General Corp's (Menlo Park, CA) four-year growth to $29.4 million in 1990 revenues reflects founder Harry Saal's realization that local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) administrators needed cost-effective and easy-to-use network troubleshooting tools. The company offers the Sniffer family of network analyzers based on IBM PC-compatible portable microcomputers. LAN architectures supported by Sniffer models include Ethernet, Arcnet, StarLAN, token ring and broadband, and virtually every protocol. Network General debuted the Sniffer WAN Analyzer for distributed WAN troubleshooting in Oct, 1990. The firm works with large systems vendors to address WAN management issues, as Saal wants to ensure that Network General maintains its focus. New York market analysis firm Punk, Ziegel & Knoell projects $53.5 million in 1992 sales for Network General. Erie County, New York contains costs through innovative networking technology. The Division of Information and Support Services (DISS) of Erie County, New York, employs networking technology to contain costs in face of recession constraints on the county budget. The county has about one million people distributed through three cities, 25 towns and 16 incorporated villages. DISS communications manager Philip H. Richman says that networking technology is used in two ways to save money: reducing general telecommunications costs and providing county departments with technology to operate more economically. Examples of these strategies are discussed. These include using microwave network links to replace leased lines for local voice communications in Buffalo and a planned optical fiber backbone network for exchange of data among local area networks (LANs), mainframe and other hardware at the main county offices. Setting LAN standards for county operations is discussed. Is ANI an invasion of privacy? (automatic number identification) (Cover Story) Automatic (telephone) number identification (ANI) and related caller identification (ID) raise controversial privacy issues that will not be soon resolved as the capabilities arrive in the marketplace. ANI or similar capabilities involve the ability of interstate or local telephone networks to capture the phone number of a phone originating a call. Caller ID involves the ability of the receiving telephone to capture the number of the caller. ANI offers generally accepted benefits when used with such services as '911' emergency numbers. Call ID, though, has individuals and businesses divided. A survey by consumer organization TURN (Toward Utility Rate Normalization, San Francisco, CA) showed 92 percent of respondents saying that businesses should be prevented from using caller ID for marketing. Other consumer and business attitudes towards caller ID are discussed. Will FDDI survive in a SONET world? Two standards were designed by different groups for different applications. (Fiber Distributed A solid understanding of SONET (synchronous optical network) and FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) technologies for high-speed transmission of digital information over optical fiber media is important for deciding which is most suited to the user's applications. SONET and FDDI are complementary standards that were developed for different applications. SONET was designed by the telephone carrier industry to interconnect high-speed networks with optical media. The technology provides support of transmission speeds to 622.080M-bps with synchronous 64K-bps sub-channels. FDDI was designed by the computer industry to support 100M-bps token-ring local area network (LAN) and inter-LAN communications. Details of SONET and FDDI functionality and applications, possible interactions between FDDI LANs and SONET via an asynchronous transfer mode, and outlook for the technologies are discussed. The MAN in the middle: switched multimegabit data service will interconnect LANs to form wider networks. (metropolitan area The interconnection of local area networks (LANs) for fast data transmission over larger areas is being facilitated by metropolitan area networks (MANs) that comply with the IEEE 802.6 MAN standard. LANs are only capable of transmission over a limited area, and modem interconnections over broader areas over analog telephone lines severely limit the speed of inter-LAN communications. MANs will be able to provide speeds up to the G-bit/second range and 48-bit addressing just like LANs. The regional Bell operating system companies recently announced a MAN service called the Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS). SMDS will enable the interconnection of LANS into far larger networks the same applications capabilities and without loss of performance. Details of SMDS architecture and support for data, voice and video communications are discussed. Network management products for the future. Frank, Howard. The trend in network management products is to ever more integrated products with the ability to handle multiple protocols and multiple levels of the network communications hierarchy. Most current network management products are divisible into three functional categories: network planning and design tools, network monitoring and control products and network administration tools. Current integrated products are generally either voice- or data-oriented, combine network monitoring and control with financial and administrative operations or handle multiple levels for a particular protocol family. No vendor of network management tools has a product line that covers all network layers, so often incompatible products from multiple vendors are sometimes necessary. Functional requirements for future network management products are discussed. MIS heads for the wiring closet with 10Base-T LANs. (management information services) The advantages of 10Base-T twisted-pair Ethernet local area networks (LANs) that conform to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard and desktop computer server-based distributed departmental client-server computing are driving the implementation of LANs based on hubs contained in wiring closets. 10Base-T LANs utilize standard twisted-pair telephone wire (telephone companies often provide an unused pair in a closet for future growth), standard RJ-45 telephone jacks and a star architecture like that used by telephone companies to wire an office. Advantages of the 10Base-T client-server LAN include lower media costs, improved performance and easy moving and changes in the LAN. Market Intelligence Research Co (Mountain View, CA) predicts that 10Base-T LANs will 24.3 percent of the 1989 Ethernet market to 66.3 percent in 1996. 10Base-T market and vendors are briefly discussed. Interconnect technology expands applications, improves performance. (linking networks with routers, bridges, repeaters Bridges, repeaters, gateways and routers enable interconnection of local area networks (LANs) and LANs to wide area networks (WANs). Routers are protocol-dependent devices that interconnect networks at the third level of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model, otherwise the network layer. Bridges divide LANs into smaller networks, linking them at the media access control sublayer of the OSI model layer 2. Gateways link networks that run under different protocols. Repeaters operate at the OSI physical layer 1 and extend a LAN by amplifying network signals over multiple links. A variety of hybrid devices have been developed that incorporate multiple LAN connectivity technologies. The design, functioning and examples of each type of connecting device are discussed. IBM revamps freeze-frame system with full-motion compressed conferencing. (adds motion video network to internal IBM adds a motion video conferencing (MVC) network to the firm's other four internal teleconferencing systems. MVC will link 75 sites in US, Europe and South America for face-to-face interactive business meetings. 34 locations were connected by the end of 1990, with 41 more to come online by the end of 1991. The modular system features 256K-bps transmission of digitally compressed motion video, integrated text and graphics, both terrestrial and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite communication circuits and gateways linking satellite and terrestrial communications systems. Specific hardware at each $135,000 videoconferencing room includes an IBM PS2 Model 80 microcomputer for graphics and room control, Compression Labs Inc analog/digital signal coder/decoder, VCR and an IBM PS/2 Model 30 that provides VSAT terminal control and a network alarm system. Shotgun wedding for PBXs and computers. Gantz, John. The market for integrated voice and data processing is accelerating because of several trends. The combination of PBXs and computers for data and voice communications is not new, but a lack of suitable applications previously slowed acceptance of the technology. Trends that are driving the recent market growth include the greater availability of 'truly integrated' voice/data applications, sufficiently robust integrating technology for useful work, spread of such enabling technologies as out-of-band Signaling System 7, prevalence of touch-tone phones, acceptance of voice response systems, opening of PBX and voice switch architectures, more functional PBX/computer links and growth of telesales and teleservice businesses. Network managers will find a variety of PBX/computer solutions to choose from. Problems in implementing and managing such systems are discussed. Office superstores are not just a fad. Nevin, Frederick W. A profile of the discount-dedicated office superstore includes 20,000 square feet of space and $353 in annual sales per square foot. This once unimaginable distribution channel began in 1986 with the opening of Staples Inc in Newton, MA, and has become one of the premiere business operations in the office equipment and supplies industry, affording consumers the chance to buy every-day items at considerable discounts, some as much as 50 percent. The channel focuses on companies with under 100 employees and features a product inventory ranging from traditional office supplies and furniture to computer hardware and software. The inclusion of computers was delayed until chain executives could determine whether their customers were willing to buy such large ticket items off the shelf or whether they were sufficiently computer-literate to make such purchases with minimum support. The answer to both questions was yes. Analysts expect the current market shakeout, which will results in some stores closing and others merging, to continue through 1992. What happens after software training? Kliem, Ralph L. Software training in most organizations is generally not given any post-training support. Trainees who attempt to apply what they learn in their workday life find themselves in conflict with a world that rewards those who stay with the status quo. Post-training support, which can be offered in several ways, aids in reducing anger, frustration, anxiety and fear. Troubleshooting support can aid workers in applying their classroom training on the job. A newsletter can help share clues for better performance. New documentation must also be distributed and people must be kept informed about the best way to use software. A library can also be established with articles and books on use of the software. International free market for the information industry? (Telecommunications Insights) (column) The US information industry in the 1990s is marked by the convergence of computers, communications and content. Separation of the components is next to impossible. Magazines and newspapers own television stations. Japanese electronics giants own Hollywood movie studios and the Bell Regional Holding Companies (BRHCs) own sections of systems and cable television operations in Europe. IBM offers networking services to colleges and universities through its Advanced Networking Services. This trend will continue through the 1990s with large companies adding new parts of the information industry to their organizations. This will mean additional foreign investment in US firms. The BRHCs will buy over-leveraged cable television systems and will be seeking information-rich, content-based firms to acquire. Wireless personal communications providers will be one of the first bidders for the additional 200 MHz of UHF capacity that Congress is attempting to free up. How to give your WordPerfect a FaceLift. (Focus on Software)(Installing WordPerfect 5.1 with FaceLift) (column) Using Bitstream's FaceLife with WordPerfect 5.1 gives the user seven scalable fonts, which are installed automatically. A special promotional package includes six more headline fonts. Both programs can be installed in two hours. The manual includes clear installation instructions though the procedure is fairly intuitive. FaceLift runs with WordPerfect 5.0 or 5.1 on any 8086, 8088, 80286, 80386 or 80486 IBM-compatible system as well as 3Com, Novell or IBM Token Ring network stations. A minimum of 1.5Mbytes of hard disk space are required. Automated telephones and office efficiency. (voice messaging and response systems) The telephone as a communications tool has been fraught with annoyances. Some 75 percent of calls are not completed, 50 percent of all business calls are for one-way information, 67 percent are less critical than the tasks they interrupt and 40 percent of all long-distance calls are dead ends. Results include unplaced orders, lost revenues, customer unhappiness and decreased productivity. Answering machines and automated attendant systems are nearly as widespread as the telephone. Automated attendant/voice messaging systems can offer a solution. A wide variety of voice messaging/response systems are available. Systems should be selected with cost and use in mind. The voice quality of the system is critical to its acceptance by callers. Humans tend to be uncomfortable interacting with electronic devices, as was evident when answering machines and automatic bank tellers were first introduced. Realistic voice quality eases discomfort. These tools can offer businesses a simple-to-use method for solving communications difficulties. Desktop publishing: software keeps pace: package designers seized an opportunity to produce low-cost programs, and did. The number of desktop publishing (DTP) software packages has more than doubled since 1989 and more are on the way. Everyday word processing packages even include some DTP features as standard elements. Rapid technological advances and decreases in costs along with more options to choose from have led to many companies producing their own newsletters and other printed documents in-house. The productivity and utilization of DTP packages is nearly totally hardware-dependent. A document created with a hard-disk-equipped microcomputer and a nine-pin dot matrix printer in several hours can be assembled in half an hour on an 80386-based microcomputer with a high-resolution monitor and laser printer. The high-cost of a DTP system is a frequent complaint. Color support in DTP software is available only recently though color plotters and printer have been available for some time. Observers expect desktop publishing to become a functional office tool. New software and quality worksheets. Braun, Ellen. Spreadsheet programs, which turn a microcomputer or terminal screen into a self-calculating worksheet, have altered the manner in which managers analyze numbers. Database software facilitates the maintenance and use of large lists in an automated manner. Users, however, continue to demand more. Executives need their reports and cost analyses to be presentable. List managers need to automate typesetting. Second generation microcomputer software creates publication-quality lists and worksheets. The result for spreadsheets is sharp and clear graphs that do not require the work of an artist. Some spreadsheets have built-in publishing functionality while others require graphics add-ins. Graphically-oriented software can integrate graphs, text and numbers in a single page, changing the way business is done. Fax in U.S. business: How is it being used? (facsimile) (part one of a study at the University of Nebraska-Kearney) Some three million facsimile units were being used at the beginning of 1990. Sales and transmission costs totaled approximately $5 billion in 1989. There is, however, a surprising lack of data on the business use of fax technology. The College of Business at the University of Nebraska/Kearney has begun a study of the use of fax technology by US businesses. The first part of the study asked who is using the technology, what kinds of information are being sent, how often, in what quantities and by what units of the business organization. The number of fax machines in use has multiplied in recent years. A typical survey respondent has had a fax machines for 2.7 years. The fax machine facilitates and enhances communication. Some 85 percent of respondents stated their fax unit is used mostly to replace mail communications. Another 37 percent reported their machine also replaced telephone communications. With more modems in use, pooling begins to make more sense: new technology and products have helped make pooling more practical The idea of sharing resources is central to networking. Users who copy files to or from the server still think they need to connect a modem to their workstations when accessing a remote site. Modem sharing has eliminated this need. Pooling has brought the advantage of sharing resources to the area of remote communications. Network users who need to access remote sites can share the same modem and telephone line. Managers in the past have been skeptical of modem sharing as they felt there were not enough users to warrant it and that it caused configuration problems. MIS managers, as networks became larger, discovered that providing dedicated modem services to each user was impractical. Pooling made more sense. Network control and management functions are suited to networks as they centralize the maintenance process, complementing full-fledged network management systems. The notebook computer as a desktop alternative. (includes related article on considerations in purchasing a notebook computer) The notebook computer segment of the portable computer marketplace is expanding rapidly. Many desktop computer users are using the smaller machines to replace their larger systems. Notebook computers are so named because of their 8.5-by-11-inch size. The notebook computer market has had its largest growth to date during the last half of 1990. New models, which weigh between four and eight pounds, are more powerful than before. High-end portable computer systems are based on the Intel 80386SX microprocessor, which provides the necessary power to run the latest software, including Windows and other multitasking environments. The 386SX is 16 times faster than the chip in the IBM PC XT. High-performance notebook systems include high-resolution VGA displays which can be connected to external color monitors. A mouse can be connected to an external mouse port in order to run the latest graphics software. Federal Office Systems Expo next month in Washington. (includes related article on conference highlights) The 1991 Federal Information Systems Conference and Exposition is scheduled for Mar 4-7, 1991, at the Convention Center in Washington, DC. Conference tracks will cover microcomputers, workstations, graphic digital imaging/optical disks, local area networks and internetworking, and systems and software. H. Ross Perot is the scheduled keynote speaker. Perot is one of the most perceptive entrepreneurs in the US and chairman of Perot Systems Corp. Educational sessions led by industry leaders will include blending technological and personal systems into human resources management, how to get the most from the exhibit floor and reprographic enhancements for the 1990s. Other sessions will deal with open systems, imaging systems, DOS memory management and the establishment of a local area network. Keeping the customer satisfied. (results of survey of microcomputer users) A survey of 1,230 microcomputer users by San Jose, CA-based market research firm Dataquest puts direct-marketer CompuAdd at the top of four categories: overall quality, value/price, commitment to customers and overall customer satisfaction. Another Austin, TX-based direct marketer, Dell, also ranked well. The survey reveals a direct correspondence between customer satisfaction and increased sales. Dataquest Pres Manny Fernandez says customer satisfaction will be the key marketing concept of the 1990s. A lawyer on a disk. (Personal Law Firm 1.1 from Bloc Publishing and Home Lawyer 1.1 from Meca Ventures) (product announcement) The $100 Personal Law Firm 1.1 from Bloc Publishing of Coral Gables, FL, and the $120 Home Lawyer 1.1 from Meca Ventures of Westport, CT, are two similar legal software packages for home users. Both products can quickly generate a variety of custom contracts and letters. Users pick the type of legal document they need; the products then guides the user through completion of the document via a series of questions. Home Lawyer has good on-line help and a graceful user interface. It can generate 11 kinds of legal documents; in contrast, Personal Law Firm can generate 26, plus four letters. Personal Law Firm's interface is not as nice, but the questioning is far more comprehensive. The latest in entertainment software. (product announcement) Lockwood, Russ. New entertainment software packages are briefly discussed. The $80 Accuweather from The Software Toolworks allows a modem link-up with the Accuweather on-line service for a $40 registration fee, plus use charges. Three-Sixty Pacific's $50, The Blue Max: Aces of the Great War, is a World War I dogfight simulator. Electronic Arts' $50 Fountain of Dreams, is a role-playing game set in Florida after a nuclear holocaust. The Software Toolworks' Life & Death II: The Brain, enables a player to diagnose a brain illness, prepare the patient and perform surgery, while the Modern Piano Teaching System, also from The Software Toolworks, includes a keyboard with MIDI port for piano instruction. Traffic in the bus lane. (comparison of Industry Standard Architecture, Extended Industry Standard Architecture and Micro Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), found in the IBM PC AT, uses a 16-bit data bus, meaning that transactions with expansion boards plugged into the bus or CPU occur 16 bits at a time. But ISA can slow down microcomputers based on high-speed Intel 80386 or 80486 chips. To capitalize on the 32-bit throughput capability of the 386, in 1987 IBM introduced Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), which allows 32-bit expansion boards to be plugged into the bus. MCA is incompatible with earlier IBM hardware. In response, in 1988 nine microcomputer makers announced Extended Industry Standard Architecture, a 32-bit bus standard that is compatible with earlier hardware. EISA-based 486 machines cost only about $200 more than comparable ISA machines; the extra investment is almost always worthwhile. Beyond number crunching. (users want new spreadsheet functions)(includes related article on The Future Spreadsheet) In general, spreadsheet users are happy with such features as presentation-quality graphics and 3D worksheets, but want newer and smarter approaches to solving number-based problems. Users want a pattern-analysis function for highlighting anything out of the norm; a probability analysis function, for playing out and weighing the possibility of various scenarios; and a trend-analysis function for spotting subtle tendencies. The Ethernet link. (includes related article summarizing main article) (tutorial) The three leading local area network (LAN) topologies are Ethernet, ARCnet and Token Ring. Ethernet is expected to continue its market domination through the mid-1990s. Ethernet costs as little as $110 per node. Transmission rates top out at 10M-bps, but heavy network use can cut into that figure. Ethernet-compatible hardware must conform with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 definition. Ethernet supports three wiring schemes. The original thick Ethernet, best for large networks, costs at least $265 more per node than thin Ethernet. Thin coaxial Ethernet is better suited for small networks of physically close nodes. 10Base-T is Ethernet over telephone wire; it is suitable for both large and small installations. Voodoo marketing: when you see impressive performance results in advertisements, be sure you're getting the facts. (tutorial) A difficult part of mail-order shopping for computer equipment is determining which products are the best performers. Hard drives seem especially vulnerable to specification manipulation. Very high benchmark results can be achieved in special laboratory situations that do not indicate real-world performance. High-speed computers and disk-caching software can hype performance results of hard drives. Plus Development's recent advertisements claim an 'effective access rate' for its Hardcard IIXL; this phrase, with no industry standard to back it up, is meaningless. Warranty without worry. (tutorial) Grotta, Daniel. The first thing to do in the event of an equipment failure is read the warranty. The warranty should include the following data: length of the warranty period, whether it is a dealer's or manufacturer's warranty, whether it is unlimited or covers parts and labor only, and where the part must be returned for service. The warranty may be voided by dropping the part. The next step is defining the problem; oftentimes a technician can solve the problem over the telephone. If a part needs replacement, most technically sophisticated users prefer to do the work themselves. In requesting a part, be as specific as possible. Always keep accurate records of all parts, shipments and repairs. The terms of your warranty. (glossary) Grotta, Daniel. The best time to study a warranty is before making a purchase. 'Warranty' is virtually synonymous with 'guarantee'. 'Express warranty' is one in which the terms are clearly spelled out. An 'implied warranty' is legally binding but usually unwritten. An 'unlimited warranty' will pay for a malfunctioning, damaged or destroyed part for free, picking up shipping costs in the process. But unlimited warranties do not cover ancillary losses, such as lost data. A 'limited warranty', also known as a parts and labor warranty, usually requires the customer to pay half the shipping costs. 'RMA number', an abbreviation for Return Merchandise Authorization, is the ID number a vendor assigns to any equipment returned for repair. After hours: exploring the world of late-night tech support. Grevstad, Eric. An informal sampling of late-night technical support from Zeos International, Northgate Computer Systems and newcomer Ares Microdevelopment of Farmington Hills, MI, turns up sharp, friendly technicians. Vendors say they started 24-hour service because users spend much of their time on computers after regular work hours. A surprising number of calls come in during the wee hours. All other things being equal, buyers should consider the availability of late-night support when choosing a computer. Direct dial: how to read a modem mail-order ad. (includes glossaries of modem features and modem standards and related The keys to buying a modem are pick the transmission speed needed, find a good price, and don't worry about extra features. Mail-order prices are often half that of list prices. The modem should be Hayes compatible. Modems usually come in three speeds: 1,200, 2,400 and 9,600 bps. Prices are so similar for the two slower speeds that buying a 1,200 modem seldom makes sense. Speeds of 4,800 bps can be had by buying a 2,400-bps modem with data compression. I/O on some microcomputers is too slow to handle fast transmission. Built-in error correction boosts transmission times. Internal modems are cheaper than external modems. Most modems are high quality. The heart of any modem is a chip set; only a few manufacturers make them. Power up your system. (installing a new power supply) (includes related article on power requirements of various system A microcomputer power supply changes the line current charge from alternating current to direct current and tones down the voltage from the 120 found in power lines. Most microcomputers today have power supplies rated at 200 watts or greater, which is quite sufficient, but some older systems may have to be upgraded. Upgrading a power supply may also reduce noise. The entire process requires only one tool, usually a screwdriver, and should take no more than 10 minutes. The power supply must be hooked up with the system board and with all disk and tape drives. Not just another pretty case: Flash Case 486/33. (microcomputer from Tri-Star Computer Corp.) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Flash Cache 486/33 microcomputer from Tri-Star Computer Corp of Tempe, AZ, matches similar 33-MHz Intel 80486-based machines in performance; what's more, it has a good price, good documentation and comes with an excellent service policy. The base system, priced at $4,695, comes with 4Mbytes of RAM, 10 MHz ISA bus, 100Mbyte hard drive, 1.44Mbyte, 3.5-inch and 1.2Mbyte, 5.25-inch floppy drives; Super VGA graphics board with 512Kbytes of video RAM, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a 400-dpi mouse. Tri-Star provides toll-free support and will shortly inaugurate a 24-hour bulletin board. The two-year warranty covers parts and labor; in the first year, Tri-Star will pay to express replacement parts. Top dollar for top quality: Iverson 486/25. (Iverson Computer Corp.) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The 486/25 from Iverson Computer Corp of McLean, VA, is an excellent buy, thanks mainly to first-rate hardware components. Documentation, which includes a video tape, is good. A base system costs $4,392 and includes a 25-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor on an ISA bus with 4Mbytes of RAM, 1.2 Mbyte 5.25-inch floppy drive, 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, six 16-bit expansion slots, two 8-bit expansion slots, one 32-bit expansion slot, one parallel port, two serial ports, 16-bit Trident VGA board with 1Mbyte of video RAM and Tatung 14-inch VGA monitor. The 26.0-by-9.5-by-19.5-inch, 45-pound system comes with a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Speed and expandability. (Micro Express ME 486-33) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The ME 486-33 from Micro Express of Santa Ana, CA, is an attractive tower machine that suffers from minor quality-control problems. It merits consideration by buyers who want to set up a network on a budget. The base $4,699 system come with a 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor with 4Mbytes of RAM on an ISA bus; 128Kbyte RAM cache; 1.44Mbyte, 3.5-inch and 1.2Mbyte, 5.25Mbyte floppy drives; eight 16-bit expansion slots; and one parallel and two serial ports. The ME 486-33 earns high marks in performance and expandability. Documentation could be better. The two-year warranty covers parts and labor. An inexpensive upgrade: Continental 486/25 Cache. (microcomputer from Micro Generation) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Continental 486/25 Cache from Micro Generation of Edison, NJ, could offer better performance and documentation, but does feature a very low price. The base system costs only $2,850 and includes a 25 MHz Intel 80486, ISA bus, 2Mbytes of RAM, 128Kbyte cache, choice of 1.44Mbyte, 3.5-inch or 1.2Mbyte, 5.25-inch floppy drive; choice of cases, and Focus 2001 keyboard. The tower case is especially beautiful; inside, the layout is elegant. Performance is average, at best, and documentation is weak, but Micro Generation provides technical support for the life of the computer. Worthy performance: NCR PC-486/MC25. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The NCR PC-486/MC25 is a 25 MHz Intel 80486-based microcomputer that offers premium performance at a premium price. List price is $8,680. The system comes with Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, 4Mbytes of RAM, 128Kbyte processor RAM cache, 3.5-inch floppy drive, SCSI host adapter and NCR VGA+ video card and display. The PC-486 is elegantly designed as a series of sub-assemblies. The 175-watt power supply and the three drive bays are easily removable. The motherboard is exceptionally clean. Performance is excellent. Having it your way: Computer Market Place Ultra 386-33c. (Hardware Review) (microcomputer) (evaluation) The Ultra 386-33c from Computer Market Place Inc of Broomall, PA, featuring excellent price, performance, documentation and service, is an exceptional buy. The base unit costs $1,997 and comes with a 33 MHz Intel 80386 chip, 2Mbytes of RAM, 32Kbyte cache, 1.2Mbyte, 5.25-inch floppy drive, 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, Super VGA display system, DOS 4.01 and 101-key Key Tronic keyboard. The company is notable for its willingness to put together a computer to meet a customer's specifications. The Ultra 386-33c is as good a buy as one could wish for. Low-cost, and does Windows: Comtrade 386/33. (Hardware Review) (microcomputer) (evaluation) The 386/33, from Comtrade (City of Industry, CA), is a solid 33 MHz Intel 80486-based microcomputer, distinguished by a very low price, top-drawer components, good documentation and exceptional support. The base system costs $2,230 and comes with an 8-MHz ISA bus, 1Mbyte of RAM, 64Kbyte cache, 5.25-inch floppy drive, 68Mbyte RLL hard drive, 16-bit Paradise VGA board with 256Kbytes of video RAM and 14-inch VGA monitor. Benchmark figures are very good. The toll-free customer support is friendly. Unfortunately, the VGA card displays only 16 colors in Super VGA mode. This 386/33 stands small: JCC Olympic 386/33 Cache. (Hardware Review) (microcomputer) (evaluation) The Olympic 386/33 Cache from J.C. Computer Warehouse of S. El Monte, CA, is a 33-MHz Intel 80386-based mini-tower microcomputer featuring an appealing blend of components and expansion room. Drawbacks include an awkwardly placed reset switch and thin documentation. Advantages include sturdy construction and an elegant physical layout. The base system costs $2,950 and comes with an 8-MHz ISA bus, 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte RAM cache, 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy drives, 80Mbyte MFM hard drive, Orchid ProDesigner II VGA board, 14-inch interlaced VGA monitor and DOS 4.01 or 3.3. Secondhand PostScript: JetScript C-X. (Hardware Review) (laser printer from The Printer Works) (evaluation) The JetScript C-X from The Printer Works of Hayward, CA, is a laser printer that provides 300-dots-per-inch PostScript output for the unheard-of price of $995. The Printer Works purchased slightly used Canon CX engines from Federal Express, refurbished them, and paired them with older-generation QMS PostScript controller boards. A JetScript made from wholly new parts is $1,195. Seventy-five dollars will extend the 90-day warranty on the refurbished engine to one year. One drawback: all software used with the JetScript must have a PostScript driver. The JetScript is big and bare-bones, but provides good output. Speed & color, for a price: NEC Pinwriter P9300. (Hardware Review) (dot matrix printer from NEC Technologies Inc.) (evaluation) The $1,395 NEC Pinwriter P9300 from NEC Technologies Inc provides speed, great print quality, versatile paper handling and easy-to-use color in a well-built, wide-carriage 24-pin dot-matrix printer. The price approaches that of low-end laser printers, but the P9300 provides some features that lasers cannot. It can print on all sorts of stock, from envelopes to transparencies. Color can be had simply by installing a $20 ribbon. The eight resident fonts match the best output available on any dot-matrix printer; they are lower quality resolution than fonts on a laser printer. Rated speeds are 133 characters-per-second (cps) letter quality (LQ), 200 cps LQ, and 400 cps draft. The warranty on parts and labor runs for one year; in addition, a toll-free technical support line is provided. Color scanning on a budget: Epson ES-300C. (Hardware Review) (scanner from Epson America Inc.) (evaluation) The ES-300C is an excellent 256-shade gray-scale and 300 dots-per-inch color scanner from Epson America Inc. Price, with DOS interface kit, is $2,490. The ES-300C comes bundled with a valuable set of scanning software packages: Media Cybernetics $199 HALOScan Color, Astral Development Inc's $695 Picture Publisher Plus, CPI S.A.'s $548 IMAGE-IN and Presentation Inc's $695 ColorLab ES-300C. All the software packages require Microsoft Windows 2.01 or higher running on a 2Mbyte Intel 80286-based computer with a hard drive. User support for the ES-300C is only through dealers. Bring your system up to speed: the Hauppauge 386SX MotherBoard SX20. (Hardware Review) (from Hauppauge Computer Works Inc.) The $995 386SX MotherBoard SX20 from Hauppauge Computer Works Inc of Hauppauge, NY, provides a relatively easy upgrade path from an IBM PC XT, AT or compatible to a 20 MHz Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer. The highly integrated board features an 8-MHz ISA bus, 2Mbytes of RAM, parallel port, two serial ports, PS/2 mouse port, seven expansion slots, socket for 20-MHz 80387SX math coprocessor and eight sockets for 256Kbyte, 1Mbyte or 4Mbyte SIMMs, for a total board capacity of 32Mbytes of RAM. Installation is quick and requires only a screwdriver. Cheap 386SX systems are available, but bear in mind that Hauppauge Computer Works has many years of experience. Plugging in PostScript: Adobe PostScipt Cartridge. (from Adobe Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (for HP LaserJet Series II The $495 PostScript Cartridge from Adobe Systems Inc installs in HP LaserJet Series II printers to provide fast, crisp PostScript output. The cartridge installs easily and includes Adobe's basic complement of 35 scalable PostScript fonts. Running the cartridge is simply a matter of choosing a PostScript driver from within the application. The PostScript cartridge comes with five floppies from LaserTools that provide a software-controlled printer control panel and Adobe's Font Foundry, which promotes true WYSIWYG. Technical support, via a toll call, is fast and friendly. Saving the day (and the data): Tecmar QT-250e. (Hardware Review) (tape drive) (evaluation) The $2,095 Tecmar QT-250e tape drive from Tecmar Inc of Solon, OH, is an excellent buy. Installation and use is easy. The QT-250e is an upgrade of the QT-150; storage capacity is now 250Mbytes. The drive is backward-compatible with 150Mbyte cartridges. A front-panel LED display tracks backup progress. Inside, the Wangtek tape drive links up with Tecmar's 8-bit I/O board via a QIC standard interface. Tecmar's QTOS backup software and one blank tape are included with the QT-250e. Backup sped is 4.7Mbytes per minute. The drive comes with a two-year parts-and-labor warranty, a toll-free technical support line and a 24-hour bulletin board support line. Rapid transfer system: Intel 9600EX modem. (Hardware Review) (from Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation) (evaluation) The 9600EX modem from Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation is a top-notch buy. Performance, service and support of this 9,600-bps modem are excellent and the $799 list price is $400 less than its nearest competitor, the Hayes Ultra 96. The 9600EX is compatible with all major communications protocols; it also features MNP 5, the data compression protocol that yields transfer rates of 19,200 bps. The 9600EX uses the trellis-coded modulation error-correction technique. Installation is easy. The 9600EX comes with a five-year warranty on parts and labor. Communicate affordably: Sportster 2400 MNP modem. (Hardware Review) (from U.S. Robotics) (evaluation) The $299 Sportster 2400 MNP external modem from U.S. Robotics of Skokie, IL, is a good value in a 2,400-bps modem. Features include MNP 5 data compression for an effective transmission rate of 4,800 bps, auto-dial and auto-answer in a cleanly designed, compact 6.5-by-3.7-by-1.33-inch case. Performance is flawless. The Sportster 2400 MNP also transmits at speeds of 300 bps and 1,200 bps. The warranty is for two years, parts and labor. U.S. Robotics provides 800-number technical support for the life of the modem. Pocket power: Practical Pocket Modem. (Hardware Review) (from Practical Peripherals) (evaluation) The 4-ounce, 2,400-bps Pocket Modem from Practical Peripherals Inc of Westlake Village, CA, is an excellent buy. The 3.0-by-2.2-by-1.0-inch Hayes compatible Pocket Modem includes auto-answer, support for half- and full-duplex operation, and non-volatile RAM for storing configuration information. The Pocket Modem will automatically send at 300 bps or 1,200 bps if necessary. Included are a RJ-11 phone jack and a 25-pin RS-232 jack for the computer. Power is provided by the computer and the phone line. Power drain on the computer is negligible. The warranty lasts five years and covers parts and labor. Toll-telephone support is friendly. Three speeds, no waiting: Sharp 9624e. (Hardware Review) (modem from Sharp Digital Information Products) (evaluation) The rather unusual 9624e from Sharp Digital Information Products Inc of Irvine, CA, is a 2,400-bps modem that uses a proprietary protocol to reach 4,800 bps; Sharp claims the application of MNP 5 data compression can boost transfer speeds to 9,600 bps. Another 9624e is needed to receive transmissions sent with the proprietary protocol, but even if it is used alone, the modem is a good buy. The 9624e will not work with Hayes' Smartcom III software, meaning that it will be incompatible with a small number of communications packages. The 9624e costs $299 in an internal version and $399 in an external version. The two-year warranty covers parts and labor. Pay-call technical support is friendly and helpful. Buy a modem, get a fax: Twincom 24/96. (Hardware Review) (internal modem from Image Communications) (evaluation) The $139 Twincom 24/96 internal fax/modem board from Image Communications of Moonachie, NJ, is an excellent buy. Data transmission rates are 2,400 bps for the modem function and 9,600 for the fax function. Performance is excellent. The Twincom is a cleanly laid-out half-length 8-bit board that uses the Rockwell chip set. The bundled Quick Link II communications software from Smith Micro Software Inc is self-installing and feature-rich. The one-year warranty covers parts and labor; technical support is reached via a toll call. R:Base made simple: Personal R:Base Ver. 1.0. (Software Review) (relational database management system from Microrim Inc.) The Personal R:Base from Microrim Inc of Bellevue, WA, a simplified version of the R:Base relational database management system, is a good buy for users with modest needs in a database; what's more, the upgrade path is easy. Price is $99.95 through Mar 31, 1991, and $299 thereafter. R:Base features not included in Personal R:Base include a text editor for creating and editing programs, a transaction-processing function, and handling of SQL queries. Personal R:Base will not work in networks and lacks any type of command line. Personal R:Base's pull-down menus and dialog boxes suits it especially well for users who don't want to program. Personal R:Base includes an applications generator. Quick on the draw: Draw Plus Ver. 1.1. (Software Review) (graphics software from Micrografx Inc.) (evaluation) Draw Plus 1.1, a scaled-down version of Richardson, TX-based Micrografx Inc's Designer drawing program, is a good choice for users who want an easy-to-learn program for turning out the occasional slide, chart or drawing. Price is $229; an upgrade from Version 1.1. costs $57.45. Most of the standard drawing tools, such as arc, rectangle and line, are included, as is a wide variety of line styles, fill colors and patterns. This stripped-down program does not allow color or line-width customization. Eighteen scalable outline fonts are included, as are 2,000-plus items in the clip-art library. Version 1.1 requires more than 6Mbytes of disk space. Import facilities are limited to ASCII text and Lotus 1-2-3.PIC files. Draw Plus 1.1 requires an Intel 80286-based computer with 512Kybtes of RAM and Windows 2.X or higher. A mouse is recommended. Improved illustration: Artline 2.0. (Software Review) (drawing software from Digital Research Inc.) (evaluation) The $595 Artline 2.0 high-end drawing software from Digital Research Inc of Monterey, CA, is an ideal choice for experienced graphic illustrators. The program is built for speed and high productivity. Features include a palette of 16 million colors and 21 graphics tools, some of which are quite innovative. Quill enables the drawing of complex shapes by using simple and complex curves, while Plane effortlessly creates irregular curves. Because Artline does not run on Microsoft Windows, it is slightly faster than other drawing programs, such as Adobe Illustrator; it can even be used on IBM PC XTs. The tutorial is spartan, although the reference manual is well-organized. Pay-toll support is good. Artline 2.0 requires DOS 3.0 or later, a graphics display and 540Kbytes of RAM, with at least 1Mbyte of expanded memory recommended. Opening up your Windows: WinSleuth 1.0. (Software Review) (Microsoft Windows-environment diagnostic software from Dariana WinSleuth from Dariana Technology Group Inc of Buena Park, CA, is the first diagnostic tool for Microsoft Windows 3.0. Not a high-powered tool, WinSleuth performs most satisfactorily under average conditions, providing quick, painless ways to improve performance. WinSleuth provides text reports covering 10 categories, including networks, printers, memory and ports. WinSleuth will also examine configuration and suggest ways of boosting performance. WinSleuth suffers from poor hard-drive mapping. List price is $149. Having it your way: YourWay Ver. 1.1. (Software Review) (personal information manager from Prisma Software Corp.) (evaluation) The $199 YourWay 1.1 personal information management system (PIM), for Microsoft Windows 3.0, from Prisma Software Corp of Cedar Falls, IA; is a mixed bag, reflecting the possibilities and limitations of Windows 3.0. YourWay is one of the best database-oriented PIMs. The heart of YourWay is a cascaded display of index card-like records that resists customization. Searching is very fast. YourWay makes good use of Windows' dynamic data exchange (DDE) to link modules and instantly update information. The to-do list is limited to three priority choices. Making good connections: WinComm Ver. 1.3. (Software Review) (Microsoft Windows communications program from Synappsys ) WinComm 1.3 from Synappsys of Norman, OK, is an easy-to-use Microsoft Windows 3.0 communications package positioned between the inexpensive Crosstalk for Windows and the high-end DynaComm. Good features include a DynaComm-like powerful script language and a LapLink-like remote access program. WinComm lacks a dialing directory. WinComm emulates ANSI, Vidtex, VT102 and a few other terminals. There is a good variety of file transfer protocols. Twenty-two modem models are supported. The warranty, which includes a 30-day money-back guarantee, is very good. WinComm occupies 1.4Mbytes of hard disk space. Slimline 386/33: mighty munchkin. (Hardware Review) (microcomputer from Northgate Computer Systems Inc.) (evaluation) The high performance and low price of the Slimline 386/33 from Northgate Computer Systems Inc make it a strong choice for a home-office microcomputer. The base system costs $2,899 and comes with a 33 MHz Intel 80386 microprocessor with an 8 MHz ISA bus and 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte RAM cache, 3.5-inch, 1.44Mbyte and 5.25-inch, 1.2Mbyte floppy drives; 40Mbyte IDE hard drive, monochrome VGA display, Microsoft mouse, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0, and QAPlus. The Slimline comes in a diminutive 4.5-by-16.5-by-15.5-inch case and has FCC Class B certification. The one-year warranty covers parts and labor; the 24-hour, toll-free technical support is friendly and helpful. Power computing now: for the vast majority of computing jobs, the system of choice is a 25MHz 386, now and in the future. (includes An Intel 80386-based microcomputer is a good choice for today's computer buyer. A 80486-based system costs 10 percent to 40 percent more than comparable 386-based machines; the extra investment is only justified if the computer will be used as a high-capacity network server or CAD/CAM or graphics workstation. A 386-based machine is better suited than a 386SX-based machine for multitasking. A 25-MHz 386-based machine costs about $1,000 less than a comparable 33-MHz machine; it is quite powerful enough for most uses. Other criteria by which to judge a 386-based system are discussed. Point/counterpoint: 386 vs. 486. (Intel 80386, 80486 ) O'Brien, Bill; Blackford, John. The 16-bit Intel 80386SX and 386SL are primarily for single-user, text-based applications. Differences exist over the importance of clock speed in 80386 and 80486 processors. One holds that there is little difference; another, that switching from a 25 MHz to a 33 MHz system can boost performance by as much as one-third. The gap between a 33 MHz 386 and a 25-MHz 486 is rather small. Other factors than processor speed determine an entire system's performance: for example, bus speed, hard-disk access time and cache RAM. The 486's chief advantage is a built-in numerical processor. The more tightly integrated 486 is the way of the future. Rating the comfort level. (documentation, setup and ergonomics of 25-MHz Intel 80386-based computers) Sixteen evaluated 25-MHz Intel 80386-based microcomputers are compared according to their ease of use, ergonomics and quality of documentation. Top-rated is the Tandon 386/25 desktop, followed by the USA Flex 386/25 Cache System, Dell System 325D, Ultra 386-25 and Northgate Elegance 386/25. Theoretically, all computers were configured and ready-to-go out of the box; in reality, the FastData 386/25 Cache, Tangent 325C and Standard Computer 386/25 were not. Since most systems were created from a potpourri of OEM components, documentation usually consists of a amalgam of different manuals. But Swan, Northgate and Dell provide unified, coherent and concise documentation. Focus on system basics. (evaluation of components of 25-MHz Intel 80386-based computers) Sixteen evaluated Intel 80386-based microcomputers had similar configurations: 8Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte RAM cache, 85Mbyte to 110Mbyte IDE hard drive, VGA monitor and graphics board, mouse, DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0. All were 25 MHz, except for the 33-MHz Northgate Elegance 386/25. Swan, Gateway, Tandon and Ultra-Comp used reliable Micronics motherboards. Dell and Standard Computer integrated I/O ports and video directly into the motherboard. The computers either had five or six drive bays. Top-rated for systems components was the Data 386-25 Cache, followed by the Dell System 325D. Getting help after you buy. (evaluation of support service for Intel 80386-based computers) One thing to look for in mail-ordering a microcomputer is the length of the money-back guarantee. Thirty days is a good figure. Restocking fees ranging from 10 percent to 20 percent should be avoided. Insight, Eltech and Dataworld will pick up the return shipping costs, which can range upwards from $50. The standard warranty lasts one year and covers parts and labor; some firms, such as Micro Express and Gateway 2000, extend those terms. Some firms will pay the cost of shipping back a defective part. All 16 evaluated Intel 80386-based microcomputers came with toll-free technical support. Tandon, Northgate and Iverson provide 24-hour technical support; Dell can automatically fax information. Extras make the difference. (evaluation of extra features in Intel 80386-based computers) Extended features, such as the extent of math coprocessor support, type of cache features and the presence of RAM shadowing, and help determine which microcomputer out of a long list of capable candidates is best for a particular user. Perhaps the most important extended feature is RAM cache, a technique for storing information so that it can be recalled much more quickly than from system RAM. All 16 evaluated Intel 80386-based microcomputers come with RAM cache; only the Dell System 325D and CompuAdd 325 cannot be expanded. Only the Eltech 9870 does not support shadowing of CPU or video BIOS in RAM rather than ROM, a technique that can boost speed. Wide choice in hard drives is an important considerations when many different systems are expected to be purchased from one vendor. How fast the bullet flies. (evaluation of speed of Intel 80386-based computers) The speed of sixteen Intel 80386-based microcomputers were evaluated using tasks involving Microsoft Excel, FoxPro and Ami Professional. Other routines were run to test processor, video and hard drive performance. The Tangent 325C performed best in the FoxPro test, which makes intensive use of the hard drive. The Dell System 325D ranked highest in the system test, which measures processor, video and hard drive speed. Overall, the Dell performed the best, followed by the Swan 386/25C, Gateway 386/25 Cache Performer, Data 386-25 Cache and Eltech 9870. 386s, case by case. (thumbnail sketches of 16 Intel 80386-based computers) (buyers guide) Sixteen mail-order 25-MHz Intel 80386-based microcomputers are evaluated according to five categories: Everyday Use, General Features, Support and Service, Extended Features and Benchmarks. There are three basic approaches to microcomputer purchasing: by brand name, by performance/price ratio, and by features, regardless of cost. All computers were configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, RAM cache, VGA color monitor capable of 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution and 80Mbyte to 115Mbyte hard drive. Spreadsheets for the '90s: capabilities like linking and spreadsheet publishing have become standards in the latest batch Spreadsheets are often credited with galvanizing the microcomputer explosion. Spreadsheets today cost $49 to $795, with functionality ranging from simple number crunching to 3D, linked graphs, reading and writing of dBASE files and links between files. A growing trend is to sophisticated spreadsheet publishing. Printer support has become a key issue, and notoriously primitive file-handling features are becoming rapidly upgraded. The more sophisticated spreadsheets have powerful macro languages for automating repetitive tasks. Some spreadsheets have special functions for financial analysis. Users usually either care about graphing ability very much or not at all. Database links can be very important, because many people take the horribly inefficient course of using their spreadsheets as databases. Point/counterpoint: graphics vs. character-based interfaces. (spreadsheet features) For the average spreadsheet user, graphical use interfaces (GUIs) are much more powerful than character-based interfaces. Everything the spreadsheet user does is enhanced by a GUI's point-and-click capabilities. An opposing viewpoint holds that a full-blown GUI spreadsheet is an inappropriate way to handle what is basically a text-based application. Despite their hype, GUIs mouse pointers, icons and other supposedly intuitive features really represent a quite counter-intuitive approach to text-based tasks. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 offers a nice combination of WYSIWYG capability with a graphics re-creation of a character-based interface. Excel and Quattro tie for best. (Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d and Quattro Pro 2.0) (review of installation and support of eleven Support is a key consideration in picking a spreadsheet, which is a complex program. Seven of the 11 spreadsheets evaluated required at least 2Mbytes of hard drive for the entire program, led by Lotus 1-2-3 3.1, which occupies at least 5Mbytes. PlanPerfect 5.1, which requires 384Kbytes of space, and Lucid 3D 2.2, which can get by with a mere 137Kbytes, compare favorably with the brand-name packages. All the spreadsheets support expanded memory; only Lotus 1-2-3 2.2, PlanPerfect, Lucid and SuperCalc5 Rev D do not support extended memory. Only Lucid and Wingz come with a tutorial both on-screen and in a manual. Overall, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d and Quattro Pro 2.0 ranked highest in installation and support. Effective menus are a must. (review of command structures of eleven spreadsheet programs) Eleven spreadsheet programs are judged according to the efficiency of their native commands and their ability to use Lotus 1-2-3 commands, which constitute a virtual standard, as a subset. The robust and convenient menu structures of Quattro Pro 2.0 and Lucid 3D 2.2 earned them top scores in menu effectiveness. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 and 3.1 garner perfect scores in 1-2-3 command capability, but both programs rank near the bottom in menu effectiveness. More than just rows and columns. (review of worksheet facilities of eleven spreadsheet programs) Eleven spreadsheets are evaluated on the basis of their worksheet facilities. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 and Diamond 2.5 will do for users who want to load just one file at a time. SuperCalc5, SmartWare II and Wingz are among the programs that provide huge numbers of rows and columns. SuperCalc5 and Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 give 3D capability. Twin Level 3.07 had the narrowest column width, of 72 characters. The Undo function is a key to any worksheet. All the programs allow the screen to be split, so different areas of the same worksheet can be viewed at once. Most also allow simultaneous views of different worksheets. All the spreadsheets also allow data to be transferred between worksheets. Shortcuts to success. (review of macros and functions of eleven spreadsheet programs) Of eleven spreadsheets evaluated on the basis of their macros and functionality, three (Diamond 2.5, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d and Twin Level 3.07) garnered perfect ratings. All the spreadsheets offer macros, which automate repetitive commands, and a macro learn mode. The macro languages of seven programs enable the creation of branches, loops and subroutines. Wingz' HyperScript, although lacking the ability to do branching, allows a dazzling array of graphical user interface elements to be stored. All but Wingz, Smartware II 1.02 and Lucid 3D 2.2 can directly import Lotus 1-2-3 macros. All spreadsheets offer a choice between automatic and manual recalculation. The WYSIWYGs have it. (review of graphics and output of eleven spreadsheet programs) Of eleven spreadsheet programs evaluated for graphics and output capabilities, the three top scorers, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d, Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 and Wingz 1.1, all feature WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Excel and Wingz also feature graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Excel, Quattro Pro 2.0, Wingz and Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 allow the importation of clip art. All programs offer line, horizontal bar, pie, X-Y and vertical bar business graphs in 2D; many have 3D versions too. Wingz offers 20 types of graphs, including some that are good for graphing scientific data. All the programs support dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of printers. Excel, Wingz, Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 and PlanPerfect 5.1 all allow background printing. Quattro Pro, Excel and Wingz can print text and graphics on one page with especial ease. Database features are in. (review of advanced features of eleven spreadsheet programs) Spreadsheets are increasingly sophisticated. Of eleven spreadsheet programs evaluated on the basis of their advanced features, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d and Quattro Pro 2.0 were judged the best, largely because of their sophisticated database features. In general, the programs had excellent file-handling capabilities; for example, all enabled the backing-up of files. PlanPerfect 5.1 is the only program that allows exiting a spreadsheet without a warning to save changes. Database features varied. Some programs cannot perform such basic functions as importing and parsing ASCII files or a universal search-and-replace. Lucid outshines the rest. (Lucid 3D 2.2) (benchmarks of eleven spreadsheet programs) Eleven spreadsheet programs were benchmarked, primarily on the basis of their ability to load files and perform recalculations. Overall, Lucid 3D 2.2 rated the best. The two Microsoft Windows-based programs, Microsoft Excel for Windows 2.1d and Informix's Wingz 1.1, did less well, with Excel rated the worst performer. Lucid was the fastest at loading a file in native mode and at recalculating. Diamond 2.5 and Twin Level 3.07 were the fastest at loading and saving a file in .WK1 format. Spreadsheet programs up close. (product profiles of eleven spreadsheet programs) (buyers guide) Eleven spreadsheet programs are evaluated on the basis of installation and support, command structure, benchmarks, macros and functions, worksheet facilities, graphics and output and advanced features. Most are hungry for RAM and hard disk space. The $189 Diamond 2.5 from Mosaic Marketing Inc is an integrated, easy-to-use program from Mosaic Marketing Inc of Boston. The $99.95 Lucid 3D 2.2 from DacEasy of Dallas, TX, although it will not create 3D worksheets, is a very good alternative to major-brand-name programs. The $495.95 Quattro Pro 2.0 from Borland International scored near the top in all of the performance tests. The $699 Smartware II 1.02 from Informix Software Inc of Lenexa, KS, includes word processing, database and communications modules. The road to fast graphics. (installing a graphics coprocessor) (tutorial) The most cost-effective way to improve graphics performance is by investing in a new graphics coprocessor board, which comprises a coprocessor chip, video memory and support circuitry. Graphics coprocessor boards are specially designed to manipulate pixels. These boards also boost performance via high-speed communications. Once a graphics coprocessor board performs the calculations for an on-screen image, it saves the information so it need not recalculate everything when the image changes. Such features as hardware zooming and panning reduce the need to recalculate pixels. Graphics coprocessor boards often boost resolution and add greater color capabilities. Step-by-step instructions for installing a new graphics coprocessor board are provided. Windows dives into multimedia: PCs gaining good audio, CD ROM drives this summer. (Industry Outlook) (column) Audio, animation, full-motion video and high-quality images will enrich the data on a microcomputer system and make it more accessible. But this is all theory until the necessary technology is integrated into standard, reasonably-priced microcomputers. That is the problem that Microsoft Windows' multimedia architecture is meant to handle. Windows is the first consistent environment for microcomputer multimedia applications. Vendors will unveil suitable hardware by the middle of 1991. Cost of entry will mean that only schools and businesses initially will purchase multimedia systems. Vendors like Tandy, AT and T, NEC and others are hoping that their hardware and Windows will get multimedia moving. Industry officials expect that users will soon be looking for multimedia capabilities when they purchase a new microcomputer. Winner declared in font wars: users: rivalry sparks cheaper, faster, better laser printers. Adobe's PostScript was the only real choice for a page-description language (PDL) and scalable font generator in mid-1989. Current alternatives include PostScript-compatible offerings, Microsoft/Apple TrueImage/TrueType combination and Hewlett-Packard's PCL 5, which gives many PostScript-like capabilities to the LaserJet III and others. The market will remain confused for the time being. Users have fewer investment risks because competing companies generally aim to enhance rather than overturn the PostScript standard. PostScript printers currently on the market include the Apple Personal LaserWriter ($3,299), Epson EPL-7500 ($3,299), NEC Model 90 ($2,495), QMS PS 410 ($2,795) and Texas Instruments MicroLaser PS17 ($2,499). Users turn toward higher-speed modems: pricing, throughput improve on 9600-bps models. Modem users are discovering that larger files, increased telephone costs and enticing prices are pushing them toward a 9600-bps modem. Industry officials say the market is at the same kind of transition point it was several years ago when the majority of users were wavering between 1200 and 2400-bps. Analysts say the number of 9600-bps modems sold worldwide by US vendors will more than double from 230,000 in 1989 to a projected 470,000 in 1991. The shift is indicative of a drop in prices of 9600-bps. Modem wholesale prices have dropped almost 37 percent while effective throughput rose. Greater standardization simplifies buying decisions. 'Low-cost' Macintoshes aim to woo pc users away. Furger, Roberta. A competition has begun between the Apple Macintosh and Windows-based microcomputers for the loyalties of computer purchasers who revere ease of use as much as power. Ease of use was practically the exclusive domain of the Macintosh prior to the release of Windows 3.0. High prices prevented Apple from extending the Mac marketplace. The company finally introduced three lower-cost models to stem eroding sales and attract microcomputer users wanting to move into the graphics world. Few companies have dumped their microcomputers in favor of Macs though Macs may allow the user to accomplish both routine and complex operations with greater ease. Industry analysts agree that the new Macs will shine in the small business, education and home markets. Excel 3.0: the push-button spreadsheet. (Software Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Excel for Windows 3.0 ($495) features a collection of timely additions and improvements to enhance spreadsheet appearance and handling, giving ordinary users easy access to popular features. Current Excel users will like the Word-for-Windows-like tool bar across the top of the screen. The user can combine the most often used features and commands with some new ones and assemble them in a row of buttons. Double-clicking in Excel 3.0 takes on a hypertext-like meaning. Specific help is provided for Lotus 1-2-3 users with a special dialogue box for the Excel equivalents of 1-2-3 commands. Excel 3.0 supports the Dynamic Data Exchange extension for linking and embedding objects between applications. PageMaker tries harder. (Software Review) (evaluation) Jantz, Richard. PageMaker from Aldus has been traditionally regarded as the best package for shorter documents. PageMaker 4.0 ($795), which will be available early in the first quarter of 1991, aims to challenge Ventura Publisher's title as king of long documents. Version 4.0 handles documents up to 999 pages long; the maximum document length for previous releases was 128 pages. Users can connect multiple documents into one publication. Automatic page numbering and index and table of contents generation have also been added. The program's built-in text editor allows the user to check spelling and revise imported text files without opening the word processor. PageMaker 4.0 adds Ventura-like features allowing the construction of complicated catalogs, manuals, and similar documents. Laptops in living color: the Toshiba T3200SXC and Sharp Colorstar. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) There is a great difference between the flat screen color displays of the Sharp Colorstar ($10,000 and $15,000) and the Toshiba T3200SXC ($8,999) and those of other color laptops. These are the first commercially available laptop computers to use active-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and the displays are every bit as vivid as those on quality desktop VGA systems. Text and graphics appear clearer and crisper on the flat LCD display than on the curved surface of a standard display. Manufacture of active-matrix LCDs requires almost one million transistors to be bonded to their correct pixel positions on a glass substrate perfectly. Manufacturing yields, until recently, were so low that products would have been exorbitantly prices. Both companies bet their announcements on the improvement of yields as ship dates approach. cc:Mail meets Windows. (Software Review) (evaluation) Brown, Eric. cc:Mail ($695 for Windows version) from cc:Mail Inc has risen to the top of the local area network (LAN) electronic mail marketplace, thanks to great features and good connectivity options, but the package has suffered from a quirky interface. Users who utilize the program many times per day had often grown tired of remembering which menu brought up which. The Windows 3.0 version simplifies navigation. One-stop dialog boxes provide access to functions. The program offers pull-down menus and a unique features of a customizable icon bar. One click of the mouse will perform tasks that used to necessitate two or three key strokes. cc:Mail for Windows helps office workers by exploiting Window' multitasking skills and incorporates a new modular messaging architecture that should make it the host of future groupware options. A sharper image: Howtek Personal Color Printer. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Howtek introduces the Personal Color Printer ($2995) from Howtek Inc, an ink jet printer producing high-resolution text and graphics in a myriad of colors, at an affordable price. The new printer offers the same 300-dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution as color thermal printers costing $6,000 to $10,000, and almost twice the resolution of the Hewlett-Packard PaintJet but at nearly twice the price. The printer is a relatively inexpensive way for business graphics professionals to mix text and color graphics on the same page. Users who do not need the high resolution probably will not want the higher cost. The Personal Color Printer handles only 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and transparencies and comes with manual sheet feeder and paper tractor. Old Faithful's new look helps navigate the financial thicket: Managing Your Money 7.0. (from MECA Software) (Software Review) Andrew Tobias has long provided guidance in the financial world. Managing Your Money 7.0 ($219.98) (MYM) from MECA Software, Tobias' most popular personal finance software package, makes managing your money even easier. The new interface swaps the old function-key assignments for an idiot-proof menu bar. All MYM chapters are there as pulldown, though some have been renamed. Many functions have been reworked, renamed and enhanced. Tobias' expertise has been vested in a help database so the user can access an extensive description of each financial operation behind every screen. Fast text printing plus PostScript: Texas Instruments MicroLaser XL. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The MicroLaser XL printer from Texas Instruments ($3,499, $3,999, $4,499) is a rugged personal-sized 16-page-per-minute printer for users who need a workhorse printer with a PostScript option. The MicroLaser XL is the fastest Series II-compatible printer in its price range. Both PostScript versions include Adobe licenses and 1.5MB of RAM. More memory will have to be added to handle legal-sized paper or download fonts. PostScript files will slow the printer down. The Motorola 68000 processor in great for simple text but cannot handle pages with multiple fonts or complex graphics quickly. The printer is easy to use. ...And more notebooks at low prices: Zeos '286 notebook, Tandy 2810 HD, Toshiba T2000SX. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Notebook computers come in a variety of configurations and prices. Zeos' new '286 Notebook is a portable system with a VGA display, 20MB hard drive and a built-in floppy drive. The Zeos system weighs 7.5 pounds, including battery, AC charger/power supply and cables. Tandy's 2810 HD has features almost identical to those of the '286 Notebook, and includes a VGA display, 20MB hard disk, 5MB RAM and 3.5-inch floppy drive. The T2000SX from Toshiba America includes a hard disk, built-in floppy drive, and VGA display. Its 16-MHz 80386SX CPU should provide better performance, especially with 80386-specific programs like Windows 3.0. Value alert: 20-MHz 386SX systems. (Intel 80386SX) (Hardware Review) (includes related article on purchase criteria) The emergence of 20-MHz microcomputer systems based on the Intel 80386SX microprocessor means that a few dollars more gives a user a lot more power to run CPU-intensive applications like Windows 3.0, WordPerfect 5.1 and Paradox. Tests show that these systems run approximately 34 percent faster than their 16 MHz counterparts. The ALR PowerFlex 20CSX is the second fastest of all systems tested. The AST Premium II 386SX/20 ($3,528) is fairly slow, finishing last in the Paradox test. The Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 ($4,279) is very fast, though expensive. The Dell 320LX offers outstanding support and service though it has a large footprint. The NCR PC386sx20 is fast, with super VGA. The NEC PowerMate SX/20 bundles Windows 3.0, a $150 value, but it is noisy with limited expansion capacity. Personal laser printers: looking better all the time. (includes a related article on selecting a personal laser printer) (Hardware Six personal laser printers are evaluated and compared. Street prices for the models evaluated range from $994 to $2,199 in the test configuration., which features 1.5Mbytes RAM and at least a 200-sheet paper tray. Two of the evaluated units are rated a Best Buy: the HP LaserJet IIP, which combines compact design and high output quality; and the Panasonic KX-P4420, offering the sharpest graphics of the group, top performance and a low street price. Rounding out the group are the Brother HL-4, IBM LaserPrinter E, Okidata OL400 LED and Tandy LP 950. The Windows-Mac connection. (Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh) LaPlante, Alice. The computing objective at General Electric (GE) is to allow all divisions freedom of choice over software and hardware while ensuring connectivity between the mix of Macintoshes and IBM PC-compatible systems. Support for both camps required plenty of personnel, careful implementation of networks and many resourceful file conversion schemes. Some innovative divisions are preparing to lighten the burden by adopting the Windows versions of Mac applications. GE adopted the IBM PC in 1982 and when Apple introduced the Mac in 1984 the company had over 30,000 PC-compatible systems corporate-wide. GE's clerical staff chose the Mac because of its overall simplicity, as did many technology-shy executives. Users needing power and speed for heavy duty computing remained with the PC. The company's long-standing acceptance of Macs forced early resolution of connectivity and compatibility issues. DeskTop Set 3.0. (from Okna Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Marshall, Patrick. Many Windows 3.0 applications take advantage of color, 3-D buttons and other niceties but few use Window' integrated, interactive manner of doing things. DeskTop Set 3.0 ($149) from Okna is an exception. The program is designed for executives who manage appointments and contacts and make many phone contacts, not those who track many calls or projects by the hour. The program's hub is the phone book, complete with mouse-clickable letter tabs. Placing a call requires a simple double-click on a phone number. Double-clicking on any day in the month or year brings up a daily schedule. Color-coded time lines delineate free time. Spinnaker Plus 2.0. (from Spinnaker Software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Spinnaker Plus 2.0 ($495) from Spinnaker Software is a Hypercard-type development program specifically for multiplatform corporate environments. All Windows, OS/2 and Macintosh users can run the program if they are equipped with the appropriate version of Design One Plus. Plus is a graphical flat-file database. The card stack is the center metaphor with each card holding text, bit-mapped and vector graphics and several field types, including masked, calculated and scrollable fields. The creation of stacks and basic cards is relatively easy. Building of interactive applications, creating hypertext connections or using animation effects means writing scripts in the Plus Programming Language (PPL), which is easier to manage than C or Pascal but still is not English. Ashlar Vellum. (Software Review) (evaluation) DeLucchi, Christopher James. Ashlar Vellum ($1,995) from Ashlar Inc may seem like just another two-dimensional drafting package but the program goes far beyond automating T-square and compass. The most important part of the program is the Drafting Assistant, which anticipate the user's needs for construction lines. Drafting aids pop up as the user moves the pointer, whether a new element is being drawn or an existing one edited. Dimension-driven parametrics are the program's other claim to fame. A design can be roughed out then dimensions modified in a table. The program will then change the drawing to reflect new values. The parametric engine does need tuning. Vellum is equipped with drafting tools like fillets, chamfers, linear and polar pattern copying and ellipses. Advanced features include NURBS (nonuniform rational B-splines) associative dimensions, smart crosshatching and geometric tolerancing. PerForm Pro Designer and Filler. (from Delrina Technology) (Software Review) (evaluation) Forms software runs the gamut from character-based fill-in-the-form tools to sophisticated form-oriented data managers. PerForm Pro ($495) from Delrina Technology sits in the middle. The program comes with 100 sharp-looking prefabricated business forms, ranging from shipping records to travel vouchers, that can be easily modified. Creating new forms with the program is quite easy using some simple but sufficient drawing tools. Most will probably customize one of the many sample forms. Forms can be filled in with ASCII and dBase data. PerForm Pro can also be used as a data entry front end for dBase. The documentation assumes the user is experienced with forms packages, complicating installation. Distinct Back-up 2.0. (from Distinct Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Hard disk backup is perfect for a multitasking environment like Windows 3.0 as backup can be executed in the background while the user is concentrating on a more interesting task. Distinct Back-Up is the first backup program for Windows 3.0. It includes a scheduler for unattended backups to another hard disk or network file server. All standard backup options are supported and files can be selected by date range. File compression is, however, slow and inefficient. Distinct is easy to master for anyone familiar with Windows. Parameters are saved in a project file when a backup is completed. Command Post 7.0. (from Wilson WindowWare) (Software Review) (evaluation) Command Post 7.0 ($49.95) from Wilson WindowWare may seem like a dressed-up MS-DOS Executive but is actually a flexible tool for the creation of custom pulldown menus with batch-file effects. Command Post also features a file viewer, directory tree and a screen blanker. It can replace Program Manager as a Windows shell. Command Post accomplished with pulldown menus what Program Manager does with groups and icons. Menus can be customized, simple dialog boxes created and one menu option connected to multiple actions. The creation or modification of menus may be confusing for novices as a text file is edited with a simple programming language. A separate Browser application displays the contents of any file. Windows Workstation release 3. (Software Review) (evaluation) Lauriston, Robert. Windows Workstation 3.0 ($695) from Automated Design Systems provides access to NetWare's multiuser print queues and custom menus and a powerful script language. Print Manager is the most impressive part of Windows Workstation, replacing the Windows utility with the same name. A printer can be selected by scrolling through the list of descriptions. Connections are saved upon exit and restored when the user restarts the program. The program's menu utility will appeal to network administrators as they can build custom menus listing applications and scripts that all users can run. Administrators will also like Workstation's script language, a powerful hybrid of batch files and network login scripts. Taming the telephone, etc. Contact management software. (includes related article on the use of contact management software) The number of managerial positions has increased in corporations while the number of secretaries has declined. Managers today are given a telephone, a microcomputer and a Rolodex to do their jobs, often with the help of contact management systems. The programs have their biggest following in sales, especially telemarketing. Most sales professionals are microcomputer novices so user-friendliness is crucial. Outbound sales representatives rely on the programs for scheduling functions. Text-retrieval is the most important function for a Florida political fund-raiser. Lawyers and accountants use them for time billing. Contact management software. (buyers guide) Marshall, Patrick. A contact manager is a computer program offering an auto-dialing database with names, addresses and phone numbers integrated with another major function like scheduling. Most also provide text search, mail merge and database capabilities. Some 30 packages, ranging from sales lead-tracking programs to personal information managers (PIM), are reviewed briefly. Most PIMs are contact managers though not all of them provide strong text base features. Important features like phone management, scheduling and mail merge and productivity are discussed. The WordPerfect Office. Furger, Roberta. Industry analysts state that WordPerfect Office give the user the kind of integration one can obtain with high-end automation systems: transparent file transfer from one task to another plus many utilities. SideKick Plus and PC Tools are also included. The individual user also gets a shell to manage applications and exchange data between applications, a macro editor, a file manager, a to-do list, a calendar, calculator and electronic rolodex. The network version adds group scheduling and electronic mail. Version 3.0 also supports wide area networks. Future Windows-oriented versions of WordPerfect packages will be able to unite the loyal Office user base with the growing Windows user base, providing a freedom of choice and the integration that Office provides. Words into print: tips for getting the most out of your word processor. (WordPerfect footnotes and endnotes and printing odd or Footnotes and endnotes, though not frequently used in business documents, can be used when they provide information that might otherwise interrupt the flow of the main text. Footnotes are on the same page as the reference number and endnotes at the end of a section or document. A step-by-step guide for creating footnotes with WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 is presented. A note is created by positioning the cursor where the note's reference number is to be placed and pressing . Then press f for a footnote or e for an endnote, then pressing c. Type the note's text then press . The program will continuously number notes by default. The procedure is included for numbering notes in each section beginning with 1. Spreadsheets (A...Z): practical tips for building better worksheets. (this month: let's get graphic!) (tutorial) Depicting spreadsheet results in a graph helps the user and his audience comprehend what the numbers mean. The basics of creating graphs from Lotus 1-2-3 2.x spreadsheets are covered. All 1-2-3 graphs are based on information found in a series of ranges. Titles can also be added on both the top and the side of the graph. Because Lotus 1-2-3 2.x does not print its own graphs directly the user must first save your graph in a special PIC file then print it with the PrintGraph utility or insert it into an Allways report. The file can also be imported into a word processing application supporting 1-2-3 graphs. Data basics: tips and techniques for managing your data. (this month: getting your report off to a good start) (tutorial) Database reports turn data into information but the report is ineffective if readers cannot tell what they are reading. An accurate title and clear column headings go a long way toward that goal. Two-part report headlines are useful. The title should be descriptive words commonly used in the user's business. These words never change. A modifiable subtitle identifies the data set in a particular report. The subtitle is especially important if the same report form or layout is used for more than one type of report. Putting some thought into report and column headings will make one's audience happier. The art of persuasion: expert advice for creating high-impact documents and presentations. (this month: choosing typefaces that Low-cost font generators such as Fontware, scalable-font cartridges and inexpensive PostScript printers make it easier to add attention-getting typefaces to business documents. But choosing a typeface that reflects a conservative, businesslike image does not mean one is stuck with Times Roman or Helvetica. The key is to choose the right typeface family which includes all styles, widths and weights of a given typeface. The chosen typeface should offer strong contrasts between its styles, widths and weights like ITC Bookman, New Century Schoolbook, Palatino, Avant Garde, Futura and Univers. When designing a report, use bold type for headlines and 10- to 12-point roman type for body text. Minor subheads can be set in bold type at 12 to 14 points. Headers and footers and footnotes can be set in roman type slightly smaller than body text. The information edge: on-line resources for business and professional users. (this month: GEnie By Night offers something Cost presents a formidable barrier to creative use of on-line services. GEnie, an on-line service from General Electric, offers eclectic services with off-hour prices that are the lowest in the industry. The menu driven interface is much easier to use than Compuserve's command line. Interaction is even easier and more instinctive if the user downloads the Aladdin shell. GEnie boasts a subscriber base of 225,000, compared to CompuServe's 650,000. GEnie offers conferences on investment, real estate, business and medicine. Support conferences are also available from Microsoft, WordPerfect, Borland, Ashton-Tate and others. The price is low: a $4.95 monthly charge and $6/hour time charges after business hours. CompuServe's around-the-clock rate is $12.50/hour. Some services, including electronic mail, daily closing stock quotes, most conferences and a selection of headline news, can be used without incurring hourly charges. Developer's toolbox: a Pascal with vision. (Borland's Turbo Pascal 6.0) (Software Review) (evaluation) The latest release of Borland's Turbo Pascal, version 6.0, offers an improved integrated development environment (IDE) that surpasses any other integrated package. Mouse support and support for open multiple files are joined by an in-line assembler, new directives that allow functions to be used as procedures and generate 80286 op codes, and a restored heap memory manager. But the outstanding addition is Turbo Vision, a bundled collection of objects designated an 'application framework' by Borland and used by the firm's programmers to create version 6.0's IDE. Turbo Vision is extremely sophisticated and tricky to learn, but the results are well worth the effort. Turbo Pascal 6.0 is available as a standalone for $149.95 or as Turbo Pascal Professional, bundled with Turbo Debugger 2.0, Turbo Assembler 2.0 and Turbo Profiler 1.0 for $299.95. Taking it home: the practical guide to home/office computing. (computer insurance) (column) When a home is entered and a computer system stolen, the nightmare begins with trying to get reimbursed by the insurance company. The insurance agent will want a full computing history documented with receipts, to determine the age and purchase price of the equipment and software. Homeowners or business insurance, or both, may be needed, depending on how much equipment is at home and what is being done with it. The premium for computer insurance is approximately $10 per $1,000 of equipment. More important than money is lost data. the best type of file insurance is backups, even incremental backups on floppy disks. Excel 3.0 breaks new spreadsheet ground. (Software Review) (Microsoft Corp.) (evaluation) Microsoft's new Excel 3.0 spreadsheet program ($495) offers a number of enhancements over the previous version. The new features include worksheet outlining where sections of a worksheet can be made to disappear from the screen, while still allowing the data to be used. Excel 3.0 supports object linking and embedding, where compound documents contain elements that are controlled by other applications. Improved print formatting and presentation tools are featured, along with a wide variety of three-dimensional color line, area, column and pie chart forms. Other new features include style sheets and goal-seeking macros. Excel 3.0 supports worksheets from earlier versions of Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Installation is easy and considerable on-line help is provided. Zeos 286 notebook PC beats Compaq on performance and price. (Hardware Review) (Zeos International's Notebook 286) (evaluation) Zeos International has introduced the $1,995 Zeos Notebook 286 computer, which includes 1Mbyte of RAM, a 23-millisecond average-access-time 20Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte three-and-a-half inch floppy disk, and an AC adapter/charger. Parallel, serial, and external VGA ports are also included. The Notebook 286 has an 82-key keyboard, which includes 12 function keys. The screen is a six-by-eight inch, fluorescent-backlit, blue-and-white VGA screen with 32 gray scales. The 12.5-MHz, Intel 80286-based Notebook weighs in at a little under seven pounds and measures 12 by 10 by two inches, and includes a snap-in NiCad battery that recharges from zero to two hours' capacity in just one hour. The battery then trickle charges the computer while it is in use. The Notebook 286 is a low-priced machine that offers good performance and value and comes in a well-designed carrying case. AllClear transforms plain text files into graphic flowcharts. (Software Review) (from Clear Software) (evaluation) Clear Software has introduced the $299.95 AllClear personal information management system that transforms text files into graphic flowcharts. The package is a combined diagram creator, idea presenter and processor, organizational charter and flowcharter. The package interprets a text file and then automatically draws the result in graphical diagram form. AllClear requires the user to follow strict rules of construction, mostly concerned with punctuation, but is designed with end-users in mind, as it supplies multiple pull-down menus and smoothly executing functions. AllClear also provides a large amount of sample script files and excellent documentation. The package is easy to use and is a fast and comprehensive way of representing ideas in a graphical format. Natural contours make Logitech MouseMan a hands-down winner. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Logitech has introduced the $119 MouseMan 400 dots-per-inch mouse device that is ergonomically designed specifically for either left- or right-handed users. MouseMan is programmable and, using the expanded LogiMenu language, mouse menus that include DOS commands and complicated keyboard/mouse button actions can be created. The Logitech mouse driver can now be unloaded from memory without having to reboot, and the two-step installation process is easy and flexible. Connectors for 9- and 25-pin serial ports for connecting to bus boards and PS/2 mouse ports are bundled with the product. Experienced users can set mouse speed and sensitivity, choose alternative mouse drivers, and add mouse support to Lotus 1-2-3 using the accompanying MouseWare 5.0 utility package. Although the documentation is a little cryptic this is a well-designed device that separates it from other products in the market. Chip puts high-end graphics look on everyday color VGA monitors. Smith, Gina. Edsun Laboratories' new Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG) chip, developed by Steve Edelson in the early 1980's, allows for sharper images and more colors from a standard VGA monitor. CEG lets a VGA monitor display more than 750,000 colors and gives the appearance of smoother jagged edges on screen by blending the colors in adjacent pixels. CEG technology is particularly impressive in improving the graphics in block drawing programs and the font displays in page-makeup software by smoothing the edges of curves, corners and diagonal lines. More than a dozen companies are planning to ship graphics cards or systems incorporating the chip in the near future. CEG simply reserves 33 of the 256-color settings of a standard VGA palette as blending codes. Some analysts believe that the new technology could preserve the life of VGA an additional five years or so. Grabert Apogee card adds high-res punch to VGA displays. (Hardware Review) (Grabert Systems' AutoPack Apogee) (evaluation) Grabert Systems' $595 AutoPack Apogee is the first video board to offer Edsun Laboratories' Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG) technology for VGA standard monitors. CEG removes the jagged appearance of lines and shapes on a monitor by blending colors in border pixels. In addition, CEG allows for the selection of more than 750,000 different shades of colors on screen. The Apogee is a 16-bit, three-quarter length VGA adapter that includes 1Mbyte of RAM and can be used on any standard VGA display. The main problem with CEG is that drivers are required for use with specific applications. Drivers are limited at the moment to just Autodesk's AutoCAD and Windows 3.0 applications although the company maintains that many others are in development and will be offered as free upgrades. Fasten your seatbelts! Intel is gearing up for a 386 showdown. Dickinson, John. When Intel licensed its 80286 technology to Harris Corp and Advanced Micro Devices, it enabled the microprocessor manufacturers to establish a customer base in the AT microcomputer market. This licensing came about originally because IBM wanted another source for the 286 chip. Intel then proceeded to render the 286 obsolete by the introduction and marketing of the 80386 chip. Now that AMD is planning a market entry with their own proprietary 386 chip Intel may try to undermine the competition by aggressive marketing of its new 80486 technology. Some analysts believe Intel may cut the price of the 486 by as much as half, in addition to introducing new versions of the 386 to undermine competitive versions of the 386SX. Finally, Intel may reposition the 386SX and 386DX as nothing more than data-entry chips, and cut prices to make it difficult for competitors to recover their investments. Microrim fine-tunes R:base; gives version 3.1 dBASE file support. (Software Review) (R:BASE 3.1) (evaluation) Microrim's new $795 R:base 3.1 data base management system provides useful dBASE III and III Plus support. It is essentially a cleaner, more versatile and efficient version of 3.0 and comes free to 3.0 owners and as a $195 upgrade to 2.11 owners. The most significant enhancement is its ability to read and write dBASE III files. Although R:Base reads and writes the most common dBASE file format, NCX, it does not support Ashton-Tate's MDX file format that was specifically designed for dBASE IV. The new installation procedure is a lot faster than the previous version. Version 3.1 requires just 480K of RAM and can utilize extended and expanded memory. The package offers faster menus and browse routines and is a significant improvement over the previous version. Adobe's LaserJet II PostScript Cartridge zips past clones. (Software Review) (Adobe Systems) (evaluation) Adobe Systems has introduced the PostScript Cartridge for Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet II printers. The cartridge provides fast PostScript processing and 35 typefaces, and includes a Font Foundry for building bit-mapped screen and printer fonts when in the PCL mode. A software utility called Printer Control Panel is also included that allows switching of printer modes from PCL to PostScript without the need for DOS commands or removing the cartridge. Nine other print modes, such as compressed text, are accessible through templates. The PostSCript Cartridge is useful cartridge, and significantly faster than other products on the market. Dvorak vs. Seymour: 'Hydras': an idea whose time has come? Or a monster in the wings? (combination laser printers, fax machines, Combining a laser printer, fax machine, printer, and scanner into a single unit is a new idea in office automation. Some analysts feel that these 'hydra' units would send prices tumbling by as much as a third. The duplication of components such as laser engines, scanning systems and power supplies found in separate units would not occur in a single system, which would lead to the reduction in price. Other analysts feel that such inter-dependance of separate equipment could be disastrous if there is a failure anywhere in the system. An undeniable benefit of this sort of integration of equipment is the amount of space to be saved in crowded offices. Serial technology assures error-free high-speed modem communications. (Hardware Review) (Hayes Microcomputer products' To address the problem of data interrupt with high-speed transmission, Hayes Microcomputer Products has introduced Enhanced Serial Port (ESP) communication boards for AT-class and Micro Channel Architecture microcomputers. The ISA version for AT-class machines costs $299, while the MCA version retails at $349. ESP works by providing the two serial ports on the boards with a transmit and receive buffer to store up to 1K of data each. When it becomes close to full, the buffer sends a single interrupt to the CPU, which promptly writes all the data to memory. ESP can send and receive from normal serial ports, and provides compatibility with applications that expect to communicate with standard serial ports. A drawback is that to support this new technology, applications and operating environments need to be re-written. ExpressPage jump-starts page layout, design. (Software Review) (Carberry Technology) (evaluation) Carberry Technology has introduced the $395 ExpressPage desktop publishing page layout package that efficiently tests rough page designs. The package, which works with Windows 3.0, creates easily modified page sketches which can be fully worked in Aldus PageMaker. It is a comprehensive package that can design single page, or two or four pages simultaneously. The features include 'greeked text', cropping tools, freehand and object drawing tools, grids, scalable typefaces for headlines, and a range of built-in and customizable colors. Along with the capability to import TIFF, PCX and GIF graphics files, it also displays thumbnails, or miniatures, of the pages. Text and objects created in ExpressPage can be rotated one-degree at a time, while imported bit-maps can be rotated in 90-degree steps. ExpressPage is a comprehensive and powerful preliminary design and page layout tool. First Dell 33MHz 386 is a fast, versatile, high-quality machine. (Hardware Review) (Dell Computer's Dell System 333D) (evaluation) Dell Computer's $3,349 Dell System 333D is the company's first 33-MHz Intel 80386 offering and includes a 64K RAM cache, 1Mbyte of RAM, a floppy drive, a 40Mbyte hard drive and a VGA monochrome monitor. The system board supplies the parallel port, two serial ports, a PS/2-compatible mouse and keyboards ports, and disk controller. Consequently, the eight-bit and five 16-bit slots are vacant. The VGA with 512K of video RAM allows for the displaying of both 800-by-600 and 1,024-by-768 resolutions. In addition, the system board has four standard Single In-line Memory Module sockets for up to 16Mbytes of memory. This is a solidly built desktop with a small foot-print, first-rate documentation, fast speed, and a smart design. Put the squeeze on files with data compression. (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) The amount of space available on a hard disk can be increased dramatically by the utilization of data compression utilities. Although they generally reduce speed performance slightly, these utilities run transparently, automatically compressing files when they are put on disk and expanding upon opening. Software utilities are terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs that use the CPU's power for processing. Software/hardware combinations usually come with coprocessors that handle the data-compression work. In terms of safety, the chances of losing compressed data is no more likely than losing non-compressed data. To safeguard against accidental loss many analysts recommend regular backing up of files and the compressing of only program files, as these can always be reinstalled from the original disks. Data compression is more convenient than using archive utilities and cheaper than a new hard disk. FontSpace. (Isogon Corp's font compression utility) (Software Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) Isogon Corp's $89.95 FontSpace is a hard disk utility program that compresses LaserJet fonts to a fraction of their original size. The package works with LaserJet II and compatible soft fonts, and the condensed-format fonts of the LaserJet IIP and III. The package uses only about 20K to 25K of conventional memory. When printing occurs, the compressed files are expanded as they are downloaded to the printer. Speed performance is unlikely to suffer and, in some cases, may actually improve as FontSpace can take less time to decompress a file than it would to read an uncompressed file from disk. The package is safe to use with all hard disk utilities because the package works with standard DOS files and does not create additional devices or partitions. FontSpace accomplishes its job well in the fast compression of bit-mapped fonts. SQZ Plus. (Symantec Corp's hard disk compression utility) (Software Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) Symantec Corp's $99.95 SQZ Plus is a hard disk utility program that compresses Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony and compatible files. The program reduces the files to about 25 percent of their original size, although this depends on the contents of the worksheets that are being compressed. SQZ can be directed to remove and erase blank cells, which is useful because 1-2-3 wastes a lot of space storing all cells that ever had a value. These options are only available if Lotus 1-2-3 release 2.2 or Symphony are being used, and SQZ is being run as an add-in. If 1-2-3 release 3.0 or 3.1, or a Lotus workalike is being used, SQZ Plus has to be loaded as a 40K memory-resident program, as opposed to 70K for an add-in. SQZ Plus can be safely used on disks with other utilities because it compresses files individually and does not create new devices or partitions. Squish Plus. (Sundog Software Corp's compression utility) (Software Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) Sundog Software's $99.95 Squish Plus is an easily configurable general-compression utility. The program offers considerable flexibility, in that it loads into EMS memory, allows multiple compressed volumes, supports password-controlled access, and even works on floppy disks. Unfortunately, this flexibility affects performance with the time required to access data sometimes doubling. The Squish Plus device driver stores compressed files in a virtual drive, and uses 37K of RAM, or 16K if EMS is available. Squish Plus offers more flexibility than other packages on the market, but sluggish performance may make it unacceptable to users who plan to store databases or run programs from a Squish Plus drive. Stacker. (Stac Electronics' general-compression utility) (Software Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) Stac Electronics' $129 Stacker program is a general-compression utility that was originally designed to work with the company's compression coprocessor. The program can be used by itself, although buying the two together for $229, according to the company, increases performance slightly. The package compresses files into a large file that can be accessed as a virtual drive. Although Stacker only supports one virtual drive, access times for compressed files are similar to those for non-compressed files. The program uses only 30K of memory and is completely transparent in operation. Stacker is an easy to use compression utility offering good DOS compatibility. Expanz. (InfoChip Systems Inc's general-compression board) (Hardware Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) InfoChip Systems Inc's $199 Expanz card is a hardware-based general-compression utility that works quickly and with only minor performance penalties, cutting file sizes in half, while offloading the work to a custom processor. Unfortunately, to do this Expanz requires an entire DOS partition. For DOS 3.2 machines or earlier, this entails committing the entire disk, including boot files, to Expanz's routines. A main problem with this is that defragging and repair utilities will scramble the data on an Expanz partition if accidentally invoked. Also, unerase utilities will recover the wrong data and the CHKDSK command simply crashes the system. InfoChip maintains a set of utilities for compressed partitions is being developed and should be available by March 1991. Another problem is that if the system is booted from a floppy disk without loading the Expanz driver, one disk write will destroy the hard disk. Cubit. (SoftLogic Solutions' general-compression utility) (Software Review) (Double Your Hard Disk Space!) (evaluation) SoftLogic Solutions' $69.95 Cubit is a general-compression utility that is uncomplicated and inexpensive. It was originally released in 1985 and is now showing its age when compared to other similar products. The package simply replaces uncompressed files with compressed files, offering no logical drives or installation process. It consumes a large 55K of conventional memory, or 6K if loaded into EMS. Although it offers good spreadsheet compression, performance on executable files is bad in terms of both speed and compression. Cubit compares poorly against other compression utilities in terms of compatibility, compression rates, and performance. For a single-user wanting to avoid the logistical problems created by compression products this may be a suitable utility, but it is severely lacking in many regards. 8 step to buying the perfect hard drive. (includes related article on purging unnecessary files from the hard disk) (Double Your Hard Two routes are available for those who wish to upgrade their current hard disk. First, if satisfied with the performance of the existing drive, just add another like it to the controller already in place. The second avenue is to replace the current drive/controller subsystem with a faster drive. Either way there are a number of things to consider before buying a new product. Initially, how much disk storage is going to be needed should be determined. Then decide what type of drive to buy and how fast it should be. How much physical room is available may well steer towards a certain type, for example, half-height or full-height. It is then necessary to find out the computer's ROM basic input/output system (BIOS) date, to ensure the new purchase is going to be compatible. Finally, be sure the power supply will support the new purchase and note the drive/controller configuration. Will they make your day? (Windows personal information managers) (buyers guide) Early desktop organizers allowed users to manage personal information such as names and address, telephone numbers and appointments. They were popular because they were terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) and simple. The TSR aspects allowed them to be accessed at any time, and the simplicity enabled them to be used with little or no training. The first-generation of personal information managers (PIMs) allowed better integration of the various elements of the software but were not TSR or simple and often required extensive training. The advent of Windows has brought a new generation of PIMs that can utilize many of the best aspects of the environment. Windows allows continuous residency and access to the PIMs. It also facilitates ease of use because of its graphics-based interface and standard methods for moving information between applications. YourWay 1.1: PIM lite. (Software Review) (Prisma Software Corp.) (evaluation) Prisma Software's $199 YourWay 1.1 personal information management (PIM) system is a good package for simple record-keeping tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing contact lists, generating and logging correspondence, dialing and logging telephone calls, and maintaining to-do reminder lists. The basis of the PIM is a card file that can import data from a variety of sources. Each card comes attached with a note that can accept free-form commentary such as details concerning past phone calls. These cards can be unstructured or can be enhanced with special fields that can be added using a special menu command. As many as 5,000 cards can be included in any file. The calendar offers daily, weekly, and monthly viewing modes. Other features include a report generator, expense reports and other types of tables, a spell-checker and thesaurus, and a program launcher to easily access programs. Current 1.1: a PIM toolkit. (Software Review) (IBM Desktop Software) (evaluation) IBM Desktop Software's $395 Current is a personal information management (PIM) package that can also act as a toolkit in the setting up of personal information structures. The package allows for the management of projects, tasks, telephone calls, and correspondence. It also permits the user to express dates in plain English, and integrates graphics and text in the data base. The program stores information in the form of 'categories' which can be input with data by filling out fields. 'Connections' are used to integrate information from different categories. This connection feature allows for the creation of hypertext-like information systems. Although these built-in categories are unlikely to encompass everyone's needs, Current is a versatile and powerful PIM that can be customized to suit the individual user. PackRat 3.0: a bulky PIM. (personal information manager) (Software Review) (Polaris Software) (evaluation) Polaris Software's $395 PackRat 3.0 personal information manager offers good organization and tracking of telephone contacts, and a comprehensive array of financial record-keeping tools. In terms of autodialing, it handles access codes and area codes well, and provides a simple mechanism reminder for follow-up telephone calls. Information in the package is organized into ten basic compartments including Phone Book, Phone Log, Meetings and Appointments, To-Do List, Financial Index Card, Time Management, Disk File, Project Management and Resources. Each compartment has between four and ten user-key fields to accommodate individual user-needs. PackRat 3.0 is a cumbersome PIM that comes with poorly written documentation. Although the program offers comprehensive resources its very complexity may be its greatest weakness. Windows PIMs: a task-by-task comparison. (personal information managers) Today's personal information managers (PIMs) now handle most of the tasks that used to be handled by simple desktop accessory software. A task-by-task comparison between three PIMs running under Windows 3.0 is presented. Specific features are compared in detail between Polaris Software's $395 PackRat 3.0, IBM Desktop Software's $395 Current 1.1, and Prisma Software Corp's $199 YourWay 1.1. The three tasks include scheduling and appointment, managing a telephone, and recording and reporting expenses. Never pay the sticker price. (a survey of prices at four of the largest computer retail chains) (includes related article on The posted prices of computer products in retail chains can invariably be reduced by negotiation. The amount of reduction depends on the profit margins the retailers wish to maintain. A survey of prices of the MicroAge, Computer Factory, ComputerLand, and BusinessLand computer retail chains was conducted in the San Antonio, Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York areas. The aim of the survey was to obtain the best price for a Compaq DeskPro 386/25e with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 120Mbyte hard drive and a VGA color monitor. The ultimate Notepad. (modifying Windows 3.0) (tutorial) Bonner, Paul. The Notepad feature in Microsoft Windows 3.0's Windows File Manager is convenient because it comes up any time a file with a .TXT extension appears on screen. Unfortunately, it lacks many basic features that are essential for its use as a text editor. It is possible to modify programs in the Windows environment without changing the source code. Windows batch languages take advantage of the multitasking capabilities in Windows 3.0 to modify other applications. A detailed account of how, using Publishing Technologies' $99.95 BatchWorks software, the Control Menu on Notepad can be modified to include ten new features, each corresponding to a newly-written macro is provided. These new features included the Menu itself, Open File, Open Another, Insert File, Save Selection, Search and Replace, Auto Indent, Change Case, and Word Count selections. The cradle of artificial life. (includes related article on creating your own artificial life) Many analysts view the study of artificial life as representing the most innovative element of computer research, with potential in the evolution of biology and society. Artificial life programs follow a few simple rules and apply them with the persistence and speed that is only possible with the benefit of a computer. With artificial life, the place of DNA code is taken by computer instructions. In many instances, artificial life has begun to show commercial success. The problem-solving efficiency of software could eventually lead to continuously self-improving programs. As a result of artificial-life research, algorithms can accelerate graphics rendering in animation programs, and enhanced pattern recognition capabilities can visualize patterns in seemingly random occurrences such as sudden infant death syndrome. Hook up a PC to the outside world. (tutorial) Darden, William, Jr. Microcomputers can be modified slightly to accept signals from an external source. This can be used for a number of purposes, such as a form of burglar alarm. All that is needed is a nine-volt battery, some shielded wire, some electrical clip leads, and a simple switch. This hardware, coupled with a BASIC program, will allow signals to be accessed from an external source. How the pieces of hardware can be connected to achieve this end is explained in detail, as is how to create a BASIC program called SWITCH.BAS that is required to complete the task. Delete entire subdirectory trees with one command. (Toolkit) (tutorial) DOS contains a built-in safety feature to prevent the accidental removal of directories which still contain files. With DOS, for a directory to be deleted, all the files within it have to be erased first. This can not only be time-consuming, but also very difficult if the directory contains hidden, read-only or system files. Detailed instructions on creating a directory deletion utility called NUKE.COM that will, once executed, remove the named directory and its files, along with any subdirectories and their files are provided. Proactive batch files can look before they load. (includes text of ISDEV.COM file that allows batch files to detect configuration Different CONFIG.SYS files may be created by users to get the most from specific applications. These files may include extended memory for Windows 3.0, or install a RAM drive that accelerates slow programs, or create expanded memory for earlier versions of Lotus 1-2-3. However, along with these numerous versions of CONFIG.SYS, it is easy to mix them up and waste time locating the error. To address the problem, detailed instructions are provided on how to create a ISDEV.COM file that enables batch files to detect configuration errors, and respond to the errors before the actual application loads. Associate Windows files with the right programs. (Windows) (tutorial) Microsoft Windows 3.0 has the ability to simultaneously load a file and the program that created it at the same time. But because Windows rides on top of MS-DOS and utilizes DOS's antiquated file system, data files do not automatically reveal their origins. Fortunately, Windows can be taught to link certain file extensions with specific programs. Many commercial applications include linkage information that instructs Windows when the program is installed. For those that do not, a simple procedure that can link the two is presented. How does your laptop rate for reliability? (includes a list of ways to improve the life of a laptop) A sampling of consumer satisfaction polls from a number of industry periodicals and on-line forums shows most defects in laptop computers involve power supply and display problems. As the machines become more technically advanced the problems increase. Simple laptops based on Intel 8088 chips often outlive their more sophisticated counterparts. The exception to this may be Intel 80286-based machines that, because of improved technology such as self-parking drive heads, improved shock mounting techniques, and integrated controller circuitry, nowadays have longer lives. Machines based on Intel 80386 chips and higher require vast amounts of power to drive the VGA graphics and large hard disks usually associated with them. Although manufacturers have made major inroads into the problem, power management still remains the major problem for advanced laptops. Protect your home PC from the unexpected. (insuring your home microcomputer) In many cases home-owners insurance may not give adequate coverage in cases of loss or damage to a home microcomputer. If that computer is used for business in any way, the insurance policy may not cover it at all. For those policies that do include home computers, the indemnity usually covers only a few thousand dollars. It is important then to make sure home computer equipment and data is covered, even if it means adding a rider to specify the actual items involved. Adding a rider will add to the price of a home insurance policy but it may be beneficial in the long term. Even if there is coverage, a policy-holder can generally expect only the depreciated value of an item and not the replacement value. In terms of software, off-the-shelf commercial packages are all that is usually included, not custom software. Share two printers with just one port. (Hardware Review) (Xircom's Parallel Port Multiplexor) (evaluation) Xircom's $95 Parallel Port Multiplexor allows one microcomputer to access two printers by plugging into the machine's parallel port. One end of the multiplexor plugs into the port, while two parallel ports come out from the other end. The peripheral was originally developed by the company to allow access to a local area network as well as a printer, but it is likely to get as much use from users who have systems at home that access both a dot-matrix and a low-cost laser printer. To the system, each printer looks as though it is attached to LPT1 or LPT2. Routing to the correct port is accomplished using normal applications software. The multiplexor is easy to install by simply plugging it into the parallel port, hooking up the printers and then loading a driver from the applicable file. Upgrade to CO/Session approaches remote-control software elite. (Software Review) (Triton Technologies' CO/Session 5.0) Triton Technologies has introduced the $195 CO/Session 5.0 upgrade to its popular remote control package that enables users to control their office computers from home. The package, which is free to those who purchased a previous version of CO/Session after Jul 25 1990, allows for the use of the mouse at home to run programs on a work computer. CO/Session can be loaded almost completely into expanded memory on the office machine, using only 5K of conventional RAM. New features include improved security and a valuable batch function that allows menus to be bypassed to dial a predefined number whenever a program is loaded. Although the file transfer menu is confusing, and only one screen's directory can be viewed at a time, CO/Session 5.0 is a substantial upgrade to the previous version. Communicate in the fast lane with a 9,600-bps modem. Lewallen, Dale. The price of high-speed 9,600-bps modems has been reduced considerably as manufacturers clamor for a share of a market that will only increase as the new V.32 modulation standard becomes accepted industry-wide. It is important to consider a number of elements before purchasing a product. In the first instance, it is necessary to examine the telecommunication needs of the user. Next, the computing environment has to be taken into consideration as some hardware and software combinations are not compatible with high-speed transmission. The data transmission standards the product supports should be examined to ensure future compatibility with other modems. Finally, check to see if the communications software needs upgrading. Products from Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc are briefly highlighted. Use your PC to explore life insurance options. (tutorial) Nelson, Stephen L. Selecting whole or universal life insurance policies can be made easier with the assistance spreadsheet software. A detailed template that can be used with Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft Excel to determine if such an insurance policy is suitable for a specific individual is presented. Before using the template information concerning the costs, benefits information and amount of savings of available policies needs to be gathered. Suitable information is then produced, such as annual interest rates. Computers on insert boards; the MicroWay Number Smasher 860. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Number Smasher 860 from MicroWay is a way to get the benefits of newer, faster, and more productive CPU technology within a DOS environment. The 860 comes in two speeds: 33 MHz for $5995 and 40 MHz for $7200. They each have 8Mbytes of RAM. Installing the board is simple. The 860, which has an integer unit and two floating-point units, is not suitable to be at the heart of a multitasking workstation because it has no special provisions to save the context of the chip. A single-instruction scalar mode is the simplest and most straightforward way to operate the 860. MicroWay is still working on the 860 and it may give significantly improved performance in the future. A different approach to data integration. (Software Review) (InfoAlliance) (evaluation) Software Publishing Corp's InfoAlliance is an OS/2-based client/server application that is the first step to a truly multidimensional desktop data base manager. It retrieves data across incompatible sources of data and the user and the application developer do not need to know the sources of the data. There are 7 levels of security: browse, shared read, shared update, exclusive update, exclusive open, maintenance and design. Some of the drawbacks of InfoAlliance are that it handles only textual data already stored in data base managers or spreadsheets, its data sources are very limited, and it is expensive. Advantages are in system administration and that different data base structures are transparent to the user and the developer. Multiple processors are two heads better than one? (includes related articles on dual-processor 486/860 motherboard and Most of the multiprocessing architectures available now are targeted at superserver configurations, not desktop computing. A multitasking desktop machine could benefit from a multiprocess architecture because the architecture would permit tasks in different windows to operate under their own processors. Dual asymmetrical processors are more practical for the average desktop user. It should be economically feasible to put different types of processors in the same system as the price of processors falls. Dual-processor architecture might be the answer to how to migrate to more powerful reduced-instruction-set computers and still run existing DOS and Windows applications, but be able to move to better RISC-based applications when they become available. Performance and compatibility are the problems with emulators. Two processors, each running a different operating environment, may be a solution. Combining a high-power i860 with an 80486 is another approach to multiprocessing. Speed and flexibility, not necessarily price, are the greatest advantages of microcomputer-based solutions. The Silicon Graphics approach. (multiprocessing and high-performance graphics) (company profile) Silicon Graphics Inc is positioning itself for the 1990s by combining the corporate need for engineers to do tedious and compute-intensive tasks and the need for engineers to take part in the productivity mainstream of their firm on a common and standardized platform, like the personal workstation. The company has combined multiprocessor computing and high-performance graphics engines. Symmetrical processing techniques are the basis of the company's multiprocessor workstations and graphics servers. The company does not concentrate solely on multiprocessor systems; one of its best sellers is the Personal IRIS, a single-processor workstation. Dir of business marketing Todd Johnson says Silicon Graphics is not a 3D computer company; it is a visual processing computer company. Server multiprocessing: minicomputer power at a fraction of the cost. (includes related article on Compaq Systempro) A number of companies have recently announced (or are planning to announce) multiprocessing systems. These companies want to use the same basic architecture familiar to many companies to provide more computing power. Advantages of microcomputer-based multiprocessing servers is upgradability, purchase and maintenance cost, and price and selection of software. The categories of multiprocessors are tightly coupled (shared memory and other system resources between processors and can cooperate on tasks), loosely coupled (processors operate relatively independently), symmetric (any process can perform any system function on any processor), and asymmetric (certain functions are restricted to a single processor). Manufacturers can use commodity microprocessors and leverage experience with the microcomputer architecture to offer performance better than a Digital Equipment Corp VAX or an IBM AS/400 at a fraction of the cost of these systems. It remains to be seen if the minicomputer, which is designed to serve multiple users, can be supplanted by multiprocessing systems. The state of the state of the art in OSs. (multiple processing) Varhol, Peter D. An operating system that can recognize multiple processors and can divide work intelligently between them is a necessity for multiprocessor hardware to operate. Developers are working on extensions to existing operating systems. UNIX seems to be the operating system of choice to extend. The main operating systems available today for multiprocessing are Corollary Inc's Corollary/SCO, which is becoming well established in the microcomputer industry; Open Software Foundation's OSF/1, which is expected to become the basis of UNIX-compatible operating systems from Digital Equipment Corp and IBM, making it the system of choice in the workstation and minicomputer markets; and AT&T's multiprocessor versions of UNIX, which may be used by Sun Microsystems SPARCstation and SPARC-compatible lines. The computer industry is poised for a revolution of new operating system and end-user software products. Make like a Mac. (Apple Computer Macintosh; includes related articles on switching from Macintosh to PCs and PageMaker) The introduction of Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphics user interface means that the Apple Computer Macintosh is no longer the only computer for high-resolution graphics. Microcomputer users are much more knowledgeable than they used to be and now ask which systems a program can run on, not about its features. Companies are realizing that competing in the multiplatform world requires that their programs run on several different machines. There is a three-tier foundation for today's illustration programs: underlying hardware, graphics subsystems, and code. Programs must look as though they belong on the system they are running on, and must have tools or routines that permit users to create professional illustrations easily. Educated users of the future may use the programs they like best, letting applications dictate what hardware is purchased, instead of vice versa. The overall system cost is the main barrier to developing a UNIX-workstation illustration package. Sony's NEWS 3710 RISC workstation. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Mallett, Mark. The Sony Microsystems NEWS 3710, which is based on the MIPS R3000 reduced-instruction-set computer processing running at 20 MHz at a base price of $6,800, is worth considering by users who have or plan to have multimedia and international applications. It is an average RISC performer, but has high-fidelity sound and kanji support for multimedia and international applications, can be configured without a display so it can be used as a computer server or non-workstation system, and its expansion slots permit easy system upgrade. AT&T's System V.4 will be the standard operating system. Raw performance is not as good as other systems using the MIPS R3000 RISC processor. Overall value is rated B minus. The Sony NEWS NWS-3250 portable workstation. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Sony Microsystems' NEWS NWS-3250, base price $9900, is a complete UNIX portable workstation that is targeted for the music and multimedia workstation market. The NEWS-3250, which weighs 17 pounds, is a reduced-instruction-set computer-based workstation that uses the MIPS R3000 processor and R3010 coprocessor. The power, mass storage, display resolution, and memory capabilities of a traditional desktop or deskside workstation are in the NWS-3250. The backlit black-and-white display has 1120 x 780 resolution with a default X11 font that was quite small and possibly difficult to read from a normal distance. Another disadvantage is the mouse trailing shadows across the screen. Its performance in its class is average, but it does have several innovative hardware and software features. This machine can do the same thing for the scientist and engineer that the PC laptop did for the businessperson. Overall value is a B. The Hewlett-Packard Apollo 9000 Series 425T. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Hewlett-Packard Apollo 9000 series 400 line is driven by Intel's 68040 microprocessor, is the result of the integration of HP and Apollo products into a single box, and runs either HP/UX or Apollo's DomainOS. The 425T is a desktop system that runs the 68040 processor at 25 MHz. This is an attractively priced UNIX workstation with several excellent features. Its HP VUE is one of the better graphical environments for UNIX. It does provide backward compatibility with either HP's or Apollo's software base of systems. Companies looking for transaction processing applications, especially a company already using HP or Apollo computers, may be interested in the 400 series of products. Buyers who want a low-cost workstation with a fine graphical environment and established applications may be interested in the Series 400 line. Base price is $8,990. Overall rating is B+. Micro Express Regal 11/33: cheap power on the go. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Micro Express's Regal 11/33 is the company's entrant to portable computing with a 33 MHz 386. The unit, which is lunchbox-style, has a built-in VGA gas plasma display; it does not have batteries. Taken on a cross-country car trip, the unit was cumbersome anyplace except on a solid desktop surface with a three-pronged electric socket nearby. The base price of $3,699 makes this model attractive to users who need a powerful 386-DX portable to take to and from home and the office, not necessarily for travel, and who can afford only a luggable type of portable. Overall rating is a B. Performance considerations aside, it was a great month. Varhol, Peter D. Workstation manufacturers are concentrating more on providing integrated features that will broaden the appeal of the traditional engineering workstation instead of focusing on more MIPS and MFLOPS. The raw CPU performance of R3000-based systems, particularly the Digital Equipment Corp DECstation 5000, is impressive. The Sony Microsystems NEWS 3710 and NWS-33250 have analog/digital hardware, digital manipulation software, and headphone and microphone jacks, making them two of the workstations that are offering unusual capabilities or efficiencies that make them suitable for specific markets such as the multimedia market. Establishing your Windows environment. (Power Windows) (column) Bermant, Charles. When Windows is installed, it determines the machine's processor, video type, mouse and keyboard. Recommended for getting the most from Windows are a 25 MHz 80386 DX processor; 100 Mbytes of storage space, 18-ms access time; for video, VGA with 512K Video RAM; for memory, 8Mbytes of RAM; and a mouse that is Microsoft compatible. Windows offers the user both the toolbench and the toolbox so the user can design an integrated environment, adding the pieces that match needs, and taking advantage of out-of-the-box capabilities. It is easy to build a Windows software environment. A strong macro language is one of the most important aspects of integrating Windows. Users can use a macro language out of an application package such as Excel, Word for Windows, AmiPro, Crosstalk for Windows, or DynaComm. The word processor is the best control application. Installing and configuring OS/2. (tutorial) Varhol, Peter D. Extended memory, windowing, multitasking and graphical user interfaces are needed to make a microcomputer more useful. OS/2, a full multitasking operating system, eliminates the most oppressive limitation of DOS: the inability to directly address more than the first 640Kbytes of memory. OS/2, with capabilities that rival UNIX, can run a number of DOS programs in a shell environment. Hardware requirements are a major reason OS/2 has not been more successful. But software development environments are expected to bring about an exciting new class of user applications by 1994. Things can get very complicated if the default configuration is not accepted. Users should examine the CONFIG.SYS file since a number of these commands control the operation of DOS programs running under the DOS compatibility box; PROTECTONLY is the most important command. Put it in writing! (GO Corp's PenPoint) (column) Forbes, Jim. GO Corp's PenPoint operating system permits users of pen-based computers running PenPoint to use a stylus on the machine's screen to open and edit documents, enter and access data, and receive, mark up, and resend faxes. One of PenPoint's many strengths is its handwriting translation with an accuracy rate of over 90 percent. The 32-bit preemptive multitasking operating system is incompatible with UNIX, DOS, or the Apple Computer Macintosh, but company officials are betting the importance of pen-based computing will override arguments about operating system compatibility. Microsoft Corp is developing a version of Windows 3.0 for pen-based computers. Oasis splashes onto Mac paint scene. (Software Review) (Previews: Future Products and Trends) (evaluation) Oasis, from Time Arts Inc in Santa Rosa, CA, is a $795 Macintosh color paint program. The software works with the Wacom Super Digitizer cordless stylus and digitizing tablet, a $695 pressure sensitive device. Artists can experience a computer art medium similar to traditional painting by using Oasis and the Super Digitizer together. Oasis is available in a prerelease version that can be made pressure sensitive: the harder the user presses with the stylus, the wider and darker the line gets. The software also features several special video controls to simplify converting images to videotape. Oasis requires a Macintosh II, 4Mbytes of RAM, hard disk, color monitor, video card, 32-bit QuickDraw, and System 6.05 or later. Tear-off menus are available from several of the functions in the toolbox, thus enabling the user to work independently of the Macintosh hierarchical menus. The Wacom Super Digitizer is recommended for use with Oasis. PageMaker 4.0 for the PC: new features for long documents. (Software Review) (Previews: Future Products and Trends) PageMaker 4.0 for Windows 3.0, from Aldus Corp, is a $795 publishing program that retains a design-oriented framework while offering several new functions, including word processing, facilities for linking and managing files, improved control over type, the ability to generate a table of contents, and index and table creation features. Up to 999 pages may be contained in any one document file. For documents longer than 999 pages, it is possible to link several document files together under a single publication umbrella. Another new feature is a search-and-replace function that can be implemented with text strings, whole words or specific character styles. The software requires an 80286-based PC, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 20Mbyte hard disk, an EGA monitor and a mouse. Upgrades are priced at $175. Data can be accepted from tab-delimited text, file or spreadsheet formats. Making the most of mug shots. (techniques to transform dull photographs of people's faces into lively images) (tutorial) Techniques are offered on how to add visual interest to a boring snapshot of someone who may not be very photogenic in the first place. In general, when grouping two or more mug shots, it is a good idea to use similar sizing and cropping. The pictures should all be cropped with equal proportions; editorial uniformity is created if all the pictures have the same amount of head and shoulders showing, and if they are sized so all the heads have the same dimensions. Pictures can be clustered, and purposely made of unequal size, but the look has to be obvious in order to avoid the unequal sizes looking like a mistake. Other suggestions include removing the background to produce a silhouette, creating differently shaped frames around the images, setting photos at an angle, using two pictures of the same person, and using halftone and photographic effects available in layout programs. Additional options are available from image manipulation software. Getting what you see? (global vision for creating tomorrow's technological reality) (column) Visions of future technologies are important on a global scale, so that industries worldwide can begin today to work toward common goals. Having a strong vision of the future is advantageous so that the vision can be amplified. The Japanese vision of future technologies involves the Hypernetwork. Hypernetwork is a slogan that gives impetus to forming a consensus in technological/industrial/governmental planning processes toward formation of a common goal. Interactive three-dimensional video, very high-bandwidth communication channels, virtual reality as a communication medium, shape-recognition cameras, and TeamWorkStations may be part of a future that ties multimedia tools to the human visual system. Future trends for the year 2010 include desktop mind-amplifiers, full-motion video, 3-D telepresence, and computer-mediated high-bandwidth global telecommunications; these media may converge. Windows in technicolor: 24-bit color boards for Windows bring photorealistic color to the PC. (Hardware Review) (includes Twenty-four-bit color graphics cards with Windows 3.0 drivers can display a palette of 16.8 million colors for photorealistic images that can be retouched, corrected or otherwise operated on. The three true-color graphics cards evaluated here are the Hercules Graphics Station Card, Truevision TARGA+64, and RasterOps 1024MC. A Window driver with 24-bit true color is due to ship in the 1st qtr of 1991. RasterOps' 1024MC is the board recommended for the most demanding color applications because it displays 24-bit color images at 1,024-by-768 resolution. This board is compatible only with Micro Channel Architecture PS/2s. The 1024MC lists for $4,395 and features VGA pass-through capability. IBM PC/AT and compatible machines can use the TARGA+64 ($2,495), which also comes in a version for Micro Channel computers. The Hercules Graphics Station Card ($1,495) from Hercules Computer Technology in Berkeley, CA, offers the best price for true color for AT owners. A compatible monitor that can receive information the 24-bit graphics card is transmitting is a requirement for all three systems. Additionally, it is necessary to have at least an 80386-based PC for minimal performance speed with large color files. Accelerated color. (Macintosh 24-bit color graphics: accelerated color boards) Five accelerated 24-bit color boards are compared: ColorCard/24, Macintosh Display Card 8*24GC, Radius DirectColor/24, RasterOps 24L Display Board, and Spectrum/24 Series III. The Macintosh Display Card 8*24 GC has a built-in accelerator. List price is $1,999 from Apple Computer. The ColorCard/24 features an optional $399 accelerator that plugs onto the color board. ColorCard/24 lists for $799 from SuperMac Technology. The Radius DirectColor/24 ($3,595) works with a separate accelerator board, the Radius QuickColor Graphics Engine, which is priced at $595. The RasterOps 24L Display Board, $3,995 from RasterOps, works with the $495 RasterOps Accelerator board. SuperMac Tech also offers the Spectrum/24 Series III for $3,999; Spectrum/24 Series III features a built-in accelerator. The RasterOps Accelerator works with any Macintosh II-compatible color board. The fastest board tested was the Macintosh Display Card 8*24 GC (three tests out four on a 13-inch display). Presenting a professional image: the right presentation display device for any audience. (buyers guide) Computer-driven presentation monitor options are available with varying price tags and capabilities. A major determinant to hardware selection is knowing the size of the audience, however this is not the only consideration. Audiences of up to 50 people can use screens ranging from 27 to 37 inches. These types of monitors are often used in trade shows to capture the attention of people passing by. Big-screen video monitors from Pioneer Corp, Sony or JVC can be used as an alternative to computer displays. LCD projection panels are useful for the presenter who is constantly on the move; these panels weigh less than 10 pounds and can be laid on top of an overhead projector for a fixed-resolution image from the computer onto the wall or screen. LCDs and CRT data projectors can display a presentation measuring 10 feet or larger diagonally. Seven large screen monitors are listed, with information on screen size, interfaces, resolution, manufacturer and price. Twenty-three LCD overhead projection panels are listed, with information on colors, graphics standards, price, resolution and manufacturer. Fifteen presentation projectors are listed for the Mac and PC; information includes screen resolution, horizontal scan, diagonal screen size, video standards, price and manufacturer. Running the tech doc race; Sun workstation and the fastest Mac meet at the finish line. (Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation IPC and Until recently, the only choice for creating a long or technical document on a desktop system was a UNIX workstation because microcomputers lacked the speed, memory and sophisticated software required. The increased power of newer microcomputers and the declining prices of workstations widens the choices available, however. An Apple Macintosh IIfx based on a 40-MHz Motorola 68040 microprocessor and a Sun Microsystems SPARCstation IPC running UNIX are compared processing a technical document using Frame Technology publishing software: FrameMaker for the Mac 2.1 and FrameMaker for Sun (SunView version) 2.1, respectively. The SPARCstation IPC ran much faster than the Macintosh IIfx in the tests, but the Macintosh was easier to use. The SPARCstation IPC is designed specifically for networking, but for the Macintosh networking is an afterthought. For many the choice of platform will depend on the software selected. Service with a style: how one service bureau keeps its customers ahead of the game. (The Stat Store) (includes related article on The Stat Store, based in New York City, is a graphic arts service bureau, a photostat house. Daylight stat cameras and computer publishing are implemented by the store owners, E-Ping Nie Medalia and Jim Medalia. One of the first color Xerox machines was purchased by the Stat Store in the early 1980s. The Lino output shop has become the shop of first choice for many clients due to use of a Macintosh, a Linotronic L300 imagesetter, a technically adept staff and quick turnaround services. From 65 to 100 jobs are handled daily; the business has over 1,100 accounts. Services sought by a diverse clientele such as taxicab drivers, students and Fortune 500 companies include color and black-and-white stats, veloxes, acetate overlays, color keys and matchprints, camera-ready output and photocopies. The goal of the store is to become a one-stop prepress shop. There are plans to expand into the areas of color separations and stripping. Different strokes (and fills): why Mac and PC computer artists use the drawing programs they do. (Illustrator, Aldus FreeHand, Four drawing program users explain why they prefer the software packages they use. Tassone Stevenson of Pittsburgh Art Dir Doug Zappa uses Illustrator on his Macintosh because he likes the program's efficiency, flexible interaction with other programs, and speed. Zappa particularly likes the efficient way Illustrator handles four-color separations. Calder Spinelli Pres Anthony Spinelli prefers the speed of Canvas for his Macintosh. Spinelli designs graphics for the lending and legal communities and the performing arts. Michael McGrath Design Pres Michael McGrath uses Micrografx Designer on his PC for almost all phases of a project. McGrath likes the ability to edit closed images, break them apart and combine them again. Aldus Freehand is popular with Putnam Associates because of its powerful alignment capabilities for illustrations, commercial graphics, logos and letterhead packages. Spotlight on 386SX/20MHz computers. Eight IBM PC-compatible microcomputers are compared; each machine features the Intel 80386SX chip, running at 20 MHz. Tests indicate computation-intensive operations take around 20 percent less time on a 20-MHz system than they do on a 16-MHz system. The Dell System 320LX received top honors due to unsurpassed hardware and software compatibility. The 320LX was also the most expandable system of the eight tested by Publish magazine. The system is priced at $2,700 when configured with a 16-bit VGA board, 80Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte 5.25-inch floppy drive, 4Mbytes of RAM and a 32Kbyte RAM cache (available from Dell Computer Corp). The other systems reviewed are the ALR Powerflex 20CSX from Advanced Logic Research, Micro Express ME 386-SX/20 from Micro Express, Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 from Compaq Computer Corp, National Micro Flash 386SX from National Micro Systems; NEC Powermate SX/20 from NEC Technologies, Blackship 386SX/20 from Blackship Computer Systems, and Eltech Model 2200 from Eltech Research Inc. The Micro Express 386-SX/20 was rated the fastest in performance on disk-intensive operations. The system features a 150Mbyte hard disk and is priced at $2,238 with a 16-bit VGA board and 4Mbytes of RAM. Color: high technology, low productivity. Draeger, Ken. Color processing is a production bottleneck for prepress managers who are concerned with getting clients to sign off on color proofs. The advent of high technology as it relates to the printing industry has meant rising expectations that are not yet realized in practice. The 'Xeroxation' mentality expects computerized printing processes to mimic copiers and produce high-quality, high-resolution reproductions at the press of a button. Obtaining a color image in the page layout is not a push-button procedure, however; the production of high-quality color is presently an expensive art. Users of desktop publishing programs and equipment have come to expect, partly through exaggerated claims of manufacturers, easily available magazine-quality output. Printers and color separators often have to rework files to ensure quality. Most low-end systems do not have the power to process brilliant, high-resolution color images. Also, color work requires precise halftone dot alignment; if the registration is off, the color is off. An expert system prototype assisting the statistical validation of simulation models. (technical) The validation stage is often neglected in a simulation project, due to the high level of knowledge which is necessary. In this paper, the expert system approach is proposed to assist the simulation user in selecting an appropriate validation method, application of this method in the appropriate way, and interpreting the results. The main objective of such a system is to regroup validation techniques, scattered in literature, into the same knowledge base, and then to complete it with knowledge in statistics, simulation, and validation techniques, coming from experts. This study is part of a more general study on an Intelligent Environment for Simulation. Due to the difficulty in designing such a validation expert system, the application domain is restricted to the validation of observable discrete systems (particularly manufacturing systems), and to methods based on statistical tests. The functions of the expert system and the chosen knowledge representation are outlined and a prototype developed using K.E.S. software, is introduced. A brief example is given which illustrates the system capabilities. Finally the conclusion states that the expert system approach is adapted, due to restrictions which were imposed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A simulation model for management of operations in the pharmacy of a hospital. (technical) A need exists for a readily usable tool for different operations management strategies in a pharmacy of a hospital. A simulation model of a pharmacy, incorporating the major activities in relation to processing of regular orders, emergency orders and outdoor orders has been presented. The model has been programmed using the simulation language SIMAN. Several complexities like getting clarifications on drug orders and preparation of I.V. drugs have been included. Turnaround times of orders and utilizations of pharmacist, order technician and order entry technician have been investigated and found to be comparable to a real life pharmacy. Detailed description has been presented about how an operating manager may use the model to evaluate various operating strategies. Sensitivity analysis of a few parameters has been presented to illustrate some important relationships. Performance measures estimated by the model are found to be very similar to a real life hospital pharmacy. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Graphical programming of simulation models in an object-oriented environment. (technical) Graphical programming, which is used here to mean creation of simulation models graphically, has been used in conjunction with conventional simulation languages via block diagrams or activity networks. Its beneficial effects on model development in simulation have been generally accepted. However, none of these conventional simulation languages has reached a level of graphical programming that would impact the user's programming task substantially. Today, this is possible with the current software and hardware technology. An interactive incremental programming environment supported by a good graphical programming system that helps automatic model development, specification and verification would be greatly appreciated in modeling in general, but especially in simulation of complex real-life systems. Such a visual system could essentially be a conceptual framework for analysis of the problem at hand and become a means of communication among the people who are involved in development and management of systems. It can also be the friendly interface that forms a communication medium between the modeler and the computer for automatic programming. In this research paper, a prototype graphical programming methodology for modeling and automatic interpretation of simulation problems is developed in the object-oriented environment of the Smalltalk-80 language. The modeler uses a high-level graphical representation formalism based on the activity-cycle diagrams to define simulation models in an interactive mode. These activity-cycle diagrams can then be interpreted into the underlying programming language and executed automatically. Thus, the modeler does not have to know the underlying Smalltalk-80 language in order to use our prototype simulation system. The future expansions to this system will include a simulation object editor, a graphical output view system and a richer high-level concept base for modeling purposes. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Bootstrap confidence intervals for estimating audit value from skewed populations and small samples. (technical) Classical estimation procedures that are often used in estimating the population audit value rely on the assumption of normality. Empirical evidence suggests however, that this may not be a valid assumption. Consequently, the use of normal theory methods may lead to erroneous or misleading conclusions. The bootstrap method is an effective alternative in many cases where the classical assumptions are in question. The bootstrap method replaces complex analytical techniques by computer intensive, simulation based, empirical analysis. This study illustrates the use of the bootstrap method in estimating the audit value from skewed populations and small samples. The results of Monte-Carlo simulations indicate that the bootstrap is more effective and efficient than the normal theory method. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) On simulating a die toss with coin flips. (technical) Pugh, C. Allen. In this paper a general method for the generation of discrete uniform random deviates from random binary digits is examined. A measure of efficiency is developed and an improvement on the fundamental technique is also explored. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Quality cornerstone. (IBM wins Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) (Ed. Note) (editorial) IBM has redeemed its reputation with its customers by winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award for its Rochester MN AS/400 minicomputer plant. The company's high standards were falling into disrepair in the mid-1980's, but the Baldrige award and a new focus on software quality have brought the huge firm back into the quality control limelight. Adapso, the trade organization of data processing vendors, is also initiating a quality control program that will distribute Baldrige-like awards. Buyers are encouraged to do business with companies that apply for the quality control awards, since the application process alone can help vendors improve their product quality. Is RAD 'RAD'? (Rapid Application Development) (Forum - Open Files) (column) Rapid Application Development (RAD), a combination of several tried-and-true program development methodologies, is intended to make applications development quicker and more successful. It works best for projects that are difficult to specify in advance and do not rely on complicated algorithms. RAD includes four main techniques, among them the Joint Application Development (JAD) practice of placing small groups of developers in workgroup settings with impartial facilitators to keep the design process on track. Incremental development, another facet of RAD, is the process of dividing a project into small parts, identifying the most essential tasks of the application, and making those benefits available first to the user. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology and the creation of small teams of motivated and skilled workers are the last two elements of RAD program development. What are the rules? (IBM's systems development) (Forum - Interpreter) (column) Independent software vendors are uncertain as to the advantages of becoming part of the 'inner circle' of IBM's SystemView software program for management of centralized, mainframe-based information systems. The IBM AD/Cycle development effort was enthusiastically participated in by independent vendors. Those companies, however, have not benefited enough in their activity to interest other vendors in the current SystemView effort. Moreover, IBM may not welcome the participation of vendors deemed too competitive with them, for example Sterling Software. Boole and Babbage is one vendor that seems to be moving toward closer contact with IBM on SystemView. Analysts question IBM's commitment to software development and to working with independent software companies. DEC battling for DBMS control: offers Rdb access to non-DEC software. (relational data base management system) (Field Report) DEC has initiated the Information Network strategy to gain back more of the relational data base management systems (RDBMS) market for the VAX/VMS line of minicomputers. At the same time, DEC sees itself as helping its customers to cope with the proliferation of dispersed data in multiple forms. Many DEC customers own several different DBMS products. DEC hopes to make CDD/Repository - its relational data base data repository - the main receptacle of corporate records, including records from its competitors' DBMS systems. DEC's main competitors in the DBMS area are Oracle Corp and Ask Computer Systems Inc's Ingres Division. DEC is targeting Oracle for increased competition by offering new products in its RdbAccess line of heterogeneous file servers and data bases. E & Y boosts IT research; opens center in Boston to aid MIS executives. (Ernst & Young's Center for Information Technology and Ernst and Young is establishing the Center for Information Technology and Strategy, a facility staffed with 40 consultants who provide MIS executives with strategic planning services. The Center, located in Boston MA, is designed to provide recommendations on how to implement new information technology, cope with change and utilize research data. The Center's focus is on utilizing information systems to aid corporate management. Ernst and Young is targeting the financial services, health care and government sectors for its consulting services. Ernst and Young consultants, as well as outside clients, will use the center as a research reference tool. Center leaders hope clients can use the consulting services to help with architectural issues and the integration of services. Movement in systems market: OSF boosting Unix effort; DEC 'backfills' a weakness. (Open Software Foundation requests systems IBM competitors plan to enter the market that provides software for mainframe computers. The Open Software Foundation (OSF) issued a request for technology to create a systems management environment for the OSF/1 Unix-based operating system. HP and IBM responded jointly to the request by including a description of the IBM SystemView systems management architecture. HP is engaged in developing performance management software for Unix-like systems. DEC officials, reacting to the OSF action, admit that the company has not established its Ultrix operating system as a product for commercial data processing. DEC plans to add improvements to VMS for production systems. The company hopes to develop a class scheduler, volume shadowing, and more system-wide management facilities for the operating system. Mixing MBA and engineering: more firms demanding IT business know-how. (Masters of Business Administration, information Computer science education is changing to emphasize business management skills in addition to technical knowledge, in a hybrid sort of graduate program. Ed Yourdon, software developer, notes that software engineering includes several dimensions, including purely scientific knowledge of how to create compilers and other technical elements. Another level of knowledge deals with software engineering, including computer-aided software engineering techniques. The third, and newest level, is that of the business aspects of information technology management. In Europe, many schools and universities are starting to focus more on the business dimension of computer science and are ahead of US schools in this regard. CMG discovers Unix; sees heavy Unix use in MVS shops. (interview with Tony Engberg of HP Performance Technology Center)(Computer Research and development laboratory manager Tony Engberg of HP's Performance Technology Center is leading the push to add discussion of Unix-like operating systems to the agenda of the Computer Measurement Group (CMG). Unix-like systems are becoming more important to mainframe computing and commercial data processing operations, including IBM MVS environments. By acknowledging the role of Unix in distributed data processing and MVS systems, CMG is uncovering a new area for performance evaluation and capacity planning. Unix-like systems are easier to use and better performance for online transaction processing than they did in the past, leading to higher volume sales of Unix-like equipment, as well as more interest from the CMG community. Charting custom route to repository readiness: IBM has no LAN-based repository, InfoSpan does; this and other tools can aid IBM's release of Repository Manager/MVS and its support of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technologies are important to MIS departments. However, managers may not want to implement the current version of the IBM product, which is unable to satisfy the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) and addresses only the MVS platform. To stay in tune with IBM's AD/Cycle plans and benefit from new repository technology, MIS departments may want to investigate third-party products that complement the IBM release. CASE tool proficiency is necessary when using repositories, which require CASE techniques for system development. InfoSpan Corp offers local area network-based software that approaches compliance with FIPS standards. Micro Focus makes downloading and recovery software and other companies provide additional CASE tools. UNIX systems management shaping up as a market: Unix performance tuning tools still lacking; standards for interoperability may Users of Unix-based systems lament a lack of measurement and performance tools to help them tune their networks, especially those consisting of groups of Unix-based computers from different vendors. While source code for Unix computers is fairly portable, object code is not, making it very rare to load a working application onto a Unix-based computer from a different vendor and see it work correctly. The situation may improve soon though, because the Open Software Foundation (OSF) has issued a request for technology for a distributed management system with cross-vendor compatibility for computers featuring the OSF standard interfaces. If OSF adopts such a technology, the product may be available by the end of 1991 and would consist of a porting or delivery program that would be independent of hardware platforms. Tuning VMS for optimal performance: one OS, one architecture simplify system management. (DEC's proprietary operating system) DEC's proprietary VMS operating system runs only on DEC's VAX architecture, but may appear on systems ranging from microcomputers to multiprocessing mainframes. The market for third-party performance and systems management software packages is strong, since products can be used on multiple VAX/VMS computers if they are running relatively recent versions of the operating system. The VMS computers must be adjusted properly for individual configurations, which can vary widely according to processor power, number of users, and disk access speed. Monitor utilities, caching software, defragmenters and load-balancing software are among the products used to tune VAX/VMS systems. Checklist can help users evaluate DB2 access tools; options include 4GLs, gateways, client/server; users weigh style, Buyers seeking query management software for IBM's DB2 data base management system can benefit from grouping software into categories based on their approach. The potential users should then consider which package best fits their business needs. Types of tools include fourth generation languages (4GLs), gateways, and client/server software. Most query management tools have report writers that vary in quality and ease of use. Those that accompany 4GLs tend to be superior. Buyers should take into consideration the factors that affect their query management software's usage patterns. For example who needs access to data, what hardware is in use, what type of presentation style is desired, and which access style is preferred by users all have ramifications for software selection. To split or not to split? Tools little help answering. (includes related article on Cooperative Solutions Inc.)(Client/Server Many corporate computer users are saving money by switching their terminal-to-host applications on the mainframe into client/server systems running on local area networks (LANs). Some are discovering, however, that LAN technology is running ahead of system management and performance applications meant to optimize such systems. There are also few software products for determining if client/server applications save a money in a given case. Users need to assess whether they require a mainframe, basing their analyses on application size, number of users, likely performance degradation from occasional heavy use and other factors. Mainframes can handle up to a terabyte of on-line data, while ordinary file servers may store only 32Mbytes. Applications for thousands of users require mainframes, as do applications that routinely generate complex reports or need extensive peripheral storage. Client/server experience with Ingres: pharmaceutical lab application split across the ocean. (SmithKline Beecham uses Ask SmithKline Beecham uses client/server architecture based on Ask Computer Systems Inc's Ingres Division Ingres 6.0 data base management system to serve research and development offices in the UK and US. The pharmaceutical company has a base of DEC VAXservers and VAXstations. The research department staff of 4,000 depends on client/server computing to give worldwide users easier, seamless access to its databases. A leased line to Europe enables the company to run a prototype application with user interface and data base split between the US and UK. SmithKline is using Windows 4GL software development tools from Ingres as well. The company is generally satisfied with the networking possibilities in Unix, Ingres and VAX/VMS but believes additional features are needed for failure recovery, for instance. Other issues revealed by this case study are licensing, customer support when vendors are acquired and pricing. The corporate image needs a systems plan: midrange image systems proving popular; MIS can help justify total system costs. Integrated image processing systems for transaction processing applications can be quite expensive. Nevertheless, they may be the best choice for long-term cost-benefit ratios as the price of using paper file continues to rise. Paper handling requires extensive personnel expenditures for processing, copying, routing and sorting, as well as storage. The decision to move to image processing equipment is affected by a company's competitive requirements and strategic planning. Implementing a new imaging system takes about two years. A successful effort is generally part of a company-wide imaging plan supervised by MIS and line managers. Considerable document preparation is required before a conversion from paper to imaging can be completed. Document management on LANs is in demand; groups need version, access, retrieval control. (local area networks) (Applications Companies with local area networks (LANs) installed find that document management is a crucial task complicated by the distribution of access to many workstations on the LAN. Text retrieval is one of the best-developed components of document management systems in 1991. Wang Informatics' ProFound and Saros' FileShare are two of the best document management systems currently available for IBM-compatible LANs. It is important that such systems control concurrency of document use, access, versions in use, and retrieval processes. The ability to track a document on the LAN is also desirable. The software publisher Borland International Inc and the law firm of Lewis and Roca are two of the many different types of businesses that use document management products to their advantage. DP shop, beer garden share efficiency goals; German factory leverages DEC investment; disk defragmenter improves speed of The Carl Hurth Maschinenfabrik gear and machine factory in Germany uses Raxco Software Inc's Rabbit 7 disk optimization utility program to improve data processing efficiency on its DEC VAX minicomputers used for production planning. Also known as PerfectDisk, the optimization software enables the factory to avoid spending considerable funds on an additional CPU to accelerate processing. Rabbit 7 defragments disks, reorganizing files so that they can be accessed by a single I/O action, allowing for much faster data processing. The product is a component of the Raxmaster performance management software suite, but it may be purchased separately. It is one of only two such products available in Germany. Forms housekeeping. (Delrina Technology Inc.'s PerFORM Pro document processing software) (Software Review) (Pick of the Delrina Technology Inc's PerForm Pro forms processing software, priced at $495, is an excellent program that is easy to use. The updated product runs under Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and includes new high-end features and over 100 sample forms. PerForm Pro consists of a forms designer and a forms filler. At least 640Kbytes of RAM are required to run the software, and at least 256Kbytes of extended memory. The design toolset includes a number of different shapes as well as a comb tool for creating boxes with dividing lines. The program's printing facility is significantly improved, and graphics support allows for the easy addition of scanned images. It can print any form that exists in the user's data base. Putting time in a box. (time box concept in business planning) (Technology Transfer) The concept of the time box, a fixed period of time in which the normal mode of operations is altered or intensified, entered computer science jargon as part of the Rapid Iterative Product Prototyping method of writing software programs. Businesses have also adopted the time box concept in order to deliver services faster and more efficiently. A time box should be a very short period of time in which specific tasks are to be accomplished by a team. A small, but significant, change is scheduled for each time box period. Time boxes increase the quality of work by placing pressure on team members, requiring that they cooperate and concentrate. The process tends to increase creativity and minimize wasted effort. Multimedia is here - but where are the apps? (multimedia applications) Products such as Intel's i750 processor, which includes an 82750PB pixel processor and 82750DB display processor, make multimedia applications possible by allowing the integration of digital motion video, special effects, audio, text and graphics. The specification released jointly by IBM and Microsoft for multimedia application interfaces and data formats for DOS Windows 3.0 and OS/2 Presentation Manager also is expected to lead to more multimedia applications. The specifications are in two parts: the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) specifies the formats required in audio, image and animation elements, and the Media Control Interface determines the protocol to CD-ROMs and video playback units. Microsoft's multimedia developers kit (MDK) will be available in the first half of 1991 for $500. Elusive interoperability: you can get it with LAN Manager. (Network/Report) (column) There has been much discussion about interoperability in the network industry, but to date Novell, Microsoft, IBM and 3Com remain committed to their proprietary, and incompatible, protocols. The client/server network model is driving the demand for open systems by placing more reliance on the PC local area network for connectivity. Novell's NetWare protocols are intended to support DOS clients and, with NetWare Requester for OS/2, file and print services for OS/2 clients, but its reliance on the NetWare Core Protocol (NCP), Sequenced Packet Exchange (SPX) and Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) limits its ability to connect to other networks. Microsoft's LAN Manager 2.0 and IBM's LAN Server operating system provide interoperability through support for the NetBEUI protocol stack and the SMB file-system protocol, but IBM's SAA does not support SMB or NetBIOS. 1000 ways to avoid system hangups. (PC/Report) (column) Livingston, Brian. A book titled 'The Interrupt List' details many of the PC system conflicts that cause an interrupt message to be sent to the CPU. An example is provided of how the book would have helped in the design of an integrated system for tracking real-time changes in the Chicago futures market that indicated it was Sunday each Monday morning. The problem is explained in 'The Interrupt List' as the result of the IBM BIOS's habit of updating the day of the week only when it received a time-of-day interrupt; because their was no trading on weekends, no such interrupt was sent, and each morning the AT counter calculated the day of the week from Saturday. Other examples of how the book would come in handy in the course of integrated system design are provided. Use POSIX to make applications portable. (UNIX/Report) (column) Padovano, Michael. The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is the IEEE standard for a universal UNIX interface intended to overcome problems that occur when trying to get different UNIX versions to do the same thing the same way. POSIX overcomes the problem of integrating different locking applications by specifying 'standard' routines for various functions; systems would have to support all of the routines to be certified as POSIX-compliant. The IEEE 1003 committee is divided into several subgroups, each of which is responsible for different aspects of the specification; subgroup meetings are held quarterly in diverse locations and attended by representatives from hundreds of computer companies and universities. Meetings last one week, eventually producing a draft document that is voted upon. The entire standards-setting generally takes about 18 months. Various 1003 subgroups are described. You'll have less design hassle with these CASE tools. (computer-aided software engineering) (DBMS/Report) (column) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are beginning to realize the potential the technology has long promised. McDonnell Douglas's Stradis project management-level tool and ProKit analyst and programmer workbench accompany a fully integrated single database. The database approach of the products makes it easier for a team to work on a joint project: Stradis allows project managers to select design and analysis methods by adding or removing them from the user interface, with the underlying database unchanged. Integration of the first CASE tools was done by adding a database to chart-drawing aids, but they did not communicate well. CASE tools with separate files or database structures for each type of information may suffer from poor response time. Many of the problems that can arise in use of the programs in team-sharing situations are described. AST VARs just phone for toll-free support. (AST Research Inc.'s value-added resellers) (VAR/Report) (column) AST Research Inc now provides toll-free telephone support service for value-added resellers and end-users, the first such service from a non-mail order computer company. Innovations such as its phone support service will help move AST from the ranks of such second-tier microcomputer vendors as Zenith, ALR and Everex into the upper echelon with such companies as IBM and Compaq. By contrast, Compaq's policy of refusing to talk directly to end users and insisting that all their problems be solved through local dealers has drawn heavy criticism. AST realizes that any company that sells computers through retail chain stores must offer direct customer support; Compaq counters that having dealers solve problems improves the dealer network, but this forces end-users to wait for solutions. AST's CUPID interchangeable processor machines use proprietary, and high-priced memories, however, much like similar systems from IBM and Compaq. NetWare vs. LAN Manager: And the winner is? (local area network operating systems) (includes an interview with Novell Inc. NetWare Novell Inc's NetWare local area network operating system continues to lead the market, but several challengers are lining up, among which are OS/2 LAN Manager versions from IBM, Microsoft, 3Com and various OEMs, UNIX-based network operating systems such as Banyan Systems Inc's VINES, Apple's AppleTalk and Sitka Corp's TOPS. Systems integrator Corporate Networks Pres Tom Henderson says OS/2 LAN Manager is recommended over NetWare for large network environments because of the internetworking support that has been integrated in the package by Microsoft, and which Novell has not yet delivered. The many important revisions in OS/2 LAN Manager 2.0 over the initial release move the product into NetWare's league, according to many resellers. Various integrators discuss the relative merits of the two LAN operating systems. Distributors: a status report. (includes related articles on aggregator programs and important emerging product categories for A poll of 1,000 system integrators about their interaction with distributors finds that 32 percent buy more than 90 percent of the hardware and software they resell through distributors, while many buy less than 50 percent of their products through distributors, and nine percent buy 10 percent or less of their equipment through distributors. The poll also finds that 15.6 percent of the integrators plan to buy more products through distributors in 1991 than in 1990, but 11.5 percent plan to buy fewer products through distributors, and 72.9 percent expect to keep the amount of equipment bought from distributors about the same. A trend is indicated toward preferred-partner arrangements, which theoretically guarantees distributors a reliable market among systems integrators. Conflicts between integrators and distributors are examined. Profiles of 12 distributors. (directory) Foley, Mary Jo. A survey of 1,000 systems integrators identifies 12 distributors with programs favored for dealing with integrators. The 12 distributors are Almac Electronics Corp, Arrow Electronics Inc, Avnet Inc, CAL-ABCO, ECCS Inc, Hall-Mark Electronics Corp's Computer Systems and Peripherals Group, Mesa Systems Corp, Tech Data Corp, Vitek Systems Distribution, Vitronix Corp, Westcon Inc and Wyle Laboratories' Electronics Marketing Group. The address and telephone number of each distributor is provided, and the integrator program of each is described briefly, paying special attention to the benefits provided to integrators. 9.6K- and 14.4K-bps modems. (buyers guide) Simpson, David. A buyer's guide lists almost 150 9.6K-bps and 14.4K-bps modems from 47 vendors. Modems transmitting data at 9.6K-bps and 14.4K-bps represent the fastest growing segment of the market. The V.42 specification CCITT error correction standard covers the de facto standard Microcom Network Protocol (MNP) Class 4 and the CCITT standard Link Access Procedure for Modems (LAPM). Some manufacturers claim their devices are V.42-compliant when in fact they use only one of the two error-correction methods, although the trend is toward both MNP and LAPM, particularly for the international market. The two dominant data compression methods, CCITT V.42bis and MNP Class 5, are both now found in many modems: V.42bis is based on British Telecom's Lempel Ziv algorithm, while MNP 5 is based on a combination of dynamic Huffman and run-length encoding. Facsimile capability in the devices is also discussed. Use test criteria to ensure client acceptance. (Law/Report) (column) Selling a computer system differs from many other business transactions in that it is necessary for seller and buyer to agree ahead of time on what constitutes a completed transaction. Whereas in most businesses receipt of the product and determination that it meets the terms of the agreement constitute acceptance of the deal, acceptance of a computer system entails much more. Testing must be done to assure that the system performs as stated in the agreement, and many legal questions arise pertaining to when a deal can be considered consummated. Following the acceptance test, the buyer signs off on the job and final payment is due, which makes the design of the test an important issue. A test-criteria document should be drawn up if possible and included in the original system proposal or contract. Questions about who should write the test suite and the testing period are discussed. More power to you: SI Lab tests RISC workstations and servers. (Systems Integration Lab tests IBM's RISC System/6000 workstations Several workstation and server models are tested: IBM's RISC System/6000 320, 530 and 540; Silicon Graphics' 4D/300 series; Solbourne's Series5E servers; and Sun Microsystems' Sparcserver 490. The RS/6000 series includes six workstations and six servers; each is based on a RISC CPU, and all use the enhanced Micro Channel Architecture.The 4D/300 series comes in two versions: the Power Station, with up to four CPUs, and the Power Center, with up to eight CPUs. The Series5E uses symmetric multiprocessing, which reduces demand on the master CPU and allows more processors, although bus bandwidth can be a problem. The Sparcserver 490 is an enhanced version of Sun's 390; it benefits from the over-2,000 third-party applications now available. The software available for the Sparcserver and the Sparcware-compatible Series5E gives the systems an advantage over the competition. Recovery will make 80486, 68040 platforms entry level. (Reader/Report) (column) Studies by the magazine and Cahners Research indicate that an early recovery may be in the offing for the computer industry, and systems integrators are ready to offer entry-level systems based on Intel's 80486 microprocessor and Motorola's 68040. Cahners Economics predicted a 1.6 percent increase in computer and office equipment shipments in 1990, and the actual increase was 2 percent to $71.1 billion. One or two more quarters of small shipments are expected in 1991 as the industry rebound begins; microcomputer shipment growths are expected to reach 9 percent by mid-1991, although shipments of midrange systems will decline. Systems based on Intel's 80386 and Motorola's 68030 microprocessors are now considered entry level, in large part because of the increasing processing demands of such new software as IBM's OS/2, Apple's Macintosh System 7.0 and Microsoft's Windows. This trend is expected to accelerate even further, making 68040- and 80486-based systems entry level by mid-1992. OMR scanners: reflective technology makes the difference. (Optical Mark Reader) (includes directory of OMR vendors) OMR technology is evolving. The scanners were originally developed in the 1950s with more desktop-sized models entering the marketplace in the 1970s. The original technology was called 'mark sensing' and used a series of sensing brushes in detecting graphite particles on a document that is passed through the machine. Fiber optics similar to those used to read bar codes are now used. A mark is detected by measuring the light reflected from the surface of a document passing under a read-head. Most OMRs include automatic feed hoppers to contain a certain amount of forms so an operator need not be present. Newer OMRs can also read ink marks as well as lead-generated ones. Scantron's Model 8400 Optical Mark Reader transports 3,000 single-sided or double-sided forms per hour. Data is converted to ASCII text compatible with Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, SPSS and Paradox. The OpScan 5 from National Computer Systems offers simultaneous data transfer between a scanner and a computer with a document throughput rate of 3,000 sheets per hour. Colleges utilize OMR technology to process course evaluation forms and schedule media center materials. Center creates interactive discs with desktop video system. (Center for Interactive Multimedia Training at Western Washington The Center for Interactive Multimedia Training at Western Washington University creates multimedia courseware. About four courses per year are created, including courses on multimedia course development. Faculty and students can bring an idea to the center and see it transformed into an interactive multimedia laser disk. Two standards are possible: one where primary instruction is viewed on one monitor and videodisc materials on the other, and a single screen method where all video is viewed on a single Apple monitor. Tools include RadiusTV from Radius Inc and MacVideo Interactive authoring software from Edudisc. RadiusTV is a Macintosh-based desktop video system. The process starts with the verification of funding then a determination of audience. A linear outline is drawn up then a global overview. Then the script is written and visuals shot. The approved videotape is sent for mastering. Draw discs are produced if mastering is too expensive. Center officials want to apply the technology to network delivery of multimedia technology and to interactive television. Option to networking proves easy to install. (Howell Township Public Schools, Howell, NJ) Joe Dunne, supervisor of computers and technology for Howell Township Public Schools, Howell, NJ, found that the hardest part of installing 48 PaceMark Technologies Inc IIeasy Print printer-sharing cards was in removing the back covers of the Apple IIgs computers. Dunne found that four computers and one printer could be connected in five minutes with practice. The cards were employed as an alternative to networking the computers in the eight K-8 school computer labs. The district wanted to avoid using A/B switch boxes to control printer sharing as the boxes were often misused. The township has joined MECC in 1989 because of the site licensing program available for the company's software. Some 34 of the company's curriculum programs are currently implemented in Howell. Dunne discovered the PaceMark cards in the MECC, Etc catalog. Installation of the cards means that teachers do not have to coordinate the printing of each student's work from stand-alone stations. OMR technology eases administrative tasks. (Optical Mark Reader) (Garden Grove Unified School District) Information systems officials for the Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD), the ninth largest school district in California, say that scanning is the backbone of a large portion of their work. The GGUSD is one of the most innovative districts in its use of OMR technology in most all aspects of the district's activities from standardized testing and student records administration to new business-related functions. The GGUSD is one of few to score its own standardized tests, realizing a savings of $1.25 to $3.00 per student for just one test. OMR technology is also used to manage audio visual equipment for the district. Animation is principal feature in application. (Cash Flow Cycle program developed at University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana) A finance professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Jim Gentry, has created a number of software applications for courses he teaches to large classes of commerce and business administration undergraduate students. Gentry set out recently to program a simulation demonstrating the cash flow cycle. He already had developed a similar simulation for a course on financial management. The prototype was developed on an IBM PC system. This worked well as a presentation tool but did not facilitate the animation of cash flow through a corporation. A grant from the university's Office for Information Management was followed by a conference with an instructional designer who suggested the simulation be written using Computer Teaching Corp's TenCORE Authoring Language because of its animation functionality. The Cash Flow Cycle program include a main menu offering nine topics. TenCORE has been used to build two other programs: a loan risk evaluation program and one to describe the original, revised and computed value of money. Planning and developing a multimedia learning environment. (Office of Learning Technologies, Indiana University/Purdue University at The Office of Learning Technologies at Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) is best known for its Multimedia Electronic Classroom which was dedicated in 1989. The classroom is an enhanced learning environment which integrates several media and controls through simple-to-use touchscreen menus. Available technologies include over 50 audio, video and computer devices outputting signals onto three share projection screens. The classroom is only a portion of a larger plan to enhance teaching and learning. IUPUI completed a comprehensive self-study in 1989 resulting in an academic plant for the campus to the year 2000. The school wants to play a role as nerve center for the broad use and adaptation of electronic technology to information distribution and use. The Teacher Explorer Center: providing techniques and training in multimedia instruction. (East Lansing, Michigan Public The Michigan Education Department awarded a grant to East Lansing Public Schools in the fall of 1989 for the creation of a Teacher Explorer Center (TEC) as a model classroom of the next century. The TEC is sponsored by the Michigan Department of Education, East Lansing Public Schools and Ingham County Intermediate School District. The staff contacted dozens of technology vendors to solicit their participation as business partners. Three companies contributed substantially: IBM's Lansing branch office; Sony Showcase, a Lansing audio/visual equipment firm; and Data Image, Midland, Michigan, specializing in computer-projection products for the classroom. East Lansing Public Schools donated a complex of two classrooms and an office along with furniture and utilities. A compact disc library is maintained in the TEC. The TEC is organized around five key strategies: cooperative learning, critical and creative thinking, classroom publishing, thematic inquiry and learners taking responsibility for their education. Multimedia curriculum development: a K-12 campus prepares for the future. (multimedia technology utilized at the Santa Fe Christain The Santa Fe Christian School (SFCS), in San Diego county, CA, closed in 1985 after years of financial struggle. It was reopened by a group of parents who were determined to attempt some unique strategies to ensure the school's continuation. Three Apple Macintosh systems were donated to the school. They were soon utilized in many graphics, games and desktop publishing projects, including a school newspaper, yearbook, school brochure and automated sports statistics. Some 24 Macs were networked with a laser printer to become the school's Big Mac lab. Ten systems in the Little Mac lab are dedicated to the newsletter, faculty projects and class meetings. The MultiMedia Curriculum Development Lab has become a central depository for sample texts, videodiscs and trade data. Equipment includes a Mac II connected to the campus network, Pioneer videodisc players, a Toshiba large-screen monitor, Apple CDSD CD-ROM drive, video capture board and Mass Microsystems 45Mbyte removable disk cartridge system. Computerized speech: a study of its effect on learning. Wiener, Roberta. The history, development and effects of computerized-speech output on learning are discussed, including the results of a pilot study that evaluated the effectiveness of two software program variations intended to increase sight word reading for students with learning and reading handicaps. Speech can be included in nearly any software application. The various methods offer results that vary from a robot-type voice to a completely natural one. The most common ways of adding speech are compressed, digitized human speech, linear, predictive coding and text-to-speech. The computer, for most, is a silent teacher, with instructions being transmitted visually through textual presentation. Most education software offers feedback through words, pictures or electronic tones, which can create problems in special education environments. Hughes Network Systems jumps into the cellular arena with GM backing. (Global News) Hughes Aircraft subsidiary Hughes Network Systems is making a big push into the cellular market. The company announces E-TDMA, a proprietary version of time-division multiple access (TDMA) technology. Hughes claims that E-TDMA will boost capacity of existing digital cellular systems 1,500 percent. Hughes will also benefit by collaborating with parent company General Motors to provide cellular services to GM dealers. Reportedly, GM will begin selling cars in 1994 that are prewired for cellular service. Hughes says it will manufacture an analog/digital phone based on E-TDMA technology that is fully compatible with the recently adopted AMPS-D standard for digital cellular. Ericsson, Motorola and AT and T are the current market leaders in cellular systems. LAN interconnections technology. (local area networks) (technology of interconnecting LANs) (Cover Story) An increasing number of organizations are linking their local area networks (LANs). Most LAN interconnection devices, such as gateways, routers, repeaters and bridges, are classified according to the International Standards Organization's (ISO) Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. The simplest internetworking devices are repeaters, which simply regenerate, or repeat, the electronic signal over dispersed networks or between cable segments. Repeaters work at the OSI model's Level One, or physical level. Bridges work at the media access control sublayer of Level Two, or the data link level. Bridges regulate traffic from one network segment to another strictly according to the destination address on each packet. Routers work at Level Three, or the network level. They link logically separated networks that are running the same protocols. Gateways work at levels Five, Six or Seven; respectively, the session, presentation and application levels. Gateways translate messages between networks that use differing high-level protocols, such as X.25. Fiber optic networking on campus. (Case Western Reserve University network) Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland uses a completely fiber-optic network that spans the 130-acre campus. The main hub, in Crawford Hall, connects with three other hubs, which in turn link with equipment acros the campus. Eventually the network, called CWRUnet, will link about 7,000 ports in 85 buildings. Plans are to link CWRUnet with research hospitals and other organizations in the Cleveland area in a high-speed metropolitan-area network. CWRU believes it will need fiber optics' enormous capacity by the mid-1990s. CWRU and IBM are developing an image collections server. Long-term plans call for converting CWRU's library into digital format, with the information stored on CD-ROM disks and accessible by the network. Finding and keeping good people. Chiaramonte, Joseph; Budwey, James N. More than two-fifths of corporations responding to a Dataquest survey plan to increase communications staffing by 1993. With the demand for communications personnel showing strong growth, and with systems growing increasingly complex, today's communications professional must show deep and wide technical knowledge. For communications managers, recruiting and keeping good workers is becoming increasingly difficult. Communications professionals identify with their profession, not with the organization they happen to be working for. There are a number of benefits to using a communications personnel search consultant, including drawing up a precise job description and saving time and money by preselecting interviewees. Using client servers. (the client/server network architecture) (includes related article on what to look for when selecting a Client servers enable many microcomputer or workstation users to simultaneously share data bases and expensive resources, use many different applications and tap into more powerful systems. 'Server' is commonly defined as a system that performs duties, or 'services,' for other systems on a network. The client and the server both need specialized software. Actually, 'server' and 'client' refer not to the systems, but to the software requesting or performing the service. In contrast to conventional distributed computing, in which users need to understand where resources are located and how to access them, resources in the client-server model appear to reside on the user's own computer. Client-server computing simplifies MIS management, offers more flexibility in choosing hardware and software, is easier to use and allows tighter integration of multivendor environments. Streamlining high-speed internetworking protocols. (the possible need to develop new protocols for newer wide area networks) Established network protocols are having troubling keeping up with the rapidly increasing transmission rates of newer networks. Local-area-network (LAN) products are already available that surpass Fiber Distributed Data Interface's (FDDI) 100M-bps rate. For the higher layers of the OSI model, trouble lies ahead in that LANs are increasingly being tied together to form wide area networks (WANs), which almost always require routers. Routers are almost always supported by either the ISO Class 4 transport protocol and connectionless network protocol or the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP). Combining full-featured transport and internetwork protocols, however, is complex and cumbersome. There are two possible solutions: either improve existing protocols' performance, or design wholly net protocols expressly for the internetworking environment. SONET: the next premises interface. (Synchronous Optical Network, customer premises equipment) (tutorial) The Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standards recently adopted will allow mid-fiber meets between equipment from different vendors. The implications of SONET are far-reaching for both equipment vendors and networks. Telephone companies are now able to mix and match equipment from various vendors. Manufacturers of customer premises equipment (CPE) will be able to deploy transmission equipment compatible with transmission equipment in the network at large. At the most basic level, SONET is a standardized method for assembling common digital signals into high-speed optical signals. Input signals such as DS-Os are multiplexed into the basic STS-1 SONET signal; multiple STS-1s are then synchronously multiplexed into the higher-rate STS-n signal, which in turn is converted into an optical OC-n signal. Making the Europe/US connection. (NUMERIS ISDN service from France Telecom) France Telecom's recently announced ISDN 2B+D service, or NUMERIS, appears to offer low tariffs for 64K-bps transmission between the US and Europe. US users who can justify a T1 link and 23 ISDN channels will pay at least $75 per month for access to NUMERIS, then pay $2.76 for the first minute and $2.30 for each minute thereafter. NUMERIS ISDN enhanced services include subaddressing, call identification, call waiting, call forwarding, direct inward dialing and call detail recording. France Telecom also offers a cabling program under which multiple terminals are attached to one cable. NUMERIS offers many strategic opportunities in data communications. Because France Telecom places no restrictions on what information is transmitted over the cables, including voice or data, network managers will have a relatively inexpensive clear channel. FDDI: a new era in computer communications. (fiber distributed data interface) The adoption of fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) signals the inception of a new era in computer communications. FDDI is the first local area network (LAN) standard designed to take full advantage of fiber optic cabling. FDDI makes effective use of multimode fiber's length-distance capabilities and ability to enhance data rate or bandwidth. Fiber optic LANs are immune from electrical noise and have no EMI emissions. Fiber optic cabling is lighter and more compact than conventional LAN cabling. FDDI networks use a dual ring topology, with data in the backup second ring flowing in the opposite direction as the primary ring. Stations are linked in a closed path and in sequence. Full FDDI stations are called dual attach stations (DASs). Developing Concert for open, integrated network management. (program from British Telecommunications) Concert is a comprehensive program from British Telecommunications for delivering open, integrated communications management worldwide. Concert has several architectures. The management architecture ranges from 'managing the business' through 'managing the physical network' to 'managing the network elements.' The functional architecture defines network management tasks, such as configuration management and resource management. The application architecture governs the development of network management software. Concert allows the entire information and communications system to be managed as one entity; at the same time it provides a high degree of flexibility. Private networks in uncertain times. (frame relay protocol and fast packet standard) Frame relay, a CCITT and ANSI standard, is a data access protocol that is ideal for fast-packet networks. On the customer premises, data traffic from several devices is converted into frame relay packets and concentrated for sending to a backbone device. Fast packet switching offers great efficiency than can be realized in traditional circuit switching. The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) layer specification I.361, the first fast packet standard, was recently approved. Combining fast packet and frame relay yields greater efficiency gains than fast packet by itself. Decisions to be made in planning a fast packet network include the choice of devices that will feed into the network, the types of carrier services the network will use and how to feed traffic from devices into the network. Needs for efficiency vs. high performance must be weighed carefully before configuring the network. Split your long distance, please. (AT&T's severed fiber optic cable) The severing of a major AT&T fiber optic cable on Jan 4, 1991, should remind customers to divide their long distance traffic between carriers. The cable into New York City was severed while AT&T's cable crews were removing old cable. The problems caused by the severed cable included a 60 percent blockage of long-distance calls through New York, a delay or cancellation of flights at New York airports, and a breakdown of teller machines. AT&T appeared to have little information about the number of circuits that were affected, and full service was not restored for over seven hours. Massive growth. (PBX host interfaces)(includes related glossary) Newton, Harry. The market for PBX Host Interfaces (PHI) is expected to undergo tremendous growth between 1989 and 1993. Probe Research has estimated that the market will grow from $46 million in 1989 to more than $1 billion in 1993. The 1993 PHI market will consist of a $506-million market for horizontal/office automation applications and a $500-million market for transaction applications. Value-added resellers, network suppliers, and automatic call distributor suppliers will benefit from the growth of the PHI market. The telecommunications/computer market of the future is expected to be much more complex than the current telecommunications customer premises equipment market. Be thrifty. (how to reduce telecommunications costs) Miller, Shelley. Organizations can take steps to reduce their telecommunications costs. One way to reduce costs is to avoid late charges by paying bills on time, but bills should first be checked for accuracy. Another cost-saving technique is to check each dialtone trunk in the PBX system daily so that dead trunks can be reported as soon as they are discovered. Organizations should also conduct regular PBX traffic reports. Other cost-saving measures include monitoring telecommunications costs, investing in such high-performance telecommunications systems as T1 communications, and replacing answering services with answering machines or voice mail systems. Moscom's Discovery/1 call accounting software. (Software Review) (evaluation) Moscom's Discovery/1 call accounting software allows users to establish the identity of callers. Caller identification (ID) is recorded when a PBX call is received on an ISDN-compatible Megacom 800 line. Caller ID is also recorded for calls that are disconnected while the caller is on hold. The cost of caller ID is approximately two cents per call record. The software, which is relatively easy to use because of its menu-driven format, is particularly helpful for telemarketing and call-center applications. The program runs on IBM PC, XT, AT, and PS/2 compatibles, and the price range is between $1,495 and $5,000. On the rebound. (small key telephone systems) Leibowitz, Ed. The small key systems market experienced a slight recovery in 1990. A NATA report indicated that key system sales totaled $1 billion in 1990, compared to $900 million a year since 1987. Sales are expected to total $1.3 billion in 1995. Other trends in the small key systems market include an increase in compatibility with facsimile machines, an increase in Centrex compatibility, and the use of digital architecture. Northern Telecom has introduced the Norstar command set, which allows customized, dynamic applications to be written for Norstar Key systems by third-party developers and customers. The double whammy. (AT&T/Sears key telephone systems) Leibowitz, Ed. Customers can benefit from AT&T's use of Sears as a distribution channel for its key telephone systems. AT&T and Sears have created an effective marketing strategy by taking advantage of their established reputations. The advantages of buying a key system from Sears include Sears' ability to deliver the product more quickly than AT&T, and Sears' ability to offer alternative sources of financing. Sears is marketing the systems through its office centers, as well as through an outside sales force. Sears, which has successfully marketed the Merlin product line, has begun to test market AT&T's Partner and Partner Plus key systems. Small key extravaganza. (key telephone systems)(includes related directory and articles on Famous Telephone Supply and the Northern A buyer's guide to small key telephone systems is presented. Fifty-two products from 42 vendors are listed in alphabetical order by vendor. Information provided for each product includes maximum number of lines, maximum number of phones, if the system is KSUless, and an estimated price. Capabilities of each product are descried in some detail. An appended table provides contact information for each vendor. A modest proposal. (voice processing system requirements)(includes related articles on interactive voice response systems and a An informal request for proposal for a voice processing system is presented. The automated attendant should have several features, including immediate operator access for callers, pre-programmed holiday messages, sub-menus, dial-by-name calling, and call screening. The voice mail system should offer such features as message-forwarding capabilities, return-receipt message verification, rewind capabilities, simplicity, and the ability to record personalized greetings. The most important feature is the ability to integrate the voice processing system with the telephone system. Myth bashing: 10 truths about PC-based voice processing. Sosnowski, John. The limitations of the PC-based voice processing systems of the early 1980s have created beliefs that are no longer true. Several myths have been created, including the belief that PC-based systems are incompatible with other telephone systems, the belief that the systems have a limited amount of features, the belief that the systems are not reliable, and the belief that the systems do not re-start automatically if power is lost temporarily. The newest PC-based systems are compatible with a greater number of telephone systems, and they offer a wide variety of features. Manufacturers' use of extensive quality control procedures has led to the development of more reliable systems. Some manufacturers have added auto-on modules that ensure automatic re-start after a power failure, and uninterruptible power supply is also available. Testing 1-2-3. (test equipment)(includes related directory of manufacturers) Manufacturers of test equipment are responding to end-users' needs by designing equipment that is more user-friendly. End users' lack of network management experience, along with the increasing complexity of networks, has led to the need for easy-to-use, low-cost, high-performance equipment. Manufacturers are increasing user-friendliness by adding such features as microprocessor-controlled 'smart' testers capable of performing several functions automatically. Manufacturers are also developing multi-functional testers, as well as T1 testers and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) testers in response to the increasing popularity of T1 and FDDI. NEC update. (National Electric Code) Many manufacturers of communications equipment are benefiting from a grandfathering clause added to the National Electric Code (NEC). The NEC originally stated that communications equipment built to be connected to a telecommunications network had to undergo fire protection testing, or listing. Premises communications wiring components had to be listed by Oct 1, 1990, and other communications equipment had to be listed by Jul 1, 1991. The regulation would have forced manufacturers to dispose of all unlisted equipment not sold and installed by the deadline. The new clause states that manufacturers can continue to install premises wiring components manufactured prior to Oct 1, 1990, and other equipment introduced prior to Jul 1, 1991. Cable management. (communications software) (buyers guide) A buyer's guide to cable management systems is presented. Twenty-four vendors are represented. System features are highlighted and the hardware platform is stated. Base prices for the systems are provided. An appended directory provides contact information for 50 vendors of building cabling products. Fun fiber facts. (optical fiber) (tutorial) Optical fibers are glass tubes in which light is reflected from the sides of the tube toward the center. Some fiber-optic cables contain 144 fibers, each capable of handling 36 television channels, 24,192 telephone voice channels, or 150,000 two-way telephone calls. Full duplexed telephone calls require two fibers. Optical fiber is not harmed by most liquids likely to come in contact with a cable, including water and gasoline. Some data rates have been standardized by telephone operating companies. For example, 672 telephone channels are equal to one DS-3 data channel. T-1 CSU evolution. (Channel Service Unit)(includes related article on fractional T1) (tutorial) T1 Channel Service Units (CSU) have evolved into valuable communications network management tools. Older CSUs were designed to meet telephone company requirements, but newer CSUs were developed to terminate the T1 lines of customers. The newer CSUs offered a large decrease in power consumption, and they could be mounted on an equipment-room wall, in a cabinet, or in a rack. The largest change in T1 CSUs may have occurred when AT&T started implementing and promoting the use of an enhanced type of T1. AT&T's development of the Extended Superframe Format framing technique led to the development of intelligent CSUs, which contained microprocessors. Soft-Com's new Diplomat voice processor. (includes related article on Dialogic's Mitel board) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Soft-Com has successfully integrated the voice-processing capabilities of its Diplomat voice-mail system with Mitel PBXs. The integrated system has many capabilities, including automatic routing to the correct voice mailbox when an extension is not answered, automatic routing when an extension is busy, and a message-waiting feature. Both internal and outside callers receive the same benefits from the system. Soft-Com's four-port, three-and-a-half hour integrated system, along with the new software, costs $18,130. Low-end laser printers: priced to sell. Seymour, Jim. A laser printer is faster than other printers used with microcomputers, has better print quality, and is quieter, but, until recently, they have been expensive. New laser printers are out now with prices as low as $650; these printers have good print quality but are not as fast as the higher-priced laser printers. While sharing printers on a local area network can make economic sense, office workers frequently see the inconvenience of shared printers as the single biggest drawback to a LAN. The Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP meets the print quality standard set by the LaserJet II, but it prints only four pages per minute (ppm). IBM's LaserPrinter E prints at 5 ppm. Both the LaserJet IIP and the LaserPrinter E can be upgraded to Adobe PostScript controllers. Users who need to print graphical applications and text matter that uses typeset-look fonts should consider the QMS-PS410 from QMS. If price is the critical factor, consider Okidata's printers, particularly the OL 400, or Panasonic Communications & Systems' KX-P4420, or Tandy's LP 950. Electronic typewriters still have a home in the office. (includes related article on shopping for electronic typewriters) The electronic typewriter (ET) market is evolving, not dying, as it keeps pace with the needs of office workers. The ET is frequently used as a speciality tool in the business environment, where it can be a powerful, cost-effective tool for certain kinds of work. Random tasks, such as addressing labels or envelops, typing small memos and inscribing file folder tabs, can be done best on an ET. Advanced ETs frequently can handle many word processing needs; office-grade ETs usually have math and forms fill-in capabilities and glossaries and spell checkers. Some industry observers say a microcomputer is too much machine for some applications. But ET sales are in a decline; 1.2 million office-grade ETs were sold in 1985, but the estimate for 1991 is for 947,000 units to be shipped. A 3 percent annual decline in unit sales through the year 2000 is projected. Sales in 1985 reached almost $1.2 billion, but are expected to be only $557 million in 2000. Is there a future for thermal fax machines? Alvich-LoPinto, Marie. Users deciding between buying a thermal facsimile machine and a plain-paper fax should first decide if a fax is really needed. One indication it is time to buy a fax machine is when people stop asking if you have a fax machine and simply ask for your fax number. The second step is to determine what applications the fax unit will be used for; if the company will send more faxes than it will receive, a thermal unit will probably suffice. A plain-paper machine is probably better if incoming documents will be filed for long periods of time or clear, crisp fax documents, without photocopying, are needed. The decision of which unit to purchase should not be made on the basis of price alone. Advantages of thermal machines include automatic document feeders, automatic paper cutters, larger paper rolls, faster transmission speeds, and fax/phone switches. A big advantage with plain-paper machines is that they print on standard bond paper. A market for thermal fax units is expected to be around until about 1996. Electronic image management: small systems can provide big benefits. Industry observes say the ability to automate paper-intensive operations on an enterprisewide basis is the big promise of electronic image management. Electronic image management is not limited to large organizations; small-scale optical-disk-based imaging systems are proving useful as well. There are four ways to define a small system: number of users supported by the system (usually 10 or under is a small system); number of records and corresponding images accommodated or number of transactions processed; hardware configuration; and evaluation of the applications it is used for. Applications for a small system include an electronic file cabinet, storing and retrieving images instead of paper; document routing and tracking; and work-flow applications. Important factors to consider when evaluating small-scale optical-disk-based imaging systems are expandability and compatibility with other systems, especially systems already in use. Personal information managers: putting your thoughts on disk. Murphy, John A. Personal information managers (PIMs) are software programs that help arrange, track and prioritize the events of business and personal life. Some PIMs do only a single management task, such as function as a calendar-scheduler, a notepad or a business card file. Other PIMs are much more powerful. PIMs vary greatly in the way users are permitted to enter, arrange, link and see information. Organizers and schedulers usually require entering and viewing relatively basic, structured information. Notepads and text managers are good for 'jot it down now and get back to it later.' Contact managers are specifically for sales and marketing people as their structure is oriented to client-customer, prospect-buyer types of tasks and information and for tracking orders, sales and expenses. Personal project managers are used to focus on a project in relation to a person or contract. Outline managers have outline formats to input, organize and access information. A PIM should be tested to see if fits the work style of the person who will use it before a purchase decision is made. Optical-disk system brings mortgage insurance files under control. (Banc One Mortgage) Banc One Mortgage of Indianapolis moved to an Eastman Kodak KIMS optical-disk-based document image management system in Aug 1989 for use in its insurance department. An optical-disk system was chosen because it would decrease the amount of space needed to store files; would permit staff to provide better, faster service to customers; and would save money. Now paper is almost gone in the insurance department, which makes a considerable difference in how the work is done. VP William Kill says it is the difference between a system that helps customer service and one that is just a records retention system. The most significant difference is that customer service representatives can now access the document images the same day the documents are received. Bank executives expect optical-disk systems to be used by other departments in the future as the bank grows. Monitor filters protect you from your computer. (includes related article on easing eyestrain and eye fatigue) Antiglare filters that are used on computer monitors can help protect users from eyestrain, eye fatigue, dust and an ion imbalance. There are four major types of filters: mesh, optical quality glass, plastic and radiation attenuating. Guidelines for choosing a filter are: glass filters should be made of optical-quality, low-transmission glass with an antireflective coating on both sides; the filter should be easy to remove for cleaning and easy to reinstall; it should be compatible with the monitor; it should be a recognizable brand; and it should be statically grounded. Mixing Unix and DOS. (Cover Story) Hildebrand, J.D. Companies take various approaches to satisfying customer demands for Unix/DOS interoperability. Some software publishers, such as Sage Software of Beaverton, OR, port all their microcomputer software to Unix. Sage plans to port at the onset of product development; as a result, some applications on different platforms have 90 percent identical code. Hunter Systems of Palo Alto, CA, uses its XDOS computer-aided porting system to port an application to Unix in four months at a price ranging from $50,000 to $150,000. One of the simplest solutions is for a Unix computer to run microcomputer programs in DOS compatibility mode. Another solution is a DOS-based microcomputer that runs a terminal emulation program when it wants to access Unix applications on a network. I say no to Unix! (Unix will not replace MSDOS) Hall, Sheldon. In 1979, CP/M was the dominant operating system for microcomputers and Unix was viewed as the coming thing; in 1991, MSDOS has supplanted CP/M, but microcomputer users still believe Unix is on its way. The number of MSDOS computers sold in one year surpasses the total number of Unix computers in use. Clearly, Unix is not going to replace MSDOS. One problem is that Unix does not describe a machine architecture, while MSDOS defines its microprocessor as being in the Intel 8086 family. Thus, Unix software must be ported to all sorts of different chips, even though MSDOS is, theoretically, the less portable operating system. Unix is technically superior to MSDOS, which is why MSDOS keeps adding Unix-like features. House of structure. (history of structured analysis methods) (includes related article on methods and computer-aided software The 25-year history of analysis methods in software engineering is reviewed. Structured analysis may be said to have begun in an article by Edsger Dijkstra, 'Programming Considered as a Human Activity,' in the 'Proceedings of the 1965 IFIP Congress.' A 1968 NATO conference may be called the beginning of software engineering; before, programming had been viewed as an undisciplined art form. In 1972 David Parnas advocated building a formal, abstract, testable model of a program before developing a line of code. 'Structured Design,' a 1974 article by Glen Myers, Larry Constantine and Wayne Stevens in the IBM Systems Journal, showed how a well-structured program would include a top-down decomposition of modules, with the topmost module controlling the subordinate modules' behavior. Object-oriented technologies will not replace structured analysis methods. Larry Constantine on structured methods and object orientation. (structured programming) (interview) Larry Constantine has pursued careers in computing machine problems and family therapy. He was the architect of structured design. He believes that a programmer must know about structured design and function-orientation before learning about object-orientation (OO). Good software design requires skill, discipline and knowledge; because OO methodologies are relatively underdeveloped, these qualities may be even more important to OO developers. All beginning programmers must learn the basics of structured design, structured analysis and structured programming. An elementary C cost model. (estimating the cost of operations on a computer in the C programming language) (tutorial) It is important to know the cost of running operations on a given computer. Programmers should become familiar with the performance of the computer they are working on; many are not. Timing programs on Unix systems is easy with the time command. If the cost of more than a few operations is sought, a program to do that job is desired; one such program, mintime.c, is given. The Sony News 3710 workstation. (Tested Mettle) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Sony News 3710 workstation from Sony Microsystems Inc of San Jose, CA, is a good value. Base-priced at $6,800, the 3710 is the first Sony News workstation based on the 20-MHz Mips R3000 reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) chip. The 3710 comes with the R3010 floating-point unit, 8Mbytes of RAM expandable to 32Mbytes, 128Kbytes of cache memory, three expansion slots, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, SCSI port, Ethernet support, parallel port, two RS-232 serial ports, audio port, microphone, speaker box, keyboard and mouse. Ease of installation is outstanding, while documentation is average. The 3710's disk performance is excellent, but the overall graphics performance rates low. DOS-to-UNIX connectivity, part II. (network software: HCL-eXceed Plus from Hummingbird Communications Ltd., PC Xsight from Locus The $545 HCL-eXceed Plus from Hummingbird Communications Ltd of Markham, Ontario, and the $425 PC Xsight from Locus Computing Corp of Inglewood, CA, both transform a microcomputer into a full-featured X-Windows display station. HCL-eXceed Plus, a full implementation of the X11 4.0 server, has more features than PC Xsight and may require more tweaking to install. It is better suited for a network of developers, while the simpler PC Xsight is better for a network of end users. Installing either program requires that TCP/IP network software first be installed and configured on the microcomputer. Two such programs, Wakefield, MA-based FTP Software Inc's $400 PC/TCP for DOS 2.05 and Locus Computing's TCP/IP for DOS 2.0.3, are also evaluated. The Locus product is a fine implementation of the TCP/IP network transport layer, but includes little else. The FTP product is much more full-featured. By the pricking of my thumbs. (comparison of C and FORTRAN; outlook for computer languages)(C Advisor) (column) FORTRAN's history is analagous to Unix's and C's. C and Fortran were both developed by one person, and incompatabilities emerged with later versions, which tended to accumulate new features without deleting old ones. The next step in the development process is standardization. The next group of languages will be object-oriented. Although C++ is not fully object-oriented, it will probably dominate the Unix arena. In the future, systems conversions will take place incrementally, thus making it difficult for new languages to gain popularity. To succeed, a new language would have to be better than those currently available; it will have to be able to coexist with current systems; and it will have to be cheap, easily licensed, and available on a variety of architectures. Resources are your friends. (using resources in X Windows programming)(Cross Thoughts) (tutorial) Resources are easy ways of changing the default settings in X Windows programs. Resources are found in X Windows programs built atop X Toolkit Intrisics such as xclock and xterm. Most X Windows programs allow changing colors, window sizes, fonts and other options on the fly. Programmers should give users as much flexibility as possible. Text strings are used to set all resources; be warned, however, that the X Toolkit ignores errors, making problem-solving a potentially difficult process. Networks & names. (machine naming on Internet) (Daemons and Dragons) (column) (tutorial) An explanation is given for why machines on Internet can always find a mapping from a machine to a 32-bit Internet address. Each site joining Internet is assigned to a domain; each machine at the site must carry the domain designation as part of its unique machine name. For example, New Zealanders usually join the .NZ domain, while educational institutions join the .EDU domain. The next-highest domain is usually organizational; for example, Sun is the organizational domain of Sun.COM. Because machines are joining and leaving Internet every day, Internet architects have developed a scheme that devolves responsibility for local machine installation and naming to the outermost layers of administration. Applix rewrites the rules of integrated office software. (Applix's Asterix X Windows-based document software ) (product announcement) Applix's Asterix X Windows-based document software enables users to choose what software to integrate with an IOS system, while offering the functionality of traditional word processing and graphics applications. Function keys can even be revamped so that Asterix's commands are the same as the other software used. The product is basically an integrated office software package, with word processing that includes WYSIWYG display capabilities. Users can also merge elements in the system to make compound documents. The Asterix's Words word processor uses Adobe PostScript typefaces with typefaces and type sizes that can be altered. Asterix is available on SPARC-based workstations and DECstations. Price is $695 for Words, Graphics and Macros together. 'Snake oil' ingredients suddenly look good at DEC. Serlin, Omri. DEC is strategically planning to move its proprietary operating system and hardware architecture towards open systems, finally realizing that open systems can no longer be ignored. Another reason for this change of direction is that the venerable VAX architecture, despite its advantages, requires major renovation in order to compete with the price and performance edge of numerous RISC-based products. The company will keep the installed base of VMS users content, then add open systems flavor by including the required facilities to meet the Posix standards and the requirements for X-Open branding and certification. An activist's global view. (Oliver Jones) Southern, Alan. Oliver Jones, author of the book 'Introduction to the X Window System,' and a leading UNIX programmer, has always been interested in making it easier for programmers to program. His book is the publisher Prentice-Hall's most successful X window book, having sold more than 70,000 copies to date. The success of the book has much to do with the success of X as well. An environmental activist, Jones is also the warden who takes care of Vale Reservation along the Shawsheen River in the eastern part of MA. According to Jones, many of those involved in the UNIX community are actively making environmental contributions in the world. Jones consulted with friends and colleagues in the X community to ensure his book's accuracy. Open says me; can anyone really explain what open systems are? DePompa, Barbara. The definition of open systems differs among industry executives, revealing how far software and hardware vendors have to go to achieve true open systems environment in the 1990s. Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, believes that firms that charge fees to implement their systems interface are really not open. David Liddle, from Metaphor Computer Systems Inc (Mountain View, CA), says that there are three different definitions from three points of view, including what vendors mean, what customers mean and what intellectuals mean. Jim Davis, from Apple Computer's international marketing division thinks that open systems are popular fiction. Can a cash register company fix the phone company? (AT & T's computer struggles; includes a related article on the sale of AT & T's takeover of NCR, a banking and retailing specialist known for its supercomputers, is viewed as a strategic move on the company's part to become a successful computer company. NCR will provide sales channels in Europe, leadership, a good product line and profitability. However, NCR has introduced a new 3000 computer product line that may not be profitable until approximately 1992. Another problem with the takeover has been the NCR executives that are threatening to leave NCR, leaving the firm without a vision. The odds are against the takeover becoming a successful move. E-mail to the outside world; what is UUNET and how can it help you? (includes a related article on UUNET and another on other UNIX e-mail was viewed as to difficult for anyone other than insiders to understand, but connectivity to the world through a UNIX-to-UNIX Network (UUNET) can provide the advantages of the service. UUNET is a non-profit corporation that offers the service, dedicated to exchanging news and mail. The majority of UUNET sites consist of universities, hardware and software vendors and researchers. Management can receive reports from Europe, lawyers can exchange briefs from coast to coast, allowing the users to respond immediately when receiving a message. UUNET also offers unattended transfer of text between remote systems. The growing government market; the Fed's top six UNIX contracts near $6 billion. Vendors are offering Posix-compliant systems to win government contracts, as approximately $5.7 billion worth of contracts are up for bid. It is still uncertain that UNIX will replace MS-DOS in the federal marketplace. For a growing number of federal computer contracts, a Posix-compliant operating system is a requirement. The $700 Air Force Desktop III contract awarded to Unisys Corp in Dec 1989, required both Posix- and MS-DOS-compliant applications software. However, the federal government market is definitely supporting open systems, with a trend toward interoperability. Gentlemen, start your disk controllers. Baldwin, Howard. Selecting the right disk controller for a system can make a difference in performance. Test the controller and draw conclusions. Make sure that the controller works with other devices in the system. Satellite Technologies Group ported a satellite image processing software package and needed a disk controller that would operate closely with its 32-bit video controller. Choosing a disk controller does not have anything to do with technological concerns. It's a question of building a working relationship with the right vendor. Non-exclusive partnerships between systems houses and controller manufacturers is recommended by some managers. The fax speak for themselves. Baldwin, Howard. There are now numerous ways to send facsimile from UNIX. The fax server, a computer that is devoted to sending or receiving faxes, is the most common link to all UNIX-based fax solutions. The software manages the communications between the fax machine and the computer, and includes such packages as BMU Softworks' uFax, COS's Trufax, Digiboard's Digifax, Plain English's Fax Toolkit, and UniFax Communications' UniFax. These products allow the user to support up to eight fax cards. Products that integrate software and boards are becoming available. Computer Signal Corp's CorporateFax product is based on UniFax Communications' software and turns the host into a fax server. Dell slays the UNIX beast. (Hardware Review) (Dell Computer's Dell Station 425E) (evaluation) Dell Computer's Dell Station is an ambitious product that emphasizes MS-DOS connectivity. The product can be bought by mail, and is targeted for small businesses and corporate departments that are ready for an X Windows-based package. The company installs the application software and system at the factory, offering a 80486 host, and a software support and remote administration program for UNIX novices. A loaded system, with a 25-MHz 486 host is priced as high as $16,700 with a 16-inch monitor. The system offers excellent overall performance, and good DOS-UNIX connectivity. The bundling level is too high, and office automation should be optional. New UNIX variant for $99.95 (Software Review) (Mark Williams Co.'s Coherent software package; includes a related article on other Mark Williams Co's Coherent is a look-alike UNIX system that is priced at $99.95. Coherent can be used as a UNIX training tool. The mail-order marketing and 20-minute installation procedure will attract MS-DOS users. However, the software is not UNIX, but is based on AT and T's System V 2 that offers most utilities found in real UNIX. The program can also be used as a UUCP node or for troff printing so that a more expensive system can be freed for other jobs. Users can learn shell script and C programming by using Coherent. An IBM PC AT or compatible 286, 386, or 486 with minimum 7Mbytes of disk space is required. The product has limited SCSI drive support. Customizing your modem communications. (Software Review) (Corporate Microsystems Inc.'s MLink communications software) Users who need an off-the-shelf modem communications that includes standard keyboard conventions and user-friendly menus, Corporate Microsystems Inc's MLink is available, priced well at $295 to $995 for the developer's version. The product supports a variety of UNIX platforms, and new enhancements are found in the areas of protocols, scripting, error checking and terminal emulation. Weakness in the program include a poor user interface, limited number of protocols, lack of quick keys or menu shortcuts, and limited compiler error reporting. MLink offers an excellent scripting environment, which includes MASS, the built-in MLink compiler. Clouds over Compress, clear skies for SQL and networking. (structured query language) Official standards groups are struggling with patent problems, such as the concern over a part of the evolving Posix standard for UNIX-like open systems. That standard is Posix's User Portability Extension, a part that defines a set of utilities used with UNIX systems. The data-compression technique used in Compress is under patent by Unisys Corp. A different file compression algorithm could be chosen to solve the patent problem, but many UNIX systems use compress for archived files, and switching would make these files inaccessible. IBM created Structured Query Language (SQL), a language used to access databases. SQL is becoming more popular and the ANSI granted a version of it as an ANSI standard. However, many versions of it exist, creating problems. User-defined C++ data types. Anderson, Gail; Anderson, Paul. Defining and controlling an object can be accomplished by implementing user-defined C++ data types with built-in range checking. Programmers can specify minimum and maximum values that cannot be changed. When designing a data type, decide what operations should be provided and what the C++ default operations functions are. Determine how the new data type will be used by examining the code that a user of such a data type might use. A programmer should determine whether or not clean-up operations are needed, such as for freeing up heap storage. Programming instructions are included. Automation positions new firm for growth. (portfolio management firm Turner Neill Investment Partners Inc.) (company profile) New portfolio management firm Turner Neill Investment Partners Inc (Berwyn, PA) has a strong commitment to implementing hardware and software technologies for effective management of $300 million in client assets. The five partners believe that technology will make the firm more responsive to client needs. Hardware employed include three Intel 80386SX-based and two 80386-based AST (Irvine, CA) IBM PC-compatible microcomputers linked with Digital Communication Associates' (Dayton, OH) 10Net local area network. Software employed includes Bloomberg Financial Markets L.P.'s (New York City) The Bloomberg and Capital Management Sciences' (Los Angeles, CA) BondEdge for fixed-income securities, Thomson Financial Services' (Boston, MA) FirstCall for real-time equity data and PORTIA for portfolio management, Bomar Securities L.P.'s Bomar for money-flow analysis, Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. Network computing upstages mainframes; Wall Street is taking advantage of client/server computing to unleash the data trapped Investment brokers, investment banks and other securities traders are networking numerous microcomputers and workstations to computer servers, as is shown in several examples. Such systems enable end users to run applications without support by the management information services (MIS) department, facilitate access to mainframe data and avoid or reduce mainframe expenses. Many brokerages are choosing to base their networks on powerful but cost-effective UNIX-based workstations. The major debit of networked brokerage systems are the technical complexities in managing networks. Examples of the use of networked computing in the securities industry include Prudential-Bache Securities, Dean Witter Reynolds, Philadelphia Stock Exchange specialist traders, BOT (Bank of Tokyo) Securities (New York City), Merrill Lynch and Greenwich Capital Markets. Multimedia's dawn brightens Wall Street. Kulkosky, Victor. Multimedia technologies are making inroads in the securities industry, as is demonstrated in several example applications. Multimedia computing consists of the combination of text and number processing, graphics, audio, animation and video, all under a graphical user interface (GUI) such as Microsoft Windows 3.0. Microsoft announced specifications to incorporate multimedia into its GUI, while IBM will add them to the OS/2 operating system. Multimedia securities industry products include Knight-Ridder Financial Information's KnightVision, which enables the user to access Knight-Ridder's Money-Center market data system and cable television networks. Dean Witter Reynolds (New York City) is developing multimedia training programs. NeXT Inc's (Palo Alto, CA) NeXT computer was developed from the outset to be a multimedia system. Demand for and price of multimedia technology are discussed. DEC braces for turbulent 1990s; Digital Equipment Corp is economizing while beefing up its financial services offerings. DEC's financial industry systems (FIS) group expects continued growth and no layoffs, while the balance of the firm continues to lay off employees. The FIS group markets DEC computer systems primarily to the securities and banking industries, with its projected $1.5 billion FY 1991 revenues bringing in 12 percent of all DEC revenues. Three developments are expected to help drive the FIS operation's success: the company sold two major trading systems to international companies (UBS Securities and Chemical Bank), DEC acquired Data Logic Ltd's (England) financial services business and DEC is expanding its third-party software vendor alliance program to include more trading systems. Each of these developments is discussed. FIS group manager Norman Goldberg says that his group is fully funded. Unfortunately, competition, the recession and banking industry problems may affect the group's success. Morgan Stanley leverages its 1980s technology investment. Arend, Mark. Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley is attempting to leverage its $250 million information system by providing operational services to other securities brokers, dealers and institutional clients through the firm's Morgan Stanley Services Inc (MSSI, Brooklyn Heights, NY) subsidiary. The unit focuses on providing value-added services as an intermediary between providers and users of capital. Specific services include global custody, securities lending, prime brokerage and correspondent clearing. Morgan Stanley considers the services unit a prime part of the firm's business strategy. Executives in MSSI and the parent company discuss the operation and the technology the supports MSSI operations. The latter includes the Trade Analysis and Processing System, which offers multicurrency support while linking back- and front-office global-trading operations. Money managers scrutinize technology costs. Brennan, Peter J. The economic turndown has had little appreciable effect on the overall market for technologies that facilitate money management. Money managers are in the securities market for the long term. Consequently, they continue to purchase the hardware and software necessary for succeeding in these economic conditions. There is a change in hardware and software focus. More institutions are turning from larger systems and service bureaus to microcomputer-based financial management systems. The reasons may be economic, but the security of in-house systems and advanced capabilities are also factors. The recession has affected what financial software is being purchased. Specifically, far less portfolio management software is currently being sold, while the technical analysis software market has grown. Unix versatility boosts front-end mainframes; Amdahl Corp is trying to shake the supremacy of standard mainframes with a new Amdahl Corp asserts that release 2.1 of its UTS (Universal Time Sharing) version of the UNIX operating system provides high throughput, reliability and system management features for such front-office applications as transaction processing and corporate data base support. The firm is promoting UTS to the financial industry as a way to gain 'enhanced capability' on Amdahl mainframes. Amdahl added such typical mainframe operating system functions to the firm's version of UNIX as check-sum disk protection and variable and large data-block sizes. The company asserts that mainframe UTS is suited to the securities industry because UNIX is a more cost-effective and 'better development' environment, more tools are available for the open UNIX system, portability of applications across multiple levels of hardware and the high connectivity of UNIX. Amdahl hardware and UTS pricing are discussed. Toward a global equity market. Mendelson, Morris; Peake, Junius W. Two system strategies are proposed for implementation of a fair and cost-effective, order-driven global securities market. A truly global market would enable any investor anywhere in the world to place an order on any market. The global market system should be order-driven, which is asserted to be superior to a dealer- or quote-driven system. The two systems are compared. An order-driven system can be implemented as a global securities market in two ways. The 'S' system would enable all investors to access all international trading areas equally, but each security would be only in one market at a time. This requires a communications system that employs simple entry of a security's code to access the appropriate market. Securities traded on the 'M' system could be listed at any or all trading centers, but each security must be in the same currency on all. Microsoft hands over OS2 to focus on NT. (New Technology) Fawcett, Neil. Microsoft Corp is shifting responsibility for OS/2 development to IBM and focusing on a new 32-bit high security operating system that is a portable version of OS/2 aimed at technical workstations and fileservers. New Technology (NT) will be sold as OS/2 3.0 and will support 32-bit OS/2 applications when IBM releases OS/2 2.0 later in 1991, but will not support 16-bit Windows or current OS/2 applications. New features will include symmetrical multiprocessor support, B2 security through Posix, multitasking and multithreading. Microsoft will continue to enhance OS/2 for IBM SAA users. Police suppliers ask for budget guidelines. Kaye, Jon. Top computer systems suppliers for British police forces are demanding that the Home Office reveal project budgets in advance to help diminish the growing financial risks of bidding. Many suppliers are deciding not to bid on police contracts because the tenders are not thought out properly and undergo so much change between the original tender and the final project that a lot of money is lost. The Home Office is planning a conference for Mar 20, 1991, that will provide suppliers with an introduction to the way information technology decisions are made by the police and to provide police with opinions from suppliers. A proposal for linking regional emergency services will be discussed. Does your data protection take top priority? Security matters should be thought out before systems are introduced. Computer systems are open to risks of damage and data theft. Security responsibilities are expanding as information technology (IT) departments explore new business opportunities and new technologies like electronic data interchange (EDI), image processing and laptop computers. Security and control features should be considered at the specification stage when planning new systems. Areas such as risk monitoring, fault and security breach investigation and mutual loss liabilities need to be coordinated. Poor error detection and recovery could corrupt or lose data when sharing data and networking between business partners. Open systems can be too open for businesses requiring a high degree of security. Time to climb down from the ivory towers. (computer integrated manufacturing) Many top computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) packages are elegantly coded, but lack the ability to work in a real-world environment. An ivory tower development syndrome results in developers that are trained in the latest methods and are capable of incorporating the most advanced techniques into their systems, but lack contact with the user environment and result in programs that do not fit in with the way the manufacturer works. All development teams should contain analysts and programmers who were initially trained as engineers or production managers that are familiar with the industry an application is being developed for. Colleges queue up to collaborate. (pushed together by a shortage of cash for R&E) (includes related articles on the civil aviation Tight budgets are increasing the educational community's ties with industry. Educational establishments will promote their services for training courses to high-powered collaborative research during the 1990s. Outside interest and money are required to enable universities to continue their research work. Universities now need people with a sales and marketing background. Previous successful collaborations between colleges and industry have frequently been the result of chance contacts. When the price is right.... (Econocom's price guide to the second-hand kit market) IBM product introductions have caused a steep reduction in the market for used 370-class mainframe computers. Prices for 3090S and 3090E models dropped to about two-thirds of their Jul 1990 value and about half of their Mar 1990 prices. Prices for smaller 4381 mainframes appear to have temporarily bottomed out. The AS400 mid-range computer has held its value for over four months. The B20 lost its value after being replaced by the C20 in Feb 1991. The rise and fall of West Wiltshire; District Council has changed from a shining example to a warning beacon. West Wiltshire Information Systems (WWIS), once a successful supplier of a poll tax program and other applications for local authorities, went bankrupt following criticism from the district auditor, a suit by the West Wiltshire District Council, and the arrest of its CEO. Its business was returned to the district council. The company was formed in 1988 by Gerald Garland, then chief executive of West Wiltshire District Council. Garland was replaced as council chief executive by Don Latham, who instigated a District Auditor's investigation. The critical reports caused WWIS to fold in Jul 1990. Discrepancies in the ways the computer operation was transferred back to the district council, to the apparent personal gain of Mr. Garland, caused a dispute and ended in the arrest of Garland and eight of his council officers. Go gets licence to Appletalk. (Go Corp.) Go Corp licensed Apple's Appletalk networking software as part of its Penpoint pen-based operating system. The license allows Go to develop more connectivity solutions for connecting Penpoint peripherals into Appletalk networks. Apple views Go's interest as proof of the success of its licensing program. DEC is also interested in supporting Appletalk with its Decnet/OSI environments. Connectivity with large systems, like the VAX, is important to the Macintosh, previously viewed as a standalone computer. Wordstar claims NBI's Legacy. (developing Windows 3.0 word processing product) Wordstar, seeing it would take another nine months to develop a Windows 3.0-based version of its word processing product, elected to license NBI's Legacy Windows 3.0. The company decided not to port the DOS versions of Wordstar 6 or Wordstar 2000 to Windows, following 18 months of development work valued at around $2 million. The new product will provide basic typing features for the typing pool, additional features for secretaries and page layout features for managers. Wordstar Legacy will be available by the end of Feb 1991 for a list price of 420 pounds sterling. Hand-in-glove for data entry; a race is on to overcome the restrictions the keyboard and mouse place on computer interaction. New methods of interacting with a computer are overcoming the slow, non-intuitive keyboard and replacing it with devices like data gloves, 3D mouse devices and voice commands. VPL Research's Dataglove interprets sensors in the fingers and hand to interpret motion of the hand and movement of the fingers in three dimensions. It was designed as an interface for virtual reality systems, a 3D graphics world that gives the user the impression of being inside the graphics. Schools awards project makes links across Europe. The European Schools Information Awards competition aims to encourage and make public examples of the work being done in schools and to promote links between schools and industry. Schools will develop effective applications of informatics and present them at regional, national and international competitions. The teams will have two to four members, aged between 12 and 16, although any number of people can work on the project. The international final will be held in London in May 1991. A fresh eye on the environment: the supercomputer assesses changes. Supercomputers can provide environmentalists with a way to assess environmental damages from disasters. Supercomputers are capable of performing billions of mathematical operations in seconds, so that complex problems, such as how chemicals interact in the atmosphere, can be modelled. Environmentalists can estimate effects and plan a strategy. Supercomputers are also useful in predicting weather. Such machines can more than pay for themselves by providing warnings of impending storms. 2 competitors in pact on advanced TV plan. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology; General Instruments Corp.)(Company News) The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the General Instruments Corp join forces to develop a standard for high-definition television (HDTV). General Instruments, which makes encryption devices for cable television systems, previously were competitors. They will now combine their efforts, hoping their technology will be chosen as the US HDTV standard by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC will decide on a HDTV standard in 1993. MIT and General Instruments are working on an all-digital standard. General Instruments became the first to propose an all-digital standard, and MIT now believes it can alter its previous system to use all digital. The two organizations will submit two versions of an HDTV standard for testing. Compaq's net climbed 70% in 4th quarter. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Bartimo, Jim. Compaq Computer Corp reports a 70 percent increase in net income for its 4th qtr 1990. Thc computer maker posts a net of $134.8 million, or $1.51 a share, from $79.1 million, or 92 cents a share, in the same period in 1989. Compaq's revenue rose 27 percent to a record $1 billion in the 1990 4th qtr, as compared with $788.1 million in the same period in 1989. Industry analysts raise their expectations for Compaq's 1991 earnings, from $5.35 a share to $6 a share. The company's 1990 net rose 36 percent to $454.9 million, or $5.14 a share, from $333.3 million, or $3.89 share, in 1989. Compaq stock rose $3.50 a share to close at $66.75 a share on Jan 30, 1991. IBM finds way to reduce costs of small lasers. Hooper, Laurence. IBM states that it has developed a low-cost way of making tiny lasers to be used in moving data between computers and distant storage devices. The computer maker says the technology may be able to transport data within computers, and even within computer chips. IBM, which would not comment on whether or not it would license the technology to other companies, says that the laser can be made in large quantities. The company is able to keep the production costs down because the lasers are being manufactured in existing facilities, and the testing process has been streamlined to cut those costs by 50 percent. Industry observers note that though IBM's method is not revolutionary, it is likely to shape the semiconductor laser market. GPT looks to switch micros. (microprocessors in telephone switching equipment) GPT is planning to change the microprocessor for its future telephone exchanges. GPT was planning to use Motorola's 88000 processor in its system X switches, but the company is evaluating other microprocessors and will probably switch to another architecture by 1992. The move is believed to be motivated by a need to adopt the switching technology of GPT's parent company, Siemens. Siemens makes its own reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) microprocessor. GPT and Siemens are co-developing switches that can take full advantage of broadband fiber optic networks. Out with ASICs, in with standard chips. (application-specific integrated circuits) (the semiconductor industry in the 1990s) The semiconductor will swing away from the custom product trend and shift to standard products in the late 1990s. Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) meet the needs of specific customers, but the industry is shifting towards standard devices that can be easily programmed by a huge number of customers and chips that will store whatever a customer wants to put in them. The industry has shown a tendency to shift back and forth between custom and standardized chips in ten-year cycles. The current cycle was preceded by a decade that focused on standard products. The shift to standard chips is expected in 1997. Stateside. (column) Thomas, Matthew. Reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) technology is finding itself tied to the Unix market as it experiences difficulty in establishing a base in the microcomputer market. RISC microprocessors and RISC-based systems were featured prominently at the Uniforum trade show in Dallas, TX. Obstacles remain in establishing RISC technology in the Unix market, including a lack of unity among systems manufacturers. Software developers find a fragmented user base that discourages further applications development. This results in lower RISC systems sales. The Open Software Foundation and Unix International failed to adopt a common Unix standard, meaning these differences will continue to exist. Archaeology digs high-tech age. (technology changing the way archaeologists record and use their data) Archaeologists are using electronics and computers ranging from metal detectors and electronic surveying equipment, used before digging begins, to 3-D computer aided design (CAD) animation programs when the digging is finished. Hand-held computers are finding use in collecting data from theodolites, a basic surveying tool. Popular products for this use are the GRiDPad computer, the Psion, and the Husky Hunter. The GRiDPad plots a map on its screen from raw data collected from theodolites and electronic distance measurers (EDMs). Costs are holding back the development of computing technology in archaeology. Hitachi leads in 4Mb DRAM race. (Special Hitachi Advertisement Feature) Preliminary research by market research firm Dataquest indicates that Hitachi led the market in DRAM shipments during 1990. Market share was just under 40 percent for the year. The company's second-generation 4M-bit DRAM provides super low power for data retention, 60-ns access time, and 300 mil SOJ for 1M-bit compatibility. The stacked capacitor memory cell provides superior Low Soft Error Rate. Hitachi has produced several innovations in chip design and consistently leads the industry in vendor reliability ratings. The company produces over 250 devices and has heavily invested in 4M-bit production. Output will reach 3 million pieces per month in Mar 1991. The company expects to maintain its lead through development of a 16M-bit DRAM. Centre opens up for gate array design. (Design Centre in Maidenhead) (Special Hitachi Advertisement Feature) Hitachi opened a new Design Centre in Maidenhead that provides the most flexible and productive semicustom design environment in the UK. The center allows customers to work on confidential designs in privacy at any hour of the day or night. All equipment is networked to provide flexibility in selecting the best design route for each application. The Design Centre is located at Hitachi's new UK corporate headquarters. The center underlines the company's commitment to the semicustom market. Low cost MCU family covers all 8bit options. (new H8/322, H8/323 and H8/324 microcontrollers) (Special Hitachi Advertisement Hitachi introduced three new microcontrollers to its H8/32x family, the H8/322, H8/323 and H8/324. They have the same CPU and I/O resources as the H8/325, but offer a variety of memory sizes and types. Users can minimize costs by matching CPU memory requirements to the application. The devices support high level languages and high-speed execution of codes. Users can develop applications with the H8/325 and then move down to the most cost effective member of the family for production. Hitachi released a low entry cost tool set for 200 pounds sterling, and an evaluation/development card that costs 300 pounds sterling. Intel to spend up to a billion this year. (Intel Corp.) Pollack, Andrew. Intel Corp plans to spend $1 billion on equipment and new plants in 1991. The semiconductor company puts a large increase in its planned capital spending, which is up sharply from the $670 million it spent in 1990 and the $450 million it spent in 1989. Industry observers note that Intel is the first US semiconductor company that will spend $1 billion in one year. Japanese competitors, which are busy making dynamic RAM (DRAM) chips, plan to spend between $600 million to $800 million in 1991. Intel is following a Japanese strategy of spending heavy during a recession so as to gain an advantage over competitors. Analysts note that other US semiconductor companies will not be able to match Intel's spending. Repairing machinery from afar. (Business Technology; repairing facsimile machines; includes related article on Next Inc.) Remote diagnosis of faulty electronic equipment is a growing trend in the telecommunications industry. Customers with faulty equipment, such as broken facsimile machines, call a repair center which then recovers the operating software via telephone lines. The operating software is analyzed for errors and then a corrected version is sent via the telephone lines. The entire process lasts an average of 20 minutes. Remote diagnosis had its origins in satellites, which required repairs from earth stations. The technology is having broader applications in the telecommunications industry and industry observers note that remote diagnosis will prove very useful in the future. Here come the Lotus eaters. (Excel for Windows 3.0 adds to the woes of Lotus) Lotus Development Corp's best countering move to the release of Microsoft's Excel for Windows 3.0 is a news release, timed to reach journalists on the morning of the Excel launch, which warns that upgrading to Windows 3.0 carries a minimum price tag of 1,200 pounds sterling, and further maintains that Windows 3.0 will not be viable for at least an additional six months. Lotus missed its chance to capitalize on the move to graphics-based spreadsheets by focusing on OS/2 and Presentation Manager, and despite acquisition of Samna International, whose Windows-like Ami word processor will be bundled with other Lotus products, there is little likelihood that Lotus will be able to produce a Windows-based spreadsheet to compete with Excel in as little as six months. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 is a largely text-based spreadsheet that merely happens to run under Windows. To add to Lotus' distress, it is also losing ground to Borland's Quattro Pro in the DOS arena. Borland also plans a massive Windows roll-out that includes all its compilers, Quattro Pro and the Paradox database. Ironically, Lotus has an excellent graphics-based spreadsheet in Improv, designed for the NeXT machine, but capable of competing with both Excel 3.0 and the Windows version of Quattro Pro. Yet past performance makes it seem unlikely that Lotus will debut a Windows package within or even shortly beyond the six months grace period it has tried to fashion for itself. Hatter and the mad law of copyright. (Judge Hatter, British jurist, overturns Ashton-Tate's dBsae copyrights in case against A British judge has declared Ashton-Tate's (AT) copyright claims for dBase to be invalid because the product is based on work originally done at the US government's Jet Propulsion Laboratories and because AT did not make full disclosure of the sources when registering the product with the copyright office. AT's defense counsel is maintaining that the judgment is erroneous because it applies patent law to copyright. Legal experts have variously characterized the Hatter decision as erroneously, without precedent, and anomalous, but Dick Lavalley, chairman of Fox Software, whose FoxBase was the target of AT's suit, says the best AT can hope for is that its derivative copyrights will be upheld, leaving FoxBase unaffected. The real impact of the decision is its possible future effect on other software companies. Apple's suit against HP and Microsoft over the use of icon-driven interfaces was thrown out on the grounds that Apple's products were derivative from work done at Xerox Parc, and led to a suit brought against Apple by Xerox. But the presiding judge might well have found Apple guilty of the same basic dishonesty as AT, that is, of suing over a product that was itself derived from others work. The Lotus/Paperback software case would not have been affected since, although 1-2-3 is derivative from VisiCalc, Lotus later bough VisiCalc. The chief international legal counsel for AT, who holds that copyright is intrinsic to dBase, warns that the muddy waters of software copyright will only become more cloudy if firms are forced to move to the less ambiguous protection of patent law. The chips are down. (Advanced Micro Devices' AM386 chip is poised to end Intel's dominance of the chip market; includes a related The release of Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) Am386 microprocessor should have Intel looking to its laurels as the dominant chip maker in the IBM and PCM markets. Though certain legal issues and the matter of who will be the first microcomputer maker to brave Intel's certain ire by taking a supply of the AMD chip remain to be resolved, in the realms of compatibility and performance there seems little if anything to keep the Am386 from being a worthy and equal competitor to the Intel 80386. A 33Mhz Am80386DX, mounted in an IBM PS/2 70-121, Apricot QI600, Olivetti M386/25, and Unisys PW2 800/25, was subjected to benchmark tests that included a search and replace and a word-count operation in Wordstar, a text-file export operation in Paradox, an import of a dBase file into Paradox, and the Norton SI and Landmark CPU Speed tests. The AMD chip attained virtual parity with an Intel chip across the range of tests and equipment, and massively outperformed the Intel chip for the search-and-replace operation on the PS/2. Compatibility was tested across a wide range of operating systems, including DOS 3 and 4, OS/2 1.2, LAN Manager, SCO Xenix, and Windows 3.0, with a selection of applications that included WordStar, WordPerfect, Lotus and Paradox. Again, the chip performed flawlessly. While this does not guarantee 100 percent compatibility across the board, it seems likely that the Am386 is essentially indistinguishable from an Intel chip in terms of performance and compatibility. This can only be a good thing for the microcomputer industry, long held captive by Intel. The kick inside. (Borland's Sidekick 2.0 utility package) (Software Review) (evaluation) Version 2.0 of Borland International's original Sidekick personal information management system targets the market for work group computing. Support is provided for networks that include Novell, 3Com, IBM Token Ring, Banyan, and others compatible with version 3.1 or later of DOS. Installation is simple, ease of use, engineering and features are rated fair, while documentation and performance are rated good. Rather than opening a window, the latest version of Sidekick occupies a full screen and the user is taken directly into the Time Planner when the program is activated, rather than being presented with an option screen. A bar menu at the top of the screen allows movement among the major modules, which include Notepad, Address Book, Communications and Calculator along with the Time Planner. The outliner feature added to Sidekick Plus has been removed. The Formula Calculator has also disappeared, to be replaced by the Simple Calculator. Also gone are the statistical functions. The Address Book template is extremely limiting. Borland has reduced the price, to 79.95 pounds sterling, but essentially version 2.0 is a good idea gone wrong. Good as gold. (Softsel's Xtree Gold DOS file manager) (Software Review) (evaluation) Version 2.0 of the XTree Gold file manager, 112 pounds sterling from Softsel, adds a number of nice enhancements to the archetypal DOS file manager. One of the less desirable of these new features is associated with the installation process, creating a menu of applications from recognizable executable files found on the hard disk. Unfortunately, the menu created is not always accurate and may contain non-existent menu items; it also assumes that all applications are run from executable programs, while many actually require a batch file. The most valuable enhancements add flexibility to such functions as the tagging procedure that drives the major housekeeping processes. Features, ease of use, engineering and performance are all rated excellent: documentation is rated as good. One additional command displays a list of deleted files in any directory: designed to help in the case of accidentally deleted files, it is appropriately called Oops. Windows shopping. (mini-reviews of four applications for the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface) (Software Review) Four software packages designed to be used with Windows 3.0 are briefly evaluated. Becker Tools for Windows, 49.50 pounds sterling, provides file and directory operations utilities that will be valuable to any collection of Windows 3.0 applications. Installation is somewhat quirky, and documentation would be improved by a ring-bound format, but overall this is a useful package. DoDOT 3.0, 99 pounds sterling from Halcyon Software, is an image processing program incorporating file format conversion and screen capture. Installation is simple and an array of tools allows the user to crop or zoom an image, convert color images to greyscale, and convert either color or greyscale to monochrome images via either dithering or color separation. Features, documentation, engineering and performance are rated good, and ease of use is excellent. hDC FileApps, priced at 99.95 pounds sterling, comprises the hDC File Secure, File Enhancer Plus, File Search, and Disk Viewer utilities. This is a well-designed set of utilities with excellent engineering and features, offering good performance and ease of use. hDC Icon Designer, priced at 49.95 pounds sterling, provides all its documentation on line in the form of a Help file, and features easy installation from within Windows. Surprisingly for a design package, Icon Designer contains no tools, which keeps the package from earning an overall rating of excellent, yet it does rate uniformly good across all categories. Windows games. (Microsoft announces the Entertainment Pack - seven games and a screen saver for Windows 3.0) (product announcement) Solitaire holds the dual distinction of having been used by Microsoft Chmn Bill Gates to introduce Windows 3.0 in the spring of 1990 and of being the most often used 3.0 application. Microsoft now introduces the Entertainment Pack, a collection of seven games and a screen saver utility that runs under Windows 3.0 and retails for around $45. Minesweeper requires the player to navigate across a screen of 3D squares, some of which are safe and others which conceal mines. A running total of the number of mines left is provided with each move. Cruel is a complex version of Solitaire, requiring moving cards from 12 decks into four suits. Taipei centers on matching and removing brightly colored tiles from the board, a process complicated by tile types and rules on which tiles are free. Pegged and TicTactics are variations on the games of peg solitaire and Tic-Tac-Toe. Tetris requires manipulating falling shapes in such a manner that they fit together precisely, somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle. Golf is a fiendishly difficult variation on Solitaire. Idlewild is a screen saver that offers a choice of eight images for blanking the screen that can be set to activate automatically after a specified period of keyboard inactivity or activated by the user. Made for sharing. (Polymod 2, Memsoft's remote access software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Polymod 2, 1,250 pounds sterling as supplied by Bonsai, is an OS/2 multiuser environment from Memsoft that provides terminal users with remote access to OS/2 services and programs. Installation of Polymod is simple; creating the terminal connections is more difficult, as cables are not included with the package and telephone support is provided only after purchase of the 'reference cable,' available only with the Polymod 2 Developer Kit. Configuration is accomplished through the Program Selector, one of several supplied utilities. Once configured, the easiest way to proceed is to let Polymod 2 start the terminals automatically. Typing in a user name and optional password brings up a Program Selector screen, and invoking a program starts it running on the host, passing screen update information and keyboard commands back and forth, creating an impression that the program is running locally. The main drawback to this is that applications being run from remote terminals are extremely slow. Also, very few OS/2 applications can be run on dumb terminals because of the lack of graphics support. At the bottom line, Polymod 2 is an application looking for a market. PC Manager Office V.3.0. (Software Review) (Shortlist) (evaluation) PC Manager Office 3.0 is a desktop organizer, hard disk file manager and applications launcher with built in security options available in the UK from Greenscreen Business Software for 129 pounds sterling. Installation requires 640KBytes of memory, a minimum of DOS 3.0, and a hard disk with 1.5MBytes free space, but the installation procedure itself is automatic. Once installed PC Manager searches the hard disk and places any recognized software packages on the applications launcher menu. Manual additions to the launcher menu are simple. PC Manager allows the System Supervisor to set up access rights for all other users. Usage logs tell who has accessed which program and for how long, and users can be set up with personal diaries, TSR menus and so on. Extensive security options range from preventing unauthorized access to the floppy disk through file encryption and password protection at the application level. The desktop organizer includes the usual features and the diary and calendar have become TSRs with this version. This is a good package that is simple to set up and use and provides good on-line help. EL3s. (Epson EL3s microcomputer) (Hardware Review) (Shortlist) (evaluation) Epson's 16MHz, Intel 80386SX-based microcomputer, priced at 1,899 pounds sterling, is a desktop unit that stands out from the run of desktop micros in a number of ways. The unit comprises a 12x4x15-inch box, a 14-inch color VGA Epson monitor, and 102-key keyboard. A sculptured front panel on the box holds the power, reset and speed buttons and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Across the back are the VGA, keyboard, mouse, and one each parallel and serial ports. Internally, the is enough space between the 40Mbyte Conner Peripherals hard drive and the floppy disk for another half-height device. The drive stack and power supply occupy the right side of the box, and there is space at the left for three full-length expansion cards. All of the chips in this machine except for the processor are Epson branded. Documentation is up to the usual excellent Epson standard. The EL3s works like a charm; it feels faster than 16MHz, runs quietly, has a quick hard disk, and successfully ran all the software tried on it. There is no need to look any further than this excellent machine. Globalink Translation System. (Software Review) (Shortlist) (evaluation) The Globalink Translation System (GTS), 789.50 pounds sterling from the company of the same name, is a foreign language translation system that offers both a single word dictionary and a semantic dictionary that recognizes phrases and translates them into equivalent English or French. The translation appears on a split screen in interactive or batch mode, with four function buttons on the bottom of the screen. The first three allow the user to clear the screen and enter a new sentence, edit the source material, or edit the translated material. Inputting the entire file in batch mode and pressing '4' translates the entire file at once, a great time saver. The current price of this package probably limits its usefulness to any but those for whom translation is a major part of their life or work, but a bundling agreement that will add a scanner and a character translation product (Omnipage) promises to make this a more attractive package. DIP card drive. (DIP Portfolio PC card drive) (Hardware Review) (Shortlist) (evaluation) DIP's Portfolio PC Card Drive is a solid state memory card designed for use with the Portfolio hand-held computer codeveloped by DIP and Atari. Priced at 60.80 pounds sterling, the card provides Portfolio users a means of rapidly exchanging data with a desktop microcomputer. Two factors argue against the usefulness of this product: the Portfolio was developed before standards for solid state memory cards were established and its twin drives use a different format than that agreed upon as standard. Atari and DIP have agreed to support the new standards in the next generation of their pocket-sized computer. The Portfolio comes bundled with a cable and ROM-based program for interfacing the Portfolio with a desktop microcomputer. Although the software is excessively complicated, it is free, and a second advantage of cable-based data transfer is that it offers almost universal compatibility. The availability of cable-based data exchange and the eventual obsolescence of the card's format weigh against its purchase by the individual user, but companies with a fleet of the hand-held units should know that the unit delivers on its promises and is easy to operate for anyone who has used a microcomputer drive. Buyer's guide: 286 machines. (buyers guide) Lavin, Paul. Microcomputers based on Intel's 80286 microprocessor have been around since 1985, and analysts predict that they will continue to be viable for some time, despite the growing presence of low end 80386SX boxes. Cost-effectiveness is the underpinning of most reasons for buying a '286 machine. Not only does a '286 microcomputer function cost effectively under DOS, the 286 was IBM's original target with its OS/2 developments; and in a pinch it can even support multi-user multitasking under SCO Xenix 286. Most business applications are written for 16-bit processors. IBM's PS/2 Models 30-H31 and 50Z, the PS/1 and portable computers are strongholds for the 286. A buyer's guide to 296 machines, presented in tabular form, lists 70 units from 48 vendors and provides such information as hard disk access time, monitor size, bus type, processor speed, standard and maximum RAM,design and price. Professor Windows. (Windows 3.0 tutorial package) (Software Review) (evaluation) Professor Windows, supplied in the UK by the Microcomputer Unit at a price of 59.95 pounds sterling, is a tutorial for the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface that works inside Windows and can be easily installed from either the DOS prompt or the Windows Program Manager. Once installed, the application has its own icon to represent it. A drawback is that it will not load if any other application is open; it would be helpful to be able to refresh one's memory while in the midst of an application. Documentation is short but clear, and the program itself could not be simpler once up and running. Professor Windows can be controlled from the keyboard, but a mouse is recommended. The main section headings are Startup, covering an explanation of Windows, use of Professor Windows and use of a mouse, and Basic, which covers the various components of Windows, the idea of sizing and moving Windows, and the Windows 3.0 help facility. A section called Advanced is provided for those who have mastered Windows and are considering running it on a network. A nice touch is a status bar in each lesson that shows the total of pages in the lessons and how much is left to be covered. This is an excellent tutorial Lightweight portables will unfold in the fall. (Apple developing new laptop computers) Apple is reportedly developing three new portable Macintosh models which will weigh far less than the current Macintosh Portable and will range in price from $2,500 to $5,000. One of the anticipated machines is a $4,500 notebook-sized unit that uses a 16 MHz Motorola 68030 processor without a floating-point coprocessor. It will have a backlit active-matrix LCD screen similar to that in the enhanced Macintosh Portable, which Apple will introduce in Mar 1991. The other two machines use the 68020 and 68000 processors respectively and feature supertwist LCD display technology. The 68020-based unit is expected to sell for less than $4,000 configured with 2Mbytes of RAM and a 40Mbyte hard disk. The 68000-based model will reportedly weigh 5.5 pounds and measure 8.5 x 11 x 1.75 inches and will be manufactured by Sony Corp. It will offer a 40Mbyte 2.5-inch hard disk but no floppy drive and is expected to come with 2Mbytes of RAM, a keyboard, a trackball and a built-in modem at a price of less than $2,500. New Claris spreadsheet waiting in the wings. (Claris Corp. developing new spreadsheet based on Informix Wingz technology that Claris Corp reportedly plans to introduce a spreadsheet based on the Wingz engine, which Claris bought from Informix Software Inc in early 1990. The new program is expected to ship shortly after Apple ships System 7.0 and will use the AppleEvents feature in System 7.0 to integrate with other Claris applications. Claris will use the new product to compete with industry giants Microsoft Corp and Lotus Development Corp. Microsoft's Excel dominates the Mac spreadsheet arena, and Lotus plans to introduce a Mac version of its popular 1-2-3 DOS product in the summer of 1991. The Claris spreadsheet will feature sophisticated graphics capabilities, a color selection interface similar to that of FileMaker Pro, an extensive macro language based on Informix's HyperScript and automatic data updating between applications via the System 7.0 Edition Manager. It is expected to retail for about $500. Oracle plays its Card on Windows. (Oracle Corp. plans HyperCard-compatible database front end software for Windows 3.0) Oracle Corp announces Oracle Card, a $209 database front end program for Microsoft Windows 3.0 that is compatible with Apple's HyperCard. Oracle Card will let users create multimedia interfaces for databases that run on both Macintosh and IBM-compatible clients. It is based on Plus, a HyperCard work-alike for Windows from Spinnaker Software Corp. The program will import and translate HyperCard stacks and let users convert current Hyper*SQL applications built with Oracle for Macintosh to run under Windows. Oracle Talk, an extension of Apple's HyperTalk script language, lets users builds their own Oracle Card stacks. Special query, data administration and point-and-click application development tools add value to the basic Plus package. Oracle Card requires a Mac SE or Mac II with 4Mbytes of RAM and a Windows machine with an 80286 or 80386 CPU and 3Mbytes of RAM. GO's PenPoint may plot future OS directions. (pen-based operating system) (product announcement) GO Corp has introduced PenPoint, a new operating system optimized for hand-held computers that use pen-based I/O. Analysts and developers say that the program could signal a major trend in systems software. It recognizes hand-printed characters for data entry and special 'gestures' for commands and correction. IBM Personal Systems division general manager Jim Cannavino calls PenPoint 'a whole new paradigm.' IBM plans to manufacture hardware capable of running the new operating system. PenPoint's design does not assume the user has a keyboard or mouse; GO hopes to attract a new class of customers who have not used computers before because of their bulk or because they are too difficult to use. NCR and GRiD Systems Inc are designing PenPoint-based systems, but none are expected to be introduced before the end of 1991. GO says that PenPoint was inspired by the Macintosh operating system and offers a consistent look and feel. Lotus pulls out of MarketPlace. (cancels CD-ROM target marketing products because consumers complain it violates privacy rights) Lotus Development Corp has cancelled its Lotus MarketPlace database in the wake of massive protests from consumer groups and others who claim the CD-ROM based target marketing product infringes the privacy of those included in it. The Households edition of MarketPlace, scheduled to ship in Mar 1991, will not be offered; the Business edition, available since Oct 1990, has been discontinued. Lotus received more than 30,000 requests from individuals to have their names removed from the database, and company president and CEO Jim Manzi was reportedly deluged with electronic mail messages protesting the product. MarketPlace Business contains data on 7 million US businesses; the Households version was to offer data on 120 million consumers. Privacy advocates such as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the American Civil Liberties Union have said that MarketPlace infringes on the rights of individuals because removing names from the disc is difficult and because it is so widely available. Existing users of MarketPlace: Business can continue to use names they have purchased, but will not be able to obtain additional names; Lotus is offering a full refund for both names and discs. NuTek chip set could pave way for legal clones. (NuTek Computers Inc. claims to have developed Mac-compatible ROM for use with Open NuTek Computers Inc, a small startup company funded by venture capital from the US and Taiwan, claims to have developed a Macintosh-compatible ROM from scratch that works with the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface. The new technologies could enable OEMs to build Macintosh 'clones' without violating Apple patents or copyrights and will be available by 4th qtr 1991, according to NuTek. OEMs would require another six months or more to build Mac-compatible machines based on the Motorola 68000 or 68020 microprocessors. Computers using the NuTek chip set and operating system software will have all the capabilities of Macs, including the ability to run off-the-shelf Mac applications and use Mac peripherals. NuTek's software remaps Mac interface calls to the Motif interface without any loss of application functionality. NuTek says it is braced for a legal battle with Apple and has taken strict precautions to protect itself and its OEMs. Experts say Apple is likely to challenge the new technology. Input heads for new directions: cordless trackball, 3-button mice due. (Logitech Inc, Mouse Systems Corp, EMAC Spark International Several vendors plan to introduce sophisticated new input devices for the Macintosh. Logitech Inc will ship the $129 MouseMan mouse and $149 TrackMan trackball, both three-button devices, in Apr 1991. Each includes a Control Panel device that lets users program the buttons to enter keystroke combinations. Mouse Systems Corp has announced the $169.95 A3 Mouse, which is compatible with the Mac, A/UX and X Windows; any of its three buttons can act as the primary mouse button. EMAC Inc introduces the $99.95 Silhouette, an ergonomically designed trackball. Spark International Inc's new $185 Cordless Trackball and $175 Cordless Mouse transmit infrared signals to a receiver plugged into an ADB port. Infogrip Inc will introduce the BAT, a unique $269 input device with two seven-key keyboards that let users enter data via the modem or printer port, in Feb 1991. Symantec updates Speed Disk and warns of incompatibilities. (Norton Utilities for the Macintosh disk optimizer program) Symantec Corp introduces Speed Disk 1.01, a new version of the disk optimizer program included in the Norton Utilities for the Macintosh general purpose utility program. The company has also warned users that the original version of Speed Disk is incompatible with some hard disk vendors' driver software. Symantec describes the problem as 'minor' and notes that it could cause erroneous 'Weak Sector' warnings, but some users say that the problem could destroy all data on a disk in a few extreme cases. The problem is a clash between the program's Verify Data option and driver software; alleged offenders include Ehman Inc, Cutting Edge Inc and Microtech International Inc. Version 1.01 of Speed Disk automatically shuts off the Verify Disk option if it detects the incompatibility. FWB promises performance boost: ToolKit to include drivers, utilities. (Hard Disk ToolKit) (product announcement) FWB Inc announces Hard Disk ToolKit, a $199.95 collection of software drivers and utilities for Macintosh SCSI hard disks. The package includes Hard Disk ToolKit Formatter, a powerful program that formats and partitions disks and can perform 14 low-level SCSI diagnostic tests. Partitions or entire disks can be password-protected, and users can transparently encrypt and decrypt data files. SCSI Control Panel lets users optimize SCSI microcode settings for caching, error recovery and other drive features. FWB Benchmark accurately measures device performance by benchmarking data transfer rates, access and seek times, and number of transactions per second. HD ToolKit INIT is a Startup document that lets users configure systems to wait at start-up for all devices to come on line. HD ToolKit Prober is a Control Panel device for mounting disks and running SCSI bus diagnostics. BootToob starts Macs over Ethernet: device uses special initialization ROM. (remote booting software for Macintosh Mauswerks Inc introduces BootToob, a hardware/software/firmware combination that lets users start Macs on Ethernet LANs without using local disk drives. The BootToob includes a special initialization ROM that replaces the NuBus declaration ROM on an Ethernet board. Special ROM firmware creates a local RAM disk and copies an 'image' of the system file from another networked machine via a TCP/IP connection. It then severs the network connection and lets the local Mac operate from the RAM disk. All BootToob users can start up from a single image file, letting managers update an entire network by changing only one file. BootToob costs $139 for one server and one Mac or $995 for 10 users. It is compatible with Apple, 3Com and Asante Technologies Ethernet cards; versions for SCSI and SE/30 cards and for the Mac IIsi and Mac LC Processor Direct Slot will soon be available. GraceLAN, now shipping, gives Mac managers real-time data. (Technology Works Inc. GraceLAN Macintosh network management Technology Works Inc introduces GraceLAN, a new software package for Apple Macintosh networks that lets administrators examine workstation configuration in real time. It supplies data on machine type, system memory, disk volume size, available storage, system software versions, applications, Startup documents and Control Panel devices. GraceLAN can generate graphical topology maps and simplifies hardware and software inventory, although it lacks the data management capabilities found in some competing products. GraceLAN costs $395 for a 50-user base package and $995 for unlimited users. Mail*Link to break E-mail barrier. (StarNine Technologies Inc. introduces Mail*Link QM-MS gateway) StarNine Technologies Inc introduces Mail*Link QM-MS, a new gateway software package that lets users of Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Mail and CE Software Inc's QuickMail exchange messages and files. The product runs on the same Mac as the QuickMail administrator program and transparently forwards both message text and enclosures between servers. It cannot translate forms or extend address books across platforms. Both the QuickMail and Microsoft Mail servers present the same appearance to end users. Mail*Link QM-MS costs $295 for 50 users, $495 for 100 users and $4,950 for unlimited users. StarNine has also announced Mail*Link MHS, a Message Handling Service gateway for QuickMail. Mail*Link MHS prices range from $195 for 10 users to $1,996 for 250 users. Recording your Mac 'toons. (single-frame video controllers) Rosenthal, Steve. Creating sophisticated animation programs on the Macintosh requires frame-accurate control for a correct transfer to videotape. Macintosh animations are stored as individual images or sequential image files on disk, and each image must be 'pre-rolled' before recording. Transferring animation to tape is a slow and difficult process and requires a hardware or software controller for precise frame-by-frame output. Software-only controllers are available either as stand-alone products or as built-in features in some multimedia packages. Internal add-in boards allow device-independent interfaces and support a wider range of hardware. Dedicated controllers such as Lyon Lamb Video Animation Systems Inc's MiniVAS and ProVAS can be driven by any computer platform and support industry-standard SMPTE time code. A separate video graphics board is needed to control signal output. A complete video animation system costs $10,000 to $50,000, according to experts. Why CD-ROM has yet to reach critical mass. (obstacles impeding acceptance of CD-ROM technology)(Commentary) (column) Many industry observers expected CD ROM technology to 'take off' by 1989, with internal and external drives proliferating and a 'critical mass' of software becoming available. CD ROM titles have grown in number, but serious obstacles to wider acceptance of the technology remain. The drives are painfully slow when used as random-access media, a problem that is not about to be solved; users want speeds comparable to those of hard disks, but CD ROM was originally designed for consumer audio applications and is inherently slower than a conventional drive. The ISO-9660 format does not let data naturally appear in Mac or Unix file systems without a platform-specific floppy; platform-specific formats are easier to use but more costly. High-speed retrieval software is expensive and difficult to write. What IS managers don't know hurts Mac. (information systems) Apple's share of the business market has dropped since 1987 because the Macintosh is perceived as a 'niche' machine that is suitable only for graphics applications and lacks the performance necessary for mainframe access. Many managers erroneously believe the Mac is a limited platform because of anti-Mac publicity fueled by the proliferation of cheap IBM-compatible machines and the release of Microsoft Windows 3.0. Mac versions of key PC applications have long bee available, and the Mac is an ideal computer for networking because it is data-flexible and well-adapted to linking to existing environments. Apple's greatest challenge is to overcome anti-Mac bias on the part of corporate information systems managers. Letraset gives Shapes to ColorStudio. (Software Review) (Shapes add-in Letraset ColorStudio graphics software) (evaluation) Letraset's Shapes is a $295 add-in module for the company's ColorStudio 1.11 24-bit color painting program that provides PostScript drawing capabilities. It is a plug-in 'annex' that comes as a ColorStudio resource file; users install it using the Resource Mover program provided with ColorStudio. Shapes adds seven new tools and a menu for creating a PostScript drawing layer on top of ColorStudio's existing paint and mask layers. The Shapes layer has a separate clipboard and tools that can be configured through a dialog box. Shapes imports Encapsulated PostScript files but suffers from text constraints and cannot import EPS text. The Text tool asks users to load either a Letraset or Adobe Type 1 outline font, treating each character as a separate graphic object. The best feature of Shapes is its integration with ColorStudio; it is not a substitute for a stand-alone PostScript illustration package but is nevertheless an impressive enhancement to a strong paint program. DTP takes cue from from Page Director. (Software Review) (Managing Editor Software Systems Inc. Page Director desktop publishing Managing Editor Software Systems Inc's $895 Page Director desktop publishing program is not a composition tool but an application for managing page geometry. It builds a database of page elements and measurement and takes user-defined constraints into account when laying the elements out. Users can open completed Page Director files in Quark Xpress via a Quark XTension file. Page Director is object-oriented and treats every item as a member of a the Copy, Graphics or Advertising class. The user defines specific subclasses and 'teaches' the program to identify applications that create Copy and Graphics images. Page Director measures text for Copy items using its own styles or those in the original imported document. It suffers from some bugs, and its interface flagrantly violates Mac guidelines. Documentation is also poor. Page Director is nevertheless stable enough to pay for itself if a company needs to automate layout editing. Essential Tools and Objects: steady source of Mac development tools. (Software Review) (Apple E.T.O. CD ROM for programmers) Apple's Essential Tools and Objects is a CD-ROM package for developers containing both current and pre-release versions of the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop development environment and a variety of additional programming tools. E.T.O. costs $995 for an annual subscription which includes quarterly updates. The CD-ROM contains enough software to fill 20 or 30 floppy disks, including several versions of MPW and the MacApp object-oriented development environment. Users can configure installation with an automatic program. E.T.O. is a must for serious Macintosh developers who own a CD-ROM drive; it is less expensive than buying all MPW and MacApp versions separately. Database development shells boost efficiency, cut costs. (includes related article on tool collections) Database design 'shells' reduce development costs by letting programmers create applications quickly and improve end-user productivity by allowing the creation of better user interfaces. Code created with shell programs is also more consistent across applications. A shell is a collection of screens, reports, search formats and programs common to most database applications. Shells are available as supplements to such leading databases as ACIUS' 4th Dimension and Blyth Software's Omnis 5. Options Computer Consulting's 4D Toolkit, Natural Intelligence Inc's Easy4D and AccuWare Business Solutions Ltd's Omnis Application Development Shell are examples of these. Users say applications built using shells are more consistent than other programs and improve user accessibility. They also help avoid overdependence on the original programmer for updates and enhancements. No shell is a complete system by itself, but shells provide a basic application-building framework that cuts development time. Microsoft looks into multimedia.(Media Control Interface, file format specification for Windows multimedia extensions) Microsoft plans to use its Windows graphical user interface to enter the multimedia arena through a series of extensions that will be incorporated in future versions of the operating environment. Multimedia versions of Windows will include a Media Control Interface (MCI) and a special multimedia file format specification. MCI instructions can be written in a scripting language similar to Apple's HyperTalk. The MCI software drivers are written as Dynamic Link Libraries and contain commands that let users control a wide variety of devices, such as video and audio disc players, in the same way. Apple's HyperCard, which is widely used to create multimedia front ends on the Macintosh, lacks this consistency and has different syntaxes for various elements of a multimedia application. Macintoshes are still easier to connect multimedia hardware to than IBM PCs, but Windows with multimedia extensions will present Apple with serious competition. Microsoft soars on Windows success. (Microsoft Corp. reports revenue increase) Microsoft Corp reports revenues of $460.5 million and net income of $112.9 million for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990, an increase of 53 and 52 percent from the same period a year earlier. The company cites demand for its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and Windows applications as the main reason for the surge. Microsoft has shipped more than 2 million copies of Windows worldwide since its introduction in May 1990; more than 1,000 Windows applications are now available from Microsoft and third-party vendors. Market research firm Forrester Research Inc reports that 40 percent of IBM-compatible microcomputers at Fortune 500 sites will be running Windows by the end of 1991, and Microsoft is working to enhance its applications with cross-platform compatibility for sites that use both Macs and IBM PCs. Maxtor executives bow out as company takes third-quarter loss. (Maxtor Corp. loses $3.96 million, executives resign) Maxtor Corp reports a loss of $3.96 million for its third quarter of fiscal 1991, ended Dec 29, 1990. The company posted revenues of $261.1 million, but net income fell sharply. Maxtor plans to lay off 140 employees as it consolidates its operations in California and Colorado. Several executives, including Pres and CEO George M. Scalise, have resigned in a move Scalise describes as 'coincidental.' Maxtor vice president and general counsel Mark Chandler says the losses are due to price erosion on 40Mbyte drives it acquired through its purchase of MiniScribe Corp and the fact that Maxtor has fallen behind competitors in the high-capacity drive market. Vice president of worldwide sales James N. Miller and vice president of corporate affairs and communications Deborah A. Stapleton have also announced their resignations. Managing your money. (Software Review) (Meca Software Inc.'s Andrew Tobias's Managing Your Money 7.0)(Personal Computers) Version 7.0 of Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money provides users with an easy-to-use, powerful management system for tracking personal finances. Current users of Managing Your Money can upgrade to version 7.0 for $49.95, while first time users will face a retail price of $219.95. The price is higher than some other financial management programs, but Managing Your Money has many powerful features. The new version includes improved pull-down help screens, VGA-compatible graphics and an interface reminiscent of Windows 3.0. Managing Your Money is a modular program with sections covering budgeting, banking, bill paying, tax planning, insurance planning and portfolio management. The program also includes a word processor, an appointment scheduler, a card file for addresses and an electronic bill-paying link. A tiny telephone link to the world. (Hardware Review) (Practical Peripherals' Practical Pocket Modem PM2400PPM) (evaluation) Practical Peripherals' $159 Practical Pocket Modem PM2400PPM is an easy-to-use miniature modem that offers the full functionality of larger units. The device weighs just three ounces and measures 3 inches by 2.5 inches by 1 inch. It plugs directly into the serial port on the back of most microcomputers, either straight into the 25-pin plug or via a 9-pin adaptor. Setting up the modem is only a matter of plugging a phone line into the modem and the modem into the back of the computer. The Pocket Modem gets its power from the telephone line, so that batteries are not required unless the unit is to be used on an Apple Macintosh. The modem transmits at a satisfactory 2,400 bits per second; however, it has no speaker or external lights to help monitor phone connections. Radio frequencies' use sought for computers (Apple Computer Inc., computer communications) Apple Computer Inc asks the Federal Communications Commission to set aside 40-megahertz of radio frequency for wireless computer network communication. The FCC will likely take up to a year to decide whether to allocate the bandwidth, which would be taken from space currently used by public utilities, railroads and law enforcement agencies. Apple wants the frequencies, to be used by all computer companies, for an emerging technology that links computers by radio signals rather than by the traditional hard wiring method. Observers reckon that Apple must have some type of communications technology on the drawing board that would be used for wireless local area networks. Such wireless networks are currently marketed by NCR Corp and Motorola, but they share frequencies with other uses. Kudos to Corel: sizzling new effects, same profound interface. (Software Review) (CorelDRAW 2.0 graphics package) (evaluation) Corel Systems' $695 CorelDRAW 2.0 graphics package offers the same easy-to-use interface as earlier versions while adding many powerful new features. Users can metamorphose any vector object, perform non-linear transformations and extrusions, and create perspective effects. Most of the effects are simple to create despite the complex mathematics involved; to perform a transformation, the user simply selects an object, chooses an editing mode and uses control points on an 'envelope' bounding box until the desired effect is achieved. Creating an extrusion involves only entering values for X and Y offsets in a dialog box. The program can create drawings that are too complex for some PostScript printers to handle. CorelDRAW 2.0 also includes 51 new fonts, a text tool with headline, paragraph and symbol-library function and a customizable pencil tool. New output features include support for four-color separations. IBM unveils its 33-MHz 486 portable. (Hardware Review) (IBM PS/2 Model P75) (evaluation) IBM's new PS/2 Model P75 486 portable computer is a $15,990 'lunchbox' unit weighing 22 pounds that offers high-end performance and an upgradable architecture. The P75 offers 8Mbytes of RAM, a 160Mbyte SCSI drive, and four Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) expansion slots. Its intelligent system board controls both the SCSI controller and the MCA bus, and there is room for up to 16Mbytes of system memory using 4Mbyte SIMMs. A separate daughterboard holds the CPU, allowing for future upgrades. The P75 486 includes a VGA gas-plasma display and an Extended Graphics Array (XGA) adapter that supports external interlaced monitors with resolutions of up to 1,204 x 768 pixels in 256 colors. The keyboard has a full 101 keys but is very light and is not detachable. IBM has constructed the unit sturdily, and its metal-lined case helps it earn an FCC Class B rating. RasterOps 1024mc: true-color comes to MCA. (Micro Channel Architecture) (Hardware Review) (RasterOps Corp. 1024mc 24-bit RasterOps Corp introduces the 1024mc, a video board that provides 'true color' with 24-bit pixel depth on IBM-compatible microcomputers using the Micro Channel Architecture bus design. The $4,395 board uses a combination of custom VLSI and circuits and surface-mount devices with 3Mbytes of video RAM to allow a 16.7-million color palette and support resolutions of up to 1,024 x 1,024 pixels. A VGA pass-through mode lets users display 640 x 480-pixel images in a window within the 1,024 x 768-pixel display area. The board ships with Windows and Presentation Manager drivers; several major software vendors have promised support. One problem with the 1024mc is its lack of a graphics processor on-board; it is extremely slow, and there are no input ports for direct import of graphic images. The 1024mc, essentially a Macintosh product ported to the IBM environment, is ahead of the display technology available on PCs. Threadz File F/X: a quintet for Windows. (Software Review) (Threadz Software Design Group)(file management utilities for ThreadZ Software Design Group's $129.95 Threadz File F/X is a set of five linked file-management utilities for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical environment that replace or supplement Windows' built-in functions. The F/X File Manager provides all the capabilities of the Windows File Manager except disk formatting but has a DOS-like look and feel. Users can display and manipulate files in a tree structure. The 'File Find' function locates files very quickly, and 'Text Search' lets users specify a single text string and search for it in any group of files. File Undelete can undelete files that are contiguous but is not as powerful as similar utilities in high-end packages. Threadz Task Manager is the most powerful program in the package. It completely replaces the Windows Task Manager and has a menu for launching applications. The program can arrange windows in a grid or cascade them. DesignView focuses on CAD analysis as well as design. (Software Review) (Premise Inc. DesignView 2.0) (evaluation) Premise Inc's $895 DesignView 2.0 computer-aided design package is a powerful mechanical engineering design and analysis tool that runs under Microsoft Windows and can perform sophisticated analyses of the systems CAD drawings depict. It updates all geometry when the user changes one dimension of a drawing in order to define a model whose values can be varied to generate 'what if' design scenarios. The program can automatically step a mechanism through simulated motions and includes a built-in solver for linear and nonlinear equations. Mathematical operations supported include trigonometric, hyperbolic, logarithmic, exponential and user-defined functions. DesignView can calculate null axes, centroids, polar moments, moments of inertia and areas. Documentation is excellent, and the package includes a series of tutorials. DesignView is highly recommended for mechanical engineers. Personal R:BASE: the popular relational database goes light. (Software Review) (Microrim Personal R:BASE) (evaluation) Microrim Inc's $299 Personal R:BASE is a scaled-down version of the company's popular relational data base management system. It is a 'stripped' program aimed at laptop, home and small business users as well as organizations that already use R:BASE heavily. It includes the sophisticated memory management features of R:BASE 3.1 and performs identically, manipulating data very fast and limiting database size only by disk space. Personal R:BASE has all of R:BASE's relational capabilities, query by example, relational operators, mathematical functions and support for over 100 interfaces. The only important omissions are the programming interface, programming editor and multiuser capabilities. Users can still create applications with the built-in 'Application Express' application generator, which guides novice users through application design. Documentation is excellent. Polaroid's Digital Palette CI-3000: a new generation of film recorder. (Hardware Review) (Polaroid Corp. Digital Palette Polaroid Corp's $4,495 Digital Palette Ci-3000 film recorder creates slides with a resolution of 2,000 lines, half that of some competing models but adequate for most purposes. It is reasonably fast and comes with several accessories that add significant value, including a parallel printer cable, a Power Processor that processes instant slide film, two interchangeable film backs and an illuminated slide mounting device. Users can convert a desktop image into a mounted 35mm slide in approximately 10 minutes. Only two device drivers are currently available: one for Lotus Freelance Plus and one for Presentation Express and 35mm Express. Polaroid is working with software vendors on drivers for Windows 3.0, Harvard Graphics, Applause II and other programs. The bundled ImagePrint utility for exporting images to a CGM, TIFF or TGA file is awkward and incompatible with some images. The file-format support is also weak; TIFF and TGA are low-resolution formats consisting of bitmaps, and CGM is a very simple and non-standardized vector format. Color PostScript would have been a better choice. Micrografx rounds out its repertoire with Draw Plus. (Software Review) (Micrografx Inc. Draw Plus graphics package) (evaluation) Micrografx Inc's $229 Draw Plus 1.1 graphics package has many of the basic functions of the company's more-expensive Designer programs and is ideal for modest tasks. It comes with a large library of clip art and can read files containing Bezier curves, masks, symbol fills and gradients. Micrografx provides about 2,200 pre-drawn symbols selected from the 15,000 images in its library; the clip art occupies 6Mbytes of disk space. Pasting a symbol into a drawing is easy, and any image can be scaled, moved, rotated or broken up into component objects. The menus and toolbox are missing a few of the Designer items, such as the Bezier curve tool and layering options, but users can still draw parabolic spline curves, polygons, lines and pie segments. Draw Plus is a less-costly, easier-to-learn alternative to Designer for those whose graphics needs are less demanding. $995 TIGA 34020 graphics adapter. (Hardware Review) (National Design Inc. Volante AT1000) (evaluation) National Designs Inc's (NDI) $995 AT1000 graphics adapter uses Texas Instruments Inc's Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA) and 34020 graphics coprocessor to provide high-resolution, high-performance graphics capabilities at an unprecedented low price. The Volante uses a 50 MHz coprocessor with a 512-byte cache and can process Windows applications extremely fast at 1,024 x 768-pixel resolution with 256 simultaneous colors. It is a full-length 26-bit card with 1Mbyte of DRAM and 1Mbyte of VRAM; NDI offers Panacea Computer Graphics' display-list TIGA driver for AutoCAD for $95. The board supports both interlaced and noninterlaced monitors and can operate in either TIGA or VGA mode. It is an excellent buy for serious graphics users. FLYP 96: a fax board that acts like a LaserJet II. (Hardware Review) (3X USA FLYP 96 facsimile board) (evaluation) 3X USA Corp's $495 FLYP 96 (Fax Like You Print) facsimile board produces fax output that closely resembles that of the LaserJet printer. It is a half-length 8-bit card that fits in any AT or XT slot and comes with two memory-resident software programs. Background faxing requires the larger 65Kbyte program, but a simpler 20Kbyte program captures faxes from applications for later transmission. Faxes are sent via a user-configurable hot key that pops up a menu. FLYP provides LaserJet-like output by emulating HP's native fonts and supporting soft fonts. The board suffers from some rough edges; graphics output is impressive, but text is sometimes missing attributes and the software for viewing received faxes is very slow. Its memory-resident drivers currently do not work with Windows 3.0. The FLYP 96 is nevertheless the only solution for those who want to use LaserJet soft fonts in faxes sent directly from a computer. UltraStor's ESDI caching controller: speed and safety at the right price. (Hardware Review) (Enhanced Small Device UltraStor Corp's $695 Ultra 12C is a powerful, second-generation caching controller for Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) hard disks. It includes a hardware disk cache implemented in its 1Mbyte of built-in RAM and supports up to 16Mbytes in SIMMs. The controller is easy to install and supports deferred writes, offering an optional battery-powered module to prevent data loss in the event of a power failure. The Ultra 12C supports disk mirroring and duplexing under the NetWare 386 LAN operating system and can coexist with a second controller in the same system. It has a 24 MHz on-board cache processor and runs at bus speeds of up to 16 MHz. One drawback is the fact that the SIMMs extend over the adjacent expansion slot, limiting users to half- or three-quarter-length boards in that slot. Performance is excellent, and the board is highly recommended for its transparent operation and lack of interference with system memory. Knowledge Seeker: statistics for decision makers. (Software Review) (FirstMark Technologies Knowledge Seeker statistical FirstMark Technologies Ltd's $495 Knowledge Seeker 2.0 is a statistical analysis program designed for decision support. It works by attempting to analyze a data set and find the variables that will have the greatest effect on a selected dependent variable through a decision tree algorithm. Decision trees divide knowledge into 'nodes' which can be subdivided by secondary factors. Knowledge Seeker accepts data from the keyboard and from dBASE, Lotus 1-2-3 and ASCII files. THe user specifies the dependent variable and lets the software form the decision tree one level at a time. It is a solid program overall, but it conflicts with some memory-resident programs and suffers from a weak user interface. The information Knowledge Seeker generates can also be misleading, giving its conclusions excessive credence. Knowledge Seeker is nevertheless recommended for those who need to find statistically significant factors. Extend your reach. (using microcomputers to control security, lights, other building functions) The technology to control such mundane facility-management functions as lighting and security with a microcomputer exists but has not been widely implemented. Several vendors, such as Sears and Radio Shack, market X-10 controller modules that use standard electrical wiring to turn lights and appliances on or off. Programming the timer has long represented a major inconvenience, but Leviton makes industrial-grade X-10 parts. The parts are still available through ACT Corp, the company to which Leviton recently sold its operations. Microcomputers can provide flexible control for X-10 timers; a timing program could be written on a microcomputer and downloaded to the controller via a serial port. Controller prices range from $69 to $400. Stanley, Heathkit and Zenith are good sources for X-10 parts. Beyond code: the PC-data business. (packaging data)(Jim Seymour) (column) Microcomputers have become 'power tools' for managing ideas, and the purchase of data as well as software is likely to be a major trend in the future. Those who use on-line services are already familiar with the practice of downloading, but on-line users represent only a small fraction of microcomputer users. People want data on their systems to be quickly and physically accessible. The use of CD-ROM for data distribution is growing rapidly. Lotus' MarketPlace CD-ROMs will provide millions of listings to direct-mail marketers. Data compression will become more and more of a necessity as the amount of information available on the desktop increases. Microsoft vs. IBM. (power struggles over operating system development) (column) The joint arrangement between IBM and Microsoft to develop the OS/2 operating system led to a series of power struggles due to ill-considered decisions on both sides. IBM had a 'hidden agenda' of gaining proprietary advantage through the Extended Edition of OS/2 and the Micro Channel Architecture in the PS/2 microcomputer. It chose to ignore Microsoft's popular Windows graphical interface, but few users migrated directly from DOS to OS/2 as it had hoped. DOS compatibility in all 1.x versions of OS/2 is completely inadequate, and OS/2 Extended Edition 1.2 still lacked drivers for most peripherals at the end of 1989. IBM created the impression that OS/2 was its exclusive product, alienating Microsoft and causing the software giant to follow its own path with Windows while developing OS/2 more slowly, delaying future releases until they were done properly and concentrating on supporting the 80386 rather than the 80286 processor. The success of Windows 3.0 put Microsoft in a position to sever its ties to IBM and develop Windows as a rival to OS/2, forcing IBM to accept the graphical interface as a 'transition' environment and reconcile its differences with the software firm. Solid investments for the desktop. (Hardware Review) (overview of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386 microcomputers)(includes related Fourteen 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputers ranging in price from $2,620 to $7,248 are reviewed. The systems offer hard disk capacities of 150Mbytes or larger and VGA color displays, and many have small-footprint designs and FCC Class B certification for home use. All the machines are based on the Industry Standard Architecture bus design and are well packaged. Most include processor RAM caches, and many use integrated video and I/O circuitry and tight drive controller designs. Each has four to six free expansion slots. The Dell System 325D is rated an Editor's Choice for overall quality and value. Austin Computer Systems: Austin 386/25 WinStation. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based Austin Computer Systems Inc's 386/25 Winstation is a value-packed 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputer from a vendor that offers excellent service and support policies. It sells for $3,488 and includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 175Mbyte Seagate IDE hard disk, a Chicony 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, Super VGA video card, and Mitsubishi 1,024 x-768-pixel resolution monitor. A version with a 128Kbyte processor cache and 16Mbytes of system RAM capacity costs an additional $300. The motherboard holds all memory in either 256Kbyte or 1Mbyte SIMM modules; the standard capacity is 8Mbytes. Benchmark tests show that the Austin's performance is average in most areas. Video performance is somewhat slow compared to new competing machines but is still excellent. The Winstation is a good value. Blackship Computer Systems Inc.: Blackship 386/25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based Blackship Computer Systems Inc's 386/25 microcomputer offers a very good price/performance ratio and solid customer service and support. A machine configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 201Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, and Super VGA video costs $3,865. The small-footprint case has room for three 5.25-inch half-height drives and two 3.5-inch drives as well as five free expansion slots. Blackship uses a Micronics motherboard and Phoenix ROM BIOS along with an Intel 82385 cache controller chip for memory caching. Users can install up to 4Mbytes of system memory on the motherboard in 80-nanosecond SIMMs. A $150 memory expansion card holds an additional 16Mbytes. Blackship sells only through mail order, but offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and offers service contracts through GE-Onsite. The Blackship 386/25 is a good value for a network workstation or home machine. Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq Deskpro 386/25e. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in Compaq's Deskpro 386/25e microcomputer performs well for a 25-MHz 80386-based machine but remains much more expensive than competing products in its class. It costs $6,799 configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, a 120Mbyte Conner hard disk, Canon 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, VGA circuitry and monitor, parallel and serial ports and DOS 4.01. The machine is very sturdily constructed, but it is less expandable than some others; the case holds only three 5.25-inch half-height drives and one 3.5-inch drive, and only four expansion slots are available. Compaq makes its own motherboards and uses a proprietary memory-expansion card to allow for up to 16Mbytes of RAM. Benchmark scores for the 386/25e are acceptable but not outstanding. Some users may be willing to accept the Deskpro's premium price for the security of buying from a reputable vendor, but it is not the best value available in an 80386 machine. Computer Market Place Inc.: Ultra 386-25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid Computer Market Place's Ultra 386-25 microcomputer is a 25-MHz 80386-based system that costs only $2,620 when configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, VGA display adapter and Super VGA monitor. Its performance is below average for is class because it does not implement hardware memory caching. The motherboard uses discrete circuitry and a DTK ROM BIOS. Computer Market Place's service and support policies are good despite its low prices; all systems have a one-year parts and labor warranty, and the 386-25 has an 18-month warranty on the motherboard. On-site service is available through Phoenix Service Technology, and Computer Market Place offers a 45-day money back guarantee. Dell Computer corp.: Dell System 325D. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid Dell Computer Corp's Dell System 325D 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputer is fast, well designed and offers excellent service and support at a reasonable price.It sells for $4,318 configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a 190Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA adapter, Dell Super VGA color monitor and DOS 4.01. The compact case has room for one 3.5-inch drive and three 5.25-inch half-height storage devices; all motherboard circuitry is integrated, leaving all six expansion slots free. Performance on processor, memory, disk and video benchmarks is excellent. Dell sells through mail order and the Soft Warehouse retail chain and provides all service and support. On-site service is available through Xerox during the one-year warranty period, and the company provides toll-free technical support and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. The System 325D is rated an Editor's Choice. DTK Computer Inc.: DTK- Keen-2530. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid DTK Computer Inc's $3,995 Keen-2530 microcomputer is a conservative, competitively-priced 25-MHz 80386-based machine that offers a reasonable price/performance ratio. It sells for $3,995 configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, Super VGA display subsystem, Chicony keyboard and 150Mbyte hard disk. The motherboard uses discrete logic circuitry and a conventional chip set but lacks a processor RAM cache. The Keen-2530 can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM on its motherboard and has three half-height and two 3.5-inch drive bays. There are only four free expansion slots, and DOS 4.01 is the only bundled software offering. DTK does not provide on-site service. Performance is relatively slow due to the lack of a cache motherboard. GCH Systems Inc. EasyData 325HI. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid GCH Systems Inc's EasyData 325HI microcomputer is a 25-MHz, 80386-based machine that offers excellent performance at a reasonable price. It sells for $4,699 configured with a 162Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, 4Mbytes of system RAM and a 32Kbyte RAM cache. The small-footprint case offers less expandability than some competing models; only one 8-bit and three 16-bit expansion slots remain free after the disk controller, I/O card and video adapter are installed. Three half-height drive bays and two internal 3.5-inch bays are available. Users can specify either DOS 3.3 or 4.01 as well as a variety of other bundled software a Quadtel expanded memory manager, disk caching and RAM disk software and several utility programs are included. The EasyData's benchmark scores on processor, memory and disk tests are outstanding. Hewlett-Packard Co.: HP Vectra 386/25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid HP's Vectra 386/25 microcomputer is one of the most expensive 25-MHz 80386 microcomputers on the market, selling for $7,248 equipped with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 168Mbyte hard drive, 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, VGA display and graphics adapter and DOS 4.01. It uses a Chips and Technologies chip set on HP's own motherboard and an HP BIOS. The motherboard will support up to 32Mbytes of system memory using 4Mbyte SIMMs. The Vectra has six 16-bit and one 8-bit expansion slot; four of the 16-bit slots remain after the fast 16-bit video card and I/O card are installed. It is well constructed and has an especially well-designed keyboard, but its power supply puts out only 134 watts. The Vectra offers average performance, but its high price makes it worthwhile only for those users who insist on a famous brand name. National Micro Systems Inc.: Flash 386-25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid National Microsystems Inc's Flash 386-25 is a 25-Mhz 80386-based microcomputer that offers 4Mbytes of RAM, a 170Mbyte hard disk and a powerful VGA subsystem for $2,799. The case is uniquely designed to maximize the number of drive bays, having front panel cutouts for direct access to three horizontal half-height drives and one vertical 3.5-inch device. The machine uses an AMI motherboard with 64Kbytes of cache RAM and performs very well on processor and memory benchmarks. It uses discrete components and comes with a very fast Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) hard disk drive. The documentation is somewhat sparse, but the manual is informative and easy to read. National Micro Systems provides telephone technical support and a one-year warranty on parts and labor. NEC PowerMate 386/25S. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid investments for the NEC Technologies Inc's PowerMate 386/25S 80386-based 25-MHz microcomputer is relatively expensive and offers only average performance for its class. It sells for $7,177 when configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, 148Mbyte NEC 18-millisecond hard disk, DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0. The machine uses NEC's own motherboard with a Headland Technologies chip set and Phoenix BIOS with password protection. All system memory is installed on a proprietary memory card that can accommodate up to 16Mbytes of RAM in SIMM modules. Three expansion slots are available when the video board and ESDI hard disk controller are installed. The NEC's performance on benchmark tests is acceptable but not outstanding; its price/performance ratio is relatively poor. Olivetti Office USA: Olivetti M386/25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid Olivetti Office USA's M386/25 microcomputer is expensive but is very well designed and offers solid performance. It costs $8,865 configured with a 200Mbyte hard disk, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and VGA display subsystem. The 25-MHz, 80386-based machine uses a small-footprint case with integrated circuitry that allows room for up to four 3.5-inch drives. Its drives and power supply are mounted on a removable sub-chassis that allows relatively easy access to internal components. The motherboard uses Olivetti's own chips and an Intel 82385 cache controller; it holds up to 10Mbytes of RAM, and a plug-in expansion board increases this to 18Mbytes. The M386/25 has all five of its expansion slots free because the hard disk and I/O controllers are integrated. Benchmark performance is above average. Thoroughbred Microsystems Inc.: Thoroughbred 386/25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based Thoroughbred Microsystems Inc's 25-MHz 80386-based 386/25 microcomputer offers good performance at a very reasonable price of $3,985 for a system configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, two floppy disk drives and a VGA display subsystem. It uses a small-footprint case with three half-height drive bays and two vertical bays for 3.5-inch disks. The machine uses DTK's motherboard and BIOS with discrete logic and has room for up to 8Mbytes of memory on the motherboard. Benchmark performance is competitive but not spectacular. Thoroughbred uses a very good video subsystem with an Orchid ProDesigner II graphics card and 1,024 x 768-pixel multiscanning monitor. It is well designed and suitable for home use, but documentation is somewhat inadequate. Memory caching is a $199 option, but Thoroughbred provides free delivery and a two-year labor warranty. Twinhead Corp.: Twinhead Superset 600/25c. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid Twinhead Corp's Superset 600/25c 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputer costs $4,990 configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a RAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard disk, a floppy drive and a VGA subsystem. Its small-footprint case has three horizontal drive bays accessible from the front panel and two one-third-height bays in which the hard disk resides. The Superset uses a Chips and Technologies chip set attached to an active backplane instead of a motherboard and offers room for up to 16Mbytes of RAM, half on the backplane and half via a proprietary connector. Users can upgrade the CPU to an 80486 with a new processor card for $1,999. Twinhead provides a one-year warranty on parts and labor with 'fall-back' on-site service. Performance is reasonably fast, and the upgradable architecture adds considerable value. USA Flex Flex 386/25. (Hardware Review) (one of 14 evaluations of 25 MHz 80386-based microcomputers in 'Solid investments for the USA Flex's Flex 386/25 25-MHz 80386-based microcomputer offers 4Mbytes of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, two floppy disk drives, a VGA subsystem, DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 for a rock-bottom price of $2,790. Performance is relatively slow because the machine's design is conservative. The small-footprint case contains two half-height drive bays and a hard disk installed in the space usually occupied by vertical 3.5-inch bays. USA Flex includes a 200-watt power supply in the machine, and the DTK motherboard uses discrete logic. Hard disk and video performance is adequate but not outstanding. Users can place up to 8Mbytes of memory on the motherboard. The Flex 386/25 suffers from somewhat inadequate documentation, but the company's service and support policies are solid. The product has a one-year parts and labor warranty, with telephone diagnosis and third-party on-site service. dBASE IV, version 1.1: a new beginning? (Software Review) (evaluation) Ashton-Tate's new dBASE IV 1.1, the long-awaited upgrade to the company's flagship relational database management system, fixes the bugs that made version 1.0 almost unusable. While reliable, the new version does not stand out against such formidable competition as Borland International Inc's Paradox and Fox Software's FoxPro. The Control Center feature now has more accessible menus, but it is relatively difficult and less productive than the interfaces of competing products. Ashton-Tate provides query by example (QBE) capability, but users cannot view other tables while filling out a QBE form. QBE is integrated into the Control Center. New development features include improved support for user-defined functions (UDFs), commands for moving screen images to and from memory variables and the ability to use UDFs in place of any valid dBASE expression. dBASE IV 1.1 requires less RAM than its predecessor, running in as little as 450Kbytes of available RAM. It runs a special version of the HyperWare HyperDisk caching software and offers a considerably improved implementation of Structured Query Language. Owners of dBASE IV 1.0 will want to upgrade to the new version, but those committed to flexible implementations of the dBASE language should look elsewhere. Envelope printers cut your costs. (Hardware Review) (overview of three evaluations of envelope printers)(includes related articles Four printers designed specifically for printing envelopes are reviewed: Datatech Inc's $5,195 Scriptomatic DP 1185, Primages Inc's $3,000 JE-1000 Envelope Addressing System, Bryce Office Systems' $3,295 BOS 1200 and Rena Systems Inc's $3,995 Rena DA-300. All the printers speed mail sorting and processing and can print 'Postnet' bar codes, letting users take advantage of Postal Service discounts for bar-coded mail. None of the products earns an Editor's Choice rating, although all four are solid and reliable; the essentially identical Primages and Bryce printer offers the best print quality but have the smallest capacity. The Datatech has the highest input capacity but is considerably more expensive than the others. The Rena is very fast in draft mode but slower than the Datatech when printing in near-letter-quality mode. Datatech Inc.: Datatech Scriptomatic DP1185. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of envelope printers in 'Envelope Datatech Inc's Scriptomatic DP1185 envelope printer costs $5,195 when equipped with the optional Postnet bar code capability but has a very large capacity. It uses standard dot matrix technology with a 24-pin printhead and calls its two modes 'near letter quality' and 'high resolution.' The front panel controls are powerful, and the printer can handle 700 envelopes in its large hopper. Users can set horizontal and vertical offsets with two dials. The DP1185 is very easy to set up, and little adjustment is necessary for most uses. Formatting data output is somewhat tricky; users must repeat the ZIP code on a separate line after the address in order to convert it to Postnet format. The printer performs flawlessly and is ideal for large-volume environments. Primages Inc.: JE-1000 Envelope Addressing System; Bryce Office Systems Inc: BOS 1200. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations Primages Inc's $3,000 JE-1000 Envelope Addressing System and Bryce Office Systems Inc's $3,295 BOS 1200 are two essentially identical envelope printers that use daisy-wheel technology to provide high-quality output. The printer comes with a special print wheel that generates crisp, clean bar codes at a fairly high speed. Print quality resembles that of a typewriter. The Primages/Bryce takes 5.32 seconds to print an envelope, an acceptable speed. The envelope feeder has a capacity of only 100 envelopes, and paper size is somewhat restricted. Its implementation of Postnet bar codes is elegant. The Primages/Bryce printer is an excellent choice for those whose volume is modest and for whom output quality is important. Seiko SmartLabel printer: the little labeler. (Hardware Review) (Seiko SmartLabel) (evaluation) Seiko Instruments USA's $250 Smart Label Printer is a small, special-purpose device that prints only labels. It measures only about 6.3 x 3.6 x 6.2 inches and uses a roll of special 3.5 x 2.1-inch adhesive labels that cost $10 for two rolls of 130 labels each. The printer is most useful for single labels and short mailing lists; it plugs directly into any serial port on an IBM PC or Macintosh and includes a terminate and stay resident driver. Users can choose between Serif and Sans Serif fonts and alter type style or boldness. The Smart Label Printer can print any ASCII file. The printer is slow, and its output quality is rough. Its low price may nevertheless make it attractive for some users. Rena Systems Inc.: Rena DA-300. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of envelope printers in 'Envelope printers cut your Rena Systems Inc's $3,995 DA-300 envelope printer costs $3,995 and has an open slot to mark its paper path; it does not suffer from the paper-width limitations of competing products. It is very fast in draft mode, printing an envelope in only 2.42 seconds, but it is slower than the competing Datatech unit in near letter quality mode and its 9-pin printhead does not offer the superior output quality of a 24-pin or daisywheel printer. Setup is easy; the unit weighs only 31 pounds. It has an eight-key front panel with indicator lights. Users must format data files for the printer by repeating the zip code and placing two blank lines between it and the address block. Speed and paper handling are the main advantages of the DA-300. LAN memory management. (Software Review) (overview of five evaluations of software products for managing local area network Five memory-management software packages for local area networks are reviewed. Network operating systems such as NetWare and VINES consume 100Kbytes or more of system memory in order to run their transport layers, redirectors and application program interfaces. Today's microcomputers offer conventional, extended and expanded memory, each of which is used differently by processors. The 80286 and 80386 processors can use a 64Kbyte block of memory above 1Mbyte; DOS can only address 640Kbytes, an area known as conventional memory. Extended memory is accessible on 286 machines only when running a protected mode operating system. 80386- and 80486-based machines also offer 32-bit addressing. A technical description of extended and expanded memory is presented. Helix Software's NetRoom, which lets users load some NetWare files into high DOS memory between 640Kbytes and 1Mbyte, is rated an Editor's Choice. AboveLAN. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of local area network memory management software in 'LAN memory management.') Above Software's $495-per-server AboveLAN memory management program for local are network administrators is compatible with all microcomputer types and lets users load the NET3/NET4 files from Novell NetWare into extended memory but does not require expanded memory hardware. Installation is very easy, and the menu-driven interface is intuitive. A $119 single-user version called AboveLAN with AboveDisc comes bundled with several other memory management utilities; one program displays system and memory configuration data, while another checks the amount of expanded or extended memory available and another works as a Lotus 1-2-3 add-in. Above Disc breaks the 640Kbyte DOS barrier on 80286, 80386 and 80486 systems without requiring hardware. The package increases available RAM on each network workstation by 36.7Kbytes, although it is only a partial memory management solution. LANSpace. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of local area network memory management software in 'LAN memory management.') LANSystems Inc's LANSpace 1.8 memory management software for local area networks is somewhat redundant since Novell has included most of its capabilities in the NetWare 3.01 shell, but the program coexists comfortably with other memory management packages and does have some distinguishing features. It requires less space than the NetWare shell and simplifies the loading of Novell's NetBIOS emulation program. LANSpace requires only 672 bytes of conventional memory to place NetWare drivers in expanded memory; NetWare requires 6Kbytes. It saves 37.6Kbytes of conventional RAM and automatically updates itself on each network workstation once installed on the file server. LANSystems uses a copy-protection scheme that requires users to register within 30 days of the installation date to receive a code that will keep the program functional after that time period. LANSpace is priced at $495 per file server. NetRoom. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of local area network memory management software in 'LAN memory management.') Helix Software's NetRoom memory-management software for local area networks is an outstanding product that offers high-end features at a very low price. It costs $149 for a four-user version and $595 for a 100-user version, duplicating many features of the standalone HeadRoom program while emphasizing the moving of network drivers such as IPX and NET3/NET4 into high DOS memory. It has a unique data swapping feature for accessing information stored in extended and expanded memory and saves 49.8Kbytes of conventional RAM for applications. The package does suffer from some drawbacks; swapping data in and out takes time and is not compatible with all multitasking environments, and throughput is somewhat slower with NetRoom running. The program provides a series of diagnostics at installation time by checking system configuration. It is rated an Editor's Choice. QEMM-386. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of local area network memory management software in 'LAN memory management.') Quarterdeck Office Systems' QEMM-386 5.1 memory management software is an 80386-specific product that gives users considerable flexibility when working with graphical interfaces. Numerous memory-resident programs, network drivers and network redirectors can be placed in the high DOS memory area, but no other program can access the region simultaneously. It nevertheless offers a very good price/performance ratio at $99.95. The optimization program for reading CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files does not always function properly on complex machines, and the system can freeze under some conditions. It allows the simultaneous use of the DESQview 386 and Microsoft Windows interfaces. Quarterdeck does not offer a LAN-specific pricing scheme. 386MAX. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of local area network memory management software in 'LAN memory management.') Qualitas Inc's $130 386MAX memory-management package is excessively rigid in its approach, forcing LAN users to take drastic steps before any conventional memory can be freed up. Its installation package, Maximize, includes an analysis and configuration program that loads as many file as possible into high DOS memory and rearranges pockets of memory to make them more contiguous. Maximize is inflexible; users cannot change drivers or utilities in the machine without running 386MAX again. A 'FlexFrame' feature is designed to free the memory used by such programs as Novell's IPX only during initialization. 386MAX has some compatibility problems with certain network adapters. Vector file-conversion utilities. (Software Review) (overview of four evaluations of graphics file conversion software)(includes Four conversion utilities for translating graphics files between different vector formats are reviewed: Inset Systems' HiJaak, Zenographics' Import and Import for Windows, and Micrografx Inc's Xport. All the programs can convert data between the EPS format, used in publishing applications, and the CGM format popular with presentation-graphics software vendors. Some vectors, especially Bezier curves, are not supported by all formats; programs can get around this problem by 'mapping' curve definitions into different forms and simulation. HiJaak, which handles a wide variety of vector and bit-mapped formats and has very robust translation algorithms, is rated an Editor's Choice. CGM: the nonstandard standard. (Computer Graphics Metafile) Murphy, Paul. The Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) format was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) but has been modified by software vendors despite its intended position as an all-encompassing public standard for vector graphics files. CGM supports line, fill area, polygon and text graphics primitives, each of which may have such attributes as line color, style, hatch pattern, and character formatting. It is a true metafile format and can incorporate both bitmapped and vector objects. The lack of minimum standards for the number of CGM features an application must support leads to incompatibilities among different CGM implementations; impatient software developers add proprietary fills, markers and other objects which CGM interpreters in competing programs cannot recognize. The task of writing CGM generators that implement the full ANSI specification is daunting, and many programs that claim to import and export CGM files actually handle only a subset of the standard. Vendors are nevertheless aware of the variations and are improving their import/export filters to make CGM more compatible across programs. The format may eventually become obsolete as Microsoft Windows gains popularity, because all Windows applications support the native Windows Metafile (WMF) format. HiJaak. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of vector graphics file conversion software in 'Vector file-conversion Inset Systems' $199 HiJaak 2.0 vector-graphics file conversion software handles a comprehensive list of both vector and bit-mapped graphics formats and offers powerful, accurate conversion routines. The current version has a redesigned SAA-compliant interface and strong batch-mode processing. It supports .CGM, .DXF, HPGL, .EPS, .GEM, Lotus .PIC, .WMF, .PCL, WordPerfect .WPG, Presentation Manager Metafile vector formats as well as .TIFF, .PCX, .GIF, Halo .CUT, Targa .TGA, GEM .IMG, and MacPaint .MAC bit-mapped formats. The program also recognizes 19 different fax file formats. HiJaak is the only one of four utilities reviewed that can convert vector formats to bitmapped formats. Processing options include the ability to preserve named text, select fonts, and simulate Bezier curves with three different widths of curve segments. The program suffers from some severe bugs and tends to crash or freeze when the hard disk runs out of swap space. Inset Systems says that most of these bugs will be fixed in the next version. The product is rated an Editor's Choice. Import. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of vector graphics file conversion software in 'Vector file-conversion Zenographics Inc's $295 Import 4.0 suffers from an anachronistic function-key driven user interface and does not let users search for files through subdirectories or specify a new file name for converted images. Users can nevertheless access all features directly from the DOS prompt and use command line parameters. Import handles .CGM, HPGL, and Lotus .PIC format as well as AutoCAD's SLD and .ADI formats and AutoShade's .RND format as well as .DXF. The program's file handling is nevertheless somewhat weak. Import has an odd feature set with some file pointers that work only with Zenographics' Mirage program and lacks sophisticated control over CGM file options. Its maps are also incompatible with some applications. Import is severely flawed; those who have Windows should opt for a competing product or for Zenographics' more sophisticated Import for Windows Import for Windows. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of vector graphics file conversion software in 'Vector Zenographics Inc's $295 Import for Windows graphics-conversion utility is specific to the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and uses the memory and disk spooling features of Windows effectively. Users can send translated files directly to any printer, and the program can readily display images on-screen because it converts files to Windows' native .WMF format. Import for Windows lets the user zoom in on an image at 2, 4, 8 or 16 times magnification; has efficient on-screen previews and an option for creating a one-to-one relationship between screen pixels and printed dots; and lets user collect source files for batch processing. Import for Windows can interpret many file formats but exports files only in Windows and ANSI CGM formats. The program is easy to learn and use, but its inability to handle complex curves is a severe limitation. XPort. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of vector graphics file conversion software in 'Vector file-conversion Micrografx Inc's $199 XPort 1.1 vector-graphics conversion utility supports only .CGM, .DXF and .GEM formats in addition to its own .DRW format and cannot convert EPS or Windows Metafile despite the fact that it runs under XPort itself runs under Microsoft Windows. It is easy to use but lacks user control over text conversion. The batch processing mode in XPort is very flexible, and file translation requires only that users select a source file type from the Input menu and a destination file type from the Output menu along with processing options. XPort can theoretically determine the quality of a simulated curve, but this feature does not work in practice; Bezier curves in destination .CGM files are coarse. XPort is not recommended. LAN backup software. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of backup packages for local area networks)(includes related article Four backup software packages for local area networks are reviewed: Cheyenne Software Inc's ARCserve, Novell Inc's NBackup, Sterling Software's DMS/1B and United Software Security Inc's TakeTwo Manager. All the programs are hardware-independent and let the user select any type of device to back up to, including a floppy disk, tape or WORM drive or alternate hard disk drive. TakeTwo, DMS/1B and NBackup all run as foreground applications; ARCServe performs backup as a background task. ARCServe is rated an Editor's Choice, although it is the most expensive of the four products at $1,195 and up. ARCserve. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of local area network backup software in 'LAN backup software.') (evaluation) Cheyenne Software's ARCserve 2.1C backup software for local area networks can back up both file servers and client workstations to a single shared device and runs automatically in either foreground or background mode. It costs $1,195 in a version for Advanced NEtWare 286 and $1,895 for a NetWare 386 version. The program consists of a memory-resident workstation module, ARCserve Manager, and the ARCserve Server program which the user installs on the file server. Installation is automated, and the Manager program includes job scheduling, queue management and backup transaction tracking features. Users can select either full backup or incremental backup, which backs up only those files that have been changed. ARCserve is flexible and powerful and is rated an Editor's Choice despite its relatively high price. Finding electronic vaults and network wonders. (Software Review) (products for managing archived files on local area networks) United Software Security Inc's $299 PC Librarian 2.0 and Cheyenne Software's $245 NetBack 2.0 are two utility programs designed fr managing file archives on local area networks. Both programs archive, track manage and restore backed-up files which cannot be in constant use but need to be saved nevertheless. PC Librarian places old or inactive files on a separate piece of storage media and maintains an index of those files on the file server or hard disk of an individual microcomputer. It is very easy to install and has a pull-down menu interface; file encryption and password protection provide security. NetBack specializes in restoring archived information from a 'VaultFile' to a crashed server. The program provides in-depth reports as well as flexible file management and network communication utilities. It generates group listings, details security information and allows broadcast messages to users. Each program addresses different needs; NEtBack is the more LAN-oriented of the two because it supports the Novell NetWare Bindery. NBackup. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of local area network backup software in 'LAN backup software.') (evaluation) Novell Inc's NBackup 1.2, which is bundled with the Advanced NetWare 286 and NetWare 386 local area network operating systems, is a backup program for LANs that has basic but effective features. It can move selected data to any DOS device or to a Wangtek tape drive and backs up data files on NetWare 386 networks. Novell intends NBackup as an 'interim' program for users who have not yet purchased more sophisticated bakcup packages, and the company does not plan to improve it in the future. NBackup is very easy to install, offers context-sensitive help and uses an 'exploding menu' interface. It offers both full and incremental backups and keeps a log of every backup and restore session. NBackup is a rudimentary but effective program. DMS/IB. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of local area network backup software in 'LAN backup software.') (evaluation) Sterling Software's DMS/IB (Disk Management System/Intelligent Backup) 3.2 backup software for local area networks performs incremental backups automatically while still allowing full-backup options through its menu interface. The program ignores files that have not changed since the last full backup and offers comprehensive file management features. Its on-line help is excellent, and installation is very easy. Users can customize each backup session, changing the destination drive and choosing whether or not to use data compression and how often to back up. DMS/IB offers many disk manipulation and file maintenance functions, including copying, renaming, and deleting files or subdirectories and changing file attributes. It keeps history files and indexes every backup. The program is a good value at $100 for a single user or $75 per copy for groups of 50 or more users. TakeTwo Manager. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of local area network backup software in 'LAN backup software.') United Software Security's $139 Take Two Manager local area network backup software is easy to use and lets LAN users back up files from either a network file server or standalone microcomputer. Files can be transferred to any DOS-compatible device, and installation is very easy. Users should configure backup routines during the initial installation for best results. TakeTwo Manager keeps files in native DOS format and lets users restore data using the DOS COPY or XCOPY command, but its own menu-selected restoration option is recommended. The program tells users how many floppy disks will be needed for a particular backup process and has many file and directory management tools. Take Two Manager requires 256Kbytes of RAM to run on each workstation in applications mode, and the memory-resident file manager program requires an additional 256Kbytes. Take Two is a flexible and convenient package. Power directors: convenience plus protection. (Hardware Review) (overview of 16 evaluations of power conditioning Sixteen power directors for microcomputers are reviewed. All the products combine the functions of a standard power strip with surge suppression and noise filtration circuitry and contain circuit breakers to protect against electrical overload. Each also offers protection against static electricity and costs between $100 and $750. Surges and spikes are sudden voltage increases in a power line that can destroy electrical equipment. The amount of protection a surge protector provides is measured in 'pass through voltage' and is governed by the UL 1449 standard; a power director with a UL 1449 rating is desirable. Additional features in some models include low-voltage warnings, remote control capability, large numbers of outlets and long power cords. The Kensington MasterPiece Plus and Tandy Power Switching System are rated Editor's Choices. Black Box Corp.: Power Control Center SP200A. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: Black Box Corp's $170 Power Control Center SP200A power director provides basic surge protection, noise control and six power outlets as well as some additional convenience features. It has a master switch that directly controls two outlets and a power-up indicator light that turns red if the surge protection circuitry fails or is damaged. The six-foot power cord is unusually short, and users must plug modem transformers into the rightmost outlet because the outlets are only one-half inch apart. The SP200A does have a large swivel base and is sturdily constructed. It is a good value despite its relatively high list price. Curtis Manufacturing Co. Inc.: Curtis Command Center SPF-4. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in Curtis Manufacturing Co's $150 Curtis Command Center SPF-1 power director provides all essential surge-protection features but is not robust enough for heavy-duty use. It allows only a 10-ampere load and has a short seven-foot power cord. The unit has five vertically-installed outlets and two modem/fax protection jacks. Its swivel base is removable but tends to rotate every time the user presses the right-end-mounted master switch. Three circuit boards control surge and noise suppression, modem protection and outlet mounting. The Curtis Command Center is a good choice for light needs, but its circuit breaker may trip if too many high-powered devices are plugged into it. EFI Electronics Corp.: EDP-2000 TLS. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: convenience EFI Electronic Corp's $170 EDP-2000 TLS is a very basic power director that provides surge protection to modems and fax machines and includes a foil static-elimination device. The unit has five rocker switches on its front panel that control six outlets on the back; the master switch directly controls two outlets. It lacks a modular phone cable, a minor omission. The EDP-2000's internal circuitry is solid, and its construction is sturdy. It is a workhorse unit that will not dissatisfy many users but is not the best value available in a power director. Kensington Microware Ltd.: Kensington MasterPiece. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power Kensington Microware Ltd's $150 MasterPiece power director is a basic unit that provides all essential features but offers few extras. It has five outlets with individual switches, strong switch noise suppression and a removable swivel base as well as a chrome nameplate that discharges static electricity. The switches do not have a firm feel, but the outlets are clearly labeled. Kensington provides a long 8.5-foot power cord , but the MasterPiece has a 12-amp rating that limits the number of devices users can power up simultaneously The sturdy plastic case can support any standard monitor. Kensington Microware Ltd.: Kensington MasterPiece Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power Kensington Microware Ltd's $160 MasterPiece Plus power director combines the same basic features as its MasterPiece sibling but is a better choice because it adds extra features for a price premium of only $10. It includes modem/fax surge suppression, a low voltage detector and 7 feet of modular telephone wire. An LED flashes and an audible alarm sounds when power-line voltage drops below 104 volts, and an extra circuit board provides modem/fax protection. The MasterPiece Plus shares the MasterPiece's relatively low 12-amp rating, which may limit the number of devices that can be used with it. This minor disadvantage will not handicap many users, and the MasterPiece Plus is rated an Editor's Choice. Kensington Microware Ltd.: Kensington MasterPiece 400. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power Kensington Microware Ltd's $100 MasterPiece 400 is a very compact, light-duty power director with a 10-ampere load rating, which places a practical limitation on the number and type of devices that can be powered up simultaneously. It has four large pushbutton switches on the front panel and a static-eliminator touchplate on its nameplate. A switched power-supply cord can be connected directly to the back of the microcomputer, replacing the PC's own power cord and one of the normal four outlets. The MasterPiece 400 has only a 5.5-foot power cord, which many users will find inconvenient. Its light weight makes it tend to move around when the user pushes buttons. The MasterPiece 400 is recommended only for those with very light-duty needs. Perma Power Electronics Inc.: Power Commander RS 562. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power Perma Power Electronics Inc's $138 Power Commander RS 562 offers excellent features at a remarkably low price. It includes six outlets, one of which is unswitched; high levels of surge and noise protection; a 12-foot power cord; and a rugged plastic case. Its six large, lighted rocker switches all have a positive feel; the master switch is separated from the others to prevent users turning it of by accident. The machine has a UL 1449 voltage rating and is extremely well constructed. Stick-on labels let users custom label the switches and outlets. The Power Commander's only key omission is modem/fax surge suppression. Perma Power Electronics INc.: Power Commander II RS 562-4. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in Perma Power Electronics Inc's $202 Power Commander II RS 562-4 power director is based on the company's Power Commander but includes many additional features in its premium price. The unit has UL 1449 voltage and 15-amp load ratings, modem/fax surge suppression, and power-line monitoring that protects against over-voltage conditions. LED indicators show the status of the line current and provide a warning of low voltage. The Power Commander II RS 562-4 shares its sibling's sturdy construction, but one whisker wire from the LED board presses against the static-eliminator plate in a fragile connection. It is otherwise an excellent unit. Proxima Computer Accessories Corp.: Proxima Power Director Plus P15. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors Proxima Computer Accessories Corp's $160 Power Director Plus P15 offers five switched outlets, surge suppression for modems and fax machines, plenty of line surge and noise suppression and a sturdy metal case. Its seven-foot power cord is short, but the switches and indicator lights are clearly labeled. A nameplate on the left side acts as a static eliminator, and users can install a peripheral-sharing switch box inside the power director unit. All electrical connections are solid, and the switches have a firm feel. The Proxima's peak UL 1449 rating is 330 volts, an acceptable figure in a well-constructed device. SL Waber Inc.: Electronic Power Center/150. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: SL Waber Inc's $190 Electronic Power Center/150 power director offers solid sure and noise suppression and adds protection against brownout conditions. Its five push-button switches have indicator lights and a good feel; each switch directly controls one outlet. The case contains a sensor that monitors line voltage and shuts off all power if the voltage is low enough to threaten damage. A status light lets the user know when it is safe to restart the system. other features include a battery-operated LCD clock, static-eliminator nameplate, and jacks arranged so that the user can plug a modem transformer into the right-most outlet without obstructing other outlets. The internal components are not as sturdy as some, but the unit has a UL 1449 rating of 400 volts peak and is an excellent device despite its minor limitations. SL Waber Inc.: Turn-On 1003-PC. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: convenience SL Waber Inc's $325 Turn-On 1003-PC power director is an oversize aluminum-clad power strip that provides both system and phone/modem surge suppression and can be operated by remote control. It is nevertheless an expensive special-purpose device intended for those with unusual needs. The strip has six outlets and telephone jacks; four outlets are designed for peripherals, while one is dedicated to the microcomputer system. It has a sensor outlet that switches on the five other outlets whenever the user activates the monitor and can be connected to the modem for remote operation. The Turn-On has only a 6-foot power cord and a 10-amp load rating; its UL 1449 rating is 400 volts peak. SL Waber has designed a unique power strip, but the unit is not a good value for most users. Tandy Corp.: Deluxe Power Center 26-1396. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: Tandy Corp's $70 Deluxe Power Center 26-1396 is an oversized power strip that includes a sensor outlet for switching on an entire system every time the user turns on the monitor. It does not offer individual outlet control or modem/fax surge suppression but is a bargain in a basic unit. Surge and noise suppression circuitry protects all six outlets; the circuits are somewhat lightweight but have a generous 15-ampere load limit. An indicator light shows when the surge suppressor is working; a low-power sensor shuts off the entire unit if line voltage falls below 70 volts. This threshold is too low to guarantee hard disk protection from brownouts. Tripp Lite Inc.: Command Console CCI 6 Plus. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: Tripp Lite Inc's $139 Command Console CCI 6 Plus power director offers basic functionality at a relatively low price. It includes five switched outlets and one unswitched outlet for a fax machine; five illuminated switches with a positive feel; and an LED that indicates the surge suppressor is working properly. Outlets and jacks are identified by labels on a long piece of tape, which has an annoying tendency to come loose. All surge-suppression circuitry is solidly mounted and neatly connected, but the peak voltage rating is 500 volts. Tripp Lite says newly-manufactured Command Consoles now have a UL rating of 330 volts peak; buyers should check the label on the package. Using HPPCL to get the most from your laser printer. (Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language) (Lab Notes) (tutorial) Aguide to adding support for HP's Printer Control Language (PCL) page-description language to applications is presented. PCL is the sophisticated but cryptic language used in the company's popular LaserJet line of laser printers. It has been revised many times since the introduction of the first LaserJet in 1984; the most recent version is Level V, supported in the LaserJet III model. Other current LaserJets support Level IV. Not all models that use the same general PCl level support all of the same commands. PCL command structures consist of escape sequences which may be two-character or parameterized sequences. Most PCL commands are parameterized, using a group of characters divided by an ESC and a # sign that sets the left margin. Tips for using escape sequences are presented, along with techniques for incorporating orientation and print direction commands into programs. LZSELECT: laser printer control the easy way. (Utilities)(includes related articles on grouping ESC commands, usingprinter macros, LZSELECT, a memory-resident utility that pops up a menu of laser-printer commands from within most applications, is presented. The program is available for downloading on the PC MagNet on-line service and is written in the BASIC programming language. It does not use any data or configuration files and can be run from any DOS directory. Alt-key combinations or function keys access most of its features. The program does not impose rules on the user's command selections; users must exercise care to place items in the proper order. LZSELECT simplifies font selection and provides a variety of cursor and text commands. An introduction to color selection in windows. (Environments) (tutorial) A guide to programming the color palette in the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is presented. The Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) has a palette manager essentially similar to that in the OS/2 Graphical Programming Interface (GPI), but Windows only supports three graphics primitives from which color can be set: lines, text and filled areas. Windows programmers specify color with a 32-bit integer under the DWORD data type. A header file containing four macros for working with color values is presented. Most video adapters used for running Windows today can display only 16 colors simultaneously; additional colors are simulated through dithering algorithms. A technical description of how GDI manages lines, pens and colors is presented. GDI selects colors using logical 'pen' objects, while GPI uses line-color attributes. Logical 'brushes' and color querying are discussed. The Note Processor: flexible data entry yields attractive musical output. (Software Review) (Thoughtprocessors Note Processor Thoughtprocessors' The Note Processor 2.1 music printing program uses indirect control to place its wide variety of musical symbols on staves instead of attempting to represent sheet music graphically. It does have a graphics screen editor that lets users work with a mouse, but music can also be recorded from a MIDI keyboard or typed in using a text-based language called Digital Alternate Representation of Musical Scores (DARMS). DARMS represents music in ASCII format for compact storage of even complex rhythms and counterpoints. The Note Processor uses a basic 8-track MIDI sequencer to record parts played on a keyboard; the sequencer is provided only for recording purposes and is not full-featured. The program nevertheless reads and writes standard MIDI files and can share files with dedicated sequencing packages. DARMS is the most efficient way to store complicated scores; most word processing programs fit within The Note Processor's DOS shell. It converts DARMS and MIDI files into graphics 'Page' files using standard music-engraving rules. The graphics editor provides a true WYSIWYG display and prints music effectively. . Output is excellent on a laser printer and very readable on a 24-pin dot matrix printer. Utility coaxes CD-audio out of your ROM drive. (Software Review) (Tranton Systems Music Box) (evaluation) Trantor Systems' $59 Music Box utility program lets users play audio CDs on CD-ROM drives. It provides most of the features of audio-only CD players, including random 'shuffle' play, programming of specific tracks, repeat play and forward and backward search. The program displays a digital readout of the time remaining on a disk, time remaining on a track and elapsed track time. Users can select audio channels, pause tracks and choose playback options using on-screen 'buttons.' Pressing the ESC key terminates the program, but exiting the program does not terminate play because CD-ROM players essentially run audio in the background. Music Box unfortunately lacks the ability to program the playing sequence and odes not support WIndows 3.0. It is nevertheless more flexible than the utilities provided with most CD-ROM drives. The grand sweep of U.S. history on a single CD-ROM. (Software Review) (Bureau Development Inc database of history Bureau Development Inc's $395 U.S. History on CD-ROM contains the complete text of 100 books on United States history and comes with a powerful, straightforward retrieval software package. Users can read the books without recourse to the manual. Titles on the disk range from Benson Lossing's 'Our Country' textbook to such obscure publications as 'Military Leadership of the North and South.' Some lesser-known history facts are missing, and the program is stronger on wars, government and military history than on commerce, biographies, arts and natural history. U.S. History on CD-ROM is nevertheless an excellent research tool for historians, libraries, schools and others. Kensington Microware Ltd.: Kensington MasterPiece Remote. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in Kensington Microware Ltd's $170 MasterPiece Remote power director uses an innovative design that allows remote operation. It has a long nine-foot power cord, five outlets, two modular phone jacks for fax/modem protection and a female 9-pin connector for its wired remote control unit. The device can be mounted on a wall in either an upright or horizontal position. Its 6 x 2 x 1-inch remote control unit is connected with a 7-foot control wire, limiting the area in which users can place the remote in relation to the power director itself. The remote has three push buttons and four indicator lights, one of which shows when the surge suppressor is working. The master switch directly controls two outlets. One drawback is the flimsy plastic case of the remote. Perma Power Electronics INc.: Remote Controlled Surge Suppressor RW-500. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power Perma Power Electronics Inc's $100 Remote Controlled Surge Suppressor RW-500 power director is essentially a metal-clad power strip with a sensor outlet; its peak UL 1449 rating is only 600 volts. Its sensor outlet acts as an on/off switch and is set at 25 watts, which will work with most microcomputers and peripherals. The load rating of 15 amperes can handle most peripherals, but the unit is not recommended because its surge suppression is barely adequate and modem/fax protection is lacking entirely. The lack of individually switched outlets is also a significant disadvantage. Tandy Corp.: Power Switching System 26-203A. (Hardware Review) (one of 16 evaluations of power directors in 'Power directors: Tandy Corp's $100 Power Switching System 26-203A power director offers all essential features except modem/fax surge suppression and is often available at a bargain price. The master switch turns on power to the unit but does not control any outlets; each of the five outlets has its own tiny push button switch. The six outlets have vertical slots and are widely spaced to allow room for plugging in a modem transformer. The 16-gauge wiring is light, but does not affect the 15-ampere load rating. Surge and noise suppression is rated by Tandy at a solid 340 volts peak. The Power Switching System is rated an Editor's Choice because it is an exceptional value. Cellular's growth spurt is put on hold by recession, changing demographics. (Marketing) The cellular communications industry, while still rapidly expanding compared to other mature industries, is facing a slowdown in the face of the recession and changing industry demographics. Most analysts predict the industry will experience 1991 growth in the neighborhood of 20 percent to 25 percent, down from the 40 percent to 60 percent growth of recent years. Not only are customers signing on to cellular service at a slower rate, but existing customers are using the service less than in previous years. The average customer who once spent 250 minutes a month on the cellular phone now spends between 120 and 175 minutes a month. Analysts say the recession has changed people's attitudes towards the phones, no longer are they regarded as status symbols and toys, but rather as just another expense. Microsoft confirms plans for Windows, but OS/2 will stay. (microcomputer operating systems) Microsoft Corp states that contrary to rumours, the company will not discontinue future development of the OS/2 operating system. Instead the firm will continue marketing products under the OS/2 name, and its future operating systems will support applications written using OS/2 specifications. However, the future operating systems based on the Windows interface will not be compatible with Presentation Manager, a graphical user interface developed in conjunction with IBM. Microsoft might be pledging support for OS/2 to protect IBM's investment. Steve Ballmer, representing Microsoft's system software division, confirms that he recently told applications designers to 'target new development at Windows.' IBM, BellSouth to conduct 3-year study of high-speed networking technologies. IBM and BellSouth Corp's BellSouth Services unit announce they will work together on a three-year study to research and develop products and services involving high-speed data communications. The research will center around IBM's 'Paris' packet-switching technology, for transmitting voice, data, image and multimedia information. Paris technology uses Synchronous Optical Network techniques that produce throughput of up to 622M-bps. The companies plan to test different applications of the high-speed technology to determine which will be valuable in real world situations. The companies say they have not decided what applications will be tested, but field tests will begin by the end of 1991. BellSouth reports earnings fell 23% in fourth quarter. Carnevale, Mary Lu. BellSouth Corp and Southern New England Telecommunications Corp report their earnings for the 4th qtr 1990 are down. BellSouth's 4th qtr 1990 net income declined 23 percent to $360.2 million from $469 million for the comparable period a year ago. Revenue for the quarter is up to $3.65 billion from $3.62 billion a year ago. BellSouth reports telephone line growth of 3.2 percent while its cellular business shows a 59 percent increase its customer base over all of 1990. Southern New England Telecommunications reports net income for its 4th qtr 1990 of $35.7 million, down from $41.1 million for the same period a year ago. For all of 1990, the firm reports net income of $126.6 million versus $189.1 million for 1989. The second comeback of Apple: a management shuffle and hot new products have it shining again. (Apple Computer Inc.)(Information Apple Computer Inc's recent management shakeup, new products and lower prices have revived the company's sales, market share, stock performance and outlook. Apple's $999 Macintosh Classic sold 200,000 units in the last three months of 1990, and sales of 700,000 units are projected for 1991. Software developers anticipate high demand for inexpensive Macintosh software. Apple's 45 percent gross profit margin on the Mac Classic is lower than its typical 60 percent margin, and Apple is working to outbid competitors Tandy Corp and IBM to regain its dominant share of the education market. Apple's sales are predicted to rise 18 percent in 1991, but the company must reduce its expenses to make even a five percent increase in earnings. Analysts say that Apple must produce new products and maintain relatively low pricing in order to avoid another setback. Cellular phones: the static is getting louder; an industry battle is delaying the much-needed switch to digital. Cellular telephone service is scheduled to switch from analog to digital networks in late 1991, but uncertainty about the new digital cellular standard may delay the conversion until 1992 or 1993. Digital networks accommodate more users and eliminate static than the current analog networks, but if more than one standard is adopted, cellular equipment vendors must increase costs by making several versions of their products. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) has accepted the time division multiple access (TDMA) standard, but Qualcomm Inc's code division multiple access (CDMA) technology reportedly eliminates interference and increases network capacity. Extended TDMA (E-TDMA) uses methods similar to CDMA but remains compatible with TMDA. Motorola Inc.'s improved analog system, Narrow Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS), is attractive because it is less expensive than digital standards. Bits & Bytes. Eng, Paul M. GammaGraphX Inc's System 2000 stores PostScript images of books on laser disks to save storage fees and reprinting costs. Japan's Construction Ministry has not made official topographical maps available to Etak Inc, which produces computer-graphic maps for use in computerized locators. The US postal rate increase to 29 cents may increase the popularity of electronic mail systems, which charge about $1 for a two-page message and provide instant delivery. A 25 to 30 percent increase in the 10 million users of e-mail is predicted for 1991. Microsoft Corp and Go Corp are competing to produce software for computers using pens for input and output. Microsoft's Pen Windows and Go's Pen Point are expected to be delivered in late 1991 or early 1992. Glatt Plagiarism Services Inc offers software that eliminates every fifth word of a paper. Students who cannot reconstruct their papers are presumed plagiarists. Networking showstoppers: ComNet to pack internetwork punch. (Communications Networks '91) (includes a related article on Rad The Communication Networks '91 (ComNet) trade show in Washington, DC, on Feb 1, 1991, will highlight local-area networks, international telecommunications services and internetworking products. A variety of computer- and voice-network technologies will be demonstrated. Internetworking solution providers include SynOptics Communications Inc, AT&T, Network computing Inc, Codex Corp, and Hewlett-Packard Co. Users unite to aid open systems: networking showstoppers. (includes a related article on the European community's selection Representatives of the world's largest open-systems user groups formed a coalition to push for the adoption of open operating system and networking technologies. Three general goals were agreed upon: provide education and training assistance, create a common process for voicing networking requirements, and speed the arrival of interoperable computer and network products. These issues were raised by the User Alliance for Open Systems during 1990. The group reflects the strongest industry trend: a move toward open, standards-based computer systems and enterprise networks. A practice in patience. (includes a related article on constructing the global network) (buying and building global Many companies are expanding their communications networks internationally, but it takes time. Aggressive work is needed by the communications carriers to deploy a sophisticated worldwide telecommunications architecture that makes it easier to obtain services throughout the world. US network managers are frustrated in setting up network connections overseas. A pan-European intelligent network will not be in place before 1996, and may never be established. It could be the next century before the Pacific Rim sees a sophisticated network infrastructure in place. War and video: fear of traveling leads to an increase in the use of videoconferencing. Recent cutbacks in business travel resulting from higher airfares and fear of terrorism are increasing demand for videoconferencing services. BP America Inc's videoconferencing network has seen increased usage of two to three times its normal levels. The Mideast war has pushed videoconferencing systems higher among the purchasing priorities of many companies. US companies had already cut back on air travel in response to higher fuel prices and increased fares. Videoconferencing equipment suppliers are reporting increased contact from potential customers in Jan 1991. 3Com's users worry; Where will its changes leave them? Dortch, Michael. 3Com Corp is leaving the network-server, workstation and operating system markets to focus on network adapters and internetworking devices. The company is leaving further development of LAN Manager to Microsoft Corp. Users are concerned over support and upgrades for 3Com's 3Servers. Users of 3+Open LAN Manager seem relatively unconcerned. Some users of 3+, 3Com's older operating system, are considering moving to NetWare 386. IBM's adapters help push ISDN; more applications possible. (product announcement) IBM's introduced ISDN terminal adapters for its PS/2 microcomputers and 3174 cluster controller. The ISDN Interface Co-Processor/2 Model 2 Adapter card is for Micro Channel-based PS/2 Model 50 or higher machines running either DOS or OS/2. It attaches to the Basic Rate Interface of a public ISDN network. IBM ISDN Co-Processor Support Program 1.1 software comes with the card. The card will be available in Jun 1991 for $1,195; the software costs $350. The 3174 ISDN BRI Adapter supports up to eight ISDN workstations for connection to hosts through the 3174 Establishment Controller. The adapter will be available in Sep 1991 for $4,800. The products are expected to push acceptance of ISDN. TV satellite use soars. (in reaction to the Mideast war) Foley, John. News organizations are using record amounts of satellite capacity to relay reports on the war in the Middle East. Demand for TV broadcast services more than tripled after the fighting broke out in Jan 1991. Leased full-time TV connections rose from five to 13, over twice as high as 1989's previous peak during the Tiananmen Square incident in China. Comsat handles most international satellite communications. The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization reported record satellite usage around the world. Major US TV news organizations accounted for much of the increased traffic. CNN set up three portable satellite dishes in the Mideast. Bells may not be recession-proof. (regional Bell operating companies) The local-access telephone business may not be as recession-proof as predicted. Weaker-than-expected results were reported by Pacific Telesis Group and Bell Atlantic Corp. Nynex Corp and US West Inc blamed the weak economy for poor financial results. Many regional Bell companies predicted stronger earnings, believing telephone use would not decline in a recession. Long distance carriers remained relatively stable. AT&T seems to have stopped its market erosion. Tariff 12 users Unite? Meeting at ComNet to air problems. (Communication Networks '91) AT&T Tariff No. 12 custom network services users will meet Feb 1, 1991, at the Communication Networks conference in Washington, DC, to decide whether to form a user group without participation or sponsorship by AT&T. The company opposes the sponsorship of a user group because its Virtual Telecommunications Network Services (VTNS) are tailored to individual users and include confidential arrangements. Customers contend there are universal issues that are not confidential but need addressing. AT&T said it would participate in a user group if there were no third parties involved and it was organized by its customers. The four major issues are billing, the Tariff 12 program manager system, network management and outsourcing. SIA net opens; securities group and US Sprint combine on project giving users volume discounts. (Securities Industry Association) The Securities Industry Association's (SIA) long distance network provides brokerage houses with volume discounts no matter how little traffic they put on the network. The services are available to 600 member firms through a three-year, $100 million contract with US Sprint Communications. The value of the discounts was not disclosed, but they are reportedly about 20 percent. The services are designed to help medium- and small-sized firms that cannot leverage big discounts, but larger houses will benefit as well. AT&T eyes rate hikes; carrier cites inflation, rising costs. Killette, Kathleen. AT&T asks the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for rate increases totaling $77.2 million for business long distance services. The rates for inbound services will rise $19.7 million under the proposal; outbound services will rise $57.5 million. Other carriers are expected to follow with similar rate hikes. The increases go into effect Feb 1, 1991, unless the FCC rejects them. NetWare LAN mgm't; network managers create, sell solution. (Preferred Systems Inc.'s LANStandard and Origen network Preferred Systems Inc announces two products: LanStandard and Origen. They automate installation and maintenance tasks for NetWare networks and run as a 1Mbyte application on NetWare servers. Network configuration time can be cut from a couple of weeks to a few hours. LanStandard runs in real time to provide a framework for network configuration. Origen operates as a batch program to add new servers to a network. LanStandard costs $1,495 for a 5-user package. Origen lists for $995 per server. Preferred Systems Inc was formed by a group of corporate LAN managers for Preferred Health Care Ltd that decided to automate rudimentary network management tasks. DEC adds net servers; better file, application support. (product announcement) Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) introduced the VAX 4000 Model 200, a low-end model of the line of servers and systems. It replaces the MicroVAX 3400 and MicroVAX 3800 systems. The new unit performs at five VAX units of performance, according to the company; each unit equals the processing speed of a VAX 11/780. The system is currently available at prices ranging from $16,420 to $136,930, depending on configuration. The Model 200 central processing board upgrades MicroVAX models from the 3300 through the 3900; prices range between $15,000 and $21,000. Extenders make good investment. (M&G Group's use of communications channel extenders) M&G Group is a UK investment management company that oversees individual unit trust holdings, pension plans, and unit-linked life insurance policies. The company needed to move its computer center quickly and with no effect on user response time. M&G operates 13 branch offices that support over 700 terminals linked to an IBM 3090 mainframe. The company examined three alternatives and decided to install two AT&T Paradyne Pixnet channel extension devices to support the terminals. The mainframe and its disk drives were moved by attaching Pixnet XL channel extension devices to three IBM mainframe block multiplexer channels that supported the administrative terminals. The Pixnet devices were linked to the remote location by three 19.2K-bps links, a 128K-bps link and a 256K-bps channel. The multiplexers also integrate voice traffic between London headquarters, an administrative center in Chelmsford and the remote data center. The technology closet. (technologies that prove unproductive) (Perspective) (column) Communications managers need better insight in selling new technology to top management. New technologies should reduce expenses, provide new competitive ways of doing business and increase productivity. Management frequently remembers former technologies that did not produce the promised results. These fears have retarded the acceptance of teleconferencing technology in many companies, despite promised reductions in travel expenses and other benefits. Travelers goes wireless; installs six BICC infrared-based LANs. (The Travelers Corp.) The Travelers Corp installed a BICC Communication Inc infrared wireless local area network (LAN) to save time on LAN installations and cut cabling expenses for its IBM Token-Ring network. Six of the BICC InfraLAN wireless units were installed in the company's headquarters in Hartford, CT. The base units can connect six nodes. The LANs run IBM PS/2 computers and two servers running LAN Manager. They were operational 2.5 hours after the equipment arrived. Showcasing interoperability. (the OSI Network Management forum) Bonafield, Christine. Success of network management based on Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) standards depends upon the OSI/Network Management Forum. The forum is expected to map the future of OSI management implementations. The first specification for OSI-based network management, Release 1, was released in Jun 1990. The first conformance test tools for the implementation were released later in 1991. Vendors are expected to demonstrate some of the first interoperable OSI management implementations in 1991. These vendors will need to privately define variables needed for management of their products. The Forum plans to use dot releases that let earlier products interoperate with later products. A migration strategy to emerging international standards will be defined as soon as those standards reach draft international standards status. Unix benchmark results posted. (Transaction Processing Performance Council benchmarks) IBM and Hewlett-Packard announced the test results of the TPC-A transaction-processing benchmark for systems running Unix. The results show Unix can compete with well-known proprietary on-line transaction processing solutions. IBM and Sun Microsystems earlier published the results of the TPC-B benchmark on similar systems. The benchmarks were developed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council. The benchmarks could provide valid price and performance comparisons among vendors. AT&T keeps trying, but it just doesn't get it. (the company misunderstands the computer industry) (Commentary) AT&T still does not understand the computer industry. In attempting to buy NCR Corp, it is buying a company with no customer base and a weak product line. Most of NCR's mainframe customers switched to smaller, more economical systems in the late 1980s. The company is planning to replace its entire line with computers based on Intel microprocessors. There are better companies for AT&T to absorb: Sun Microsystems and Compaq Computer Corp would be more logical moves, and Tandem Computer Inc would provide a foothold in the large-system market. CMC rolls out 10Base-T cards. (product announcement) Levine, Judith. CMC, of Santa Barbara, CA, introduces the first VMEbus adapters that support the 10Base-T standard for Ethernet over unshielded twisted-pair wire. The company also introduced new products based on the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and launched an new OEM program. The announcements were made at the UniForum 1991 trade show in Dallas. The ENP-10TPi and EN-10TPL 10Base-T cards connect VMEbus computers to a 10Base-T network. Also introduced is software based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) that uses an SNMP agent from Epilogue Technology Corp. It costs $2,495 for an initial license. The second-generation CMC 1050 series of VMEbus FDDI adapters provide FDDI network connections for workstations. The CMC 1155 adapter costs $11,245, the CMC 1156 costs $11,995. UK may get public-net TCP/IP; one of several efforts to deliver public TCP/IP service. International efforts to provide Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) service to public networks are under way. The United Kingdom is launching its first public TCP/IP data network in the summer of 1991. A Swedish international TCP/IP service was started in Jan 1991. The US is moving to open up TCP/IP-based academic and research networks to commercial users. European banks eye e-mail net. (a pan-European X.400-based electronic mail network) Twelve European central banks are establishing a pan-European X.400-based network for electronic mail in an attempt to circumvent local telecommunications operators. The banking network will use DEC software to link IBM microcomputers through public X.25 connections. The hub will be based in the Basel, Switzerland, Bank of International Settlements. The network will transmit the over-480 pages of information that are currently faxed to the banks daily. It will allow the exchange of electronic mail with partners outside the central banks. Report forecasts major shifts for LAN servers; several dynamics responsible. (International Data Corp. report) The local-area network (LAN) server market will see dramatic changes in the early 1990s, according to an International Data Corp report. The number of installed LANs will grow, as will the size of the networks. LAN node connections will rise from eight nodes per LAN in 1989 to 20 nodes per LAN by 1994. The use of internetworking products will also continue to grow. Three dynamics affect the server market: a consolidation in customized servers, a marketing push for superservers, and the dominance of dedicated microcomputer-based servers. The market for superservers and customized servers is slow. The market for microcomputer-based systems will grow at a compound annual rate of 19 percent worldwide from 1989 to 1994. ICA seeks better relations; users hoping to enrich vendor pacts. (International Communications Association) Mutually beneficial business relationships will allow users and vendors to compete more effectively in the 1990s, according to attendees at the International Communications Association's 17th annual Winter Seminar in Houston in Jan 1991. Demands change constantly, leaving a gap between what users want and what vendors are making. Users and vendors need to share network and product development plans as well as form business goals that will benefit both parties. Long-term alliances are needed; purchase decisions should not be based purely on price. Many vendors offer value-added service arrangements for tailoring services to individual users. Ascend's controller a switched-net pioneer. (Ascend Communications Inc.'s Multiband bandwidth controller) (product announcement) Ascend Communications Inc's new Multiband bandwidth-on-command controller may usher in the era of public switched digital networks. New network services and decreasing tariffs will push demand for a new communications industry. The Multiband controller provides switched bandwidth on demand at speeds between 56K-bps and 4M-bps. The integrated services digital network (ISDN) Basic Rate Interface and T1 lines will provide access to the public network. Data is spread over multiple 56K-bps or 64K-bps channels that are established across the network. The data is reassembled at the receiving end, providing a single stream back into the application. Multiband will ship in Feb 1991, pricing varies according to model and configuration. Fast packet starts to move. (fast packet switching techniques) Schultz, Beth. Interest in fast-packet switching techniques for private backbone networks is igniting after several years of incubation. Frame-relay for local area network connectivity is expected to impact the market in the 1990s. Vendors will also use of cell-relay as part of their internal switching mechanisms. Fast-packet switching is a streamlined method of processing packets; it is 10 times faster than X.25 packet switching networks. Frame-relay is an ideal solution for LAN interconnectivity; it performs faster, introduces little delay, handles irregular bursts of data and supports multiple users on a single line. Codex gets a SWIFT order; banking network moving to fast packet technology. The SWIFT bank of La Hulpe, Belgium, is adopting fast-packet switching technology for its international communications links. The new technology could cut operating costs by as much as 50 percent. Fast packet is the next level in packet switching technology; it eliminates gaps between packets to make more efficient use of bandwidth and increase throughput from thousands to millions of packets per second. The technology is particularly suited to bulk file transfer, SWIFT's main requirement. SWIFT will replace between 35 and 60 64K-bps circuits on its three key international routes. The bank ordered $6 million worth of fast-packet switches from Codex Corp. Newbridge makes a deal and broadens Italian role. (Newbridge Networks Corp.) Newbridge Networks Corp's distribution agreement with Italtel SpA will improve its presence in the Italian public- and private-network market. The market, as well as the rest of Europe, offers great promise for Newbridge and other US networking equipment vendors. The Italian public network is modernizing its communications infrastructure with an aim to improve digital connectivity both inside and outside the country. There are few T1 multiplexer suppliers in the country, and Newbridge believes it is in on the beginning of the market; the recent agreement should further strengthen its position. The video users want; new products that are on the way provide high quality for less money. Video communications products in 1991 will reflect users' needs for lower-cost high-quality systems and will emphasize international standards. The trend toward less network bandwidth and cheaper hardware has accelerated since 1988. The International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee's (CCITT) H.261 coding standard is expected to decrease the price of videoconferencing systems. PictureTel Corp's prices for its new System 4000 videoconferencing system start at $39,500. Office systems will be priced in the $5,000 range by early 1992. Equipment emphasis is expected to shift to the desktop. Most major vendors intend to support the CCITT standard for both desktop and large conference room systems. NEC unveils SMDS switch; looking for a piece of the broadband market. (product announcement) NEC America Inc's new NEAX 61E SMDS Service Node will let telephone companies offer switched multimegabit data services to their users. SMDS is network capability from Bell Communications Research Inc; it provides high-speed, fiber-based data networking services. The new switch is based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. Telephone companies can use the NEC SMDS switch without having an NEC Class 5 central office switch already in their network. NEC faces stiff competition from Northern Telecom and AT&T in the market. Providing security - quietly; the people responsible for network safety go to work. (federal government network security in the Federal agencies and Washington-based communications companies quietly placed contingency plans into effect to protect networks from possible terrorist attacks. The moves were in response to the US entry into war with Iraq. Most defense-related network security planning involves team efforts between government and industry. AT&T manages the Defense Department's Defense Commercial Telecommunications Network and the Autovon network. If a terrorist attacks a communications facility the company will run its contingency plans; the National Coordinating Center (NCC) will step in if a government user needs additional help. Virtual nets taking off slowly. (international virtual private networks) International virtual private networks got off to a slow start, but demand is expected to increase as the need for global communications grows. US carriers are forming alliances with foreign public network operators to connect virtual private networks. The arrangements let multinational companies orchestrate virtual networks between international locations. The networks use public network circuits as if they were dedicated and cost much less than private networks. Services now available in international networks include seven- or 10-digit dialing, authorization codes, call screening and time of day rerouting. More sophisticated interconnection types, single-source billing and network management features will be offered in the future. Carriers are targeting small international users, such as airlines and banks. Users give services high marks. (global virtual networks) Semilof, Margie. Unisys Corp and SmithKline Beecham plc use global virtual network services to reach their international sites. Both companies claim the public network offerings are easy to use, provide clear connections, and are cheaper. Unisys is using AT&T's Global Software Defined Network (GSDN) service. SmithKline Beecham is using virtual services to connect large company installations; the custom-designed service is similar to US Sprint's Global Virtual Private Network (GVPN) service. New ways to use ANI; users find many applications. (automatic number identification) New network signaling technologies let calling-number and billed-number data be used to improve corporate productivity and security. Automatic number identification (ANI) is used in conjunction with '800' and '900' services by interexchange carriers, but ANI information also appeals to telemarketing companies, retail merchants, and financial institutions. The hardware and software costs can be prohibitive to many companies. Carriers often provide ANI data on an off-line basis, storing the information and sorting it to fit the user's needs. ANI is offered by long distance carriers under federally approved tariffs. DEC looks at network business - not networking. Wilde, Candee. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) is focusing on the network business, not merely connecting computers over networks. DEC plans to participate in the merging technologies of computers and communications through partnerships with telecommunications equipment manufacturers. DEC's revenue growth shrunk to 2 percent in 1990 and the company announced the first layoff in its history. The VAX architecture is suitable for telecommunications platforms and the market holds great promise for the company. DEC's Telecommunications Business Group (TBG) will focus on six major markets: intelligent networks, mobile communications, network management, network information services, advanced billing systems and non-traditional applications. Fighting the AT&T card; card companies eyeing telecom business. Rocks, David. The successful introduction of AT&T's combination credit card-calling card has prompted competing long distance carriers and card issuers to band together and fight back. AT&T has opened 4.1 million accounts since the card's introduction in Mar 1990, making it the fifth-largest issuer of bank credit cards. Credit card companies view the long distance market as a profitable new market. Long distance carriers see alliances with credit card issuers as a way to provide added convenience for their customers. Visa International now offers the Visaphone service; American Express offers a choice between MCI and US Sprint for US calls; Diners Club offers MCI services. US domestic credit card companies are also looking for new partners abroad. Credit cards would have to be compatible with card-operated pay phones in foreign countries. Wang Labs continues layoffs. Chester, John S. Jr. Wang Laboratories Inc terminated 500 employees but hopes to maintain profitability in 1991. The company has been restructuring and cutting costs since sales of its proprietary systems plunged in 1989. Wang lost $500 million for the 4th qtr of FY 1990, ending Jun 30. It reported 1st qtr FY 1991 profits of $2.6 million, following six unprofitable quarters. The addition of image processing products to its line is expected to boost sales. BICC expands in North America. (BICC Group plc) Chester, John S., Jr. BICC Group plc, a London-based communications and cable manufacturer, is strengthening its presence in the US market by forming a North American holding company, BICC Technologies Inc. The new company will oversee four US-based high-technology units that showed total revenue of $100 million in 1990. BICC Technologies intends to focus on the cutting edge of communications technology found in the US. Learn how to negotiate. (tutorial) Semilof, Margie. Tips on bargaining skills are provided for communications managers that participate in contract negotiations for equipment or network services. Do not trust the carrier to tell you how large the savings will be; the carrier's data is often inaccurate. Guard against any deals that must be made under a time limit. Make sure you are dealing with the correct people. Prepare a complete inventory of your needs before the negotiations. Prepare a request for proposals. Become familiar with a variety of selling strategies. Do not let suppliers avoid issues at the negotiating table. Now is the time to think about building a global net. Wilde, Candee. Multinational corporations should consider global networks to increase revenue and control costs during a period of slow growth in the economy and uncertainty in many foreign markets. A well-designed network with both voice and data traffic can be a cost-efficient way to open new markets. Corporations should not merely evaluate network needs based on budgetary considerations; users should analyze their global communications needs by understanding the required flow of information. The most successful companies will be those that manage their information better. A close relationship with a single service provider will help build an international network. Public value-added networks are another way of developing global networks. Outsourcing is a consideration, but security should be considered. BT raps government plan; argues against green paper on greater competition. (British Telecommunications plc) British Telecommunications plc (BT) is protesting government recommendations that would deregulate the UK market. BT claims the proposals will not create the open market the government intends. BT and Mercury Communications Ltd currently hold a duopoly covering British local, long distance and international service. The government plan could lead to a bilateral agreement on the international resale of telecommunications services between the UK and the US. US carriers are running a large trade deficit under the current accounting rate system. BT feels the proposal would open its market to outsiders, but would not reciprocate with access to foreign markets. Inequities in the current system are becoming starkly apparent. Motorola expands cellular's role; plans hybrid-net technology with DSC Communications. Motorola Inc is repositioning itself in the cellular switching market and hopes to take advantage of hybrid networking between wireless and fixed public- and private-network elements. The company will work with DSC Communications Corp to build switching and cell-site equipment with open interfaces. Carrier customers will be able to buy switches and cells from different vendors. Cellular technology could extend private networks, ease the burden on existing equipment, and tie into larger wireless public networks. New products and IBM promises; Uniforum sees introductions, hears about IBM plans. UniForum 1991 presented many new products and saw IBM promise to emerge as a Unix leader. IBM will not merge its Systems Application Architecture (SAA) with Unix, but will build common interfaces and databases between the two operating environments. Sun Microsystems Inc announced plans to cut the price of its NetManager network management system by 70 percent. The Santa Cruz Operation Inc released version 1.1 of its Open Desktop operating system. Apple Computer and AT&T announced application programming interfaces between Unix and AppleTalk. Unix System Laboratories Inc unveiled OSI enhancements to Unix System V. AT&T Computer Systems announced Unix hardware and software. War in real time. (communications technology and the Persian Gulf war) Communications technology is providing a new televised view of the war in the Persian Gulf. It is now possible to see battles as they occur, but politics have moved to take the war off the air. Operational security plays a large role in military censorship, but military officials seem concerned with how the world might react to raw images from the battlefield. If a war is so horrible that it cannot be watched by the public, perhaps it should not go on. Bell Atlantic CFO to retire. (Philip Campbell) Bushaus, Dawn. Bell Atlantic Corp is reorganizing its executive management team to bolster its international strategy. A new subsidiary, Bell Atlantic Enterprises International Inc, will be formed Feb 1, 1991. Philip Campbell, the company's vice chairman and chief financial officer, will retire Mar 1, 1991. Plans for the reorganization began in 1989; it was supposed to go into effect in Jun 1991, but the company is ready now. OSI: feeling the pull of technology. (part of a special report on the climb toward OSI-based network management) A technological evolution in the network management market is blending present and future technologies. The successful technologies are those that span the gap. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is molding the future of management systems. The OSI/Network Management Forum is pushing the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) OSI-based protocol and related services over a variety of existing non-OSI transports. The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Management Environment (DME) provides portability of network management applications. DME could provide simultaneous access to networks based on SNMP, CMIP, and proprietary management protocols. DME's success depends on how quickly the OSF can choose technology and integrate it so vendors can base their products on the DME. Actual products could appear in 1991. Pushing ahead on the DME. (Distributed Management Environment) (part of a special report on the climb toward OSI-based network The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Management Environment is a new framework for systems and network management. An OSF evaluation team in Munich, Germany, is working on the framework. The DME could lead to international acceptance of technology building blocks that could streamline the development of management applications that will work with a variety of operating systems and processors. Vendors are asked to submit management applications for possible inclusion in the specification. BT is teaming up with IBM on net management. (British Telecom plc) (part of a special report on the climb toward OSI-based network IBM and British Telecom plc are codeveloping OSI-based network management interoperability. Management capabilities are expected to exceed those already defined by the OSI Network Management Forum Showcase. BT and IBM are defining specific management variables within the OSI architecture that pertain to their networks. A demonstration is expected by the 3rd qtr of 1991. The IBM-BT agreement is non-exclusive. Its purpose is to develop and test products rather than provide a commercial relationship between the two companies. The definitions will be made public so other vendors can use them to manage their networks. Rebuilding NetView around OSI; IBM is devoting a lot of effort to the job - really. (part of a special report on the climb toward IBM is rebuilding its NetView network management system on Open System Interconnection (OSI) standards. A product will not likely be available until 1993. The bulk of the company's NetView research and development effort is devoted to OSI-based management. The plan is to incorporate a Common Management Information Services (CMIS) application programming interface (API) into NetView. This means encapsulating the OSI Common Management Information Protocol into IBM's Network Management Vector Transports. The CMIS API will allow vendors to write applications for other OSI management products and easily port them to NetView. IBM submitted a CMIS API to the OSF for inclusion in the Distributed Management Environment. BT is making Concert Integrator a multiprotocol integration tool. (British Telecom plc) (part of a special report on the climb British Telecom plc will demonstrate support for network management built around proprietary, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and OSI-based approaches at the Communication Networks trade show in Washington, DC, during the last week of Feb 1991. Concert Integrator is a multiprotocol integration tool for network management. Access Manager is a multipurpose conversion module that takes network management information based on the SNMP used in TCP/IP networks and converts it into messages for the Common Management Information Protocol of OSI. The module could provide similar conversion for SNMP-based devices. BT plans to provide an SNMP gateway to Concert. Source code: the right touch. (includes a related article on the Retix hit parade) (part of a special report on the climb toward Touch Communications Inc is expected to announce portable OSI management source code at the Communication Networks trade show in Washington, DC, in Feb 1991. The product should be the most encompassing source code to date, especially for creating agent software. Previous effort was concentrated on the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). The product includes an Object Management Tool Kit for adding new devices to a network management scheme. The announcement should result in a wide range of new OSI products by the end of 1991. AT&T marches ahead - slowly; it waves the OSI flag, but its own product will be a while. (part of a special report on the climb AT&T's Accumaster Integrator network management system will not be ready until late 1991 or 1992. A delay in the arrival of tools for testing conformance with the OSI/Network Management Forum's network management specification, Release 1, is blamed for the late delivery of the software. Observers feel AT&T may be waiting for the OSI market to develop. It is possible the company may demonstrate a wholly Forum-compliant interface at the Communication Networks show in late Feb 1991. The delay probably will not affect the company, but AT&T could lose its lead if it is outdistanced by other companies with Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) over X.25 or CMIP Over Logical Link Control (CMOL) products. A lot depends on CMOL. (Common Management Information Protocol Over Logical Link Control) (part of a special report on the climb Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) Over Logical Link Control (CMOL) will determine how future networks are managed. The future of CMOL will probably be decided in the spring of 1991. The specification addresses management of Ethernet and token-ring local area networks (LANs) as well as a variety of operating systems on the networks. A variety of LANs from different vendors could be managed by users. CMOL is part of the Heterogeneous LAN Management (HLM) specification; questions regarding the specification will not be answered until products appear. Bellcore tackles a tough job. (development of the CUSTOMate OSI Prototype trouble-management system) (part of a special report on Bell Communications Research Inc is working day and night to deliver a prototype OSI network management product. The CUSTOMate OSI Prototype was delivered on deadline and demonstrated for regional Bell operating companies in late 1990. Development problems with the prototype mostly involved making two OSI implementations work together. A product will probably not ship until 1992. Codex aims at the low end. (unveils 9800 LE Integrated Network Management System) (part of a special report on the climb toward Codex Corp's 9800 LE Integrated Network Management system is a low-end system based on early OSI applications that is intended for use as a management station for small networks with several nodes. The company's distributors needed a system that was cheaper than the 9800 management station. The 9800 LE can save $15,000 to $20,000 over the 9800; it is scheduled to ship in Mar 1991. Canadians intend to play. (Gandalf Data Ltd.'s OSI-based network management stations and agents) (part of a special report on the Gandalf Data Ltd plans to introduce OSI-based network management station and agents in late 1991. Agents based on the Common Management Information Protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol are expected to ship by Jun or Jul 1991. A network management station that supports the OSI CMIP and SNMP should be available about the same time. Gandalf plans to make its network management approach comply with standards once they are established. IBM first to use new low-cost 486: chip debuts in 2Q rollout of PS/2. (Intel 80486, second quarter) IBM plans to unveil an affordable 80486-based PS/2 microcomputer during the second quarter. The new system will be the first to include Intel's yet-to-be-introduced 20MHz 80486 processors, code-names P23 and P23N. The new machines are expected to include a replaceable processor design, which allows processors to be unplugged and upgraded on the systemboard. The design enhancement should allow system vendors to build inexpensive 80486-based systems and give resellers the ability to upgrade the low-cost systems as needs increase. The emergence of an entry-level 486 machine will enhance sales of 486-based systems for IBM and will influence users to migrate from 386- to 486-based environments. Intel to offer 64-bit chip: 586 will challenge RISC. (Intel 80586, reduced instruction set computing) Details leaked out regarding Intel's planned 80586 microprocessor, code-named P5, which said the new chip will offer 64-bit computing power, easily outperforming the current 33MHz 80486 processor by a factor of four. This development means the new processor could be the one of choice for advanced workstations and network file servers. There are two reasons for the enhanced speed: a clock speed of 66MHz and the 64-bit internal and external architecture. The new processor also has multiple 80386-compatible instruction units and the ability to process multiple instructions per cycle. The design outlines a 16K cache memory, 386-compatible floating point unit and built-in diagnostic and debugging software. All of these features are accomplished while retaining 8088/8086 compatibility. Portrait of a gray marketer: transshipping dead?: not when it comes to Lewis Paint. (company profile) Computer vendors and resellers like to believe that the industry has matured in the 1990s and that the days of gray marketing are forgotten. Dealers, according to the manufacturers, have found better ways to maintain their volume commitments and deal with the capital-intensive pressure of overstocked warehouse floors. Lewis Paint Co is one of the most successful and overlooked gray-market dealers in the US. The company's stores is rife with intrigue. Lewis uses a sister company, Steacy and Associates, to resell computer equipment worldwide. Much of the business is conducted via fax, phone and mail. The company's price sheets show an average 38 percent discount off list price for IBM PS/2 systems. Lack of vendor authorization has not hampered the company's business. Compaq shuffles management as Swavely leaves. (Mike Swavely) Hubbard, Holly; Senia, Al. Mike Swavely's surprise departure from Compaq computer causes a management consolidation, resulting in a sharp increase in responsibility for some of the company's top managers. Swavely's sabbatical means increased responsibilities for coo Eckhard Pfeiffer and Compaq CEO Rod Canion as well as vp for sales and service Ross Cooley, who will manage marketing programs. Swavely could return to the company during or after his six-month leave but company officials are not certain whether he would retain his position. The improvement of dealer support with be a top priority at the company, according to Pfeiffer. Apple won't budge: Puette: 'no plans' to alter dealer ultimatum. (Apple Computer, Bob Puette) Apple Computer plans to stand firm on its plan to block its educational consultants from selling competing CPUs in the K-12 marketplace. The decision was enhanced by the plans of at least two major ComputerLand ownership groups, including Infomax Management Group, to drop IBM products in favor of Apple. Channel sources report that company officials have agreed tentatively to meet with some reseller executives to discuss the policy changes, which are slated to go into effect on Apr 15, 1991. Apple USA Pres Bob Puette has said more than once that the vendor has no plans to alter its education program. Puette also said that the feedback was nothing that was not anticipated. Lotus abruptly exits CD-ROM 'Marketplace' product line. (Lotus Development) Lotus Development gave into widespread protests and scrapped its Marketplace: Households and Marketplace: Business CD-ROM marketing database products for the Apple Macintosh. Marketplace: Households included information on 120 million US consumers. Marketplace: Business had data on seven million businesses. Marketplace: Business began shipping in Oct 1990 and full refunds will be offered to customers. The decision is not expected to significantly affect the developer's revenue. Company officials were concerned about the volume and tenor of objections raised by consumers all over the US. IBM unveils 1991 marketing programs: money game: changes to ProPlan, MDF. (market-development funds) IBM has dramatically increased the money going to individual dealer locations, introduced a new 1991 ProPlan Plus strategy and made changes in the way dealers can earn market development funds. The company's Branch Outlet Fund was increased approximately 250 percent in 1991. The amount of money moved into that fund would equal approximately 15 percent of a dealer's ProPlan funds. The changes were made with the goal in mind of investments in quality, including the encouragement of segmentation and skills development and the achievement of high levels of customer satisfaction. IBM eyes 44 for RS/6000. (IBM plans to authorize 44 dealers to sell RS/6000 workstation) IBM will authorize as many as 44 dealers by Jul 1, 1991 for its RS/6000 workstations via a test program that modifies reseller certification requirements. The program, if successful, could result in wider, though controlled, dealer authorizations. Company officials say that the new certification process will be both a test and a blueprint for 1991's certification programs. The new requirements do not significantly alter the technical expertise required previously for certification. It does eliminate the mandate for authorized dealers to carry a proprietary software solution, a major roadblock to widespread channel certification. WordPerfect's deadline: Windows version may miss March 31 ship date. WordPerfect Corp is at least one month behind schedule for beta testing of WordPerfect for Windows and is in danger of missing its Mar 1991 ship date. Officials refused to comment on whether or not the Windows package will be delayed beyond the Mar 31, 1991 release date. Updated information on marketing and availability will be available in mid-Feb 1991. Officials did confirm that the package was not ready for beta testing, causing at least one industry analyst to express concern over the product's progress. Any delay is not expected to go unnoticed by competitors. It is difficult for customers to remain committed with momentum for Windows applications increasing. Nutek to test Macintosh clone market: vendor seeks five OEMs for compatible chip set. (Nutek Computers Inc.) (original equipment Nutek is the latest entrant in the Macintosh-compatible marketplace, causing skepticism, enthusiasm and trepidation among users. Nutek's new system will not require existing ROM from older Macintosh systems. It actually cannot use Apple Computer ROM. Nutek has, instead, developed a chip set and operating system and licensed the Motif user interface from The Open Software Foundation. The vendor plans to market the technology to a handful of OEMs, starting in the 4th qtr of 1991. The company is currently negotiating with some OEMs though it has yet to sign a contract. They will have to add a Motorola host processor from 68000 to 68040, a SCSI controller and standard memory chips. Nutek expects its technology to improve the Macintosh market share overall. Developer races to ship Unix product. (Interactive Systems Corp., Unix System V 4.0) Interactive Systems Corp will be the first vendor to release Unix System V 4.0 for Intel 80386 and 80486 platforms for broad-based distribution. The company is supported in its development effort by Intel and Unix Systems Laboratories, an AT and T subsidiary, which have named Interactive as principal publisher of the new operating system version. Unix Systems is committed to producing a ready-to-use product. Intel will refer its Unix customers to Interactive. Interactive and its parent company, Eastman Kodak, its parent firm, are investing tens of millions of dollars in the rollout. Both companies are working on plans for innovative distribution media, like CD-ROM. Inacomp will sell products to ASCII members. (Inacomp Computer Centers, The ASCII Group Inc.) Inacomp Computer Centers plans to market products to The ASCII Group Inc. members as part of a number of group aggregator alliances in 1991. Under the agreement, Inacomp will pay ASCII an undetermined promotional fee to supply its 800 members with a number of products. The agreement is expected to sustain ASCII's membership while opening its services to Inacomp's network of company-owned and franchised dealers. ASCII's decision to work with Inacomp followed the chain's switch to a cost-plus fee structure, according to ASCII officials. The success of the alliance depends partly on whether Inacomp receives its vendors' blessing. The two groups are reportedly in discussions with IBM. Apple to overhaul channel training program. (Apple Computer) Demarzo, Robert C. Apple Computer Co is beginning a campaign to revamp its channel training programs, which includes waiving most of the fees for dealers who attend these classes. The company's plans include a spring launch for the Technical Institute, a seminar series for systems engineers and technical personnel in the reseller channel. Initial training sessions will be conducted at the company's five regional headquarters and will be expanded later in the year. Particular attention is being paid to network training. The vendor is distributing a large amount of its training material on CD-ROM as well as holding classes over its TV satellite network. Dealers will go through five common figurations under the network training program and will, through the online service, actually construct a network through the use of icons, run simulations, calculate load factors and troubleshoot the configurations. DEC, distributors to open Unix porting centers. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC has allied itself with four distributors to establish software conversion centers in 11 cities, allowing value-added resellers (VARs) and developers to port their Unix products to DEC's reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC)-based workstations at no cost. The distributors include Pioneer Standard Electronics, Avnet Computer, Pioneer Technologies and Wyle Laboratories. The centers will be located at the offices of the distributors. DEC Unix porting centers are already located at Georgia Institute of Technology and at DEC facilities in Marlboro, MS and Mt. View, CA. Facilities will be established in Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, FL and San Francisco. Bitstream joins font cartridge fray. (product announcement) Shore, Joel. Bitstream Inc introduces its first hardware product, Type City, a Hewlett-Packard-(HP) compatible font cartridge that may be expanded by using miniature add-in font cards. The new cartridge will be marketed exclusively in the retail channel and supported with a major promotional campaign designed to enhance user demand. The add-in cards are priced from $99 to $129 apiece and may be supplemented by custom cards containing corporate logos, signatures or a custom mix of fonts. The company is joining the font-cartridge market years behind Pacific Data Products, IQ Engineering and HP. Bitstream was hesitant to introduce a cartridge without significant technical innovation. Users were unhappy with current products that became obsolete the moment a new logo or type font was needed. Microsoft logs strong 2Q; revenue jumps 53%. (second quarter) Markowitz, Elliot. Microsoft surpassed the expectations of industry analysts for its 2nd qtr, ending Dec 31, 1990, posting a 53 percent increase in revenue to $460.5 million. This compares with sales of $300.4 million for the corresponding period in 1989. Net income increased 52 percent to $112.9 million, $.91 per share, compared to $74.5 million or $.63 per share for 1989. The optimistic financial results were attributed to strong and continuing demand worldwide for its Windows 3.0 operating environment and various applications products. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to post earnings between $.83 and $.88 cents per share on revenue of approximately $435 million. Industry analysts say the developer is clearly in a leadership position with the ability to leverage multiple applications and have them work well together. Apple delivers the power to be its best. (Apple Computer) (Window on Wall Street) (column) The fiscal 1st qtr earnings for Apple Computer reflected the vendor's successful completion of its agenda for product transition. Apple began fiscal 1991 with world-wide revenue expanding 12 percent in the Dec qtr, compared with fiscal 1990. The company's stock declined after the release of the fiscal 1st qtr earnings per share of $1.28 increased 33 percent, compared with the 1st qtr of 1990. Wall Street is concerned about the quality of the vendor's earnings after bidding the stock up to more than double its previous price. The impressive results were assisted by a higher-than-anticipated increase in European sales, a strong new-product cycle, reductions in component costs, a weak dollar and easy comparison. International sales accounted for 45 percent of total revenue while domestic sales dropped four percent. An underwriter's advantage: investment bankers that orchestrate IPOs boost trading volumes. (initial public offerings) Thomson Financial Networks Inc has released a report that suggests those investment banking firms responsible for bringing a reseller public or have the resources to monitor a dealer's performance, handled most of the institutional trades in 1990. The brokerage firm serving as part of a dealer's underwriting team during its IPO is usually one of its major market makers as it is granted a large block of stock at the time of the IPO. Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ), for example, traded most of the Egghead Inc shares in 1990, ahead of First Boston and Shearson Lehman Bros. DLJ was credited in 1990 with 15.2 percent of all Egghead institutional transactions. Merrill Lynch Research/U.S. was one of the underwriters when Intelligent Electronics (IE) staged its secondary public offering and subsequently did more institutional trading for IE than any other investment banking firm in 1990. High-end sales help AST beat 2Q expectations. (second quarter, AST Research) AST Research exceeds the expectations of analysts for its fiscal 1991 2nd qtr, which ended Dec 28, 1990, because of higher-than-expected sales of its higher-margin 80386SX-based computer systems. The company posted a 24 percent increase in sales to $161.1 million, compared with revenue of $130.2 million for the corresponding period in 1990. Net income rose 120 percent to $16.3 million, $1.12 per share compared with $7.4 million or $.53 per share previously. Most analysts had estimated earnings at $1.05 per share. The company's net income far outstripped its own announcement of earnings anticipated at about $1 per share. The impressive showing is attributed to better-than-anticipated 80386SX- and 80486-based microcomputer sales. Borland's 3Q revenue soars 106% (Borland International Inc, third quarter) Revenue for Borland International rose sharply in the 3rd qtr, which ended Dec 31, 1990, because of higher-than-expected demand for new products. The company logged revenue of $62.3 million, up 106 percent from $30.2 million. The figures represent a 141 percent increase to $7.8 million or $.52 per share, up from $3.2 million or $.24 per share. Earnings rose over 25 percent sequentially while revenue was up 19 percent from the previous quarter, according to industry analysts. The company's earnings and revenue statements surpassed even the most optimistic analysts' expectations. An unexpectedly high demand for the company's new products contributed to the strong quarter. Paradox 3.5, quattro Pro 2.0 and Turbo Pascal 6.0 were all unveiled during the quarter. Informix loss prompts policy change. Markowitz, Elliot. Informix has adopted a new more conservative revenue recognition policy, because of recent industry trends and current unstable economic conditions. The company is reorganizing its operations as a result of an expected fiscal 1990 loss. Most revenue, under previous policy, was posted at the time a customer made a binding agreement with the company for a license fee to be paid within one year. Now a select few of computer hardware vendors and end users will be recognized this way. Revenue from the remaining customers will be posted either when the license fee is prepaid or when the software is shipped. Company officials found that customers found it difficult to forecast their future business levels and were therefore hesitant to make long-term commitments. Cross-border study shows some resellers are still optimistic. (Eurovision) (column) The United Kingdom's recession is picking up speed. Nearly every British dealer and distributor is laying off employees and restructuring or closing parts of their operations. There are still some who remain bullish about their own futures. P and P managing director David Southworth says that if the banks take a tougher stance regarding the economic situation many companies will fail. Southworth's own company will be good case study of acquisition and survival in the European marketplace. P and P has a cross-border acquisition policy which means it has purchased a few small firms in Sweden and Belgium. GST opens new doors: Canadian tax welcomed by dealers, VARs. (value-added resellers) A new Canadian federal goods and services tax (GST) may create problems for business and consumers but will open profitable doors for resellers and VARs. The GST, which was adopted on Jan 1, 1991, is a seven percent value-added tax like similar value-added taxes in many European countries. Nearly all goods and services consumed in Canada are now taxable. The new tax will aid in raising an extra $1.3 billion in revenue above and beyond the federal sales tax for 1991. Computers resellers and VARs selling accounting solutions are experiencing a favorable results from the tax. Dealers are reporting that many recent inquiries for accounting software are coming from first-time users. Apple makes headway in Pacific Rim region. Hubbard, Holly. Many of the Macintosh software developers at the company's second annual Pacific Rim Forum, were equipped with new products and revitalized hope about Apple's longstanding effort to build market share in the Pacific Rim region. Forum attendees realized that the Macintosh is becoming a reality in the Pacific and they are prepared to develop for it. The forum was a marked contrast from the previous year's event when Apple was fighting to win support for its campaign in the Japanese and Far East market arena. Apple officials say that even Italian and Spanish developers were touting products developed for the Pacific Rim market. Apple is finally making some headway in Japan against opponents like NEC and IBM. NetWare competition: LAN Manager OEMs see bright future. (from Microsoft) (original equipment manufacturers) LAN Manager OEMs are feeling reassured as market-research surveys show Microsoft's network operating system gaining on Novell's market share, in spite of 3Com's recent decision to turn its version of LAN Manager back to Microsoft. LAN Manager is seen by industry observers as being on an upswing and making gradual inroads against Novell. Recent surveys of Fortune 1000 companies show that NetWare could lose about one third of its installed base to LAN Manager version from IBM, Digital Equipment and Microsoft as users feel it is a better technology for client/server environments or large interconnected networks. Unit shipments are estimated to break down as follows: Novell 45 percent, IBM 25 percent, Microsoft 10 percent and DEC 10 percent. The remaining ten percent will go to a number of other companies. Something truly new at last: a RISC-based laptop workstation. (reduced-instruction-set-computing) (The Platform) (column) Most new products usually are not new, simply a repackaging of an old box or a minor enhancement of an old product. Sony has introduced a truly new product: a RISC-based Unix laptop workstation. The News 3250 system may define some new applications. A portable machine for the Unix programmer is practical. Applications could include structural analysis, automated mapping, law enforcement and mobile medical imaging. Graphical and multimedia demonstrations are also a possibility. Sony should receive some credit for creating something new in the workstation arena. Most workstation vendors are somewhat lacking in creativity. None has grasped the idea that the real potential of a workstation lies in power computing, broadly defined. Notebooks gain momentum: appeal grow stronger as more vendors enter market. Market share for laptop and notebook computers, which have been unveiled at an aggressive rate since the fall of 1990, is beginning to gain momentum as the machines reach dealers. A noticeable theme of the 1990 Fall Comdex show was the introduction of laptop and notebook computers by an impressive 47 companies. The number of participants reflected the transition of the small systems from those sold by specialized developers into a product with mainstream appeal. Industry analysts say that laptop and notebook computers are hot. Many desktop system vendors are adding a smaller system to their product offerings as the notebook computer becomes a commodity. The rush to debut new products has not abated since Comdex. New Mac offerings: RasterOps debuts displays, cards. (product announcement) RasterOps introduced a variety of Macintosh graphics and video products at the 1991 Macworld Expo in San Francisco to fill out the vendor's offerings for the Macintosh computer line. The products range from a large display for the Mac Classic to a video processing card, according to company officials. The ClearVue/Classics monochrome display system is available in 19-inch ($1,795) and 21-inch ($2,195) display sizes. The display system is based on the ClearVue/Classic display adapter, which also supports Apple's 21-inch two-page display, 15-inch portrait display and 12-inch monochrome monitors. The RasterOps 24si 24-bit display card ($1,095) was also debuted. The ClearVue/XL display ($2,195) is a low-cost display for the Macintosh II. Mips adds two Unix servers to RISC product lineup: 32M-byte base RC6260 RISComputer lists for $139,500. (Mips Computer Systems Mips Computer Systems has introduced two Unix servers to its RISC-based computer line to serve separate market segments. The RC3360 RISComputer ($65,000) is based on a 33MHz Mips R3000A microprocessor and expected to ship in Feb 1991. The RC6260 RISComputer, targeted at scientific, technical and commercial markets, is based on a 60MHz Mips R6000 emitter-coupled-logic microprocessor. The RC3360 is designed as a Unix file server for medium to large-sized workgroups in multiuser and client/server environments. The RC3360 features seven VME I/O expansion slots, 32M bytes of memory and 663M bytes of disk storage. The company's product line includes seven file servers, ranging from $9,000 to $150,000. Epson ships EPL-7000, EPL-7500 laser printers. (product announcement) Epson America is shipping the EPL-7000 ($1,399) and the EPL-7500 ($3,299), two new laser printers that were introduced as premarket products at the Fall Comdex trade show in Nov 1990. The two printers are the first in the company's product line to use the Minolta SP101 printer engine which makes it easier to replace consumables. Users can replace toner by lifting a basket holding the cartridge in place. The EPL-7500, which is targeted at power desktop publishers, uses Weitek's XL-8200 reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) processor to speed printing. The new printer is one of the first to combine Adobe PostScript with RISC technology. High-end 386's thrive: vendors trimming number of models in production. (Intel 80386) Microcomputers built around the Intel 80386 microprocessor will be coming into their own in 1991. The year will see both the full-powered 80386DX and the 80386SX-based systems doing well in the marketplace. Industry analysts say that 386-based systems make up 47 percent of all microcomputer systems sold. The market share for 80286-based computers has fallen below 30 percent for the first time and will continue to fall. More and more of corporate America is adopting 386 technology. Surveys find that 386-based systems are part of almost 61 percent of planned business purchases for 1991. Some questions are raised for developers and dealers about the rising popularity. This leads to some vendors creating a wide variety of systems with little to differentiate themselves other than a slight increase in speed. Cutting models, slashing prices: tags lowered in many 386 offerings. (Intel 80386) Price cuts on 386-based computer systems were common in the months leading up to the Nov 1990 Comdex show. Price reduction are beginning again as vendors cut prices on many or all of their products. The 1990 cuts ranged from a six percent price reduction by Compaq Computer on its Deskpro 386/25 to a 26 percent reduction by AST Research on its 386/33TE Model 5. IBM lowered the price of its PS/2 70 as much as 20 percent and offered $300 rebates on four others. Industry analysts say that now might be a good time for more price reduction and some are already beginning, and more will occur during the 1st qtr of 1991. Competition is increasing in the computer industry, with companies holding back on capital spending. Where will home users go to buy their software? (Soft Focus) (column) IBM, with its PS/1 marketing plan, put much credence on the idea that consumers want to buy computers where they buy other household products. This is why they signed Sears as their major retail partner for their new machine. Products from Apple and Tandy reflect the belief that the time may be right for marketing computers as mass-market items. The 1980s saw major shifts in the nature of software retail outlets like Software Etc. and Egghead Software. Growth was soon followed by consolidation. Egghead saw the corporate user as its bread and butter and established an outbound sales force. Speculation that there would be increased demand for stores offering support proved unfounded. Some superstores are doing well. If they can attract the new generation of computer users the superstores can hook them on computing as an avocation. Borland programming tool helps create Windows apps. (Borland International, applications) (product announcement) Borland International engineers are finishing up ObjectVision, a new technology for creating Windows applications described as a radical departure from competing tools. The new product is being handled by Borland's database units and is currently in beta testing, tentatively scheduled for an early Feb 1991 debut. Borland officials describe ObjectVision as a declarative visual programming object-oriented environment allowing users to create applications by constructing simple decision trees. It is an entirely new type of tool that allows users to build Windows applications using visual programming techniques and eliminates the need to write code. Attracting top talent gets tougher: issue over sales pay heats up. (The Soft View) (column) Software publishers, dealers and value-added resellers (VARs) are involved in an intense bidding war for the best sales talent. The battle will intensify in 1991. Companies whose paychecks are below competitive benchmarks are having problems building strong organizations and often cannot retain core staff. The question of what constitutes competitive pay is very complicated as compensation is usually heavily weighted toward commissions and other incentives rewarding extra effort. Average sales performers get 30 to 40 percent of their pay from incentives. A typical field sales representatives earns $50,000, about 40 percent of which comes from incentives. Telemarketers earn about $30,000, including 33 percent in incentives. Aldus upgrades PageMaker: version 4.0 for Windows, next Mac package list for $795. (product announcement) The latest upgrade to PageMaker for Windows from Aldus will offer support for memory management, type handling and networking features specific to Windows 3.0 as well as many of the same features in the sister product for the Apple Macintosh. PageMaker 4.0 for Windows ($795), which will ship during the 1st qtr of 1991, includes new table and story editors which can be launched from within a document file and other dynamic data exchange features. Features for handling more lengthy documents are also included. Company officials say the mini-applications are based on in-house linking and embedding technology developed by Aldus and Microsoft. Silicon Graphics offers Unix software 'channel.' Gross, June. Silicon Graphics, a vendor of high-end workstations, is introducing a new program to microcomputer software vendors seeking a Unix distribution channel. Silicon Graphics will market, sell and support software under $1,000 retail through the Software Express program for its line of technical workstations. Software Express replaces the need for publishers to maintain a direct-sales force, the normal channel for marketing Unix software. The purpose is to enhance Silicon Graphics' market share in competition with Sun Microsystems and others in the low-end workstation market arena. The company wants to be more competitive with low-end workstations, high-end microcomputers and Apple Macintosh systems. Networking VAR joins Next: iLAN inks deal to become vendor's first LAN reseller. (Next Computer Inc., value-added reseller, local iLan Inc signs a contract to sell solutions based on Next Computer Inc's Unix-based workstations and iLAN's ImageBase image-processing software for storage and retrieval. iLAN is an $8 million LAN VAR. iLAN officials say the agreement will contribute $1 million in additional income to company coffers in 1991, $2 to $3 million in 1992 and one-third of the company's revenue by 1993. iLAN sold 10 Next systems with ImageBase the first week after signing the agreement. The systems sold for $6,000 to $7,000 each. The company has its headquarters in Columbus, OH and offices in Cleveland, OH; Kansas City, MO; and Raleigh, NC. The agreement is the first Next has signed with a networking VAR after announcing its intention to build a strong VAR network. Focus of the 1990s: greater productivity for the organization via PCs. (The Pipeline) (column) Many corporations are questioning their microcomputer investment, wanting to see the return. Dealers will find it more difficult to find clients who have not used a microcomputer in the 1990s, especially in medium to large companies. The industry still overemphasizes technology. What are the gains an enterprise can expect from utilizing integrated microcomputer technologies? Organizations pass through three learning phases in applying information technologies: technology awareness, personal productivity and strategic advantage. Most companies are on the personal productivity learning curve. Such gains are great for the individual but minimal for the overall organization. Minority investors buy VAR franchise business. (value added reseller, Claren Inc., ClareTech Business Centers Inc.) The owners of Claren Inc have sold their thriving VAR franchise to a group of minority investors. The success of Claren Inc, which has been renamed ClareTech Business Centers Inc, in franchising VARs underscores a market opportunity overlooked by most major chains. Value-added-reselling is where the money is to be made, according to company officials, who go on to say that this is something ComputerLand and Businessland are learning the hard way. The VAR franchise strategy was introduced in 1933 by the company's former president and part owner who executed the strategy shortly after taking over the family business. Consultants suffer cuts: Apple education dealers lose out. Zarley, Craig. Apple Computer dealers and educational consultants are assessing damage in the wake of the company's sweeping changes in its K-12 education market strategy. Apple will begin, as of Apr 15, 1991, assigning one Apple education sales consultant per education customer and forbidding education sales partners from selling competing CPUs on the education market. Dealers who were cut from the program feel that the company is declaring war on its dealers. One such dealer, who remains an authorized Apple dealers while being locked out of the education market, say that the move will cost him a substantial amount of income. He feels that the vendor is abandoning those who have supported the company without regard to the consequences. Q&A: Anderson looks at strategy: ComputerLand president discusses 'hub' approach. (interview with ComputerLand pres Ed Anderson) ComputerLand valued its own predictions of a recession and began early to prepare for economic hard times. The result is company officials do not have as much work to do to prepare for a low-demand environment. Keeping costs down was one important preparation. The company has seen a regionalization of demand. Banking in New England is not a good industry to approach nor is the defense industry in Los Angeles. The Rust-Belt in the Midwest, however, is called a 'diamond in the rough.' by ComputerLand pres Ed Anderson. The pharmaceutical and consumer products industries are still doing well. ComputerLand's strategies are always subject to change. Anderson also feels that if sales figures can be made with fewer stores open then so much the better. Specialized distribution offsets shrinking market. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. The dilemma experienced by vendors attempting to win market share in a shrinking category could be solved by the more focused, technical business operations of specialized, multi-regional distributors. This trend has been reflected in Western Digital's decision to reduce the number of its disk-drive distributors to six multi-regional firms. The authorized distributors include Cal-ASbco, Microwave Distributors, Fountain Technologies, Decision support Systems, Gates/FA and Sidus Systems. Western Digital says that by working with more focused distributors in the price-conscious marketplace, the company will gain extra profits and incremental sales through integration projects. Ingram Micro on the move: expands, upgrades facilities; anticipates growth in '90s. (Ingram Micro D) Ingram Micro D is expanding its domestic warehousing capacity by 40 percent, upgrading its Chicago facility and revealing plans to build a new headquarters and distribution center in Santa Ana, CA. The changes are part of a plan to expand and upgrade facilities in anticipation of growth in the 1990s, according to company officials, who further noted that economic conditions would assure future growth in distribution, a prime reason for expanding facilities. Computer vendors see distribution as the least costly way to reach the marketplace. The expansion budget was based on current revenue. Expanded credit line fuels PCDistributing growth. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. PCDistributing Inc is planning to grow internally and externally with the assistance of an increased line of credit from the LaSalle National Bank in Chicago. The company has grown during the first six months of FY 1991 and will use the line of credit to enhance further growth, according to company officials. Sales and operating profits for the company have increased almost 40 percent since Aug 1990. PCDistributing has locations in Philadelphia and St. Louis as well as Mt. Prospect, IL. The company is also currently reviewing several acquisition prospects. The distributors has also initiated a new online tracking service for all United Parcel Service shipments sent to PCDistributing resellers, which will give greater service and more timely information to customers. Tackling illiteracy: Highway dept. brings PCs to employees. (Computer illiteracy, Texas Highway Department) The Texas Highway Dept has been sending microcomputer training specialists on the road to combat computer illiteracy. The specialists each week load 11 microcomputers into a van and go to outlying offices in the state's 24 districts and 17 divisions, transporting the necessary software and hardware needed to conduct the class in the district. The state saves a great deal of money bringing the training to the employees rather than the employees to the training. A classroom training facility is still maintained at department headquarters for users based in the capitol. Microcomputer training has increased employee productivity about four percent, resulting in a savings of $2 million in 1989. Businesses still turn to low-end PCs. Calderbank, Alison. Businesses are continuing to purchase earlier edition CPUs, though users are turning increasingly to higher technology, according to industry observers. Some 11 percent of all microcomputers installed at 99,160 surveyed sites were 80386- or 80486-based microcomputers. Responses from 13,673 computer system purchasers planning to buy additional systems in 1991 showed that slightly less than 61 percent of planned purchases would be based on the 80386 or 80486 microprocessor. But, more than 80 percent of the installed base were based on the 80286, 8088 or 8086 microprocessors. Resellers suggest that the 286 share is still significant. Others report much interest in less-expensive systems for nodes. Entre relies on message management software. (Entre Computer Centers) Many computer dealers become customers themselves when they search for a comprehensive system capable of tracking data and records and one making this information easily accessible. Resellers, when they design and install large networks, typically deploy scores of systems engineers, installers, technicians and support staff. A single network installation could require as many as 100 telephone calls, memos, messages and questions to be passed along to the correct person. Entre Computer Centers, after a comprehensive search, feels it has found the right answer. The company installed Coordinator, a package from Action Technologies, which includes basic electronic mail capabilities, a record of telephone calls, a calendar and management capabilities. LAN resellers' challenge: survey reveals a critical need for more networking training in channel. (local area network) (includes Computer dealers looking to create a foothold in the networking marketplace are facing the fact that they are probably not adequately trained for selling the sophisticated products. Vendors find they must teach a variety of people about LANs but that the biggest problem with some of the required courseware is that it addresses the lowest common denominator and is not as challenging as it should be. Both vendors and dealers also say that there are not enough well-trained technicians for the fast-growing market. A high turnover rate compounds the problem. They are also easily hired away by customers who can afford to pay more. A survey made by Arbor Systems Group showed that only 23 percent of 179 respondents passed a test designed to gauge the network knowledge in the channel. One solution is reseller segmentation. Quarterly results: ValCom up, MicroAge down. (includes figures from Conner Peripherals, Sun Microsystems, Tandy, Symantec, Vendors and resellers posted mixed financial reports for the Dec 1990 qtr. ValCom Inc reported earnings of $2.4 million or $.57 per share, for the 4th qtr ending Dec 29, 1990, compared with $2.2 million or $.49 per share for 1989. MicroAge reported a 32 percent gain in revenue for the 1st qtr, ending Dec 31, 1990, to $192.8 million up from $146.4 million in 1989. Conner Peripherals reported record sales and net income for the 4th qtr. Sales were $418.4 million, up 85 percent from $225.7 million. Sun Microsystems revealed sales of $735 million for its 2nd qtr, ending Dec 28. a 27 percent gain compared to $595 million. Tandy posted a decrease in earnings for the 2nd qtr ending Dec 31, to $101.1 million, $1.28 per share, compared with $117.6 million or $1.43 per share. Symantec reported a 63 percent increase in sales for the 3rd qtr, ending Dec 31, to $30.9 million, compared with $19 million in 1989. Software Publishing's net income rose 16 percent to $6.4 million. Computer Associates International posted a 10 percent increase in 3rd qtr revenue to $381.4 million. Corporate push dominates: Macworld showcases networking, high-technology wares. Apple Computer welcomed 1991 with a Macworld Expo trade show to position the company as a serious contender in the corporate world. The show's focus was undercut by the trade show's odd time schedule, opening mid-afternoon on a Thursday and closing on Sunday. But, the odd hours seemed to have little effect on attendance. Apple's plug-and-play Ethernet technology was the most significant product announcement. The new Ethernet add-on cards and adapters facilitate networking the Macintosh with machines from other vendors. The vendor scrapped plans at the last minute to debut its lighter weight portable Macintosh system. The Mac Classic, in spite of shortages, aided Apple in boosting market share by two percent in the 4th qtr of 1990. Software upgrades galore: developers show an array of products at Macworld. Major Macintosh software developers introduce a variety of upgrades to familiar products at the Macworld 1991 show. Aldus, Claris and Deneba Software vied for attention to the latest version of their drawing packages. Aldus FreeHand 3.0 adds features like the ability to work on one graphic layer at a time. MacDraw Pro includes features that bring it closer to presentation software. Canvas 3.0 includes extra technical illustration functions. Microsoft debuted Microsoft Mail 3.0, an upgrade to its Microsoft Mail electronic mail package for AppleTalk networks and previewed Excel 3.0 for the Mac. MacroMind released its MediaMaker desktop video publishing package and revealed an exclusive distribution agreement with Ingram Micro D. Meridian Data introduced a mastering system for CD-ROM low-volume production, which will include developmental software from Authorware Inc and Paracomp. EDS revives air deal: but Continental pact faces IBM challenge. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Continental Airlines Holdings Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) and Continental Airlines Holdings Inc sign an agreement that allows EDS to acquire for $35 million Continental's Airlines Services Division. The division sells computer services to other airlines. The agreement precedes Continental's filing for approval from the Bankruptcy Court, a process that could take months. Meanwhile, IBM Credit Corp is questioning the legality of the EDS-Continental deal. IBM claims that Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) fraudulently lent $35 million to Continental Airlines Holdings Inc via a loan to System One Corp, an airline reservation company. IBM claims that EDS gained creditor privileges from System One, of which IBM is an $80 million creditor itself. IBM also claims EDS intends to convert the terms of the loan toward its $35 million purchase of Continental's Airline Services Division, an allegation which an EDS official denies. IBM eyes service harmony: council to coordinate consulting, integration, facilities management. (includes related article on IBM forms a services council in order to streamline its services departments and establish pricing policy, quality assurance and methodologies. IBM has given more responsibility to local offices and trading areas since disbanding its Systems Integration Division. The trading areas have access to resources in the field and are organized to have a vertical-market orientation. The services council also works to reduce duplication among the computer services units. IBM is seeking better services integration because it feels it has lost business as a result of poor coordination between its service units. New projects comprising outsourcing, consulting and systems integration require inter-company coordination that IBM has lacked in the past. IBM hopes to gain half its revenue from software and services by 1995. Andersen, Microsoft forge ties: client-server skills focal point of alliance. (Andersen Consulting) Andersen Consulting and Microsoft Corp have entered an agreement to cooperate on client-server integration projects. Another agreement allows Andersen to market Microsoft's LAN Manager network management software at reduced prices. Andersen will work on the integration and project management aims, while Microsoft will provide software and hardware experience. Andersen is working on a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool for cooperative processing, based on the IBM PS/2 workstations and Microsoft's OS/2 operating system. Andersen will work with Microsoft's Information Technology and Integration Services unit. The unit offers consulting services based on Microsoft's systems software and networking products. Andersen will benefit Microsoft's international intentions with its established worldwide presence. Unix user groups unite to speed standards effort. Greenbaum, Joshua. Thirteen Unix user groups form a yet-unnamed umbrella organization that intends to pressure Unix vendors to speed up open systems product development. The purchasing power of the organization's members is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Member groups represent major commercial, industrial and government users from around the world. The organization's goals include quickening the product development process, bringing user requirements into the specification process and expanding user-education regarding open systems. Domestic and international user groups make up the new organization including the Federal Open Systems User Council, the Corporation for Open Systems, UniForum, the European Forum for Open Systems, the European Telecommunications Information Service and the International Forum for Open Systems as well as foreign branches of UniForum. U.S. urged to support integration: increased funding for research a top concern. Computer systems integration industry leaders at a colloquium sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences recommended greater government sponsorship of research and development of systems integration technologies. The shortage of trained specialists and current foreign trade policy were cited as threats to the US's lead in systems integration. Executives at the colloquium also recommended that colleges develop curricula centering on systems integration. An increase in industry-sponsored research was also recommended. The only integrator to join the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp consortium is Andersen Consulting, which spent $180 million training its staff in 1990. TRW casts imaging into integration business. (TRW Information Systems Division) TRW Corp forms a new commercial integration unit called TRW Information Systems Division which will expand its image processing operations into a broader business base. The new group will take over the image processing work done by TRW Financial Systems. John Reese has been selected as the vice president and general manager. Future areas TRW Information Systems plans to pursue include database development, neural technology and management systems. In addition to commercial businesses, TRW Information Systems is pursuing contracts with the Postal Service and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide image-based systems. TRW Information Systems will also provide image processing for TRW's real estate and credit card data businesses. TRW Financial Systems is estimated to have done about $35 to $40 million worth of commercial image systems business in 1990. From Kleenex to outsourcing: Kimberly-Clark unit pursues data processing opportunities. (Kimberly-Clark Computer Services) Kimberly-Clark Corp's subsidiary Kimberly-Clark Computer Services is trying to enter the commercial outsourcing market. For outsourcing operations, the subsidiary company will use Kimberly-Clark's 200-MIPS MIS processing center. The center uses mostly Amdahl Corp systems. Kimberly-Clark Computer Services targets customers with processing needs of 10 to 50 MIPS, and has also provided service and equipment for companies switching to IBM DB/2 databases. In 1990, the outsourcing subsidiary had revenues totalling nearly $6 million and has about 100 employees. Kimberly-Clark Computer Services recruited many of its executives from Electronic Data Systems Corp and other integrators. Lotus starts small. (Lotus Development Corp's Consulting Services Group) Lotus Development Corp's Consulting Services Group focuses on relatively smaller-sized contracts usually lasting under half a year and valued at less than $100,000. The plan is to target accounts needing complex integration using Lotus's 1-2-3 software product. The Consulting Services Group provides microcomputer and local area network (LAN) applications integration through practices focusing on four areas. The areas include manufacturing, financial markets, horizontal business operations and Notes groupware users. The four practices provide needs analysis services and integration of Lotus products with off-the-shelf software packages. The Consulting Services Group has had contracts with Allied-Signal Inc's Automotive Sector and Xerox Corp. U.S. investigates OSF; preliminary FTC probe eyes pricing practices. (Open Software Foundation, Federal Trade Commission) The Federal Trade Commission has launched a preliminary investigation into the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) pricing and technology-selection policy. The investigation stems from OSF members' allegations that the policy of OSF discriminates against small companies. Software developers have complained about how OSF's request for proposals process is a lose-lose situation for them: if their technology is not selected, they cannot compete with OSF but if their technology is selected, their software is licensed for less than market value. Meanwhile, Unix International Inc announces plans to develop Open Systems Architecture, a software environment for Unix System V. Open Systems Architecture sets specifications for layered technologies dealing with distributed computing, transaction processing and desktop computing. Unix International is an advisory group for AT&T's Unix System Laboratories. AT&T taps Interactive to push V.4. (Interactive Systems Corp., Unix System V.4) AT&T has chosen Interactive Systems Corp to be the main distributor of Unix System V.4 for Intel-based platforms. In addition to marketing, selling and supporting the operating system, Interactive Systems will provide value-added products supporting imaging, networking, graphical user interfaces and other applications. Interactive Systems will compete directly with Santa Cruz Operation Inc's Open Desktop and other Unix-based software which dominate the Intel-based Unix market. Santa Cruz Operation's software is based on Unix System V 3.2. Intel plans to halt the sale of the system software and turn its System V.4 customer base over to Interactive Systems. AT&T hopes to establish System V.4 as the Unix standard with its contract with Interactive Systems. Interactive will offer a $195 upgrade for 3.2-based software until 1992. No vote. (AT&T shareholders' voting rights concerning bid for NCR Corp.) (Street Talk) (column) One of the main issues in AT&T's $6.13 billion takeover bid for NCR Corp has been if NCR shareholders should vote to approve the acquisition of their company by the telecommunications giant. Analysts now propose that AT&T shareholders ought to be given the opportunity to vote on the decision to approve the questionable takeover. Analysts point to AT&T's $2 billion worth of losses in its computer business. Other analysts claim that AT&T shareholders can protest the takeover by selling their holdings, and some have, as evidenced by the company's falling stock price. Laptop overlap at AT&T. (AT&T and Marubeni Corp form M&A Venture to market laptop computers in the U.S.) AT&T and Marubeni Corp have formed a company called M and A Venture to market laptop microcomputers manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. The units will be made in the US; they will bear AT&T's name, and Marubeni will distribute them first in the US then in Japan. Analysts see problems with the venture as AT&T is planning to acquire NCR Corp which manufactures its own microcomputer line under its open systems strategy. AT&T would eventually have to reconcile the two products in the event of a successful takeover. AT&T has bid $6.13 billion for NCR Corp which is resisting the hostile takeover. AT&T holds 60 per cent in M and A Venture, and Marubeni holds the remaining 40 per cent. Margin pressures lower CSC earnings. (Computer Sciences Corp.) Peterson, Stacey. Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) reported lower earnings increases due to lower operating margins in its Industry Services Group. Earnings for the third quarter of 1990 ending Dec 28, 1990 were $16.6 million, or 12 per cent greater than the year-ago period. Revenue increased by 18 per cent, from $368.9 million to $434.2 million. Softness in systems development purchases caused by the recession is the reason given by CSC for the sluggish earnings. The company's Consulting Group reported a 25 per cent increase in revenue, to $97.1 million, part of which was due to acquisitions. Its federal government integration division, the Systems Group, reported a 4 per cent increase in revenue totaling $257 million due to increased federal contract agreements. Analysts predict growth of up to 25 percent over the first six months of 1991, due to acquisitions such as the recent purchase of Moria Informatique, a French integrator. Survival story. (teaching managers to manage) (Viewpoint) Censor, John Z. The need for companies to reduce costs has pressured information systems personnel to perform day-to-day cost management duties including planning, scheduling, resource allocation, and product design and implementation. Many information personnel are not trained to manage as effectively as they are called upon to do. Companies are turning to outsourcing for computer services rather than investing in training for their own personnel. Users who are more informed about information systems put added pressure on employees to manage projects more efficiently. Clients are aware of available technologies and can compare offered services with competing firms. Information systems personnel need to be able to communicate effectively their offerings to the customer. Software for project management often is not fully used; well-trained personnel are needed to solve managerial problems. Groupware market starting to take off. Cortese, Amy. The market for groupware, or collaboration software, is growing as evidenced by the sales of Lotus Development Corp's Notes and AT&T's Rhapsody. Lotus Notes had more than 70 customers in 1990, its first year, while Rhapsody has six customers with systems in full production and a number of others in beta test. Groupware refers to several categories of software that include work group products that rely on a client/server architecture and even financial packages that run on a network. It also includes recent high-end products, such as work flow software, that help people work together more efficiently. Notes produces a database that allow users to create and edit documents jointly. Rhapsody creates an integrated office automation environment that combines a variety of groupware elements. LAN Manager unified: Microsoft to benefit form 3Com's exit. Melo, Alfred. 3Com Corp has stopped shipping LAN Manager, leaving Microsoft Corp the only provider of the network management software package. 3Com Corp has decided to leave the network operating systems business. The majority of LAN Manager vendors believe that only one firm is needed to develop the network management software. Microsoft competes with its original merchandise manufacturers by selling LAN Manager products to value-added resellers (VARs) and integrators who specialize in network computing. 3Com's value-added features for LAN Manager include connectivity for Macintosh and networks plus X.500 directory services. Microsoft plans to include these for OEMs in 1991. SPA to crank up efforts in copy crusade. (Software Publishers Association opposes unauthorized corporate copying of software The Software Publishers Assn (SPA) is engaging in a vigorous campaign against unauthorized corporate copying of software. The efforts include litigation and search-and-seizure raids on suspect companies. The SPA claims that software piracy costs software publishers $3 billion per year in lost sales. The trade organization plans to release information relating to its $75,000 settlement against Kemper Lesnik Organization, which was using illegal copies of Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3. SPA officials plan to conduct more than 100 software audits in 1991. Changing times take toll at DEC. (Digital in Transition, part 1) (includes related articles on DEC sales representatives and the DEC's business plans for the future will have to include a change of focus from proprietary hardware to computer services, open systems, and software. With much of the computer industry turning toward non-proprietary computing and decentralization, the company's VAX minicomputer cannot be expected to maintain its levels of profitability. In the 2nd qtr 1991, DEC's service revenue rose 16 percent, to $1.36 billion. Its software business garners 20 percent of DEC's revenue. DEC plans to lay off up to 3,500 employees in the first half of 1991 alone. The company is also coping with customer complaints about quality and pricing of its software products. Computers map out Gulf war plans. (electronic weaponry and surveillance in the Persian Gulf War with Iraq) The US military has made frequent use of a wide variety of computing systems in the course of its war with Iraq. A mainframe computer and Air Force-developed software are used to compile a daily list of targets in Iraq and Kuwait which bombers attack during the next 24 hours. Computing systems control and monitor the activities of 24 types of US aircraft as well as craft from foreign countries. Computer technology and sophisticated telecommunications strategies are used to jam Iraqi radar so that US bombers can unleash their weapons without opposition. Other computer systems are intended to manage high levels of air traffic over the beleaguered countries. ISDN to reach the masses. (regional Bell operating companies will extend integrated services digital network services beyond Centrex Most of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) intend to deploy integrated services digital network (ISDN) services beyond Centrex facilities by the end of 1991. This effort may prompt more establishments to install ISDN, even if their sites are not built around one central office facility. New capabilities for ISDN on the way from the RBOCs include single ISDN line service for sites or users with limited networking needs. ISDN connectivity will gradually extend within the RBOCs' regions and then to interexchange carriers' ISDN services. Some RBOCs plan to offer Primary Rate Interface ISDN support of 23 64K-bps B channels with a separate 16K-bps D channel. Formerly, most only supported the Basic Rate Interface of two B channels with one D channel. IBM sues lessor over parts sales: challenge to Comdisco may limit user options. (IBM Credit Corp. files suit against lessor of IBM IBM Credit Corp is suing Comdisco Inc, the largest independent lessor of IBM mainframe computers, alleging that the company illegally sold and re-leased IBM parts. Comdisco has denied the charges. Analysts suggest that the case could limit user options for upgrading, and stifle leasing competition. Antitrust actions may arise if IBM wins the lawsuit and can prevent third parties from subleasing IBM computers. IBM claims that a lessor is constrained from making changing during a leasing period that result in a different, but equivalent, configuration. Such restrictions can discourage customers from leasing at all. OS/2 partners hit roadblock. (Microsoft Corp. and IBM opposed on direction of OS/2 project) Microsoft Corp and IBM are in disagreement over the development of OS/2 Presentation Manager graphical user interface, which IBM is counting on to unify its Officevision and AIX environments. The Open Software Foundation/Motif interface was modeled after OS/2 PM as well. IBM executives are distressed by its development partner's unrelenting promotion of Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Microsoft is planning an enhanced Windows 3.0, which many industry participants view as a potential competitor with OS/2 in the large accounts and independent development markets. Microsoft hopes to extend Windows 3.0 into the 32-bit realm, including several crucial OS/2 features. Microsoft seems to be reconsidering its earlier intention to assure binary compatibility between OS/2 and Windows 3.0. Frame relay turbocharges public data network services. Booker, Ellis. Value-added network vendors will deploy frame relay technology in 1991, accelerating public data networks significantly. US Sprint Communications Co and videotex service provider Compuserve Inc have both announced plans to use frame relay. Frame relay is a communications packet protocol that is much faster than X.25 packet protocol because it omits error checking and corrections occurring at each network node. Frame relay is expected to promote document imaging technologies, which require fast transmission speeds. Local area network (LAN)-to-LAN connections will also be more practical under frame relay. Weather agency shakes up tardy radar project. (U.S. Weather Service's computerized radar program Nexrad) The US Weather Service's controversial Nexrad program is in a state of flux as its director awaits reassignment. Nexrad, which is six months behind schedule and $80 million over its planned $359 million budget, centers on the installation of new radar systems at 175 weather stations. The systems, to be installed by Unisys Corp, will provide meteorologists with information on distant storms. But prime contractor Unisys is trying to postpone full-scale production in an effort to increase its charges for providing the technology. Weather Service employees report that a workforce policy of attrition has left the agency understaffed. NCR files antitrust suit, loses its shareholder list. (suit against AT&T complicates hostile takeover bid) (includes related NCR Corp continues to fight AT and T's hostile takeover attempt, filing an antitrust lawsuit against AT and T and alleging that the telecommunications corporation's credit card business renders it a bank holding company, thereby prohibiting it from acquiring a nonbank holding company. In an unrelated court action, NCR was required to give AT and T access to its shareholder list. AT and T has given NCR written requests for a special meeting of NCR's board from 51 percent of NCR's shareholders, more than twice the percentage required to mandate a meeting. NCR's responsibility is only to call such a meeting within a 'reasonable' period of time. Path smoothed for Mac clones: Nutek claims chip engineering method is legally sound. (Nutek Computers Inc. plans Apple Nutek Computer Inc is preparing to release a chip set, screen display, and operating system to be used in the manufacture of microcomputers that clone the Apple Macintosh. Nutek's president claims that the company has circumvented Apple's copyright by engineering the products using only publicly available information, and without using the Macintosh's internal code. Nutek's copyrighted ROM chip works with an operating system that avoids infringing on the Macintosh look-and-feel. Instead, Nutek's user interface is based on the Open Software Foundation's OSF/Motif interface. If the Nutek product can survive legal challenges from Apple, it could inaugurate a dramatic expansion in the non-IBM type microcomputer market, fostering innovation, competition, and lower prices. Doctors save time writing without pens: physicians discover that using voice-recognition technology can omit paperwork. (includes Mercy Hospital in Massachusetts uses a voice recognition system that saves the hospital money and makes it easier for doctors to complete necessary reports quickly. Physicians speak into a telephone handset as computer systems transfer their words into printing on a computer display screen. The system is based on HP Vectra personal computers and a voice recognition technology developed by Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc. Using the voice system saves doctors time from writing reports by hand. The system uses some 'trigger phrases' that summon an entire report section, which the doctor can edit. Medical records created with the voice recognition system tend to be more thorough than physicians' written reports, giving the doctors potential legal protection in the event of malpractice suits. The system reduces costs formerly generated by transcribing taped and written reports. Fighting terminal terrorism. (computer crime) (column) Schwartau, Winn. The intensive use of international communications and a global network of computer systems gives rise to the danger that such systems could be sabotaged. Manufacturers and national governments have not mandated safety mechanisms sufficient to guard against the possibility of a massive wave of computer terrorism. Such an attack could shut down computer systems, disabling the society under attack. The US government is funding research on the use of computer terrorism to disable enemy military computers. Reliance on cellular technology and satellite transmission in many modern communications systems presents another area of vulnerability, as radio frequency interception is a relatively simple task. Dating problems? Wait 'til the year 2000. (computerized date documentation based on two-digit years can cause problems in the The year 2000 will present a documentation problem for our automated society, in which many computers store dates using only a two-digit system. Many standard programs written with this two-digit system in mind will cease to function properly when the last two-digits abruptly alter their current pattern of increasing. This occurrence could lead to major accounting flaws and confusion. Standards bodies are now requiring that four-digit years be used, but many of the computers currently in use were programmed long before such guidelines were conceived. Converting old and large systems will entail massive reprogramming efforts that could require considerable time and effort. Users taking a slow approach to Escon technology. (IBM's channel architecture) Information resource managers are in no hurry to implement IBM's new channel architecture, Escon, although they seem to be relatively pleased with this framework for communication between processors and peripherals. Escon will not be fully capable until 1991 or later, giving managers time to wait for the marketing of equipment with native Escon support, so they will not have to retrofit existing hardware. Escon is intended to increase the data transfer rates and distances possible between processors and peripherals. The architecture is to enable transfer rates up to 10Mbytes per second, and allow users to locate peripherals several miles from host computers. A World Vision that's wide open. (nonprofit relief and development agency uses relational database system) (On Site) World Vision nonprofit relief and development agency has installed a relational data base management system to provide better access to donor and project data. The system includes the Unisys System 5 Unix-like operating system and Online relational data base software from Informix Corp. World Vision, which raised approximately $200 million in 1990, hopes to use the new technology to effectively direct fund-raising activities and manage its money efficiently. Most of the funds come from individual sponsorship of children. The new system's key application handles donor enrollment and the matching of needy children with a potential donor. Must Software enhances VAX, PC Nomad packages. (Must Software International Nomad 3.0 for VAX/VMS and microcomputers) (product Must Software International has released new versions of its data base management software, Nomad for VAX 3.0 and PC Nomad 3.0, that run more efficiently on DEC's VAX/VMS computers and on DEC microcomputers. Nomad for VAX 3.0 is priced at $3,000 and up, depending on hardware configuration. The software, which includes a new application development tool kit, can now be installed with a standard DEC installation facility. PC Nomad 3.0 costs $995 and also includes the development tool kit. It has a new interface to DEC's RDB relational data base management system. Must Software is also marketing an OS/2 version of the program. Interlisp support shifts once again. (users cope with changing support for Interlisp programming language) Interlisp programming language, an interactive version of LISP, is used by a loyal group of about 1,200 people, who have undergone three shifts in software support since the language was developed in 1981. Interlisp enables programmers to debug and program new code without compiling. The users work at 200 different sites throughout the world, and communicate by electronic mail. Interlisp was developed by Xerox Corp but dropped in 1988 due to low return on investment. A spinoff company, Envos Inc, supported the language for only nine months before closing. Now Interlisp is supported by Venue Inc, a startup that is staffed by former Xerox workers. Helping hospitals share information: system collects data, makes it available for access by member institutions. Andersen Consulting has developed a complex data base, the Clinical/Financial Information System, for use by the 650 non-profit hospitals and 185 affiliates of Voluntary Hospitals of America Inc (VHA). VHA uses the system to manage the transfer of information about clinical services and operating costs between its member hospitals. Each hospital using the data base pays a $94,000 installation fee in addition to a yearly fee of about $35,000. A relational data base management system is used to query the system. VHA holds the rights to the software and is not planning to sell the system as a product. Work-flow system market grows. (Filenet Corp. introduces Workflo Business System software for document management) (product Filenet Corp's Workflo Business System (WBS) is an office automation software suite that includes the Workshop application development environment and Workforce Desktop, an end-user application for managing the flow of documents and images in a workgroup. WBS is positioned to take advantage of a growing market in work-flow software, which allows users to designate the routing of images, documents, video, and other materials to workers on a local area network. The office automation software is designed to run with Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface software. It will use Filenet's Unix-like operating system as a server platform. The market for work-flow systems may be as large as $583.3 million by 1993. Palmtops are not games. (hand-held computer market due for serious growth) (Commentary) (column) Computer industry consultant Gilbert Hoaxie and market analysts at Dataquest agree that the market for palmtops, or sub-notebook size computers, is bound to expand rapidly in the next years. A leading manufacturer of such systems is Poqet Computer, maker of the Poqet hand-held computer, priced at a newly reduced price of $1,500. By mid-1991, 4Mbyte flash memory cards will be available for the Poqet. Obvious disadvantages of the Poqet include the small size of its keyboard and the starkness of its screen, yet flash memory may be the feature that attracts customers to this pioneer product from the world of 'convenience computing.' 386DX faces looming shadows. (Intel Corp.'s 80386DX microprocessor overshadowed by competing products) Intel's 80386DX 32-bit 25- and 35-MHz microprocessors may be on the way to obsolescence, due in large part to the success of the Intel 80386SX. The 20-MHz SX is selling rapidly for use in stand-alone microcomputers, where its performance is virtually as strong as that of the 80386DX. Caching upgrades have contributed to the improved performance of the SX. The DX retains a narrow niche market in certain engineering applications and as a server for local area networks of moderate size. Yet the microprocessor is also threatened from above, by the Intel 80486 microprocessor. Some analysts predict that microcomputers based on the 80486 microprocessors will become affordable so quickly that the 80386DX will be put out of business. T-shirt company Champions automated ordering process. (Champion Products Inc. uses microcomputers from Compaq Computer Corp.) Champion Products Inc equips its field sales representatives with SLT 286 portable microcomputers from Compaq Computer Corp. Sales personnel use an automated order-entry system to minimize costly order mistakes. Champion's product list includes 42,000 retail shirt designs. Company officials estimate that the reduction in order errors among field sales groups will compensate for the cost of the order system in under three years. Representatives use a 24-hour, toll-free, 2,400-bps line to communicate with company headquarters and register orders. Mainframe access is also provided by the portable SLTs. Plenty of help available for Windows 3.0 users. (Microsoft Corp. and user groups offer support information about popular graphical Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is taking the microcomputer community by storm, but for many, graphical user interfaces are foreign and potentially mystifying. Support services are available to educate and guide new corporate and private users, starting with those available from the manufacturer. Microsoft offers telephone and field-support services and presents classes through the Microsoft University Program and the Compuserve videotex service. User groups can be another key source of user education and advice. Groups for Windows 3.0 have been started in most large US cities, giving members an opportunity to communicate with more experienced users. Bulletin boards, newsletters, and the Windows Users Group Network are other sources of information. College takes cheaper road to Athena. (University of California at Santa Cruz uses Sun Microsystems Inc. workstations to run Project The University of California at Santa Cruz is implementing Project Athena scalable client/server software developed by MIT, DEC, and IBM. Project Athena programs are conventionally run on hardware from one of the developing companies, but UC project director Tim Garlick and his team decided to purchase workstations from Sun Microsystem Inc instead. The UC project includes 21 Sun SLC workstations and five Sun IPC workstations, to be used as servers. These products are less expensive than the alternative choices from DEC and IBM, and the UC team believes they will provide sufficient computing power to run Athena's major components, including the Kerberos security system, Hezoid data base program, Moira management software, and Zephyr electronic mail system. Northern refocuses on networking strengths: synergizes data products with office offerings. (Northern Telecom Inc.'s Data Northern Telecom Inc (NT) is implementing a new commercial policy in relation to its single successful data networking product, the Data Packet Network (DPN) switch. After years of trying to gain a large share of the customer premises data networking market, NT is focusing on promoting the correlations between DPN and the company's very successful central office offerings. The centrex business accounted for 64 percent of NT's revenue in 1990, while the customer premises side contributed only 24 percent, most of which came from voice networking products. NT stayed in the end-user data networking market long after many of its competitors cut their losses. The company has erred in selling its products through the regional operating companies, a practice that distances NT from its customers. Novell networking strategy questioned. (users concerned about network management strategy) Novell Inc's Netware network operating system customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the company's network management strategy. Users pointed to the late delivery of two management applications, name service and remote management facility, as evidence of Novell's disregard for the issues of network management. System managers complain that Netware 386 does not include the same management utilities as Netware 286. Other customers question the user-friendliness of available management components. In response to such critiques, Novell will release a formal network management strategy statement in early 1991. Hotel adopts AT&T server. (Fairfield Inn's Starserver E) Wexler, Joanie M. Marriott Corp's Fairfield Inn discount lodging chain uses an AT and T Starserver E file server to manage its back-office applications and reservations system. The Unix-based symmetrical multiprocessing computer connects Fairfield properties with a central reservations facility in Omaha and with a central accounting office in Maryland. By using the file server instead of microcomputers that were formerly deployed, Fairfield can expand the amount of properties it supports by 25. The company chose a Unix-based system because it already ran some applications on the Xenix operating system and the two platforms can cooperate relatively well. E-mail for UPS business only. (United Parcel Service Inc. maintains strict rules on use of electronic mail) United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) takes a no-nonsense approach to employee use of its electronic mail system, warning users at the log-on screen that the system is meant exclusively for business-related messaging. In the same message, the company notifies its employees that UPS maintains the right to monitor the content of all messages. This admission may save UPS from the debate that has occurred in companies in which employee mail was read without warning or notification, leading workers to charge that their rights to privacy were violated. The UPS e-mail system helps to connect operations in 180 countries. It includes 30,000 electronic mailboxes and transmits over 100,000 messages per week. Emergency care gets a shot in the arm: hospitals are using technology to improve response in critical situations. (includes Hospital emergency room facilities are turning with growing urgency toward innovative information systems, hoping to use such systems to reduce costs and improve the quality of services. Some custom-designed computer systems give emergency room technicians faster access to a hospital's administrative data base and make it easier to admit patients. Emergency facilities, required to treat all patients regardless of ability to pay, are often unable to recoup the costs of medical care. New documentation systems can improve the quality of medical records, making it easier for hospitals to get reimbursed. Better documentation can also provide protection against malpractice litigation, leading in turn to reduced insurance costs. Network connectors: don't let standards tangle traffic patterns. (minimize problems involving bridges and routers by becoming aware Connecting local area networks (LANs) with other LANs via bridges and routers is a complicated enterprise that requires thorough knowledge of the various standards and protocols defining traffic patterns. Buyers of network equipment need to examine issues of functionality and protocol support in order to insure integrated network management. Bridges can link LANs no matter what upper-level protocols the LANs support, but routers support certain upper-level protocols and can only link LANs with similar protocols. Router manufacturers are limiting this liability by adding support for more than one protocol. The principal standards for bridge connection are Spanning Tree and source routing, which are incompatible. Gateways aren't the only way to get PCs and hosts talking. (native-mode interoperability strategy) Gateways and native-mode interoperability strategies can assist network managers in their efforts to provide for communication between microcomputers on a local area network (LAN) and microcomputers, file servers, or hosts on another LAN. Interpretation between incompatible equipment is accomplished by gateway software, which formats emulation data residing on a microcomputer into a host network and session-level protocol. The protocol is encapsulated into packets to be transmitted over the LAN. A native-mode strategy obviates the need for encapsulation; it enables computers to agree on certain protocols and application interfaces to be supported on the LAN. Extra! tops LAN SNA gateway ratings. (Attachmate Corp.'s local area network gateway to IBM's Systems Network Architecture) A survey of user satisfaction with various local area network gateway products providing connections with IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) indicates that Attachmate Corp's Extra! excels in the areas of ease of use, response time, terminal and printer emulation, and service and support. Other products involved in the survey were DEC's Irmalan, IBM's Personal Communications 3270 and OS/2 Extended Edition, and Novell Corp's Netware SNA Gateway. Although the IBM products scored highest in the other two categories, reliability and reasonable line speed, they had the lowest overall rating of user satisfaction. DEC and Novell took second and third place, respectively. Misuse of power: poor IS and business management leadership can doom a technology implementation before it starts. (information To avoid disasters in the implementation of information systems within a business environment, business and IS managers need to produce a methodology for implementing computer systems and an inventory of past problems and their solutions. The two managerial groups must coordinate on installation of systems, ascertaining that the new technology serves the human users and aids in delivering or producing the service or product sold by the business. MIS staffs must be educated in the overall needs of the business in order to deploy the technology effectively. Before an implementation occurs, managers should record ways in which worker behavior is expected to change, and analyze the benefits expected to accrue from new technologies. Interleaf theme: turn, turn, turn: a new president is the most recent change intended to reinvent the firm. (Mark Ruport) Interleaf Inc, formerly a leader in the desktop publishing software market, is weathering a steep downturn in its revenues. The company's new president Mark Ruport is charged with shifting the firm's focus from desktop publishing to the high-end documentation management market. Ruport inherits his position from Robert Weiler, who was president for 15 months and is credited with initiating a turnaround strategy that included layoffs of 18 percent of the company's workers. Under Weiler's management, the firm terminated its hardware business and replaced five of its six vice presidents. Mac Classic is shining star in Apple's sky. (Macintosh Classic microcomputer leads in sales statistics) The Macintosh Classic microcomputer is most likely to be Apple's best-selling microcomputer to date, but Apple executives insist this is only the beginning of the company's aggressive plan to boost market share. The firm is developing infrared technology for producing wireless computer networks, and is also concentrating on plans for a new notebook computer to be introduced in August 1991. Company chairman John Sculley hopes that the firm's new lower pricing strategy will help to produce a 10 percent growth rate for 1991. The success of the Classic was extreme enough to result in shortages in supply that are expected to continue until March. Taking what you're given. (variation in the commercial policies of HP and Sun Microsystems Inc.) (Commentary) (column) HP and Sun Microsystems Inc have widely varying customer relations policies, which can significantly affect their customers' budgeting. HP is generally sensitive to customer concerns, offering older products for ages in order to please hardware owners. This may have a negative impact on HP resources or even profitability, but it pleases customers who might otherwise be saddled with functional workstations that cannot run the newest software versions. Sun has the obverse inclination, exemplified in its decision not to upgrade older workstations to Unix System V, version 4 operating system. Sun's focus on profit engenders disregard of its customers' worries about software and hardware compatibility. As a result, Sun customers may have to purchase new hardware when the vendor refuses to provide an upgrade path. European software plan receives mixed reviews. (European Commission agreement on software protection) The European Commission's draft agreement on software protection is a compromise that bans reverse engineering if the intention is to develop, produce, or market a product that is very similar to an existing product. Reverse engineering would be permissible in cases where the design of a compatible system is otherwise impossible. Although the UK, Ireland, and IBM preferred complete outlawing of reverse engineering, all three have agreed to the compromise. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems is partially dissatisfied with the agreement because it does not include third-party maintenance, and because, as written, the agreement would prohibit designers from analyzing software to ensure hardware compatibility. Success story: hunting for a skills niche. (Life After Layoffs, part 3) Getting laid off is no longer the stigma it once was for MIS managers, with current economic uncertainty resulting in thousands of layoffs throughout the country, including the displacement of many high-level workers. Employers are now more likely to consider hiring workers who have been laid off. George Francis, formerly employed by Kidder, Peabody and Co, was unemployed for almost a year before taking a job as manager of quality assurance with Computer Sciences Corp. Francis attributes the success of his search, which culminated in three competing job offers, to planning, perseverance, and faith in his abilities. He carefully cultivated his specialized skills in quality control in order to distinguish himself from other applicants. Managers not rocking the IS spending boat: internal cutbacks are becoming more common. (information systems) Many MIS departments are relying on internal spending restrictions and careful budgeting to weather the 1991 recession. Instead of responding to the market downturn by becoming more aggressive in their dealings with computer vendors, information resources managers are taking a conservative approach that often means maintaining established relationships with vendors. Equipment acquisition is focused on projects that directly affect revenue. Some firms enhance their current equipment to avoid spending more on the latest discoveries in microcomputers. Winning the fight over budget restrictions. (part 2)(MIS department training budget strategies) Information resources managers are becoming more sophisticated at justifying the training costs involved in educating end users. Key tactics include forming cooperative relationships between end users and MIS managers, and articulating to company management the ways in which training saves the company money. Certification programs and other performance measurement plans can demonstrate increased user effectiveness after training. Surveys and evaluation forms can also document the effectiveness of training. Showing the cost of not training is an alternative approach to cost justification--MIS managers can make a strong case that their companies could lose sales by not adequately educating their employees. Wang in red, DG back to black, and Connor shines. (Wang Laboratories Inc., Data General Corp., and Conner Peripherals Inc. Wang Laboratories Inc, Conner Peripherals, and Data General reacted in different ways to the increasing economic stress of 1991. Wang's move toward renewed profitability was stymied by economic factors exacerbated by war and recession. The company posted a net loss of $24.7 million for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990, and revenue was down by 15 percent from the same quarter a year before. Conner Peripherals announced an amazing 90 percent year-end revenue increase and a 1990 profit of $130.1 million. Data General credits cost-reduction measures and rising sales of Aviion workstations with boosting its revenue by 7.2 percent. The company's profit was $12.4 million after a net loss of $20.5 million the year before. FTC probe of OSF said to focus on tech pricing. (Federal Trade Commission, Open Software Foundation) Industry sources maintain that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the Open Software Foundation (OSF) for antitrust violations and unfair trade practices. The OSF's pricing policy has been criticized by several independent software vendors. At the center of the dispute is the OSF's activity as both a non-profit standards-setting organization sponsored by various computer industry companies, including IBM, and its function as a vendor of products, which it licenses to other vendors for a fee rather than selling directly to customers. Motif graphical user interface and the OSF/1 operating system are some of the OSF's products. Independent software vendors feel that OSF competes unfairly against them because, as a non-profit organization, it is able to license its technology for very low fees. Fujitsu product first of its kind: the DS/90 line of systems was announced at last week's Uniforum. (Unix-based computers announced The January 1991 Uniforum computer industry trade show featured the introduction of Fujitsu Ltd's DS/90 line of mid-range computers based on development efforts of Fujitsu's recent acquisition, International Computers Ltd PLC. The DS/90 line of Unix-based file servers uses Scalable Processor Architecture. A 25-MHz DS/90 computer with 16Mbytes of RAM costs around $50,000, while a 33-MHz model with 32Mbytes of RAM is priced at about $200,000. The Uniforum conference also included new Delta Series 8000 reduced-instruction set computing products from Motorola Inc. Sequent Computer Systems displayed its Symmetry 2000 products, based on symmetrical processing architecture. Uniforum addresses user demand for Unix systems. (computer trade show) The January 1991 Uniforum trade show included more imaging systems, multimedia software, and connectivity products than the previous year's conference, which centered on basic business applications. Motorola Inc introduced the Multipersonal Image Exchange System, priced at $17,000 and up. This imaging system incorporates a scanner, editor, facsimile transmission equipment, and optical storage. The microcomputer platform for the system is not included in its purchase price. Sun Microsystems Inc introduced Videopix, an $895 video capture system that enables users to freeze and record a video image from various sources, change the image, place it on a network, or store it. The system runs on a Sun Sparcstation. TGV fulfills Sun promise of Open Look port to VMS. (Sun Microsystems Inc., TGV's XView Toolkit) Sun Microsystems demonstrates the first instance of an Open Look application being ported to the VMS operating system. Sun states that G&C Systems' Auto_Plan, a flight plan simulation program, has been successfully ported to VMS in under 40 hours using TGV Inc's XView for VMS. TGV's XView for VMS is a development tool that includes a library of callable procedures that aid in creating VMS user interfaces. The Auto_Plan program will run on VMS 5.4 or higher and includes flight simulation, trajectory generation and 50 preprogrammed test-flight maneuvers. Analysts say Sun Microsystems is eager to port other applications to the VMS operating system because it sees a significant revenue base in software. Sun also wants to establish Open Look as an industry standard ahead of rival interfaces such as the Open Software Foundation's Motif interface. DEC among finalists for OSF distributed management. (Open Software Foundation's distributed management environment) Several of the biggest names in the computer industry are behind the 27 different proposals submitted to the Open Software Foundation (OSF) for consideration in defining the OSF's distributed management environment (DME). Among the proposals are a joint offering from DEC and Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) Communications as well as one from a joint project including HP, Groupe Bull and IBM. DME is a project designed to facilitate consistent management methods and applications over heterogeneous computing networks. The joint DEC/BBN proposal uses an interface written by BBN coupled with DEC's DECmcc management control center products. The triumvirate of IBM/Bull/HP's proposal is centered around object-oriented network management techniques. Low-end VAX 4000 supports MicroVAX 3000 peripherals. (DEC VAX 4000 200) (product announcement) DEC introduces the second member of its VAX 4000 series, the Model 200. The VAX 4000 200 is available at prices ranging from $16,420 for a real-time system with 8Mbytes of RAM to $136,930 for a dual-host, time-sharing model with 32Mbytes of memory. The VAX 4000 200 is also available in a VAXserver configuration for prices ranging from $20,000 to $60,670. The model 200 is a scaled-down version of the VAX 4000 300 that the firm introduced in Jul 1990. DEC states the model 200 is designed to protect user's investments in MicroVAX 3000 systems by being backward-compatible with most of that systems' peripherals. The VAX 4000 200 sports a 35-nanosecond CPU that produces 6.65 MicroVAX II units of processing, and the computer can support up to 80 simultaneous All-in-1 users. The VAX 4000 200 is the first DEC product to integrate the CPU, floating-point function, clock and first-level cache on a single chip. Options for VAX 6000 storage reshaped with DSSI offerings. (DEC VAX 6000, KFMSA XMI-to-DSSI adapter) (product announcement) DEC widens the storage options for users of VAX 6000 computers by announcing an XMI-to-DSSI adapter that increases the storage capacity of a VAX 6000 to 24Gbytes. The $14,000 KFMSA XMI-to-DSSI adapter provides a link between the VAX 6000's XMI bus and the faster DSSI bus. The adapter is a single XMI connection with a pair of DSSI buses that support data transfer speeds of over 5Mbps. With the adapter, VAX 6000 users can attach as many as 12 disk units and two tape drives in single-host mode, or eight disk drives and two tape drives in dual-host mode. The adapter also opens the possibility of creating mixed VAX clusters with both 6000- and 4000-series systems involved. CASE products simplify C, Fortran programming under Unix. (Atherton Technology's C-Make SoftBoard, F-Make SoftBoard) Atherton Technology introduces two new computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools for working in the C and Fortran programming languages. C-Make SoftBoard and F-Make SoftBoard provide users with the ability to compile, link, run and debug programs in C or Fortran without having to work in the native Unix operating system. The two CASE tools are priced at $500 for each simultaneous user license and will run on DECstations, IBM RS/6000 workstations and Sun Microsystems' Sparcstations. The packages operate on the Unix platform, but use the object-oriented A Tools Integration Standard (ATIS) interface to combine different code elements into a subsystem. Insync 4GL executes SQL transactions across multiple RDBMSes. (fourth generation language, structured query language, relational Insync Software Corp releases an updated version of its Passport fourth-generation language development software. Prices for Passport start at $4,000 for VMS or Unix licenses, up to $120,000 for VAX 9000 developer's license. Passport enables developers to commit transactions simultaneously across relational DBMSes from a variety of vendors including Oracle, Ingres, Rdb, and Sybase. The enhanced version of Passport also includes a Data Conversion utility that allows users to transfer data from one relational DBMS to another by automatically creating a select statement and inserting it in another RDBMS. The new Passport does not support full two-phase commit capabilities according to Insync representatives. Users should take TPC test results with grain of salt. (Transaction Processing Performance Council) (Tech Trends) Analysts caution that users must know how to read benchmark test results in order to glean what real information there is, rather than relying on individual company interpretations. HP and DEC have both released transaction processing benchmark tests in recent weeks. DEC's Transaction Processing Performance Council Benchmark B (TPC-B) measured Rdb 4.0 running on a VAXcluster consisting of four VAX 6000 540 systems. The results showed a transaction rate of 300.1 transactions per second. HP's test measured throughput of the Informix RDBMS 4.0 running on HP 9000 842S at 33 transactions per second, and on the HP 9000 852S at 43.3 transactions per second. Both vendors and analysts admit that the test results are in no way comparable. Server price/performance slope gets steeper with Mips rollouts. (Mips Computer Systems' RISComputer RC 3360, RISComputer RC6260) Mips Computer Systems introduces two new RISC-based file servers to compete with Sun Microsystems' Sparcserver 470 and 490. The $65,500 RISComputer RC3360, and the $139,500 RISComputer RC6260 are marketed toward client/server applications that require high-speed I/O and networking capabilities. The RC3360 uses a 33MHz R3000A microprocessor and is rated at 26.4 Specmarks, compared with 19.4 Specmarks for the $59,900 Sun Sparcserver 470. The RC6260 is built around a 60MHz R6000 ECL microprocessor rated at 44 Specmarks, compared with Sun's $99,900 Sparcserver 490 that is also rated at 19.4 Specmarks. The RC3360 features four Ethernet ports, seven VME ports and from 32- to 256Mbytes of main memory. The RC6260 includes an additional 32- to 128Mbytes of error-checking and correcting memory as well as from 663Mbytes to 44Gbytes of disk storage. Stardent searches for multivendor AVS network site. (Stardent Computer's Application Visualization System) Stardent Computer plans to open a service center to act as a clearinghouse for information and development schemes surrounding its Application Visualization System. The company states that the goal of the center will be to provide users and developers with technical support as well as distribution of public domain AVS modules and to establish a working example of a heterogeneous AVS network. The firm has yet to choose a location for the center, but it appears to be leaning toward an academic setting. While AVS is designed to run on multivendor systems, part of the center's focus will be on ironing out network administration and management glitches that appear in heterogeneous networks. Forest tool lets IBM 3270s access DEC systems via LAT. (Local Area Transport) (Forest Computer's 3270/LAT Gateway) (product Forest Computer introduces its $34,000 3270/LAT Gateway for connecting IBM 3270 terminals on a Systems Network Architecture network to DEC computers using the Local Area Transport protocol. The gateway is a standalone hardware system measuring 27 inches by 18 inches by eight inches. The gateway itself provides the terminal emulation, keeping overhead and host software off of both the IBM and DEC systems. The gateway can support more than 100 concurrent sessions and each individual user can run as many as seven concurrent DEC sessions with hot-key interaction. Forest Computer states that the gateway is a perfect complement for users with DEC's DECnet/SNA gateway handling communications with IBM systems. PC-based plotter system accommodates mixed networks. (Byers Engineering's Plot Station) (product announcement) Byers Engineering Co introduces its $5,000 Plot Station network software application that converts a microcomputer into a dedicated plotter-sharing device. The software runs on any Intel 80286-, 80386-, or 80486-based microcomputer and gives users of computer-aided design (CAD) or other graphics software access to virtually every make of plotter and to most manufacturer's printers. Plot Station also lets users share devices on a variety of networks including mixed networks from the likes of DEC, Sun Microsystems, Novell, 3Com, and HP. Plot Station also supports many CAD software packages including those from AutoCAD, Intergraph, Microstation, AutoTrol, McAuto, and Catia. The year in review. (1990) (DEC) Vizard, Michael. A look back at 1990 shows a DEC with some very disappointing financial figures, including a $256.7 million loss for its 4th qtr 1990, as well as a company that is struggling to support both open systems and its own proprietary architecture and operating system. Many thought 1990 would be the year DEC concentrated on integrating its proprietary VAX/VMS systems with the its increasingly popular RISC/Ultrix environment. Instead DEC concentrated on improving the price/performance of its VAX line by introducing the VAX 4000 line of minicomputers. DEC hoped the VAX 4000's impressive performance, coupled with the firm's stated plans of developing a RISC-based VMS system would keep users from defecting to open systems environments. The year 1990 also saw DEC focusing on a strategy of deriving more and more income from software and services. The year ahead. (1991) Hancock, Bill. The year 1991 for DEC may be the year its VMS operating system moves beyond the proprietary VAX platform and is migrated to other non-VAX systems. DEC sees the migration as a means of keeping VMS alive by putting its eggs in more than one basket. With VMS running on other platforms, DEC can also derive more income from applications licensing deals. The year 1991 will also see a continued trend toward downsizing, with minicomputers being squeezed out of the market by powerful desktop servers and workstations. DEC will compete in the downsizing market by pushing its RISC/Ultrix solutions against the likes of IBM's RS/6000 line. DEC will also focus on European expansion in 1991 via its joint venture with Mannesman. Mannesman will complement DEC in Europe because it focuses on small and midsized companies while DEC targets larger firms. The best. (Digital Review Target Awards winners for 1990) Awards are given to the best products in several categories as selected by a survey of 84,000 readers of Digital Review. It's no surprise that the DEC VAX 4000 and VAXserver 4000 are rated as the best multiuser and server systems, nor that the DEC DECstation 5000 200 is voted the best workstation. The Apple Macintosh IIfx is deemed the best microcomputer, while Clearpoint Research's DCME-M30 is the favorite memory device. The best magnetic disk controller/subsystem is a tie between DEC's KDM70 and Clearpoint Research's DCMS-TSB. The best disk drive is a tie between Seagate's Wren VII and DEC's RA92. Winners in other categories include Exabyte's EXB8500, Exsys Storage Systems' Laser-RA, DEC's VT420, Emulex's Performance 4000, HP's LaserJet III, DEC's Pathworks, Walker Richer and Quinn's Reflection 4, The Wollongong Group's WIN/TCP for VMS, Systems Strategies' ExBridge and Cabletron Systems' MMAC. The brightest. (Editor's Choice awards handed out by Digital Review) The editors of Digital Review select a bevy of products from 1990 that they feel are innovative enough to have radically altered the computer market. Among the products selected is IBM's RS/6000 RISC-based workstation line for its price/performance marks and its superscaler architecture. From DEC the VAX 4000 is singled out for its outstanding price/performance marks and its client/server features. From Deft Inc are Deft 4.0 and Gateways, two CASE tools that greatly simplify migration from one database to another. From Ingres Corp is Ingres/Star 6.3, which is selected for its use of a two-phase commit protocol for managing multiple databases. Other products selected are Micro Technology's CIQBA, Stardent Computer's Application Visualization System 3, TGV's Multinet NFS Client for VMS, Trimarchi's Matrix and Visix Software's Looking Glass 2.0. Hitching up DECnet for Unix. (Software Review) (evaluations of KiNet from Ki Research and RISComm-DN from Mips Computer KiNet from Ki Research and RISComm-DN from Mips Computer Systems are two communications packages that tackle the problem of connecting Unix computers to VMS computers by implementing the DECnet protocol suite on Unix. Both products are based on Mips' RISC/os Unix, with KiNet priced at $1,295 and RISComm-DN priced at $1,900. KiNet is the easier of the two products to install and it features a function that can turn any node it runs on into a network protocol analyzer. In terms of performance, KiNet came out on top in tests measuring speed in transferring text files. KiNet also scored well in its thrifty use of CPU time, both on the Unix host and by requiring as much as one second less per file of VAX CPU time. Another advantage KiNet scored over RISComm-DN was KiNet's support of not only DECnet but also Local Area Transport and Maintenance Operations Protocol. Sparc, MIPS hegemony splinters RISC market. (the merchant reduced instruction set computer microprocessor market offers vendors less Sparc and MIPS architectures dominate the merchant reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor market and force vendors of rival designs to pursue secondary targets for their circuits. Intergraph Corp discontinued its efforts to position the Clipper in the workstation market in 1990, and it will focus its merchant hopes for the microprocessor in the embedded control arena. Sparc and MIPS architectures have virtually barred Intel and Motorola from the workstation market despite the success of the two semiconductor vendors' complex instruction set computer (CISC) engines. Intel's 680 has come to be regarded as a graphics accelerator and coprocessor, and the company has accordingly downplayed its marketing forays in workstations. Motorola is increasing its efforts to penetrate the embedded control market with its 88000 should the workstation market restrict itself to Sparc and MIPS. NTT suppliers face multivendor architecture plan. (Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. requires computer suppliers to comply Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp (NTT) requires all of its computer suppliers to comply with the new multivendor systems architecture, Multivendor Integration Architecture (MIA). IBM and DEC endorse the architecture, which codifies several standards already in existence and includes new standards for a variety of areas including communications protocols and systems architectures. MIA is a way for NTT to standardize its purchasing requirements, but analysts speculate that the architecture may affect competition between Japanese computer makers in Japan and elsewhere because of NTT's significant buying clout. NTT will use DEC's transaction processing software, Application Control and Management System (ACMS) as one of MIA's building blocks. MIA is designed to eliminate the low portability of application programs, and the difficulty of working with linked computers. variety of operating methods NCR hits AT&T deal with antitrust suit. (NCR contests AT&T's attempted takeover) NCR Corp filed a law suit claiming that an AT&T takeover of the company would adversely affect competition in the mixed-mode ASIC market and thus violate anti-trust provisions of the Clayton Act and other Ohio statutes. The court papers state that AT&T and NCR are among the five largest vendors of mixed-mode standard cells and an AT&T-NCR merger would prove to be anticompetitive. NCR cites the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, which is used by the Justice Department to set merger guidelines, to substantiate its claim that the acquisition would promote a considerable decrease of competition in the market. The suit also contends that an acquisition would further reduce the number of viable competitors in the sale of commercial computer systems, and it would permit AT&T to misuse, leverage and increase its market power in both computers and long-distance telecommunications. Unisys files protest on VA Lockheed pact. (Unisys Corp. protests US Department of Veteran's Affairs National Office Automation Unisys Corp filed a protest with the US General Services Administration (GSA) Board of Contract Appeals that claims the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to comply with evaluation criteria in evaluating bids, and it wrongfully awarded its National Office Automation for the Department of Veteran's Affairs (NOAVA) contract to Lockheed Integrated Systems. Unisys contends that the Lockheed Corp division proposed office automation software such as electronic mail, word processing, graphics and desktop management software that did not comply with the request for proposals (RFP). Lockheed, allegedly, also failed to bid systems compatible with the VA's MUMPS protocols, which was an RFP requirement. Unisys charges that the VA violated federal contracting regulations when it did not disqualify Lockheed's proposal for failing to meet all the RFP's mandatory requirements. Will AT&T be Galahad for Zenith? (Fedders Corp. attempts to takeover Zenith Controls Inc.) Zenith Controls Inc considers AT&T its potential white knight as it fights to stave off Fedders Corp's attempted takeover of the company. Fedders became Zenith's largest shareholder in late 1990 when Nycor Corp, the acquisition company Fedders created, funded and controls, bought some 8.2 percent of Zenith's shares on the open market. Fedders is attempting to acquire Zenith via a proxy battle rather than making a tender offer. Zenith agreed to provide the Fedders group with a list of its shareholders, but its board voted to fight a Nycor proxy contest. Zenith is courting AT&T to avoid the takeover, based on their two-year collaborative project to develop a high definition TV (HDTV) standard. AT&T hopes the deal will produce a lucrative market for its semiconductors in the computer monitor and home television markets, but a Fedders takeover could put the deal in jeopardy. DOD sounds suppliers on missile ramp-up. (US Department of Defense queries defense firms on their surge production capability in the The US Department of Defense is conducting an inventory of major defense firms to determine how quickly they can speed up production of missiles and other munitions being expended in the Persian Gulf air war. Most contractors have not reported increased sales due to the war, but note that military inquiries on their surge production capability have increased. Sources report that GTE Government Systems division will be contracted for spare parts for its Mobile Subscriber Equipment battlefield communication networks being used in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy has used one-quarter of the inventory of around 1,000 conventional warhead missiles, and additional orders are possible for the General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas Tomahawk cruise missile. Both contractors expected a follow on production contract before the Gulf War erupted; they will reprice their bids if additional missiles are ordered. Unix workstations target business users. (products at the Uniforum Unix trade show 1991) Compagnie des Machines Bull, Tyan Computer Corp, Prime Computer Inc, Sequent, Fujitsu, Tatung and Motorola introduced Unix workstations at the Uniforum Unix users show. Groupe Bull introduced the DPS-Prostation, Intel 486-based workstations designed especially for business applications. The $12,995 model 25i includes up to 32Mbytes of memory and one MCA slot, and the $13,495 model 25e comes with as much as 64Mbytes of memory and two EISA slots. Both systems come with bundled software including the Santa Cruz Organization's Open desktop interface, Frame Technologies desktop publishing software, the WingZ graphical spreadsheet and Alfalfa Software's Poste network mail package. Tyan introduced the Voyager i486-based system, which costs $9,999 with 8Mbytes of memory, 212Mbyte hard disk and 16 inch color monitor. Prime extended its 486-based line with the $15,900 EXL MBX 486. Compaq in shift as exec exits? (Compaq Computer Corp.'s management structure reorganized after president for North America Michael Compaq Computer Corp Pres Rod Canion is reorganizing the corporation's management structure to more effectively market the high-end SystemPro file server after Compaq Pres for North America Michael Swavely leaves his post for a six-month sabbatical. The reorganization eliminates Swavely's position and brings in President of Europe & International Eckhard Pfeiffer to the newly created position of executive vice president and chief operating officer. Pfeiffer will be responsible for worldwide operations including sales, marketing and manufacturing. Compaq may need to change its dealers-only strategy as the company attempts to put the SystemPro into Fortune 100 accounts. Canion will move the company away from a microcomputer mindset and into more of a systems orientation since the SystemPro is targeting a minicomputer. RS/6000 a hot box? See numbers: IBM. (workstation to play major role in move to support open systems and interoperability) Chairman and Pres of IBM's World Trade Corp C. Michael Armstrong reports that IBM generated $1 billion in RS/6000 RISC workstation revenues in 1990. Armstrong told an audience at the Unix Uniforum 1991 trade show that IBM shipped 25,000 workstations by the close of 1990 not including internals, demo systems or loaners. Armstrong said the RS/6000 will play a central role in IBM's new philosophy of supporting open systems and interoperability. The executive disclosed IBM's pledge to support standards including OSI, TCP/IP, Cobol, Fortran and SQL databases. IBM will adhere to POSIX standards, but will not adopt an operating system from the Open Software Foundation. IBM does not plan to merge SAA and Unix, but will allow both open and proprietary operating systems to exist in the IBM world. Future plans also include interoperability with non-IBM operating systems such as DEC's VAX/VMS. Seagate seeks $92M back for Imprimis deal. (Seagate Technology Inc. requests adjustment to the acquisition agreement it made with Seagate Technology Inc is asking Control Data Corp (CDC) to return $92.4 million as an adjustment to the $400 million it paid to purchase CDC subsidiary, Imprimis Technology Inc. CDC has already paid Seagate a $23.7 million adjustment and regards the new claim as overstated and unsubstantiated. Seagate claims the subsequent adjustment is required to offset the alleged misrepresentation of the value of assets, warranties and other items related to the Jun 1989 acquisition. CDC contends in its financial filings that its liability for any breach of representation may not exceed $50 million under the terms of the Imprimis acquisition. Seagate initially paid CDC $250 million in cash, issued a $50 million promissory note and turned over 10.7 million shares of Seagate stock. CDC announced in Jan 1991 that it would put all 17 percent of Seagate's shares up for sale. Desert Storm warnings. (US must be prepared to finance continued development of technological base)(Government Closeup) (column) The US populace will need to make financial sacrifices if the US is to remain technologically superior. Americans must not forget that the Desert Storm triumphs are based on decade-old technology that must be sustained at great cost to ensure its ability to support US armed forces in any future combat. Gulf War achievements may dupe the US into a false sense of security in 1991, and may result in its reluctance to support military planners in the future. A deficit-ridden federal budget and military funding depleted by Gulf War costs will compound the financial burden necessary to maintain the nation's technological base. McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics are laying off 8,000 workers who implemented a high technology effort to develop the now-cancelled A-12 attack plane. The US defense industry has been involved in retrenchments that have unquestionably affected national security. FCC gets spectrum comments. (US Federal Communications Commission investigates development of personal communications networks and The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigates the development of personal communications networks (PCNs) and the ways in which radio-based technologies can use the radio spectrum. Telecommunications and other equipment manufacturers responded to the investigation requesting that the FCC address such issues as bundling equipment and services, creating open standards and formulating licensing policies. Congress is considering opening up the government radio spectrum to the private sector under the Emerging Telecommunications Technology Act of 1991. The bill requires the reallocation of 200MHz of the total spectrum from the government to the private sector to support new technologies including high-definition television and personal communications services (PCS). PCS includes PCNs and is an advanced radio communications service that offers opportunities for equipment manufacturers. MIPS: ECL server off allocation. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s emitter-coupled logic RC6280 file server) MIPS Computer Systems Inc is taking its emitter-coupled logic (ECL)-based RC6280 file server off allocation after resolving a chip-supply problem with Bipolar Integrated Technology (BIT). The 55Mips RC6280 was introduced in fall 1989, but MIPS encountered problems in ramping up its BIT-supplied R6000 microprocessors. The shortage of the RC6280 adversely affected MIPS' profitability, but MIPS chairman and CEO Robert Miller claims the file server is no longer on allocation. MIPS executives say that NEC Corp is providing the company with R6000 chips and is increasing production of R6000 devices to prevent another shortage of MIPS' high-end computers. ECL-based computers are not expected to influence the market significantly and MIPS is preparing to announce the R4000 reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chip, its latest complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit, in Feb 1991. Maxtor president exits; list $3.9M quarter loss. (George M. Scalise resigns, leaves company with financial instability) Maxtor Corp Pres George M. Scalise resigns his post as the company concurrently reports a $3.96 million loss for 3rd qtr 1990 and lays off 140 employees. The disk drive maker is reviewing all product lines and preparing to consolidate its headquarters operations with its 1990 MiniScribe acquisition in Colorado. Scalise says that personal reasons motivated his sudden resignation as president and chief executive; it is one of several departures to take place at Maxtor in 1991. Maxtor expects to take a $3.4 million loss to discontinue the 3.5-inch 40Mbyte 8051 MiniScribe subsystem, but it will continue to sell MiniScribe's 7000 series of 3.5-inch disk drives. The company acknowledges that the production delays for its Panther line of subsystems has cost Maxtor its leadership position in the 5.25-inch market. Wang confirms deal to resell MIPS line. (Wang Laboratories Inc. signs original equipment manufacturer agreement with MIPS Computer Wang Laboratories Inc signed an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with MIPS Computer Systems Inc in which it will buy and resell MIPS' reduced instruction set computer (RISC)/Unix computer line. Wang is hoping the agreement will encourage sales of its own proprietary VS computers. The RISC/Unix systems provide greater performance than VS machines at a lower cost, and analysts predict the OEM arrangement will increase pressure on the VS line, which suffered a 15 percent decrease in sales during the Dec qtr 1990. Wang will market a wide range of MIPS' machines under the Dynamix name from workstations to the high-end RC6280 ECL-based file server. The agreement does not include a technology licensing provision to allow Wang to develop its on computers based on the MIPS architecture, but MIPS Pres Charles Boesenberg says such a provision could be added in the future. Digital introduces VAX models for low-end, mid-range lines. (DEC's VAX 4000 200 minicomputer) (product announcement) DEC introduces the VAX 4000 series minicomputer that offers 5Mips throughput and replaces the 2.4Mips MicroVax 3300 and 3400. The VAX 4000 200 performs at about half the speed of the 8Mips Model 300 system introduced in mid-1990 and employs different memory and CPU interconnect architectures. While the differences make upgrades from the 200 to the 300 impossible, MicroVAX 3000 machines may be upgraded to the 4000 200 with CPU swaps to the Model 200. The VAX 4000 200 is available in two different cabinets: the smaller, $25,000 design includes four open expansion slots and the larger, $46,000 cabinet comes with 10 available slots. Both versions include 64Mbyte and 21Gbyte memory and disk storage capacities. DEC also announced lower-cost configurations of the VAX 6000 line of minicomputers, which employ 5.25-inch disk drives for the first time. Tektronix to spin off TriQuint. (Tektronix subsidiary to merge with GigaBit Logic Inc. under TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. name) Tektronix Inc spins off its TriQuint Semiconductor subsidiary to merge it as an independent company with GigBit Logic Inc. The merger is expected to be completed by late Mar 1991 and will represent a large gallium arsenide integrated circuit (GaAS IC) company with estimated sales of $30 million in 1990. Tektronix will hold the largest single stake in the combined companies, while companies including DEC, Analog Devices and NKT of Denmark will hold additional shares. TriQuint Semiconductor Inc will develop a product line under the GigaBit Logic name that includes standard as well as application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) products in digital, linear and microwave. TriQuint and GigaBit executives believe the merger will provide the financial stability necessary for an innovative product line. TriQuint's sales were $17 million in 1990, Gigabit's were $12 million. Niche opportunities described. (Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International's Information Services Seminar)(Semi Speakers at Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International's Information Services Seminar discussed variable aspects of the US economic recession that have affected the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industry. One analyst believes the US is experiencing a balance-sheet recession, which is a result of under-collateralized debt rather than inflation or interest rates. Dataquest Semiconductor Equipment, Manufacturing & Materials director Joseph Grenier contends that the recession is seasonal and he anticipates increases for both the materials and equipment market in 1991. Advanced Forecasting Pres Moshe Handelsman expects worldwide capital spending in the semiconductor industry to increase 11 percent from $12 billion in 1990 to $14 billion in 1991. Grenier expects to see increases in specific markets including lithography, track equipment, ion implantation equipment and others. Mattson to sell stake to Marubeni. (Mattson Technology Inc. and Marubeni Hytech Corp. formalize relationship)(Semi Parley) Mattson Technology Inc is selling a 20 percent stake to Marubeni Hytech Corp, an $118.8 million trading company that distributes a wide range of products from American semiconductor manufacturing equipment to wheat and oil in Japan. The investment is estimated to be for several million in Mattson stock. Marubeni will customize and distribute the photoresist stripping equipment company's $350,000 Aspen stripping machine in the Japanese market, but does not plan to manufacture the product. Mattson hopes the investment relationship with Marubeni will help it to penetrate the Japanese market. Marubeni officials claim their interest in Mattson is not capital gains, but the potential for a long-term relationship. Marubeni will develop software to help adapt the Aspen system to computer integrated manufacturing and robotics systems employed in Japanese fabs. Vendors see VXI in board testers. (automatic test equipment industry to employ VXI bus technology in future products) Automatic test equipment vendors expect next-generation board test systems to employ VXI bus technology to add features and flexibility to board testers. A VXI system comes in card format that connects instrumentation and embedded personal computer controller modules via a common software environment. The cards slide into a cabinet and provide board test systems with additional diagnostic features. The VXI-bus cabinet has allowed the integration of over 100 card modules from different vendors. The technology will allow users to purchase an instrumentation card instead of using an IEEE-488 specified hook -up to run cables to traditional rack-and-stack instrumentation to access additional features. The VXI eliminates burden on the tester's computer because it can run itself through an embedded computer. The common hardware and software backplane is less expensive than IEEE-488 systems. Viewlogic buys unit from Arche. (Viewlogic Systems Inc. and Arche Technologies Inc. to open center for the study of synthesis Viewlogic Systems Inc purchases an Arche Technologies Inc in-house synthesis operation in a deal worth between $2 million and $3 million. Viewlogic will open a development center on the West Coast for advanced synthesis development; it will also serve as a training and marketing office. Two Arche technicians plus additional employees will transfer to the new site. Arche, a supplier of IBM PC compatibles, took an interest in synthesis technology in 1989 and used it to develop several chip sets for its microcomputers. Arche uses Viewlogic design software, and its own synthesis package has been integrated into the Workview environment. Viewlogic will announce an enhanced version of its Viewdesign circuit designer when the integration with Arche-developed code is complete. The Arche package includes synthesis, retargeting and technology library compiler capabilities. Raytheon's Patriot output climbing to rebuild stockpile. (US Army requests increased production of Patriot missiles)(Military & Raytheon Co is increasing production of the surface-to-air Patriot missile in efforts to rebuild stockpiles being burned off against Iraqi-launched Scud missiles. The US Army requested that Raytheon increase production of the smart projectiles after destroying the majority of Scuds aimed at allied defense sites in Saudi Arabia. If the request for new production of the weapons increases the value of the program to over $5 billion, it will be the largest of Raytheon's missile programs. Raytheon stepped-up weapon production to an around-the-clock schedule at the start of the Gulf Crisis in late Aug 1990. The Patriot air defense system integrates digital electronics that include a multi-function phased array radar for target acquisition and fire control capabilities with launchers carrying four ready-to-fire missiles. The system's computers and software allow it to operate automatically and in real-time. DRAM sales slump impacts Samsung commodity program. (decreased demand for dynamic random access memory makes distributors wary) Distributors for Samsung Company Ltd's dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are reluctant to build up inventories of the product for fear of a price decline. Samsung has implemented a commodity pricing program since 1990, which has not been successful because of the decrease in demand for DRAMs. Samsung's sales have declined because its pricing program precludes distributors from a renegotiated lower price if demand should suddenly soften. Distributors claim that commodity pricing reduces sales opportunities since it forces them to keep their Samsung inventories low. Limited inventory means that additional lead time is required to provide products to customers purchasing on a hand-to-mouth basis. Samsung DRAMS account for up to 90 percent of industrials' sales, which have dropped by 30 to 60 percent primarily due to price erosion. Wang loses $24.7M in quarter. (Wang Laboratories Inc.'s declining revenues second fiscal quarter 1991)(Financial News) Wang Laboratories Inc reports a $24.7 million loss for 2nd qtr FY 1991. Wang's revenues of $551.5 million represent a 15 percent decline from the comparable fiscal period 1990 when the company reported $646.7 million. Wang expects further revenue erosion during 3rd qtr 1991 and for an unspecified period thereafter. Sales for the company's proprietary VS computer line declined substantially during 2nd qtr 1991 and in addition to a loss of $16.6 million from operations, Wang incurred a $8.1 million tax assessment. Wang chairman and CEO Richard Miller acknowledges that the recession, the Persian Gulf War and declining demand for the VS line all challenge Wang's ability to regain profitability. Wang formalized an original equipment manufacturer agreement with MIPS Computer Systems Inc to increase its presence in the Unix market and to offset declining VS business. Cockpit maps help pilot Gulf sorties. (Persian Gulf air strikes) Mercier, Ann M. Advanced mapping systems help plan bombing missions in the Persian Gulf war and provide detailed maps for the pilot and crew. The ground-based and cockpit systems generate maps in both digital and paper formats that provide current information on the shifting combat landscape. The trend is toward all-digital mapping systems, in search of the paperless cockpit. Honeywell's Defense Avionics Systems Division is developing a video-based mapping system that will update a flight plan in 15 seconds. The company intends to do it even faster. McDonnell Douglas Missile Systems Co's Tactical Aircraft Mission Planning Systems (TAMPS) plans the mission and then produces navigation cards, weapon delivery cards, flight strip charts, radar predictions and perspective views. The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) provides maps, charts and geodesy data on CD-ROM. Sixty-percent of the DMA's mapping output is now digital. Winds of change buffet NWS. (National Weather Service) Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. The National Weather Service is reorganizing its management in response to criticism over delays, technical difficulties, and escalating costs in the agency's $3 billion modernization program. A new Systems Program Office was created to manage the program, which involves replacing the radars, ground-based instruments, satellites and computers currently used in weather forecasting. Unisys Corp is providing the radar, AAI Corp won the contract for ground-based instrumentation, and Loral Corp will supply five new weather satellites. A $500 million computer system will integrate data from radars and instruments to create forecasts that should improve the NWS's ability to track and forecast severe weather systems. GSA group to attack ADP rules. (General Services Administration, automatic data processing) The GSA is creating an advisory committee to recommend changes in the ADP procurement process. Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Management Linda Combs will head the committee, which will give its recommendations to GSA administrator Richard G. Austin. The committee will examine procurement laws, regulations and procedures in generating proposals for a more efficient and shorter procurement process. Lockheed fights to keep recent fed contract wins. (pending General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals protests) Lockheed Corp is defending its recently won federal contracts from protests filed with the GSA's Board of Contract Appeals. The $153 million NOAVA contract and the contract to upgrade the National Cancer Institute's supercomputer center are both under challenge. Unisys is questioning whether systems integrators meet the requirements of the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. Labor proposed a rule exempting systems integrators from the act in 1989; comments on the rule are due Feb 8, 1991. Systems integrators expect to fall under an exception for cases in which following the letter of the act would seriously impair government operation. High-tech weapons prove worth in Gulf. (Persian Gulf war) Housman, Damian. The performance of several high-tech weapons systems in the Persian Gulf is dispelling doubts about their ability to work under wartime conditions. Weapons that had no previous combat record are performing precision attacks on group targets and showing high intercept rates on incoming surface-to-surface missiles. The Patriot air defense missile, the Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile and the SLAM stand-off land attack missile have performed exceptionally well. Latest computer systems weather Desert Storm. Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. Operation Desert Storm will provide a true test for the Defense Department's newest computer systems. The conflict will provide vital information on new systems and technologies used in combat for the first time. New directions in the military's command, control, communications and intelligence systems may be determined by current performance in the Gulf. Few details are available at present on which systems are supporting Desert Storm and how well they are functioning. Airborne surveillance aids U.S. Desert Storm operations. (the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) The Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) will track Iraqi ground targets as Operation Desert Storm moves into a ground war. This is the first time the Air Force has deployed a major weapons system midway in its development; the sophisticated targeting and tracking system was successfully tested in late 1990. JSTARS uses a real-time distributed network of 154 processors for managing data from a primary sensor, a radar housed in the plane's belly. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of moving targets can be tracked in a 300-plus mile grid. The system can perform terrain mapping, and fixed-target detection, and it is accurate enough to identify the difference between wheeled and tracked vehicles. PTO rethinks automated patent system. (Patent and Trademark Office) The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is reassessing its $600 million Automated Patent System project for overhauling its patent storage and retrieval systems by 2002. The Examiner Support System (ESS) component, due for installation in 1996, will provide patent examiners with high-speed access to up to 5 million patent records. ESS will eventually connect 1,000 high-speed workstations to hard disk subsystems. PTO is nearly finished converting its text and images to digital formats. The agency wants to reassess the program before committing to its purchase. NRC mulls takeover of DOE nuclear waste info system. (Nuclear Regulatory Commission looks at Department of Energy's system) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering taking control of the nuclear waste information system the Department of Energy (DOE) is currently developing. The DOE was assigned the design and development of the Licensing Support System (LSS), while the NRC will operate and maintain it. The two agencies are expected to be the optical-based storage and retrieval system's biggest users. The proposal to shift development to the NRC was prompted by an apparent decision by the DOE to delay the program until 1993. National Archives plans high-tech wide-area net. Mercier, Ann M. The National Archives and Records Administration is planning a national framework for its office automation, archiving and document management systems. The Integrated Communications and Administrative Support System (ICASS) will link two main Archives buildings, 11 regional archives, the presidential libraries and federal records centers in a wide-area network. It will support office automation applications, including budget, finance and personnel systems, as well as key archiving and document management systems. ISDN purchase propels NASA lab into future. (integrated services digital network) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plans to purchase 1,000 ISDN lines through early 1993. The purchase will be Pacific Bell's largest sale of ISDN services and one of the first major ISDN sales to a federal facility. ISDN will replace coaxial cable links to individual workstations with applications and services on local-area networks (LANs). ISDN will transmit voice and data traffic at speeds as high as 64K-bps; current transmission on coaxial cable is 9.6K-bps. The new technology provides cost savings in addition to speed and quality improvements. The ISDN lines are the first step in a move to networks at gigabit speeds. Agriculture leads the packet on FTS 2000 upgrade. (US Department of Agriculture) AT&T's FTS 2000 customers will have enhanced electronic-mail service and dial-up access to packet-switched service as a result of an agreement between the General Services Administration (GSA) and AT&T. The Agriculture Department requested the addition of the services to AT&T's Network A. The department is already testing a third service; remote 800 access to the packet network. AT&T will offer its commercial e-mail service without electronic data interchange (EDI) and international service; those features were deemed outside the scope of FTS 2000 by the GSA. Labor tackles rules on SIs in federal procurements. (system integrators) (U.S. Labor Department) The US Labor Department is attempting to clear up rules restricting systems integrators' participation in the federal information technology market. The 1936 Walsh-Healy Public Contracts Act says only regular dealers and manufacturers may sell equipment valued at over $10,000 to the federal government; it also sets definitions for determining qualifications for dealers or manufacturers. Many ADP systems integrators cannot meet the qualifications that require maintaining a facility that stocks the equipment or supplies and sells them to the public in the usual course of business. The Labor Department's proposal would let firms qualify as regular dealers when the government uses functional systems specifications rather than make-and-model requirements. GSBCA flexes legal muscles over DOE. (General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals, Department of Energy) The General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) is claiming jurisdiction over procurements by vendors acting as management and operations contractors. The board recently granted a Vion Corp protest of a Department of Energy (DOE) award in which Boeing Corp contracted with Federal Computer Corp (FCC) to fill a mainframe contract. The protest claims Boeing violated regulatory requirements by awarding the computer contract to FCC and so did DOE in giving its consent to the award. The board ruled that FCC's offer was not compliant with the request for proposals. FCC charges NCI exceeded DPA for super. (Federal Computer Corp. claims the National Cancer Institute overspends delegation of Federal Computer Corp files a protest with the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) claiming the National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent almost 15 percent more than its delegation of procurement authority (DPA) for a new supercomputer system. The system is part of a five-year program to upgrade the Advanced Scientific Computing Laboratory. NCI paid $39 million to Lockheed Corp; the DPA was $34 million. The GSBCA says it will rule on the issue soon. HIS' Murray gets power to the people; takes financial approach to computing services. (House Information Systems Dir Hamish Murray) Hamish Murray, the director of House Information Systems (HIS), is popular in spite of his power. His affable nature may be just what HIS needs right now. The HIS structure has changed, due to Rep. Frank Annunzio's removal as chairman of the House Administration Committee, HIS' parent body. HIS Dir Linda K. Berdine resigned. Murray is a 16-year veteran of congressional staff work and was director of HIS once before. His orientation is toward the bottom line, now bits and bytes. Murray would not discuss specific tasks of HIS, nor plans for a future fully automated computer facility. DEC unveils low-end products. (VAX 4000 Model 200 and VAX 6000 enhancements) (product announcement) Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) introduces more powerful, less-expensive low-end processors and storage technology in response to lagging sales of its mainframes. The VAX 4000 Model 200 uses reduced instruction-set computing and offers double the performance at the same price of the MicroVax it replaces. It performs at 5 VUPs (VAX unit of processing) and handles 800 input/output requests per second. It contains 64Mbytes of RAM and up to 21Gbytes of storage. Prices range from $25,000 to $75,000. DEC is offering less expensive disk storage for its VAX 6000 line with 5.25-inch disks that support Digital Storage System Interconnect (DSSI) technology. GO pinpoints fed applications market; notebook user interface recognizes pen-generated commands. (Go Corp.) (PenPoint operating GO Corp introduces PenPoint, its pen-based computer operating system. The general-purpose, hardware-independent operating system runs on 32-bit computers, currently those using Intel 80386 microprocessors. The notebook user interface (NUI) will recognize some handwriting and pen-generated commands. Microsoft Corp plans to release a Windows-based graphical environment for pen-based systems. Forty companies announced their support for PenPoint, including some of the biggest names in the computer industry. Pyramid offers low-cost Unix OLTP system. (on-line transaction processing) (MIServer Reliant series) (product announcement) Pyramid Technology Corp is ready to release its MIServer Reliant series. The program consists of dual MIServer units with an enhanced version of Unix and a monitoring program; it offers recovery from system failures in under three minutes. The Reliant Monitor isolates faults through an expert system and automatically switches users from the defective server to the twin. Pricing starts at $700,000. The products are expected to answer some of the unresolved questions of users about the affordability and reliability of UNIX for on-line transaction processing. Retix's GOSIP products get boost from three military procurements. (Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile) Several large military computer contracts are fueling federal acceptance of the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP). GOSIP-based LANs are included in the Army's Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) contract. GOSIP is included in Unisys Corp's Air Force Desktop III contract. AT&T is eager to have the Air Force add GOSIP products to the Standard Multiuser Small Computer Requirements Contract (SMSCRC). All GOSIP products will be provided by Retix of Santa Monica, CA. MIPS unwraps Unix-based server, low-cost server. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.) (RC3360 departmental server, RC62660 low-cost MIPS Computer Systems Inc introduces the RC3360 Unix-based departmental server with from 32Mbytes to 256Mbytes of RAM, up to 20Gbytes of disk storage, four Ethernet links and seven VME input/output slots. Prices begin at $65,500. MIPS also introduces the RC6260, a compact, less expensive version of its high-end machine. It has from 32Mbytes to 128Mbytes of RAM and from 663Mbytes to 44Gbytes of disk storage. Prices start at $139,500. Both new models will be resold under a number of different company labels. Outbound signs federal reseller for its portable. (Outbound Systems) Outbound Systems signed a deal with MacCorner of Gaithersburg, MD, to offer its laptop computers to the federal government. The 9-pound machine uses Macintosh read-only memory chips. MacCorner is offering the machine to the government for under $4,000 for a unit with 4Mbytes of RAM and a hard-disk drive. Obtaining Mac ROM chips for use in the Outbound is difficult because Apple only sells its chips in its computers. Outbound signed a technology agreement with Apple in 1990 and is teaming with the company on larger government buys. Digital's wide open database plans. (Digital Equipment) Hoffman, Thomas. DEC is developing an open database management system, code-named Rdb-Star, that will debut in early 1992. Sources say the system will be ported to DEC's Unix platform, then to platforms from other vendors. The project is being developed at DEC's Colorado Springs laboratories. Rdb-Star will operate initially on a reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC)-based platform running Ultrix, DEC's version of Unix. Industry observers are reluctant to comment on DEC's development efforts. Company officials say there is nothing imminent regarding Rdb. The company does plan to make database announcements at Networld in Feb 1991. User reaction is mixed. Compaq management upheaval. (Mike Swavely sabbatical) McClatchy, Will. The decision of Compaq Computer president of North American operations Mike Swavely to take a six-month sabbatical was not welcomed by Compaq Pres and CEO Rod Canion. Canion hopes Swavely will return to the company but is unsure in what capacity he will serve. Swavely had been regarded as Canion's heir apparent. His departure, which comes in the face of slowed demand for Compaq's SystemPro and price competition from other vendors, has caused a reshuffling of management duties. Worldwide operations have been consolidated under Eckhard Pfeiffer, former president of European and international operations, now vice president and COO. The thought is that Swavely wanted to spend more time with his family. The client/server edge: Microsoft, Andersen pact will push sales of LAN Manager. (Andersen Consulting) Andersen Consulting and Microsoft are working together to offer client/server solutions and services to clients of Microsoft's information technology integration services (ITIS) group. The service will enhance sales of the developer's OS/2 LAN Manager. A report indicates the package is gaining market share over rival NetWare from Novell in client/server environments. The alliance allows Andersen to resell, install and maintain Microsoft products in new and existing systems integration contracts. Andersen's ongoing work with Microsoft's internal information systems was partially responsible for the deal. Microsoft officials indicate that the agreement, though not exclusive, is important to Microsoft. NWA's LAN linchpin. (Northwest Airlines, local area network) Garvey, Martin. Northwest Airlines' bid to purchase some of Eastern Air Lines facilities at National Airport in Washington D.C. were of particular interest to NWA Inc. mgr of communications software Sheryl Skulley. Skulley will be responsible for integrating the software system for the Washington facilities with the balance of NWA's systems and networks. Her group is enlisted when users want to communicate with other systems. The merger between Republic Airlines and NWA has kept the communications software group, one of the subgroups of communications that make up the company's information systems, quite busy. Skulley's group acts as an enabler when merging systems, downsizing applications and decentralizing operations. Most of their work since 1987 has been in data communications between Republic and NWA. Looking for reassurance. (3Com's relinquishing of LAN Manager development) Users of 3Com's LAN Manager software are concerned about the restructuring that turned over control of LAN Manager development to Microsoft. Product support is a critical issue with users. Northern Telecom Electronics information systems manager Mike Huff feels that Microsoft has to follow on with support for 3Com's 3+Open LAN Manager and servers or his organization is in real trouble. Huff needs to hear from Microsoft regarding how support will be delivered. Many 3Com users were surprised about the recent announcement and raised a flood of questions about how 3+Open would be supported. 3Com has said it will continue to support those users. Huff is adamant about support as his network, which is built partially on 3+Open, is essential to his company's corporate goals. Blackouts, brownouts, and burnouts: don't count on utilities. (includes related article on planning for power failure) The discrepancy between the US' capacity to generate electrical power and the country's demand for it is critically narrow. This situation threatens large cities with brownouts, blackouts and electrical fires. New York City alone experienced two electrical fires within six months, following substation explosions. These incidents, along with large-scale natural disasters, have crippled data centers throughout the country, causing countless losses. Power outages have caused very real losses for many firms and improvements seem unlikely, because of a shortage of new power-generating plants and the deteriorating power-distribution infrastructure in many cities. Weather extremes may soon be all that is needed to cut power. The Securities Industry Automation Corp (SIAC) is typical of what can happen to an IS operation with power difficulties. Power-related problems shut down operations three times within two years. Enabling the disabled: simple computer adaptations are often all that is needed. Some 70 percent of the 30 million disabled Americans who are not confined to institutions are unemployed. Most who are employed work as dishwashers, janitors and other unskilled positions. The Americans With Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990, makes discrimination against the disabled illegal. Not all applicants are capable of performing at every job but those with the ability have to be considered. Disabled people are often fully qualified for a number of jobs involving the use of desktop computers. Ignorance is often more of a problem than actual discrimination. Many employers do not realize how simple and inexpensive accommodations for the handicapped can be. These can include voice input devices, software to magnify displays, and programs that read displays. Supported employment, government money allocated to pay for on-the-job training, also helps. Reaching for the stars: satellite technology promises communications users more for less. (includes related article on Information and communications managers have, at one point or another, have considered satellite technology and dismissed it. Satellite-based networks are appearing more and more promising each year because of major technological changes and improved vendor support. Today's $500 million very small aperture terminal (VSAT) is in a position for large growth. Industry analysts expect the current $300 million marketplace to shoot up to $1 billion by 1992. Large corporations are not the only ones expected to turn to satellites. Gas stations and grocery stores are expected to take advantage of VSAT networks as costs drop. VSAT networks are attractive to big users for several reasons: speeds about 12 times faster than leased lines, capital investment which means tax breaks, simplified expansion and simplified management. The quest for quality: New tools help track and pinpoint bugs. (software development) Quality is sometimes an elusive characteristic in the world of software development where significant failures, cost overruns and abandoned projects occur with alarming regularity. Some new tools in the marketplace claim to help in the development of quality software systems. The Software Quality Management System (SQMS), ranging between $65,000 to $95,000 from Software Quality Tools Corp, includes five modules that determine everything from the length of time needed to eliminate bugs to the cost of making changes to an application. Only the testing module has been shipped so far. No Problem, $2,500 to $6,000 from Pencom Systems, is a problem-management system that tracks defects and related data through the life cycle. Both products run on Sun Microsystems' Sparc workstations. Users suggest upbeat future for downsizing. Schindler, Paul E. Industry analysts meeting in San Francisco claim that one of the hottest information systems trends of the 1990s is downsizing: moving mainframe applications to microcomputers and networks. User reaction to the conference was very enthusiastic. Testimonies revealed that downsizing could cut IS budgets drastically. Response time and better reporting are additional benefits. Networks offer the chance to create a new graphic front end that would let operators click on the starting point and destination and let the computer determine the best bus lines. New VAX 4000 debuts: DEC rolls out low-end server, enhancements to midrange system. (Digital Equipment Corp) (product announcement) DEC introduces the VAX 4000 200 ($25,000 to $75,000), a replacement for the MicroVAX 3400 that touts a 100 percent price/performance improvement over its predecessor. The new system is a low-end extension of the VAX 4000 300, which was rolled out in Jul 1990. Both systems utilize DEC's proprietary reduced instruction set computing (RISC) I/O technology and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) CPU. The VAX 4000 200 is being marketed as a server and a time-sharing system for distributed transaction processing. A fully configured system complete with 32 MBytes of main memory is priced at $73,000. Big Blue says 'Me too': plans to introduce notebook computer next month. IBM, in an attempt to grab a share of the rapidly growing notebook computer marketplace, is expected to introduce its first notebook computer in Feb 1991. Industry analysts are calling it a 'me, too' product. Users, unsure of the new offering because of IBM's past failure in the low-end microcomputer marketplace, are not rushing to buy the new system, feeling that just because it is from IBM does not mean it will be a 'barn burner.' The new product, which includes a 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of main memory and a 60-Mbyte disk drive, is expected to retail for $5,000 to $5,500. The new system will compete with the Compaq LTE 20 at $6,999. The company is also expected to develop a docking station to let users connect to microcomputer networks and peripherals. Windows: waiting for tools. McClatchy, Will. Programmers seeking to develop applications for the Windows 3.0 environment have been stymied by a lack of easy-to-use development tools. A number of tools based on C++ functionality will soon be released that will go far toward solving this problem. Borland International will introduce Borland C++ 2.0, an environment for building object-oriented Windows applications, in Feb 1991. Based on Borland's Turbo C++ Professional, the package is expected to cost about $500. Borland is also working on a Windows version of Turbo Pascal that should ship by summer 1991. Additionally, Microsoft itself is believed to be planning to add C++ functionality to Microsoft C 6.0, and may also be considering licensing the technology. An EIS for the non-exec. (Executive Information System) McClatchy, Will. Information Builders introduces Focus EIS, a semicustom executive information system (EIS) that makes EIS capabilities available to a wider audience. Focus EIS, priced at $895, is a modified version of Pilot Executive Software's LightShip front end that accepts data from PC Focus. The package offers an economical alternative to most EIS packages for existing Focus users. PC Focus itself costs $798, but Information Builders says those without Focus can save on the PC side by buying the local area network version at about $250 per seat. On the mainframe side, an economical alternative is t lease the Focus Report Writer for about $1,500 per month. Rolm: starting over: IBM/Siemens venture plans to unveil a suite of new products throughout the year. The year 1990 was bad for PBX companies; sales were down and US suppliers lost almost $500 million on their product lines, according to industry analysts. Not a single vendor made a profit on corporate telephone switches, and Rolm Co was no exception. Company officials say they did manage to trim losses to half of those in 1989. The company plans to exhibit, at the Communication Networks '91 show, a renewed corporate confidence and a selection of products to be introduced during 1991. The company says 1990 orders were up 30 percent and revenue up 10 percent over 1989. The revenue increase was due mostly to strong sales of its low-intermediate-end 9751 Model 10 PBX. Singleton's CAE: computer-aided education. (John Singleton) Leibs, Scott. Security Pacific Automation Corp Pres John Singleton, who says that if he had not received a scholarship he probably would not have been able to go to college, has always been active in educational causes. He was named vice chairman of the National Alliance of Business (NAB) and will serve as chairman of a western regional NAB board. Singleton plans to address the manner in which businesses can team with local government agencies and school boards to improve the quality of secondary education. It is not surprising, considering Singleton's professional involvement with technological issues, that he believes computers can play an important role in this effort. Singleton feels that the bright graphics and such of computer games and video arcades can be used to make learning fun. Maintenance: another dirty word. (Final Word) (column) Hughes, Max. Maintenance, to most people, is the generally unpleasant experience of trying to have one's car restored to an earlier state. Computer system maintenance, though it obviously has something to do with repairs, has much more to do with making improvements, extensions and embellishments in response to user feedback. The Information Systems department, if it is lucky, will be able to explain that to management. Perhaps development, continuing development, or development of an additional module, enhancement or adaptation would be more precise. Go points to PC's future with pen-based OS. (operating system)(includes related article on third-party support for Pen Go Corp's Pen Point operating system illustrates the future of computing with its electronic 'table of contents.' With it, users can use a stylus to tap the section they want to view. They can also use the stylus to make gestures and symbols to choose pull-down menu options as well as enter, cut, paste, and edit text. The operating system includes a handwriting recognition algorithm that recognizes hand printing, cursive, numbers, and punctuation. Pen Point is an object-oriented system that is DOS-file compatible. The system is expected to appeal to computer-shy executives and mobile workers. A developers' version of Pen Point should be available by mid-Feb 1991 and Go expects portable computers using Pen Point to be available by the end of 1991. Grid System Corp and NCR Corp have already announced that they will build Pen Point-based portable computers. Intel splits 486 for price conscious: floating-point unit and cache to be disabled in half-price chips. Intel Corp plans to introduce less-expensive, stripped down versions of its 80486 chip in May 1991. The chip, which will cost about half the price of the 80486, according to Intel sources, will come in two versions. One version disables the built-in math coprocessor and the other disables the built-in cache. The chip, called the P23, may be announced at spring Comdex 1991. Intel is also developing a 486 chip, called the P24, in which the math coprocessor segment of the chip is actually removed, so that more space is available for a larger cache unit and the performance of the chip can be improved for non-floating point operations. Intel has not confirmed these rumors, but it did concede that it will be making various 486-related announcements in 1991. Some companies have already announced that they will manufacture systems based on the new chips that will be available in fall 1991. Unix International will release APIs for Unix software. (Application Programming Interface) The AT&T-led consortium, Unix International, has announced that it will produce APIs for Unix System V, Release 4 (SVR4) in order to offer a complete open system architecture and to extend the standardization to the applications themselves. Under SVR4, proposed APIs will include network and system management, object orientation, productivity applications, and videotext. The APIs should be available by the later part of 1991. After the APIs are released, software developers can either use an API to develop compliant applications or wait for a standard application to be released by the Unix Software Laboratory at AT&T. The laboratory will also provide a verification suite to make sure that all applications are API-compliant. Unix International also announced that SVR4 ES, or enhanced security, will be available in the first half of 1991. Microsoft to add X.400 mail to cross-platform strategy. Mardesich, Jodi. Microsoft Corp is developing a message server, code-named Spitfire, that is based on the X.400 protocol and designed to simplify corporate electronic communications. Spitfire will run on OS/2 and will have an applications programming interface which will allow E-mail developers to write applications to it. These applications will allow users to send and receive messages from different E-mail applications which can work together via X.400. Spitfire is expected to be released in 1992, according to sources, although Microsoft will not confirm the rumors. Spitfire will incorporate directory services, possibly from 3Com Corp. One source said that if Microsoft is successful with Spitfire, it will have taken a big step toward implementing client/server messaging in US companies. 'Clean' Mac compatible to run Apple's gauntlet. Coale, Kristi. Nutek will announce a logic chip set and software that may eventually produce a creditable Macintosh-compatible system. The Nutek chip set and software were designed entirely from scratch without reference to the Macintosh operating system or ROMs, unlike other clone efforts, which rely on Apple's Macintosh ROM BIOS for compatibility. Nutek has also avoided infringing on Apple's copyrighted screen displays by licensing OSF's Motif interface, with the subtraction of the Unix and X Windows features. The attempt by Nutek is similar to that of Chips & Technologies and Phoenix Technology, which created the IBM-compatible chip sets and BIOSes that gave rise to the IBM clone industry. Apple, however, has a history of legal prosecution of any company that attempts to infringe on its market by duplicating its technology. Nutek says that the technology will be available in the 4th qtr of 1991 and computers based on the technology will probably be available about two or three months after that. Public outcry forces Lotus to pull marketplace plug. (Lotus Development Corp) Lotus Development Corp has removed its Market Place CD ROM data products from the market in the face of public outcry over privacy issues. The product was designed to deliver demographic data on more than 120 million US consumers. Lotus had received 30,000 requests from people who did not want information on them available in this format. Lotus has already shipped copies of the business version of the database. The business version does not include household information. Customers can continue to use the software or apply for a complete refund from Lotus, but Lotus will not longer support or upgrade it. Purchasers are disappointed, saying that the pull out is a loss to the small business community, but privacy rights advocates are pleased. Lotus, Ashton-Tate plan presentation upgrades. (Lotus Development Corp) Lotus Development Corp and Ashton-Tate Corp are planning to release upgrades to their DOS presentation graphics programs that will encompass WYSIWYG capabilities, reduced memory requirements, and color. The releases are scheduled for the 2nd qtr of 1991. Ashton-Tate's upgrade of its Applause II 1.5 will include a lowered memory requirement, from 512Kbytes to 430Kbytes, a run time of the slide-show module, network support, and an 80,000 word customizable spelling checker. The price will remain at $495. Lotus's Freelance Graphics for DOS 4.0 will include a WYSIWYG interface with onscreen color, keyboard or mouse-accessible menus, direct manipulation of objects, and Autocharting, which lets users create links between Freelance and a source application such as a spreadsheet. Lotus's software will also still cost $495. Applications developers endorse Go's pen-input OS: two publishers demonstrate prototypes. (Pen Point operating system) (product Go Corp's Pen Point pen-input operating system has received support from two software firms with two new prototype applications. Pensoft Corp has introduced an, as yet, unnamed personal information manager (PIM) that allows users to open and edit two documents simultaneously. Industry observers say that pen-based computing may make PIMs more popular. Slate Corp has introduced software that is designed to speed the development of vertical-market applications and commercial, horizontal applications. Slate Corp's Penapps allows developers to write applications that are able to read and write existing database formats. Early versions of the software will support Dbase III DBF format. A developer's release of the $2,500 Penapps will probably be available in mid-Feb 1991. Managers puzzled over Lotus DBMS strategy: DBMS challenge falls short of expectations. (Lotus Development Corp, data base In 1987, Lotus Development Corp outlined ambitious plans to present a set of data management tools running under OS/2 Presentation Manager that would be integrated with Lotus 1-2-3/G, the soon-to-be released graphical spreadsheet. Industry observers felt that Lotus would be challenging Ashton-Tate in the database market. In 1991, those same people are puzzled at Lotus's inability to achieve its goals. Lotus has said that its efforts in the data base management system arena are continuing, but timing is essential and if Lotus is unable to produce anything until 1992 than its efforts may be meaningless. So far, the only thing to emerge from Lotus's efforts are a series a Datalens drivers. Richer tools, such as forms generators and SQL query techniques, may not be available until 1992. Destiny chip smooths font, graphics output. (Destiny Technology Corp's D9001 chip) (product announcement) Destiny Technology Corp has introduced the D9001 chip, which incorporates a feature called Edge Enhancement Technology to provide smoother graphics and fonts. The chip, which is expected to add about $50 dollars to the cost of printers incorporating it, provides an apparent resolution greater than the current 300- to 400-dots-per-inch that these printers already possess. It can work independently of laser printer processors, so it will be compatible with a number of laser printer engines. Printer manufacturers can also take advantage of an option that allows selection of an off, light, medium, or dark mode for controlling the degree of edge enhancement. The manufacturer would not give out names of printer companies that might be using the chip, but it did say that the TEC printer engine, in use by Epson and Toshiba, is compatible with the D9001. Memory design sprints to keep pace with today's CPUs. (Tech Talk) (column) Techniques called non-RAM-caching can be used to avoid the inefficient wait states that are the result of the processor waiting for the slower DRAM to catch up. One of these techniques is known as page mode or static-column RAM mode. In this technique, the RAM chip's memory cells, which are always arranged in a square, are accessed as frequently as possible within the same page, or column, of the square. This avoids the time-consuming searching that occurs when access jumps from different columns. This is an inexpensive solution to the problem of slow DRAM speed, but the disadvantage is that practice has shown that this technique can offer an unfavorable ratio of zero- to two-wait-state accesses. Users willing to spend a little more money and expend a little more effort may find a more favorable solution elsewhere. Windows GUI slows remote control developers' efforts. (graphical user interface) Developers who are working to create remote control communications programs for Microsoft Windows are facing problems as they try to get MS-DOS to perform tasks it was never designed for. MS-DOS was never intended to support either Windows or remote control communications. Developers of such programs as Carbon Copy and PC Anywhere are encountering difficulties while developing versions of their software for Microsoft Windows, and are unwilling to say when new software may be available. One of the problems is that the Windows environment is not designed to move graphics outside of its display screen. Another is that it is much more difficult to send mouse commands through a phone line. A successful Windows remote control package will require a fast modem, probably a minimum of 9,600-bps, and possibly a way of moving Windows screens into a format that is easier to send. Wang and DEC announce open imaging. (product announcement) Darrow, Barbara. Wang Laboratories Inc's and DEC's announcements of imaging systems that rely on open hardware and software marks a change in the companies' previous direction, which had relied on propriety systems. DEC has introduced the DEC-Image Express turnkey system, which will require a VAX 4000 Model 300 server supporting X Window, PC, or Vaxstation 3100 clients. DEC will license the DEC-Image Express software for $5,000 per concurrent user and will also provide ADDs+ image software and display hardware from Laserdata Inc. Wang has introduced the Open/Image for Netware tool set so that developers can create client/server imaging applications. Open/Image is a Netware Loadable Module (NLM) tool set that requires Netware 386 3.1 on a 386/486 server with a 32Mbyte hard drive. It uses Netware's IPX/SPX and Wang plans to bring similar capability to Vines and LAN Manager. The $995 toolkit will be available in Feb 1991. Apple says Mac LC will drive a VGA monitor. (Macintosh LC microcomputer, video graphics array) Apple has announced that its new Macintosh LC will be capable of driving a single frequency VGA monitor. Users who want this capability can either buy or build a cable that will join the on-board video to the video of a VGA monitor. It does this by routing input and output from the Mac LC to the corresponding pin-out on the monitor. Apple will rely on third-party vendors to supply the cable, although it plans to publish the cable's specifications. Apple says that this capability was built into the LC to provide an inexpensive display alternative. Apple's new RGB Display costs $599, while single-frequency VGA displays can cost less than $300. Current third-party vendors for Macintosh monitors say that the LC's VGA capabilities are not a good idea. One developer suggests that Mac users, used to the Macintosh black on white displays, may be unhappy with the VGA white on black. Another says that it may require more than a simple cable to get all VGA monitors to run with the Mac LC. Aldus copes with growing pains: Pagemaker pioneer must improve technology as products mature. (company profile) Aldus Corp is struggling with the problems of becoming a major software developer as it tries to update its product line, accommodate new products from its acquisition of Silicon Beach Software Inc, and increase its presence abroad. The company built its reputation on Pagemaker, which pioneered desktop publishing in 1985. Since then Aldus has produced significant Pagemaker upgrades for Windows 3.0 and OS/2, as well as several versions in foreign languages. Pagemaker brings in 50 to 70 percent of the company's revenue, which reached $95 million for the first three qtrs of 1990, but 1990 was also a year in which Aldus experienced problems releasing products. Industry observers say that Aldus is losing its ability to turn projects around quickly. In 1991, Aldus is committed to offering a number of graphics products for Windows and the Macintosh, although it will apparently concentrate on Windows. Wordstar acquires Legacy source code. (Wordstar International Inc.) Wordstar International Inc has acquired the Legacy source code from NBI Inc and plans to incorporate the code into its own technology to create Wordstar for Windows 1.0 word processing software. . Legacy, a Windows-based word processor, will be sold by both Wordstar and NBI. In addition to Wordstar for Windows 1.0, Wordstar will sell Wordstar Legacy, a version that includes an import/export filter for Wordstar 6.0 files. Legacy is based on NBI's Legend 2.0 DOS-based desktop publishing program but it has been criticized for lacking a macro language and adequate networking capabilities. Wordstar for Windows will not be available until late 1991, but the company is still expected to be able to compete with other Windows-based word processors, since Wordstar has an installed base of 3.5 million users. Other competitors include Microsoft Corp's Word for Windows and Word Perfect Corp's soon-to-be-released Word Perfect for Windows. Defining a software category is like describing an elephant. (information retrieval and viewing products)(State of the Several companies are coming out with software products that promise to help users get at centrally stored information quickly and easily. These products are beginning to form a new software category that might be called information retrieval and viewing. Oracle Corp's Oracle Card is designed around a data base structure, while Channel Computing's Forest & Trees is designed around a network structure. All of the companies, including Software Publishing Corp, Borland International, and Pilot, are stressing different parts of the software as part of their marketing strategy. All the companies are taking a lot of care in announcing the products because the differences in the products are making the category hard to define. The publishers hope that these new applications will jump start the faltering client/server computing market. Will internetworking stand up to future traffic demands? (Tech Street) (column) The rapid growth of internetworking may soon cause massive data jams on the enterprise networks unless changes are made in the way enterprise networks are built. The increase in LAN utilization, internetworking, cooperative computing, and mainframe downsizing has resulted in huge growth, and current estimates show that the amount of traffic will grow by a factor of 56 between 1991 and 1993. The increase in imaging, digitized voice, and video applications will add to this number and may result in a growth of one hundredfold between 1991 and 1993. The primary obstacle to LAN internetworking may lie in the capability of enterprises to integrate existing data networks with LAN internetworks. LAN managers who want to start tying LANs together, MIS managers who want to implement new applications on LANs and anyone thinking about buying LAN-to-LAN internetwork technology in 1991 needs to be very aware of the future and the constraints currently caused by enterprise networks. Japan Inc.'s rising sun. (Japanese microcomputer vendors and the US market) Japanese microcomputer manufacturers have made inroads into the laptop market that US vendors may be unable to achieve. Japanese companies such as Toshiba, NEC, and Sharpe have established a lead in a number of important laptop technologies such as LCD displays and small size. Toshiba may have become the number one vendor of laptops worldwide, according to an analyst from market-research firm Dataquest Inc. Despite these advantages, Japanese vendors will need to deal with governmental obstacles to market entry. The US has instituted retaliatory tariffs on machines containing 16- or 32-bit CPUs in response to alleged Japanese chip dumping practices. Some industry analysts predict that the Japanese will not be able to duplicate their success in the desktop microcomputer market, but others add that the laptop market is so strong right now that there is no reason why the Japanese would even make the attempt. Japanese software development: the sleeping giant? Although many people believe that Japanese success in the hardware market cannot be duplicated in the software market, others feel the Japanese are already producing software that is as good as or better than US software. The Japanese particularly excel in the areas of games, CAD/CAM and mapping, due to the Japanese emphasis on good graphics. They have also produced excellent data communications and telecommunications software packages. Fortunately for the US market, most Japanese software manufacturers are concentrating on the Japanese market which is fragmented due to very incompatible machines. Developers can spend a good portion of their time porting software to the plethora of platforms. Some are interested in selling in the US market but so far most have invested in US software companies, rather than developing the technology internally. If the Japanese computing environment becomes standardized, however, Japanese software developers will undoubtedly turn their attention to the US market. PC Librarian, Stacker offer breathing room to full hard disks. (Software Review) (A User's View)(Column) (evaluation) Users experiencing problems with data overflow may find United Software Security Inc's PC Librarian useful. PC Librarian, which costs $69 or $299 per file server, archives data by compressing files and moving the compressed files to the archive area of a hard disk. Restoring files is simple. Another solution is something called Stacker from Stac Electronics. Stacker comes as software, for $129, or as an 8-bit coprocessor board that compresses files on the fly for $229. Stacker is recommended for users who need to access archived files frequently. Stacker reserves a large block of disk space as a locked file, then compresses files and places them in that space in its own format. The reserved space appears as a new logical disk drive and users can use the files that are placed there as they would use the files on any directory. All the numbers fit to print: InfoWorld tests seven DOS and Windows spreadsheets. (Software Review) (overview of seven Seven spreadsheets that run under DOS and MS-Windows are evaluated and compared: Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 and 1-2-3 3.1, Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0, Borland International's Quattro and Quattro Pro 2.0, Computer Associates International Inc's Supercalc5 5.0d, and Informix Software Inc's Wingz 1.1a. The best product for graphics is the new version of Excel, which provides outstanding new features and is the best choice for Windows users. Quattro Pro scored next highest based on its support for multiple worksheets and strong file linking capabilities. It is the best value among character-based spreadsheets. The $129.95 Quattro is recommended for cost-conscious buyers. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 offers basic functionality and runs on slower hardware, while 1-2-3 3.1 offers multipage worksheets and good implementation of three-dimensional graphics. Supercalc 5 is relatively slow. Wingz has strong graphics and is recommended for users who want to create turnkey spreadsheet applications and who use advanced graphics. Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.2. (Software Review ) (Lotus Development Corp.)(one of seven spreadsheet evaluations in 'All the Numbers Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 2.2 maintains its position as the top-selling spreadsheet software, however its $495 is high for the limited features it offers. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 sets the standard for built-in spreadsheet functions, but remains competitive only because Lotus' Macro Library Manager and Funk Software's Allways add-in software packages are shipped with the spreadsheet. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2's ratings reflect the inclusion of these add-in features, such as the desktop publishing quality output Allways provides. The spreadsheet continues to be one of the fastest available, although it also has the weakest graphic capabilities and lacks many of the most basic graph types. Lotus 1-2-3 2.2's other disadvantages include the capacity to work with no more than one file at a given time, archaic installation procedures, and strict keyboard orientation. The user manuals are well organized and useful, and Lotus does provide high-quality, 24-hour, seven-days-a-week support services. Microsoft Excel version 3.0. (Software Review) (one of seven spreadsheet evaluations in 'All the Numbers Fit to Print' ) Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 receives the highest overall rating in InfoWorld's comparison of seven spreadsheets. The $495 spreadsheet software is reasonably priced and has the easiest learning curve. Rated as the best graphical spreadsheet, Excel 3.0 gives the user control over perspective and rotation for its four types of three-dimensional charts. Excel 3.0 offers a library of macros, regression analysis, dynamic what-if tables, matrix functions and arrays. Arrays allow the user to work with blocks of data, and Excel is the first spreadsheet to offer this feature. Excel 3.0 is compatible with Lotus 1-2-3, Dbase, Sylk, Symphony, DIF and other text files. Microsoft's new embedded object technology is supported by Excel 3.0; an Excel chart can be placed in another application. Another 'first' is the ability to mix texts and charts on a page. An on-line tutorial is included with the software and the user can choose simplified menus. An optional feature allows the user to select a 1-2-3 command and receive instructions for equivalent Excel commands. Quattro version 1.0. (Software Review) (Borland International Inc.'s spreadsheet software)(one of seven spreadsheet evaluations Borland International's $130 Quattro is the lowest priced and least capable spreadsheet reviewed. Quattro can, however, be used with almost any hardware configuration. Installation is accomplished by copying the distribution disks onto a directory or floppy disks and the program adjusts itself to the hardware. Installing the spreadsheet on a network is equally simple. The easy to learn program has built-in functions similar to those found in Lotus 1-2-3 2.2. Quattro offers fully customizable menus and an optional 1-2-3 menu system. Hardly a speedy program, Quattro has some of the lowest scores in benchmark performance tests. The spreadsheet does, however, outrank 1-2-3 2.2 in the area of graphics by supporting two more chart types. Quattro printouts are unsophisticated, available only in one font and size. Although Quattro does not let the user access more than one worksheet at a time, its available workspace is quite large. Technical support receives a very good score. Supercalc 5 version 5.0d. (Software Review) (Computer Associates International Inc.'s spreadsheet software)(one of seven Computer Associates International Inc's $495 Supercalc5 5.0d rates as a satisfactory spreadsheet package. Supercalc5 offers the same multipage worksheet model found in Lotus 1-2-3 3.1, but Lotus's version works better. The software lacks any page preview features or on-screen formatting, but is a reliable character-based spreadsheet. Its multiple regression command is more extensive than that found in competing products and can handle cubic, linear and quadratic models. Supercalc5's performance on benchmark tests was slow. Some of its advanced features include the ability to read and write Lotus 1-2-3 files; very good graphic capabilities including mixed graphs, area graphs, and a 'radar' graph that utilizes polar coordinates; and output of publishing quality. The multipage model appears most attractive, but has some annoying limitations. Commands that are used in two-dimensional mode do not work when the third dimension is added. Thanks to Supercalc5's clumsy menu system, the program is difficult to learn and the documentation does not adequately explain multipage spreadsheets. Wingz Version 1.1a. (Software Review) (Informix Software Inc.'s spreadsheet package)(one of seven spreadsheet evaluations in 'All Informix Software Inc's somewhat pricey $599 Wingz spreadsheet software is the best choice for users creating turnkey spreadsheet-based applications. Wingz' most powerful features are its excellent graphing capabilities including three-dimensional bar and surface graphs, wire-frame charts, integrated drawing tools, a line smoothing feature, and control over graph perspective and rotation. The software's full utilization of the Microsoft Windows environment makes it a an easy-to-use threat to Microsoft Excel's dominance of the Windows-based spreadsheet market. Wingz also provides the user with rare control over the display's look; scale can be varied from 24 to 400 percent of original size. Worksheets are two-dimensional and can contain more than 32,000 rows and columns. Wingz' downfalls include an inability to automatically consolidate worksheets and a heavy reliance on the mouse. The software comes with an interactive Hypertext tutorial that familiarizes the user with Wingz' most significant features. Quattro Pro version 2.0. (Software Review ) (Borland International Inc.'s spreadsheet software)(one of seven spreadsheet evaluations Borland International's $495 Quattro Pro 2.0 offers virtually all the advanced features found in other high-end spreadsheets without demanding the same level of hardware. Quattro Pro's one major drawback is the lack of a WYSIWYG display mode. The software package includes Proshow Power Pack, which is a collection of graphic enhancements such as headline fonts, macros and a $100 credit for 35mm slide production. In addition to its standard built-in functions, Quattro Pro supports new financial functions, simple goal seeking, one- and two-way what-if tables, matrix manipulation, regression analysis and linear linear programming. Quattro Pro scores high on compatibility and users can choose between a standard pull-down menu system, a Lotus 1-2-3-compatible interface, or an original Quattro-like menu system. The software supports several types of three dimensional graphs and graphics can be inserted into a spreadsheet. Printouts generated by Quattro Pro are high quality, and its consolidation and linking features are highly rated. The software implements Borland's new Virtual Reality Object-Oriented Memory Manager technology. Forest & Trees gathers information from numerous sources. (Software Review) (Column)(First Look) (evaluation) Channel Computing Inc's Forest & Trees is a software package designed to gather information from multiple sources. The software, which costs $495 for a single user or a network license for $395 per additional node, lets users create a workspace that contains multiple views, or windows that contain information from a variety of sources. Using the client/server architecture, the application makes it easy to create applications containing a lot of information. Forest & Trees works with more data sources than its competitors and offers a tree view option so that users can see how data was gathered, where it came from and when it was last updated. The packages data sources include Dbase, Rbase, Paradox, Dataease, 1-2-3, Excel and ASCII files. The package is highly recommended for users who are planning to build an executive information system. LTE 386s/20 is small and powerful: price, quality go hand in hand with this notebook computer. (Hardware Review) (Compaq Computer Compaq Computer Corp's LTE 386s/20 notebook computer offers high speed, impressive battery life and excellent screen readability, but its high cost may discourage buyers. The computer costs $6,499 with a 30Mbyte hard disk and $6,999 for a 60Mbyte hard disk. It is based on Intel's 80386SX chip. The LTE 386s/20 weighs a little over eight and a half pounds with the battery installed and measures 8.5 by 11 by 2.2 inches. It is very well balanced and does not beep annoyingly, but a handle would be a welcome addition to the system. Its biggest advantage is the speed, which can be configured to run at 'high-20 MHz' or can be set to run anywhere between three and 20 MHz. Overall, the LTE 386s/20 is an excellent system that is highly recommended for anyone who can afford it. Apple explores porting Mac OS to Intel line: would reverse strategy to expand market. (operating system) In order to increase its market share and keep its software developers from defecting to the much larger Microsoft Windows market, Apple is considering porting its Macintosh operating system to the Intel market. It may also license the operating system to other hardware vendors. The plan calls for the Macintosh operating system to be ported to Intel's 32-bit microprocessor line. This line include the 80386, the 80386SX, and the 80486. A minimum standard architecture of a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and support for VGA graphics and a SCSI interface would also be part of the plan. Apple may license its operating system and the SE 30 ROM BIOS for $500 to $1,000 in order to increase its share of the market to 30 percent by 1996. Currently the Macintosh line has an estimated market share of 10 percent. Apple will not confirm these rumors, although Apple chmn and CEO John Sculley has remarked that Apple could potentially look at other hardware to run on in addition to its current Motorola processors. Why are Apple and Microsoft so worried about Pen Point? (Go Corp's Pen Point operating system)(Q&A: Quindlan and Alsop) (column) Apple and Microsoft Corp concerns about Go Corp's Pen Point pen-based operating environment are justified by Go's product, which represents the most modern microcomputer operating environment that has appeared on the market. Most operating systems currently on the market are complex, difficult to understand, and big. Go's Pen Point, however, is small, flexible, interactive and user responsive. It can recognize handwriting and it can be controlled by a pen device. Apple and Microsoft say that it is unnecessary to create a new operating system just to realize the benefits of handwriting recognition and pen-input capabilities, but they do not seem to realize that Go, by developing a new operating system, rather than an operating environment laid on top of an old system like MS-DOS or Unix, has done something truly innovative, and truly in the best interests of its customers. Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.1. (Software Review) (Lotus Development Corp.)(one of seven spreadsheet evaluations in 'All the Numbers Lotus Development Corp's $595 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet software is the most expensive spreadsheet available, yet the cost may be justifiable for those looking for state-of-the-art linking features and multipage capabilities. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 improves Release 2.2's workspace by adding a third dimension, and a single spreadsheet can have up to 256 stacked pages. Release 3.1 retains Release 2.2's file support and commands, receiving a very good score in compatibility. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1's Impress add-in provides desktop publishing quality output, and is a better package than Release 2.2's Allways add-in. The spreadsheet has strong charting capabilities that include instant redraw when the data change. Lotus 1-2-3 3.1's multipage feature considerably simplifies spreadsheet consolidation, including consolidation of active worksheets with others on disk. Written documentation is available in seven paperback books, the WYSIWYG add-in has its own manual. Users of Lotus 1-2-3 should have little problem adjusting to Release 3.1, but the Lotus novice is likely to be confused by the dual menu system. Network managers' salaries hit by tightening economy. (Salary Survey)(includes related article on survey methodology) A Network World salary survey indicates that network professionals are no longer immune from the effects of a weakening economy. Results show that salaries for network professionals in 1990 did not rise as fast as the rate of inflation. The survey also indicates that these managers are concerned about the effects of a recession on their departments. The average total compensation for a networking professional in 1990 rates as $58,934, which is only a two percent increase over the average for 1989. Sixty percent of those surveyed feel a downturn in the economy would result in the cutting of their total department salaries. The 1989 survey shows 76.6 percent saying department salaries had increased. Seventy-six percent of managers surveyed, however, feel that their total compensation is fair and in line with those in comparable positions. Other survey details are discussed. BT Tymnet to reveal frame relay service: firm will upgrade packet-switching network to support frame relay; new service to BT Tymnet Inc announces it will enhance its packet-switched public data network to support frame relay. This announcement brings competition to Sprint Data Group which has plans to offer a frame relay service in the third quarter of 1991. BT Tymnet and Sprint Data together control more than three-quarters of the US public data network market. BT Tymnet will implement frame relay in four phases through 1995. The first phase will have the company adding frame relay interfaces to its high-end Turbo Engine packet switches. BT Tymnet will dedicate 256K-bps channels on its T-1 network backbone to frame relay transport. Maintenance of frame relay traffic will be on channels that are logically distinct from ones that support Tymnet II traffic. Phase Two will have BT Tymnet installing gateways that will allow frame relay and Tymnet II data exchange. Other frame relay service details are discussed. DEC to show new FDDI, E-mail wares. (Digital Equipment Corp.) Smalley, Eric. DEC plans to show a single-mode FDDI concentrator interface for its DECconcentrator 500 that will allow users to expand their FDDI backbones. Many FDDI customers feel that single-mode support is an important requirement for FDDI products. Single-mode fiber supports distances of up to 40 kilometers between concentrators. Multimode fiber used in standard FDDI products has a 2-km distance limitation. The concentrator cards will be priced from $12,000 to $16,500. DEC is also expected to demonstrate FDDI over thin-wire coaxial and shielded twisted-pair cabling. The company also plans to introduce software packages for VAX that operate with DEC's electronic mail Mailbus product. These packages are designed to make the management of large messaging systems easier. The company will also announce the Enterprise Messaging Server that maintains large messaging systems on dedicated VAX servers. Tariff 12 foes urge FCC to explain conflicting rulings. (Federal Communications Commission) MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Corp, opponents of AT and T's Tariff 12, want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate the legality of offering combined discounts on 800 and other services under the tariff. MCI and Sprint claim that the FCC has already prohibited this in its banning of an AT and T promotion that would have allowed user discounts based on combined usage of Software-Defined Network (SDN) and 800 services. The FCC disallowed the promotion due to the dominance of AT and T in the 800 services market. Opponents are pressing the FCC to overturn Tariff 12 or at least force AT and T to eliminate 800 services from the tariff. Observers contend that if the FCC orders the modification of Tariff 12 to exclude the 800 services, this would make the tariff much less attractive to customers since the biggest discounts in the tariff are in 800 services. Client/server pioneers face tough going. Eckerson, Wayne. Users note that, although client/server computing technology will be the dominant technology of the future, the current lack of products and shortage of experienced programmers will impede its progress. Client/server architecture generally refers to systems with applications that run on intelligent workstations working with other applications and data across local- or wide-area networks. Lack of products forces some companies to build their own network management tools. Users say they need more products that distribute and update software on multiple workstations. Some users must manually load new software releases onto hundreds of workstations and have sophisticated batch files created to ease the time-consuming problem. Another problem is that many developers either do not know client/server technology or know the technology well but are inexperienced in programming. Apple, AT&T serve up APIs to link Macs, Unix servers. (Application Program Interface)(Apple Computer Inc.) AT and T Computer Systems and Apple Computer Inc announce application program interfaces (API) that simplify the linking of Apple Macintosh workstations to servers running AT and T's Unix System V.4. The APIs will let developers create server applications supporting AppleTalk connections with Macintosh client workstations. These applications will eliminate the need for users to install separate network software to link Macintoshes to Unix servers. Users will see significant cost savings as a result, especially since AppleTalk protocols are included in the price of a Macintosh. Applications created using the APIs will allow Macintoshes to use Unix System V.4 servers for basic services. The APIs can also be used to develop data base and electronic mail applications that let client software running on the Macintosh workstation extract and update data from a Unix server-based data base management system. IBM unveils ISDN interface for terminal controller: BRI adapter for IBM 3174 compatible with PS/2 interfaces, AT&T 5ESS, Northern IBM introduces the 3174 ISDN BRI (Basic Rate Interface) Adapter, the company's first ISDN interface for a terminal controller. The adapter will let users dial into hosts at high speeds and is designed to work with AT&T Network Systems Group's 5ESS and Northern Telecom Inc's DMS-100. The adapter's four ports each support two 64K-bps B channels and a single 16K-bps D signaling channel. Each BRI line can support two IBM PS/2 workstations which are attached in a passive bus arrangement. The 3174 ISDN BRI Adapter is expected to be released in September 1991 at a cost of $4,800 with an extra $360 annual maintenance charge. IBM also introduces the IBM ISDN Interface Co-Processor/2 Model 2, designed to work with the adapter. The interface is for Micro Channel-based PS/2s running DOS 3.3 or OS/2 Standard Edition 1.2 operating systems. 3Com bridge/routers get IS-IS, DECnet, IPX support: new NetBuilder software first to support IS-IS. (3Com Corp.'s NetBuilder 3Com Corp's $750 Netbuilder 2.0 bridge/router software adds support for Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) routing protocol as well as Novell, Inc Internetwork Packet Exchange and DEC DECnet protocols. The IS-IS support lets NetBuilder BR/2000 and BR/3000 bridge/routers use IS-IS dynamic routing, letting NetBuilders automatically update routing tables and network configuration information transparent to the network administrator. This eliminates the need for the network administrator to manually load this data into each individual router. The new software lets 3Com compete with Wellfleet Communications Inc and cisco Systems Inc since it is the first product that employs the International Standards Organization's specification of IS-IS routing. Cisco uses a proprietary version of the IS-IS protocol which limits its routers to communications only with one another. GDC to unleash barrage of T-1 mux management enhancements: topping the list are inks to Accumaster Integrator, NetView. (product General Data-Comm Inc (GDC) introduces enhancements to its T-1 multiplexer management system with Megaview 2.0 software's links to AT and T's Accumaster Integrator and IBM's NetView management systems. Megaview is linked to AT and T's Integrator using AT and T's Open Systems Interconnection-based Network Management Protocol. The connection only supports passage of alarm data for display on the Integrator console. The NetView link also collects and displays alarm data but can also allow for issuing of some simple commands. Megaview 2.0 runs on a Sun SPARCstation 2 configured as a server. Megaview 2.0 is scheduled to be released in April 1991 with prices starting at $30,500. GDC also announces its FR2000 frame relay terminal adapter that can be monitored and controlled from Megaview. The adapter, which lets terminals with single network links access multiple hosts, is scheduled to ship in May 1991. IBM to sell NET T-3 mux, devise new mgmt. tool. (Network Equipment Technologies Inc.'s IDNX/90 T-3 multiplexer)(IBM's 9739) IBM announces it will resell Network Equipment Technologies Inc's NET IDNX/90 T-3 multiplexer as the IBM 9739 with a release schedule of late June 1991. The price will be similar to NET's with a base configuration starting at approximately $100,000. The T-3 multiplexor has 68 slots that can support up to four T-3 trunks or 68 T-1s. IBM is also planning to produce a management system for the IDNX T-1 and T-3 multiplexer family. The system will run on IBM's Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX)-based Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC) System/6000 workstations. This will clear up the support issue for users who currently buy IDNX multiplexers from IBM but purchase NET's Sun Microsystems Inc's workstation-based Series 5000 IDNX management system from NET. IBM has not disclosed when the management system will be available or its price. Unisys showcases early release of its OLTP Unix-based software. (On-line Transaction Processing) Unisys Corp demonstrates its Open/OLTP on-line transaction processing (OLTP) software at the Uniforum Conference and Trade Show, announcing the company will ship the software in April 1991. Open/OLTP conforms to Ltd. Co's Distributed Transaction Processing standard X/Open. This standard lets users create applications that can extract and update data maintained on multiple vendors' data base management systems. Open/OLTP will have an OLTP monitor based on an enhanced version of AT and T's Tuxedo monitor which will include Unisys' own suite of system administration tools. Open/OLTP will also include a fourth-generation application development language to allow users to create client/server OLTP applications. Unisys will also offer a series of data extraction and gateway tools. If Unisys meets the April shipment date, it could be the first company with a distributed OLTP product. IBM explains delays of LAN OfficeVision/2. Brown, Jim. IBM says that unacceptable client software performance and not its LAN Server local-area network operating system is the cause of the delay in the development of its OfficeVision/2 LAN Series Release 2 office automation product. The delay is also attributed to the need to revamp code developed for OS/2 Extended Edition 1.2 to run under OS/2 Extended Edition 1.3. Tests on LAN Server 1.3, which is based on OS/2 Extended Edition 1.3, show no problems in supporting communications between OfficeVision/2 LAN Series clients and servers using Network Basic I/O System protocols. IBM also intends to give Microsoft Windows and Unix workstation users access to OfficeVision/2 LAN Series as well as add network management capabilities to the product. These additional features, however, will not be included in Release 2 of OfficeVision/2 LAN Series which has already been delayed twice. Vitalink to sell Coral switch as high-end router. (Vitalink Communications Corp.)(Coral Network Corp.'s Broadband Enterprise Vitalink Communications Corp announces plans to resell Coral Network Corp's Coral Broadband Enterprise Switch as the Enterprise Network Switch (ENS). The switch, which combines the functionality of a T-3 multiplexer, bridge and router in one device, helps bring Vitalink quickly into the high end of the internetworking market. Vitalink and Coral will sign a cross-licensing and joint development agreement to integrate their product lines. Vitalink has been forging ahead in a new direction in the past few years with the appointment of a new chief executive officer and by focusing development on routing and high-bandwidth technologies. The ENS will serve the high end market and Vitalink's TransLAN bridges and TransPATH routers will serve the low end. Currently Vitalink is also developing a multiport hub system smaller than the ENS that will serve the mid-range market. CompuServe to offer frame relay, flat-rate 56K bit/sec X.25 services. (CompuServe Inc.) CompuServe Inc will upgrade its T-1 backbone network and offer public frame relay service and a flat-rate 56K-bps X.25 service with availability scheduled for the third quarter of 1991. Frame relay service from BT Tymnet is scheduled for availability in June 1991. Sprint Data Group plans frame relay service also for the third quarter of 1991. CompuServe's backbone network, which is currently based on 15 StrataCom Inc Internet Packet Exchange (IPX) T-1 multiplexers, will be expanded to more than 50 IPXs. CompuServe plans to eventually develop a frame relay interface between its packet switches and the IPX. The frame relay service will support 56K-bps links. CompuServe will support higher speed access of up to T-1 if there is user demand due to the falling of local T-1 costs. CompuServe has not disclosed the pricing of the frame relay service. Group strives to set net standard for object mgmt.: OMG receives eight proposals on new initiative. The Object Management Group (OMG) receives eight proposals for a new communications standard for object-oriented applications as part of the group's distributed object management architecture. The OMG is searching for an object request broker, which is the central communications mechanism to be used in object-oriented applications. OMG members want to ensure the interoperability of object-oriented applications once they arrive in the market. The object request broker will hide complex data structures from users in the client/server environment and will set up a communications path between two objects in a network. This linking will allow applications running on client workstations to initiate requests for data from a host back-end server. Observers feel that the absence of IBM and Microsoft Corp from OMG's ranks will affect any initiative to create a standard. Hollings intros new 'free the Bells' bill: recondition would lift manufacturing restrictions on RBHCs, eases 'made in America' Senator Ernest F. Hollings introduces the Telecommunications Equipment Research and Manufacturing Competition Act of 1991 (S. 175) that would lift a ban prohibiting the regional Bell holding companies (RBHC) from manufacturing telecommunications equipment. The bill is a modified version of Hollings' previous S. 1981, which stalled in the Senate in 1990, and is co-sponsored by six other senators. Observers feel this strong support will allow the bill to move quickly through the Senate. The current legislation modifies the "made in America" clause from the previous bill that required Bell manufactured equipment to be made up of 100 percent US-made components. The current bill requires the RBHCs to use 60 percent US-made components in any equipment they manufacture. The bill allows them to use 40 percent foreign-made components only after a good faith effort to obtain equivalent US-made equipment. Microsoft, Andersen Consulting to build client/server applications: Andersen to resell LAN Manager, SQL Server under Microsoft Corp and systems integrator Andersen Consulting announce an agreement to jointly help users in building client/server networks involving network operating systems, relational data bases, graphical user interfaces and other applications. The partnership is through Microsoft's Information Technology Integration Services group. Andersen Consulting will also resell Microsoft products including SQL Server and OS/2 LAN Manager. The agreement allows Microsoft to recommend its customers to seek Andersen Consulting's services to build complex networks involving products from Microsoft. Andersen Consulting will be able to include Microsoft products as part of contract bidding. Observers contend that this partnership could be the first of many through which Microsoft can build consulting and systems integration expertise that would be difficult to do on its own. SIA signs volume discount agreement with US Sprint: financial services group saves cash for members. (Securities Industry The Securities Industry Association (SIA) signs an exclusive volume purchasing agreement with US Sprint Communications Co for long-distance services that will allow SIA members to receive discounts on voice and data services based on total member traffic volume. The SIA is made up of 600 US and Canadian securities, investment banking and brokerage firms. The contract is estimated to be worth at least $100 million over its three-year time period. Sprint services included in the agreement include Virtual Private Network, Ultra WATS 800, Meeting Channel, international switched voice, Sprintnet Public Data Network and T-1 services. US Sprint has recently suffered dropping sales and layoffs and the SIA contract should bring a welcome boost. SIA officials say the discounts will be substantial but have not disclosed details on the exact rates. Gateway ties ACDs to host computers. (Automatic Call Distributors) (product announcement) Rockwell International Corp's Switching Systems Division introduces Contact Gateway, software that lets customers link Rockwell automatic call distributors (ACD) to existing contact management systems. Contact Gateway is a computer-controlled calling interface. The software runs on Tandem Computer Inc machines and links Galaxy ACDs to IBM 3090 mainframes and Tandem CLX and Wang Laboratories Inc VS100 minicomputers. The integration of Galaxy ACDs with existing contact management systems will let users have faster processing of incoming and outgoing calls in customer service, order entry and telemarketing applications. The ACD establishes a call and then forwards the call to a waiting agent. It then tells the Contact Gateway software to transfer information about the called party to the agent's terminal. Cost of Contact Gateway is approximately $120,000. Downsized VSAT suited for low traffic at remote sites: SkylinX Express defrays cost of private hubs. (product announcement) Scientific-Atlanta Inc introduces SkylinX Express which is a smaller, less expensive version of its SkylinX.25 very small aperture terminal (VSAT) and central-site hub system. The monthly fee for remote site and hub equipment plus the satellite transmission service is $400 per site for users with 200 or fewer remote sites and low-volume traffic. This is $100 less a month than for larger systems. Users can also intermix SkylinX Express with existing SkylinX.25 equipment. SkylinX Express supports one-way video and two-way interactive data traffic. Remote sites are equipped with a VSAT and an attached indoor unit. SkylinX Experss VSAT transmits to the satellite at 19.2K-bps due to its smaller size. SkylinX.25 VSAT's top speed is 56K-bps. SkylinX Express uses a 6-meter earth station antenna at the hub location instead of a 7-meter model as used with SkylinX.25. T-3 may oust T-1 for carrier access: users can save access costs by concentrating multiple T-1 data lines onto a single T-3 Large numbers of users are expected to decrease their carrier access costs by concentrating T-1 data lines onto a single T-3 backbone. There are two main types of T-3 users. One type of user has a T-1 network that is large enough for T-3 circuits to be cost-justified on some backbone links. These users need T-3 equipment with the intelligence found on T-1 multiplexers. The other type of T-3 user has a large amount of traffic at specific locations and is using multiple T-1s to access their carrier's central office or point of presence. These users can concentrate the T-1s onto a single T-3 and lower access costs. This also requires less expensive multiplexing equipment with little intelligence. Analysts believe that vendors are overlooking this second group of users who do not need to build a T-3 mesh network. Other details on T-1 and T-3 communications are discussed. Users stymied by lack of Mac integration products: network mgmt., interoperability are top priorities. Apple Computer Inc Macintosh systems users from Genentech Inc and Lockheed Space Corp tell vendors at MacWorld Expo that they need better integration among data base software packages, peer network capabilities for the Macintosh in different environments and extensive network management. Genentech has over 1,000 Macintoshes, many of which are on AppleTalk networks, linked through Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol to DEC VAXes on DECnet networks. The company feels that vendors have not provided the tools to manage the nodes in a diverse network. Lockheed Space Corp has integrated over 3,500 Macintoshes across multiple networks. They are seeking a graphical user interface network management package that can show the network and give users the ability to click on device icons to receive node information. DEC exec promises host of new Mac-VAX products. (Local Networking) Bruno, Charles. DEC and Apple Computer Inc are working together on improving existing products and developing new ones for network users wishing to integrate Apple Macintoshes into local-area networks or company-wide backbones. DEC officials contend that users are demanding improved network management on DEC's AppleTalk for VMS as well as improvements in file services, the mapping of commands and speeding up processing within AppleTalk for VMS. DEC wants to take what it has learned about mapping DOS commands to VMS and apply it to AppleTalk products. DEC also wants to offer capabilities beyond the simple diagnostics currently available in AppleTalk for VMS. The company plans to insert hooks into future products that support its Enterprise Management Architecture. DEC also recognizes the user need for running AppleTalk software on DEC Ultrix processors but has not made a definite announcement of plans. Net Systems to intro bridge/router line. (Network Systems Corp.'s 6400, 6600 and 6800 bridge/router lines) (product announcement) Network Systems Corp announces a new product line supporting the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) that consists of the 6400, 6600 and 6800 bridge/router families. The 6400 series are modular bridge/routers and include the 6404, 6407, 6412, 6414, 6417, 6448 and 6449 models. All have a six-card chassis and a 400M-bps backplane. The differently configured models range from the four-port Ethernet 6404 to the 6448 with FDDI dual-attached interfaces. The 6400 series is priced starting from $16,600 and will be released in April 1991. The 6600 series includes models 6601, 6602, 6604, 6607, 6612, 6614 and 66417. The 6601 model has one Ethernet and one synchronous port interface. The series is to be released in June 1991 with prices starting at $5,500. The 6800 series includes models 6848 and 6849 which have an 800M-bps backplane. These models are currently available with prices starting at $46,000. FiberCom unveils SNMP management for FDDI nets. (FiberCom Inc.'s Viewmaster+ network management software)(Local Networking) FiberCom Inc introduces its $15,000 Viewmaster+, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based software for Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networks. FiberCom, primarily a hardware vendor, is emphasizing that it now provides for both hardware and software FDDI needs. The company is also promoting Viewmaster's ease-of-use to differentiate it from competing products. Viewmaster+ uses an X Window System-based graphical user interface. Administrators can monitor network performance and detect network faults by viewing a topological map of the network. Network administrators can also modify Management Information Base (MIB) variables since Viewmaster+ comes with all standard MIB variables. The package can also generate data for relational data bases and has structured query language (SQL) capabilities. Viewmaster+ is designed to run on a Sun Microsystems Inc SPARCstation. Net Express to use ComNet to introduce bridge that links LANs to digital facilities. (local area networks) (product announcement) Network Express Inc plans introduction of its NetXtend bridge that connects local area networks (LAN) to switched digital services at the Communication Networks '91 trade show. The two-slot, $18,000 NetXtend 2S and the four-slot, $25,000 NetXtend 4S will provide an alternative to leased lines for wide-area links. The bridge links token-ring or Ethernet networks to switched digital services including AT and T's switched 384K- and 56K-bps services and Integrated Services Digital Network Primary Rate Interface (PRI) links. The NetXtend bridge is recommended for customers who need high bandwidth less than four to six hours per day. Customers requiring more would most likely use leased lines for wide-area links. NetXtend stands out from traditional remote LAN bridges with its support of multiple active paths and its inverse multiplexing feature. The bridge supports T-1 and V.35 connections. MIPS' RISC computers for departmental nets debut: firm to support Sybase DBMS, Portable NetWare. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s MIPS Computer Systems Inc introduces the RC3360 and RC6260 RISComputers designed to be used as servers in large departmental networks. The RC3360 starts at $65,500 and delivers 41.5 million instructions per second (MIPS). The computer is scheduled for release in February 1991. Base configuration includes from 663Mbytes to 20Gbytes of disk storage and 32Mbytes of memory, expandable to 256Mbytes. The RC3360 is designed to support on-line transaction processing and data base processing applications. The RC6260 RISComputer is a more compact and less expensive version of MIPS' RC6280 processor. The computer is available now and is priced from $139,500. The RC6260's base configuration includes 663Mbyte to 44Gbytes of disk storage and 32Mbytes of memory, expandable to 128Mbytes. MIPS also announces an agreement with Sybase Inc to support its data base management system on MIPS' RISC processors. E-mail delivers solution to UPS time zone troubles: global network links up users around the world. (United Parcel Services Inc.) United Parcel Services Inc (UPS) uses an electronic mail system for communications with its 2,500 sites in more than 180 countries worldwide. The system especially speeds communications for global operations across multiple time zones and currently supports 14,000 UPS employees throughout the world. Two hundred thousand electronic mail messages are sent and received weekly. The company also uses electronic mail to route thousands of internal documents that were previously distributed by internal mail. UPS employees access the E-mail system through IBM 3270 terminals or microcomputers that emulate the 3270. These terminals are linked to an IBM 3090 mainframe computer in Paramus, New Jersey. The host computer runs an IBM mainframe E-mail software package from H&W Computer Systems International. UPS is also developing a decentralized system for workstations and LAN users to exchange mail. New TCA chief talks of challenges ahead. (Donna Kwak - Telecommunications Association Inc.) (interview) Donna Kwak, the new president of the TeleCommunications Association Inc (TCA), feels the major issue facing TCA members is maintaining quality network service in times of a weakening economy and threatened budget and staff cutbacks. Kwak's vision for TCA is to expand membership to allow the association to be the premier telecommunications user group. She does not want TCA to expand too quickly, however, with growth for growth's sake. TCA's long-range planning committee is currently working on a plan to ensure steady yet manageable growth. Kwak also wants to implement better educational programs for TCA members and proposes traveling seminars that go from chapter to chapter. Kwak feels TCA can help its members the most through training and education. She urges TCA members to give possible solutions in order to solve TCA's problems and make the organization more useful. Top Merrill Lynch exec to open Financial Nets meet. (Financial Networks Conference)(Management Strategies) Network World announces that Merrill Lynch & Co Inc's top network and information systems executive, DuWayne Peterson, will give the keynote address at the Financial Networks Conference to be held in New York May 8 to 10, 1991. The address will feature Peterson's views on the financial industry and major technology and management issues facing financial network executives into the 1990's. The Financial Networks Conference plans to cover topics including outsourcing network operations, benefiting from financial network partnerships, controlling market data feed costs and negotiating custom network contracts. The conference is sponsored by Digital Consulting Inc and Network World and is one of several conferences scheduled for 1991 designed to address major network issues. Other conferences include the Manufacturing Networks Conference to be held in Chicago from August 12 to 14, 1991. Study says competition to spur int'l switched services: carriers to lure users with price cuts, services. (International Networks) A study from Market Intelligence Research Corp (MIRC) indicates that there is an increased demand for international switched services as businesses globally expand their operations. Increasing competition in the international switched services marketplace will result in lower prices for users. The saturation of the domestic market will make US carriers intensify the wooing of users with new services and lower prices. MIRC predicts that US carrier revenue from international switched services will increase at a compound annual rate of 13.1 percent from 1989 to 1996. This will be an increase from $4.4 billion to $10.5 billion compared with a 4.1 percent compound annual growth rate for all switched services with an increase of $41.8 billion to $55.8 billion for the same period. Observers note that profit margins are higher on international services than domestic and, therefore, carriers can more easily cut prices. Visa to farm out control of int'l hubs. Crockett, Barton. Visa International Inc plans to streamline management of its European network using Infonet Services Corp's facilities management services. Visa officials say the agreement with Infonet will save Visa $15 million over five years. Part of Visa's major network and information systems plan, VisaNet 2000, is to use Network Equipment Technologies Inc (NET) IDNX multiplexers to change Visa's analog European network into a high-speed digital network. The multiplexers will be housed and maintained by Infonet at various European sites. Visa is expected to also farm out its Asian hubs to Infonet. Visa's European nodes will be linked by way of 64K-, 256K- and 512K-bps lines on a redundant mesh network. Visa will also save $200 million in the next ten years by moving its network to carrier fiber-optic facilities. Visa plans to expand its network from 61 countries to the full 160 where its member banks operate. Chipcom rolls out its first local bridge for ONline hub: device lets users easily switch among Ethernets. (product announcement) Chipcom Corp introduces its $4,250 ONline Ethernet Bridge Module, a two-board bridge that fits into the ONline System Concentrator, to be available in the second quarter of 1991. The bridge gives network managers the ability to switch electronically among 11 Ethernets wired into the hub. The ONline Ethernet Bridge Module can electronically switch between the concentrator's three bus channels allowing managers to avoid re-cabling when bridging various Ethernet backbones. The bridge has two boards with one handling Ethernet packet filtering and the other handling other bridging functions. A single attachment unit interface (AUI) connects an external Ethernet to the ONline Ethernet Bridge Module and two Ethernet ports that connect to the backplane of the hub. The bridge filters data at 24K packet/sec and forwards Ethernet data at 10.5K packet/sec for 64-byte packet sizes. Videoconferencing system packs clear audio, low cost. (PictureTel Corp.'s System 4000)(Products and Services) (product announcement) PictureTel Corp introduces its new System 4000 compact videoconferencing system that is lower-priced and boasts clearer audio than the company's C3000 line. The System 4000 is priced from $39,500 and some analysts believe this is the best and lowest priced videoconferencing system for networks running at 112K- to 384K-bps. The system includes a video coder/decoder, camera, control unit, monitor and audio system. The system's improved audio quality is a result of PictureTel's Dynamic Echo Cancellation (IDEC), a new, full-duplex proprietary algorithm. IDEC limits audio distortion by filtering background noise and, therefore, improves the audio when two people are speaking at the same time or when a person speaks while moving around a room. PictureTel is scheduled to release System 4000 in early February 1991 and will come in two main configurations, with or without a rollabout cabinet. Proteon to unleash RISC bridge/router. (Firm's CNX 500 routes at up to 100K packet/sec) (product announcement) Proteon Inc plans to introduce the Communications Network eXchange (CNX) 500, the first commercially available Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)-based bridge/router device for interconnecting local area networks. The CNX 500 can route at up to 100K packet/sec, a rate much faster than the 25K packet/sec provided by current router devices. The CNX 500 can encapsulate IBM protocols in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) packets for consolidating network traffic over a common backbone. Proteon, therefore, is marketing the device as a backbone router in mixed IBM and third-party LAN sites. The CNX 500 includes three internal slots for various local- and wide-area interface boards each of which can handle a dual-port network interface card. The device will be offered in a variety of configurations with prices ranging from $10,995 to $19,495. Microcom outfits modem system with auto mgmt. (Microcom Inc.'s High Density Modem System) (product announcement) Microcom Inc introduces HDMS Plus, a rack-mounted modem system that includes modems, a modem connection chassis, Intelligent Network Controller (INC) software module and network management software that runs on an attached microcomputer. HDMS Plus is priced at $1,099 for the modem chassis alone. HDMS Plus systems include chassis, the INC controller and modems and range in price from $750 to $1,300 per port. The INC manages threshold processing and security which allows network managers to establish parameters for 13 events. These include no dial tone, ring/no answer and a security violation. The INC can report the location and event-type when a threshold is reached and can keep track of each modem by polling them every three seconds. The INC can correct modem problems by resetting, disconnecting or reconfiguring the modems. HDMS Plus also now supports V.42 and V.42bis modems. Little old ladies shouldn't have to pay for SONET. (Synchronous Optical Network) The telecommunications industry is still working with guidelines that have been used for almost a century, when the industry was organized and regulated for providing simple voice telephone services. The business of communications in today's world is a multi-tiered market which needs new guidelines. Expense and cost of traditional switched voice service should be clearly distinguished and separated from costs incurred for new service development. High-speed data networks should be available as a special service under a special tariff. These services should be financed by company equity and reviewed as separate profits and losses. Successful high risk programs would justify higher returns. A failure of a program should result in company stockholders taking the loss instead of traditional telephone customers. Only with new rules for today's new services can the US communications industry become a world leader. Making the IBM-DEC connection. (Datacom Buyer's Guide IBM-to-DEC Connectivity Products) (buyers guide) Users can take advantage of the financial and functional benefits of connecting IBM hosts and Systems Network Architecture (SNA) networks to DEC VAXclusters instead of managing DEC and IBM hosts separately. Users can choose from a wide variety of IBM-to-DEC connectivity solutions including both hardware and software. Products from DEC that connect the VAX platform with IBM's include DECnet/SNA Gateway-CT, DECnet/SNA Gateway-ST and the Direct Link VMS/SNA software. Interlink Computer Sciences Inc offers software products based on its SNS/Link product that connects an IBM host to a DECnet/Ethernet network. SNS/Link runs on the IBM host which is connected to the Ethernet. Systems Strategies Inc offers ezBRIDGE On-Line, a software package that resides on a DEC-supported communications processor board. Other IBM-to-DEC connectivity products are discussed in detail. The voice of command: the U.S. Army links Desert Storm squads with a chain of digital voice networks. (The Networks of Operation The US Army is using digital communications equipment at the squad level in Operation Desert Storm. Squad leaders and other squad members carry a Portable Radio Communicator (PRC)-126, a frequency-modulated, half-duplex radio that has a range of several miles during adverse conditions. The PRC-126 is entirely digital and this makes it more difficult to jam. Another communications system is the Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) units which are private telephone circuit switches. The switches come in 26-, 41- or 176-port models and are based entirely on 16K-bps, full-duplex channels. The MSE network is mainly used for voice and facsimile purposes, the latter being used for map transmission. The Mobile Subscriber Radio Telephone (MRST) is the Army's cellular network. The radio link between the MRST and the MSE switch is automatically encrypted. Other network details are presented. A hawk's eye watches Desert Storm: new sea, air and land network serves as eyes and ears for the fleet. (The Networks of Operation The US Navy's E-2 Hawkeye plane tracks attack aircraft with the help of digital radio communications links to its carrier and to Navy command ships. The Ocean Surveillance Information System (OSIS) is the first computer network to handle data transmitted from the Hawkeye. The OSIS network is linked to the Navy Command and Control System (NCCS) and both are based on shore. The OSIS tracks all the elements of attack and defense and a new upgrade called OSIS Baseline Upgrade (OBU) helps the system in attack planning. Experts believe that OBU can model a possible air strike as part of its decision support capabilities. The OBU can be connected to workstations and its connectivity is possibly based on a fiber local area network but this information is classified. The Improved Many On Many (IMOM) is a networked software that helps attacking jets get through enemy defenses by tracking those defenses. Gung-ho Marines create own nets: Corps unites high-tech, off-the-shelf gear in networks. (The Networks of Operation Desert US Marine Corps officers who used local area networks (LAN) in the US have deployed them in the Persian Gulf area, realizing that LANs can make their work more efficient in the field. Most data for the Desert Storm LANs are for administration including schedules of parts, field promotions, troops under the command sector and transportation requests. They are also used for a casualty list data base. Marine field units transmit electronic mail through both the Desert Storm Marine command or through the Marine wide-area network (WAN) back to the US. Two mobile centers in undisclosed locations in Saudi Arabia make up the Force Automated Service Centers. The data centers are mounted on trucks and follow the fighting. Each truck has an IBM Model 9377 minicomputer and an IBM 3720 front end processor. There are 20 to 30 LANs deployed in the field, most being token rings with a few Ethernets. British Telecom to unveil multivendor net manager. (British Telecommunications PLC's Concert Integrated Network System) British Telecommunications PLC plans to demonstrate its Concert Integrated Network System (IMS) at the Communications Networks '91 (ComNet) show. The company claims that the demonstration will be the first in multivendor network management using the Open Systems Interconnection/Network Management (OSI/NM) Forum's Release 1 network management specifications. Concert is the company's open systems network management architecture. Concert IMS is the umbrella management system for the Concert architecture. The product is scheduled to be available later in 1991 in the United Kingdom and in early 1992 in the US. The company will also announce plans to support the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) within Concert IMS. This will help users with migration from Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol to OSI networks. Computer programmers to lose overtime pay. Pollack, Andrew. A modification in Federal labor law will mean that certain computer programmers will be reclassified as professional employees and will no longer be eligible for overtime pay. Computer industry trade groups sought the change, but most observers say it will have little effect on most companies where programmers are already treated as professionals. Under the change, computer programmers, software engineers, systems analysts and other computer workers who earn more than 6.5 times the minimum wage will no longer be eligible for overtime. The law's biggest effect will likely be on temporary or contract programmers who are often paid by the hour by companies who do not maintain their own staff of programmers. Developers get the go-ahead for PenPoint OS. (Go Corp.'s PenPoint operating system)(includes related articles on user enthusiasm for Go Corp's PenPoint, an operating system that uses the touch of a pen to invoke commands, is scheduled to be available for developers in February 1991. The portable, pen-based computer technology is designed to aid the mobile worker. Thirty-five hardware, software and network vendors, including IBM, are announcing support of PenPoint. PenPoint's Notebook User Interface (NUI) uses a table-of-contents structure for document organization. Users retrieve files and documents by touching the pen to the appropriate page number in the table of contents. Users activate specific tasks by invoking NUI's set of 11 common gestures or pen commands. PenPoint also offers pre-emptive multitasking and support for 32-bit memory. The $2,000 Master Developer Program includes PenPoint and programming tools but the pilot GO hardware is not included. The $7,870 Corporate Developer Program includes the hardware. NexGen's chip set, bus spans RISC, DOS arenas. (NexGen Microsystems Inc.)(Reduced-Instruction Set Computers)(Disk NexGen Microsystems Inc is developing an Intel 80486-compatible eight-chip chip set using reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) technology as well as a 64-bit bus. The company intends to offer the power of RISC architecture along with compatibility with standard DOS software. The company claims that the F86 chip set offers 50 percent more speed than Sun Microsystems Inc's current generation of RISC processors and twice the performance of Intel Corp's 80486 chips. NexGen's 64-bit NexBus shows a peak throughput of 267Mbytes per second and a sustained rate of 150Mbytes per second. The company claims the NexBus will be the highest performance bus on the market. Industry analysts note that the expense of producing an eight-chip chip set may allow Intel to compete with NexGen with less expensive and higher speed processors. They note that NexGen must keep up with Intel's silicon process to be successful. Novell to revise NetWare 386 strategy with new packaging. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare 386 network operating system) Novell Inc plans to announce less expensive versions of its NetWare 386 network operating system in Feb 1991. The new packaging plan breaks the software into smaller versions that support different numbers of users. Presently, the only version of NetWare 386 is for 250 users and costs $7,995. Many NetWare 286 customers considering an upgrade to NetWare 386 are hesitant because of the expense. Sources claim that Novell may compensate for the lower priced versions by raising the price of the top-level version above the current $7,995. Novell plans to give first-time buyers significant discounts on its NetWare SQL data base engine. Some observers note that getting NetWare 386 to smaller customers is important but large customers are concerned about maintaining and upgrading different versions of the operating system. Others feel Novell must consolidate NetWare 286 and 386 to lessen complexity. Lotus, Borland renew spreadsheet rivalry: 1-2-3 2.3, Quattro Pro 3.0 in beta test. (Lotus Development Corp., Borland International Lotus Development Corp and Borland International Inc both release beta copies of their spreadsheet upgrades, 1-2-3 2.3 and Quattro Pro 3.0 respectively. In Quattro Pro 3.0, Borland enhances its Graphics Mode option and renames it WYSIWYG. With the WYSIWYG interface, users can access spreadsheet analysis capabilities and new presentation features. Beta testers report that users can now shrink and enlarge typefaces and graphs with a zoom control. They can add drop shadows to text boxes and annotate numbers and graphs with sculpted typefaces. Users can also specify the maximum amount of expanded memory the program should use. Beta testers report that Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 has improved memory management and lets users store cell pointers in expanded memory. Users can incorporate graphs in worksheets, change graph background and border colors and they have more types of graphs available. GUI tools set to ease DBMS programming: Oracle preps Mac, Windows package. (graphical user interface)(data base management Oracle Corp's $299 Oracle Card is designed to help both novice and professional developers design applications programs that can access multiple Oracle databases on microcomputers, local area networks and host systems. The product is scheduled to be released in May 1991. Oracle Card, which builds on Apple Computer Inc's HyperCard feature set, consists of graphical programming tools, a scripting language and communications facilities. Users can design Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows applications, maintain database structure and query remote data bases. The product's Stack Builder allows users to lay out buttons, fields, windows and data tables to build applications. Using Query Builder, users can create reports or generate Structured Query Language (SQL) statements. The Table Builder lets users graphically create, edit and view the structure of remote data base tables. Borland readies forms-based tool. (GUI tools set to ease DBMS programming) (Borland International Inc.'s ObjectVision)(graphical Borland International Inc's ObjectVision is a forms-based tool that lets non-programmers design applications to input and retrieve data base information. ObjectVision is scheduled for release in March 1991. The Microsoft Windows-based product lets users create data-entry and display screens that look similar to paper forms. Development time is reduced since users do not need to write code or script in creating their applications. They select functions from menu lists to control branching, field calculations and conditionals. Users can link forms to Paradox, dBASE and Novell Inc's Btrieve data base files, the Paradox engine and to spreadsheets and Windows applications that support Dynamic Data Exchange. Beta testers are generally pleased with ObjectVision's features but would prefer more flexibility in forms creation and more procedural programming capabilities. New IBM adapters provide ISDN links to PS/2s, 3174s. (Integrated Services Digital Network)(IBM's ISDN Interface Coprocessor/2 Model IBM announces Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) adapters for its PS/2 microcomputers and for its 3174 Establishment Controller. The $1,195 ISDN Interface Coprocessor/2 2.0 communications board is scheduled to be released by the end of June 1991. The adapter includes a software driver for MS-DOS and OS/2 Standard Edition. This software allows existing NetBIOS applications to run over ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) lines. An included application programming interface (API) allows third-party developers to create applications that exploit ISDN. The $4,800 3174 ISDN adapter is scheduled for release in September 1991. The adapter allows for up to eight remote PS/2s to communicate with a System/370 mainframe computer with a lower cost and faster connections than most currently available modems. Analysts expect the products to stimulate ISDN market growth. Startup builds Mac look-alike from ground up. (Nutek Computers Inc.) Nutek Computers Inc announces it has designed a logic chip set, operating system and user interface that provides a legal way to build an Apple Macintosh compatible microcomputer. The three-chip chip set is scheduled to be released in the 3rd qtr of 1991. The chip set includes two chips that emulate the Macintosh's read-only memory (ROM). They provide a NuBus-compatible interface to Motorola Inc's 68000 processors. The company claims that the ROM chips are not the result of reverse-engineering from the Macintosh ROM code, but were built from the ground up. Nutek is therefore confident Apple cannot mount a successful legal challenge to this product. Nutek plans to package the chip set with a Macintosh-like operating system software and a modified version of the Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface. The interface emulates the Macintosh screen display. AT&T's USL, Intel, Interactive join to move Unix into high volumes: slew of products announced at UniForum. (AT&T's Unix Among the many announcements at the Jan 1991 UniForum trade show is the distribution agreement between AT and T Unix Systems Laboratories Inc and Intel Corp to authorize Interactive Systems Corp to market Unix System V release 4 (SVR4) on Intel 80386 and 80486 platforms via its distributors and dealers. This is the first high-volume distribution channel for the Unix product that is not tied to a hardware vendor's direct sales force. AT and T and Intel hope the decision will help provide a large market for Unix applications. In another UniForum announcement, WordPerfect Corp releases Unix versions of its WordPerfect 5.0 for IBM's RS/6000, NCR Corp's Tower 32 and AT and T's 3B2 workstations. A single-user copy is $495 with five-user copies priced at $995. The software publisher plans a Unix version of WordPerfect Office 3.0 for Apr 1991. Additional product announcements are discussed. Microsoft to begin OEM shipments of OS/2 1.3 with SCSI support. (original equipment manufacturer)(small computer system interface) Microsoft Corp is shipping OS/2 1.3 to hardware vendors, making its current version of the operating system more closely match IBM's shipment of the operating system in Nov 1990. Microsoft's release is the same as IBM's except for the addition of device drivers for small computer system interface (SCSI) from Adaptec Corp, Western Digital Corp and NCR Corp. SCSI peripheral support is provided through bus-independent drivers that are part of Microsoft's Layered Architecture Device Driver (LADDR) design. The drivers also work with IBM's OS/2 1.3. OS/2 users can use built-in caching features with any SCSI peripheral. The integrated SCSI driver support also gives users easier access to a wide variety of SCSI peripherals. Many hardware vendors are upgrading to OS/2 1.3 but see the release as minor since version 1.21 offers most of the features needed until the release of OS/2 2.0. Zortech eyes new platforms for C++ compiler; multiplatform vision includes 386-based DOS, SCO Unix, Macintosh. (Santa Cruz Operation Zortech Inc is developing additions to its C++ Compiler line, including versions for The Santa Cruz Operation Inc's (SCO) Unix, Intel 80386 MS-DOS-based systems and the Apple Macintosh. Zortech plans to offer programmers a uniform C++ software development environment with which they can design applications for multiple platforms. The $995 DOS 386 C++ compiler is used with Phar Lap Software Inc's $495 386 DOS Extender. This gives developers additional memory resources for the creation of large, memory-intensive, 32-bit applications. Zortech's $499.95 SCO Unix 386 C++ Compiler is currently in beta testing as is a Macintosh version of the compiler. It is scheduled for release in Apr 1991 with a probable price of $295. The Macintosh compiler is designed to feature support for the Apple MacApp libraries and to work within the Macintosh Programmers' Workshop development environment. Multiuser features rid Sidekick of utility image. (Borland International Inc.'s Sidekick 2.0 personal information management Borland International Inc's $99.95 Sidekick 2.0 goes beyond a utility program and becomes a personal information manager that is easy to use but still powerful. The 40Kbyte, terminate-and-stay-resident program's features include improved scheduling, a calculator, communications functions and a Rolodex-style notepad. Sidekick 2.0 has a new Windows-style interface with pull-down menus that users can access with either the mouse or the ALT key. Network users can access calendar files stored centrally on the local area network and calendars can be printed. Passwords protect private appointments. The communications module offers a powerful script language. On the downside, the context-sensitive help is limited. Users should also note that Sidekick 2.0 swaps program code and data to disk to maintain its small size so the software's performance depends mainly on the host microcomputer's hard drive. Firms show off Unix systems at UniForum. (Tatung Science and Technology Inc.'s TWS-5020-CX workstation, Altos Computer Systems Various Unix-driven systems are announced at the UniForum trade show. Tatung Science & Technology Inc introduces its $9,995 TWS-5020-CX graphics-enhanced version of the company's SPARC-compatible desktop workstation designed for two- and low-end three-dimensional environments. The system includes a graphics accelerator card, 8Mbytes of RAM expandable to 64Mbytes and 2Mbytes of memory. Altos Computer Systems $14,300 System 5000 Model 5820 is a 80486-based multiuser computer that includes 8Mbytes of memory and 128Mbytes of cache memory. The company's APS/5000-33 is the $28,600 high-end model and includes 16Mbytes of memory expandable to 28Mbytes. Tektronix Inc's TekXpress XP21 X terminal lists for $2,995, supports parallel processing and includes 5Mbytes of memory expandable to 21Mbytes. The terminal features 1,152-by-900 pixel resolution and should be available in Mar 1991. TravelMate can't keep up with LTE in performance. (Texas Instruments Inc.'s TravelMate 3000 and Compaq Computer Corp.'s LTE Texas Instrument Inc's (TI) TravelMate 3000 80386SX-based, 20-MHz notebook computer matches NEC Technologies Inc's ProSpeed 386SX-20 in benchmark tests but does not beat Compaq Computer Corp's LTE 386s/20's performance. The tested configuration, which includes a fast 17-millisecond 60Mbyte hard disk and 2Mbytes of RAM, is priced at $6,499. The TravelMate 3000 weighs only 5.7 pounds in contrast to the LTE's 7 pounds. The TravelMate offers a well-designed keyboard, very good VGA display, excellent documentation and a variety of bundled software utilities. The machine's contrast adjustment is not uniform across the screen and reveals flaws when the screen is dimmed. The machine's NiCad battery supplies two hours and 45 minutes of power in testing although TI claims the battery lasts for three hours under normal conditions. TI offers a one-year warranty and toll-free telephone technical support. Next round of hard drives to measure 1.8-inches. Sullivan, Kristina B. The Small Form Factor Committee, made up of members from leading computer companies, agree that the standard for smaller-than 2.5-inch hard disk drives should be 1.8 inches. Industry analysts note that several companies are already developing 10M-, 20M- and 50Mbyte 1.8 inch drives to release in 1991. Integral Peripherals Inc plans to start production of 10M- to 20Mbyte 1.8-inch hard disk drives in the 4th qtr of 1991. The company intends to market its disk drives for hand-held computers, including pen-based systems and keyboard-based pocket computers that currently use integrated circuit (IC) memory cards, a solid-state storage method. The 1.8-inch hard disk drives cost $30 per megabyte compared to $400 per megabyte for IC cards. The Small Form Factor Committee also announces that the 1.8-inch drives should provide Small Computer Systems Interface and Integrated Drive Electronics interfaces. Debate heats up over VDT emissions hazard. (includes related article on the San Francisco video display terminal workplace Users are more aware of health issues surrounding the use of video display terminals (VDT) but industry analysts note that their buying habits have not changed significantly. Vendors claim users inquire more about screen colors, refresh rates and screen borders but are still most concerned about resolution. Several terminal manufacturers are offering low-emission monitors but some observers say the demand for these products is low. Concern among users is increasing because of the number of recent studies that link long periods of monitor use with health problems including headaches, miscarriages and eye trouble. Observers feel that it will be a long time before low-emission monitors are common in the workplace. An official report from the US Environmental Protection Agency would be an important element in giving the movement towards safer monitors more momentum. DVT shapes databases as intuitive graphs, charts. (IntelligenceWare Inc.'s database visualization tool) (product IntelligenceWare Inc's DVT (Data Visualization Tool) computer graphics software package extracts data from data bases on many different platforms, including microcomputers an supercomputers. It then graphs the information in two- and three-dimensional (3D) charts and graphs. DVT costs $490 for microcomputer data bases and should be available in the last week of Jan 1991. The version of DVT Teradata Corp supercomputers is expected out in the 2nd qtr of 1991 with a list price of $10,000. An algorithm in the program evaluates the data and recommends types of graphs. Graphing techniques can display numeric as well as non-numeric data such as data base labels and text variables. DVT offers a 3D box graph with 3D shaded boxes laid inside a wire-frame 3D grid. The product is designed to give users a sense of the shape of their data base. DVT requires an IBM AT or compatible microcomputer with 640Kbytes of RAM. SCO reinvigorates Open Desktop. (The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s Open Desktop 1.1 graphical operating environment) (product Santa Cruz Operation Inc (SCO) announces an upgrade of its Open Desktop graphical operating environment with release 1.1 which offers a new user interface, data base enhancements and improved performance. SCO is targeting the upgrade at large corporations as a platform for both specialized network applications and desktop workstation running MS-DOS and Unix applications. Open Desktop 1.1 includes SCO Unix System V/386 3.2 2.0. This gives it support for up to 256Mbytes of RAM. Network enhancements include the ability to run on Token-Ring networks and support for Sun Microsystems Inc's Network File System (NFS). Open Desktop 1.1 should be available in Feb 1991 for $995 on tape and $1,295 on floppy disk. Upgrades are priced from $150 to $250 depending on the particular user support program. Superbase 2 1.2 harmonizes database power, ease of use. (Precision Software Inc.'s data base management system)(First Look) (Software Precision Software Inc's $345 Superbase 2 1.2 is highly recommended for Microsoft Excel users who have outgrown the spreadsheet program but are not at the point of learning a data base programming language. Superbase 2 1.2 is both powerful and easy to use. The program runs applications written in Precision Software's Superbase 4 development system but users cannot create or edit Superbase 4 applications. The package is especially useful for less experienced data base users since it offers power to allocate and reuse disk space dynamically. Superbase 2 1.2 also offers Forms Painter for creation of data entry screens and output forms. Forms Painter is intuitive but users need a steady hand to move objects using grid snap. Complex form modification locks up the system in tests. The package provides support for dynamic data exchange (DDE) but users should note that the DDE links are not easy to implement. Human-resource tool is flexible, secure. (Dun & Bradstreet Software's The Human Resource) (product announcement) Dun and Bradstreet Software's latest version of its The Human Resource human resources management program for microcomputers combines data base customization capabilities with powerful security features. The package consists of six modules that offer management of payroll processing, basic personnel record keeping and employee benefits. The Human Resource's security features rival those associated with mainframe computers, including control over which data-entry fields and options users can access. The data-library feature allows users to create new data files in which they can enter information not covered in the software. Users can create data-entry screens with an included screen-painting facility. The new menuing system is improved with pull-down menus for easier use. Multi-module packages of The Human Resource cost from $30,000 to $80,000. Trade show readies for networking feast: multiple links, protocols and multimedia stressed. (Communication Networks) The Communications Networks '91 trade show participants will focus mainly on products supporting multimedia, multiple protocols and multiple links for dispersed networks. Terminal servers and network management tools figure prominently. Cabletron Systems Inc will announce its new Ethernet Terminal Servicer Media Interface Module for direct LAT and Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connections to Cabletron's Multi Media Access Center hubs. Micom Communications Corp will demonstrate its Marathon Remote Terminal Server that support Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and can handle up to 64 remote users simultaneously. From Artel Communications Corp comes the Galactica multiport bridge that interconnects Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and Ethernet networks both locally and remotely over T-1 links. Other products expected at Networks '91 are discussed. Firm taps ARTIC cards for PC-mainframe links. (UniHorn Software Solutions' Async 3270 and SDLC communication programs)(A Real-Time UniHorn Software Solutions introduces its $240 Async 3270 communications software that lets up to seven asynchronous terminals communicate with IBM mainframe computers as 3278/79 terminals. UniHorn also announces its $400 UniHorn Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC) communications program that provides for remote communications with an IBM mainframe computer. The software off-loads communications processing from the host microcomputer to IBM's A Real-Time Interface Coprocessor (ARTIC) adapter. The SDLC program allows users to replace discontinued IBM Series/1 minicomputers for file transfer and credit-card verification. The Async 3270 package is also off-loaded from the host microcomputer to the ARTIC adapter. The software can support up to 32 concurrent host sessions. Remotely Possible controls PCs on a Windows-based LAN. (Avalan Technology Inc.'s Remotely Possible NetWare remote control Avalan Technology Inc's Remotely Possible 2.0 communications software is one of the few Novell NetWare remote control programs that also offers Microsoft Windows 3.0 compatibility. Prices for the package range from $199 for a two-user license to $1,299 for a 512-user license. Remotely Possible consists of two terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. The Host program is loaded on one networked microcomputer and the Viewer program is loaded on another, giving the viewer machine access or control of the host. A viewer can control a host running Windows in real mode but a viewer can only monitor hosts with Windows running in standard or enhanced modes. Tests results are successful when using Remotely Possible with several graphics-adapter resolutions. The product does not work, however, in tests with a system loaded with a Windows 3.0 Super VGA driver. Documentation is concise but adequate. Microsoft eyes special delivery for Mac e-mail. (Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail 3.0) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp attempts to move into CE Software Inc's market share of electronic mail software with its Microsoft Mail 3.0 for AppleTalk local area networks (LAN) to be released by the end of the 1st qtr of 1991. Beta testers claim the package's new features are more extensive than those offered by CE's QuickMail, which commands 60 percent of the E-mail market for Apple Macintosh and MS-DOS-based microcomputers. Microsoft ranks second with a 30 percent market share. Microsoft Mail 3.0 lets users attach an unlimited number of files to E-mail messages and allows network managers to limit the size of all files attached to a message. The package also offers more control for addressing and managing messages. A personal address book allows users to create their own mail groups. Microsoft Mail's network server component is $395; workstation components are $395 for five users and $1,349 for 20 users. Wireless LAN offers 16M bps over Token-Ring. (megabytes per second)(BICC Communications' InfraLAN wireless local area network) BICC Communications introduces its $2,995 InfraLAN, the first wireless local area network (LAN) that can be used with any 4- or 16Mbytes per second Token-Ring hardware. InfraLAN can provide transmission speeds of up to 16Mbytes/second. Current wireless products are limited to 2Mbytes/second transmissions, although Motorola Inc claims wireless technology supporting 15Mbytes/second. InfraLAN consists of a 6-port repeater/multi-access unit (MAU) for attaching microcomputers and bridges. Two optical nodes transmit incoming and outgoing data signals and are equipped with infrared light emitting diodes (LED). Nodes are placed on a pole or wall to avoid obstruction since the technology will not transmit through solid partitions. Unobstructed nodes can receive communication automatically if one node's infrared LED is obstructed. InfraLAN is geared towards small groups of users in open-office environments. DEC must learn to adopt PC attitude to stake its claim to desktop market. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (PC WEEK Labs) (column) DEC needs to change its attitude towards the microcomputer market if it is to become a profitable leader in the current desktop-dominated computer industry. By looking at DEC's local area network (LAN) server products, Pathworks for DOS and Pathworks for OS/2, it is easy to see that DEC takes the attitude that microcomputer LAN users should do things the VAX minicomputer way. The products use DECnet, which is not used in the microcomputer arena. Pathworks products support only NetBIOS yet one-half of LAN microcomputers run on NetWare's SPX/IPX protocol stack. DEC needs to do everything possible to make VAXes into microcomputer LAN server machines. The company should replace Ethernet and DECnet in the Pathworks products with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 standard and the NetWare and LAN Manager transport protocols. It also should build support for Token-Ring and Ethernet. PCs speak clearly with Monologue 2.0. (First Byte's Monologue 2.0 speech software) (Software Review) (First Look) (evaluation) First Byte's $149 Monologue 2.0 is a software package that gives microcomputers surprisingly coherent speech capabilities, performing best on fast machines. Monologue uses a complex set of phonetic rules to convert text strings to speech signals. The program then plays the signals through an internal or auxiliary speaker. Monologue performs successfully in tests that instruct the program to read data from 30 cells in a worksheet. Programming languages that can send data to external devices can include routines to be used with Monologue. Monologue seems well-suited for program development, but only five samples are included in the program's manual. Users can build exception dictionaries to correct mispronunciation. Since the program works with text strings, there is no need for prerecorded voice segments. This eliminates the large storage requirements usually associated with digitized voice. Company creates PC games for sales training. (L.A. Image develops training application for SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals) L.A. Image is designing computer games that educate and train sales staff on employee benefits at the recently merged SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceutical Inc. L.A. Image developers first create a series of screen designs on paper and then use a variety of microcomputer applications to automate their design. The developers devise a paper storyboard of the game structure using Aldus Corp's Pagemaker desktop publishing package, Microsoft Corp's Word word processing software and Corel Systems Corp's CorelDraw illustration program. To electronically create the storyboards on the microcomputer, the designers use Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint II Enhanced and Deluxe Animator animation and paint software. Paul Mace Software Inc's Grasp 3.5 scripting language is used to integrate the microcomputer files. SmithKline Beecham is distributing the popular games to all of its regional sales offices. Andersen Install/1 can generate DEC ACMS programs. (Andersen Consulting's Install/1 for VAX/VMS 2.0)(Digital Equipment Corp.'s Andersen Consulting's new Install/1 for VAX/VMS 2.0 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool has the ability to produce DEC Application Control Management System (ACMS) transaction processing applications. The product is compatible with DEC's CASE environment. The increasing importance of the DEC platform as a foundation for building client/server database applications is an important factor in Andersen's decision to make its products run in the DECtp transaction processing environment. Applications developers can use Install/1 for VAX/VMS 2.0 in conjunction with Andersen's two microcomputer-based CASE tools, Method/1 and Design/1. Developers can transfer specifications from applications designed on these products to Install/1 on the VAX to generate code. Install/1 for VAX/VMS 2.0 is priced from $9,000 to $372,000, depending on processor size. Microsoft can earn trust with clarity, consistency. (Up Front) (column) The Strategy Seminar held by Microsoft Corp in the last week of January 1991 was as an effort to publicly present the company's current views and plans. Microsoft needs to present definitive statements on its system software strategy to reduce confusion and speculation within the computer industry. Questions will remain no matter how clearly a statement is presented. Differences between IBM and Microsoft as development partners for OS/2 and Microsoft's timetable for development of OS/2 3.0 will still be subject to question. Microsoft must make the effort to ensure that its future actions are consistent with its present statements. Independent software developers as well as corporate developers cannot build software with a strategy that constantly changes. Microsoft needs to earn trust from industry participants with a correct and reliable public statement of direction. Excel 3.0 redefines notion of smart software. (The Corporate Micro) (column) Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software is a 'smart' program that is sure to be on everyone's list of best products for 1991. The most notable improvement in Excel 3.0 is its ability to produce better looking spreadsheets. Excel no longer has limits on fonts, and there are more graph types. It also offers excellent three-dimensional graphs. Users can paste graphics from the clipboard, and drawing tools allow for the easy drawing of boxes, lines and arrows. The Autosum button on the newly added Toolbar allows users to select a cell that they want to contain a column- or row-summing formula. Users click the Autosum button and the program guesses at the range and inserts the correct formula. Excel 3.0's innovative spreadsheet outlining feature lets users display only levels or rows of desired detail based on created layers of worksheet details. Outdated corporate pros should look in the mirror. (Risky Business) (column) Many displaced computer industry professionals blame their employers for not introducing them to current technologies. They feel that companies do not offer adequate training and do not give employees the time to develop new technological skills. In today's fast-changing society it is the personal responsibility of data processing professionals to set aside a certain amount of time in order to stay current. It is easier for employees in the data processing field to stay on top professionally than those in many other fields. Computer industry employees have access to a wide variety of information through computer-related magazines. Many workers have access to computers that they can utilize to learn more about new technology. Employees can expand their personal network of professional colleagues through user groups and on-line forums. IIT leading gold rush in chip development. (startup Integrated Information Technology cloning Extended Graphics Adapter standard) Integrated Information Technology (IIT) plans to to be the first company to clone IBM's Extended Graphics Adapter (XGA) by shipping an XGA chip set with bus-master and RAM-to-digital-to-analog converter (RAMDAC) compatibility before the end of June 1991. IIT has already developed the Integrated Graphics Array chip, an 8514/A- and VGA-compatible graphics chip. The graphics engines in the 8514/A and XGA are similar and will aid in the development of the XGA clone. A more difficult task will be developing the RAMDAC and bus-master chips. Issues concerning use of applications with XGA chips on non-bus-master EISA and AT machines could add to these difficulties. The XGA market is expected to thrive in the same way the EGA and VGA standards did when first introduced. Meeting XGA demand may also help chip companies that have been hit hard by the weakening economy to remain profitable. Sears, Roebuck finds bright spot in dismal year. (will expand Business System Centers) (Changing Channels) (column) Sears, Roebuck's Business System Centers and Office Centers' expansion due to total year-to-year sales increasing by 26 percent in 1990 is a bright spot for the company that is losing sales because of the depressed retail industry. The Office Centers are specialty microcomputer and office products boutiques located in 10 Sears stores. The centers are also shifting their focus to the corporate market with 90 percent of revenues coming from the Fortune 2000. Sears is successfully moving into network and systems integration as well, with the Business Systems Centers offering products and services including cabling, installation and training. The company is investigating niche markets and one center has become an approved dealer for IBM's RS/6000 workstation. Sears will continue to segment its customer base to garner low- and high-end sales. Comm programs take a Windows view: Future Soft's DynaComm boasts ease of use, powerful scripting language. (Software Review) Three asynchronous communications programs written specifically for Microsoft Windows 3.0 are reviewed. The three are Crosstalk Communications/DCA's Crosstalk for WIndows 1.1, Future Soft Engineering Inc's DynaComm 3.0 and Software Ventures Corp's MicroPhone II for Windows 1.01. Tests indicate that users of text mode communications programs are likely to become Windows converts due to the wide variety of capabilities of these Windows programs. Users can cut dialog from screens and paste it into files and can scroll previous screens for information. Files can also be uploaded and downloaded in the background. All tested programs rate higher in ease of use than their comparable character-based programs. DynaComm and Crosstalk support Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Crosstalk and MicroPhone II are ranked lower than the Analyst's Choice, DynaComm, due to omissions and configuration problems. Crosstalk Communications/DCA: Crosstalk for Windows 1.1. (Reviews) (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of communications Crosstalk Communications/DCA's Crosstalk for Windows 1.1, $195, is low-priced with lots of features but its interface is neither graphical nor intuitive. The program is not easy to learn and the manuals do not describe any of the Windows 3.0 features. Crosstalk does provide sample scripts from several communications services as well as Dynamic Data Exchange support. The program's scripting language is comprehensive and the product lets users program function keys to run pre-defined scripts. Users are prompted for the standard configurations and settings when running Crosstalk for the first time. Initial connection with services can be difficult. The lack of an intuitive interface can cause confusion in the way scripts are run, opened and edited. The program's background file transfer operates without flaws and, once mastered, the program is easy to use. Scripting abilities stand out in packages, buyers say. (Buyer opinions on three evaluated software communication packages) Users of Crosstalk Communications/DCA's Crosstalk for Windows like the powerful macro facilities and the flexibility of the scripting language. Some opt for the Crosstalk package in order to stay with products from common vendor Digital Communications Associates Inc (DCA), the parent corporation of Crosstalk Communications/DCA. Users find that Dynamic Data Exchange abilities are helpful in applications exchanging information. Some users of Future Soft Engineering Inc's DynaComm use the package to log in on a dumb terminal to access information on company mainframe computers. DynaComm users can switch screen emulations using the package's programmable function key capability. Users feel ease of use is the most valuable aspect of DynaComm. Users of Microphone II from Software Ventures Corp enjoy its terminal emulation and data transfer capabilities along with its powerful scripting language. Future Soft Engineering Inc.: DynaComm 3.0. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of communications software in 'Comm Programs Analyst's Choice winner DynaComm 3.0, $295, from Future Soft Engineering Inc, offers ease of use and ease of configuration as well as a powerful scripting language and Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support. The program also offers a wide variety of protocols and terminal emulators. Beginners may at first be overwhelmed by the 19 icons and may need to read the manual to determine that the Director icon is equal to a main menu. The Director allows users to configure many on-line services and ask questions specific to each service. The answers are saved and connections are made without the need for any user intervention. Dynacomm's graphical interface does not use the Windows standard help system. The program does not run as an icon when connected to a host and the icon does not show the status of a file transfer. Software Ventures Corp.: Microphone II for Windows 1.01. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of communications software in Software Ventures Corp's Microphone II for Windows 1.01, $295, is an intuitive, highly developed communications program but lacks Dynamic Data Exchange support, a major oversight in such a high-priced package. Users will find icons available for most of the major communications services but the company does not include scripts that run the first time an icon is accessed. Transferring files is easy but not as simple as in DynaComm 3.0. The file-receive process must be initiated from the Transfer menu. MicroPhone II is able to dial a number and initiate a service as an icon, the only product reviewed that has this capability. The product lacks a help system but documentation includes a Reference manual, Custom Interface manual and a user's manual. The Custom Interface manual will help users with the program's scripting language. Trio offers quality PostScript solutions: PacificPage cartridge proves easier and more accurate than software programs. (Software Users can avoid the high cost of PostScript laser printers by buying a font cartridge or interpreter for use with HP Laserjet III printers. PC Week evaluates two microcomputer software packages, Custom Applications Inc's Freedom of Press 2.5 and QMS Inc's UltraScript PC Plus 2.2 that have interpreters that convert PostScript files into bit-mapped images. Also evaluated is Pacific Data Products Inc's PacificPage PE 4.0, a relatively new solution. PacificPage PE is a PostScript language emulation cartridge users plug into a LaserJet printer. Tests show that PacificPage PE's installation and setup is much easier than the two software packages. The cartridge's printing consistency ranks higher than the two competitors. Freedom of Press tests the slowest in speed with PacificPage and UltraScript printing the same documents within 10 seconds of each other. Each product costs $495. Custom Applications Inc.: Freedom of Press 2.5. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of PostScript printing options in 'Trio Custom Applications Inc's Freedom of Press 2.5, $495, supports all 35 Adobe typeface fonts but is disadvantaged by its lack of speed. Users can purchase a math coprocessor that can speed up printing by 30 to 100 percent. Tests are done without a math coprocessor, which accounts for Freedom's slow speed score in the PageMaker test. Setup and installation is time-consuming and in tests, it took two hours to install the software and reconfigure it for applications. Text and graphic integration is very good but it dropped an element of a drawing from Ventura Publisher. The software is command-driven which can be confusing when the application fails to print a file. If the file cannot be interpreted or is not found, users are returned to the DOS prompt without any type of error message. The package requires less printer memory than the PacificPage PE and needs only 640Kbytes on a microcomputer. Buyers find cost-effective alternatives to purchasing pricey PostScript printers. Many users are finding it more cost effective to purchase inexpensive, non-Adobe PostScript software packages and font cartridges for their HP LaserJet III printers instead of purchasing a PostScript printer for thousands of dollars. Users find that the combined cost of a LaserJet III printer and Pacific Data Products Inc's PacificPage PE 4.0 font cartridge is about $2,200 as opposed to between $4,000 and $6,000 for a PostScript printer. Users also like PacificPage's ability to switch between PostScript and non-PostScript typefaces. Custom Applications Inc's Freedom of the Press software supports a wide variety of printers and users may find they are saved from purchasing a costly printer. QMS Inc's UltraScript PC Plus offers some users a chance to enhance the range of fonts included on their printers. The package offers 35 different PostScript typefaces. Pacific Data Products Inc.: PacificPage PE 4.0. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of PostScript printing options in 'Trio Pacific Data Products Inc's PacificPage PE 4.0 font cartridge, $495, is the best of the three evaluated PostScript printing option products. Its print quality rivals the HP PostScript Cartridge and for $200 less. In some tests its printing speed is faster than the HP cartridge. Users can print directly from within applications using the PacificPage font cartridge. Only one minor discrepancy is found in tests using a Ventura Scoop document where parentheses fall higher on the text line than when using the HP cartridge. Users can switch the printer between PostScript and PCL modes with PacificPage PE 4.0 without having to remove the cartridge. Switching modes in a network environment, however, can interrupt print jobs. A helpful user's guide instructs users how to use the included software and control panel commands for the font cartridge. QMS Inc.: UltraScript PC Plus 2.2. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of Postscript printing options in 'Trio Offers Quality QMS Inc's UltraScript PC Plus 2.2, $495, is the most competitive of the three products evaluated as far as printing speed is concerned, but the program has difficulty producing graphic images in tests. UltraScript can reproduce text and graphics together as a PostScript interpreter but in testing, does not reproduce three identical elements of a graphic image as clearly as the HP PostScript cartridge. All other tests show UltraScript reproducing documents as well as the Pacific Data and HP cartridges. UltraScript's installation and setup is easy. The product uses two separate programs depending on system configuration. Systems with more than 1Mbyte of extended memory use UltraScript as a terminate-and-stay-resident program. Systems with 1Mbyte of memory or less print from an application to a PostScript file. Users then run UltraScript to send the file to the printer. Documentation is clearly written. Spreadsheets extend database reach; Lotus 1-2-3 and Borland's Quattro Pro utilize different approaches to access data. (Software The database 'hot linking' capabilities of the two leading spreadsheet packages, Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro and Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 3.1, are evaluated and compared. Lotus uses the DataLens utility to tie into several different databases, while Quattro Pro offers hot links to Borland's Paradox relational DBMS. DataLens takes the more consistent approach and allows direct Structured Query Language querying from within 1-2-3, but Borland's product is faster and can directly read Paradox, dBASE and R:Base files for browsing as well as queries. Borland International Inc.: Quattro Pro 2.0. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of spreadsheet software in 'Spreadsheets Borland International Inc's $495 Quattro Pro 2.0 spreadsheet offers powerful database integration capabilities through direct hot links to Borland's Paradox DBMS, and the ability to directly read a variety of database files. It uses a flexible design approach with a built-in Paradox engine and compatible file format; the only difference between the database and a Quattro spreadsheet is in how the user manages information. Spreadsheet analytical functions and database storage and query functions overlap enough to let each product be used as the other for some applications. Users simply load a file to work with database information. Quattro Pro exploits the sophisticated memory-management capabilities of Paradox and can query, sort and report on very large files. Its interface is less consistent than that of Lotus 1-2-3 and is more expensive than Lotus 1-2-3's DataLens drivers. Buyers salute Quattro Pro's speedy data integration, Lotus 1-2-3's flexibility. (survey of users of hot-linking capabilities in two Buyers of Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 3.1 and Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro who use the spreadsheet programs' database integration capabilities say that Quattro Pro is the faster program when linked to Borland's Paradox database management system. Lotus 1-2-3, however, provides greater flexibility because it can retrieve data from a wide variety of databases. One user says that importing Paradox files into Lotus 1-2-3 with DataLens saves time and effort because users need not activate Paradox itself. Lotus' cross-platform approach has some disadvantages, according to users. Password-protected tables cannot be accessed directly, forcing the user to export or copy and encrypt the table. Quattro Pro allows more complicated Paradox queries than 1-2-3 due to its tight integration. Lotus Development Corp.: Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 with DataLens. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of spreadsheet software in Lotus Development Corp's $595 Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet, when used with the $70 DataLens set of database drivers, offers hot linking to a variety of databases. Each DataLens driver allows 1-2-3 to read, write and query from external database files without invoking the originating programs. Users can automate queries with 1-2-3's powerful macro language and can make relational queries as well as uploading and downloading from corporate databases. The program provides a consistent interface across databases, although it is somewhat slower than Quattro Pro. Lotus 1-2-3 can only handle 8,192 spreadsheet rows and can therefore only display 8,191 database records, and the DataLens driver must translate each database structure into 1-2-3 format. DataLens drivers are available for dBASE III, SQL Server, Paradox and Novell NetWare SQL as well as the VAX/VMS Rdb system and IBM DB2 mainframe files. Packages amend Windows' font support; ATM provides seamless integration; other packages offer more configurable options. Five packages designed to compensate for the lack of built-in on-the-fly font scaling in the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface are reviewed. The Windows 3.0 environment ships with bit-mapped screen fonts no larger than 24 points and virtually no printer fonts. Adobe Type Manager for Windows (ATM), Atech Software's Publisher's PowerPak, Bitstream Inc's FaceLift, MicroLogic Software Inc's MoreFonts 2.0, and Zenographics' SuperPrint 1.1 each use a different font format and dynamic link libraries that intercept application font calls. ATM, FaceLift and MoreFonts offer screen and printer fonts without sacrificing Windows functionality; PowerPak and SuperPrint are limited to their own printer drivers because they cannot use stand-alone Windows drivers. ATM is rated an Analyst's Choice because it provides seamless integration and uses the Adobe Type 1 font format, giving users access to a vast font library. For buyers, font managers free up memory, design options. (survey of users of font-scaling packages for Microsoft Windows) A survey of buyers of five leading font-scaling programs for Microsoft Windows 3.0 indicates that users consider fast graphics development and the ability to free up hard disk space by downloading font outlines to the printer the two major advantages of the packages. These software packages include Adobe Type Manager (ATM), Atech Software's PowerPak 2.1, Bitstream Inc's FaceLift, MicroLogic Software's MoreFonts 2.0, and Zenographics' SuperPrint 1.1. One user praises MicroLogic's MoreFonts 2.0 for its ability to save time by generating fonts on the fly, but complains that MicroLogic does not support its products well. Zenographics' SuperPrint 1.1 earns praise for its excellent SuperQueue print spooler, but users note that it is slower than FaceLift or ATM. One SuperPrint user notes that its approach creates a 'total environment' better than the other packages. ZSoft, HP provide limited support for Windows fonts. (Hewlett-Packard and ZSoft WYSIWYG font strategies) HP and ZSoft Corp offer font-management programs for Microsoft Windows that provide WYSIWYG display but do not include on-the-fly font scaling or support for multiple printers. HP's Type Director 2 lets users scale bit-mapped fonts for Windows from its Intellifont typeface outlines. Intellifont for Windows is a new version that supports the PCL 5 page description language used in HP's LaserJet III and IIID printers but does not work on other printers. ZSoft's $199 SoftType comes with 62 scalable typeface outlines in Nimbus Q format but does not support on-the-fly screen and printer scaling. A new Adobe Type 1 filter in version 1.02 lets users edit fonts to work with Adobe Type Manager. Adobe Systems Inc.: Adobe Type Manager 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of on-the-fly font scaling packages for Adobe Systems Inc's $99 Adobe Type Manager (ATM) for Microsoft Windows provides easy-to-use, fast and convenient on-the-fly font scaling and gives users access to fonts previously available only to owners of expensive PostScript printers. It uses the Adobe Type 1 font format, a widely accepted industry standard. Users can change typeface names and set the size of the screen and printer font cache, but there are fewer configurable options in ATM than in competing packages. Disabling the program requires users to quit and reload Windows, and it cannot be set to work with only some printer drivers while it is running. ATM provides very high-quality screen fonts, but does not come with the ability to scale and install downloadable bit-mapped fonts; users must obtain Font Foundry, a free utility, from Adobe. It comes with 13 typefaces; the remaining 22 needed to complete the standard PostScript set are sold as a 'Plus Pack' for $198. The product is rated an Analyst's Choice. Atech Software: Publisher's PowerPak 2.1. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of on-the-fly font scaling packages for Atech Software's $79.95 Publisher's PowerPak font scaling program for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface offers on-the-fly scaling of matching screen and printer fonts. It replaces the Windows screen and printer drivers with its own drivers, and its screen fonts are not well-designed; the display suffers when compared to that produced by Adobe Type Manager. The program supports downloadable bit-mapped fonts to increase speed, but its universal printer driver does not support the resident fonts and font cartridges in LaserJet or PostScript printers. Atech offers additional proprietary fonts in 'Font Packs' for $29.95 each and fonts licensed from Monotype for $79.95 each. Bitstream Inc.: FaceLift 1.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of on-the-fly font scaling packages for Windows 3.0 in Bitstream Inc's $99 FaceLift font scaling program for Microsoft Windows provides typeface outlines from the Bitstream type library and lets users set a wide variety of parameters. Users can activate and deactivate the program on the fly, allocate RAM, set the minimum size at which fonts will be scaled and adjust intensity to dot matrix output, as well as assign or unassign FaceLift to work with particular printer drivers. FaceLift comes with 13 basic outlines, and Bitstream offers a $179 package that provides the remainder of the 35 fonts in the PostScript set. A collection of 52 additional font families costs $129, and the 'Companion Value Pack' provides 24 text and eight display typefaces for $199. FaceLift suffers from some bugs in version 1.0 that can cause screen and printer failures, but these problems are expected to be fixed in the upcoming version 1.2. MicroLogic Software Inc.: MoreFonts 2.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of on-the-fly font scaling packages for Windows MicroLogic Software Inc's $149.95 MoreFonts 2.0 is a font-scaling package for Microsoft Windows that is ideal for users of HP LaserJet III and IIID printers. It supports HP's Intellifont format outlines and scaling techniques and works with any other printer via standard Windows driver. Special font effects such as fill patterns, shadows and background effects are available in full WYSIWYG. MoreFonts provides few user configuration options; users cannot even set the size of the font cache or rename typefaces. MoreFonts is nevertheless very fast because it uses an intelligent algorithm that scales and caches only those characters actually used in a document. The program comes with 17 fonts, and a total of 110 proprietary MicroLogic typefaces are available in addition to the Intellifont typefaces. THe display is nevertheless less clear than some other products. Zenographics: SuperPrint 1.1. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of on-the-fly font scaling packages for Windows 3.0 in Zenographics Inc's $195 SuperPrint 1.1 font scaling program for Microsoft Windows 3.0 offers an excellent print spooler, good graphics performance and WYSIWYG scaling but cannot offload printer functions with the flexibility of competing products. SuperPrint combines the Adobe Type 1, Fontware, Intellifont, Speedo and Nimbus Q font rasterizers and can handle LaserJet fonts; 23 of the standard 35 PostScript typefaces are included with the package. A $195 SuperFonts package includes the remaining typeface families. The program replaces standard Windows screen and printer drivers with its own drivers; it must translate graphics and text to the printer's raster-image processor, which SuperPrint replaces with its own Software Raster Image Processor. Performance is slow because SuperPrint sends everything to the printer as graphics; users also lose access to resident printer fonts. Some developers waiting for Microsoft to provide system-level support. (font support in Microsoft Windows graphical user Many companies who supported the Microsoft Windows 2.X graphical interface with scalable type but not with on-the-fly scaling of screen and printer fonts are waiting until Microsoft builds font scaling directly into Windows 3.0 before including such support in the Windows 3.0-compatible versions of their products. Officials at Digi-Fonts Inc, SoftCraft Inc and SWFTE International Ltd say they want system-level screen and printer font scaling, noting the fact that the absence of built-in font handling capabilities in Windows is causing problems because the need to intercept system calls makes applications unreliable. Future Windows versions will offer the TrueType font rasterizer, and Soft Craft and SWFTE say they have put development on hold until this capability is available. Drawing packages cross platforms; file format incompatibility remains developers' major hurdle. (buyers guide) Many drawing software packages that run on DOS-based microcomputers are generating graphics as good as those that run on the Apple Macintosh. This brings the need for developing fully file-compatible cross-platform drawing software since most packages use their own proprietary file format. Macintosh drawing packages use either PostScript files or object-oriented PICT file formats to exchange files. DOS-based drawing programs can use DXF, Windows metafile or PostScript object-oriented file formats. Users cannot edit bit-mapped file formats including TIFF, PCX, BMP and bit-mapped PICT in an object-oriented drawing package. A major difficulty in moving from the DOS-based platform to the Macintosh is the need to translate code into Apple-specific code. Users find that the same graphics files supported on the Macintosh are usually not found on DOS-based computers. Microsoft views strong earnings through Windows. Fisher, Susan E. Microsoft Corp announces stronger-than-expected earnings for its second fiscal quarter ending Dec 31, 1990, helped by its big sales of Windows products. Earnings for the quarter increased 52 percent to $112.9 million compared with the same quarter the previous year. International sales account for 55 percent of Microsoft's revenue. The company's stock reached a 52-week high of $89.50 a share on Jan 21, 1991. Software Publishing Corp announces an increase in revenue of 43 percent, with just under $43 million in its first fiscal quarter ending Dec 31, 1990. Increase in earnings is only 16 percent, with $5.5 million for the first quarter of the previous year to $6.4 million. Symantec Corp reports a 54 percent increase in earnings, to $3.9 million for its third quarter ending Dec 31, 1990. Revenues have increased almost 63 percent to $30.9 million for the quarter. Persian Gulf war adds wrinkle to 386 chip shortage for Intel. (Intel Corp.) Intel Corp says that if its production facilities in Israel for 386 processors are disrupted by the Persian Gulf War, its other plants located throughout the world can absorb the work load. Intel has a chip-making plant in Jerusalem and a design facility in Haifa. Transporting of chips from Israel has so far been the greatest disruption to chip production due to the war. Intel is the sole supplier of 386 chips and, therefore, maintains several manufacturing sites. Factories in the US and Japan make the chips and Intel has announced a new site to be built in Ireland. The company also plans to revamp an Oregon development center into a manufacturing plant for advanced microprocessors. Some industry observers feel that it is in the best interest of Intel's largest customers for 386 chips to be in short supply since the shortage decreases competition from smaller microcomputer makers. Lotus moves to redefine role as consulting arm takes shape. (Lotus Development Corp.'s Consulting Services Group) Lotus Development Corp announces its consulting services called The Lotus Consulting Services Group. The company is targeting the financial services, manufacturing and business operations markets to give customers a new view of the company as an intelligence source instead of just a product provider. Lotus claims it can solve corporate customer business problems faster and at less cost than other consultants by using its expertise in customization of off-the-shelf software. The Lotus Consulting Services Group offers services in design, needs analysis, testing, implementation, documentation, training and support. The group says it will help customers whether or not they decide to use Lotus products. A recent customer paid Lotus $100,000 for software customization for a problem a systems integrator said would cost more than $1 million for developing a mainframe application. Corporate Software selling extra help for Windows move. Scheier, Robert L. Corporate Software Inc announces it will begin selling extra software support services for customers moving to Microsoft Windows 3.0, breaking away from its traditional policy of providing support at no extra charge. These migration services will help customers with such problems as configuring workstation memory, planning the migration and handling support calls from new Windows users. These are the first services from Corporate Software that will let users, as well as support staff, call the company's support lines. Corporate Software will help in-house support staff cope with the large amount of calls by letting users call the company with questions on Windows. The service is scheduled to being in the second quarter of 1991 and will cost $150 per user. The company will also offer an installation service for $120 an hour, plus travel and expenses. Microsoft Corp. signs Andersen Consulting as ITIS partner. (Information Technology Integration Services) Andersen Consulting will team up with Microsoft Corp's Information Technology Integration Services (ITIS) consulting group under an alliance that will offer consulting services to help corporate users develop client/server applications. Andersen Consulting will also resell Microsoft products and help customers with installation, integration and operation. ITIS feels that Andersen Consulting can complement Microsoft's strengths in operating systems and networking with its experience in large project management, application development and systems integration. Andersen Consulting has a staff of over 20,000 in 145 offices worldwide. Microsoft's ITIS has approximately 30 consultants in the US and 12 abroad. The agreement formalizes the two companies' strong working relationship. Andersen Consulting has previously helped Microsoft with 40 internal systems projects. Data-compression technology: the incredible shrinking file. (Looking Forward) (column) Data-compression technology is based on compression algorithms that identify repeating patterns and assign a token to them. All similar patterns are replaced with these tokens to compress the information. Telecommunications benefits from this technology with utilities that compress files and, therefore, reduce transmission time. High-speed modems contain digital signal processing (DSP) chips that compress data in real time for high transmission speeds. New compression chips that hard-wire the algorithms onto silicon are currently available. Image compression techniques include those that reduce the number of bits used to express color values of pixels. Palette manipulation algorithms help a color image look more realistic. Geometric image-compression techniques target large regions of the same color instead of entering information pixel by pixel. Other techniques are discussed. DEC plans cellular barrage on Eastern Europe. (News of the Week) Lanning, Thomas. Capitalizing on a strong presence in Western Europe, DEC is making an especial effort to market cellular products and services in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. DEC provides systems integration, software development and program management for the cellular industry. Telecommunications is DEC's fastest growing business line. Forty percent of DEC's telecommunications sales are in Europe, compared to 35 percent to supply the US. DEC has already signed a $100 million sales contract with the D1 cellular network owned by Germany's Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. In Hungary, DEC has formed a joint venture to sell computer equipment and services. DEC's next push is expected to be in Czechoslovakia and Poland. SONET: a status report. (synchronous optical network, a computer network protocol) (cover story) (buyers guide) Although the standards process for synchronous optical network (SONET) is three months behind schedule, few are complaining. The delay is caused by the complexity of the technical issues, not politics, according to Rockwell International network product planner Bob Cubbage. The forthcoming SONET operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM and P) communications draft will be the first SONET standard to include information models and messages. A comprehensive list of SONET products announced by telecommunications vendors is included, along with dates for field trials and expected commercial availability. So what's the big deal about a SONET mid-span meet? (synchronous optical network, a computer network protocol)(cover story) Bellcore and the National Standards Institute developed SONET, a series of standards that allow easy access to low-speed signals and enable mid-span meets between different multiplexors. In 1990, such a mid-span meet was achieved by Fujitsu and Alcatel at both the OC-1 (optical carrier 51.84Mb/s) and OC-3 (155.52Mb/s) rates. The test showed that SONET multiplexor/transport system can connect directly with any other SONET system the expense of adding multiplexing equipment. The next step is to determine a standard for SONET overhead messages. Centel bashes database errors. (case study of database maintenance) A new solution to database errors could save Centel Corp's Illinois Metro District millions of dollars annually, while simultaneously boosting customer service. Most telephone companies have several databases; a chief objective is to be sure that the databases provide accurate, consistent information. Centel chose COS/BASH software from Apertus Technologies Inc of Minneapolis. The software performs a physical inventory of pairs on the main distribution frame (MDF) and updates other databases. Identifying mislabeled pairs can save hundreds of dollars apiece. Centel performs monthly audits to check its various databases. Microsoft Corp. to scrap OS/2, refine Windows. (microcomputer operating systems) Microsoft Corp will announce that it is discontinuing development of the OS/2 operating system, and in its place the firm will use much of OS/2's code to develop an advanced version of its Windows graphical user interface. Microsoft had pushed OS/2 as the eventual replacement for the DOS operating system, but the success of the Windows environment, which works in conjunction with DOS, has left the company working on two fronts. The decision will have massive repercussions throughout the computer industry, particularly in relations between Microsoft and IBM, which had been jointly developing OS/2. Many observers say that Microsoft is exerting its muscle as the dominant player in deciding the future of the microcomputer market. Left in the lurch will be the many rival software companies that have committed resources to developing applications for OS/2, which is now essentially a dead platform. Computer Associates to buy spreadsheet in a renewed bid for PC software sales. (ManageWare Inc.'s Compete) Computer Associates International Inc purchases the rights to ManageWare Inc's Compete spreadsheet software as a means of gaining market share in the microcomputer arena. Computer Associates is the second largest software firm, but its market strength lies in the shrinking mainframe computer market. The firm has attempted to enter the microcomputer market before, but analysts say that the products it has fielded have become lost in its corporate structure. Computer Associates is banking on Compete's compatibility with Microsoft Windows 3.0 to give it an edge in the market. Compete is a multidimensional spreadsheet with powerful graphics capabilities. Computer Associates states it plans to release several other Windows-based products in the coming months. U.S. jury award aids Hayes's effort to get royalties. (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., modem technology) Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc achieves a victory in its struggle to retrieve royalties from other modem manufacturers for a 1981 patent it owns covering an electronic escape sequence that includes a program for switching the modem from receiving to transmitting mode. A jury awards Hayes $3.5 million in damages in a suit the firm brought against Everex Systems Inc, Omnitel Inc and VenTel Inc. Hayes will seek to triple the damages, which currently amount to 1.75 percent of the defendants modem sales since 1985, by claiming the companies willfully violated the patent. The jury award will also stand as a precedent for Hayes's attempts to extract royalties from as many as 150 other manufacturers of modems that use the pirated technology. Autodesk shares skid as software firm makes disappointing earnings forecast. Autodesk Inc, one of the most consistent of computer software companies, causes a furious sell-off of its stock by announcing that it expects to report 4th qtr 1990 earnings below analysts' expectations. Autodesk states its net income for the quarter will be in the 50 to 55 cent a share range, with revenue about the same as its 3rd qtr 1990 results of $62.4 million. Most analysts had predicted net income of 63 to 65 cents a share with revenue of about $66 million. The news caused Autodesk's stock to lose 22.6 percent of its value, or $11.75 a share to close at $40.25. Analysts say that a chaotic conference call between Autodesk officials and analysts where the officials did a poor job of explaining the results abetted the stock's fall. Big chip firm's 4th-period loss was $56 million. (Texas Instruments Inc.) Texas Instruments Inc reports a weak 4th qtr 1990 and concedes that prospects in the near term are not promising. The semiconductor firm reports a net loss of $56 million for the quarter compared with a profit of $36 million in the year-ago period. Texas Instruments states the poor performance is due to a sluggish market and a $49 million charge the firm took for asset write-downs and cost reductions. The firm also states that financial pressures will tighten in the near term; investors react by sending TI's stock down $3 to close at $34.625. Analysts say that one bright spot for the company is its continued aggressive pursual of royalties for its technology. The company announces a renewed royalty agreement with Oki Electric Industry Co covering the next five years. IBM expands Soviet business despite turmoil: sale of 40,000 computers announced; firm opens unit in Czechoslovakia. IBM announces the sale of 40,000 microcomputers, worth approximately $50 million, to the Soviet Union for use in schools. Apparently unphased by the recent unrest in the Soviet Union, IBM states it is also considering establishing a permanent base in the country. The sale is for hard currency according to IBM, and the 40,000 computers are in addition to 13,000 that the Soviet's ordered in June of 1990. In other moves in the Soviet Union, IBM has a tentative agreement with Aeroflot for an air-passenger and cargo handling computer system as well as plans to establish support services in the country. In Czechoslovakia, IBM states it has established its first subsidiary company in the country since the Communists seized power following World War II. Kodak combines a network printer with a copier; fluent in several computer languages, it will work with PC's and Macintoshes. (The Eastman Kodak Company introduces two new products that combine photocopying capabilities with high-speed, network-ready computer printers. The $5,495 Kodak Ektaplus 7016 can produce 16-page-a-minute, laser-quality output from a variety of computers, including IBM and compatible microcomputers, as well as Apple Macintoshes. The Ektaplus can also handle input from up to four different types of networks, and it can automatically convert a variety of page description languages, including HP-PCL, HP-GL, Epson FX-80, Diablo 630, IBM Proprinter and an option for Postscript. The Ektaplus 7016PS includes an Adobe Postscript co-processor with an additional 4-Mbytes of memory and a Motorola 68020 microprocessor. The printer/copiers use LED technology instead of laser technology to achieve high-quality output. In search of short-order chips. (semiconductor technology) Pollack, Andrew. Many observers of the American semiconductor industry believe that a radical change in the way semiconductors are fabricated is needed to keep American companies competitive. The main problem is that American firms cannot afford to spend the estimated $300 million it costs to build state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facilities. One alternative being pursued is a downsizing philosophy that emphasizes a move towards production machines that perform several process on a single chip. The concept involves a move away from assembly line-style mass production and towards machines that can completely produce a single chip at a time. Researchers at Stanford University and Texas Instruments are working on just such a scheme that would provide low-cost production of chips that are needed in small numbers. $56 million loss at Texas Instruments. Hayes, Thomas C. Texas Instruments Inc reports a loss of $56 million for its 4th qtr 1990, which it attributes to weakening demand and lower prices for its semiconductor products. Revenues for the quarter are up 2.3 percent to $1.76 billion from $1.73 billion a year ago. The quarterly loss also means that Texas Instruments will post its first yearly loss, of $39 million, since 1985 when it lost $140.9 million. The losses coupled with gloomy statements from officials at Texas Instruments drove the stock's price down $3 to close at $34.625 on the day. Analysts attribute the poor showing partially to the economic slowdown in general and partially to a dive in the price of memory chips from $6 each in early 1990 to $3.50 by the end of the year. On a more positive note, Texas Instruments reports signing a patent-licensing agreement with the Oki Electric Industry Company of Japan. A.T.&T.'s earnings are flat; Nynex profits slip; US West inches up. AT and T's 4th qtr 1990 earnings of $698 million, or 65 cents a share, is off one percent from the same period in 1989 when earnings were $705 million, or 65 cents a share. Sales increased seven percent for the 1990 4th qtr to $9.96 billion as compared with $9.31 billion for the same period in 1989. The long-distance telephone company reports a modest increase in sales and profits for all of 1990. The loss of tax credits, reduced gains from cash investments and asset sales, and higher interest expenses were responsible for diluting a strong increase in the 1990 4th qtr operating profit. AT and T's stock gains 37.5 cents a share on Jan 24, 1991 and closes at $30.875 a share. I.B.M. gets lift from mainframes. (Market Place) (column) Markoff, John. IBM posts strong sales of its mainframe computer line in the 4th qtr of 1990 and analysts forecast the trend will continue in 1991. IBM is taken by surprise by the growing demand and notes that demand is outstripping supply. The demand for mainframe computers is puzzling to some industry observers who have predicted that the computer industry is moving towards downsizing and away from mainframes. The strong financial results at IBM causes some analysts to say that the recession is not hitting the computer industry as expected. Some say that a recession may even help the computer industry since fewer jobs will cause people to work out of their homes, and a computer is a necessary tool. AT&T's profit fell slim 1% in 4th quarter; concern attributes decline to recession, expenses; revenue, volume gain. AT and T reports a one percent decrease in net profit for the 4th qtr of 1990. The telephone company, which posts a 27 percent gain in operating profit for the quarter, blames the small decrease in net income on the recession and costs associated with its credit card business. Net income falls to $698 million, or 64 cents a share, from $705 million, or 65 cents a share, for the same period in 1989. Revenue for the 4th qtr increases by seven percent to $9.96 billion as compared with $9.31 billion in 1989. AT and T's revenue for 1990 inched up 3.1 percent to $37.29 billion from $36.15 billion in 1989. The company's stock closes at $30.875 a share on Jan 24, 1991, up 37.5 cents a share for the day. British Sky Broadcasting gives U.K.'s satellite TV a costly chance of success. British Sky Broadcasting faces an uphill battle to become profitable by 1993. The satellite television company is the result of a merger between Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting Ltd. The two companies were merged in Nov 1990 after an expensive advertising battle that put both companies in the red. The combination of the two company creates a combined access to 1.8 million out of 22 million households in Great Britain. A resistance to satellite television in Great Britain and a decreasing advertising market causes some industry observers to become skeptical about the company's future. IBM is suing Comdisco Inc. on leasing issue. Carroll, Paul B. IBM sues Comdisco Inc over a leasing agreement in which Comdisco allegedly interchanged parts of leased IBM machines with other machines. Comdisco is IBM's largest leasing customer and one of its biggest competitors. Comdisco reported annual revenue of $1.94 billion in the fiscal year ending Sep 30, 1990 but suffered a 12 percent drop in net income to $95 million, or $2.34 a share. IBM has become aggressive in the computer leasing industry between 1988 and 1990. The number one computer maker now seeks to enforce the terms of its leases in ways that will stifle competition. Industry observers note that the law suit will have a big effect on the $24-billion-a-year leasing market. Companies act to combat terrorist threat. (Gulf War) Aryanpur, Sarah. Information technology (IT) firms are being affected by the Gulf war, with some firms reacting to the perceived threat of terrorist attack by limiting travel and cancelling meetings. Several European firms, fearful of holding large meetings, have postponed product rollouts. The week that the war began, DEC, Tandem and Sequent cancelled large meetings. IT companies such as Sequent are cancelling overseas training. IBM has halted employee travel by air and beefed up security at its UK and US offices. Police meet to plan data links. (upcoming conference on emergency networks) Police information technology (IT) chiefs, local government officials and IT suppliers will meet Mar 20, 1991, in London to discuss setting up a network of 15 police IT regions. Possible mandatory standards for computers and networks will also be discussed. Pressure is growing to cut IT costs by distributing IT costs among fire, ambulance and other emergency services. The conference is sponsored by the Home Office. More than a big Impact. (National Computing Centre's program for management/information technology communication) John Aris, director of the National Computing Centre's Impact program, says the chief problems revolving around information technology (IT) are organizational, managerial or personnel, but not technical. The Impact program aims to improve communication between business and IT executives. Participants, which include TSB Bank, Rhone Poulenc and Unipart, are involved in much self-scrutiny, discussion and co-counselling. One suggestion is that IT have a seat on the board of directors. Leadership is widely recognized as the greatest determinant to IT use. Taking lessons from the birds and bees. (profile of OTIB chief Eckart Wintzen and his small-is-beautiful approach to management) Eckart Wintzen is head of Origin Technology in Business (OTIB), Europe's sixth-biggest systems house. OTIB is a joint venture of Burovoor System Outwikkeling (BSO) of Holland and Phillips. Wintzen began BSO in 1979; he says that while monolithic organizations tend to drive away creative people, BSO's friendly, human-oriented organization encourages creativity. When BSO grew to 35 employees, it spun off a new company, a procedure that was repeated whenever a subsidiary approached 50 employees. Wintzen puts great emphasis on giving employees satisfaction and a sense of freedom. Is your office harmful to your health? (includes related articles on health fears at Islington, advice on video display units and Concern over possible ill effects of working with video display units (VDUs) has grown rapidly as microcomputers have saturated the workplace and the home. The Health and Safety at Work Act sets only general guidelines for manufacturers and employers. The European Commission is seeking standards on terminal design, while the UK Department of Trade's VDU guidelines date back to 1983. VDU health risks fall into three broad categories: repetitive stress injuries, visual problems and the effects of electromagnetic radiation. The key to reducing repetitive stress is to make workstations adjustable by the individual user. Radiation emissions arouse the greatest concern, if only because research today has yielded few definite conclusions. A way to beat the recession. (analysis of outsourcing industry) Vowler, Julia. Outsourcing, or facilities management, is expected to maintain its high growth rate of recent years despite a slowdown in the world economy. IDC estimates the UK outsourcing market is worth nearly 250 million pounds sterling and will grow at 22 percent. The high growth rate is somewhat misleading, for relatively little data processing is presently done by outsourcers. EDS, the world's biggest outsourcing firm, expects to see $100 million contracts soon. Firms looking to enter the outsourcing business include commercial firms with information technology (IT) departments, hardware vendors and consultants. Collaborative solutions between hardware and software vendors are another possibility. F.I. scores at home and away. (F.I. Group, systems and software house) (includes related article on company history) (company F.I. Group has outgrown its image as an all-female cottage industry. The software and services supplier began in the mid-1960s by offering flextime and networks linking home-based staff with electronic mail and telecommunications. F.I. has traditionally focused on developing and supporting bespoke software. F.I.'s primary client base comprises large corporations in the commercial, public and financial services sectors. F.I. recently completed its first-ever acquisition, of computer contractor supplier AMP Recruitment, and would like to acquire a training specialist. The company may have chosen the wrong time to embark on an acquisitions program, however: pre-tax profits fell to 433,000 pounds sterling in 1990 from 1.48 million pounds sterling in the year before. Wearing the same Tuxedo. (AT and T Unix System Laboratories Tuxedo System/T transaction processing monitor) AT and T Unix System Laboratories has developed a client/server-based transaction processing (TP) monitor called Tuxedo System/T, the source code for which costs $120,000. Tuxedo/T acts as a front-end to various relational database management systems (RDBMS), supporting distributed TP across a network running different RDBMS and overcoming TP traffic handling limitations. To communicate with various resource managers, Tuxedo/T uses the XA interface as defined by the X/Open group's XTP committee. With no viable non-manufacturer-specific alternative available, Tuxedo/T looks as if it might become a de facto standard. It is already backed by Unisys, Pyramid and NCR. Concerto hits a sour note. (Software Review) (Microsoft Windows 3.0-based document handling environment from Philips Business Concerto from Philips Business Systems is a program that runs over Microsoft Windows 3.0 and aims to make computing easier; the end results, however, are mixed. Concerto features a toolkit in a 'desktop' and the ability to integrate applications. Files from a particular application are represented with a common icon and can be opened simply by pointing and clicking a mouse. Integrating the applications under Concerto can be troublesome, unless they are common applications such as Microsoft Excel that are already on the hard drive. One nice feature is Concerto's ability to give documents explanatory names that exceed DOS's eight-character limit. HP's New Wave is a much more powerful and complete program that costs only a few pounds more than Concerto. Sparks fly over new immigration policy. Karon, Paul. George Bush signed a new immigration law in Nov 1990 that will allow about 140,000 foreign professionals to work in the United States, up from about 54,000. More immigrants can enter the US under certain provisions; for example, Taiwanese engineers working for US firms may emigrate. While critics contend that the law will help US electronics firms at the expense of engineers, supporters say the law is necessary for the success of the industry. Critics say there is already a glut of engineers, and under the new law, corporations will be able to hire Ph.Ds instead of US citizens with bachelor degrees. Critics also say there should be more engineering education, not immigration. FPU to check in at 100 MFLOPS. (Weitek Corp.'s 4164 and 4364 floating-point coprocessors) (product announcement) Weitek Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, is slated to debut the 4364, a 100-MFLOPS floating-point coprocessor with three 64-bit ports that is made of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Weitek will also roll out the 4164, a coprocessor with a single 64-bit port and 207-pin grid array housing that is designed for computer-intensive applications. The 447-pin, 50-MHz 4364 has an I/O bandwidth of 1.2Gbps. The trend is to migrate coprocessor functions to general-purpose microprocessors, but Weitek contends that a separate device provides much better floating-point performance. The 4364 will cost $625 in quantities of 1,000 and the 4164 will cost $575 in quantities of 1,000. Sbus and RISC to own Buscon. (Sbus from Sun Microsystems, reduced-instruction-set computers, Buscon/West trade show) The Buscon/West trade show in Santa Clara, CA, will be highlighted by Sun Microsystems's promotion of its SBus as well as real-time software, Futurebus+ proposals, boards based on reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) and 64-bit VMEbus extension products. East Rochester, NY-based Performance Technologies Inc will introduce its PT-SBS915 Sbus-to-VMEbus adapter, priced at $1,995 per set in quantities of 100. Minneapolis-based Bit 3 Computer Corp will also debut a Sbus-to-VME-bus adapter, the $1,995 Sbus-A32/D32VME. Campbell, CA-based Force Computer and Sun Microsystems will announce an agreement under with Force will manufacture the present and next generations of Sun's SPARCEngine 1 VME board, based on Sun's SPARC' RISC microprocessor. Chip makers grapple with SCSI-2 "standard". (Small Computer Systems Interface) Early makers of Small Computer Systems Interface-2 (SCSI-2) products say confusion exists over the standard. SCSI-2 aims to clear up troublesome SCSI-1 protocols by defining communications at speeds of 1Mbps and up over 8- to 32-bit-wide data buses. Many manufacturers believe that SCSI-2 allows too many options in choosing command-sets, thus creating compatibility problems with peripherals. Many complain especially about the extra B-cable with a 68-pin connector needed to implement wide SCSI. Some observers, such as Daniel Lanbeck of SCSI integrator Fujitsu, question the need for the SCSI-2 standard at all. Still, benefits of SCSI-2 are acknowledged. BiCMOS logic gets second source. (National Semiconductor to manufacture logic from Texas Instruments) National Semiconductor will announce that it will manufacture Texas Instrument's (TI's) line of of bipolar-CMOS technology (BCT) logic. National will aim its pin-compatible BCT devices at workstations using tri-state power and telecommunications servers. National plans to roll out about 60 BCT devices over the next few years. Philips Components-Signetics of Sunnyvale, CA, already second-sources TI's advanced BiCMOS TTL (ABT) interface devices, which are faster and more energy-efficient than BCT devices. Cypress launches 7.6-nsec BiCMOS PLDs. (Cypress Semiconductor's PAL-22V10C-7 and PAL-22VP10C-7, nanosecond, programmable logic Cypress Semiconductor's Aspen Semiconductor group debuts two BiCMOS programmable logic devices. The PAL-22V10C-7 is priced at $30 in lots of 100 and the PAL-22VP10C-7 is priced at $39.45 in lots of 100. The devices draw 190 microamperes and having propagation delays as brief as 7.5 nanoseconds. Cypress claims the products are the fastest 22V10/22VP10-type devices available. A number of other semiconductor firms, including Advanced Micro Devices, Lattice Semiconductor, Philips Components-Signetics and National Semiconductor, have announced or are expected to announced BiCMOS programmable logic devices in 1991. VME board makers defend 9U form factor. (VMEbus, 366.8-by-400 millimeters) Support for the 9U form factor, a triple-height VME option that stipulates 366.8-by-400-millimeter boards, appears to be waning. Former 9U advocate Sun Microsystems is now promoting Sbus for its workstations and recommending the design of cards as small as 3 by 5 inches. Traditional uses for 9U boards include frame buffering, peripherals control and networking. Other VMEbus form factors include the 233.4-by-160mm 6U and the 100-by-160mm 3U. Sun promises at least one more generation of 9U products. At least 10 other OEMs are expected to continue supporting the 9U form factor. Many challenges, but few jobs in disk-array design. (includes related article on the several levels of redundant arrays of Although disk arrays are now being designed for microcomputers, career opportunities are limited. Manufacturers generally seek only experienced engineers; salaries start at $50,000. Considerations in designing disk arrays include whether or not to support fault tolerance, balancing performance against complexity and cost, and controller design. Disk-array types include redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAIDs), outlined by three University of California researchers in 1988, and various proprietary schemes. The dos and don'ts of dealing with HR. (human resources) Magee, Harriet. Human resources (HR) departments are taking an increasingly prominent role in hiring engineers. HR has become more powerful because in today's highly competitive world, hiring the right employees has become more important than ever before. HR also helps protect a company from lawsuits and, by assuring confidentiality, HR also protects job seekers. Applicants are advised to write brief (under two-page) resumes that are light on technical detail and jargon. Because HR departments often have many women, letters should omit 'Dear Sir.' Applicants should make clear that they are aware of a company's needs. Communicating well, whether in person or by phone, is a key asset. Tellabs hunts software EEs. (electronics engineers) (company profile) Tellabs Inc, a Lisle, IL-based manufacturer of networking systems and subsystems, will hire 75 to 100 technical professionals in 1991. Because 75 percent of the new engineers will work on software-related projects, Tellabs is particularly interested in software engineers with at least three years telecommunications experience, as well as operating system, tool design and database experience. Experience in Unix and the C programming language and knowledge of Motorola's 680X0 architecture are required. Hardware engineers must have digital VLSI experience and knowledge of high-speed analog and digital circuitry. Tellabs was founded in 1975 and now has 2,000 workers worldwide. The publicly traded company is expected to post 1990 sales of $200 million. Small company in effort to clone an Apple computer. (Nutek Computers Inc.) Nutek Computers Inc develops a clone of the Apple Macintosh computer that it believes will withstand any legal challenges. The computer maker is not planning to sell the clone machine on its own, but hopes to provide the chip set to other manufacturers. The company notes that the clone will be compatible with all the Macintosh software and peripherals. Nutek expects the first clones to be available in 1992. The computer maker notes that its motif screen is similar enough to the Macintosh so that users could learn to use it easily, but is also different enough to avoid legal problems. Apple officials claim unfamiliarity with Nutek's efforts. Bell Atlantic is losing chief financial officer. (Philip A. Campbell) Bell Atlantic Corp's vice chairman and chief financial officer Philip A. Campbell, 54, resigns effective Mar 1, 1991 and will be replaced by William O. Albertini. Campbell, who lost in a two-man race for the position of chairman, said he will pursue 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunities'. Bell Atlantic officials said his departure is amicable. Campbell was instrumental in Bell Atlantic's $2.3 billion purchase, along with Ameritech Corp, of a New Zealand telephone company. The company is implementing organizational changes and will combine its international ventures with several other new business. Albertini will be responsible for the new unit, which is called Bell Atlantic Enterprises International. New data base ended by Lotus and Equifax. (Marketplace: Households) (Lotus Development Corp.) Lotus Development Corp and Equifax Inc discontinue the development of its Marketplace: Households data base, after receiving 30,000 telephone calls and letters from individuals requesting that their names be deleted from the data base. The data base provides marketing information on 120 million US households, including the name, address, marital status, gender and average neighborhood income. Lotus indicates that its decision to cancel the household version of Marketplace will have no effect on fiscal results for 1991. Some people raise concern over the issue of privacy with the new data base and say that Lotus could not insure that its first release would not contain any names that do not wish to be listed. Earnings drop by 10% at Southwestern Bell. Bradsher, Keith. Southwestern Bell Corp reports a 10 percent drop in earnings for the 4th qtr 1990. The telephone company attributes the drop in earnings to a one-time charge of $45 million, which is the result of a voluntary severance and retirement program that 1,100 managers took advantage of. Fourth qtr 1990 earnings were $267.5 million, or 89 cents a share, on revenue of $2.45 billion. Earnings for the same period in 1989 were $297.2 million, or 99 cents a share, on sales of $2.32 billion. Southwestern Bell's earnings increased 5.1 percent for the 4th qtr in 1990 when the $45 million charge is excluded. The telephone company's stock falls $2.375 a share to $50.25 a share on Jan 23, 1991. Bell Atlantic, in a major realignment, picks Albertini as its new vice chairman. (Who's News) ( William O. Albertini) William O. Albertini, 47, will replace Philip A. Campbell, 54, as vice chairman and chief financial officer of Bell Atlantic Corp. Campbell, who was involved in Bell Atlantic's international expansion in the Pacific Rim, Europe and New Zealand, will leave on Mar 1, 1991. He states that he will remain in telecommunications and pursue once-in-a-lifetime opportunities around the world. Albertini will be responsible for the treasury department, finance and financial services subsidiaries. He will lead Bell Atlantic's international, cellular, software and business systems. Albertini's new post, which assigns new responsibilities to the office of chairman, is part of a major realignment at the telephone company. Southwestern Bell's net declined 10% in period; slow line growth hurts stock. (Southwestern Bell Corp.) Southwestern Bell Corp posts a 10 percent drop in earnings for the 4th qtr 1990. Investors express their disappointment by driving the stock down $2.375 a share to close at $50.25 on Jan 23, 1991. Southwestern's stock fell $2.625 a share on Jan 22, 1991 after news that other Bell regional holding companies reported lower earnings. The telephone company reports earnings of $267.5 million, or 89 cents a share, which includes charges of $45 million, or 15 cents a share. Charges were related to work reduction programs of which 1,100 managers were participants. Southwestern Bell added only 15,000 telephone access lines for the qtr, a far cry from its record of 130,000 access lines added in the previous qtr in 1990. The advantage of waves; physicists may soon be reaping the benefits of a discovery made twenty seven years ago. (Andreev The Andreev Reflection, a phenomenon first identified in 1964, could play an important role in the future of silicon chips and superconducting electronics. The phenomenon occurs when an electron is injected into a semiconductor and arrives at an interface with a superconductor; it must pair up with another electron, forming a Cooper pair, in order to proceed. An electron-hole pair is created where the hole is reflected back to the point where the electron was injected, on the same path at the same magnitude of momentum. The behavior of the electrons and holes after they are reflected could prove significant: at room temperature their momentum becomes randomized, but pure or very cold materials preserve momentum, giving ballistic motion. Electron behavior is a concern of chip designers attempting to shrink their silicon circuits. Stateside. (column) Thomas, Matthew. Japan seems to be far ahead of the US in the portable computer market, while Apple Computer and Compaq Computer are having problems with their products. The Macintosh Portable is unpopular because of its weight and Apple is looking to Japanese companies for help in developing a notebook computer. Compaq is unable to ramp up to meet the demand for its Compaq LTE 386/20. The company will not say what the problem is but sufficient production is not expected until at least Mar 1991. The American Association for the Advancement of Science is pushing for a tax on high-tech products to fund research. IBM has developed a new type of chip insulator material, silicon-on-insulator (SOI), that lets CMOS transistors run three times faster. Hitachi makes a show of its technical brilliance. (Hitachi Technology 1991 exhibition in London) Hitachi demonstrated many of its newest technologies and research results at its Technology 1991 exhibit in London in Jan 1991. Hitachi exhibited a 30 centimeter by 21 centimeter by 23 centimeter neuro-computer that links 1,152 neural networks via wafer-scale integration. Research is abetted by the cultivation of human neurons in a laboratory. Hitachi also showed off a single-chip digital TV camera that measures only 41 millimeters by 44 millimeters by 79 millimeters. A high-definition TV set will go on sale in Tokyo in 1991; its steep 10,000-pound-sterling price is expected to halve by 1994. Hitachi is developing a computer that can translate as many as 1,000 word per minute from English to Japanese or vice versa. Performance to meet a demand for MORE! (multichip modules, the newest hybrid technology) (includes related articles on how Hybrid integrated circuits first appeared not long after the invention of the transistor. A variety of technologies use multichip modules (MCM) today. There are three MCM types: MCM-L high density laminated printed circuit substrates using various organic resins, MCM-C ceramic substrates that are co-fired or have low dielectric constant, and MCM-D circuits with deposited wiring and dielectric on silicon, ceramic or metal substrates. The MCM-D circuits using a silicon substrate attract the most attention and provide good thermal performance, matching to chips, and an established manufacturing technology. Maximum performance depends on mounting and connecting silicon devices and interfacing them to the rest of the outside world. Positive polymer vibes; Scandinavian collaboration has paid off with the development of cost-effective environment-friendly Four Scandinavian countries codeveloped a cost-effective interconnection technology based on polymer thick films. The project was funded by the Nordic Fund for Technology and Industrial Development along with industrial collaborators. Eight companies and four research institutes worked on the project. Wind-up seminars in Gothenburg and Copenhagen summarized the results of the project; seven papers were presented on each occasion. A book was published summarizing the design guide lines and presenting interesting and relevant applications. Tailoring hybrid design tools. Rolon, Ron; Boyle, Frank. In the late 1980s, industry observers were forecasting a decrease in the hybrid integrated circuit market, but the industry has continued to expand and an even higher growth rate is now forecast for the next five years. Hybrids will have a significant role in the computer-aided design (CAD) industry. Future CAD systems will have tightly integrated layout tools or provide a tool that is flexible enough to handle multiple layout technologies. The CAD system will also need to be tightly integrated with the computer-aided engineering (CAE) front end design and simulation tools for producing electronics design automation (EDA) systems. Providing an integrated layout tool for multiple technologies would be the best solution. Thick film makes the grade. Upton, Roger. Radamec Microsystem is entering 1991 with an optimistic attitude due to increasing market awareness that thick film hybrids can provide high-level circuit density and complexity at costs that compare with conventional techniques. Hybrid customers are demanding a greater part of the system to be included in the hybrid, along with better performance and higher densities. Improvements in processing materials, process control and process equipment are forging improvements in hybrids. Laser trim techniques and better circuit performance from closer matching of groups of resistors are providing performance that would cost two to three times as much with conventional resistors. Thick film reduces space requirements by printing resistors that can lie underneath other components. Firms may rue recruitment freeze; electronics companies are cutting graduate intake as the recession bites. The number of jobs available to electronics graduates is declining. The number is expected to fall 10 percent between 1989 and 1991. The industry has experienced steady growth for almost a decade, but electronics companies are bracing against recession by holding back on recruitment until conditions improve. The practice could backfire if the cutbacks discourage students from majoring in the field, producing a labor shortage in a few years. University career advisers report the situation is changing rapidly. There are currently 1.5 applicants for every place in an engineering course. Success brings independence for semi manufacturer. (Microtech Semiconductors) (Special advertising supplement from Microtech The semiconductor manufacturing and processing arm of MTL Microtechnology Ltd will now trade on its own as Microtech Semiconductors. The company experienced unprecedented sales success as Europe's leading independent semiconductor assembly and test house. The company will focus on the manufacture of standard and custom packaged products as well as supplying qualified silicon dice, or dies, to the hybrid industry. Microtech plans to focus on one sector of the business and keep in close contact with its customers. The company is expanding overseas sales and doubled its UK sales team last year. Five new franchises for Microtech. (Special advertising supplement on Microtech Semiconductors) Microtech Semiconductors is reinforcing its position in the European semiconductor assembly, die supply and testing market with five new die franchises: Harris, RCA, Intersil, Sony and Tekelec. Microtech maintains a stock of 4 million silicon dice, or dies, and can deliver discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits (ICs) from 37 leading manufacturers. The dice can be supplied bare to the hybrid industry or assembled and tested according to customer's specifications. Improved yields and reduced rework produce savings that compensate for a slightly higher initial cost for properly qualified components. Microtech offers an extensive range of surface mount and ceramic packaging that will free designers from packaging constraints. The company offers an unparalleled range of test facilities, wafer mapping, and parametric selection of dice at wafer level. 2 baby Bells report dips in profit; shares of Pactel and Bell Atlantic fall. (Pacific Telesis Group and Bell Atlantic Corp.) Pacific Telesis Group and Bell Atlantic Corp post lower fiscal 4th qtr operating profits in Jan 1991. Pacific Telesis reports a 6.3 percent drop in fiscal 4th qtr profits and Bell Atlantic posts a one percent drop. Both companies take a $60 million after-tax loss for parts of their business that suffer from the recessionary US economy. Pacific Telesis announces that it will quit its real estate business and will sell its entire $475 million real estate portfolio over the next several years. Both companies suffer a drop in the number of medium-distance phone calls and a decrease in the growth rate of new telephone lines. Pacific Telesis stock prices fall $3.125 a share on Jan 22, 1991, and close at $41.25 a share; Bell Atlantic stock falls $4 a share and closes at $50 a share. A system to speed computer data. (data compression) (Business Technology) (column) Compression of images using digital techniques is leading to the development of several important products including a various consumer products. Compression methods are currently being used in high-speed facsimile machines, and international standards for compression, which already exist for facsimile, are being developed for compressed digital images stored in computers. They are expected by Mar 1991. The international compressed digital standard converts color images into rows of dots, known as pixels, each of which has a numerical value that indicates its color and brightness. Software breaks a 16 by 16 block, and a picture is further reduced by subtracting every other pixel. Images are decompressed when an images is retrieved. Lotus is likely to abandon consumer-data project. (Lotus Development Corp.) Lotus Development Corp plans to cancel the development of its Lotus Marketplace software package, which is an electronic data base, because of growing social concerns about privacy issues. The software publisher's product contains shopping habits and personal data on 120 million US households. Lotus Marketplace provides marketers with detailed portraits of households so it is easier to ascertain where to send direct mail and what places are the best for telemarketing. Some people raise the concern that the easily accessible software product may provide false information or make it easy for marketers to breach the privacy of individuals. Lotus is expected to cancel the data base that includes information about individuals, but the company will continue to develop a business information data base. Wang Labs to post loss for 2nd quarter. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Bulkeley, William M. Wang Laboratories Inc posts a loss for the 2nd qtr ended Dec 31, 1990. The struggling computer maker claims that the results are within analysts' estimates, which ranged between break-even and a loss of 20 cents a share. Wang had a loss of six cents a share, or $10.5 million, in the same period in 1989. The loss represents a setback for the company, which posted a small profit in the previous qtr after six straight quarters of heavy losses. The company is following a debt reduction strategy that it hopes will place it in a position to forge ahead with sales efforts in a few big markets, including banking, insurance and government. Wang is in good financial condition with no bank debt and about $185 million in cash. Cellular Communications has no hang-ups on mixed message in pact's plan for insiders. (Heard on the Street) Cellular Communications Chmn George Blumenthal attempts to enlist shareholder support for a merger with Pacific Telesis and offers a unique plan to insiders. The mobile telephone company plans to lessen the risk to insider shareholders by offering a golden stock option, which allows shareholders to sell all their options for a guaranteed price of around $100 million, or $60 a share. Shareholders who have common shares will be taking a much higher risk than the insider option. Analysts estimate the share price to be anywhere between $20 a share and $100 a share in the mid 1990s. The company's stock closes at $28.25 a share on Jan 22, 1991. Bell Atlantic and Pacific Telesis post disappointing figures; stock plunge. (Bell Atlantic Corp. and Pacific Telesis Group) Bell Atlantic Corp and Pacific Telesis Group both post weak growth and flat operating earnings in Jan 1991. Bell Atlantic reports net income increase of $236 million, or 65 cents a share, for the fiscal 4th qtr in 1991, which is up from $57.9 million, or 15 cents a share, in the same period in 1990. The telephone company reports revenue increase of 7.5 percent, up to $3.11 billion from $2.89 billion in the same period in 1990. Pacific Telesis reports fiscal 4th qtr in 1991 net income dropped 39 percent to $196 million, or 50 cents a share, from $322 million, or 79 cents a share, in the same period in 1990. Pacific Telesis stock drops $3.125 a share to close at $41.25 a share on Jan 23, 1991; Bell Atlantic stock closes at $50 a share for the day after dropping $4 a share. A journey to the center of the new Mac system. (Apple System 7.0 system software for the Macintosh) (part 2)(includes related Part 2 of a two-part feature on new capabilities in Apple's System 7.0 operating system for the Macintosh focuses on file sharing, interapplication communication and the Data Access Manager feature for providing a uniform database access interface. System 7.0 will let multiple users share files without requiring a dedicated file server and provides considerable user control over what is shared and with whom. Icons represent users and groups to which passwords can be assigned for controlling access to a Mac. Interapplication communication is the most 'hyped' feature of System 7.0 and offers a 'live' copy-and-paste facility called Publish and Subscribe. Users can copy data originating in one document to another and have the system automatically update it whenever the source data changes. The 'AppleEvents' protocol allows several levels of data exchange. Data Access Manager lets applications retrieve and update information from a variety of databases in a uniform fashion. The full potential of interapplication communication and Data Access Manager will not be realized until third-party programs are modified to take advantage of the new features. Upgrading to System 7.0 is recommended for all users whose hardware is powerful enough to run it acceptably. Beyond Jazz: Lotus tunes up 1-2-3 for Mac. (Lotus Development Corp.) Lotus Development Corp will reportedly introduce the long-awaited Macintosh version of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet by Aug 1990. Lotus 1-2-3 for Macintosh will be compatible with other versions of 1-2-3 while making full use of the Mac's graphical interface via dual editing modes. A 'Console' window will let users display statements up to three times when open and revert to cells when closed. 1-2-3 for Mac will support a DOS interface window and will store macros, graphics and data in the same file using a format compatible with MS-DOS, Windows, VMS, Unix and IBM mainframe versions of the program. The package will include a robust macro language that can record screens, create custom menu bars and link up to 256 spreadsheets. Lotus Mac will be able to display up to 256 colors per worksheet and will support 3-D and 2-D charts. MacIS managers tell Apple where to go. (Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems to submit list of priority issues Managing Apple Computers in Information Systems (MacIS), a user group composed of Macintosh managers in large corporations, plans to submit a list of 10 priority issues identified in its member poll to Apple during the week of Jan 21, 1991. The 10 key user needs noted by 250 users surveyed are: network diagnostic tools; increased commitment to the Data Access Language query language; support for in-house developers; centralized software updating capability; network security; improved direct vendor support; operating-system level security; a notebook-sized portable Mac; centralized backup capability; and the Virtually Integrated Technical Architecture Lifecycle (VITAL) information systems architecture. VITAL is a developmental strategy which impressed managers who saw presentations on it, and support for Apple's Data Access Language (DAL) is designed to make the Macintosh into a Structured Query Language client. Voice recognition in Mac future. (Apple developing operating system extensions to take advantage of voice recognition Apple is working to integrate voice recognition (VR) capabilities into the Macintosh operating system and user interface. The company has been sharing resources with researchers at the MIT Media Lab since 1987 and is recruiting engineers to work on in-house voice-recognition development. Apple already offers built-in sound technology in most Macintosh models, and its consistent user interface will make it an ideal platform for VR applications. Today's commercial VR applications provide 'command and control' capabilities under which users can issue spoken commands to select menu items, launch macros and click buttons. Articulate Systems Inc's $795 Voice Navigator II SCSI device and MacSema's $499.95 Voice Express NuBus board both provide VR on current Macs, but both require training and respond only to the voice of one user. Speaker-independence and continuous-speech recognition are the two major hurdles developers must cross to create the next generation of VR applications. WordPerfect ships long-awaited 2.0. (WordPerfect 2.0 word processing software) (product announcement) WordPerfect introduces WordPerfect for the Macintosh 2.0, a long-awaited upgrade of the Mac version of its word processor that includes a full Macintosh interface and integrated graphics features. Early versions of WordPerfect for the Macintosh were criticized for being simply 'ports' of the program's DOS sibling, which controls nearly half the IBM-compatible word processing market. WordPerfect for the Mac 2.0 no longer requires the DOS formatting codes, although they are still available. The program provides three graphics layers which put images atop text in a document, place 'watermark' graphics behind text and embed graphics in text. Users can create and edit images with a built-in draw tool palette and size, rotate, scale or crop these or imported graphics. Other new features include movable text boxes, automatic setup of multiple columns and a kerning dialog for controlling character spacing. WordPerfect for the Macintosh 2.0 sells for $495 for a single user, $1,995 for 10 users and $5,995 for 20 users; owners of current versions can upgrade for $89. Synergy makes host apps inviting. (Synergy Software introduces VersaTerm PRO 3.5, VersaTerm 4.5) (product announcement) Synergy Software Inc announces VersaTerm PRO 3.5 and VersaTerm 4.5, new versions of its Macintosh-based host terminal emulation software package that include system-level tools for giving LocalTalk Macs access to the TCP/IP and DEC Local Area Transport (LAT) protocols. The Telnet and FTP tools implement the TCP/IP protocols for TCP/IP host access and file transfer, and the LAT Tool is licensed from Apple to let Mac users with direct Ethernet links to a host take advantage of the high-speed LAT standard. A new 'VersaTermServer' utility runs in the background and passes terminal data between the LocalTalk and Ethernet sides of a network without a router, letting LocalTalk users connect to hosts via LAT. VersaTermServer supports up to 24 output ports. Other new features include customizable help, support for System 7.0 and remote access capability via modem. VersaTerm PRO costs $295; VersaTerm sells for $149. FontMonger may boost TrueType. (Ares Software Corp. announces program that converts PostScript fonts to TrueType format) Ares Software Corp announces FontMonger, a program that converts fonts between PostScript and Apple's new TrueType font format. TrueType typefaces are not yet available, but will be incorporated into the upcoming System 7.0 system software for the Macintosh. Observers say that the product could cause a shakeup in the font industry because it eliminates incompatibilities between the PostScript and TrueType standards; many firms would like users to buy two complete sets of fonts. FontMonger translates the 'hints' built into Adobe Type 1 typefaces, but representatives of type foundries say that the converted fonts will not look as good as fonts created in TrueType format because TrueType expresses hints better than PostScript. Hand-held scanners still novelties. (hand-held color scanners) Adams, Eric J. Hand-held color scanners are becoming popular in small graphic design shops but are unlikely to replace flatbed scanners at sites that can afford the costly larger units. The main advantages of hand-held scanners are low cost and small footprint; the devices are convenient for light-duty use or for those sites on a tight budget, but they suffer from serious limitations. The narrow scan path limits the size of images that can be scanned, and images are distorted if the scanner is not held completely steady. Hand-held scanners are also relatively slow and suffer from poor resolution. One user says that the color resolution of NCL America Inc's ClearScan Color is excellent, but complains that the scan width is not acceptable for large images. Holding a scanner straight enough to prevent distortion is very difficult. Sharp's JX-100 miniature flatbed scanner attempts to combine the best of flatbed and handheld scanner designs by scanning a 4 x 6-inch scan area in three passes. Dreaming about the truly global LAN. (local area network)(Commentary) (column) AppleTalk has gradually achieved recognition throughout the microcomputer industry as a networking standard, but the Macintosh is still not perceived as a corporate connectivity solution. Vendors remain overly concerned with protocols and cabling schemes and not with the ultimate goal of providing transparent global access to information. A seamless 'capillary' network would make data communications as convenient as telephone communications; the voice network routinely used for computer transmissions today is slow and requires binary information to be converted into analog form. The upcoming ISDN technology will allow fast digital transmission of voice and data and is already a reality in Europe and Japan. dBASE case: a lesson in competition. (Ashton-Tate loses lawsuit with Fox Software)(The Mac Manager) (column) The recent court ruling invalidating Ashton-Tate's copyright on the dBASE database management system serves as a warning to software companies that they should be certain they truly invented software before seeking to protect it and that a company should not stake its entire fortune on a single product. The dBASE copyright case could have a significant impact on the Macintosh community in light of the 'look and feel' lawsuits among Apple, Microsoft and HP. Ashton-Tate makes only a few software packages other than dBASE, and none of these programs are truly innovative. Its FullWrite word processor is slow and not well supported, while its Full Impact spreadsheet does not give users a compelling reason to switch from the market-leading products they use today. Ashton-Tate and others need to become more innovative to compete instead of resorting to the simplistic technique of suing their competitors. You'll get speed, but it'll cost you. (Hardware Review) (ATTO Technology Inc.'s SiliconDisk Pro 1.) (evaluation) ATTO Technology's SiliconDisk Pro 1 is a solid-state RAM drive that speeds up disk-based operations but is overly expensive for the degree of performance improvement it offers. Solid-state drives use dedicated memory and keep data entirely in RAM, making operations faster because there are no moving parts to slow down data. The SiliconDisk Pro 1 includes a 68020 processor, a power supply, a fan and 8 to 128Mbytes of soldered-in RAM; an 88Mbyte unit costs $13,995. ATTO drives work with Macs, IBM PC-compatibles and Unix workstations; no Macintosh can handle the 5Mbyte/sec data transfer rate ATTO claims for the SiliconDisk Pro. Documentation is complete although somewhat brief. Benchmark tests show that applications run significantly faster from a SiliconDisk Pro 1 drive than from Quantum Pro80S, but most real-world gains are modest; disk-intensive applications run 40 to 60 percent faster, while database operations are 10 to 25 percent faster. The improvement in performance does not justify the SiliconDisk's high price for most users. Lotus primes MarketPlace for desktop marketing. (Software Review) (Lotus Development Corp.) (evaluation) Lotus Development Corp's MarketPlace Business is a CD-ROM-based database of names, addresses and other marketing information listing 7 million business entities; the upcoming MarketPlace Households version will list 80 million residences. Each listing includes key data that helps characterize prospective areas or clients. MarketPlace lets individual users generate prospect lists from the desktop instead of relying on a service bureau or maintaining an in-house staff. The database has a HyperCard-based front end that leads the user through such selection criteria as geographic location, type of business, annual sales and number of employees. Few users will need every name on the list, but the entire database must be accessible. The $695 base price includes the right to 5,000 names; each additional 5,000 costs $400 through a 'metering' buying scheme. MarketPlace's has a pleasing user interface and is easy to use; the user selects areas and criteria by clicking on icons. AudioMedia breaks sound barriers. (Hardware Review) (Digidesign Inc. AudioMedia sound board for Macintosh) (evaluation) Digidesign's $995 AudioMedia is an add-in board for the Apple Macintosh that provides CD-quality sound recording and playback and overcomes the limitations of the Mac's built-in sound input and output capabilities. The new Mac LC and IIsi, and third-party products such as Farallon Computing Inc's MacRecorder, sample sound in only eight bits; AudioMedia, a scaled-down version of Digidesign's $3,295 professional Sound Tools digitizer board, samples at 16 bits and can record at 48 kHz. It's signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 90 decibels. Bundled software includes the native AudioMedia recording application and utilities for updating other programs. The application lets users adjust levels, press the Record button and pass sound to the speakers to monitor what is being recorded. XCMD and XCFN routines can be used for recording and playback; other applications can play standard 'snd' resource files through the AudioMedia board but suffer from serious limitations. DECK a step beyond 4-deck tape recorder. (Software Review) (Digidesign Inc. $349 DECK software for AudioMedia board) Digidesign Inc's $349 DECK sound recording and playback software works with the company's AudioMedia board and emulates a standard four-track tape recorder while offering more sophisticated features. Each track is saved as a separate document identified by session name and track number; the interface looks exactly like the front panel of a four-track tape deck. DECK adds digital recording that can 'bounce' sounds from track to track without degrading quality, an automated mixer and support for MIDI tracks. Users can load and unload each track as desired and save 'before' and 'after' tracks during the mixing process. DECK sessions cannot be used by other software, but a 'Master to Disk' function lets users create a Sound Designer II file that other AudioMedia applications can use. Safeguarding your computer system. (security systems for Macintosh computers)(includes related article on encryption methods) A guide to security products for the Apple Macintosh is presented. Several systems are available that prevent data from being corrupted by careless or unauthorized users. Kent*Marsh Ltd's NightWatch lets administrators assign startup disks to individual users; each disk acts as a 'key' to the locked hard drive and requires a password for access. Products that guard individual files include Verge Technologies' MacLock, which locks hard disk or cartridge drives, and FileLock, which prevents access to individual files and folders. ASD Software Inc's FileGuard can designate files or folders as 'normal,' 'public' or 'personal' with varying access privileges. FWB Software Inc's Hard Disk Deadbolt is very easy to use, encrypting and password-protecting files. Fifth Generation Systems' DiskLock automatically locks disks after specified time periods. Hardware-software combinations include ASD Software's Maccess Card, a magnetic card reader that identifies users by any standard credit or ATM card magnetic strip. Kent*Marsh's GuardCard is a plug-in board that requires users to enter a password before any system activity can be performed; Kensington Microware Inc's PassProof provides both physical security via a key lock and software security via an encryption program. More sound than fury at Macworld Expo. (MacInTouch) (column) Ford, Ric; LePage, Rick. Macintosh hardware and software vendors introduced few exciting new products at the 1991 Macworld Expo, with major players such as Microsoft concentrating on enhancements and updates. Microsoft's Excel 3.0 offers strengthened productivity features but will not ship for a few more months. NewTek Inc's Video Toaster, and Amiga-based system for multimedia production, was displayed acting as a Mac peripheral; NewTek is marketing it in this form for $4,000. Sony's new CI-1000 Vbox provides device control, and NEC's $2,100 PC-VCR is an S-VHS video deck with built-in time code capability. New music products demonstrated included Opcode Systems Inc's $59.95 MIDI Translator and Passport Designs Inc's AudioTrax. Forum focuses on Japanese market. (Pacific Market Forum 91) Said, Carolyn. Apple representatives and more than 400 developers from 13 countries discussed strategies for penetrating the Japanese market at the Pacific Market Forum 91, a conference sponsored by Apple Pacific. Apple Pacific Pres Ian Diery noted that Japan is the world's second largest computer market and is crucial to Apple's overall success. The company's goal for its Apple Japan operation is to surpass the $1 billion mark by 1995. Apple's installed base in Japan has doubled annually since 1985, but the company holds only a 1.5 percent market share. Its channel strategy in Japan balances the Apple Center value-added operations with volume channels; the new low-cost Macs may also be sold in mass-merchandise stores. Challenges in the Japanese market include the fact that Japanese both give and demand a higher level of service than Americans. Bitstream Inc is developing Japanese versions of its TrueType fonts. Special order for Gulf sends powerful PC's (Personal Computers) (column) Contrary to the usual slow speed of government contracts, a special order for microcomputers, from CompuAdd Corp, for the forces of Operation Desert Storm has been completed in a matter of weeks. The $21 million dollar contract was paid for by the Japanese government as part of Japan's contribution to the operation and has provided the military with state-of-the-art equipment. The contract calls for 1,300 desktop microcomputers based on Intel's 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor complete with facsimile-modem cards, HP LaserJet IIP laser printers, CD-ROM storage and 110Mbyte hard disks. Also included are 350 laptop computers based on Intel's 80386SX microprocessor and 10 fully configured local area networks (LANs) running Novell's NetWare 386. Software includes such applications as Windows 3.0, Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, Harvard Graphics and Project Manager planning software. Orienting yourself worldwide in time. (Software Review) (Geoclock shareware, from Joseph R. Ahlgren) (evaluation) Geoclock is a shareware computer program that is available in an expanded form from its author, Joseph R. Ahlgren, for a $30 registration fee. Geoclock provides users with a map of the world including major cities and national boundaries, with time relative to Washington DC supplied for each city. The base time can be adjusted to any city, and the program works in color, providing different shadings for day, night, dusk and dawn. Other information provided includes the time of sunset and sunrise; the elevation, longitude and latitude of the sun; and the ability to zoom in on any portion of the map or to display any of 27 other maps. The software works well but can be difficult to install because of peculiarities. For example, a floppy disk must be in drive A to complete installation, and the command INSTALL must be typed in all upper-case letters. Battle in pen-based computers: Go takes the lead with new software. (Go Corp.'s Penpoint operating system) (product Go Corp will introduce an operating system specifically designed for pen-based computers. The company's Penpoint software will be available at the end of 1991. Pen-based computing is expected to be the next large growth sector in the computer industry. Microsoft Corp, the company that dominates the microcomputer operating system market, wants to dominate the emerging pen-based market as well. Microsoft's rival Pen Windows operating system will also be available by the end of 1991, but users who have seen both systems say Penpoint is more advanced. Analysts say pen-based computers will appeal to field workers who find using a pen-based input device more convenient than a traditional keyboard. Maxtor's president resigns as do two vice presidents. (George M. Scalise) Maxtor Corp, a computer disk drive manufacturer, announces the resignation of George M. Scalise, the company's president and chief executive. Maxtor's founder and chairman, James M. McCoy, will serve as president and CEO until a permanent replacement is found. Two other executives - James N. Miller, vice president of worldwide sales, and Deborah A. Stapleton, vice president of corporate affairs and communications - also have resigned. Maxtor reports a loss of $4 million on revenue of $261.1 million for the 3rd qtr, ended Dec 29, 1991, compared with net income of $5.5 million on revenue of $123.9 million for the same period a year ago. Analysts blame problems associated with Maxtor's acquisition of Miniscribe Corp. Computer-ordering method helps newcomer blossom: PC Flowers grafts florist business on electronic shopping service. (Prodigy service; PC Flowers is a fast growing member of the Florists Transworld Delivery Association (FTD) that relies entirely on orders generated via the Prodigy videotex service. PC Flowers was founded by William Tobin and Peter MacMurray in early 1990, and it has already become on of the 10 biggest generators of business in the FTD delivery network. The company reaches the nearly 800,000 subscribers to Prodigy with a menu that allows customers to choose from two dozen floral arrangements. The orders from Prodigy are then transferred to PC Flowers' computer system where a credit check is performed. PC Flowers' computer then searches for the FTD member closest to the destination of the flowers and the order is sent. PC Flowers receives a commission of 20 percent for generating the order, which accounted for $170,000 in revenue for 1990. IBM's new workstation line exceeds estimates by analysts for 1990 period. IBM's effort to enter the workstation market is going much better than even the most optimistic analysts had predicted. IBM's RS/6000 line of reduced-instruction-set (RISC) computers shipped 25,000 units in 1990, though they were only available in large quantities for the second half of the year. Analysts are even more encouraged by IBM's report that it shipped 10,000 workstations in the month of December alone. IBM reports that its workstations generated $1 billion in revenue for the year, which compares with analysts' expectations of between $500 million and $600 million. IBM hopes to the surpass market's leader, Sun Microsystems, by 1993. IBM captured 5.5 percent of the workstation market in 1990. Sun had 32 percent of the market in that year. Kodak to introduce two new copiers, desktop printer. (1500 Series, 2100 Series, Ektaplus 7016) (product announcement) Eastman Kodak Co introduces two new copiers and a desktop printer. Kodak's 1500 Series is a digital copier that uses scanning technology rather than traditional optical copying techniques. The copier will retail for between $34,000 and $47,000, and it will feature a range of finishing capabilities including inserting, folding, stapling, booklet making and saddle stitching. The 2100 Series features 110-image-per-minute optical copying combined with digital features and color capabilities. The 2100 Series will retail for between $85,000 and $95,000. A new desktop computer printer, the Ektaplus 7016, is also introduced with a price of $5,500. The Ektaplus supports up to four microcomputer users with a printing speed of 16 pages-per-minute. Compaq's Swavely on leave of absence; European official to be operating chief. (Michael S. Swavely, Eckhard Pfeiffer)(Who's Compaq Computer Corp's number two executive and heir apparent to the firm's top position, Michael S. Swavely, has takes a leave of absence. The position as chief operating officer will be assumed by the firm's top European executive, Eckhard Pfeiffer. Swavely's departure is explained by Rod Canion, the company's president and CEO, as occurring for personal reasons. Swavely is not available for comment, but Canion says that if Swavely returns, he probably will not resume the same high-level position with the company. Eckhard Pfeiffer will manage both the US and international operations of the company. Computer Associates gets user-friendly; as profits sag, the software giant changes its high-handed ways. (Computer Associates Computer Associates International Inc (CA) is changing its customer relations strategy in response to diminishing profits. The company is taking a more friendly approach to its dealings with buyers of its software. The slump in mainframe and minicomputer sales hurt sales, and the company is suffering from a reputation of being more concerned with sales than service. CA's strategy is called CA90s and involves ensuring customers that the products they buy will work smoothly and that salespeople are willing to be flexible with prices and services. Many CA customers own products made by companies that CA bought during its expansion years. These customers are targeted by CA in an effort to retain their patronage. Programmers at CA are working to update older programs and develop new ones. Buying into a big-time brawl. (Computer Associates International Inc.'s competitiveness against IBM) (Information Processing) Computer Associates International Inc (CA), after acquiring Cullinet Software Inc and Applied Data Research Inc, is in an extremely competitive position vis-a-vis IBM which has 51% of the data base program market. IBM contends customers are better served purchasing its DB2 package to link large computers with smaller ones at remote offices. DB2 is part of IBM's master software plan, Systems Application Architecture. IBM offers large discounts to customers who purchase DB2 products. CA's strategy is to target customers who already have their computer systems. CA offers programs with updated and new relational features, so that customers can incorporate them into their existing systems. Companies may have to spend up to $100 million for a DB2 data base conversion. CA however does not reach corporate officers as well as IBM sales representatives. Bits & bytes. (Information Processing) (product announcement) Eng, Paul M. Information Presentation Technologies Inc introduces VoiceFont, $129.95 software that allows users to leave voice messages on Apple Macintosh systems. via MacWrite, Excel and WordPerfect. Costar Corp introduces the AddressWriter envelope-only printer costing $595, which is compatible with most word processing programs and prints five letter-quality envelopes per minute. In the communications arena, the US tries to loosen the satellite communications monopoly held by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. A compromise in 1990 allows countries to sign with other carriers for up to 100 lines. AT&T has such a contract with the Soviet Intersputnik organization. AT&T is also doing well selling cellular telephone switches that can easily handle any of the three standards now in use. To help dealers handle repairs, PC Parts Express is making its business from stocking computer parts for manufacturers. Carriers protect against attack: some downplay threat. (AT and T, MCI Communications Corp. and US Sprint Communications Co.) Telecommunications companies are adapting security measures to protect their facilities from terrorist attacks. AT&T is having security executives available around the clock and has set up a situation room for monitoring events on a 24-hour basis. MCI Communications has switching equipment, microwave towers and other equipment stockpiled for emergency. US Sprint protects its vital locations with camera equipment, lighting and monitoring systems. The company also enforces access control for its switching centers. Officials of the three companies are counting on their networks' rerouting capacities to enable engineers to reverse any disruption in the event of terrorist attacks. An FBI study concludes that utilities, including telecommunications carriers, are targets of terrorists opposed to US involvement in the Gulf war. An industry source downplays the danger posed to the networks. Military bases and power plants are considered more likely targets. Net managers on alert; networks threatened as war breaks out. Schwartz, Jeffrey. Network and communications managers are on the alert as war in the Middle East raises concern about terrorism in the US. Chuck Garrison, vice president of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange claims his firm has an emergency crew standing by in the event of a sabotage. John Diesem, senior vice president of systems technology at the American Stock Exchange, notes increased vigilance at the Security Industry Automation Corp. New York firms such as brokerage house Kidder Peabody & Co Inc have tightened security following warnings from the New York City Police Department. A source at Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services Inc notes an increase in customer concern. Most financial firms have contingency plans to keep vital communications open in case of a network failure. According to industry experts, the advance warning of possible sabotage makes their jobs easier, because they will not be caught unaware. LAN chips readied: National Semi, Cabletron team. (National Semiconductor Corp's LAN Business Group to introduce hub repeater National Semiconductor Corp's LAN Business Group plan the unveiling of a two-chip hub repeater that will make possible faster development of network management 'agents' at less cost. 'Agents' are programs that store data about network devices and applications. The chip set, based on an IEEE 802.3 draft standard, is being jointly developed by National Semiconductor and Cabletron Systems Inc. Its capabilities are similar to LAN analyzers. Company officials say the product will allow savings in terms of memory needed on devices and development costs. It can also be used as a system component connecting to Ethernet, token-ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface and IEEE 802.6 metropolitan area networks and global wide area networks, according to a National Semiconductor official. Initial deliveries are scheduled for Feb 1991. Coral debuts flexible switch. (Coral Network Corp.'s Broadband Enterprise Switch) (product announcement) Coral Network Corp introduces the Broadband Enterprise Switch, priced from $20,000 to $100,000, that merges the functionality of routers, DS-3 multiplexers and bridges. The switch supports Ethernet, token-ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface, T1, E1, fractional T1, DS-3 and frame relay interfaces and various data networking protocols. Broadband Enterprise Switch allows users to aggregate traffic running on their T1 networks and LANs, pushing it across the network on 45 M-bps DS-3 facilities. FDDI, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and Ethernet will be supported when the switch becomes commercially available in the spring of 1991. A new switching approach allows Coral to assign the appropriate bandwidth to every hardware element that users choose to put on their switches. The wide area network connections, token-ring and other data networking protocols will be added in the 3rd qtr of 1991. More AT&T-NCR moves. (AT and T gains ground in its NCR Corp. takeover attempt) AT&T extends to Feb 15, 1991 the deadline for NCR shareholders to accept its $90 per share cash offer in its ongoing $6.1 billion battle to acquire NCR Corp. AT&T claims 70 percent of NCR's shareholders tendered their stock. AT&T is asking NCR shareholders to demand a special board meeting to consider the bid, but NCR reports spending about $9 million during the 4th qtr 1990 to fight AT&T's bid. A 24 percent fall in net earnings was also reported for the quarter despite an increase in sales. The company's revenue for 1990 rose by six percent to $6.3 million, and net income rose 10 percent to $369 million. NCR chairman Charles Exley reiterates his company's aim of remaining independent. House lawmakers from Ohio, NCR's home state, urge Pres Bush to review the potential impact of the acquisition on competition in the computer and communications industries. Merrill Lynch: not this time. (decides not to outsource its PBX operations) (includes related article on Tel Plus Communications Merrill Lynch & Co opts against outsourcing the management of its PBX operations after a three-month study showed that it would not be cost effective to do so. The communications services of the company's New York branch are being managed by MCI Communications Corp under a five-year contract. In 1990, a plan to outsource its network management operations to IBM was abandoned. Besides managing its PBXs, the company manages the use of local area networks. Merrill Lynch is one of the first users to outsource its communications operations after years of managing a large private network. NEC modem mgm't. (NEC's Distributed Network Control and Management System)(management) (product announcement) NEC America Inc introduces the Distributed Network Control and Management System (DNCMS), a $46,000 network management system which features remote control capabilities geared to minimize the number of maintenance calls companies have to make to remote locations. The DNCMS features an interface to IBM NetView network management system and supports multilevel password security. It supports dialed and leased-line modems that operate from 2.4 K-bps and controls non-NEC devices, including protocol converters, statistical multiplexers and data switches. Intelligent Chassis Management Systems (ICMS) and the Network Control and Management System (NCMS) are NEC's existing modem management systems. The DNCMS controls leased and dial-line modems and digital and analog lines. NEC is focusing on users of networks with up to 16,000 lines. Mgm't alliance: HP, Computer Associates partner to deliver featureful Unix solutions. (management) Hewlett-Packard Co and Computer Associates International (CA) form a partnership that will develop, within a 12-month period, tools for managing Unix environments. Unix commercial users do not have adequate systems management tools. The HP-CA alliance is expected to eventually produce a single OSF/Motif-based systems-management workstation user interface for the management of Unix, VMS and IBM's mainframe operating systems. On the second phase of the alliance, sometime in 1991, CA plans to port to HP's Unix machines database management applications; vertical industry applications such as banking, warehouse management, manufacturing and logistics tools; and cross-industry applications for accounting and human resources. Transarc transaction; IBM, HP, Stratus lead pack of technology support. Transarc receives support from IBM, HP, Stratus Computer Inc, Sybase and Informix Software Inc for its distributed transaction processing technology which builds on the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment. The Transarc technology features transactional Remote Procedure Call (RPC), distributed transaction service, transactional C, security, and interoperability with IBM Logical Unit 6.2-based mainframes. The multivendor support of Transarc's technology is seen as beneficial to the development of interoperable transaction-processing systems from various vendors. IBM is incorporating the technology into the Customer Information Control System, Systems Application Architecture and in its AIX operating system for transaction environments. Transarc is positioning its technology as a de facto industry standard. PictureTel preps modular unit. (System 4000 dial-up videoconferencing system) (product announcement) PictureTel Corp introduces the System 4000, a dial-up videoconferencing system that is available in four packages at $39,500 to $52,500. The system brings video communications to medium- and small-sized companies and broadens the use of systems in large corporations. System 4000 blends the functions of a coder/decoder, audio mixer, video switcher, channel service unit and audio/video interfaces onto a single electronics module. With System 4000, PictureTel is promoting the CCITT H.261 videoconferencing standard. The system can be ordered with the H.261 coding standard or with PictureTel's SG3 or HVQ coding algorithms. Another System 4000 feature is an echo cancellation device, based on the Integrated Dynamic Echo Cancellation (IDEC) technology. IDEC makes unnecessary multiple microphones, room treatments or volume adjustments. Where 3Com is trying to go: from operating systems to enterprise networks. 3Com Corp is about to introduce a router that is based on the company's NetBuilder platform and supports the OSI Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System routing protocol and the End System-to-Intermediate System protocol. The move is part of the company's shift away from network operating systems to enterprise networking tools. 3Com has announced a $45 million quarterly charge and the layoff of 12 percent of the company's workforce. The company has also turned over to Microsoft Corp the development rights of LAN Manager network operating system, a move that admits a failure to successfully market the product. 3Com president Eric Benhamou said 3Com will now focus on hub concentrators, network adapters, network servers and internetworking products. These devices will have a common network management architecture and a common set of networking protocols. David Systems: focus on networks, back off centrex. (David Systems Inc. discontinues further development of Information Manager) David Systems Inc plans to expand its local- and wide area network product lines and halts further development of its Information Manager centrex product. Information Manager integrates voice, data and 1M-bps Ethernet transmission over twisted-pair wire. The company will continue to manufacture the centrex product up to 1996. David Systems is focusing its energies on the rapidly growing 10Base-T LAN market. Among the new products slated for introduction in 1991 are: Express Net II, a second-generation five- or 12-slot concentrator that supports four token-ring, four Ethernet and two Fiber Distributed Data Interface LAN segments in its backplane; and a wide area network module, the ExpressWay WAN Server 2000 C. The Server 2000 C features four communications modules: an eight-port asynchronous access, a V.35 port, an RS-232 port and a 10Base-T port. Check out Unix superservers. Korzeniowski, Paul. The differences between microcomputer servers and Unix-based servers intended for the technical market are blurring with the advent of superservers. Superservers are a new generation of microcomputer file servers that include multiple CPUs, high-performance disk systems and redundant components for continuous operation. Corporations can use them as replacements for mainframes and minicomputers. As microcomputers become more elaborate, Unix servers have become more affordable. While the distinction between the two product lines is becoming less evident, users cite technical reasons for the inability of Unix servers to emerge as alternatives to LAN superservers. Vendors themselves still consider the two as distinct because of limited market focus, distribution problems and tradition. Industry analysts foresee the merging of the Unix and microcomputer server markets by the end of the decade. AT&T shuffles sales force; business users seem happy with moves. Foley, John. AT&T completes its sales force redeployment with the shifting of personnel from the company's Business Sales operating division to its Business Communications Services and Business Communications Systems business units. Sales personnel specializing in products, such as PBXs and voice mail systems, have joined the Business Communications Systems business unit, while those that are experts in services have a new group, Business Network Sales, a part of the Business Communications Services business unit. The shuffling is part of a strategy that gives more profit-and-loss responsibility to AT&T's business units. AT&T tried to make the reorganization transparent to users, according to a company spokesperson. Some users, such as Morgan Stanley and Co, have encountered problems in getting in touch with AT&T account representatives. Scientific-Atlanta's low end; rolls out VSAT line for small-scale users. (SkylinX Express) (very small aperture terminal) (product Scientific-Atlanta introduces SkylinX Express, a low-cost VSAT product with remote terminals and hub dishes that are smaller than other VSATs. The new product, intended to make VSAT networks more affordable, can be used by companies with high- or low-bandwidth interactive data transmission requirements. The SkylinX Express is a derivative of the present SkylinX.25 product. The mix and match of the SkylinX.25 and SkylinX Express product lines are part of Scientific-Atlanta's strategic positioning towards specific target markets. The company's product packages are: a complete SkylinX.25 network, at $450-$600 a month per site, which features 56K-bps connections between data processing facilities and remote locations; a $250-a-month SkylinX.25 hub for SkylinX Express VSAT terminals for multisite companies needing less bandwidth; a $350-a-month SkylinX Express hub for users with a small number of locations but requiring high bandwidth, and a $300-a-month combination SkylinX Express hub and remote VSAT dishes for companies with 100- to 200 remote sites needing low bandwidth. Building a Sonet network: Teleport Communications-Chicago's fiber optic network will move data at 150 mbps. Teleport Communications-Chicago is using a Sonet-capable AT&T 3:1 digital access cross-connect system (DACS) to build a fiber optic network that will allow the transmission of data at speeds of 150M-bps and higher. The DACS matrix can switch at Sonet speeds of VT1.5, the Sonet T1-level and will have optical Sonet interfaces at the optical carrier 3 (OC-3) level and the OC-12 level of 622M-bps. Sonet's OC-3 specification is designed for 150M-bps transmission. Teleport had to add Sonet interfaces and timing circuits to the DACS, and install Sonet transport equipment so that its network can be Sonet-based. The company will unveil the network in Feb 1991. CloseUp: talking heads. (videoconferencing systems) Schwartz, Jeffrey. Interactive videoconferencing systems are finding their place in a growing number of organizations, among them the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Kidder Peabody and Company Inc, an investment firm. EPA is the first government agency to successfully implement videoconferencing on the Federal Telecommunications System 2000. The increased use of dual 56K-bps channels on many new videoconferencing systems has lead to a 50 percent growth in the videoconferencing market, from $200 million in 1989 to $300 million in 1990. For 1991, market forecasters peg the growth to $500 million and by 1995, to $2 billion. Prices, on the other hand, are expected to continue going down along with the decline of video coder/decoder prices. Lower codec prices are spurred by the adoption of the new H-261 international videoconferencing standard by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee. You don't need a private net. (videoconferencing systems are no longer limited to those with private networks) Videoconferencing systems no longer fall under the exclusive domain of private networks. With the widespread availability of dial-up switched services, the increased capabilities of integrated services digital networks (ISDN), international gateways offered by communications carriers and improvements in customer premises equipment such as coders/decoders, medium-sized companies and remote locations can now avail of videoconferencing services. Lower prices of international communications have also made video a practical method of conducting meetings at multinational corporations. Coder/decoders can compress digital video images for transmission at a speed of 112K-bps. Bandwidth on demand is also available for users who transmit at low data rates. What the carriers can offer: the kind of services vary among the major companies. (AT&T's Accunet Reserved Digital Service, US AT&T offers the widest range of videoconferencing services among the three major long distance carriers. AT&T's Accunet Reserved Digital Service (ARDS) supports full-motion or freeze-frame color videoconferencing at 384K-bps, 786K-bps, or 1.5 M-bps. ARDS allows users to use their own videoconferencing equipment that can connect to the service by dedicated T1 channels or T3 lines. AT&T's Skynet Business Television Service, a satellite-based service that carries cable television quality video and audio signals, also offers videoconferencing. US Sprint Communications Co operates the Meeting Channel, a videoconferencing network which operates at speeds of from 56K-bps to the T1 rate of 1.544M-bps. All major coder/decoder and algorithms are supported by the Meeting Channel. MCI Communications provides transmission services, including fractional T1, T3 and switched 56K-bps channels, that support videoconferencing. National goes with EDS: IBM beat out for major outsourcing agreement. (National Car Rental Systems Inc., Electronic Data Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) outbids IBM and wins a 10-year $500 million outsourcing contract from National Car Rental Systems Inc (NCRS). Under the contract EDS is to provide services such as systems management, disaster recovery and data processing. NCRS says EDS won because of its high reputation in data processing and its presence in the transportation industry. NRCS has about 1,000 car rental locations in the US. EDS' Transportation Business Unit will manage National's data processing and communications systems. EDS will also provide EDSNet, EDS' worldwide voice, data and video network. A spokesman for EDS says that once on-line with EDSNet, National will have unlimited reach to expand its distribution network both outside and inside the traditional channels used by the car rental industry. EDS acquired from National information systems software packages which it will market. Apple demands loyalty: Education dealers told to drop competitors or else. (includes related article on legal aspects of decision) Apple Computer Inc advises its Apple Education Sales Consultants (AESCs) to stop selling computers from competing vendors into the K-12 market or risk losing their education authorization. Apple officials claim that the company needs AESCs who understand and are dedicated to the Apple product line. Observers believe the provision is targeting IBM and those Apple AESCs that are also IBM Certified Education Specialists. Apple's share of the K-12 market was about 60 percent between 1987 and 1989. IBM's share increased from 11 percent to 20 percent in the same period. Apple has given its education consultants 72 hours to sign a letter of intent agreeing to comply with the new policy. According to Apple, the 72 hour policy is not legally binding but is an indication that Apple wants to know who is in or out of the program as soon as possible. Dealers, integrators align. (national reseller organizations and high-end systems integrators) High-end systems integrators and national reseller organizations are forging business alliances that bring sophisticated technical expertise to the traditional dealer channel. Integrators obtain price-competitive access to high-end microcomputer platforms through the alliances. . ValCom introduced a Premiere Partner program involving 35 Value Added Resellers (VARs) and integrators with networking expertise. The company has a pact with integrator iLAN Inc under which ValCom provides the systems integrator with one-day delivery of mainstream products from SynOptics Communications Inc, Banyan Systems Inc and 3Com Corp and Compaq. ValCom gains systems integration and network management expertise from the pact, and the arrangement allows ValCom to sell connectivity products and gives it exposure in a wide geographic market. Global PC market slowed by outbreak of Mideast war; IBM, Apple, others express caution, concern. Cutbacks in travel overseas, delayed product shipments from overseas sources and high shipping costs are consequences of the Persian Gulf war that are adversely affecting the computer industry. IBM, Apple, ComputerLand International Development Inc and Lotus Development Corp are advising employees against unnecessary travel overseas. IBM is asking its employees to receive approval for travel between the United States and Europe. Apple issued a travel advisory for employees limiting overseas travel. Silicon Valley-based freight companies, Circle Airfreight Corp, and Alrod International have hiked their shipping rates by 17 percent since Oct 1990, and further increases are expected if oil prices rise. A Compaq official notes that the gulf crisis dampens the outlook of investment plans and long-term commitment overseas. Compaq gets over half of its sales from overseas markets. Economy won't stall research, development. Gillooly, Brian. Research and development (R&D) remains a priority for computer makers despite the threat of an economic recession. Computer manufacturers are continuing to fund short and long-term hardware projects. Long-term projects such as Extended Industry Standard Architecture, multimedia and advanced microprocessor systems are unlikely to be threatened. Vendors claim they will brave the present recession by investing in the future, and systems suppliers will keep up their R&D allocation for 1991 and beyond. AST Research Inc will increase its R&D spending by percent in 1991. The company spent 3.5 percent of its 1990 sales on R&D but is targeting four percent of revenue for R&D in fiscal 1991. IBM plans to spend more on R&D for workstations and software. HP plans no changes in its R&D spending for 1991. VARs have leg up in large accounts. (Value-Added Resellers) (Fortune 1000 companies) A Gallup Organization Inc/Computer Reseller News poll reveals that Fortune 1000 companies rely more on value added resellers (VARs) and independent dealers than on large reseller chains for microcomputer purchases. Thirty-seven percent say that major chains are their main microcomputer suppliers, a figure half that cited in a Jan 1988 poll which indicated that 74 percent of the Fortune 1000 businesses relied on chain stores. Although the major chains have lost their hold on the Fortune 1000 hardware market, they retain a strong presence; the poll shows that most large companies still use major reseller chains as their main suppliers of software and networking/connectivity products. AMD threatens Intel monopoly with its own 386. (Advanced Micro Devices) (product announcement) Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) announces it will ship its own version of the popular 80386 microprocessor in 1st qtr 1991, challenging Intel Corp's monopoly on the 386 market. AMD plans to ship millions of dollars worth of its new AM386DX chips in the first quarter and AMD386SX chips in the second quarter. A company spokesman notes that AMD hopes to have a 10 percent market share by the end of 1991. Wall Street industry analysts say that 20 top international computer manufacturers are pledging to use the new chip. Tests show that the AMD386DX is 100 percent compatible with Intel's version and runs at the same 33 MHz clock speed. The new AMD chip is plug-compatible with Intel's 386 chip and can be plugged directly into a 386 socket. Sun expects chains to bring in $30M: big resellers to remain a minor factor in '91 forecast. (Sun Microsystems Inc.) Sun Microsystems Inc expects its three major dealer chains to bring in $30 million, or one percent of the vendor's fiscal 1991 sales. Sun counts on having 200 new authorized dealer outlets by June, bringing in about $150,000 in sales per location. Analysts predict a 25 percent sales increase for the fiscal year ending Jun 30, 1990, topping the $3 billion mark. The company posted sales of $2.47 billion in FY 1990, 40 percent of which came from OEM and VAR operations. Sun has a market share of 22.7 percent in the $7.4 billion workstation market and plans to continue growing. Nynex, the company-owned chain that Sun authorized, is doing brisk business. The company has 22 system engineers/technicians with two weeks of Sun supervised training covering 77 of the dealer's locations. MicroAge and Intelligent Electronics, two Sun authorized dealer outlets, say they will have no difficulty attaining Sun's goal of having 200 authorized dealers. Novell enhances dealer plan. (Novell Inc's dealer stratification scheme) Novell Inc takes additional steps to raise its dealers' margins after the first month of its stratification program. The company has cut the number of OEMs from 50 to 13 in response to complaints from Novell dealers, who note that anyone can purchase mail-order OEM versions of NetWare at large discounts from advertisements in the back of industry publications. The company seemingly reneged on its promise to reduce the ranks of its authorized dealers by half and its Gold dealers by 15 percent. There are 3,000 Gold, 321 Platinum and 7,000 authorized dealers. A Novell official forecasts that the firm will have 4,000 Gold dealers by the end of 1991 and is saving its high-end products for Gold and Platinum dealers. The stratification plan requires Gold resellers to have one certified NetWare engineer at each site; Platinum resellers must have two at each branch office. HP New Wave gets boost from Ingram Micro distribution pact. (Hewlett Packard) HP enters an agreement with Ingram Micro Inc to distribute its $195 NewWave graphical software. NewWave, which is used to automate repetitive tasks and integrate applications from different software vendors, runs atop Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0. HP hopes that a copy of NewWave will eventually accompany each copy of Windows 3.0 sold into the channel. HP is attracted to the distributor because of its separate Windows Presentation Manager unit; officials note that Ingram has expressed an interest in carrying NewWave since mid-1989. Windows 3.0 has sold 125,000 copies since it was introduced last May, and total unit sales are estimated to have reached 2 million. HP originally shipped NewWave through its Vectra microcomputer dealers in 1990. SPC sells low-end line to Spinnaker. (Software Publishing Corp) Shore, Joel; Clancy, Heather. Software Publishing Corp (SPC) sells its PFS: line of low-end software to Spinnaker Software Inc for a 16 percent share in the company and an undisclosed amount in future royalties. The sale gives SPC the chance to shift its focus to high-end products such as its Harvard Graphics presentation program and new Info Alliance client/server application. The PFS: line generated nearly $20 million in revenue in 1990 and has been selling steadily at that level for a number of years. years. The deal gives Spinnaker rights to the name, code inventory and installed base support for PFS: First Choice, PFS: Preface, PFS: Easy Start and PFS: First Publisher. Spinnaker in return gives Software Publishing 1.86 million shares of Spinnaker common stock and royalties on future sales of PFS: products. Spinnaker hopes to use the PFS: name to launch a line of Windows 3.0 applications. Banyan's new marketers target reseller base. (Banyan Systems Inc. shores up its marketing force) Banyan Systems Inc plans to strengthen its marketing force and double its reseller base with the hiring of four new executives. The company hopes this move will also increase market awareness of its Vines network operating system and provide resellers with new services. Edward Cooper, the company's new director of channels and industry marketing, says that Banyan plans to mold its reseller programs to address the high-end market. He claims that Banyan will also focus on assisting resellers in the marketplace without bombarding the networking arena with a large number of resellers. Banyan currently has 140 resellers at about 300 sites worldwide. Newly-appointed VP of marketing James D'Arezzo says the company will deliver on all past product commitments and will further new and existing third-party relationship with vendors such as Lotus Development Corp and Compaq. AT&T extends takeover bid for NCR. (deadline for tendering NCR Corp issues extended to Feb 15, 1991) AT&T extends its deadline for NCR Corp shareholders to tender their shares of NCR stock to Feb 15, 1990. The move will give AT&T enough clout to oust NCR's board and take over the company. The AT&T offer was previously scheduled to expire at midnight on Jan 15. Seventy percent of NCR's outstanding common stock or 44.7 million shares had been tendered by the deadline, despite an attempt by NCR to block the takeover. NCR turned down AT&T's $6 billion or $90 per share offer for all outstanding shares of NCR stock. Analysts state that AT&T is likely to gain the 80 percent share it needs to overcome the NCR board of directors and replace it with a board of its own, noting that there would have been AT&T would have tendered enough shares by the original deadline if NCR had cooperated by providing a list of its stockholders. WordPerfect ships applications for Mac, Next. (WordPerfect Corp introduces Macintosh, Next workstation versions of word processing WordPerfect Corp ships the new word-processing applications for Apple Computer Inc's Macintosh and Next Inc's workstations. The $495 WordPerfect 2.0 for Macintosh reads files directly from the DOS-based WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 but cannot handle files created by competing word processors such as Microsoft Word and Claris Corp's MacWrite II. The WordPerfect Next word processor works under the NextStep graphical user interface and is similar to the Macintosh program but adds features specific to the Next operating system, such as the ability to add hidden written comments or sound effects, on-line documentation and the ability to move graphic files across page boundaries. The Next word processor reads WordPerfect 5.0 files, but ignores such WordPerfect 5.1 features as equations and tables. NECT adds to UltraLite notebook line. (NEC Technologies Inc. introduces UltraLite 286F laptop computer) (product announcement) NEC Technologies Inc introduces the UltraLite 286F, a 6.8-pound, $2,999 notebook computer featuring 1Mbyte of memory expandable to 5Mbytes, an internal 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and a 2.5 inch 20Mbyte hard drive. The 286F follows the 286V, which began shipping last September, but adds a black and white LCD display that supports 640 x 480-pixel double scan CGA graphics and VGA text fonts. It also supports Windows 3.0 for use with graphics-based applications and features a 78-key keyboard with separate cursor controls and 12 function keys. The backlit LCD screen supports 16 shades of gray. Other features of the 286F include serial and parallel ports, memory expansion slots and asynchronous and synchronous facsimile and data modems. Zenith's new CEO makes U.S. market a priority. (Chief executive officer) Zenith Data Systems Corp plans to make the US market a priority for the development of new products. Incoming president Enrico Pesatori claims the company is not exploiting the possibilities of the microcomputer, adding that Zenith will increase its research and development spending in the US by 25 percent in 1991. Part of these funds are intended to reinforce the company's position in the portable computer market. Zenith currently sells to government accounts directly and to education and commercial accounts through resellers. One of the major priorities of Zenith, says Pesatori, is to have a plethora of products and prices that will persuade Businessland Inc and ComputerLand Corp to carry their products. Pesatori notes that his firm needs volume sales for revenue and market share. Zenith Data Systems owns and operates 56 Heath/Zenith Computer Stores in the United States. Delayed OS/2 could be out in 3Q. (OS/2 2.0, third quarter 1991) Mehta, Suketu. IBM Corp's delayed OS/2 2.0 operating system may be available in the third r fourth quarter of 1991, according to Microsoft Corp officials. Reasons given for the delay include time spent in the transfer of development responsibilities from Microsoft to IBM. Users complain about the frequent version changes and upgrades known as Corrected Services Diskettes, or CSDs, saying they are 'support and installation nightmares.' OS/2 2.0 was expected to be the version that boosted the slow-selling operating system before the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0. One of its features is the ability to run multiple DOS applications as Virtual DOS Machines (VDMs). Microsoft Corp and IBM are now exploring the option of running Windows in a single VDM as a part of OS/2 2.0. Microsoft has also developed WLO, a Windows library for OS/2. Software hirings rise; Microsoft, Borland, Symantec increase workforce. Software companies' hirings are on the rise despite a slowing economy, according to a survey by Stamford, CT-based Software Industry Bulletin. The survey notes that 40 of the 52 software companies responding claim increased work forces from the year-earlier period. Software Industry Bulletin associate editor Robert Kelly says the advent of new low-cost hardware platforms and the Microsoft Windows graphical interface is keeping the software industry strong. The survey notes that software research and development spending is increasing. Microsoft Corp intends to increase its workforce from 4,300 in September to 6,100 in 1990. Symantec Corp increased its employee base from 293 in Sep 1989 to 469 by Sep 1990. Borland International Inc increased its workforce from 472 in Sep 1989 to 745 a year later. New product cycles boost 4Q earnings. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Apple, Microsoft and Compaq are likely to show strong earnings for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990. An industry analyst expects Apple Computer to show the strongest growth due to demand for its new low-end Macintosh systems. Investors are watching the low-end Macintosh systems to see how much they will depress Apple's gross margins, which were 51.8 percent in the September quarter. Compaq expects to show a 71 percent increase in earnings due to the strength of its international and domestic businesses. The company has cut the price of its products to compete against major clone makers such as AST Research Inc. Compaq continues to show market share gains, and its gross margins will remain high due to lower component prices. Microsoft Corp expects to report a 47 percent earnings gain and 50 percent increase in revenue buoyed by demands for Windows and Windows applications. Adobe 4Q revenue up 42%; net income rises 20%. (fourth quarter) (Adobe Systems Inc.) Adobe Systems Inc reports a 42 percent increase in 4th qtr revenue and 20 percent increase in net income. Overall revenue jumped 39 percent from $121 million in FY 1989 to $168.7 million in FY 1990. The company's net income rose 19 percent to $40.1 million, or $1.83 per share. Revenue for the fourth quarter increased from $37.7 million during the same period in 1989 to $53.4 million. Net income increased from $10 million to $12 million. from $12 million during the same period a year ago. Analysts cite increased demand for Adobe's Illustrator graphics program and Adobe Type Manager font-rendering program as reasons for the revenue increase. Applications products revenue for the quarter jumped 51 percent from $12.8 million in 1989 to $19.4 million the same quarter in 1990. High-tech issues react to world events; distributors tumble. Markowitz, Elliot. Failed peace attempts between the US and Iraq hurt the prices of technology stocks on Wall Street. Distributors felt the most impact with stock prices dropping 15.15 percent. Merisel leads the plunge with a drop of 15.79 or 0.38 cents a share, to close at $2. Gates/FA Distributing follows with a plunge of 10 percent, or 3 cents a share, finishing at 28 cents a share for the week. The stock results for the week ending Jan 11 show the winners were outnumbered by the losers. Stocks in the peripherals sector declines 5.63 percent. Maxtor Corp stock suffered the most, plunging 23.46 percent or $1.19 to close at $3.88 a share. Reseller issues dropped 2.29 percent, with Businessland losing the most, dropping 18.18 percent. CompuCom Systems Inc stock rose to 4.55 percent, or 6 cents, and closed at $1.44 a share. Opportunity knocks: groupware attracts networking reseller interest. Work-group software is attracting networking resellers' interest with features such as electronic conferencing from different locations and rapid revision of reports. The 'groupware' category includes such applications as WordPerfect Corp's Office, Lotus Development Corp's Notes, Futuresoft Inc's Right Hand Man and Coordination Technology Inc's Together. Analysts and resellers claim the best qualified groupware dealers are financially sound and technically proficient in the high-end networking business. Lotus sells Notes direct and has formed partnerships with Valinor and MicroSolutions to help clients. Groupware provides corporations with increased productivity and efficiency and enables users to conduct electronic conferences throughout the country. The software can be expensive; Notes cost $62,000 for a 200-user license. Sony debuts 'News' line: laptop workstation targets field apps. (product announcement) Sony Microsystems Co introduces the $10,000 News 3250 Laptop Workstation, which uses Mips Computer Systems Inc's 20-MHz R3000 reduced instruction set computing processor and 20-MHz R3010 coprocessor. The unit features 8Mbytes of main memory expandable to 32Mbytes and either a 240Mbyte or 406Mbyte hard disk. The 240Mbyte unit will be available in Mar 1991 and the 406Mbyte unit in May 1991. Other features include an 11-inch diagonal backlit LCD display screen operating with 1,120 x 780-pixel resolution, the UNIX System V.4 operating system, the Motif graphical user interface and X Window System windowing protocols. The workstation is targeted at vertical market segments such as portable inspection, law enforcement, defense, field analysis and oil exploration. It is also suitable for academic and corporate applications and for home use by software developers. Laser-printer complexion: strong growth forecast for lower price models. Analysts expect a surge in sales of low-cost laser printers with powerful reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors. Printers priced in the $1,000 to $1,500 range with print speeds of less than eight pages per minute will be the trend over the next three years. An International Data Corp data shows that unit sales in this sector grew from 250,000 in 1989 to 670,000 in 1990. HP's LaserJet IIP, a $1,499 4-ppm printer, and Okidata Corp's $1,000 Oki 400 lead the low-cost market. The printers offer page description language such as PostScript, HP PCL or TrueType; upgradable memory; and optional faster speeds. New RISC-based systems offering greater processing and image-processing functions are emerging in the laser-printer market. These printers offer easy handling of graphical images and complex fonts. IXI adds Motif-based desktop manager upgrade. (X.desktop 3) (product announcement) IXI Ltd launches X desktop 3, an upgrade of its Motif-based desktop manager featuring three basic levels of operations: a restricted desktop for novices, a level for those who desire to use familiar UNIX commands and a system administration level with complete system management, password and security capabilities. X. desktop features the ability to drag icons into a window already running an application. The new version offers enhanced disk performance and more flexible use of shapes, color and digitized images for icons and context sensitive help. It works with Motif 1.1 and X 11 release 4 of the X Window system and can take advantage of shared libraries. Prices for X.desktop 3 range from $795 for one user to $210 per node for installations of 1,000 or more users. ValCom gathers partners; distribution strategy seen as boost to Systempro sales. ValCom Inc plans expansion of its regional systems integrator and value added reseller partners in an effort to boost sales of Compaq's Systempro computers. ValCom lists 35 resellers under the 'Premier Partner Program' and reports an increase in Systempro sales since the program began. iLAN, one of the resellers enlisted by ValCom, has access to ValCom's line of high-performance systems and networking products under the agreement. Systems engineers from both companies will use ValCom's Communications Research Center lab to test multivendor connectivity solutions. The ValCom program leverages an alliance between Banyan Systems Inc and Oracle Corp. ValCom also has agreements to sell SynOptics Communications Inc's LattisNet products and Network General Corp's Sniffer network analysis products. Successful management of inventory in a recession. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Distributors view a recession as a vantage point for successful inventory management and an opportunity to grow more vital to their customers' businesses. A recession does not affect the role of inventory management in a distributorship because the point is to get the largest turnaround and the least out-of-stock positioning. National and regional distributors will not alter established inventory management strategies but have discovered a surge in vendor and reseller requests for product warehousing. Ingram Micro Inc VP of purchasing and product Bruce Martin says that his firm has no plans to alter its inventory stocking policy but is emphasizing making sure the system is effective. Merisel's Michael Pickett says resellers need to develop sophisticated point-of-sale systems as a means of estimating and forecasting inventory positioning. Taking Apple to task: users search for better service, support. Doyle, T. C. Mac IS, a group of influential Apple Macintosh users in large corporations, has formed a task force to seek better service and support for Mac managers as well as improved relations with resellers and other service providers. The task force distinguishes between resellers, consultants and others and is working to develop contacts with those who might be sympathetic to their concerns. It consists of representatives of Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Co Inc, Signet Bank, and Philip Morris among others. Apple has severed its direct relationships with large accounts. Mac IS members believe it is Apple's duty, rather than that of the reseller, to provide high-end support. Task force chairman Mike Starling represents Union Carbide, one user whose direct relationship with Apple was terminated. He claims the Apple strategy of emphasizing reseller support is fruitless. BICC introduces token-ring wireless LAN. (BICC Communications InfraLAN) (product announcement) BICC Communications introduces InfraLAN, a token-ring wireless LAN based on infrared light technology. InfraLAN reduces complex cabling problems and coexists with existing cabling. InfraLAN is a cost-effective technology that requires less installation time than traditional cabling methods. The product costs about $500 per user and is geared towards the financial, banking and insurance sectors, but the technology can also be advantageous for small businesses. InfraLAN requires less expertise than a multivendor environment, because it consists of a single protocol. It offers 4M-bps data-transfer rates; newer versions feature 16M-bps Ethernet and token-ring compatibility. Wireless LAN technology is growing rapidly. Projected unit shipments of 2,900 in 1991 are expected to rise to 45,000 by 1995. Apple may not be finished. (revamping distribution in the education market, focusing on segmentation in commercial markets) Apple's revamped education distribution strategy, which includes a hard-line stance against education dealers selling competing products, may be followed by greater efforts to enforce segmentation and specialization in the company's commercial markets. The microcomputer market is sharply divided between low-price, high-volume resellers and low-volume resellers who cna support complex multivendor networking systems. Resellers worry that Apple may use harsh methods to segment its dealers. Other large vendors, such as IBM and Compaq, are pursuing specific markets and identifying the capabilities of each reseller; Apple officials say they 'let the channel self-select' market segments. Apple plans to offer segmentation tools and training to the commercial channel in order to increase sales of its new low-cost Macintoshes. Resellers fear this strategy will be disruptive and that they will incur substantial additional costs. New distribution plan. Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Western Digital Inc reduces the number of distributors for its disk-drive line, but its Paradise line of controllers and boards will remain under the existing distributors. Five companies in the US and one in Canada will now distribute the company's drive line. Western Digital previously had 11 distributors carrying its drives. Merisel Inc, Ingram Micro Inc and Tech Data Corp, the three largest distributors, are included in the cut. The move signals Western Digital's shift of its business back to the OEM channel. Technical advances in storage and changes in distribution patterns are factors necessitating the change, according to Western Digital VP Alexis Colicchio. Analysts say the move signal's Western Digital's intent to relieve price erosion in the channel. Earnings roundup. Computer companies report significant growth in fourth quarter 1990 earnings despite tough market conditions. Apple reports a 12 percent rise in revenue to $1.7 billion for the 1st qtr of fiscal 1991, compared to sales of $1.5 billion for the same period a year ago. The company's earnings jumped 21 percent to $150.5 million or $1.28 per share compared to $124.8 million or 96 cents per share during the 1st qtr of fiscal 1990. AST Research Inc reports record sales of $161.1 million for its 2nd qtr ending Dec 28, 1990, a 23 percent increase compared with sales of $130.2 million the same period in 1989. DEC's 2nd qtr sales rose to $3.4 billion compared with $3.2 billion for the same quarter in 1989. Net income dropped to to $11.1 million or 92 cents per share compared with earnings of $155.4 million or $1.25 per share for the same period in 1989. Apple launches connectivity push: Exis, Mitem link Mac to mainframe. (Apple USA helps develop program for corporations to A new 'SpeedStart' program involving Apple, Mitem Corp and KPMG Peat Marwick's Exis business unit lets corporations use Macs obtained from authorized resellers and equipped with special software as front ends to large mainframe applications. Mitem develops micro-to-mainframe interfaces, and Exis supplies application development teams to corporate customers that participate in the program. SpeedStart costs $50,000 and includes development services, employee training for in-house development and a fully supported Mitem development license. The Macintosh hardware must be provided by local resellers; Apple can help set up customers with a local dealer if a company does not already have a relationship with a Mac reseller. Bar-code standard set; ABCD backs electronic data exchange. Sweeney, Jack. Vendor and reseller communities plan to adopt bar-code standards and expand the use of electronic data interchange. Members of ABCD: The Microcomputer Industry Association claim bar coding enables resellers to better identify their products and reduce shipping and receiving errors. Bar codes also enable resellers to provide suppliers with serial numbers for monitoring returns, warranty, point of sale information and precise inventory data. Merisel and Ingram Micro Inc have asked their vendors to comply with ABCD's August 1991 bar-coding deadline. Vendors such as Apple have developed their own order-entry software interfaces for dealers. ABCD is working to create an interface for resellers that will represent a shared network of vendors. Some technical issues still need to be ironed out before coding standards can go into effect. Peat talks consulting deal with MicroAge: discussion follows MicroAge/AT & T services alliance. (Peat Marwick, MicroAge MicroAge Computer Centers and Peat Marwick are preparing to sign a joint agreement to market network integration and consulting services. The agreement follows one between MicroAge and AT and T to market respective network and systems integration capabilities with AT and T's computer products. MicroAge officials say AT and T will be able to leverage their pending relationship with Peat Marwick to provide additional consulting services. The relationship, orchestrated by MicroAge, is evidence of the emergence of new alliances among resellers, systems integrators and vendors promoting network computing solutions. IBM launches LAN plan: eyes network integrators to push LANs, servers. (local area network) IBM is seeking network integrators for a program to help the computer giant market its PS/2 file servers and take advantage of the increasing multivendor local area network (LAN) market. IBM, with the introduction of the LAN Value Added Enhancement program, joins AT and T, Compaq, Novell and other firms reaching out to network integrators to sell high-end servers and network software while meeting users' increasingly sophisticated demands. The company hopes to avoid the problems encountered by Compaq in marketing the SystemPro network server, because of the limited network expertise among its dealers. Solution selling still befuddles DEC. (Digital Equipment Co.) (includes a related article on DEC's 2nd qtr 1991 financial DEC, after one year of restructuring to gain profitability and dominance as a software and service company, has yet to learn how to pitch total integration solutions. The company altered its software pricing and sales commission structure, began a number of professional service and outsourcing initiatives and realigned its executive ranks in 1990. The company's goal is to boost software and service volume, making those sales more profitable. Industry observers are skeptical about the company's chances for rapid success. They insist that the company really needs a change in its basic marketing and sales philosophy. Jittery banks cut Oracle credit line: move may put squeeze on database leader. Oracle Corp faces a financial squeeze now that the company's bankers have curtailed the company's credit line. The company, already facing a series of financial setbacks, announced that its bankers have reduced its credit line from $250 million to $170 million, the amount already borrowed by the company as of Nov 30, 1990. The company will have to use its cash reserve of approximately $46 million until the credit limit can be renegotiated. Company officials expect those savings to carry operations until a new financial agreement can be reached, probably by Mar 1991. Industry analysts are apprehensive that a cash crunch could further weaken the troubled database vendor. War hits home for multinationals. (Persian Gulf War, 1991) Peterson, Stacey. The outbreak of war in the Middle East has computer vendors and systems integrators worried about the heightened possibility of terrorism. Many companies have instituted restrictions on employee travel and security has been enhanced at data centers and other facilities. Company officials have; however, had little to say about the war, being reluctant to call attention to themselves in any way. Digital Equipment Corp, for instance, has a few employees, all of whom are Saudi nationals, in Saudi Arabia. The company would not say how many or where they are located. The company has also offered to relocate all expatriate employees at its Israel subsidiary. IBM has ceased all Middle East travel. Computer Sciences Corp still has employees in Saudi Arabia. The company has seen two Defense Department contracts escalate as a result of Operation Desert Shield. CA, HP in Unix collaboration. (Computer Associates International Inc., Hewlett-Packard) Computer Associates International (CAI) announces a wide-ranging relationship with HP that will bring CAI into the Unix market. The two companies will work together in the development of a full range of systems and applications software for the HP 9000 Series systems utilizing the HP UX operating system. The first stage of the agreement calls for systems management software to be developed and delivered within 12 months. Company officials say that beyond that they will provide CAI's business applications as well as database and information management products for the HP UX environment. CAI is making a serious effort to enter the Unix market with the HP agreement and a joint announcement that CAI has joined the Open Software Foundation and Unix International. Power bests Perot for $12M pact: hospital company also hires DG to manage minicomputers. (Power Computing Co., Perot Systems Corp., Incumbent Perot Systems Corp was beaten by Power Computing Co for a five-year, $12 million data center management contract awarded by Epic Healthcare Group Inc. In a related move, Epic recently awarded a five-year, $10 million outsourcing contract to Data General's Data Solutions Division. Epic had previously managed its own DG minicomputers, running a patient information system. DG and Power were hired to cut overall information systems processing costs. The decision was reached to outsource with advice from the Elder Group, a Dallas-based consulting firm. Epic had contracted with Perot in 1990 to assist in the integration and development of Epic's financial system. AT&T users wary of NCR buyout. Duffy, Jim. AT and T Computer Systems' networking product users are apprehensive that they may suffer if AT and T acquires NCR. Users are already dissatisfied with AT and T's inability to adequately service their networks. Customers of AT and T StarLAN, StarWAN and StarGroup products are concerned that matters could worsen if AT and T's computer operations are given over to NCR. The company attempted a hostile takeover of NCR in Dec 1990 for $6.13 billion. AT and T announced in Jan 1991 that it had received 70 percent of NCR's outstanding shares and is planning to oust the company's board at a special shareholders' meeting. AT and T has also moved to deal with user dissatisfaction by introducing a new software maintenance contract and revised technical support resources. EDS, Saab pact stalls. (Electronic Data Systems, Saab Automobile AB) EDS has yet to close a facilities management deal with Saab but has nonetheless taken over data operations for the Swedish automobile company. The Dallas systems integrator and the ailing car maker unveiled a tentative $360 million agreement in Nov 1990, saying they planned to close the deal by the end of the year. The contract would signify EDS's first business of note in Sweden. The integrator hopes it will lead to future jobs in the Scandinavian region. Minor details, according to Saab officials, are stalling closure, but they declined to elaborate. Approximately 240 of Saab's data processing employees were transferred to EDS on Jan 1, 1991. NCR forms unit to tap integrators: partners to help with client/server computing push. NCR has announced the formation of a group whose goal is recruiting and working with systems integrators specializing in client/server computing. NCR's Systems Integrator Alliances Group will give integrators one contact point in the NCR US marketing organization, according to company officials. Systems integrators are seen as a special class of distributor. The company is not positioning the group as a high breed for dealing with multiple channels, nor will integrators work under revised OEM or value-added reseller (VAR) programs. NCR wants to work with small and large integrators with a special interest in client/server architecture. Many integrators have an IBM background and are interested in learning and working with client/server products. Andersen, DEC ally in OLTP push: Andersen's CASE tool among first to support DEC's TP environment. (Andersen Consulting, Digital DEC and Andersen Consulting are making transaction processing the focus of a nine-month old CASE initiative. The two companies jointly announced the availability of Install/1 2.0 ($9,000 to $372,000), Andersen's code generator for the VAX/VMS environment. The program is aimed at transaction processing applications such as stock exchange processing and customer billing. DEC and Andersen announced a cooperative marketing program in May 1990 to market Andersen's Foundation CASE tool set, including Install/1. That relationship has spread to Europe, Japan and Australia, though it was originally centered in the U.S. Both emphasized the ability of Install/1 to port software design specifications between DEC's ACMS and IBM's CICS transaction processing monitors. DEC is hoping that the relationship with Andersen will aid in its entrance into the commercial transaction processing marketplace. Imaging moves downstream: FileNet, DEC, LaserData provide low-end lures. (Digital Equipment Corp.) (product announcement) Three vendors of image-processing products have enhanced their entry-level offerings to entice price-sensitive users into the imaging arena. FileNet Corp says its WorkFlo Business System will be available on IBM-compatible microcomputer systems using Windows 3.0. DEC introduced its DECimage 1200 terminals ($3,400), a windowing terminal with image processing technology, the first in its price range. The new terminal is targeted at the pharmacy and insurance industries. LaserData unveils new software that lets microcomputers access images on DEC client/server imaging system, DECimage EXpress. It is also designed for use under Microsoft Windows 3.0. Sogeti buys MAC Group: French services firm merges acquisitions into a new strategic consulting group. (Sogeti S.A.) The $1.7 billion parent company of systems integrator CAP Gemini Sogeti, Sogeti S.A., has extended its influence over the management consulting marketplace, with the acquisition of the MAC Group. The new acquisition will be merged into a new consulting arm, as yet unnamed, with two other Sogeti-owned companies. These will include United Research, a U.S. supplier of change management services acquired by Sogeti in the spring of 1990, and Gamma International, a French information technology consultancy acquired in 1990. The combined revenue for the three firms in 1990 was about $225 million, up from $164 million in 1989. Projected revenue for 1991 is approximately $280 million. Sogeti officials declined to disclose the price paid for the MAC Group, based in Cambridge, MA. Banyan bolsters marketing. (Banyan Systems Inc.) Mehler, Mark. Banyan Systems has moved to change its reputation as an incompetent marketer of good technology by organizing an executive marketing team to identify opportunities in the corporate network market. Four of the six team members have joined Banyan from outside companies. Two are former marketing managers from Novell Inc. Banyan product marketing director Duane Bowman was formerly business planning director at Novell. Channel and industry marketing director Edward Cooper was Novell's senior director of worldwide marketing. Bill Johnson, director of business development was local area network marketing director at Western Digital. Jeff Stives, director of corporate communications was a senior VP at Daniel J. Edelman Worldwide Inc. EDS, hotel giant talk outsourcing: Marriott plans to keep reservation software. (Electronic Data Systems) Marriott and Electronic Data Systems (EDS) have held preliminary discussions about a possible facilities management contract. EDS is unlikely; however, to get the reservations software it seeks, according to Marriott officials. Marriott is gathering data from companies who may want to take over the hotel chain's data processing operations. The other companies involved were not revealed. Marriott has yet to receive formal proposals and may yet elect to keep data processing management in-house. The agreement, if the hotel company does hire an outside company, will include administrative operations, not reservations. The hotel is part of a travel company consortium already developing a new reservation system. Outsourcing agreements to cover reservations would have to be negotiated with the International Reservations and Information Consortium (Intrico). DEC plies mainframe services: VAX 9000 marketing push seeks consistency. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC is enhancing marketing of its software and services to convince users to purchase VAX 9000 mainframe systems. Responsibility for discovering a consistent and easy way to position the company's large systems falls to DEC's VP of Information Systems Group, Robert Glorioso. Glorioso is seeking final approval for his marketing plan now that the VAX 9000 is shipping. Glorioso says this is the beginning of DEC's evolution toward being a more market-driven company. Account managers will receive more help than in the past. The goal is to educate people about what solutions are available from other groups within the company and to give on-site help to account managers and customers to market products. IBM, FAA revise contract: project's value rises, but cost overruns could trim IBM profit. (Federal Aviation Administration) IBM and the FAA have renegotiated the vendor's contract for an air traffic control system. IBM's Advanced Automation System (AAS) contract has increased in value from $3.6 billion to approximately $3.8 billion; however, the gain could be offset by cost overruns. The FAA has attributed the $200 million cost increase to contractor rate increases and the decision of the agency to expand efforts on an important software component of AAS. IBM has experienced significant delays on the Initial Sector Suite System (ISSS) phase of the contract. ISSS could begin to exceed its planned cost around 1993, according to FAA officials. ISSS provides workstations and accompanying software for air traffic controllers. IBM will be working under more stringent FAA cost monitoring. CIM stuck in neutral: new approaches sought to jump-start design, resource planning, plant floor integration. (computer-integrated True CIM continues to elude manufacturers. Components controlling the three main operational areas, computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturing resource planning and plant floor systems, have each evolved separately over the 1980s. Very little progress has been made in integrating those systems. This integration is expected to be the CIM trend of the 1990s. Such a degree of integration is only being explored by a few users. Industry officials say that fewer that 10 percent are considering enterprise-wide integration. More are expected to consider it, but it is too expensive for most to implement. Analysts expect that in the future they will have little choice but to integrate in order to survive. DEC allies with Uniface: agreement is designed to boost database sales. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC has signed an agreement with database front-end developer Uniface Corp that will allow the two developers early access to each other's software technologies. Uniface will share advanced application development technologies for the VMS and Ultrix environments with DEC and Uniface's development work on non-DEC platforms, like Windows. Uniface will get an early look at new technology for its largest market. DEC is approximately 40 percent of the Uniface installed base. Bringing the Uniface products more in line with DEC products will result in better technology for Uniface users. The two companies have no current plans to jointly market the Uniface development software. AT and T fills network gaps: product line extended through the addition of intelligent wiring hub, brouter and software. (StarLAN AT and T has fills gaps in its networking product line with the introduction of an intelligent wiring hub and a number of other products. The StarLAN 10 Network SmartHUB ($5,250, $5,800) allows administrators to create and manage StarLAN networks with increased security and network management capabilities. It supports the 10BaseT and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standards and includes AT and T's 'eavesdropping' protection to ensure network access only for assigned users. The company also introduced the StarLAN 10 Network SmartHUB Manager software ($900), which offers hub management, alarm reporting, event logging, user movement tracking and network map generation. All products will be available in May 1991. The StarWAN Brouter 100 ($3,800) is available now. Proteon to expand router offerings: RISC-based family to take the company into higher-speed network environments. (reduced Proteon Inc introduces the ProNET CNX 500 ($10,995 to $19,495), a RISC-based multiprotocol bridging router that will position the company to take advantage of high-speed transmission vehicles like T3 and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). The new router will be the first in a family of RISC-based connectors for mixed IBM environments and represents the combination of RISC and router technology. Industry analysts say RISC technology makes the router simpler to construct and thereby faster. The new router will be available in several configurations during the 2nd qtr of 1991. It supports the Open Shortest Path First, an emerging protocol being touted as the successor to the Routing Information Protocol. Windows role to grow; Microsoft looks to blend 32-bit version with OS/2. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0) Microsoft Corp is pushing compatibility between its new OS/2 3.0 operating system and its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. The software publisher indicates that it will be able to provide a single application programming interface and still be able to differentiate between the high-end OS/2 3.0, also known as the New Technology Portable OS/2, and low-end operating systems such as DOS. Microsoft is also at work on a new version of Windows known as Windows 3.2 or Win32, which will make the graphical user interface usable with 32-bit. Industry observers note that Microsoft's emphasis on Windows will probably cause Presentation Manager to fall by the wayside if IBM does not step in. VDT monitoring under stress. (video display terminals) (includes related articles on Federal Express innovative monitoring methods Workers feel greater stress when they know their work on a video display terminal (VDT) is being electronically monitored. The most pernicious use of electronic monitoring involves keeping track of every keystroke, transaction, error and work break, and then posting the results on a bulletin board. Unions and workers are quick to criticize such methods and research shows that there are more effective ways of using computer-based monitoring. Electronic monitoring can supplement human supervision if data is kept confidential and managers work with employees in developing fair monitoring practices. The quality of work should not be de-emphasized in evaluation and only tasks that can be quantified should be monitored. IS sites hear rumble of war. (information systems) Pastore, Richard. Information systems (IS) centers located in the Persian Gulf area brace for war and shuffle to relocate important facilities. The beginning of war between Iraq and the American-led allied forces affects all business in Saudi Arabia, which is also the location of some of IBM's largest IS data centers. Some expatriates have elected to stay in the region, others have left the Middle East altogether. US officials have not encouraged US citizens to leave Saudi Arabia because of the impending hostilities, but the governments of Great Britain and France have told their countrymen to leave for safety's sake. Officevision on hot seat as SAA boss takes over. (Systems Application Architecture head Earl Wheeler takes over) (IBM Corp.) IBM's Officevision office automation software is being more closely monitored by upper management because of problems associated with the second release. Officevision is now under the direct management of Earl Wheeler, who is also directly responsible for the company's Systems Application Architecture (SAA) strategy. The computer maker indicates that the management shuffle is not related to delays in the development of Officevision but industry observers see the move as an effort to rescue Officevision. Officevision is now one of several SAA initiatives; the others include OS/2, AD/Cycle and Systemview. Officevision is a user-oriented application that provides distributed access to group calendars, electronic mail and other office-oriented tasks. Morris case impact slight. (Robert T. Morris computer hacking trial) The case of Robert T. Morris Jr. is not having as much of an effect on how society should deal with computer crime as some experts anticipated. Morris was found guilty of introducing a WORM into the Internet national computer research network. The bug subsequently sabotaged thousands of computers. Despite the implications of this incident, US government and the computer industry have not taken any substantial steps to improve computer security, and ethics within the industry has not been thoroughly discussed. Some industry observers thought the Morris case would send a clear message to any would-be hackers in the future, but analysts agree the case has not had such an effect. Morris is serving three years probation, must pay a $10,000 fine and is ordered to perform 400 hours of community service. AT&T pushes plan to oust NCR board. (NCR Corp.) Fitzgerald, Michael. AT and T continues its efforts to oust NCR Corp's board of directors in an attempt to take over the computer maker. AT and T has announced that it has received around 70 percent of NCR's shares as a result of its $90-a-share tender offer. The large telecommunications company only needed two-thirds of the shares to force a special meeting, which is planned to replace NCR's board of directors. AT and T has extended its $90-a-share tender offer until Feb 15, 1991 in hopes of obtaining 80 percent of the shares, which is the amount it will need to oust the NCR board of directors. NCR still has some defenses lined up including the claim that AT and T is using funds from regulated business to fund unregulated business and the claim that AT and T is a bank holding company because of its credit card business, and is therefore not allowed to acquire non-banking companies. HP and CA team up on Unix effort. (Hewlett Packard Co and Computer Associates International Inc.) Hewlett Packard Co and Computer Associates International Inc (CA) team up to work on UNIX operating system software for Hewlett Packard hardware. CA also announced that it has joined Unix International and the Open Software Foundation (OSF). The two companies, which would not give out any of the financial particulars of the deal, emphasized that they will both be committed to provide technical expertise and personnel for the joint development project. Industry observers agree that the joint development of a version of UNIX is likely to benefit both companies; CA will have a broad-based entry into the Unix market and Hewlett Packard will be able to provide mainframe systems management solutions. IS exec charts his own course; Mellon Bank's IS chief DiNardo resigns his post to pursue new interests. (information systems) George P. DiNardo, 53, of Mellon Bank Inc resigns after 21 years as an information systems (IS) executive. The resignation comes as a surprise to many of DiNardo's friends and associates. DiNardo, who is one of the most outspoken and colorful IS executives in the industry, says he is leaving to pursue other interests. Some industry observers note that Mellon has not exactly been fostering its technology efforts and senior management has been keeping a lid on IS growth. DiNardo was responsible for aggressively broadening Mellon's business by selling IS services to other banks. The former IS executive notes that it was simply time for a change, even though he does not know what he will be doing. Some suspect he might start a consulting firm or work as an IS executive at another company. Wang addresses memo, squelches layoff rumors. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Wang Laboratories Inc deals with a rumor that it is planning to lay off 500 employees. The computer maker announces that the layoff of 500 employees in early 1991 is not anything new, but part of an ongoing process of cost reductions initiated in late 1989. Wang users express no great consternation over the impending layoffs and some insist on their loyalty to the company; attitudes about the company's Operation Customer, in which the computer maker focused on customer needs, are mixed. Industry observers note that Wang has made some progress on its product commitments but still faces problems in the quality of its global field organizations. DEC surprises Wall Street analysts; despite success, questions remain on research and development cutbacks. DEC reports 4th qtr earnings in Jan 1991 that surpassed the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The computer manufacturer reports net income of $11.1 million for the 4th qtr ended Dec 31, 1990. Net income is down 28 percent when compared to the same period in 1989. Revenue for the 4th qtr 1990 was $3.35 billion, up only 5.3 percent from the same period in 1989. DEC recorded a one percent drop in hardware but saw a 16 percent growth in its software and services. The company is also seeing some of the positive effects of its cost-control initiatives, which it launched in 1990 in an effort to remain profitable. IBM wary despite 1990 success. Margolis, Nell. IBM is wary of its future in 1991 despite some strong results for 1990. The number one computer maker posts a 12.7 percent increase in the 4th qtr 1990 revenue to $23.1 billion. Net income for the 4th qtr 1990 rose an amazing 316 percent to $2.5 billion as compared with $591 million in the same period in 1989. Profit for 1990 rose 60.2 percent to $6 billion on revenue of $69 billion, which is up 10.1 percent. IBM's international operations' revenue rose 13.3 percent in 1990 and reached $41.9 billion. Industry observers note that IBM came in right where analysts had projected and share IBM's feeling of anxiety over a worldwide economic turndown. An inside view of neural technology; still in their infancy, humanlike networks may soon provide practical applications. Neural networks are information processing systems that are modeled after the human brain. The human brain uses an interconnected system of neurons, which follow a binary logic in that they are either on or off. Neural networks mimic this binary logic and also attempt to surpass the limit of normal computers by working on several problems simultaneously; computers are only capable of working on a problem in sequence, one step at a time. Some industry observers believe the development of applications for neural networks is growing rapidly and estimate that the market will reach $1 billion by 1995. Other analysts are less optimistic and believe that commercial applications for neural networks will not become a reality until around 1996. Is bigger better? (computer software industry) (editorial) The US computer software industry has grown at a very rapid pace and software publishers that offer one product to the microcomputer market will be in trouble in the future if they do not begin to provide customers with integrated software solutions. The large systems software market has already moved towards providing integrated software solutions; they have consolidated and have been able to create platform-independent products for their customers. The success of microcomputer software publishers that offer only one main product would be in doubt if they were not so large. The marketplace will be improved and competition will be free when software companies of all sizes begin to offer a broad menu of product offerings. No software solution is an island. (column) Wang, Charles B. The computer software industry must bridge the gap of incompatibility if information processing is to provide viable business solutions in the 1990s. Software developers have traditionally approached business problems with niche solutions that provided a local answer but created a disconnected plethora of solutions. The complex computer network systems of the 1990s will not tolerate such solutions but will demand integrated solutions. Business will be better served by the computer software industry when isolated islands are integrated and cohesive solutions are created. Software publishers must create integrated solutions by making acquisitions, nurturing alliances and facilitating internal development. Recession offers chance for IS groups to triumph. (information systems) (column) Information systems (IS) departments have many opportunities to help their companies survive a recession. IS departments must exhibit technology leadership, offer quality, focus on customer needs, introduce new products and services, and control costs. IS departments must recover their image as a source of technical expertise; technology can help a company improve quality by providing separate departments with the technological means to improve their own standards of excellence. IS can also help companies focus on customer needs, control costs and provide new products and services: all important activities in a competitive climate. IS has an opportunity to prosper during the recession of 1990-1991 if it takes the initiative. Chicago schools get Inform-ed (Chicago public schools ) Booker, Ellis. Clifford E. Cox is an assistant superintendent of management information systems (MIS) at the Chicago public schools system and has spent the 1980s expanding the role of information systems (IS) to better handle the city's unwieldy educational bureaucracy. The Chicago public school system serves the needs of 430,000 students, has a budget of $2.5 billion, employs 40,000 people and runs around 600 schools. Cox has followed a strategy of hiring teachers to develop computer applications instead of computer professionals. The result of his program is the centralized, on-line database on the city's students. The data base provides information on each child until they turn 65 and is step in the right direction for the large city's educational system. Wang faces the need to serve two masters; must deal with VS users while going 'open'. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Wang Laboratories Inc struggles between customer support and market demand with its VS operating system. The operating system software market moves away from proprietary systems, such as VS, and towards open systems. Industry observers note that most of Wang's customers are not likely to move away from the proprietary system to an open architecture; Wang has a total of 18,655 VS installations worldwide as of Jul 1990. Most of Wang's VS sales come from installed bases and the company considers re-engineering the operating system so it will comply with open system concepts. The positioning of VS for open systems is critical if the company hopes to tap the open systems market. University erases tape from computer center. (Boston University) Hamilton, Rosemary. Boston University's administrative computing center decides that it will stop using conventional tape as a storage medium of computer data. The university finds that reel-to-reel and cartridge drives have several hidden costs and are inefficient for retrieving historical data. The computing center decides to replace its 16,000-unit tape library with two mass-storage devices from Masstor Systems Corp., one which holds 220Gbytes of information and another that holds 440Gbytes. The administrative computing center hopes that its decision will have a ripple effect on other departments and cause them to make the switch. Many consider the move to totally leave conventional tape storage behind as radical but officials at the computing center insist the advantages far outweigh the resistance to change. Sybase makes New Year's resolution. (Sybase Inc.) Bozman, Jean S. Sybase Inc plans to revamp its product line for 1991. The computer software company, which plans two new releases of its SQL Server data base, claims that it will address the ongoing complaints from customers about support and product delays. Sybase has 2,300 user sites worldwide and though most are satisfied with the products Sybase offers, they are less than pleased with the technical support they offer. The company plans to implement a new support service in 1991 and claims that updates to its software will occur in a more timely manner. Analysts note that Sybase increased sales to $100 million in 1990 from $57 million in 1989. Tried-and-true Prokit falls short. (Software Review) (McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International) (evaluation) McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International's Prokit computer aided software engineering (CASE) software package, which includes the Prokit CASE tool, the Pro-IV fourth generation language, the Progeny development utility and the Pro-aide development utility, performs poorly under testing, especially in setting up the data base and providing an interface. The CASE software did have excellent enhancement features and fared average on analysis and design, complex transactions, complex reports and file maintenance transactions. Consultants testing the package note that the speed and maintenance of the product was very good, the documentation good, and the level of completion, speed of development, and integration of tools only fair. Lotus says new Windows options beat all others. (Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 for Windows) Lotus Development Corp states that its Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows spreadsheet software package will provide features that no other spreadsheet has yet provided. The software publishers, which expects to ship Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows in Jun 1991, indicates that the packages will be fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Lotus faces stiff competition from Microsoft Corp, which launched their Excel for Windows spreadsheet software in early 1991. Lotus acknowledges that it needs to hurry to get the new spreadsheet to market, but it feels confident that their spreadsheet will outperform Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet. Forms processing use to grow. Fitzgerlad, Michael. Computer software industry observers believe that forms processing is a growing segment of the software market. Forms processing offers an easier way to access information than a data base and though it may not reach the proportions of the spreadsheet market, some analysts suspect that it will become a hot application. Forms seem to be an integral part of the business office and they seem to beg automation. Other analysts disagree and note that forms processing can actually make working with a database more difficult; many have indicated that they can see no useful application for forms processing software. Vendor companies show off their wares at Macworld. (Macworld 1991) Daly, James. Macworld 1991 proved to be a large event as 500 vendors turned out to show their products for the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh microcomputer line. Apple took the opportunity at the event to introduce its new Macintosh LC microcomputer and emphasize its commitment to multimedia and other emerging technologies. The computer maker also announces that it is working on an infrared technology that will be used in wireless computer network communication. Apple is also working on a portable computer, which some analysts believe might become available as early as Aug 1991. Macworld 1991 catered more to Macintosh enthusiasts than previous Macworld trade shows, which place emphasis on attracting the corporate user. San Jose police first to use Gridpad; pen-based handheld computer shortens processing time for paperwork. (Grid Systems Corp.) The San Jose Police Department uses Grid Systems Corp Gridpad handheld computers to help officers cut down on paperwork. The San Jose Police Department is the first major police department in the nation to use the handheld computer, the only one that is commercially available in the market. Gridpad weighs a mere 4.5 pounds and is about the same size as the clipboards that police officers use. The handheld computer does not use a keyboard or a mouse to enter data but instead utilizes a pen. Police officers take out the storage disk at the end of their shift and the data is uploaded to the police department's main data processing system. The speed with which information travels to different areas in the police department is one of the major advantages of the Gridpad. Peripherals debut at Macworld. (Macworld 1991) Byrne, Gary. Macworld Expo 1991 provided attendees with a plethora of peripheral products for the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh microcomputer. Claris Corp announces its $399 Macdraw Pro software package, which is designed to facilitate design and drawing applications on the Macintosh. Insignia Solutions Inc announces a $199.95 version of Softpc, which is a microcomputer emulation software for the Macintosh Classic and LC. Other products introduced include a anti-glare device from Norad Corp, a compact disc/read-only memory (CD/ROM) from Meridian Data Inc, a real-time video processing system from Rasterops Corp, and 68030-based accelerator add-in board from Sigma Designs Inc. Microcom links worlds. (Microcom Inc.) Wexler, Joanie M. Microcom Inc offers products for token ring local area networks (LANs). The telecommunication equipment company provides equipment that allow users to access the mainframes of IBM and the minicomputers of DEC from a LAN. Microcom has installed 35 token ring LANs that allow users to tap into both the IBM environment and the DEC environment. Microcom indicates that its token ring offering presents its customers with two main advantages: users can use just one software to facilitate connectivity between networks, coaxial controller boards and dial-up modems, and they can take advantage of an automatic log-on feature. EC plans strategy for telecommunications. (European Commission) De Bony, Elizabeth. The European Community Commission of the European Communities (EC) plots a telecommunications strategy for 1991 and beyond. The EC hopes to consolidate its telecommunications strategies of creating a harmonized standard and market liberalization. Analysts believe that the EC will detail its plans to promote an European-wide infrastructure in 1991. Some of the activities will focus on the directives for the open network provisions (ONP) and other activities will focus on the implementation of satellite communications, possibly even a strategy for the entire mobile telecommunications sector. Work on integrated broadband communications and advanced communication networks is also expected to take place in 1991. Novell users await '91 products. (Novell Inc.) Nash, Jim. Novell Inc plans its network operating system products for 1991 and customers hold out hopes for less expensive versions of its Netware 386 network operating system. Customers express some concern and confusion as to where Novell stands in its product development cycle. Some of the software publisher's products are being shoved into the market while others, which customers have been expecting for years, are stuck in beta testing. Novell will not comment on any repackaging of its Netware 386 software but industry observers note that the company will need to come up with some changes. Netware 386 is designed for large corporations and is missing out on a potentially lucrative market in small corporations. EDI growth may be leveling off. (electronic data interchange) Nash, Jim. The growth of electronic data interchange (EDI) tapers off in 1991 and some analysts believe the technology may stop expanding by the mid-1990s. Industry observers note that steady growth is expected between 1991 and 1993; the number of transactions taking place on EDI is expected to grow exponentially during that period. Analysts working under the 80/20 business rule, a rule that supposes that 20 percent of a company's partners generate 80 percent of its revenue, believe that EDI will remain a viable technology for the top 1,000 companies because it is a cost-efficient method of handling high-volume transactions. Protocol to benefit remote LAN users. (local area networks) (Point-to-Point Protocol) The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) becomes a de facto standard for accessing full local area network (LAN) service from a remote workstation or LAN. PPP was designed to allow users to access all the features of LAN services, including multiple server sessions, electronic mail and file transfer, over dial-up telephone lines. Users unable to justify a dedicated link to a LAN can use PPP and not limit themselves to simple terminal-to-host access. PPP also allows remote workstations to define aspects of dialing into an LAN: users can compress various fields defined by the protocol, assign an address on the network by the LAN server and choose a password that will allow access to restricted data and services. Downsizing now behind Hartford; having achieved its IS staffing goal before the recession, the Hartford looks ahead. ITT Hartford insurance company's information systems (IS) department reaches its computer systems conversion goals in 1990 and can now focus on what the IS department needs to accomplish for the company. Hartford scaled back its IS department from 2,250 employees in 1987 to 1,700 in 1990. The insurance company emphasizes the difficulty in dismissing employees and trimming an IS department down; its plan included a freeze on all hiring, an implementation of an early-retirement program and an assessment of what the company would lose from normal attrition. The IS department's data center has cut back the number of mainframe computers it has as well: only eight mainframe computers remain of the 20 mainframes it had in 1987. When the everyday turns treacherous. (computer networks; includes related article on breaking with traditional research methods) The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute uses deep-sea networking to connect communications between the shipboard computers and deep-submergence laboratories. The deep-sea robots communicate with workstations and microcomputers on board the ship via fiber optic cables, which are two to six miles long. The robots, which are housed in titanium cylinders to protect them against pressure, communicate over a token ring network that includes both 10M-bit channels and high-speed 80M-bit links. The oceanographic institute has around 20 buildings on two campuses and provides service for around 900 users over 400 network connections. The network is also connected via fiber optics and is based on the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Tackling the monsters where they live. (computer networks) Francett, Barbara. Computer networking issues revolve around network managers dealing with design, planning, implementation and management. Design and planning are critical functions of an IS department when user networks grow; coordination between departments and foresight are critical to success. Implementation requires that the IS department install equipment smoothly with full knowledge about how the pieces will fit together and how they work together. Management tasks involve performance monitoring, problem detection and service restoration. Network management is a complex task and many believe it will become more complex until standardization of networks takes place. The minority void; while professional-level IS opportunities for minorities exist, upper management ranks remain tough to break Minorities have many professional-level opportunities in information systems (IS) departments but the opportunity for a senior-level position is not as good. Industry observers note that the chances for a minority to get a vice president of IS are slim compared to other industries, even if they have the experience and education. Some analysts point out that a lack of role models in engineering and science related areas contributes to the low number of minorities in senior IS positions. Other analysts note that when a minority individual makes a mistake they are scrutinized more than if a white male falters; minorities are expected to be more on the ball. Striving against all odds; how minority IS chiefs overcame prejudice to reach success. Minorities in senior-level information systems (IS) management have made it to the top after a long, hard road. Minorities say that persistence and developing an eye to go for the right opportunities have helped them reach the top. Subtle racism and sexism impede minorities from reaching a certain level in IS management, but those minorities that do not let those persistent attitudes overcome them succeed. Seizing opportunities is a must for success, even those jobs that require risk-taking, are unpopular or require a relocation. Discrimination exists in the IS workplace but the knowledge that it exists can help minorities stay on their toes and overcome it. Outlook for future quarters dim. (computer industry) Margolis, Nell. Earnings for the US computer industry in the 4th qtr of 1990 failed to inspire optimism, despite the fact that it has traditionally been the industry's strongest quarter. Analysts suspect that the looming of a recession and a war in the Persian Gulf have contributed to the disappointing earnings for the period since customers are not as zealous to make computer purchases. Industry observers are looking to the 1st qtr of 1991 with pessimism, noting that recessions tend to polarize an industry, favoring both large, entrenched companies with strong balance sheets and nimble entrepreneurial companies that are not affected by corporate bureaucracy. Financial group seeks growth despite bank busts. (Financial Services Industries) IBM Financial Services Industries group provides computer software and services to banks and brokerage firms that find they can no longer handle the chores themselves. The group was formed in 1988 and is IBM's foray into the banking industry. Financial Services Industries continues to grow in 1991 despite the fact that financial woes plague the banking industry. Company officials expect revenue for software revenues to reach more than $100 million in 1991; revenue of computer systems integration is also expected to reach that amount in 1991. Outsourcing for banks and brokerage firms is on the increase and Financial Services Industries believes it may reach $1 billion in revenues by the mid-1990s. Temporary work can soothe layoff sting. (part two of a three-part series on job loss in information systems) Temporary employment and contract labor provide information systems (IS) professionals with a bridge between unemployment and a long-term job. A shrinking US economy in 1991 causes some companies to scale back their IS departments and many IS professionals are finding themselves the victims of layoffs. Some IS professionals are taking some time off to spend with family, others are working at temporary jobs while they conduct their job search. IS professionals note how humbling unemployment can be but are also encouraged by the fact that the experience allows them to re-evaluate their life's priorities and give some attention to other parts of their lives. Weather is great in Phoenix, but IS climate is overcast. Guisbond, Lisa. Phoenix, Arizona is feeling the effect of the savings and loan debacle and suffers from its recessionary side effects in 1991. Information systems (IS) jobs have been affected as a result and many are finding that Phoenix does not have a large enough IS industry to absorb the layoffs. Phoenix offers beautiful weather, a lack of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes, and a low cost of living. IS professionals earn a lower-than-average salary in Phoenix but the lower cost-of-living expense and agreeable climate makes up for the disparity, and the city has been able to attract IS talent because of it. Court warns against abusive licensing. (4th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the case of Lasercomb America Inc. v. Holiday A recent ruling in computer software licensing limits a vendor's ability to sue for infringement over licensing agreements that are too broad and general. Information systems (IS) managers need to examine a licensing agreement thoroughly before signing it because there might be some provisions that might be interpreted as misuse. Software vendors that wish to preserve their ability to assert their copyright against infringes should review their software licensing agreements and attempt to revise the agreements that carry unreasonable restrictions. Infringement claims can be denied if a licensing agreement is unreasonably restrictive. A lean, mean training regime; a depressed economy is forcing IS managers to watch their bottom line. (Training; part one of a A declining US economy in 1991 forces information systems (IS) managers to streamline their training programs and keep costs down. IS managers can keep training costs down if the hire consultants on a contract basis, purchase prepackaged training courses, take advantage of free training offers from vendors and ask internal personnel to teach in their area of expertise. Some IS managers note that one of the most cost-effective methods of maintaining a training program is to keep a small full-time staff and hire outside consultants on an as-needed-basis. Companies realize the benefits of and need for training: it is what keeps the competition in check. Show aimed at LAN-hungry buyers. (Communications Networks 1991) Wexler, Joanie M. The Communications Network 1991 trade show will show products from local area network (LAN) equipment vendors that cut costs while providing more services. Information systems (IS) managers will find internetworking innovations at the conference, including reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based bridge/router devices, a 100M-bps fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) devices that do not suffer from throughput degradation and a bridge/router with a 400M-bps or 800M-bps chassis that supports up to four FDDI links. Some analysts predict that the LAN market will grow 42 percent in 1991, despite a recessionary economy. 'A la carte' broadband to be served at Comnet. (Communications Network 1991) The Communications Network 1991 trade show will feature products from local area network (LAN) equipment vendors that provide LAN users with broadband support. Some of the products customers can expect to find include applications for video conferencing, network backup and LAN interconnection. Those sorts of applications require a wide bandwidth for short periods of time and vendors have not been successful in pleasing customers in the past: customers see those sorts of applications as expensive, difficult to set up and not widely available. Vendors at the trade show are expected to respond to those misgivings with new products and lower prices. Peacenet usage soars as war erupts in Iraq. (Persian Gulf War) Bozman, Jean S. The worldwide Peacenet computer network suffered an overload as reports began to come in announcing the beginning of hostilities between Iraq and American-led forces in the Persian Gulf. The computer network was shut down for several minutes during the first day of hostilities; the network is connected to microcomputers and UNIX-based machines in 50 countries and is run by an Intel Corp I486-based supermicrocomputer that runs the UNIX System V 3.2, has 16Mbytes of memory, 16 communications ports and 2.5Gbytes of hard disk storage. Peace activists note that the network breaks down geographic barriers and eliminates the isolation some may feel in their own countries and communities. U.S. high-tech weapons pass trial by fire; sophisticated armaments reported to have performed well in early days of war with Iraq. The technologically superior weapons systems of the American-led forces in the Persian Gulf war against Iraq have proved their worth in the first few days of fighting. Some skeptics exhibited doubt about the efficiency and potency of the technological equipment, much of which was never tested in battle. Much of the Pentagon's super-sophisticated equipment has become so complicated that many expressed concern as to whether soldiers, seamen and airmen were capable of operating the machinery. The weapons systems prove effective in the first days of the war but analysts warn that Iraq possesses some sophisticated equipment of its own, including night-fighting technology, though its equipment is limited by poor communications. DEC turns tide with second straight profit. (DEC reports healthy profit after first-ever loss in 1989-90) DEC announces $111 million in profits during its 2nd qtr ended Dec 29, 1990. DEC's net income for the quarter dropped 40 percent from the same quarter in 1989-90, when it reported a $155 million net quarterly income. Revenues for 2nd qtr increased from $3.1 billion in the same qtr in 1989 to $3.3 billion in 1990; the rise puts an end to the five-quarter trend in which revenues were consistently down. DEC reported income of $137 million on revenues of $6.4 billion during the first six months of FY 1991. DEC posted $306 million during the first six months of FY 1990, but revenues rose 2 percent from the previous year's first-half total of $6.3 billion. The company remains financially stable after suffering its first-ever loss during 1989, and executives attribute its growth to cost-cutting efforts within the company. DEC will eliminate 6,000 workers from its payroll by the close of FY 1991. Client software from DEC links PCs to ACMS; Andersen ships CASE tool for TP monitor. (Install/1 for VMS) DEC develops client software that allows IBM PCs and compatibles to be connected to an ACMS transaction processing (TP) environment. ACMS is a TP monitor for Rdb that enables multiple clients to share the same process running on a VAX. The product is slated for a summer 1991 release and employs Andersen Consulting's program development software Install/1 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools for VMS. Part of Andersen's Foundation series of development tools, Install/1 provides a common development approach for building applications on both DEC and IBM platforms because ACMS and IBM CIC applications can be generated with the same design specifications. Andersen's CASE tool is priced between $9,000 and $372,000. Several companies including IBM, HP, Stratus Computer, Sybase, Informix, Independence Technologies and Jyacc announced support for Transarc Corp's TP technology. DSSI subsystems arrive for VAX 6000 series. (DEC's TF837 and TF857 tape drives) (product announcement) DEC announces its TF837 and TF857 DSSI subsystems for the VAX 6000 series. Both products are available to users through a KFMSA adapter, which links the DSSI bus to the XMI bus. Analysts regard DSSI as a higher-quality alternative to Q-bus and SCSI. As many as 12 DSSI disks and two DSSI tape drives can be supported on a single host. On a dual host configuration, up to eight disks and two tape drives can be connected to two DSSI busses. The TF837 is a seven-cartridge auto-loader for automated backup and is expected to cost between $17,000 and $20,000. The TF857 is a 2Gbyte half-inch subsystem designed to support DSSI on the 6000 series. It is intended to fall between helical-scan drives and the high-performance 3480-compatible TA90 drive. The TF857 stores 296Mbytes per TK70 cassette providing the VAX 6000 with as much as 4Gbytes of tape backup. Ultrix 4.0: weak sister among Unix derivatives. (Unix-like operating systems outperform DEC's Ultrix 4.0, compete with Unix-like operating systems will compete with VAX/VMS as effective operating systems for production environments running commercial applications between 1991 and 1994. Market research and consulting company, D.H. Brown Associates, examined the capabilities of IBM's AIX 3.1, HP's HP-UX 8.0, SunOS 5.4/Unix System V 4.0 and Ultrix 4.0 in the areas of system management, user services, standards, security and the core system's reliability and concluded that all the systems were effective except Ultrix. DEC's Unix-based operating system is not very product-oriented and it lacks dynamic memory management and shared libraries. DEC's separate-but-equal approach to VMS and Unix may continue throughout the 1990s, but Unix operating systems could gain dominance via the Open Software Foundation's OSF/1. DEC will convert Ultrix to OSF/1, which may help it overcome its deficits. PCs, X terminals tied to DEC imaging software offering. (DECimage Express image processing software and Decimage 1200 X window DEC introduces DECimage Express image processing software and DECimage 1200 X window terminal. DECimage Express is a preconfigured document management system that features scan, filing and retrieving capabilities; optical character recognition and routing options; image indexing, storage, display and printing as well as distribution of imaging across DECnet. The product was designed for the DECwindows/VAXstation environment and is priced from $250,000 to $500,000. The DECimage 1200 window terminal is equipped with image processing capabilities and includes optical storage subsystems for use with DECimage Express. The terminal can process compressed images, and includes image-acceleration hardware that eliminates an increased load on the host. DECimage 1200 X costs between $3,395 and $4,095. DEC also announced cooperative agreements with Laserdata Inc and Eastman Kodak Co. HP brings CASE packages to Sparcstation; plans ports to IBM, DEC RISC platforms. (Hewlett-Packard Co. makes its computer-aided HP offers its computer-aided software engineering (CASE) packages Softbench and Encapsulator on Sun Microsystem's Sparcstation platforms under its CASEdge/Open Systems program. The HP-Sparcstation port is the first offering of the program, which represents HP's objective of making its software available on a variety of reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC)/Unix platforms. HP initially plans to target the dominant CASE workstation platforms such as IBM's RISC System/6000 and DEC's RISC/Ultrix workstations. HP licenses Softbench and Encapsulator to hardware vendors, CASE tool companies, value-added resellers and systems integrators under the CASEdge/Open Systems program. The option of using software on different platforms allows developers to share tools and data across a multivendor network and simplifies management and maintenance processes. Updated 20/20 offers spreadsheet publishing; enhances VMS users' ability to create reports. (Access Technology Inc.'s product Access Technology Inc announces 20/20 3.0, an enhanced version of its spreadsheet software that now allows users to create reports with spreadsheet annotation and control over font sizes on a cell-by-cell basis. 20/20's spreadsheet publishing feature also lets users manipulate worksheet ranges by highlighting, outlining with boxes, shading in color or gray scale or outlining with drop shadows. Version 3.0 requires a PostScript printer to support graphics, and features a search-and-replace option that allows users to search a spreadsheet for a string of text and replace it with another string. The product also supports file locking, links between cells in different spreadsheets, border suppression and a Super Backout macro command. Industry analysts praise 20/20's improved functionality, but claim that Access Technology will need to market 20/20 beyond its installed base. Package uses expert system to automate job scheduling across VMS, Unix systems. (Fusion Systems Group's Network Task Scheduler) Fusion Systems Group introduces its expert systems-based software package, Network Task Scheduler (NTS), which automates a wide range of system management tasks across Unix and VMS platforms. Fusion Systems combined Neuron Data's Nexpert Object expert system with the Sybase relational database management system (RDBMS) to create NTS, which follows rules stored in the expert system to schedule and maintain up to 4,000 tasks. The Nexpert Object expert-system shell regulates the scheduling dependencies of NTS, and the Sybase RDBMS acts as the repository for the rules of the scheduling to allow NTS to perform such tasks as system backup, job initiation, file transfer, error remediation, batch processing and alarm monitoring and notification. NTS provides a solution for managing distributed, mixed client/server computing environments. The entry level NTS system costs $30,000. Bridge/router unites LAN/WAN interfaces in single device. (Coral Network Corp.'s Broadband Enterprise Switch model CX1200 and model Coral Network Corp introduces the Broadband Enterprise Switch, models CX1200 and CX1600. The switch is a combined T3 multiplexor/brouter device that incorporates circuit-switched and packet communications. The Broadband Enterprise Switch supports local-area network (LAN) interfaces including Ethernet, Token Ring and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standards, and wide-area network (WAN) interfaces including T3, T1 and its European versions E1 and fractional T1. The switch's synchronous pipeline data flow architecture allows all networks to transport data at their native speeds. The backplane bus has a data transfer rate of 800M-bps. The CX1200 version supports up to four network interface slots and costs $20,000 with two Ethernet interfaces. The CX1600 features 10 network interface slots and is priced at $100,000 fully configured with multiple Ethernet, FDDI and T3 interfaces. Server capability key to minicomputers' future. (minicomputer functions as server in client/server configurations)(Tech trends) Automation Research Corp (ARC) reports that system suppliers will need to underscore the ability of minicomputers to perform as file servers in client/server networks if the midrange machine is to survive in US manufacturing plants. The ARC report 'Computers in manufacturing' reveals that the minicomputer manufacturing market is divided into two segments. Minicomputers that perform only application processing tasks are regarded as traditional; minicomputers that perform only database and file storage services are regarded as servers when application processing is done at the client's site. ARC Pres Andrew Chatha claims that up to half of the servers shipped in 1995 will be minicomputers. Traditional minicomputers tend to cost more than servers, which are stripped down minicomputers and Chatha believes vendors will have a harder time selling them. X terminals display power at Uniforum. (Micronics Computers Inc., Network Computing Devices Inc. and Able Technologies Inc. Solarix Micronics Computers Inc, Network Computing Devices Inc (NCD) and Solarix Systems introduce computer network terminals at the Uniforum 1991 trade show. Micronics' 3X and 4X terminals will be available Feb 1991 in 14-inch and 17-inch models. The terminals include one Ethernet port, a 32-bit graphics bus and 1,024-line-by-768-pixel resolution. The 20MHz 80386-based 3X is priced from $3,499 to $3,999 and the 25MHz 80486-based 4X is priced from $4,499 to $4,999. NCD offers a 14-inch 20MHz MC68020-based flat-screen color X terminal for $3,000. The system includes a monitor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a mouse, serial port, several keyboard styles and Ethernet controllers. The VT220-compatible product displays up to 256 colors simultaneously. Solarix will offer color X terminals for under $1,900 by the 2nd qtr of 1991. The 80286- and 80386-based terminals will include one parallel and two serial ports each. NetBIOS offerings for VMS produce peer-to-peer connection to PC LANs. (Dallastone Inc.'s LANGate/VMS network software package) Dallastone Inc introduces LANGate/VMS computer network software for minicomputers and NetBIOS-based microcomputer local-area networks (LANs). Dallastone offers a NetBios application programming interface (API) that can be bundled with additional software and the LANGate/VMS software to let a VAX function as a NetBIOS server. LANGate/VMS is an end-user communications tool that acts as a gateway between the user's VAX and a LAN. LANGate/VMS includes such optional modules as SMB Server support to connect disk drives on a VAX and a PC LAN, LANPrint to share printer resources, NETAccess to provide a file access routine, and NetIFS to add an interface library to a set of network procedure calls. The package comes with terminal emulation software and utilities that allow a network manager to view any node on a NetBIOS network. LANGate/VMS is priced at $3,500 for a license for 16 simultaneous sessions. Wolfram boosts Mathematica performance. (Wolfram Research Inc.'s Mathematica 2.0) (product announcement) Wolfram Research Inc introduces Mathematica 2.0 mathematical software that features the capability to solve numerical differential equations. The updated version lets users solve equations analytically to arrive at approximate answers within particular accuracy bounds. Version 2.0 has expanded symbolic integration functions, increased elliptic functions and improved polynomials. Mathematica 2.0's enhanced graphics kernel includes three-dimensional rendering capabilities and the specification of primitives and hidden-surface removal functions. The application also includes audio and sound-creation functions across several platforms. Users can hear math functions as they are computed on Next, Sony, Sun Microsystems and Macintosh machines. Registered owners of Mathematica 1.2 can upgrade to 2.0 starting at $125; the program is priced between $595 and $30,000 depending on the platform. NET creates LAN-to-WAN gateway using Datability servers. (Network Technologies Inc.'s SPX/420 gateway and SPX/410 terminal server) Network Equipment Technologies (NET) Inc introduces the SPX/420 gateway and the SPX/410 terminal server, which are part of a line of modular local-area network (LAN)-to-wide-area network (WAN) gateways jointly developed with Datability Software Systems Inc. NET's SPX multiplexors use the company's proprietary Compatible Communications Architecture (CCA) protocols to transmit asynchronous data over X.25 networks, and they are combined with Datability's Vista VCP terminal servers to function as gateways. The SPX/420 provides transparent connectivity between Local Area Transport (LAT), TCP/IP, X.25 and SPX networks and results in DEC LAT and Unix TCP/IP LAN capabilities. The gateway includes an Ethernet card for the LAN connection and the SPX CCA card for the WAN connection. The SPX/420 starts at $5,700 and the SPX/410 starts at $3,500. The terminal server supports up to 128 concurrent sessions. Client/server computing: where it's at. (Development Views) (Editorial/Opinion) (column) Distributed processing relies on an effective client/server architecture, which increasingly involves a SQL database. A high-quality distributed SQL database system is the most effective way to create distributed applications with remote procedure calls that employ distributed file systems. IBM is in a position to dominate the client/server computing market and is one of several database vendors to make substantial SQL investments. IBM ported DB2 and CICS to AIX and has begun to integrate the Open Software Foundation's distributed computing environment into SAA. The integration will consolidate the immense disk farms on IBM's mainframe systems with its distributed AIX RISC platforms. SQL is a standard, but vendors differentiate their SQL implementations with various extensions. X marks the spot in the VT world. (DEC's VT1200 X terminal)(includes related article on DR Labs' X11perf 1.2 DEC's VT1200 X terminal is based on Texas Instruments' T134010 50MHz processor and provides terminal connections to hosts using the Local Area Transport (LAT) or TCP/IP Telnet protocol. It includes one serial port for a printer connection and one for connection directly to a host terminal port. The VT1200 supports four fonts in ROM; additional fonts must be downloaded from a host through LAT or the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) on TCP/IP networks. The terminal establishes font paths fairly quickly, but only one active font path is possible at a time unless users create a 'fonts.paths' file on the Ultrix font server. The VT1200's server software does not provide horizontal or vertical scroll bars for the Terminal Emulation windows, and the Print Screen menu only prints the screen to a printer directly attached to the VT1200. The VT1200 displays solid performance for a low end X terminal. Unified system management to spur peaceful coexistence. (difficulties associated with managing a mixed VMS and Unix The integration of Unix and VMS system management remains an elusive goal for many organizations because the system utilities that aid in managing all platforms as though they were one are not widely available. Many shops are reluctant to bring Unix systems into their sites because, even though it is relatively easy to do, managing joint VMS and Unix systems presents complex problems and incurs additional system management costs. The tools that would allow each system in a VMS Unix client/server computing environment to bid for jobs based on horsepower and availability have not been developed. System managers do not have the resources to balance loads between the environments, to provide VMS/Unix with disk sharing capabilities, or allow a VMS system to manage a Unix system. Managers must overcome the problem of how to coordinate the management of both systems from within a single set of system utilities. Downtime is trouble. (DEC's VAXft 3000 minicomputer)(Digital Update: Special Advertising Section) DEC's VAXft 3000 minicomputer provides fault tolerance without the difficulty and expense of traditional fault-tolerant implementations. The VAXft 3000 runs on the international VAX/VMS operating system so users may run any of 6,000 applications without worrying about system downtime due to hardware failure. The VAXft 3000 duplicates every component, including the backplanes and power cords, for continued application service, and it offers transparent failover in milliseconds. Users are not aware of hardware failure because applications continue running on the still-functioning system elements via automatic hardware configuration. The VAXft 3000 allows users to customize solutions. The VAXft 3000 could handle data acquisition and local validation if it were installed as a front-end to a mainframe running a large transaction processing system, and it could continue serving users if the mainframe went down. DSSI: big system I/O power for smaller VAX systems. (DEC's Digital Storage Systems Interconnect subsystem)(Digital Update: Special DEC's Digital Storage Systems Interconnect (DSSI) is an implementation of the Digital Storage Architecture (DSA) line of storage products. The high performance subsystem links tape and disk Intelligent Storage Elements (ISEs) to mid-range VAX and MicroVAX systems. Users can create multi-featured, dual-host VAXcluster systems sharing disk and tape resources. Clustered systems that employ client/server and production computing include automatic failover capability so that data is still accessible in the event of a system failure. VMS Host-Based Volume Shadowing and VAXsimPLUS, DEC's predictive maintenance facility, protect against the loss of a disk. DSSI, together with integrated, intelligent DSA controllers, provides linear, predictable I/O performance when users add storage devices. When users double their number of disks, they double their I/O request-handling capability. Boards refine the art of servo control; servo-motor controller boards. (includes a related article on two motor-control ICs) A servo-motor control system is easier to design since vendors offer a variety of servo-motor controller boards for computers and stand-alone applications. Technology 80 Inc markets servo-motor control boards for ISA bus, STD bus and stand-alone applications. A motor-control board includes a commercial motor-control integrated circuit, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or a DSP chip performing the servo-loop control functions. Mektronix Technology Inc's MC-03 is a 3-axis motor-controller board for the 8-bit ISA bus, incorporating three H-P HCTL-1100 motor control ICs. Applications for motor-controlled boards include robotics, material handling, laser cutting and camera controls. Multichip circuits satisfy special needs. (power hybrid integrated circuits)(Technology Update) Some monolithic integrated circuit manufacturers are expanding their standard parts catalog to include devices that integrate signal-processing or control functions with power capabilities, devices that are often called 'smart-power' integrated circuits (ICs). These ICs offer space and cost-savings benefits for numerous applications. With certain motor-control and power-conversion applications whose power requirements are high, or that include other special requirements, a hybrid circuit may be more appropriate: such devices are available in a variety of circuit configurations. Hybrid ICs are more expensive because of their specialized construction, especially for military-grade hybrid ICs. Futurebus+ nabs center stage on Buscon. (Buscon/West 91) Rose, Susan. Buscon/West 91 will update engineers on bus technology and architecture, employing the same show format used at Buscon/East in Marlborough, MA, in Oct 1990. Seminars will be tightly focused to provide in-depth analysis of each subject. Futurebus+ is a focus at the 1991 show, and a special one-day seminar on the subject will be held on Jan 28, before the official opening of the show. The other seminars will focus on all aspects of a specific technology, giving each attendee a complete overview. VMEbus and Multibus II will be covered. Bus architectures will be the primary topic of the microcomputer bus platforms seminar. Multibus II programmable logic board serves parallel-interface applications. (General Standards Co.'s MB2-PGA56T) General Standards Co's MB2-PGA56T board includes six Xilinx programmable gate arrays and 56 TTL transceivers, making it compatible with many parallel interfaces. The interface board can be programmed to operate as a computer bus link in either repeater or DMA modes. The board includes the Intel 82389 message-passing coprocessor integrated circuit, and supports 32M-bps data transfers over the bus. Furthermore, it includes a facility for interprocessor communications via interrupt message passing. The product can accommodate up to six programmable gate arrays and comes with examples of programmed configurations. FIFO memories. (first in, first out) (includes related articles on FIFO memory design and the FIFO memory retransmit feature) FIFO memories link channels with differing data rates, evening out mismatched parallel and serial formats, differing bus widths, as well as speed variations in uni- or bidirectional data flow. FIFO memories do not use an address like conventional memories do, and they can store and read data sequentially. These memories are dual-ported, taking data from one port and giving it to another. FIFO memories were switched to random access memory (RAM) types in 1985, using pointers to track data and eliminate bubble-through. Second-generation FIFO memories use status flags and tell a user when they are empty or full. Message buffers and mailboxes. (excerpt from 'An Implementation Guide to Real-time Programming,' by David L. Ripps)(part eight of Message buffers and mailboxes coordinate tasks in real-time applications. Message exchange is central in many real-time applications. A message buffer is a place that a message may be sent and from which a message may then be received. A message buffer message is a storage device the size of a single pointer variable, or six bytes for the 80386 and four bytes for others. The message buffer offers an orderly way to coordinate the producer to send work to the next available printer. A mailbox needs to be opened before it can be used. Mailboxes offer a stronger facility than a message buffer, providing full coordination at both the receive and send ends, unlimited queuing, and arbitrary message length. DSP chips can produce random numbers using proven algorithm. (includes a related article on random noise speed testing) Programmers can use random-number sequences to test electronic components quicker than more traditional methods allow. By using mathematically proven methods in programming, a DSP microprocessor can generate random-number sequences that are reliable. Programmers can translate this method from mathematical theory to general DSP microprocessor pseudocode to one that is executable for the programmer's DSP microprocessor. Two conflicting requirements must be met, including a generator that can repeat the same random sequence many times. The sequence must be truly random. The best known method for generating random sequence is the 'linear congruential sequence.' Digital recorder speeds sampling rate. Jun, Lin. Users can input analog data into an IBM PC that takes full advantage of an analog-to-digital converter's (ADC) sampling rate by using a fast ADC and an SRAM controlled by external logic. Storing the ADC's results in an SRAM, then transferring it to the IBM PC under the control of external logic enables the user to take full advantage of the ADC's speed. An illustration demonstrates the use of Analog Devices' AD7821 ADC with a 1-MHz sampling clock, controlling both the conversion and the writing of data into an HM62818, a 128k x 8-bit SRAM. The circuit records a high-frequency signal when S2 and S3 are in position 3. Bootstrapped amp makes current source. Graeme, Jerald. A general-purpose, voltage-controlled current source is produced by adding two resistors to a standard 2-op amp instrumentation amplifier. An illustration reveals a circuit with bipolar inputs and outputs, high-impedance differential inputs, floating or grounded source and load and single-resistor gain control. The circuit acts upon the difference between inputs V1 and V1 under Rb's gain control, and operates as a combination of an instrumentation amplifier function and a bootstrapped amplifier. The bootstrap feedback enhances the V2's output voltage. Other significant features in the illustration include the output impedance and output voltage compliance. Audio compressor splits the band. Majestic, Richard. An audio compressor that splits the band is illustrated, featuring independently adjustable audio-signal compression ratios. Consistent and precise compression is possible with this design, with no threshold-level drift or compression-slope drift over time and temperature. The integrated circuit's input buffer isolates the input source from the highpass and lowpass filters, as well as limits step-function slewing voltages from passing to the following stage. Independent adjustment of compression gain slopes is achieved by two continuously variable gain-reduction controls within the control circuit. Calculator and IC simplify linearization. Villanucci, Robert S. Thermo-couple-linearization-circuitry design is simplified using the HP-42S's curve-fitting software and a multifunction integrated circuit for analog computation. An illustration demonstrates how the cold-junction voltage generated by the connection of the chromel-constantan thermocouple to a copper pc board by adding an opposing voltage is cancelled. The HP-42S's curve-fitting software discovers a mathematical model to describe the linearization circuitry that is required to sense the amplifier's output and output a voltage with a system sensitivity. Circuit design instructions are included. VFC rejects common-mode noise. (voltage-to-frequency converter) (technical) The voltage-to-frequency converter illustrated synchronizes its conversion periods to the cycling of the ac power line in a unique way. The synchronizing enables the converter to ward off common-mode noise, due to the fact that such noises occur at odd harmonics of the power-line frequency. The noise is averaged out by integrating over an even number of power-line cycles. A lowpass-filtered, power-line signal to the integrated circuit is applied by an extra winding on the converter's power-supply transformer. Synchronizing pulses begin one of two 14-bit counter/timers, outputting a pair of 0.5 second pulses. The job hunting blues. (electrical engineers) Schofield, Julie Anne. Many factors are affecting the job market slump for electrical engineers (EEs). Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, an already sluggish economy, consumer concerns and defense cuts are among the many reasons. Many layoffs are occurring in specific regions, such as New England, New Jersey, Texas and the Silicon Valley. In the 3rd qtr of 1990, the jobless rate for EEs was 2.2 percent, or approximately 12,000. The unemployment rate is expected to increase during the 1st qtr of 1991. Keeping up to date with their jobs is difficult for EEs, since the field changes so rapidly. Engineers can become technically obsolete within a decade if they do not keep up with the field. Apple's RISC project: a decidedly low-risk venture. Webb, Dave. Four companies, including Apple Computer, Sanyo Electric Co, VLSI Technology Inc and Acorn Computers, have formed a joint venture called Advanced RISC Machines Ltd (ARM) (Cambridge, England) in order to create high-performance RISC products with low power requirements and a low price tag. The products will be aimed for computer applications as well as non-computing applications, such as cellular telephone systems and embedded controls for automotive and consumer electronics. For Apple, the venture will offer the company an alternative for RISC microprocessors which the company has been purchasing from Motorola Inc. Ericsson is restructuring to adapt to a deregulated global market. (Telefon L.M. Ericsson) (company profile) Ericsson is restructuring in order to expand internationally and to accommodate its rapid growth. Ericsson could become the second largest cellular supplier as a result of a recent large digital equipment order from McCaw Cellular Communications Ltd totaling $172 million. Ericsson possesses a 40 percent share of the global cellular market in 199, and by the end of the decade its share could be as high as 50 percent. Mobile communications replacing public switches may be the company's key technology for the 1990s. Despite the high share of the global cellular market, Ericsson is still the leader in analog technology. How Silicon Systems turns yen into dollars. (includes a related article on Japan's TDK Corp.) Silicon Systems Inc (SSI) (Tustin, CA) has been acquired by Tokyo's TDK Corp, a producer of magnetic tape and electronic components, and has been given a new lease on life. The company would like to expand into the automotive electronics market while continuing to provide chips to the disk-drive and modem industries. SSI has introduced a programmable filter integrated circuit pegged to hard-disk drives, a result of the funding received as a result of its being acquired. SSI has signed an agreement with Integrated Semiconductor Solutions (Santa Clara, CA) to design and market mixed-signal integrated circuits for automotive sensor-control applications. Managing technology at warp speed. (includes a related article on tips for cutting time to market with a product) New product breakthroughs are being made every few months, and it is easy for companies to be left behind the competition. Some companies are quick about predicting and managing new technology, then integrating that technology into marketable new products. Arthur D. Little Inc (Cambridge, MA), working with TransTechnology Corp's Eastern division and using ready-made components completed a complex computer project in only five months. Beckman Instruments (Fullerton, CA), motivated by the changing needs of life science researchers, introduced a unique instrument that analyzes extremely small amounts of rare genetic and other biochemical materials. Rad spreads risk through product diversification. (Rad Data Communications Ltd.) Rad Data Communications (Tel Aviv, Israel) has perfected the art of niche production. The company probes its distributors for its list of ideal products, then develop them at the rate of one every two weeks. The firm has grown at an average annual rate of 50 percent, providing 200 products for local and wide area networks. Competitors complain that many of Rad's products are imitations of others, and that the company enters a market, eating away market share. The company's first successful product was the SRN-3A modem, listed as the world's smallest modem in the 'Guinness Book of World Records.' A tough road ahead for Taiwan's PC makers. Xiaoge, Xiong. Taiwan's microcomputer manufacturers experienced difficulties in 1990 as the US and the European economies slowed. Exports account for more than 90 percent of the microcomputer demand, and the Taiwanese government warned that the nation will lose 5 percent of its exports if the US's economic growth declines by 1 percent. Taiwan is experiencing domestic problems as well, including a shortage of engineers, rising wages, the appreciation of their dollar, inflation and the virtual collapse of Taiwan stock market. Acer Group, Taiwan's second largest computer manufacturer, has been hit hard. Microcomputer makers are seeking new ways to make a profit. Multibus II stages comeback in communications. (includes a related article on Futurebus) New markets are providing Multibus II with the boost it needs to compete with VMEbus computer bus architecture. Analysts estimate that Multibus II will possess a 15 percent share of the industrial process-automation market which is now dominated by VMEbus. However, the major market opportunity for Multibus II is the large telecom and data communications market, for which the product is well-suited. The bus is especially well-equipped to handle multitasking and act as a communications bridge between systems. Compared with VMEbus, Multibus II incorporates more efficient message-passing capabilities than VMEbus as well. CASE vendors look to the past to find their future. (computer-aided software engineering tools) A disappointing demand for traditional computer-aided software engineering tools (CASE) has caused vendors to focus on software maintenance, their customers' most urgent problem. Software maintenance deals with the need for companies to revise, control, streamline and add to their current programs, accounting for 80 percent of all software activity, according to a study by Volpe, Welty & Co, an investment bank in San Francisco. Software maintenance enables vendors to be of immediate use to their customers. However, vendors have been slow in realizing this opportunity. Software maintenance tools include those for reverse engineering, reengineering and reuse. Cypress grabs for PLD lead. (Cypress Semiconductor subsidiary Aspen Semiconductor's PAL22V10C and PAL22VP10C programmable logic Cypress Semiconductor subsidiary Aspen Semiconductor enters the programmable logic device (PLD) market by introducing the BiCMOS PAL22V10C and PAL22VP10C PLDs that the company claims are the fastest announced field programmable 22V10Cs, running at 7.5 nanoseconds. The chip uses a new 28-pin PLCC described in a Jedec proposal that has been voted upon but not yet published to manage ground bounce on its fast-slewing outputs. This allows the edge rates of the chip's drivers to be tuned for 7.5-ns delay at less than 1.1-V ground bounce on 50-pF loads. Some designers are reluctant to adopt the new design in place of conventional DIP pinout; the device will be made available in a conventional DIP to serve this market, but this requires that load be limited to 15 pF to achieve 1.1-V bounce, which many find unrealistic. The PLCC versions of the 22V10 and 22VP10 cost $30 and $39.45, respectively, in quantities of 100. SkyPix cooks up home satellite dish for $700. (includes a related article on how the SkyPix system reaches its high data compression SkyPix demonstrated its window-mount home satellite system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in mid-Jan 1991, the first such system available in the US. The devices are expected to become available through retail channels in the summer of 1991 for about $700. The system uses digital compression technology licensed from Compression Labs Inc. and advanced Ku-band digital RF modulation to provide home programming at a price that competes with existing cable TV and larger C-band satellite systems. The company will offer 80 channels of video programming, but the decoder in the system will be able to receive as many as 250 channels through more powerful satellites expected to be launched later in the 1990s. Among its features are Dolby stereo sound, screen resolution of 480 lines and password restriction of movies to prevent unauthorized viewing. Toshiba to build MIPS RISC chip; will take it to merchant market. (enters the merchant RISC microprocessor market with a MIPS Toshiba Corp enters the merchant RISC microprocessor market with products based on a MIPS Computer Systems Inc-designed architecture, but the chip may not simply duplicate existing R-series MIPS implementations. Toshiba had previously acquired a license to develop RISC chips from MIPS and has already begun development of its first RISC chip. MIPS is contractually obliged not to add licensees for its standard 'R' architecture, but the company says Toshiba is free to negotiate a different form of agreement to sell chips of its own design to the merchant market. Toshiba currently manufactures 32-bit 68020 microprocessors as part of a joint venture with Motorola, although the parts are not made available to Toshiba America Electronic Components; the company is negotiating with Motorola to add the 68030, although negotiations over the 88000 RISC chip have ended. Desert Storm's electronic edge. (the Desert Storm operation is described as the first high-technology war) The success of initial attacks on Iraq as part of the Desert Storm operation is attributed in large part by military leaders to the use of sophisticated electronics; Air Force Lt. General Chuck Horner calls Desert Storm the first technology war. The US claims an 80 percent effective rate for weapons used in the first attacks, which is made even more impressive by the fact that most of the fighting occurred at night and with weapons that had rarely if ever been used before. Among the new weapons are forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras and infrared search-and-track systems, Tomahawk cruise missiles, the US Army Patriot surface-to-air missile, the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system, airborne AWACS surveillance radar and such highly classified spy satellites as the KH-11. How these and other systems were used to slice up Baghdad like a bologna sandwich is described. VTI works to shrink PC chip set. (VLSI Technology Inc.'s plan to integrate VGA and floppy disk controller functions into its VLSI Technology Inc plans to integrate VGA and floppy disk controller functions into its three-chip SCAMP set to meet the demand created by notebook computer vendors for ever-smaller PC chip sets. The new chip, expected to be ready by the end of 1991, will integrate a VGA controller, a floppy disk controller and a battery of phase-locked-loop clock synthesizers. This will eliminate the last remaining vestiges of peripheral controller chips, buffers and crystals from notebook computer main boards, requiring only the addition of the microprocessor and coprocessor, display memory and main memory. Intel's SL two-chip set lacks keyboard controller, floppy disk controller and VGA; the company has found a separate solution for the keyboard, feels the floppy controller will move to the drive, and believes using a single VGA implementation is premature. The battle continues on the NCR, AT&T front. (AT&T's proposed takeover of NCR Corp.) AT&T announced on Jan 16, 1991, that 70 percent of NCR Corp shareholders had tendered their shares to AT&T and that it had received written requests from enough shareholders to require NCR to hold a special meeting to remove its board of directors should NCR continue to resist AT&T's $6.12 billion takeover attempt. NCR's board of directors intends to keep the company independent, calling AT&T's offer grossly inadequate and unfair. The NCR board received the support of the US House Telecommunications Subcommittee and from the Ohio Congressional delegation, which sent letters to the FCC and President Bush, respectively, questioning the impact of the merger on competition in the telecommunications industry. Analysts claim AT&T has some obstacles yet to overcome, but that it is well on its way to a successful takeover. NMB, Intel deal stalls. (the DRAM supply relationship between Intel and NMB Semiconductor Co. Ltd.) Intel and NMB Semiconductor Company Ltd have not yet negotiated quantity and pricing for DRAM chips in the 1st qtr of 1991, causing NMB to stop DRAM shipments to Intel. Severe pricing pressure caused by falling prices for 1M-bit DRAMs is the primary reason for the lack of an agreement; the firms agreed to limited 4th qtr 1990 shipments of one million 1M-bit and one million 256K-bit DRAMs, but Intel has long hoped to acquire NMB's full output. The low prices throughout the DRAM industry at present require that Intel pay an even lower unit price to NMB to remain competitive. NMB plans to make its 4M-bit DRAMs available in Feb 1991; an NMB spokesperson says it will likely be easier for the companies to negotiate an agreement for 4M-bit DRAMs because of their current price stability. MIPS rolls out second ECL server. (MIPS Computer Systems Inc.'s RC6260 R6000 emitter-coupled-logic RISC microprocessor-based MIPS Computer Systems Inc introduces the RC6260, its second server based on the R6000 emitter-coupled-logic (ECL) RISC microprocessor. The RC6260 uses the same uniprocessor R6000 ECL core as the company's RC6280 server; most new high-end minicomputer-like products use multiple CMOS microprocessors to attain high performance levels. Many other manufacturers have discontinued development of ECL processors in favor of CMOS and BiCMOS designs, which use less power. The 6260 reaches the same overall SPECmark of 44 as the 6280; it costs $139,500 in a base configuration with 32Mbytes of main memory (expandable to 128Mbytes) and 663Mbytes of storage (expandable to 44Gbytes). NEC Corp is expected to begin sampling initial silicon on its three-chip ECL implementation of the MIPS architecture, which is also expected to benefit two other ECL developers, Control Data Corp and Prime Computer Inc. PictureTel kicks videoconferencing a notch. (the System 4000 two-way, on-site remote communications system) (product PictureTel introduces the System 4000 two-way, on-site radio communications system that the company claims brings videoconferencing to the masses. The system offers enhanced audio capability through use of a proprietary Integrated Dynamic Echo Cancellation (IDEC) algorithm that lets videoconferencing participants move about a room during a session and still be heard clearly. IDEC combines with the SG3 video algorithm introduced earlier by the company to provide a setting for videoconferencing that is more conducive to interpersonal communications. The company plans a single PC motherboard implementation of the system by the end of 1992, although this depends on a cooperative effort with Intel to develop the video-processor chip serving as the core of the motherboard. Four models of the System 4000 will be offered priced from $39,500 to $52,500. After year, Hammock resigns from Mentor; his leadership of EDAC could also end. (Mentor Graphics' James Hammock; the Electronic Mentor Graphics Corp Exec James Hammock resigns one year after the company's acquisition of Silicon Compiler Systems (SCS), which itself was formed by the merger of Silicon Design Laboratories, which Hammock had founded, and Silicon Compilers Inc. Hammock's leadership of the Electronic Design Automation Companies (EDAC) committee may end because he is leaving the industry entirely, at least for the moment. Hammock managed the tremendous growth of SCS in the IC design industry through such acquisitions as Caeco Inc, Descartes Automation Systems Inc, and parts of the European DSP joint venture formed by Silvar-Lisco and N.V. Philips. Hammock assisted the migration of SCS tools to the Mentor silicon-design division to assure they could be ported to Mentor's Release 8.0 concurrent design environment; these products include the CheckMate IC verification tool and Parade CAD package. DuPont-Xerox out of ink. (DuPont-Xerox joint venture DX Imaging closes) DX Imaging, a joint venture of DuPont and Xerox that was working on liquid-toner electrostatic output technology for high-resolution color-proofing and color-printing, has closed. DX Imaging management claims the parent companies were no longer willing to fund the project, which was over budget and behind schedule. Insiders claim the demise of the company can be attributed to corporate in-fighting, which pitted engineers against other operations, such as purchasing. The reports of in-fighting are denied by at least one DX Imaging engineer who stayed with the company to the end and who called the entrepreneurial spirit of the firm exciting, although he says there were questions as to how well the parent companies were getting along. Problems arose when purchasing procedures made it difficult for engineers to buy equipment, according to one supplier. Doctor claims EPA missed EMF data. (Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board) A special US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board hears testimony from an Air Force doctor at the Armstrong Laboratory of Human Systems (formerly the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine) that the agency missed between 10,000 and 15,000 prior lab reports on the interaction of low-power electromagnetic, electrostatic and radio frequency (RF) fields with human and other biological test subjects. Other researchers testifying claim the EPA emphasizes traditional medical epidemiological case studies, which ignores much research done on the subject in physics and electronics laboratories rather than in medical laboratories. The EPA's recent draft report indicates a link between electromagnetic fields (EMF) and cancer, but researchers at the University of California and the Air Force claim no carcinogenic potential has been documented for EMF. ARM flexes its muscle. (Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.'s 32-bit ARM microprocessor enhancements) Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) Ltd is developing versions of its 32-bit ARM microprocessor with support circuitry integrated on the same chip as the processor core to provide higher performance to join the original ARM2 and ARM3, which has on-chip cache. VLSI Technology Inc will sell the resulting products as standalone products and as application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) cores; ARM devices may also be sold by other semiconductor vendors or used in embedded applications. ARM was spun out of Acorn Computers Ltd; the other initial investors are Apple and VLSI Technology. New investors are being asked to provide 35 percent of ARM's funding; Apple and Acorn will eventually hold a thirty percent interest apiece, with VLSI holding the other five percent. VLSI sells the ARM2 design as the VL86C10 RISC CPU and the ARM3 design as the VL86C020. Applications for the chips are examined. Codar works in war; ruggedized-systems company hangs tough. (Codar Technology Inc.) (company profile) Codar Technology Inc saw its fortunes change for the better as a result of Operation Desert Shield; many ruggedized-systems manufacturers had been experiencing slowdowns earlier in 1990 as defense budgets declined. Codar Pres Mike Evans says changes in defense procurement policies actually helped the company by making ruggedized systems with good mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) rates attractive to prime contractors. Codar's ruggedized dual MicroVAXes have recorded impressive MTBF rates in the Army ATACMS tactical missile program. The company recorded net revenue of $17.1 million in FY 1990, up from $13.1 million in FY 1989; the ruggedized SPARCstations brought out in 1990 by the company are popular with NATO. Codar's product development plans and marketing strategy are examined. God save the Rockefellers. Study: VHDL goes commercial. (International Data Corp. study of VHSIC hardware description language users and prospective users) A study conducted by International Data Corp of very-high-speed integrated circuit (VHSIC) hardware description language (VHDL) users and prospective users finds that the US Department of Defense mandate that the language be used is no longer the most important driving force for the language. Fifty-two companies, 30 of which were current VHDL users, were surveyed; 20 of the 22 non-VHDL users plan to use the language in the future, and two-thirds of the 52 firms do primarily commercial work. Most of the newer VHDL users are in the commercial sector: most military users have used VHDL for over a year, while only one-fourth of commercial users have used VHDL for a year. The most important reason cited by respondents for using VHDL is the need to design application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) at a higher level of abstraction. CES panel: HDTV delay OK; Congressional aides: not rushing into analog a blessing. (Consumer Electronics Show high-definition Congressional staffers participating in a panel presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show claim that the delay in formalizing a high-definition television (HDTV) policy could help give the US the lead in developing a model that will eventually be adopted by other countries. Rushing to adopt the analog systems first proposed in the early 1980s, such as Japan's NHK experimental system, may have precluded definition of a system that will last into the next century, according to the staffers. The House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee will examine many communications issues relating to HDTV's broadcast needs, including direct-broadcast satellites, telephone companies and cable television operators. The effect of digital audio broadcasting on HDTV channel assignments and digital video compression and transmission were other issues were addressed by the panel. Improving engineering productivity by using solutions-based strategies. (Opinion) (column) US industrial companies are forced by global competition to find new ways to improve time to market and product quality. Increasing overall productivity requires an improvement in engineering management, particularly when a firm's success depends in large part on engineering. Technology-based strategies were implemented in the 1980s by US companies, but now they are considering solutions-based strategies that use all the primary resources available to management effectively: staff and the infrastructure used to support staff. Companies must decide whether they want to continue to buy new technologies or to invest in the tools their staffs can apply to improve productivity in manufacturing and business environments. A plan is required to assure that the right tools are implemented correctly to support engineering staffs. How engineering management has changed in the past 10 years is examined. A recipe for 'artificial evolution'. (Thinking Machines Inc. cofounder and chief scientist Danny Hillis's work on artificial Thinking Machines Inc cofounder and chief scientist Danny Hillis has developed a way to create powerful sorting algorithms that mimic biological evolutionary processes, giving the burgeoning field of artificial life a considerable boost. Hillis recently gave a lecture to Boston University researchers titled Intelligence as Emergent Behavior, or the Songs of Eden; he described his use of a new language for the Connection Machine supercomputer, which he invented, that facilitates experiments intended to 'grow' computational algorithms. Hillis believes the two current approaches to artificial intelligence research(symbolic methods where everything is known, and neural networks where how the problem is solved is unknown) have much more in common than previously thought. Hillis says the key idea is emergent behavior; he cites language as an example. Scientist suggests bringing social element to AI; current model ignores learning based on human interaction. (artificial Research at Bristol University's Science Study Center in Bristol, England, finds that artificial intelligence (AI) systems may achieve better results when developed in a social context rather than as single, self-contained systems. Center Dir Harry Collins summarizes 10 years of research in the recently published book Artificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines. Collins says the current model of machine learning does not incorporate the aspect of human learning based on social interaction. The focus on the system itself as the sole repository of all knowledge is the source of misconceptions about AI, according to Collins. Experiments at the center found that no amount of written material or telephone conversations can substitute for direct human interaction when communicating a technical concept. Neural simulator adds new features. (NeuralWare Inc.'s NeuralWorks Professional II/PLUS neural-network-software simulator) (product NeuralWare Inc introduces the NueralWorks Professional II/PLUS neural network software simulator with a code generator, an explanation facility and support for specialized neural microchips added from previous models. NeuralWorks' FlashCode code generator is intended for fast development of embedded applications; it interprets back-propagation-of-errors networks while a new neural-network simulation is being developed. This allows C source code to be generated automatically after debugging is complete and added directly to embedded applications. The ExplainNet explanation function allows the system to explain its decisions by determining which user-supplied inputs had the greatest effect. Over 40 new commands and seven new network learning methods have also been added; prices range from $1,895 for PCs to $4,995 for the i860 and RS/6000. Litho's light still bright. (Emerging Technology: Lithography) Santo, Brian. Manufacturers of optical lithography equipment have been able to enhance their devices beyond 1-micron design rules to 0.7 micron and then to 0.5 micron, and they are confident that they will eventually achieve 0.35 micron and perhaps even 0.15 micron. This would make lithographic steppers suitable for 1G-bit DRAMs, which were at one time considered the sole domain of X-ray and particle-beam lithographic methods. Several so-called extenders have arisen in recent years to continue the success of optical lithography; among these are phase-shift masks, higher-sensitivity resists and more reliable laser-light sources. All optical machines are ultimately limited in terms of submicron design rules by the wavelength of the light source, which for most steppers is 435 nanometers, also called the g-line. Elusive optoelectronic ICs. (Emerging Technologies: Materials) Brown, Chappell. Optoelectronic researchers must find a practical way of putting both photonic and electronic devices on the same chip if they are ever to apply fiber-optic and other light-based transmission systems in commercial products. Commercial optoelectronics are currently stalled at the component stage; receivers, transmitters and other such systems are made up of discrete components mounted on hybrid substrates, but this is impractical for local networks or computer buses, according to Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) researcher Robert Leheny. Bellcore is focusing on a new 'lift-off' technique in which devices are grown on their native substrate, the circuits dissolved in solvents, lifted off and attached to a different substrate to assemble an integrated circuit. Research being conducted at MIT's Lincoln Laboratories on integrating gallium arsenide and silicon is described. Fuzzy logic reawakens. (Emerging Technologies: Logic) Johnson, R. Colin. Fuzzy logic was adopted by Japanese researchers in the 1980s and was seen as particularly well suited to control systems; US manufacturers will have to retrofit quickly if they hope to compete with Japanese firms for fuzzy logic-based consumer goods. Fuzzy systems are made up of rules of thumb encoded in terms of set-membership functions; the sets of rules used by people doing household chores have been encoded by the Japanese into intelligent household appliances. University of California-Berkeley Prof Lotfi Zadeh is seen as the father of fuzzy logic; he coined the term in the 1960s and is held in very high esteem in Japan. Fuzzy logic research being conducted by Japan's Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute, headed by Kyushu Institute Prof Takeshi Yamakawa, as well as at the Laboratory for International Fuzzy Engineering Research and other sites is described. E-beam probing, a la carte. (electron-beam probing in the semiconductor industry) (Emerging Technology: Testing) Electron-beam (e-beam) probing be used increasingly by engineers in the semiconductor industry through the first half of the 1990s, but technical limitations related to declining line widths and increasing complexity of multichip modules and other new chip designs must be overcome. Until the late 1980s, almost all integrated circuit design debugging, verification, failure analysis and characterization were done using micro-probe technology, but in 1991 over 90 percent of leading semiconductor vendors throughout the world use e-beam probing. The technology is based on the concept of voltage contrast applied in laboratory scanning electron microscopes. After raster scanning a finely focused beam of primary electrons over the IC surface, secondary electrons produced are collected to form an image of the IC. Various e-beam probing techniques are described. Listen, it's stereolithography. (Emerging Technology: Fabrication) Hull, Charles W. Stereolithography is the fast creation of three-dimensional hard-plastic prototypes, patterns and parts from computer-aided design (CAD) data only; the process promises to shorten time to market and reduce product development and manufacturing costs. The technology allows accurate models to be produced in hours that previously took months to create and at a fraction of the cost, which with traditional methods can be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Stereolithography has become an important component of concurrent engineering, allowing design, manufacturing, purchasing, marketing and corporate managers to contribute to product development. The design of three-dimensional circuit boards combines electronic and mechanical parts to optimize both; it facilitates assembly, lowers part counts, lowers costs and increases quality. Building artificial brains. (Emerging Technology: Simulation) Akers, Dick. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) promise massively parallel computation, incredibly fast computation speeds and levels of reliability not approached by existing computer technologies. ANNs will allow the creation of artificial brains. The real thing processes in parallel at 10 pulses a second at each synapse to handle 10 to the 16th power complex operations per second, a level that can be reached by silicon systems only if they are highly connected. ANNs have large numbers of neurons connected through networks of synapses that serve as interfaces from other neurons; prototype ANNs have used both digital and analog computing elements as well as both synchronous and asynchronous architectures. Digital designs use a million times more energy than analog designs, and the high number of computing elements required will force most engineers to develop analog implementations. EDA takes a parallel path. (electronic design automation) (Emerging Technology: CAD Computing) The high processing power and low cost of engineering workstations in the 1980s caused a change in the way electronic design automation (EDA) tools were developed and used. Current EDA software emphasizes design frameworks and interactive functions, and in the 1990s enhancements of another order of magnitude will be made possible by advances in parallel computing technology. Research in this area is driven primarily by the availability of commercial parallel computers, concerns about performance limits of silicon technology and the need to use more of the computing power now available to design future systems. The ability to use many general-purpose, high-performance processors and the transformation of parallel architectures into mainstream technologies combine with the maturation of the software-development environment to create a market for parallel-based EDA tools. Pursuing 3-D packages. (three-dimensional packaging as an alternative to planar multichip-module packaging) (Emerging Planar multichip-module (MCM) packaging cannot meet the performance needs of future high-speed processors, leading to the emergence of three-dimensional packaging as an alternative. Typical planar multichip packaging puts from two to eight chips on an advanced substrate, but this levies a high cost for a density improvement from 10 to 30 percent. Irvine Sensors Corp, Texas Instruments and Thomson CSF are currently working on 3D packaging technology, each taking a separate approach: Irvine is developing a stacked-IC technique, TI is working on a 'loaf-of-bread' stacked tape-automated-bonding (TAB) technique, and Thomson is developing a 'pancake' TAB approach. Among the advantages of 3D packaging over planar MCMs are density an order of magnitude higher at the system level, performance improvement through closer chip interconnects and reduced substrate interconnect density. VHDL synthesis, simulation good, but not good enough; today's tools garner mixed reviews from users. (part two of two) (VHSIC VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) users realize an increase in productivity, but they need improved logic synthesis and simulation tools as well. Synthesis tools can produce an optimized ASIC net-list automatically from register-transistor-level (RTL) VHDL descriptions, speeding the design process and minimizing the errors occurring when RTL models are translated into structure by hand. The leading VHDL synthesis tool is Synopsys Inc's Design Compiler; others available now or later in 1991 are Viewlogic Systems Inc's Viewdesign for synthesis with VHDL, Racal-Redac Inc's SilcSyn, LSI Logic Corp's Silicon 1076 and Mentor Graphics Corp's Design Consultant. VHDL users anticipate the availability of behavioral synthesis tools; current RTL synthesis tools require implied structure and cannot be considered truly behavioral. Various VHDL synthesis tool implementations are described. VHDL up for IEEE restandardization in 1992; mainstream message: upward compatibility necessary. (VHSIC hardware description The impending restandardization of the VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) has caused some to wonder about the extent of changes to be made to the still-emerging standard. The IEEE requires that all standards be reballoted every five years, which means the next VHDL ballot will be in 1992. A small but vocal group has called for extensive changes to the language, while another group favors cutting back VHDL, but most believe any changes made must be planned in consultation with users and must be upwardly compatible with the current standard. The new standard will likely include an extension for analog designs that is compatible with current VHDL. The four primary activities of the standardization process are definition of language requirements, design of the language, documentation of the language definition and validation of the language design; each step is described. GaAs powers RAM driver. (GigaBit Logic Inc's 10G014 DRAM and SRAM Driver/ECL-to-TTL Translator) (gallium-arsenide) (product GigaBit Logic Inc introduces the 10G014 DRAM and SRAM Driver/ECL-to-TTL Translator, which the company hopes will be the first million-plus-devices gallium-arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuit. The 10G014 improves the time required to run a serial sequence of operations from 40 or more nanoseconds in CMOS to only 3.5 nanoseconds: ECL/TTL level translation, multiplexing, latching and bus driving. The device has a 90-mA output drive capability and a typical propagation delay of 3.5 nanoseconds; it comes in a plastic package and costs $13.90 each in quantities of 10,000, making it competitive with ECL ICs in terms of price/performance. The chip design was commissioned by DEC for use in its memory system designs, including a 64Mbyte DRAM subsystem with a 100-nanosecond access time and a 200-nanosecond cycle time, using 1M-bit DRAMs with 80-nanosecond access times. X terminals get cheap color. (X-terminal platforms with good color-graphics support and priced under $4,000 to debut at Several X-terminal platforms with good color-graphics support and priced under $4,000 will be shown at the Uniforum conference in Jan 1991. Network Computing Devices Inc has put its standard 68020-plus-graphics ASIC suite into a 14-inch color platform costing $3,000; the company is targeting the 3270-terminal replacement market. Micronics Computer Inc will enhance its monochrome MaxTerm series with color X platforms based on Intel 80386 and 80486 processors and priced from $3,499; the MaxTerm 3X and 4X systems are intended more for PC and workstation users than for traditional terminal markets. Able Technologies Inc's Sparc-oriented spinoff Solarix Systems Inc has developed the CX-14, a 14-inch color X terminal priced under $1,900; the company promises a resolution of 1,024-by-768 pixels with 256 displayable colors out of a palatte of 16.7 million. Unix gets distributed. (Unix System V Release 4 from Unix System Laboratories Inc. and OSF-1 from the Open Software Foundation both Unix is becoming the operating system of choice for distributed computing: both Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4) from Unix System Laboratories Inc and supported by AT&T and Unix International, and OSF-1 from the Open Software Foundation support distribution of computing resources in work groups. SVR4 integrates features from Sun Microsystems Inc's SunOS, such as the Open Network Computing/Network File System packages and the Open Look graphical user interface (GUI), and from Berkeley Unix, such as sockets and the Unified File System. It also includes X Window in its application program interface (API) to help standardize platform graphics interfacing. OSF-1 is built atop the Mach kernel, developed by Carnegie-Mellon, and AIX, IBM's version of Unix; among its backers are IBM, DEC and Hewlett-Packard. OSF's Motif is outpacing Open Look as the standard Unix GUI. Multiprocessing Sparc bus in the works. (Solarix Systems Inc.'s new scalable Sparc workstations use the 64-bit MBus The new scalable Sparc workstations from Solarix Systems Inc mark the first time a third-party vendor has used the 64-bit Mbus processor-to-memory bus developed originally by Sun Microsystems Inc for its Sparcstation. The move could signal development of a standard way for OEMs to distinguish their Sparc-based systems. Sun initially planned to license only the SBus to third parties for development of add-on boards for the Sparcstation, but the firm's semiconductor licensees wanted an open connector to the bus to allow them to develop multiprocessing versions of the Sparc integer unit and cache-control chips. Details of the synchronous 320Mbyte-per-second bus were given to Sparc International to make it easier for third-party vendors to develop plug-and-play multiprocessing modules with integer, floating-point and cache-management chips; several MBus-based devices are described. Cadence's Amadeus 4.1 gets to 'Prance'. (Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Amadeus Systems Design Series 4.1 includes the Prance Cadence Design Systems Inc introduces Amadeus Systems Design Series 4.1, an electronic design automation (EDA) tool that adds the Prance printed circuit board layout product as well as a standard-parts library and new packaging and parts-selection tools. Prance was bought by Cadence from Automated Systems Inc in Apr 1990 but was not included in the initial release of Amadeus 4.0, which was based on the Cadence Design Framework II and included the Composer design-entry package and Verilog-based Analyzer simulation environment. Integrating Prance with Amadeus required some modification of the Prance user interface, and Prance does not run on top of the framework database, although design data transfer into Prance is transparent to users, according to the company. Amadeus 4.1 runs on DEC and Sun platforms and costs from $70,000, including Prance. 9210 stresses accuracy. (LeCroy Corp.'s Model 9210 pulse generator) (product announcement) LeCroy Corp introduces the Model 9210 pulse generator that delivers timing and output-level accuracy specs of 0.5 percent plus 200 picoseconds and one percent, respectively. The 300 MHz modular generator's specs are two to 10 times better than devices that cost four times as much, and it adds continuously variable edges, which are lacking in many generators costing more. The 9210 holds two of three available modules: the 9211 plug-in ($1,600) reaches 250 MHz and delivers edges variable over a range of one nanosecond to one millisecond; the 9212 ($2,200) reaches 300 MHz and delivers edges variable over a range of 300 picoseconds to one nanosecond; and the 9213 ($1,000) reaches 100 MHz and delivers edges variable over a range of 6.5 nanoseconds to 95 milliseconds. The devices are full GPIB programmable and have a 5-inch CRT showing all parameters at one time. Board rivals benchtops. (Optoelectronics Inc.'s PC10 universal counter/timer board) (product announcement) Optoelectronics Inc introduces the PC10 universal timer/counter board for IBM PC ATs. The $335 board outperforms many benchtop measurement units: it covers 10 Hz to 2.4 GHz (direct count to 150 MHz), displays 10 digits and delivers a continuously variable gate time ranging from one microsecond to 28 seconds. The board's input sensitivity is less than 10 mV from the bottom frequency to 1.6 GHz; it measures pulse widths, time intervals, ratios, averages and periods in addition to frequency. The PC10 runs under Windows 3.0, detects incoming frequency and directly tunes communications receivers to the appropriate frequency, logs data and other records to create a history of frequency drift or other parameters, and maintains its 10 MHz TCXO within one ppm through an accompanying software package. The card measures only nine inches but includes 23 ASICs as well as required amplifiers and pre-scalers. Engineers: don't blame me for delays; management, customers, supervisors are culprits, poll says. (Career Opinion Poll on Engineers responding to a Career Opinion Poll on product design cycles blame delays (in descending order of frequency) on management, customers, their immediate supervisors and other departments in their organizations; 10 others blamed other causes, and only two blamed themselves. The reason cited most often for product design delays was insufficient staffing. Managers themselves often see insufficient resources to cover extra incoming work along with existing work as a reason for product delays. Seventy-five percent of the engineers responding to the informal poll claim the product design cycle is shrinking: they claim the typical design project is completed within a year, although some report one-year to two-year cycles, and a small number say projects last longer than two years. Several comments from engineers responding to the poll on the detrimental impact of managers are related. EE specialty group formed. (Council of Engineering Specialty Boards) The Council of Engineering Specialty Boards (CESB) is formed to develop standards and criteria for engineering specialty-certification programs; CESB is comprised of seven engineering societies serving as full members and four others as associate members, with one affiliate member. The IEEE has attended meetings but only as an observer, and few major engineering societies have joined the group to date. CESB Dir John Antrim expects that other groups now hesitating will join the group once standards have been set. CESB will provide guidelines for engineering and technologists groups wanting to establish certification programs; its members include the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Institute for Certification of Engineering Technologists and American Academy of Environmental Engineers. The eras of engineering: National Technological University: Part 2. (Motorola Inc VP Ray O. Waddoups at a recent installment of the Motorola Inc VP Ray O. Waddoups told a recent installment of the Careers in Transition series that engineers can play an important role in the transition of the profession in the 1990s. Waddoups says success now depends on product development costs and cycle times rather than performance; he identified three eras of engineering. From 1945 to 1980 dominated by US industry and relatively stable, from 1980 to present called the era of manufacturability and dominated by Japan, and a new era beginning now that is called the era of total-quality concurrent engineering. Waddoups defines total quality as satisfying all customer needs all the time, putting the customer as the focus. Waddoups' presentation was broadcast by the National Technological University as part of its Technical Professional Development Series. A freeze-and-thaw job cycle; career opportunities in computers. Rostky, George. Hiring in the computer industry has slowed, but there are still many positions available. IBM, DEC, Data General and Hewlett-Packard have all initiated hiring freezes, although HP says it has implemented hiring controls, under which it will look outside the company if it finds it needs engineering expertise not available internally. Tandem Computers Inc, a leader in fault-tolerant computing for on-line transaction processing and other applications, is also not hiring at present, although Texas Microsystems Inc, another fault-tolerant computer maker, is hiring, looking for one or two engineers by the end of Feb 1991. The company is seeking midlevel engineers with three to five years of experience and a BSEE. Other companies seeking engineers are Pencom Software Inc, Wyse Technology and Epoch Systems Inc. RISC-based router debuts. (Proteon Corp.'s ProNet CNX series) (product announcement) Proteon Corp will introduce the ProNet CNX series of reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based communications routers at the CommNet conference in Washington, DC, in late Jan 1991. The ProNet CNX series uses a special multiport shared-memory architecture and Advanced Micro Devices' 29000 RISC processor; it will eventually support speeds over 100,000 packets per second. The CNX 500, the first in the series, runs at 25,000 packets per second and costs from $10,995 to $19,495. The router is intended for IBM SNA/multiple-protocol environments, particularly for work groups needing to move from 16M-bps token-ring backbones to 100M-bps Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) backbones. The device routes IBM-environment messages into IPX (Novell NetWare), OSI, DECnet, AppleTalk, XNS and TCP/IP protocol stacks; it supports T1/E1 lines, X.25 and frame-relay fast-packet switching for WANs. Electronic weapons systems score in Iraq night strikes; Tomahawk missile, C3-intelligence success boosts support for more Pentagon The strong performance of electronic weapons systems and surveillance technology during the US military's heavy bombing of Iraq has prompted defense industry analysts to predict more Pentagon funding for such items as Tomahawk missiles, electronically guided bombs, anti-aircraft suppressors, and countless other expensive items. The new high-technology weapons enabled the US and its allies to attack Iraq at night with relative ease. Defense industry stocks responded well to the onset of war and the heavy usage of new weapons systems. The Patriot anti-missile missiles have gotten enormous attention as relatively successful defenders against the Iraqi Scud missile. NCR in court bid as AT&T gains. (AT&T attempts hostile takeover of NCR Corp.) NCR Corp, striving to fend off a hostile takeover by AT and T, filed a lawsuit against the aggressor, claiming that the takeover is illegal under federal banking and regulated utilities laws. The suit was filed shortly after AT and T claimed to have received tender offers for 70 percent of NCR's outstanding shares, leaving NCR only a 10 percent margin of safety. NCR's suit charges AT and T with using profits from its government-regulated long-distance business to finance the takeover attempt. AT and T has not increased its $90-per-share offer, but extended the offer until midnight on Feb 15, 1991. Smart power costs crimp use. (discrete power transistors) Levine, Bernard. A small group of semiconductor vendors has been developing discrete, intelligent power transistors. This endeavor has been an uphill battle because 'smart' transistors are more expensive than conventionally powered transistors and bipolar products. The smart transistors house logic for automatic shut-off and temperature control, as well as other features. They may cost twice as much as conventional circuitry, while not significantly reducing the parts count. In addition, many of the smart power products are available only from a single source, making purchasers loathe to become dependant on one vendor. ITC told: Mil packaging in foreign hands. (International Trade Commission considers military electronic packaging) US executives reported to the International Trade Commission (ITC) on the high proportion of foreign companies active in the electronic packaging business in the US. Some analysts estimate that 98 percent of US military packages are manufactured by foreign companies. Members of the US ceramic packaging industry complained to the ITC that US policies and foreign competition have threatened the competitiveness of American companies. The ITC hearing on this matter resulted from a request by the Senate that the ITC investigate three industries: communications equipment, semiconductor manufacturing and testing equipment, and pharmaceuticals. Hear IBM shifts OfficeVision duty: SAA exec adds role. (Systems Application Architecture expert Earl F. Wheeler will control A large-scale reorganization of IBM executives has resulted in the transfer of responsibility for OfficeVision office automation software to the Programming Systems branch headed by Earl F. Wheeler, a developer of IBM's Systems Application Architecture. OfficeVision has been delayed twice, most recently in Dec, 1990. The shift may have been spurred by the promotion of IBM vice president Ned C. Lautenbach, formerly general manager of IBM's Applications Solutions branch, to the position of senior managing director of Asian Pacific operations. Export curbs in deep soup. (U.S. and Free World Coordinating Committee export controls) (Government Closeup) (column) Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, excluded from the CoCom international trade group and thus not impeded by its export controls on high-technology products, are marketing advanced systems to the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. The Pentagon and US electronics firms are currently debating the last export curbs to such sales by US companies. Some US analysts fear that recently industrialized Far Eastern countries will get first crack at valuable markets. In 1990 CoCom promised to reduce the list of products that would require export review and licenses, but pressure from the Pentagon may prevent the organization from cutting the list. '90 U.S. telecom sales rose 13%. (1990 market for telecommunications equipment) The North American Telecommunications Assn (NATA) reports that the 1990 market for telecommunications equipment will probably reach $37 billion, a 13.1 percent increase over 1989. NATA predicts that the market will gain $4.2 billion in 1991, reacting to growth in the local area network, modem, and multiplexing equipment areas. NATA's estimate for 1995 is $58.3 billion. The trade group expects a strong demand for integrated services digital network by that time. NATA believes the industry is gaining efficiency and profitability, but it perceives the computer industry as being healthier than the telecommunications equipment industry. Transaction processing under Unix gets push from IBM, NCR, others. Khermouch, Gerry. On-line transaction processing (OLTP) in a Unix-like operating system environment is the goal of product development efforts at Transarc, a company that has garnered the support of IBM, Stratus Computer, and HP for its open systems development plans. Transarc's product will be comprised of a group of modular software components based on Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment guidelines. NCR Corp is also readying an open systems approach to OLTP represented by its product Top End, an application platform for the Systems 3000 NCR computers. HP, Computer Associates target IBM for software. (companies seek to increase sales to IBM mainframe environment)(Computer HP and Computer Associates International Inc (CA) sign a co-development contract in which the companies will create a line of software packages to be sold for the IBM mainframe environment. The deal signifies CA's first foray into the open systems market. The software will run on HP's 9000 line of Unix-like computers featuring the reduced-instruction set computing technology. It is possible that the deal involved a cash payment by HP of 20 percent of the value of the project. The agreement does not bar CA from working in conjunction with other companies in addition to HP. Two VPs, 28 others cut at Alliant; loss seen. (Alliant Computer Systems Corp.)(vice presidents) Alliant Computer Systems Corp lays off 30 employees in early 1991, including vice presidents for sales and advanced technology Lynn Nelson and Jay Torborg, respectively. The executives lost their jobs due to cost-cutting priorities. The company announced that it planned to postpone its targeted return to profitability to June 1991. Many of the cuts were made in the hardware research and development department. The places vacated by hardware engineers may be filled by newly hired software research and development workers as Alliant shifts its emphasis from computer systems to software, focusing on C and Fortran compilers. The work force reduction is Alliant's second such move in a three month period. VLSI Tech gets Europe licensee for 1-, 1.5 micron gate arrays. (VLSI Technology to license technology to European Silicon VLSI Technology agrees to license its 1.5- and 1-micron gate arrays and design products to European Silicon Structures (ES2). When the ES2 facility is qualified, VLSI can send customers to the French source for prototyping and small-volume ASIC production. The ES2 source allows for quick turnaround in low volumes and lets VLSI focus on production quantities at its own facilities. The five-year cooperative agreement is intended by VLSI to insure greater profitability. The rights to VGT200 and VGT350 gate arrays from VLSI are included in the agreement. VLSI gate arrays operate on equipment from Sun Microsystems Inc, HP, and other workstation manufacturers. Parley to spotlight DSPs, BiCMOS. (Custom Integrated Circuits Conference)(digital signal processor designs) The May 1991 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) will feature a series of papers concerned with digital signal processor (DSP) designs and BiCMOS technology. Almost half of the 170 papers to be submitted are from foreign sources. Mitsubishi is expected to describe a single-chip DSP intended for mobile telecommunications functions. This item includes 1.3 million transistors and is fabricated with 1-micron, double-poly, double-metal CMOS technology. Motorola will refer to a 16-bit DSP of modular design, created with silicon compiler techniques. Stepper firms training lens makers. (technicians needed for sub-micron integrated circuit manufacture)(includes related Wafer stepper manufacturers are directing training programs to insure that their companies have employees skilled in the difficult art of ultra-precise lens grinding. Wafer steppers, crucial to the production of integrated circuits, require lens assemblies for sub-micron production. Many of the skilled opticians in the field are old and soon to retire, requiring companies to initiate aggressive training programs to attract new employees to the profession, which can take many years to learn. The quality of wafer stepper lenses needs to be so high that automated lens production is impractical - a human expert is called for. Analog terminates Nu, Gerber. (Analog Devices terminates regional distributors Nu Horizons and Gerber Electronics) After acquiring Precision Monolithics Inc (PMI), Analog Devices (ADI) enacts a marketing strategy that favors its larger industrial distributors. Two smaller regional distributors inherited from PMI, Nu Horizons and Gerber Electronics, have been terminated. ADI will shift from marketing its product exclusively through direct sales, moving to a series of distribution contracts with some of the larger PMI distributors. The franchise agreements with some distributors are complicated because those distributors also market the products of ADI rival Maxim Integrated Products. Samsung, Brajdas near settlement. (Samsung Semiconductor to pay for Brajdas Corp.'s expenses related to distributor's termination) Samsung Semiconductor will reportedly pay Brajdas Corp over $700,000 for returned products resulting from the termination of Brajdas' subsidiary, distributor Cypress Electronics, in 1990. The agreement between the companies follows Brajdas' initiation of a breach of contract suit against Samsung, in which court papers alleged that Samsung owed obsolete products credits, court costs, interest, and credits on the returned inventory. A Brajdas executive notes that Samsung has already paid over $200,000 of the total and that the suit will be dropped when full payment is received. IBM quarter net up fourfold; revenues rise 12.7%. (financial report for 4th qtr 1990) IBM's 4th qtr profits showed a fourfold increase in 1990, bringing total revenues up by 12.7 percent. The company benefited from a lower effective tax rate as well as currency valuations. During the quarter, IBM earned $4.30 per share, or $2.461 billion overall. Revenues for 1989 were $20.462 billion while the 1990 figure was $23.061 billion. IBM has made significant alterations in its expense structure. A renewal in the company's mainframe business is partially responsible for the strong fiscal performance. IBM's 1990 per-share earnings totaled $6.02 billion, or $10.51 a share. Computer services get "buy" options. (stock market report) (What They're Saying) (column) The computer services industry is benefiting from 'buy' recommendations from financiers, who are promoting the stock offerings of Adobe Systems, Microsoft Corp, and Autodesk. The services branch of the computer industry has been blessed by firm orders, product upgrading, and growing revenues. Chris Mortenson, an analyst at Alex, Brown and Sons, predicts that Adobe's net earnings in 1992 will be between $2.85 and $2.90 per share. Mortenson also considers Microsoft stock a wise buy, although it is trading at a near record price of $86.25. He believes that Microsoft's upgrade of Excel spreadsheet software will result in a gain in market share. DEC quarter profit off 28%. (2nd qtr 1991) DEC's 2nd qtr 1991 financial report shows that earnings are down 28 percent from 1990's figure. 1991 earnings are $111,141,000, or 92 cents a share. This result approximates the top range of outside projections. The 2nd qtr marks the tenth straight quarter in which DEC figures diminished on a year-to-year basis. The company's level of product sales is reduced from previous periods. DEC executives have established a set of cost-cutting programs and have made outside investments in an effort to improve the company's financial performance. Turbographics. (Computers/communications) (includes related article on how a diagonal line is drawn on a monitor) To improve computer monitor display clarity and make edges and lines smooth-looking, Steven Edelson invented and patented a way of allowing individual screen pixels to represent graduating degrees of color. He invented the technology in 1981, but it took nine years for it to gain industry recognition. The main reason for the the delay was the lack of a mass market vehicle for the product. With the adoption of the popular graphics resolution standard Video Graphics Array (VGA), Analog Devices Inc agreed to convert Edelson's original cumbersome circuit board into a chip containing 70,000 transistors. Many leading manufacturers have now signed to include the new technology in future microcomputer products. The remaining problem is with software, which requires retuning by developers in order for it to make use of the innovative graphics technology. A promising computer stock. (Convex Computer) (Computer Ventures) Shaffer, Richard A. Convex Computer's niche for its early mid-range computers is a result of marketing them as minisupercomputers in an attempt to steal customers from DEC's minicomputers and Cray Research's supercomputers. Although the company continues to grow faster than the market average and is twice as profitable, its future success in the supercomputer market may depend on its research into two new technologies. The company is developing new products in the parallel processing field, in which a computer has hundreds of cheap processors working on a single problem, and in the reduced instruction-set computing market, where a processor handles fewer different types of instructions, but does it faster. Convex stock is currently down 30 percent, and analysts maintain that future success for the company lies in its ability to compete in the high end of the computer market. Readying your resumes for trying times. (Procurement HotLines) Hunter, William N. Resume preparation must focus on information most relevant to the position one is seeking. A well written resume emphasizes qualifications and educational background and leaves out such items of personal status as age or marital status. The right approach to use if one's degree is indirectly related to the open position is to cite the university first and degree last. If a grade point average is high, underscore it by placing it on a new line. The resume must feature all skills, membership, services and awards relative to the position. Give details of special interests. Expo focuses on new ways to MacBlend. (MacWorld Expo) (Yarc Systems Corp.'s Macrageous coprocessor board, Logitech Inc.'s San Francisco's MacWorld Expo focuses on new ways of blending the Mac through third party upgrade products. Yarc Systems Corp of Agoura Hills, CA, introduces the Macrageous coprocessor board, which features an AMD 29050 reduced-instruction-set computing microchip. Prices start at $2,000. Mobius Inc unveils a display board for the Mac SE, the 030 Display System, based on a Motorola 68030 chip. The upgrade sells for $995 and a two-page display system is $1,295. Fremont, CA-based Logitech introduced the MouseMan cordless and corded mice and a trackball for Macintosh computers. MouseMan sells for $129 and operates at either 200 or 400 dots per inch. It is compatible with Macintosh A/UX and Microsoft Windows. Accounting system to blame for financial woes at INS. (Immigration and Naturalization Service) The General Accounting Office (GAO) blames poor financial management at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on the agency's obsolete primary accounting system. Fund balances that the INS reported to the Treasury Department in September 1989 did not correspond with the figures in the INS' system. A GAO review shows that the INS as of September 1989 had $40 million less in reimbursable fee accounts than amounts reported to the Treasury. INS officials claim they are converting an accounting system operated by the Justice Department, but the GAO questions such a short term solution since the system cannot meet the INS accounting and financial needs. A audit report identifies several internal control shortcomings within the Justice system. GAO suggests yearly audits of financial statements to ensure the reliability of INS financial data. FHWA seeks to manage traffic with smart cars. (Federal Highway Administration) The Federal Highway Administration plans to improve the nation's ground transportation with the use of mobile computers in vans. The agency's Intelligent Vehicle Highway System project (IVHS) will be based on control and communications technology that features Intel 80486-class microprocessors and database management software. Development costs for IVHS are targeted at $100 million over the next few years, and research and development could reach $1.4 billion. The California Transportation Department and General Motors are working on Pathfinder, a navigation and in-vehicle information system. The experiment provides drivers with specially computer equipped cars that give up-to-the-minute information about congestion, accidents and highway construction and alternate route strategies. Officials forecast that by 2000, 50 cities will be using these cars. Computers linchpin of war effort. Green, Robert. US military officials predict that interoperability, command and control systems and automated war planning will be keys to success in the war with Iraq. An official reports of more electronics connectivity being put in the Gulf in 90 days than in Europe in 40 years. Navy Vice Adm Jerry O. Tuttle claims the Joint Operations Tactical System which links 30 different systems are providing the wartime data that commanders need. Interoperability between the US and its allies have also been increased. Another official adds that after Pres Bush deployed more troops to Saudi Arabia, the army's network management capabilities increased. A Navy official says that a wartime commander must sit at one workstation and orchestrate data maestro-like. Bush won't renew OIRA nomination. (Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs) Pres Bush refuses to renew James F. Blumstein's nomination to head the government's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Bush submitted Blumstein in Apr 1990 as his candidate for head of the OIRA, but the Senate did not vote on the nomination. White House staff members say a nomination is unlikely as long as OIRA future remains uncertain. Sen John Glenn (D-Ohio), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, claims his committee is working out a compromise with the Organization of Management and Budget (OMB) to reauthorize OIRA for four years. Blumstein lacks experience in information resource management, and he hurt his cause during a recent hearing by telling the committee he might not be available if confirmation were delayed until this year. OIRA enters its second year without an administrator. James B. MacRae, OIRA's deputy administrator, has been acting chief since 1989. DOD releases requirements for revisions to Ada. (Department of Defense) Ada 9X's requirement phase sets nine basic conditions for the revision of the Ada high-level programming language, according to a Department of Defense project report. The requirements include programming paradigm support, internationalization, real-time system programming, parallel processing, distributed processing and safety-critical and trusted applications. Other requirements are general-purpose information systems and scientific and mathematical applications. Next is the mapping-revision phase, which will define changes to the standard. Christine Anderson, the Ada 9X project manager, says the language precision team is developing definitions of various thorny areas of the language. The parallel processing section is being rewritten due to the acceptance of parallel processing architectures. The new standard requires a new suite of Ada Compiler Validation Capability tests (ACVC). 3Com shift leads feds to re-evaluate LANs. (3Com Corp. leaves file server hardware and software business) 3Com Corp's decision to leave the market for file servers and communications software and concentrate on network adapters leads some federal network managers to rethink their work-group strategies. 3Com has over twice the LAN market share in the federal government that Novell enjoys, according to figures from Computer Intelligence. A company spokesman notes that 3Com's development dollars are being injected into making intelligent network hubs, multiprotocol communications servers, bridges and routers. The company plans to edge out smaller companies in the global data networking market. A 3Com official forecasts that the company will thrive on the strength of its network adapter business. Federal customers want to know if Microsoft is going to support 3Com value-added services, which are used extensively by the federal government. IRMS officials still hashing out MAS deals with three vendors. (Information Resource Management Service) (General Service Contract negotiations between the General Services Administration (GSA) and hardware and software vendors are still going on after nearly a year. The GSA's Multiple-Award Schedule contracts for microcomputer software and hardware ends March 31, 1991, but officials in the GSA's Information Resources Management Services (IRMS) are continuing contract negotiations with Telxon Corp, Racal-Milgo and NCR Corp's third-party maintenance arm. IRMS officials rule out a deadline for ending negotiations, but caution that it is not GSA's policy to extend contracts for a year. Vendors complain that IRMS demand for more pricing information results in delays in getting contracts. There are also complaints that IRMS lacks the staff and the systems to handle the mound of paperwork generated by the new reporting requirements. IBM wins IRS contract for tax collection system. Seaborn, Margaret M. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) awards IBM Corp with a $340 million contract to replace the IRS primary tax collection systems. The IBM Integrated Collection System (ICS) contract provides the IRS with software, hardware, systems engineering services, installation, maintenance and training. Mandatory items of the contract costs $126.3 million, with options worth $213.3 million. By 1993, IBM will install 11 mainframes featuring disk and tape storage and running IBM DB2 database management system software and the IBM MVS/ESA mainframe operating system. Local area networks with printers and microcomputers will be installed at more than 600 IRS offices. Subcontractors are to convert 1 million lines of code to allow the existing Automated Collection System (ACS) to run on the new hardware. The IRS forecasts that it will collect $2.52 billion more in delinquent taxes during the seven-year period of the contract. Apple debuts new Ethernet card at Macworld Expo. (product announcement) Apple introduces a range of products at the Jan 1991 Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Products include a $199 Ethernet card for the Macintosh LC and a $424 NuBus Ethernet card for the Mac II series computers. The Expo also showcases Apple's Ethernet cabling system, which supports AppleTalk, DECnet, TCP/IP and current applications that meet the IEEE 802.3 standard. The $175 Apple Ethernet twisted-pair transceiver connects unshielded twisted-pair lines like those in telephone systems. Asante Technologies Inc introduces the FriendlyNet LC card using Apple's Ethernet connectors that plug into the Mac LC's 68020 direct processor slot. FriendlyNet is $349 with a twisted-pair media adapter or $399 with a multiport adapter. Farallon Computer Inc introduces the $195 PhoneNet StarConnector EN, which adheres to the new specifications. Apple is to introduce Ethernet on high-end Mac systems board by the end of 1991, Apple employees revealed. Informix CEO says staying focused means survival. (Chief Executive Officer Phillip E. White) (interview) Phillip E. White, chief executive officer of Menlo Park Calif-based Informix Software Inc, says the federal government's bid process is time- and money- consuming and ends in protests. White tells of vendors' frustration with federal business due to these bottlenecks. The federal sector must make bids less complicated so they can be implemented quicker, he adds. He notes that the federal market is a strategic piece of business that accounts for 10 percent of Informix's revenue. White, a former president of San Jose, CA-based Wyse Technology, says Informix is working with computer-aided software engineering (CASE). He claims Informix's CASE strategy is unique, because it dwells not only on design and code generation, but the ability to maintain the code and enhance the applications. Word for the Mac makes top grades: GUI word for processors. (users rate graphical-user-interface-based word processors) (buyers A Government Computer News (GCN) survey shows that Microsoft Corp's Word for the Macintosh is the choice graphical user interface (GUI) word processor for readers of GCN. NASA computer scientist John Matthews says Word is widely used at the agency's Washington headquarters. The future of word processing lies with Word, he adds. Another user claims to use Word for mathematics and says the WYSIWYG features are invaluable. Among the two second-place finishers, MacWrite II from Claris Corp received little praise. One user wrote that MacWrite is obsolete and is on its way out. The other second place finisher, WriteNow from T/Maker Co, is said to have compatibility problems and is difficult to use. Microsoft Word for Windows, ranked third, was hailed for its performance by some, and criticized for being slow by others. A military analyst says multiple fonts are a big leap forward but one is limited if they are not bought with the package. Gridcase 1550sx packs power, but it's also a real heavyweight. (Hardware Review) (portable computer from Grid Systems Corp.) Grid Systems Corp introduces the Gridcase 1550sx, a 20-MHz Intel 80386SX-based portable computer that ranges in price from $4,655 for 2Mbytes of RAM and no hard drive or display to $7,045 for a 120Mbyte hard drive with a screen. The Gridcase features enough memory and power to run programs such as Microsoft Windows 3.0. The 1550sx rates at 3.3 million instructions per second, a third faster than the Gridcase 1450sx with a 16-MHz chip. The Gridcase features an isopoint, a built-in mouse-like device that is more sensitive than an average mouse. It becomes problematic when one attempts to slide and roll it like a mouse. The Gridcase has a keyboard that is cramped and badly organized. The delete key is on the top instead of the bottom row and one can easily mistake the shift key for the nearly identical Enter key. MS-DOS 4.01 is included. Tried-and-true IBM outshines mail order. (Power User) (column) McCormick, John. IBM products are expensive, but may be more worthwhile in the long run. IBM outshines mail order computer companies in its high rate of reliability. No problems have been found in 20 different IBM expansion cards. An PS/2 Model 80 runs 18 to 24 hours a day with no problem. In contrast, as many as 41 percent of all mail-order products have some problem. Similar success was found with a CDR-77 CD-ROM player from NEC Inc. Winsleuth can help fine-tune your computer to run Windows. (Software Review) (utility program from Dariana Technology Group Dariana Technology Group Inc introduces WinSleuth, a $149 utility program designed to optimize performance of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and Windows-supported devices and memory. WinSleuth allows a user to fix a problem while in the program and offers a scrolling roll of Windows programs and icons. In tests, WinSleuth identified every system component and tallied up memory allocation and ROM BIOS data precisely. WinSleuth gives the user instructions for setting up a permanent Windows swap file if the user does not want to move to a faster computer. In one test, WinSleuth even suggested the elimination of Quarterdeck's memory manager, QEMM.SYS, which is notoriously incompatible with Windows' HIMEM.SYS. Digital Research gives plain MS-DOS a new look. (Digital Research Inc.'s DR DOS 5.0) (Software Review) (evaluation) Digital Research Inc introduces DR DOS 5.0, a $199 single-user operating system which runs any program that MS-DOS does. DR DOS supports disk partition sizes from 1Mbyte to 512Mbytes. Installed on a Compaq Computer Corp 386/25e, DR DOS worked well with Windows 3.0 and 30 different applications, from relational databases to presentation graphics. The most obvious difference between DR DOS and MS-DOS is the interface. DR DOS features the line command of MS-DOS as well as the optional ViewMax graphical user interface. Unlike MS-DOS, DR DOS includes file-transfer utilities for moving data across high-speed serial lines. Buckle up a LAN for safety with a UPS. (Elgar Corp.'s Intelligent Power Source with Artificial Intelligence uninterruptible power San Diego-based Elgar Corp introduces the $699-to-$899 Intelligent Power Source with Artificial Intelligence (IPS/IA), an uninterruptible power supply that features a 16-bit microprocessor with 2Kbytes of RAM and associated software. Unlike other UPSs, the IPS/IA allows network managers to monitor power consumption at any node from any other node. The desktop display features yellow, green and red lights for flagging variance of voltage, battery, load and system tests. Color-coded pop-up menus on a terminal or workstation allow a user to check the status of any power node or file server, even if it is across the country. Elgar also introduce a $249 IPS card for a single microcomputer. FAA plan proposes C over Ada for agency telecom. (Federal Aviation Administration) (C and Ada programming languages) A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report proposes the C programming language as the standard for telecommunications in the FAA. The report notes the industry-wide use of the C programming language for telecommunications software. The report includes a slew of recommendations, including plans to have a fast packet-switched voice- and data-network for its air traffic operations by 2010. The report recommends a broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) for a National Airspace System (NAS) operations backbone. Older voice networks, basically point-to-point networks, lack the efficiency of switched networks, the report adds. The report recommends optical fiber as the media of choice for future telecommunications networks. CN '91 experts from technical, political arenas. (Communication Networks '91 trade show preview) About 25,000 visitors and 400 vendors are expected at Communication Network '91 in Washington, DC, Jan 28-31, for the nation's largest voice, data and telecommunications show. The event is designed for senior managers responsible for 250 or more microcomputers and five or more local area networks, includes private demonstration suites where 13 companies will showcase their products. Sen Albert Gore Jr (D-Tenn) is to speak about the National High Performance Computer Technology Act of 1989. The act allocates $400 million for the building of a 3G-bps national research and education network by 1996. Show features a galaxy of new products. (Communication Networks Conference and Exposition 1991) The Communication Networks '91 show will feature a slew of new products. DEC will display the a DECmcc management station for Ultrix, a Unix network management system that supports DECnet and TCP/IP protocols. Gandalf Data Inc of Wheeling, IL, will show its Access Hub series of 10BaseT compliant wiring hubs for Ethernet networks. Memotec Data Inc of Montreal will display the SP 9700, Government Open Systems Interconnect Profile-compatible packet assembler-disassembler. The SP 9700 acts as an X.25 concentrator/switch at hub or remote sites. SMC's menu system gives Army industrial-strength look and feel. (Small Multiuser Computer contract) (Uniplex Integrated Menu The Army is pleased with the Uniplex Integrated Menu (UIM) it is getting under the Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) contract. UIM delivers a consistent look-and-feel to both Unix and MSDOS applications. UIM is a character-based menu system that consists of seven application categories: spreadsheet, electronic mail, word processing, graphics, project management, database and communications. UIM also features a command language interpreter and a fourth generation language that allows users to customize menus and develop applications while maintaining the system's consistency. The UIM is the creation of the Army, Electronics Data Systems Corp and Uniplex Inc of Irving, Texas. The army hopes to use UIM to reduce costs and training time and have consistency across applications. NASA trying SuiteTalk on satellite system. Masud, S.A. Suite Software's SuiteTalk is being used by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency software engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make client-server applications for a satellite ground system. SuiteTalk uses concept known as message bus for creating client-server applications. The Topography Experiment, or Topex, satellite will be used to study the oceans and their effects on climate. The satellite software features telemetry, command and communications subsystems consisting of 20 applications, each providing a specific service at the request of a client server application. Logical addressing is another feature of SuiteTalk. This allows client server applications to access into its message bus and pass messages to each other without knowledge of the physical destination of the messages. McClellan base network pioneers communication. (McClellan Air Force Base) McClellan Air Force Base of California has developed a network of 175 CPUs of varying architectures, including 75 DEC VAX computers. The network integrates McClellan's engineering, maintenance, materials, distribution and information systems. The network includes 25 miles of fiber optic cable and 15 miles of copper coaxial cable. Some of the applications on the system includes a Federal Acquisition Regulations database, an electronic forms system, Harvard Graphics and an Oracle relational database management system. Army tests new software with potential to cut costs. Schwartz, Karen D. Course schedulers at Fort Benning, GA, are testing Artemis 9000 project management software to schedule, coordinate and plan the base's resources and training activities. Artemis 9000, from Metier Management Systems Inc, features a critical path scheduler integrated with the Artemis database and English-like command language. Other features includes date arithmetic, calendars and graphical reporting which allows applications to be used in situations other than project management methods. At Fort Benning, Artemis 9000 runs on an IBM 4381 mainframe under VM. Fort Benning conducts about 450,000 classes and training maneuvers a year, including parachuting and infantry officers' basic and advanced courses. Prior to Artemis, Fort Benning used a manual system consisting of color-coded cards mounted on scheduling boards for scheduling training and resources. Nelson's benchmark compares databases. (The Neal Nelson Database Benchmark) Neal Nelson & Associates introduce the Neal Nelson Database Benchmark, a multiuser benchmark that compares various database management systems and computers performing database activities. The benchmark gauges how various relational DBMSs operate when running a wide range of SQL functions, including data retrieval, data manipulation and arithmetic functions. The program shows how the size of the database affects response time and how numerous optimization techniques affect throughput, says company Pres Neal Nelson. Nelson has a contract with the Army's Criminal Investigation Command to evaluate Informix under Unix for the Army's Automated Criminal Investigative Reporting System. Database Benchmark offers 20 to 30 tests designed for comparing databases. Unix event showcases wide array of new products. (Uniforum 91) (product announcement) Two hundred seventy exhibitors are expected to attend Uniforum '91 in Dallas, Jan 22-24, 1991. Product introductions will include Applix Inc's Asterix, a document preparation program with a price range of $695 to $995 for DEC workstations and Sun Microsystems SPARCstations. Astrix features a macro facility that customizes the interface; multiple document linkage, pre-set style guides and built-in drawing tools and allows the import of spreadsheet data and graphical files. Cayman Systems Inc unveils its GatorBox AppleTalk-Ethernet gateway with the new Version 1.6 software. HUD tracks refunds for FHA-insured homeowners. (Department of Housing and Urban Development) (Federal Housing Administration) The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is developing the Distributive Share and Refund Subsystem (DSRS), a system to track and distribute refunds to homeowners who bought houses with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance. DSRS is one of four prime subsystems composing the Single Family Mortgage Insurance System. IBM's Cobol 2 Optimizer compiler was used to write the refund subsystem. The new database will be written in DB2 due to its ability to store vast amounts of data. DMA system to chart map inventories worldwide. (Defense Mapping Agency) The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) has contracted with Computer Sciences Corp to install a $18.7 million automated distribution system to keep track of its 225 million charts, maps and other geodetic products stored worldwide. The new system will run inventory-tracking software from Atlanta-based American Systems Inc on IBM AS/400 minicomputers. To track the maps, the system will use a stock number and an edition number marking each map or chart. The new system also features bar-code capabilities. The DMA hopes to move to a bar-code system eventually. Pointing devices: click of a mouse replaces clack of a keyboard. (buyers guide) Pointing devices may never replace the keyboard, but the rise in sales of mice and trackballs put these devices in a strong market position. Mice, the most popular pointing devices, are bundled with IBM PS/2s and Macintoshes. Microsoft sold 2 million of its leading mouse in 1990, and claims that 25 percent of all microcomputer users own mice. Mice and trackballs sense position optomechanically, optically or and mechanically and most have a base resolution of 200 points per inch (PPI). Light pens are not as popular as mouse and trackballs. They are being used for record-keeping and point-of- sale transactions. A light pen scans the computer screen up to 60 times a second to find its place on a screen. Design Technology and FTG Data Systems are among makers of light pens. Digitizing tablets are popular among CAD and graphics designers. Overhaul of NWS systems to boost research; modernization will give forecasters huge amounts of data. (National Weather Service) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is beginning a $2 billion modernization of the National Weather Service (NWS). The overhaul, expected to be completed in 1997, will transmit data from satellites, ground sensors and Doppler radars to weather forecasters. The modernization program features a $400 million Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). The system runs on technical workstations that collect and integrate data and allows individual forecasters to manage the data. NOAA's Oklahoma office will test how a NOAA-designed AWIPS prototype and a Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) installation work together. The NEXRAD contract calls for installing 170 radar units, 124 of which go to NWS. The rest will go to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense. NOAA deputy assistant administrator Louis J. Boezi says the modernization will provide substantially new information that the agency never had before. Streamlined IRM shortens the paper chase. (information resource management director Frank DiGialleonardo of the National Oceanic The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) information resource management (IRM) alleviates backlog to a great degree, says the director of the agency's Office of Information Systems and Finance. Frank DiGialleonardo says IRM improves the agency's ability to pursue timely acquisitions. The director notes that the agency's use of electronic data interchange (EDI) focuses on businesses and clients. NOAA is developing microcomputer-based software for handling most administrative transactions. NOAA's 650 sites throughout the US submit biweekly time and attendance reports with basic software and telecommunications. NOAA is developing Electronic Administrative Support Interface (EASI), a software which operates on standard IBM PCs or clones, for frequent transactions such as personnel requisitions. The program has built-in forms that help eliminate errors. Storage scarcity threatens aging research data. (at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Archival storage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) scientific data needs to be improved; some of its oldest archive tapes are deteriorating. The director of the newly formed Earth System Data and Information Management Program Office, Vernon Derr, says the agency is using in-house funds on the most serious cases. The agency aims to save data and make it accessible. NOAA has 11 million paper records, many handwritten and some that are impossible to scan due to their poor quality. In Feb 1991, NOAA will embark on a prototype archiving project in which more than 30,000 data tapes from polar satellites will moved onto optical disks over two years. NOAA is to experience a 30-fold increase in the amount of data collected over the next several years, due to National Weather Service modernization. Conference shows EDI moving ahead at brisk pace. (Electronic Data Interchange) (Headlines and Footnotes) (column) Electronic data interchange (EDI) is gaining popularity in federal agencies due to its promotion by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Defense Department. At a conference on electronic data interchange, government agencies said their two biggest concerns are standards and security. The OMB is concerned about legal constraints such as the requirement that all government agreements be written down, and security, which involves the integrity, confidentiality and availability of data. A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spokesman says the new Federal Information Processing Standard will help simplify a slew of industry-specific national and international standards. Remembrances of retired trail boss chief. (Bob Ross) (IRM Notebook) (column) The retirement of Bob Ross as head of the General Services Administration (GSA) Trail Boss Program leaves an indelible mark on federal government computing. Ross played a role in the creation of the Alaska Federal Data Processing Center, which was later turned over to the Interior Department. His innovations and outspoken style caught the attention of GSA information resource management (IRM) Commissioner Frank Carr. Ross was later sent to study data processing services with the aim of improving GSA's response to customer needs. The outcome of the various meetings and sessions led to the decentralization of the agency's services. One of Ross's recommendation was the creation of an elite group of seasoned managers to troubleshoot agency IRM procurements. Ross took over the upstart Agency Liaison Officer program and made this a prized asset to the GSA. He had plans for the set up of an IRM institute, but in the Trail Boss program found a vehicle for providing IRM managers with skills. TQM shifts focus to customer satisfaction. (Total Quality Management) ( DP Issues) (column) Total quality management (TQM) accents customer satisfaction as the thrust of success in an organization. TQM requires a programmer to show quantitative proof of work quality. TQM calls for rigid programming methodology and from which the programmer is forbidden to deviate. SNI faces tough competition in the U.S. market. (Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme) ( From the Crow's Nest) (company profile) Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) was founded in Oct 1990 by the merger of Siemens' $5 billion computer operations Nixdorf's $3 billion business. SNI, like other European companies, may resort to a marketing alliance in order to penetrate the US market. SNI could offer the US partner access to the European market, and the US partner, possibly a systems integrator, could sell a large volume of SNI's standard compliant hardware in exchange. Acquisition is another possible tactic for entering the US market. SNI's technology base and product line-up, a mix of open and proprietary platforms, lacks a competitive edge on functionality or price performance. Analysts say SNI's prospects are better in Europe, especially in Germany. Official calls first fully automated census a success. (Gerald F. Cranford of the Bureau of the Census) Bureau of the Census data processing director Gerald F Cranford describes the first fully automated census as a success, with surprisingly few snags. He says automation and processing blended well with the bureau's schedules. Cranford says that for the first time, each of 458 district offices, seven regional offices, 13 regional census centers were linked through a network built by Digital Equipment Corp. The size of this operation created the potential for breakdowns and caused anxiety, he says. Links between the 458 district offices and 13 regional centers transmitted information at 2,400 bits per second. Data sped across T1 lines linking the regional centers with processing offices at 1.54M-bits per second. Cranford notes that in the event of losing a T1 line there was enough backup to reroute without a loss. Park Service project to link micros to mainframe. (National Park Service) The National Park Service (NPS) begins a major overhaul of its financial systems aimed at linking the agency's microcomputers to a central mainframe. The NPS uses Federal Financing System (FFS) software from American Management Systems (AMS) to link the Interior Department's Amdahl 5890 series mainframe in Reston, VA, with and IBM AT-compatible microcomputers at 48 Park Service locations. Six Interior bureaus are now using FFS software. The Park Service expects to generate 7.2 million transactions each year using FFS. Under the $12 million contract, AMS will also provide maintenance and technical support services. Unix move triggers shift in applications. (software for migrating applications to Unix) (Technoviews) (column) The move to Unix computers has led to agencies migrating their applications from such operating systems as DEC's VMS and Wang's VS to Unix. Software designed to facilitate migration is becoming more advanced and at times can boost performance even more by porting an applications to a multiprocessor system. Silicon Graphics Inc has a strategy for VMS-to-Unix migration while maintaining continual interaction for users and applications. Denver-based Accel8 Technology Corp's DCL8 software allows use of VMS commands on a Unix system. War provokes security measures at data centers: MIS executives tighten security in anticipation of terrorist attacks. (management War in the Persian Gulf has prompted IS managers at communications and data centers across the country to take steps protect their organizations against terrorist attacks. Alternate computer sites have been established and data tapes have been moved to secure locations. Fear of terrorism is widespread, especially after bomb scares were reported in several large cities. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered stepped-up security measures at all domestic airports. Multinational corporations have asked Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services to draft emergency plans. New York Life, fearing attacks on the New York City electrical system, has prepared sites outside the city for half of its 600 agents. Computing capacity has been added at the Pacific and American Stock Exchanges to handle increased trading. Informix, Oracle's bottom line. (Informix Software Inc.) Soat, John; Todd, Daniel. Informix Software and Oracle Corp face a prolonged struggle to regain financial stability due to their accounting practices. Informix has chosen to restate its figures for three quarters of FY1990 in accordance with a conservative interpretation of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) recommendations for accounting procedures in the software industry. Oracle's credit line has been suspended while its bankers examine its accounts receivable, currently standing at an average of 142 days sales outstanding (DSO), for collateral against debt. This figure, which represents the time before collecting on contracts, caused some concern when the company revealed 2nd qtr results of a $6.7 million profit on a record $269 million revenue. Following the leaders of network computing: 25 of the most innovative users describe their problems and solutions. (overview A survey of Fortune 1000 information systems departments by the Yankee Group reveals that 69 percent of the respondents either have client/server systems or plan to acquire them in the near future. Some 85 percent of those firms use or plan to use client/server systems for mission-critical applications. The focus for these companies is now on the challenges caused by the decision to implement network computing. Choices have included which network operating system to purchase, what machine to use as server, how to achieve enterprise-wide compatibility, and which network management plan to use. Implementation of distributed processing is not easy. Problems have ranged from connecting local area networks (LAN) and mainframes to determining the number of LANs within a company and how to connect them. Networks in store: JC Penney stocks up on Token-Ring LAN to stay competitive. (local area network) (one of five articles on Fiber optic cable is being installed in the walls as retailing giant JC Penney constructs a new headquarters complex in Plano, TX. The cable will connect 3,000 employees to a token ring local area network. The company will have more capability than it will need initially but officials feel a sense of security knowing that it will be there when it is needed. The company has a huge appetite for networking technology. Not only do headquarters staffers need to be connected, but so do thousands of stores, as well as a catalog operation and a TV shopping service. JC Penney Business Services takes advantage of the scope of the company's network to sell services to other companies, including Shell Oil, Amoco and Citgo Petroleum. A piece of the IS rock: networking at Prudential: insuring control while distributing power. (Information systems, Prudential The insurance industry is dominated by large companies long burdened with centralized mainframe computing. A move to network computing is now on, driven by the desire to place processing power at the disposal of the business units, while retaining data security and integrity. Some companies, in order to create a consistent corporate network policy, have nurtured a cooperative spirit between top management and MIS. Prudent Investment Corp (PIC), a division of Prudential Insurance, serves as illustration. Company officials say they could never understand an information technology infrastructure that was not in tune with a company's business units. The company has always designed their network as a single infrastructure that has different parts and modules. The Delta difference: the airline plans to link every PC purchase this year t o a local area network. (Delta Air Lines Inc) (one of Delta Air Lines is currently combining its computer reservation system (CRS) with a new joint venture and discovering that microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs) are now more important than ever, both for connections with the new venture and for its own use. Delta has spun out its reservation operations into Worldspan Travel Agency Information Systems, in partnership with TWA and Northwest Airlines. Delta is the third-largest airline in the world and a big user of LANs in an industry where networks are ubiquitous. The company has some 90 networks at sites across the country, supporting 11,000 microcomputers. LANs are being used to help coordinate the merging of two traditional mainframe and terminal-based networks. Duke's power LANs: utility uses elaborate networks to help keep its customers out of the dark. (one of five articles on corporate Duke Power Co is the country's seventh-largest investor-owned electric utility supplying power to over 1.6 million customers. The company is about to undergo a test of its networking ingenuity. Duke, in the first months of 1991, must sift through a wide assortment of local area networks that have emerged as well as merge diverse business and engineering departments with little in common, all within the confines of a strict five-year plan instigated in 1988. The utility's executive committee, in 1981, gave the information systems department the task of producing a company-wide information architecture. The goals are to make corporate data widely available, accurate and non-redundant. Duke, in spite of its network planning, still relies heavily on mainframe processing. In defense of networks: General Dynamics' Convair division launches a systems overhaul. (one of five articles on corporate General Dynamics Convair Division is trying some bold moves with networks to overhaul its business process. The company is working with an unnamed computer vendor to develop a networked software and hardware system to aid in the integration of its entire manufacturing process. The computer-integrated-manufacturing (CIM) product, which is called Integrated Management Systems (IMS), will be unveiled in the spring of 1991. IMS is part of a movement within Convair to overhaul its systems as well as the relationship with employees and the business overall. Company officials say a problem must be captured at the source, the beginning of a products life cycle. The IMS network calls for 350 Apple Macintosh systems, 50 IBM-PC-compatible systems and 150 workstations, some of which will act as servers. Pentagon merges EDI efforts: Persian Gulf operations get help from logistics network. (electronic data interchange) Two groups, the Electronic Commerce (EC) effort and the Computer-Aided Logistics Support program (CALS), working to standardize EDI relations with thousands of suppliers for the Department of Defense (DOD) were merged unofficially in Dec 1990 in order to bring all military procurement under one system. The paperwork will not catch up with the merger before Mar 1, 1991 but both groups have cooperated for some time, making the arrangement official as the Bush Administration's Defense Management Review pressured the Pentagon to consolidate operations where possible. The consolidations brings electronic transfer of business documents and technical specifications and drawings under a single command. The merger has also enhanced logistical support for operations in the Persian Gulf. Open for transactions: Toolkit allows heterogeneous distributed processing. (from Transarc Corp.) (product announcement) Transarc Corp, a small software firm with some advanced technology, claims to have scored a victory in establishing a standard for distributed transaction processing (TP) in open environments. The company, founded by computer scientists from Carnegie-Mellon University, has developed Toolkit, a toolset to facilitate distributed transaction processing. The program runs over the Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). Several larger companies, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Stratus Computer Inc, are developing systems based on the technology. The program consists of modular components residing on front-end clients and back-end servers. A question of stylus: company vies for the pen-based operating system market. (Go Corp.) Go Corp is set to introduce an optimized pen-based operating system that will compete directly with Microsoft's Pen Windows operating system, expected to be released in Feb 1991. The Go system, which is MS-DOS file compatible and offers special memory management capabilities, requires at least an Intel 80386SX processor, a price difference that some users may balk at, particularly if their purchases would be in the hundreds of units. Analysts say Go Corp's advantages are its optimization specifically for the pen environment and that it is available before the Microsoft product. It remains to be seen whether users, who already have to choose from among DOS, Unix and OS/2, will have any interest in yet another operating system. Outsourcing gets some credit: MasterCard may hand off portions of its bank network. MasterCard International, in search of new ways to manage Banknet, its X.25 packet network, is considering outsourcing. MasterCard will be considering network service providers like AT and T, MCI Communications and British Telecommunications plc to implement Project Omni, a five-year $65 million series of software and systems enhancements to Banknet. MasterCard is probably looking at Visa USA Inc, which announced a five-year, $87 million contract with MCI Communications to manage VisaNet 2000. Outsourcing is not a new concept for either company. The ultimate goal for Mastercard is lower costs for its member banks. Vendors add to their image: Wang, DEC, FileNet unveil new imaging products, strategies. (Digital Equipment Corp) (product Important players in the imaging industry introduced new products and strategies at an imaging conference sponsored by IDC/Avante. Wang and FileNet unveiled software optimized for network computing. DEC detailed an enhanced product strategy. Wang introduced Open/Image Windows 3.0 imaging software for microcomputers and networks using the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. It supports network operating systems from Novell, Banyan Systems, 3Com, IBM and Microsoft. FileNet introduced WorkFlo Business Systems, microcomputer and network-based Windows-compatible software. Analysts feel that the Wang product offers better connectivity as the FileNet program requires a bridge to Windows. DEC has assumed all marketing, support and sales responsibilities for the KIMS 5000 (Kodak Image Management System) from Eastman Kodak, its development partner. Caught in the middle: contradictory expectations call for common sense in the data centers. (Final Word) (column) The message that more and more data center managers are receiving from their corporate management is, 'No expansion now. Make it work with what you have.' Users, who in the past had access to virtually unlimited power, are continuing to use up processing power even as management clamps a lid on the data processing budget. Data center managers are expected to serve both the user and management and will eventually feel the squeeze of both sides. Being caught in the middle can be downright perilous. Some steps can be taken to ensure survival. A neutral mechanism, such as a data center executive committee, is necessary to allocate resources, deliver unwelcome messages and deal with complaints. The committee needs to include the information manager and user representatives from each area. The committee will be responsible for setting priorities. IBM ISA model on ice; waiting for MCA mate. (Micro Channel Architecture) Although IBM has yet to announce it, sources say that the company is currently holding up delivery of a 20-MHz 80386SX system with an ISA bus that could match the performance of IBM's MCA-based Model 55SX. IBM is holding up delivery because it fears that the system will affect the sales of the 55SX and undercut its message about the value of MCA. Sources expect IBM to hold up delivery of the system until it readies the upgrade of the 55SX, sometime in 1991. The two systems will probably be announced together, as complimentary systems. The ISA-based system, currently code named Dry Tortugas, contains 2Mbytes of memory, 2.88Mbyte floppy drives in 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch formats, a 60Mbyte hard disk with an optional 110Mbyte hard disk, and other features. Although no definite information about pricing is available, sources say that IBM does plan to be competitive. 32-bit Windows elbows way onto OS/2's turf: early developer's kits to ship by midyear. (includes related article on Watcom C/386 for Microsoft Corp plans to introduce a 32-bit version of Windows, although the package probably will not be available until 1992. The software package is expected to eliminate the need for OS/2 for many users. A preliminary software developer's kit will be available by mid-1991. The product, code-named Win32, is expected to provide preemptive multitasking under DOS and will modify the DOS Interrupt 21 calls, while deal with file operations, to support multiple execution threads. It will also provide direct support for mail slots and named pipes. According to sources, Microsoft is essentially planning to taking OS/2 and Windows 3.0 code, merge them, and eliminate the 16-bit data. Sources also say that Microsoft will ensure that Windows 3.X applications are supported, although OS/2 Presentation Manager applications may not be supported. Microsoft will provide more information at a seminar scheduled for Jan 29, 1991. Retix, HP to link servers for cross-platform E-mail. (HP's OpenMail 1.1 and Retix Openserver 400) Hewlett-Packard Co and Retix are expected to announce that they are developing a link between their messaging services. The link will allow users to send messages transparently over networks that conform to standard international protocols. The link will operate between the two companies' SCO Unix mail servers and may work with IBM and DEC hardware as well. The HP Openmail 1.1 package will allow users to send messages directly through the Retix Openserver 400 in X.400 format to other X.400 mail systems. The link will allow users to make their own decisions about the front-end application that could use the X.400 server for message transport. Some of these applications include HP Desk, Uniplex, a minicomputer and mainframe office automation package, and HP NewWave Office. HP confirmed that it is working with Retix, but refused to give out any details or confirm information about the project. Color developers cooperate to define standard for managing color output. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Microsoft Corp, and Adobe Systems Co have joined together to form the Association of Color Developers, a committee dedicated to defining a standard way of managing color on monitors and output devices. The committee's primary goal is to make it possible to display and print documents without regard to the device or operating system being used. Another goal is to develop an application program interface that Apple can add to its Tool Box section of the Macintosh operating system. Eventually the group hopes to port the standard to the DOS/Windows environment. The committee held its inaugural meeting at the 1991 MacWorld Expo. The heart of the committee's proposal is the Kodak YCC color model, which governs display color and input color. Adobe officials say that they are working with Kodak to implement YCC into Postscript Level II. PCs and LANs aid military in Desert Storm logistics. Microcomputers played an important part in the attack on Iraq. For example, Compuadd Corp has provided 2,000 microcomputers, 1,300 HP Laserjet printers, and 10 Novell networks, all paid for by the Japanese government. Banyan Systems Inc has supplied the Marine Corp with Banyan networks that allow the Marines to connect more than 1,000 microcomputers. On-line services have allowed people to communicate with military personnel and find out the latest news about the military situation. These services include American Online, Compuserve Information Service, and Genie's Persian Gulf Crisis service. The US Army and Navy are using CC:Mail's E-mail package to transmit information between the US and the Persian Gulf. The information is used to prepare reports for Pentagon officials. Users say OS/2 1.3 won't broaden appeal. Scannell, Ed. Users who were already sold on IBM's OS/2 operating system are pleased with the enhancements offered in OS/2 Standard Edition 1.3, but other users are still not convinced that the operating system offers users sufficient advantages to overcome its high memory needs, low speed and lackadaisical performance. OS/2 1.3 requires only half the amount of memory, about 2Mbytes, that OS/2 1.2 requires, and it offers a substantial speed improvement. Industry sources say, however, that most users who were not interested in OS/2 1.2 probably will not be sold on OS/2 1.3. Sources do recommend the package for users who need to take advantage of pre-emptive multitasking. One dealer called OS/2 1.3 a breakthrough, saying that its ability to link as many as 27 hard drives make it a valuable system. Users have not reported any major bugs with the system, although one tester found that running two applications on a 2Mbyte system brought up the Desktop Manager error message 'inadequate memory.' IS budgets grow in '91 - a little: survey cites economy, increased operating efficiency as causes. (information systems) Information systems budgets will grow in 1991, but at a slower rate than in previous years, due to the economy, the Persian Gulf war, and cost-savings from more efficient operations. The average growth rate was 7.5 percent in 1989 and 6.9 percent in 1990, but growth in 1991 is estimated at only 5.3 percent. The low growth rate is prompting layoffs and delayed acquisitions for some managers. The growth rate varies by industry. For example, the aerospace industry expects budgets to decrease by three percent, while the computer and software industries expect to increase their budgets by 10.5 percent. Managers report more pressure to justify expenditures and they find that they are now purchasing equipment in lots of three or four, rather than three or four hundred. Slowing sales prompt layoffs at three firms; profit, market share losses cause cutbacks. (Informix Software Inc., Mountain Network Informix Software Inc, Mountain Network Solutions Inc, and Emerald Systems Corp have laid off as much as 15 percent of their employees in mid-Jan 1991 in response to the poor economic climate. Informix laid off 15 percent, or 200 employees, and instituted a new revenue reporting policy. The policy means that contracts paid over a one-year period will not be reported as revenue until the money is paid. The layoffs will cost Informix an estimated $6 million in severance pay and other fees. Mountain Network Solutions Inc laid off less than five percent of its employees and the company expects to show a profit for 1990. Emerald Systems Corp laid off less than 10 employees and has refocused its business to bolster its faltering market share. Presentation graphics goes 'live'; developers begin to take cautious steps toward adding animation. Presentation graphics software developers want to add animation and full-motion video to their packages but also want to avoid confusing or overwhelming their users. Many presentation package users would be unable to use or afford the more sophisticated multimedia presentation packages. Nonetheless, companies such as Lotus Development Corp, Software Publishing Corp (SPC), and Microsoft Corp are working to simplify the concept by adding clip-art animation. SPC's Harvard Graphics 2.3 offers users sophisticated animation capabilities and buttons that allow users to retrieve embedded information, but the package, unlike multimedia software, does not require users to know a scripting language or programming language. IBM's Story Board program, which has been available since 1987, has evolved into a multimedia application called Story Board Live that allows users to work with motion video, animation, text, and sound on-screen. OOP gives independence to end-users, developers. (interview with Adele Goldberg, cofounder of Parc Place Systems) (object-oriented Adele Goldberg, cofounder of Parc Place Systems, believes that software should allow application developers to do innovative work while minimizing risk as much as possible. Parc Place Systems shipped the Objectworks Smalltalk environment in Dec 1990. The environment's main feature is its code portability among Windows, the Macintosh and several Unix systems. Goldberg says that her company's goal is to provide portability and power. She believes that users should be given the freedom to make changes as necessary so that they can truly customize their own systems. She believes that although people may be able to start out in the object-oriented world by adding object orientation to traditional languages, users will not be forced to rethink the old style of the code and will therefore not receive the true benefits of object-oriented technology. PCs still trail Macs in multimedia race: DOS systems lack built-in sound capability. Microsoft Corp and Apple have both made inroads into the multimedia market, but Microsoft is still lagging behind Apple in all but two categories. Apple wins in the operating system, output, software, and audio categories, while Microsoft matches Apple in the video arena and wins in the development partners category. But despite Microsoft's strong development partnerships with companies such as Media Vision Inc, Tandy Corp, and Zenith Data Systems, most industry analysts estimate that it will take years for IBM-compatible microcomputers to catch up with the Macintosh. The Macintosh particularly excels in providing high-quality sound. Microsoft has set out media guidelines that include a CD-ROM drive, audio/MIDI capabilities, and support for animation, but Apple has focused on those areas for years. One advantage for Microsoft is the low cost of its video capabilities. Digitizing boards for Macs cost more than $2,000, while boards for IBM-compatible microcomputers generally cost between $600 and $1,000. CPU clock speeds outpace dynamic memory access times. (Tech Talk) (column) Microprocessors that can routinely operate at speeds such as 33 MHz are common in the computer industry, but unfortunately the speed of computers' memory devices have not kept pace with the speed of popular microprocessors. RAM densities have increased dramatically, but their speed has been fundamentally unchanged. Therefore, microprocessors in use at this time often lack data because the machine's RAM is incapable of keeping up with their speed. Two technologies for RAM are providing users with alternatives. Dynamic RAM is inexpensive, dense, and conservative of power consumption. Its disadvantage lies in its long cycle time, while results in long delays between successive memory accesses. Static RAM is expensive, not as dense, and quite power hungry, but it offers users a lot more speed than dynamic RAM. Users can take advantage of dynamic RAM and still approach the performance offered by static RAM simply by increasing their understanding of the computer's RAM access patterns and making some changes in the way dynamic RAM is accessed. Mac network tools ease management. (AG Group's Netalert, Etherpeek 1.3 and Localpeek; Neon Software Inc.'s Netminder Ethernet) The AG Group and Neon Software Inc introduce new and improved tools that allow users to monitor their Macintosh networks. AG Group has introduced the $195 Netalert, which traces the functionality of network nodes, bridges, and zones and tracks services such as data, file, and mail servers. Netalert will also notify network managers of changes on their Appletalk networks. The AG Group also offers two protocol decoders called Etherpeek and Localpeek. The $695 Etherpeek 1.3 is expected to ship in Feb 1991. Neon Software has introduced the $495 Netminder Ethernet 1.2, which allows users to create filters with the package's pop-up menus and compare packet data that is displayed side by side. Pacific Bell, ACC ready SMDS products. (Advanced Computer Communications, switched multimegabit data services) Pacific Bell's data communications group has announced that it will offer ACC's Series 4000 and Series 2000 internetworking bridges and routers as part of its efforts to provide switched multimegabit data services (SMDS) to its customers. The devices will allow customers to connect and manage networks in environments ranging from high-speed fiber-optic links to 2,400M-bps circuits. ACC recently announced that it would add SMDS support as as software option to its remote bridge/routers. The service will initially be offered at speeds of 1.54M-bps although speeds of up to 45M-bps are planned for the future. The service is being promoted as an inexpensive way to bridge wide area networks. It is based on the 802.6 standard for metropolitan networks and allows protocols such as token ring, Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface, and others to be passed transparently. Vendors unveil desktop video publishing software; Mediamaker lets users mix, match media. (Macromind Inc's Mediamaker) (product Macromind Inc and Light Source Computer Images Inc introduce software tools for desktop video publishing that allow users to mix and match media by assembling video tapes that incorporate sound, graphics, text, video, and animation. Macromind's $695 Mediamaker software package consists of two modules. The first, called Mediamaker Collections, allows users to select segments of video and audio and assign picture icons to those segments. The second, called Mediamaker Sequences, lets users define when audio and video segments are to begin and end. Mediamaker requires a Macintosh Classic or later system, 2Mbytes of RAM (4Mbytes recommended for color), and a hard disk drive. Light Source Computer Images Inc's Multimedia Toolkit, which will ship with NEC's PC-VCR, allows users to edit video and product special effects. Multimedia Toolkit makes it possible to include video and sound laid over slides. The $2,100 PC-VCR machine will begin to ship with the software in early Feb 1991. Outbound, Dynamac show laptops; Outbound adds Classic support; Dynamac offers portable display. (Outbound Systems Inc., Dynamac Outbound Systems Inc has introduced a laptop kit that allows Macintosh Classic owners to use their machines as SCSI peripherals to the laptop. The $2,999 machine weighs nine pounds and is run by ROMs removed from the existing machine. A $3,999 model is available with a 40Mbyte hard disk. Outbound also introduced a 2,400-bps pocket-sized modem. The $279 modem weighs 2.4 ounces and includes Outbound's communications software. An optional 9-ounce universal power supply is also available. Dynamac Computer Products Inc has introduced the $1,299 LC Display, a flat-panel display that attaches to the CPU of a Macintosh LC and turns the LC into a portable. The monochrome display offers 16 shades of gray, 640-by-480-pixel resolution, and a nine and a half inch screen. The configuration weighs about 13 and a quarter pounds. The Dynamac IIsf is an 11-pound portable available in a $4,995 configuration based on the Motorola 68020 chip and a $6,995 configuration based on a 68030 processor. Competitors would be wise to heed Microsoft's message. (State of the Industry) (column) Other companies in the computer industry should be studying Microsoft Corp's ability to plan for the future and to take advantage of market changes. Lotus Development Corp, in particular, will face a great deal of competition to its upgrade of Lotus 1-2-3, despite the free Ami word processor which will be bundled in with the program. Lotus's chief competitor is Microsoft's Excel 3.0 and Lotus is hoping that its upgrade will keep users from switching over to Excel. Organizations that already use Lotus are waiting for Lotus to produce its Windows product. Microsoft's other concentration, on pen input, or handwriting recognition, may make the company the market leader in that arena as well. Certainly users will have other options in the pen-input operating system field, but Microsoft's history of supporting products that it believes in makes it's Pen Windows a strong contender for market leadership. Ethernet vs. Token Ring: separate growth, equal strength. (Tech Street) (column) Despite previous estimates that token ring technology would overtake Ethernet technology, industry analysts now feel that the two technologies will enjoy almost equivalent strength in the early part of the 1990s. International Data Corp estimates that by 1994, shipments of Ethernet cards will reach about 5.3 million and token ring card shipments will reach about five million. Ethernet's biggest selling points are its being low-cost and easy to use. Recent improvements include twisted-pair Ethernet, which makes it easier to isolate faults in networks. The main selling point of token ring is IBM. IBM's belief that token ring is a more robust technology than Ethernet has made token ring the approved LAN technology for companies running IBM mainframes. Ethernet will grow in the future as existing Ethernet networks grow. Token ring will grow according to the success it has competing against other IBM network technologies. Data deluge. (IS managers must provide just enough access to company data)(information systems) (includes related case studies As end-users become more knowledgeable and more powerful, the primary questions at many corporations is how much data will employees be able to access, and how will confidential data be protected. Some data, such as employee salary information, company financial spreadsheets, and other critical information, must be kept from general access. Some companies are purchasing software that make transparent access of data easier for non-system professionals. Metaphor Computer Systems' data interpretation system (DIS) allows users to download information from databases without having to know in what form the data is stored. The Metaphor DIS is now available on IBM-compatible microcomputers, although it can cost thousands of dollars per workstation and has failed to achieve a significant market share. Software Publishing Corp offers a more affordable alternative, Info Alliance. Info Alliance costs about $8,500 for a single-server network and allows users to access data from different networks and display it on a chart or graph. Pen-based computing to enable new types of tasks, users. (Future Tense) (column) Pen-based computing is the next computer innovation that will make a radical change in the way people use computers and the types of people that are able to use computers. Go Corp's introduction of an operating system for pen-based environments is one important step toward pen-based computing, but industry watchers can expect to see a number of pen-related announcements during 1991 from companies introducing specialized software, pen-based computers, and operating systems. Pen-based computing will be less important for input of data into a computer, which will still be done more quickly with a keyboard. Pen-based computing's main focus will be revision of text and direct manipulation of images, which can be done much more quickly with a stylus. Robust handwriting recognition capabilities are vital for the success of pen-based computing. Pen-based computers will be aimed at tasks that cannot be accomplished by desktop machines, such as portable systems, and at people who are uncomfortable using a computer, such as business executives. The shrinking PC. (desktop microcomputers are getting smaller and lighter) (Hardware Review) (includes related articles on A new class of microcomputers is providing users with smaller, lighter, sleeker machines. Most of the machines in this class are less than four inches in height. Eight computers are compared: Compaq Computer Corp's Deskpro 386n, DTK Computer Inc's Peer 1660, Ergo Computing Inc's The Ergo Brick, Micro Express's ME 386-SX/SL, American Mitac Corp's Mistation 3S, Tandon Computer Corp's 386sx/N, Twinhead Corp's Netstation 20V, and Wyse Technology Inc's Decision 386SX/16s. The top-scoring machine was the Micro Express ME 386-SX/SL. This machine has the fastest disk and multitasking speed and the second fastest CPU speed. Its documentation and setup are poor, but its $1,299 price is the lowest in the comparison and it is an excellent value. The second highest-ranking machine is the Compaq Deskpro 386n. It possesses the fastest CPU speed and good expandability, but at $3,846 its high cost and poor support policies dropped its score. Revised expandability standards put trimline systems to the test. (Hardware Review) (Trimline 386SX Computers) (evaluation) Trimline microcomputers, or microcomputers that are smaller than the average desktop computer, were tested for performance and feature differences. Each system's throughput was measured against other systems with similar CPUs. The machines tested were the Compaq Computer Corp Deskpro 386n, the DTK Computer Inc Peer 1660, the Ergo Computing Inc The Ergo Brick, the Micro Express ME 386-SX/SL, the American Mitac Corp Mistation 3S, the Tandon Computer Corp 386sx/N, the Twinhead Corp Netstation 20V, and the Wyse Technology Inc Decision 386SX/16. Both Micro Express's ME 386-SX/SL and DTK's Peer 1660 received a rating of very good in expandability. The Micro Express, Mitac, and Twinhead machines were rated very good for support policies and the Ergo machine and Tandon machine were rated excellent in that category. Scanman brings hand-held scanners into the mainstream. (Hardware Review) (Logitech Inc.'s Scanman) (evaluation) Logitech Inc's Scanman 256 is a hand-held scanner designed to be used with Windows 3.0. The $499 machine is easy to use and lets users scan in images at up to 256 shades of gray. The images can be edited in a Windows-based graphics program called Ansel, which is included with Scanman. The device is available in two versions, one for ISA-bus machines and another for MCA-bus machines. The MCA-bus version includes a full-size board and costs an extra $100. Although it can be difficult to adjust to scanning by hand, with a little practice most users should be able to do it. One problem is that red images may fade into the background. Logitech's Ansel graphics software allows users to scan images or edit saved TIFF, BMP, or PCX files. It provides a number of image-editing tools and allows users to save images in compressed or uncompressed TIFF formats, BMP, PCX, or Encapsulated Postscript files. Overall, the Scanman 256 seems like a good choice for users looking for a hand-held scanner. Org Plus 1.0 gracefully diagrams organizations. (Software Review) (Macintosh organization charting software) (evaluation) Banner Blue's Org Plus is an organizational charting package that allows users to set up business organization charts quickly and easily. The $195 package requires a Mac Plus or higher with 1Mbyte of memory, a hard disk, and an 800Kbyte floppy drive. The software package offers tools that include manager, assistance, co-worker, and subordinate. Org Plus automatically creates the boxes and connecting lines for a chart, then the user can edit them, move them and fill them in. The software will automatically arrange the boxes to provide the most compact organization. The word wrap command was a little buggy, but Banner Blue will provide a patch free of charge to registered users. Although $195 may seem like a lot for a single-purpose application, anyone who needs truly professional looking organization charts should investigate this package. Illustrator 3.0 improves on already extensive features. (Adobe Systems Inc.) (Software Review) (evaluation) Adobe Systems Inc has introduced Illustrator 3.0, an illustration software package that is a significant upgrade from the earlier Illustrator 88. In the $595 package, Adobe has added strong text capabilities, improved its drawing tools, and added graphing capabilities. Illustrator requires 2Mbytes of memory and Adobe suggests that the memory size for use under Multifinder should be 2.5Mbytes. Illustrator is still more appropriate for professional graphic artists; anyone else would probably find the package overwhelming. The most significant change is in the text tool. Text can now be entered directly on the image, rather than in a dialog box, and Illustrator now supports text columns, linked columns, mixed text fonts, colors, and hanging punctuation. The package includes utilities that handle color separation for Illustrator files and convert PICT files into Postscript drawings. Overall, Illustrator is a very good value for professional graphic artists. Systempro 486 is Compaq's most powerful file server: yet updated version provides little improvement in InfoWorld network Compaq Computer Corp's Systempro Model 486-840 is the most powerful microcomputer that Compaq has produced but the machine's high price, just under $30,000, along with the lack of availability of multiprocessor local area network operating systems, may make it a poor value. Compaq markets the machine as a file server only, and in fact Compaq says that the Systempro 486-840's features actually make it inappropriate for single-user DOS applications. The system that was tested used one processor and it was not significantly faster than other high-performance servers that are available. The system supports up to 256Mbytes of 32-bit RAM and each 486 processor board has 512Kbytes of secondary RAM cache. The system lacks a Weitek math coprocessor. Another drawback is the fact that there are only two LAN operating systems that support multiprocessing, Banyan's Vines and Microsoft Corp's LAN Manager; the benefits of a multiprocessor file server with these operating systems have yet to be determined. Does the real story about electronic mail rewrite Alsop's fables? (Stewart Alsop, industry analyst) (column) Stewart Alsop's belief that electronic mail will be the hot application of 1991 may be true, but some of his other ideas about the computer industry are not as true. Alsop believes that the idea of using network mail servers as a platform to develop other types of applications is a new idea. In fact, Novell's Message Handling Service (MHS) has been in use at one company since 1989 and many developers were working on the idea in 1990. The real hot topics in E-mail in 1991 are Microsoft Windows and the development that Novell is doing with MHS. Novell seems to be as committed to providing messaging services as it is to providing print and file services. Microsoft Windows will have a great impact on the E-mail industry. Windows may eliminate some of the obstacles toward E-mail evolving into a fully developed application. Windows also offers the potential for multimedia mail. 3Com gets out of LAN Manager; company takes $45 million charge, resulting in year-end loss. 3Com Corp is leaving development of LAN Manager to Microsoft and focusing on global area networking. Principal focus will be on product development and marketing network adapters and enterprise-wide networks. 3Com plans to sell its workgroup systems business and will lay off 12 percent of its workforce. A $45 million charge will lead to third-quarter and year-end losses. 3Com promises to produce smooth, cost-effective migration paths to future platforms and ongoing support for 3Com data networks and workgroup systems. Cogent gives Windows access to Netware, LAN Man, Unix. Breidenbach, Susan. Cogent Data Technologies is preparing its Open Windows product for release at Networld Boston in Feb 1991. The Windows 3.0 application lets DOS users on Ethernet local-area networks (LANs) access Netware, LAN Manager, and Unix servers simultaneously. User can establish concurrent sessions with different types of servers. Each session is displayed in a separate window. The product will be initially available as an option for Cogent's line of E/Master bus-master adapters. Prices are not yet available. Charting the 90's top LAN contenders; MBS, Retix, and Articulate systems are key players to watch. (second in a three part series) Three of the key local-area network (LAN) companies to watch in 1991 are profiled: Microwave Bypass Systems Inc (MBS), Retix, and Articulate Systems Inc. All of the companies are in the interconnectivity market, boast outstanding management, and are being courted by venture capitalists despite the current economic recession. MBS produces 10Mbps Ethernet systems that utilize microwave transmission. Retix markets a full line of LANs, remote Ethernet bridges, OSI transport firmware and application level software. Articulate Systems Inc's Voice Navigator products and Voice Link Macintosh application allows voice mail messages over existing text-based E-mail systems. Promoters juggle major networking trade shows. (Globalnet 2000 and Interface/91 cancelled) Globalnet 2000, originally scheduled for a May 14, 1991, start in Dallas was postponed. Interface/91 was dropped from its scheduled Mar 26-28 slot in Atlanta and will be blended in a communications-LAN show that includes Comdex Spring and Windows World. The show, now called Spring, will feature conferences and expositions at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta May 20-23. Fall Networld registration fees will be returned. Western Digital revamps Ethernet lineup; Elite models take next step in integration path with company chips. (Ethercard Plus Elite Western Digital replaced most of its Ethercard Plus Line with new models that integrate its support chips and Ethernet controllers. A three-port model helps the user make the transition between coaxial cable and unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cabling. The adapters are part of the company's goal of supplying network components for microcomputer motherboards. Models include the $249 8-bit half-card Ethercard Plus Elite and the $349 16-bit Ethercard Plus Elite 16 for thin and thick coax, the $349 Elite 16T for TUP or thick coax, and the $399 16-bit Ethercard Plus Elite 16 Combo for all three Ethernet media. Unisys ships portable Netware version; Netware for U Series connects PC LANs with Unix-based minicomputers. (product Unisys is shipping its Portable Netware version, the Netware for U Series. The program provides transparent connectivity for microcomputers on local-area networks (LANs) to minicomputers running Unix. There are seven other Novell partners that have released versions of Portable Netware, six more are preparing products. The Netware for U Series lets clients share data, print services and server-based applications with other host users. A Netware 386 print spooler that moves Unix files from Unix print queues to Netware printers on the LAN are included. The Unisys host must have 4Mbytes of RAM to run the program, although 8Mbytes are recommended. Pricing is available from Unix dealers. Tatung, Alloy team to add multiuser DOS; partners direct lineup to VARs who seek Netware alternative to Unix, Xenix. (Integrated Tatung and Alloy Computer Products formed a marketing agreement in Sep 1990 to blend their servers, terminals and multiuser DOS programs to produce a workgroup for character-based transaction jobs on Netware local-area networks (LANs). The Integrated Networking Systems give value-added resellers (VARs) a single source for LAN components and support and provides a DOS-based alternative to Unix or Xenix that mixes easily with Netware. IDS (sic) debuts Dataclub: a virtual server for the Apple Macintosh environment. (International Business Software Inc.) International Business Software Inc's Dataclub is a fully distributed virtual server for the Apple Macintosh. It is built on a Structured Query Language (SQL)-based relational database and is aimed at users of Tops and other peer-to-peer network operating systems. Files are distributed across the network, but appear to be stored in a single volume. The program surveys the machines on the network and makes their free disk space a shared network resource. The space is automatically reallocated and files are relocated as demands on the local resources change. A three-user license costs $295, a 10-user pack is $795. LAN Manager Installation requirements. (Hands On Lan Man) (column) Liebing, Edwared. The first edition of a new column on local-area networks (LANs) focuses on purchasing issues for LAN Manager. Managers need to know which version of OS/2 is optimized for the hardware they choose and should consider the applications that will be used before purchasing the machines. Be sure to buy a server that will meet both present and immediate future needs. Questions for vendors include asking if they have installed the equipment at a similar site, has it run for over 90 days, are they happy with it, is there a version of OS/2 that is optimized for this computer, how well do network cards run on the machine, how fast is the machine, which controller boards give it the best performance, does the vendor certify that workstations will run OS/2 and Windows, and what kind of support services are available? Can your network use SMP? (Vines Symmetric Multiprocessing software) (Hands on Vines) (product announcement) Vines Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) software might be the answer for high performance, cost-effective services in environments with high demand on network resources. This program operates on higher performance, multiprocessing platforms that handle client-server applications and support CPU-intensive load conditions. Client-server applications require a compute-server that places more demand on the server's CPU. Symmetric multiprocessing platforms, coupled with Vines distributed architecture, provides true network computing. Sitka connects different LANs. (Hands on Sitka) (column) Rogers, Mike. The Sitka Tops network is distinguished by its ability to connect a variety of computers running under different operating systems, its ease of installation, and its suitability for work environments with peer-to-peer services. Sitka Tops runs on Ethernet, Localtalk, and other Appletalk compatible cabling systems. A single computer creates a gateway between two networks by running software for both networks. The gateway has two essentials: both DOS Tops and the PC LAN client have redirectors that use the DOS file systems interface, and DOS Tops can publish any drive. Students learn microcomputer accounting with LAN software. (Systems Plus Inc's Accounting Plus) Santa Rosa Community College business administration students are getting hands on experience in network computing with a new 80-station Novell network. The Accounting Plus program from Systems Plus Inc of Mountain View, CA, can handle over 600 companies; each student can have several companies and go through an entire year's cycle. Heavy emphasis is placed on payroll, tax tables, postings, and corporate accounting. Class members are planning careers as bookkeepers or accountants. RPC development must happen immediately. (Remote Procedure Call) (LAN Primer) (column) Affordable high-performance software applications like distributed databases and electronic mail directories are needed by small- or medium-sized companies. Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and Application Programmer Interface (API) programming are perfect ways to produce client/server applications for increasing productivity and decreasing hardware expenses. Several library packages provide developers with ready-made development tools. RPC technology provides a sturdy foundation for designing compatibility with other transport protocols. Network driver wars: it's NDIS vs. ODI; Novell and Microsoft camps are fighting it out for standard interface. (Network Driver Microsoft's Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) has the lead in the local-area network (LAN) competition to establish a standard interface between adapter hardware and networking software. Novell and Apple's Open Data Link Interface (ODI) only became available in Dec 1990 and there are currently no products based on it. All key Ethernet board manufacturers are shipping NDIS-equipped adapters for non-Novell clients and servers; IBM chose NDIS as its method for supporting Ethernet segments in its Systems Network Architecture (SNA) networks. Netutils to handle bigger SCSI drives; new diagnostic and repair upgrade also supports IDE technology. (small computer system Ontrack Computer Systems Inc's Netutils 2.0 is a diagnostic and repair kit for Netware 2.1x and Entry Level Solution (ELS) servers that lets network managers work on SCSI and Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) drives and previously unsupported disk space. Managers can check server file structures to prevent data loss, modify stored data sector-by-sector or by records in a file, as well as extract files from a damaged server. This version provides faster retrieval in disaster situations and copies multiple files instead of one file at a time. Revamped on-line help for all functions provides better advice, cautions and warnings. The update also supports larger file server capacity and lets users handle multiple volumes per drive. A Netware 386 version is under development, but not expected until later in 1991. Netutils 2.0 lists for $99.95. Connect spreadsheet, database programs; and do it without expensive executive information systems and without SQL. High-end spreadsheets can now act as a control center for pulling information from widely disparate sources and locations on networks. Linking spreadsheets and databases across a departmental network entails establishing links and writing macros that retrieve and manipulate the correct data at the right time. Such systems will not provide the services of an Executive Information System (EIS), but will suffice for many situations. The Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) of Windows-based products makes it easy to hot-link actions; most currently popular spreadsheets, including Lotus 1-2-3, are not Windows-based. Open systems can be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Levine, Stan. Open systems will have a profound effect on the construction of information networks. Automation and information systems technology will allow businesses to compete with less personnel, smaller budgets, and less experienced employees. Companies that purchased proprietary systems in the 1980s are now spending their budgets on maintaining those systems, rather than exploiting the capabilities of new technology. Open systems help protect a company's information assets. Many vendors of proprietary systems have opened up their products to third-party development by publishing specifications or moving toward industry standards, but these are still not true open systems. The buyer should accelerate the movement towards standardization by specifying SQL, networking protocols, electronic data interchange and true platform-independent applications. Eicon finishes help for X.25 managers; Alarm software gathers communications statistics from gateways. Eicon Technology Corp is nearing completion of its Alarm Manager software that will help network administrators manage X.25 network links. The product will run on each microcomputer that is acting as an X.25 gateway in an enterprise network. Communications statistics are gathered from each gateway and sent to a remote computer acting as a Network Control Center. Limit checks are performed against those statistics to determine alarm conditions. Pricing has not yet been announced. Remote dial-in creates cheap, easy networks. Stephenson, Peter. Close-Up, from Norton-Lambert, lets one user share a network workstation, either on the LAN or at an off-site location. The workstation could be a dedicated Close-Up communications server with a modem and copies of two different Close-Up programs. This is a low-cost remote dial-in solution, but it presents some security problems; dial-in lines are never a good idea where a LAN needs security protection. Close-Up includes some security protection, but additional security is needed and a dial-back system is recommended when the LAN's data is very sensitive. Close-Up is an excellent solution for remote technical support; it will allow a consultant to take control of any user's workstation and assist with nearly any problem. The program also allows the sharing of peripherals such as modems and CD-ROMs. Token makers battle for market share; it's 'chips ahoy' as vendors differentiate between products. Token-ring adapter vendors are battling for market share now that chipsets are available. IBM was able to achieve over 70 percent of the market while the Texas Instruments (TI) Eagle and Falcon chipset was unavailable. Third-party developers are not struggling to capture their share of the market now that yield and jitter problems that plagued the 16Mbps adapters have been solved. The majority of vendors are meeting from 70 to 90 percent of their orders. Developing a New Year's revolution in the channel. (LAN industry) Spiner, Susan. The local-area network (LAN) market is heating up with purchasing decisions that were formerly based on strategic relationships, service and support and increasingly determined by volume purchasing agreements. The profit margins for channel partners are diminishing. Manufacturers are cutting out the reseller, now resellers are asking for lower prices on commodity items so they can sell more support. Customers are the losers in this battle and many large corporations are developing the internal skills to design, implement, service and support their own local and wide area networks; some are even establishing themselves as VARs and purchasing products through the channel. Resellers must include selling, servicing, and supporting products in the prices of the packages they are reselling and not expect these dollars to be deducted from the manufacturer's price. Manufacturers need to establish loyalty and commitments with their distributors and resellers. Linking foreign LANs. (many levels of LAN-to-LAN interoperability) (includes related articles on Banyan's definition, Microsoft's True interoperability in local-area networks (LANs) will require investment in research and development. The major network operating systems are becoming more complex and sophisticated, making the interoperability issue even more difficult to resolve. There are eight possible levels of interoperability: physical connectivity; logical connectivity; raw data transfer; common, or mapped, file system; global naming API; network management; core protocol; and operating system API. The best that can be hoped for currently is interoperability on the raw data transfer, common file system, and global naming API levels. True interoperability between the major LAN operating systems will eventually become available, but it is important to realize that the term interoperability currently has many interpretations. Networking DOS machines and Macs; the intersection of these two worlds is attracting major development efforts from software Both the DOS operating system and the Macintosh computer are enjoying continued success, despite predictions of their demise. Problems still exist in using these two systems together on a network. Version 2.0 of Netware for Macintosh, from Novell Inc, provides amazingly improved performance over previous versions. Its price and overall design make this the choice for large networks. Tops, from Sitka Corp, offers flexibility, efficiency and good Mac/PC interoperability. It is unwieldy and not effective for large sites, but perfect for small sites with 10 nodes or less. Tops is best on Macintosh nodes; DOS machines perform sluggishly. Apple Computer's Appleshare is easy to use and has a good user interface but does not provide the performance required by large networks. It is a mediocre but solid product that suffers in comparison with its competition. Taking a look at the Lanchoke benchmark; designed for testing throughput performance of Macintosh/PC networking. LAN Times is now using Lanchoke as a benchmark for testing the throughput performance of Macintosh/PC networking systems. Lanchoke executes a loop that uses low-level I/O functions to create a file to test a network's throughput. The file is initialized to contain records with specific byte patterns, the program searches sequentially through the file for the byte pattern, reads the entire file as a single byte stream and deletes the file. A timer times the loop. The main loop tests the throughput for reading, writing and sequential reading. Lanchoke was specifically designed to test the upper limits of a LAN. Netware for Mac provides significant improvements; Novell's latest version supports Appletalk Phase 2. (Netware for Macintosh 2.0) Novell's Netware for Macintosh 2.0 offers significant improvements, including support for Appletalk Phase 2. Printer support is enhanced and new drivers for Tokentalk and Arcnet hardware are included. The program preserves the native desktop environments of both the Mac and DOS-based microcomputers. There is no shell or translation software; the translation occurs at the file server or on an external bridge. Installation is awkward, but the documentation is clearly written and easy to follow. PC-to-Macintosh file-conversion utilities are not included. The program is easy to use and performance is excellent. A corporate license costs $200. Appleshare PC bridges Mac/PC gap; product gives DOS users access to all resources on an Appletalk network. (Software Review) Appleshare file-server software allows network users to store, share, and use files and applications on an Apple Macintosh file server. Appleshare PC, from Apple Computer Inc, provides DOS users with access to the resources on an Appletalk network. The program presents both Mac and DOS users with their own familiar user interfaces. Macintosh workstations out-performed DOS-based machines by more than a 2 to 1 margin on the network. This was the only system tested that could test three DOS-based machines and three Macintoshes simultaneously without crashing. Performance is slow and file conversions are limited to text files. The list price is $79 for Appleshare PC; Appleshare Server costs $795. Sitka Tops is solid networking solution; it won't win many speed contests, but it is easy to install, and it does the job. Sitka Software's Tops network software is easy to install and provides acceptable performance. Macintosh performance on the Tops network was much better than that of MS-DOS-based machines. Converting word processing documents from one platform to the other works reasonably well. Installation is easy. Each workstation must be configured separately. The list price for a DOS bundle is $249; a ten-pack costs $995. A Mac bundle costs $299. FLYP-96 faxes from within applications; this fax board, from 3X USA, has its own laserjet driver built in, which makes sending FLYP-96 is a fax hardware/software combination from 3X USA that offers an HP laserjet redirection mode for sending faxes. The board is not limited to ordinary ASCII text; it can send a fax by 'printing' from within the application. Resulting fax documents look like they were printed on an HP Laserjet whether one is used or not. Soft fonts, graphics and other special effects are possible, although Postscript cartridges will not work because they are installed on the printer itself. Fax boards provide advantages in convenience and transmission quality over fax machines. The manual lacks an index and could use better organization. Prices were not provided. 300 (count 'em) Netware utilities in one package; EMS put together this sweet deal for a sweet price. (EMS Professional Shareware The NW Utility Library is a massive collection of free and shareware utilities for Netware administrators. It is available on 31 5.25-inch disks. The programs represent every conceivable kind of utility programs available for Netware. Some programs may require a shareware registration fee; others are completely free. They often lack the bells and whistles of commercial products and frequently lack good documentation. The NW Utility Library is updated quarterly. Let cc:Fax send your messages in cc:Mail. (send and receive electronic messages on LANs) (Software Review) (evaluation) cc:Fax, from cc:Mail Inc, is an electronic mail program that sends and receives fax messages in cc:Mail on a local-area network (LAN). Messages are directed to a fax machine where they are reproduced on paper, although they can be viewed before printing. Installation takes some time, but is not difficult; maintenance is relatively easy. An IBM PC, AT, XT or PS/2 compatible workstation with a minimum of 512Kbytes of RAM and a 20Mbyte or larger hard disk and a facsimile coprocessor card is required. cc:Fax costs $1,995. Ethervision isolates problems before they ever happen; Triticom's diagnostic utility spots potential trouble. (Software Review) Triticom's Ethervision 1.4 monitors and displays activity on Ethernet or IEEE 802.3 local-area networks (LANs). Numerical and graphical information is displayed for easy analysis of potential network problems. The program monitors traffic, sets network alarms, and sets logging options. Real-time information shows Ethernet activity in three different modes: Skyline, Station, and Statistics. A cable testing feature allows network managers to pinpoint cabling problems. The documentation is simple but sufficient. Ethervision 1.4's list price is $225. Desert Storm puts pressure on U.S. nets. The effects of Operation Desert Storm are being felt by US public and private network operators. Telecommunications carriers and financial services companies saw dramatic increases in network traffic. The communications facilities held up well under the strain. Security measures were increased and there were some delays in service provision and network upgrades. AT&T reported a 25 percent increase in domestic network usage the first night of the war and a 40 percent leap in international traffic. All direct circuits to Iraq were cut off. AT&T stopped working on its network to focus on security measures. The Dow Jones industrial average showed the second highest gain in history on heavy trading, but the financial networks handled the surge in volume without difficulty. Satellites help U.S. forces control the skies over Iraq. (includes related article on the testing of tactical tools) (the networks of High-speed data links and encrypted voice radio communications are providing pilots and soldiers with critical information in Operation Desert Storm. The Air Force began assembling a mix of control, communications and intelligence networks when the multinational forces first arrived in the Saudi desert in the summer of 1990. Satellite systems in geosynchronous orbit use infrared detectors to eavesdrop on electronic communications to identify small objects and create radar images of targets at night or in bad weather. Some satellites gather signal intelligence (SIGINT) to detect electronic emissions from air defense radar devices, navigation aids and military communications transmitters. They can determine the layout of enemy communication networks, allowing allied planes to avoid enemy surface-to-air missile sites and fighter patrols. Some low-orbit satellites provide images of events occuring below. KH-11 satellites provide digital images of activities, such as tank movement. Lacrosse satellites provide pictures of objects as small as three feet in all conditions. Tools for developing distributed OLTP bow; IBM, HP, Stratus, Informix and others pledge to use tools to build distributed OLTP Transarc Corp announces software tools that speed the design of on-line transaction processing (OLTP) monitors that manage data flow between workstations and multivendor data base management systems on networked computers. The OLTP monitors track each step of a transaction. Users are looking for ways to distribute OLTP tasks across a network of processors running different data base management software. The tools are based on the OSF Distributed Computing Environment and X/Open Company Ltd's emerging Distributed Transaction Processing (DTP) standard. Several vendors, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Stratus Computer, have committed to building OLTP monitors with the Transarc tools. Evaluating IBM's strategy for OSI connectivity. (includes related article on OSI application services) IBM is working to integrate its proprietary systems with OSI-based products. The company now provides one of the most extensive platforms among major system vendors for the development of OSI-based open systems. The costs involved in implementing OSI on IBM platforms remains a concern; the company may have to revise its OSI/CS cost structure, but IBM is clearly aiming to be a leader in providing OSI-based solutions. Also discussed are the OSI/CS product family, OSI/CS connectivity, OSI/CS APIs, presentation services under OSI/CS, OSI and SNA's Advanced Program-to-Program Communications, applications without OSI/CS and the cost of OSI. Firms bring micros into image world. Crockett, Barton. FileNet Corp, Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), and Wang Laboratories Inc announce image networking products that integrate microcomputers with proprietary image processing systems. This provides access to images on proprietary imaging systems without requiring proprietary workstations. FileNet's Workflo software lets microcomputers running Windows 3.0 perform image compression, decompression and formatting necessary for transmission on its FileNet Optical Storage and Retrieval (OSAR) system. DEC's Add+Image and CorVette interface to the company's DECImage Express and provides its first complete image processing system. Wang's OPEN/image is a Netware Loadable Module that accesses images stored in optical storage devices attached to a NetWare server. Pepsi to launch massive Super Bowl 800 campaign. Eckerson, Wayne. Pepsi-Cola Co will use 30,000 voice circuits and 10 service bureaus in a Super Bowl advertising campaign that asks viewers to call a toll-free number for a chance to win over $3 million in prizes. The interactive telephone contest is expected to generate over three million calls during the first three quarters of the Jan 17, 1991, Super Bowl. This could be the industry's largest 800-number project. Four 800 numbers will be used; winners will be announced in a 30-second commercial after the game. Service bureaus will use audio response units to run a message recorded by Ray Charles and then record names and addresses of the callers. All callers will receive a coupon for a 2-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi. Utility picks Net/Command for multivendor net mgmt. (Public Service Electric and Gas Co selects Net/Command) (includes related Public Service Electric and Gas Co (PSE&G) of Newark, NJ, chose Boole & Babbage Network Systems' Net/Command to manage its multivendor T1 network. PSE&G felt Net/Command was easier to install and supports more element management systems than those offered by AT&T, IBM and Nynex Corp. The company is using the product to manage IBM's NetView and management systems from Network Equipment Technologies Inc and Racal-Milgo. The product allowed PSE&G to reduce its network management staff and eliminate several management consoles. PSE&G is running Net/Command on a Sun SPARCserver 470 server attached to four Sun SPARCstation 1+ diskless workstations over Ethernet. Travelers to use wireless LANs in its nationwide net. (The Travelers Corp) The Travelers Corp plans to gain greater control over network node changes through extensive use of wireless local-area networks. The company may purchase as many as 100 wireless LANs in 1991; 60 percent to 70 percent of the company's workstations could be supported by wireless LANs by 1995. The use of wireless LANs by one of the largest IBM shops in the insurance industry is expected to boost acceptance of the technology. Analysts see the wireless LAN gaining up to 10 percent of the market by 1995. Netrix set to detail frame relay support for #1-ISS; firm will boost high, low ends of switch line. Netrix Corp is ready to announce frame relay support for its T-1 circuit/packet switch, new low- and high-end versions, and enhancements to its network management system. The company already announced plans to support frame relay with a software upgrade to its #1-ISS switch. It also plans to introduce high- and low-end models of the #1-ISS switch; the 14-port Model 15 is immediately available for $12,500. Frame relay support through a free software-only upgrade allows users to switch between three transport modes through the network management console. User/vendor partnerships focus of ICA winter meet. (International Communications Association) Efforts to build strategic partnerships with key suppliers were discussed at the International Communications Associations's (ICA) Winter Seminar in Houston, TX, during the week of Jan 1991. A strategic partnership lets suppliers and customers work effectively together to solve complex network problems. Price is becoming less important. In strategic partnerships, users select one or two preferred network vendors for multiyear contracts to purchase services and equipment. They are ensured of low prices and a high level of service and support. Start-up to unveil hybrid T-3 mux, bridge/router. (Coral Network Corp's Broadband Enterprise Switch) Coral Network Corp is ready to introduce its Broadband Enterprise Switch, a high-speed hybrid that combines T3 multiplexing with LAN bridging and routing capabilities. It concentrates all three functions on a single piece of hardware and consolidates traffic from existing bridges and routers over a high-speed backbone, eliminating the need for separate leased lines for each bridge or router. The switch accommodates various local- and wide-area network interface boards and supports circuit-switched applications. Ethernet and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) will be supported by the first two models, scheduled to ship in Jun 1991. Prices range from $20,000 to $100,000, depending on configuration. Lawmakers try to block AT&T's takeover of NCR; warn that buyout could threaten competition. The FCC is asked to investigate problems for US network users that could arise from AT&T's proposed takeover of NCR Corp. Three prominent members of the US House Telecommunications and Finance subcommittee, representatives Edward Markey, Michael Oxley, and Dennis Eckart, are seeking to block the takeover and question whether AT&T might bundle equipment with regulated services to boost sales. Twenty-two congressmen from several states wrote President Bush expressing concerns that the takeover would damage competition in the computer industry. It is unclear whether the FCC has jurisdiction over the unregulated computer operations of AT&T. Ex-DG staffers forge ahead with net software project; form firm to continue HyperDesk development. (HyperDesk Corp.) HyperDesk Corp, a company formed by a former Data General Corp software design team, will continue development of software to simplify user access to data and peripherals on computer networks. The product is based on the distributed object management software development approach. It will enable application developers to build in links to other applications and data bases that are identified as objects, eliminating source code for those links. Tokyo-based ASCII Corp is backing the new company. The product, HyperDesk, is planned for release in the second quarter of 1991. 3Com's new focus brings challenges. Brown, Bob. 3Com Corp is refocusing its efforts on the internetworking market, but has a way to go in catching up in that arena. The company is abandoning its network operating system and server efforts to focus on internetworking, connectivity, and adapters. The company plans to develop higher-speed internetworking products that support a variety of protocols. 3Com plans to sell complex networking systems through the reseller channel. The company faces some obstacles, such as its slow support in supporting popular protocols. 3Com will ship NetBuilder BR/2000 and BR/3000 brouters in Jan 1991. Health products firm signs net deals with MCI, AT&T: retains MCI for voice net, AT&T primarily for data. (Baxter International Inc. Baxter International Inc is one of the world's largest suppliers of health care products and services. The company signs a three-year deal with MCI Communications Corp for Vnet, 800, calling card and data services. The company also signs a three-year Tariff 12 deal with AT&T for data services that include Software-Defined Network and 800 services. The MCI contract is a renewal, the AT&T contract is a consolidation of existing network services. D.C. tries to regulate enhanced services. (Washington D.C.) Taff, Anita. The District of Columbia Public Service Commission (PSC) is regulating corporations that provide enhanced services in Washington, DC. Corporations that offer enhanced services will need to apply for certification and may be subject to regulation by the PSC. Companies were offered the opportunity to petition for exclusion. This could be the first major test of states' right to regulate enhanced services. The PSC is defining providers of enhanced service as those that use computer processing applications to act on the format, protocol, code or content of a message; firms that support subscriber interaction with a database are included. Ascend controller links users to switched services; device establishes multiple switched connections. (Ascend Communications Ascend Communications Inc's Multiband Bandwidth-on-Demand Controller cuts line costs for applications requiring large amounts of bandwidth for short periods. The product uses switched, rather than leased, line connections and is designed for four applications: LAN bridging or routing, videoconferencing, imaging and T1 backup and overflow. The products are currently available. The Multiband BRI-3 starts at $6,000, the BRI-8 at $8,000. The T/P-1 and T/P-2 models cost $5,000 and $6,000, respectively. MasterCard project aims to cut net costs; firm plans to decentralize some operations and phase out IBM minis for less MasterCard International Inc is decentralizing some of its credit card operations in order to reduce network costs and improve disaster recovery procedures. The Project Omni plan will also migrate network nodes at member banks from its IBM minicomputers to a more flexible line of computers, possibly Unix-based, that will lower costs of linking to the network for member banks. The costs of MasterCard's clearing and settlement application will be lowered by off-loading daily credit card clearing and settlement tasks from leased IBM 3090 mainframes to five minicomputers on its Banknet credit card authorization network. Decentralizing these operations also improves the company's disaster recovery plans by eliminating the possibility of a single mainframe bringing down the whole network. MasterCard is considering outsourcing most of its network operations. Primary Access releases low-end data concentrator. (Network Access system) (product announcement) Primary Access Corp's new Modem Bank is a low-end version of the Network Access system that aggregates traffic from 12 local devices onto a T1 circuit used to access carriers' switched services. Modem Bank is a standalone device that eliminates a central-site modem rack and multiple analog facilities and installs more T1 circuits for access to virtual private network services. The company also released three new boards for the Network Access system, two that support voice traffic and one that supports V.32-compatible modem functions. Modem Bank costs $19,950 and comes with 12 interface boards that function as V22bis modems. Users praise feature-laden MS Mail Version 3 software; upgrade has group lists, other enhancements. (product announcement) Microsoft introduces version 3.0 of its Microsoft Mail electronic mail system for Apple Computers' AppleTalk networks. Version 3.0 includes many new capabilities users had been hoping for, among them personal address books and group lists, multiple file attachments and features to help managers keep close track of mail messages. According to a company spokeswoman, Mail 3.0 was designed to provide functionality rather than performance, which was emphasized in version 2.0 and subsequently criticized by users. Other key features to aid the organization of management of messages include custom message folders, which utilize a graphical user interface to drag and drop messages in the appropriate folders; an appended save feature, which aids message archiving; and a dial-up utility, which allows remote access. Microsoft Mail 3.0 will cost between $395 and $1,349. FDDI interface has SMT, SNMP support. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface, Station Management, Simple Network Management Protocol) Rockwell International's subsidiary, Rockwell CMC, developed an FDDI adapter for VMEbus systems, and the adapter includes SMT and SNMP software. The CMC-1150 series adapter uses an SNMP agent that allows SNMP management stations to control devices employing the Rockwell CMC adapter. The software conforms to the current FDDI Management Information Base (MIB) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force's proposed FDDI MIB standard. The first version is a device driver for the SunOS version of the Unix operating system. The CMC-1156 version is a dual-ring attachment adapter that costs $11,955. The CMC-1155 single-ring attachment adapter costs $11,245. RAD Data fiber-to-desktop product line makes debut. (OmniFiber) (product announcement) RAD Data Communications is ready to introduce OmniFiber, a product that connects terminals or microcomputers to mainframes, minicomputers, or LANs over single-mode, multimode or plastic optical fiber. There are two components: a 16-slot chassis and remote units for each end-user device. Traditional copper cable links computers to product-specific interfaces that convert electrical signals into optical impulses for transmission through fiber to the end-user interface, which translates the information back to an electrical signal. The product has been in use in Europe for about a year and is the fiber standard for one large European country. A basic 16-slot card chassis costs $1,200, rack unit cards cost between $640 and $1,200. Remote unit cards cost between $60 and $640. Beta-testing: the benefits outweigh the drawbacks: can provide strategic advantage, product input. The strategic gains from beta-testing products outweigh the significant risks. The preview of new technologies and the opportunity to influence product development are the greatest advantages of beta-testing network products. The beta-testing experiences of several institutions are discussed, focusing on Oregon State Universities' College of Business. CIM success requires winning over execs. (computer-integrated manufacturing) Many executives of manufacturing companies balk at funding expensive computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) technologies. The key to gaining top management support is a 'CIM champion' in the upper management ranks. It is also important to develop a systems architecture that standardizes software, hardware and communications purchases throughout the plant. CIM architectures reduce equipment purchase costs and shortens application implementation times. The implementation of a five-year CIM plan at a Warner-Lambert manufacturing plant is described. MCI finds Japanese are big users of Commax service; no U.S. users sign up for MCI's facilities mgmt. Japanese network users are more fond of MCI Communications Corp's Commax service than their US counterparts. The service has yet to attract a US user, although most Commax users are Japanese firms with US operations. The Japanese are heavy users of facilities management services, which represent cheaper and easier method of managing private networks. Commax costs the NichiMen network less money than the company would pay to manage the network itself. GE net exec pleased with new global net. (network provides links between U.S. and European staff) General Electric's (GE) international network is now a vital business tool. The one-year-old global network uses multiple T1, European T1 and analog lines for voice, facsimile, data and video traffic between European and US business units. The network improves the company's integration at a time when its international business is growing rapidly. British Telecommunications PLC and France Telecom are so pleased with the network that they are using it as a model for other companies. Standard switched services are used for voice and facsimile traffic. Private branch exchanges are tied into GE's corporate-wide, 7-digit dialing plan to make overseas calling as easy as within the US. About 40 percent of traffic is data and 10 percent is video. GE is planning to expand the network with links to Australia, Japan, Singapore, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain. Cisco adds protocol translation to IGS. (Integrated Gateway Server) (First Look) (product announcement) Cisco Systems Inc adds a protocol translation software option to its low-end Integrated Gateway Server (IGS) bridge/router that operates as a gateway and provides protocol conversion between TCP/IP, X.25 and DEC's Local Area Transport (LAT) protocols. The $900 option brings the price of the IGS bridge/router to $6,595, but it eliminates the need to purchase a separate protocol converter. The software allows IGS to link multiple LANs over an X.25, frame relay or T1 wide-area connection and can translate between TCP/IP and LAT traffic. It can also be used as a dedicated protocol converter to support 100 concurrent translation sessions. The product will ship in Mar 1991. Market sees surge in Mac adapter options. (link Macs to 4M/16M bit/sec token-ring LANs) Several new products link Apple Macintosh microcomputers with 4M-bps and 16M-bps token-ring local-area networks, making it easier to integrate Macs into token rings and high-speed token-ring backbone networks. Cabletron Systems Inc's Macintosh II Token ring Desktop Network Interface (DNI) uses shielded or unshielded twisted-pair wiring and features built-in network management and diagnostic capabilities. The MacRing NB 16/4 network adapter from h-three Systems uses a specially developed ring interface to eliminate network jitter problems. Tri-Data Systems' LC-16/4 Token Ring Adapter is software-switchable between 4M- and 16M-bps token-ring speeds. The company claims it is 25 percent faster than other network interfaces. How to shop in the communications supermarket. (Management Strategies) (column) The current information systems market contains a confusing array of products. Hardware, software, systems, communications conventions, protocols and topologies are available in endless varieties of designs and configurations that change daily. Information managers need to be selective in their choices and remain flexible. Business is evolving, requiring buyers to think about the situation several times before making purchase decisions. Focus on corporate and business goals; refrain from building systems or networks based on your own perceptions and prejudices. In a litigious environment, the whole industry loses. (The FCC) (column) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may be on a losing streak in public policy issues before the higher courts. The FCC used to enjoy an 87 percent victory ratio prior to the beginnings of competition. Its record slipped to 77 percent between 1970 and 1978, down to 70 percent in the 1980s, and has won only 59 percent with the Reagan-appointed commission. The structure of the communications industry has become more complicated and the FCC was led by ideologues that founded their policies on right-wing political ideology, not on the law. The FCC also lost a high percentage of the rate-making and accounting issues of the 1980s. State regulators are refusing to let the FCC dictate policy and the AT&T divestiture added to the litigious public policy-making environment. The communications industry is suffering from the public policy conflicts constantly before the courts. Technological and business innovation is inhibited and the public is confused. Intel to offer peek at 100MHz 486 chip; prototype to debut at ISSCC show. (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) (Intel Intel Corp is expected to demonstrate a prototype 100-MHz version of its 80486 microprocessor at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) trade show in San Francisco in Feb 1991. ISSCC organizers note that technologies displayed at the conference are usually completely working or nearly so. Intel will not give details of the chip's design but states that it uses new technology to allow much higher clock rates than currently possible. The company is not expected to offer the ultra-fast 486 before the end of 1991, and 100-MHz 486-based microcomputers are unlikely to appear until 1992 or later because designing systems to take advantage of very fast chips is difficult. Intel will probably simplify development by packaging the new CPU in a module, as it has reportedly done with the upcoming 50-MHz 486. Observers say that the ISSCC presentation is Intel's attempt to demonstrate the continued viability of complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors. 17-ppm LaserJet for LAN market in HP's future. (Hewlett-Packard developing fast laser printer for local area networks) HP is reportedly developing a 17-page-per-minute version of its LaserJet III printer designed for high-volume use on local area networks (LANs). The new LaserJet IIIsi will print at 300 dots-per-inch and is expected to sell for $5,200. It will come with a choice of a Token-Ring or Ethernet module for connecting the printer as a standalone network node and will come with at least 2Mbytes of RAM as well as a 500-page cut feeder. Some speculate that HP will offer a reduced instruction set computing processor and true Adobe PostScript compatibility in a later version. Industry observers note that key requirements for a network-capable printer are a heavy duty cycle, good paper handling capabilities and the ability to switch between multiple environments on the fly. A printer that is a standalone network node is available constantly to all LAN users without having to share processor time with each microcomputer. As war rages, PC makers cope with sales barriers. (difficulty of selling microcomputers to Middle Eastern market in the midst of The outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf has drastically curtailed the business of some microcomputer manufacturers and resellers with ties to the Middle East. Sales of products in nations directly affected by the war have come to a complete halt, and firms such as Arche Technologies Inc have put shipments to the Israeli military on hold. Companies doing other international business find it difficult to ship their products as air and sea freighters are pressed into military service. Fear of terrorism also forces those receiving shipments to use extra caution when unloading packages, and companies cannot pass on the increased cost of doing business to customers because of competitive pressures in the current market. International travel has also been curtailed; many firms now avoid sending employees to Europe and Asia and are recalling those already working there. Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV 1.2 hits early test stages. (Ashton-Tate developing interim upgrade for dBASE IV data base management Ashton-Tate Corp is reportedly beginning preliminary tests of dBASE IV 1.2, an interim upgrade to its flagship database management system. Version 1.2 fixes minor bugs in version 1.1 and adds some features requested by developers. The new release will include 'hooks' between its Control Center interface and third-party development tools such as code generators and report writers; users will be able to create customized programming environments. Beta testers warn that some manual coding will be required in order to integrate third-party products into the Control Center. A new 'Control Center Booster' utility will simplify basic operations via template code and user-defined functions. dBASE IV 1.2 fulfills Ashton-Tate's promise to provide frequent interim upgrades to the long-delayed dBASE IV 1.1 and is expected to help the firm recapture lost market share. Startup takes legwork out of NetWare setup. (Preferred Systems Inc to introduce Origen, LANStandard at NetWorld trade show) (product Preferred Systems Inc, a startup subsidiary of Preferred HealthCare, plans to introduce two new programs designed to simplify the installation and maintenance of Novell NetWare local area networks (LAN) with multiple servers. The Origen and LANStandard packages will let users enter system setup parameters in one server and then copy the information to the 'bindery' databases in other servers. This system will automate setup procedures that managers traditionally perform manually for each server, application and user on the LAN. Beta testers say that the products could drastically reduce the time needed to maintain such functions as access control. The new products extend beyond Novell's new NetWare Name Service (NNS) to include control over directory structures and configuration files, and Preferred Systems is working with Novell to integrate future releases with NNS. Origen is designed for new network installations and will cost $800 to $1,000; LANStandard will sell for $100 to $400 per node and is designed for long-term use. Apple to tap Toshiba, Sony for notebook, hand-held PC. (Apple working with Toshiba Corp. to develop lightweight notebook Apple is reportedly negotiating with Japan's Toshiba Corp to develop a 2- to 4-pound notebook computer, named Mac Companion, that will sell for less than $3,000 and will be available in Sep 1991. The notebook-sized 'Mac Companion' is expected to contain its operating system and application software in ROM and accept both DOS and Macintosh files in ASCII format. Applications suitable for the new machine will include electronic mail and word processing. Apple also signs an agreement with Sony Corp of Japan for the development of a hand-held device that will use a keyboard similar to that of the Casio B.O.S.S. The product is slated for introduction in 1992 and will cost less than $1,000. Apple chmn and CEO John Sculley has reportedly entrusted the two projects to the vice president of Advanced Products Lawrence Tesler, a longtime Apple manager. Ashton-Tate to move forward with Framework, Applause. (beta testing Framework IV, Applause II 1.5 upgrades) Ashton-Tate is beta testing Framework IV and Applause II 1.5, upgrades of its integrated software and presentation graphics program, respectively. Framework IV will include enhancements to its database and graphics modules and new programming features, offering more fonts and better printer support as well as new database capabilities. Its built-in FRED programming language will have mouse-control commands and better memory management, and the word processing and E-mail facilities will be enhanced. Applause II 1.5 will let users assemble slide shows and save them to a single file as well as add dissolves, fades and other special effects to slide shows. Analysts expect the new products to help Ashton-Tate's profitability but not determine its overall success or failure in the market because 80 percent of the company's revenues come from its flagship dBASE database management system. UI's new Unix is competition for OSF/1; other UniForum highlights include applications, tools. (Unix International Inc.)(1991 Unix International Inc (UI) plans to announce a speeded-up timetable for the release of the symmetric multiprocessing version of its Unix System V 4.0 operating system at the 1991 UniForum trade show in Dallas. The consortium expects to offer System V Release 4 MP, whose multithreaded kernel will support up to 30 simultaneous processors, by mid-1991. Analysts say that UI must move fast on the new product in order to compete with the rival Open Software Foundation consortium, which has already released its OSF/1 implementation of Unix. OSF itself plans to announce an upcoming developer's toolkit for its Distributed Computing Environment architecture. NBI seen as Wordstar's Windows opening. (Wordstar International to license technology from NBI Inc.) (word processors for Microsoft Wordstar International Inc is expected to announce a licensing agreement with NBI Inc that will allow it to market NBI's Windows-based Legacy word processor under the Wordstar name. NBI will continue to sell Legacy under its own name. Analysts say the agreement will give Wordstar a chance to enter the fast-growing Windows word processing market. Wordstar, once the leader in IBM-compatible word processing, has lost market share to WordPerfect Corp and Microsoft Corp. The Windows arena is less saturated, and Wordstar could make a stronger showing with Legacy by applying its name recognition and customer loyalty to the product. Some observers are skeptical, noting that Legacy suffers from an awkward user interface compared to competing products. Wordstar had been negotiating with Samna Corp, but failed to obtain rights to Samna's Ami word processor because of the company's merger with Lotus Development Corp. FileNet moves image manager into Windows-based LAN arena. (local area network) (FileNet Corp. introduces WorkFlo Business System) FileNet Corp introduces the WorkFlo Business System, a suite of image processing and work flow management software programs for local area networks. The applications let users digitize images on DOS-based microcomputers running the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and index them for archiving purposes. WorkFlo Business System consists of WorkForce Desktop, an application suite with scanning, digitizing and indexing capabilities, and Workshop, a set of programming tools that let users customize WorkForce applications with scripts and control data flow across any standard LAN. Pharmaceuticals manufacturer Burroughs Wellcome Co uses FileNet to automate the management of clinical drug testing data. WorkForce Desktop costs $1,250 to $2,145 per workstation; Workshop sells for $7,995. An optional AutoForm forms-creation kit costs $995. Computer Associates, HP unite in HP/UX development. Ferranti, Marc. HP and Computer Associates Inc (CA) are working together to port CA's applications and systems-management software to the HP 9000 Series 800 workstation platform. CA is moving into a multiplatform strategy that attempts to cover the growing commercial Unix market, and its efforts with HP will make the HP 9000 platform more viable in the MIS market. The software firm plans to ship Unix systems-management utilities for the HP 9000 by the end of 1991, to be followed by a variety of business and financial applications. The utilities will let network administrators monitor a variety of heterogeneous local area networks (LANs) and will work with graphical user interfaces. CA officials say that the agreement with HP does not preclude similar deals with other Unix vendors. Pilot, IBI pact to bring Windows front-end to PC/Focus 4GL. (fourth generation language) (Pilot Executive Software, Information Builders Inc (IBI) announces Focus/EIS for Windows, an $895 fourth-generation language package for developing executive information systems (EISs) based on the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Focus/EIS for Windows consists of IBI's PC/Focus development system bundled with Pilot Executive Software's LightShip EIS and is the result of a technology agreement between the two companies. It uses a proprietary implementation of the Windows Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol for accessing databases running under DOS, OS/2, and local area network operating systems or on DEC VAX and IBM minicomputers and mainframes. Officials at both Pilot and IBI say that Windows and DDE will make EIS systems developed with the new product more flexible. Watcom claims first tool set to tap Windows, 32-bit memory: developers of CAD, math programs targeted. (computer-aided design) Watcom Group Inc announces C 8.0 /386 for Windows, a new version of its C-language development system that will let programmers create full 32-bit applications for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 interface while taking advantage of all of the features of the 80386 microprocessor. The environment, which includes a compiler, debugger and sets of utilities and libraries, harnesses the 386's protected-mode memory and improved speed. Programmers normally have to write both a 32-bit code portion and a 16-bit interface portion to create 32-bit Windows programs; the new product contains Windows libraries that act as an interpreter, letting developers write 32-bit code while ignoring the 16-bit application program interface. Developers praise the Watcom offering, which is scheduled to be released in Apr 1991. Current users of Watcom C 386 8.0 can upgrade to the Windows version for $1,500. LAN-based group scheduler is solid but difficult to learn. (local area network) (Software Review) (Chronos Software Inc.'s Chronos Software Inc's Who-What-When Enterprise, a multiuser version of the company's Who-What-When group scheduling software, tracks individuals, projects and time while letting work groups share project schedules, notes and calendars. Its character-based user interface is simple, but the program is difficult to learn. The package's documentation is poorly organized and does not include examples, and the commands are not summarized on-screen. Who-What-When Enterprise does offer the ability to call external programs such as LAN-based E-mail, and users can see schedules and daily tasks for an entire work group at a glance. Enterprise is not a full-fledged project management package; it does not display critical paths, print charts or level resources. Who-What-When Enterprise maintains referential data integrity using Novell's Btrieve/N Record Manager 5.10a utility and costs $695 for a six-station package. 386SX notebook makers slow to deliver goods. (lightweight 80386SX-based laptop computers)(includes related article on Many of the 80386SX-based laptop computers vendors promised in 1990 have been delayed, with nearly half missing their original shipment dates because of problems caused by the sheer number of companies entering the market. Bottlenecks produced by the 'rush' included obtaining FCC approval, gaining access to components such as displays and hard drives, and technical difficulties associated with assembling a new product category. Industry observers say that demand continues to exceed supply because corporations whose users heard the original announcements are eager to get the machines. Texas Instruments Inc was able to ship fewer than 1,000 of its TravelMate 3000 notebook computers before the end of 1990. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc, Sharp Electronics Corp and Astarte Computer Systems Inc all say that their new machines will not ship in early Jan 1991 as originally promised. Vendors unveil mix of products at MacWorld. (1991 MacWorld Expo trade show in San Francisco) Third-party vendors gained most of the attention at the 1991 MacWorld Expo trade show in San Francisco, CA in the absence of any major product announcements from Apple. Insight Development Corp announced the Mosaic for the Macintosh printer interface, which lets Mac users print on networked HP LaserJet and DeskJet printers. Radius Inc and Mobius Technologies Inc announced new accelerator boards. The Mobius system includes a 25-MHz 68030 processor and video controller and a large monochrome monitor, while the Radius system is based on the new 68040 chip. Lapis Technologies Inc introduced versions of its DisplayServer programmable video cards for the Macintosh Classic, LC and IIsi. Computer Accessories Corp introduced a Mac version of its Proxima Cyclops pointing device. Outbound Systems Inc announced a Classic-compatible version of its Laptop System. Nanao Flexscan monitors address VDT safety. (Hardware Review) (Nanao USA Corp. Flexscan 9400i, 9080i) (evaluation) Nanao USA Corp's $3,889 Flexscan 9400i and $1,929 Flexscan 9080i and 20- and 16-inch color monitors respectively that are designed to prevent leakage of low-frequency electromagnetic fields. Each has an internal deflection yoke around the monitor tube and a silica screen coating that eliminates static electricity. Both monitors support resolutions of up to 1,280 x 1,024 non-interlaced for graphics applications. The displays are clear and crisp, with no apparent distortion. The 9400i and 9080i support VGA, Super VGA, XGA and Macintosh adapters, with the 9080i offering 24-bit color on the Mac. Built-in microprocessors control the adjustment of horizontal and vertical size and position and side pin cushion; settings are automatically recorded in memory so that the monitor can change modes easily. The 9080i also lets users switch between color, black and white and amber displays. Mac Illustrator upgrade presents a polished image. (Software Review) (Adobe Illustrator 3.0) (evaluation) Adobe Systems Inc's $595 Illustrator 3.0 for the Macintosh is an upgrade of an already powerful package that adds new features to satisfy demanding users. It comes with Separator and Draw-Over utilities for professional color separation and MacDraw file conversion respectively, and has a new 'blend' tool for creating special effects such as fade-ins and dissolves. A 'sheer' tool lets users slant and duplicate images for a three-dimensional effect. Illustrator can create a startup file for storing frequently-used fonts, patterns, colors and graphics templates and includes many new features usually found in page-layout programs. The user can enter text directly on-screen and flow it between columns or place it on curves. A new graph-generation module produces pie, line, bar, stacked bar, area, scatter and grouped bar charts. Awkward commands have been streamlined in the new version, and Illustrator 3.0 supports a wide variety of printers. Libra revamps interface for PC accounting line. (Libra Corp. introduces ExAcct modular accounting software) (product Libra Corp introduces ExAcct, a new line of multiuser accounting software based on its flagship Libra product, that offers an improved interface and the ability to handle multiple currencies. ExAcct is DOS-based and offers pull-down menus, lookup windows and a Common User Access-compliant function key arrangement. The company will release the ExAcct General Ledger and General Ledger/International modules by the end of Jan 1991, with the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable programs following in Apr 1991 and the rest of the modules in Sep 1991. ExAcct includes a full range of high-end features, including the ability to back up as many as 999 databases and an eight-digit alphanumeric chart of accounts code. Early users are pleased with the new menuing structure, which makes it much easier to configure screen options than in early Libra versions. Most of the modules sell for $795 in single-currency versions and $1,495 in multicurrency versions. Document imagers slow the paper chase. (growth of document imaging) New document imaging systems promise to bring the dream of a 'paperless office' closer to reality by letting users convert paper documents into computer images for storage and manipulation. Document imaging reduces paperwork costs by streamlining the process of handling forms and documents. Imaging products include Wang Laboratories Inc's new Open/Image for Windows 3.0, which lets systems integrators incorporate image processing into networks running the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Metafile Information Systems' MetaFax enables several users to share a fax machine and provides such imaging features as electronic forms filing. PictureWare's PixSure File Document Imaging System lets users scan in documents and index them on keyworks for quick retrieval. The market for document imaging products is expected to grow dramatically in the 1990s, with analysts predicting that more than 50,000 units will be installed by 1995. Improved interface tops XTreeGold 2.0 feature list. (Software Review) (XTree Gold disk management software) (evaluation) XTree Co's $149 XTreeGold 2.0 file- and disk-management utility upgrades an already powerful product with the addition of archiving capabilities and the streamlining of existing features. An application menu lists all of the applications on the hard disk drive, letting users launch any application directly, and view and edit files in their native file format before jumping quickly back to the XTree main menu. Add, Edit, Delete and Move commands are accessible from a pull-down menu. XTreeGold can also format floppy disks, undelete files and erase empty areas of a disk as well as archive tagged files in the ZIP or PKArc compression formats. Performance is excellent, and the program successfully launches more than 700 popular applications. RISC boosts router lines; CommNet to showcase internetworking. (reduced-instruction-set computer) (Proteon to introduce ProNET Proteon Inc and Coral Network plan to introduce multiprotocol routers based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology at the 1991 Communication Networks Conference and Exposition trade show. Proteon is expected to introduce the ProNET CNX line, a series of high-end multiprotocol routers based on the Advanced Micro Devices AMD 29000 RISC microprocessor. The ProNet CNX 500 will support forwarding rates of up to 25,000 packets per second over both Token-Ring and Ethernet LANs and will route TCP/IP, Novell IPX, OSI, DECnet, XNS, AppleTalk, and Apollo Domain protocols. It will sell for between $10,995 and $19,495. Coral Networks plans to offer the Broadband Enterprise Switch, which can forward up to 50,000 data packets per second and can combine both packet and circuit switching on a single network. It will support FDDI, Ethernet and Token-Ring LANs and will offer T1, T3, Fractional T1 and Frame Relay interfaces. Prices will range from $20,000 to $100,000. New Ascend switching device links LANs over public networks. (Ascend Communications Inc. introduces Multiband switching device Ascend Communications Inc introduces the Multiband, a switching device for linking remote local area networks and videoconferencing systems at high-speed bandwidth. It lets network managers use ISDN and other digital public data services such as switched 56K-bps lines, saving the cost of leasing private lines; companies pay for public network communications only as they need them. Industry observers say that Multiband will complement many existing private networks because companies often have digital lines linking large sites with analog voice-grade lines at smaller locations such as branch offices. Multiband connects to any long-distance carrier via T-1 or ISDN lines and can monitor transmissions to see if more bandwidth is necessary, calling up additional 56K-bps or 64K-bps lines as needed. The units will sell for $5,000 to $8,000 each depending on configuration; an inverse multiplexing option is $4,000. David Systems spreads into WAN, Mac markets. (wide area networks) Zimmerman, Michael R. David Systems Inc announces its product development plans for 1991, which will include a migration path from existing 10BaseT to WAN server products and new network management offerings for a variety of platforms, including the Apple Macintosh. The company's ExpressWay line of WAN products will include servers, software modules and communications modules. Its first Mac products will include a NuBus 10BaseT adapter and an AppleTalk Router Module for its concentrator line. David Systems plans to release ExpressNet II, a network hub with interfaces for Ethernet, Token Ring and Fiber Distributed Data Interface LANs, in the 3rd qtr 1991. The previously announced ExpressView SNMP Network Management system will ship in Jan 1991. Thomas-Conrad fiber LAN card built for speed. (Hardware Review) (Thomas-Conrad Corp. TC3045 Adapter/AT network interface card) Thomas-Conrad Corp's $1,495 TC3045 Adapter/AT network interface card is designed for use with high-speed fiber optic LANs and works with the company's Thomas Conrad Networking System (TCNS) LAN operating system. TCNS must be run over fiber optic cable and is compatible with ARCnet software at data transfer rates of 100M-bps. The adapter provides 92 percent faster throughput than Ethernet and is very easy to configure and install. The user sets memory address, interrupt and node addresses with DIP switches, but the process is well documented. TCNS is ideal for use as a backbone LAN in a large installation or for heavy-duty batch processing. The TC3045 supports NetWare, Banyan VINES, Performance Technology's PowerLAN and Artisoft's LANtastic in addition to TCNS. Pocket-sized modem provides V.32 performance. (Software Review) (Touchbase Systems Inc. WorldPort 9600 modem) (evaluation) Touchbase Systems Inc's $899 WorldPort 9600 is a pocket-sized modem that offers 9,600-bps performance, full duplex capability and compatibility with the V.32 standard for fast data transmission but weighs only 7.5 ounces. The WorldPort supports MNP error correction protocols in hardware but does not offer the data compression capability found in most V.32 modems. Third-party communications software lets users add MNP Level 5 data compression. The modem comes bundled with Magicsoft Inc's MTEZ communications program, but MTEZ has not been updated to provide 9,600-bps support; users must adjust it manually. Other features include trellis encoding, echo cancellation and lights that show when a call is in progress or when two modems are renegotiating connections. The WorldPort can be connected by an acoustic coupler, but the latter may not work at 9,600 bps. Apple is drifting off interoperability course. (leaving interoperability to third-party developers) (column) Apple is ignoring the interoperability needs of users who wish to link Macintoshes with IBM-compatible networks, refusing to develop standards-compatible equipment in favor of creating its own AppleTalk Management Protocol (AMP) and leaving internetworking largely to third-party vendors. The company wants its network management system to provide more types of information than the widely used Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), but SNMP is an emerging standard which Apple should go along with. Network managers can customize SNMP by adding their own management information to the standardized base. Apple's lack of products that link to other systems is another indication that it does not understand the needs of today's users. Apple should add NetWare and LAN Manager support to its AppleShare servers, if not to every Mac; the servers could act as gateways for other Macs. Hewlett-Packard adds SPARC to its CASE tools. (computer-aided software engineering) HP has ported its SoftBench and Encapsulator computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools to the Sun Microsystems Inc SPARCstation platform. SoftBench is a CASE development environment that is pivotal in HP's multiplatform strategy, and Encapsulator is a program that lets users integrate third-party CASE tools with SoftBench. Both programs were previously only available for HP's own workstations and those from its Apollo division. Developers using a combination of HP and Sun workstations on a network can now use a common graphical interface and tool set, and share access to a repository of design data. Pricing for the Sun versions of the two products has not been set, but both are expected to sell for under $3,000. New Forest & Trees 1.0 helps clear data thickets. (Software Review) (Channel Computing Inc.'s programming tool for Windows) Channel Computing Inc's $495 Forest and Trees for Windows is a graphical front end that serves as a complete application development system for collecting and combining data from a variety of sources and automating complex queries. It can access files created by any dBASE compatible program, Paradox, R:Base, 1-2-3 or Microsoft Excel as well as ASCII files. The program is fully compatible with all supported products. Developing applications is fairly easy for those with minimal programming skills but does require familiarity with Structured Query Language. Forest and Trees uses a 'view' to generate atomic building blocks for an application by extracting information from a database or from other views. Its main drawback is that it always performs sequential searches without using available indexes; performance is unacceptable with large files or complex queries. This failing is not a problem with client/server databases because the query is passed to the server instead of being performed by Forest and Trees itself. Clipper program helps EPA police hazardous waste. (Environmental Protection Agency) (program written in Clipper database language) The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a database application written with Nantucket Corp's Clipper development system to monitor hazardous waste disposal, under a new government ruling calling for industries to report regularly on their release of toxic substances into the environment. The Continuous Release Emergency Response Notification System (CR-ERNS) and Priority Assessment Model (PAM) let EPA officials police the reporting process by tracking and archiving reports. Consulting firm ICF Information Technology Inc wrote both programs under an EPA contract. ICF chose Clipper because its built-in database capabilities are powerful, because it lets developers tap a wide variety of third-party libraries and its ability to produce executable files for faster performance. User-defined functions make Clipper programming very flexible, a capability ICF used to create a context-sensitive help system and provide data encryption. Four Seasons fires up Nova; database offers distributing power. (Four Seasons Software Inc. to introduce SuperNova database Four Seasons Software Inc plans to introduce SuperNova, an upgrade of its Nova database development tool, at the 1991 Uniforum trade show in Dallas, TX. SuperNova helps developers create front-end applications for Informix, Oracle, Ingres, Sybase, Teradata, Unify and other databases and includes a built-in flat-file database. Its distributed capabilities allow dispersal of data and applications across multiple DOS and Unix file servers. The package includes a screen-painting tool for positioning menus and other interface elements, and a fourth-generation language that directs program flow and data validation. A data dictionary lets developers structure applications without recourse to the underlying database. SuperNova will sell for $995 to $115,000 depending on the hardware platform. IBM is key to survival of Presentation Manager. (IBM development of OS/2 operating system)(Up Front) (column) OS/2 has failed to disappear from the marketplace as some predicted in 1990, but the Presentation Manager (PM) graphical interface is having difficulty competing with the Microsoft Windows interface as developers abandon the PM application programming interface (API) in favor of the Windows API. Microsoft intends to make an extended 32-bit version of the Windows API the primary interface for OS/2 3.0. IBM is in a position to 'save' the PM API because it is putting major effort into developing the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 and is likely to have at least modest success. Microsoft may not abandon PM entirely; it has pledged to continue support for the PM API in future versions of OS/2. IBM's efforts to make OS/2 2.0 a success are the key to PM's survival. Despite the Classic's success, Apple must aim higher. (Apple's new low-cost Macintoshes)(The Corporate Micro) (column) The success of Apple's new low-cost Macintosh Classic has diverted attention from the more urgent need to produce a Macintosh powerful enough to be truly effective in business applications. The top-of-the-line Macintosh IIfx is not 'wicked fast' as John Sculley claimed. Users need a machine at least twice as fast; five times faster would be an excellent design target. Apple could solve this problem by aggressively using the new Motorola 68040 chip as NeXT Inc has. The company has not produced any major improvements in recent years despite its enormous research and development budget. It also refuses to invest in Motorola's 88000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology. The Mac Classic will not solve Apple's long-term problems because it is aimed at the less lucrative home and school markets rather than at businesses. Let forward-thinking IS chiefs see light of day. (information systems)(Risky Business) (column) Corporations tend to view information systems (IS) managers as not being focused on business. Many IS managers are guilty of not contributing to company solutions because they prefer to maintain the status quo. Keeping up with technology is difficult, and any new technology investment is inherently risky. Upper management nevertheless often fails to give those IS managers who are forward-looking and business-oriented a chance to help solve corporate problems. Developing corporate technology experts by presenting them with challenges helps them find information solutions to business problems, making them as important in realizing the firm's strategic goals as are sales and manufacturing managers. Computer managers should be technology experts who also understand business needs and who keep informed about the newest technology. Emerging markets set stage for renewed growth. (hand-held computers, notebook-sized machines, other growth areas)(Valley The computer industry is likely to grow only about 3 to 4 percent annually in 1991 and 1992 because of the slowdown in the US economy, but it can definitely recapture the double-digit growth rates of the mid-1980s by focusing on emerging new technologies. The recession will be milder in the Silicon Valley than elsewhere, with large firms such as Apple and Intel continuing to prosper. Japanese competition will remain the largest challenge to domestic microcomputer vendors. Apple's Macintosh Classic is selling to home offices and businesses rather than homes; the company still needs to offer a color machine for under $1,000 in order to capture the traditional home market. It may finally be forced to license the Mac ROM in order to meet demand. Two-pound notebook computers with full keyboards and readable screens will become popular, and pen-based microcomputers will be the most important new technology in the coming year. VARs ease NetFrame's reliance on Businessland. (value-added resellers, NetFrame Systems) (Changing Channels) (column) Businessland Inc is working to build the cost-efficient support structure it needs in order to sell NetFrame Systems' powerful file servers and client/server platforms effectively. The reseller's NetFrame sales grew dramatically in mid-1991 but collapsed as its financial problems grew and customer confidence eroded. Businessland technical head Enso Torresi has signed 40 value-added resellers and created a nine-person direct sales force to support third-party sales partners. The VARs take some of the selling burden of Businessland but are reluctant to involve themselves in long-term maintenance contracts, which are turned over to the retailing chain. NetFrame itself is highly committed to standards,and its plug-and-play architecture makes its systems easy to set up. The server vendor has joined Novell's Independent Manufacturer Support Program Level II test and certification program. Channel support rather than sales is the key factor impeding the growth of client/server platforms, and Businessland's role will remain crucial because NetFrame has only a small technical support staff. COBOL evolves as mission-critical tool; six DOS-based compilers answer growing need for multiplatform applications. (Software The COBOL programming language remains a key tool in many organizations despite being perceived as a 'dinosaur' by aficionados of modern languages such as C and Pascal, but COBOL is highly effective for accounting and other business applications. Microcomputer-based COBOL compilers have proliferated as corporations 'downsize' from mainframes to networked microcomputers and want to run common code on systems of different sizes. Six COBOL compilers, from Acucobol Inc, MBP Software and Systems Technology Inc, Micro Focus Inc, Microsoft Corp, Realia Inc and Ryan McFarland Corp, are reviewed. All the products deliver the well-defined essential core mechanisms of COBOL at excellent speed. Ryan McFarland's RM/CO is the best environment for managing projects involving many programmers, while Realia's Realia COBOL 4.0 requires the least disk space. Microsoft COBOL 4.0 is very powerful and easy to use. Buyers consider 'dinosaur' COBOL in tune with times. (survey of users of six COBOL compilers) Results of a survey of buyers of six microcomputer-based COBOL compilers indicate that the COBOL language is still widely used and valued despite the widespread perception that it is a 'dinosaur.' One user notes that the clients of his software development firm are oriented toward business rather than technical needs and that COBOL is ideal for accounting applications. He uses Acucobol Inc's Acucobol-85 1.5 to develop comprehensive business solutions for these customers. Another consulting software developer uses Realia COBOL 4.0 to create applications for banks and brokerage firms, praising its ability to build portable applications that can be developed on microcomputers and run on mainframes. A user of MBP Software's Visual COBOL expresses satisfaction with its speed and screen-design capabilities but finds that performance degrades somewhat when working with large databases. Micro Focus' COBOL/2 satisfies many users, but some prefer Microsoft's COBOL 4.0 implementation of the same product because Microsoft offers better technical support. Acucobol Inc.: Acucobol-85 1.5. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL compilers in 'COBOL evolves as Acucobol Inc's $900 Acucobol-85 1.5 COBOL compiler is aimed directly at business needs such as accounting and offers support for DOS, OS/2, VMS and Unix run-time platforms. It supports many advanced interface features, including pull-down menus and scrolling pop-up windows. Acucobol's interactive performance is impressive, and its DOS implementation takes up only 200Kbytes of disk space for the compiler and 400Kbytes for the run-time environment. The compiler does not come with its own text editor or other development tools but links to third-party tools via command-line options. Programmers can adjust Acucobol options by changing a configuration file. The documentation is well-organized and very informative. MBP Software and Systems Technology Inc.: Visual COBOL 2.1. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL compilers in MBP Software and Systems Technology Inc's $1,195 Visual COBOL 2.1 compiler uses Visual Screen Management System (SMS), a proprietary non-procedural facility, to lay out interactive screens. SMS links programs with 'mask library' files that control screen behavior, letting programmers design usable interfaces quickly. Visual COBOL is compact and full-featured, but its manuals are overly intimidating. Version 2.1 includes a colorful new windowing interface called Visual Assistant that lets developers set up such options as preferred choice of linker and text editor and access them from a rudimentary menu shell. The interface commands are not integrated with each other, a serious limitation. Today's developers expect their programming environment to take only the minimum action necessary to update a particular version of a file, a problem MBP may address in the next release of Visual COBOL. Micro Focus Inc.: Micro Focus COBOL/2 2.4 with COBOL/2 Toolset and Workbench. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL Micro Focus Inc's $3,290 Micro Focus COBOL/2 2.4 compiler supports many different compatibility levels for mainframe environments, letting microcomputer developers work with almost any version of COBOL they are likely to encounter in the field. This capability makes Micro Focus COBOL the best choice for professional COBOl-only developers. Micro Focus' COBOL/2 Toolset and Workbench round out the compiler with a complete development environment. A 'Panels' extension provides screen management via callable routines, and the 'Animator' is an excellent debugger that pops up windows around items in the program as the developer steps through code. 'Structure Animator' displays program behavior at the modular level. Animator and Structure Animator are good tools for novices as well as expert programmers. Micro Focus COBOL is a repackaged version of Microsoft COBOL, but its documentation is better. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft COBOL Professional Development System 4.0. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL compilers Microsoft Corp's $900 Microsoft COBOL Professional Development System 4.0 is essentially identical to Micro Focus Inc's Micro Focus COBOL/2 in many respects, but Microsoft provides different editing and debugging tools. The Programmer's WorkBench (PWB) uses a Common User Access interface and has more of a 'microcomputer' look and feel than Micro Focus' COBOL/2 Workbench. PWB includes on-line hypertext help and some other convenience features. The Microsoft implementation meets mixed-language needs somewhat better than Micro Focus. Most other differences are cosmetic, and there is little reason to choose Microsoft COBOL over Micro Focus COBOL. Realia Inc.: Realia COBOL 4.0. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL compilers in 'COBOL evolves as Realia Inc's Realia COBOL 4.0 compiler is a 'hands on' development system designed to work with other low-level system tools; developers can integrate it easily with their preferred third-party editing and debugging tools. The programming environment is not fancy but uses very little disk space. Its supplied editor is well-designed, and users can purchase a complete DOS shell as an add-on. The architecture of Realia COBOL is simple and well-documented. Realia COBOL comes with a copy of the IBM VS COBOL II manual for reference, and the compiler provides excellent feedback during incremental development. The compiler sells for $995 and is an excellent choice for cost-conscious developers used to working on microcomputer platforms. Ryan McFarland Corp.: RM/COBOL-85 5.0 and RM/CO* 1.0. (Software Review) (one of six evaluations of COBOL compilers in 'COBOL Ryan McFarland Corp's $1,250 RM/COBOL-85 5.0 compiler and $199 RM/CO* development system provide an unusually robust microcomputer-based COBOL programming platform when used together. RM/CO* includes an integrated debugger and integrates source-code change control and management of related source files. The 'Instrumentation' feature is a powerful development aid that gives developers special tools for analyzing program behavior: programmers can create an output file describing the number of times each program statement was executed. Ryan McFarland provides concise but clear documentation. Add-ons help lasers print clear faxes. (Hardware Review) (fax printing accessories for laser printers)(includes related articles Three electronic devices that let microcomputer users print incoming facsimile transmissions on laser printers are reviewed. Extended Systems Inc's FaxConnection ESI-5018A, JetFax Inc's JetFax II, and Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic all plug into a microcomputer at one end and a laser printer at the other using printer cable and a fax phone line. Each effectively turns a laser printer into a low-cost fax receiver, silently monitoring the telephone line for incoming calls and printing faxes as full-page graphic images. Using a laser printer for fax printing lets users print on plain paper and reduces the cost of fax machine maintenance. The devices work with any HP LaserJet-compatible printer by transforming the fax image into a Printer Command Language (PCL) graphic. The Fax-O-Matic earns an Analyst's Choice award for its exceptional performance. Facsimile receivers eliminate buyers' fax headaches. (survey of buyers of three fax-receiver devices for laser printers) Buyers of three low-cost fax receivers that use laser printers for facsimile output praise the devices' output quality and ability to print on plain paper. One user of Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic notes that it provides functionality similar to that of plain-paper fax machines costing three times as much. Most buyers are satisfied with the output quality, which usually exceeds that of thermal fax machines. A user of JetFax Inc's JetFax II prefers receiving faxed messages on laser printer paper because thermal paper is flimsy and needs to be recopied because the print disappears over a period of months. Another user notes that Extended Systems Inc's FaxConnection produces better print quality than a standalone Canon fax machine. Extended Systems Inc.: FaxConnection ESI-5018A. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of facsimile receiver devices for laser Extended Systems Inc's $695 FaxConnection ESI-5018A facsimile receiver board for LaserJet printers suffers from a small memory buffer and lack of battery backup, making it useful only for printing faxes of fewer than 10 pages on PCL 4 printers. The FaxConnection supports the PCL 5 language used in the HP LaserJet III, which accepts parallel-port data twice as fast as the LaserJet II and uses special codes in the data stream that reduce the number of bytes needed to specify a page of graphics. FaxConnection cannot print fast enough on PCL 4 printers to clear its buffer memory after the 10th page. It does automatically send a message to the transmitting fax when a page is not received and prints an error message on a separate page at the local printer. JetFax Inc.: JetFax II. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of facsimile receiver devices for laser printers in JetFax Inc's $995 JetFax II is a capable fax receiver that lets users print incoming faxes on an HP LaserJet-compatible printer, but the product is relatively expensive. It includes a wide array of setup option and can be set to identify itself during incoming calls or to poll other fax machines regularly. A rechargeable battery pack prevents the loss of a fax due to a power outage. JetFax supports PCL 5 and includes a setting that gives the computer priority over the incoming fax, preventing faxes from interrupting incoming faxes. An optional accelerator cartridge speeds PCL 4 printing on the LaserJet IIP and IID printers. Forthcoming receivers will take different approach to using laser printers. (future versions of facsimile receivers) Several vendors plan to introduce new facsimile receivers in 1991 that use laser printers to print incoming faxes but take a different approach than that of current products such as Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic or JetFax Inc's JetFax II. International Computers and Communications Inc's ICC-Fax Card will fit inside HP LaserJet printers using the optional I/O slot, and a new receiver from Xante Corp will control the laser engine directly to reproduce the fax image at exactly the resolution at which it was transmitted. Both products will cost $595. FaxStor and Seagull Technologies Inc are developing $995 fax receivers with built-in high-density floppy disk drives for buffering incoming fax information, providing large capacity and non-volatile storage media. Tall Tree Systems: Fax-O-Matic. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of facsimile receiver devices for laser printers in Tall Tree Systems' $399 Fax-O-Matic is an electronic device that lets users print incoming faxes on any HP-compatible laser printer and is the best value available in a low-cost fax transceiver. It prints at 150 dots per inch instead of the standard 300-dpi LaserJet resolution, significantly improving performance on PCL 4 printers; it does not use the PCL 5 language. Image quality suffers only slightly from the lower resolution, and all text is legible. Setup is straightforward; users do not need to set switches or specify options. The device is simple to operate and automatically reduces incoming pages to 95 percent of their original size to ensure that the entire image fits within the boundaries of the laser printer's image. The Fax-O-Matic lacks some features, such as a time/date stamp, but is nevertheless rated an Analyst's Choice for its exceptional price/performance ratio. Simplicity vital to Windows 3.0 PIMs. (personal information management systems) (Software Review) (overview of four Four personal information management (PIM) software packages for the Microsoft Windows graphical interface are reviewed: IBM Desktop Software's Current 1.1, Polaris Software's PackRat 3.0, Prisma Software Corp's YourWay 1.1 and Okna Corp's Desktop Set 3.0c. All the products provide basic telephone and calendar management features, but each takes its own approach to integration and ease of use. The DeskTop Set is easy to use because it focuses on providing an intuitive interface to its core functions; PackRat and Current both offer additional features that are fairly well integrated but somewhat more difficult to learn and use. YourWay is very flexible, letting users customize its database with a wide variety of data types, but it suffers from a lack of structure that makes it difficult to use. IBM Desktop Software: Current 1.1. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of personal information management software packages IBM Desktop Software's $395 Current 1.1 personal information management system is a very powerful package with a wide array of features, but many of its features are only adequate for light-duty use. It provides first-rate telephone, calendar and telephone-directory management functions, all of which are very well integrated. The user interface is clear when using the standard templates because the database is highly structured. Current can create and display organization and Gantt charts for managing resources, but these features are not nearly as powerful as those in standalone project management packages. The greatest strength of Current is the degree to which its core database can be customized. Users can modify or replace any standard template, add new templates or import scanned graphics. A powerful search capability lets users apply filters for viewing a subset of the database. Ease of use suffers when the user takes advantage of these features. PIM purchase a matter of personal taste to buyers. (survey of users of four personal-information management programs for Buyers of four Windows 3.0-based personal information management (PIM) software packages have widely varying personal preferences but rank user interface quality, ease of use and flexibility as key considerations in purchase decisions. One user of Polaris Software's PackRat praises its ability to set modules on the screen as active or inactive. A user of IBM's Current 1.1 likes the fact that it can customize forms and does not demand rigid structure from users. Several users indicate that they chose PackRat for its unusually broad range of features. Users of Prisma Software's YourWay praise its easy-to-customize interface, but one complains that it cannot set recurring agenda items more than one year in advance and finds its clipboard awkward. A user of Okna Corp's DeskTop Set is enthusiastic about its simple interface and logical design. Polaris Software: PackRat 3.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of personal information management software packages Polaris Software's $395 PackRat 3.0 includes nearly every conceivable personal information management feature, but it suffers from a non-standard approach to data creation and manipulation. The program manages checking and savings accounts and credit-card transactions, provides resource management of facilities and includes a time manager for billing. A document-tracking feature maintains a log of documents created by other applications, and a project management facility adds cost tracking and reporting capabilities. None of these facilities is as strong as those in standalone programs, but all are solidly designed and useful. PackRat nevertheless performs basic PIM tasks such as telephone-book and calendar management. Its core functions are not well integrated; users cannot automatically schedule an appointment with a person whose phone entry is on-screen. Prisma Software Corp.: YourWay 1.1. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of personal information management software packages Prisma Software Corp's $199 YourWay 1.1 personal information management system contains some sophisticated concepts but does not work effectively. It resembles the Cardfile program bundled with Microsoft Windows 3.0, spreading individual data records across the screen; a row of action icons at the right side provides access to its more powerful features. The poorly designed interface is awkward to use, but conceals such capabilities as pop-up functions and a very flexible database. Users can create and name any number of fields and identify any of them as the 'index' field for sorting a database. This lack of structure tends to make YourWay confusing; the data records to not adhere to the standard Windows user interface. YourWay offers a set of predefined calendar templates, a navigation tool for identifying appointments and a To-do list. Dialing options are limited; the only item users can customize is a prefix. Okna Corp.: Desktop Set 3.0C. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of personal information management software packages Okna Corp's $149 Desktop Set 3.0C personal information management (PIM) system is a sleek package offers few extra features but presents a well-designed user interface for its core functions. It provides great depth in its calendar and phone-book management capabilities and makes better use of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 interface than other Windows PIMs. Users can make calendar appointments and dial phone numbers entirely with the mouse, and most actions can be initiated by double-clicking. The predefined phone book lets users enter business and residence addresses and numbers, fax numbers and other contact information. The telephone dialer has a memory pad for instant access to frequently dialed numbers; support for least-cost routing and calling cards; and Touch-Tone support. Users may set alarms and reminders for each calendar item. DeskTop Set offers superior printing options; users can print schedules in yearly, monthly or itinerary format and print phone-book entries on labels or lists. Audit-trail programs keep LANs in line. (Software Review) (overview of three evaluations of network auditing Three network-management software packages providing audit-trail capabilities are reviewed. Blue Lance Inc's $495 LT Auditor 3.2, Connect Computer Co's $395 Lanscape Resource Manager 2.2, and Network Management Inc's $595 LANtrail 2.15 all let network managers track file and application usage and user access and provide security by helping administrators determine who copies illegal software to the server or introduces a virus into the system. LT Auditor and LANtrail are NetWare specific programs and provide only audit trails, while Lanscope RM is a full-fledged network resource manager. Lanscope RM is the only one of the packages that supports the Novell NetWare 386 operating system in its current version. It is a powerful tool but is too complex to use only for audit trails. Blue Lance Inc.: LT Auditor. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of network management programs in 'Audit-trail Blue Lance Inc's LT Auditor audit-trail package is a memory-resident program for Novell local area networks that lets network administrators track user access and application use. Its documentation is excellent, and its automated installation files creates all appropriate subdirectories and log files. LT Auditor consists of RAM3200, a 25Kbyte program loaded into high memory on each workstation, and a menu-driven Supervisor Interface program that resides on the file server and requires supervisor rights for access. There is no provision for making sure that RAM3200 has been loaded onto a workstation. The Supervisor Interface resembles a Novell utility and is easy to use. It creates 'filters' that define the type of activity managers wish to audit. LT Auditor costs $495 for a single server and $595 per server for multiple servers. Managers seek up-to-date data from packages. (survey of buyers of audit-trail programs for local area networks) A survey reveals that buyers of three audit-trail packages for local area networks value products that generate accurate, detailed and up-to-date reports. Blue Lance Inc's LT Auditor, Connect Computer Co's Lanscope Resource Manager and Network Management Inc's LANtrail all provide useful information, but some buyers of LT Auditor and LANtrail are disappointed that neither package yet supports NetWare 386 or Banyan Systems Inc's VINES. One Lanscape user who runs the package on both Novell and Banyan networks says that multiplatform capability was his main reason for choosing the Connect package. Users also praise the software metering capability in Lanscape. Buyers like the fact that audit trails provide extra security by letting network managers track who is using what software and determine the origin of any viruses that invade a system. Connect Computer Co.: Lanscope Resource Manager (RM). (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of network management programs Connect Computer Co's $695 Lanscope RM is a complete network resource management package that includes audit trail functions, software metering, resource and access privilege assignments and reporting features. It is complex to install and set up; its Universal Database holds a vast array of detailed information about all users and resources. The program runs on any LAN because it relies on its own databases. Its 'Turnstyle' audit trail utility is available separately for $395 and runs either in batch mode or as a 3Kbyte terminate and stay resident (TSR) program. Turnstyle lets users 'check out' copies of applications entered into its database and check them back in at the end of a session. It offers metered software reports and a wide variety of activity reports. Turnstyle keeps audit trails only of application execution activity; more comprehensive auditing requires the full Lanscope RM package, which includes a 3.6Kbyte TSR called LOG loaded into every workstation from the system log-in script. Managers can obtain reports on application activity and user activity. Network Management Inc.: LANtrail 2.15. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of network management programs in 'Audit-trail Network Management Inc's $595 LANtrail 2.15 is a memory-resident audit trail package for Novell NetWare local area networks that provides the same user interface as a standard Novell utility. Its automated installation procedure creates all necessary subdirectories for both the LANTRAIL.COM 5Kbyte terminate and stay resident (TSR) program and the LANTRAIL.EXE interface program. The TSR can monitor 14 file operations simultaneously. It is loaded from the log-in script, which provides some security but could by bypassed by a determined user. The program cannot handle filters, dumping all data to log files. Ten well-designed reports are available; four take data directly from the server, while the other six are based on log data. LANtrail compresses log data for report generation, a procedure that takes approximately 20 minutes per megabyte on an IBM AT machine. Spreadsheets cross DOS-Unix platforms. (selecting a multiplatform spreadsheet) (buyers guide) Many spreadsheets that run under both the DOS and Unix operating systems are now available, and those who rely on mixed computing environments face the challenge of choosing a program that meets their needs and provides a consistent interface. The leading DOS/Unix spreadsheets are Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3, Access Technology Inc's Access 20/20 and Informix Software Inc's Wingz. Support for graphical interfaces is still evolving on all the programs; only Access 20/20 currently supports the Open Look interface, while the others offer some support for the rival Motif interface. Users praise the functionality of 1-2-3 on Sun workstations but complain that it is not graphical. File conversion is easy, according to users. Wingz is popular for its graphical capabilities. Token-Ring 16M-bps adapter cards meet need for speed. (choosing a network adapter card)(includes related article on how buyers Network administrators increasingly turn to Token-Ring as the fastest and most dependable topology available; Token-Ring vendors maintain that their architecture, developed by IBM in the mid-1980s, addresses the speed and reliability problems of Ethernet and other alternatives. Token-Ring networking was originally a 4M-bps standard but has since expanded to include 16M-bps bandwidth and adapter interfaces. Many users argue over the relative merits of shielded and unshielded cabling; IBM favors shielded cabling for its reliability, but unshielded twisted-pair cabling is less expensive. Token-Ring offers inherent reliability benefits because a single cable failure does not cause the entire network to go down. Key concerns in choosing a Token-Ring adapter card include whether Token Ring is the best topology for the user's application needs, whether the added performance of a fast card justifies its cost, whether adapters will be used for individual workstations, what third-party products are needed and what type of cabling to use. Chip makers take it on the chin; profit margins under pressure. (microprocessor manufacturers profitability) Major microprocessor manufacturers suffered losses and disappointing earnings in 4th qtr 1990, with Chips and Technologies Inc posting the first loss in its history and Advanced Micro Devices reporting a $42.9 million loss. Intel Corp reported an 34 percent earnings gain, but analysts say that its performance is disappointing because profits were below expectations. Chips and Technologies notes that the average selling price of its older products has declined continuously, creating severe margin pressure. Intel faces an uncertain future because its gross profit margin fell three points during the fourth quarter, possibly because of the company's price reductions on the 486 chip. Hardware makers buck recession; IBM leads pack. (financial results of hardware manufacturers) Major microcomputer hardware vendors report surprising growth in 4th qtr 1990, with IBM leading the way. IBM's results were better than expected; the company earned $4.30 per share for the quarter ended Dec 31, 1990, and sales rose 13 percent. Apple's low-cost Macintoshes have been successful, and the company posted an earnings increases of 31 percent. Macintosh shipments worldwide rose 50 percent from the same quarter one year ago. AST Research Inc did well with its powerful, low-cost PC clones; sales of its 80486-based systems increased 56 percent, and the shift to higher-end models raised its gross margins. DEC reported a 28 percent drop in earnings for its second quarter, but the company nevertheless did better than Wall Street analysts expected. Oracle's banks decide to halt further loans. (Oracle Corp.) Ould, Andrew. A banking syndicate has temporarily halted loans to software giant Oracle Corp, citing concern about the company's shaky finances. The 13-bank group pooled $250 million in Aug 1990 to create a fund from which Oracle could borrow, but the software company had already borrowed $170 million by Nov 30, 1990. Oracle has filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealing that it has pledged $490 million in uncollected payments as collateral and must provide the banks with detailed monthly expense reports. Some analysts say that the banks now essentially have control over Oracle's spending and can virtually dictate its actions, but others downplay the banking group's influence. Oracle has told the SEC it has enough 'working capital' to function through the end of May 1991 and is considering alternative financing. Legal dispute kept Paperback from Lotus appeal. (Paperback Software International) Paperback Software International intended to appeal a federal judge's ruling that it violated Lotus Development Corp's copyrights on the 1-2-3 spreadsheet interface, but a legal dispute between Paperback and its two insurance companies forced it to settle the case. The financially strapped software manufacturer, whose VP Planner spreadsheet allegedly violated Lotus' intellectual property rights by copying the 1-2-3 menu and command structure, agreed to Lotus' demand that it withdraw VP-Planner from the market and gave up its right to appeal in order to receive a $250,000 payment from Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. US District Judge Robert Keeton ruled in favor of Lotus and against Paperback on Jun 28, 1990, calling Paperback's copying of the 1-2-3 interface 'overwhelming and persuasive.' Lotus settled for $500,000, a modest amount, which some analysts say was intended to kill any appeal. Banyan recruits Novell veterans for marketing lineup. (Banyan Systems Inc. announces new marketing team) Banyan Systems Inc announces a new six-member marketing team that includes members recruited from leading competitor Novell Inc. The team members average 15 years of marketing experience each and have been given a 50 percent increase in sales and marketing funds to aggressively push Banyan's VINES network operating system. Banyan VP of marketing James D'Arezzo has hired four new executives and promoted two others to create the team. Duane Bowman and Edward Cooper, two longtime Novell executives, will serve as director of product marketing and director of channel and industry marketing respectively. Bill Johnson, a Western Digital veteran, has joined Banyan as director of business development, and the director of corporate communications, Jeff Stives, formerly served as a senior VP at Daniel J. Edelman Worldwide Inc., a public relations firm, and has held marketing positions at four technology companies. Technology follows biology as computer viruses proliferate. (Looking Forward) (column) The evolution of computer viruses parallels that of biological viruses. Both biological viruses and computer viruses exist to replicate themselves and wreak havoc on their 'hosts' in the process. . Computer viruses copy themselves from disk to disk by 'infecting' a computer and replicating whenever a disk is inserted in the computer's drive. Today's computer viruses attach themselves to the end of program files and misdirect the pointer at the beginning of the program each time the host program is run to execute the viral code before the application can start. Viruses search for new programs to infect; some new strains load themselves into memory in order to do this. A trigger condition such as time, date or number of times a program has been run causes the virus to do something that harms a system. Some malicious viruses can destroy disks or data, while others merely 'decorate' the screen with whimsical displays. Virus detection and destruction methods have increased in sophistication along with the viruses themselves. Some programs merely scan files for virus 'signatures,' while others reside in memory and monitor a system for suspect activity. CTIA backs push for TDMA as digital cellular standard. (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association; time division multiple The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) met in San Diego, CA, in the week of Jan 14, 1991. At the meeting, there was considerable unity behind time division multiple access (TDMA) technology for digital cellular systems. Support remains for an alternate digital technology - code division multiple access - but CDMA lags 12 months behind TDMA on product development, which cellular operators say is too long to wait. Herschel Shosteck, president of Herschel Shosteck Associates, believes that in 18 months TDMA will be a standard in the US cellular industry. South American distributor sues AT&T. (Westel de Venezuela) (News of the Week) Westel de Venezuela sues AT&T for $270 million. Westel, which is a former AT&T distributor, claims that AT&T is trying to monopolize telecommunications, terminal and computer businesses in Venezuela. Westel says AT&T is involved in extortion and fraud. The law suit comes just as bidding is opened for data transmission, cellular and other services, consequent to the gradual privatization of CANTV, Venezuela's state-owned telephone company. Pedro Maisonnave, speaking for AT&T, denies that there is any merit in Westel's accusations. According to Maisonnave, AT&T tried to work with Westel, but Westel was unable to fix some problems. AT&T was forced to terminate Westel to uphold its own reputation. Suriname telco thrives on chaos. (Telesur, Suriname's state-owned telephone company) (News of the Week) Unpredictability goes with the territory for the 1200 employees of Telesur, Suriname's state-owned telephone company. For example, during a bloodless coup on Christmas Eve, 1990, army officers cut Suriname's communications links with the rest of the world. Among ongoing problems is a jungle insurrection that has hampered Telesur's operations for years, and Suriname's overall economic difficulties compound the situation. One problem involves foreign exchange: the exchange rate on the black market is such that a call from Suriname to the Netherlands, where 200,000 Surinamese live, can last eight times as long as a call from the Netherlands to Suriname, and yet cost the same. There is an imbalance between outgoing and incoming calls, especially between Suriname and Holland. The result is that overseas lines are constantly tied up. Puerto Rico telco bids sealed and delivered. (Puerto Rico Telephone Authority) (News of the Week) At least three companies - BellSouth International, GTE Corp and Spain's Telefonica - have submitted final bids for the Puerto Rico Telephone Authority (PRTA). It is rumored that the minimum price of $3 billion may be achievable. The privatization is opposed by Puerto Rican labor unions. BellSouth might be prohibited, because of Modified Final Judgement (MFJ) restrictions, from acquiring PRTA long-distance operations, but it is thought that BellSouth might challenge the MFJ's jurisdiction. Money raised by the privatization is to be placed in two trusts of $1 billion each: one would be used to improve schools in Puerto Rico; and the other would be used for repairs to the island's infrastructure. No more island hopping for ISDN users: the day of ISDN interconnection is approaching, but there are still a number of The integrated services digital network (ISDN) is a vision that seems close to realization. In the US, telephone companies and others are making progress in efforts to test, deploy and interconnect ISDN, though much remains to be done. InterLATA ISDN is probably still at least a year away. An important development in 1991 will be increased industry testing of products that comply with ISDN standards. SS7 is a critical prerequisite for ISDN interconnection in the US, and a breakthrough occurred in Dec 1990 when the FCC approved an SS7 tariff for BellSouth. Outside of this country, AT&T will offer ISDN connectivity to nine foreign nations. According to AT&T, many customers in the US want global capability, especially in videoconferencing and Group IV facsimile. Will the telecom debate blow the lid off Capitol Hill? Both the FCC and the NTIA are finally ready to tackle the critical debate 'Telecommunications infrastructure' generates a growing debate in the United States. In 1990, telecom infrastructure was the focus attention at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), from which proposed legislation emerged that would allow telephone companies to do video programming. Telecom infrastructure was the subject of FCC consideration in the form of 'price-cap' proceedings. More generally, telecommunications infrastructure has been a subject of discussions about regulatory reform in the telephone industry, relief from restrictions imposed by the Modified Final Judgement (MFJ), and removal of restrictions on telephone company/cable TV cross-ownership. Back to the future: many organizations are flocking back to the public network for their information processing, thanks in part to During 1990, large organizations began to contract out for information processing services previously managed in-house. There is a similar trend involving voice and data communications services. What is needed now is a new class of communications products to facilitate access to integrated services digital network (ISDN) for computers, local area networks (LANs), and videoconferencing and imaging equipment. Most large companies never wanted to get into the communications business, but felt as if they were forced to. Organizations had to invest in and operate their own telephone networks because needed services were not otherwise available. Now, ISDN is maturing. Companies can now return to public network facilities, using systems that the telephone companies operate and maintain. NCR chairman, at talk with analysts, appears to soften stance on AT&T bid. (Charles E. Exley Jr.) NCR Corp Chmn Charles E. Exley says, in a meeting with securities analysts, that NCR might consider a lower takeover offer than $125 per share. AT&T has offered $90 per share. Situations that could change NCR's position include: further deterioration of the economy in the economy, business problems for NCR itself, harm caused to NCR by the AT&T takeover attempt, or a decision by NCR board members or by investment bankers that an offer is fair. According to AT&T, 70 per cent of NCR's shareholders want a merger between the companies and more than 50 percent have voted for a special shareholder's meeting to try to oust the board. Exley believes that NCR can 'outrun' AT&T by boosting the NCR's earnings and stock price before the 1992 annual meeting. The latest Excel leapfrogs its spreadsheet rivals: formidable graphics, easy to use, with a 'convert' button for people used to Microsoft Corp's $495 Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software, for IBM-and-compatible microcomputers running Microsoft Windows 3.0, is a significant advance over other products on the market. Competitors Lotus Development Corp and Borland International Inc have Windows 3.0-based products under development, but for now, Excel sets a standard. Excel 3.0 makes use of the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) by using mouse interaction and point-and-click icons to create a product the is very easy to use. Excel automates common functions with a feature called 'toolbar' that represents functions as an icon that can be activated with a mouse click. Excel also features a Lotus 1-2-3 conversion function to help 1-2-3 users learn Excel commands by finding Excel equivalents. Other powerful features include a 'solver' function, a choice of 68 different chart styles, and the first use of object linking and embedding (OLE) techniques. NCR sees violations in bid by A.T.&T. (hostile takeover) NCR Corp claims, in papers filed in US District Court on Jan 17, 1991, that AT and T's hostile takeover bid is a violation of federal laws. NCR says that by issuing the Universal card, which is a combination credit card and calling card, AT and T is acting as a bank holding company, and under federal law bank holding companies are prohibited from owning non-bank businesses. NCR also says that AT and T would finance the $6.1 billion acquisition of NCR with money from its long-distance telecommunications business, a breach of federal regulations. AT and T rejects NCR's arguments as 'diversionary' and 'grasping after straws.' I.B.M. surprises Wall Street with strong quarterly net. (fourth quarter) IBM has reported unexpected profits due to strong sales of its RS/6000 workstations, AS/400 minicomputers and data storage devices. The air-cooled models of its newly-announced ES/9000 mainframe computer have been sold out. The decreased value of the dollar has also helped with earnings increases, and sales in Europe continued to increase. IBM's shares jumped up with news of the earnings report. Stock analysts had previously decreased IBM's earnings estimates because of a slowing U.S. economy and stalling European market. Industry analysts believe that the increased earnings reported by IBM, Apple Computer Inc and DEC signal future vigorous competition within the computer market which will shake out smaller manufacturers. Prime gives president additional job as chief. (Prime Computer Inc., John J. Shields) Prime Computer Pres John J. Shields will take over James F. McDonald's position as chief executive. McDonald will then become vice chairman. McDonald came from Gould Inc to help Prime Computer reorganize its operations. Prime Computer manufactures minicomputers and workstations. McDonald is credited with cutting costs, reducing the workforce and helping to regain the company's profitability. Prime Computer is now meeting its debt-service responsibilities, and its computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) business is expanding. Shields arrived at Prime Computer after being recruited from DEC by McDonald. IBM reports profit jump; stock surges. Carroll, Paul B. IBM reports its best earnings since 1984 due to a decline in tax rate, continued strong sales of the AS/400 minicomputer, disk drive and personal computer sales. The RS/6000 workstation also has been selling extremely well. The currency-exchange situation also improved earnings as a weak dollar overseas turns into greater profit. Mainframe computer sales are not as weak as was expected after the company introduced its new mainframe line. IBM is planning a job reduction, and the charge of that action is likely to be ameliorated by the sale of its laser-printer, typewriter and office-supply business. Apple reports sharply higher first-period net. (Apple Computer Inc.) Apple has reported a net income increase of 21 per cent and revenue growth of 12 per cent as a result of strong sales of the new Macintosh microcomputer line. Sales of Macintoshes have increased as much as 50 per cent since the company restructured the line and cut price in half. The Macintosh Classic is experiencing strong sales, and the company reports that hundreds of thousands are back ordered. The Macintosh LC is also popular, and the company expects a supply shortage. Analysts believe that Apple has achieved a 12 per cent slice of the microcomputer market. Shortage of critical parts crimp makers of notebook computers. (Intel Corp.'s 80386SX microprocessor, flat-panel display screens, Shortages of Intel Corp's 80386SX microprocessors, disk drives and high-resolution flat-panel screens have caused backlogs for delivery of the popular notebook computers. Industry analysts estimate that the backlog numbers as high as 10,000 for notebook computers. The chip made by Intel was in short supply when many companies introduced the powerful portable computers. Two-and-a-half-inch hard disks are also in short supply as are the high-resolution screens that come from Japanese companies such as Sharp Corp and Epson Corp. The short supply is hurting companies already suffering from a sluggish microcomputer market. Southwestern Bell's action stymies rural school interactive video plan. (claims other network company cannot supply cable to school Southwestern Bell Corp claims that another video cable company cannot supply a Kansas school district with video cable because of government regulation. Southwestern Bell quoted a price of $200,000 for a fiber optic video line to be used for educational purposes, but the school system went to Pioneer Telephone Co and received a quote for a $45,000 coaxial cable implementation. Southwestern Bell claims Pioneer Telephone does not have permission from the state of Kansas to provide video service. Southwestern also holds that government regulation of Bell operating companies restricts them from providing cheaper services. Bell operating companies are forbidden from engaging in long-distance service, making phone equipment, and owning information services. CASE, image systems top list of IS concerns. (a report by The Index Group) (computer-aided software engineering, information A report from Cambridge, MA-based The Index Group says 75.9 percent of responding information systems (IS) executives from 394 North American corporations rate computer-aided software engineering (CASE) and other software tools as their greatest area of interest. Ranking second with 40.8 percent of the mentions was image systems and processing, and third, with 35.4 percent of mentions, was expert systems. Older technologies seemed to generate more interest than such newer technologies as voice recognition, VSAT, supercomputing, hand-held computers and neural networks. Also ranking relatively low, with 2.3 percent or fewer mentions, were fourth-generation languages, desktop publishing, Unix and reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC). DEC halts alliance between TPMs. (third-party maintenance vendors) Eastwood, Alison. DEC will cancel its OEM contract with Computertime of Montreal if Computertime becomes involved in software maintenance. In April 1990 Computertime and Montreal-based Testpoint Technical Services signed a contract to provide, respectively, software and hardware maintenance at DEC sites. Computertime is committed to adding value to DEC products it sells; DEC's concern is apparently that maintaining VMS will not add any value. The Testpoint Technical contract would have called for Computertime to sell its own software as well as offering VMS maintenance. IS execs facing leadership gap. (an Andersen Consulting of Toronto study on information systems business and strategy issues) A report from Andersen Consulting of Toronto predicts that the leaders of the 1990s will be the organizations and chief information officers (CIOs) able to fill the 'technology leadership gap' lying between the value of key information systems (IS) issues and the effectiveness of present implementations of those issues. Many of the 125 Canadian and US CIOs surveyed believe they and their organizations are ill-equipped to deal with a growing list of priorities. Priorities rated high in earlier surveys, such as technology, communications, training and top management, retain their places in the most recent survey, and are joined by such issues as human resources, business strategy and change management. CGI Group cashes in on federal systems integration projects. Gordon, Manuel. The CGI Group Inc of Montreal recently signed two systems integration contracts totaling $9 million with the Canadian government. CGI will develop a Common Department Financial System (CDFS) for the Department of Supply and Services (DSS) under a $5,026,103 contract. CDFS will replace Fincon, an interactive, on-line financial control system. CGI will also develop an interactive Graphics Display System for the Department of National Defence under a $4,062,026 contract. CGI will integrate a secure Harris host computer with secure workstations via a secure local-area network. Re: re-engineering. (editorial) The computer industry uses 're-engineering' to mean 'renovation' or 'renewal.' At least one survey shows it as the top concern of information systems (IS) executives. In the area of software maintenance, re-engineering means modifying current systems instead of creating new ones. In IS, it means paying close attention to systems development in order to find flaws in systems analysis, coding and organization. In a way, re-engineering is a buzzword, meant to convey the impression that IS has found a new challenge. But IS executives should not underestimate the amount of work they must do. In conversation. (Santa Cruz Operation Inc. founder Larry Michels) (interview) Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) co-founder, Pres and CEO Larry Michels says his company is deeply involved in re-defining Unix, originally used almost exclusively for scientific applications, as an operating system for commercial users. A key part of this strategy is Open Desktop, which unites a graphical user interface, networking and databases in an open environment. The cost of this product-development and marketing strategy is high, but the payoff should also be high. European governments are standardizing on SCO products, and US sales rise with each quarter. Sales for Xenix, which is only available for Intel 80286-based computers, will remain strong for a number of years. OS/2 is not a serious contender to Unix. Businessworld merges with Primax. (Primax Computer Corp.) Addo, Pamela. Mississauga, Ontario-based computer manufacturer Primax Computer Corp merges with Brampton, Ontario-based software and hardware reseller Businessworld. The new company will retain the Primax name and will comprise the Primax manufacturing division and the Businessworld sales division. Former Businessworld Pres Rod Hunter will be president of the Businessworld division as well as president of the new Primax Computer Corp, while former Primax Pres Max Durst continues as president of the Primax division. The new Primax aims at becoming a direct-seller like Dell Computer Corp of Austin, TX. Primax plans to enter the US market in 1991. Jon Turner joins Vtech; aims to increase Canadian visibility. (Vtech Laser Computers Ltd.'s new president and CEO) Former Compuserve Pres Jon Turner is appointed president and chief executive officer of Markham, Ontario-based Vtech Laser Computers Ltd. Vtech and sister firm Vtech Computers (Canada) Ltd of Richmond, British Columbia, are Canadian subsidiaries of Hong Kong-based Video Technology Group, a manufacturer of Apple- and IBM-compatible microcomputers and peripherals. Vtech designs the computers at a Richmond facility. Turner's immediate goal is to publicize Vtech, which he says is one of the 10 biggest microcomputer vendors in Canada. Office systems migrate, shrink and become cost-effective. Castrucci, Steve. Office systems are being cut in size or moved to smaller computers, with the three goals of saving money, improving control over the system and creating a distributed, co-operative system. Downsizing makes sense because while office systems typically aim to improve the productivity of small groups or individuals, many are based on mainframes, reducing availability and affecting large numbers of workers whenever the mainframe malfunctions. Shifting to a smaller hardware platform takes a large amount of training, however. PC vendors move into position as end-users downsize. Shaw, Darrel. End-users and information systems (IS) executives can benefit from the expertise of microcomputer vendors, who are dealing directly with the organizational and technical problems surrounding down-sizing. Sun Microsystems of Canada Pres Everett Anstey advises customers to evaluate carefully their needs, paying special attention to data distribution and data integrity. Compaq Computer Canada Pres Don Woodley says a key issue is determining how to integrate products from multiple vendors. Dell Computer Corp Canada Pres D. Bruce Sinclair says key issues are organizational rather than technical. Picking the right hardware platform is very important. Adding color? Try this.... (cheap ways to add color to presentations) Inexpensive, manual tools such as felt markers and overlays can greatly enhance presentations by adding color simply and inexpensively. Markers, costing an average of $3.50 apiece, quickly add color to paper or transparencies. Overlay sheets, basically peel-and-stick sheets of a solid color or tones, cost about $13.50 for a 20-by-26-inch sheet. Sheets with letters or symbols are also available. Letraset's Omnicrom/Color Tag System uses a thermal process to add dazzling color to plain black-and-white sheets. Price is $995 for the nine-inch version. The hand-held Color Tag machine, which works with strips of color, costs $120. The many alternatives. (user training) Buszowski, Fern. Training managers are looking for cost-effective ways to train people to use software packages. It is difficult to control quality of one common solution, the use of third-party trainers. One of the most cost-effective solutions is an in-house training center. Such a center has a variety of equipment for self-paced training, such as computers, software, video tapes and audio tapes, that supplement regular classes. Central Point expands in Canada: firm's focus will be sales and marketing. (Central Point Software Inc.) Beaverton, OR-based software publisher Central Point Software Inc sets up its first Canadian sales office in Toronto. The office will provide support to Central Point's 2,500-to-3,000 dealers and three distributors, Ingram Micro D Ltd., Merisel Canada Inc and JB Marketing; it will also promote the firm's software to corporate users. Central Point's most successful program is PC Tools, a utility suite that offers DOS shell, desktop manager, hard disk backup, data recovery and other programs. Other Central Point software packages include Mac Tools, a version of PC Tools for the Apple Macintosh, and Copy II PC, which enables archival copies to be made of copy-protected software. Cognos attempts to bring 'power' to CASE market: new tool provides integrated development approach. (computer aided software Ottawa-based Cognos Inc debuts PowerCASE, a second-generation computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool for DEC VAX computers. PowerCASE is tightly integrated with PowerHouse, a fourth-generation language for the VAX. Cognos claims that the PowerCASE/PowerHouse combination is more powerful than standalone CASE tools. PowerCASE supports ongoing maintenance of an application. PowerCASE uses three views of application models: a logical view, physical view and implementation view. The logical view concerns the idea behind the application; the physical view how the application works; and the implementation view the compilable code. PC development continues to rise. (developing mainframe applications on microcomputers) A growing number of organizations are using microcomputers to develop mainframe applications. Developing, debugging and maintaining applications on a mainframe is costly in terms of time and resources. Programming on a microcomputer means no interruptions on an operating mainframe and no waiting for MIS to provide resources. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools that are available for microcomputers but not for mainframes can enhance programmer productivity. The vast majority of large corporations still develop applications on mainframes, however. One reason is that most data-processing professionals are mainframe-oriented. Another reason is that a switch to programming on microcomputers means embracing a decentralizing philosophy - something many data-processing shops are loathe to do. Firm puts RDBMS functionality ahead of publicity. (Procol Inc.'s relational database management system) (company profile) Procol Inc.'s relational database management system/fourth generation language product of the same name is said to be as good as Oracle and even easier to use, but the firm still is practically invisible, even in its home province of Quebec. A Procol-generated application cannot delete a customer with an outstanding bill or send out invoices to nonexistent customers. In sharp contrast to US firms, only two of Procol's 15 staffers concentrate on marketing. The rest, including founder and Pres Pierre Boulay, focus on R&D. Procol's proprietary command language is non-procedural, bilingual and more concise than dBase or SQL. Procol has had success selling VAX/VMS and Unix versions in Europe. Procol costs as little as $800 for a MS-DOS-based run-time version. Privacy surrounds Uniforum meeting; vendors silent when it comes to naming clients. (Uniforum Montreal) Unix software vendors such as AT and T, IBM, Bull HN Information Systems Inc and Ingres Corp sponsored a dinner meeting for members of Uniforum Montreal, the city's Unix user group. But the corporate sponsors, not wanting to disclose their client lists to competitors, issued no name tags to dinner guests, and the sponsors provided little hard news or analysis. The corporate sponsors probably were successful in conveying the message that a lot of economic power lays behind Unix. HP evolving with latest releases. (HP 3000 980/200 and MPE-XL 3.0 debuted) (product announcement) HP 3000 users will respond quickly to new hardware and software announced in Dec 1990, and HP 3000 commercial systems will gain in popularity, invading mainframe territory. In the announcement, beamed worldwide from HP's California headquarters, the company said its proprietary MPE-XL on-line transaction processing operating system for the HP 3000 900 is the fastest available. Version 3.0 is slated for spring 1991 release. HP has already begun shipping its dual-processor HP 3000 980/200. NewWave Access will promote the use of microcomputers with the HP 3000 in co-operative environments. Several ports of third-party software products, such as PeopleSoft's human resource management package and Fourth Shift's manufacturing software, were also announced. CGI-Informatique acquires innovator of CASE. (Yourdon Inc., computer-aided sotware engineering) Pearl River, NY-based computer-aided software engineering (CASE) and consulting firm CGI Informatique acquires Yourdon Inc of Raleigh, NC, a world leader in the CASE arena of structured methodologies. The Yourdon Structured Method is used by 200,000 software developers around the world. Yourdon's revenues topped $7 million in 1989, with two-fifths of that figure coming from Europe. The acquisition will strengthen CGI's efforts in the CASE market. CGI helped develop the Merise CASE methodology, now widely used in Europe, and is a technical leader in Euromethod, an EEC project to standardize software engineering in Europe. Public domain has its price. (public domain software for Unix) Fitzmaurice, Shev. The source code of public domain software is released to the public. One of the most popular Unix programs in the public domain is GNU-Emacs, a feature-intensive editor used mostly by programmers. Others include Perl, an excellent tool for systems administrators with especially strong prototyping features; the efficient GNU C and GNU C++ compilers; TeX, a powerful, though hard to use, typesetting program; SC, a spreadsheet with Lotus-like capabilities; and ELM, a user interface to the standard Unix mail facility that is often easier to use than the baffling Unix mailcommand. Much public domain software is free, but it requires considerable effort to get up and running. Environment key to good support. (programming support environment) Marfleet, Brian. Good software production teams require solid support environments. Such an environment comprises all the technologies, procedures and controls necessary to maintain high production standards. Examples of controls include methodologies and standards. Examples of procedures include evaluating and estimating. Examples of techniques include quality assurance and change control. Compliance with procedures and controls is a must; they are all too easy to ignore in the rush to finish a project. All managers and staff must see the value in compliance. The specific support environment will vary with the shop and its needs. Contract management a must. (user relations with software publishers) Hardware and software users should take an active role in managing vendor relations and sales contracts. For example, a customer may write a new contract to cover an upgrade and unknowingly, in so doing, eliminate favorable terms in the previous contract. Negotiation can eliminate such clauses as those calling for graduated pricing of software upgrades. If more customers challenged graduated pricing, in fact, that practice might not be as popular as it is. Customers should also be aware of trends, issues and practices within the software industry. EIS rich in functionality, but not an instant fix. (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) International Data Corp predicts the global market for executive information systems (EIS) will grow from $80 million (US) to $230 million in 1995. International Data says Comshare leads the market with a 53 percent share, followed by Pilot's Command Center with a 25 percent share and Metapraxis and Execucom, with 5 percent each. EIS are chiefly sold as a deliverer of the strategic information that executives need today. A top appeal is their ability to highlight key data. Some say an EIS is essentially a decision support system (DDS), providing world news, financial data and sales figures at the touch of a mouse. An EIS features colorful graphs and charts and continually updated information. EIS technology, which dates to the mid-1980s, may seem a little obsolete. Executives are ready, but is MIS? (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) Because computer systems traditionally have not been built to provide senior executives with information on which to base decisions, executive information systems (EISs) were developed. An EIS is essentially a tool to access key data for decision making. Chief features include a separate executive database, business graphics, modeling capabilities, automatic links to other databases, intra-organization electronic mail, and status reporting. Perhaps the most important feature is ease of use. Training is a key factor in introducing any EIS. In determining whether or not to develop an EIS in-house, four factors should be considered: availability of executive sponsorship, objectives of the EIS, funding for development costs, and experience level of the MIS staff. EIS takes on new meaning as enterprise intelligent systems. (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) Executive information systems (EISs) have evolved into Enterprise Intelligence Systems (EIS II). EIS II is beginning to deliver on EIS's promise of easy-to-use technology through which business managers can obtain valuable data for decision making. EISs in the late 1980s were primarily expensive reporting systems that delivered electronic briefing books to a few top administrators. These EISs were hampered by platform dependence, high costs per user and inflexibility. These EISs did, however, take good advantage of attractive and easy-to-use graphical user interfaces. EIS II combines the best of EIS interfaces with decision-support systems, enabling users to access and manipulate centrally located corporate data. EIS feeling effect of technology push and market pull. (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) The market for executive information systems (EIS) has divided into three main categories: comprehensive systems, niche systems and systems offered by mainframe data retrieval and analysis vendors. Comprehensive systems include all four EIS components: user interface, database, data analysis and format function and data extract function. They also include development environments and decision support tools. Most niche systems concentrate on the user interface; they are best for organizations that want to develop a prototype but are not quite ready for a full commitment to EIS. EIS products offered by mainframe data analysis and retrieval vendors comprise the newest product category; the products are immature, but the vendors have the marketing advantage of a large installed user base. Key changes in the EIS market in 1991 will stem from the popularity of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and the Unix operating system and the integration of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology with EIS. Check list helps weight factors in evaluating EIS software. (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) Five general areas to consider when choosing an executive information system (EIS) are user interface, product functions, decision support functions, system output and technical considerations. The user interface is a key to winning executive acceptance. In this area, user-selectable colors, mouse and touchscreen support, and menu and icon choices should be weighed. In the area of product functions, the ease of customizing format and content of screen displays should be considered. Decision support software (DSS) performs statistical analysis, modeling and goal seeking; it can be purchased separately or as part of an EIS. System output should be simple; also, the ability of the EIS to create story boards and other automated displays should be considered. Technical considerations include the ease with which EIS can be integrated into an existing environment. Firms capitalize on EIS by monitoring business changes. (case studies) (Feature Report: Executive Information Systems) Executive information systems (EISs) enable managers to make decisions faster and thus serve customers better. No longer a simple reporting tool, EIS is a critical business tool. Montreal-based Teleglobe Canada Inc began using EIS in 1987. MIS VP Chester Romaniak says EIS enables managers to get the precise information they need, instead of the information another manager or staff at a lower level might need. With EIS, Teleglobe managers monitor many performance areas, such as quality of service by public telephones. Xerox Canada uses EIS to monitor customer satisfaction. MCI counts on intuitive systems to help make decisions. (MCI Communications Corp.) (Feature Report: Executive Information MCI Communications Corp has developed an executive information system (EIS) that serves as an operations enterprise model, according to Sr Mgr Richard LaValley. The operations enterprise model combines nine distinct functions, an example of which is an organization capacity model consisting of three databases: one with project information, one with personnel data and one with an employee skills inventory. The EIS is a decision support tool available as a selection from the operations enterprise model; it lets managers make analytical decisions in areas in which decisions in the past have been subjective. SAS Institute Canada Inc Gen Mgr Brenda Erickson says many current EISs do not support existing databases; she also says the data is not updated often enough to be useful to decision makers. Gandalf spins off mobile division. (Gandalf Technologies Inc., Gandalf Mobile Systems Inc.) Napean, Ontario-based Gandalf Technologies Inc (GTI) spins off Gandalf Mobile Systems Inc (GMSI) to pursue opportunities in the world market for mobile communications. GTI retains a majority interest in the new firm. GMSI Pres and CEO Herb Woods says the firm was set up in part to attract new capital as needed. Developing mobile communications equipment is capital-intensive, and GTI would rather focus on its core products. Woods says GMSI will develop products for the trucking and courier industries. GMSI has 36 employees and expects to realize $8 million in revenue for FY 1990. Sales and service offices are located in Wheeling, IL, and London, England, with an Australian office slated to open shortly. Long-distance "doctor" looks after Xerox photocopiers. (automated, remote preventive maintenance service) RIC (Remote Interactive Communication) is an equipment monitoring system that links Xerox 1090 and 5065 copiers anywhere in Canada to Xerox Canada Ltd's central office in Toronto via local telephone lines. An artificial intelligence program in RIC maintains records of each copier and can anticipate potential problems. RIC can dispatch repair personnel. In early 1991, RIC will be available for 5090 copiers. Xerox Canada predicts that RIC will transform the business world. Plain-paper units to impact fax market. (market analysis) Fischer, Meredith. The biggest innovation in facsimile transmission in 1990 was the introduction of plain-paper machines. Industry analysts say plain-paper fax will dominate the market within a few years. With plain-paper fax, large organizations can cut costs, while small organizations can combine a fax machine with a copier. The resolution of plain-paper fax is expected to surpass that of conventional thermal units. By late 1991 most Group III fax machines will be capable of transmitting at 14.4K-bps, or about 10 pages per minute over normal telephone lines. Features expected in future years include hard disk memory, computer and terminal interfaces and Dual Network Interface, or the ability to transmit fax across private data lines. Co-operative processing will put connectivity to work in '91. Shepherdson, Lew. Co-operative processing is the solution to one of the most significant computing challenges of the decade: how to fully exploit the capabilities of the many types of hardware platforms. In the co-operative processing model, applications split major tasks between two computers, which communicate, or 'co-operate,' with each other. Each computer performs the tasks for which it is best suited. Client-server computing is a version of co-operative processing for local area networks of workstations. Co-operative processing is already at work, sometimes without the user's cognizance. CBTA chief calls for more user input. (Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance) The Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance (CBTA) holds that users will most benefit from a competitive telecommunications market driven by customer demand. The regulatory system needs to be overhauled to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. The CBTA urges Parliament to pass a law recognizing the need for flexibility in regulation. Unless a more competitive telecommunications environment is adopted, Canada could lose its position as a world leader in the telecommunications industry. The economy as a whole could suffer. Users must have a greater role in telecommunication policy formation. A.T.&T. says tender offer for NCR stock yields 70%. Shapiro, Eben. AT and T claims to have received tenders for about 70 percent of NCR Corp's common stock in the telephone company's ongoing takeover effort. Analysts say the 70 percent figure represents very strong stockholder support for AT and T, and will increase the pressure on NCR's board to begin negotiations. NCR has heretofore steadfastly refused to negotiate the merger, saying that AT and T's $90 a share offer is grossly inadequate. AT and T also reports that a majority of NCR stockholders support a special shareholders meeting where AT and T will seek the ouster of NCR's board. Under the law AT and T must garner an 80 percent vote of NCR's shareholders to remove the board. NCR's board will seek to avoid any special meeting and may postpone the annual shareholders meeting scheduled for April 1991. Profits off by 28% at Digital. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC reports that profits for its 2nd qtr FY 1991 ending Dec 29 are down 28 percent from the same period a year ago. Despite the year-to-year decline analysts say DEC may finally be headed back in the right direction, and the company's stock jumped $6.625 to close at $59.375 on the news. For the quarter DEC's net income is $111.1 million on revenues of $3.3 billion, compared with income of $155.4 million on $3.1 million in revenues for the comparable period in FY 1990. Analysts say DEC's strong cost-cutting moves are paying off. The firm recently announced the first layoffs in its history; some 3,000 jobs will be eliminated with associated yearly savings of $1 billion. AT&T says 70% of NCR holders back meeting if resistance to bid continues. AT and T claims 70 percent of NCR's shareholders have tendered their shares to AT and T before the expiration of its $90-a-share takeover bid. AT and T calls the 70 percent tender figure a clear message to NCR's board that the shareholders want a special meeting to vote on removing the current board of directors. NCR's board states it will continue to fight AT and T's takeover bid, calling it grossly inadequate. NCR can postpone calling a special meeting until April 1991, which is about the time of its annual meeting scheduled for April 17. At the annual meeting four of the 13 directors will be up for election and a simple majority vote is required to oust them. At a special meeting AT and T will need an 80 percent vote to oust the remaining board members. Software helps managers fill in workers' hours. ( Campbell Software's Staffworks) (product announcement) Campbell Software's $2,000 Staffworks software package automates the workforce scheduling process for a variety of businesses. The software helps managers automate the process of scheduling a mix of full-time and part-time employees. Users of the software report the scheduling task that often took managers a day a week can now be accomplished with ease. One user reports that Staffworks cut the number of overstaffed hours by 92 percent and the number of understaffed hours were reduced by 64 percent. Other software packages that handle staff scheduling include Power UP Software's $99 Working Hours, and Newport Systems' $895 Who Works When. Wang to dismiss 500 more employees as slump seems to deepen firm's woes. (Wang Laboratories Inc.) Wang Laboratories Inc will layoff an additional 500 workers at facilities around the world in continuing cost cutting measures. The computer maker currently employs 19,000 workers, down from a total of 31,500 two years ago. Wang has been facing economic trouble for several years as it attempts to revamp its product line. Wang has long relied on proprietary minicomputers and word processing systems for revenue; however, customers have dropped the company's product line in favor of industry-standard UNIX systems. In response Wang is attempting to refocus its products. One such step is the expected announcement by Wang of an agreement to license the Mips Computer Systems' line of UNIX-based computer systems. DEC net falls 28%, but stock advances $6.625. Bulkeley, William M. DEC announces better-than-expected 2nd qtr 1991 results that include a 28 percent drop in net income compared with the same period a year ago. The relatively small decline in income surprised Wall Street analysts, and DEC's stock soared $6.625 to close the day at $59.375. Results for the quarter include net income of $111.1 million on revenue of $3.35 billion, compared with year-ago income of $155.4 million on revenue of $3.18 billion. Analysts say the results are quite encouraging and reflect the success of DEC's cost cutting strategies that include 3,500 layoffs to be implemented in the coming months. Analysts also point to DEC's success at increasing revenues from its services sector. Intel takes multi-chip short cut. Causey, Rob. Intel plans to take a technological short cut to the next generation of microprocessors. The company plans, without developing a new chip, to market devices to give laptop computer systems the processing power of today's workstations. The company plans to combine the integrated circuits that are the basis of a microcomputer into a single multichip package. The advantage of the technology is that it will allow existing chips to run faster and consume less power. The new products will be based on multichip modules (MCMs). MCM technology lets conventional integrated circuits to be left out of their separate packaged and attached directly to a silicon substrate. Prototypes will be ready later in 1991 and Intel plans to begin shipping production quantities in 1992. UK firms' fury forces DTI to EMC rethink. (United Kingdom, Department of Trade and Industry) Changes in the plans of the European Community (EC) for an EMC standard which has caused problems in the United Kingdom's (UK) electronics industry is compelling the government to alter its position. The UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has endorsed the recent proposal of the EC to phase in the standard over a four year period, causing anger and surprise in the UK industry. The EC may attempt to reduce this delay when the Council of Ministers discuss the amendment. A DTI spokesman stated that the EC suggested the length of the delay. UK finds formula for opto-electronic success. (United Kingdom) Great Britain is about to adopt a national policy for optoelectronic research. Corporations and universities are working together in optoelectronic projects unlike nearly any in the world. The British government's Advisory Council on Science and Technology (ACOST), in 1988, stated that optoelectronics would be a lost opportunity in the United Kingdom. ACOST has delineated several areas of research, the most critical being low-cost devices for optical communications, logic devices and chip-to-chip interconnection. UK researchers are now addressing all these areas. One of the most advanced demonstrations of optical fiber in the British telephone network results from three years' collaborative research. With a view to making a fortune. (liquid crystal displays) Geake, Elisabeth. Large color liquid crystal displays (LCDs) will become very popular as soon as enough can be built to market. Advantages include small size, light weight, require little power and give off practically no radiation. The great technological problem in creating such displays is control of the pixels. Switching circuits that are separate from the liquid crystal cells occupied too much space, which effectively limits the number of pixels. Multiplexed matrix LCDs were attempted but the duty cycle was too short, creating too low a contrast and introducing flicker. Addressing the pixels was solved in the 1980s by active matrix displays. Liquid crystal optical switches are years away from being commodity products. Gooding's one-arm bandit hits jackpot. (Alfred Gooding) (includes related article on the Gooding Group) (company profile) Welsh slot machine manufacturer, in economic trouble in 1983, was rescued by entrepreneur Alfred Gooding. The slot machine business was dumped and a small manufacturing unit to build printed circuit boards was established. Ace was once again left in fragile condition when the British microcomputer market faltered. Sales dropped 80 percent between 1984 and 1985. Gooding, however, realized the potential of contract manufacturing. He targeted a demanding set of customers with the UK-based Japanese electronics vendors. Ace was revitalized as Race Electronics. The decision to work with the Japanese manufacturers required enormous capital expenditures. Expansion was backed by the Welsh Development Agency. Race employs 1,400 workers to build six million printed circuit boards per year. Courses held in stranglehold. (electronics courses in United Kingdom) Funding cuts for colleges and polytechnic schools in the United Kingdom are causing cutbacks in the content of electronics courses throughout the country. Polytechnic schools and colleges of further education (CFE) are looking at budgetary cuts and CFEs have also been hit with a poll tax. Collaborative ventures between colleges and polytechnics allowing them to pool research resources as polytechnics have been operating as independent bodies. Engineering departments have suffered as they are a more expensive discipline and an obvious target for cost-cutting measures. GPT/Siemens plan network coup. Wilson, Richard. Geneva's Telecoms 91 will be the setting for a demonstration of the next generation of telephone networks which are the result of joint research between GPT and its parent company, Siemens. The two companies are engaged in cooperative development of synchronous optical fiber transmission systems, to be included in Europe's public telephone networks, in synchronous digital hierarchy. Siemens officials say the companies are working at developing SDH on a common platform. SDH is just one of several collaborations between the two companies aiming at a common strategy for public networks. Sharing development costs was one argument used when GEC and Siemens took control of GPT, after a joint takeover of Plessey. News from the Mideast via the P.C. (computer-information services) Markoff, John. Computer-information services, including Prodigy, Compuserve, General Electric Information Services and America On-line, are compiling special data bases that contain information about the crisis in the Persian Gulf. Precise, up-to-date information is available. Prodigy, for example, has a round-the-clock operation which assembles reports from news agencies - The Associated Press, United Press and Reuters. There are menus and map displays so that users can get background information or access lists of news reports. Weather reports and information about troop concentrations and ship locations are available. There are also special electronic areas set aside so that people can communicate with each other. According to one industry observer, Prodigy 'has done a remarkable job of exploiting the crisis.' As one consequence, an 'electronic community' is developing. Zenith Data Systems picks Olivetti official for top post. (Enrico Pesatori) Enrico Pesatori is named president and CEO at Zenith Data Systems. Pesatori, who is 50, will assume his new responsibilities in Feb 1991. Previously, he was with Inc C. Olivetti & Co, where he spent 21 years. Zenith Data Systems was acquired by Groupe Bull SA, the French state-owned computer manufacturer, in 1989. Mr. Pesatori is also named to Groupe Bull's executive committee. Opening nation's phone networks. (Business Technology) Andrews, Edmund L. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants Bell telephone companies to allow outside companies freer access to the Bells' networks. The FCC wants to encourage creation of customized services. For example, a telephone answering service might combine 'Caller ID' with a database of numbers, so that calls designated as 'important' by a subscriber would be forwarded. The FCC advocates an 'open network architecture,' which would provide outside companies with the same access to switching networks as Bell companies. According to Richard Firestone, chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau, networks ought to be 'as open, dynamic and responsive as possible.' James Schlichting, chief of policy at the bureau, says that phone companies are not providers of everything to everybody. If others can use the phone companies' networks in innovative ways, he says, they should be allowed to do so. Breeding a colossus. (AT&T's takeover of NCR Corp.) Pancucci, Dom. AT&T's attempt to acquire NCR Corp is an indication of the telephone giant's concern at the threat of computer companies spilling over into the telecommunications market. IBM has already made a deal with British Telecom under which they will market each other's products, and the European market stands to become very profitable as regulations are relaxed in 1992. IBM has already moved its communications division to London, and AT&T's attempt to acquire NCR is seen by many analysts as a direct response. NCR would give AT&T an instantly profitable subsidiary in light of its own huge computer losses. NCR would also give the company a European foothold, as well as a ready-made vehicle for merging telecommunication and computer technologies. In addition, NCR is one of the few Unix vendors to make money. Wrong product, wrong time. (IBM's PS/1) (editorial) Cole, Louise. Many analysts believe that the low sales of IBM's PS/1 microcomputer are a result of confused marketing. In the United Kingdom, a deepening recession may have also contributed to the poor sales. IBM originally said it was aiming the PS/1 at the home computer market, and yet dealers complained that much of the advertising was directed at corporations. Many dealers maintain that IBM does not understand the consumer market or its suppliers. Dealers tend to buy stock as they need it and not in bulk advance orders as IBM maintains. The PS/1 is also reported to be lacking in power, memory and sufficient expansion capabilities. Some analysts also maintain that IBM must come to terms with the fact that it is now selling into an educated market. In Excelsis. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 spreadsheet) (Software Review) (includes related articles on the Excel macro language, Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 is a multi-platform graphical spreadsheet package that runs with Microsoft Windows 3.0, OS/2, and Macintosh microcomputers. Excel 3.0 shows some considerable enhancements over the previous version, but because of the huge installed base of Excel users, the new version had to remain compatible with the old. Consequently, the enhancements come in the form of extensions to existing functions, user interface adjustments, and new features essentially built on top of the earlier version. Excel 3.0 is significant in that it adds some new features such as outlining and styles, while maintaining compatibility with established commands and routines. A Word in PM's ear. (Software Review) (Microsoft Word for Presentation Manager) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's 455-pounds-sterling Microsoft Word for Presentation Manager is a graphics-based word processing software package for OS/2's Presentation Manager graphical user interface. The package is essentially the same as Word for Windows which runs under the Microsoft Windows 3.0 interface. It is a comprehensive and powerful word processing package that, despite the slightly disappointing graphical capabilities, offers some particularly excellent features, such as outlining and use of styles. First among equals. (Hardware Review) (Toshiba's 5200C/200 color portable computer) (evaluation) Toshiba's 6,695-pounds-sterling T5200C/200 color portable computer is less expensive than comparable products on the market. For that price the machine comes with a Toshiba 640-by-480-pixel 16-color VGA-compatible liquid crystal display screen and a 200Mbyte hard drive with 10-millisecond average access time. The machine supplies usable color, certainly good enough for Microsoft Windows 3.0. A few problems exist when switching to non-Windows applications because the supplied Toshiba utility that allows this does not actually come up within Windows. The portable is aimed at those who utilize graphical and presentational applications, and the accompanying hardware reflects that. The 20-MHz processor employs a 32Kbyte processor cache to speed things up. The machine weighs 21 pounds and includes a three-and-a-half-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and a 92-key keyboard. Prize drawing. (Software Review) (Frontline Distribution's CorelDraw 2.0 and Roderick Manhattan Group's Arts & Letters 3.01 Frontline Distribution's 445-pounds-sterling CorelDraw 2.0 and Roderick Manhattan Group's 495-pounds-sterling Arts & Letters 3.01 are both high-end drawing packages aimed at the professional graphic art market. Arts & Letters has built up a strong following in the US due mainly to its extensive clip-art feature. This enhanced version is no exception, offering 5,000 clip-art images along with 50 outline fonts. The package does lack some of the features of CorelDraw but offers others that Corel does not have. CorelDraw is a state of the art package that offers a multitude of features for use with just about all Windows and non-Windows publishing or presentation applications. CorelDraw 2.0 also offers 3,500 clip-art images and 150 fonts. Thrill to the color. (Hardware Review) (Eastman kodak's Diconix 330C color printer) (evaluation) Eastman Kodak's 1,199-pounds-sterling Diconix 330C color ink-jet printer offers reasonable resolution at a low cost. It has a small footprint, measuring twenty by fourteen by four inches. The printer weighs only thirteen pounds and needs only a parallel and mains connection. It works reasonably well with ordinary copy paper, although it works best with special inkjet paper. The hopper accommodates 60 pages or continuous A4 sized paper, although there is not a lot of flexibility for envelopes or other continuous sizes. A special printer setting allows almost instantaneously dry overhead transparencies. The four ink cartridges, cyan, yellow, magenta and black, cost around 15 pounds sterling and can be replaced independently. Print quality, fonts, text mode, text color and the output media can all be selected using the menu function. Casio SF-9500. (Hardware Review) (Casio Electronics' pocket-sized digital diary) (evaluation) Casio Electronics' 189.95-pounds-sterling SF-9500 pocket-sized digital diary comes with optional integrated circuit cards that add some flexibility to the product. Cards already developed include a 64Kbyte RAM card and a spell checker with thesaurus. The diary comes with a 64Kbyte memory capacity and a display size of 32 columns by six lines. The keyboard is too small for anything other than two-finger typing, and although there is a contrast switch to vary the brightness, it is still difficult to see in artificial light. The five function keys under the screen can only be used if you have one of the optional IC cards. There are eight mode buttons under the function keys that include business card, telephone, memo, card, schedule, calculator, world time, home time, and calendar. The 89.95-pounds-sterling Datalink 200 allows communications with IBM-compatible microcomputers. Comfax II. (Personics' fax modem card) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Personics' Comfax II 399-pounds-sterling facsimile modem card is designed to fit in a spare expansion slot on a PC and to meet all the communications needs of users. The product includes a telephone cable, three disks and a free subscription to Compuserve, which is not very useful for users in the UK. The product has not yet received BABT approval, but it is safe to use, and the high cost of such approval makes it a bargain at the moment. Comfax II supports V21 300-bps, V22 1,200-bps and V22bis 2,400-bps baud rates; it is Hayes-compatible and has a built-in speaker for monitoring dialing and fax transmissions. The board is compatible with V27/29 group three transmissions at 9,600 bps (it lowers transmission speed automatically when line noise is encountered). The software provided supports background and foreground operation and can merge word processing data and .PCX graphics files during output. Tandon Fax/Modem. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Green, Terence. Tandon's 585-pounds-sterling Fax/Modem is a pocket-sized send/receive Group 3 facsimile machine with a 2,400 bits-per-second modem. The product uses an ordinary 9V battery or a mains transformer which is supplied, and it can be used in conjunction with any IBM-compatible microcomputer. The Tandon Fax/Modem is in fact the WorldPort 2496 Fax/Modem under a different name. It comes with the excellent WorldPort fax software which can be used as a terminate and stay-resident program or a stand-alone DOS program. The software can be set for fax or modem, can ignore incoming calls, and keeps a log of all calls. A scanner will have to be used to send a printed sheet, and incoming faxes are stored to disk, which can take up some space. No modem software is included in the package. VP-Info. (Software Review) (Paperback Software's dBase-like programming language) (evaluation) Paperback Software's $150 VP-Info is a dBase-like programming language that is really designed for software developers, offering little help to inexperienced users. While the package is not simply a dBase clone, an experienced programmer should be able to amend dBase programs to run under VP-Info without much problem. The data base management system includes a compiler, although the compiled code does not appear as an .EXE file, and is therefore not executable from DOS. The programs compiled can only run from VP-Info. This is a cheap, adequate alternative to the major DBMS available on the market although the lack of compatibility could present a problem for companies with a large user base. Buyer's guide: spreadsheets. (buyers guide) Lavin, Paul. In the competitive world of corporate spreadsheet software, Lotus Development's 1-2-3 still reigns supreme. But it is facing increasing competition from a number of sources; namely, Computer Associate's SuperCalc, Microsoft's Excel, Precision Software's Logistix and Informix Software's Wingz. For large corporate users, marketing tactics such as reducing the price of a product often has little effect on the decision to continue with a specific brand. For large corporate users the cost of running a spreadsheet is in training and support. To change from an established Lotus 1-2-3 base would involve considerable re-training of personnel. Most spreadsheet publishers were quick to bring out versions of their products to support Microsoft Windows 3.0 in an effort to safeguard their market shares. Porting a spreadsheet across multiple applications is becoming more important in the battle for market dominance. Training: introduction to the IBM PC and DOS. (educational course by Ernst & Young) Ernst and Young's introductory course to IBM-compatible microcomputers and the DOS operating system is a little on the expensive side, at 190 pounds sterling for the day, but it offers considerable information on the subjects. Excellent course notes were produced at the end of the day, along with four three-and-a-half-inch disks containing assorted information and exercises. The course covers basic microcomputer and printer hardware components and basic DOS subjects and commands, such as creation and removal of directory, tree structures, changing the prompt, and the creation of batch files and backup procedures. Transarc Software may lend a hand to smaller firms. (on-line transaction processing) Transarc Corp announces new software technology that would increase the use of 'on-line transaction processing' by making it available on the Unix operating system. Previously, prices of transaction-processing systems have put them beyond the reach of smaller companies. Such systems - used for airline or hotel reservations, or for networks of automated teller machines - have been large, requiring mainframe computers and expensive software. Now, with Transarc's technology, regional retailers and local retailers would be able to implement transaction-processing applications. According to John R. Rymer, an analyst with Patricia Seybold's Office Computing Group: 'This is a very big deal.' He adds, however, that Transarc's technology probably will not be available before 1993. Advanced Micro again reports quarterly loss. (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posts its third consecutive loss, reporting a net loss of $43 million (55 cents a share) for the 4th qtr. In the same period a year earlier, AMD earned $11.8 million (11 cents a share). Revenue fell 6.8 percent, to $265.9 million, from $285.3 million. AMD's loss reflects both a chip-industry slowdown and unprofitable product lines. Analysts say the loss was expected. They think AMD will do better in 1991. For 1990, AMD reports a net loss of $53.6 million (78 cents a share), which compares with a $46.1 million profit (44 cents a share) in 1989. U.S. probes Japanese companies on charges of withholding parts. Zachary, G. Pascal. The General Accounting Office (GAO) is investigating charges that some Japanese companies are withholding parts from US manufacturers, giving Japanese companies or affiliates an advantage. Curtis Turnbow, a GAO official, confirms that the investigation is under way, saying it will probably be completed in Apr 1991. Industry executives say that various critical items are being withheld. Specifically, parts for flat-panel displays, chip-making equipment and videocassette recorders are mentioned. Tamotsu Harada, speaking for the Electronic Industries Association of Japan, denies the charges, saying that such practices are 'inconceivable' in the Japanese business context. Where IS stands on OS/2. (Information Systems, includes related article on OS/2 1.3) Most IS managers are finding that both MS-DOS and OS/2 fit into their operating plans, despite that fact that OS/2 probably will not begin replacing MS-DOS until 1993. MS-DOS will dominate the desktop computing world through the mid-1990s, along with Windows 3.0. Microsoft Corp and IBM licensed 300,000 copies of OS/2 in 1990, according to market research firm Dataquest Inc, but over 16 million DOS licenses were sold during the same period. That represents a growth rate of 14 percent compared to 1989. The Dataquest estimates that 17.2 million new DOS licenses may be sold in 1994. This implies that much of the 1990s will be a multiplatform market. Despite the strength of DOS, Microsoft says that it will maintain its commitment to OS/2 and will be primarily responsible for OS/2 3.0. What's hot in laptop software. Francis, Bob. Although almost any MS-DOS package will run on the powerful portables available these days, some software packages are particularly popular among portable computer users. The three kinds of software that portable users are looking into include: utility software that handles tasks specific to portable computers; communications software that links portables with networks or office computers; and vertical software that makes a portable computer more appropriate for a particular market segment. Some of the most popular software comes from Traveling Software Inc. The company makes a product called LapLink III, which provides file transfer between two microcomputers via parallel or serial ports. Strong communications software includes Digital Communications Associates Inc's Remote2 remote access software and Microcom Systems Inc's Carbon Copy Plus software. Although few vertical market software packages are available at this time, analysts expect the market to grow in the near future. The latest in high-speed protocols. (includes related article on higher-speed networks) The X.25 wide area communications protocol may give way to a new standard, frame relay, which works well with high-speed packet-switching technology. To implement this standard, however, current network access and switching devices will need to be upgraded so that they speak frame relay and operate at T1 speeds or faster. There is not yet any consensus about the best switching and multiplexing gear to use with the potential new standard. Frame relay is governed by the American National Standards Institute and the International Consultative Committee on Telephony and Telegraphy and it takes advantage of the improved reliability of the public telephone system. Data transmission throughput is improved, partly by leaving the error checking and correction tasks to the end nodes. It offers higher transmission rates, with a ceiling of 2M-bps, as opposed to X.25, which is more typically used at 56K-bps. Vendors predict that frame relay and high-speed switching will be much more common in 1991 and in the years that follow. Frito-Lay's network recipe. Francis, Bob. Frito-Lay Inc has instituted a more distributed enterprise-wide Token Ring network in an effort to realize the value of the powerful applications that reside on its network. Frito-Lay's network is stocked almost exclusively with IBM machines. Frito-Lay's new network design, a change from its standard three-tiered Systems Network Architecture network, is designed to help make vital information more available to company managers. Some of the technology that Frito-Lay uses includes: Intel 80386- and 80486-based microcomputers with a minimum of 4Mbytes of RAM, OS/2-based applications with graphical user interfaces, relational database technology from Oracle Corp, and a single network topology at 200 distribution and 40 manufacturing sites made up of 16-bit Token Ring technology. Although Frito-Lay expects to spend a great deal of money on this system, information system managers feel that any other decision would be shortsighted. EIS prices finally get real. (Executive Information System, includes related article on prototyped EIS) Most corporations have shied away from implementing EIS because EIS can be a very expensive option. Companies can spend more than $400,000 on a EIS system. Information managers are looking for ways to provide easy-to-use interfaces and quick access to the computer-illiterate executives that populate most corporations. Frequently, EIS also offers the ability to move down through layers of information within a corporate database to get at very specific details, and the ability to do computer modeling to answer what-if type questions. Three leading EIS vendors sell full-feature software at prices that start ats $100,000 to $200,000. These packages are totally or partly mainframe-resident and invariably require hardware and installation charges that can result in prices ranging from $300,000 to over $400,000. The companies, Comshare Inc, Execucom Systems Corp, and Pilot Executive Software, are working toward EIS that is less expensive and ties up fewer system resources than the big systems. Tools to manage big projects. (project management systems) McCusker, Tom. New project management software packages are available that can help users manage application development projects and even take advantage of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools. One vendor claims that his package provides software development methodologies that control CASE application development planning. Another vendor says that his software uses CASE-like tools to automatically estimate and plan a project. All vendors say that links between project management software and CASE tools are going to be standard in the future. Applied Business Technology Corp's Project Workbench was one of the first microcomputer-based project management packages to offer links to CASE. Seventy-five thousand copies of the $1,275 software package have been sold, two-thirds to software engineering operations. Project management software is expected to receive a boost from IBM's intention to encourage project management tool vendors to support its application development life cycle product, AD/Cycle. Xerox's enterprisewide printer. (DocuTech Publishing high-speed computer printer) (product announcement) Xerox Corp's integrated print server, which will integrate the functions of a copier, a printer, and a network, will bring together the information services department and the central reproduction department. Xerox has already introduced a high-speed printer server that integrates the features listed above. The $220,000 DocuTech Publishing Series melds a 135 page-per-minute, 600 dot-per-inch laser printer with features such as document scanning and processing, connectivity to LANs, compatibility with desktop-publishing software and page description languages, and automatic booklet-making and document binding. Xerox has its eye on the document-processing market, which it expects to be worth more than $100 billion by 1993. DocuTech's key advantages for the information services community are its link between existing networked document-creation workstations and a central, high-performance printer, and the fact that users can replace outside offset printing with an internal resource. Digital nudges open the doors to VMS. (Digital Equipment Corp.) Bunker, Ted. DEC is adding POSIX and the X Portability Guide (XPG3) to its VMS operating system to satisfy customers that are looking for open systems. The new version of VMS is aimed at increasing application portability without abandoning the VAX/VMS architecture. DEC's other attempt to satisfy customer demands was ULTRIX, DEC's version of UNIX, but customers are not responding to ULTRIX. Although DEC has put a lot of effort into selling ULTRIX, and indeed, boasts an installed base worth $10 billion, no more than 10 percent of VAXs sold have run ULTRIX as the primary operating system. Another reason for the problems with Ultrix is the Digital sales forces' reluctance to sell the operating system. DEC officials believe that ultimately a computer's operating system will become much less important, as long as it allows application portability across UNIX platforms. Microsoft makes it easier to excel. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 spreadsheet) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 is easier to use and offers improved analytical tools, and new graphical interface tools. The $495 spreadsheet package makes it easier to integrate data from other sources. Microsoft hopes to woo customers from Lotus by offering updated data manipulation tools, a feature called Help for Lotus 1-2-3, which includes support for all 1-2-3 keystrokes, and auto-running demos to help make the transition from Lotus to Excel easy. Industry analysts feel that Excel 3.0 is a very good upgrade and one official added that he felt that other spreadsheet producers would have to do a lot to catch up. The Windows version requires 1Mbyte of internal memory and an Intel 80286 or later microprocessor and the OS/2 version requires 4Mbytes of memory and at least an 80286 microprocessor. The Macintosh version will be available when Apple releases its System 7.0 operating system early in 1991. Choosing a network you can grow with. McCray, Sheila. Companies that are trying to choose a network need to take a look at how the network will fit into their current computer scheme so that they can use their current equipment and accomplish the goals they have targeted. New trends in the network industry are helping companies overcome some of the disadvantages of earlier networks. These trends include client/server computing, which allows certain workstations to carry out specific processes for other nodes on the network, thus eliminating the problem of nodes contending for access to the same resource. Improved LAN integration and link capabilities will provide companies with links to other vendors' systems. Fiber optic technology will dramatically improve the speed at which data can travel. When choosing a network, a company needs to decide how it wants to distribute resources throughout the network and how connectivity factors will affect the network. These factors include protocol compatibility, bandwidth capacity, and use of existing wiring. What's best for IS from COMDEX. (Information Services ) COMDEX/Fall 1990 highlighted laptop, notebook, and other kind of portable computers. Prices are falling, screen displays are improving, and laptops are becoming lighter and sleeker. Another important trend was the large number of vendors showing Windows packages. Over 200 software companies showed packages ranging from data analysis tools to graphics packages. Gupta Technologies Inc introduced SQLWindows 2.0, for entry-level and advanced programmers alike. LAN gateway products were introduced, including packages that allow portable computers to access and control LANs remotely. A couple of new data compression packages were introduced that will allow users to expand their storage capacity without buying new disk drives. There were indications that optical devices may become cheap enough and powerful enough to make them a definite option for the commercial market. System 7.0's brave new world: a guided tour of Mac desktop. (Apple Macintosh) (part 1 of 2)(System 7.0's Finder feature) Apple Computer's new System 7.0 operating system offers a number of enhancements over previous System versions. In particular the Finder, which has changed little since the Macintosh's introduction seven years ago, has some significant changes in terms of functionality and appearance. The icons and windows have been changed to show a colorful three-dimensional appearance. There are also a number of menu enhancements including the Apple menu, which now offers quick access to frequently used applications, and the Control Panel DA, which has been replaced by an item called Control Panels that offers a a File Sharing command to allow network users access to selected files on an individual's hard disk. Many analysts believe that System 7.0 offers improved file-management tools, application integration, and networking capabilities. Apple execs ride Classic wave, promise notebook Mac for '91. (Apple Macintosh Classic) (John Sculley, Michael H. Spindler) According to Apple Computer's CEO John Sculley, and Chief Operating Officer Michael H. Spindler, more units of the new Macintosh Classic more shipped in the first fiscal quarter of 1991 than the total number of Mac Pluses in its best sales year. Analysts believe the companies decision to change its marketing strategy with lower profit margins and low-end machines in an attempt to improve its market share has so far been a success. In a news conference, the two executives also indicated that products were being developed in such areas as notebook computers, natural-language input, communications, inter-platform media integration, color matching, and improved three-dimensional modeling. Sculley anticipates delivering Apple's System 7.0 operating system by mid-1991. Apple will build mail into system. (future version of System 7.0 operating system to have electronic messaging capabilities) Apple Computer is intending to include electronic mail capabilities and software called AppleMail in a future version of its System 7.0 operating system. The features will provide a built-in communication mechanism for third-party developers to integrate mail capabilities into basic applications such as schedulers, word processors and spreadsheets. Analysts believe third-party developers are already creating gateways between AppleMail and their products. AppleMail is not perceived as an immediate threat to software developers since System 7.0 will not be widely adopted for some time. Many analysts believe that the industry will benefit from a new electronic mail standard that allows communications between Macintosh microcomputers. Microsoft Excel hooks grab users. (Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software) (includes related article on the speed, ease and color Users received an insight into Microsoft's cross-platform strategy for the 1990's recently with the introduction of Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software for the Apple Macintosh, Windows 3.0 and OS/2. The program's new linking capability is the feature receiving the most attention. Excel 3.0 supports both System 7.0 and Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), which is an application programming interface that allows the linking of two applications by taking data from one application and embedding it in a document of another. Macros and files created on a Mac are therefore fully compatible with Excel 3.0 running on a computer with Windows 3.0. Analysts point out that new versions of Microsoft applications must support OLE before the compatibility features can become functional. Others observe that providing such a cross-platform function is a vital aspect of Microsoft's future market share. Mac allure still packs 'em in: despite war threats, expo excitement high. (MacWorld Expo)(Apple Macintosh) Macworld Expo reported at least 60,000 visitors to its 1991 exposition. John Sculley, Apple Computer's CEO, showed how the new Macintosh LC, equipped with an Ethernet card, offered access to all leading server environments. Apple also announced it was planning to add low-cost, high-volume distributor superstores to its distribution network. A number of new products were announced including version 2.0 of WordPerfect's word processing software for the Macintosh which features an updated and improved Mac user interface. SuperMac Technology and Aladdin Systems Inc introduced compression boards for the Macintosh, while RasterOps showed a video-processing board. Power Up's upgrade addresses user needs. (Power Up Software's Address Book Plus desktop accessory software) (product Power Up Software announces the $99.95 Address Book Plus 2.0 desktop accessory software package. It is a name and address data base program that resides in random access memory (RAM) and allows for the opening of multiple address books. The program enables the user to search data in a data-entry window, a list, or in custom print formats on the screen, classifying records in up to 46 different categories. The new package will also support dialing, supplying fields for prefixes, suffixes, and international dialing codes. Additional enhancements on the old version include extra printing features, facilitating the printing of double-sided address books on plain paper, and import and export capabilities, allowing a user to change field order when exchanging data with other programs. Upgrades to the older version will be $25 plus shipping and handling of $4.95. Trumatch offers new alternative to PMS color-matching standard. (Trumatch Swatching System) A new color-matching system for spot color has been developed by Trumatch Inc as an alternative to the industry standard of Pantone Matching System (PMS). The Trumatch Swatching System defines colors in terms of the four process colors used in printing, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. PMS defines solid colors which are printed by adding a fifth or sixth ink cylinder to a four color press. A closer match between output and printed product for four-color work is offered by the new Trumatch system, in the absence of an extra cylinder. This new system is available as the $85 Trumatch Colorfinder, which is a fan book containing 2,000 process-color swatches arranged according to spectrum. A software version is currently being developed to allow desktop users to select colors on-screen. Specular brings animation into Infini-D. (Specular International's three dimensional modeling and animation package) (product Specular International is soon to release a photo-realistic three-dimensional modeling and animation package called Infini-D. Some observers note that, while the $895 Macintosh package offers good modeling and rendering features, it is the animation capabilities that have aroused the most interest. The package uses a time-based approach to time and motion, rather than the more common keyframe technology. The program sequencer displays a time line, which allows each object to be handled separately, so objects do not have to be animated all at once. The program's special metamorphosis abilities allow objects to be transformed into other objects during animation. Infini-D offers some features only found on more expensive packages. It also uses an easy-to-use interface that the more expensive systems lack. Choosing a Type 1 font source. (the importance of choosing a particular font rather than a particular vendor) When Adobe Systems published its Type 1 font format recently, it opened the doors to any manufacturer who wanted to make Type 1 fonts. Consequently, the last year has seen a considerable increase in font choice and availability. A number of large imagesetter companies released many new Type 1 fonts. Additionally, many of the large traditional type houses are converting their own libraries to Type 1 outlines using Adobe's font formatting tools. One of the main things to look for when buying type is authenticity. Although most font companies market their fonts as direct copies of the original drawings, in many cases the products are a generation or two removed from the originals. Even though font vendors sell direct to the public, there are a number of discount companies that not only sell fonts from other manufacturers, but also offer recommendations for type selection. Welcome, Microsoft multimedia - seriously. (New Media) (column) Rosenthal, Steve. The move towards IBM compatible-based multimedia technology by Microsoft Corp and IBM could eventually benefit the Apple Macintosh community, some analysts believe. The euphoria surrounding multimedia should eventually spill over into Macintosh development, especially since Macintosh hardware is better able to handle multimedia applications. The Mac also has an established base of multimedia producers, along with a two year head start on program development. Multimedia developers should gain from the non-Macintosh research too, as it is easier to redesign an application for another platform than it is to design it. The main problem in cross platform multimedia development is a lack of standards. A trend towards two differing standards could push developers to go with the platform with the larger installed base. Also, if standards converge, Mac development may be held back by inferior IBM-compatible hardware. Good software is more than GUI-deep. (graphical user interface) (column) Developing a software interface has evolved into a two-step process that incorporates encoding function into a program and then adding a graphical user interface for the benefit of the user. A good user interface is the satisfactory interplay between character-based information, iconic representations and gestures. In terms of integrated design, it can be argued that design can be layered into function and interaction. Some though would regard this as a fallacy, and argue instead that because the interactional part of functional design influences how users interact with programs, user interface is, in fact, function. This can be demonstrated by the high amount of user interaction code in a program as compared to basic data manipulation code. Find help to get from System 6 to 7. (Apple Macintosh operating system upgrade)(The Mac Manager) (column) Apple Computer's System 7.0 upgrade to the existing Macintosh operating system stands to change the Desktop and Finder and create a significant learning curve for users. The aliasing, FileShare, and Publish and Subscribe features in the new system may also add considerable activity to AppleTalk networks in the form of more packets. A consultant should probably be hired for those corporations planning on upgrading to System 7.0. Some analysts believe though, that many Mac consultants are just not familiar enough with the new system to offer significant help. It is worth remembering that Apple now offers direct telephone advice for those requiring System 7.0 assistance. DataClub wins place as AppleShare alternative: distributed server works for large nets. (Software Review) (International Business International Business Software's $295 DataClub is the first distributed file server for the Macintosh, and a viable alternative to AppleShare for large networks. DataClub complies with AppleTalk Filing Protocol enabling compatibility with any software that communicates with an AppleShare server. The package requires a Mac Plus or above with at least 450Kbytes of RAM, although for a non-dedicated DataClub server the minimum usable configuration is 2Mbytes. Because DataClub is a distributed file server, sharing files across multiple machines, only one server icon is displayed although the files themselves are stored on hard disks throughout the network. DataClub is a solid, professional package that is reasonably priced per server, with clients costing nothing. Perhaps its finest attribute is the high level of compatibility it shows in dealing with more complex network software. Spyglass modules focus scientific vision. (Software Review) (Dicer and Format computer graphics software) (evaluation) Spyglass Inc's $495 Dicer and $195 Format are two new additions to the company's range of scientific graphics software that also includes Transform and View. The programs visualize complicated sets of numbers as high-quality colors on an Apple Macintosh screen. Three-dimensional images of data can be rendered by Dicer, which can include slices and cutaways. Graphical elements such as titles, axes and legends can be added to Spyglass images with Format. They can operate alone or work with the other Spyglass programs through MultiFinder. Both packages require a color Macintosh and Dicer requires at least 2Mbytes of RAM, 4Mbytes for large images. Once the data-file formats have been mastered, both Dicer and Format are well-organized, fast and easy to use. The manuals are well-written, with complete indexes and tables of contents. MIDI meets Mac multimedia. (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)(includes related article defining MIDI) (Software Mark of the Unicorn's Performer 3.5, OpCode Systems' Vision 1.2, and Passport Designs' Pro 4 4.14, all priced at $495, are Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) sequencers for the Apple Macintosh. There is an increasing trend towards the use of MIDI sequencers in the multimedia industry. A sequencer basically records the actions required to produce a specific sound on a synthesizer, and plays it back on command. Actions can be coupled together and layered to produce full-sounding musical compositions. All three packages are the top-of-the-range for the Macintosh. The top features of Performer 3.5 are its display of music in standard notation and control over a number of MIDI channels. Vision 1.2 has a sophisticated, if at times complex, interface with good documentation. Pro 4 4.14 has considerable control and is easy to learn and use. CAD users do it with intelligence. (computer-aided design users seek innovations such as intelligent interfaces, file exchange and A fundamental set of features is present in almost all computer-aided design (CAD) programs, including primitives, snapping options, layers, symbol libraries, and auto-dimensions. More and more users today are demanding advanced capabilities such as intelligent interfaces that construct lines and labels on screen automatically as the cursor is moved, suggesting possible perpendiculars, tangents and other natural alignments. Another desired feature is integrated parametrics which create two-way linking between objects and dimensioning in a drawing. While parametrics are considered very useful, users are also demanding a good CAD programming language, and file exchange compatibility between different platforms. Many analysts expect such features soon to become part of a CAD program's basic features. Building a database the Easy4D way. (using Natural Intelligence Inc.'s Easy4D application shell to create databases)(MacInTouch) Creating the correct user interface for data in a database can be as formidable a task for a developer as creating the fields and relations that determine the database structure. An application shell can be used to help construct a database. The developer simply adds the appropriate data structure to what is essentially the skeleton of a database application. Although a good development shell will create a consistent interface, a full understanding of the concepts of database management and the needs of the planned database are required by the developer. Natural Intelligence's Easy4D is one such tool for use with ACIUS Inc's 4th Dimension. The program provides an environment for maintaining, updating and creating 4th Dimension databases. The developer simply adds the fields and files of the intended database to the Easy4D application. Independent Apple dealers struggle, but new Macs deliver new hope. (Apple Macintosh) Apple Computer's marketing and pricing policies have been criticized by many for focusing too much on high-volume resellers and not on the Apple-only independent dealers. The decision to distribute the new Classic without the mass-market channel helped discount that notion. Analysts believe that, should Apple have ignored the independents, many would have suffered considerably. The Apple independent dealer was a major factor in Apple's rise in popularity and constitutes as much as 25 percent of the Macintosh distribution channel. Even so, many dealers have to become part of buying affiliates to compete with high-volume chains. Many analysts believe that the small independent dealers have been able to compete with the mass-market distributors because they are able to supply the much-needed, specialized customer support that the larger chains lack. Ehman moves to ease service complaints. (Ehman Inc. Apple Macintosh peripherals vendor) Ehman Inc, primarily a manufacturer of low-cost disk drives for the Macintosh, has encountered some problems after the resignation and dismissal of top executives and escalating complaints about service from customers. To improve communications between the company and its installed base, a new folder has been initiated in the America Online forum called Letters to the President. The company points out that sales for 1990 reached over $30 million, which was about double 1989 figures. The company's public image has been tainted further after it was discovered that several employees were planning to resign and start a competing business. Videoconferencing and teleconferencing directory. (consists of seven sections: audio equipment, audio bridges, audio services, A listing of several videoconferencing and teleconferencing products is presented, including audio equipment, audio bridges, audio services, graphics equipment, still-image equipment, room design and engineering services, and videoconferencing services and systems. The names of suppliers, a description of features, and prices are included. As mice go, the family is stylishly handsome. (Logitech Inc.'s Mouseman) (product announcement) Logitech Inc introduces an array of new mouse products ranging in price from $119 to $199. The new Mouseman products are ergonomically designed for left-handed and right-handed users, and there are different models for small and large hands. The Mouseman line is designed to offer users a maximum amount of flexibility in a product area that is cluttered by look-a-like models. Besides sporting innovative and functional design, the Mouseman line features 400-dots-per-inch pointing precision and a variety of plug-in options. Logitech also offers a mouse that communicates with the computer via radio waves from as far away as 11 feet. The product line is compatible with Apple Macintoshes and with IBM microcomputers and compatibles. Dataquest losing chief to Gartner, its rival. (Manny A. Fernandez, Gartner Group Inc.) Gartner Group Inc announces that Manny A. Fernandez will assume the position of president and chief operating officer of the computer industry research firm. Fernandez will leave his current position as chief executive of Gartner's rival, Dataquest Inc. According to company founder Gideon I. Gartner, Fernandez will also assume the role of chief executive on Apr 1, 1991, with Gartner himself remaining on as company chairman. Fernandez cited the opportunity to work for a fast-growing, entrepreneurial company as the main reason for his move. IBM PS/2 models 90 and 95: upgradable 486 architecture, XGA graphics and SCSI adapter. (PS/2 Model 90 XP 486 and PS/2 Model 95 IBM's PS/2 90 XP, $12,495, and PS/2 95 XP, $17,745, although expensive, put IBM in the same league with the fastest 80486-based microcomputers currently on the market. The Model 90 includes a 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor, 80Mbyte SCSI hard disk, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and XGA display subsystem. The Model 95 has the same features but includes a 160Mbyte SCSI hard disk. The distinguishing feature of the two units is the chassis style. The cabinets are mostly made of steel and IBM uses a modified passive-backplane instead of its traditional single-board design. Both machines have fast DOS file access due to the 512Kbytes of cache on the IBM SCSI adapter. Another significant feature in both units is that the parallel and serial ports operate as direct memory access (DMA) devices, relieving the systems' microprocessors of memory management overhead. A new breed of notebook: the PSION 20-hour MC 600. (Psion Inc.'s MC 600)(includes related article on flash EEPROM)(First Looks) Psion Inc's MC 600 notebook computer, $2,995, has a 20-hour battery life, but the unit's lack of a hard disk and backlit display, as well as its keyboard layout, make the machine inappropriate for most users. The 8-MHz 80386-based MC 600 weighs 5.2 pounds including the battery pack and boots from its 1Mbyte battery-backed RAM disk. The machine will run for approximately 20 hours on one set of eight AA batteries, a more expensive method than using rechargeable battery packs. The MC 600 comes with 768Kbytes of RAM. The keyboard, despite having a good feel, has several keys in different positions and ancillary keys are smaller than the standard size. The machine offers up to four proprietary solid-state storage cards simultaneously for removable storage. The optional cards come in rewritable RAM, Flash EEPROM and read-only memory. Using the 1Mbyte flash memory card would leave only 5.25Mbytes of nonvolatile storage. Microsoft Word 5.5: a new interface, but no new functions. (Microsoft Corp.)(First Looks) (Software Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Word 5.5, $450, offers the same functions as Version 5.0 but has a very different interface. Experienced users may feel the program is no longer unique and may be disappointed at the lack of improved features. This DOS-based version now has the same function keys as those in Word for Windows. Text windows are improved, allowing users to overlap windows. Users can now open a window to edit a stylesheet on the same screen with text. A new ribbon feature offers drop-down menus for fonts, point sizes and styles. The drop-down menu is not wide enough, however, to show the full names of styles. The new keyboard interface allows access of all options with the Alt-letter keys. The non-blinking block selection is replaced by a blinking underline cursor, which can be turned off in graphics mode only. The page preview still does not provide a detailed view. Receive faxes on your LaserJet. (Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic)(First Looks) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Tall Tree Systems' Fax-O-Matic, $399, is a device that allows users to receive faxes on their HP LaserJet Series II or compatible printer with excellent results. The Fax-O-Matic is a small black box that sits between the computer and printer and connects to a wall phone jack via a standard RJ-11 phone line. Print jobs pass through to the printer without losing the fax connection. Users can receive transmissions when the computer and printer are turned off since pages can be stored in Fax-o-Matic's 512Kbyte buffer. In tests, the unit is susceptible to phone line noise which produces thin black lines on some pages, especially when transmission is from a fax card. The device compresses an image from a legal page to a letter-size and uses the 150 dot-per-inch mode of the LaserJet. There is no manual, but a sticker on the case explains the very simple setup procedures. Crosstalk Communicator: Crosstalk power plus ease-of-use. (Digital Communications Associates' Crosstalk Communicator communication Digital Communications Associates' communications software, Crosstalk Communicator (CCM), $99, takes the powerful script language found in Crosstalk Mark IV and combines it with a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features. System requirements include minimum storage of one 720Kbyte floppy drive, 512Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.1 or later. A hard drive is recommended. CCM's startup screen is also the dialing directory and is used to set up a new script. Users can invoke a menu to create a script for nine popular communications systems. Users tell CCM the user name, password and local phone number for the desired communication system. CCM is already programmed with the communications settings for these systems and also has a sign-on script and macros for each one. Users must define their own settings and macro definitions for other systems but these functions are easy to learn. Voice-It lets spreadsheets speak for themselves. (Voice-It Inc.'s Voice-It software and Artisoft's LANtastic Voice Adapter) Voice-It Inc's Voice-It, $99, is an add-in software package for Lotus 1-2-3 that, when used with the LANtastic Voice Adapter (LVA), lets users add voice annotations to spreadsheets. A package with the software and the LVA sound digitizing board costs $199. The low price makes it attractive for users who want to add voice narration or even background music to their spreadsheets. The LVA can digitize any analog sound signal and recording and playback are done through its telephone-style handset. The Voice-It software comes with pre-recorded sound effects. Compressed and non-compressed sound formats are controlled with a toggle function. A non-compressed 30-second voice message takes up about 247Kbytes of disk storage. The same message takes up approximately 124Kbytes when compressed. In tests, there is no difference in sound quality between compressed and non-compressed messages. The comfort of a pen, the movement of a mouse. (Appoint Inc.'s MousePen and MousePen Portable)(First Looks) (Hardware Review) Appoint Inc's MousePen and MousePen Portable, $149 each, moves the cursor with a device that feels and moves like a pen. The portable version differs only in having a shorter cord. Both devices come with drivers, a mouse menu generator and paint program. Users slide it on a flat surface, such as on cloth or paper; the device does not work reliably on smooth surfaces. The MousePen has ballistic acceleration built into the hardware. The device produces clicks at a faster rate when moved quickly and at a lower rate when moved slowly. The ballistic acceleration hardware is located in the shank of the pen, which adds to its already thick shape. The click effort is slightly high and the movement is not as smooth as, for example, a Microsoft Mouse click. The MousePen, however, fills a need since mice are not practical with portable computers and trackballs are not suitable for drawing purposes. DeluxePaint Animation sets your screen in motion. (Electronic Arts' DeluxePaint Animation 1.0 software)(First Looks) (Software Electronic Arts' DeluxePaint (DP) Animation 1.0, $134.95, lets users easily move an image over a specific number of frames to create animated business presentations, demonstrations or other projects. System requirements include 5Mbytes of hard disk space, 640Kbytes of RAM, VGA or MCGA display, DOS 2.11 or later and a mouse. Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) is recommended. Users can move an image while rotating it in three dimensions. Images are animated one at a time but can move simultaneously. Users can cut and paste images anywhere in a current frame or on successive frames by clicking on the mouse. A metamorphosis feature can blend one image into another. Paint tools include a selection of more than 20 fonts but with limited sizing since shrinking or stretching text can cause it to be illegible. Electronic Arts includes some clip art with the software, including animated sequences. allClear lets you diagram your thoughts. (Clear Software Inc.'s allClear 1.1 text and flowchart software)(First Looks) (Software Clear Software Inc's allClear 1.0 text and flowchart software, $299.95, allows users to diagram their thoughts by turning text input into flowchart diagrams. The product is recommended for users who want to visualize various policies, procedures and instructions in something more powerful than an outline processor. Users begin the process by using allClear's internal text editor or by linking to another word processor. Users compose text files in plain English and add embedded punctuation marks and parentheses according to allClear's language. Users may find learning allClear's language somewhat difficult, but it is easy to visually compare commands to flowchart results. Users can also produce diagrams directly from Symphony or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets by building the scripts containing the diagram syntax within the spreadsheet. The product requires 512Kbytes of RAM with 640Kbytes recommended. ScanMan 256 and Ansel improve the art of hand scanning. (Logitech's ScanMan 256 hand-held scanner and Ansel Logitech's ScanMan 256, $499, together with its accompanying software, Ansel, brings the company's ScanMan series once more to the forefront of standards for hand scanners. The package includes the scanner, software drivers, a half-slot adapter card, a DOS-level quick-scan utility and the Windows 3.0-based software, Ansel, a gray-scale paint program that controls the scan. The ScanMan 256 has full 8-bit 400 dot-per-inch hardware. Users can set the number of bits and the resolution with control buttons. The scanning speed indicator is very accurate and lets users know how fast they are scanning and how to keep the scan speed even. The impressive Ansel software is used with a 16-color VGA driver and offers 12 shades of gray that emulate the full 256 gray shades. Ansel also boasts a feature called deskewing which is a mathematical rotation by a variable angle. CASE:W slashes Windows development time with prototyping and code generation. (CASEworks Inc.'s Computer Aided Software Engineering CASEworks Inc's Computer Aided Software Engineering for Windows (CASE:W 3.0), $495, helps Microsoft Windows developers by providing a detailed framework of the program code. CASE:W 3.0 generates code that is required to create the dialog boxes, menus and windows and prototypes the application. Although not an essential tool, CASE:W 3.0 definitely saves programming time. System requirements include 5Mbytes of disk space, 2Mbytes of RAM, an EGA or VGA monitor, a mouse, Microsoft Windows 3.0, Microsoft Windows SDK and Microsoft C 5.1 or later. For code generation, CASE:W 3.0 creates files in Microsoft C. Some users may not like the way the generated source code is formatted and commented since the program uses traditional function headers and braces. CASE:W 3.0 lets users select from three levels of control over comments in the generated code. Do graphical results require a graphical interface? (Jim Seymour) (column) Popular graphics software packages that do not run under Microsoft Windows 3.0 will not be overrun by Windows-based graphics programs, contrary to the opinions of some analysts. Corporations that have invested years in the use of character-based graphics and charting programs will not switch overnight to Windows graphics packages, no matter how successful Windows programs become. Analysts forget that many users are resistant to change in the computer world if they are satisfied with the products they are using, even if better ones come along. Slow economic times and budget cutting also make corporations reluctant to bring in new software packages, especially since there are many excellent non-graphical programs. Although Windows is garnering a lot of press, analysts must realize that the majority of business users still use DOS-based products. 1991 predictions. (William F. Zachmann) (column) Zachmann, William F. Predictions for 1991 include those that claim Microsoft Windows 3.0 will continue to be successful, but DOS will also continue to have a significant market share. OS/2 2.0 will show that rumors of OS/2's demise are premature. Many systems running Windows 3.0 in 80386 enhanced mode will switch to OS/2 2.0 and the operating systems' installed base will be higher by the end of 1991. Unix will also do better in 1991 with help from low-cost Unix compatible systems and DOS/Unix hybrid options. Sales of traditional mainframe and minicomputers will suffer the largest drop ever due to downsizing in 1991. 1991 will also be a bad year for IBM due to downsizing, with the company trying to sell its new System/390 mainframe computers in a microcomputer-based era. Apple Computer should do well in 1991 due to its new philosophy of concentrating on long-term market strength instead of short-term profits. 7th annual awards for technical excellence. (Cover Story) Machrone, Bill. PC Magazine's Seventh Annual Awards for Technical Excellence are awarded to standout products shipping between October 1989 and October 1990. In the Connectivity category, Artisoft Inc's LANtastic Voice Adapter is the winner for its open standard, low price and high performance. Borland International Inc's Turbo C++ Professional is the winner in the Development Tools category with its VROOMM technology, fast performance and complete development environment. In the Emerging Technology category, Edsun Laboratories Inc's Continuous Edge Graphics chip, which replaces a VGA card's digital-to-analog converter and increases the number of colors from 256 to more than 740,000, is the winner. The HP LaserJet III wins the top honors in the Hardware category for its unique Resolution Enhancement Technology chip. Other winners and finalists are presented in a variety of categories. Best of 1990. (overview of the best products of 1990)(includes related article on trends and products of 1991) (Cover Story) The four most important issues to reflect on as the microcomputer industry nears its tenth anniversary are connectivity, portability, ease of use and performance for the price. Connectivity is a major issue since the majority of microcomputers sold to businesses are meant to be connected to other microcomputers. Novell's NetWare continues to lead in sales on the high-end. The most significant breakthrough in portability is the development of 2.5-inch hard disks. Portable computers are also expected to downsize even further. Users still have some problems operating software and hardware because products are not easy to use or ease of use products give up capabilities. Some of the successful products of 1990 offer ease of use as opposed to great technological advances. Microcomputers, printers and other hardware have come down in price, but most software prices remain the same. Ami Professional, version 1.2. (Samna Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Sanma Corp's Ami Professional 2.1, $495, is a powerful, easy-to-use word processing program that also very effectively processes tables, graphs, drawings and gray-scale images. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, a hard disk, an 80286-based microcomputer or better and Microsoft Windows 3.0. A mouse is recommended. Users can easily create headers or footers by simply typing them in the area where they are to be placed. Users can insert a graph by creating a Dynamic Data Exchange link with an Excel spreadsheet or simply typing the data in the document. Ami Professional offers over 50 graphing options as well as three-dimensional effects. The program also has controls for modifying .TIFF images for using scanned gray-scale images in documents. Ami Professional's tables incorporate common arithmetic functions and have drawing tools to assemble graphs. Ballade, version 2.0. (Dynaware USA Inc.'s musical sequencer program)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Dynaware USA Inc's Ballade 2.0, $195, is a combination sequencer and notation program highly recommended for the home musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) musician. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, an EGA or VGA graphics card, a MIDI interface card and a mouse. Ballade records the notes played and displays them in a sheet music format. Users edit what they have played with the mouse and can change the volume and tempos of each note. Users can record and play back up to ten musical tracks or instruments simultaneously and choose instruments from the synthesizer interactively. Graphical control screens, both in appearance and functionality, are excellent. Ballade allows users to quantize selectively. Ballade supports the Roland MT-32, CM-32L and LAPC-I, all widely-used, low-priced synthesizers. BrainMaker Professional, version 1.5. (California Scientific Software's neural network program)(Cover story: best of 1990) California Scientific Software's BrainMaker Professional, $795, is an exciting, futuristic software implementation of a neural network. Neural networks recognize patterns within a data stream. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM and DOS 3.0 or later. Users can make BrainMaker Professional work for them in feeding data from football games and final scores to guessing scores based on pre-game data. Other uses include validating stock selections, picking a winning horse at the horse races or anything else in a user's imagination. Neural networks set up fake neurons that are based generally on the synapse mechanism of the human nervous system. A scanner or data file presents a pattern to the network and the neurons create the patterns within the network. A feedback mechanism tells the network what guesses are right and wrong until the network can figure it out on its own. Bounds-Checker, version 1.1. (Nu-Mega Technologies Inc.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Nu-Mega Technologies Inc's Bounds-Checker, $249, greatly helps DOS programmers using 80386 and 80486 processors by finding memory overwrites. Bounds-Checker notifies programmers by way of a screen display, specifying the line of code that causes out-of-bounds memory access to occur. System requirements include 8Kbytes of conventional memory, 256Kbytes of extended memory, an 80386SX-based microcomputer or better and DOS 2.0 or later. For accesses that are valid, developers can add the occurrence to an exception file. The program works by using the 80386 and 80486 processors' page management features and by building a page map for memory. Bounds-Checker marks the pages that do not belong to the program as read and write protected. Then the program marks all pages of code as write protected, allowing the application free access to memory areas owned or allocated. Calera WordScan Plus. (Calera Recognition Systems Inc.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Calera Recognition Systems Inc's WordScan Plus, $995, offers recognition capabilities along with an easy-to-use and flexible feature set. WordScan Plus not only lets users run software-only page decomposition and optical character recognition (OCR), but also offers support for multiple document batch processing. It also includes a useful text editor. WordScan Plus preserves the input document's style information and fonts. Style sheets also allow for overriding the attributes when saving. System requirements include Microsoft Windows 3.0, DOS 3.1 or later, 2Mbytes of RAM, 6Mbytes of hard disk space, compatible scanner and an 80286-based system or better. WordScan Plus does have some weak points, including a strict policy on output file extensions but these are small complaints when acknowledging the package's power. A scaled down, less expensive program, WordScan, $595, is also available. Compete! Modeler, version 4.0. (ManageWare)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) ManageWare's Compete! Modeler 4.0, $4,995, is an excellent spreadsheet package that lets users track up to 12 dimensions simultaneously and uses direct manipulation to make multidimensional analysis less complex. Users can work with a two-dimensional part of the data in a format much like a standard spreadsheet. While viewing the two-dimensional part in row and column format, the rest of the dimensions are represented by buttons at the top of the grid. Users can change the perspective by clicking or dragging with the mouse. The only drawback to the product is its copy protection by way of a hardware key. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, with 2Mbytes recommended, a mouse and Microsoft Windows 3.0 or later. A four-dimension version of Compete! Modeler is available for $995. Control Room. (Ashton-Tate Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Ashton-Tate Corp's Control Room, $129, is a useful utility program that gives users system analysis, virus search, filing and macro capabilities all in one program. The program boasts a well-designed layout and easy-to-understand on-line help. Control Room lets users create a customized terminate-and-stay-resident program to configure their system with functions from the program's menus. Users can set screen blanking, scan for viruses, change system configuration setting and have access to previous DOS commands. Control Room offers hotkeys as well as the ability to create macros. System requirements include 348Kbytes of RAM and DOS 3.0 or later. Although Control Room is not a replacement for high-end utility programs such as The Norton Utilities, it is an excellent choice for users who want to eliminate standalone utilities in favor of a single program. DataEase SQL. (DataEase International Inc.)(Structured Query Language)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) DataEase International Inc's DataEase SQL, $995, is a data base management system that is a front end for a SQL Database Server. The product transparently integrates SQL server access into the easy-to-use data base management system. The Processing Router for Integrated SQL Management (PRISM) converts DataEase functions and DataEase Query Language (DQL) statements into SQL statements which get transmitted to the SQL Server. The response to most functions is instantaneous because the program transmits only the appropriate SQL statements to the server. System requirements include 2Mbytes of extended RAM, DOS 3.1 or later or 4Mbytes of extended memory and OS/2 1.1 or later. Also required is an 80286-based microcomputer or better, Microsoft SQL Server 1.1 or later, 3+Open 1.1 or later, LAN Manager 2.0 or later, Novell NetWare 2.1 or later with NetWare Requestor for DOS or OS/2. Gray F/X, version 1.1. (Xerox Imaging Systems Inc)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Xerox Imaging Systems Inc's Gray F/X 1.1, $495, is a powerful gray-scale editing program that is highly recommended for users of black-and-white photographs or other images with shades of gray in their documents. Users can change the contrast and detail of the image. They can also clone an element of a picture and can make an image look metallic or embossed. Users perform these functions on the screen and can see the changes as they are made. Users can print images on a laser printer and manipulate random patterns, halftone and dot screens to make the output look like a true photographic print. Gray F/X is a standout among similar products due to its ease of use and number of images users can work with simultaneously. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, but 2Mbytes of expanded or extended memory is strongly recommended. Also required are a VGA display, hard disk and DOS 3.0 or later. Operating systems 1990: which way will we go? (Cover story: best of 1990) A strong commitment from both users and program developers is necessary for a new operating system to be successful. The catch is that users will not buy a new operating system if there are no applications available for it and programmers will not develop these applications if there is no market for them. Most analysts agree that OS/2 and Presentation Manager are technically superior to DOS and Microsoft Windows 3.0 but, due to politics and market trends, software developers are concentrating on Windows. Although technically OS/2 should be an extension of Windows, in reality, OS/2 is expected to become mostly an IBM product and Microsoft will extend and improve Windows to compete with OS/2. Many observers feel that Microsoft is indicating that it knows much more about marketing operating systems than IBM and is suggesting that it controls the future of microcomputer operating system software. Hercules Graphics Station Card. (Hercules Computer Technology Inc.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Hercules Computer Technology Inc's Graphics Station Card, $1,024, very capably handles a wide variety of graphics display needs from regular VGA text and graphics processing to high-end image animation and database applications. The multi-functionality of this full-size ISA bus card belies its reasonable price. VGA, TIGA and 16- and 24-bit high-definition color are the three high-end formats combined in the Graphics Station Card. The card operates in both interlaced and non-interlaced modes of up to 1,024 by 768 pixels The card also includes 1Mbyte of video RAM (VRAM) with an option for including up to 2Mbytes of dynamic RAM (DRAM) to support display list processing or program memory. System requirements include an 80286-based microcomputer or better and a VGA or analog multi-scanning monitor. LANProbe Distributed Analysis System. (Hewlett-Packard Co.'s LANProbe Segment Monitor, NodeLocator and ProbeView HP's LANProbe Distributed Analysis System package, $12,750, is a useful, high-quality tool for network managers that can test, monitor and diagnose all aspects of network activity. The package consists of the LANProbe Segment Monitor and NodeLocator and the ProbeView software and console. The system is designed for remote access to allow users to view local area network (LAN) activity from any access point. ProbeView also offers triggering and filtering options that allow network administrators to select important protocol and station combinations for capture. The ProbeView software displays network performance using vertical bar charts. The charts show bytes per second, packets per second, errors and other information. The system also identifies all active nodes and creates a map showing their sequence on the cable. The software lets users name nodes and provides workstation and server icons. IBM LaserPrinter E. (IBM Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) IBM's LaserPrinter E, $1,495, is an excellent, flexible and easily-upgradable laser printer at an inexpensive price. The 5-page-per-minute printer comes with four built-in emulations, including IBM Graphics Language, IBM PPDS, HP LaserJet Series II and HPGL. The LaserPrinter E is quiet and compact and has 512Kbytes of RAM. Users can add one of two versions of the PostScript Page Description Language (PDL). The Standard PostScript Option, $499, provides true Adobe PostScript with 17 typefaces. The Premium PostScript Option, $899, includes 22 more outline fonts contained on a font card for a total of 39 fonts. One strong point of the LaserPrinter E is its upgrade path. IBM offers an optional, very reliable envelope feeder, a 500-page-capacity paper drawer for $599 and a printer sharing option. Users can also upgrade to the 10-page-per-minute engine for $1,099. NetPort Print Server, LANPort. (Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation's NetPort Print Server)(Microtest Inc.'s Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation and Microtest Inc provide an innovative alternative to using a microcomputer to act as a print server. The LANPort, $495 to $695 depending on printer connection, was developed by Microtest and Intel licenses the technology, using a modified design, in its NetPort Print Server, $695. LANPort has dual parallel and serial connections, but NetPort provides only one serial and one parallel connection. The products both measure 4 by 7.5 by 1 inches and are placed next to a printer to give it a direct connection onto a NetWare Ethernet local area network (LAN). The NetWare shell routes print jobs to the print queue and users can assign LANPort or NetPort to that queue so that the job will print on the attached printer. Users can easily install the units by using included customized software. KnowledgePro Windows. (Knowledge Garden Inc.'s program development tools)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Knowledge Garden Inc's KnowledgePro Windows, $695, is a standout among Windows program development tools. KnowledgePro Windows is for power users and Windows developers who need a powerful development language and full support for native Windows objects. Users can open multiple windows and customize menus, control border styles and more in their application. Developers can easily create and manipulate radio buttons, push buttons and edit boxes. The language is message-based and event-driven and users can create classes of objects in addition to a hierarchy of source code. The program supports Windows' Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and has the capability of calling and using any Windows Dynamic Link Library (DLL). Runtime is also royalty-free. System requirements include 1Mbyte of RAM and Windows 3.0. A mouse is recommended. Lotus 1-2-3/G Solver Module. (Lotus Development Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3/G Solver Module, $695, is a unique optimization program that offers analytic capability to Lotus spreadsheets. Lotus 1-2-3/G Solver Module runs on OS/2 which lets it perform effectively as a background task. The program not only reports optimal solutions to problems but also reports all possible solutions that meet the users' stated criteria and constraints. These results give users the capability of factoring in issues that cannot be explicitly quantified. There are a variety of linear optimization packages available to use with spreadsheets but these programs analyze and solve linear problems only. Users usually need specialized training to effectively use these programs. Lotus 1-2-3/G Solver Module handles real-world problems that cannot be solved with linear methods for most users who can handle an average spreadsheet. PCs 1990: the year in review. (Cover story: best of 1990) Zaino, Jennifer. Two of the major trends in the microcomputer industry in 1990 have been the evolution of personal computing into workgroup computing and the miniaturization of components. The Compaq Systempro uses multiple processors that let more users be served at the same time with little performance degradation. The machine also links its eight drives through an Intelligent Drive Array controller that processes multiple user read and write requests simultaneously. The number of 80286-based systems in the US is expected to decrease from 3.6 million in 1990 to 2.6 million in 1991. 80386SX-based microcomputers are expected to increase over 50 percent in 1991 to 3.2 million. The number of 80386DX-based systems are expected to grow from 1.7 to 2.4 million in 1991. Use of the 20-MHz DX chip is declining, but the 25-MHz 386 chip is expected to ship 400,000 more units worldwide in 1991 than in 1990. Magellan, version 2.0. (Lotus Development Corp's file management software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Lotus Development Corp's Magellan 2.0, $139, is a fast, flexible and easy-to-use file manager with a useful customizable interface. Lotus adds new file viewers, the ability to zip and unzip files and macro language improvements. With Magellan, users can create an index of the contents of their hard disk with which they can quickly and easily locate files with text strings. Users can also limit searches to specific files and subdirectories. The edit viewer allows users to make changes to a file. With this version, Lotus increases the number of files users can view in their original formats to more than 40, including popular word processor files as well as spreadsheet and database files. Magellan 2.0 also can display graphics files. One of Magellan's special features is that, after locating a desired file, users can move, copy delete, back up or compress it. Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System, version 7.1. (Microsoft Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) Microsoft Corp's BASIC Professional Development System 7.1, $495, boasts many new features that highly recommend it for the serious BASIC developer. Users should note that the program requires between 3Mbytes and 12Mbytes of hard disk space for program installation, depending on which option is used. Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) is also strongly recommended. The BASIC Professional Development System's editing environment is now enhanced to use expanded memory and functions, subprograms and numeric arrays are swapped to EMS to allow for greater capacity. The program also now supports overlays, which vastly simplifies large application development. Microsoft also adds several new BASIC statements as well as BASIC toolbox libraries that provide code examples for creating dialog boxes, menus, financial calculations and presentation graphics. Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. (Microsoft Corp.'s presentation graphics program)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) Microsoft Corp's PowerPoint for Windows, $495, is an easy-to-use presentation graphics program with a true WYSIWYG display that is highly recommended for business users who need to produce high-quality presentations. PowerPoint is the first DOS-based presentation program that uses many features seen only in Apple Macintosh presentation programs. Users can manipulate words and graphics directly and the program offers Master Slides, Slide Sorter overviews and object orientation. PowerPoint also provides a clip-art library with 400 images and supports import of all major vector and raster graphics file types. Use of Windows allows for the ability to use embedded DDE objects and client windows. System requirements include 1Mbyte of RAM, with 2Mbytes recommended, a hard disk, Microsoft Windows 3.0, an 80286-based microcomputer or better and an extended VGA display with a 256-color Windows 3.0 driver. Microsoft Project for Windows. (Microsoft Corp.'s project management software)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) Microsoft Corp's Project for Windows, $695, is a project management program that takes full advantage of Windows 3.0's graphical interface and offers a very user-friendly environment with excellent graphics. Project for Windows provides scheduling and tracking features. Users can create views of a project and any two views can be displayed together for easy comparison. The program gives users control over formats of screen displays and printed reports. Users can manipulate font type and size as well as styles and colors of connecting lines and task bars. Project for Windows lacks several features, including cost diagrams, priorities for projects, the ability to work with inflation costs and a time-scaled network diagram. System requirements include 1Mbyte of RAM, DOS 3.0 or later and Windows 3.0. A mouse is recommended. Microsoft Word for Windows, version 1.1. (Microsoft Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's Word for Windows 1.1, $495, is a graphically-based word processing program that will make character-based users take a second look. Word for Windows has all the traditional word processing features along with merge and macro tools that allow for automated control over data. Users can create documents that request user input at the time of creation and request information from other files and applications. Word for Windows lets users program prompts that can ask for information, pull data from other applications and run detailed macros. Users can open nine documents simultaneously and two different parts of a document can be edited on the same screen at the same time. Some users may find that Word for Windows is very slow to print. Users are also advised to use the program on a 20-MHz 80386SX or 80386-based microcomputer with 4Mbytes of RAM for best results. performance. NEC Intersect CDR-35 Portable CD-ROM Reader. (NEC Technologies Inc.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) NEC Technologies Inc's Intersect CDR-35 Portable CD-ROM Reader, $599, is a CD-ROM drive that gives laptop computer users large storage capabilities at a reasonable price. The CDR-35 is 2.5 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches and weighs 2.2 pounds. The CD-ROM reader reads both 3-inch and 5-inch CD-ROMs. An optional internal battery, $79, runs the CDR-35 for 90 minutes of continuous use. The CDR-35 hooks to a portable computer via a SCSI interface. The CD gives users up to 540Mbytes of data. Users can also attach the CDR-35 to their desktop machine, although the access time is slower than those for non-portable CD-ROM readers. The slower speed, however, is not noticeable in most cases. Users can also play audio CDs on the unit. Controls include pause, repeat and seek-to-track. A window that displays the track being played is also included. The Norton Utilities, version 5.0. (Symantec Corp.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Symantec Corp's Norton Utilities 5.0, $179, is the latest version of the reliable utility program. The package boasts many new features, including protection from viruses, temporary storage for previous generations of files, a low-level hard disk formatter and a file fixer for .DBF files and .WK1 files. The hex editor is now enhanced to display files as full-screen ASCII, broken up by sector. This makes it easier for users to locate portions of the file that are damaged. Symantec also enhances the System Info with even more data about the state of the tested system. The interface is now mouse-compatible and in an all-in-one format. This might disappoint some users who prefer to access each individual utility instead of installing one large program. The program has many non-destructive bugs, but the new features make up for any inconvenience. PackRat, version 3.0. (Polaris Software's personal information management software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Polaris Software's PackRat 3.0, $395, is a personal information management package that gives users high performance in a format that is easier to use than programs in the same price range. PackRat gives users flexibility in linking information and creation of lists, as well as structure in maintaining contact information and the scheduling of appointments. Users can also customize default settings, report design and screen creation. Users not only have a visual reminder of appointments, but also an audible one that can be set in other Windows-based applications. Support for Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) lets users share information with other Windows applications. Users can let the program record tasks for a to-do list that they can search and view by keywords and date ranges. System requirements include 1Mbyte of RAM, DOS 3.1 or later and Microsoft Windows 3.0. PC Tools Deluxe, version 6.0. (Central Point Software Inc.'s utility program)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) Central Point Software Inc's PC Tools Deluxe 6.0, $149, is a utility program that offers more features than any other single package and is recommended for both expert and novice microcomputer users. The PC Tools Shell program provides a window layout where users can customize viewing and can manipulate files and directories. Users can also run the Shell as a terminate-and-stay-resident program for use as a task switcher. PC Tools' backup program can access popular tape drives as well as floppy disks. PC Tools' cache and defragmenter have excellent speed and flexibility. The disk repair program can repair most types of hard disk damage but is not on the same level as the Norton Utilities Disk Doctor. The program has some inconsistencies, such as utilities that are run only from the command line and others that can only be run from a menu. PHIPS Professional Hi-Resolution Image Processing System, version 1.4. (TerraVision Inc.)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software TerraVision Inc's PHIPS Professional Hi-Resolution Image Processing System 1.4, $349, is a high-quality color-reduction software that lets users map more colors to fewer colors but still keep the image faithful to the original as much as possible. The program directly reads files in .TIF and TARGA images and includes a program to convert other major graphics files to TARGA files. The program performs an automatic reduction that usually results in excellent images on a 16-color or 256-color display but also provides tools to adjust the image. These tools include a palette editor that can shift colors to a gray scale as well as dithering algorithms. PHIPS' proprietary interface has mouse support, drop-down menus and dialog boxes. System requirements include 640Kbytes of RAM, EGA or VGA for reductions to 16 colors and MCGA, VGA or supported Super VGA for 256 colors. PrintCache, version 2.3a. (LaserTools Corp.'s print spooler)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) LaserTools Corp's PrintCache 2.3a, $149, prints application data faster than any other print spooler currently available. Applications that make users wait three minutes when sending a file to the printer will wait only about 15 seconds with PrintCache installed. PrintCache also allows users to exit faster from their applications that even include built-in print spooling. PrintCache is the only printer spooler that uses the printer interrupt in determining when the printer port is ready to receive data. It is also the only product that automatically installs a device driver and tells applications to print to that driver instead of sending data through the BIOS. PrintCache works with all types of printers and has special features that can be used with DeskJet and LaserJet printers. Users can install PrintCache's RAM buffer in conventional, extended or expanded memory. QMS-PS 410. (QMS Inc.'s PostScript printer)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) QMS Inc's PS 410 printer, $2,795, has parallel, serial and AppleTalk ports that are active simultaneously, requiring no configuration. Other true PostScript printers that are priced lower do not measure up to the features and power the PS 410 offers. Users can hook up a DOS-based microcomputer to the parallel port and an Apple Macintosh to the AppleTalk connector to enjoy printer sharing at no added cost. The PS 410 also offers HP LaserJet PCL emulation and true Adobe PostScript. Users can send PostScript and PCL printer jobs from the same computer and the printer's controller allows it to automatically adjust for correct printing. The printer is rated at 4 pages per minute. The PS 410 comes with 2Mbytes of memory and 1Mbyte, 2Mbyte and 4Mbyte upgrades are available. The QMS-PS 410 includes 45 font outlines in the controller's ROM and is also compatible with Adobe Type 1 downloadable fonts. Sitelock, version 3.0. (Brightwork Development Inc.'s network file security software)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) Brightwork Development Inc's SiteLock 3.0, $495, is an easy-to-use network file security software that gives network administrators tools to protect network files from intrusion, abuse and viruses. The program runs as a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) in servers running NetWare 386 and as a value-added process (VAP) in Advanced NetWare 286 servers. SiteLock is made up of the network module (either VAP or NLM) and the Watcher program. SiteLock's Watcher program gives requests to the file server master program. The VAP or NLM processes the requests and also checks the number of authorized users. The network module also checks the program code for viruses and then will order the Watcher program to either proceed or not proceed with the program. SiteLock requires 120Kbytes of RAM in the NetWare 286 server or 160Kbytes of RAM in the NetWare 386 server and 2Kbytes of RAM in each workstation. SuperPrint. (Zenographics' Laserjet printer software)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Software Review) (evaluation) Zenographics' SuperPrint, $195, is a LaserJet printer software package that improves the speed and quality of graphics printing, manages scalable fonts and provides background spooling at an inexpensive price. SuperPrint converts each page into a graphics image before it sends it to the printer. This dramatically increases the speed of graphics printing since SuperPrint uses the processor in the microcomputer for page conversion instead of the slower processor in the printer. Text printing can be slow with SuperPrint because of this method, but text with different fonts will print faster. SuperPrint handles fonts within the computer so there is no wait for fonts to be downloaded to the printer. The program supports most types of scalable fonts. SuperPrint also comes with SuperQueue, which stores spool files in a compressed format and lets users print pages in reverse order. Stowaway 2400. (Vocal Technologies Ltd.'s modem for portable computers)(Cover story: best of 1990) (Hardware Review) Vocal Technologies Ltd's Stowaway 2400, $295, is a compact modem for notebook and laptop computer users that does not need any other external power except for that provided by a telephone line. The Stowaway 2400's design makes it a big advantage over internal modems that use up portable computer power and external modems that run down quickly on batteries. The modem measures 2.2 by 3 by 0.8 inches, weighs 2.2 ounces and operates at 2,400 bits per second. The modem has auto-answer, non-volatile configuration memory and responds to the Hayes AT command set. The two connectors are an RJ-11 jack for the phone line and a 25-pin serial connector. Laptop users with a 9-pin connector must add a 9- to 25-pin adapter or pigtail cable. The Stowaway has two indicator lights to monitor the modem's status during a call, allowing for easy troubleshooting. 33-MHz 386s: at the peak of their careers. (overview of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers)(includes PC Magazine's evaluation of 26 33-MHz 80386-based microcomputers shows that, even with the configuration of a 150Mbyte hard disk, the average price falls to $5,207. Nine computers are in the $7,500 to $12,000 range. Arche Technologies Inc, Dell Computer Corp, Digital Scientific Research Corp and Tandy Corp are the only companies that have not had an 80386/33-MHz machine reviewed previously by PC Magazine. The other 22 machines are past participants that have changed significantly. Machines tested are required to use an ISA bus, have 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a VGA or Super VGA display, a 150Mbyte hard disk, DOS 3.3 or 4.01 and a standard hard disk controller in place of a caching controller. Users should note that the 33-MHz 80386-based machines are faster and often just as low-priced as 25-MHz, 80386DX-based microcomputers. Amax 386/33 Business Station. (Amax Engineering Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based Amax Engineering Corp's 386/33 Business Station is a tower-style unit that is a good buy, scoring average in performance and expansion room with a competitive price. A machine with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, DOS 4.01, a 256Kbyte Super VGA color display subsystem and Microsoft Windows 3.0 is priced at $3,875. The tested model, $7,215, is configured with 8Mbytes of RAM, a 347Mbyte hard drive, a 120Mbyte tape backup, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives, an Orchid ProDesigner II 1Mbyte Super VGA video adapter and a Seiko 20-inch Super VGA non-interlaced color monitor. The Amax 386/33's scores on memory are average. The processor scores are below average. The unit's small- and large-record DOS File Access test scores are the fastest of all tested microcomputers. The unit has eight expansion slots. The system is limited to 16Mbytes of total memory. Arche Legacy 386-33 workstation. (Arche Technologies Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based Arche Technologies Inc's Legacy 386-33 Workstation is an expensive but fast machine that is one of the best overall performers of the machines tested. A Legacy 386-33 with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, one parallel and two serial ports and DOS 3.3 costs $5,255. The tested machine, $10,263, has the standard configuration plus a 158Mbyte hard drive, a Super VGA color display subsystem, 4 more Mbytes of RAM for 8Mbytes total, a 120Mbyte tape backup, an additional floppy drive of 1.44Mbytes and a math coprocessor. On processor and conventional memory tests, the Legacy 386-33 scores high. Disk performance and video scores are on the high side of average. The machine's ProCache processor RAM controller runs a standard 128Kbyte cache. The processor also handles many direct memory access (DMA) calls and takes care of all memory management. Austin 386/33 Winstation. (Austin Computer Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based Austin Computer Systems Inc's 386/33 Winstation is a solid performer backed by excellent customer service and support policies. A 386/33 Winstation with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 110Mbyte hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, 256Kbytes VGA color display subsystem, two serial and one parallel port, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a Microsoft mouse is priced at $3,890. The tested unit, $4,390, adds a Super VGA color display subsystem and a 175Mbyte hard disk. The Winstation's conventional memory score is slightly faster than average, but processor scores are slow-average. Performance on the small-record DOS File Access test is fairly fast, but large-record DOS File Access and BIOS Disk Seek test performances are slow. Video scores are better than average. Austin offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and toll-free technical support and customer service lines. Blackship 386/33. (Blackship Computer Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based Blackship Computer Systems Inc's 386/33 microcomputer is a solid performer at a reasonable price, but it has a case that is very difficult to open and close. A Blackship 386/33 with a 32Kbyte processor RAM cache, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, one parallel and two serial ports and a monochrome display subsystem is priced at $1,895. The tested machine, $3,880, is configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 158Mbyte hard disk, an Orchid ProDesigner II VGA card, a CTX multiscanning Super VGA monitor and DOS 3.3 or 4.01. The Blackship 386/33's motherboard differs from up-to-date designs by requiring a slot-wasting card for any 32-bit RAM over 4Mbytes. For most tests, the machine performs in the top half of tested machines. Users can switch the system downward from 33MHz to 6 or 8 MHz. The hard disk is a full-height design that limits expansion options. Boss 3633-s. (Boss Technology Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz The Boss 3633-S, a speedy, tower-design microcomputer from Boss Technology Corp, performs within the top third of tested machines and offers 80486 upgradability as an option. A Boss 3633-S with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, one game, one parallel and two serial ports and a monochrome VGA system is priced at $5,294. The tested configuration, $8,395, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 160Mbyte hard disk, an additional 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a Cardinal VGA card, a CTX multi-scanning Super VGA monitor and DOS 4.01. Users have the option of plugging an optional 80486 adapter card into a proprietary slot on the motherboard, which will take over from the 80386, turning the system into a full-fledged 80486-based machine. Boss Technology backs the machine with a two-year warranty. Bus 386-33. (Bus Computer Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Bus Computer Systems Inc's 386-33 is an inexpensive machine that scores an acceptable but overall slow-side-of-average in performance tests. A Bus 386-33 with 1Mbyte of RAM, 64Kbytes processor RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, one game, one parallel and two serial ports and a monochrome display subsystem costs $1,699. The tested configuration, $3,725, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 157Mbyte hard disk, an additional floppy disk of 1.44Mbytes, a Super VGA card, NEC MultiSync 3D Super VGA monitor and DOS 4.01. The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Super VGA card has 1Mbyte of video RAM and top pixel resolution of 1,024 by 768 but scores the second slowest on video tests. The hard disk and the enhanced small drive interface (ESDI) controller combined achieves a higher quality than the Bus 386-33's reasonable price implies. Users are provided with one year of on-site service by GE. Club Hawk I. (Club American Technologies Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in Club American Technologies Inc's Hawk I tower-design microcomputer scores an average performance overall at an attractive price. A Club Hawk I with 2Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, one parallel and one serial port, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a Microsoft mouse is priced at $2,685. The tested configuration with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 158Mbyte hard drive and Super VGA color display subsystem is $3,755. The Hawk I scores equal to the fastest machines on the 80386 Instruction Mix processor tests. The score on the Conventional Memory test is slower than average. The Hawk I offers eight slots including one 8-bit, six 16-bit and one proprietary 32-bit slot. The tower case is well-designed and has space for up to nine half-height 5.25-inch drives. Club America Technologies offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor. An optional on-site service plan is offered for $99 for the first year. Dataworld Data 386-33. (Dataworld Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Dataworld Inc's Dataworld Data 386-33 is a good deal offering good performance, excellent service and a good price. The unit can handle 40Mbytes of RAM and six empty slots. A 386-33 with 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Hercules-compatible video adapter, one parallel and two serial ports and a monochrome monitor costs $1,980. The tested configuration is priced at $4,185, with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 161Mbyte hard disk, a 1Mbyte Orchid ProDesigner II Super VGA interlaced video adatper, a Super VGA interlaced color monitor and DOS 4.01. The Dataworld Data 386-33 performs well overall in all tests. Scores are low-average for processor tests but acceptable. On the Conventional Memory test, the 386-33 ties several other units for second place. Video scores are average or above average. Dataworld offers a standard warranty for one year parts and labor as well as on-site service for the first year. Dell System 333D. (Dell Computer Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Dell Computer Corp's System 333D is the only tested machine that has its input/output, drive controllers and Super VGA chip set on the motherboard. This allows for much more expansion room. The Dell System 333D with 1Mbyte of RAM, 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte or 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, monochrome VGA display subsystem and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $3,349. The tested configuration, $4,918, includes a 190Mbyte hard disk and 150Mbyte tape backup, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Super VGA display subsystem and DOS 4.01. The System 333D scores average overall but is one of the highest scorers in video tests due to the video circuitry being built directly onto the motherboard. Dell offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor, a toll-free support line and on-site service provided by Xerox. Destiny 386 1000. (Destiny Computers) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Destiny Computers' Destiny 386 1000 is a small machine that customers can purchase from a dealer and still have it specially configured by the manufacturer. The Destiny 386 1000 with 1Mbyte of RAM, 64K processor RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, CGA monochrome display subsystem one parallel and one serial port is priced at $2,199. The tested configuration, $4,671, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 150Mbyte hard drive, a Super VGA color display subsystem and DOS 4.01. The machine's case size and unusual placement of its drive bay brackets and power supply make for limited expandability. The Maxtor enhanced small device interface (ESDI) hard disk scores in the top third for hard disk rankings. The Super VGA ProDesigner II card scores average. On processor tests, the 386 1000 rates on the slow side of average. Users receive only 90 days of on-site service from TRW. DSR/Tiger 386. (Digital Scientific Research Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based Digital Scientific Research Corp's (DSR) Tiger 386 offers average performance at a very reasonable price. A DSR/Tiger 386 with 2Mbytes of RAM, an 80Mbyte hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a 512Kbyte Super VGA video adapter, a multiscanning Super VGA color monitor, one parallel and two serial ports and DOS 4.01 is priced at $2,899. The tested configuration, $4,109, includes a 204Mbyte hard disk, 8Mbytes of RAM, and additional 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive and a math coprocessor. The Tiger 386 scores average on most tests but scores low on large-record DOS File Access and Video Direct to Screen tests. The machine accommodates more drives than most comparable units and supports up to 144Mbytes of RAM. DSR offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and is negotiating with companies to provide on-site service at an extra charge. DTK Keen-3304. (DTK Computer Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz DTK Computer Inc's Keen-3304 is an expensive, average performer that is only recommended if users can get a significant discount on the price. The DTK Keen-3304 with 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte RAM cache, 158Mbyte hard drive, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives, a Super VGA color display subsystem, one parallel and two serial ports and DOS 4.01 is priced at $6,105. The minimum configuration is priced at $2,299 but only includes the motherboard, 64K processor RAM cache, the tower case and a power supply. The Keen-3304 tower-style case is not of the best quality. The machine's motherboard is able to accommodate up to 8Mbytes of RAM and users can add another 8Mbytes with an optional proprietary memory expansion card. DTK does not offer on-site service and only dealer service is available. There is a one-year parts and labor warranty. Dyna Work Master 386 33 Plus. (Dyna Micro Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in Dyna Micro Inc's Dyna Work Master 386 33 Plus is an update of the company's Dyna 33 series that offers average performance and expansion at an expensive price. The Dyna Work Master 386 33 Plus with 4Mbytes of RAM, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a color VGA display subsystem and one game, one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $6,350. The tested configuration, $7,995, includes a 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 182Mbyte hard disk, two 1.2Mbyte and one 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives and a Super VGA display subsystem. The unit's video scores are among the fastest of the machines tested but it ranks among the slowest in processor tests. The Dyna Work Master 386 33 scores average on the small- and large-record DOS File Access tests. Dyna Micro offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor, unlimited toll-free telephone support and on-site service by Integrated Automation. Everex Step 386/33. (Everex Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in Everex Systems Inc's Step 386/33 is a speedy, improved and lower-priced update of its previous Step machine. The Step 386/33 with 2Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive and DOS 4.01 is priced at $4,899. The tested configuration, $6,697, includes a 160Mbyte hard disk, 4Mbytes of RAM and a Super VGA display subsystem. The Step 386/33 receives consistently fast scores on most tests. The exception is the small-record DOS File Access test, where it scores average. The machine has a discrete-logic based motherboard. The BIOS resides on an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip and supports system BIOS shadowing, although not video BIOS shadowing. Despite the machine's large size, expansion capability is only average, offering only two 8-bit and six 16-bit slots. The Step 386/33 has a 200-watt power supply with four device connectors. Gateway 386-33 Cache. (Gateway 2000) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Gateway 2000's 386-33 Cache gives an average performance but boasts a very low price. The 386-33 Cache with 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives, Super VGA display subsystem, one parallel and two serial ports, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a Microsoft mouse is priced at $3,695. Tests on the 386-33 Cache are average overall. The machine is well-constructed and its sturdiness belies the unit's low price. The BIOS offers both system and video BIOS shadowing. The Cache offers one 32-bit and seven 16-bit expansion slots. The machine allows for five half-height drives. Parts for the Gateway 386-33 Cache unit are guaranteed for a year. Labor is free for the lifetime of the machine. Gateway offers toll-free telephone support and provides on-site service through TRW. Micro Express ME 386-33. (Micro Express) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Micro Express' ME 386-33 is a low-priced solid performer that is not much different from its predecessor. A Micro Express ME 386-33 with 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbyte processor RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, one parallel and one serial port and a monochrome display subsystem is priced at $2,447. The tested configuration, $4,124, includes a 150Mbyte hard disk, a VGA display subsystem, one parallel and two serial ports and DOS 4.01. The Micro Express ME 386-33 ties for second place with several other machines in processor tests. Times on most of the other tests rank the ME 386-33 just below the leaders. The motherboard is an improvement over the previous model since it now supports up to 8Mbytes of 80-nanosecond single in-line memory modules (SIMMs) packaged in 1Mbyte chips. A memory expansion card for RAM is no longer necessary. Flash 386-33. (National Micro Systems Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in National Micro Systems Inc's Flash 386-33 is a speedy, reasonably-priced performer that allows for installation of up to 64Mbytes of RAM on the motherboard. The Flash 386-33 with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Hercules monochrome display subsystem and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $2,149. The tested configuration, $3,199, includes a 150Mbyte hard disk, 64Kbyte RAM cache, Super VGA multiscanning display subsystem and DOS 3.3 or 4.01. The Flash 386-33 scores the highest of all tested machines in the 80386 Instruction Mix test and ties for second on the Floating-Point Calculation test. The machine scores well in the small- and large-record DOS File Access tests and the video test results are a big improvement over scores of the first version of the Flash. The company offers a 15-month warranty on parts and labor. PC Brand 386/33 Cache Desktop. (PC Brand Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in The PC Brand 386/33 Cache Desktop from PC Brand Inc is recommended for customers looking for good, although not super-fast, performance at a reasonable price. The 386/33 Cache Desktop with 1Mbyte of RAM, 32K RAM cache, a 40Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, Hercules monochrome display subsystem, one parallel and two serial ports, QA Plus and Setsys is priced at $2,279. The tested configuration, $3,369, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes RAM cache, a 143Mbyte hard disk, a 1,024-by-768 color display system, one floppy disk drive and DOS 4.01. The machine's new motherboard is smaller and offers more speed and reliability than its predecessor. PC Brand has also increased the number of drive bays but still offers a more compact desktop case. PC Brand offers a unique warranty that works on a pro-rated basis and gives free on-site service for the first 90 days. PC Craft 2401/33. (PC Craft Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz PC Craft Inc's 2401/33 is half the price of its predecessor but is still expensive when considering the machine's average and below-average test scores and mere standard features. The PC Craft 2401/33 with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 150Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a 1,024-by-768 color display subsystem, one parallel and two serial ports and DOS 4.01 is priced at $5,268. The tested configuration, $5,790, includes a 203Mbyte hard disk and a math coprocessor. The machine has less RAM and cache than the previous first-generation unit due to the new motherboard, which has allowed for the price reduction. Test scores place the PC Craft 2401/33 in the middle or lower third of reviewed machines and its price in the upper third. The machine offers eight expansion slots but only one 32-bit proprietary slot instead of three as in the previous machine. Poly 386-33PT. (Polywell Computers Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Polywell Computers Inc's 386-33PT has more flexibility and better performance than its predecessor, the Polysystem 33 Cache, and is 30 percent less expensive. The Poly 386-33PT with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Hercules monochrome display subsystem and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $2,275. The tested configuration, $4,450, includes a 150Mbyte hard disk, a 1,024-by-768 color display subsystem and DOS 4.01. In the Instruction Mix benchmark test, the Poly 386-33PT scores only two percent faster than its predecessor and 22 percent slower in Conventional Memory tests. The unit's new motherboard, however, is more dependable due to its better layout. The Poly 386-33PT had the best test time in Direct to Screen tests than all reviewed computers. The excellent warranty offers five years on labor and two years on the motherboard and graphics card. Spear Ultra 386/33. (Spear Technology Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in Spear Technology Inc's Ultra 386/33 has varied performance scores and a higher price than previous models from the company, which is known for its low prices. The Spear Ultra 386/33 with 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Hercules monochrome display subsystem and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $2,555. The tested configuration, $4,410, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 141Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA color display subsystem and DOS 4.01. The Ultra 386/33 places in the top half of the tested machines in Floating-Point Calculation, Conventional Memory and 80386 Instruction Mix tests. The Ultra's hard disk test results are the worst of all machines tested and the video benchmark test scores are only slightly better. The machine's sturdy case is very well-designed. Spear Technology offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and on-site service is available for $75 annually. Tandy 4033 LX. (Tandy Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Tandy Corp's 4033 LX is a solid-performing, high-tech machine with the only drawback being a high price compared with mail-order machines. A Tandy 4033 LX with 2Mbytes of RAM, an 80Mbyte hard disk, a 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a VGA video adapter and VGM-200 monitor, one mouse port and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $6,497.95. The tested configuration, $8,716.75, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 168Mbyte hard disk, a VGM-300 monitor and DOS 4.01. The 4033 LX scores as one of the slower systems tested in memory and processor benchmark tests, but the slight difference should be unnoticeable running under most applications. The machine scores average on hard disk tests. Tandy's service and support are excellent and many Radio Shack Computer Stores let users try out machines with the software they will be using. The large number of store locations make bringing machines in for service an easy task. Tangent 333c. (Tangent Computer Inc.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Tangent Computer Inc's 333c is a major improvement over its predecessor at a very inexpensive price. A Tangent 333c with a 33-MHz 80386, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a monochrome display subsystem, a game port and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $1,745. The tested configuration, $3,784, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 150Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA display subsystem and DOS 4.01. The Artronics motherboard has eight slots and uses discrete logic. The board is limited to 16Mbytes of RAM with expansion available through a proprietary memory slot that is also one of the board's 16-bit slots. The Imprimis hard disk does well on hard disk tests and the Orchid ProDesigner II video card is fast. Combined with the Mag Computronics 13-inch monitor, resolution is of high quality. Tangent offers telephone support, and on-site service is $79 for the warranty period. Tri-Star 386/33. (Tri-Star Computers Corp.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in Tri-Star Computers Corp's 386/33 is a solid performer with a low price and excellent service policies. A Tri-Star 386/33 with 1Mbyte of RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives, a game port and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $3,045. The tested configuration, $4,455, includes a Super VGA display subsystem, a 16-inch monitor and DOS 4.01. The Tri-Star 386/33's motherboard holds up to 8Mbytes of 1Mbyte single in-line memory modules (SIMM). Users can expand the maximum 16Mbyte memory through the 32-bit proprietary slot. The system's 15-millisecond Maxtor LXT-200A hard disk performs well on hard disk tests. The system also fares well on video benchmark tests. Tri-Star offers an uncommon two-year warranty on parts and labor. The return period is for 60 days. On-site service is provided by TRW. Zeos 386-33. (Zeos International Ltd.) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Zeos International Ltd's 386-33 is one of the top performers of the tested machines, and it has a reasonable price. A Zeos 386-33 with a 1Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a Hercules monochrome display subsystem, a game port and one parallel and two serial ports is priced at $2,995. The tested configuration, $4,470, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 160Mbyte hard disk, an additional 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, a VGA display subsystem, DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a Microsoft mouse. The Zeos 386-33 ranks among the top three units tested in Floating Point Calculation, 80386 Instruction Mix and Conventional Memory test scores. The hard disk ranks among the top eight machines. Documentation is hardware-specific and also contains a user section. Zeos International offers 24-hour telephone support and a one-year warranty on parts and labor. The keyboard has a five-year warranty. FiveStar 386/33. (Zodiac Technologies) (Hardware Review) (one of 26 evaluations of 33-MHz 80386DX-based microcomputers in '33-MHz Zodiac Technologies' FiveStar 386/33 is nothing special in its performance and price in a highly competitive field. A FiveStar 386/33 with 1Mbyte of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive, a game port, one parallel and two serial ports, a monochrome display subsystem, DOS 4.01 and Lotus Works is priced at $2,995. The tested configuration, $4,495, includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 150Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drives and a Super VGA display subsystem. Users who want to add a second half-height drive are advised to relocate the unusual position of the speaker due to its use of magnets. The FiveStar 386/33 ranks among the top of machines tested in tests of Conventional Memory, Floating-Point Calculation and 80386 Instruction Mix. Zodiac offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor and a toll-free telephone support line. Type M for menuing software. (overview of nine evaluations of menuing software)(includes related articles on Editors' Choice PC Magazine's evaluation of nine menuing software programs focuses on packages that offer menu-security features and, as in most of the programs, maintains and prints usage-audit logs. Most of the evaluated packages run on DOS 2.0 and require no more than 256Kbytes of RAM and one 360Kbyte floppy disk drive. These menuing software packages allow users to build multi-screen menu systems to run DOS commands and files, start programs and move between screens by nesting levels or menu linking. All the packages offer protection of menus with passwords and all provide ways to customize user prompts for menu options. Some packages provide automatic menu-creation functions for standalone machines. Others offer special features that help support staff design menus for multiple users that is useful as a local area network (LAN) management tool. Automenu. (Magee Enterprises Inc.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in 'Type M Magee Enterprises Inc's Automenu 4.7, $69.95, is a flexible, easy-to-use menuing program that requires light programming to get the most out of the software. The program does not offer many of the major features and functions of competing products but is recommended for users who want simplicity. Automenu 4.7 can run either on a stand-alone microcomputer or on network servers or workstations. System requirements include 64Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.0 or later. Automenu takes up 212Kbytes of hard disk space under normal installation. The program offers three user modes to create menus in beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Menu screens are linked and can have a maximum of eight menu choices. There is no limit on the number of linked menu screens. Users can choose color and menu selection prompts and can set up a timed execution of a menu selection. Automenu is available as shareware. Direct Access. (Fifth Generations Systems Inc.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in Fifth Generations Systems Inc's Direct Access 5.0, $99.95, has the most impressive automatic setup features of the evaluated menuing programs and is a recipient of an Editors' Choice award. Direct Access offers an easy default setup and a large number of customization options. The software allows a maximum of 26 menu options per screen. Users can nest menus six levels deep and can have menu selections start any executable file. Direct Access can automatically find, install and organize application programs on the hard disk. The program can also identify up to 1,000 programs by either program category or executable file name. Direct Access runs in the foreground and needs only about 80 bytes to reactivate when users leave an application. Users can customize a logo or other graphics and have the program play the graphics screen at the start of an application. EZ-Menu. (Progressive Computer Services Inc.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in Progressive Computer Services Inc's EZ-Menu 5.0, $59.95, offers more features for the price than any of the other menuing programs evaluated, and it is a recipient of an Editors' Choice award. A single menu can have up to 120 options with up to 26 options displayed at a time. Users can nest an unlimited number of menus. Menu items can consist of DOS batch files or commands, application execution files and submenu direction options. The program also offers timed and reset execution features. Timed execution allows users to set a date and time to execute a particular menu option. Reset execution tracks the current application and function and allows the task to resume automatically if there is an interruption such as a power failure or system reset. Users can customize only the screen colors of the menu screen format. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.1 or later. Keyword Commander II. (Keyword Office Technologies Ltd.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing Keyword Office Technologies Ltd's Keyword Commander II 1.1, $89.95, is especially recommended for users who need to support multiple users. A network server version of Keyword Commander II is priced at $395. The program runs in the foreground and takes up 1.7Kbytes when running applications. Users can create menu options that include any executable file and menus can be nested or linked. Users can also create special floating menus that can be called up at any time. The network version of Keyword Commander II lets users change user menus from the server. The program offers easy local menu modification and useful menu-updating to provide both local and system-wide control. A help-system documentation feature allows users to merge ASCII text files into scrollable help or menu screens. System requirements include 128Kbytes of RAM and DOS 3.0 or later. Lazy Susan Plus. (GetC Software Inc.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in 'Type M GetC Software Inc's Lazy Susan Plus 4.1, $119.95, is an easy-to-use, adequate menuing program, but it lacks automatic menu setup features. Version 4.1 includes the MaxEdit text editor and the MultiMax file management system. The single Lazy Susan program costs $79.95 and an eight-user network version costs $295. Lazy Susan Plus is a character-based program with no mouse support. A single menu can have up to 100 selections with a maximum of 14 displayed at one time. Users can have menus nested to 15 levels. Users can assign passwords to over 1,000 users and passwords can protect individual menu levels and single applications as well as the whole system. Lazy Susan Plus provides an optional usage log that can track a maximum of 9,999 instances of program use. The program also includes a useful macro facility that records keystrokes that can access menus and make selections. PathMinder+. (Westlake Data Corp.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in 'Type M Westlake Data Corp's PathMinder+ 1.00, $149, receives an Editors' Choice award for its many useful extra features that make it worth the price. The product is aimed at users who design menu systems for others. PathMinder+'s most notable feature is its Reconfigurable User Interface, which lets various users have the same menu items but with different user interfaces they can change to their preference. Users set up menu options to run DOS commands, batch files and applications and to access linked or nested menus. The user interface chosen determines the number of menu options per screen. Menus are limited in number only by disk space. The useful usage logging feature keeps a record of all system operations and users can customize usage log reports. The program also has a file viewer, an appointment calendar, cardfile and calculator. System requirements include 512Kbytes of RAM and DOS 2.0 or later. PreCursor. (The Aldridge Company's menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in 'Type M The Aldridge Company's PreCursor 4.0, $96.00, is a useful menuing program aimed particularly at support staff who design menus for groups of microcomputer users. Users can have an unlimited number of nested menus with up to 11 menu options each. Users enter the name of the executable file for a particular menu and PreCursor searches the hard disk for the file. After creating the menu, users can use a cloning feature that searches other users' hard disk drives, find the applications on their systems and set up menus. Menu selections can include DOS commands and batch files as well as applications. Security features allow for encryption of passwords for an unlimited number of users and restriction of access to the menu system, DOS, or specific menu screens or selections. PreCursor also provides an applications interface function with commands and control codes. ProDisk Control. (Harvey Software Inc.'s menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in Harvey Software Inc's ProDisk Control 4.0, $49.95, is a low-cost, easy-to-use menuing program that lacks many features of the other evaluated packages. ProDisk Control is character-based and runs as a RAM-resident terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program that does not take keyboard interrupts. Users can define a maximum of 20 selections per menu screen with unlimited menu nesting. Users can create menu options that include DOS commands or batch files, executable files and commands that load another ProDisk Control menu. Keyboard function keys are used for menu-editing operations. Passwords can control individual menus, the entire menu system and DOS access. Users also can have a master password that overrides other passwords. ProDisk control also provides a usage log tracking feature. Users can print a log file to ASCII format for printing or viewing. ZMenu. (Data Management Consultants' menuing software) (Software Review) (one of nine evaluations of menuing software in 'Type M Data Management Consultants' ZMenu 2.0, $59.00, is not recommended for regular DOS application users since its limitations gear it mainly for use by C language programmers. ZMenu can load executable application files directly only if the system path includes every subdirectory the applications must access. C programmers will want to use ZMenu as a front end for customized applications. The program can pass security levels through to applications, a feature useful to C programmers but not to average DOS application users. ZMenu's ZMENUSYS program lets users edit up to 24 user security codes as well as menu options. Users can display or print a system log file. All users have a code, user name and a security level from 00 to 99. The 00 level offers the most access rights. Documentation is scant and lacks screen displays and an index. Building workgroup solutions: special-function servers. (includes related articles on the Editors' Choice award, print server tasks, Four evaluated special-function servers can also be referred to as Ethernet peripheral-sharing devices. The servers from Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation, HP, Castelle Inc and Microtest Inc attach to a network cable and allow printers to be available to client microcomputers. These products use Novell software and do not need any other hardware. Microtest's LANport and LANport II and Intel's NetPort Print Server have some communications server-capabilities and have printers or modems attached. The products are easy to install and use. Their processors use software contained in read-only memory. Networks with separate print servers can be conveniently arranged to benefit users. Users should be concerned with central processing unit (CPU) power in communications servers since they provide real-time connections. Castelle: LANpress. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of special-function servers in 'Building Workgroup Solutions: Castelle's LANpress, $795 for Ethernet or $1,200 for Token-Ring, is an easy-to-use special-function print server that can connect and configure up to four printers or plotters in one area. The LANpress scores excellent on suitability to task for both installation and operation and flexible connections. LANpress has multiple ports and configuration utilities and more features than the other evaluated print servers. Users can choose between BNC or AUI connections. The LANpress has a Motorola 68332 16-bit central processing unit (CPU) processor with its own RAM. The Ethernet interface allows the device to replace a microcomputer as a print server. The device processes print jobs from queues on multiple NetWare servers and offers an economical price in large installations. LANpress's ports serve multiple queues on a maximum of eight file servers. Hewlett-Packard Co.: HP 33480A LAN connection. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of special-function servers in 'Building HP's 33480A LAN connection, $949 for Ethernet or $995 for Token-Ring, is easy to install but contains one parallel and no serial ports, limiting it to support of only one printer at a time. The Ethernet version is priced high in comparison to the competition. The slightly more expensive Token-Ring version is actually the better buy since NetWare comes with the software to place a remote print server on any microcomputer on the network. The 33480A LAN connection's Ethernet version supports either thick or thin cabling and the Token-Ring version offers the choice of shielded or unshielded twisted-pair wire. The product scores very good on suitability to task for installation and operation and good for flexible connections. Software installation is easy. The product's best feature is the excellent documentation but the simple technology and limited printer support do not justify the high price. Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation: NetPort Print Server, and Microtest Inc.: LANport. (Hardware Review) (one of Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation's (PCEO) NetPort Print Server, $695, is easy to use and allows users to connect up to two printers per device into the local area network (LAN). The NetPort Print Server is based on Microtest Inc's LANport. The LANport varies in price from $495 to $695, depending on the model. The main differences between the two products are that the LANport models have different serial and parallel port configurations and only NetPort has a special erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) that allows for fast software updates. The NetPort Print Server scores good on suitability to task for installation and operation and very good for flexible connections. The LANport score is very good on both flexible connections and installation and operation. Both products help users with an economical way to share printers on a NetWare network. Microtest Inc.: LANport II. (Hardware Review) (one of four evaluations of special-function servers in 'Building Workgroup Microtest Inc's LANport II, $695 for Ethernet or $1,295 for Token-Ring, is a modem server that is easy to install and offers several security features. On suitability to task the LANport II scores very good on modem pooling, good on remote access and adequate on local area network (LAN) application access. The LANport II is recommended for users who do not want to dedicate a fully-equipped microcomputer as a communications server. The product can also act as an access server, allowing remote users to dial into the network and perform various tasks. The LANport II has two external serial ports that allow it to handle two outgoing calls at the same time. The product is limited, however, to one incoming call at a time due to Netware's restriction of one client session per Ethernet address. Security features include password protection, security callback and transactional logging. Learning your way around the keyboard under DOS, part 2. (Lab Notes) (tutorial) Scan codes for the 83-key microcomputer keyboard are generated based on their physical location. Additional scan codes are needed for the added keys on the enhanced 101- and 102-key keyboards. Interrupt 9's BIOS routines read the port and turn its codes into 2-byte sequences that get deposited in the keyboard buffer of both types of keyboards. Programs get keystrokes out of the buffer by requesting information from the BIOS using handling routines associated with interrupt 16. Terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs will be less likely to affect each other and programs such as macros can easily translate requests from applications. Using interrupts lets programs such as TSRs and keyboard enhancers insert their own operations between the call to the interrupt and its handling routine's execution. Other aspects of the keyboard under DOS are discussed in detail. Utilities: PCSPOOL lets you get back to work while you print. (column)(includes related articles on changing PCSPOOL's hotkey, The PCSPOOL terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) utility program allows applications to print into a queue file that allows users to use the microcomputer for other tasks while the printer is printing. PSPOOL allows up to three printers to be controlled simultaneously and lets individual files within the queue to be separated by pauses and form feeds. Users can skip or cancel queued files, observe printer status and can reset the printer mode. Users control basic functions either from the command line or a pop-up window. The spooling process captures data being sent to a printer and places it on disk or in memory. The PCSPOOL utility contains elements of both individual and network-style spoolers. The program is made up of three main sections, including initialization, interrupt handlers and queue handlers. Extensive details are presented on the design and use of PCSPOOL. Environments: showing your colors: GPI functions for implementing color. (column)(Graphics Programming Interface) (tutorial) Users can create a new logical color table using the GpiCreateLogColorTable function to go beyond the standard 16 colors under the OS/2 Graphics Programming Interface (GPI). Users perform the function to use different mapping of color indexes to 24-bit RGB color values in the GpiSetColor function. They can also create an RGB color table that lets them use 24-bit RGB values directly in the GpiSetColor function. Users create the new logical color table for a presentation space by calling GpiCreateLogColorTable. Users should be aware of the GpiErase function when creating a new logical color table since it will erase the background oa window that uses the color corresponding to color index 0. They should use WinFillRect or GpiBox instead to erase the window background. Extensive details are presented on querying and creating the logical color table. NCR posts 24% drop in 4th-period net; cost of fighting AT&T bid hurt results. NCR Corp reports that 4th qtr 1991 net income is down 24 percent, and revenue increases by six percent. The results are slightly worse than analysts predicted, and NCR's stock falls $1.625, closing at $83.375. NCR says a significant part of its disappointing showing is due to the costs of fighting off AT and T's hostile takeover bid. On the quarter, NCR's net income declined to $111 million from $147 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the most recent quarter is $1.90 billion, up from $1.79 billion a year ago. NCR states that all of its revenue growth came from overseas, with US sales declining. The firm expects income to decline in the first have of 1991, but it anticipates the second half will be strong enough to make the entire year profitable. Chip manufacturer to report a loss for its 2nd quarter. (Chips and Technologies Inc.) Chips and Technologies Inc states it expects to post a loss for its 2nd qtr 1991, ended Dec 31, 1990. The loss will be slight according to the company, which attributes the downturn to declining prices for its mature products and volatile short-term demand for its newer products. Analysts had variously predicted a small profit or a slight loss on the quarter. Analysts say Chips and Technologies is undergoing a shift in its product focus, away from chip-sets and towards higher-priced chips that control sophisticated multimedia functions. The slow quarter is the second in a row for the once fast-growing semiconductor firm. Can AT&T keep NCR's clients on-line? (Top of the News: Computers) Coy, Peter. AT&T's hostile takeover of NCR Corp could prove unrewarding if the battle for ownership causes customers to desert NCR. The computer vendor is resisting AT&T's $6.1 billion tender offer, and analysts believe ill will between the companies may limit cooperation once the takeover is completed. Customers are uncertain about post-takeover management of NCR, and although AT&T claims NCR will remain intact, industry observers say the advantage of the merger would be the uniting of computer and communications operations. NCR Chmn Charles Exley, Jr says he will quit unless AT&T increases its offer 40 percent; other executives may leave with him. Customers also can leave NCR for other computer firms more easily because the company is producing systems based on the widely-supported Unix operating system. Computers will see lots of downtime. (1991 will be a slow year for the computer industry) Growth in the computer industry is expected to be slow in 1991 because of the weak domestic economy and a soft European computer market. Worldwide sales are expected to grow by 6.5 percent in 1991 after an increase of 8.4 percent in 1990. Lack of direction may also hinder industry growth because no networking scheme has achieved dominance. Mainframe computer purchases are expected to increase by 10 percent in 1991 because they are critical for large networks, and workstation sales could increase up to 50 percent. Minicomputer sales growth is estimated at a meager 1.8 percent, and microcomputer sales are forecast to drop from 13 percent in 1990 to 8 percent in 1991. Price competition may limit both microcomputer and laptop computer revenues. Software sales should grow 16 percent in 1991 on the strength of Microsoft's Windows 3.0. Computer vendors are expected to lay off as much as 10 percent of their employees. The Valley is still feeling parched; chips are no longer immune to the economy's ups and downs. (Silicon Valley's growth slowdown) The US semiconductor industry may not be as strong in 1991 as analysts had predicted earlier because of Japanese competition and slower computer sales. In Sep 1990, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) predicted a worldwide semiconductor sales increase of 12.5 percent, but industry observers now expect US growth to be in single digits. New orders are slower than factory shipments, reaching a 14-month low in Nov 1990. The semiconductor industry has bucked economic trends in the past, but US firms now lack product diversity and the computer market is more saturated, so the industry tends to follow general economic trends. The market for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors (CMOS) in telecommunications and automobiles may grow 20 percent in 1991, but CMOS production is capital-intensive. Japanese firms dominate the CMOS markets, and US sales to Japan remain low. The wires will cool off a bit. (telecommunications companies will reduce costs rather than expand services in 1991) (High Telecommunications service providers and customers are looking to reduce costs rather than expand services as the US economy slows. Telecommunications should fare better than many other industries, but customers are expected to purchase less equipment and order fewer special services in 1991 than in previous years. Growth is predicted in cost-saving products such as data compression devices and services such as video conferencing. AT&T is aiming for an average year by maintaining its profit-generating 67 percent of the long-distance services market. Competition among AT&T, MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Co is expected to be more targeted, and analysts believe prices are unlikely to drop significantly. Price battles and consolidations continue to be the norm in the telephone equipment segment. Regulation and fixed income should help companies providing local phone service, with revenue growth of 6.3 percent predicted. A Vallee du Silicon - right on the Cote d'Azur. (Letter from Sophia Antipolis)(high technology area in France) France's version of California's Silicon Valley is located in the southern part on the Cote d'Azur. Near the Riviera, with its tourist industry and small medieval villages, an industrial park is growing up at Sophia Antipolis. The French government is working very hard in its efforts to develop a significant high technology industry in this area, encouraging 14,000 employees representing 700 companies to locate there. DEC is placing its research and development center for telecommunications technology in one of the ultra-modern buildings on the 5,680-acre site. Dow Corning, is also there and IBM and Texas Instruments are nearby. This influx of high-tech companies means prosperity but also problems from the very rapid pace of expansion and lagging growth in needed infrastructure and services. Spreadsheet wars: when will Lotus do Windows? (Lotus Development Corp.'s Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software for Microsoft Windows Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software for Microsoft Windows 3.0 is behind schedule, and competition from Microsoft's Excel and Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro is reducing 1-2-3's market share. Not only did some microcomputer users switch to other spreadsheets because of delays in Lotus -2-3 3.0, but, because so many users are migrating to Windows, a Lotus upgrade that runs under the graphical user interface is critical. Microsoft is introducing a new Windows version of Excel in Jan 1991, and Borland is using direct mail and discount prices to market its Quattro Pro package to MS-DOS users. Lotus retains a strong market position, but the competition is eroding 1-2-3's lead, and lower prices or attractive software bundles could cause further problems. Excel may give 1-2-3 even greater competition because it is a key to Microsoft's plan for automatic interaction among software packages. Radio moves; FCC will reallocate spectrum to accommodate leading-edge services. (Federal Communications Commission) The FCC will reallocate a portion of the nation's airwaves as a means of speeding up the commercial availability of innovative radio services, says FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes. The chairman says his agency is to set up a radio frequency spectrum reserve and will relocate some of the present licensees to make room for new services. Some of the services being considered are compact-disc quality digital radio broadcast from satellites to automobiles, world-wide mobile communications via low orbit satellites and personal communications services. Sikes adds that it will be about a year before the public sees any new services. He notes that the FCC would have to come out with a formal rulemaking proceeding when it finishes studying the current usage of the spectrum. IBM readies data engine. Bonafield, Christine. IBM plans an object-oriented database for the Unix-based network management that is also being used by Hewlett Packard Co. IBM's data engine technology is a component of a wide-ranging network and systems management proposal made by HP and IBM to the Open Software Foundation as part of the two companies' Distributed Management Environment proposal. IBM's data engine technology features a Structured Query Language (SQL) interface to access historical data and has a real-time operational interface based on Open View's Common Management Information Services (CMIS) API. IBM's contribution to this interface is the addition of the SQL. The object-oriented features of the data-engine technology enables the distribution of network management capabilities throughout the network. An IBM source notes that the real-time operational features of the data engine enable users to store information in different locations throughout a network. Bell Atlantic picks Bellcore for AIN. (Bell Atlantic Corp) (Advanced Intelligent Network) Bell Atlantic Corp chooses Bell Communications Research Inc (Bellcore) to develop software for its advanced intelligent network (AIN) signal control points. The company hopes to make AIN Release 0 services available by early 1992. Bellcore is the research branch of the seven regional Bell holding companies. Bell Atlantic is to begin test-marketing some AIN Release 0 services either internally or with a customer in the fourth quarter. Bell Atlantic has not made a decision as to which Release 0 services it will offer. One service which is likely to be considered is area-wide centrex. This service allows businesses to extend four-digit dialing to remote offices that are served by a different central office, within a local access transport area (LATA). A prototype of AIN Release 0 software has been tested by Bell Atlantic and Bellcore. Federal ISDN test; GSA will do first FTS 2000 trial. (Federal Telecommunications System) (Integrated Services Digital Network) Three federal agencies participate in the government's first integrated services digital network (ISDN) trial on the FTS 2000 network. The trial by the General Services Administration (GSA) represents the first order for ISDN service under the multimillion-dollar FTS 2000 procurement. The trial involves the addition of the ISDN Primary Rate Interface at GSA consolidated locations which house multiple government facilities. The trial begins on April 1, with the connection of the AT&T Definity System 85 PBX at the Tip O'Neill Building in Boston to the AT&T portion of the FTS 2000. Two Northern Telecom Inc's PBXs, an SL-100 in Kansas City and an SL-1 in Auburn will be connected to US Sprint's portion of FTS 2000. Phase two of the GSA trial includes the installation of software interfaces that allows the Northern Telecom PBXs connect to AT&T's portion of the network and the AT&T PBXs to the US Sprint's portion. NSC plans big rollout; Many routers, FDDI product coming. (Network Systems Corp.; Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Network Systems Corp introduces three families of routers covering more than 30 models ranging from $5,500 to $46,000. The routers include the 6400, 6600 and 6800. The 6400 is a modular LAN/wide-area-network bridge/router that features six slots and a 400M-bps chassis. The 6600 family features a single-board chassis with dual-access FDDI, LAN/WAN interfaces and synchronous ports. The 6800 is for synchronous WAN networks and local area networks. The 6800 features 16 slots and an 8000-megabit-per second chassis. There are numerous FDDI interfaces available for the 6400 and the 6800. The routers support the following protocols: Digital Equipment Corp's DECnet, Apple Computer Inc's AppleTalk Phase II, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, and Novell Inc's IPX and XNS. More 3Com steps. (3Com hands rights to client-server computing to Microsoft Corp) 3Com Corp is turning the rights to LAN Manager, its client-server computing business, over to Microsoft Corp and is reducing its workforce by 12 percent in a move aimed at advancing its efforts as a networking company. Microsoft, which co-developed the network operating environment with 3Com, is to assume the burden of marketing LAN Manager. 3Com never saw success with the LAN Manager during the two years the product was on the market. The reason is that LAN Manager is based on the Operating System/2 and is facing tough competition from Novell Inc's NetWare operating system. An analyst believes that the move by 3Com was a desperate one, because 3Com could not afford to pay the licensing fee of LAN Manager to Microsoft. Microsoft, according to an analyst, finds itself in the precarious situation of forcefully selling LAN Manager directly or finding a computer company to sponsor it. More from Microsoft; Two application packages enhanced. Jackson, Kelly. Microsoft Corp introduces Microsoft Mail 3.0, an electronic messaging software ranging from $395 to $1439 and the $495 Excel Version 3.0, a spreadsheet software which runs with Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical environment and on the OS/2 Presentation Manager. The Microsoft Mail Version 3.0 includes new messaging features which lets Excel spreadsheet users send and receive Excel files through the E-mail software. The software also allows users to attach larger regular data files to E-mail messages. The Microsoft Mail provides multi-hop routing a feature which allows a server to act as a conduit for messages bound to other servers. The Excel Version 3.0 uses Pioneer Software System's Inc's Q + E 3.0 software for Windows 3.0 environments. The Excel includes features such as object linking and embedding, and more font and color support and the ability to shrink or expand worksheets for different views of data. DEC will suffer its first layoffs. Knowles, Ann. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) is dismissing 3,500 of its workers partly due to a poor first quarter performance. The company recorded its first loss in the fourth qtr FY 1990 ended Jun 1990, during which time earnings plunged 93 per cent to $74.4 million. The first qtr of fiscal 1990, which ended Sept 29 saw earnings drop to about 82 percent to $26.2 million, from $150.8 million in the same quarter in FY 1989. DEC introduced a voluntary severance program in 1990, but 2,550 employees signed up although the company had targeted 6,000 of its 123,000 employees. DEC is studying areas to make staff cuts, but analysts believe that the networking and telecommunications business unit will not be affected. An analyst forecasts that DEC must layoff more than the 3,500 workers it has laid off if it is to bring its sales per employee in line with competitors such as IBM. Price-cap moves; FCC says discounts in some areas don';t justify price hikes elsewhere. (Federal Communications Commission) The FCC urges AT&T to stop simultaneously hiking prices elsewhere when discounts are being given in other areas. The FCC says the carrier cannot use promotions and special limited discounts for some services to justify the rate increases of other services. AT&T made a request to the FCC for the approval of $100 million worth of special promotions during 1990. The promotions were mainly aimed at residential customers, accounting for about $70 million of that amount. To comply with the price-cap AT&T must withdraw its pending promotions or reduce other rates to adhere to the price-cap formula. The FCC also placed AT&T's 800 Directory Assistance offering in a special category, because the company monopolizes the service. The FCC claims that placing the service in an existing service category would enable AT&T to hike rates for the 800 Directory Assistance while lowering rates for other 800 services. Sprint says FTS 2000 saved money. (US Sprint Communications Co) (Federal Telecommunications System 2000 network) US Sprint Communications Co's portion of the Federal Telecommunications System 2000 network is saving the government $180 million this fiscal year, the company claims. A company spokesman notes that his company saved the government $158 million in 1990 in comparison with estimates of the amount it would have cost the Federal Government without the service. The company projects savings of $18 million for the Veterans Administration, $12 million for Internal Revenue Service and $2.4 million for the Justice Department. Despite the savings, users complain that some of the services were overpriced and would have been cheaper using regular tariffs from US Sprint or other carriers. US Sprint has since lowered prices on seven FTS 2000 data services. Some packet switching services were cut from 30 percent to 40 percent while dedicated transmission, or private-line service was cut in half. Fast-packet fills the order. Schultz, Beth. United Stationers' telecommunications director, James Kolbe, says his company will stick with fast packet switching because that is the platform of the future. He says his company predicted that circuit switching would give way to fast packet switching. Kolbe, who was speaking during an interview, notes that his company has grown into an immense LAN environment, and getting a connectionless network set up with an increased data flow would prove beneficial. Kolbe says United Stationers has 16 locations, and each of these locations has two token-rings. He adds that the company is bridging all the remote rings into the corporate facility for both mainframe access and local area access to file servers. His company plans, he says, to become a seamless, connectionless environment for LAN workstations. He says at the remote site his company has begun automating its warehousing and other functions. New ways to find data. (X.500 directory services) Haight, Timothy. The X.500, a directory services standard of the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee will allow network services from different vendors, such as file and print services and electronic mail, to be placed in a single name service. The name service is a database that is part of a LAN operating system and features information about services that reside on the LAN server. Novell Inc's NetWare Name Service, according to analysts, will minimize the burdens of NetWare LAN administration. Banyan Systems Inc's Talk name services, is seen by analysts as being more advanced than Novell Inc's NetWare Name Service. The analysts predict that it will take a while before NetWare comes to par with Talk name services. A Novell source claims that his company is preparing a directory service which incorporates most of the X.500 features. Doing business by EDI. (Electronic data interchange) Jackson, Kelly. Electronic data interchange (EDI) takes 20 percent of the time it takes for a business to manually key in orders, and has a 98 percent rate of accuracy. Precise International, the exclusive US importer of Swiss army knives and pedometers, and K Mart Corp use EDI to reduce time in ordering and delivering supplies. Business partners such as K Mart and Precise International exchange electronic documents on an individual basis over a leased line rather than a network. Sources at both companies claim that EDI has increased efficiency and slashed postage costs. The transaction begins with Precise International technicians dialling up K Mart's IBM 3090 mainframe with the use of a modem and a Sterling Software Translator 36 EDI package running on their IBM System/36 minicomputer. The EDI analyst for K Mart claims that 100 of the company's vendors use the interchange to get K Mart purchase orders. Networking for Desert Shield; The marines are communicating over LANS. The US Marine Corps is communicating over data networks to relay information needed for Operation Desert Shield. The Marines are using LANs for electronic mail and file transfer between network servers and microcomputers and distributed databases, spreadsheets and word processing. The marines have 20 secure LAN Ethernets in the Saudi desert based on 3Com Corp's network interface cards. The LANs serve over 200 microcomputers, 50 E-mail addresses and hundreds of people. A source at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia notes that the LANs are intrinsic to the Marines' war preparation. Each of the Marines' major command sites has LANs that are interconnected using satellite, dial-up phone lines and high frequency tactical radio. The transmission speed for the wide area network vary from 2.4 K-bits per second up to 19.2Kbps. Global competition pushes the development of FDDI. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Global competition is an important factor behind the growing need for Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) standard for high-speed networks. Manufacturers can have their products developed and marketed before the competition, through the use of high-speed networks and sophisticated applications. Over 90 percent of the vendors that sell FDDI products are based in the United States, and the standard has more public exposure in the US than Europe or Japan, due to the high concentration of computer networks. FDDI is being used as the metropolitan area network by the telephone companies of Italy, France and Finland. Chicago-based Centel Corp and US West Inc, Denver are the only American companies that are supporting the technology unlike Europe, where telephone companies are offering FDDI. FTS 2000 group drafts charter; Gov't users of AT&T now have forum. (Federal Telecommunications System 2000) Federal agencies using the AT&T portion of the Federal Telecommunications System 2000 (FTS) now have a forum for opening up dialogue among users, the General Services Administration (GSA) and AT&T. The user forum will be managed by a board of representatives from user agencies, AT&T and the GSA and will give agencies a chance to voice FTS 2000 problems. An AT&T source notes that the idea behind the user group is to open up a line of communications between GSA and AT&T, as a means of solving common problems. The agencies involved will manage, design and run the forum while AT&T will facilitate it. The group's first meeting will discuss complaints of flaws in AT&T's billing for services provided under the FTS 2000. Agencies complain that the bills received in 1990 do not provide cost information or details. Casting nets across the Ocean; U.S. users find global expansion a complex task. (Includes related article on installing muxes US users are finding global expansion of private networks a complex task due to the various regulations in foreign countries. Each country in Europe has its own regulation with regards to circuits and equipment that service providers, equipment makers and users adhere by. The user must be sure the equipment for deployment has been approved in the appropriate country. The US 1.544M-bps T1 rate is equivalent to the European 2.048M-bps E1 rate and it is necessary that the equipment be modified. The equipment must also meet the country's specific configuration and operational guide. Germany has strict rules regarding equipment and services guidelines. In Germany, domestic circuits cannot be linked directly to international circuits. An analyst notes that Tandem Computers Inc gets around this restriction by bringing domestic circuits into its computers, and then run international circuits. With progress, vulnerability; Anniversary of AT&T 'nightmare' reminds users of the need for network redundancy. The disruption to AT&T's network a year ago, and the high level of vulnerability of the networks software and hardware emphasize the need for users to parcel their network traffic among multiple carriers. The AT&T disruption occurred when defective Signaling System 7 software slowed traffic dramatically nationwide. The disruption lasted for nine hours at which time barely half of the 148 million calls were completed. A temporary software patch was applied until the line could be repaired. This incident and the fiber cut of two weeks ago, emphasize the need for use of redundant facilities from multiple carriers and the need to know alternate carrier access code. An analyst notes his disappointment that carriers have not devised a response strategy in the event of future outages. US Sprint notes the unlikelihood of a carrier agreeing to switch traffic to a competitor's network. Public network works toward redundancy. Bushaus, Dawn. The Bell companies and the major telcos were not affected by the network outages of a year ago, but the outages serve as an indication of the vulnerability of the public network. The outage, the 1988 Hinsdale Ill, central office fire, the Chicago cable cuts which left thousands of businesses without service and the AT&T cable cut in New Jersey have brought demands from users for more reliable service. The Bell companies are re-evaluating the Signalling System 7 software generic requirements that telco vendors use as guidelines for product building. The Bell companies and other independent companies have plans to install self-healing fiber optic rings around the major metropolitan areas they serve. In the event a cable is severed when a self-healing ring is in place, the traffic is re-routed in the opposite direction. The evolution of SMDS. (Switched multimegabit data service) Bushaus, Dawn. Regional Bell Holding companies hope to establish themselves in the data service market with the sale of tariffed switched multimegabit data service at competitive prices. The Philadelphia-based Bell Atlantic Corp is to offer SMDS upon users request. SMDS was developed by Bell Communications Research Inc for the seven regional Bells. SMDS is a switched service based on the institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.6 standard for metropolitan area networks. SMDS uses cell-relay technology which allows users who require large amounts of bandwidth transmit data and images at between the T1 speed of 1.544 M-bps. To offer SMDS, a telephone company must place one of the stand-alone SMDS switches in the central office, a Bellcore source notes. The switches operate at the T1 and DS-3 access speeds. US Information services gain in world market. Killette, Kathleen. US providers of electronic information services and computer network services are gaining financially from foreign telecommunications users, according to a Commerce Department report. Thirty percent of the revenue brought in by the US electronic information industry and 20 percent of the revenue collected by US providers of data processing and computer network services can be attributed to foreign customers. US vendors, the report states, are making strategic moves by setting up foreign subsidiaries and forming partnerships with foreign companies. The report notes that the US information services will in the next five years be highlighted by independent service providers, more start-ups, more foreign subsidiaries and more exporters. The report adds that US companies will find it easier to continue using overseas, the electronic information and computing services they rely on for domestic operations. Value-added nets going global; More VANs starting to offer international data service. Value-added network operators offer international data service for the first time. The building of an international network is being offered as an option promoted by a number of value-added network operators who own and operate international packet switching networks. This option is appealing to a growing number of users. Analysts predict that the market for vendor-managed international data networks will surge between 20 percent and 25 percent yearly. Global Network Services manager at BT Tymnet Inc's, Martin Benson adds that for this growth to be sustained requires users buying into the vendor-managed network concept. Services that fall under managed-network-services are network management, maintenance and design and implementation. VAN providers such as BT Tymnet, Infonet, GEIS and Sprint International have nodes installed in foreign countries and have contacts with regulators in those countries. Moving over; Communications managers who are looking for a job might want to try some companies they already do business Communications managers job searching might want to try some companies they already do business with-vendors. The present economic stagnation is tightening budgets and slowing down career advancement, but with the present situation a telecommunications manager could move from a job with a user to a job with a vendor. Corporate recruiters note that vendors are actively looking for managers at companies specializing in technology areas such as bridges and routers, local area networks and in X.25 implementation or frame relay. Companies building network management products and network analysis tools are also hiring. Some vendors recruit from the user community because they believe former users make good in-house consultants. Former users tend to impart insight as to what users will look for in a product or service. Life is different over there; Working for a vendor requires some adjustments. Adjustments are requisite for a communications manager who works for a vendor. One major adjustment is that the communications manager will have to take on more responsibility for the company's financial performance. That is always not an easy responsibility to take on. The difference in the operations of a vendor and a communications manager is that vendors emphasize technical aspects that focus on their product line, while communications department, especially large ones, tend to stay abreast of a broad spectrum of technology. Communications managers are used to being visible and having a certain identity. In a vendor company a manager becomes a part of the corporate mainstream. The salary of a communications manager may range from $60,000 to $80,000 annually, while the base salary of a salesperson at a vendor company may be lower. How to make your resume look good. Semilof, Margie. A communications manager must make himself an attractive job candidate to a vendor by having a resume which focuses on specifics such as job experience and accomplishments. Often times the right information which makes a candidate attractive to a vendor is buried in a resume. A manager of staffing at Northern Telecom notes that an effective resume gets to the point and points out the candidate's qualifications and how they can become a part of the business. The effective resume lacks long rambling sentences, and dense paragraphs of type. Avoid obscure acronyms, abbreviations and sets of initials. The resume must be proof read and be devoid of spelling or grammatical mistakes. The resume should focus on a specific job. A candidate applying to become account executive for a client that uses a lot of local area network, should indicate his experience with LANs. Chief of Bytex quits; Consultant named to interim position. Chester Jr., John S. The Scottsborough, MA-based Bytex Corp's Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Goodman, resigns his post, forcing the company to name an interim leader while the board finds a permanent replacement. Arthur Carr has been named the company's acting president and chief executive. Carr is also vying for the permanent position. A statement from Bytex states that Goodman resigned his position to become president and chief executive of a company affiliated with a major client of Bytex. Bytex is famous for its fault-tolerant electronic matrix switching systems for wide area networks. An analyst notes that while he is surprised at Goodman's resignation, Carr's experience in communications and computing will be an asset to Bytex. He notes that the change comes at a time when Bytex is entering the LAN market. Carr served as president of Codex Corp from 1970 to 1982 and president of Stellar Computer from 1986 to 1989. BellSouth to buy vendor; Will boost cellular, paging markets. Chester, John S. Jr. BellSouth Corp plans the estimated $180 million acquisition of Graphic Scanning Corp. The deal expected to be clinched in the middle of 1991, puts BellSouth in third place in the United States, and will increase its subscriber base to one million in the United States and 1.25 million globally. Graphic Scanning with 330,00 paging subscribers in the United States, began fiscal 1991 with net income of 1.6 million on revenue of 26.5 million in the 1st quarter which ended Sept 30. The company incurred an operating loss of 3.7 million but a $5.3 million tax benefit helped put it in the black. Graphic Scanning incurred a net loss of $5.3 million on revenue of $21.55 million in the year-earlier qtr. An analyst claims that a share of Graphics Scanning Corp's stock is worth $12 to $14, but if the purchase price proves to be $180 million, BellSouth will pay $5.50 a share. Germany unveils Telecom plan; Opportunities beckon for US companies. The newly united Germany will be a beacon of opportunity for carriers and equipment manufacturers in the United States as communications infrastructure in the east is brought to par with that of the west. The Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (DBP) plans to increase spending on eastern Germany to 4.9 billion from the originally planned 3.4 billion for the installation of analog switches and above-ground copper lines. The company hopes to spend $41.5 billion in the project during the next seven years. DBP Telekom is offering contracts valued at $1.2 billion each, for the construction of an entire network, including switching, cable and power lines and transmission equipment in each of Germany's five new states. This scheme introduces 100,000 telephone connections by mid 1990 and about 130,000 more by the end of 1990 in addition to the original 400,000 planned. Novell making moves in Japan; Ready to deliver the beta-test version of a network operating system developed with Japanese Novell Inc develops a Japanese native-language, local area network operating system compatible with computers made in Japan. The company is ready to deliver beta-test version NetWare 3.1J, the operating systems developed with Japanese partners. Novell's open NetWare 386 architecture has been translated into Japanese characters and runs on Japanese microcomputers built by Fujitsu Ltd, Canon Electronics, Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp. These companies hold equity position in Novell K. K., a joint venture Japanese company in which Novell has majority interest. All utilities and menus used by the NetWare 3.1J have been translated into Japanese, as have the documentation and technical manuals. The network operating system runs on the Toshiba J series, the NEC PC 98 series, the Fujitsu FMR series and microcomputers on the AX operating system from Canon and Sony. AT&T cut was lesson learned; Carrier improving net to lessen impact of future cable breaks. An AT&T employee pulling out old cable lines mistakenly cut a fiber optic cable carrying 1.7 G-bits of communications traffic. That mistake created a crisis, calls were cut off in mid-sentence, and thousands of customers calling in or out of the city could not get through. The cut knocked out over 100,000 telephone circuits and effectively blocked 60 percent of AT&T telephone traffic in New York. The cut cable was one of AT&T's four traffic routes between Newark and New York. One of the changes that AT&T is implementing, is the introduction of a Real Time Network Routing. The network enables AT&T to route a call to more than 100, from the current 21. This capability goes into effect by the third quarter. AT&T is to also add a service called Fast Automatic Restoration, which maximizes the resiliency of the company's network. Why is it so hard to make a network safe? Killette, Kathleen. The AT&T network disruption which plunged New York City into communications chaos, exemplifies the problems of economics and human error. The installation of more fiber would have distributed network volume and made it difficult for the loss of one fiber to plunge the entire city into a communications turmoil. Providing more fiber is more expensive, and so is the software and hardware that detects fault and reconfiguration. The FCC price caps, according to critics, contributed to the disruption because AT&T has to keep more profits in exchange for capping its rates. This according to critics, encourages AT&T to cut spending on maintenance and network improvements. The FCC disagrees and notes that the outage was caused by AT&T's efforts to to improve its network. An FCC spokesman claims that AT&T is planning to upgrade its software to reroute traffic faster in the event of future outages. Price cap encourages network investment, he adds. DRAM crunch hits spot market. (Dynamic Random Access Memory) Thryft, Ann R. Lead times and prices for 1-Mbit DRAM chips have begun to rise after dropping steadily for a year. Spot market and short-term contract buyers have been the most affected. Increases, mostly on the spot market, have been between five and 15 percent since Oct 1990. Spot and short-term contract lead times have ranged from a low of four weeks to a high of 20 weeks. The most variations in price have been among the smaller buyers, according to industry analysts, who do not expect contract prices to equal spot prices until Jun to Jul 1991. The problem began when Japanese vendors shifted to building 4-Mbit DRAM chips and was made worse by exceptionally low inventories and increasing fair market value prices. Japanese vendors, however, say they continue to produce the less-powerful chips. U.S. productivity efforts lethargic. (in electronics industry) Mendelsohn, Alex. US electronics companies who want to compete in the worldwide marketplace need to rely less on technological advantages and more on efficient manufacturing and service of their products, according to two new studies on productivity by the American Electronics Association and Coopers and Lybrand. Most of the surveyed companies recognized this transition but few have taken steps to enhance productivity and shorten development cycles to facilitate global competition. Both studies discovered that US companies know that service, quality and delivery will be the basis for worldwide competition in the 1990s. More companies are bringing manufacturing and engineering closer together. Half of all companies surveyed have a close design-for-manufacturability relationship. Vendors realize that they have the most control over a product's cost and manufacturability in the design phase. Steps for building a winning team. (Time-to-Market team) Thryft, Ann R. How does a product manager build an effective Time-to-Market team for a company adopting concurrent engineering? What steps need to be taken to ensure the team's success? Experts in concurrent engineering have studied a number of teams, both successful and less-than-successful, and determined what works. Developmental Dimensions International sr. vp Richard S. Wellins and DRM Associates pres Kenneth Crow have found that successful teams have fewer management levels, are empowered downward and are often cross-trained. Wellins has delineated five major areas for managers to focus on to make self-directed teams work. Managers have to determine what kind of skills are necessary, select team-oriented people, emphasize training, handle the leadership role's transition and redefine compensation and rewards. Crow and Wellins both feel that team players have to be taught skills that contribute to working together, like trouble-shooting and problem-solving. 040 production up to speed. (Motorola now on target with domestic production of 68040 chip) Motorola reports it has now reached production parity with the domestic demand for its 68040 microprocessor, some two months ahead of its own predictions. International deliveries are expected to be on schedule by early Jan 1991. The chip, which was announced in Mar 1989, did not begin to ship in quantities until Nov 1990, due to flaws in the product. The delay and the recent ramp-up in production have had a ripple effect that was felt particularly strongly at Next Computer, which has based its entire second generation of product on the chip, and at Hewlett-Packard, where the Series 400 workstation had to be shipped to customers with a 68030 chip in place and the promise of a $2,000 upgrade to the 68040 when it became available. U.S. must support R&D despite defense cuts, says CEO. (Peter Cannon, CEO of Conductus) Peter Cannon, former vice-president and chief scientist at Rockwell International and now CEO of superconductor firm Conductus, says the government must continue to fund research and development efforts despite cuts in the defense budget that have accompanied the thawing of the Cold War. Cannon points to the Persian Gulf War as proof that improved relations with the Soviet Union have not ended the need for intensive research to ensure that the electronics industry stays technologically ready for any future conflict. Cannon suggests creating a national technical reserve to support such research, and adds that not only is continued R&D vital to national security, it is also central to maintaining global competitiveness. Suppliers roll out hard metric FB+ backplanes. (Futurebus+) Cook, Brian. Backplane manufacturers are preparing to unveil the first products built to meet the new Futurebus+ specification as VITA committees put the finishing touches on it. Bicc-Vero and Mupac plan to unveil their new products at Buscon/91-West in Santa Clara, CA as other firms are working hard on similar development efforts. Bicc-Vero officials anticipate a great deal of interest from potential customers during the 1st qtr of 1991 which should lead to research and development purchases during the 2nd qtr. Backplane offerings from Mupac are creating significant interest as well. Customers of both companies are evaluating sample products. Bicc-Vero plans to unveil a 12U Futurebus+ card frame that is equal to a 25-mm frame and conforms to IEEE-P1301.1. Mupac will introduce its backplane, subracks, powered enclosures and wirewrap prototype boards which conform to Futurebus+. Connector prices climb despite shrinking demand. Thryft, Ann R. Industry analysts predict a softening in the market for connectors during 1991. Despite this, connector makers, pointing to increased competition, higher labor costs, greater raw materials expense, and increased capital equipment costs, have raised prices for the first time in more than five years. Price increases, which have ranged from two to 10 percent, have been occurring since November of 1990, and are expected to continue through 1991. But one industry analyst warns that connector makers may be in for serious financial trouble if they continue to increase despite weakening demand, and he questions whether the increases will hold in that case. Other industry observers noted that the price of some materials used in connectors has risen as much as 40 percent. Consultants revamp manufacturing firm. (Norand of Cedar Rapids, IA) Norand, a manufacturer of hand-held computer products, decided to change from a manually oriented design and manufacturing process to an up-to-date automated process, then brought in electronic design automation (EDA) experts from Mentor Consulting Services, a division of Mentor Graphics, to accomplish the task of reducing time-to-market by 50 percent. The company, at that time, was using manual systems characterized by data input redundancy and prototyping of designs often three or more times. The company's single computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) tool was used to only approximately 10 percent of its potential. Norand manager of manufacturing Mike Abel was in charge of the project. A pilot project was based on the redesign of an existing product. Apollo workstations with Mentor design software were installed. Consultants provided training on the concurrent approach. The company is now committed to a six-year EDA plan. All PC board design bureaus are not created equal. (printed circuit) Product design managers who need to use the services of an outside printed circuit board designer or builder must ask many questions, which must be focused in six areas: communications, technical issues, personnel, price, delivery and track record. Managers must determine the type of equipment and processes utilized. Hardware and software must be compatible with in-house systems to facilitate changes. Expedition of the project and minimization of the number of design cycles is critical. Communications are important. Managers must determine just how the supplier plans to keep them updated. Delivery is another important consideration. References from the bureau's past and current clients should also be obtained and the qualifications of engineers assigned to the project determined. Price should be in line with competitive bureaus. Quotations should be provided within 24 hours. Vendors must ask the right questions and technical personnel should be available to discuss a potential project. Design for test pays cost, time dividends. Turino, Jon. Design for testability (DFT), although it has been an important consideration for many years, is still not fully understood. Engineers utilizing the DFT approach a few years ago usually paid penalties in product performance and board-level or silicon real estate. This is not the case anymore. All approaches to DFT try to achieve the same three testability axioms: control, partitioning and visibility. Including these attributes in up-front designs definitely cuts verification time, manufacturing and field service test time and troubleshooting time and cost. DFT concepts are simple. Faults are activated with the application of stimulus patterns to inputs to alter the internal logic state. Board makers face CFC tax. (will be taxed for using chlorofluorocarbons in manufacture) Makers of printed circuit boards will now be subject to a new environmental tax on the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the manufacturing process. The tax, which is in support of the 1987 Montreal Protocol that calls for the elimination of CFCs in the atmosphere by the year 2000, could double the manufacturers costs in some cases, and affects not only the board makers but design houses that contract manufacture overseas to firms using the chemicals. The advantage the tax provides to environmentally conscious vendors is designed to help them compete with offshore firms that do not comply, but some industry insiders are critical of the tax. Other vendors believe the tax will encourage overseas manufacturers to use less CFCs, and one even predicts that by mid 1991 an organic acid flux will be introduced that will eliminate the need for CFCs in the board making process. VXI meets expectations as a viable test alternative. (VXIbus standard) The VXIbus standard has offered Time-to-Market teams lower instrumentation-based test systems costs and reduced testing time since its inception, as well as promising higher performance, better timing and synchronization between instruments, lower costs and smaller systems. The standard has on the whole delivered on its promises. The test industry has adopted the standard enthusiastically. It provides a viable solution to production test problems. Vendors and users may forget that VXI is still a relatively new technology, adopted in 1987. Many entry level users have unrealistic expectations and a number of misconceptions still abound. VXI does not meet the needs of most customers, according to industry officials, who say that the standard offers about 90 percent of what a user needs. Start-up meets challenge of new concept, small staff: an inside look at Torque Computer's Time-to-Market team. (company profile) New York-based Torque Computer was founded in 1988 by three ambitious entrepreneurs who had been working as designer for a consulting firm. Their decision to build a computational server for desktop computer systems with the power of a supercomputer meant they had to first form the company and teach themselves about purchasing, test and manufacturing. All that the ComputeServer would do had to be defined as it was a new concept. The team originally planned to base the new product on the Inmos T800 transputer but changed to the Intel 860 microprocessor. The processor had to be quite powerful in order to bring supercomputing power to a computational server that would have many applications. The T800 proved nonviable as it was difficult to debug and the performance was mediocre. The design team had many challenges to meet, being a start-up in a new market. Staffing the project and assigning tasks were just two. Concurrent engineering lures designers over the wall: designers must work side by side with their counterparts in manufacturing, Electronics vendors are working hard to develop more complex products at a lower cost and higher quality in a shrinking time-to-market window. Sequential engineering methods do not offer the required flexibility. Manufacturers, in order to remain competitive, will have to rethink product development methods. A popular new method is commonly referred to as concurrent engineering. The concept does not mandate simultaneous performance of all functions but does force developers to consider the implications of the design on all disciplines early in the design cycle. Implementation of concurrent engineering in a typical organization forces all team members to create a new insight into the development process. The highest impact is on the design team. Designers must become familiar with the growing array of parts and technologies available. Support of company-wide reorganization of the product development process is also necessary. Rating a supplier's approach to quality. (includes related article listing questions to ask potential suppliers) Developing a long-term partnership with a supplier requires close assessment of suppliers' technical capabilities along with the process controls and quality programs. Companies should ensure that their suppliers have a Total Quality Management (TQM) program or are planning to start one. IBM, Texas Instruments, Intel and others have such programs that yield more than product reliability. Customers can be assured that once strict statistical process control and other such qualitative methods are instituted their needs will be met. A vendor's quality efforts can be determined by finding out whether the company has competed for the Malcolm Baldridge Award. Process capabilities can be assessed be sending teams of engineers and purchasing agents for site visits and evaluations. Reliability data should also be provided. Suppliers must also be flexible and able to handle speedy delivery and last-minute cancellations. Electronic Data Interchange is also an advantage. Arrow specializes distributor groups. (Arrow Electronics) Thryft, Ann R. The sales and marketing organization of Arrow Electronics has been divided into specialized groups in order to serve its three major distribution operations. The goal of the company is improvement of sales and service. Increases in 3rd qtr sales show that the plan is working. Arrow/Kierulff Electronics Group has undergone the most dramatic changes and is now serving OEM customers exclusively. An all-encompassing approach does not seem to work in current markets. OEMs and resellers, according to company officials, have different requirements. Arrow's Commercial Systems Group now handles value-added reseller (VAR) sales. Arrow's Capstone Electronics Group distributes semiconductors and industrial computer products and passive, electromechanical and connector products. The specialized approach is more cost-effective, allowing sales people to give better technical assistance or set up a demo quickly. 3 1/2-in. hard drives offer best bet in price performance. (Winchester disk drives) The 3.5-inch Winchester hard disk drives boast faster access speeds than the 5.25-inch drives and consume only half the footprint and one-third the power of the larger drives. The smaller drives offer many advantages to OEMs designing desktop microcomputer systems. Vendors have begun shipping drives with capacities of 300 to 400 Mbytes directly competing with the popular 5.25-inch drives. The smaller drives should find their niche in workstations, file servers and high-end microcomputer applications where price per Mbytes and performance are more important than size. Vendors are looking ahead to the next generation of 2.5-inch drives, which will be used in notebook computers, facsimile machines, color copiers, printer servers and scanners. Several vendors offer 3.5-inch 400 Mbyte drives. Rodime markets a 540 Mbyte drive and Maxtor sells a 535 Mbyte drive. EE salaries a step ahead in the race with inflation. (electronic engineer) (1990 Computer Design salary and benefits survey) Electronics engineers, in this recessionary economy, are finding that their salaries are more than keeping up with inflation. The average engineer, responding to a recent survey, received a base pay increase of 7.1 percent, more than the 6.3 percent inflation rate for the period from Oct 1989 to Oct 1990. Employer type seemed to be a good predictor of percentage of pay raise. The self-employed saw increases averaging 20.6 percent. Private industry engineers averaged 8.1 percent and government workers 6.3 percent. Administration of raises caused some concern. Researchers at the University of California were disgruntled that increases awarded at the beginning of the fiscal year were being delayed until the middle or end of the fiscal because of budgetary difficulties. Accrual of benefits, such as vacation days, was one good reason for staying with an employer. Benefits are, however, targeted by employers seeking to cut costs. Seattle sparkles with opportunity for high-tech job prospectors. (Washington state) Designers with VLSI experience, software engineers with Window experience or electrical engineers with applications specific integrated circuit (ASIC) expertise should have no problem finding a job in the Seattle, WA area. Engineers and computer professionals will find, according to estimates, between 800 and 1,000 job openings in the area during 1991. Seattle does not have a surplus of electrical engineers. Data I/O reports a steady need for design and software engineers. Microsoft, where Windows sales fuel expansion into the development of other software applications, has even brighter job prospects. Boeing employs thousands of electrical and electronic engineers and is actively recruiting more. Applied Microsystems, though it is not recruiting outside the area, is hiring local experienced workers. The key word for Seattle high-tech firms is experience. Job hunting in the '90s: feast or famine for EEs? Oliver, Ellen. Engineers seeking employment in the next century will discover either a job market like the one in the 1990s or an industry desperate to recruit engineers and willing to offer handsome salaries and incentives. Industry observers feel the first scenario is more plausible. Organizations like IEEE and the American Association of Engineering Societies are faulting the prediction of the National Science Foundation that there would be a huge shortfall of graduates trained in science and engineering by the year 2000. Both groups criticize the research methodology and statistics as well as the manner in which the results are relayed to the public. IEEE officials say that the numbers mean very little. The IEEE is fearful of an influx of foreign competitors for US engineering jobs and academic positions. Apple share up 2%; guns turned on clones. Quick, Gregory; Markowitz, Elliot. Sales of the Macintosh Classic microcomputer helped boost Apple Computer Inc's market share by 2 percent in the 4th qtr of 1990, despite a shortage of the machines. Apple's inability to produce enough Mac Classics to meet the demand increased sales of DOS equipment. The Mac Classic is the hottest-selling machine in Apple's history; more units were sold in its first quarter than any other Mac in a full year. It may have even outsold the Apple II in its best year. Over 50 percent of the buyers were first-time Macintosh buyers. Apple claims the shortage will be over by Mar 1991, but some resellers say a steady supply is nowhere in sight. IBM rebate controversy; Would PS/2 price cuts help? Hedlund, Kristen. Some authorized IBM dealers are upset over the vendor's failure to follow 4th qtr 1990 rebates with PS/2 price cuts. They believe the Partnership Plus promotion produced lower street prices, and some say they were led to believe price reductions would follow the incentives. Some dealers say that IBM implied the promotion was a pricing action in disguise, so they passed rebates on to the customer expecting price reductions to follow the end of the program. Others, who did not pass the rebates on to the customers, lost business because of it. The Partnership Plus program resurrected the question of whether vendor programs can be used to help dealers' profitability or will always be passed to the street to gain market share. IBM marketing changes in full swing: vendor's printer group close to final sale; key strategy is to still sell through dealers. IBM's Lexmark International Inc will rely on existing resellers to market laser printers, typewriters and keyboard equipment instead of creating a direct-sales force. The company is in the final stages of a leveraged buyout. Some high-level IBM executives will move over to Lexmark. The company has annual sales of nearly $1.8 billion. Lautenbach, others shuffled in move to boost critical Applications Solutions line: IBM marketing changes in full swing. (IBM VP Ned A series of IBM executive changes are designed to bring new strength to its Application Solutions line. M. Bernard Puckett is the new general manager of the division, succeeding Ned Lautenbach, who is now the senior managing director of operations for IBM's Asia Pacific operations. Dan Lautenbach, Ned's brother, was promoted to general manager of the company's Illinois operation. Nichola Donofrio replaced Puckett as president of the Data Systems Division. Gates takes aim at Lotus, Borland; stakes are raised in spreadsheet wars. (Microsoft Corp. Chmn Bill Gates) (product Microsoft Corp introduced the Excel 3.0 spreadsheet as Chmn Bill Gates chided Lotus Development Corp for its failure to produce Windows and Macintosh applications. Lotus is considering retaliating with a lawsuit concerning Excel's similarities to Lotus 1-2-3. The competition in the spreadsheet market will be strong in 1991 with Borland, Lotus and Microsoft battling for market share. Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows is not expected until June or July. Selling software electronically; developer jumps on bandwagon. (The Software Developer's Co. Inc.) (company profile) Software developers and resellers are finding electronic distribution of software and services to be an efficient method of marketing their products. The Software Developer's Company Inc is selling a turnkey solution through a system that lets the user evaluate, order and electronically receive software and documentation through their computer. The company is discontinuing its box-shipping approach and focusing on electronic distribution through its new Software Now division. Success could mean a fundamental change in the way software is sold. Businessland shakeup persists, two top-level executives leave. Hubbard, Holly. Businessland Inc's stock is at a record $1 low following its restructuring and the resignation of several key executives. CFO Leo Korman and former VP of the advanced systems group Kevin Compton resigned, just weeks before the release of the company's 2nd qtr FY 1991 figures. Responsibility for the company's new directions lie with COO Ed Simon Jr. The company has reportedly lost many of its sales representatives to nationwide competitors. Preparing for war: PC market to see higher shipping costs. Gillooly, Brian; Grace, Tim. The microcomputer industry could see declining sales and higher shipping costs if the Persian Gulf crisis escalates into war. Economists are predicting huge increases in the price of oil in the event of a war, leading to increased shipping expenses and a general decline in the economy resulting in fewer sales. Value-added resellers report continued strong business, particularly near military installations. Distributors and mail-order companies will be the first to see the effects of higher shipping costs. CD-ROM to catch Unix fever; Uniforum: politics take backseat. (product announcement) The Jan 1991 UniForum trade show expects many announcements of software distribution schemes on CD-ROM media, SPARC clones, X terminals, applications and development tools. The open systems politics that usually dominate UNIX trade shows are expected to take a back seat. Highland Software will launch its Software Store, a 600Mbyte CD-ROM disk with 25 to 30 applications. Unify Corp will introduce its Accell object-oriented relational database development system. The Santa Cruz Operation will produce a new point release of its Open Desktop graphical operation and development environment. IXI Ltd will demonstrate an upgrade of its X.desktop desktop manager. Applix Inc will show its Asterix set of productivity tools. Apple Computer Inc will operate a porting center to offer A/UX development expertise. DEC abandons no lay-off policy, lets go 3,500. Hwang, Diana. Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) is abandoning its 33-year no-lay-off policy and plans to trim 2.8 percent of its work force. A failed voluntary severance program and slumping economy prompted the move. The cuts will involve 3,500 employees. DEC's target is to cut 6,000 jobs worldwide. About 2,550 employees accepted the voluntary severance program. DEC currently has 123,500 employees worldwide. The cuts were announced one week before the company's report of 2nd qtr earnings for the period ending Dec 31, 1990. 3Com cuts work force by 12%; to sell off division. Hwang, Diana. 3Com laid off 12 percent of its work force and plans to sell its workgroup connectivity business in an attempt to sharpen product focus and reduce costs. The company is returning development of LAN Manager to its longtime partner Microsoft Corp; 3Com resellers will now be authorized as Microsoft Network Specialists. 3Com will take a $45 million charge against its net income for the restructuring. The company plans to focus on global data networking products and emphasize its network adapters and enterprise networking systems business. MicroAge signs pact to offer medical software. MicroAge Computer Centers Inc signed an exclusive distribution agreement to resell Spectrum Healthcare Solutions' software package for physicians. Doctor's Office Manager/2 has been used by over 6,500 physicians. MicroAge franchisees are divided over the impact of the agreement: some do not want to deal with doctors and lawyers. A lack of standardization between the doctors and insurance agencies has impeded the growth of the market. The software streamlines such tasks as appointment scheduling, accounts receivable, patient registration, billing, insurance filing, correspondence, medical records and reporting. Where ambition fails. (microcomputer buying plans for 1991) (For the Record) (column) Products based on Intel's 80486 microprocessor will not be in the mainstream of sales in 1991, according to a recent Computer Intelligence survey. The user community is reluctant to step up to the higher end microprocessors and sees little need for the 486 machines. A study produced results similar to last year's predictions: 286 machines will continue to sell, but 386 machines will be the top sellers by the end of 1991. Only 0.1 percent of the Fortune 1000 and non-Fortune businesses plan purchases of 486 machines in 1991. DOS is far from extinction. TI adds 68040-based machine to multiuser line. (Texas Instruments Model 1507 single-processor multiuser computer) (product Texas Instruments is adding the Model 1507 68040-based machine to its multiuser microcomputer line. The 25-MHz machine handles up to 64 active users and is binary compatible with the complete line of 1500 Series computers. The new system responds to customer requests for a compact-chassis unit that can upgraded to handle around 60 users. TI plans a multiprocessor version of the computer. The Model 1507 will ship in Feb 1991; prices begin at $18,000. The company divided its reseller-support program into five manageable 'cells'. Each cell provides support focuses on its arena, and VARs can more easily determine which programs are best for their business. Lotus debuts 1-2-3, Ami promotions. (Ami Professional Windows) (product announcement) Lotus Development Corp introduced a promotion for the Ami Professional Windows word processor and announced a program to help users avoid huge upgrade fees when 1-2-3 for Windows is released later in 1991. Customers who upgrade to or purchase Lotus 1-2-3 release 3.1 before Apr 30, 1991, will receive Ami Pro free by sending their sales receipt, a coupon and a $19.95 handling fee to Lotus. Dealers expressed little concern over the free copies of Ami Pro, since it does not sell well; it is a good product and the giveaway may create more demand. Pioneer gains West Coast presence. (Pioneer-Standard Electronics buys distributor Lex Computer Systems) Pioneer-Standard Electronics, a $500 million distributor of computer and electronics products, purchases Lex Computer Systems, which distributes chips, connectors and semiconductors. The acquisition gives Pioneer-Standard a presence in the Southern California marketplace and strengthens its position in its existing markets. The move should improve Pioneer-Standard's position against competitors Wyle Laboratories and Avnet Computer. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Lex Computer Systems is a US subsidiary of London-based Lex Service plc. Sybase development goals target client/servers. Clancy, Heather. Sybase Inc provided an outline of its development direction for the next five years. The company intends to become a major force in the emerging client/server market and will make heavy investments in binary-compatible machines based on architectures that include the X86 series, SPARC, 88Open and Mips. It is working on projects that include a set of strategic applications programming interfaces based on open systems protocols and 'console' servers that plug into almost any network. Sybase is also investigating the Macintosh market. Back to fundamentals in 1991. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Lorenzo, Benny. The weakening economy is triggering a back to fundamentals move by computer users, manufacturers, investors and the distribution channel. The challenge is to do more work with fewer people and smaller budgets. DataFlex Corp enhanced its support and service capabilities to focus on a select group of large accounts. Apple Computer is producing a new line of lower-priced Macintoshes. Investors are focusing on company-specific dynamics and investigating prospective investments more closely. The microcomputer industry is just a little over 10 years old and its best growth years are probably in the future. High-tech gains; earnings drive stocks upward in 1990. Markowitz, Elliot. High-technology stocks and the microcomputer industry did well in 1990 despite declines in the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes. AST Research Inc climbed 259 percent and Borland International gained 221 percent over the year. Microsoft Corp flourished as a result of the success of its Windows 3.0 release. Micrographx redefines senior management roles. Markowitz, Elliot. Micrographx Inc is attempting to accommodate growth and clear up internal confusion by redefining the roles of its senior management team. George Grayson is the new chief operating officer, and Joseph Kupke is the new president of Micrographx Europe. Grayson remains the president of software development. Phil Miller is likely to succeed Kupke as chief financial officer. The company has experienced tremendous growth since it went public in 1982. It posted a 298 percent increase in net income for its last reported quarter. Intergraph comes to aid of Daisy/Cadenix (sic). Boyd, Wallace B. Intergraph Corp acquires Daisy/Cadenix (sic) Corp for $14 million. The purchase is expected to increase Intergraph's electronic design automation (EDA) revenue to $150 million in 1991, triple that of 1990. This should place Intergraph in the third position for the worldwide EDA market. The company combined its EDA group into Daisy/Cadenix to form DAZIX to port its EDA framework and products from its Clipper-based platform to the SPARC-based platform. DAZIX will provide a greater international presence, particularly in Europe. Investor nervousness shows as Gulf situation intensifies. (Wall Street Wrap-up) (column) Investors are showing little faith in technology issues as the threat of war looms in the Persian Gulf. Losers outnumbered the winners 32 to 25; seven issues remained the same. All indexes lost ground after rebounding somewhat in Dec 1990. Lotus Development Corp declined 7.59 percent or $1.50 per share. Borland International Inc stock was down 6.85 percent and Oracle systems Corp stock fell 6.56 percent. Microsoft Corp stock rose 1.51 percent. Resellers continued to decline. While small distributors struggle in U.K. market, large ones may fare well. (Eurovision) (column) The United Kingdom's top hardware and peripherals distributor, Northamber, experienced a sales drop of 21 percent and its pretax profits declined from $4.2 million in the prior first half to about $420,000. Observers are criticizing the company's management style, which is excessively centralized and incapable of retaining the middle managers needed to expand. Businessland decided to phase out its UK distribution arm. The outlook for smaller distributors is questionable, but opportunities remain for the larger, more stable companies. Marketing abroad; U.S. vendors tap exclusive distribution agreements. Exclusive distribution agreements are common in almost all areas of the world and are even required by law in some areas. They remain the most practical and affordable way of penetrating an overseas market for US vendors with lesser-known products. Establishing a foreign subsidiary can cost between $70 million and $100 million. Some of the biggest companies continue to use exclusive distributors in key markets even after they have established subsidiaries. Vendors should be prepared to offer exclusive distributors discount margins between 50 percent and 70 percent. Foreign distributors frequently market themselves and their skills to vendors. With LAN Man gone, 3Com can focus more on internetworking. (3Com Corp. divests OS/2 LAN Manager) (On the Horizon) (column) 3Com Corp cut its ties to LAN Manager, leaving its development to Microsoft. The company plans to focus its business on internetworking. The decision cleanses LAN Manager's tarnished image and allows Microsoft a free hand to market LAN Manager without defending 3+Open as a good product, but not 'genuine Microsoft'. Microsoft plans to authorize 3Com's resellers. Token ring steadfast in networking battle; vying with Ethernet for major accounts. Token ring is losing momentum, but new developments keep it in the running in the network topology market. The battle between Ethernet and token ring has swung back and forth many times but a shift in the last 20 months to Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair has tipped the balance. Token ring claimed 31 percent of the 1990 market, compared with 43 percent for Ethernet and 11 percent for ARCnet. On Technology's first groupware app; Mac utility schedules meetings over a network. (Meeting Maker) (product announcement) Meeting Maker from On Technology Inc is a Macintosh application for scheduling meetings over a network and improving office productivity. A Windows version is under development. The product automatically schedules meeting times by picking the first available time for attendees. The date, the required attendees, meeting room and resources are entered in the auto-pick feature; if the auto-pick feature is not used, users pick a proposed meeting time and the software waits for the attendees to respond. It displays the status of the meeting: fully or partially confirmed as well as canceled. A calendar displays up to 14 days of already-scheduled meetings or private work sessions. A 'to do' list keeps track of personal activities. A five-user pack costs $495; 10-user packs cost $895. The three-pronged war between information systems: Who will win? (microcomputers, mainframes and UNIX/open systems) (The Platform) The information system market is divided into three camps: microcomputer advocates, the mainframe lobby, and advocates of UNIX and open systems. There are significant differences between the microcomputer and UNIX approaches; UNIX is closer to the mainframe world than the microcomputer camp. It is primarily a multiuser technology. The market for UNIX-based servers is relatively small. The costs of mainframe processing are actually declining faster than microcomputers. The 1990s may see an alliance between the Data Centers and UNIX beating the advocates of desktop computers. Film-recorder boon? Windows popularity, new Macs may boost dealer opportunities. The film recorder market may be improving due to the advent of Windows 3.0, the introduction of a low-cost Macintosh, and emphasis on presentation software. Film recorders are connected to microcomputers to produce colorful output on film for presentations or publishing. Agfa Compugraphic Corp, Mirus Corp, and GCC Technologies Inc produce film recorders. A lack of knowledge about the cost-saving and time-saving features of film recorders has slowed the growth of the market in the past, but the time is now ripe for increased sales. The fight for DOS dominance goes on; enhancement companies tout low-cost, technologically viable alternatives. DOS enhancers are attempting to provide a low-cost, technically viable alternative to Windows 3.0. The Software Link Inc's MaxStation SH-4 is a Hercules-compatible monochrome terminal that supports graphics, mice and parallel printers. Multiple DOS applications are run simultaneously on the host and each MaxStation. The system uses standard RJ-45, eight-wire phone cables to connect the host and terminals. A four-user kit costs $1,595. Quarterdeck's Desqview/X will provide the graphics and cross-platform linking for DOS environments. Digital Research added Memory Max memory-management features to its DR-DOS version of DOS and will add increased graphics capabilities in the near future. Purchasing optical product; means buyers have to be better educated than ever before. It takes more information to make wise purchase decisions on optical disk mass-storage systems. Sony Corp of America's system delivers more performance and higher capacity for the price; it doubles the storage capacity. Hitachi America Ltd offers improved features with their optical units. Maxtor Corp's RXT-800MS drive offers automatic defect reallocation with an average seek time of 108 milliseconds and a media-removable controllable software disk. Smaller storage makers linger in the shadows; this arena's not just for bigwigs. Many smaller companies are making specialized peripherals for better-known firms such as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard. Internal and external versions of mass-storage peripherals come with interface kits for Sun, Macintosh and DOS machines. Delta Microsystems Inc produces 8-mm and 4-mm digital audio tape; tape drives; stackers; jukeboxes; WORM drives; and rewritable optical disk drives. Storage Dimensions introduced the SpeedStor/2 hard-disk and erasable optical storage system for OS/2. Tandberg Data Inc's TDC 4100 is a quarter-inch streaming tape drive that stores 1Gbyte of information in 88 minutes. Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc recently introduced a minicartridge tape backup system with a 320Mbyte capacity and a streaming data throughput that exceeds 13Mbytes per minute. Tandberg's TDC 4100 speeds up data storage. (product announcement) Tandberg Data Inc's Model TDC 4100 is a high-capacity quarter-inch streaming-tape drive that stores up to 1Gbyte without data compression in only 88 minutes. It is designed for backing up hard-disk drives, archival data storage and downloading software applications. It stores about 20 percent faster than comparable digital audio tape systems. The list price is $1,395. Software: offering productivity gains when you need it most. (Soft Focus) (column) The software industry may prove to be immune to recession. Employment in the industry rose 26 percent in 1990 and sales are rising at a 28 percent annual rate. The reason for this strength during an economic downturn is that software offers productivity increases. Inventory costs are so low that there is little a software firm can do to prepare for a downturn. The average cost of goods sold is actually less than 25 percent of total costs. A recession may lead to many firms downsizing computer operations to less expensive microcomputer systems, another boost for the software industry. Software offers low-cost productivity increases during a period when most industries are looking to economize. Windows opens doors; third parties cash in on utilities. Shore, Joel. Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is a vast improvement over previous versions, but there is still room for improvement. The product's modular design and Microsoft's preoccupation with major applications has provided opportunities for third-party developers, especially in the areas of printer and font management. Utility programs for file and disk management, memory optimizers, icon designers for non-Windows applications and font managers offer other opportunities. Several third-party Windows applications are described. Windows 3.0 version of Forest & Trees ships. (product announcement) Channel Computing Inc ships a Windows 3.0 version of its Forest & Trees data access software and plans to ship a NewWave version soon. The product provides access to information stored in software, including Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, dBase and Paradox. It also provides interfaces to servers. Forest & Trees supports major local-area networks. Both version will be carried by Corporate Software Inc, Software Spectrum and Softmart Inc. The Windows version costs $495. The NewWave product lists for $595. Toolbook too slow for some; Asymetrix toolkit spurs controversy. Shore, Joel. Asymetrix Corp's ToolBook application development package for Windows is the market leader, but some critics claim it is too slow. The company claims performance is a development priority. Competitors are unhappy with Asymetrix's ties to Microsoft Corp and the bundling of DayBook, a sample application, with Windows 3.0. Another criticism is the location of Asymetrix's CompuServe support forum, which is currently a section within Microsoft's Windows forum. Softbridge positions Bridge in channel; sales of Windows tool line take off. The Softbridge Group's Bridge command language for Windows has experienced a large sales increase since the release of Windows 3.0. The product allows the integration of Windows and DOS applications under a common graphical user interface. Interprocess communications capabilities facilitate software testing, communications management, prototyping, DOS migration and client/server management. Sales doubled in monthly volume between July and October 1990. The company plans to leverage the product's popularity into a distribution strategy and is negotiating with several software chains and distributors. A strong offense is the best defense. (the value-added reseller programs of major hardware vendors) (The Corner VAR) (column) Major vendors, such as IBM, Apple and Sun, are planning VAR strategies rather than waiting to respond to market changes. Current market uncertainties demand the VARs also re-evaluate short- and long-term strategies, including their vendor relationships. VARs need to research the needs of their customers and use the information to exert leverage on vendors that have neglected or scaled back the services they provide to the VAR channel. Vendor name recognition is seldom a major factor in determining which products sell. Other factors include product quality, timely product delivery and breadth of product. VAR in Desert Shield deal; Basis provides systems to U.S. Navy. (value-added reseller Basis Inc.) Basis Inc's recent agreement with the US Navy is the company's most significant deal in its nine-year history. Basis provided the Navy with six Sun SPARCstations, a server, networking and consulting services, UNIX training and AutoCAD software for the design of portable, transportable military hospitals. The Navy is providing medical support for the combined US armed services in Operation Desert Shield. Basis is using the high-profile project to demonstrate the breadth of its networking services to future clients. TI rolls out VAR program Winning Advantage. (Texas Instruments) (product announcement) Texas Instruments Inc (TI) introduced Winning Advantage, an improved customized support program for value-added resellers (VARs). The program is designed to facilitate VAR participation. A down payment is required from the VAR, but additional fees are required only when the need for a new program arises. TI provides sales leads, but VARs can submit prospects to TI for screening for likely buyers; the most qualified leads will be funneled back to the VARs. The program includes financing, technical support, service and marketing. Technology is catching up with on-the-run execs. (notebook computers) (The Pipeline) (column) High technology has not yet replaced the last bastion of non-electronic, paper-driven technology: the personal organizer. There is hope for the emergence of an automated personal organizing system in a few years, but it will require notebook-sized personal computers with pen and touch screens and enough memory for storing handwritten images. Eventually sufficient cheap mass storage will allow voice input, allowing organizers to become personal voice-mail systems. Microsoft's 'Information at your Fingertips' and Apple Computer Inc's 'Knowledge Navigator' are examples of such visions; they are surprisingly close at hand. Streamlined shipping: ComputerLand continues consolidation. Sweeney, Jack. ComputerLand Corp is closing the last of its satellite warehouse operations in Jan 1991 as part of a continuing effort to streamline its shipping and distribution through its distribution centers in Indianapolis and Hayward, CA. Distribution centers in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Baltimore were shut down. The firm expects savings on overhead and increased efficiency in distribution. The company is focusing on networking and support services. The lowered overhead may help ComputerLand survive the country's current economic problems. The company recently signed a central purchasing agreement with Hyundai Electronics America that will provide machines to a cost-conscious market. Imaging app gets boost; BusinessLand to market Visualink. Sweeney, Jack. Businessland Inc is marketing CSX Corp's Visualink Macintosh-based imaging system. The product is expected to be part of a variety of applications Businessland will carry as part of its imaging applications line. Visualink provides a flexible architecture with a high-volume imaging environment. It provides mainframe transaction processing for networked Macintoshes with a distributed image server. CSX Corp is a transportation company; the product will be marketed to other transportation companies. Significant variables affect growth in 1991. (Taking Stock) (column) Well-managed, realistic distribution companies should do well in 1991. Overall demand is the key to the industry. Major hardware manufacturers are forecasting modest growth, although some observers expect significant contraction in demand. Top-line growth is crucial for maintaining the bottom line for distributors and resellers, but it is very difficult to maintain profitability merely by cutting expenses. For every tenth of a percentage point decline in gross margins an extra percentage point of revenue growth is required as an offset, which is not an easy proposition in a downturn. Distributors should be able to maintain current levels of profitability if the industry continues modest growth. Existing levels of debt and a growing credit crisis will make bank financing harder to find, requiring internal financing. Association guides distributors on key issues. (The Association of Microcomputer Distributors) The Association of Microcomputer Distributors is increasing its membership and improving its services as a result of the country's current economic problems and industry consolidation. The group provides guidance on which technologies and practices are essential for prosperity in the 1990s. Recent position papers include key industry issues, such as return authorization policies and standardized point-of-sale reporting. The group published a membership directory, compiled and released statistics on distributor sales and expanded its service offerings from its Chicago headquarters. A two-day conference on prospering in the 1990s is scheduled for Mar 3-5, 1991. Distributor takes new name: Gates/FA Distributing also changes top management. (formerly F.A. Computer Technologies Inc.) F.A. Computer Technologies Inc shareholders voted to change the company's name to Gates/FA Distributing Inc. Steven H. Owings is the new chairman of the board and Philip Ellett is the new company president. Former board chmn Dennis Gates will remain on the board and the executive committee. The company's securities will trade over the counter and be quoted on the NASDAQ System under the symbols GAFA. Group focuses on DEC's RISC-based line; Merisel meeting goals for workstation unit. (Merisel Inc.) (company profile) Merisel Inc's Workstation Division, formed in July 1990, is six months old and on schedule with its product development, reseller programs and sales achievements. The division is a dedicated sales, marketing, operations and technical support/training organization that focuses primarily on DEC RISC-based workstations, servers and peripherals. The Marlborough, MA, division operates independently from the company's general distribution. The division is on target to accomplish all of its goals for its first year. Resellers weigh 386 vs. 486. Sweeney, Jack. Machines based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor will dominate 1991 sales, relegating the promising 80486-based machines to 1992 sales plans. The cost of technology and availability of software will lead to continued migration to 386 technology. Less than 1 percent of 99,000 users in a survey by Computer Intelligence Corp plan to purchases of 486 machines in 1991. The 386SX platform is ideal for nodes on a network; the 486 platform will be most frequently used as a server. Crown the 386 king of '91; despite all the hype, buyers not yet convinced of 486 advantages. (Computer Intelligence Corp. survey) A survey of almost 100,000 computer purchasers by Computer Intelligence Corp finds 80386 and older microprocessors dominating the 1991 microcomputer market and only 1 percent of plan purchases of 80486-based machines. The installed base of 486 microcomputers does not make up 1 percent of usage by either Fortune 1000 or non-Fortune businesses. Only 5.6 percent of the installed base is 68000-based; 6.5 percent of the planned purchases will be Macintoshes. Best-bet verticals: industries using the most PCs have largest purchase plans. (a Computer Intelligence Corp. survey) (includes a The health care and education markets are the most penetrated by microcomputers and will result in the most sales in 1991, according to a Computer Intelligence Corp survey of 17,693 medical and education sites. Respondents plan purchases of 135,206 machines in 1991. Universities are turning to 80386-based machines for administrative and faculty computing. Medical institutions, including hospitals, are facing financial pressures but many are improving existing computer operations. Laggards are about to buy. (corporate microcomputer buying plans) Calderbank, Alison. The construction and agriculture markets are slowly turning to microcomputers in spite of a slowing construction market and fewer farms. A survey by Computer Intelligence Corp finds 356 construction and agricultural sites ready to purchase 12,013 microcomputers in 1991. Between 10 and 20 percent of all US farms and ranches currently own microcomputers; the figure varies greatly from region to region. Business services has the lowest penetration of microcomputers, but this is not considered a true industry group. Leaders speak out. Keiper, Will; Reinhart, Jim; Perry, Doug; Martin, Tom; Zimits, A variety of industry leaders provide their opinions on the microcomputer industry. Software is needed to take advantage of the 80486-based machines before they can compete significantly in the market. Intel's strategy to attempt to obsolete the 80286 and encourage migration to 80386-based machines is successful. Sales of 8086-based portables are continuing. Lowered prices have made the 80386SX the entry-level platform for the corporate world. Behind the numbers scene. (microcomputer buying plans survey) Ness, Dan Jr. The CPU is the heart of the microcomputer and the key to knowing which machines will sell. The predictions of the death of the 80286 processor were premature; 23 percent of planned purchases by corporations, education and government are based on the 80286. The real story is the 80386; 61 percent of planned purchases are based on this processor. Seven of 10 microcomputers purchased by Fortune 1000 companies will be based on 32-bit technology. Survey: Sun keeps its lead; HP, DEC see share slip in workstation market. (Dataquest Inc. survey) Sun Microsystems maintained its lead with a 29.1 percent share of the workstation market in 1990, according to a Dataquest Inc survey. The introduction of lower-priced Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC)-based systems helped the company, although it only increased its revenue share by 1 percent because of a general slowdown in the workstation industry. Hewlett-Packard Co lost 1.4 percent of the revenue market share, to 22.7 percent of the market. DEC slipped 3.3 percent to 17.7 of the market. IBM increased its market share from 2.9 percent to 3.5 percent with new versions of the RS/6000 workstation line. VGA board prices plunge; as costs drop, makers offer cards below $100. Board manufacturers are lowering prices for standard VGA boards to under $100. Everex Systems Inc, Boca Research Inc and ATI Technologies Inc are among the companies offering graphics boards in this price range. Even Asian imports have not been previously priced this low. The smaller size of the VGA chip sets have lowered manufacturing costs, resulting in the lower prices. Making the boards simple to install also helps by eliminating the need for user support. These low-cost boards offer the minimum VGA-graphics resolution and performance; fast performance and higher resolutions require more expensive boards. New law could profit dealers; computer-safety law to generate millions in sales by '95. San Francisco supervisors passed a computer-safety law that requires employers to take safety precautions for computer users. The action spurred national interest in protecting employees from computer-related injuries and is likely to boost the market for safety equipment. Similar nation-wide legislation may follow. The San Francisco ruling is expected to generate $75 million worth of business to equipment suppliers by 1995, the deadline for complying with the law. Epson rethinks retailing; vendor limiting distribution of its Apex line. (Computer Retail Week supplement) Epson America Inc is scaling back distribution of its Apex microcomputers from the mass-merchant market, but observers expect the company to re-enter the market at some point in the future. Epson's plans for its Apex line are unclear and the company is not discussing the issue. It is controlling availability of the Apex line and limiting it to a handful of key accounts. The company remains dedicated to its Equity line of computers and has introduced new and improved models. Boscov's first to buy from IBM aggregator; department store purchases PS/1s from Intelligent Electronics. (Computer Retail Boscov's Department Stores Inc is the first retailer to buy IBM PS/1 microcomputers from a third party under IBM's 'aggregator' pilot program. The 17-store chain has been purchasing the low-end microcomputer from Intelligent Electronics Inc since Oct 1, 1990; all other retailers purchase them directly from IBM. IBM distributes the line to Sears, Roebuck and Co, Dillard Department Stores Co, and Dayton Hudson Department Store Co as well as computer-specialty stores. The test program is expected to be expanded in Jan or Feb 1991. Boscov was chosen for the pilot program because it is an upscale department store with a regional reputation for service and quality. K mart goes PC shopping; discounter talks with Packard Bell, others. (Computer Retail Week supplement) K mart Corp is planning to re-enter the microcomputer business in the 1st qtr of 1991 with at least one major line and selected peripherals. The company has not confirmed or denied the report but is considering several options. Plans call for adding computers to each newly remodeled 'home-office section' as part of the company's $2.3 billion five-year refurbishment and expansion plan aimed at boosting its position as a leading retailer. Brands under consideration include Emerson Computer, the Magnavox line from Philips Consumer Electronics Co, Packard Bell's KLH computers and Laser Computer Inc. Negotiations for distribution rights to IBM's PS/1 broke down. The chain currently sells such home-office products as fax machines, dedicated word processors and accessories in an unspecified number of stores. Computers arrive in force at CES. (the Winter Consumer Electronics Show) (Computer Retail Week supplement) The Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was a showcase for the consumer-computer market. IBM exhibited its products there for the first time, and requests for space in the home-office category were up 25 percent. Accolade introduced three MS-DOS games. Atari Computer displayed the Portfolio SuperOrganizer, a 1-pound system with a spreadsheet and text editor for under $300. Britannica Software Inc introduced two MS-DOS educational programs: Algebra Made Easy and The Berenstein Bears Learn About Letters. The company also introduced four educational CD-ROM programs. Commodore showed its Commodore Dynamic Total Vision (CDTV) unit. Leading Technology Inc showed two new notebook computers. Buyer Aware. (computer industry analysis from end users' perspective) (Computer Retail Week supplement) A survey of 16 microcomputer resellers representing over $8 billion in end-user sales provides several conclusions. End-user purchases slowed in the fall of 1990, leading to a reduction in forecasts for microcomputer sales, but business has not weakened since that time. Most companies actually showed modest improvements in sales. The corporate ordering process is lengthening as approval for microcomputer purchases moves upstairs. Former IBM-only companies are changing their minds about purchasing other brands. Opportunities exist for aggressive companies with new products at reasonable prices. PC discounters vie for low-end faxes. (Computer Retail Week supplement) Fax/phones are becoming a commodity item and increasingly difficult to sell at high margins, making them an important part of the product mix for discounters. Low-end fax distribution will spread to retail establishments by 1992. Office superstore outlets will be the principal channel for low-end and some midrange business fax systems; warehouse clubs will retain a strong position. Blurring distinctions between midrange and high-end performance will see some high-end units in mass retail outlets. Traditional office machine dealers will be forced to sell only high-end business fax machines, probably as part of larger packages of multiple high-end units. Adventure abounds at Electronic Arts; eight firms enliven one CES booth with games. (at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show) Eight companies will introduce arcade and adventure computer games at the Electronic Arts Inc booth at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in New York. Electronic Arts will introduce four MS-DOS products, each priced at $49.95. California Dreams will introduce two MS-DOS games, Cinemaware Corp has three MS-DOS games and Intersel Corp will introduce a multiplayer space strategy game. Lucasfilm Games will introduce an airborne dogfighting game, Strategic Simulations Inc has three new games, UBI Soft will show a tennis game, and Three-Sixty Pacific Inc will display a flying simulation game. Of mice and modems; smartly packaged mice outsell dully dressed modems. (Computer Retail Week supplement) Retailers believe one reason mice are outselling modems is they are more user friendly and have better packaging. The mouse is also a more graphic and visual product that appeals to the customer. A hands-on approach to marketing works better with mice: the customer can touch and feel the product and experience instant results; modems are more difficult to relate to. Workplace finds place in the sun; but the Florida retailer is looking out of state once again. (Workplace Inc.) (Computer Retail Workplace Inc is a hybrid organization of nine Florida office equipment and computer stores with a different approach to floor design. Compartments are dedicated to different product categories, including computer systems, furniture and office supplies. Several spaces are dedicated to technology demonstrations, offset color printing, and a copy service facility. The company provides a higher level of service and selection than other chains. It also believes the key to its early success is in meeting customer demand. The chain has reached annual sales of approximately $90 million, about $10 million per store. Sales are expected to grow at 10 percent per year. Conservative expansion plans call for stores that are clustered together to help create more advantageous economies of scale. The company plans to expand further in Florida and contiguous states in 1991. Soft-Kat promo features education software that users can network. (Computer Retail Week supplement) Soft-Kat Inc is a major education and entertainment software distributor that is focusing on networkable education software. The company has mailed 50,000 catalogs that highlight 134 titles from 18 vendors. The leads from the catalogs, which are sent to teachers and administrators, are turned over to 300 dealerships participating in the program. Subject areas include math, social studies, science, productivity and general learning. Networking education software is becoming required because schools are pooling resources. Dealers pay a $20 referral fee to Soft-Kat. Where is Soft Warehouse going? (Soft Warehouse Inc. Pres Nathan Morton) (Computer Retail Week supplement) (interview) Soft Warehouse Inc Pres Nathan Morton is pushing his chain's expansion and seeking growth through private placements. The company is considered the granddaddy of computer superstores. It postponed its initial public offering in the fall of 1990 because of poor stock market conditions. Ninety-five percent of the company's business is coming from areas it does not usually do business in, so its mail order program helps determine expansion locations. The company is planning to expand into New York and Boston by early 1992. Morton believes in buying in volume to provide good prices for his customers. Soft Warehouse is exploring the close-out software business, offering many products for under $10, and some for as low as $1. Morton sees a huge business in parts and used computers. The company is considering expansion into Europe. Retailer roundup: using mailing lists. (Computer Retail Week supplement) In-house mailing lists are gaining popularity as a merchandising tactic among nationwide microcomputer retailers. Sophisticated databases use advertizing promotions about sale prices or holiday specials to encourage customers to return to the store. Major retailers using mailing lists include Radio Shack, Lechmere Inc, and Soft Warehouse Inc. PC vendors turn to retail. (Computer Retail Week supplement) Sun Moon Star and Fremont Communications Co are two microcomputer vendors that are exploring the sales potential of mass-merchant and computer retail channels. They are not abandoning the reseller channel, but believe there is a more immediate opportunity for building market share by following new directions. Sun Moon Star's North American Personal Computer Div is launching a mass-merchant recruitment drive by interviewing marketing representatives and regional distributors to distribute its DOS-based microcomputer and compact-disk storage unit. Fremont Communications saw little interest in its products by traditional resellers and decided to become retail oriented. Super SKUs; emerging technology. (Cumulus Corp.'s GLC/SBS microcomputer) (Computer Retail Week supplement) (product Cumulus Corp is offering its new GLC/SBS microcomputer directly to the retail market. The 80386SX-based machine is designed for home office or small to medium-sized businesses. All models include a fax/modem, telephone answering system, a 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk, 1Mbyte of RAM, a 16-bit VGA adapter, a VGA monitor, a 101-key keyboard and a dual-button mouse. Windows 3.0, DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Works are bundled with the machine. List prices start at $1,395. Unix OLTP battle looms. (AT&T, NCR Corp. and Transarc Corp. demonstrate distributed, standards-based on-line transaction Unix vendors AT&T, NCR Corp and Transarc Corp compete in the commercial on-line transaction processing (OLTP) market with distributed standards-based systems with functionality that threatens to outperform market leader IBM. Transarc announces that IBM, an investor in HP and Stratus Computer Inc, will employ Transarc's technology to create its own offerings. The technology will serve as a foundation upon which companies can build transaction processing systems, and Transarc plans to position its technology as an industry standard. NCR unveils its client/server transaction processing system Top End at the UniForum trade show. Top End runs on NCR's System 3000 Unix systems and will be available by the end of the 2nd qtr 1991. AT&T will demonstrate enhancements to its transaction processing system Tuxedo at UniForm. Tuxedo, first released in 1988, is known as the first licensable Unix OLTP system. EDS drives $500M pact. (Electronic Data Systems Corp. and National Car Rental Systems Inc. agreement first step toward extensive Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) closes a $500 million deal with National Car Rental Systems Inc in efforts to create a comprehensive travel industry software system. EDS outbid IBM and other companies for the 10-year facilities management agreement which involves the acquisition of reservation and other car rental software. EDS intends to close similar deals with the airlines and hotel sectors to acquire a trio of reservation software acquisitions. EDS will establish an extensive travel information system if it obtains all the necessary components; potential users of such a system include travel agents, corporate travel departments, the general public and car rental, airline and lodging companies. EDS was unable to acquire Continental Airlines Holdings Inc airline reservation software in Nov 1990 and the deal with National Car Rental marks a reversal of fortune. Integrators feel recession as clients rein in spending. (major computer systems integrators must renegotiate large contracts) Many computer systems integrators face contract deferments and customer demands to restructure existing deals as economic recession pervades the computer industry. While outsourcing remains stable, the contract programming and consulting market sectors have softened. Electronic Data Systems Corp reports that during 1990 it has had to renegotiate several facilities management deals with clients who are reducing financial spending. Andersen Consulting has reportedly had companies reduce their deals including Kraft Food Inc's systems development pact. Computer Sciences Corp has customers reconsidering plans for new integration work. Research firm Input dropped its growth projection for the commercial and government integration market from a 24 percent compound annual growth rate between 1989 and 1994, to 19 percent for the 1990 to 1995 period. Apple, Peat Marwick extend relationship. (joint venture Executive Integration Services to participate in SpeedStart) Apple Computer Corp and Peat Marwick Main and Co launch their SpeedStart program via joint venture Executive Integration Services (EXIS). The venture will aid users in building prototype graphical interfaces on the Macintosh to access applications data on host systems. EXIS consultants will develop the prototype and establish host connectivity with Apple's Hypercard data access environment and Mitem Corp's applications development tool MITEMview. SpeedStart includes EXIS' integration services, development software and the resulting prototype interface. Apple, Mitem and EXIS will jointly market the service, which carries a fixed $50,000 fee. SpeedStart is similar to IBM's Enterprise Alliance, which uses Easel Corp's Easel software environment for prototyping graphical interfaces for mainframe applications. EXIS and IBM both offer a relatively low-cost re-engineering of terminal-based interfaces. AT&T Unix groups expand. (Unix System Laboratories Inc., Unix International Inc. restructure and broaden technological bases in Unix System Laboratories Inc and Unix International Inc make structural changes and broaden their technological bases in response to the Open Software Foundations's (OSF) success. Unix System Laboratory appoints Roel Pieper, formerly of Software AG, vice president of sales and marketing as it changes from internal development arm of AT&T to semi-independent software vendor. The company must demonstrate that it can be profitable in spite of depressed success in 1990 coupled with a history of losses as AT&T has partially divested from its former subsidiary. Unix International Inc plans to integrate a variety of technologies with Unix to provide users with a complete standard environment, even if it means adopting OSF technology. The company will strategically support a wide range of open technologies, or will build interfaces that make them compatible with its own technology. Hot tips for integration deal making. (guidelines for competitive bidding)(includes related article on bid pricing practices) An increasing number of computer systems integrators use established techniques in the mechanics of bidding from the regulated government sector to win large accounts. The following bidding tips are based on interviews with integrators and consultants and are suitable for both the commercial and federal markets. Cultivate good working relationships with suppliers so that bidding teams can be established quickly. Centralize resources and use task forces to follow technology and support project teams in creating bids. Create a 'shadow' team that simulates a rival company and develops an alternate proposal. Use strategies such as front loading to price bids competitively. Be aware of a prospect's buying history to help keep bid prices low. Make allowances within a proposal for new technology and changing needs of the client. Develop a pilot or prototype of a system to help close deals. IBM names Puckett to head services. (Bernard Puckett appointed general manager of Applications Solutions) IBM appoints VP Bernard Puckett as general manager of the Applications Solutions line of business and appoints predecessor Ned Lautenbach as senior managing director of operations in Tokyo. Puckett's promotion is his reward for bringing IBM's ES/9000 to market on time and with few complaints from customers about migrating from the 3090 line. Puckett has a strong marketing and communications background, which will help the company find a niche in the professional services market and compete with leaders such as Andersen Consulting and Electronics Data Systems Corp. Lautenbach will work under IBM's Asia Pacific region Pres Edward Lucente, but analysts speculate that he will be promoted to Lucente's slot before the end of 1991. Lautenbach's move to Tokyo also represents a company reward for discovering the right formula for professional services and systems integration. Bryden resigns at SHL. (Roderick Bryden resigns as company prepares to be acquired) SHL Systemhouse Inc chairman and CEO Roderick Bryden resigns amid speculation that SHL's major creditor, BCE Inc, intends to acquire majority ownership in the company. SHL has been anticipating a buyer since Bryden's Kinburn Technology Corp holding company, which owns 50.1 percent interest in SHL, failed to pay nearly $700 million in debt to BCE and several banks. BCE is the parent company of Northern Telecom Ltd and Bell Canada; Bryden speculates that it has sought to acquire Kinburn's stake in SHL for some time and would manage SHL after the Northern Telecom model. Bryden's resignation will go into effect May 31, 1991 or sooner if a new chief executive can be appointed before that date. Bryden will continue to consult the new chief executive through 1993 at a fee roughly equivalent to his compensation package. Bryden added to his 325,000 SHL shares with an additional 125,000 which SHL financed. Storage Tech consults on data centers. (Storage Technology Corp. and American International Group Data Center Inc. offer data Storage Technology Corp and American International Group Data Center Inc offer data center automation services in a cooperative agreement. The companies provide consulting services to firms that are trying to reduce the number of people needed to operate their data centers. The venture is an outgrowth of American International's own four-year data processing automation project. Storage Technology, which provided the automated tape library system on the project, will complement its manufacturing, marketing and distribution strengths with American International's experience in improving data center efficiency. American International officials say the company was providing free advice to numerous other firms before deciding to capitalize on it. Demand for data service automation services and advice grows as companies respond to economic recession. Andersen in hospital pact. (Voluntary Hospitals of America Inc. contracts Andersen Consulting to oversee clinical and financial Andersen Consulting wins 10-year $50 million contract with Voluntary Hospitals of America Inc to install and operate a clinical and financial system. The contract is an outgrowth of Andersen's 1986 contract with Voluntary Hospitals to develop a Clinical/Financial Information System (C/FIS) for the major health care organization's North Central operations. Andersen and Voluntary Hospitals will market the systems's software to all of the institution's 650 hospitals; individual hospitals claim to have saved up to $2 million using the C/FIS system. Andersen's role is to manage the roll-out of the C/FIS system for Voluntary Hospital, which uses it as a decision support tool in analyzing costs and quality of patient care throughout its many hospitals. C/FIS is comprised of a central database containing clinical and financial patient profiles, and data collection software. IBM backs object databases. (IBM signs Ontologic Inc. as sales and marketing partner) IBM and Ontologic Inc formalize a partnership in which both companies will market and sell Ontologic's ONTOS 2 object database for IBM PS/2s running the OS/2 operating system. Ontologic will also sell IBM hardware and other software products in its role as IBM Authorized Application Specialist. Object-oriented technology has been slow to gain commercial success, but IBM will introduce object-oriented software for its AD/Cycle development framework. Object databases are seen as a means to incorporate new kinds of data objects such as voice and video, and new methods of input such as handwriting. Object-oriented database market pioneer Servio Corp reduces its 60-person staff by half in efforts to be profitable by the end of 1991; the layoffs coincide with IBM's endorsement. A similar agreement between DEC and Objectivity Inc illustrates growing interest in object-oriented technology. Martin Marietta regroups. (Information Systems Group restructured) Moore, John. Martin Marietta Corp restructures its computer and communications group by merging sectors of the defunct organization throughout the company. The Internal Information Systems, Simulation Systems, Postal Information Systems and Civil Information Systems units of the Information Systems Group will be consolidated into a group named Electronics, Information & Missiles Group and merged with Martin Marietta's Orlando, FL Electronics & Missiles Group. Three additional units of the Information Systems Group will merge with various other branches of Martin Marietta. The aerospace and defense contractor is also reorganizing its space system units to reduce costs and will review opportunities in the commercial market. Martin Marietta plans to bid NASA's Customer Data and Operations System and the Earth Observing System Data and Information System. 3Com shift applauded. (3Com Corp will not pursue network operating systems and sells its server business to focus on internetworking) 3Com Corp abandons its network operating systems business and sells its server business as part of a reorganization that will involve a 12 percent work force reduction and a $45 million charge against earnings. Analysts were surprised at the business sell-off, but view 3Com's shift to a focus on internetworking as beneficial in the long run. 3Com executive VP of field operations Bob Finocchio claims the operating system business was not in line with the company's strategy to transform itself and was not profitable. 3Com may attract technology development alliances with networking software companies such as Novell Inc by exiting the operating system field. Analysts expect a two-year period of recovery for 3Com and say that the company must improve its product line of adapters, bridges, routers and gateways used to connect work groups in enterprisewide networks. Stock picker's parade. (results of analysts' 1990 stock predictions for computer companies) Market analysts' stock market predictions for 1990 reflect generally poor earnings and few companies with strong product cycles. Analyst William Easterbrook recommended IBM at $97 per share and Amdahl Corp at $13.50. IBM peaked at $123 and was trading in the $115 range before the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined in Jan 1991 when the stock dropped below $110. Amdahl traded as high as $18.88, but finished 1990 at around $14. Analyst Melinda Reach's top picks were Microsoft Corp and Compaq Computer Corp. Microsoft trades at around $75 in Jan 1991, which is over 75 percent above the Dec 1989 price. Compaq split two-for-one and trades almost $55 per share, or the equivalent of $110 in Jan 1991. Analyst Bahar Gidwani singled out Ashton-Tate Corp and Sage Software Inc. Ashton-Tate's stock fell and Sage saw an increase from $9.50 per share in 1989 to $16 during periods of 1990. Hard times ahead. (financial difficulty for DEC)(Street Talk) (column) DEC is expected to report healthy 2nd qtr 1991 earnings, but anticipates a bleak outcome for the quarters ending in Mar 1991 and Jun 1991. Senior VP Jack Smith will inform analysts in mid-Jan 1991 of DEC's imminent plan to cut 3,500 jobs by Jun 30, 1991. DEC's underlying problem, however, is one of surviving the overhead of competing with computer systems integrators and software vendors combined with economic recession and poor marketing. DEC has formed an Information Business Systems group under vice president Robert Glorioso in efforts to address its weaknesses. Glorioso headed VAX 9000 development and is now in charge of marketing high-end machines in mainframe account. Analysts fortunately look for earnings of 70 cents to 95 cents per share during the 2nd qtr as opposed to 21 cents per share in the 1st qtr, which buys Glorioso time to turn DEC around. A big new kid on the CASE block. (Index Technology Corp. to merge with Sage Software Inc. and market integrated computer-aided The proposed merger of Index Technology Corp into Sage Software Inc could influence leading competitors in the computer-aided software engineering (CASE) market. The combination of $42.2 million Index and $30.9 million Sage would compete stiffly with KnowledgeWare Inc's estimated $75 million in 1990 revenue and Softlab Inc's $80 million in revenue. Analysts estimate Texas Instruments Inc's CASE revenue at about $60 million including consulting services. Officials from Index and Sage disclose that the combined company would market a variety of CASE products on mainframes, workstations and local-area networks. Analysts note that Sage's back-end tools such as its code generator would enhance Index's popular front-end analysis and design tools, but warn that integrating the companies' overlapping products will be difficult. Let the network manager beware. (guidelines for network planners)(Viewpoint) (column) Network management is a critical field that users and systems integrators have a difficult time defining. Vendors and systems designers continually design and market network management products that fall short of everything users desire. Network management is still in the conceptualization stage. New products reflect a refinement process in which subsequent product designs yield improved features. Guidelines network planners can follow to avoid ineffective decisions include avoiding proprietary systems; in a multivendor world a network management package that only functions with the vendor's product is not very valuable. Network planners should support a network management standard so that distinctions between good and bad products will be based on features and benefits. Network managers should push for software packages that allow users to solve problems on network cards. Next seeks network VARs. (Next Inc. expands distribution channels with value-added resellers and network integrator iLAN Inc.) Next Inc expands its distribution channel by adding about 100 networking value-added resellers (VARs) and local-area network (LAN) integrator iLAN Inc. Next director of VAR sales Erna Arnesen, who was hired in Dec 1990 to create Next's VAR program, disclosed that the company will target systems integrators in the future. Next will select both national and regional VARs based on their vertical applications in a variety of industries including medical, multimedia, publishing, financial, scientific and transportation. The company expects to sign up 100 VARs by the close of 1991. Next's two-year $1 million contract with iLAN covers 250 workstations during the first year and 500 during the second. The four-year old privately held LAN integrator will target the imaging market with Next's latest workstation, which comes with updated networking software. Disk drive vendors tap systems allies. (strategic partnerships) Melo, Alfred. Hard disk drive vendors seek strategic partnerships with systems vendors to survive in the price-sensitive storage device market. Drive vendors are motivated to establish alliances to offset fast falling prices and intense overcapacity in various storage peripheral market sectors. Systems companies benefit from partnerships because they ensure a demand for customized products with very high profit margins; systems vendors also assist in paying product development costs. Conner Peripherals Inc aligned with Compaq Computer Corp in 1986 in a contract that catapulted Conner into the disk drive industry elite. Conner controlled 3.1 percent of the magnetic disk drive market in 1989, and the companies alliance with Ing. C. Olivetti & Co yielded Conner's Summit drives. Other disk drive partnerships include Quantum Corp and Apple; Seagate Technology and NCR Corp and Cray Research Inc; DEC and Micropolis Corp. IBM wins First Boston deal. (IBM's largest financial services contract with First Boston Corp.) IBM wins $900 million facilities management contract with First Boston Corp while competitive bidders including Affiliated Computer Systems Inc, Electronic Data Systems Inc (EDS), Andersen Consulting and Perot Systems Corp are turned down. An Affiliated Computer executive claims that IBM was awarded the seven- to 10-year contract due to its generous pricing offer in which payments are weighted toward the middle and end of the contract's duration. IBM is, essentially, fronting money to First Boston, which is a common EDS strategy used to win business. IBM is buying First Boston's data center and will provide outsourcing services with the motive of retaining account control of the company's large customers in its most significant financial services contract to date. IBM has won additional bids with financial services companies Riggs National Bank Corp and Southeast Banking Corp. DEC to bite the layoff bullet. (Digital Equipment Corp. announces first-ever involuntary layoff) DEC announces that it will involuntarily lay off employees for the first time in its 34-year history, breaking a long tradition of job security but earning the praise of analysts. Most observers and users say that DEC made the right decision, and some even questioned whether the layoff of 3,500 employees goes far enough. DEC's revenue per employee is less than that of any other major minicomputer vendor, and analysts say that the eventual reduction of the head count by 6,000 does not make the firm as 'lean and mean' as it needs to be. Some users fear that support may decline as a result of the layoffs, but most express their support of the company. Most of DEC's operations are in Massachusetts, which is expected to be hit hardest by the 'involuntary severance' plan. 3Com cuts back net plans. (3Com Corp.) (abandoning network operating system business) 3Com Corp abruptly announces its intention to withdraw from the LAN operating systems market and focus its efforts on multivendor connectivity products. The three-phase plan involves restructuring the company and a layoff of 12 percent of 3Com's work force. 3Com plans to turn its LAN Manager 2.0 business over to Microsoft Corp. Users are unhappy that they can no longer deal with a single networking vendor for their hardware and software needs, but 3Com Pres and CEO Eric Benhamou says that not enough sites were willing to take advantage of the one-stop shopping arrangement. 3Com will continue to sell and support all versions of LAN Manager up to 2.0 and will help Microsoft port related software to Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0. Analysts say that the company had spread itself too thin and praise its narrowed focus. 3Com plans to sell off its file server, workstation and Systems Network Architecture gateway businesses. Army's IS ready for the worst. (possibility of war in the Middle East) The US Army Information Systems Command says it is preparing for the increasing possibility of war in the Middle East, working with the Saudis to install computer networks and construct telephone, radio and microwave communications. Its Defense Data Network (DDN), the newest and largest network being used in Operation Desert Shield, is a TCP/IP-based international network for voice, data and video transmissions. It handles electronic mail and the Army's Standard Information Management Systems (SIMS), which maintains personnel records and supply inventory in mobile processing units. Not all units have access to DDN; some are still using batch applications that have not been upgraded. The Automated Digital Network is the Army's batch-oriented network. Sliced fiber-optic cables point up technology gaps. (vulnerability of data network) Two major telecommunications service outages occurred in Jan 1991 when fiber-optic cables carrying thousands of calls were accidentally severed, indicating the vulnerability of centralized fiber networks. A maintenance crew mistakenly cut a cable in Newark, NJ, on Jan 4, 1991, disrupting approximately 40 percent of the company's long-distance service into and out of New York City. A US Sprint Communications Co fiber-optic cable in Indiana broke on Jan 7, 1991, disrupting calls in two states. The Jan 4 outage occurred during prime time, leaving customers wondering why the company was doing maintenance during peak calling hours. Some suggest that the carriers and the user community should work together to minimize service disruptions in the future. Alternate fiber paths are needed because fiber-optic cabling is so new that there has not been time to build redundancy into the network. Who can open E-mail? (Nissan Motor Corp sued over privacy violations) Two former information systems employees have sued Nissan Motor Corp USA for invasion of privacy, claiming that the company's interception of their electronic messages led to the firing of one and the forced resignation of the other. Bonita Bourke and Rhonda Hall said that management had told them that confidential passwords protected their messages from interception, but each was shown a stack of electronic mail in 1990 and told to stop all non-work related transmissions. Both admitted to having used E-mail for personal communication. Hall was fired within days after filing a grievance and Bourke was forced to leave. Observers say the case highlights the growing importance of E-mail as a privacy issue. Some firms consider personal use of E-mail a waste of property and time, but others tolerate judicious use by employees as long as their work is done. NCR takes new laptop road. (NCR Corp. to introduce new laptops using Intel's 80386SL chip set) NCR Corp is developing laptop computers that will use Intel's new 80386SL compact chip set, which combines an 80386SX CPU with memory and cache-controller circuitry. The new chip could be used to design portables that are not only smaller and lighter than existing units but use less power, extending battery life to 4 to 6 hours. A 20-MHz 386SL is also slightly faster than a 20-MHz 386SX. NCR hopes to design a handwriting-interface based 'notepad' system weighing less than four pounds that includes a VGA-compatible display and 2Mbytes of memory expandable to 16Mbytes. Other expected features include a built-in 2,400-bps modem, facsimile capabilities and a port for attaching a standard keyboard or external floppy drive. Flash-memory drives will be used to store software in ROM. NCR will offer the System 3000, a standard six-pound notebook-sized portable using the SL chip, in early 1991. Excel packs Windows punch. (Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp introduces Excel 3.0, a new version of its popular Windows-based spreadsheet the company claims offers performance superior to that of Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3. Excel 3.0 will offer more than 100 new features, including improved graphics and analysis capabilities. Microsoft is expected to offer versions of Excel 3.0 for the Macintosh and OS/2 Presentation Manager environments by mid-1991. Analysts say that the new version of Excel will place stiff pressure on Lotus, which has weakened its market position by ignoring Windows 3.0 in favor of developing for OS/2. Lotus is now developing a Windows spreadsheet, but many observers regard the action as too late. Excel 3.0 offers a dialog box for entering 1-2-3 commands, a tool bar that lets users access common operations from icons at the top of the screen, a 'solver' feature; the ability to collapse spreadsheets into outline form and support for linking and embedding objects across multiple Windows applications. Excel 3.0 sells for $495, with upgrades for current users priced at $129. 1-2-3 users say Lotus is secure for the moment. (Lotus Development Corp. 1-2-3 spreadsheet software) (competition from Microsoft Lotus Development Corp and loyal users maintain that Microsoft's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet poses no immediate threat to the dominance of Lotus' popular 1-2-3 product. Lotus officials say Excel is playing 'catch-up' and that many of its new features are already available in the character-based 1-2-3 3.1. Users say that abandoning 1-2-3 in favor of Windows and Excel would be a 'hasty and premature' decision, especially as Borland International Inc and Lotus are both preparing new products which are expected to be highly competitive. Some suggest that Lotus accelerate its development in order to begin beta-testing its upcoming 1-2-3/W for Windows as fast as possible. Committed 1-2-3 users are reluctant to abandon their investment in technology and user training. Unisys expects gloomy 4-Q results. (Unisys Corp. anticipates shortfall in fourth quarter revenue) Unisys Corp, suffering from a $4 billion debt load, is expected to post a loss for 4th qtr 1990. The amount of the loss may depend on how much the company writes down for 1990, but observers anticipate that it will lump all of its 'bad news' into the 1990 report in hopes of better 1991 results. Analysts say that Unisys may have to renegotiate its loans if it falls below the net-worth thresholds in its covenants. Revenue, gross margins and European business are two major factors in the firm's financial situation; margins dropped 25 to 35 percent in 3rd qtr 1990, probably because of increased operating expenses. Unisys plans to lay off at least 5,000 employees in 1991. Its revolving credit underwriters may waive the net-worth covenant if Unisys makes progress on its asset sales, according to some analysts. AT&T, NCR await tender offer reply. (AT&T attempt to purchase NCR Corp.) AT&T's $90-per-share tender offer for NCR Corp expires at midnight Jan 15, 1991, and the telecommunications giant is expected to receive more than the two-thirds vote it needs to take over NCR. The deal may nevertheless fail because the NCR board of directors can still resort to 'poison pill' provisions or a contingent value-rights plan that would give shareholders a large payout if NCR failed to reach a target stock price by a specific date. NCR is also expected to announce its third-quarter results on Jan 14, 1990 and strengthen its recently announced Open, Cooperative Computing and System 3000 hardware and software strategies. AT&T is apparently preparing its Computer Systems Division for a merger, consolidating warehousing, manufacturing and distribution staff and laying off employees in its sales organization. EDS wins large transportation outsourcing deal. (contract with National Car Rental System Inc.) Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS) has won a 10-year, $500 million contract to maintain, run and update data processing and networking operations for National Car Rental System Inc. The contract represents the largest outsourcing deal in the transportation industry to date. National officially turned over its information systems operation and most of its IS staff to EDS on Jan 1, 1991. It hopes to use the outsourcing scheme to secure the resources necessary for its long-term IS strategy, according to company officials. The company will have access to EDS personnel resources for special projects, and EDS will be able to call on former National IS employees for other projects. Another National goal is to use EDS as a marketing outlet for the strategic software it develops for the car rental industry. National is working with EDS on a system that will automate car rental returns by allowing cars to automatically transmit information to a central computer via radio frequency link as they enter National lots. Is it real, or is it digitized? (altering photos with computers) Alexander, Michael. Today's desktop microcomputers can modify what people perceive as 'reality' through techniques ranging from photo retouching to virtual reality, which lets users interact with each other and with data in a three-dimensional computer-generated world. Analysts and technologists are now concerned about the ethical issues raised by these new technologies, including whether users should be told whether what they are seeing in an application is contrived or not and what standards of behavior should be applied in multi-user virtual realities. One user could do psychological harm to another user if rules are not clearly defined. Experts point to an experiment in which two users could enter and control each other's computer 'bodies,' an unethical but unrestricted practice. Some see the evolution of a professional code of ethics similar to those prevailing in journalism, broadcasting and other areas. Results speak louder than explanations. (how chief information officers should justify their existence) Some 'experts' recommend that chief information officers (CIOs) spend nearly half their time justifying their existence in face-to-face meetings with senior management, but these activities are unproductive because management is interested in actual results rather than explanations. The most successful information systems managers are those who have actually implemented programs resulting in productivity gains, improved profitability or increased market share; department heads who do this receive favorable consideration when management allocates expenses. Chief information officers who implement truly strategic systems that help achieve corporate goals do not need words to justify themselves; successful information systems development does not require a greater understanding of information technology on the part of business personnel, but does require that technology personnel understand business. Battling the technology giants. (large companies use legal means to attack competitors after losing their technological edge) Large companies that have fallen behind their competitors in technology increasingly turn to legal means to threaten smaller but more vital firms, a situation that threatens to chill entrepreneurship and innovation. Intel and Motorola changed the microprocessor market by losing their 'edge' and attempting to force outmoded standards upon computer vendors, opening the way for more innovative companies such as Sun Microsystems to compete with their reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor designs. Three large vendors are suing Cypress Semiconductor Corp amid 'intellectual property' rhetoric, but none of the cases has merit. Unmasking Unix's many faces. (flavors of Unix operating system) Ambrosio, Johanna. The Unix operating system is a widely accepted standard but is available in many different 'flavors' which appear similar on the surface but are strikingly different in some areas. Networking is one area in which variations are especially apparent. Many stand-alone Unix systems are only now being linked with each other and with corporate mainframes, posing new challenges for information systems managers. Porting applications from one Unix variant to another can also be difficult; each vendor adds its own proprietary system calls to the 'generic' Unix calls, and some multivendor shops prefer to use only the generic calls when programming. Others choose to simply reduce the number of Unix variants they use. DG users concerned about software quality. (North American Data General Users Group posts results of annual survey) The North American Data General Users Group (NADGUG) annual user survey indicates that users are most concerned about the continuation of software quality and availability, service and support and continuity for DG's proprietary line of MV minicomputers. Software is users' chief concern, but many complain about unsatisfactory field service and support while others express worry about the company's long-term financial viability. Users note that DG has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, but its continued existence gives many hope. Some speculate that the current recession is luring users away from DG support to less costly third-party service agreements. DEC fees buy a headache. (Digital Equipment Corp. users must pay to upgrade VAX/VMS operating systems for new CPUs)(Commentary) DEC is now demanding payment from users who upgrade their hardware with used CPUs and wish to transfer their VAX/VMS licenses to the new machines. The move ends a 10-year tradition of allowing customers who buy used equipment to install VMS on it at no charge and was implemented with no warning or public announcement. Irate resellers and users complained loudly to DEC, which is reconsidering its policy and expects to announce a 'clarification' by Feb 1, 1991. DEC's policies were ambiguous over the years because used equipment did not become a major market vendor until the mid-1980s, when used VAX 6000s began to compete with DEC's own sales force. The vendor is attempting to regain control; charging upgrade fees when a user moves an operating system to a more powerful CPU is accepted industry practice, but the claim that an upgrade requires an entirely new VMS license seems aimed at 'punishing' those who do not deal directly with DEC. Pac Bell mainframe takes specialist's role. (Pacific Bell uses Unisys A17 mainframe as communications processor) West Coast telephone company Pacific Bell decided to leverage general-purpose computers instead of buying new dedicated hardware when it launched its Message Center voice-mail service in Dec 1990. The firm uses a Unisys Corp A17 computer running DMS II database software to support thousands of voice mail 'boxes.' Software creates the logical 'mailboxes' and tracks incoming calls, and the company's packet-switched network lets Message Center communicate with existing voice-mail systems from other vendors. Pacific Bell chose the Unisys system for its flexibility, hoping to modify the service as demand increases and deploy future applications faster than is possible on dedicated systems. Its move is part of a larger trend in the telephone industry; telephone companies now use a wide variety of computers to support special applications. Trade-ins can sweeten PC deal: some outlets giving credit for used models as a way of luring customers. (includes related article on Many computer dealers now offer 'trade-in' deals that give users credit for bringing in used equipment when purchasing new machines. The 300-store Valcom Inc chain has 50 outlets participating in its trade-in program, offering near market value for old machines based on current Boston Computer Exchange prices. Valcom expects that large customers will take more advantage of the program than smaller businesses because large firms have many old machines on their hands. Some users express interest in trade-ins, but others feel that the deals are not worth the trouble because they can sell the machines to employees for their home use. Users' trust in Mac slip sliding away. Daly, James. A survey of information systems professionals reveals that user confidence in the Apple Macintosh microcomputer is dropping, although most users remain basically satisfied with the machines. The introduction of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface for IBM-compatible systems significantly reduced Apple's technological edge because Windows offers true multitasking while the Mac does not. Another key Macintosh weakness is the lack of networking product offerings. Users also complain about Apple's poor support record and note that these well-known problems have caused third-party software vendors to shy away from the Mac, reducing the number of applications available. Most Apple users nevertheless want to stick with their machines; 84 percent said that the availability of low-cost 80386-based PC clones running Windows will not affect their Mac purchase plans. Sun holds leader role in workstation market. (Dataquest Inc.report indicates that Sun Microsystems Inc. continues to dominate Market research firm Dataquest Inc reports that Sun Microsystems Inc retained its lead in the workstation market in 1990 through its momentum and reputation for quality. IBM and Silicon Graphics Inc gained slight market share, while DEC and HP lost ground. The Dataquest report attributes slow growth in the workstation arena to price competition as well as an overall slowdown in the US economy. Sun is expected to have difficulty retaining its lead in 1991 as clones of the Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC) design proliferate and as users come to prefer the Motif graphical user interface, which Sun ignores in favor of its Open Look design. HP's difficulties are attributed to its struggles to merge its own product line with that of its Apollo division; its strength lies in its ability to sell into both technical and commercial markets. DEC's slow sales are due to a lack of available software. HP's Vectra 486: reliable but costly. (Hardware Review) (HP Vectra 486 microcomputer) (evaluation) HP's Vectra 486 microcomputer is a solid, reliable product that produces excellent results in benchmark tests and is compatible with most hardware and software. Its base price is a relatively high $13,099 and includes a 330Mbyte hard disk drive, 2Mbytes of standard RAM and six Extended Industry Standard Architecture expansion slots. Performance is rated at 'very good' to 'excellent,' and compatibility at 'excellent' to 'good.' Overall value is average for an Intel 80486-based product, and the machine earns high marks as a file server. Northgate's Elegance: a lot of power for a low price. (Hardware Review) (Northgate Elegance microcomputer) (evaluation) Industry reviewers give Northgate Computer Systems' Elegance microcomputer high marks for both performance and value, noting that it offers an unusually low price in an 80486-based system. The mail-order machine costs only $5,599 with a 200Mbyte hard drive, two floppy drives, a VGA monitor and a mouse. It does better than competitors in benchmark tests, although it lacks BIOS shadowing; no compatibility glitches occur. The Elegance is suitable as a network server only on small to medium-sized LANs because it uses an XT/AT bus architecture, but Northgate officials respond that they now offer an Extended Industry Standard Architecture version. Marist creating a high-tech campus. (Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY) Marist College, a tiny liberal-arts school in Poughkeepsie, NY, has formed a $13 million partnership with IBM to wire virtually every room on campus to use state-of-the-art voice and data communications systems. The 3,200-student school is located near an IBM plant, and approximately 10 percent of its graduates are eventually hired by IBM. IBM is providing the college with a Rolm 9751 CBX switch, Rolm phone mail and Token-Ring LANs; Marist is paying for cabling and a fiber-optic backbone for linking buildings to each other and to its existing IBM 3090 200E mainframe. The mainframe was donated by IBM for a study designed to gauge the impact of large computing capabilities on small environments. Marist college VP of information services notes that each floor of each dormitory will eventually have its own Token-Ring local area network. Terminal servers cut LAN costs. (use of 'cluster controllers') Wexler, Joanie M. Terminal servers, or 'LAN-adaptable cluster controllers,' help many large users reduce network costs by allowing microcomputer or terminal users to link to multiple hosts simultaneously and are one of the fastest-growing segments of the networking market. Sales of terminal servers, which connect terminals and other devices to local area networks, reached $435 million in 1990 with 2.3 million ports shipped. A terminal server eliminates the need to hard-wire individual devices to a host, reducing cabling costs. Data private-branch exchanges are an alternative to terminal servers but allow access to only one host at a time and do not deal with cabling headaches. DEC leads the terminal-server market and recently began to license its proprietary Local Area Transport (LAT) protocol to other vendors. Many products now support both LAT and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. New tools, new troubles. (computer integrated manufacturing)(Commentary) (column) Computer-integrated manufacturing, like any other powerful technology, can be abused when the needs of users in management and operations conflict. Two approaches to implementing CIM are the traditional method of running all systems off a large mainframe and the 'Trojan horse' method of bringing microcomputers into the shop floor and using these as a basis for expansion. IBM's CIM Advantage program attempts to please end users with user-friendly 'enabling' tools, but the convenience of such products as the third-party Process Operations Management Systems (POMS) can place managers on a 'power trip' that leads to resentment among plant managers and operators. POMS is designed to improve quality control by automatically collecting and tracking detailed process information, but supervisors can create paranoia among operators if their use of it is tyrannical. Waste Management uses hybrid IS structure to run garbage business. (Waste Management of North America Inc.)(includes related article Waste Management of North America Inc, the nation's largest garbage collector and landfill operator, uses a hybrid 'centrally decentralized' information systems organization. The centralized operation at Waste Management's headquarters in Oak Brook, IL performs software development for both large systems and microcomputers and support functions such as data center administration, telecommunications and a help desk. It also negotiates volume purchase agreements for the IS departments at other Waste Management business units and advises them about standards, future technologies and IS architectures. Regional operations include 550 field locations, all IBM shops. Waste Management is one of the largest users of IBM AS/400 minicomputers, which perform a wide variety of scheduling, customer billing and landfill management functions. The company uses computer-aided software engineering tools for application development and has 400 information systems employees. High-end modems: safe at any speed? (includes related articles on modem software, leased lines, V.32bis) (buyers guide) Modem vendors offer many products implementing the proposed V.32bis standard for 14.4K-bps throughput despite the fact that it has not yet been ratified yet and is still being refined. High-speed modems are also dropping in price. V.32bis is aimed at industries such as banking which require fast, interactive communications and bandwidth-intensive applications such as multiuser support and bulk file transfers. Its higher speed will appeal to those who need to back up leased lines and to users running data-intensive CAD, graphics and imaging applications. Analysts warn that high-speed communications can be risky. Interrupts can cause lost data if a communications program runs on top of OS/2 or Microsoft Windows. Industry leader Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc offers an 'ESP' board that supports operations at 19.2K-bps on MS-DOS machines and can handle multitasking operating systems with a special software driver. A table of high-speed V.32bis modems available is included. Visualizing information planning. (information systems management) (tutorial) A guide to strategic planning of information resources is presented. Three graphical planning methodologies are the information supply and demand matrix, the value matrix and the information supply architecture matrix. Each matrix has four rows representing functional levels of management responsibility: strategic, planning and analysis, control and monitoring and operations. Each level requires different types of information technology support, and each cell in a supply-and-demand matrix contains a list of specific activities needed to perform the functions, the information needed to cary them out effectively and a color code indicating how well information is currently supplied to the activity. The value matrix method assigns a 'score' to each cell representing the value that its functions contribute to the company's strategic goals. The information supply architecture method uses the same columns and rows as the other matrix types but maps out application systems as polygons that overlap cells containing the functions they support. Intel anticipates 'biggest year ever.' (Intel Corp. CEO Andrew Grove discusses company's plans) Intel Corp CEO Andrew Grove says that he expects 1991 to be Intel's 'biggest year ever' despite the spreading economic recession, although the company is tightening its belt in areas other than its core semiconductor business. Analysts also expect Intel to be the 'fastest growing semiconductor company of its size,' with approximately $4.5 billion in anticipated 1991 sales. The company is ready for capital expansion, according to Grove, because it has narrowed its focus and tried to slow down 'business as usual' growth. Intel will focus on developing new products for the fast-growing notebook and laptop computer markets in 1991 and is considering mass-producing convenient connectivity solutions for such machines. It will also expand the 80486 microprocessor product line, offering affordable versions of the high-end chip. The company's problems include a series of ongoing intellectual property rights lawsuits with Advanced Micro Devices Inc, but Grove expects new marketing strategies to offset any competitive pressure. Intel has abandoned plans to develop its own Unix workstation and will make the funds allocated to the aborted project available for completion of two new fabrication plants in Albuquerque, NM. Unisys adds to sales force with resellers. (Unisys Corp.)(includes related article on former NCR executive Hugh Lynch's appointment Unisys Corp is expanding its value-added reseller (VAR) program and plans to add new sales personnel in specific areas where its products have sold well. The company, which is still struggling to recover from a loss of $356.8 million in 3rd qtr 1990 and a massive layoff of 5,000 employees, will move in directly on large accounts and allow VARs to sell into smaller sites to reduce direct-sales overhead. Unisys plans to continue writing its own off-the-shelf applications, according to Computer Systems Products Group Pres Cyril J. Yansouni. It has also adopted the Integrated Information Environment multivendor open-systems architecture for its products. Many large Unisys customers were already in the process of implementing mixed-vendor environments when the company began pushing its new solutions. Pounding and repounding the pavement. (job-hunting strategies for laid-off information systems employees)(part 1) Many laid-off information systems (IS) professionals are encountering unexpected difficulty in finding a new job because positions are scarce and competition stiff. Programmer Carlos Guerrero has been job-hunting unsuccessfully for a year since he was laid off from Morse Shoe Inc in Canton, MA after completing half of a two-year training program in the IBM DOS operating system. Guerrero and others find that the response rate from sending out resumes is very low, and are working with career counselors on constructing improved resumes and cover-letters. Consulting, teaching and sales are options for those who are concerned that they may have taken the wrong career path. Guerrero says that his loss of income has forced him to cut back on his lifestyle, but he has obtained some free-lance work. Self-confidence is one important factor in sustaining the laid-off programmer. Desktop publishing for less than $200. (guide to selecting low-end desktop publishing tools) A guide to selecting low-end desktop publishing software is presented. Many high-end word processors, such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, offer some built-in publishing capabilities such as multi-column text, font handling and graphics integration. Dedicated page-layout packages are available for less than $200. Important features to evaluate include WYSIWYG capability, the ability to import text, text-processing features, font limitations, page design and layout features, graphics handling and the ability to handle portrait and landscape modes. Some desktop publishing packages include advanced text-processing features such as hyphenation, kerning, word spacing and global search and replace. Many packages have built-in fonts, but these are generally of poor quality compared to third-party fonts. Page layout features include text wrap around graphics, kerning, leading and letter spacing. A good package should be able to support such graphics file formats as EPS, PICT, TIFF and PCX. Mattel VSAT net to be dismantled. (Mattel Inc. scraps very small aperture terminal network) Toy manufacturer Mattel Inc plans to dismantle a 2-year old satellite-based network of very small aperture terminals (VSATs) in response to complaints from overseas sites of slow performance and interrupted transmissions of CAD files. Mattel's IS department has decided on a fiber-optic based system for its future worldwide networking needs. The present VSAT system, which connects Mattel's data center in Phoenix to manufacturing sites in the Far East and manufacturing and distribution centers in Europe, supports IBM SNA interaction among the sites. Most sites have only 9.6K-bps data lines, which are inadequate for satellite communications. The VSATs are also vulnerable to bad weather conditions and force communications between European affiliates to pass through the Phoenix hub. Mattel's new network will reduce response time and will carry voice as well as data transmissions, reducing costs. Travelers goes wireless. (Travelers Corp. installing wireless local area networks) The Travelers Corp has decided to use wireless local area networks to support its 21 field offices. The company has committed to installing six BICC Communications Infralan units at a cost of $2,995 each. It has been beta testing the Infralan, which is based on infrared technology and is standards-based, for several months. Travelers executives say that the Infralan's cost of approximately $500 per port compares favorably with the cost of cabling and offers the advantage of reusability, enabling the firm to amortize it over five years. Infralan is installed by aligning bar graphs on its base unit with optical nodes, two of which ship with each six-port base. Intel moves on mass memory market. (Intel Corp. offer memory boards for IBM, Compaq, HP, Zenith Data Systems memory modules) Intel Corp plans to enter the RAM market with new single in-line memory modules (SIMMs) that fit the 72-pin sockets in some IBM, Compaq, Zenith Data Systems and HP microcomputers. Users previously had to buy expensive system-vendor upgrades for these machines or buy from little-known third-party suppliers. Analysts expect Intel to gain market leverage from its name and reputation as well as compete on price; 1Mbyte, 2Mbyte and 4Mbyte modules will sell for $225, $445 and $945 respectively. Some system vendors nevertheless remain wary; Compaq cautions against installing third-party memory boards, and dealers may prefer to configure complete IBM systems. Stolen laptop jeopardizes UK's Persian Gulf lans. (military laptop computer in London) UK police officials launch a massive security investigation into the theft of a laptop computer containing data crucial to that nation's secret plans for the war against Iraq. Police have interviewed hundreds of known criminals and their 'fences' in an attempt to locate the machine, which was stolen from an official car on Dec 17, 1990. Government officials are controlling news reports, which generally accept that the thief was a common criminal and was not aware of the potential for compromising military secrets. Other items stolen included two briefcases containing classified papers, both of which were recovered at a garbage dump with the papers intact. Bank's IS awaits FDIC actions. (Bank of New England) Wilder, Clinton. Information systems personnel at the failed Bank of New England are performing normal business tasks in anticipation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's actions as new owner. The FDIC bailed out the $30 billion regional bank on Jan 6, 1991, leaving the future of its IS and vendor contracts questionable. Managers say that the FDIC may ask the bank to run special reports on its customer base as potential buyers work with federal regulators on a possible sale of the bank's assets. A sale could cancel all of the Bank of New England's contracts with external information-systems suppliers, including SEI Corp, its primary outsourcing contractor. The bank has slashed its operations staff from 4,200 to 3,000 and laid off nearly half its programming staff. The FDIC is likely to eventually own some of the bank's assets and would process transactions on its newly-acquired IBM Enterprise System/9000 Model 720 mainframe computer. DEC bows to financial pressure; targets at least 3,500 for layoffs. DEC has announced plans to layoff at least 3,500 employees, about three percent of its worldwide workforce of 120,000. A total of 2,550 employees accepted a voluntary severance plan in the first two months of 1991. The severance package consisted of between 13 and 77 weeks pay depending on years of service. Medical, dental and life insurance benefits for those laid off is to be calculated in the same way. A total workforce reduction of 6,000 is planned by the end of the fiscal year. Financial analysts have been advising the company to reduce the size of its work force in an attempt to make DEC more competitive. The decision is the first time in the company's 33 year history that it has resorted to layoffs. Sony unwraps R3000-based unix laptop. (Sony Microsystems' News 3250 Laptop Workstation) (product announcement) Sony Microsystem's $9,900 News 3250 Laptop Workstation is the company's latest in the News line of workstations and is the first Unix laptop based on Mips Computer Systems' 20-MHz R3000 reduced instruction-set computing microprocessor. The unit runs the Unix System V release 4 operating system, features a 240Mbyte internal hard drive and 8Mbytes of main memory. An 11-inch backlit monochrome liquid crystal display with 1,120 lines by 780 pixels resolution is standard, along with a compact-disk quality audio subsystem for multimedia applications. A 406Mbyte hard disk version retails at $11,900. The unit also features Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface, MIT's X windows, TCP/IP and NFS, and weighs in at nearly 18 pounds. Prototyping tools convert SunView code to Motif GUIs. (graphics user interfaces) (Expert Objects' DXMConvert) (product Expert Object's $2,500 DXMConvert is a suite of tools that creates a prototype of Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface from SunView source code that can be used on a RISC/Ultrix system. The package includes a SunView analysis module called CvtTool, and a Motif conversion module called ExoConvert. Large portions of the Motif conversion process can be automated because these modules are integrated into Expert Object's visual interface programming systems. The program basically allows a user to take original SunView source code and create a Motif prototype running on a DECstation. No manual coding is required at the outset of the conversion process, although it may be required for some SunView applications using low-level graphic primitives. CASE suite from DEC comes to RISC/Ultrix. (computer-aided software engineering, reduced instruction-set computing) (DEC Fuse) Digital Equipment Corp introduced a $1,500 computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool entitled DEC Fuse, designed for the reduced instruction-set computing RISC/Ultrix environment. The package is a suite of visual CASE tools and language compilers that include editors, a program builder, a debugger, a profiler, a call-graph browser, a code manager, a cross-referencer, and a multicast message server for integration. The package was developed with Brown University of Providence, Rhode Island. DEC Fuse is a back-end tool that allows testing, coding, and debugging, and places a graphical user interface on top of the utilities. Low-end VAX 40000, X update for VAXstation 2000 coming. (Digital Equipment Corp's VAX 4000 200) (product announcement) Digital Equipment Corp is about to introduce a low-end model of its VAX 4000 minicomputer that includes 6.5 MicroVAX II units of processing power (MVUPs). The list price for a ten-user VAX 400 Model 200 with 8Mbytes of memory will be $35,000. A 1.5Gbyte version will be $50,000. Both will support DSSI and carry a Q-bus option. The VAXstation 4000 Model 100 will offer 10 MVUPs and be the first VMS workstation shipped with the company's 100Mbyte-per-second Turbo-channel I/O bus. In addition, DEC plans to release an X windows upgrade for older VAXstations. Clarity tool suite brings multimedia to Unix workstations. (Rapport) (product announcement) Clarity Software Inc has introduced Clarity Rapport, a $895 suite of software tools that includes a compound document editor, spreadsheet, electronic mail, presentation graphics, and audio and facsimile capabilities for a number of workstation platforms. Text, graphics and spreadsheets can be exchanged, along with mixed-media images such as raster images and audio. Object-oriented components of the tools work together, with objects themselves being placed within other objects. The package conforms to graphical user interface standards for Open Software Foundation's Motif and Open Look, and allows documents to be exchanged with non-Rapport Unix, Macintosh and IBM-compatible platforms. Keane integrates quality-control software with Rdb database. (John A. Keane and Associates introduces QMS enhancement) John A. Keane and Associates has introduced a version of its QMS quality-control and testing software for the Rdb data base management system. Until now, QMS has only been available for its proprietary data base. The new version was developed with the technical assistance of DEC's Rdb Solutions Vendor Program. The company intends to offer existing QMS customers a remapping capability so they can take advantage of Rdb. The Rdb version will allow the stand-alone QMS version to be easily sharable and accessible to all elements of a company. Shop-floor data is pulled into Rdb for analysis using an import capability, thus facilitating the distribution of manufacturing information. The Rdb version of QMS costs $29,000 for a standard configuration. DEC share of workstation market drops four points; analysts cite VMS-to-Unix transition. (according to survey by Dataquest) Hewlett-Packard, DEC, and Sun Microsystems accounted for almost 70 percent of worldwide workstation revenues according to a new survey released by marketing research firm, Dataquest. DEC's individual share of the $7.4 billion market in 1990 was $1.3 billion, a 2.2 percent increase over 1989. Even though the company had a growth rate, the 2.2 percent listed was the lowest of all workstation vendors. Some analysts point out that this was due to the transition from the company's VMS-based workstations, where sales have been declining, to its proprietary RISC/Ultrix DECstations. DEC's overall workstation share dropped from 21 percent in 1989, to 17.7 percent in 1990. The average revenue growth among all workstation vendors for 1990 was 21.5 percent. Apple bolsters X implementations for Macintosh and A/UX systems; optimizes TCP for the Mac. Apple Computer is now offering two graphical user interfaces for use with its proprietary A/UX Unix environment. MacX 1.1 runs under MacOS and A/UX, and is at least twice as fast as MacX 1.0. X Window System 2.1 for A/UX runs under A/UX only. The main difference between the two is that, while with MacX the on-screen appearance of X window applications appears in a window, with X Window System 2.1 it takes over the whole screen. The performance of Apple's X windows has been improved by basing them on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's X windows standard version 11, release 4. Both offering give the user the ability to access X window applications on other platforms. X Window System 2.1 for A/UX is priced at $349 for a single license, with manuals costing $195. MacX 1.1 retails at $295 for a single license including manuals. Text, graphics, spreadsheet combined in RISC/Ultrix package. (Applix's Asterix) (product announcement) Applix's $695 Asterix program is a combined word processing, graphics and spreadsheet document preparation package that runs on RISC/Ultrix workstations. It is designed to combine graphics and text in a single WYSIWYG document, and supports PostScript printers. The program allows for the customization of many functions by including a set of macros. A minimum of 8Mbytes of RAM is recommended. Asterix supports both, Open Software Foundation's Motif graphical user interface, and X windows. The list price does not include the spreadsheet option. The version featuring the spreadsheet retails at $995. Improved components bolster 8mm reliability. (backup tape systems) Bowen, Ted Smalley. Industry analysts maintain that new developments in 8mm technology have vastly improved the use of the medium in backup tape systems. Initially there was severe criticism of the technology's soundness. Some analysts now maintain that Digital audio tape is moving closer in price and performance to 8mm tape. Changes in HSC controllers and software, and 8mm drives have combined to enhance the reliability of 8mm backup systems. A recent survey from Reliability Ratings added credence to this view by showing that the failure rate for systems installed more than nine months ago was far greater than the failure rate for systems installed in the past nine months. In the survey, the failure rates of 500 machines in mainly clustered environments were studied. Polygon releases alternative to DEC's PC integration software. (Poly-Net 2.0, Poly-Link) (product announcement) Polygon has released Poly-Link, a network software package that allows VMS disk, file, and print services to PC LANs, and Poly-Net 2.0, a communications package that supports Local Area Transport and PC LAN protocols to VT emulation programs. Poly-Net is compatible with both VMS and Ultrix, and can reside on an individual microcomputer or on a LAN server. The two packages are similar in that they both allow users to switch between LAN server and VMS sessions, by providing simultaneous support of multiple protocols. Poly-Link allows VAX resources to be available to PC users, permitting access to multiple VAXes from the PC LAN, and transferring files between DOS and RMS formats. Poly-Net is priced at $149 and Poly-Link costs $349 per user license. Legent buys supplier of IBM connectivity software. (Flexlink International) Legent Corp has acquired the assets of Flexlink International, a privately owned company that publishes connectivity software for IBM mainframes. The acquisition, which includes Flexlink's MetaNetwork Architecture product, enables Legent to market itself as more than just a supplier of software to IBM Systems Network Architecture shops. Now the company can address standards-compliant network protocols as well as DECnet. The company has been renamed the Legent Interoperability Systems Group, and will retain Wesley Dehn, Flexlink's president, to run the unit as a divisional vice president. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Plastic fiber deserves consideration. Hancock, Bill. Plastic fiber offers some distinct advantages over glass fiber in terms of use as a communications medium. It is lightweight, easy to install and resilient, although it does have aspects that limit its use in the commercial field. The three main advantages of the medium are its flexibility, its low price, and its ability to be easily spliced and tapped. Price is a major factor in glass fiber's favor. Although the per-foot cost is only slightly less than glass fiber, the time and expertise required in installation leads to major cost savings. Problems associated with the medium include the need for intermediate repeaters on long runs, and a lack of vendor availability and plastic fiber expertise. Another major problem is that plastic fiber standards need to be developed for it to become a viable, global medium. A gem of a disk drive. (Seagate Technology's Elite ST41520N) (Hardware Review) (includes related articles on two caching Seagate Technology's $3,995 Elite ST41520N is a 5.25-inch drive that has a 240Kbyte buffer, 192Kbytes of which can act as cache. The drive supports Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) 2 command set and has an unformatted 1.6Gbyte capacity, with 1.28Gbyte available formatted. The SCSI Elite uses 17 read/write heads and spins at 5400 rpm. Higher capacity and transfer rates are generally offered by SCSI drives because of their use of on-board caches, better multiuser throughput, and more efficient use of the disk platter by utilizing zone bit recording (ZBR) techniques. The SCSI Elite is an excellent product offering high capacity at a reasonable price. It is also possible to couple up to seven drives together to provide a subsystem offering nearly 9Gbytes of storage. Building a whole greater than the sum of its parts. (consolidating data centers) (includes related articles on consolidation not Many organizations are changing their mainframe-based operations to larger more cost-effective data centers. The increased power of midrange and desktop computers, enhanced wide-area network (WAN) and client/server computing environments have combined to bring about the change, making system consolidation a profitable strategy. Consolidating hardware reduces system expenditures by additionally cutting costs in computer operations, real estate, personnel and software. Many analysts maintain that real estate occupancy and personnel savings usually far out way hardware cost cuts. In addition reducing a large-system configuration allows for the elimination of many mid-range computers that had previously supported each data site's mainframes. Consolidating systems can exact substantial up-front costs though, such as communication expenses and personnel training. Toshiba-Micral team fields MCA chip set. (Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc.; Bull Micral of America Inc) Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc has formed an alliance with Bull Micral of America Inc, the US arm of France's Groupe Bull, to produce and market a chip set designed by Bull to support the 80486 on the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus. MCA growth will accelerate in 1991, according to Toshiba's research, becoming popular in high-end microcomputers. The MCA chip set incorporates a bus master direct memory access (DMA) controller, a memory-bus controller, an address buffer-data buffer, and a peripheral support chip. The set offers eight channels of DMA, memory refresh and arbitrations, and can be programmed to emulate the operation of two 8237 DMA controllers. Philips challenges DAT. (digital audio tape) Doherty, Richard. N.V. Philips (Eindhoven, Netherlands) introduced a new digital cassette system on the eve of the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, challenging the digital audio tape market. Philips' new digital compact cassette (DCC) can play digital as well as analog cassette tapes that are already on the field. The company will push the new technology as the next recording standard, since digital audio tape (DAT) is off to a slow start in the US. DCC's technology enables users to record and play audio signals on digital tape as well as playing standard analog cassette tapes. An array of thin-film recording heads is used in DCC systems, rather than the rotating heads used in DAT. NKK stakes static RAMs at Paradigm. (random access memory; Paradigm Technology Inc.) NKK Corp, a leading Japanese steel firm, has made a technology and equity investment in Paradigm Technology Inc, a small Silicon Valley firm that specializes in static random access memory (SRAM). The $11 million investment entails a $5 million cash infusion and a $6 million payment in exchange for access to Paradigm's submicron process technology. In addition, NKK has acquired the rights to sell and produce the SRAMs in the Far East. The deal came about after AT & T's SRAM deal with Paradigm collapsed, and after AT & T signed an agreement with Logic Devices Inc that conflicted with the Paradigm agreement, according to some observers. Modem ICs move up; target laptops with 9,600 bits/s. (includes a related article on integrated circuit manufacturers; integrated A new generation of semiconductors that support full-duplex data transmission at 9,600-bps speeds is entering the market in 1991, due to improved CMOS chip processes that involve more integration and lower power dissipation. The new hybrid integrated circuits and chip sets are targeted for high-volume laptop and microcomputers, rather than external-modem applications. The chips should reduce the cost and size of V.32 modems for laptops, and have a significant effect on embedding the 9,600-bps technology into desktops, rather than standalone modems. Vendors include such companies as AT & T Microelectronics, Rockwell, and Intel. Sporck to step down, Amelio is stepping in. (Gilbert F. Amelio; Charles Sporck) National Semiconductor Corp will be lead by Gilbert F. Amelio, as the 24-year veteran Charles Sporck steps down to retire. Amelio will leave his position as president of Rockwell Communications Systems (Dallas) and share the CEO and president position until Sporck retires in May 1991. Sporck preferred Amelio from the beginning, although the company searched an up-to-date database of candidates from both inside and outside the firm. The most important factor in selecting Amelio was his PhD in physics and his experience with top research and development firms. The company has had its ups and downs in recent months, though it was profitable in its last quarter. Sun passes its VME Sparc baton to Force. (Sun Microsystems Inc.; Force Computers Inc.) Sun Microsystems Inc has joined Force Computers Inc in an agreement that will put its Sparc RISC architecture into real-time VME-based applications. In the end, Sun will phase out its manufacturing of Sparcengine 1E, a VME processor board to Force, from whom it will buy and resell boards. Force has already begun to design the Sparcengine 2E, a 6U VMEbus version of the Sparcstation 2 that it will make and both companies will market. The partnership between the two companies is hoped to be a long one, one objective being to prove that RISC and VME can be a successful combination. For Force, the partnership will be its first attempt to take on the Unix development environment for real-time software. Xsirius makes 'super' film. (Xsirius Superconductivity Inc.) Bindra, Ashok. Xsirius Superconductivity Inc has developed a way to deposit thin films of YBaCuO, a high-temperature superconducting compound, on dielectric substrates. This technique is an important part of the company's plans to manufacture superconducting components for the military. The company's subsidiary in Jerusalem, Xsirius Superconductivity Materials Ltd, is close to developing a pulsed-laser deposition method that will help produce a uniform superconducting film on magnesium oxide substrates, usually 3,000 to 5,000 A thick. These materials offer less surface resistance. These technologies will enable the company to reach its goal of industrial-scale manufacturing of high-quality superconducting chips. FCC looks at two-way services. (Federal Communications Commission) The Federal Communications Commission wants the public to make comments on a proposal to allocate 500 kHz of the radio spectrum for a data service and interactive video. TV Answer Inc has made a request to market a system the company has developed, a radio and satellite system that would enable television viewers to answer poll questions, take courses or order products at home. Through digital technology and satellite transmission, the system would potentially be a two-way communications service. A box is installed near the viewer's television, and transmissions from the box would be carried to the nearby base station operated by TV Answer. The system can process up to 600,000 responses simultaneously within a 10,000 home area. Taiwan Semi picks Brooks as president. (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.; Donald W. Brooks) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) Co appoints Donald W. Brooks, former president and CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor Corp, as president. In order to expand its business, the company strategically picked a well-known figure, since the company itself is well-known, according to company officials. TSM is expecting to more than double its revenue in the next few years. Brooks is a 25-year semiconductor veteran, not only a capable engineer but also an experienced manager and marketer. TSM was founded in 1986, the joint venture of private investors, N.V. Philips and the Taiwan Development Fund. The company offers integrated circuit manufacturing services. Sony video protocol gets nod. Doherty, Richard. Apple Computer Inc, MacroMind Inc and Farallon Computing Inc plan to incorporate Sony Corp's desktop video peripheral controller system and data architecture technology into their product lines, winning endorsements for Sony's new video protocol. VBOX, the video peripheral controller, and Video System Control Architecture (VSCA), the serial-port software protocol, will help in the development of multimedia and desktop video presentations that need videotape output or video source materials. VBOX will enable developers of desktop multimedia applications to economically record the commands for sophisticated audiovisual presentations on conventional video cassettes. Digital lights Fuse for interactive Unix tools. (DEC) (product announcement) DEC introduces the Fuse tool set which increases the software capability of its RISC-Unix-based workstations. Fuse gives DEC's Ultrix workstations the interactive capability that users have come to expect. Fuse development tools integrate C, Fortran and Pascal compilers with debuggers and editors, delivering high-quality graphics and interactive capabilities. DEC's RISC platform has been slow to catch on in the market. Fuse makes DEC's Unix platforms competitive with others. Programmers can run multiple, simultaneous debug sessions, as well as set breakpoints in the editor. The Fuse editor can be configured to operate as a vi editor or emacs. Yakitori: Japan toughens up. (column) Lammers, David. The semiconductor industry is in a constant state of conflict, and 1990 was a tough year for Japan's chip manufacturers. According to Dataquest Inc, the Japanese industry lost market share in memory for the first time, due mainly to the delay in the adoption of the 4M-bit DRAM. Other reasons include high fair market values, package size, and a decreased need from the microcomputer users. In addition, there were concerns about scarcities and attractive 1M-bit prices. Not many strong competitors outside of Japan developed during 1990. Hyundai had a rough time in 1990, with its 1M-bit design form Vitelic that proved to be too slow, and management shuffles. Computers off in Japan. Yoshida, Junko. Japanese computer production and related equipment growth slowed to 3.6 percent in 1990, the first time since 1976 that less than double-digit growth has occurred. The Japanese electronics industry's domestic production rose to $175.66 billion in 1990, up 4.6 percent from 1989, according to the Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ). Reasons for a stagnant market include downsizing trends, a drop in price for midrange computers, due in part to a growth in workstations, and the introduction of a new generation of mainframes from NEC Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, and NEC Corp. Japan's midrange and mainframe market in 1990 is expected to be flat or to show less of an increase. Amplicon: virtually alone? (Amplicon Liveline Ltd.) (product announcement) Amplicon Liveline Ltd develops the world's first virtual digital panel meter that displays the front panel in software only on the screen of a microcomputer. The hardware functions of the instrument are on a board plugged into the computer bus, and the front panel is displayed on screen, making it flexible, and capable of being changed. The VPM1 includes a half-length board with an opto-isolated 16-bit delta-sigma A/D converter. The board includes four software-selectable voltage ranges, including 20 mV, 200 mV, 2 V and 20 V. Over 20 functions are available and selectable by the software. Applications for the VPM1 include process control, weighing, level monitoring, and laboratory instrumentation. Growth to slow in Europe. Woolnough, Roger. The Gulf crisis and the world economic downturn are adversely affecting the West European electronics market. Industry is expected to show modest growth in the five-year period up to 1994. Germany, aided by its underlying strength, will do well. Spain will also do better than average, according to the 'Yearbook of World Electronics Data 1991, published by Elsevier Advanced Technology (Oxford, England). The book gives analysis on electronics production and markets for 14 countries. The total West European market in 1990 was worth $188.1 billion, a 2.7 percent increase over growth in 1989. 3Com cuts staff, announces product shift. Wirbel, Loring. 3Com will take a one-time net charge on income of approximately $45 million, and lay off 12 percent of its international staff. In addition, the company will take on a new direction, focusing on global networking, instead of workgroup products. The company will target large, heterogeneous environments, marketing such products as network adapters, communication servers, bridges, gateways and communication hubs. 3Com's LAN Manager has had slow growth due to the sluggish acceptance of the OS/2 operating system. Microsoft Corp will license 3Com's packages for LAN Manager, including the NetWare connectivity series, Macintosh connectivity services and X.500 directory services. Europe ups its share of home IC market. Woolnough, Roger. Research by Dataquest Europe indicates that European-owned semiconductor firms gained market share in the home computer market in 1990, reversing the downward trend. US firms also did slightly better, while Japanese and Asia/Pacific firms lost ground. However, the total European semiconductor market fell by 4.7 percent to $8,554 million European currency units. The changes were due to the collapse of memory prices, with selling prices more than halved. Only Toshiba, in Japan, improved its ranking among Japanese firms, according to Dataquest's polling of the top 20 in the European market. Microtips tech may spawn a flat CRT. (technique) (cathode ray tube) Leti, a unit of the French Atomic Energy Commission, is conducting a research program to develop a flat cathode-ray tube (CRT) which could offer advantages over thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays. Only a monochrome display has so far been demonstrated, although Leti is seeking partners to help develop commercial applications. The CRT, known as the microtips fluorescent display, is based on low-voltage cathodoluminescence and cold electron emission from a matrix array of field-emitter cathodes. The microtips fabrication process uses techniques that are used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. 'You want tech? We got it,' say Soviets. Mokhoff, Nicolas. The Soviet Union will convert technology used for military applications to commercial use, opening up a high-tech market to the West. However, not all technology is for sale. Soviets would like to share in joint developments as well. This conversion is a new concept for the Soviets, and they are slowly adapting to the intricacies of the market economy. The Soviet technology is good, despite the fact that their marketing efforts are often clumsy or naive. A new comprehensive directory entitled, 'The USSR Electronics Industry Production and Design Sites,' gives readers additional insights into Soviet microelectronics. VHDL users must cultivate different design procedures; learning will be difficult, but rewards are many. (VHSIC Hardware Many designers will begin using the VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) in 1991, boosting productivity. Learning will be difficult, although the rewards are many. Hardware description languages such as VHDL are programming languages targeted specifically for the development of electronic systems. These languages make it easier to express such concepts as event handling and concurrency. VHDL was ratified in 1987 as an IEEE standard, and VHDL is emerging as the industry standard. VHDL is a strongly typed language with a rich set of constructs and an Ada-like syntax. The overwhelming number of constructs in this language often frightens engineers. How VHDL's style influences synthesis. (VHSIC Hardware Description Language) The VHSIC Hardware Description Language includes many features for the design process, but a designer must understand how to communicate design intent to a synthesis system in order to design efficiently. In the synthesis phase of the design cycle designs are changed into a gate-level representation, then optimized according to design goals and the technology library used. The verification step must be done with performance characteristics of the technology considered. VHDL includes two classes of attributes, including user-defined and predefined. Most user-defined attributes are tool-dependent and can be used in a variety of ways. Software is the key to VXI's growth. Runyon, Stan. Attention is turning to system software, such as development aids, drivers and languages, to further the growth of VXI modules. For example, every module needs a drive, and every controller needs an interface. The VXIbus Consortium subcommittee deal with issues concerning the lack of standardization in interfaces, embedded controllers and application programs for creating front panels. Only a few vendors market commercial systems-type software for VXI. Designers are often forced to write their own software. However, several test, or code, generators are available to help in generating tests and designing front panels. Stanford ups instrument ante. (Stanford Research Systems) Runyon, Stan. What is needed for test-instruments in the 1990s is upscale performance at a low price, and the key solution may be found in commercial processors and ASICs. Stanford Research Systems (Sunnyvale, CA) market the DS345, priced at $1,895, function generator that includes a CMOS ASIC to deliver digitally synthesized waveforms. Their SR760 fast Fourier transform spectrum analyzer uses quick converters and Motorola 56000 digital signal processors to offer special analysis capabilities. The DS345 includes AM, FM, frequency sweep, burst and phase modulation, in addition to sines, squares, ramps and triangles and arbitrary waveforms. Bus stop: lambs, wolves, bugs & gremlins. (column) Lieberman, David. There is concern about using a microcomputer in an industrial environment, although the low cost of the microcomputer architecture makes an attractive alternative for designers of embedded systems. Problems related to the microcomputer are only partially real or perceived. The perceived value of a microcomputer in an industrial environment is less than a non-microcomputer unit, according to a typical customer. The non-microcomputer unit has a higher perceived value because of its 'image', because the microcomputer just does not look industrial. Users in an industrial environment are also concerned about the risk of an accidental shutdown problem due to the microcomputer's easily accessible on-off switch. 486 powers net server. (NF-200 from NetFrame Systems) (product announcement) NetFrame Systems Inc has created the NF200 series of network servers by incorporating the Intel 80486 into its smaller-configuration. Targeted for the low-end microcomputer market, the company is designing a faster version of its architecture. The system, priced at $26,950, offers a network server that is higher priced than a typical server and offers a full database. NetFrame is highlighting its functional multiprocessing environment, but focusing on its compliance with current software standards. The new servers will operate with unchanged versions of OS/2 1.21, LAN Manager 2.0 and NetWare 386. Analog angle: process-driven '91. (column) Gold, Martin. Amplifiers are gearing up to be more competitive during 1991, incorporating the newest complementary bipolar processes. AT & T will introduce CBIC V to foundry clients, used in such applications as video signal processing and cellular telephones. Harris Corp has been using the AT & T CB process as a bridge to its ultra-high speed CB, using dielectric isolation. National Semiconductor plans for creating op amps having npn and pnp transistors with GHz speeds, and is set to introduce a series of op amps with 100-MHz bandwidths. The best strategy for designers in choosing among the new processes and products is to know exactly what the various processes offer. Controller ICs use SCSI-2. Thompson, John. Cirrus Logic Inc introduces two SCSI disk drive controllers in 2.5- and 3.5-inch form factors, incorporating for the first time the company's latest SCSI-2 data-transfer standard. The products, CL-SH370 and SH351, eliminate the need for a second microcontroller in drive electronics. The disk controllers utilize the data-handling control logic essential for transfer across the SCSI bus, error correction and other data-specific functions. Only for handling head positioning and other electromechanical aspects of Winchester drives is one microcontroller needed. Generally, the only other control technology necessary beyond the new devices will be vendor-specific, value-added nuances. SH351 will ship in volume for $20 for 100-piece quantities. CL-SH370 will be priced $22 for the same quantity. Layout editor tackles analog ICs. (Cadence Design Systems Inc.'s Analog Artist Layout Editor computer-aided engineering tool) Cadence Design Systems Inc's Analog Artist Layout Editor makes the analog integrated circuit layout process easier, tightly coupling schematics and layouts and allowing device-level editing and parameterized cells. The product brings the layout process into the 1990s, and away from the primitive tools used currently. The product is an option for Cadence's Analog Artist Design System, designed specifically for analog integrated circuits. Designers can interactively pick a single device in the schematic using placement functions, and place a corresponding device in the layout.The Analog Artist Layout Editor is priced for $25,000 on DEC, H-P and Sun Microsystems platforms. Power Technologies: slimmed-down supplies. (column) Mankikar, Mohan. Various power devices were introduced in 1990 that simplify integrated circuit design. Some combine power circuits in hybrid assemblies, while others provide high on-chip integration levels. The goal has been to give designers a core around which a power supply can be designed without many external components. Different approaches are developed for different markets. Power Integrations' integrated circuits are targeted for high-voltage off-line switching power supplies with ac input. The company has created a series of pulse-width modulation chips that incorporate an integrated power switch and a controller designed for a 120-Vac input. Burn-in system bows; Bak Pak Tower uses conductive-heat technique. (EJ Systems Inc.'s Bak Pak Tower burn-in system) (product EJ Systems Inc uses a patented closed-loop conductive-heating technique to create a burn-in system for high-power devices and modules and high-pin count, called Bak Pak Tower. The system heats and monitors the device-case temperature with high accuracy. Bak Pak Tower, with prices starting at $60,000, is designed for dynamic or static burn-in tests. Its rotating tower is adaptable to robotics. Control of the device-case temperature surpasses the air-temperature gradient of military burn-in chambers, according to the company. High-speed devices can be clocked closer to the microcomputer board under dynamic testing, maintaining signal quality and eliminating long interconnections. How to cope with career turbulence; satellite broadcasts address instability in engineering jobs. Engineers are watching a series of satellite-beamed programs broadcasting live from the National Technological University (Fort Collins, CO) called 'Careers in Transition: Making Change Work for You,' a six-month course that is part of the university's Technical Professional Development Series. The objective of the series is to help engineers position themselves to successfully deal with changes in their profession. Approximately 50 companies have registered to broadcast the series, and more are expected to join by the end of Jan 1991. The series features 17 speakers, including experts in industry and consulting. Engineer jobless rate on the rise. Bellinger, Robert. Approximately 43,000 engineers were unemployed during 4th qtr 1990, according to Engineering Manpower Newsletter. The unemployment rate rose to 2.2 percent during the quarter from 1.4 percent in the prior year's corresponding qtr. However, engineering is holding up better than other professional groups, despite the fact that certain areas in the nation have been hit hard with joblessness. The unemployment picture is expected to improve during the next few months, beginning Jan 1991. These estimates are based on a compilation from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics and the progress of the federal funds rate. Interest rates are coming down, and an improved economy is expected. However, the Gulf Crisis could change the outlook drastically. The NSPE to meet. (National Society of Professional Engineers) Bellinger, Robert. The National Society of Professional Engineers is proposing dramatic changes for the engineering community. One proposal deals with the formation of a multidisciplinary professional society that would handle the professional and political concerns of the profession. Other proposals entail revamping engineering education and permitting international engineers to join. Much focus has been put on finding 'qualified' engineers to join, although it remains unclear what that definition is. The NSPE is debating whether it should become such an organization under these changes, and wonder if there would be any opposition from others. Boisjoly appeals for unity; form one group, whistle-blower asks. (Roger Boisjoly) Roger Boisjoly, the engineer that objected to the space shuttle Challenger going up, feels that there are too many engineering associations, believing that one group alone would have a stronger voice. Boisjoly, the former Morton Thiokol mechanical engineer, wrote a letter to the heads of the AEA, AACE and Provisional CCEE, asking them to unite under the established organization of the AEA. Boisjoly's appeal has fallen on deaf ears, and in fact, one additional organization has formed since his letter was sent, the American Institute of Engineers ( El Sobrante, CA). The prospects for one trade association do not look good. Career gain sparks job changes. Ryan, Margaret. Electronic engineers (EE) are more concerned with career advancement than salary increases when they change jobs, according to a survey of job-placement counselors. Only 21 percent said the EEs ranked salary as most important, while 38 percent rated career advancement as more important. Second place was a merger, or forced exit, as reasons for changing jobs. Other reasons included the desire for more responsibility, and an internal or blocked career path. The survey included responses from 200 placement counselors at 65 franchise offices of Fortune Personnel. The company wanted to know how the recession was affecting decision-making among EEs looking for work. Has T&M job slump finally hit bottom? Career opportunities in test and measurement. (test and measurement) The outlook for test and measurement business is likely to improve, since the market may be bottoming out. There are some areas that are brighter, including LTX Corp (Westwood, MA), a leading supplier of automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry. The company's fiscal 1991 1st qtr, ended Oct 1990, was the first profitable one in six qtrs, with revenue growing to more than $46 million, and operating profits exceeded $1 million. Tekelec (Calabasas, CA), a manufacturer of diagnostic software tools for the qualification and certification of digital telephone lines, is looking brighter as well. The company is looking for engineers with experience in C or extensions such as C + +. Flat sales spur bench-top test vendors to niche markets. (includes related articles on computer/bench-top test equipment combinations Manufacturers of bench-top test equipment are making heavy marketing efforts in niches showing substantial growth potential. Manufacturers are also playing up often-slight technical differences among products' user interfaces, pre-programmed routines and other features. For 1990, industry growth was only 5 percent to 10 percent, and for the next few years, few niches are expected to show substantial growth. Falling prices for testing equipment are keeping dollar volumes down despite a rise in unit sales. Niches that do show strong growth potential include highly sensitive instruments designed for communications uses, such as spectrum analyzers and almost any type of equipment that can test voice, video or data transmissions. Amelio to head National. (Gilbert Amelio will take over as president and CEO of National Semiconductor) Sixty-two-year-old Charles Sporck will retire as president and chief executive officer of Santa Clara, CA-based National Semiconductor in May 1991, to be replaced by Rockwell Communication Systems Pres Gilbert Amelio. Sporck and Amelio will share duties during a transition period beginning Feb 4, and Amelio will take full control at the end of May. Sporck founded National in 1967 and has headed the company ever since. He will remain on the company's board of directors but refrain from active management. Amelio, 47, has also served as an executive at Fairchild; the two men have known each other for about 20 years. A-12 subs assessing losses, prepare to bid on replacement. (subcontractors on Navy bomber) IBM, Westinghouse and other avionics subcontractors are shaken by the Defense Department's termination of the $7.5 billion A-12 stealth plane development program for the Navy. Prime contractors McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics immediately laid off more than 7,000 workers. Westinghouse and Texas Instruments were developing fire control radar for the A-12, while IBM's Federal Sector division supplied the chip-set computer for the aircraft. Other A-12 subcontractors include Honeywell, Litton Guidance and Controls division, Harris Government Systems, Garrett Airsearch, Martin Marietta and General Electric's Aircraft Electronics division. The Navy now will develop another attack airplane to replace the A-12; possibilities include a modernization of the 40-year-old Grumman A6 and an attack version of Grumman's F-14D fighter. NCR: AT&T may force meeting. (special stockholder meeting on AT and T's attempted takeover of NCR) NCR executives say they may be forced to hold a special stockholders' meeting. AT and T's hostile $6.12 billion tender offer, launched Dec 6, 1990, calls for a special stockholder meeting to discuss the offer if two-thirds of the stock is tendered by the mid-January deadline. NCR Pres Gil Williamson says much of the tendered stock is now in the hands of arbitrators. NCR is fighting the attempted takeover with legal and lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, 24 NCR shareholders have sued the company and its board members in an attempt to force acceptance of the $90-per-share tender offer. AT and T, in what it claims is an unrelated move, begins laying off workers in its computer operation. AT and T says the computer operation is losing money. Proxy fight begins for Zenith Electr. (Zenith Electronics Corp.) Nycor, a holding company funded and controlled by Fedders Corp, the air-conditioning manufacturer, launches a proxy fight to wrest control of Zenith Electronics Corp from present management. Nycor files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it will demand a list of Zenith Electronics shareholders and other information so that it may launch the proxy fight, which Nycor says is in the best interests of stockholders. In fall 1990, Nycor paid $10,886,700 for an 8.23 percent share of Zenith Electronics and announced that it was weighing a takeover attempt. Digital sets first layoffs; 3,500 jobs to go. (DEC) DEC announces plans for the first layoffs in its 33-year history. DEC management, which wants to cut 3,500 jobs by mid-1991, decided that a semi-voluntary severance program, coupled with attrition, was not reducing the work force sufficiently. Management had announced plans to cut 6,000 workers by Jun 1991; by the end of 1990, 2,500 workers had accepted the semi-voluntary retirement offer. The layoffs are expected to fall across all company units. DEC currently has 123,500 workers. DEC has been troubled by the recession and buyer switch to low-cost open computer systems. Groupe Bull enters Unix workstations. (introduces DPX/ProStations 25i and 25e) (product announcement) Groupe Bull enters the Unix workstation market by debuting the DPX/ProStations 25i and 25e, two 25-MHz Intel 80486-based machines slated for shipment by early March 1991. The 25i uses IBM's Micro Channel Architecture and starts at $12,995, while the 25e uses the rival EISA bus and starts at $13,495. Both computers come standard with 8Mbytes of expandable RAM, 213Mbyte disk drive, 16-inch color monitor, a Unix System V.3 derivative, SCO Open Desktop software, the Motif user interface and DOS support. Groupe Bull will primarily market the DPX/ProStations to commercial users. Groupe Bull is also developing a reduced-instruction-set computer based on chips from MIPS Computer Systems for late 1991 shipment. 3Com exiting packs, CPUs. (exiting software and computer markets) Lapedus, Mark. 3Com Corp is leaving the software and computer markets, which account for one-fifth of total revenues, in order to concentrate on networking hardware. As part of the move, 3Com will cut 1,700 jobs, about 12 percent of its total workforce, and it will take a $45 million charge in the 3rd qtr FY 1991, probably producing a loss for the fiscal year. 3Com stock fell $2 to $7.75 in the first hours after the announcement. 3Com's four-year-old 3+Open, its own version of LAN Manager, suffered in the competition against Novell's NetWare. 3+Open was plagued by bugs in its early versions; later on, a dearth of applications cut into sales. 3Com will also sell its 3station and 3server line of diskless servers. TI to add 040-based unit to mid-range Unix CPUs. (Texas Instruments to debut 1507 computer based on Motorola 68040 chip) Texas Instruments (TI) will debut the Motorola 68040-based 1507 workstation. Base-priced at $18,000, the 1507 essentially swaps a 25-MHz 040 chip for the 68030 chip in TI's year-old 1505. Volume shipments of the 1507 are planned for Feb 1991; however, other manufacturers have had trouble obtaining the 040 chip. The 1507 comes with 4Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 64Mbytes, and supports as many as 64 users. An upgrade from the 1505 costs $7,000. TI executives contend that the complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) 1507 performs on a par with currently available reduced-instruction-set computers (RISCs) and avoided any promise to deliver a RISC soon. International Data Corp's David Card estimates TI's 1989 computer revenues totaled about $260 million, of which half came from Unix sales. CEO resigns at Microscience. (Kevin Nagle of Microscience International Corp.) San Jose, CA-based disk drive manufacturer Microscience International Pres and CEO Kevin Nagle resigns and a three-man executive committee takes over day-to-day management of the firm. Microscience, which faces a glutted market in the low-performance 3.5- and 5.25-inch drives in which it specializes, recently said that it will need a substantial cash infusion in order to keep operating in its current form. Nagle, a former Control Data Corp vice president, became CEO and president at Microscience in Aug 1987; sales peaked at $93 million the following year. He oversaw $14.4 million in losses for the first nine months of 1990 as a glut mounted that drove down disk drive prices by as much as 30 percent. Microscience has begun stretching out payments to creditors and in 1990 sold 35 percent of its Taiwan subsidiary for $13.6 million. Toshiba joins chip-set fray. (Toshiba America readying chip set for Intel 80486 microprocessors) Toshiba America is readying a Micro Channel Architecture-based chip set to support 25-MHz or 33-MHz Intel 80486-based microprocessors. The four chips include the TC85M911 bus master direct memory access controller, the -931 memory bus controller, the -921 address buffer data buffer and the -951 peripheral support device. Toshiba will manufacture and market the chip set, based on a design from Bull Micral of America Inc. A 32-bit version of the chip set includes two -921 chips; this five-chip version will cost $250 in volumes of 1,000. Quantity shipments are slated for July 1991. Via chief joins Taiwan firm. (Via Technologies Chmn and CEO Don W. Brooks joins Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.) Don W. Brooks, chairman and CEO of Santa Clara, CA-based chipset manufacturer Via Technologies and a principal of Mountain View, CA-based venture capital firm Current Ventures Corp, resigns from all positions to become president of the Taipei-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. Brooks worked at Texas Instruments (TI) for 22 years and later at Fairfield Semiconductor before forming Via in 1988. While at TI Brooks was an associate of Morris Chang, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor, to whom Brooks will report. Founded with $145 million in capital in 1987, Taiwan Semiconductor is strictly an integrated-circuit foundry service. Brooks will replace current Taiwain Semiconductor Pres Klaus Weimer Mar 1, 1991. Cirrus markets SCSI controllers. (Cirrus Logic debuts the CL-SH370 and CL-SH351 SCSI hard disk controllers) (product announcement) Cirrus Logic of Fremont, CA, debuts two SCSI controllers for 2.5- and 3.5-inch hard drives. The CL-SH370 reportedly automates some functions that are normally relegated to a microprocessor, thus allowing designers to eliminate one of the two embedded microprocessors usually needed to control a hard disk. The CL-SH370 supports a 32-MHz NRZ data rate with data streaming along with SCSI-specified maximum data rates. The CL-SH351 synchronous/asynchronous integrated SCSI-2 controller reportedly includes most of the hardware needed to build a complete controller subsystem that supports the SCSI-2 standard's 'Fast' specification. Both controllers are slated for volume shipments in 2nd qtr 1991. Semi-Gas, Lam alumni form gas purification gear firm. (Semi-Gas Systems, Lam Research Corp., Plasmachem) Former Lam Research VP of technology Martin Hammond and former Semi-Gas Systems Pres Andrew K. Lorenz start up Plasmachem, a company in Mountain View, CA, for making process gas purification equipment. Lorenz, who will become Plasmachem CEO and chairman July 1, 1991, says the firm will make a cleaning system designed to remove contaminants in vacuum pumps. Hammond says the cleaning system mounts atop most vacuum pumps and uses a charged plasma and other techniques to solidify chemical vapor deposition and etch gases before they can contaminate the pump's oil, thus quadrupling the pump's life. Priced between $20,000 and $42,000, the cleaning system will begin shipping in 2nd qtr 1991. Lorenz and Hammond invested their own money in Plasmachem and are seeking venture capital. SEMI group hears of East Europe risks. (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) The audience at the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International forecast dinner in Santa Clara, CA, were dazzled with visions of a vast consumer market and pool of skilled labor in Eastern Europe, but warned that many businesses there, suffering from a lack of hard currency, are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. One speaker said that Eastern European nations are seeking foreign capital to replace government funding. Hungary's educational system and electronics industry leads other Eastern European nations. Racism on the part of Eastern Europeans is keeping Asian investment out. Management at Soviet electronics firms is in the midst of a difficult transition, as engineers with no business experience replace government officials. Marietta melds operations, cuts 400 workers. (Martin Marietta merges systems integration units with other units) Martin Marietta merges its various computer-systems-integration divisions with the Orlando, FL-based Aerospace division to create the Electronics, Information and Missiles division. The Denver-based Information and Communications Systems group will be merged with the Astronautics group, also based in Denver. Martin Marietta will eliminate 400 workers as part of the consolidation. Martin Marietta joins Lockheed and other aerospace corporations that are merging computer-systems-integration divisions into other divisions in an effort to cut costs. Siemens adds com controller. (SAB 82532 communications controller) (product announcement) Siemens Corp debuts the SAB 82532 serial communications controller, which reportedly reduces software and hardware requirements for serial synchronous or asynchronous communication. The SAB 82532 has maximum transmission rates of 10M-bps in synchronous mode and 2M-bps in asynchronous mode and comes in a 64-pin PLCC package, priced at $20 in volumes of 100. The SAB 82332 can manage a large set of layer 2 protocol functions independently of the host CPU. A parallel 16-bit interface that is compatible with Intel and Motorola eight- and 16-bit microprocessors is used to control the SAB 82532. Sequent stock falls on shortfall expectation. (Sequent Computer) (What They're Saying) (column) Sequent Computer stock fell in the second week of Jan 1991 following the firm's announcement that it expects 4th qtr FY 1990 and 1st qtr FY 1991 earnings to be half those of the year-earlier periods. On Jan 9 the stock plummeted from $17.25 to $11.50. In mid-1990, the stock had reached $34. In 4th qtr FY 1989 Sequent posted net earnings of 23 cents per share; for 4th qtr 1990 it expects net earnings to range from 10 cents to 20 cents per share. Sequent blames lessened demand from OEMs, especially from its largest OEM customer, Unisys. Still, Sequent expects revenues to jump at least 50 percent on the $47.8 million posted in 4th qtr 1989. Many Wall Street observers have put a 'hold' rating on Sequent's stock as they wait for it to roll out a new Intel 80486-based computer. Treasury explores GSBCA bypass. (US Department of Treasury, General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals; The Treasury Department is attempting to alter federal purchasing laws and regulations or, at least, to exempt the department from them, after a number of stalled procurements and facing the massive Tax Systems Modernization (TSM) project. Department officials participated in the drafting of a memo from the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Procurement Policy (OFPP) proposing changes to the GSBCA's protest procedures. OFPP Administrator Allan Burman and acting director of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) James B. MacRae Jr signed the memo, which was sent to senior procurement and information resources management officials. SI marketplace studies options for weathering tough times. (systems integration) Computer systems integrators in the federal marketplace are exploring various strategies to help them survive the coming economic downturn. One industry analysis firm has revised its projected growth figures for the market from a solid 10 percent to between five and 10 percent. Analysts also look for a continuation of the shakeout in a market that currently has too many firms vying for too little business. Martin Marietta has announced it will disband its Information Systems Group, while Unisys has already dissolved its Systems Management Group. Oracle Corp will continue to maintain its systems integration subsidiary, Oracle Complex Systems, for the time being, and long-time integrator PRC has brought in a new management team to help it diversify into commercial markets. Hughes Aircraft subsidiary Hughes Information Technology Corp is bucking the trend by specifically targeting federal accounts. federal Circuit demand stretches for Middle East showdown. (Operation Desert Shield) The demand for long-distance communications equipment and circuits to serve US forces in the Middle East is increasing at such a rate that Communications Satellite Corp (Comsat) has installed over 1,000 high-capacity circuits to serve the area. Military and private carriers are installing transportable earth terminals to handle the large amount of voice, data and video traffic to and from Saudi Arabia. The Defense Communications Agency (DCA) refused to break down the total number of circuits installed since Aug 1990 but DCA's Defense Commercial Communications Office (DECCO) has been awarded contracts worth over $2.3 million per month since the troops were first deployed. Personnel have been dispatched to support communications. Comsat officials say the service demand has caused the company to install the most digital circuits to an area in the shortest time in their history. Two circuit types have been installed: T-1 private point-to-point and 2.048 M/bit E-1 circuits. Commodore reorganizes Federal Systems group. (Commodore Business Machines) The head of the Federal Systems group for Commodore Business Machines was dismissed in a recent reorganization move. The company is, however, still committed to the federal marketplace, according to officials. Over $1.5 million has been invested in the organization. The organization won and lost its largest federal contract when the Treasury Department awarded the Departmental Microcomputer Acquisition Contract (DMAC II) to Sears Business Systems only to have the awarded taken away by the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals. The department, when it reissued the procurement, eliminated the system category for which Sears had chosen Commodore. NASA addresses space data management issues. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) NASA, prompted partly by a report that claims the agency may be losing seven percent of the raw data from space science missions, is changing its data management guidelines for such missions. The report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) says that NASA does not adequately manage and archive the data it does retain. It goes on to say that more outside researchers should be involved in determining what data to retain and that NASA should improve its process of archiving mission data. The agency has 60 days to inform the House Committee in Science, Space and Technology how it will respond to the recommendations. NASA relies now on a 1978 policy that covers refined information but not raw data. Some data is not archived or retained at all. The current guidelines fail to deal with newer sources like balloons, aircraft, sounding rockets, foreign space craft or space shuttles and ignore information from the bioscience and microgravity disciplines. Navy, USPS get new spots on FTS 2000. (United States Postal Service, Federal Telecommunication System 2000) The General Services Administration (GSA) has given the Navy's portion of the FTS 2000 contract to US Sprint and given the US Postal Service's business to AT&T, ending AT&T's exclusive hold on provision of FTS 2000 services to the military. The Postal Service, as a quasi-governmental corporation, is not required to participate in FTS 2000, but asked the GSA to assign it to Network A. The GSA then decided to switch the Navy contract, worth approximately $160 million, to Network B to maintain the 60/40 balance of the contract. Figures were not available for the amount of business AT&T stands to gain from the USPS contract. Martin may upgrade HUD PCs to 386s. (Martin Marietta, Housing and Urban Development, Intel 80386) Martin Marietta may upgrade the Intel 80286-based microcomputers it plans to supply for the HUD Integrated Information Processing System (HIIPS) contract to 80386-based systems. Other recent requirements contracts have all called for 386 systems as a minimum for microcomputer technology. The HIIPS contract, which is worth $526 million, calls for a combination of 50,000 286- and 386-based microcomputers. The 286 technology was appropriate when the proposal was drafted in 1989 and 286 workstations may still be appropriate for some applications. HUD officials say that not that many users would need 386 or 80486-based machines. Navy site merges telecom, ADP tasks. (telecommunications, automated data processing) Pensacola's Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station (NCTS) has combined its data processing tasks with telecommunications responsibilities once managed by message centers in Texas as a part of the reorganization of the Navy's computer and communications commands. The first task for the NCTS staff was to have their own computers communicate. A variety of disparate platforms were involved. The various systems are now grouped with like equipment and connected through a Unisys 5095 running Unix. The station also adopted a new way of doing business. It is now industry-funded, much like the Agriculture Department's National Computer Center. Customers pay for work and the agency operates as a business. Archives explores expert systems. (National Archives and Record Administration) The National Archives and Records Administration is researching ways to utilize expert systems for administrative functions,including monitoring documentation preservation status, and archival duties, such as searching databases. The research and evaluation staff has examined the state of expert systems and plan to recommend to the archivist ways the technology could be used. One example would be a user-friendly front-end to the document retrieval system that would allow users unfamiliar with computers to look up genealogical data without assistance. Expert systems could also aid in research across subject areas, shortening the search. Marines 'drill down' with EIS: product serves as information delivery system. (Executive Information System) Major General Richard Hearney, who commands the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW), sees an executive information system as an information delivery and navigation device rather than an information template for executives who are not computer literate. Hearney uses the Redimaster ($1,495) program from American Information Systems, which runs on top of 300 microcomputers networked among the three Marine Corps air bases in North and South Carolina. The network for the 2nd MAW includes Zenith Data systems Z-248 microcomputers and some Unisys 80386-based microcomputers, Hearney's machine of choice. Hearney uses the system to 'drill down' to the essential data he needs. Zenographics' Pixie software features 'intuitive' charting. (User world) (column) Pixie ($295) a Windows-based program from Zenographics, makes chart-making easy, using direct manipulation techniques. Most microcomputer graphics require interacting with two screens. The first is a value table and the second is the chart itself. If the chart is not suitable the user needs to return to the table to change the data the go back to the chart to check the results. Pixie is an object-oriented graphics program that builds screen images from discrete objects, separated into two groups, smart and dumb. The user manages these objects with a mouse. Values and objects, with a little experience, can be adjusted by intuition. An Undo command can eliminated any mistakes or unwanted changes. OFPP proposal could change foreign-product certification: rules may resolve conflicting provisions of Buy American, Trade The OFPP has proposed altering the rules of certifying the foreign content of products in certain procurements. The agency is seeking to reconcile the conflicting provisions in the Buy American (BAA) and Trade Agreements (TAA) acts. The Buy American Act states that products manufactured in the US are given precedence in government procurements. The Trade Agreements Act states that companies from certain countries, such as Taiwan, Korea or Japan, are considered on an equal basis with domestic companies. Agency buys in which TAA countries participated resulted in an inequity to US firms. IBM went to the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals to protest a mainframe solicitation along with the the Federal Acquisition Regulation foreign content rules, claiming discrimination against US firms. The board concurred. High-speed data communications. Ubois, Jeff. High-speed fiber-optic networks will, by the year 2000, cause a revolution in computing that will be as far-reaching as the one produced by the transistor or the integrated circuit. This new technology will become less expensive and will eliminate distance as a factor in computing. Industry analysts say that demand is soaring for high-speed data communications. Forecasts indicate the government will spend $76.6 million in fiber-optic, local area networking. The total will be as much as $145.3 million in 1996. Some 45 percent of government data communications sites utilize packet-switching technology and 21 percent use high-speed T1 and T3 lines. Several factors are spurring development. These include a large increase in users for electronic mail, file transfer and remote log-in, new applications requiring large bandwidth amounts and more cooperative computing and distributed operating systems. Forsee sprints ahead on FTS 2000. (Gary Forsee, president of US Sprint's Government Systems division; Federal Telecommunication Gary Forsee, president of the Government Systems Division of US Sprint, joined the firm directly from a position with archrival AT&T, where he was instrumental in winning part of the Federal Telecommunication System 2000 (FTS 2000) contract. Forsee now manages some 500 people who sell and maintain network services for the federal government, including Sprint's portion of the FTS 2000 contract. Forsee describes the corporate culture at Sprint as very supportive, and notes that his division has a clear mandate to leverage developments for FTS 2000 into the commercial end of Sprint's business. Forsee cites packet-switched data networks and frame relay as two improvements FTS 2000 customers may well expect within five years. Panel tackles open systems questions for specific agencies. (Federal Open Systems Users Council) The Federal Open System User Council (FOSUC), formed in Nov 1990 to create a government-wide open-systems architecture, is balancing that larger task with solving the more immediate interoperability problems of various government agencies. NASA, for example, wants FOSUC to set government-wide ground rules for managing an open systems project. The Treasury Department wants direction in gaining interoperability among computer systems using the file transfer and management (FTAM) protocol. Council officials state that some users have real technical concerns while other have questions regarding the council's direction and vision. The two need to be separated and dealt with in their own time frame. BDM, Corabi to team on telemedicine. (BDM International Inc, Corabi International Telemetrics Inc.) Corabi International Telemetrics Inc and BDM International Inc may soon sell some of Corabi's telemedicine systems to a military medical agency, possibly the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Washington DC. Expert doctors, in large hospitals equipped with a Corabi system, can view and manipulate a high-resolution image seen through a special microscope possibly thousands of miles away. AFIP pathologists participated in the first test of the system in 1986, diagnosing a patient in an Army hospital in Texas. The system could help military physicians in the US diagnose illnesses affecting troops in Operation Desert Shield. The deal could help consummate the relationship between BDM and Corabi and will also offer BDM the chance to expand its traditional Defense-based business to civilian agencies and commercial customers. Apple uncorks Ethernet LAN gear for Macs. (local area network) Kellner, Mark A. Apple Computer announces two new adapter cards and a range of media adapters for Ethernet local area networks running on the Macintosh. An Ethernet adapter card for the Macintosh LC is priced at $199, while a NuBus Ethernet adapter for the Mac II line will retail for $424. The transceiver connectors, which allow attachment to twisted-pair, thin or thick coax and fiber optic networks, will sell for $175 each. Also introducing Ethernet products for older Macintoshes is Nuvotech, which offers 10Base-T adapters for the Mac's small computer systems interface (SCSI) port at a cost of $549 and a 10Base-T card for the Mac II series at $349. New laptops make excellent traveling companions. (Comment) (column) Laptop computers are valuable for working in a hotel room, on a plane or in an airport. The notebook-sized laptops deserve their success. It is amazing that for about $2,000 one can purchase a six or seven pound computer with an 80286 or 80386SX-based processor, hard disk, VGA graphics and a good keyboard. The Zeos Notebook 286 ($1,995) includes a 20M hard disk, easy-to-read backlit VGA screen, and MS-DOS 4.01. An 80386SX-based version is also available with a larger hard disk. Energy-saving software makes a two-hour plus battery life possible. The average access time for the hard disk is 16.5 milliseconds. A few minor problems include a a screen that is too bright on the right side, poorly placed contrast and brightness keys and a brick-sized, two-pound battery supply/charger. Mellon Bank IS chief steps down; George DiNardo built one of the country's largest IS units. Mellon Bank Corp Exec VP and head of information management and research George DiNardo resigns after 21 years of service to the bank. DiNardo gave no specific reason for his decision, saying only that he looked forward to a new challenge, although he said he does not yet know what that challenge will be. DiNardo was Information Week's Chief of the Year in 1988; he developed one of the largest information systems organizations in the US during his time in the top IS spot at Mellon Bank. Computer services represent between 40 and 50 percent of the bank's $3.6 billion revenue, and it has recently made an aggressive move into outsourcing. Sources indicate DiNardo recently interviewed for the top IS position at a large Northeast insurance company; he says he is also interested in a position in the industrial sector, but he may pursue a consulting career. Aetna insures consistent IS. (Aetna Life & Casualty Co.'s reorganization directly involves MIS) Aetna Life & Casualty Co's ongoing reorganization directly involves IS managers in the development of what will be called the Consistent Office project when it is unveiled in Mar 1991. Aetna Sr VP of Corporate Information Technology Services John Loewenberg says Consistent Office is intended to simplify training, lower development and support costs and improve employee communications. The program will see the company's nine current electronic mail systems compressed to two; the company will also standardize on Microsoft Corp's Word and Excel office automation software packages for microcomputers. Other benefits expected from Consistent Office are easy exchange of documents among employees and creation of forms-based applications for Aetna's 16,000 paper forms. The insurance company will eliminate 2,600 positions as part of its reorganization. A network of their very own: VPNs extend their reach to data transmission. (virtual private networks) Virtual private networks (VPNs), also called software-defined networks, first arose in the mid-1980s as a way for large companies to use part of a communications carrier's long distance network exclusively for themselves. Since then rates for VPNs have dropped 50 percent as AT&T, MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Co compete for corporate VPN services. All three long distance carriers plan to offer high-speed data transmission on their VPNs by the end of 1991 to meet the needs of corporate customers for more bandwidth. Current VPN services for voice communications allow customers to decide whether the carrier will handle network control and configuration or whether those functions will be the responsibility of users. Many large companies have come to rely on VPNs for voice communications; several examples are cited. Users mixed over 3Com moves; plusses, minuses seen in LAN Manager shift. The announcement in early Jan 1991 by 3Com Corp of yet another restructuring causes some users to be concerned about the company's future. 3Com will turn over development and marketing of the LAN Manager network management software to Microsoft and is hoping to sell 3+Open and its other network operating system software and network servers. The company intends to focus on 'global data networking', which entails the development of network adapters and other enterprisewide networking equipment. 3Com expects to lay off about 12 percent of its workforce, or 240 employees, and will take a one-time charge to earnings of $45 million in its fiscal quarter ending Feb 28, 1991. In its most recent quarter, ended Nov 30, 1990, the company recorded net income of $4.9 million on sales of $107.1 million, down from income of $5.3 million on sales of $105.9 million in the year-earlier period. A chorus of CPUs: users of single and multiple instruction machines sing different tunes. (supercomputer processor All supercomputers using massively parallel processor architectures use hundreds or even thousands of CPUs able to execute many instructions at the same time, but there are considerable differences between the two primary architectures used by supercomputer manufacturers. Single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) machines, such as those made by Thinking Machines Corp, give each CPU its own data memory but have a common program memory shared by all CPUs. Multiple instruction, multiple data (MIMD) machines, such as those made by Intel and NCube, give each CPU its own program memory as well, allowing it to execute completely independent programs. Thinking Machines founder W. Daniel Hillis said in his keynote address at the Supercomputing '90 conference that MIMD machines are inefficient because of the difficulty of synchronizing CPU operations. SIMD and MIMD architectures are compared. Why Lithonia MIS won't lighten up: commercial lighting's market leader knows that one bright idea isn't enough. (Lithonia Lithonia Lighting attributes much of its success since 1979 to its Light Link networked microcomputer system, one of the first of its kind, which has served as the foundation for a series of new applications allowing the company to reach new customers and markets. Lithonia Sr VP of MIS and Gen Mgr Charles Darnell decided to put its several-dozen agents at the center of the system; the agents serve to connect its warehouses and field sales teams with the buyers, resellers and installers of its lighting products. Darnell says it was important to understand all the aspects of the lighting business to develop a network that would work; he says that people at other firms at which he worked did not expect IS executives to know the business thoroughly. Light Link took seven years and $20 million to develop; its design and operation are described. Getting down to business: blurring between PCs, workstations makes Unix more appealing to MIS. Unix has long been the operating system of choice for technical workstation users, but MIS has avoided use of the operating system in commercial sectors because it lacked the user-friendliness of PCs. The advent of graphical user interfaces for Unix to hide its cryptic nature and the falling prices of workstations now make the operating system a viable choice for organizational PCs. Dataquest market research indicates that the commercial sector will represent 29.1 percent of the $20.8 billion workstation market by 1994, and many workstation vendors are looking to capitalize on this trend. Sun Microsystems intends to push its Sparc workstations in traditional PC markets, and Mips Computer Systems is pursuing a similar strategy with its workstations. The distinctions between workstations and PCs continue to blur, causing considerable changes in both markets; these are discussed. Mips: playing with the big boys. (Mips Computer Systems Inc.'s RC3360 and RC6260 RISComputers) (product announcement) Mips Computer Systems Inc introduces the RC3360 and RC6260 RISComputers intended to meet the needs of MIS for high-powered Unix servers able to process large, complex databases and number-crunching applications. The RC3360 is based on Mips' 33-MHz R3000A RISC chip and provides 26.4 SPECmarks, four Ethernet links and as much as 256Mbytes of memory for $62,000. The RC6260 is a less expensive version of the company's high-end RC6280 RISComputer; it is based on Mips' R6000 processor and provides 44 SPECmarks and as much as 128Mbytes of memory for $140,000. Both systems are intended for commercial MIS applications, including on-line transaction processing. Mips' strategy for competing against Sun Microsystems in the RISC workstation and server market is discussed. Microsoft looks to Excel; new version aimed squarely at Lotus spreadsheet. (Microsoft's Excel 3.0) (product announcement) Microsoft introduces version 3.0 of its Excel spreadsheet package intended to use the power and popularity of Microsoft Windows 3.0 to gain market share from leader Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3. Excel 3.0 also features enhanced three-dimensional graphics, object-linking functionality and many new ease-of-use attributes. The integrated outlining function in the program lets users collapse or expand large or complex worksheets to different levels of detail; the object-linking and embedding (OLE) features are used to integrate and create live links between applications. A help function lets standard Lotus commands be used, which some analysts claim may place Microsoft on shaky legal grounds considering Lotus's recent victory in its copyright infringement suit against Paperback Software International Inc. Microsoft's strategy in the MS-DOS spreadsheet market is discussed. Mac and Windows link? (UserLand Software Inc.'s interapplication communications-based program development toolkit connects Apple's UserLand Software Inc introduces a toolkit that uses its inter-application communications (IAC) technology and includes C libraries and application programming interfaces intended to let applications be developed that communicate with each other using IAC protocols. IAC lets users exchange data between spreadsheets and word processing applications as well as letting the word processor call up data automatically from the spreadsheet under user-defined guidelines. Dataquest Inc analyst Marshall Moseley says that IAC is a high-level technology for application development, unlike Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology, which is an object-oriented system for creating compound documents. The first versions of the toolkit will be for Apple's Macintosh System 6 and System 7 operating systems; versions will follow for connecting Mac and Microsoft Windows applications. Sybase shows off. (Sybase Inc.'s product delivery schedule for 1991 discussed at its third annual user group meeting) Sybase discussed its product delivery schedule for 1991 at its third annual user group meeting in San Francisco in early Jan 1991. Sybase Pres Mark Hoffman expects the new products to help the company grow 50 percent through 1992; its sales grew 80 percent in 1990, making it the fastest database company in the industry, according to Hoffman. Version 4.8 of Sybase's SQL Server program will be beta tested in the 1st qtr of 1991; the product, which is being developed jointly with Microsoft, will include symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) for diverse computer platforms. Version 4.2 of SQL Server will ship in the 2nd qtr of 1991 in an effort to get more partners to standardize on specific features of the product, according to Sybase VP of Engineering Mark Pine. Most of the development of version 5.0 of SQL Server is expected to be completed by the end of 1991, according to Pine. Telephone tagged: AT&T, Sprint outages raise user fears about reliability. (disruption of telephone services in New York City AT&T and US Sprint Communications Co experienced problems with disruption of telephone services in New York City and Ft. Wayne, IN, respectively, in early Jan 1991. A fiber-optic cable between New York and Newark, NJ, was cut inadvertently by AT&T workmen, and a Sprint cable was cut by a construction crew outside Ft. Wayne, requiring six hours to restore full service to customers in that area. AT&T was able to reroute 40 percent of the calls around the cable break, but the other 60 percent of long distance calls in and out of New York were not completed; the company does not plan any special compensation for users who lost service, unlike the nationwide brownout it experienced on Jan 15, 1990. The outages have caused concern among users; many analysts expect the trend toward single carrier solutions, meant to cut costs, to be halted by the recent outages. More e-mail controversy: former Nissan employees file invasion of privacy suit. (electronic mail users sue over monitoring of A lawsuit has been filed by two former information system specialists for Nissan Motor Corp in USA charging wrongful termination of employment and invasion of privacy under California's wiretapping law over monitoring of electronic mail exchanges. Bonita B. Bourke and Rhonda L. Hall claim Nissan monitored their e-mail exchanges with Infiniti car dealerships and other parties; the two say that when they complained about the monitoring, they were fired. Nissan will say only that the charges are unfounded. Bourke and Hall were responsible for supporting and training Infiniti dealers in the use of Nissan software, which many found difficult. The two claim they had helped smooth relations with dealers, many of whom were upset about the software Nissan required them to use. Bourke says the personal messages were required as part of their jobs; the brouhaha about personal e-mail is discussed. And then there'll be one: the ultimate answer to the PC-mainframe debate: the Darden Convergence. (the convergence of mainframes, By 1996, mainframes, minicomputers and PCs will converge into a single product, according to the Darden Convergence. A chart is provided that maps the performance of the various systems from 1960 to the end of the century. The chart shows that a 1981 PC had the processing power of a 1961 mainframe, and in 1984 that of a 1968 mainframe, etc. The chart indicates that PCs pick up seven years of mainframe performance every three years: PCs will converge with minicomputers on Apr 2, 1992, and with mainframes on Jan 1, 1996. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers will incorporate PC technology into their products, making their post-convergence performance essentially the same as that of PCs. Among the implications of this convergence are that the debate about the relative merits of PCs and mainframes will be moot, and that the culture of computing will be turned on its head. 3Com abandons LAN OS to focus on net hardware; shift reduces users' LAN Manager confusion. 3Com Corp's reorganization and a decision to focus on global data networking will make it easier for purchasers of network operating systems and result in better products. 3Com is abandoning the network operating system market and focusing on internetworking products. The company is an excellent provider of bridging mechanisms and servers. 3Com will continue with LAN Manager as an OEM, but is discontinuing its 3+Open for other PC servers. The company plans to focus on network hubs, multiprotocol communications servers and internetworking. 3Com recently laid off 12 percent of its work force and announced plans to take a one-time $45 million restructuring charge in its third quarter. Rule-based E-mail brings easier mail management; Beyond also readies mail add-in for 1-2-3. Beyond Mail, from Beyond Inc, is a rule-based electronic mail management package that allows users to act on their incoming mail. E-mail is sorted by category into folders, users can respond. They can also set up their own applications, such as inventory entry, based on the information. Users can create their own rules for routing incoming messages and automatically sending responses. Binary files can be attached to messages, including graphics. The program also includes a reminder facility that automatically places a message in specified folder at a predetermined time and date. The first version is character based, a Windows 3.0 version will follow shortly. The product is scheduled to ship in the first half of 1991. Novell's expected MHS upgrade may be incompatible. Mardesich, Jodi. Novell plans to announce a new release of its Message Handling Service (MHS) at Networld amidst reports of compatibility problems. Sources say changes to the Standard Message Format (SMF) will render the transport platform incompatible with Action Technologies MHS. Novell refuses comment. Novell's MHS Version 1.5 is an update to its Netware MHS that provides better implementation of its features than MHS 1.2. Apple edges toward mainstream with networking, VGA support. (positions Mac LC for consumer, education and corporate markets) Apple reintroduces the Mac LC and targets it for the consumer, education and corporate markets. The machine sports a plug-and-play Ethernet scheme that is up to industry standards. The Mac LC can use a low-cost VGA monitor to provide 8- or 16-bit color, Apple is publishing the specifications. Several products on display at Macworld are described. Few Compaq LTE 386/20s in channel; market lead over IBM, AST threatened. Compaq Computer Corp is having trouble manufacturing enough LTE 386/20 laptop computers and could lose its market advantage over IBM and AST. These companies are expected to offer lower-priced systems in the first quarter of 1991. Compaq sent several thousand units out into the dealer channel in late Dec 1991, but will not be able to meet the demand for its systems until March. Vendors like Pen Windows but are still shopping. Krohn, Nico. Microsoft Corp claims five developers have committed to the Pen Windows handwriting-recognition operating system, but no agreements are signed. Pen Windows allows data entry through a penlike device in addition to the keyboard or mouse. The system will recognize handprinted characters and a set of editing and system command symbols. Pen Windows will run most current Windows applications. Pen Windows is scheduled for release in 1991. Excel fuels GUI spreadsheet fire; Microsoft tries to wrest market share from 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro. (graphical user interface) Microsoft announced versions of its Excel 3.0 spreadsheet for Windows, the Mac and OS/2, but is only currently shipping the Windows product. The graphical user interface (GUI) is expected to change the trends in corporate spreadsheet purchases and the company is attempting to gain a solid share of the GUI spreadsheet market before Lotus and Borland are able to produce their own GUI products. Microsoft is hoping for a five to six months head start. Both the GUI spreadsheet and word processing markets should be wide open in 1991. Apple execs vow to lure corporate buyers; admit Windows' popularity poses challenge. Apple is increasing its efforts in the corporate market in response to the success of Windows 3.0, which provided a graphical user interface for DOS users. The developers of several top Macintosh applications have promised to produce Windows versions of their products. The company is focusing its efforts on increasing the appeal of the Macintosh and capturing developers' attention through technological innovations. It is crucial for Apple to increase market share in order to attract top third-party developers. Apple CEO John Sculley feels his company must make it very difficult for a developer to 'go with the lowest common denominator.' The Macintosh Classic is currently selling at the rate of 50,000 units per month. A notebook computer is in the planning stages, as are both high-end and low-end Macintosh models. Apple is adopting a wait and see attitude toward RISC products. Gates' vision can expect road blocks. (Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates) Bill Gates' Information at Your Fingertips vision of the future has partially arrived, but some elements face a formidable challenge. The keys to Gates' vision include: making microcomputers more personal; transparently integrating applications; networking; integrating voice mail, fax data, and E-mail; and providing a vast array of information. A timeline for Gates' vision is provided that plans an OS/2 version of Windows in 1993 or 1994 and integrated voice, fax and E-mail in 1994. Pen Windows is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 1991, software development kits (SDK) are available. SDKs are also available for multimedia and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies. CD ROM faces future challenges; the advent of multimedia forces the emergence of new standards. Standardization helped foster the growth of the CD ROM market, but the different demands of multimedia may cause new standards problems. Microsoft's CD ROM extensions for DOS were a stabilizing factor in the marketplace, but the latest version may not allow full implementation of all its features through currently available drivers. Developers are working on new drivers that take full advantage of Version 2.1. The ISO 9660 and High Sierra standards for formatting CD ROM data may also be threatened. Helgerson Associates is promoting its CD-RDx as a client/server architecture to provide a framework for data storage and retrieval, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has accepted it as a standard for CD ROM storage. Recession may highlight the inefficiencies of PC products. (Tech Talk) (column) The computer industry has survived economic recessions in the past, but it is not clear how it will react in the current downturn. Inexpensive computing power has made it possible to change rapidly falling costs into impressive profits. The change into a market with narrow, evolution-oriented margins may result in reductions of new hardware purchases and a tendency to stick with older technologies. The current technology is unimpressive and the next generation of software environments is staggeringly inefficient. The high prices amount to an unconscionable subversion of technology. The uncaring and greedy past of the industry's management is leading to current problems. The pursuit of profits and incremental sales has lead to campaigns for new technologies before all of the bugs were worked out of previous products. Micronics introduces double-duty X terminal; color unit can also be DOS workstation. (product announcement) Micronics 3X and 4X personal workstations offer access to both color applications based on the X Window System standard and on DOS in one unit. Ethernet and X Server software are in ROM on the motherboard. Micronics X Server software is designed for 32-bit flat memory models of 386/486 processors. X Terminal software for DOS runs on 286-based, 16-bit, segmented memory microcomputers. The system contains 2Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 8Mbytes. A 14-inch color version lists for $3,499, a 17-inch version is $3,999. Third parties offer Mac Ethernet connections; transceivers' cost is lower than Apple's. Third-party vendors are providing a variety of Macintosh transceivers and interface cards that adhere to Apple's Ethernet cabling system. External transceiver communicate between a network interface card and the network wiring. Macintosh users can now purchase Ethernet adapters regardless of the network wiring. Companies producing Mac transceivers include Asante Technologies, Network Resources Corp, Dayna Communications and Farallon Computing Inc. Classic well supported by third-party vendors; newest Mac, Mac II, welcomed at Macworld. (product announcement) The Apple Macintosh Classic is supported by a wide variety of third-party options and display accessories. The machine lacks an expansion slot, but several expansion options were displayed at San Francisco's Macworld Expo in early Jan 1991. Sigma Designs is readying a 15-inch monochrome portrait display for the Classic. Rasterops will ship 19- and 21-inch versions of its Clear Vue/Classic monochrome display. Its 24STV real-time video processing system will ship in Feb 1991. Banyan jockeys to move in on Novell territory. Darrow, Barbara. Banyan Systems is seriously pushing into the LAN market with the Vines network operating system optimized for symmetric multiprocessing. The company dropped its server business and is concentrating on network operating software. Banyan named a new marketing director and set out to make Vines compatible with other networks. They supported Microsoft's Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS) and made an agreement with Compaq. The company delivered Vines SMP in Sep 1990, claiming it to be the only network operating system that takes full advantage of symmetric multiprocessing technology. Central Point Software poised for expansion; utility company eyes Windows, networks. (company profile) Central Point Software doubled its revenues in 1990 and plans to enter the world of graphical and networking environments. The company, which began by developing utilities that overcame copy protection, now does a thriving business in character-based utilities such as its best-selling PC Tools. The company plans to break the $100 million sales level within two years. Operating system developers could pose a problem when they integrate the utility products that are currently sold as stand-alone products. How can we protect readers from the flow of dribbleware? (State of the Industry) (column) The term dribbleware refers to the process of discussing, describing, and previewing products before they actually exist. Sometimes dribbleware results in portions of products being released, as when OS/2 shipped before the Presentation Manager user interface was ready. Industry publications contribute to the problem, but face a dilemma; they must balance preannouncement enthusiasm with fact and put product development news in the proper perspective. Will Amiga ride multimedia wave to corporate acceptance? (Tech Street) (column) The Commodore Amiga is ahead of both IBM/Microsoft and Apple Computer in the multimedia arena. The Amiga 3000 is based on the 68030 CPU, provides multitasking with an authoring system, has a graphical-user interface, and contains support for full motion video. It provides better multimedia capabilities than the Level II platforms supported by IBM/Microsoft and others, in fact, it is better than the proposed Level III 386-based system. The Amiga was initially designed as a multimedia machine and has awaiting the market. An Amiga equipped with a New Tek Video Toaster board can replace $50,000 worth of video-mixing equipment. Commodore finally has a shot at breaking into the corporate computing environment. Battle of the bandwidth. (includes related articles on universal service, asynchronous transfer, and HDTV) The basic nature of data communications will change over the next decade. Graphical interfaces, images, and multimedia require larger portions of network bandwidth than are currently readily available. Consumer services, such as high-definition television (HDTV) require large chunks of bandwidth, and while technology continues to cram larger pieces of information into smaller spaces, new applications gobble the new space as soon as it becomes available. More network bandwidth is needed at lower cost to accommodate future users. There is no comprehensive national telecommunications policy, the decision will be decided by a free market. Some industry experts believe the government should support the development of a US communications infrastructure. The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) has been slow in developing because of a lack of applications and slow installation of ISDN facilities. Bell operating companies are waiting for customers to demand them. Multiuser programmable data bases. (part 2) (Software Review) (Overview of a comparison of three database products) (evaluation) This second part of a two-part evaluation of databases evaluates and compares three programs: Advanced Revelation 2.03, Rbase 3.1, and Dataease 4.24. Eight programs are compared in the evaluation. Paradox 3.5 is considered the best product for both interactive and programmed use and is the best single-user value. Clarion Professional Developer 2.1 is just as good as Paradox 3.5 as a well-rounded all-in-one development environment but is slow in returning query results. Dataease 4.24 ranks next, although it lacks flexibility and has limitations. Foxpro 1.02 is a good choice for ad hoc and programmed use. Rbase 3.1 is similar to Dataease in functionality and is a good development environment, but its hashing design for indexing is considered a drawback. Advanced Revelation 2.03 is powerful and contains some good features but is complicated and cumbersome to use. Dbase IV 1.1 and Clipper 5.0 complete the list. Advanced Revelation: Version 2.03. (one of three evaluations in Multiuser Programmable Data Bases) (evaluation) Advanced Revelation 2.03, from Revelation Technologies, is an extremely slow data base management system and requires high-end hardware to obtain acceptable performance. It is also very difficult to learn and to use. This is a complete and powerful tool-based development environment that allows the professional developer to customize the product. The program is good for handling unusual processing or data requirements. The support is satisfactory and Advanced Revelation 2.03 is considered a satisfactory value at its $995 single-user price. A four-user LAN pack costs $695. Dataease: Version 4.24. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations in Multiuser Programmable Data Bases) (evaluation) Dataease 4.24, from Dataease International Inc, is a powerful data base management system with several limitations and a lack of flexibility. It is easy to learn and contains an outstanding forms facility, but cannot access more than one subdirectory at a time and lacks a full programming language. The text editor is weak and query response is slow. This is a good choice for end-users and developers that need productivity without programming. Technical support is excellent and the program is considered a good value at its $750 single-user price. Rbase: Version 3.1. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations in Multiuser Programmable Data Bases) (evaluation) Rbase 3.1, from Microrim, adds new features and answers some complaints about Version 3.0. It contains outstanding tools and a good forms facility, but is slow at querying and transaction processing. It is limited to table-level locks and indexing requires special consideration. Rbase provides direct access to Dbase files. This is a good program for developers and end users, but it is one of the slowest performing products in this comparison. Technical support is satisfactory and the product is considered a good value at its $795 single-user purchase price. Microsoft gives Excel 3.0 easy-to-use spreadsheet outlining. (Software Review) (evaluation) Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 is an easy-to-use spreadsheet that offers outlining capabilities. It also offers the ability to add graphics, text notes and drawings to the worksheet. The font support is improved, additional macro features and improved 1-2-3 help added. Enhancements that improve the ease of use, such as the tool bar that makes it easy to perform common functions by clicking on icons, help make this spreadsheet a good choice. The list price is $495. Free Clipper upgrade to document RAM problems. (product announcement) Nantucket Corp is ready to ship a free upgrade to Clipper 5.0. The new version requires less conventional memory and answers memory problems that plagued developers. Problems occurred with the use of C functions, especially with add-on libraries written for the 1987 release. The XUNLOCK function frees memory as soon as a C program is finished, using a parameter so VMM can move it around again. Clipper 5.0 shipped in Sep 1990. Why will electronic mail become the hottest topic of the year? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Electronic mail will be one of the hottest topics of 1991. Mainframe and minicomputer E-mail systems have been secure, reliable and complex, but very difficult systems to use. Local area networks (LANs) are changing the situation. Host-based mail systems are beginning to decline in terms of new installations. Network servers are generally similar to each other. There are five major network mail software programs: CC Mail, Network Courier, 3Plus Mail, Microsoft Mail and Quickmail. A mail server installed on a network provides several new functions, including a user directory and a mechanism for storing things. Facing up to the enterprise committee. (part of a special supplement on enterprise computing) Enterprise-wide computing provides a competitive strategy for using computing technology. Microcomputer professionals have the most marketable skills for formulating an enterprise strategy. Systems employees with microcomputer knowledge and the ability to relate to end users will flourish in the 1990s. Microcomputer managers need to be aggressively proactive in asserting themselves in the new technological climate. They will be needed on committees that include business managers, MIS personnel, and end users. Enterprise policies vary widely between companies. Decentralization can be a problem when it results, not from corporate policy, but from a lack of communication. Martin Marietta opts for a democratic enterprise. (includes a related article on Martin Marietta's eleven steps to information Martin Marietta Corp created enterprise-wide computing standards by forming a committee made up of MIS and microcomputer managers and users at all levels. The company recently purchased over 24,000 microcomputers, including Macintoshes, and connected them through Novell's Netware operating system software. Many of the microcomputers have access to data bases on mainframe and minicomputers. Networking will play an important role in downsizing applications away from host computers. The company has about 2,500 information systems employees, about 35 percent of its IS budget is for staffing. The IS budget represents about $291 million, or 5 percent of company revenues. Testing labs are an integral part of Martin Marietta's standards-setting process. The standard council's goal is to have 80 to 85 percent standards compliance among its users most of the time. Chamber of horrors. (enterprise network control center can be a nightmare for the LAN/WAN administrator)(includes a related An effective network management system can be worth as much as the network itself, but experts agree there is no good way to manage them at this point. Network management tools are available, but no single product can do it all. Network managers have to support a wide variety of network management devices and programs on the same network. Incompatibility problems have to be solved by people. Troubleshooting that would be relatively simple on a local-area network becomes incredibly difficult on an enterprise-wide network. Highly-trained network specialists that can readily interpret the information they receive from different systems are required. MIS professionals with wide-area network experience still find problems in the transition to managing enterprise networks. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SSNMP) has gained momentum with both users and vendors. The enterprise-wide system should be designed with management in mind. Users turn to SNMP to fulfill dreams of simplicity. (Simple Network Management Protocol) (part of an editorial supplement on Arco Oil and Gas Co has a mixture of network systems and protocols. The company is considering centralized network management and is turning to Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) in hopes that a common protocol will simplify network management. SNMP was developed to manage TCP/IP networks, but can be implemented on other protocols. SNMP is widely used, but many observers feel the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) will eventually become the standard network management protocol. SSNMP partially provides for four of the five components for network management defined by the International Standards organization (ISO): performance, fault, security, and configuration. Accounting has not been defined well enough in the Internet community. There are three parts to SNMP: managers; agents; and MIB, a database of manageable objects on a network. Security is considered a weak point. SNA means more than just mainframe connectivity. (part of an editorial supplement on enterprise computing) IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is a philosophy that covers all aspects of distributed computing and networking. IBM developed it as a means of connecting two IBM systems that ran different operating systems or came from different product families. The company needed a common protocol that would work on all machines and provide transaction processing and file sharing as well as terminal connections and batch jobs. SNA is IBM's proprietary specification for network architecture and protocols. It is layered and the layers do not correspond to those of the OSI model, but are close. The top layer of the protocol stack is the end-user, the entity to which the network provides services. Macs begin to extend their reach to mainframe data. (includes a related article on Mac-to-VAX connections) (part of an editorial Apple and IBM have left it up to third-party developers to provide connectivity solutions. Business realities and user demands are creating a need for Mac-to-mainframe connections as the Macintosh become increasingly drawn into the main corporate data flow. Several third-party connectivity solutions are described. IBM hosts, FEPs to get APPN boost. (front-end processors, advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) IBM is readying its Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking (APPN) for mainframes and front-end processors. The enhancement will provide greater flexibility in building and using SNA networks. The Network Control Program (NCP) controls front-end processors. APPN supports peer-to-peer communications between processors on a network. IBM also plans to double the CPU power of the 3745 Communication Controller for larger network support and more high-speed interfaces. This will allow the use of more devices, support for more token-ring network interfaces and higher speed lines. New tools ease software distribution for LAN users; emerging products help users install, upgrade software on PCs, servers The number of local-area network (LAN) management programs is growing. Software distribution systems download application and operating system code to LAN servers or workstations as well as maintain information on the programs the device is running. They reduce the costs and effort required to install new applications and upgrades. IBM, DEC, NCR and Unisys are among the vendors that have introduced products to simplify installation and upgrading of software on enterprise-wide networks. 3Com bows out of LAN software mart; bequeaths LAN Manager development to Microsoft and refocuses on adapter, interconnect 3Com Corp and Microsoft Corp plan to merge their versions of LAN Manager into a single operating system. Microsoft will develop the product; 3Com has decided to leave the network operating system market and focus on internetworking and connectivity products. The merger is expected to clear up questions about LAN Manager. 3Com is reorganizing through a three-phase business plan that includes selling its work group-related business. 3+Open users are concerned with support and compatibility with future Microsoft products. The future of 3Com's 3+Mail electronic mail system is up in the air. SONET technology brings solutions and questions. (includes a related article on SONET skeptics) (Synchronous Optical Network) SONET high-speed circuit-switching technology is arriving faster than expected. Several major electrical utilities have created private SONET networks to switch circuits on fiber-optic cables. SONET is compatible with existing telecommunications standards; the standard should drive down the costs of telephone company equipment. SONET also offers a new approach to time-division multiplexing and is the only standard way of converting between electrical and optical communications. SONET is expected to provide fault-tolerant, high-speed fiber transmission for the next century. AT&T slips with service safeguards. (800 service protection) Wallace, Bob. AT&T is behind in implementing measures to protect against 800 service outages. The company promised to install digital trunks to link its points of presence to local exchange carriers to provide emergency alternate traffic paths. The facilities were due for completion before the end of 1990 but are just now getting started. AT&T is also behind in efforts to establish a backup signaling network for 800 services. The company has delayed plans, for over a year, to split up and disperse its carriers to improve disaster survival and help Signal Control Points (SCP) remain accessible. AT&T is ahead of schedule with two promised safeguards: the introduction of two Megacom 800-specific service features and the deployment of Fast Automatic Restoration. Users set to bring SNA data to multiprotocol backbones. (linking SNA devices to LAN internetworks) (includes a related article on There are options to consider in adding SNA data to multiprotocol backbones that interconnect LANs. SNA eliminates parallel networks; a single multiprotocol backbone provides savings and greater bandwidth. Most bridge/routers support SNA devices on token-ring networks. Wellfleet Communications and cisco Systems are both ready to address the installed base of SNA devices that are not LAN-attached with new products that let users directly attach synchronous devices to their bridge/routers. NCR tool helps users build OLTP applications for Unix; designed for servers in TCP/IP, OSI, NETBIOS nets. (NCR Corp.'s Top End NCR introduces the Top End on-line transaction processing monitor (TPM). Users and developers can build applications that can extract and update data from Unix data base management systems from a variety of vendors. The software runs on NCR's System 3000 line of Unix processors; it will eventually run on systems with other Unix versions. Top End acts as a switch that establishes and manages links between client applications and servers running DBMS software. The product could help make Unix more attractive as a vehicle for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications. Top End will initially be bundled with NCR System 3000 hardware and is scheduled for availability in the second quarter of 1991. SNMP repeater to help fill out AT&T's Starlan lineup. (Simple Network Management Protocol) AT&T will add several new products to its Starlan local-area network (LAN) product line. An intelligent 10BaseT Ethernet multiport repeater with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) capabilities will be introduced at the Scottsdale, AZ, Network Users Group-AT&T conference. It will contain 12 modular jacks and an attachment unit interface port. The 10BaseT hub with SNMP moves AT&T closer to multivendor network management. The repeater is managed in three ways and provides more secure communications than traditional broadcast Ethernet. AT&T also plans to build an FDDI-to-FDDI bridge with a throughput of 40K packet/sec. The company is also ready to announce a strengthened relationship with cisco Systems. Wang intros OPEN/image for NetWare. (product announcement) Brown, Jim. Wang Laboratories Inc plans to introduce OPEN/image for NetWare, a version of its OPEN/image software that brings image processing to NetWare local-area networks. A set of tools is provided for linking LAN-attached microcomputers to images stored on optical disk drives linked to a NetWare server. This marks a major move for Wang by making its image processing software available on other vendors' systems. The product is currently in beta testing and should be available in Feb 1991. FCC closes loophole in its price cap plan for AT&T. Taff, Anita. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is closing a loophole in AT&T's price cap plan. The decision, which came in response to several pending protests about the new regulatory system, stops the carrier from using promotions to target certain customers for discounts while raising rates for others. The FCC made minor changes to AT&T's price cap system but refused to make substantive changes requested by carriers and users groups. It also refused to reconsider the question of the price cap itself. FTS 2000 enters third year facing a few new challenges. Messmer, Ellen. The Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000 is beginning its third year. The refusal by the Department of Defense to purchase FTS 2000 telecommunications services is still an issue. The General Services Administration (GSA) planned FTS 2000 as a network provided by one vendor and for use by civilian agencies. The Department of Defense says it could not satisfy military requirements. Congress decreed mandatory use of FTS 2000 for the Defense Department as well as civilian agencies and reshaped FTS 2000 into a two-vendor contract award. A forecast of the military's use of FTS 2000 is due in early 1991. Vendors agree the military will be a tough customer because of its ability to bypass FTS 2000 mandatory-use requirements more easily than civilian agencies. SQL Access Group preps for interoperability demo; members to display wares supporting new spec. The SQL Access Group developed a specification that defines how applications on client workstations access SQL-based data base engines from a variety of vendors. Group members are building support for the specification into SQL client applications and relational data base management systems that will be highlighted at a product demonstration in the summer of 1991. The consortium is dedicated to developing a standard for mixing and matching SQL applications and data bases from different vendors. Products could be available later in 1991. Vendor views vary on dual-use routing; several internetworking vendors are questioning need for IETF's integrated IS-IS routing The importance of the new dual-use routing protocol for TCP/IP and OSI networks is receiving split reviews from internetworking vendors. Several vendors plan support for the Integrated Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol but are not sure user demand for it exists. The Internet Engineering Task Force released Integrated IS-IS, a routing protocol that supports transmission of both TCP/IP and OSI packets across the same network. The protocol could provide TCP/IP users with an OSI migration path, but some vendors express doubt that their customers need a dual-use routing protocol. Wellfleet Communications is planning a 4th qtr 1991 release for an Integrated IS-IS router. Many vendors plan to release TCP/IP routers based on the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol before releasing OSI or Integrated IS-IS routers. Off-tariff prices, custom nets throw off net designs; users must monitor changes to get best deals. Custom network deals and off-tariff pricing are creating problems for network designers. The lack of definitive pricing and known discount rates are causing changes in network analysis. Customers need to identify their equipment and services before asking carriers to bid on their networks. A widespread network analysis and consultation for a three- to four-million-minute network can cost between $150,000 and $200,000; a proper analysis can save much more than that. Users who do not perform upfront analysis risk losing control of the bidding process. Carriers tend to push users into whatever services they are currently emphasizing. AT&T, Sprint offer virtual net incentive; carriers give new customers of SDN and VPN one-time $10,000 credits on international AT&T and US Sprint Communications Co are luring customers to their virtual network services with a one-time $10,000 credit on international calling. MCI is not planning such a promotion. The promotions are part of an escalating marketing war for virtual network customers. Other drastic measures include selling virtual net services to single-site users. Users that sign up for AT&T's Software-Defined Network (SDN) installation before Aug 1, 1991, are eligible for the program; they must enroll in one of the Expanded Volume Pricing Plans (EVPP) to receive the credit. US Sprint's promotion is almost identical. NSA controller gives PCs X.25 dial access to hosts; software turns micros into dial-up X.25 controllers. (AdaptX25 software) (product Network Software Associates Inc's AdaptX25 software turns a microcomputer into a controller to provide other microcomputers with dial-up X.25 access to IBM mainframe applications. The controller can be located locally to the host or remotely; it appears to the host as an IBM 3X74 cluster controller and supports up to 32 virtual circuits. NSA's IBM emulation software is needed to access the controller. Users no longer need IBM's Network Control Program Packet-Switching Interface (NPSI) to communicate with their SNA hosts over X.25 packet networks. AdaptX25 supports all of the SNA protocols. The program will be available in Feb 1991 for $2,995. Users are divided on OfficeVision delays. (includes a related article on IBM's attempts to appease users) Reaction was mixed to news that IBM is delaying delivery of some key capabilities for OfficeVision. The Systems Application Architecture (SAA) local-area network version, OfficeVision/2 LAN Series, was indefinitely delayed due to changes in OS/2 support. The second releases of OfficeVision/MVS, OfficeVision/VM and OfficeVision/400 will lack a module for supporting OS/2 microcomputers. Some prospective buyers may opt for competing products rather than wait. Current OfficeVision users are not overly concerned with the new features. IBM promises support for advanced cooperative processing and an improved graphical interface for the second version. Codex launches new line of V.32/V.32bis modems. (326X series) (product announcement) Codex Corp introduces the 326X Series modems and the second release of its 9110 Dial Management System. There are three stand-alone models and three rack-mountable versions in the series: the 3260, 3261, 3265, 3262, 3263 and 3267, respectively. Prices start at $1,195. They operate at synchronous transmission speeds of 14.4Kbytes, 12Kbytes and 7.2Kbps, all functions of support for the V.32bis standard. The modems also support the CCITT V.42bis data compression standard. The devices are smaller and more reliable than the families they replace. Release 2 of the software will be available in Feb 1991 for $2,000. Newport offers dynamic compression for gateways; software, board offer 4-to-1 data compression. (product announcement) Newport Systems Solutions Inc is providing dynamic data compression with a daughterboard and software for NetWare Link/64 and Link/T-1 wide-area gateways. The average compression ratio is 4-to-1, depending on the data being compressed. The throughput of wide-area links can be quadrupled and the response time reduced by an average of 75 percent. The highest speed circuit that can be compressed is 128K-bps; most customers would only use the feature for less demanding needs. The data compression enhancement is currently available for a $1,595 list price. New Apple Ethernet cards have separate transceivers. (product announcement) Apple Computer Inc's new series of Ethernet cards for the Macintosh have separate transceivers that allow the user to change Ethernet media without changing adaptor cards. The cards are easy to install and have lower prices than previous Mac adapter cards. They connect to standard thin-wire and twisted-pair Ethernets. The Apple Ethernet LC Card supports the Macintosh LC microcomputer and lists for $199. The Apple Ethernet NB Card connects to the Macintosh II series' NuBus. It will cost $424 when it becomes available in the 2nd qtr of 1991. Apple also announced updated X Window System software for the Macintosh. X Window System 2.1 for A/UX provides Macs running A/UX with an X Window application development environment. It will ship in late Jan 1991 for $349. MacX 1.1 allows cut and pasting between Mac and X Window applications. It lists for $295. FDDI-II to include dedicated channels. (voice, video and data but not compatible with FDDI standard) The proposed standard for the next generation of Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) technology, FDDI-II, is a radical departure from FDDI-I. It includes features similar to those of an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and defines a method for combining circuit-switched traffic with packet traffic over FDDI networks. FDDI-II is incompatible with FDDI-I, a principal shortcoming. The Hybrid Ring Control (HRC) components of the standard are nearly finished, but the FDDI-II standard will not be completed until mid-1992. Challenging environment keeps workers motivated; net managers say money isn't best incentive. The emphasis on cost caused by the economic downturn is putting pressure on network managers to get more work out of fewer employees. Morale is improved with a stimulating work environment that provides opportunity for career advancement, technical or business knowledge, and a sense of achievement. Managers with high performance expectations and the willingness to pass responsibilities to the workers also motivate workers. Salary, benefits, office space and other external factors may not motivate employees. Feelings of accomplishment, recognition or advancement are stronger motivations than raises and bonuses. Using pilot tests to their full potential. (network management guidelines) Pilot tests allow the evaluation of a network's capabilities. It can demonstrate a product or service and help users make purchasing decisions. A few guidelines for getting the most out of a pilot test are presented: do not substitute a pilot test for standard purchasing procedures; expect to pay for the pilot test; make it a real-world test; be prepared to demand corrective action; be ready to reject the system. Use the pilot test to create a detailed implementation plan. ONE chief discusses group's top concerns; Organization of Network and Equipment user group's Lonsbury talks about issues of the day. Organization of Network and Equipment (ONE) Pres Thomas Lonsbury discusses emerging trends in communications and a range of issues involving AT&T. He believes Electronic Tandem Networks (ETNs) will continue to fill communications needs of large customers because virtual voice services have a long way to go. AT&T is committed to supporting ETNs as well as trying to migrate users to virtual networks. ONE's focus is on helping members operate integrated voice and data networking environments as effectively as possible. There are no free services from vendors anymore; we must analyze new offerings from a value perspective. The high price of maintenance is forcing users to move to newer models. AT&T should be freed from regulatory restrictions and allowed to compete equally with other carriers. Poland plans to improve international phone links; upgrades nets to meet growing business needs. Warsaw, Poland, is installing new local and international facilities that will improve communication with the US and within the city. An AT&T 5ESS international gateway switch, satellite earth station and digital microwave network will double the number of international phone lines and provide end-to-end connectivity with the US. The new equipment will meet the needs of business users and aid in the country's transition to a free-market economy. Packet-switching fees under fire in Canada. (study blames inflated rates on lack of competition) Packet-switching services in Canada can be twice as expensive as in the US. Greater competition in the public packet-switching arena is needed to bring prices closer to those in the US, according to a survey by the Communications Competition Coalition. Canada's top regional carriers maintain that Canadian services are cheaper than those in the US. Local access packet rates are better than in the US. Plexcom's LAN bridge, router bows. (PlexBridge/PlexRouter 8029 Ethernet Bridge/Router) (product announcement) Plexcom Inc's PlexBridge/PlexRouter 8029 Ethernet Bridge/Router divides single large Ethernet networks into subnets for performance and security reasons and to route TCP/IP data among users on the different segments. Two RJ-45 ports connect to local-area networks supporting the IEEE 10BaseT standard for running Ethernet over unshielded twisted-pair wiring. A serial communications port provides remote or local connections to Plexcom's PlexView network management software. Support for Novell's Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol will be added in the future. The product is currently available for $3,595. Device ties disparate gear to token rings. (Sync Research's SNA Network Access Controller for Token Ring) (product announcement) Sync Research's SNA Network Access Controller for Token Ring (SNAC/TR) multiport AT-bus-based communications processor provides token-ring local-area network (LAN) connections for terminals, cluster controllers and other installed devices that support SDLC, BSC and asynchronous protocols. It piggybacks multiprotocol traffic on token-ring networks and lets LAN workstations operate as peer nodes with microcomputers attached to remote LANs in order to share files and swap electronic mail. It also reduces processing demands on front-end processors at the host site. The product will ship in the 2nd qtr of 1991 for a starting price of $5,000. Data management, not products, is key to success. (Opinions) (column) Security and access control are critical and standards and procedures are essential in supporting today's networks. Timely and accurate network information is essential for the proper planning, monitoring, control and administration of a network. It is necessary to maintain accurate inventory records of network configurations, reference data and work data. The intelligent use of products, tools and systems can enhance network management. There are three groups of network management products: planning and design, system administration, and monitoring and control. Successful implementation of network management products requires accurate data management and clearly defined configuration control policies and procedures. Image technology will revolutionize networking. (Opinions) (column) Image-based communications will be the technology of the early 1990s. Companies will capture correspondence on-line for cheaper storage, rapid and accurate retrieval and more timely distribution. Financial service companies pioneered the process, which will now spread to credit card companies, airline reservation systems and other organizations that need high-quality rapid networking. Image transfer, sometimes referred to as compound document exchange, is the outgrowth of several ongoing technological developments. It is a mixture of text messages and attachments that may include program files, images scanned from external sources and graphical displays of computer data. Current image communications require four devices; a copier, a fax machine, laser printer and scanner. These products will be combined in a new generation of digital image servers connected to networks. Stand-alone copiers will become obsolete. 16M bit/sec token-ring adapters outpace Ethernet. McGiffert, Brian. The newest 16M-bps token-ring adapters are over 50 percent faster than the fastest Ethernet systems and three times faster than the 16M-bps token-ring performance reported in early 1990. They generally surpass Ethernet in performance. Six products were tested and compared: Madge Networks' Smart 16/4 A-T Ringnode, Olicom USA's OC-3114 16/4, Racore Computer Products' M8113 16/4, Thomas-Conrad's TC4045 Token-Ring Adapter/AT, Olicom's OC-3128 16/4 and Racore's M8114 16/4. Improvements in adapter drivers were a major contribution to performance improvements, as was bus width. All adapters exceeded Ethernet's theoretical 10M-bps capacity. Some 800 users find safety in arms of other carriers. Wallace, Bob. Many customers that use AT&T 800 services for telemarketing or customer service are adding other carrier 800 offerings as insurance against a major network disaster. AT&T announced several safeguards against outages, but several of its major customers are turning to MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Co for protection. These companies include First Union Corp and First National Bank of Boston. Advanced routing, DACS key to self-healing nets. (digital access and cross-connect systems) New technologies are protecting users against telecommunications network failures. Intelligent digital access and cross-connect systems (DACS) and advanced call routing systems enable carriers to quickly and efficiently route private-line and switched traffic around outages. DACS can automatically reroute T1 and T3 circuits around cable cuts and other outages. AT&T will be able to reroute as many as 72 T3s in 20 minutes when it fully implements FASTAR in 1992. The new technologies are bringing the concept of self-healing networks closer to reality. 3Com exec explains firm's refocus on hardware mart. (3Com Corp.'s Eric Benhamou) (interview) 3Com Corp Pres and CEO Eric Benhamou discusses his company's plans to withdraw from the network operating system market and refocus on hardware products. The decision firmly establishes 3Com as a global data networking company involved in the network adapter and enterprise network systems business. The company is focusing on four product lines: adapters, hubs, communications servers and internetworking management products. Microsoft's decision to sell its own version of LAN Manager spurred 3Com's decision to leave this market. The company intends to be viewed as neutral in terms of network operating system support. How A.T.&T. accident snowballed. (Jan 4, 1991, service outage) Bradsher, Keith. A series of errors compounded AT and T's troubles as the company tried to restore long-distance telephone service to New York City after one of the company's work crews cut an active fiber-optic cable. The outage occurred on Jan 4, 1991, when a work crew severed one of AT and T's 10 busiest cables, which links New York City with Philadelphia. A second crew, which was responsible for the cable, failed to arrive at the site. Consequently, AT and T managers did not know where the problem was located for more than an hour. And computers responsible for redirecting calls around the severed cable failed to do so, which caused the New York area's three main airports to be without long-range radar for 102 minutes. Borland shifts dBASE plans into high gear. (Borland International Inc., Microsoft Corp. to develop dBASE-compatible software in wake Borland International Inc and Microsoft Corp are reportedly moving to take advantage of the recent court ruling in favor of Fox Software Inc, under which Ashton-Tate lost its exclusive copyright control of the dBASE language. Both companies are turning their attention to developing dBASE-compatible products. Borland is reinstating a shelved project to create a program for migrating dBASE files and applications to its Paradox database. The new software will consist of two components: a compiler that will let developers access both dBASE .DBF an Paradox files, and a conversion utility for transforming dBASE code into Paradox Application Language code. Microsoft, an arch-rival of Borland, is expected to enter the dBASE field but is currently only considering dBASE compatibility as a possible feature for its unannounced Windows database. DRI vows to remain ahead of Microsoft in DOS race. (Digital Research Inc. developing new versions of DR DOS operating system Digital Research Inc (DRI) is developing new versions of its DR DOS operating system with powerful multitasking and file-management features as part of its effort to stay ahead of Microsoft. The current DR DOS 5.0 offers many of the features Microsoft promises in its upcoming MS-DOS 5.0, including the ability to place much of the DOS kernel into high memory. DRI hopes to ship a 5.X version by mid-1991 that will provide task switching, another key MS-DOS 5.0 feature, and is 'hard at work' on DR DOS 6.0. The future release will provide optimized performance on 80386- and 80486-based computers and a high-performance file system. Lotus will add WYSIWYG ability to Freelance 4.0. (Lotus Development Corp. readying new version of DOS-based Freelance Plus Lotus Development Corp will reportedly provide a proprietary graphical user interface and WYSIWYG display in the upcoming Freelance Plus 4.0, a new version of its presentation software. The new version will run in graphics mode while retaining the basic command structure of its predecessor. It is currently in beta testing and is expected to be released by mid-1991. Freelance Plus 4.0 will let users work with fonts and graphics as they appear when printed and manipulate menus and drawing elements with the mouse, according to beta testers. Analysts are unenthusiastic about the upgrade because Lotus has chosen not to make the package compatible with the popular Microsoft Windows interface. A Windows version of Freelance Plus would compete with Microsoft's PowerPoint, Micrografx Inc's Charisma and Aldus Corp's upcoming Persuasion. Lotus is in the process of developing Freelance for Windows for release in late 1991. 3Com recharts networking course. (3Com Corp. announces it is dropping out of the LAN operating systems business) 3Com Corp announces that it will abandon the network operating system software business in order to focus on systems integration and internetworking. The company will lay off 12 percent of its employees and put its SNA connectivity and work-group systems businesses up for sale. It will focus on its successful lines of network adapters, bridges and routers, including products acquired through the company's 1987 purchase of Bridge Communications Inc. 3Com officials acknowledge that the royalties the firm paid to Microsoft as a LAN Manager OEM posed an excessive financial burden. Analysts say 3Com's move into network operating systems failed because the company tried to do too much too rapidly and bet on the slow-selling OS/2 operating system. Many users of the 3Com 3+ and 3+ Open network operating systems feel that 3Com has abandoned them, and Microsoft says it will not support 3+ Open users unless they migrate to its own version of LAN Manager. IBM readies competitively prices SX notebook with 60Mbyte drive. (IBM developing 7 to 7.5-pound notebook computer) IBM is reportedly developing a 7- to 7.5-pound notebook computer based on a 20 MHz Intel 80386SX microprocessor that will be priced at $5,000 to $5,500. The new machine will include a 60Mbyte hard disk, 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 18Mbytes and a backlit VGA-compatible LCD screen. Analysts say that IBM's entry into the notebook-sized laptop market is late but that the new product will be competitive, noting that its anticipated retail price undercuts that of the $6,999 Compaq LTE 386s/20. Beta testers say that the machine has an unusually good keyboard for a laptop; its downward slant provides a moe comfortable environment for fast typing. IBM reportedly also plans to develop a docking station for connecting the new notebook machine to LANs, coprocessors, backup devices and full-sized PS/2 expansion boards. Analysts say that IBM's maintenance record would be another major boost for the laptop. On Go's heels, Microsoft plans pen-based OS. (Go Corp, Microsoft Corp developing pen-based operating systems) Go Corp and Microsoft Corp are both close to releasing new pen-based operating systems for hand-held computers. Go's PenPoint operating system will be introduced in Jan 1991, along with a software development toolkit. Many hardware OEMs, including IBM, NCR Corp, Olivetti and GRiD Systems Corp, plan to support PenPoint. Software developers promising support for the new operating system include startups Slate Corp and PenSoft Inc and Borland International Inc. PenPoint will not run standard DOS or Microsoft Windows applications, but does use a DOS-compatible file system; Microsoft officials argue that a pen-based system must be compatible with existing applications and are responding with Pen Windows, a dynamic link library extension to the Windows graphical user interface. Pen Windows will be able to run DOS programs, unmodified Windows applications and programs either designed specifically for pens or 'pen enhanced' by modifying Windows. Borland puts Windows power into C++ package. (Borland C++ Professional) (product announcement) Borland International Inc will formally announce a new Windows development environment, C++ Professional, that runs on top its Turbo C++ object-oriented programming toolkit. The package will be introduced at the Software Development '91 exposition in Santa Clara, CA, and it comes with Windows extensions, a Windows version of the Turbo Debugger and a Windows-compatible integrated development environment. Developers welcome the announcement, saying that Microsoft's Windows Software Development Kit is difficult to learn and use, and that Borland's product should be strongly competitive. The new Windows capabilities in C++ Professional support high-end development, but the package retains the basic features of Turbo C and Turbo C++. Pricing for C++ Professional has not yet been determined. Excel 3.0: mastering graphics without a degree. (Software Review) (First Look) (evaluation) Microsoft's $495 Excel 3.0 for Windows provides superior business graphics and is easier to use than earlier versions, letting users embed graphics directly into spreadsheets and mix graphical annotations with traditional rows and columns. The program uses Microsoft's new Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology. Other new features include automatic outlining and mouse-selelctable summation. Excel 3.0 is relatively slow, turning in slower benchmark times than Informix Software Inc's Wingz graphical spreadsheet as well as such text-mode products as Lotus 1-2-3 2.0 and Borland International Inc's Quattro Pro 2.0. The new Excel program has a 'Toolbar' with icons that provide easy access to a wide variety of features, including unique tools for automatic value summation. The automatic summation feature can only view one level of detail at a time, a significant weakness. Excel 3.0 uses OLE to provide direct links between data points on charts and their underlying values. Its macro-translation utility does not translate all macros correctly. Low cost Macs keep backers in Apple's camp. (developers continue to support Apple Macintosh microcomputer) Apple's introduction of the new low-cost Macintosh Classic, LC and IIsi models has encouraged software developers to continue supporting the Mac platform despite the growing importance of Microsoft's competing Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. T/Maker Co, Farallon Computing Inc and others had previously indicated that they would cut back on Mac development in order to focus on Windows, but now say they remain committed to the Macintosh in addition to other platforms. SoftSync/Bloc plans to spend 50 percent of its software research and development resources on Windows development but will hire more developers instead of 'cannibalizing' its Mac development staff. Some developers say that Windows is 'stealing' more development effort from the DOS world than the Macintosh world, but others nevertheless favor Windows. Apple's upcoming System 7.0 system software will help the Mac compete against Windows more effectively. The Mac Classic, Mac LC and Mac IIci are expected to be the largest-selling Macintosh models in 1991. Everex's 386SX notebook PC fits the bill, but could be faster. (Hardware Review) (Everex Systems Inc. Tempo LX 80386SX-based Everex Systems Inc's Tempo LX is a 16-MHz 80386SX-based notebook-sized laptop computer that offers competitive but not spectacular performance at a price similar to that of other 386SX-based portables. The machine now sells for $2,999, reflecting a $900 reduction, but expansion options remain costly: a system with a 2,400-bps modem, 387SX coprocessor, and 5Mbytes of RAM is priced at a total of $4,965. The white-on-black LCD VGA display is crisp but somewhat slow; users with 386Kbytes of additional RAM can improve performance by mapping the video BIOS into extra memory and specifying the 'Fast VGA' option. Everex bundles the Tempo LX with MS-DOS 4.01 and several utilities, including programs for switching between the built-in display and an external monitor and for toggling the internal modem on and off. Battery life is three hours, and the keyboard has a good feel despite its lack of a separate numeric keypad. Overall performance is good, but Everex could improve the machine by offering a 20-MHz CPU. Velox motherboard pushes 486 chip to 50MHz speed. (Velox Systems)(includes related article about Velox Computer Technology Velox Systems of Santa Clara, CA, introduces the Icejet-486, a new motherboard that uses an Intel 80486 microprocessor with special 'Icecap' cooling technology and a one-micron CMOS chip set to provide stable operation at 50 MHz. The board is rated at up to 36.6 million instructions per second (MIPS) on standard benchmarks. It cools the processor to zero degrees Celsius and has been demonstrated in prototype systems from Arche Technologies and Everex Systems Inc. Some industry observers doubt that the product will be widely accepted because it lacks Intel's well-documented safety margins; many microcomputer makers say they will not use Icejet because it runs the processor at a speed greater than that for which Intel rates it. A few vendors express mild interest, and Everex managers call the Icecap technology a 'useful development device.' The Icejet-486 with 1Mbyte of RAM costs $3,290 in quantities of 100. Graphics offerings play lead role at MacWorld. (RasterOps Corp, others announce graphics products and displays for Macintosh at Several vendors introduced new graphics hardware at the 1991 MacWorld Exposition trade show in San Francisco, with RasterOps Corp announcing several video boards and Sony Corp introducing the VBOX system for controlling video peripherals through presentation or multimedia software. RasterOps offered the $1,095 RasterOps 24si, a 24-bit graphics adapter that supports Apple's Block Mode Transfer standard to speed throughput. The new RasterOps 24STV is a $1,795 24-bit board that offers digital television integration, video overlay, video compression and graphics acceleration on a single NuBus card. RasterOps also announced new large-screen displays for the Macintosh Classic. Plus Development Corp introduced its first hard disk drives for the Mac; the 3.5-inch, 105Mbyte Plus Impulse 105S/C sells for $699 and targets the Mac Classic. Mouse Systems Corp introduced a $169.95 three-button mouse for Apple and Unix use. Sony introduces the $249.95 VBOX video controller, which lets users 'print to video' by controlling videodisc players and VCRs through multimedia software programs. X terminals to take UniForum spotlight. (UniForum trade show in Dallas) (product announcement) Micronics Computers Inc and Network Computing Devices (NCD) Inc are among the vendors planning to introduce new X Windows terminals at the 1991 Uniforum trade show in Dallas. Micronics' new 80386-based 3X and 80486-based 4X terminals are designed to bridge the gap between microcomputers and workstations; each comes as a terminal 'shell' with a microprocessor but no operating system, and each can be upgraded to a full microcomputer. The 3X an 4X both include 2Mbytes of RAM expandable to 8Mbytes and 1Mbyte of video RAM. Both use the X11.4 X Windows protocol. The 3X costs $3,499 with a 14-inch display and $3,999 with a 17-inch display, while the 4X is priced at $4,499 and $4,999 for 14- and 17-inch versions respectively. NCD has announced the NCD14c, a compact X terminal with a flat screen that can display up to 256 colors at a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels. It sells for $3,000 and uses a 20 MHz Motorola 68020 processor. PrintDirector Silver goes beyond printer sharing. (Hardware Review) (Digital Products Inc. PrintDirector Silver Digital Products Inc's PrintDirector Silver, formerly the PrintDirector+, is a peripheral-sharing device that lets users share both printers and modems and offers up to 4Mbytes of buffer memory. A unit configured with four parallel ports, six serial ports and a 1Mbyte buffer costs $1,195. The device is configured through software only, but is complex; Digital Products recommends that it be overseen by a system manager with configuration privileges. Users load a 13Kbyte memory-resident program on each workstation connected to the PrintDirector Silver to direct print jobs to the appropriate printer or modem. PrintDirector Silver can handle 6,500 characters per second; full-page graphics files print more slowly with serial than with parallel connections, but text prints at approximately the same speed on both connection types. A simulated paper jam filled the memory buffer and prevented access to the pop-up program, causing workstations connected to the printer to freeze until the printer was brought back on-line. PrintDirector Silver is available with six, 10 or 16 ports and is priced between $695 and $1,895. Frills now musts for contact managers. (Sales Management Systems Inc's Prosell 2.0 contact management system ) (product Sales Management Systems (SMS) and Parsons Technology are readying new contact-management programs with high-end features such as auto-dialing, expense tracking and user-definable fields. The new features were considered 'extras' in early products but are now demanded by more and more users as the market becomes increasingly competitive. SMS' Prosell 2.0 is available in both single-user and multiuser versions for $189 and $495 respectively. It is aimed at sales professionals and includes 15 user-definable fields, pop-up to-do lists, an expanded appointment calendar and Boolean sorting options. Parsons' Making Contact is targeted at home and small-business users; it costs only $59 but includes mail-merge capabilities, word-processing features, expense tracking, auto-dialing and 10 user-definable fields. Planisoft 2.5 misses target with Mac-PC calendaring. (Software Review) (ASD Software Planisoft 2.5 cross-platform personal ASD Software's Planisoft 2.5 scheduling software is available in both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows versions and successfully provides a consistent interface across the two platforms, but is too complex to use daily. It offers both an individual and a work-group scheduler for both environments but acts more as a contact manager. Both the Windows and Mac versions use the same file structure and can run on any network that supports both Macs and IBM-compatible PCs. Planisoft's operational concept is cumbersome and difficult to learn. It treats people and resources as 'Users' with 'Agendas' consisting of 'Appointments.' 'Contacts' are people outside the organization; scheduling appointments with other Planisoft users requires the user to redefine a 'User' as a 'Contact.' Making schedule entries is awkward, but the 'Agendas' are easy to use once created. Planisoft costs $349 per single-user copy, $895 for a five-user LAN package and $1,295 for a 10-user package. Electric Image gives Mac users 3-D animation. (ElectricImage Animation System) (product announcement) Electric Image introduces ElectricImage Animation System (EIAS), a high-end 3-D animation package aimed at film and video professionals that runs on the Macintosh. The $7,495 program lets users design, render and edit 3-D animation sequences or import 3-D models from other programs for rendering and animation. It can output to a wide variety of film and video formats and can generate images with resolutions as high as 16K x 16K pixels. EIAS can automatically generate 3-D characters from Adobe Type 1 fonts and performs image editing on 'key frames' which the user defines. Motion path and time values act as parameters for editing the motion between key frames, and a wide-frame view allows preview of animation results. The package can generate a complex image at 640 x 480-pixel resolution with several light sources, textures and reflections in 2 to 7 minutes on a Mac IIfx. It can adjust aspect ratios for 35mm film, HDTV or standard video and broadcast television output. Accounting programs often first on LANs. (and often motivate migration to local area networks) Many resellers, users and industry observers agree that high-end, multimodule accounting software is often the first application put on an organization's new local area network (LAN) and even motivates the purchase of the LAN. Cost justification for a LAN is easier for accounting than other applications. Having an organization's accounting staff use accounting software networked as a work group solution allows data entry clerks to work simultaneously, integrates general ledger seamlessly into other modules, thereby making data collection much more efficient, and adds network utility bonuses such as tape backup for data security. One user says the improved performance for his firm's Accpac accounting software from Computer Associates International Inc on LANs is the reason for a migration to LANs. Niche Systems Inc offers significantly enhanced features on the network version of its Macola 4.0, including a system manager that allows links to database applications. Half of Niche Systems' new clients have bought networked accounting packages in 1990, compared to five to 10 percent in previous years. Pharos improves Mac LAN inventory tool. (Pharos Technologies announces Status Mac 2.0 network management software for Pharos Technologies Inc introduces Status Mac 2.0, an upgrade to its Macintosh local-area network inventory software that offers high-end features available in competing packages. Status Mac 2.0 will let users generate equipment profiles based on hardware configuration criteria and offers a built-in messaging system that sends the profiles to network managers. The current version of Status Mac forces users to rely on third-party E-mail systems to transmit the information it generates. Managers can receive real-time network profiles with the new version and can use profile templates to help delineate inventory criteria. Pricing for Status Mac 2.0 has not yet been determined; the current version costs $799 per network, and users can upgrade free of charge. VINES patch boasts myriad fixes, features. (Banyan Systems Inc. introduces interim upgrade for VINES network operating system) Banyan Systems Inc introduces VINES 4.00(2), a large 'patch' for its VINES network operating system that includes bug fixes and many minor new features. The patch lets users load 37Kbytes of the network operating system code into upper memory in order to free main system memory for applications. It also supports large tape drives, including Banyan's own 2.3Gbyte units, and provides enhanced integration with the Intelligent Disk Array technology in Compaq's Systempro file server. Other new features include fixes to allow error-free operation of Banyan's Advanced 3270/SNA connectivity software on Micro Channel Architecture machines, repair of some instances in which the VINES StreetTalk directory service would crash and DOS workstation fixes that eliminate error messages under the Windows 3.0 File Manager. The patch is free to registered users through Banyan distributors. Apple;s Ethernet cabling system gains supporters. (Asante Technologies, SynOptics, others rally around Apple Ethernet Asante Technologies Inc, Farallon Computing Inc and others plan to support Apple's new Ethernet Cabling System, which provides a unique connector on each network adapter to attach a transceiver for 10BaseT, thin-coaxial or thick-coaxial cable. Apple announced the cabling system at the 1991 MacWorld Expo trade show in San Francisco, along with two new adapters that incorporate the connector design: the Apple Ethernet LC Card for the Mac LC and the Apple Ethernet NB Card for the Mac II family. Asante introduced the $349 FriendlyNet LC, which plugs into the Macintosh LC's Processor Direct Slot and is available with a thin-coaxial or 10BaseT connector, and the $179 FriendlyNet Multi-port Adapter, which provides connections for all three cabling types. Farallon announced a $149 10BaseT adapter, and SynOptics Corp announced a $135 unit. Right Hand Man upgrade sports improved interface. (Software Review) (new work-group software) (evaluation) FutureSoft Inc's Right Hand Man (RHM) 5.1 work group software provides group scheduling, electronic mail, personal appointment scheduling, to-do list, notepad, index card, calculator and file management features. All of its capabilities are accessible from a small memory-resident pop-up program. The new version provides a more consistent user interface than its predecessors, and it is fully compatible with both Microsoft Word 5.0 and WordPerfect 5.0 file formats. Users can change the default activation-key sequence, forward telephone messages, activate alarms for overdue tasks and share modem pools. RHM can be run as a stand-alone program, but the memory-resident mode is more convenience and requires only 6.5Kbyts of conventional memory when extended or expanded memory is available. RHM 5.1 can pop up in Windows 3.0 but only in full-screen mode; it may be run from within a resizable DOS window but will lock up the system if the Instant Notify E-mail feature is active due to a conflict with the NetWare IPX protocol. The powerful group scheduling feature has been enhanced with the ability to display personal schedules for all proposed attendees of a meeting and automatically send reminders. RHM costs $199 for a single-user program; network prices range from $649 for a five-user version to $8,450 for a 100-user version. Tri-Data plumps up Macintosh offerings, cuts gateway prices. (Tri-Data Systems Inc. launches Mac LC network adapters, Netway Tri-Data Systems Inc introduced several new router and gateway products at the 1991 MacWorld Expo trade show and enhanced a number of existing products. The company announced the Netway 1008 and Netway 2008, low-end gateways for LocalTalk and Ethernet/Token Ring networks respectively; the Netway 1008 sells for $2,195, while the 2008 is $3,495. Tri-Data also cut the prices of its existing Netway 1016 and 2016 to $3,195 and $4,495. It added two new adapters for the Mac LC to its LanWay E-10T line of 10BaseT network adapters and announced the MCP 16/4, a Token-Ring adapter for all NuBus-based Macs. Menu-driven Quick Scanner minimizes network problems. (Hardware Review) (Microtest Inc. Quick Scanner network troubleshooting Microtest Inc's $995 Quick Scanner is an inexpensive troubleshooting tool for local area networks that consists of a small LCD menu screen and three keys for Up, Down and Enter. The device can locate faults in either thick or thin coaxial cable by running a variety of tests, the most useful of which is the 'Time Domain Refectometry' test. This test pinpoints the exact type and location of a cable problem. A BNC interface for Ethernet LANs lets Quick Scanner serve as a simple network monitor that displays relative network use on the microcomputer screen. Quick Scanner also includes an RJ-45 jack for scanning twisted-pair cable for swapped and inverted pairs, opens and shorts. It operates for three to ten hours on a standard 9-volt battery. Support will determine the winner of battle for LAN OS supremacy. (column) Support, not technical superiority, will be the key factor in determining which vendor ultimately dominates the LAN operating system market. Microcomputer LANs must become mission-critical platforms for large organizations; support concerns are the main reason why many users have not yet migrated applications to LANs. Support can be provided by the LAN server vendor, the LAN operating system vendor or through resellers and distributors. Hardware vendors cannot be counted on for software support because they want to avoid the expense involved in building support staffs with expertise in complete solutions. Novell's reseller-support strategy has been successful, but tends to break down when dealing with large companies. Large organizations prefer to deal directly with each other when supporting vital applications, and Microsoft and Novell both face the difficult and expensive task of providing direct support to their corporate accounts. FoxPro/Mac exhibits traits of its DOS-based sibling. (Fox Software Inc. previews Macintosh version of FoxPro) Fox Software Inc previewed FoxPro/Mac, an upcoming Macintosh version of its powerful FoxPro DOS database management system, at the 1991 MacWorld Expo trade show in San Francisco. FoxPro/Mac will retain the familiar Macintosh interface while offering the advanced features of its DOS sibling, including relational query-by-example, Structured Query Language support, compound indexes and a more flexible Browse command. Fox plans to develop future DOS and Mac versions of the product in tandem, making it easier for developers to migrate applications and data between the two environments. FoxPro/Mac will replace the existing FoxBase+/Mac and will support the XCMD and XCFN protocols for communicating with database servers. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced. 1-2-3 3.1 add-in toolkit eases programming. (Lotus Development Corp announces Lotus Add-In Toolkit for linking C routines in Lotus Development Corp announces the Lotus Add-In Toolkit for the the 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet package, a set of development tools designed to simplify the creation of add-in packages for the popular spreadsheet. It can link C routines, a capability developers say will allow the creation of many new financial 'at' functions; previous financial applications for 1-2-3 had to be written in Lotus' slow, high-level proprietary Lotus Programming Language (LPL). LPL is sluggish with floating-point arithmetic, according to developers. The new toolkit supports event handling to help add-ins interact more closely with core functions. It is priced at $395; upgrades for current user are $90. Metavision upgrade boasts more robust modeling tools. (Metavision 2.0 computer aided software engineering tool ) (product Applied Axiomatics Inc (AAI) introduces Metavision 2.0, an upgrade of its computer-aided software engineering tool that uses expert-system techniques to generate application code directly from customized operational models. The package includes five models: Cybernetic Business Modeling, Software Engineering, Software Generation, and separate repositories that reside on microcomputers and mainframes. Cybernetic Business Modeling is a tool for building system designs which leads developers through the construction of a four-dimensional business model covering a variety of processes, critical data, management controls and support resources. Software Generation is a code generator which produces COBOL code for IBM mainframes and DEC VAX and Data General minicomputers. Metavision 2.0's modules are sold separately; Cybernetic Business Modeling costs $12,500. Software Engineering costs $7,500, and Software Generation for IBM mainframes is $12,500. The microcomputer repository is priced at $7,500, and mainframe repository prices range from $130,000 to $250,000 depending on the hardware platform. Via 1.0 fortifies DOS programs by automating keystrokes. (Portable Computing Systems Via 1.0 macro language) (Software Review) Portable Computing Systems' $249 Via is a convenient, flexible macro programming tool that provides a BASIC-like programming language with extensions for creating on-screen windows and customized pop-up utilities. Via can be used to automate routine keystrokes or extend packaged applications without modifying code. It works well with applications that use standard DOS keyboard-interaction techniques but is erratic with applications that communicate directly with the keyboard. Framework III and IBM PC BASIC both interfered with Via in tests. Via is supplied with VEd, a program text editor that can also be used for other tasks. The bundled VTrans translator produces a compressed file of keystroke codes. A terminate and stay resident (TSR) Utility runs all Via macros; 'PassKeys' let users link them to specific keys. Via is a useful package despite its limitations. Is Windows 3.0 as successful as it appears to be? (Up Front) (column) Sales of the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and those of Windows applications send contradictory singles in the software market; application sales fail to match the spectacular figures Microsoft gives for sales of the Windows interface itself. Most individual Windows application vendors report brisk business, but it is apparent t hat many copies of Windows are going unused while character-based applications such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 remain among the top-10 sellers. Some users may be satisfied with the crude applications Microsoft bundles with Window, while others use the graphical interface primarily as a multitasker for DOS applications. A stronger argument is that Windows is not quite as successful as it appears to be, but this can only be ascertained by following sales of Windows applications in 1991. For department managers, hardware is generic. (The Corporate Micro) (column) Companies that move the hardware buying decision away from centralized information systems (IS) control and delegate it to department managers find that these managers have a different perspective on equipment acquisition than traditional IS. Department managers are more likely to view hardware as 'generic' and attempt to get product choices out of the way, often using suppliers the company has not previously used. Software is the determining factor in a company's success from a department manager's point of view. This perspective often strengthens sales of lower-cost 'clone' vendors such as AST Research Inc and Dell Computer Corp at the expense of such high-profile vendors as IBM and Compaq. The hardware-centered views of IS result in unpleasant software programs such as DisplayWrite, which succeed only because they bear a famous label; department managers are aware that software is not generic. The time for LAN application downsizing is now. (Risky Business) (column) 'Downsizing' applications from mainframes and minicomputers to microcomputer-based local area networks is likely to become an increasingly popular concept in 1991 as businesses seek to reduce costs and gain flexibility. Properly designed LAN-based applications can be less expensive to build and maintain than large systems, and LANs provide hooks to such data-manipulation tools as spreadsheets and graphics utilities. LANs did not have the power or reliability necessary to handle mission-critical applications until recently, but today's powerful file servers can propel the vast majority of applications. The transition from large systems to LANs involves reprogramming users as well as machines, and companies must develop a plan and checklist before taking action. No two corporate shops are exactly alike, leaving those who pioneer in downsizing to develop strategies on their own. Bringing the cyber office to corporate America. (virtual reality)(Valley Voices) (column) The first substantial virtual-reality applications with potential for business use will be available soon, although mass acceptance remains years away. Autodesk's TRIX is a virtual-reality application development tool due in late 1991 that is designed to create networked 'cyberspace' environments where users can move and interact with other users and data in a world that exists only in the computer. Autodesk does not require unique hardware for its experimental systems, which use off-the-shelf Compaq, Macintosh and Amiga microcomputers. TRIX is a 'nuts and bolts' system designed to encourage developers to implement applications that corporations will find useful. Other vendors exploring virtual reality technology include startup Sense8, which is developing a microcomputer version of its Worldtool cyberspace development toolkit. Startup hopes to resolve spare-parts dilemma. (Changing Channels) (column) A new startup, PC Parts Express, is a distributor dedicated solely to factory-original spare parts for microcomputer hardware which aims to solve the problem of excess spare-parts inventory among dealers, repair centers and customers who do their own maintenance. PC Parts Express officials say that the concept of a parts-only distributor offers major benefits to vendors as well as users because the vendor no longer has to handle every small order from resellers and customers. Market analyses indicate that the microcomputer repair industry has matured and will reach $4.8 billion by the end of 1991 and that 84 percent of installed PCs will be out of warranty by 1993. Fulfillment rate will be crucial for PC Parts Express' success; the company will initially have a toll-free ordering number and offer next-day delivery, but is negotiating with overnight carriers for same-day delivery in certain markets. Color displays for portables disappoint. (Hardware Review) (overview of three evaluations of color laptop computers)(includes Three portable computers with color displays are evaluated: Modgraph Inc's GX-3286C-CA, NEC Technologies Inc's ProSpeed CSX and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's T5200C. All three show a tradeoff between display quality and weight; the Modgrph's conventional CRT offers much better color than the passive-matrix color LCDs in the other two units, but the machine weighs 26 pounds. The NEC and Toshiba are much less bulky and somewhat lighter but do not come close to meeting the expectations of those used to sharp desktop VGA systems. All three portables are based on either the 80386 or 80386SX processors, and all offer excellent performance. Modgraph Inc.: GX-2386C-CA. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of color portable computers in 'Color displays for Modgraph Inc's $6,590 GX-2386C-CA portable computer resembles the early Compaq Portable II luggable machine but is far more powerful, using an 8.5-inch Sony Trinitron CRT to provide a desktop-quality VGA display that supports resolutions of up to 800 x 600 pixels. It uses a 33-MHz 80386 CPU and comes with a 40Mbyte hard disk; its one 3.5-inch and two 5.25-inch drive bays are all accessible externally. Modgraph uses a VGA board plugged into one expansion slot for maximum flexibility. Video performance is faster than that of either NEC Technologies' ProSpeed CSX or Toshiba America Information Systems Inc, two machines that use color LCD display technology. One half-length and one full-length expansion slot remain open when the VGA board and disk controller are installed. The GX-3286C-CA's main drawback is its hefty 26-pound weight. Many buyers express satisfaction with color portables. (survey of buyers of Modgraph GX-2386C-CA, Toshiba America Information Many buyers of portable computers GX-2386C-CA that offer color displays, such as the Toshiba T5200C and Modgraph GX-2386C-CA, say they are satisfied with their machines, but some have decided to wait for the next generation of color LCD technology. One sales manager selected the Modgraph because its bright CRT impresses clients more than the monochrome LCD of a Compaq Portable 386. A manager whose company uses several T5200Cs is generally pleased with them but notes that the screen suffers from image ghosting when viewed form an angle. Users praise the Modgraph for its unusually clear Trinitron display. Users of both systems express a desire for more expansion slots. NEC Technologies Inc.: ProSpeed CSX. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of color portable computers in 'Color displays NEC Technologies Inc's $9,499 ProSpeed CSX was the first portable computer to use a color LCD display, but it suffers from poor contrast and variable brightness. Images tended to show 'ghosts' both horizontally and vertically, and the ProSpeed's performance was very slow on both scrolling and video writing tests. The ROM BIOS also behaves as if the screen can handle 640 x 480-pixel resolution, but the LCD supports only 640 x 400 pixels. The ProSpeed CSX uses a 16 Mhz 80386SX processor, providing a bare minimum of power for running Microsoft Windows. The keyboard has a good feel, but its large carrying handle tends to get in the way of comfortable typing. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: T5200C. (Hardware Review) (one of three evaluations of color portable computers in Toshiba's $9,499 T5200C portable computer is based on the company's venerable T5200 model but adds a color LCD display. It uses a true 640 x 480-pixel grid and is compatible with a desktop VGA display, but the screen is sometimes difficult to read due to color contrast problems. The T5200C's default mode tries to match the VGA colors with the closest screen color the LCD can generate; results are often poor, especially in text mode. A bundled utility, VCHAD, lets users map any of the 256 VGA color palette slots to any of the 16 screen colors. The T5200C has two internal expansion slots, a 20 MHz 80386 processor and a solid keyboard. It also includes such bundled software as Multisoft Corp's Super PC Kwik disk-caching program and Quarterdeck Office Systems' QEMM memory manager. PM bolsters OS/2 word processors. (Presentation Manager) (Software Review) (overview of five evaluations of word processors running Four word processing packages for the OS/2 operating system are reviewed. IBM's DisplayWrite 5/2 Composer and WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect for OS/2 5.0 are character-based, while DeScribe Inc's DeScribe and Microsoft Corp's Word for OS/2 1.10 use the Presentation Manager graphical interface. The two graphical programs are generally better integrated into the OS/2 environment than the character-based ones and are much easier to learn and use. DisplayWrite and WordPerfect for OS/2 are clumsy because OS/2's character-based interface is inferior. Word for OS/2 uses the same interface as Word 5.5 and Word for Windows. WordPerfect for OS/2 offers nearly every common word processing function but does not take advantage of the OS/2 environment and uses arcane function-key combinations for most operations. Word for OS/2 is the best choice by itself, but companies that are standardized on DisplayWrite or WordPerfect in the DOS environment may want the OS/2 versions despite their inefficiency. PM interface boosts operation of new OS/2 word processors. (survey of buyers of OS/2 versions of Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, IBM Buyers of four word processing packages for the OS/2 operating system say they are most pleased with those products that use the Presentation Manager graphical user interface, praising both Microsoft Word for OS/2 and DeScribe Inc's DeScribe 2.0. One Word for OS/2 user notes that the Presentation Manager version offers smoother operation and a more consistent interface than the Windows version. Another says that the screen representation is close to WYSIWYG but complains that versions of OS/2 earlier than 1.3 lack screen fonts. A DeScribe user is pleased with its features, noting that it offers many high-end desktop publishing capabilities. Users complain that WordPerfect for OS/2 has the same confusing interface as the DOS version, but like the multitasking capability and high performance OS/2 provides. DisplayWrite for OS/2 users say that performance is good, but they dislike the clunky, dated interface andpoor documentation. DeScribe Inc.: DeScribe 2.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of OS/2-based word processing software in 'PM bolsters DeScribe Inc's $595 DeScribe 2.0 is an OS/2-based word processor that uses the Presentation Manager graphical user interface and takes advantage of such OS/2 features as the High Performance File System, long file names and multitasking. The multitasking feature is especially important because DeScribe's overall performance is slow; many common functions take significantly longer in DeScribe than in Word for OS/2 or the character-based IBM and WordPerfect products. Network file locking prevents more than one user from editing a document simultaneously, and a bundled 'Kahuna' utility lets system managers monitor the server to be sure that no more than the licensed number of workstations are running DeScribe at any time. Users create and edit documents as WYSIWYG pages, and the program supports style sheets, a powerful macro language, foreign language dictionaries and mail merge. Users can customize the pull-down menus and the hot keys which invoke macros. DeScribe implements the OS/2 Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol for hot linking documents. IBM: DisplayWrite 5/2 Composer 1.00. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of OS/2-based word processing software in 'PM IBM's $495 DisplayWrite 5/2 Composer word processor for OS/2 offers only basic features and is difficult to learn and use. Installation is simple but time-consuming, and the documentation is not well organized. DisplayWrite can exchange documents with its counterparts on DOS and IBM mainframe systems, making it attractive to large organizations that have standardized on IBM word processors. It does not support long file names or the IBM Communications Adapter Card. DisplayWrite's many quirks make it awkward to use; directly revising ASCII files is impossible, and quitting a file without first saving it generates an error message. A DWIMPORT facility lets users convert .PIC, .CGM and .GMF format graphics to DisplayWrite's RFT format. Microsoft Corp.: Word for OS/2 1.10. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of OS/2-based word processing software in 'PM Microsoft Corp's $495 Word for OS/2 1.1 word processor uses the Presentation Manager interface and shares the same graphical user interface (GUI) as the DOS and Windows versions of the product. The documentation is well organized, and the program has many powerful features but is nevertheless easy to use. Style sheets are saved as part of a document instead of in separate files, and the outlining facility is excellent. Word for OS/2 1.1 includes a spelling checker, thesaurus, hyphenation dictionary and powerful macro facility that lets the user record complex sequences of actions and commands. Users can edit up to nine documents in separate window and can import and export files between a wide variety of formats. Word for OS/2 1.1 is the most powerful OS/2 word processor currently available. WordPerfect Corp.: WordPerfect for OS/2 5.0. (Software Review) (one of four evaluations of OS/2-based word processing software in WordPerfect Corp's $495 WordPerfect for OS/2 5.0 word processing software uses the same interface as its DOS counterpart and does little to take advantage of the OS/2 operating environment. It does not use the Presentation Manager graphical interface and lacks mouse support; the High Performance File System is supported, but its long file names are not. Several of the external utilities provides, including the screen-capture program and graphics and font conversion programs, must be run in a DOS compatibility box. WordPerfect offers detailed on-line help, and its text-formatting capabilities are very extensive. The program also includes a thesaurus, spelling checker, hyphenation, mail-merge and support for legal citation references. Its macro language is powerful, and simple math functions can be incorporated into documents. Printer and font support is extensive, and the program can import CGM, DXF, EPS. MSP, PCX and TIFF graphics. Windows, LANs find common ground. (Software Review) (Automated Design Systems Inc. Windows Workstation Release 3)(includes Automated Design Systems Inc's $695 Windows Workstation 3.0 is a utility package for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface designed to smooth Windows' operation on local area networks running the Novell NetWare network operating system. Windows Workstation requires two separate directories on the file server which any user must be able to access. It provides a menuing system that can be run from the Windows Program Manager or separately; network managers can create group menus, while individual users can define and maintain their own menus. A Common User Access-style menu bar leads users from the primary system menu to other utilities. The utilities include a clock, an intercom, and workstation security features that allow password protection and file encryption. A 'MultiSet' script language provides If-Then-Else control structures and commands for displaying text files in scrollable windows, prompting for text entries and displaying push-button prompts. Windows Workstation provides its own Print Manager, which fixes many of the network printing weaknesses in Windows itself. DOS shell is key for opening Windows to NetWare. (using Novell NetWare network operating system with Microsoft Windows 3.0) Users wishing to install Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface on a Novell NetWare local area network must first purchase version 3.01 of the NetWare DOS shell. The $30 upgrade kit, which can also be downloaded from the NetWare forum on CompuServe, lets users generate a new version of IPX.COM for each type of network adapter via the NetWare SHGEN utility. It also contains a NETx.COM file which must be installed along with the new IPX.COM on each workstation that will run Windows. Placing all Windows 3.0 system files in a shared directory and individual users' configuration files in separate directories is highly recommended. The SHELL.CFG file on the workstation must also be upgrades by adding the statement 'show dots=on,' under which directory trees can be navigated in both directions. The 'file handles=' entry should be set to 60. Those wishing to multitask DOS applications should also consider purchasing a Windows-compatible memory manager in order to ensure that enough memory is available for applications. ADS package clears view for Windows-installed LANs, buyers say. (survey of buyers of Automated Design Systems Inc's Windows Buyers of Automated Design Systems Inc's Windows Workstation, a suite of utilities for running Microsoft Windows 3.0 on a Novell NetWare LAN, effective and helpful in managing networks that run Windows. One manager of a 200-node network is especially pleased with the Print Manager utility because it makes defining new network printers as easy as clicking the mouse. The MultiSet script language also earns praise from many users because it allows dynamic changes in the WIN.INI file. Another Windows Workstation user, who manages a 500-node LAN, says it simplifies user training. One complaint is that the menu lacks icon support, a feature promised in a future version. Two tools simplify database creation. (Software Review) (overview of evaluations of Aker Corp. Magic PC 3.5, Alpha Software Group Aker Corp's $499 Magic PC 3.5 and Alpha Software Corp's $549 Alpha Four 1.1 are database programming tools that let non-programmers create customized applications without writing code. Both can develop attractive applications, but neither is an application generator that automatically generates code; each sets up a traditional relational data model and executes the design of the application and its underlying database in the same way as other development systems. Magic PC is the more powerful of the two systems, but it is relatively slow and less easy to use. Alpha Four is the better program for novice users; its built-in interactive interface makes ad-hoc queries easy. Magic PC requires users to specify even the simplest operations in advance. Aker Corp: Magic PC 3.5. (Software Review ) (one of two evaluations of database development tools in 'Two tools simplify Aker Corp's Magic PC 3.5 database programming tool is very comprehensive but is geared more toward professional programmers than novice users, although it does not require writing traditional code. Magic PC is entirely table-driven, using tables to hold information about database structure, file attributes, field types and procedures for manipulating data. Other tables encode functions performed by the procedures. The user interface is very efficient, but many operations must be spread over several tables; maintaining programs can be awkward. The program specifies data integrity procedurally, forcing the developer to incorporate data validation in every task that writes to the database. Magic PC suffers from slow performance, especially in batch processes; it takes nearly an hour to import 8,900 records and build an index on two fields. Tools' advantages outweigh limits, according to buyers. (survey of buyers of Aker Corp's Magic PC 3.5, Alpha Software Corp's Alpha Buyers of non-procedural database management systems from Aker Corp and Alpha Software Corp say that the non-procedural approach lets end users who are not professional programmers develop applications easily. One user of Aker's Magic PC says that the product has all of the power of a DBMS with a procedural language and greatly shortens development time, but notes that the number of menu choices is limited. Another user states that Alpha Software Corp's Alpha Four macro language is rudimentary and 'very awkward.' The relational capabilities in both products nevertheless make them better choices than flat-file database managers, according to buyers. Users say that the ability to import and export files from other databases is crucial. Alpha Software Corp.: Alpha Four 1.1. (Software Review) (one of two evaluations of database development tools in 'Two tools Alpha Software Corp's $549 Alpha Four 1.1 database development tool is entirely menu-driven and is less powerful than Aker Corp's Magic PC, but is much easier to learn and use. It lacks a traditional programming language, but users can traverse its built-in menu structure and fill out a screen that provides parameters for a particular operation. Another method of programming Alpha Four resembles the macro facility in popular spreadsheet packages; recording and playing back a series of keystrokes can automate a function. The macro language is rudimentary and allows little user interaction and no control over execution sequence. Alpha Four uses a native data format identical to that of dBASE III, making data and memo files completely interchangeable; index files can be shared with dBASE III but not with dBASE IV. An intelligent lookup feature lets users specify a pop-up window when the cursor enters a defined filed or after a function key is pressed. Performance is outstanding, especially in batch operations. Any query creates a search list, but this list is static; it contains only a snapshot of the data at the time of the query. Downsizing accounting applications: data integrity is key consideration when downsizing to PC based LANs. (includes related A guide to selecting microcomputer LAN-based accounting packages for 'downsizing' financial operations from mainframes and minicomputers is presented. Data integrity and reliability are key concerns; today's LAN hardware and network management software is much more reliable than that in the past, but the complexity of the 'human interface' makes ensuring data integrity while allowing access to data a difficult procedure. Operational controls improve data integrity at the expense of overall system performance, but most users are willing to put up with the performance decrease caused by password security, validation, data checking, automatic recovery and file encryption. A LAN accounting system must maintain a multilevel DBMS architecture that is fault-tolerant; distributed client/server systems provide physical, logical, process and media fault tolerance. Most network accounting systems include security features such as encryption systems encrypt data files to protect against unauthorized access and let network administrators perform audits to monitor user access. Specific products are discussed. Shake-up, layoffs signal tough times for Commodore. (Commodore International Ltd. moves executives, lays off 60 to 80 employees) Commodore International Ltd has laid off 60 to 90 employees from its US subsidiary, Commodore Business Machines Inc, and replaced general manager Harold Copperman with Commodore veteran James Dionne in a shake-up analysts say may be related to the firm's falling earnings in the US market. Commodore officially denies that Copperman's removal was a consequence of poor results, but acknowledges that its market share is low. Observers say that the company faces severe competitive pressure from IBM and Apple in the emerging multimedia market and is becoming less and less important. European sales accounted for 75 percent of Commodore's revenue in FY 1990. For U.S. vendors in Europe, planning is everything. (distribution agreements) Experts say that careful planning and well-designed distribution agreements are the key to US microcomputer vendors' success in the European market. Plans must be flexible, and companies should be prepared to take immediate action when necessary. Distribution models include managed, exclusive, non-exclusive, master, and republisher/manufacturer strategies; each requires its own commitment to marketing and promotion on the part of the US company. US companies must treat European partners as full partners, keeping up a constant flow of information by fax and telephone. Checking the references of distributors is vital, but the open European market requires that distributor termination be done fairly. It pays to track down software pirates. (global software piracy) Companies experienced in tracking down software pirates say that the effort can recoup millions of dollars in lost sales. Unauthorized duplication of software costs the industry an estimated $2 billion to $4 billion annually. Many consumers do not view copying software as illegal, and users in countries such as the Soviet Union where tangible goods are scarce may actually view a floppy disk as more valuable than the software on it. Autodesk Inc's Copyright Protection Program is a model for the rest of the industry; the company enforces its licensing policy by requiring offenders to purchase any illegal programs found at their sites at full retail price and by educating users. Developers should view piracy as 'deviant behavior' and provide warnings on software and in manuals of the consequences of piracy. Fear of takeover triggers 'poison pill' plans. (anti-takeover measures in computer companies) Many leading microcomputer hardware and software companies have adopted 'poison pill' strategies to make themselves unattractive to potential hostile takeover bidders. Oracle Corp and Sun Microsystems have taken anti-takeover measures in the wake of AT&T's hostile bid to acquire NCR Corp. Their 'shareholder rights plans' take effect when an outside party buys a certain percentage of a company's outstanding stock or announces its intention to do so and allow existing shareholders other than the 'raider' to buy stock at large discounts. This dilution of stock value increases the cost of an acquisition. 'Trigger' levels that put poison-pill plans into action range from 10 percent to 30 percent of a company's stock. Apple's Mac Classic may be the first true information appliance. (Looking Forward) (column) Apple's Macintosh II represents the 'cutting edge' of microcomputer technology with its powerful multimedia capabilities, but the new low-end Mac Classic will be more significant in the 1990s because it dramatically lowers the cost of Macintosh computing and opens up the home market now aggressively pursued by Apple's arch-rival, IBM. The Macintosh is more powerful than IBM's PS/1, which comes with only 512Kbytes of RAM in its base model; the Apple has endowed the Classic with a high-density floppy-disk drive, 1 to 2Mbytes of RAM and the ability to connect to networks. Macintoshes are very easy to set up, making the Classic into an 'information appliance.' Businesses, schools, government agencies, and individuals are buying Classics as fast as they are manufactured. Cellular moves toward TDMA, placing rival format on the ropes. (time division multiple access format for digital cellular) Members of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association will reportedly push the association to endorse the time division multiple access (TDMA) format for next-generation digital cellular equipment. TDMA's chief competitor, code division multiple access (CDMA), was introduced in 1989 by Qualcomm Inc. Cellular carriers are now testing TDMA, and the first TDMA equipment has been ordered. CDMA's technical possibilities may be greater, but the format is not as far along in the standardization process. CTIA opens annual cellular spree. (products on display at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association convention) About 190 exhibitors will display their wares in 412 booths at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association convention in San Diego, Jan 16-18, 1991. Ericsson GE Mobile Communications Inc will exhibit two cellular phones, the 14-ounce HotLine Pocketfone and the Hotline mobile telephone. Northern Telecom will exhibit two digital cellular switching systems, the MTX-D and the MTX SuperNode. Ericsson Radio Systems will display its CMS-8800-D digital cellular switching system. Subscriber Computing Inc will exhibit its Accellurator software for cellular telephone carriers. Nokia-Mobira Inc, Oki Telecom and NEC America will all display new cellular telephones. Can PON go broadband? (passive optic networks) (technical) Engineer, Carl P. Telephone companies seeking to install fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) systems to serve today's telephone needs must also be aware of future needs to provide broadband and video services on fiber optics. The challenge in passive optical network (PON) deployment is to provide inexpensive fiber service today with a built-in capacity to upgrade to AM video and broadband integrated services digital network (BISDN) in the future without affecting service at other subscriber interface units (SIUs). This challenge can be met by using an optical splitter to link the office interface unit to several SIUs. Break on through to the other side: fiber in the loop challenges. (Cover Story) Telephone companies need to deploy a fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) architecture that simultaneously supports current needs while providing an upgrade path to an all-fiber network. Deployment should be economical and dovetail smoothly with other loops to form a nationwide synchronous optical network. Costs for installing fiber vary for feeder and distribution plants. Supplying power to fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) networks is a complex problem; many more battery sites might be required. Another problem is that most record-management software used by telephone companies is geared to copper networks. To PON or not to PON? That is the question. (passive optical network) (technical) Multiple subscribers can share electronics and fibers in a passive optical network (PON). The digital loop carrier-like approach to deploying a fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) system uses so much optoelectronics and fiber that it is difficult to achieve cost-parity with copper systems. PON, in contrast, cuts costs by allowing sharing of fiber and electronics, thanks to use of the time division multiple access (TDMA) protocol. Telephone companies can use PON to deploy fiber-to-the-curb networks now, while enabling a smooth migration to future fiber-to-the-home networks. Video-game pioneer tries once again to merge best of computers and TV. (Nolan Bushnell and Commodore International Ltd.'s CDTV Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, is back in the video game business one year after joining Commodore International Ltd to help develop a sophisticated games system that incorporates the best aspects of television and computers. Bushnell entered the project with the idea of combining television's compelling allure for children with a computer's ability to store and interactively manipulate data. The result is Commodore's CDTV, a $999 home product that contains an Amiga computer together with a compact disk player, which is controlled by a hand-held remote control device. The eventual success of the system will depend on the availability of quality software. So far, Commodore has lined up 30 software titles for the system. Many software makers likely to report smaller profits for the fourth quarter. Continuing an industry-wide trend, microcomputer-oriented software publishers are expected to report stronger earnings than their mainframe- or minicomputer-oriented brethren for the 4th qtr 1990. While most software firms are feeling the squeeze of the recession, Microsoft Corp continues to grow rapidly. Microsoft is expected to report 4th qtr 1990 net income of $98 million compared with $74.5 million for the same period a year ago. Lotus Development Corp is expected to report its first ever net loss in last quarter of 1990, due mainly to a $40 million to $50 million charge it will take on the acquisition of Samna Corp. Ashton-Tate, a company in financial trouble recently, is expected to make a modest recovery in its 4th qtr 1990, but many analysts are pessimistic about the firm's long-term prospects. Excel raises the spreadsheet stakes: Can Microsoft win over customers who rely on 1-2-3 or Quattro? (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel Some industry observers say that Microsoft Corp's new $495 spreadsheet program, Excel 3.0 for Windows, is the best program on the market, but even though the new release gives Microsoft an advantage over the traditional market powers - Lotus Development Corp and Borland International - it is not certain that Microsoft can parlay its technology advances into market share. Both Lotus and Borland are testing new generation Windows 3.0-compatible spreadsheets that will put them back into competition soon. For now, however, Excel 3.0 will impress potential buyers. Excel has strong graphics-handling capabilities, automation features that approach artificial intelligence, solver functions, and object linking that enables sophisticated data sharing between applications. A 'gunslinger's' growing pains: charting change at Sun Microsystems through its sometimes inexplicable mottos. (includes Sun Microsystems Inc seems to have rolled through its 1989 troubles that included management defections and a $20.3 million loss in its 4th qtr 1989 to emerge as a stronger, more mature company. The company has long been known for its 'gunslinger' approach to management and product development under the stewardship of 36-year-old Scott McNealy, the company's chairman. Lately, however, the firm has modified its unconventional approach to include a few more management controls. Sun was co-founded by McNealy and three other graduate students in 1982, and the company has grown to support a work-force of 13,000 with sales of $3 billion in 1990. Sun even managed to gain a single point of market share in the workstation market in 1990, perhaps the most competitive arena in the computer industry. Philips offers its challenge to Sony digital tape player. Shapiro, Eben. Philips NV introduces a new digital audio tape (DAT) recorder that includes advantageous features at a price lower than machines from Japanese rivals such as Sony. The new recorder is introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV. It will have a retail price of between $500 and $600. The machine was developed with the assistance of the Tandy Corp, and Philips is rumored to have the support of several partners including Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, owners of MCA Inc. The main advantage of the Philips player, known as the digital compact cassette, is that it can play conventional analog cassettes as well as DAT cassettes. The design of the system also allows record companies to inexpensively mass produce DAT cassettes. F.C.C. proposes a TV system that interacts with viewers. Andrews, Edmund L. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposes that a broadcast frequency should be set aside for ordering goods and services through television sets. The frequency, which the FCC calls 'Interactive Video Data Service,' would combine regular television programming with home-shopping and on-line information services. The frequency would be available in every community and would support rival interactive services. The FCC's action is seen as an indication that interactive television is ready for commercial use. Final action on the FCC's proposal is expected by late 1991 or early 1992. Chip industry pioneer to retire. (Charles E. Sporck) Pollack, Andrew. Charles E. Sporck, president and chief executive of the National Semiconductor Corp, will retire in May 1991. Sporck will be replaced by Gilbert F. Amelio, who is currently the president of the Communications Systems division at Rockwell International Corp. According to Sporck, who is 63 years old, National Semiconductor is in an improved condition after several years of losses. A return to profitability, he says, can be expected soon. Wall Street analysts are less certain that this is so. Rochester Telephone in deal with Centel. (Company News) (column) Bradsher, Keith. Rochester Telephone Corp agrees to buy local phone operations in Minnesota and Iowa for $100 million in cash, 2.8 million shares of Rochester Telephone stock, and the Rochester company's minority investments in cellular franchises in 20 cities and towns, from Centel Corp. The stock is currently valued at about $82.2 million, and the minority stakes are estimated to be worth about $67 million, so that the entire deal has a value of about $250 million. The deal is expected to close by the middle of 1991. Chief at National Semiconductor sets retirement. (Who's News) (Charles E. Sporck) National Semiconductor Corp announces that Gilbert F. Amelio, 47, will assume the role of president on Feb 4, 1991 and will take control of the semiconductor company after long-time CEO Charles E. Sporck, 63, retires in May 1991. Amelio is president of Rockwell International Corp's Communication Systems unit and will work alongside Sporck until the National Semiconductor CEO leaves. Sporck believes the company is in good health in 1991 and that it is time for a new leader to assume the responsibility of guiding the company. National Semiconductor, whose stock closed at $4.375 a share on Jan 10, 1991, began suffering losses in the mid-1980s after Japan began crowding the semiconductor market. Cable-TV firm wants to test phone service. (Comcast Corp.) Kneale, Dennis. Comcast Corp files a request with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide personal communications networks (PCNs) in five cities. Comcast, which is a major operator of cable television systems, is one of several cable companies that are expressing interest in determining whether or not their cable systems can be linked with cellular phone systems and carry telephone calls. Telephone companies are expressing opposition to cable companies moving into their market, but the cable industry indicates that a successful implementation of PCNs could lead to home telephones that are more mobile, lighter and smaller than current technology allows. FCC proposes to reserve frequencies for interactive service on television. (Federal Communications Commission) The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) envisions splitting the 500 KHz in the 218.0 to 218.5 MHz spectrum into two 250 KHz sections that will be used for interactive television. The two separate segments will allow two interactive services to compete with one another, and the FCC is examining whether or not this will be enough to meet future needs. Industry observers note that around 92 million US households have televisions, which leaves the potential for interactive television wide open. The FCC responds favorably to the possibilities of interactive television but raises the concern that it may interfere with channel 13, which runs between 210 and 216 MHz. Nycor intends to try to oust Zenith's chief. (Nycor Inc. and Zenith Electronics Corp.) Nycor Corp indicates that it will attempt to oust Zenith Electronics Corp's Pres, Chmn and CEO Jerry K. Pearlman in a proxy contest. Nycor, which controls 8.2 percent of Zenith's shares, believes that Pearlman does not have a viable business plan that will serve the interests of its investors. Zenith stock prices have been sliding from 1988 to 1990 and the company has experienced continuing losses between 1985 and 1990. Nycor says its management has a better understanding of manufacturing and distribution in the competitive US consumer electronics industry and does not rule out making an offer for Zenith; the company's assets consist of cash and Zenith shares. Zenith stock closes at $6.875 a share on Jan 10, 1991. Chip counts to drop for FDDI sets. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface chip sets from Advanced Micro Devices, National Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD) new Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) chip set, due out in late Jan 1991, will have four devices, down from five in its previous FDDI chip set. But the new chip set, called the Supernet-3, will absorb at least eight more discrete parts than the earlier set. Motorola will debut a four-chip FDDI set in spring 1991, while National Semiconductor plans to release a two-chip set in 1992. Chip-set costs will remain high, however: Supernet-2 will cost $200 in quantities of 1,000. And since FDDI functions will be partitioned differently in the competing chip sets, mixing chips from different vendors may be impossible. Veneer of VXI unity to crack; dispute focuses on message- vs register-based programming. (VMEbus with Extensions for Manufacturers of products complying with the VMEbus with Extensions for Instrumentation (VXI) standard will debate at the mid-Jan 1991 ATE/West conference in Anaheim, CA. One side favors message-based programming; the other backs a register-based format. VXI extends the VME specification to some instrument-specific backplane capabilities, such as analog transmission lines. While message-based devices use word-serial protocols to communicate, register-based devices are accessed and controlled by memory-mapped binary registers. The debate is attributed to the complexities of programming the VXI bus. Many observers say that register-based devices are faster but require more development effort than message-based devices. Drive makers again predict 8-in. demise: Fujitsu, Seagate anticipate future in smaller form factors. (includes related Some 8-inch-drive manufacturers say the format is near the end of the line. Fujitsu America predicts that it will produce one or two more generations of the drives; Seagate Technology will make no promises beyond its next generation. In the mass-storage market, 8-inch drives face competition from 5.25-inch and optical drives. Seagate Marketing Dir Rudy Thibodeau says the chief advantage of 8-inch drives is their reliability in big systems. Eight-inch drives are presently found in network file servers, minisupercomputers, graphics and imaging workstations, and 'disk farms,' or arrays of high-capacity, high-speed drives used in transaction-processing applications. VMEbus designers must shift gears. (includes related article on migration to 32 bits and VME popularity) The role of VMEbus for single-board computers is changing. With VMEbus-interface chips now available off the shelf, bus-design experience is becoming less of a priority. Some manufacturers say experience in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and microprocessor design is more important than VMEbus experience. Experience in using design tools and developing software are other pluses. Robert Heimbueger, engineer at Rochester, NY-based Performance Technologies Inc, says the biggest problem VMEbus engineers face is making efficient use of the 6-by-9 inches that is the typical size of a standard VME card. As a result, manufacturers are seeking engineers with a good mix of skills. Four announce 9600 bps modem/fax sets: AT&T, Rockwell, Sierra, SSI devices choose among V.32, V.42bis, and MNP 5. (AT and T Four chip makers announce chip sets for 9600-bps data and facsimile modem transmission. AT and T Microelectronics debuts the DSP162A-V32, priced at $70 in quantities of 10,000. Rockwell Communication System's RC9696AC and RC9696AC-E chip sets cost $162.50 in quantities of 10,000. Sierra Semiconductor's one-chip SC11054, which supports 9600-bps send-only fax transmission and 2400-bps data transmission, costs $27.17 with controller in quantities of 10,000, while Sierra's two-chip SK9698 costs $25.15 in quantities of 10,000. Silicon Systems' 73D2247, a two-chip set that features 2400-bps data transmission, data compression and error correction, is available in PLCC or DIP packages for less than $30 in quantities of 10,000. Two team to support FB+ parallel protocol: Texas Instruments and Force to codevelop cache-coherency aid. (Force Computer, Force Computer of Campbell, CA, and Texas Instruments (TI) have agreed to codevelop a parallel protocol controller (PPC) chip for the Futurebus+ bus scheme. The Futurebus+ chip codevelopment pact is TI's second; in Oct 1990 the corporation commenced work on a five-year project with Philips Components-Signetics to codevelop Futurebus+ transceivers and data-path circuits. Force Computer and TI believe their PPC, which will use a Force-developed 'H' bus to link diverse processors into a hierarchical caching scheme, will ease the design of cache-coherent logic. The Force/TI codevelopment pact is expected to prompt other firms to develop second-generation PPCs. Moving into management? Pay attention to politics, people, and top brass. (advice for engineers) Engineers who move into management must cope with the responsibility of managing former peers. The move also requires stronger interpersonal skills, paying greater attention to company politics and more responsibilities. A mentor can make the transition easier. For many engineers, improving interpersonal skills is the greatest challenge. New managers who make a bumpy start should not panic; trial and error is the only sure teacher. Building relations with other company officials is a must; to do that, the new manager must learn to leave details to others. A good manager must delegate duties and learn to rely on the staff's expertise. Why frameworks are tomorrow's promise. (collections of software tools) (includes related article on how to buy a framework) Frameworks are software tool collections that promise to address almost every key aspect of software development. Frameworks provide a design environment that will accept electronic design automation (EDA) tools from competing vendors. Frameworks should boost engineer productivity by replacing incompatible development systems with one unified system and by streamlining project management, which usually consumes at least 30 percent of a software package's development time. A common user interface shared by all the tools in a framework should dramatically reduce learning time. Some framework companies foresee the various tools residing in one database; others plan to have separate databases for simulation software, layout software, and so forth. Obstacles to implementing frameworks include a lack of standards. Microware acts in "real time". (Microware Systems Corp. seeking engineers) (company profile) Des Moines, IA-based Microware Systems Corp aims to hire about 15 engineers in 1991. Microware, which also has facilities in Santa Clara, CA, and Tokyo, develops and markets tools for embedded-system development and real-time operating systems. President Ken Kaplan seeks engineers with a broad variety of experience. Key products are the OS-9 and OS-9000 real-time, multitasking operating systems and Real-time Audio/Video Environment (RAVE) software for developing human/computer interfaces that simulate real-world sounds and images. Microware especially seeks engineers with experience in the C programming language and OS-9 or Unix. Three-fifths of Microware's 130 employees own stock in the company, which has experienced 30 percent to 35 percent annual growth in revenues over its 13-year history. Mitel chairman adds chief executive's job. (Mitel Corp.)(Business People) (column) Mitel Corp Chmn Anthony F. Griffiths, 60, is named to the posts of president and CEO of the telecommunications company. Griffiths takes over the jobs held by John E. Jarvis, 47, who resigns to pursue other business interests. Mitel, which makes telecommunication systems, switching systems and semiconductor products, also announces its plans to focus on strategic products and enhance its profitability. The Ontario-based company is 51 percent owned by British Telecommunications PLC and has annual revenue of $400 million (Canadian). Mitel reports a loss of $4 million on revenue of $113.5 million in its fiscal 2nd qtr ended Sep 28, 1990; it had a profit of $200,000 on sales of $101.3 million in the same period in 1989. Involuntary layoffs for 3,450 set at Digital. (Digital Equipment Corp.)(Company News) DEC announces that it will layoff 3,450 workers between Jan 1991 and Jun 30, 1991. The computer company announces its first-ever firing after the failure of a voluntary severance program. The voluntary program expired on Dec 31, 1990, and only 2,550 workers, of DEC's 123,500 workers worldwide, chose to leave. Wall Street reacts favorably to DEC's decision to lay off workers because voluntary severance packages tend to attract the most valuable employees. DEC has more control over which employees leave with the layoffs. DEC stock closed at $52.625 a share on Jan 9, 1991, after reaching a high of $95 a share in the previous year. A weak outlook for phone giants. (Market Place) (column) Bradsher, Keith. AT and T, MCI Communications Corp and United Telecommunications Inc face difficult times in 1991, with analysts forecasting less long-distance telephone calling in a recessionary economy. The stocks of the three major long-distance carriers fell in 1990, with AT and T shares falling 34 percent, MCI shares falling 55 percent and US Sprint shares falling 39 percent. Analysts see a decrease in long-distance calls, marketing expenses and the possibility of a price war as potential threats to the economic stability of the carriers. Industry observers note that the long-distance industry growth will be around seven percent for 1991, as compare with 12.9 percent during the economic boom of the 1980s. NCR weighs using untested rights plan as defense against AT&T takeover bid. NCR Corp considers the contingent value rights tactic as a possible defense against AT and T's $6.12 billion hostile takeover bid. The contingent value rights defense involves setting a one-time common stock price that the company expects to reach within a defined time period, and then paying stockholders all or part of the difference in a dividend if it fails to reach the predetermined stock price. NCR has not announced the defense and insiders familiar with the computer maker's defense strategies say that the plan is highly preliminary. Industry observers believe the strategy is designed to let NCR remain independent long enough to reap the revenue benefits of a new line of computers expected to be released soon. Digital Equipment, in its first layoffs, to dismiss about 3,500 workers by July. (Digital Equipment Corp.) DEC plans to dismiss 3,500 workers by Jul 1991 in its first round of layoffs. The computer maker is initiating its first-ever layoff because of necessary cost-cutting measures and the failure of a voluntary severance program, which attracted only 2,500 takers out of 6,000. DEC indicates that the layoffs will not result in any new charges against earnings for the fiscal year, which ends Jun 30, 1991. DEC will report the results of its 2nd qtr ending Dec 31, 1990 in Jan 1991 and the company indicates that the layoff announcement is not meant to imply anything about those results. DEC posts an 83 percent drop in profit to $26.2 million on a 1 percent revenue decline to $3.09 billion for the 1st qtr. The company's stock falls $1.125 a share and closes at $52.625 a share on Jan 9, 1991. PC makers are revving up their ads to reach more knowledgeable buyers. (Advertising) (column) Several microcomputer companies, including IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc, begin running ads that appeal to the knowledgeable buyer. The computer industry, which used to run ads that made the technology look friendly and warm, now begins targeting users that have a considerable understanding of technology. IBM no longer uses its Charlie Chaplin character and the use of the friendly cast of MASH to advertise its computers; new ads are filled with beasts and high-performance data that is indecipherable to the layman. Sun Microsystems displays its products as the 'ultimate striving machine' in its ads and Advanced Logic Research Inc calls its products the 'leader of the pack' and exhorts customers to 'rip your competition to shreds.' IBM positions some managers for bigger tasks. Carroll, Paul B. IBM announces its plan to move a group of young executives into important positions in an attempt to improve its personality and strengthen its response to customer problems. The 30,000-worker group, named Applications Solutions, is responsible for making sure a customer can receive all his or her software and service needs from IBM. Forty-six-year old Bernard Puckett leads the new group. Puckett was responsible for running IBM's mainframe division and successfully introduced the computer maker's new line of mainframe computers in a climate in which many customers were looking at emerging technologies instead of the available technologies. Sporck at National Semiconductor sets search for an heir. (Charles E. Sporck of National Semiconductor Corp.) National Semiconductor CEO Charles E. Sporck, 63, begins looking for a successor to his position and hopes to announce one by the end of the company's fiscal year on May 26, 1991. Sporck has been CEO of National Semiconductor since 1967 and is considered one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley. The search for a successor to Sporck has been long in coming since there have been no apparent heirs. The company, which reports a profit of $3.5 million in its 2nd fiscal qtr ending Nov 25, 1990, states that the successor will have to be capable of turning the business around. National Semiconductor has posted losses in six of the last 10 quarters and faces a tough financial road ahead. Japan loosens grip on market. (year-end semiconductor market share reports contain several surprises) Intel showed a 29 percent increase in revenues in 1990 as a result of its single sourcing policy on microcomputers. Philips showed the second largest growth rate among chip manufacturers with a 13 percent increase. These numbers are based on reports from Dataquest and Integrated Circuit Engineering. Japanese companies recorded static revenue positions; only two of the top companies showed growth of 2 percent or 3 percent. US and European companies showed significant improvement. NEC retained its top position; Toshiba, Hitachi and Motorola followed in the same order they held in 1989. Intel moved from the eighth spot to number five. Companies that stayed the same or declined in 1990 rely on MOS memory, which suffered dramatic price declines worldwide. A dynamic move to catch SRAM. (1991 International Solid State Circuit Conference) Speed improvements for DRAMS are approaching the speed of SRAMs. Toshiba and Fujitsu are preparing papers on 17-nanosecond 4M-bit DRAMs for the International Solid State Circuit Conference in San Francisco in Feb 1991; 17 nanoseconds is the speed of commercial fast SRAMs. SRAM technology needs to get down to low single figure speeds to keep its traditional advantage. Various technologies, including CMOS, BiCMOS, ECL and gallium arsenide, could provide a sub-3-nanosecond, dense SRAM. New density levels will also be a subject of the conference. Blasting back at the Astra satellite critics. (Spotlight: satellite TV) Luxemburg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) is countering charges they run a low-cost, low-technology satellite television operation with insufficient backup by launching a second satellite. The launch is planned for Feb 21, 1991. The new satellite will, like Astra 1A, carry 16 amplifiers and six spares. SES has also ordered two new satellites from Hughes Aircraft that will have frequency switchable amplifiers and will provide full backup while expanding Astra service to its fully licensed 48 channels. The third and fourth satellites will be launched in 1993 and 1994. The company has also applied for permission to use a completely different band of frequencies for a new HDTV service. Spotlight: satellite TV. (blasting back at the Astra satellite critics) Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) will launch third and fourth satellites, but it is unclear what the new channels will be used for. The number of different broadcast channels could be increased, or the third satellite could be used to provide backup. The fourth satellite could be used for backup or to provide up to four channels of high-definition television (HDTV). It could provide European broadcasters with the opportunity to broadcast HDTV programs in 1994. Gassing about the chip industry. (Technology: Gases) Geake, Elisabeth. Semiconductor manufacturers use a wide variety of gases to deposit films of insulators, metals and semiconductors as well as to etch films. The processes can depend entirely on gas/solid chemistry or be enhanced with a variety of approaches. Ionized gas molecules are used in reactive ion etching (RIE). Gases are delivered in tankers or cylinders. BOC will supply the gases for Fujitsu's new plant at Newton Aycliffe. Changing face of computers. (Outlook 1991) Manners, David. Dramatic increases in processing power and memory are changing the computer industry. Virtual instruments are plug-in boards that make a microcomputer imitate instruments such as Fourier analyzers, oscilloscopes and multimeters. Multimedia, the computer-controlled coordination of sound, video and computer graphics, should make an influence on the market in 1991. Multimedia will find applications as an education or training tool. Software for writing multimedia applications should be popular in 1991. CD-ROM could be one of the decade's most important technologies when cheap rewritable versions become available. Technical difficulties are holding up the production of full-sized color LCD panels. Flash memories could beat DRAMs to the 16M-bit stage, and their non-volatility makes them an excellent EPROM replacement technology and a candidate for slow SRAM applications. Go global: the dominating factor. (Outlook '91) Bennett, Chris; Clifford, Leon; Wilson, Richard. The British electronics industry is facing a questionable future while European concerns are forming new alliances following increased profits from strong markets. GEC experienced much lower profits than expected and will cut at least 6,400 jobs in the first half of 1991. STC split itself up and sold off the parts. British Aerospace (BAe) is not expected to move into the electronics business in 1991. France's Groupe Bull is closing seven of its 13 computer manufacturing sites and laying off 5,000 workers. Thomson is still state-owned and protected from the realities of the economy. Many Asian and US companies are seeking manufacturing footholds in Europe and looking for stakes in European companies. UK telecoms will look to its service providers. (Outlook '91) STC and GPT are falling into foreign hands as the British telecommunications market slumps while the rest of Europe thrives. British companies lack international strength. Alcatel, Ericsson and Siemens should see profits grow by 10 percent to 20 percent. British companies have failed to capitalize on home-grown technology, such as digital switching, optical fiber technology and mobile communications. Network operations will benefit from an open market. Microsoft's new spreadsheet challenges Lotus. (a version of Microsoft Corp.'s Excel spreadsheet software for Windows 3.0) Microsoft Corp challenges Lotus Development Corp's 60 percent share of the spreadsheet software market with its new $495 Excel 3.0 spreadsheet. This version of the Microsoft spreadsheet is the first to use the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Analysts believe the latest release by Microsoft may be the most serious threat to Lotus' 1-2-3 spreadsheet since Microsoft Windows 3.0 has become a highly popular graphics-based control program. Windows 3.0 allows users to manipulate screens in a relatively simple way, and in a fashion that is similar to the Apple Macintosh screen. Lotus stock reacts by dropping $2 a share on the Microsoft announcement; the closing value is listed as $16 a share on Dec 8, 1990. Microsoft stock loses $1.375 a share and closes at $73.50 a share on Dec 8, 1990. Microsoft posts its spreadsheet on Lotus's door. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0; Lotus Development Corp.) (Technology) (column) Microsoft Corp begins its assault on Lotus Development Corp's spreadsheet software market share with its new $495 Excel 3.0 spreadsheet. This version of the Microsoft spreadsheet is the first to use the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Industry observers note that Lotus is losing market share in the spreadsheet software market; Borland International Ltd and Microsoft are cutting into sales of the popular Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus maintains that it still controls a 70 percent market share but analysts estimate that the figure is actually around 54 percent for 1990, down from 63 percent in 1989. Borland's market share is up to 24 percent from 12 percent and Microsoft's market share shows steady growth, from nine percent to 12 percent between 1989 and 1990. Chip developed for displaying TV-like images. (Chip and Technologies Inc.) Chips and Technologies Inc's PC Video integrated circuit represents a step forward in multimedia technology since it allows microcomputers to display television-quality images. Industry observers believe the new product, which sells for far less and is much smaller than competitors' products, should spur the development of multimedia software; PC Video costs less than $700 while similar products in the industry cost around $2,000. Analysts note that multimedia technology is still an infant market and it is not expected to be popular for microcomputer use until the mid-1990s. Chips and Technologies is marketing its product to corporate users who can benefit from the use of multimedia in presentations and training. Apple brings new simplicity to high-speed networking. (new line of Ethernet products) (product announcement) Apple introduces a new line of Ethernet products that includes network cards, self-terminating cabling and transceivers. The products fully support the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard while maintaining ease of use, demonstrating Apple's increasing interest in open systems. The Ethernet network cards include a proprietary interface, the Apple Ethernet Port, which attaches to standard Ethernet equipment via external transceivers. The connector's design minimizes required backplane space and power demands while offering more flexibility than standard AUIs (attachment unit interfaces) can provide. Apple's new MacX 1.1 graphical user interface is also introduced at a price of $295. The software is an X Window display server for the Mac operating system. Expo brings out best of Mac: few new products, but upgrades and new Macs in spotlight. (Macworld Expo 1991)(Apple Macintosh Macworld Expo 1991, to be held in San Francisco, will give Apple users and developers an opportunity to view the company's new line of less expensive Macintosh microcomputers, including the Macintosh LC, soon to enter into volume production. Attendees at the January trade show are likely to find few completely new products, but many upgrades and new versions of tried-and-true products. Apple's user-friendly line of Ethernet products will be present as will complementary items from veteran Macintosh community developers such as Farallon Computing Inc. Due to development delays, the convention will not feature an upgrade to the Macintosh Portable microcomputer. Apple adding power tower to Mac skyline. (high-performance Macintosh tower microcomputer in development) Apple is developing a tower-style Macintosh based on the 68040 microprocessor and due for release in summer 1991. The microcomputer's 25 MHz processor will double the performance level of the Macintosh IIfx's 40 MHz 68030 and is expected to accommodate up to 64Mbytes of RAM on 4Mbyte single in-line memory modules. Apple will reportedly sell the computer for between $9,500 and $11,500, price dependent on configuration. Prices for the Macintosh IIfx are expected to be reduced when the tower is introduced. The new floor-standing microcomputer will have five NuBus slots, a 600-watt power supply, and built-in Ethernet. The yet unnamed product is expected to appeal to engineers and publishers doing high-end work. 68040-powered accelerator cards set for Q1 launch. (Motorola's 68040 microprocessor)(first quarter) (product announcement) Several vendors will introduce accelerator boards for Motorola Inc's 68040 microprocessor at the 1991 Macworld Expo in Jan. Radius Inc is expected to demonstrate a board, priced around $3,000, for use with Apple Macintosh II microcomputers. Total Systems Integration Inc will exhibit its Magellan 040S accelerator for Macintosh SE/30 and IIsi microcomputers. The board costs $2,995. Fusion Data Systems Inc's TokaMAC LC accelerator for the Macintosh LC will be displayed as well. The accelerator costs $2,995 and is due on the market in Mar 1991. IIR Inc is introducing the Performance/040 Accelerator, priced around $3,999. The board includes eight memory-module slots. Microsoft unwraps Excel 3.0: competition due from Lotus, Claris. (spreadsheet software)(Lotus Development Corp.) (product Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software, priced at $495, will be available in the first half of 1991. The product is designed to accommodate both the Apple Macintosh and the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface. Excel 3.0 includes the Toolbar feature that was introduced in Microsoft's Word for Windows 3.0. This feature enables users to perform several common spreadsheet tasks with one movement. Another new feature is the outliner that arranges spreadsheet rows into groups and is able to expand or collapse a given group. Excel supports 24-bit color graphics and generates three-dimensional charts. Competitors Claris Corp and Lotus Development Corp are expected to introduce similar spreadsheets in late 1991. ACIUS promises speedy 4D Server. (relational database for the Apple Macintosh) (product announcement) ACIUS Inc is developing 4D Server, add-in-on software for the company's 4th Dimension relational database management system product line. 4D Server is a multitasking client/server product that accelerates the creation of new records and deletes or modifies records thirty times faster than 4th Dimension. The software will be available in mid-1991 for a yet undetermined price. 4D Server positions both data files and database structure on the server. The package, unlike 4th Dimension, does not require AppleShare. 4D Server's multitasking abilities are designed to assuage doubts about the speed of the 4th Dimension system. Faster compression is in the cards: Sigma boards use dedicated chips. (Sigma Designs Inc.'s DoubleUp coprocessor and Bullet 3040 Sigma Designs Inc announces two new compression boards for Apple Macintosh microcomputers: the DoubleUp and the Bullet 3040. The products are the first general file-compression hardware devices for the Macintosh. The DoubleUp coprocessor, priced at $229 and available early in 1991, is compatible with all Macintosh II microcomputers. The board includes a 40 MHz compression/decompression processor and is packaged with Salient Software Inc's DiskDoubler utility. The $1,999 Bullet 3040 accelerator board is intended for the Macintosh IIci and IIsi microcomputers. The board provides faster compression than the DoubleUp, and accelerates overall microcomputer performance to a level approaching that of the Macintosh IIfx. The Bullet includes a 32Kbyte static RAM cache and a 40 MHz 68030 processor. Mobius accelerator and display card for SE uses new '030 chip. (Mobius Technologies Inc.'s 030 Accelerator board uses Motorola Mobius Technologies Inc's O30 Accelerator, an accelerator board that includes Motorola's 68EC030 microprocessor, sells for $595. This card is meant for Apple Macintosh SE microcomputer users interested in faster speeds and greater screen space. The card is also available packaged with a 15-inch full-page monochrome monitor that has a resolution of 640 by 870 pixels, for a total cost of $995. Users can spend $1,195 and acquire the same card with a 19-inch two-page monochrome monitor with a resolution of 1,024 by 826 pixels and a 75 dpi pixel density. The 030 Accelerator is available from the manufacturer or through resellers, and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee as well as a one-year parts and labor warranty. V.32bis joins CCITT standard list. (modem architecture approved by Consultative Committee International Telegraph and Telephone) In late Oct 1990, a Consultative Committee International Telegraph and Telephone (CCITT) study group approved the V.32bis data communications standard. The V.32bis offers two key enhancements over its predecessors: an intermediate data speed of 7.2K-bps, two faster speeds 12.0 and 14.4K-bps, and on-line speed switching. When V.32bis modems are operating at 14.4K-bps they are sending and receiving signals twice as fast as modems built according to the V.32 standard. V.32bis also establishes a standard way for modems to take advantage of improved line conditions. The new standard ensures maximum throughput regardless of momentary line problems. The first company to announce a V.32bis-compliant modem is US Robotics. Users can bypass NuBus, hop on Intelligent Resources' VideoBahn. (Intelligent Resources Integrated Systems Inc.'s communications Intelligent Resources Integrated Systems Inc introduces a new Macintosh environment communications bus, VideoBahn, that exchanges data between video cards without recourse to the NuBus. VideoBahn is comprised of two 32-bit independent data highways that provide simultaneous transfer of a video signal in and out of a Macintosh microcomputer. The connector can also serve as a 64-bit highway to transport two signals either in or out at the same time. The number of slots on a user's microcomputer determines the number of video cards VideoBahn can link together. The company's Video Explorer 32-bit real-time video processing board, priced under $10,000, will be the first product to support VideoBahn. How power users keep up the Tempo. (Affinity Microsystems Ltd.'s Tempo II operating system enhancement) Affinity Systems Ltd's Tempo II and Tempo II Plus, macros which enhance the operating system, are programs of choice by many software developers. Rockwell International's education development specialist used Tempo II to link optical character recognition software, a data base management system and MacinTalk into a specialized scanning system for a blind employee. A specialist at Dow Chemical Co developed macros that receive and reformat text from the company's mainframes with Tempo II. The program was used to develop a system for managing a library of technical drawings at NorthWest House. The system enables a 200 to 300 slide presentation to be assembled in the course of one afternoon. The lead programmer at Packer Software claims that Tempo II can do 'anything you want a program to do.' KeyServer makes app distribution worry-free: util watches over company licenses. (Sassafras Software Inc.'s data center Sassafras Software Inc's KeyServer data center management software is a network utility that keeps track of applications on a network, making sure the number of simultaneous users is limited to the maximum number allowed by the company's licensing agreement. A ten-user package costs $680 while a 50-user package is priced at $2,550. A user double-clicks on an application, generating a key-request packet that goes to the central KeyServer running on an AppleShare server or networked Macintosh microcomputer. After counting the number of copies of the application in use in the network, the server determines whether or not to 'check out' the application to the microcomputer that made the request. Deneba puts final dabs on Canvas 3. (Deneba Software's computer graphics software) (product announcement) Deneba Software's Canvas 3.0 computer graphics software, priced at $395, is a 32-bit color program that boasts over 50 features for illustration, text and graphics handling. Available in 2nd qtr 1991, Canvas 3.0 incorporates text-handling features such as fractional leading and kerning, full justification, character-by-character font scaling, subscripts and superscripts, and the capability to attach text to a curve or shape or wrap it around an object. Deneba also added graphic design features such as the ability to edit many Bezier-curve anchor points simultaneously, support for Pantone Matching System and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color model, and blended color fills. The most significant new technical illustration feature is the Smart Mouse drawing aide. The Ezzie envelope please.... (Third Annual Ezzie Awards for excellence and negligence in Macintosh graphic arts) (Boldface) Ezra Shapiro's Third Annual Ezzie Awards for 'excellence and negligence in the vague area of Macintosh graphic arts' for 1990, name the Wacom pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet as product of the year. Shapiro cites Aldus' PageMaker 4.0 as 1990's best upgrade, lauding its Story Editor feature for manipulating text in a different font and size from the text appearing in layout view. Apple's Macintosh Portable microcomputer is designated as the worst laptop in the world of portable computers, due in part to its unwieldy size. Toshiba's laptops are given the highest Ezzie rating. Shapiro warns users that carpal tunnel is the trend to watch for in 1991. Claris to show off MacDraw Pro's 100 new features at expo debut. (computer graphics software is introduced at Macworld Expo) Claris Corp will introduce MacDraw Pro, priced at $399, at the Macworld Expo 1991. Former users of MacDraw can upgrade for $99. MacDraw Pro, available in 2nd qtr 1991, includes many new features for text, graphics, on-screen presentations and color handling. A file exchange feature enables users to import and export MacDraw II, TIFF, Encapsulated PostScript and PICT file formats among others. The upgraded graphics software supports remote control devices and screen blanking for on-screen presentations, and gives users the ability to reorganize slides or layers by dragging. An interface makes editing color possible with a pop-up menu bar. The Warholization of Princess Diana via the Mac. (graphic artists use the Apple Macintosh to manipulate photograph) Five graphic artists used the Apple Macintosh microcomputer and Adobe Photoshop software to manipulate a photograph of Princess Diana. The graphic artists, Erik Adigard, Louis Fishauf, Russell Brown, Lance Jackson and Michael LaMotte, used some of the same techniques to produce widely varying illustrations. They resampled the photograph to a lower resolution in order to work on it faster, and worked on parts of the image separately by moving them to seperate files. Most of the new images included imported photographs combined with the picture of Diana, among them a photograph of Madonna. The color-calibration spectrum. (color calibration products adhere to Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage standard) (includes The issue of color calibration is an important one for users of the Apple Macintosh microcomputer seeking to use the Mac for professional color pre-press production or sophisticated desktop publishing projects. For these tasks, workers need a device-independent technology to define color in order to establish consistency among scanners, monitors, printers, and even a printing press. A number of the calibration products on the market adhere to the color standard established by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE). Major advances in color calibration may occur in the wake of Adobe Systems Inc's release of PostScript Level 2 graphics language in 1st qtr 1991. PostScript 2 will support the CIEABC color model, permitting PostScript equipment to process a greater number of standardized color definitions from other programs. 1991: the year of the 'MM' word? (multimedia technologies) (column) Some believe 1991 will be the year that multimedia technologies become popular, the year developers and vendors of multimedia products will become wealthier - Microsoft Corp in particular. This expectation is based on the success of the desktop publishing movement, however, learning how to create multimedia 'documents' is a more difficult process to learn than the basics of desktop publishing. Other computer industry analysts predict that multimedia will stimulate the formation of a new publishing industry that will use CD-ROM as its mode of distribution. Although multimedia will not be as pervasive as desktop publishing, the technology will continue to develop and implement new platforms that are better able to serve its needs. The question remains: where will Microsoft and Apple stand in the future of multimedia? The bloating of Macintosh software. (developers are writing increasingly larger programs that demand greater amounts of The Apple Macintosh microcomputer software development community needs to reconsider its practice of creating Macintosh applications that require large amounts of memory. Users would better benefit by smaller, more streamlined programs rather than being forced to rely on future improvements in virtual memory and larger memory space. Writing programs that optimize memory space is more difficult and time-consuming than creating programs that are memory gobblers. The relationship between added features and greater memory requirements suffers from an imbalance. Developers would do well to reconsider the amount of memory their new programs can reasonably demand. 1990: some corners turned. (Apple changes direction of product line, reorganizes management) (1990: The Year in Review) 1990 was a crucial year for Apple, signaling a change in marketing strategy and a reorganization of management that appear to have strengthened the microcomputer manufacturer. Some weak areas remain, particularly the portable market, where the unwieldy Macintosh Portable has engendered little respect, but Apple's introduction of three lower-cost Macintosh microcomputers was greeted with praise from analysts and enthusiasm from customers. Company earnings in the 4th qtr are expected to be strong as a result of high volume sales of the Macintosh Classic. Apple's Michael Spindler rose to chief operating officer and then president, providing powerful leadership of company operations, while Robert Puette of Apple USA is directing an impressive marketing initiative. The shape of years to come. (Apple's prospects for success in 1991) (1990: The Year in Review) Apple created powerful marketing momentum in 1990 that it is likely to continue in the next few years by the introduction of attractive new products to compliment the three already popular lower-priced Macintosh microcomputers that debuted in 1990. Analysts suggest that between 1.75 and 2 million Macintosh microcomputers will be sold in 1991, raising Apple's percentage of the personal computer market to 9 or 10 percent. Sources say the company is developing CPUs based on the 68040 microprocessor, as well as a version of the Classic with a 68030 coprocessor. The System 7.0 operating system has been promised for 1991 release, and new printers for TrueType fonts may be on the way. Reviews highlights: editors pick the best. (MacWEEK editors choose best products reviewed in 1990) (1990: The Year in Review) MacWEEK editors choose the best products from among those reviewed in the periodical during 1990, citing examples priced under $200, over $200, and upgrades. Frame Technology Corp's FrameMaker 2.1 desktop publishing software is one of the choices priced over $200, along with Wacom Inc's Wacom SD-420L pressure-sensitive input tablet. In the more economical category, editors named DeltaPoint Inc's DeltaGraph 1.5 business graphing software as a winner, along with ON Technology Inc's On Location file management software. The best upgrades reviewed included Full Impact 2.0 spreadsheet software from Ashton-Tate Corp and CE Software Inc's QuickMail 2.2.3 electronic mail system. The state of Macintosh management: budget. (Special Report) Garner, Rochelle. Information and communications managers using Apple's Macintosh microcomputers face a number of concerns in 1991, many of them related to issues of budgeting. Thirty-nine survey respondents report that managers' budgets for hardware and software are likely to be structured in new ways in 1991, even if many of them stay at the same dollar level. An equal number of respondents even suspect their budgets may increase. The survey indicates that for most organizations, budgeting for training and user-support will remain at 1990 levels, but 41 percent of surveyed managers expect to increase connectivity expenditures. The trend toward larger and more complex networks is reflected in this figure. Network management is a key spending area being targeted by managers. Network management. (The state of Macintosh management)(Special Report) Macintosh managers recognize the need for a products that help manage networks, particularly those comprised of both Macintosh and IBM PC-compatible microcomputers and hardware. Isolating a problem can be difficult when managers have to use different software to investigate each part of a heterogeneous network. Apple's choice to eschew Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which has been embraced by most other hardware manufacturers, for its own Apple Management Protocol (AMP) makes the prospect of a single tool for managing the mixed network seem less probable. The number and complexity of network management products made strictly for the Macintosh is increasing. Cooperative processing. (The state of Macintosh management)(Special Report) Managers of heterogeneous networks are interested in two new trends in network architecture: peer-to-peer networking and cooperative processing. Peer-to-peer networks allow any node to communicate with and share resources with any other node, platform notwithstanding. Such an architecture decentralizes processing power while it centralizes data access. Cooperative processing involves the distribution of processing loads to the network platform most suitable for the individual task. Both architectures place the nodes in a non-hierarchical relationship with each other, and network services are made available from every connection. Macintosh integration. (The state of Macintosh management)(Special Report) Connectivity issues are becoming increasingly important to Macintosh managers faced with the challenge of integrating Macintosh microcomputers in local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), with electronic mail systems, and computers from other companies. Communications issues are paramount to the success of such ventures, leading some Macintosh managers to remark on the lack of integration more sophisticated than physical linkage. Connecting the Macintosh with other platforms requires such equipment as gateways, protocols, and translators, adding to the concerns of network managers and often necessitating additional training. Computer sources. (The state of Macintosh management)(Special Report) Small-scale and large-scale users look for different criterion when choosing a procurement source for Apple Macintosh microcomputers. The latter usually base purchase decisions strictly on price, while small-scale users tend to choose their vendors based on their ability to provide adequate service and support. Even large-scale buyers often avoid gray market sellers, who may be unable to replace defective equipment as speedily as an authorized dealer can. Companies without their own in-house maintenance team tend to choose vendors that offer some degree of service. Other buyers value the opportunity to test equipment before they make a purchase, and choose their dealers accordingly. User support. (The state of Macintosh management)(Special Report) Hollis, Robert. Supporting corporate Macintosh users is a demanding task for Macintosh managers and their staffs, especially with budget and personnel reductions. Managers have used various approaches to make the job easier, including setting up a 'help' database with information about how technical problems have been described and resolved in the past. Other managers encourage their users to try and handle problems themselves by first searching the manual for a solution. Operating system enhancements, such as Startup documents (INITs) and Control Panel devices (cdevs), are a particularly annoying cause of problems that require the attention of support staffs. Ventura Publisher: new face on the Mac; DTP app's strength is long document. (Ventura Software Inc.'s desktop publishing software for Ventura Software Inc's Ventura Publisher Macintosh Edition desktop publishing software, priced at $795, is known for its ability to handle long documents. Unfortunately, the design of the program does not resemble other Macintosh software, giving the product a 'foreign feel.' The documentation and tutorial are both faulty and inadequate given the complexity of the software. Yet, Ventura Publisher is a useful program for those willing to invest time and energy in mastering the software. The software provides automatic numbering, cross-referencing, and the ability to use many different file formats. It is limited by its inability to process file-format information from word processing files. Ventura Publisher offers good typographic controls similar to those found in QuarkXPress. Graphing programs vie for market pie. (Computer Associates International Inc.'s CA-Cricket Graph, DeltaPoint Inc.'s Four computer graphics software packages are evaluated: Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Cricket Graph 1.3.2, DeltaPoint Inc's DeltaGraph 1.5, Bravo Technologies Inc's MacGraphX, and Synergy Software's KaleidaGraph 2.1. Cricket Graph, priced at $195, is a weak program that is poorly documented. DeltaGraph, priced at $195, offers the largest variety of graph types, including three-dimensional charts. Its performance is excellent and its ease of use is good. MacGraphX, available for $199, is another powerful choice, offering the most precise control over a graph. It also allows for custom transformations and curve manipulation. KaleidaGraph, priced at $249, is recommended only for scientific users that require complex analysis. Its ease of use is minimal, and documentation and performance are poor. Mac tools for dipping into data. (Andyne Computing Ltd.'s GQL 2.1, Brio Technology Inc.'s Data Prism, Fairfield Software Inc.'s Three companies' search software products are evaluated: Fairfield Software Inc's ClearAccess 1.2; Brio Technology Inc's Data Prism; and Andyne Computing Ltd's suite which includes GQL/Design 2.1, GQL/User 2.1, and GQL/Admin 2.1. These software programs for client/server architectures enable users to search and retrieve data from host databases. GQL/Admin costs $1,995, while GQL/Design is priced at $995 and GQL/User costs $295. This suite's core technology is considered to be the best, but the expense and complexity of the collection makes it impractical for all but highly sophisticated users. ClearAccess, priced at $349, is the best choice for most users. It is powerful and easy to use. Data Prism, available for $299, has an easily understood approach and can specify relationships in the database, but its control over a search is not as comprehensive as that of ClearAccess. Accelerators make Mac quicker on the draw: large screens, 24-bit color benefit most. (Apple's Display Card 8-24 GC, Radius Inc.'s Four graphics coprocessors are evaluated: Apple's Display Card 8-24 GC, priced at $1,999; Radius Inc's DirectColor/GX, priced at $1,095; RasterOps Corp's Accelerator, available for $695; and SuperMac Technology's Spectrum/24 PDQ, priced at $4,999. These products are particularly useful for displaying 24-bit color images on large screens, taking the strain off of the Macintosh processor. All four coprocessors earn a 'good' rating, although the SuperMac Spectrum is the most impressive and by far the most expensive of the pack. Its compatibility and documentation rankings are the highest of the evaluation. Only the Spectrum and the RasterOps Accelerator, with the ColorBoard 24L, can support large screens in 24-bit color. The Apple coprocessor is fastest but lacks software features, while the Radius DirectColor/GX supports only 13-inch monitors but is bargain priced. RadiusTV system brings Mac into TV ratings game: system supports multimedia apps. (Radius Inc.'s system for integrating television Radius Inc's RadiusTV, priced at $2,795, is a product for integrating television and Apple's Macintosh microcomputer by converting television signals into images and sounds that play on the Macintosh. The user connects a CATV cable, TV antenna, VCR, camcorder, video camera or laser-disc player to RadiusTV to produce the images and sounds. Although this is a fascinating toy, evaluators do not consider it capable of solving business problems. It is 'more a demonstration of the company's Macintosh television engine' than a useful product. The documentation, however, is of highest quality. RadiusTV can be used to capture video images, but it performs this task awkwardly. The first real animation alternative. (Paracomp Inc.'s FilmMaker animation software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Paracomp Inc's FilmMaker animation software program, priced at $695, uses an unusual technique in which move, scale, and rotation tools are applied to graphics to create animated sequences. The software is comprised of the Animate, Sound, Color and Present modules, and is both easy to learn and powerful. Useful features include the ability to connect graphics hierarchically and later apply effects to groups of objects. Pause conditions and transitions are provided in a presentation module. Although some clicking was noticed, FilmMaker's sound application effectively links sound resources to files. The program has the potential to be very useful for those able to adapt to its unique technique. Its linking features and ability to rotate and magnify objects contribute to its attractiveness. Taking a stand on animation. (Linker Systems Inc.'s Animation Stand multimedia software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Linker Systems Inc's Animation Stand multimedia software, available for $2,000, is based on cel-animation techniques known to many graphic artists. Anti-aliasing and interfaces to video and film controllers are among the software's excellent features. Defects include a faulty user interface design for the paint section of the software. Animation Stand does allow users to write, compile, and add some of their own paint tools to the selection of paint features. Overall, the product has strong documentation and is easy to learn, but its user interface and copy protection - in the form of a hardware key - may turn away potential buyers. The product will find admirers in those creating animation for film rather than for showing on the Macintosh. Putting 3 animation packages to the test. (Linker Systems Inc.'s Animation Stand, MacroMind Inc.'s MacroMind Director, Paracomp MacroMind Inc's MacroMind Director, Paracomp Inc's FilmMaker, and Linker Systems Inc's Animation Stand offer a variety of different animation features as well as different user interface designs. MacroMind Director's ability to automatically eliminate white background areas and its capability to align images in frames based on the center of each image make using the program easier than the others for many jobs. Director is good for scripting and transition tasks. FilmMaker's best features are object rotation and contraction. Its linking function is quite useful. Animation Stand will appeal to those accustomed to cel-animation techniques. Its support of external recording devices is admirable. INIT Manager ranks among the best. (Baseline Publishing Inc.'s utility for managing operating system enhancements) (Software Baseline Publishing Inc's INIT Manager utility program, priced at $55.95, is a useful package that lets users design the loading order of INITs and Control Panel devices (cdevs), or operating system enhancements, so that they do not cause the operating system to crash during start-up. This an excellent utility, offering more power and flexibility than others of its type. INIT Manager can store Startup documents in a subfolder and has memory-checking and INIT analysis features. The software includes multiple start-up sets and can automatically turn off INITs that crash. Finding an app that fits your type: MacWEEK compares two type-manipulation programs with version 3.0 of Adobe Illustrator. Broderbund Software Inc's TypeStyler 1.5 and Letraset USA's LetraStudio type-manipulation software packages are compared with Adobe Systems Inc's Illustrator 3.0. The $199 TypeStyler is inexpensive, but it must convert PostScript fonts to a proprietary format, and is limited to a color palette of 256 colors. Images can be designed quickly because object features can be copied to other objects or to libraries. Inlines and drop shadows are particularly easily created. LetraStudio offers high-powered features, PostScript fonts and Pantone color matching. LetraStudio is fairly expensive, and its user interface is sometimes confusing. Illustrator offers most of the features available in the other packages, but it is generally faster and easier to use. Org Plus gets your organizational charts flowing; tool outperforms MS-DOS cousin. (Banner Blue Software Inc.'s chart-drawing Banner Blue Software Inc's $195 Org Plus organizational chart drawing software is the only dedicated charting tool for the Macintosh. The program is easy to use, and it automates tasks such as redrawing charts and sizing charts for printing. The boxes in the charts can include whatever information the user wishes, and fields can be revealed and hidden on command. Twenty different types of charts can be created, and individual boxes and lines are easily modified. The program can make modifications such as replacing first names with initials and using smaller type size to fit charts into small printing spaces. Org Plus has useful on-line help that can be accessed interactively or by index. Files from the MS-DOS version of Org Plus can be imported by the Mac version. Banner Blue plans an update that will allow chart files to be saved in PICT format. Adobe TypeAlign: a DA solution. (Adobe Systems Inc.'s type-manipulation desk accessory software) (Software Review) Adobe Systems Inc's $99 TypeAlign type-manipulation software is a desktop accessory used with Type Manager to reshape type using Type 1 PostScript fonts. Straight-line, arc and free-form drawing tools are included. The curve drawn with the tools becomes the base line for whatever text is entered. The text will follow the curve in the direction it is drawn. Text objects can be reshaped, text height can be altered, and fonts, sizes, styles and colors can be mixed. The camera tool allows the image to be sized to fit a space in another window. TypeAlign images can be saved as PICT or EPS files. Twisting to fit your workplace. (ergonomic products)(includes related articles on workplace safety legislation and exercises for Radiation from monitors, eye strain from lighting conditions and carpal tunnel syndrome are three hazards of the computerized workplace. The prevalence of computer workstations is blamed for many work-related health problems. Computer monitors emit potentially hazardous electromagnetic radiation, but several companies are introducing low-radiation monitors. Bright overhead light and sunlight make monitors difficult to read and cause eye strain. Anti-glare shields provide an inexpensive means of increasing monitor contrast to reduce strain. Most shields also prevent electrostatic charge buildup from causing dust to collect on the screen. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a repetitive strain injury (RSI) that often affects data-entry workers. Carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms include numb fingers and limited hand movement. Carpal tunnel syndrome can be avoided by limiting incorrect wrist flexing. Graphing software: draw your conclusions. (exploring the graphing capabilities of spreadsheet, presentation and add-in-on software) There is no better way to communicate numbers than with a picture; graphing capabilities are an important part of many spreadsheet and presentation software packages. Microsoft's Excel and Ashton-Tate's Full Impact spreadsheet software offer some of the best building, modeling and forecasting templates. Excel charts large amounts of data with ease and speed. Many users, however, find the one-page limit too restrictive. Presentation software from Aldus and Symantec, Aldus Persuasion and MORE 3.0, can integrate charting and other graphing features, but are unable to handle the vast amount of data that a spreadsheet program processes easily. Adobe Systems is adding a graphing module to its Illustrator 3.0 software. The program can edit all elements in a graph and maintains maximum control over images and printing. Abbott Systems' Control Panel device (cdev), Cheshire, appears as a graphing dialog box inside a variety of other programs. New utilities provide IIsi, LC a sound start. (Apple Macintosh IIsi and Macintosh LC microcomputers) (MacInTouch: Bugs & Tips) Apple's Macintosh IIsi and LC microcomputers' built-in sound-input hardware is supported by utilities from CE Software and Microsoft. CE Software's QM Recorder II driver allows the recording of sounds into QuickMail messages via Apple's microphones. QM Recorder II requires Apple's System 6.0.7 or higher and can be obtained from on-line services and the company's technical support. Microsoft Excel's Sound Notes 2.2 is a macro available in sample form for those wishing to experiment with combining voice-annotation and spreadsheets. Users purchasing Apple's 8-24 GC graphics board are warned that it is incompatible with System 7.0 virtual memory routines, DayStar Digital Inc's PowerCard accelerator board and Connectix Corp's Virtual and Maxima virtual memory programs. Users of David Dunham's miniWRITER desk accessory can expect memory management problems, solvable by allocating a larger amount of memory to the DA Handler. Omnis third parties up in arms at Blyth. (Bylth Software Inc.'s Omnis 5 data base management system) Blyth Software Inc, developer of the Omnis 5 relational data base management system, is taking business away from consultants and third-party software developers by offering training and consulting services to its users. Independent developers and consultants are more than a little concerned and contend that Blyth is actually discrediting their services to potential clients. Further complaints were made against Blyth by those who paid $5,000 to become authorized Omnis trainers and received only one class. Blyth is also venturing into the consulting business. The licensing rules for Bylth's upgraded Omnis 5 Integrator have also changed so that developers will have to pay a major unit fee for each copy of the application. Blyth CEO Murray maintains that his company's policies are fair, despite the barrage of complaints. Ingram bets on support, expertise. (Ingram Micro Inc.) Gore, Andrew. Ingram Micro Inc, the world's largest distributor of Apple Macintosh products, is projecting 1990 sales will reach $220 million for Macintosh products alone for a grand total of $1.4 billion. Ingram Micro has developed a reputation for its ability to fill orders accurately and a full-selection of products. Another quality that earns Ingram Micro business is its support services, both technical and sales. Ingram Micro hopes to further extend its support and plans to offer collections of product guides and demo software to its customers. Each month Ingram Micro reviews 300 products, six or seven of which are chosen for distribution. However, it is not Ingram Micro's effective marketing strategy that always attracts resellers, but rather its exclusive agreement to distribute products from developers such as Quark Inc and Claris Corp. Xerox to Star in Mac emulator. (Xerox Corp.'s Star graphical user interface)(Hydra Systems Inc.'s Hydra One System microcomputer Hydra Systems Inc's Hydra One is a microcomputer board that contains a graphical user interface (GUI). The board requires 128Kbyte Apple Macintosh ROM (read-only memory), which must be supplied by the user until Hydra releases its own Mac-compatible ROMs later in 1991. Hydra obtained a license to use Xerox's Star GUI with the hope of avoiding a copyright infringement entanglement with Apple and because Xerox is really the originator of the GUI. The Xerox Star is acknowledged to be the direct ancestor of the Macintosh GUI. Lawyers caution Hydra that its license to use the Star GUI does not offer all-encompassing protection against Apple. It is the appearance of the Hydra Finder that remains questionable. Only microcomputers running Apple system software will be able to use the Hydra graphical user interface. Apple has declined to make any statement about Hydra at this time. S.F. makes waves with new VDT law. (San Francisco, CA)(video display terminal) San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos approves legislation that regulates the safety of employees who operate VDTs (video display terminals). The decision makes San Francisco the first city in the US to enforce such regulation. Companies employing 15 or more individuals are to provide employees engaged in repetitive keyboard motions for four hour shifts with adjustable desks and chairs, anti-glare lighting, and breaks for other kinds of work. Throughout the rest of the US, businesses have been against such legislation, often successfully postponing the proposals. Mayor Agnos and San Francisco businesses were able to reach a compromise. The compromise asks for compliance to the legislation in a three-stage structure, thus lessening immediate financial impact. Compensation considered after A.T.& T. cable break. (fiber-optic cable severed) AT and T considers compensating its business customers whose communications were temporarily disabled when a severed cable cut off long-distance service on Jan 4, 1991 in the New York City area. The number one long-distance carrier has not decided how to compensate its customers, but most industry observers point out that it has much at stake in cultivating its image as a reliable and high-quality company. The last disruption was the third in two years where the malfunction of one small part caused the entire AT and T network to breakdown. Observers note that AT and T is not obligated to compensate its customers in the event of a disruption, but revenue losses from ill will on the part of customers is a strong incentive. Semiconductor outlook is mixed. (Market Place) (column) Pollack, Andrew. The US semiconductor industry has had a bad year but there are some shimmers of light on the horizon. Industry analysts look at the low 0.90 book-to-bill ratio for Nov 1990, the lowest in the industry since the mid-1980s, and say the industry is in a slump. Some analysts believe that the worst is over and that investors will begin investing in semiconductor stocks in 1991; they see 1992 as a good year for the semiconductor industry. Some investors advise that now is the best time to buy semiconductor stocks but others warn that the industry has not yet felt the effects of the US recession and will probably report losses for the 4th qtr of 1990. Commodore removes head of U.S. unit; James Dionne will succeed Copperman; up to 15% of employees will be cut. (Commodore Commodore International Ltd replaces Harold Copperman, its president of US operations, with James Dionne. The computer maker also announces that it is planning to layoff between 10 percent and 15 percent of its 600-person US work force in an effort to boost profit margins. Copperman is one of a series of executives that have been dismissed by Commodore; his predecessors lasted anywhere from one to two years. Copperman will become a vice president of the parent company and his duties will include developing the Amiga computer line and creating a multimedia strategy. The company's stock closed at $9 on Dec 7, 1990, down $1.625 a share for that day. No change is planned for FTAM: vendor agreements, standard unaltered. (Open Systems Interconnection File Transfer, Access and The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Implementors' Workshop group, File Transfer, Access and Management (FTAM) Special Interest Group (SIG), decided not to implement changes in the FTAM standard protocol. Users including McDonnell Douglas Corp reported compatibility difficulties with some vendors' FTAM-based products. The FTAM SIG stated that responsibility lies with the user to choose FTAM products that fit their needs. The Corporation for Open Systems International is planning to develop a template for users to match their needs with OSI standard products. The OSI Implementors' Workshop produces guidelines for vendors implementing OSI standards and strives to reduce the number of standards options. '91 prospects: market growth assessed. (United States Department of Commerce International Trade Administration's report on network A report by the United States Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration indicates that network services will continue to be a strong industry in 1991. Domestic and international telecommunications services are expected to gain revenues at a slower rate. Network users facing budget cuts will use virtual private networks. Integrated services digital network (ISDN) services will suffer from shortages of terminal equipment and limited ISDN switch connectivity capabilities. Long distance traffic has increased, but competition has kept rates and profits down. Users will have lower rates, but will have fewer available choices. T1 circuit services including electronic data interchange (EDI), network services, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and microcomputer local area networks (LANs) will continue to grow. Electronic information services will continue with their 20 per cent yearly growth. More uses for CMIP? (Open Systems Interconnection's Common Management Information Protocol) The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Network Management Forum is examining the possibility of implementing the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP) over other networking protocols. Other protocols considered include the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA), DEC's DECnet, and the CMOL protocol co-developed by IBM and 3Com Corp. The Forum is also considering inclusion of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) as it has become a standard for managing multi-vendor systems. The Forum intends to control incompatibility problems caused by vendors running CMIP over non-OSI protocols. IBM has announced plans to include an application programming interface for CMIP its NetView management architecture. New York put on hold. (after AT&T fiber optic cable is severed) Foley, John. AT&T workmen accidentally broke a fiber optic cable affecting telephone service in the New York City area, financial exchanges, and the FAA's voice and radar data communications systems. The accident also caused delays at Newark and LaGuardia airports. The New York Stock Exchange was unaffected, but the National Association of Securities Dealers reported that 15 per cent of its terminals were not working. Some automatic tellers were also affected. Long distance calls to and from New York were interrupted by the break. The work crew apparently severed the line while removing an older one. One API backed: HP, IBM submit proposal to OSF. (applications programming interface, Open Software Foundation) IBM and HP submit to the Open Software Foundation (OSF) their version of an applications programming interface (API) to be included in the OSF Distributed Management Environment. APIs are interfaces that allow users to access or control files without having to write applications for specific computers. IBM and HP's API proposal is intended for use on a variety of systems which will benefit users and third-party application developers. The API is based on IBM's OpenView's API which in turn is based on Open Systems Interconnection and X/Open Co Ltd specifications. The API submitted by IBM and HP will allow applications to be written for NetView and other vendors' management systems. The proposal includes HP's graphical user interface, network management infrastructure, network management protocols, and event management application. Outsourcer steps out. (Merrill Lynch and Company Inc.'s DuWayne Peterson retires) Merrill Lynch and Company Inc Exec VP DuWayne Peterson is retiring after heading the company's network management operations. Peterson will continue to act as a consultant to Merrill Lynch. Peterson awarded MCI Communications Corp in 1989 with a $150 million worldwide voice and data network contract. MCI Communications and IBM were later given a $50 million contract to design and run a network management system. Merrill Lynch retained management of the network rather than let IBM operate and run it. Peterson will be replaced by Edward Goldberg and Howard Sorgen. T3plus preparing new DS-3 mux. (T3plus Networking Inc.'s BMX45 DS-3 multiplexors) (product announcement) T3plus Networking Inc introduces BMX45 multiplexors capable of packaging DS-3 bandwidth in T1 parcels. BMX45 units are able to multiplex data, digitized voice and video onto DS-3 circuits with 28 clear-channel pipes. The speeds of transmission range in increments of 1.579M-bps from the T1 rate of 1.544M-bps to 44.2M-bps. A microcomputer controls configuration and reconfiguration of the number size of the bandwidth parcels. The BMX45 supports the High Speed Serial Interface, the V.35 interface, and RS-422/449 interface and T1 interface cards. The multiplexor appears in two models, one having 18 card slots costing $30,900 to $120,000, and the other with five card slots and selling for $24,900 to $40,000. Ethernet for Macs. (Apple Computer Inc's cards for Macintosh to Ethernet) (product announcement) Apple Computer Inc introduces Ethernet boards for its Macintosh LC and Macintosh II computers. The Apple Ethernet LC Card costs $199 and is available immediately. The Apple Ethernet NB Card, for the NuBus-based Macintosh II, costs $424. The computer company is expected to incorporate Ethernet boards into the motherboards of its Macintosh computers offering faster data transmission speeds than present LocalTalk capabilities. Both Ethernet cards support all three Ethernet wiring schemes through transceivers costing $175 each. Farallon Computing Inc introduces its PhoneNET StarConnector EN, a 10Base-T transceiver, costing $149. AT&T pushes for NCR: appeals to shareholders, goes to court. Wilde, Candee. AT&T has sent a letter from its chairman directly to NCR Corp shareholders asking for a special meeting at which AT&T hopes to remove the present board. NCR board members have turned down AT&T's $90 per share takeover offer claiming that mergers of computer companies in the past have failed. NCR also cites AT&T's ailing computer business as another factor gravitating against the proposed merger. AT&T needs at least 25 per cent of NCR shareholders to call a meeting. The communications company also took its case to the Federal District Court in Dayton, Ohio in order to stop NCR's attempts to halt the takeover. AT&T claims that by requesting a $125 per share price, NCR is violating the Securities Exchange Act. That legislation requires a company to show how it arrived at a share-worth estimation. Telco ISDN snag; Prodigy: N.Y. Tel prices are too high. (integrated services digital network; Prodigy Services Co. claims Prodigy Services Co has asked the New York Public Service Commission to investigate the integrated services digital network (ISDN) tariff policy of New York Telephone Co. Prodigy claims that the service charges too much for residential users. The service offers the ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI). The BRI includes two bearer channels operating at 64K-bps and a signalling channel operating at 16K-bps. Charges for one of each channel used by a residential customer would be $35 a month added to basic exchange-line costs. New York Telephone claims that lack of demand requires its pricing policy. A gap in US Sprint's fiber optic net closes: global circuit with Pacific cable. (US Sprint Communications Co.'s high-speed cable US Sprint Communications Co completes its global fiber-optic network having finished work on a submarine cable consisting of three fiber pairs. The North Pacific Cable links Japan, Oregon and Alaska. The transmission rate of the cable, at 420M-bps, is the fastest in the Pacific region. The cable will offer redundant digital capacity from the US to Japan and other Pacific rim countries and will give better service quality. The North Pacific Cable is a joint project involving US Sprint Communications, International Digital Communications Inc and Pacific Telecom Inc. Other participants include AT&T, MCI Communications Corp, United States, and British Telecom PLC, Cable and Wireless PLC and Mercury Communications Ltd. Standard Telephones and Cable PLC and Fujitsu Ltd made the fiber optic cable. DG, NTT quit deal: call a halt to ISDN development project. (Data General Corp. and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s Data General Corp and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) are ending their joint project to develop a high-speed integrated services digital network (ISDN) product line. The project was to develop the Packet Switching Integrated Telecommunications Processing System. Data General was to supply its MV super-minicomputer for the switching system. The system was supposed to integrate packetized-data and voice-switching technologies and would transmit signals at T1 rates in the US, 6M-bps in Japan, and 2.048M-bps in Europe. Data General is marketing its switching system to European state telecommunications organizations. Data General and NTT cancelled the project after evaluating the product and its market. Net mgr's key role. (advice for network managers operating in a recession) (column) Network managers working during a recession need to make use of existing resources or plan to do with less as a result of cutbacks. Managers should evaluate equipment and services acquisitions in a businesslike manner. Equipment delivery timetables, vendor equipment-migration plans, competitor technology-deployment plans, and international standards organizations should all be studied by the network manager. Equipment deployment requires analysis of future competitiveness, revenue generation and how the new equipment will help the business improve its services. Managers should be aware system knowledge deficiencies within the business. Expertise should be sought within the company before resorting to outside consultants. Start-up focusing on object mgm't. (HyperDesk Corp.) Chester, John S. Jr. HyperDesk Corp is planning to develop software products based on technology it acquired from Data General Corp as part of its spinoff agreement. Distributed object management uses objects that can be shuffled and mixed to create complex structures in software development. The software will allow users of microcomputers, workstations and servers to acquire applications, data, peripherals and other resources from anywhere on a network using a single graphical user interface. The software will be compatible with Operating System/2, Unix and DOS and will run on NetWare, LAN Manager, and major relational and object-oriented systems. Some products use distributed object management including AT&T's Rhapsody, HP's NetWave and NCR Corp's Cooperation line of products. HyperDesk hopes to submit its software as the object management standard to the Object Management Group. GSA planning improvements in FTS 2000 billing services. (General Services Administration, Federal Telecommunications System 2000) The General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to include destination information, cost-breakdowns and caller-station identification information on its bills sent to agencies using the Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) 2000. Agencies using services on FTS 2000 provided by US Sprint Communications have bills sent directly to them, but AT&T sends bills on tape only to the GSA. Agencies want destination and cost-breakdown information so they can bill individual users more accurately. The GSA plans also to include station identification information on centrex and PBX users' bills. This information is important to agencies using automatic number identification (ANI) to trace calls. MCI takes Covia's advice: suggestions result in marketable net mgm't system. (MCI Communications Corp.'s Integrated Network MCI Communications Corp has developed Integrated Network Management Service (INMS), a network management system, with input from Covia. Covia and McDermott Inc, a marine construction company, beta-tested the system for MCI Communications. The network management systems is accessed by users via token-ring local area networks. Users are linked by a dedicated line to MCI. Covia helped develop a trouble management feature which generates trouble reports and alarm data. Covia also suggested that MCI Communications offer a help desk for customers having trouble operating the network management system. MCI trained a group on the use of INMS functions, and users can access this group by dialing a number. INMS costs $1,000 for installation by MCI Communications, and monthly fees range from $500 to $2,500. Inside smart wiring hubs. (local area network connectors) Korzeniowski, Paul. Smart wiring hubs allow computers to be hooked to variety of wiring media including twisted-pair and coaxial cable. These media are then connected to satellite concentrators in turn linked to fiber optic cables in a local area network. Computers linked to smart wiring hubs can be disconnected from one jack and connected to another without shutting down the system and re-addressing the new connection. The 10Base-T standard allows Ethernet networks to be run over twisted-pair wiring has increased customer interest in smart hub wiring because users can combine different vendors' products. Smart hubs are costly, running from $400 per port, but prices are expect to drop. 3Com is shifting its sights: it's looking toward global data networking. 3Com Corp is shifting its business away for client-server computing equipment to connectivity products including its NetBuilder line of bridges and routers. 3Com has seen declining profits and the company's network-adapter success was offset by declining network-systems product sales. 3Com is giving Microsoft Corp full development rights for the network operating system developed by both companies called LAN Manager. 3Com will be developing its NetBuilder line to accommodate X.25, DECnet and IPX protocols. Analysts are skeptical as to future successes for 3Com, but some agree that its present planning of developing key products is proper. Phone home from faraway places. (home country direct dialing services) AT&T, MCI Communications Corp and US Sprint Communications Co each are offering long distance telephone service for travellers in foreign countries wishing to make calls back to the US. Home country direct service lets callers dial an operator in the U.S. to complete their call instead of dealing with an operator in the call's country of origin. AT&T's USA Direct serves over 80 countries; MCI Communications' Call USA serves more than 30, and US Sprint Communications' Sprint Express serves eight countries and will expand by 30. The calls can be billed to the caller's telephone card, home or made collect. AT&T offers the service to foreign nationals in the U.S. wishing to call their home countries. Foreign carriers Kokusai Denshin Denwa, France Telecom, and Brazil's Embratel offer home country direct service. Microsoft courts 1-2-3 users with Excel 3.0: spreadsheet wars expected to escalate. (product announcement) Microsoft will introduce Excel 3.0, the first second-generation Windows spreadsheet, in Jan 1991, firing a new salvo in the spreadsheet wars. The company calls the introduction the 'most important application breakthrough of 1991.' One of the most important aspects of the new release is an expanded help section that helps users of Lotus 1-2-3 perform a corresponding operation in Excel. A major marketing emphasis is the conversion of Lotus 1-2-3 users. Company sources point out that the main cost of a computer product is not the initial purchase price but the time spent learning it. Industry analysts note that gaining market share in the spreadsheet market is dependent upon price. IBM readies 1991 ProPlan: variable rates, cash reimbursements. Hedlund, Kristen. IBM will introduce its 1991 ProPlan reseller reimbursement program on Jan 14, 1991. The revised program will be based on a variable rate of redemption for accrued dollars depending on how they are spent. It will also include cash reimbursements for points, a new option. Top executives at major reseller chains have already discussed changes to the program with IBM. One of the most important changes is the implementation of a variable value placed on ProPlan points by the vendor. The return rate on each ProPlan dollar may be above or below 100 percent, depending on how the money is spent. Dealers will have the opportunity to convert points to cash for operating expenses. Third-party support rises. Doyle, T.C.; Boyd, Wallace B. Computer users are taking a careful look at third-party support because the costs of information system management are rising and available funds are dwindling. The opportunities for computer resellers are becoming more appealing as users look to the channel for its ability to provide solutions. Pillsbury Brands has expanded its outsourcing arrangement with Businessland by signing a three-year deal that gives the reseller the responsibility of providing technical and administrative support for 75 local area networks at the company's Minneapolis-St. Paul facility. The deal is just one example of those signed in recent months. Apple puts 1991 plans in motion: plug-and-play technology found in new Ethernet cards. (product announcement) Apple Computer is porting its plug-and-play networking technology to the Ethernet arena with several product announcements at Macworld Expo. The new products will include two new Ethernet add-on cards, media adapters for all three Ethernet standards and upgrades to X-Windows software applications. Apple officials say the new Ethernet product line will combine Apple ease of use and multivendor interoperability. The Ethernet cards include the $199 Apple Ethernet LC card and the $425 Apple Ethernet NB (NuBus) card. The Ethernet LC card, for Macintosh LC computers, will be available during the first week of Jan 1991. The Ethernet NB card will debut during the second quarter of 1991. Apple expected to trim K-12 consultants; education dealers await assigned territories. (Apple puts 1991 plans in motion) Apple Computer, according to its K-12 education dealers, is preparing to assign specific territories to its educational consultants, a move channel sources say could drastically cut the number of participants in that market. Dates for the restructuring were not specified , but sources expect changes before Feb 1991. The restructuring began in 1990 when the company required resellers to file separate business plans as K-12 consultants. Apple-exclusive computer centers and superstores are also expected to be a part of the channel strategy of Apple. The most significant change will grant K-12 consultants exclusive territories like those in the vendor's higher-education program. Multimedia hot in channel, consumer-electronics arena. Clancy, Heather. Multimedia users are turning to a combination of consumer electronics outlets and value-added resellers (VARs) to acquire the hardware and software needed to run multimedia applications. Publishers of multimedia software for the Apple Macintosh are experimenting with software channels and distribution means connected to the consumer electronics, music and education niches. Companies exploring the multimedia arena include ABC News Interactive, Warner News Media and The Discovery Channel, all of whom have developed interactive videodiscs or CD-ROM-based software for the Macintosh. Dealer gets RS/6000: IBM authorizes Sears site to carry line. (IBM RS/6000 workstations) IBM has authorized a Sears Business Systems Center location in Vienna, VA as one of the first dealers to carry its new reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based RS/6000 workstation line. A number of other dealers have expressed interest. Sears officials expect that only certain sites will carry the product line in the future. Locations have to qualify by applying and demonstrating a certain level of support capability. Sears was required to develop a color imaging application and hire additional sales personnel to obtain authorization at the Vienna site. Other companies interested in selling the RS/6000 include JWP Information Systems, Businessland Inc, Nynex, Intelligent Electronics and MicroAge. MicroAge officials are reportedly stepping up efforts to win authorization. ComputerLand's European shifts. Hubbard, Holly. Officials at ComputerLand's European headquarters are considering cutting royalty rates and charging franchisees and clients for value-added services that are now offered for free. Company officials expect to reach a conclusion about these plans by Mar 1991. A period of transition and uncertainty for the company's European operations was followed by the review of rates and service charges. The company headquarters were relocated from Richmond, England to Luxembourg in Sep 1990. Tim Barnsley resigned as managing director of the UK subsidiary shortly after the relocation. European resellers and analysts feel that ComputerLand may purchase one of its most powerful British franchisees, ComputerGroup, to prevent it from being acquired by competitors. Lotus shuffles lineup: King moves over, Weiler named to key sales post. (Lotus Development Corp, Frank King, Robert Weiler) Lotus Development has juggled its senior management team after losing market share to competitors Borland International Inc and Microsoft Corp. The company still does not have a Windows version of its 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Lotus has appointed former Interleaf Corp pres Robert Weiler to the position of senior vice president for sales and marketing. The new appointment diminishes the responsibilities of Frank King, senior vice president of Lotus Software Business Group. King, who was once considered to be No.2 just behind Lotus chmn Jim Manzi, was once responsible for marketing and sales along with product development but will now handle development only. Frank Ingari, vice president of Lotus Emerging Markets Business, has announced his resignation, effective Jan 11, 1991. ITT sees strong channel. (ITT Commercial Finance Corp.) Zarley, Craig. ITT Commercial Finance reports that computer dealers appear to have escaped the brunt of the economic downturn, in spite of the specter of recession haunting the balance of the economy. ITT, a major floor-planning firm, claims two recent indicators do not differ much from 1989's statistics. These indicators are loan delinquency rates and dealers' average days' inventory. The statistics apply only to ITT clients, which total approximately 40 percent of the floor-planning business. Delinquency rates entail the sold and unpaid loans as a percentage of total outstanding loans. Average days' inventory is the time necessary for dealers to order, receive and pay for products. Oracle returns to profitability in second quarter. Mehta, Suketu. Oracle Corp has posted a $6.7 million net income for the 2nd qtr of fiscal 1991, which ended Nov 30, 1990, bouncing back from its first loss in history the previous quarter. Company officials state that expenses were held flat, financial controls tightened, and a restructuring undertaken for Oracle USA. Sales were up 29 percent to $269 million from $209 million during the 2nd quarter of fiscal 1990. Earnings nevertheless dropped 65 percent in spite of the revenue increase, from $19 million in 1st qtr 1990 to $6.7 million in 1991. Earnings per share dropped from 14 cents to five cents. . The earnings posted were nevertheless better than expected; most analysts had predicted the company would only break even. Solbourne cuts 41 posts, including 3 executives. (Solbourne Computer Inc.) Solbourne Computer, creator of the first scalable processor architecture (SPARC) workstations compatible with Sun Microsystems products, has restructured its operations, eliminating 41 positions including those of two vice presidents and chief financial officer. This will allow the company to focus on sales and marketing of its workstations and midrange file servers. The company began to fill 20 to 25 field sales and service position immediately following the layoffs. Solbourne has combined the positions of chief financial officer (CFO) and controller and appointed Walt Pounds to fill that position. The dismissed executives include former CFO Jim Kelly and former vice president of engineering Mike Schumacher. The engineering group will now be managed by Solbourne CEO Doug MacGregor. Spare-parts firm PC Parts Express makes debut. Sweeney, Jack. PC Parts Express has been launched by a joint investment by CompuCom systems Inc and Safeguard Scientifics Inc. The new company focuses on the distribution of spare parts for microcomputers. Customers will include microcomputer dealers, third-party service centers and major microcomputer users with their own service departments. AST Research has already signed a distribution agreement with the company. Company officials say they are negotiating with other vendors as well. Five hundred customers have already been recruited. The spare-parts market seems promising. Maintenance and repairs cost microcomputer users $2.2 billion in 1988, a figure expected to rise to $4.8 billion in 1991. Some 84 percent of the 1983 installed base is expected to be at risk for repair beyond warranty. Prices on the rise for 1M-byte DRAM chips. Pang, Albert. The prices for 1Mbyte DRAM microprocessors are rising slowly, interrupting an 18-month downward trend. Some brokers expect prices to go even higher due to dwindling supplies from vendors seeking to generate demand for 4Mbyte chips. Prices of the 1M-byte chips have risen between eight and 10 percent to about $4.50 apiece. Street prices for the 4Mbyte chips are now approximately $20. The 1Mbyte chips remain preferable in spite of price increases because users still consider 4Mbyte chips too expensive. Manufacturers like Samsung Electronic Devices and Toshiba America Electronic Components plan to slow production of the smaller chips and allow prices to approach those of 4M-byte chips, increasing sales volume and profit margins for distributors and manufacturers. Aldus announces FreeHand 3.0 for Macintosh. (product announcement) Clancy, Heather. Aldus has announced a new version of its Freehand drawing program for the Apple Macintosh, FreeHand 3.0 ($595). Competitors Deneba Software and Claris Corp, Apple's own subsidiary, are expected to counter with their own releases during the 1991 Macworld Exposition trade show. FreeHand 3.0 is expected to debut during the first quarter of 1991. Claris' MacDraw Pro ($399) and Deneba's Canvas 3.0 ($395) will be introduced during the 2nd qtr. MacDraw holds the largest market share, accounting for nearly 50 percent of units shipped in 1989, according to analysts. Canvas boasts a 20 percent market share and FreeHand a 13 percent share. Figures for 1990 are unavailable. FreeHand is targeted as a professional illustration package, while Canvas and MacDraw are aimed at the broader business market. Math co-processors: a battle for market control. Pang, Albert. A series of lawsuits filed in Dec 1990 by Intel Corp against Cyrix Corp over the Intel 80387 math coprocessor has divided resellers sharply. Some feel Intel is attempting to gain dominance by forcing Cyrix out of the market as it has attempted to do in its battle with Advanced Micro Devices. Cyrix is gaining speed in the coprocessor market, which has become very lucrative as users seek to add power to their machines and exploit sophisticated software and peripherals. The 80387 math coprocessor offloads processing from the CPU, allowing users to take further advantage of their 80386-based systems. This is the market Cyrix feels it is best equipped to compete in. The street price of a Cyrix 387-25 math coprocessor is $359. A similar Intel model is priced at $445. Osicom: Restructuring takes its toll, posts 3Q loss. (Osicom Technologies Inc., third quarter) The decision by Osicom Technologies to leave the domestic distribution market and concentrate on higher-margin computer manufacturing has begun to drastically affect the company's bottom line. Osicom saw losses deepen 160 percent for fiscal 1990's 3rd qtr, and sales fell 107 percent. The company, which was founded originally as a distributor, lost $977,257 or $.31 per share, compared with losses of $375,000 or $.12 per share for the same period in 1989. Sales fell $10.1 million from $21 million. Much of the losses were attributed to the company's restructuring, which occurred early in 1990 and eliminated 40 positions in an attempt to trim its dependency on the low-margin distribution business. Differentiation via new product opportunities. (Window on Wall Street) (column) Computer retailers are facing challenges in their efforts to enhance profit margins. Distribution has become a commodity because many resellers carry the same product lines and offer little difference in value-added expertise. Many are looking to set themselves apart with training, service and support. Several new product opportunities will emerge in 1991 that may offer another method of differentiation. Networking solutions will become a reality in 1991. Optimized Intel 80486-based file servers will be available from Compaq and NetFrame Systems. IBM, Microsoft and Novell are working on network operating systems. Networked software applications are already selling better than expected. Ad campaigns increase: laser-printer vendors broaden reach. Boyd, Wallace. Laser-printer vendors, because of market saturation, are moving to broaden the reach of their advertising campaigns in a bid to establish a following amid falling prices and a new product introductions. The printer division of Hewlett-Packard has spent an estimated $11.7 million on print advertising during the first three 1990 quarters, 62 percent above 1989's advertising expenditures. HP's estimated print ad budget for Oct 1990 alone topped $2.1 billion. Analysts' estimates are based on the number of pages a vendor purchases at a one-time rate in 200 tracked publications. The company will neither confirm or deny the expenditures. A company official states that new product introductions caused HP to diversify its advertising mix. Pioneer rides CD-ROM wave. (Pioneer Communications of America Inc.) The Optical Memory Disk Division of Pioneer Communications of America is expected to post a 400 percent sales increase for its fiscal year ending Mar 31, 1991 because of successful product offerings in rapidly-growing markets. Company officials will say only that the division expects to post over $10 million in revenue for the fiscal year. Pioneer is responsible for selling, marketing and supporting write-once/read-many (WORM) optical disk drives and the CD-ROM minichanger, first introduced in 1989. Officials attribute some of the rapid growth to the minichanger. CD-ROM market growth is outpacing the overall growth of the computer industry. Germany's PC industry: profits and pitfalls. (Eurovision) (column) Mueller, Mathias. Questions about opportunities in the German microcomputer industry can be answered by referring to a poll conducted jointly by Founders GmbH and a West German computer magazine. Former East German computer users were surveyed to discover what type of microcomputer each used either in the office or at home. Some 44 percent used an 8088-based system, 43 percent an 80286-based microcomputer and 32 percent an 80386-based computer. A second set of questions dealt with what type of machine each planned to purchase in the future. An overwhelming 75 percent wanted to purchase an 80386-based system and 25 percent an 80286-based machine. A single users planned on purchasing a Macintosh. This was attributed to the machine's high price tag. The poll was conducted prior to the introduction of the low-cost Macintosh Classic. Global networking: steals limelight at Businessland summit. Hubbard, Holly. The only topic of discussion at Businessland Inc's eighth annual International Technology Summit was global networking -- a cross between advanced computing and wishful thinking. The event brought together corporate users and industry executives from all over the world in order to talk about and evaluate global networking strategies. Opinions varied on the current feasibility of global networking, but all agreed on two points: the future importance of global networking in a increasingly global economy and the need for present attention at the microcomputer level. Users point out that in spite of the technical challenges of global networking they must begin to think globally. FourGen inks pact with German VAR. (FourGen Software Inc., value-added reseller) FourGen Software Inc, a developer of Unix applications, has entered the newly reunified German market arena via a joint venture agreement with German VAR AKR Group of Munich. AKR will, under the agreement, market completely localized versions of FourGen's Unix-based accounting and business solutions throughout the country, including in areas formerly part of East Germany. The developer is encouraging AKR to target the products at former East German companies, which have little existing technology and are seeking affordable desktop accounting solutions. East German businesses, following reunification, have discovered that they must automate to be competitive in the world marketplace. Real-world solutions. (third in a three-part series ) Hwang, Diana. Valinor Inc pres Robert Guaraldi states that he has been training customers since he went into business in 1982, prior to opening his training center. Valinor started as a consulting and systems integration business. The company is a top dealer of 3Com, Microsoft and Ashton-Tate products and is certified by all three as a training center. Valinor maintains a close relationship with its vendors, pointing out that, in some cases, the company has aided vendors in developing their own courses and courseware. Teaching methods are now hands-on, and Valinor also conducts workshops that are a combination of hands-on and classroom training. Novell keeps lookout for software pirates: battling illegal copies of NetWare. Novell's Inc's highly-publicized campaign to combat software piracy started in mid-1989 when the company tried to stop rampant theft of its NetWare network operating system, a problem that cost the vendor a figure equal to its annual sales. The company has kept up a steady effort against piracy since 1989, according to officials. Resellers have been affected dramatically; dealers realize that the vendor will take legal action against pirates. The problem surfaced in 1989 when Novell eliminated a hardware protection device associated with its software. The device was a key card which had to be installed to facilitate operation. but was eliminated because it made the system very unfriendly. Honing survival skills for 1991. (The Platform) (column) Goldberg, Aaron. New 'hot' distribution channels emerging in the computer industry tend to cause a rush as vendors hurry to find a distribution partner that can act as a superstore, value-added reseller or mass merchant. Part of this problem involves a flood of market development funds into the new channel. These funds can cause more problems than they solve. Future market success is not necessarily connected to a vendor's ability to participate in a net channel. It is more directly connected to the vendor's ability to reach many customer types through the right distribution channels in a highly stratified marketplace. Superserver market stimulates competition: vendors take different approaches for market share. News that Compaq's Systempro would generate $200 million in revenue for 1990 caused even competitors to smile. Competitors were happy because the product's success validated the superserver marketplace, pegged originally as a slow-growth area. Industry officials did not believe that Compaq was doing well, a situation that cast a pall over the marketplace. The current state of the superserver market is unsure, but its future looks bright. Industry analysts are reporting sales figures of $304 million for 1990. They expect that figure to grow to $968 million by 1994, with a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent. New printers color CalComp's line: thermal-transfer devices available in four models. (product announcement) The Plotter Products Group of CalComp Inc enhances its printer offerings by unveiling a series of color thermal-transfer printers with list prices beginning at $6,995. The ColorMaster Plus printer series, an enhancement of the ColorMaster printer introduced in 1985, includes four versions accommodating many markets, including PostScript-compatibility. Other models include one with a vector-to-raster controller, one with an RGB color controller and one that handles basic raster data. Each unit has AppleTalk, RS-232, Centronics and SCSI interfaces and offers 300-dot-per-inch printing. LC supply, demand: resellers fear repeat of Mac Classic situation. (Apple Macintosh LC) Apple Computer dealers are apprehensive that demand for the new Macintosh LC, Apple's lowest-priced color system, will outstrip supply and cause a replay of the Mac Classic shortages that plagued them during the 4th qtr of 1990. Reaction came after the first Mac LC units trickled into the channel in Dec 1990. A company spokesman says that the vendor probably will not be able to meet initial demand but that production has been ramped up in order to fulfill volume shipments promised for the end of Jan 1991. The new system is being built at the company's Singapore plant. Officials are considering also producing units at the Fremont, CA factory to prevent shortages. Initial production will be used to boost Apple's competitive situation in the educational marketplace. Quark, Ingram in deal. (Ingram Micro D, Quark Inc.) Shalvoy, Mary Lee. Quark Inc, one of the last vendors to move its desktop publishing products toward commodity status, has entered the distribution channel with the signing of an agreement with Ingram Micro D for distribution rights in the U.S. Ingram officials say the presentation/publishing market is the leading software market segment for distribution sales, representing the highest percentage of consistent sales. Quark is the last vendor to adopt channel distribution. Analysts say the desktop publishing market represented $117.9 million in sales for the first three quarters of 1990. Mac developers are growing up and looking beyond Apple. (Viewpoint) (column) Apple Computer and the Macintosh are at a crossroads and the entire market is in a state of flux. Companies that in the past have been enthusiastic participants in the Macintosh marketplace are no longer totally dependent on selling Mac products. Many are moving into the Windows marketplace. RasterOps, Radius and Farallon are the best examples, putting more emphasis on non-Mac development. Mistakes by Apple prompted them to diversify after prospects darkened for the Macintosh. The companies' progress will change the face of the Macworld Expo trade show. Nearly every developer has been preparing a Windows version of its Macintosh package and researching new markets. Mac utility boom? Sector fueled by more demand, development. (Apple Macintosh) A great deal of activity is expected in the Macintosh utility software market as developers prepare for 1991. The market arena, a top performer in 1990, is enhanced by rising demand for virus protection, backup, communication, security and compression software. Developers plan to reap the benefits of Windows 3.0 as they port their Mac utilities to that environment. The market is growing rapidly because microcomputer spending has increased 45 percent between 1980 and 1989. Companies are investing a great deal of manpower and money in ensuring that microcomputers are working and investing in preventative maintenance. Officials say that security is becoming a hot issue as important data moves from mainframes to microcomputers. Small developers looking to capitalize on the Mac's shortcomings dominate the Macintosh utility market. National unveils twisted-pair Ethernet cards. (National Semiconductor) (product announcement) National Semiconductor will use the 1991 Macworld Exposition trade show to introduce to its dealers and distributors new twisted-pair Ethernet boards and a 10BaseT transceiver. The EtherNode SE-TP lists for $445, the EtherNode 16NB-TP for $495 and the Ethernode 32SE/30-TP for $595. Company officials say that twisted pair will become the dominant cabling medium. Current market players will be introducing twisted-pair products, and those already in the market will be conforming to the new IEEE standard. Vendors see increasing market demand for higher-performance networking as opposed to traditional low-end LocalTalk solutions. Observers predict that shipments of Ethernet peer local area networks will steadily increase over the next several years. A look back at a year rife with changes. (Soft Focus) (column) Higgs, Bill. Events in the computer industry during 1990 were far more profound than anticipated. Major changes took place as the result of acquisitions and mergers, litigation and platform discontinuities. Lotus Development Corp's copyright suit against Paperback Software was successful, but its attempted merger with Novell Inc was not. The company did acquire Samna Corp, a word processing software publisher. Software Publishing Corp and Lotus were the last major holdouts against the Microsoft Windows graphical interface. Symantec's acquisition of Peter Norton was the most significant of the year in the wake of Central Point Software's success with PC Tools. Most significantly, 1990 was the year the industry began moving beyond the DOS world. Multimedia channels: developers may be looking beyond resellers. Clancy, Heather. Multimedia software developers may find themselves looking for partners beyond the reseller channel when marketing the finished product. Publishers may find increased opportunities among specialized value-added resellers (VARs) and existing dealer channels for the consumer electronics, recording industry and education markets. Developer officials say that multimedia is probably one of the strongest VAR products ever. They also point out that dealers are most used to working in commodity markets. Opportunities for traditional resellers are seen as scarce at first. Close to 70 percent of multimedia sales in 1991 will be handled directly, while some 11 percent will move through mainstream channels. DEC in the lead to OSF/1. (Digital Equipment Corp., Open Software Foundation) DEC will begin field testing an OSF/1-based version of Unix in Jan 1991. The company expects to be the first on the market with a complete version of the OSF/1 operating system developed by the Open Software Foundation. It will be included in the next release of DEC's Ultrix Unix implementation, but parallel releases of Ultrix will not be maintained. The company has a built-in headstart with OSF/1 because it contributed key technology to the standard, including windowing management. The full Open Software Foundation version of OSF/1 is over one year away and will include Carnegie-Mellon's Mach microkernel architecture. VisionWare sees demand in PC-to-host integration: offering lets Windows users run Unix apps. (applications) British software developer VisionWare Ltd. has discovered that its PC/Unix systems integration strategy is bearing fruit. Acceptance of Windows 3.0 has contributed to the change, according to company officials. The company has three products on the marketplace that are intended to deliver aspects of microcomputer-to-host integration through interfaces to Unix, X Windows, OS/2, VMS, DOS and other operating platforms. The current market is immature, but the products are mature in terms of development. The company's newest product is X Vision, a microcomputer-based Windows application allowing users to display multiple host-based X applications next to Windows applications and work between them. IBM, Apple setting the hardware trend for 1991. (The Corner VAR) (column) Higher sales quotas, reduced channel conflict and a greater emphasis on partnership mark the direction hardware vendors are charting as they revise their value-added reseller (VAR) programs for 1991. Recent action by Apple Computer and IBM are setting the trend. IBM opted to cut channel conflict between VARs and some 800 authorized agents by crediting agents for sales made by VARs within agent territories. The move was well-received by the channel. Other vendors like DEC and Sun Microsystems have discovered that external competition is severe enough without forcing resellers to compete with each other. Apple is planning to raise sales quotas for its VARs and putting smaller dealers into a sort of dealer-assisted VAR program. Computerized color system puts VAR in the green. (value-added reseller) Colwell/General Inc has created a high profile in the paint industry by offering color-scheme cards and other such tools to paint stores. Customers use these tools to determine which colors look best in their homes or offices. The newly-authorized Commodore Business Machines reseller sees a great deal of profit potential for its recently-developed computerized color system. ColorVision, Colwell/General's privately-held 18-employee VAR subsidiary, has sold many of the $6,000 systems to major paint chain stores. Many independent paint stores have formed buying groups to purchase the systems in volume. The price includes installation, support and maintenance. The ColorVision system includes a 68000-based Commodore Amiga computer, dot matrix color printer and monitor, third party software from a New Zealand vendor, membrane keyboard and rotating trackball in a self-contained kiosk. 1991 will separate the distribution wheat from the chaff. (The Pipeline) (column) The microcomputer distribution channel will have a difficult time during 1991. 1991 will be the year the channel faces the reality of an uncertain economy, which will take its toll on the less-efficient resellers but enhance the position of the more-efficient, well-positioned dealers of microcomputer goods and services. The microcomputer industry has never faced a recession, but the reseller channel has suffered from reduced profits for some time. Stressed resellers are staying one step ahead of the banker by trimming prices to turn inventory and generate cash. The channel is battling the crest of a shift in buying patterns that has been developing for some time. Why pay premium? Cost-conscious buyers look beyond Compaq. Spiegelman, Lisa L. Resellers of Compaq microcomputers are encountering formidable resistance from cost-conscious buyers who previously bought on the strength of the Compaq name almost by habit. Compatible system vendors are working to match the company's premium-priced systems feature for feature, and second-tier vendors have grown in strength during 1990, challenging Compaq's name-brand systems with lower prices on comparable models and aggressive marketing techniques. Brand-name recognition is no longer enough to win bids from cost-conscious buyers. Dealers are surprised that some customers are looking to vendors of compatible systems, an unheard-of move a short time ago. Resellers fear credit crunch: sales, shortage woes shape plans. Sweeney, Jack; Zarley, Craig. Shortages, credit concerns and an increase in networking sales are key challenges facing computer retailers in mapping their channel plans as they get ready for a possible recession in 1991. Apple Computer officials estimate that some two million Macintosh systems will be installed worldwide; fifty percent of these are likely to be Apple's new low-cost systems. The company's failure to meet demand for its new Macintosh Classic has already dampened the first-quarter sales projections of many dealers. The backlog will continue to ease but is not expected to disappear soon. Another worrisome factor for dealers is the worsening credit crunch. Reseller officials blame the tightening of credit on the savings and loan scandal and new Federal banking regulations. Focus on smooth operators: well-run distributors have the competitive edge in 1991. Successful distribution in the computer industry calls for low-cost execution of operations, according to industry executives. The struggle for distributor survival in the microcomputer marketplace is based on the success of their operations. Distributors are a key link in the vendor-to-user chain, and the competition for the top rank of distributors has boiled down to how well managed a company is. The key to success is not being overextended, according to industry analysts. Successful distributors are maintaining a high degree of control on inventory assets and accounts receivable. Analysts say that those distributors who cut costs will eliminate the competition. Businessland in chemical equation. (Olin Chemical has contract with Businessland Inc.) Olin Chemical, in need of technical expertise to manage its disparate hardware platforms, turned to IBM Corp, but not even IBM could adequately service the chemical and plastics and vendor. Businessland Inc was selected as leading subcontractor for all microcomputer connections shortly after IBM secured a multimillion-dollar deal to connect Olin's various computer networks. Olin was initially taken aback by the move, but was pleasantly surprised by the reseller's expertise. A third-party reseller was a logical choice for providing integration services because Olin had a substantial base of computers from Dell Computer Corp, IBM, Apple and other vendors. The greatest challenge for Businessland was developing a comprehensive electronic mail package. Businessland also served as troubleshooter and go-between Olin and Novell Inc. National E-mail system unites Gannett sites. Calderbank, Alison. Gannett Co faced a communication problem that, until recently, frustrated employees working at various sites. Management sought to fix the problem in one move but saw little need to support the 110 business units. The publishing concern needed a communications system that would allow staff and free-lance writers to communicate with the corporate network from remote locations. Gannett, which uses a variety of hardware computing platforms, turned to electronic mail to solve its problem. Its first system was developed by General Electric Information Systems and was similar to CompuServe. The second was developed by Gannett's own Unified Systems staff and USA Today Information Systems Group. Users exchange 21,000 messages and transfer even more files each month on this system. A series of token-ring networks was also installed. Five field networks also handle e-mail. Show spotlights developers. (anticipated product introductions at Macworld 1991) Third-party Macintosh developers convening at the Macworld Exposition trade show are expected to introduce many new hardware and software products for the Macintosh. Aldus will preview its FreeHand 3.0 illustration package, and Claris will add support for 32-bit QuickDraw and the Pantone color system to its MacDraw Pro. Deneba Software is planning to exhibit a beta version of the Canvas 3.0 paint program. Quark will introduce XPress Passport, which supports 12 languages including Danish, Dutch, two versions of English, German and French. WordPerfect will exhibit WordPerfect for the Mac 2.0. MacroMind plans to demonstrate MacroMind Media Maker, a desktop video package. On Technology will show its Meeting Maker organizational software. Sigma Designs will unveil a 68030-based 40 MHz accelerator board for Macintosh IIsi and IIci. Radius Inc will unveil Pivot for Built-in Video, a new version of its portrait/landscape monitor for Macs with on-board video circuitry. Excel to renew Lotus assault. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software) The soon-to-be-released Excel 3.0 spreadsheet package from Microsoft Corp is expected to make a big impact on the software market with its graphics-intensive spreadsheet functions. Excel 3.0 beta testers claim that the product offers many presentation tools that can allow users to cosmetically enhance documents. Among other new features are wordwrap within cells, three-dimensional chart capabilities, text boxes that can be placed anywhere in the spreadsheet and new drawing tools. Statistics compiled for Excel for 1990 show only a 12 percent market share compared to Lotus 1-2-3's 65 percent share. Analysts feel that Windows' current popularity will improve Excel's market share since Windows' users will look for software that takes advantage of the graphical environment. They feel Lotus will drop from leader to challenger in the spreadsheet software market. LANs satisfy Blue Shield MIPS craving. (local area networks; million instructions per second; Blue Shield of Blue Shield of Pennsylvania is saving on mainframe costs by using Token-Ring local area networks (LAN) standardized on Banyan Systems Inc's Virtual Networking Systems (Vines). Costs per million instructions per second are lower on microcomputers than on mainframe computers. The LANs will complement and not replace the company's two IBM 3090s and two Hitachi Data Systems Corp mainframes. The LAN will support the addition of a new facility and 1,500 to 3,000 users in 1991. Blue Shield estimates it will have invested approximately $3.5 million in the network between 1989 and the end of 1991. The company will terminate its lease on its high-speed microcomputer-to-mainframe links and save about $115,000 annually. Redundancy is Blue Shield's main network consideration. Token-Ring's loop-back capability is not found in Ethernet LANs and this played a major part in the selection of the Token-Ring network. DEC slams door on upgrade fees loophole. (Digital Equipment Corp.) Johnson, Maryfran. DEC is reinforcing its policy of charging customers the full price of a VAX/VMS operating system license when they buy upgrade boards from third-party resellers. Previously, these central processing unit (CPU) upgrades, which are considered in-cabinet or in-tier, included the software license at no extra charge. Users can now be charged more than $60,000 for an in-cabinet upgrade with the reseller's CPU costing less than $3,500. The policy was written when the only upgrade available was from a VAX 11/780 to an 11/785. It is now considered inadequate for covering the many VAX 6000 in-cabinet upgrade options now available. Analysts feel that DEC has a right to enforce its software ownership but believe a better approach would be for the company to revamp the upgrade fee policies to reflect the VAX 6000's configuration without adversely affecting third-party resellers. Feds say industry to fare well: Commerce Department sees high-tech silver lining to the economic cloud. The US Department of Commerce predicts that high technology industries will continue to grow despite the weakening of the economy. The Commerce Department estimates that US computer hardware sales will increase by 5.9 percent. Semiconductor shipments will rise 8.9 percent, electronic information services will bring in 16 to 20 percent more revenue and computer software revenues will increase by 20 percent. Analysts contend that high technology industries will grow faster in 1991 in comparison to 1990. Trends that will contribute to that growth include the increasing use of automation in improving productivity and the increased demand for information services. Other predictions include that workstation shipments by US companies will grow 30 percent to $11 billion. The super-computer global market is expected to grow 13 percent to $1.7 billion. Sales of portable computers will rise 48 percent to $8 billion. Oracle offsets earlier losses. (Oracle Systems Corp.) Bozman, Jean S. Oracle Systems Corp announces a small profit for its second fiscal quarter ending Nov 30, 1990, offsetting the company's first-ever loss of $36 million in the first fiscal quarter. Sales for second quarter 1990 are placed at $268.7 million but net income is just $6.7 million. During the same period in 1989, the company earned $19 million on $209 million in sales. Through holding expenses flat in the first quarter, restructuring the sales division and tightening financial controls, Oracle expects to make continued progress on to the third quarter. Analysts feel that Oracle's financial reports will not affect users in the short term unless product support and research and development is effected. Industry observers contend that Oracle may have faced another loss in the second quarter if not for the closing of several multimillion-dollar transactions. IBM prepares to hit market with 386SX-based laptop. Fitzgerald, Michael; Pastore, Richard. IBM is expected to unveil its new 80386SX-based laptop computer at the end of Feb 1991. The machine is based on Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), runs at 20 MHz and will weigh 7-1/2 pounds. The laptop will offer 2Mbytes of random access memory (RAM) expandable to 18Mbytes. 30-, 40- and 60-Mbyte hard drive configurations will be available along with a VGA-compatible screen and a built-in 2,400-bps modem. The 60Mbyte configuration will be priced under $5,000. Analysts feel IBM has been slow in its pursuit of the portable computer market and the firm has a long way to go if it desires a leadership position. Others contend that IBM's strong distribution will automatically give the firm a place in the market if the laptop is a good product. Users will also forgive IBM for its previous failures in the laptop market if the new machine meets the expected configuration. New outsourcing deals for IBM. Wilder, Clinton. IBM announces two separate outsourcing agreements with Southeast Banking Corp and The Riggs National Bank in Washington D.C. The contracts are long-term agreements for IBM to hire most of the banks' data center employees and manage data center operations. Southeast Banking Corp, one of the 50 largest banks in the US, will have IBM develop and implement an automation system for Southeast's 230 branches. The bank expects to save 20 percent in Information Systems costs over the 10 years of the contract. The Riggs National Bank, which is the largest bank in Washington D.C., will outsource the operations of its data center and have IBM hire most of the 75 data center, technical support and telecommunications employees. The outsourcing deal with IBM will let Riggs focus on business needs while still staying on top of technological needs. The changing faces of PCs: personal computers of the year 2000 will be multifaceted information appliances. (Advanced Technology) Emerging technologies analysts claim that microcomputers in the year 2000 will have the power of a minicomputer but will be as easy to operate as a toaster. Microprocessor chips of the future will have up to 100 million transistors as opposed to the 1 million they have today. Analysts contend that the fastest chips will run at almost eight times the speed of the current I486 from Intel Corp. In March 1991, Empruve Inc plans to introduce its multimedia appliance, Cornucopia, which showcases much of this future technology. The machine has a 10-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) for text and graphics and a four-inch color LCD for video and still images. The keyboard is replaced by a 'tadpole' which is a hybrid of a mouse and a joystick. The 80386-based machine has a CD/ROM drive, built-in stereo speakers, a 20Mbyte hard disk and 2Mbytes of RAM. The entire setup weighs only 15 pounds. Czechs are speeding technology's boom. Angus, Jeff. The Czechs are embracing computer technology with energetic determination. Entrepreneurs are setting up small microcomputer dealerships in their homes and bring systems to their customers' offices to showcase them. Czechs have a comparative advantage in computer technology. It is easy to convince them of the effectiveness of microcomputers in the workplace since this has been well-proven elsewhere. Entering the market late is also a help because their baseline technology is comprised of advanced 80286-based systems. Users will, therefore, be able to be more productive with these high-end systems than were the first users in the free world. Czechs seem to have a wide acceptance of computers and do not have fears related to computers replacing their jobs, most likely due to their industrial history. Their lack of resources may actually help them in the long run since it causes them to be so practical. IBM's bigger problem. (Commentary) (column) Hamilton, Rosemary. IBM's reasons for the second delay of its Officevision strategic office platform are not really acceptable for a company of its stature. IBM says they have made a mistake in estimating how big the project would be since it is such a new undertaking. IBM should be knowledgeable enough to realize when it does not understand something. The company should also be responsible enough to not announce aggressive delivery dates as it did in 1989. Users expect an Officevision update in the second quarter of 1991 but enthusiasm for the product is on the decline due to delays. Would-be Officevision customers will most likely see no reason to change to the platform. IBM's real problem is that few users were really angry at IBM's latest acknowledgement of their mistake. This seems to show an indifference to Officevision that may plague IBM in the future. AS/400's are not going alone; purchases of multiple systems increase as user interest grows. (IBM' Application System/400 Multiunit sales of IBM's AS/400 Models C4 and C6 minicomputers are booming. Customers use the machines as nodes in large distributed networks or as the main processors for remote company branches. Thirty percent of the large accounts of IBM's Application Business Systems are buying in multiples. These sales can be from several dozen machines to hundreds or even thousands. IBM has also added networking improvements in OS/400 Release 3 such as direct node support. Customers are beginning to attach more microcomputers to the AS/400 to use the machine as a server. Great Western Consumer Finance Group chose the AS/400s for the machines' operating system and also because they are small, inexpensive and fast. ABC Home Health is replacing a network of System/36s with AS/400s in a $2.7 million to $3.5 million conversion project. Sales of low-end AS/400s grew 57 percent between January and July 1990. Low-emission VDTs begin to hit U.S. market. (video display terminals) An increasing number of US vendors are developing or offering video display terminals (VDTs) with lower levels of electromagnetic radiation than have previously been available in the US. Most vendors are using an electromagnetic field to cancel out the one from the monitor. Others use screening, shielding or even glowing balls set in diagonal corners of the screen to lower the emissions. The most common way to lower emissions is through cancellation coils. Vendors are also incorporating other technologies not made public due to patents pending on these technologies. Norad Corp is using a wire mesh screen with a separate grounded wire that drains static. The screen weakens electromagnetic fields coming from the front of the VDT. Wellware Corp uses two bulbs in the corners of the VDT frame. The bulbs resonate and vibrate when the terminal is turned on and cancel electromagnetic fields. Unix: the lifeblood of health network. (Wellmark Inc.'s Well-Net information network) Wellmark Inc will spend $30 million over five years with AT and T Computer Systems in revamping its Healthcare Information Network. Wellmark will replace its IBM 3083 mainframe with AT and T's System 7000 Model 7080, a reduced instruction set computing Unix server. Wellmark is also replacing its IBM Systems Network Architecture network with AT and T's Accunet X.25 packet network. Changing to packet switching has allowed the company to reduce networking costs by 80 percent. Wellmark has also replaced IBM's 3270 dumb terminals with AT and T 6386 Workgroup System computers and AT and T Paradyne modems. The workstations have more local processing capability than the 3270 terminals. AT and T is also contracted to port the IBM mainframe applications to its System 7000 Unix environment. Escon an aid to remote disks. (IBM Storage Systems Product Division's Escon fiber optic channel technology) IBM's Storage Systems Products Division contends that its Escon fiber-optic channel technology will allow remote disk drives to be equal to those at central-site mainframes. Users will be able to mirror on-line databases at sites as far as 5.6 miles away. This would eliminate having to create duplicate databases at the central site and moving backup tape cartridges off-site. Users could also keep primary disk drives at remote sites. The Escon technology can let remote disk drives be hooked and un-hooked from central processors without an interruption of central mainframe operations. With Escon switching centers, users can carry out non-synchronized updates to remote databases. IBM has found that their customers cannot afford system downtime for any reason. Users can also have flexibility in the physical placement of data due to the Escon technology. Weighing upgrade options. Pastore, Richard. The weakening economy is causing microcomputer managers to weigh the pros and cons of purchasing new machines or retrofitting existing units with controller and memory upgrades. Some managers feel that adding upgrade cards can cause possible unreliability and complexity to an installed base. Others feel that in hard economic times that they need to make the most out of current inventory. Retrofitting is also easier to justify to upper management. Some dealers see retrofitting on the decline because of the drop in prices of Intel 80386SX-based machines. Many times the cost of an add-on board is harder to justify than an inexpensive 80386-based system. Other dealers, however, expect increased sales of upgrade boards in the first half of 1991. Companies that are laying off employees will find that it is not a good policy to even consider replacing their machines. Can home computers predict earthquakes? Mandell, Mel. Two seismologists are proposing a unique network of home microcomputers to provide useful information on earthquake activity in the San Francisco Bay area. The researchers are proposing that as little as one percent of home microcomputer users in the San Francisco area could supply important seismic data with inexpensive seismic data acquisition units (SDAU) attached to their machines. Users would be asked to buy the SDAUs that could cost as little as $500 each if made in volume. Each unit would consist of an accelerometer connected to a box containing a microprocessor, 1Mbyte of memory and an internal clock. The accelerometer would measure motion in three directions and would be buried in the backyard. Motion picked up by the accelerometer would be transmitted to the box. The box would have trigger algorithms to differentiate non-earthquake movement. Earthquake movements would be stored in random-access memory. Compaq Deskpro 486/25: high speed, high price. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Compaq Computer Corp's Deskpro 486/25 is fast and powerful but carries an expensive price. The base price for a system with a 120Mbyte hard drive is $13,999. With other configurations, the price approaches almost $30,000. Memory and storage capacity are exceptional with up to 100Mbytes of random-access memory with the motherboard and its six expansion pockets. The Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus should further improve performance but users need a hardware caching EISA controller for this. Testers found software compatibility problems only in the inability to switch between applications when running Desqview from Quarterdeck Office Systems. The Deskpro is bested suited for server capability in small to medium-size networks. Documentation is good and a helpful installation utility is included. Support is offered only through dealers. AST Premium 486/25: speed at a reasonable rate. (AST Research Inc.) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) AST Research Inc's Premium 486/25 offers good performance and compatibility at a reasonable price. The Premium 486/25's standard configuration, including 4Mbytes of RAM and a 110Mbyte hard disk, is priced at $10,944, making it an excellent value. The system includes AST's Completely Universal Processor I/O design (CUPID) and compiles average scores on most benchmark performance tests. Maximum system memory is only 48Mbytes and expansion slots are few. The system has a 16-bit AT bus, making it compatible with most products. The Premium 486/25 is not designed specifically to be used as a server but the machine's performance is good enough to support small, low-traffic networks. The machine's lack of expandability and its AT bus, however, limit it as a server. Documentation includes a short, well-written manual. AST's technical support includes a toll-free telephone line and an electronic bulletin board. Tool helps distribute applications. (Momentum Software Corp.'s XIPC) Momentum Software Corp's soon-to-be released XIPC tool standardizes the interprocess communications needed in distributed computing. Developers have had problems writing distributed and portable applications since the interprocess communications library is different for each operating system. In some systems, queues for interprocess communications messages have a pre-determined size which can cause loss of messages. XIPC allows messages to be spooled onto a disk until they can be placed in the message queue. XIPC is actually a superset of existing interprocess communications libraries. XIPC will support several versions of Unix, OS/2, SunOS, AIX and Ethernet. Standalone versions for VMS, Unix and OS/2 have been available since January 1990. The new version will let developers create software that can take advantage of cooperative processing and client/server models. FDDI vendors meet for test. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)(includes related article on FDDI's station management A 20-vendor Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) local area network (LAN) test is running at the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab. The test is designed to fix implementation differences and interoperability glitches among different vendors' FDDI products. Multi-vendor interoperability will bring FDDI product prices down. Interoperability in FDDI is particularly complex because it is the only LAN that has network management capabilities inherent in its standard. Different interpretations of the standard can result in varying implementations which can adversely affect the whole network. The test allows vendors to actually work on problems. Public demonstrations do not give vendors the chance to solve problems since the main point is to look good to the public. Another multi-vendor test is scheduled at the end of January 1991 at Advanced Micro Devices Inc's networking test center. Report finds image transmission rising. Horwitt, Elisabeth. A report from Eastern Research Corp indicates that the increasing amount of paper documents used by businesses will positively affect the computer-based image transmission equipment and services market. The company sites government statistics that US businesses acquire more than 250 million new documents and generate over 3.2 billion copies and computer printouts daily. Eastern Research cites an IBM study that states that 75 to 80 percent of all paper output from computers is input into another computer. Vendors are providing network equipment and services that move images from one system to another without manual input. Eastern predicts that sales of imaging equipment will increase from $10.4 million in 1990 to $94.3 million in 1999 with an annual growth rate of 40.3 percent. Imaging telecommunications service revenue will increase from $509.8 million in 1990 to $3.3 billion in 1999. UK may open local networking to competition. Horwitt, Elisabeth. Deregulation of the United Kingdom's (UK) local telecommunications market is pending the outcome of the Duopoly Review, currently before the British government. Deregulation could lead to a greater choice of service providers, and lower prices. Vendors including US regional holding companies and their CATV partners are preparing to competitively offer their own local services. Several UK CATV companies have received permission from the British government to offer services in one or more of the districts where they own CATV franchises. Some US carriers are partners with these franchises. The British government will determine whether to let CATV companies provide services both within and among their own franchise areas. A positive outcome for the Duopoly Review would be great encouragement for companies to get into the telecommunications business and challenge British Telecom. Knowing no boundaries. (transparency of access)(Commentary) Fritz, Jeffrey N. Transparency of access lets users access local area network (LAN) services in the same way independent of where the user is located in regards to the system. Currently this accessibility is not available. Home users or those who are on the road have less than satisfactory remote access to LAN services even when their home microcomputer or portable is running Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) software. TCP/IP is not designed to run over regular telephone modem-type connections. The usual microcomputer modem connection is exceedingly slow for LAN purposes. Telecommunications protocols such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and frame relay are starting to provide the required transmission speeds over switched links that will bring users closer to transparency of access. New software is emerging that greatly improves the quality of remote access. Not the usual vanilla IS chief: Ben & Jerry's Williams offers staff independence and all the ice cream they want. (Information Keith Williams is the director of data processing at Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc, the $70 million ice cream maker based in Waterbury, Vermont. Williams manages seven full-time employees and one contract programmer in the company's DEC VAX 6210-based Information Systems (IS) department. Financial software for the company is from Oracle Systems Corp and is VAX-based. The company's inventory control package was developed in-house with Oracle's database management system. One of Williams' biggest challenges is keeping high quality employees since Ben & Jerry's maintains a policy that the highest salary in the company cannot be more than five times the lowest. Williams strives hard to make the IS department an enjoyable place to work. He also feels it is important to give employees freedom to do their work and also to encourage them to do more than they think they can. The best laid plans blend old and new; laying the groundwork for new architecture. (Executive Report)(maximizing the information Many information systems (IS) managers face the challenge of changing communication or information architectures without interfering with the normal course of business. Systems managers contemplating changes in architecture fear losing mission-critical functionality. Another concern is that the firm will become trapped in between architectures and will not be able to move into the new system but will not be able to return to the former system. Some IS managers have problems convincing other business managers of the importance and impact of a system change. Some hire consulting firms to clearly explain the options and impact to other managers. IS managers must also face the difficult problem of what to discard and save from the old system. They also must pay close attention to safeguarding the future system by establishing and enforcing standards. Laying the groundwork for new architecture; maintaining staff readiness. (Executive Report) Information Systems (IS) managers face the challenge of acclimating employees to new technology after implementation of new architectures. It is important for IS managers to get the staff involved in the system conversion process as early as possible. The practicality of the new system will usually make employees willing to learn new skills. Some firms make it a point to hire IS staff who are excited by new technology. Some managers bring in consultants already expert in the new technology to let employees learn by example. Others take employees on field trips to firms that are already using the new technology. Using pilot programs is another way some IS managers build acceptance for new systems among staff. Formal education and training for employees is another important element in the technology change process. BBN makes comeback in 1990; after some improvement in 1990, BBN looks to re-establish itself in 1991. (BBN Communications, BBN Communications, a division of Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc, is breaking out of its role as a government contractor and is attempting to establish itself as a commercial management networking company. BBN has been suffering from financial troubles the past several years due to curtailed government spending as well as other factors. The company's fourth fiscal quarter ending June 30, 1990 brought the company net income of $3.82 million on sales of $69.28 million. BBN lost money in its most recent fiscal quarter but estimates to at least break even in the quarter ending December 1990. BBN plans to continue its upward financial trend with commercial products that meet the user demand for more efficient bandwidth. The company's X.25 packet switches are now designed to accept and convert traffic using a wide variety of protocols. BBN also plans to develop fast-packet products. Leasing game changing, survey says. (Gartner Group Inc.'s 1990 survey of the US computer leasing industry) The Gartner Group Inc's 1990 edition of its annual survey of the US computer leasing industry indicates that IBM equipment accounted for only 71 percent of overall computer leasing volume in 1989. The company projects IBM's share of leased equipment to be 67 percent for 1990 and will continue to decrease. Third party leasing companies are looking to deal in other vendors' hardware due to the weakening economy and competition from IBM leasing firm IBM Credit Corp. The Computer Dealers and Lessors Association (CDLA) confirms the results of the survey and continues to focus on diversification. 1989 saw computer leasing and re-marketing volume rising 7.5 percent. Data shows leasing industry growth from $20 million in 1988 to $21.5 billion in 1989. The Gartner Group projects a gain to $25 billion in 1990. The growth figure is only half of that predicted by the CDLA. Drawing tools add panache and pizzazz. (freehand drawing graphics packages selection) Drawing software packages are an extension of presentation graphics software, letting users create one- and two-dimensional art images. Even users who are not artists can create powerful graphics with freehand drawing graphics software. Information system (IS) managers looking to purchase drawing software should check for several important features. Design accuracy is especially important if the IS department supports a group of graphic designers. Managers should check that the package can produce true-to-life scaled graphics. Speed is another important factor since users must always move images around their screens. Many drawing packages do not offer a WYSIWYG feature, yet this is an important feature to have in drawing software. Managers should also check printer support for the quality of printed output. Other considerations include clip art and the ability to import and export it. When IS America and colleges share notes. (DeVry Institute of Technology's advisory board)(Head of the Class) (column) The DeVry Institute of Technology is one of several colleges working together with major corporations to correct inadequacies in its curriculum to ensure its graduates have the practical training to take on information system (IS) jobs. Many IS managers are discovering that computer science graduates still need extensive training to make up for their lack of technical depth. DeVry has established an advisory board consisting of volunteer IS managers and directors, training professionals and computer research scientists from the corporate IS world. Board members meet with the institute's faculty to discuss different issues including what should be taught that is not taught now and the emerging trends of IS. Input from the advisory board has led to changes in courses and has given the faculty leverage in negotiation of obtaining state-of-the-art equipment as well. Third-party tool gains manufacturing favor. (Industrial Computing Design Corp.'s Process Operations Management System)(includes Industrial Computing Designs Corp's Process Operations Management System (POMS) is becoming a major player in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) for process manufacturing industries. The system is also helping IBM, which backed its development, become a prime CIM supplier. POMS is an IBM OS/2 Extended-based system combining a relational database management system with application development tools. POMS lets non-programmers create their own applications for integration of plant operations, scheduling and control. IBM's encouragement of manufacturers to adopt CIM has resulted in 50 to 80 companies implementing POMS. POMS meets a wide range of user needs due to its 'snap-ons.' These are hooks where third-party software packages can post and access data from POMS databases. IBM is moving toward linking POMS and its competitors' systems and applications. IBM bids to build on Japan clone market. Pastore, Richard. IBM announces it will open up its Japanese microcomputer architecture to clone vendors. The first architecture to open will be the Japanese version of IBM's Personal System/2 Model 55, the Video Graphics Array controller and its new Kanji/English DOS J4.0/V. Statistics show that the Japanese microcomputer market is expected to increase 25.5 percent in 1991 compared to 3 percent for the US market and 6.5 percent for the Western European market. IBM is establishing an Open Architecture Developers Group in Japan that will provide members with testing guidelines, specifications and technical support for building IBM-compatible systems for the Japanese market. Development of IBM-compatible hardware and software is expected to increase as a result of this move. NEC Corp's products have dominated the Japanese market with 47 percent of microcomputers shipped and 45 percent of the installed base. Lotus/DBMS killed in inaction: officials say firm is switching to a family of database tools for nonpros. (database management Lotus Development Corp announces it is discontinuing development of its Lotus/DBMS database engine. The demise is being blamed on mismanagement and a revamping of company priorities in 1989 in order to release Version 3.0 of Lotus 1-2-3. The company instead plans to deliver a series of database tools geared toward non-database professionals in the next 12 to 18 months. These products will help spreadsheet users to easily access, capture and structure data with the ability for users to write applications for automation of processes. The company wants to provide tools to users that perform tasks that word processors and spreadsheets are not made to do. These tools would include those that would help users get to data in a relational data base management system, quickly build applications, keep track of data and provide a method of attaching data to pre-specified files. Macworld eyes will be focused on connectivity. Daly, James. Products shown at the Macworld Expo will emphasize connectivity, including Apple Computer Inc's introduction of two add-on Ethernet connectivity cards. Apple is committed to faster 10M-bps Ethernet connectivity options to go beyond its slow 230K-bits per second Localtalk support that is built into Macintosh motherboards. The Ethernet NB Card has a built-in 68000 microprocessor from Motorola Inc.. The card is expected to be available in the first quarter of 1991 and will sell for $424. The Ethernet LC card will be available by the end of January 1991 and will be priced at $199. Both boards include an attachment interface that requires Apple's Ethernet Twisted-Pair Transceiver which simplifies network installation and configuration changes. Apple also will introduce its X Window System 2.1 for A/UX which will sell for $350. Other Macworld Expo products are discussed. DEC cuts VMS upgrade costs in drive to boost low-end systems sales. (VAX/VMS Unlimited User License Upgrade) DEC is offering software license discounts for MicroVAX II and MicroVAX 3000 series users. The time-sharing licenses for VMS 4.0 and later versions fall under DEC's VAX/VMS Unlimited User License Upgrade. The discount is offered in response to DEC's change of policy regarding VMS license trade-ins. DEC now requires customers to purchase a new license when upgrading. Prices for an unlimited MicroVAX 2000 license start at $2,250, which is a 77 per cent savings from the five-user license's $9,910 list price. An 11-user upgrade costs nine per cent less at $5,630. The offer is seen by analysts as DEC's attempt to get customers to purchase more VAXs. DEC starts German venture to strengthen European base. (Digital-Kienzel Computer Systems GmbH and Co.) DEC and three divisions of German computer manufacturing consortium Mannesman Kienzel: Computer Systems, Procad GmbH and PCS GmbH, are engaged in a joint venture in which DEC has invested $230 million. The new company will be called Digital-Kienzel Computer Systems GmbH and Co KG. DEC will have 65 per cent controlling interest. Digital-Kienzel will sell solutions based on Unix and running on DEC platforms. The Unix market in Europe is growing by 25 per cent a year, and Germany is the largest Unix market in Europe. Also included in the venture will be an organization for Unix software development. European sales account for 40 per cent of DEC's revenue. Replacement CPU corrects flaw in VAX-9000 series mainframe. Patch, Kimberly. DEC has replaced CPUs on their VAX 9000 mainframe computers which have failed during input/output-intensive applications. The problems have been caused by faulty Multi-Chip Units and are to be replaced in the field. The CPU failures mark further problems with DEC's top mainframe. Sales have been slow for the VAX 9000. DEC is depending on the mainframe line for lost revenue due to the VAX 8800 series' obsolescence. DEC executive Robert Glorioso has been re-assigned to head-up the computer network solutions that include the VAX 9000 but will not have control over a DEC system. Pioneer releases accounting package that runs atop Rdb. (Pioneer Software Inc.'s Rdb Financials software, Rdb data base management Pioneer Software Inc introduces Rdb Financials accounting software for $7,500 to $45,000 and Gembase 2.4 for $7,5000 to $96,000. Rdb Financials runs on top of DEC's relational data base management system and includes the language tool Gembase. Rdb Financials has seven nodules, which can be used separately or as a package, and a report writer. The report writer allows the user to create reports using an interactive WYSIWYG interface. The accounting software package supports multilevel accounting allowing it to handle various divisions of a company. Rdbb Financials is written in Gembase. Gembase 2.4 supports two-phase commit for Rdb and RMS, DEC's file management system, through DEC's Distributed Transaction Monitor (DTM). DTM comes in VMS 5.4 and Rdb 4.0. Gembase 2.4 supports client/server computing and applications communication through a proprietary interprocess communications interface. Stand-alone device from Dilog brings caching to the masses. (Dilog Inc.'s SA807 Cachebox caching device, SB729 host adapter, and Dilog Inc introduces its disk drive caching device SA807 Cachebox priced at $5,600 for an 8Mbyte system to $28,000 for a 64Mbyte system. Dilog also introduces the SB729, dual-emulation controller card for VAXBI bus systems, for $11,995, and two disk controllers, SQ3709 and SQ3719, for $2,000 and $2,250 respectively. The SA807 Cachebox is capable of holding 8 to 64Mbytes of cache memory and fits Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) ports on DECstations, VAXstations, Q-bus MicroVaxes and Sun Sparcstations. The device includes a 10-MHz Dilog Z8002 microprocessor. The SB729 links VAXBI bus interfaces to SCSI devices for VAX 6000-, 8000- and 9000-series CPUs. The SQ3709 is a single-ended SCSI adapter which emulates disk and tape control operations for MicroVAX 3000 and 4000 systems. The SQ3719 is a differential version of the board. Logicraft update gives VT users access to NetWare applications. (DEC's Video Terminal display terminals) (product announcement) Logicraft introduces an updated version of its network server software 386Ware 3.7 for $1,000. 386Ware 3.7 supports Novell Inc's NetWare, DEC's Pathworks 3.0/3.1, Local Area Disk (LAD) software, and Microsoft Corp's MS Windows 3.0. 386Ware links VAX computers to VTs running on NetWare with a separate Ethernet controller. Logicraft rewrote parts of the software for support of Pathworks to give the servers as much as 25 per cent improvement in performance. MS Windows support is standard with the package. The NetWare support version costs $2,495, and Pathworks support costs $995. The software is for Logicraft servers running MS-DOS. Datability makes first push into low-end terminal server arena. (Datability Software Systems Inc.'s VCP-200 and -300 terminal Datability introduces two low-end terminal servers: the eight-port VCP-200 for $2,399 and the 16-port VCP-300 costing $2,999. The servers have dual 16-MHz 80186 microprocessors combined with an 8-MHz 82586 coprocessor handling Ethernet communications. Both servers are Ethernet-ready and connect with terminals by RJ45 connectors which provide RS-232-C or RS-423 support. The servers use a DEC-compatible command interface to support end-user, management and printer functions. Both are Local Area Transport compatible and support Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and SNMP. Software is held in 500K-bits of ROM. The servers have a credit-card-size ROM-card slot in the front for future software update implementation. The new servers differ from the VCP-1000 in that they lack chassis slots for add-in boards. Clyde Digital update tightens security with faster audit setup. (Clyde Inc.'s Security Toolkit 3.0 and Security Baseline System) Clyde Inc introduces Security Toolkit 3.0 at $582 for MicroVax systems and $11,514 for top-end VAXs. Clyde also introduces a rules-based system called Security Baseline System for $582 to $11,514. The new version of Security Toolkit has a redesigned user interface which has pop-up windows, a menu for security options and enables the user to set up a security audit more quickly. Security Toolkit is compatible with VMS 5.4's password algorithms and offers more Access Control List reporting capabilities. Security Baseline System checks a company's security directives against the VMS system and reports on deviations from those policies. The utility has a template from which uses choose security situations, a list of components of the system to be compared with the template, and a baseline which is used to evaluate security policy compliance. CASE tool offers framework for linking modules. (Computer Aided Software Engineering; Hamilton Technologies Inc.'s 001 Suite tool) Hamilton Technologies Inc introduces 001 Suite CASE software development tool. 001 Suite costs $35,000 for a single-VAX-station and $110,000 for a CPU license on a VAX 8000 or 9000 series system. The environment reduces inconsistencies that are created when different sections of a project are integrated. 001 Suite uses the 001 Axes language to outline system specifications for a particular project. The tool includes the Resource Allocation Tool (RAT) module including Type RAT and Functional RAT. The source code is available for C, Fortran, Ada or VHDL. The documentor module puts out system documentation graphically or in the text. 001 Suite training takes one to two weeks as opposed to training for a 4GL which may take several months. Workstations widen slice of desktop market pie. (survey of workstation users by Prudential-Bache Securities) (Tech Trends) A survey of workstation users made by Prudential-Bache Securities shows that 67 per cent of users would not switch to workstations from microcomputers even if more software became available for workstations. 28 per cent said that they would consider workstations because technical and administrative functions could be performed on a workstation. Those surveyed cited workstation power and flexibility as features that will propel workstation market share upward. Sales support is seen as the key for successful vendors. Sun Microsystems Inc was praised for reliability, price/performance, and software availability, but was marked down on delivery and service. DEC was positively rated with its VMS compatible workstations, but criticized for its proprietary system, poor service and high prices. Hewlett-Packard has a good reputation and give strong support, but has high prices and poor sales and marketing. Package boosts RMS performance by tuning files, altering bucket size. (International Digital Scientific Inc.'s RMS Expert software International Digital Scientific Inc (IDSI) introduces software package RMS Expert, costing $600 for a VAXstation and up to $10,800 for a VAX 9440. RMS Expert analyzes and reorganizes Record Management Services (RMS) file structures that cause systems slowdown. File data is not configured to match internal file structures when files are created by RMS. Data must be configured to a specific size, called bucket size, so that it may be accessed by one input/output operation. The RMS utilities Analyze and Convert and IDSI's Optimize module are used as a front end to RMS Expert. RMS Expert reorganizes data that has been split between buckets by RMS and reduces the index levels. RMS Expert has a utility that minimizes disk usage by reorganizing file residence on the disk. Jupiter X station offers twin displays. (Jupiter Systems Inc.'s Model 412 Color X Window Display Station) (product announcement) Jupiter Systems Inc introduces Model 412 Color X Windows Display Station at $13,950. Model 412 uses two 19-inch monitors controlled by a single keyboard and is designed for users dealing with large amounts of data. The choice of using two monitors instead of a single larger caters to users who may not have room for a large monitor. Model 412 can run multiple applications from various hosts. The display station has a 25 MHz 68030 processor from Motorola Inc and two graphics processors that have color lookup tables and graphics accelerators. Model 412 runs the X11 release 4 server supporting the X Display Manager Control Protocol, non-rectangular windows, Telnet backing store and save-under. The cursor can be set to run from one terminal to the other, or be restricted to only one terminal. Graphical user interfaces Model 412 is compatible with include Motif, Open Look and DECwindows. X.25 gateways incorporate LAT, TCP/IP terminal servers. (Develcon Electronics Ltd.'s ING-2064 and ING-1064 Internetworking Gateways; Develcon Electronics Ltd introduces Internetworking Gateway (ING)-2064 and ING-1064 X.25 gateways. The ING-2064 has a Local Area Transport terminal and an asynchronous X.25 packet assembler/disassembler (PAD) which is linked by a proprietary bus. The ING-1064 has a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol terminal server and an X.25 PAD. The ING-2064 can support 64 LAT sessions and the ING-1064 can support the same amount of TCP/IP sessions. Both gateways support 64 X.25 virtual channels and can be upgraded to handle 100 LAT, TCP/IP and X.25 support sessions. The units can be combined to translate protocols between TCP/IP and LAT and translation of X.25 across both protocols. The products have V.35, RS-232-C, V.11 or RS-449 interfaces for connection to X.25. The ING-2064 has an Ethernet interface for LAT connection, and the ING-1064 has thin-wire, twisted pair and standard Ethernet interfaces for TCP/IP connection. Epic/Workflow comes to VAX/VMS using RMS files. (Computron Technologies Inc.'s Epic/Workflow; Record Management Services) Computron Technologies Corp introduces Epic/Workflow file management software for $30,000 to $150,000. Epic/Workflow runs on VAX/VMS systems that have Record Management Services (RMS) file structures. The software is designed to be used with a scanner for paper-intensive businesses. Users are able to track documents as they pass through the company. Notes can be attached by users in file-folder form. Epic/Workflow includes an interactive parameter-setting module called Routing Rules, and Soft Screens, an interactive screen development tool. Epic/Workflow also has a report writer that lets the software be integrated with existing files. The software has a feature called Q-Mark that prompts a menu of possible entries whenever the user enters a question mark on a field. Revving up VMS workstations. (DEC's VAXstation 3100 model 76) (includes related articles on VAXstation 3100 test results and the DEC's VAXstation 3100-76 offers increased processing power over previous VAXstations and is comparable with other Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISC)-based Unix workstations. The VAXstation 3100-76 costs $27,360, and an SPX graphics accelerator option adds $3,500. The workstation offers a CPU processing speed ten times that of a MicroVax II and twice that of VAXstations 38 and 48. VAXstation 3100-76's chip is based on the Rigel chip set. The workstation can be used for low-end 3-D graphics applications while running the Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics Standard (PHIGS) version 2.2. VAXstation 3100-76's embedded Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) controller has relatively slow input/output performance and X-specific operations tests showed weaknesses also. RAID pulls together faster, more reliable subsystems. (redundant arrays of inexpensive disks; includes related article on six Redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) subsystems are multiple drives and intelligent controllers which spread data across several disks in order to reduce data transfer rates. There are six levels of RAID applications defined by structure. Level 3 and Level 5 are the most popular forms. Level 3 handles large data block transfers and has high bandwidth and throughput capabilities. Level 5 features high transfer rates and a high input/output rate. RAID technology serves scientific and engineering needs better than transaction needs. Data for scientific or engineering use takes the form of long blocks; transaction data blocks may not need to be spread across multiple disks. The increasing capacities of inexpensive, small disk drives is pushing RAID technology forward. Aspiring HDTV system vendors catch digital wave. (high-definition television) General Instruments Corp (New York City, NY) submitted a last-minute proposal for an all-digital high-definition TV system to the Federal Communications Commission in Jun 1990, causing lobbyists and researchers to wonder what type of system the US would wind up adopting. Until then, most of the systems proposals submitted transmitted programming in analog form. Digital systems were thought to be a system for the distant future. Now, in 1991, half of the six proposals still under consideration are digital, with some companies hinting that they may switch to digital as well. Doubts still remain about a digital system's ability to meet the sturdiness and quality of analog-based systems, however researches are promising to break through obstacles. Voice activation goes mobile. Jorgensen, Barbara. Voice activation technology is broadening its role in mobile cellular communications, despite its expense and its limitations. Audi and BMW automotive manufacturers are providing voice-activated cellular phones in some of their more expensive 1991 models. The cellular carrier industry has been promoting the hands-free voice activated products because they are safer to use while driving. Several states, including MA, NJ and MN have introduced bills regarding the use of such systems. Boom in laptops no boon to the PC aftermarket. Fastie, Will. Portable computers, especially laptops, are growing at a faster rate than the general microcomputer market, with vendors aggressively introducing new products. Among the most interesting machines is the AST Premium Exec 386SX/20, priced at $3,395, and including an excellent keyboard layout. The AST system includes 2Mbytes random access memory and a 40Mbyte disk. Laptops are growing popularity and changing the face of the market because buyers can now purchase a 20-MHz 386 system in a package that fits into a briefcase for just a little more money than a standard desktop machine costs. Seagate's strategy for catching its competitors. (Seagate Technology Inc.; includes a related article on Seagate faces its Seagate Technology Inc, the largest independent disk-drive manufacturer, intends to become an industry leader rather than a follower. Traditionally, the company waited until a market opened, then came in with volume manufacturing to dominate that segment, leaving other companies behind. However, they are late with their products and their first steps toward market leadership. In Nov 1990, Seagate introduced 14 disk drives, including the company's first 2.5-inch product. The company's new 20Mbyte and 40Mbyte 2.5-inch drives will not be shipped until the second qtr in 1991. Seagate also faces strong competition from Quantum, Maxtor Corp, Western Digital Corp and Conner in developing 3.5-inch drive technology. The minnow that swallowed the whale. (Vishay buys its way to the top) Vishay Intertechnology (Malvern, PA), the largest fixed-resistor manufacturer, has grown rapidly since 1987, due to a buying spree that increased the company's net sales by 486 percent within two years. Vishay bought its way to world leadership, despite heavy borrowing that went along with expansion. The purchases it within a five-point growth strategy which included concentrating only on businesses in which Vishay had a proven expertise, and producing and selling in all key markets. Vishay bought three resistor companies between 1987 and 1988, including Dale Electronics (Columbus, NE), Draloric GmbH in Germany, and Sfernice S.A. in France. Vishay's debt will be reduced to $115 million by the end of 1991, according to analysts. A stalled economy batters electronics growth. Rayner Bruce C.P. Economists believe that the US has entered a recession, although it will not last longer than two or three qtrs, according to Electronic Business and other analysts. Three factors could affect the nation's economic state dramatically. These factors include the rising oil prices, an over-leveraged banking system and the federal budget deficit. The Blue Chip Economic Indicator, Nov 10 issue, printed its headline in red, for the first time since June 1982. This indicates that the majority of the 55 economists surveyed believe that the gross national product has fallen below zero. Optimists believe that the recession will be short, or that it is even non-existent. Pessimists reflect the growing uncertainty, with forecasts ranging from positive 0.5 percent to negative 3 percent. Anamartic hopes to revive wafer-scale integration. (includes related article on Anamartic) Anamartic Ltd's CEO, Peter Cavill, believes that the time for wafer-scale integration is now in 1991. As computer performance has increased 50 -fold within the last decade, a bottleneck has been created and the average access time to magnetic-disk storage has decreased. A disk can only spin so fast, leaving a gap in the marketplace that Anamartic hopes to fill. The company will ship its first product, The Wafer Stack, a solid-state disk drive with an access time of one millisecond using a standard SCSI interface, approximately 20 times quicker than magnetic-disk drives. Each Wafer Stack holds 160Mbytes, made up of eight wafers using 1M-bit dynamic random access technology. Can booming Thailand survive its success? 6 McCormick, Joel. Analysts wonder whether Thailand's electronic industry growth can continue, with component supply underdeveloped, and research and development a distant reality. Problems are numerous due to overdevelopment of industry in the country. The air is so polluted that residents are having breathing problems. Thailand's communications system is overloaded and inadequate, causing relentless busy signals. The industrial boom which began in the early 1970s, has pushed growth up 40 percent in some sectors. Thailand is short on engineers and other workers. However, despite a poor infrastructure, Thailand can be good to newcomers. DSP is giving all the right signals. (digital signal processing) Burrows, Peter. Digital signal processors (DSP), the technology behind trendy new products, could experience compounded annual growth of almost 30 percent, compared to half that growth within the rest of the semiconductor industry. This type of growth has been constrained by product complexity and a tentative customer base in addition to inadequate vendor support. This will change as DSP vendors compete and offer such innovative products as nonprogrammable plug-and-play solutions that electronics manufacturers will use in modems, telephones and copiers. Electronic designers are becoming more knowledgeable about DSP technology. Next Inc used DSP in its Next workstation and, although it was a disappointment, it gave momentum to a trend. FDDI comes on strong as networks run out of room. (includes a related article on fiber and copper promises for cheaper FDDI) Local area networks have become so popular that many are used to capacity and overloaded with users and traffic, Fiber Distributed-Data Interface (FDDI) may enable the industry to keep pace with its own growth. Dataquest Inc, a research firm, predicts that the number of FDDI connections will grow from approximately 30,000 units shipped in 1991 to 950,000 by 1994. Vendors are providing FDDI products, with chip sets and communications equipment using the technology based on the FDDI standard. Systems companies such as DEC and Sun Microsystems Inc introduced products of their own. FDDI can serve as a backbone in networks, operating at 100M-bps. Intergraph takes new EDA path. Goering, Richard. Intergraph Corp faces new challenges as it sets up its computer-aided engineering company after purchasing the bankrupt Daisy-Cadnetix Inc. (Dazix) In addition, it plans to port its own ECAD tools to Sun Microsystems Inc's Sparc workstations. Intergraph must solve the problem of having overlapping product lines, and must work without the benefit of a main research and development operation, while battling competitors. The Dazix purchase was a strategic move to become a leader in the EDA market, giving them strong international distribution. Intergraph now stands as the third ranked among EDA vendors, based on sales and installations. Thomson, Anadigics sign DBS-chip pact. (Thomson-CSF; direct-broadcast satellites) Thomson-CSF will commit its technology to the goal of producing commercial direct-broadcast satellites (DBS). The company, a large producer of gallium arsenide integrated circuits for military applications, is expected to announce an agreement with Thomson Composants Microondes (TCM) subsidiary to market and manufacture internationally a line of Ku-band frequency converter chips developed by Anadigics Inc. The pact follows an alliance with Vitesse Semiconductor Corp from which TCM gained the rights to Vitesse's 0.8-micron digital GaAs process technology and a license to market and manufacture its static RAM, cell-based ASICs and gate arrays. Sony taps MIPs to power laptop. (Sony Microsystems Co.'s NEWS 3250 workstation) (product announcement) Sony Microsystems Co will introduce its NEWS 3250, a RISC-based portable workstation for under $10,000. The laptop workstation will be aimed at technical users in computer-aided design and engineering. Unix users are no longer chained to their desks with this product, which runs the Unix System V.4 operating system, and is based on the 20-MHz MIPS R3000 microprocessor. There are other Intel Corp-based portable microcomputers that are Unix-compatible, however few laptop workstation enhanced power is derived from RISC microprocessors. The workstation will be used by database and computer-aided design companies. Microelectronics in the U.S.S.R.; shaky economy, iffy industrial base thwart.... Soviet's technology facilities and researchers are willing to market their products, or form joint partnerships with Western companies, however their efforts are weakened by their unsound economic infrastructure and a lack of reliable industrial backbone. However, at the Mikroelektronika-90 conference, in Minsk, their research efforts looked impressive, despite their lack of resources. The IEEE council delegation, among others, was given a tour of four industrial enterprises in Minsk, including Signal, a telecommunications-IC facility, Planar, a major commercial manufacturing center and the largest manufacturer of semiconductor production processing equipment in the Soviet Union, and Integral, a merchant semiconductor company. VTC fab to Cypress at sale price. (Cypress Semiconductor) Thompson, John. Cypress Semiconductor has fulfilled an expansion plan set for the end of 1991 by purchasing the remainder of Control Data Corp's VTC Inc, a chip manufacturer. The deal is valued at $60 million, although Cypress has paid only $14.7 million for the site, plant and equipment. The CMOS fabrication lab will expand Cypress's capacity in high-performance 64-kbit SRAMs. Planned for the future is the production of 256-kbit devices. The plant will be run at 25 percent below its full capacity when fully equipped, about 500 wafers per week, however the low price of the deal compensates for this. According to company officials, sometimes it pays to buy a bargain before it is needed. U.S. semi share up 1.6%. Baker, Stan. US semiconductor manufacturers have increased their world-wide market share in 1990, however this was due to the declining DRAM prices in Japan and a boost in microprocessor sales. More welcome news would have been a market share increase not based on one masked by the cyclical price trends in MOS memories or on US suppliers' proprietary stake in microprocessors. The international semiconductor industry rose 2 percent in 1990, to $58.4 billion, according to Dataquest, a research firm. The growth was attributed to the expansion in the microcomponent segment, which rose 23 percent, and by continued strength in linear devices. Concurrent mulls voluntary bankruptcy: will meet with bond holders to discuss options. (Concurrent Computer Corp.) Concurrent Computer Corp (CC) may voluntarily file bankruptcy in order to reorganize its operations, since it is faced with an involuntary Chapter 11 filing. In order to maintain the bondolders' poistions relative to the bank group, the petition for involuntary bankruptcy was filed by three members of its bondholder committee. The company has an additional 20 days to move itself into bankruptcy, persuade the bondholders to withdraw the petition, or see whether the US Bankruptcy Court will dismiss the petition. In late 1988, CC merged with Massachusetts Computer Corp, and the plan was to create a critical mass for the two real-time specialists to compete with products from DEC, H-P and others. However, plans did not work as well as expected. Solbourne: down 41, up 25. (Solbourne Computer Inc.) Wirbel, Loring. Solbourne Computer Co Inc set a new strategy by laying off 41 workers and hiring more people mainly in sales and marketing. The company is making a transition from being a company with a high investment in research and development, compared to revenue, to one with a larger investment in distribution. Solbourne's new president, Dan Wilkie, sees a need for increasing sales of the S4000 desktop machine and existing high-end servers, and for improved software support of Solbourne's interface tools and operating-system extensions. Among those let go were the vice president of engineering G. Michael Schumacher and vice president of finance Kenneth Pope. Compaq displays are red, white and blue. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Lieberman, David. Compaq Computer Corp (CC) will license triple supertwisted nematic LCD technology from In Focus Systems Inc (Tualatin, Ore) and may contract a third party in order to produce a color laptop computer. In the process, CC will abandon its Japanese display suppliers offering expensive and only moderately interesting passive LCDs. The active-matrix color LCDs are expensive and in short supply as well. In Focus technology uses passive LCDs. However the company stacks three individual color panels, rather than placing RGB color filter stripes over a single panel. Every pixel is a full pixel, not split in three that may result in creating 'jaggies.' GI gets smart about piracy problem. (General Instrument Corp.) Doherty, Richard. General Instrument Corp (GI) is planning to secure its popular satellite-dish encryption and decryption system, VideoCipher, with smart cards to help prevent video piracy. Within a year, by 1992, GI will introduce a new version with the removable security card, called CipherCard, a low-cost, user-friendly way of updating for satellite-delivered subscription program services. According to the company, pirates have been motivated by profits, and are using sophisticated computer and electronics and engineering tools. The cards will be inserted into a next-generation VideoCipher II Plus chassis module. Decoder uplink funded; DecTec aims to make satellite piracy 'impossible.' (DecTec International) DecTec International was awarded a cash grant by the National Research Council of Canada, funding that will further its efforts to build the industry's first reprogrammable satellite head-end uplink. DecTec is attempting to challenge General Instrument Corp's (GI) domination of the $2 million satellite-decryption-module market by preparing to complete its uplink by March 1991. The company will then demonstrate to the Canadian government and others how its system, the Secure Universal Norm, with its video-decryption architecture, makes piracy nearly impossible. Each channel is similar to a private network with its own private scrambling system. Parent firm shuts down Micro Devices. (Chip Supply) Johnson, Colin. Chip Supply has closed its microchip design division, Micro Devices (Orlando, FL), laying off six engineers. Chip Supply is in the process of reorganizing and is trying to decide whether or not it should remain in the semicustom-design market. Micro Devices was a leader in the neural networks and fuzzy logic market. The company was the first to design the fuzzy data correlator, the neural bit-slice processor, and the combination fuzzy/neural chip. Although Chip Supply is saying that it will continue to support all the existing Micro Devices chips customers, observers predict that it lacks the technical expertise to do this for very long. Chip Supply's major business continues to be chip processing. Uncommon market; a year to remember. (column) Woolnough, Roger. Unpredictable events happened during the year 1990. During that year, the reunification of Germany occurred, and Margaret Thatcher departed as Prime Minister of the UK. The electronics business brought about admissions of mismanagement by such companies as Philips, and mergers of longtime rivals. Even Polly Peck International, the world's fastest growing stock in the 1980s, fell in value to virtually nothing in Oct 1990. Predictable events included Mitsubishi Electric and Hitachi's plans to build semiconductor plants in Germany. Germany's Nixdorf Computer merged with Siemens, catching most people off guard. MacWorld to tune in video. (1991 MacWorld Expo at Moscone Center, San Francisco, California) The MacWorld Expo at Moscone Center, in San Francisco, CA, in Jan 1991, will feature many more third-party vendors for video compression, true color display, and engineering software using advanced graphics. Stac Electronics Inc and C-Cube Microsystems will incorporate advanced compression chips into add-in boards for the first time for frame-grabbing and live-action video. Three-dimensional graphics software will move from the structural design area of AutoCAD and its competitors into engineering and scientific visualization. Radius Inc will announce its Pivot for Built-In Video, a plug-and-play monitor for the Mac si and ci that automatically changes from portrait formats to landscape. The business of technology; the forgettable framework. (column) Rappaport, Andy. Recent research reveals that frameworks, provided by design automation suppliers as a solution to the problems EDS tool users have, will be remembered more for what they do not do, rather than for what they do (if they are remembered in the future at all). Frameworks were originally developed to integrate in-house tools with disparate merchant tools. Framework was developed as an open and standardized structure for process management and tool integration. However, the only function of a framework is to improve the utility of tools. Unless they are supported by the most desirable tools, frameworks are of little value. New cell sparks battery biz. (nickel-metal-hydride power cell) Doherty, Richard; Ryan, Margaret. At the 1990 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, a new rechargeable battery will be shown. The nickel-metal-hydride power cell may capture much of the $1.5 international market for small-rechargeable batteries by the year 2000, according to SRI International, a research firm (Menlo Park, CA). The hydride's higher energy-to-weight ratio is the main advantage of these cells compared with nickel-cadmium products, with 80- to 100-percent more energy per ounce. The cells are considered safer for the environment, and they do not sacrifice compatibility with current battery-recharge systems. Sanyo Energy Corp (San Diego, CA) is the only company that is producing the cells in high volume for sale in the US. Plasma tapped for trading; touch-screen financial terminal based on plasma display. The City Business Products unit of British Telecommunications plc has developed an integrated trading system with a touch-screen terminal based on plasma display. Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc is contracted to supply the displays, the first contract of its kind outside of Japan. The City Business Products will use the flat-panel plasma displays in place of conventional cathode-ray tubes. The company may program the software to make as many as 40 different screen pages. Plasma displays provide space savings in comparison to conventional screen overlay systems. In addition, parallax problems of CRT displays are eliminated. EPA report radiates heat; second draft of EM-effects study is under fire. (electromagnetic field emission from CRTs) The report from the Environmental Protection Agency over the potentially harmful effects of electromagnetic (EM) fields is under fire, as agencies bicker with each other over its wording, casting doubts about its final impact. The summary of the report states that previous studies support the concern over the potential carcinogenic hazards of EM fields, although no causal relationships have been seen. The Department of Health, along with President Bush's science advisor, Allan Bromley, believes that the EPA's report may produce unnecessary alarm, and that the EPA was not skeptical enough of the studies it reviewed. Sandia touts parallel processing. Wirbel, Loring. Sandia National Laboratories claims that complex engineering and scientific problems can be solved quicker using parallel computing, with their increasing flexibility and capability. Vector supercomputers will not be overtaken by massively parallel platforms, according to the company. Instead, networked servers and workstations are taking over mundane jobs previously delegated to supercomputers, while complex problems are being ported to platforms such as NCubes and Connection Machines. Sandia's software groups working in distributed applications and parallel applications are discovering various areas were common concepts of task-splitting can be used. Zero-gravity work grows crystals; high-temp superconductors eyed. Brown, Chappell. Zero-gravity work conducted by a joint venture between Los Alamos National Laboratories and Space Industries International Inc (Webster, TX) is showing that new microstructures result from crystal growth in zero-gravity conditions. Scientists may use this capability to create high-temperature superconductors that are able to sustain high currents. Space Industries is marketing a service that will enable scientists to perform 'what if' scenarios in zero-gravity conditions. High-temperature superconductors will move scientists into the promising technological areas as electric motors and high-field magnets. Banging on Esprit's door. Woolnough, Roger. Lack of funds is the biggest problem that Eastern European countries face when they want to collaborate with Western Europe's research programs. In addition, restrictions that are remaining under strategic embargo legislation may also prevent these countries from being a part of the more advanced projects. The East European countries have no hard currency, and therefore cannot join such projects as Eurochip, the Common Market's training action in Very-Large-Scale Integration design. In addition, East European countries are still prevented from buying such advanced equipment as X-ray lithography gear. Embedded designers see C++ making the grade; development tools are just starting to emerge. (includes related article on Ada) C++ programming language, the object-oriented extension of C, is winning acceptance for embedded-system design and implementation, providing a cleaner, more powerful language, and bringing a new level of complexity and code expansion. The language is being applied in various areas, such as telecommunications front ends to large-scale, distributed-process control systems. According to engineering scientists, C++ combines the resilience of C with the power of object-oriented programming systems. For embedded, real-time systems, C++ has a special capability, matching the real-time paradigm of interacting, communicating processes. Mutiny at IEDM. (Silicon Bits: International Electron Devices Meeting) (column) At the International Electron Devices Meeting, a panel discussion on low-volume submicron manufacturing was held, covering such topics as how to stay profitable with the rising fabrication costs. Panelists all agreed that low-volume production could be cost-effective, with approaches ranging from NEC's plan to run ASICs down its memory line to using these submicron devices in high-value-added devices with high price tags in order to recoup the cost of the facility. However, few details on any technologies that would solve the cost issue were presented. Concern over the increasing costs of manufacturing equipment was discussed. Minimizing fine-pitch rework. (column) Marcoux, Phil. Those who are challenged with removing, replacing or repositioning a fine-pitch integrated circuit package may need a few options. Fine-pitch technology packages are integrated circuit devices ranging in size from 5 mm square to 12 mm X 20 mm in rectangular shapes that are high in lead count. Assemblers often do not have the know-how when it comes to soldering, resulting in problems such as shorts, opens, and misaligned leads. Some vendors and users constrain the package leads with a mold guard ring or put them in a slide carrier. Some use squeegee techniques and experiments with stencil openings. Flat-panel displays gain momentum. Lieberman, David. A growing rivalry is developing between two emissive-display technologies, mainly plasma and electroluminescent. The competition was especially apparent at Comdex/Fall 1990, with product introductions from such companies as Planar Systems Inc (Beaverton, OR), and Fujitsu Components of America Inc. (Santa Clara, CA). Fujitsu's monitors are 3.5 inches deep, as opposed to Planar's which are 3 inches deep. Power requirements have been reduced in recent years. Planar has decreased these requirements by 50 percent. Fujitsu has developed power conversion circuitry and a drive technique to cut power. Large reductions have also been made by Cherry Display Products Corp with its thick-film EL technology. Software demographics. (column) Weiss, Ray. According to demographic projections, software development will lag farther behind software development, due to different reasons. Programming languages typically take 12 to 20 years to gain acceptance, and new methodologies and software tools have similar histories. Therefore, what software products are out now are the ones that users will be using in the year 2000. While central processing unit technology changes rapidly, programmers and organizations do not change that quickly. However, most major software innovations come from small businesses that may promise this software-hardware gap some relief. If change does not happen, then software development will lag further behind. Custom I-O for MB II. (General Standards Co' MB2-PGA56T Multibus II board; digital I-O) (product announcement) General Standards Co's MB2-PGA56T Multibus II board offers designers a roll-your-own platform for digital input-output. Multibus II includes six programmable gate arrays that enable it to be programmed as a motor controller or incremental encoder input, or any custom digital input-output system that is required. The product is an intelligent, message-passing board that incorporates a Multibus II message-passing coprocessor. The board offers 56 TTL transceivers, 128Kbytes of zero-wait-state random access memory, six Xilinix PGAs, and 128 Kbytes of EPROM. The Multibus is flexible and is appropriate for any digital input-output with TTL transceivers. Tool simplifies TCP/IP use. (VXM Technologies Inc's TIM utility program) (product announcement) TIM, a new software package by VXM Technologies Inc, enables users to simplify the use of TCP/IP by linking directly to other systems via sockets-TCP/IP through a simple C function interface. The package also includes tools to converse and test across the network. TIM software is priced low; MS-DOS machines a site license is $1,495. TIM works on different platforms, including MS-DOS, Unix, DEC minis under VMS, and UNICOS. TIM includes TIMtalk, a package for interactively conferencing using keyboards across a network; and the TIM API, a linable C object module interfacing to TCP/IP Berkeley sockets. Valid Logic upgrades fault simulation. (Valid Logic Systems Inc.'s RapidTest 3.0 utility program) (product announcement) Valid Logic Systems Inc is offering a new level of integration with other Valid tools, in addition to new test-planning capabilities and board-level simulation, with its updated RapidTest concurrent fault simulator. Also, the company plans to bring a new dynamic worst-case timing analyzer and a VHDL simulator purchased from Intermetrics Inc into its Logic Workbench simulation environment. RapidTest 3.0 uses the same user interface and waveform display as the RapidSim Logic simulator, and can back-annotate fault data to Valid schematics. The new version uses RapidSim's good-simulation engine for increased speed of five to 10 times more than the earlier version. Year of the systems engineer? Measuring up! (column) Wittenberg, Roland. If the new EDA and test and measurement tools become practical realities, then the year 1991 could become the year that systems engineers regain their status in the electronics industry. Synthesis for test and logic and concurrent engineering were popular topics among the design automation and test area in 1990. Before EDA, systems engineers were in demand because they could understand and manage high-technology development programs. As the engineers designed, they selected components or subsystems from the company's library of existing designs. This approach saved time, and the test procedure, test equipment and fixtures were there to be used. HP has 'friendly' analyzer. Runyon, Stan. Hewlett-Packard's introduces its newest analyzer, the 53310A, a modulation-domain analyzer that is targeted for mainstream applications. With the arrival of time-interval analyzers, engineers have gained access to the modulation domain, where variations of time or frequency are plotted against time, enabling designers to view important circuit responses clearly for once. The 53310A is designed for the 'masses,' with a low $9,500 price tag and fast, interactive operation. Engineers can see unwanted jitter, or adjust and view modulations in radar and communications systems. The 53310A can take up to 64,000 continuous measurements at rates of up to 2 million measurements per second. Tek signal analyzer bows. (Tektronix Inc's CSA 404 communications signal analyzer) (product announcement) Tektronix Inc's CSA 404 mainframe communications signal analyzer, priced at $22,000, performs statistical analyses, displays commensurate eye patterns, and measures noise and jitter. Tektronix Inc's 11403A digitizing scope, priced at $18,950, offers color quantitative results of pass/fail tests. The CSA 404 provides 1 percent vertical accuracy, with 10-ps timing resolution, and 10-ps typical rms trigger jitter, accepting data rates up to 200 Mbits/s in up to 12 channels. The 11403A is targeted at automatic test equipment and digital-design applications, and features waveform processing as one of its strengths. DSO specifications: time for a change. (digital storage oscilloscope) The digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) was an inevitable result of the migration to digital electronics, however it suffers from the inconsistencies of an immature industry. When the industry leadership stops depending upon the specs from the past, DSO will be sought for its superior speed, accuracy and waveform viewing, in addition to its unique digital-storage and measurement-automation functions. The methods now used to specify digital oscilloscopes do not fulfill users' needs. Users must speculate on the meaning of sample rate, bits and memory depth. Users need an improved way to pinpoint accuracy, and DSO holds much promise to do this. Sumner pursues a global vision for IEEE. Bellinger, Robert. Eric Sumner, IEEE's 1991 president, has witnessed the decline of AT & T as a monopoly while he was employed there for 41 years, and the decline of the US as a leader in consumer electronics. As IEEE's new president, Sumner wants to encourage the government to take a more active part in protecting and starting new industries. Sumner is also a strong advocate of the internationalization of the IEEE, believing that it will eventually become one-third US, one-third Asian and one-third European. International membership is growing at a 10 percent rate per year, while US membership has stalled. The flat growth in the US is due to tougher economic times, according to Sumner. Engineers concerned about overtime law; does ADAPSO-sponsored law cover contract engineers? (Association of Data Processing Service A bill co-sponsored by the ADAPSO, formerly the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, has upset the engineering industry, especially those who do contract work. Public law 101-583, slated to take effect Feb 15, 1991, grants professional-exempt status to systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers and similar workers. Since they are considered professionals, they cannot collect overtime pay if they are paid on an hourly basis and are paid more than 6.5 times the minimum wage. This legislation may eliminate overtime pay for thousands of engineers who contract their services out as job shoppers. Company loyalty; professional pipeline. (column) Bellinger, Bob. Organizations are sending a message to their employees that due to the fact that they are downsizing, do not expect lifetime employment in the company. However, this message is beginning to backfire, as employees realize that they are expendable, no matter how good a job they do. Some of the brightest and best employees leave and look for other work, before they are dumped by the company. Even those companies that have had a no-layoffs policy are eliminating whole levels of management and warning others that promotions are being reconsidered. The fundamental problem lies in the breach of the basic assumption that if a worker does a good job, the company will take care of that individual. Engineers Week plans set; muted talk of shortages. (National Engineers Week) On Feb 17 to 23, 1991, National Engineers Week (NEW) will take place, sponsored by 15 engineering associations, including IEEE. The NEW Committee has so far avoided references to the engineering shortages in 1991. Engineering shortages are occurring due to the sharp decline in the number of students pursuing mathematics and science, and the lower birth rate. The shortages are coming at a time when there is a demand for technical solutions. In the past, IEEE members have become upset when the NEW committee referred to reports by the National Science Foundation stating that the nation faced severe shortages of scientists and engineers. EE starting salary: $34K. (electronic engineer) Bellinger, Robert. New electronics engineering graduates' salaries will hit a record high, beginning at $34,658 in 1991, 7.5 percent higher than in 1990, according to Michigan State University research. Salaries could top $60,000 by the end of the 90's, if salaries continue to double every six or seven years. However, EE seniors will get fewer offers in 1991, while 'very good' EE graduates will get two to three job offers. Outstanding candidates will get many offers. Lower-ranking EEs will face problems, as the general demand for college graduates will drop 9.8 percent from previous years. Economic conditions, the effects of Kuwait, and the budget deficit are all factors making the future uncertain. Caution at systems, equipment firms; employment outlook for 1991. (Careers) The 1991 job market in the electronics industry, equipment and systems area, reveals that although employers are uncertain about hiring, pockets of strong hiring do exist, as in the components area. Amdahl Corp (Sunnyvale, CA) might hire 300 or more software and hardware engineers in 1991. Amdahl is doing well so far, with manufacturing areas ramping up for high-end mainframes that were recently introduced. Tandy Corp (Fort Worth, Texas) has strong distribution channels, and is hiring at a slow but steady pace. Compaq Computer Corp (Houston) will actively recruit in 1991, although there are no numbers available. Exports, stable prices, inventories seen mitigating 1st-half downturn. (electronics industry) Stable prices, low inventories, rising exports and moves by the Federal Reserve to ease credit will help the electronics industry survive a recession in 1991. Companies cut costs drastically in late 1990 in order to position themselves to cope with the recession. The Electronics Industry Association predicts a 4.2 percent growth rate in factory sales for 1991, matching 1990's growth rate. Most growth will occur in the second half of 1991. Sales for the year are expected to reach $290 billion or $295 billion. Unexpectedly strong electronics exports, abetted by a weak dollar and strong economies overseas, could lead to the industry's first trade surplus since 1983. Companies in the beginning or middle of a new product cycle are expected to weather the recession in better shape. Justice sues to bar Nippon Sanso buy of Semi-Gas Systems. (US Department of Justice) The US Department of Justice files suit in Philadelphia federal district court to block the $23 million sale of Semi-Gas Systems by parent Hercules Inc to Nippon Sanso of Japan. In court papers, the DOJ asserts that the Nippon Sanso/Semi-Gas combination would dominate the US market in gas-distribution equipment used for semiconductor manufacturing. Separately, the firms are currently the top two firms in the world market. Only six months earlier, the federal government's Interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) had approved the deal, saying it would not endanger national security. The suit asks for temporary and then permanent injunctions against the acquisition. Olin, Ciba-Geigy link resist, polyimide units. (photoresist) Ciba-Geigy Ltd. and Olin Corp. merge their photoresist and polyimide divisions into a joint venture, to be known as OCG Microelectronic Materials Inc. Each company will have a 50 percent share of the new joint venture, and Ciba-Geigy will pay Olin Corp $70 million. James G. Favier, vice president and business director of Olin Hunt Specialty Products Inc, whose West Paterson, NJ, offices OCG will share, is president of the joint venture. While Olin is a world leader in the resist market, Ciba-Geigy has the lead in polymide technology. OCG will assume Olin Hunt's interest in a photoresist joint venture with Fuji Photo Film Company Ltd. U.S. Memories, RISC, trade talks pace hectic '90. (review of 1990) 1990 was a busy year for the electronics industry. In January the budding U.S. Memories consortium folded up shop in the face of a saturated DRAM market. In May a consortium comprising users and suppliers of semiconductor production equipment purchased Perkin-Elmer's Electron Beam Technology division. In June, industry pioneer Robert Noyce died at age 62 of a heart attack. In October, an arbitrator's decision on the 80386 microprocessor left neither Intel nor Advanced Micro Devices as a clear-cut winner. In December, AT and T, whose own computer division has been unprofitable, announced a hostile $6.12 billion bid to acquire NCR Corp. Disputes over Japanese/US trade imbalances bubbled throughout the year. Siemens-Carlson CO entry faces off against AT&T, NT. (central office switches, Northern Telecom) (prognosis of central office The next two years are expected to be critical for vendors of central office switches trying to take sales away from AT and T and Northern Telecom, who together have more than 90 percent of the North American market. In the wake of the late 1990 merger of Siemens' and Stromberg Carlson's central office switch businesses, AT and T and Northern Telecom could be facing their first serious threat. Market pressures make further consolidation of small vendors is likely, with no more than six vendors projected to survive 1995. AT and T and Northern Telecom continue to cut prices as they fight for market domination. NAS president urges Japan firms to share basic research. (National Academy of Sciences Pres Frank Press) National Academy of Sciences Pres Frank Press urges Japan to make more of an effort to share the fruits of its basic research with the US and other foreign countries. Press, writing in a report for the Commission on US-Japan Relations for the 20th Century, says Japan has benefited mightily from the willingness of US researchers to share their findings. Press also calls for Japanese firms doing business in the US to fund university research there to the tune of $300 million. U.S. computer suppliers face 'flat growth' in 'tough climate'. (outlook for 1991) Prospects for the US computer industry are guarded, at best. The usually optimistic Commerce Department is forecasting only a 6 percent increase in sales of computer products in 1991, to $66.3 billion. By contrast, double-digit gains prevailed throughout most of the 1980s. The US industry still leads the world, outstripping Western Europe's expected $50 million in sales and Japan's $29 billion. Data General Pres and CEO Ronald Skates notes great uncertainty in the industry and predicts marginal growth at best for the US industry in 1991. NCR Pres Gil Williamson and Control Data executive James E. Ousley both foresee a lethargic market over the next few years as the industry makes a painful transition from proprietary to open systems and from timesharing mainframes and minicomputers to workstations and networks. Startups, recession challenge dominant disk drive vendors. (preview of 1991) 1991 will be an intensely competitive year for the disk drive industry. Chief problems facing the industry are likely to be price wars and excess capacity. The industry has essentially rebuilt itself since the last production glut, in 1988. Gross profit margins are expected to be low until the fourth quarter. Since mid-1990 vendors have cut prices of low-performance drives by 30 percent while retooling for a new generation of 2.5-inch drives that will not ship before Jun 1991. Quantum and Conner Peripherals had very successful years in 1990, but are likely to face tougher competition, especially from a revitalized Seagate Technology, Western Digital and Maxtor Corp. Areal Technology and PrairieTek are also looking forward to good years. Say Intel seeks compilers for 860. (Intel 80860 chip) Lapedus, Mark. Intel is seeking C and Fortran compilers for the 860 reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) chip. Performance of the iPSC/860, which uses 128 of the 860, has fallen short of its expected 7.6-GFlops. At first, the iPSC/860 was bundled with compilers from Santa Barbara, CA-based Green Hills Software, but in Dec 1990 Intel began bundling compilers from Wilsonville, OR-based startup The Portland Group. One user ran benchmarks on the two compilers and reports moderate improvement, from a maximum performance of 6.07-Mflops for the Green Hills compiler to 6.78-Mflops for The Portland Group compiler. Alliant Computer Systems is also developing compilers for the iPSC/860; unhappy with Alliant's progress, however, Intel has reportedly signed compiler development pacts with Pacific Sierra Research and Rice University. Rivals' snags aid IBM in DASD race. (Amdahl, Hitachi Data Systems having trouble bringing large storage systems to market) Plug-compatible mainframe manufacturers Hitachi Data Systems and Amdahl have had troubles bringing their large storage subsystems to market; IBM in 1989-1990 had problems of its own in attaining production volumes of its 3390 subsystem. Hitachi has had trouble meeting customer demand since debuting its 3390-compatible 7390 Disk Storage Subsystem in fall 1990, while Amdahl has yet to introduce its own subsystem. Hitachi expects production volumes of the 7390 by 2nd qtr 1991. IBM expects to ship 20,000 3390 units in 1991; analysts foresee slightly fewer sales. Analysts also expect IBM to debut a '3390 Extended' cache unit by fall 1991. Bid to force Concurrent Chapter 11. (Concurrent Computer Corp.) Stedman, Craig. Three financial companies holding Concurrent Computer Corp bonds filed a petition Dec 31, 1990, in US Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, NJ, to force the computer firm into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Concurrent has until Jan 20, 1991, to reach an agreement on debt restructuring with its banks and bondholders. Should those talks prove fruitless, Concurrent says it will voluntarily file for Chapter 11 protection. The Dec 31 petition was filed by Columbia Savings and Loan Association of Beverly Hills, CA, and American Capital Fidelity Corp and Executive Life Insurance Corp, both of Los Angeles. Concurrent missed a scheduled interest payment to the three firms in Sep 1990. MFJ, long-haul competition loom large. (modified final judgment)(lobbying priorities for telecommunications equipment In 1991, Lobbyists for telecommunication equipment manufacturers will be particularly concerned about competition in the long-distance industry, including customer-specific contracts, and modified final judgment (MFJ) legislation favoring the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs). The RBOCs are seeking a law that would permit them to manufacture telecommunications equipment. Equipment lobbyists also worry that, as part of the intensive competition in the long-distance market, AT and T and other carriers will seek legislation allowing them to bundle the sale of services with the sale of customer premises equipment. ITA: look to Latin America. (International Trade Administration advice to US computer makers) A report compiled by the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the US Commerce Department advises US computer manufacturers to consider marketing efforts in Latin America, where the annual $6 billion market is expected to grow by 20 percent annually through 1993. The report, 'Guide to Computer Hardware and Software Markets in Latin America,' cites economic liberalization and growth and falling trade barriers as encouraging signs. Co-author R. Clay Woods notes with dismay that Brazil, whose $4 billion computer hardware market ranked it number one in the region in 1989, also has the most restrictive trade policies. IBM Japan offers to help PC firms develop AT copies. Inaba, Minoru. In an effort to establish the IBM PC AT as the standard microcomputer in Japan, IBM Japan says it will help manufacturers develop officially approved clones. IBM Japan is asking manufacturers to join the IBM-organized Open Architecture Development Group, which will license the AT architecture at low cost. The offer was rebuffed by NEC Corp, whose IBM-incompatible PC-9800 series holds over half the Japanese market. Few buyers, high prices for hardware and software and a large variety of mutually incompatible machines characterize the Japanese market. Observers say the relatively impotent IBM Japan is unlikely to get far with its offer. Recession dims outlook for semicon makers. Ristelhueber, Robert; Zipper, Stuart; McCausland, Richard. Semiconductor makers expects recessionary fears to contribute to at least six more months of weak sales. Uncertainty seems to be a dominant theme of predictions. In-Stat foresees 1991 US sales to grow only 1.1 percent, to $14.7 billion, while the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) foresees 9.3 percent growth, to $15.8 billion. In the world market, In-Stat predicts 3.2 percent growth, the SIA predicts 12.5 percent growth and Dataquest predicts 15 percent growth. All predictors admit uncertainty over the length of the recession, the crisis in the Persian Gulf and Japanese interest rates. Reasons for optimism include strong microprocessor and dynamic RAM sales and a bottoming-out of memory pricing. Passives firms hope for second half uptick. (passive electronic components) US manufacturers of such passive electronic components as resistors, switches, capacitors and connectors continued anticipate weak demand in 1991. AMP Pres James Marley predicts growth of only 4 percent or 5 percent in the US connector market, with most of that occurring in the second half. AVX CEO Marshall D. Butler says sales will be strongest in the Pacific region and weakest in Europe; domestically, slowing growth in the computer industry is effecting passives demand. Executives expect prices to continue flat. Many hope for a second half upturn, but caution that that depends upon a short-lived recession and a resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis. Design tools seen hiking growth in EDA despite semicon softness. (preview of 1991 for electronic design automation industry) Executives in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry say uncertainty will be the dominant theme in 1991. However, many forecast continued strong sales of design tools. Most EDA software vendors have moved away from hardware sales and their declining margins and are carving out market niches in key technologies, such as board-level and system-level design tools. In San Jose, CA, Cadence marketing executive Tony Zingale and Valid CEO and Pres L. George Klaus both foresee continued strong demand in Europe and Japan. Semicon equipment vendors gird for tough '91, hope for '92 upturn. (preview of 1991 for semiconductor production equipment industry) Executives in the semiconductor production equipment industry say flat performance is the best they can hope for in 1991. The recession, the Persian Gulf crisis and oil price inflation are making cautious buyers even more reluctant to invest in capital equipment. Demand for eight-inch wafer production equipment, in particular, is expected to be down. Overall, projections for 1991 vary widely. Dataquest predicts 12 percent growth for the semiconductor equipment and materials industry. The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International foresees 17 percent growth in the equipment market and 10 percent growth in the materials market. In marked contrast, VLSI Research Inc foresees a 4.1 percent slump in equipment sales. ATE execs predict flat '91 - but with harder competition. (preview of 1991 for automatic test equipment industry) Executives in the automatic test equipment (ATE) industry foresee flat sales and more intense competition in 1991. The year-earlier predictions of robust growth for 1990 and 1991 have not come to pass. San Jose, CA-based market research firm VLSI Research Inc foresees a 6.3 percent drop in the world ATE market, from $1.087 billion in 1990 to $1.018 billion in 1991. The recession and the Persian Gulf crisis cloud the industry's outlook. ATE executives say they will try to get bigger market share. Military/aerospace market outlook up in the air. (preview of 1991) Robertson, Jack. Uncertainty dominates predictions for the US military and aerospace industries in 1991. The Electronic Industries Association predicts 9 percent shrinkage in the military electronics market, to $47.6 billion. But the peace dividend has evaporated in the wake of the Persian Gulf effort, which has diverted attention to beefing up arsenals of conventional weapons. The Aerospace Industries Association foresees $26 billion in civil-aeronautics electronics sales, but continuing federal budget problems and a possible recession in the airline industry could cut into that figure. Distributors stress 'value-added' as another 'tough year' starts. (preview of 1991) Industrial distributors are counting on value-added services to help them weather 1991. Such services include systems integration, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design, and cable and connector assembly. Such a strategy is dictated by bleak forecasts for the industry. The Sierra Marketing Group of Rocklin, CA, predicts that only 3 percent to 5 percent growth in the US semiconductor distribution industry. Wyle Laboratories Pres Charley Clough predicts growth of up to 12 percent, but expects customers to keep inventories extremely lean. Clough predicts growth of as much as 35 percent in the market for user-configurable semiconductors. Lockheed's star rises with twin wins. (systems integration contracts from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Lockheed has moved full speed into the federal systems integration marketplace by winning the Veterans' Affairs Department's $153 million NOAVA office automation contract and the $40 million National Cancer Institute supercomputer upgrade. Officials of Lockheed's Integrated Solutions Co. (LISC) stated that the two contract awards should prove that rumors of the company's failure are exaggerated. Government and industry sources had speculated that the company had left the federal systems integration marketplace ever since Lockheed closed the Virginia headquarters of LISC. The changing Defense budget outlook and losses on key bids had prompted the company to transfer operations to Santa Clara, CA. IRS picks IBM 3090s to recoup late taxes. (Internal Revenue Service) The Federal Sector Division of IBM has been awarded a $339.6 million contract from the IRS to provide hardware, software and services for a new Integrated Collection System (ICS) which could aid the agency in collecting billions of dollars in delinquent taxes. The new contract could last seven years and includes 11 IBM 3090 mainframes and an option for 10 more, as well as up to 5,000 PS/2s and 10,000 80386-based portable systems from Grid Systems Inc. Subcontractors will convert more than 1 million lines of software code from the current Automated Collection System (ACS) used by the IRS since 1984. The new mainframe systems will run IBM DB2 database software and the MVS/ESA operating system. Harris rings up Belvoir phone upgrade. (Harris Corp. wins contract at Fort Belvoir, VA) Harris Corp has been awarded a key $50 million contract to enhance the telephone system at Fort Belvoir, VA. The fort is destined to become the 'Pentagon South' as more and more Department of Defense (DOD) agencies set up shop there during the 1990s. Industry sources said the contract could be a model for restructuring the long-contested $600 million contract to upgrade all DOD telephone systems in the Washington area. The solution proposed by Harris Government Electronics and Bell South was based on a digital Meridian SL-100 switch built by Northern Telecom. The company was able to win the contract because the Defense Supply Service-Washington amended the request to require vendors to supply an on-post switch. Lockheed scoops new bidders on Cancer Institute contract. Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. Lockheed has moved into the supercomputer integration arena with the awarding of a five-year $40 million contract to upgrade the supercomputer center at the National Cancer Institute's headquarters in Frederick, MD. The contract is one of the company's first federal government computer contracts and comes together with an award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The company will provide the Institute with a Cray Research Y-MP supercomputer, a mass-storage system, high-speed networking and graphics workstations. Hundreds of biomedical researchers from the Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Health will use the systems for applications like genetic sequence analysis and molecular modeling. Options are also included for a data management system, front-end computer and a mini-supercomputer to act as the network gateway. State improvises with PCs to keep up with European visa processing. (Department of State) New immigration legislation along with the large number of new visa applications has increased the State Department's workload tenfold in countries like Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The paperwork load and the lack of funding have forced the State Department to inexpensively automate its procedures. Officials decided to provide its Eastern European consular offices with microcomputers and upgrade a microcomputer-based version of CLASS, the Department's Consular Lookout and Support System. The new microcomputers will have access to a data base extracted from CLASS and contained on a tape. CLASS is a huge data base system based in Washington D.C. and accessed by most consular posts via telecommunication links. In the absence of telecommunication links between the US and Eastern Europe, the microcomputer version of CLASS was developed in Moscow. Army examines bids for medical image network. (the Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support system) Research from the Army's Office of the Surgeon General may result in a unique medical imaging system, the Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support (MDIS) system for filmless imaging and sophisticated image transmission. In Apr 1991 the Army will award a contract for MDIS, a computer network that will transmit digital images, communicate with a radiology information system, archive images and related data, and transmit images to and from remote sites. The military system will be the first of its kind to reach fruition, according to military officials. Officials hope that MDIS can be military medicine's contribution to civilian medicine. They expect that the 1990s will be the decade of image management. The first facilities to receive MDIS will be Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Madigan Army Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center. Donated Macs prep Guard for Gulf. (Apple Macintosh, National Guard, Persian Gulf War) The 146th Medical Company of the West Virginia National Guard has obtained for free six Apple Macintosh Portable computer systems from Apple Computer Inc's Federal Systems Group. Company officers need the computers to quickly track the many details needed to keep the unit's 15 Huey helicopters in the air. What sold the Company on the Macintosh Portable was the availability of applications designed specifically for use by the armed services. These applications include Claris Corp's Smart Forms and tactical application programs developed by the Army's 10th Mountain Division. The Macintosh Portable's 16-hour battery life, its easy-to-read screen, its power supply that can convert to direct current and its sealed 40Mbyte hard disk drive also make it ideal for use in the Middle East. Energy Department puts safety on-line. Marsan, Carolyn Duffy. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is spending $2 million for a new on-line computer system for use by field sites in reporting occurrences that endanger the environment or public safety. The Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS) will give the DOE headquarters staff current data about possibly hazardous incidences at sites across the country. DOE officials say the system is functionally important and has a high priority with Energy Secretary James Watkins. Officials expect the system to be operational by Apr 1, 1991. Maintenance of a central database with all occurrence reports by the DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy will also be included. The contract for ORPS was awarded in Sep 1990 to EG&G Idaho. Geovision shrinks mapping for PCs. (User World) (column) Stone, Jack. Few users believed that processing a map database would ever leave mainframe arena, as the database is so large. Creative software developers, encouraged by the increasing speed and capacity of disk drives and the power of CD-ROM, have found ways to shrink these applications to run on an IBM PC-compatible microcomputer. The result gives government users access to affordable mapping applications. Windows/On The World, from Geovision runs under Microsoft 3.0 and can process, display and manipulate large geographic databases in a graphics environment. A CD-ROM-based mapping database, the Geodisc U.S. Atlas, originally developed by the U.S. Geologic Survey, is the key to the program's success. The database includes state and county outlines, major highways, waterways, federally controlled areas and railroads. Gulf crisis spurs award despite protest. (the Department of Energy's mainframe procurement) (Protests) The General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals (GSBCA) has ruled that because of the war in the Persian Gulf, a Department of Energy (DOE) procurement of a mainframe to manage the 585-million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve cannot be suspended. The award made by Boeing Petroleum Services Inc, on behalf of DOE, to Federal Computer Corp is under protest by Vion Corp. Boeing asserted that because it made the award while acting as systems integrator for DOE, the GSBCA had no jurisdiction over the case. The GSBCA denied Vion's request for suspension while the case remains in court, citing urgent and compelling circumstances that require prompt action. Grand-design purchases expected to continue in '91. Mercier, Ann M. Grand-design procurements, though they are drawing increasing criticism, will continue into the early 1990s, according to government officials and analysts. Grand-design procurements are large systems integration contracts that generally replace numerous smaller procurements and allow agencies deal with just one contractor. The federal systems integration market was growing, during 1989, at a rate of 18 percent. The growth rate dropped to 13 percent in 1990. The market value is still over $2.5 billion annually. Industry analysts acknowledge that some contracts still require a systems analyst and that there will be fewer and larger large systems integration procurements in 1991. Macintosh software and peripherals. (federal use of the Apple Macintosh systems) (includes related article on acquiring The debut of Apple Computer's three low-cost Macintosh computer systems is expected to enhance federal demand for Macintoshes and related software and peripherals. Newer developments include video/sound integration and the System 7 operating system that will allow the linking of data across various Mac programs. Users expect much from the new System 7 software, due in Mar 1991. Officials of the Army's Media Service Branch say they have been using their Macintoshes since Aug 2, 1990, the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. The systems are being used to process photographs from the Persian Gulf for distribution to media outlets. Armed services photographers take pictures with Sony and Canon still-video cameras, which record images on two-inch floppy disks. Images are transmitted over commercial networks to a Sony Digital Information Handler which stores them on an erasable optical disk. The DIH is connected to a Mac via a SCSI cable and is used to prepare captions and edit images. X/Open's Morris touts open systems globally. (X/Open Co. president Geoff Morris)(Profile) X/Open pres Geoff Morris spends a great deal of time touting open systems throughout the world. Morris' 'shuttle diplomacy' is considered critical to vendors and users who want to make sense of the plethora of groups and guidelines targeted at creating seamless transfers of data across computer platforms and continents. The job is made more complicated by the increased speed of telecommunications networks such as low-orbit satellites, which aid in the creation of global data networks. Morris says that standards need to be in place to make the best use of the technology in an integrated manner. X/Open was organized in 1984 by several European computer vendors, including ICL, IBM, AT and T, Groupe Bull and others. Small firm specializes in federal macro sets. (AOM Associates' WonderDocs) AOM Associates, based in Alexandria, VA, has built a business supplying government agencies with macro sets, called WonderDocs, which are sets of stored keystrokes that send instructions to a computer program. WonderDocs aid government agencies in creating standardized documents using WordPerfect. Clients include the Marine Corps, the Navy and several other Defense Department offices. The company's latest product is HUDdocs, a macro set that allows Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees create memos, letters and reports that conform to HUD's new correspondence manual. Security can stifle contract work. (intelligence agencies' stiff security precautions) Companies dealing with government intelligence organizations can come up against formidable roadblocks in obtaining even very basic information. Security restrictions at the Army Center for Signals Warfare at Vint Hill Farms Station, VA make even the simplest task difficult. A small simulator builder, Hadson Defense Systems Inc, then doing business as Ultrasystems Defense and Space Inc, was awarded a $13 million contract to develop and build maintenance trainers for three Army radio interception and deception systems. Vint Hill adamantly refused to provide drawings and technical data about the systems, despite contract requirements. The drawings that were eventually provided were unreadable. Vint Hill eventually cancelled the contract, claiming the company failed to perform the work. NASA to test mini for remote control, operation in vacuum. Mercier, Ann M. The space shuttle Discovery, when it lifts off in Feb 1991, will carry in its cargo bay the most computing power the US has ever rocketed into space. NASA plans to test a rugged minicomputer and optical disk storage system to determine just how well they can remotely control a robot located at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The minicomputer and disk, along with a communications box, will ride next to six Air Force experiments as part of NASA's Hitchhiker program. The Data System Experiment (DSE) utilizes a DEC VAX 6210, using the VMS operating system and a 300M 5.25-inch erasable optical disk build by Sundstrand Data Control Inc. Ideas Inc built the communications box. Where is DEC going? Pitta, Julie. The problems facing Digital Equipment Corp are not confined to the need to cut 6,000 jobs in 1991. Another problem is the need for the company to define its future in the eyes of employees and customers alike. While DEC was at the forefront of the move away from mainframes towards minicomputers in the late 1950's, it was slow to support the move to microcomputers. Its original Rainbow offering was incompatible with IBM PCs and doomed to disappear after just four years of bad sales. The company was slow in implementing reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology too, waiting until as late as 1988 to produce a RISC machine. Many analysts also see the company's commitment to Unix as less than satisfactory. This view is compounded by the fact that the UNIX workstation currently offered by the company is based upon a version of UNIX unique to DEC, making the machines incompatible with the mainstream market. Computers & communications. (market analysis based on earnings) (includes related article on Compaq Computer) (directory) Earnings for veteran computer companies, like DEC, Unisys, and Wang Laboratories, that based their fortunes on older mainframe and minicomputer technology have been down in the past year. Many companies such as IBM and Unisys have had to reduce their workforces. The most profitable part of the market was for microcomputers, especially portable and laptop models, along with networking and 'user-friendly' software. In the semiconductor market the industry has begun migrating towards 80386 chips, leading to increased fortunes for Intel Corp. Demand for the Windows 3.0 graphical user interface gave Microsoft earnings of $317 on sales of $1.3 billion. Deregulation and necessary upgrades to national telephone networks could lead to major opportunities in the telecommunications market in the immediate future. Buggy whip chips. (Lansdale Semiconductor manufactures out-of-date microprocessors) (company profile) Lansdale Semiconductor of Tempe, AZ, manufacturers out-of-date microprocessors no longer made by the original company. The company recently bought the manufacturing rights to the 8080 from Intel Corp. Lansdale's main strength lies in the difference between military and commercial product life cycles. A typical computer in the private sector will be replaced every five to seven years. Military systems, however, are designed to last up to 20 or 25 years. Usually when Lansdale acquires the rights to a discontinued product, it attempts to get the tooling from the manufacturer as well, along with the mask sets, process specifications, any excess inventory, and customer lists. With royalties to the original manufacturer running at around 5 percent, low capital costs and no development costs, the company is certainly a low-cost producer. Bozo filters. (screening software for electronic mail) Churbuck, David. Beyond Inc and Agility Systems Inc are developing software programs to assist electronic mail user in the screening and handling of unwanted messages. Beyond's BeyondMail utilizes a simple artificial intelligence program that can be 'trained' to recognize types of messages and names that are not wanted, promptly deleting them upon discovery. It can also sort messages from a specific source into a 'folder' marked 'Urgent'. The program is due for release sometime in 1991 at between $200 and $300. Agility Systems' WiJit also runs on IBM microcomputers, like BeyondMail, but only under Microsoft Windows. Where BeyondMail actually screens calls, WiJit acts as a research assistant and pulls specific types of messages out of the pool of collected data. WiJit is due for release in January 1991, although no price has been set. Hacker's rights. (the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation)(Random Access) (column) The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formed by Lotus 1-2-3 developer Mitch Kapor and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow with the intention of lobbying for laws to encourage the use of public computer networks, such as computer bulletin boards, and to assist in the legal defense of individuals unjustly charged with computer crimes. The foundation's goal is not just to protect the rights of users, including hackers, to access the public networks, but to ensure that suspected criminals are not abused because the world does not understand the nature of the alleged crime. Although hackers are sometimes guilty of trespass, the foundation feels that not all are guilty of criminal intent. Consequently, a distinction has to be made between the two. The foundation considers one of its primary objectives to protect the rights of everyone to unlimited electronic communication. Federal laptop market soars. Vizachero, Rick. It is estimated that the federal government uses around 225,000 laptop computers, and some analysts expect this number to grow to as many as 440,000 by the end of 1992. In a recent Government Computer News reader survey 83 percent of those surveyed said they had a laptop available at work, and 78 percent said they shared it with at least one other employee. Although 36 percent of the machines have been purchased in the past 12 months, 26 percent are more than 18 months old and therefore due for updating. The laptop market has become the fastest-growing segment of the computer industry in the last few years. More than 60 percent of the machines purchased were made by Zenith Data Systems, with 8088-, 8086- and 80286-based machines accounting for more than 90 percent. Technology has its ups, downs. (Government Computer News reader survey on laptop computers) Results of a recent Government Computer News reader survey of laptop computer experiences indicate that users are annoyed by short battery life and the inconvenience of airport security but impressed by the benefits of having technology available on the road with them. Users also praise the ability of laptops to function in adverse weather conditions. The weight of the average laptop is a major drawback to many of those surveyed. Other benefits cited include the ability to compute not only on airplanes and in hotel rooms, but on a variety of networks. Many users enjoy being able to access local area networks from a travel site. Sending and receiving electronic mail on the road is noted by many as an additional plus. 30-year IRM plan receives army OK. (information resource management) A long range plan for modernizing the Army's complete array of systems has been approved by senior military officials. The plan involves massive consolidations, the adoption of an open systems architecture, and the implementation of corporate information management in the Department of Defense. The plan is based upon the assumption that personnel will be cut back by as much as 30 percent over the next 10 years because of the scaling down of the military. It involves the reduction of 3,100 sustaining base software systems to around 1,500, the elimination of the Army's proprietary regional data network and the merging of 24 data centers into just four. The overall plan will also focus on standardization, interoperability and better-trained personnel in the information area. Despite EDS objections, CORN RFP is reissued. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Federal Aviation Administration's Computer Electronic Data Systems is expected to continue vying for reinstatement of the Federal Aviation Administration's Computer Resources Nucleus outsourcing program contract it won last year. The FAA recently cancelled the $1.5 billion contract and issued a new request for proposals. EDS, which was reported to be the only bidder in the original contract, has notified the FAA that it will press for original proposal costs should the FAA not reinstate the contract. EDS is reported to have spent between $17 and $45 million to prepare the bid. Analysts believe that the requirement for fixed-price proposals in the original request was a major reason for the lack of bidders. The FAA claims that its fixed-price procurement strategy is a means of controlling costs. GSA's new, slimmer FIRMR highlights policies. (General Service Administration's Federal Information Resources Management The General Services Administration's new Federal Information Resources Management Regulation document is about one third of the size of the previous regulation and guides federal acquisitions and the use of ADP equipment. The main reason for the reduction in size is the decision to simply highlight policies in the document rather than supply detailed rules on non-mandatory policies. Probably the most significant change in policy comes in GSA oversight of support services. Under the old FIRMR, if an agency's competitive acquisition of hardware, communication systems or off-the-shelf software was anticipated to be more than $2.5 million, a GSA delegation of procurement authority was required. The new regulation extends this requirement to include support services. Army's SMC contract offers integration. (offered to Electronic Data Systems Corp.) (includes related article on the Small The Army's $700 million Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) contract awarded to Electronic Data Corp differs from other requirements contracts in that it is a turnkey operation with EDS acting as the total integrator. The SMC offers connections and interoperability with other systems and networks in the Army, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency, integrating many office functions. EDS claims that the engineering services they are willing to provide are a major benefit, with the company offering to assist buyers in defining SMC requirements and in integrating new systems into established environments. The SMC contract also offers 12-month on-call, carry-in or mail-in warranties. GSA clears air on used ADPE with new rules. (automated data processing equipment) The General Services Administration has released more detailed rules concerning government purchasing of used automated data processing equipment (ADPE). The first draft was released as a guideline last year but was criticized by many officials as being too vague in its definition of used equipment. The new language classifies used ADPE as mainframe and minicomputer equipment that was previously installed, which can include reconditioned, refurbished or re-manufactured items. The new guidelines request that agencies not purchase equipment that is more than eight year old or is likely to become outdated while it is still needed. In addition the used equipment must meet all of the original manufacturer's operating specifications and standards and must perform like new equipment. Pentagon plan gives CIM a 'lasting home.' (corporate information management) A special task force's recently released plan to implement corporate information management (CIM) in the Department of Defense could prove to be a major boost to open systems. CIM operations are being transferred from the comptroller's office to the command, control, communications and intelligence directorate. The Defense Communications Agency will be involved in guiding CIM technology standards and will probably get some additional personnel. CIM was initiated as an attempt to consolidate different business systems performing the same function in the DOD. The plan recommends a complete overhaul of the agency's approach to IRM and suggests that interoperability problems will disappear as standard data models gradually replace the present diverse conglomeration of terms and definitions. Federal users want it easy, and that's what they buy. (Laptops in Government) Laptop computers have been popular with federal agencies for many years. The Department of Defense's Lapheld II contract, to be awarded this summer, should allow access to reasonably priced notebook and 80386-based laptop computers. While it is unlikely to accommodate innovative technology the contract will certainly bridge the gap between existing 8088- and 8086-based federal inventories and the rest of the industry. One of the main concerns of federal buyers is the low quality of screens. Nearly half of federal laptop users connect their machines to external monitors to take advantage of the better resolution. The addition of color can be an even greater problem because it increases cost, weight and energy use. Enhanced features often have to be left off because they increase drain on the battery. Some view laptop docking stations, which let users use a laptop as a desktop machine, as a solution. That ultimate dream machine may be the latest laptop line. (laptops in government) A recent Government Computer News reader survey reveals that many government users would like to see a 25MHz 80386-based laptop computer weighing five pounds. Most current high-end laptops have 20MHz 80386SX chips and weigh between six and seven pounds. Rechargeable, lightweight battery technology still leaves much to be desired, with many machines lasting only one to three hours before recharging becomes necessary. Many laptops today offer between 8 and 10Mbytes of RAM and up to 80Mbyte hard drives, which is close to the user ideal of 8.2Mbytes of RAM and a 116Mbyte hard drive. Readers also want color VGA screens. Monochrome VGA graphics are available on a number of machines today, along with color output to an external monitor. IRS looks forward to a new generation of laptops. (interview with the Internal Revenue Service's Richard Lehman) (interview) Internal Revenue Service director of the Office of Examination Automation Richard Lehman maintains that the division has as many as 21,000 laptop computers, most of which are Zenith Data Systems Z-171s purchased in a 1986 acquisition of 18,000 machines. The laptops are primarily stand-alone devices, although all are equipped with modems. The machines were originally issued to employees with a work center of 18 disks that were not very user-friendly. This number has now been reduced to a set of seven, although a report generating disk is also used. The main factor Lehman cites as preventing laptop usage on a wide scale is the logistical problem of maintaining suitable software with regular upgrades. Three Compaq computers win high praise from their users. (survey of users of laptop computers) (Compaq Computer's LTE/286, SLT/286 Five 80286-based laptop computers were evaluated in Government Computer News' Product Preference Survey. Readers ranked Compaq's LTE/286 as the best machine overall, with the Compaq SLT/286 and Portable III falling close behind. Zenith Data System's SupersPort 286 was found to be extremely rugged although there were complaints about its display and heavy weight. The SLT/286 was cited as having a very good screen and the convenience of a removable keyboard. Key concerns of federal microcomputer buyers surveyed were reliability, display quality and IBM PC compatibility. The size and weight of a portable appear to be of less importance than hard-drive performance and quality of documentation. HUD loan specialists travel with portable power. (Housing and Urban Development) (Laptops in Government) The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Lender Activities and Land Sales Registration uses laptop computers for its loan specialists around the country. Initially, the specialists required week-long training sessions in WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and dBase III software before they could use the machines. The laptops were introduced to remove the need to send paper reports back to Washington, D.C., for revision and typing. Reports are now filed on disks, and any necessary revisions are done on a computer. In the past considerable amounts of mainframe data had to be collected and sent to the field in the form of printouts. Data is now downloaded onto diskettes. The agency plans to eventually offer access to the mainframe via a Novell local area network at headquarters, which will allow the field specialists to obtain the data and file their reports themselves. Federal laptop buyers request faster, feature-packed modems. (survey indicates most federal users have modems, want more Arecent survey of government users of laptop computers indicates that 82 percent of federal laptop users use modems at least some of the time, primarily for electronic mail and remote access to networks. The Navy has specified external 9,600-bps modems supporting the V.32 compression and error correction standards in its Lapheld II procurement. A report from market research firm Dataquest Inc notes that not all 9,600-bps modems adhere fully to the standard for high-speed bidirectional operation. Some units are only half duplex, while others operate at their full speed in only one direction. Touchbase Systems Inc's WorldPort 9600 is a true V.32 modem that operates on batteries and weighs only eight ounces. Cellular modems from Microcom Inc and Telebit Corp may find their way into the federal market because of the extensive government use of cellular telephones, according to researchers at Computer Intelligence Inc. Fax capability is another important feature in new modems. Congress' Toshiba laptop ban a scant punishment. (three-year federal boycott against Toshiba Corp for selling technology to the The three-year ban Congress imposed on Toshiba products following the sale of illegal technology to the Soviet Union is due to end in Dec 1991. An interested industry is watching to see if the company can once again become a major player in the federal procurement market. Toshiba itself has already stated that it will seek federal contracts. The company is such a major player in the computer industry that even as federal agencies were implementing the ban, 40 U.S. companies were requesting that it not be extended to the private sector. Companies under federal contracts were nevertheless required to certify their products contained no Toshiba parts. Although the company's exports to the United States fell 12 percent in the first year of the ban, Toshiba's overall earnings rose 60 percent. The firm is now reputed to be worth an estimated $30 billion. Baler compresses spreadsheets, uses passwords to protect them. (Software Review) (Baler Software's Baler Spreadsheet Compiler Baler Software Corp's $495 Baler Spreadsheet Compiler 5.1 speeds the execution of complex worksheets in the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program by converting them into machine code and allowing them to run independently of the application that created them. It eliminates the possibility of accidental corruption of spreadsheet formulas and allows password protection for additional security. Users can change the experience of a spreadsheet by adding colors, pop-up windows and pull-down menus. Baler includes draw functions that let users convert spreadsheets into custom forms. It is easy to use; compilation consists of merely typing BALE followed by the program name, and execution involves typing RUN and the program name. Installation is also easy because the package includes an automated installation program. Postal network model charts mail flow scenarios. Taft, Darryl K. The United States Postal Service's Postal Network Model allows senior managers access to information about the flow of mail between 600 large facilities along 250,000 routes. It has been installed at 35 locations nationwide. The system runs on 80386-based microcomputers under MS-DOS 3.3 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 and takes up about 32Mbytes of disk storage space. Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet is used to review and analyze data and depict it graphically under Windows. The system is also designed to run under OS/2 using Presentation Manager. Its data comes from mainframes and is compressed onto Bernoulli removable disk cartridges. The actual hardware requirements include a 386 computer with 2Mbytes of RAM, a 70Mbyte hard disk, a math coprocessor, a VGA monitor and card, a Windows-compatible mouse and a Bernoulli Box. Slashed prices for technology brighten desktop user outlook. McCormick, John. Prices of computer systems and RAM continue to drop while performance increases. Analysts maintain that caching disk controllers and large RAM disks are key new technologies for the coming year, along with smart hard-disk and video controllers that relieve the CPU of some system processing. Some analysts predict a surge in demand for Digital Paper, an optical-tape system that can store 1,000 gigabytes on an 800-meter reel of 35mm polycarbonate tape and is by far the least expensive mass data storage medium for larger systems. The only software changes expected are upgrades to existing products and companies attempting to take market share away from leading applications. Proxima VersaColor offer a portable video show. (Hardware Review) (Computer Accessories' Proxima Data Display VersaColor) Computer Accessories $4,795 Proxima Data Display VersaColor is a liquid crystal display color projection panel that when coupled with an overhead projector, laptop and presentation software allows for a colorful, portable, computer-driven video show. It offers 512 adjustable shades and comes with Macintosh, EGA/CGA and VGA cables, software and instructions. Installation is easy and the 14 buttons on the top of the unit control color, contrast and alignment. A battery operated remote control can handle slide sequencing as well as the button functions. Control of the presentation is also possible from the keyboard. Images are sharp once focused, and although the unit produces a color monitor's hues quite accurately they appear a little washed out even at maximum contrast. Moving pictures do not look quite as good, but the VersaColor is overall a good aid to travel presentations. Password Coach blows the whistle on weak security. (Baseline Software's security software) Baseline Software's Password Coach is a data security software package that ensures user passwords are hard to guess. The program automatically screens passwords as they are created and notifies the user if they are too easy.It is primarily a deterrent against hackers that seek access to a system by employing password-guessing techniques. The package, written in C, is hardware independent and interacts with existing software. An individual minimum-difficulty threshold is established which is applicable to all users. The program will reject any new password the user creates unless it reaches that minimum standard. It includes a 140,000 word dictionary to prevent a dictionary-based attack and context-sensitive password guessing. The Password Coach costs about $10,000 for a site license depending on the size, and can run on any system with a C compiler and at least 1Mbyte of memory. Bridges link RFE/RL to more broadcast power. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) Officials of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) broadcasting service are using remote network bridges to obtain the maximum possible bandwidth from RFE/RL's transatlantic fiber-optic network and connecting LANs in both the US and Europe. RFE/RL maintains 15 permanent sites, but most of its processing power is located in Washington, DC and Munich, Germany. It broadcasts news and information to Eastern Europe in 23 languages and now has news bureaus in nations that once jammed its signal. Administrative, broadcast and financial support and asset management applications run on a DEC VAXcluster in Washington, while Microcom Inc's MLB/6000 line of remote bridges connects sites in Germany. US sites are linked over a T1 circuit. Two US and two Munich locations have high-capacity Timeplex Inc Link-II time-division multiplexers. RFE/RL describes its system as a 'transatlantic extended LAN.' T3 requires intelligent network switches. Miles, J.B. In today's bandwidth-hungry communication environments, single or multiple T3 broadband fiber links are increasingly used as more companies discover that T1 links no longer supply necessary bandwidth. Until recently, dedicated T3 circuits had been the only way to get this bandwidth; telephone company switched services have been inadequate because of the lack of capabilities in the switches themselves. Analysts believe that any second generation of broadband switches must include not only gigabit switching speed, but a high level of switching intelligence as well. To address the problem Adaptive Corp has developed the Sonet Transmission Manager Broadband Network Switch, which is intended to supply not only the intelligent network management services expected in private networks but also the standards-based high-bandwidth data transfers needed by telephone companies. FAA official satisfied with AT&T's OATS products. (Jim Rusling, Office Automation Technology and Services contract) The Federal Aviation Administration's Data Services Division's Jim Rusling is satisfied that the network products supplied by AT and T on the Office Automation Technology and Services (OATS) contract are reliable. Using a seven-station test bed network at the Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, he has loaded a test bed server with every kind of network management software and hardware supplied on the OATS contract. The full OATS application suite includes spreadsheet, graphics, word processing, database management and electronic mail applications. Many of the microcomputers at the Aeronautical Center will need to have memory added to handle the software. OATS has a client administration system and a network administrator's menu system, both of which run under the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. Running Unix on parallel machines will benefit general purpose users. One of the main problems of massively parallel computers has always been getting the software to use so many CPUs effectively. The change came when a massively parallel computer running Unix to do databases was developed by NCube. This allowed Unix to handle more common application programs. Teradata has begun research into upgrading its massively parallel database computer architecture to run Unix and allow binary compatibility with other software. Teradata and NCR are also developing a new generation of general-purpose mainframes to run Unix and offer a high price/performance ratio. The significance of the project is the possibility of Unix applications accommodating everyday computing and not just large database storage. EDS makes short work of Army's SMC testing. (Electronic Data Systems Corp., Small Multiuser Computer contract) Electronic Data Systems Corp's Small Multiuser Computer (SMC) system passed the Army's rigorous suite of tests in one third of the time expected. The Army accepted the SMC system after just 30 days of the 90 day test schedule. The test, which had 14,000 requirements, was carried out by Army, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency quality assurance specialists to make sure the SMC complied with open systems architecture, Posix application-to-operating system and Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile standards for interoperability and integration. The $700 million contract calls for EDS to supply up to 20,000 systems to Army, Navy and Defense Logistics Agency installations by 1995. Cold calling gets cold shoulder in govt. software marketplace. (Praxis Inc's innovative marketing approach) The government software market is complex and requires a certain amount of inside knowledge. To capitalize on this complexity Praxis Inc has, in the past five years, opened a new distribution channel for software companies in the $5 million to $50 million turnover range. The distributor represents 20 companies whose products range from computer-aided software engineering tools to Ada and artificial intelligence programs. These companies typically provide innovative technology that is marketed through a direct sales staff and require a short-to-medium return to gain the market position needed to take advantage of the big contracts on offer. Praxis requires that they, in turn, offer the government access to cutting edge technology that regular procurement channels may overlook. Navy officials expect frequent upgrades for TAC-3. (Tactical Advanced Computer) The United States Navy's new eight-year Tactical Advanced Computer systems contract contains a clause enabling the new shipboard tactical computers to be upgraded every 18 months. The $400 million TAC-3 contract is due to be awarded next fall, with bids due by January 23. The contract calls for as many as 4,000 ruggedized systems in various configurations running at 30 MIPS to be supplied over a four year period, with the contractor maintaining them for another four years. The Navy expects about 1,500 systems will be purchased for cruisers and destroyers, about 500 for submarines, and 260 for carriers. A typical TAC-3 workstation configuration will include a 19 inch color monitor, 128Mbytes of RAM, dual 600Mbyte fixed hard disks and a 150Mbyte tape drive. The contract also calls for embedded encryption and multilevel security. ADP consolidation plan collides with CIM in budget maneuvers. (corporate information management) (Department of Defense In the light of recent congressional budget maneuvers, the Department of Defenses's corporate information management plan (CIM) and its automated data processing (ADP) consolidation may be more closely linked than originally intended. Some analysts argue that the Senate's reorganization of CIM may have created something quite different from the initial plan. The ADP plan called for consolidation of software shops and ADP centers to provide quick cost savings, but CIM was meant to be a longer process and an attempt to merge and reduce existing capital assets. Analysts maintain that the plans only had significant logic if they were kept separate. It is also argued that the Senate's decision to shift money from the services to CIM and its call for faster work on interim systems changed CIM priorities completely. 4GLs and CASE. (fourth generation languages and Computer-Aided Software Engineering) (government buyer's guide) (buyers guide) The introduction of fourth-generation language (4GL) and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools have simplified the task of software development. 4GLs assist in the early stages of development and in database work, while CASE tools attempt to automate the entire development cycle. A large relational database can be customized using a 4GL with its simplified English-like coding and object-oriented graphics. CASE tools can take months off the development cycle of a program written in a third-generation language (3GL) such as Cobol. While 4GLs are designed to simplify analysis and design, they suffer from a lack of standards. Some analysts maintain that 4GLs will soon be a thing of the past because CASE tools not only complete the design and analysis but also write 3GL code. IRM resolutions should get no complaints. (information resources management guidelines) Information resources management operations can be improved by adhering to a number of simple guidelines. Learning the missions and programs of an agency assists in the design of the systems used to meet its strategic goals. IRM Managers should also state their requirements to contractors in terms of functional specifications and should keep up with current technology in order to facilitate an understanding of management and design tasks. On an individual level, it is important for users to back up microcomputer hard disks regularly and to change passwords at least every six months. Systemhouse must make some changes to survive. (SHL Systemhouse) Weil, Ulric. Ottawa-based systems integrator SHL Systemhouse conducts at least 13 percent of its business with the United States federal government. The United States as a whole accounts for around 21 percent of its total annual revenue. For the fiscal year ended Aug 31, 1990, the company had an operating loss of $5 million Canadian on revenues of $689 million. Systemhouse's U.S. operations have been unprofitable for three years, a problem attributed to the competitive pricing pressures of federal procurements. In the last nine months the company has also laid off half of its 400 Washington, D.C., staff. The company's fortunes are further complicated because its parent company, Kinburn Technology, recently filed for bankruptcy. An attempt to sell Systemhouse for an estimated $650 million has so far failed. This financial instability is certainly harming the company in a market where a vendor's long-term viability comes under close inspection. Systems designers are the real customers. Perry, William E. One of the most important aspects of systems design is the identification of the actual customer. Many would identify the customer as the end-user, but some data processing professionals dispute this obvious view. The main product produced in information systems organizations is a statement of requirements, a document that defines what is actually required in a system. An incorrect statement of requirements will result in an incorrect system design. Some analysts therefore maintain that systems designers and data base administrators who actually use the requirements document fit the definition of 'customer' better than do end users. Analysts say ADP equipment needed for drug war. Seaborn, Margaret M. Industry analysts and observers within the federal government say that agencies fighting the government war on drugs represent a major market for new automated data processing equipment if vendors are willing to take risks. Increased funding for field efforts is anticipated, and National Defense Council Foundation director F. Andy Messing Jr. urges companies to expand in this area. Messing warns that drug enforcement is 'a dangerous business' and that equipment should not be too complex because it will be used in hostile environment. Senate Judiciary Committee adviser Scott Green notes that vendors must realize that drug enforcement agents work undercover and that their needs make them different from the 'average client.' Agents distrust anyone who seems too interested in their work, making credibility an important issue. The high technology industry is nevertheless in a good position to develop devices that would make it easier for agents to detect drug traffickers. New regs aim to clarify Brooks Act powers. (General Services Administration's Federal IRM Regulation) A major renovation of the basic regulation controlling federal information resources procurements, the Federal IRM Regulation (FIRMR), is currently taking place. It is essentially an attempt to clarify the Brooks Act amendments that granted powers to the General Services Administration in 1986. The new regulations require GSA approval for all automatic data processing equipment competitive procurements over $2.5 million. In addition, any procurement over $250,000 that specifies 'make and model', or where there is only one source of supply, will also require authorization. The new rules will almost certainly force more agencies to seek approval more often. Group calls for new road maps for systems buys. (President's Council on Management Improvement releases report) A working group from the President's Council on Management Improvement has released a draft report focusing on the problems associated with major systems acquisitions in the federal government. The report, entitled 'Managing the Risk and Uncertainty of Technological Change: A Review of Federal Practises for Acquiring Major Information Systems,' recommends a new systems development process that includes a project management plan. Fourteen difficulties that are common to large systems are identified, with emphasis on the areas of management, systems development, and acquisition. The report also recommends that the systems development process include an experienced team of two or three managers, an industry oversight board and a user advisory panel. The group hopes that the report will be adopted as a systems development guideline. NIST, NSA mend fences to create security plan. (National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Security Agency) The National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have announced plans to jointly develop new computer security criteria for all agency procurements by 1992. The effort is intended to create a new Federal Information Processing Standard in response to the European Community's European Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria. The two agencies intend to share research on protecting classified and unclassified data, and at the same time address multi-level security network problems. Some analysts observe that while the a joint effort is a good way of avoiding duplication of research, the resulting conclusions must fully explain how the United States government intends to protect its systems. Small computer buys not such a bargain. Vizachero, Rick. Some analysts maintain that the problem with large federal requirements contracts for small computers is that they take too long. Often the technology is two or three years old by the time the agency starts to take delivery and obsolete by the time the contract has ended. The prices charged for the products are also not particularly low. A major argument in favor of large contracts is the economic advantages that come from standardization. Analysts nevertheless maintain that smaller contracts would be a safeguard in case the product does become outdated or is found to be inappropriate. They also argue that any cost-savings in buying computers by the tens of thousands is frequently offset by the vast expenses involved in lengthy procurement processes. IRM officials miss 'brassy' Trail Boss maverick. (information management resources) (Robert L. Ross) The General Services Administration Agency Liaison Programs Division's Robert L Ross recently retired from government to join the Washington consultancy firm of McManis Associates Inc. Ross had spent 16 years with GSA and was probably best known for developing the Trail Boss program, which trains agency information resource managers to oversee automatic data processing (ADP) acquisitions. He came to the GSA from IBM Corp in 1974, beginning the Trail Boss program in February 1988. MIS transition at Merrill; high-profile CIO passes the baton to senior business executive. (Merrill Lynch & Co. CIO DuWayne Merrill Lynch & Co CIO DuWayne Peterson announces his retirement as Exec VP for operations, systems and telecommunications (OST), but rather than being replaced by his chief lieutenant, Bruce Turkstra, his position will be assumed by current Sr VP and Dir of the professional securities services group Edward L. Goldberg. Turkstra left Merrill Lynch in Sep 1990 when it became clear that he would not replace Peterson; he reportedly will be given a position with consultancy Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. Howard P. Sorgen, former president of On-Line Software International Inc and now Merrill Lynch First VP-Global IS, will likely replace Tunkstra as Sr VP of Global IS; Sorgen was recruited by Tunkstra. Peterson oversaw a period of reorganization at the company, during which MIS budgets were decreased and data centers were consolidated as part of a decentralization plan. Fire downs disaster-prone Wall Street... again. (on Dec 27, 1990) Caldwell, Bruce; Hoffman, Thomas; Krass, Peter. An explosion of an electrical transformer on Dec 27, 1990, caused the third disruption of power supplied to financial services firms and stock exchanges in Manhattan in four months. Contingency Research Planning Inc, a disaster consultancy, says that there have been 64 occurrences of data centers being shut down for a day or longer in New York City since 1982, when it began tracking data center disasters. The headquarters of Securities Industry Automation Corp (SIAC) at 55 Water St. may have been contaminated by the fire, which may have spread PCBs throughout the building; SIAC is a computer services firm owned jointly by New York Stock Exchange Inc (the Big Board) and American Stock Exchange Inc. Both exchanges delayed opening for an hour and a half; SIAC Exec VP and COO Richard Leyh says trading could have begun on time if the company's backup facility in Brooklyn had been ready. DEC searches for revenue... creates new division; company may put its software users on a meter. (Digital Equipment Corp. plans the DEC will not increase the prices of user software licenses in early 1991, but the company is considering use of so-called taxi-fare rates, or metering of customer operating systems, to generate more software revenue. The company also announces plans to unbundle some of its software packages and port them to competing machines. DEC Software Business Marketing Mgr Mary Welch says that reports of software license fee increases in 1991 actually refer to increases enacted in the 1st qtr of DEC's FY 1991, which began in Oct 1990. DEC plans to create the Information Systems Integration Business Unit to replace its current Information Systems Business (ISB); the new division will add marketing services and systems integration to ISB and will be headed by current ISB VP Robert Glorioso. Objects vs. relations: a shift in technologies is beginning to resemble a family feud. (object-oriented versus relational DBMS) There has been a significant migration of technical, marketing and sales personnel from relational database vendors to object-oriented database companies. Many analysts claim the moves signal a burgeoning battle between relational and object-oriented DBMS vendors, although few see the two technologies competing directly until the mid-1990s. A recent study by Forrester Research Inc found that large corporations will not likely implement object-oriented databases until the mid-1990s; the report author notes that database migration is a very slow process. The move from relational to object-oriented technology requires much training as well as a change in methodology from a data view similar to a spreadsheet to one of relationships between basic forms, or objects. Some relational DBMS vendors are beginning to incorporate object-oriented technology in their products. Borland the Barbarian: doing battle with Lotus, Ashton-Tate, and Microsoft. (Borland International Inc.) (company profile) Borland International Inc is noted for moving fast to gain competitive advantage. The company has succeeded in gaining on Lotus in the MS-DOS spreadsheet market and Ashton-Tate in the PC database market; sales of its original language products continue to grow at a rate that will approach those of market leader Microsoft in a short time. A recent Computer Intelligence survey of 1,500 customer sites found that Borland's Paradox takes 34 percent of all new sales, compared to 46 percent for Ashton-Tate's dBase III/III Plus; the company's share of the spreadsheet market has increased from nine percent in 1989 to about 25 percent in 1990 using a strategy that targets 1-2-3 users disgruntled with Lotus. Borland recorded $5.9 million in profits in its 2nd qtr ended Sep 30, 1990, an increase of 112 percent; revenues were up 109 percent to $52.6 million in the period. Making it like they used to: MIS in the pursuit of quality. (includes related articles on W. Edwards Deming, founder of the W. Edwards Deming, founder of the quality movement that began in Japan in the 1950s and that is gaining momentum in the US, says that MIS plays a minor role in quality control, but information technology is much more important to quality programs in US companies that it is for companies in Japan. The 1990 winners of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Awards, which are presented by the US Department of Commerce, claim MIS played an important role in their quality assurance efforts. Those winners are Federal Express Corp, General Motors Corp's Cadillac Motor Div, and Houston oil-drilling equipment supplier Wallace Co. The number of companies vying for the award has increased every year since they were first given in 1987; to qualify, companies must meet 36 pages of criteria for measuring quality. How several Baldridge award winners succeeded in improving quality is described. Computer alert! Database integration effort aids Desert Shield planners. Five incompatible databases serving the US military have been connected in a prototype system since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in Aug 1990, and three more databases will be added in early 1991. The Global Transportation Network/In-Transit Visibility (GTN/ITV) prototype is intended to provide information on weapon systems, ammunition and replacement parts in the transportation pipeline, according to Department of Defense Transportation Command Deputy Dir for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems Larry Bernosky. The five linked databases provide military planners with fast access to data on personnel airlifts, cargo shipments and weapons and ammunition supplies; the three new databases will connect a commercial transportation firm for tracking military airlift loads. The Data Integration Engine (TDIE) from TRW Inc is used to connect the databases. Claris takes on a grown-up role; Will target marketing make HyperCard more than a toy? (company profile) Claris Corp was given responsibility for development and marketing of HyperCard by its parent company Apple Computer Inc in Sep 1990 and was charged with finding HyperCard a place in the center of commercial data processing. The previous June, Claris was told it would remain part of Apple and would not be spun off through an initial public offering as it had hoped. It has been difficult to define the market for HyperCard since its introduction in 1987: it has been called an application development tool, a graphical user interface builder, an object-oriented programming language, a hypermedia authoring product and a toy. Claris hopes to expand HyperCard use by reconfiguring version 2.0 into several different products for various markets, including multimedia application development and corporate programming; the company's marketing plans are discussed. Merrill's MIS expansion: new systems facilitate communications and ordering processes for traders. (Merrill Lynch & Company Inc.) Merrill Lynch & Company Inc changed the compensation method for its retail financial consultants (FCs) as of Jan 1, 1991, to base it on the total value of customer assets they hold rather than on the total number of transactions they place. The new structure is intended to make the FCs more responsive to customers, a goal the company hopes will be easier to reach using its new Professional Information System (Prism) order-entry system. FCs formerly wrote trading orders on paper delivered via a tubing system to data entry people. Prism allows FCs to enter orders on-line and receive confirmation while the customer is still on the telephone; it will eventually be used in 600 offices and run on 17,000 PCs. Prism is part of Merrill Lynch's systems overhaul intended to connect all data communications equipment under SNA; it includes the Merrill Lynch Intelligent Network. Macs make a connection; Apple set to unveil new Ethernet cards, applications. (product announcement) Apple is expected to introduce Ethernet cards and applications from third parties at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco in early Jan 1991 that improve the ability of the Macintosh to run on standard networks. Apple recently licensed its AppleTalk and AppleShare protocols to Farallon Computing Inc for development of network boards for MS-DOS-based systems. The Ethernet NB cards use a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and a real-time multitasking operating system; they comply with the IEEE 802.3 standard and cost $424. The boards let Macintosh II users connect to Ethernet networks via thin or thick coaxial cable, unshielded twisted pair or other standard Ethernet cable. A version for the Macintosh LC comes with a thin coax transceiver and costs $199; media adapters will be available for integrating the LC card into twisted pair and thick coax networks. Piecing together dBase standards. McClatchy, Will; Myers, Kara. The dBase PC database standard has fragmented significantly in recent years, and the question of whether Ashton-Tate will be able to retain its copyright of the dBase language has not yet been answered. Continued adherence to the dBase DBF format for file and record storage assures that MIS will continue to be able to update their data. A move is afoot to refer to dBase as Xbase to separate it from Ashton-Tate and to avoid legalities with the firm; the International dBase User Group will change its name to include Xbase, according to reports. It becomes more and more difficult to translate applications from one dBase language derivative to another as developers use the extensions unique to specific products, according to Fox Software COO Walt Kennamer. The outlook for dBase standardization and some of the legal questions entailed are discussed. Product management: a new approach to fully realize potential MIS benefits. (Final Word) (column) The process-oriented approach used by many MIS departments blinds them to broader management issues and benefits. A product management approach can overcome obstacles to the fast development of applications that are flexible enough to change as business conditions change. Standardizing on the parts used in manufacturing allowed companies in the 1970s to lower production costs. MIS must extend the concepts of modularity and reusability to development of applications using standardized components and packaging. Rather than having 'applications' supplemented by 'toolkits', MIS would instead have various standardized objects used by applications and tools, such as coordinate groupware objects and interface objects. New measures of MIS success are needed that are more like market-driven measurements of a product management approach; the benefits of such an approach are described. Apple moves to Ethernet for standard networking. (Apple Computer Inc. announces modular Ethernet cabling system) Apple Computer Inc announces its modular Ethernet cabling system that depends on Apple-designed external transceivers. The scheme represents a step toward making Ethernet Apple's standard out-of-the-box networking solution. Although users cannot employ existing standards-based transceivers, Apple has separated the transceiver from the Ethernet card and put it in a box outside the unit. Users may purchase Apple or third party network interface cards and transceivers for connecting to thin Ethernet, unshielded twisted-pair, thick Ethernet or fiber optic cabling. Apple offers Ethernet cards for the LC and Nubus slots for $199 and $425, respectively. Transceivers for all cable types cost $175. Apple's modular approach will allow Ethernet capability to be added to future Macs via the logic boards. The cabling system gives Mac users a faster networking system than LocalTalk. Microsoft counters Go with Pen OS. (Pen Windows competes with Go Corp.'s pen-based operating system) Microsoft Corp demonstrates its pen-based operating system, which competes with a similar product from Go Corp. Developers testing both systems say Microsoft's Pen Windows, which is based on Windows 3.0, falls below the performance ability of Go's product because it does not include character recognition technology and is not a system optimized for pen input. Pen Windows recognizes only gestures and symbols; sources claim it will take Microsoft more than two years to build character recognition into applications. Pen Windows is compatible with existing Windows 3.0 applications and includes Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL), which provide other necessary capabilities. Go's product, scheduled to ship in the 1st qtr of 1991, uses different icons, pull-down menus and overlapping windows from Pen Windows. Pen Windows developers kits will be available late in the 1st qtr of 1991. Breakthrough technology to spark industry in 1991. (Apple, IBM, Compaq Computer Corp., Lotus Development Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Vendors anticipate a variety of new technologies from Apple, IBM, Microsoft Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and Lotus Development Corp during 1991 that will increase earnings and sales. Apple plans to announce a non-standard Ethernet for the Macintosh, an improved 68030 version of its portable computer, System 7.0 and a 68040-based system that outperforms and costs less than the Macintosh fx. IBM plans to announce a notebook system during 1st qtr 1991, a disk array system for the PS/2 line and possibly a 386SX with an AT bus. Additionally, Big Blue expects to double the bandwidth of its Micro Channel Architecture bus and may complete OS/2 Extended Edition 2.0 before the end of 1991. Compaq plans to announce a version of its EISA bus that will support a greater bandwidth and more processors. Microsoft will expand significantly Windows 3.0 and Lotus will announce a Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3. SFT lags, Novell throws weight to priority services. (SFT Level III system fault tolerance delayed) Novell Inc delays the release of SFT Level III to expedite the development of higher demand products such as Communications Services and Netware Name Services. SFT Level III, the company's highest level of fault tolerance, reportedly lets users mirror file servers that prevent network downtime in the event of a hardware failure. The product is still undergoing testing and Novell has announced that it will no longer require a multiple-processor server to operate. SFT Level III has a virtual machine architecture that allows developers to architect software so that it runs in either single- or multiple-processor environments. SFT Level III requires Netware 386 to operate even though it is not a Netware Loadable Module. Before releasing the SFT Level III, Novell will incorporate features including global naming service, network management and communication services into the OS code base. Borland to fill Windows void with visual apps generator. (Borland International Inc.'s Object Vision program generator) Borland International Inc enters the Windows market with an applications generator that uses visual programming techniques to allow users to design applications without the use of a programming language. Object Vision, expected to be released in mid-1991, is a Windows-based program that assigns characteristics and behavior to every element of forms that users construct on-screen. Forms can represent actual forms such as a medical form, but they can also be used to store and access data as do the cards and stacks in Apple's Hypercard. Object Vision surpasses the functionality of a forms package with links to other applications including spreadsheets and databases. Borland has accordingly stopped marketing the product, formerly called Expresso, as a forms product and it will cost about the price of a spreadsheet. Object Vision works with Dbase, Btrieve, Paradox and ASCII files. Whirlwind of activity marks 1990 for Lotus. (Lotus Development Corp.) (Company Analysis) Lotus Development Corp devoted a considerable portion of time during 1990 on product development, company acquisitions and lawsuits. Lotus introduced 1-2-3 3.1, which runs in MS-DOS or DOS-plus-Windows, and shipped it in Sep 1990. Throughout 1990, the company made the spreadsheet software package available for Sun workstations, IBM mainframes and DEC's VAX/VMS; the Macintosh version is expected during 1991. Also due out in 1991 is the first major upgrade of Lotus' network communications and information distribution program, Notes 2.0. Other company activity in 1990 included a merger with Novell Inc in Apr 1990 that fell through by May, the acquisition of French company Aleph 2 and the acquisition of Alpha Software's Alphaworks. Lotus won its look and feel lawsuit against Paperback Software and launched similar suits against Borland International Inc and The Santa Cruz Operation. Boom days may be over for database publishers. (Oracle Corp. has profitable 2nd quarter, but faces uncertain future) Oracle Corp makes a profit during the qtr ending Nov 30, 1990, but the database market may have an uncertain financial future. Oracle's revenues increased 29 percent to $269 million during 2nd qtr of FY 1991; company revenues for the same qtr 1990 were only $209 million. Rather than attributing the growth to software licenses, which only increased 14 percent, Oracle owes its progress to services, which claimed a 63 percent increase in revenues. While Oracle lost $36 million in its 1st qtr, net income in 2nd qtr FY 1991 was $6.7 million vs $19 million for the year-earlier period. Other database management system vendors experienced financial stress during 1990. ASK Computer Systems Inc instituted employee layoffs in Nov 1990, Sybase cut back 5 percent of its marketing and domestic sales work force and Ashton-Tate Corp reported losses during 2nd qtr of FY 1990. Fox responds to Ashton-Tate's motion for clarification. (Fox Software Inc. asks that Ashton-Tate's motion in the Dbase Fox Software Inc files its response to Ashton-Tate's request for reconsideration or clarification of the federal court ruling that invalidates the copyright protection of its Dbase products. Ashton-Tate is requesting Judge Terry J. Hatter to qualify his order for several reasons, and in late Dec 1990 company attorneys filed a motion summarizing how Ashton-Tate obtained copyrights to the Dbase products. The motion claims that it is common practice in the software industry to omit a list of works that influence further products. Ashton-Tate did not classify Dbase as derivative works, yet contends that it never intended to deceive the copyright office and that the omissions were not material to the copyright registration. Ashton-Tate seeks to limit Hatter's order to Dbase II and Dbase III and hopes to reinstate registrations on Dbase III+ and Dbase IV. Microsoft to announce Excel 3.0 for Mac, OS/2, Windows. (Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 3.0 for Windows) Microsoft Corp develops the next generation of Excel spreadsheet software with versions for Windows 3.0, the Macintosh and OS/2. Excel 3.0 for Windows, available before the others, will ship with Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding libraries to allow users and developers to link graphical, text, and other data together into compound documents. One of Excel's enhancements includes the solver function, which is based on acquired technology from Frontline Systems. The addition of solver capability enables the program to solve single- and multiple-variable problems for goal seeking and other applications. While some beta users are pleased with the enhancement, others claim Excel performs below the standard of similar spreadsheets such as the OS/2 product, Lotus 1-2-3/G. Microsoft has not established a time frame for the release of Excel for Macintosh and OS/2. Radius, Sigma adapt to single slot. (Radius Inc. and Sigma Designs Inc. develop innovative products that adapt to the Apple Macintosh Third party vendors Radius Inc and Sigma Designs Inc adapt to the Apple Macintosh IIsi's one-slot design with innovative products. Radius plans to ship its plug-and play Pivot monitor, which is designed to work from the integrated 8-bit video on the IIsi and IIci motherboards. Radius' latest $1,295 product works in much the same way as the original Pivot, but incorporates proprietary software called Soft Pivot that turns the built-in video display into a Pivot interface board. Sigma Designs has developed an accelerator and compression board for the IIsi and IIci that provides its own expansion slot. The Bullet 3040, slated to ship in Mar 1991, includes a high-speed 32K-byte RAM cache and a 40-MHz compression coprocessor from Stac Electronics. Aldus adds design, editing to Freehand 3.0. (computer graphics software upgrade for Apple Macintosh) Aldus Corp upgrades its Macintosh illustration program FreeHand, incorporating new design, drawing and editing features. FreeHand 3.0 lets users create separate customized floating palettes that list line and color fills, graphic styles and layers. Users can modify, redraw and print specific portions of images, with the Layers palette, which organizes images by allowing them to be separated into particular layers. The $595 package operates in a Preview mode, which provides a color WYSIWYG view of images, or a Keyline mode, which allows faster redraw because it gives users only an outline of elements. FreeHand surpasses the rival Mac drawing program Adobe Illustrator in working with 32-bit TIFF files instead of 24-bit TIFF images, and offers an Undo and Redo feature for as many as 99 previous commands. For $150, registered FreeHand users can upgrade to Version 3.0. Windows 3.0 leads way to single platform. (Microsoft Corp.'s graphical platform dominates market) Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 may emerge as the dominant graphical platform of the 1990's. The company reports that it has sold 20,000 copies of the Microsoft Developers' Kits (SDK) and is shipping beta versions of the Windows-to-OS/2 Software Migration Kit known as the Windows Libraries for OS/2 (WILO). WILO figures prominently in Microsoft's plan to port the Windows application programming interface (API) directly to OS/2 3.X, a portable version of OS/2. The libraries allow developers to migrate their Windows applications to OS/2 Presentation Manager (PM) by relinking their Windows code with OS/2 Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL). Microsoft is developing a Binary Compatibility Layer for OS/2 2.0 that will support Windows applications on top of PM. Developers lacking the resources to support multiple platforms will likely have to decide whether to write for Windows or OS/2 PM. Judge in Ashton-Tate's Dbase suit proves clever as a fox. (Ashton-Tate vs. Fox Software Inc.) (Tech Talk) (column) The Ashton-Tate vs Fox Software Inc. Dbase suit reveals a clever judge who finds a way to dismiss the case. Given the situation of two multi-million dollar software publishers quibbling over the right to use certain words in a computer language, the judge can rule in either of two ways. Since the issues are complex and the judge's decision will undoubtedly involve serious ramifications, he could avoid a decision altogether and dismiss the case. Alternatively, after reviewing the case materials, he could determine that Ashton-Tate unquestionably does not deserve to prevail in its lawsuit. In either case, the judge must find a way to terminate Ashton-Tate's suit. His solution is to capitalize on a small, insignificant fault in Ashton-Tate's past copyright filing. The judge successfully dismisses the entire case by magnifying Ashton-Tate's fault and invalidates their copyrights for Dbase. Graphics drought is expected to end at Macworld. (Aldus Corp.'s FreeHand 3.0, Claris Corp.'s Mac Draw Pro and Deneba Systems Claris Corp, Aldus Corp and Deneba Systems Inc prepare to announce computer graphics software packages at Macworld Exposition 1991. Claris introduces FreeHand 3.0, an illustration program that competes with Adobe Systems' Illustrator 3.0. Claris introduces Mac Draw Pro, which offers wider support for color and cross-platform environments. Priced at $399, Mac Draw Pro is designed to work with the new Macs' integrated 8-bit video; the program includes a proprietary dithering capability that enables an 8-bit video card to display over 2,000 approximated colors. Additional color enhancements include the ability to open multiple color palettes at the same time, full 32-bit color and the option of selecting and viewing colors by name for monochrome users. Deneba introduces $395 Canvas 3.0, which comes with user-definable, ANSI-standard hatching patterns and automatic dimensioning. Behind the screens of computer video. (digitizing and compression in image processing) (Macintosh News) Digitizing and compression products are important elements in the creation of computer video sequences. Full-motion video must be digitized for computer display because video signals are analog and computer graphics output is digital. Products including Video Logic Inc's DVA-4000, Mass Microsystems' Colorspace IIi and Rasterops Corp's Video Colorboard 364 digitize analog broadcast signals for display on a Macintosh monitor. Digitized video sequences must undergo compression before they can be stored on a Mac's disk drive or transmitted across a system's bus. One second of uncompressed 24-bit-per-pixel video requires 27Mbytes. Images can be compressed to 1 bit per pixel before compression is obvious to users. Compression products such as C-Cube Microsystems Inc's The Image Master board comply with compression specifications designed to remove superfluous data in images. AST offers in-house maintenance support. (AST Research Inc.'s Info Fax technical support system) AST Research Inc exploits the in-house microcomputer system maintenance trend with its Info Fax 24-hour fax technical support system. Info Fax offers touch-tone phone ordering capability for over 1,000 technical documents via fax and provides a toll-free help line on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pacific time. The service is targeted at some 70 percent of corporate users who provide in-house maintenance and often attempt to diagnose problems without contacting the manufacturer or utilizing dealer technical support. In many major corporations the biggest buying decision point is not price, but the range of customer support services offered. In-house maintenance teams must not only have the knowledge to maintain new technology, but must also understand the older machines. Apple will have to make its bread and butter more appetizing. (System 7.0 graphical user interface has stiff competition) (State Apple Computer Inc faces severe competition during 1991 in the graphical user interface market. Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0, released in 1990, became the top selling interface and influenced the entire computer industry. Its selling points include its color, graphic features, processing speed, multitasking capability and minimal installation requirements. Competing companies include Tandy, which bundles its Deskmate units with all Tandy microcomputers, and Berkeley Softworks, which offers a windowing, multitasking operating system for 8086 systems. Next offers its own interface, HP offers New Wave and interfaces are available for Unix. Apple's System 7.0 must stay ahead of Windows 3.0 and other competing interfaces if it hopes to maintain customers for its proprietary hardware design. Although System 7.0 offers attractive enhancements, it arrives over a year after Windows 3.0 began shipping. Back to the future, Part IV: headline predictions for 1991. (Tech Street) (column) Market analysts review events that could potentially take place in 1991. Apple bid $750 million in early Jan 1991 for Intergraph, a computer-aided design (CAD) market leader. Since Apple is shifting its emphasis from personal computing to client/server-based technical computing, analysts speculate that Apple is more interested in Intergraph's Clipper RISC processor than in its software. IBM begins original equipment manufacturer (OEM) distribution of personal computers to increase revenues from its entry systems operation. Analysts suspect that the move may precipitate a divestiture much like the company's 1990 divestiture of its typewriter division. Sony acquires Microsoft in order to successfully enter the US workstation market. The corporation has also acquired MCA and aspires to lead the multimedia technology trend. Ashton-Tate experiences increased profits after several years of losses. Altogether now: new object-oriented architectures will lead to modular, cooperating applications. (includes related articles on Apple Computer Inc and Microsoft Corp develop system software technologies that use a structured object-oriented approach, which allows programmers to divide large applications into highly specialized modules. Apple will migrate to its new application architecture through a live link facility called Edition Manager. The software facility, an extension of the cut and paste metaphor, connects documents to existing applications and allows sections or elements of data to be revised. Apple will also implement a tool that can increase the number of events to which applications respond. The Apple Events approach lets applications work cooperatively to pass data, instructions, requests and status messages. Microsoft's approach in its architecture development is to make the document the center of each work session instead of the application. Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is a technology that may achieve this end. Fearless New Year's forecasts to stimulate your thoughts. (Future Tense) (column) Analysts speculate on the trends that may emerge in the computer industry in the 90s. Neural network computing will be widely accepted and will replace mainframe computers in transaction processing. Neural nets will also incorporate speech recognition and machine vision. Unconnected computers will be regarded as anomalies when the communications and computing industries integrate. Portable computers will sell in greater volumes than desktop systems and will influence desktop designs. NeXT Inc will develop interface software for Unix, allowing it to enter the non-engineering knowledge users market. Telecommuting will become prevalent as more companies start to use telecommuting infrastructures to develop distributed business structures. UC Berkeley Professor Lotfi Zadeh will gain recognition for his fuzzy logic applications. As system portability increases, so do the odds of theft. (preventing equipment theft) (The Corporate View) (column) Safeguarding microcomputers against theft is a responsibility companies often disregard. Services exist that discourage theft by marking equipment with registered identification numbers and making an 800 number available to potential purchasers to verify a seller's title, but these vendors cannot offer convincing proof that their system really deters theft. Notebook computers invite theft because they are easy to conceal. Employees sometimes lose portable equipment by leaving it on public transportation, by leaving offices unlocked and by not keeping track of company property. Companies that institute charge-back policies to force accountability may save themselves money. Desktop computers are vulnerable to theft if they are not cabled securely, and thieves may elect to take only a few components from inside a system rather than the entire machine. Professional word processors. (overview of eight evaluations of word processors) (includes related article on testing procedures The products reviewed fall into two categories: character-based programs that translate the model of the typewriter to the computer screen, and programs that are graphical user interface programs for Windows 3.0. Character-based programs generally do not support graphics and rely on past technology. Word Perfect 5.1 is exceptionally powerful and effective, Multimate 4.0's obsolete design does not perform well and Microsoft Word 5.5, Wordstar 6.0 and Displaywrite 5 all perform in the mid-range. Windows products use a typesetting approach rather then the typewriter metaphor. Windows programs are based on the Windows operating system, and allow graphics and text to interact as objects with equal priority on the paper's white space. Programs include the outstanding Word for Windows, the somewhat limited Legacy and Ami Professional, a product that performs in the mid-range. Ami Professional: Version 1.2B. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processing') (Software Review) (Product Lotus Development Corp's Ami Professional 1.2B is a high-power graphical word processor that provides an effective editing environment and strong layout capabilities. Ami Pro wins an 'excellent' rating in the areas of layout, style sheets, import/export, and macros. It rates 'very good' for its network capabilities, speed, font/printer support, mail merge, proofing tools and basic editing. The weakest part of the program is in the area of reference tools. Ami supports only one table of contents and one index. The program is missing a true outliner, but entries may be numbered automatically. The product does not allow concurrent end notes and footnotes, and footnotes are automatically numbered at the end of a document. Ami Pro offers adequate documentation, but does not include the macro manual, which is on-line and printed by special request. Displaywrite 5: Modification 01. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processors') (Software Review) (Product IBM's Displaywrite 5 is a word processor that is most effective in offices that use Displaywrite technology. The standard character-based application is available with a module called Composer that incorporates some desktop publishing and layout capabilities. Displaywrite 5 wins its highest rating of 'good' in the areas of proofing tools, mail merge, reference tools, import/export, speed and error handling. The product performed poorly in the areas of lay out and network capabilities. Displaywrite's documentation is clear and comprehensive, but indexing is limited and there are too many booklets. The relationship of Displaywrite 5 to Composer is unclear and both applications use different menu structures making it confusing for new users. The program's sophisticated mail merge facility performs assembly tasks including form letters and address labels. Legacy: Version 1.1. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processing') (Software Review) (Product Comparison includes NBI Inc's Legacy 1.1 is a Windows word processing product that stresses the desktop publishing concept of frames. This feature adds flexibility in layout and document design because each frame is treated as a separate document that may be linked as well as contain other frames. Legacy wins an 'excellent' rating in the areas of layout, font/printer support, and import/export. The program supports multiple columns and its frames allow users to construct complex documents with multiple text streams. Legacy performed poorly in the area of network as the program does not allow multiple users to open the same file, even in read-only mode. The application lacks macros, true windowing and user dictionaries, but includes effective graphics editing and extensive file conversion. Legacy's documentation addresses most user needs and on-line help is thorough and effective. Multimate: Version 4.0. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processing') (Software Review) (Product Comparison includes Ashton-Tate Corp's Multimate 4.0 is a character-based word processing application that is effective in offices with Wang dedicated word processing. Multimate wins an 'excellent' rating in the area of import/export capability; it supports text formats including DCA/RFT, Word Perfect, Wordstar, Microsoft Word, Office Writer and PFS. Multimate's proofing tools feature an effective spelling checker that corrects misspellings in headers, footers and footnotes as well as the primary text. The product performed poorly in the areas of basic editing, font/printer support, reference tools and value. The products documentation is clear and well indexed, but lacks enough examples that explain various processes. Multimate provides no windowing capabilities and pagination options are ineffective. At $495, Multimate provides substantially less features than other packages such as Word Perfect. Word for DOS: Version 5.5. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processors') (Software Review) (Product Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Word 5.5, provides enhancements to the character-based word processing application Word 5.0. Word 5.5 is much improved with drop-down menus, dialog boxes and buttons, and it emulates the operating style of Word for Windows. Word 5.5 wins an 'excellent' rating in the area of basic editing and speed. The application's editing tools feature column cut and paste, re-definable tabs and automatic hyphenation. Word 5.5's windowing capabilities are extensive and allow users to edit in multiple windows simultaneously. Word 5.5 outperformed a variety of other packages in terms of functional and printing speed. Word's documentation is clear and comprehensive, and on-line help is available. The program performed only 'satisfactory' in the area of network capability. Word 5.5 does not permit access, even in the read-only mode, to an already open file. Word for Windows: Version 1.1. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processors') (Software Review) (Product Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1 leads the competition for Windows word processors. It has emerged as the program of choice in the Windows environment with its substantial features and efficiency. Word for Windows wins an 'excellent' rating in the areas of basic editing, font/printer support, import/export, macros, ease of learning, ease of use and value. The program supports columnar selection, rectangular cut and paste and complex search and replace. Word for Windows also provides hyphenation options, windowing and time-stamping. The application comes with an on-disk macro manual and its documentation is clear and useful. Word for Windows includes a spelling checker that locates double words, but does not check headers and footers and does not backtrack during spell checking. At $495, Word for Windows 1.1 is the strongest overall of the Windows word processors. Word Perfect: Version 5.1. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processors') (Software Review) (Product Word Perfect Corp's Word Perfect 5.1 is a character-based word processing application that offers a multitude of powerful features. The program wins an 'excellent' rating in the areas of font/printer support, import/export, speed, error handling, support policies and value. Word Perfect can import and export a variety of text formats including Wordstar, Multimate, Word and Displaywrite. Word Perfect also supports a number of graphics formats such as PCX, Lotus PIC, CGM, TIFF, HPGL, DXF and Mac Paint. Product support includes 24-hour phone support and a bulletin board on Compuserve. Word Perfect is a complex application that can be difficult to learn. Its user interface is not as easy to use as other graphical word processors. Word Perfect does not offer true automatic style sheets and named styles cannot be attached to a document. Wordstar: Version 6.0. (one of eight evaluations in 'Professional Word Processors') (Software Review) (Product Comparison includes Wordstar International Inc's Wordstar 6.0 is a character-based word processing application that provides effective editing and printing in the basic program and offers several enhancements via add-on programs that work with the basic Wordstar engine. Wordstar 6.0 wins an 'excellent' rating in the areas of mail merge and speed. The product includes FileList, an add-on flat file manager, and reads Dbase and Lotus files directly. Wordstar provides adequate layout capability, but users cannot edit in the WYSIWYG mode. The application has no automatic style sheets, but users can keep a style library and can record styles by example. Wordstar offers clear documentation with solid indexes; it also includes a tutorial and on-line help messages. Wordstar's editing features earn a 'very good' rating; they include column cut and paste, search and replace options, resizable windows, re-definable tabs and time stamping. Testing procedures for word processing change with the new year. (Infoworld Test Center's product evaluation criteria) (How We Test Infoworld Test Center runs its microcomputer word processing tests on either of two hardware platforms: products for Windows 3.0 are run on a Compaq Deskpro 386/20e and character-based applications are run on an IBM PC AT Model 339. Testing involves two documents and each word processing package is installed as the only application on the computer. The first document tests the products' general capabilities and the second document includes subheads such as a Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 worksheet table and a monochrome PCX image. Testing categories include basic editing, proofing utilities, mail merge, layout, style sheets, font and printer support, reference tools, import/export, speed, macros, ease of learning, ease of use, error handling, support policies, technical support and value. The test plan also includes network testing as of 1991. Windows-based schedulers help organize our hectic lives. (Okna Corp.'s The Desktop Set and 1Soft Corp.'s Active Life desktop Okna Corp's $149 The Desktop Set and 1Soft Corp's $149 Active Life are desktop accessory packages that help Windows users organize and manage their time. The Desktop set features a phone book, calendar, dialer, and printing calculator that work together. The phone book lets users build from a basic phone book layout to a highly detailed system. Information including title, address and alternative phone numbers for pagers, car phones and fax machines are accessible by clicking on an icon. Phone books may also be shared over a network. The Desktop Set's calendar is very useful with daily, monthly or yearly calendar views. Active Life is available in Windows, MS-DOS and OS/2 versions and works from a daily schedule on which users enter appointments and other activities. Each activity can have a fixed start time or just an approximation of how much time it will require. A retrospective: was 1990 really such a bad year for the industry? (Q&A: Quindlen and Alsop) (column) Computer industry analysts saw some memorable events during 1990. Portable computers acquired prevalence. Software lawsuits including the Lotus/Paperback suit, which Lotus won, and Lotus' subsequent suit against Borland International over Quattro Pro seemed to indicated that having a good lawyer was more important than developing good products. Ashton-Tate's lawsuit against Fox Software was dismissed and the Apple/Microsoft suit remains unresolved. Microsoft's Windows 3.0 was a notable event in 1990. Software developers including Lotus, Ashton-Tate, Borland and Word Perfect found themselves disadvantaged character-based MS-DOS developers. IBM's Office Vision was a non-event, and IBM itself runs the risk of being a non-event in the microcomputer industry if it does not adopt an open system. NeXT Inc was unsuccessful in marketing hardware despite the experience of Steve Jobs. Integrating Macs into your PC club. (growing number of Apple Macintoshes used in corporate computing make connectivity with IBM The need for compatibility between IBM Personal Computers, PC clones and Apple Macintoshes increases as more Macs enter the corporate computing mainstream. Every Apple Macintosh ships with the media access method LocalTalk, which makes it simple to connect Macs to each other and to printers. Apple offers products that expand its Ethernet offerings and is considering building Ethernet, instead of LocalTalk, onto future Macs to encourage connectivity between PCs and Macs. The Apple Super Drive, PC LocalTalk cards and Appleshare PC are connectivity products that have been available since 1988 despite Apple's exclusionary reputation. Apple defends its proprietary position as necessary to the success of the Macintosh, which competed stiffly with Big Blue when it was introduced. Mac and PC users may impede connectivity between the machines because their orientations and expectations differ. Networking Macs with PCs: who's using what. (alternate solutions for connecting Apple Macintoshes with IBM Personal Computer Third-party solutions are the dominant route to connect Apple Macintoshes to IBM Personal Computer and PC compatible networks. Novell introduced Netware for Macintosh in 1988, promoting it as a seamless solution for incompatible systems; however, network managers find Novell's product difficult to implement. Several vendors including Novell, 3Com Corp and AT&T have implemented their Macintosh connectivity software with Apple's Appletalk Filing Protocol (AFP), allowing Mac users to continue using the popular Macintosh user interface. There are a variety of ways to connect Macs to PC networks: machines wired together with Localtalk may be bridged to an Ethernet or token ring backbone; Macs may be put directly onto a network backbone with Ethernet or token ring adapters. Connectivity products include AT&T's Stargroup server for Macintosh, Sitka's TOPS and Appleshare by itself. Two solutions to adding Macs to your Netware LAN. (Novell Inc.'s Macintosh VAP 2.0 and Miramar Systems Inc.'s Maclan Connect 1.1 Novell Inc's Macintosh VAP 2.0 and Miramar Systems Inc's Maclan Connect 1.1 are local area network software gateways that allow Macintoshes to access an IBM Personal Computer file server running Novell Netware 286 2.15c. Also known as Netware for Macintosh 2.0, the Mac VAP performs almost identically to Maclan Connect. The helpful documentation wins a 'good' rating, but it contains confusing Novell lingo. Installing Mac VAP required much more than an hour and needed to be done during off hours since the server must be shut down. Mac VAP wins an 'excellent' score for administration. Maclan Connect 1.1, which also functions as a file server, saves space on the Netware server. The product's documentation gets a 'poor' rating because it is scant and lacks a detailed set-up section. One error during benchmark testing caused the Maclan Connect server to lock and earns a 'satisfactory' rating. LAN companies evolve in face of gloomy economy. (local area networks) Local area network vendors may escape the worst of the forecast recession, already being felt in declining sales of standalone microcomputers. Some industry analysts predict as much as a 25 to 30 percent growth rate for networked computing, compared to a bleak 2 to 12 percent rate forecast for standalone computers. Major firms have already completed the automation process and small to medium-sized firms are leery of new investments in the current economic climate. Instead, firms are turning to networking to get the most out of systems already in place, creating opportunities for vendors if servers, adapters and other networking equipment, along with LAN-specific software packages, and for network consultants to put it all together. Dataquest projects growth of the microcomputer LAN market from 28 percent in 1989 to 69 percent in 1994. Shakeouts are bound to accompany the growth, and LAN specialists are adopting various means of coping, with some larger vendors, notably 3Com Corp, narrowing their focus, while many smaller entities seek to diversify. Who'll be the Novell of the '90s? A look at some of the hottest LAN contenders in the next decade. Networking hardware and software firms dominated the 1980s, spurred by the explosion in desktop computing and the appearance of the first small local area networks (LANs). With LANs set to dominate the 1990s the firms that supply internetworking hardware such as adapters, routers, and hubs, and those that produce network management and electronic-mail software packages are poised to win big in the market for interconnectivity products. Synernetics Inc, Wellfleet Communications Inc and Shiva Corp are likely to be the brightest stars in the LAN connectivity constellation. Synernetics Synernetics, founded in 1988, has a diverse product portfolio that includes Station Management (SMT) software and the Lanplexor intelligent wiring hubs. Wellfleet, founded in 1986, offers multiprotocol routers with bridging capabilities for both large and small LANs. Shiva Corp, founded in 1985 as a Macintosh research and development operation, gained entry into the mainstream LAN market through acquisition of the rights to Novell's Fastpath 4 Appletalk-to-Ethernet gateway, and now has a list of nine products, including peripheral sharing, dial-in access, bridging and multiprotocol routing products. Superlans will dominate 1990s computing. (Technology trends; includes a related article on Nanometrics' Speed Demons The 1990s will see the emergence of a type of local area network (LAN) that will be known as superlans, a term that relates to LAN in the way the term supercomputer relates to computer; the main component of both supercomputers and superlans is support for parallel processing. The advantage of the superlan will be its ability to share powerful computing resources, using the concept of fully distributed processing to distribute both front-end and back-end processing, providing parallel processing at microcomputer prices. The nucleus of a superlan will be a yet-to-be-developed piece of hardware known as a resource server, corresponding to the file server that forms the core of a LAN, and running an operating systems smart enough to take advantage of all the resources available to it. Fiber-optic cable will be a key ingredient of the superlan, along with intelligent disk controllers, and intelligent network interface cards. Developers will have to decide which tasks are worth the overhead involved in splitting them up for distribution. As with any new technology, the development of true standards will be crucial to the success of superlans, particularly with regard to the format of data, format and content of instruction packets, translation of instruction set types and synchronization. Businessland looks to LANs for rescue: company believes its future depends on its network systems division. A fourth consecutive quarterly loss has triggered the fourth corporate reorganization in an 18-month period at computer reseller chain Businessland Inc. The latest reorganization, engineered by new VP of Strategic Planning Leslie McNeill, divides the sales efforts between sales of low-margin boxes and a new network systems division, to be headed by Michael Poehner, senior vice president of sales and marketing. Businessland hopes to leverage its relationship with Fortune 500 companies by convincing the firms to use the new division for strategic planning and application development. McNeill says the new division will develop both vertical and horizontal applications, playing a major role in the downsizing of mission-critical applications to microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs). Strategic partnerships with value-added resellers and software developers will be central to the new strategy. Some industry analysts are skeptical of the new strategy, particularly with regard to the willingness of corporate customers to become involved with Businessland in its current financial status. Businessland execs are philosophical about the criticism, regarding the new strategy as a long-term proposition. Allchin's departure will not hurt Banyan in the long run. (senior vice president Jim Allchin) The departure of Banyan Systems senior vice president Jim Allchin is not an omen foreshadowing another round of defections of senior executives but actually a harbinger of good things to come, says Banyan marketing vice president Jim D'Arezzo. D'Arezzo says Allchin's new position as a director of the Networking Business Unit of Microsoft Corp serves to cement relations between the two firms and will actually be a plus for Banyan. D'Arezzo maintains recent additions of several new marketing management positions bring new blood to Banyan's marketing effort and will help it increase its market share. D'Arezzo acknowledges the firm's image problem and likens it to a Model A on a superhighway. But he maintains the company is financially sound, a view backed up by industry analysts, and characterizes Banyan as a survivor. Regardless of this, at least one analyst feels Banyan must merge or form a strategic alliance in order to crack the $500 million annual revenue barrier. Rumors abound that Microsoft is eyeing Banyan with thoughts of a buyout, but neither party is talking. Citrix hopes to squeeze success in OS/2; Florida company bases future on operating system with Multiuser. (company profile) Citrix Systems Inc, a Coral Springs, Fl company, was founded in 1989 on the strength of venture capital funding and the belief that OS/2 will become the dominant operating system. Citrix announced Multiuser, its first product, in 1990, and expects to release the advanced OS/2-based system in first quarter 1991. Multiuser is characterized as the first secure, multiuser platform compatible with the range of OS/2 development tools and off-the-shelf personal productivity applications. Former IBMer Ed Iacobucci, known as the 'Father of OS/2', is one of the cofounders of Citrix, and several of the original IBM development team are also on board. Iacobucci taps Multiuser's look and feel, which are similar to DOS, as one of its strong points, along with strong security and good underlying features. Intel has formed a strategic relationship with Citrix that involves Intel's high-end processors, and Microsoft has been very supportive. Citrix is currently developing a distribution program for Multiuser with Ingram Micro D. Considering the Netware login script commands. (fifth in a series) (Hands On Netware) (tutorial) The fifth in a series on using the Netware login script utility presents a scenario that includes a small program to check the archive attribute parameter on a file and involves using a DOS SET parameter at the DOS level and nested IF statements at the login script level. The program facilitates network troubleshooting by allowing the network administrator to keep tabs on the changes users have made on their individual workstation environments, usually to the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. Giving all users only WRITE rights to the UPDATE.LOG file instead of rights to the directory preserves the file from accidental creation or deletion. A running record of the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files can be created, but users must be granted CREATE and DELETE as well as WRITE rights to these directories as they may update these files and/or log in more than once a day. Output offers printers for Netware LANs; new line and laser printers boast high speed and low price. (Output Technology Corp Output Technology Corp introduces the Vista, a new, low-cost line printer with a print rate of 240 lines per minute that can attach to a file server, workstation, or directly to the network cable via an optional Ethernet interface. The Vista features enclosed paper feed and storage, heavy duty motor and bearing materials, and a highly effective sound baffle on the back. Emulation is supported for the Dataproducts LB-615, Epson FX-100, IBM Proprinter XL, and IBM 4214, 4234, 5224, 5225, 5256, and 3287 printers. Mean time between failures for this $2,995 unit is 15.8 months. The company also debuts a low-end version of its Lasermatrix 1000 Model 1 continuous-form laser printer, the Model 3, priced at $5,995, $2,000 less than the Model 1. The Model 3 lacks the scaleable fonts and some of the hardware of the Model 1 and is more of a straight Hewlett-Packard (HP) implementation. It offers up to 16 pages per minute printing and supports emulation of HP's Laserjet Series II, HP2235 Series 480 Ruggedwriter and IBM's Proprinter II. The Model 3 is several times faster than the Vista, but also several times more expensive to use. Purchasers of the Model 3 can later upgrade to the Model 1 for $2,700. Xtek station incorporates robust security; each pc can be customized for eight unique configurations. (Secura/386SX) Xtek Electronics Inc introduces the Secura/386SX, a file server with magnetic card reader and access controls built in to take network station security a step beyond the diskless level. Up to eight custom configurations per station can be set up, keyed to access cards provided by the network supervisor or to each user's own magnetic strip credit card or employee identification card. The Secura/386SX also features encryption capabilities to help deter theft of the station and data on the optional hard disk and maintain privacy of floppy disk data if the user is allowed to eject the diskette. Lack of a manual ejection control ensures only authorized users can eject the floppy, and access controls render the unit essentially diskless. Each unit has its own silicon serial number for encryption purposes, and drives from the station can not be read without this component. The Secura disables itself if the case is opened by an unauthorized person, and any modification to the boot sector also disables the unit. The supervisor must unlock the station with a master security card in both cases. Without a network adapter, the Secura/386SX is priced at $2,295; with an adapter for Arcnet, the price is $2,395, and 10Base-T or Ethernet versions are $2,595. Pricing for token-ring versions varies. Exabyte responds to DAT 'hype' with new 8mm line; performance enhancements rival 4mm technology. (digital audio tape) Exabyte Corp, the sole manufacturer of 2.5Gbyte, 8mm tape drives, responds to a flurry of 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) product introductions with a new 8mm drive, a series of tape jukeboxes and enhancements to existing products. A 116-cartridge library, the EXB-120, is being evaluated by Exabyte's OEMs, while a 10-cartridge library is expected to be released by the end of first quarter 1991. A high-speed search feature, currently available on new drives and expected to be released as an upgrade for existing drives in mid-1991, enables the EXB-8200 drives to achieve search speeds of up to 15 Mbits/s, while the new EXB-8500 drives can search at up to 187.5 Mbps with a data compression option. The EXB-8500, which offers twice the storage capacity of the 8200 as well as greater transfer and search rates, is downwardly compatible with the earlier drives and can read tapes created in the latter. LAN wiring hubs can be critical points of failure; but physical layer downtime can be prevented. A study by Forrester Research Inc has determined that local area networks average 6 percent downtime and that more than 50 percent of the failures are due to physical layer failures. The increased reliance on wiring hubs as a method of distributing LAN connections makes them potentially a critical point of failure. Several strategies can be employed to reduce this risk. The most common physical-layer failure, a malfunctioning or broken cable, can be obviated by installation of a redundant cable, but care must be taken to ensure that primary and backup cables are not run in the same bundle. Because active electronics are involved failure of the electronics or of the power supply can threaten the hub. Engineering practices that reduce this risk include insuring that all components in the critical path have double reliability or are themselves duplicated; or insuring that all critical components are removed from the critical path by allowing automatic switchover to a backup component and by making such components field replaceable. Properly implemented network management capabilities can significantly reduce downtime. Intel print servers support twisted-pair, thick Ethernet. (Personal Computer Enhancement Operation to broaden Netport line) Intel Corp's Personal Computer Enhancement Operation (PCEO) introduces two additions to its line of Netport print servers, adding support for twisted-pair, 10Base-T and thick Ethernet cable. The current version of Netport supports thin Ethernet and allows the connection of printers anywhere on a network in under 10 minutes. The twisted-pair version includes an RJ-45 connection to support links to 10Base-T networks. Current versions support Netware 2.1x and Netware 386 and future support is planned for other standard network operating systems. The standalone unit is equipped with internal printer server software, eliminating the need to shut down the network while installing the print server. The Netport series, which was jointly developed by Intel and Microtest, is transparent to end users, requiring no conventional memory on the user's workstation or network file server. Both the twisted-pair and thick Ethernet versions are priced at $695 each. All servers in the series offer a three-year warranty and are third-party certified by Novell. Dynamic maps plot network changes: environments sometimes change daily, and the maps do, too. (tutorial) Rapid changes in the makeup of a local area network make it vital for a network manager to have some means of keeping track of multiple variables pertaining to LAN topology and data pertaining to the equipment that comprises the LAN. Dynamic maps, encompassing both an embedded database and a log to keep track of events, constitute just the sort of tool needed for such a task. A dynamic map is essentially a sophisticated form of distributed monitoring system, permanently attached to a network and dedicated to continuous monitoring of its operation. Three views of the network are provided: a macro view, detailing the various sections and their interconnect; a segment view, documenting the various nodes on the segment; and a nodal view, documenting details of the node and its user. For truly dynamic operation, the map must immediately reflect, with a distinct icon, the location of any new node as soon as it is added to the network. The map will also correctly reflect the length of the network cable and the location of each node at a given moment. The log keeps track of all additions or movements of nodes and notes when a node has been inactive for a relatively long time. Such maps are critical to troubleshooting 'plug-in and play' networks. U-B debuts net management system: Net Director manages components of local and wide area networks. (Ungermann-Bass) (product Ungermann-Bass introduces Net Director, network management software for the OS/2 operating system intended to provide management of the physical components of both local and wide area networks. The package primarily targets networks built around U-B's Access/One structured wiring hubs, and the initial release monitors only U-B equipment, but Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support has been promised by mid-1991. Network Director comprises a SQL Server engine, Database Manager front end, configuration tools, download server, event logger, fault monitor, network resource monitor, and a number of utilities. A topological map application is scheduled for release late in 1991. Pricing for Net Director ranges from $7,500 to $16,000, depending on configuration. The topological map will be available to existing users as a free upgrade. Configuration guidelines for wide area networking: links vary greatly in terms of cost and performance. (tutorial) The types of links used to build a wide area network (WAN), including X.25 networks, dial-in and leased voice lines, digital links and high-speed links, vary widely in cost, ease of implementation, and level of performance. Local area networks can be connected through a public X.25 network service, such as Tymnet; through a series of point-to-point links established by the network operator; or through a combination of the two approaches. Public networks offer distinct advantages for long distances and low traffic levels, for international networks, and through its elimination of the need to design the network, and buy and maintain the equipment. Point-to-point networks are better for networks with a high amount of information and networks where high speed is a priority. The mixed approach allows the implementation of public networks in the network segments where they are optimum and of point-to-point in the areas where they offer the best performance. Line costs are a primary consideration when designing a WAN; other considerations include high-speed modems, applications compatibility, multivendor connectivity, and line availability. IBM, 3Com release management specs: joint effort defines standard for developing heterogeneous packages. (specifications) IBM and 3Com Corp have jointly developed a set of network management specifications, designated Heterogeneous LAN Management (HLM), to promote interoperability of mixed Ethernet/Token-Ring networks. HLM, which has been released for industrywide review, is intended to allow network operating system vendors to develop a common network management software package for heterogeneous operating systems and hardware. HLM station manager agent software will reside in each network node and a network management station manager package will reside on the central network management console. The draft specifications, which have been sent for review to such networking vendors as Novell, Microsoft and Banyan, cover all physical wire protocols, outline all packet frame formats, and provide developers with a set of common interfaces for the higher levels of the Open Systems Interconnection stack. Interested parties can contact either IBM or 3Com to get a copy of the specifications for review. Vendors will have approximately eight weeks to return the documents with comments and suggestions, after which IBM and 3Com will compile a joint final version of the specifications. Wait no more! Image processing on your LAN. (local area network; includes a related article on imaging excerpted from a paper Image processing, once based on mainframes and minicomputers, is making its way to local area networks, aided by developments in networking technology that are removing the traditional obstacles to such a move: limited microcomputer CPU capabilities and limited LAN transmission media bandwidth. The introduction of packages specifically designed for image processing on microcomputers has led LAN users to install these packages on standalone LANs, utilizing SQL data bases for indexing and retrieval and CD-ROM or optical jukeboxes for storage. Bandwidth solutions include 10Mbps Ethernet, 16Mbps token-ring and 100Mbps Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). CD-ROM as a storage solution offers an average access time of 500 milliseconds; optical jukeboxes are valued for the amount of data they can store. A prototype LAN-based image processing system is described. Isicad offers multiuser CAD package. (computer-aided design; Cadvance 4.0) (Software Review) (evaluation) Cadvance 4.0, from Isicad, is being marketed as a multiuser computer-aided design (CAD) package that takes full advantage of new microcomputer networking technology. It is certified for Netware and Netware 386, and other platforms are currently under test. Network installation of Cadvance is problematic; first-time users should install it first as a standalone to get the feel of the package. Ease of use is good, thanks to a point and click menuing interface. Interoperability, manageability and performance are all rated as good, and documentation and support are excellent, Drawbacks include Cadvance's major memory consumption, requiring an expanded memory and expanded memory manager for use on a network, and the fact that distributed processing capabilities are only available for Netware 386. Pricing for a standalone system starts at $3,295. A five-node concurrent license is $12,000, and a ten-user license is $20,000. Cadvance's range of features makes it a good value at these prices. Out of the woods with Forest and Trees: LAN-based information system monitors vital enterprise-wide data in real time. (Software Forest & Trees is an executive information system from Channel Computing that combines characteristics of both spreadsheets and databases to act as a 'facilitator' program, using Structure Query Language (SQL) commands to retrieve data from designated files on the user's hard disk, the network, or from other sources connected to the network. An excellent array of features includes a visualization resembling a spreadsheet display, and excellent ease of use, requiring no more of the user than the ability to operate a mouse. Installation of either the standalone or the network version of Forest & Trees is equally straightforward. Network security is good and manageability is excellent. Documentation is spare, but readable and thorough; support is good. Error handling is rated as good. The evaluator found no significant drawbacks to this package, which is priced at $2,295 for a five-user pack; other prices and configurations are available. Forest & Trees earns an overall rating of excellent. Powercore offers advanced network scheduling program: Network Scheduler II is designed for many users. (Software Review) Network Scheduler II is a network calendar and scheduling package from Powercore priced at $195 for a five-user version; additional users may be added in 20-user increments at a cost of $395 per increment. The package was designed to let users keep their own productivity tools in place, and therefore works with all the popular local area networks and many electronic-mail packages. A good range of features includes the ability to set up appointments and meetings for groups or individuals and the ability to schedule resources, such as overhead projectors or conference rooms. Network security is good and interoperability is rated as good despite a tendency to hang other applications when invoking the package's terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) feature. Manageability is good. Installation is fairly straightforward, barring a few quirks, and ease of use is satisfactory. Documentation and support are satisfactory. Overall, Network Scheduler II is a satisfactory package, and may be a good choice for those looking for a good basic calendaring/scheduling program with electronic mail tie-ins. Planisoft schedules time for networked Macs and PCs: product lets different computers share resources. (Software Review) Planisoft, from ASD Software Inc, is scheduling software that is essentially a group-wide day planner. Planisoft can find a common free block of time for scheduling a meeting, or can be used to analyze schedule conflicts. It can also be extended to the scheduling of resources, such as conference rooms. Planisoft works across platforms in a network; the evaluation copy was licensed for three Windows users and three Macintosh users. Planisoft does not pose network security problems. Installation and use are rated excellent, as is ease of learning. Documentation and support are satisfactory, as is error handling. A full range of features includes an apparently perpetual calendar that can range either forward or backward from the present. The main drawback of this package is that it depends on group users to manually maintain their own day planners accurately. The overall rating for this package is excellent, and it is considered a good value. A single-user version is priced at $349; five-user and ten-user versions are $895 and $1,295, respectively. Diamond Prospector tracks contacts: Diamond Data Management product monitors sales leads, customer inquiries, and sales Diamond Prospector, $195, is contact management software from Diamond Data Management that allows network users to keep track of customer contacts, either by mail or by telephone. At a management level, Diamond Prospector can be used to track the effectiveness of sales campaigns and of individual sales personnel. Diamond Prospector is essentially a multiuser Foxbase+ application that comes bundled with a runtime copy of Foxbase+. A built-in word processing feature, easily accessed, allows the user to makes notes about a contact call while in process. A major drawback to installing Diamond Prospector in a sales organization that has been in operation for some time, in addition to resistance on the part of the staff, is the necessary effort of transferring massive amounts of paper-based data into the Diamond Prospector system. The package is best suited to those environments where the staff can afford to be in a single program constantly, although it could be run in a window. Postscript printer software for Netware: PS Manager simplifies printing with Postscript, uses standard Novell utilities. (product PS Manager, $195 from National Software Co, is printer software that provides support for Postscript printers on Novell networks, eliminating the need to first convert text files in Postscript format. PS Manager is a Value-Added Process (VAP) that runs on a file server or bridge and can support up to 40 different printers while using less than 80Kbytes of RAM, using Novell's Queue Management Service (QMS) to provide compatibility with Netware. Installation is easy, and a built-in installation program can be used as an option. A series of commands generated from the command line facilitate management of PS Manager. Documentation is sparse but thorough. Technical support is provided free over a toll line during business hours and a fax number for technical support is also provided. PC Anywhere allows remote access, eases troubleshooting: DMA package enables one pc to control another. (Software Review) PC Anywhere IV/LAN is a remote access and control package from Dynamic Microprocessor Associates (DMA). With PC Anywhere, one microcomputer can control another as though the two were directly connected, either across a network or over a modem and phone lines. Primary applications are file transfer between remote micros and the network, and remote one-on-one training and troubleshooting. Installation is easy; ease of use is good, although the wealth of features available may be a bit daunting for less experienced users and those used to the standalone version of PC Anywhere. Network security is good. Earlier versions of PC Anywhere have had difficulty connecting through certain types of digital PBXes, and although DMA claims the problems are resolved, users should conduct their own tests. PC Anywhere IV/LAN is a valuable package for those needing remote access capability. PC Anywhere IV/LAN is priced at $495; PC Anywhere IV standalone, required for access from a remote site, is $179. Batch Console maintains login scripts: Knozall Systems tool can build interactive batch files, customized menus. (Software Review) Batch Console, $295 per server from Knozall Systems, is an easy to install and use Netware administrator's tool designed to simplify and enhance the job of editing login scripts and login batch files. While not a 'killer app', Batch Console will be fully appreciated by any network administrator who has ever been faced with the task of tuning an entire department's login scripts to accommodate a new piece of hardware. In addition to the main script editor, Batch Console comprises a utility to construct batch file menus using DOS error-level statements and one to prompt the user for input during batch file execution, a mapping utility, and one that controls interaction with SEND and BROADCAST messages. The package's batch file utilities facilitate building customized end-user menus. A nice feature of the mapping utility is that it shows the drive letters available in addition to the drives already mapped. Grandslam 3270 boards combine innovative features: UNI adapters support all 3270 emulation software. (Hardware Review) United Networks Inc's (UNI) Grandslam 3270 line of 3270 adapter boards offers a number of innovative features that distinguish the boards from the mass of 3270 emulation boards already on the market and establish UNI as a strong contender in the computer communications market. One of the most outstanding features is support for all standard 3270 emulation software products, eliminating the need to switch software packages when switching boards. Software-loadable microcode insures against obsolescence. Installation is simple, involving only plugging the card into an available slot, configuring the DIP switch and loading the microcode. Documentation is clear and logically presented, with copious illustrations and good readability. A standard adapter is priced at $445; the PS/2 version is $495 and a PC VGA board is $795, making the Grandslam boards more than competitive with DCA's Irma III board. Microsoft readies GUI blitz with Excel 3.0 triumvirate. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and Excel spreadsheet Microsoft Corp plans to lead the computer software industry with its introduction of new versions of its Excel 3.0 spreadsheet software that support graphical user interfaces (GUIs), including Microsoft Windows 3.0, the Apple Macintosh and OS/2 Presentation Manager. Microsoft expects to release the Windows 3.0 version in Jan 1991 and the other two by Jun 1991. These enhanced versions of Excel offer identical feature sets and file and macro compatibility across all three GUIs. The cross-platform compatibility is especially crucial for companies that work in mixed hardware and software environments. Organizations also save on the time it takes for end-users to develop proficiency at using spreadsheets. Software links LAN packages under Windows. (Gilbert and Associates' Office Solution, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 Gilbert and Associates' Office Solution is an integrated office automation software package that sells for as little as $195 per workstation. The new software product is the computer systems integrator's first commercial package that links Microsoft Corp's Windows applications across the OS/2 LAN Manager network management software. Office Solution allows users to integrate four packages: Polaris Software's PackRat personal information manager, Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1, Saros Corp's Mezzanine document-management program and Da Vinci Systems Corp's eMAIL for Windows. Office Solution is the result of work Gilbert and Associates has done for individual clients to provide a centralized office automation system. The price of the software is initially $395 per workstation but drops to $295 per workstation for 250 users and $195 per workstation for more than 500 users. NetWare breach opens door for malicious entry. (Novell Inc.'s NetWare network operating system security problems) Novell Inc's NetWare 286 and NetWare 386 network operating systems have a defect that allows unauthorized access into the local area network. Novell announces that its engineers discovered the gap in Dec 1990, but no customers have experienced the problem so far. The security breach can occur if an a network manager does not activate a standard NetWare intruder-detection option. Unauthorized users can enter an unlimited number of passwords and gain access to the network. All the NetWare packages that have password encryption, which includes all NetWare 386 programs and NetWare 2.15, are susceptible to the problem. Novell announces that it is sending a patch over CompuServe that should provide more security against intrusion. The software publisher also intends to make NetWare's standard intruder-detection feature the default, so that it loads automatically to eliminate the need for a manual start up. IBM model 95 stands up to Compaq's Systempro. (IBM PS/2 95 XP 486 and Compaq SystemPro 486-840 file servers) (Hardware Review) (PC The IBM PS/2 95 XP 486 file server performs well in price-performance measures and expansion capabilities as compared to its archrival the Compaq SystemPro 486-840. The IBM machine tested sells for $41,230 and comes with a 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor with 256Kbytes of external RAM cache, 16Mbytes of RAM, four 320Mbyte small computer system interface (SCSI) disk drives, two SCSI disk controllers, an XGA adapter and an IBM 8512 color monitor. The Compaq machine tested sells for $43,195 and includes one Compaq Intelligent Drive Array Controllers, 16Mbytes of RAM and 1.26Gbytes of hard-disk storage capacity. Each machine is tested with files moving from one, eight and 16 client stations. The machines function similarly and are similarly equipped, but the SystemPro performs at this level with only one controller. Adding a second controller pushes the more expandable SystemPro beyond the IBM's level. Apple gears up for pivotal year; some PC managers say it's too late for the Mac. (Apple Computer Inc.) Computer industry observers express skepticism that the Apple Macintosh microcomputer can survive in the corporate market. Many corporate sites see the Macintosh as useful only in niches, such as desktop publishing, despite improved connectivity and lower pricing. Some corporate MIS managers say that the installed base of IBM-compatible microcomputers is too large for the Macintosh to infiltrate. The introduction of the Macintosh is sometimes considered more trouble than it is worth, especially for microcomputer support staff who would need to maintain both types of systems. Apple's market share in the US desktop market is shrinking, from a high of 14.9 percent in 1987 to an estimated 10 percent in 1990. Laptops, Mac upgrades to lead corporate thrust. (Apple gears up for pivotal year) Apple Computer Inc adopts a three-part product development and marketing strategy for 1991 in order to further its penetration of the corporate market. The computer maker intends to focus on improving performance/cost relationship by offering more computing power at the same price. Apple's strategic planning also includes the development of more, smaller microcomputers and laptops and better production control through increasing reliance on licensed technology. Apple is embracing the Ethernet topology with an expected announcement of 10M-bps 10BaseT Ethernet network interface cards and is set to kick off its miniaturization strategy with a new 14-pound portable computer that will sell for less than its $4,900 predecessor. The company hopes to better its price/performance offering by introducing a Motorola Inc 68030-based machine with a minimal price increase. Compaq seeks to refine product line: key additions to include 386DX notebook, Systempro enhancements. (Compaq Computer Corp.) Compaq Computer Corp plans to maintain its reputation as a leader in computer technology with enhancements to its Systempro file server line and the introduction of a new laptop computer. The computer maker's research and development department is also working on high-end laser printers and reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) products. Industry observers note that customers are not likely to see many new products from the company in 1991 since it feels it already has a comprehensive line of products. Rather Compaq is laying the groundwork for 1992 and 1993. Analysts believe the most exciting introduction from Compaq will be a portable computer that uses the Intel 80386DX microprocessor and is expected to have a minimum of 4Mbytes of RAM, a color VGA screen and up to 200Mbytes of storage capacity. Microsoft preparing trackball device for laptops. Damore, Kelley. Microsoft Corp is working on the development of a trackball device to be used on laptop computers. The trackball is shaped like a half-moon and called the Ballpoint. The device can be clamped on the side of a laptop computer or remain stationary as a separate piece of equipment. Both left- and right-handed users can use the two sets of programmable keys. Analysts expect it to be introduced sometime in the 1st qtr of 1991 and estimate the list price to be around $125. Microsoft claims that the laptop computer market is growing quickly and that there is a market for their new device, which accommodates the needs of business travellers. Many industry observers concur with Microsoft about the need for and the market for such a trackball. PageMaker 4.0 for Windows in beta. (Aldus Corp.'s desktop publishing software) Aldus Corp's $795 PageMaker 4.0 desktop publishing software package for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is in beta testing and is expected to be released in the 1st qtr of 1991. The new desktop software features many of the options found in the Apple Macintosh version as well as new capabilities, including a new text editor and support for enhanced color. PageMaker 4.0 supports documents as long as 999 pages and includes new color-handling capabilities. The software displays graphics in three levels of resolution and s supports the 24-bit TIFF and Encapsulated Postscript files. Beta-testers are especially impressed with the new Story Editor and other top-of-the-line word processing functions. Firm eyes interapplication communications course. (UserLand Software Inc.'s IAC Toolkit program development tools) (product UserLand Software Inc is the brain child of Dave Winer, the former head of Living VideoText Inc. It is a start-up software publisher whose objective is to create software development tools that enable a high level of communication among applications and across multiple platforms and networking protocols. The company hopes to become a pioneer in the emerging field of interapplication communications (IAC). IAC technology has objectives similar to data-integration tools but, instead of combining different data types within a single document, it allows users to automate tasks across applications. The first product in this new approach, UserLand's IAC Toolkit, is available and the second product is a scripting facility that is expected to ship sometime in 1991. Microsoft to gear 32-bit Windows for networking. (Microsoft Corp.) Sherer, Paul M. Microsoft Corp works on making its Windows 3.0 graphical user interface a better platform for computer networking needs. The software publisher plans a 32-bit version of Windows that it says is going to include a set of extensions, that enable users to customize Windows-based workstations with advanced networking capabilities. The extension is called the Windows Networking Services; planned features are the ability to manage software licensing, perform remote network administration functions and utilize interprocess-communication (IPC) mechanisms, including support for OS/2 communications. The software, preliminarily named Windows 3.2, is expected to be released in mid-1992. File-transfer, other networking woes limit Mac's acceptance. (Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh microcomputer) Apple Computer Inc's Macintosh microcomputers have a hard time penetrating the corporate market because of problems with connectivity. Information systems (MIS) managers say they are less likely to buy a Macintosh than an IBM-compatible desktop system because they need to move files among multiple applications on multiple platforms without the aggravation of reformatting. MIS executives surveyed also express concern about the Macintosh's ability to access mainframe applications written by third parties. Apple, which traditionally focuses on small software developers, indicates that it is stepping up efforts to work with mainframe software companies and make the mainframe-to-Macintosh link easier. In addition, the new version of the Macintosh operating system, System 7.0, is expected to help with dynamic data interchange. Intel's 9,600-bps, full-featured modem is a sure bet. (Intel Corp. Personal Computer Enhancement Div.'s 9600EX modem) (Hardware Intel Corp Personal Computer Enhancement Operation's $799 9600EX is an inexpensive but fully-equipped, 9,600-bps external modem that supports advanced communication protocols including V.32, V.42 and V.42bis compression. The modem is priced around $350 less than similar models on the market and performs well when subjected to several calling and answering situations. The Intel 9600EX offers backward compatibility through support for the data compression protocol MNP level 5 and with slower modem speeds, including 300 bps, 1,200 bps and 2,400 bps. The modem shows no problems when communicating with other machines through both long-distance and local communication lines. Intel support for the modem includes a limited five-year warranty, 24-hour bulletin board service for technical information, a toll-free 24-hour FaxBack service and good quality documentation. MacWorld Expo products emphasize connectivity. (product announcement) Apple's new emphasis on networking is evident at the upcoming MacWorld Expo 1991. Several add-on communications boards, printers, tape backup units and displays are expected to debut at the trade show, which is being held in San Francisco, CA. Some of the connectivity products include the 518A external 10BaseT transceiver from SynOptics Communications Inc, the EtherPrint Plus Ethernet network adapter from Dayna Communications Inc and a 10BaseT interface from Farallon Corp. Shiva Corp plans a modem that has two new data compression features and a 10BaseT version of Etherport while a new generation of digital audio tape (DAT) drives are expected from MicroNet Technology Inc, including the MicroNet 5000, Retrospect Remote and Raven. MicroTech International is also offering new drives and several vendors plan to show monitors for the Apple Macintosh IIsi and IIci as well as color printers. Poqet PC automates analysis of municipal-parking data. (Poqet Computer Corp.) Poqet Computer Corp's Poqet PC is a lightweight, useful laptop computer that allows for the automation of data collection. The Calgary (Alberta, Canada) Parking Authority finds that the small, one-pound portable provides surveyors with a less cumbersome method of collecting data. The agency employs only half as many surveyors as it did under its previous method of surveying parking habits and recording data. Surveyors used to enter information on a clipboard and paper spreadsheet and it took two weeks to analyze and collate the data. Use of the PC Poqet eliminates the need to enter information twice and accomplishes the collation and analysis of data in 30 minutes. Drawbacks in using the Poqet PC is its inability to deal with adverse weather conditions and the small display screen, which is hard to read. Xircom adapter uses two ports to boost printing. (Xircom Inc.'s Multiplexor) (Hardware Review) (PC Week Labs First Look) Xircom Inc's $95 Multiplexor connector allows two devices, such as a printer and a pocket network adapter, to share a computer's parallel port. Although the Multiplexor is designed for use with Xircom pocket network adapters, other devices that use the parallel port are supported. Only one of the Multiplexor's ports has interrupt support, however. The connector is easily attached and includes a 5-inch extension cable. The Multiplexor supports NetWare 286 and 386, 3+Share and 3+Open, Microsoft LAN Manager and VINES. Hardware and software compatibility tests show that the Multiplexor works well with popular programs and devices. Xircom's documentation is good, and telephone support is free. Xircom runs an electronic bulletin board which provides access to program updates and support for registered users. Vendors to unveil a plethora of products at MacWorld Expo: Claris readies new MacDraw. (MacDraw Pro drawing software) (product Claris Corp's $399 MacDraw Pro graphics software is an upgrade of the MacDraw II package, due in spring, 1991. It includes over 100 new features such as text and drawing tools and color support. MacDraw Pro can run on any Apple Macintosh Plus or higher computer, and the software supports Apple's 32-bit color QuickDraw system. Over 16 million colors can be displayed on 32-bit color systems, and dithering allows over 2,000 colors to be displayed on 8-bit systems. MacDraw Pro includes polygon and Bezier curve drawing tools, and the program can zoom from 3 to 3,200 percent. Business presentations can be developed with an automatic slide show generator. Word processing features include text block rulers, justification controls, decimal tab settings and line spacing. The Claris XTND file architecture allows file import and export from other XTND applications. Upgrades from MacDraw and MacDraw II cost $99. Products range from voice to 3-D. (Vendors to unveil a plethora of products at MacWorld Expo) (product announcement) Software vendors plan to announce a variety of packages at the 1991 MacWorld Exposition. Among the expected offerings are Quark Inc's $2,495 QuarkXPress Passport desktop publishing software, Paracomp Inc's ModelShop II CAD software, Information Presentation Technologies Inc's $129.95 VoiceFont voice annotation software and Spyglass Inc's $395 Spyglass Transform 2.0 scientific graphing software. QuarkXPress Passport allows users to process documents in 12 different languages. ModelShop II is a computer-aided design package that can create three-dimensional architectural models. VoiceFont records voice messages and places them in text or data files. Spyglass Transform 2.0 displays number sets and formulas in graphical form. Other product announcements include a clip-art library and an address book utility. Lotus' MarketPlace brings marketing to the Macintosh. (Lotus Development Corp.'s MarketPlace:Business data base) (Software Lotus Development Corp's $695 MarketPlace:Business is a directory of 7 million US companies on CD-ROM. The data base includes business names, addresses, telephone numbers and marketing information so users can develop marketing strategies to target appropriate companies. A starter package includes a CD-ROM with 10 percent of the data base; Lotus follows it with the most current complete version of the data base. The interface HyperCard stack is easy to use, and the documentation is helpful. Drawbacks include typographical errors or outdated information in some of the data, and MarketPlace:Business cannot run concurrently with other programs. Mailing list development is easy and flexible, although the program uses a software meter to limit lists to 5,000 names. The data base is updated quarterly, and annual subscriptions cost $150 per year. Adding 5,000 additional names to the software meter costs $400. Norton AntiVirus battles 142 threats with three methods. (Symantec Corp.'s computer virus protection software) (Software Review) (PC Symantec Corp's $129.95 Norton AntiVirus data security software can identify 142 different computer viruses and provides three methods of virus protection. The program can find other viruses by monitoring file read checksums. The memory-resident Intercept module monitors disk reads for evidence of viral activity. The Virus Clinic module searches for viruses in memory and on disk. AntiVirus attempts to remove viruses it detects and repair virus-related damage. The program detected the Frodo 4096, Number of the Beast 512, Jerusalem/Westwood, Fish6, Whale 0C and V101 (Plastique) viruses during the evaluation, but it could not detect Invader or Taiwan3. AntiVirus claimed to find viruses on several virus-free files that included embedded graphical data. Norton AntiVirus is easy to install and to use. Fresh offers modem-sharing bargain. (Fresh Technology Group Inc.'s Modem Assist peripheral sharing device) (Software Review) (PC Week Fresh Technology Group Inc's Modem Assist modem-sharing software runs on any workstation in a NetWare or NetBIOS network rather than requiring a dedicated communications server. The easy-to-install package costs $495 to support up to five modems or $995 to support up to 20 modems. Modem Assist includes helpful documentation and is quickly and easily installed. The program assigns an identification number to each modem, and each workstation runs a 9.5Kbyte memory-resident program. The router and communications program includes ANSI, VT100 and VT52 terminal emulation and Xmodem file transfer protocols. Modem Assist supports communications packages that use Interrupt 14 for addressing. Modem Assist performs background file transfers smoothly and the documentation is excellent. The software can be used with multiport serial cards and supports ProComm Plus, Crosstalk Mk.4, Lexis, Nexis and Co/Session LAN. Signs point to corporate growth of FDDI. (Fiber Distributed Data Interface standard networking) Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networking, which allows 100M-bps data transmission, is gaining popularity as businesses expand their computer networks. The FDDI standard is expected to be used more as products are developed for inexpensive shielded twisted-pair cabling rather than expensive fiber-optic cable. Some firms are investigating plastic fiber-optic interfaces that cost $2,000 as opposed to $4,995 glass fiber adapters. Vendors expect FDDI costs per network node to drop from $6,000 to $2,000 by the end of 1991, and the cost should be $1,000 per node by 1993. Some analysts say that until applications require higher network performance, there is no need to convert to FDDI. Analysts also say that station management specifications required for interoperability must be completed before FDDI finds widespread use. The FDDI station management standard should be completed by Spring, 1991. Systems integrator plans U.S. sites for product interoperability testing. (Business Systems Group Inc.) Business Systems Group Inc (BSG) plans to open 12 product test centers to allow vendors and customers to test computer systems for interoperability. BSG believes major vendors may open their own testing facilities if the service is popular. BSG's Enterprise Technology Centers (ETCs) display network products and allow users without testing laboratories to study products running on wide area networks (WANs). BSG is negotiating with Novell Inc to establish ETCs at over 20 Novell demonstration sites. BSG plans to install a variety of network operating systems on its equipment, and vendors plan to donate products, support and cooperative marketing services. The system currently includes a DEC minicomputer and microcomputers and servers from Dell Computer Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and NCR Corp. The NetWare 386 and 286 LAN currently runs Oracle Server, Microsoft SQL Server and cc:Mail. Connecting PC, Mac systems forces managers to make tyrannical choices. (PC Week Labs) (column) Linking Apple Macintosh microcomputers (Macs) and IBM PC-compatible microcomputers (PCs) within a single network is difficult because most products are designed for the PCs and limit the Mac's capabilities in the network. Ideally, a PC-Mac network would provide equivalent features on both systems while allowing each computer to function normally and use its regular interface. Because no ideal networking software exists and because PC's usually outnumber Macs, network users must use PC software. NetWare for Macintosh and 3+Open for Macintosh limit the number of Mac stations on the network, while NetWare 386 and LAN Manager 2.0 do not allow Macs on the network. New software is not expected to rectify the situation because the more numerous PCs continue to be the focus of network software design. IES tool melds expert-system, CASE technology. (Information Engineering Systems Corp.'s IE: Expert 4.3 program development Information Engineering Systems (IES) Corp's $17,500 IE: Expert 4.3 program development software combines computer-aided software engineering (CASE) and expert-system technology to assist users in developing information-management applications. The expert system collects information regarding business goals, policies and strategies, and helps users to conform to individual business methodologies and software engineering guidelines. The package includes documentation and an on-line tutorial. IE: Expert also includes report-writing functions to improve design documentation. The finished program design can be exported to any hardware environment. IES provides one year of maintenance. Voyetra APIs bring audio to applications. (Voyetra Technologies' application programming interfaces) Voyetra Technologies offers application programming interfaces (APIs) and device drivers that control audio hardware to include sound features in computer programs. The APIs simplify and accelerate the programming process. The high-level API, Voyetra Multimedia Player, includes commands for playing and recording sound from MIDI files or other sources. The low-level APIs control MIDI devices and other digital sound equipment. These APIs can use the SMPTE timing standard. Voyetra Technologies is bundling the APIs with Media Vision Inc.'s audio boards, which can also be licensed to developers for a $1.50 to $5 royalty per application sold. Contrary to popular view, AT&T-NCR deal is good. (Up Front) (column) A merger between AT&T and NCR Corp would benefit both companies as well as the computer industry as a whole. Most analysts say that computer industry mergers are doomed to failure, that AT&T hopes to recover from its failure in the computer market and that NCR's business would be disrupted by the takeover. Computer industry mergers tend to unite businesses that sell proprietary systems without strong market shares, so previous failures do not portend doom for more vigorous companies. AT&T's computer activities are not as dominant as many analysts expected, but the company has over $1 billion in annual sales and has extensive development and manufacturing capabilities. AT&T Bell Laboratories Inc's technology and research would be potent combined with NCR's marketing forces, and AT&T's financial strength would allow lower pricing to better compete with Japanese offerings. Buyers beware of single-vendor Windows bundles. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface software bundles) (The Corporate Software vendors with packages for Microsoft Windows 3.0 are bundling several core applications and offering attractive discounts for them. Although many of the applications are good products, bundled software often requires the user to compromise on some portions and functions. Integrated software is unpopular because most integrated packages are poorly-written in some areas, and bundled software can suffer from the same flaw. Most users prefer to use spreadsheet software from one vendor, a word processing package from another vendor and a data base management system from still another. Bundled software sometimes offers advantages such as simplified data sharing, but if the packages comprising the bundle are not all useful, the bundle is not worth purchasing. 1991 forecast to be year of the purchase order. (many new products will be introduced) (Risky Business) (column) Hardware and software purchases are predicted to increase in 1991 because vendors are preparing revolutionary new products and corporate users are ready to update their technology. Computer industry rumor columnists report that software vendors are rushing to develop new packages, and users are reaching the power limits of existing systems. The new hardware is designed to support more complex software without requiring extensive learning time. The economic slowdown may slow the acceptance of the new technology, but more powerful systems should be accepted regardless of the economic situation. Businesses that resist the move to improved products risk not gaining important productivity improvements. Apple prepares to ride next technology wave. (Apple Computer Inc.'s future plans) (Valley Voices) (column) Executives at Apple Computer Inc plan to make a transition to the next generation of computer technology by reducing profit margins and time to market, increasing Apple's market share and competing more strenuously with Japanese products. Apple's management believes Japanese firms, which have better miniaturization and screen technology than US firms, provide the greatest competition as microcomputers increasingly become part of the consumer electronics market. Apple's five-year plan targets a 20 percent market share by 1995. The company may license the highly-protected Apple Macintosh ROM to increase market share. Stores applaud franchise plans, but pitfalls loom. (Changing Channels) (column) Two major groups in the computer sales industry are royalty-based franchise resellers and cost-plus franchise dealers. According to PC Week's Reseller Insight Panel, both groups are successful. Eighty-six percent of the surveyed dealers who pay royalties to a franchisor say they appreciate the benefits of franchise association. The franchise dealers gain marketing, training, support and profit margin benefits. Ninety-seven percent of the dealers who operate a price-and-delivery franchise say they are satisfied with their franchise agreement. The cost-plus franchise dealers enjoy higher profit margins and increased product availability. These dealers anticipate using the franchisor's technical support services in the future. Both types of franchise dealers may be forced to pay for more future value-added services. 486 EISA servers differ in speed, price; hard disks and controllers have big impact in tower systems' performances. Ten tower-style file servers using the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and Intel's 80486 microprocessor are reviewed. The standard test configuration for the servers includes 16Mbytes of RAM, at least 650Mbytes of hard disk storage and a color VGA monitor. The performance tests measure 20Mbyte read and write times on an Ethernet local area network (LAN) with one, eight and 16 stations active. The tests show that the fastest servers could support a LAN of 96 to 240 users, while the slowest could support 32 to 80 users. The reviewed servers include Advanced Logic Research Inc's PowerCache 33/4e, American Mitac Corp's MiTAC 4280G, AT&T's StarServer S, Compaq's Systempro 486-840, Copam USA Inc's 486V/25 EISA, CSS Laboratories Inc's MaxSys 486TE/33, Dell Computer Corp's System 433TE, HP's Vectra 486, Tangent Computer Inc's MultiServer 433e and Network Connection Inc's Triumph TNX 486/33. Daily reliability is major concern for buyers seeking EISA machines. (Extended Industry Standard Architecture file servers) One important selection criterion for most customers who purchase Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), Intel 80486-based file servers is reliability. Features such as cost-to-performance ratios, expandability and performance are also important to users. Users say they choose HP's Vectra 486 and Compaq's Systempro 486-840 file servers for their reliability. Dell Computer Corp's System 433TE and American Mitac Corp's MiTAC 4280G are selected for their design and construction. Users choose Tangent Computer Inc's Multi-Server 433e and Advanced Logic Research Inc's PowerCache 33/4e for their performance. 486 EISA speed is timely choice over 386 option. (Intel 80486-based Extended Industry Standard Architecture file servers) Customers are choosing Intel 80486-based, Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) file servers because the 486 microprocessor and the 32-bit EISA bus provide faster processing than 80386-based, 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) machines. The EISA systems can use multiple processors to control peripherals such as disk drives, which improves I/O performance. Some users are replacing several 386 file servers with a single 486-based server. A 486 system allows these users to centralize maintenance and increase speed. Advanced Logic Research Inc.: PowerCache 33/4e. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Advanced Logic Research Inc's $19,017 PowerCache 33/4e file server offers good performance, mature design and moderate expansion capability and price. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and a 980Mbyte hard disk. The server is well-designed and solidly constructed. The system has an expansive 128Mbyte RAM limit and eight expansion slots, but maximum storage capacity is a modest 1.96Gbytes. The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) Bustek BT-742A bus controller provides acceptable performance. The server's 16-station test results are the best of any single-disk system. The file server should support 56 to 140 users. American Mitac Corp.: MiTAC 4280G. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, American Mitac Corp's $14,750 MiTAC 4280G file server is low-priced, solidly built and fairly expandible, but its server performance is poor. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and a 660Mbyte hard disk. The 64Mbyte RAM limit is acceptable and up to 3.8Gbytes of disk storage can be held in the case. The system holds eight expansion slots, including six EISA bus-mastering slots. The server's performance was in the lower third of the test group. The system should support 40 to 100 users. AT&T Computer Systems: StarServer S. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, AT&T's $28,904 StarServer S file server offers good performance and expansion capability at a high price. The StarServer test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and 600Mbyte and 300Mbyte hard disks. The system's performance surpasses any of the tested single-disk systems, but the StarServer is slower than the other multiple-disk systems. The server should support 72 to 180 users. The StarServer has a 64Mbyte RAM limit and a limit of 2.6Gbytes of disk storage in the case. The system includes a 396-watt power supply and 10 EISA-bus slots, including six bus-mastering slots. The documentation is thorough and the server is well-constructed, with the largest case of the file servers reviewed. Compaq Computer Corp.: Systempro Model 486-840. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Compaq Computer Corp's $34,697 Systempro 486-840 file server offers excellent performance and a mature design, but in-cabinet drive expansion is limited and the system price is the highest in the test group. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and four 210Mbyte Intelligent Drive Array (IDA) hard disks. The server uses a single disk controller and can hold eight IDA drives for a storage limit of 1.68Gbytes. Compaq is designing IDA drives with more than 210Mbytes of storage. The Systempro includes seven bus-mastering EISA slots, four proprietary expansion slots and a 355-watt power supply. The 256Mbyte RAM limit is the best in the group. The system can support two processors and between 96 to 240 users. Copam USA Inc.: 486V/25 EISA. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Copam USA Inc's $13,419 486V/25 EISA file server offers good performance and a low price, but its expansion capability is limited. The test configuration includes a 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor, 32Mbytes of RAM and a 676Mbyte hard disk. The system's test results indicate that it can support from 64 to 160 users. The server is limited to only 32Mbytes of RAM and 1.34Gbytes of storage, and the power supply is only 220 watts. The 486V/25 has six Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) expansion slots and two Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots. Copam's machine is the only one-drive system to perform acceptably with eight stations operating, perhaps because it has more than 16Mbytes of RAM. CSS Laboratories Inc.: MaxSys 486TE/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, CSS Laboratories Inc's $10,755 MaxSys 486TE/33 file server offers good expansion capabilities and the lowest price in the test group, but its performance is poor and its design is immature. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor, a 1.2Gbyte hard disk, a 400-watt power supply and 11 expansion slots, including six Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots. The MaxSys can hold up to 128Mbytes of RAM and 5.4Gbytes of disk storage. The system's poor performance limits its networking capabilities to 48 to 120 users. The tested system does not work with the Novell NE3200 communications card, so the NE2000 card was used instead. The MaxSys crashes several times during the tests, but a CSS representative says the company would release a new driver for the hard disk to rectify the problem. Dell Computer Corp.: System 433TE. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Dell Computer Corp's $13,717 System 433TE file server offers mature design and acceptable performance and expandability at a reasonable price. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and a 650Mbyte hard disk. The server's test results indicate it can support from 48 to 120 users. The 64Mbyte RAM limit and 300-watt power supply are average for the class, while the 1.98Gbyte storage limit is lower than average. The system includes eight Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots, including six bus-mastering slots. The system is well-designed and solidly constructed, and the documentation is very good. Hewlett-Packard Co.: Vectra 486. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, HP's $19,837 Vectra 486 file server is moderately priced, but it is the slowest system in the test group and provides only moderate expansion capabilities. The test configuration includes a 25-MHz 80486 microprocessor and a 664Mbyte hard disk in an external chassis. The server has a 64Mbyte RAM limit and can hold only 1.34Gbytes of disk storage in the main chassis. The Vectra has eight Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) expansion slots, including six bus-mastering slots, and four proprietary slots. The 262.5-watt power supply is less powerful than average. The system's low performance indicates that the Vectra should be used in a relatively small network of 32 to 80 users. Tangent Computer Inc.: Multi-Server 433e. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Tangent Computer Inc's $19,990 Multi-Server 433E file server exhibits the fastest performance in the test group, but it has a 32Mbyte RAM limit and crashes twice during testing. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor and three 325Mbyte hard disks but only 8Mbytes of RAM. The Multi-Server's three disk controllers significantly improve its performance, and the system should support 96 to 240 users. The server includes a 450-watt power supply, up to 4.2Gbytes of disk storage and the typical eight Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots, including six bus-mastering slots. The Multi-Server cannot run with Novell's NE3200 communications board, and disk controller driver problems cause the system to crash twice. Tangent plans to distribute an upgraded driver. The Network Connection: Triumph TNX 486/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 10 evaluations of Extended Industry Standard Architecture, Network Connection Inc's $18,286 Triumph TNX 486/33 file server offers expandability and a moderate price, but its performance is lower than average. The test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80486 microprocessor, a 450-watt power supply and a disk subsystem including a 1Gbyte hard disk and a 4.5Mbyte disk cache. Disk caching apparently does not improve performance as much as using multiple disks does. The Triumph's performance indicates that it should support 40 to 100 users. The system has a 64Mbyte RAM limit and a 6Gbyte disk storage capacity. Six of the server's 10 Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots can use bus mastering. The test configuration cannot boot MS-DOS from the hard disk. Antiviral utilities lack network punch; scanners, monitoring programs still comprise only one part of network security. Five data security software packages for protecting networks from computer virus infections are evaluated. Digital Dispatch Inc's Data Physician 1.2c, McAfee Associates' ViruScan and RG Software Systems Inc's Vi-Spy 4.0 scan for specific viruses, while Certus International Corp's Certus LAN 2.0 and Microcom Inc.'s Virex-PC 1.1a monitor computer activity and attempt to block suspicious interrupt calls. Such monitor programs sometimes have difficulties distinguishing between calls from viruses and normal DOS calls. Certus International Corp.: Certus LAN 2.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of data security software packages in Certus International Corp's Certus LAN 2.0 data security software is the package best-suited for network antivirus use. Certus LAN includes disaster recovery, security and fault-tolerance utilities. The package monitors writing and formatting activities, and it maintains cyclical redundancy checks (CRCs) for verification, but its scanning capabilities are limited. Certus LAN is the most flexible antiviral package tested, and it is easily installed. The program uses only 9Kbytes of RAM in its memory-resident mode, but using Certus LAN with Microsoft Windows 3.0 causes system crashes. The package can create a disk that duplicates critical hard disk information in case of crashes. Certus LAN did not recognize Fish, Taiwan3, Virus 101 and Whale. Buyers seek simple but thorough antiviral programs. (data security software) Users who purchase data security software packages to combat computer viruses say effective virus removal and simple operation are their foremost concerns. Other criteria used in antiviral software purchase include speed of operation, price, and timely updates. Some users want to avoid memory-resident software that occupies too much RAM, while others avoid memory-resident packages altogether to avoid memory conflicts. Users appreciate the ability to decide what steps should be taken when a virus is found. Digital Dispatch Inc.: Data Physician 1.2c. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of data security software packages in Digital Dispatch Inc's Data Physician 1.2c data security software requires extensive user input to perform thorough scanning for computer viruses. The ResScan virus prevention and detection module searches only .EXE and .COM files on the default drive unless other drives and files are specified. ResScan can check file and boot sector signatures, and user-input virus definitions can be added to the initial list of virus patterns. The VirHunt virus detection and repair module handles viruses in files and boot records, but it cannot remove viruses from memory. The package will prevent a computer from booting if the boot disk is infected. Data Physician did not recognize Invader, Taiwan3, Virus 101 and Whale. McAfee Associates: ViruScan 71, VShield 71, Clean-Up 71, NetScan. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of data security McAfee Associates' ViruScan 71, VShield 71, Clean-Up 71 and NetScan 71 data security software packages are the most effective computer virus prevention, detection and elimination programs in the evaluation group. The four modules are poorly integrated, and the package includes no hard-copy documentation, but the package successfully detected all the test viruses. ViruScan seeks itself, the boot sector, partition tables, memory and files for known viruses, and it can generate cyclical redundancy checks (CRCs) to detect changes in executable files. VShield remains resident in memory to prevent the spread of viruses, while Clean-Up removes viral code for the 35 strains it recognizes. Clean-Up overwrites and then deletes files with unknown viruses. Microcom Inc.: Virex-PC 1.1A. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of data security software packages in 'Antiviral Microcom Inc's Virex-PC 1.1a data security software package is flexible and finds and removes computer viruses fairly effectively. The package consists of the Virex-PC memory-resident module, which occupies 30Kbytes of RAM and monitors system activity, and VPCScan, which scans disks and drives for viruses. Virex-PC does not include features for network use, and running VPCScan's memory option produced a false error message that Microcom says will be fixed in a later release. Users can specify specific conditions for virus warnings to be displayed, which is useful because so many false alerts are issued in the default mode. Virex-PC cannot prevent infection from the Stoned virus at boot time, but it can find and disinfect the Jerusalem and 1701 viruses on a hard disk. VPScan finds the 4096 and Whale viruses, but it does not detect Invader, Taiwan3 or Virus 101. RG Software Systems Inc.: Vi-Spy 4.0. (Software Review) (one of five evaluations of data security software packages in 'Antiviral RG Software Systems Inc's Vi-Spy 4.0 data security software package effectively detects computer viruses, but it does not prevent virus infection and cannot repair infected files. Installing Vi-Spy requires manually altering AUTOEXEC.BAT, but the process is simple. The program generates a memory map that is compared with later results to identify changes. Vi-Spy can delete virus-infected files by overwriting the files seven times and then erasing them. Vi-Spy detects compressed files that must be unpacked to be scanned. The package did not recognize the Invader, Taiwan3, Virus 101 and Whale viruses. Tools bring Modula-2 to mainstream: TopSpeed is tops in programming; Logitech is most compact; Stony Brook is fastest. Three Modula-2 compiler packages are evaluated. Jensen and Partners International Inc's TopSpeed Modula-2 2.0; MultiScope Inc's Logitech Modula-2 3.4; and Stony Brook Software Inc's Stony Brook Professional Modula-2 2.2 all offer programming environments competitive with popular packages from large software vendors. Modula-2 descended from Pascal, but it combines Ada's readability and modularity with C's use of program libraries. Modula-2 also includes support for performing tasks concurrently. TopSpeed is the best package for integrating programs using several languages, while Logitech includes several useful development tools and Stony Brook is the fastest compiler. Modula-2 buyers cite advantages over C and Pascal, need for support. Users of Modula-2 say the programming language has clear advantages over C and Pascal, but the users complain that little industry support is available to Modula-2 users in the US. Users say the programming language is more efficient than C because program development is more easily divided among programmers and software maintenance is easier. Modula-2 is also praised for its fast compile time and for discovering errors at compile time rather than debug time. Users say Modula-2 can be used by programmers familiar with Pascal, but Modula-2 is newer and more powerful. A complaint among Modula-2 programmers is lack of documentation. TopSpeed Modula-2: Extended Edition 2.0. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of Modula-2 compilers in 'Tools Bring Modula-2 Jensen and Partners International Inc's TopSpeed Modula-2 2.0 compiler is a flexible and complete tool that includes exhaustive documentation and useful features such as dynamic link libraries (DLLs). TopSpeed includes a nearly 200-page Modula-2 tutorial. The operating environment is set up via a set of helpful menus that allow users to customize the installed product. Some functions produce errors in the small memory model and only work properly in the multithread memory model. Up to nine windows can be used in the editor. MultiScope Inc.: Logitech Modula-2 3.4. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of Modula-2 compilers in 'Tools Bring Modula-2 MultiScope Inc's Logitech Modula-2 3.4 compiler is less integrated than the other tested packages because it has developed from the Point programming editor used with Logitech mice. Syntax checking, compiling, linking and running executable files requires four distinct commands. The other tested packages use run commands that automatically do checking, compiling and linking. Logitech's on-screen status display keeps the programmer informed about the status of the current action, and a useful guide provides help for Pascal programmers. Stony Brook Software: Stony Brook Professional Modula-2 2.20. (Software Review) (one of three evaluations of Modula-2 compilers Stony Brook Software Inc's Professional Modula-2 2.20 offers high-end features and fast compile times. Stony Brook uses a method common to Ada programming environments, which manage source-file libraries with integrated sets of menus. The package includes two compilers to reduce the need for continually adjusting compile parameters. The QuickMod module defaults to more intensive checks than the Optimizing module, which offers maximum performance. Only two source code files can be displayed at once, and changes are updated only in the currently active window. EISA PCs shine in networking, graphics: backward compatibility is an advantage; third-party support lacking. (Extended Industry Many microcomputer vendors say the Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) is preferable to IBM's proprietary Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) because it offers backward compatibility with the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, higher data transfer rates and an open standard. EISA's expense currently limits the architecture to file server or CAD/CAM status. EISA is also limited by a lack of third-party support. Although the architecture has enormous graphics potential, full 32-bit graphics boards are not currently available. Analysts believe EISA sales will increase as the architecture matures. Tools help pinpoint system problems; memory-mapping functions are helpful for installing applications. (system-reporting and Reporting and diagnostic programs provide users with system information that can be used to find system components that require upgrading, identify hardware conflicts and teach novices about their systems. System reporting tools typically create a system map that includes memory contents, disk contents and system information, while diagnostic tools include lists of hardware and possible hardware conflicts. Novices can use diagnostic packages to identify the components of their systems or to help describe system problems to technical support personnel, while technicians themselves depend upon diagnostic programs to locate system problems for repair. Lotus nabs Interleaf exec to push spreadsheet sales. (Lotus Development Corp. hires Robert Weiler from Interleaf Inc.) Former Interleaf Pres Robert Weiler has been named senior vice president of sales and marketing for Lotus Development Corp. Weiler is responsible for the marketing effort previously headed by Lotus Senior VP Frank King. Weiler says he will use his mainframe computer experience to direct Lotus' move into enterprisewide computing. One analyst says Weiler must work to reestablish Lotus 1-2-3 as the foremost spreadsheet package. Lotus has also named Deborah Besemer as its vice president of sales in North America and announced that VP Frank Ingari is resigning to become president and CEO of Ontologic Inc. Shareholder vote to decide future of NCR-AT&T deal. (AT&T's attempted takeover of NCR Corp.) AT&T officials plan to disclose the number of NCR Corp stockholders who are willing to accept AT&T's offer of $90 per share of NCR stock. The Jan 15 disclosure is likely to accompany the results of a shareholder vote regarding a meeting to discuss the dismissal of NCR's board of directors. If 25 percent of the votes favor the ouster, a meeting of shareholders will be held. At the meeting, an 80 percent vote by the shareholders would dissolve the board. NCR has responded to AT&T's tender offer of $6.12 billion with a lawsuit, and the board plans to continue its resistance, but many analysts believe NCR will eventually be acquired by AT&T or another firm. Industry observers say the merger would yield a US firm with strong positioning in the world market. Wall street gives Apple's Sculley high marks for 1990 performance. (Apple Computer Inc.'s chairman and CEO John Sculley) Apple Computer Chmn and CEO John Sculley has reversed his company's decline by making management and product changes. Apple's financial and market position has improved since early 1990 partially due to personnel changes Sculley made. Jean-Louis Gassee, head of Apple's research and development efforts, has been replaced by Sculley himself, while Apple USA Pres Allan Loren has been replaced by former HP microcomputer operations chief Robert Puette. Under Sculley's direction, Apple has released three new microcomputers and has emphasized Apple's low-end products. Apple's sales in FY 1991 are predicted at $6.7 billion, up 20 percent from 1990, and profits are expected to increase to $525 million, up 11 percent from 1990. Apple-reseller relations called worst in 10 years. (Apple Computer Inc.) Apple Computer Inc's dealers say the computer vendor is unpredictable and treats its distributors poorly. Some resellers complain that Apple's high-volume discounts and special arrangements with schools and universities unfairly penalize independent dealers. The dealers also say they have very small profit margins because they must sharply discount Apple's high-priced products to gain customers. Apple's management says it is attempting to satisfy dealers by increasing its range of low-end products and reducing disparities in its discount schemes. Apple is also naming a vice president to head its vendor relations effort. Dealers say they are loyal to Apple, but they want the vendor to keep them better-informed to avoid problems like product shortages. One reseller sees healthy future in distribution of spare PC parts. (PC Parts Express distributes spare microcomputer parts) PC Parts Express is a new company that provides distribution of spare parts for microcomputers. PC Parts offers next-day delivery to resellers, end users and computer maintenance organizations. PC Parts Pres Mark Hilz says that his specialized firm can distribute parts more efficiently than dealers or vendors. AST Research Inc is authorizing PC Parts to sell all its products, while Epson America Inc, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc, Canon Inc and HP ar giving authorization for distribution of limited selections of their products. Future Computing Inc estimates that total microcomputer maintenance and repair costs at $4.8 billion for 1991. Industry analysts predict that as business computers get older, more spare parts will be needed, but many resellers say their spare parts businesses tie up too much capital in products that can become obsolete. AT&T's PC group hopes MicroAge deal will sell computers. (MicroAge Computer Centers Inc. will assist AT&T with microcomputer sales) AT&T's Computer Systems Div and MicroAge Computer Centers Inc agree to a marketing deal in which MicroAge dealers assist AT&T personnel in marketing and selling networking products and systems integration services. The agreement is part of AT&T's plan to use dealers rather than relying solely on its own sales personnel in its computer marketing efforts. MicroAge representatives say AT&T's perceived failure in the computer market is not a result of poor technology. MicroAge believes AT&T simply need a better marketing force. The agreement, which has the largest sales potential of any dealer relationship AT&T has established, is expected to yield large contracts for MicroAge. Multimedia computing: coming soon to a screen near you? (Looking Forward) (column) Increasing interest in multimedia technology prompts IBM, Apple, Microsoft Corp and NeXT Inc to develop multimedia product lines, but each company's offerings are incompatible with the others. IBM offers the Audiovisual Connection (AVC) authoring system, video and audio add-in boards, and Intel Corp's Digital Video Interactive (DVI). AVC and DVI are incompatible with each other and with Microsoft Windows. Apple's System 7 operating system includes multimedia capabilities, but it is not yet available. Microsoft Windows 3.0 is already popular with IBM PC-compatible microcomputer users, and it is expected to serve as the foundation for a number of multimedia applications from third-party vendors. NeXT's new color workstation offers high-quality audio and video performance. Out of order - indefinitely: Cuba tries desperately to modernize its antiquated telephone system as old Socialist friends disappear Cuba's telephone systems use outdated equipment and do not work well; there are only 79 lines connecting Cuba with the US because of the trade embargo against Fidel Castro. East Germany, which was a source for Cuban telecom equipment, no longer exists, and other sources - Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria - have adopted free-market economies and will only accept hard currency, which Cuba does not have. The best thing that could happen would be an improvement of relations between the US and Cuba, and a lifting of the trade embargo. George W. Crockett Jr, Democrat of Michigan, has introduced a bill, known as the United States-Cuba Communications Act of 1989, into the House of Representatives. The bill would use $80 million of frozen funds belonging to Cuba to upgrade and repair Cuban telecommunications. So far, the unpopular bill is shelved. The times, they are a changin': How much and where are the world's telecom agencies spending in the coming year? Political changes sweep the globe, bringing telecommunications changes with them. Eastern bloc nations struggle to build democratic governments and telecom infrastructures, and these nations, as well as others in the Far East and Central and South America move toward privatization, sometimes inviting foreign investors to participate. Statistics together with brief analyses highlight spending plans for telecom carriers worldwide, comparing Western Europe with the East bloc, moving to the Far East and the Pacific, and considering telecom-related events in developing nations. Around the world, carriers are linking with other carriers - AT&T, British Telecom, France Telecom, and Kokusai Denshin Denwa are specifically mentioned - coordinating, designing, and building international private networks. What's going on in the telecom world? (national telecom modernization plans for 1991) Various national telecommunications administrations reveal modernization plans for 1991 and beyond. Mentioned in alphabetical order are Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Norway, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia. BaTelCo in the Bahamas will celebrate the government's 25th anniversary by completing conversion to digital switching throughout the islands. BaTelCo will introduce System 7 to provide services such as caller ID; cellular services soon will be available throughout the Bahamas, and international services will be enhanced by reconfiguring an Intelstat earth station. Handheld games, encyclopedias to draw crowds at Consumer Electronics Show. Various handheld products will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, to be held in Las Vegas, NV, starting on Jan 10, 1991. Interest in handheld entertainment is increased by the success of Nintendo Co's Game Boy video game ($90), which sold 3.5 million units in 1990. Sega Enterprises Ltd, Nintendo's main rival, introduces Game Gear which offers a crisp color display at a higher price ($160). Two new electronic reference books will also be introduced. Selectronics offers the Random House Encyclopedia in a $350 package that weighs 12 ounces, and Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc offers the Columbia Encyclopedia in a similar format. Other products include: educational add-ons, a navigation system for drivers, a new high-quality audio-tape system, cellular phones, a new way to transmit video programs over cables, and a game-unit attachment that teaches a user how to play a musical instrument. AT&T cable break shows vulnerability despite era of fiber-optic technology. (Technology) Long-distance telephone communications in the New York metropolitan region were disrupted on Fri, Jan 4, 1991, demonstrating that even the best technology is vulnerable. A previous outage, in Jan 1990, knocked out services for nine hours. AT&T uses backup systems to reroute traffic when a problem occurs in one of the big switching centers. However, Friday's difficulty involved a severed fiber-optic cable that carried 100,000 two-way communications and AT&T was not able to reroute the calls immediately because the installation of backup facilities was incomplete. This disruption underscores the vulnerability of communications systems in the United States, especially while carriers are replacing multiple copper cables with single high-capacity fiber optic lines. Friday's accident involved only one cable, but telecom traffic was disrupted for most of a day. IBM's plan to sell some businesses gains as Clayton & Dubilier gets financing. IBM has announced internally that the company's plans to sell some businesses to Clayton & Dubilier - plans rumored to be in trouble - are proceeding toward a satisfactory conclusion. IBM says that financing has been arranged. Clayton & Dubilier will reportedly put up $375 million, and a group of banks led by JP Morgan & Co will lend the rest of the purchase price, which is scaled down to $1.5 billion. When the transaction was first announced, in Sum 1990, IBM said it expected about $2.3 billion for its laser printer, typewriter and keyboard operations. Later, both companies decided to exclude laser printers from a possible deal. Neither Clayton nor IBM will talk about the terms of this agreement. The new company will rank among the largest 200 in the US. Are computer safety laws taking the right tack? Some experts say the crucial issue is not furniture or lighting, but reducing Health issues that relate to computer use - radiation from video display terminals, job stress and repetitive motion disorders - will take on increased significance in the 1990's. Tens of millions of new computer users will join tens of millions of current users who are getting older. 'Baby Boom' people will be entering their 40's, which is the age when repetitive motion injuries increase, and there will be a cumulative effect from years of exposure to automation. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed an ordinance that will require businesses in that city to pay more attention to consequences of computer use in the workplace. San Francisco's law calls for adjustable chairs and tables, adjustable screens and keyboards, time away from computers and noise reduction. The law, which will affect businesses with 15 or more employees, was opposed by businessmen because of incremental costs. Cable is cut, snarling New York phone links. (AT&T fiber-optic telephone cable) An American Telephone and Telegraph Company crew severed a telephone link between New York City and Newark on Jan 4, 1991, causing delays at airports because air traffic controllers lost radar contact with planes. Florists, travel agents and other businesses that rely on AT&T were also inconvenienced. Full service was restored by 5 P.M. because the volume of calling decreased as businesses closed for the weekend and because AT&T was able to redirect many calls. Even at the height of the difficulty, problems were minimized because most large companies now do business with more than one long-distance carrier, and many businesses have their own microwave, cable or satellite communications links. This incident demonstrates, however, how sophisticated technology can render a telephone system vulnerable: a severed fiber-optic cable can be particularly significant because it carries so many calls. Small software maker is taking giant steps. (Santa Cruz Operation Inc.) Santa Cruz Operation Inc is a privately-held software publishing company that some industry observers believe will soon be on par with Microsoft Corp. The company's version of the Unix operating system is fast becoming an industry standard. Some analysts believe the Santa Cruz Operation Inc may rule the Unix market in the same way that Microsoft rules the MS-DOS market. The concept of having Unix, an open system, on a microcomputer is admittedly a hard sell and Santa Cruz Operation's version of Unix is in competition with products from Sun Microsystems Inc and AT&T. Santa Cruz Operation's Unix serves all microcomputers based on Intel Corp microprocessors. The Santa Cruz Operation Inc was founded in 1984 and had revenues of $106 million in 1990; revenues for 1991 are estimated to be around $150 million. Hewlett-Packard sets course for '90s. (new HP 3000 842S and 852S computers) (product announcement) HP made its strategy for the 1990s clear during a product announcement in Dec 1990 broadcast to offices around the world from its California headquarters. Cooperative processing will be at the heart of that strategy. HP also pledges continued support of its two operating systems, the proprietary MPE-XL and HP's own version of Unix. The new minicomputers, based on the reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) Precision Architecture, include the $116,452 HP 9000 842S and $195,914 852S servers. HP also announced agreements and extensions to existing agreements with third-party vendors of fourth-generation languages and relational database management systems for the HP 3000 platform, as well as the porting of client-server applications to the HP 3000. HP also announced increased support for HP/Novell and HP/Apple Macintosh networks. Canadian manufacturing needs overhaul: economist. (Carl Beigie of McLean McCarthy Ltd.) Carl Beigie, chief economist of McLean McCarthy Ltd., says in a speech to DEC's Manufacturing Expo '91 in Toronto that Canadians must shift the emphasis of their economy from consumption to savings and investment. Beigie also sees a need for Canadians to improve their ability to manufacture and compete abroad. Beigie calls for lower interest rates from the Bank of Canada, thereby lowering the value of the Canadian dollar and making exports more attractive overseas. He applauds the Free Trade Agreement but warns that corporations may shift manufacturing operations to Mexico to take advantage of the cheap labor there. On-line searchers issue wish list to vendors. Campbell, Gordon. Speakers at the Canada Online IV conference held in Toronto in Dec 1990 revile vendors of on-line information services for everything from bad data to bad user interfaces. Reva Basch, president of Aubergine Information Services of Berkeley, CA, said the bloom is off the rose for users, who are typically corporate librarians. In the early 1980s, users were enthralled by the simple idea of on-line information services; now they are far more demanding consumers. The Southern California On-line Users Group says its members want a common command language across multiple vendors, custom output format profiles, accurate cost displays during sessions, fewer typos and faster system performance. Vendors move to stop software theft. (formation of Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft) Five software vendors form The Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CSAAT) in Dec 1990. The group, which includes Lotus Development Canada Ltd, Ashton-Tate Canada, Quarterdeck Office Systems Canada Inc, Novell Canada Ltd. and Microsoft Canada Inc, aims to educate users on copyright laws that apply to software. Organizations will be the primary targets of CSAAT's efforts. CSAAT will help organizations establish software codes of ethics, self-audit procedures, software review methods and software budgeting and procurement procedures. Vendors claim software piracy in Canada costs them $200 million annually in lost sales. IS learns to take care of business. (information systems departments becoming more business-oriented) The ever-evolving role of the information systems (IS) executive has changed over the past few years from a technical to a business orientation. Toronto consultant Anne McKauge says the shift reflects a deeper shift from the 1960s and 1970s, when companies spent freely on MIS, to today, when companies demand justification in business terms for MIS spending. It will be increasingly important for MIS systems to be both faster and more amenable to change. One IS department that has made the shift is that of TransAlta Utilities Corp in Calgary. The department is now managed as a business within a business. Downsizing doesn't mean the death of the mainframe. (Perspective) (column) The question is not whether the mainframe computer will survive - it will - but in what role. Many people are advocating downgrading from mainframes, usually to a workstation- or microcomputer-based local-area network featuring a dedicated high-performance microcomputer as a server. Such a system offers a much better cost/performance ratio than mainframes. But a LAN cannot do some things that mainframes can. The server, for example, lacks the sustained throughput capabilities of the smallest mainframes. A key future role for the mainframe will be as a corporate data repository, storing all the data generated by all those corporate microcomputers. IBM and plug-compatible manufacturers are giving their products new capabilities for communications, database storage, security and global systems management, as well as boosting raw computing power by more than 30 percent per year. In conversation. (Colin Wyatt, head of Lotus Development Canada Ltd.) (interview) Colin Wyatt, who has headed Lotus Development Canada Ltd since its founding in 1988, says 1990 was a busy year for the company, with many product announcements. Lotus put a great deal of effort into its Lotus Improv for the Next workstation and is not dismayed by the workstation's slow early sales, saying it takes time for a virtually all-new system to catch on. Lotus Canada remains fairly bullish, despite a slight flattening of demand in late October. The fall acquisition of Samna Corp, with its rich Windows implementation, fills a gap in Lotus's product line. A Windows version of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet is under development. Lotus plans to unveil its first application for the Apple Macintosh in 1991. Lotus is working on multimedia, but Wyatt is unsure of its prospects, saying it is 'artsy.' Survey indicates rise in data processing salaries. Frangini, Monica. The latest survey from the International Association for Computer Operations Management (AFCOM) reveals that overall salaries for data processing professionals are rising. The survey covered 25 job categories. US salary increases averaged 9 percent in 1990, up from 6.6 percent in 1989. Salaries for DP managers rose 6.5 percent in 1990. In the US, the average computer operations manager earned $43,416 (US) and the average data processing operations manager earned $53,880, compared to the Canadian average of $47,448 (Canadian) and about $60,000, respectively. The survey attributes the marked salary increases for 1990 to the elimination of many low-paid data entry jobs by automation in 1990. IS professionals feel pinch of recession. (information systems) Eastwood, Alison. Neil Macdougall, president of the Toronto-based Technical Service Council, an industry-sponsored placement and consulting association, says the unemployment of many analysts and programmers may be blamed on employers who are too picky in hiring new workers. Employers list extremely specific job requirements, making it difficult for workers to shift positions. On the other hand, many staffers are demanding too much money. Nearly 3,500 Canadian programmers and analysts are on unemployment. Macdougall speculates that many of those are either unwilling to relocate or lack interpersonal skills demanded by employers. Macdougall predicts that Ontario will be the hardest hit by the recession, with Alberta and British Columbia suffering less. Softkey merges with MDI, plans expansion. (SoftKey Software Products Inc. of Toronto,, Management Dynamics Inc. of New Jersey) Toronto-based SoftKey Software Products Inc merges with New Jersey-based Management Dynamics Inc, effective Jan 1, 1991. SoftKey created a new systems integration division by combining its Insight Business Consultants (IBC) with MDI. IBC and MDI were the two biggest North American dealers of Panasophic Systems Inc products. SoftKey also makes software for the IBM AS/400 and low-end software for microcomputers. Softkey relies on a distribution network that makes extensive use of direct order mail catalogues, and is also experimenting with product placements at discount superstores. Cross-platform softare solutions ease data centre's load. (trends in end-user needs over the past 30 years) The needs of end-users have changed throughout the past 30 years. In the 1960s and 1970s, when mainframes were the dominant technology, users had to rely wholly on data-processing personnel. Reports were often slow in coming. With the rise of minicomputers and the advent of microcomputers in the 1980s, end-users often did their processing themselves, only to discover that micro, mini and mainframe often generated conflicting reports. The route of the 1990s is that of distributed processing; that is, linking the micro's productivity with the mainframe's storage and batch-processing capabilities. For distributed processing to be genuinely effective, though, applications must work across all platforms. A common user interface is also greatly desired. Technical writers unite as Society membership booms. (Society for Technical Communication) The membership of the international Society for Technical Communication is growing and changing. Founded in 1953, the STC until recently was dominated by aerospace workers and had few Canadian members. The growth of the computing industry has provided more members from that industry. Canadian membership has more than tripled from about 200 in 1985. Currently, there are more than 14,000 STC members worldwide. One of STC's key services is a job bank, available to members and companies alike. Current trends are requiring increasing technical sophistication of technical writers, many of whom are now performing such tasks as designing user interfaces. Annual STC membership fees are $75 (US), plus a $10 enrollment fee. IBM grant gives GIS at Queen's University a needed boost. (geographic information systems laboratory) IBM Canada Ltd has given $944,000 in software, hardware and services to Queen's University of Kingston, Ontario, for the establishment of a geographic information systems (GIS) laboratory. Donated equipment includes IBM RISC System/6000 workstations, PS/2s, plotters, scanners and disk storage equipment. The Canadian Centre for GIS in Education, based in Ottawa, gave the laboratory a research license for its GIS software with a retail value of $500,000. Current projects on which the Queen's GIS laboratory is collaborating include an effort to vaccinate foxes against rabies in Ontario and an effort to boost 911 services in Kingston. Downsizing saves more than just dollars when it's done right. Nicholls, Brian. Downsizing, or migrating from a mainframe computer to a microcomputer-based local area network (LAN), can save money, but also has hidden costs. MIS managers should weigh the costs of cabling, program redevelopment, data conversion, new documentation, training and internally provided support. Downsizing often means a shift to 'client-server' technologies - a piece of jargon that simply means that work is dispersed to various computers according to their processing capabilities. A client-server system can often cut costs by assuring a more efficient use of computing resources. In the long run, all client-server programs will run on microcomputer-based LANs; for the time being, though, a combination of LANs, minicomputers and mainframes will persist. Systems Application Architecture (SAA) is IBM's proposal for typing together these differing platforms. Seminar to link sections across Canada via satellite. (Canadian Information Processing Society) The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) will sponsor a symposium to be broadcast nationwide using satellite technology Feb 12, 1991. Telesat Canada will produce the symposium, which will link the 20 CIPS sections via one-way video and two-way audio. The half-day symposium, called 'The Enterprise Computing Paradigm: Networking the Organization and Its Business Partners,' will cover issues of interest to MIS professionals from Halifax to Victoria. This presentation will be preceded by an interactive presentation entitles, 'Cross-Functional Systems for the 1990s.' Multi-faceted plan to relieve stress. (the need for user training) Pederson, Cynthia Ross. Many companies adopt new technologies faster than the average user can adapt, causing stress and a belief that one is falling behind. The solution is better user training. Senior management must mandate better training. Training should not be restricted arbitrarily to data processing, but may be needed for telephone systems and other office equipment. In corporations that continually restructure, training often becomes a lost function without a leader. Adequate funding of training is a must. Managers should carefully think about channels of communication between trainers and users and between trainers and technical support staff. Trainers should play a role in choosing new technologies. Geomatics needs co-operation. (definition of the field) Forrest, David. The Geomatics Industry Association of Canada defines geomatics as the scientific and engineering activities engaged in the use of communication and computer technologies to capture, store, analyze, present, manage and distribute spatial information in support of decision making. Geomatics has its roots in mapping and surveying, but is forging new links with other disciplines. Geomatics includes image interpretation systems, electronic charting systems, geographic information systems, land information systems, satellite positioning systems, navigation systems, routing systems, automated mapping/facilities management systems and geo-demographic systems. Students display "nu" grammar. (patterns in using 'computerese') Abtan, Patrick. Students and other young computer users are adopting novel ways of spelling and writing. The instantaneous processing of computers, the anonymity of networks, the misspelled abbreviations found in many computer languages and the sense of power derived from using specialized knowledge all work together to encourage abbreviated 'computerese,' such as using 'U' for 'you,' 'R' for 'are,' '4' for 'for,' and 'U' 'R' for 'you are.' Computerese has moved outside the classroom networks. Teachers are observing it in essays, tests and other pieces of student work. Some students, figuring that a spell-checker will catch their misspellings, do not even bother spelling correctly the first time. Such a tactic wastes time, lessens productivity and gives rise to a bewildering variety of spellings. Windows hot but total acceptance not a given; cost, long-term implications remain concern. Microsoft Windows 3.0 is the hottest item in the world of IBM PCs and clones, but its acceptance is not universal. Many users and PC managers who have been jealous for years of the Apple Macintosh interface are eager to move to the graphically based Windows. An information manager at Inglis Ltd sees major increases in productivity with Windows. But some users, familiar with character-based interfaces, are reluctant to adopt a graphical user interface that uses a mouse. Cost is another major consideration: the minimum hardware requirement is for an Intel 80286-based platform. One consultant fears Windows will make users lazy; furthermore, most users have experience with computers, rendering Windows' much-vaunted friendliness a moot consideration. Word processing key piece of Windows puzzle: Will that be WordPerfect or Microsoft's Word? Longtime WordPerfect users who want to adopt the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface are faced with a dilemma: adopt Windows and switch to another word processing program, or wait for WordPerfect for Windows to arrive before making the switch to Windows. Today's Windows users must choose either Microsoft's Word for Windows or Samna's Ami Professional. The situation parallels that of the early 1980s, when WordPerfect surpassed WordStar as the word processor of choice. Users find themselves working faster and more productively with Windows. If WordPerfect 2.0 for the Mac is any indicator, WordPerfect for Windows will be a wonderful combination of word processor, desktop publisher and graphical Windows application. Bartel rescues those buried in a paper avalanche: Totall Manager designed to speed up record keeping. (Software Review) Bartel Software's Totall Manager brings the efficiencies of office automation software to the task of recording and maintaining the data crucial to the performance of sales personnel. Along with a database of contacts, the program provides a complete set of productivity-enhancing tools. The upper half of the database provides a display of vital information about the customer and the state of the sale. The lower half offers a choice of six subordinate screens, providing a range of contact and scheduling information. The database is indexed in a total of eight fields, and can be utilized for such functions as the production of personalized letters, telemarketing scripts and report generation. Totall Manager is available in LAN and single-user versions. A single-user version costs $495, while a five-user LAN version runs $1,995 or $2,995 with order processing functionality. Lotus regroups with follow-up to Release 3.0; latest version of 1-2-3 Windows 3.0-compliant. (Software Review) (Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 3.1 spreadsheet answers many of the complaints users had about Version 3.0. The $719 Version 3.1 features WYSIWYG, mouse support when the WYSIWYG feature is loaded, and many publishing features previously found only on Version 2.2. Version 3.1 runs under Windows 3.0 in real or standard modes, but not in enhanced mode. The core spreadsheet portion remains the same as in other versions of 1-2-3. Nice publishing features include a page-compression feature, which automatically sizes output to fit on a page, Bitstream Fontware display and printer fonts, type sizes ranging from three to 72 points and hot-links between graphics and spreadsheets. Version 1-2-3 also includes a text processor and an annotator for appending clip art or text. Version 3.1 still has Version 3.0's lethargic tendencies. PowerPoint: it makes a speaker look good! (Software Review) (PowerPoint for Windows presentation software) (evaluation) Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows presentation software is excellent. PowerPoint creates slides, color or black-and-white transparencies, handouts and speaker's notes. PowerPoint supports 16 million different colors and Windows film recorders. Graph data can be entered manually or imported from ASCII, Excel, Microsoft Works, Symphony or 1-2-3 files. PowerPoint also handles PIC, CGM, PCX, MSP, BMP, TIF, EPS, WMF and DIB files. An on-screen file sorter and title sorter is included. No one using PowerPoint for Windows will ever return to a non-Windows environment again. Compaq's SystemPro 486: power at a price. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The 33-MHz Intel 80486-based Compaq SystemPro 486 file server comes in a tower chassis and was developed to tap a growing market for network servers. The standard version comes with 8Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 256Mbytes. An additional 486 chip may be installed. Throughput speed is boosted by synchronizing disk arrays, which can serve multiple data request simultaneously. Security options include drive mirroring, a drive replacement alert and a feature that allots drive space to encoded copies of files. A 2400-baud internal modem is included. The SystemPro is extremely fast, even in computation-intensive applications. The SystemPro 486 is expensive, though. A version with 8Mbytes of RAM, two 210Mbyte hard disk drives, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, one parallel port, two serial ports and a mouse port costs $35,999. New font utility keeps the jaggies at bay: Adobe's ATM produces true WYSIWYG. (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) (Software Review) Type Manager from Adobe Systems uses PostScript printer font files to create and size screen fonts, giving truer WYSIWYG. Available since 1989 for the Apple Macintosh, Type Manager has now been ported to Microsoft Windows 3.0. Bitstream's new Facelift performs the same duties for Bitstream and compatible fonts. Without either program, Windows' screen fonts are limited to Courier, Times Roman and Helvetica; even those fonts are beset by 'jaggies.' Installing either Type Manager or Facelift is extremely easy and operation is transparent. Both scale fonts on the fly. Price is $129 for Type Manager and $137 for Facelift. Each program requires at least 1Mbyte of RAM, with 2Mbytes recommended. Norton's latest contains cacheful of utilities: major cosmetic surgery performed on Version 5.0. (Software Review) (Norton Version 5.0 of Norton Utilities has added versatility and power that puts it at the top of the list of utility programs. Now published by Symantec Corp, which acquired Peter Norton Computing, Version 5.0 sports a new interface and menu. Version 5.0 can fix corrupted Symphony, dBase and Lotus 1-2-3 files. Deleted files can be moved into an optional terminate-and-stay-resident program, called FileSave, where they will remain for a given number of days. New programs include Calibrate, which evaluates a hard disk's interleave and performs a non-destructive low level format, and a small and fast cache program. Some problems were encountered in using Disk Doctor. Available from Symantec Canada Corp for $219, Norton's 30 files require 2.7Mbytes of hard disk space. Despite early skepticism, debit cards are making inroads. (new point-of-sale technology) After a number of tests throughout Canada, debit cards are entering general use in the Ottawa area. Debit cards look like automated banking machine cards, with a magnetic strip on the back. Clerks use a debit card to deduct money from a customer's account. The customer must authorize the withdrawal with his or her personal information number (PIN). Banks can audit a combination debit/credit card. A Bank of Montreal test in 1989-1990 found strong consumer acceptance. Debit cards are already established in France and other European countries. In Mar 1990, the Ottawa-based Canadian Payments Association published a series of standards covering the debit-card process. A retailers' group says the largest interest comes from businesses such as supermarkets and gasoline dealers that handle large amounts of cash. The GST has arrived: here's the systems perspective. (Goods and Services Tax) Retailers must deal with the arrival of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). In the field of information systems, retailers must charge the tax properly to customers, compute the input tax credit on purchases properly, and account for the tax properly. Charging the tax properly involves determining if the item, customer or transaction is tax exempt and, if not, what the tax rate is. Computing the input tax credit properly means identifying the tax paid to suppliers, determining if there is an input tax credit, and deducting it from the GST charged to customers. Proper tax accounting involves financial statements, fixed asset depreciation, sales analysis, commissions and payroll systems. AI helps retailers measure bang for their advertising buck. (artificial intelligence) Cutting-edge retailers are making good use of new technologies to track sales and advertising needs. In the US, K-Mart uses a Teradata parallel processor to track the most miniscule changes in sales patterns, then making very quick decisions on stocking, merchandising and advertising. Powerful parallel processors, working in tandem with artificial intelligence programs, can deliver a complete and accurate report of the efficacy of an advertising campaign. A store can get a good handle on sales by item, department and life-style grouping. Implementing these new technologies will be neither easy nor cheap. But they promise to change fundamentally the relationships among retailers, advertising companies and the media. Unisys targets LAN service market. (Unisys Canada Inc.) (local area networks) Unisys Canada Inc of North York, Ontario, is targeting the local-area-network (LAN) market with a host of network services and products, collectively called the Unisys Connect program. Working around OSI and IEEE standards, the Unisys Connect program will support all major LAN protocols. Unisys Connect marketing director Laurie Blimkie expects the demand for service and support to outpace demand for planning, designing and implementing LANs. Unisys Connect also wants to serve the client/server market, which ties microcomputers with mainframes. Teleglobe expands fax service. (Teleglobe Canada) Edwards, Mike. Montreal-based Teleglobe Canada plans to expand its Globefax service, adding intra-Canadian and Canada-US service to the 200 international destinations currently served, as well as cutting some rates. The enhanced fax service offers such features as off-peak delivery, automatic retry, detailed reporting, broadcast messaging and access from ASCII text terminals and fax machines. Price cuts averaging 10 percent went into effect in Dec 1990. The biggest average cut was 28 percent for Japan service, followed by reductions of 17 percent for service to India and Switzerland and 15 percent to Italy. Novell outlines strategies. (Novell Canada Ltd. seminar for users) Edwards, Mike. Novell Canada Ltd presented its networking strategies and products in a user seminar in Dec 1990. Product manager Keith Brown said the firm will not standardize on one communications protocol. Because performance is degraded when local area networks (LANs) are tied with mainframes and minicomputers, it is best for the systems to be tied at a single entry point. Novell is putting greater emphasis on the client-server environment. Novell marketing manager Sherry Anglin says some organizations still face educational problems involving LAN-to-host communications because differing departments specialize in one or the other technology but not both. Many users still suspect the reliability of gateways in mission-critical applications. Interactive voice response phone systems gain acceptance. Craig, Dianne. The market for interactive voice response (IVR), in which a telephone provides an interactive link to a series of databases, grew 60 percent annually from 1985 to 1990, and is expected to maintain a 40 percent annual growth rate. Banks use IVR for home banking and universities use it for registration. Revenue Canada will use an IVR system to keep tax filers updated on their returns. Bolton, Ontario-based BCB Technologies Inc makes the Tone Talker, a microcomputer board with voice capabilities. The Smithsonian Institution uses the Tone Talker to enable callers to book tours, while golf courses use the Tone Talker to confirm tee-off times. With IVR, people will begin viewing their telephones as remote computer terminals. Custom software optimizes CN's railway facsimile network. (CN Rail) CN Rail installed a customized facsimile system in the summer of 1990, replacing an older fax system. The new system delivers daily operating bulletins to train crews at nearly 200 remote sites. With the older system, crews at remote sites had to phone in for the faxes, which then had to be sent twice. The new system uses Pitney Bowes Facsimile System Division Canada Ltd machines and customized software. Faxes are transmitted once a day, but are not printed out until a crew arrives at a site and requests them. The machines can be diagnosed and reconfigured from CN's Toronto office. Printed faxes remain in memory, negating the need for multiple transmissions. Wireless LANs starting to provide connectivity alternative. (local area networks) Recently developed wireless local area networks (LANs) enable computers to communicate via radio or infra-red laser waves. MIS managers faced with continuous user moves, adds and changes are attracted to wireless LAN technology. One concern is security. A radio transmission technique called spread spectrum that breaks up data packets at the transmitting end and re-assembles them at the receiving end offers good security, but slows transmission speeds to 2M-bps. Another problem is interference. Radio- and the forthcoming microwave-based wireless LANs suffer from metal building materials, while infrared laser systems require clear lines-of-sight. Cost is another concern, with wireless LANs running 50 percent to 200 percent more than conventional LANs. Instruments prove tough to design; VXIbus measurement modules. (includes a related article on measuring the right signal) VXIbus system designers that want the system to measure current, voltage or resistance and also want accuracy better than 0.1 percent, may be surprised at the dearth of products available. An accurate VXIbus digital multimeter requires more than a revamp of design. Design problems for the analog input circuitry occur in maintaining adequate guarding within the 1.2-in module width, and eliminating noise from adjacent digital circuitry. Different ideas have evolved for overcoming the lack of space for a conventional guard box in a VXIbus module. H-P's C-size E1410A DMM includes separate digital and analog microcomputer boards. Reusable software requires building blocks; C++ libraries. Terry, Chris. Reasons exist for power-supply designers to make more use of available libraries, such as those for C++. The language that is chosen determines the extent of the class libraries available to the designer. Smalltalk is a complete development system that will not allow the designer to veer too far from object-oriented conventions and principals, and includes a large library of classes. The C++ language includes OOP facilities to the standard features of ANSI C, providing the user with flexibility when designing large project. The C++ class libraries are beginning to appear, some brand new, and others adapted from ANSI C libraries. Local-operating-network developer's kit creates distributed control systems. Distributed processing makes implementing large control functions easier, and Echelon's Lonworks system offers a set of software and hardware tools, plus a communications protocol for creating a distributed control system, using a local operating network. Each LON node includes a Neuron integrated circuit, with three central processing units. A development station offers two built-in nodes and is able to accommodate up to six more. The built-in nodes handle network management and offer a protocol analyzer. The Neuron emulator supports both input-output hardware prototyping and software debugging. The compiler will accept software that is written in an extended version of ANSI C, called Neuron C. The Lonbuilder starter kit is priced at $14,965. Instrument measures dynamic frequency and time-interval behavior. (H-P's HP 53310A modulation-domain analyzer) (product Hewlett-Packard's HP 53310A modulation-domain analyzer measures dynamic frequency and time-interval behavior, and sells for less than half the price of other instruments. At $9500, this analyzer is also easier to use, with features such as automatic setup and menus. This instrument measures the transient characteristics of phase-locked loops, clock-recovery circuits, frequency-hopping communications links and electromechanical systems, and includes other applications. A 132-pin, 100,000-transistor custom chip is at the heart of the instrument. A $500 option increases the memory depth to 64k words. SCSI-2ICs handle fast transfers, supporting queue tags and error recovery. (Emulex Corp.'s Fas216, Fas226, and Fas236 SCSI Emulex Corp's line of small computer systems interface (SCSI) integrated circuits (ICs) manage quick transfers, and includes support for the 10M-bps synchronous data transfers based on the SCSI-2-spec. The ICs include other SCSI-2 features, including command tags for queue operations and error-recovery messages. They are backward compatible with past-generation ESP2x6 chips. Applications are mainly in host computers on host-bus-adaptor boards or on central processing units, however the ICs can also be used in computer peripherals as well. The products range in price from $18.75 for to $21 for 1000 units. Distributed processing speeds VHDL compilation. (Vantage Analysis Systems' Concurrent Compiler; VHSIC Hardware Description Language) Vantage Analysis Systems' Concurrent Compiler speeds VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) by distributing the circuit compilation task across a network rather than allowing the concurrent execution of multiple operations. The software creates a graphics display that indicates which of the modules can be compiled concurrently. Tasks are randomly distributed to network resources. The output is collected and new processes are launched until the compiler has finished all compilation. Hardware problems can cause errors that are not reversible. Failures that are due to illegal coding do not cause the compiler to stop compiling non-dependent modules. The product runs on H-P Apollo and Sun Microsystem workstations. Price should be $7,000 to $12,000 when product is released in Jan 1991. Nonvolatile, in-circuit-reprogrammable memories. Leibson, Steven H. Vendors are pushing non-volatile in-circuit-reprogrammable memory products by expanding memory capacities beyond 1M-bits and lowering prices to $10-M-bit in order to motivate designers to replace electromechanical memory components, such as disk drives, DIP switches and chips. Designers can pick from non-volatile random access memories (RAMs), static RAMs, electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROMs), and flash EEPROMs, depending upon how much nonvolatile memory is needed and what the cost will be. A simpler problem is choosing a device within a given device type. Event flags. (Excerpt from "An Implementation Guide to Real-time Programming," by David L. Ripps; includes a related article on a Problems that commonly occur in real-time applications can be solved by implementing one of several different methods of task coordination. Each task should be an independent program that concerns itself with a particular aspect of the application, in order to simplify all levels of the job. Task coordination is the blocking of a task until the operating system or another task transmits information. Event flags are binary variables that are managed by the operating system and hold information about discrete conditions that are found in the application. The main reason for using event flags is to improve coordination. Matched JFETs precisely control gain. Stochio, Giovanni. A circuit is designed using a pair of matched JFETs to control the gain of an instrumentation amplifier within a 40-dB range. The instrumentation amplifier includes an untrimmed CMRR of 50 dB at 60-Hz. The circuit offers advantages, despite the fact that it is not comparable with the best monolithic instrumentation amplifiers on the market. Designers can vary the gain continuously over a range using a dc voltage, Vc. The circuit also provides a linear, predictable relationship between control voltage and amplifier gain. U.S. chips' gain is Japan's loss. Pollack, Andrew. US companies gain market share from Japanese companies in the worldwide semiconductor industry in 1990. The increase in US market share is the first since 1979; US companies controlled 36.5 percent of the market in 1990, compared with 34.9 in 1989. Japanese companies, which controlled 52.1 percent of the semiconductor market in 1989, controlled only a 49.5 percent market share in 1990. The worldwide semiconductor industry rose two percent in 1990, to $58.4 billion. US industry observers believe the shift signals the end of the American erosion of market share that began in 1979. At that time, the US had 57.9 percent of the market and Japan had only 25.8 percent of the market. Lotus names Interleaf's Robert Weiler one of its four senior vice presidents. (Who's News) (Lotus Development Corp. and Interleaf Interleaf Inc's Pres Robert Weiler is named senior VP of Lotus Development Corp. This change in management comes at a time when Lotus if facing increasing competition for its Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program; the spreadsheet accounts for about two-thirds of the company's revenue and has dominated the market since it was introduced in 1983. Lotus 1-2-3 market share drops to 51 percent in 1990, compared with 56 percent in 1989. Officials at Lotus note the coming on of Weiler is not the result of internal turmoil but is intended to help the company move from the desktop the the growing network market. Computers, having learned to talk, are becoming more eloquent. (Business Technology) (column) Computers that are able to translate data into recognizable speech are being developed and will be available in the 1990s. The developments in voice synthesis has advantages for the blind and the deaf; blind persons can hear messages and deaf people can type out messages and have the computer speak for them. Industry observers estimate that by 1993 people will be able to listen to their computers and facsimile messages while at home or in the car. Computers have a hard time imitating the human voice because human speech rises and falls, placing varying emphasis. English has proved an especially difficult language for computers because there are words that are spelled differently but sound the same, and many words, such as 'lead,' are spelled the same but are pronounced differently in different contexts. A year and a half. (1990 changes in computing world ) Cole, Louise. Major developments that took place in the computer industry during 1990 are discussed. Notebook-sized computers steadily decreased in size and increased ain popularity, and Toshiba introduced a lightweight color machine. Thin film transistor technology improved the screen definition of laptops. IBM introduced the PS/1, a machine aimed at home users and small businesses. Apple announced the low-cost Macintosh Classic, LC and IIsi in an effort to improve its market share. Steve Jobs' NeXT workstation proved to represent a serious miscalculation of the marketplace. 80386SX-based machines were the most popular microcomputers in 1990. Microsoft Windows 3.0 had a tremendous impact on the software market; the adoption of graphical user interfaces was 1990's most significant trend, and Windows has alienated OS/2 users. Unix moved toward standardization and shrink-wrapped software compatibility, but companies staking their futures on Unix suffered. AT&T began proceedings for a hostile takeover of NCR Corp as the year ended. The world's gone all GUI. (graphical user interfaces) (editorial) Lavin, Paul. The growing popularity of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) indicates how vital they are to the computing world and shows the need for standardization. Microsoft Windows 3.0 is an emerging standard for DOS despite the fact that some competing products, such as DESQview, are technically superior. The 'GUI wars' among Unix vendors are declining; the Open Software Foundation's Motif interface is likely to dominate over Sun's Open Look, partly because of its resemblance to Windows 3.0. NeXT Computer's NextStep may also fail in the marketplace. Chip challenge. (interview with three Advanced Micro Devices personnel) (interview) Advanced Micro devices spokesman David Frink, technical marketing manager Glen Burchers and product line director Ben Oliver discuss the company's new Am386 80386-compatible microprocessor and AMD's marketing plans. AMD chose to preview the chip in a private suite at the Comdex/Fall 1991 trade show rather than on the show floor in order to dispel negative rumors. Burchers states that AMD is not currently planning to offer its own version of the 387 math coprocessor. It will differentiate its product chiefly by price; the chip is 100 percent compatible with Intel's 386 and is essentially identical. The microprocessor works with both MS DOS and Windows and is physically compatible. It uses a static design instead of the dynamic design used by Intel, making it ideal for laptop applications because it uses less power. AMD insists it has the right to manufacture the chip via its cross-licensing agreement with Intel. The company will offer the chip in the same 20, 25 and 33 MHz versions as Intel does. Minor character. (Software Review) (Microsoft Word 5.5 word processor)(includes related article on data conversion ) Microsoft's new Word 5.5 character-based word processor includes a new interface that contains some features ported from Word for Windows and strongly resembles the 'look and feel' of the Windows and Presentation Manager versions of the product. It has a menu bar at the top, pull-down menus, dialog boxes and scroll bars and eliminates some of the Esc-key commands of the previous version, although Word 5.5 can be configured to use the hotkeys of Word 5.0. Microsoft claims the interface is compliant with IBM's Common User Access specification, but not all commands are compatible. Users can switch Word 5.5 between text and graphics mode; text mode is faster, while graphics mode lets users preview italics and other character attributes. The new Ribbon and Ruler features, copied directly from Windows, are the most valuable enhancements in the program. Ribbon lets users modify text attributes, while Ruler handles tab stops and text alignment but does not provide all the functionality of Windows. Word 5.5 is rated excellent in ease of use and functionality. It uses PC features well and is a good value for its 395-pound-sterling price. Presents and correct. (Software Review) (CA-Cricket Presents from Computer Associates International Inc.)(includes related article Computer Associates International Inc's CA-Cricket Presents for Windows 3.0 takes advantage of the Windows interface to offer significant cosmetic improvement over the DOS version. Its functionality falls midway between Microsoft's PowerPoint and Aldus' upcoming Persuasion. An outline facility lets users plan presentations from the ground up, and the program includes a separate outlining system for drafting presentations or collapsing information into subheadings and headings. Users can combine parts of a variety of templates into a single presentation. Presents includes clip art images that are essentially single-screen presentations because they are not stored in a standard graphics format. Users can have multiple files open simultaneously, but there is no way of switching between different files that are open concurrently. CA-Cricket Presents is a good value for its price of 325 pounds sterling. Paperless tigers. (Software Review) (optical character recognition software packages) (evaluation) Three optical character recognition (OCR) packages are reviewed. DEST's 995-pound sterling Recognize comes bundled with a letter-size hand scanner and document feeder, while Caere's 1,195-pound sterling OmniPage PC is a software/board combination requiring a separate scanner; Calera's 895-pound sterling Wordscan Plus is software only. Both Wordscan and OmniPage support most popular scanners; the scanner that comes with Recognize is fairly easy to use. Wordscan has the best user interface of the three because it runs under Microsoft Windows. Recognize is least satisfactory in page analysis features because there are no facilities for user intervention. Wordscan highlights uncertain characters and words and displays a 'pop up' of questionable areas of the original scan as a reference. All three packages are most accurate when scanning good quality originals with type sizes of at least 12 points. None of the three packages is a complete solution, but all are good values. All talk and action. (Talking Windows communications package for Microsoft Windows graphical interface) (evaluation) Softklone's 249-pound-sterling Talking Windows is a Microsoft Windows-based communications program that supports the V23 1200/75 protocol for access to some unique European online services and offers a wide variety of options. It is fairly easy to use, but setup can be a chore. A 'learn' mode lets users automate log-ons or access to particular databases. The program has a sophisticated scripting language but suffers from some built-in weaknesses and is not recommended for technophobic users. Talking Windows nevertheless addresses many real-world data communications problems. Space saver. (Hardware Review) (Kyocera F-3300 laser printer) (evaluation) Kyocera Electronics' 4,290-pound sterling F-3300 laser printer is a fast 18-page per minute unit with a small footprint that prints at 300-dpi resolution and supports seven emulations. The printer supports HP LaserJet II, Diablo, IBM Graphics and Epson FX modes and comes with 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 5Mbytes. Both speed and print quality are excellent, and the control panel has a series of icons on its backlit LCD display as well as a graphic diagram of the printer. The F-3300 is a dual-bin printer that holds a total for 500 sheets of paper; a 1,000-sheet automatic feeder is optional. Its back panel has only serial and parallel connectors. The bottom has two slots for Kyocera font cards and special integrated circuit cards storing macros for form letters or special setups. Cypress, bucking industry slump, to buy semiconductor plant from Control Data. (Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Control Data Corp.) Cypress Semiconductor Corp agrees to purchase a computer-chip factory from Control Data Corp for $14.7 million. Cypress states that the sale price is a good purchase because chip factories can seldom be purchased under $100 million; Control Data has invested around $58.5 million in the plant. Cypress is paying $11.5 million in Jul 1991 for the 175,000-square-foot factory and will pay $3.2 million over two years for equipment that is valued at $32 million. The plant purchase represents risks for Cypress, which has two plants already operating at 50 percent capacity. Analysts estimate that Cypress will report an earning of 22 cents a share for the 4th qtr of 1990. Bell South set to buy Graphic Scanning Corp. Carnevale, Mary Lu. BellSouth Corp agrees to buy Graphic Scanning Corp for $180 million, or $5.50 a share. Graphic Scanning, a cash-strapped cellular telephone company, announces that it is entering merger talks in mid-December 1990. Graphic Scanning and Bell South state that the purchase price is adjusted to reflect operations from Sep 30, 1990 until the closing date. Graphic Scanning stock prices, which were around $3.50 a share in early Dec 1990, traded as high as $6 a share on rumors of an acquisition. Stock prices closed at $4.75 a share on Dec 31, 1990. The company reports a profit of $1.5 million, or five cents a share, for the quarter ending Sep 30, 1990. Joe Costello on: concurrent engineering. (includes a related article on the official definition of concurrent engineering) Electronics manufacturers must deliver higher-quality and more sophisticated products for markets with ever-shorter life spans in the 1990s; use of design automation can help organizations meet the time-to-market challenge. Design automation now encompasses products used in every aspect of the development process, requiring that companies reconsider their approach to individual engineering tasks and the complete design methodology. Concurrent engineering is a design methodology intended to shorten the product development process significantly by reducing the number of design iterations resulting from failure to consider such issues as manufacturability or reliability early enough in the design cycle. It is important to distinguish between design methodologies, such as concurrent engineering, and computer-based facilitators, such as design automation; both are discussed. Controller-level network could revolutionize connectivity. (Echelon's Neuron local operating network) Echelon's Neuron local operating network (LON) architecture is intended to address the throughput, cost and complexity issues of control networks. The architecture includes an ISO-like seven-layer protocol, a single-chip network termination, operating and protocol software, a development system, and various transducers allowing the network to run over local radio frequency, infrared, power lines or any other medium. Each Neuron chip serves as both network termination and local microcontroller for the device it connects to the network, in many cases. The chip must thus be able to handle the entire seven-layer ISO protocol stack. A set of three CPUs with separate register sets but shared memory and a shared ALU is used to meet these needs; each CPU executes its own cycle of a three-phase clock, which lets the processors share hardware. The design and operation of Neuron are described. Network-distributed processing reduces run times for complex designs. (design tools with network-distributed-processing As IC and board designs become more complex and require longer run times, silicon and software vendors are pushed toward network-distributed processing. The first design tools with network-distributed-processing functions are now becoming available, providing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designers with the productivity gains promised by multiple CPUs running in parallel. Among these tools are Vantage Analysis Systems' Concurrent Compiler, Mentor Graphics Silicon Design Div's Parade ASIC place-and-route tool, the Explorer CheckMate IC verification tool from Mentor and Texas Instruments, Integrated Silicon Systems' LRC-2000 full-chip layout rules checker, and Quickturn Systems' Configuration Accelerator. Use of network-distributed processing by Valid Logic Systems, Solbourne Computer and Cadence Design Systems is described. PC-based board design tools take on the workstations. (computer-aided circuit design tools for microcomputers) Circuit design tools running on microcomputers are beginning to offer functionality that rivals that available from tools running on workstations. The increasing processing power of microprocessors and the extended memory capabilities of microcomputers combine with the increasing sophistication of design tool algorithms to provide full-featured tools for PC-based systems. The Ultiroute GX autorouter from Ultimate Technology is a gridless, interactive tool allowing designers to specify autorouting by window, net or component; the routing algorithm in the autorouter has been optimized to increase its speed so that it can route a four-layer, 25-square-inch circuit board with 40 equivalent 16-pin ICs to 100 percent completion in about an hour and 20 minutes. Also described is Racal-Redac's Cadstar Advanced Router, which is intended for dense, fine-line surface-mount-device boards. CASE tool adds dynamic simulation of requirements analysis. (Cadre Technologies' Teamwork 4.0 integrated computer-aided software Cadre Technologies introduces version 4.0 of its Teamwork integrated computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environment enhanced with features intended to increase productivity at higher levels of design hierarchy and to make it easier for companies to implement CASE without having to start projects over. Among the enhancements are the Teamwork C/Rev source code reverse-engineering tool, the Teamwork/DSE Ada design-sensitive editor and the Teamwork/SIM simulation tool for animating CASE models such as data flow diagrams and state machines. Teamwork/SIM lets the system changing state be seen at the requirements-analysis stage of a project in response to external events; data propagating through the system can also be seen. Transition technology in the new version lets firms adopt CASE for existing or poorly documented source code; these and other enhancements are described. Futurebus+ gains support from chip-development agreement. (a joint development effort between Texas Instruments and Force Computers) A joint development agreement between Texas Instruments and Force Computers results in a Futurebus+ parallel protocol controller optimized for cache operations; a similar development agreement was entered into by Texas Instruments and Philips-Signetics, under which both companies will share all Futurebus+ silicon designs. The Texas Instruments-Force agreement calls for the two companies to cooperate on the definition, design and development of various Futurebus+ chips, although the only product mentioned to date is the parallel protocol cache-optimized controller (PPC). Force executives point to the importance of getting a product to market early; analysts claim that the only way to produce effective Futurebus+ silicon will be through partnerships between board, silicon and system makers. The design and operation of the PPC are described, and the outlook for Futurebus+ products is discussed. IC, storage & display technologies have turned the world digital. (includes related articles on Jack Kilby, the inventor of the The digital revolution has been spurred by three technologies: the advent of the semiconductor, which changed the way engineers approached design problems; data storage, which provides efficient access to large amounts of data; and display technologies, which provide the link between digital data and human perception. The pace of change in the digital arena has been staggering: from 1970 to 1980 single-chip processors moved from 4 bits with 2,300 transistors on the Intel 4004 to 32 bits with 68,000 transistors on the Motorola 68000, and from 1971 to 1986 single-chip DRAM capacities increased from 1K-bit for the Intel 1103 to 4M-bits. Some analysts expect growth in these areas to reach their limits in the late 1990s as production costs for semiconductor processes with line widths of 0.25 microns and smaller become prohibitive. AT&T Bell Laboratories researchers expect ICs to be replaced by photonic circuits and other such devices around the turn of the century. "We'll sell you a gate for $1.00." (the history of integrated circuits) Intel Corp cofounders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore spent the ten years from the founding of Fairchild in 1957 to the founding of Intel in 1968 trying to sell integrated circuits to reluctant customers. The first users of integrated circuits in the late 1950s and early 1960s were manufacturers of military computers, for whom small size was more important than cost. Moore claims Noyce got the IC market started when he promised to sell customers a gate for $1.00, which at the time was a recklessly low price, but this made ICs more economical for customers than building their own circuits with discrete parts. By the time Intel was founded in 1968, ICs had become much larger, and the challenge was to build large ICs with broad market appeal and in large volumes. Intel's 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, featured ROM-based microcode that supported reprogramming for various applications. Computers get personal. (includes related articles on Ken Olsen and the founding of DEC, and on John William Poduska Sr. and the The computer industry has changed dramatically in the 30 years since Computer Design magazine first published, and the pace of change is likely to continue at a high rate for the years to come. In the early 1960s, many scientists and engineers were forced to work late hours because those were the only times the mainframe computer they used was available to run their applications; they analyzed the data generated the next day. Scientists dreamed of being able to process the data in their own laboratories, and soon this dream was made real by Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corp, whose PDP-1 featured real-time control capability for laboratory applications. The PDP-8 released in 1965 was able to control laboratory instruments and perform computations, realizing the dream of interactive, personalized computing. The emergence of microcomputers and workstations from this beginning is recounted. From calculator to computer. (how integrated circuit technology delivered computing to the masses) Integrated circuit technology and economics made it possible for computing to be delivered to the masses. Two concepts and two calculators made personal computing possible: the concepts of integrating a complex circuit on a single chip and allowing IC functions to be defined by programmed instructions; and the hand-held calculator developed by Texas Instruments and the tabletop device developed by Busicom. The first IC was a phase-shift oscillator developed by Jack S. Kilby at Texas Instruments as part of the micromodule program the company was conducting for the Signal Corps; the technology was used to develop the first hand-held calculator in the mid-1960s. Intel's 4004 was the first commercial single-chip microprocessor, but it was initially developed by the company for Busicom, a Japanese calculator manufacturer; Intel bought back the rights to the 4004 in 1971. Digital communications link the world on wires, lightwaves and airwaves. (includes related articles on AT&T Bell Laboratories' Communications technologies have had an astounding impact on the world, bringing it closer together, and the new developments in the areas of optical transmission, semiconductor electronics and telecommunications infrastructure will continue to revolutionize the way the world sees (and hears) itself. It was initially difficult to get management to think in digital terms about communications, according to Inter Fax Chmn Paul Baran, who developed packet switching technology. The first use of packet switching was in the ARPAnet private telecommunications network in the early 1970s; it used 1.5M-bps pulse-code modulation to connect 37 nodes in 1973 and was set up by Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN). Three former BBN employees founded Telenet Communications in 1972, which eventually became US Sprint. The history and future of packet switching and digital communications in general are examined. Digital designs conquer consumer music and video. (the history of digital sound and video reproduction) It would have been difficult for an audiophile of the early 1960s to envision the impact of the convergence of a mass consumer market, solid state technology and microprocessors on the quality and availability of recorded music. Laser compact discs and digital audio tape (DAT) do away with the problems of frequency response, tape hiss and turntable rumble encountered in playing magnetic sound recordings. The first compact discs were developed by Sony and Philips in the early 1980s, and in less than 10 years the technology has all but supplanted LPs. Consumer expectations in other areas have been heightened by digital sound recording technology, and development of video technologies now incorporates digital sound. DAT adds the ability to record digital information directly from another digital tape, which slowed its introduction in the US. HDTV and other video technologies are discussed. Automobiles and electronics: a long courtship promises a productive marriage. The automobile industry has an inherent mechanical orientation that has made it slow to accept electronic systems, and there continues to be a considerable time lag between the advent of such technologies as anti-lock braking systems, active suspensions and electronic tire pressure sensors and their implementation. Micro Linear VP Paul Standish, former head of National Semiconductor's automotive products division, says federal and state emissions standards, particularly those in California, forced automobile manufacturers to adopt electronic systems in their products. The circuitry eventually moved from engines to entertainment, climate control and dash panels, and now it is moving to other parts of the vehicles. Automotive electronics are developed by automotive system suppliers, semiconductor firms and the Big Three automakers; past and future developments are examined. DSPs make their mark in vehicle control. (digital signal processors used in automobiles) Digital signal processor (DSP)-based control subsystems for vehicles replace microprocessors and their associated lookup tables with direct, fast and accurate calculations, providing faster response at lower costs. The systems can be used in engine and transmission control, suspension control, anti-lock braking and traction control, and many other such applications. DSPs can be programmed to implement algorithms precisely, making them the best choice for proportional-integral-derivative, deadbeat, observer, self-tuning regulator, model reference adaptive controller, lead-lag and other algorithms. The high signal sampling rate of DSPs allows subsystems based on them to achieve continuous (analog-like) but real-time performance and to provide optimal control. How DSPs improve open-loop electronic engine control subsystems and other automotive electronic subsystems is described. Digitization broadens the scope of measurement and analysis. (includes a related article on digital pioneer Joseph F. Keithley) The digital revolution in instrumentation since the 1950s increased the precision of test and measurement equipment from one percent with an analog pointer to 0.001 percent with a five-digit readout. Nixie tubes were replaced by LEDs, which were less expensive and easier to read while using less power; LCDs followed, costing even less and using even less power. Early analog multimeters were expensive and difficult to operate; John Fluke Manufacturing introduced the 8100 and 8300 digital multimeters (DMMs) in 1969, and current DMMs are much enhanced in terms of ease of use, resolution and precision, while also dropping considerably in price. Microprocessor-based digitizing scopes continue to be improved in terms of functions and features; the first digital oscilloscope, the Explorer 1090, was introduced by Nicolet Instrument in 1972. Advances in digital instrumentation are examined. EDA - a success story in three decades. (electronic design automation) (includes a related article on the founding of Valid Computer-aided design and engineering began in the early 1960s as an academic pursuit, but in the intervening 30 years it has grown into a $2.5 billion industry. The two fields, now referred to as electronic design automation (EDA), provide the tools used to design and manufacture better computers, which in turn are used to create better systems. The basic algorithms and interactive graphics used in EDA are based on the first such developments in the field in the 1960s and 1970s. IBM and other large systems houses were developing the first CAD prototypes in the 1960s, although the first applications, automated drafting tools, were not introduced until the 1970s. The increasing complexity of circuit boards and integrated circuits made mechanized drafting tools and IC simulation a necessity; the evolution of EDA tools is described, and major players in the field are examined. Logic analyzers offer RISC support and ease-of-use. (Product Focus: Logic Analyzers) (buyers guide) Logic analyzers are being used by circuit designers to meet the continuing speed advances of RISC processors, faster CISC processors and digital signal processing (DSP) chips. Emulators are not yet available for many such chips, but the effectiveness of logic analyzers for design and debug tasks depends on their performance as well as their ease of use. Logic analyzers now offer enhanced interfaces, support for many more processors and improved data analysis and storage functions. Logic analyzers used for RISC-based, 32-bit and multiprocessor design must be able to monitor signals at higher clock rates, provide more channels for monitoring larger address and data buses, and have more memory for displaying larger segments of monitored waveforms. Among the logic analyzers described are Tektronix' 92A96 Centurion for the DAS9200 mainframe and John Fluke Manufacturing's Philips PM 3580. PC-based circuit board design tool incorporates framework technology. (OrCAD's ESP graphical design environment) (product OrCAD introduces the ESP graphical design environment integrated with Release IV of its DOS-based tools. ESP improves the performance of the tools by facilitating tool selection, file management and automatic transfer of design information between software packages. Links are provided by the framework between various tools designed to transfer information about the design from one format to another; the framework is compatible with word processors, spreadsheets and other software from different vendors. New versions of OrCAD's schematic design toolset (STD), verification and simulation toolset (VST), printed circuit board design toolset (PCB), programmable logic design toolset (PLD) and modeling program (MOD) are also introduced. The new products and the ESP framework will be available by the end of 1991; ESP costs $595 with STD, $995 with VST, $1,495 with PCB, $495 with PLD and $495 with MOD. PC chip set provides more-sophisticated cache architecture. (Opti's 386WB) (product announcement) Opti, a Chips & Technologies spinoff, introduces the 386WB chip set for 33-MHz 80386-based microcomputers. The 386WB includes a write-back cache controller that implements a 32- to 256Kbyte direct-mapped cache with external tag and data SRAMs. The direct-mapped design was chosen because of the larger caches being used on faster systems, particularly those running OS/2 or Unix, according to Opti VP of Systems Engineering David Lin. A 16-byte line size is used to keep speed up and tag RAM cost down; a burst fill operation in the cache and memory controllers avoids lengthening of the miss penalty by placing the CPU in wait state and using DRAM fast page mode to move 4 bytes out of main memory every two clock cycles. The systems features in the chip set include a local-device input and two programmable noncached address ranges. The 386WB costs $75 in 10,000-piece quantities. Oki unveils 8051-like controller family. (Oki Semiconductor's 65K, 66K and 67K microcontroller series) (product announcement) Oki Semiconductor introduces the 65K, 66K and 67K series of 80C51-compatible 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers. The 65K series uses a pure 8-bit design with a 400-nanosecond cycle time; it is claimed by Oki to be twice as fast as a 12-MHz Intel 8052 on control code for a dot-matrix printer and offers from 4- to 16Kbytes of on-chip ROM, 128 to 384 bytes of RAM and various 8-bit peripherals. The 66K series uses a 16-bit core and an 8-bit external bus while also running at a 400-nanosecond cycle time; the series adds more elaborate peripheral modules and comes with up to 32Kbytes of ROM and 1Kbyte of RAM. The 67K series has full 16-bit cores and 16-bit buses, which the company claims makes them five times faster than the 8051; the series has 16Kwords of ROM, 512 bytes of RAM and the usual peripherals. Prices range from $3 for the 65K to $7 for the 67K in 10,000-unit quantities. Development module supports knowledge-based real-time systems. (Integrated Solutions' RT/Expert) (product announcement) Integrated Solutions introduces the RT/Expert development environment for knowledge-based real-time software. RT/Expert supports the incorporation of rule-based logic into systems that also use numeric computations in real-time applications; it is part of the company's computer-aided engineering and software engineering (CAE/CASE) series of products, which includes Matrix, SystemBuild, AutoCode and AC-100. RT/Expert lets a collection of IF-THEN-ELSE rules be described based on an expert's knowledge and experience for use in diagnostics, monitoring, filtering and mode selection. The program can be used along with SystemBuild to examine logical relationships between inputs and/or historic information and evaluate the IF part of a control structure; mathematical and logical operations are done in the THEN-ELSE structures as they are in normal engineering. RT/Expert costs $10,000. Novell's enterprising NetWare. (includes related article on providing greater network support) Novell Pres and CEO Raymond J. Noorda says his company and other vendors of local area network (LAN) operating systems aspire to provide safe, secure products that support a variety of applications and hardware platforms. Many MIS managers criticize LAN vendors such as Novell for failing to measure up to those high standards. But use of LANs in corporations is growing, led by Novell's $7,995 NetWare 386 3.1. Server-resident NetWare Loadable Modules perform protocol conversion and communications duties for all microcomputers on a network. NetWare for VMS is available, and NLMs for Unix, Apple Macintoshes and IBM mainframes are being readied. Industry outlook. (preview of 1991) Brousell, David R. The information technology market is expected to suffer from the same problems in 1991 that will plague the economy as a whole: fears of a recession, ebbing confidence, more intense competition and anxiety over the Persian Gulf situation. Some MIS budgets will barely keep pace with inflation or will be cut. Trends are from large computer systems to less expensive desktop systems to emerging standards. Computer makers are facing a corresponding shift from low-volume, high-profit production to just the opposite. DEC, Unisys, Philips and other firms are cutting staff. Growth areas are seen in graphical user interfaces, workstations, laptop computers, database management systems and networking software; sales of proprietary minicomputer are expected to drop 8 percent. IBM expects growth of 7 to 10%. (outlook for computer industry in 1991) Manufacturers of mainframes and minicomputers are undergoing major changes as they re-examine longstanding strategies. Most are now emphasizing open, scalable product lines, software and support services. Banking on strong sales of its RS/6000 workstations, AS/400 minicomputers and ES/9000 mainframes, IBM expects to post 7 percent to 10 percent sales growth. IBM concentrates on fundamental semiconductor technology and is working on several generations of DRAMs. The outlook is gloomier at DEC, which is cutting back on research and development and expects to cut 5,000 workers from the year-ago level of 123,500. Electronic Data Systems Corp expects to capitalize on the trend toward outsourcing MIS. Solid gains seen for networks, EDI. (outlook for computer networking industry in 1991) Computer networking firms expect to post strong results in 1991 despite a slowdown in the economy. Provo, UT-based Novell Inc expects revenues to climb at least 15 percent. Linking multivendor systems will be a key trend: for example, OS/2 and Apple Macintoshes are likely to be integrated into the VINES network operating system. Data communications is booming. Growth will be strong in the electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic mail industries. Many users are opting for private networks. LAN/WAN interconnection devices will sell well, but there is some concern over users' willingness to invest in communications hardware. The Far East and Europe are likely to be stronger markets than the United States. RISC, multiprocessing are the hot spots. (reduced-instruction-set computing) (preview of microcomputer and workstation market in Makers of microcomputers and workstations are reluctant to predict 1991 sales. US sales are slowing, while the European economy is unpredictable. Still, the trend to downsize computer systems bodes well for vendors of smaller systems. Compaq, Novell Inc and NextGen Microsystems Inc are all working on symmetric-multiprocessing products. Strong sales are expected of workstations using reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC). HP and DEC are expected to make up ground lost to Sun Microsystems Inc and IBM by debuting new workstations of their own. A number of low-end systems are expected to follow 1990's Apple Macintosh Classic and IBM PS/1 into the market. The biggest sales increases are expected to be posted by notebook computers. Intel 80486-based machines will also post impressive sales growth. Software execs in upbeat mood. (preview of software market in 1991) Software publishing executives say their industry could benefit from a recession, especially as users opt for less costly ways to improve system performance and efficiency. Users are also more apt to buy packages than develop applications in-house during tough economic times. Declining mainframe sales are likely to hurt software firms that provide for that market. Lotus Development Corp aims to reap half its revenues overseas. Microsoft Corp will hire 750 research and development workers, bringing its total in that area to 2,700, as it concentrates on handwriting recognition, multimedia and object-oriented technologies. Recession hits Europe. (preview of computer market in 1991) Appleton, Elaine; Mead, Tim. European computer users are reluctant to make big purchases now. Users express confusion over proprietary vs. open systems, are rethinking their strategies in order to prepare for a unified European market in 1993, and are worried about a possible worldwide recession on top of the Persian Gulf crisis. Like their US counterparts, European computer vendors are laying off thousands of workers, switching architectures, spending heavily on research and development of open systems, cutting direct sales forces, and merging with other vendors. Only service and software firms show good health. Retirement programs for older PCs. Moad, Jeff. MIS managers who want to move their firms to Intel 80386-based microcomputers in order to take advantage of OS/2 Presentation Manager or Microsoft Windows 3.0 face the problem of what to do with thousands of older IBM PC ATs, XTs and clones. Sending the older machines to lower-level staffers is not such a good idea when one considers that computer novices are among those who would benefit most from easy-to-use graphical user interfaces. Dealers such as ComputerLand Corp and BusinessLand Inc and vendors such as Grid Systems Corp are forging microcomputer-buyback agreements. Many analysts say computer vendors will increasingly have to adopt this tactic. Making the spreadsheet connection. (spreadsheets as front-ends for corporate databases) (includes related article on DataLens Many companies are finding out that microcomputer-based spreadsheets can serve as front-ends for databases. Users conversant with spreadsheets are the driving force behind database access. Spreadsheet publishers are providing their own database interfaces; the most sophisticated example is Lotus Development Corp's DataLens. Informix Software Inc markets DataLink, a interface to its Wingz database management systems. MIS managers still fret about data security. Wilson, NC-based BB and T Financial Corp has instituted a read-only policy for microcomputer users accessing corporate databases. Fiber cracks the $10,000 barrier. (declining prices of fiber optic adapter boards) The cost of Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) adapter cards is dropping. A low-cost version of FDDI that uses twisted-pair copper cabling, although still under research, is driving down the prices of optical-based products. In 1990, DEC debuted a $6,000 adapter for its DECstation 5000 workstation, while Network Peripherals Inc of San Jose, CA, sells a PC AT adapter for $3,495. Industry observers expect sub-$1,000 FDDI boards by the mid-1990s, fueled in large part by declining prices of chip sets and special optical components. While Ethernet chip sets cost $25, FDDI chip sets are expected to drop from a minimum of $250 today to $75 in 1994. CASE tackles software maintenance. (Excelerator for Design Recovery computer-aided software engineering tool from Index The $9,800 Excelerator for Design Recovery from Index Technology Corp of Cambridge, MA, is a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool that maintains and re-engineers old software code. Software re-engineered with the tool fits into Index Technology's Excelerator integrated series of CASE tools. Tools like Design Recovery are badly needed, because four-fifths of the time, money and energy in programming departments is expended on maintaining old code. UNIX gurus develop a new system. Moad, Jeff. Software scientists at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, who helped develop the original Unix operating system are working on a new operating system. The two-year-old Plan 9 project aims to develop a time-sharing, file-based, portable operating system - in these characteristics it is much like Unix. But Plan 9 rejects the trend in the Unix world toward an extended systems architecture in favor of a more rigid network architecture comprising three key components: a CPU server, a file server and a terminal. The researchers contend that Plan 9 will be easier to administer and use than Unix and will be better suited for keeping pace with rapidly evolving computer technologies. The Fed reserves an imaging system. (US Federal Reserve System) Bunker, Ted. The US Federal Reserve System is developing an imaging system that can help process the 20 billion checks its 12 member banks handle each year. The Fed is likely to use image-processing equipment from both Unisys and IBM, despite their differing standards. The new system, which will process only government-issued checks, is expected to strongly influence the private banking industry. New image-processing equipment will be used by the Fleet/Norstar Financial Group Inc of Providence, RI, to cut is check-processing staff by more than 50 percent. Bankers must still agree on electronic-interchange standards. AT&T breathes life into mini line. (developing new 3B2 minicomputer) AT and T Computer Systems Pres Richard A. McGinn says the corporation is developing 3B2 minicomputers based on Mips Computer Systems Inc R3000 reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) chips. The development marks a move from proprietary to open minicomputers for AT and T. McGinn says AT and T will continue to make proprietary 3B2 computers based on WE32000 chips from Western Electric Corp. The 3B2 is popular with government agencies. DEC flexes 486 muscle. (applicationDEC 433MP file server) (product announcement) DEC pits its new symmetric-multiprocessing applicationDEC 433MP file server directly against similar products from Compaq and IBM. The 433MP can be outfitted with as many as six 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessors and serve as many as 128 users; such a configuration would cost in excess of $80,000. The base system, priced at $18,395, comes with one microprocessor and 8Mbytes of internal memory, 200Mbyte hard drive, 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and The Santa Cruz Operation's SCO Unix System V. The 433MP features uses both the Industry Standard Architecture bus for IBM PC-style expansion boards and Irvine, CA-based Corollary Inc's CBus for processors, memory and SCSI devices. The 433MP will ship in Feb 1990; DECnet support should be available by mid-1991. When spreadsheets aren't enough. (decision support systems) (buyers guide) Functions included with decision support systems (DSSs) range from basic spreadsheet functions to sophisticated analysis applications such as goal seeking, time series, trends and risk analysis. Minicomputer- and mainframe-based DSSs usually include depreciation calculation and forecasting functions. Microcomputer-based systems do not usually recommend courses of action. Some spreadsheets and executive information systems (EISs) have DSS-like functions. However, DSSs usually support more variables and more complex equations than spreadsheets, while EISs present summaries and hide the data and analysis from the user. The accompanying directory presents a sampling of DSS packages for a variety of platforms. Rotors and gears for tiny robots: micro motors. (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) The robotics industry will see the development of micro motors in the 1990s. The size of motors are shrinking rapidly, and metallic gears so small that several can rest on the head of a pin have already been created. Rotors are being developed for measuring blood flow, and researchers have made a tiny biomedical sensor that is composed of four blades, each 300 micrometers wide, which allows doctors and scientists to measure the blood flow in coronary arteries. The industry is creating sensors that are far more reliable, accurate and cheaper than sensors manufactured in the past, and they are potentially a thousand times smaller than traditional devices. Updating a flawed marvel. (Poqet PC) (Hardware Review) (Personal Computers)(Column) (evaluation) Poqet Computer Corp's Poqet PC laptop computer is a $1,495 machine which has its greatest advantage in its small size. Poqet Computer has cut the Poquet's price by $500, from $1,995, because of sluggish sales and mixed reviews. The company has revamped the product, which is a DOS-compatible machine weighing only one pound and fitting into a shirt pocket. The keyboard is now more responsive, but the laptop is still plagued by lack of backlighting, no room for floppy or disk drive and only 512Kbytes of memory. Poqet plans to expand the Poquet PC's memory to 4Mbytes. The Poqet PC, which runs on standard AA batteries, has excellent power management, making other portables seem archaic with their power management systems. An alternative Window view. (Desqview, from Quarterdeck) (Software Review) (Peripherals)(Column) (evaluation) Quarterdeck Office Systems' $219.90 Desqview 386 software package allows users to move windows around on a computer screen and work on one program in the foreground while the computer runs a separate program in the background. The software package runs on MS-DOS machines based on Intel Corp's 80386 microprocessor and works well with or without a mouse. Desqview can run Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface but only in real mode. Memory comes in four varieties - conventional, high, extended and expanded - and DESQview, with its companion program QEMM 386, allows users to take full advantage of the memory in a microcomputer. Crunching numbers by the teraflop. (In Parallel) (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) Computer scientists expect, by the end of the century, to develop a teraflop computer capable of calculating more than a trillion mathematical operations each second. The new supercomputers will use massively parallel computing technology, which teams hundreds or thousands of independent processors together. The new supercomputers will have many applications including helping scientists determine how the human body will react to a new drug and the effects of pollutants on the world climate. Teraflop computers also will help scientists map genetic structures and help robots recognized words and images. New grids, rails and sensors: perfect conductors. (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies ) Superconducting devices provide a great potential for the 1990s in areas such as transportation, medicine and energy. Superconductors are materials that pose no resistance to electricity and have traditionally been metal alloys frozen at near 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or absolute zero. Certain ceramic materials have been discovered that become superconducting at about 235 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, which makes superconducting more practical. Superconductor devices allow electricity to flow along power lines with no resistance and make it possible to build powerful electromagnets that would allow trains to float above tracks. Superconductor devices are currently used magnetic resonance imaging, a technology that allows doctors to examine the human body in new ways. A merger of TV and computing: digital imaging. (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) Digital imaging provides impetus for the merger between television and computer technologies, while televisions are evolving, from devices that allow one-way broadcast, into machines that can compose, store and retrieve personally developed programs. Computers are evolving too, providing video images and high-quality sound. Industry observers say that the development of high-definition television (HDTV) might bring advances in related areas. For example, HDTV is expected to spark the research and development of flat-panel displays, which are slightly thicker than a plate of glass and provide high-resolution color images, in commercial markets. Reinventing silicon circuits: mighty chips. (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) Semiconductor devices are the building blocks of computer chips and consumer electronics products, and the use of semiconductor devices, in the 1990s, will become more critical. The development of clever circuitry is an important goal for the US semiconductor industry, but the cost of building manufacturing plants is becoming too expensive. Computer chips are expected to become more specialized, and performance is expected to improve dramatically; one million transistors now can fit on a chip and close to 100 million transistors will be able to fit on a chip by the end of the decade. The development of other technologies in the 1990s, including massive parallel processing, will have an increasing effect on the semiconductor industry. New networks for the nation. (Fiber Optics) (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) The US policy surrounding the development of computer networks is verbally positive but practically insufficient. The development of the gigabit network entails replacing copper lines with fiber-optic cables; the network would allow for the transmission of computer data and video images among the nation's research laboratories, supercomputer centers and universities, and later, among homes and businesses. The development of the gigabit network promises a variety of applications: doctors could view medical imaging animations, scientists could share technical data and information, and the business and entertainment industries could provide many new services. From an art to a science. (Software Writing) (Transforming the Decade: 10 Critical Technologies) The development of new computerized technologies will put pressure on the computer software industry to begin creating software as if doing so was a science instead of an art. Computer software writing is a labor-intensive process and is commanding a higher share of computing costs. The development of massive parallel processing, distributed computing and multimedia computing technologies places greater responsibility on software publishers to accelerate rates of growth. Industry observers note that software development programs go a long way in increasing productivity but a fundamental change in thinking is required: software writing should be more of an engineering discipline and less of an art form. Commentary: multiplying the telecommuting possibilities in 1991. The state of telecommuting today and its outlook for 1991 are analyzed into 13 key points, divided in four categories. They are: streamlined organizations, new types of organizational structure, and emerging workplace flexibility (organizational); telecommunications innovations, the proliferation of laptop computers, the home computer market poised for but not burgeoning into growth, and groupware software embracing telecommuting needs (technical); VDT and disability legislation (regulatory); and worsening gridlock on the highways, the continuing air pollution problem, the growing legitimacy of home offices, and deficiencies in the US education system (quality of life). Seven 'multiplier' factors can magnify the effect of these 13 points: public policy influences, transportation problems leading to regulation, moving from innovation to practice, early retirement, quality improvement projects, vendor activism and the US recession. A big deal? (MegaCAD, German 2D computer-aided design package) (evaluation) MegaCAD is a German 2D computer-aided design package distributed in the UK by Coscom Systems Ltd and based priced at 99 pounds sterling. The basic package includes the full drawing program, but is limited to printer-only output. Plotter output is available with the first expansion level, priced at 100 pounds sterling. For a further 550 pounds sterling, an extra suite of programs provides disk paging for large drawings, VGA support, ASCII file or DXF interfacing and several other useful additions. The full program comes on seven 5.25-inch disks. Installation is easy, and the menu is user-definable, allowing it to serve as a front end for an entire hard disk. Interactive graphic window menus appear only for selection, leaving the full screen for a drawing area. Mini windows show the contents of macro and drawing files. One drawback is that macros do not presently remain independent. Changes to a macro are not copied into a drawing in which the macro has already been used; the next release is expected to remedy this problem. This simple to learn and use package is considered an excellent value. Well lettered! (Arts & Letters Graphics Editor 3.01) (Software Review) (evaluation) Arts & Letters Graphics Editor 3.01, distributed in the UK by the Roderick Manhattan Group, is a 495-pounds sterling, Windows-based graphics editor aimed at the same market as Corel Draw and Micrografx Designer. Installation of the package, presented on 10 5.25-inch or 15 3.5-inch disks, is easy, being aided both by documentation and on-screen help. Documentation is well-written, although its physical presentation would be improved by use of a ring-bound format. Clip art is a strong point, containing 5,000 easily manipulated images ranging from flourishes and borders through a selection designated 'People, Places and Things'. Free-hand drawing is assisted by the ability to smooth curves, straighten lines and align to selectable parameters. Users familiar with Windows will quickly feel comfortable with Arts & Letters, although page display varies somewhat from other Windows packages, a drawback that is soon mitigated by exposure. This is a powerful, easy to learn and use package that is well worth the cost of admission. Mint spy. (UK design firm, Spy Design, moves to a Macintosh system) Spy Design is a UK business-to-business design firm specializing in brochure and packaging work that recently moved to a Macintosh system running Aldus PageMaker and Adobe Illustrator software. Spy Design had been spending between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds sterling annually on typesetting costs alone. The Macintosh system, which consists of three Macintosh IIcxs, an Apple IINTX laser printer and an Apple scanner, cost about 18,000 pounds sterling, and Spy Design's managing director Pippa Young expects to recoup the entire investment in nine months. Macs were selected over an IBM system because they eliminated troublesome code, and system specifications were deliberately overstated to allow for easy upgrades. Rules for using the new system had to be established for the designers, who were unfamiliar with such conventions as the need to have distinct names for every folder. A cardinal rule was that all design work had to be roughed out with pencil and paper before moving to the computer. The first test of the new system was the simultaneous launch of a new company and their first product, all against a deadline of six weeks. The design process, once 90 percent traditional and 10 percent Macintosh-based, is now 60 percent Macintosh-based, and the investment is paying off. Star turn. (RenderStar 1.6) (evaluation) Wood, David. RenderStar 1.6 is a microcomputer rendering package from Dutch software house Modern Medium, distributed in the UK by Source Two for 975 pounds sterling. What is unique about RenderStar is that, unlike most CAD rendering packages, which are imported from Unix workstation environments, RenderStar is written specifically for the PC DOS environment. RenderStar requires an Intel 80386- or 80486-based system with a math coprocessor and at least 2Mbytes of memory. Installation of the program, which comes on just two high-density 5.25-inch disks, is easy. Documentation leaves something to be desired. For example, it fails to explain the relationship among the four programs that comprise RenderStar (RenderStar, RenderShell, CompuShow and Viewer). RenderStar's chief attraction is its rendering speed, currently the fastest available in the microcomputer environment, and an impressive array of effects, all for what is essentially a bargain-basement price. A better manual and better use of the RenderShell environment would make this an even better package, but just as it is, RenderStar is an excellent product that delivers what it promises. Eye opener. (Silicon Graphics Personal Iris 4D/25G workstation) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Silicon Graphics 4D/25G Personal Iris workstation offers 8Mbyte RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disc, 19-inch color monitor with 1,280 by 1,024 pixel resolution, and G Level (24-bit color) graphics at a bargain price of 18,340 pounds sterling. More than 1,000 applications in all areas are available for use on the Personal Iris, making it an outstanding platform for high-quality design, modeling, analysis and animation. Installation of the box itself is straightforward. Documentation is excellent, being extremely thorough without being condescending. The Iris runs Silicon Graphics' version of Unix, IRIX, and offers Macintosh-like graphical user interfaces for file handling, system management, and access to the outstanding graphics power of the machine. The one drawback to the Personal Iris 4D/25G is a noisy fan, described in the manual as 'quiet,' perhaps used with longer cables. Value for money is good because of the upgrade path, and this is a best buy among low-end 3D workstations. Selling yourself. (staying in demand as a designer) (Cover Story) Eckersley, Jill. Designers in any field who want to remain in demand will have to learn computer skills. Computer-aided design (CAD) already dominates many fields, with the Macintosh the machine of choice, especially among young designers who have trained on these machines. Word-processing, database and spreadsheet packages are also widely in use. Architects, for example, use CAD to produce drawings, but write specifications using word processing software. AutoCAD dominates the CAD software market, but less expensive packages like Generic CAD and CADkey Light can provide good experience and turn out good work at the same time. An important skill mix for designers, regardless of their particular specialty, is knowledge of hardware, Unix familiarity, and the ability to load software, do backups and write basic macros. Serious CAD represents a major investment for firms, something in the neighborhood of 10,000 per seat, and many small firms may be shy of the cash outlay. But it is precisely the firms that have such systems in place that will best weather the recession. And it is designers who have the appropriate skills who will stay in demand. In Focus. (Agfa Focus color scanner) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Agfa Focus Color Scanner, 5,995 pounds sterling from Agfa UK, is an 800 dots-per-inch (dpi), 24-bit color scanner that also offers an optional 35mm slide attachment, priced at about 1,500 pounds sterling, that represents added value for desktop publishers, advertising agency design departments and similar operations, and puts the Focus Color Scanner in direct competition with more expensive dedicated high-end slide scanners. Installation of the optional MC View software (400 pounds sterling) is unnecessarily complex when not automated, and the program consumes inordinate amounts of memory. The documentation leaves much to be desired. Above all, a powerful, fast computer with copious amounts of memory is a must for use with the unit. Image quality is very high from a range of inputs, and dpi per pounds invested is excellent, but allowances must be made for necessary hardware upgrades. This unit could be a good buy for those who do a lot of reproduction of average-sized color images. A new phase. (Tektronix Phaser PX Color Printer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Tektronix Phaser PX color printer, priced at 7,199 pounds sterling, is a 24-bit, 300 dots-per-inch thermal wax printer. High-quality paper is a necessity for this printer, and a ribbon cartridge that costs 134 pounds sterling must be replaced after some 1,000 prints, a cost of about 18 pence per print. Other major drawbacks include the weight of the unit and the amount of desk space it consumes, some 1,000 by 700mm. On the plus side are the price, the ease of use, and the availability of Pantone colors for proofing. This unit is recommended to those use use layered computer-aided design and color. Movie star. (3D Studio 1.0; includes a related article on the use of 3D Studio in the British National Theatre's production of The 3D Studio, 1,750 pounds sterling from AutoCAD, is a multimedia package for the Macintosh environment that comprises modelling, rendering and animation capabilities. Hot keys allow the user to move about among the five integrated modules that comprise the package. The first three modules, the 2D Editor, 3D Lofter, and 3D Editor, are concerned mainly with the creation of objects. The fourth module, the Materials Editor, controls color, classified as ambient, diffuse, or specular, and bitmaps used to control texture, opacity, reflection and bumps. The fifth module is the Keyframer, which supports the definition of 'keys' for objects, allowing for extensive image 'tweaking'. 3D Studio requires a minimum of an Intel 80386-based system, but the abilities of this package are unsurpassed in the PC market. Productivity: digitisers. (tutorial) Hodgson, Paul. Digitizing tablets, developed to convert paper drawings into computer images, may be the answer for designers not comfortable with a keyboard or mouse. Unlike scanners, which convert the entire picture, along with any extraneous markings, digitizing tablets allow the designer to select only those parts of the drawing that are needed. The designer can either 'trace' a completed drawing or create a drawing directly on the tablet. Digitizers are largely standardized, and are differentiated mainly by price, which is a function of size. The digitizing pad mimics the size of the screen, so to draw a five-inch line on the screen requires drawing a five-inch line on the pad, even if it is only a 12-inch pad. This can be confusing to those used to a mouse, but should be familiar to those still used to pen and pencil. Accuracy is the chief criterion when selecting a digitizer, and is judged by how many lines per inch (lpi) the digitizer can recognize. High-end, high-priced digitizers recognize 10,000 lpi; less expensive yet perfectly adequate digitizers recognize 1,000 lpi. Choosing between a digitizer and a scanner is largely a matter of application. Scanners are better for those who do heavy artwork; for those whose work is mainly point-to-point drawing, digitizers offer better speed and lower price. Roughs: touch me. (review of Touch Up, a pixel editor) (Software Review) (evaluation) Touch-Up, distributed in the UK by MGA SoftCat for 199 pounds sterling, is a monochrome pixel editor for the desktop publishing (DTP) market. Ported from Atari ST, the most outstanding feature of Touch-Up is the ability to work on a virtual image up to 20 inches wide at 300 dots-per-inch. Touch Up will run on any GEM monochrome display, and ships with GEM 3.13, which must be installed prior to installing Touch-Up. Documentation is a bit jumbled, but the manual is essential for many jobs needing Alt/Shift/Ctrl and mouse key combinations. Some scanners are supported, and printing is no problem for Laserjet or PostScript devices. Image manipulation and import tools are excellent. Those who use scanned or clip-art may find this is the only tool they need. Roughs: A bird in the hand? (review of the Dest Personal Scan Kit) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Dest Personal Scan Kit, distributed in the UK by Formscan Ltd for 995 pounds sterling, is a 300-dots-per-inch 64 gray-scale scanner that works as both a hand-held or a desktop scanner. The scanner comes bundled with Recognize! optical character recognition software capable of reading any font on pages up to 8.5 inches wide. A motorized cradle takes paper in sizes up to A4 and A5, and there is a 10-sheet in tray, but no out tray. Set up using an Installer takes 15 minutes. A minimum of an Intel 80286-based microcomputer is required and EMS memory is recommended, although Recognize will spool to hard disk on big files. Scanning is slow in the cradle; in hand-held mode, it is faster, but also trickier, resulting in beeps from the microcomputer and a flashing scanner if done too fast. The software performs acceptably, but hangs if it runs out of disk space. All in all, there are better scanner/software packages available. Roughs: print demon. (review of QMS' PS-410 printer) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The PS-410 printer, 2,495 pounds sterling from QMS, is a 'personal' 4 page-per-minute (ppm) laser printer with a footprint of just 13 by 17 inches. Where most printers offer 11 scalable fonts, the PS-410 offers 13, adding Adobe Garamond and Helvetica condensed; 2Mbytes of RAM, upgradeable to 4Mbytes, means the QMS can also accept downloaded fonts, along with complex halftones and big drawings. Other features include a 50 page/envelope tray, an optional 250-page cassette, and a print cartridge rated for 3,000 pages. This quiet running printer uses the same engine as an Apple Personal LaserWriter, but offers superior speed, a parallel as well as a serial port, more fonts, the ability to run in ESP mode to emulate an HP Laserjet or plotter, and configuration software for both the Mac and the PC. This is an excellent value. A general framework for visualizing abstract objects and relations. (technical) The visualization process is seen as the translation from textual languages into two- or three-dimensional visual languages, a process called translation into pictures (TRIP). TRIP works by first translating data generated or processed by an application into a relational structure representation; the relational structure (a semantic network) is seen as a set of abstract relations among abstract objects. The abstract objects are then mapped to graphical objects and abstract relations between them are mapped to graphical relations among the corresponding graphical objects. The graphical object layout is then computed by solving graphical constraints and a picture is generated. The Constraint-based Object Layout (COOL) system is developed to handle the layout problem; COOL accommodates over-constrained equation systems that existing constraint-based graphics systems treat as errors. Depth-order point classification techniques for CSG display algorithms. (constructive solid geometry) (technical) The constructive solid geometry (CSG) solid modeling representation defines objects by applying transformations, such as translation, rotation and scaling, and Boolean operations, such as union, difference and intersection, to elementary volumes, such as the block, sphere, cylinder and cone. CSG objects can be represented internally by a binary tree, or CSG tree, the leaf nodes of which represent the primitive solids; the internal (composite) nodes represent the Boolean operations. Some applications, such as model display, require explicit information about the boundary (orientation and position of the faces) of the composite object, which can be obtained by a boundary evaluation that classifies the surfaces of the primitives in terms of the composite object. Classification generates the subsets of a geometric entity that are inside, outside or on the boundary of another set. Techniques for classifying points in depth order are analyzed and compared. Efficient Delaunay triangulation using rational arithmetic. (technical) Finite-precision implementations of geometric algorithms suffer for lack of robustness, and ad hoc approaches to robustness increase the complexity of practical implementations, causing geometric degeneracies and numerical error. Use of fixed-precision arithmetic, such as floating point, in the implementation of fundamental tests performed by geometric algorithms lets them produce incorrect answers, and using arbitrary-precision arithmetic makes them expensive to compute. Adaptive-precision algorithms are presented for finding the signs of determinants of matrices with integer and rational elements; they were developed and tested through integration into the Guibas-Stolfi Delaunay triangulation algorithm. The program thus generated can triangulate a set of random rational points in the unit circle only four to five times slower than a floating-point implementation. Drawing antialiased cubic spline curves. (technical) Klassen, R. Victor. Cubic spline curves are series of segments, each of which has a range of 0 to 1. A sequence of pixels intersected by an antialiased curve (rather than polylines) is required to draw the curve; there can be no more than one pixel separation between the elements of the sequence. An algorithm is presented with two variants to provide for the detection of pixels containing intersections offline in constant time (per pixel containing an intersection) or online in 'O(log m)' time (per intersection), with 'm' the number of bits in screen addresses. The two variants have the same basic components, except for their handling of intersections. The algorithm input is a list of control vertices defining a single spline curve, the form of which is unimportant because determination of the Bezier control vertices defining a segment is the first step in drawing the segment. Linking programs incrementally. (technical) Quong, Russell W.; Linton, Mark A. An incremental linker, named Inclink, is designed; it processes changed modules. The design of Inclink, which trades main memory and disk space for faster turnaround time, results in a fast turnaround time within a normal execution environment while fully preserving the format of a standalone, sharable executable image. The size of a change determines Inclink's running time; the larger a program, the greater the speedup using Inclink. A use-dependency graph is used to store all segment, symbol and relocation information. Inclink can be run as a direct replacement for a batch linker or as a fully incremental linker. Memory usage is the major drawback in the Inclink implementation. Compilation of functional languages by program transformation. (technical) In functional languages the design of efficient and correct implementations is crucial. The main advantage of functional languages over imperative languages is that the semantic elegance of functional languages makes program correctness proofs and program transformations easier to establish. The two main tasks in executing a functional program are searching for the next expression to be reduced according to a specific computation rule and management of the environment. This approach does not require that an abstract machine be introduced; this makes correctness proofs much simpler. Automatic transformation of series expressions into loops. (technical) An important use for sequences that is supported by only a few languages is that most algorithms that can be expressed as loops can also be expressed as functional expressions manipulating sequences. Most programmers do not write loops because most programming languages do not have many predefined procedures that operate on sequences as aggregates and sequence expressions typically are inefficient. The efficiency problem can be solved by transforming sequence expressions into a form that eliminates intermediate sequence structures. A set of restrictions that function as a basis for the communicative approach to transforming sequence expressions into loops is presented; this set of explicit restrictions identify a class of optimizable sequence expressions that can be completely transformed. The concurrent language, Shared Prolog. (technical) Brogi, Antonio; Ciancarini, Paolo. Shared Prolog is a new concurrent logic language that can be used as a very high-level specification language and as a system programming language. Shared Prolog is an elegant and concise specification tool for two main classes of applications: metaprogramming and designing expert systems based on blackboard architectures. A set of parallel agents that are Prolog programs extended by a guard mechanism make up a Shared Prolog system. The programmer uses a centralized data structure to coordinate communication and synchronization to control the parallelism granularity. Wait-free synchronization. (technical) Herlihy, Maurice. A simple and general technique is presented to prove statements of the form, 'there is no wait-free implementation of X by Y'; the technique is based on reduction to a consensus protocol. In a wait-free condition no undetected halting failures of a process can prevent a process from completing an operation. An object is defined as universal if it implements any other object. It is shown that any object with consensus number n is universal in a system of n, or fewer, processes. A wait-free implementation of any object can be constructed from universal objects. Wait-free synchronization is a qualitative break with traditional locking-based techniques used to implement concurrent objects. Efficient construction of LR(k) states and tables. (technical) Ancona, M.; Dodero, G.; Gianuzzi, V.; Morgavi, M. LR parsing is widely used in constructing compilers. A new type of LR(k) parsing table, called a reduced table, is presented. A new method of building LR(k) states and parsing tables is designed to give a feasible construction of a collection of LR(k) parsing tables for nontrivial grammars. The basis of the algorithm is the reduced table; this table handles LR(k) parsing by introducing the look-ahead state and the look parsing action. Nonterminals are kept in item context strings until they are expanded to terminals. The reduced tables are smaller than canonical tables. This new method is particularly suitable when k > 1. The consultant's survival guide. (AI Insider) (column) Eliot, Lance B. Artificial intelligence (AI) specialists interested in a consulting career must focus on finding potential clients. Being prepared for the unexpected can help an aspiring consultant to recognize clients even when going about ordinary, non business-oriented activities. Creating a business strategy will help prepare the consultant to take advantage of identifying potential clients. Consultants can assess their abilities by analyzing the expert-system development life cycle and identifying which areas are their strong points. Not every consultant's business will entail building an expert system from the ground up. Much consulting work involves completing a partially-designed system, or maintaining or evaluating a system. More complex knowledge representation. (technical) (AI Apprentice) (column) The science of data structures is known to artificial intelligence (AI) specialists as knowledge representation. Programmers create programs using a few basic data structures, as well as a record structure, which enables them to combine several simpler data structures. The range of data structures available tends to determine the way in which a programmer thinks about a program being developed. Trees and graphs are examples of knowledge representations. Trees have an implicit relationship of up to down, and movement is usually in one direction. Lines in a graph can often be traversed in both directions. Semantic nets, the oldest type of AI knowledge representations, are graphs in which the nodes are descriptors and objects, and the arcs are relationships. Dynamic programming in action. (artificial intelligence programming techniques) (technical) (Expert's Toolbox) (column) Artificial intelligence (AI) experts can benefit by researching and mastering the fundamentals of AI programming techniques, especially data-structure and algorithm designs and complexity analysis. Knowing the fundamentals can help programmers to avoid developing programs that are too slow or too difficult to implement. Dynamic programming is a crucial technique based on the practice of dividing a problem into independent subproblems and solving them, then combining the results. Criteria for applying dynamic programming techniques include the presence of many subproblems of the same type. In addition, the programmer must be able to derive the structure of a solution from optimal solutions to subproblems. Getting Prolog off the ground. (promoting the use of Prolog programming language) (Cover Story) Prolog is a programming language that surfaced in the academic research arena in the 1970s. During the 1980s, several vendors began to market Prolog development environments as commercial products. Prolog's rapid prototyping capabilities and ability to handle very complex problems contributed to its success. Prolog environments can access external data and tap the power of knowledge processing, coupled with mathematical functionality. Applications have been written in Prolog to fulfill a number of disparate requirements. SRI International's Debra Anderson created a Prolog application that determines how best to load a military transport plane so that the aircraft's center of gravity is maintained. A BNF compiler for Prolog. (Backus Naur Form descriptions of programming languages) (technical) Prolog has a parsing feature, definite clause grammars (DCGs), which is quite similar to Backus Naur Form (BNF) language descriptions. DCGs, which are executable extensions of BNFs, differ from BNFs in that they can transform nonterminals into terminals and use grammar rules to judge what to do next. In order to change a BNF to a DCG some extension rules apply, among them the need to pass in the location to start parsing when a nonterminal is called. DCG grammars are capable of enacting computations on what they parse; they can also pass the results back to the program that calls the DCG. Sometimes a BNF compiler is the easiest tool with which to parse material and convert it to Prolog, for example in cases involving composite geometric figures containing thousands of tokens. Prolog wrap-up. (commercial applications for the popular artificial intelligence programming language) (Software Review ) Ten commercial Prolog compiler packages are evaluated, including four products for the DOS platform: Quintus Corp's Quintus DOS Prolog, priced at $995; Arity Corp's Arity Prolog Professional Compiler 5.1, priced at $650; Applied Logic Systems' ALS Prolog Professional 1.2, priced at $499; and Prolog Development Center's PDC Prolog 3.2 for DOS, which costs $249. Prolog applications for the Sun SPARCstation include BIM Prolog 2.5.2, priced at $7,500; Delphia Prolog 2.0.4, priced at $8,600; InterFace GmbH's IF Prolog 4.0.4, priced at $6,800; and Quintus Prolog 3.0, which costs $10,000. Two compilers for the OS/2 platform are evaluated: Arity OS/2 Integrated Prolog, priced at $1,000; and PDC Prolog 3.2 for OS/2, priced at $599. Quintus DOS Prolog. (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) Quintus Corp's Quintus DOS Prolog, priced at $995, is a set of two compilers - one optimizing and the other incremental - for the popular artificial intelligence programming language. Quintus Prolog is a powerful application that is easy to install on the DOS platform. Its major disadvantage is sluggish compiled code. On the positive side, the software provides extensive support through predicates for manipulating windows, files and operating system functions. The predicates for windows are particularly helpful, allowing for detailed control of output to a certain window. Portability to and from other Prolog compilers is easy since the application supports Edinburgh-style syntax. Arity Prolog. (Arity Prolog Professional Compiler 5.1) (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') Arity Corp's Arity Prolog Professional Compiler 5.1, priced at $650, is a compiler software suite for the DOS platform. It is highly recommended due to its speed, ease of use, portability and thorough documentation. This application incorporates a powerful interpreter that has pull-down menus, multiple buffer control, current memory statistics and on-line help. The predicates of the product's compiler component are based on the Edinburgh syntax. They include very good window-creation and control functions. Arity Prolog's fixed upper limits for evaluation space can restrict large projects. ALS Prolog. (ALS Prolog Professional 1.2) (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) ALS Prolog Professional 1.2 from Applied Logic Systems, priced at $499, is a fast compiler of the Prolog programming language. The application runs on the DOS operating system. Support and documentation for ALS Prolog are rather weak, and the program lacks a menu-driven interface. Yet the compiler is effective for compiling all predicates and eliminating differences between static and dynamic predicates and between compiled code and interpreted code. Porting code to other compilers is simple because ALS Prolog is based on the Edinburgh-style syntax. Unfortunately, the package's window interface is under-developed. PDC Prolog. (PDC Prolog 3.2 for DOS) (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up' ) (evaluation) Prolog Development Center's PDC Prolog 3.2 for the DOS environment, priced at $249, is a well-integrated package with exemplary memory utilization and many built-in predicates. The program's major flaw is its lack of compatibility with the many Prolog compilers using Edinburgh syntax. Its metalevel programming is restricted as well. PDC Prolog's windowing interface provides a seamless combination of the debugger, compiler and editor components of the software. Each PDC Prolog component is divided into four areas: domains, goals, predicates and clauses. PDC's documentation is outstanding, and the program's error handling is very extensive. BIM Prolog 2.5.2. (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) The Belgium Institute of Management's BIM Prolog 2.5.2., priced at $7,500, is a Prolog compiler that was evaluated on the Sun SPARCstation platform. BIM Prolog, which also runs on some DEC VAXes, is a very fast compiler with some versatile debugging features, including a postexecution debugger. The regular debugger includes both predicate and file modes. The program automatically writes out compiled files, making it easier for the programmer to accelerate reloading after a major problem. Documentation is strong and the application's interface works well with SunView. BIM Prolog's major weakness is the large amount of code it generates in comparison with some competing compilers. Delphia Prolog 2.0.4. (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) Delphia's Prolog 2.0.4, priced at $8,600, is a Prolog compiler that runs on the Sun SPARCstation and on some Apple microcomputers. The product, while performing a few functions very quickly, was inconsistent. Delphia Prolog is overpriced given its rather limited range of features. The software uses Edinburgh syntax, the standard Prolog choice, but it iconoclastically returns all solutions to goals typed at top-level. The Pixia graphics interface is a pleasure to use. Delphia Prolog's documentation and debugging features are adequate without offering complete satisfaction. IF Prolog 4.0.4. (InterFace GmbH's software) (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) InterFace GmbH's IF Prolog 4.4.0 compiler, which runs on the Sun SPARCstation environment among others, costs $6,800. Although the program is relatively slow, it is reasonably priced and includes attractive features, for example the source-linked debugger. Complete and easy-to-read documentation is provided. IF Prolog, based on the standard Edinburgh syntax, generates functional syntax warnings that detect clauses that do not start at the first column, or that contain a variable only once. A relational database interface for Structured Query Language systems is included, as is an interface to the Graphics Kernel System. Quintus Prolog 3.0. (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) Quintus Corp's Quintus Prolog 3.0, priced at $10,000, was evaluated on the Sun SPARCstation platform. This compiler boasts impressive features and performance. Its source debugger and Emacs development environment are both easy to use. Programmers can compile a single region or predicate. Quintus style messages prompt the user to discover errors sooner, and the program's code is automatically debuggable. Programmers can use exception handlers to create resilient programs. While the competing BIM Prolog 2.5.2 is less expensive than Quintus, the latter is recommended for users desiring to embed their applications. Arity OS/2 Integrated Prolog. (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog wrap-up') (evaluation) Arity Corp's Arity OS/2 Integrated Prolog, priced at $1,000, includes Arity Prolog 5.1 for DOS as well as a protected mode incarnation of the Arity interpreter and compiler. The program uses Edinburgh-type syntax. The user is able to extend the program's interpreter by adding 'evaluable' predicates, a process which can accelerate both execution time and the development process. The selection of built-in predicates is versatile, including a listing predicate and a predicate that invokes the user's choice of editor. The product lacks a PM integrated programming environment, but overall is a full-featured compiler that performs well on benchmarks. PDC Prolog version 3.2. (Prolog Development Center's software) (Software Review) (one of ten compiler evaluations in 'Prolog Prolog Development Center's PDC Prolog 3.2 for the OS/2 platform costs $599. This compiler also features an editor and debugger. Unlike compilers based on the standard Edinburgh syntax, PDC Prolog is a 'strongly typed language'. The program's interface is quite effective. Built-in support and error handling functions are strong, as is the named-pipe feature for establishing asynchronous interprocess communication. Multiuser and networking applications are easier to develop due to PDC Prolog's built-in transaction feature and its message passing subsystem. Neural network training TIPS and techniques. (tutorial) (technical) Training a neural network can be a difficult project for a programmer, although the familiar backpropagation methodology is reputed to result in networks that are simple to code in simulation as well as simple to conceive. Backpropagation networks are most often small hierarchical networks with three layers. If a network is not learning its tasks, the programmer can try reinitializing the weights to a new group of random values. A more subtle technique involves modifying the weights by a small random amount. Backpropagation networks should include a momentum term in the implementation process. A pocket guide to Prolog. (technical) Knaus, Rodger. In programs developed with Prolog programming language, each branch of the program is an independent statement called a clause. Clauses include a relation name, with a list of arguments usually following. This type of clause, termed a fact, indicates a relation between its arguments considered true by the system. Another type of Prolog clause is the rule - a fact in which the body is omitted. After a procedure is called in Prolog, the interpreter or compiled code searches clauses. A factorial is defined in this language as a two-argument procedure including a first argument that is the input and a second variable that is the factorial of the input. C what makes Software A&E run. (Software Architecture & Engineering, an expert systems vendor) (In Practice) (company Software Architecture and Engineering (SAE), founded in 1978, is one of the ten highest revenue producers in the pure-play expert systems market. One of the company's main products is the Knowledge Engineering System (KES), an expert systems shell that is written completely in the C language and can run on microcomputers as well as mainframe computers. SAE focuses on large systems manufactured by Unisys and Control Data. The company also contracts frequently with the federal government, which commissioned a workstation application for the planning of troop movements. AMD's replicant 386: it's alive, it's compatible. (Advanced Micro Devices demonstrates its Am386DX version of the Intel 80386 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Austin, TX) is sampling its Am386DX version of the Intel 80386 microprocessor (MPU). Initial Byte Lab tests indicate that the new AMD MPU is compatible with the original Intel MPU both in performance and software compatibility. AMD reverse engineered the Intel 80386, implementing the new MPU in 0.8-micron static CMOS. The only design changes that AMD made were to reduce power demand, resulting in a device that consumes only 69 percent of the power of the Intel 80386. A lower power version, the Am386DXL, employs a zero-clock-rate standby mode to reduce power use to below 1mA. The Am386DX will ship in 20, 25 and 33MHz versions in pin-compatible standard grid array and surface-mountable packages. AMD has not yet announced pricing and availability, nor is it known whether the firm will be legally allowed to sell the Am386DX. Breakthrough in holographic memory could transform data access. (Bellcore develops array of semiconductor lasers that can retrieve Bellcore (Livingston, NJ) researchers develop a chip hosting an array of over 1,000 40-micron-wide semiconductor lasers that retrieve holographic images stored on a photorefractive crystal at speeds up to 1GHz. The crystal is made from lithium niobate and gallium arsenide. Information is stored in the crystal by dividing a modulated laser into two beams that focus at a specific spot where their phase and amplitude are recorded. One cubic centimeter of crystal can store 10 million 'pages' or one trillion bits of data. Each of the lasers tracks and retrieves a single page of information in less than 1ns. Thus far Bellcore researchers have been able to retrieve only a few images with high fidelity and have not developed a suitable way to store the images. The next research step is to develop interfaces that convert the retrieved holographic images to serial bit data streams. SPARC is turning into a blaze. (many companies are developing UNIX-based systems based on the SPARC reduced-instruction-set At least ten vendors showed UNIX-based systems based on Sun Microsystems' SPARC reduced-instruction-set computer microprocessor (MPU) architecture at the Fall 1990 COMDEX. At least ten more companies are developing SPARC-based systems. Hyundai, Tatung, CompuAdd and RDI/TriGem, for example, employ LSI Logic's Sparkit chip set and MPU for imminent desktop and laptop machines. DTK Computer, Sampo, Twinhead, Northgate, Opus, Chicony Electronics, DCM Data Products and Intelecsis also use LSI Logic SPARC MPUs for computers in development. Other firms developing SPARC-based systems include Solbourne, Toshiba, Meiko World, Mars, Solarix and ICL. Research, Development & Innovations (San Diego, CA) design a UNIX-based SPARC portable, BriteLite, that also emulates a 68030-based Macintosh environment and ROMs in software. Few systems have yet passed SPARC International's SPARC Compliance Definition. In Focus puts new twist on color LCDs. (In Focus Systems will introduce monitors based on its triple-supertwist-nematic In Focus Systems (Tualatin, OR) will soon debut monitors based on its color triple-supertwist-nematic (TSTN) liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology. The new passive-matrix LCDs can display up to 4,913 colors on a 640-by-480-pixel, 10.5-inch screen. A TSTN LCD display consists of aligned and stacked cyan, magenta and yellow LCD panels with 0.33mm-square pixels. Turning on pixels results in subtraction of portions of magenta, cyan and/or yellow from the white backlight to produce the desired colors. Advantages of the technology include sharper images and more saturated colors than in active-matrix LCDs, easy and low-cost volume production with off-the-shelf components, high product yields and no extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation output. Debits are a high power demand because of the use of 50-watt direct backlight and the current slow display response for moving video images. Jukebox computing: a sextet of CD-ROMs on-line makes for lively computing. (column) Pioneer Electronic's $1,495 DRM-600 external CD-ROM changer utilizes six-disk removable cartridges that can hold both data and audio disks at the same time. The unit can be connected up to a host IBM PC-compatible via add-in interface card or Macintosh through the SCSI port and to a stereo system. Each CD-ROM disk is configured as a virtual drive with the audio disks controlled by a Jukebox software package. It was difficult to get the DRM-600 to work with Quarterdeck's QEMM-386. Several CD-ROMS and CD-ROM data retrieval programs are briefly reviewed. Other subjects discussed include Magic & Software's $495 Expert87 expert-system shell, Workhorses Inc's $49.50 Carpenter's Dream 3.0 and $99 Remodeler's Dream construction calculation software packages and Ergo Computing Inc's $2,495 Ergo Brick compact and powerful 80386SX-based microcomputer. The power man cometh. (uninterruptible power systems are vital for file servers on local area networks) (column) Selection of an on-line or off-line uninterruptible power system (UPS) is not as important as understanding the value of a UPS to protect the resources and files of a local area network (LAN) and its file server. File servers are particularly susceptible to data loss in a power outage because they support multiple users and are more likely to have data in cache memory or be writing to disk when the power dies. On-line UPSs include a continuously charged battery that provides the power to attached hardware, while off-line UPSs include a battery that is switched to when the line power dies. Both systems should signal the network operating system when the line power is lost and provide sufficient power to allow the network server to gracefully shut down. Practical experience with Para Systems $1,500 Minuteman off-line UPS and Viteq Corp's on-line 386/LAN UPS showed no performance difference. Embarrassment of riches: living with Windows 3.0 and OS/2 2.0. (column) Practical experience with both the beta version of the OS/2 2.0 operating system and with Microsoft Windows 3.0 finds advantages and disadvantages in each that makes it worthwhile to employ both environments. OS/2 enables running of multiple, simultaneous OS/2 and MS-DOS applications; each MS-DOS session can be provided with up to 721Kbytes of free space; as much expanded memory can be attached to a session as desired; ROM data can be copied to RAM for more speed; and highly graphical games, desktop publishing software or communications applications can be run without significantly slowing down or locking up the host system. Windows 3.0, though, offers a superior graphical user interface, easy changing of colors, more applications and less memory demand. Both environments still take too much time to print on non-PostScript printers. Eventually OS/2 2.0 will replace Windows as the favored software environment. SCO hot: using PCs as X terminals, and the latest from SCO. (The Santa Cruz Operation's SCO Unix System V/386 3.2.2, Interactive Three UNIX-related products are briefly discussed. New version 3.2.2 of The Santa Cruz Operation's (Santa Cruz, CA) SCO UNIX System V/386 operating system offers a variety of enhancements including faster performance, support of SCSI CD-ROMs in High Sierra and ISO 9660 formats and more control over C2 security restrictions. Interactive Systems' (Santa Monica, CA) VP/ix exploits the ability of the Intel 80386 microprocessor to generate virtual 8086 environments to emulate an entire IBM PC/MS-DOS 3.3 environment under the UNIX-based operating system. Integrated Inference Machines' (Anaheim, CA) X-Pac board enables an IBM AT or better PC-compatible microcomputer with EGA or better graphics to act as an X terminal. The Mac and personal programming: with HyperCard 2.0, users finally get the support they need. (column) Version 2.0 of Apple Computer Inc's HyperCard programming environment is an 'extremely fine' tool for personal programming. Enhancements over version 1.5 include an optimized file format that results in smaller and better behaved stacks, support for card sizes from 64-by-64 pixels to 1,280-by-1,280 pixels, ability to open up 17 stacks in multiple windows, fields that can hold text in multiple styles and sizes of fonts, user-definable message inheritance, grouping of words or characters as a unified text, improved printing, ability to respond to user text input within a field, HyperTalk incremental compiler, 'real' script editor, and interactive debugger. Apple is including HyperCard 2.0 with all new Macintoshes, but the software lacks the three large manuals, help and support stacks, scripting guide and free telephone support available with the Claris Corp version (a $49 upgrade). NetWare troubles. (column) Nance, Barry. A methodical approach and extensive hardware and software are required to locate and solve problems on a Novell NetWare local area network (LAN). The NetWare network operating system is an 'excellent' product, but problems on a NetWare LAN are sometimes difficult to isolate and solve. Several example problems and solution approaches are discussed. Problems include failure of a NetWare server to reboot, the server not reattaching itself to the network after reboot, determining the meaning of cryptic messages that appear on the screen and running out of hard disk space. Tools for network analysis include Network General Corp's $24,000 The Sniffer software/hardware system for performance analysis, Thomas-Conrad Corp's $195 TXD Diagnostic Software for isolating errors evidenced in IPX/SPX statistics and Microtest's $1,495 Cable Scanner time-domain reflectometer for locating cable faults. Turbo Pascal 6.0 almost adds Windows. Linderholm, Owen. Version 6.0 of Borland International Inc's (Scotts Valley, CA) $149.95 Turbo Pascal ($299.95 for Turbo Pascal Professional 6.0) adds a set of powerful and flexible object-oriented 'Turbo Vision' tools that enable the programming of text-based menus, windows and dialog boxes. The new facility is a partial response to those programmers who have been demanding a Microsoft Windows version of the programming language. The Turbo Vision facilities include a library of windows, menus, dialog boxes and other interface objects. Using Turbo Vision requires a solid understanding of object-oriented programming and the functioning of event-driven environments. Other new features include a integrated development environment, command-line compiler (in the Professional version), in-line assembler and new compiler directives. Minimum host requirement is an IBM PC- or PS/2-compatible with 512Kbytes RAM. The T1000 slims down. (The Toshiba T1000LE notebook computer) (product announcement) The new $2,499 Toshiba T1000LE notebook computer offered by Toshiba America Information Systems Inc Computer Systems Div (Irvine, CA) features a 9.54 MHz Intel 80C86 CMOS microprocessor, 1Mbyte of system memory, 20Mbyte hard disk drive, 3.5-inch floppy drive, 640-by-400-pixel sidelit supertwist liquid-crystal display, MS-DOS 3.3 in ROM and rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery pack in a 6.5-pound package. The computer supports MS-DOS VDISK virtual disk functionality which enables the use of both conventional and expanded memory as a virtual disk drive. A proprietary Hard RAM program provides the same capabilities but can same its contents to disk when the power is turned off. The display is far better than the preceding Toshiba T1000. The battery lasted three hours without use of any power-saving features. High-end graphics for the frugal. (National Design introduces the Volante AT1000 graphics card) (product announcement) National Design Inc (Austin, TX) introduces the $995 Volante AT1000, the lowest-priced video display board based on the powerful Texas Instruments TMS34020 graphics processor. The board substantially improves the performance of multiple concurrent graphics applications with resolutions to 1,024-by-768-pixels and 256 simultaneous colors under Windows 3.0. The TMS34020's Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA) enables the uploading of the graphics code in applications to the board, reducing the load on the host microprocessor. The board comes with TIGA drivers for Windows 3.0, AutoCAD and X UNIX Windows, and more are becoming available. VGA is also supported. The main debit is an interlaced display in the 1,024-by-768-pixel mode, which results in some flicker. A pair of new Words from Microsoft. (Microsoft Corp introduces Word 5.5 and Word for OS/2 word processing software packages) Microsoft Corp (Redmond, WA) introduces release 5.5 of the $450 Microsoft Word and the $495 Word for OS/2 word processing software packages. Enhancements in Word 5.5 include a new character-based interface (the old one is also included), top-level pull-down menus identical with Word for Windows and Word for OS/2 and a display of style sheet and fonts that are being used. The new Word for OS/2 is virtually identical to Word for Windows but faster than the two other versions because of the use of multithreading functionality. Multiple copies of Word for OS/2 can be run simultaneously. The software can also take advantage of OS/2's High Performance File System. Create and lay out documents with Taste. (Delta Point Inc introduces the Taste document processor) (product announcement) Delta Point Inc (Monterey, CA) introduces the $149.95 Taste document processor, a combination of word processor, page-layout program and data base manager for the Apple Macintosh computer. Word processing capabilities include the writing or importing of text. Page-layout capabilities include importing and layout of documents; creation, importing and integration of graphics; and page preview. Data base management facilities are basic, 'more of a personal data manager.' The functions include address book management and mail merge. Taste's overall functionality is modest but cost-effective. Citrix's new multiuser OS/2: OS/2-based workgroup computing without a LAN. (Citrix Systems' Citrix Multiuser operating system Citrix Systems Inc (Coral Springs, FL) offers a multiuser version of the OS/2 operating system, the $995 Citrix Multiuser. The software is based on OS/2 1.1 plus a terminal subsystem, resource editing, user-based security, and support of up to 256Mbytes of addressable memory. Terminals supported include a variety of PCTERM terminals and the new VIO protocol-based terminals that have some OS/2 video functions in ROM from Taiwanese manufacturer Teco. The security system is loosely modeled on the one implemented in Microsoft LAN Manager. A major debit is the lack of Presentation Manager (PM). A number of programs were tested under Citrix Multiuser. Most ran without problem, though some single-user programs evidenced minor 'quirks' in the multi-user environment, and some programs incurred trouble because of 'hidden dependencies' on PM. The 1990 Byte awards. (Cover Story) The Byte magazine editors voted 67 Awards of Excellence, Distinction or Merit to outstanding products introduced in 1990. Criteria for selection are how innovative the product is, its impact on its market niche, does it advance the state of the art and/or does it have an excellent price-performance ratio. Each of the products given Awards of Excellence or Distinction is pictured and briefly described. Products include Microsoft Windows 3.0, Adobe Systems' Adobe Type Manager 2.0 and Photoshop, Borland International's Turbo C++ and Quattro Pro 2.0, New Tek's Video Toaster video graphics board, Apple Computer's Macintosh Classic, Texas Instruments' TravelMate 2000 laptop computer (same as the Sharp Electronics' PC-6220 and CompuAdd Companion), C-Cube Microsystems' Compression Master board and CL550 Image Processor Chip and Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet IIP and III laser printers. Caching cards speed data access: the Byte Lab tests eight caching controller cards that help relieve hard disk drive bottlenecks. Evaluation of five full-caching and three track-buffering controllers selects Perceptive Solutions Inc's $1,700 hyperStore 1600 as best price-performance unit, though all have specific advantages and varying performance under NetWare, MS-DOS and UNIX. The controllers include a microprocessor (MPU) and support circuitry to manage a portion of system random-access memory (RAM) as very fast primary memory between host system MPU and hard disk. Full-caching controllers include dedicated cache RAM onboard, while track-buffering units use host RAM. Full-caching boards reviewed are the hyperStore 1600, CompuAdd's $895 HardCache/ESDI, Distributed Processing Technology's $2,025 SmartCache, Fast Technology's $1,990 TenTime and Lomas Data Products $1,170 LDP Cache II. Track buffering controllers reviewed are Adaptec's $163 ACB-2322D, Ultrastor's $195 Ultra 12F and Western Digital's $292.50 WD1009V/SE2. LAN remote-control software: better than being there. (Software Review) (a review of six local area network remote control Evaluation and comparison of six remote-control software packages for Novell NetWare or NetBIOS microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs) concludes that Brightwork Development Inc's $350-per-server Netremote+ 4.1 offers the best combination of features, performance and price for the NetWare environment. DCA's R2LAN 2.0 ($795 per LAN) and Dynamic Microprocessor Associates' pcAnywhere IV/LAN 4.02 ($495 for first two users) are the best choices for NetBIOS LANs. Remote-control LAN programs are useful for the occasional access to the resources of other computers linked on a network. Other remote-control programs reviewed are Artisoft's $295-per-LAN The Network Eye, D-Link Systems Inc's $295-per-server Screen Monitor 5.1 and Norton Lambert's Close-Up/LAN 2.5 ($795 for eight users). The latter package is best for management of multiple simultaneous remote sessions. The Macintosh takes control. (Software Review) (review and comparison of Carbon Copy Mac 1.0 and Timbuktu 3.1 remote control A review and comparison of Microcom Systems Inc's $299 (for two users) Carbon Copy Mac 1.0 and Farallon Computing Inc's $149-per-user Timbuktu 3.1 remote-control software packages for Macintosh computers on AppleTalk local area networks (LANs) concludes that Timbuktu's rich array of network control tools make it the best choice. Both software packages enable the 'guest' user to view the screen of or control remote 'host' Macintosh computers and peer-to-peer file transfers, and asynchronous dial-up connections, but all transmissions are only in black-and-white. Timbuktu features include the simultaneous viewing of multiple remote screens, configurable access levels for remote systems and a broadcast mode. Carbon Copy Mac features include display of only a single remote system at a time, password controlled access to hosts, and a far simpler interface "Ultra" VGA debuts on the MicroPaq. (Hardware Review) (Monolithic Systems Corp's MicroPaq 452 Ultra graphics board) (evaluation) Monolothic Systems Corp (Englewood, CO) offers a 16-bit video graphics/multifunction board, the $765 MicroPaq 452 Ultra, that can produce outstanding color graphics images comparable to high-end graphics workstations on a fixed-frequency, standard VGA display. The board uses Edsun Labs Continuous Edge Graphics (CEG) chip, which can display up to 700,000 colors and combine two colors in a single pixel, all of which eliminates jagged diagonal lines. The CEG graphics format can store image information down to 1/32 of a pixel but is highly compact, storing a 75,000-color VGA image in only 308Kbytes of memory. Monolithic plans to ship CEG drivers for Lotus 1-2-3, Windows 3.0 and AutoCAD by Jan 1991. Other features of the board include one parallel and two serial ports, IDE hard disk drive interface and floppy disk drive controller. TARGA+ lowers cost of high-end graphics. (Hardware Review) (Truevision Inc's TARGA+ 64 graphics boards) (evaluation) Truevision Inc's (Indianapolis, IN) new TARGA+ family of graphics boards, exemplified by the $2,495 TARGA+ 64, are cost-effective products that can provide 20 different raster-graphics quality NTSC or VGA resolutions in 32-bit color. The TARGA+ 64 features 2Mbytes of memory, software-controlled video mixing and special effects, selectable VGA text and graphics pass-through and support of S-Video (S-VHS) signals. Accompanying software controls image resolution, video formats and pixel depth. Only two packages were available for the TARGA+ mode at press time: Truevision's TIPS paint and video image capture software and the TIPS TypeRight font-generation program. Other packages support the boards 'plus' mode. The TARGA+ 64 includes a demo program that demonstrates the powerful capabilities of the board, particularly smooth NTSC fades, color reversals and single-frame capture and display. The Compaq SLT: a laptop fit for the desktop. (Hardware Review) (Compaq Computer Corp's SLT 386s/20 laptop computer) (evaluation) The Compaq Computer Corp (Houston, TX) $6,799-plus SLT 386s/20 is a fast, powerful laptop computer with more expandability than any competing product. The computer features a 4Kbyte set-associative static RAM cache memory, 2Mbyte to 14Mbytes of system memory, hard disks ranging from 60Mbytes to 240Mbytes, detachable keyboard, fast supertwist liquid-crystal VGA display, socket for an Intel 80387 math coprocessor and bay for another hard disk. An optional $99 expansion base can hold two 8-or-16-bit add-in cards. Battery life averages 1.5-to-2.5-hours but can be maximized by use of selectable time-outs and a Stand By button. The unit compares well with the firm's Intel 80386SX-based microcomputers. Debits include a screen that only offers eight gray scales and is not as sharp as bright as other models, somewhat large size and weight and an awkward placement of the Fn key. A workstation in a Mac's clothing. (Software Review) (Apple Computer's A/UX 2.0 UNIX-based operating system enables Macintosh, Apple Computer Inc's $795 (on a CD-ROM disk) A/UX 2.0 is a powerful and 'appealing' version of the UNIX operating system for the Macintosh computer that runs both UNIX and Macintosh operating system (OS)-based applications. The Apple UNIX is based on UNIX System V.2 with a file-system structure and some libraries and utilities from Berkeley BSD UNIX 4.2. A/UX uses the same Macintosh Desktop user interface and file manager as the Mac OS, with A/UX applications appearing in standard Macintosh windows. Installation is complicated by the need to make partitions for the separate UNIX and Mac file systems. The applications menu includes a UNIX Command window providing a standard UNIX environment combined with a Mac-type menu bar. Other features include TCP/IP, Network File System and Yellow Pages network protocols; X Window System. Debits include high price and somewhat slow graphics performance. User interfaces, C++ style. (Software Review) (Zinc Software's Zinc Interface Library) (evaluation) Zinc Software Inc (Pleasant Grove, UT) offers a library of C++ classes, the $199.95 Zinc Interface Library (ZIL), that provides 46 classes of programming and graphical objects for creating user interfaces with Borland International Inc's Turbo C++ program development software. ZIL is particularly useful for the programming of MS-DOS businesses applications that require users to evaluate number data, strings of information or dates. The library features classes for pull-down and pop-up menus; selectable icons and bit maps; input and verification of numbers, times and dates; windowing; 'rudimentary' graphics support; and editable text with cut, copy and past facilities. Existing classes are easy to modify for special purposes. ZIL output can display on a wide variety of graphics boards and standards. The major debit is some important deficiencies in the documentation. Photo-realism for those with time and RAM to spare. (Software Review) (Pixar's MacRenderMan) (evaluation) Pixar (Richmond, CA) offers an easy-to-install and relatively easy-to-use graphics rendering software package, the $795 MacRenderMan, that enables the creation of near-photographic quality 3-D images on the Macintosh. Unfortunately, the production of even small images is a severely time-intensive task requiring extremely powerful Macintosh hardware and large amounts of random-access memory (at least 8Mbytes are recommended). MacRenderMan achieves near-photographic quality by creating three-dimensional images with a variety of colored surface textures and realistic lighting, shadowing and reflections. The software employs a translation file mode, RenderMan Interface Bytestream, that contains geometric, material and environmental properties of objects in a scene. The package includes five applications, tutorials and sample object libraries. A new angle on OS/2 and Windows. (Software Review) (Inner Media Inc's Wide Angle for OS/2 PM or Windows.) (evaluation) Inner Media Inc (Hollis, NH) offers a useful virtual desktop manager software package for OS/2, the $129 Wide Angle for OS/2 PM (a $129 Wide Angle for Windows version is also available), that makes OS/2 Presentation Manager think that the desktop work area is nine times larger than normal. This enables the user to put many more applications in the same workspace and group them without having numerous and crowded overlapping windows. It is also easier to cut and paste from one application to another in the same workspace. Other features include an AutoRise control panel that automatically floats on the top of all other applications. Two bumbling detectives. (Software Review) (Dariana Technology Group's WinSleuth 1.0 and MacSleuth 1.0 system configuration Dariana Technology Group Inc (Buena Park, CA) offers computer system configuration analysis programs for Windows and the Apple Macintosh, respectively the $149 WinSleuth 1.0 and $149 MacSleuth 1.0, that do not perform at the same level as the firm's original System Sleuth. Such utility programs are useful when users want to quickly assess the amount of memory available, types of disk drives and video adapters installed, presence of a math coprocessor, and other system data. WinSleuth consists of 11 diagnostic modules for determining such data, but it is poorly designed and can not be used on a IBM PC-compatible without Windows being installed. MacSleuth includes 13 modules but some operations are erratic and do not ascertain all the needed system information. Ease of use in Lotus Agenda. (Software Review) (Lotus Development's Agenda 2.0) (evaluation) Data handling and memory management enhancements in version 2.0 of Lotus Development Corp's (Cambridge, MA) $395 Agenda make the personal information manager (PIM) a far more attractive program. The enhancements include four ready-to-use applications (Activities Planner, Account Manager, People Manager and Information Sifter), memory management that more efficiently uses expanded memory, more efficient date handling and overall better performance. The applications facilitate the learning of Agenda in a practical manner. Agenda 2.0 is easier-to-learn, more flexible and offers more automatic categorization of user information than competing products. Minimum host configuration requires an IBM PC or compatible with 640Kbytes system memory, hard disk drive and MS-DOS 2.1 or later. Expanding linking in Folio Views. (Software Review) (Folio Corp's Folio View 2.0 adds hypertext linking to external sources) Version 2.0 of Folio Corp's (Provo, UT) useful Folio Views text indexing and data base management system (DBMS) solves several problems in the initial version. The program indexes and compresses text and the generated index into one file about half the size of the original text file. Enhancements include a faster text scrolling function, temporary exiting of Folio Views to run another program, automatic conversion of document text and data from over 40 word processor and other formats and improved hypertext linking. The new hypertext linking capabilities allows linking to other text data bases and to other programs. AI's identity crisis: what's important and what isn't? (artificial intelligence) Artificial intelligence (AI) technology will enable the development of better expert systems and, eventually, computers that are more responsive to the user, but first AI researchers must clarify many issues and determine what really works. Important issues that must be resolved include what AI is, the validity of AI's basic concepts, the viability of alternative approaches to simulating reasoning, and such fundamental questions as the nature of intelligence, will computers ever achieve it and, if so, how? There are major disagreements over the possible answers to all of these questions, and the views of several scientists are briefly noted. Roger Schank of the Institute for Learning Studies (Evanston, IL) poses ten issues that he believes will continue to be debated. A brief history of AI concepts is also presented. Overturning the category bucket. (the category concept needs more investigation) (artificial intelligence) The classical view of categories as groups whose members share similar properties is often used as a building block in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, but the concept of categories deserves much more study. One important direction is an alternative view that asserts that categorization is inseparable from human experience, knowledge and imagination. This implies that AI and many other areas of learning have much to communicate to each other, though a viable language needs to be developed. The relationship between top-down categorization and bottom-up classification processes is explored. The latter is exemplified by such AI classification methods as induction systems, rule-based expert systems, genetic algorithms and neural networks. How decision trees demonstrate the categorization process and category formation are also discussed. Creating conceptual clusters. (technical) A program is developed, Concept, that demonstrates a technique for clustering groups of objects with shared properties. The clustering algorithm used to build meaningful conceptual clusters is based on the Cluster/2 program of R. Michalski and R. Stepp. The Windows version of KnowledgePro was used to write Concept. Creating a cluster begins with the selection of two potential members as seed objects. The software produces a very general concept for the two objects based on their lists of attributes. The process is applied to a set of objects for the generation concept pairs for the generation of several disjoint clusters. The clusters are evaluated in terms of their defining concepts. Details of the application of the Concept clustering algorithm to an example set of objects are discussed. The real-time expert. (expert-systems can facilitate the monitoring and control of real-time systems) Expert systems offers many benefits in the monitoring and control of complex real-time systems. Real-time systems are being used in an ever-growing number of applications, generating a large and growing volume of output data difficult for even experts to sort through. Expert systems can combine the performance and accuracy of computer systems with artificial intelligence (AI) consisting of human knowledge and experience to solve such problems. The reasons most conventional expert-system shells can not address these problems are discussed. Real-time expert-system tools for monitoring and control have been recently developed, exemplified by Talarian Corp's (Mountain View, CA) R*Time family of products. Major expert-system methods employed by the products include time-triggered rules, temporal reasoning, continuous operation and the ability to focus resources on important goals. AI in practice. (artificial intelligence development at Digital Equipment Corp) Most practical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) methods do not qualify as pure AI but are an amalgam of AI and standard programming tools. This is exemplified by development of AI-based applications at DEC. DEC's AI business has about 500 people who created over 50 in-house knowledge-based AI systems that save DEC about $200 million annually. A history of DEC's design and use of expert systems is described. DEC developed its XCON configuration program for PDP-11 and VAX computers in the OPS5 rule-based language and now uses a structured software-engineering methodology (RIME) and tool set (SEAR) for disciplined OPS5 use. An experimental Easy Programming set of tools and methods employs classification and description to create knowledge-based applications. Other DEC AI programs include the National Dispatcher Router, Electronic Computer-Aided Processing Planning system, and SYMMOD symbolic modeler. Putting the experts to work: expert systems can capture and deploy the intricate thought processes of those who think for a living. The difference between intelligent and conventional software applications is disappearing, as artificial intelligence (AI) products are developed to solve real-world problems in many fields. Examples demonstrate the use of expert systems developed to capture the thought processes and expertise of knowledge workers, shell programs to develop neural networks and embedded applications. Southern California Edison (SCE) uses AICorp's KBMS knowledge processor to enable the utility's departments to configure their microcomputer purchases to comply with SCE policy. The data base version of Ward Systems Group's NeuroShell learns the relationships between defining and classifying characteristics of data in a data base and helps distribute the results. Neuron Data's Nexpert Object expert system is used to analyze a spreadsheet in a data base format and computer-aided design files. Solving the unsolvable. (application of combinations of expert systems and neural networks to financial analysis and underwater Combinations of expert systems and neural networks are applied to the analysis of the financial health of businesses and to real-time control of underwater vehicles. The two artificial intelligence technologies are being applied to many real-world problems, despite the fact that the most massive neural networks have a tiny fraction of interconnections of even a cockroach. The four ways in which expert systems can be combined with neural networks are discussed. The financial analysis application was developed by Gonzaga University Computer Assisted Learning Center coordinator Don Barker with Knowledge Garden, NeuroShell and dBase III Plus. The General Dynamics Electronics Div Intelligent Systems Group combines an expert system, neural network and model-based system for real-time solution of problems an autonomous underwater vehicle may incur. Real artificial life. (combining algorithmic evolutionary mechanisms and knowledge representations to synthesize an a-life Artificial-life (a-life) computer simulations are designed from a combination of evolutionary algorithms and selective coding of knowledge representations of the behavior of organisms. The goal of such simulations are to understand biological dynamics, particularly the evolution of life forms. Living organisms reproduce and exhibit specific functional behaviors such as adaptability. A knowledge-representation methodology employing artificial neural-networks, finite-state automata or collections of rules can simulate these activities. The simulation requires selective coding of 'genotypes' that represent the functions, goals and potential behavior of a-life organisms. Genetic algorithms utilizing reproduction, crossover and mutation parameters simulate biological evolution of the genotypes. Development, applications and future goals for neural networks and genetic algorithms are discussed. Micro, micro: who made the micro? (Will Gilbert Hyatt's recently awarded patent on the microprocessor stand up?) There is substantial industry debate as to whether Gilbert Hyatt's Jul 17, 1990 (effective date Dec 28, 1970) patent 4,942,516 for the microprocessor will stand up against costly and time-consuming challenges by the large semiconductor vendors, though there seems to be a good chance that the patent will withstand the assault. Hyatt spent twenty years fighting for his patent, going through seven continuations, two rejections and an appeal to US Court of Appeals. Financing of his Micro Computer company (1968-1971) included Intel Corp founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, who later employed a team of Intel engineers led by Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin, previously considered the creators of the microprocessor. The viability of the patent, whether Hyatt will ever gain income from it and his background and current work are discussed. Hello, Mr Chips? (interview with Gilbert Hyatt, who was recently granted a generic patent on the microprocessor) (interview) Gilbert Hyatt, recently granted a patent on the microprocessor after a 20-year effort, was motivated to develop the technology to solve problems preventing large-scale integration (LSI) chips from being widely used and to develop new computer architectures and flexible LSI devices. He asserts that the patent application/disclosure covers about 30 to 40 different single- and multiple-chip devices. Hyatt's company at the time received financing from Intel Corp founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore that was to lead to implementation in actual chips, but that was not accomplished by Hyatt's firm. He asserts that Intel engineer Ted Hoff did not receive a patent on a microprocessor but on a coder circuit on a random-access memory chip 'in a microprocessor environment.' Hyatt also discusses licensing his patent, the impacts of the patent on technology and his current work. ...This is Intel on the line. (interview with Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin, two of the three persons previously credited with Both Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin, who with Stanley Mazor were previously considered the inventors of the microprocessor, deny ever hearing about Gilbert Hyatt before he was granted a patent for the microprocessor. The three engineers were working at Intel when they developed the Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor. Hoff says that Hyatt's patent was not practical at the time and that there had been substantial discussion of the concept of a single-chip processor prior to Hyatt's work. Hoff also contends that the revisions in Hyatt's patent application did not mention a single-chip implementation until 1979. Faggin asserts that Hyatt's patent was more of a prophecy than a documentation of a viable technology. Specifically, Faggin asserts that it does not show how to do something novel. Ethernet: ten years after. (includes a related article introducing the basics of Ethernet technology) Networks have developed to the extent that most users are concerned more about network implementation and management than whether it is an Ethernet or other network technology. Ethernet was invented at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center by a team led by Robert Metcalfe. Subsequent development by a team of Digital Equipment Corp, Intel and Xerox engineers involved numerous design decisions, mistakes, discussions, test and negotiations on most aspects of the Ethernet technology. Examples of the dead ends and changes in Ethernet are briefly noted. Many of the design goals and innovations in the Sep 1980 debut anticipated the evolution of computing towards networked environments. At the same time the design teams did not anticipate the fact that local area networks would become a commodity technology. Changes the original designers would have made now that they can look back are discussed. FlexOS's muscle. (Digital Research Inc's real-time, multiuser, multitasking operating system) Digital Research Inc's (DRI, Santa Clara, CA) FlexOS is a richly featured real-time, multiuser and multitasking operating system that recognizes MS-DOS files and, in the Intel 80386 version, can run MS-DOS applications under a protected mode. Major features of the modular OS include a supervisor that manages requests from applications, handling microprocessor and memory system requests locally, passing device-related requests to the appropriate console, disk, interprocess communications, network and other resource managers. The 'dispatcher' supervisor kernel manages system and user process interrupts and schedule processing, thus supporting real-time asynchronous input/output. Other features include DRI's GEM graphical user interface and optional network interface. The MetaWare High C compiler and DRI's RASM-86 relocatable code assembler and LINK86 linker are FlexOS's primary development tools. The object-oriented Amiga Exec. Holloway, Tim. The Exec component of the Commodore Amiga's compact object-oriented operating system is the multitasking kernel. The Amiga operating system consists of three major components: Exec, AmigaDOS, which supports the command line interface and high-level file systems; and Intuition, which provides the graphical user interface. Exec exploits functional inheritance heavily to achieve its compact size. The multitasking kernel is constructed of increasingly complex classes, with each higher class containing the features and functions of the simpler class. The classes include MinNodes and Nodes, MinLists and Lists, Messages, MSGport, Task, SignalSemaphore, Library, Interrupt, MemList, MemHeader, IntuiMessage, IORequest, StdPort, Semaphore, Process, Device and Resource. Details of the Exec inheritance hierarchy are described. Putting waveforms to paper. (a method for capturing digital waveform data to a Macintosh graphics file) (tutorial) A method is developed for translating digitized waveform data (data pairs defining a two-dimensional curve) into Apple Macintosh graphics objects that can be stored as PICT files, pasted into other applications or printed. Digitized waveforms are input from an oscilloscope through a general-purpose bus interface card. Symantec's Think Pascal is used to write XCMDs that facilitate storing the waveforms as compressed text fields in HyperCard 1.2.5. The Macintosh ROM's QuickDraw set of optimized graphics primitives maps the graphics to the screen, where they can be pasted to other applications, printed or stored. The waveform data must be converted to integers because QuickDraw expects integer coordinates for the data pairs. Details of the the programming and functioning of the PASCAL routine and the functioning of the QuickDraw graphics primitives are discussed. Personal supercomputing with the Intel i860. (Intel 80860 reduced-instruction-set computer processor) Utilizing the parallel-processing and pipelining capabilities of the Intel 80860 reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor is necessary to maximize the performance of the chip. The Intel 80860 features a Harvard architecture; 64-bit-side 4Kbyte instruction cache that can simultaneously drive the reduced-instruction-set computer processor core and math coprocessor through two 32-bit instruction buses; 128-bit-wide 8Kbyte data cache that can drive the three-stage pipeline adder and multiplier in parallel; graphics unit; and bus interface and memory management unit. Single-precision scalar performance is not significantly higher than the Weitek 4167 math coprocessor on one benchmark, though 250 times higher than a 10 MHz Intel 80287. Pipelined performance, though, is equal to the speed of the clock times the number of pipes in operation, or 33 MHz times two equals 66MFLOPS. Genetic algorithms: programming takes a valuable tip from nature. (includes related article on a sample genetic algorithm) A genetic metaphor provides the basis of a wide variety of flexible algorithms that enable a computer to search for the solution of complex real-word problems. Programming a computer to utilize such genetic algorithms requires the establishment of some initial parameters, including the appearance of possible solutions, variances between potential solutions, the differences among the range of best to worst solutions, how to quantify those differences, what solutions may be in a 'gene pool' of solution options provided by the programmer, and how solutions can be crossbred. Details of the use of genetic algorithms to develop, select and breed possible solutions are discussed. Real-word examples of the use of genetic algorithms and the theoretical foundations of the technology are described. Future models. (stereolithography software packages) (Strategist) Clarke, Charles. At the Autofact show in Nov 1990, five vendors demonstrate stereolithography-based software which allow rapid prototyping in industries such as car manufacture. Stereolithography technology produces a physical model direct from the computer-aided design (CAD) system without the use of a machine tool or traditional NC software. As a result, the process of prototype-making takes only hours instead of weeks, and users are able to eliminate the need for sub-contractors and to reduce prototyping costs by as much as 90 percent. 3D Systems, Quadrax, DTM, Cubital and Stratasys are among the vendors of stereolithographic systems. Each offer specific features that suit different purposes and environments. Stratasys' extrusion technique seems to be particularly useful for engineers. The technology is cheap, fast and has no environmental drawbacks. Pricey performance. (HP/Apollo 9000 400 workstation) (Hardware Review) (includes related article on HP engineering HP's Apollo 9000 400 rates well in functionality, and ease of installation and use. With a price tag of 67,500 pounds sterling for a complete configuration, however, the machine offers poor value for money. On a straight price/performance comparison, the model 400 does not compare well with Sun Microsystems' and Silicon Graphics workstations. The HP/Apollo 9000 400 was among the first to use the Motorola 68040 processor, only few of which have been shipped out of the US. The delay in the delivery of the chip means that the model 400's compute performance is not optimized. When combined with the TurboVRX T2 graphics driver, the model 400 can do graphics intensive applications such as simulation and visualization. There is, however, a lack of applications software that take advantage of the Turbo VRX's capabilities. HP claims that there are 3,200 applications available for the 68030 processor that will run on the 9000 series. It is yet unclear how many of them can take full advantages of the TurboVRX graphics systems. Watching the primitives. (Cadkey drafting software) (Software Review) (PC Platform) (evaluation) Cadkey 386 is a 2D/3D wireframe and drafting software package that is easy to learn and use. The product offers the necessary creation and modifier features needed for two-dimensional drafting and three-dimensional wireframe design. Users can choose from eight different views: six orthogonal, an axonometric and an isometric. Cadkey 386's capabilities are enhanced by Cadkey Solids and Cadkey Render, separate shading and solids modelling modules that run as distinct programs. Its Cadkey Advanced Design Language allows programs written in ASCII to run up to five times faster within Cadkey. When compared with Autocad 11, Cadkey 386 offers similar features but has the edge on ease of use. It is, however, 1000 pounds sterling more expensive than Autocad. Cam software. (computer-aided manufacturing)(CNC Software Inc.'s MasterCAM) (Software Review) (Buyer's Guide) (evaluation) CNC Software Inc's MasterCAM is a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software package that offers outstanding value for money and ease of use. MasterCAM is a standalone package that allows flexible linking to other systems; it can run inside Autocad or Cadkey or vice versa. Designed for Intel 80386-based machines, the package is capable of producing complex geometric figures in 3D. Its five main menu options include: Mastercam Mill, a graphical environment that simulates milling operations and generating gear profiles; Mastercam Lathe, which provides the capability for pausing machining for changing tools; Cad Application, which runs computer-aided design programs such as Cadkey from inside Mastercam; Edit; MC Summary; MC Configuration and Menu Setup. MasterCAM is easy to install and very easy to use. Its disadvantage is that it offers no window for DOS manipulation and has no on-line help. A comprehensive manual and training video comes with the package. CNC also offers training and consultancy. Delcam DNC2. (computer-aided manufacturing system) (Software Review) (Buyer's Guide) (evaluation) Delcam International's DNC2 is a comprehensive computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system that offers good value for money and is easy to install, learn and use. DNC2 costs 7,000 pounds sterling for the complete configuration that includes and Intel 80286-based microcomputer and software. Unlike DNC1, DNC2 is able to control the link between a host computer and up to eight CMC machine tools simultaneously. The system offers three main screen areas: a machine control panel window, a menu bar and a message window. The machine control panel window, the most important system component, controls communications between the machine tools and DNC2. Speed of data transfer from DNC2 to the machine control panel is regulated by the control panel itself and is very slow at times. Other disadvantages include the lack of warning that memory capacity is running out and the absence of a basic graphics utility for simulating program operation. Delcam offers a 50-page reference guide and a telephone hotline service for minor problems. Calcomp 23120 digitizer. (Hardware Review ) (evaluation) CalComp Inc's 23120 digitizer is an easy-to-install and easy-to-use 305-by-305mm device that uses 'soft' buttons instead of dip switches for setting its communications and tablet parameters. When using more than one software package, users can store a default setting and up to two other configurations. A list of settings for specific packages, such as Autocad and Versacad, are included in the manual. The 23120 tablet is compact, connects to a computer via a serial port, and uses a separate low voltage transformer for its power supply. The transformer has a switch and therefore does not require the user to fumble with the plug when disconnecting the power. The 23120 comes with a four-button cursor and a stylus. The cursor's cross-wires are very fine, lending itself to accurate positioning. The leads on both the stylus and the cursor, however, are hefty and stiff, making them seem restricted in normal use. Aydin Ranger 5221 21in monitor. (Aydin Controls) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The Ranger 5221 from Aydin Corp's Controls division is a 21-inch color monitor that offers good picture quality for both IBM PCs and Apple Macintoshes. Users can choose between the VGA or Mac mode through a switch underneath the monitor. Maximum resolution is 1280 by 1280. The actual displayed area is 19 inches and the flat screen offers minimal distortion. The screen's coating cuts down reflections considerably but greasy fingermarks can easily be detected. The Ranger does not come with a video cable and a user therefore needs to specify his computer's appropriate cable when ordering. When tested on a Macintosh IIcx with a RasterOps monitor card, the Ranger's color was milky and there was a perceptible flicker. While picture quality was not as good as the Mac's Trinitron monitor, the Ranger is comparable with the Hitachi Color Mac 21-inch monitor. Beating built-in obsolescence. (Edwards High Vacuums's computer-aided design system) (Case Study) Edwards High Vacuum (EHV) of Sussex, UK, chose the IBM 4381 mainframe to run CATIA 3.0 computer-aided design (CAD) software for the upgrading of its design process. EHV is a leading manufacturer of pumps and pumping systems. Company officials say CATIA was chosen because it is a well-integrated package that has consistently been a 3D system. IBM's stability and support services were also strong factors in the decision. The first phase of the upgrading project, which began on Jan 1989, involved the installation of the IBM 4381 mainframe running CATIA 3.0 on the VM operating system, and ten IBM 5080 workstations. CATIA is used for the design of both individual pump components and complete systems. Officials report enthusiasm about the effects, despite initial problems with software bugs. The IBM machines have been relatively trouble- free. The company plans to install workstations running CATIA at their other manufacturing sites. Choosing the right dealer. Macqueen, Fleur. The first step in choosing a dealer is for a company to identify its requirements. These requirements should be sent to dealers in the format of a proposal with an invitation to respond to the proposal. The list of dealers to send the proposal to can be compiled by reading articles and advertisements in industry journals, from personal recommendations from colleagues, and by getting dealer names from the manufacturer. Evaluating the responses requires meeting with support personal, finding out how reliable the dealer is, if the dealer has contingency plans, about the dealer's financial reliability, and, if training is a requirement, attending a training class. Industry associations. (directory) The names and addresses of Canadian organizations in the computer industry are given. The interests of the organizations include advanced card technology, operations management, systems management, telecommunications, consultants, records management, security, software theft, computer education, independent computer services, image management, office machines, operational research, standards, law, electrical and electronic manufacturers, electronic data interchange, desktop publishing, resource management, and software maintenance. Suppliers addresses. (directory) A listing of companies that supply the Canadian computer market. Each listing has company name, address, and telephone number. Some listings include a FAX number. Some listings include a list of the supplies that company provides. Some listings have multiple addresses and phone numbers. Product categories. (directory) A listing, by product, of the names of suppliers of that product. Some companies have advertisements throughout the listing. Product categories include boards, cabinets, CAD/CAM systems, clocks, controllers, graphics systems, computer room environment, security, converters, data acquisition equipment, data collecting and recording systems, data communications equipment, terminals, desktop publishing systems, digitizers, disk drives, test equipment, forms handling equipment, furniture, imprinters, network components, storage, magnetic tape transports, memory, microcomputers,microfiche, microfilm, optical scanning systems, power systems, printers, racks, safes, telecommunications, turnkey systems, used equipment, videotex equipment, voice recognition systems, and text processing systems. Software. (directory) A listing of software suppliers. Each listing has company name and what type of software that company supplies. Some companies have advertisements throughout the listing. Software categories include accounting, accounts payable/receivable, banking, billing, budget and forecast, cash management, construction, cost accounting, CPM/PERT, custom software, decision support, desktop publishing, electronic mail, office automation, file conversion, file recovery, financial analysis/modeling, fixed assets, general ledger, graphics, insurance, inventory control, investment management, labor reporting, MRP, management information systems, payroll, personnel, medical, dental, programming aids, project management, purchasing, ordering, invoicing, sales, spreadsheets, stock transfer, text processing, and word processing. Supplies, services. (directory) A listing of companies that supply computing services, consulting services, accessories, disks, tapes, accessories, data communications services, educational courses, reference services, third-party maintenance, electronic test equipment, personnel recruitment, programming aids, forms services, security services, and teaching devices. Each listing has company name and what that company supplies. 'Shownet' is Texas-sized LAN. (local area network) NetWorld 90, held at the Dallas Convention Center (TX) attracted 25,000 data processing and telecommunications decision makers and network managers from around the world to see the three-day exposition focused on local area network (LAN) technology. What made this show different from other trade shows was its gargantuan communications network infrastructure, interconnecting the common areas and booths and supporting 100 exhibitors' equipment. The network demonstrated the potential of LANs that can interconnect disparate computer equipment. AT & T, a vendor that offered solutions designed around industry standards and open systems, was asked to put the network infrastructure together. AT & T installed a fiber backbone that ran the entire length of both floors of the center. Beyond voice mail. West, Michael. Universities, local governments, newspapers and other new customers are using voice processing as the technology and its benefits fuel the market. Vendors will be expected to develop other uses for voice processing as users become more familiar with the technology and demand other uses. Austin College (Sherman, TX) uses a campus voice mail system that enables students to turn in verbal foreign language homework from remote locations. The city of Richardson, TX uses the technology in animal shelters to enable residents to call in and record descriptions of lost pets. At the Westchester-Rockland Newspapers (New York), classified advertisers can purchase 'talking classified' ads. Technology asset recovery; there's a cache of cash in your replaced equipment. Companies often throw away used communications equipment, not realizing that it is possible to recoup some of its cost. Instead, companies focus on the system they are buying, and procrastinate over what to do with the used equipment. Procrastination leads to lower profits, as the used equipment sits in a warehouse and loses value. Instead, an organization should contact 'aftermarket vendors' who thrive solely on disposing of used equipment at a fair price. Costly storage space is saved by selling the equipment, and during these hard times, executives are searching for ways to strengthen capital assets. Give the resale vendor enough time to evaluate the equipment. Open-system E-mail security; putting a new twist on an old problem. The proliferation of electronic mail systems brings with it new concerns for security. With new technology evolving so quickly, one needs to weigh the benefits of providing open communications against the risks of enabling users from other organizations to access private systems. The Consultative Committee for International Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT) has developed a directory version of 'call screening' within the X.500 standard, known as authorization and access control. Users will not be able to download a whole directory from another company unless authorized to do so. Users are also adding file-security features to their systems, since electronic messages can include more than text. Managing a distributed environment. (network security ) Many companies are experimenting with distributed computing environments, forcing information systems managers to find efficient ways to distribute and manage data, applications and programs over the numerous sites involved and the many environments. Even more challenging is considering how to keep that data secure as it moves through the system to a remote site. Current applications are not made to be distributed, and most organizations cannot afford to put systems personnel at every site. Therefore, automated facilities and service management tools are necessary. A mixed environment is likely to be commonplace within a few years. Washington State plugs leaks; subadministrators help Bill Allen keep tabs on sprawling PC-LAN environment. (local area network) Bill Allen, data security manager for the Department of Social and Health Services for the State of Washington, has a difficult job as the department's computer system becomes more decentralized. The proliferation of local area networks and stand-alone microcomputers in the department is a trend that will result in a predicted 500 department-wide local area networks by 1995. Allen has designed a way to make network security easier, by setting up a system of sub-administrators. The department is making a transition to a System 370 environment, with some local area networks connected to the Unisys, and others to an IBM or Amdahl. ISDN deployment and the CPE marketplace. (integrated services digital network; customer premises equipment) The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) market may enter a demand pull phase of the market by 1994. In the beginning, most telecommunications products start with a push phase, a point at which vendors are pushing products more than customers are seeing the need or desire to buy. Washington is mandating ISDN capability in its user interfaces to FTS-2000, and one Bell Operating Company is making a large investment in ISDN. The General Services Administration is a key organization in the deployment of ISDN. ISDN compatibility is specified in its procurement plans for user interfaces to the FTS-2000 backbone. NT1: key to basic-rate access; ISDN update. (integrated services digital network) The Network Termination Type 1 (NT1) interface module included in the list of basic rate interface (BRI) Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) products will have an important role to play as CO deployment of BRI two wire ISDN (2B1Q) increases. The initial deployment of both 2BIQ CO line cards and NT1s is seen by the early market entry by AT & T Microelectronics with its production of 2B1Q transceiver, in addition to its requests for products from the operating companies. This type of interface is less attractive than a four wire PC plug-in terminal adapter or a high feature ISDN telephone, but is key to BRI. The 2B1Q scheme has been adopted by ANSI and major European PTTs, and others as well, including the European Telephone Standards Institute and CCITT. PC-based software simplifies testing for Sears catalog division. Sears has switched to an electronic data interchange (EDI) system based on the ANSI ASC X12 standard to offer an updated system that had a wider transaction ability. The system has been streamlined with microcomputer-based software. Sears tested EDI with each vendor first, sending test data to trading partners while they conducted their own tests. Sears used Supply Tech Inc's (Southfield, MI) microcomputer-based EDI translation software for testing, enabling them to get test transmissions out in minutes. Dynamic help windows offer operator assistance. A manipulation feature enables Sears to fit the data for particular trading partners. How the Army uses radios. Numann, Guy. Military communications are changing quickly with specialized radio systems being developed that operate in the spectrum between DC and lightwave. Performance and price improvements in high-frequency and low-band very-high-frequency are being made in the market. Analog circuits are being replaced or augmented by digital circuits, contributing to the new capabilities such as better performance. The digital revolution includes computer and digital-signal processing chips, and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). High-speed data, facsimile and video are being augmented by traditional voice and low-speed data. Air Force begins new era in technical integration. Air Force Communications Command will be restructured in order to enhance the Air Force combat capability. The focus will be on such issues as standards, architectures, operations and integration policy and procedures for communications, air traffic control systems and computer systems. The aim will be for interoperability, integration and standardization. The new organization will have three intermediate level subordinate organizations, including a computer systems division, the engineering installment division and a new technology integration center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Voice mail via payphone comes of age; a new take on the O.J. Simpson Airport scenario. (National Telephone Services Inc.'s A new messaging service called Message Connect is available at Radisson Hotels, Humana hospitals and other payphone locations and high-volume properties of operator-assisted long distance telephone services from National Telephone Services Inc (NTS), a leading interexchange operator service provider. A caller dials up and leaves a voice message. The person is dialed up automatically every 15 minutes for up to six hours, and told that a message has been left through the NTS. NTS claims that the delivery rate averages 87 percent. The capability of NTS to come on the line without terminating the original call is made possible by the sophisticated switching features of its 21 VoiceFrame systems from Harris Digital Telephone Systems. Powerful PBX handles volume surge; pension fund administrator breathes sigh of relief. The State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) of Ohio is expanding their telecommunications system, installed in approximately 1985. The system uses PBX and terminal equipment from NEC America and manages 8000 to 10,000 calls per day. The STRS' telecommunications needs have tripled in terms of teacher members, lines and expenditures since 1979. To manage 200 phone lines at a new site, the STRS installed a second NEAX2400 Information Management System. The modular architecture of the system offers more flexibility, with new modules being stacked one on top of another. The organization deals in numerous activities, such as investing, benefits, health care and real estate. Enterprise mail: time to look at the big picture; 10 billion E-mail messages will be exchanged in 1991. Experts predict that the electronic mail market will grow rapidly, from 3 billion messages exchanged in 1989 to 10 billion in 1991. Organizations will integrate their multivendor E-mail networks into enterprise-wide mail networks, with multiple, dissimilar subnetworks connection of one. Involvement and volunteerism is prevalent in TAC and other associations. Use modern approach to network integration. (tutorial) Sharma, Roshan L. The changing communication needs of modern enterprises and the explosive growth of technologies to meet those needs have made the traditional approach to designing an integrated network cumbersome and nearly futile. A new, interactive methodology must be devised, keeping in mind some basic truths of network design. First, while there are many new network technologies available, network topologies have remained constant over a 20-year period; bus, star and loop topologies have proven their usefulness at both the local- and wide-area network levels. Second, topologies are influenced by network architectures and design parameters, not tariffs, so only a small set of tariffs is necessary for the design of even very complex networks. Third, designers do not need actual traffic tapes for design purposes; designers can work from the BHR statistics and daily/weekly traffic profiles derived from the traffic tapes. Finally, by defining most of the often-used quantities as long-integer numbers, the topology optimization process can be accelerated. Lawyers learn how to upgrade at 'Network U.' Law firm Brown and Herrick, of Mesa, AZ, hired systems integrator Micro One to educate its staff on the benefits of upgrading to a local area network. Micro One was selected because they offered the best flexibility in solution components. The law firm now has a 47-node network. Secretaries were sent to training classes for the new system; the firm paid course fees for those who passed, and cash bonuses were promised for those who achieved an 'A' or 'B'. Productivity gains included being able to reduce the dedicated word processing staff from four to one; reduced need for support staff overtime, because of the ability for attorneys working on weekends to make their own changes to documents; a change from weekly to monthly management team meetings because of improved communications; and the ability to easily produce details time and billing reports. T1 benefits, fractional costs. (Lewis Homes management Corp.'s hybrid network) Lewis Homes Management Corp, of Upland, CA, relies on a hybrid network to meet the voice and data communications needs of a network with locations in Upland, Sacramento, and El Centro, CA, and Reno and Las Vegas, NV. Working with a network-design engineer from Trident Data Systems, Holmes designed a network that includes T1 links to the three most distant sites, with the El Centro location remaining linked by a point-to-point connection. The system doubles data bandwidth to 19.2 kb/s, using the remaining bandwidth for four tie trunks that carry voice and fax between Upland and the three most remote sites. Voice and data circuits are blended onto a single DSO; output from the three links is combined via a channel bank. Enhanced network management software operating on a microcomputer makes each voice/data mux addressable; commands can be addressed individually or issued globally. The hybrid network saves Lewis Homes more than $5,000. Credit union switch improves customer service: new phone sets, reports reduce need to spur agents. Patelco Credit Union comprises 16 branch offices that are supported by a telephone service center (TSC) which became a separate department in 1984. The TSC operates off a Telcom Technologies ECD-4000EX switching system and Digital Display Sets (DDS) that enable credit union agents to manage calls and troubleshoot potential system problems. Ten agents handle some 1,200 calls per day, answering questions regarding accounts, balances, check clearances, and savings rates, among other topics. Approximately 48 percent of all calls are handled within five seconds; the DDS sets allow agents to identify how many calls are in queue, how long each call takes, and which call has been waiting longest. Additionally, a feature called Enhanced Wrap-Up makes it possible to keep running tallies of up to 90 different activities, reporting the current percentage of both group and system totals accounted for by a given activity. Social Security Administration an 800 call away. The Social Security Administration (SSA) can be reached from anywhere in the US through a single, toll-free 800 number that links 37 service centers nationwide, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The number is staffed by SSA representatives trained to handle 'primary queries,' those which can be dealt with without extensive research or discussion. The SSA handles some 68 million calls per year, and nearly 43 million people receive some form of Social Security or Supplemental Security Income; these figures can be expected to increase rapidly as the population ages, with the number of Americans over age 65 expected to be 10 million more than it was in 1989. The system, created by MCI Communications, includes a number of special features, including: point-of-call routing, which directs calls according to their origin; allocation routing, which distributes calls for quick answering; time-of-day routing; day of week routing; command routing; and routing control. The maturing of ISDN brings on new users. (column) Blegen, August. Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) applications are now frequently routine and the service can be put to new uses without extensive prior analysis and testing. The maturity that this indicates is demonstrated by the experience of Schindler Elevator Corp, a major manufacturer and service provider for elevators and escalators that wanted to establish communications between the Service Center, where customer calls were received and service personnel dispatched, and the Customer Conference Room. Schindler, which already has ISDN centrex lines in place, used an application called Data Conferencing to provide real-time visual and audio display of incoming service calls, linking the Service Center with the Customer Conference Room, located one floor and two wiring closets away. Data Conferencing allows users to share screen information, with keyboard control passing back and forth. U.K. leapfrogs the U.S. in deregulation. (column) Kirvan, Paul. The UK, under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, took a great leap past the US in terms of deregulation of telecommunications. Proposals outlined in a paper entitled 'Competition and Choice: Telecommunications Policy in the 1990s' recommend full competition in UK telecomm markets, local, long distance and international, along with the legalization of international carrier service reselling, provision of private satellite networks, establishment of equal access for all long distance carriers, and permission for cable television companies to provide telephone services. Acceptance of these proposals could have a significant impact on the US telecommunications industry. Already US companies, particularly some of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), have reacted to the proposals by investing in start-up cable TV franchises, seeking to leverage their expertise in transmission to create local networks supporting TV and telephone services over the same facility. The globalization of computing: perspectives on a changing world. (solicitation for guest writers to submit articles on computing Many people speak of new computer and telecommunications technologies as creating a 'global village,' but these technologies are unevenly distributed and few computer professionals known much about what is taking place outside their own technologically advanced communities. The US and Japan enjoy the highest level of technology as well as the highest living standards and exercise great influence over the rest of the world, but other countries may take different 'paths to information.' Regional issues include the end of the Cold War and the opening up of the Eastern European market, which has many years of pent-up demand for technology. True 'globalization' is another problem because only a small fraction of the world's population has access to high technology. 'Macroproblems' faced by computer professionals as well as others include limiting national sovereignty, overcoming environmental problems and the rapid growth of the human population. Technology does improve productivity and standards of living when implemented, but population growth and other counter-trends may cause per capita levels to actually decline. Guest column proposals are solicited. Evaluation of strategic investments in information technology. (developing a strategic application) A series of case studies in strategic application development from a variety of industries is presented. American Airlines' Sabre travel agent reservation system gives it a significant competitive edge because it is used by virtually all major agencies. Chemical Bank's 'Pronto' electronic home-banking offering failed to produce a return on its investment; information technology decisions remain risky. Several 'lessons' based on a study of major corporations are presented. Decision trees and other tools can be used to estimate results with enough accuracy to provide a ranking of alternatives. Organizations implementing strategic plans must employ some type of numerical analysis and balance the many forms of risk involved. Active risk management is also important. Critical resources must be taken into account. Key goals include cooperative as well as competitive advantages. All information technology has a 'downside,' including such factors as cost and fear of change among managers and employees. Groupware: some issues and experiences. (using computers to facilitate human interaction) A technical discussion of the 'groupware' concept and issues involved in its implementation is presented. Work-group software applications are sometimes defined as those intended for small, narrowly-focused groups and sometimes as enterprise-wide strategic programs. A broader view sees groupware as the class of applications that emerges from the networking of computers and large databases. Communication, collaboration and coordination are the key goals of groupware. It can be designed to assist a face-to-face group or one distributed over several sites. Real-time concepts essential to groupware include shared context, 'group windows' that appear on different displays, 'views' of shared context, and synchronous and asynchronous interaction. Group Outline Viewing Editor (GROVE), a sample groupware application built as an experimental prototype, is discussed. Design issues in groupware include the user interface, group processes, including protocols and operations; concurrency control, which demands robustness and responsiveness as well as data replication; access control, and notification of users when constraints are violated. The impact of information systems on organizations and markets. (economics of information technology) A discussion of the impact of information technology on business organizations and markets is presented, with particular attention paid to how technology affects firm size and the allocation of decision-making authority. Agency theory, which views a firm as a relationship built upon a set of contracts among self-interested employees rather than as a single identity that exists to maximize profits, is relevant to the analysis of information systems because agency structure affects the distribution of information. Transaction cost theory views a firm as a solution to market problems; information systems help it achieve its goals. Firm size is viewed along both the vertical dimension, measured via the value chain within its own hierarchy, and the horizontal dimension, which includes such measures as market share. The impact of information systems on operations, transaction processing, monitoring of employee performance and decision support is discussed. Making usable, useful, productivity-enhancing computer applications. (discussion of usability design processes) A 'status report' on the practice of usability design techniques among systems developers is presented, along with new ideas for enhancing the process. Usability design consists of an early focus on end users, who should have direct contact with designers; integrated design, early and continuous user testing, and iterative design, which modifies the system under development based on user feedback and test results. Current studies indicate that the usability design process works but is not often used because the goals of development work generally do not include usability goals, which tend to conflict with meeting deadlines and with management reward structures. Many professionals also mistakenly believe that usability cannot be measured. Examples of testable usability goals in individual systems are presented, along with analogies from both inside and outside the computer industry. Analogous analyses and graphs should be developed to show long-term usability trends. The ITS rapid application development system implements multiple end-user operations, separates the application content from style and uses rule-based, computer-executable styles. ITS is in use at the IBM Research Center. Supply/demand of IS doctorates in the 1990s. (advanced degrees in computer sciences) Results of a study of the supply and demand of doctoral degrees in computer and information sciences are presented. There were 80 doctoral students enrolled in 51 IS programs in 1988-89; 120 doctorates were awarded, 24 percent more than in the previous year. Factors that make the future supply of doctorates hard to predict include the fact that some students never graduate while others enter industry rather than academia, the tendency of graduates from other disciplines to fill IS positions, and the reeducation of faculty from other disciplines to teach IS courses. Some graduates also take positions in foreign universities. The number of doctorates awarded is expected to double in 1989-90 over 1986-87 levels, with a sizable number seeking academic positions. Near-term supply of IS faculty is easy to estimate, but long-term estimates are more subjective. Growth plans may be curtailed by the lack of funds to support future students. It is predicted there will be enough IS positions available to match the supply of doctorates in the near term. Implications of the study for university administrators, faculty and students are discussed. Profiling computer science master's programs. (study of master's degree programs in information systems) Results of a study of 135 US and Canadian master's degree programs in computer science are presented. US Department of Education statistics indicate that the number of master's degrees awarded in computer science has grown faster than in any other discipline, from 1,588 in 1971 to 8,070 in 1986. Twenty-five percent of the departments surveyed offer computer science master's programs in more than one specialty; about half of programs are based on a day schedule and half upon a combination of day and evening classes. Entrance requirements appear to affect enrollment, and programs on the quarter system require fewer semester hours than semester programs. ACM recommendations for a master's degree state that a typical program will require 30 to 36 semester hours; current programs range from 23 to 66 but cluster around 30. Canadian institutions have more stringent entrance requirements than US institutions and tend to stress depth rather than breadth. The ACM also recommends that master's programs require a thesis or project; two-thirds of the US institutions and all of the Canadian institutions follow this recommendation. The rapid growth in computer science master's degrees experienced in the 1970s has clearly leveled off. Ninety-two percent of master's program faculty hold Ph.D. degrees. Twenty-two percent of students in the master's programs are women. Commentary: coalition for science and technology. (ACMemberNet supplement) Lack of public understanding of science and technology is a significant obstacle to the US's continuing industrial competitiveness, and the end of the Cold War may cause government administrators to reduce much-needed research and development funding. The Association for Computing Machinery is concerned about future shortages of qualified computing professionals because the number of students enrolled in computer science is declining. Research faculty are finding it difficult to obtain adequate funding for themselves or their students, and federal cutbacks make it difficult for high-technology companies to obtain funds. The ACM has formed the Coalition for Science and Technology, whose stated goals are to determine how science and technology can solve national and international problems and educate the public rather than acting as a pressure group. New SIG board chairman thinks globally. (Mark Scott Johnson appointed chairman of ACM SIG board) Mark Scott Johnson has been elected president of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) board. His goals are to determine how each SIG can act as 'the premier society in its particular discipline' and to use volunteers who think in long-range, global terms. Johnson views conferences and publications as important vehicles for technical communication but calls for the SIGs to maintain their position in the forefront of development. The ACM will intensify its international efforts to open up opportunities for members in foreign countries. Johnson has served in organizational positions at several SIG conferences and is a manager of education services at Microtec Research. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of British Columbia. PAWS: a performance evaluation tool for parallel computing systems. (PAWS: Parallel Assessment Window System) (technical) PAWS (Parallel Assessment Windows System), an experimental system to perform machine evaluation and comparisons, has a user-friendly X windows-based environment to permit comparisons among vastly different machines running common applications. Using dataflow graphical languages on dataflow machines for parallel computer assessment through PAWS is original. The ability to associate a graph's visual display during assessment is a powerful feature of PAWS. The four tools of PAWS are the application tool, the architectural characterization tool, the performance assessment tool, and the interactive graphical display tool. The application tool evaluates the level and degree of the parallelism of an application. The architecture characterization tool characterizes and differentiates between machines within classes. The interactive graphic display gives the user interface access to all PAWS tools. The performance assessment tool permits users to evaluate the performance of an application in the system by generating a set of performance metrics. PAWS is unique in that it combines characterizations of both application and architectures and generates for assessment various performance metrics. Address tracing for parallel machines. (technical) Stunkel, Craig B.; Janssens, Bob; Fuchs, W. Kent. Designers and researchers use address traces to assess performance issues related to computer processors and their memory systems. The methods of address tracing are hardware-captured traces, interrupt-based traces, simulation-based traces, altered microcode-based traces, and instrumented program-based traces. Address-trace distortion can be reduced by identifying synchronization points and counting the number of cycles between synchronization points to simulate the processor execution. Hybrid techniques that instrument programs and simulate execution time are the most promising address-tracing solutions. A performance comparison of the IBM RS/6000 and the Astronautics ZS-1. (technical) A performance evaluation method to compare and improve concurrent uniprocessor architectures is developed. Using this method to compare the IBM RS/6000 and the Astronautics ZS-1 CPUs, the RS/6000 is clearly superior. But these two machines were designed for fundamentally different environments; the RS/6000 is designed to function as a high-speed workstation or compute/file server on a network, while the ZS-1 is suitable for parallel processing and for a fast clock. Benchmark characterization. (includes related article on types of benchmarks) (technical) Designers frequently use benchmark programs to see if the new instruction they have designed is useful. One way to find cost-effective designs for benchmarks is to define a general abstract system that has a number of system designs as special cases and then measure benchmark performances in terms of this abstract system. The abstract performance is called the benchmark's characteristics and the process is called benchmark characterization. The method of benchmark characterization is to measure the behavior in terms of an abstract system whose instruction set is the compiler's intermediate code. Benchmark characterization makes it less expensive to investigate design space, points the system toward the intended workload, and curtails requirements for simulation and redesign. The design of a microsupercomputer. (technical) Milano, Raymond A.; Mudge, Trevor N.; Brown, Richard B.; A prototype next-generation machine that takes advantage of both the microprocessor and supercomputer traditions is developed. The design of the machine uses advanced gallium-arsenide (GaAs) technology and a multichip module package. The multichip module package prevents chip crossings from dominating the system's overall speed. The system developed is a general-purpose computer that runs a conventional Unix environment, supporting standard programming languages and networking protocols. Implementation of the PIPE processor. (PIPE: Parallel Instruction with Pipelined Execution) (technical) A single PIPE processor significantly outperforms more conventional processors. An intelligent memory and two identical processors, supporting a decoupled access and execute mode of execution are part of the PIPE machine. PIPE has separate input and output buses. It is a 32-bit processor with a 32-bit wide internal bus and is 16-bit word-addressable. The five-stage pipe in PIPE is composed of instruction fetch, instruction decode, instruction issue, ALU/logical, and ALU2. There are two forms of PIPE instructions: either one or two 16-bit parcels long. Supporting architectural queues is not difficult and the instruction issue logic is not unduly complicated. Hector: a hierarchically structured shared-memory multiprocessor. (technical) The Hector multiprocessor architecture uses current microprocessor technology to produce a machine that has a good cost/performance trade-off. The interconnection backplane is a key design feature; it uses simple hardware with short critical paths in logical circuits and short lines in the interconnection network, which means it can accommodate future technologies. Hector can be used for single jobs with many parallel tasks and for concurrent execution of multiple jobs that are made up of serial tasks. Hector's hierarchical structure permits short transmission lines and construction of a simple and fast backplane; the cost and overall bandwidth grow linearly with the number of processing modules and the cost of a memory access grows incrementally with the distance between the processor and memory location. An important goal of the project is developing a multiprocessor architecture whose cost is directly proportional to size. Building and using a highly parallel programmable logic array. (technical) Splash, which is a $13,000 two-slot addition, can be added to a Sun Microsystems workstation to make it outperform a Cray-2 on certain applications. The configuration of Splash, which is a programmable linear logic array, can be adjusted to suit the problem. This means Splash bridges the gap between a traditional fixed-function VLSI systolic array and the more versatile programmable array. A linear array of chips which are programmed at a very low level comprise Splash. There are two boards in Splash: one has the linear array and one has a dual-ported memory card. The price/performance ratio of Splash is unmatched for certain pattern-matching applications. Do standards cause software productivity problems? Buckley, Fletcher J. The Physical Configuration Audit as defined in the Dept of Defense Std-2167A and Mil-Std-1521B is an example of a defined, structured process. It is a detailed examination of software design documentation with the goal of ensuring consistency with the code itself. It is expected that maintenance programmers will use the software design document to maintain the code. This is fine in theory but it does not work this way in practice because of the time involved to do the review. PCA's origins are in the hardware world where an examination of the hardware and the drawings from which the hardware was made is necessary. The same situation does not occur in the software world. It is time to change the Physical Configuration Audit requirement and time to take a look at the total process. A pair of neural packages for research. (Software Review) (Neuroshell 3.1 and Brainmaker Professional 1.5) (evaluation) A major part of the neural networks' appeal is that neural networks are designed to incorporate the perceived advantages of the human brain such as pattern matching and fault tolerance. Neuroshell 3.1, $195 for Version 3.3, the current version, from Ward Systems Group, and Brainmaker Professional 1.5, $795 from California Scientific Software, are powerful and effective commercially available neural network systems. Both products are strongly recommended as superior products that have extraordinary expertise in the technology; both are unusually competent in design and implementation. Both programs can display histograms and can graph relationships between characteristics and print reports. Both packages either have general utilities to help develop and evaluate neural networks or have these utilities available as options. Both products can be used as stand-alone systems or interfaced to application-oriented front ends and/or data base back ends. Applying technology with Neuralworks Professional II. (Software Review) (evaluation) Neural networks are effective ways to handle the deluge of information. Neuralworks Professional II from Neuralware is a tool to develop neural networks. The program works on the computers specified by Neuralware, but users need more to get the real benefit out of Neuralworks; it should be used on not less than an AT-class machine. Users should expect to spend about three hours a day for a month to absorb the material presented in the documentation, working through the tutorial, and trying the examples. This tool will not be useful unless the time is spent on learning how to use it. The manual is very practical in its focus and is obviously written by engineers for engineers. Neuralworks was developed by people with considerable expertise in neural network applications. This is a valuable tool. Price depends on the computer being used. NETBIOS implementation and performance study of different network operating systems. (technical) A comparative study is carried out on three network operating systems: 3Com 3+Share; Novell's Netware version 2.15; and Artisoft's LANtastic, to evaluate their Network Basic Input/Output System (NETBIOS) compatibility, implementation and performance. The performance results and implementation differences between the systems are highlighted. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Gateway performance analysis in interconnected networks. (technical) The performance of interconnected networks is highly dependent on the performance of the gateways. Since the finite storage capability of gateways affects the throughput it has to be considered for the analysis of interconnected networks. Different configurations of networks are studied: (i) gateways and the channels of local area networks have no buffer capacity constraints; (ii) only gateways have buffer capacity constraints; (iii) only the channels of local area networks have buffer capacity constraints; (iv) both gateways and the channels of the local area networks have buffer capacity constraints. An approximation method is introduced which allows computation of the throughput for the above network configurations. Examples are given to demonstrate the impact of gateway buffer capacity on the performance of the network. Approximate results are compared and validated by simulation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) High-speed networks: the emergence of technologies for multiservice support. (technical) A review is presented of technologies which have emerged over the last decade for high-speed networking. Coupled with the current evolution of telephone networks to the use of digital techniques worldwide, these developments afford the prospect in the coming decades of a communications transformation into a system capable of integrated, global support for both distributive and interactive services, whether for business or domestic use, entertainment or otherwise. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) FBC-Net: a reverse round robin LAN for voice and data traffic. (Folded Bus with Control channel Network) (technical) A local area network (LAN) that provides a reverse order service discipline from round to round is presented. The network, Folded Bus with Control channel Network (FBC-Net), consists of two buses: a folded unidirectional data bus, and an auxiliary bus that coordinates access to the data bus. The FBC-Net provides bounded delay, a feature that makes it particularly suitable for voice transmission. An access protocol for integrating voice and data traffic is also described. This protocol meets the delay constraint for voice transmission, while at the same time guaranteeing sufficient bandwidth for data traffic transmission. The performance of the FBC-Net under various traffic conditions is evaluated via simulation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Broadtalk: end-to-end communications with data broadcasting. (technical) A data broadcast product called the Broadtalk Data System, recently launched in the UK by Bishopsgate Systems Ltd, is described. A brief outline of the background to data broadcasting is given, and the reasons for the product's development are discussed. Implementation of Broadtalk is outlined, and future enhancements to the product are discussed. The result of four years experience in the data broadcasting market, the developers believe Broadtalk is the first product to bring together all the functions of a managed store-and-forward file transfer and messaging system. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Automated waste. (Autofact '90 conference analysis) (Front End) (column) The Autofact '90 conference in Detroit in Nov 1990 shows that while US manufacturers realize the importance of quality products to compete successfully in international markets, they too often misuse the technology intended to help them attain the quality level required. The conference was attended by 23,000 people and 375 exhibitors; there were also 200 guest speakers. General Systems Co Pres and CEO Armand Feigenbaum, author of the book Total Quality Control, says that in the early 1980s companies tried to make products quickly and cheaply, promising to replace defective products. This led to many dissatisfied customers, and in the intervening years there has been a much greater emphasis on quality over price among buyers. A recent survey found that few US manufacturers have experience with advanced technology although it is seen as key to success in international markets. Movable mannequins. (Humancad's Mannequin software package integrates human likenesses into CAD and graphic design software) Humancad introduces the Mannequin software package for integrating human likenesses into CAD and graphic design software using a library of ergonomic data for representing men, women and children of various shapes, sizes and nationalities. The models developed are able to walk, bend and grasp objects; they represent people from 10 world populations and with five different body sizes. The $699 package works with Autocad, Generic CAD, Corel Draw, Micrografx Designer, Harvard Graphics and Aldus Pagemaker. Human figures drawn with the program can be moved from point to point, and the effect of specific designs on the figures can be assessed by the package. Biomechanical calculations can also be performed for testing specific body parts for torque calculations. Mannequin will be marketed initially for industrial design, graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia and film. A schizophrenic market: despite respectable growth, the market for color hard-copy output lacks strong customer demand. (Graphics Current hard-copy output devices do not provide the quality fine artists, graphic artists and color CAD users need in terms of resolution, paper, image size, color, price and durability. The market for high-quality hard-copy output is not yet large enough for manufacturers to justify the cost of developing such products. Technological advances are beginning to be felt in the market, however: midrange color laser printers, for example, have dropped in price to about $10,000. The color hard-copy output market is held back by the low number of computer applications that require color, the high cost of color output when compared with black-and-white output, the difficulty of matching on-screen color with output color and the lack of standards for universal color output from universal color input. The outlook for growth in specific sectors of the color hard-copy market is discussed. Output options for artists; fine artists cope with today's output technology. Advances in computer graphics hardware and software tempt artists to apply the technologies to their work, but doing so is a daunting task, and one that often fails to deliver the desired results. Artists who wish to display their work somewhere other than a video or on-screen display must translate the image to hard copy. Designers and manufacturers generally use hard copy only to proof a design, but artists see hard copy as the final product, and they therefore want more versatility and durability in their hard-copy output devices. Problems are encountered in working with paper size, type and surface as well as with inks, color, resolution and hardware limitations. The strengths and weaknesses of several printer technologies are examined, including thermal transfer and ink-jet; several specific output devices are described as well. The new breed: today's visualization toolkits emphasize ease of use for nonprogrammers. (scientific software) The advent of visualization software in the late 1980s changed the way scientific data were analyzed, represented and communicated. Researchers were provided with a choice of software to use: packages intended for specific applications, or general-purpose toolkits that could be customized for diverse tasks. Unfortunately, the application-specific packages lack the specificity the scientific tasks require, and the general-purpose toolkits are usually too difficult or time-consuming for scientists to use. Products are now becoming available that are both more practical and easier to use, two of which are Stardent Computer Inc's Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Viewer and Intelligent Light Inc's Fieldview. CFD Viewer is an add-on package for Stardent's Application Visualization System, and Fieldview is an add-on package for Intelligent Light's IView toolkit. A love/hate relationship: suuuurvey SAYS... despite the down side, users want graphics standards. (a survey by the National Computer A recent survey by the National Computer Graphics Association (NCGA) of 343 attendees of the association's Integrate '90 demonstration (chosen randomly) finds that resistance to graphics standards continues among users and vendors alike, although both groups realize the eventual benefits of standardization. Vendors want to maximize profits from proprietary systems, retain product differentiation and avoid the time and expense of adopting standards; users balk at the time required to implement standards, the lack of standards-based products and poor standards implementations from vendors. Forty-five percent of the survey respondents are involved in CAD/CAM or architectural applications, and 38 percent use business graphics; 77 percent say buying standards-based products is important to their organizations, and 29 percent of this group say it is a requirement. Other survey results are examined. Managing engineering data: new systems extend beyond storage and tracking to include all phases of project administration. Engineering data management systems are used to track, store and distribute such product information as drawings, solid models and technical documentation; many such systems also monitor project schedules, design approval and product configurations. SuperSky Products Inc uses Intergraph's Technical Information Management System (TIMS) to reduce engineering overhead, and Schlumberger Ltd's Wireline Div uses Sherpa's Design Management System interfaced to a Cullinet manufacturing resource planning (MRP) product to reduce design approval time from weeks to days. Boeing Aerospace and Electronics is developing a system that will connect 5,000 workstations and PCs used in engineering, sales, manufacturing and management. Other leading engineering data management system vendors are Dassault USA, Control Data, Prime/Computervision, Structural Dynamics Research Corp and Hewlett-Packard. Color laser printing: the technology holds promise but still has some growing up to do. Color laser printers are still too expensive for most potential users, and many technical problems entailed in color electrophotography have not yet been resolved, including complicated optics and contaminated toner particles. Canon USA Inc and Colorocs Corp are two of the small number of US vendors committed to products; most vendors say users do not yet know how to use color to an extent that justifies the high cost of the devices. Dataquest analyst Dan Miller expects the price of color laser printers to reach competitive levels by 1994; the devices currently cost between $30,000 and $70,000, although some are even more expensive. Color laser printers are much more popular in Japan: Konica, Sharp, Mitsubishi, NEC, Hitachi, Canon and other Japanese vendors have developed computer interfaces to their color laser copiers, often for vertical markets. Mix-and-match animation: computer technology merges with cel animation and live video in "Tom and Jerry" cartoon opener. Animators at Crawford Design/Effects have combined computer graphics and film technology to create a proposed animated cartoon show opener for Tom & Jerry's Funhouse, which runs on the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). The open, as it is called, combines traditional cel animation and live action, much like the popular film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but in place of a live-action background, the Tom and Jerry background is completely computer generated. Tom and Jerry cartoon characters interact with live-action children in a three-dimensional, computer generated and animated living room, marking the first time live-action, cel animation and computer animation have been combined in a single project, according to Crawford programmer/animator Barry Dempsey. Software from Wavefront Technologies, Alias and Pixar running on Silicon Graphics workstations was used in the animation project. Mapping toxic spills. (the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories uses computer graphics to find Researchers at the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL) use computer graphics to find environmental hazards that cannot be seen. Commercial and custom-developed software is used by LLNL geologist Bernie Qualheim to find the location, shape and size of contaminant plumes in the subsurface of Livermore Valley, a one-square-mile area that was once home to a naval air station that deposited chemicals there in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene and other chemicals considered carcinogenic were deposited by the navy as a result of its use of toxic solvents to clean aircraft. The substances follow natural underground channels and meander unpredictably through the area, making cleanup difficult. Software used to model the path of the toxic chemicals includes Dynamic Graphics' surface and volume modeling software. The Amiga 3000: more than an upgrade, Commodore's new entry should prove a serious multimedia machine. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Commodore's Amiga 3000 microcomputer is a machine that is poised to make noise in the education and business markets, in part because of its true multitasking capabilities. Custom graphics chips included provide fast windowing and updating, and dedicated custom four-voice sound chips are also provided. Such a combination indicates the Amiga 3000's suitability for running games, and the Amiga has been called the ultimate game machine, but the same characteristics are applicable to multimedia presentations as well. The Amiga 3000 is able to run applications written for the Macintosh and Atari systems, and its 'bridgeboard' allows it to run IBM PC programs as well; it will even accept and use circuit boards intended for IBM PC/ATs and compatibles. Apart from questions about software compatibility, the Amiga 3000 shows that Commodore is ready to meet the needs of users. Protecting artists: an attorney speaks out on computers, fine art, and the law. (Graphics Output) (column) Copyright law has its foundation in early 18th century England, which makes it unlikely that it can apply to the fine art now being created on computers. Questions about ownership of computer art when copies of files are transferred to collectors are not addressed appropriately by existing copyright law. Art created on computers is protected by federal copyright when it is saved in a computer file, and the artist retains the copyright even when the artwork is sold to a collector regardless of the form of the work (on disk, on a transparency, on paper, etc.) The new owner is able to display the work and to resell it, but the owner cannot make copies of the work. The artist can make copies, however, and can alter the work in any way, which copyright law calls derivative works. Artists can thus destroy the uniqueness of the original work, which reduces its value to the collector. Customer service. (without customers you have no business) (column) Corporate managers who contend they can not find good help and that they can not afford to be polite to customers are actually revealing the fact that they (the managers) are not willing to pay good employees enough to keep them around and that they have a bigger stake in being right than in being considerate. Enterprises who consider their place in the market a monopoly are the worst offenders, such as the only print shop in town or the only newsstand in the subway. In this case arrogance is still expensive, as customers will only purchase what they absolutely have to, begrudging the vendor a profit. In many companies the customer service department is an afterthought, if there is a customer service department. In the software industry, customer service is as important as the product itself, due to complexity. Vendors who want to be successful in the software business must be prepared to support their products. CASE for the rest of us. (computer-aided software engineering)(includes related article on toolbooks and toolware) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, especially upper-CASE products, can be efficient tools for supporting the total life cycle of large and small software products. Selecting a useful CASE tool can be a difficult task because analyzing CASE tools is similar to evaluating program editors. Individual vendors have unique ways to implement user interfaces, which methods to support, and how to integrate methods within tools. Several Unix-based CASE tools are on the market, along with CASE tools that run under MS-DOS. The real challenge of introducing CASE to a company is not so much technical as it is political and psychological. CASE has benefitted from the advent of graphical environments that make software engineers work faster and better. The greatest advantage of CASE is the potential as the ultimate software development groupware tool. Refining candidate objects. (functional decomposition - object oriented programming) (Cover Story) Successful problem solving involves the ability to break a large problem down into small parts. Complete analysis tools allow derivation of both the data and the operations. Tools must be able to derive the necessary operations of each object, otherwise they support less than half the job. Processing requirements must be represented with respect to deriving candidate operations during object oriented programming. It is important to know what access is needed for data stores, what input and output is necessary and which operations are necessary on the values of abstract data types. Processing requirements must be properly represented with a satisfactory model. The design model should focus on the type of objects needed to deal with solution-specific entities. One rule to remember is that no two objects should encapsulate the same information. An object is described entirely by operations, however changes in the system's function may require anticipation of new operations. The main rule to remember is that the first draft is for getting it down, not for getting it right. Object-oriented structured design and C++. (the best way to design complex systems) (tutorial) Object-oriented structured design (OOSD) supports several object-oriented design concepts and functions as a general notation for the architectural design of software systems. OOSD is language independent and comes from four sources: structure charts, Booch's notation for Ada packages generalized to be language independent, object-oriented programming principles, and Hoare's monitors for concurrent programming. OOSD is introduced here by several examples, including abstract data type, exceptions, generics, visibility, inheritance and monitors. Each class unit shown in OOSD includes a complete specification of its interface and information on connections to and visibility from other program units. The strategy of OOSD/C++ is to identify unique features of C++ relevant to program design, and incorporate those features into existing notation. Key C++ design concepts can be easily represented with OOSD notation. Software engineering...in COBOL? (principles of software engineering) (tutorial) COBOL-85 has features that distinguish it from COBOL-68 and COBOL-74; the new version follows ANSI standards. A significant change is the ability to enhance modularity and localization. Unfortunately many MIS managers are not aware of the technical implications of the new modularity of COBOL-85. Many programmers unfamiliar with languages such as Pascal may find modularity and localization confusing or ridiculous. Subprograms are used in COBOL-85 for modularity, they are invoked by a CALL verb with an ordered set of parameters. Other new features important for large programming projects are abstraction and information hiding. The new features can be exploited and result in far-reaching improvements in the quality of installed application systems once the MIS community better understands software engineering. A CASE trio. (Software Review) (computer-aided software engineering software) (evaluation) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) packages are evaluated: EasyCASE Plus 2.0, Visible Analyst 4.0, and POSE 4.0. EasyCASE Plus, from Evergreen CASE Tools, is an excellent $395 product (price includes analysis module) that supports every kind of diagram and methodology known to the reviewers. EasyCASE Plus is user friendly, however a more extensive program may eventually be necessary for large projects. Visible Analyst 4.0 is rated tops in CASE functionality and is a complete, mature CASE tool for all requirements; the product has true networking capabilities. Visible Analyst Workbench 4.0 Diagrammer is priced at $695; the Process or Data Modeling Package is $1,895 single (LAN version is $4,995); Integrated Process and Data Modeling Package is priced at $2,495 in single version (LAN version $6,995) from Visible Systems Corp. POSE, $595 from Computer System Advisers Inc, has limited graphics format support and clumsy copy-protection. The product is useful for prople who simply want to draw CASE-like diagrams without full CASE methodology. The POSE Process Model Toolkit is priced at $1,195. Installer programs for IBM PCs. (Software Review) (evaluation) Andrews, R. Bradley. Installation routines are evaluated that can be of use to programmers. Each program has functions to assist in preparing good-looking screens and has enough graphics to make an install routine visually appealing. All programs evaluated here have extensive documentation that adequately explains the available commands. Builder 1.21c, $149.95 from Hyperkinetix Inc, is useful for turning batch files into quick packages and may be the best choice for cost-conscious developers with straightforward installation needs. Instalit 1.4, $149 from Helpful Programs Inc, has an easy-to-learn script language and a unique MediaBuilder process. Instalit provides lower cost functionality for turnkey or simpler installations than does Install. Install 3.05, $249 from Knowledge Dynamics Corp, is well-documented, cleanly implemented and very flexible. It is the best choice for cycle redundance check awareness, flexibility and sophistication. It is a very professional package that uses command files to control the installation process. Install excels in distribution of large and complicated systems. Popkin System Architect. (Software Review ) (Software Review) (evaluation) Popkin System Architect, $1,395 from Popkin Software and Systems, is an excellent computer-aided software engineering (CASE) Windows-based product. Many programmers may not be interested in purchasing the product due to copy protection. A non-copy-protected version of System Architect is recommended to software developers who use structured methods. Documentation is well done and is provided in four manuals. The tutorial, however, does not extensively cover more advanced capabilities of the program. One disadvantage to the documentation is the lack of a global index, which forces the user to consult the indices of the User Guide and the Reference separately. Context-sensitive help is available at all times with the F1 key. System requirements include an IBM PC or compatible machine, Windows 2.11 or later, minimum 640Kbytes RAM with 2Mbytes recommended. The network version is priced at $1,545 per user; volume discounts are available. Deterministic random numbers? (Building Blocks column) (tutorial) Ochs, Tom. Computer-generated sequences of numbers can be produced that exhibit random behavior, even though the sequence is not truly random. Invalid results are created if resonance, interaction or correlation between the calling program and the sequence of pseudorandom numbers is present. Analysis of pseudorandom generator behavior is often not done in computer literature due to the fact that there is great effort needed to verify pseudorandom behavior. Algorithms are presented here from only a single class of methods. Points to remember are that pseudorandom generators are capable of enormous failure, linear congruential generators will always cycle, intense testing is necessary for an arbitrary generator to be certified; and programmers should use two generators and compare the results if the application is sensitive to a pseudorandom sequence. Another year of crisis. (column) Rovira, Charles-A. Software engineering is in a crisis that will not be solved until programmers can do 20,000 to 200,000 lines of error-free working code in a matter of hours. Most of the problems today are the result of the edit-compile-test treadmill. This was a poor idea to begin with and is still a poor idea in 1991. Additional problems include uncooperative operating systems, unworthy editors, and a morass of language details that must be perfect before a program can complete the software development phase. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool implementation presents its own set of problems due to the fact that programmers must test all of what was fed to the CASE tool. Productivity is low because programmers design tools that encourage failure. CASE tools require a substantial amount of staff training, which often is not adequate, and results in massive, expensive mediocrity. The process of writing working code is simpler with the use of interactive compilers and editors. Smalltalk is an example of a program development tool that offers the ability to rapidly develop and easily test applications. A primer on fiber optic concepts and an analysis of related security issues. Fiber optics are regarded by many systems managers as providing a significant level of protection against interception attempts. A tutorial is presented on the characteristics of single-mode stepped-index, multimode stepped-index, and multimode graded-index fiber optic cables. The components of a standard fiber optic system are reviewed and both interception methods and their corresponding countermeasures are discussed in terms of security considerations. The systems security examination of the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP). The systems security examination of the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP) is administered by the ICCP's information Systems Test Management Council and is targeted at senior information systems personnel who have responsibility for an organization's systems security. The examination tests knowledge of a range of theory, practice, and techniques for systems security management. The examination is not specific to a particular vendor's hardware or software. Candidates for examination should arrive at this point after an appropriate course of formal education and job experience. Security features of VMS and MVS with emphasis on their vulnerability to computer viruses. The security features and relative vulnerability to computer viruses of Digital Equipment Corp's VMS and IBM's MVS operating systems are reviewed and analyzed. Discretionary access controls are the most common route of entry for a virus, and are therefore the major focus of discussion. The material presented is adapted from a doctoral dissertation presented to the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Alabama. Construction and optimization of CSG representations. (constructive solid geometry) (technical) Boundary representations (B-reps) and constructive solid geometry (CSG) are widely used representation schemes for solids., While the problem of computing a B-rep from a CSG representation is relatively well understood, the inverse problem of B-rep to CSG conversion has not been addressed in general. The ability to perform B-rep to CSG conversion has important implications for the architecture of solid modelling systems and, in addition, is of considerable theoretical interest. The paper presents a general approach to B-rep to CSG conversion based on a partition of Euclidean space by surfaces induced from a B-rep, and on the well known fact that closed regular sets and regularized set operations form a Boolean algebra. It is shown that the conversion problem is well defined, and that the solution results in a CSG representation that is unique for a fixed set of halfspaces that serve as a 'basis' for the representation. The 'basis' set contains halfspaces induced from a B-rep plus additional non-unique separating halfspaces. An important characteristic of B-rep to CSG conversion is the size of a resulting CSG representation. We consider minimization of CSG representation is some detail and suggest new minimization techniques. While many important geometric and combinatorial issues remain open, a companion paper shows that the proposed approach to B-rep to CSG conversion and minimization is effective in E squared. In E squared, an experimental system currently converts natural-quadric B-reps in PARASOLID to efficient CSG representation in PADL-2. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Constructive non-regularized geometry. (technical) Rossignac, Jarek R.; Requicha, Aristides A. G. Solid modelling is concerned with the construction and manipulation of unambiguous computer representations of solid objects. These representations permit us to distinguish the interior, the boundary and the complement of a solid. They are conveniently specified in Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) by a construction tree that has solid primitives as leaves and rigid body motions or regularized Boolean operations as internal nodes. Algorithms for classifying sets with respect to CSG trees and for evaluating the boundaries of the corresponding solids are known, at least for simple geometric domains. Emerging CAD applications require that we extend the domain of solid modellers to support more general and more structured geometric objects. The focus is on dimensionally non-homogeneous, non-closed pointsets with internal structures. These entities are well suited for dealing with mixed-dimensional ('non-manifold') objects in n-dimensional space that have dangling or missing boundary elements, and that may be composed of several regions. A boundary representation for such objects has been described elsewhere. We propose to specify and represent inhomogeneous objects in terms of Constructive Non-Regularized Geometry (CNRG) trees that extend the domain of CSG by supporting non-regularized primitive shapes as leaves, and by providing more general set-theoretic and topological operators at interior nodes. Filtering operations are also provided that construct CNRG objects from aggregates of selected regions of other CNRG objects. A syntax and semantics of the operators in CNRG are presented, and some basic algorithms for classifying pointsets with respect to the regions of objects represented by CNRG trees are outlined. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Boolean set operations on non-manifold boundary representation objects. (technical) For Boolean operations on geometric models, we have developed an intersection algorithm for non-manifold boundary models with vertices, linear edges, planar faces, and volumetric regions. The algorithm operates by intersecting entities in an ordered manner, from vertex to edge, then to face elements. Singular intersections are systematically handled by determining if an entity in one object is within a tolerance region of the entity in the other object. The algorithm performs Boolean operations between objects of different dimensionality as well as solids. An implementation of the proposed algorithm and the experimental results are briefly discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Extrusion and boundary evaluation for multidimensional polyhedra. (technical) Extrusion is a basic operation allowing the generation of higher intrinsic dimensional polyhedra. The paper gives closed formulas both to generate a (d+1)-dimensional polyhedron obtained by affine extrusion of a (d)-dimensional polyhedron, and to generate a polyhedral approximation of the curved solid generated by rotational extrusion. Algorithms for the boundary evaluation when a decompositive representation is given are also discussed. The representation used in the paper, based on simplicial complexes, is general and simple, and allows us to represent nonconvex, unconnected, unoriented, nonmanifold and unbounded linear polyhedra. A simplicial complex triangulating the extruded polyhedron is generated by independently extruding the simplices of the input object. The approach is very efficient because no 'a posteriori' triangulation of the extruded polyhedron is required; furthermore, both the underlying complex and the adjacencies between cells are calculated by using closed formulas. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Integration of polynomials over n-dimensional polyhedra. (technical) Explicit formulae and algorithms for computing integrals of polynomials over n-dimensional polyhedra are given. Two different approaches are discussed: one uses a decompositive representation, while the other one uses a boundary representation of the polyhedron. The algorithms are followed by a discussion of the complexity. In the appendix the pseudo-code and some examples of calculation are given. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Topological models for boundary representation: a comparison with n-dimensional generalized maps. (technical) In boundary representation, a geometric object is represented by the union of a 'topological' model, which describes the topology of the modelled object, and an 'embedding' model, which describes the embedding of the object, for instance in three-dimensional Euclidean space. In recent years, numerous topological models have been developed for boundary representation, and there have been important developments with respect to dimension and orientability. In the main, two types of topological models can be distinguished. 'Incidence graphs' are graphs or hypergraphs, where the nodes generally represent the cells of the modelled subdivision (vertex, edge, face, etc.), and the edges represent the adjacency and incidence relations between these cells. 'Ordered' models use a single type of basic element (more or less explicitly defined), on which 'element functions' act; the cells of the modelled subdivision are implicitly defined in this type of model. In this paper some of the most representative ordered topological models are compared using the concepts of the n-dimensional generalized map and the n-dimensional map. The main result is that ordered topological models are (roughly speaking) equivalent with respect to the class of objects which can be modelled (i.e. with respect to dimension and orientability). (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Some techniques for visualizing surfaces in four-dimensional space. (technical) The issues of visualizing two-dimensional surfaces in four-dimensional space are discussed, including methods to specify the orientation of objects and of projection centres, to determine silhouette points of a 2-surface with respect to projections and to calculate the normal of a projected 2-surface from its normal plane in 4-space. We have implemented an interactive 4D display system on a z-buffer graphics workstation. Preliminary experiments show that such a 4D display system can give valuable insights into high-dimensional geometry. Some examples are presented illustrating nonuniform material property display, offset curve geometry and collision detection. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A relational graphical editing method for PCB design. (printed circuit board) (technical) PCB design is currently an essential part of the process of manufacturing electronic equipment, and many CAD systems have been developed to facilitate this design process. For all these systems the PCB Editor is an important and inevitable component because automatic routers usually have a few simple control strategies for routing. In many cases they cannot produce satisfactory PCB design and existing automatic routing methods cannot guarantee 100 percent connection in practice, although some of them are successful in theory. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Students use CAD to create solar racer. (computer aided design - University of Michigan) Students at the Univ of Michigan use computer aided design (CAD) to design a solar powered race car. The car is the result of the University's membership in the Structural Dynamics Research Corp University Consortium program. The car's design is based on Consortium tools running on an HP/Apollo platform. The space frame was initially designed with a 2D CAD system and the geometry was transferred to I-DEAS for structural analysis and material specification. The car took first place in the race beginning on Jul 9, 1990 at the GM World of Motion Pavilion at Disney World in Florida (winning time 72 hours, 50 minutes, 47 seconds for a distance of 1,640 miles). The car won third place at the 1990 World Solar Challenge race in Australia in November (1,811 miles in 57 hours). The winning team was from Switzerland with a time of 57 hours to finish. Scientific visualization takes hold. Carrabine, Laura. Scientific visualization software programs turn data into images. Scientists use scientific visualization to see see large volumes of data. These off-the-shelf software packages use three-dimensional graphics, photo-realistic rendering, image processing, and volume rendering to let scientists interact with their data or understand problems that change over time. Engineers also can use scientific visualization for such applications as computational fluid dynamics and finite-element analysis. Companies that provide scientific visualization software packages include Stardent Computer Inc, Wavefront Technologies, Spyglass Inc, Intelligent Light, Precisions Visuals Inc, and Image Datacorp. Souped-up circuitry wins award. Carrabine, Laura. Mary Dandridge and Stacey Forst, both of Amdahl Corp, win an 'Excellence in PCB Design Award,' sponsored by Mentor Graphics' PCB Division. The award-winning design is an Interface Buffer X (IBX). IBX supplies a timing interface between the unit being tested and an Amdahl tester. The IBX functions as a high-speed timing interface, generating and utilizing six separate clock phases. Each clock phase requires unique circuitry. The clock's integrity is maintained by stringent routing requirements. The team used Mentor Graphics' Board Station software running on an Apollo DN4000 platform to design net lengths and prepare parallelism reports. AutoCAD Release 11: the rich get richer. (includes AutoCAD acronym guide) (product announcement) Release 11 of AutoCAD has several enhancements and revisions. AutoCAD is still a growing force in the CAD/CAM industry with its share of the microcomputer CAD market reaching 70 percent in 1990. A major factor in its success is its open architecture, which has resulted in over 700 add-on applications. A new feature in Release 11 is the AutoCAD Development System that permits users to use the C programming language to write applications. Another enhancement is the Advanced Modeling Extension, a $95 option that integrates solid modeling into AutoCAD. Other new features include paper space, a viewing and plotting environment separate from the model space, file locking, ability to install AutoCAD on a server, external reference files, dimensioning functions, a file recover and reconstruction utility, context-sensitive help, and text editing in dialogue boxes. CAD's electronic connection. (includes related article on Universal Data Systems) Electronic equipment manufacturers are using CAD solutions to streamline the design process. Design simulation tools are used by electronic engineers to analyze product concepts, evaluate different approaches, and find and correct errors. Motorola Microprocessor Unit Div used the Verilog hardware description language and Verilog-XL simulator to speed development time of Motorola's new 68040, a 32-bit, complex instruction-set computer microprocessor that has over 1.2 million transistors. Sun Microsystems uses high-tech tools to design its Sparc machines. Cardiac Pacemakers Inc uses high-tech systems to design its pacemakers. GEC Alsthom of France uses Mentor Graphics' schematic creation, digital, and analog simulation and PCB layout tools to reduce by one year its production schedule for a new train design. Martin Marietta Astronautics Group uses Computervision's Harness design package for the routing of wires, cables, and wire harnesses in its Titan IV launch vehicles. Burle Industries uses computer technology in its industrial and commercial security products. Linking CAD to desktop manufacturing. (includes related article on desktop manufacturing) Desktop manufacturing is using a CAD file and one of several desktop manufacturing technologies to create a three-dimensional model. This model can be used as a prototype. There are several benefits to using desktop manufacturing: lower costs for product design, shorter design cycle, easier to revise or refine a design. Using fully surfaced, three-dimensional models makes the most efficient use of desktop manufacturing. Using solid modeling software is the best approach to use when designing an object for use desktop manufacturing. Desktop manufacturing will soon be a routine part of product design. Beat the design crunch with crash simulation. Krishnaswamy, A.; Mani, P. Attention is being focused on reducing occupant injuries during crashes. There is a need to quickly, accurately, and economically evaluate new design concepts in crash safety and computerized crash simulation is faster and more useful than the real thing. Among the advantages of computer models are consistently providing the same results, no scatter, and running an unlimited number of simulations from a single model in a matter of hours. There are three disciplines involved in accurately modeling vehicle and occupant behavior with restraint systems: structural analysis, air bag simulation, and kinematics. Different types of simulation are used at different times in the development cycle: simple analysis is good in the early stage; crash simulation during the later pre-prototype and prototype stages; and full vehicle analysis in the pre-prototype and prototype stages. The restraint system also needs simulation. Pen plotters draw strong approval. (includes related article about pens and ink) (buyers guide) Pen plotters continue to be used because they are suitable for limited hardware budgets and low-volume needs and the images they provide are particularly useful for discerning fine details on a large scale. There are two types of pen plotters: grit wheel plotters, which are the most popular for large-format drawings; and flatbed plotters, which use a variety of media and provide high-resolution and high repeatability. Characteristics to look for when selecting a plotter are accuracy, resolution and repeatability. Single pen plotters, which use one pen at a time to create monochrome drawings, are reliable because of their mechanical simplicity. Multiple pen plotters need attendance. New features being offered by manufacturers include specialized control panels, buffering, optimizing and dual-mode. For consistently good results, get a plotter that uses the media required and use the manufacturer's recommended settings for pens, ink and media type. A list of 13 plotter manufacturers is included. Each listing includes models made by the company, plot size, number of pens, resolution, interfaces, languages, media types, buffer sizes, price, general comments, and a company contact. Not just trinkets anymore (made in Taiwan). Krouse, John. The Republic of China is one of the world's leading exporters and is now considered a 'newly industrialized country.' Taiwan is the US's sixth largest trading partner. The country is changing its manufacturing base to high-technology products offered for their advanced features, not low cost. R.O.C. President Lee Teng-Hui says science and technology are the ways to overcome his country's lack of natural resources. There is a growing sentiment to make the R.O.C. a 'Silicon Island.' Industrial productivity will be given a boost by the use of automation. Taiwan is a large, untapped CAD/CAM market but US vendors have been reluctant to pursue business there. Reasons for this include still seeing Taiwan industries as small, low-tech producers, underestimating the market, worry over lack of strict copyright protection and danger of packages being re-copied and sold at lower prices, political unrest in the R.O.C., and the possibility of jeopardizing a chance at mainland China's business. The R.O.C. government is offering a number of incentives for factories to automate, is making computer training compulsory at all levels of education, and has set up a long-term development plan to step up scientific and technical research. Send in the clones. (Industry Perspective; Sun Microsystems Inc) (column) Analysts are questioning Sun Microsystems Inc's ability to continue to make a profit now that Sun clones are about to flood the market. These analysts are overlooking the fact that Sun has established a profitable $400 million technology and software business that should continue to grow dramatically. While the company's hardware margins will be pressed by the compatibles, big-margin software sales are expected to increase proportionately. The path will not be smooth as there will be competition from Unix International and the Open Software foundation and pressure to remain in the hardware and integration business, but Sun has a credible and profitable business path it can travel even without most of its hardware sales. Value-added resellers reshape CAD/CAM. (The VAR Side; includes related article on the forecast for the 1990s) (column) CAD/CAM vendors are relying more and more on value-added resellers (VARs) to function as systems' integrators, providing installation, integration, customization, training and troubleshooting. A VAR is a transparent link between users and vendors, providing the hardware and selling value-added CAD packages and services. CAD/CAM VAR sales are expected to reach $2.9 billion in 1991. Vendors help the VARs by providing training, seminars and sales leads. Most major VARs serve a specific market and well-defined region, but some VARs are going national. New on the scene are 'super VARs.' These VARs sell over $20 million regionally and nationally, have high-quality staff and provide proprietary software products. Computers as engineering tools: is it soup yet? (The Computer-aided Engineer)(includes related article on the League In using computers, engineers have, for the most part, experienced only the automation of individual tasks such as drafting and typing. This is just the first phase of computerization. This task view is much too narrow. Real computing power comes in when processes are seen in their entirety. The ideal engineering environment is a powerful workstation, large color display, network connection, WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) printing and file transfer, communication with all coworkers, client, and vendors, and a full range of personal productivity software. Keeping hard disk drives up and running. (Floating Point) (column) Gibson, Steve. Engineers who use microcomputers as CAD systems may think their hard disks will never fail but they can and do. One way to prevent this problem is to use a utility program that prevents disk failure. Aging of the low-level format is one of the primary problem that results in hard disk failure. Occasionally renewing the magnetic strength of the sector-addressing information will prevent this. Alignment drift because of long-term change in the relative positions of the head and track is another major cause of hard disk failure. This can be prevented by periodically rewriting the low-level format of the drive. Preventive maintenance will result in years of trouble-free operation. Recommendations set for computer-based patient record. (includes related article on technology subcommittee recommendations) An 18-month study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) draws to a close as the committee makes its recommendations for computer-based patient records. The basic belief is that the medical record will come to be dominated by computer technology. A strong concern was patient confidentiality and privacy. The committee began its work by identifying characteristics of the ideal electronic medical record and who would use it. HAS unveils fusion. (Healthcare AFfiliated Services, Inc.) Healthcare Affiliated Services Inc introduces Fusion, a hospital information system based on Sybase, a fourth generation language. Fusion is designed to be a totally integrated hospital information system (HIS). Fusion works by networking multiple workstation/server hardware throughout a hospital. It consolidates clinical, financial, and administrative areas, providing the physician with instantaneous data and enabling the physician to view a patient's medical history and radiographic images, enter notations, and confer with a consulting physician. Fusion was developed for workstations in a network but can function as a standalone unit. It complies with all standards that apply to relational data base management technology. It runs on all major platforms and graphical user interfaces. Hospitals move to multiple computer suppliers. Dorenfeest, Sheldon. The Dorenfest 3000+ Database shows that between 1987 and the end of 1989 the number of hospitals using in-house mainframes or minicomputers grew from 2,566, or 89.9 percent of the 2,854 trended hospitals, to 2,644, 92.6 percent, but during the same time the number using a single computer supplier declined from 1,407 to 1,212. Hospitals have a considerable amount of brand loyalty and want to use a single computer vendor, but cannot because their investments in automation are not producing the returns they would like. Current software products cannot serve the hospitals' software needs. Hospitals are looking at strategies that will make their computing programs more cost effective. The microcomputer is having a tremendous impact on mainframe and minicomputer use in hospitals. The 1990s should see distributed computing networks based on microcomputer technology, which will result in dramatic changes to the entire healthcare computer industry. Technology centers showcase networking possibilities. The Hospital of the Future and the Healthcare Information Technology Center are now open. The Hospital of the Future in Dallas is Andersen Consulting's technology showcase for healthcare information systems. The Healthcare Information Technology Center in Parsippany, NJ, serves the same purpose for Coopers & Lybrand. These centers permit prospective buyers to learn about the possibilities and realities of new technologies that permit different systems to communicate and share information. The major problem at the Hospital of the Future is scheduling the number of visitors who want to visit. The Healthcare Information Technology Center has as one of its primary goals teaching visitors about the concepts of imaging and networks. Its major theme is to reach people who are committed to connectivity, especially via HL7. PC development gives Baptist Medical Center mainframe power. Kador, John. The Baptist Medical System serves the 739-bed Baptist Medical Center and other treatment and education facilities. The hospital has a sophisticated MIS center that has an IBM 3090 150E running MVS/XA and over 400 microcomputers. The Baptist Medical System wanted to implement a portfolio of microcomputer-based user applications that were tightly integrated with mainframe-oriented data base system. To do this, the staff decided to develop code on the microcomputer and then port it to the mainframe. Using this strategy has doubled programming productivity. MAGEC from MAGEC Software, a self-actualizing prototyping system to design and develop COBOL applications, was selected so that relatively nontechnical people could do the analysis and code generation necessary to develop full production systems. The first project done by the Baptist Medical Center was a procedure and patient scheduling system that is deemed a success. The strategic advantage: decision support through EIS. (executive information systems) (column) Healthcare information systems have focused on the clerical level, which helps process administrative functions but does very little for strategic planning and analysis. Decision support systems help with analysis but are not designed to present information customized for the executive, the strategic planner. Executive information systems are for the strategic planner. An EIS presents operational data in a timely, accurate, and easy-to-understand manner. Historical, concurrent, and forecasted strategic analysis is available because an EIS is driven by a decision support data base. The combination of decision support and EIS aid the executive. Information systems in strategic planning in healthcare. (CEO Viewpoint; includes related article on symposium for hospital Healthcare providers face a bewildering set of complex issues: declining revenue base, decreasing admissions, increased competition, complex societal issues, and controlling healthcare costs. The Capital Health System in Harrisburg, PA, is a not-for-profit organization with a number of health care providers including a major teaching hospital and a network of primary-care centers. Capital Health uses information technology (IT) in the patient accounting area, as most healthcare institutions do, and also to evaluate physician efficiency, in the medical records area, in outpatient care, and results reporting. The future is expected to place more demands on IT. Sun introduces its fastest desktop family. (Sun Microsystems) Sun Microsystems Inc announces the SPARCstation 2 family of desktop computers. These computers have almost twice the speed of the SPARCstation 1+, yet are still the small CPU size, known as the pizza box, introduced with the first SPARCstation. The system is designed for use by power users in scientific/technical markets. It has 16 megabytes of memory and accelerated graphics. The company also introduces two high-performance graphics workstations. These workstations, which are based on the SPARCstation 2, lower the price of fast, three-dimensional graphics. Generating the noninferior set in mixed integer biobjective linear programs: an application to a location problem. (technical) Many techniques have been designed to seek a compromise solution in cases where there are a large number of conflicting objectives that must be reconciled. In cases such as these, a compromise solution must be searched for by performing over the set of noninferior or nondominated solutions. An algorithm is suggested for generating an approximate representation of the noninferior set in the objective space of biobjective mixed integer linear programming problems. The algorithm, which is illustrated by by an example of a biobjective location problem, is able to produce an approximation of the noninferior set of a desired accuracy with as few points as possible. A minimax objective, based on the Tchebycheff distance metric, is used to make sure that all noninferior points can be generated by the algorithm. A numerically stable reduced-gradient type algorithm for solving large-scale linearly constrained minimization problems. Solving large-scale linearly constrained minimization problems is an important part of solving many practical problems. When the objective function is quadratic this problem is known as the quadratic programming problem and when the objective function is linear it is known as the linear programming problem. A reduced-gradient type algorithm is offered that solves large-scale linearly constrained minimization problems. Linear systems are solved during each iteration of the algorithm through the use of a preconditioned conjugate-gradient scheme. This scheme uses orthogonal transformations, which provide numerical stability. The total storage used by the algorithm can be predicted before the calculations are started. The algorithm also provides two additional features, the revitalization of the use of the change of variables of Bertsekas and the ideal of dealing with degeneracy by using interior point techniques. Linear programme modelling with databases. (technical) Whitaker, David; Brown, Susan M. Non-specialist managers can be encouraged to use operational research applications on microcomputers if the user interface is sufficiently friendly. A user-friendly interface also encourages managers who are already familiar with common applications such as spreadsheets and expect other applications to perform in a similar manner. The experiences that resulted from the implementation of a large linear programming system that included a database for preparing and editing data are discussed. The system, which was developed for the meat industry, provided users with a way of gathering relevant company data for planning. The system uses an optimization model, which supercedes the spreadsheet approach by providing larger, more complex data structures. The maximal dispersion problem and the "first point outside the neighbourhood" heuristic. (technical) A heuristic, called 'the first point outside the neighborhood,' is studied to illustrate the problem of selecting certain options, or locations, from a given set, so that when an appropriate measure of distance between pairs of elements is used, the distance between the closest pair is as large as possible. The heuristic provides that the dispersion produced by the heuristic is never worse than one third of the maximal dispersion. That figure increases to not worse than half of the maximal dispersion for certain values. In problems of this sort, the decision maker may wish to choose from a small number of options which are, in respect to the multiple objective function levels, as distant as possible. Heuristic methods are needed to find acceptable solutions with an acceptable computation effort. A batch arrival queue with different vacations. (technical) Ho Woo Lee; Soon Seok Lee. A queuing system with compound Poisson arrival and multiple server vacations is considered so that the idle time of a server can be utilized for secondary work so that system efficiency is increased. In a vacation system, the server takes a vacation of random length, the returns to see if a customer is waiting. If a customer is not waiting, the server takes another vacation which is independent but identically distributed with the first one. The server continues this until a customer is found waiting for service. In this system, the distributions of system size and the queue waiting time are derived and it is shown that the queue waiting time decomposes into two independent random variables, one the queue waiting time of the ordinary batch arrival M/G/1 queue and the other a mixture of the residual times of a sequence of appropriately weighted vacations. Linear programming models for load balancing. (technical) Gaudioso, Manlio; Legato, Pasquale. It is often necessary, when operating distributed systems, to assign tasks to different operational units to keep individual workloads balanced. The problem of designing this distribution can be solved by stating the problems as linear programs. This problem is formulated as a linear program and as a partitioning problem. This type of solution is a low cost computational solution. Although the problem is solvable in polynomial time and is equivalent to a structured partitioning problem, it must also be remembered that the problems of load-balancing applications are typically dynamic, so it is necessary to provide scenarios for casting the basic models in dynamic environments. Models are described that provide the basis for constructing a stochastic load-balancing strategy. Military manpower planning models. (technical) Gass, Saul I. Manpower planning can be added by the use of mathematical models and related computer-based algorithms. Modeling structures and general manpower concepts as they related to the military are described, but in many cases these concepts can be applied to any large-scale operation. Personnel planners need to use concepts such as these to analyze future goals and determine how these goals can be realized with the least amount of conflict. Transition rate, or Markov models, network models, and network-like goal-programming models are described and specific applications are reviewed. One of the most frequently encountered problems is that future organizational goals change frequently. Because of this, operational researchers must develop methods that yield consistent and realistic solutions to manpower problems. These solutions with ensure that model-based decisions will reflect the manpower planner's vision of future manpower requirements. The zone hopping problem. (technical) Bodin, Lawrence; Kashani, Azita. The efficiency of an organization's distribution activity can be improved by the use of algorithms which determine whether a company should allow all of its packages to be delivered by a common carrier, or whether the company should use a company-owned or leased vehicle to move some of the packages to the carrier's delivery location and let the carrier handle local delivery of the packages. This problem can be solved by determining how many packages should be moved from the originating company to the carrier's delivery location so that savings are maximized. Two heuristic algorithms are offered which solve this problem. These algorithms can almost always find a solution within one percent of the optimal solution. They are also very efficient computationally. An algorithm for solving fixed-charge problems using surrogate constraints. (technical) Solving integer and mixed-integer programming problems can be made easier by generating additional constraints from existing ones. Managerial decisions often involve selecting from among alternatives that consist of different levels of fixed and variable costs that are affected by resource restrictions. The fixed-charge problem can be used to model these decisions, but the optimal solution has not always been found that way. An algorithm is presented that uses surrogate constraints to solve fixed-charge problems. The algorithm solves a set covering problem to generate a candidate solution for the fixed-charge problem. In cases where the candidate solution is not feasible, the algorithm cuts the solution from the feasible region, then repeats the process until a feasible solution is found. Experience indicates that this algorithm will perform better than current branch-and-bound solution procedures. Interactive multiple objective optimization: survey I--continuous case. (technical) Interactive methods have been developed to solve continuous multiple objective optimization problems (MOPs) and their applications. These methods, which fall into such categories as feasible direction methods, criterion weight space methods, and branch-and-bound methods, are reviewed based on the nature of preference assessments, functional assumptions, and relationships between methods. Aspects such as multiple decision makers, decision makers's inconsistency, priorities of objectives, and computational studies are also discussed insofar as they relate to MOPs. For each category, figures representing the functional restrictions of the methods were constructed. Although these figures cannot be used to determine the best method for each category, the figures will help researchers understand the trend of methodological developments of the interactive approaches for these types of problems. Optimal and heuristic solutions to the variable inspection policy problem. (technical) Inspection operations involve two types of errors, classification of 'good' units as 'bad' units and classification of 'bad' units as 'good' units. These errors hurt productivity, quality, and production costs. They can be minimized by performing multiple inspections which utilize different inspection procedures. When using multiple inspection, it is important to determine the optimal inspection policy so that the expected total cost per unit is minimized. Methods are offered which utilize a recursive function to compute the minimum remaining cost over all policies that start with a given inspection sequence. Optimal and heuristic procedures are presented which reduce the computational effort by more than 91 percent relative to the optimal procedure, although an increase of about seven percent in the value of the expected total cost accompanies this reduction. Mix dBASE III PLUS with your BBS. (Fast Takes)(Bulletin Board System)(eSoft Inc.'s The Data Base System) (Software Review) eSoft Inc's The Data Base System (tdbs) 1.1, $395 for the single-user system, is an easy-to-use and powerful database designed to be used in the bulletin board system (BBS) environment. tdbs runs only under eSoft's The Bread Board System (tbbs) bulletin board system. Up to 32 users can be supported using the multi-line version of tbbs. The product is recommended for systems operators (sysops) who need a database. tbbs is based on the dBASE III PLUS language and, therefore, many existing applications can be ported to the BBS environment. Users can also easily develop new applications. Users should note that tdbs supports only a subset of the dBASE III PLUS language and lacks the commands PACK and REINDEX. Users must use another xBASE product for these commands when tbbs is off-line. tdbs 1.1 requires 640Kbytes of RAM and tbbs 2.1. Details on the usage of the program are presented. dCLIP gives programmers robust Clipper development environment. (Donnay Software Designs' dCLIP)(Fast Takes) (Software Review) Donnay Software Designs' dCLIP 2.5, $295, is an excellent choice for Clipper developers who want an interpretive environment that can help them save time in application development. dCLIP lets developers use a dot prompt that supports both dBASE and Clipper commands. Developers first compile the PRG file into an OBJ file that can be executed. Linking is not necessary and, therefore, the process is fast. The program also offers a large amount of third-party product support and lets users combine libraries to build dCLIP engines. Also offered are an integrated set of utilities, Query-By-Example (QBE), a print manager and a linker that handles memory management. All of this makes program support much easier. The integration of dCLIP's implementation is very smooth and this makes it stand out among other debuggers. Spase exploration. (Fast Takes)(Geotech Computer Systems Inc.'s Spase spatial data management program) (Software Review) Geotech Computer Systems Inc's Spase, $2,000, is a well-designed, Microsoft Windows-based database management system for two-dimensional spatial data. Spase is the only product currently available that combines Structured Query Language (SQL) with maps and Hotlinks. The only downside of Spase is that it limits users to two dimensions. Spase is also not designed to be used in building turnkey systems. Maps and lists are the two types of windows used in Spase. Maps display data with points and lines for places and boundaries and also display numbers and text. Lists contain data in a textual, tabular format. The two formats for points are Cartesian and latitude-longitude and the program provides ways to convert information between the two. Spase also provides a scripting language that let users write programs or procedures that access the database. How to deduct home office expenses. (The Var Report) (column) Bazian, Menachem. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) strictly interprets the tax law regarding the conditions under which taxpayers can deduct home expenses for their home-based businesses. Home business owners, therefore, should make sure they understand the tax laws before starting to deduct home office expenses. The home office must be the principal place where business is conducted. Consultants should be aware that there is a focal point test the IRS uses to determine this. If a consultant works for a client at their offices, in many cases the home office will not be considered the principal place of business. Business owners with home offices that qualify can deduct portions of utilities, insurance, maintenance and repairs and depreciation expenses. Business owners can also take business deductions for many items usually considered as personal expenses. Other details are presented. How wide is this array? (Mac Rubel's Power Tools)(column)(includes related articles on the solution to the previous month's problem Users can use different functions to determine the width of an array. In dBASE IV, the method of finding the width of an array is similar to the way of finding its length. The function checks to ensure that the array exists and that it is not one-dimensional. It then performs the same binary search as it does to find the array length. In Fox-Pro, users must change the way the program determines the dimension of the array and must first know the length of the array. In Clipper Summer '87 the array width is 1. In Clipper 5.0, users store arrays in an array element or declare a two-dimensional array. The LEN() function is used to determine the length. Users should be aware that xBASE arrays are different from arrays in many other languages. Different data types may be stored in the same column of an array. Other array functions are presented. Look out for WAIT loopholes! (The Paradox Programmer)(column) (tutorial) Paradox Application Language (PAL) programmers should be aware that there are many instances where function keys and PAL procedures can cause problems when using the WAIT command. WAIT allows users to press the Ctrl-O and ALt-O keys and exit to the DOS prompt. Users who do not know they can return to Paradox by typing EXIT will think the program has terminated. Programmers should avoid this problem by adding the two keys to the UNTIL list in the WAIT command and also add PAL code to beep when they are pressed. Two other keys that can cause potential problems are the ALT-L and Alt-K keys. The Alt-L key lets the user lock or unlock a current record. Usually, the program should control locking with PAL commands. If users enter a record with a duplicate key and press Alt-K, Paradox replaces the record with a duplicate. Other examples of problem function keys and how to control them are presented. Fancy footwork with BROWSE. (The Fox Files)(column) (tutorial) Goley, George F., IV. Programmers can easily include fields from multiple databases in a single BROWSE window by establishing a relationship between two databases. The BROWSE window can validate information the user enters by giving a value to the SEEK() function and seeing if it returns true or false. Programmers can have a look-up be performed without a relationship by having a calculated field that only exists in the BROWSE window. Programmers can also provide a browse pick-list within the original BROWSE that allows users to select data from a list of valid entries. Developers can give users the ability to do an incremental search in a BROWSE window by including a field from an unrelated database in the BROWSE. The SEEK must be performed outside the BROWSE, however, so the record pointer can be properly repositioned. Extensive code is provided to illustrate these points. Vendors and developers talk about the important issues. (Predictions for 1991) (Cover Story) In predictions for 1991, developers and vendors agree that DOS will continue to be used, at least in the short run. Some observers feel that the standard language will continue to be dBASE but others feel it will not be able to keep pace. Windows will still continue to be a major trend and may require that a user interface standardization be established. Some vendors feel that Windows' poor performance will be increasingly apparent as more applications are developed. Some developers feel that the first database management system vendor to deliver an exceptional Windows version will be very successful. Vendors believe that 1991 will be a big year for microcomputer local area network- (LAN) based structured query language (SQL) database servers. Emerging technologies include object-oriented programming, multi-media, object-oriented databases and the client-server model. R:BASE 3.1 - on the road to recovery. (Software Update) (Software Review) (evaluation) Microrim Inc's R:BASE 3.1 offers many significant enhancements over version 3.0 and is definitely worth the wait. One of the most important improvements in R:BASE 3.1 is its enhanced dBASE support. Users can now have R:BASE read and write dBASE III PLUS files without the need for conversion. Microrim's already excellent integration of the Query by Example (QBE) with Structured Query Language (SQL) is further enhanced with the ability to save the layout of the query results table in addition to the query definition. Version 3.1 also boasts improved speed and a better memory management scheme. The product will now run in as little as 450Kbytes of free memory and can also take advantage of high memory. Tests in comparison with version 3.0 show the package to be from 1.3 to five times faster. On the downside, R:BASE 3.1 is still too slow in many situations and there is no 3.x compatible-compiler available. Design an inventory database. (Database Design)(column) (tutorial) Watterson, Karen. Developers who will be designing an inventory data base system should first determine what type of inventory is needed, since the term inventory can mean different things to different people. Designers need to find out the basic items that need to be tracked and to begin thinking of the primary keys for each of the tables. Determining the relationships between the items or tables is the most difficult part of the design. Developers can analyze each pair of items as unrelated, related by a one-to-one relationship, related by a one-to-many relationship and related by a many-to-many relationship. In setting up fields, designers should try to avoid creating fields that will never be used. The next step is to make decisions about key fields and indexes. Developers should then create the database, enter sample data and test the design with simple queries. Which is better? 386MAX vs. QEMM-386. (FoxPro Performance)(Qualitas Inc.'s 386MAX 5.0 and Quarterdeck Office Tests show that there is no significant speed difference in comparing Qualitas Inc.'s 386MAX 5.0 and Quarterdeck Office Systems' QEMM 5.0 expanded memory specification (EMS) memory management programs. QEMM-386 5.0 has long been the preferred product for EMS memory management for FoxPro and the DISPLAY STATUS command shows it to be faster than 386-MAX. On real-world tests focusing on using EMS memory for the I/O cache, 386MAX is one percent faster than QEMM-386. In tests with both products using many different software and hardware resources, QEMM-386 is seven percent faster. The most relevant speed statistic is the speed of the memory once it is mapped in. Tests show expanded memory times for 9.8 and 9.7 for QEMM-386 and 386-MAX. QEMM also provides the same access to memory over 640Kbytes as 386MAX. Other details are presented. Learn to program a new way. (Clipper Developer) (tutorial) Straley, Stephen J.; Tamburrino, Jim. Clipper 5.0 is a new approach in programming and developers may need to change their programming approach and style to get the best results. Programmers should look beyond what they are allowed to do according to the manual. They should try new functions and other alternatives in the language. Developers need to have a strong desire to get things done and should be proud of every piece of code they write. Innovative programming can result in the mixing and matching of functions with other functions and features with different features. Programmers should look at the language as a whole. Practice will lead developers to perfect their craft and they should spend extra time looking at new approaches to problems. Developers should not wait for third parties or manufacturers to solve problems since Clipper offers the freedom and flexibility for programmers to solve problems themselves. WordTech on the run. (product development of Arago data base software) (company profile) The development team at WordTech for the Arago database software is hoping the product will bring the company back as a force in the industry. The original beta release date was targeted for October 15, 1990, with hopes of having a final product ready for the Comdex/Fall 1990 trade show. Many aspects of developing the program have taken more time than expected. Before creating a new feature for Arago, the team has to analyze what it will do, how it will work and determine the syntax. Also important is how each feature affects the progress of work as well as the product itself. The team has been able to produce as scheduled at a rate of about 75 percent. Although the company wanted to be the first dBASE language vendor to announce inclusion of a data dictionary, there was not enough time to implement the feature. Beta release is now hoped to be ready by January 20, 1991. Paradox for xBASE programmers. (Database Report)(column)(includes a related article on a sample Paradox application) (tutorial) dBASE or other xBASE dialect programmers can easily learn Paradox Application Language (PAL) programming because of the many similarities between dBASE and PAL. Programmers can create PAL programs either with the Paradox Editor or with a word processor or editor that can save text as an ASCII file. Macros are called scripts in Paradox. Programmers can store a series of actions to a script and then use that script as part of another PAL program. Many xBASE commands have similar counterparts in PAL, including those that display information on the screen or get replies from users. The commands for looping and making decisions are also similar. The IF...ENDIF statement is syntactically the same as in xBASE and the ELSE statement is also optional in PAL. PAL's SHOWMENU TO command makes it easier to implement menus in Paradox than it is in dBASE IV. Flexible DEFAULTs. (Hands-On dBASE IV)(column) (tutorial) Gutierrez, Dan D. dBASE IV's DEFAULT value option of the at...GET command lets programmers specify a value matching the GET's field type. This value then becomes a suggested value for entry in a specific data-entry field. Users can override the default value by typing over the value provided. Programmers will find, however, that DEFAULT has several limitations. DEFAULT can only be used with FMT files or screen forms that are designed and generated within the screen design surface. Default value processing must be handled through a programmed interface. Default values also can only be applied to APPENDed records. Programmers can work around this, however, by using the MESSAGE clause of the at...GET command. Programmers have the flexibility of including an expression embedded in the message. Details are presented on this work around. Now that you're ready to build. . .(preparation and follow-up for building a super server)(Hardware Solutions column)(includes The most important aspects of building a super server are not in the actual construction time but in proper preparation and follow-up. Users need to get the right parts and must find a good, reliable place to purchase them. Users need five types of tools to build a super server. They should have on hand an assortment of screwdrivers including a #1 and #2 Phillips, a 1/2-inch flat blade and a 5/8-inch flat blade. Other handy tools are closed-end wrenches and large and small needle nose pliers. Users should make sure their work area is free from any static-producing devices and is four times the size of the super server. Lighting should be provided from two or three light sources. A flashlight is an important tool for working inside the cabinet. After construction, users should perform a burn-in procedure. Users should test the computer for at least 48 hours before using it. Dial-in support. (on-line database product support from vendors)(DB Connections) (column) The Data Based Advisor Forum on CompuServe is offering two new services for database product support. The Vendor Support Program lets users talk on-line to 30 database product vendors. Users can send messages 24 hours a day and can receive current product and technical information. This service is an additional support channel to complement telephone and in-house support. The Anomaly Report Program provides information on known anomalies in database products. An anomaly is considered to be product behavior that is unexpected and can be good or bad. The anomaly can occur in a product, situation or documentation. Volunteer product managers for each major product evaluate the reports and compile them into a single Anomaly Report. The reports are available from the Data Based Advisor Forum Libraries as downloadable files. The DESQview API library for Clipper. (Quarterdeck Office Systems)(Applications Programming Interface) (Software Review) Quarterdeck Office Systems' DESQview Applications Programming Interface (API) Library for Clipper, $149.95, is recommended for Clipper programmers developing applications in and for object-oriented windowing environments. The API library offers more than 300 functions that interface Clipper to the DESQview environment. Combining DESQview and the API library, programmers can write multi-tasking systems with multi-threaded operations and user controlled windowing. Multiple programs run concurrently under DESQview and can talk to each other via the API library. The API library lets programmers create windows that can be moved, scrolled and resized by users. Clipper object-oriented programming is provided by seven DESQview API objects. The tools and examples that come with the program help in learning how to use it but the API library is not recommended for novice users. Integrating multiprotocol nets: facing up to the 'I' word. (local area network router protocols) (State of the Art) (column) Many network managers have spent much time in the recent past grappling with issues surrounding multiprotocol networks, bridges and routers, but now is the time for practical implementation of network integration. A previous column described the ultimate network, which used routers from Cisco Systems and Wellfleet, but devices from the two companies would not work well together on a single enterprisewide backbone network. It will be late 1991 at the earliest before both Cisco and Wellfleet support a common, high-performance router-to-router protocol such as OSPF; routers will have to interoperate with RIP until then. This points out an important aspect of multiprotocol network planning: whenever possible, choose a single vendor for a complete class of products on the network. It is dangerous to believe the interoperability claims of vendors. IBM (finally) puts some pop into the 3174 controller. (Open Networking Views) (column) IBM's new 3174 cluster controller was recently enhanced with the ability to communicate with Physical Unit 2.1 (PU 2.1) nodes, which is the first of several planned steps by the company that will blur the distinction between the 3174 and IBM's 3745 front-end processor, at least in terms of its ability to function as an SNA router device. The Request for Price Quotation 8Q0800 option will be available in Mar 1991 for $1,000; the PU 2.1 Passthrough RPQ will allow the 3174 to provide access to SNA's intermediate routing features for PU 2.1 nodes. This lets PCs using the 3174 token ring gateway to have sessions with other PU 2.1 nodes on the network, including PCs, AS/400s and Tandem online transaction processors. The new offering is also expected to work with PU 2.1 SNA gateways from Digital Communications Associates Inc, Network Software Associates Inc and other vendors. Fractional T1 local access: does it really matter? (WAN Views) (column) Fractional T1 is seen by many network managers as a marketing tease that claims to save users money but that requires full T1 local access channels to be rented at both ends of the link. Savings from long-distance fractional T1 will be limited until fractional T1 local access is made available, according to many network planners. In fact, interexchange fractional T1 can save money without fractional T1 local access, and it may be less expensive in the long run for telephone companies to cut prices on full T1 channels than to provide fractional access. Carriers call everything from subrate circuits to DS-0 services to high-speed circuits fractional T1, but no new technology is involved in subrate and DS-0 circuits; true fractional T1 involves only the higher-speed circuits. The outlook for fractional T1 services from AT&T and other providers is examined. Remembering 1990, the year that changed networking forever. (Internetworking Views) (column) The fundamental nature of networking changed in 1990 as multivendor, multiprotocol architectures were adopted and existing models of corporate networking were re-examined. The fortunes of many communications and computer companies will depend on how well they are able to interpret the implications of the network changes of 1990 for the rest of the decade. Vendors supplying internetworking equipment did well at a time when other segments of the economy were slowing down, and public data services geared toward internetworking have been announced by carriers. The Bell regional holding companies and Bellcore are promoting their Switched Multimedia Data Network (SMDS) offering designed to support LAN interconnections over metropolitan area networks. Other internetworking events of note in 1990 were US Sprint's public frame relay network service and new routers from several companies. LAN-SNA connectivity: the harsh reality of deciphering vendorspeak. (LAN Views) (column) The SNA-LAN gateway strategies of most vendors leave potential users with a mountain of detail but with little indication of how the strategies fit into the overall organizational networking strategy. Most vendors rely on the PC-as-3270-terminal approach while ignoring the underlying architectures and how the products address Logical Unit (LU) 6.2 applications and Physical Unit (PU) 2.1 connectivity. Only Attatchmate makes a clear distinction between PU passthrough and PU controller, two fundamentally different LAN client-gateway approaches. PU passthrough, also called the downstream PU method, has each PC client on the LAN implement a full SNA stack and communicate with the host through a front-end processor or 3174 cluster controller. PU controller, or the split-stack method, has the client PC split the SNA protocol stack with a gateway PC serving as a PU controller. Other LAN-SNA approaches are described. AT&T to offer global switched 56-kbit/s service; carrier plans connections from its points of presence to PTTs and local exchange AT&T plans to file a major tariff offering in Jan 1991 connecting its switched 56K-bps service to many US local exchange carriers (LECs) and the national ISDN services of foreign PTTs. Multinational switched digital services are expected to result for such applications as videoconferencing and leased-line backup at much lower prices. The gap between the AT&T 5ESS switches in the LEC's central offices and AT&T 4ESS switches at AT&T's points of presence will be bridged by the new service; the company also plans to expand the tariffed service to 64K-bps and perhaps to the ISDN basic-rate interface (BRI) later in 1991. The service will be available in most major US cities and many countries, particularly those with national ISDN service, including the UK, Japan, France, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong; AT&T is still negotiating with LECs and PTTs on the actual tariffs. Large system vendors revamp client-server office software. (a new generation of office automation tools from AT&T, IBM, NCR, Major computer vendors are being driven by the emerging client-server market to provide office automation packages that may change the basic functioning of organizations. The new offerings have many features not found in earlier groupware products, including workflow automation, object management and library services for diverse systems. The programs also provide a way to integrate applications and search host databases without knowing the native language of the database; they also provide group scheduling, electronic mail and forms and report generators with the same graphical interface. Among the products are AT&T's Rhapsody, IBM's OfficeVision, NCR's Cooperation, HP's NewWave Office and DEC's All-In-1 Phase II; each is typically tied to the vendor's enterprisewide architecture. Similarities and differences between the various office automation strategies are described. Sonet for private networks? It may happen sooner than you think. (includes a related article on transporting T3 over Sonet) Many analysts do not expect the Synchronous Optical Network (Sonet) to be used by carriers as anything other than a long-haul technology until the mid-1990s because of the current inability of private networks to use its huge bandwidths, but at least two equipment vendors do not expect private network operators to wait that long to make use of Sonet's power. Adaptive Corp and General DataComm Inc have announced products and strategies intended to help users migrate from T3 to Sonet. Sonet's three primary advantages for private networkers are its almost limitless bandwidth, its ability to add or drop individual DS-1 or T1 channels, and its status as an international standard. Adaptive's Sonet Transmission Manager (STM) Broadband Network Switch has a high-speed switching matrix able to switch synchronous envelopes at 51M-bps; General DataComm's Megamux TMS multiplexer Sonet cards are also described. New LAN gateways expand TCP/IP options. (Racal InterLan Inc.'s TCP Server and Atlantix Corp.'s Axcess) (includes a related article on New dedicated LAN-to-TCP/IP gateways from Racal InterLan Inc and Atlantix Corp provide network managers with an alternative to putting a full TCP/IP protocol stack on each network node. Racal InterLan's TCP Server and Atlantix's Axcess provide a more cost-effective solution; the products run on a dedicated server that handles all incoming and outgoing TCP/IP traffic. The products are expected to have a considerable effect on the way larger LANs accommodate TCP/IP communications: so-called dual stack products that require that the workstations run their own protocol stacks are generally priced per workstation, but dedicated gateways handle all connected workstations for a single price. Dedicated gateways also reduce the amount of memory used by each workstation and allow all network nodes, including file servers, to communicate. Other advantages of dedicated gateways are described. Local access price breaks loom for big businesses. (alternative access carrier Teleport Communications Group to offer services in Teleport Communications Group wins approval to offer digital connections between its fiber optic network and the local carrier's central offices in New York City, which bodes well for increased competition and lower local access rates in other large US cities. New York Telephone Co has given Teleport the right to sell DS-1 lines connecting Teleport's fiber optic network in metropolitan New York to the local telephone company's central offices. Teleport users will thus be able to bypass New York Telephone for access to some local switched services. New York Telephone is expected to cut some of the prices for the DS-1 lines used in the Flexpath service for PBXs and for its Digital Termination Facility (DTF), the DS-1 line used by Flexpath to connect PBXs to the central office. Metropolitan Fiber Systems Inc, another alternative access carrier, has begun operations in New York. Testing high-speed modems - the right way. (the best V.32/V.42bis modems for different network configurations) (Data Comm Lab There is much more complexity and diversity of performance in V.32 modems as they approach the theoretical limits of their built-in V.42bis compression technology (38K-bps). This makes it much more difficult to evaluate high-speed modems than to evaluate low-speed devices. Eleven leading V.32/V.42bis modems are tested using emerging international standards for line conditions as well as more than a dozen different noise levels. The two characteristics emphasized in the tests were error correction during data transmission and throughput achieved with compression. US Robotics' Courier HST Dual Standard modem came closest to the theoretical top speed of 38K-bps; the Telebit T1600 and the Microcom QX/423hs were also noted for their speed. The testing procedures and results of the tests are detailed. The coming transatlantic price wars. (transatlantic data services) Heywood, Peter. Increased competition among long-distance carriers has cut the cost of domestic wide area communications by half or more for US businesses in recent years, and similar competitive pressures are expected to lead to substantial price cuts on transatlantic data services as well. The price cuts have been slower to develop in Europe than in the US, due primarily to the monopolistic nature of European telecommunications, but considerable changes are expected in the European telecommunications market. Several more fiber optic cables will be laid between North America and Europe in the early 1990s, which will increase capacity tremendously, and the impending relaxation of trade restrictions in Europe is expected to lead to lower prices as well. Tariffs published by US carriers are at least one-third lower than those charged by European firms, and most large firms are able to negotiate large discounts. Users are ready for multimegabit WANs, but where's the equipment? (network managers need the ability to allocate T3 bandwidth among Network managers need a way to allocate the 44.736M-bps bandwidth of T3 circuits among multiple applications, and when vendors deliver such capabilities it will change the nature of wide area networking. High-end, distributed applications will use all the affordable, wide area bandwidth vendors can make available; users need a T3 bandwidth manager that can connect all the diverse low- and high-speed components of modern, multi-tiered, multivendor networks. Such a T3 bandwidth manager would eliminate the traditional bottlenecks of T1 networks; several examples are provided. A sample T3 internetworking configuration would connect two or more high-speed, multiprotocol routers with T3 links, supporting network speeds of up to 44.21M-bps. Other T3 bandwidth applications and the High Speed Serial Interface specification are described. Hewlett-Packard launches LAN interconnect over ISDN; TCP/IP applications ported transparently; products save on tariffs. (the Hewlett-Packard introduces the ISDN Server and ISDN Link/MS-DOS hardware and software connecting TCP/IP Ethernet LANs and standalone PCs across ISDN at speeds of up to 384K-bps. The products are expected to debut in France in Mar 1991 and in the US, Japan, Germany, the UK and other countries at an unspecified later date. ISDN Server is a standalone dedicated HP 386 PC with from one to three ISDN interface cards and a LAN interface card supporting thick or thin Ethernet cabling. Each system can transmit simultaneously and independently on up to six ISDN B channels to different network nodes. ISDN Link/MS-DOS implements the Network Driver Interface Specification and supports HP's LAN Manager and ARPA services products for MS-DOS-based systems. ISDN Server costs from $39,600 to $59,440 in France; no price has yet been set for ISDN Link/MS-DOS. An all-knowing analyzer: multiprocessor device decodes LAN and WAN traffic, simulates network traffic. (Wandel & Goltermann Inc.'s Wandel & Goltermann Inc introduces the DA-30 Multiport Dual Protocol Analyzer that displays both traffic streams on a single screen. The protocol analyzer combines the ease of use and familiar interface of a PC with a proprietary multiprocessor architecture that handles such complex tasks as decoding LAN and WAN protocols, near-real-time network traffic analysis and adjustable simulation routines for stress-testing a network. The backplane of the device uses an Intel 80386SX chip, a 40Mbyte hard disk drive expandable to 120Mbytes, an analog VGA adapter and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Among the software packages included is the Flexible Traffic Generator/Monitor that simulates network traffic and checks the performance of bridges and routers. The DA-30 costs from about $25,000; it is available in portable and rack-mountable versions and in a workstation unit. A hub for all reasons: Synernetics's LANplex 5000 boosts Ethernet performance and provides a pathway to FDDI. (product announcement) Synernetics Inc introduces the LANplex 5000 12-port smart hub that combines various technologies to increase Ethernet LAN performance considerably while providing a clear migration path to fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) networks. The LANplex 5000 is the first product that combines features of a smart hub, a multiport bridge and Ethernet-FDDI connectivity. The device's Ethernet Express Module acts as a bridge for as many as eight workstations or Ethernet segments; it also can be used to connect Ethernet workstations to FDDI workstations through an FDDI Concentrator Module. The LANplex 5000 uses a third FDDI bus to create an additional local FDDI ring that can be used to establish a private network for high-speed applications. The smart hub costs from $33,900 in quantities of ten; a nonexpandable version costs from $19,900. ComNet '91: fulfilling networking's promise; conference to showcase emerging applications for networks large and small. (the The Communications Networks '91 (ComNet '91) networking trade show is intended to help networking professionals use the tremendous increase in networking applications to best strategic advantage. Over 25,000 attendees are expected at the conference, to be held in the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Jan 28-31, 1991; such technologies as ISDN, network management, next-generation network architecture, LAN design, OSI, client/server computing, T1, T3, wireless networks, X.400, EDI, TCP/IP and global telecommunications will be covered in full-day tutorials. Topics covered in the over-70 conference sessions planned include strategic planning for ISDN, large-scale interconnection, bridges, routers and gateways; fiber distributed data interface (FDDI),,OSI vs. TCP/IP, the FCC's Tariff 12, Sonet, outsourcing and X.25. NetWorld 91 Boston to showcase WANs as well as LANs. Hardiman, Colleen. The NetWorld 91 Boston trade show at the John B. Hynes Convention Center from Feb 12-14, 1991, will be attended by 300 exhibitors and about 20,000 visitors; its 80 seminars are divided into eight topic tracks, each of which is targeted at a different segment of attendees. The products to be unveiled at the show include a fiber optic Ethernet network, database management systems and products for connecting LANs over ISDN. The keynote speech by User Alliance for Open Systems Chmn E.W. 'Bud' Huber will focus on the need for open systems. Topics covered in the tutorials will include information systems, network management tools, LAN management, introduction to LANs, WAN design, LAN-to-host connections and Structured Query Language applications. Products will be introduced by Codenoll Technology Corp, Cabletron Systems Inc and Gupta Technologies Inc. When worlds collide. (differences between telecommunications and data communications professionals) (EOT) (column) Telecommunications and data communications professionals differ in many important ways. Circuit switching is the primary technology of telecommunications, which is dominated by voice communications, so the first thing a telecom person thinks of when data communications are needed is circuit switching. Telecom people consider bandwidth expensive, see network availability of utmost importance to large corporations and the public, and see the network as independent of its attached devices. Data communications people, on the other hand, consider packet switching the dominant technology, consider bandwidth inexpensive, see availability as important but not essential, and consider all devices as part of the network. Vendors often claim they address both groups, but few understand what that entails, and few have been able to meet all the needs of both groups. The internetwork decade. (Data Comm Editorial Supplement) (an executive summary of a 150-page report titled 'The Internetwork An interconnection model is being developed that will change the basic nature of networking in the 1990s: a multivendor, multiprotocol networking paradigm that meets user needs for networks of any size, configuration or application. The architecture is based on TCP/IP, DECnet and the Xerox Network System (XNS) protocols, but it is unlike anything that has come before. The internet architecture is based on bridges, routers and hybrid bridge/routers, but as important as individual devices is the seamless integration of all major networking protocols onto a shared, open, well-managed backbone. Among the aspects of the internet architecture described are the internet devices, including the so-called internet nodal processor; the LAN interconnect problem; network scalability; client/server computing; internet design guidelines; and internet management. Forest & Trees: a decision-support tool that monitors your organization's vital signs. (Channel Computing Inc.)(On the Front Channel Computing Inc's Forest and Trees decision support software is unique among front-end products because of its outstanding connectivity into a large number of client-server and file server database software. Forest & Trees collects the mass of data from all the computers on a network, reorganizes it into useful business management information, then keeps track of that information on an ongoing basis. It also issues a warning if indicators exceed parameters set by users. Forest & Trees includes a main presentation screen, a collection of nine graphs, a report writer, and interfaces to major PC database and spreadsheet packages. The advantages of Forest & Trees include a good query-building feature, an edit box that permits direct entry of Structured Query Language statements, function keys for tables and columns, and math functions. The interface developed for the software is effective but its rigidity limits flexibility in presentation of views. The product comes with a notable step-by-step tutorial. Design strategies: several methods of prototyping provide alternatives to CASE tools. (computer-aided software engineering) Data base designers should use prototyping to overcome the problems associated with traditional entity-relationship (ER) data base design methods. ER is the approach used by most CASE tools. The major drawbacks inherent in ER methods include the inability to discern differences between entities, relationships, and attributes; to document any constraints whether they be mandatory or user-defined; and to correctly document special relationship types such as subtypes. Prototyping can identify business rules, data-element relationships, and user requirements. The prototypes become models of systems useful for validating data entry/update forms, reports, batch programs, and specific queries. Another approach software designers use is fact-based analysis, such as the Nijssen Information Analysis Methodology (NIAM). NIAM is able to document constraints that include mandatory or optional, subtypes, and all possible values. NIAM requires that designers fully understand the business processes being modeled, but the methodology results in a stable and functional application. Practical set theory. (set mathematics improves performance and decreases coding for applications) (Desktop Oracle)(column) Mathematical set theory can be used to enhance the performance of applications that do not require row-by-row processing, and to reduce the volume of code that needs to be written. Errors are invariably introduced when data is manually entered into a computer. One relatively tedious and time consuming technique for locating and identifying errors is to have data entered twice by different data-entry staff members, then directing the computer to isolate the differences between the two versions. When applications are ported to set-oriented, structured query language (SQL) data base management systems (DBMS), such as Oracle, the task of comparing versions is easier. The ease with which the information stored in data bases is summarized for management reports can be increased by altering the program of SQL DBMSs to minimize the amount of data and SQL statements that are transmitted to and from the front end, permitting the DBMS back end to enhance data base performance. Oracle's CASE tools. (computer-aided software engineering) (includes example of entity-relationship modeling) (interview with Oracle Corp Sr VP for CASE Products Richard Barker describes the steps in the development of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology at Oracle, and the methods used in that development. The elements of CASE methodologies that existed when Oracle began developing its product were analysis, design, implementation, and production. The company later added user documentation, an often overlooked aspect; transition, which involves user training and education; and strategy, which includes group feedback sessions with company executives. After strategy is defined, an implementation plan is set in place that includes cross-referenced enterprise models. Lastly, the design stage involves the selection of implementation tools. Choosing CASE tools. (an introduction to the various functions found in CASE software) (computer-aided software Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools encompass a variety of design and development aids for any aspect of software systems development. CASE tool types cover programmer/project productivity, systems development methodology, and systems development support. The basic categories of individual CASE tools include diagramming tools that graphically depict system specifications; screen and report painters that create system specifications and prototyping; and dictionaries, information management systems, and facilities for storing, reporting, and querying. CASE toolkits offer development tools for automating portions of the life-cycle process, CASE workbenches offer tools for whole processes, and frameworks combine CASE tools with nonCASE software development tools. Factors to be considered when buying a CASE tool include: whether the tool is a data base management system or dictionary software system, the future direction of and functionality of the tool, and whether the tool's manufacturer has an open-architecture philosophy. PC text management. (askSam Systems Inc.'s askSam 4.2, Lotus Development Corp.'s Magellan 2.0 and Folio Corp.'s Folio Views Lotus Development Corp's Magellan 2.0, Folio Corp's Folio View 2.0, and askSam Systems Inc's askSam 4.2, categorized as text management software for networked microcomputers, are evaluated. Lotus' Magellan is especially useful for single-user text applications maintained by the end user. askSam Systems' askSam 4.2 offers text manipulation and more classic data base management features to the same user base. Folio Views by Folio Corp is ideal for developers wanting to distribute text information useful to new users. The evaluation underscored the important benefits that can be realized from text management programs. It also showed that developers and users may have to try more than one text management system to fully understand and appreciate their capabilities, and that choosing a product can be easier when a real application is used to help determine a selection. Managing FoxPro memo fields: FoxPro provides increased flexibility for handling memo fields in your applications. (part one of a Data base memo fields usually store extended strings or varying amounts of free-form text about records. While they eliminate the problem of wasted disk space by not having predefined lengths, memo fields used to be considered cumbersome and difficult to manipulate because of the dearth of commands and functions. FoxPro improves on traditional memo fields by providing important enhancements to Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV, FoxBase+, and dBASE III Plus. The improvements include the ability to put text and binary data in the fields, the ability to store as much data as the available disk space can handle, and a memo field block size that can range from 33 bytes to 16,384 bytes. Managing dBASE IV data resources. (building a self-maintaining data dictionary for your dBASE IV application) (Hands On) Issues in the management of databases and indexes in dBASE IV are discussed for both developers and users. Developers require effective methods for quickly manipulating the index structures of applications being developed. They find specification sheets for field structures and defined indexes for data bases useful. Data dictionaries, with complete sets of specification sheets, can help in creating screens, establishing compound relations, and other jobs needing knowledge of data types. Users require efficient methods for rebuilding indexes for system data bases if they are damaged following a power failure. While there are considerable differences in the needs of the two groups, some overlap exists. Code can be written for one purpose and reused to achieve another purpose. Guidelines on getting the maximum utility out of a source code are presented. Mastering the Desqview API: Desqview API toolkits enable you to create custom dBASE and 3GL applications. (applications Applications developers can use the Desqview applications programming interface (API) to add multitasking and windowing to applications programs written in a variety of programming languages. Desqview achieves windowing and multitasking by controlling access to important computer elements such as screens, memory, and keyboards. Desqview permits the integration of prepackaged programs with custom software. When adapting programming techniques to multitasking, the programmer should remember that: two or more programs may be running simultaneously, no single application has access to a keyboard at all times, and other processes may be running while an application is being written. Using the Desqview API requires some study because it offers very rich features and functions that offer multiple subtle alternatives. With its multitasking capabilities, however, it is well worth the effort. End-user training: strategies for training end users for database applications. (includes related article on making applications The selection of an appropriate user training strategy for data base applications depends on several factors including the sophistication of the applications, the effectiveness of the user interfaces, and the level of expertise the users possess. Data base applications should insure that users have access to their data, and protect that data from accidental or intentional damage. Because data base applications do not always achieve these goals, data base developers should be trained to produce applications that perform as intended. Organizations can single out certain employees for special training as superusers to handle all the applications development for their workgroups. Other approaches include establishing a central department staffed with data base development experts, and training users to use the tools that come with data base management systems. The comprehensiveness and techniques necessary to train end users depend on factors, such as how well the application was written, the user interface, and the quality of the documentation. Multiple validations: how to handle a data entry field that requires multiple validations. (DBASE Tutorial) (tutorial) A technique for administering data entry fields requiring multiple validations is nesting single validation clauses at the expression instead of execution level. Combining the hierarchical properties of traditional validation with nesting multiple validation user defined functions at the expression level results in greater flexibility and enhanced readability. The code may initially appear confusing, but it will remain readable in a few months without searching through numerous pages of source listings. Graphic dBASE: techniques for working with pictures in your database applications. (Set Expert On) (tutorial) Storing images in a data base memo field is one technique for storing and manipulating graphic images in dBASE applications and transferring those images to other software such as word processors. Optical character recognition software, a scanner, and data base management systems' functions permit the remainder of a record to be filled with data such as names and addresses of the writer. The steps in storing the scanned image into the record include scanning the material to get the image on a disk file, changing the image to the desired graphics format, and loading the file into a memo field. To view the image, copy it back to a disk file, then run a graphics viewer program that would accept the image disk as input. The single database strategy. (includes related article on transparency technology) (Computer Associates International One approach to data base management that permits corporate data base managers to take advantage of all the available methods for accessing data is to implement a single data base strategy. The data base management systems (DBMS) products offered by Computer Associates International Inc (CA) can provide data managers with support for navigational access, maintaining existing applications and a high-volume development approach, while offering the advantages of structured query language and relational systems. CA's DBMS products maintain users' investments in their existing applications by using those applications as a foundation for creating more interfaces to the same data. CA single data base strategy DBMS products are available for companies using both CA and non-CA technologies running on most IBM, DEC, UNIX, and PC platforms. Overcoming the information challenges of the '90s. (Computer Associates International Special Supplement) Computer Associates International Inc's CA90s Information Management Software offers MIS managers a solution to the need to establish compatibility across the variety of hardware and operating systems being used as platforms for data processing systems. CA90s distributed data base, application portability, and cooperative processing capabilities are applicable to standard production and decision support requirements, permitting organizations to concentrate on developing new methods to reach their objectives. The areas that CA90s address include application development, life cycle management, and computer-aided software engineering. Distributed database: CA has it now. (Computer Associates International Special Supplement) Computer Associates International Inc's (CA) CA-DB:Star and CA-DB:Star/PC computer programs offer data base users distributed data base support for both navigational and Structured Query Language (SQL) access, full two-phase commit distributed data base functionality. The advantages of CA's distributed data base support include the ability to access data from more than one site in a transparent manner while retaining most data to the sites that use it, the ability to partition and replicate so that processing can be shared by several computers connected by high-speed links, and a two-phase commit capability that ensures that work is successfully completed or it is rolled back. The CA-IDMS and CA-DATACOM families. (data base management systems) (Computer Associates International Special Supplement) Computer Associates International Inc (CA) offers data base management systems that permit data base users to incorporate developing computer technology including distributed data bases, on-line transaction processing (OLTP), and client-server cooperative architecture into their existing systems, and that easily integrate relational and navigational data base technology. CA's CA-IDMS/DB and CA-DATACOM/DB form the foundation for OLTP production capability, and the CA-DB/VAX and CA-UNIVERSE packages cover relational data bases. CA-IDMS/DB and CA-DATACOM/DB are capable of providing quick access to the physical location of data. CA-IDMS/DB contains a full set of multiplatform development tools for programmers. CA-DATACOM offers relational and navigational access, distributed data base with two-phase commit, fourth-generation application programming, and table storage methods that include Basic for entry sequence processing, Random for high-frequency data operations, and Clustered rows from multiple logical tables permitting retrieval of related rows with a single command. Automated system saves FCIC millions. (Computer Associates International's CA-DATACOM/DB data base management system, Fremont Fremont Compensation Insurance Company (FCIC) lowered its costs, increased its profits, and enhanced its operations by installing Computer Associates International Inc's CA-DATACOM/DB data base management system to automate all elements of the company. The installation saved FCIC more than $20 million by cutting overhead and streamlining fee schedule payments. Data entry at FCIC has been eliminated because data is now automatically captured in the data base as it is processed. FCIC managers can examine the data on management information screens, and identify ways to enhance business. The system allows changes to be made in corporate policy by changing data without altering the program. The downsizing solution. (system conversion) (Computer Associates International Special Supplement) Computer Associates International Inc has developed downsized versions of its mainframe-based CA-IDMS/DB and CA-DATACOM/DB data base management systems (DBMS). The downsized versions allow users to move production environments or application development to microcomputers and local area networks (LAN). Downsizing allows users to achieve high performance processing at a lower cost in a user-friendly environment, and provides an opportunity to save mainframe resources while making use of microcomputer and LAN computing environments. The steps in downsizing include transferring the contents of the data dictionary, followed by transferring other DBMS functions that take care of initialization, backup, and restoration of data to the new environment. CPS downsizes mainframe applications. (Computer Programming & Systems Inc.) (Computer Associates International Special Computer Programming & Systems Inc (CPSI) implemented a system conversion from a mainframe-based system to a system for microcomputers (PCs) and local area networks (LANs) as a means to maintain its competitive edge in consulting and software development for the life insurance and reinsurance business. CPSI focused the downsizing effort on its largest product, a data processing tool for reinsurers and life insurance companies called Life Reinsurance Processing System (LRPS). LRPS runs under Computer Associates International Inc's CA-IDMS/DB data base management system. The benefits CPSI realized from the downsizing included greater productivity, the ability to customize computer hardware to the needs of each user, and the ability to run LRPS on a variety of platforms. Security externalization. (Computer Associates International Inc.'s family of security products) (Computer Associates An important aspect of data base management and management information systems administration, and a challenge to information security professionals is providing selective access globally to data base information. The requirements that data base security software must meet to be satisfactory include the provision of the ability to control each user globally, to enforce security rules globally, and to enhance business activities while having a minimal impact. Computer Associates International Inc's (CA) CA-TOP SECRET or CA-ACF2 security software meet the requirements necessary to be satisfactory for centralized security. The foundation of CA's security software is the Computer Associates International Standard Security Facility (CAISSF). CAISSF provides support for platform-specific security systems when necessary. Integrity management. (maintaining information accuracy within DBMSs) (Computer Associates International Inc.'s Special Computer Software Associates International Inc's (CA) data base management systems (DBMS) use the concept of integrity constraints to provide users with the protection they need to insure the integrity of their data. Integrity constraints preserve data integrity by constraining the values or conditions existing in the data base to match the requirements of the business. CA's DBMS software insures data security because it enforces constraints for data type, domain, entity, and referential integrity. CA DBMS software permits modification of integrity against existing table structures. The software will verify that there is no violation of new rules if new constraints are added. CA's DBMS software will run on a wide range of platforms such as microcomputers, workstations, and mainframes. A CASE for closing application development gaps. (computer-aided software engineering) (Computer Associates International Inc.'s Computer Associates International Inc's (CA) goals for computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools are focused on presenting integrated solutions that enable addressing the entire engineering task, resulting in software products that are closely tied to data base and development systems. CA's CASE products offer an open interface for third-party front-end CASE tools to integrate with data base development systems. CA's CA-DB:ARCHITECT and CA-DB:CASELINK are two products addressing those development elements. CA-ADS used with CA-IDMS, and CA-IDEAL used with CA-DATACOM products are examples of fourth-generation CASE tools oriented toward the programming professional. The sophistication of CA's code generators exceed what was knows as state-of-the-art products. CA offers productivity tools for COBOL development and maintenance that include CA-UNIPACK/CDE and CA-OPTIMIZER/II. The primary benefit of CA's CASE tools is in their ability to work together on heterogeneous platforms. Life cycle management. (Computer Associates International Inc.'s life cycle products) (Computer Associates International Inc.'s Computer Associates International Inc's (CA) applications development software for software engineering is augmented by its project life cycle management products. CA's life cycle systems include tools for planning, designing, and controlling applications. The categories of these tools include project estimation and planning, configuration and change management, and the development environment. CA's CA-UNIPACK/PEP has been developed to facilitate the task of obtaining estimates and plans during the development process. The management of configuration and change can be accomplished by using CA's active data dictionary products such as CA-DATACOM/DB's CA-DATADICTIONARY and CA-IDMS/DB's Integrated Data Dictionary. Keeping track and remembering the status of the development environment from day to day is also managed by CA's data dictionary products. Integrated CA DBMS ensures help is never out of reach. (Computer Associates International, data base management system) (Computer Lifeline Systems Inc depends on Computer Associates International Inc (CA) data base management systems (DBMS) for the VAX/VMS environment to assist people during emergencies. Lifeline developed and operates personal response systems, communications systems enabling people to call for help in emergencies by pushing a button, throughout North America. Lifeline's response monitor, which was developed with CA-DB/VAX and CA-DB:GENERATOR/VAX, permit emergency personnel to quickly respond to problems 24 hour a day. Lifeline has enhanced revenues and customer satisfaction with CA DBMS software. Galloping apace with HSC. (Winchester Systems' FlashDAT/HSC) Schoeniger, Eric. The combined efforts of Winchester systems, Touch Technologies, and Archive have produced Winchester Systems' FlashDAT/HSC, the latest entry in the FlashDAT series of 4mm DAT storage systems. A user of Digital Equipment Corp's Hierarchical Storage controllers will find that FlashDAT/HSC enhances speed, capacity, and reliability. Digital audio tape (DAT) technology and tape-acceleration software are combined to make the FlashDAT series. FlashDAT/HSC simplifies data transfer among computers from different manufacturers, offers capacity without using mechanical stackers, and provides monitoring and control. Prices are $20,995 for a DDS-only dual drive and $28,995 for a dual drive with data compression. An upgrade for DDS-only users is available for $4,000 per drive. Making the connection. (Extending Q-bus access) Chapman, Nadina R. InterConnections and Simpact Associates announce a jointly developed product that gives workstations on an IBM Token Ring PC LAN Virtual Terminal Services and seamless access to file and print services on any Q-bus system. The product is a combination of I* from InterConnections and TRN 5200 NetBIOS Token Ring adapter from Simpact. It costs from $10,000 to $17,000, depending on the VAX processor. InterConnections' Network Print Services is another connectivity product. It permits Digital Equipment Corp VAX/VMS users send VAX output to a printer attached to a Novell NetWare local area network. It costs $2,000 or $14,000, depending on the VAX model. Creating portable C code. (Software Translations' BASIC-To-C Translator) Software Translations Inc introduces B-Tran/VX, a VAX BASIC-compatible translator/compiler that reads VAX BASIC source code. After reading the code, B-Tran/VX produces clean, readable, portable C code. B-Tran/VX source licence starts at $15,000 with Binary Developer's licenses from $60,000 to $200,000. Also new from Software Translations is a UNIX-based implementation of VAX/VMS called VX-RT which permits STI to provide run-time support for all applications developed under VMS. A source license for VX-RT begins at $100,000 with Binary Developer's licenses ranging from $80,000 to $200,000. Object-oriented advancements. (Ontologic Inc's Ontos 2.0) O'Connell, Brian. Ontologic Inc introduces three new products, Ontos Release 2.0, Ontos Shorthand, and Ontos Studio. Ontos 2.0 provides object-oriented users with networked-based solutions; it is an object-oriented DBMS for interactive, network-based, data-intensive applications. Ontos 2.0 costs $15,000 per user. Ontos Shorthand is a fourth-generation data manipulation language designed to be used by application developers new to object programming. Ontos Studio is an interactive user interface and forms package that permits graphical user interfaces to be implemented in a timely and simple manner. Ontos Shorthand and Ontos Studio are sold as a package for $9,000. Visualization comes to the desktop. (Stardent's 500 and 3000VS) Fullerton, Pamela F. Stardent Computer Corp announces two new product lines, expanding the company's family of graphics supercomputeres to include four low-end desktop visualization systems and six high-end systems. The Stardent 500 series combines supercomputation, high-performance graphics, and the company's Application Visualization System in a desktop system. Applications software packages currently running on the Stardent 3000 series are supported on the 500 without recompiling. Prices for the 500 range from $17,000 to $70,000. Stardent's 3000VS series visualization systems provide demanding and complex scientific applications with advanced graphics capabilities and computational performance. Rendering quality for image realism and rapid visualization of two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and volume-data sets is provided by the 3000VS. Prices for the 3000VS range from $100,000 to $300,000. Current 3000 customers can purchase a field upgrade for $30,000. Graphical interface JAMboree. (JYACC) Schoeniger, Eric. JYACC introduces Version 5.0 of the JYAAC Applications Manager (JAM); this version completes the JAM product line. The JAM product line permits developers to prototype and deliver applications that run on VAX, DECstation, and DECsystem platforms. A new feature in Version 1.0 is an application development environment that requires little or no third-generation language programming. Company officials say that Version 5.0 anticipates the company's entry into the OSF-based Motif graphical user interface market. Prices for JAM 5.0 are $595 for MS-DOS, $2,850 to $4,550 on a DECstation, and $22,000 to $31,900 on a VAX 9000. Welcome to the cluster. (Micro Technology's CIQBA CI interconnect card) Micro Technology announces its CIQBA CI interconnect card. This card removes the artificial boundary between low-end Digital Equipment Corp MicroVAX to the VAX 4000 and the high-end VAX 8000, 6000, and 9000 series. The CIQBA CI interconnect card permits a high-end MicroVAX or VAX 4000 to be connected directly to a star coupler and through the coupler to the HSC-based disk farm. It is a standard Q-bus quad-size card using a combination of firmware and software that emulates the CI bus. The card costs $18,500, which includes installation and a one-year onsite warranty. DEC PRO goes CompuServe. (includes related article on accessing The VAX Forum) DEC PROFESSIONAL's Automated Reader Information Service Bulletin Board is now on CompuServe. DEC PROFESSIONAL is the exclusive sponsor of The VAX Forum, an electronic information service for computing professional working with Digital Equipment Corp equipment. Included in The VAX Forum are special-interest message centers and libraries. User of The VAX Forum can also access all CompuServe's features. A survivor's guide to user-centered systems. (strategies for planning a VAX-based client/server system) Users now actively manufacture information and send it to the host, which means MIS managers must change the way they plan a Digital Equipment Corp VAX-based client/server system. According to DEC, the desktop microcomputer or workstation and the host VAX operate as cooperative peers in the company's enterprise network. There are data communications protocols between the client and server machines to provide standards that make the connections possible. Areas to consider when planning a client/server system are terminal emulation, DECwindows, file services, and data base services. Desperately seeking standards. (includes related article on NAS and the upper layer) Digital Equipment Corp marketers define open systems to encompass three areas: software portability, user interfaces, and interoperability in networking; the common denominator is the use of standards. The number of standards competing for dominance makes interoperability in networking complicated. Many industry experts say no single protocol will dominate, that a multiprotocol world will continue. DEC DECnet/OSI marketing manager Steve Kelly says DEC accommodates migration to OSI from TCP/IP and DECnet and is building the X/Open Transport Interface into its operating systems. The strongest growth at the current time is with the major Internet protocols TCP/IP, UDP/IP, and SNMP. Everyone expects OSI to overtake TCP/IP, but no one is sure when it will happen. The activity in the X.400/X.500 world indicates that OSI is nearly here. It is a myth that DECnet is proprietary; DEC sells the complete specifications for DECnet so anyone can implement it. LAT is finding greater acceptance as a local area protocol. Segmenting your network; the key to effective network growth. Ferrara, Ray. Easynet, Digital Equipment Corp's internal network, is the world's largest private computer network; it has over 50,000 interconnected computers throughout the world and is a good example of a high-volume, high-performance distributed network. The fundamental design principle learned from the growth of Easynet can be applied to any network; the principle is to segment the network according to anticipated network use. The network segments can be organized to localize and isolate network traffic. Easynet is divided into three basic types of segments: a wide area connectivity or router segment, which supplies connection points from the facility's local area networks to the outside world and keeps pass-through WAN traffic from the rest of the facility networks; one or more server segments, a high-speed facility backbone; and one or more user segments, which are the local area networks or subnetworks that go into the offices or the factory floor. Controlling production systems. Host, Cheryl. The Administrative Data Processing shop at the Los Alamos National Laboratory develops COPS (Control of Production Systems) to bring order to the programming cycle. The goals of COPS are to control programmer access to production accounts; enhance audit capabilities; reduce the risk of lost or corrupted code; and maintain programmer flexibility. These goals are to satisfy the needs of programmers who want maximum flexibility and easy interfaces; managers who want jobs done quickly and inexpensively with low risk; and auditors who want stringent controls, with checks, balances, and audit trails. Digital Equipment Corp's Code Management System and Module Management System are used by COPS, along with various DCL command procedures. Storage summit. (Hardware Review) (From the Lab; Pinnacle Micro's REO-6500 MSCP-compatible jukebox) (evaluation) Pinnacle Micro Inc's REO-6500 jukebox holds ten 5.25-inch erasable optical cartridges that provide 6 GB of storage. The REO-6500, which is fully MSCP-compatible, look like any other drive to a Digitql Equipment Corp system. CMD Technology Inc's SLM softwre manages the jukebox and the MOUNT, DISMOUNT, and INITIALIZE commands may be confusing at first. There were few problems in getting the REO-6500 up and running. It is impressive to have 6 GB of accessible storage in a compact package. The REO-6500 costs $9,995, including CQD-200 controller. The race for backup. (Hardware Review) (system Industries' S12480 cartridge tape subsystem) (evaluation) Systems Industries' SI2480 cartridge tape subsystem may be the answer for users for whom VMS BACKUP speed is a primary consideration. This tape subsystem is a fast alternative to the IBM 3480 cartridge format. The tape subsystem is available in versions for the Q-bus, UNIBUS, and VAXBI bus. Any system using Digital Equipment Corp's HSC40, HSC5-, or HSC70 can support the SI2480. The SI2480 is made up of the Fujitsu M1016 cartridge tape controller, the Fujitsu M2481A cartridge tape drive, and a stacker/loader. It is straightforward to use. Price ranges from $44,900 to $51,700 for single-master models and from $87,400 for dual-master models. The printer switch. (Hardware Review) (Gold Key Electronics' SWITCHmate intelligent printer) (evaluation) Gold Key Electronics provides products that are designed to help users make the most of their printers; the products permit multiple computers to access the same devices without requiring a network. The SWITCHmate II LN6-HP2 is the top of the line; it permits up to six systems to talk to two Hewlett-Packard LaserJets. SWITCHmates are easy to set up and easy to use; printing can begin in minutes with straight text printing with no problems. Gold Key Electronics' SWITCHmate product line is a fine solution for low-end printer sharing. The Z88: what good things come in. (Hardware Review) (Z88 portable computer) (evaluation) Users who are considering buying a laptop computer should consider the Cambridge/Macaroon Z88 before making a purchase decision. The Z88 packs big features into a small package. It weighs two pounds and is 11.5 inches long, 8.25 inches wide, and 0.825 inches thick; it is about the size of a notebook binder. It has 64 keys, which are rubberized. Four AA batteries supply power. Data stays intact for up to one year with the Z88 switched off, so a disk drive is not necessary as long as batteries are kept fresh. A number of resident applications, including a word processor and a spreadsheet, are included. Price ranges from $599 to $1,399, depending on memory; a complete kit costs up to $2,149. Dynamic memory allocation in C++. (Let's C Now) (column) Jaeschke, Rex. The stdlib.h functions malloc, calloc, realloc, and free are used to allocate memory at run time in a C program. ANSI C requires this capability so it must be available in every mainstream operating system. Problems where the number of objects needed at any one time is unknown at compile time can be solved by allocating memory at run time. New and delete are used to allocate and free memory at run time in C++. The compiler becomes directly involved in generating the code to perform the memory allocation because new and delete are keywords. New and delete are unitary operators and are spelled as keywords rather than as symbols. Things they never told you about DCL. (DCL Dialogue) (column) Barkes, Kevin G. There are a number of basic DCL commands that users may not be aware of. These commands include CTRL-T; an /ALL qualifier for the DEALLOCATE command; and file specification flexibility. There is a command line continuation and command prompting. Users can recall previously entered command lines by using CTRL-B. There are several control key combinations: CTRL-A, CTRL-D, CTRL-F, CTRL-E, CTRL-H, CTRL-R, CTRL-U, and CTRL-X. There are /CONFIRM options, key definition, and the ability to RENAME the .DIR file. Stand by your VAX. (Digital Watch) (column) O'Connell, Brian. Digital Equipment Corp announces its new VAX 6000 and DECstation 5100/5500 and provides a vision of global computing through the 1990s and beyond that has open systems as its base. Industry observers are split between seeing these as products from a visionary DEC or as peace offerings to pacify customers who want increased open computing options. DEC's Ken Olsen says his company is still a growth company. The VAX 6000 500 delivers 85 to 100 percent faster CPU performance, triples the I/O throughput, and doubles the memory capacity of the VAX 6000 400, its predecessor; the 6000 costs 18 percent more. DEC's Pauline Nist says the 6000 release is part of the company's 3-year plan to implement RISC technology on the VAX. The DECsystem 5100 are compact UNIX boxes geared to the multiuser environment. Company officials say DEC will support three key open systems standards: the IEEE's POSIX, X/Open's Portability Guide (XPG3), and OSF's Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). Sizing up service. (Field Service; includes related articles on rumors and how to select service) (column) The four main sources of computer maintenance service are an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), a local or regional third-party maintenance organization (TPM), a national TPM, and an internal self-maintenance division. Each has something to offer. Users should seek out the service vendor that has offerings and abilities that fit their needs. Stephen Davies, president of U.S. Computer Maintenance, a local service provider, says selecting a local service vendor means spare parts and technical expertise are close at hand, and they provide one consistent level of service. Tom Welch, president of SMS Systems Maintenance Services, a regional vendor, says a smaller vendor must be technically superior to its larger counterparts and must be flexible and willing to meet customer needs. Bert Novak, president of Novadyne, a large, national, independent provider, says a large company has more density of product and a wider variety of expertise and can afford to keep a complete spares inventory. Digital Equipment Corp's Steve Adriane, speaking for OEMs, says customers must make sure the maintenance supplier can support the system today and tomorrow. File conversion and compatibility. (Workstations) (column) Bynon, David W. Digital Equipment Corp's CDA is a technical breakthrough in the area of converting files to and from compatible formats. CDA is a file architecture that supports a unified collection of text, graphics, and images that can be edited, formatted, and processed as one document. CDA, which is application-independent and machine-independent, defines two primary formats: Digital Document Interchange Format to store compound documents and Digital Table Interchange Format for storage and interchange of documents. There are few current applications for CDA. The CDA Converter can be used to convert DECwindows screen shots to Tag Image File Format (TIFF) files, but the commands must be entered by hand. This problem can be solved by using a FileView command procedure; instructions for this procedure, called VUE$CONVERT, are given. DEC's online challenge to process IT demands. Daly, Mark. The 1990s are expected to see a continual growth in demand for online transaction processing (OLTP). Market research shows that 50 percent of UK companies have OLTP in some form and 15 percent are entirely committed to it. The business world of the 1990s demands OLTP as information becomes the key to company success and a source of competitive advantage. The basic requirement of OLTP is continuous availability, or fault tolerance, both hardware and software fault tolerance. OLTP also requires data integrity, modular and linear growth, and networking. Tandem is a leading player in the OLTP market and has been for over a decade. Its systems are designed for commercial OLTP. Digital Equipment Corp's systems were designed for the scientific community and have evolved for the commercial market. DEC's VAX-ft 3000 is the company's entry in the OLTP field and it provides only hardware fault tolerance. Supplying software fault tolerance would require a fundamental redesign of VMS. While Tandem can provide systems that delivery high volume OLTP solutions, the VAX 3000 is the only DEC offering that meets the fault tolerance requirement. DEC officials see the OLTP sector as a strategic market. DEC channels service into high-speed interconnect. Greenwood, Dave. Turbochannel is Digital Equipment Corp's high-speed I/O interconnect; it has a 32-bit-wide data highway and has the capability for burst transfer rates of up to 93 MBytes/s. Turbochannel is a significant technical advancement and is expected to herald a radical change in DEC's marketing strategy, signaling that the company is back in the OEM business. DEC has set up the Tri/Add program to provide support for third party companies that are developing hardware add-ons for Turbochannel and the interconnect architectures that can be attached to Turbochannel. The design goals for Turbochannel were simplicity, performance, and low cost. There are 33 address/data lines, a clock line, a reset line, and 9 control/status lines in the Turbochannel interface. The first system to implement the Turbochannel interconnect is the Decstation 5000 Model 200. Dat drives on at the expense of Exabyte. (digital audio tape) Dick, Peter. Digital audio tape (Dat) and Exabyte use similar helical scan tape technology, but the main difference is in what is recorded, not how it is recorded. The 4mm Dat stores data in a pure digital format, which the 8mm Exabyte does not do. Dat reads data in binary form better than Exabyte. The main problem with Dat is that there are two storage formats: Digital Data Storage and Data/Dat. Users should purchase the drive and controller from the same source; this will avoid compatibility problems. Dat has the backing of some leading computer manufacturers and a technological lead over Exabyte. The protocols of serving terminal users. Ford, Piers. Terminal servers are an integral part of a network management scheme. They are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, which permits companies to bring terminals into networks and maintain their investment in hardware. Users who are choosing terminal servers should ask if the server has true multiprotocol capabilities and should investigate degrees of manageability, security, and configurability. The key to successful network management is SNMP. Servers that offer both Digital Equipment Corp's Lat and TCP/IP provide a gateway for the true open environment. Rivers Authority divines need for Dec environment. (Britain's National Rivers Authority) The South West region of the National Rivers Authority (NRA) has built, from scratch, a Digital Equipment Corp Vax-based data communications network in just over a year. The NRA was established to control pollution and improve the quality of the rivers and coastal waters in the United Kingdom. NRA South West is responsible for 5,000 kilometers of river, 340 kilometers of estuary, and 685 kilometers of coastline. It has a staff of 380, mostly scientific and engineering staff. It has its own local area Vaxcluster and Ethernet network. Office systems, graphics applications, and scientific analysis tools are provided by nine Microvax computers, two Vaxstations and two Decstations. Monitoring, data gathering, and analysis is conducted all year. The systems are kept as open and flexible as possible because of a possible change in the information technology direction for all NRA regions. Fax from your Vax for quality transmission. McCreesh, John. While the computing industry has been discussing various standards, businesses have been installing facsimile machines by the millions. This has caused a revolution in the way businesses exchange messages. There are ways to connect Digital Equipment Corp VAX machines to the fax network, giving users access to a much greater range of destinations. The first decisions to make are what the fax unit going to send and receive; the second decision is how the VAX will actually interface to the system. All systems must have an RS-2332/DEC-432 socket at one end and a standard telephone socket at the other. Users may decide to use VMS Mail or All-in-1 or a vendor-supplied screen or write direct links from applications programs using callable routines or MR Gateway. Studying the form of a new terminal standard. (Software Review) (Decforms and Form Interface Management System) (evaluation) Character cell (non-graphic) terminals such as the Digital Equipment Corp VT320 will continue to be used through at least the 1990s because of the price differential between workstations and terminals. A formal international standard is being established for the character cell terminal. This proposed ANSI/ISO standard is the Form Interface Management System, FIMS. At the present time, DEC is the only organization that has a current FIMS product, Decforms, a program development tool which is used as the front end screen handler for the ACMS transaction processing system. The Independent Forms Definition Language, the basis of FIMS, permits the forms designer or programmer to code how a form looks and how it behaves in response to events. Decforms is not a true 4GL tool, but ionvolves 3GL-style coding and the development of a 'forms program in the IFDL language. Any future character cell terminal development should use FIMS, making Decforms a logical choice for all programmers. PC tools for those executive decisions. (Software Review) (Desk Executive from Boston Business Computing) (evaluation) Desk Executive from Boston Business Computing is an alternative solution to providing mail and All-in-1 facilities for the PC. The company claims 'look and feel' compatibility with IBM's Profs, Data General's CEO, and Wang Office, in additional to being more like All-in-1 than the DEC PC product. It provides a word processor, electronic mail, and time management. It is designed to mimic All-in-1 on an automation system, but does not have the range of features All-in-1 has. The options that Desk Executive does provide are easy to use. The idiosyncrasies of PC users makes system integration difficult at this level, but the authors have built in a degree of freedom that could make the difference between acceptance and indifference by users. On the road. (Hardware Review) (Walkabout/SX) (evaluation) Van Horn, Van. Data General's Walkabout/SX is a smoothly assembled, well-crafted system that accepts no compromises in performance. Users who need the level of horsepower provided by the Walkabout/SX should consider this machine. Product announcements claimed a weight of 16 pounds, but a unit with the AC powerpack, a manual, six floppy disks, and a mouse in the nylon carrying case weighed 22 pounds. A fully-charged battery supplies power for several hours, but it is necessary to carry the power pack because the first indication of low-battery condition is very close to a no-battery condition. If the Walkabout/SX is to be used without a desk, it is better to use the Mouse Pen from IMCS than a standard mouse. If the user needs to run demanding graphics or will be working from the hood of a pickup truck, the Walkabout/SX should be evaluated under those conditions before purchasing. Simple symmetry. (symmetric multiprocessing) Lewis, Marcus S. Symmetric multiprocessing permits users to increase the computing power in a CPU's cabinet. There is no need to recompile anything and there is no need to change anything else done on the computer. In symmetric multiprocessing, the multiple CPUs in the box are symmetrical to the software running on the CPUs. Symmetric multiprocessing can increase performance and may be the way to handle system contention problems. Analyzing networks; solve LAN problems while they're small. (includes related article on LAN market) The use of local area networks (LANs) by corporate America is growing with an estimated 26 percent of the 10.5 million microcomputers now in use hooked together by LANs; this is projected to reach 50 percent by 1992. A survey of 100 MIS and network managers at Fortune 1000 companies shows that networks function correctly 94 percent of the time. Downtime costs reported by the same survey from Infonetics show that the typical network is down an average of 23.6 times per year with the average outage lasting 4.9 hours; disabilities cost companies an average $606,000 per year in lost revenue and $3.48 million a year in lost productivity. Network analyzers reduce service expenses and increase understanding and productivity. Network analyzers solve problems, establish baselines, track trends, improve network performance, and proactively monitor the network. Criteria for purchasing a network analyzer include seven layer protocol decode, easy-to-use triggers and filters, large capture buffer, statistics on global and individual stations, alarms on global and individual stations, report generation, and the ability to generate loads. Powerful stuff. (four case studies on using multiprocessors) Hamilton, Eric; Biswas, Brian. System managers thinking about moving to a multiprocessor system from a single-processor system want to know what performance is gained by adding another processor. Four case studies using a Data General 20MHz AViiON Series 5000 computer with 16Mbytes of main memory and two 371Mbyte ESDI disks show that multiprocessor performance gains depend on the type of applications running on the system. The most performance gains are realized by compute-bound applications. Some applications will be more than two times better when run on a dual processor because of process scheduling. The results of the four case studies indicate the dual-processor configuration provides an average performance increase of 1.5 times with more than one user using the system. New age science. (crystals; includes related article on crystal technology) Crystal technology is being studied by researchers at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp, a collection of computer consortia based in Austin, TX. The technology under study is Holistic Storage Process (HSP), a technology that could replace magnetic disk drives and optical disks within 10 years. In HSP, fibers made from light-sensitive crystals store images. This permits split-second retrieval of information and low-latency periods. HSP transmits entire pages of data at one time, replacing zeros and ones with light signals. There are several advantages to using HSP, which could be the liberator all-optical computing systems need. The future of HSP depends on how it is incorporated into technology. Metro net. (Metropolitan networks) Clinchy, Don. Local area network (LAN) users are showing considerable interest in Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS), a proposed LAN interconnect that will be offered by the regional phone companies. SMDS, which is a metropolitan area network (MAN), provides public packet-switched data transmission over a wide area. It permits high-band-width transmission, but does not require a privately owned network. SMDS is connectionless, providing instantaneous access to the networks. It is flexible and compatible. For security, the point where the LAN equipment interfaces with the access network, the Subscriber Network Interface, belongs to the customer and only that customer's data is carried on the access network. Tests are being conducted now and SMDS is expected to be available in late 1991. Vocal computing. (voice recognizer replaces keyboard at Motorola's Bipolar Logic IC operations ) Voice recognition technology is now at a point where it can be considered for use on the manufacturing floor. A test conducted by Motorola of the use of voice recognition on a noisy factory floor used a Verbex 5000 continuous speech, speaker dependent system. Results of this pilot test showed that operators became comfortable with the system within a day of use. They were excited about the technology, which they liked because it made their job easier. An evaluation of the system in terms of productivity showed a 23 percent improvement and an estimated data accuracy level of 85 percent. Voice recognition systems are particularly suitable for hands-and-eyes-busy situations. MV/30000 extends midrange performance. (Data General) Data General announces the Eclipse MV/30000 multiprocessor. A single-chip, custom CMOS microprocessor, which implements the Eclipse MV/Family architecture on a single integrated circuit, is the basis for the MV/30000. It runs the AOS/VS II operating system, comes in single through quad processor configurations, and is designed for easy in-cabinet growth. The MV/30000's features maximize uptime and permit repairs to be done at the user's convenience. Prices start at $120,000. Utilities and languages. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (directory) Listings for utilities and languages are given in the categories of communications, screen editors and formatters, fourth-generation languages, operating system enhancements, operating systems, program development aids, programming languages, report generators, screen editors and formatters, and miscellaneous utilities. Each entry gives company name, application, product name, a brief description, price, CPU, operating systems, languages,, reference number, a person to contact, and the telephone number. Horizontal applications. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (directory) A directory lists companies that provide horizontal applications in the fields of accounts payable, accounts receivable, applications development, client billing, cost accounting, data base management, electronic mail, financial modeling, fixed assets accounting, general ledger, graphics, integrated accounting, inventory, MIS software, office automation, order entry and fulfillment, personnel, payroll, purchasing, project management, sales and marketing, spreadsheets, statistics amd mathematics, tax, and word processing. Each entry includes company name, application, product name, a brief description, price, CPU, operating systems, reference number, a person to contact, and telephone number. Vertical market applications. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (directory) A directory lists companies that provide vertical market applications in the categories of automotive industry, distribution, financial institutions, health care, insurance, legal services, maintenance, manufacturing, membership and non-profit organizations, petrochemical industry, radio and television, retail sales, and wholesalers. Each entry includes company name, application, product name, a brief description, price, CPU, operating systems, languages, a person to contact, and telephone number. Hardware. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (buyers guide) A directory lists companies that sell hardware including controllers, disks, tapes, CPU enhancements, CPUs, disk subsystems, memory, multiplexers, concentrators, printers, plotters, supplies, accessories, tape subsystems, and terminals. Also included are distributors, dealers, and resale. Each entry includes company name, application, product name, a brief description, price, CPU, operating systems, a person to contact, and telephone number. Service and support. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (directory) A directory lists companies that provide service and support in the areas of disaster recovery, repair, maintenance, and consulting. Each entry includes company name, services offered, specialities, fee, a person to call, and telephone number. Company profiles. (Supplement to Jan 1991 issue of DG Review) (directory) A listing of computing industry companies. The list is in alphabetical order. Each entry includes company name, area of business, headquarters address, telephone number, and FAX number. Also included is year founded, other US locations besides company headquarters, number of employees, and officers. Porting UNIX to the 386: a practical approach. (Designing the Software Specification; Intel Corp.'s 80386 The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) at the University of California, Berkeley, developed a version of the Berkeley Unix operating system code ported to the Intel Corp 803860-based microcomputer architecture. The aim of the project is to make available the Berkeley Unix code to microcomputer users. The BSD, in conjunction with the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG), runs a basic research system on an IBM AT-compatible microcomputer. The ported operating system, called 386BSD, supports several microcomputer platforms based on the IBM PC including Compaq Computer Corp's Compaq 386/20, Compaq Systempro 386, Chips and Technologies' chipsets, Toshiba Corp's 3100SX and other computers. 386BSD also supports 3-1/2 inch and 5-1/4 inch floppy drives, EGA, VGA, CGA and MDA monitors, Western Digital Corp and Novell Inc Ethernet controller boards. Designing Plan 9: Bell Lab's Plan 9 research project looks to tomorrow. (AT and T Bell Laboratories Inc.'s distributed Researchers at AT&T Bell Laboratories Inc are working on a distributed processing architecture based on individual machines that perform as central processing units (CPUs), file servers and terminals. The individual components are linked via a single file-oriented protocol and local name space operations. The CPUs direct processing into large multiprocessors, while storage is handled by the file servers. The terminals are dedicated computers having a bitmap screen and a mouse for running a window system. All aspects of the Plan are novel; the compiler, operating system, networking software, command interpreter, window system and terminal are new. The system offers a sense of community for programmers, and management and administration functions are centralized. A software design manifesto: time for a change. (need for software design profession) Many problems users face with software products arise from the fact that not enough attention is paid to the design aspect of software development. Software engineers concern themselves more with the internal construction of programming rather than considering the overall plan and conception of the program. There is a need to develop a formal software design profession that is distinct and equal in stature to computer science and software engineering. To ensure that software designers are able to work with engineers and programmers, a curriculum should cover computer systems architectures, microprocessor architectures, operating systems, network communications, data structures and algorithms, data bases, distributed computing, programming environments, and object-oriented development techniques. This will ensure that programming and design endeavors will be integrated. Designing a portable GUI toolkit: five principles can unravel knotty design problems. (graphical user interface) Developing programs that will run on any windowing system requires designing a toolkit that will allow porting without changing the application's source code. The various window environments have different features, and it is difficult to retain the look-and-feel of each. Five principles governing a windows development toolkit include overspecification, abstraction, augmentation, exclusion and qualification. Overspecification involves the inclusion of defaults that take over design steps if the programmer need not pay attention to them when working with a particular window type. Abstraction takes specific features of platforms and creates a common abstract interface for the programmer. Augmentation has the toolkit port essential features from one environment to another lacking those features, and exclusion deletes features that are unique to one window system. Qualification allows the use of specific features that are used on some platforms and not on others; the application is able to make a qualified request using that feature. Designing a write-once file system: a general-purpose optical storage software technology. (includes related story on post field The Write-Once File System (WOFS) is a file management system designed for use primarily on Write-Once, Read Multiple (WORM) optical drives but can also be used on rewritable and read-only disk systems. WOFS software is operating systems independent; it can be ported to both Unix and MS-DOS systems. In order use disk space efficiently, WOFS stores data and updates blocks sequentially so that there are no empty parts on the disk. WOFS can be used on different microprocessor architectures because it keeps all directories and file system information stored with portable, predefined structures that can be read by different types of microcomputers. Graph decomposition: imposing order on chaos. Allburn, Edward. An algorithm for analyzing vertex connection and path existence in graphs is presented and discussed in detail. The graph, treated as a data structure, is composed of vertices that are connected by edges. Values are given to edges in simulations of real-world situations in order to analyze data. Algorithms are used to find a path that connects a pair of vertices for all existing pairs of vertices for the purpose of to solving connectivity problems. The algorithm presented requires little memory and executes graph manipulation quickly; the Graph Array Decomposition algorithm differs from other algorithms in that it does not require the construction of spanning trees, and it simplifies the graph before analyzing it rather than saving all of the information. Examining the Hamilton C Shell: Unix power for OS/2. (Hamilton Laboratories' program development software) (Software Review) Hamilton Laboratories' $350 Hamilton C Shell program development software is an add-on utility shell that utilizes C programming constructs for use on the OS/2 architecture. The collection of programs included in the package takes advantage of OS/2 features with the added power of a Unix-based shell. Hamilton C Shell allows simultaneous execution of C shells in different Presentation Manager text windows. Scripts, composed of C shell commands, let the user program various commands and features will support for complex logic, looping, nested control statements and symbols. The Shell uses efficient hashing techniques and OS/2 features to control command-name parsing; it also allows I/O redirection of any component and supports the creation of new commands from the output of other commands on the same command line. The documentation of the package is too complex for any but highly technical users understanding OS/2 and Unix, and there are not enough complete shell scripts for beginning users to take advantage of the special features of Hamilton C Shell. Making a CASE for software design: design tools can make a difference. (using Evergreen CASE Tools Inc.'s EasyCASE Plus Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools provide software designers with a means to present specifications representing a client's needs and to produce the instructions for contractors and their programmers. CASE tools do not offer all the solutions to software development, but they do automate the structured development life cycle. Systems software plans can be graphically represented using CASE tools. Evergreen CASE Tools Inc's EasyCASE Plus program development software supports a type of diagram called State Transition Diagram (STD). STD uses one kind of box, representing states, and interconnecting lines that represent transitions. EasyCASE Plus is designed for use on microcomputers. WINTHERE: Does your program know when Windows is running? (program for checking if Microsoft Corp. Windows graphical user interface Microsoft Corp recommends that users do not use terminate and stay resident (TSR) or hard disk optimizing programs under Windows. Users also should not run CHKDSK/F under Windows. WINTHERE is a program that checks to see if either an enhanced or standard version of graphical user interface is being used. WINTHERE uses the interrupt multiplexer calls 1600h and 4680h to prompt a message reporting the status of Windows; if an exit code of one is displayed from WINTHERE, then Windows is running. The program also contains a utility macro called Display that makes it easier to display messages onscreen through DOS. Portions of the WINTHERE code can be inserted into TSR or hard disk utility programs in order to prevent them from being run while Windows is running. The code of the new west. (ethical aspects of networks) (Programming Paradigms) Computer networks that encourage communal use of computers and distribution of information promote the humanitarian philosophy computing. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) installed a distributed network in the late 1960's that is still being used. Individual processors operate the whole network rather than a controlled, centralized mainframe. The ARPANET eventually turned into a computer community. Community Memory of Berkeley, CA, started in 1973 and still operates online for the nontechnical public. The Electronic Frontier Foundation strives to encourage members of the computing industry to adopt a philosophical approach to civilize the world of computer networks. The basic tenets are to make computing accessible to the general public and to treat information in an open and free manner. Down memory lane with C. (C Programming) Stevens, Al. The first C computer program language compiler appeared in 1972 was composed by Dennis Ritchie. C had been developed on DEC's PDP-11 computer, and by 1978 it was running on IBM's 370, Honeywell Inc's 6000 and the Interdata 8/32. In 1979, Tom Gibson published 'tiny-c,' a C language subset interpreter that was the first commercially available C language product for microcomputer use. BDS C, a C compiler for use on CP/M operating system, appeared in 1980 written by Leor Zolman. Small C was introduced later in 1980 and was important for users of Intel Corp 8088-based microcomputers; it was also ported to CP/M and DOS later. The number of C compilers grew to 17 in 1986, and by 1989, the object-oriented version C++ had gained popularity. If you care. (evaluation of Borland International Inc.'s Turbo Pascal 6.0 and TEGL Systems Corp.'s TEGL Windows Toolkit II Borland International Inc's $199 Turbo Pascal 6.0, $299.95 for the Professional version, offers access-rights management features that allow the programmer to restrict access rights to object fields and methods at three different levels. Turbo Pascal 6.0 continues to support a units paradigm that acts as a model for limiting object access rights. Each unit contains a public definition part and a private portion called the implementation part. The two parts either allow or deny the code to reference corresponding entities. Subclassing in Turbo Pascal 6.0 must take place under the same unit as the superclass; a child's type method must be implemented in the same implementation section as the parent's. TEGL Systems Corporation's TEGL Windows Toolkit II program development software is a graphics-based event-driven application utility with animation capabilities. TEGL Windows Toolkit II supports bit-mapped graphics. It features pull-down menus, pop-up windows and dialog boxes. We, the people, in the information age: early times in Silicon Valley. (history of computing in Silicon Valley and Dr. Dobb's Bob Albrecht, who founded the People's Computing Center in Palo Alto, CA, during the 1960's, and Dennis Allison founded 'Dr Dobb's Journal' as a result of their developing Basic code for the Altair microcomputer. Rick Bakalinsky, a pasteup artist, concocted the original title 'Dr Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Running Light Without Overbyte.' Doug Englebart, working at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in the late 1960's, produced innovations including the mouse, two-dimensional text editors and on-screen menus. At Xerox Corp's X-PARC research facility, Engelbart's former staff worked on the Alto computer, which was the ancestor of Apple's Macintosh microcomputer. Larry Tesler, who had worked on an alternative university newsletter using a typewriter, later worked on the Macintosh design team and pushed for implementation of a bit-mapped monitor and printer. Fire In the Valley revisited: where there's smoke, there's bound to be fire. (Michael Swaine and Paul Frieberger's history of the The history of microcomputers continues from 1974 with MITS' introduction of the Altair microcomputer kit that started a revolution in computing. Soon afterwards, clubs and magazines were formed, and Microsoft Corp wrote a version of Basic for the Altair. Apple offered its Apple II microcomputer in 1977. Programs such as WordStar and VisiCalc were available at this period. By 1980, Apple was the leading microcomputer producer. Microsoft Corp worked with IBM starting in 1980, and by 1981 IBM announced its PC microcomputers. In 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh microcomputer. The middle 1980's saw increased legislation aimed at stemming computer crimes, and patents were granted for software for the first time. IBM released its PS/2 microcomputer family in 1988, and the Open Software Foundation was formed the same year to create a non-AT&T-based Unix standard. 1990 saw notebook computer introductions and Apple's price reductions on its Macintosh line. The changing landscape of software development: fanning the flames. (future technologies) The current microcomputer industry is mature and stagnant in terms of technological revolution. Basic changes relative to the period when microcomputers first gained popularity do not occur as standard architectures dominate the market. The next computer technology revolution will involve machines that are fundamentally different from the desktop computer used now. The new computers will have an analog-based operating system that responds to input from a pen or stylus. Object-oriented applications will dominate, and the computer will be small, hand-held devices. As with the microcomputer revolution, where a new user base was tapped, the new computers will fill gaps populated by service industries, field workers and blue-collar workers. The evolution of component-based programming. (megaprogramming) (The Changing Landscape of Software Development) Features of object-oriented programming is leading to a new technological method of developing systems software. Megaprogramming involves using component-based software elements that are used in combination to create new software elements. These components are used to combine data with processes that in turn are meant to manipulate that data. Megaprogramming's foundation is built on the use of megamodules that are similar to objects in that they encapsulate functions and procedures, but they involve the fundamental characteristics of a community of software components. Megaprograms manage the megamodules. Megaprograms extent the life of a system, and these systems need to handle change over longer periods of time. Megaprogramming addresses the management of the life cycle of the megasystem. Baby don't you drive my car. (patent law deficiencies) (The Changing Landscape of Software Development) Patent documentation and copyright protection for software contain deficiencies that make it difficult for program developers to ascertain whether the code they are using is protected by law. The Patent Office publishes lists of granted patents against which a programmer might compare his product. Current copyright law holds that any written or created document is protected, but formal registration must be made in the event of future legal instances. The Patent Office assigns software patents to a broad category that is in turn subdivided into many subsidiary classes of which there are further subclasses. In many cases, software is ultimately classified under a certain hardware invention. The desktop environment in computer-based instruction: cognitive foundations and implications for instructional design. (how The 'desktop environment' is a graphical user interface that is user-oriented, friendly, simple and accessible. Tools for such operating environments include word processors, desktop printing applications and paint programs. Apple's HyperCard and Silicon Beach Software's SuperCard are two hypermedia applications that utilize the desktop environment for instructional purposes. Computer-based instruction (CBI) relies on melding instructional content and interface together. The desktop environment generally features the desktop, icons, windows and user interface. Hypermedia applications extend the desktop philosophy by integrating text, graphics, sounds, animation, film clips and other modalities. Developers who use a graphical interface to design CBI can increase user interactivity, give the learner more control, incorporate visuals and embed learning strategies within the lesson. Guidelines for the most effective use of the desktop environment in CBI are also discussed. Creating CAI courseware for college-level instruction: almost anyone can do it. (Apple's HyperCard and TeleRobotics Instructors who know little about computers and design can produce their own computer-assisted instruction (CAI) courseware with authoring systems such as TeleRobotics International Inc's Course Builder and Apple's HyperCard. Authoring systems are sets of pre-designed templates into which course content may be entered. The instructor configures a series of interactional patterns which allow the student to interface with the computer. Instructors simply follow menus to operate an authoring system. Computer-assisted instruction is generally used for tutorial, practice, and simulation functions. Course Builder consists of an array of text, graphics, sound and animation templates that are manipulated by responses the student makes. Course Builder is effective for designing interactive tutorial sequences. Hypercard allows users to design very simple template-based programs as well as very sophisticated programs that use an English-like language called HyperTalk. Computer-managed testing in schools. (research leads to guidelines for efficient use of computer-administered testing) The Clinical Assessment of Writing Skills (CAWS) Project was a research project conducted to determine the most effective methods of obtaining information on aspects of elementary school-aged students' writing and writing-related behaviors. Research data would aid educators in distinguishing normal from disabled writing. One phase of the testing was computerized, the other phase was completed using pencil and paper. The computerized session of the test led to a set of guidelines for computerized testing that may maximize computer-administered testing opportunities in a range of school settings. Researchers determined that software used for testing purposes should be written in an Apple-compatible language given the large percentage of schools with Apple II series computers. Testing software must be designed so that the act of testing does not ruin the product of testing. The software must not blur the distinction between the testee's competence and test performance. Managing chaos (or how to survive the instructional development process). (instructional systems design with flexibility via The instructional development process requires a three-dimensional management model, which is used to track and manage the various projects involved in performing instructional development tasks. Traditional instructional systems design (ISD) models are flawed by linearity and the way in which the instructional development process is represented. A narrowly defined, two-dimensional ISD model lacks a mechanism to allow feedback to be incorporated in intermediate steps of a project. An ISD model that uses only a 'black box' labeled 'develop instructional materials' does not allow enough flexibility to utilize revisions and feedback during the development process. A meta-model for instructional development assists in managing instructional development projects and includes built-in flexibility to use chaotic events in a productive way. A meta-model is comprised of a traditional ISD model, a spiral instructional development model and a fifth-generation management approach. The spiral component allows iterations to be performed at any step in the development process. Computer conferencing: a new tool for business and education? (Training Technology) (column) Computer conferencing is a tool for telecommuting that eliminates the need for face-to-face contact in a variety of business and educational applications. Computer conferencing provides convenient, cost-effective interaction between individuals and groups in different geographic locales. The technology is used for such purposes as education, training, discussion, networking, problem-solving, decision-making, social interaction and collaborative work projects. A computer conferencing system connects participants to a mainframe computer through their own microcomputers, modems and telephone lines. Conferencing software on the mainframe allows users to send and receive text. Computer conferences are organized into items or subjects so that communications are not just random messages. The conference organizer or moderator plans conferences in terms of design issues including content, participants, user interface, training, and technical support. In conversation: Robert M. Gagne and M. David Merrill. (university professors discuss intelligent computer-assisted instruction, Intelligent Computer-Assisted Instruction (ICAI) remains a vague term, often used merely to obtain funding. Robert M. Gagne calls for instruction that teaches strategies for students to use in solving problems or completing a given task. M. David Merrill notes that intelligent tutoring systems are often the products of problematic assumptions. The best instructional model is not always a teacher in front of a class. A 'strong model' of the student is not always a necessary component of a CAI system. A natural language interface is not a requirement for intelligent instructional systems. Gagne feels the computer has its greatest use in the schools in helping students to acquire basic 'automated' skills in reading, arithmetic and writing. Automated skills such as sentence interpretation, decoding, and recognizing syntactic patterns are performed automatically by students, following rules they have internalized. Televised teaching effectiveness: two case studies. (Indiana University's Indiana Higher Education Television System; Media comparison studies reveal that the medium of instruction is not the critical factor in student learning. Indiana University's (IU) recreation and leisure studies program offers televised teaching through the University's Indiana Higher Education Television System (IHETS) for students on campuses other than IU in Bloomington. A telecourse is defined as a learning system for students that incorporates video programs, textbooks and study guides, learning exercises, and a number of additional study aids that may include telephone, mail and face-to-face contact with tutors or instructors. Several research studies have compared traditional instructional formats with instruction via sources such as television, radio, computers and programmed instruction. The results indicate that students generally learn equally from all types of media. Case studies of two telecourses from IU's School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation are discussed. Television aesthetics in education. (the necessary components of television medium for educational purposes) Television aesthetics or television meta-criticism involves examining the central purpose for which television pictures are used, referred to as content; the configuration of TV pictures, referred to as medium; and the direct impact that television pictures have on the viewers of educational television programming, referred to as audience. Television aesthetics has been variously defined by scholars, and there is a movement in 1990 to expand the domain of the field beyond sociological, semiotic or linguistic approaches. Television aesthetics is a complex phenomenon which is better understood when examined from multiple perspectives and disciplines. Perception, cognition and composition are the major areas covered under the newer approach to television aesthetics. Perception, both visual and auditory, requires knowledge of the eye, ear, brain and neurophysiology. Cognition is synonymous with comprehension, interpretation and understanding of pictures and sounds. Composition refers to the structure of television images based on rules of composition that govern the arts, particularly the performing arts. Thomas Jefferson, page design and desktop publishing. (page layout for instructional text with functional emphasis) The four most universally accepted criteria of page design are balance, consistency, contrast and focus. These issues are primarily aesthetic rather than functional; text designers should consider first the function of a piece of instructional text and use design features for clarification of its function. Alexa North and Jack Johnson advocate aesthetic considerations when they discuss balance in page design. They place too little emphasis on functional considerations of text formatting. Functional considerations of page layout include modifying margin widths so that teaching materials may be bound or filed easily. North and Johnson unfortunately advocate consistency in typefaces, typesizes and in the location of page numbers. They omit a consideration of how white space should be used throughout a text. Mass multimedia: classrooms in Shrewsbury, Mass., use multimedia technologies to add "real substance" to numerous curriculum areas. Elementary schools in Shrewsbury, MA, use multimedia technology - the combining of textual, graphic, audio and visual material to create learning tools. Equipment used in the Shrewsbury schools includes Apple IIGS microcomputers with video overlay cards, television monitors, VCR and camcorder. The town's two secondary schools also use videodisc players, CD-ROM players, scanners, digitizers, printers and Apple Macintoshes. Educators says the multimedia tools inspire students and boost their self-esteem by putting together and then showing off multimedia projects. Curriculum areas where multimedia tools are used include: english, history and biology. Laser printers; get printouts of unmatched quality at increasingly affordable prices. (buyers guide) Prices on laser printers have dropped low enough that educators should consider purchasing them. Compatibility is an issue; fortunately, many MS-DOS-based computers can use printers designed for the Apple Macintosh and vice versa. Serious desktop publishers opt for the PostScript page layout technology; less costly technologies are also available. Memory requirements vary according to use, for text printing 512Kbytes of RAM is sufficient, but graphics-intensive printing requires at least 1Mbyte of RAM. PostScript printers usually come with 35 fonts, compared to six to 12 for HP LaserJet printers; additional font cartridges may be purchased. Durability, speed, quality of output and type of interface also merit consideration. The Mac LC; it's a color Macintosh and Apple IIe computer at a rock bottom price. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) The new Apple Macintosh LC marvelously combines color and sound in a superior design. Educators will be attracted by its ability to run Apple IIe software. An Apple IIe Option Card, expected to cost about $200 when it ships in Mar 1991, will turns the Mac LC into a fully functional Apple IIe. The price being offered to educators is $1,600 with two 1.4Mbyte floppy drives and $2,000 with a 40Mbyte hard drive. The Mac LC comes standard with a 16-MHz Motorola 68020 microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, 512Kbytes of VRAM (video random access-memory) capable of generating 256 colors, 512-by-384-pixel color monitor and System 6.0.6 software. Sound can be recorded via System 6.0.6's sound input manager. New math: math software that addresses the NCTM's new curriculum standards. (Software Review) (Hop to It, Lollipop Dragon The three Apple II programs evaluated use a problem-solving approach to teaching math skills; all three are highly recommended. The $65 Hop to It program for grades K-4 from Sunburst Communications of Pleasantville, NY, teaches whole number computational concepts. Students write equations of varying complexity that send animals and a spaceman hopping to and fro on a number line. The $169 Lollipop Dragon Introduces Measurement (English System) from SVE of Chicago uses beautiful color animation to teach grades K-3 estimation and conversion skills. For grades 5-8, the $59 Estimation: Quick Solve I from MECC of St Paul, MN, uses a game to help hone estimation skills. Animal magnetism: new multimedia products let students investigate the world of animals. (Software Review) (Mammals: A Multimedia The $99 Mammals: A Multimedia Encyclopedia from the National Geographic Society is an interactive version of the society's 'Book of Mammals' on CD-ROM. The MS-DOS-based program contains an impressive quantity of material, including 700 photographs and illustrations of animals and 155 animal sounds, that is efficiently organized via a series of menus. An identification game is included. An on-line tutorial is provided, but a printed teaching guide would help. Students are able to navigate original footage from the NOVA TV series via a HyperCard interface with Scholastic Inc.'s $395 Interactive Nova: Animal Pathfinders. Interactive Nova runs on an Apple Macintosh. Both programs have great potential as learning tools. College bound: two new programs to help families explore colleges and their costs. (Software Review) (College Explorer and College Two highly recommended programs for students, parents and guidance counselors trying to choose the right college or university are evaluated. College Explorer and College Cost Explorer are published by The College Board of New York, NY, and cost $59.95 apiece. College Explorer consists of two data bases full of information on 2,800 colleges and universities. Students, parents and teachers build a profile of the college they seek by selecting from among 600 criteria. This program is a good supplement to other resources that can be used to help the student choose an institute of higher education. College Cost Explorer, which is best used in conjunction with College Explorer, helps families determine the cost and how to pay for an education at a particular college. Introduction: how to buy an ILS. (integrated learning system) (An administrator's guide sponsored by Radio Shack Education This special supplement is dedicated to helping educators purchase an integrated learning system (ILS) and is divided into seven sections: needs assessment, courseware, management system, hardware/networking, training and support, and company profile. The guidelines were put together by a special board of advisors made up of individuals who have themselves evaluated, purchased and implemented ILSes for either a particular school or the school district itself. Each category has a section entitled 'Questions to Ask' to help educators make useful inquiries of both teachers and vendors. It is important to assess specific needs before looking for the particular ILS configuration that best suits the job it will be asked to do. It's merger mania in the UK. (business activity in the electronic industries 1990) (Letter from London) The UK electronics industry experienced a plethora of mergers, takeovers and corporate reorganizations in 1990. British Satellite Broadcasting Ltd and Sky Television Ltd merged; Thorn EMI plc acquired Philips International NV's defense electronics arm MEL Ltd and sold its lighting business to General Electric Co of the US; STC plc accepted Northern Telecom Canada Ltd's $3.61 billion takeover offer; Racal Electronics plc announced its intent to reorganize into three separate corporations. British Satellite and Sky TV merged for financial reasons; the major backer, Reed International plc, advocated the deal strongly. It remains to be seen when British high definition television (HDTV) will emerge. Thorn EMI's recent activity amounts to the exact opposite of what executives reported would happen in late 1989. MEL will be integrated into Thorn EMI Electronics' Sensors Division. Is the party over? Or is it just beginning? (One of two articles examining the information technology industry) (column) Retarded growth in the information technology industry may speed up when computer vendors can offer connectivity between multivendor systems. Growth could also return to the industry if vendors address such issues as recent technological developments in the industry, the lack of connectivity available and the absence of new demand in the computer marketplace. Demand drivers such as cooperative processing, operation automation, networked architectures and multimedia are key factors in the restoration of industrial growth. Or is it just beginning? Is the party over? (one of two article examining the information technology industry) Downsizing is causing the lack of demand for information technology. Inexpensive microprocessor-based alternatives to mainframe and minicomputer systems offer much lower price per unit performance. These systems can exceed the processing, storage, and communications capabilities of the largest mainframe systems. Traditional mainframe and minicomputer systems have exorbitant costs because of their proprietary architectures, operating systems and networking created semimonopoly franchises. As open systems diminish the revenues of traditional systems, the demand for traditional systems will decline. HDTV? No, super TV. (Faroudja Research Enterprises Inc. tests enhanced-definition television technology)(Worldwide News) Faroudja Research Enterprises Inc began a five month test of its low cost enhanced-definition television technology, which precedes the arrival of high-definition television (HDTV). SuperNTSC markedly improves the quality of TV signals while complying with the waveform and channel-allocation specification of the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC). A SuperNTSC picture, therefore, does not require approval from the US Federal Communications Commission. Faroudja's testing project is being financed by Capital Cities/ABC Television, Comcast, Continental Cablevision, General Instrument, Newhouse, Scientific Atlanta, Tele-communications, Viacom and Westinghouse Broadcasting. The objectives of the tests are to prove NTSC compatibility over all media, to gauge consumer response to the enhancements and to introduce SuperNTSC encoded productions to users. Design duet. (HP's HP 3078 and Schlumberger Automatic Test Equipment's S780 circuit board testers) (product announcement) HP introduces the HP 3078 system, and Schlumberger Automatic Test Equipment introduces the S780 combinational tester. The $460,000 HP 3078 functional board tester is a joint development with Mentor Graphics Corp and allows test-program development and board design to take place simultaneously. The $250,000 S780, like the HP 3078, uses software to port design data into the test-development workstation in order to reduce test-development time. Concurrent engineering is expected to help transform the automatic test equipment (ATE) market, which fell 8 percent from $640 million in 1989 to $589 million in 1990. Mentor Graphics modified its Quickgrade and Quickfault software to develop tools that facilitate parallel development of circuit board design and test programs. Preview and Fixturing are the software applications in the HP 3078. The S780 comes with similar software. A novelty no more. (Intel Corp.'s Digital Video Interactive, Chips and Technologies Inc.'s PC Video and New Media Graphics Corp.'s Several multimedia companies are announcing chips, boards and software that make the technology more affordable. Intel Corp introduced its Digital Video Interactive (DVI) chip set. The company also released a second-generation two-chip set comprised of a pixel and display processor that costs about $85. All the components needed to create a DVI board with a variety of multimedia functions will cost a system developer about $280. Chips & Technologies Inc introduced the $40 PC Video chip, which allows programmable windowing control functions to scale and position the video window at any pixel location on the screen. For $150, PC Video users can create a board capable of video digitizing and display. New Media Graphics Corp introduced the $695 Super VideoWindows multifunction board that runs under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and HP's New Wave 3.0. Cutting out cleaning. (electronics industries seek alternatives to chlorofluorocarbon-based cleaning of circuit boards) Environmental concerns over the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have led to a worldwide ban of CFCs by 2000, and electronics executives are accordingly seeking out alternative methods of cleaning printed-circuit boards and other electronic equipment. Electronics companies contribute up to one fifth of the CFC consumption worldwide in part because the US Department of Defense's quality assurance specification requires cleaning with CFCs; about 50 percent of all electronics products are manufactured per military specification. The Institute of Packaging and Interconnection of Circuitry is conducting a three phase program to investigate cleaning products and possible alternatives. Phase three studies the use of nonrosin-based fluxes and pastes. The program will examine CFC alternatives outside the realm of vapor cleaning such as semiaqueous cleaning, aqueous cleaning and water-soluble fluxes. 1991: the year of living dangerously. (Electronics' forecast projects growth in the electronic equipment and components Industry analysts expect growth in worldwide consumption of electronic equipment and components in 1991, but due to economic recession and the Persian Gulf crisis, many are unwilling to predict how much. The Electronic Industries Association reports a 3.5 percent growth rate for the US electronics industry in 1990; the American Electronics Association reports a 4 percent growth rate. The Electronics forecast projects growth of 9.5 percent overall in 1991 making worldwide electronic equipment and components markets to $635 billion. Analysts expect growth in the computer, communications and consumer electronics sectors. The semiconductors industry is expected to see a 6 percent growth rate, despite the price decrease of dynamic random-access memories, bringing the industry to $46 billion worldwide. The greatest growth is on the desktop. (1991 forecasts for the computer industry) Computer industry analysts forecast 12.4 percent year-to-year growth for 1991 with the majority of sales in the engineering workstation, high-end microcomputer and on line transaction processing (OLTP) minicomputers. Software products are expected to increase 15 percent from $42.5 billion in 1990 to $48.9 billion. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) applications are expected to contribute significantly to the growth. Analysts predict 26 percent to 40 percent growth rates for engineering workstations in 1991. Many companies have shifted to reduced instruction set computer (RISC) technology in workstations; RISC processors will account for 78 percent of the workstations installed in 1991. Microcomputer sales will increase more than 15 percent. The OLTP market is growing at double the rate of the overall computer industry. Continuously running computers represent a leading market opportunity. A strong year in Germany, lower growth in Japan. (1991 forecasts for the international computer and office equipment market)(Data Analysts forecast solid growth in the international computer industry, particularly in Germany due to its Oct 1990 unification. Analysts predict an 11.5 percent growth rate for Germany's computer and office equipment market, which is an increase from West Germany's average annual 10 percent growth rate. The German computer market, including software and services, was $16.6 billion in 1990, and is expected to reach $18.5 billion in 1991. Services and software claim 40 percent of the German computer market with services accounting for most of the portion. Professional microcomputers represent the fastest-growing hardware sector with $2,500 price tags. Midrange systems cost up to $65,000. Analysts expect over 20 percent growth rates in each sector. In France, the data processing and office equipment market is expected to increase 10 percent to $17.5 billion; Italy will reach $2.2 billion in 1991. It looks like another year of double-digit growth. (industry forecasting)(Communications) Communications industry analysts forecast 1991 worldwide growth in revenues to fall in the range of 15 percent for telecommunications and 20 percent for data communications. Analysts expect minimum revenues of $76 billion. Internetworking equipment such as bridges and routers will experience a 25 percent growth rate in the US, 40 percent in Europe, and 50 percent in Japan and the Far East. Sales of fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) products will also increase substantially. Data traffic in the US is predicted to exceed voice traffic for high-bandwidth business users. Voice-compression technology will contribute to the decrease of private-branch-exchange traffic from 80 percent in 1984-86 to 40 percent in 1993-95, a period when video is expected to comprise 10 percent of all traffic. Shared network services will increase 12 percent to 15 percent worldwide. Europe looks forward to robust growth. (industry forecasts for Germany, UK, France, Italy and Japan)(Communications) Communications industry analysts forecast growth in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Japan. The Oct 1990 unification of Germany will contribute to a 20 percent growth rate for public telephone and data-switching equipment. Consumption of fax terminals and private switches is expected to grow 10 percent to 15 percent. German telecom authorities will spend some $36 billion expanding and modernizing the communications system between 1991 and 1997. The UK telecommunications markets are expected to increase 2 percent above the $9.85 billion attained in 1990. France is expected to see a 5 percent growth rate in its public telecommunications markets. France will also invest $350 million in fiber-optic cable in 1991. Italy's market for public switching and transmission is growing faster than its private counterpart. Cordless telephones will lead growth in the communications market in Japan. A so-so year ahead for consumer electronics. (industry forecasts) Teschler, Lee. Consumer electronics industry analysts predict that factory shipments will grow at a rate of about 4 percent in the US in 1991. Growth will be concentrated in such areas as cellular telephones, home office equipment, vehicular audio and security and small-format camcorders. Television manufacturers predict a flat to down year overall with moderate sales growth in large-screen TVs. Suppliers of compact camcorders foresee continued growth in 8-mm and VHS-C formats; sales could increase 30 percent. Analysts forecast 35 percent to 40 percent growth in sales of video disc players in 1991. New products such as digital-audio-tape (DAT) players may boost the audio market in 1991; Sony expects DAT to expand when prerecorded tapes become available commercially. Cellular telephone shipments will probably grow at a 25 percent growth rate. Phone service suppliers continue to decrease prices of the mobile phones. Eastern buying spree buoys Germany. (consumer electronics analysts forecast growth in Europe and Far East)(Consumer) Consumer electronics industry analysts forecast growth in East Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Japan during 1991. Sales in the German consumer electronics market increased 10 percent to $13.9 billion. The growth was spurred by some 16.5 million new consumers in pre-unification East Germany eager to buy audio and video equipment. The German market is expected to rise 7 percent in 1991 to $14.8 billion. Analysts anticipate the French market to increase 6 percent in 1991 to $4.5 billion. French exports rose 35 percent between 1989 and 1990, and should continue to increase in 1991. Videocassette recorder (VCR) sales in France are near $1 billion. The UK may see no more than a 1 percent increase in electronics sales. Analysts forecast an increase of about 6 percent to 8 percent in the Italian consumer electronics market during 1991. The Pacific Rim market should grow 7 percent and the Japanese market 3 percent in 1991. The chip business has a worried look. (semiconductor industry analysts forecast growth in 1991)(Semiconductors) Semiconductor industry analysts forecast growth in 1991, but are uncertain about the dimensions of the growth. Market research at Dataquest Inc suggests industry growth of 15 percent, but executives are cautious about the forecast. The Semiconductor Industry Association predicts 12.5 percent growth, but qualifies its forecast by adding that a Persian Gulf war could cut the figure in half. In-Stat Inc forecasts a 3.3 percent increase in worldwide sales in 1991. Analysts blame persisting softness in the computer market, rising inflation, and the depressed auto and housing industries for the low growth in the semiconductor industry. Metal oxide semiconductor memory (MOS) was unsuccessful in 1990, and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) consumption dropped 19 percent. Reduced-instruction-set computing (RISC) is expected to encourage industry growth in 1991. Slow growth seen as the 4-Mbit DRAM takes hold. (price decrease in 1M-bit dynamic random access memories could limit industry growth Semiconductor industry analysts forecast growth of 10 percent to 11 percent for the European market in 1991 despite continuing price erosion for dynamic random access memories (DRAM), which account for 20 percent to 25 percent of global semiconductor sales. In Germany, prices for 1M-bit DRAMs dropped 65 percent from the Jan 1990 level to $5 apiece by the close of 1990. Price erosion is expected to continue unless problems are encountered during the transition from 1 to 4M-bit DRAM production. Automotive electronics, consumer electronics, data and office processing equipment and telecommunications equipment sectors are all expected to contribute to industry growth. Germany forecasts an 11 percent growth rate for its electronic sectors; France anticipates a 7 percent to 10 percent increase; Italy forecasts growth at the 10 percent level; the UK predicts a 5 percent to 7 percent increase. Production and test gear falter, but CAD is strong. (1991 forecasts for semiconductor production equipment and Industry analysts anticipate a flat or down year in 1991 for engineering tools and production equipment used to design and build electronic components and systems. Semiconductor production equipment will drop about 4 percent worldwide in 1991. Analysts forecast strong sales of systems for building submicron process technology, but anticipate a decrease in sales for older systems used to increase production capacity. Mixed analogue and digital automatic test equipment will sell, but commodity logic and memory testers will be less successful. Design automation systems will continue to grow in 1991; the computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) market should grow 27 percent to nearly $2 billion. Next generation equipment for test and measurement and semiconductor production will include machines designed to handle the larger 8-inch wafers and submicron geometries. Brighter prospects in Europe and Asia. (semiconductor production equipment manufacturers turn to foreign markets to compensate for Semiconductor production equipment and test and measurement systems manufacturers are turning to Asian and European markets to compensate for weakened US demand. Computer-aided design and engineering (CAD/CAE) companies regard European and Asian demand as equal to or greater than US demand. Test and measurement equipment (T&M) sales are expected to remain at about $580 million in Germany if 1991 is a no-growth year. Analysts forecast a 6 percent sales growth rate for France's $300 million T&M market; Italy's sales are expected to increase less than 5 percent. Sales for T&M business are strong in the Far East where the falling American dollar halved the cost of products in Japan. CAD/CAE remains strong in France; the T&M market increased 30 percent in Italy in 1990 and is expected to rise 21 percent in 1991. Fine tuning expands the bounds of data acquisition. (Special Report: Data Acquisition & Control) Data acquisition hardware and software continues to get better and better. The latest trends in data acquisition systems (DASs) show that DASs and SCADA that use phone lines and radio communications have a significant part in the remote monitoring of chemical emissions. Another trend is using statistical process control/quality control to minimize waste and improve product quality and consistency. There are four personal computer buses, the ISA, EISA, Micro Channel Architecture, and NuBus, that are contending for DAS users market. At the A/D component level, the trend is to parallel developments in the computer industries. A significant trend through 1993 is expected to be the growing need for A/Ds and DACs to have direct interfaces to digital signal processors. Ease of use is the goal in software. Graphics user interfaces, programming, and moving user-performed hardware tasks to software are the major trends in software. Standardizing the accessing of data may become a key issue in data acquisition. Choosing a computer platform for data acquisition applications. (Special Report: Data Acquisition & Control; includes a related Choosing a computer platform for industrial data acquisition applications depends on the real-time requirements of an application and what the computer can support. The major requirements of the complete data acquisition system must be identified before selecting a computing platform, acquisition hardware, and software. The important criteria are processing speed, storage capacity, graphics capability, and capability of accepting and controlling an effective data acquisition card or interface to an external system. A decision about software must be made: menu-driven packages are easier to run but may not be able to grow with the company's needs; language-based packages require more learning time but have a reserve for future data acquisition applications. Multiprocessing on high-end bus architectures. (includes related article on efficient use of bus bandwidth; part 9 of Bus Designers must evaluate a number of capabilities when selecting a standard bus architecture for a distributed multiprocessor system. The first factor is if the bus meets the system's minimum bandwidth requirements. The maximum data transfer rates provided by VMEbus and Multibus II are about 35Mbytes/s. Futurebus+ provides a range of transfer rates. The data transfer protocol is another important factor to consider. VMEbus is optimized for the maximum in flexibility and speed. Multibus II trades speed and flexibility for ease of design. Bus arbitration can affect the design. VMEbus uses centralized arbitration and Multibus II uses a parallel arbitration protocol. Futurebus+ probably will adopt both parallel and centralized arbitration. Hardwired interrupts is the basis of the VMEbus interrupt protocol. Multibus II, which does not provide hardware interrupt lines, uses prioritized software interrupts. Futurebus+ does not provide hardware interrupts; it uses an interrupting board to broadcast an 8-bit pattern. The choice is determined by the application's requirements and designer's individual preferences. Fifteenth annual control valve update. Ekelmans, A.J.; Tagliaferro, M.S. The demand for control valves is not expected to grow in 1991. The Valve Manufacturing Association says that domestic valve demand in 1990 will finish with shipments of $2.627 billion, less than a 1 percent increase over 1989. The Association projects that this weak demand will continue into the first half of 1992. Shipments to the petroleum industry are expected to increase, but these gains will be offset by a decline in shipments in commercial construction and power generation. There have been advancements in control valve technology, but these advancements are of a basic mechanical nature and are not glamorous. New control valve applications are coming about because of new materials or novel uses of existing materials. The hottest topic for 1991 is expected to be fugitive emissions. More computers will tackle total plant management. (Market Outlook '91) Lowering prices and more features and improved operator interfaces are making computers more attractive to industrial users. The 1990s should see the use of common microprocessors, standard operating systems, and user interfaces, all of which will contribute to diminishing product differences in computer hardware. More industrial end users will use computers for total plant management. Traditional host/terminal configurations will be replaced by the client/server approach. Packaged software solutions are being supplied by vendors who are targeting specific industrial applications and/or end user industries. Users are going more and more for open systems because of flexibility, economical system expansion, ability to select units with the best set of features for a particular function, reliability, remote calibration and diagnostic capability, reduced cabling costs, lower overall installed cost, and higher performance. Process controller market to grow 13.8% annually. (Market Outlook '91) The compound annual growth rate for the industrial process control industry is expected to be 13.8 percent until 1995. The market for the nonmicroprocessor-based controllers for temperature, flow, and pressure is expected to decline. Microcomputer-based hardware and software control products are projected as the fastest growing segments. There are three geographic areas for the total world market - US, Western Europe, Asia/Rest-of-the-World. The US market share is expected to drop to 46 percent by 1995 from 52 percent in 1988; Western Europe should achieve a 33.5 percent market share by 1995, up from 29 percent in 1988; and Asia/Rest-of-the-World should grow to 21 percent by 1995 from 19 percent in 1988. There are four categories in the world process controller market: PLCs, which should achieve $3.9 billion in revenue in 1995; distributed control systems, where revenues should hit $2.8 billion in 1995; PID loop controllers, where revenues should reach $2.9 billion in 1995; and microcomputer-based controllers, including software, with projected revenues in 1995 of $1.5 billion, of which $672 million will be spent on hardware and $784.3 million on control software products. U.S. demand for sensors and transducers reached $3.86 billion in 1990. (Market Outlook '91) Sensor demand continues to grow, reaching $3.86 billion in 1990 in the US; another $808 million was produced for export. Sensors, particularly smart sensors, are expected to play a major part in the modernization of US industrial infrastructure. Sales of Coriolis mass flowmeters continue strong and have gone from $42.2 million in 1987 to $109.8 million in 1990; this growth rate is expected to continue in the 1990s. Magnetic flowmeters sales have grown from $61.1 million in 1987 to $114.5 million in 1990. Another rapidly growing area is open channel flow metering. Declining in popularity are vortex shedding and ultrasonic flowmeters. Sales of traditional temperature sensors have remained strong. In level and tank gauging, mechanical devices continue to lose market share to electronic units. All types of pressure transducers and transmitters had combined shipments of over $750 million in 1990. Smart sensors and transmitters networked by digital communication links are expected to become more important by the mid-1990s. World PLC market to hit $5.5 billion mark by 1996. (programmable logic controllers) (Market Outlook '91) The total market for small, medium, and large PLCs and associated software is projected to reach $5.5 billion by 1996, up from 1989's $2.7 billion. Factors contributing to this growth include plant modernization, technology developments, and environmental regulations. Key market and technology trends include increasing capability, continuing advances in microprocessor and computer technology, development of integrated PLCs, increasing preference for UNIX-based systems and software, and development of software for integrated PLCs. Third-party software manufacturers are a significant part of the software market in the US. Third-party vendors have a smaller presence in the Western Europe and Asian markets. Operator interfaces key to future of automation. (Market Outlook '91) The widespread acceptance of automation systems has been helped by advancements in operator interface (OI) technology. Intelligent OI devices are expected to enable fewer operators to perform more tasks and to access multiple information sources directly from the shop floor. Industrial CRT terminals, microcomputers, and workstations will all continue to be used. A crucial issue for manufacturing end users is standardization. There is a push to adopt standard user interfaces; part of this push is the desire for plant-wide integration. Flat panels are becoming more popular than CRTs because they are inherently compact and rugged and can be mounted in tight spaces. Coprocessor turns PLC into efficient database handler. (the Modicon 984B programmable logic controller used by Caterpillar The Morton Parts Distribution Center of Caterpillar Inc is in the middle of a five-year materials handling modernization project. Part of this project is conveying and tracking containers of incoming parts, which are received from contract packaging firms and then shipped to company depots around the world. This new conveying and tracking system, which includes a powerful and integrated data base handler, reduces forklift and train handling labor, increases throughput, and eliminates staging floorspace. Another part of the modernization project is to computerize inventory tracking more thoroughly. A host computer was not yet installed, so Caterpillar asked Rapistan Corp to include hardware and software that could handle machine control, initial standalone data base handling, and communications with the host when one is installed. A Modicon 984B programmable controller handles the machine control/data base/communications function. A newly developed Modicon coprocessor module has recently been added to the PLC as a realtime data base handler. Two engineers spent only three weeks programming the coprocessor and the PLC data base. Micro PLC has big features. (AEG Modicon's Compact 984) (product announcement) AEG Modicon announces the Compact 984, the first new product developed in a cooperative effort between engineering groups in the US and Germany since AEG acquired Modicon in Jul 1988. The Compact 984 is a micro programmable controller targeted for both OEMs and end users. The Compact 984 is eight inches long, five inches wide and five inches high; it is fully compatible with the other products in the 984 line and can handle up to 256 I/O. It can be used as a standalone, can be attached to a modem in a remote location, or can be used as part of a plant-wide network hierarchy. It uses the A-120 series of I/O modules. There are three models: the 984-120 with 1.5Kbytes of program memory costs $400; the 984-130 with 4Kbytes of program memory costs $700, and the 984-145 with 8Kbytes of program memory costs $1,300. Weight controller supplies continuous weight update. (Hardy Instruments' 2151/20WC) The HI 2151/20WC weight controller from Hardy Instruments continuously records and displays units of weight even if the controller is subjected to strong vibrations or motion frequency. The unit is suitable for use in process industry applications where vibration is used to move materials, such as food ingredients or dry chemicals, into the production process. The weight controller functions even when mixers are running and gives accurate readings, eliminating the need to use weight hoppers. It has a 1:1,000,000 resolution. Front panel keys are used to set up and calibrate the controller. Programmable controller uses twisted-pair I/O network. (Mitsubishi Electronics' A2C) (product announcement) Mitsubishi Electronics introduces the A2C distributed programmable controller, a rackless programmable controller that uses distributed I/O to provide application flexibility. The operating strategy is 'centralized intelligence, decentralized control.' The system has a CPU module to provide the centralized intelligence. Distributed control is provided by I/O modules and special function modules. Twisted-pair cabling is used, resulting in a significant reduction in design and installation costs; twisted-pair can maintain data transfer rates of 1.5M-bps. The CPU module can be used for standalone operations, or coaxial or fiber-optic cabling can be used to connect it to Mitsubishi's MELSECNET network. The A2C can connect with the MELSEC NET local area network so it can connect all MELSEC A programmable controllers. Development of a blackboard shell with context blackboard-based control loop. (technical) Best-match-pair is proposed as a new strategy for the control mechanism of blackboard systems. A generalised blackboard shell with the strategy as the control loop is proposed, which evaluates both solution areas and knowledge sources explicitly. This approach improves the system performance by providing a balanced status feedback between potential knowledge sources and promising solution areas for system control and replanning. It also enhances the system performance by supporting viewpoint reasoning, shadow reasoning, and various meta-level applications, e.g., viewpoint explanation, knowledge acquisition, etc. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Expert compactor: a knowledge-based application in VLSI layout compaction. (very large scale integration) (technical) A new application of artificial intelligence techniques in automatic compaction design for a VLSI mask layout is presented. To overcome the shortcomings of iterative search through a large problem space within a working memory, and therefore, to speed up the runtime of compaction, a set of rule-based region query operations and knowledge-based techniques for the plane sweep method are presented in this system. Experimental results have explored the possibility of using expert system technology to automate the compaction process by reasoning about the layout design, applying the sophisticated expert rules to its knowledge base. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Novel cell architecture for bit level systolic arrays multiplication. (technical) A novel cell architecture for bit level systolic array multiplication is presented. It is used for the design of a serial-parallel and an iterative pipelined multiplier. The new architecture is a result of combining, in a novel way, the operation of two-gated full-adder cell used in conventional multipliers. The new cell circumvents the insertion of zeros in structures with contraflow data streams. As a result, the array is used with 100% efficiency, and the throughput rate is doubled in comparison to most systolic arrays using the contraflowing approach. This is achieved without any increase in hardware, nor the use of a special clock circuitry. Performance analysis of the new multipliers and existing ones has shown the superiority of the new architecture. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Tristage Hough transform for multiple ellipse extraction. (technical) The importance of rapid and accurate extraction of ellipses in images for model-based computer vision systems has long been recognised. The Hough transform technique has established itself as a robust method for shape extraction, however, its application to ellipses has been restricted by excessive computational and storage requirements. Direct extension of the Hough technique to ellipses is particularly demanding since a five-dimensional accumulator array is required. This paper presents a novel tristage technique for ellipse extraction based on decomposing the problem into sequentially executed stages. Candidate ellipse centres are determined using an improved centre-finding procedure and novel Hough-based procedures extract the remaining parameters in two further stages. Although multistage parameter extraction is not new, many of the problems that exist in previous schemes are resolved. In the new technique, the dimensionality of the accumulator arrays used does not exceed two, while their ranges are predefined. Memory savings are therefore significant. Concentric ellipses of the same orientation are shown to be extracted with little extra computational demand. Two extractions of the tristage technique to multiple ellipse extraction are presented and compared. When applied to real images, the new technique extracted multiple, concentric ellipses reliably and with reduced complexity. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Test generation within an expert system environment. (technical) Cosgrove, S.J.; Musgrave, G. Gate-level test pattern generation (TPG) techniques are inadequate when considering the complexity and variety of today's circuits. Hence, more abstract approaches must be developed so that TPG efficiency can be increased and inherent bottleneck between test planning and TPG reduced. As an expert system attempts to model human reasoning, functional TPG approaches must be used within such an environment as opposed to algorithmic gate-level methods which are beyond the capability of human understanding, memory and reasoning, whereas functional approaches map directly to the human thought process; unfortunately these methods have not been fully developed. The paper discusses how such a test generation approach can be used within an expert system, furthermore a number of heuristics are described to show how TPG can be simplified within such an environment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Analytic models for performance evaluation of single-buffered banyan networks under nonuniform traffic. (technical) The performance of single-buffered banyan networks under certain nonuniform traffic patterns had been studied by Garg and Huang. However, the models used are over simplified and the results obtained may deviate from exact values significantly. Alternative models to achieve more accurate performance estimates are presented. In our models, the destinations of blocked packets residing in the buffers of nodes at stage 1 (and perhaps stage 2, depending on the matrix traffic) are memorised. Compared to those adopted by Garg and Huang, our models are only slightly more complicated. By viewing banyan networks as queueing systems, we apply Little's formula to compute the average packet delays. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Disjoint decomposition of Boolean functions. (technical) Poswig, J. The minimisation of Boolean functions is a classical problem. This paper deals with the set of functions which satisfy the equation f(X)=h(g(X1),X2) where the variable set X is given by the disjoint union of any sets X1 and X2. We present an efficient method in the Boolean domain which is based on the theory of Boolean differential calculus and the spectral development using the Walsh transform. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) New iterative construction approach to routing with compacted area. (technical) The new iterative construction approach presented in this paper consists of three algorithms, namely, channel expansion routing, track assignment, and module location refinement. These algorithms, contrary to the conventional methods implemented with a sequence of tools separately, are linked with a common data structure which guarantees a maximal compatibility. With an initial overlapping placement as input, the iterative construction approach generates a final layout with more compacted area than the layout result from the one-dimensional compactor of some two-dimensional compactors. Several layout examples in the literature are tested to show the effectiveness of our approach. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) The art of artificial reality. Haggerty, Michael. Myron Krueger is the father or founder of unencumbered artificial reality. He has been working for over 20 years developing interactive works that challenge the divisions between artwork and viewer, science and art; the viewer is part of the art. When he began working with interactive art in 1969, Krueger held the opinion that the most important aspect of the work was the viewer's influence on the piece. Krueger says participants in his works 'start doing things that look preposterous if seen separate from the screen.' He is interested in using the body as an input device and in the viewer's reactions to the changes in the graphics. Krueger calls his work an 'aesthetic approach to computers.' A functional view of proteins. Olson, Arthur J.; Goodsell, David S. Computer graphics is one way to produce comprehensible views of structural information, which help researchers relate the thousands of atomic positions in a complex molecule to the biological functions that the molecule performs. Bond diagrams and shaded spheres are two of the traditional methods used in molecular visualization. Computation and computer graphics are now being used to generate new representations, which help scientists see global patterns and use structure to hypothesize function. A new method of visualizing aggregate molecular properties is to use volume rendering techniques in conjunction with geometric rendering. Reconstructing history with computer graphics. Woodwark, John. Work done at Bath University in the early 1980s, which may have been the first application of solid modeling and possibly of computer graphics to archaeological reconstruction, used computer graphics to generate a view of the buildings of Roman Bath. Work done on a 32-bit VAX 11/730 in 1983 showed that ray casting into space-divided models could be a powerful tool for use in the field of graphics. Staff at the IBM UK Scientific Centre have produced a number of archaeological graphics that are both reconstructions and displays of data. Work continues, under sponsorship of the City of Bath, to extend the model of Roman Bath and to produce a video to explain the layout to visitors. More accurate simulations at faster rates. Greenberg, Donald P. The predictions for the trends in computer graphics for the decade of the 1990s include a vast increase in model complexity, global illumination algorithms becoming the standard, progressive rendering algorithms, and progressive modeling systems. Additional trends include physically based light reflection models and elimination of display lists. Simulations will migrate to four or more dimensions as the dimension of time and the display of multidimensional parameters are added. There will be a radical change in the design of graphics hardware and the graphics pipeline. The biggest challenge is for users to 'untrain' themselves, to stop using past approaches and use the new technology to ask the right questions. Art and animation. Csuri, Charles A. It is predicted that by the year 2000 artistic activity with the computer will significantly impact educational institutions and culture in general. During the 1980s production houses of artists, animators, and film makers led the way in computer graphics, using computer graphics to make commercials. The spectacular rate of change is expected to continue. The 1980s brought significant developments in rendering, animation systems, motion control, and image processing, but considerable work remains to be done in developing software for geometric modeling. Research is also challenged to determine how to represent realistic creature motion. Artists are expected to use more live action film and image processing techniques to modify the images. Artists are also expected to routinely use the capabilities that come from integrating lower-level systems with the use of object-oriented programming languages. Virtual reality is expected to replace computer art. Computer folk art is expected to emerge in the 1990s. The business of computer graphics. Machover, Carl. US computer graphics companies shipped approximately $19 billion worth of goods and services in 1990, and the market is expected to sustain at least 10 percent per year dollar volume growth through 1995; US shipments should reach a minimum of $30 billion by 1995. This forecast is based on low market saturation. It is estimated that less than 10 percent of the people who could benefit by using computer graphics actually use computer graphics. The 1990s should see healthy growth in the computer graphics industry with double-digit compound annual unit growth continuing through the decade. The 1990s should see the distinction between workstations and microcomputers blurring even more than in the late 1980s. High-speed fiber-optic networks should become generally available. Computer graphics will continue to be important in the 1990s. Computer graphics hardware. Staudhammer, John. Analysis of computer graphics hardware in the 1980s and 1990s encompasses over two orders of magnitude in the engine power driving the technology. One maxim of forecasting is having 20/20 hindsight, but myopic foresight. The second maxim is that an order of magnitude change in anything alters the way that thing is done. The human eye is expected to continue as the principal way information is transferred to a human, and computer graphics will be the paramount technology used to exploit this communication channel. The norm in computer uses will be visualization. Graphics renderers will continue to use superworkstations, but development of microcomputer-based workstations will grow rapidly. Memory sizes will increase. Medical uses, including imaging, planning, general patient care and preventive medicine, will be the most publicly visible use of computer graphics in the 1990s. Standards: Past tense and future perfect? (includes related article on standards process) There are three kinds of standards: formally approved; industry accepted but not formally approved by accredited standards-making bodies; and irrelevant, which might also be formally approved. Computer graphics also has another type of standards, that of data sets used to test graphics systems. Standards must be timely, must be relevant, and must be able to be implemented. The issues that standards in the 1990s must deal with include scope, target, size and complexity, technology, understanding, automation, end users, and test and validation. There are several possible directions for standards to take in the 1990s: the use of standards to aid cooperation or used as a weapon to retain or increase market share; an increase in complexity; formal methods becoming more common; standards available as electronic documents; test suites developed simultaneously with the standard; and the scope becoming ever broader. What is multimedia? Grimes, Jack; Potel, Mike. The definition of multimedia remains unsettled; the term means different things to different people. The term frequently is used to mean any combination of text, graphics, animation, sound and video. Frequently what users get is multiple media, not multimedia. In multiple media, the media are physically colocated but not integrated. There are too many dissimilar interfaces in multimedia currently. Considerable machine resources are needed to run multimedia. Multimedia is not a market, it is a technology, a way to communicate. A recent projection says the multimedia market will reach $0 billion by 1995 because everything will be multimedia. New information is created by multimedia because it can juxtapose data that were not otherwise adjacent. The key to multimedia is having tools that permit people to navigate through information as they see fit. The challenge is to create a single new media and user interface out of the several multisensory parts that make up multimedia. Computer graphics in medicine: the past decade. Rhodes, Michael L. Computer graphics in medicine have grown from an occasional use as a data presentation aid to its current routine application in clinical procedures. When computer graphics were applied to magnetic resonance, the true value of computer graphics became apparent. The use of computer graphics in medicine is now wide-spread and the graphics deliver unprecedented diagnostic and surgical information. The most successful medical graphics applications are those that respond to clinical needs, the ones in the best clinical focus, not necessarily the most sophisticated graphics. On NURBS: a survey. (technical) Piegl, Les. Rational and B-splines are the two major ingredients of NURBS, a widely accepted standard tool for geometry representation and design. Reasons for this acceptance are: they offer a common mathematical form to represent and design standard analytic shapes and free-form curves and surfaces; flexibility to design a wide variety of shapes; fast and computationally stable evaluation; clear geometric interpretations; a powerful geometric tool kit; invariance under scaling, rotation, translation, shear, and parallel and perspective projection; genuine generalizations of nonrational B-spline forms as well as rational and nonrational Bezier curves and surfaces. Shapes can be modified several ways with the definition of NURBS: by repositioning control points, changing the weights, modifying the knot vector, or moving data points and reinterpolating. Parallel boxing in B-spline intersection. (technical) Yen, Jonathan; Spach, Susan; Smith, Mark; Pulleyblank, Ron. B-splines are a common surface representation, which is central to geometric modeling. Parallelizing selected computational components accelerates B-spline intersection, which speeds mechanical and engineering design. Oriented slab boxing is a modified formulation of oriented boxing that almost doubles the speed of the oriented boxing component in B-spline intersection. Oriented slab boxing gives the same boxing results as oriented min-max boxing. This simple and fast method is suitable for a parallel implementation. Hardware-assisted polygon antialiasing. (technical) Barkans, Anthony c. Modern integrated circuit technology permits the use of more complex rendering algorithms instead of simpler approximate algorithms in computer graphics hardware. The point-sampling method can replace the extended Bresenham algorithm (EBA) in rendering hardware. Using the stochastic method of antialiasing permits taking advantage of the subpixel positioning available with point sampling. The number of passes required to antialias an image can be greatly reduced by using the stochastic method. Rendering hardware can support high-speed interactive image generation if modern VLSI technology is used. Function plotting using conic splines. (technical) Hu, Jianying; Pavlidis, Theo. Intermediate files where many points describe the plot of a function are the results of most device-independent plotting packages, but these files are usually quite large and may not permit the best use of high-resolution output devices. An alternate method is: given a mathematical description of a function, produce a conic spline approximating the function's plot. The disadvantage of this method is that a plotter for the primitive curves must be included. This method uses conic arcs as the primitive curves. Advantages to conic curves are that they are rational in parametric form and have great flexibility in matching a desired shape; they do not have inflection points; and the incremental algorithms are simple and efficient. A new split-and-merge algorithm is presented. This algorithm chooses the knots according to shape analysis of the original function based on its first-order derivatives. A trip down the graphics pipeline: line clipping. (column) Blinn, James F. A pipeline in computer graphics is an assembly-line-like process that geometric objects go through as they become pixels on a screen. An algorithm for a good way to do clipping is presented. The primary goal is to have the clipper decide if it is or is not needed and, if not, get out of the way. Not doing clipping at all is the best way to speed up clipping. The outcode machinery permits this to be done in a very straightforward manner. Demanding applications need high-performance networks. Myers, Ware. Ultra Network Technologies Pres Stan Tenold says, 'Demanding applications like finite-element analysis require the computing performance of a supercomputer.' His company offers a network that meets the ANSI High-Performance Parallel Interface (Hippi) standard. Network Systems also offers a network that meets the Hippi standard. Silicon Graphics, when working on connecting graphics workstations and computers, found Ethernet a little slow; the company has invested in improving the speed at which the protocol operates to overcome the Ethernet problem. Silicon Graphics offers fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) network boards; FDDI provides a network speed that is an order-of-magnitude increase over Ethernet. Integrating ISDN and OSI: an example. (Integrated Services Digital Network, Open Systems Interconnection) (technical) The results of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) OSI/ISDN multivendor trial demonstrated the interoperability of ISDN and OSI networks. NIST felt that ISDN's interoperability with OSI technologies had to be demonstrated before ISDN agreements within the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) could be made. The goals of the trial included demonstrating that ISDN was a viable transport technology for OSI applications, and that ISDN was an important part of OSI networks. The trial components included ISDN, local area networks, intermediate systems, and end systems. Several ISDN capabilities regarding Version 2.0 of GOSIP were demonstrated, including Connectionless-mode Network Service over ISDN X.25, X.25 on D-channel, and S and T reference points. Relationship of the Signaling System No. 7 protocol architecture to the OSI Reference Model. (Open Systems Interconnection) There are some similarities between the OSI and Signaling System 7 (SS7) architectures, but few OSI standards have been incorporated into the SS7 protocol architecture. The development of OSI was based on the principle of openness, while the development of SS7 was based on the concept of efficiency. The focus on two different principles led to a lack of alignment of the two protocol architectures. The N-NOTICE indication in Signaling Connection Control part Class 0 and 1 and the N-REPORT of the OSI Connectionless Network Service have functional similarities, but the semantics of the information transmitted, as well as the Quality of Service parameters, are different. SS7 will continue to be unaligned with OSI for a significant amount of time unless the International Consultative Committee for Telephone and Telegraph and the International Organization for Standardization attempt to find a solution that satisfies the requirements of both the ISDN and the data processing/communications environments. Achieving interoperability with distributed relational databases. (technical) Telephone companies can use distributed relational data bases to achieve interoperability, thereby ensuring market competitiveness. Telephone companies manage telecommunications networks through the use of Operational Support Systems (OSS), which are able to store significant amounts of data, as well as processing a wide variety of applications. Interoperability among OSSs (IOSS) allows telephone companies to introduce new services more quickly, which reduces costs and improves competitiveness. The successful distribution of data bases depends on an interoperability engine, or central data storage location. The main reason why telephone companies integrate OSSs is so that they can monitor and control networks under conditions of rapid change. Telephone companies face several challenges when achieving IOSS: determining needs and opportunities, implementing a flexible network architecture, creating an implementation plan, and managing the transition to interoperability. ISDN computer-aided telephony. (Integrated Services Digital Network) (technical) ISDN computer-aided telephony requires the development of platforms that will meet changing application needs. Platform developers should use multi-functional, consistent telephony applications programming interfaces (API). One such API is IBM's CallPath Services Architecture, with features such as support for standardized computer-switch formats, and portability of applications between systems. APIs allow new applications to be developed, while protecting customers' hardware and software investments. The ISDN driver architecture must be capable of accommodating both telephony and other APIs so that the efficient use of D-channel signaling and communication on B/H-channels can be achieved. ISDN will enhance computer-aided telephony applications in several business environments, including telemarketing, customer service, and videoconferencing. Multimedia applications on OSI multivendor platforms will be facilitated by a common API by 2001. High-speed transport components. (technical) Zitterbart, Martina. Research on high-speed transport components of communication networks is being conducted to find a way to improve the performance of communication nodes. The most important factor affecting the performance of communications networks is the processing of communication protocols inside the nodes. The two primary methods of improving the performance of transport components involve the design of high-speed protocols, and the high-speed implementation of standardized communication protocols. The performance of nodes can be improved through the use of parallelism and the mapping of OSI protocols on Transputer networks. An example is provided. A protocol structure for high-speed communication over broadband ISDN. (Integrated Services Digital Network) (technical) An alternative to conventional layered architectures for high-speed communication over broadband ISDN is a new protocol structure in which vertical layering is reduced. The new architecture involves reducing the fourth, fifth, and sixth layers of the International Organization for Standardization/Open Systems Interconnection Reference Model to a single, horizontally structured layer. The Horizontally Oriented Protocol Structure (HOPS) consists of the Network Access Control layer, the Communication Interface layer, and the Application Layer. HOPS lends itself to parallel implementation of processes, which can lead to improved performance. HOPS, which is capable of supporting a wide variety of applications and data rates, can help eliminate the problems of decreased throughput and increased delay associated with multilayered architectures. An example of HOPS implementation is presented. Making reuse cost-effective. (technical) Barnes, Bruce H.; Bollinger, Terry B. Making an investment in software reuse requires the same consideration of cost and risk factors as making a financial investment. Potentially reusable work products include requirements specifications, code modules, and documentation. The benefits of reuse can be determined by comparing an activity's cost without reuse, to the activity's cost with reuse for all future activities that benefit from reuse. Reuse can be made cost-effective by increasing the quality-of-investment measure (Q). Q can be increased by either increasing the amount of consumer reuse, decreasing the average cost of reuse by making work products easy and inexpensive to reuse, or decreasing investment costs. Comprehensive reuse strategies can be developed by combining adaptive reuse strategies and compositional reuse strategies. Experience with inspection in ultralarge-scale developments. (source code inspection)(includes related articles) (technical) Many organizations are reluctant to implement software inspection programs, but code inspection can be beneficial, even in very-large-scale projects. A 1988 study investigated Bell-Northern Research's (BNR) inspection of 2.5 million lines of high-level source code. The results indicated that the inspections revealed between 0.8 and one defect per man-hour, which is consistent with the finding that organizations should be able to find approximately one defect per man-hour. BNR recommended that inspections be conducted at the rate of 150 lines of code per hour, and inspections at that pace detected the largest number of errors: approximately 37 defects per one thousand lines of code, representing a detection rate of approximately 80 percent. Error detection can be increased by combining code inspection and code testing. Software risk management: principles and practices. (technical) Boehm, Barry W. A software risk management program implemented early in the software development process can reduce long-term costs while helping prevent runaway projects. Risk management can be accomplished through the use of a decision tree that divides risk management into risk assessment and risk control activities. Risk assessment consists of risk identification, analysis and prioritization. Risk control consists of risk management planning, risk resolution, and risk monitoring. A checklist of the 10 most common sources of risk can help systems engineers identify risks. The most common risk factors include personnel shortfalls and unrealistic scheduling. Risk management programs should be implemented gradually to allow time for the organizational culture to adjust. MicroTool: an environment for programming microprocessors. Elshoff, James L.; Marcotty, Michael. GM Research Laboratories' MicroTool program development software can help programmers develop software for on-board automotive microprocessors. MicroTool views a program as a data base, instead of lines of code. Inputs are made through a group of specialized editors; output is in the form of either an executable program or a flowchart. The advantages of MicroTool include the ability to optimize code, reduce stack manipulation, and measure minimum and maximum execution times for program paths. Editing, compiling and linking tools are usually used separately in language-based software development, but MicroTool combines all three tools into a single tool. MicroTool runs on a DEC VAXstation and uses MicroVMS Graphic Software. Difficulties in integrating multiview development systems. Meyers, Scott. There is a critical need for an effective method of integrating multiple perspectives in a software development environment. Development can be viewed from many perspectives, including the perspective of users, systems designers, and technical managers. The factors to consider when integrating a development environment include writing new software, maintaining consistency, and eliminating duplications. Current systems integration techniques include shared file systems, selective broadcasting, simple data bases, view-oriented data bases, and canonical representations. The techniques can also be combined to take advantage of the benefits of individual techniques while decreasing overall disadvantages. None of the integration techniques used alone demonstrates overall superiority over the others. Blending imperative and relational programming. (technical) Budd, Timothy A. Combining imperative and relational programming styles into a single language can be more effective than using either style individually. Leda is a compiled language that combines aspects of imperative and relation-oriented programming styles. Leda uses backtracking to generate one response to a query with multiple solutions. Backtracking starts when any other unsatisfiable relation fails. The system then is restored to the last point at which a choice of solutions existed, and a second solution is generated. The backtracking process continues until an appropriate solution is found, or until all choices have been depleted. The benefits of combining imperative and relational programming include the conciseness of the representation of relational information, and the provision of a more direct method of dealing with negation and numbers. An overview of the Arjuna distributed programming system. (includes related article on C++ type inheritance) (technical) The Arjuna prototype object-oriented programming system ensures system integrity by controlling operations on persistent objects by using nested atomic actions. Arjuna is based on the objects and actions computational model for developing distributed systems. Arjuna provides flexible mechanisms, such as those that control recovery and manage object states, by using C++ classes in a class/type hierarchy. Objects are passive when no applications are running, but they are activated when an atomic action invokes an operation. Remote-procedure calls invoke operations on remote objects. Arjuna's use of C++ as a development tool has some disadvantages, such as the placement of restrictions on class definitions by the C++ stub generator, but the use of C++ has generally been effective in systems development. Two-dimensional pinpointing: debugging with formal specifications. (includes related article on the Anna programming language) Two-dimensional pinpointing is a method of debugging with formal specifications. The new debugging technique is based on the Anna specification language and the Annalyzer support tools. The Annalyzer is capable of finding missing specifications, as well as testing Ada programs after a specification has been developed. The advantages of two-dimensional pinpointing include precise definition of the debugging problem, automatic detection of specification violations, and formulation of complex tests. Two-dimensional pinpointing begins when the Annalyzer identifies a specification violation, which defines a region of suspicion. The objective is to reduce the region of suspicion. An example of the debugging of the Queue_Manager package is presented. Display color coding: 10 rules of thumb. Rice, John F. Effective color coding can improve user interfaces by giving meaning to displays, and by helping users differentiate between various types of objects. Color is described in terms of hue, or the name of the color itself; saturation, or purity; and value, or brightness. The guidelines for effective color coding include using the connotations associated with colors when preparing displays, using a neutral color for the background, limiting the number of colors used, and avoiding the color coding of small objects. Effective color coding can improve user performance and encourage product acceptance. New computer graphics technologies will enhance the color-coding process. Implementing productivity managers. (software development) Zimmer, Barbara. A productivity improvement program can help create an effective software development environment. Several benefits of HP's quality improvement program were discovered during an internal survey conducted in 1989. The productivity improvement program in one division led to improvements in the development environment, including stronger networks and easier maintenance. Productivity managers can link production goals with business objectives by developing an understanding of business and by taking a broader view of software development. HP's productivity improvement program has led to the creation of an informal, effective network of productivity managers. Software engineering needs visionaries, multiple approaches. (interview) The US National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer Research Div Dir Richard DeMillo believes that the most important software research issues include finding new software development techniques, conducting product-oriented research, and increasing collaboration. The cost of software development decreases as the number of steps involved in the development process decreases. New development techniques, such as reuse and automation, can reduce the number of development steps. Researchers should identify which errors software engineers are likely to make. Collaboration is an important part of the software engineering process, and research on such collaboration technologies as electronic conferencing systems can improve collaboration among software engineers. The NSF should take a more active role in research leadership. Revlon v. Logisticon: self-help or self-delusion? Gemignani, Michael. Logisticon may be legally liable for its remote activation of logic bombs embedded in Revlon Corp's product-distribution software. Logisticon activated the logic bombs on Oct 16, 1990, after Revlon refused to pay for the first phase of software development. Logisticon's actions left Revlon unable to process sales for three days, and Revlon responded by filing a lawsuit against Logisticon. Revlon claimed that Logisticon's software was defective, which gave Revlon a legal right to withhold payment. Logisticon should have taken other steps in response to Revlon's refusal to pay, including initiating litigation or submitting the case to binding arbitration. A Suzuki class in software reengineering. (technical) Kozaczynski, Wojtek. Software engineers at Andersen Consulting learned several lessons when developing a software reengineering tool called the Basic Assembler Language/Software Reengineering Workstation (BAL/SRW). One lesson was that reengineering should achieve a balance between the recovery of program designs and a forward design of what is known and what can easily be reproduced. The integration of the recovered designs and the overall system design was achieved by building a bridge from the BAL/SRW to two system-design computer-aided software engineering tools. The BAL/SRW was equipped with tools to select which modules should be analyzed in more detail, as well as with a component capable of recognizing the programming tricks used by previous programmers. Powerful front-end CASE and SQL, too. (computer-aided software engineering, Structured Query Language, Popkin Software and Popkin Software and Systems' System Architect 2.0 and System Architect 2.1 are powerful computer-aided software engineering tools. The programs are easy to install, and the printed tutorial is easy to use, but the tutorial does not contain an index. The on-screen help feature is very good, but context-sensitive help presented by a novice mode provides information only after a function has been selected and executed. The availability of different types and sizes of text helps users create well-designed diagrams. The Undo feature, which deletes the most recently-added symbol, should be extended to all types of a diagram changes. System Architect 2.1 runs on any system with Windows 3.0, requires 640Kbytes of main memory and at least 10Mbytes of hard-disk space, and costs $1,395. Oh-so-powerful number cruncher. (Computational Engineering Associates' Matfor) (Software Review) (evaluation) Computational Engineering Assoc's Matfor is a powerful interactive number-crunching language. Matfor is capable of performing nearly any type of specialized scientific calculation. The functions include fast Fourier transforms, matrix techniques, time-series filters, least-squares analysis, and covariance techniques. Installation is easy, but users need understanding of MS-DOS. The terse operating manual could be more thorough. One of the advantages of Matfor is that calculations are obtained quickly and accurately. The program runs on microcomputers with MS-DOS 2.1 or higher and requires 640Kbytes of RAM. The low-end version costs $150, and the high-end version costs $395. Scheduler is right on the mark. (Power Up Software's Top Priority) (evaluation) Power Up Software's Top Priority scheduling software is easy to learn and use. Installation is easy, and the menu-selection procedure is straightforward and quick. A calendar appears on the first display, and users can perform several functions, including creating a list, viewing a list, and changing date formats. Up to 10 lists can be created. One of the best features of Top Priority is the list of printable items, including daily appointments, daily telephone calls, and completed events. The program runs on microcomputers with MS-DOS 2.0 or higher, requires 384Kbytes of RAM, and costs $100. A survey of software reliability measurement tools. Stark, George E. A survey of four software reliability measurement tools conducted for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space Based Observation Systems Committee on Standards is part of the process of creating a software reliability measurement standard. The AIAA's goal is to create a manual that suggests quantitative tools and procedures for software reliability estimation. Software reliability measurement tools must meet several criteria, including the ability to provide several reliability performance measures, and availability to software engineers. The AIAA has established a committee for evaluating existing tools and recommending improvements. A definition: software reliability engineering. Musa, John D. Software reliability engineering is a scientific method of reducing the possibility that customers will be dissatisfied with software performance. Software reliability engineering is part of software engineering, along with schedule planning and execution, productivity planning and control, and functional software engineering. Software reliability engineering and functional software engineering work together to support software quality. The reliability engineering process includes reliability analysis, reliability measurement, reliability management, and development process improvement. Software reliability issues. (technical) Shooman, Martin L. Software designers can estimate software reliability while a proposal is being prepared by using information in the request for proposal. Designers can then compare the proposed project to a similar, previous project. The only problem that designers may encounter involves the acquisition of appropriate data from the previous project. Designers should develop a method of comparing the data from the two projects. One method involves the use of an exponentially decreasing failure rate model, in which failure rates are plotted against cumulative testing time. EasyPlot. (Spiral Software's scientific plotting and data analysis package) (Software Review) (evaluation) Spiral Software's EasyPlot scientific plotting and data analysis software package for IBM PCs and compatibles can be learned in only a half an hour. The $349 package is very well documented, providing clear, concise and accessible information; the technical support provided by the company is prompt and excellent as well. Input to the program is from data files, including multiple data files and/or multiple columns of data; the six pull-down menus in the program can be used with a mouse or keyboard, and text commands can be placed in input files to run the program. Plotting three-dimensional (xyz) data requires that the x and y increments between data points be equal, and values associated with contour levels must be moved by users. These and other problems with the program are minor, however, and detract very little from an otherwise very useful plotting program. The main event. (Hitachi Ltd.'s 64M-bit DRAM chip) (Technology 1991) Hitachi Ltd's 64M-bit DRAM chip puts 140 million electronic components on a chip measuring 10 by 20 millimeters, a feat that is even more impressive when considering that most memory manufacturers are just finishing development of 4M-bit DRAMs. Among the companies working on 64M-bit DRAMs are Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, Texas Instruments, Motorola, IBM, Samsung Electronics and Siemens, but these companies do not expect to have production quantities of the devices until 1995. Hitachi researchers and engineers in the Central Research Laboratory in Kokubunji, a suburb of Tokyo, used electron-beam lithography to define the 0.3-micrometer-line CMOS circuits required; the multilayer-capacitor memory cell size was shrunk to 1.3 square micrometers using tantalum oxide as the dielectric rather than silicon dioxide. Development of the chip by Hitachi researchers is described. The media event. (problems with the Hubble Space Telescope) (Technology 1991) Problems with the $2.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope were the dominant engineering news story of 1990. Soon after being placed into its 610-kilometer-high orbit, a loop of cable on one of two high-gain communications antennas was found to be tied to the antenna's mast improperly, limiting the time data could be sent back to earth. Then the solar panels were found to vibrate for three to six minutes whenever the spacecraft passed into or out of sunlight, which skewed sensors fixing the telescope on a guide star and disrupted observations in progress. The biggest problem, however, was when it was determined that the telescope's 2.4-meter-diameter main mirror was ground and polished to the wrong shape and was unable to focus an image. The antenna problem was easy to fix, but the vibration and blurry vision problems have been more difficult to solve. PCs and workstations. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Rosenblatt, Alfred. Distinctions continued to blur in 1990 between workstations and desktop, laptop and notebook personal computers, as shown by the introduction in the year of the first reduced-instruction-set-computer (RISC)-based laptop, the Sparc LT, AS1000/L10 from Toshiba. Market research firm Computer Intelligence reports that while sales of PCs through computer specialty stores in the US increased only 4.1 percent to 2.2 million units in the first nine months of 1990, sales of laptops and notebook computers increased 60 percent in the same period to 223,000 units. Other noteworthy introductions in the year were Sun Microsystems' diskless Sparc-based workstation priced under $5,000, IBM's RISCSystem/6000 workstation, the HP Apollo 9000 Series 400 workstations and NeXT Computer Inc's NeXTstation, priced at $4,995. Several laptop and notebook computers and PC peripherals debuting in 1990 are described as well. Why Unix will win on the desktop. (Technology 1991) Schmidt, Eric E. The desktop computer market will be clearly divided by the end of the 1990s between machines running Unix and machines running DOS, with DOS-based systems used primarily as single-user systems for standalone applications. Eventually, DOS-based systems will be found only in the home as distributed, networked computing takes hold in organizations. Network applications require Unix-based solutions because Unix is the only multitasking, multiuser, multivendor operating system currently available. By the end of 1995 all high-end 80386- and 80486-based systems will be running Unix with DOS emulation; minicomputers and mainframes will become servers, and dumb terminals will disappear. OS/2 provides multitasking, but it is still a single-user operating system; it is also not the open system users need. Several Unix myths are de-myth-tified. Software. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) The pace of change in the software industry makes predicting the future a precarious endeavor, but trends indicate that battles will continue to wage between microcomputer operating systems, object-oriented programming will come to the fore, computer-aided software engineering will proliferate and use of frameworks will increase. In 1990 software was unveiled for almost every conceivable engineering operation, and increasingly the programs are being made available on PCs as well as workstations. The most important factors in the selection process are the operating system and graphical user interface (GUI): in operating systems, the choice appears to be between OSF/1, Unix System V Release 4 and DOS with Windows 3.0 (the outlook for OS/2 is unclear). Object-oriented programming, CASE and electronic design automation (EDA) tools being developed by various vendors are described. Minis and mainframes. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Zorpette, Glenn. Many analysts predicted the demise of the mainframe computer in the mid-1980s as superminicomputers and minisupercomputers reached the market but, in fact, a new generation of mainframes has been released by IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Amdahl, DEC and Tandem Computers. IBM's Enterprise System/9000 series of 18 mainframe models improves on the 3090 series; top-end ES/9000s enhance the thermal conduction modules through use of a ceramic substrate of alpha cordierite for improved conduction of heat away from the wiring and ICs, allowing them to be placed closer together. IBM also introduced three new operating systems, new technology for connecting computers and peripherals over large areas and other technical advances. Hitachi Data Systems added three high-end models to the HDS EX mainframe series, Fujitsu introduced its M-18000 series of five mainframes, and Amdahl debuted its 5995 processors. Computer industry at a troublesome juncture. (the gap between user needs and vendor competition) (Technology 1991) In 1991 there will be a gap between user needs and the steps vendors will have to take to survive. Recent improvements in the computer industry have focused on better price/performance ratios and balancing input/output bandwidth with CPU performance. Trends in the computer industry in 1990 include the availability of commercial-grade versions of Unix that support mission-critical commercial applications (although the proprietary nature of Unix versions will likely cause problems), IBM's introduction of the System/390, and a new willingness on IBM's part to service equipment from other vendors. The trend toward open systems makes it more difficult to differentiate products, which in turn makes service more important for vendors. The mainframe/minicomputer market is being pressured by increased competition from below, shorter product life cycles and a slowed economy. Telecommunications. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Bell, Trudy E. Six countries deregulated their telecommunications industry in 1990 in an attempt to spur technological development, particularly mobile communications and other services based on digital transmission. ISDN was finally accepted as a worldwide standard in 1990, and the first transoceanic ISDN service was provided as narrowband ISDN crossed international boundaries. Development of erbium-doped optical amplifiers, which are less expensive and simpler for long-distance communication, led new optical-transmission technologies. The first processor based entirely on optical logic elements and parallel optical connections through free space was demonstrated in the year, marking an important step toward the first optical computer. The British government announced in Nov 1990 that it would deregulate most of its telecommunications industry; the deregulation plans of several other companies are described. Mobile communications promise personal freedom. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Mobile communications, particularly in terms of digital cellular telephones and personal communication networks (PCNs), was the area receiving the most attention in the telecommunications industry in 1990. Work continues on definition and design of second-generation car phones for the 900-MHz band for increased capacity and reduced interference. Among the technologies competing to become the channel-accessing standard are time-division multiple access (TDMA), which has a set number of users share a single carrier by being assigned an equal portion of time slots for their information, and code-division multiple access (CDMA), which uses signals made up of a different binary sequence that modulates the carrier. PCNs differ from digital cellular systems in that they can operate independently or interface with the standard telephone network; their design and operation are described. Data communications. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Rosenblatt, Alfred. The two events of most significance in the data communications industry in 1990 were the fast acceptance by end users of the 10BaseT standard for Ethernet connections using unshielded twisted-pair wiring and the acceptance of the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) by corporate MIS and government planners for backbone networks. The availability of a standard for Ethernet over standard telephone wires is expected to lead to a boom in the market for 10BaseT-based devices among users wanting to avoid the use of coaxial cable. FDDI chip sets were introduced by at least three semiconductor firms, and several others are developing FDDI products. Forrester Research Inc estimates the US market for FDDI bridges, routers, hubs and single-attachment stations will reach $453 million in 1993 from $35.5 million in 1990. FDDI developments by several firms are described. Data communications, telecommunications converge. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Data communications and telecommunications continued their convergence in 1990 as a result of a combination of applications push and technology pull. Increased use of high-performance workstations and distributed processing systems increases demand for packet networks with enhanced bit rate and response time; the emergence of multimedia applications and other advanced applications requires that workstations meet the bit-rate/delay requirements of real-time as well as non-real-time data traffic. The increasing emphasis on packet-switching technology over circuit switching offers advantages in such areas as resource sharing, service integration, variable-bit-rate (VBR) service flexibility, burst traffic support, multipoint-to-multipoint operation and lower switching cost per subscriber. Also discussed is the increased interest in wireless networks in 1990. Solid state. (semiconductor industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Watson, George F. The first microprocessor chip with more than one million transistors was introduced commercially in 1990, and chips with more than two million transistors will likely be introduced in 1991. Processor speeds in the 50-to-60-MHz range are on the horizon, and DRAM sizes continue to grow from 4M-bits (now in volume shipments) to 16M-bits (now being sampled) to 64M-bits (now being demonstrated). DRAM access times continue to drop as well, from the current standard of about 80 nanoseconds to about 60 nanoseconds by the end of 1991 with standard CMOS technology and 35 nanoseconds eventually with bipolar-CMOS (biCMOS). Intel's 80386 SL microprocessor for notebook computers integrates a 386 processor with cache and main memory controllers, mapping logic, bus and coprocessor interfaces, and power conservation logic. Also described are RISC and digital signal processor chips and flash memories. Test and measurement. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Fitzgerald, Karen. The boundary scan method of designing testability into microelectronics and printed-circuit boards was incorporated in a diverse range of products introduced in 1990, from application-specific integrated circuits to logic analyzers. The modulation domain analysis technique for communications testing challenged to become part of mainstream applications within and outside communications, including disk-drive testing. The first products using the VME extensions for instrumentation (VXI) modular instrumentation bus adopted as a standard in the late 1980s were unveiled in 1990 as well. Automatic test equipment (ATE) vendors are attempting to overcome sluggish sales by integrating many functions in a single tester or by making systems smaller and less expensive; increasing chip development costs are moving testing from the completed package to the wafer level. Instrumentation for nonscientists. (instrumentation systems must be made less complex) (Technology 1991) Instrumentation designers use the latest semiconductor technologies to develop ever more accurate, sensitive and complex instruments, but the systems resulting are expensive and difficult to operate. The primary area of growth in the instrumentation market will be in devices for non-scientists, however. Instrument systems integrate sensors, data processing, communication, controls and user interfaces; examples of complex instrumentation systems are those in water-purification control systems, in a large racing sailboat, in an electric-utility monitoring system and in a magnetic levitation system. Such systems require a reduction in complexity to allow users unschooled in the nuances of instrumentation to use them effectively. The importance of communications standards to the instrumentation industry, particularly those of the IEEE, is discussed. Industrial electronics. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Kaplan, Gadi. Among the hot topics in the industrial electronics industry are fuzzy logic, intelligent control and computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), all of which are intended to improve manufacturing flexibility and reduce costs. The precision of high-speed machining is expected to be improved through use of computer numerical control (CNC) based on reduced instruction set computer (RISC) chips. Other trends in the industry are the move toward an open system architecture for programmable controllers and machine vision systems and in X-ray laminography systems for inspecting solder joints of surface-mount components on printed circuit boards. Among the systems described are one for plasma-etching metal surfaces to prepare molds for injection molding that uses a fuzzy logic controller, an intelligent controller for gallium arsenide crystal growth and one for spray forming hard metal alloys. Power and energy. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Zorpette, Glenn. Happenings in world power industries in 1990 made it clear that politics is the primary driving force in the industry: the price of oil fluctuated as a result of the Persian Gulf crisis, causing utilities in many countries to reconsider technologies not given much thought since the last oil crisis. In Europe, British electric utilities were privatized in 1990, the East German power system was taken over by three West German utilities, and the Swedish government backed away from a plan to abandon nuclear power. In the US, amendments to the Clean Air Act could cost industry $22 billion in the 1990s; amendments intended to control acid rain will cost between $5 billion and $7 billion through 2005, according to the Edison Electric Institute. General Motors Corp introduced its Impact electric car, which the company hopes to make available commercially in the mid-1990s. Consumer electronics. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Jurgen, Ronald K. General Instrument Corp's DigiCipher system for transmitting a full high-definition television (HDTV) signal in digital format over a standard 6-MHz television channel heated up the US HDTV industry in 1990. DigiCipher may become the simulcast HDTV standard that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires have a single broadcast channel carry a standard National Television System Committee (NTSC) channel for reception on existing television receivers and a second channel carry the HDTV signal for HDTV receivers. All-digital television broadcast systems are being developed by the Advanced Television Research Consortium and other US groups as well; an FCC decision on an HDTV standard is not expected before mid-1993. HDTV developments in Japan and Europe, home theater developments and artificial intelligence use by consumer electronics devices are discussed. Transportation. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Chen, Katherine T. The 11-member European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) is developing an advanced integrated air traffic control system to handle the increased air traffic anticipated for the continent. The Enhanced Air Traffic Management and Mode S Implementation in Europe (Easie) will be developed over a 15-year period; an important component of the system is the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN), which will connect diverse subnetworks to provide transparent data communication between aircraft systems and ground-based air traffic control systems. The crash of an Indian Airlines Airbus A-320 was blamed on pilot error; the airline was faulted for inadequate pilot training. Increased security was evident at US airports in 1990. The first MD-11 jet was delivered by McDonnell Douglass Corp in Nov 1990; technological innovations in the aircraft are described. Aerospace/military. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Adam, John A.; Esch, Karl. The end of the Cold War in 1990 signaled the possibility of shrinking military budgets in future years, causing defense contractors to look for commercial ventures. The aerospace/military industry was dominated in 1990 by the Persian Gulf crisis: among the technologies important to the conflict are night-combat capabilities and enhanced electromagnetic signature control. The trend toward more distance between humans and the battlefield is expected to cause growth in the development of unmanned vehicles. The trend in space is toward inexpensive launch vehicles, such as the Pegasus system sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). The Hubble Space Telescope's many problems were a popular topic in the media in 1990; NASA hopes its Gamma Ray Observatory to be launched in the first half of 1991 will encounter fewer problems. What 'peace dividend'? (political and financial pressures on the aerospace and defense industry in 1990) (Technology 1991) World geopolitical trends in late 1989 and 1990 caused many people to expect an instant 'peace dividend' as defense and aerospace resources were redeployed, but in fact Soviet military spending continues unchanged, and no formal treaties limiting strategic and conventional forces have yet been signed. Technologists and businesspeople must consider how to take best advantage of the possibilities presented by these massive changes in the industry. Some expect the market for treaty verification equipment to be an area of growth as new treaties are signed, but others claim that there will be more on-site verification as areas previously kept closed are opened for direct inspection by the other side. Some defense firms plan forays into commercial sectors, and others look to NASA budget increases as potential revenue growth areas. Medical electronics. (industry analysis) (Technology 1991) Fitzgerald, Karen. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technological innovations are making the process practical in a wider range of medical applications. MRI is being used to detect phosphorus and other elements in tissue in a process known as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Advances were noted in 1990 in the areas of ultrasound applications and biomagnetic imaging as well. MRI three-dimensional reconstruction is able to distinguish different types of tissue, such as fat or lesions, and fluids, making it more practical than CT reconstruction, which can only distinguish bone and tissue. An interactive stereotaxic device is being developed by Chicago radiologist David Lean and collaborators for transferring computer-rehearsed surgical incision contours to a patient's body prior to operating; this and other medical electronics research is described. Quality of life takes the spotlight. (medical electronics industry analysis) (Technology 1991) It is easy for biomedical practitioners to be so overwhelmed by the capabilities of new medical devices to sustain life that they fail to consider the effect of the devices on the quality of a patient's life. The use of heart pacemakers is cited as an example of a technology that extends the lifespan of thousands of people each year, but which must be able to respond to a variety of situations to allow patients an active, productive lifestyle. Rate-sensitive pacemakers sense body motion, increasing the heart rate as body motion increases, but they can be fooled to increase the rate when travelling over a bumpy road, for example, or to keep the rate low when riding a stationary bike. Also described are techniques intended to allow medical diagnosis without surgery and devices that restore some hearing to those who have lost it. The specialties. (miscellaneous technological developments in 1990) (Technology 1991) Developments in specialized branches of electrical engineering in 1990 are described. Artificial neural networks are an area receiving much attention from researchers, but to date there has been little progress made on finding an application identity for the technology. Most work currently emphasizes classification and regression machines trained by example for such applications as electric power load forecasting, medical diagnosis, mortgage brokering, explosives detection, speech recognition, remote sensing and racehorse handicapping. Also described are the Targeting and Allocation of Promotional Spend (TAPS) decision support system, changes anticipated to engineering undergraduate curricula, and technological impediments to universal adoption of what-you-see-is-what-you-get (Wysiwyg) publishing and word processing systems. An adaptive and fault tolerant wormhole routing strategy for k-ary n-cubes. (technical) Virtual interconnection networks that are time multiplexed over the physical channels eliminate the constraints of a fixed physical interconnection network, but there is a cost in queue space and switching mechanisms. The k-ary n-cube is a popular topology. Simple, deadlock-free, adaptable, and fault-tolerant wormhole routing techniques are developed by extending the concept of virtual channels. The unidirectional k-ary n-cube, which has only one channel between adjacent nodes, is undesirable for most purposes because it cannot exploit locality of communication. The mesh-connected, bidirectional k-ary n-cube is suitable for hardware implementations of the routing function and virtual queues. Expanding the range of convergence of the CORDIC algorithm. (technical) The Coordinate Rotational Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm, an iterative technique, evaluates a number of basic arithmetic operations and mathematical functions. This algorithm is a very powerful tool in the fields of robot control, engineering graphics, and digital signal processing, fields that use arithmetic function evaluation heavily. This algorithm is modified to allow the expansion of the ranges of convergence; these ranges can be expanded as large as required by the system specifications, while retaining the algorithm's simplicity. These modifications made the algorithm usable for implementing a special-purpose arithmetic processor or similar application. Improving disk performance via latency reduction. (technical) Ng, Spencer W. The most important factor in improving I/O response time is reducing rotational latency time. A disk storage's response time can be improved by reducing rotational latency and RPS miss delay. Dual copy approaches improve the average I/O response time of a subsystem. One of the best performance improvements is achieved by the dual actuator approach. For magnetic storage, the dual copy on a single disk approach is recommended to improve the disk subsystem's overall performance. Dual copy approaches also make error recovery faster. Stochastic modeling and analysis of propagation delays in GaAs adders. (technical) Important differences between GaAS and silicon have an effect on computer architecture. One of these differences is that GaAs gates, when exposed to high radiation levels during use, may change their propagation delay. The gates continue to function but have different gate delays. A methodology to compare the sensitivity of different adder types is presented. Different adders for different values of parameters can be compared using the results of this methodology. This methodology solves the problem for combinational circuits of arbitrary topology. It is possible to apply this methodology to analogous problems in other fields. Embedding rectangular grids into square grids. (technical) Ellis, John A. Two-dimensional rectangular grids of large aspect ratio can be embedded into rectangular grids of smaller aspect ratios and can be done with small expansion and dilation. Results show there is no significant tradeoff between expansion and dilation. Dilation is never worse than three even if folding and compression, the two embedding techniques, have to be composed to deal with large aspect ratio rectangles. A variation of this technique is to compress first and then fold. An entirely different embedding technique is to stretch the grid both horizontally and vertically, creating dilation 2 and leaving gaps which are filled by folding over the end portion of the stretched grid into the gaps. Absolute minimization of completely specified switching functions. (technical) Finding a minimal sum can minimize the size of a programmable logic array (PLA). New algebraic procedures are presented that construct Q(F) in a simpler form. These procedures have new pruning processes and combine separate procedures into one, and reduce computation time and memory space. Functional fault simulation as a guide for biased-random test pattern generation. (technical) An approach for generating test patterns for implementation fault levels uses a functional level description that is made up of a network of interconnected combinational blocks. This is used for test generation in VLSI designs. The methodology performs simulation of combinational blocks, not individual Boolean gates; this improves performance. The methodology generates test patterns beginning with uniformly distributed random patterns, but a switch is made to biased-random test patterns as soon as uniformly distributed random patterns prove to be unwise. The difference fault model is used for functional fault simulation and for estimating implementing fault coverage achieved by a set of test patterns. The primary advantage of this approach is that it can be applied to designed described at a high level. RIDDLE: a foundation for test generation on a high-level design description. (technical) Test generation is a primary bottleneck in the design cycle of VLSI circuits because of the increase in the complexity of VLSI circuits. Using a higher level of abstraction in the design description is one way to deal with the complexity of test generation for VLSI circuits. RIDDLE (Reconvergence-Independent Design Decomposition and Labeling of Edges) is an algorithm that performs preprocessing of the design, which improves the performance of the backtracing-based test pattern generation algorithm. The twisted N-cube with application to multiprocessing. (technical) Hypercube interconnection topology has powerful topological properties, which make it widely used in constructing distributed-memory multiprocessors. An approach is presented that shows that exchanging any two independent edges in any shortest cycle of the hypercube produces an interconnection topology. Exchanging any two independent edges decreases the diameter by one unit. Existing hypercube multiprocessors can be enhanced by using these results. A synthesis approach to design optimally fault tolerant network architecture. (technical) A technique to design the topology of an interconnection network is presented. This technique assumes a directed graph represents the network; this means interconnection links are unidirectional. A network with unidirectional communication links and an arbitrary number of nodes is much more suitable for a local area network than for a multiprocessor system. This design provides optimal fault tolerance. An optimal systolic array for the algebraic path problem. (technical) An optimal orthogonal systolic array design for the Algebraic Path Problem (APP) is simpler and more efficient than previous configurations. The array can be used to solve transitive closure, shortest path, and matrix inversion. The first step is to develop a locally recursive algorithm (LRA) with good structural properties. The LRA can use alternate projection mappings to generate the earlier arrays, giving a common basis for all systolic arrays for the APP. No pipeline interleave is required. Optimal VLSI sorting with reduced number of processors. (technical) A new parallel organization for sorting with optimal processor-time performance is presented. This organization uses a moderate number of processors, but its sorting performance matches that of other well-known parallel organizations that use a much larger number of processors. The new organization communicates through direct links among processors and through a shared memory, which provides a high communication bandwidth. New ways of combining sequential and parallel techniques can result in efficient parallel algorithms. Approximation and intractability results for the maximum cut problem and its variants. (technical) One important NP-complete problem is the maximum cut problem. A variant of this problem is the connected maximum cut problem. Test results show it is NP-complete to decide if a given graph has a maximum cut with, at a minimum, a fraction of its edges. The connected maximum cut problem is NP-complete even for planar graphs. Minimum spanning trees of moving points in the plane. (technical) Fu, Jyh-Jong; Lee, R.C.T. The Euclidean minimum spanning tree problem should be studied where the points in the problem are dynamic. This will help in the real world because many objects, such as vehicles and vessels, are dynamic. Experiments show that when there is a change of the Euclidean minimum spanning tree, the change is very small. There are two parts to the approach to this problem: the preprocessing algorithm which finds all time intervals for every point pair, and the query processing algorithm that searches the window-list and constructs the EMST at a query time. A network flow approach to the reconfiguration of VLSI arrays. (technical) A new approach for reconfiguring two-dimensional VLSI arrays that has fault cells uses a network flow characterization of simulation mapping. The reconfiguration problem is modeled as a simulation of a virtual fault-free array done by the physical defective array's live cells. Experiments show this approach results in a practical heuristic for the reconfiguration problem. Programming with streams in a Pascal-like language. (technical) Nakata, Ikuo; Sassa, Masataka. Facilities added to a conventional programming language that can manipulate value streams are described. Programs can often be expressed as networks of processes that communicate via streams. Streams are defined as sequences of values of certain fixed types. The stream's number of elements may be determined at execution time. Elements need not be evaluated until their values are needed. Streams can greatly increase program reusability. Loop statements may be defined as iterative statements over streams. A practical solution is outlined for one problem: the mechanism by which each process in a network is terminated. Comparisons with Lisp, coroutines, data flow languages and functional programming are described. The language used is an extension of Pascal. Towards the automatic generation of software diagrams. (technical) Protsko, L. Beth; Sorenson, Paul G.; Tremblay, J. Paul; Schaefer, Growing manpower costs dictate a need to find greater productivity in systems development. A data flow diagram can help an analyst model and document a system. But producing a data flow diagram by hand consumes valuable time. Increases in productivity can be realized by combining the production of data flow diagrams with SPSL/SPSA, a system for specifying systems requirements. Such a combination can assure the completeness of the finished diagram and the use of standards. The criteria for data flow diagrams are formulated. The placement and routing algorithms used in the MONDRIAN system are described. A generalized approach to software diagrams is then proposed. An architecture for high performance engineering information systems. (technical) A new generation of database management systems, called engineering information systems (EISs), will have to be built to meet the information and processing needs of product-design and manufacturing environments. The architectural and computational aspects of EISs are discussed and solutions are proposed. A mainframe/workstation architecture is necessary to maintain a combination of high availability of data, low communication overhead and distributed functionality. Exact control of meta-knowledge is also required, as are large rule bases. Incremental computation models will help realized high performance levels in EISs. Experimental evaluation of a real-time scheduler for a multiprocessor system. (technical) The design, implementation and experimental evaluation of a dynamic, or on-line, distributed scheduling mechanism for use in multiprocessor real-time systems is described. The scheduler determines both the assignment and scheduling of processes on each processor; the objective is satisfying the optimal number of process deadlines. The feasibility of dynamic scheduling in real-time systems is discussed, as are the limitations of dynamic scheduling. Further research will focus on whether scheduling decisions can be based on values other than deadlines, for example, expected reliability. Future research will also concern itself with scheduling strategies when a deadline cannot be met. Debugging concurrent Ada programs by deterministic execution. (technical) Re-executing a concurrent program that has produced an incorrect result in order to debug the program is not that easy; the problem is the unpredictable progress of concurrent processes. 'Deterministic execution debugging' is called for. A language-based approach to deterministic execution debugging of concurrent Ada programs is presented. The approach is to define SYN-sequences of a concurrent Ada program in terms of Ada language constructs and then to replay such sequences without the need for system-dependent debugging tools. A concurrent Ada program can be transformed so that the SYN-sequences of previous executions of the program can be replayed. The x-kernel: an architecture for implementing network protocols. (technical) Network software is commonly divided into layers, called protocols, each of which has responsibility for some aspect of communication. The protocols are typically implemented on the operating system kernel on each network node. A new operating system kernel is described. Called the x-kernel, it aims to facilitate the installation of efficient protocols. The configurable x-kernel is novel in that it defines a standard set of abstractions for encapsulating protocols; it structures those abstractions in order to make the most common interaction-patterns efficient and supports primitive routines which are applied to common protocol tasks. X-kernel runs on Sun-3 workstations. It can be used as a workbench for designing and implementing new protocols. Query optimization for nontraditional database applications. Sellis, Timos K.; Shapiro, Leonard. Traditional database management systems (DBMSs) and their languages are now reaching maturity. Benefits of traditional DBMSs include nonprocedural interfaces to data and efficient access to disk-based data sets. The use of database query languages in programming non-traditional applications, such as artificial intelligence and engineering applications, is discussed. Early implementations of these new applications have been marked by terrible inefficiencies. To reduce these inefficiencies, an extension of the optimization algorithm used in relational DBMSs is proposed. The problem of optimizing particular sequences of QUEL-language commands is discussed in detail. Performance measurement and modeling to evaluate various effects on a shared memory multiprocessor. (technical) Multiprocessing is based on the simple idea that a task can be divided into subtasks which are then executed in parallel. However, a large number of processors can slow the speedup. In measuring performance, it is important to estimate the speedup as a function of the number of processors used. Performance of shared memory multiprocessor systems is influenced by such factors as cache coherence, barriers, virtual memory paging, sequential code and the multiprocessor system itself. Several timing models for shared memory multiprocessor systems are presented, as are analyses for the effects of the influencing factors. Both analytical and experimental results give accurate performance measurements and a clear understanding of the effects of the various factors. New IIE organizational structure will provide synergy and focus. (Institute of Industrial Engineers)(includes related article on The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) learned several lessons from its reorganization in 1984-1985, including that a smaller board is better, decision-making should be as close to the membership as possible and that transitions are crucial. The IIE is once more reorganizing. The volunteer structure will now be under three senior vice presidents, representing chapter operations, professional enhancement and technical operations. The individual boards covering these areas will have the power to function in executive committee capacities. The full board will be reduced from 19 members to nine. The new benchmark of competition. (the importance of time management) Time is of growing importance in industrial management. The first benchmark of competition (price) was supplanted by quality; now it is time. Companies must learn to respond quickly to customers' ever changing demands. By linking all functions of an enterprise, from product development through manufacturing and shipping, a company can cut time wastage. Companies must ask themselves whether taking extra time in a process actually adds quality. Each function must ask itself hard questions about its time management. For example, product developers must ask themselves why it takes so long to get a product to market and then perfect it. The portable database, part II. (bar codes and radio frequency ID tags in tracking products) Portable databases, such as driver's licenses, provide access to key information on the spot without having to tap a larger, more complicated database. Managers interested in automatic identification of people, products, parts and places must consider how much information can be placed on an object. Some parts, for example, only have enough space for an ID number. Recently developed bar codes make more efficient use of space, so that an ID number, date of production and serial number can be compressed into an area less than an inch square. Radio frequency ID tags keep cumulative records of a product as it is manufactured; they also provide greater security. Radio frequency ID tags work well in inhospitable environments, such as dirty, oily shop floors. The many uses of animation and graphics in simulation. Law, Averill M. Simulation modeling is growing in popularity, thanks in large part to easy-to-use animation. Animation represents key elements of a system on a computer screen as icons; these change color, shape or position with a change in the simulation. Animation's chief appeal is its ability to communicate the crux of a simulation. Animation also allows for the debugging of a simulation program; shows when a simulation model is invalid; suggest improvements in a system; makes it easier to understand the behavior of a system; and makes it easier to train operational workers. Animation should not be used as a substitute for careful analysis of data out put by the simulation. Five critical barriers to successful implementation of JIT and total quality control. (just-in-time) In recent years, many US firms have adopted just-in-time (JIT) and total quality control (TQC) principles. The weaknesses of JIT and TQC deserve critical thought, which the Japanese have given them. The Japanese rely on Theory Z of organizational behavior, which adopts selected characteristics of US firms to Japanese conditions, such as a homogenous culture. Without adopting Theory Z, JIT and TQC cannot be fully implemented. Most US firms are based on either Theory X or Theory Y; these theories regard TQC's goal of zero defects as not only impractical, but harmful. Theory X assumes people do not want to work; Theory Z, on the other hand, assumes high innate motivation to do a job well. Theories X and Y emphasize the manager; the successful implementation of JIT and TQC however, relies on workers who are at the heart of Theory Z. The quest for quality: a race without a finish line. (Cover Story) Rickard, Norman E., Jr. Xerox Corp regards its being awarded the 1989 Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award as symbolic of the new Xerox. In the late 1970s, Xerox faced stiff competition from Japanese copier makers. Inefficiency was costing the firm an estimated 20 percent of revenues. Xerox's turnaround began with a 1980 contract with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers that called for linking employees with managers for the first time in problem-solving teams. Xerox began assisting suppliers in quality control, and adopted the just-in-time delivery methodology popular in Japan. In 1983, Xerox's new Leadership Through Quality program embodied a concerted effort to make quality-control and customer satisfaction top priorities. At 'Team Xerox' today, managers are more like counselors who set goals and empower their staffs. Xerox's quality control and efficiency have dramatically improved over the past 10 years. SQC graphics paint the picture of quality control at work. (use of graphics software in quality control at a paper anufacturing The H.P. Smith Division of the James River Corp uses a statistical graphics software package to maintain quality control over coated paper stocks it manufactures in Chicago and Iowa City. The STATGRAPHICS Statistical Graphics System from STSC Inc runs on Novell-based networks at the two plants. STATGRAPHICS' graphics capabilities effectively communicate quality control information to non-statisticians. Graphics provide an extremely valuable way to provide information to suppliers and customers. HP Smith particularly uses STATGRAPHICS' overlay plotting capability, which displays test results from two different samples simultaneously in a graphic format. Production planning at Texas Instruments improves service and reduces costs. A production plan aims to provide a customer service level consistent with a business's goals at the least possible cost. Before 1985, Texas Instruments production planners worked 16 weeks ahead of time; changes in the plan could not be made in less time. This setup was severely limited in its ability to react to changing customer demands. Changes were made in the production planning process, including improving the forecast of demand; reducing the planning horizon to eight weeks for increases and three weeks for decreases; and allowing more frequent changes in plans. Improving demand-forecast accuracy was accomplished simply by putting responsibility for it in the hands of the production-planning group. The design team approach to class "A" engineering is working for Digital. (Digital Equipment Corp.) Forces of change, competition and complexity in the 1980s caused DEC's Storage and Information Management Group (SIMG) to take new approaches to organizational structure and communication across four arenas: with other DEC organizations, with external suppliers and customers, with product technologies and with process technologies. SIMG realized that a traditional hierarchical structure of control and command would not work. Strong links were forged between product-design and manufacturing engineers. DEC workers and suppliers located around the world were connected via DEC's electronic networking capabilities. SIMG emphasized face-to-face contact for building a foundation of trust. The lessons learned by SIMG serve as a model for all future product developments by DEC. Spreadsheets are the answer for handling low cost PC-based applications. (applications development with spreadsheets) Most developers of microcomputer applications should use only one or two programs extensively; one of those programs should be a spreadsheet. Developing applications with spreadsheets, especially for non-full-time programmers, is often faster and more flexible than programming with a language. Developers also gain confidence and skill through extensive use of spreadsheets. Other advantages of spreadsheets as development tools include low cost and familiarity on the part of many users. Development with spreadsheets can force a structure onto a problem, thus making problem-solving easier. Spreadsheets can be programmed to make applications for control charts, time studies, activity sampling, data analysis, labor reporting and economic justification. Spreadsheets are good development tools for both teachers and students. Utilize expert systems as teaching assistants. Godin, Victor B.; Rao, Ashok. Expert systems are ideal tools for providing students with assistance in the interpretation of a software model. A prototype of an educational expert system, used in teaching inventory concepts, was developed using Lotus and VP-Expert. The system runs on Microsoft Windows and DESQview, from Quarterdeck Office Systems. The full program is given. It is concluded that expert systems offer great potential for developing tutorial systems. Appraising MIS personnel: techniques to make it work in your organization. Managers may find it difficult to do performance reviews on MIS professionals because of the lack of good job descriptions, a highly technical environment, and a widely skewed salary structure. A performance appraisal should help decide salary, monitor performance, guide career development, and supply documentation for hire/fire decisions. The appraisal takes place over time and is on-going with an emphasis on measurement, not judgement. The types of performance appraisals are management by objectives, where goals are set and then the employee is judged on whether or not the goals were met; the essay, where managers write prose or essay answers to questions; rating scales, where employees are rated with a numerical score in various categories; and critical incidents where managers justify their recommendations by citing 'critical incidents' during the review period. Managers should make sure employees understand and agree on the basis of comparison. Managers should keep good records and monitor progress. Software maintenance revisited: a product life cycle perspective. Doke, E. Reed. Maintenance should be viewed in terms of a system's useful life; maintenance is an investment to improve the value of a system and extend its life. A survey of 500 members of the Data Processing Management Association drew usable responses from 67 firms. These results indicate 64.6 percent of total system development resources are applied to maintenance and 35.4 percent to new system development. Of this, 28.4 percent of maintenance is corrective, fixing errors; 39.7 is adaptive, providing or altering system functions so that the system can operate in an evolving environment; and 31.9 percent perfective, making elective modifications to add features and functions not in the original design. Applying the product life cycle to software will help the information systems professional and the user improve their understanding of how software is an asset with a useful life. The four basic stages in the PLC are introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. An overview of information utilities. Rao, Pal V.; Rao, Laura M. Services provided by information utilities include information retrieval, personal computing, consumer services, communications, electronic mail, and computer-based education. Most of these utilities charge for their services, based on the type of service, length of use, and time of use. CompuServe is one of the premiere suppliers of business information and communication services; it is the choice if a person needs computer processing power. The Source, taken over by CompuServe in 1989, is best for online execution of stock and bond transactions. Delphi is excellent in the areas of bulletin board, mail, and conferencing. NewsNet is for access to a wide range of newsletters. DIALOG is a huge set of electronic indices of interest to the business community. Dow Jones News/Retrieval provides up-to-the-minute stock quotes, full-text articles from 'The Wall Street Journal,' and same day coverage of world economic news. PLATO, now called NovaNet, is primarily for computer-assisted instruction. Guidelines for selecting a utility are area of interest; gateways provided by the utility; and cost. Color printers: the next generation. (special section: perspectives on the future) The new generation of color printers and plotters is here, they are good and relatively affordable. The four major printing technologies are dot matrix, laser, thermal transfer, and electrostatic. Dot-matrix printers use multi-colored ribbons and are usually the least expensive. Ink jet printers use multi-ink or multi-crayon reservoirs; print quality is usually better than dot-matrix but not as good as thermal transfer printers. Thermal transfer printers, also called color laser printers, use a heat process to transfer colored wax or plastic polymer to the page. Advantages to a thermal printer are near-flawless, vibrant color outputs, high resolution, and print speed. Electrostatic plotters use the same principle found in many duplicating machines. They are often expensive and work best in high-volume, unattended-use applications. Planning information systems componentry. (special section: perspectives on the future) A questionnaire of 40 key elements that might be included in future information systems was sent to CEOs, vice presidents for information systems, and chief information officers. Results show that including top management is a necessary part of information systems strategic planning and senior management must be involved for information systems to be successful. The survey shows that future information systems will provide fast, accurate, and timely information and will emphasize work transition, service roles, organizational performance determinants, staff dimensional changes, planning process evolution, and visionary considerations. The workstation revolution. (special section: perspectives on the future) The existing volume of data is projected to double 19 times before the year 2000. Data must be refined to be useful, it must be manipulated so it can be evaluated and understood, and it must be presented in a clear, attractive, and concise manner. The desktop workstation is the tool of choice for most users. New software application development includes client/server computing, cooperative computing, groupware, and artificial intelligence. Mainframe computers and minicomputers will be used as network servers and data base management tools. Workstations permit multi-user, multi-tasking capabilities. Workstations will change employees' thought processes, making them think in multi-tasking terms. Workers will become like second-generation microcomputers and be capable of parallel processing and multi-task performance. Workers who prefer to do one thing at a time face a bleak future. The future is now: reflections of the software engineering industry. (special section: perspectives on the future) Software systems development is slowly evolving to become highly structured, highly controlled, and increasingly standardized. Companies do not understand how to manage building and maintaining the large software systems demanded by current and future applications. The solution to this problem has three components: a career-long commitment to education; systems should be designed for maintainability, extendibility, and reusability; an object-oriented approach should be used for building systems. A 1898 survey by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie-Mellon University of 200 responding companies showed that 86 percent considered their software engineering efforts to be at Level One, the Initial Level, where programming is conducted on an ad hoc basis; 13.5 percent said Level Two, the Repeatable Level, where the efforts of one or two people carry projects to a successful conclusion; one company said it is at Level Three, the Maturity Level, where software engineering is defined and institutionalized. No company said it was at Level Four, the Managed Level, where software is not only managed but also measured. No company said it was at Level Five, the Optimizing Level, where lessons learned are applied to new projects. Moving into the graphical decade: graphical user interfaces in the '90s. (special section: perspectives on the future; includes Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are an important factor in today's software applications. GUIs permit the user to interface with a computer without pressing a key on a keyboard. There are three main components to a GUI: a windowing system which creates, sizes, and moves the windows, menus, and dialogue boxes on the screen; an imaging model which describes the fonts and graphics seen on the screen and on hard copy; and an application program interface (API) which puts the other two components together in the programmer's hands. Current GUIs include Microsoft Windows, IBM's SAA and CUA, X Windows, Unix Motif, Desqview from Quarterdeck Software, Apple Computer's Macintosh, NeXTStep GUI, and Hewlett-Packard's NewWave. In the 1990s GUIs are expected to go into a tailored, user-specific mode. GUIs magnify user capabilities because, as Rudolf Arnheim says, 'truly productive thinking in whatever area of cognition takes place in the realm of imagery.' Improving the IS image. (information systems; special section: perspectives on the future) Success and satisfaction elude Information Systems (IS) departments because users have an IS image problem. The perception of users occurs because they encounter especially favorable or unfavorable chance experiences; may find it difficult to discern differences in competitive offerings; objective specifications may not cover the user's area of interest; the IS department may have a history of problems. There are two types of strategies that can be used to improve the IS image: product positioning and credibility improvement. Product positioning is positioning by attribute, by price/quality, on use or application, by product user, with respect to a product class, with respect to a competitor. Credibility improvement is by using word of mouth, developing an infrastructure, forming strategic relationships, selling to the right customer, and dealing with the press. Positioning focuses on the user, not on the product. The shape of things to come. (special section: perspectives on the future) Computer technology for the next 20 years is projected to change manufacturing systems even more drastically than financial institutions. The technology will be available to support a cashless society, but there are several intermediate steps that must take place before a truly cashless society is in place. Some of these steps are an accurate method of user identification, a way to identify the issuing financial institution, and a communications network. Concerns that must be addressed include a fear of automation, concern about change and depersonalization, loss of control over financial affairs, and difficulty of correcting any system errors. The greatest changes in the future will come from how technology changes institutions, not directly from the technology. Managing the costs of information management technology. (special section: perspectives on the future) Outsourcing, giving all or part of the responsibility for a company's information management systems to a third party, is growing. Part of that growth is the development of high-tech data- and communications-ready facilities. Reasons to use outsourcing include compensating for the shortage of qualified IS professionals, cost, permit company to concentrate on its core business, and use of a state-of-the-art facility. There are three main ways to use outsourcing services: lease space within the facility and use site's amenities; using the site for migration or software development testing; and taking advantage of external facilities such as dedicated operating environments. Outsourcing companies usually offer a variety of consulting services. In the future long-term commitments, not time-sharing on a project-by-project basis, will be the most common form of outsourcing. Twenty training predictions for the 90s. (special section: perspectives on the future) The 20 training predictions for the 1990s are outlined. Predictions include back to basics, use of more sophisticated technology, decline in stand-up training, media training will expand, rise in training material expectations, inferior lecture-oriented training will not be tolerated, training audience will double, companies that put off training will be at a competitive disadvantage, training by video-conference will be a hit, training in information systems will narrow and deepen, training materials will be paperless, seminar costs will increase while quality decreases, trainers will train on new topics as hierarchies flatten, humor will no longer be a part of training, training managers will learn to manage, ease of use for hardware and software products will be a result of ease of learning, centralized management of training, training will result in productivity gains, information systems training will be global, and regional training vendors will vanish. Planning your expert system strategy. Grupe, Fritz H. Successful companies manage knowledge and one way they do this is by using expert systems. Expert systems have a factual knowledge base, formal reasoning methods, and the rules of thumb used by experts in a particular type of problem solving. Managers must recognize that expert systems are important strategically and tactically and that corporate survival rests on expertise, ensure commitment to expert systems development, and understand that many people are involved in developing an expert system. Management must establish a formal corporate interest in and approach to expert systems, appoint an individual or group responsible for use of expert systems, provide training and support, identify areas for expert systems use, prioritize candidate applications, control technologies used for implementation, control politics of implementation, plan for technology transfer, and provide for evaluation of expert systems development and usage. Companies reap substantial benefits by using expert systems. Database aspects of integrated circuit cards. Madan, M.S.; Reid, M.A. Integrated circuit (IC) card development is driven by the continual advances in technology and the commercial and security needs of the electronic funds transfer networks. The IC card is a computer with the processor acting as gateway to the card's memory. It is an online portable device that is tamper-free and carried on the person. It must retain its shape and not distort easily and must cease processing rather than continue on an erroneous path. Cards can be either for single application or multiple application use. All cards will have certain information: details to identify the card itself, the issuer of the card, and the account number of the cardholder. A generalized scenario for financial transprocessing that uses cards is three steps: initializing the card session, transaction handling and processing, and terminating the session. Data base capability, on board processing power, and portability extend the opportunities to develop business-oriented and security-related products. Strategic information planning. Battaglia, Greg. Strategic Information Planning (SIP) analyzes a company's information and processes. SIP uses business information models and evaluation of risk, current needs, and future requirements. This results in a plan that show the desired course of events needed to align information use and needs with the company's strategic direction. SIP is a management function, not a technical function. It can include data processing, manual processes, office systems, data bases, microcomputers, and communication links. SIP enables a company to be flexible in an environment of rapidly accelerating change. Management must plan for the systematic management of the information resource; set up a company framework of standards for creating, storing, retrieving, and using information; identify individual and corporate information needs; and evaluate and choose technologies that provide access to information. The company must set up a change agent to administer the information resource and sensitize the whole company to the need for and benefits of SIP. 1991 process control industry outlook. Maczka, Walter J. As we open these pages of the 4th Process Control Industry Outlook, we're already well into a period of predicted recession. Yet, it still (as of this writing) hasn't happened. Why not? Well, we'll let this year's gathering of experts explain, as well as give their outlook for the coming year. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Wastewater costs cut $33,000 yearly. (includes related article on how a wedge element works) In a pilot program in Maryland, a flow element not frequently used in wastewater plants reduced maintenance, eliminated downtime, and enabled plant personnel to gauge the volume of waste moving through the system. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Valves enhance control, regulation. George, J.A. The sliding gate valve should be evaluated for applications requiring tight shutoff, high flow, high rangeability, or where high noise levels are to be avoided. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Strategies in water/wastewater treatment. Price, Valerie A. Conservation, stricter standards for purified effluent, and expansion due to the growing population in urban areas are just some of the challenges facing water/wastewater treatment facilities. How do you measure up while keeping costs low and quality high? Here's how three companies are meeting the new challenges by using distributed control and/or data management. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) DCS boosts utility cogeneration. (distributed control system) Waterbury, Robert C. Distributed control system improves cogeneration production efficiency. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Simplifying batch control & recipe management. Fujii, Yoshitaka; Nakahara, Masatoshi; Adams, Art. For multi-product batch process control applications which require frequent switching between batch steps and recipes, a batch control system with recipe management is a virtual necessity. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Thermal differential monitors liquid level. Waterbury, Robert C. Thermal differential technology offers advantages in applications where material properties of the liquid or cover gas media change due to temperature, pressure or chemical reactions in the product. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) DCS or PLC: a user decides. (distributed control systems and programmable logic controllers) In batch and semi-continuous operations, users can select from an increasing variety of distributed control systems and programmable logic controllers for cell or area control. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Distributed control system selection and implementation. Skrokov, M. Robert. DCS projects require a more thorough and detailed systems engineering effort, monitored by a tight and competent project organization and followed by rigorous testing of both hardware and software. More elaborate training procedures for operating personnel are also needed to realize project goals. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A-B penetrates batch processing. (Allen-Bradley's PLC-5/40 and PLC-5/60) (product announcement) Allen-Bradley's product line for batch process control applications is broadened with the company's introduction of the PLC-5/40 and PLC-5/60 programmable controllers. They offer the user having a processing application floating point PID, ability to handle complex expressions in math instructions, and built-in RS-232 and ASCII string instructions. Other new products include the T60 industrial workstation with ControlView Release 2.0, which puts i386SX technology in an industrially hardened package for rack or panel mounting; the T47 portable programming terminal, which can be used to program, document, troubleshoot, and maintain Allen-Bradley programmable controllers; and the 1784-KT2 interface card and software driver 6001-FE2 for direct access to programmable controllers or Data Highway Plus. Installing a training program for contractors. Lakso, Roy. Have you ever stopped to consider how unfamiliar instrumentation is to contractors? How can you accomplish excellence in process control without excellence in installation? (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Software supplies missing links. (U.S. Data Corp.) Waterbury, Robert c. U.S. Data Corp introduces a number of new products that improve data access by opening up the company's FactoryLink software family to a broad range of industrial users. One new interface links FactoryLink's system of application enabler programs with Neuron Data's Nexpert Object expert system. Bi-directional communications between FactoryLink and Industrial Computing Designs Corp's Process Operations management System is provided by another new interface. The company also has an interface that complies with the Manufacturing Messaging Services, which permits true multi-vendor communication across a variety of plant floor devices. The company also supports Quarterdeck's X Window system for DESQview and has a version of FactoryLink that runs on Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 family of computer systems. A comparative study of five language independent programming environments. (technical) This paper is concerned with language independent programming environments only. Five such environments are surveyed: MENTOR, CPS (Cornell Program Synthesizer), IPE (Incremental Programming Environment), GANDALF and PECAN. The survey examines the environments from several points of view: functional aspects, design targets, language incorporation, tools for the program transformation cycle, user communication and interface, and tool modification capabilities. The similarities between the systems, their individual strengths and weaknesses and their future research directions are analyzed and discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Towards innovative software engineering environments. (technical) Ambriola, Vincenzo; Ciancarini, Paolo; Corradini, Andrea; The objects produced during the software development process are generally highly interrelated and have a complex structure. Recent works on programming environments and software engineering methodologies attempt to simplify the design and construction of software objects. In practice, people involved in developing software find the current situation frustrating, because existing tools supply only a small amount of automated assistance and tool integration. In this paper we seek an integration by depicting an environment built of two strongly connected components: a system data base, which contains all the software objects pertaining to a project and organizes them under a suitable data model, and a flexible environment language, in which the environment dynamics can be expressed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Dynamic binding in strongly typed programming languages. (technical) Dynamic binding, delaying the binding of a name in a program to an object implementing that name, is generally considered to be a property of weakly typed languages. Many strongly typed languages, however, provide methods to dynamically link subprogram bodies to names, although most require static definition of the alternative bodies to maintain compile-time type checking. In strongly typed languages without this feature, access to operating system facilities is a common substitute, but such a mechanism typically is incompatible with compile-time type checking across the interface to the subprograms. A third approach is needed for dynamic binding of separately compiled subprograms under program control. This approach, incorporated into a language, provides the flexibility of the latter method while maintaining strong typing and is useful in many applications, including data base programming and monolingual programming environments. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A language and system for making definitions of technical concepts. (technical) A simple English-like language is described in which one can make clear definitions of certain types of technical concepts needed in computer systems design. The semantics are based on conceptual graphs, as introduced by Sowa /25 , which we briefly review. An example using real concepts from commercial fourth generation software is discussed. In addition, a Smalltalk-based tool is described which permits the rapid acquisition, editing, and graphical display of definitions, to aid in conceptual design and the choice of terminology. A major point of the paper is that such a process of clarifying terminology should become an essential component of software design. This should become recognized as influences from artificial intelligence become more common in software design. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Program I/O behavior: models and their applications. (technical) Mincer-Daszkiewicz, Janina. The paper deals with the I/O behavior of programs. The logical I/O interval strings of some real programs are investigated and their features identified. Different I/O models, constructed in a hierarchical manner, are proposed. Artificial I/O interval strings generated by the models are compared with the real I/O interval strings. Hierarchical multi-state models with Markov state transitions describe adequately the distributional characteristics of I/O intervals, but may not be so accurate in reproducing their autocorrelation. The ARMA approach is more suitable for expressing the correlational characteristics, but the distribution of the intervals is modeled less precisely. The models are functionally validated in two chosen areas of application. In the area of computer system performance evaluation by means of a simulation, the proposed lI/O models turn out to be competitive counterparts of the commonly used version of the Cox model. In existing computer systems, the load balancing processor scheduling discipline with the I/O models used as dynamic predictors produces higher overall system utilization than FCFS, RR, and PS disciplines. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Implementing an EIS in a large insurance corporation. (executive information system) Organizations must overcome several problems before the implementation of an executive information system (EIS) can be successful. One insurance company canceled its EIS implementation project after a cost/benefit analysis revealed that the costs outweighed the benefits, which were unquantifiable. Organizations planning to implement an EIS should be aware that several factors can cause the project to fail. These factors include the existence of high costs and unknown benefits, the perception among employees that the EIS is a threat to existing functional areas, the executives' unfamiliarity with computer-assisted decision-making, and the EIS' incompatibility with corporate procedures. Enhancing sales force productivity with a relational DBMS. (data base management system) A relational data base management system (DBMS) can help organizations improve sales force productivity. DBMSs can improve the sales process by helping to allocate time and process information. The success of a DBMS depends on the active involvement of users, not computer programmers, in the data base design process. The advantages of DBMSs include their ability to help new salespeople provide customer service, and their ability to help close sales. DBMSs help new salespeople become more familiar with their customers by providing customer information, as well as personal notes about buyers. Salespeople can use order forms stored in the DBMS to facilitate the preparation of an order after a sale is closed. Lessons I learned developing interactive videodisc instruction. Reynolds, A. Paul. Organizations planning to implement an interactive videodisc instruction system can reduce problems and costs by learning from the mistakes made in the implementation of Buffalo State College's (BSC) system. The problems experienced by the college included the difficulty in transferring images to beta videotape, and the expense involved in script revision. Organizations can avoid the problems of BSC by following several steps, including planning for delays in scheduling, making backup copies of material on diskette, and making sure that equipment is compatible. Designing an information system for a health care organization. (includes a related article on systems analysis and design) Systems designers should consider the special requirements of the health care industry when designing an information system for a health care organization. The conventional approach to systems design may have to be modified to meet the needs of the health care industry. The steps in systems design for a health care organization include conducting a feasibility study, determining employees' needs, identifying alternative approaches, selecting vendors, and training users. Health care organizations should consider several issues during the systems design process, including the use of a committee, the selection of a consultant, the development of a request for proposal, and the implementation of the upgrading process. Application assessment: a method for guiding distributed processing architectures. Organizations can use the application assessment process to implement a distributed processing architecture. The application assessment process involves using a decision support system to evaluate business needs. Functions and data can then be placed within a group of technology parameters, including the processing mode, data deployment, processing deployment, and processing location. The application assessment process should be objective, compatible with business strategies, technology-independent, and flexible. AT and T was able to use the application assessment process when changing from a centralized processing environment to a distributed processing environment in 1987. A case study in selecting an expert system shell. (Software Review) (evaluation) An important part of the development of a knowledge-based system is the selection of an expert system (ES) shell. The issues to consider when evaluating ES shells include the ease of use, functional capabilities, the selection of a vendor, and the type of documentation. One organization's experience in the selection of an ES shell for a production scheduling system involved the consideration of such issues as computational requirements, the ability to access external files, and the ability to interface with external programs. Four ES shells were considered: Level5, Exsys Standard, 1st Class, and Personal Consultant Easy. None of the shells was able to meet the integration requirements of the organization. Level5 was chosen as the best alternative for developing a prototype, but the design of the ES had to be changed as a result of the limitations of the shell. A random polynomial-time algorithm for approximating the volume of convex bodies. (technical) An algorithm for use in approximating the volume of a convex body in Euclidean space is given. This algorithm is a randomized polynomial-time-bounded algorithm. The algorithm can be run repeatedly and the median value taken as output to make the failure probability as small as desired. The basis for the algorithm is a scheme to sample nearly uniformly from within K. Results show that randomness gives a super-polynomial speed-up in computing power. The weighted region problem: finding shortest paths through a weighted planar subdivision. (technical) The new problem of finding the shortest paths through a weighted planar subdivision is considered. The goal is finding a path in the plane that minimizes total cost according to a weighted Euclidean metric. A polynomial-time solution to the general Euclidean weighted region problem is the main result of studying this problem. The algorithm used applies the 'continuous Dijkstra' paradigm and constructs a restricted 'shortest path map' with respect to a given source point. The algorithm can be used to compute Voroni diagrams. A fast planar partition algorithm, II. (technical) Mulmuley, Ketan. A new technique for clipping, called virtual clipping, is given. In virtual clipping, the overhead per window W depends logarithmically on the number of intersections between the input segments and the borders of W. Virtual clipping has all the advantages of conventional clipping, but the clipping is made more efficient and more robust. A simple and efficient planar point location algorithm is an application of virtual clipping. The optimal planar partition algorithm is extended to other problems, such as algebraic segments of a bounded degree. Optimal sample cost residues for differential database batch query problems. (technical) The ideal assignment procedure in a computing application may have major hidden costs. One of the common problems is determining which equivalent algorithm is the most efficient in performing a particular task. OSCR is a complexity measure that can be used to examine a differentiable query problem. Results show that O(N to the 2/3 power) is the optimal sample size in almost all differentiable applications of N executing steps. Evaluation of queries in independent database schemes. (technical) Sagiv, Yehoshua. A characterization of independent data base schemes is proved. An expression is given that can be used to map every locally consistent data base to the restricted projection of the representative instance onto a given set X. The algorithm can be used only with independent data base schemes. Exponential time can be used to construct the expression. The construction can be generalized to any tableau query. Planar graph decomposition and all pairs shortest paths. (technical) Determining the shortest path information in a graph is one of the basic problems in graph algorithms. A new approach to this problem is presented. This approach uses the topology of the graph as the basis for succinct encoding of shortest path information. The shortest path information is encoded in compact routing tables, thus avoiding a lower bound. There is no class of graphs that have any currently available algorithms for verifying the generalized triangle inequality that are faster than the current best algorithm used to solve all pairs shortest path. Extended horn sets in propositional logic. (technical) Chandru, V.; Hooker, J.N. Because inference is easy for Horn clauses, they are widely used in logical programming languages and knowledge-based systems. Horn clauses have a collection of interesting mathematical properties. A new one is that Horn clauses pose 0-1 problems that can be solved by linear programming and rounding. Extended Horn are sets of clauses that have atomic propositions that correspond to the arcs of some rooted arborescence so that each clause in the set describes an extended star-chain flow pattern on the arborescence. Hidden extended Horn clauses can be identified by a linear-time procedure. An extended Horn framework can be used to depart from the restriction that an antecedent represent one or more lines of reasoning following down from the root. Upper and lower bounds on switching energy in VLSI. (very large scale integrated circuits) (technical) The upper and lower bounds on the switching energy needed to realize functions that are computed with VLSI circuits are established. OR and AND and compare functions can be realized with VLSI circuits using switching energy that is never more than linear in the length of the input. The Uniswitch Model of energy consumption is developed. USW measures the differences between pairs of states of an embedded circuit, defining an energy cost measure for VLSI circuits. New PS/2s, OS/2s, LAN server. (IBM's PS/2 Model 95 XP 486, Model 90 XP 486, OS/2 Standard Edition 1.3, OS/2 Extended Edition 1.3 IBM introduces PS/2 Model 95 XP 486, its first microcomputer designed for use as a network file server. Prices for the Model 95 range from $14,145 to $17,745. The new PS/2 Model 90 XP 486 is a desktop machine designed for use in computer-aided design. The Model 90's price range is from $12,495 to $16,695. Both PS/2's are IBM's top-of-the-line microcomputers and have 80486 microprocessors, Micro Channel architecture, Extended Graphics Array (XGA), Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) storage capabilities and advanced memory technology. Both systems can be easily upgraded and expanded. IBM also introduces its new OS/2 Standard Edition (SE) 1.3, which has improved performance and requires only 2Mbytes of memory. The new OS/2 Extended Edition (EE) 1.3 runs on top of OS/2 SE providing communications and database services. The new LAN Server 1.3 provides network services. The LAN tutorial series part 30: SQL front ends. (Structured Query Language) (tutorial) Client-server architecture brings together a back-end database program, an Application Program Interface (API) that is a standardized Structured Query Language (SQL) application and a front-end client application. The client application issues a request to the API-SQL. The SQL server responds by querying the back-end database program. The back-end database application finds the requested data and returns the answer to the user. The client-server model offers various benefits. Neither the front-end application nor the users need to know where the data is stored since this is handled by the SQL API. Front-end and back-end programs can also be specialized since they are separate. All users on the network can access a centralized database. Therefore, the database is always up-to-date. Users querying the database through a SQL front-end will always receive accurate data. Harry Saal: Network General's CEO brings order to management chaos. (Interview) (interview) Network General's president and chief executive officer, Harry Saal, believes that the field of network analysis needs to continue to grow at a faster rate than the local area network (LAN) business itself. Saal feels that reasons for Network General's stock drop include world events, the general public mood about high technology stocks in a recession and expense miscalculations on the company's marketing strategy for its Watchdog network monitor. Saal claims that in five to ten years network analysis products will be as widespread as microcomputer LANs are today. Network protocol analyzers will evolve into using artificial intelligence and expert systems. Five years time will bring radically different ways of understanding networks. Saal notes that Network General has doubled nearly every year. The company has lost only six of its 120 employees in the last four years. Out of the ashes: planning will let your business recover from disaster. (Disaster Recovery) Statistics show that 43 percent of companies that are not prepared and suffer a disaster never reopen for business. Of the companies that can reopen, 90 percent go out of business within two years. One major reason for lack of protection of computer systems is the widespread use of microcomputers and microcomputer local area networks (LAN) and a tendency towards decentralized data processing. Because of these factors, information services departments lose control of protection and backup. The first step in disaster planning is for companies to determine their level of risk. A disaster recovery plan should cover the company's critical functions and supporting systems operations. It should also include elements in remaining competitive in the face of a catastrophe. Companies should be aware of how, when and where their backup systems operate and should have backup systems tested thoroughly. Pot of gold: Spectrum waits at the end of the LAN management rainbow. (Cabletron Systems' Spectrum network management Cabletron Systems' Spectrum is the first network management system for large enterprise networks that is truly standards-based and vendor independent. Spectrum's power is the result of using three technologies including the client-server database model, an object-oriented database and an artificial intelligence component. The system's client-server architecture allows several users to have access to information developed by the server. Spectrum has the ability to characterize a local area network (LAN) as an object. It requires only a clearly defined interpretation of a protocol to manage a network. Spectrum also offers an intelligent graphical user interface using an X Windows and Motif foundation. Network managers can have either a physical or logical view of the network. Spectrum's open design lies in its method of not making assumptions about a network element's nature. Extra! Extra!: online services now deliver news to the LAN. (local area network)(Application Software)(includes related article on Online service providers are looking to local area networks (LAN) to provide value-added features for users. Users of the CompuServe online service can connect to their private packet-switched network either by way of dial-up or gateways provided by Network Products. LAN users can seamlessly connect to CompuServe's host computers and receive data quickly through a gateway to their desktop. The Dow Jones service sends information through private company LANs directly to users' desktops. Dow Jones uses a private packet-switched network that serves 13 US cities. Nodes in each city connect over a 56K-bps backbone. Links to customer sites are 9.6K-bps. All of Dow Jones' newswires are fed to users from a central broadcast server. An interactive server offers traditional interactive service without dial-up. Comtex and Western Union also offer a variety of data delivery options. Client confessions: front-ends for database engines are coming, albeit slowly. (Databases) Many problems have hampered developers trying to get front ends for structured query language (SQL) into the market. Developers cannot simply rewrite their applications using SQL and the client-server model since throwing out years of development work is expensive. They also do not want their users to feel abandoned or forced to upgrade. SQL commands must be embedded in another programming language and the programming logic to accommodate this is formidable. It is much easier to design an application to get information from SQL engines than to get data into SQL databases. Developers also must support several SQL dialects and many varieties of engines. Marketing and revenue issues add to the differences in philosophy between developers and vendors of SQL engines, which contributes to the slowness in the development of SQL front-end applications. Arcnet grows up: with management tools, Arcnet users save time and money. (includes related article on delay on ArcnetPlus) Datapoint's Arcnet is the oldest commercially available network and is an inexpensive and reliable alternative to Token Ring and Ethernet. Despite its three million nodes installed, the 20M-bps version is still not released although a new 2.5M-bps version will soon be available on one chip. Several companies that make products for Arcnet are still sticking by the network, realizing the importance of the management of networks that are already in place. Accunetics produces the NMS-1000 Network Management System for Arcnet. The system lets users map, monitor and control the network. PureData, with its iHub intelligent Arcnet hub, is the first Arcnet maker to support the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Thomas-Conrad is the first company to develop monitor reconfigurations and intelligent hubs on an Arcnet network. Arcnet products are discussed in detail. Comdex Fall: networking at the largest computer show in the U.S. (Trade Show) The Comdex Fall trade show showcased little in the way of local area network (LAN) products. Most product introductions were upgrades and LAN products were a commonplace technology. SQL front ends and image management software were both featured. Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) products were almost non-existent. Codenoll announced Ethernet products based on plastic optical fiber (POF). Codenoll claims that plastic fiber has all the advantages and benefits of glass fiber as well as its own cost advantage. 3Com announced that it is marketing an intelligent network wiring hub, the LinkBuilder. 3Com says the Linkbuilder product line will let network administrators monitor and control workstation-to-hub connections, network security and traffic loads. Other products showcased at Comdex are presented. Just add water: how the Interop show network was installed overnight. (Case Study) The set-up of the Interop show network was complex due to both the large size of the network and the time constraint of only eight hours for the installation. The final network consisted of 7.5 miles of Fiber optic Data Distribution Interface (FDDI) fiber-optic cabling and 22.5 miles of Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP) cable. The original plan was to have the network divided into 10-BaseT Ethernet ribs connecting aisles of booths to each other. These were to be connected together by means of an FDDI ring and two 10BaseT Ethernet spines as a backbone. Due to other obstacles that took up precious time, the idea of the FDDI backbone had to be eliminated in order to finish other configuration and software-related tasks. The two redundant 10BaseT Ethernet segments were used to deal with traffic on the backbone. Other network details are presented. Crystal ball: Pharos' Status*Mac creates Macintosh system profiles. (Pharos Technologies' Status*Mac 1.0) (Software Review) Pharos Technologies' Status*Mac 1.0 network analyzer offers a wealth of information for network administrators to diagnose network problems. Administrators should note, however, that using the product to the best of its capabilities requires the understanding and cooperation of users at each workstation. Status*Mac is priced at $799 for the 10-profile Base Package and $75 for each additional profile. Status*Mac is designed for administrators to request that users run the profile generating program on their individual workstations. If users are uncooperative or unavailable, the system will not work and will create extra work for the administrator to track down unresponsive users. Status*Mac can be installed on a network drive or individual hard drive. Documentation is clearly written, well organized and includes a tutorial but does not include samples of the report templates. Candela hitches its wagon to a manmade star. Weiss, Richard. Candela Laser Corp is working with researchers at the University of Illinois to circumvent the limitations of ground-based astronomy until NASA can correct the spherical aberration of the primary mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. A laser would create a manmade 'star' at any point in the sky. The observer will be able to use this point source of light to gain sufficient details of atmospheric aberration that deformable mirrors can be used to correct for aberrations, greatly improving the resolution of earthbound telescopes. This project has the potential to revolutionize optical astronomy and give earthbound telescopes an angular resolution better than the to-be-corrected Hubble. Soviets seek help for LCD manufacturing. (International News; liquid crystal display) The Soviet Union is working to rescue its troubled economy and one project that has export potential is a liquid crystal display factory. Bios, based in the UK, has responsibility for the contract as a whole, but LCD Systems (Santa Clara, CA). Discussion of the new venture began in 1987, but the contracts were not signed until 1989. Part of the reason for the amount it took to reach agreement seems to have been the result of the Soviets inexperience in project definition says LCD Systems pres Robert Haire. Control comes home to color analysis. (includes related article on Anritsu America's MV02; optical spectrum analyzers) The market is growing for the visible-light segment of optics as the cost of components decreases, paving the way for more applications. Considerable work has been done in the television, computer, and photographic industries to please the eye-brain combination as it responds to light intensity and color. Red, blue and green, the tri-stimulus colors, are the three basics that make up virtually any visible color. Hue, saturation and luminance can also be used to express color. The optical spectrum analyzer imitates the human response to luminance and wavelength. Designers combine optical elements and high-speed digital processing to bring new dimensions to signal analysis. A common problem with optical spectrum analyzers is coupling sufficient light into the instrument. One way to do this is to use a holding fixture and a Selfoc lens. The laser marketplace: forecast 1991. Cunningham, Richard. The laser industry in 1990 had a year-over-year growth of 8.2 percent to $755.4 million, measured against a revised 1989 market figure of $699.3 million. The projected growth for 1991 is 9.6 percent to $827.9 million. The year 1991 is projected to be a year of aggressive marketing and thin margins for the laser industry. Sales for lasers are projected in terms of units, dollar value of units, and dollar value by application. The outlook for 1991 is seen as a reasonably good economy in Western Europe, at least a fair economy in the Far East, and a mixed picture for the US economy. There is likely to be excitement about moderate-power diode lasers made for specific wavelengths previously unattainable with a diode structure. GaAs diode lasers: a decade of progress. Hecht, Jeff. Dramatic advances were made in laser technology in the 1980s and are expected to continue through the 1990s. Visible wavelength diode lasers and improved performance of the long-wavelength InGaAsP lasers used in fiberoptic systems are two of the important advances. The development of new structures is the key to the expanding capabilities of GaAs lasers. Restricting laser action to a narrow stripe can be done by gain guiding, which restricts drive current to a small part of the active layer; and index guiding, which relies on structures with different refractive index to confine light to a stripe in the active layer. The quantum well is one of the most powerful concepts to emerge; quantum well structures are used in gain-guided and index-guided lasers. Strained layers is another new concept; it provides a way around the need for lattice matching. The surface-emitting diode laser is another new development; two types are the planar cavity surface-emitting laser and the vertical cavity surface-emitting laser. Measuring solar spectra: problems and solutions. Schneider, William E. Optronic Laboratories' OL 752 spectroradiometer meets the four criteria needed by an automated spectroradiometric measurement system: truly portable, battery operation, capability to perform field calibration checks, and environmental protection. Measuring solar radiation is more difficult and complex than measuring the spectral output of other light sources. The UVB band, ranging from 280 to 320 nm, is the area of interest. The critical parameters are wavelength accuracy and repeatability, stray light, bandwidth, sensitivity, dynamic range, scan speed, stability, system calibration, and input optics. There are two ways to automate spectroradiometric systems: interfacing the spectroradiometer to a computer or using complete on-board microprocessor control of all crucial functions. Schott's new glass lets the deep blue through. Schott Glass Technologies Inc introduces Ultran 30, the first in a new family of glasses targeted for UV applications. Extensive research and the purest raw materials and sophisticated melting technology were used to develop Ultran 30. Ultran 30 has an internal transmittance of 99.5 percent at 365 nanometers in a 25-mm-thick sample. The refraction index is 1.54830 and the Abbe value is 74.25 at the sodium d-line. The optical designer can use Ultran 30 as a versatile alternative to other UV-transmitting material now available. The new view on OS/2; Windows may win the GUI battle, but MIS managers hope OS/2 will win the war. (graphical user The Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface captures the imagination of users, developers and corporate buyers since being introduced in May 1990, but the future of OS/2 is still bright. A recent survey by Robertson Stephens & Co showed that 75 percent of Fortune 500 firms have tried Windows, and most plan to implement it. Yet at the same time many MIS managers refer to Windows 3.0 as an interim environment only. Problems with Windows are cited: it is not supported by Lotus 1-2-3 or WordPerfect, it is forever tied to the aging DOS operating system, and it is unsuitable as a mainframe front end because of network communications problems. Many instances are found where a company has a strategic long-term plan to move to OS/2. OS/2 applications sales grew 861 percent over a one-year period ending the 1st half of 1990. Complicating matters is a growing rift between IBM and Microsoft. Microsoft has been pushing Windows as the graphical environment of choice, while IBM, which has insisted on the superiority of OS/2, has taken over OS/2 development. Firms turn to multiprocessor servers; new LAN software exploits power. (multiprocessor file servers, local area network)(Ideas & Multiprocessors are being used by several client/server computer manufacturers such as Compaq Computer Corp, Parallan Computer and NetFrame Systems as a means of attaining minicomputer speed in file servers. The problems with these machines are daunting prices and a general paucity of software that truly exploits the multiprocessors. The fully configured Systempro, as an example, with two 33-MHz 80486 processors, math coprocessors, and an 840Mbyte hard disk, sells for $40,200. Banyan Systems beat its competitors to market in Sep 1990 when it introduced Vines SMP, a version of the Vines operating system that will operate on any multiprocessor computer. Vines SMP takes advantage of Compaq's sophisticated symmetric multiprocessing, in which each processor is treated equally and tasks are assigned to the next available processor for higher performance. Microsoft by the end of 1990 plans a multiprocessing version of LAN Manager 2.0, to be implemented first on the Parallan Server 290, and Novell is working on a multiprocessor NetWare. Statistical packages migrate to PCs; the Dallas Cowboys save $10,000 a month on mainframe costs. (Ideas & Trends) Statistical software packages have become prevalent for microcomputers, in contrast to years past when statistical analysis was the exclusive province of mainframes. The shift has resulted from the emergence of 80286 and 80386 microcomputers able to analyze large quantities of data. Professional statisticians found huge cost savings when they migrated from mainframe-based packages to microcomputer software. The Dallas Cowboys Football Club switched from SAS running on a mainframe to SAS Systems running on microcomputers to analyze player statistics and saved $10,000 a month in mainframe time-sharing charges. Others have discovered microcomputer-based statistical analysis in their role as general user, though most can handle only smaller data analysis packages. Advanced statistical packages are excellent, having programming languages to create statistical procedures as well as sophisticated diagnostic routines, but they are not user-friendly and are expensive as well. Some, however, are adding graphical features and pull-down menus in order to lure users who have outgrown the limits of Lotus 1-2-3. You can take it with you; essential DOS commands for working with floppy disks. (includes related articles on what the DOS FORMAT Key external DOS commands for manipulating files on floppy disk are described. External commands reside on the hard disk rather than in memory and must be issued by first entering the path name to the DOS file directory. The FORMAT command imposes a gridlike structure on the entire disk to prepare it to receive data and scans the disk for damaged areas. The disk can be new, having never been formatted, or old but containing unwanted files. Files placed on a newly formatted disk are written to the edge first, making a ring, and works inwards as each ring becomes full. Erasing a file deletes the file name from the file-allocation table (FAT), the DOS mechanism that tracks data storage locations on disk. Repeatedly saving and erasing files on a disk fragments the file on different disk locations, degrading retrieval time. DOS wild cards, used in either the file name or file extension or both, and signified by an asterisk, allow files to be copied from one disk to another, or to be deleted, in bunches. The DISKCOPY command, also external, makes an exact copy of a disk, usually for backup purposes. Easy printer control: a custom-menu system adds print attributes to your worksheets. (1-2-3 Macros) (tutorial) Spreadsheet macros allow printer-setup strings to be easily embedded in Lotus 1-2-3 worksheets in order to automatically incorporate several nice print styles in a report. Embedding a setup string is straightforward, while embedding printer-control codes in a Print range is time-consuming and benefits from being automated with a macro. Macros are detailed that use custom menus and supply four print attributes, for example bolding and underlining, but more attributes can be easily added by expanding the menu and table of attribute codes. Multiple menus are also a possibility. Can you pay the bills? (Lambda cash and credit prediction index used in Lotus 1-2-3 to measure an organization's liquidity) The Lambda index, devised by the University of Oklahoma's Gary Emery and based on Nobel Laureate Merton Miller's work, is a dynamic ratio that predicts a company's cash and credit flow with accuracy using relevant features of liquidity. Lambda can be used for cash management or credit administration. It is calculated for a given period as the sum of a company's initial liquid reserve (consisting of cash balances, short-term investments and unused credit lines) and its net flow of funds, divided by the associated uncertainty of the flows (based on the standard deviation of net cash flow). The resulting Lambda index is equal to the z value in one tail of a normal distribution, the second tail being irrelevant because a positive deviation does not result in a liquidity crisis. An example of the application and interpretation of Lambda using Lotus 1-2-3 2.x or 3.x or in Symphony 2.x reveals the complexities as well as the sensitivity to forecast accuracy associated with the Lambda index. WYSIWYG: Hands on. (what you see is what you get) (includes related article on navigating Lotus 1-2-3 with a cursor control Spreadsheet publishing is possible with Lotus 1-2-3 3.1 WYSIWYG add-in program. The program lets users control spreadsheet typefaces, font sizes, attributes, screen colors and the placement of boxes around spreadsheet data, and most important, lets users see on the display what will be printed on paper. Users familiar with 1-2-3 will be able to run the functions unique to WYSIWYG. The program uses default fonts when users create a spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet is created, WYSIWYG provides elementary text-editing functions enabling easy report and memo writing. If desired, users can position graphs below data and beside a memo. Guidelines for using WYSIWYG are presented. 50 ways to improve your graphs; the Release 3.x Graph menu gives you more control and efficiency. The Lotus 1-2-3 3.x Graph package gives users more control and efficiency over their graphs. The software's key menu innovations include commands that enhance the graph and commands that help users generate better graphs. 3.x Graph provides two new graph types: the mixed graph and the high-low-close-open graph. The first graph is a combination bar and line graph, the second shows fluctuations in data over time. 1-2-3 plots each set of high, low, close and open data as a vertical line in the high-low graph. The mixed graph is best used when plotting two sets of related data. New graph features of the Select/Graph Type Feature, which allows graph modifications include Vertical, Horizontal, Stacked, 100 percent, 2Y-Ranges and Y-Ranges. All but two selections on the Graph Options menu provide new options. Also included in 3.x Graph are more scaling choices, commands for easy-to-make data labels and commands for listing named graphs. Making qualities count; adding qualitative variables - such as location - can make forecasts more specific. (includes related Qualitative variables may be added to regression models to improve accuracy when outcomes are affected by nonnumeric factors. Such variables help analyze the effect of several kinds of conditions, such as the season, production features and the condition of real estate, and this approach prepares data for standard regression analysis by including a variable that was not considered. Qualitative variables are produced by converting text information to 1s and 0s. The 1s and 0s designate the possible conditions and act as independent variables in the regression calculations. Spreadsheets are ideal for this task: a few simple formulas copied into several rows can convert the variable to 1s and 0s. Examples of modeling with one, two and three qualitative variables are presented. Made in a minute; Coca-Cola Foods uses 1-2-3 and E-mail to keep its spreadsheet forecasts as fresh as its OJ. (Applications) Coca-Cola Foods uses E-mail and Lotus 1-2-3 to keep its spreadsheet forecasts for perishable foods accurate. Enable Software's Higgins electronic mail package is used by Coca-Cola to send information via Lotus 1-2-3 2.2 spreadsheets from its regional office to corporate headquarters in Houston. Headquarters then uses the data to build a 1-2-3 database and make dispatches to contributing groups. This process enables those involved with the transaction to see how their input interact with developments in the division. The company uses templates to keep its four-month forecast questionnaire for estimating demands for products like Minute Maid and Five Alive. The results of the questionnaire are later transmitted. According to a company source, this process, which once took hours, if not days to complete, can be done in about half an hour. Portable printers get the word out; Canon and Kodak weigh in with lightweight ink-jets. (includes related article on Computer Canon's BJ-10e, a $499 printer, features high-quality type, long battery life and superior operation in high-quality mode. Compared with the $519 Diconix 150 plus, the latest offering from Kodak, the BJ-10e provides a higher quality type. Both printers are quiet and feature AC adapter and rechargeable NiCad batteries. During speed and quality tests, neither printer won in all categories. In terms of quality, the Canon machine was outstanding because it produced cleaner, crisper and darker output than the Kodak, but the Kodak 150plus printed text faster in high-speed mode than the BJ-10e. The emulation issue was also in favour of the BJ-10e, which emulates a 24-pin dot-matrix printer. In the command-set compatibility tests with a number of software including Microsoft Word, 1-2-3 and Allways, the Diconix had a problem with irregularities. Beyond step mode: Personics's Macro Editor/Debugger brings elegance and power to macro troubleshooting. (Software Review) Personics Corp's Macro Editor/Debugger (ME/D), a $199.95 program editor, brings power to macro troubleshooting. The package speeds up the debugging process by simultaneously splitting its screen into windows that monitor the worksheet cell pointer and the macro code. Upon discovering mistakes, users can pause the debugger and go into ME/D's editor to make changes. The program searches for errors, one command and row at a time. The ME/D opens up a new environment of control for those accustomed to troubleshooting macros with 1-2-3 basic step mode. The ME/D features an integrated editor, which allows users to test and fix code as they move through a macro. One the weaker features is its syntax checking. The program stops running when it comes in contact with an error. How to pick a PIM: What is a personal information manager, and do you need one? (includes related article on recommended reviews) Choosing a PIM is no small task, but the rule of thumb is to buy one with capabilities that are of use to you. Buying superfluous programs adds to the confusion and tends to clutter your organization efforts. An organization's needs can be best suited with a customized program, but one should be mindful of flexibility because it tends to breed complexity. Among magazines that have done PIM reviews, PC Magazine, InfoWorld and Byte agree that a PIM should at least offer note-taking, contact-management, smart scheduling and to-do functions. Lotus Development Corp's Agenda is an example of packages that would be best for organizing and cross referencing vast amounts of text-based data. Users with a more specific need can buy a package that features preset categories. A well known PIM with unique scheduling abilities is Chronos Software's Who-What-When, but for the user who spends much time on the phone, PackRat or Info Select should be considered. Business insight: check your company's health. (Business software) (Software Review) (New Products) (evaluation) Business Resource Software's $495 Business Insight package analyzes data such as sales projections, buyer perception, management quality and product life cycle. Business Insight advises users of the best approach to analyzing product development issues within a large enterprise. The program then helps infuse new insights into the structure and health of businesses. A user goes through an extensive series of questions about the price of products, the company's revenue objective and its promotional strategy. The hosts of questions do not have to be answered, but the more information the program works with, the better the final analysis will be. Business Insight's internal rules come from about 35 business books. Although Business Insight cannot generate a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, the Insight's comprehensive analysis technique, impressive presentation style and sheer usefulness put it ahead of the pack. The program requires DOS 3.0 or higher, 640Kbyte of RAM and a 2Mbyte hard disk. The Manager's Organizer: master your time. (MECA Software's personal information management package) (Software Review) MECA Software introduces the $249.95 The Manager's Organizer (TMO), a personal information management package that features account tracking, checkbook management, net worth calculations and related functions. These features are made available through pull-down menus that are located on the main TMO screen. The program's desk section features tools for organizing and scheduling user's time and includes a log for phone calls. The desk section also features a file of cards like that in Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money, but this program provides almost no integration between the business-card file and any other section of the program. The Calculations section features programs for analyzing cash flow, amortizations computing loan rates and other common activities, and the Personnel section tracks employees performance objectives and compensation benchmarks, among other things. Also included is a Travel section that lets users track results and an Agreements section, where users can file insurance policies and other agreements. The Manager's Organizer's disparate parts and lack of integration, however, lead to user frustration, redundant effort and general confusion. GeoWorks Ensemble: a GUI for low-end PCs. (Software Review) (graphical user interface) (evaluation) GeoWorks' $195 Ensemble is a collection of eight applications for the company's GEOS graphical environment operating system that presents a stiff technical challenge to Microsoft Windows. The eight applications include a word processor, telecommunications program, time scheduler, address book, paint program and some utilities. The word processor, GeoWrite, is particularly helpful. It lets users, for example, easily transfer text and images from one GeoWorks application into the word processor. GeoComm, the telecommunications program, includes the Xmodem file-transfer protocol and five terminal emulations. The other Ensemble applications work as expected, and overall, the program provides an excellent reason for trying the GEOS environment. Can the Feds take your PC ? (Essay) (column) Bond, George. Those guilty of computer destruction or theft must be arrested and tried, and if found guilty, jailed and fined. They should be arrested, however, for their illegal actions and not because they used a computer and a telephone line in the commission of the crime. The case of Craig Neidorf, a 20-year-old publisher of an electronic newsletter who was arrested by the US Secret Service for publishing an internal BellSouth document describing the administration of the 911 emergency system, is used to illustrate the public's often negative perception of the private use of telecommunications. Three factors contributed to the government's boldness in the Neidorf case: free-speech laws are still undefined with regard to electronic publishing; telecommunications technology is still highly confusing; and telecommunications systems are being abused by thieves, racists, drug dealers and other slime. The handheld calculator. Slack, Warner V. The heavy, expensive electronic calculators developed in the 1960s have evolved into powerful, microprocessor-based handheld machines. Sharp Electronics' electronic calculator, which was developed in 1964, weighed 55 pounds, cost $2,500, and performed only four arithmetic functions. The development of the microprocessor led to the addition of more powerful features, including a programmable calculator in 1974, a liquid-crystal display calculator in 1978, and an operating system capable of running on VisiCalc software in 1982. The most powerful calculator could be the HP-48SX, with over 2,100 functions and 30Kbytes of memory. Solving the problem of how medical students solve problems. (Educational Software) The UCLA School of Medicine has developed IMMEX: Problem Solving Exercises in Immunology, a software package that helps improve medical students' problem-solving skills. The program begins with a patient's case history. Students can retrieve clues at any time to help in hypothesis formulation and data selection. Students can retrieve potential answers from a diagnosis menu after they have retrieved data from five laboratory tests. Students are given 3,000 points, losing 50 points for each laboratory test retrieved, 200 points for each consultation, and 500 points for an incorrect solution. One objective of the program is to reduce students' reliance on the acquisition of a large amount of data. A test of 148 students' use of IMMEX revealed several problem-solving errors, including a lack of adequate hypothesis testing, a tendency to develop preconceived notions of diagnoses, and a tendency to collect excessive amounts of data. Preoperative selection for curable renovascular hypertension. (Clinical Computing) A microcomputer program has been written in BASIC for identifying potentially curable renovascular hypertension. Several factors are included in the program, including reference limits associated with normal values for peripheral plasma renin activity (PRA), the patient's PRA, abnormal renin activity, and renal renin release. The program calculates the Vaughan score and generates a clinical prediction. Physicians can make optimal decisions by automating the process for predicting curability. Searching Medline at the University of Michigan. Grefsheim, Suzanne F.; Shipman, Barbara L.; Schwartz, Diane G.; The University of Michigan's (UM) Alfred Taubman Library renewed its Medline contract with PaperChase instead of installing a new system, despite the new system's potential for cost savings. UM originally entered into a contract with PaperChase in Jan 1989, while waiting for the development and testing of Notis' Multiple Database Access Software (MDAS). UM-Medline provided users with free, unlimited searching 24 hours a day, and the users were generally very satisfied with the program. Library personnel, along with the integrated academic information management system planning committee, discovered several obstacles related to the conversion to MDAS. Potential obstacles included the reluctance of users to search a smaller file, the inability of MDAS to print citations in a continuous stream, and the possibility of having more time-consuming searches with MDAS. UM decided to renew the contract with PaperChase because the benefits of UM-Medline outweighed the potential cost savings of MDAS. Installing a computer in your office. Cushing, Matthew, Jr. Organizations should take steps to prepare offices and employees before installing a computer system. The steps in preparing the installation site include connecting terminals with cables, networking a group of computers, connecting computers to the telephone system, installing the printers properly, and locating computers near a dedicated telephone outlet and a good power source. Organizations should ensure that employees are familiar with the operating system, as well as the applications. Extra supplies of such materials as ribbons and forms should be kept. Hardware and software maintenance agreements are essential. Hardware should be covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, and software should be covered by a maintenance agreement after the guarantee expires. Iliad: a diagnostic consultant and patient simulator. (Applied Informatics' Iliad 2.03)(includes related article on Iliad's Applied Informatics' Iliad 2.03 is an expert system that helps internists develop differential diagnoses. The program provides a list of differential diagnoses after the patient's name, age, sex, and primary complaint are entered. Physicians can then enter additional data, or they can request the program to suggest the type of information that should be entered. Iliad's patient simulation mode can be used as an educational tool. The program provides a brief medical history and primary complaint, and the student must indicate the proper diagnosis and the working hypotheses. The program is accurate, comprehensive, easy to learn, and easy to use. Some features are missing, however, including cutting and pasting features, and a cancellation feature for the Review Disease option. Iliad is a stand-alone system, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Information can be disseminated throughout the world, but data must be entered manually. The program runs on a 68020-based Macintosh and requires at least 2Mbytes of RAM and a 10Mbyte hard disk. A single-unit license costs $2,500 per year. Kodak XL7700. (Eastman Kodak Co.'s color printer) (Hardware Review) (Reviews) (evaluation) Eastman Kodak Co's XL7700 is a color printer that utilizes dye sublimation to produce high-quality continuous-tone prints. Unlike most color printers, which employ dithering to produce a variety of hues, the XL7700 heats the primary-color dyes into a gas then blends them into true colors and places them on paper. Because the colors have a range of intensities, known as continuous-tone, XL7700 prints look like photographs. A full 11-x-11-inch image at 200dpi requires 12Mbytes, which makes it difficult to manipulate images. However, while a Postscript printer takes over 30 minutes to print an 11-x-11-inch image, the XL7700 takes about three minutes. The Kodak XL7700 is an elegant rack-mountable equipment, disadvantaged only by its high cost and the high media cost. Prices for the XL7700 start at $24,895. 4D Compiler. (Acius Inc.'s program development software) (Reviews) (Software Review) (includes related article on 4th Dimension 2.1) Acius Inc's $1,000 4D Compiler is a program development tool that eliminates the need for an interpreter because it pre-organizes a user's 4th Dimension application into machine language. Since the 4D Compiler creates and works on a copy of the user's database, the original source file does not change; users can recompile the source data as often as necessary and utilize the same data file with a compiled and an uncompiled structure. 4D Compiler includes a symbol table and an error file option, diagnostic tools that simplify the process of preparing an application for compiling. Other features include the Next Compiler Error command, which opens each error file and highlights specific lines, and the Range Checking option, which catches mistakes that, undetected, would cause a compiled application to crash. 4th Dimension 2.1, the 4D compiler and Word may be run simultaneously for convenience. Aldus PrePrint. (separation utility program for PageMaker) (Reviews) (Software Review) (evaluation) Aldus Corp's $495 PrePrint is a color separation utility program for Pagemaker that allows users to manipulate shadows, highlights and midtones, and combinations of the four superimposed halftones that create color images. The process of using PrePrint consists of creating a PostScript file with Aldus' Open Prepress Interface (OPI), employing the Print dialog box to select the printer to which separations are to be printed and then choosing the Print PostScript to Disk option, which lets PageMaker create an OPI file with the .SEP extension. Images may be softened or sharpened, saturation and lightness may be altered and contrast may be adjusted by globally changing the difference between light and dark pixels. PrePrint also allows users to print images as a negative or a positive with the emulsion up or down. PrePrint presents competition for Adobe Separator as an excellent color separation tool. Desk: Zedcor's septet of applications takes aim at Microsoft Works. (Software Review) (Reviews) (evaluation) Zedcor Inc's $399.95 Desk is an integrated software package that includes seven desktop accessories (DAs): DeskPaint/DeskDraw, DeskWrite, DeskSecretary, DeskCom, DeskCalc and DeskFile. DeskPaint and DeskDraw 3.0 are DAs that Zedcor also sells separately. In addition to basic word processor features, DeskWrite includes Find and Replace commands, a statistics window and a 100,000-word spell checker. DeskSecretary reminds users of upcoming events and appointments through the use of a dialog box with a textual reminder in it. DeskCom, a basic communications program stores up to nine phone numbers and includes redial capability. DeskCalc is an adequate spreadsheet program, but can only open one file at a time. DeskFile, a database manager, can sort files on as many as three fields, but has some serious handicaps. Compared to Microsoft Works, Desk DAs do not integrate with each other as well. Teleport A300. (Global Village Communication Inc.'s Apple Desktop Bus modem) (Reviews) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Global Village Communication Inc's Teleport A300 is a 2,400-bps, Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) modem that does not require an external power source or transformer. The teleport does not require a serial port to work; the modem connects to any ADB port with a bandwidth of about 6,000bps. The Teleport requires 4,800bps, leaving 1,200bps for the keyboard and pointing device with virtually indiscernible performance degradation. The Teleport provides Microcom Networking Protocol (MNP) Level 4 error correction and MNP level 5 data compression/error correction options. Although useful in some cases, careless use of these options could degrade performance. Telecom includes a telecommunications software package called Smartcom II that provides a panel of information on the menu bar traditionally supplied by Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Teleport A300 is priced at $225 or $149.95 direct from manufacturer. Hookup! (Hip Software Corp.'s program development software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Hip Software Corp's Hookup! is a program development tool that provides icons representing input and output modules and lets users create simple software routines using intervening switches, memory modules, clocks, and arithmetic and logic functions. Users may write applications for a variety of functions that include generating musical or visual output that responds to keyboard input or mouse movements. Users activate icons by dragging desired parts from the icon palette to an open work space called the Network window. Hookup! provides a wiring tool with which users connect different icons, and a scissors tool for severing any unwanted connections. Hookup! lets users create small multimedia programs that include sound and animation with its animation frames in conjunction with MacroMind's VideoWorks II or Director. Priced at $149.00, Hookup! introduces the basic concepts of programming; a tutorial is included. Project Scheduler 4. (Scitor Corp.'s project management software) (Software Review) (evaluation) Scitor Corp's Project Scheduler 4 is a project management program that is suitable for dedicated project planners not average managers. It provides the ability to use Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) and Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) codes within a series of tables to indicate how much progress has been made to date. Project Scheduler 4 generates standard reports such as the Job Column Report, Job Distribution Report and the Resource Allocation Report. Creating task dependencies is non-intuitive because users may not draw in the Network Diagram window; it is necessary to highlight a specific item in the job table and then double-click on the network diagram to place the items. The program accommodates the differing availability of people and other resources because it lets users link multiple projects based on WBS codes. Although Project Scheduler 4 relies on codes, it does not provide visual displays of coded items. Networking the '90s. (MacUser Labs NetWorkShop research current and future network technologies) The MacUser Labs NetWorkShop researches areas of networking technologies for the 1990s such as physical networking connections, the ways of sharing services among machines and the seamless integration of all computers in a network. Setting up the wiring, topology and bandwidth capacity for a network involves options such as Ethernet, Token Ring, 10Base-T, fiber optics and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). For multivendor networks, connectivity requires access to a variety of file servers. Although file-server integration is progressing, most computer companies develop individual methods of file sharing such as AppleShare, Novel NetWare or Unix file serving. Multiplatform distributed processing, or using a network as a single machine, will involve such technologies as interapplication communication (IAC) and remote procedure calls. IAC provides application connectivity. Thoroughly modern modems. (error-correcting, data-compressing 2,400bps modems are fast and reliable) (includes related articles A 2,400-bps modem can be turbocharged with data-compression and error-correction schemes for performance improvements of up to four times its current level. Error-correcting and data-compressing modems are more expensive than standard 2,400-bps modems because they require hardware compatible Mac-to-modem cable and specialized telecommunication software for data compression and error correction. The most efficient purchase is a Mac-specific modem package that includes the appropriate cable and software. Without error correction, modems are not protected from telephone line disturbances. Without data compression, a low-speed modem is limited to its rated speed. Of eight error-correcting, data-compressing 2,400-bps modems that ship with cable and software, the Hayes V-series Smartmodem 2400 and Zoom Telephonics' Zoom/Modem V.42bis emerged as outstanding performers. Both employ V.42bis compression, which outperforms MNP Level 5. A/UX 2.0. (Apple Computer Inc.'s UNIX for the Macintosh) (includes related articles on the Mac operating system, on A/UX 2.0 Apple Computer Inc's A/UX 2.0, its Unix operating system, allows users to switch easily between Macintosh and Unix programs, provides individual windows for multiple applications and provides full DOS emulation with the appropriate software. A Mac II with optional Paged Memory Management Unit (PMMU) is required to run A/UX 2.0; the operating system supports the majority of the 4.3 Berkeley Software Distribution features, some parts of System V 3.0, and includes standard Unix command-interpreter shells Bourne, Korn and C. A/UX is available on floppies, on tape, on CD-ROM discs or pre-installed on external or internal hard-disk drives. Apple provides a user's manual for the installation procedure. Although A/UX generally cannot offer the Unix speed of the average workstation, most users find the MAC IIfx or the new IIsi fast enough. Technical support is provided on a 30-day basis for purchases of A/UX 2.0. The invisible bridge to mainframe data. (application programming interfaces provide the Mac-to-mainframe connection necessary for Client/server computing allows corporations to use the Mac to access industrial-strength database managers running on powerful servers. The server in the client/server structure is a host computer controlled by a database program that maintains and updates the data and can execute complex instructions sent by client Macs. The central computer can range from a powerful mainframe to a Mac; it runs database management software that speaks Structured Query Language (SQL). Software bridges that connect a Mac to a SQL data server are called application-programming interfaces (APIs); MacUser Labs tested Apple's Data Access Language (DAL), Oracle's SQL*Net and TechGnosis' SequeLink for speed, ease of use and ease of setup. Programs such as Microsoft Excel, Hypercard and 4th Dimension are provided with API links to let users use the data they access from the server via the API connection. Word processors. (Claris MacWrite II, Microsoft Works 2.00, New Horizons WordMaker 1.01 and T/Maker WriteNow 2.2) (Software MacUser Labs tests four low-cost word processors that offer the necessary features to create less complex or shorter documents without complicated commands and high prices. Claris MacWrite II, Microsoft Works 2.00, New Horizons WordMaker 1.01 and T/Maker WriteNow 2.2 include an undo command, the ability to format paragraphs and characters and find/change features. Other capabilities include the ability to use multiple headers and footers, to save a formatted proposal as a template or 'stationary' document and to implement a variety of spell checker options. MacUser Labs timed the performance for such editing tasks as importing and exporting files, searching and replacing, and global font and size changes. WriteNow and MacWrite II offer more advanced capabilities such as footnote and endnote functions, a style sheet system that speeds up character formatting, a mail-merge option and snaking columns. Buying smart. (tips for making efficient hardware and software purchases) (includes related articles on David Horowitz's tips for Before purchasing computer hardware or software, buyers should evaluate their needs and determine price range. They should compare products by talking with coworkers and bulletin-board users or by participating in promotional free-trial periods. Buyers must decide if they will purchase from a dealer, computer store or through a mail-order company. Reliable local dealers generally permit users to try out equipment before buying, and provide expert advice for expensive or high-end software. Buyers should inquire about what manuals and installation guides are included with the product and be aware of warranty protection in case the product is defective or does not meet user requirements. To protect an investment, users may consider purchasing extended warranties or special maintenance options such as a manufacturer's contract, third-party maintenance or a hired in-house technician. Desktop publishing. (new products, industry developments) Abernathy, Aileen. Apple Computer Inc and Adobe Systems Inc announce a licensing contract and cooperative agreement regarding future products. Both companies will ensure compatibility between Apple's TrueType outline-font technology and Adobe's Type 1 format, which will be merged eventually. Quark Inc will release OS/2, Windows 3.0 and NeXT versions of QuarkXPress during 1991. Quark is developing a series of EPS clip-art packages called QuarkLibraries, which are designed to work with QuarkXPress 3.0's library feature. S.H. Pierce & Co's PosterWorks 2.0 offers high-quality color separation and output for poster-sized prints. Users assemble color images with multiple text and graphic elements then send tiled output to a PostScript device. The MegaChrome printing service, developed by ReproCAD, outputs color images of up to 42 inches by 12 feet in size. Prints are priced at $12 per square foot. Beyond the laser printer. (imagesetters produce high-resolution, high-quality output that surpasses the 300-dpi laser printer) High-resolution imagesetters produce more professional-looking brochures, business forms and newsletters than 300-dpi laser printers. Benefits of outputting camera-ready artwork on an imagesetter include improved resolution for more detail, better control over the page and graphic images, improved time management and increased accuracy in color work. Imagesetters also save money because their high-resolution produces small type and fine-lined artwork that can save pages without sacrificing readability. Imagesetters are high-resolution output devices that use a laser beam to produce text and graphics on photosensitive paper or film. Machinery comprises a PostScript raster image processor (RIP) and the imagesetter, sometimes referred to as a recorder or writing engine. Imagesetter models that service bureaus typically provide include Linotype, Agfa Compugraphic and Varityper. Complex Graphics. (how to utilize Freehand for expedient infographics) (Step by Step) (tutorial) Los Angeles Times illustrator Juan Thomassie uses Freehand with its multiple drawing layers to create infographics quickly and accurately. Freehand assigns graphic elements to their own layers, which help manage the object order and allows users to manipulate individual elements. Layers may be active or inactive; inactive layers cannot be edited and are invisible. Other programs with similar functions include Canvas, SuperPaint, Dreams and MacDraw. When users draw elements on individual layers, it is the completed 'stack' of layers that creates the finished graphic. To configure the ocean, for example, which provides a unifying background for a graphic, three rectangles are filled separately. The center is filled with solid blue, the top with a logarithmic fill gradating from blue to white and the bottom has a linear gradation that changes from blue to white. Bridges. (Sitka Corp.'s InBox, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s NeWSprint and Xerox Corp.'s GlobalView) Sitka Corp acquires Symantec's InBox electronic-mail system and converts it into a very flexible cross-platform desktop mail solution. InBox offers client software for Mac and PC users and also lets users install and administer an E-mail server on either a Mac or a PC. InBox 3.0 will feature remote access and send-and-receive fax capability; third parties will provide gateways to other mail systems including VMSmail, X.400, SMTP and MHS. NeWSprint software can turn a serially connected printer into a network device by using the power of the SPARC CPU to image PostScript-based documents. A SPARCstation running NeWSprint works with printers from a variety of leading printer vendors. Xerox Corp's GlobalView is a networked multitasking environment that features sharable documents residing on servers. Users may log on to the network from any participating workstation and access their own personal desktop. Network by design. (network managers and other personnel benefit from planning a network's architecture in advance) Network managers should utilize design plans for networks to communicate guidelines to other personnel including wiring technicians, users, managers, assistants and vendor's tech-support people. When managers define such aspects of their network as how to wire a star hub, wiring technicians are able to proceed according to an orderly plan, rather than making it up as they go along. When planning a LocalTalk work group, for example, managers can use the same design to build several work groups. By eliminating individual designs, managers can reduce trouble-shooting time. AppleTalk network managers tend to approach design casually; in large companies the task of connecting dissimilar AppleTalk networks is left up to systems integrators, and in small companies, a part-time computer person usually performs installations and wiring as needed. Guide to the Print dialogue box. (Apple Computer Inc.'s user interface for print functions) (Power Tools) (tutorial) Apple Computer Inc has not updated its Print dialogue function since 1985 so it does not reflect the Print dialogue boxes in many new Mac applications. Because Apple has not standardized its Print dialogue box interface, software developers must modify it to add new options, and Mac users must adapt to a different box in different applications. A fictional dialogue box is included to illustrate and define the following Print options: Tile; 100 Percent, Fit on Paper, and Other; Copies; Collate; Page Range and Sections; Thumbnails; Reverse Order; Print Selection Only; Print This File Only and Print All related Files; Print Blank Pages; Scaling Options; Manuel Feed; Proof Print; Include Crop Marks; Smooth Bit Maps; Download Prep Temporarily; Print Hidden Text; Cover Page; Substitute Fonts; Print PostScript to Disk; Download Bit-Mapped Fonts and Download PostScript Fonts; and Options options. 11 Mac portable tips. (guidelines for extending the battery life of a Macintosh Portable computer) (includes related article on the Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh Portable has a long battery life which may be extended by following some basic guidelines. Shut off the hard drive by clicking on Sleep to put the system into sleep mode. The only reason to choose Shut Down is if users are installing an expansion card or attaching a device to one of the computer's ports. Make necessary changes to the Control Panel all at once, but generally avoid accessing the Panel. Users should open all the documents they will be using in one session simultaneously because both hard and floppy drives require the same amount of power to spin for any length of time. Utilize the General cdev's RAM cache option so less data has to be retrieved from the disk drive. Turn off the speaker. Do not save as often as usual. Quit telecommunications applications when they are not in use. Load entire applications into memory to avoid subsequent disk access. New Year's resolutions. (10 tips users can implement to maintain efficient computer systems) (Power Tools) (tutorial) Ten resolutions users can implement to efficiently maintain their Apple Macintosh computer systems include saving work-in-progress often; backing up important files; organizing files by always saving new files in their appropriate folders; learning how to best utilize spell checkers; rebuilding the desktop annually to improve system performance; always paying for commercial software and shareware; sending in registration cards to ensure a company's ability to notify them of product upgrades or recalls; keeping their computers clean; making an effort to learn more about system software and applications already in use. System 7.0 watch: the virtual napkin. (collaborative tools may be one kind of application Apple Computer Inc.'s operating system Apple Computer Inc's System 7.0 operating system will incorporate features that make electronic collaborative work possible. Michael Shrage's book Shared Minds explores the concept of using a paper napkin as a tool for collaboration. Traditionally, napkins have been used in restaurant scenarios wherein business associates help each other understand tricky negotiations with the aid of a felt-tip pen and a paper napkin. Shrage defines collaboration as shared memory because collaboration requires an area or body of data accessible to all collaborators where information can be viewed and manipulated. System 7.0 provides the capabilities necessary for bringing the paper napkin to the computer industry. When developers have the operating system capability that lets them create collaborative tools, users will be able to share chunks of information across networks and across phone links. The picture perfect Mac. (Canon Inc.'s XapShot electronic-imaging camera) (The Expert's Edge) (column) Canon Inc's Xapshot is an electronic-imaging camera that stores up to 50 images on a very small floppy disk instead of film. The Xapshot's 11mm f2.8 lens is equivalent to a 60mm lens on a 35mm camera; it has automatic focusing, an automatic flash option and a backlight-compensation button for an extra 1.5 stops of exposure. The camera includes a battery-charger station, which can be used as an AC adapter and video playback base station. Although the battery is rechargeable, the Xapshot uses a significant amount of power to run the small disk drive so users should make a habit of buying extra battery packs. Electronic-imaging cameras store information in analog so users must employ the Xapshot as a playback device to view images or use an accessory playback device. Digitizers such as Digital Vision's ComputerEyes or RasterOps 364 board include image-processing software for importing photos to the Macintosh. Binary Browser. (Byte Browser for Macintosh files) (Power Programming) (tutorial) Byte Browser is a file browser for Macintosh files that can read binary files. Byte Browser is an upgrade of Text Browser, an extension of a generic application shell that displays the contents of a file. Unlike Text Browser, which can only read a Macintosh file's data fork, Byte Browser can read both the resource and data forks. The data fork contains application-specific data, and the resource fork contains formatted resources. Byte Browser uses the File Manager routine FSRead to read forks and displays 256 bytes at a time in 16 lines of three columns. Byte Browser displays a file's data in hexadecimal format and in ASCII form. Byte Browser has a Window menu that lets users select a new top window. Users can select the first nine open documents with the Command key and keys one through nine. Documents may be added to or deleted from the Window menu. The Mac's seventh birthday. (a wish list for Mac enhancements) (Commentary) (editorial) A wish list for future enhancements to Apple's Macintosh is presented on the Mac's seventh birthday. Topping the list is a small, cheap compact disk (CD), followed closely by a 19-inch LCD screen with good contrast to be used as an option for the Mac. Also on the list of desired options is a 3.5-inch optical disk drive to replace external floppy drives. Other requests include an improved user interface for System 7.0, more horsepower, and true multiprocessing capability. The list is rounded out with a desire for true text and graphics standards across all Mac models and applications and for a smaller portable. One thing that is not wanted is a cellular version of the Mac, at least until cellular technology has significantly improved. Art beat. (column) Abes, Cathy. San Francisco-based graphic designer Erik Adigard uses the Macintosh to investigate new illustration techniques for his animation projects. The techniques used to produce an illustration for the Jan 1991 issue of Macworld are examined in depth by focusing on one element of the illustration, a rod-like object. The process involved scanning images into Adobe Photoshop as a bitmap, pasting the images into a new Photoshop file, and manipulating the images to various positions. Because the illustration was to be in color, a colorization process was begun by adding green to the background. Edges were blurred by changing blacks to a deeper green, and whites were changed to yellow. A 3-D effect was added, then the image was pasted over the original and final adjustments were made. In the realm of the censor. (Prodigy begins controlling use of its E-mail facility) (The Iconoclast) (column) Prodigy, the videotex service developed by IBM and Sears, has undergone a pricing restructure that increases the monthly fee by 25 percent and has severely limited use of its electronic mail function. The real bone of contention for users is Prodigy's policy of editing user input, not merely for language but for content. Prodigy contends it is merely editing what appears on line in the same way magazines and other publications edit copy. Users characterize Prodigy's practice of refusing to post anything felt detrimental to the best interests of the service, as censorship. One user notes inconsistency in the editorial 'policy'; messages rejected by one editor are often passed by another. Prodigy relies (for a substantial portion of its income) on kickbacks from purchases made over the service. The bottom line for Prodigy officials is that e-mail costs the service, while producing no income. The bottom line for users is the right to express opinions. Prodigy has the right as a private concern to control the way it is used, but the potential damage to telecommunicating is not to be taken lightly. Sensational shareware: user groups pick 31 favorites. (Conspicuous Consumer) (directory) A survey of several Macintosh user groups produces a list of 31 favorite shareware packages. Top utilities include navigation, compression, desk accessories, and virus detection and repair programs. Highly rated games include versions of solitaire, billiards and checkers, and a Star Trek game, MacTrek, available free of charge. Other notable packages include a drawing program for children and a communications program highly praised by software librarians. Resources for shareware and collections of shareware offered by various user groups are also noted. The price for most individual packages ranges from no charge to $45; cost of the collections ranges from $100 to $125. Blocking the alpha channel. (24- vs. 32-bit color) (State of the Mac) (column) Apple's 32-bit QuickDraw defines a graphics display mode that allows 32 bits per pixel, but only 24 bits are used to define the pixel's actual color. The remaining 8 bits are undefined and unused, and Apple has so far made no attempt to establish any standards for their usage, leaving that task to third party developers. This is directly contrary to Apple's guideline's for third-party developers and has resulted in a lack of standards, support and products that could prove extremely detrimental to Apple's ability to compete in the color graphics workstation market. Other competitors such as Next are already using the extra 8 bits as an alpha channel, allowing elements of a scene to be rendered individually and then blended, with the alpha component of each pixel determining the degree of opacity. While engineers and others within Apple recognize the value of an alpha channel, the number of bitmap formats that must be supported raises compatibility issues. CopyMask, a function of System 7.0, may be a partial solution, but Apple needs to take a proactive approach to defining the alpha channel if it is to remain competitive. The big squeeze: as images get bigger, compression issues loom larger still. (includes a related article on video compression and The problem of image compression on the Macintosh is being pursued with both software-only and hardware/software combination solutions. The type of file to be compressed dictates the type of compression scheme used. Standard text-only files can be compressed using redundancy-based schemes such as Huffman encoding and Lempel-Ziv (LZ) or Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW), which replace symbols with codes of varying lengths. Fax machines use a compression scheme that limits their usefulness to the compression of documents containing only text and line art. Gray-scale or color images require a scheme based on chrominance, or color scale, and luminance, or brightness, such as the JPEG scheme. Apple is pursuing its own proprietary software solutions for the Macintosh. Apple could also consider adding a compression chip to the Mac's main logic board. A number of end-user and developer tools for image compression are highlighted. Fast color: Color QuickDraw lives up to its name with help from seven graphics accelerators. (Hardware Review) (evaluations of Seven accelerator boards for the Macintosh intended to speed system response time when using QuickDraw are evaluated. An eighth board, RasterOps 24S accelerator, arrived too late for testing. The boards are evaluated in terms of low-level performance, including Paint Objects, Draw Lines and CopyBits tests, and for application-level performance, including Move Windows, Switch Windows and several scroll tests. All of the boards offer improved performance for those working with 24-bit images; selection of a board is largely dependent on the Macintosh configuration it will be used in. Apple's Macintosh Display Card 8/24 GC offers the best overall speed and is recommended for all but the Mac IIsi, Radius' DirectColor/GX is a good alternative to the 8/24, offering lower power consumption and a significantly lower price. The RasterOps Accelerator is recommended to those with a 24-bit board, or a RasterOps display with either an 8-bit or 24-bit board. Radius' QuickColor board is the recommended choice for those with a Radius display system, while SuperMac Technology's board is recommended for large-screen systems running on a Mac IIcx, IIci or IIsi. Pictures perfected: just what is the difference between PhotoShop and ColorStudio? (Software Review) (evaluation) Macintosh users can perform full-color electronic image manipulation using either Adobe Photoshop or Letraset's ColorStudio. Photoshop has been the more popular package strictly on the basis of price, $895 as compared to ColorStudio's $1,995, but Letraset reduced ColorStudio's price to $995 as of Sep 1, 1990. Macworld devised a test comprising several common electronic imaging tasks as a means of evaluating and comparing the two packages. The assignment was to blend two photographs and entailed removing certain features from each photograph, repairing damage, creating masks and cleaning up four-color separations. Photoshop has a much broader range of applications than ColorStudio and offers a more familiar interface. Painting and retouching tools are essentially equivalent between the two packages. Neither package has the ability to draw and edit objects made of bezier curves, nor can they add PostScript-quality text. These capabilities can be added to ColorStudio through installation of Letraset's Shapes module. ColorStudio may be the best choice for high-end image editing or assignments involving PostScript drawings or text, but Photoshop is an equally good alternative for the average Macintosh user. The 16 million color question: Which 24-bit display system is best? (includes a related article on the workings of a color Twelve monitor system capable of displaying 24-bit color are evaluated. The tested systems comprise a monitor and accelerator board from the same company. All of the units tested offer satisfactory performance, making choosing the best, or worst, a difficult task. The AppleColor system, offering a 13-inch monitor, may be the best choice for those with limited desktop space or who are concerned about keeping the display at arm's length because of ELF emissions. Combined with either the RasterOps 264 ColorBoard or Apple's 8/24 board, it also offers the best value for the budget-conscious. For a quality system, the E-Machines T19 tops the list, followed closely by the RasterOps 1960. The T19 is the less expensive and carries the better warranty of the two, although an extended warranty for the RasterOps is planned for the future. In terms of price/performance ratio, the winner is the Sigma Designs ColorMax 8/24. Next on the agenda. (Next introduces three new systems) (product announcement) Next introduces three new systems that fill out its line of microcomputers. The low-end addition, the Nextstation, lists for $4,995, and comes standard with 105Mbyte hard drive, 8Mbytes RAM, the Next MegaPixel Display and standard Release 2.0 system software. The Nextstation Color system offers the same basic components as the monochrome nextstation, but the display module, the Nextstation MegaPixel Color Display, is a 16-inch Trinitron RGB monitor. The system lists for $7,995. The original Next cube, now called the Nextcube, has been upgraded to offer the same features on the main logic board as are available with the Nextstation. Offering 8Mbytes RAM, a 2.88Mbyte floppy drive, 105Mbyte hard drive, MegaPixel Display and three open slots, it lists at $7,995. Next also introduces the Nextdimension color board, listing for $3,995 and combining many of the features found on a number of Macintosh boards into an integrated, coordinated unit supported by standard Next software. Next has also made minor changes to the MegaPixel Display and reduced the price of the Next 400 dpi Laser Printer by almost 50 percent. MacRenderMan 3.1. (Software Review) (evaluation) Hedelman, Harold. MacRenderMan, $795 from Pixar, is the Macintosh version of the firm's RenderMan image processing software. This is a powerful program, but it lacks a true graphic user interface to its advanced features. Composed of two parts, the RenderApp software and the RenderMan Shading Language, the package relies on a third-party product such as Swivel 3D or Stratavision 3d for modeling the image. The modeler creates a RenderMan Interface Bytestream file that is linked to the RenderApp program, which turns the file into a picture. This process is designed to happen in the background but MacRenderMan is such a CPU and memory glutton that background operation is not feasible. Additionally, MacRenderMan lacks the ability to blur motion, and there is no WYSIWYG capability. This is a package whose time has not yet come. Quickeys/2 2.0. (Software Review) (evaluation) Pogue, David. Quickeys/2 2.0, $149.95 from CE Software, is a highly useful program for the creation of keyboard macros that supports both real-time and step-time macros. The latest version incorporates the macro copying and pasting utility and the timer INIT into a single program, and supports multistep macros, combining a series of individual actions. Unfortunately the program can not combine real-time and step-time methods, and the program is unusually buggy for CE Software's track record. Some bugs are minor - strange beeps at start-up, and failure of the menu to appear in some programs. Others are more serious, such as the entire Quickeys system disappearing while the user is working. Some users have also reported incompatibilities with programs including FullWrite. A bug-free version is promised by CE Software for Jan 1991, and that version will be well worth the investment. Framemaker 2.1. (Software Review) (evaluation) Roth, Steve. Framemaker 2.1, $995 from Frame Technology Corp, is the latest release of the firm's document processing software designed specifically for long documents. Framemaker offers cross-referencing, footnotes, indexing and other document processing features, and adds character and paragraph styles, anchored frames with flexible positioning, and comprehensive equation-handling capabilities. Drawbacks include a lack of manual kerning, problems importing Word styles, and limited color output options. Framemaker also lacks a table editor, but this is a lack common to the Macintosh environment as a whole. Documentation is abundant, but not always adequate in terms of conceptual explanations. Fortunately, technical support is accessible. Because of its gearing toward long documents, Framemaker is not the best choice for short, design-intensive documents. For its intended purpose, that all participants work on a common, live file, Framemaker is an excellent package. Amazing Paint 1.0. (Software Review) (evaluation) Pogue, David. Amazing Paint, $99.95 from CE Software, is yet another paint program that lacks some features found in other paint programs, has no color capability, and the smallest document size of any package on the market. What it does have is a fully reworked interface that includes a multiple-level Undo function. An outstanding aspect of the reworked interface is the principle of displaying controls only when they are needed, leaving the screen uncluttered and allowing room for on-screen labels. This reduces the confusion inherent in trying to select the correct tool from two essentially identical palettes. One further drawback to the package is the poorly indexed, bare-bones manual. On balance, while Amazing Paint lacks anything to make it worth switching to, for those who've never used a paint program before, or for a new Macintosh owner, this could be a worthwhile investment. MacProteus 1.0. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Heid, Jim. MacProteus 1.0, $895 from Didgidesign, is an expansion board for the Macintosh that offers a wide range of digitally sampled instruments sounds and excellent sound quality. A Nu-bus version of E-mu Systems' Proteus Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) instrument, MacProteus is also multitimbral, capable of playing as many as 16 different sounds simultaneously. Unfortunately, MacProteus lacks conventional MIDI In and MIDI Out connectors, forcing it to use Apple's MIDI Manager when connected to a Macintosh MIDI interface, a double blow because MIDI Manager slows down the Mac's operation and because many music programs do not support MIDI Manager. Volume instrument settings and MIDI parameters are adjusted with a software package called Front Panel, designed for Digidesign by OpCode. The stand-alone Proteus is a better choice for musicians; MacProteus will be more likely to find its niche in multimedia, or in recording studios that use a Mac as an audio workstation. Aldus PrePrint 1.0. (Software Review) (evaluation) Camus, Luis. Aldus PrePrint 1.0, $495 from Aldus Corp, is a color-separation program aimed at the color publishing market and designed to add color separation capability to PageMaker 3.02. PrePrint features very user-conscious interface with simple, well-structured menus and dialog boxes, but severe limitations in its ability to handle PICT and TIFF color files and its non-consecutive printing of the pages makes it essentially useless for anyone but the most novice color publisher. Printing all the cyan pages first, followed in turn by all the pages of magenta, yellow and then black can result in registration problems if film is stretched or mis-fed. Interrupting a run while printing results in an incomplete and unusable run. Aldus PrePrint 1.0 could be a helpful package for the beginning color publisher, but professional color publishers are advised to look elsewhere. Mediatracks 1.0. (Software Review) (recording and editing software) (evaluation) Mediatracks 1.0, $295 from Farallon Computing, is presentation software designed for the creation and on-screen editing of virtual videotapes of Macintosh screen activity. Two components comprise the package: ScreenRecorder, a DA with accompanying INIT that creates a disk file and records screen actions into it; and the MediaTracks Editor and MT Player application, used to edit and add graphics, sound and buttons to the tape. Simple, effective links allow the presentation created to be played from HyperCard. One limitation of the package is that screen recording is in black and white only. A Multimedia Pack that incorporates Farallon's MacRecorder hardware unit is priced at $495, as is the Multimedia Pack CD-ROM version. Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (Software Review) (educational software) (evaluation) Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? is the latest in Broderbund Software's series of educational adventure games. While the earlier packages focused on geography, this package sends players traveling through time in search of the elusive Carmen Sandiego. Each of the Carmen Sandiego games comes with a reference book for researching the clues provided on screen; Where in Time, the book, is a special edition of the New American Desk Encyclopedia. Users familiar with the earlier Carmen games can start playing almost immediately; a clearer explanation of start-up procedures would be helpful for novices. While Where in Time targets a school-age audience, the package offers older users a wealth of material on non-European cultures that was barely covered prior to 1980. Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego is priced at $49.95. EtherPrint. (Hardware Review) (Dayna Communication's hardware solution for connecting LaserWriters to EtherTalk networks) EtherPrint, $499 from Dayna Communications, is an economical alternative to a router for users who need to connect LaserWriter printers to an Ethernet network. The device consists of a modem-sized box with two diagnostic LEDs on the front and four connectors on the back. One connector is for the printer's LocalTalk port; the other three are Ethernet connectors, one each for thick wire, thin wire and unshielded twisted pair. The LEDs indicate power to the EtherPrint and network activity. Four switches on the back of the box control the device's configuration. Installation involves connecting the printer to the EtherPrint's LocalTalk port, the Ethernet cable to the appropriate Ethernet port, and plugging in the EtherPrint's power converter. The only caveat is to be sure to turn the EtherPrint on before the printer, or the box may not detect the printer. Software routers are slightly less expensive, but they require a Mac or else must be run on a server where they are subject to system crashes. Hardware routers offer additional functionality, but are correspondingly more expensive. Software for connecting a printer to a TCP/IP network is bundled with the EtherPrint, making it an even bigger value. TCP/Connect II 1.0. (Software Review) (computer network software from Intercon Systems Corp.) (evaluation) TCP/Connect II 1.0, $495 from Intercon Systems Corp, is computer network software for Macintosh users wanting to connect to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. TCP/Connect II provides an easy-to-use interface to Netnews and an easy interface for FTP file transfers, along with support for TTY, DEC VT102/240, Tektronix 4014 and IBM 3270-type terminals. Support is also provided for defining and saving macros. TCP/Connect II comes in two flavors: the $495 extended version, for heavy network use, adds features including Post Office Protocol (POP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for sending and receiving electronic mail, and support for both Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP). A minimal version, available for $195, includes Telnet and VT102 emulation and FTP file transfers. There are some drawbacks: configuration can be daunting for a novice and this initial release has some problems browsing Netnews. Overall, however, this is a good package. Desk 1.0. (Software Review) (integrated desk accessories from Zedcor) (evaluation) Desk 1.0, $399.95 from Zedcor, comprises seven desk accessories designed to be used with other programs. These include: DeskCalc (a spreadsheet) word processing with DeskWrite, the DeskFile database, DeskCom communications software, DeskPaint and DeskDraw graphics programs, and DeskSecretary, an audible alarm clock that can break into any application with a preset reminder of a scheduled event. DeskSecretary can be set to interrupt with a polite 'excuse me' in either a female or male voice, or with a horrific scream, according to the tastes of the user. Each of the components of Desk is a complete application in and of itself; users who already have a word processor, spreadsheet or database might still find this a useful package, but those who already have several of the capabilities will not find any surprises. The spreadsheet, database and communications components could be improved by the addition of macro capability. Documentation is excellent, as is online help. Desk 1.0 is a good sampler for those users who want to try various applications but do not need a wealth of features. MacTools Deluxe. (Software Review) (evaluation) Schwartz, Steven A. MacTools Deluxe, $129 from Central Point Software, comprises a set of hard drive and file management utilities that is essentially a reworked and improved version of the firm's PC Tools Deluxe for the Macintosh. One outstanding addition is a new drive-partitioning utility. Back-up is fast. An installer is provided for novice Mac users; experienced users will find it just as simple to pull the files in via the Finder. The Launcher program allows any of the tools to be run from a common window. However, quitting the application only returns the user directly to the Launcher if the application has a Launch menu; other applications return the user to the Finder. The revised Optimizer function adds such useful functions as the ability to physically reorganize the drive. Unfortunately, the new Optimizer is noticeably slower than its predecessor. Other drawbacks include limited support for the IIfx. Overall this is a good way to get several useful utilities in a single package. Point of View. (Software Review) (overview of US history from Scholastic) (evaluation) Point of View is educational software from Scholastic that will eventually encompass three titles: the currently available An Overview of United States History, The Civil War and Reconstruction, and 1492: A Meeting of Cultures. Point of View allows the user to view data in several ways. A time line is composed of icons representing historical milestones in a number of categories; clicking on an icon yields a brief description of the milestone. Chart views and map views are also available. Point of View's interactive hypermedia approach is designed to facilitate research and the creation of presentations by middle- and high-school students and teachers; unfortunately, some features do not work as they should, and there are puzzling gaps and shortcomings in the data sets. The documentation is less than adequate. Point of View has great potential as an educational tool, but the current version needs a lot of fine tuning. List price is $249.95. Window shopping. (Software Review) (brief reviews of several software packages) (evaluation) AskIt 1.0, $99.95 from True Basic, is automated test-creation software that produces both online and printed tests. Its searching capabilities give it an edge over competing products. Sterling Swift Software's $149.95 Mathematics Teacher's Workstation facilitates the creation of instructional materials. Drawbacks include incomplete documentation. TrakHur, $39.95 from Hurricane Research Service, allows a user to view the direction a storm takes over a period of time. The program is handicapped by its conversion from MS-DOS. Afternoon, a story; may be the first true computerized fiction program. The $19.95 package from Eastgate Systems is an interactive program with user navigation that has the flavor of choose-your-own-adventure books. SPE Software's $28 HyperSnoop 1.0 is an invaluable tool for HyperCard scripters that extracts scripts and lists code either in text form or in a stack. Report Ideas, $79 from Intelligence Active Software, is an extensive library of standard phrases used in professional reports. AgreeMentor is a $99 package from Jian that provides a variety of business agreements and is analogous to the fill-in-the-blank paper forms found in many office supply stores. Pros and cons of each package are briefly examined. Getting started with Mac operating techniques. (tutorial) Heid, Jim. A collection of tips for getting the most out of a Macintosh are presented. To get full use out of upgraded memory, the Mac must be set up to use the MultiFinder component of the system software. In addition to creating compound documents, the Clipboard facility can be put to work recycling text or part of a graphic from an older version of a document; Clipboard contents can be saved by copying them to the Scrapbook. Most Mac programs have navigation shortcuts that involve double-clicking on the mouse; several are highlighted. Keyboard navigation shortcuts are also discussed. The importance of knowing the version number of the software in use is also explained, as is organizing a hard drive. A final list of guidelines includes always read the manual that comes with a new piece of software, register all software to ensure eligibility for technical support and updates, join a user group, read other resource materials (such as the Encyclopedia Macintosh) and experiment and customize. Insights on More 3.0. (tutorial) Seiter, Charles. Tips and techniques for getting the most out of More 3.0, a presentation software package, are provided. A key item to bear in mind is that More II must be removed from the hard drive before using More 3.0, or the System will not recognize the 3.0 documents. Other topics include reuse of formatting, where to find the Skip First Page command, customizing colors and patterns, and positioning objects. The use of graphics in Tree Chart view and the collapsing of subheads are also discussed, and tips for using fonts, closing and opening files, and dealing with Invisibles are also provided. Updates. (recent software releases) (buyers guide) A directory of recent software releases is presented in tabular form. Information provided includes version number, system requirements, revision date and price. Address Book 2.0, EndNote Plus, Now Utilities 2.0 and P51 Mustang Flight Simulator 2.8 are briefly highlighted. Adapting extended processes to the cooperative multitasking of Microsoft Windows. (includes related articles on the Kermit file Microsoft Windows programmers can adapt extended processes into Windows by breaking down large tasks into smaller ones while maintaining the interface's cooperative multitasking. An example that uses the Kermit file transfer protocol as the extended process is presented. The Kermit session layer can be viewed as a finite state machine. A tool for Kermit called Wart lets developers describe state machines by converting the protocol description into a table-driven case statement. The program enters this at run time by calling the 'wart()' function, which then calls 'input().' If a packet is ready, the action for that state is executed. Another call to 'input()' is made which usually returns an incomplete packet. 'wart()' then returns control to Windows so that other tasks can run. The file transfer is handled almost transparently by Windows' multitasking functionality. Extensive details are presented. Creating a network service using the client-server model and LAN Manager 2.0. (technical) Client-server programmers can use the LAN Manager Application Programming Interface (API) set of function calls to communicate with LAN Manager 2.0 and issue network requests. Most tasks can be performed through in-line code. Client-server programmers should note LAN Manager's support of remote named pipes. Named pipes offer built-in buffering, guaranteed delivery, access security and simplified error detection. LAN Manager's 'mailslot' feature is also notable for its non-connection oriented messaging. Mailslots and named pipes let developers design applications that use the network but are not 'network-aware.' A LAN Manager service runs as an extension of LAN Manager and is a detached OS/2 process. Programmers need to include support for service APIs through a '#define' statement for INCL_NETSERVICE before '#include' LAN.H. The program must have an OS/2 signal handler. Other details are presented. Improve your Windows application memory use with subsegment allocation and customer resources. (technical) Windows programmers have many options for allocating and working with memory. Allocation, visibility, lifetime and overhead are four important factors in dealing with memory. Allocation describes what program sets aside a part of memory. Windows has one dynamic allocation feature to allocate segments and another to separate segments into smaller parts. Visibility determines which programs can access memory. Lifetime refers to how memory is reclaimed. The extra cost of using a particular type of memory over and above actual bytes used is the definition of overhead. The two dynamic memory allocation systems in Windows are the global memory allocation and local heap allocation. Custom resources let programmers easily exploit built-in memory management features. Data objects that will not change are the best custom resources. Detailed information on resources and allocation is presented. Learning Windows part IV: integrating controls and dialog boxes. (tutorial) A Windows 'combo box' puts together a list box and a single-line edit control in one control window. Scroll bars let users tell the application that they want to move the viewport to a new position. Scroll bars are either horizontal or vertical and are usually attached to the window when it is created. Programmers use Windows applications programming interface (API) functions to set the position and range of each scroll bar. Dialog boxes bind groups of control windows together. Programmers must define the dialog box in a resource file, compile it and then attach it to the application's EXE file. The application must define a dialog box procedure to handle messages and load the dialog box from the resource file. It then calls the dialog box manager to display it. Extensive details about these dialog box procedures are presented. Managing on the edge. (excerpt from "The Art of Japanese Management" by Richard Tanner Pascale) The first of three excerpts from Richard Tanner Pascale's book 'Managing on the Edge' focuses on the need to eliminate current managerial mindsets so that managers are more willing to accept a 'hyperconcept' of management. Factors that cause both stagnation and renewal in organizations include 'fit', which has to do with an organization's internal unity; 'split', which involves techniques for splitting an organization into smaller units; 'contend', which refers to managing the contradictions in organizations; and 'transcend', which enables managers to view a higher order of complexity in successful management. Records scanning system bars filing errors. The Fleet Mortgage Corp (Milwaukee, WI), subsidiary of Fleet/Norstar Financial Group (Providence, RI) installed 3M's (Minneapolis, MN) Work Manager software with a bar code-based Bar Scan system from Zebra Technologies Corp (Vernon Hills, IL). The system enables users to track documents and retrieve information, an advantage to a company that receives and files 125,000 insurance policies and correspondence every month. Documents are recorded, sorted and called up on microfilm. Printers enable Fleet to generate bar codes that can be scanned with invisible light scanners. A clerk enters a document's account number in the microcomputer and a Zebra Z-60 printer generates a bar coded label. Tracking the trends in office computing. Panchak, Patricia. Laptop computers are among the most important trends in office computing systems. Notebook and laptop computers are expected to sell well during 1991. Many models offer power and speed equal to that of desktop units. Workstations are also becoming popular as prices drop and graphical user interfaces make them easier to use. Interoperability is a key word among organizations that want to intermix equipment from more than one vendor. Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface is making a large impact, as vendors seek to adapt programs to take advantage of the easy-to-use interface. Desktop publishing has blossomed during the late 1980s, and analysts predict steady growth until 1992. PCs and printers chart. (PCs and printers chart.) (directory) A listing of microcomputer equipment and printer vendors is given along with pertinent facts about the products, including a reader service number to send away for further information. Microcomputer equipment is broken down into such areas as computing accessories and supplies, data entry equipment and systems, diskette duplicators, display terminals, laptop/handheld computers, magnetic media backup, media conversion, workstations, microcomputers, multi-user systems and small-business systems. Printer equipment is divided into such areas as line printers, laser printers, printer accessories, printer supplies, color printers, thermal printers and other equipment. Electronic desktop publishing and software chart. (directory) A listing of manufacturers of electronic desktop publishing equipment and software is given, including a reader service number for each product type so that readers can send away for further information. Electronic desktop publishing equipment includes such items as direct entry typesetters, multi-terminal systems, stand-alone systems and typesetting output. Software products include such types of packages as communications, data security, database management, document management, facilities management, financial applications, fonts, forms, graphic presentation, utilities, word processing, spreadsheets and others. Taming paper paves the path to productivity. Dykeman, John B. Companies are increasingly focusing on document management, which includes techniques for properly retaining and disposing of electronic records such as voice mail and electronic mail. New technologies such as imaging are emerging to help with the overload of document processing. Bar coding and file management software programs help users prepare paper documents for electronic storage. Bar coding makes users more productive, enabling them to check a record in or out more quickly. Retention of electronic records is a complex and difficult issue. One measure would be to automatically purge data after a certain length of time. Reporting requirements in the government sector are burdensome because every agency can issue its own requirements. Document management chart. (directory) A listing of document management equipment suppliers includes a reader service card so that readers can receive further information on any product listed in the directory. Reader service numbers are listed under product categories corresponding to the names of the companies that handle such products. Types of products include document storage retrieval items, such as bar code file tracking systems; vertical files; data printout storage; and magnetic media storage. Imaging systems, including duplicators, automated retrieval systems, computer output microfilm, processors, reader-printers, micrographic supplies and image scanners, are also listed. A mature market shifts gears. (copying equipment) Fernberg, Patricia M. The maturing duplicator-copier market is expanding into new markets as new features and improved service programs are added by vendors. The plain paper copier market will grow at a slower rate, according to research firm Dataquest Inc of San Jose, CA. Buyers will see improved service during the 1990s, and vendors will add improved features as well. Integrated technology that will enable users to connect their copiers to facsimile equipment or laser printers will become available during the decade. Eastman Kodak and Xerox have both introduced imaging systems that integrate digitizers, scanners, editing devices, copiers, electronic storage capabilities and printers. Reprographic chart. (copying equipment and supplies) (directory) A listing of vendors of reprographic products include reader service numbers so that readers can send away for further information on these products. The types of products listed under paper handling systems include binding machines and supplies, bursters, folders, sorters and laminators. Types of products listed under reprographics include copier access-cost allocation systems, color copiers, high-speed-high-volume copiers, personal copiers, small-to-medium sized copiers, and copier toners and related supplies. Company names are listed without addresses or phone numbers. Office design works harder and smarter. Fernberg, Patricia M. The office furniture market is expected to be strong in 1991, with improved services and product features. The presence of computers has had the largest impact on office furniture design, followed by such factors as the need for more space, better lighting and new types of storage. Flexibility and cost-effectiveness are key factors in choosing a new office system, according to a survey. Furniture will help manage the changing needs of technology and the job at hand. Facility management is changing as well, The 9,500-member International Facility Management Association is developing a certification program for facility managers. Facilities chart. (directory) A listing of vendors of facility products includes a reader service number that readers can use to obtain further information on company products. The buyer's guide includes such products as computer support furniture, open plan modular furniture, lighting-planning aids, environmental controls, partitions, panels, screens, moveable walls, layout-planning aids, floor coverings and electrostatic painting-refurbishing. Companies are listed in the article, but without their addresses and phone numbers. Delivering the information delivers the goods. Romei, Lura K. Data transfer, telephone technology and mailroom advances are playing important roles in the distribution of information. The data communication network is at the center of this data movement, and networks and value-added services are critical to an organization's success. Telecommunications is a growing market, with approximately 477 million central office telephone subscriber lines connected throughout the world. Revenues for PBX and key systems are expected to surpass the $14 billion mark in 1992. Trends fueling this growth include digitalization, Integrated Services Digital Network products and the split between basic and full-featured systems. The facsimile market is also booming with new advances in fax technology. Information distribution chart. (directory) A listing of information distribution vendors by product areas gives the reader a reader service card number so that more information can be obtained. Communication product areas include data-voice message services and networks, facsimile-microcomputer boards, local area networks, message terminals, telephone systems, telephone call processing, modems and multiplexers and other communication products. Mail handling products include inserters, mail handling equipment, parcel manifest systems, label printers-applicators and addressers, shipping-mailing bags and envelopes. Company names are given without addresses or phone numbers. Products & services that help your company stay competitive. (data security, temporary help services) Organizations need to protect themselves in the areas of capital, information and employees. Several vendors can help companies in these areas by providing support products and services. Security measures taken to protect computer data are just as important as locks on the company door. Password protection and data encryption are two ways to keep intruders from data, and virus protection programs help keep data safe within the system. Loss of computer data through disk failure or natural disaster can be prevented by using computer backup systems, including hard disk mirroring systems, and disaster recovery programs. Temporary service firms will grow as the need for workers increases. Support products and services chart. (data security, temporary help) (directory) A listing of support products and services includes reader service numbers so that further information can be obtained on any product area listed. The business security area includes products such as access-key control systems, equipment theft protection, fire alarm systems, photo identification systems, safes and paper shredders. Business services include business education programs, data service bureaus, food and beverage services, human resource services and training, leasing services, temporary services and third-party maintenance services. Company names are listed without addresses or phone numbers. Changing markets challenge office machines. Romei, Lura K. Electronic typewriters and dictation machines face different challenges within their own markets as microcomputer sales grow. High-end, screen-based electronic typewriters and 'typing systems' are the fastest-growing category in the typewriter market, while low-end consumer or 'personal' machines are loaded with features such as text editing and other word processing capabilities. Users working at home are driving the market. The dictation machine market's main competitor is still paper and pen, despite studies proving that these machines increase productivity. The distinction between voice processing and dictation will begin to fade as users become more comfortable talking to machines. The other imaging phenomenon. (column) Sullivan, Roger K. Imaging offers important advantages in the area of electronic publishing, allowing users to quickly access data from a vast body of information stored for reference. Imaged information on CD-ROM or microfilm accelerates retrieval time and greatly reduces the space needed to store data. Applications that can benefit are numerous. Imaging technology can be used to store scholarly material from crumbling archives, back issues of periodicals, over 600,000 doctoral dissertations and auto parts catalogs. CD-ROM technology offers the advantages of digital storage and can to support interactive searches and retrievals, but the cost of making a CD-ROM is high compared with the price of film, limiting the market. Feisty head of secondary equipment firm predicts shakeout in CPE systems market. (Source Telecommunications Pres David Charles Source Telecommunications Pres David Charles Potter believes that his company will not be affected by the saturation and shakeout of the customer premises equipment (CPE) market. Source buys, reconditions, and sells used telephone equipment, but the firm is also entering new lines of business, such as the spare-parts market and the consulting services market. Source is also investigating the possibility of selling new equipment. Potter believes that firms considering the purchase of a complete CPE system should buy new equipment, which has decreased in price. The sale of new equipment will help Source obtain used equipment through trade-ins, as well as increasing average sales and sales volume. Source is a $22-million-per-year company with a 30 percent five-year compound annual growth rate. Household International reduces voice/data networking costs by $5 million-plus a year. Household International Inc has reduced voice and data networking costs by over $5 million per year, increased network reliability, and decreased response times by improving its networking operations. Household International created a separate department for voice/data networking utility functions and microcomputer maintenance operations in 1986. The department is managed by VP of Information Services Howard Tyska. Household International converted from a hub-and-spoke data network to an SNA backbone network in Jun 1987. The installation of the SNA backbone network, light energy converter bridging, and fractional T1 communications has led to a $1.5-million decrease in data network line costs since 1987. Four steps for managing enterprise networks. (tutorial) Frank, Howard. Successful enterprise network management involves four elements: planning, procurement and program management, operations and maintenance, and administration. Network planning is comprised of requirements analysis, architecture planning, and network configuration. Procurement involves activities such as the evaluation of requests for proposals, while program management includes the identification of performance requirements, the supervision of the installation of equipment, and the testing of equipment. The activities involved in network operations and maintenance include staff training and performance documentation. Network administration involves a wide variety of activities, including performance analysis, inventory management, and end-user report generation. Cooperative processing and the enterprise network. (includes related article on planning) (Cover Story) Cooperative processing will have a dramatic effect on enterprise networking. The primary features of cooperative processing are client-server architecture, open systems, common user interfaces, and distributed data base management. The networking challenges imposed by cooperative processing will include increased difficulty in predicting traffic patterns, increased number of network elements and element types being managed, increased bandwidth, and increased difficulty in evaluating support. Cooperative processing will be more successful than distributed processing because of several factors, including increased computer literacy, improved applications, and improved data base technology. The number of local area networks (LAN) per company is expected to increase from 6 to 42 between 1990 and 1993, and the percentage of LANs with network management is expected to increase from 25 percent to 76 percent. The success of cooperative processing will depend more on interpersonal issues than technical issues. Centrex leads the way for nationwide ISDN. (Integrated Services Digital Network)(includes related article on upgrading Centrex to Nationwide ISDN is becoming possible through the attempts of local and interexchange carriers to make the transmission of ISDN between different digital central office (CO) switches possible. Both digital CO switches and multivendor interoperability are necessary for nationwide ISDN. Multivendor interoperability can be attained through the use of Signaling System 7 and the 2B1Q standard. The interconnectivity between various manufacturers' CO switches is the primary barrier to nationwide ISDN. The regional Bell operating companies are using ISDN to migrate Centrex users to switched digital services. Both PacBell and Southwestern Bell Telephone (SWBT) are attempting to help users obtain Centrex-based ISDN. PacBell is offering three different ISDN packages, with a price range of $17.50 to $29.50 per line. SWBT is offering an ISDN package for $21.50 per line over monthly business-line costs. The promising future of desktop conferencing. (includes related articles on business television and Microsoft Corp.'s multimedia Video teleconferencing will allow organizations to reduce the time required to plan and conduct meetings. Several trends of the 1980s have made video teleconferencing more cost effective, including a 90 percent decrease in videoconferencing costs, an increase in modem speed from 1.2K-bps to 19.2K-bps, and the use of microcomputers as platforms for conferencing. Videoconferencing will allow users to store and retrieve motion video images, as well as full-color, high-resolution still video images. Manufacturers of video coder-decoders are making desktop video teleconferencing possible using very-large-scale integration to replace boards and board sets with single chips, and videoconferencing standards are being developed. Troubleshooting keeps LANs up and running. (local area networks)(includes related article on scientific troubleshooting) Network managers can use troubleshooting tools to detect and eliminate problems in local area networks (LAN). Valuable troubleshooting tools include network monitors, network analyzers, time-domain reflectometers, and network maps. The International Standards Organization's OSI networking model demonstrates that the most common network management problems occur at the physical level, which includes cable and hardware. Common cable problems include cable opens, cable shorts, topology violations, and noise. Common hardware problems include loose connections and internetworking equipment failure. Problems at the network level are likely to be software problems, such as routing problems, load imbalances, and incorrect network configuration. This may be the year users start getting what they want. (includes related article on modem management) (Integrated Network Many network management products are available to users, including Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-compatible products, application-specific systems, and umbrella management systems. SNMP-compatible products introduced during 1990 include Advanced Computer Communications' ACS 4800 management software for evaluating local area network (LAN) performance; ALANTEC's MLS internetworking bridge, which can be used with as may as 10 Ethernet LANs; and Cabletron Systems Inc's SPECTRUM SNMP management system, which helps systems solve network problems. Comdisco Systems Inc's Block Oriented Network Simulator is an application-specific system for network design and modification. AT and T has introduced ACCUMASTER Integrator, an affordable umbrella management system designed for smaller organizations. Statistical multiplexers establish reliable data network. The statistical multiplexers in 1st City Savings' (Los Angeles, CA) digital network have improved network reliability. Data correction is automatic, and the ring design of the network allows intelligent multiplexers to re-transmit on-line data. The multiplexers combine the features of point-to-point multiplexers with the intelligent nodal routing of data provided by X.25 systems. The installation of the network cost approximately $90,000, considerably less than the $130,000 less-reliable digital system offered by another supplier. Expanding the system by adding ports will cost less than $300 per port, and additional equipment purchases will not be required. Will carriers meet the frame relay challenge? (Commentary) Taylor, Steven A. Private communications network equipment vendors have supported frame relay technology, but few carriers have introduced frame relay services. Frame relay technology can offer nearly instantaneous true dynamic allocation of large amounts of bandwidth. Users are in favor of carriers' frame relay services for many reasons, including the potential for true hybrid networking, and the potential for controlling local access costs. Several factors are causing carriers to delay the introduction of frame relay services, including the uncertainty about standards, the possibility of competition with 802.6-based SMDS services, and the inability of carriers to respond in a timely and effective manner. 1991 readers' forum. The world changed in 1990, and more changes are due during 1991, impacting office information systems managers and the tools they use. A number of areas will grow during 1991, including voice and electronic mail, desktop publishing, despite the slowdown in microcomputers. Security, software, bar-coding and facility services will remain in growth areas. Technology continues to move forward. However, reader surveys indicate that firms will not take advantage of new technologies unless there is a real, verifiable economic savings that results from using new products. A common concern among readers is the decline in employee communication skills. Temporary help meets tomorrow's needs now. Struve, Dan. Advancements in office technology, along with hiring competent employees, have made it more challenging to run a successful business. Those firms that do not take advantage of technological advancements eventually lag behind their competitors. Skills to run the technically advanced office become more important as the nation loses market share to other countries. Temporary employment companies have been establishing expertise over the years and can offer different solutions to a problem. A study conducted by the National Association of Temporary Services indicates that 75 percent of the workforce will need to be retrained by the year 2001, creating large gaps of skills that can be filled by tested and trained temporary workers. What factors influence software selection? Braun, Ellen. Software is undergoing greater changes than computer hardware during 1991. Image processing and connectivity are creating changes in software that determines how hardware manages data. Connectivity provides an on-line gateway that connects various sources of information via the modem and a computer. Image processing systems enable users to store vast amounts of information economically on an optical disk. Information can be quickly retrieved on the basis of any word on the page. The image can be printed at 300 dots per inch with a high-speed printer. Each firm is at some stage attempting to manage its own information and obtain more as well. Records managers and the information issues. Shade, Wendy P. A timely and accurate information system can support a company's strategy, turning the electronic records and physical documents into tools of significant value. Many business concerns, such as lack of adequate disaster-planning, mounting government statutes and compliance issues, and increased litigation can be solved with the right system. What a firm does with its information determines whether it should be in physical or digitized form. Companies should examine what their goals are, then determine what system they need. Determine the current and future use of the information being created, examining a single department and its applications as a complete process within the office. Mailrooms and the computer link-up. Richey, Thomas Jr. Companies will look for changes in the mailroom in the 1990s that will increase its overall productivity. The trend towards company computer systems downsizing may cause some firms to keep their large, centralized mailrooms. Implementing client-server computing enables the establishment of a corporate-wide electronic mail network. Outsourcing may have implications for mailrooms, as far as what type of equipment to purchase and what size of mailroom. The mailroom is in a different position than the computer room and should be considered in a different way when it comes to cost cutting. Facility management: its growing stature. Neldon, Christine H. Facilities management during the 1990s will include the manager's ability to make wise asset investments. Trade barriers around the world will be removed, and new markets will open up. Competition will become fierce, as more international companies will compete for market share. The impact on facilities management will be the need for managers to have more sophisticated information and analysis to make the right purchases. Outsourcing will result in the need for specialized expertise when it comes to purchasing. These challengers may make facility managers leaders within their companies. Telecommunications insights; at Comdex: always looking for the next big hit. Comdex in Las Vegas in 1990 is now a gathering place for microcomputer vendors and users, the place where volume buyers and power users come to see new products. Attendees saw a visible boost in Microsoft Corp's Windows 3.0 as the most popular graphical user interface. More than 200 vendors introduced their Windows 3.0 products. IBM and Eastman Kodak displayed their intense interest in multimedia. Telecommunications applications, for the most part, were not often seen at the show. However, with the cost of video codecs declining, there will soon be an increase in video conferencing. Groupware products have not really caught on yet. Focus on software; found: an inexpensive calendar-to do list system. (Software Review) (dLegal System's dDiary calendar DLegal System's dDIARY is a low-cost, simple dBase format database desktop utility that takes less than five minutes to install. Simply create a directory on the hard drive, then copy files of the dDIARY distribution diskette to that particular directory. Users will be led through an installation routine that enables the program to be customized. Most users can use the program as a simple appointment list or as an inexpensive calendar-to do system. There are only eight data fields for each record, including date, time, Person, Class, Category and two 45-character description lines. Screen colors and system prompts can be customized. Price is $70. The copier industry facing a transition. Lindquist, Carl A. The copier industry faces a transition during 1991 as vendors search for strategic options to set their products apart from their competitors. Such options as turnkey arrangements, long-term customer satisfaction guarantees, and distribution innovation will help compensate for products that are all similar in performance and design. The personal copier market has not lived up to expectations and is no longer the fastest-growing environment in terms of unit placements. The facsimile machine has become a more important piece of equipment for the home-office buyer, since it is capable of both transmitting and copying. Buyer's guide to copying equipment. (buyers guide) A buyer's guide to copying equipment includes a listing of approximately 30 companies and over 125 copier models. Specifications in the chart were provided by the manufacturers. Specifications include such features as price, configuration, copies per minute, maximum monthly volume, copying process, maximum size of originals, maximum size of copies, paper capacity, color copying, zoom reduction-enlargement, automatic document feeder, recirculating automatic document feeder, automatic paper selection, duplexing, book copy mode, editing capability and image shift. A reader service card number is given in lieu of a company address and phone number, the reader can send away for further information by sending in an enclosed card. Micro technology no longer cloistered. Thompson, George A. The two most important trends in microcomputer technology during 1990 were the establishment of Intel Corp's 80386SX as the entry-level platform for MS-DOS on laptops and desktop systems, and the unveiling of Microsoft Windows 3.0. This technology and software combination has brought advanced microcomputer technology at reasonable prices to smaller firms that have never owned computers before. The 80386SX central processing unit can be found in nearly every microcomputer manufacturer's product line, and new vendors entering the market are following suit. The 80386SX is a 32-bit microprocessor permitting multiple MS-DOS programs to run concurrently. Buyer's guide to PC & business computers. (buyers guide) The buyer's guide to microcomputers and business computers includes a listing of approximately 30 companies with over 125 computer models. Specifications in the chart were provided by the manufacturers and prices are current for this particular issue. Features listed include price, monthly lease or rent, number of users possible, ability to run word processing software, internal storage type and capacity, keyboard, graphics, color CRT, programming language, magnetic disc type and capacity, magnetic tape type and capacity, operating system, and communications capability. A reader service card number is given in lieu of a company address and phone number so that the reader can send away for further information. The ever-expanding uses of facsimile. Kalow, Samuel J. Facsimile machines are being installed internationally and the more the network of these devices grows, the more effective internetworking becomes. New services and features are enhancing the value of owning a facsimile machine. Some fax systems can transmit digitally so that computers can store and forward data and connect multiple machines. One benefit of a fax is that the computer can forward messages when long-distance rates are lower. In general, prices for similar machines have fallen, and are now available for less than $1000. Buyer's guide to facsimile systems. (buyers guide) The buyer's guide to facsimile systems includes a listing of approximately 40 companies and over 150 products. Specifications in the chart were provided by the manufacturers and prices are subject to change. Features listed in the chart include amount of document memory, console, desktop, portable products, thermal or plain paper, printing type, transmission speed, compatibility, automatic document feed capacity, gray scales, one-touch, voice response, CCITT error-correction mode, built-in handset, RS2332C port, automatic paper cutter, and monthly rental plan available. Each listing includes a reader service card number so that further information can be sent for by mailing in a card. Telecommunications and the advent of ISDN. (integrated services digital network) The new decade of the 1990s will mean new technologies as well as decisions made about standards for Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). New ISDN applications and opportunities will arrive. Digital private branch exchange (PBX) systems will be affected by ISDN standards, offering improved systems and standard products since manufacturers will build around approved guidelines. PBX systems prices will fall later in the decade. The distinction between key phone systems and PBX will blur, since features are becoming similar. Buyers' guide to telephone systems. (buyers guide) The buyers' guide to telephone systems includes a listing of approximately 30 companies and over 100 products. Specifications for products were provided by the manufacturers. Features listed include such areas as system type, transmission type, maximum number of lines and trunks, maximum number of ports and stations, voice or data, blocking or nonblocking, ISDN capability, T1 networking, remote maintenance, automatic call distribution, least-cost routing, call accounting, message waiting, local area network interface and upgradeability. In lieu of a company address and phone number, a reader service number is provided so that further information can be sent for. Office bellweathers: electronic typewriters. Cullen, Scott W. Typewriters are continuing to exist, despite competition from microcomputers. The key reason for their longevity is they have changed with the times, evolving from manual systems to electromechanical systems with text-editing, word processing and other capabilities that are similar to microcomputers. The number of units sold by 1994 will drop to approximately 874,000. Users will still be attracted to typewriters because they are easy to use. Some users are intimidated by microcomputers. Some units operate under MS-DOS, and are targeted for users who want to revise and store documents. Buyers' guide to electronic typewriters. (buyers guide) The buyers' guide to electronic typewriters includes a listing of approximately 12 companies and over 40 products. Specifications in the chart were provided by the manufacturers, and prices are current. Features listed include print speed, pitch, text memory size, correction memory size, memory protection, visual display, automatic centering, communications serial or parallel, automatic carriage return, automatic underlining, automatic relocate, search-replace, automatic paper insertion, automatic hyphenation, automatic column layout, dec tab, disk drive capable, spell-check, and upgradeability. The future office may be a very different place. Sullivan, Roger. Companies are realizing that replacing paper with document images saves money, improves relations with customers and enhances their strategic positions. Images that can be stored and accessed on microfilm or electronically are preferable to paper for speed, ease of use and accuracy. Office productivity will increase through this technology. Sales of electronic imaging systems reached over the billion-dollar mark in 1989, however, micrographics is the chief technology for imaging, according to a study from the Association for Information and Image Management. Archiving and storage accounted for 39 percent of the applications. Buyers' guide to micrographic readers & reader-printers. (buyers guide) The buyers' guide to micrographic readers and reader-printers includes a list of over 20 companies and over 50 products. Specifications in the chart were provided by the manufacturers and prices are current. The features listed include price, reader or reader-printer, console, desktop or portable models, copying process, printing speed, screen size, magnification, maximum print size, accepts 16mm roll, accepts 35mm roll, accepts cartridge or cassettes, accepts fiche or jackets, image rotation. In lieu of company addresses and phone numbers, a reader service card number is provided so that further information can be sent for. Growing sophistication of copy machine controls. (buyers guide) Friedman, Rich. Copier machine controls used in 1991 will change during the decade, as the copying machine is combined with other machines as one unit that will be an integrated copier, facsimile machine, image scanner, phone, computer and high-speed laser printer. There will still be a need for hard copies, but the emphasis will be getting data into the computer. Machine-control units set up control of cost-per-copy for companies, to separate different departments or individuals monthly charges. The all-purpose work station and imaging will put copy controls in the past, as access codes, biometrics and voice recognition become more common. What dictation systems need to make the grade. (buyers guide) Nevin, Frederick W. Dictation equipment manufacturers have conceded that dictation devices will never become a mass market item, since only 30 to 35 percent of the potential market will use them. However, vendors are making their products more versatile, with much emphasis on central digital dictation systems. These units are priced at approximately $3700 each, and are used primarily by sales representatives, insurance companies, hospitals and law firms. Users can dictate information into a central storage system with data randomly assigned to a group of transcribers. Prices are sure to decline during the 1990s and features will be improved. NCR Cooperation: strategy for open integration. (includes related articles on NCR: a historical perspective and NCR's technology NCR is at a turning point. The century-old firm is developing a wide array of software, hardware and networking products in order to achieve its goal of becoming one of the top vendors of general-office computing platforms. The key to NCR's future success lies in the Open Cooperative Computing Architecture (OCCA) implemented in its Cooperation software infrastructure. In essence, NCR wants to remake itself into a software firm, and has gone a long ways toward realizing that goal by tightly integrating its own technology with that from small software firms. AT and T wants to take over NCR to gain control of Cooperation; to that end, AT and T management is willing to plunder NCR. OCCA aims to provide five things: an open architecture, a foundation for distributed processing, robust application-development interfaces, a task-oriented user environment and robust user tools. Self-help lawyering. (Software Review) (a brief review of the WillMaker software package from Nolo Press) (evaluation) The excellent $70 WillMaker software package from Nolo Press (Berkeley, CA) is an easy-to-use and cost-effective software package for creating simple legal wills that are valid in all states except Louisiana. The software is designed for those with no legal experience, a net worth of less than $600,000 and no unusual provisions in the will. WillMaker interrogates the user in plain English about what is desired in the will, explaining the reason for each question and each offered choice. The software covers normal will provisions as guardianship for minor children, designating individuals and charities to whom property is to be left, naming of alternative beneficiaries, handling of debts and taxes and selection of an executor. WillMaker generates the will when all the questions are answered. The will can be reviewed on-screen, printed out or exported to a word processor. AMD vs Intel: you could be the loser. (the public will not soon benefit if Advanced Micro Devices wins it lawsuit to copyright and Microcomputer buyers will not soon benefit if Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) wins its lawsuit to manufacture Intel 80386-, 80386SX- and 80C287-compatible processors or if Intel Corp wins. Several cases are set to be resolved in 1991 that relate to AMS's assertions that it acquired rights to patents on Intel microprocessors (MPUs) through 1995 and, consequently, can legally manufacture clones of those MPUs. AMD's central goal is to establish a precedent that would enable it to manufacture Intel 80486-compatible MPUs. Intel, conversely, wants to protect its monopoly on the MPU it expects to dominate the market by the end of the 1990s. A win by AMD will not benefit users in the near future because of the time it will take to build up production and yield to price-competitive levels. A win by Intel leaves it no competitive incentive to drop prices. London calling. (foreign individuals and businesses often find that ordering from US-based mail-order computer vendors is Foreign individuals and businesses and US servicemen abroad often find it cost-effective to order microcomputers and other products from US mail-order firms despite the time and effort required. Typical microcomputers systems and many software packages in Europe, for example, cost twice as much as equivalent products from US mail-order vendors. Currency exchange rates with the US may also favor the purchasing of systems from US firms. Consequently, many foreign buyers are willing to contend with the required customs paperwork, such fees as duties and tariffs, the need to pay in US funds, shipping costs and delays and reduced access to product support and services to buy computer hardware and software from the US. Use of air carriers can reduce shipments to Western Europe and Japan to only two or three days, but shipments to other countries or to APO addresses for servicemen may take weeks or months more. Getting your BIOS up-to-date: when your PC won't work with the upgrade you want to make, your PC's BIOS may be the root of the The BIOS read-only memory (ROM) chip or chip set in older IBM PCs and compatibles may need to be upgraded in order to run newer generations and types of hardware and software. The BIOS chip contains permanently stored programs that enable applications software to communicate with peripherals. A possible indication that a BIOS upgrade is needed is if a new piece of hardware or software does not work. There are three major BIOS manufacturers (Phoenix Technologies, AMI and Award Software), and most PC-compatible makers use their unmodified BIOS chips, though many PC vendors employ proprietary BIOS chips. Upgrade BIOS chips from mail-order firms typically cost between $22 and $50 for PC XTs, $30 and $99 for AT Bus PCs and $60 to $99 for Intel 80386-based PCs. It is important to look at the motherboard and know the specifications for the microprocessor and BIOS before ordering BIOS chips. Software for on-line services. (electronic-mail manager software eases on-line access) (tutorial) Electronic-mail (e-mail) management software, exemplified by four described packages, facilitate the use of public e-mail systems such as MCI Mail. The number of e-mail users will grow from 1990's 15 million to 45 million in 1993. E-mail, though, is a complex application that runs independently of other programs, although it should be integrated with them to support their functions. Public e-mail systems are difficult to use and provide little help to the user to manage the process. Software packages that simplify the use of MCI Mail include Lotus Development's $150 Express, Central Point Software's $149 PC Tools Deluxe, Symantec Corp's Norton Commander and Sigea Systems' $250-$450 Telecommuter Courier (prices depends on on-line services used.) The programs automate the uploading and downloading of messages, files and faxes on MCI Mail. How the software functions is briefly discussed. Outside help. (choosing a local area network consultant) (tutorial) Obtaining the services of an independent consultant for implementing a local area network (LAN) requires determining what services will be needed, locating potential consultants and narrowing the choices. Evaluating and selecting, designing, setting up and maintaining a LAN and training employees on its use requires a lot of money, time and expertise. A good independent consultant can provide these services in a cost-effective way. The first step in acquiring a consultant consists of evaluating what the general needs are for a LAN and what the system should do. The best way to locate consultants is through references by word-of-mouth, from microcomputer user groups and special-interest groups, on-line forums and from hardware and software manufacturers. Selecting a specific consultant for the task requires interviews, contacting references and comparison of proposals. Support wars. (mail-order computer vendors compete with service offerings) Understanding the actual value of the support services offered by mail-order computer vendors will help the buyer to make the most effective computer and software choices. Such services may overtly be free, but they are paid for in higher prices for all customers. After-sale services may be the major area of service competition between mail-order vendors. These include return policies that range from non-existent to 60-day money-back guarantees and technical support ranging from non-existent to toll-free, 24-hour, seven-days-a-week lifetime support. Thirty-day return is sufficient for most products, with 60-day return policies suitable only for complex systems composed of products from multiple vendors. The quality of the technical support is generally more important that the availability. Two other techniques for making best use of mail-order services are briefly discussed. Fail-safe your system: how to buy a backup device. (related articles discuss laser optical storage devices, storage of data on A review of common backup technologies for microcomputers concludes that the best buys are QIC-standard DC2000 and DC6000 cartridge tape drives because of their low cost and ease of installation and use. All hard disk drives will eventually fail, so a backup unit can be a vital tool for preventing the loss of data. Backup technology choices include a second hard disk drive, a high-capacity removable medium such as a Bernoulli Box, tape cartridge drives and such new products as write-once laser media, videotape and digital audio tape. Selecting a tape drive requires assessment of drive type, tape cartridge capacity, tape handling functionality, compatibility, and tape driver software. A second hard disk drive can be a cost-effective solution. Functioning and performance of Bernoulli boxes are discussed. The various backup devices are available at some mail-order firms for discounts up to 40 percent. Safety course: installing a tape backup system. (includes related article on size of DC6000 cartridge tape drives) (tutorial) Installing a cartridge tape drive in a microcomputer is a relatively easy task, particularly the installation of a QIC (quarter-inch cartridge) DC2000 drive. Cartridge tape drives are among the least expensive and most reliable of backup solutions to prevent the loss of data in an inevitable hard disk failure. There are basically two sizes of tape cartridge systems: the larger, faster and higher capacity DC6000 drive that is more suited to backing up larger disk drives and multiuser systems, and the smaller DC2000, which is more suited to backing up a single microcomputer. The most popular drives are the DC2000 QIC-40 (40Mbyte) and QIC-80 (80Mbyte) units, which have standardized formats ensuring tape compatibility on drives from different vendors. The drives are readily available from mail-order computer vendors. Details of the functioning and the installation of type drives are discussed. 486 power in living color: Dolch 486/25 C-P.A.C. (Hardware Review) (Dolch Computer Systems' new lunchbox-style portable computer) Dolch Computer Systems (Milpitas, CA) offers a lunchbox-style portable computer, the $16,990 Dolch C-P.A.C. 486/25, that features a 25-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor and a vivid thin-film transistor (TFT) active-matrix color display in a 23-pound, 9.5-by-16.0-by-7.8-inch chassis. The C-P.A.C. (Color-Portable Add-in Computer) features an ISA bus with six 16-bit slots (two are used), 2Mbytes of system memory, 100Mbyte IDE hard disk drive, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, removable keyboard with an excellent feel, one serial and one parallel port, 200-watt power supply and MS-DOS 4.01. The C-P.A.C.'s power, expandability, flexibility and excellent color display make the computer well suited to power users. The major debits are the inability to host a 5.25-inch drive and the bad design of the keyboard cable. The system is available for $12,995 with a monochrome display. New BIOS for a new 486: PC Brand 486/33. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) PC Brand Inc (Chicago, IL) offers a powerful yet cost-effective 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor-based microcomputer, the $3,499-plus PC Brand 486/33, that employs a new Microid Inc BIOS chip. The PC Brand 486/33 features 1Mbyte of 70 nanosecond system memory, 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte or 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, six 16-bit ISA slots, one proprietary 32-bit slot, one proprietary slot for use with a 128Kbyte high-speed static-RAM cache card and one serial and one parallel port. The new BIOS was tailored by Microid for the PC Brand 486/33 computer, including software switches for optimizing the unit's performance when it is used as a Novel NetWare file server. The unit was benchmarked at 111.55-MHz on the Landmark Speed Test Version 2.0 and worked well with a variety of applications. PC Brand provides a five-year prorated warranty on the machine. Power to the people: Data 486ec-25. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) O'Brien, Bill. Dataworld Inc (Pico Rivera, CA) offers a powerful and cost-effective 'no-frills' microcomputer, the $2,695 Data 486ec-25, based on a 25-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessor. The system features 4Mbytes of system memory, 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte or 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy disk drive, monochrome display, one 8-bit and six 16-bit slots, one 32-bit proprietary slot for additional memory, OPTi chip set and AMI BIOS, three front-accessible drive bays plus two more internal drive bays, 200-watt power supply, and one parallel and one serial port. The Data 486ec-25 includes an excellent manual and a Federal Communications Commission Class B rating. Room to grow: CUI Advantage 386-33 Cache. (Hardware Review) (microcomputer) (evaluation) CUI (Santa Clara, CA) offers a powerful, 'first-rate' desktop computer, the $1,599-plus Advantage 386-33 Cache, that is based on a 33-MHz Intel 80386 microprocessor. The system is housed in a two-feet-high tower case and includes a 64Kbyte random-access memory (RAM) cache, space for seven half-height drives, an array of front power controls including a separate LCD clock, 1Mbyte of RAM expandable to 16Mbytes, 230-watt power supply, math coprocessor socket, AMI BIOS, one parallel port, one game port and two serial ports. Almost everything is readily accessible. CUI provides all support and service at its factory, though third-party on-site service was planned to start by the end of 1990. New kid on the block: Ares 386/25. (Hardware Review) (Ares Microdevelopment Inc.'s IBM PC-compatible microcomputer ) Ares Microdevelopment Inc (Farmington Hills, MI) offers a solid, fast and cost-effective IBM PC-compatible microcomputer, the $2,495 Ares 386/25, that is based on a 25-MHz Intel 80386 microprocessor. The basic Ares 386/25 features 1Mbyte of system memory, 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte or 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 84Mbyte IDE hard disk drive, Technology Power Enterprises motherboard with one 8-bit and six 16-bit slots and a proprietary 32-bit slot for additional memory, monochrome video card and monitor, 101- or 111-key keyboard, MS-DOS 4.01, Phoenix Control Center utility software, and MS-DOS help utilities. The $3,539 system tested included a smaller AT-type chassis, 4Mbytes of memory, two floppy drives, a very good combination of a SpeedStar VGA card and ViewSonic 1,024-by-768-pixel color VGA monitor, and a Diamond Calc keyboard. How low can you go? Reason Technology R/333. (Hardware Review) (Reason Technology Inc's IBM PC-compatible microcomputer) Reason Technology Inc (Minneapolis, MN) offers a highly generic but low-priced IBM PC-compatible, the $2,495-plus R/333 Model 1, that offers many features but moderate performance for a 33-MHz Intel 80386-based system. The R/333 includes a 64Kbyte cache memory, 4Mbytes of system memory expandable to 16Mbytes, either 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte or 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 52Mbyte Quantum IDE hard disk drive with built-in cache, space for four more half-height drives, AMI BIOS, two 8-bit and six 16-bit slots, Paradise VGA card with 256Kbytes of video memory, 200-watt power supply and MS-DOS 4.01. The components are good but the 'fit and finish' are rough. Reason Technology says its R Series PCs are slower than its Square series. A major debit was the lack of system documentation, but the firm says it is being prepared. Support policies are good. Look ma, no cache: USA Flex 386/25. (Hardware Review) (USA Flex's USA/Flex 386/25 microcomputer) (evaluation) USA Flex (Glen Ellyn, IL) offers an 'impressive' new 25-MHz Intel 80386-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputer, the $2,195 USA Flex 386/25, that uses mostly generic components, 'worry-free performance' but no cache memory. The USA Flex 386/25 features a DTK motherboard with one proprietary 32-bit memory slot and two 8-bit and five 16-bit slots, 1Mbyte of system random-access memory (RAM) expandable to 16Mbytes, 65Mbyte IDE-type hard disk drive, 16-bit Samsung video board, 1,024-by-768-pixel 8514/A-compatible color monitor, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte or 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, an excellent 101-key Fujitsu keyboard, four drive bays, MS-DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0. Debits include the location of SIP sockets on the motherboard, which prevents the use of full-size boards in one 8-bit slot, lack of a toll-free technical support number and documentation that needs revision. AT box, SX power: Ultra 386-SX. (Hardware Review) (Ultra-Comp's Ultra 386-SX microcomputer) (evaluation) Ultra-Comp (Maryland Heights, MO) offers a 20-MHz Intel 80386-based IBM PC-compatible microcomputer, the $2,085-plus Ultra 386-SX, that offers many 'excellent standard features' for price but only moderate performance. The basic system features a motherboard with a Chips & Technologies chip set and ATI BIOS, 4Mbytes of random-access memory (RAM), 40Mbyte Maxtor IDE-type hard disk drive, 5.25-inch 1.2Mbyte and 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte Teac floppy drives, Orchid ProDesigner II VGA board capable of supporting color resolutions to 1,024-by-768 pixels in 256 colors, VGA monochrome monitor, two eight-bit and three 16-bit free expansion slots and four half-height drive bays. Debits include a lack of cache memory. Also, the installation of SIP memory modules to increase memory to 8Mbytes prevents a full-sized board from fitting in one of the eight-bit slots. A well-noted notebook: NEC UltraLite 286V. (Hardware Review) (NEC Technologies' UltraLite 286V notebook computer) (evaluation) NEC Technologies Inc's (Wood Dale, IL) new $3,699 UltaLite 286V is a high-quality notebook computer with many standard features. These include a 12-MHz Intel 80286 microprocessor, 1Mbyte of expandable random-access memory, 20Mbyte RLL hard disk drive, 10-inch monochrome VGA backlit liquid-crystal display, an uncrowded and responsive keyboard, 256Kbytes of video ROM, two removable battery packs, one serial port, one parallel port, one external VGA port, and one proprietary disk drive port, all in a 6.5-pound black chassis. A 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte external floppy drive adds 1.5 pounds. Other features include an AC adapter and MS-DOS 4.01. The UltraLite 286V also includes good start-up and owner manuals. Debits include the lack of an internal modem ROM-resident file-transfer utility, both found in the original UltraLite, and batteries that last only slightly more than two hours. Low-priced PostScript: Panasonic KX-P4455 Laser Partner. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Panasonic Communications and Systems Co (Secaucus, NJ) offers the lowest priced high-speed (11 ppm) PostScript laser printer, the $3,495 Panasonic KX-P4455 Laser Partner. The many features of the high-quality 300-by-300-dpi unit include a Panasonic print engine with separate toner and developer components, many front panel control buttons and 15-character liquid-crystal display, 2Mbytes of random-access memory expandable to 4Mbytes, dual 250-sheet paper cassettes, proprietary font card slot for HP LaserJet emulation, 5,000 page-per-month performance and 39 resident PostScript fonts. Advantages include excellent paper handling, high compatibility and good technical support. Top speed printing: NCR 6436-0301. (Hardware Review) (NCR Corp.'s high-speed laser printer) (evaluation) NCR Corp (Dayton, OH) offers a fast 15 pages-per-minute (ppm) laser printer with a very fast SCSI interface, the $7,995 NCR 6436-0301. Unfortunately, the printer lacks drivers for any SCSI interface board other than NCR's own SCSI MCA, which in turn works only with NCR's PC 486/25mc microcomputer. The NCR 6836-0301 also comes with a parallel port; used alone, it is much slower than the SCSI port. The printer's features include 300-by-300-dpi resolution, Ricoh 4150 laser engine, 2Mbytes of random-access memory expandable to 4Mbytes, 37 resident scalable fonts, two font cartridge slots, front control panel with 16-character liquid-crystal display and dual 250-sheet paper trays. The laser engine in the 88-pound printer includes a toner reclamation system that does not exhaust the toner into the air. The parallel and SCSI ports can be used simultaneously. The major debit is the lack of drivers for non-NCR SCSI interface boards, but NCR promised the drivers by the end of 1990. A serial port version of the printer is also available. PostScript in living color: ColorPoint PS Model 4. (Hardware Review) (Seiko Instruments USA Inc.'s color thermal-transfer Seiko Instruments USA Inc (San Jose, CA) offers a color PostScript thermal transfer printer, the $6,999 ColorPoint PS Model 4, that offers excellent price/performance and 'beautiful' 300-by-300-dpi output. Features include a Seiko CH5500 thermal transfer color print engine driven by a 16-MHz Intel 80960 reduced-instruction-set computing processor, PhoenixPage PostScript-compatible interpreter, 35 resident Apple LaserWriter-compatible fonts from Bitstream, 6Mbytes of random-access memory and parallel, serial, Appletalk and two SCSI ports, all in a relatively compact chassis. The ColorPoint PS Model 4 can download Adobe Type 1 and Bitstream fonts, is compatible with both QMS and NEC color PostScript drivers and includes a driver for Windows. The color printing process involves the use of three- or four-color ink sheets and output paper, both on rolls. A solid impact: Star NX-2420 Multi-Font. (Hardware Review) (Star Micronics America Inc.'s new 24-pin dot-matrix printer) Star Micronics America Inc's (New York, NY) easy-to-use $499 NX-2420 Multi-Font is a full-featured 24-pin dot-matrix printer that provides excellent print quality, up to 200 characters per second (cps) draft printing speed and good price/performance. Features include an array of front-panel controls with up to 25 functions, 360-by-360-dpi graphics, 67 cps letter-quality print mode, five letter-quality fonts, push-pull tractor, and a slot for either a font or 32Kbyte buffer cartridge. Overlays for the front panel guide the user through the various operations. A translucent lid over the printhead area significantly reduces the noise of the printer. No-frills VGA for less than $100: VGA Basic16. (Hardware Review) (ATI Technologies Inc.'s VGA board) (evaluation) ATI Technologies Inc's (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada) $99 VGA Basic16 offers excellent price/performance in a basic 16-bit VGA video board. Features of the easy-to-install and -use 2.75-by-6.25-inch board include support for Hercules monographics, CGA, EGA, MDA and VGA display modes, page mode memory and memory interleaving and a connector for linking to an IBM 8514/A video adapter. ATI uses a proprietary video chip set to reduce the size and cost of the board. Provided utility software includes a diagnostics program, blanking routine and an application for switching video modes. The 31-page manual is concise but comprehensive and easy to use. A two-year warranty is supplied, but the technical support line is not toll-free and is limited in hours. The VGA Basic16 can not display more than 16 colors in the 640-by-480 VGA mode. Satisfaction for PC faxers: Intel SatisFAXtion fax board. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Intel Personal Computer Enhancement Operation (Hillsboro, OR) offers and easy-to-install and use facsimile/modem board, the $499 Intel SatisFAXtion, that includes useful utility software and a five-year parts and labor warranty. The board features a 16-MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor, 128Kbytes of system memory, 2,400-bps V.22bis/MNP5 modem, scanner port and two RJ-11 phone jacks. Fax capabilities include 9,600-bps send and receive in background or foreground mode and auto-answering and notification of receipt of a fax with a tone. Provided FAXPOP pop-up fax software enables the easy sending of a fax by emulating the processing of printing to an Epson printer at a port. The emulation of an Epson FX85 printer results in higher quality output than other fax boards. Other software features include 100-name dialing directory, group broadcasts and activity logs. A quicker ROM read: NEC Intersect CDR-72 CD-ROM Reader. (Hardware Review) (NEC Technologies Inc.'s faster CD-ROM drive) (evaluation) NEC Technologies Inc's (Wood Dale, IL) $999 Intersect CDR-72 CD-ROM Reader is a fast, high-quality CD-ROM drive that worked 'flawlessly' when tested with a variety of CD-ROM software. The unit's 350-millisecond average seek time is at least 30 percent faster than that of competing CD-ROM drives. Other features include a 150Kbytes/second continuous data transfer rate; compatibility with High Sierra, ISO 9660 and Apple Macintosh HFS CD-ROM data formats; SCSI interface board; two RCA outlook jacks; support for CD audio output, headphone jack and volume control; power switch; eject button; SCSI connectors; and AC connection. Interface kits for several types of microcomputers range from $99 for a Macintosh interface to $299 for an IBM PS/2 version. Provided software includes an auto-install program. The power to communicate: US Robotics Courier HST Dual Standard. (Hardware Review) (9,600-bps modem) (evaluation) US Robotics (Skokie, IL) offers a high-quality, high-speed 9,600-bps modem, the $1,295 Courier HST Dual Standard, that supports V.42/V.42bis, MNP 5 and US Robotics' HST protocols. The modem supports lower speeds under both CCIT and Bell protocols and, through the use of data compression, up to 19,200-bps under the MNP 5 protocol and up to 38,400-bps under the V.42/V.42bis protocol. The Courier HST Dual Standard is compatible with over one million other MNP modems. Tests of the modem under a variety of conditions and with a variety of files demonstrated its excellent performance. The modem includes phone and line jacks, 25-pin male D-connector, RS-232 cable, LED status lights and DIP switches on the back panel for configuring the modem. Documentation is comprehensive and easy to use. A two-year warranty and toll-free support are included. Back on the block: dBase IV Release 1.1. (Software Review) (Ashton-Tate's data base management system) (evaluation) The $795 Release 1.1 of Ashton-Tate Corp's (Torrance, CA) dBase IV data base management system (DBMS) eliminates the bugs and other problems in the initial release. Enhancements in the new version include a menu-driven 'Control Center' that guides the user through the processes of creating and maintaining data bases, improved memory management that enables the running of larger and more complex data bases and the DBHEAP environmental variable for allocating more memory to applications and overlays. Ashton-Tate also includes DBCACHE, a licensed version of HyperWare's HyperDisk disk caching software, that increases the performance of disk-bound dBase and other applications by more than 20 percent. There are competing DBMSs that provide better performance and use available memory better than dBase IV 1.1 on moderate-size data bases. An elegant Paradox: Paradox 3.5. (Software Review) (Borland International's data base management system) (evaluation) Improvements in version 3.5 of Borland International's (Scotts Valley, CA) easy-to-use $795 Paradox data base management system (DBMS) include the Virtual Runtime Object-Oriented Memory manager (VROOMM), which divides the program into small modules for automatic configuration of the software to the host hardware for a 30-percent-to-50-percent improvement in speed. Other enhancements include better control of placement of fields on reports, more calculated field types and support for 10 embedded tables. The familiar spreadsheet-like layout, query-by-example front end and powerful relational capabilities have been retained. Major debits include the inability to generate multiple indexes without making new tables and slow reordering of data bases. Picture-perfect data: Thinx Ver. 1.0. (Software Review) (Bell Atlantic Corp.'s graphics-based analyzer software package) Bell Atlantic Corp's (Morgantown, WV) $495 Thinx software package integrates spreadsheet-like tables of data, data base-like functions, and drawing capabilities to facilitate the analysis and illustration of sets of data in the Windows 3.0 environment. The mouse-and-menu-driven software will require the user to spend some time and imagination to design applications, though some sample templates provide guidance. The process of using Thinx involves deciding what data is to be tracked, analyzed and illustrated; drawing or importing symbols to represent the data sets; defining fields and entering data in tables attached to each symbol; creating background graphics to further illustrate the problem; and arranging the symbols against that background. Debits include a limited on-line tutorial. DTP Express: Express Publisher Ver. 2.0. (Software Review) (Power Up Software Corp.'s low-cost desktop publishing software package) Power Up Software Corp (San Mateo, CA) offers a low-cost but 'surprisingly powerful' desktop publishing (DTP) software package, the $160 Express Publisher 2.0. The software's numerous features includes many common to much more expensive DTP products. These include a menu, scroll bars and ruler as in the GEM version of Ventura Publisher, task boxes as in Ventura's Windows version, WYSIWYG page preview, landscape printing, snap-to grids, headers and footers, multiple object selection, enlarged and reduced page views that can be edited and powerful type modification tools. The tools include use of fill, background, size, rotate, shadow, skew and alignment functions. Seven scalable Agfa Compugraphic fonts are supplied. New enhancements include a variety of text and graphics filters, CGM file compatibility, and on-line help. Debits include a poor on-line tutorial and technical support. Versatile OS/2 publishing: DeScribe Word Publisher Ver. 2.0. (Software Review) (DeScribe Inc.'s high-level word processing DeScribe Inc (Sacramento, CA) offers a powerful WYSIWYG word processing software package, the only one on the market thus far for the OS/2 operating system. The $595 DeScribe Word Publisher 2.0 is best suited for sophisticated graphics-intensive document preparation. The software's numerous features include graphics word processing capabilities similar to those of Windows-based word processors, support of local area networks, shared style sheets, multiple indexing and table of contents generation, kerning, use of OS/2's threading function to work on as many as 16 documents or 16 sections of one document simultaneously, and Mastersoft's Word for Word text conversion utility for importing from and exporting to every word processing format. Images in 20 graphics formats can be imported with the included HiJaak facility from Inset Systems. Graphics functions and other features are discussed. Through the looking glass: Mirror III Ver. 2.0. (Software Review) (SoftKlone's communications software package) (evaluation) SoftKlone (Tallahassee, FL) offers a powerful, reliable but low-cost communications software package, the $149 Mirror III 2.0, that is easier to use than the Crosstalk package it was modeled after. Mirror III includes support for numerous modems, many file transfer protocols, command-line and menu-driven multiple interfaces with mnemonic shortcuts, mouse support, dialing directory, password protection, background operation, and the PRISM script language. Mirror III 2.0 is easy to install and configure for the user's computer and telephone hardware. Telephone numbers can be recorded, and log-on passwords and scripts for popular on-line services can be easily created or ported from Crosstalk. The software also includes excellent documentation, unlimited technical support and a 60-day money-back guarantee. Digital does DOS: DR DOS Ver. 5.0. (Software Review) (Digital Research Inc.'s operating system competes with MS-DOS) Digital Research Inc's (Monterey, CA) $199 DR DOS 5.0 operating system for IBM PCs and compatibles includes functions that MS-DOS lacks for improving ease-of-use. These include reducing random-access memory (RAM) congestion by loading parts of DR DOS into extended memory, a command-line function that stores numerous commands that are used by typing no more than a few letters, a tool for clearing all file attributes, easy-to-use editor program, a file recovery facility that simultaneously restores multiple files, cursor size and shape control routine, LapLink-like tool that transfers files between any two PCs, a superior icon-driven operating system shell and a program for diagnosing and solving disk problems. The code size is larger than MS-DOS's. DR DOS can relocate itself only in Intel 80386- and 80486-based PCs and 80286-based PCs that use Chips and Technologies' LeAP or NEAT chip sets. Quick 'n Easy accounting: Quicken Ver. 4.0. (Software Review) (Intuit's personal and small-business accounting software package) Intuit (Menlo Park, CA) offers a very simple and easy-to-learn and -use accounting software package for small businesses and for personal use, the $59.95 Quicken 4.0, that offers substantial performance and functionality for the low price. The software handles profit and loss, accounts receivable and payable, cash flow, and income and expense analyses, charts and reports. Accounts are easily categorized into up to 255 accounts. The software is both menu-driven and operated by brief mnemonic commands. Brief but 'fairly thorough' context-sensitive on-line help is available. Enhancements in the new version include an investment tracking facility that can store an entire investment history, a link to the CheckFree electronic bill-paying service, a better calculator facility, duplicate check number warning and automated completion of account names. EPL-6000: close to perfection: Epson's laser printer proves equal to all types of problems. (Hardware Review) (Epson America Inc.) Epson America Inc (Torrance, CA) offers a Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet II-compatible laser printer, the $1,399 EPL-6000, that gives solid 300-by-300-dpi graphics performance for the low price. The printer features a six page-per-minute TEC print engine, 512Kbytes of random-access memory, two font card slots, parallel and serial ports, three resident fonts, front control panel with 16-character liquid-crystal display and 150-sheet paper bin. The EPL-6000 needs additional memory to handle full-page or complex graphics printing, but the 2Mbyte expansion board is $899. The $29 toner cartridges are rated at 1,500 copies, while the $149 photoconductor must be replaced at 10,000 copies. HP LaserJet II compatibility appears to be near-perfect; however, one HP PostScript cartridge for the IID would not work. IDE drives provide speed and reliability: these newer hard disk drives are simple to install, use high quality components, and The IDE hard disk drive interface offers several advantages among drive interface technologies, but selection of a hard disk drive requires resolution of several issues. There are four major interface standards: ST506/412, ESDI (Enhanced Small Drive Interface), SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) and IDE. The latter two interfaces include controller electronics on the hard disk itself. IDE also hides the workings of the hard disk drive from the host computer without the need for drivers. Consequently, an IDE drive can use proprietary high-density encoding methods and can transfer data at a rate only limited by the bus the IDE interface accommodates. Selection of an IDE or other hard disk drive requires determining compatibility with the host electronics, access time rating, drive capacity, mounting and cabling, and vendor support. Sectors, tracks, and heads. (hard disk design) (tutorial) Rosch, Winn L. The major parameters of the mechanical components of a hard disk drive are the number of read/write heads, the number of tracks and cylinders, and the number of sectors in each track. These specifications should match the configuration settings in the host microcomputer. A read/write head flies micro-inches above each platter in a hard disk drive, with the arm holding each head coupled together with a head actuator that moves the heads across the platters for storage or retrieval of data. Each platter contains a series of concentric recording tracks, with all the tracks in the same position on each platter constituting a cylinder. Hard disk drives usually have 306 to 1,024 cylinders. Each track is divided into a number of sectors, varying depending on the drive type. A typical sector has a 512byte capacity. Controller issues. (hard disk controllers) (tutorial) Rosch, Winn L. Selection of a hard disk drive controller technology requires assessment of how many drives will be connected to the card, ability to support floppy disk drives, preference for controller electronics on the host or in the hard disk itself, and the ease of installation. There are four main hard disk drive technologies. ST506/412 or ESDI drives require a controller card, while SCSI and IDE drives merely require a host adapter. ST506/412 and ESDI controllers handle only two drives, while SCSI host adapters handle up to seven drives, and IDE host adapters support any number of drives (IDE drives themselves, though, limit drives to one or two per system.) The trend in drive control is to SCSI and IDE drives, which include the control electronics on the drives themselves. IDE host adapters are the easiest to install drive interfaces. Western Digital Corp (Irvine, CA) is the preeminent drive controller vendor. Boosting hard drive performance. (tutorial) Rosch, Winn L. Methods of improving hard disk drive performance include changing the sector interleaving and hardware or software caching. Sector interleaving is the process of matching fast drives to slower computers by reading a sector, skipping a specified number of sectors, and then reading the skipped sectors on successive turns of the disk. Typical sector interleave factors are 1:6 for IBM XTs, 1:3 for ATs and 1:2 or 1:1 for Intel 80386-based PCs and compatibles. Utility programs can be used to change the interleave on the fly to optimized drive performance. Cache memory can also increase drive performance through the temporary storage of disk data that is likely to be used by the computer. Data in the cache can be accessed faster than data on the disk. The cache can be implemented in semiconductor memory on a disk controller or in software, employing unused extended or expanded memory. Excellence is commonplace. (features of 12 IDE hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles are generally rated The quality of design and level of performance of all twelve IDE hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles is generally excellent. The drives are typically newer models employing faster and more reliable voice coil head actuators, thin-film magnetic coatings and more efficient motors. Capacities ranged from 71Mbytes to 121Mbytes. Other typical features include a read-ahead buffer, track and cylinder skewing, read/write head auto-parking, speeds of 3,600 revolutions per minute, and the claim of 50,000 hours mean time between failures. The highest rated drive for general features is the Western Digital Caviar WDAC280 at 9.5 points on a 10-point scale, but the lowest rated drives still had 8.8 points. A near-level playing field. (performance tests of 12 IDE-type hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles) The performance of 12 IDE-type hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles is assessed in terms of the random seek time, data transfer rate and performance on two applications. The drives all have a 1:1 interleave and offer transfer rates ranging from 7.5M-bps (Seagate Wren ST280A) to 12M-bps (Western Digital's Caviar WDAC280). The highest rated drives for seek time are Seagate's Swift ST1090A and ST1126A. The use of buffering impacts drive performance, so applications provide a better indication of real performance. One test requiring display of an on-screen report from three related Fox Software FoxPro data base files was executed in the least time by the Rodime Inc RO-3128A hard disk drive. The second application test using Samna Corp's Ami Professional word processor to read and write files was performed in the least time by the Plus Impulse 80 AT. Two-year warranty is tops. (rating of support and service for 12 IDE-type hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles.) Evaluation of support and service for 12 IDE-type hard disk drives reviewed in several related articles concludes that Rodime Systems and Quantum Corp division Plus Development provide the best overall support and service, particularly because they market to end users. The average IDE hard disk claims a mean time between failure of 50,000 hours, so few disk drives will probably ever need service within the common one-year warranty period. Nevertheless, the selection of a product must also consider the quality of the vendor's support and services, the terms of the manufacturer's warranty, and the availability and cost warranty extensions. Conner Peripherals scored badly because it does not provide manuals with its drives, toll-free support or bulletin-board technical support. Hard drives up-close: overall performance results and key product specifications give an in-depth look at 12 hard drives. (overall The individual performance, important specifications and features, major advantages and disadvantages, list and average mail-order prices, and vendor data for twelve IDE-type hard disk drives are summarized. Ratings for general features, performance, and support and service are graphed. Specifications discussed include capacity, seek time, physical size, interface and encoding format. Details of comparative specifications and testing of the drives are described in related articles. The design and performance of all of the drives are generally comparable, so the quality of vendor support and service becomes more important. Mail-order vendors often offer hard drives in kits which may compensate for inadequate vendor documentation or support hardware. The high road to word processing. (an introduction to high-end word processors; includes several related articles on Selection of a high-end or 'professional' word processing software package requires assessment of and decisions on many product factors. Commands and screens, editing and formatting capabilities, printing functionality, extended features, help facilities and benchmarked performance of twelve high-end word processors are evaluated and compared in several related articles. The first decision in selecting a word processor is to decide if an easy-to-use but limited executive word processor or a sophisticated high-end product is required for the applications. The latter is generally recommended even if the buyer does not use all of the facilities. The next decision is to determine if a graphics-based or character-based program is required. Some of the latter packages are approaching the capabilities of the former. Specific functions, desktop publishing capabilities, installation and support are also discussed. Point/counterpoint: GUI vs character-based interface. (comparison of graphical user interfaces and character-based interfaces for A debate on the comparative utility of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and character-based interfaces for word processors concludes that computers are going to evolve from character-based interfaces to GUIs. Consequently, the trend in word processors is a move to GUI environments, enabling authors to also decide how text will look on the page in addition to its content. A GUI, though, will not make it easier to write intelligently or clearly, and the user may spend too much time worrying about a document's appearance. The GUI may also inhibit those individuals not capable of thinking about content and visual format at the same time. GUIs enable users to become productive more quickly and are generally more fun to use, but a University of Delaware study suggested that student writers using GUI-based Macintoshes produced more childish prose than those working on conventional IBM PC-compatibles. Word processors for foreign and scientific text. Mendelson, Edward. Most English word processors can produce most European language characters based on the roman alphabet by inputting the ASCII number representing the characters, but Nota Bene, Word Perfect and special word processors are necessary for non-Roman text. Nota Bene has a tool for combining successive keys to create accented letters and offers a $99 Special Language Supplement containing biblical Hebrew, Greek, Russian and other Cyrillic fonts. WordPerfect enables typing of accented characters in a similar manner to Nota Bene and has codes for 1,500 technical, Greek, Japanese, Russian and Hebrew characters. Gamma Production's $595 Multi-Lingual Scholar and WYSIWYG's $695 Universal Word enable the writing of documents in multiple languages. Tools for scientific and mathematical word processing include TCI Software Research's $595 T3, Brooks/Cole Publishing's $295 EXP and Personal TeX's $249 PC TeX. WordPerfect and Microsoft Word move toward Windows. Nelson, Robin. New versions of Microsoft Corp's Word and WordPerfect Corp's WordPerfect word processing software packages are both moving towards Microsoft's Windows 3.0 graphical user interface (GUI). The $450 Word 5.5 continues to be an MS-DOS program, but its screens and menus replicate those of Microsoft's Word for Windows package. The consistency between the MS-DOS, Windows 3.0 and Macintosh versions of Word eases learning the software on the different platforms. WordPerfect product manager Devin Durant says the forthcoming WordPerfect for Windows will combine the features of WordPerfect 5.1 with those features that will make good use of the Windows GUI. The new version will have to include facilities for backwards compatibility with previous releases. WordPerfect for Windows is expected in 1st qtr 1991. Windows programs top the chart: commands and screens. (rating the user interfaces employed in 12 word processing software programs The user interfaces employed by 12 word processing software packages reviewed in several related articles vary substantially, though Microsoft Windows-based interfaces rated highest. Types of interfaces include pull-down menus, command-line control and/or function keys. The highest rated packages were Ami Professional 1.2B and Word for Windows 1.1, both of which run under the Windows graphical user interface (GUI), employing 'menus to near perfection.' MultiMate 4.0 offers high menu command effectiveness because of the use of 'speed keys' for virtually every menu item. Lotus 1-2-3 nested menu lists are employed by Lotus Manuscript 2.1 and Microsoft Word. XyWrite III Plus 3.56 is an example of a command-line word processor. The only WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processors are Ami Professional and Word for Windows, though others offer a page-preview mode. Blocks, formats, and deletes: edit and format. (the editing and formatting features of 12 word processing software packages The major differences in the editing and formatting capabilities of 12 word processing software packages reviewed in several related articles are how easy they are to use and the depth of their features. All of the word processors offer powerful editing and formatting functionality. The most important of these are capabilities are text deletion and text movement. Other important features include search and replacement and text and page formatting. The highest rated word processors are Ami Professional 1.2B and WordPerfect 5.1, in large part because of their support of multiple undelete levels in addition to all their other editing and formatting capabilities. DisplayWrite and MultiMate are the least flexible programs in terms of editing capabilities. Nine of the 12 programs received perfect scores in page formatting. Few reach perfection: printing. (rating the printing capabilities of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed in A review of the printing capabilities of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed in several related articles rates three programs with perfect scores: DisplayWrite 5 Composer, Microsoft Word 5.0 and WordPerfect 5.1. Important printing capabilities include a sufficient variety of drivers for printers, full support of the printing functionality of those printers, the ability to work with more than one printer at a time, background printing and print queuing functions, printing of a portion of a page or a range of pages of a document and automatic formatting and printing of envelopes. Only the three top-rated word processors offered all of these capabilities, but most of the packages offered most of the features. The major exception was XyWrite III Plus 3.56, which scored only 2.3 points on a 10-point scale. Beyond the basics: extended features. (rating of the additional features of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed The extent and quality of additional or extended features of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed in several related articles receive an overall rating. All of these packages attempt to integrate functionality usually associated with desktop publishing software, data base management systems and utility programs. These functions include file management, temporary use of MS-DOS functions without exiting the program, spell checking, specialized dictionaries, thesaurus, preparation of complex documents, importing and resizing of graphics, column generation, mail merge, outlining, group editing features and mathematical functions. The highest rated packages for their extended features are WordPerfect 5.1 and WordStar 6.0. Consistently good performance: help. (rating the help facilities of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed in The sophistication of 12 high-end word processing software packages reviewed in several related articles requires help facilities. These features include on-line context-sensitive help, adjustment of help levels, on-line tutorials, display of error messages, extensive hardcopy documentation with thorough indexing and keyboard templates. The value of each of these features is briefly discussed. Microsoft Word 5.5, Word for Windows 1.1, WordPerfect 5.1 and WordStar 6.0 included all of these capabilities, rating a perfect score of 10 for overall help functionality. Three programs lead the way: benchmarks. (rating the benchmark performance of 12 high-end word processing software packages Rating the benchmarked performance of 12 high-end word-processing software packages reviewed in several related articles reveals a wide range of performance. The benchmarks included the loading of a 50Kbyte ASCII file, saving a document in the program's native format, search and replace character strings in three different files, merging a 50Kbyte ASCII file into a native file and jumping from the beginning to end of a 50Kbyte file. XyWrite III Plus 3.56 scored a leading 8.1 points overall on a scale of 10, while DisplayWrite 5 Composer was by far the slowest program with a rating of 1.1. Fastest and slowest programs on each of the benchmarks are noted. Individual takes.(product summaries, performance results, photographs and key specifications of 12 high-end word processing Twelve high-end word-processing software packages are individually evaluated. The programs are Samna Corp's $495 Ami Professional 1.2B, IBM's $595 DisplayWrite 5 Composer, Lotus Development Corp's $495 Manuscript 2.1, Ashton-Tate Corp's $495 MultiMate 4.0, Dragonfly Software's $495 Nota Bene 3.0, Software Publishing Corp's $295 OfficeWriter 6.2, Microsoft Corp's $450 Word 5.0 and $495 Word for Windows 1.1, WordPerfect Corp's $495 WordPerfect 5.1, WordStar International's $495 WordStar 6.0 and $495 WordStar 2000 3.5, and XyQuest Inc's $445 XyWrite III Plus 3.56. The word processors offer many of the same features, so selection of one over another may be based on more subjective qualities such as the nature of the interface. Tickling the ivories. (selecting a keyboard) Brother, Hardin. Several factors must be considered and several steps taken when installing a replacement computer keyboard. These include determining that the keyboard is compatible with the host microcomputer, what keyboard touch and layout are desirable, and what special design qualities or extra features are available. XT-compatible keyboards typically have a variety of IBM's original 83-key layout, while AT-compatible keyboards usually are a variety of IBM's 101-key Enhanced keyboard with the 12 function keys at the top. Keyboard touch or feel varies from soft to some resistance and tactile response. The location of function keys, control, shift and CapsLock keys; the existence of home key locators; and the availability of built-in numeric calculator keypads, trackballs and other features should be considered. Installation of the keyboard is quite simple. Consumer watch: advice and information for the computer consumer. (a survey of computer pricing and knowledge at six different A survey of four microcomputer retailers and two mail-order firms concludes that computer users must do comparison shopping to get the best deal. Sales personnel at each outlet were told that a new computer was to be used primarily for word processing in a home office, spreadsheets and personal finance tools would also be run, Windows might be used and price was very important. Inquiries at department stores Sears and Whole Earth Access revealed that a Sears salesperson had poor product knowledge, while the Whole Earth sales staff was knowledgeable and prescribed a suitable and reasonably priced system. Radio Shack and ComputerLand sales personnel understood the technology, but there are serious reservations about each store. Salespersons at mail-order vendors Dell Computer and Northgate Computer Systems were knowledgable and offered good service, support, prices and personal attention. IBM launches successor to popular VGA: XGA to be open high-resolution graphics standard. (Extended Graphics Array) IBM introduces XGA (Extended Graphics Array), a new display specification that offers up to 1024-by-768-pixel resolution with 256 colors and is optimized for Windows-like graphics user interfaces. The company intends to establish XGA as a standard and is publishing the hardware details to encourage multivendor support. XGA circuitry is integrated on the motherboard of IBM's new PS/2 Model 90. Other attempts to establish an industry standard to succeed VGA have included IBM's 8514/A, Texas Instruments' 34010 graphics chip and 800-by-600-pixel super VGA. These have only complicated the display market, and none has gained significant market share. The first IBM XGA board will sell for $1,095. Service issues claiming center stage: customers want direct phone support from vendors. Computer manufacturers are placing a greater emphasis on quality customer service and support in response to customer demands and as a way of gaining market share and customer loyalty in a slowing market. Quality service and support enables vendors of low-end systems to differentiate themselves and is virtually mandatory for vendors of high-end computers targeted at critical applications. Many customers are also demanding direct, preferably toll-free, access to technical support from system manufacturers. Mail-order vendor Dell Computer, already respected for its support policies, is expanding its services. AST Research, which sells only through dealers and value-added resellers, has made its technical support lines toll-free and expanded its hours. Compaq remains committed to support through its dealers. IBM spreads software bets: Windows keeps rolling ahead. LaPlante, Alice. IBM may continue to increase the potential choices for microcomputer environments, but The Fastie Report publisher Will Fastie believes that Microsoft's Windows will be the dominant microcomputer environment in the 1990s. InfoCorp analyst Bill Higgs concurs that Windows is the preeminent choice of software developers. Microsoft promises that investments in Windows applications will be protected because they will run under OS/2. IBM is supporting several conflicting environments, excluding Windows. The most recent addition to IBM's repertoire is Patriot Partners, a joint venture with Metaphor Computer Systems (Mountain View, CA) to produce an integrated object-oriented programming environment and a graphical user interface that supports the porting of software among OS/2, UNIX and IBM's UNIX-based AIX operating systems. The technology will not debut before 1993. Users seek defenses against viral threat; protective packages seek to keep up. Computer viruses are a growing danger to computer users. Security consultant John McAffee says most systems are infected in the system purchase process, during repair or from demonstration software. Consequently, companies are employing a variety of strategies to protect their systems and software, including antiviral software packages, training employees to prevent infections and restrictions on software that can be entered into their computers and networks. Examples are briefly discussed. Two types of 'vaccine' software exist: scanning and memory-resident programs. Scanning programs such as Scan check disks and existing programs for up to 200 or more known viruses. Memory-resident programs such as Certus's Resident analyze each new program before it loads to prevent unauthorized code from executing. Symantec's Norton AntiVirus combines both methods. Mail order keeps posting sales gains; users recommend buying from established players. A simple strategy can be followed for successfully purchasing products mail-order computer hardware and software dealers. BIS CAP International (Norwell, MA) estimates that one-tenth of all microcomputer software and hardware products are purchased from mail-order vendors. Low prices are the primary reason for purchasing from such companies, but some are also known for their service and delivery speed. Unfortunately, there have been and are some mail-order computer/software vendors who are highly disreputable. A viable strategy for mail-order purchases consists of possessing thorough knowledge about the product to be purchased, checking out the company's reputation, being wary of unusually low prices and sure that the products are under manufacturer's warranty, and determining what the return policy is and if there are restocking charges. IBM's visionary new XPs: sparkling graphics and plenty of room for memory and mass storage distinguish a new class of 486-based PS/2. IBM's new PS/2 XP 486 family of microcomputers features the next-generation Extended Graphics Array (XGA) video display technology, easily upgradable 25-MHz and 33-MHz Intel 80486 microprocessors, 4Mbytes of system memory expandable to 32Mbytes, and built-in SCSI bus master controllers at prices ranging from $12,495 to $17,745. The two Model 90 units are desktop machines with XGA circuitry on the motherboard, three 32-bit Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) slots, five storage bays, one parallel and two serial ports and either an 80Mbyte or 320Mbyte hard disk drive. The two Model 95 tower units include XGA circuitry on a plug-in card, six available 32-bit MCA slots and seven storage bays. Features of the new PS/2 XT 486s are discussed. IBM's new 16-bit OS/2 1.3 multitasking operating system can simultaneously run one MS-DOS and two OS/2 applications in as little as 2Mbytes of system memory. Other enhancements are described. Easy Persuasion. (Software Review) (Aldus Corp introduces Aldus Persuasion 2.0 for Windows presentation graphics software ) Aldus Corp (Seattle, WA) introduces the $595 Persuasion 2.0 for Windows presentation graphics software package, which will ship 2nd qtr of 1991. The major enhancement in the new version is support for the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. Other features include extensive global controls for presentations, tightly integrated Outline View outliner, numerous preformatted slides, 36 'auto-template' sets of seven similarly designed slides to change the look of a presentation, Sorter View facility for viewing and rearranging groups of slides, and support for importing named ranges of spreadsheet data from Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel. A charting facility enables the easy generation and overlay of multiple graph types. The variety of graphics and output capabilities are also discussed. Some Persuasion 2.0 facilities are compared to rival packages. Persuasion 2.0 does not support the Windows dynamic data exchange protocol. What's Next? More power, lower prices, new shapes: Nextstation, Nextcube, Nextstation Color, Nextdimension board. (product Next Computer Inc (Redwood City, CA) introduces three new Next workstation models: the $5,000 Nextstation, $7,995 Nextcube and $7,995 Nextstation Color. The company hopes the lower cost, improved performance and powerful color display options of the new models will boost slow sales. The Nextstation is an entry level unit that features a 25-MHz Motorola 68040 microprocessor, 2.8Mbyte floppy disk drive, 17ms 105Mbyte hard disk drive, 1120-by-820-pixel MegaPixel display, and several bundled applications. The Nextcube is a highly expandable model capable of supporting up to 64Mbytes of system memory, hard disk drive capacities of up to 1.4Gbytes, optical disk drive capacities of up to 550Mbytes, and the optional Nexdimension high-resolution video display board and MegaPixel color Display. Nextstation Color provides support of up to 4,096 simultaneous colors. Top tax packages beefed up for 1991: TurboTax, Andrew Tobias' TaxCut, MacInTax for Windows. (product announcement) ChipSoft Inc (San Diego, CA), MECA Software Inc (Westport, CT) and SoftView (Oxnard, CA) introduce the 1991 versions of their federal tax software packages for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers. ChipSoft's $75 TurboTax Federal Personal 1040, MECA's $90 Andrew Tobias' TaxCut and SoftView's $99 MacInTax for Windows all offer multilevel tax help and electronic filing through authorized services. TurboTax enhancements include a 'next-step' facility that leads the user through the tax forms relevant to input data and a function that evaluates the return for data likely to trigger an IRS audit. TaxCut enhancements include a function to identify missing or incomplete data and an improved interface to the Managing Your Money personal finance software. MacInTax for Windows enhancements include support for Windows 3.0, improved speed and an interview format to identify needed forms. More of everything is packed into the wide-body Wyse: Wyse Decision 486/33E. (product announcement) Wyse Technology (San Jose, CA) introduces the Decision 486/33E microcomputer, priced at $8,999 and up. The 33-MHz Intel 80486-based system features a tower chassis;, 64-bit asynchronous bus for speeding data between the microprocessor, 32-bit EISA bus, and memory; nine EISA slots; 2Mbytes to 192Mbytes of system memory; 128Kbyte copy-back cache memory with proprietary controller; six half-height drive bays; 325-watt power supply; and bundled software. An enhanced Wyse version of MS-DOS 4.01 features EMS 4.0 support, on-line help and disk caching functions. The 64-bit asynchronous bus enables two 32-bit data words to be simultaneously transmitted between the CPU and memory and supports an easy upgrade to the forthcoming 50-MHz 486. Wyse recommends ESDI drives for the Decision 486/33E. A $13,138 implementation includes a 300MByte ESDI drive, Turbo ESDI controller, video card and 1024-by-768 pixel color monitor. Memory manager learns its PS/2s: BlueMax, 386Max 5.0. (product announcement) Qualitas Inc (Bethesda, MD) introduces the $155 BlueMax, an IBM PS/2 version of its $130 386Max 5.0 memory manager for 80386-based IBM PCs and compatibles. The IBM PS/2's BIOS uses more high memory than the IBM PC BIOS, which may result in insufficient memory when using large applications with a memory manager for loading memory-resident programs and MS-DOS utilities. BlueMax works only on 386-based or better PS/2 or compatible machines and uses features of the 386 to free up to 212Kbytes of contiguous high memory above 640Kbytes; 386Max 5.0 frees up to 192Kbytes. Both programs determine optimal locations for memory-resident programs at installation, compress portions of the IBM BIOS that are less often used for MS-DOS programs and are Windows 3.0 compatible. Minimum host system requirements are detailed. Easier programming is the object: Turbo Pascal 6.0. (product announcement) Borland International Inc introduces Turbo Pascal 6.0, a new version of its program development software. Enhancements in version 6.0 include the Turbo Vision library of objects for designing text-based interfaces similar to graphical user interfaces; an editor/debugger that supports mice, windows, and multiple files; macro support; an improved help system; support for EMS extended memory; and a simple in-line assembler. The new Turbo Pascal Professional 6.0 version adds a command-line compiler that runs in the protected modes of Intel 80286 and 80386 microprocessors and can exploit extended memory to compile very large programs. The regular version of Turbo Pascal 6.0 is $149.95, while the Turbo Pascal Professional 6.0 is $299.95. What you print is what you fax: SatisFAXtion board. (product announcement) Intel PCEO (Hillsboro, OR) introduces the SatisFAXtion fax/modem board for IBM AT and Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) buses. The board can send and receive facsimile files in the background at 9,600 bps from within any application that supports the Epson FX85 printer. The process is managed by a pop-up menu accessed by a hot key. A 'phone book' with up to 100 entries and a dialog box for entering the name and telephone number of the addressee facilitate transmission. Other features include a 2,400-bps modem with MNP Level 5 error correction and compression, an on-board processor, 128Kbytes of RAM, memory-resident software and a non-resident program that maintains the phone book and activity log and manages stored faxes. Minimum host requirements are MS-DOS 3.0, 640Kbytes of RAM and 1Mbyte of disk space. The AT bus version is priced at $499, while the MCA version costs $549. Easy fonts for great-looking documents. (Software Review) (a review and comparison of seven scalable-font generators; includes An evaluation and comparison of seven scalable-font generators concludes that Adobe Type Manager for Windows is the 'best buy' for the Windows 3.0 environment, while Publisher's Powerpak is best for MS-DOS applications. Scalable-font generators are cost-effective programs that increase font choices for printing output. The two scalable-font generator types are: 'while-you-wait' programs, which produce and store fonts on a hard disk and load them at print time, and the preferable 'on-the-fly' programs that produce fonts as needed. While-you-wait packages include Bitstream's Fontware, Agfa's $ 99 Type Director 2.0, and Z-Soft's $199 SoftType 1.01. On-the-fly programs include the $99 Adobe Type Manager, Bitstream's $99 FaceLift, and Atech's $79.95 Publisher's Powerhouse. Zenographics' $195 SuperPrint requires manual font generation. Each package is discussed. Exercising your font options. ( ways of adding fonts to a document) There are numerous ways of adding new fonts to documents; seven methods are briefly discussed. Resident fonts in most non-PostScript printers are generally quite limited but do not require the user to think much about their use. PostScript-based printers provide the most high-quality scalable font generation capabilities plus quality graphics output but are also expensive. The $2,395 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III offers similar capabilities but with a more limited range of fonts and less powerful graphics. Intermediate solutions include fixed-size, bit-mapped software fonts, PostScript software emulators, and font cartridges. Font cartridges are available in three types providing fixed-sized bit mapped fonts, scalable font outlines, or PostScript scalable font outlines. Tax relief for the rest of us. (includes related articles on the IRS's attention to home businesses using a tax software package The decision to use tax software depends on several factors, including the complexity of the user's finances and consequent return complexity as well as the user's knowledge of tax law, willingness to assume sole responsibility for the return and willingness to spend time learning and using the software. Those who file simple tax returns probably do not need tax software, while the majority of people who file 'relatively uncomplicated' returns can use tax software to simplify preparation and possibly even save money. People with very complicated finances will need to know more about the tax code and may find that they would be better off relying on professional tax advice and return preparation. Those who expect to get a refund and want to file early may have to prepare returns manually, as early annual versions of tax software do not include the final tax law revisions. Do-it-yourself taxes: how to find the tax package with the right combination of forms and features. (buyers guide) Major factors to consider when selecting a tax preparation software package are discussed. Features of 12 personal tax preparation packages ranging in price from $20 to $129 are detailed in an accompanying table. Criteria in selecting tax software include how much help the user actually needs to complete a return, which critical features are needed and which simply provide convenience, whether all necessary forms and schedules are supported, plan-ahead capabilities, output options and the level of support provided by the vendor. Rating the returns: a tax accountant matches withs with the top two tax packages. (Software Review) (MECA Software's Andrew An evaluation and comparison of ChipSoft Inc's TurboTax 8.0 and MECA Software Inc's Andrew Tobias' TaxCut personal federal tax preparation software packages concludes that each is suited to a different type of user. The two packages are compared on their performance in handling three tax preparation scenarios of varying complexity and produce identical bottom-line results. Both packages feature such capabilities as hypertext on-line help, support of many forms and schedules, tax planning and optional electronic filing. TurboTax is better suited to users with a basic knowledge of tax forms. It has a more streamlined interface, useful IRS audit advice and a Next Step facility that guides the user through the tax preparation process, but does not have as good a data integrity checker as TaxCut. TaxCut provides novice tax preparers with more 'in-depth' help and catches more errors than TurboTax. 101 secret tips: unlock the power of DOS, Windows, and your favorite software. (tutorial) One hundred and one tips facilitating productive use of 25 software packages are described. The tips are divided by software type: operating systems and environments, word processing software, spreadsheets, data base management systems, communications software, desktop publishing software, presentation software, drawing and paint software and utility programs. Specific packages addressed include the CompuServe EasyPlex mail facility, Corel Draw, Crosstalk Mk 4 and XVI, DataEase, dBase, Desqview, MS-DOS, Harvard Graphics, Magellan, Micrografx Designer, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Norton Utilities, Lotus 1-2-3 2.2, PageMaker, Paradox, PC Paintbrush IV Plus, PC Tools Delux, Procomm Plus, Q&A, Quattro Pro, R:base, Ventura Publisher, Windows 3.0, WordPerfect and Wordstar. Developer's toolbox: booting without DOS. (Software Review) (General Software's Booter Toolkit) (evaluation) General Software (Richmond, WA) offers a Microsoft C 5.1 and MASM 5.0 function library, the $99 Booter Toolkit, that lets users program floppy disks that can boot without MS-DOS system files. An expensive run-time license from Microsoft Corp is usually required to distribute floppy disks that can self-boot under MS-DOS. Booter Toolkit avoids this by providing functions that take over all of the activities involved in the IBM PC-compatible microcomputer boot process. The software includes routines for the actual booting plus all of the subsequent tasks that bring the system to life. These include routines for transferring the operating system into RAM, initializing system variables, reading and writing floppy disks, window creation, concurrent BIOS calls and multitasking. Booter Toolkit also includes sample listings and a good manual. Hardware security: make sure your computer stays at home. (three tools for anchoring computers) (column) Preventing theft of computer equipment can be as simple as attaching a cable and lock system such as Secure-It Inc's Kablit. Most home burglaries occur in less than ten minutes because the thief will just take the easy-to-remove items and leave as fast as possible. Consequently, they will tend to leave goods that are fastened down with hardware that requires at least a cable cutter to overcome. The $34.95 to $49.95 Kablit kits consist of a fasteners that are attached to the computer case and a desk or other rigid surface, a 10-foot cable that is threaded through the fasteners and a special, heavy-duty Master padlock. The kit allows the computer case to be opened if the user needs to get inside. The alternative $29.95 Care-Free Security System from Byte Brothers is deemed to fragile. Anchor Pad International's $139 Anchor Pad offers more security but does not allow a computer to be moved. Word 5.5 takes on Windows Word look; Microsoft overhauls PC Word's character interface. (New!) (product announcement) Microsoft Corp's $450 Word 5.5 word processor has an improved user interface that, in graphics mode, comes very close to a graphical user interface (GUI) in a character-based program. Word 5.5 supports all of Word 5.0's features and a check box under Preferences lets users use Word 5.0 function key combinations. Other changes include a style ribbon on the top of the screen that allows users to view current formatting characteristics and create new ones. Users can also view style sheets in the window simultaneously with a document. Version 5.5 also offers more variety in customization options, the ability to place the help system in a window and the option of attaching style sheets in the creation of new documents. The product is especially recommended for non-Windows users who need a word processor that is powerful and easy to learn. Be smart: use Norton AntiVirus to protect PCs against viruses. (Symantec's Norton Antivirus)(New!) (product announcement) Symantec's $129.95 Norton AntiVirus offers easy-to-use and well designed virus protection for microcomputers. The product comes in two parts. Virus Intercept is a memory resident, 24Kbyte device driver users load via the CONFIG.SYS file. It sounds a triple-tone siren and displays a warning message on the screen if users are either running an infected program, copying one from a floppy disk to the hard drive or booting with a COMMAND.COM contaminated with the virus. Users press the Enter or S key to abort the operation and the program prohibits the virus from infecting the system. A separate utility called Virus Clinic locates and fixes infected files. The utility scans drives and directories and allows users to delete or try and repair infected files. Users can get new virus signatures and code over the phone from Symantec. NEC designs a slick PowerMate. (NEC Technologies' Powermate 386/25S)(New!) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) NEC Technologies' PowerMate 386/25S 25-MHz 386DX microcomputer, $5,549, has an intelligent design and is the first computer to be designed solely by the US-based company without using its Japanese parent company's proprietary design. The $5,549 price is average for a machine configured with 2MBytes of RAM, Super VGA, a 100MByte hard drive, MS-DOS 3.3 and Windows 3.0. The machine also turns in average memory and CPU performance times in benchmark tests. The PowerMate's design is what puts it ahead of other products; the keyboard connector, power switch and mouse connector are all mounted on the front panel. Its keyboard is well designed and the machine has a zero-insertion-force coprocessor socket which allows for easy insertion and removal of an 80387 chip. Tests over several weeks show no problems whatsoever with reliability or compatibility. XGA video standard is good, but it's not for everyone--yet. (eXtended Graphics Array)(New!) The XGA video standard is superior to the existing VGA and 8514/A standards in performance and appearance. Analysts expect XGA to become the next widely accepted graphics standard. XGA is currently only available for Micro Channel microcomputers and is being shipped as a standard component for IBM's PS/2 Models 90 and 95. The XGA card is available separately for $1,095. Users must have an 80386SX machine or better to use the standard. Third party-developed XGA graphics boards are not expected to appear in great numbers until at least the end of 1991. XGA offers two-and-a-half times the resolution of VGA at 1,024 by 768 pixels. The standard allows display of 256 colors at one time. XGA's busmaster technique lets the custom graphics coprocessor access system RAM instead of video RAM, speeding the performance of Windows, Presentation Manager and DOS applications. Wide-carriage IBM ink jet is the perfect match for spreadsheet users. (IBM's Execjet ink jet printer)(New!) (Hardware Review) IBM's ExecJet, $1,099, is a high quality, wide-carriage ink jet printer that offers quiet operation and high resolution along with the ability to print 132 columns for spreadsheets and tables at normal type sizes. Tests show the printer produces three pages per minute of letter quality text and almost four pages per minute in draft mode. The ExecJet offers excellent paper handling with a 100-page cut-sheet feeder that can handle paper up to 14 inches wide as well as envelopes. The printer also comes with a 17-inch wide tractor feed for continuous forms. IBM's overall product design is disappointing and, although print quality is superior, the ink does not hold up well if the paper becomes moist. The printer emulates IBM's Quietwriter III and Proprinter XL24E as well as Epson's LQ-1050. The price is high, but few alternatives are available in wide-carriage ink-jet printers. Star dot matrix does color on the cheap. (Star Micronics America's NX-1020 Rainbow color printer)(New!) (Hardware Review) Star Micronics America's NX-1020 Rainbow nine-pin color dot matrix printer, $329, is a solid performer that provides seven colors, six fonts and printing speeds of up to 225 characters per second in draft mode. The printer offers black and color type as well as excellent complex dot matrix color graphics. The Rainbow has a paper-parking capability that lets user load fanfold and cut sheet paper at the same time. The printer's platen is slightly wider than normal to facilitate printing wide color graphics files. The Rainbow operates quietly for a dot matrix and is small, measuring 17 inches wide by 13 inches deep by 5 inches high. It emulates the IBM Proprinter III printers as well as the Epson EX-800 color and FX-850 models. Fonts offered include Courier, Orator, Sans Serif and Script plus two draft fonts. GrandView excels as an outliner but its PIM features take backseat. (Symantec's GrandView 2.0)(Personal Information Symantec's GrandView 2.0, $295, when used strictly as an outliner, is the best product in its field. The product's personal information management (PIM) characteristics are disappointing; users should accept PIM features as a bonus while buying the product for its unsurpassed outlining capabilities. Symantec offers more formatting options in the new version as well as pre-designed Layout Styles that act as a type of style sheet for reports. Outlines can be reproduced as checklists, reports for presentations or meeting agendas. GrandView 2.0 boasts a print preview mode, PostScript printer drivers, additional laser printer drivers and improved layout and formatting features. Users can now load GrandView outlines directly into Harvard Graphics and Freelance Plus graphics programs as charts while retaining outline formatting and hierarchy. This feature alone is worth the price of the package. Slow but steady: AccuScan tackles ScanJet OCR. (Software Review) (scanning software for HP ScanJet scanners) (evaluation) HP's $595 AccuScan optical character recognition software is easy to use and accurate at recognizing text in common sizes but works only with the company's ScanJet scanners. AccuScan is designed for light-duty use and uses the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical interface. Its install utility automatically modifies the user's CONFIG.SYS file, and text output can be translated to a variety of word processing formats as well as ASCII. AccuScan supports the optional automatic document feeder in the ScanJet. It scans a three-page text document in 12-point Courier at about 100 word per minute, but complex documents take much longer to scan. This relatively slow performance limits AccuScan's usefulness to low-volume scanning environments. John Dickinson: Forecast for the '90's: The DOS way may still be the best way. (New!) (column) DOS, despite its shortcomings, runs DOS applications better than any of the alternative operating systems such as Unix and OS/2. The ability to operate DOS programs is a crucial requirement for a commercially successful operating system. America's 22 million microcomputer users want to be able to run their DOS applications easily and will reject any operating system that does not allow this, a fact some decision-making individuals lose sight of. Windows 3.0, which is a DOS program itself, can run multiple DOS applications but works well only on Intel 80386 and 80486 systems. OS/2 1.2 runs only one DOS program at a time; OS/2 2.0 can multitask DOS programs, but with serious restrictions. Most microcomputers will continue to run at least some DOS programs even when new operating systems are implemented. Hyatt's 20-year dream comes true, causes nightmares in Silicon Valley; inventor claims first microprocessor patent. (New!) Gilbert Hyatt, after struggling for 20 years with the US Patent Office, receives a fundamental patent for the computer-on-a-chip technology that led to modern microprocessors. If Hyatt can win the certain legal challenges he will face, the inventor will make millions of dollars per year in royalties from microprocessors and microcontrollers. The Hyatt patent will also affect patent litigation from Texas Instruments, which is suing six US computer makers to enforce its microprocessor patents. Ted Hoff, a former Intel engineer, is generally credited as the inventor of the microprocessor with his design of the Intel 4004 in 1970. Hyatt claims to have built a prototype of his technology in 1968. Hoff disputes Hyatt's claim and contends that the Hyatt design requires six times the number of transistors on one chip than was possible in 1968. John C. Dvorak vs Jim Seymour: Laptop PCs on desktops? Sure, says Jim; no way, counters John. (column) Jim Seymour argues that the day is coming when most users will be able to use a portable computer as their only microcomputer on the desktop. More and more portable computers are being produced with VGA, large hard disks and the same power found in desktop models. Seymour believes the trend will move away from the inconvenient, two-machine philosophy to users having a fast Intel 80386SX-based portable computer as their only machine. John C. Dvorak contends that the amounts of hard disk storage, speed and color users require are not feasible on a portable. Laptop computers are also a throwback to the days of computer keyboards fixed to screens. Dvorak points out that it is easy to run a telecommunications program in host mode on a home computer and access it with the laptop's modem while on the road. He also contends that users who have laptops as their only machine are in big trouble if it is stolen. ImageTools and SunScan handle file conversion, scanning with ease; HSC Software builds useful tools for graphic artists. (product HSC Software's ImageTools 3.0, $199, is a graphics utility program that offers a two-way conversion for VGA and Truevision Targa graphics files. Targa users are able to place microcomputer graphics in their broadcast quality video and VGA users can import Targa video stills. Users can also use ImageTools 3.0 to convert Targa video frame captures to VGA stills. The product's proprietary image-processing routines allow users to make choices among colors when reducing colors from Targa to VGA files. HSC's SunScan 2.0, $299, is a scanner control program that handles color Targa file formats. The product supports on-screen resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels and can produce Targa files for display on 8-bit VGA systems. It can also control high-end scanners and perform limited image processing. The products can be used separately or together and are indispensable tools for graphic artists. Key software firms pledge themselves to code of ethics. (Software Business Practices Council)(New!) Fifteen software companies are forming the Software Business Practices Council (SBPC) to promote ethical business practices within the software industry. The SBPC is establishing guidelines that include differentiating product announcements from general statements of direction, providing consistent performance measurements for products and using fair competitive product comparisons. SBPC will not enforce the guidelines but hopes that consumers, satisfied with companies who embrace the ethical standards, will insist that all companies follow suit. The council wants to address customer dissatisfaction before it adversely affects the software industry. Founding members include Lotus Development Corp, Ashton-Tate, AICorp, Banyan Systems, Chipcom, Cognos Inc, Datamedia, DEC, HP, Ingres Corp, Intec Controls, Integral, Interleaf, Multiview, Price Waterhouse, Ross Systems and Sybase. BeckerTools adds flexibility to Windows' File Manager. (Software Review) (evaluation) Abacus Software's BeckerTools for Windows, $79.95, is a file and disk manager designed to enhance the Windows 3.0 File Manager. BeckerTools is good for routine tasks but still needs application launching and improved directory-display features in order to truly outshine File Manager. BeckerTools has all the usual file and disk management functions and makes it easier for users to copy files to a directory or folder. BeckerTools does try to be what File Manager should be: a flexible front end that is easy to use as well as a serious disk and file management tool. The product also boasts file packing and unpacking for archiving files and two methods for deleted-file recovery. The interface is flexible but is not intuitive. Users cannot launch an application from within BeckerTools as they can in File Manager. The rise and fall of Chairman Ed. (Ashton-Tate's Ed Esber) Brennan, Laura. Ed Esber's tenure as chief executive officer of Ashton-Tate was full of controversy and problems, although Esber did everything modern business schools teach managers to do. His experience shows the differences between the traditional corporate way of thinking and the software world. Esber's goal was to gain dominant market share through big volume sales that would win reseller loyalty. His philosophy of emphasizing marketing over technology caused severe disagreements with the technical staff. Esber's marketing philosophy was at odds with Ashton-Tate's in-house developers, who believed that dBASE's advanced users and professional developers contributed more to the database program's success than corporate users. This philosophy eventually resulted in the company's loss of almost $20 million for the quarter ending June 30, 1989 and led to Esber's eventual downfall. dBASE IV 1.1: a promise kept? (Software Review) (evaluation) Dickinson, John; Falkner, Mike. Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV 1.1 is finally available after many delays. The company lost database market share and money with dBASE IV 1.0, which suffered from serious bugs, slow performance and memory handling problems. Version 1.1 fixes all of these problems and adds some good features. The new version offers support for PostScript printers, allows conditional indexing and, most importantly, implements a wide variety of Structured Query Language features and tools. Many dBASE functions can now be executed in SQL mode, and users can insert customized dBASE functions into SQL applications via the 'Control Center' feature. dBASE still lacks a compiler and needs improvement in its screen interface. Transparent network control is also missing from this essentially network-centered database environment. Ashton-Tate plans more dBASE IV enhancements in 1991. Windows power tools. (Moon Valley Software Inc.'s Zip Manager, Eikon Systems Inc.'s ScrapbookPlus, Matesys' ObjectScript, ZSoft Users now have many Windows 3.0 utility programs from which to choose. Moon Valley Software's Zip Manager, $21.95, is a shareware front end file manager for LHARC, PKzip and ARC file-compression utility programs. Zip Manager gives users considerable control and can effectively increase hard disk space. Eikon Systems Inc's ScrapbookPlus, $149.95, is an image database and file format converter. ScrapbookPlus functions as a Windows clipboard extension and allows users to import and export files in many standard bit-mapped and vector graphics and text formats. MateSys' ObjectScript, $150, is a Windows version of the BASIC language that allows users to create Windows applications. ZSoft Corp's SoftType, $199, provides 62 typefaces for generating Windows font bitmaps from typeface outlines. Other Windows 3.0 utility programs are discussed in detail. Keep your PC in shape for 1991; resolved: this is the year your PC gets the care it deserves. Microcomputers need regular maintenance to ensure top performance and productivity. Users should first back up their entire hard drive and then back up new or changed files on a weekly basis. Every month users should make two sets of backups and store them at a site away from the computer. Users are advised to to run the DOS CHKDSK command every week to catch errors in the hard disk and run a more sophisticated diagnostic utility once every quarter. Defragmenting the hard disk can improve overall performance of the computer and ease recovery of lost files. Users should run a defragger utility once a month. Users should also delete files they no longer need or compress files they want to keep but are not vital about every three months. Those who do not have an operations policy and procedures manual should start one and review and update its information quarterly. Make WordPerfect dial your phone. (Help) (telephone-dialer macro for WordPerfect) (tutorial) A macro program that lets WordPerfect call a selected phone number from within a document is presented. Users need to use WordPerfect's macro editor instead of the macro recorder in order to access the powerful functions necessary. The macro works with any phone list that is in a WordPerfect document. Users call the list onscreen and find the name of the person to call with the Search function. The macro then takes over and changes printer setup to be configured to the modem port. It looks for the hyphen in the phone number and highlights the number, giving users a choice of calling or stopping the operation. When calling, the macro adds modem codes and sends them to the COM port. It then resets the normal printer setup. Details on how to create the macro are presented. Delete files across disks and subdirectories. (Toolkit) (tutorial) Salisbury, Mike. Users often find their hard disks becoming cluttered with forgotten and unwanted files. Locating and deleting unnecessary files can be time-consuming. A BASIC utility, CROSSDEL.BAS, that easily eliminates files is presented. The program uses the BASIC Shell command to perform directory changes and file deletions by loading secondary versions of the DOS command processor. Users can create CROSSDEL.BAS in any ASCII editor. The utility is run by starting the BASICA interpreter and then loading and running the file. Users place CROSSDEL.BAS in the root directory, making sure that both the BASICA and CHKDSK DOS programs are also in the root directory or in subdirectories contained in the DOS path command. The utility will search for and delete all user-specified files. Users can also insert a line of code that checks whether they have mistakenly entered a .COM or .EXE file for deletion. Instruct your PC to wait so you won't have to. (DOS) (tutorial) DeVoney, Chris. Users who need to execute programs while they are away from the computer can use the WAITTIL.COM file to make any batch file wait up to 24 hours before executing a command. The user inserts a line in a batch file that states when the command in the next line is to be executed. To have the WAITTIL program wait until 3:00 a.m., users would enter WAITTIL 03:00:00. Users start the batch file before leaving at the end of the day. The WAITTIL program occupies the computer until the time specified. WAITTIL then quits and the batch file continues with DOS running the programs. Users can also use a file called SENDIT.BAT to save money on telephone calls in telecommunications programs by telling WAITTIL what time a file should be sent. Another file, BACKIT.BAT, utilizes WAITTIL to copy changed files from the hard disk to a network file server. Other uses of WAITTIL are discussed. Quitting Windows can be easy--and dangerous. (Windows) (tutorial) Stinson, Craig. There are many ways for users to quit in Microsoft Windows. Every Windows application has a File Exit command and a Close command on the Control menu. The two commands are the same, but the Close command has shortcuts for the mouse and keyboard. Users can choose the Close command with a mouse by double-clicking on the Control menu icon. The keyboard Close command is Alt-F4. Windows applications can also be exited from the Task List by pressing Ctrl-Esc or double-clicking on the desktop, selecting a program name and clicking the End Task button. Windows' 386 enhanced mode offers a check box called Allow Close When Active. If there is a check in the box, users can quit Windows without quitting their non-Windows program. However, users should be aware that this can cause problems because files used by the programs may not close properly. Don't let your monitor be the death of you; low-radiation VDTs can help, but let common sense prevail. (video display There is not enough evidence to determine how dangerous video display terminal (VDT) radiation is to users' health but several precautions can minimize radiation exposure. Antiradiation screens can help but block only electric fields at very lower frequency (VLF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) levels. They do not block magnetic fields, which experts consider a more serious hazard. No device currently available blocks both electric and magnetic radiation at VLF and ELF levels. Antiradiation screens reduce emissions coming from the front of the monitor. Users can purchase low-radiation monitors that reduce emissions from all sides of the monitor but only at VLF levels. Experts advise users to work at least 28 inches away from the monitor and stay four feet away from the sides and back of other monitors in the workplace. Roll up your sleeves and build your own PC at Domino. (Domino Computer Self-Service Centers)(Consumer's Edge)(Phantom Shopper) Domino Computer Self-Service Centers has four locations in the San Francisco Bay Area where users can build their own 80386SX microcomputers with a color VGA monitor for about $1,500. Users build their system on the store premises and choose components from discounted name-brand parts. Users should be aware, however, that Domino sometimes sells motherboards that will run a slower chip at a faster speed; some experts warn that this could damage a microcomputer. Users should check the chip on the motherboard to make sure it is running at the correct speed. An average user can put a system together in about three hours; users who have some experience taking systems apart can do it in less time. If users have difficulties, Domino will finish the job for a $50 fee. Users who buy a computer at Domino will know that they have system that works and gain a better understanding of computers. End printer gridlock in the home office; now you can share a printer regardless of your office setup. (CompuAdd's MP-401 and Users who need an inexpensive way to share printers can choose from several printer-sharing device products. One of the simplest methods is to use an automatic or smart switch box. CompuAdd's MP-401 for parallel connections, $75, or the MS-401 for serial connections, connects up to four microcomputers to a single printer. Users connect cables running from the microcomputers' printer ports to a switch box attached to the printer. Dresselhaus Computer Products' SmartPrint PSS-P2 is a switch box that includes a disk-spooler utility for users who need printer buffering. Dresselhaus's SmartPrint PSS-S4, $199, allows users to connect four computers that are up to 1,000 feet apart. Connect Works Co's ChainLink 1.2, $395, lets microcomputers up to 4,000 feet apart share printers. Users can attach telephone wire to the ChainLink adapter box with a special adapter. BringBack trio rescues data. (Parsons Technology's BringBack data protection software utility program) (Software Review) Parsons Technology's $35 BringBack offers minimal data protection at an inexpensive price for users who cannot afford the expense of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). BringBack contains three software utilities. ComeBack is a file recovery utility that also archives every version of every file created. ComeBack allows users to retrieve any former version of a file and compare file versions onscreen. The PlayBack utility records users' last 120,000 keystrokes for use in situations where there has been a system lock, power loss or a file with changes that has not been saved. PlayBack can retype the file, including program commands. The CommandBack utility lets users recall and edit their last 31 DOS commands. Users can also create custom command aliases which are abbreviations for DOS commands. Going fishing for shareware? Pack an online tackle box. (PKWare Inc.'s PKzip, System Enhancement Associates' Arc, California Users who want to download shareware from on-line services can find help with several utility programs. Most downloadable files are compressed because compressed files transfer across phone lines quickly. Users need decompression utilities to make the file usable. PKWare Inc's PKzip, $47, and System Enhancement Associates' Arc, $50, are two standards for compression. Users will need both programs to decompress downloadable files with .ZIP or .ARC extensions. Both are easy to use for compressing or decompressing files, but their powerful archiving capabilities are more difficult to master. California Software Design's Shez offers a helpful menu interface. Users who have only a limited number of file transfer protocols available from their communications software can use Omen Technology's DSZ, which adds Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem protocols to any communications program. See how an IRA affects your retirement savings; an IRA analyzer can tell you how much you'll earn. (Personal Finance)(Prime Time) Worksheet templates for analyzing Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in the Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are presented. The analyzer determines the precise effect an IRA will have on a user's retirement savings and is created by entering a specific series of labels and formulas. Cell B2 contains the number of annual contributions the user expects to make to the IRA before retirement; cell B4 contains the expected annual interest rate. Output formulas calculate the amount of money the IRA will have earned as of the retirement date and indicate whether the user would have saved money by investing outside the IRA. Now Quicken can keep track of your investments, too. (Intuit Inc.'s Quicken 4.0) Intuit Inc's Quicken 4.0, $59.95, allows users to perform investment management and make check payments electronically. Users can monitor the activity of stocks, mutual funds, bonds and other investments at the check register screen. Version 4.0's offers more powerful tracking tools for securities, including price per share. Its calculator includes formulas that can identify the real percentage of return on investments by analyzing dividends and fluctuations in share price. Quicken 4.0 users can also pay bills electronically on the check writing screen. Users fill in the blanks on the screen and then link by modem to the CheckFree online checking service. The user then transfers the account information and CheckFree makes the payment by deducting it from a checking account. Users must make arrangements with their bank for electronic payments and pay CheckFree's monthly $9.00 charge. Macintosh: the Rodney Dangerfield of technical computing; Does the Mac deserve more respect as an engineering/scientific machine? Apple's Macintosh is underrated as an engineering/scientific workstation, despite years of effort by Apple and Macintosh software developers to overcome the reluctance of technical buyers. It would be easier to overcome technical buyer reluctance if the Macintosh were seen for what it is now rather than for what it was, and if the industry were to report on the Macintosh's true share of the technical market. Only the Macintosh can run applications under DOS, Unix and the native Macintosh operating system; the systems also offer affordable 24-bit photorealistic color at up to 1,158 by 882 pixels, 8Mbytes or more of RAM, and mass storage that can exceed 1Gbyte. Many DOS and Unix technical computer users are satisfied with user environments and operational methodologies that Macintosh users have left far behind. The reluctance of technical computer buyers for the Mac is discussed. The subject is objects: why a business should consider using an object-oriented database management system. (Workspace) (column) Two reasons business users should consider using an object-oriented database management system (OODBMS) rather than a 32-bit distributed relational DBMS such as Oracle or Sybase are described. Traditional databases distinguish between data in the system, such as customer lists and inventories, and data outside the system, such as marketing literature and product illustrations. The distinction is based on data the system can handle (text-based) and data it cannot (graphics-based), but an OODBMS provides a way for the system to create complex non-traditional data such as drawings, artwork and sound. The other reason is that OODBMSs facilitate group projects by providing the range of components required to represent diverse processes within a single project, such as financial analysis, project management and technical data. How OODBMSs work and their potential in business settings are discussed. PC Unix shootout: Interactive's Architech vs SCO's Open Desktop. (two versions of Unix for microcomputers compared: Interactive The future of Unix running on microcomputers will be determined by the two leading vendors of such systems: the Santa Cruz Operation's (SCO's) Open Desktop and Interactive Systems Corp's Architech Series. Open Desktop is a complete, all-in-one package that includes the operating system, a graphical user interface (GUI), standard Unix utilities, a database management system and a DOS emulator. Interactive Systems' approach differs in that it offers nine different bundled packages, providing buyers with a choice between three different platforms: application (character-based), network (multiuser) and workstation (for use with a GUI). Three levels are within each platform: starter includes only what is needed for a single application, extender is for more advanced users, and developer is for programmers. Architech uses more Berkeley extensions, whereas Open Desktop is more like Xenix. The end of dedicated prepress? (personal workstation-based publishing systems) (includes a prepress glossary) Prepress refers to all printing processes required to print text and graphics prior to putting the printing plates on the presses. Prepress services offer camera work, scanning, halftone screening, color separation production, retouching, stripping, page and signature assembly and plate-making. Color electronic prepress services (CEPS) encompass these and other services, but the advent of color desktop publishing has moved much prepress work to microcomputers. Many of the operations done by desktop machines, such as stripping, masking, trapping, color-matching and spot color; were done previously by hand, and only recently have high-end desktop systems taken over tasks done traditionally by prepress services. These include picture editing, driving image setters and scanning images to produce color separations. Desktop prepress systems and their effect on CEPS are examined. The proof is in the proofing. (desktop prepress systems) It has been the practice in the publishing industry since the 19th century to set up sample color pages by hand prior to a press run to assure the plates are satisfactory, but this is expensive and time-consuming. Color separations produced photographically can be reversed to create composite proofs of color separations made up of several transparent films stacked on top of each other or of color photographs made by exposing photosensitive color paper to the separations. Such techniques require great skill to measure the physical and chemical composition of the ink and surface, for example. The use of computers in color imaging and prepress systems introduces new complexities, such as how to handle the flexibility made possible by manipulation of images at the pixel level and how to translate a video display image to paper. Approaches to these and other desktop prepress system problems are discussed. Platforms in flux: Macs, PCs, and Unix boxes in the prepress world. (desktop prepress systems) Apple's Macintosh II series was until recently the only choice for desktop color prepress work, despite the relatively slow speed of its Motorola CPU when compared with other CPU series. The dominance of the Macintosh II in this area is threatened by the advent of faster Unix-based workstations and the introduction of Microsoft Windows 3.0 and enhanced LAN software for PCs. DOS-based desktop prepress systems are limited by the 640Kbyte memory limitation of the operating system and the lack of multitasking and virtual memory support. Unix has long had technical and competitive advantages over the Macintosh for research and engineering, and now it is beginning to compete in terms of graphics, but the number of Unix-based workstations is still far behind the number of DOS-based systems and Macintoshes. The three hardware platforms are compared for use in desktop prepress systems. Power production with Ventura; the Verbum Book of Electronic Page Design. (excerpt) (Ventura Publisher) (includes related article on An excerpt is provided from The Verbum Book of Electronic Page Design on how to use Ventura Publisher to produce a manual for the Macintosh version of MathCAD, an engineering calculation program. Particular attention is paid to the problems entailed in working with technical information and using a DOS-based desktop publishing system. As with other software manual projects, it was necessary to work closely with the writer to assure accuracy while the final touches were still being put on the software. IBM PC ATs running Ventura Publisher and a Macintosh SE running MathCAD, Capture and MacPaint were used in the project; proofing was done on a LaserWriter Plus, and final output was 600-dots-per-inch positives from a Varityper 600W imagesetter. The choice of PC-based Ventura to create a manual for a Macintosh-based software package and other aspects of the project are described. Evolving computers: adapting input techniques to humans. (alternatives to keyboards for computer input: Wang's Freestyle, The search for an alternative to the ubiquitous keyboard for computer input appears to be focusing on the capabilities of the machine rather than emulation of human functions. Wang's Freestyle is called a paper management and communications tool by the company; it combines the convenience of electronic mail with voice and handwriting annotation and an excellent user interface. GO's PenPoint delivers pen-based technology at the operating system level to allow pen input and handwriting recognition to be offered as system services. The prototype PenPoint machine system reportedly has no flip-up screen, no disk drive and no keyboard, making it a true notebook computer. Articulate Systems' Voice Navigator voice recognition system for the Macintosh connects voice commands to menu options or macros; this and several other voice-recognition systems are described. The Compaq Deskpro 486/33L: 486, 33-MHz, and EISA. (Proving Ground: Systems) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Compaq's Deskpro 486/33L Model 320 is one of the company's new Deskpro L series of 33-MHz 80386- or 80486-based EISA microcomputers, all of which feature a 32-bit slot holding a processor board with processor, cache, cache controller and coprocessor sockets. Users can thus buy a 33-MHz 386 system and later upgrade to a 33-MHz 486 quickly and simply, which is an approach taken by many other microcomputer vendors as well. The Deskpro L series is hindered by high prices and mediocre performance, however, due in part to the upgradeable processor design. The review system arrived with a 386/33 board and was upgraded to the 486/33 with 128Kbytes of cache and a socket for a 33-MHz Weitek 4167 coprocessor. The upgrade board costs $3,999, making the cost of the total system $24,718 with 12Mbytes of 80-nanosecond memory and a 320Mbyte ESDI hard drive. Better price/performance is available elsewhere. The Twinhead Superset 600: modest 33-MHz 486 power. (Proving Ground: Systems) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Twinhead International's Superset 600 microcomputer series features plug-in processor boards, like Compaq's Deskpro L series, to cover a range of processors from a 25-MHz 80386 to a 33-MHz 80486. The PowerCards, as the processor boards are called, plug into a proprietary 32-bit slot on the system board, and each has a processor, a cache and a cache controller. PowerCards cost from $2,339 for the 386/25 to $4,995 for the 486/33; the review model was a 33-MHz 486 ISA system with 8Mbytes of 60-nanosecond memory, 64Kbytes of 25-nanosecond cache, a 200Mbyte IDE hard disk drive, a Super VGA video controller and Relisys VGA monitor for $6,325. The Superset 600 provides about 90 percent of the performance of a Compaq Deskpro 486/33 at about 25 percent of the price, although it does not reach the overall price/performance of the Club AT Hawk III 486/33. The CompuAdd 333T. (Proving Ground: Systems) (Hardware Review) (evaluation) CompuAdd's 333T 33-MHz 80386- and ISA-based system comes in a tower case able to accommodate four half-height storage devices in its main drive bay and five other half-height devices in two secondary bays. The 333 system board supports six 16-bit slots, one 8-bit expansion slot and a 32-bit proprietary memory expansion slot; CompuAdd says two of the 16-bit slots are so-called hot slots intended to optimize data transfer to the HardCache ESDI controller and Hi-Rez VGA card. The reviewed machine also included the standard memory card with 4Mbytes of RAM and 64Kbytes of cache; DOS 4.01 and the company's own licensed version of Microsoft Windows 3.0 come preloaded and ready to boot. The price of the base 333T configuration is $2,775 (without hard disk drive, monitor or video card); the price of the reviewed system was $6,645. The CompuAdd 333T serves DOS users very well; it is well worth considering. The 386/33 Legacy of Arche returns with top performance. (the Arche Legacy 386/33) (Proving Ground: Systems) (Hardware Review) The Arche Legacy 386/33 is now available in a configuration without a tape drive and with less memory, making it suitable for single-user desktop use rather than for file server applications. The desktop configuration includes 4Mbytes of memory, 128Kbytes of cache, a hard disk controller and a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk drive for $5,625; the reviewed system included a 170Mbyte ESDI hard disk drive, an 80387 coprocessor, a 16-bit VGA controller and a 14-inch VGA monitor for $8,149. The system case accommodates five half-height storage devices, and the system board provides six 16-bit ISA slots and two proprietary 32-bit slots. Architectural innovations in the system provide performance comparable to many more expensive machines, but comparable performance is available for $2,000 less from the CompuAdd 386/33, and some 80486-based systems are now available for about $6,000. Video capture: tools for publishing and more. (Colorburst SV 1000, Willow Peripherals Publishers' GS, Chorus PC-Eye PC-1540, Five video image capture boards are evaluated: Colorburst SV1000 ($89.98), Willow Peripherals Publishers' GS ($595), Chorus PC-Eye PC-1540 ($1,095), VideoLogic DVA-4000/ISA ($2,495 as part of the Multimedia Interactive Control System) and Scion Video Image 1500 ($1,495). Lack of video standardization in PC compatibles was the greatest hindrance to getting the boards to work properly; the one board for the Macintosh, the Scion Video Image 1500, was very easy to use by comparison. The SV1000 requires a still camera shot or a commercial-quality VCR. The Publishers' GS frame grabber works with Willow Peripherals' Publishers' VGA video card. The PC-Eye PC-1540 was difficult to install, but it includes versatile software. The DVA-4000/ISA is also intended for interactive video courseware development, although it was not evaluated for that purpose. The Video Image 1500 is easy to use and versatile. 33-MHz 486s move into top spots. (performance comparisons of Unix workstations and 80386-based systems) Performance comparisons of two 80486-based microcomputers at opposite ends of the price spectrum indicate that the Twinhead Superset 600, priced at $6,000, is a much better choice than the Compaq Deskpro 486/33L, priced at $25,000. The 486/33L includes 12Mbytes of memory, a large hard disk, tape backup and EISA, but in terms of performance, the Superset 600 is comparable despite its trimmed-down configuration. Of the two 80386-based systems evaluated earlier, both the Arche Legacy 386/33 and the CompuAdd 333T provide excellent performance at relatively low prices, but the 333T features Microsoft Windows pre-installed. Systems based on the 80486 continue to increase in number, forcing 80386-based computers out of the top-performer tables altogether and into their own category. Buying into 486 power: beyond DOS. Varhol, Peter D. The OS/2-DOS dual-boot approach meets the needs of users moving beyond the DOS limit, but OS/2 and Presentation Manager run slowly on an 80386SX-based machine. Upgrading to an 80486 processor requires that users consider many factors, among which are being sure that the extra processing power is needed, that a Unix-based workstation would not be a better choice for the specific applications to be run, and that the system acquired meets the needs of the work environment (multiuser or single-user, for example). Systems based on the 80486 range in price from under $5,000 for the Twinhead Superset 600 to almost $29,000 for a loaded Compaq Deskpro 486/25. Other aspects of system selection discussed are name-brand versus less-well-known models, internal and external caches, use of the EISA bus and operating system selection. Voice recognition: The next PW interface? (personal workstation) (Back Page) (column) Voice recognition technology is beginning to combine with PC technology in many useful ways; new systems are more accurate and easier to apply to technical/scientific and advanced business computer uses. The most prominent applications for voice recognition technology are for inventory control and voice-activated process control. Voice recognition has also helped many handicapped users complete college programs and progress in careers, as well as helping them in their everyday lives by answering telephones, controlling environments and other such applications. The IntroVoice VI PC add-in card from Voice Connexion Inc includes a dedicated processor, ROM and other memory devices, as well as a 500-word vocabulary. The $695 board does text-to-speech conversion and recognizes 98 percent of words spoken into a microphone. The Intelligent Network - changing the face of telecommunications. (technical) The Intelligent Network is the Regional Bell Operating Companies infrastructure for new service offerings. The major components of the Intelligent Network architecture are a switching system, a signaling network, a centralized data base, and an operations support system to support the data base. Using the Intelligent Network architecture and appropriate triggers in switching systems, a number of new services can be offered through software changes, permitting the changes to be available immediately throughout a large geographical area; the services would work in a uniform manner throughout that area. The Service Control Point (SCP) part of the Intelligent Network is an online, fault-tolerant, transaction-processing data base that replies to network queries with call handling information. The Service Management System (SMS) part of the Intelligent Network is an interactive operations support system that processes and updates customer records. The Advanced Intelligent Network is the second phase of the Intelligent Network; it is focused on rapid development and customized development. Ada technology: current status and cost impact. (technical) Bhansali, Praful V.; Pflug, Bryan K.; Taylor, John A.; Woolley, Ada is a general-purpose language that many commercial organizations are considering using as their standard high-order language (HOL). The main difficulties are the lack of efficient compilers and the high initial cost of developing software in Ada. The Dept of Defense has set up the Ada Compiler Validation Capability test suite that has over 3,000 tests. Benchmarking of Ada compilers was carried out with the goal of evaluating the performance of object code generated in terms of the execution efficiency and memory requirements. Eight benchmark programs were used. The results show that Ada technology has matured enough to be used in the embedded environment. It can be used on all general-purpose 32-bit microprocessors; with minor reservations it can be used on 16/32-bit microprocessors and reduced-instruction-set computing microprocessors; and it can be used, with reservations, on older 16-bit microprocessors. The cost model indicates that using Ada could result in significant savings over the entire life cycle, particularly in the maintenance phase. The dielectric insulation of superconducting power cables. (technical) Advances in electrical insulation have been responsible for the constant improvement in how underground power transmission cables perform. Cable designers now must decide how to achieve an operating life of 40 or more years. At the same time, they must decide how to increase the electric stress, reduce the dielectric losses, and meet the constraints on the mechanical properties of the insulation. Superconducting cables are part of a class called 'forced-cooled' cables, as opposed to naturally cooled, which is used by most conventional cable systems. The design of a superconducting cable requires the conductors be directly cooled. Many designs have the coolant as a component of the cable insulation itself. Almost all superconducting cable designs use cryogens to determine the dielectric performance; these cryogens remain gaseous or liquid at the operating temperature of the cable. Intermetallic superconducting cables use helium. Object-oriented databases: design and implementation. (technical) Joseph, John v.; Thatte, Satish M.; Thompson, Craig W.; Wells, Object-oriented database (OODB) systems, a merging of ideas from object-oriented programming languages and data base management, are suitable for supporting next-generation applications such as CAD, CAM, multimedia, CASE, hypermedia information systems, and expert systems. Conventional data base systems cannot handle next-generation applications requirements for data modeling, performance, cooperative design, version management requirements, and seamlessness. OODBs can meet these requirements. The common concepts shared by object-oriented systems include objects, object identity, class, and inheritance. Current OODBs include Ontologic's Ontos, Servio Corp's Gemstone, Orion from the Advanced Computer Architecture Program at MCC, Hewlett-Packard's Iris, Texas Instrument's Zeitgeist, the Altair consortium's 0subscript2, and Postgres from the University of California at Berkeley. Work on OODBs continues as there is considerable divergence on many key issues. Infrared focal plane array technology. (technical) Scribner, Dean A.; Kruer, Melvin R.; Killiany, Joseph M. Infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs), integrated two-dimensional arrays of detectors on the focal plane with multiplexed readouts, are a major component in advanced infrared imaging systems. Focal plane array technology's goal is to use the integrated circuit approach to satisfy the need for very large detector arrays. Benefits of using integrated circuits include simplicity, reliability, and reduced costs. Some of the functions an FPA design must consider are photon detection, charge storage, and multiplexed readout. Future developments are expected to focus on larger area, smaller pixel, higher sensitivity devices that can function as the basic components for advanced imaging systems. Your face on television. (Eastman Kodak Co introduces Photo CD compact disk-based photograph storage system) (product Eastman Kodak Co (Rochester, NY) introduces the Photo CD compact disk-based digital storage system for storing, displaying and editing photographs. Photofinishers employing the Kodak technology will offer customers the choice of having some or all of a roll film stored on a blank Photo CD in addition to usual slides or prints. Each Photo CD will hold up to 100 images at a cost of about $20 for each 24 photographs. A microcomputer with an attached CA ROM XA drive can be used to view and edit the photographs. A special CD player will enable the photographs to be displayed on a television set. The commercial Photo CD photofinishing system will cost about $100,000 and includes a Sun Microsystems workstation and Kodak film scanner, image manipulation software and color thermal printer. The system and software development tools for applications developers will ship in 1992. Time Inc experiments with "portable publishing." (will employ Apple Macintosh computers to publish new magazine) Time Inc (New York City) employed a $150,000 Apple Macintosh-based system to publish and test-market a new magazine, 'Martha Stewart Living,' (MLM) in a cost-effective manner in only two months. The company previously spent up to a year, several million dollars worth of Atex publishing system, and the necessary staff to produce the first issue of a magazine. Unfortunately, 80-90 percent of new magazines fail. The magazine's publishing system consists of a network of Mac IIci's, SEs, scanners, LaserWriter NTX laser printers, and QMS ColorScript 100. MLM's technology adviser Tamara L. Westmark describes the system as 'portable publishing' because the hardware can be distributed among other magazines if MLM does not succeed or be expanded if MLM is successful. Macintoshes are likely to be used for future Time start-up magazines. Persuasion on the pc is a winner. (Aldus introduces Aldus Persuasion 2.0 for Windows presentation software) (product Aldus Corp (Seattle, WA) introduces Aldus Persuasion 2.0 for Windows, a $595 presentation software package for the Microsoft Windows 3.0 environment. The software shares 90 percent of the features of the original Macintosh version. Features include advanced presentation and 35mm slide output, word processor, Slide Sorter for previewing and reorganizing slides for presentations, outlining, and charting and drawing capabilities. New features in the Windows-based version include PageMaker file filters, better control of letter and word spacing, treatment of each presentation as a separate file, and a palette of colors, fills and line widths. Persuasion 2.0 for Windows does not use Windows' dynamic data exchange capabilities. Minimum host requirements are an Intel 80286-based IBM-compatible microcomputer, 1Mbyte of system memory, hard disk, EGA display and mouse. NeXT's second wave: new models easily outdo the original cube. (NeXT Inc introduces three workstations and a 32-bit color board) The color capabilities of Next Inc's (Redwood City, CA) new $7,995-plus NeXTstation Color and $3,995 32-bit NeXTdimension video display board combine with the sound and video capabilities of NeXT workstation technology to provide an excellent host for color multimedia applications. The new color capabilities include Adobe Display PostScript which produces the closest equivalence between color display and printer output. NeXT's multitasking implementation of UNIX facilitates color use, as the operating system can support simultaneous windows with three different graphic modes. The NeXT dimension can handle both 32-bit color and display of real-time video. Specifications and applications of the new color hardware are discussed. NeXT also introduced the $4,995 monochrome NeXTstation and $7,995 monochrome NeXTcube. The color products are expected to ship early 1991. Future trends in computer publishing: a roundtable. (panel discussion) A panel of 26 desktop computer publishing industry experts discussed the field's product developments, emerging technologies and potential impacts on businesses and the way people work. Major subjects discussed include type and page description standards, computer platforms for hosting desktop publishing applications, workgroup publishing, desktop printing technology, page layout, color prepress technology, color displays and calibration, file compression and data base publishing. Each of these subjects is discussed at length. First image compression products hit the market; image compression moves toward standard methods for reducing file sizes. The International Standards Organization (ISO) has yet to ratify any image compression technology standard, but the demand for the technology has already resulted in several commercial products. Still and moving images require substantial memory, but image compression facilitates both their storage and transmission. The ISO will review the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) technique as a compression standard for still images in 1991, but a proposed MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) full-motion video compression standard is farther behind in development. Several companies have already begun introducing still-image compression products, betting that JPEG will change minimally before the specification is finalized. The firms include C-Cube Microsystems, SuperMac Technology, Neotech Ltd, Storm Technology, Radius and Eastman Kodak Co. Their products are briefly discussed. Strength of character recognition: 10 programs that take the drudgery out of digitizing the printed word. (buyers guide) A review of five optical character recognition (OCR) programs for the Macintosh microcomputer and five for IBM PC-compatible microcomputers focuses on the factors that improve recognition rates with any package. The programs work with many scanners, recognize a wide variety of fonts and formatting, and recognize words at rates ranging up to 541 words per minute depending on the package and source material. There will be errors and other clean up work to be done on OCR output. These can be minimized by scanning text files at the highest resolution, correct setting of brightness controls, use of word processing programs to identify unrecognized characters on scanned documents, and setting the word processing program to show superfluous formatting codes. No one program provides all desired features, but Omnipage and AccuText provide fast, accurate recognition for most document sources. OCR at work: how companies use optical character recognition to ease their work loads. (Boston, MA, service bureau Advanced Four firms that successfully use optical character recognition (OCR) technology are Scientific American magazine (New York City), service bureau Advanced Computer Graphics (ACG, Boston, MA), on-line data base publisher Tax Analysts (Washington, DC) and newspaper Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD). OCR technology can save hours of manual text transcription and make projects possible that would otherwise be too labor-intensive and costly. Scientific American employs a low-cost OCR system consisting of an Apple Macintosh microcomputer, an Apple scanner and Caere's Omnipage OCR software to quickly produce multiple editions of the magazine plus collected reprints in book form without retyping every article. The magazine's VP of production and distribution Richard Sasso implemented the system and extols the virtues of OCR technology. Use of OCR systems at the other firms is briefly discussed. Off-the-shelf workgroup publishing: Odesta's Document Management System challenges proprietary publishing systems. Odesta Corp offers the 'most comprehensive and flexible' non-proprietary workgroup publishing system, Odesta Document Management System (ODMS), that enables multiple users on a local area network to use many off-the-shelf desktop publishing packages on varied hardware platforms. Microcomputer-based publishing systems are entering mainstream publishing. Such systems require a tool to store documents, organize and control document workflow, track the history of each document and illustrations, and provide appropriate tools for each step in the document layout and editing process. ODMS has these capabilities. The software consists of a data base server that manages a relational document data base and software that interacts with the data base for client workstations. Odesta does not have open pricing, but 'Publish' was quoted about $1,000 per user. Gallery: 'Scape: gigabytes of color. (desktop publishing technology employed in the production of the 'Scape magazine) 'Scape, a new, large and glossy Southern California real estate and style magazine, is produced all electronically. The magazine is near tabloid size, has over 200 pages in multiple sizes and uses color photography throughout. The editing, design and production departments produce the entire magazine on Macintosh computers, sending text, graphics and four-color photographs directly to film. Software used includes Adobe Illustrator 88, Photoshop, Aldus FreeHand, and QuarkXPress 3.0 for trapping. Each photographic page file could be as large 70Mbytes, so high-capacity SyQuest drives were used for in-house page scans, with erasable optical media employed for shipping 'Scape page files to a service bureau for transfer to film. Additional details of the production of 'Scape are discussed. Spotlight on graphical word processors. (a review of available desktop publishing-related products emphasizes graphical word Brief reviews of desktop publishing-related products focus on graphical word processors. Seven graphical word processors were previously reviewed between Apr and Aug of 1990 in either Publish or InfoWorld: Word for Windows 1.0, Ami Professional, Legend, Microsoft Word 4.0 (Macintosh), FullWrite Professional, DeScribe and WordPerfect 1.04 (Macintosh). Other categories of software reviewed include electronic mail, data base publishing, statistics software, word processing programs, integrated packages, forms software, presentation and graphics programs, font tools, data base servers, spreadsheets, personal information managers, drawing tools, computer-aided design packages, and Mac 3D, animation and color image editing tools. Categories of hardware reviewed include laser printers; three types of microcomputers; gray-scale, hand-held and color scanners; disk drives; mice; and Macintosh videographics boards. Focus on future creativity. (forecasting the next generation of electronic publishing tools) The next generation of computer-based tools for communicating information and ideas, such as desktop publishing software, will offer far more capabilities, but the major challenge will be educating people to use them. Successful competition is becoming ever more based on rapid access to and use of information. The new generation of hardware and software tools feature greater processing power, enhanced resolution and color, quality graphics and animation, audio and full-motion video. These tools will be more complicated, requiring the joint efforts of vendors and customers to effect suitable training in their use. A comparative simulation study of the performance of single-bus and two-bus multiprocessors. (technical) This paper represents a comparative simulation modeling of the performance of the uniprocessor, single-bus multiprocessor, and two-bus multiprocessor computer systems. The performance indexes of the single-bus and two-bus multiprocessor systems compared to the uniprocessor system, that are used in the modeling, are processor speedup factors S(subscript P1) and S(subscript P2) respectively. A third performance index, Bus-speedup factor, S(subscript B), is derived to compare the performance of the two-bus and single-bus systems. The first two indexes provide measures of the processing speedup improvement of both multiprocessors with respect to the uniprocessor system, while the third index provides a measure of the performance improvement resulting from adding an extra bus to the single-bus multiprocessor system. Three data transfer protocols are considered in this work: First Come First Served (FCFS), Token Ring (TR), and the Priority (PR) policy. Simulation experiments show that increasing the number of processors in the considered multiprocessor architectures does not necessarily improve the overall performance. Moreover, adding an extra bus to the single-bus architecture provides some speedup improvement that depends on the nature of the task program and the data transfer protocol. Simulation results show that FCFS and TR scheduling policies provide better performance than the PR policy. However, FCFS requires relatively less hardware and software complexity than the TR. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) Simulation of white noise in dynamical systems. (technical) Pachter, M.; Briggs, M.M. We address the problem of how to properly handle the application of white Gaussian process noise to a digital simulation of a continuous-time linear dynamical system, given the standard device of a Gaussian random numbers generator. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) PKDEMO - a pharmacokinetic demonstration simulation program. (technical) A demonstration simulation program was developed on an IBM-AT personal computer to aid students in understanding the effects of altering rate constants on simple one and two compartment pharmacokinetic models. This menu driven system graphically presents specific sets of simulated curves illustrating how all components of a model interact. The student selects one of the five models and also determines which portion of the model is to be altered. The aim of the program is to teach the user to anticipate the outcome of the model alteration and interactions. The program was developed with the use of PC Storyboard, a demonstration software package, which provided the tools necessary for an elegant program presentation. This interactive presentation graphic program illustrates a viable means of conveying simulation models to a novice audience. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) A multiprocessor system for dynamic system simulation. (technical) Malbasa, Veljko. The basic goal of the project reported in this paper was to design and implement an experimental multimicroprocessor system dedicated to the real-time parallel simulation of dynamic systems of various degrees of complexity. The implemented multimicroprocessor called RAMS is also used to study the parallelization concepts of dynamic system models. Potential application of RAMS is in the process control area. The RAMS hardware architecture and software concepts, in particular the automatic synthesis of RAMS application software, are given in some detail. The problems of both task creation and scheduling in the non-deterministic RAMS environment are addressed. The experimental results show the power of RAMS through the parallel simulation of a case study dynamic system. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) ISI - an environment for the engineering use of general purpose simulation languages. (technical) Present day approaches to discrete event simulation can be broadly classified as using either special purpose data-driven simulation systems or general purpose simulation languages. Although the latter embrace a far wider range of applications and offer much greater flexibility in modeling for a particular application, their user base is restricted by the high level of expertise required. An Expert System interface to general purpose simulation languages, ISI (the Intelligent Simulation Interface), is presented here. Models are constructed and simulation runs are performed in an integrated environment comprising interactive menu-driven graphics, a knowledge base system and a general purpose simulation language. The features of ISI include hierarchical model construction, interactive experiment specification, automatic code generation, run-time animation and interactive graphical post-processing of results. An example case study is presented illustrating the main aspects of ISI. The ISI interface is shown to extend a general purpose language into an intelligent simulation environment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.) 'Software malls'. (IBM's software strategy) (Open Files) (column) Tibbetts, John; Bernstein, Barbara. IBM is changing the relationships between software vendors through its new software strategy. IBM's AD/Cycle application development system, SystemView system management system, OfficeVision office automation strategy and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) applications all attempt to assemble, order, rationalize and interconnect software from different vendors to support a specific business activity. All entail IBM defining the overall job and dividing it into categories of tasks; the company also designs software to handle some of the tasks and recruits business partners to handle others. A uniform look-and-feel is enforced among all the software, and the data model is published and implemented in a repository. Products from other vendors will fit into the overall framework once it is in place. This system is compared to the modern shopping mall populated by specialty stores. Mainframe realities. (the move to enterprise modeling in the mainframe computer market and obstacles to achieving it) (Open Mainframe vendors are promoting enterprise modeling as a way to define the role of big iron in computing environments of the future. Enterprise modeling is based on the premise that an application's requirements specification will be created by a business professional and stored as entity-relationship data by a repository manager; the data is used to produce the physical database design and process specifications. IBM's AD/Cycle is intended to provide the tools required to realize this model, but it is as yet uncertain whether such a central role for mainframes will succeed in a timely manner. The move to enterprise modeling is hindered by the cost of replacing mainframe applications, the expertise required to design production-quality databases and software, the lack of adequate distributed database technology and, perhaps the biggest obstacle, MIS inertia. VSE/ESA rejuvenates DBMS market; IBM's VSE offerings said to lag independents'. (third-party database management system vendors Third-party database management system (DBMS) vendors are targeting the DOS/VSE market while IBM emphasizes DB2 in the mainframe DBMS market. Many large MVS installations have committed to DB2 for new applications, making it difficult for third parties to make sales. However, such vendors as Computer Associates International Inc, Cincom Systems Inc, Software AG and Oracle Corp see opportunities in the DOS/VSE market, particularly following IBM's introduction of a new high-performance version of VSE in Sep 1990. The independent vendors claim as many as 40 percent of all DOS/VSE customers have not yet installed any DBMS; they say most such sites still run applications under VSAM flat-file access methods. Many VSE users say they are unwilling to pay the high price of IBM's MVS or for IBM's SQL/DS database for DOS/VSE. How third-party vendors are approaching the DOS/VSE DBMS market is discussed. MIS in "radical change"; emphasis shifting to automation software. (long-range automation plans for MIS replace packaged solutions Long-term automation planning groups are replacing individuals selecting packaged solutions at many data centers looking to automate operations. Goal Systems International Inc Sr VP of Research and Development Neal Ater says the emphasis has shifted from individual tools to automation applications. Goal's OPS/MVS automation system manages system events and console message traffic of several systems on one console. Visa International, the software design, development and distribution operation of six Visa corporations, used OPS/MVS in an automation application that includes a state model; monitoring processes, proactive and reactive; action routines; automated operator commands; Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF) enhancements; and a notification mechanism. OPS/MVS 2.1 will include the Resource Monitoring and Control System (RMCS) automation application. Unix draws bulls, bears; long-term prospects good after a slow beginning. (Field Report: Operating Systems) (includes a related There is no consensus among industry analysts about the future of the Unix operating system: it seems as many are bullish as are bearish, and an equal number are both and/or neither. The short-term outlook is weak, according to most analysts, while the long-term outlook is considered much brighter. Attendees at the recent Unix Expo conference in New York discussed the Unix outlook: Strategic Informatics Resources Corp Pres Gopi Balija, who chaired a panel discussion at the conference, says the success of the operating system in financial markets is related directly to its success in the integrated office systems market. Balija expects Unix to be running about 60 percent of installed integrated office systems by 1992; he also anticipates a boost for Unix from IBM when the company introduces a version of CICS for its AIX Unix implementation. The outlook for Unix in financial markets is discussed. Modeling exercises shape up enterprises; hard work, not magic, ties IS architecture to business objectives; tools can be a help. Enterprise modeling is intended to provide a focus for management on a coherent business vision and a way to apply the vision to all aspects and levels of the business. Few organizations have adopted enterprise modeling to date, due in large part to the complexity of the task, according to Oracle Corp Sr VP of CASE and Business Applications Richard Barker. Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) vendors promote enterprise modeling as a way to develop an understanding of the business and plan changes efficiently and effectively. Among the components of an enterprise model are models of the information used by the business, the business functions and activities, the information required and generated by the business activities, how information is used, business events and the organization structure. How different companies developed their enterprise models is described. DBS' enterprise challenge: firm hopes model oversees 10,000 client models. (D&B Software's use of enterprise modeling) D&B Software, created by the merger of software publishers MSA and McCormack & Dodge in 1990, uses enterprise modeling to help plan product development, marketing, management and future customer needs. The company uses a data ownership matrix in its model generated by Index Technology's Prism planning tool. Enterprise model program manager Holly Gurd says the matrix shows how a business function owns an entity; by ownership, Gurd means the primary creator and user of the function. The business functions are examined in terms of how they involve data; the integration 'touch points' between business functions are shown by the matrix, and it points to the data model and process models. Gurd says the enterprise serves as a roadmap for building applications rather than as a requirements document. D&B Software's development and use of its enterprise model are described. At automation fork, paths lead to MVS or outboard PCs; suppliers now addressing non-IBM platforms, while keeping IBM host as the EDP managers looking for vendors providing data center automation products will find the pickings slim. Users need tools that cross vendor lines because most organizations have mainframes and minicomputers, according to Farber/LaChance Inc Exec Arnold Farber. Farber says the options available include console automation, print distribution, scheduling and library management; he says the solutions use MVS hosts with PC front ends interfacing to Tandem and other systems, or total outboard systems on PCs monitoring MVS and other systems. MVS-based automation software vendors include Legent Corp, Candle Corp, Goal Systems International Inc and Boole & Babbage; all of the companies have released or soon will release PC-based solutions able to capture messages from DEC, Tandem and other systems. The market for automated data center operation software is examined. Full-function tools trade off flexibility; the Holy Grail in modeling tools reads diagrams, builds database, is based on an Data modeling is an important component of the applications development process; the entity/relationship diagrams (ERDs) generated by the data models show how data entities relate and become more important as the number of entities increases. Whereas data-flow diagrams represent processes and show the path data takes from one application to the next, an ERD is able to show one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. ERDs can also show the impact of changes in one area on other areas of a model, which is useful in such applications as software maintenance. Data modeling software helps develop and maintain mainframe applications, although the packages typically run on MS-DOS and Unix systems rather than on the target system. Aspects to consider when choosing a data modeling package and several specific data modeling programs are described. Routers passing bridges in linking LANs to LANs; suppliers on the move to connect LAN users; products trade off cost, ease of use, Interest in LAN internetworking products increases as the LAN market matures and more organizations find it necessary to connect disparate LANs separated geographically. Bridges are used to connect two similar LANs, and routers are used to connect LANs of different types. Vertical Systems Group estimates that router and bridge revenue increased 55 percent in 1989 to $263 million, and an increase of 42 percent to $373 million in revenue is expected in 1990. Many of the companies vying for router and bridge market share are relatively young, such as Vitalink Communications Corp, Cisco Systems Inc and Wellfleet Communications Inc; several others are well-known LAN vendors, such as 3Com Corp, which acquired Ethernet bridge vendor Bridge Communications Corp in 1987, Proteon Inc and Ungermann-Bass, which was purchased by Tandem Computers Inc in 1988. The bridge/router market and various products are described. Opening the door to closed systems; no system is completely open, or independent; the goal is to achieve technology transparency. IBM Systems Application Architecture (SAA) Marketing Program Mgr George Liptak says the company has completely repositioned itself as the leading supplier and proponent of open systems. The new customer-based strategy of the company is evident in its multibillion dollar investment in the reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based System/6000 series of workstations and servers and in its commitment to integrated computing through DB2/SQL, AD/Cycle and SAA across all systems and databases from the company. SAA will be enhanced with open systems products from the Open Software Foundation, and IBM plans a system of multivendor networking centers throughout the US. Unix is perceived as the primary medium for open systems, due as much to market conditions as to characteristics of the operating system. The move away from proprietary systems and toward client/server computing is examined. DEC displays a new commitment to software; Stone seen fulfilling Olsen's "software company" claim. (DEC New Software Group head DEC New Software Group head David Stone oversees much of the company's software development, including database systems, transaction processing products, computer-aided software engineering (CASE), office systems and applications engineering, network operating systems software and security software. Appointing Stone, a 20-year DEC veteran, to the new post shows that DEC Pres Kenneth Olsen's description of DEC as a software company has merit. Stone says the New Software Group is charged with all software above the operating system in the network; responsibility for VAX/VMS operating system software is moved from the former Software Products Div to the Midrange Computing Group. DEC is a cofounder of the Open Software Foundation and is expanding its CASE focus, indicating its commitment to open systems; the role of the New Software Group and its product plans are described. Open systems move beyond drawing boards; technology advances, commitments to standards are key. (Open Systems: Achieving The year 1991 may prove to be the year open systems computing moved from corporate plans to implementation as three events converge: the availability of relevant technology, vendor endorsement and implementation of open systems standards, and vendor recognition of the needs of users. Highly scalar microcomputer architectures, such as reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architectures, running Unix have done much to promote open systems. Such open operating systems as Unix, Posix, Xenix, Ultrix, AIX and other Unix derivatives, as well as OSF/1 and X/Open-based systems, also advance the cause of open systems, as do such multitasking user-interface facilities as the X Window System, OSF/Motif and ANSI X3H3.6. Other important developments supporting the trend toward open systems include graphical user interfaces, application programming interfaces and computer-aided software engineering. Unification rallies reengineering effort: Europeans examine U.S.-supplied products; Bachman toolset among those making Systems departments in European countries are turning to computer-aided software engineering (CASE) and reengineering tools in preparation for unification of the European market in 1992. Bachman Information Systems consultant Chris Gane is developing an entity and process model for the Belgian insurance industry to prepare for changes in insurance regulations in 1992. Bachman's seven-step model shows the reengineering process: automatic capture of code representing the production database, conversion into a physical data design and conceptual model, reverse-engineering of the physical data to a DBMS-independent conceptual model, modification of the database design using graphical or text editors, creation of a new information model from conceptual to physical level, design improvement and validation, and conversion of physical data design into data description code. What you see with 1-2-3. (Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 release 3.1) (Pick of the Month) (Software Review) (evaluation) Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 release 3.1 spreadsheet software brings the package one step closer to the realm of graphics and away from text display. The new release includes many important enhancements while maintaining the classical menu system and character-based interface. The new WYSIWYG interface can be used to control screen colors, typefaces, scalable fonts and text attributes; the WYSIWYG component was formerly marketed separately by PC Publishing as an add-on called Impress. The global formatting codes in the package can be used to name as many as eight format styles, including font, typeface, shading, colors and text attributes; as many as three worksheets can be displayed at one time. Release 3.1 lists for $595; upgrades are available for free for recent 3.0 buyers and for up to $150 for owners of versions 2.2 and earlier. Negotiating the Case trails. (implementing computer-aided software engineering) (Technology Transfer) (column) Considerable effort and determination are required to implement computer-aided software engineering in an MIS department. There are many diverse CASE tools available, but the trick is matching the tool with the needs of specific users. It is difficult for managers to define goals and new practices (after examination of current ones), and to prepare for training developers. The CASE tools available must be researched prior to consideration of any specific approaches, but even when all these steps are taken beforehand, there is no guarantee that the migration to CASE will be smooth. A study from Carnegie-Mellon University found that fewer than 15 percent of US MIS departments have what is called software process maturity, which is required to make CASE work. How MIS can prepare for the implementation of CASE is discussed. Four reasons why Mac works for integrators. Toney, Bryan. There are a number of reasons why many computer systems integrators are turning towards the Apple Macintosh as the end-user element of a systems design. In the first instance, the ease of use of the Macintosh allows less training time and shorter development, more satisfied users, and lower customer-support requirements. The availability of good development tools means integrators can build more powerful solutions with less effort. Hardware and software exists for the Macintosh to provide powerful connectivity to multiple host environments, and the wide range of CPUs that are available, from the low-end Classic to the high-end 40-MHz IIfx, provides a comprehensive product range for any system design. More compatibility misadventures and how to handle them. (PC/Report) (column) Many incompatibility problems can occur for systems integrators writing applications for a client's diverse variety of microcomputers. Before any work can be approved it has to be tested on a number of configurations. To assist in the installing and supporting of applications it is possible to use one of the software-installation programs on the market that test for the different configurations. But with the increase in the number of different brands and models the task gets more complicated. Problems typically occur when writing drivers for the multitude of different mice in a corporation, or when considering the number of enhancements to the basic IBM AT that exist. How to make your Unix applications work overseas. (UNIX/Report) (column) The Unix utilities of internationalization and localization enable applications to communicate in a variety of different languages. Internationalization allows for Unix to conform to various national languages. Localization goes a step further in fine-tuning internationalization to the conventions of a specific country. It is important to write applications originally so they can utilize the language of the user in accepting input and generating output. Additionally, remembering the local conventions of time, date and monetary notation is just as important. Defined standards for creating international applications are available in both ANSI X3J11C and POSIX P1003. The main problem that an application will face after modification to the local conventions is the generation of text in the native language of the user. SQL report writers don't always speak your language. (DBMS/Report) (column) To format a simple report from the data a Structured Query Language (SQL) retrieves you need a report generator. This is because SQL is a data-retrieval language only, and there is no provision for standard report generators. Consequently, software vendors will give purchasers their own versions, which are not compatible with each other. Many report generators exist for older file systems in mainframe environments. By using the standard embedded SQL in the same place it is accustomed to finding a file reference, they become SQL report writers almost by default. Unfortunately, this does not work very well because there are some SQL values that the old report writers cannot handle. Many analysts believe that the same can be said for many of the newer specially designed SQL report generators as well. Intel's high-speed modems will shake up the market. (VAR/Report) (column) Intel's new $795 9600EX high-speed modem is set to open up the modem market in a number of ways. There had been no standard protocol for high-speed data transmission until the CCITT recently endorsed V.42 error-control and V.42bis (bisynchronous) data compression as an international standard. Intel's new modem, which conforms to the new standard, will have a considerable effect on the established modem market. It will weaken the hand of the large modem manufacturers who, until now, have been able to use their own proprietary standards for high-speed modems. It also enables the smaller modem manufacturers, who did not have the installed base or market clout to offer their own proprietary standards, to compete. The market is now opened up for new manufacturers, like Intel, who can conform all their new products to an accepted transmission standard. Why more are turning to Macs. (includes related article on what Apple has done right for systems integrators) Computer systems integrators are having to pay more attention to the prospect of integrating Macintoshes into a network because of the increase in business-usage of the product. According to industry sources, Apple accounted for nine percent of the large-market desktop market in 1989, and 47 percent of all Macs were sold to businesses. The number of Macs being networked is expected to grow from 57 percent in 1990 to an estimated 84 percent in 1993. System integrators now view the rise of business Macs as a potential market for connecting them into multivendor networks. Apple's connectivity guru talks about integrating the Mac. (Doug McLean) (interview) Doug McLean, Apple Computer's line manager for network integration products, believes that Apple offers most of the tools needed to integrate the Mac into the basic host and server environment. He also feels that the hardware is available to link the Mac to just about every type of network, including LocalTalk, Ethernet, X.25, and token ring. The number of protocols supported offer considerable variety, including AppleTalk, DECnet, Systems Network Architecture (SNA), TCP/IP and OSI. He predicts that X.500 is going to be the OSI standard users will demand next. Consequently, Apple will design and build to the OSI standards users request. What five integrators are doing with the Mac: linking enterprise-wide LANs. (Part 1 of 5) Computer network integrator LANSystems Inc. was contracted by the University of California at San Diego to design a local area network for the business affairs department. The company sought to expand the use of Apple Macintoshes within the design to encompass metropolitan area networks as well as wide area networks. Although the connecting of Macintoshes and IBM-compatibles is relatively easy on a protocol level, it is with application interoperability that the problems generally arise. Because few programmers know how to write for both the Macintosh and IBM environments, LANSystems is constantly looking for ways to simplify IBM-compatible-to-Macintosh connections. For this network, it utilized a number of internetworking strategies that included point-to-point networks, import/export routines, and protocol-independent bridges. Peripherals integration. (Part 2 of 5) (What Five Integrators Are Doing with the Mac) The production system designed for the daily sports newspaper The National would eventually include prepress electronics allowing broadcast transmission to its 16 printing sites throughout the US simultaneously. Management eventually decided on a facsimile scanning and pagination product from Information International. The product could take an electronically paginated newspaper and produce raster output for transmission to the printer sites. Two MicroVAX 3900s linked over DECnet act as file servers, and 75 Cybergraphics CG 150 Wyse (retrofitted) terminals and eight Apple Macintoshes perform electronic pagination. The company anticipates that the prepress production system could eventually cost as much as $17 million. Mac-to-Wang links. (Part 3 of 5) (What Five Integrators Are Doing with the Mac) Systems integrators such as Connexus Inc are concerned with providing compatibility, not just between Apple Macintoshes and IBM-compatibles, but between these platforms and Wang Laboratories' systems as well. The law firm Chadbourne & Parke selected the company to interconnect its Macintoshes over an AppleTalk network to its host Wang VS system. The main step in the process was to add two IBM-compatible servers to act as gateways in the Wang-Mac network. The final step was to load the servers with gateway connecting cards and software from MacSoft and terminal-emulation/file-transfer software from DataViz. Client-server computing. (Part 4 of 5) (What Five Integrators Are Doing with the Mac) When Apple Computer needed to have its Apple Document Management and Control System (ADMACS) overhauled, it called in computer systems integrator Electronic Data Systems. The ADMACS is used by product designers world-wide to access and modify engineering drawings. When EDS took over the system, it contained 100,000 drawing, but it could only be accessed by a very small number of engineers. EDS undertook the integration project with the intention of allowing access to the data base containing the drawings to multiple engineering and manufacturing sites around the world. The system is seen as a good example of client-server implementation as the stored drawings are accessible from the Macintosh workstation level. Executive information systems. (Part 5 of 5) (What Five Integrators Are Doing with the Mac) Data base management systems usually have limited graphical user interface capabilities. Although they are generally tolerated by users, but not by some integrators, such as ExIS, which develops executive information systems (EIS) and decision-support systems (DSS) and needs to encourage executives with little computer experience to use them. ExIS is the result of a joint venture between KPMG Pear Marwick and Apple Computer Inc., and consequently, it uses Macintoshes as the front-ends for the EISs it creates. One such example of a company requiring EIS system integration is Aetna Casualty insurance company, which hired ExIS to design and implement an EIS system for its newly installed base of 1,000 Macintoshes that were to be used by its field personnel. The classic VAR is changing. (value-added reseller) Letson, Russell. Many value-added resellers (VAR) are ending their dependence on a single hardware or software package. The classic VAR marketing scenario would involve developing a software package, then tying it to one hardware vendor's product to provide a turnkey solution for a vertical market. The trend now is away from specific hardware and software solutions. It is not uncommon for VARs to be simply hardware integrators. Also, some VARs do not resell other vendors' products, or are simply resellers and do not perform any software customizing. It is also possible for a VAR to be a vertical market expert, while still providing solutions for a range of platforms. Unix PCs are acting like workstations. Simpson, David. The development of a binary-level applications-compatibility standard for machines using Intel 80386/80486 microprocessors makes it even more difficult to tell workstations running Unix from microcomputers running Unix. The new draft standard, called iBCS Edition 2, has been developed by AT&T Unix System Laboratories, Intel Corp, and The Santa Cruz Operation Inc. The development of a binary-standard would allow for the writing of a single version of an application that would run on any Unix implementation, so long as the operating system also conformed. A binary-compatible standard would benefit systems integrators and end-users because large amounts of off-the-shelf software would be available. It would also cut development time for independent software vendors, and original equipment manufacturers could standardize on a single operating system. Trading places. (includes related articles on a profile of the Boston Stock Exchange and why they called in an integrator) (the To compete with the top stock exchanges, the Boston Stock Exchange bought a state-of-the-art computer system called the Boston Exchange Automated Communication and Order-routing Network (BEACON) from Femcon Associates Inc. Using BEACON traders can access stock prices and quotes, report stock trades, track their own trading activities, and receive and execute clients' trade orders. The system comprised three Stratus Computer XA-2000 Series UNIX on-line transaction processing fault-tolerant computers, DOS-based XT clones from Zenith Data Systems, application software modules for real-time support from Femcon, and communications lines from desktop devices to the hosts. How not to follow a client into the arms of bankruptcy. (Law/Report) (column) There are two main ways to safeguard against financial loss in the advent of a client going bankrupt. In the first instance, conduct business on a cash-only basis, encouraging up-front payments with cash rebates, price discounts or similar for full payment in advance. In the event of having to carry some amount of the debt for the client, insure that a fixed time period is agreed upon for the client to accept the work, triggering this acceptance with a written completion notice. A security agreement can also be established, and exposure to financial loss can be delimited. The sales agreement should include a provision where work is to be stopped if the payments get too far behind, and any software copyright that is to become the property of the client should only take effect upon full payment for the entire system. As a last resort, there are always collection agencies that can be used. Despite new PC power, add-in graphics boards fight back. (Board/Report) (column) The improved graphics power of new microcomputers has put added pressure on the graphics-board market. The improved built-in graphics capabilities do not signify the end of the add-in board market, however, especially as high-end coprocessor boards outperform all but the fastest microcomputers in the market today. An estimated 3.7 million boards worth $700 million were shipped to end users and systems integrators in 1990, although analysts believe the market will flatten out through 1992. With an estimated installed base of 40 million IBM and compatible microcomputers, and with many of these lacking graphics capabilities, the low-end graphics board market is expected to become an upgrade market in the future. Two new ways to network Macs and link them up with RISC systems. (reduced instruction-set computing) (Hardware Review) (Webster Webster Computer's $4,995 Multiport Gateway is an alternative to the LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge market, and links up to four LocalTalk segments to Ethernet. The bridge also permits file sharing, terminal communications, printer sharing, and other services for Macintosh-to-Macintosh connections. It also functions as a traffic filter, routing packets to Ethernet or another LocalTalk segment on the bridge, and supports TCP/IP and AppleTalk protocols. Pacer Software's software packages improve functions between Macintoshes and DEC products by allowing Macintoshes to utilize the power of the reduced instruction-set computing machines and VAXs running Ultrix. PacerShare is a network software package, PacerPrint is a printer utility package and PacerLink is terminal emulation software. DAT drive popularity will lead an otherwise flat magnetic-tape market. (digital audio tape) (Reader/Report) (column) According to a Systems Integration reader survey, sales of digital audio tape (DAT) will rise sharply in 1991, and the trend towards archival storage will ensure increased sales of magnetic drives generally. It is expected, though, that sales of half-inch reel and half-inch data cartridges will decrease significantly. Analysts say the low sales outlook for the midrange and microcomputer-level markets account for the downturn in tape-drive purchasing plans. The trend is away from backups for individual machines and towards centralized backup for microcomputers on local area networks. More powerful microcomputers, along with the demand for graphical user interfaces and imaging technology, have led to an increased demand for larger and more reliable storage. The NREN enigma: a new national network? (National Research and Education Network) The political and educational communities are discussing plans to expand the Internet network that presently connects US universities, government facilities and research institutions. A new network, the National Research and Education Network (NREN), would supply high-speed links between academic and research institutions and other areas of the US population, including the educational levels K-12 and local and regional libraries. Some proponents advise extending the network to residential subscribers. The NREN proposal raises issues of regulation and accountability as it combines the features of non-profit and commercial enterprises. UK proposes sweeping changes in telecom policy. (United Kingdom to deregulate) The regulatory environment for the telecommunications industry in Great Britain is expected to be liberalized soon, as both the Oftel regulatory body and the UK Department of Trade and Industry have approved proposals for deregulation. The key proposal would open the national service network operator market to companies other than the current duopoly holders, Mercury Communications Ltd and British Telecom. Competition in international services, local, and long-distance services would be permitted. This would enable cable operators to provide their own switching facilities rather than having to rely on the two current national services companies. The FCC's regulatory agenda: the Chairman of the FCC discusses the accomplishments of his agency, its current agenda, and prospects Alfred C. Sikes, chairman of the FCC, comments on his view of the agency's activities and its future prospects. The inauguration of price cap legislation is one of the FCC's accomplishments. This system awards local exchange carriers with higher profits if they become significantly more efficient. Customers will have the potential to share in as little as 50- or as much as 100 percent of the increased profits. The FCC began its campaign of replacing cost-plus type, rate-of-return regulation with the price cap type of regulation. Other subjects of interest to the agency are multiuse technology, the advancement of competition and entrepreneurial opportunities, and the promotion of open network architectures. Virtual networking/telecommunications: virtual networks combine the cost advantages of public networks with the control features Virtual networking has become a popular and powerful way to manage telecommunications networks spread out over multiple sites. Dedicated private lines and public-switched circuits are combined to achieve the cost economies of a usage-based system without sacrificing line reliability and control. As virtual network users have proliferated and begun calling for new data services, providers have responded by stepping up the development of services such as T1 and T3 communications systems. Virtual network providers analyze an organization's calling patterns to design custom programs aimed at balancing the components of call volume, access speed to and from certain points, and relative cost of dedicated and public lines. Private network challenges and opportunities for the 90s. Zerbiec, Timothy G. The 1990s will see significant trends within the private networking industry, including a battle with the long-distance carriers over who will control the private network market. The 1980s focus on bandwidth, as well as advances in technology and legislative changes, loosened the carriers' control over network planning. Users exerted more control instead. But the carriers are modernizing their voice-switching infrastructure and using that stronghold to provide custom software-defined networks. This strategy has resulted in much lower prices for corporate calling. Their delivery of low-cost, high-performance processing has promoted the popularity of high density integrated circuits and microprocessors. The new decade will also see an increase in the installation of distributed processing architectures. Telecommunications standards development: why standard bodies can't keep up with the demand, and what needs to be done. The importance of standards to the telecommunications industry became apparent in the mid-1980s, when manufacturers began to realize that standards would enable them to benefit from larger markets and economies of scale. They saw that the standards-setting process afforded them an opportunity to influence the characteristics of adopted standards. Likewise, users recognized that they could affect what kinds of services they were offered by participating in standards groups and user groups. The frequent complaint that standards development is proceeding too slowly is valid. This lag is caused by changing technology, complications of international trade, the merger of the computer and telecommunications industries, and other factors. Possible solutions include forming stronger user groups, defining the role of the US government, and structuring technical standards groups to minimize overlap. Data communications: a user's perspective. Blegen, August. Wireless communications technologies will bring about changes in the data communications industry. Wireless, or mobile communications, now include cellular systems, local area networks (LANs), VSAT-driven local services, and configurations that use infrared, microwave, or spread-spectrum radio. Wireless is the least-cost solution for connecting rural areas in the US that have inadequate telecommunications facilities. Fiber optic cable is often expensive. In eastern Europe cellular systems are surpassing wired systems. Wireless technology can simplify the interconnection of multiple LANs. The emergence of incentive plans is another major data communications trend. This regulatory redirection should be embraced by users since it will result in increased competition and lower prices for data communications services. PCN: Prospects in the United States. (regulatory and political challenges to deployment of personal communications networks) Private communications networks (PCNs) are wireless communications systems that use telephone numbers specific to individuals instead of locations. Customers will take their PCN 'phones' with them wherever they go. If it is regarded as an alternate telephone network, PCN has the potential to garner 25 to 35 percent of the current wireline market, making it a powerful competing force with telephone companies and cellular radio operators. If PCN were encouraged by the FCC and state regulatory agencies, its deployment could serve as the opportunity to continue the process of deregulation to the local loop level. The threat of foreign competition is another reason to support regulation that benefits US PCN developers. The sooner US vendors can develop PCN technology, the better chance they have of dominating the world market. Prospects for Electronic Data Interchange: the full value of EDI will be realized when certain information infrastructure are in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is emerging as an important way to standardize the exchange of information between computer-based applications, which will consequently increase the utility of those programs and eliminate the need for intermediary pairwise application-level conventions. EDI's major area of utility is the exchange of business information. The deployment of EDI will bring up legal issues of whether or not digital signatures and notarized services are legally binding, as well as debates over the extent of personal privacy in a business environment in which company officials claim access to all EDI documents. The future of EDI calls for a wide deployment of infrastructure elements necessary to support electronic messaging. Broadband communications in the public network. Kallen, Lief. Broadband communications networks are beginning to be demanded by customers who want high-speed data communications and multimedia services including video, animation, audio, graphics and text. The concept of broadband entails more than the idea of conventional services with a larger bandwidth. Instead, it involves new information services for education, videoconferencing, entertainment, and shopping. Broadband networks can increase network transparency and enhance the level of human communication available through telecommunications technologies. Potential providers of broadband services are faced with a question of how to most practically implement broadband technologies within the existing network. Progress toward interoperability. (telecommunications industry developments) The necessity for interoperable computer and telecommunications products became evident in the 1970s, when businesses recognized that their worldwide competitiveness required efficient communications both within their own organizations and with customers and suppliers. The OSI standard was accepted as a means of promoting communications systems built according to international standards, so that networks composed of equipment from multiple vendors could communicate efficiently with other such complex networks. The availability of equipment that meets the OSI standard's criteria depends on the creation of a performance test bed. In the 1990s, more interoperable products are likely to be introduced, partially as a result of the US Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile, which requires government agencies to purchase interoperable equipment if possible. FDDI update: standards, testing, and the future of FDDI. (fiber distributed data interface) Fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) data transmission technology for connecting local area networks (LANs) is destined to prosper in the 1990s. FDDI can transmit data at 100M-bps and boasts inherent data management capabilities. Data intensive computing applications such as computer-aided engineering and client/server computing can benefit from the high speeds of FDDI. User confidence in FDDI is increasing after public interoperability tests and demonstrations have shown that this transmission mode is dependable. The station management component of the FDDI standard is soon to be approved, constituting completion of the four-part basic transmission standard. Dynamics of telecommunications sector restructuring. O'Neill, Judith. Privatization has become a popular concept in the years between 1988 and 1991, partially because of the disintegration of many post-war eastern European governments. Privatizing the telecommunications industry of a developing country can be a sound first step in the effort to restructure an industrial base formerly controlled by the government. Privatization can effectively modernize a failing telecommunications sector, which could in turn help other industries to develop and prosper. Restructuring can also encourage foreign investments. The process of privatization can take several forms: public stock offering, buyout by management or employees, placement of large quantities of stock with different brokerages, or trade sale turnover of ownership and control to a single private buyer. PSTN tariffing issues in Europe. (public-switched telephone network) European countries still depend largely upon the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) to carry telecommunications services, despite growth in dedicated networks and private circuit usage. Voice communication predominates on the PSTN, but data and facsimile transmissions are also possible. In most European countries, telecommunications organizations (TOs) own, operate, and maintain the network. The TOs are moving toward a more unified approach to tariffs, especially in the light of digital technologies that have made traditional tariffing structures inappropriate. Digital transmission has reduced the distance dependence of tariffs. A large variance in tariffs still exists for international calls made within the European Commission member states: Greece and Spain have the highest tariffs while Denmark's tariffs are usually lowest. CN '91 focuses on rethinking the network: the Washington Convention Center will be the host of this year's CN'91. The 1991 Communications Networks convention will be held at the Washington Convention Center on Jan 28, 1991. The theme of the convention is 'Rethinking the Network.' Managers of voice and data communications networks are expected to take advantage of economies of scale and to improve network management in the course of reconsidering their network architectures. Convention sponsors consider standards-based networking systems for the international level to be a key topic, in addition to transparency of local area network (LAN) protocols and internetworking of LANs. Two plenary sessions will be led by James Brown and Howard Anderson. Selling and buying phones in hard times: some really obvious reasons to buy a phone system now - not the fourth quarter of Telephone systems are among the first purchase items to be put on hold when the economy in general or a company's economy in specific seem unstable or uncertain. The offices of Teleconnect are a case in point. Over a three-year period, in which more than $10,000 was spent on computer and peripheral equipment, only $60 was spent on telephone equipment. This occurs because telephones are seen as 'non-urgent' items. Yet telephones represent the first point of contact with customers and as such are an important marketing tool. In the 1990s, when pleasing the customer will be essential to survival, it should be possible to justify a phone system as well as other equipment. VMXworks - a voice-messaging/call processing platform. (product announcement) VMXworks, from VMX, ia a hardware/software platform for applications development designed to allow value-added resellers (VARs) to create dynamic voice/data programs, including customer service, help desk, and medical patient monitoring applications. A VMX DIAL system provides connection to a PBX and a 3270 host. Central to VMXworks is Application Controlled Messaging (ACM), which creates and controls messages through the application without recourse to permanent mailboxes. VMX has written a series of software packages and templates, including Helpworks, a help desk application for MIS departments; 800 Secureworks, a telecom security system; and Insureworks, a 24-hour policy/claims information line for insurance companies. Teamworks, a third-party developer program, provides training, certification, support and marketing assistance to VARs developing VMXworks applications. Added to an installed DIAL system, the suggested end-user price for VMXworks is $13,500 plus applications. The listed applications are $3,500 and up. Cobotyx' VeriFacts provides instant info. (product announcement) Cobotyx Systems introduces VeriFacts, a facsimile-like information system for what Cobotyx calls 'demand publishing' of catalogs, specifications or other customer-oriented information. With VeriFacts in place, customers can call, select a document from a voice menu, and have the information immediately faxed back to them. This significantly reduces the product sales cycle. Pull-down menu screens make loading VeriFacts easy. Information such as text, graphics or photos can be scanned, faxed or downloaded from a floppy disk. This is a self-contained unit with programmable fixed function, keyboard and screen, and supports from four to eight lines. Available from Cobotyx Systems dealers; pricing starts at $18,000. Tekelec's FDDI network tester. (ChameLAN 100) (product announcement) Tekelec introduces the ChameLAN 100, a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)-based network analysis tool geared for the speed and volume of data made possible by the FDDI standard. The self-contained unit is connected to the network like any other node and monitors conditions in real-time without affecting network activity. A 100Mbyte hard disk for system files and network storage is built in; there is a 200Mbyte option available. An optional Ethernet adapter allows the unit to be controlled from a remote workstation. The ChameLAN features the MOTIF graphical user interface and runs over X-Windows and UNIX. Future enhancements planned for the product include FDDI node simulation, load testing, interoperability and conformance testing. Pricing begins at $36,000. Rochelle's caller ID sucks off ANI. (automatic number identification; Rochelle Communications) (Hardware Review) Rochelle Communications introduces the ANI-232, a plug-in device that pulls the telephone company-provided automatic number identification (ANI) information into a microcomputer. Rochelle's own Caller ID+Plus contact management software uses the information to interrupt any work in process to present a screen of information about the caller, including name, address, some background and a history of previous contacts. Other software may provide additional information. This device has almost limitless uses, particularly in the area of sales. The ANI-232 is priced at $85. Caller ID+Plus software sells for $249; for $1,600, a developers' kit is available that allows the user to develop custom software to link the ANI-232 to a mainframe or LAN at virtually any distance. This is an excellent value. Dueling platforms. (the MultiVendor Integration Protocol, or MVIP, and the PCM Expansion Bus, or PEB, vie for standard status) Several new technologies, including facsimile, speech recognition and speech-to-text, are ready to make significant strides in the voice processing arena. What is currently lacking for these add-on technologies is a standard, open platform to make the integration of these products feasible. A number of voice board makers are backing the MultiVendor Integration Protocol (MVIP), which is comprised of a chip set on the network interface card, a bus, and a multitasking operating system. MVIP works like a PBX, switching 'callers' to the appropriate resource from the network interface card. Natural MicroSystems, which developed MVIP, will make the specs and details available for a documentation fee. Dialogic, the market leader for voice processing components, has its own approach to integration, the PCM Expansion Bus (PEB). The PEB uses a local area network-like approach for assigning and distributing resources. Both these approaches work. The PEB approach may have a slight edge in that it offers support for MS-DOS, UNIX and OS/2, where the MVIP supports only OS/2. Neither of these solutions is truly an open architecture, however, because each contains proprietary hardware. You deserve it: how to get that next big equipment purchase approved! (tutorial) A list of tips for getting equipment acquisitions approved in the face of tight budgets is presented. An accurately maintained inventory list may show that the desired equipment is already on hand. Understanding corporate goals will make it possible to justify the acquisition in terms of how the equipment will help meet those goals. Survey those who will be involved with the equipment to determine the potential effects of the proposed changes. Examine financial records to determine the best way to proceed - lease, purchase, or perhaps only a simple upgrade. Get outside advice, from users groups, trade publications, and other sources. Evaluate all the gathered information. Get support from upper management by providing a cost/benefit analysis. Tailor the presentation to the audience, using technical language for technical people, and providing visuals and analogies for those less technology-oriented. Answer detection: the 'no-decision' decision. (answer detection systems improve call billback procedures) Answer-detection systems are an increasingly popular front end to call-accounting systems. Where a call-accounting system simply tracks call length from the time the receiver is picked up until it is replaced, an answer-detection system detects the ringing plus other signals on the line to determine if the call has gone through. Without answer detection, the call-accounting system must be set to allow a certain length of time before charges begin. Any call completed in less than the grace period is a free call for the user; a call that goes over the grace period will be charged, even if the caller never connects with the called number. With answer-detection, the grace period can be set to zero, as the answer-detection system turns the call over to the call-accounting system only after it determines that the caller has been connected. This is of particular benefit to hotels and other operations that have transient users, as it ensures that all completed calls will be charged back, saving the operation money, while incomplete calls will not be charged for, maintaining customer good will. CT2 coming to America. (European digital wireless technology begins trials in US; includes a related article on how CT2 works) CT2 is a digital wireless communications technology that is structurally similar to cellular communications but offers some important differences. CT2, because it is digital, allows a much higher capacity of callers on a network, eliminating the expansion limitations of cellular communications. Transmission quality is also far superior to that of analog cellular communications. The high cost of cellular communications has so far largely restricted it to business use; CT2 costs are markedly less, and could open mobile communications to the mass market. CT2 is already in use in Europe. Base stations are placed in public areas and callers use pocket-sized digital phones to connect to a base station and through it to the public network. The caller must be within a 100 to 200 yard radius of the base station, which remains dormant until accessed by a caller. This helps control costs. The handsets can serve as a wireless phone at home, an extension in the office, and a payphone in public places. Limited trials have begun in the US, but finding available spectrum for the technology is problematic. OAI interview: a top OAI developer reveals all. (Open Application Interface; interview with Greg Stinson and Ed Bennett of Amcom Greg Stinson, VP of product development for Amcom Software, and Ed Bennett, the firm's VP of marketing, discuss the development of Open Application Interface (OAI) software. Amcom takes a layered approach to development of OAI software, creating a set of applications that every Amcom attendant uses, regardless of platform, and defining a protocol that talks to the lower communications layer which talks to other vendors' hardware. Amcom customizes its software to communicate with equipment from vendors that do not yet use a version of OAI, and has worked with some vendors to achieve specific compatibility with their OAI implementations. While they do not expect PBXs to become truly open any time soon, they believe Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) may bring about standardization in the long term. They cite OAI as a driving force behind many PBX upgrades and have begun introducing their message desk system to the Centrex environment as well. 1990 products of the year. (directory) A directory to 14 products selected as Teleconnect's Products of the Year for 1990 is presented. The products are listed alphabetically by vendor, and each was written about in Teleconnect at some time during 1990. A brief summary of the functions and applications of each product is presented, along with pricing and a contact telephone number. The products include on-hold systems, test equipment, key systems, boards and software. Dynamic developments '91: the new year ushers in several exciting new products, features and applications. Seven developing trends in digital announcers are highlighted. The technologies underlying the auto attendant and digital announcer markets are beginning to merge, resulting in equipment that combines features of both. On-line message updating allows users to create new messages while the system remains in operation to handle incoming calls. Message stringing supports the changing of parts of a message, or the creation of a new message by combining selected parts of several old messages. Built-in tape decks with speakers simplify downloading announcements and automatically restore the message in case of a power outage. On-demand message arsenals allow a collection of messages to be recorded at a single session, then individually play back at preset times. Automatic number identification (ANI) is beginning to be integrated into digital announcers, allowing customized announcements to be compiled and played back to specific callers according to a profile in the system. Finally, firms are beginning to offer professional digital announcement recording services that employ professional announcers and can provide copy writing, background music and professional recording facilities. Emergency notification. (in the wake of the Loma Prieta earthquake, Automation Electronics Corp. provides Chevron with an The Loma Prieta earthquake of Oct 17, 1989 effectively isolated Chevron's San Francisco-based corporate headquarters from corporate headquarters worldwide. To prevent such disasters in the future, Chevron contracted with Automation Electronics Corp (AEC), based in Dublin, CA, for an emergency notification system. The system consists of eight AEC Messenger 712 digital voice announcers at divisional Chevron headquarters globally and three AEC MAX 370 automated attendants located at the sites that may need to implement the system. An emergency message of up to 17 minutes can be recorded by touchtone phone into the nearest 370, and is then automatically downloaded into all eight Messenger 712s for up-to-the-minute information. All equipment is fully solid-state, increasing overall reliability, and access to the message-change function is password-protected for an added level of security. During non-crisis situations, the system carries a newsline set up by Chevron's public-affairs department to provide employees with daily Chevron and petroleum industry information. Cost of the entire system was under $155,000. Dynamic digital announcers. (includes related articles on on-hold communications) (buyers guide) A buyers' guide to digital announcers is presented. Twenty-seven products from 24 vendors are listed in alphabetical order by vendor. Information provided for each product includes number of lines and channels, memory capacity, sampling rate, recording options, message back-up time, remote features, and an estimated price. Vendors include AdTech, Automation Electronics Corp, Code-A-Phone, Granite Telecom, Northern Telecom's Cook Division, Racom and Viking. An appended table provides contact information for each vendor. Secondary trends: a quick look at the market. Burns, Margie. The market for used telecom gear continues to grow at a slow but steady pace, and a number of new trends are becoming apparent. Telecom remarketers are branching out into areas including call accounting, power protection and voice messaging. A number of remarketers are beginning to offer full one-year warranties on refurbished equipment. The market itself is maturing and stabilizing, with fewer fly-by-night operators and with a greater emphasis on after-purchase service. Pricing on secondary purchases, always attractive, becomes even more attractive in a tight economy. Remarketers sell to end users, interconnects or dealers, and many remarketers sell to all comers. While sales of parts outnumber sales of whole systems, in terms of dollars the market is fairly evenly divided. While AT&T, once the only firm to support secondary equipment, still dominates the secondary market with a 40 percent share (in terms of units sold), other companies, including Northern Telecom, Mitel, Rolm and NEC have joined the ranks. Secondary travel guide. (resource for secondary market telecom gear) (directory) A guide to sources of secondary market telecommunications gear is presented. A total of 95 firms are represented. Information provided includes address and telephone number for the firm's headquarters, brands of equipment handled, major customers either in general or in specific, whether the firm will install equipment, if the firm provides refurbish and repair services, and any ground-breaking policies. Under the last category are such things as offering extensive lease or rental programs for end users and providing nationwide installation support along with telephone technical support. Sold on Comdial's new DigiTech: the stuff dreams are made of. (Hardware Review) (evaluation) Comdial's DigiTech digital hybrid telephone system may be the perfect system for a new business. Among a host of remarkable features, all of which come standard, are unlimited intercom paths, automatic set relocation, five-party conferencing, direct call distribution (DCD), direct inward station dialing (DISD), a full-featured call-accounting system, self-diagnostics, a two-line LCD display, and inexpensive battery backup. One particularly useful feature is a software cartridge in the KSU (Key Service Unit) that stores all the station message detail records (SMDR) that are crucial to all billback applications. Dealers are offered a two-year warranty on the system that includes coverage for lightning damage. Dealers are free to market the coverage to the end user. Retail price for the system is about $360 per station at the high end and $330 per station at the low end. Tele-tech's on-line call-pricing service. (Software Review) (evaluation) Tele-Tech Services' new on-line database, TelePacs, provides on-line tariff information for call accounting systems, client billback, hotel/motel customer billing and similar applications. To access the service requires a PC, modem, and Carbon Copy communications software. A password, necessary for access and provided by Tele-Tech, is good forever, and a menu-driven format eases use. Information can be viewed on the monitor or downloaded and sent to a printer or to storage. The on-line charges are $50 per hour, billed on a monthly basis with no hidden costs. Tele-Tech will also provide the same information available through its on-line service in hard copy form, but the process takes longer and costs far more. For those who need the type of information provided, Tele-Tech's TelePacs service is well worth looking at. Testing temporary-help firms. (includes related article on statistics on use of temporary help) Hiring temporary workers should be part of a company's overall personnel management program. As a first step, the hiring company should determine the level of training a temporary agency gives workers and should visit the temporary agency to see if training is done on the hardware and software workers will use on the job. The hiring company should find out how the temporary agency screens and tests its employees and should learn the temporary agency's policy on performance guarantees. The hiring company should also determine the temporary agency's policies on medical and fringe benefits and should check the temporary agency's reputation with other companies. After selecting a temporary agency, the hiring company should work with the temporary agency so the agency gets to know the company's operations, personnel, procedures and special requirements. Have phone, will travel. (includes related article about how cellular phones work) Cellular phones help turn what was wasted time into productive time, help increase personal productivity, and help keep users in touch with offices, customers and suppliers. The mobile cellular phone, the most common type today, draw power from the car's electrical system. It is best for people who are frequently on the road and conduct a lot of business from the car. A transportable phone is a self-contained unit with its own carrying case and is useful for people who need a telephone at remote job sites. The handheld, or portable, telephone is the most versatile; it relies on a rechargeable internal battery. Features of cellular telephones include speed dialing, automatic redialing, call timers, and memory to save telephone numbers. Some have electronic scratch pads and some have a roaming indicator to warn when the caller has gone outside the home service area. Industry observers expect future growth to be in handheld and transportable models. Cellular telephone are moving from the business market into the consumer market. Addressing the fear of public speaking. Blanchard, Ken. People who fear public speaking can overcome it by observing people who are good at public speaking and finding out how they do it. Things that can impact an individual's performance are body language, routine and belief system. For body language, observe how leading public speakers use their bodies. For routine, find out the routine people use when making speeches or presentations and adapt that routine. For belief system, people should examine the thoughts they have about public speaking and then work on those thoughts to become confident. The final step is to get some experience in making speeches. The promising world of digital copiers. (includes related article on Xerox's Production Publisher and Kodak's LionHeart) The promise of digital copying is mostly just a promise today, but there are some digital copiers on the market and others will arrive soon. There is considerable difference between an analog copier and a digital copier. An analog copier takes a picture of a document and prints it. A digital copier scans the document, translates it into digital code, and stores it in memory. This means the image can be edited, merged, sent to other digital systems, images can be stretched, black images can be transformed to white and white images transformed to black, copy can be added to black and white originals, and color originals can be copied. Industry observers expect the market to take off when there are affordable multifunctional machines that interface with a computer. Large-scale optical-disk systems offer big benefits. (includes related article on three types of vendors) Companies with documents that must be kept and accessed frequently by many people for many different purposes may find that a document image management system is a flexible and production system. Benefits of a large-scale optical-disk system include greatly reduced storage space, fast retrieval, secure and organized storage, access for multiple users, and ability to integrate with existing computer systems and functions. Optical disks come in a 5.5 inch size, which is usually used on microcomputer-based imaging systems, and a 12-inch size used for large-scale imaging systems. Other parts of an image management system are hardware and software components to enter, index, read, store, retrieve and print documents. These systems are usually not inexpensive because a company usually needs a hardware configuration custom-designed for that company and software that is customized. Managing the changes in database management software programs. Miller, Robert. The data base revolution has not yet happened, but it is on the way and managers should start preparing now for the changes it will bring. Managers should be sure a front-end data base management program can, or will soon be able to, communicate with Structured Query Language and should be compatible with many of the data base engines on the market today. Managers who have in-house SQL data bases on a minicomputer or a mainframe computer and need to have local area network-based programs share this information should look for a true client-server solution now. Managers should look for a true client-server solution if they have a new application that fits easily into the client-server scheme. The major companies are working on Windows versions of their data base management programs and they should be available sometime in 1991. Advantages to these programs are a consistent set of tools, ability to have several windows open simultaneously, better integration of graphics and text, and easier communication between applications. The mechanics of automated filing. (includes related article on types of automated files) Automated filing systems can help solve the problem of the need for space for business records. Automated filing systems are particularly suitable for applications that have high volumes of files but low rates of retrieval activity. The three basic types of automated filing systems are high-density mobile storage, or floating aisle, systems, lateral mobile storage systems, and carousels. These systems make good use of vertical space, can accommodate a variety of filing media, and increase productivity. Companies considering automated filing systems should consider the system's construction, its strength, durability, ease of access to stored information, personal safety features, and knowledge and experience of the vendor. Records management software, software that identifies a file by its contents and location and increases retrieval time, is expected to become a large market in the future. Stepping up to '486 power. Seymour, Jim. Not every person and every job needs the cutting edge in performance; 80486-based microcomputer can be too much computing power in some situations. There are three fundamental changes in offices which drive the need for more computing power for individual users: broader use of computers, the move toward networked offices, and increasing popularity of graphic user interfaces. An 80486 microcomputer is appropriate for users who run power-hungry applications most of the time and for users who want a computer to use as a network server. Most office applications run today do not need the power of an 80486 , but it is an investment in the future. A company purchasing '486 power should plan to use it for at least three years and possibly longer. Dusting off applications. (writing a GUI 'wrapper' for FORTRAN programs) (tutorial) Old computer systems present a challenge in today's environment, especially when users need to integrate them with up-to-date programs. The backlog of aging programs creates a situation; they are not cost effective to rewrite and too old to justify a large number of enhancements. Integration of an old FORTRAN program into a larger system is possible and should be approached as a macro-object acting as the server in a client-server architecture. Ideally, users should not be concerned with how their applications are interacting, and there should be a transparent access to any application that is needed to solve the problem at hand. An interprocess communication mechanism is necessary; this should look like a file to the FORTRAN programs. VMS systems can do this (mailboxes) and so can UNIX systems (named pipes). It is necessary to install an interface program between the batch FORTRAN program and the rest of the system. Detailed explanation is offered on the FAIMous environment, developed as a bridge between batch programs and new toolkits. The UNIX-FAX connection. (multi-tasking) Lynne, Stuart; Conklin, J.T.; Balden, Bruce. Facsimile machines integrate easily into UNIX systems, especially since the Group 3 (G3) fax standard came to the fore. Intense competition in the fax market has resulted in low prices and a large installed base. The UNIX electronic mail system is adaptable to a fax. UNIX offers support for multitasking and the ability to address large amounts of disk storage. Unterminal from Advanced Micro Research and LightConnection from Sun River offer two-way facsimile service at a reasonable cost via optical fibers. According to industry estimates, at least 90 percent of all facsimile machines are G3 compatible. This standard is included in the CCITT recommendations T.4 and T.30. Ada in the real world. (primary development language for projects, upgrades and research) Ada is presently used for projects that include embedded software systems in military weapon systems and real-time, life critical operations on board the Space Station. In general Ada is the primary development language for new computer projects, system upgrades, reuse libraries and computer science research. Factors behind the increased popularity include the fact that the Ada development environment supports large projects, more software engineers have knowledge and experience with Ada, and the choice of Ada by project managers. Ada offers robust language features to design and implement software for real-world domains. Five implementation options are available with Ada: changing the system, compiler-unique I/O packages, variant record, writing a filter, and primitive I/O packages. The order of preference that dictates the order in which the implementation approaches are applied depends on particular software goals that may favor one approach over another. The number of real-world Ada software projects has increased dramatically since 1987. Tested mettle: the Mips RC6280 and Sun-4/470. (Hardware Review) (high-end minicomputers) (evaluation) Comparison and detailed evaluation of two high-end minicomputers is given: Mips RC6280 from Mips Computer, and the Sun-4/470 from Sun Microsystems. The Mips RC6280 is base priced at $150,000 configured with 32Mbytes of RAM, a 655Mbyte disk drive and a 120Mbyte tape drive. The CPU is a 60-MHz R6000. Optional features include memory, tape drives, X terminals and system software. The manufacturer offers reseller training, development tools, marketing assistance and negotiable discount levels to value-added resellers. The Sun-4/470 has a 33-MHz Sparc CPU and base price of $59,900. Base configuration consists of 32Mbytes of RAM, 669Mbyte SCSI disk drive, a 150Mbyte tape drive and a 644Mbyte CD-ROM drive. Options include memory, monitors, disk drives, tape drives and I/O cards. Both machines have operating systems that come bundled with NFS and other Ethernet utilities, and standard C compiler. Mips is based on System V UNIX with BSD extensions. Sun is based on BSD with many System V libraries, utilities and features. The Sun machine is less expensive, however it is a slower performer than the Mips system. Evaluation is made on the ability of each machine to function as a server. The reference library: shell scripting. (Off the Shelf) (column) Morin, Richard. Several books are reviewed that cover the subject of shell scripting, embedded languages, data flow macro techniques and other scripting esoterica. Some of the volumes cover programming philosophy - how scripts should be written. Programmers who need portability to arbitrary systems are advised to use the csh and sh shells available on most Unix systems. Books reviewed include 'UNIX Shell Programming, Revised Edition' by Kochan and Wood (an excellent introduction and reference), 'UNIX Shell Programming' by Lowell Jay Arthur (presents sh and csh simultaneously), 'The UNIX C Shell Field Guide' by Anderson and Anderson (excellent coverage of the C shell), 'The KornShell Command and Programming Language' by Morris Bolsky and David Korn (the best reference on ksh, but it may be difficult to read), 'Programming Perl' by Larry Wall and Schwartz (perl is useful as a scripting language), 'Managing Projects with Make' by several authors (concise and useful guide to the language), 'The AWK Programming Language' (a definitive book on awk), 'UNIX System Administration' (a set of lecture notes by Reiken and Webb), 'Unix System Security' by Wood and Kochan (good security toolkit facts for administrators), 'The UNIX Programming Environment' by Kernighan and Pike (classic for any serious student of UNIX), and 'Programming Pearls' by Jon Bentley from his column. ANSI C mail baggette. (C Advisor) (column) Arnold, Ken. ANSI C programming instruction is given in response to letters from readers generated by a previously published statement, CTRL () macro. The statement read #define CTRL(x) ('x' & 037) and was not expressible in ANSI C. Explanation is given by several readers who offered macros such as #define CTRL(x) (#x/0 & 037), however the author reminds everyone that the #x will be expanded to a quoted string version of whatever parameter was passed. Also, you cannot rely on "L"/0 being constant, and you cannot rely on being able to write into strings. It is illegal in ANSI to have multiple non-extern declarations of the same variable in different files. The joy of X. (the X Window System) (Cross Thoughts) (column) Reichard, Kevin; Johnson, Eric F. The X Window System is a network-independent, operating system-independent window system that works well and has made a successful union with Unix. Used with any of several operating systems (Unix, AmigaDOS, MacOS and VMS), X Window affords system designers the ability to apply a consistent interface to designs across several hardware platforms, operating systems and networking schemes. A well-designed graphical interface is conducive to productivity and user training. The X Window system separates mechanism and policy, one of the strengths of the system; a particular user interface is not mandated. Computing with X Window is divided into two parts based on a client-server relationship. The X Consortium directs X research. Members of the consortium include Apple, IBM, DEC, HP, Sun Microsystems and several other large computer industry companies. Naming. (Daemons and Dragons - assigning names to computers) (tutorial) Assignment of a good name to a computer affords end users ease of communication with each other and with operations staff. Name conflicts can occur due to the nature of domains and subdomains. Domain names for those computers connected to nationwide networks, such as Internet, must be unique. Also, computers inside a single domain must have unique names within that domain. Don Libes has a naming guide (#1178) available from uunet in the ftp/rfc (tilda ftp/rfc) directory. Don describes ways to name a computer properly; the guide is titled 'Choosing a Name for Your Computer'. One suggestion is not to overload terms in common use. Machine names need lower-case alphanumeric characters and should start with a letter; this is necessary for proper interface with network routers. PC surprise package from Silicon Graphics. (Silicon Graphics Inc. IrisVision two-board set for microcomputers)(Product of the Month) Silicon Graphics Inc introduces IrisVision, a two-board set that brings powerful three-dimensional graphics capabilities to standard microcomputers. IrisVision provides 8-bit color for the display of 256 simultaneous colors and resolutions as high as 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. It is currently available for both AT-bus and Micro Channel Architecture machines. Silicon Graphics also plans versions for Extended Industry Standard Architecture and NuBus computers. The board includes a proprietary geometry engine that executes 20 million floating point instructions per second, six custom VLSI chips and a Weitek coprocessor as well as 1.8 or 4.8Mbytes of video RAM. The company hopes to establish its Iris Graphics Language as a multiplatform standard. IrisVision is priced at $3,495 for the AT-bus version and $3,995 for the Micro Channel version. OLTP for the rest of us. (on-line transaction processing) (The Serlin Report) (column) Several vendors are preparing to release new on-line transaction processing (OLTP) products for Unix-based systems. The X/Open consortium's Distributed Transaction Processing (DTP) standards group is making it easier to integrate the new products with existing open systems architectures. NCR will soon offer TPSX, an applications platform for its NCR 3000 computer series that the company hopes to offer in source-licensed form. TPSX can be made to work with most existing communications standards because DTP has changed its model from a three-part design consisting of separate application programs, resource managers and transaction managers to a scheme that lets developers embed communications services in the transaction manager. The Open Software Foundation has announced Transarc-TP, an OLTP implementation developed by consortium member Transarc Corp. Transarc-TP consists of a distributed transaction service, transactional communications program and logging service. Who is the real Dennis Ritchie? (co-inventor of Unix operating system) AT&T Bell Laboratories researcher Dennis Ritchie, credited with co-inventing the Unix operating system with Ken Thompson, is profiled. Ritchie is a quiet, private man with few intimates and a self-effacing personality. He emphasizes his professional career rather than personal issues, noting that he began programming as an undergraduate and later as a graduate student in Harvard University. Ritchie holds a BA in physics, MS in applied mathematics and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard. He and Thompson first worked with a used DEC PDP 7 in 1969 to develop the initial version of Unix. Ritchie says that it was 'inevitable' that Unix would grow more complex as hardware demands grew. His proudest achievement is his authorship of the book 'C Programming Language,' considered a 'bible' by many programmers. Ritchie won the Association for Computing Machinery's Turing Award in 1983 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. The best products of 1990. (directory) Baldwin, Howard. UNIX products earning a 'best of the year' award for 1990 are discussed. Software packages on the 'ten best' list include Access Technology's 20/20 RealTime Spreadsheet spreadsheet package, AT&T's Rhapsody office automation package, Interleaf's Interleaf 5.0 desktop publishing software, IXI Ltd's X.deskterm graphical interface, Legato Systems' Networker and Touch Communications' Worldtalk/400 Gateway communications programs, and Visual Edge's UIM/X graphical programming toolkit. Hardware products honored include the IBM RS/6000 workstation, Tandem Computers' Integrity S2 fault-tolerant minicomputer and Wyse Technology's 9000i file server. Kodak sharpens Interactive's focus. (Eastman Kodak & Co. invests in Interactive Systems Corp.)(includes related article on Kodak's Eastman Kodak Co's recent acquisition of UNIX pioneer Interactive Systems Corp has given the software company considerable strategic involvement in Kodak's photography business. Digital technology is rendering Kodak's long-time mainstay products (photographic film, chemicals and paper) obsolete, and Japanese firms dominate such emerging fields as all-digital cameras. Kodak acquired much-needed software expertise through its purchase of Interactive and is now developing office systems for document imaging. Its recently introduced 'Photo CD' technology stores high-quality color film images on a compact disk. Consumers will be able to have 35mm snapshots transferred to a CD for less than $20 by 1992. Interactive will offer Photo CD development tools in early 1991 that will let software developers modify and print Photo CD images for use in multimedia applications. The company is also a major porting house, offering versions of Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 spreadsheet and Symantec's Norton Utilities for Unix System V. 1991 Unix forecast. (global issues and Unix development) Poole, Gary Andrew. Issues facing the UNIX market in the 1990s are discussed, along with analysts' predictions for the operating system's growing importance in 1991. Vendors must increasingly seek a global market as the US economy moves toward a recession and the threat of Japanese competition grows. The US Unix market is expected to grow 39 percent annually between 1989 and 1994, while shipments outside the US will grow 46 percent. Analysts say that open systems benefit all users by promoting new technological development and lowering costs. UNIX is more widely accepted in Europe than in the US; open systems are a 'logical choice' for computing in the upcoming unified European economy. Most analysts say that UNIX must penetrate the desktop market to be commercially viable. Workstations are the hottest-selling UNIX systems. Midrange systems will play new roles as application and database servers, and as communications gateways. Vertical markets adopting UNIX include design automation, the petrochemical industry and earth resource fields such as meteorology and flood control. Integrating your office software. (ordering office applications from the same menu) Consistency among application modules is one of the most important issues in choosing an integrated office system (IOS), and Unix vendors offer some of the most powerful and consistent IOS software available. An IOS combines word processing, database, spreadsheet, calendar, and other vital packages around a common user interface. Levels of IOS compatibility include commands that work the same in different modules, the ability to cut and paste between modules and the ability to link with other software. Memory and CPU usage are also vital issues to consider because these can affect performance. Wyse muscles into multiprocessor market. (Hardware Review) (Wyse Technology 9000i multiprocessing file server) (evaluation) Wyse Technology Inc's 9000i is a very fast, powerful multiprocessing file server that runs a modified version of Unix System V/386 3.2 and more than 65 commercial applications including Uniplex, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and Lotus 1-2-3. The system implements true symmetric multiprocessing, with tasks split equally between processors for improved performance. It supports the VMEbus and up to six 80486 microprocessors. The 9000i uses a specialized Unix kernel that can prevent I/O functions on different CPUs from interfering with each other. Its tower unit is tall and wide as well as noisy, making it a better candidate for a computer room than an open office. Wyse uses a proprietary 64-bit, 10-MHz system bus offering a sustained throughput of 58.2 megabytes per second. The 9000i performs extremely well in benchmark tests. A six-processor system sells for $184,000. Tools for flexible interface design. (Software Review) (FairCom Toolbox, Empress 4GL) (evaluation) FairCom Corp's $695 FairCom Toolbox 3.1 and Empress Software Inc's $4,200 Empress 4GL 4.3 are two flexible, low-cost fourth generation language systems designed for database programming. Both require a C-language development system and require at least some procedural code for even simple applications, making them suitable only for those with knowledge of programming. Empress uses a traditional development approach with an integrated environment and structured menus, while the Toolbox consists of library routines and a few executable modules. The Toolbox is shipped in DOS format and must be copied to a Xenix or SCO Unix system via the 'doscp' utility. It is designed for serious C programmers and is very complex. Empress lets uses build applications by 'gluing together' database screens but is not truly easier to use than the Toolbox. FairCom's product is a better choice for those building mass-market products because there are no run-time license fees; Empress requires familiarity with Structured Query Language but is the better package for SQL users. Two gooey builders that stick. (graphical user interface development tools) (Software Review) (Visual Edge UIM/X; Sun Two graphical user interface (GUI) development tools for Unix systems, Sun Microsystems' $2,500 OpenWindows Developer's Guide and Visual Edge Ltd's $250 UIM/X, are reviewed. Both automate the construction of X Windows applications, letting users create windows by drawing them with a mouse and automatically generating the corresponding C code. Each product has a sophisticated interface, and both can create very attractive applications. UIM/X includes such advanced features as a built-in C interpreter, the ability to edit the property values of an object and the ability to create elaborate menus with a menu editor. It distinguishes clearly between parent and child images and lets users specify behavior. Guide has a somewhat more mature design and is based on the Open Look specification, and emerging GUI standard. Its tool set is less complete than that of UIM/X, forcing programmers to write code by hand in order to fully exploit GUI power. All Guide objects comply with the Open Look style guide and can be easily modified via a property editor. Looking for a UNIX security blanket. (government security standards for the Unix operating system)(Standards) (column) UNIX vendors are beginning to implement operating-system security features based on the Department of Defense's National Computer Security Center (NCSC) 'Orange Book' guidelines. The Orange Book details seven classes of 'trusted computing bases' ranging from D as the least secure to A1 as the most secure. Class D systems have 'minimal protection,' while Class C systems include some discretionary protection features that let individual users control file classification. B-class systems have mandatory protection and offer the minimum security level required for classified data and users. Class B1 systems have 'labeled security protection'; class B2 requires that every line of code be accounted for; and class B3 systems must eliminate all parts of the system that are not essential to enforcing security policies. AT&T's System V/MLS has received B1 certification, and the Posix committee is working on security standards. The Defense Department is also sponsoring the TRUSIX group for developing secure versions of Unix, but the Orange Book is the only set of standards that has had a major impact on users to date. Moving on to C++. (object-oriented C) (tutorial) Anderson, Gail; Anderson, Paul. A guide to object-oriented programming in the C++ language is presented from the conventional C programmer's point of view. Data encapsulation is a powerful C++ feature that specifies how users can legally access data structures while hiding parts of them at the sam time. A sample program written in K and R-style C that reads numbers from standard input into an integer array, sorts them and displays them on the screen is presented. Its 'main()' routine is repetitive; skilled programmers can improve the code by using modular techniques. A C++ version of the same program follows in which the 'SortArray' data structure is treated as an object type. C++ variable declarations are more general than those in C, and its comment statements are easier to use. Programmers can declare a variable anywhere inside a block. It produces more efficient and less error-prone code than standard C. Outsourcing holds the line on technology costs. (Cover Story) Schmerken, Ivy. Outsourcing (a trend begun by Kodak in 1989 when the firm hired IBM, Businessland and DEC to outsource Kodak computer operations in contracts valued at $500 million) is presently a $5 billion industry. Projections indicate that by 1994 the outsourcing industry may grow to between $13 billion and $50 billion. The trend is to cut data processing costs, reduce head count and keep up with modern technological advances by outsourcing data processing operations, software maintenance and telecommunications networks to third-party organizations. The Yankee Group estimates that by 1994 brokerage firms will double their spending on facilities management and remote processing to $2.36 billion. In 1989 brokerage firms spent almost $1.1 billion on facilities management and remote processing; the financial services industry as a whole spent $3.4 billion during that time. DTC primes systems for paperless marketplace. (Depository Trust Company) (company profile) The Depository Trust Company (DTC) automates commercial paper settlement, a process that took over 40 man-years of work, according to DTC executive vice president Thomas Lee. Technological implementations at DTC include Mainframe Dual Hosting that links the firm with back-office systems at member institutions, finalization of interactive institutional delivery systems for the inevitability of an all-electronic marketplace, conversion of commercial paper settlement to an automated tracking system, and the globalization of an institutional delivery system that channels trade notifications and settlement information. The Mainframe Dual Hosting system handles volume surges easily, whether there are 10 or 10,000 items received in one day. Electronic markets heighten regulatory concerns. (security industry regulators)(includes related article on the Single Price Globalization and trading automation are beginning to shape regulatory activity in the securities industry. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 is widely seen as outdated legislation in the presence of emerging electronic markets. There is concern that US regulations must begin to encourage innovation in trading systems that reduce transaction costs and minimize market risk, in order for the US to remain competitive in the global market. Institutional investors are turning to fourth-market trading systems (and away from the stock exchanges) for reduced market risk, lower transaction fees and liquidity. The Securities and Exchange Commission is blamed by many as the cause of the trading exodus. The agency is not viewed as aggressive in the pursuit to persuade Congress to update the definition of an exchange. In Spring of 1990, however, the SEC established an Office of Automation and International Markets, which was strongly recommended by the US General Accounting Office in a report issued to Congress. Wall Street wakes up to image management. (electronic document storage) Image management technology, better known as electronic document storage and retrieval, is the focus of a pilot project sponsored by the American Stock Exchange (Amex). The Computer Output Information System (COINS) from Information Management Technologies Corp is used in the pilot project, begun in Nov 1990. Amex publishes a daily report that runs approximately 9,000 pages. A year's worth of these daily reports could be placed on one large optical-disk platter. An imaging system running MS Windows 3.0 can call up a report image in one window and query the surveillance database in another; this would be helpful to the surveillance department, and an improvement over microfiche files. Amex is presently analyzing the percentage gain from productivity from image-based systems. LOR to launch new risk product, complexity notwithstanding. (Leland O'Brien Rubenstein Associates) (company profile) Leland O'Brien Rubinstein Associates (LOR), a Los Angeles, CA investment adviser, plans to market a new family of financial instruments: SuperUnits and SuperShares. SuperUnits and SuperShares securities and are on the verge of approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SuperTrust securities are very complicated and may not be understood by retail investors. SuperTrust is designed for dynamic hedging, similar to options with stocks to control risk in a declining stock market. The Capital Market Fund, a new LOR company, will issue the SuperTrust securities, aimed at achievement of portfolio insurance by different means. A stock index fund and a money market fund will be used; minimum initial investment is $10,000. SuperTrust will then issue an index SuperUnit and a money market SuperUnit; both trade on the American Stock Exchange. LOR's past portfolio insurance strategy is blamed by regulators and congressional investors for LOR's demise after the 1987 stock market crash. Three PCs aren't a crowd in managing complex accounts. (Coburn and Meredith of Hamden, Connecticut) (company profile) Jonathan Joseph, of Coburn and Meredith (Hamden, Ct office manager), is the company microcomputer whiz. Joseph has three microcomputers on his desk that help him help others with their clients. The accounts Joseph receives are those with sophisticated needs that his colleagues are unable to deal with. Functions carried out by Joseph and his microcomputers include the ILX quote system from ILX Inc (this program runs information on stocks, options, bonds and charting capabilities), BrokerView (communication system for access to account and transaction information), and the Trade Order Processing System, on an IBM PC. Joseph's second computer, an Intel 80386-based machine, is leased with a high resolution monitor, mouse and software from Reuters Information Services; also residing on the machine is the Excel spreadsheet. The third machine is an IBM PS/2 55 used with a bond portfolio system, the Master Brain from Decision Programming. Monopoly under threat: competition in the processor chip market is good news for the customer. At Comdex Fall 1990, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) revealed that it is working on 20-MHz and 25-MHz pin-compatible versions of the Intel 80386 microprocessor which are smaller and less power-hungry than the Intel chips, thus making them more attractive for use in portable computers. Intel is reportedly working on a less-costly version of its 80486 chip that will provide stiff competition to any AMD offerings. AMD claims 20 microcomputer manufacturers that have sampled the new chips have found no problems. Many manufacturers are uncomfortable with idea of relying on Intel as the sole source of the 386. AMD cites a much-litigated agreement dating back to the early 1980s as giving it permission to sell a 386-compatible chip. AMD says microcomputers based on the new chip will be on sale by 1991. Tomorrow the world: corporate profile: Fujitsu. (company profile) Cross, Michael. The computer business reached a major milestone in Jan 1991 when Fujitsu surpassed DEC to become the number two firm in the industry. Even IBM's leadership position no longer seems unshakable. Fujitsu has long been the biggest seller of mainframe computers in Japan; it is now going global by investing in US plug-compatible manufacturer Amdahl and acquiring ICL. Fujitsu's hallmark has been plug-compatible mainframes that beat IBM's originals in performance and price. Fujitsu has made little impact on the microcomputer market except in the area of printers. Its big push came in Mar 1989 with the release of the FM Towns, a microcomputer with a built-in CD-ROM drive. Even Fujitsu admits that sales have been disappointing. Fujitsu is now concentrating its efforts on notebook computers. Runaway systems. (how to prevent and how to stop out-of-control projects) (includes related article on management tools) (Cover 'Runaway projects' are usually thought of as those that are over budget or late, but the term can also apply to projects afflicted with poor quality or lost sense of purpose or where business needs have been neglected. A log of past experiences can help better manage new projects. Good planning is essential; a cost/benefit analysis comparing the proposed project to others can be of great help. Project managers are often chosen for their technical competence rather than for their abilities to plan and manage; they tend to ignore these responsibilities. Also important are clearly defined responsibilities and standards. Managers must find a way to control the inevitable changes to a specification. Communication with end-users must not be seen as a drudge but as an integral part of the project. Spaghetti systems. (high costs of maintaining old systems) (includes related article on business strategy at KPMG Peat Major European and North American corporations, faced with systems based on a quarter-century or more of computing history, typically spend more than two-thirds of their systems development budgets on maintenance. A cheap, quick system can prove very costly in the long run. Maintenance costs include not only manpower and computing resources, but also business risks associated with not replacing an inadequate system. Systems should be designed with the future needs of a business in mind. Users do not always know what the requirements of a system should be; the objectives of the business itself should be determined first. The scope of a system will change as it is being designed. Accounting software. (includes related article on best buy user BP Oil International) (buyers guide) Accounting is a key business application. Low-cost packages usually sell for less than 350 pounds sterling and comprise a single module for nominal, purchase and sales ledgers. Larger packages are 'modular;' each principal accounting application is purchased separately, but all modules together make up an integrated suite. Which Computer? readers surveyed said report writing and the ability to transfer into and out of the accounting software are key features. Other features to consider include security, audit trails, contex-sensitive help screens, ability to handle multiple currencies or languages and platform restrictions. In purchasing accounting software, the first step is to enumerate the business's objectives. Full specifications for 12 accounting software packages ranging in price from 99 to 100,000 pounds sterling are given. Budget: Sage Accountant. (Software Review ) (budget accounting software from Sagesoft)(includes brief related evaluations of Sage Accountant from Sagesoft is an easy-to-install, easy-to-use accounting software package that is fast, flexible and provides good value. The well-written documentation is aimed at the less experienced computer user. Multiple levels of access are provided by the password facility. Backup procedures are fair. As many as 5,000 customer accounts may be listed, each with a six-character alphanumeric code. Sage Accountant lacks facilities for multi-currency, multi-branch accounting and multiple-location stock functions, but Sagesoft provides upgrade paths. The price ranges from 299 to 399 pounds sterling. Mid-range: Multisoft Prestige. (Software Review) (mid-range accounting software from Multisoft)(includes brief related Multisoft Prestige from Multisoft is judged the best of five mid-range accounting packages evaluated but is not a clear-cut winner. Tetra 2000 has greater functionality, but costs more than Prestige, which ranges in price from 500 to 3,000 pounds sterling. Prestige was previously known as Multisoft Standard; it is now written in C and available in a NetWare version. Prestige is a general-purpose accounting package with especial strengths in estimating, contract sales, sub-contracting and job costing. Especially attractive features include a spreadsheet integrated into the nominal ledger, the ability to handle multi-location stocks and a management reporting function in the nominal ledger. Prestige is not recommended for those with detailed time-reporting and office-costing requirements. High performance: Systems Union SunAccount. (Software Review) (high-end accounting software from Systems Union)(includes brief Systems Union's SunAccount accounting software offers for analysis and reporting purposes by combining the nominal, purchase and sales ledgers into one database. An infinite number of different ledgers may be set up for consolidating and reporting a firm's overall results. The integrated approach makes SunAccount costlier and detracts some features from the sales and purchase ledgers. Security is very good, with multiple levels of access controls. Archiving facilities are also strong. SunAccount runs on a wide range of hardware platforms, including the IBM PC and the DEC VAX. Network PCs. (includes related article on best buy user Wolverhampton Polytechnic and a features checklist) (buyers guide) There are many different arguments for microcomputers designed expressly for use on a network. Devices such as floppy and hard drives and parallel and serial ports are not as important on networked computers as they are on standalone computers. A networked microcomputer can theoretically get by with a less powerful, less costly processor than a standalone machine. Chris Bakolas of network microcomputer manufacturer Dan Technology advises users to opt for Intel 80286-based machines, unless they are running 80386-specific applications or Microsoft Windows 3.0. Diskless microcomputers allow greater security control. Full specifications are given for 12 network microcomputers ranging in price from 550 pounds sterling to more than 2,498 pounds sterling. Budget: Dan Com-8W. (Hardware Review) (network microcomputer from Dan Technology)(includes brief related evaluations of Viglen Genie The Dan Com-8W from London-based Dan Technology was adjudged the best of four low-cost network microcomputers evaluated. The Com-8W matched the others in performance and is less expensive at a base price of 633 pounds sterling for a diskless monochrome system. The 16-MHz Intel 80386SX-based Com-8W comes with a 16-bit NE2000 compatible network connector for running Novell's NetWare. The Com-8W has a sturdy feel. Options include a mouse at 19 pounds sterling, a high-resolution color monitor at 238 pounds sterling and a one-year on-site maintenance contract for 30 pounds sterling. Dan Technology imports the machines from Taiwan. Mid-range: Wyse Decision 386SX/16S. (Hardware Review) (network microcomputer from Wyse Technology)(includes brief related The Wyse Decision 386SX/16S from California-based Wyse Technology is judged the best of four mid-priced network microcomputers evaluated. The well-designed 16-MHz Intel 80386SX-based machine offers strong performance. The 386SX/16S comes in a wide variety of configurations ranging from diskless workstations to machines with a floppy drive and 110Mbyte hard disk. Upgrading is easy. The 386SX/16S includes password protection and a keyboard lock. Disk-based systems also offer a detachable floppy drive cover that gives the impression of a diskless unit. Prices start at 995 pounds sterling. High performance: Apricot LANstation 20-100. (Hardware Review) (network microcomputer from Apricot Computers)(includes brief The LANstation 20-100 from Apricot Computers is judged the best of four high-performance network microcomputers evaluated. Setup is straightforward. Everything is built onto the motherboard, including an Ethernet connector and graphics controller. The LANstation's chief attraction is a bevy of security features. Pointing and clicking a hand-held infrared pointing device is necessary to access the machine. Password protection is standard, and data may be saved in coded form to a local disk. Another major attraction is the wide range of configuration options, ranging from a diskless version with 1Mbyte of RAM to a version with an 100Mbyte hard drive and 8Mbytes of RAM. Prices start at 2,195 pounds sterling excluding the monitor. Consultancy: legal. (legal considerations of electronic data interchange) (column) Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a new method of business communication in which structured electronic messages replace paper invoices and purchase orders. Firms can either establish direct EDI links with trading partners or go through an EDI service provider. Trading partners should establish contractural agreements, also known as 'interchange' or 'communication' agreements. The UK EDI Association adopted a standard interchange agreement in Mar 1989. A similar standard is in the work for European partners. EDI offers a retreat from the problems of paper, but its paperless nature requires a new set of legal precedents. For example, such legal requirements as 'signed' and 'in writing' are difficult to fit into EDI. EDI can also make it more difficult to resolve disputes. Guidelines are offered for drawing up an interchange agreement. Consultancy: management. (computer-aided software engineering) (column) Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) means the application of engineering principles such as blue printing and specifying to software development. CASE's roots are in large and complex real-time systems, such as those that control airplanes. CASE vendors argue that this technology could also prevent cost overruns, delays and other problems plaguing business software development. One problem information technology (IT) managers face is high maintenance costs for old systems; another is determining a business' purpose. CASE vendors say their products help model and analyze a business. CASE's greatest impact will be as an application, not as a programming tool. Smaller companies often make the best use of CASE. Technical literacy. (reader poll) A survey of 2 percent of Which Computer?'s subscriber base reveals that three-quarters believe technical issues are 'very important' or 'quite important' in buying hardware or software. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed say software technical issues are more important; only 20 percent say hardware technical issues override. Sixty percent say that technical issues will continue to grow in importance; only 20 percent say they will shrink in importance. Many say that software tends to be sold on functionality and price, while hardware marketers favor promoting purely technical features. While 94 percent say they understand the differences among Intel 80286, 80386 and 80486 chips, nearly 30 percent do not understand differences between the 386 and the cheaper 386SX. Eighty-four percent say they understand how DOS, Unix and OS/2 differ; less than half, however, understand the differences between Microsoft LAN Manager and Novell NetWare. Strong arm of the law. (Denton Hall Burgin and Warrens, a solicitors firm, is the first in Britain to install a litigation Denton Hall Burgin and Warrens, Britain's eighth-largest solicitors firm, is the first to install a litigation support system. The Wang MIRES (Modular Information Retrieval System), adapted to the British legal profession, provides four distinct services: construction of data indices, full text retrieval, data analysis and graphical representation. Another helpful facility allows different lawyers to annotate court records. Installed in 1988, MIRES runs on four Wang VS7310 minicomputers linked with more than 400 terminals at two London sites. Denton Hall's business has grown 75 percent since it installed the 2.5-million-pound-sterling system. Litigation support systems have been used by US law firms since the late 1970s. Fujitsu means business for America. (Special Advertising Section by Fujitsu Ltd.) (includes related articles on the company's In establishing itself as a major manufacturer in the computer hardware market, Fujitsu Ltd boasts a long list of corporate customers. The company's client base includes: MCI Telecommunications Corp., Page Composition, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Tiara Computer Systems Inc., Pepsi-Cola, Convex Computer, Greenville EMS, and Sequent Computer Systems Inc. The company stresses its good customer relations and product development aspects, as well as its telecommunications products. The company also emphasizes its willingness to enter into agreements with US companies and its future policy of establishing research and development and manufacturing centers in the US. Adding eagle eyes to those lightning-fast computers. (Motorola and Applied Intelligent Systems team up to develop an To achieve Motorola's production goal of only four rejected semiconductors in one million, the company is teaming up with Applied Intelligent Systems Inc (AISI) to develop a new generation of intelligent artificial-vision systems. The quality control system utilizes Motorola's 68040 microprocessor and AISI's new imaging computer, which features neutral-network technology and a proprietary chip named Firefly. The intended system not only offers faster image processing, but extends the quality control benefits to many other areas of factory operations. By combining the versatility of neutral-network software with a massively parallel computer, the company hopes to prevent defects from happening in the first place. The neutral-network computer has as many as 512 parallel processors under the control of a 68040 microprocessor on one printed-circuit card that simply plugs into an IBM PC AT. T-1 network keeps watch over itself. (Whirlpool Corp. uses communications equipment from Network Equipment Technologies Inc.) Whirlpool Corp has installed one Network Equipment Technologies Inc (NET) IDNX-70 and seven IDNX-20 multiplexors with NET's Expert Fault Management Service (EFMS) network management software on a T-1 communications network. The new system offers four times the amount of bandwidth without an increase in line costs and provides more network management features. EFMS identifies network outages and sends trouble tickets to an assistance center staffed by NET employees. The multiplexors, arranged in mesh topology, service Whirlpool offices in Michigan, Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana and Ohio. Whirlpool leases T-1 lines from AT&T. The system also includes a Series 5000 Network Management System which is based on a Sun Microsystems Inc workstation. The NET equipment cost Whirlpool $600,000, and the EFMS license costs $1,500 each month. Users sing the praises of predictive dialing systems. Eckerson, Wayne. Predictive dialing systems, or automatic call distributors, are increasingly being used by banks, telemarketers and fundraisers to reach more customers. Predictive dialing systems dial numbers automatically, then switch the call to a waiting agent. Information about the customer is transmitted to the agent's terminal screen. The system disconnects busy signals, operator-recorded messages and unanswered calls. The typical system carries phone numbers in a database which is downloaded every evening for the following day's business. Software based on a pacing algorithm adjusts the calling to the speed at which the agents are answering previous calls. Predictive dialing systems cost from $50,000 to $300,000. Mux mart newcomer airs low-end T-3 box. (T3plus Networking Inc. unveils BMX45S and BMX45A multiplexors) (product announcement) T3plus Networking Inc introduces two T-3 multiplexors that support any bandwidth channel between T-1 and T-3. The $24,000, five-slot BMX45S includes one CPU card and two T3 interfaces, one for the primary trunk and the other for supporting a T3 backup. The $30,900 BMX45A supports 18 slots and includes a CPU card, a T-3 trunk card, one High Speed Data module and a redundant power supply. The new multiplexors support one of two fully redundant T-3 channels on the trunk side, and up to 56 T-1s or 28 high-speed data inputs. To help users manage BMX45 networks, T3plus is offering a $5,000 microcomputer-based management system running a Microsoft Windows 3.0-based graphical interface. In Jul 1991, the company will also be offering a Unix-based system which will support the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). This system will allow a third-party SNMP management station to monitor and control the BMX45. N.Y. rocked by big AT&T fiber outage. Crockett, Barton. AT&T workmen accidentally severed a fiber optic line in Newark, NJ disrupting long-distance telephone calls going in and out of the New York metropolitan area, halting securities trading in several exchanges and causing flight delays at Newark, La Guardia and John F. Kennedy airports. The Federal Aviation Administration's Tracon network, which routes navigational data to and from aircraft, radio towers and land-based facilities, was interrupted by the line breakage. The line was a 1.8G-bps fiber cable that was spliced earlier and was severed by workmen removing an older cable near it. Automatic teller machines were hampered in New York, as well as the Commodity Exchange Inc and the New York Mercantile Exchange. Getting from Ethernet to token ring by bridge. (media access control-layer bridges) (buyers guide) Media access control (MAC)-layer bridges allow for connectivity between Ethernet and token-ring local area networks (LAN). Like other bridges, MAC-layer bridges filter and forward packets inside a LAN. In addition, they do frame conversion; they convert packets from both Ethernet and token-ring formats while maintaining destination information. MAC-layer bridges are able to support several protocols including the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet (TCP/IP) and Novell Inc's Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), but they do not convert higher-level protocols. Several products are available for establishing physical-layer Ethernet and token-ring connectivity. Among them are CrossComm Corp's 4,000 packet/sec ILAN bridge that costs $7,900 and Ungermann-Bass Inc's Access/One Ethernet Token-Ring Data Link Bridge, which is only 100 packet/sec slower than ILAN and costs $5,250. Study: top IS execs to align technology, business tasks. (information systems) (Index Group Inc.'s "Fourth Annual Survey of From its survey of information systems (IS) executives from 394 major North American corporations, Index Group Inc reports that IS managers are planning to combine IS and network technology with business operations in order to provide better service for customers. Investments in electronic data interchange, local area networks, data base management systems and imaging technologies are expected to increase despite budget restrictions. IS managers surveyed claim reshaping business practices as the priority management issue, and that automation of outdated practices is not the only appropriate answer. Respondents to the survey also reported that senior managers do not understand the benefits gained from the combination of information technology and business practices. TRW implements Rhapsody to streamline purchasing: electronics firm expects to reap big savings. (TRW Electronics Systems Group, TRW Electronics Systems Group is implementing AT&T's Rhapsody Business Orchestration Solution office automation system. Rhapsody, a LAN-based groupware product, is expected to reduce TRW Electronics Systems Group's purchase order preparation time from 100 days from 50 days. It will allow purchasing agents access to about 30 data bases on various processors through windows. Rhapsody also provides prompts about tasks that have to be done based on a predefined schedule. TRW's Rhapsody system uses two Unix-based servers which support 80 AT&T 80386 DOS-based microcomputers. The microcomputers are linked together on an Ethernet network. Rhapsody uses AT&T's desktop graphical user interface based on Microsoft Windows and HP's NewWave object-oriented software. Rhapsody is quoted by AT&T to cost $8,500 per user on a 20-workstation system, and each server packet costs $70,000. New IS-IS routing protocol faces tough competition. (Internet Engineering Task Force's Integrated Intermediate System to The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) introduces a standard for a dual-use routing protocol for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networks. The Integrated Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) supports both TCP/IP and OSI networks using a single routing protocol. The IETF, an informal standards group for Internet, may decide to endorse the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol instead of IS-IS, however. The two protocols are incompatible. OSPF is able to route the least expensive path in a network, but cannot support OSI. IS-IS can build a network supporting TCP/IP and OSI. DEC is implementing IS-IS in its DECnet Phase V, but other router vendors are supporting OSPF. Users extend virtual nets to include worker homes. (strategy streamlines reimbursement process, leads to volume discounts) Large companies are expanding their virtual networks into their employees' homes in an effort to reduce communications costs and extend employee work days. The strategy provides the added advantage of generating greater network traffic that, in turn, leads to volume discounts. Virtual networks, such as AT&T's Software-Defined Network (SDN) service and MCI Communications Corp's Vnet, offer such features as seven- and 10-digit on-network calling, call routing, international calling and 9.6K-bps data transmission. SDN calls cost less than direct-dial long-distance calls. Critics contend, however, that the 'administrative nightmare' of call authorization documentation and the cost of rebilling could wipe out the advantages of extending virtual networks. Companies are responsible for all charges incurred by their employees. Studies point to telecom outlook in '90s. (the Department of Commerce's report on "The U.S. Industrial Outlook 1991") The Department of Commerce forecasts that 1991 revenue growth for domestic and international telecommunications services will decline by one-half of a percentage point, in spite of increased network traffic. Price decreases that followed divestiture spurred an increase in average daily local and international calls. The slowdown of revenue growth can be attributed to a deteriorating economy which is causing companies to cut down on network budgets. Users, however, can expect stable rates from the competition between the major carriers. The carriers are spending more money to upgrade and maintain digital networks in order to improve the quality of services and to increase reliability. The fractional T-1 market is expected to continue its 50 percent or more growth rate in 1991, while newer technologies such as Integrated Services Digital Networks will experience continued sales. operating companies that recover instantly after network failures. NATA predicts growth for overall U.S. telecom equipment mart in '90s. (North American Telecommunications Association) A report by the North American Telecommunications Association (NATA) predicts that the US telecommunications equipment will experience steady growth, from $32.7 billion in 1989 to $58.3 billion in 1995. Data communications products, such as local area networks using fiber optics, are projected to increase by an average of 18 percent, to $5.8 billion in 1995. Likewise, sales of multiplexors and modems will grow. The PBX and Centrex markets are projected to increase to $3.4 billion and $29 million, respectively, in 1995. Areas in voice telecommunications which will also grow include voice-messaging, voice response equipment and automatic call distributors. The voice response equipment market's annual growth rate is estimated to average 20.1 percent, from $350 million in 1989 to nearly $1.4 billion in 1990. Videoconferencing users seek intercompany links; users cut costs, strengthen client relationships. Intercompany videoconferencing is becoming more popular among businesses because it helps reduce travel expenses and offers more efficient customer contact. Standards-based products, high-speed switched digital services and the advent of the Px64 standard are all speeding the acceptance and use of intercompany videoconferencing. A standard will allow a company using certain coder/decoders (codecs) to communicate with companies using dissimilar systems without the need for a gateway service. The use of a gateway service could require advanced reservations. Videoconferencing systems cost from $30,000 to $50,000. Chapter 11 paves way for Revco to overhaul its net. (Revco Drug Stores Inc.) Revco Drug Stores Inc installs a private X.25 backbone network with funds freed up by its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The network allows the drug store chain's pharmacies to access Revco's and insurance companies' data bases in order to verify if a prescription is covered by the customer's policy. The on-line process takes between 10 and 15 seconds to provide the needed information, as opposed to the three minutes required by Revco's older, less precise computer system. The network uses an IBM 3090-200 mainframe supporting point-of-sale and accounting applications and an eight-processor Cyclone computer from Tandem Computers Inc. The two computers are linked to four Netrix Corp #1-Integrated Switching System (ISS) circuit/packet switches by X.25 links. Fifty three stores are linked by 56K-bps fractional T-1 lines from MCI Communications Corp to #1-ISS 30 Netrix switches. The rest of the stores are connected to the network through 56K-bps dedicated lines. GAO says mandating DDN for fed is waste of money. (General Accounting Office, Defense Data Network) A General Accounting Office (GAO) report states that the Defense Data Network (DDN) costs more than comparable network telecommunications services, such as the Federal Telecommunications Service 2000. The GAO claims that by requiring defense-related agencies to use DDN, the Defense Department is overlooking cheaper and more efficient network services. The GAO also points out that the DDN is incompatible with many of the agencies' equipment and that the packet-switching architecture cannot handle data communications speeds required by certain agencies. The Air Force, for example, requires T-1 transmission speeds which the DDN is incapable of handling. The GAO reports that the cost of using the DDN runs from 39- to 558 percent higher than other communications services. Report advises formation of net security task force: group would boost awareness of security issues. (the System Security Study A panel report released by the System Security Study Committee of the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board calls for the formation of an information security foundation. The proposed foundation would be tasked with defining a set of rules called Generally Accepted System Security Principles (GSSP) to guide users and vendors in implementing network security. The report recommends greater awareness of network security among users and vendors, and the creation of a national data base containing cases of viral outbreaks and security breaches. The report notes that consumers do not generally insist on security features on the products they purchase. The System Security Study Committee is composed of 16 representatives from the computer industry and the academe. N.Y. Tel CO upgrade to satisfy user needs. (overhaul supports new services, provides redundant links to interexchange carriers) (New The New York Telephone Co upgrades its central offices with fiber optic cables and digital access and cross-connect systems (DACS). The upgrade offers new tariffed disaster recovery and bandwidth-on-demand services. The T-1 and T-3 DACS, made by AT&T and DSC Communications Corp, automatically direct network traffic to and from various central offices. The DACS can also reroute calls automatically in the event of a cable cut. The DACS have their own processors and run AT&T's software package DACScan. The fiber optic lines offer transmission speeds of up to 1.7G-bps. The new lines are expected to provide highly reliable local connections and improve on the transition of local calls to interexchange carriers. Users blast US Sprint for goading FCC on Tariff 12: no reason to tie up all VTNS deals, they say. (US Sprint Communications Co., A group of current and prospective users of AT&T's Tariff 12 products are protesting US Sprint Communications Co's request for the FCC to investigate all Tariff 12 contracts. The group is made up of banks and financial services companies. The FCC is reinvestigating Virtual Terminal Network Service (VTNS) deals after a federal appeals court ordered the agency to look into the legality of Tariff 12. US Sprint insists that the court order calls into question all Tariff 12 deals. The users group allege that US Sprint's attempt to persuade the FCC to investigate contracts not included in the court order prevents other Tariff 12 contracts from being made. Stakes high in war over 800/SDN deals. (MCI Communications Corp. files formal complaint against AT&T) (Software Defined Network) MCI Communications Corp files a complaint with the FCC claiming that AT&T is violating the Communications Act of 1934 by bundling its 800 and Software Defined Network (SDN) services. MCI says that AT&T offers discounts for customers using bundled 800 and SDN packages. AT&T discounts the allegation by saying that an 800 number was offered for customers who use a service called Network Remote Access Option III-Express. The 800 number allows customers to access networks from an off-network site but is not equivalent to its high-volume 800 services. MCI claims it has evidence of customers who were offered SDN services and could use their existing 800 number. The company warns that if the FCC rules in favor of AT&T, it is the customers who will be hurt by reduced competition. Study finds user demand growing for multirate DSUs: growth attributed to usage of digital 56K services. (study by International Data Corp reports that the market for multi-rate digital service units (DSUs) will continue to grow. Sales of subrate and fixed rate 56K-bps DSUs will drop. Users prefer multispeed DSUs because of the ability of the units to offer digital services of up to 56K-bps. Current subrate DSUs offer multiple rates but only up to 19.2K-bps. Fixed rate DSUs operating at 56K-bps that have a secondary channel for network management will have increased sales. Switched 56K-bps DSUs will sell more briskly as video coders/decoders (codecs) enhance full-motion videoconferencing through single switched 56K-bps links. New NetView pricing favors central mgmt. (management) Desmond, Paul. The new pricing scheme IBM has implemented for its NetView 2.0 network management software offers reduced charges for centrally managed networks. Users with distributed versions may not find reductions. The Distributed System Option package has no operator interface and is designed for use on remote mainframes run from a centralized management configuration. The Distributed System Option package costs less than the Centralized System Option which does have an operator interface. Use of IBM's Communications Management Configuration strategy enables users to acquire the cheaper Distributed System Option package which can be run on most mainframes. NADA, Hughes, carmakers form VSAT net alliance. (National Automobile Dealers Association, Hughes Network Systems Inc., The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), Hughes Network Systems Inc, General Motors Corp (GM) and Chrysler Corp have agreed to jointly build a shared very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network linking multi-franchise dealerships. The network will allow dealers who sell different makes of cars to access the data bases of manufacturers for ordering cars and parts, or accessing warranty information. GM and Chrysler terminals are linked to a Hughes indoor unit connected to the VSAT. The data from these terminals is turned into X.25 packets using Hughes' Spacelink protocol. These packets are then transmitted to GM or Chrysler hubs at speeds of up to 128K-bps. Packet switches at the hubs then send the data over leased lines to the manufacturer's host. Health firm to link LANs to TCP/IP net. (Medlantic Health Care Group, local area networks, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Medlantic Health Care Group is issuing a request for proposal for software that will link its TCP/IP network with six 3Com Corp local area networks (LANs). Medlantic currently has an IBM mainframe and a DEC VAXcluster on its TCP/IP network and wants to link them to microcomputers running on their LANs. Medlantic Health Care's TCP/IP network supports IBM 3270-type terminals which can access the VAXcluster. The TCP/IP network also allows DEC VT-320 terminals talk to the IBM mainframe through a 112K-bps subchannel on a T-1 network. The T-1 network supports both the TCP/IP protocol and IBM's Systems Network Architecture. Medlantic Health Care wants to link up the LANs because many departments in its three hospitals are setting up 3Com LANs which allow for easier patient lab result data entry. Need for network control driving smart hub market: sales of manageable devices to ramp up quickly. The market for smart local-area network (LAN) hubs is expected to continue to grow as the use of passive devices declines. Smart hubs include concentrators, smart multistation access units (MAUs) and multiport repeaters (MPRs). MAUs are used for token-ring networks, and MPRs are used for Ethernets. Previous MAUs and MPRs were passive devices, but IBM and DEC are introducing intelligent versions of the units. IBM is introducing its Controlled Access Unit, a smart MAU. The new smart hubs do not support routing and do not offer Ethernet and token-ring LAN support from a single unit. Traditional smart hubs allow the addition of internal bridges and routers, and can accommodate 100M-bps Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) technology. Network gives police ready access to an array of data; Nevada police get new weapon in war on crime. Nevada law enforcement agencies implement a central store-and-forward message switching system called the Law Enforcement Message Switching (LEMS) system. The system uses two Unisys 2200/401 mainframes to handle up to 200,000 transactions each day. The system accesses data bases from state law enforcement agencies, university police agencies, federal and California agencies. Officers on patrol receive responses to inquiries within seconds. The system links the mainframes to a Unisys Distributed Communications Processor supporting 32 dedicated lines to various police departments around Nevada. The mainframes act as gateways to the Federal Bureau of Investigations' National Crime Information Center and National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. Panel mulls perils of pitching net projects. (Network World's User Advisory Panel) Network World's User Advisory Panel recommends that information systems managers present to upper management the strategic benefits of network projects in addition to bottom-line analysis reports. Executives looking for cost-justifications should be made aware of soft-dollar benefits including customer loyalty, corporate image and increased productivity. Members of the User Advisory Panel, which include network executives and user group representatives, stress the importance of showing management the strategic importance of proposed network projects if a cost/benefit analysis is lacking. Projects stand a better chance of getting approval if network managers can show that competitors are using similar plans with success, the Panel claims. NMI's I-Mind lets users create simulated int'l nets: models show the best solution for lowest price. (Network Management Inc.'s Network Management Inc (NMI) introduces the $24,000 International Modular Interactive-Network Designer (I-MIND), software that creates simulated models of international networks for the purpose of optimizing their performance and helping users choose the least expensive architecture for international private-line networks. The software package also can provide information on international gateway private-line tariffs in over 80 countries, as well as the domestic tariffs of six European countries. I-MIND runs on IBM-compatible microcomputers, requires 15Mbytes of hard disk space and needs 480Kbytes of memory. NMI suggests that users implement a color monitor and video graphics board to support I-MIND's graphics features. A monthly update of I-MIND tariff listings is provided by NMI on floppy disks. CCITT to advocate global net freedom. (Consultative Committee on International Telephony and Telegraphy) The International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee (CCITT) issues new recommendations regarding international private network regulation. The recommendations call for loosening of foreign regulations having to do with the resale of private-line capacity by users. Foreign regulatory agencies have, in the past, not allowed the resale of capacity on international private lines, fearing loss of revenue for state-owned switched services. Another recommendation is for carriers to price private-line network services more competitively and for them to allow users to interconnect international private lines. The recommendations drafted by CCITT are the most liberal yet proposed by the international organization. EC exec discusses benefits of satellite push in Europe: expects countries to support green paper's goals. (European Commission, The European Commission's green paper on satellite communications recommends freer competition among national telecommunications administrations. Those administrations presently hold a monopoly on satellite services and earth stations receiving and transmitting satellite signals. Most European governments are expected to enact legislation based on the green paper's recommendations. Germany and Great Britain already are engaging in freer competition practices. Automobile manufacturers, financial markets and news services are expected to be large users of satellite services. Countries with poor terrestrial infrastructures, such as Portugal and Spain, are also expected to be popular users of satellite services. Racal-Milgo encryption device bows. (Racal-Milgo Inc.'s Datacryptor 64P) (product announcement) Racal-Milgo Inc introduces Datacryptor 64P, a network data security device, which users may purchase without having to seek Data Encryption Standard licensing from the U.S. Department of State. Datacryptor 64P costs between $1,900 and $2,400 and is available in three versions: basic, public key and key center. The basic version uses a hand-held key transport module that inputs keys to each remote unit. The public key transmits key codes across the network, and the key center version offers network management features. The encryption device in any version generates, distributes, stores and erases key variables produced by a proprietary algorithm. The unit supports point-to-point, multidrop, dial-up and facsimile transmission speeds of up to 19.2K-bps over asynchronous lines and 64K-bps over synchronous links. Firm gives terminals role in image nets. (Image-X International Inc. PSERVER printing utility) (product announcement) Image-X International Inc introduces the $695 PSERVER, a printer utility that allows terminals to request Image-X and ImageMate imaging servers to print text and image files over a local-area network-based imaging environment. The package is composed of two software modules. A requester module resides in a minicomputer or mainframe and lets the attached terminals request printouts of image and text printouts. The server-based module deals with the image scanning and compression on the Image-X file server or ImageMate processor. Requests may be sent over Ethernet, token-ring local area network (LAN) or asynchronous communications lines to the server or imaging processor. The server or imaging processor locates a requested file, decompresses it and sends the data to a local printer. Serving the "Forgotten Five Million." (small- and middle-sized companies served by network support services) (column) Smaller and mid-sized businesses are benefitting from vendors who are exploring new market opportunities by offering less-restricted service network service contracts. The mature network market for Fortune 500 companies is turning vendors' attention to smaller companies seeking network services ranging from assessment studies to outsourcing services. The competition between vendors is causing them to develop new technologies and ways to differentiate themselves. Users can expect to choose from a variety of multi-tiered support programs, but they should not negotiate contracts which might discourage vendors from providing quality service. Correcting some myths and misconceptions about SONET. (Synchronous Optical Network) (column) T-1 and T-3 suppliers claim that Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standards are not well-established and that SONET service is unreliable. The equipment requirements are already established for SONET, and certain management-related standards, such as message set definition, are presently being worked out. T-3 advocates argue that SONET fiber optic lines are susceptible to accidental cuts thus threatening data loss. SONET lines are designed with redundancy and alternate routes are available in case of accidents. Add/drop and terminal multiplexers enable SONET carriers and users to monitor networks and to offer connectivity with other network forms such as T-3. The large amounts of fiber optic lines installed by local and long-distance telephone companies make SONET a viable alternative to the proprietary nature of T-3. Making Macs work with PCs. (interoperability products) Mier, Edwin. True interoperability between Macintoshes and IBM-compatible personal computers does not exist, but network software and file management products allow the exchange of data between the two platforms. Novell Inc's NetWare 386 incorporates a proprietary operating system integrated with Novell's networking software modules. Macintosh users need to use NetWare 286 configured as a gateway to run Macintosh software on a 386 server. 3Com Corp introduced 3+Open Connection for Macintosh which is a Macintosh support software package for a 386 server. AT&T also introduced StarGROUP Server which runs on an AT&T 80386 or 80486 server. Macintoshes and personal computers cannot talk to each other, but they can run similar versions of applications using a file translator which is usually built into specific applications. Making the MAC layer more clear. (media access control of the Open Systems Interconnection model) The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has approved a standard media access control (MAC)-layer bridge called the 802.1d bridge which is based on the Spanning Tree Algorithm. MAC is part of the data link layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The 802.1d bridge uses a technique called flooding which sends messages throughout a network in order to learn the location of all the other bridges. The 802.1d bridge then assigns addresses to the various bridges and forms a reference table which it uses when sending packets. The 802.1d is unable to translate Ethernet version 2 to token-ring or Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) to the IEEE's 802.3 standard. Best Buy's new stores irk Japanese suppliers. (Best Buy Company Inc.)(International Report) Best Buy Company Inc irritates Japanese suppliers with Best Buy's Concept 2 retailing strategy. The Concept 2 idea involves self-service in a warehouse setting. A no-frills approach allows Best Buy to sell consumer electronics at near the wholesale price, but Best Buy's Japanese suppliers - Onkyo USA Corp and Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc - say the lower prices affect their products' stature. Legal issues revolve around price-fixing, which Best Buy claims its suppliers are guilty of in their reluctance to supply Best Buy with products in a warehouse environment. Best Buy maintains that its Concept 2 stores are not warehouses, but many in the industry are unable to make a distinction. Rural telcos ride the cutting edge, bring hope to heartland communities. (News of the Week) Small telephone companies are offering information services to small towns in rural America, a development that could save rural communities from extinction. According to William H. Davidson, associate professor of Management and Organization at the University of Southern California, rural telephone companies already are providing advanced services ranging from videotex and cable TV to fiber optic-based distance learning and telemarketing. For example, VICOM Information Services, a videotex subsidiary of Chillicothe Telephone Co, Chillicothe, OH, offers more than 50 programs and databases to 600 customers. VICOM's director, Charles Knowles, says that the inability or unwillingness of national videotex players to successfully market videotex results in a lack of industrywide standards and inexpensive, mass-produced terminals, making it hard for small companies to survive. succeed. Power to the people: Pacific Gas and Electric keeps communications open with updated power monitoring and a new LAN-WAN. (company Pacific Gas and Electric Co, with 25,700 employees working in various parts of a 95,000-square-mile territory, must manage vast amounts of information. The company is currently engaged in building a local area network-wide area network (LAN-WAN), and a company spokesperson says most of the utility's offices will be connected by the end of 1993. Voice and data integration is 'further down the road,' and though the company's voice and data worlds are still separated, as PG&E shifts to digital communications, the separated operations will merge. PG&E, with a growing customer base and increasing information needs, is building its LAN-WAN system with both current and future needs in mind. Is this man crazy? In 1976, Victor Schnee forecast the breakup of AT&T. Now he warns that by protecting their local monopolies, the Victor Schnee and Walter Gorkiewicz published a study in 1976 titled The Future of AT&T, predicting that competition in the long-distance and switching businesses would limit AT&T's growth and profit margins and challenging the idea of AT&T's technological superiority. The report was dismissed, but since then much of it has proved accurate. Now, Schnee, together with co-author Allan Tumolillo, has published another report - Takeover: Taking Over the Telephone Companies - which forecasts an upheaval in the local exchange carrier industry. According to the new report, tremendous opportunities are opening up in the area of local loop services, but telephone companies are focused on protecting local monopolies and are not positioning themselves to capitalize on the situation. This strategy leaves telephone companies vulnerable to innovative competitors and possibly to takeover. ROMing your corporate library for job leads. (CD-ROM technology) Dow, Ronald F. CD-ROM is an optical disk technology that is very useful to job seekers. The CD-ROM offers vast storage potential - a typical disk can hold the contents of 1,200 standard 5.25-inch floppy disks - and users only need a microcomputer, a CD-ROM drive, a controller and a printer. CD-ROM is a relatively inexpensive technology, and job seekers can find the technology available in many public, corporate and academic business libraries. Librarians can generate lists of job leads quickly and inexpensively, and job seekers can create their own personalized job banks with relative ease. A creaky computer system. (the Insurance Regulatory Information System of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners) The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' computerized financial system known as the Insurance Regulatory Information System (IRIS) is not working as accurately in 1990 as it did in the 1970s. IRIS, which seeks out financially-troubled insurance companies, was successful in ferreting out 90 percent of companies that later became insolvent in the 1970s and had a meager 15 percent false alarm rate. IRIS fairs more poorly in 1990 with only a 75 percent accuracy rate. Industry observers blame the new inaccuracies on the increasing complexity of financial structures and IRIS is expected to make up for its deficiencies with enhancements. Data General abandons plan to develop communications gear for Japan's NTT. (Data General Corp.) Data General Corp decides not to go ahead with its plans to develop high-speed hubs with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT). The computer company drops its plan with the Japanese NTT, along with 2,400 jobs; Data General will have around 9,300 employees in 1991, compared with a peak of 17,000 in 1985. The cancelling of the product development strategy, code named 'asparagus,' happens after five years of losses at Data General and engineering delays. Data General has invested millions of dollars in the failed data communications venture. The products being developed were to link voice, data and computers in large, private communications networks. More companies are producing low-emission monitors; no, they're not driven by health concerns, they say, but by market forces. Companies are moving towards producing low-emission video display terminals (VDTs) not because of health concerns, but because of market forces. Many manufacturers of VDTs state that they will be making models that emit reduced levels of very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic radiation; some companies plan to reduce even the very low frequency (VLF) emissions on their VDTs. Many of these companies believe that their current models of VDTs are safe to use but admit that the demand for reduced emissions is growing. The US industry is moving toward the conservative Swedish standard, which goes into effect in Sweden in Jan 1, 1991 and was developed by the country's National Board for Measurement and Testing. Pushing for a PC instrument standard. Novellino, John. Some computer industry experts believe that there is a need for a standard for modular microcomputer-based instruments and data acquisition systems, but others believe that such a standard is unnecessary. Rapid Systems Pres Tom Bardeen has proposed a standard, PCXI, which would address the issues of noise, power, and cooling of microcomputer-based instruments. National Instruments' customers rarely complain about issues related to noise, power, and cooling, but Data Acquisition Product Mgr Richard House believes that there is a need for standards related to address levels, interrupt levels, and DMA levels. MetraByte Corp believes that there is no technical need for the PCXI standard. Many standards already exist for microcomputers. More important issues that should be addressed include configuration and software standards. Superconducting SQUIDs sample signals, build 4-MHz-Nyquist, 100-micro Watt, , 12-bit ADC. (superconductive quantum Westinghouse Electric Corp's Science and Technology Center has used superconductive quantum interference devices (SQUID) to build an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC architecture includes a delta modulator and a clock counter. Two-junction, single-turn, washer-type SQUIDs using Josephson junctions form the quantizer. A signal current to a 50-turn input coil induces voltage pulses across the SQUID's output junction by applying flux to the quantizer. The crossing of a lobe boundary induces a pulse. The left junction pulses in a counterclockwise-to-clockwise current transition, and the right junction pulses in a clockwise-to-counterclockwise current transition. Process technology and circuit design build IC switcher for one-cell batteries. (integrated circuit) (technical) Linear Technology has developed a switching-regulator integrated circuit (IC) that uses a single inductor and runs off a single-cell, 1-V battery. The IC was designed by using a low-voltage process and a gated-oscillator architecture, which reduces the power-supply current and the parts count. The IC is compatible with both boost and buck configurations. Linear Technology developed the power circuits by using an adaptive base-boost scheme. Serial packet controller takes on fast peripherals. (Silicon Systems' 73M650) Silicon Systems' 73M650 serial packet controller is a multiprotocol communications controller for the PS/2 or PC bus environment. The 73M650 is capable of emulating nearly any device, including an 8530-type universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART). The serial port is controlled by the channel-A register set, which is similar to the register set of the 8530 UART. Communication between the host CPU and a local microcontroller is made possible through channel B's two-port scratch-pad register. The 73M650 is capable of operating in both single- and dual-processor environments. The 73M650 can be used in many applications, including fiber-optic communications and multitasking applications. The best of '90. (includes digital semiconductors, analog-to-digital converters, computer-aided engineering software, A listing of the top 100 products covered by Electronic Design in 1990 is presented. The list includes digital semiconductors, analog-to-digital converters, computer-aided engineering software, power devices, test and measurement systems, computers, communications devices, and packaging and production devices. Consider testability in your next design. (circuit design) (technical) Design engineers should consider testability issues when designing circuits. Circuit designers may be more likely to follow design-for-testability rules if they understand the problems test engineers encounter when testing completed circuit cards. The problems encountered by test engineers include the existence of feedback loops, and the inability to conduct in-circuit testing when surface-mounted devices are used. The issues that designers should consider include the three-stateability of devices with outputs on a bus, and the way in which continuity is checked during board testing. Test engineers and design engineers should begin working together as soon as the design process begins. Compaq's LTE 386s/20: performance worth the price. (notebook computer) (includes related article on Compaq's Desktop Expansion Compaq's LTE 386s/20 notebook computer is powerful and well-built, although it is relatively heavy and has a poor cursor-control key layout. The machine includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, up to 10Mbytes of RAM, 30Mbyte or 60Mbyte hard drive, 3.5-inch 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, 4Kbyte SRAM cache and 9-inch edge-lit liquid crystal VGA. The LTE 386s/20 can use an 80387 math coprocessor, an external VGA monitor and a PS/2-type mouse. A 9-pin serial port and 25-pin parallel port are also included. An internal 2,400-bps modem is available. The battery pack runs about 3 hours without using the battery conservation features. The battery can be recharged in 3 hours during use of the computer or 1.5 hours when the computer is off. The cursor control keys are arranged with the up key above the down key to the far right of the keyboard, making the keys difficult to manipulate. The base configuration costs $6,499 and weighs 7.5 pounds. Turbo Vision debuts in Turbo Pascal 6.0. (Borland International Inc.'s compiler includes event-driven programming) (Software Borland International Inc's $149.95 Turbo Pascal 6.0 (TP6) program development software includes Turbo Vision, a framework that can be customized to build event-driven applications. TP6's compiler is similar to its predecessors, but it includes private fields and object methods. The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is mouse-aware and can edit 1Mbyte files. IDE can use extended memory, but IDE itself takes up large amounts of RAM. TP6 includes an assembler to replace INLINE code-writing. The built-in debugger has improved breakpoints and allows single-stepping through assembler files. Turbo Vision's object library includes menus, scroll bars and other program items. The objects automatically respond to certain events, so code need not be written for tasks such as moving and resizing windows. TP6 Professional costs $299.95 and adds Turbo Debugger, Turbo Assembler and Turbo Profiler. After a false start, R:BASE 3.1 comes on strong. (Microrim Inc.'s data base management system) (includes related article on reading Microrim Inc's $795 R:BASE 3.1 data base management system is greatly improved over release 3.0. Version 3.1 requires 450Kbytes of free RAM rather than the 520Kbytes 3.0 required. The new release supports expanded and extended memory and allows DOS to access up to 96Kbytes of RAM on video cards. Expanded memory (EMS) conflicts occurred on some systems using Qualitas Inc's 386MAX 5.0. Error handling and keyboard mapping have been improved. User complaints about version 3.0's mouse support and response have been addressed, and 3.1 is much faster than 3.0. R:BASE 3.1 requires 640Kbytes RAM, 4Mbytes of hard disk space and MS-DOS 3.1 or later. Upgrading from version 3.0 is free. 5,000 colors from In Focus's $5,995 LCD panel. (In Focus System Inc.'s 5000CX PC Viewer liquid crystal display projection panel) In Focus Systems Inc's $5,995 5000CX PC Viewer liquid crystal display (LCD) projection panel is the best LCD panel available. The 5000CX can display almost 5,000 colors, 10 times more than similar products. The 5000CX's Triple Super Twist Nematic (TSTN) technology uses three different LCD layers and has a nearly 10 to one contrast ratio. The panel has a cooling fan and a remote control unit. A $199.95 breakout box allows the 5000CX and a monitor to operate at the same time. The 5000CX's colors are attractive and accurate, although shades of red are not perfect. Occasional vertical ghosts cause a vertical stripe to be washed out by a lighter portion of the screen, but the adjusting the controls minimized the ghost effect. The panel absorbs 94 percent of the projector light, so a 650-watt projector is required. Artline: heft for illustrators, ease-of-use for novices. (Digital Research Inc.'s Artline 2.0 vector drawing software) (Software Digital Research Inc's $595 Artline 2.0 offers a wide range of features and drawing tools despite some limitations. Artline runs under the Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) interface and requires 505Kbytes of free RAM, and about 4Mbytes of disk space. Among Artline's vector-drawing functions are the new Sketch and Quill tools, which use Bezier curves. Artline's bitmapped image tracing allows trace sensitivity settings to be altered during processing. Letters may be printed as vector outlines or PostScript fonts. Artline cannot perform text handling functions such as manual kerning. The plane tool, which edits Bezier curves, is awkward, and the printer selection is limited. Artline only reads .GEM and .AI formats and only writes .GEM or .EPS formats. The Hijaak translation utility will be bundled with Artline 2.0 to provide .TIF, .CGM and .WMF support. Legacy 3.0: word processing and desktop publishing in one Windows package. (NBI Inc.'s document processing software) (Software NBI Inc's $495 Legacy 3.0 desktop publishing software combines word processing and desktop publishing features in a single package. Legacy is frame-based, so frame definitions must be entered before text or graphics can be entered. Frames can be linked to create irregular shapes or have tabular information carry from one frame to another. Users can switch between editing frames and their contents. Legacy offers text editing in draft or WYSIWYG modes. The draft mode font is unattractive, and the formatting is indicated by codes which can be deleted but not restored by the Undo command. Only Ventura Publisher's typographic controls are better than Legacy's. Legacy includes a thesaurus with definitions and allows wild cards in search and replace strings. Legacy takes about 5Mbytes of disk space, does not offer macros and cannot open two files simultaneously. Hayes enhanced serial port breaks the bottleneck. (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.'s ESP Dual Enhanced Serial Port Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc's $299 ESP Dual Enhanced Serial Port is an 8-bit serial communications board that can increase throughput and improve data integrity during communications sessions. The ESP uses the 16550 Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) to control data flow between the microprocessor and the serial port. The UART's 16-byte buffer holds data until the microprocessor is ready to process it. The ESP uses an 8031 processor for 1Kbyte bidirectional direct memory access (DMA) data transfers at rates up to 57.6K-bps. The board's two 9-pin communications ports can be designated COM1 through COM4. The board supports the Enhanced Serial Interface (ESI) public domain specification and will select the DMA mode when ESI-compliant software is used. ESP is particularly useful in interrupt-intensive operations. WinComm builds beautiful communications scripts. (Synappsys' communications software for Microsoft Windows 3.0) (Software Synappsys' $149 WinComm communications software produces front ends for scripted communications under Windows 3.0. Buttons can be added to Windows bitmaps and metafiles, and dialog boxes and list boxes can be called by scripts. WinComm's dialog editor can build custom dialog boxes without writing code, and the dialog can be cut and pasted to an editor for modification. WinComm supports the Kermit, CompuServe B and X, Y and Z modem file-transfer protocols. ANSI BBS, VT 52/100 and CompuServe Vidtex terminal emulations are supported. Vidtex emulation allows .RLE files, but not .GIF files, to be viewed online. A limited phone dialer is included. The manual is incomplete, the index is poor, and some options are hidden in the user interface. Some dialog box layouts are flawed. Expert users who need to build communications scripts will want WinComm, but other users should wait for an update. Handy Macro Editor/Debugger for Lotus 1-2-3 2.x. (Personics Corp.'s Macro Editor/Debugger add-on software) (Software Review) Personics Corp.'s $199.95 Macro Editor/Debugger (MED) is an add-on program that finds Lotus 1-2-3 macro problems and allows users to fix them. MED works with Lotus 1-2-3 versions 2.0, 2.01 and 2.2 and uses about 70Kbytes of RAM. MED's display in the lower half of the screen shows two windows in debugger mode. One window shows code while the other displays up to four watchpoint variables and shows addresses of subroutine calls. The editor can use three windows to display range names, code and comments simultaneously. Breakpoints can be set to stop execution when the process reaches a certain cell, when a certain cell's value changes or when a logical expression becomes true. Tracing can step through single instructions or move at full speed, and the next six instructions are shown in a window. MED's error messages are clear and easily understood. Blazing speed: NCR's 6436-0301 SCSI printer. (laser printer uses an SCSI interface) (Hardware Review) (First Looks ) (evaluation) NCR Corp's $7,995 6436-0301 laser printer uses a Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) to print graphics faster than any other printer PC Labs has tested. The 6436 uses a Ricoh 4150 engine, which is rated at 15 pages per minute (ppm). The 6436 does not support PostScript, but it has HP LaserJet II emulation and 36 internal fonts in 7 typefaces. The SCSI and parallel ports can be active simultaneously for access by multiple users. Although text print speed is the same for the two ports, printing using the SCSI port yields 4.4 graphics ppm, while using the parallel port produces 2.8 graphics ppm. A device driver allows applications that normally print through the parallel port to use the SCSI port, but the driver is currently compatible only with the NCR PC486/MC-25 microcomputer's Micro Channel Architecture SCSI adapter. The printer will be an excellent choice when more drivers are available. Bernoulli's shockproof storage to go. (Iomega Corp.'s Bernoulli Transportable hard disk drive) (Hardware Review) (First Looks) Iomega Corp.'s $1,399 Bernoulli Transportable is a shock-resistant removable hard disk drive that can be moved between computers. The Transportable comes with a single SCSI interface board, but SCSI boards can be purchased separately for $265, and a slower parallel interface kit is available for $199. The 12.38-pound drive measures 9.5 x 2.75 x 11 inches and has an estimated service life of five years. The drive is rated at 60,000 hours mean time between failures and has a one-year warranty. The Transportable is faster than the Bernoulli Box II in most respects, although it is slower than a Compaq hard disk. Disk caching software and archiving, compression, backup and formatting utilities are included. The price is higher than tape backup, but it offers durability and random access capabilities at a lower price than optical storage. Folio Views 2.0 brings new capabilities to infobases. (Folio Corp.'s data base management systems) (Software Review) (First Folio Corp's $695 Folio Views 2.0 combines data base management and utility program features to transform text files into indexed databases. Views converts 41 native file formats into an 'infobase' of text files that are divided into paragraphs, pages or files. The divisions, called 'folios,' are indexed and compressed. Each word in the text is indexed, and a search utility allows word searches using wild card characters and Boolean operators. Hypertext links within or between folios and hot links with other programs can be established. Images in .PCX format can be displayed in Folio Views 2.0, and RealSound audio files are also supported. $47 PKlite compresses .COM and .EXE, leaves the executable. (PKWARE Inc.'s PKlite compression program) (Software Review) PKWARE Inc's $47 PKlite utility program compresses .COM and .EXE files. The files remain executable even without PKlite present. The program is easily operated and takes up less than 14Kbytes. PKlite includes safety features to make uncompressed backups when files are compressed or to return compressed files to their normal format. PKlite can detect features in many programs that will cause problems, and it does not compress such files. The PKlite compression is based upon the algorithm used in PKZIP, but its results are sometimes better. The compressed files are executed at the usual speed, but the loading time of compressed files may be greater. Outside In: a TSR for smart data import. (Systems Compatibility Corp.'s Terminate-and-Stay-Resident utility program) (Software Systems Compatibility Corp's $99 Outside In memory-resident utility program allows data to be imported from applications into word processing software. Outside In supports over 50 file formats and has formatting options for 27 word processor. The built-in definitions can be modified, and new definitions may be added. Outside In displays directory listings from which files may be viewed and selected. Entire files or separate segments of text or data can be selected for import. Formatting options allow text to be underlined or fonts to be switched before the file reaches the target word processing package. Carriage returns can be stripped from paragraphs to assist electronic mail users. Outside In requires 72Kbytes of RAM or 50Kbytes of expanded memory, and configuration is time-consuming. Each application can only have one file to record settings. A five-user network version costs $299. MLAB: quick and easy data analysis for scientists. (Civilized Software Inc.'s mathematical software) (Software Review ) (First Civilized Software Inc's $3,000 MLAB mathematical software is useful for fitting data to equations containing variables and unknown parameters. The equations can be linear or nonlinear. MLAB reports the values of the parameters and can graph results of equations with a single independent variable. MLAB offers a number of basic programming statements and many special functions for use in scientific, statistical and other applications. Two-dimensional graphs can be produced, and surface area contour projections and other special graphs are available. The user interface is clumsy and old-fashioned, and Lotus 1-2-3 data cannot be imported. The program uses a hardware key copy protection scheme. MLAB is not compatible with many memory-resident programs and networks. The price is high, but biological, social and experimental physical scientists may find it useful. What's in a name? (definitions of four computer lingo terms) (column) Coinages proliferate in the computer industry and many definitions are incorrect. Hackers once referred to innocuous individuals pursuing the intricacies of the processor, the operating system or the application until the popular press discovered a group of hacker-like people who were breaking into other computers with malicious intent. Former hackers are now known as adopters or pioneers. Edutainment is a coinage that attempts to convey the sense that software for children can be both educational and entertaining. Entertaining educational programs are the exception to the rule, yet enhanced capabilities of hardware may help salvage the respectability of this kind os software. Intel's 80486 is really a 386DX with a math coprocessor and some cache; it should have been named the 386MX. Multimedia refers to extended video and audio performance coupled with a CD-ROM player. The new generation of Windows displays. (users of Windows 3.0 need highly functional monitors) (column) Video display terminals will adapt to what Windows 3.0 and its users need, affecting the market's display standards and price points. The more prevalent Windows 3.0 becomes, the more users will understand the utility of having several files and programs open on-screen at once. Users need to have fairly large windows so their contents will be readable, thus a large-screen display is necessary. The monitors must also have color capability to help users differentiate between each window. High resolution is also important, and VGA will be replaced by a new standard that offers a bigger picture with more information. Video-display cards will need to include speed-up circuitry for graphics acceleration. Integrated monitor-plus video card packages may emerge. Although the next generation of display systems will be expensive, vendors can feasibly offer a highly functional display for about $1,500. Looking back: 1990 retrospective. (1990 predictions for the computer industry that transpired) (column) A review of 13 predictions for the computer industry during 1990 reveals that it was a key transitional year for the industry. As predicted, the use of personal computers as building blocks for larger systems is overshadowing the former emphasis on individual productivity applications. Micro-based alternatives to costly mainframe and minicomputer systems have gained prevalence during 1990. Predictions that 386-based systems, memory, PostScript printers and other products would decrease dramatically in price have also come true. In addition, predictions that EISA would become the 32-bit bus standard for vendors instead of IBM's MCA bus, that IBM's OS/2 Extended Edition would not be a major success and that IBM, NeXT and Apple would face financial struggles in 1990 have all come to pass. Mainstream muscle. (overview of 45 evaluations of Intel 80386-based microcomputers) (includes related articles on the Microcomputers based on 33-MHz Intel 80386 microprocessors are the best choice for mainstream power users. Selecting a computer can be difficult because so many 33-MHz 386 machines are available. The difference in performance between most of the systems is less than 10 percent on the 80386 Instruction Mix benchmark, so peripheral performance is more an issue than processor performance. All the systems use SRAM memory caching to improve performance. Users should decide how the systems will be used and choose a vendor that offers the suitable configuration at an acceptable price. Many users consider documentation quality and support services when choosing a system. Most vendors bundle Microsoft Windows 3.0, DOS and a mouse, and some will configure the system before delivery. ACMA Computers Inc.: ACMA 386/33 Corporate Workstation. (one of 45 evaluations of Intel 80386-based microcomputers in 'Mainstream ACMA Computer Inc's ACMA 386/33 Corporate Workstation offers average performance at a good price. The $3,295 system is suited for standalone use, though its performance and expandability limitations make it a poor file server choice. The ACMA motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM. The standard configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM and a 64Kbyte SRAM memory cache. Storage devices include an 18-millisecond (ms), 157Mbyte hard disk and 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte drives. The disk drive controller includes a 32Kbyte buffer. Graphics are provided by a Super VGA monitor and video card. The system uses a desktop case with five half-height drive bays and eight expansion slots. ACMA's warranty covers parts for one year and labor for two years, and a Memorex Telex service contract is optional. AGI 3900B: AGI Computer Inc. (one of 45 evaluations of Intel 80386-based microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware AGI Computer Inc's AGI 3900B microcomputer is a well-built system that would perform well as a file server or individual workstation. The system is offered only through value-added resellers (VARs) and consultants, and the $7,438 list price is relatively high, although 25 to 35 percent discounts are available, and VARs will typically set up systems and networks. The 3900B uses an AGI motherboard with 4Mbytes RAM and a 64Kbyte SRAM cache. The motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM but uses 100 nanosecond (ns) DRAM, although the system performance was good. A 14-millisecond (ms), 158Mbyte ESDI hard disk and controller and a 1.2 Mbyte floppy disk are also included. The system uses a Super VGA adapter with 512Kbytes video RAM and a 14-inch monitor. The tower case is rated FCC Class B. A 250-watt supply and six storage device bays are included. American Research Corp: ARC 386/33 Skyscraper. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware American Research Corp's ARC 386/33 Skyscraper microcomputer offers slightly below average performance at a good price. The $3,575 system would be better as a single-user workstation than as a file server. The tested configuration included 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM memory cache, a 15-millisecond (ms), 137Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA card and monitor. ARC's motherboard can hold 16Mbytes of RAM and both Intel 80387 and Weitek 3167 math coprocessors. Two 3.5-inch drive bays and two half-height 5.25-inch drive bays can hold removable media, and an internal 5.25-inch bay can hold one full-height or two half-height drives. The 200-watt power supply comes with only four device leads. The Skyscraper is covered by on-site service from Video Aid Corp a one year warranty on parts and labor. Argo Computers Inc.: Argo Tower 386/33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Argo Computers Inc's Argo Tower 386/33 microcomputer is a re-labeled Orchid system that offers solid performance and extensive drive space at a low price. Argo's $3,534 machine can be used as a file server because it can hold eight disk drives. The Argo Tower's Super VGA monitor and Orchid display board earned the highest video benchmark scores despite average system performance scores. The standard configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, expandable to 8Mbytes on the motherboard plus 12Mbytes on a proprietary expansion board. The machine uses a 32Kbyte SRAM cache and has a 179Mbyte hard drive and a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive. The Argo Tower's tower case includes a 230-watt power supply with only four device power leads. Orchid's warranty covers parts and labor on the video board for four years, on the motherboard for two years and on the other components for one year. No on-site service plan is available. Automated Computer Technology Corp.: ACT386-33FC. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Automated Computer Technology Corp's ACT386-33FC microcomputer is a well-designed machine with good performance and a reasonable price. The $4,450 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of DRAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM memory cache, a 15-millisecond (ms), 167Mbytes hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. ACT's motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of memory, and the SRAM cache can be expanded to 256Kbytes. The motherboard cannot hold a Weitek math coprocessor and an Intel 80387 coprocessor at the same time. ACT's case is rated FCC Class A, and its organization and construction are very high-quality. All five half-height 5.25-inch drive bays can hold removable media. ACT includes on-site service from TRW and a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. Bitwise Designs Inc.: Bitwise 333C. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Bitwise Designs Inc's Bitwise 333C microcomputer offers good performance and room for expansion at a midrange price. The $3,975 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of DRAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 25-millisecond (ms), 100Mbyte hard disk and a 720-by-480 maximum resolution VGA monitor. The Bitwise hard disk performance was below average, but a faster drive would probably improve the speed. The case can hold five half-height 5.25-inch drives or three half-height 5.25-inch drives and four half-height 3.5-inch drives. The Klever Computers motherboard can hold 16Mbytes of SIMM memory. The cache can be expanded to 128Kbytes, but the system performance was high with 64Kbytes installed. Blue Star Marketing: Blue Star 80386-33. (one of 45 evaluations in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review ) (33-MHz 386 PCs) Blue Star Marketing's Blue Star 80386-33 microcomputer has below-average performance and price, but its support services are excellent. The $3,749 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbytes SRAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA card and monitor. The Caching Technologies motherboard has a 32-bit slot for a memory card. The standard card takes up to 8Mbytes of DIP RAM, but a $65 replacement board holds up to 16 1Mbyte Single Inline Memory Modules (SIMMs). The second serial port and the game port on the standard multifunction board block the use of one slot, so the AT I/O Plus card should be requested instead. The desktop case holds five half-height 5.25-inch drives. Blue Star gives a five-year warranty on the motherboard and memory and a one-year warranty on the other system components. TRW on-site service and phone support are included. Brain Computer Corp.: The Brain 386-33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Brain Computer Corp's The Brain 386-33 microcomputer offers good performance and average expandability at a reasonable price. The Brain's $3,820 test configuration includes 4Mbytes RAM, a 32Kbytes SRAM cache, a 16-millisecond (ms), 160Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA board and 800-by-600 maximum resolution monitor. The Brain's video performance is very good. The Cache motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM, and the SRAM cache can be increased to 128Kbytes. The IBM AT-style desktop case holds five half-height 5.25-inch drives, but there are only four device leads from the 200-watt power supply. The large case has rough support pieces. Brain Computer has a one-year warranty on parts and labor and on-site service from General Electric. BSI: BSI 386-33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz 386 PCs) BSI's 386-33 microcomputer offers better than average performance at a low price. The $3,319 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.4Mbyte floppy drive, a 16-millisecond (ms) 158Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA card and monitor. The memory cache can be expanded to 256Kbytes, and up to 8Mbytes of RAM can be held by the Datatech Enterprises motherboard. Another 8Mbytes of RAM can be stored on a 32-bit memory board. The 32-bit slot can be used as an 8-bit expansion slot if the memory board is not used. The tower case and the desktop case both hold five half-height 5.25-inch drive bays. An expansion slot was blocked by the game port and second serial port, but BSI can provide cables to connect the ports to separate connector cutouts. BSI includes a one-year parts and service warranty and phone support. CAF Technology Inc.: CAF Master 386C/33T. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) CAF Technology Inc's CAF Master 386C/33T microcomputer is inexpensive, but its performance is lower than average. The $3,079 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM memory cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The case holds six half-height drive bays in a single stack, so any combination of half-height and full-height drives can be used. The CAF Technology motherboard holds up to 8Mbytes of RAM, but it includes only seven expansion slots. One slot can hold a 16-bit expansion card or a 32-bit memory card to expand the system to 16Mbytes of RAM. CAF Technology provides a one-year warranty and phone service. Clone Computers: Clone 386-33C. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Clone Computers' Clone 386-33C offers good performance, construction and expandability at a relatively low price. The $3,763 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte memory cache, a 160Mbyte hard disk, 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA card and monitor. The Clone has five 5.25-inch, half-height drive bays with outside access and a sixth half-height bay next to the expansion board. The sixth drive must be removed to allow access to the expansion cards. The Mek-Fab motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM. A 32-bit memory card can hold eight additional Mbytes of RAM, or the slot can be used for an 8-bit expansion card. The Clone's processor, memory and video benchmark scores were very high, and the hard disk scores were high for a system without disk caching. The one-year warranty can be extended to five years for $649. CompuAdd Corp.: CompuAdd 333T. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz CompuAdd Corp's 333T microcomputer is an exceptionally fast machine with excellent expansion capability and construction. The $6,024 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, including 640Kbytes of SRAM in conventional memory. The system also includes a 64Kbyte memory cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a disk cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA board with 1Mbyte of video RAM and a Super VGA monitor. The 333T had the best overall performance of all the tested systems. The FCC Class B-rated case holds nine half-height bays arranged in stacks of three and six. All memory is held on a dedicated 32-bit memory board that can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM. The 333T cannot hold both the Weitek 3167 and Intel 80386 math coprocessors simultaneously. Computer Marketplace Inc.: Ultra 386C-33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) Computer Marketplace Inc's Ultra 386C-33 microcomputer offers good performance and attractive styling for a reasonable price. The $3,995 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte SRAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Orchid Technology motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and a 32-bit proprietary memory board can add an additional 8Mbytes. A disk cache controller is available. The jet-black tower case holds a 300-watt power supply, but the cables and wires inside the machine are sloppily arranged. The Focus Electronics FK-5001 keyboard is very good. A two-year parts-and-labor warranty is backed with on-site service from Phoenix Service Technology. Core International: Core 386/33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Core International's Core 386/33 microcomputer is an expensive but fast and rugged machine that can be used as a standalone workstation or as a file server. The $10,785 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte disk cache, a 150Mbyte hard drive, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a VGA board and monitor. The Micronics motherboard can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM, and a 32-bit proprietary expansion board can hold an additional 8Mbytes. The FCC Class A-rated case includes 10 half-height drive bays and a 250-watt power supply. The Focus Electronics keyboard is very good. Core International supplies a one-year parts-and-labor warranty and on-site service from TRW. CSR 386/33: CSR Inc. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz 386 microcomputers) CSR Inc's CSR 386/33 microcomputer is a powerful and versatile machine that should be available at reasonable prices. The list price of the tested configuration is $5,299, but the value-added resellers and dealers who sell the machines will probably reduce the price. The system includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a VGA board and monitor. The FCC Class B-rated case has a door over the front panel that makes the drives warmer than usual. The Hauppauge motherboard holds only 4Mbytes, but a 32-bit proprietary expansion slot holds 8Mbytes of RAM, and five 4Mbyte daughterboards can increase the system RAM to 32Mbytes. The 386/33 will support Intel 80387 and Weitek 3167 math coprocessors simultaneously. The warranty covers parts for two years and labor for one year. The dealer provides on-site service. Digital Equipment Corp.: DECstation 333c. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) DEC's DECstation 333c microcomputer, which is built by Tandy Corp, is a well-constructed machine with good performance, but it is relatively expensive and comes with few open expansion slots. The $6,540 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte SRAM cache, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 19-millisecond (ms), 170Mbyte hard drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. Tandy's motherboard has two 32-bit expansion slots for proprietary memory boards that can hold up to 8Mbytes each. The sturdy, small-footprint chassis is FCC Class B-approved but has only three 16-bit slots open in the tested configuration. The Tandy keyboard is good. DEC's warranty covers parts and labor for one year, but users cannot get service from Tandy's Radio Shack outlets. Dynamic Decisions Inc.: Dynex 386-33. (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') (Hardware Review) (33-MHz Dynamic Decisions Inc.'s Dynex 386-33 microcomputer provides good performance and excellent RAM expandability at a reasonable price. The $4,200 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte disk cache, 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte floppy drives, a 16-millisecond (ms), 150Mbyte hard drive and a Super VGA card and monitor. The AMI motherboard can hold 20Mbytes of RAM, and a daughterboard option allows Intel 80387 and Weitek 1167 math coprocessors to run simultaneously. 8Mbytes of additional RAM can be added via a 32-bit expansion board. The IBM AT-sized desktop case holds five half-height drives and has FCC Class B certification. Overall system performance was in the top third of the reviewed systems. Dynamic Decisions gives a one year warranty on parts and labor with on-site service from TRW. EPS Technologies Inc.: EPS 386-33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream EPS Technologies Inc's EPS 386-33 microcomputer is a new machine that offers good speed at a reasonable price. The $4,020 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 160Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. Quarterdeck's QEMM software is also included. Video performance is particularly high. The EPS motherboard holds up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and an additional 8Mbytes can be installed on an optional 32-bit board. The 32-bit memory board slot can be used as an 8-bit expansion slot instead. The tower case has six half-height drive bays and a 220-watt power supply. EPS claims the system will receive FCC Class B approval. EPS offers a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, and TRW provides on-site service. EPS also has a toll-free technical support line. Everest Computer Corp.: Everest Column 333 Professional. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of Everest Computer Corp's Everest Column 333 Professional microcomputer provides slow performance but a low price. The $3,480 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes of cache RAM, a 147Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The CMP Enterprises motherboard holds up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and a proprietary memory board can add up to 8Mbytes more. The Column does not support video or system BIOS shadowing. The tower case includes an awkward handle and has six half-height, 5.25-inch drive bays. The 235-watt power supply has only four device connectors and makes more noise than most. Fortron Source Corp.: Fortron NetSet 333. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Fortron Source Corp's Fortron NetSet 333 microcomputer is a relatively inexpensive machine distinguished only by its 64Mbyte RAM capacity. The $3,945 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, 151Mbyte hard disk, a floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Fortron motherboard can hold up to 32Mbytes of RAM in 36 DIP and four single inline memory module (SIMM) sockets. A 32-bit daughterboard can hold up to 32Mbytes of additional RAM. The slot can used instead as an 8-bit expansion slot. The NetSet's turbo switch, which should toggle the processor's operation from 33 MHz to 8 MHz, rarely works. The chassis is sturdy, but it has some sharp edges. The drive bays and 220-watt power supply are arranged in the top of the case, making the system slightly unstable. GRiD Systems Corp.: GRiD 386is-33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream GRiD Systems Corp's GRiD 386is-33 microcomputer is a well-made but high-priced machine with limited expansion capability. The $8,449 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, 32Kbytes of cache RAM, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a VGA board and monitor. The GRiD employs an active backplane design with a dedicated slot for the microprocessor and cache and two slots that can hold proprietary 32-bit memory boards or 16-bit option boards. The small-footprint chassis holds two 3.5-inch drive bays and two half-height, 5.25-inch drive bays. The FCC Class B-certified case is sturdy, and the keyboard's action and feedback are good. GRiD designed the system for Tandy, so Tandy peripherals will operate with the system. The GRiD is only sold direct and through value-added resellers, so lower prices may be obtained. Hertz Computer Corp.: Hertz 386/33i. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Hertz Computer Corp's Hertz 386/33i microcomputer is expensive, but its construction is solid and it offers extensive expansion capabilities. The $7,595 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 160Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. Intel Corp builds the system, which includes ten expansion slots. Two are Intel 32-bit bus slots, seven are standard Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus slots and one is an 8-bit slot. The motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and a metal channel directs cooling air over the RAM chips. The case holds four half-height, 5.25-inch drive bays, two full-height bays and a 302-watt power supply. The FCC Class B-rated case is extremely strong, and secondary metal coverings shield the drive bays and expansion boards. The system's performance is average, but the system would make a good file server or workstation. Hyundai Electronics America: Hyundai Super-386T. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Hyundai Electronics America's Hyundai Super-386T microcomputer is a well-built machine that offers very fast performance at a high price. The $7,840 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte hard drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Motherboard Factory motherboard carries two serial and one parallel port and holds up to 8Mbytes of RAM. The Hyundai's overall benchmark performance rated second place. The FCC Class B-rated small-footprint case holds seven expansion slots, two 3.5-inch drive bays, two half-height 5.25-inch drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. Adding an Intel 80387 or Weitek 3167 math coprocessor is easy, but adding RAM requires removing the power supply or the system board. Hyundai's parts-and-labor warranty lasts 18 months, but the system must be taken to the dealer for service. Insight Distribution Network Inc.: Insight 386-33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Insight Distribution Network Inc's Insight 386-33 microcomputer is powerful and inexpensive, but the system's design is unimpressive. The $3,695 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 200MByte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Insight is assembled from generic components rather than custom-designed. Its Armas motherboard holds up to 16Mbytes of RAM in 12 single inline memory module (SIMM) sockets and 36 DIP sockets. The motherboard has six 16-bit slots and two 8-bit slots for expansion boards. The tower case holds a 250-watt power supply, two 3.5-inch drive bays, two half-height 5.25-inch drive bays and an internal full-height bay. The system is covered by one year of on-site service from TRW. Master Computer Inc.: Cascade 386/33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Master Computer Inc's Cascade 386/33 microcomputer offers undistinguished but respectable performance and name-brand components at a low-to-midrange price. The $4,495 system includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Micronics motherboard can hold 32Kbytes or 64Kbytes of cache SRAM, but all system RAM is held on a 32-bit memory board. The board can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and a daughtercard can hold an additional 8Mbytes. The monitor's highest resolution is 800-by-600, but the video board supports 1,024-by-768 resolution. The mini-tower case has a nice layout, but the cover is too tight and is difficult to put back on. The case includes five 3.5-inch drive bays and three half-height, 5.25-inch drive bays. The system documentation is poorly-written and uninformative. A one-year warranty covers parts and labor. Service is provided by dealers or by phone. Matrix Digital Products Inc.: Matrix 386/33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Matrix Digital Products Inc.'s Matrix 386/33 microcomputer lacks polish and documentation, but its performance is respectable, its construction is solid, and its price is acceptable. The $4,880 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes of cache SRAM, a 159Mbyte hard drive, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Micronics motherboard is neatly arranged and can hold a maximum of 4Mbytes of RAM. Matrix includes a 32-bit memory card that will accept up to 16Mbytes of RAM. The system will accept a maximum of 16Mbytes of RAM, so the motherboard or the memory card's bank 0 must be left empty. The motherboard has seven 16-bit slots but no 8-bit slots. The FCC Class A-rated case holds two full-height drive bays, two half-height, 5.25-inch bays and two 3.5-inch bays. The disk controller's 8Kbyte buffer should be fully populated to 32Kbytes to improve disk performance. Memorex Telex Corp.: Memorex Telex 7075. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Memorex Telex Corp's 7075 microcomputer is a slightly modified AST Premium 386/33 that offers high quality at a high price. The $11,619 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 16-millisecond (ms), 160Mbyte hard drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. AST's system board has three 32-bit slots that are used for the processor board and two 16Mbyte memory boards. The processor board can hold 4Mbytes of RAM to hold the system maximum of 36Mbytes. The FCC Class B-rated chassis holds one full-height and three half-height drive bays. Memorex Telex includes AST's well-written users manual. The parts-and-labor warranty provides 90 days of on-site service or one year of carry-in service. The on-site service can be extended to one year for $35. The system is slow, but users who want Memorex Telex's service and support may overlook its price and performance. Micro Telesis Inc.: MT 386DX. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') Micro Telesis Inc's MT 386DX microcomputer offers respectable performance at an extremely low price, but the system's motherboard was poorly mounted, and the Micro Telesis support staff had difficulty providing correct answers to some simple questions. The $2,899 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The SIC Inc motherboard holds 16Mbytes of RAM, but the board's alternate processor speed is 16 MHz, which is probably too fast for some software. The RAM cache can be expanded to 256Kbytes. The disk controller has a 32Kbyte track buffer and can support three floppy drives. The case holds five half-height drive bays with front-panel access. The front panel is covered by a door. The parts-and-labor warranty lasts 13 months, but the technical staff had trouble identifying the motherboard in the test machine. Mitsuba Corp.: Mitsuba 386-33. (33-MHz 386 PCs) (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle') Mitsuba Corp's 386-33 microcomputer is a sturdy, low-cost system with good design and acceptable performance. The $3,895 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 144Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Micronics motherboard holds 4Mbytes of RAM, and a 32-bit memory card can hold 16Mbytes, but the system accepts a maximum of 16Mbytes. The FCC Class B-certified desktop case is made of heavy-gauge metal and holds one full-height drive bay and two half-height bays. The Mitsuba processor and memory benchmark scores were high, but its video speed was average. Disk benchmark scores were low because of the hard drive's slow access time and the lack of disk controller buffer. Mitsuba includes component manuals, but no system documentation is included. MultiMicro Inc.: MMI-3364T. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 MultiMicro Inc's MMI-3364T microcomputer offers decent performance and comes with one year of on-site service, but the list price is too high for the machine's mediocre craftsmanship. The $4,495 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 150Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA graphics board and a VGA monitor. The Technology Power motherboard does not support system or video BIOS shadowing. The motherboard will hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional storage can be placed on a 32-bit memory card. A slot on the test system was blocked by two ports, which had not been mounted in the port cutouts. Power leads and ribbon cable were secured by masking tape, but MultiMicro says it has stopped using masking tape inside machines. The documentation was poorly presented. MultiMicro provides phone service once the on-site service has expired. Novacor Inc.: Novas Optimum 386-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 Novacor Inc's Novas Optimum 386-33 microcomputer offers flexibility and high performance at a reasonable price, but its interior craftsmanship is substandard. The $3,795 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte floppy drives, a 158Mbyte hard disk, a Super VGA board and a VGA monitor. The Novas programmable chip set allows users to change the status of features such as wait states and RAM shadowing. The motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of Single In-line Package (SIP) RAM, but the chips block the use of a full-length card in one expansion slot. The mini-tower case is FCC Class A-rated. The clock batteries were taped to the power supply, blocking ventilation, and a lamp cord connects the power switch and the 200-watt power supply. The speaker is not covered by a protective screen. Novacor gives a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. Peregrine Computers: Peregrine 386/33SF. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz Peregrine Computers' Peregrine 386/33SF microcomputer offers average performance at a fairly low price. The $3,999 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 161Mbyte hard disk, 1.2 and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a Super VGA board and monitor, and a mouse. The IBM PC-sized Atronics motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional RAM can be stored on a 32-bit memory board. The motherboard will accept an 80287, 80387 or Weitek 3167 math coprocessor. Processing speed was better than average, and graphics performance was very good, but the hard disk was rather slow. The small-footprint case currently has only FCC Class A certification, and users who want more than three drive bays should request an IBM AT-style or tower case. The system construction is sturdy, and the technical support staff is helpful. The 386/33SF is covered by a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. Precision Systems Group: Precision 386/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz Precision Systems Group Inc's Precision 386/33 microcomputer uses quality components, can use 80387 and Weitek 3167 math coprocessors simultaneously and can accept 64Mbytes of RAM, but its performance is sluggish and its construction seems flimsy. The $4,265 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, a Cyrix FasMath coprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 152Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Hauppauge motherboard can hold 4Mbytes of RAM, and a 32-bit card can hold an additional 16Mbytes of memory. Precision Systems Group plans to release a daughterboard to increase system memory to the 64Mbyte limit. The processor, video and hard disk benchmark scores were below average, and the desktop case is only FCC Class A-certified. The chassis was strained and warped without the cover on, but the components have a two-year warranty, and the system has a standard one-year warranty. Premier Innovations Inc.: Premier 9200. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz Premier Innovations Inc's Premier 9200 microcomputer is sturdy, expandable and affordable, but its poor processor and hard disk performance reduce its appeal for use as a file server. The $3,900 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 177Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Tatung motherboard holds up to 128Kbytes of cache RAM, but it holds only 4Mbytes of RAM. A proprietary memory board can add up to 12Mbytes of additional memory. The FCC Class B-rated tower case has six half-height drive bays, eight expansion slots and a 230-watt power supply. The Premier's system performance ranked in the bottom third, and its hard disk access times were the slowest in the evaluation. The keyboard is flimsy and unpleasant to use. Premier Innovations provides one year of TRW on-site service. Quill Corp.: QTech 386-33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 Quill Corp's QTech 386-33 microcomputer offers acceptable performance and construction at an acceptable price, although the system does not distinguish itself from other machines in its class. The $4,040 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy drive, a 158Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a 32-bit board. The hard disk's small record access times were low, but large record access is faster. The FCC Class B-rated desktop chassis holds three half-height and one full-height drive. SAI Systems Laboratories Inc.: SAI 386/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz SAI Systems Laboratories Inc's SAI 386/33 microcomputer lacks documentation and polish, but its low price and acceptable performance may be enticing to business users. The $3,395 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and card. The 80-Data motherboard can accept up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and an add-in card can hold up to 8Mbytes of additional memory. The desktop case has only an FCC Class A rating, and the chassis flexes without the cover on. The case has five half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. The slow disk controller limits hard disk speeds, but the video performance is very good. SAI Systems does not include any manuals to assist with system configuration. Swan Technologies: Swan 386/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 Swan Technologies' Swan 386/33 microcomputer is a fast, expandable system with excellent video performance and a reasonable price. The $44,344 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes of cache RAM, a 200Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy disks and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Micronics ASIC motherboard can hold only 4Mbytes of RAM, but an additional 12Mbytes can be added on a 32-bit memory board. The system's strong processor and video benchmark results are achieved without BIOS and video shadowing. The system's large record disk access results are not impressive, but Swan does not offer an Enhanced Small Device Interface (ESDI) hard disk to improve the results. Swan's FCC Class A-rated tower case holds six half-height drives and a 230-watt power supply. Tandon North America: Tandon 386/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 Tandon North America's Tandon 386/33 microcomputer has excellent hard disk performance, but the system as a whole has only average performance and a midrange price. The $4,999 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 200 Mbyte hard disk, a 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a mouse and a Super VGA board and monitor. The Micronics/Tandon motherboard holds the 64Kbytes of cache RAM, but all system memory is stored on a 32-bit add-in card. The memory card can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and a daughtercard can hold up to 8Mbytes of additional memory. The Tandon hard disk's large record throughput was the second-fastest in the group, but the video performance is below average in most benchmarks. Tandon offers good manuals, a one-year warranty covering parts and labor, and optional on-site service contracts. Tatung Co. of America Inc.: Tatung TCS-8600T/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Tatung Co. of America Inc's Tatung TCS-8600T/33 microcomputer offers premium features and performance at a premium price. The $5,499 test configuration includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 150Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a VGA board and monitor. The Tatung motherboard can only hold 4Mbytes of RAM, but 12Mbytes of additional memory can be installed on a daughterboard. The RAM cache can be expanded to 128Kbytes. The FCC Class B-rated tower case has six half-height drive bays and a 230-watt power supply. The Tatung monitor is very good, but the video card did not perform well on the benchmark tests. Tatung provides a manual that is helpful for first-time users, and a 120-day on-site service contract from Memorex Telex is included. The one-year warranty covers parts and labor, and Tatung's telephone service staff is fast and reliable. Televideo Systems Inc.: Televideo Tele386e. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz Televideo Systems Inc's Televideo Tele386e microcomputer is quite expensive, but its performance is good, and Televideo's service and support are commendable. The $7,609 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte SRAM cache, a 1.2Mbyte floppy disk, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a VGA board and monitor. The motherboard is a strong performer that can hold 8Mbytes of RAM. Additional memory is added via a 32-bit board that uses slow 100-nanosecond chips. The hard disk Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) does not yield good access time for small records, but the disk was one of the five fastest in the large record access test. The video board gives slow performance on the video BIOS routine tests. The desktop case has an FCC Class A rating, but Televideo indicates that a Class B rating will be forthcoming. The documentation is more useful for experienced users than for novices. Tenex Computer Express: Tenex 386C-33 Power Column. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Tenex Computer Express' Tenex 386C-33 Power Column microcomputer offers sturdy construction, capable performance, good service and a low price. The $3,965 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a VGA board and monitor, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a 32Kbyte disk cache. The FCC Class B-rated tower case has five half-height drive bays and a 200-watt power supply. The power, reset and turbo buttons are poorly-marked. The DTK motherboard can hold 8Mbytes of system RAM, and 8Mbytes of additional memory can be stored on a 32-bit expansion board. The disk cache was disabled for the benchmark testing, so the slow access times are misleading. The graphics board is slow unless it uses video BIOS shadowing. Only component manuals are included, but Tenex offers phone support, a 30-day money-back guarantee, a two-year warranty and one year of on-site service from TRW. Texas Micro Systems Inc.: Texas Micro Systems 3014. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Texas Micro Systems Inc's Texas Micro Systems 3014 microcomputer is costly and offers only average performance, but it has 14 expansion slots and is designed for rack-mounting in industrial situations. The $8,515 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.44Mbyte and 1.2Mbyte floppy drives, a 150Mbyte hard disk and a Super VGA board and monitor. The system is sturdy and designed to avoid damage from dust and vibration. The case can hold two full-height drives and a 3.5-inch half-height drive, but Texas Micro Systems does not offer hard disks larger than 104Mbytes. The 3014 uses a backplane with a CPU card that can hold up to 16Mbytes of RAM. The cache can be increased to 128Kbytes. The system's performance was below average except on the video benchmarks. Transource Computers: Verxion 386/33. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz 386 Transource Computers' Verxion 386/33 microcomputer offers good performance and comes fully-equipped for $3,699. The standard configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, 64Kbytes of cache RAM, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 150Mbyte hard drive and a Super VGA board and monitor. The motherboard includes serial and parallel ports and a PS/2 mouse port. Up to 8Mbytes of RAM can be stored on the motherboard, and two 32-bit memory boards can each hold up to 16Mbytes of additional RAM. The RAM cache can be expanded to 128Kbytes. The tower case can hold three full-height drives. The standard hard disk is not fast, but Transource offers other drive options. The Verxion's processor and video scores were about average. Unisys Corp.: Unisys Personal Workstation Series 800/33A. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in Unisys Corp's Unisys Personal Workstation 800/33A microcomputer is an overpriced system with particularly poor hard disk performance. The $9,970 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 4Mbytes of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive, a 140Mbyte hard disk, a VGA card and a Super VGA monitor. The motherboard can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM, and two 32-bit boards holding up to 8Mbytes each can bring the system to its 24Mbyte RAM limit. The FCC Class B-rated case is called a tower case, but it includes rubber feet for desktop alignment. The case must be placed on its side to be opened. The case holds two full-height and one half-height drive bays. Video performance fared better in the video BIOS tests than in the Direct to Screen test. Unisys has an on-site service option. Wang Laboratories Inc.: Wang PC 350/33C. (Hardware Review) (one of 45 evaluations of microcomputers in 'Mainstream Muscle')(33-MHz Wang Laboratories Inc's Wang PC 350/33C microcomputer offers good performance and construction for a premium price. The $10,130 test configuration includes a 33-MHz 80386 microprocessor, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives, a 200Mbyte hard disk and a VGA board and monitor. The Micronics motherboard holds 4Mbytes of RAM, and 12Mbytes of additional memory can be added via a 32-bit board. A motherboard switch controls video and system BIOS shadowing. The processor and memory benchmark results were impressive, and the video system produced excellent video BIOS test scores. The small-footprint case has an FCC Class A rating and a 145-watt power supply. Total recall: contact management software. (overview of 15 evaluations of contact management software packages) (includes Fifteen contact management software packages designed for business use are evaluated. Most of the packages store contact names, phone numbers and addresses, but they also record conversation topics and include appointment schedulers. The packages often focus on a specific user group; for example, packages intended for telemarketing use typically allow very large databases, while packages intended for use by field sales staff are compact and integrated. Act! 2.0, Action Plus 4.02, Biz*BAse Gold 1.1, Business Contacts and Information Manager 1.1, Eighty/20 Advanced 2.23, Instant-Office 3.93, Integrated Sales Manager 2.0, Keep TraX 2.08, Maximizer 2.0, Pro$ell 1.9, Pursuit 2.2, Sales Ally 3.10, SalesPro, TeleMagic 11.0 and TeleSell 2.0h are reviewed. Act! (Contact Software International Inc.'s Act! 2.0 personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Contact Software International Inc's Act! 2.0 personal information management system earns the Editor's Choice award because it is powerful and easy to use. The package allows users to exit to another application program and return, and it occupies only 10Kbytes of RAM while it is inactive. The Act! 2.0 interface allows users to pull down menus from a single menu bar and works with the keyboard or a mouse. The program includes a word processor, an expense recorder, a calendar and a scheduler. The number of sales calls and tasks is unlimited. The expense-recording functions include a timer to record phone call durations. Act! 2.0 includes nine standard reports and allows custom report generation. The package lacks password entry and does not allow task prioritization. Unfinished tasks are not automatically added to the next day's list, and client information cannot be copied from one entry to another. Action Plus. (Action Plus Software's Action Plus 4.02 personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Action Plus Software's $495 Action Plus 4.02 personal information management system allows users to attach graphics to contact entries. This unique feature allows salespeople to see images of inventory items to describe them to customers. Action Plus includes a notepad, calendar, a report generator, expense records, appointment records and 20 form letters and telemarketing scripts. The package can assign identification numbers and labels to records to simplify searches. Extensive contact information can be recorded. The package does not include a calculator, and it takes up large amounts of memory. It cannot be used as a memory-resident program, so it must be launched in order to be used. A network version can be purchased for $1,495. Biz*Base Gold. (Creagh Computer Systems Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Creagh Computer Systems Inc's $175 Biz*Base Gold 1.1 has several useful features, but it lacks consistency and polish compared to the other reviewed packages. Biz*Base's character-based user interface is attractive, and the client data fields allow a entry of large amounts of information, but the function key assignments are difficult to learn and remember. The context-sensitive help feature does not always provide useful information, and the manual is poorly organized, typed and indexed. Users must use printer Escape codes because printer support is not included. Data in dBase form can be imported into Biz*Base fields, although data in fixed-length format or separated by commas must be in precise Biz*Base format. Although the package includes a calculator, scheduling and alarm features, it lacks many features and its interface is awkward. Business Contacts and Information Manager. (Disk-Count Software Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) Disk-Count Software Inc's Business Contacts and Information Manager 1.1 (BCIM) personal information management system is inexpensive and easy to use, but it has fewer features and more limitations than most contact management packages. BCIM is easily installed on a laptop computer in a condensed version, and the package includes an on-line tutorial. The character-based interface includes context-sensitive help via hot keys. The Client Profile screen displays all client information, but it limits city names to 15 characters and only accepts US ZIP codes. The package also includes an auto-dialer, mail-merge and limited word-processing functions and several business letter and report templates. The scheduler has a reminder feature to indicate daily tasks that have not been performed. All appointments on the scheduler must be linked to clients, and the scheduler does not warn about conflicting appointments. Eighty/20 Advanced. (Eighty/20 Software Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Eighty/20 Software Inc's $395 Eighty/20 Advanced 2.23 personal information management system is an average package distinguished only by its complex script-building features. Eighty/20 uses dBase III data files, but the file structure is not documented, and data import and export requires printing reports to disk. Contact name fields include first and last names, so searching based solely on last names is not as simple as it should be. Word processing features and font support are limited, but the program's call-scripting features allow users to develop branched scripts that record client responses at each decision point. The documentation is inelegant but useful and well-indexed, and the program itself can fit on two 1.2Mbyte or 1.44Mbyte floppy disks. Instant-Office. (Dilworth Software Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of Dilworth Software Inc's $199 Instant-Office 3.93 personal information management system is uneven because the package has been updated so frequently, but it has many useful features. Instant-Office's best feature is its ability to work with outside word processors. When word processing is required, the Instant-Office shells to DOS and calls the word processing software with the client's record document. One drawback of this method is that the list of tasks to be done must be manually updated from the word processor. Instant-Office does not include a calendar. The user interface changes from function to function, and many of the screens and controls are poorly designed. The program has two known bugs that Dilworth Software says will be fixed. The program can fit on one 1.2Mbyte floppy disk, and it supports many facsimile boards. Integrated Sales Manager. (ASELCO Ltd.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of ASELCO Ltd's $495 Integrated Sales Manager personal information management system is a basic but fast package intended for sales personnel with heavy telephone support duties. The menu-based interface is simple, but navigation through the menus is awkward. Integrated Sales Manager includes a calendar, memo writer, expense tracker, alarm, invoice writer, contact database and sales call manager. The memo writer is very limited, the contact database has a limited number of screens and user-defined reports are not included. The package is very fast, and it is targeted for new users, but its limitations make it a poor choice for most situations. KeepTraX. (O.T. Software Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of 15 O.T. Software Inc's $149.95 KeepTraX personal information management system for telemarketers shows promise, but its limitations outweigh its strengths. KeepTraX uses 512Kbytes of RAM, and it is not memory-resident, so users without extensive memory must leave the program to launch another application program. The package is easy to use, but its features are very basic. The program's main drawback is the inflexibility of its pre-configured data fields. KeepTraX allows Boolean search criteria and can display up to 21 contacts on the screen simultaneously. Printer support is included, and data output can be formatted. A text-editor is included, and both .DBF and ASCII files can be imported. The Maximizer. (Richmond Technologies and Software Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Richmond Technologies and Software's $295 The Maximizer 2.0 personal information management system offers fast operation, extensive sales support and ease of use. Maximizer's pop-up menus are easily accessed, although information can be hidden under levels of menus. The program does not allow mouse support. Maximizer's database can group individuals in organizations under the organization's record. Automatic dialing, and a call log and timer are included, along with a small word processor, a daily calendar and an expense log. Maximizer has no appointment alarm or log for recording interaction with contacts. Only one database is allowed, so multiple users may have trouble using the program on one computer. File import, export, and merging are complicated, and only ASCII files can be imported. Pro$ell. (Sales Management Systems Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of Sales Management Systems Inc.'s $149 Pro$ell 1.9 personal information management system is a compact package intended for use by traveling sales personnel. The package uses about 410Kbytes of disk space, so it can be used on one disk in a portable computer. The Pro$ell menu system is easy to use, and the manual is brief and well-written. The package includes features such as listing client street names within a ZIP code and, and time and expense tracking. Pro$ell can use 100 databases, so clients can be divided into territories. The limitations of the program include restrictions on the size and arrangement of each client record, limitations on the text editing and mail merge features. No phone dialer or appointment calendar are included, although Sales Management Systems has released Pro$ell Plus, which includes more features. Pursuit. (Information Management Consultants Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Information Management Consultants Inc's $795 Pursuit 2.2 personal information management system allows users to develop and follow a marketing strategy. Pursuit users create a marketing path, and the software automatically schedules client contact to support the path. Client record formats and customer assistance responses can be generated or customized. Over 50 report templates and a custom report generator are included, along with a calendar, word processor and auto dialer. Files can be exported to popular word processing programs for mail merging. The wide range of features makes the program difficult to learn and use, and the character-based interface does not provide users with much assistance. The menus are not intuitive, and the manual and on-line help feature do not provide much assistance. Information Management Consultants provides a support line to assist with training. Sales Ally. (Scherrer Resources Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of Scherrer Resources Inc's $395 Sales Ally 3.10 personal information management system offers a wide range of features and integrates well with other programs and multiple users. Sales Ally uses a basic data-entry screen that is tied to the program's features. Ten fields in the data screen accept user-defined information, which can be limited by type. Records can be linked to indicate corporate hierarchies and allow rapid movement between employees of a single company. The word processing feature includes HP LaserJet font support, but external word processing packages can also be used because Sales Ally occupies only 10Kbytes of RAM while inactive. The package is too large for a laptop without a hard disk, and the user interface is occasionally inconsistent. SalesPro. (SoftPro Group's personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of 15 evaluations of SoftPro Group's $195 SalesPro personal information management system offers a good variety of sales-related features at a low price. The program is easy to use, but the client database can be customized to user specifications. SalesPro has several methods for database searching, and search strategies can be saved in macro form. Client information is stored in a standard format that can be easily exported to other software packages. SalesPro's phone dialer is too simple to perform some common tasks, and the word processor, calendar and to-do list also lack features common to most contact management software. Despite these limitations, SalesPro's features are numerous. Mail merge, label generation, a calculator, expense and inventory tracker, file protection, a tax worksheet and a stock manager are all included. TeleMagic. (RemoteControl International Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Remote Control International Inc's $495 TeleMagic 11.0 personal information management system is intended for use in telemarketing, but its wide range of features, flexibility and ease of use make it a good general contact manager. TeleMagic's pop-up menu system is simple to follow, but it does not become inhibitive for experienced users. The package includes 20 fields in its data entry screen, but the existing fields can be modified and up to 78 more can be added. Help screens and scripts can be added to provide information during phone conversations. Many predefined reports are included, and data can be imported and exported using fixed-length ASCII or dBase III format. TeleMagic uses only 10Kbytes of RAM while inactive, so other applications can be launched from the DOS shell. One limitation is that a single company record cannot include separate contact records. TeleSell. (TeleVell Inc.'s personal information management system) (Software Review) (Contact Management)(one of 15 evaluations of TeleVell Inc's $695 TeleSell 2.0h sales and marketing software includes a module for documenting sales contacts in a powerful relational database form. The package also includes a module for sales, marketing and forecasting management and a module that allows system administrators to oversee the functions of the other modules. TeleSell allows users to use external word processing and spreadsheet packages to work with information from its database. The package occupies only 7Kbytes while inactive. An unlimited number of contacts and products can be linked by company. The telephone function determines whether phone numbers are local or long distance, and area codes are added to calls made from remote locations. The TeleSell on-line help feature video tutorial are helpful. Endurance tests: portable computing. (overview of 13 evaluations of portable computers and peripherals) (Hardware Review) Six portable computers, three liquid crystal display panels, four removable hard disk drives, two pocket network adapters and a portable printer are tested for endurance in field use. The products were selected because of good reviews in previous PC Magazine evaluations. The tested portable computers include Dell Computer Corp's 316LT, Dolch Computer Systems Inc's V-PAC 386-25C, IBM's PS Dell Computer Corp.: Dell 316LT. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and Dell Computer Corp's $3,399 Dell Computer System 316LT portable computer offers durable construction and good performance. The 316LT's 16.5-pound bulk and off-center handle prevents the computer from being easily carried, but the system could be used on a desktop without problems. The system includes an 80386SX microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk and a VGA liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The hard disk is fast and quiet. The 83-key keyboard's layout is good, but the key movement is stiff. The black-on-white display's detachable screen suffered from slight banding, but most graphics were well-displayed. The battery pack lasts around 90 minutes, and the battery can be changed without shutting down the power to the machine. The technical support staff at Dell is helpful but difficult to reach. Dolch Computer Systems: Dolch V-PAC 386-25C. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and Dolch Computer Systems Inc's $8,490 Dolch V-PAC 386-25C offers desktop power in a luggable package. The 19-pound unit includes a 25-MHz 80386 microprocessor and an 80387 math coprocessor, a 32Kbyte RAM cache, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, a VGA graphics board and an 11-inch gas plasma screen. The system can accept up to 16Mbytes of RAM, a hard disk up to 200Mbytes, a second floppy drive and four 16-bit expansion cards. The orange-on-black screen is easy to use for long periods of time, but the screen ran hot using some applications. The keyboard's size and feel are good, but the cable is short and inflexible. The case is sturdy, but the reset button can set off too easily. IBM Corp.: IBM PS/2 Model P70 386. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and IBM's $14,129 PS/2 P70 386 portable computer offers power and quality at a premium price. The 21-pound P70 uses an 80386 microprocessor and an 80387 math coprocessor and includes 8Mbytes of RAM, a 120Mbyte hard disk, a 2,400 bps modem, an IBM 3270 emulator card, a 1.44Mbyte floppy drive and a VGA gas plasma display. The screen can be used for long periods without causing eye strain. The hard disk is fast and reliable, and the memory and modem functioned perfectly. Accessing the motherboard is easy, and the handle is well-designed, but the rear case cover is not sturdy and the keyboard cable is stiff. PC Brand Inc.: PC Brand 386/25 Cache Portable III. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable PC Brand Inc's $4,784 386/25 Cache Portable III portable computer offers power and sturdy construction for a low price, but it lacks the finish of some name-brand computers. The 25-pound computer uses a 25-MHz 80386 microprocessor with a 32Kbyte RAM cache. The unit also includes 4Mbytes of RAM, a 100Mbyte hard disk, 1.2Mbyte and 1.44Mbyte floppy drives and a VGA gas plasma display. The display does not have good contrast, and the reset button can be accidentally pushed, but the compact keyboard is easy to use. The case is well-built, but it has only FCC Class A rating. It took an average of 10 minutes to reach PC Brand's telephone support staff, but the staffers are helpful and patient. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.: Toshiba T5200/100. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's $8,897 Toshiba T5200/100 portable computer is powerful and reliable, despite problems with screen heat. The 19-pound unit includes a 20-MHz 80386 microprocessor, 2Mbytes of RAM, a 100Mbyte hard disk and a VGA gas plasma display. The T5200/100's construction is rugged, but the tested unit's display failed. The technical support staff is helpful and knowledgeable, but one technician had difficulty with troubleshooting. The keyboard's layout and response are not ideal. The machine worked as a desktop machine, although using an external monitor would be a good choice. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc: Toshiba T3100SX. (portable computer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of Toshiba America Information Systems Inc's $7,446 T3100SX portable offers power, expandability and reliability with only minor drawbacks. The 16-pound unit includes a 16-MHz 80386SX microprocessor, a 40Mbyte hard disk, a 2,400-bps modem and a VGA gas plasma display. The modem works well without built-in error correction, and installation is simple. Memory upgrades to the system's 13Mbyte maximum are also simple. The carrying case is well-designed except for external Velcro strips that catch on clothing. The keyboard layout is cramped, and the cursor keys are difficult to access. The batteries did not last longer than 2 hours under heavy use, and the display lacks manual brightness and contrast controls. In Focus System Inc.: In Focus 480C PC Viewer, In Focus 480CX PC Viewer. (liquid crystal display panels) (Hardware Review) (one of In Focus Systems Inc's $3,995 480C PC Viewer and $4,495 480CX PC Viewer portable liquid crystal display panels produce acceptable color presentations, but their color limitations prevent the panels from being adequate for VGA use. The 480C can project 640 by 480 dots per inch (dpi) resolution in eight colors, and the 480CX offers 64 colors, but neither display adequately portrays 256-color VGA images. The panels themselves are easy to set up and adjust, but the quality of the overhead projector used with the panels greatly influenced the quality of the presentations. In Focus Systems offers an excellent portable overhead projector, but the combined weight of the panel and projector may be prohibitive for mobile use. The panels are very rugged and are easily moved. In Focus Systems recently released the 5000CX, which displays 5,000 colors. NView Corp.: ViewFrame II+2. (liquid crystal display screen) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and NView Corp's ViewFrame II+2 black-and-white liquid crystal display panel offers portability and sharp images at a low price. The panel is plagued by ghosting, and frequent manual adjustments are required because shades are not consistent between images. The image quality is particularly good with text and non-colored source images, but the quality varied with the quality of the overhead projector used with the panel. Dark backgrounds tend to shimmer once the panel heats up. The nView Toteboard is an infrared keyboard for remote control of presentations. Iomega Corp.: Bernoulli Box II. (removable hard disk drive) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and Iomega Corp's $2,599 Bernoulli Box II removable hard disk drive offers unlimited storage and transparent use. The drive uses 44Mbyte cartridges, and although the 32-millisecond access time is not fast, it is sufficient for most uses. The drive can be used for booting the system, backing up files or storing extra data and software. The evaluated unit had problems with cartridge chirping, but Iomega representatives say only one percent of the Bernoulli cartridges chirp. The chirping stops if the cartridges are not left spinning in the drive, but this solution makes the Bernoulli Box less simple to use. When the test unit mysteriously ruined some cartridge data, Iomega replaced the unit under warranty. Plus Development Corp.: Passport. (removable hard disk drive) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable computers and Plus Development Corp's $1,454 Passport removable hard disk drive offers simple installation, durable construction and acceptable performance. The 2.5-pound, 40Mbyte drive has 28-millisecond access time and an automatic head-parking system. The documentation is well-written, and Plus Development's technical support staff is helpful. The drive's access time does not seem as slow as its rating indicates, and the Passport performs reliably. The drive can withstand a great deal of physical abuse without altering its predicable performance. The Passport can be used to transport data or secure sensitive data. Tandon Corp.: Tandon Ad Pac and Personal Data Pac. (removable hard disk drive) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable Tandon Corp's Ad Pac and Personal Data Pac removable hard disk drive system is durable and easily installed and used, but the drive is slow and lacks a method of manually ejecting the drive from the housing. The $770 combined system stores 30Mbytes and has an 85-millisecond access time. The controller card includes a 128Kbyte disk cache to improve the drive's speed. The Data Pac can tolerate heavy physical abuse, and the drive works with all types of software. The drive can only be ejected through software, so if the computer system crashes, the card, docking station and drive must be taken to another system to eject the Data Pac. Xircom Inc.: Xircom Pocket Token-Ring Adapter, Xircom Pocket Ethernet Adapter. (communications boards for portable computers) Xircom Inc's $845 Pocket Token-Ring Adapter and $595 Pocket Ethernet Adapter are external network cards that can be used with most portable computers, but installation and use is so simple that the cards can also be used to temporarily network microcomputers. The cards weigh 5 ounces and plug into the computer's parallel port. The adapter and its network connector add 6 inches or more to the system depth unless a flexible cable is used to reposition the adapter. The adapter does not currently allow a printer to share the parallel port, but Xircom has developed a $95 printer adapter to allow port sharing. The network adapters are slightly slower than ordinary bus cards, but the performance difference is barely noticeable. Eastman Kodak Co.: Kodak Diconix Model 150 Plus. (portable printer) (Hardware Review) (one of 13 evaluations of portable Eastman Kodak Co's $519 Kodak Diconix 150 Plus portable ink-jet printer is small but useful and well-designed. The printer can fit in a portable computer case's side pocket, and it uses readily-available nickel-cadmium batteries. The printer's printhead and ink supply are easily replaced, but the replacement cartridge must be primed by poking a paper clip into the ink supply, so the job could become messy. The replacement cartridges are packaged in foil, but the cartridge and its packaging could be broken open by rough handling. The print quality is generally good, although draft mode print is faint and the higher-quality modes cause wicking on plain paper. Color page printers. (overview of five evaluations of color page printers) (Hardware Review) (includes related article on editors' Six color page printers, including five thermal transfer printers and one color laser printer, are evaluated. The thermal transfer printers offer more features than their 1989 counterparts, but they cost significantly less. The thermal transfer printers all use a form of PostScript and offer Pantone color simulation and 300-dots-per-inch resolution. The reviewed thermal printers are NEC Technologies Inc's $8,995 Colormate PS, Seiko Instruments Inc's $6,999 ColorPoint PS 4, Oce Graphics USA Inc's $8,990 OceColor, QMS Inc's $8,995 ColorScript 100 10 and Tektronix Inc's $7,995 Phaser PX. Canon USA Inc's $83,050 Color Laser Copier 500 is a combination color copier, optical scanner and color printer. The Canon Color Laser Copier 500: first of its kind. (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations in 'Color Page Printers') Canon USA Inc's $83,050 Canon Color Laser Copier 500 (CLC 500) combines an optical scanner and a color laser printer to provide color printing and copying. The copy engine is rated for five 4-color copies per minute or six 3-color copies per minute on 8.5-by-11-inch paper. The CLC 500's Intelligent Processing Unit (IPU) manages communications between a microcomputer and the CPC 500. The IPU also stores in-process graphics in up to 24Mbytes of RAM. The large printer requires a low-humidity environment and a dedicated AC line. The printer cannot perfectly match colors between originals and copies, and the machine may need adjustment to produce a close match. The Seiko ColorPoint PS 4: still in the wings. (Seiko Instruments Inc.'s pre-production thermal transfer color printer) (Hardware Seiko Instruments Inc's $6,999 ColorPoint PS 4 thermal transfer color printer offers 300 dots per inch (dpi) output, PostScript compatibility, output of 0.86 text pages per minute (ppm) and 0.35 graphics ppm, excellent color quality and a maximum RAM capacity of 34Mbytes at a low price. The ColorPoint PS 4 uses roll paper that allows a print area of 8.2-by-10.7-inches. The printer can handle letter-size, A4-size or A Super-sized paper. The parallel, serial, Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) and AppleTalk interfaces can be used simultaneously, and a second SCSI port allows a hard disk to store downloadable fonts. The evaluated unit was a pre-production model with some faulty ROM, but the problem should be corrected in production units. NEC Technologies Inc.: NEC Colormate PS. (color thermal printer) (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations in 'Color Page NEC Technologies Inc's $8,995 NEC Colormate PS color thermal transfer printer offers 300-dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution in black, three colors or four colors. The NEC print engine produces black text at 2.8 pages per minute (ppm) and graphics at 0.5 ppm. The Colormate PS includes 8Mbytes of memory, parallel, serial and AppleTalk interfaces and 35 scalable PostScript fonts. An 80-sheet feeder handles letter-size and A4-size paper. An optional hard disk can store downloaded fonts and graphics. Printer setup and ink roll installation is easy. NEC says the Colormate output can simulate Pantone colors when using Pantone-certified software, but lighter shades are noticeably inaccurate. Oce Graphics USA Inc.: OceColor. (color thermal printer) (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations in 'Color Page Printers') Oce Graphics USA Inc's $8,990 OceColor thermal transfer color printer offers 0.6 graphics pages-per-minute (ppm) output, 35 PostScript typefaces, Pantone color compatibility, 300-dots-per-inch resolution and a competitive price. The OceColor's stylized case base measures 16-by-17.5-inches, and the printer is 10 inches tall. The 100-page paper tray requires 6 extra inches of room. The OceColor's 5-ppm print engine uses a 16.8-MHz Motorola 68020 microprocessor and can hold up to 8Mbytes of RAM. The standard configuration includes 5Mbytes of RAM. The print engine is rated for 120,000 pages. The OceColor does not include a black ribbon, so text is printed with process black at 1.3 ppm. The printer's graphics colors are accurate and the output is detailed. OceColor cannot handle ledger-sized sheets, but it can use special 8.5-by-12.7-inch paper. QMS Inc.: QMS ColorScript 100 Model 10. (color thermal printer) (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations in 'Color Page QMS Inc's $8,995 ColorScript 100 10 thermal transfer color printer offers 8Mbytes of RAM, 0.6 graphics pages per minute (ppm) output, legal-size paper handling, Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HPGL) and PostScript emulation, Pantone color support, and a competitive price. The Mitsubishi print engine provides 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution and a 3,000 pages per month duty rating. Parallel, serial and AppleTalk interfaces are included, and an external hard disk can store graphics images and downloaded fonts. A color separation feature allows four black images to be produced to create color printing plates. The Pantone colors are generally accurate, but some light colors are printed incorrectly. Tektronix Inc.: Tektronix Phaser PX. (color thermal printer) (Hardware Review) (one of six evaluations in 'Color Page Tektronix Inc's $7,995 Phaser PX thermal transfer color printer offers good color quality, 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution, PostScript and Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HPGL) emulation, Pantone color certification and a low price. The printer includes 6Mbytes of a 10Mbyte maximum. The Sharp print engine produces text at 1.27 pages per minute (ppm) and graphics at 0.29 ppm. Graphics on both transparencies and thermal transfer paper achieve excellent shading and detail, although text output had flaws in Courier mode. The Phaser PX includes 36 PostScript typefaces and can use Type 1 and Type 3 downloadable fonts. The printer can use its serial, parallel and AppleTalk ports simultaneously, and can use free RAM as a print queue. The Phaser PX must use legal-sized sheets to print an 8.5-by-11-inch image. Three cellular modems. (Telebit Corp.'s CellBlazer, Microcom Inc.'s Microcom C96 and M96, Intelligence Technology Corp.'s ITC Three companies' cellular modem options are evaluated: Telebit Corp's CellBlazer modem, priced at $1,245; Microcom Inc's C96 and M96 modems, priced at $899 and $999, respectively; and Intelligence Technology Corp's ITC 386 PEP laptop computer with integrated cellular modem, priced at $4,363. The Microcom and Telebit products are unfortunately large. The Microcom modem pair, which wins an editor's choice rating, supplies more reliable connections than the other cellular modems. It comes with a 12-volt power alternative, and can be used with several cellular telephone RJ-11 interfaces. The ITC laptop is rated for 2,400-bps transmission, but when evaluated it only performed at 1,200-bps. The cost of the laptop is too much for those only interested in cellular modem data transmission. The CellBlazer transfers data fastest, but requires a 120-volt AC power supply that Telebit does not provide. Intelligence Technology Corp. ITC 386 PEP. (one of three cellular modem evaluations in 'Three Cellular Modems')(includes related Intelligence Technology Corp's ITC 386 PEP laptop computer, priced at $4,363, includes an internal cellular modem. The ITC-RM cellular error-checking protocol supplies adequate throughput and functions well. The PEP can communicate with most other sorts of modems, but it failed to demonstrate its claimed signalling speed of 2,400-bps, connecting instead at 1,200-bps. The low speed led to low throughput rate for PEP devices. ITC-RM file transfers work only from one PEP laptop to another, as a host model or desktop are not available yet. The product is a reasonable choice for a buyer who needs both a laptop and a cellular modem. Microcom Inc. Microcom C96 and M96. (one of three cellular modem evaluations in 'Three cellular modems')(includes related article The C96 and M96 cellular modem pair from Microcom Inc win an editor's choice award for providing excellent data transmission over the popular Microcom Network Protocol error-correction and compression protocol. The C96 costs $899 and the M96 costs $999. The two are designed to work together: the M96 plugs into a cigarette lighter in the vehicle while the C96 is attached to the host computer. The pair's simple installation and high software compatibility levels makes it a good choice. Both products have LEDs to show levels of activity and the status of the connection. The pair showed the highest degree of reliability of the evaluated articles, and features fast data communications.